280
Albums Rated
2.89
Average Rating
26%
Complete
809 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2010s
Favorite Decade
Hip-hop
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Critic
Rater Style ?
53
5-Star Albums
69
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Exile In Guyville
Liz Phair
|
5 | 3.02 | +1.98 |
|
Heartbreaker
Ryan Adams
|
5 | 3.03 | +1.97 |
|
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill
|
5 | 3.15 | +1.85 |
|
Step In The Arena
Gang Starr
|
5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
|
Being There
Wilco
|
5 | 3.23 | +1.77 |
|
Achtung Baby
U2
|
5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
|
You Want It Darker
Leonard Cohen
|
5 | 3.34 | +1.66 |
|
Be
Common
|
5 | 3.35 | +1.65 |
|
25
Adele
|
5 | 3.36 | +1.64 |
|
Music From Big Pink
The Band
|
5 | 3.36 | +1.64 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Stranger
Billy Joel
|
1 | 3.85 | -2.85 |
|
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
|
1 | 3.79 | -2.79 |
|
Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers
|
1 | 3.7 | -2.7 |
|
She's So Unusual
Cyndi Lauper
|
1 | 3.48 | -2.48 |
|
Bat Out Of Hell
Meat Loaf
|
1 | 3.44 | -2.44 |
|
Murmur
R.E.M.
|
1 | 3.42 | -2.42 |
|
Pretzel Logic
Steely Dan
|
1 | 3.4 | -2.4 |
|
Beauty And The Beat
The Go-Go's
|
1 | 3.39 | -2.39 |
|
Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park
|
1 | 3.39 | -2.39 |
|
Songs Of Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
|
1 | 3.38 | -2.38 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| The White Stripes | 3 | 5 |
| Radiohead | 2 | 5 |
| Aretha Franklin | 2 | 5 |
| Adele | 2 | 5 |
| A Tribe Called Quest | 2 | 5 |
| U2 | 3 | 4.33 |
| Beatles | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Joni Mitchell | 3 | 1.33 |
| Tom Waits | 3 | 1.67 |
| R.E.M. | 2 | 1.5 |
| Blur | 2 | 1.5 |
| Todd Rundgren | 2 | 1.5 |
| Steely Dan | 3 | 2 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Leonard Cohen | 1, 5, 1 |
| Pink Floyd | 2, 1, 4 |
5-Star Albums (53)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
William Orbit
1/5
Ambient techno is not something you sit down to listen to. It's something that's on in a hipster coffee house while the surly barista takes your order. This feels like the music that plays over the opening credits of a 90s movie about shady stockbrokers. This album is a chore already. It's hard to focus on the quality of the album because it is designed to be on at a speakeasy as background music. Seriously, this is the score to a movie about computer hackers working against the government until they realize they were being used and were working for the government the whole time and then they take down the rogue agent who ran the whole operation. This is like the alternate soundtrack for the Matrix. Someone has definitely tried to sync this album up to a movie at some point. This is like the Dust Brothers' Fight Club soundtrack if instead of fighting they got high the whole movie and sat around a pretentious club all night. I bet this is Moby's favorite album and, to quote Eminem, he can get stomped by Obie...nobody listens to techno. The Monkey King is in the movie Heat. The whole thing sounds like an demo tape for someone trying to score films. Another album where there is no telling when it ends even when a new album starts on Spotify.
3 likes
Sepultura
1/5
Another heavy metal band, another "Cookie Monster Voice" lead singer. Credit where credit is due, I can at least understand most of the words. I don't know why but the murder/slasher/horror lyrics come off as needless in death metal whereas they seem almost essential in gangsta rap. I don't like horror movies so maybe that's part of the lack of appeal. If the references were pertinent to me, maybe I'd like it more? I know a lot of metal lyrics are very political but it's hard to take that seriously when I can't understand so many of the lyrics and it's some guy screaming it in a put on cartoon voice. The Portuguese lyrics in some of the songs aren't even a problem since most metal in English has lyrics I can't understand. Either the lead singer or someone else in the band has a "Gremlin Voice" to go along with the standard growl, equally annoying though. I'm not familiar with metal to understand the nuances between each song....after a while they all sound exactly the same. The songs inspired by the traditional music of Brazil are a radical departure from the rest of the album...it's a nice break from the heavy guitars and yelling. More found sound, this time gun shots. 13 minutes of gun shots over background music? I'm sure this "means" something. Canyon Jam is like listening to the audio of a Predator movie, some music behind the alien walking through the jungle and shooting.
1 likes
Joni Mitchell
1/5
Joni Mitchell and Carole King might be the same person. Folk music is way more popular with music critics than with anyone else. This sounds like adult Sesame Street music, I might rather hear the Pinball song counting to 12. She might be the lyrical equivalent of Bob Dylan, but this just doesn't resonate with me the same way. Maybe it's a male/female thing? There's something about her delivery or songwriting that reminds me of Jill Scott, not on every song, but some. This is not good. Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention to the lyrics and am missing the meaning because this is not great music or great singing.
1 likes
The xx
4/5
This is good. Has like a Thievery Corporation or Massive Attack kind of feel. I like the co-lead singer approach. Very chill sound. Their general sound is kind of moody so when they so a more upbeat song it has a strange effect. This is the first band that has been a revelation to me in a positive way. I would listen to another album.
1 likes
1/5
Fred Durst has the worst voice. Every Limp Bizkit song sounds like 1998. Hot Dog is an excuse to say fuck over and over again. To save time they should have just replaced all the lyrics of one of their old songs with the word fuck. Ice Cube and DAS EFX should have sued over him even saying the words "check yourself before you wreck yourself". The music sucks, the lyrics suck, by 2000 this would have sounded dated. They are like a joke band. Fred Durst saying he'd knock someone out is hilarious. They're like an ICP that takes themselves seriously. That's it, he mentions Fight Club...this went from bad to insulting. Xzibit sullied his good name doing this and he is definitely the highlight so far. Mission: Impossible too. It's hard to listen to this. People actually like Limp Bizkit, this is a band that sold millions of albums. I have to buy this book and read the batshit crazy justification of whatever critic picked this. Redman, Method Man and DMX...why? I guess people will do a lot of things for money. Having guest artists that are legitimate really showcases how awful Fred Durst is. The robot voice is stupid but is an improvement over Fred Durst. He is the fakest hard ass ever. He make Steve Seagal look like Bruce Lee. This outro skit is just the perfect ending to a truly terrible ending. Come on Ben Stiller, you too? This is awful, Ben Stiller has a truly annoying laugh and he is chuckling like a moron for almost ten minutes. This is a loop, he's not laughing like this at his own dumb Limp Bizkit burns for five minutes. I respect everyone associated with this album less now. I am literally revisiting in my mind how funny I find Ben Stiller's movies listening to this. This is such a stupid ending to a remarkably terrible album. Thank god they recorded their stupid phone calls to put at the end of the album.
1 likes
4-Star Albums (51)
1-Star Albums (69)
All Ratings
Little Richard
4/5
I did not expect to like this album as much as I did. I am not usually a fan of early rock and roll. However, not only were there a number of great songs (led by Tutti Frutti of course) but the album felt like a composed whole. Little Richard has always been one of those artists that I never understood why he was so popular or why so many musicians considered him so influential. I understand a little better now.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
It's hard to rate an album like this simply because the three big songs, What's Going On, Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) and Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) are GREAT, truly classic songs. But the other six tracks feel like they would have been part of the extended singles of those hits or filler.
Pink Floyd
2/5
I like some Pink Floyd songs, but I don't like Pink Floyd. This album is the perfect encapsulation of why. One great song (Wish You Were Here) surrounded by psychedelic noise.
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
Another surprising album. ELO seems so corny but I liked this album. The hits are there (Turn to Stone, Mr. Blue Sky), all of the songs hang together and there's very little to actively dislike.
Earth, Wind & Fire
3/5
Earth, Wind and Fire are the quintessential pop-funk band and this album is a good example of that. The R&B-inspired songs, particularly That's the Way of the World, are the better part of the album but the jazz and world music inspired songs, while not as catchy are not a distraction.
The Go-Go's
1/5
Best Song: This Town
Hits: Our Lips Are Sealed, We Got The Beat
Worst Song: Skidmarks On My Heart
I'm not sure if I like this album or any less than Belinda Carlisle's solo work. Her voice is annoying and while Our Lips Are Sealed and This Town are not terrible, we Got the Beat is the album's big hit and it is horrible. It's mind boggling that this made the list. It feels more like they had to find a way to put in an "all-girl" rock band than this being a deserving entry. I also realized while listening to it that I like New Wave less than Psychedelic rock. Every backing track of every New Wave song sounds like every song on this album.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
1/5
This whole album is meh. I like Scar Tissue but everything else just doesn't even register including the other hits (Californication, Around the World and Otherside). It's like if AI wrote a Red Hot Chili Peppers album. Plus, it's a double album which is hard to pull off. You better have everything pulled together because that is a lot of songs to have to get right.
5/5
I started this album thinking it was going to be a 5 and nostalgia may be giving this album a star all by itself as the opening notes of Where the Streets Have No Name play. This album goes back-to-back-to-back with Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and With or Without You....that's maybe the best three opening songs to an album ever. With or Without You is great, everything about it feels wistful, the bass line, the guitar, the lyrics. This album has a lot of good songs on it outside of the hits...it's sad to think what U2 has become now.
The Prodigy
5/5
Maybe the surprise album that I've listened to so far. The hits (Smack My Bitch Up, Breathe and Firestarter) still rock but there were a number of songs on the album I liked that I'd never heard before, Climbatize was especially good as was Diesel Power. This is the music you put on to finish a run or workout. For the most part everything works and works together to make a good album.
Slade
1/5
This album is the worst I've listened to so far. This is like a glam rock cover band.
Radiohead
5/5
This is an amazing album. This is what alternative music should be. Every song is good and some are great. It's impossible to pick the best song so many of them are good, the singles are good (Planet Telex, High and Dry, Fake Plastic Trees) the album cuts are good (The Bends, Black Star, Street Spirit (Fade Out)). A great album by a legendary band.
Michael Jackson
3/5
Say what you will about the man himself, but Michael Jackson could write some songs! The album as whole doesn't really feel like a cohesive piece though, more like a collection of singles, even if they are awesome singles. Bad, Man in the Mirror and Smooth Criminal are amazing but there is too much filler and not really a theme or feeling like the songs weren't just put on an album in the order in which they were written.
David Bowie
3/5
Solid album, bookended with two big hits and some uneven material in between. The two big singles from this album, Young Americans and Fame, are also the best songs, but I have a soft spot for the cover of Across the Universe which is one of my favorite Beatles songs and Bowie's take is interesting, even if I like Fiona Apple's cover more.
Arcade Fire
2/5
Every song sounds exactly the same except for whether it's a man or woman singing. There's having a cohesive sound on an album and there's being repetitive. If you like once Arcade Fire song, you probably like them all.
Leonard Cohen
1/5
It's weird writing this, but I like my folk a little harder than this. This is like poems with music behind it. I understand Suzanne and So Long, Marianne are the big songs from this album but those are two of my least favorite tracks.
Eagles
1/5
One minute into Take It Easy and I'm wondering if this album qualifies as yacht rock. I'm trying not to let The Dude's opinion of the Eagles impact my evaluation, but all I can think is that I hate the fucking Eagles, man! This is like a weird middle ground between lite rock and pop-rock. I think you either love the Eagles or hate the Eagles...there doesn't seem like a lot of middle ground. I think of Don Henley's solo career being the definition of "adult rock" but his music isn't any different than this. Witchy Woman is like they listened to Santana's Black Magic Woman and he wouldn't let them cover it so they wrote their own terrible song. The Eagles begat Bon Jovi with their fake cowboy nonsense, Thin Lizzy are more realistic cowboys than these guys. Come on with the banjo! The sad thing is the faux-country songs are far better than the easy listening garbage that were the hits on this album (Take It Easy, Witchy Woman and Peaceful Easy Feeling). If the song Peaceful Easy Feeling does give you a peaceful easy feeling, you have bad taste in music. There is almost nothing redeeming about this album and it baffles me that with a debut like this they became one of the most successful bands ever.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
Aretha's version of People Get Ready is my new favorite version. It's great as a Curtis Mayfield song, but she brings so much to it. I never realized how much I liked her ability to elevate everything she does. This album is funky, even something with corny lyrics like Niki Hoeky is funky as hell. This album is a great example of the Muscle Shoals sound. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman is the biggest hit off the album but it might be my least favorite song on it. Good to Me as I Am to You is a great song I'd never heard. I can't imagine anyone doing these songs better than her. Ain't No Way is the perfect song to end the album on.
Derek & The Dominos
5/5
Skydog and Slowhand sounds like an Old West pair of gunslingers. It's ridiculous to have that much talent on one album. Pattie Boyd must have been something else. I guess I get the complaints about Clapton's voice...but if that's the worst thing you can say about this album, it's pretty minor. Great version of Little Wing. Layla...Duane and Eric playing together and it's almost perfect.
R.E.M.
1/5
This is what emo kids were listening to before emo and it is terrible. Go all the way and listen to The Smiths. This is not alternative, this is New Wave. I can't believe this dominated college radio in the 80s. I understand why a generation of kids turned to hip hop from rock n' roll.
Talking Heads
4/5
This is a weird album. It's interesting weird though. LCD Soundsystem is the spiritual descendant of Talking Heads. I'm not sure I can pinpoint why I like this but I do. If someone told me Talking Heads were a novelty band or at least this was a novelty album, I'd believe it. I guess the difference between a novelty and an experiment is a thin line sometimes. This is a kind of uneven. Life During Wartime is amazing but then two songs later I'm actively disliking Air. There are some clunkers in the second half.
Madness
1/5
The album cover is a red flag that this is not good. Half a song in and that snap judgement is proving absolutely spot on. New Wave or ska or whatever this is, it is awful. The early 80s were truly the nadir of modern popular music. This is like if the Clash were the worst band ever or like a cross between early Beatles and UB40. These guys make the Mighty Mighty Bosstones sound like Megadeth. Come on with the horns. This album is an early contender for the worst album in this project. Every song is like a new exercise in how annoying a throwback sound can be, in Mr. Speaker (Gets the Word)'s case, it's the barroom piano. This is the first album that's been so bad I'm questioning whether or not I'll be able to finish it. Our House...I didn't know they did this song and I'm sure it's their biggest hit, New Wave Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. It gets worse (Are You Coming (With Me) is one of the worst songs I've ever heard. Thank God it's over.
Aerosmith
2/5
Love the bassline for Back In the Saddle. This is a completely unmemorable album. Every song sounds like the 70s. I didn't really think of Aerosmith as Zeppelin rip offs but this album definitely has that vibe. Like more generic Greta Van Fleet...and I just read an article where the GVF guys said they were influenced by Aerosmith not Zeppelin. Some of this sounds like Van Halen, some sounds like ZZ Top. Lick and A Promise showcases how bad Steven Tyler can sound sometimes. His voice is grating. One song at a time is fine, song after song is not good. Joe Perry plays "GENERIC ROCK GUITAR", he sounds like he did the playing for Bill and Ted when they play air guitar.
The Who
2/5
If you told me this was a Kinks album I would believe you. Pop/R&B Who is not as good as Rock Who. I thought I liked the Who more than this but this is middling. This feels like the album someone told The Who they had to make and once it was a success they were able to explore their own sound.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Starts a little slow with Too High (I get it you're hallucinating) but gets better fast with Visions, Living for the City, Golden Lady and Higher Ground. I like the Red Hot Chili Peppers version of Higher Ground but Stevie Wonder kills it. I'm not loving the back half of the album, the big hits from this album are awesome but the rest is mostly average. It all kind of plays like a softer What's Going On, speaking of which, I like the hits less generally speaking, but the rest of the songs on the album are much, much better. In a Verzuz, I think What's Going On wins based on the hits, but I'd be much more likely to put Innervisions on to listen through. No joke as soon as the album finished, what song came on Spotify? What's Going On.
Os Mutantes
1/5
Psychedelic rock is not my thing, I think not understanding the words might be helping though. This is like a cross between psychedelic rock and pop...this is like something that would be on at a hipster taqueria where the bartender has a unique and well maintained mustache. I could do without the "found sound" in every song. It must have been tiresome for these bands to try and outweird each other for a decade. The slide whistle across these songs feels like they had to find an instrument for one of the singers to play so they were involved in all the songs. The switching between genres in the same song is unpleasant. All the distortion is too much. This is like a collection of sounds being played over Brazilian covers of '60s American pop. This music is exhausting to listen to. Hail Ghengis Khan is the final song....I get this probably has something to do with the social criticism of the Brazilian government at the time but what a stupid title. Astrud Gilberto + The Mamas and the Papas + Dick Dale + Random Sounds + Jefferson Airplane = Os Mutantes...what a terrible mish mash of noise.
Gang Starr
5/5
This album feels both like a throwback to a hip hop era before Staight Outta Compton and a look forward to groups like Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets. Guru is an amazing lyricist. They invented Jazz Rap, whatever that genre means now. All due respect to A Tribe Called Quest, this might be the genre at it's peak. DJ Premier has worked with a lot of rappers but the partnership between him and Guru is a perfect match of a DJ and an MC. Different sounds but Gang Starr is the spiritual descendant of Eric B. & Rakim. A Tribe Called Quest's success is even more amazing considering that after this album it feels like everything was gangsta rap all of the sudden. Very jazzy. Guru sounds hard without telling stories about killing people and dealing drugs. Great album.
Einstürzende Neubauten
1/5
No way. Less than 2 minutes in to the first song and I know this is not one of the 1,001 albums you need to hear before you die. Unless this is like punishment for those who have lived a wicked life, no one should ever have to hear this "music" again. Found sound albums are definitely something music critics like more than real people. I thought modern art music was supposed to be excluded but this seems to be treading a fine line. It's hard to know when one crappy "song" ends and the next crappy "song" begins. The only thing that could prevent this album from being a 1 star would be if it was one track long. Every song is worse than the last. Some of the songs at the end of the album are at least short and contain long sections of silence which is an improvement over the random assortment of noises that make up the rest of the album. This album is the Jackson Pollack painting in regards to people claiming that any idiot could do this. That is one of the worst things I've ever subjected myself to.
T. Rex
4/5
I forgot to take notes on this album while I was listening but other than David Bowie, T. Rex is my favorite glam rock act. Cosmic Dancer and Get It On are great and everything else fits the album sound.
Paul Simon
4/5
Graceland is such a great story. It's fun and charming and wistful at the same time. This is accessible world music which sounds terrible but I wonder if some of the issues in South Africa or the quality of some of its musicians wouldn't have gotten as much attention without it. A lot of great stories in these songs and just a hopeful feeling throughout. This album has a distinctive sound, even if I didn't know if a specific song was from this album it feels like it would be pretty evident. Ladysmith Black Mombazo have beautiful voices. This is such a departure from Simon and Garfunkel. Zydeco is a universally bad genre and Paul Simon's voice (accent and tone) does not pair well with it. The back half of the album is a significant disappointment after the first half.
Fleet Foxes
2/5
This is like the band Wes Anderson would create if he was a musician. Both of the opening songs could be the music playing during the opening scene of any of his movies. And the album cover could easily be something that Bill Murray and Owen Wilson are talking to each other about Renaissance painting. I like them less than The Head and The Heart who they remind me of. There is definitely a Beach Boys feeling to this album. The vocals on these songs sound almost identical. Listening to one song from this album, ok. Listening to an entire album, too much. I don't hate the sound, it's just too much the same.
Kanye West
2/5
I'm having a hard time putting into words my reaction to this album. It feels very much of its time. Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, m.A.A.d City came out the year before and you can hear the impact it had. This is a super horny album. This is the first album after he started dating Kim Kardashian. I don't know if there's a connection but he can't stop talking about or making sex references. A lot of "noise music" on this album...not appealing. I like his earlier work much better. Kanye has gotten really weird.
The xx
4/5
This is good. Has like a Thievery Corporation or Massive Attack kind of feel. I like the co-lead singer approach. Very chill sound. Their general sound is kind of moody so when they so a more upbeat song it has a strange effect. This is the first band that has been a revelation to me in a positive way. I would listen to another album.
FKA twigs
3/5
This is not starting off well. I'm beginning to think that either the critics who chose these albums were trying to show how cool and smart they are or I have bad taste. If this album was less interested in sounding weird and being "genre-bending" there's some parts I like. Her voice is lovely. It's getting better. She's like an R&B Annie Lennox with Kanye producing. Two Weeks is good, maybe I was rushing to judgment after one song and after being exposed to some truly terrible albums in this project. Her singing is amazing but the music is distracting sometimes. The songs almost barely hang together at some points. As soon as I think I'm starting to get it, the next song just feels off. Video Girl is sexy as hell though. Every song has something to like, but almost none of them are good through their whole length. I guess I like this. If I listen to it again, I feel like I might not. This is a confusing album.
Willie Nelson
5/5
Willie Nelson is such a great songwriter that I forgot what an original interpreter of songs he is. That he has an affinity for these songs is clear, they way he sings them it feels like he's sung them without anyone recording a million times. Some of these songs I'm unfamiliar with and I only know they are covers because it's a cover album. Georgia on My Mind, Willie vs. Ray...like Ted Lasso's arm wrestling match up. Just an old sweet song....that's as good a theme for this album as there can be. Blue Skies by Willie is the definition of wistful. There's like a country-jazz-blues thing that he just nails with this album. That's the best Moonlight in Vermont ever. This album feels like a Willie Nelson album, that's hard to do when it's all someone else's material. This is a masterpiece of performance, an all-time great singing some all-time greats.
Ozomatli
3/5
I remember them getting super popular in the early 2000s but never really listened to them. It's almost like the rock version of reggaeton? Or is it Latin rap rock? This feels a lot like Santana's pop albums only without the famous featured artists. I don't remember exactly what their first album sounded like but this feels very heavily influenced by those Santana albums. I like Charli 2na, but I'm not loving this appearance. The more traditionally "Latin" songs are worse than the more rock/rap ones. The back half of this album sounds like a Richard Rodriguez bar band.
Ray Charles
3/5
With a title like this, the album better deliver. This is a very jazzy Ray Charles. I do like jazz standards, but I don't like this as much as Country and Western Ray Charles. The horns are very prominent for an album by a piano player. Violins>Horns on this album, perfect example: Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'. I like the sad songs the best.
R.E.M.
2/5
There's an REM sound from the late 80's/early 90's that is unmistakable. It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) is the best REM song. Upbeat with an edge, with only the slightest hint of whining. It's a very "teenager-y" song. Followed by The One I Love which is one of my least favorite REM songs or at least their popular songs. This is better than Murmur, more rock, less new wave. I can understand why this album was popular, situated in time amidst hair bands and prior to grunge. Lightnin' Hopkins has a great bassline.
The Soft Boys
2/5
I hear the punk influence, this is a "post-punk" band, you can hear the punk influence in the guitars and bass parts. This has a very Pretenders feel to it, same time period...rock just before New Wave. Listening to all of this music for this project makes me realize that everything is just a mash up of everything else because there's a Pink Floyd/Piper at the Gates of Dawn vibe as well. You can definitely hear the influence on later bands, I'm thinking in particular English Beat. Some of this album seems weirdly out of place, like it's 10 to 15 years after its time. I read REM loved this band and I can hear it on some songs. The opening and final/title track are the weakest on the album, most of everything between is better.
Cocteau Twins
1/5
I have to quit reading the Spotify profiles and Wikipedia entries for these albums before I've listened all the way through because I am not able to separate my evaluations from what is written. The lyrics are literally nonsense words. This album apparently influenced later "shoegaze" music which is a genre I just now learned existed and am also pretty sure I will not be a fan of. A girl making up silly wordless songs over "dreampop" (another genre I just learned about) is not an alum you need to listen to before you die. I just put the shoegaze genre and the title of the Alabama Shakes song together. This is worse that ambient noise music because this woman "wrote" these lyrics knowing they are just sounds. She should have just gone to Japan and read off the strange English you find on some t-shirts there. The lyrics are dumb, the music is terrible, there is nothing redeeming about this album. This could be the music from a Final Fantasy game and I wouldn't know the difference.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
5 stars. I love this album. I've always loved this album. I will always love this album. Agree or disagree with their politics, there's no debate that this album is an amazing debut. Bombtrack in the running for best opening track off a debut album. Settle for Nothing is the one weak link on the album...lyrically and musically it's the one song that just doesn't resonate with me. This is the sound of righteous anger. No one talks about Rage Against the Machine being the successors to LA Hard Core punk but you can hear it on some songs. Morello is underrated as a guitarist, you hear a song he plays on and you know it's him, there aren't many guitarists whose signature sound is so recognizable. This is the sound the Beastie Boys would have had if they'd been given a record deal by a punk label instead of a hip hop label. This was a band of and for me at the right time, they brought something familiar, something new, something interesting, something angry right when all of that was the thing I wanted to hear. Hard to separate the quality of the album from how I felt when I first heard it. Freeeeeedom! William Wallace would be proud. Your anger is a gift...it was on my t-shirt and in my mind. Great debut album, one of the best ever.
Michael Jackson
4/5
First things first, hilarious album cover. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough is an underrated Michael Jackson song. If Marvin Gaye's heirs got money from Pharrell and Robin Thicke for Blurred Lines being stylistically close to Got To Give It Up, Marvin Gaye could have all the money for this song. Rock With You, another great song. Workin' Day and Night sounds like it should be from a soundtrack for a Richard Pryor movie, could totally have been the song for the opening credits of The Toy. I Can't Help It sounds like something I can't place but I like it. Michael Jackson could have done straight R&B rather that pop and been great. Mac Ayres is what I Can't Help It reminds me of and I love his music.
Def Leppard
2/5
Def Leppard is mid. They are to 80s rock what Cheap Trick was to 70s rock. Cheap Trick might be generous...Journey might be better than this. There are a lot of hits on this album, Photograph, Foolin', Rock of Ages. I have always hated the German at the beginning of Rock of Ages. Actually, I hate Rock of Ages.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
Halfway through the first song and I'm already exhausted by the pretentiousness of this album. The organ is grating on the ear. This is like a novelty album. And to finish off, the ELP version of the Nutcracker Suite.
Lou Reed
3/5
Why do all of these albums have to have these found sound intros? I love The Velvet Underground, I'm not loving this as much. This could be a Tom Waits album. Stephanie Says by the Velvet Underground > Caroline Says by Lou Reed. His delivery has a William Shatner quality to it. It should be noted that Lou Reed basically repurposed Stephanie Says for Caroline Says Part II...don't like it. There's something about this album I like despite itself. Sad Song is the perfect culmination of this album.
The Flaming Lips
2/5
The lead singer's voice is annoying to the point of distraction. It's like a joke I'm not in on. He sounds like Daniel Johnston or the lead singer of Dr. Dog. One he was probably influenced by the other he probably influenced. I want to write this off but there's a whimsical quality to it that is kind of endearing. It's growing on me, there's a sadness behind the happy vibe that is appealing. There's a similarity to The Shins. I listened to it 30 minutes ago and I cannot tell the difference between Race for the Prize and Race for the Prize (Remix).
Dolly Parton
3/5
These ladies sound great. These women could have done the witches scene from O, Brother Where Art Thou. Hells Bells, Mr. Lund! They recorded this while Linda Ronstadt was engaged to George Lucas. Why is there so much Americana music focused on hobos? World class harmonizing. Those Memories of You is definitely an inspiration for Man of Constant Sorrow. Dolly is a natural show woman and comes across as the "leader" for most of the songs.
Elliott Smith
3/5
Elliott Smith, made famous by the reference to the sadness of his music in Lego Movie 2, with a relatively more upbeat song, named after a serial killer, opening this album. He was the indie rock darling and you can hear both why some loved him and others found him insufferable. The influence on his peers and successors is obvious, he's like a stripped down version of all the alternative indie rock that came out in the late 90s and 2000s. The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Regina Spektor...a million others, you can hear echoes of this. In 2000, he must have been on top of the world and this album is pretty upbeat which would track. Bye is a nice instrumental to end the album but while everything else on the album has that Elliott Smith sound, it does not.
Napalm Death
1/5
My friend who turned me on to this project calls the death metal voice "Cookie Monster Voice". It's on full display here. I'm not a metal fan, especially all the horror and death references but if you could take the unintelligible lyrics out of this, the music is pretty cool. Punk + Cookie Monster + Death = This. Really short songs make any album easier to listen to, even if it is twice as many songs. Having some trouble discerning one song from the next though. I cannot understand a single word of these lyrics. Some of these "songs" are just noise. The longer this album goes, the less I like it...not because the songs are worse, but because they are all undistinguishable from one another. I'm only guessing that the lyrics are supposed to be more coherent than The Cocteau Twins but they are equally unintelligible. This is broken up into 28 songs but could just as easily be one 33 minute song if they skipped the breaks between tracks. "Microsongs" are stupid, the song "You Suffer" is less than 2 seconds long, it's like one note and one word.
The Cure
2/5
I think I like The Cure but I am only familiar with the hits and not familiar with their early work at all. This might be the one New Wave band I like. This is like a less intense version of The Cure I'm familiar with. Robert Smith is going to Robert Smith though. This is not the kind of music I expected or am used to from The Cure. They definitely took a hard turn towards the mainstream later or at least put their more crowd friendly songs out as singles. A forest could have been repurposed as a James Bond song, work in the fanfare somewhere and you can replace one of those Timothy Dalton Bond songs, no one would miss A-ha or Gladys Knight. The band that spawned 1,000 goth looks. I bet the Venn diagram of people who own The Cure t-shirts perfectly overlaps with people who own Morrissey t-shirts.
Elliott Smith
4/5
In the last four albums I've gotten two Elliott Smith albums and a Cure album...I think this website is trying to get me to kill myself. This album is more like what I think of when I think of Elliott Smith, much more melancholy sound. Some of his song's have a throwback sound, like a 60s pop thing. This is like better REM. 2:45 a.m. is great, I've never heard it before. Then Say Yes, the album gets better as it goes on and closes really strong, maybe more pop as it went on?
Fela Kuti
5/5
I went into this with the wrong mindset, this first track is great. This is great funk music. This is how world music should sound. Other than the lyrics not being in English as an impediment, this should be way more well known to funk fans. I love the organ, the drums. Jazz albums are hit or miss for me and this one is a hit.
Sepultura
1/5
Another heavy metal band, another "Cookie Monster Voice" lead singer. Credit where credit is due, I can at least understand most of the words. I don't know why but the murder/slasher/horror lyrics come off as needless in death metal whereas they seem almost essential in gangsta rap. I don't like horror movies so maybe that's part of the lack of appeal. If the references were pertinent to me, maybe I'd like it more? I know a lot of metal lyrics are very political but it's hard to take that seriously when I can't understand so many of the lyrics and it's some guy screaming it in a put on cartoon voice. The Portuguese lyrics in some of the songs aren't even a problem since most metal in English has lyrics I can't understand. Either the lead singer or someone else in the band has a "Gremlin Voice" to go along with the standard growl, equally annoying though. I'm not familiar with metal to understand the nuances between each song....after a while they all sound exactly the same. The songs inspired by the traditional music of Brazil are a radical departure from the rest of the album...it's a nice break from the heavy guitars and yelling. More found sound, this time gun shots. 13 minutes of gun shots over background music? I'm sure this "means" something. Canyon Jam is like listening to the audio of a Predator movie, some music behind the alien walking through the jungle and shooting.
Justin Timberlake
3/5
Pharrell Williams' voice is all over the intro to the first track, but even if it wasn't, you'd be able to tell he produced this in the early 2000s after a few bars. It's got that Neptunes sound. This is 1000x better than N'Sync. This feels like the evolution of New Jack Swing. This music is a hollow imitation of a real artist. Timberlake is a performer and this feels very much like a performance for an audience without any real soul in either the lyrics or music. The Neptunes and Timbaland producing on one album makes this the most 2000s album of all time. Take it from here reminds me of something and I can't place it. I do tend to love white people signing R&B and Soul music. Cry Me a River is a jam and is maybe the pinnacle of Timbalake's style. Rock Your Body is another banger. I give more credit to the producers being at the top of their games though. Timberlake still feels like a product. "Gonna have you nekkid by the end of this song" is delivered like an entitled rich guy knowing that a bunch of gold diggers and fame whores will drop their panties at his command rather than him sounding like the one in charge. Nothin' Else is a little too Michael Jackson...if someone said it was a cover, I'd believe it. This is a Michael Jackson album. Could do without the overly sentimental Never Again to close the album out, it's not a great fit for the rest of the album and it's feeling.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Tuesday's Gone...underrated song, it's totally overshadowed by Free Bird. From the wistful melancholy of Tuesday's Gone to the goofy fun of Gimme Three Steps. Legendary Busch theme song, Simple Man. Gimme Three Steps feels really out of place. I'm wondering if they just reprinted this album with a different cover and called it their greatest hits. 4 of their biggest songs on their debut? That's a solid first album. Other than Sweet Home Alabama, I'd say the four songs on this album are pretty much everything you absolutely need to know about Lynyrd Skynyrd. Things Goin' On continues the kind of happy-sad back and forth between songs. This album feels like a collection of singles, it's not super coherent. And now, Free Bird...great song but it really sucks the air out of the second half of the album. I am shocked that Simple Man is the second most listened to track on the album by a mile and that Tuesday's Gone is fourth. The instrumental at the end of Free Bird vs. the instrumental at the end of Layla, tough choice.
Sade
3/5
Smooth Operator is another strong contender for best opening track off a debut album. She has a great voice, maybe the sexiest voice ever. Jazz, funk, R&B, this is a fusion of them all. She has one of those old school sultry voices, I’d listen to her order a sandwich. This has a very 80s sound…there’s a little bit of a porno music vibe to this, particularly all the saxophone. Early 80s Michael Jackson, Liberian Girl Michael Jackson shares a sound with this album. The 80s were truly a dark time for R&B. Giving this a more thorough listen at my desk, Hang On to Your Love is great and it blended in when I wasn't devoting my full attention to the album. When Am I Going to Make a Living, another one I missed when I wasn't paying attention.
U2
5/5
I love this album. It's sad what U2 has become at this point. One is a great song, absolutely beautiful. So Cruel wasn't a single, but it's a great song as well. Mysterious Way is another great U2 song. I think this is an undoubtedly better album than The Joshua Tree. Better hits (One beat With or Without You for greatest U2 song) and much better album cuts. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around the World is another great album cut. I like relationship U2 better than political U2.
Beastie Boys
5/5
Rhymin & Stealin, another legendary opening track from a debut. This is a very Def Jam recording. You can picture LL Cool J rapping over these beats. They were the clown princes of rap at this point, they leaned into it and it worked in the time before gangsta rap. She's Crafty really leans into the humor. Girls is goofy as hell, but I love it. Fight For Your Right is amazing, rap-rock at it's finest and way before it's heyday. Girls, Fight For Your Right, No Sleep Till Brooklyn and Paul Revere is one of the best four song streaks on any album ever. Hold It Now, Hit It is a miss for me and I don't love Brass Monkey but if those are the worst songs on an album that's pretty impressive.
Grateful Dead
1/5
7 songs, 73 minutes. 6 and 72 if you don't count the last 37 second song...one 12 minutes song on an album is hard to pull off, a whole album averaging that is crazy. This feels like hippie elevator music. Another dreaded double album. The Allman Brothers mastered the jam when they put Mountain Jam on Eat a Peach, St. Stephen feels very similar. The band that spawned Phish, String Cheese Incident and Widespread Panic. Everything feels like an accident so that when there are parts that I like it never lasts and intensifies my dislike for the other parts. Where does one song end and another begin? Only The Dead know. The fake blues man/Jim Morrison vocals are ridiculous coming from a white hippie. It hard to know if it was The Dead influenced by everyone else or if they were doing the influencing but you can hear Big Brother and the Holding Company and later Janis Joplin and The Doors in this. Come on with the song made up of feedback. At least it's appropriately titled "Feedback". Drugged out weirdos going to drugged out weirdo. People sat and listened to this and swore that they loved it, I think they mainly loved drugs. Seven and a half minutes of this is ridiculous. This is one of those instances where a parent says their kid could create Jackson Pollack's work. My kids could make these noises with their karaoke machine, no one is lining up to drop acid and listen to it though. And the one thing resembling a normal song is less than a minute long to close the album out.
Thelonious Monk
2/5
It's jazz. I generally like the sound of Jazz trios/quartets. However, this sounds a great deal like ever other combo I've ever heard and every song is almost undistinguishable to my ear. Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are sounds like the music from Cruella DeVil. This could be on in the background and it wouldn't bother me, but I couldn't see putting it on just to listen to it.
Black Sabbath
5/5
Black Sabbath always seemed like one of those bands that was overrated. Three songs in, I'm starting to get it. Changes is a great song, love this version, love the Charles Bradley version, just a great song. You can hear the similarities between Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin...two sides of the same 70s coin, one more blues rock, one more heavy metal. This album is great, Ozzy Osborne is a more intelligible singer than he is a speaker. Maybe Black Sabbath is underrated? I haven't been familiar with a single song yet but this rocks. Maybe it's just their hits I don't love. There are a lot of metal bands that owe a huge debt of gratitude to Black Sabbath. Another plus, varying song lengths, but an average of about four and a half minutes. 10 songs, 42 minutes, that's right in the zone in terms of number of songs and average song length. There are a couple of songs that I'm not sure how they fit in, good songs, but just seem a little out of place on this album.
Jimmy Smith
2/5
The style of jazz is great, but this is background music or the music a late night band plays or part of the score to a Blues Brothers movie. I love organ jazz though, I wonder if Booker T. and the MGs have any albums on the list because this is very similar. This is good music to work to, very productive morning, but super nondescript, mind elsewhere music.
Mylo
2/5
This is hipster Muzak. It has now changed to a video game score. It's interesting to think that this album was potentially influenced by earlier video game scores and in turn has influenced later video game scores. EDM is another one of those genres that I think I just don't get. Guilty of Love could be music from the game soundtrack from Sugar Rush from Wreck-It Ralph. It sounds like he sampled MarioKart and put some base and Prince grunts from Kiss in the background. The title track is terrible, a list of bands from an old news clip over dance beats. This is like if LCD Soundsystem didn't make songs, just beats. All of the skipping on the tracks keeps making me think there's something wrong with Spotify. This is like crappy RJD2. Need You Tonite is by far the best song on the album. Emotion 98.6 sounds like the backing track for David Gray's Babylon remixed, still better than comedy cartoon video game music.
Pixies
3/5
I would have said the Pixies were a 90s band but today I learned they are an 80s band. They seem like the transition from 80s music to 90s music which is exactly the timeline. I cannot understand a word of Rock Music through the screaming. The Pixies should have been bigger than Nirvana. They are like pre-Grunge and Nirvana in particular has borrowed from their sound. First half of the album was better than the second.
Joni Mitchell
1/5
Help Me is the big song from the album, meh. This sounds like an album of Sesame Street Songs with grown up lyrics. I think folk music is not for me, Bob Dylan and folk rock maybe. This is mildly annoying. Her voice has a Carly Simonesque quality. Or maybe Carly Simon's voice sounds like Joni Mitchell. Every time the album seems to be improving, the next song makes me reconsider. Raised On Robbery has a different sound and is the best track on the album. The addition of Cheech and Chong to the last song is just the cherry on top of this terrible album.
The Allman Brothers Band
4/5
The Allman Brothers' big break. This is a bluesy album...Statesboro Blues and Done Somebody Wrong really drive it home. Gregg Allman doesn't get enough credit, love his organ playing. Two guitarists (one on the Mt. Rushmore of guitarists) and two drummers, how did this work so well? Maybe I like jam bands more than I thought or maybe the Allmans are the only ones to get it right. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed is the most "jam band" song on the album, not loving it. If my dad could go back and see one concert in all of human history, I'm guessing this is the one he'd pick. Even Allman Brothers' jams are not my cup of tea. And they have a lot of guys who need to have solos. I will state, without hesitation, that this is the best jam band album of all time. They launch into the start of Mountain Jam right at the end of Whipping Post (which is definitely the greatest jam song of all time) and wish they had included it on the album.
Pulp
1/5
Post New Wave The Cure? This is like if The Cure and The Velvet Underground/Lou Reed had a baby. Every song reminds me of some other band, Urge Overkill is coming to mind. Nine Inch Nails Light? Bowie, U2, maybe I'm not listening closely enough. It's not super compelling but it is also listenable. Ten minutes of fade noise with Jarvis Cocker saying "bye-bye" in the middle on the last song is inexcusable artiness with no real payoff.
Robert Wyatt
1/5
Heaps of Sheep has a kind of U2 Pop (underrated U2 album) feel to the music. His voice has a Saturday morning cartoons feel to it. I won't say that I loved the first song, but The Duchess is horrible, it's like a children's song about his terrible, whorish wife. I bet Daniel Johnston loved this album. This is not the best representation of anything. This is only being saved from the very worst albums by some truly inspired garbage that was included in this list. I am losing respect for music critics the further I get into the list. Add prog rock to the list of genres I don't like. My god this is terrible. The Flaming Lips' lead singer must have taken notes on singing with a silly voice. This is like adding jazz to psychedelic rock...and it is magically way less than the sum of its parts. Blues in Bob Minor is Robert Wyatt's Subterranean Homesick Blues, and it is one of the better tracks on the album and is still a terrible homage to the original. That is a song format that is oft repeated and this was one of the worst I've heard.
The Smiths
4/5
The Smiths (and Morrissey) remind me of high school girls. It was the first time I saw band t-shirts of bands that I was unaware of and had disbanded prior to the people who wore them were old enough to buy a band t-shirt. So far so good. Clearly these guys are Beatles fans. It feels like The Smiths and The Cure either would have loved each other or hated each other. After listening to Nowhere Fast, I get why the Morrissey shirt wearers also seemed to always like rockabilly. Barbarism Begins at Home is the first song that I get being called post punk. Maybe this list is helping me understand pop music better. There's a The Clash vibe about it. If The Clash covered this it wouldn't be out of place on one of their albums. I now have one clue as to why vegetarianism was popular with women of a certain age at a certain period. Man, this guy "FEELS" things. I like the bluntness of the lyrics from the title track, no symbolism, just violent imagery and animal sounds.
Pere Ubu
1/5
If Jim Morrison had lived, The Doors could have been this band. The lead singer sounds like the guy from the New Zealand band OMC that did How Bizarre. The saxophone is weirdly overrepresented in so many of these experimental bands songs. It's like they all went to a conference and decided to add jazz sax to everything. Talking Heads does this kind of music much better. Why do all these "experimental" bands insist on using strange singing voices? More found sound! I just found Black Francis' favorite band, validated by the fact that apparently The Pixies and Pere Ubu went on tour together. Again, post punk can mean a lot of things because the music has similarities to the Pretenders even if it's light years away from them stylistically, both post punk bands though. The talking through the background on so many albums is distracting.
1/5
Fred Durst has the worst voice. Every Limp Bizkit song sounds like 1998. Hot Dog is an excuse to say fuck over and over again. To save time they should have just replaced all the lyrics of one of their old songs with the word fuck. Ice Cube and DAS EFX should have sued over him even saying the words "check yourself before you wreck yourself". The music sucks, the lyrics suck, by 2000 this would have sounded dated. They are like a joke band. Fred Durst saying he'd knock someone out is hilarious. They're like an ICP that takes themselves seriously. That's it, he mentions Fight Club...this went from bad to insulting. Xzibit sullied his good name doing this and he is definitely the highlight so far. Mission: Impossible too. It's hard to listen to this. People actually like Limp Bizkit, this is a band that sold millions of albums. I have to buy this book and read the batshit crazy justification of whatever critic picked this. Redman, Method Man and DMX...why? I guess people will do a lot of things for money. Having guest artists that are legitimate really showcases how awful Fred Durst is. The robot voice is stupid but is an improvement over Fred Durst. He is the fakest hard ass ever. He make Steve Seagal look like Bruce Lee. This outro skit is just the perfect ending to a truly terrible ending. Come on Ben Stiller, you too? This is awful, Ben Stiller has a truly annoying laugh and he is chuckling like a moron for almost ten minutes. This is a loop, he's not laughing like this at his own dumb Limp Bizkit burns for five minutes. I respect everyone associated with this album less now. I am literally revisiting in my mind how funny I find Ben Stiller's movies listening to this. This is such a stupid ending to a remarkably terrible album. Thank god they recorded their stupid phone calls to put at the end of the album.
Pulp
3/5
Two Pulp albums out of 1,001 and I get them both within six albums of each other. They call Pulp glam rock, which I did not understand when reviewing This is Hardcore but I get now. Disco 2000 is a great song. This album has a much more upbeat feeling than This is Hardcore. I know they were super popular but I don't remember it at all. This is like pop Nine Inch Nails. Much better than expected, I was pleasantly urprised by this album.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
THIS is the Leonard Cohen I was looking for. Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits are playing to identical audiences, I would not be able to tell the difference between this album and some Tom Waits. Leonard Cohen could have been less goofy Randy Newman for Pixar. You can hear his sound coming through, it's like late Dylan where it's different but you can still hear his sound.
Dr. Dre
4/5
Dr. Dre back from the dead after NWA broke up and the introduction of Snoop Doggy Dogg. This album is basically one extended diss track for Eazy-E. This was definitely the era of the Parliament and Funkadelic sample in hip hop, truly the G-Funk era. Nuthin' But A "G" Thang was the first single and is absolutely amazing. The skits and intros/outros are needless filler. Snoop was a revelation on this album, the rest of the guest rappers not so much. My memory had this higher, still good though. Maybe I'll have to do this project again in 20 years and see if it changes again.
The Birthday Party
1/5
Album covers can tell you a lot about what you're getting into and this one is correlating pretty well. This is the band that launched Nick Cave...it always surprises me how fame works. Every time I think I've just had bad luck in the albums I've gotten so far, I get hit with something like this again. This is like Rockabilly/Metal/Punk. It's like Elvis and The Ramones and Sepultura made an album. The screeching guitars are hard to listen to. Distorted guitars, distorted vocals, is this the original garage band? This is the music and album cover that inspired Mad Max: Fury Road, especially Dead Joe (2nd Version). The album switched to Sonic Youth and I barely noticed.
Madonna
3/5
Late Madonna...Dance Party Madonna. This sounds like a Sneaker Pimps album, like this should be playing over the credits of a Johnny Lee Miller movie. Ray of Light is the single. Maybe it was music that changed, not Madonna. She always just rode the pop/dance trends and it didn't matter what the sound was, she was just always club music. Nothing Really Matters is the best track so far. Shanti/Ashtangi would never happen today due to the fear of being accused of cultural appropriation. Although, maybe Madonna was big enough to transcend that at some point. I vaguely remember Frozen on the radio. There's a world music thread running through this album too. I wonder if this is when she made the move to the UK. There's a vulnerability about Madonna's voice on some songs that resonates (Mer Girl on this album). She's varied between sex kitten party girl and vulnerable lover throughout her career.
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
If you are going to do "industrial" music, this is the way to do it. I bet Trent Reznor loves Einsturzende Neubauten. What is the fascination with pigs on this album? This album could have been the soundtrack for the movie Seven rather than just Closer over the opening credits. Closer is the biggest hit from Nine Inch Nails' career and for good reason, great song. The screeching saw on metal sounds are distracting from what is a pretty good album otherwise. There aren't too many songs that benefit from terrified screaming on a loop in the background. I love the piano on the album, it works great in creating the feeling of the album. It's hard to tell if Trent is mad at himself or someone else in these songs, very teenage angsty. You can feel the angry young male energy pouring out of each song. From Closer on it gets better. The industrial noise component of the album is tiresome. The Downward Spiral ties together the musical themes from Closer and Hurt, the two big singles off the album, it's interesting. Hurt is a great song, I think I like it better than Closer. Johnny Cash's cover is great too.
Funkadelic
3/5
A rights dispute means this isn't available on Spotify which is a shame. One Nation Under a Groove is a great song, maybe the quintessential funk song. This is the album that spawned 1,001 samples. Typical George Clinton ridiculous lyrics. Groovallegiance has a definite reggae influence. The lyrics continue to be a distraction to the music. Each song has gotten progressively worse. Prince was definitely influenced by Funkadelic and added real lyrics, that's why he's one of the greats. My kids come up with better lyrics about poop than Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers) has. The call and response of poop lyrics is so awful. One great song to kick off the album. Honestly this album would be better if it was all instrumentals after One Nation Under a Groove. The groove from Mac Ayres' Soon owes a lot to the instrumental PE Squad/Doo Doo Squad to end the bonus EP.
PJ Harvey
4/5
Starting off good…but definitely of its era. Early 90s alternative, like a more commercial Sonic Youth, or a more punk Pixies. Definitely some Tori Amos style vocals on some of these songs, very much of its time. There are long lead ups to the lyrics in several of these songs. There’s a rawness to the music and the singing that gives the album soul. Her voice is perfect for this album. Man-Size Sextet would be perfect for a feminist horror movie. Bold choice to cover Bob Dylan and I don’t love it. 50ft Queenie rocks. Me-Jane is good too. Her voice is definitely accompanying the music, the music drowns her out sometimes. Snake is the most punk song on the album. Steve Albini produced this, Surfer Rosa and In Utero…like I said, of a very specific time. Ecstasy has a blues throwback feel, you can hear echoes of Nirvana, and it is the best song on the album.
Country Joe & The Fish
1/5
Psychedelic B-team artist whose most famous song isn't even on this album. They sound like a Doors cover band, apparently if you were a band in San Francisco in the late 60s and sounded a certain way they let you have an album and eventually critics found it "important". Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and The Grateful Dead are all on this list...there's no reason to have this album on the list other than some critic showing off how much he knows about psychedelic rock. This album is one more reason to hate San Francisco. Some comical political lyrics, this is the Country Joe and the Fish I was expecting, more comic book references than I would have expected though. Understood, you love doing drugs. This album is going downhill fast, The Masked Marauder is particularly awful. Psychedelic Simon and Garfunkel.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Subterranean Homesick Blues, often imitated, never duplicated. The Velvet Underground definitely were influenced by Dylan. Maggie's Farm, the song with 1,000 meanings. It always resonates as an anarchist anthem to me: anti-education, anti-business, anti-military, anti-government. A great song that spawned a great Rage Against the Machine cover. He's the best lyricist in popular music history, he can do it all, from allegorical and symbolic to literal storytelling. This is a bluesy album, Dylan is such a chameleon musically. The music from Bob Dylan's 115th Dream sounds like Lay Down Sally by Eric Clapton. Mr. Tambourine Man is the most popular song from the album and probably the worst one as well. Billy Joel's Piano Man borrows something from this even if it is played straight rather than as a metaphor. I like the electric half of the album better than the acoustic but his lyrics are just absolutely amazing. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue is great. Great album, underrated Dylan album.
Khaled
1/5
Algerian folk music (rai) over a hip hop/dance beat. Honestly, this could be worse. And now it is. El Harba Wine's background music is from a cheesy 80s music, and not a good one. This is like what you'd expect to play over the Algerian dub of Teen Titans Go! in place of The Night Begins to Shine. I guess some of this is in French. The musical styles of the first three songs are all wildly different, this feels more like a greatest hits album as there's very little cohesion between the songs musically. Cover of John Lennon's Imagine is recognizable and awful. Much like modern Western music has been greatly influenced by the history of sacred music, a lot of this sounds like calls to prayer. English lyrics! The guest singer, Noa, does not have a strong voice. It's not helping that this is unavailable through Spotify. You can't even find E'dir E'sseba anywhere to listen to. The music from this is all over the place, pick a style and stick with it. This should only be on a list of 1,001 albums if they are albums from Algeria specifically. Ok, El Bab has something going on, massive improvement but again, no connection to the rest of the album. It feels like every musical style included in this album, and there are MANY, is from the 80s...maybe Algerian music is 25 years behind America.....so maybe the great Algerian Britney/Christina debate is happening right now. I'm counting the minutes until this is over. Mele H'bibti could be the music from a terrorism action movie sequence, Algeria or Paris based....Jason Bourne driving a car through the streets of Casablanca. It must be exhausting having to be this pretentious all the time for music critics. No one should need to feel like they need to impress people they will never meet this much.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
4/5
Another album that's not available on Spotify...I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if it's this difficult for a person to listen to an album, it is not so essential that it belongs on this list. This is already the best of the albums I couldn't listen to on Spotify. I bet the Avett Brothers love this guy. Man, this is depressing. His voice reminds me of Damien Rice. O definitely feels like it was written after listening to this. The music is good, I'm going to have to give this a second listen to really get into the lyrics. The drums in Madeline-Mary makes it different from the rest of the album but it's great. This album was good. I'm going to listen to it a second time before I give it a final rating but I definitely liked it. This was a few years before it's time probably.
Adele
5/5
This album was the Jagged Little Pill of 2015, half the album ended up as massive singles, every person I knew loved it at the time and now no one admits they ever liked Adele. Good songs, she has a great voice. This album was definitely overrated. Even as singles I'm not loving these songs as much as I did when it came out. I Miss You is good though, Skyfall feeling (great Bond song). Maybe it's more of an exhaustion issue with the singles? When We Were Young was the best of the hits, reminds me of her cover of Dylan's Make You Feel My Love. It's hilarious when she talks about getting older and being young at the age of 25. This is a great song. Water Under the Bridge is also better than I remember, maybe it is just Hello and Send My Love (To Your Lover) that got overplayed (still are?). River Lea, Love In The Dark, both good. Maybe it is only the hits that are overrated. All I Ask was produced by Bruno Mars and you can hear it, another good one. I stand corrected, this album is underrated. Despite everyone complaining about Beyonce not winning Album of the Year, this was a deserving choice.
David Bowie
4/5
The last Bowie album and the lyrics are just as weird as ever. You can hear a difference in his voice. There is a lot of saxophone on this album. You can definitely hear a sadness in the songs, the title of Lazarus gives that one away, but there's a quality to the music that conveys the feeling too. I listened to this album right after he died and remembered liking it much more than I do now. I love the sound of the album, but the individual songs are kind of up and down. I Can't Give Everything feels like a perfect ending to an amazing career.
The Isley Brothers
4/5
Ronald Isley's voice is instantly recognizable. That Lady, Pts. 1 & 2 is an amazing song. Pop funk, I am really liking this album even if I don't always love Ronald Isley's voice. This album is great, it's got a massive hit that stands up to replaying and a ton of great album tracks. You Walk Your Way is like Motown meets Curtis Mayfield. Although, now that I think about it, maybe this is just knock off Curtis Mayfield. The Listen to the Music cover has been the low point so far. This album is a revelation. Sunshine (Go Away Today) is a miss. The covers are generally weaker than the original material on the album, and unfortunately they are roughly half the songs.
LL Cool J
3/5
I accidentally deleted all my thoughts on this album so it basically boils down to a couple of good to great songs surrounded by relatively weak album tracks. There is no denying the greatness of the title track though.
The Verve
3/5
Bittersweet Symphony was everywhere when it was released. It is a good song though. Kind of an alternative-lite album, clearly influenced by Achtung Baby. This is another album that sounds very much of it's particular time. These guys were one-hit wonders, but the album is good so far. Very string heavy. This could have been a late 90s U2 album or series of outtakes except for Bittersweet Symphony. I guess they could be called proto-Coldplay or Radiohead for pop fans. I'm realizing a lot of music from the UK in the late 90s/early 2000s had an eerily similar sound. The lyrics are a little whiny throughout. It feels a little bit like these guys strategically planned to make a knock off of (What's the Story) Morning Glory? It started out strong but it loses its appeal pretty quickly. The album has a specific sound, there's just very little after the first song that is different at all, the songs all kind of blend together. 15 minute final track which is really two tracks separated by a five minutes of silence to.....I don't know what...this was a stupid but popular trick to try and pull on your fans. They aren't the only band to do it and it was so incredibly dumb. I think with the rise of mp3s and streaming this might be a relic of a time when CDs ruled music formats. Six and a half minutes of silence for a static filled "hidden track" lasting two minutes. I don't get the point of this...finding out who your real fans are? Being clever? Burying something that sucks but you love? The baby crying noises on a loop are an especially nice touch. Why do so many artists need to have such moronic last tracks on an album? Songs played by Spotify automatically after the album?.....The Cranberries and, you guessed it, Coldplay.
Hüsker Dü
2/5
I always though Husker Du was more of a hardcore band. Another double album? Come on, music critics. Just because a band you like made a bunch of songs all at once doesn't make it good. It's so hard to make a single good album, why do so many artists think a double album is a good idea? This is more like a grunge album so far. I'm not sure why everyone thought that Nirvana and Pearl Jam were so ground breaking at the time. These guys and the Pixies were doing something similar before the grunge explosion. This is much better than I anticipated, at least I like it more than I expected. I think their name threw me off. I don't know why this wasn't more mainstream, maybe before their time with grunge or after their time with punk? The lead singer sounds like the guy from Barenaked Ladies. This is completely forgettable but there are a million 90s bands that owe these guys a huge debt of gratitude. She Floated Away could be a Pogues song from Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. If this album was the soundtrack to a 1987 version of the movie Singles, it would have changed the trajectory of so many bands and music history. This is starting to drag a little. Maybe "post-punk" is making more sense to me now because I can hear how someone would think this album sounds like REM in spots. You Can Live at Home sounds like a Talking Heads song, the bass line and vocals are clearly imitations, or "influenced by", them.
Cypress Hill
5/5
This album is in my top ten of most listened to all time. I love it, I love Cypress Hill. It's crazy that The Cocteau Twins got two albums on the list but Cypress Hill's Black Sunday was left off. How I Could Just Kill a Man is the best Cypress Hill song ever. This is an all time great song: the beat, the lyrics. Hand On the Pump next...that might be the greatest back to back tracks on an album of all time. Hole In the Head is a great album track, they wouldn't lean into the Spanglish or Spanish lyrics until later, but you get a brief taste on it. 90s hip hop acts loved skits/intermissions in their albums. The Phuncky Feel One is another great album track. This might be the best hip hop album of all time. The hits were huge, influential and awesome and the album tracks are terrific. B-Real and Sen Dog are underrated MCs and DJ Muggs is an underrated DJ. Real Estate is going to roll right into Stoned Is the Way of the Walk, love it. These guys love weed. Latin Lingo...with the funky bilingual...underrated song. Latin Lingo was released as a single which I do not remember but it definitely deserved to be. Tres Equis was their first Exito en Espanol. Born to Get Busy's chorus and the party noise is the first thing I actively don't like about the album. One of the best albums ever made, confirmed.
Public Enemy
3/5
I remember liking Flava Flav as a hype man much better as a kid. His ridiculous presence in the videos might have contributed to that, a silly image alongside the important lyrical content provided a balance. Professor X's beats wouldn't work for anyone but Chuck D, great combination. 911 Is A Joke has one of the sickest beats ever. Welcome to the Terrordome is a great song. The "soundscape" tracks aren't great, they feel like a reminder that DJs were once as integral a part of the group as the MCs. Why did rappers add some random Jamaican saying "buck, buck" on so many albums? No irony in Ice Cube's "Fuck Hollywood" at the end of Burn Hollywood Burn. Power to the People is a good album track. It feels like the early 90s could have seen hip hop move to either socially conscious rap or gangsta rap. I guess it isn't surprising that entertainment won. Definitely an album that I remember more fondly than I like it now. The album tracks aren't that good. B Side Wins Again is good if it weren't for the static running over the whole track. And then it closes with Fight The Power. That's a great final track, has to be among the best last tracks of all time, sums up the album and is an amazing song.
Van Halen
4/5
Another debut album, another contender for best first song off a debut album for Runnin' with the Devil. I like guitar solos, but Eruption has never been one of my favorites. I like them in the context of a song, not as the song. You Really Got Me is a great cover. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love is another Van Halen staple. I don't know if a band started a first album with more consecutive staples than Van Halen does here. This is a fun album. Jamie's Cryin' AKA the song that would become the sample from Tone Loc's Wild Thing. Six straight songs that probably make any Van Halen's greatest hits album....that's quite a start. First came KISS, then came Van Halen. Brothers maybe more than anything, but definitely related. That's a quick album. Good stuff.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
The first song is titled Moribund the Burgermeister, I feel like I'm in for a very pretentious experience. Solsbury Hill is an amazing song and by far the biggest hit from the album. There is no way Peter Gabriel thought Excuse me was a good song other than as a goofy interruption. It's like he heard a Randy Newman album and thought he absolutely had to have a song like that on his album. This isn't a super cohesive album, no real theme or definitive sound. I suppose that's the danger of an art rock debut, it can end up sounding like an eclectic mish mash of postmodern songs. Slowburn is more of a standard prog rock song, could be an ELP song. Down The Dolce Vita could be ELP too. Even weirdos can't escape their time and place. Here Comes the Flood is a good song, an a good choice to end the album.
Joni Mitchell
1/5
Joni Mitchell and Carole King might be the same person. Folk music is way more popular with music critics than with anyone else. This sounds like adult Sesame Street music, I might rather hear the Pinball song counting to 12. She might be the lyrical equivalent of Bob Dylan, but this just doesn't resonate with me the same way. Maybe it's a male/female thing? There's something about her delivery or songwriting that reminds me of Jill Scott, not on every song, but some. This is not good. Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention to the lyrics and am missing the meaning because this is not great music or great singing.
The Band
5/5
Will this album live up to my memory/the hype? Citizen Cope owes these guys a lot. There's a proto-Southern Rock vibe to this album...so good, but funny that they were all Canadians except for Levon Helm, I guess that's why he's regarded so highly. Caledonia Mission is a great song, really encapsulates the sound of The Band. What can you say about The Weight but that it's an amazing song. Long Black Veil brings it too. They are great storytellers as well and songwriters and musicians. I Shall Be Released is such a great song to close an album on.
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
good album, m.A.A.d. rapper. Kendrick has a very distinct flow. You can hear the influence of Outkast, not just his rhyming, the music too. I could do without the phone call sketches. Kendrick is super horny. This is going to date this review, but Kendrick and Drake on the same track is crazy. Poetic Justice is a great song. I know hip hop doesn't really do covers, but this about as close as you can come of a cover of Anytime, Anyplace by Janet Jackson as you're going to get from two MCs. His rhymes are amazing, I'm less thrilled with the beats. Several of these songs are made up of what seems like multiple songs, complete changes in beats. Swimming Pools (Drank) sounds like being drunk, good song. Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst might be the longest rap song I've ever heard....a 12 minute song is not easy to pull off. He writes amazing lyrics but the beats leave something to be desired. I did not like this album as much as I thought I would.
Le Tigre
3/5
Deceptacon is a fun album. This is like 90s The Go-Gos and I like it infinitely more. There's something punk and something pop and something retro about this. The feminism on this album is right in your face which I guess makes some sense due to the fact that this album came out at the height of the Grrl Power and Riot Grrl eras. What's Yr Take On Cassavetes has maybe the stupidest lyrics of any song I've ever heard. Phanta shares some of the Imperial March. You can hear the Pixies influence. Eau D'Bedroom Dancing is cool. The lyrics pn this album could have been written by a whiny sixteen year old girl in 1998. The album is short and catchy. I don't know that I love it, and again, the lyrics are truly dreadful, but I wouldn't turn this off if it was playing. The Donnas owe these ladies a debt of gratitude. Dud Yr so Crazy!! is maybe worse lyrics than the Cassavetes song except the spoken word lyrics over an industrial beat makes for a much less appealing song.
Billy Joel
1/5
PLAY SOMETHING FROM THE STRANGER! 1980s doo wop Billy Joel sucks! Moving’ Out (Anthony’s Song) is one of the better Billy Joel songs, has an Abbey Road vibe to it. Good lyrics, catchy tune, stupid motorcycle sounds. I have a feeling every song after this is going to pale in comparison to the first one. Whistling very rarely adds anything positive to a song, Patience by Guns N’ Roses, Ennio Morricone scores and that song Darryl Hannah whistles in Kill Bill is pretty much it. Just the Way You Are, another hit. This sounds like the defining song of adult contemporary radio. This is Wonderful Tonight for people that got old in the 70s. Damn, this album has a lot of his hits. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant is so corny. What is with the use of all the smooth jazz saxophone? 1977 must have been a truly dismal year for music or Grammy voters must have felt like proving once and for all that they are truly the biggest morons alive. Only the Good Die Young sucks. This song is way overrated. This is one of his biggest hits and it is truly awful. The idea of Billy Joel running with a dangerous crowd is hilarious. Him and Fred Durst are equally fake hardos. She’s Always a Woman to Me is awful too. This album has a lot of his career defining hits and almost all of them are terrible. Everybody Has a Dream is an improvement over most of the rest of the album, good to close on a high note.
Elvis Presley
4/5
Blue Suede Shoes maybe takes over the top spot for the first song off a debut album. Maybe the difference is that this is a cover of a Carl Perkins song rather than it being the first time anyone had heard it. Elvis might be one of the greatest performers in rock, pop, country and gospel music. I've never heard his version of I Got a Woman, but it is good. Another song with whistling. I like the songs that rock much better than the ballads. Little Richard's Tutti Frutti is the superior version. You can hear where this music came from and what came after. I think that's because Elvis was a performer, not a songwriter. He was interpreting what came before him in a way that influenced so much that came after in a lot of different genres. Damn this guy can cover songs! Great version of Blue Moon.
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
This is like proto-New Wave. I'm not loving this right off the bat. There's a vaguely ska element of so much British pop music from the mid-70s to the mid-80s that makes everything sound similar. This is like crappy Clash. These critics must be predominantly British because there are a ton of unknown, repetitive British bands in this list. Maybe this band was the first real New Wave band. A very active horn section in this album. These guys took what the Clash did and made it worse.
M.I.A.
1/5
Is this electronic music or hip hop? Either way, it is not good. I guess this is dance music but it's hard to imagine anyone actually dancing to it. I get why a music critic would put this on a list like this, but it's almost unlistenable. Steel drum is a hard instrument to effectively integrate into popular music. It feels like this a forced combination of world music, electronic and hip hop. This manages to be dissonant and repetitive at the same time. Galang is the hit from this album and is definitely the best track. I did not even notice the difference between Galang and M.I.A, when the album ended I was surprised.
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
The lead singer reminds me of Jarvis Cocker, which makes me feel like Franz Ferdinand is alt-rock Pulp. Take Me Out is a great song, love the bassline. This is like a cross between punk and glam rock. This album was so good, I didn't realize I'd listened to the whole thing.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
4/5
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes is another strong contender for best first track from a debut album. Marrakesh Express is too goofy and light for me. I think Neil Young was the lynchpin for these guys not sounding like a precursor to the Eagles. Great voices. This is threading a very fine line between folk and folk rock so far. Wooden Ships, right in the middle of the album is a great album track. The straight folk songs are not as good. Helplessly Hoping is beautiful, maybe it's the lyrical content that's making me like some of the songs less because this folk music. The old timey English ballad lyrics leave a lot to be desired, on this album as well as in folk music in general. Long Time Gone is more rock, you can hear the rock, the blues, the psychedelic influences and the harmonies are great of course. Song with No Words is pretentious, hippie crap. Everybody's Talkin' is a terrific song and this is a great version, maybe better than the Harry Nilsson version. Super folk Teach Your Children is a good version too, I think I like the more produced version they did later, but this is good too, very stripped down.
k.d. lang
4/5
k.d. lang does straight country music? I had no idea that's where she got her start. I think of her as the Constant Craving singer, more folk pop. She has a real Patsy Cline vibe. Which makes sense because I just now learned it was produced by the same guy who produced Cline's best known works. This is a revelation. k.d lang is awesome! I love this album and I would never have expected that. This has a Dwight Yoakam kind of feeling. She should have stuck with this, I'd rather listen to this album than almost any other \"country\" music produced since 1988.
Simple Minds
1/5
Was this band Duran Duran at one point? New Wave music is terrible. Each song is somehow both better and worse than the one before it. This album is awful. This is one of the worst non-experimental albums I've ever heard. I understand why this album made the list. This is the band that literally every other New Wave band of every variety sounds like. A uniquely terrible album.
William Orbit
1/5
Ambient techno is not something you sit down to listen to. It's something that's on in a hipster coffee house while the surly barista takes your order. This feels like the music that plays over the opening credits of a 90s movie about shady stockbrokers. This album is a chore already. It's hard to focus on the quality of the album because it is designed to be on at a speakeasy as background music. Seriously, this is the score to a movie about computer hackers working against the government until they realize they were being used and were working for the government the whole time and then they take down the rogue agent who ran the whole operation. This is like the alternate soundtrack for the Matrix. Someone has definitely tried to sync this album up to a movie at some point. This is like the Dust Brothers' Fight Club soundtrack if instead of fighting they got high the whole movie and sat around a pretentious club all night. I bet this is Moby's favorite album and, to quote Eminem, he can get stomped by Obie...nobody listens to techno. The Monkey King is in the movie Heat. The whole thing sounds like an demo tape for someone trying to score films. Another album where there is no telling when it ends even when a new album starts on Spotify.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
I don't love Simon and Garfunkel. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme is corny. David Gray's White Ladder was definitely influenced by this album. Homeward Bound is great. You can feel the kid who just left home and is feeling lonely in it. Paul Simon is a great songwriter, great storyteller. The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine sounds like a nickname for the Incredible Hulk's junk, but I think it's about drugs. The Dangling Conversation and Nico's These Days have a more than passing resemblance. A Poem on an Underground Wall is as hard as two Columbia University folk musicians could possibly sound. Found sound of the nightly news' greatest hits from 1966 over Silent Night feels like a freshman film school project.
Stephen Stills
4/5
Starting off well, Song of Love is classic 70's blues rock.
It's crazy that this album predates Lynyrd Skynyrd, they totally ripped Steven Stills off. Only four songs in, I'm calling it, this is his best work. I spoke exactly one song too soon. Both of Us (Bound to Lose) is more of a CSN type of song. And followed with straight bluegrass on Fallen Eagle. The album feels a little disjointed with the jumps in style, but I think I understand what he was trying to do with the album, it all fits in a way, music, title, cover. It's like he went to Nashville and sat at one bar and wrote a song in every genre that passed through, southern rock, folk rock, bluegrass, country. Some are more successful than others. Just as I'm thinking the county music is getting a little wearisome, I see this is a double album (bad sign) and each side had a different musical theme (mitigating factor, maybe?). I wish Spotify would add a column to show the original album sides each song was on. Now, I'll have to figure out which side is my favorite. Right now, I'm leaning towards the first. Not loving the synthesizer on Move Around. It's an uneven effort, some songs on each side are good, but it's just too many songs to expect all of them to be great or even good.
Mike Oldfield
1/5
This album is on this list because it was the theme to The Exorcist. If you want to include an album that's only famous because of its association with the film it was featured in and was on the pop charts, make it John Williams' Star Wars. This is an insufferable inclusion on this list. Music critics have to love things that make them sound smarter than everyone, it's part of their DNA apparently. Now we've reached the Peter and Wolf narrated part of the album, telling me which instrument is which. The music during the lecture is at this point is actually the best part of this album so far. Part II is much worse than Part I. The changes between styles within each side of this album make the compositions sound disjointed. Without The Exorcist, this album would not be remembered today. All of the grunting just adds to the stupidity of this album. Now part of this sounds like some themes from the first track. The transition to the Sailor's Hornpipe is just a hard stop and start to end the album. It's including nonsense like this that makes me question why I'm participating in this project.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
This sounds like something...I can't place it though. If Wes Anderson decided to have a house band for his films, this would be who he would hire, maybe Zach Braff too. I bet this is The Shins' favorite band. I'm not sure this is something I'd listen to again, but it's ok. The Kooks' She Moves in Her Own Way owes a lot to You're Just a Baby. This project is warping what I think of as "good". This album is only good in the context of this project. The chatting over I Could Be Dreaming is distracting, reminds me of Simon and Garfunkel's Silent Night. The lead singer reminds me of Nico, and I bet these guys love The Velvet Underground. If Oasis was the mid-90s White Album Beatles, Belle & Sebastian was the mid-90s The Beatles Beatles. Maybe the mid-90s Donovan is a better comparison?
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) is the hit. It's better to burn out than to fade away is an all time lyric. It's interesting that later in the song he says it's better to burn out than to rust, I wonder if old rock stars feel that same way now. This is how folk rock should sound. Few songwriters can make you value both the story they are telling and what they are really trying to say at the same time. Pocahontas would be called cultural appropriation today. Neil Young's voice outside the context of his music would be terrible, it's crazy to think it worked with Buffalo Springfield and CSNY. You can hear the punk influence on Sedan Delivery...better to meet the times where they are than fade away. Black Francis heard Sedan Delivery and thus the Pixies were born. Hard rocking Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) to end the album. Having different versions bookend the album is an interesting touch and leaves me wondering which version I like better (I think it's Into the Black).
U2
3/5
Sunday Bloody Sunday is an intense way to open an album, reminds me of Bombtrack to open Rage Against the Machine's debut album. 20th Century U2 > 21st Century U2. New Year's Day is maybe my least favorite U2 hit, it sounds very much of it's time though, the music could be a Cure song and Bono's vocals are at their most annoying on it. A lot of really intense drumming on this album. It's supposed to feel like war drums or the cacophony of war I suppose. I don't know about this album. This album sounds like a band that heard the Clash and decided they had to do a Clash album in their own way and it is not entirely successful. You can hear how this band became The Joshua Tree U2 and the biggest band in the world. At the same time, you can hear them trying to incorporate what was going on musically at the time this album was made. After Sunday Bloody Sunday, Two Hearts Beat As One is the best track. Some late punk, some Wave, some ska, it's all from the early 80s and it's all here.
Red Snapper
1/5
I think this is the Mission: Impossible soundtrack. I would take the first track and it's techno movie score over the second all day, every day. This has no business on this list. The distorted vocals that sound like a mix of Donald Duck and the Chipmunks is ridiculous. The Rough and The Quick is more like stereo instructions for having sex rather than being actually sexy. Primarily instrumental pop music strikes me as soundtrack music, it was the same for Tubular Bells. Alaska Street is probably the worst song on the album....so far. The drill bit sounds is particularly annoying.
Jeff Buckley
3/5
I had a musician friend who was way into Jeff Buckley in college. If Jeff Buckley lived, this album would not get all the love it gets now. Music critics are just as sappy and deluded as everyone else. I don't mind retrospective reviews, but I definitely feel like once something gets a following, critics are forced to eat their words or look like they are out of touch. This is like alt-rock lite. This does feel like a synthesis of 80s music rather than something new. And at the same time grunge was making punk and garage rock cool again. His cover of Hallelujah is the hit and probably the main reason this album is so famous. It's a good cover of a great song. Maybe because it was the first major cover of it, but it's not so amazing to warrant all the attention. Lover, You Should've Come Over is the best song so far, it still has that 80s pop rock ballad sound, like a good Jamie Walters song. Followed up by the worst song on the album, Corpus Christi Carol. Forget Her is a highlight to close the album. If you caught me on a different day, I might love this album.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5/5
It's hard to classify exactly what genre the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are in. Indie dance rock? Pop rock electronica? Heads Will Roll was the dance rock hit from this album. I love Karen O's voice. This came out the same year as The XX's album and you can hear some echoes in this. We're all prisoners of our own times. It's hard to make an album where no songs are duds or filler and everything doesn't sound identical. This is good. Little Shadow is different but showcases what's great about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Arctic Monkeys
2/5
This sounds like someone....I can't place it. This album is trying too hard. I don't know but there was a British band that sounded like these guys at a roughly similar time. This doesn't sound "bad" but it's not compelling.
The Byrds
2/5
This is like if CSN, The Mamas and The Papas and Jefferson Airplane came together to make an album...it's terrible. The hippies were too high to realize what they were listening to was no good. Draft Morning is the best track so far, kind of a Youngbloods Get Together vibe. Harmonized vocals are overrated. A song titled Space Odyssey by a psychedelic band in 1968 is exactly what you would think it is. A fitting end to a wildly overrated album.
AC/DC
3/5
Highway to Hell is a great way to kick off an album. AC/DC has a sound, and they have stuck with it through thick and thin. These guys are super horny, every song is about getting laid. I can understand how some people might confuse some AC/DC songs. With as many hits as they have over their career, it's surprising that this album only really had one big one. This one delivers exactly what an AC/DC album promises.
The Shamen
1/5
Move Any Mountain was definitely all over pop radio when I was a kid. I don't think Jock Jams existed when this album came out so I don't think the intentionally created a song that would inevitably become one. Human NRG (Massey) is one of the dumbest titles of a song ever...it's like the tagline for an actual energy company's commercial. Electronica has come a long way, this album makes me want to positively reevaluate any electronic music I've previously rated. The robot filtered vocals are even worse than the music. This is the music you would have heard in an overly hip hair salon in the 90s. It's not possible that anyone not in a club or hosting a lame house party would just put this album on and hit play. It's a long album too. This is terrible. I thought the music was on shuffle because the lyrics of Lightspan are just "energy" over and over again. Hear Me's lyrics are a speech from an Indian politician, I can't identify who, but it is misplaced over techno music. 666 Edit is the best track on the album so far and is the most "techno" of them all. And then they add the Move Any Mountain lyrics and ruin it. This album never ends. The tuning noise on Lightspan Soundwave is one of the most annoying noises in a song I've ever heard. Three songs with the beat or lyrics to Move Any Mountain...this is an absolutely awful album. THis was apparently early rave music further solidifying the fact that rave music doesn't have to be good to have a bunch of high and horny kids listen to it.
Fugazi
2/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers heard this and thought "We can do this." This is what was left of punk before it was completely swallowed by pop punk. A punk band hates commercialism?!? Now I've heard everything. At least these guys stayed indie their whole careers. A young Trent Reznor would have thought this band was either not hard enough or not experimental enough. The lead singer sounds like Brian Johnson from AC/DC. Could be that I just had an AC/DC album that's making me think that.
Linkin Park
1/5
Yay! More NuMetal! To quote the voice of his time, Fred Durst, "If it were not for Bennington's voice and his words, nu metal would never have reached the masses and affected so many lives." To that I can only say, I wish Chester Bennington had chosen to be an accountant or oceanographer or literally anything other than the singer in Linkin Park because, according to Durst, he was directly responsible for one of the worst genres of music ever created. Linkin Park is a stupid band name. I wonder if some marketing exec told them that misspelling a word with extra 'i"s was cool like in Limp Bizkit. Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park are two sides of the fake hard ass/whiny bitch nu metal coin. Nu Metal sucks so much even Linkin Park didn't want to be associated with the label. There are a number of songs that I absolutely hate and that you could not avoid in the early aughts. This could be the soundtrack to a Transformers movie. At least Korn isn't so whiny. In the End suuuuucks. No song longer than 3 minutes 36 seconds, that's a plus. The whole album is only 38 minutes too. Mike Shinoda's rapping is awful. What was wrong with America in the late 90s/early 2000s? This is what spawned from Rage Against the Machine? Linkin Park is the 31st most listened to band in the world according to Spotify?!? In 2024?!?
Hawkwind
2/5
A live double album by a psychedelic band....this is truly going to be a test. Space sounds are the entire first song, not an auspicious start. Maybe those sounds are the Hawkwind. The singing on Born to Go sucks, but the music is cool. Psychedelic jams are not my jam. Who doesn't want some flute in their rock music...the girl from American Pie definitely does. The music could be Blue Oyster Cult. The Awakening....a reading of a stupid poem with space sounds behind it again. I bet this album syncs up with something. And now another poem over cosmic noises. It's ZZ Top meets Jefferson Airplane on Orgone Accumulator, cool blues riff. 10 Seconds of Forever is another stupid slam poetry moment. These guys are like the Isaac Asimov version of Led Zeppelin with Tolkien. The lyrics and vocals are terrible. There are parts of this that are good, but songs drag on forever and the space sounds and poetry readings are laughable. If Flight of The Conchords made this album as a joke, I would believe it. The talking segments are absolute nonsense. There's a hint of something cool in this and it just never gets any space to breathe with all the psychedelic jabbering and jamming and space noise. Closes with another little chat.
Soundgarden
4/5
Soundgarden was always kind of an afterthought in the grunge discussion behind Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I think I like them more than Nirvana though. Chris Cornell has a rock star voice. They sound like Stone Temple Pilots on some songs. I never got into Soundgarden, I liked Pearl Jam the best out of the grunge bands, but this album is good. Black Hole Sun is probably why I never got into them...it was the hit and I don't really like it that much. The Day I Tried To Live is the best song on the album. Chris Cornell has a throwback rock star voice, there's a Robert Plant like quality to the way he sings, not that their voices are similar. There's something to their delivery that is similar or the way they approach the songs. There are some weaker songs on the album, but this is better than I was anticipating and a new found appreciation for Chris Cornell.
Roxy Music
1/5
Brian Eno's band, I'm guessing he's the most represented person in this project between Roxy Music, his solo efforts and the albums he produced. He has the famous quote about the Velvet Underground and there are moments where you can hear the influence. A lot of bands loved Roxy Music and I simply do not understand it. David Bowie, yes. The Sex Pistols, no. The Bob (Medley) revisits a theme from If There Is Something and expands on how terrible it is. Art rock is generally not a good genre. The album gets worse as it goes on. What happened to bands in the late 60s that made them think that an album with random guitar distortion in the background was appealing? Drugs?
The Clash
3/5
This makes me think of Mark Ruffalo's character extemporizing on The Clash in Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind. I did not realize this was a double album. This is a punk double album though, 19 songs, just over an hour long. Green Day are Clash rip-offs. It's not even an homage, they could be a London Calling cover band. The distinction between "eclectic" and "experimental" is whether I like an album or not. Is this the first new wave album? Madness bought this album and decided to become a band. Why is there so much Spanish on all their albums? It's hard to hear how this is related to the Sex Pistols or Black Flag. The Guns of Brixton is the music for Cypress Hill's What's Your Number? Good stuff. It's almost literally the music, net of the goofy sound effects, including the bridge, with B-Real rapping over it, a real Frank Ocean vs. the Eagles song. Train In Vain (Stand By Me) is a great song and a great song to close the album on.
Goldie
1/5
2 hours of electronica?!? I'm exhausted already. This is incredibly boring. A 21 minute song to kick things off is not an auspicious start. These dance albums have to be the least listened to albums, start to finish, ever. No one just puts on a Goldie record and lets it play and listens to the music. This is background music at an overpriced salon or in a restaurant that has uncomfortable chairs and $16 drinks. The first song is hard to endure and there is another hour and a half of music to go. This music must only be good on E. This is "boots and pants" music. This is more a trail of endurance than an evaluation of an album. This album is terrible, one of the worst so far. The ambient waves and one of the most annoying electronic seagull noises imaginable in Sea of Tears makes this a rival for one of the worst songs I've listened to so far. This is all so repetitive, every song, every minute, just boring beats. 7 minutes at the end are remixes from the US release, not the initial release so that is great news. Every song is exactly as bad as every other one in it's own special way. The only thing that makes one better than another is the length (shorter is better). Still 27 minutes left and I cannot wait for this to be over. I will continue to listen but the Kenny G sax in Adrift is the end of my observations. This isn't dance music, it's not jazz, it's just awful. This is like music from a dream sequence in a porno movie. I'm not sure if I like the fake jazz songs less than the dance songs. In any case, they are both awful.
Pearl Jam
4/5
Pearl Jam was definitely my favorite grunge band. Even Flow is an awesome song. Once, Even Flow and Alive is a really strong contender for the best three songs to start a debut album. That's a pretty specific take, but I stand by it. Alive is an all time great song. A lot of good songs on this album...it feels like everything after was a slow decline from this peak. The America of the early 90s was a bleak existence if you were listening to grunge or gangsta rap. I remember liking Oceans more than Jeremy and having them linked in my mind because of their proximity on the album. The album cuts are good too. Something on Garden reminds me of Tenacious D's Tribute. The obsession with ending albums with long/secret tracks was a huge thing in the 90s. The end of secret tracks is hopefully one of the only good things to come out of the digital music revolution. The start of Once and the hidden track both sound a little like the beginning to the PeeWee's Playhouse theme song.
4/5
There is a Fiona Apple/Alanis Morissette vibe to this album. Way less punk than Rid of Me. A Place Called Home is a really good song. There's and undefinable quality that's really great about this album. Radiohead...that's the quality I couldn't find maybe, Thom Yorke on the album makes it seem like that's the answer at least. Kamikaze has some of that old punk PJ Harvey feeling, great song, like a tribute to the Ramones. Horses In My Dreams is a great song but very much like Fiona Apple.
Nirvana
2/5
Smells Like Teen Spirit...the anthem for a generation. I know Nirvana released an indie album before this but if we're only counting major label debuts, Smells Like Teen Spirit is a contender for best first song off a debut album. Come As You Are is my favorite song from this album. Kurt Cobain's voice is annoying. Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom and Come As You Are is a really strong start to an album. Lithium was a big hit for them but it's the weakest song from this album so far. This album peaked at Smells Like Teen Spirit and is downhill from there. Territorial Pissings is punk. On A Plain sounds like every song on the Singles soundtrack. Everything in the early 90s was grunge and gangsta rap. Endless, Nameless is the worst song on the album. It's their take on metal and it's terrible. And it drags on forever and it has a a full minute of guitar distortion and some weird background sound.
Dwight Yoakam
2/5
Doyle Hargraves himself. I've never really listened to bar room country, but after the k.d. lang album, I think it might be an underappreciated genre. Dwight Yoakam has the right voice for the style of music, but there's something about it I don't love. This is fine. There's something that feels very mediocre about it though. The addition of Tejano music on Streets of Bakersfield is not a plus.
The White Stripes
5/5
The White Stripes rule. From the first chords, you know it's going to be an experience. Everything has the same stripped down sound, in less talented hands every song might have sounded the same, not here though. Fell In Love With a Girl was the hit and the video was awesome. Fell In Love With a Girl is one of my favorite rock songs of all time, Joss Stone's cover of it is great too. There's a stripped down metal sound to this, like a garage band Black Sabbath feel. The lyrical conceit of The Union Forever is corny, but the music is cool. We're Going to Be Friends is a great song too. This album has everything: hits, sleeper singles, great album cuts.
Brian Eno
1/5
I am skeptical heading into another Brian Eno project so soon after Roxy Music. Rightly so to this point. Art "rock", if this can even be called that, is terrible, art "pop" maybe. Whatever it is, this is not good. In Dark Trees sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a David Lynch film. I guess I should be grateful there aren't a bunch of weird experimental lyrics too. There they are. Once you've made a name for yourself, you can be as weird as you want and critics will eat it up like they're at a buffet. This is a major drag. Even the songs that are "better" aren't good. Last song was the best one and it was still terrible.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Is this acid jazz or jazz rap? This album definitely borrows from jazz, funk and soul. The beats are always unique, A Tribe Called Quest was always "cool" in that way. And Ali Shaheed's signature sound, the scratches, the beats, it's all there, he's an underrated DJ. And Q-Tip is probably an underrated MC. Footprints is a jam, it's got that Stevie Wonder Sir Duke horn sample. I Left My Wallet in El Segundo is a classic. Bonita Applebum is another great song, smooth beat, great lyrics. It's like a rap slow jam. Can I Kick It? samples Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side, which makes these two maybe the greatest non-cover version of original song and song that samples it. Go Ahead In the Rain is a great deep cut.
Fiona Apple
5/5
Sleep to Dream is in the running for best first song off a debut album. The title is also apt, there's a dreamlike quality to the piano and vibraphone. Sullen Girl is also appropriately named, the vibe fits the title or maybe vice versa. Shadowboxer was the first single and her first hit. It got overshadowed by Criminal later, partly because the video had her in various states of undress. Norah Jones is a pale, poppy imitation of Fiona Apple. The First Taste has a Latin(?) or Middle Eastern (?) vibe that doesn't really fit the rest of the album. But I'm nodding my head to it, maybe it's her big dance number. Never Is a Promise is a beautiful song. Pale September is great too. There's an aggressiveness coupled with a vulnerability in her voice and these songs that is amazing. Carrion too. This album is amazing.
Doves
3/5
This feels more like an early 90s pop-rock band than an early 2000s band. It's like Oasis-lite. This reminds me of something I can't place, something much later. They sound like a band Zach Braff would feature in one of his films. M62 Song sounds like Guster's Satellite. This is not bad, but it isn't a standout either. There's a song called Satellites on this album! Friday's Dust is bad. The Sulphur Man is cool, good use of the glockenspiel . I have never heard of this band so it's hard to know what the hit off this album was, or if there even was one. This isn't a terrible album, but I am glad it's over.
LCD Soundsystem
3/5
oh baby is the hit to lead off the album. The music matches the album cover. I could do without the sci fi lab noises in other voices. I do like this album. change yr mind is not good. It sounds like those human body songs on Kids Learning Tube on YouTube. how do you sleep? is like bad electronic U2. Their other albums are better. black screen sounds like the soundtrack to Blade Runner, or maybe Blade Runner: 2049. The ee cummings titles is a stupid affectation.
Pretenders
3/5
The Pretenders are like rock Blondie. Over/under on Ohio based references is one per song. This is more New Wave than I would have thought. The lyrics are ridiculous. LCD Soundsystem must love this album, this is what they would have been if they came out in 1980 instead of 2000. Stop Your Sobbing is not good, the 60s girl group vibe is out of place on the album and in the song. There is a Pretenders sound that carries through every song though. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs probably love them too. There are too many songs that are dominated by Chrissy Hynde's stange delivery and voice. And some of these songs are rock songs and others are just straight New Wave/Ska. Brass in Pocket is the hit, for good reason, it's a great song, maybe the perfect Pretenders song. They definitely had an influence-Beck, Scissor Sisters- you can hear pieces of this album in a lot of places. This is a hard album to rate, a lot of things to like and a lot of things to hate.
The Flying Burrito Brothers
2/5
Another country rock group. There were 100 of these groups in the 60s and then in the 70s it was just the Eagles and they became the biggest band in the world. This is Crosby, Stills and Nash with less of an edge. Dark End Of The Street is a good song. This reminds me of Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. This is Cotton Jones' favorite band. There's something missing from this album. The country/gospel/roots rock influences on this album should make it something, but it just feels corny, like another bunch of fake cowboys. Hippie Boy is the worst song on the album because the vocals are so ridiculous.
Throbbing Gristle
1/5
What a horrible band name. Starting the first song is only distortion or static and some hospital equipment beeps which promises that this album is going to be a slog. This is not music, this is a collection of annoying sounds. The second song is better solely by the fact that someone is singing and there is definitely a bass being played. Then they play their big debut single at 16x speed or rewinding or whatever. More found sound, this time a foul mouthed conversation over some "musical-ish" sounds and rain. Two alternate conversations, if this was the sound of a restaurant I was in, I'd leave. Einstürzende Neubauten heard this album and thought, "Hey, we can do this in German." It's hard to decide who did it worse. Dead On Arrival has the most music and is still somehow worse than the songs made up of annoying noises. That this album exists is a testament to the condition of modern humanity that enough freedom and leisure time and income exists to make this possible. Now it's the idiotic babble of a child over weird space-age sounds. The kid does have a cute voice. And know it's scientists talking about e. coli. These "songs" are terrible. It's hard to know if the songs with terrible tape recorded talking are better or worse than the songs with no human voices at all. That was a truly terrible experience.
Steely Dan
3/5
Steely Dan, perennial favorite of music critics and assholes. The start of Black Cow is the sample used for Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz’s Deja Vu (Uptown Baby). That’s a better use of the music. This might be the first yacht rock album. Which band is more responsible for “adult contemporary” music, The Eagles or Steely Dan? Either way, they both suck. That’s unfair, they are definitely better than The Eagles. Aja sounds like Rikki Don’t Lose That Number in parts, I guess that’s just the “Steely Dan sound”. Deacon Blues is more of the same, but I definitely have a soft spot for it. Maybe it’s what I always assumed was a college football reference but probably wasn’t. This might be the most 70s album of all time. There are a lot of “hits” on this album. Peg is another one. If you took the lyrics away from these songs, they’d all be gold music. Is that Michael McDonald in the background of Peg? It is! That guy is good. Home At Last is the best song on the album. Donald Fagan’s voice exactly matches his appearance. Another Michael McDonald guest spot, instant improvement. I liked this album more than I thought I would which is not a very high bar to cross, but a pleasant surprise.
Dizzee Rascal
1/5
Oh my god this is awful. This sounds like a YouTube rapper. The rap acts that aren't in this list is astonishing, but Dizzee Rascal makes the cut. This is like a cross between Azalea Banks and The Streets, both of whom are probably in the list too. The beat is distracting, the accent is annoying and seems almost comical when you think about British gangsters meeting up with, as Easy put it, Real Muthaphuckin' Gs. The voice distortion effects turn this from bad to bad and ridiculous. The delivery is so terrible. I bet MIA loves this album. This is considered "the greatest British hip hop record of all time", that's insane. They should stick to rock and roll. Jus' a Rascal is the best song except for the chorus. This is one of the worst rap albums I've ever heard. The robot filter on the vocals makes it sound like EV-99 from Jabba's palace is on the album. This is also a very long album. The UK bias of the editors are on full display with this absolutely terrible addition.
Duke Ellington
5/5
I'm not the biggest jazz fan, but this is good. It does sound a little bit like the background to a cartoon from the 50s though. Blues to Be There sounds like George Gershwin. Before the rise of pop music, every thing sounded like a score to a movie. This is a good listen. The longer this goes the more I like it. This is a great album. I only listened to the original release version but I will definitely check out the 2 hour complete recording now.
Blur
2/5
Girls & Boys is a catchy opening track. These guys took the "rip off the Beatles" thing a step too far, End of a Century sounds like an original song written by a Beatles cover band. Bank Holiday is terrible. This is taking "post punk" too literally. This album starts with it's best song and gets steadily worse as it goes on. To the End is the worst song so far. I spoke to soon, there are many bad songs on the album, London Loves being one of them. Lot 105's goofiness doesn't help, especially with the Beatles' Eight Days a Week melody.
1/5
Two Blur albums in a row? It's like getting a double album. There aren't enough good Blur songs to get their greatest hits on this list, let alone two albums. This is the spiritual descendant of glam rock. In the battle between Blur and Oasis, count me as a firm Oasis vote. This is better than Parklife except for Boys & Girls. They are a Beatles cover band that made some original songs. When people say that Greta Van Fleet are a Led Zeppelin cosplay band, they are also saying that Blur is a Beatles coplay band without the clothes. Blue Jeans is terrible. This album is terrible. British people just love crappy pop rock. The second half of Chemical World reinforces what a bunch of self-absorbed, twee losers these guys are. This album feels twice as long as a normal album, I think that's a function of having just listened to a Blur album prior to this one. Resigned might be the best track on the album but it's too little too late.
Chicago
2/5
Another goddamned double album! They're like catnip to these critics! The guitar solo is pretty good on Introduction, and I am a fan of horn sections in general, but this is like a cross between Santana and Al Stewart. There's too much horn on some of these songs. There was a chance for Chicago to rock, Poem 58 proves it. Free Form Guitar is terrible, but I bet Eddie Van Halen listened to it and thought, I can do this but good. They changed their name from Chicago Transit Authority to Chicago because they were afraid of getting sued. Nothing but losers on both sides of that threat, god forbid they besmirch the good name of a public transit authority. On the songs without the horns, I'd have a hard time not guessing this was Santana. The guitar style, the electric piano, the general vibe are all very much of that style. The 1968 Democratic Convention chanting is so dumb. As a kid, i thought political bands stood for something. Now it all just feels like a marketing gimmick. I could see the Beastie Boys being into this album. The first half of Liberation is good but it goes off the rails at about 10 minutes, just a lot of random instrument noise. Yes, you use a lot of instruments. No you do not need to make random noises with all of them for 90 seconds. Not a strong ending for not a strong album.
The Jam
3/5
Between the year of release and the band name, I'm not encouraged. Two songs in, this album is exactly what I expected. The early 80s is without a doubt the worst period for popular music. The edge got sanded off punk, hip hop hadn't been developed yet, rock was in decline, even hair bands hadn't come into their own yet. This is maybe the missing link between 70s pop punk like The Clash and New Wave music. Many of these songs sound the same. That's Entertainment is the best song on the album...Man In The Corner Shop is the worst. The album is a good length and it doesn't have any really long songs to drag on. Scrape Away has that ska sound that all of these bands had. Did The Clash ruin rock for half a decade?
Fishbone
1/5
Their cover of Freddie's Dead is a travesty. This is like a novelty band and it's an essential album? The fire alarm sound over mouth noises is making a bad cover worse. More ska. Something about this reminds me of The Birthday Party. Bonin' In the Boneyard is like a cross of Prince and James Brown and is the best song on the album, very funky. The more funk based tracks are better. Why are there so many socially conscious ska bands?
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Combine this album with Born to Run and it's basically Springsteen's greatest hits. Born in The USA might have the most misunderstood message of any song in history, great song though. Cover Me is another good song. This album is Springsteen's most overrated, but that doesn't mean it's bad. I'm On Fire is the best song off an album full of great ones. The album tracks are definitely second rate compared to the singles. But those are some pretty amazing singles. I'm Goin' Down is an underrated song. Glory Days, Dancing In the Dark and My Hometown is a Murderers' Row of songs to close an album.
Slipknot
1/5
Starting off really poorly. Horror movie cosplay meets NuMetal. Honestly this isn't the worst thing I've heard. I don't like the yelling vocals or the needless record scratching. Hard to know when one screaming NuMetal song ends and the next one begins. Actually, the yelling is better than the singing or Fred-Durst-talking in the songs. These songs are getting worse, Wait and Bleed and Surfacing manage to be very different than each other but equally bad. Tattered & Torn combines the annoying NuMetal talk, yelling, stupid turntable sounds and an annoying, repetitive what I assume is guitar sound but sounds like a creepy sci-fi klaxon. It's hard to listen to fifty minutes of yelling. Scissors incorporates some Einstürzende Neubauten pipe banging which is always a great additional to music. The record scratching feels like they had one friend with no musical talent but always got the best drugs so they had to find something for him to do in the band. Or maybe he was the one with all the clown masks. The lead singer sounds like he's trying to channel Trent Reznor....unsuccessfully. Yes, as Eric Cartman once said, "Fuck, fuckety, fuck, fuck!"
The White Stripes
5/5
Blue Orchid is my favorite White Stripes' song. Great start to an album. The Nurse is a great album track. My Doorbell is another great song. This album is a great introduction to the White Stripes; well produced, whimsical, accessible but also representative of their larger body of work in a lot of ways. This album has the feeling of some Led Zeppelin's more humorous songs, like Gallows Pole. Little Ghost is really catchy. Blue Orchid, My Doorbell and The Denial Twist were the singles and it is hard to argue with those choices. Meg White's singing on Passive Manipulation has a Nico-like quality to it. I would describe this album as "playful", even by Jack White standards. This is a great album from start to finish. The singles are amazing and the album tracks are great too. It's hard to pick a song that isn't good or misses.
Muddy Waters
5/5
Mannish Boy to start an album? It's easy to imagine that everything is a disappointment after that opener. Every song could be great an just pale in comparison to the quintessential Muddy Waters/blues song. Bus Driver is a good song. Do I like the blues more than I thought or just Muddy Waters? This album is great and Muddy Waters is an underappreciated genius. I Can't Be Satisfied is another great song. There's an old-timey element to it that is really fun. Maybe it's just because I had it as the album before, but you can hear the influence of this record on the White Stripes' Get Behind Me Satan, both in terms of the music itself and the playful tone of the album. I am loving this, every song is good to great. The back half of the album is less impressive than the front half, but not bad at all.
The White Stripes
5/5
There's a reason Seven Nation Army is the preferred sports arena jam now...because it rocks. Great song. It's a shame Meg didn't have more opportunities to sing. Ball and Biscuit is so stripped down and amazing, another great song, one of the all time great album tracks and one of my all-time favorites by The White Stripes. And then The Hardest Button to Button? It's like Ruth and Gehrig hitting back-to-back. Maybe only Fell In Love With A Girl has such great lyrics in their catalog.
Liz Phair
5/5
This sounds very much of its time. Glory is a good song...it has an Elliott Smith vibe. This is a good album and you can still hear the influence in indie rock today. A lot of later 90s acts owe Liz Phair a debt of gratitude. I bet Fiona Apple had this on repeat in 1993. Fuck and Run is a great song. I thought I remembered this album better than I do. It's good though, great album cover. I'm not sure if there even was a single off this album that got a ton of airplay but I do like this album. The lyrics to Flower are hysterical. It's hard to pick a favorite song, a lot of good candidates, Johnny Sunshine might be it though.
Skepta
1/5
The first track is not terrible. In the battle for best grime MC, I'm comfortable saying Skepta is superior to Dizzee Rascal after only one song. A recorded phone call...the hallmark of a truly terrible album. They use the word fam a lot. 50 years of hip hop, a limited number of albums which made this list and this gets selected? Now a recorded video game chat session. And an angry recorded message now. The Pharrell track is an improvement over what has been a steady decline from the first song on.
Al Green
5/5
Starting off with the title track, a bold, and absolutely correct, choice. This is a great song that is now unfortunately linked in my mind to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. Al Green is a great soul music performer. It's hard to decide if I like 70s soul or 90s/2000s neosoul better. I'm loving the horns in this. Memphis soul might be the best soul. I knew I liked his hits, but this album is a revelation. Old Time Lovin' is great. This whole album is great so far. It's crazy to me that Darondo wasn't more popular...he has a very similar sound to this album. I'm not going to oversell the importance of an album's length on my rating, but it has some importance.
Marvin Gaye
2/5
Let's Get It On, another soul album with the title track hitting lead-off. What an incredible song. You can not listen to this song and not feel like getting it on. Teddy Pendergrass heard Please Don't Stay (Once You Go Away) and knew he'd be a star one day. Why do all of his albums have full tracks that amount to the codas for extended cuts of the big hits. It feels like the creativity of 60s Motown Soul with a more pop sensibility loses something in the 70s albums. Distant Lover is a great song...unfortunately the best version is widely known not to be the album version but the live version from the Oakland Coliseum. Marvin Gaye is overrated. I love soul music and Marvin Gaye produced some of my favorite jams of all time, but his two most critically acclaimed records have some hits and a lot of mediocre or worse filler. You Sure Love to Ball was a single? It's a little on the nose, even for someone who sided with Jodeci in the Jodeci vs. Boys II Men debate. One hit, one good song done better live and mediocrity or worse after.
Tracy Chapman
1/5
Fast Car is the career defining hit. It's a good song and was sampled to perfection by Nice & Smooth on Sometimes I Rhyme Slow. These are truly depressing lyrics. Tracy Chapman hates America. This is so overtly political it's boring. It's like getting a lecture rather than listening to music. She could take a lesson from Bob Dylan on how to do this. Baby Can I Hold You is better...just a love song, a nice change. Right back to the lesson on how everything sucks. Capitalism is bad, rich people are bad.
5/5
Iconic album cover. It seems odd to me how many title tracks lead off albums but maybe that's the norm. I always liked With a Little Help from My Friends, Ringo never got enough credit. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is the most listened to track off this album which seems crazy to me, definitely not the best song. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, With a Little Help from My Friends, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Getting Better is an amazing start to an album, insane run. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! however is not. The carnival theme isn't doing it for me. I get it, you went to India. When I'm Sixty Four has that daily story songwriting like in Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, they have a number of songs like that including She's Leaving Home on this album. A Day in the Life is the big finale. It's the best song on the album. End of album shenanigans? Come on Beatles, you're better than this gimmicky crap. I'm sure every band that does this now looks to this album for inspiration. The problem is that they are not the BEatles and haven't earned it.
The Doors
4/5
Roadhouse Blues is the lead track and the big single. The Doors reigned when there were still album rock groups, before everything became driven by hit singles. In the immortal, made-up words of Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, "The Doors? Jim Morrison? He's a drunken buffoon posing as a poet." I had a conception that I didn't really like The Doors but this is better than I was expecting. Peace Frog is better than Roadhouse Blues. Spoke too soon, Morrison has to drop so slam poetry in the middle of the song. Blue Sunday is terrible. Land Ho! is the best song on this album. Indian Summer delivers exactly what it promises, melancholy. This album was better than I'd expected, more blues rock and less psychedelic. Also less intrusive electric piano.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Simon & Garfunkel are storytellers. America is a great song. Popular folk music hit its peak right around this album's release in 1968. Paul Simon does breakup songs better than anyone. Come on Simon & Garfunkel, found sound? Voices of Old People has no business on this record. It's the lead in to Old Friends, but it brings the album to a screeching halt. Bookends Theme starts the album and ended the first side of the album....clever. Punky's Dilemma feels like the song that launched Flight of The Conchords. That, or Paul Simon was bored during breakfast one morning. Mrs. Robinson in its original context. It's hard not to picture Dustin Hoffman doing The Graduate things this song is so tied to the movie. The first side of the album is generally better but Mrs. Robinson is a great song and anchors the second side.
Sonic Youth
3/5
Sonic Youth is the bridge between punk and grunge.
Or like a harder version of the Pixies. You can definitely hear both in their music. Rage Against the Machine's Testify has the same sound as Drunken Butterfly. I wonder if the producers of The Crow or Judgement Night asked them to just do the whole soundtrack for their films. You can hear their influence in a million different songs. Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit is just Kim Gordon yelling and I could do without that. This album is losing steam. I like the less punk songs better. Chapel Hill is one of the better songs on the album though. Creme Brulee is starting off on the wrong foot with all the distorted sounds.
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
I have never really liked the Smashing Pumpkins so I'm not going into this with high expectations. Cherub Rock is ok. Unfortunately, that's one of the songs I thought I liked going into this. I think it's Billy Corgan's voice that I hate so much. The music isn't awful, standard 90s alternative, but his voice is annoying. A lot of songs from this album got radio play. That definitely doesn't mean they are good, but this was a popular album. Disarm is the hit and I hate it. Another long album. If you ask AI to make a "90s alternative album", this is what it would spit out. Mayonaise is the best song on the album. No, the best song is Space Boy. The second half of this album is better, the album tracks are much better than the singles.
Eels
2/5
I remember when this album came out. My friend Scott Hale got it and we listened to it playing video games at his house and it sucked. They sound like a Flaming Lips cover band. Novocaine for the Soul was the hit and it's terrible. Susan's House is another dud. Tape recorded talking over the music is not creative, it's lazy. This is not what makes art. I'm tired and this album is not helping. This looks like a solid 1 so far. There has not been a decent song on this album yet. It's like Beck if he sucked. I hope they had to pay Giorgio Moroder royalties for Mental because they totally ripped off the bassline. Another song that could very easily be a Flaming Lips song, Spunky. This album is terrible. Your Luck Day in Hell is the best song on the album and it's not that good.
Elastica
3/5
There is definitely a Pixies vibe to this. Connection is the hit. I'm not hating this. This sounds very mid-90s, Pixies, Primus, Garbage...there's something very time specific about them. Indian Song...that's super racist. This is deteriorating fast. This feels more like the discount Pixies than contemporaries now. I bet the xx love these guys. Vaseline is needlessly silly.
Faith No More
1/5
This guy's voice is annoying. This is like a rejected Singles soundtrack audition. Epic, the Red Hot Chili Peppers rip off hit. The "rapping" is terrible. It's hard to believe this song got as big as it did. The "What is it?" chorus evil snake wizard voice is so silly combined with the rapped lyrics. Melancholy piano closer to cap it all off. Falling to Pieces was another single off this album and it sucks too. All the NuMetal bands should send these guys a fruit basket because they are the original NuMetal band. They did it first and maybe did it worst. Zombie Eaters goes in a totally different direction, this is their Silent Lucidity I guess. Queensrÿche sucked too. And it's made worse by the rapping somehow. This is a joke. This album is both annoyingly bad and completely forgettable at the same time. The Morning After is the title song to a terrible 80s movie. The lead singer is butchering War Pigs. Leave it to the professionals fellas. Edge of the World sounds like a bad hotel lounge act.
Yes
1/5
Roundabout is the big hit, which I thought was by Supertramp. The guitar part of this song is the same as the melody to Love Machine by The Miracles. And now I can't hear anything else. Prog Rock sucks. This song goes on forever, eight and a half minutes. At least the remainder of the album is relatively short since this is sucking up all the air on it. Cans and Brahms is so pretentious. Reminds me of ELP's Pictures at an Exhibition "cover". We Have Heaven is the most annoying round I've ever heard. And now some radio show door slamming and walking sound effects. Every song on the album sounds like I've Seen All Good People but worse. Three song of 8 minutes or more and short, filler tracks in between. This is one of the worst albums I've ever heard. South Side of the Sky is insufferable. Rush heard this and thought, "We can suck too." Five per Cent for Nothing is only 37 seconds long and might be the most annoying track on the album. It sounds like the start of a Primus song. These guys couldn't be more pretentious, The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) is literally them using a Latin name for the number of syllables but trying to sound smart. And closed out with an eleven-and-a-half minute drag.
Run-D.M.C.
5/5
Peter Piper, classic Run-DMC. Rap before gangsta rap was like a whole different genre. It's hard to pick a favorite Run-DMC song, but It's Tricky is definitely a contender. Peter Piper, It's Tricky, My Adidas and Walk This Way is the best four song start to any album. That's crazy. Walk This Way could be two bands' best song. Is It Live is so clearly produced by Rick Rubin they could have called it "Rick Rubin Was Here". It actually sounds super derivative of another Rubin song, "She's Crafty" by the Beastie Boys, or maybe the Beastie Boys song is the derivative one, they both came out in 1986. The singles are great, most of the album tracks are great, this is a great album.
Pink Floyd
1/5
This is much more straight 60s psychedelica than what Pink Floyd would become. I like it much less. Lucifer Sam sounds like the theme song for a British TV show of the era. This is like bad, corny Beatles psychedelic rock. Pow R. Toc H.'s chattering is annoying. This reminds me of something I can't place. The switching audio channels is giving me a headache, like when the front windows in a car are rolled up but the rear windows are rolled down. This is like if Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sucked. Give me 70s Floyd any day over this. And to end....some found sound. Just like the Beatles, what a terrible rip off. I just realized some of this album sounds like Robert Wyatt....no thanks.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Great song to kick off the album. An all time great soul song. THis came out the same year Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell were singing Ain't No Mountain High Enough....Motown is overrated. There's a reason they call Aretha the Queen of Soul. Drown in My Own Tears is another great song. I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) is the best Aretha song and arguably the greatest soul song of all time. I love this song. Everything is perfect about this song, the organ, the horns, her voice. The Muscle Shoals sound at its peak. Motown is R&B, this is Soul. This album is amazing. There isn't a single miss on this whole album. Save Me has the same bass line as Gloria and I love it. A Change Is Gonna Come is better when Sam Cooke does it, but the cover is ok. This album is super highly regarded and it's still not high enough.
Cyndi Lauper
1/5
Cyndi Lauper's voice is annoying, but her singing voice is 1000x better than her speaking voice. The beginning of Money Changes Everything sounds like INXS' Don't Change. RIP Captain Lou Albano. Girls Just Want to Have Fun makes me think of the Goonies because it sounds so much like the song she did for the movie. It's a catchy song. This sounds like the music that would be playing at the prom in an 80s movie. Time After Time is a good song. Definitely Cyndi Lauper's best and maybe the best New Wave song ever. Followed up by one of the worst songs ever, She Bop. All Through the Night is another single you hear in things. If this is some of the best New Wave has to offer, I'll pass. And now some ska inspired crap! I'll Kiss You is bad. And now some Betty Boop inspired nonsense. That should have been the title of the album.
Tom Waits
1/5
A double album, lots of ambient noise, spoken word...this is not getting off to a great start. In my mind, I like Tom Waits...but this is just him talking...it's closer to a Mitch Hedberg album. Finally some singing on Better Without A Wife. There is just so much album. And now an eleven-and-a-half minute song. This is not a relaxing listen. I'm counting down the minutes until this album is over. Warm Beer and Cold Women is the best song to this point, not a hard bar to cross, but it's good. Each "song" is mostly the same. Nobody is an improvement. I like jazz trios but there's something pretentious and phony about this album.
MGMT
4/5
Time to Pretend is a great song, it deserves to be a hit. I think the lyrics also do a great job of capturing the zeitgeist too, #YOLO. These guys sound like the group LCD Soundsystem was talking about in Losing My Edge. There's a Rick and Morty music vibe about these guys, maybe it's just both are of the same era. Seriously, The Youth sounds like it was lifted out of a Rick and Morty episode...has anyone checked to see if this album syncs with the show? Electric Feel was the other big hit. Jamiroquai definitely influenced these guys, dance electronic funk. LCD Soundsystem probably as well. This album is catchy. I remember liking this album when it came out, I think it might have just come out at the right time. It feels like an album that is speaking to its generation, probably in the same way albums often talk to their generation and say the same thing but think they are only talking to their peers. I bet these guys love Beck. Not sure if I love or hate The Handshake. Future Reflections has a familiar sound but I can't place it.
Nick Drake
5/5
Pink Moon is a beautiful song. Place to Be is another great song. He has a haunting voice. Probably because he had so little output compared to so many singer-songwriters, but Nick Drake is tragically underrated. The songs are so short they really leave me wanting more at the end. This is a beautiful album, an album full of these little beautiful clouds that dissipate as soon as you try to grab hold of them. I'm surprised Zach Braff hasn't scored one of his movies with just this album. It feels like something is going on with the guitar on Know, almost like the strings weren't quite tight. From the Morning is such a nice way to end the album. It's just an album of Nick Drake singing and playing guitar. I wish there was more, more songs, longer songs, something.
Adele
5/5
Looking at this album, I'm reminded of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill. There were a million singles off the album and all of them were hits that you could not escape. Rolling in the Deep is a great song. Rumour Has It is another great song. Turning Tables wasn't as big a hit as the other singles off this album, but it's terrific too. Don't You Remember is the first album track. She just kills everything she does. Set Fire to the Rain was huge and it's one of my least favorite Adele songs. He Won't Go is one of the best songs on the album. One and Only is another amazing song that was not released as a single. Joss Stone listens to Adele and wonders what could have been. I've forgotten how good some of these songs that weren't released as single were. Lovesong is not as successful a cover as Make You Feel My Love from 19. Someone Like You is another great song. Adele can convey hurt without sounding weak better than anyone. The whole album is a great reflection on two people moving in different directions, the hurt, the anger, the coping, the coming to terms with what happened. Someone Like You is a perfect encapsulation of the whole album.
Scissor Sisters
3/5
The premier "gay" album of all-time. Take Your Mama Out is a great song. I wouldn't recognize Comfortably Numb as the Pink Floyd song and, even though I'm not a big Pink Floyd fan, I know this is much worse. This album is the alternate soundtrack for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Lovers In the Backseat sounds like a reimagining of She Blinded Me With Science. You can't see tits on the radio should have been my Senior quote. You hope for more from the song based on the title. Filthy/Gorgeous was the second single....that's a pretty big drop from Take Your Mama Out, still the second best song on the album so far. Everything after Filthy/Gorgeous is too much of a change from the feeling of the album up to that point. Old glam rock is better than new glam rock.
Nina Simone
5/5
I Love Your Lovin' Ways is a great R&B song. Four Women is as dramatic a shift in tone and content from I Love Your Lovin' Ways as is possible. What More Can I Say then moves to this jazzy song full of longing. It has the same feel as I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) vibe. She does this so well. I have to relisten to Jeff Buckley's Grace because he covered Lilac Wine on it and I like this version and it feels very memorable and I have no memory of that version. The selection of songs doesn't seem to have a lot of rhyme or reason, no real theme to the album, almost like a greatest hits. Wild is the Wind is amazing, an all-time great song. Her voice has such a sense of yearning in it, you can feel her in the song. Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair is one of her most famous songs, not my favorite. Her piano playing is great as well. It's amazing how some artists can pull off just their voice and an instrument. Either Way I Lose is strange but I like it. An eclectic album from an eclectic personality.
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/5
Band on the Run is like three songs rolled into one. It's too bad the "If I Ever Get Out of Here" part wasn't more developed because I always loved that part of the song. British people love ska music, you can hear it's influence everywhere. Band on the Run is much better than the other "hit", Jet. I do like Paul McCartney's voice, that still sounds good. Mrs. Vanderbilt is the best song so far. Paul's right, what's the use of worrying. Let Me Roll It is good too. The title track is overrated and everything else is better than I anticipated based on only knowing that song from this album. Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me), and the reprice of Jet buried in it, is another song with two really disparate parts, the difference is I like both of these parts better. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five is a good song to end the album on.
Can
1/5
A 40 minute album with 4 songs....not an auspicious beginning. This sucks, I can tell one minute in this is going to be a one star album. Background noise and accordion on an album?!? It's too good to be true. I bet they used Future Days as placeholder music for the theme music of PeeWee's Playhouse. This is more like a jazz album than anything. If your album/band has the following words often associated with it I am probably not going to like it: experimental, avant garde, art, noise, found sound. This is still not the worst thing I've heard, at least the second song is mostly music, but it is still terrible. Moonshake is the best song simply because it's the only song under 8 minutes. It is also the best song anyway. Bel Air is like the soundtrack to a detective-themed porn movie from the 70s. No one actually likes this. These guys heard Sun Ra and thought he was a little too weird.
The Auteurs
3/5
This sounds like the 90s version of T. Rex, modern glam rock. Glam rock voice, standard 90s alternative music. They sound like Death Cab for Cutie. This feels like a band that wanted to be Oasis very badly. This is Death Cab for Cutie's favorite band. Meh. This isn't terrible, but neither is it memorable, no real highlights or lowlights. The last song is like two songs.
Steely Dan
1/5
Music critics love Steely Dan and I'm paying the price. Rikki Don't Lose That Number is the hit off this album and maybe one of their biggest hits. Night By Night sounds like porn music. Any Major Dude Will Tell You is one of the stupidest titles of a song ever. This album may have launched easy listening as a genre. They say these guys aren't technically "yacht rock" but if that's the case I'm not sure what yacht rock is. These guys make The Eagles look like Megadeth. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo is terrible, Walter Becker and Donald Fagan are the most fart-sniffingly pretentious "rock" musicians ever. They want to travel the Southland in a traveling minstrel show? Maybe they could play East St. Louis Toodle-Oo?!? This album is short and feels like it goes on forever. Rock musicians, but particularly rock musicians I don't like, love cowboy themed music.
The 13th Floor Elevators
2/5
You can hear the surf rock roots of psychedelic rock in You're Gonna Miss Me. The noise in Roller Coaster is super distracting. It's like the worst possible use of the organ in Baba O'Riley. This was the first band to designate themselves as "psychedelic rock"...thanks for nothing. Amplified jug is the instrument driving me insane. They had an "amplified juggist". I bet Daniel Johnston loved this band, not only does his music sound like theirs, they are both from Austin. Confirmed, he did a 13th Floor Elevators cover on his biggest album. Janis Joplin and the lead singer of this band have a similar wail. I'll bet Big Brother and the Holding Company heard them and thought they could do the same thing, only with a woman as the lead singer. Monkey noises on Monkey Island, I guess it delivers what it promises.
AC/DC
5/5
Hells Bells is a great into to this album. Hells Bells sound a lot like church bells, I'd think that's the last thing Satan would want to hear. I understand the criticism of all AC/DC songs sounding the same, at least their repetitive sounds awesome. Also, thematically very consistent as highlighted by Let Me Put My Love Into You. They say write what you know so I think it's safe to say these guys know women, partying and rock and roll, in some kind of order. There are a lot of AC/DC's greatest hits on this album. Hells Bells, Back In Black, You Shook Me All Night Long, Have a Drink on Me and Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution....that's a good lineup of singles. AC/DC and ZZ Top feel like mirror images of each other, one is more rock and from Australia and the other is more bluesy and from Texas. All I know is I like them both. Brian Johnson is like the poor man's Robert plant. Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution is an underrated AC/DC song.
David Bowie
2/5
There is a lot of Bowie on this list. This is definitely not glam rock. Heroes is the hit, one of his biggest over a career with so many. It is a good song with great lyrics. Sons of the Silent Age is a major come down off the high of Heroes. But there's something very familiar to David Bowie's music, a thread that runs from Space Oddity through Blackstar. It feels a little bit like he was ahead of trends, creating them maybe even, glam and new wave jump out. That might explain why he's such a critical darling, every critic who liked a particular genre of music can look back and see Bowie as one of the pioneers. Or maybe everything he's ever done is just a different version of "art rock" which is the rock music critic equivalent of a bunch of bananas to a troop of monkeys. Back-to-back instrumentals is starting to lose me. Now, back-to-back-to-back, I'm out. This is two albums. One is decent. The other is terrible. One side is a Bowie album. The second side is a Brian Eno record and Brian Eno albums are not good. The Secret Life of Arabia is like a disco song an idiot wrote.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
5/5
Combination of the Two is great. This is psychedelic rock I can get behind. Feels like it could have been a Wilson Pickett song. I Need a Man to Love lets Janis Joplin's voice shine. There are better versions of Summertime, it's not terrible, but i don't love it. Piece of My Heart is the hit from the album. Albums used to be a thing so it makes sense that there weren't a bunch of singles off this album, but I think there are better songs on the album. Blues/psychedelic rock is the best psychedelic rock. I guess if I have a complaint it's the phony crowd noise. This is the yacht rock challenge, is music in its purest form live in front of a crowd or in a studio? A glass breaking is too much. I do really like Turtle Blues though. Oh, Sweet Mary is more straight psychedelic music, it could be a Jefferson Airplane or Doors song. All of these San Francisco bands have a similar sound. 5 blues songs and two psychedelic songs, that's a more palatable way to take some acid rock. Ball and Chain is maybe a mix too. Janis just makes everything feel like a blues song, gone too soon. There's a definite Screamin' Jay Hawkins vibe to this.
Donald Fagen
1/5
I.G.Y is the most 80s song imaginable...and I'm realizing that the crappy 80s pop song is basically all Steely Dan's fault. This is like if Huey Lewis and News lost their edge, which is really saying something. The synth on this is overwhelming...this is like if 80s Stevie Wonder was a middle aged white man. Rock critics, even when it's just one guy, they can't keep their boner down for Steely Dan. This is just a Steely Dan album without Walter Becker, sounds the same, same vibe. It was the 80s because the music has a Michael Jackson feel as well. This is awful, this album makes Steely Dan look like the Rolling Stones. Thankfully this album is less than 40 minutes long. Maxine is one of the worst songs I've ever heard. If someone told me this was a joke album I would believe it. This is like Randy Newman with synthesizers. The Goodbye Look sounds like the marimba setting on a keyboard. Seriously, Walk Between Raindrops has a preset melody from a keyboard too. I bet Donald Fagen programmed all of them. This is aggressively white music.
The The
1/5
This is going to be a long 42 minutes. New Wave music sucks. I think this is the soundtrack to a crappy 80s movie. Yeah, America is the UK's bully, America sucks, fuck the US, message received. Sweet Bird of Truth is terrible. Every UK band from 1978 until 1991 was ska influenced. Twilight of a Champion is the worst song so far, and that is saying something on this album. This is a terrible album. If an American did this list, it would look very different.
Television
3/5
The lead singer's voice is not great, but I like this. They kind of remind me of Talking Heads. Marquee Moon is a good listen. I don't have a lot of thoughts on this album...it feels very average. I bet The Eels loved the song Guiding Light...something about it reminds me of their album. There's a similarity to the Clash I can't put my finger on with these guys. Torn Curtain is maybe the best song on the album, strong ending.
Julian Cope
1/5
This is like the serious version of Flight of the Conchords. This guy is the lead singer from The Teardrop Explodes, another terrible album on this list. East Easy Rider and Promised Land are improvements. It's growing on me. Safesurfer is both the best song and the worst song at the same time. Is that possible? The sci-fi noises are not adding to the song. This is like a shitty Oasis album. The length of this album is a major issue. It doesn't feel like a coherent album either. Lenny Bruce clips set to vaguely reggae music probably felt edgy at one time. You sounds like the music to a cheesy spy series from the 60s. Not Raving but Drowning is the best song, the music is actually pretty cool, but the lyrics are nonsense. Jemaine Clement definitely loves Julian Cope. Urge Overkill too. This album cannot end soon enough.
Bee Gees
2/5
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is the hit and was an even bigger hit for Al Green. Not disco Bee Gees is not great. Israel is better than How You Can Mend a Broken Heart. It's funny that the difference between a hit song and an album track is someone choosing what is going to be a single. Easy listening 70s hits are just not for me. Remembering sounds like the soundtrack to the animated Hobbit. It feels like an Australian critic needed to get some Bee Gees albums on the list because this feels like a collection of derivative songs. You can hear echoes of the Beatles, clearly, but also Bowie and The Who. Trafalgar could have been off Sgt. Pepper's and I wouldn't have known it wasn't the Beatles. This is not good. There's a pop folk vibe running through some of these songs (When Do I) that sounds like the guy playing guitar on the stairs in Animal House. Where is Bluto when you need him? This isn't torture like some of the albums rated as ones, but it is also not very good in it's own special way. Walking Back to Waterloo is one of the best songs on the album, solid closer for a bad album.
Meat Loaf
1/5
This is the music the Rock Horror Picture Show people rejected for the actual show. Rock musical music is exactly the genre Meat Loaf resides in. That people in the 70s and then the 90s took this seriously, and that it made this list, makes me question humanity. The intro to You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) is like the dialogue from a werewolf musical too! I hate musicals and rock musicals especially. This is one of the worst albums I've ever heard. And now stupid baseball play-by-play as part of one of the most overrated songs ever performed. Eight and a half minutes of terrible, corny rock about having sex in a car. This is the worst album that is not made up of noises and sounds.
Carole King
3/5
I Feel the Earth Move was a hit for her off this album. She does have a sultry voice. So Far Away was another big song off this album. My mom loves Carole King, maybe I never gave this a fair shake, it's certainly better than I thought it was going to be. She's like folk Janis Joplin, they both have very soulful voices. This is a pretty solid start, It's Too Late was another huge song for her. Home Again is maybe the best song so far though. This album is good, bordering on great. And there's You've Got a Friend...I like this much better than James Taylor's version. The back half of the album isn't quite as good as the first half, but still much better than I anticipated. This is a "cover" because The Shirelles did it first, but she wrote it...so I'm not sure if that counts. Not going to lie though, The Shirelles did it better. I'm thinking the same is going to be true of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. The title track leaves something to be desired. Aretha did it better.
Dennis Wilson
2/5
Like a blue-eyed soul Beach Boys....it is scratching some of my itches. I bet this is Billy Joel's favorite album. What's Wrong.....that title says more than it meant to when it was written. It's better than the worst Beach Boys...but not much. This album is very uneven....even some of the songs. There's a Steely Dan feel to this album that I do not like. It just got really Steely Dan on You and I. This sounds vaguely like every 70s album rolled into one, Joe Walsh now. Pacific Ocean Blues is the best song though. The one thing I'll say is this album is very short.
The Beau Brummels
1/5
From the band name and album cover I was expecting worse, but the first song is defying expectations. Folk/rock/country in some measure, similar to Manassas or CSN or The Flying Burrito Brothers or the Eagles, each with a different level of success. Only Dreaming Now is not as good as Are You Happy? This album is getting worse and worse. Nine Pound Hammer is better. All the songs are short and the album is only 29 minutes long which is a huge plus. This is like psychedelic Simon and Garfunkel, in the worst possible way. Simon and Garfunkel probably stuffed these magic loving dorks into a locker when they saw them. It's like trippy Jim Croce. Only 29 minutes and I'm still counting the seconds until it's over. I don't hate the cover of My Old Kentucky Home.
Björk
2/5
Human Behaviour...strong candidate for the first track off a debut album, although the video came out when I was the MTV age for it so that might be nostalgia talking. This could be a Massive Attack song and I wouldn't know the difference. It sounds like a little Icelandic girl talking over EDM. That said, her voice has an appealing quality to it that I can't put my finger on. Like Someone in Love is a radical departure from everything else on the album, but I like it. I don't love this album but EDM was better when it was "techno", 90s, early 2000s. Aeroplane is more the Bjork I was expecting, not in a good way.
Supergrass
3/5
I am not sure why Supergrass flew below my radar. I was a teen into music when they were popular. Listening to them, I understand better. This is like British Green Day or pop punk Oasis. Alright is familiar but from a commercial. It's not a terrible song. There's nothing great about this album....nothing terrible either, and with this list, that's not nothing. I'm ready to abandon this album with the chipmunk voices on We're Not Supposed To. Time is the best song on the album. No it is not, Sofa (Of My Lethargy) is.
Pet Shop Boys
1/5
Thirty seconds in and this already sounds like every other Pet Shop Boys music ever made. The first song was bad and yet I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing is worse. This album is terrible, at least all of the other albums that are made up of industrial noise, found sound, screaming or gibberish words are trying something...something I don't like, but these guys are trying to make actual popular music and failing miserably. This is like the music from Barney for grown-ups. Kids in their room are creating better AI music than this right now. Closing with an eight minute song is not helping. This might not be the worst album on the list, at least it's "music", but it's close.
Public Enemy
5/5
Chuck D is right, the beats and the rhymes are so dope. Don't Believe the Hype is another great song. There's not a lot of East Coast rap from the late 80s through the mid 90s that doesn't owe a debt of gratitude to Public Enemy. Cold Lampin' with Flavor is better than I remember. I could do without the Terminator X solo song. Louder than a Bomb is the best song on the album so far. Rumpshaker could not be further from Public Enemy, and yet....She Watch Channel Zero?! is the invention of NuMetal! I wish everyone else, other than Rage, had left it alone after this. Night of the Living Baseheads is another great song. Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos is one of the best Public Enemy songs, maybe my favorite, great lyrics. Political hip hop was perfected on this album....every other attempt is still trying to reach these heights.
Garbage
4/5
This is not too bad. I never got into Garbage, but I never hated them either. Queer and Only Happy When It Rains are pretty good. I bet this is Billie Eilish's favorite album. The album tracks are not as good as the hits, but this is surprisingly better than I anticipated. I misjudged this album when it was popular, this is pretty good. I always liked Stupid Girl. The album tracks are better on the back half of the album, Fix Me Now is particularly good. Milk is a little bit of a let down to end the album, a little bit Depeche Mode-like for my taste. But overall a better album than I would have ever expected.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4/5
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young....the original super group? Carry On is a solid opening song. Teach Your Children is in the running for the most overrated songs in history. Followed up with Almost Cut My Hair which is one of the most underrated songs of all time. I heard it on one of those "deep cut Saturday" radio promos and loved it. It is probably my favorite CSNY (or CSN for that matter) song. Neil Young has to center Canada of course. Our House is terrible too. The rock songs are better than the folk songs.
Devendra Banhart
1/5
I do not have high hopes for this album. A lot of short songs though, so that's a plus. This is better than I thought it would be. I like just a man and a guitar. Poughkeepsie is a bad song. I think it was a turning point for this album, everything after it is just getting worse. This is music that takes itself too seriously as music. Even the titles of the songs are pretentious. Tit Smoking in the Temple of Artesan Mimicry is a truly terrible title. It is also the best song on the album. Just cut the outtake, dog, you aren't Bob Dylan. I know you want to sound authentic but it actively works against that because it's so intentional in the context of a studio album, release a live album or a making of album. Oh my god, I took a break in the middle of this and am getting back into this....shockingly bad to jump into again. Even a short album with short songs can seem interminable.
Randy Newman
1/5
It's impossible not to hear the Toy Story theme when Randy Newman opens his mouth. He also apparently loves using the N-word. Every song sounds like if Toy Story got super political about the South in the 70s. This is super political but the goofy delivery makes for a strange combination. Guilty is the best song so far. A lot of songs about the South. It's hard to imagine any of his other albums sounding very different than this one since his film music all sounds exactly like this, but I am curious. Maybe this was his hit album and this New Orleans sound just stuck. The music fits the theme but everything sounds pretty much the same. Maybe he took it too far and couldn't get away from it. I get Kingfish, it's a song about Huey P. Long but it's a song about Richard Nixon. Deep. Not a good album....maybe less aggressively bad than just corny and feeling like it's a critical darling because he was criticizing Nixon through a concept album.
The Velvet Underground
5/5
Sunday Morning is a strong contender for best first track off a debut album. These guys love drugs. They could put this album on repeat on Little Steven's Underground Garage and it wouldn't be out of place. They are like the original breakout garage band. I don't love Nico's voice. I love Venus in Furs great song, one of my favorite Velvet Underground songs. One of the best album tracks ever...but from a time before that was such a big deal. I love blues rock, everyone in the 60s apparently did too. The Nico tracks are the worst on the album. I guess when Andy Warhol produces your album without interfering too much, you give him a win once in a while. On All Tomorrow's Parties, the music is still cool, her voice just gets me out of it. Heroin, another great song. I understand why people in the 50s and 60s thought rock n' roll was the real gateway drug. I feel like a lot of industrial "bands" got their idea from this album as well. The surf music of the early 60s and then psychedelic music is definitely an influence. The back 3/4 of European Son is a long, distorted guitar solo and the only real miss on the album.
Motörhead
4/5
Thinking about it, I may have only ever heard this version of Ace of Spades, what a great song. Not sure how I feel about a band leading off a concert with its biggest hit though. Feels like a mistake. Motorhead is an underrated band. A lot of their songs sound very similar. They make AC/DC look like the BeeGees. Other than Ace of Spades, Overkill is the best song so far. Considering the nature of the music, this is one of the best live recordings I've ever heard. The real stars of this album are the production crew.
4/5
Girl punk! Not what I was expecting from an LA punk band called X. LA band so the Doors influence makes sense. This is like punk lite but not pop punk. I bet the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. love this band. It all sounds good, but it does also all sound the same. The girl singing is better than the guy.
Massive Attack
2/5
I closed this review without saving or rating and I can't get through this album again. Suffice it to say, it was not the worst album I have ever heard and that's about the highest praise I can give it. I have yet to hear a British rapper that made me think that artform should have ever crossed the Atlantic.
Pavement
4/5
Weezer heard this band and thought they could tighten it up and give it a little more pop sensibility. Pavement is the dark side of Wilco. There's a Pixies vibe to this album as well. Cut Your Hair was their hit. It's not a Pixies vibe, it feels more like an homage now. 5-4=Unity steals a bar from Dave Brubeck and I'm here for it, it's a nice departure from the rest of the album that is very much one note. There are some things to like about this album...but it is a lot of the same, track after track. Hit the Plane Down is more grunge than the rest of the album and the worst song on the album. And Wilco is the first band up in the "Because you just listened to Pavement" queue.
Todd Rundgren
1/5
This sounds eerily similar to the Beach Boys' Surf's Up which was not good. You Need Your Head is awful. I wonder how much crappy experimental music can be directly blamed on Frank Zappa. Music critics cream their jeans for any genre that is prefaced with "experimental" or "art". Dogs play fighting with some sci-fi noises and fake laughing...this is not music, it is an idiot playing with audio equipment. Flamingo is actual music and might be worse than Dogfight Giggle. This album could only have become a thing in the era of FM radio playing full albums. Zen Archer is only five and a half minutes long but feels like double that. No one could have ever really liked this album. It's like he challenged himself to see if he could make each song awful in a unique way. SUCCESS! Revisiting the first song on the album on the last track of the side...dumb. The cover medley is probably the best song on the album and still manages to include some truly terrible moments. Just One Victory was a bright spot to close the album out.
Sheryl Crow
4/5
I know heading into this album that All I Wanna Do and Strong Enough are the big hits and that they will likely be the songs I like the least. Run, Baby, Run is a good start. Leaving Las Vegas was a single and it's good too. This album is much better than I remembered. As a 13 year old boy when it came out, I was not the target demographic though. Coldplay totally ripped off the lyrics for The Scientist from No One Said It Would Be Easy. No doubt that All I Wanna Do is the worst song on the album. Everything else is actually a pretty decent album.
Lauryn Hill
5/5
She burned out fast, but she burned bright. Ex-Factor is the second best song on the album. To Zion, the greatest anti-abortion song ever. The speaking interludes I could do without. Doo Wop (That Thing) was the big hit, it's good and the video was cool. Demanding everything with your name on it come with the honorific "Ms." before it is pretentious as hell. There are a lot of R&B/Soul artists who owe a lot to this album...Amy Winehouse not the least of them. Nothing Even Matters with D'Angelo is like the NeoSoul equivalent of Batman and Superman teaming up. D'Angelo makes everything better. You don't realize how bad Frankie Valli sucks until you hear Lauryn Hill do Can't Take My Eyes Off of You, one of the all time great covers. Tell Him ends the album and is another home run.
Dire Straits
2/5
So Far Away from me is a terrific song. So Far Away, Money for Nothing and Walk of Life to start an album is an insane string of hits. Definitely their three biggest songs. Money for Nothing is the best song Sting was ever involved with. Great music video, still holds up as cool. Walk of Life had a great video too, just sports highlights/bloopers. It was a simpler time. Now begins the real test once the popular songs have been listened to and it's just album tracks left. Not a good start with the smooth jazz intro to Your Latest Trick. Mark Knopfler got the job for The Princess Bride Soundtrack based on Why Worry. Nope, three hits and an album of garbage, nonsense mid-80s rock. They could have been the house band in Roadhouse except they aren't gritty enough. Mark Knopfler has a distinct sound, that's not enough to carry an album though.
Sinead O'Connor
3/5
I have low expectations heading into this album. Starting with the Serenity Prayer is adding to my sense that this album is going to take itself way too seriously. I bet this is the album that made Fiona Apple decide she wanted to make music. Bjork too. I Am Stretched On Your Grave is a techno poem. It would be better if the beat and glass breaking sounds were toned down a bit. She does have a lovely Irish voice. Three Babies showcases how great she sounds when it's basically her voice just shining. The Emperor's New Clothes is the most 90s song I've ever heard. It could be the music for the opening titles of a 90s girl power movie. Black Boys on Mopeds is the simple political polemic I was waiting for on this album. And the inescapable hit, Nothing Compares 2 U. Well deserved though. A great song written by Prince and knocked absolutely out of the park here. An album very much of it's time. Other than Nothing Compares 2 U, there are some good songs and some bad songs but it's a decent album as a whole.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
I don't know much Creedence outside of the hits, but I'm liking it so far. Travelin' Band is one of their bigger hits, but I never really liked it. It has a Little Richard cover sound. After Ooby Dooby, there is a truly great run of songs from Lookin' Out My Back Door through the end of the album. CCR is able to be a California band that does the country rock thing authentically...like the exact opposite of the Eagles. Run Through the Jungle is a great song, maybe my favorite Creedence song. My Baby Left Me is the one song that isn't a hit, but it's a decent blues album track. Who'll Stop the Rain is another great song. Normally an 11 minute cover of a soul classic wouldn't normally be something I'd love, but CCR's I Heard It Through the Grapevine is the exception. Long As I Can See the Light is another all-time great Creedence song.
Beatles
3/5
Early pop Beatles is my least favorite Beatles. All My Loving is a great pop song though and is the big hit from this album. There are several covers on this album and Till There Was You is a good example. Please Mr. Postman and Roll Over Beethoven are not as successful. Never cover Chuck Berry unless you happen to go back in time. I know they love Motown, but these are not great covers. Money (That's What I Want) works though and one of their more famous efforts.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
I'm getting the feeling that if you've heard one Neil Young album, you've heard them all. This doesn't seem particularly fresh. A full minute of guitar distortion to end F*!#in' Up is stupid. This is Better Than Ezra's favorite album. Tomorrow is a long, long time if you're a memory is a great line. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem) is not a strong close lyrically or musically.
Doves
3/5
There are too many obscure British bands on this list. Another album involving an old, or maybe "old" tape recording over the music...why is this a thing? These guys heard Radiohead and thought they could be a band too. The spooky vocals on the title track fits but the song still misses. The back half of the album is better. The Man Who Told Everything is good. Also liking The Cedar Room.
Nirvana
3/5
Nirvana is the culmination of post-punk alternative rock from the early 80s until the early 90s. They feel more representative of the musical trends that took rock from punk to grunge than Pearl Jam or Soundgarden. This is better than Nevermind. I also think the album tracks are better than the hits, Herat-Shaped Box and Rape Me. Very Ape is a good album track. All Apologies is a great song, great electric, great acoustic.
New Order
1/5
More New Wave music...this one is like the forerunner of EDM. Thirty seconds in and it feels like an assault on my ears. This is like the poor man's The Cure. The 80s were a dark time. This is like a greatest hits of terrible New Wave music, each song is just the ultimate in 80s music. Mr Disco is one of the worst songs I've ever heard...it's like someone heard video game music, a child's xylophone and techno and thought it was a good idea to combine them. The best that can be said about this album is that it is a forgettable exemplar of New Wave music.
1/5
Brazilian electronic music....what's not to love! Why are there so many Brazilian acts in this list? This sounds like someone put words to the opening notes of the Pee Wee's Playhouse theme song. Electronica is not a genre that I appreciate. The traditional Brazilian samba bits are the best part of the album...makes me envision Carnival. This cannot end soon enough. This is the music of a hipster churrascaria or a nightclub in a mixed income neighborhood or the soundtrack to a Brazilian neo-noir thriller. No one in Brazil could have been asking for this...to paraphrase Hank Hill, they aren't making electronica better, they're making samba worse. Abraco hits like a car alarm with some backwards singing interludes. It continues to get worse from beginning to end.
Radiohead
5/5
I get why people might not like Radiohead. I like them, but I get it. When I am king/You will be first against the wall, I've always loved that line. I hate to say this, and it's probably because I've listened to more Steely Dan in this project than anyone should ever have to, but there's definitely something reminiscent of some Steely Dan. Now I feel terrible. Coldplay heard this album and toned down the weirdness...the result was A Rush of Blood to the Head. This album is the working soundtrack for all Zach Braff's films. Karma Police, great song. No Surprises is an all-time great song. What a beautiful song and a great video too.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
I'm not the biggest Tom Petty fan and Breakdown is one of my least favorite songs. This is folksy in the not good way. This is all building to something, it's not terrible but it's hard to believe this album was their big break. Strangered in the Night is one of the songs that you can hear the Southern Rock label being earned. I like artists that don't have great voices but there is something specific about Tom Petty's voice that grates on the ear. Mystery Man is another song clearly influenced by the Allmans and Skynyrd. And this is what the wait was for....American Girl to close the album. Great song.
Common
5/5
Common is good, great lyrics, a storyteller. I love Like Water for Chocolate. I liked hip hop better when every producer didn't have to put themselves all over everything they touched. There's a lot of Kanye on this album. The sample on Testify gets annoying really quick. He's definitely underrated as a rapper. I like Kanye and him as a guest MC is a good addition. I could do without the John Legend guest spot. I get it, the album title is Be.
Steely Dan
2/5
Looking at the track list, I think this is my favorite Steely Dan album. And Dirty Work is definitely my favorite Steely Dan song. Reelin' In the Years suuuuuucks. This is the worst Steely Dan song. This album is all over the place. I am neither reelin' in the years nor gathering up the time. I don't understand how this got so popular. One great song, one good song and total garbage other than that.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
Bob Marley makes protest music for people who want to chill. I guess that (and his love of weed) explains his popularity amongst white teenagers....I was there once. Every reggae act after him feels like a cover band. This is a good album though. Stop That Train is a great album cut. Some of these songs are hard to tell apart. Baby We've Got A Date (Rock It Baby) has very similar music to Stir It Up. Stir It Up is this album's hit and deservedly so...great music, great lyrics. It's like the Jamaican Sexual Healing.
The Incredible String Band
1/5
I love Bob Dylan and think I hate folk music. There's borrowing from older musical styles, and there's copying a type of music that died out half a millennium ago to appear "creative" or "authentic". This is like the music Hobbits listen to except they aren't real. Wes Anderson loves these dorks. The lead singer sounds like Nico. This is like a gag album. I hope Dynamite Hack or Right Said Fred made the list too. Robert Wyatt probably loves these goofballs too. I bet you could play this over the video for Safety Dance and it would feel like it made sense. Have to love the random water sounds behind all the wizard lyrics on The Water Song. It definitely feels like Led Zeppelin liked this band. The Indian influenced songs are much better than the English ballads. This is insufferable. I spoke too soon on the sitar music.
Tom Waits
2/5
Tom Waits has five albums on this list...that it not a reasonable number. I like this one better than the other two I've heard so far. He does love ambient restaurant noise on his albums. Saving All My Love For You is sweet. Jersey Girl too. There's something great about his love songs. This is definitely the best Tom Waits album so far but there's a reason he's more popular with critics than the general population.
King Crimson
1/5
Enough with the chimes and the steel drum or marimba or whatever. This is going to be a long album. Avant-garde anything is already hard to tolerate and this is more than an hour for eight songs. It can not be said enough, prog rock sucks. This straight up sucks. A 13 minute wordless experimental piece that is continued later is not a good start. These guys must have gotten along great with Pink Floyd. This feels like a never ending procession of psychedelic nonsense music. Les Claypool heard this album and Primus was born. And now some random screeching noises to end the song. This album went out like it came in, terrible.
The Last Shadow Puppets
4/5
The lead singer's voice reminds me of something I can't place. I'm liking the first song so far though. I'm really liking this album. The back half of the album isn't as good as the first half. It's not awful, but worse. The back half, particularly I Don't Like You Anymore and In My Room, sounds like the soundtrack to the Haunted Mansion with slightly creepy organ music, Psycho-esque violins and the vocals. Kind of a Paolo Nutini vibe to this, same time frame. Time Has Come Again is a good song to end the album on.
David Bowie
4/5
One minute of train noises to start a 10 minute first song...not an auspicious beginning. I get it, Station to Station so let's have some train noises. It improves rapidly though, even with more train noises. Golden Years is one of my favorite Bowie songs. Stay is good too, it's a good funk rock album. His Wild Is the Wind suffers by comparison to Nina Simone's. It's growing on me too though. The whole album is kind of a slow build, song by song.
The Smiths
2/5
I'm not sure how I feel about this. It sounds very much like the Smiths, almost to the point of repetitiveness, but also is very different from some of their other albums. The lyrics from Girlfriend in a Coma are so stupid. The album has it's own sound I guess, but everything sounds too much the same within it.
Iggy Pop
5/5
Lust for Life was a big hit...and a way to sell Carnival cruises. Sell out or no, it's a good song. Sixteen is like the Pixies or Dinosaur Jr. ten years before either of them made it big. The Passenger is great. This album is really good. A lot of alternative rock from the late 80s and 90s owes a lot to Iggy Pop and the Stooges. And Iggy Pop clearly owes David Bowie something which is never more clear than on Tonight. Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground too. He kind of sounds like Lou Reed. Fall In Love With Me is another great song, a lot of good album tracks here.
Dr. John
1/5
There are too many Baby Boomer music critics. Dr. John is a one-hit wonder novelty at worst and a niche act at best. Professor Longhair would like a word about who belongs in this list representing the New Orleans sound. This is just psychedelic music from New Orleans in Creole, homegrown World music. I wish this had Right Place Wrong Time on it. I'm counting the minutes until this album is over which is bad for a 33 minute effort. Of course it ends with an almost 8 minute song.
The Temptations
2/5
Barry Gordy was so lazy. All these Motown groups and artists just ran through the same songs over and over again. Marvin Gaye killed I Heard It Through the Grapevine...this version pales in comparison. This album is better than I anticipated. Eddie Kendricks' voice is annoying as hell, he's the Soul Music Frankie Valli. I think I'm just not a fan of Motown soul. It feels over produced or too formulaic or something.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
Get Ready for Love sounds like post-punk if I was going to define it in one song. This is a million times better than The Birthday Party. Hiding All Away is good. I'm liking this so far. He's channeling Elvis a little bit too hard at some spots. I'd say that generally the first album of this double album (why?) is pretty good. Right up until Fable of the Brown Ape. This is an album that appeals to music critics and pretentious college students. While I could do without the random flute, Breathless is the best song on the album. He sounds like Neil Diamond on some of these songs. Neil Diamond, Elvis, Tom Waits...it's all here. Some good songs, some not so good songs.
Harry Nilsson
3/5
From the first notes I can tell this is like another Randy Newman album. Apparently all of these songs are going to be about hating having a regular life...it's like a whole album of Ants Marching. Without You is the hit and it's a cover. It is a good song though. Coconut is so goofy, but I do like it. Goofy is probably the best way to describe this album...still better than Randy Newman. Oh come on now, he did a collaboration album with Randy Newman. Of course they did. Let The Good Times Roll is very Good Old Boys-esque. It's Henry's hallucination music from Goodfellas! Jump Into the Fire is good or does it only seem that way because I associate it with an all time great gangster film?
Ali Farka Touré
1/5
African Blues is worse than American Blues, one song is all it takes for me to know that is true. This is truly like if blues and traditional African/Middle Eastern music had a baby. This is the kind of music you'd find on in a West African restaurant where only rich white people who are looking for "authenticity" eat. There's nothing wrong with the music, it's just more like something decent to have on in the background rather than an album I want to listen to all the way through. The mores blues driven songs are much better. That's not a very high bar to cross though. N'jarou is probably the best song on the album.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
One of the all-time great hip hop acts. If anything highlights the stupidity of the Grammys it is that these guys have zero and Will Smith has four. This is the perfect blending of lyrics, delivery, beats and production. Rap came about after the era of the album was already past, it's definitely a singles driven genre. This is an album though and a great one at that. It has a vibe and style that holds the album together without everything sounding exactly the same. Vibes and Stuff has the same beat as Cypress Hill's Stoned is the Way of the Walk and I am here for it. Check the Rhime is a great song, great beat, great lyrics...perfect. It all builds to Scenario...introducing Busta Rhymes to a major label audience.
Air
4/5
This sounds very much like RJD2. This could have also been the Mad Men theme music. The first song was the best. I'm not disliking this as something that's on over the speaker system at a local bookstore...I'm not sure this is an album I'd put on to just listen to regularly. Ok, I'll give them credit, this would definitely be appropriate music for the bedroom...no lyrics as distraction and a sexy vibe. I'm liking it more and more for what it is. This could be the score to a Bond movie, and I mean that as a compliment. Reminds me of The xx. I could do without all the robot voice singing. I bet these guys are best friends with Daft Punk. A lot of Beth Hirsh guest spots. I'm guessing she's the girlfriend of one of the members of the "band". Honestly though, the songs she's on aren't bad. New Star in the Sky is terrible. Le voyage de Penelope is like a bad Kool and the Gang cover, a terrible homage to Summer Madness.
Ryan Adams
5/5
I could do without the stupid Morrisey argument at the start of the album. It's a shame too because it keeps To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High) off best first track on a debut album consideration. Maybe that's a technical disqualification, but rules are rules. Dylan, Wilco, Elliott Smith...you can hear all of them in this. It's a good start. The Head and The Heart should send him royalty checks the way Robin Thicke and Pharrell have to send Marvin Gaye's no talent kids a check for Blurred Lines because for a minute I thought they might be a side project of Ryan Adams. Damien Rice for that matter too. How is he not more well known? This album is great. Iron and Wine and Ray LaMontagne have a similar sound too.
Sex Pistols
2/5
The quintessential British punk album. Sex Pistols are as famous (more famous?) for their behavior than for their music. I like the Ramones much better. This feels like an album that people liked to own but no one liked to listen to. God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the U.K. are the hits. God Save the Queen is better. These dudes are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore. At least they lived their principles because they could have behaved well enough to make a ton of money and instead decided to just keep being who they were. Billie Joe Armstrong heard this and began affecting his terrible punk accent.
The Doors
3/5
Guarantee you The Doors loved Booker T. & the M.G.'s. I like The Doors more than I thought. Love Her Madly is good. L.A. Woman has its moments too. Mr Mojo Risin is the coolest acronym of anyone's name, I will give Morrison that. I would make everyone call me that instead of the Lizard King. Not loving every song on this album though. The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) is awful. It highlights all of the things I hate about The Doors. Jim Morrison sounding overly serious while he spouts nonsense lyrics and overuse of the organ. Overuse of the Organ sounds like a Limp Bizkit album. Many people love Riders on the Storm. I am not one of them. It's fine.
Antony and the Johnsons
1/5
I normally love blue-eyed soul but this isn't doing it for me. Her voice is just someone imitating Nina Simone. I'm not surprised that music critics had to put this in their list though. The lyrics are more like a lecture than song lyrics. I'm sure they are very personal and meaningful, but there's no depth to the words, everything is on the surface. I'm looking forward to this being over. It's like depressing John Legend. Or depressing Boy George. Fistful of Love is good, there's potential here.
Leonard Cohen
1/5
I don't like Leonard Cohen as much as I thought I did going into this. Everyone talks about is songwriting but I'll take Dylan or Lennon/McCartney or Paul Simon or Carole King over him any day. The Butcher is one of the better songs on the album but that's not much of a hurdle to clear. Tonight Will Be Fine is the best song to close out a not so good album.
Faust
1/5
Krautrock...it's more than just a notification that what you're about to listen to is terrible for Faust...it's also the name of the opening track. I won't lie, this isn't that different from a number of other, non-German, art rock acts, maybe it's even better (for art rock, not in general). 12 minutes of a "sonic landscape" to kick things off, it manages to be both annoyingly repetitive and annoyingly surprising at the same time. The good news is now that it's over I'm a quarter of the way through the album. The only Krautrock I'm interested in is Autobahn. They are really playing with stereo on The Sad Skinhead. Krautrock is apparently just the German word for psychedelic music with found sound and industrial noises. Giggy Smile is the best song so far. The song with the really long German title sucks. This is an awful album. What is a bit of a pain is the random annoying noise over the middle of a song. And a second go at it.
Marty Robbins
2/5
This feels like an album that would have been sold on late night television at one point. This music did not age well, I bet it sounded old six months after it came out. Billy The Kid is super corny. I would have thought El Paso was the big hit but apparently Big Iron is the more popular song from this album. Never mind, it was in Fallout so its got a bunch of listens due to gamers. This album was the definition of meh.
Wilco
5/5
Wilco is an underrated band. I wonder why the Old 97s aren't more famous, they have a definite Wilco vibe. I like Wilco better too though so I guess I'm part of the problem. Good first album of a double album set. It's a lot of Wilco and it's probably a little unfair that I took a break in the middle. Sunken Treasure is a great way to kick off the second album.
Gorillaz
2/5
Damon Albarn with the Gorillaz is better than Damon Albarn with Blur. He has four albums on this list, that's insane. This is a long album. And four songs in it's starting to feel long. Clint Eastwood was the hit and their big break. I remember liking it when it came out but it felt like it was overplayed very quickly. Man Research (Clapper) was cool for about three minutes. Unfortunately it went on for four and a half minutes. Every song seems very internally repetitive. The vocal affectation Albarn is putting on is getting really annoying as the album progresses. Double Bass without the singing is probably the best track on the album. The poorly played flute is not a positive addition to Rock the House. Del The Funky Homosapien is so tied to the Gorillaz that I think of his songs with them first. 19-2000 was the other big hit with the girl from Cibo Matto singing about cool shoeshines. It's still the best song on the album. Followed by a song with the Buena Vista Social Club guy that is easily the worst song on the album. Starshine has Albarn's weird voice on full display and then Slow Country is the same four words over and over again....needless to say the album is continuing to go downhill. And then M1 A1 is some clip of a guy yelling, "Is anyone there?" for almost two minutes. This album is too long. Bong noises, found sound recording of an Asian woman talking about playing an instrument, it all adds up to a terrible song. And ending with a remix of the album's first single. Jamaican guy talking, sped up, stripped down music, dance hall rapping...I don't love the original but this is worse.
Jeru The Damaja
4/5
The discordant piano on D. Original is very prominent. He's got a really cool flow, I'm liking the lyrics a lot. I would have believed it if someone told me this was a Cannibal Ox album. Wu Tang beat this guy to the Kung Fu references though, this guy is not straight from the slums of Shaolin. Da Bichez is a great song, if a little dated lyrically. It's almost unbelievable now that at one point this would have been one of the more respectful songs in hip hop related to women. This guy is a great lyricist and the beats are definitely unique, but the marital arts references definitely seem like he wanted to cash in on Wu Tang's vibe. I'm sure there's a million posts online about how he predicted 9/11 with the album cover and the line, "'Cause I blow up spots like the World Trade Center," but it was bombed in 1993. This album is very much of its time and place. It feels a little bit Wu Tang, very Tribe Called Quest. It's good though, the execution is good because he's got a great flow. He also reminds me of Pete Rock.
Black Sabbath
4/5
To paraphrase Nuke LaLoosh, War Pigs announces this album's presence with authority. War Pigs and Paranoid are so insistent that Planet Caravan is a real shock. Iron Man is a great song...and Busta Rhymes turned it into This Means War which is also good. I could do without British people pissing and moaning about Vietnam. You didn't have to fight, you didn't lose loved ones there. I don't see the British writing a bunch of antiwar songs about the Falklands War.
Tom Waits
2/5
Tom Waits is just not my cup of tea. I'm guessing Tom Waits' favorite writer is Hunter S. Thompson. I just don't get all the circus organ music in these experimental albums, it's not a popular instrument for a reason. The old hobo music act wears thin pretty quickly. The spoken word Frank's Wild Years is the best song so far. The album gets better as it goes on but not by much.
Sam Cooke
4/5
Sam Cooke, good. Too much crowd noise on a live album, not good. I bet this was a hell of a show though. He's got such a distinctive voice. After listening to 70s Marvin Gaye albums in this project, something might be said for 60s R&B. Cupid is a great R&B song. Advising your audience not to hit their wives is a solid move. Twistin' The Night Away was one of his bigger hits...I prefer Cupid or A Change is Gonna Come. Bring It On Home to Me is another great song. A good album by a legend.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
She has a beautiful, soulful voice. She's a wonderful interpreter of songs, like Frank Sinatra. Mockingbird is a terrible song. Twenty-Four Hours from Tulsa almost tricked me into believing it was Down in the Boondocks. Anyone Who Had a Heart is a good album track...it reminds me of something I can't put my finger on. Will You Love Me Tomorrow is a great song. I'm sure she gets judged nowadays as a cultural appropriator because of all the R&B songs she covered. Every female blue-eyed soul act owes this woman their career, Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone, all of them.
The Fall
1/5
Three The Fall albums out of 1,001. I really hate music critics. This guy heard the Clash and thought he could do exactly the same thing. No Xmas for John Quays is the worst song so far. Maybe the less said about this the better.
Air
4/5
The first score on the list. It feels like Sofia Coppola would have gotten Elliott Smith to do the first song if she could have. It seems a little odd and against the spirit of the project to include scores or soundtracks, same with compilations or greatest hits. As a score, I really like it. As a popular music album, I like it less. This works because I've seen the film, I'm not sure this stands by itself. Dead Bodies is the best track on the album.
Talking Heads
3/5
I like Talking Heads more than I thought I would. They're right on the edge of "too weird". Of the two weird goofball bands from this era, I like them better than Devo. I like Fear of Music better so far. David Byrne's delivery is so distinctive that it sometimes makes all the songs feel like one big piece rather than separate songs. Stay Hungry is not a good song. The basslines sound like the 80s, Blondie and the Pretenders. The cover of Al Green's Take Me to the River isn't as good as the original, but I love a totally unique cover over even a really well done approximation of the original. And they lose me with the snobby as fuck lyrics to The Big Country.
Coldplay
5/5
These guys were "the biggest band in the world" for a few years after this album came out. And, much like U2 before them, people immediately began dumping on them and anyone who liked them. This is timely because they're in the news again because their concert kiss cam caught a CEO and his VP of HR having an affair. They are like post-Radiohead U2. This is a great album, I don't know why people hate on them...maybe they just got too big. Three solid songs to open the album and I haven't even gotten to my favorite Coldplay song yet. The Scientist is a beautiful song. Clocks was a hit but I never really liked it but listening now, it is much better than I remember. Even the worst songs on this album aren't unlikeable. This album is consistently good with one standout hit. That's pretty good. The back half of the album is decidedly worse than the first half. The title track is a good one though. This is a really good album.
Van Halen
4/5
Jump is overrated and Panama is probably more associated with strip club floor routines than anything else. These dudes are horny. Drop Dead Legs is a good album track. Hot for Teacher is the best song on the album, there's a ZZ Top vibe to it. I'll Wait is good even though I don't usually like the futuristic laser keyboards.
Billie Holiday
2/5
Ella Fitzgerald is the superior vocalist. I'm actually finding her voice kind of grating. The songwriting so far is not nearly as corny as the Gershwins. I really don't understand her popularity.
N.W.A.
4/5
Straight Outta Compton is another strong contender for best first track off a debut album. This was Gangsta Rap's big break. Fuck Tha Police is another great song. Ice Cube is by far the best MC in NWA. Dre's style is so different in each phase of his career. If It Ain't Ruff has an awesome beat. Express Yourself is Dre's chance to rap. This is like the Ice Ice Baby sample where it's just lifted almost whole cloth from the original. I love that rappers in the 80s. even gangsta rappers were claiming they didn't smoke weed. Compton's N The House - Remix is hilarious in it's use of the words "wacky wack" over and over to dis other rappers being "wacky wack". I Ain't Tha 1 is the NWA version of the Beastie Boys Girls. The numbers in song titles dates this album. Something 2 Dance 2 is a throwback to Dre's Worldclass Wrecking Crew days.
Beatles
5/5
A double album?!? Not a promising start. Back in the U.S.S.R. is a good start though. Every track on this album has its own Wikipedia page, that's insane. Dear Prudence is a good album track. Even as they were falling apart, they had some playful songs. While My Guitar Gently Weeps is my favorite Beatles song, I wonder if that has anything to do with Clapton on lead guitar? Happiness is a Warm Gun is another great song. I love Blackbird. Rocky Raccoon vacillates between goofy and melancholy and it works perfectly. Julia is a beautiful song. The album is good if a little uneven. Going from Julia to Birthday as someone changed the records must have been a shock. Helter Skelter is the most overrated Beatles song of all time which puts it in the running for most overrated songs ever. Revolution 1 is good, Revolution 9 is awful. I wonder how many bands that loved the Beatles turned to these stupid "found sound" songs/albums because of this song. Good Night is the totally incongruous end to a pretty incongruous album.
The Verve
2/5
Apparently in the UK the Verve were not a one-hit wonder. This is better than Urban Hymns. They feel like a band very much of the Oasis era. There's something very whiny about this, like they took the angst from grunge but forgot to take the garage band sound that made it feel authentic. This album definitely feels like it is of a time. Maybe I don't like it better than Urban Hymns. This album is depressing enough to put on when you're feeling low, but not good enough to have it scratch that itch. A lot of longer songs too. You aren't the storytellers you think you are, The Verve. Drive You Home just drags on with repeated lyrics. This album isn't bad, but it goes on too long. A boring 6 minute pseudopsychedelic instrumental track to end the album.
Sly & The Family Stone
2/5
This could be a Stevie Wonder album. Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey probably felt to parents in 1969 like gangsta rap felt to my dad in 1989, but just repeating shocking lyrics is like that song on the Limp Bizkit album where Fred Durst says "fuck" 1,000 times. I like some funk. I don't love this though. Somebody's Watching You sounds like a song from Sesame Street, and not in a good way. A lot of this album has been sampled, especially Sing a Simple Song. And Everyday People is a Toyota commercial. There are not many 13 minute songs that work. Sex Machine is definitely not one of them. It may, however, be the soundtrack to Fritz the Cat.
Joni Mitchell
2/5
All I Want seemed like a promising start...and then My Old Man dashed them. I just found Fiona Apple's favorite album. This is, by a HUGE margin, the best Joni Mitchell album I've heard so far. River is a good song, but that Butterfly Kisses asshole totally ripped it off. And he won a Grammy! I don't like Joni Mitchell, but she's 1000x the artist that clown is. Rolling Stone ranked this as the third best album of all time in 2020 proving that their list is equally stupid as this project.
The Crusaders
2/5
I have never really liked the title track. They're from Houston though so I'll cut them some slack. I like My Lady better than Street Life. It sounds like black Kenny G. Or high quality porno music. This album is the soundtrack to 80s Richard Pryor movies, all of them.
Foo Fighters
5/5
This Is a Call is in the running for best first track off a debut album. Big Me was the big hit. People's minds must have been blown when the drummer from Nirvana became the guitarist of Foo Fighters. I was never really got into Foo Fighters but I'm kind of regretting that. This is pretty good. Good album tracks, I really like For All the Cows. Surprisingly good, Exhausted is a great finish.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Purple Haze immediately jumps to one of the main contenders for best first track off a debut album, it might be his best song. May This Be Love is good, feels like a different brand of Jimi Hendrix. I bet the Allman's loved it. My only complaint is some of these 60s bands playing with the stereo recording too much. The album tracks are great. Stevie Ray Vaughn owes Hendrix a career, two legends lost before their time. Third Stone From the Sun loses me a little bit, I like the jazzy feel, but the altered vocals, I wonder if Yello got the idea for Oh Yeah from this song, guitar distortion and silly Hendrix poem lose me. The Allman's definitely lifted part of this song though, maybe just in Mountain Jam, but it's like note for note. I never really loved Foxey Lady, it is a little corny. Are You Experienced? on the other hand is my favorite Hendrix song.
Jorge Ben Jor
2/5
It's in Portuguese so it's starting off on the wrong foot...but aside from the language barrier, it's pretty good. It starts leaning into its Brazilian-ness pretty quickly. Taj Mahal is like samba and funk and disco had a three way and no one knows who the real father is. This feels like an untapped gold mine for a DJ.
The Libertines
4/5
This reminds me of something I can't place. As far as turn of the century pop rock goes, this isn't bad. This could have gone on one of those early 2000s teen comedy soundtracks. It's like The Strokes lite. I like it so far. The political songs, Arbeit Mach Frei and Campaign of Hate, have some of the most ham-fisted lyrics I've ever heard...they make Tracy Chapman seem subtle.
Arcade Fire
4/5
I think Arcade Fire is one of the most overrated bands but I do like the title track. This album is better than Neon Bible. Do I maybe like Arcade Fire? This album is about the lead singer's childhood in The Woodlands...rich kid complains about being rich. There's like a modern Cure feel to this album. In thirty years when they reboot Stranger Things for the 2000s, Arcade Fire is going to be all over the soundtrack. Month of May is as punk as a post punk band is going to get. We Used to Wait is good. This album threads the needle on continuity and variation across the songs.
Duran Duran
2/5
This came out in 1982, I would have thought later. Does Rio sound exactly like Hungry Like the Wolf or am I an idiot? Why did they put the zebra stripes all over the girls in the Rio video? Or was that the Hungry Like the Wolf video? New Wave music is terrible. They could have added one hit of the Bond theme and no one would be able to tell the difference between Rio and A View to a Kill. Hungry Like the Wolf is their biggest hit. Every song sounds exactly the same. I've heard electronica that sounds more different from song to song. This could be a Stranger Things soundtrack and kids (and adults who should know better sadly) would go crazy for. Save a Prayer has more plays than Rio and I've never heard it before this moment.
Amy Winehouse
5/5
I love Amy Winehouse. This is right in my wheelhouse. Amy Winehouse, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu...all of them making music at the same time, a great time for women in R&B. Know You Now is a great song. I know Fuck Me Pumps is the hit, but I don't understand why, it's the weakest song on the album so far. I mean, I get it. It has Fuck in the title and talks about a woman having sex but the lyrics are like what a 16 year old would write. I could do without all the split songs. Just make two or cut the coda. In My Bed is a jam. Help Yourself is probably my favorite Amy Winehouse song. I wish someone would get the rights situation sorted out so this could be streamed in the US. Amy, Amy, Amy is a fun song. Followed by a stupid Outro and two post-Outro songs for some dumb reason. I'm so glad streaming is killing the hidden track. Great album, underrated album.
Hugh Masekela
1/5
This is fine. I like the Hammond B3 in it. Nope. This is just not my jam. The screechy saxophone solo on Minawa is hard for my untrained ear to distinguish from someone who just picked up the instrument. This is a long album of what basically amounts to one long song. Parts of this album feel like a Bitches Brew knock off. Nomali is my favorite song from this album. Ends with the worst song on the album.
The Black Keys
5/5
I love the Black Keys. I'm going to try to be unbiased, but with the first notes of Everlasting Light, I know this is a five star album. Every song is good, Next Girl, Tighten Up, Howlin' for You...they're all awesome. The drums from Howlin' for You remind me of Rock and Roll, Part 2 by Gary Glitter. Sinister Kid is one of my favorite songs, not just from the Black Keys. A sinister kid/Is a kid who/Runs to meet his maker/A drop dead sprint from the day he's born/Straight into his maker's arms/And that's me, that's me/The boy with the broken halo/And that's me, that's me/The Devil won't let me be is a great chorus. It's stupid but I also love the album cover. Great band, great album.
Baaba Maal
1/5
The world music selections are not my favorites. This is no different. Ladysmith Black Mambazo did the African singing over 80s African music best. Daande Lenol sounds like the music behind a montage of an African scientist and a white scientist working in the lab tirelessly to discover the cure to the epidemic that started as something they saw in one boy in a village and is now threatening to wipeout humanity. Hamady Boiro has a similar feel to Caught Stealing by Jane's Addiction. Everything sounds like Graceland. This is so foreign as to be boring because it all sounds the same.
Sonic Youth
4/5
I like this better than the last Sonic Youth album I had. It is a double album though so we'll see if that feeling holds up across over an hour of "noise rock". If you asked me what "post-punk" meant, I would say this album. Sonic Youth is the 90s Velvet Underground. There are a lot of long songs on this album. Noise rock is right. I just got a flash of their collaboration with Cypress Hill on the Judgement Night soundtrack, I Love You Mary Jane. I guess I like this better than most Pixies albums? There's a lot of this era of music on this list for the amount of popular appeal it had. I can't tell if I like the more punk songs more or less.
Pink Floyd
4/5
I just don't get Pink Floyd. This is better than Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but I can't say much more about it. Maybe it has to be played at the same time as a supercut of Thundercats like the guys across the hall from me in college used to play at parties. Those were some weird cats. Time is probably my favorite song from the album, definitely the best so far. Money is one of the most overrated songs on one of the most overrated albums of all time. Brain Damage was good as well. Maybe it isn't "the most overrated album of all time" after all.
Todd Rundgren
2/5
I Saw the Light...the big hit off a double album. I wonder what makes bands think double albums are a good idea. I Saw the Light is the big hit and it's the first song...this is going to be a long listen. This is vastly superior to the other album he had on the list though. I might actually like Todd Rundgren? Nevermind, Todd Rundgren sucks. And his stupid Intro seven tracks in is really dumb. Wow, this just keeps getting worse. Little Red Lights is one of the least cool songs about a car ever and there is some serious competition for that dishonor. The little interlude of a studio session is better than most of the album. My god, it gets worse as it goes on. If this was two sides, it would be at least one side higher...the second two sides would still be one lower so maybe the system works? Piss Aaron makes me realize that this is like a combination of Chicago and Harry Nilsson, but it is definitely worse than the sum of its parts. Hello It's Me doesn't have that many listens on Spotify but it's definitely the song I'm most familiar with other than I Saw the Light.
Keith Jarrett
2/5
Four songs, one hour and six minutes. This isn't bad in the sense that it isn't just a melange of noise and found sound, but it feels li9ke background music. This is like the music from the "Romantic Classics" CD series sold on late night TV. The sporadic shouting while he's playing easy listening music is great. There's nothing unpleasant about this, it's just hard to imagine how far up your own ass you have to be to suggest this album belongs on this list. It's just Keith Jarrett and a piano for over an hour. After learning a little more about Keith Jarrett, he sounds like a real peach. I cannot imagine going to a concert where the performer is actively discouraging any crowd noise, including coughing, while he moans his way through his music.
John Lennon
4/5
Leading with the hit. This has to be one of the most played songs of all time. People love Imagine. I always thought of John Lennon as a pretentious jerk who wrecked the Beatles...I'm reconsidering. I don't love this album, but I like it significantly more than I thought I would. He's a great song writer, there's no denying that. This is definitely better than the Wings album on this list. I love Oh Yoko! It's a great song and it's great in Rushmore.
Elton John
3/5
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding is like a cross between an 80s sci-fi death scene and Meatloaf. I bet Meatloaf loved Elton John. Eleven minutes is too long for an opening track. Candle In the Wind...the most famous song ever about a horny teenager. This song loses something when you know that later he'd remake the lyrics for Princess Diana. One a meditation on nostalgia and the images we carry with us from our youth....the other either a treacly attempt to express sorrow for a rich and powerful woman who never had a really hard day in her life or else a treacly cash crab and cynical injection of himself into a famous death. Bennie and The Jets is one of my least favorite Elton John songs but it was turned into the awesome Tribe Called Quest (featuring Busta Rhymes) song Solid Wall of Sound. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on the other hand is one of my favorites. All of Elton's songs have a cinematic quality to them. Maybe that credit should go to Bernie Taupin. It's a double album! And all the hits were on the first side of the first disc.....it's going to be a long day. British musicians love Jamaican music. I've Seen That Movie Too is a good song. The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934) is like the lyrics to early Bob Dylan with the music of a carnival. I'm not sure if this is the spiritual center or the pop music floor of glam rock. Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) would have been the theme song for college football coverage if it had been released in 1994. It's catchy and the best song since the hits from the first side. The chirping birds on Social Disease are really distracting. His hits are hits but everything else is just "Generic Elton John" song. I'm surprised he didn't write a musical, his music is like one step short of it already.
Joan Baez
3/5
She has a lovely voice. I don't love the "traditional" folk songs, they all sound like updated takes on Greensleeves. I like her take on House of the Rising Sun but the Animals are still the definitive version. There's something both innocent and knowing about her delivery. I Know You Rider is the best song on the album. It's good, not great, but better than Joni Mitchell. She loves using the phrase "deep salt sea".
Lucinda Williams
3/5
This is like country Sheryl Crow....or country Aimee Mann? That's not a knock, it feels like a female Dwight Yoakum. Very much like Aimee Mann. This is a good album, not something I'd come back to multiple times, but I wouldn't complain if it was playing. Joy is the low point on the album. Jackson is a good song to close out the album though.