584
Albums Rated
3.79
Average Rating
54%
Complete
505 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
How you rate albums
Rating Timeline
Average rating over time
Ratings by Decade
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Activity by Day
When do you listen?
Taste Profile
1950s
Favorite Decade
Grunge
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Enthusiast
Rater Style ?
180
5-Star Albums
10
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
Genre Preferences
Ratings by genre
Origin Preferences
Ratings by country
Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Boots And Panties | 5 | 2.7 | +2.3 |
| Faust IV | 5 | 2.78 | +2.22 |
| Vulnicura | 5 | 2.79 | +2.21 |
| Ys | 5 | 2.8 | +2.2 |
| Arular | 5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
| Go Girl Crazy | 5 | 2.85 | +2.15 |
| Out of Step | 5 | 2.92 | +2.08 |
| I Against I | 5 | 2.93 | +2.07 |
| In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida | 5 | 2.94 | +2.06 |
| The Last Of The True Believers | 5 | 2.95 | +2.05 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tusk | 1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
| Toys In The Attic | 1 | 3.26 | -2.26 |
| Spiderland | 1 | 2.97 | -1.97 |
| Aha Shake Heartbreak | 1 | 2.97 | -1.97 |
| Millions Now Living Will Never Die | 1 | 2.87 | -1.87 |
| The Stranger | 2 | 3.86 | -1.86 |
| Night Life | 1 | 2.82 | -1.82 |
| Dookie | 2 | 3.8 | -1.8 |
| American Idiot | 2 | 3.77 | -1.77 |
| Appetite For Destruction | 2 | 3.74 | -1.74 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Led Zeppelin | 4 | 5 |
| David Bowie | 7 | 4.43 |
| Beatles | 5 | 4.6 |
| Stevie Wonder | 3 | 5 |
| Björk | 3 | 5 |
| Miles Davis | 3 | 5 |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 4 | 4.5 |
| Queen | 3 | 4.67 |
| Tom Waits | 3 | 4.67 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.67 |
| PJ Harvey | 3 | 4.67 |
| Beck | 3 | 4.67 |
| Brian Eno | 3 | 4.67 |
| Rush | 2 | 5 |
| Pixies | 2 | 5 |
| The Smashing Pumpkins | 2 | 5 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 2 | 5 |
| Leonard Cohen | 2 | 5 |
| The Doors | 2 | 5 |
| Muddy Waters | 2 | 5 |
| Kate Bush | 2 | 5 |
| Simon & Garfunkel | 2 | 5 |
| Fela Kuti | 2 | 5 |
| Radiohead | 4 | 4.25 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 4.33 |
| Bob Marley & The Wailers | 3 | 4.33 |
| Talking Heads | 3 | 4.33 |
| Deep Purple | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Beach Boys | 3 | 4.33 |
| Neil Young | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Kings of Leon | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Fleetwood Mac | 1, 5 |
| Barry Adamson | 4, 1 |
5-Star Albums (180)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Nanci Griffith
5/5
Absolutely lovely country/folk album. Not a bad song on it.
3 likes
Leonard Cohen
5/5
I love Leonard Cohen, but this is my first time listening to this album. Beautiful and heartbreaking, especially with the knowledge that he died so soon after. R.I.P. to an absolute legend.
1 likes
Stereolab
5/5
Lovely, dreamy, indie-rock soundscapes. Not always my thing, but I absolutely loved this.
1 likes
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Very familiar with this album, but would never turn down an excuse to listen again. Easy 5 stars; just banger after banger.
1 likes
1-Star Albums (10)
All Ratings
Beatles
5/5
Tears For Fears
4/5
Rush
5/5
Bob Dylan
4/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
5/5
Nick Drake
4/5
Dusty Springfield
5/5
The Beta Band
4/5
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
Pixies
5/5
Television
4/5
Frank Black
3/5
Christina Aguilera
3/5
Metallica
3/5
4/5
Gram Parsons
3/5
The Who
3/5
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
Lupe Fiasco
5/5
The Style Council
2/5
ABBA
4/5
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
5/5
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Carole King
5/5
Beatles
5/5
Michael Jackson
5/5
Ryan Adams
3/5
Beatles
4/5
Hole
3/5
Almost 4 stars. I found it quite middle-of-the-road on first listen, but found the songs got their hooks into me on subsequent plays.
Good catchy 90s alt rock, but just not as inspired as other bands of that era.
Public Image Ltd.
3/5
I loved the band itself. The groovy bass and electric guitar. But Lydon's cheeky vocal affectations and the affected rebelliousness of the lyrics brought it down a bit for me.
Maybe I just don't get it, but I would willingly listen to another album by them to find out.
Rush
5/5
A favourite album by a favourite band.
Green Day
2/5
Hey, hey, we're The Punkees!
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
Music and production are very good. I don't really gel with Rufus's vocals but he's a very skilled singer. Not for me.
Traffic
3/5
I've always like Steve Winwood, but this album was a little disappointing. It's certainly an eclectic mix of
styles, but it just lacks "oomph", for lack of a better description.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
I'd give it 4.5 if I could. I already own this album, but it's one I'm always happy to listen to again. The songs are simple musically, but the sheer depth of feeling in the performances really elevates them. Love it.
Iron Butterfly
5/5
Long, self-indulgent psychedelic rock may not be for everyone, but I'm all about it.
Girls Against Boys
3/5
The Triffids
4/5
I don't remember the last time I came around on an album so much. When "Bury Me Deep In Love" started, I felt like I was listening to the lamest worship band ever, and I think it coloured my perception for the whole first listen. But when I came back to it I found myself really loving it (the album I mean, the song is still lame).
I really enjoyed the very 80s production. Parts of the album had a sort of "Hounds of Love" feel, while other sounded similar to their Aussie contempories INXS, but set apart by the more folksy, unpolished vocals. The main problem with this album is that its three best songs - "Blinder by the Hour", "Vagabond Holes", and "Jerdacuttup Man" - are back to back near the end. I think it's possible that if the album opened with any of those, the average reviews might be a little less skewed, but that's just speaking from my own experience.
Overall this was quite a trip and I'm glad I've finally done my duty as an Australian and listened to this band.
AC/DC
4/5
It's AC/DC. They have one sound, but it's a good one.
Queen
5/5
Steely Dan
5/5
First time really listening to Steely Dan. They're about as edgy as a bowl of custard, but the quality of this album is undeniable. Well worth the listen and I'm sure I'll give it another spin in the future.
Stan Getz
5/5
Now, I'm not going to go out and become a boss nova aficionado or anything, but I loved this album. Very chill and so evocative of the 60s.
Blur
3/5
Thoroughly decent.
For the most part, it confirmed my feelings about Blur - that their music was basically just The Beatles but worse. However, there were a few tracks on here that surprised me. I specifically liked the grimy, almost Portishead sound on "Death of a Party" and "I'm Just a Killer for Your Love".
Talking Heads
5/5
You'll be tapping your feet as the dread sinks in.
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
3/5
3.5 stars. At times psychedelic, at times cowboy folk songs, always with tongue-in-cheek.
I actually liked this album a lot. It has the hallmarks of some of my faves, like Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, but the unedited, unpolished feel sometimes overstays its welcome as Skip pauses every few lines to laugh. These are the kinds of weird albums I really like getting recommended tbh.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
Tom Waits
5/5
Tom Waits is the shit.
Paul McCartney and Wings
4/5
A very tight album, and, for better or worse, probably the most Beatles sounding album I've heard from any of their solo careers. Pleasantly surprised.
Santana
3/5
Santana's listless aeolian noodling has never done anything for me, and I've always preferred Peter Green's original version of Black Magic Woman. There are a few decent tracks, but the most interesting parts of the record are always when Santana isn't playing. 2.5
Hanoi Rocks
4/5
I enjoyed this album a lot. It's nothing revelatory, but it is good, cheesy hair metal, brimming with camp.
However, while I get that salacious lyrics are a hallmark of the genre, the lyrics occasionally dip into misogyny and creepiness ("I can see by the way you walk you've never been with a man before") in a way that I found jarring. Part-and-parcel for the time, I know, but off-putting to listen to now.
"Until I Get You" is an absolute banger though.
The Roots
5/5
Never listened to The Roots before. What an album!
Lauryn Hill
5/5
Amazing album! I'll be honest, I only knew Lauryn Hill as the girl from Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit... yeah.
As a Stevie Wonder tragic, I particularly liked the apparent homage, both lyrically and instrumentally, to "I Wish" in the clavinet-heavy "Every Ghetto, Every City". The framing device of a high school teacher encouraging his student to talk about love was also a very cute way of tying the album together. Will definitely listen again.
Bon Jovi
3/5
Didn't like it, but I can't in good conscience give it any lower. Very slick, well produced album of incredibly annoying songs. Dead Or Alive in particular does my head in.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
I love Leonard Cohen, but this is my first time listening to this album. Beautiful and heartbreaking, especially with the knowledge that he died so soon after. R.I.P. to an absolute legend.
Pink Floyd
3/5
Even for a concept album, the songs in The Wall operate too much in service to the narrative, and not enough as good tracks in their own right (with a few exceptions, of course).
Coldplay
4/5
The smug asshole in me thought that when people said "Coldplay used to be good", they actually meant "I used to have lower standards". Turns out they were right, and I can be a bit of a dickhead.
Meat Puppets
4/5
When I read about the band's punk roots, I realised why I hated this album on first listen. I've never been able to get past how try-hard it is the way some punk bands will go to the trouble of booking a studio and a professional producer, and then proceed to act like they're too cool to care about recording an album of any quality. That's how I felt about this album: a bunch of insufferably smug, warbling tools trying to hide their neediness behind an affected aloofness.
But on second listen I lightened the fuck up and realised that the songs are actually good and I should stop assuming so much about bands who are probably just having fun, which is what music is all about.
Taylor Swift
3/5
I feel like I'd like Taylor Swift's music a whole lot more if I couldn't understand what she was saying. Swift has a tendency to reduce situations into superficial tableaus that I find deeply unsatisfying. She writes about what dress she had on, or that she's wearing cherry red lipstick, and we end up knowing nothing about the situation except that Taylor thinks she looked hot in it.
However, it may be a deliberate songwriting choice intended to evoke nostalgia and our tendencies to sand off all the edges of romantic memories - the album cover is a Polaroid, after all - or to display the emptiness she feels when reminiscing about past loves. I'm unfamiliar with Swift's wider catalogue and whether she writes in character, or if her albums often explore a key concept or theme. But judging it on its own merits, the songwriting was infuriatingly shallow and unrelatable to me.
However, Shake It Off is a banger, the production is great, and the booming 80s synth sounds that permeate the album (especially on Blank Space) was very much my cup of tea. 3.5
Black Sabbath
4/5
I can't imagine how it must have felt hearing that opening track in 1970. The fact that it still sounds so heavy and terrifying now is remarkable.
Not every track is a banger, however, and while Tony Iommi is a legend, his lead skills are not enough to sustain the indulgent solos on the penultimate track.
A very enjoyable listen. Sabbath laid the foundations of metal, and for that reason this album definitely deserves a spot on the list.
Fleetwood Mac
1/5
Found it incredibly boring and I don't like the production/mixing.
G. Love & Special Sauce
3/5
Not bad, but woefully lacking in variety and dynamism. Every track is just a repeating blues riff with the same lackadaisical not-quite-rapping vocals, to the point that you might not even realise the song has changed.
I liked the rhythm section and found the sound very nostalgic and 90s. Made me want to whip out my SEGA Dreamcast.
R.E.M.
4/5
Metallica
4/5
Much better than the previous Metallica album I got on this list. Very good song writing and a excellent production.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
Strange, uneven, chaotic. Parts of it I really liked and parts I just tolerated. The story of the recording of this album is just as absurd as the final product.
As a Tom Waits fan, it's cool to hear the inspiration for his shift in tone during the SwordFishTrombones era and onward. Weird af album, but I'm glad I listened to it and might even go back for more. 3.5.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
I've never been the biggest fan of this band, but their creativity is undeniable. This is a great album.
The Who
4/5
I don't like The Who very much at all, but this is a very tight live performance and deserves a good rating.
ZZ Top
4/5
Yeah, it's "just" bluesy dad rock, but they're damn good at it.
Elis Regina
4/5
Mariah Carey
2/5
Like an hour of Disney credits music.
Moby
3/5
Peter Frampton
4/5
The songs are hit and miss for me, and his fans and I are obviously getting different things from his music. I was pretty confused why, after an incredibly boring soft rock tune, the crowd burst into uproarious applause like he'd just walked on for an encore or something. Seriously, they went nuts like it was Stairway to Heaven or Freebird or something.
That said, Frampton is an exceptional musician. Great singing and great guitar playing. Even though it wasn't for me, I can't in good conscience give it lower than 4 stars.
The Doors
5/5
Black Sabbath
5/5
Amazing album!
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
Nick Cave is always full-on in a way that doesn't always resonate with me, but this double album is one hell of an achievement. Definitely will listen again.
John Martyn
3/5
Didn't hate it, but not really for me. He's kind of like a mix between Nick Drake and Bill Withers.
Caetano Veloso
4/5
I've really appreciated being introduced to all these great Brazillian artists by this site.
R.E.M.
3/5
More of a 3.5. Good instrumentation and typically eccentric lyrics, but just a bit too easy listening for my liking.
Nanci Griffith
5/5
Absolutely lovely country/folk album. Not a bad song on it.
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
Suede
3/5
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
Certified classic. Have loved this album for years.
David Bowie
3/5
I adore Bowie, but this album has never been one of my favourites. It has some absolute classics on it, but some songs, like "Kooks" for example, are total throwaways. 3.5
The Temptations
4/5
The Temptations
5/5
What are the chances? Two Temptations albums in a row.
This one is easily the better of the two. Funky, soulful, and at times even edgy. Absolute banger.
Faust
5/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Randy Newman
5/5
Sail Away deliberately uses a hopeful gospel melody to hide the dark truth of the lyrics, while Political Science presents a humourous critique of American exceptionalism that is still relevant 50 years later.
Also there's a song about a dancing bear.
Blur
3/5
Holger Czukay
4/5
Orbital
3/5
Was nice background listening while I did chores. I'm ignorant about techno and it's not really my cuppa tea, but there was a clear level of artistry on display on this album. 3.5
4/5
808 State
3/5
David Bowie
5/5
The Pogues
5/5
Linkin Park
4/5
Takes me back to being 10 years old and watching cringey anime AMVs. Hard to listen with fresh ears to an album that is so evocative of a time in my life, but I tried and actually enjoyed this album quite a lot.
Deep Purple
3/5
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Moments of brilliance, moments of boredom. It ticks boxes for music I should like, but at times feels like it drags forever. 3.5.
Eagles
3/5
The most easy of easy listening. The only hard part is staying awake. Still, I can't in good conscience give it lower than 3 because it's well produced and those solos at the end of Hotel California are still so slick.
Van Morrison
4/5
Bobby Womack
5/5
Had only heard the name before now. Brilliant soul/rnb album top to bottom, with some excellent guitar playing, particularly on "Games".
PJ Harvey
5/5
Stevie Wonder
5/5
The Mars Volta
5/5
Throwing Muses
4/5
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
Ready To Die is an exceptionally produced concept album. Biggie's ability to tell a story with his lyrics is captivating and his flow is brilliant. I struggled (a lot) with the rampant misogyny in the lyrics, less so with the use of sex noises as a framing device between songs, although it did make me less inclined to repeat the album.
Overall, glad I listened and I feel I understand why he is such a big deal in the hip-hop world.
Pretenders
5/5
The Verve
2/5
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Muddy Waters
5/5
M.I.A.
5/5
Shivkumar Sharma
5/5
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Gil Scott-Heron
4/5
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
Crematorium Ray Charles.
Queen Latifah
4/5
Iron Maiden
4/5
While I prefer Iron Maiden's later albums to their debut, I was pleasantly surprised at the overall vibe of this album. It's slightly prog in a way I wasn't expecting from them. Great vocals, too, but that's to be expected.
The Darkness
4/5
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
David Bowie
5/5
The Beach Boys
5/5
Liz Phair
5/5
Tricky
3/5
Jethro Tull
2/5
Steve Earle
3/5
Dire Straits
3/5
4/5
Basement Jaxx
3/5
Public Enemy
5/5
The Hives
2/5
We see an attractive, but not intimidatingly so, 30-something mother sitting at an intersection. The lights are red. In the backseat her children are restless; in the front, her husband is listlessly looking at his phone. She sighs, but then something catches her eye!
It's a billboard advertising a new SUV. She closes her eyes and we cut to footage of that same SUV driving in a variety of exciting situations as one of the tracks from this album (it doesn't matter which, they're all the same) plays loudly. It drives dramatically into a puddle, over a sand dune, and through a conspicuously barren urban environment. A perfect synthesis of power and practicality!
We return to the woman in the car, still closing her eyes. The light has turned green and she is stirred from her daydream by the voice of her husband as he asks "What are you waiting for?" She looks at the camera and smiles.
The new Honda Elevate. What are YOU waiting for?
The Doors
5/5
The White Stripes
4/5
Stephen Stills
3/5
Nice instrumentation and some decent tunes. 3.5
Lorde
4/5
Common
2/5
I only listened to it once, so some of the nuance in the lyrics may have been lost, but I wasn't impressed. There are a few good beats on this album, and I thought "A Film Called (PIMP)" was a novel track, but none of this was enough to make up for the average rapping, surface level insights, and blatant homophobia.
Ian Dury
5/5
The Isley Brothers
5/5
Yes
4/5
Bert Jansch
4/5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
Radio-friendly "safe" punk. A bit like the Hives but with more girlish squealing. Maps is a good tune.
Shack
2/5
An album full of songs perfect for the opening credits of movies starring the Olsen twins.
Joan Armatrading
5/5
Japan
2/5
So dramatic, and yet so bland.
Thin Lizzy
5/5
Astrud Gilberto
4/5
Dead Kennedys
5/5
Isaac Hayes
5/5
Dagmar Krause
3/5
Nirvana
5/5
Fugees
5/5
Queen
5/5
Paul Simon
2/5
Incredibly boring songs about trains and cars. Paul Simon is capable of better than this.
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
Twee, as others have said, but very enjoyable. Reminds me of Nick Drake.
Cream
5/5
Dolly Parton
3/5
Steely Dan
3/5
Not as good as Pretzal Logic - the previous Steely Dan album this list gave me. Pretty boring all over, despite the artistry on display from the musicians.
Blue Cheer
4/5
Sade
5/5
Klaxons
4/5
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Cocteau Twins
5/5
Absolutely loved this. I didn't think it would land with me from the description but I'll definitely be checking out the rest of their discography.
Tom Tom Club
4/5
Simple Minds
2/5
Aerosmith
3/5
Neil Young
4/5
T. Rex
5/5
Pixies
5/5
The White Stripes
3/5
The surprising thing about this album to me is that the singles I was familiar with (namely, "Seven Nation Army" and "The Hardest Button to Button") are by far the most creative and interesting parts of the album. The rest of the album is mostly just rehashed 60s pop and, in those cases, I'd rather just listen to the people they're doing impressions of. 3.5
Talvin Singh
3/5
Björk
5/5
Gillian Welch
5/5
The Police
4/5
Cowboy Junkies
3/5
Arrested Development
4/5
The Killers
4/5
That final song sucks so hard. Great album, though.
Dennis Wilson
3/5
2Pac
4/5
Radiohead
3/5
Prince
3/5
Ms. Dynamite
3/5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
The Who
4/5
5/5
Has been my favourite album since I first picked it out of my Dad's vinyl collection when I was 14. I can't be objective about an album I love this much.
U2
3/5
I know some folk reaaaaaly hate U2, but this seems, I dunno... inoffensive and bland, but ultimately fine. Apart from the absolute stinker that is Mysterious Ways, of course. The melody in the verses of that track genuinely sounds like music for children.
Frank Sinatra
5/5
Black Sabbath
5/5
The Byrds
4/5
John Cale
5/5
Supertramp
2/5
Fleet Foxes
4/5
Sonic Youth
4/5
Rocket From The Crypt
4/5
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Van Morrison
2/5
I'm normally ok with Van, but this was dire. The same low energy, dynamically lacking muzak backing all the way through, with Van pretending to belt out soulfully repetitive lyrics like he doesn't want to wake his parents.
CHIC
4/5
Buena Vista Social Club
5/5
Mekons
3/5
Tom Waits
4/5
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Alice In Chains
5/5
M.I.A.
4/5
The United States Of America
4/5
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
5/5
The Go-Betweens
3/5
Streets of Your Town is a very famous song here in Australia and possibly the best tune on the record, but that's not saying much as I've always found it a bit of a dirge. Not awful, but I would not seek it out.
Minor Threat
5/5
Kraftwerk
5/5
Beatles
4/5
David Bowie
4/5
Einstürzende Neubauten
2/5
Yeah, nah. Would make good backing to a shitty streamer bait indie horror game.
(2 stars because something gives me the impression they didn't exactly fail at whatever the hell they were trying to do.)
Beck
5/5
What a banger!
Kings of Leon
2/5
3/5
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Cat Stevens
4/5
Napalm Death
3/5
Talk Talk
3/5
Michael Jackson
4/5
A great album, no doubt, but I genuinely hate the synth bass sound that dominates the album. As a bass player I'm definitely biased though.
The lyrics kinda suck too. Dirty Diana come across as a pretty misogynistic song, and MJ generally just sounds like a massive sook throughout the whole album. Still, can't rate it lower than 4 stars with a clear conscience.
Morrissey
4/5
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
A little bit samey but I liked it a lot. Their sound was pretty ahead of the curve on what would become popular in the 90s.
Louis Prima
3/5
Portishead
5/5
Super Furry Animals
5/5
Massive Attack
4/5
N.W.A.
4/5
Johnny Cash
5/5
Coldplay
4/5
CHVRCHES
5/5
Didn't expect to say this, but that was a damn good album.
Pearl Jam
4/5
Koffi Olomide
3/5
Emmylou Harris
4/5
Sex Pistols
4/5
Fun Lovin' Criminals
2/5
Not awful, just incredibly boring. 2.5
Steely Dan
4/5
I've had a few Steely Dan albums since I started using this generator and it's made me realise something. Even if Steely Dan got a bunch of musos from the heaviest metal sub-genres and told them to go nuts, the resulting album would just sound like Steely Dan with down-tuned guitars.
The blandness is all-encompassing and no amount of exceptional jazz bass or piano playing can escape it. I can't hate it, but I'll never love it.
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Nick Drake
5/5
This generator has made a huge Nick Drake fan out of me. Such a brilliant songwriter.
King Crimson
5/5
The Strokes
5/5
Charles Mingus
5/5
Maybe it's my bias as a try-hard bass player, but I loved this. That said, it's definitely an album that I would be reluctant to recommend to anyone who I didn't know already liked jazz.
Queens of the Stone Age
4/5
The small amount of QotSA that I've brushed up against never really tickled my fancy and the first spin of this record was no different. However, I really came around on the second listen. Lots of creativity on display amid the obvious chaos and noise.
Various Artists
4/5
Setting it up so that people get this on Christmas... well played, sir.
Spector is a real piece of trash and I've never been enamoured with his "wall of sound", but I will say that it didn't get in the way of the high-quality 60s pop arrangements. Great singing all around too.
De La Soul
5/5
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5/5
What a surprise! All it took for me to like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was for them to basically change genre completely. Great album.
Muddy Waters
5/5
It's Muddy Waters.
Method Man
4/5
Adele
5/5
The Boo Radleys
3/5
Christine and the Queens
3/5
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
Death In Vegas
3/5
Suicide
2/5
Weird, experimental, and creative. The kind of album I'm glad to be recommended, and don't regret listening to, but have zero interest in revisiting.
Probably would have given a 3 if not for the repeated loud screaming jump scares in Frankie Teardrop.
The Stone Roses
3/5
The Verve
2/5
Dreary 90s electric guitar soundscapes with very little variation. One of those albums that feels like it will never end.
It was fucked up what the Stones did to them though.
The Flying Burrito Brothers
4/5
The Crusaders
3/5
Amy Winehouse
4/5
Carpenters
3/5
Neil Young
5/5
Songhoy Blues
4/5
Brian Eno
5/5
Bad Brains
5/5
The Byrds
4/5
Willie Nelson
3/5
A nice album of easy listening covers. Nothing revolutionary but well executed. 3.5
The Cult
3/5
Competent, but oh so generic.
Norah Jones
3/5
Sarah Vaughan
4/5
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
Christ this was an annoying album!
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Björk
5/5
Ray Charles
5/5
Stereolab
5/5
Lovely, dreamy, indie-rock soundscapes. Not always my thing, but I absolutely loved this.
Guided By Voices
2/5
This album is a shotgun, not a rifle. That is to say, a barrage of many short songs fired with the hope that at least one of them hits the target. They all missed.
Funkadelic
3/5
An album blending funk and rock helmed by top-notch musos should be something right up my alley, but honestly the result is thoroughly forgettable.
I was already familiar with the title track of this album because a guitarist friend of mine raved about it back in high-school. I never told him this at the time, but I thought it sounded like incredibly run-of-the-mill bedroom noodling. Time has only intensified that opinion and I don't understand why it's so well regarded as a guitar piece.
It's possible that my dislike of that track influenced my perception of the rest of the album as there are definitely some funky tracks on here. Can You Get To That is probably the best track with it's use of 12-string acoustic. However, nothing really stands out, and I don't think the rock influences really elevate any of the pieces - they simply sound like funk songs with more distortion.
Minutemen
5/5
Barry Adamson
4/5
Really diverse and creative album.
One minute you're assailed by a panic-inducing stalker spiel ("It's Business as Usual"), and the next you're hearing a twee jazz fusion track replete with vibes and 80s sax solos ("Miles"). Then, as if just to keep you off-balance, they go back to creepy with a track that sounds, save for the sick trumpet playing, like background music from a Resident Evil game ("Dirty Barry").
Loved the Nick Cave song near the end ("The Sweetest Embrace"), even if I'm not sure what it's doing on a "Barry Adamson" album because it really just sounded like Nick Cave through and through.
Thoroughly enjoyable. 4.5
Simply Red
2/5
As if it wasn't enough to make the musical equivalent of boiled chicken, they had to ruin a Talking Heads song, too.
Billy Joel
2/5
Mawkish lyrics, twee melodies, and an overwhelming vibe of insincerity. Sorry to Billy Joel fans but I don't get this at all.
Madonna
3/5
A pastiche of 90s pop trends with the sort of slick production one might expect from Madonna. Drags a bit near the end, but pretty good all said.
Parliament
5/5
Deep Purple
5/5
Elvis Presley
3/5
Shuggie Otis
5/5
Aphex Twin
3/5
Good ambient music. It doesn't grab attention but has enough variation to keep it from being being mindless.
Beck
4/5
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
Nas
5/5
The Smiths
5/5
Paul McCartney
3/5
Really, really bland. Don't understand all the glowing reviews. Felt like half the songs are just poppy noodling. Basically, it's McCartney giving prog a go because it's trendy, which is kind of a theme with McCartney's worst solo output. He's better when he isn't chasing trends.
However, when Paul remembers to actually write a song, it's not bad, hence the 3 stars.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Super Furry Animals
3/5
Deep Purple
5/5
Classic dad rock album with great guitar playing and a nice proggy sound throughout. Bit cheesy, but that's part of the fun.
The Allman Brothers Band
4/5
Abdullah Ibrahim
2/5
Sigur Rós
5/5
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
Guns N' Roses
2/5
Rahul Dev Burman
4/5
Kate Bush
5/5
Was a major dork in high school for liking Kate Bush, but they can all get stuffed! Absolute banger of an album and Cloudbusting is one of my favourite songs of all time.
PJ Harvey
5/5
Elton John
5/5
Jimmy Smith
2/5
Frank Zappa
5/5
Britney Spears
2/5
Leftfield
2/5
Janis Joplin
4/5
Pavement
2/5
Air
5/5
Radiohead
4/5
I don't know why, but this album clicked in a way Radiohead never has with me in the past.
The Bees
3/5
In a word, pleasant.
Jazmine Sullivan
4/5
The Stooges
5/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
Christina Aguilera
3/5
Decent RnB songs about being sexy, but humble, performed and produced by skilled hands. If you like pentatonic vocal runs, then you're in the right place. 3.5/5
Pantera
3/5
It has its moments, but nothing really drew me in. I would have loved it when I was 14 though. 3.5/5
Leonard Cohen
5/5
Calexico
4/5
Tina Turner
4/5
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Some choice grooves but not great.
Queen
4/5
John Prine
5/5
XTC
3/5
Thelonious Monk
5/5
Megadeth
4/5
Peter Gabriel
5/5
Fiona Apple
5/5
Fatboy Slim
4/5
Gang Of Four
5/5
Big Black
4/5
Alanis Morissette
5/5
Love
5/5
Cheap Trick
4/5
The Human League
4/5
Violent Femmes
3/5
Gets a bit formulaic at times but they definitely have their own sound.
The Byrds
4/5
Alice Cooper
5/5
Dr. Dre
3/5
3/5
Stan Getz
4/5
Sonic Youth
3/5
Patti Smith
4/5
The B-52's
5/5
Just bops from top to bottom.
Kraftwerk
3/5
Could have used a bit more variation. There's only so many minutes I'm willing to listen to twinkly electronic sounds over and over again before they start to grate.
That said, Kraftwerk are undeniably an important and influential band and well deserving of being on this list. 3.5/5
Green Day
2/5
The Dictators
5/5
Getting this the day after I got Dookie by Green Day just reaffirms why I gave that album 2 stars. Great punk album.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
Machito
4/5
Michael Kiwanuka
4/5
Spiritualized
3/5
Traffic
4/5
Miles Davis
5/5
Ash
3/5
Wire
3/5
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
Meat Loaf
3/5
Prince
5/5
Genesis
4/5
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Very familiar with this album, but would never turn down an excuse to listen again. Easy 5 stars; just banger after banger.
4/5
Fever Ray
5/5
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
5/5
Elvis Presley
3/5
Roni Size
2/5
There's artistry on display here but it really wears out its welcome.
Fela Kuti
5/5
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
The Kinks
3/5
If they'd laid off the harpsichord it would have been 4 stars.
Miles Davis
5/5
Simply one of the best albums ever made.
Killing Joke
5/5
Didn't expect it to be so groovy. Banger album.
Talking Heads
3/5
Some bands come out swinging with an amazing debut album and spend the rest of their careers trying to recreate it. Not so with Talking Heads.
Apart from Psycho Killer, this album is just ok. The pieces that would go on to define the band are all there: the quirky lyrics, the funky instrumentation, David Byrne's staccato vocals etc. It just lacks the confidence of the later albums and feels a bit limp as a result.
3.5/5
Hugh Masekela
2/5
Love jazz but this doesn't do it for me. It's a bunch of very skilled musicians using their ability and knowledge to make background music for The Sims. Maesha in particular felt like a bland, never ending slog.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
Justice
3/5
I remember hearing D.A.N.C.E everywhere for a few months in my teens and really fucking hating it. Hearing it again, it's every bit as screechy and annoying as I remember, which is a shame because the rest of the album is actually really good. 3.5/5
Marty Robbins
3/5
The Smiths
4/5
Neil Young
4/5
Some of Neil Young's classic songs are on this album, but the rest are pretty underwhelming. A few tracks use an orchestra which doesn't really add much to the album. Young's compositions are pretty straightforward melodically, so it come across as overly indulgent.
Still, "Heart of Gold", "The Needle and the Damage Done", "Out on the Weekend" and "Old Man" are Young at his best. There are also some examples of Young's shrill distorted guitar sound that went on to influence grunge music, but those songs just aren't very exciting. Overall a mixed bag, but definitely worth a listen.
Flamin' Groovies
5/5
OutKast
5/5
James Taylor
3/5
Moby Grape
3/5
Malcolm McLaren
2/5
5/5
Ok, this is brilliant. I had no idea they were this good.
Kate Bush
5/5
Merle Haggard
3/5
James Brown
4/5
Mike Ladd
3/5
Creative and well-produced but, for the most part, boring.
Billy Bragg
4/5
I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards. - Garth Marenghi
Magazine
5/5
David Bowie
5/5
Thundercat
4/5
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
2/5
The War On Drugs
3/5
1/2 80s pop album, 1/2 bad Bob Dylan impression. I didn't mind the 80s parts.
The Shamen
1/5
Some bands give the vibe of deliberately writing music for car ads. This band, however, feels like it's writing music for montages in episodes of Charmed.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
Van Halen
4/5
I get that this album typifies a certain type of contentious pop-rock, and that living through the height of its popularity might have been really annoying, but I've always like Van Halen. Vocals aren't to my taste, but the solos are short and sweet and the rhythm guitar is always on point.
Hot For Teacher is a shitty fucking song though.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Even considering the fact that the 60s was an experimental time in popular music, it's crazy to me that songs like "The Murder Mystery" were being made in 1969. I like this album a lot.
Elbow
4/5
It brushes up at times against a particular style of generic radio-friendly rock that I'm not a fan of. However, there is definitely a level of competence and authenticity that elevates it. Not bad at all.
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
Ramones
3/5
I know they're influential, but without that context I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be getting out of this record. It's just 30 minutes of power chords being lackadaisically moved back and forth in the exact same patterns and with the exact same energy.
They aren't unpleasant or anything, and if you took any of the songs in isolation they would be fine, but it really is just the same thing over and over again.
Slayer
5/5
The Streets
1/5
The Dunning-Kruger Crew.
3/5
Another aggressively "fine" album from U2. They seem to be one of those bands people hate because other people hate.
Tim Buckley
3/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
Mercury Rev
2/5
Profoundly irritating. Roughly 45 minutes of insincerity, mawkish lyrics, and irritating vocals. Perhaps most annoyingly, they express just enough musicality too seem pretentious but not enough to actually impress.
Björk
5/5
Loved this. Surprisingly poppy and oh-so nineties! Also want to give a shout out to Bjork's pronunciation of "ghettoblaster".
Taylor Swift
3/5
Taylor's writing continues to not gel with me. Credit where it's due though, there are a couple of tracks I enjoyed a lot. "dorothea" displays an empathy that I believe is lacking in most of her songs, and the nature metaphors in "ivy" are a good match for her, at times overly superficial, lyrical style.
Slint
1/5
This album is bad, but it does teach us something important. Specifically, if writing songs and learning to play an instrument is too hard, you can always just perfunctorily downstroke the same handful of notes on your guitar while you improvise lyrics and speak-sing a terrible Lou Reed impression. You won't fool everyone, but you might fool someone enough to get you on a list of 1001 albums you must hear before you die.
Brian Wilson
5/5
Brilliant album. Rest in peace, Brian.
Julian Cope
2/5
Boring folk and rock songs about sex and cars, but with knowing winks at the audience to assure us that it has a satirical edge and if we think it's bad than we have just missed the point. Happy for this to whoosh over my head.
Spiritualized
3/5
Fairly generic shoegaze-y affair. A bit too long but not bad by any means.
The Electric Prunes
2/5
What is it with 1960s bands and harpsichords?
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Not bad but I'd much rather just listen to the artists that they've, shall we say, "paid homage" to.
Foo Fighters
3/5
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Genesis
4/5
Very ahead of its time and very slick. Maybe a little bit TOO slick for my liking, but definitely an impressive album for 1974.
Animal Collective
4/5
The Fall
2/5
The Fall heard Television's debut album Marquee Moon and thought "we can do that". They couldn't.
Lana Del Rey
2/5
Would have been a very middle of the road album if it were released in the 70s. I'm not sure what sets Lana Del Rey apart from every other pop singer pining for the good ole days. I like how weirdly screechy the "DownAtTheMenInMusicBusinessConference" line is though.
The Cure
4/5
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
Great album with a compelling anger and energy underpinning it. The only exception being the surprisingly limp studio version of No Woman No Cry. The live version is so much more moving.
Lou Reed
4/5
Miriam Makeba
5/5
Great album. Her voice is so smooth.
Kings of Leon
1/5
I was in highschool when this album came out and was insecure enough to pretend to like it to fit in more better with my friends. I must have given listening to this album a good go back then because I remember a surprising amount of these tracks. They all suck. A bunch of too-cool-for-school impressions of various pop genres performed by middling musicians in a way that feels like they have actual disdain for the music they're playing.
Kings of Leon were a band that ultimately had no impact on the musical landscape. They were trendy as hell for a few years, which is undoubtedly why they're on this list. Fair enough, but living through their popularity once was enough for me.
Digital Underground
4/5
Elliott Smith
2/5
Wistfully melancholic 90s indie folk-pop. Has a nice unpolished sound save for the echoey vocals. It all just has a certain type of indy romcom soundtrack vibe that doesn't appeal to me.
Air
4/5
HATED "Suicide Underground". The track just sucks, but also smacks of commidifying suicide to seem edgy or cool. Could be dead wrong about that though; I haven't seen the film.
Loved the rest of the album.
Lou Reed
5/5
ABBA
4/5
Laura Nyro
3/5
David Bowie
4/5
Anthrax
4/5
Teenage Fanclub
3/5
Bear with me, but this album feels like the in-universe songs that a made up band would play in a coming-of-age movie about starting a band and becoming famous. Think "That Thing You Do" or "Sing Street". Very pleasant, but very formulaic.
Willie Nelson
4/5
Not exactly breaking any new ground, but it's not exactly trying to either. A gentle, easy-listening country album elevated by Willie Nelson singing like he means it.
Arcade Fire
4/5
Beastie Boys
5/5
Genuinely great. Punchy delivery, fun lyrics, GREAT sampling. I'd never listened to this album despite being familiar with the group. Glad I did.
Suede
4/5
When I saw this album I thought I was in for another boring, pompous, melodramatic Britpop album that ultimately didn't really influence anyone. It definitely has elements of that, both in its production and in its songwriting ("The 2 Of Us" in particular being a track that typifies the type of British music I fucking hate). But, to be frank, this album was dope.
Morrissey
3/5
Wherein the most arrogant man who has ever lived complains about what a burden it is to be so self deprecating.
Beck
5/5
Brian Eno
5/5
R.E.M.
4/5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Madonna
2/5
There are a couple of decent tunes on this album, but the rest are either super dated or going for a sort of toothless Kate Bush vibe that really didn't do it for me. 2.5/5
Stephen Stills
3/5
Sparks
5/5
The Beach Boys
3/5
The Monkees
2/5
The music is mostly fine but there is an overwhelming whiff of corporate glibness to the music, which is particularly damning with the knowledge that this is supposedly the first album on which the band members got to write their own songs.
Janelle Monáe
5/5
This is an album I haven't heard before. First impressions are that it genuinely may be one of the best pop albums of the 21st century. Did I just miss the buzz, or did this deserve way more attention when it was new?
Ozomatli
4/5
I listened to as many tracks as I could through youtube and Spotify. What I heard gave me an impression of this album being a mix of poppy Latin grooves with some nice Middle-Eastern inspired instrumentation and optimistic hip-hop lyrics. I really liked it. Wish I could hear the whole thing.
Talking Heads
5/5
Jean-Michel Jarre
5/5
Slipknot
4/5
Damn fine album from a band I didn't think I would enjoy.
New Order
3/5
That singer is killing me, man. Couldn't carry a tune in a wheelbarrow. Weirdly charming album despite (or perhaps because of) that though. 3.5/5
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
A more commercial album that the other two Echo albums this generator has given me. Somehow straddles the line between poppy new wave 80s grooves and the more dramatic post-punk sounds I associate with the band, and in this case I think it's an improvement.
3/5
Can
4/5
The Band
5/5
Throbbing Gristle
2/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
2/5
This, along with Linkin Park, was the music my peers listened to as we were approaching high school age and wanted to feel rebellious. I mean, the album title alone should make it clear that this is not an album for people over the age of 12. Unlike Linkin Park, who behind all the edge were actually a decent band, this is really bad and the only thing stopping me from giving it 1 star is I remember it being a big part of the zeitgeist of the early 2000s.
Miles Davis
5/5
Gene Clark
4/5
Sufjan Stevens
3/5
The Kinks
4/5
Antony and the Johnsons
3/5
Hole
4/5
Robbie Williams
2/5
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Sinatra sings real good, but it's not really his style and it feels a little glib. I know crooners are all about making it sound easy, but it's just a little too much on this album.
Still good, and really more of a 3.5. Probably would have been higher if this generator hadn't already given me the Getz/Gilberto album. I was missing Astrud Gilberto's voice.
Metallica
4/5
Herbie Hancock
5/5
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
5/5
Marianne Faithfull
3/5
Decent music but, my god, that voice sounds like if you blew air through the dessicated remains of Stevie Nicks.
Radiohead
5/5
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
Ryan Adams
3/5
A pretty good, if somewhat derivative, rock album by a shitty person.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
I used to like this album a whole lot. I still do, but it's hard to give it more than a 3 when it's just as easy to access the (usually superior) original versions of these songs.
Al Green
4/5
Brian Eno
4/5
Michael Jackson
4/5
Richard Hawley
4/5
The Black Keys
3/5
X-Ray Spex
5/5
Big Star
4/5
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
Billy Corgan may be high on his own farts these days, but it's sometimes worth remembering that the Smashing Pumpkins did put out one of the best albums of the 90s and one of the best double albums of all time.
ZZ Top
4/5
The Byrds
3/5
More of a 3.5. Jangly, radio-friendly, country pop. Pleasant to listen to and somehow more "authentic" than later bands of a similar ilk, such as The Eagles - and definitely miles better than modern country pop.
Maxwell
2/5
Good if you want to listen to some horndog do a Michael Jackson impression for an hour.
Van Morrison
2/5
Van Morrison's vocals on this live album vacillate rapidly between slurring his words as he strains to remember the lyrics to his hits and PROVING. HE. IS. ABSOLUTELY. NOT. DRUNK. BY. MAKING. SURE. TO. ARTICULATE. EACH. WORD. There is no in-between.
Turbonegro
4/5
A bit like if Hanoi Rocks were a punk band. Cheesy. Dumb. Juvenile. Awesome.
Deee-Lite
4/5
The Flaming Lips
3/5
I enjoyed the relaxed musical arrangements on most of the tracks. The lyrics on the other hand were a mix of sententious navel gazing and odes to a girl who fights robots and is totemo kawaii desu. The result is an album I found both pleasant and supremely irritating.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
4/5
Bob Dylan
3/5
Solange
3/5
Wilco
4/5
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Q-Tip
4/5
The Birthday Party
4/5
George Jones
3/5
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
An enjoyable listen, if a little too glib for my tastes. The themes and slick production at times made me feel like I was listening to a Christian rock band, which is never a good thing.
Sonic Youth
5/5
Syd Barrett
1/5
I get that this is on here to show what Syd Barrett did after leaving Pink Floyd, and is useful in perhaps isolating the specific sound he contributed to the band, but this album is the musical equivalent of a snuff film. They must have known it was exploitative at the time too or they wouldn't have included Syd's musical false starts and commentary. As an album, it has its moments, but it's very uneven and hard to separate from the general "off" feel of the circumstances of its recording.
Joy Division
4/5
Roxy Music
3/5
Black Flag
4/5
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Todd Rundgren
3/5
The proggy psychedelic parts are good; the musical theatre parts are not.
Tom Waits
5/5
3/5
Barry Adamson
1/5
Afrika Bambaataa
3/5
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
Paul Simon
4/5
Soundgarden
4/5
B.B. King
5/5
It's funny when, after BB says "I'd like to tell you a little story now...", one guy in the crowd flatly shouts "ok". 5 stars.
Elvis Costello
2/5
The gall of the least original artist since the other Elvis taking a sassy swipe at Julie Andrews. At least she can sing, brother.
The Cure
3/5
Tracy Chapman
5/5
Aerosmith
1/5
Scissor Sisters
3/5
Jeff Beck
5/5
Tortoise
1/5
The Incredible String Band
2/5
Blondie
5/5
The Cars
4/5
Grizzly Bear
2/5
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
Liked it. Has a certain rough noisiness to it that makes it stand out from other airy shoegaze bands.
Cyndi Lauper
5/5
Aimee Mann
2/5
Originally wrote something sassy, but after reading other reviews for the album on this site, decided there is enough negativity being thrown around.
Ultimately, I found the music a bit too "safe" and the lyrics not particularly insightful, clever or moving. While I'm not going to listen to it again, this is a totally fine example of the 90s singer-songwriter sound.
The Last Shadow Puppets
4/5
The Specials
4/5
Adele
4/5
Drive-By Truckers
2/5
If you're from the South, I'm not going to assume you're racist. If you play Southern Rock, I'm not going to assume you're racist. If you spend 90 minutes trying to convince me that NOT ALL Southern people are racist, my eyebrow might become raised.
That aside, the music isn't terrible and the singer kinda sounds like Mick Jagger.
Hot Chip
3/5
American Music Club
3/5
John Grant
2/5
Musically, Grant does a good impression of 70s singer songwriters, but the lyrics just aren't there. It's mostly unconvincingly affected humility and surface-level observations framed in a way that is neither poetic nor clever. That is, of course, with the exception of "JC Hates Faggots" which is a brilliant song. 2.5/5 stars.
U2
3/5
Ray Price
1/5
Just a misogynistic tool having a sook about women being happy, the big whores!
Joanna Newsom
5/5
Very interesting and ambitious album.
It's essentially five very long, harp-driven, reflections on important people in Newsom's life. The lyrics are written in a deliberately flowery and, at times, archaic parlance, but Newsom doesn't struggle to eke out some genuinely touching phrases despite that. She also shows admirable restraint in not sacrificing the emotional essence of the songs in an attempt to impress with her command of language.
Newsom's squeaky high notes are, unsurprisingly, a point of contention among listeners, but the imperfections in her voice don't distract from the earnestness and creativity on display here. Probably more of a 4.5/5, but I'm happy to round it up for it's uniqueness.
John Coltrane
5/5
John Lennon
3/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Fela Kuti
5/5
Scott Walker
4/5
Manic Street Preachers
5/5
Venom
3/5
Serge Gainsbourg
3/5
Paul Simon
4/5
The Waterboys
3/5
Pleasant, accessible folk pop. Doesn't hit any soaring highs, but never grates. A bit like Dexy's Midnight Runners with a less annoying singer. 3.5/5.
Pentangle
4/5
Röyksopp
4/5
New Order
3/5
Soft Cell
2/5
Radiohead
5/5
The Thrills
2/5
A series of songs about California that deliberately evoke popular American pop music styles of the 60s and early 70s. It's Beach Boys one minute and Neil Young the next. The lyrics artfully avoid saying a single thing.
Goldfrapp
4/5
The Flaming Lips
3/5
Billy Bragg
4/5
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
k.d. lang
3/5
Nice album of romantic ballads. Lang's voice is on point. 3.5/5.
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
Suzanne Vega
4/5
Beatles
5/5
Derek & The Dominos
3/5
Ride
3/5
Supergrass
3/5
The Beach Boys
5/5
Somehow the music meets the high bar set by its cover art.
Dizzee Rascal
4/5
Elton John
4/5
Daft Punk
4/5
The Coral
3/5
If "Jungle Japes" had lyrics and those lyrics were bad.
Electric Light Orchestra
5/5
Is this album basically just The Beatles with 70s disco instrumentation? Yes. Did I love it? Also, yes.
John Lee Hooker
2/5
John Lee Hooker rules but this wasn't great.
Milton Nascimento
5/5
Snoop Dogg
5/5
The Gun Club
4/5
JAY Z
2/5
Gotan Project
3/5
Buck Owens
3/5
Orange Juice
3/5
Creedence Clearwater Revival
2/5
Swampy blues album. Not bad, but there are better blues albums. CCR are more appealing to me when they are more ambitious with their songs. 2.5/5