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.
Like an hour of Disney credits music.
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.
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.
A favourite album by a favourite band.
Hey, hey, we're The Punkees!
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.
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.
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.
Long, self-indulgent psychedelic rock may not be for everyone, but I'm all about it.
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.
It's AC/DC. They have one sound, but it's a good one.
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.
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.
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".
You'll be tapping your feet as the dread sinks in.
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.
Tom Waits is the shit.
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'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
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.
Never listened to The Roots before. What an album!
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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
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.
Found it incredibly boring and I don't like the production/mixing.
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.
Much better than the previous Metallica album I got on this list. Very good song writing and a excellent production.
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.
I've never been the biggest fan of this band, but their creativity is undeniable. This is a great album.
I don't like The Who very much at all, but this is a very tight live performance and deserves a good rating.
Yeah, it's "just" bluesy dad rock, but they're damn good at it.
Like an hour of Disney credits music.
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.
Amazing album!
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.
Didn't hate it, but not really for me. He's kind of like a mix between Nick Drake and Bill Withers.
I've really appreciated being introduced to all these great Brazillian artists by this site.
More of a 3.5. Good instrumentation and typically eccentric lyrics, but just a bit too easy listening for my liking.
Absolutely lovely country/folk album. Not a bad song on it.
Certified classic. Have loved this album for years.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Moments of brilliance, moments of boredom. It ticks boxes for music I should like, but at times feels like it drags forever. 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.
Had only heard the name before now. Brilliant soul/rnb album top to bottom, with some excellent guitar playing, particularly on "Games".
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.
Crematorium Ray Charles.
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.
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?
Nice instrumentation and some decent tunes. 3.5
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.
Radio-friendly "safe" punk. A bit like the Hives but with more girlish squealing. Maps is a good tune.
An album full of songs perfect for the opening credits of movies starring the Olsen twins.
So dramatic, and yet so bland.
Incredibly boring songs about trains and cars. Paul Simon is capable of better than this.
Twee, as others have said, but very enjoyable. Reminds me of Nick Drake.
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.
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.
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
That final song sucks so hard. Great album, though.
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.
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.
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.
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.