This is a lyricists/poets album I think. I am aware of what a giant Leonard is in the singer songwriter world. To be honest I'd never really listened to much of his stuff. I think I get what he is going for by really painting pictures with words and the focus of his songs seem to be on the lyrical content, however the album did not do too much for me. I don't have a problem with a stripped down acoustic sound. I am a big Simon and Garfunkel fan after all. This album though didn't really pull me in. Leonard's voice reminds me a bit of Lou Reed/Velvet Underground. Maybe I am comparing him to Simon and Garfunkel and I have seen the kind of creativity and harmonies that can be done with those two guys and a guitar. I can see how this album could influence singer songwriter types particularly with all the imagery in the lyrics, but with me being more of a musical parts person and less of a lyrics person the album just didn't do much for me.

This is a great album. I am very familiar with all the classic songs on it but never really gave the deep cuts much of a listen. This album really shows that for an 80s rock band Van Halen was trying to do something different and set themselves apart from other 80s rock bands. Giving it a serious listen, this album really shows the talent and musicianship of Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen. Being a child in the 80s and remembering the music of the time, I have to say Van Halen were ahead of their time. I never realized how many different influences make their way into their music, but you can hear them on this album. Early Jazz, Hard Roc, Blues, Barbershop Quartet and even Big Band jazz and Yes type Prog Rock can be heard. I like all the time signature changes and cross rhythms that keep occuring. What's funny though is David Lee Roth's lyrical content against 3 seemingly well trained musical intellectuals. Dave has a good voice but his lyrical content brings a frat boy/ meat head feel to the music. It was the excessive 80s though.

I feel like this is one of Radiohead's more digestible albums. Pyramid Songs, Dollars and Cents and I Might Be Wrong are standouts for me.

Millennial music. The guy has a good voice but there is a lack of cohesion and energy on this album for me. So far I am having trouble understanding the structure of the melodies and I can't get past the sound of what seems to be some type of auto tune or pitch correction on his voice in some songs. There seems to be a lot of abstract feel throughout the album that is making it hard for me to get into. It's a little rambling for me. Very cool that Andre 3000 makes an appearance but I found his verse kind of unexciting. Seems like there are a lot of r and b albums like this that come from younger generations. Toro y Moi is an example of a younger guy that keeps r and b interesting when he does it. Alabama Shakes is another. Maybe I am showing my age in associating r and b with the solid musicianship of people like Earth, Wind and Fire, Anita Baker, Prince, Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson, Hi 5, Sade, Al B Sure and so many other heavy hitting r and b artists. I feel like I see what he's going for. Some of the songs echo Prince's 'Insatiable', EWAFs 'Reasons' and Elton John's 'Benny and Jets' but the creativity and innovation just isn't there for me. Frank raps in some parts, but I'm coming from the school of Busta Rhymes, Tribe Called Quest, Method Man, KRS 1, Immortal Technique, Biggie, and Mos Def so its hard for me get into a more Xanax type rap delivery. I hear Jimi Hendrix 's 'Little Miss Lover' drum intro in 'Crack Rock'. Best song for me on this album is 'Lost'.

I remember a stopover in Scotland on our way to (I think) Denmark years ago. We walked around for a few hours in Edinburgh to be exact. The weather was a constant overcast with clouds and light rain falling every few minutes. The sun was struggling to come out. The sky looked so bland. That is what this album sounds like to me. Bland....bleh. I don't think I had ever actively listened to Bitter Sweet Symphony the whole way through despite ridiculous amounts of playtime in the U.S. because the song just did not really pull me in. I feel the same way about the whole album. None of it really pulls me in despite was seems like an attempt to have a bit of a late Beatles sound. I tried to think back to some of what I was listening to back in 1997, that was out at the same time. What was in rotation for me was Deftones..Around the Fur, Incubus S.C.I.E.N.C.E and Tool had just released Aenima the year before in 1996 I think. That year I also went to see U2 on the Popmart tour. Maybe that's why seemingly mopey Brit Rock just didn't do it for me. This band has a lot of similarity to me to Oasis which was another band that didn't really draw me in. It's not that they are bad at playing, I just didn't hear enough dynamics and creativity in the music. From back then what I remember about the Verve was that they had a similar name to the band the Verve Pipe, and Keith Richards was trying to sue them. Again, not a terrible sound, just not my thing. Blur is an example to me of an interesting Brit Rock band. I am not sure why this album would be on a need to listen list and it's mind blowing that this is a UK top seller.

I feel like this is one of Radiohead's more digestible albums. Pyramid Songs, Dollars and Cents and I Might Be Wrong are standouts for me.

This is a great album. I am very familiar with all the classic songs on it but never really gave the deep cuts much of a listen. This album really shows that for an 80s rock band Van Halen was trying to do something different and set themselves apart from other 80s rock bands. Giving it a serious listen, this album really shows the talent and musicianship of Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen. Being a child in the 80s and remembering the music of the time, I have to say Van Halen were ahead of their time. I never realized how many different influences make their way into their music, but you can hear them on this album. Early Jazz, Hard Roc, Blues, Barbershop Quartet and even Big Band jazz and Yes type Prog Rock can be heard. I like all the time signature changes and cross rhythms that keep occuring. What's funny though is David Lee Roth's lyrical content against 3 seemingly well trained musical intellectuals. Dave has a good voice but his lyrical content brings a frat boy/ meat head feel to the music. It was the excessive 80s though.

This is a lyricists/poets album I think. I am aware of what a giant Leonard is in the singer songwriter world. To be honest I'd never really listened to much of his stuff. I think I get what he is going for by really painting pictures with words and the focus of his songs seem to be on the lyrical content, however the album did not do too much for me. I don't have a problem with a stripped down acoustic sound. I am a big Simon and Garfunkel fan after all. This album though didn't really pull me in. Leonard's voice reminds me a bit of Lou Reed/Velvet Underground. Maybe I am comparing him to Simon and Garfunkel and I have seen the kind of creativity and harmonies that can be done with those two guys and a guitar. I can see how this album could influence singer songwriter types particularly with all the imagery in the lyrics, but with me being more of a musical parts person and less of a lyrics person the album just didn't do much for me.

I like David Bowie. I can't really say I'm a super fan, but I can see why he is considered an innovator. Because I am not a super fan I feel like I can almost make notes on this album almost like a person that has not really listened to him. Its one of those artists that I know his magnitude but have never really listened to much other than the well known songs. The album is very 70s, the instruments and recordings have a very 70s sound to me, even when listening to the remastered version of this album. I can hear the influence of late Beatles with the horn sections and John Lennon's solo material which both come from that 70s era. David has a soulful and unique voice. I found parts of this album to be sort of cinematic, particularly in the versus of the songs. The standouts to me are Andy Warhol and Queen Bitch.

Proto punk. This is another artist that I have not done a lot of listening to. I am familiar with Lust For Life from later years, Search and Destroy and I Wanna Be Your Dog. What's really odd to me is I kept thinking of the band Cream while listening to this. Cream with a large injection of testosterone, a less busy drummer than Ginger Baker and a singer with a go eff yourself attitude. All tones were very very dirty which at times made it hard to pick out parts or intricacies of what was being played, even with the remaster. The instruments sound like they were recorded in a garage...maybe that was the goal? It stuck me that James Newell Osterberg Jr. has mostly a baritone type voice but was still able to sing some of the songs in a higher register. I picked up some psychedelic influence in some of the way he was recorded. Again on the muddiness of the sound, I remember RHCP doing a cover of Search and Destroy and it seemed like they went for a note for note interpretation. I thought they did a really good job of it and you really got to hear the intricacies on a much clearer recording. I imagine the RHCP version may have been closer to what that song would have sounded like live in 1973. On this album Iggy has a very anti establishment feel to a lot of what he is singing. Standouts for me are Search and Destroy, Shake Appeal and Gimme Danger. I can imagine this being a very energetic show to go to.

I'd never heard of this band before....like literally ever. I really like a lot of what I heard, particularly with the instruments. I felt though that the singer, despite having a good voice was very repetitive with his note selection throughout the whole album, down to the interval spacing between notes being almost identical sometimes and even the phrasing of the notes being the same. I felt like the singer was given some really good stuff to work with but he did not stretch across the note spectrum of what was possible to come up with cooler more creative melodies. I've kind of felt that way about Morrissey also. I was fascinated also by the fact that the music was catchy but most of the songs seem to lack obvious hooks n the choruses. They have a typical new wave 80s. Similar bands I think would be Madness and Duran Duran. I felt like 'Books' was a pretty good song and the one I kept coming back to. I liked 'Treason' and 'Reward' also. I am somewhere between a two and three...more.if the singer were more creative.

A masterpiece. Not too much else I can say. Again I can't call myself a super fan, and I don't own all their albums (maybe 3 or 4 of them....including the soundtrack to 'More' and 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn', but I would definitely buy the t shirt and watch a documentary on the band. I have listened to this album probably hundreds of times and hearing the intro to Breathe never gets old. I haven't listened to Dark Side of the Moon in awhile so I went ahead and listened again and was struck by how many different styles of music get lumped into this album without Pink Floyd losing themselves. Funk, Jazz, Rock, Gospel, Blues, Soul, Electronica are all present. Kudos to you if you have ever turned the volume down on the original Wizard of Oz movie and watched it while playing this album. It's a pretty cool experience. David Gilmore doesn't really make a lot of best guitarists lists the way Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen do, but I think he is right up there. All the notes on this album seem to be in the right places, and the lyrics and melodies are heavy hitting yet seem to just blend in with the instruments to make a powerful unified force. I think what makes this album so iconic is the fact that the songs seem to be about everyday life and putting a magnifying glass on experiences and emotions that all human beings go though.

Millennial music. The guy has a good voice but there is a lack of cohesion and energy on this album for me. So far I am having trouble understanding the structure of the melodies and I can't get past the sound of what seems to be some type of auto tune or pitch correction on his voice in some songs. There seems to be a lot of abstract feel throughout the album that is making it hard for me to get into. It's a little rambling for me. Very cool that Andre 3000 makes an appearance but I found his verse kind of unexciting. Seems like there are a lot of r and b albums like this that come from younger generations. Toro y Moi is an example of a younger guy that keeps r and b interesting when he does it. Alabama Shakes is another. Maybe I am showing my age in associating r and b with the solid musicianship of people like Earth, Wind and Fire, Anita Baker, Prince, Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson, Hi 5, Sade, Al B Sure and so many other heavy hitting r and b artists. I feel like I see what he's going for. Some of the songs echo Prince's 'Insatiable', EWAFs 'Reasons' and Elton John's 'Benny and Jets' but the creativity and innovation just isn't there for me. Frank raps in some parts, but I'm coming from the school of Busta Rhymes, Tribe Called Quest, Method Man, KRS 1, Immortal Technique, Biggie, and Mos Def so its hard for me get into a more Xanax type rap delivery. I hear Jimi Hendrix 's 'Little Miss Lover' drum intro in 'Crack Rock'. Best song for me on this album is 'Lost'.

So I did some math today and figured out that I've been making fun of Morrissey for a really long time. Probably since I was about 17 years old. If I remember correctly I was copying his voice in a highschool class where we had a teacher had been a little closer to us in age (early 30s maybe) and my obnoxious impersonation of Morrissey seemed to get under her skin. I think she'd been a teenage girl in her room clutching her pillow and listening to The Smiths. So the band had a special place for her. I guess all that to say that I was pleasantly surprised that I liked a lot of what I heard on this album. I found the music to be interesting and it kept me coming back to different songs. Morrissey despite a lot of repetitive intervals in his melodies has a good voice. Nice vibrato and does some interesting things over some even more interesting music. The band backing him has some pretty cool groves and song arrangement. The songs lacked strong hooks in the choruses to me because of similarities in verse and chorus, but the songs still kept my interest. These guys have a unique sound and I can see how they would influence other artists. I had to go back and give How Soon Is Now another listen. Standouts to me on this one.... Girlfriend in a Coma and I Started Something I Could Not Finish.

I'd never heard of these guys. Which I found hard to believe. Listening through the album I kept smiling. Every song seems to have a bit of comedy and ridiculousness to it and I dug it. It's amazing that this was released in 1974. I could hear it being played on the radio today. I felt like the singing was operatic and some of the music sounded like a mix of opera and orchestral music from the baroque period. 'Thank God It's Not Christmas' absolutely jams. I like 'Amateur Hour' a lot too. I thought the singing was strangely all over the place, yet still had a formula to it. I like the odd time changes and phrasing in the verse of 'This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us' I feel like the bands that may have been influenced by this would be MGMT, Empire of Sun, and The Darkness. I'll definitely have to listen to what ever they've done with Giorgio Moroder.

I liked this. I was a bit of a late comer to hip hop. Being from the Caribbean I grew up on a lot of Calypso and Reggae. Trying to look back at hip hop objectively though there seems to be a sort of golden age of innovation and creativity. Maybe something like 1988 to 1994? Del La Soul seems to be coming from that old school golden age approach of creativity, and positivity. Lots of sampling and a DJ scratching. I didn't listen to all of every song, but it was noticable that rapping primarily about bitches and hoes, wrist watches and cars was absent on most of this. With the current state of a lot of hip hop I wonder if younger generations would even recognize this as being hip hop? I've never listened to this album but was familiar with 'Me, Myself and I'. The sampling on this album is great. I picked up on 'I Can't Go For That' by Hall and Oates 'The Crunge' by Led Zeppelin and of course inklings of James Brown songs....or what sounded like James Brown. It took real skill for a DJ to carve up a break in a song and set it to the right tempo to make a new song out of it. I like The Magic Number,.Ghetto Thang, Eye Know and Daisy Age. I'll definitely be looking into their later stuff.

I liked this one and once again never heard of the guy. If I were to think up a quick idea of what the definition of straightforward jazz is, it would be this. Absent are crazy time signature changes and eccentric solos. I really liked all the sounds that I heard. The organ has a nice tone to it. The whole thing took me back to playing trumpet in basketball band back in highschool. I really liked Messie Bessie. That song really jams and was my favorite on the album. A lot of the album made me picture low lit jazz clubs in a downtown area or in an upscale restaurant. Some parts of the songs almost had a bit of Henry Mancini type swing/bounce to them. I am reminded also of Walter Wanderly's Cheganca album and The New Mastersounds song 'Old Man Noises', even though those are different organ tones. I'll definitely be adding Messy Bessie to my list of likes on Spotify.

I remember a stopover in Scotland on our way to (I think) Denmark years ago. We walked around for a few hours in Edinburgh to be exact. The weather was a constant overcast with clouds and light rain falling every few minutes. The sun was struggling to come out. The sky looked so bland. That is what this album sounds like to me. Bland....bleh. I don't think I had ever actively listened to Bitter Sweet Symphony the whole way through despite ridiculous amounts of playtime in the U.S. because the song just did not really pull me in. I feel the same way about the whole album. None of it really pulls me in despite was seems like an attempt to have a bit of a late Beatles sound. I tried to think back to some of what I was listening to back in 1997, that was out at the same time. What was in rotation for me was Deftones..Around the Fur, Incubus S.C.I.E.N.C.E and Tool had just released Aenima the year before in 1996 I think. That year I also went to see U2 on the Popmart tour. Maybe that's why seemingly mopey Brit Rock just didn't do it for me. This band has a lot of similarity to me to Oasis which was another band that didn't really draw me in. It's not that they are bad at playing, I just didn't hear enough dynamics and creativity in the music. From back then what I remember about the Verve was that they had a similar name to the band the Verve Pipe, and Keith Richards was trying to sue them. Again, not a terrible sound, just not my thing. Blur is an example to me of an interesting Brit Rock band. I am not sure why this album would be on a need to listen list and it's mind blowing that this is a UK top seller.

I feel like this album and the first one we'd listened to were pretty similar. I really like the guitar sounds on this one as well, and Morrissey sounds like Morrissey. Some singers can morph and sound a bit different from record to record while still maintaining their vibe....Scott Weiland, Anthony Kiedis, Chino,.... Morrissey so far just does his thing,.sounding like himself. Again nice vocal tones, but I still feel like there could be some more variation given all the cool backing parts he is being given. I feel like the guitar parts on these Smiths albums really jump out at me and are really the core of the band. They really set the tone for everything else, and it's like Morrissey is almost a co pilot to the guitars rather than standing out front of them. I feel the same way with how Maynard fits into some Tool songs. This seems like an album where one would have to be in a certain mood to reach for it. The standouts to me are Frankly Mr. Shankly, Cemetery Gates and Big Mouth Strikes Again.

This one I'm probably going to be pretty biased on. The first time I listened to this album I was about 6 years old. I was a child in Trinidad always looking through my parents music cassettes and vinyls. Among the names I would come across were Neil Diamond, Charlie Pride, Oscar De Leon, Abba, Roger Whittiker, Stevie Wonder large assortments.of classical music like Berlioz, Brahms, and Chopin and in there in the mix was Miriam Makeba. I grew up hearing her voice on vinyl a lot. The house would fill up with her voice. I was really glad to see her pop up on here as I have not listened to her music in quite some time. My dad.was a huge fan of hers, I can imagine not just because of her incredible voice but probably because of her background of digging her heals in against apartheid. Most of the songs on here brought back nostalgia. I can't tell you how many times I listened to the 'Click Song' and tried so hard to imitate the Xhosa language and get the click sound on the right word or vowel. It was impossible! I don't think there was really a miss on any of the songs. Listening to this stuff as an adult I am amazed at how powerful Miriam's voice is, it cuts through like an axe then at the same time she can restrain herself to sing quietly but still with a great tone. I remember laughing really hard at the One More Dance song because of the guy laughing in the song. The Retreat Song may actually be one of my favorites along with The Click Song. With it being released in 1960 I imagine this had to have been the first time many people throughout the world would have been exposed to indigenous South African language and culture. A great album.

First off bravo to Marianne for getting off of the white horse and making this album. She was battling drug addiction and homelessness. I have a lot of respect for people who battle adversity and make a turn around. Some interesting things going on in this album. The synthesized parts reminded me a bit of Giorgio Moroder. They sounded a bit ahead of their time for 1979. Her voice is kind of average to me. I think though her performance had some weight to it after reading a bit about what she went through. Standouts for me were Broken English and Working Class Hero. I found myself searching a bit for a 4th or 5th gear in some of the songs....for instance in the Balad of Lucy Jordan I was hoping the song would elevate maybe a little bit towards the end. Maybe Phil Collins has me spoiled with what happens in In The Air Tonight, or what Smashing Pumpkins do in Soma.

The mighty Led Zeppelin. They always bring a smile to my face. I know a lot of songs on this album through listening to them on compilations. I did like this album and for me it's tough to go wrong with Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin is one of those bands that upon first hearing them as a 14 year old in the 90s I automatically liked what I heard. John Paul Jones and John Bonham are two of my all time favorite drum and bass duos. They are up there with Aston and Carlton Barrett, Flea and Chad Smith, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk, Chris Squire and Bill Bruford, Geddy and Neil, Les Claypool and Brain. I spent countless hours trying to learn Led Zeppelin songs on my bass. Sometimes I was successful other times not. The guy puts on a clinic in so many of his songs. I am probably biased on this one because Led Zeppelin is probably one of my top 20 bands. This album is good. Led Zeppelin is one of those bands that can weave in and out of genres yet still be themselves. That is what I hear on this one. 'Immigrant Song' is a juggernaut. 'Out on the Tiles' is one I hadn't really listened to much and I will be adding it to my Likes on Spotify. Bonham is relentless on it. I dug the strings on Friends.

A masterpiece. Such an iconic generation x album. I really feel like this is one of the albums along with 'Nevermind', 'Superunknown', 'Core', 'Dirt', 'Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic' and a few others that really encapsulated the early 90s. What a time to be coming of age when these albums came out. Even if you weren't fans of all the same bands, a lot of your friends cross pollinated with these albums. A friend of mine once proclaimed years ago that Siamese Dream had some of the best guitar tones ever put down on a record. I have to agree. Although this album came out in the same time frame as the aforementioned ones, it did not quite have the same type of sound and feel. I always felt as though this album sounded otherwordly, like space creatures had landed from another planet and began to play rock music that could transport your mind elsewhere. The album has something for everyone. Soft soothing tones, mid tempo hard rock, more frantic heavy style rock, the balad that is Soma, acoustic sounds....so much innovation and creativity. Jimmy Chamberlain puts on an clinic in one song in Geek U.S.A. I feel like if a drummer could keep up with him in that song, then they are probably able to fit into any rock band. William Corgan Jr has a unique voice that takes many different forms throughout the album.

I liked this. Soul, Jazz, Gospel, Rock and Roll and Blues is what I hear throughout this album. Green Onions is truly a great song. I think It's the only one of theirs that I am familiar with. It seems like good music to have on in the background at a dinner party. I'll have to look into more of their music.

This is a huge one for me. If I had to think of albums to help make up a soundtrack for my teen years,this would be one of them. This album is an incredible combination of hip hop, punk and metal and it had an effect on my political thinking as a kid. It gave words to some of the sense of skepticism I had about the nature of government as a kid, even though my thoughts for solutions were different (individual liberty) from the guys in the band I think. I remember Tom Morello playing shows in his 'Commie' hat. Every song on this album hits hard in various ways (except Settle For Nothing...decent song but a momentum killer)....sonically, poetically and politically. Zach de la Rocha seemed like the angriest man on planet on this and the following albums. His words bring an awareness about dealings with government. So many great lines...'load the clip in Omni color', 'the stutter step and bomb a left upon the fascists', 'networks at work keeping people calm'...the content of the album has held up over the years too. 'Wake Up' could be a theme song for American politics over the last 15 to 20 years. Tom Morello is a top 20 all time guitarist for me. This album has some the sickest riffs ever recorded. His sound is like if DNA of Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen and Paige Hamilton were combined. I spent countless hours playing bass in my room as a teen along with Timmy Commerford to these riffs. It was a real pleasure for me to meet Tom Morello around 2000/2001 or so in Atlanta. He was sitting at a bar having a drink. I shook his hand and he seemed like just a regular guy. Brad Wilk, although offering simpler beats just really knew what to put where and not have overkill. Ultimately, such a great album.

I've listened to this before years ago but had a tough time making it through the tail end of it. I am more used to a polished electronic/dance music sound, whereas this sounds pretty analog for lack of a better word. I liked it better this time around. It sounds like a mix of Kraftwerk ( I think probably all electronic dance music owes Kraftwerk for their innovation) a bit of New Order with either Robert Palmer or Mick Jagger type vocals. I particularly liked 'Someone Great'. I did find some of the sounds, song structure and vocals to be a bit repetitive. Overall a cool album though.

I couldn't get too much into this one. I get that it's a pretty alt rock sound though, which I guess was innovative for its time. I think the drums were mainly room miked for the whole album? The guitar sound was very 90s. I couldn't get into the guy's voice. I did hear some things that sounded a little Sonic Youth esque.

When hip hop was hip hop. I liked this one. It's my least listened to Beastie Boys album. It's a throw back in time to fun, innovation and just making crafty rhymes. I feel like this is a transitional album where you see what they are about to become. The big ones on here for me are 'Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun' and 'Egg Man'. This one made me realize that sampling seems to be a lost art in mainstream hip hop today.

I have memories of driving around in a 1990 Honda Civic Wagon and listening to this album back around 2015/2016 or so. It was my first time really giving Flaming Lips a good listen. I don't think I have listened to this album much since then, so it was cool to give it a listen again. There is a lot of emotion and introspection feel on this one. Its the only Flaming Lips album I've ever really listened to, so I don't know how the others sound, but I'll have to check them out. Wayne Coyne has a sort of melancholy sounding voice that goes well over some really interesting song structure. I like the combination of psychedelic sounds over hip hop sounding beats. It brings to mind Tame Impala and Temples on some of their later stuff. I'll be giving other albums a listen.

This is a relaxed stripped down sounding album. Reading some of the bio on it, it's interesting that he recorded it secretly. I am more of an early to mid era Beatles fan rather than the latter stuff like Let It Be or Abby Road, which is what this McCartney album sort of sounds like. I think somehow it went well with my sleep deprived state today. Parts of the album sound like movie scenes from a sleepy town. Some of it sounds like demos or just unfinished ideas for songs but it still worked. Paul always has such a muted/muffled bass sound compared to more out front bass players like Les Claypool or Flea. I think my favorite was 'Every Night'. It's also interesting to see what Paul is like by himself without John, George and Ringo.

All killer no filler. I am an early to mid career fan of the Beatles. The later stuff is not bad, but the early to mid career stuff really resonates with me. This album gets straight to the point, short songs with immense, catchy hooks. Some songs have multiple hooks within the song. It includes one of my top 20 favorites from the Beatles which is 'Any Time At All'. Though I am very familiar with all but maybe 2 or 3 of the songs on the album, I don't think I've ever really sat down and listened to the whole album itself. Giving it a critical listen it really hit me that John Lennon is HEAVILY influenced by Little Richard. I knew this previously but it really stuck out to me on this album. The influences I hear are Little Richard, and Ray Charles on a lot of the choruses and Roy Orbison on a lot of the versus. Guitar tone and leads are Chuck Berry all the way. I remember watching a documentary where Paul McCartney said they had to write songs that were very catchy so that they could remember them easily to record them back in the day, and this album really shows that. Much like Led Zeppelin it's English guys that really were fascinated with Americana and American blues and jazz. I'm amazed how much mass appeal this album has. All age groups can listen to it easily I think. They write about everyday concepts that a lot of people can relate to. I really enjoyed this one. Solid, fundamental, straight forward songs with great hooks.

This is what it would sound like if Paul Simon (Rhythm of the Saints era) was to sing over Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, but with more of an atmospheric/ cinematic feel. Overall cool sounds but not enough diversity of songs for me. The songs started to feel a bit repetitive. The thing about that Paul Simon album is he gave you a little bit of everything on it. I remember Quincy Jones talking about producing Thriller and saying basically that nobody can really know if they are going to write a hit album or not, you just try to write strong songs and give people some variety to listen to. I feel like this War On Drugs album just kind of kept giving me a lot of the same on each song.

I enjoyed this album a lot more than I thought I would. I didn't think I would dislike it, but in mind straight blues is a bit more of a limited rule bound genre, but I think BB maybe opened some doors for me on this album. I did not grow up listening to blues music and I think maybe to some degree, Blues, like Zydeco or maybe Bluegrass music is something that has strong cultural elements that are grown up with. First off his backing band is absolutely killer. Some of the songs sound a bit more like jazz. My favorites were Please Love Me, You Upset Me and Help the Poor. I liked the shuffle style that the drummer played on some of the songs. A bit more on me not listening to blues growing up and a little about offshoots of music rooting back to Africa. The music I initially grew up on was Calypso, which originated in Trinidad. Other offshoots of Calypso are Kaiso, Chutney, Soca, and Extempo. The Christmas music of Trinidad is Parang and there's also Soca Parang. This stuff is specific to Trinidad as Reggae, Ska and Dancehall Reggae originate in Jamaica. Same region....very different dialect and style. Think American English vs Scottish English. Here are other types of music coming from other Caribbean countries: Kompa, Zouk, Reggaeton, Merengue, Son, Mambo, Salsa, and throw in Samba and Bossa Nova even though those come from further south in Brazil....all distinct sounds and styles and at times languages all with roots going back to Africa. All this to say that even though Blues has a different history, feel, cadence, dialect, note selection, structure and instrumentation to it, there was still a familiarity to me like old school calypso. The story telling aspect, the double meaning (the angel opens up her wings for him?...maybe this is why BB had 15 kids ?), the banter with the crowd, are all aspects that can be found in old school calypso tents in the 1930s and 40s, and to some degree today.....even though the sadness and downtrodden feel is not really there in Calypso. So BB's approach to blues really made my mind wonder back to the roots what types of music came out of Africa and slavery. Blues is a type of music that cannot really be faked, it's something that is lived and strongly related to. I am fascinated by the ease with which BB improvised solos on his guitar and made all the standard vocal riffs and runs when he sang. He seemed effortless. U2 is one of my top 10 bands and they did a song with BB called 'When Love Comes To Town'....though I think U2 did a decent job, but were a bit forced.....in that song you really get to hear the difference between guys that are fans of Blues music (U2), and a guy that IS and has LIVED it......BB.

I found this one to be more interesting and structured than the last Pixie album. Can't really get totally into the guy's voice. An ahead of its time 90s sound though.

Never heard of this, but the album was interesting and laid back, and I could see how Brits might like it. Interesting string arrangements also that made me wonder how it gets done live. Grumpus was cool but the album ultimately didn't really grab me.

This was an ok album for me with some cool 80s electro R and B sounds. The guy's voice is a similar high pitched tone to Michael Jackson or Geddy Lee I think. I'm not sure why it's on this list though. I would have put a Chromeo or a Holy Ghost! album on here instead.of this one, as those other two occupy the same sound space to me but have some better overall songs and albums than this guy.

The biggest standout to me on this is the string arrangements. With the backing music I would have liked to hear more melody rather than the talk/whisper stuff. Not a big fan of the background story of this album.

I have a soft spot for people with roots in the Caribbean who go on to do big things on an international scale. Phil Lynott is one of those people, as he is half Guyanese. I am not the biggest Thin Lizzy fan, but their music always brings a smile to my face and this one did also.

I liked this one, but with the song lengths, I didn't feel like I could really sit and listen and think it over like some of the others. A lot of really cool instrumentation and layering throughout with a lot of cool funk feel. Seems like the type of album you sit in your room and veg out to.

I'd heard of Traffic before, but never listened to any of their music. I liked this album. At times they reminded me of Yes, but with less mathematical parts. The Traffic singer has a more soulful voice also. My favorites were Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring and You Can All Join In.

Couldn't really get into this. It sounded like a few guys doing a rough rehearsal. The talent was there, but the songs just didn't go anywhere. No dynamics. The bottle song sounded like they were trying to practice one section of of a song over and over. Two chords for seemingly ever.

I'm a big Paul Simon fan so I was glad to see this one come up. Paul Simon has such a clear and clean voice. His singing always sounds so effortless and uncomplicated. He really has a way of painting pictures with his words while at the same time keeping things musically interesting. This was a pretty chilled out album. I like 'Me and Julio...', 'Duncan' and 'Mother and Child Reunion'.

I was always kind of neutral on CCR. I would hear them on Fox 97 years ago and think 'well this is a cool song' and just never really dove any deeper than that into their music. I think this album just made me more of a CCR fan. There are so many strong songs. I enjoyed the sound of the recording too and the way John Fogarty's voice was treated with the reverb. I think as kid in Trinidad falling asleep in bed at night hearing the sounds of 80s dancehall music on the sound systems coming from the city's center and all the echo and reverb on the vocals.....it must have stayed in my subconscious as that kind of thing still draws my attention today. I thought this album really jammed. I think 'Who'll Stop the Rain' 'Up Around the Bend' and 'Run Through the Jungle' were my favorites. The grooviness on 'Run Through the Jungle' was pretty sick. CCR on this album managed to find a hell of a combination of Blues, Funk, Rock and Country music. They way Fogarty sings is unique and raw. This album definitely made me a bigger fan and more willing to check out other CCR albums.

This one takes me back to being a 14 year old foreign kid in highschool that just didn't quite fit into anywhere or with any particular group. For awhile I listened to this album in the mornings every morning while getting ready for school. Somehow it seemed like a very fitting soundtrack to being a bit of an oddball in school. This album to me is a combination of the more grundgy sounding first album and the more electronic sounding Radiohead that was on the horizon. I think this is one of their more straight forward albums before things really started getting a lot more abstract and honestly a little less cohesive to me. The standouts to me are 'Fake Plastic Trees', 'High and Dry', 'Just', and 'Nice Dream'.

R.E.M are another one of those bands that were always sort of in the background for me. I am familiar with their radio hits and I own the Monster album, which I really liked, even though I think a lot of hardcore fans did not like it at the time if it's release because of it's departure from their usual sound. The songwriting and sounds on this one sound pretty straightforward. This project is interesting because it's causing me to listen to a lot of albums out of the time period they were written in and I guess sort of out of context. I never listened to this album when it came out. Today was the first day that I've ever listened to it, though I am familiar with the singles. Michael Stipe has a good voice and it's overlayed on top of some interesting things going on in the music. My favorite is Man On the Moon. The album title makes me think of some type of government mandate that forbids people to drive manual transmission cars. Also.....if Michael Stipe were to leave the band could that be considered a Stipend? Sigh....sorry just the way my mind works

A cool laid back album. Trip Hop ? It was a decent ambient/background music type album to do repetitive data edits to. I am in to this type of music, but found parts of this album to be a bit boring.

Energy, Energy, Energy......holy smokes. How did this guy sing like that for an entire show? How did he not lose his voice with all the bellowing. The singer and band itself seemed to be somewhere between an 8 and a 10 energy rating for most of the album. I've been hearing about MC5 for years and never sat down to listen to an album. I found it refreshing, raw and energetic. Kick Out the Jams was a standout for me. It just jams. Listening through it the band had an interesting feel of hippy yet go fuck yourself vibes. I really liked the guitar parts and the drumming was strangely frantic yet controlled at the same time.

The word that kept coming to mind for the sounds on this album was 'quirky'. I am familiar with The Kinks songs All Day and All of the Night and You Really Got Me, so this album to me was a departure from what I am used to from them. On some of the songs the singer sounds a bit like Paul McCartney to me. At other times I wondered if this band has two singers because of how different the singing sounds on this compared to the songs I am familiar with. I liked 'Brainwashed' and 'She Bought A Hat like Princess Marina'.

So, Green Day is a band that I was lukewarm on as a 13 year old. Punk in general was not really my thing. From what I remember from that time is that somehow because Green Day had commercial success they were labeled as 'Posers'.....somehow though (in my dealings with other 13 and 14 year olds) I picked up that, Offspring was not given this label, despite commercial success. Looking back now, I don't really get why the difference. Maybe Offspring kept it more punk when they broke? Who knows... Billy Joe has a peculiar way of singing and having hard up front attacks on his words. Sometimes he sounds almost British in some of his word pronunciation... which I always thought to be odd. Sort of like how Iggy Azalea has a strong Australian accent then starts rapping and sounds like Lil Kim. Guitar chords sound like pretty straightforward major type chords with power pop versus and choruses. The drummer despite me not liking the franticness of punk drumming was always interesting to listen to on this album. I always liked 'When I Come Around' and 'Basket Case'.

I have kind of an odd relationship with rap rock. RHCP is one of my favorite all time bands yet upon hearing Limp Bizkit for the first few times, I thought they were pure silliness apart from the bass, guitar and drums. Alright I'll say it Fred kills the whole band once he opens his mouth. 'Biloxxxiiii hewwwww'!!!!! I think rap rock can be done in an obnoxious,.corny or silly way, or it can be done in an energetic, thoughtful and genuine way. RHCP, RATM, 311, (early) Deftones, Dial 7, and Two Skinnee J's make the cool list for me and Kid Rock, Papa Roach, and Limp Bizkit mostly make the bleh list for me. Linkin Park seemed to have an almost cult following when they broke. At the time I didn't dislike them, but then I wasn't a super fan either. Listening to this album all these years later I have to say they make the cool guys list. I feel like a lot of thought was put in to this musically to meld the hip hop and rock parts together. The vocal arrangements have to be synched up right to have a good effect. I didn't know much about Chester until his passing but his lyrical content seem to reveal an unstable home life as a child maybe? 'Cure For the Itch' is a masterpiece and if that's Mr. Han really scratching then hats off to him for performing original hip hop. A few of these other songs were absolutely played to death on the radio, which funnily enough made it easy for me to kind of tune them out as background noise. Giving this a focused listen I have to say I like a lot of what I hear.

Seeing this album brought a smile to my face. I first listened to this in the mid 90s when I was about 14 or 15 years old. I went through a whole phase of listening to albums like this as well as Master of Puppets, Kill Em All, Vulgar Display of Power, And Justice For All and Ride the Lightening. I could not really relate to the themes in the lyrical content of a lot of these albums but I was absolutely fascinated by the speed, technical ability and ferociousness at which the music was played. Even today, Animals as Leaders fills a space for me with metal fusion instrumentals. I've always thought Dave Mustaine's voice sounded a bit corny on this album and in general but the guitar, drums and bass always kept me dialed in. Listening to it today, I felt like there were almost more instrumental parts than vocal parts. I could see how this album might have paved the way for other bands with a metal sound. The opener is probably my favorite.

I cannot believe this was recorded in 1973. It sounds way ahead of its time. I've never really listened to much Genesis, but I am a big Phil Collins fan. Phil kills it on the opening song. Some of the drumming sounded like drum and bass music from current times. In all honesty because of the length of songs on this album, it's an album that really needs to sit with you for some time to digest everything that is going on. I was limited on time, but I feel like I heard enough to get the gist. My initial impression was Pink Floyd meets Rush meets Yes. I will be listening to this again and checking out other Genesis albums.

I can tell that a ton of thought was put into this album. The words that come to mind are imaginative and creative. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and found it refreshing for a more modern hip hop album. I couldn't relate to all the racial themes in it, but the delivery of his message was cool. I liked the appearances by Jay Z, Talib Kweli and Mos Def. This is the first time I've listened to a Kanye album and I'll be checking out more. Was that Bernie Mac on one of the songs? Rip.

Man.....I really didn't know what to think when I saw this come up. Years ago I sang on stage at a karaoke place. I sang 'Man in the Box' by Alice In Chains. That same night a guy sang 'Run to the Hills' by Iron Maiden. It sounded like craziness.....when he hit the chorus he sounded so over the top and cartoonish that it made me laugh. I'd never listened to Iron Maiden before. Now all these years later I realize that what the karaoke singer was doing that night was mainly just being accurate. I hate to make fun of the time and hours these guys put into creating and recording this, but it almost sounded like a parody of something to me. At parts I just chuckled which is probably not the reaction they were going for. The singer's voice was so over the top operatic.to me. At the same time, I did feel like the singer could actually sing and had a good voice, it's just why did he sing THAT way and those lyrics? I had a tough time taking it seriously. The music backing him was cool though.

I dug all the positivity on this old school hip hop album. Great sampling also. I am pretty sure this is my first time listening to a Jungle Brothers album.

A very easy 5 for me. I started listening to the Doors somewhere around 1994 I think. I was 13. It's one of those bands where on the very first listen I was hooked. Light My Fire was the first thing I'd heard from them and I was pretty captivated by it. I like every song on this album. To me there is no other band that sounds like the Doors. Funnily enough what gives them such a unique sound is that they combine some truly oddball elements and seem to break a lot of musical rules. Elements that maybe would not usually go together are all thrown together. Present on this album are r and b, blues, jazz, rock, bossa nova and flamenco influences. Tie it all together with a combination of descriptive, philosophic, poetic and sexualized lyric delivered on an accessible baritone voice. Jim Morrison gets so much attention because of his persona, and he is a great frontman, however Ray Manzerek and his organ playing to me are what really draws me in. The organ truly makes the band standout. Break on Through and Light My Fire get a lot of attention, which they should, but The Crystal Ship is a masterpiece, and The End and Alabama Song and so many others are such great songs. The Doors are probably a top 10 band for me. I absolutely wore this album out when I bought it as a teenager. A soundtrack for an oddball teenage kid that didn't quite fit into any particular clique.

I liked this one. To me it occupies the same headspace as Bixiga 70 or Orgone. Moreso Bixiga though, except Bixiga has a more raw organic sound.They do a good job combining traditionally Latin music with hip hop elements and electronic sounds without losing the feel of the two different worlds. It was cool to see Charli 2na make an appearance. My favorite was Nadie Te Tira.

Well we knew it was coming. Its 2024 and I have never listened to a single solitary Taylor Swift song all the way through. I'd heard snippets here and there but just never really got what all the hype was about and never really was drawn in by anything I'd heard. Now I understand why. Taylor has a decent voice. I didn't hear prominent use of auto tune on her voice in this album so that's a plus for me. The problem is, the album is dry. Other words to describe this album.... monochromatic, repetitive, unimaginative, formulaic, manufactured. It's sounds like mainly processed predictable melodies. No dynamics. Really not trying to sound mean, but at about song number 4 or 5 I found myself wanting to turn it off. Towards the last few songs I was hoping it was near the end of the album. Think of the dynamic contrast between this and the the king of pop on the Bad album. I kept thinking that there were a host of other female artists that simply do the whole electro pop thing a lot better than what is presented in this album. Here's a list of these ladies/female fronted bands that I think present something superior and simply more interesting to Swift in this same listening space. Ladyhawke, Haim, The Start, Goldfrapp (particularly the Head First album), The Sounds, The Aces and JJamz (Z Berg was great with The Like). Taylor is apparently worth 1.3 billion and as of now I am not sure why. Maybe people are seeing something that I don't.

I liked this one. Never heard one of their albums before. Just a good straightforward album with straightforward songs. I liked the melodies and how some of the songs had a bit of Dick Dale surf guitar sounds going. It was like a combination of do wop, pop and punk in a way. Strangely enough I can hear some similarities to Green Day. Maybe Green Day was influenced by the Go Go's.

This one took me back. I was a heavy drum and bass listener in the late 90s and early 2000s. For me it's music that kind of let's your mind switch off and be on autopilot a bit. I really like what's going on with this one. Seems like bebop and jazz layered on drum and bass beats with some really nice atmospheric sounds going on in the background on some of the tracks. I've listened to this album before but it's been quite awhile. I usually go for more atmospheric sounding drum and bass like LTJ Bukem and Klute so this was in my wheelhouse. Some standouts were Destination and Digital.

I think ultimately punk is just not really my thing. I can take it in small doses.I think maybe it's because of the vocals and the drumming being delivered in such a 1,2,3,4 on the beat pace. Strangely enough, if you take some punk guitar riffs and play them to a cut time drum beat, it gives it more of a groove. You hear examples of it with RHCP, RATM, and Alien Ant Farm. That, I can get.into. I remember my old college room mate was really into NOFX, Lagwagon and early Blink 182. Those bands seemed to be 90 percent of what he listened to all day and sometimes I'd need to leave the room because of it. I eventually introduced him to Deftones and Tool. This album was fast, furious, chaotic and in your face, which seems to be a main goal of punk from this era. It had a lot of energy. The recording sounded low quality and like it was done in a garage. The vocal tone of the singer to me was bordering on obnoxious, which again may have been the anti establishment goal. I found 'Stealing People's Mail' and 'Holiday In Cambodia' to be standouts.

I was still in Trinidad when I first heard Wishing Well. A catchy and interesting song with a cool lick that is memorable. I also remember Sign Your Name. I always thought he was just sort of a one or two hit wonder though. It's one of the those albums where upon listening to it I thought, 'ohhh so this is the other stuff he was doing in addition to the singles'. I am not sure I really see very much that is ground breaking or particularly special on this album. Terrence does have a really good voice though and a lot of control to do some of the vocal runs that he does on some of the songs. I could see how their might be a bit of a Michael Jackson comparison. The Darbs has a bit deeper of a tone of voice than MJ but similar vocal stylings...which really could just stem from James Brown,.who was a big influence on MJ, even though he was apparently very guarded about telling who is influences were. TTD even covers Who's Loving You, which MJ also did as a child. Good voice but the rest of the album didn't particularly grab me.

And here it is. Probably one of many that will be on this list. I'm probably going to take some heat from big Stones fans on this one. I am not a big Stones fan myself. I know they are legendary rock royalty and everything, it's just that Mick's voice to me is just not that special. I feel like as far as the whole British invasion deal, the Stones and the Beatles got a lot comparison. The Beatles to me are so much more interesting and creative. It's not that I find the Stones to be terrible, although some of the songs I really don't care for its just that I find them kind of meh. If someone were to give me tickets to a Stones show I feel like I would go moreso out of historical factors rather than loving the music. Probably my two favorite Stones songs are Paint It Black and 19th Nervous Breakdown. This particular album was ok for me. A very bluesy rock album. I could see how something like this would influence other artists in the future. It seemed like a celebration of whatever southern blues musicians they listened to growing up.

I liked this. I am familiar with most of the songs on here, and though I am not a Metallica super fan I have always thought they were skilled and kept things interesting and I think they will have their place in music history. This was my first listen to this particular album. It was interesting to hear some of these classic Metallica songs be given a symphonic treatment. I feel like some songs worked better with it than others. Strangely enough I feel like maybe the slower songs 'Hero of the Day', 'The Memory Remains' gave more breathing roam to the orchestra whereas some of the up tempo songs had orchestral 'licks' or 'hits' that made me think of a James Bond movie soundtrack and maybe the arrangements were a bit more limited on the quicker songs. I also feel as though I had to keep an open mind a bit because I am so used to the songs being a certain way. Ultimately though, good job Metallica.

Not exactly sure what to think of this one. Maybe something was lost in translation for me. In the past I've listened to a lot of Brazilian samba music. Despite me not knowing Portuguese I enjoyed the delivery and the feel of it. With this Young God's album, I don't speak French but the delivery and performance of this is a bit disconnected for me. Cool sounds in the background but the feel of the vocals just isn't there. I've also listened to the original performance of Kletva (Ladytron did a remake) and I enjoyed that even though it was in Bulgarian. I've also listened to Hay Kacher performed in Armenian by Ontronik from Apex Theory and ready dug that. So I think a language barrier may not be the problem so much as the feel of the performance. Lastly, this sounded to me like a cross between Nine Inch Nails and Rammstein.

It was cool to see a younger rapper have a more old school sound. It seems that so many 'Lils' and 'Youngs' type rappers have the autotune sound with with either a triplet note pattern delivery or the whole short choppy two note delivery. On this I heard heavy Busta Rhymes and Jay Z influence. The British accent also brought me back a little to Stereo MCs without the cockney tint to the accent. Well done Simz. I did feel though that as the album went on, the rapping became a little repetitive and monotonous tonally. Where as Busta is extremely animated and has a lot of rises and falls tonally Simz sort of kept it on a two or 3 note range.

This was ok. I started playing bass guitar in bands when I was about 13 or 14 years old. Playing many shows in the south, I remember playing alongside bands that sounded like these guys. To me it's music without much complication or technicality. I've never played music after drinking alcohol because I was always too scared to make mistakes because of being buzzed. I felt like I always tried to challenge myself to make things interesting and just do the type of bass playing that could sit in the background. This music though sounds like it could be played after drinking moderate amounts of whiskey. Again, nothing too demanding. Southern rock is not really my thing, although I do have a lot of respect for the Allman Brothers, I can take the genre in small doses. This project is kind of highlighting to me certain types of music that don't really pull me in.

Some really good musicianship on this album. 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone' is a masterpiece. I feel though that the second half of this album loses some momentum. Still, overall good performances.

I really liked this a lot and intend to listen to it a lot more. I thought it was a very solid album. Joe Strummer has a unique voice that has some edge to it and is not the classically nice sounding voice like a Bono type, but his melodies are really cool and catchy and done along to some really cool sounding music. I always liked the song London Calling and is one of the songs I liked at first listen. This was my first listen to this Clash album and I was amazed at all the genres on it. It's like punk that is danceable with a some rockabilly twists. I didn't know that they had a heavy reggae influence, but it makes sense given the era when this came out and because probably people like Strummer had grown up 'lang side' West Indians who had migrated (like one of my aunts in the 1960s) to the UK. I was familiar with Guns Of Brixton from Jimmy Cliff covering it on one of his more recent albums.

This was just ok. I didn't really see too much that was special about it to where it would need to be on this list. I'd never heard of them before listening to this album. On some songs the singer has a bit of a Morrissey quality to his voice. The band name is a bit generic too.

Tough to go wrong with the Doors. Another easy 5 for me. As a 14 year old in 1995 I had all their albums and wore them out. I feel like this album features John Densmore a bit more and shows his jazz drumming influence. 'Waiting For the Sun', 'Blue Sunday', and "Indian Summer'.... masterpieces. 'Queen of the Highway' is also a standout. I feel like they maintained their identity while still drifting through multiple styles of music.

Well I had high hopes for this one but found it very disappointing. I found the album to be disjointed and not having good flow. The singer has a decent voice but it isn't really showcased much on this album. I felt like he overdid it and was generally mismatched to what was going with the music. I found a lot of the album to be perplexing, like the random muttering. One song sounded like a cover of Werewolf of London. Really surprising considering how much I like 'Come On Eileen'. Another album that I am not sure needs to be on this list.

I liked this. A very chill stripped down sound. It's amazing to think of the contrasts between this and contemporary country. This album tells stories and is easy listening. It reminds of some of the old school country artists my dad had in his collection. This one made me think a bit in an anthropological way as some of Willie's vocal inflections reminded me a bit of old Irish folk singers or some of the things Delores O'Riordan used to do. You can kind of see the parallels and the influence that Irish migration had in country music.

I was a late comer to the OutKast party. I remember hearing about them around 1997. It was my Danish friend who got me to appreciate them a lot more. This is a landmark type album. You really hear the jump in creativity and skill from Atliens and Southernplaylistic which were already great albums. I feel like Stankonia really set the bar high for hip hop when it came out and there was just nothing that sounded like it. Stankonia sounds like they took a lot of time to sit down and think out each song. Music, lyrics, all the sounds are really well done. A lot of great songs on this but my favorite is Spaghetti Junction. On a side note, I met Andre 3000 somewhere around 2002 or so. He walked into the studio that my band at the time was recording in. I remember he was wearing a marching band jacket and a Jimi Hendrix shirt. He looked like he'd landed from another planet.

This one is great. I grew up with Simon and Garfunkel playing in my house. My mom would sing their songs. In fact some of them I became familiar with by her singing them before I'd ever heard a recording. Simon and Garfunkel have a real knack for taking acoustic guitar music and making it so interesting. It's never just strumming campfire style and singing. They manage to usually put cool little riffs and intricacies into what they are doing. They don't use a ton of effects and so on, just a lot of acoustic and percussion. They are extremely good storytellers also and manage to paint really good images with their lyrics. I've always liked Homeward Bound. Patterns and The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine are jamming. Their harmonies are something that music theory nerds could analyze and their vocal tones sound great. The 6/8 switch in the second verse of 59th Street Bridge Song followed by layered rounds to finish off the song are absolutely killer.

This one was ok. I'd never heard of the band. The sounds on it reminded me a bit of Cream. Nothing ground breaking though, just a pretty basic continuous jam album. Nothing really jumped out at me as being particularly special.

Well....the site deleted my notes on this one before I was done and I don't feel like rewriting it. Great vocals, Neal Tennant has a distinct voice. I first listened to this one in my teens. Good electronic sounds, nice orchestral strings throughout and some killer rhythms. Hopefully my favorite Pet Shop Boys album makes it on here.

I really dug this one. Chrissie Hynde has a unique and very recognizable voice that I really like. For some reason it made me think of Veronica Bennett of the Ronettes or the lead singer of the Shirelles. Just something about the style of her singing. The more punkish songs seemed to have an organized structure to them rather than just a more chaotic aggressive punk sound. I liked the Phone Call (which had some interesting timing twists and turns) and Up the Neck. Now I feel like I see where some influence comes from for the The Sounds, Ladyhawke, CSS, and New Young Pony Club. I'll definitely be listening to this again and will check out more of their albums.

This was an interesting one. A mix of soul and funk. They went for more of an overall vintage sound throughout the album. I feel like a lot of the songs may have grown out of loose jam sessions rather than maybe someone showing up with a riff or a chorus to build a song around. There were not too many hooks in many of the songs to me. It was sort of a play in the background type of album. Not bad, but nothing really jumping out at me either. I'd heard of the Black Keys for years but had never listened to anything by them. For some reason while listening to them I thought to myself that this is the type of band that might be able to tour with the Alabama Shakes and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night sweats. Also, for some reason I have the Black Keys lumped in a category in my mind called Millennial Music. That sound usually features some form of group singing at some point in songs, some decent music skill and not too many spikes in emotion. Sort of like some decent vanilla ice cream. Music that is ok to have on in the background but you wouldn't necessarily sit and listen to in a focused way.

So....I own a Joni Mitchell album and have had it for years, but never really listened to it. I'll have to go back now and give it a listen. Though this is not exactly my type of music,. I was really impressed with it. On songs 2 and 3 I thought to myself, 'I didn't know Joni got down like this'....I mean some of this stuff really jammed. Also, the entire album sounds like a ton of thought and planning was put into it. With this album charting high when it came out, it reminded of some of the more dumbed down contemporary music that is high on the charts today. Some of the songs sound like music theory nerds were involved in the instrument arrangements. I mean when is the last time you heard an Oboe feature prominently on a song? Or French horn for that matter? Joni's voice is very clear and she seems to hit notes very effortlessly and cleanly. The jazz song was kind of a curve ball for me, I had no idea that she could be a jazz singer. I feel like Joni must have been an influence on Tracy Chapman and Alanis Morrisette.

I'm pretty sure MGMT has a song on one of the FIFA soccer video game sound tracks,.which is probably the first time I'd heard them. This is an interesting album and I remember playing it a lot. At times the vocals on the album sound like a psychedelic David Bowie. On other tracks I am reminded of The Flaming Lips or Midnight Juggernauts. These guys overall have an eclectic sound that I really like. A lot of great tracks on here but my top songs are probably Electric Feel, Weekend Wars, 4th Dimensional Transition and Time to Pretend.

So I was excited to see this one pop up . I listened through it and oddly enough found it to be a bit bland and meandering. Some cool bass lines. I think Thundercat has been influenced by Earth Wind and Fire and maybe Prince. Though some the songs are put together in an interesting way, I found myself asking 'well what else you got?' It started to get a bit repetitive and a bit one trick pony-ish. For some reason this album made me think of Toro Y Moi however, maybe it was.some of the lofi sounds.I find Toro to be a lot more interesting. I found it fascinating that Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald were on one song together. The album is not bad,.but I was looking for a bit more variation from song to song. Maybe even change up the tones a little? I went to listen through it a second time while working and ended up switching to listening Fu Schnickens instead. On some of the songs it was like they found a decent riff or progression to jam on and just stuck to it without adding many other lows or highs to it.

Stevie Wonder is a musical freak of nature. This album is great. I was thrown for a loop when I started the first song (which I really dig). Royksopp, an electronic dance group from Norway, are one of my favorite electronic artists. Listen to the baseline in their song 'Vision One' on their album Junior and see if you hear what I hear on Stevie's song 'Too High'. This album really showcases so much of what Stevie does, which is some of everything. His singing seems to fit well with any type of style. Jazz, Funk, Latin, Folk music all present. His singing sounds effortless while singing difficult things. He is a true example of 'they just don't make em like they use to'. Higher Ground jams, I liked Living for the City (always loved that standout synthesized line after the chorus, it's like a second chorus of its own), Golden Lady and Too High.

From the age of 10 to the age of 17, I played the tuba. For four of those years I played a sousaphone in the highschool marching band. One year (maybe sophomore year) we played the song Pinball Wizard at the half times of the high school football games. That was my first exposure to the Who and I remember having no real idea who the band was or what their music was about. In fact for a long time I was more familiar with what the sheet music for you tuba sounded like for that song rather than the actual band playing the song. In the coming years I would become more familiar with their sound and grew to like them. This album was good but not made for a dad going through an entire day of responding to questions and comments about every 2 minutes from kids and dealing with back to back tasks at work. It was really long. The highlights to me were Pinball Wizard and Sensation. I can't help but make early Pink Floyd comparisons on this one because of how it sounds. Keith Moon is a machine. Though I could not give this one all the attention it required, I did like a.lot.of what I heard and I'll be checking out other albums for sure.

Patti Smith is another singer that I've heard of for years,.but never really listened to. She has an interesting voice but this album didn't really grab me. Redondo Beach had an interesting Blondie type reggae-ish vibe to it. The sound is pretty stripped down, but I think that's one of the reasons it didn't grab me.

I feel like everything was done right on this album. The sound, the playing, the vibe that was created,.the song arrangements. Everything is in its right place. Each song kept me engaged. I can hear the influence of maybe Fats Domino and The Platters. Even by today's standards, this sounds like an album you could have on and listen to from start to finish. I can only imagine hearing it freshly as it came out.

Somehow I managed to own this album on vinyl when I was about 15 years old. I have no idea where I got it from. It didn't belong to my parents. Maybe a friend had given it to me for some reason .I would listen to it on my parents record player. Santana can jam. I used to listen to this one and the Santana album Caravanserai quite a bit. The rhythm section on this album is absolutely killer. A lot of the album sounds tribal. My standouts are Se A Cabo, El Nicoya, Samba Pa Ti, of course the classics Oye Como Va and Black Magic Woman. They really put on a percussion clinic on Incident at Nashabur. If I could I would do 4.5 stars.

Otis Redding is great. I only have a limited knowledge of his music. His voice sounds good on this album but I'll need to listen to some other non-cover songs of his to get more of an idea as to what he does. Some of the songs on this album. I have too strong and association with other artists on. My favorites were Down In the Valley and Shake.

This was an interesting album. I remember going to visit family one summer in Ft. Lauderdale when I was about 15. I hung out with a family friend for a few hours. He drove me around a bit while he told me about some of the bands he liked. The two that I remember him mentioning were Radiohead and Jeff Buckley. It was the first time I'd really heard the name, and all these years later is my first time really having a listen to Buckley. He has a very clear falsetto type voice. This album actually sounds a bit like early Radiohead. The entire album to me has a 90s sound to it. I would have been really interested to see what else he would have come up with had he lived longer. Note to self...do not go swimming anywhere near tug boats...wow. My favorite was probably Last Goodbye.

Jaysus they've put the feckin' War album on the list! U2 are one of my favorite all time bands. I really got into them somewhere around the age of 11 or 12 so I was really glad to see this album pop up. I own all U2 albums up to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. This album is really the early energetic sound of U2 as they are still finding their way a bit before really diving into all the different guitar effects and drums machines that came in the mid 90s. And before the killer.album that is Joshua Tree. Sunday Bloody Sunday is such a landmark song with such a recognizable drum beat. They really painted a picture of the troubles in Ireland. Boni is such a great storyteller in that song and in general...his autobiography Surrender is available on Spotify also and is a good listen. Other standouts.on this album are Seconds, New Years Day, and Two Heats Beat As One (which was actually on a playlist during my daughter's home birth). I am probably biased but I think maybe 2 or 3 other U2 albums belong in this list.

So I feel like I have listened to a lot of music that was influenced by Fela, but have not really given Fela himself an actual listen. I had no idea how politically active he was and kudos to him for standing up to intrusive govt. A cousin of mine is half Nigerian and half Trinidadian and he lived for some time in Lagos. He said that if you can survive in Lagos you can survive anywhere in the world. I hear that corruption and the political problems are still a big deal there. I guess this is the type of backdrop that these songs were recorded to. Good songs but they are long and a bit meandering for a guy working through tasks all day. Another smoking rhythm section and the horns sound great and raw. I see also how this music influenced calypso and probably other types of Carribean music. I plan on checking more of his stuff out as I am a big fan of Afrobeat and African jazz.

I found Deerhunter to drag on a bit. Some interesting parts at first but then becoming repetitive. The album just didn't hold my attention.

One of my favorite Beatles albums. So many bangers. Lucy In the Sky With Diamond and Being for the Benefit of Mr.Kite!, and A Day In the Life are my favorites. I really wore this album out in highschool. I feel like it was a real departure from what the Beatles had been doing at the time and has a different sound from they did up this point. If you've never listened to the Easy Star Allstars version of this album, you should do it immediately: https://open.spotify.com/album/7iehh77UNP03AllcLAB69M?si=UR8IyHukTSSUgIWmdTotNA

I'd listened to this album some years ago and have not listened to it again until it came up on this list. I liked it ok. It's good background music to have on while you do something else.

This is my first ever PJ Harvey album listen which is kind of crazy because I was the of age to listen to this when it came out. I remember kids with PJ Harvey shirts on when I was a teen and seeing her in people's cd collections. I found the album to be raw and having a very 90s sound. It seemed as though PJ tried to mainly capture the emotion of the song which could mean not necessarily having the cleanest vocals....sort of like early Paige Hamilton on Helmet's album. I got a Sonic Youth vibe also. Interesting guitar work too. Looking forward to hearing more recent albums.

I was never really into Screaming Trees back in the 90s. To me this album has sort of a generic straight forward, it's ok type of rock sound. I was familiar with All I Know. Nothing on this album particularly jumped out at me as amazing and I did wonder why it was on the list. It's not a bad album but nothing on it really blew me away.

I have never listened to an Elvis Costello album. I did really know what to expect. I've heard some of his music over the years but never listened to an album. I was pleasantly surprised and liked what I heard. I felt like there was a good bit of creativity and imagination on this album. Declan Macmanus has some really strong melodies, and for an album that has a lot of songs on it, it did not sound repetitive. At times I felt myself thinking that this album is what it would sound like if The Clash were fronted by Lenny Kravitz but without any of Lenny's raspiness to his voice. I also thought the album cover art was pretty cool looking. My standouts are Accidents Will Happen and Oliver's Army. I'll be listening to this more.

I liked how this album sounded and I was glad to hear that Kendrick does not solely do the triplet note pattern rap and does not seem to overuse autotune on his voice. These things are so prevalent now in hip hop. So for a young guy I was glad to see him take a different direction from that. There's parts of this that sound like 'traditional' hip hop. At the same time though maybe my ears are just conditioned to associate hip hop with creative sampling from older music (Jay Z sampling the Doors's 5 to 1 for instance). A lot today's hip hop tends to have a glossy machine produced sound (like this album) that is ok, but I still think hip hop's golden era came between 1989 and 1997 or so. Kendrick is a talented guy with interesting things to say. I'll definitely revisit this album.

So I have never sat through a Steely Dan album before. In fact today was the first day I'd asked myself whether Steely Dan was one guy or an actual band. I really dug the sound on this. It sort of gave me soft rock 70s era Billy Joel vibes. I liked all the genre shifting and how creative they were with the some of the backing instrument arrangements. Some of the choruses are really big, with multi layer harmonies. Within 10 seconds of the song Night by Night I had to add it to my 'Liked' list on Spotify. It absolutely jams. It's probably my favorite on this album. Going to have to check out more of Steely Dan for sure.

This was a background music type album for me. I never heard of Paul Weller until I listened to this. Cool riffs throughout the album,.but it was mainly jam music with more rhythmic singing parts being interjected between blues type riffs. I didn't really hear many hooks on the songs that drew me.in. I feel like this is an Americana type album, which is strange because Paul is English yet sounds like some type of blues singer.

This was an ok album for me. I think maybe Neil's voice might be more of an acquired taste? I have never listened to any Neil Young album. I am not the biggest lyrics person ever so sometimes I lose track in the songs a bit if the musical parts and notes in the melody don't catch my attention and I think this one falls in the category. Cinnamon Girl was a standout to me.

As strong a song as Back to Life was, I was expecting a bit more from thiis album. I ultimately felt like the whole album was underwhelming which was disappointing because Caron Wheeler is a good singer.

Damn....I'd never listened to this album before, but I think it's now one of my preferred albums by Bowie. I think overall it's a funk album. I didn't know the song Fame was on here which was a big plus for me. The title track Young Americans was always an ok song for me. I think the killer track on this one is Fame. I was really impressed with the song Win and the arpeggio runs by the saxes throughout the song. I liked Fascination also.

Sigh.........The Rolling Stones. Rant incoming. I almost always use Sympathy for the Devil as an example as to why I am not really into the Rolling Stones. The backing vocals man.....the 'whew whews'.....4 bloody minutes of it! Why!? The song is slightly over 6 minutes long and seems jam oriented with not much in terms of dynamics or chord progression so then why put those constant 'whews' on it every few seconds for 4 minutes? Why not just drop it in periodically and take it out sometimes!? For me it overtakes the song and just becomes an annoying focal point. It is maddening every time I listen to it. In fact anytime someone mentions the Rolling Stones I automatically think of those damn whew whews. Look at the contrast with what Quincy Jones did with 'Wanna Be Starting Something'....if I remember correctly that entire song is based around one baseline that repeats for the entire song without changing in verse and in chorus. It builds, breaks down, many different parts drop in and out, instrumentation changes drastically as the song progresses...apexing in 'mama say mama sah ma makusa' all over one consistent set of notes and baseline that never changes. Because Quincy Jones is an instrumentation freak of nature that can simply squeeze out massive amounts of jams and variation from one baseline. Rant over. Again the Rolling Stones have their good songs, but Mick Jagger's voice just doesn't do much for me. I understand they are icons but considering how much music they've put out a lot of it for me is just kinda bleh. This album included.

Here is another album that I spent hours in my room with, trying to learn the bass parts. It's such a strong album all the way through. This is probably my favorite Zeppelin album. All four members of this band gave such strong individual performances on this album. Bonham is a machine on it. It's rare for me that I hear a song and am instant hooked, but as a teen I remember hearing Misty Mountain Hop and instantly loving it. It was my introduction to Zeppelin and I wanted to hear more. An easy 5 for me.

This one was ok for me. George O Dowd has a good voice and sings soulfully. The music backing him though, particularly the drum tracks sound kind of low.quality. Or maybe it's just the way the album was mixed? George does some decent singing on this album but I am not sure it should be on this list.

This album is a hip hop clinic. If aliens were to land on this planet and wanted to get an understanding of what hip hop is, I would tell them to listen to this album. It's hard to believe this was released in 1990. It sounds ahead of it's time. This stuff is just on a different level compared to other rap groups. Such great story telling. Anyone catch the Jimi Hendrix sample? Any time an MC uses the word Polyrhythmic in a verse, it's probably an MC you should listen to. Trinidad and Tobago represent.....Phife Dawg RIP.

Great instrumentation and arraignment. Great musicianship. Funkier than the first Temptations album I rated. I liked 'Hey Girl' and 'Cloud 9' the best. A lot of great melodies throughout the album. Very cool cover art too

Nice. Johnny Cash's voice is so recognizable. I guess it's considered to be in the baritone range? This is old school country music. Even though I am not that big of a country music fan. I find this stuff to be authentic and real. I wonder what made him want to play at a prison to begin with, and could something like that be pulled off today? Could someone like Chris Stapleton play at a prison? Some of these songs reminded me of old school calypso....the story telling aspect. Maybe this is why my dad was drawn at times to this kind of music. I remember seeing some of his country albums as a kid (Marty Robbins comes to mind). (here's the Mighty Sparrow for comparison: (https://open.spotify.com/track/1LfS3MtG65yVVgReCMe0Cc?si=kbPzRWE8T62KSVqRW64i_Q&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A5wIqQb2zDEI1RHJAdrxrMy). I think that was one of the key aspects about old school country music was the story telling. You just don't get that same vibe anymore with a lot of modern country music. My favorites were Folsom Prison Blues and Dirty Old Egg Suckin Dog. I'll be giving this another listen for sure.

I. Could. Not. Stop. Laughing. I am sure it was was not the intention of the band to have that effect, but I couldn't help it. The music was just insanely over the top. I would say cartoonish even. It was like a mixture of metal and punk. I did have fun listening to it, and it was my first listen ever to Anthrax. If a group of werewolves were to get coked up and make an album, I am absolutely sure this is what it would sound like. My favorites were 'Among the Living' and 'Indians'.

This one had a lot going on which seems typical for a Bowie album. It's interesting how Bowie is sort of like a shape shifter while at the time still being himself. His voice and singing just seem to work with so many different styles of music. The standouts on this one for me were 'If You Can See Me' and 'Valentine's Day '.

Another Dylan album. I liked this one better than the first one I listened to. This one had a bluesier sound to it. It was cool to hear Subterranean Homesick Blues. I'd only really listened to the RHCP version of it.

This sounded like a spoken word album and I couldn't really get into it. I'm just not much of a Cohen guy from the stuff I've heard from him. Some decent sounding music going on in the background though.

In the past I have not been the biggest Fleetwood Mac fan, but everytime I listen to them they always give me something very solid musically. This was my first full listen through of a Fleetwood Mac album and I thought it was pretty solid. The impression I get is of 5 people (they are a band of 5 right?) coming from different musical backgrounds and probably having to do a lot of hashing out song ideas. There's a lot going on in the way they sound. I always got the impression that Stevie Nicks was a center piece of the band, however Lindsay Buckingham and Christine Mcvie are the standouts for me. I hardly see Buckingham make many best guitarist lists, but maybe he should. I enjoy his playing and I feel like a show with just him would be pretty interesting. The tone of Lindsay's voice when he sings makes me think of Les Claypool if Les were to be more serious and less of a goofball about his singing. Christine's voice is great. On the deepish side with a huskiness to it. This is definitely a unique band and listening through the album there was a feeling of 'I wonder what the next song is going to sound like'. I'm somewhere between 3.5 to 4 stars.

Punk is not really my thing. I do like some of the more pop punk sounding bands, but this type of I guess gutter punk? Is not melodic enough for me. These guys do have an energetic, raw sound. The guitar sound reminds me a lot of The Offspring guitar tone.

This is one of my more favored Radiohead albums. I think the word for this album is rhythm. There seems to be a reoccurring emphasis on rhythm. All throughout there are interesting time signatures and time shifts, moreso than I've picked up on other Radiohead albums. It's been quite some time since I've listened to this album but I remember Backdrifts being one of the standouts. Listening to it now I feel like it is one of the stronger songs on the album, and it feels cinematic. I also dig Where I End and You Begin and Myxomatosis is a rhythmic clinic.

I started listening to Bossa Nova and Samba maybe when I was around the age of 15 or 16 years old. I always liked the spirit and feel of the music even though I could not understand Portuguese. I am pretty familiar with most of the songs on this album from hearing different versions of them over the years. I really dug this album and the jazz tint to these songs. It really sures up for me that I like this structured jazz rather than the more experimental, conceptual music theory type stuff that kind of goes over my head and comes off a bit pompous at times. The rhythm section stands out through out the album. I always like the Desafinado and Bahia.

This one made me a bit nostalgic. Being from Trinidad and with Trinidad's population being about 40 percent of people of Indian descent (dot not feather) I grew up watching shows called Mastana Bahar and Indian Talent on Review. We also got a decent amount of Bollywood movies on TV and certain radio stations would play music in Hindi. As a child I took an interest in listening to Indian music even though I could not understand Hindi, and I always liked the sounds and rhythms. The sampling of Sri Lankan music on this album reminds me of those days. She presents a unique sound with combining what I am going to guess are Bangra and Chutney rhythms mixed with hip hop and electronic dance music. I think she is innovative and original. If M.I.A has not already done it, I think there is probably a collaboration with Santigold that should probably happen.

It's just tough to go wrong with Q Tip man. The guy seems to always give you a solid performance and raps as though he is a fan of hip hop and wants other people to enjoy hip hop and not just trying to pick up a pay check.

I listened to this and the words that came to mind were unconventional and dissonance. Bjork is a unique person with a unique singing style. Her timing almost seems off sometimes on what she sings, but it's not. Her note selection sometimes seems to fall a bit outside of the chord structure of the backing music, but all of that serves to keep things interesting. I like the tone of her voice also when it sounds a bit raspy. This is definitely a 90s sounding album. This was my second time listening to it. It didn't blow me away but then it wasn't bad either. Human Behavior and Come To Me were standouts.

I remember watching someone sing Born In the USA at a karaoke night and I remember thinking that the opening of the song was almost iconic and a real crowd pleaser, (the crowd cheered really loudly to the opening).... but then as the song went on and the singer struggled with what seemed to be all but the chorus, it struck me that there was really not much to the song at all. Everything built around that opening riff and not much variation or movement note and chord wise throughout the song, so music wise it kind of, (apart from the patriotic type message and ideas of it), a bit underwhelming musically, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect from listening to this album. This was my first listen through the whole thing. I am familiar though with the other big songs on this one. I think Dancing In the Dark is one of the stronger songs on it, even stronger than the title track. Glory Days is also a powerhouse of a song. The entire album is an Americana working class, blue collar album. Something I would expect from someone out of the American 'heartland' rather than a jersey boy. I dug it.

This album was killer. Nothing at all sounds like Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They always bring a smile to my face. To my knowledge the Xhosa and Zulu are two of the dominant erhnicities in South Africa. Its my understanding also that the Xhosa (along with aboriginal people of Australia) have some of the oldest DNA among homo sapiens in the world. I can't imagine that the Zulu would be too far behind. Listening to this stuff I just imagined that this type of music probably goes back to ancient times and may be some of the oldest musical stylings within music. I dug it all.

Damn....Pet Shop Boys just have such a good combination of dance beats, synth layers and then Neal Tennant has such a unique voice. 'This Must Be the Place I Waited Years To Leave' is great one. 'Jealousy' is another melancholy anthem that I remember listening to as a teen. 'Being Boring' is another favorite. Other parts of the album don't flow as well as the other songs,.but altogether a decent album.

This one didn't do much for me. It was more digestible punk than other pink bands I think, but it just didn't grab me.

I'm a sucker for The Doors man. Another banger from them. L'America, The Wasp, L.A Woman, Love Her Madly....all great driving songs. Riders On The Storm is simply next level creativity that takes you on a journey. Take another bow gents.

This shit straight up jams. It's rare that I like something on the very first listen, but this stuff is great. I like the energy. At times its a little punky, great transitions in the songs, the melodies are interesting and catchy, a bit comical at times too. I heard of these guys when they came out but never really listened to them. I'm sure these guys would put on a great show. I hear a little bit of early Pink Floyd in the melodies as well as a bit of David Bowie.

A unique, retro sound from a unique guy. Beck always keeps things interesting and original. I like Devil's Haircut and especially New Pollution. I was never a big fan of Where It's At.

Hi points for originality and innovation, but the album sort plays the way high art looks or the way fine dinning seems at times. It wasn't the most digestible album for me.

Not really my type of music, but they indeed do this type of music really well. I think it's preferable to a lot of today's country music.

What a great album. Not too much else to say. I've been into Duran Duran since I was really young. John Taylor put on a clinic for a lot of the album.

Nick has a good voice, but I this album just didn't grab me.

The highlight on this for me is Solsbury Hill. Peter has a great voice. The album is eclectic and has a lot going on. It made me feel like I was listening to a musical art exhibit. I hear similarities with Gabriel's voice and how Phil Collins sounds

I don't hear too much of a different feel from Born in the USA. The xylophone seems to be prominent throughout the album though. More Americana from Bruce.

This one brings back memories of editing digital maps for hours at a time. It's good music to listen to while doing a more mundane repetitive task. At the same time though I remember Boards being lower in my ranking of this type of music. I have them paired up with the likes of Tycho, Washed Out, FM Attack and Com Truise. Not a bad album but also not the most interesting.

I like the energy on this album. Lust for Life is a great song. Iggy Pop has such an interesting voice. I think this one is better than the earlier album I rated. I feel like the songs are organized and structured better and not as chaotic. Dear I say mature. I also liked 'Tonight'.

Quirky brit pop that is a bit shoe gazer like at times. Sometimes the singer's voice during the more hushed singing reminds me a bit of Michael Hutchence. Not bad at what they do, but this stuff doesn't really grab me.

What an oddball album ....maybe the word to use is eccentric? I've never really listened to a White Stripes album, but there are some cool sounds on it. The music is kind of all over the place feel wise. It's not that I disliked it,.but it seems like the kind of album that would need some time to grow on you.

Tina Turner has such a raw soulful and bluesy voice that truly gets showcased throughout the album. The sounds on the album, everything going on in the background makes it sound dated though. I know there are other albums that have 'that 80s sound' but somehow they don't sound dated like this one. Tina shines powerfully through the time stamp though.

I'm not the biggest Cure fan ever, but I found this one kinda tough to get into. The layering that I've come to expect from the Cure seemed absent.

What a great voice and what a tragic story. I am very familiar with the album but gave it a full listen again. Some of these songs really tell you what Amy is going through in her life. The whole sound is like that of old Motown/Phil Spectre times and Amy really nails the whole 60s aesthetic. Hats off to the Daptones on this album. They killed it, and the album would not have its sound without them.

Really could not get into this at all. Lack of melody, song structure, variation of sound. It just came of as vague. What is it? What type of music is it? I associate this sound with millennials and Gen z.

One of the best pop albums ever put together. RIP Quincy Jones. I feel like you hear his influence right at the beginning of 'Bad'. Real music theory nerds would know the technicality, but I think that is some sort of jazz arpeggio with those first 5 notes. There's also all sorts of ear candy all over the album. With very few exceptions, everything is in the right place on this album. Rhythm tracks, instrumentation, counter melodies, backing vocals, song structure, musicianship (I think those are 32nd notes on the tale end of the Speed Demon chorus??). Jones and Jackson were at the top of their game. I listened to a Charli XCX performance the same day as this album and it reminded me that Jackson is simply on some other planet talent wise than so many other pop stars. A once in a generation talent. At the same time if we are honest, his personal life was pretty troubled and tragic. This album is indeed edgier than what Jackson had done before. A lot of his singing on this album is aggressive, angry and done through clenched teeth. The man seemed to be channeling some personal rage. You really hear it on Speed Demon and Smooth Criminal. Shout to 'Leave Me Alone' with an Afro Beat/Fela Kuti type rhythm through out the whole track and Michael putting on an absolute fucking clinic on vocal phrasing, time feel/signature changes and I'm pretty sure the words 'Leave Me Alone' are sung in a 'round'. Bravo to the kid from Gary, Indiana.

The guys seem to have a knack for taking simple sounding parts and making interesting music out of them. Always a recognizable sound and really cool background vocals.

It's a no for me for you dawg. Not a bad singer but it lacked structure and I struggled to keep paying attention. This seems to be a pattern for me with how millennials and Gen z approach music.

Cool sounds but a little too abstract for me.

Hard to go wrong with Jimi. He's a top 5 guitarist for me. Innovation, originality, it's all there. This album is not my favorite from him but it is still incredible. He is one of those artists that just hooked me on the first listen. I'm pretty sure I'm actually writing this on his birthday. Nothing sounds like Jimi to me, singing or playing wise. The big standouts on this album are All Along the Watchtower and Voodoo Chile Slight Return. Particularly on Voodoo Chile he sounds like he landed from another planet.

I enjoyed this one more than the White Stripes album that was on here a few days ago. Jack is all over the place stylistically but it all seems to work. Catchy hooks and interesting song arrangements and instruments. It's my first listen to this album and I'll have to check out more of his solo stuff. Nice appearance by Q Tip.

This shit jams! What a killer hook in the song Stand. I liked this one more than I thought I would. The horn section and drumming was great and just an overall great sounding funky band.

Cool sounds musically but I just could not get past the overdramatic/ overdone singing. I'd still be interested to hear a different album though.

A classic. For some reason I listened to this as a teen when it came out. Being from the West Indies, I had absolutely no idea about the types of themes being portrayed on this album. However the rhythm tracks were crazy, the sounds were incredible and listening to this album as an adult, I have to say the production and the musical creativity on it stands out among hip hop albums. Though I can't connect with the level of violence and gang culture portrayed I still find it an impressive album. Snoop was basically talking about a culture he had seen or lived. Dr. Dre is on a different level also.

Acoustic Punk rock? I could see Violent Femmes covering a Blind Melon song, or vice versa. Listening to Violent Femmes I feel like somehow Gordon Gano and Shannon Hoon occupy a similar sound/range space. Femmes are not really my thing but they are definitely unique and original.

Nice easy listening album. Never really heard of this guy, but he sounds like he could tour with Paul Simon.

Another easy listening folk album. Although I have to say the album cover is kinda creepy.

I really dug this one. Real instruments playing funk. Just a feel good album.

ABBA is probably one of my top 20 musical groups of all time. They are just overall great. I grew up on them. I have many childhood memories where ABBA was on in the background. Even though I don't think this is their strongest album (hopefully Waterloo makes the list) it's still killer. Dancing Queen and Knowing Me, Knowing You are musical masterpieces and bring this album up to a 3.5 just by being on here. The layering, the song arrangement, the multiple hooks in one song, all the ear candy going on in the background I can't think of many groups musical giants the way ABBA is. Rutger Gunnarson is a beast on bass.

Frank's voice sounds great. A real crooner. This album really shows a different approach and era of music. I liked it, however a lot of the songs began to have a very similar feel to them for me, and halfway through started to feel a bit repetitive.

This album started strong for me and got a little repetitive towards the end. Stuart Copeland is on fire for Jesus all throughout the album though. He is killing it on Synchronicity II. Sting's voice also sounds amazing throughout the whole album. Some of the songs sound as though he was pushed to the upper limits of his range. This album really displayed the ability of the Police to mix it up with time signatures and different timing feels. I haven't listened to many Police albums,.I am familiar with the hits. After this I'm definitely going to have to go back and check out more albums.

I dug this. I do like a good woman fronted electronica group. Brazilian Girls, HAIM, Ladyhawke, Goldfrapp, The Start, JJamz, Ladytron, The Sounds, New Young Pony Club all come to mind as I am a fan. This had a bit stronger of a rock feel combined with the electronica. I felt that the album started strong and then towards the end got a bit repetitive with melodies and note selection. Overall I liked it and am interested in listening to other albums.

This one was just ok. I did wonder why it was on this list.