These guys were a nice surprise! I'd rank them up there with Oasis.

Kind of like New Wave David Bowie . . . but not as interesting.

Smooth and sexy!

This album has always seemed a bit overrated to me.

This was a seminal album of my college days, and the truly great songs on it remain truly great. But I'd forgotten the number of much less successful "filler" songs it includes. In some ways, it might be seen as a fine encapsulation of Sting's career. When he is good, he is so good that he makes you forget how often he could also be just plain mediocre.

This started out as an unexpectedly fun album that had somehow slipped my notice for many years. About halfway through, the shtick seemed to have run its course, though.

The poignancy of Bowie essentially writing his own requiem here will always be a huge part of this album's effectiveness. But it also seems like there's very little that's memorable enough here to to stand in the truly top tier of Bowie albums, especially to those who are not already huge fans. He was a genius, and this might very well be a work of genius. But it's also, sadly, largely forgettable when held up against the larger Bowie pantheon.

Not unpleasant, but I'm also not hearing much that's innovative. Pretty sure I'll have forgotten this album and group ever existed by next week.

Frank Zappa was certainly an innovator, and this album shows a lot of the ways he experimented with what could be done in popular music. But listening all these years later, I have to wonder: What was the point?

The joy that comes through early Elvis recordings is always palpable and infectious. This was a guy who was having the time of his life figuring it all out.

Seemed pretty generic to me. Is it really a top 1000 album of all time?

I remember when Lenny was the epitome of cool. This album shows just how much he deserved that reputation!

Still a lot of fun after all these years. And the lyrics remain virtually indecipherable!

"Greenman" is a banger! Otherwise, I was rather underwhelmed.

These guys just rocked!

It's ABBA. What is there that anyone can add to the discussion of ABBA and this late date. Back when they were big, I was always pretty indifferent to them, but "Fernando" (from this album) has always been my favorite song of theirs.

Some fun here, but not the Pixies best by any means.

Their one hit is on this album (in case you were wondering).

Generally uninspired background noise.

What a sweet voice! And great orchestrations of some classic songs.

Sweet, mellow and soothing. When Old Blue Eyes took his music seriously, he could create absolute masterpieces like this.

An absolutely singular voice in the history of music.

Even in this early cover-laden work, the Beatles are already showing the wide musical interests and influences that made them the greatest band of all time.

The voice was the voice, of course. But Sinatra was also great at picking the songs that always seem to take it to another level. This is plain and simple an album for ALL lovers, not merely the "swingin'."

For a little while there, these guys were absolute hit-makers.

I love Willie, and this was certainly a breakout album for him. However, I was struck hearing it again all these years later by how slim a lot of it is. Most of the songs are great, but they often feel a bit underwritten.

Not much memorable here.

I wanted to make fun of this when I started, but darned if it isn't quite infectious!

I was very underwhelmed.

Some infectiously catchy stuff on here. I liked it better than I thought I would.

\"Immigrant Song\" might be the best album opener ever. This remains a timeless classic for good reason. A complete banger!

Beautiful voice, but not seeing much point to the very safe arrangements of these songs. I suppose just not my cup of tea.

The man can play a horn!

Didn't see the point to this one.

This is no doubt the most overtold joke in rating this group, but I was NOT thrilled. In their best songs they sound a little like they're trying to be the Beach Boys . . . if the Beach Boys had been boring and predictable.

Yeah, they're a one-hit wonder, but this whole album brims with infectious enthusiasm.

Not bad as far as it goes. Sort of like a slow-down and less pithy They Might Be Giants.

These guys were a nice surprise! I'd rank them up there with Oasis.

Rather bland and one-note.

I was never much of a disco fan back in the day, but the talent here is undeniable.

This rocks pretty hard. Not sure why I'd never heard of this guy before.

Some super smooth easy listening here, if you're into that kind of thing.

Unmatched beauty in songwriting and performance have rarely (if ever!) been more clearly on display than in this album. Just sublime.

This was a surprising little gem!

This guy is great. Infectious and fun.

A decent album, but nothing I'm likely to be seeking out to listen to all that often.

They hit the ground running here, though greater songs were to follow.

An all-time classic for good reasons.

Smooth sound and a nice voice. Nothing overly memorable, though.

Some all-time great jams on here, but also a lot that feels like filler.

These guys seem to be somewhat forgotten or underrated in hindsight. Some great musical variety here!

Smooth and always surprising. David was the bomb, baby!

Felt generally kind of dull at first, but kept growing on me the more I listened to it.

"Hurt" was just about the perfect song for Cash at this late stage in his career, and his version here is wonderful. But with only a couple other exceptions, it is clearly an album recorded by someone being indulged because he is (obviously) an all-time great. I'm glad we have it, but it's not even close to most of his earlier work.

Interesting and competent, as always from Waits. Not one of his most memorable, though. A pretty spooky October listen, maybe!

For an album that seemed so much "of its time," this has held up surprising well over the past three decades.

Not a band I remember at all, but a fun, highly listenable LP.

Still enjoyable as far as it goes, but sounds very much of its time.

Kind of all over the place musically. Nothing I would call particularly memorable.

Fun, but also largely forgettable.

Enjoyable, but quite "of its time," in my opinion. There were a lot of groups that sounded pretty much like this in the late 80s.

This group's name should be My Boring Valentine. Mostly just a lot of vaguely rhythmic background noise.

At first I found this uninteresting, but it soon became actually irritating. Like she's trying to be Kate Bush but without Bush's sublime vocal talent.

Iconic.

My wife says he sounds like a goat. I say he IS the G.O.A.T.

Not typically my type of music, but generally infectious.

This rocks!

The songs are still delightfully infectious after al these years, and Cooke sounds like he's having a blast in this live performance. A great choice if you're ever feeling the least bit down!

I hadn't listened to this full album in maybe 30 years, and hearing it now was both enjoyable and a little bit sad. Some iconic VH songs of the David Lee Roth era here, of course, but it's impossible to listen to this without realizing that it was clearly the beginning of the end.

An interesting combination of styles and instruments here, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I spoke French. The prevailing heavy metal vibe is not overly unique.

Smooth and mellow. Nice for quiet background music, I suppose.

This sounded like an instant classic when it first came out in 1985. Today, it sounds like a timeless classic. Bush is amazing! I can't think of any artist more deserving of the renaissance she got a couple of years ago.

Not anything I would turn off if it came on to a stream I was listening to, but also unlikely to be anything I ever seek out again.

There are almost certainly better rock and roll albums in history, but this is flawless in its execution of its scope. Rock and roll ain't noise pollution, baby!

I think I had seriously underrated this group. Very listenable music.

Bowie had really found his voice by this album.

Didn't do much for me. Mostly just dark and grinding.

Her sound and voice are so happy and upbeat that it's sometimes easy to miss just how angry a lot of these songs are about the double standard for women and men in 1960s America. Sadly, much of what she sings about is still relevant today.

I'd forgotten just how much energy they always brought to their music! Unfortunately, despite that energy, most of the songs are also individually forgettable.

I mean, it's U2, so there are some great songs here. But somebody needed to say no to the various versions and edits included.

Some smart commentary on life in America that still seems as timely today as it was over 30 years ago.

Not overly upbeat, so I have to be in just the right mood for this.

Infectious. "Shining Star" is an all-time banger, of course, but there's also a lot of "filler" here.

Mostly harmless.

Not disagreeable.

Sounds just like you expect it will: like a foundational work of blues-inspired rock and roll. Or like Eric Clapton, which is essentially the same thing.

Very much that mid- to late-80s sound, with maybe a bit of Frank Zappa influence mixed in. Mostly forgettable, though.

What a voice. Gone much too soon.

Holds up surprisingly well.

An incredibly eclectic mix of styles and genres, most of which ultimately hold little appeal to me.

I found myself largely indifferent.

His "Hallelujah" is quite good, of course, but for my money only the second or third best version of that song. Other than that, there's a lot of forgettable stuff here.

If not the best album of the 1990s, this is certainly in the conversation for that spot. Every track here is solid.

Smooth as butter!

Undoubtedly ground-breaking in 1969. Now, it sounds largely just self-indulgent, I'm afraid.

An all-time classic for a reason. The Beatles at the top of their songwriting and performing talents.

Cream at its best--which is very good indeed!!!

Really highlights the limited diversity of this band musically. Not quite as good as OK Computer, but it's sort of hard to tell the difference.

Largely forgettable.

Mostly harmless.

A generational voice, gone too soon.

Still musically solid (the title track is one of the all-time great bangers) and lyrically clever enough to surprise a laugh when you least expect it. A seminal album for good reason!

Still some fun here, and "Blister in the Sun" is a bop that stands the test of time.

Meh . . .

The guy was screwed up eight ways to Sunday psychologically, but man, he could write hit songs and sing. His voice on "Man in the Mirror" is just amazing.

Loud and fast, if you like that sort of thing.

Fun, but somewhat repetitive.

Decently mellow, but not overly memorable.

They had found their sound here . . . which never really changed much on subsequent efforts.

I guess My Chemical Romance would be the best comparison, though this album never hits the highs of the best of MCR.

Remember when dark and discordant was a thing? Then you might like this! Otherwise, not much to recommend.

Some great bangers here!

At best, some smooth but forgettable easy listening. At worst, so experiments with how much irritating noise a listener might be able to tolerate.

Some smooth-sounding jazzy riffs here.

Sometimes clever lyrically, but I always hope for more from this group musically. There's just too often a kind of slow, plodding sameness to the songs.

The virtuosity of Frampton's guitar playing is match only by the joyful energy he exudes on every track. There's a reason this was a seminal album of the mid-1970s.

A decent group that seemed dedicated to producing largely non-objectionable music. Their sound is definitely memorable, though very few individual songs are.

Decently listenable, but nothing really stands out here.

I'm sure there are fans for this kind of music out there, but to me it sounds like he's trying to perform the least memorable songs he can produce.

What a great album! Even if you don't recognize any of the songs by their titles, they're likely to set off memories as soon as you start hearing them. Prine was a terrific songwriter, and the number of artists who covered his work in the 70s and 80s would make up a long list indeed. These performances are sometimes rougher than the covers you might have heard, but they all highlight just how terrific the songs themselves are.

Not completely up to their highest standards, but everyone has to start somewhere. The sound is definitely already there in this debut.

Probably too much forgotten in terms of their influence on the music of that era. They certainly liked to experiment, but not everything they try here is successful.

Janis's voice is sublime on "Piece of My Heart," but though the group was clearly aware of her as a standout, they weren't quite ready yet to give themselves over to her completely yet. Thus, there's some unevenness of this album. (Though that might also be because it's a live performance).

These guys were having a lot of fun!

Feels like she had lost a lot of her early energy by this album.

The sheer artistry is absolutely undeniable, of course. But with only a couple of exceptions ("I Shot the Sheriff", "Let It Grow"), there's a lack of energy that I don't remember from when I listened to this album many years ago. The album hasn't changed, obviously, so it must be me.

Listening to this nearly 60 years after its release certainly confirms Haggard's reputation as the original outlaw of country music.

Hits all the right Pearl Jam notes, if that's your thing.

Some pretty orchestrations and a beautiful voice, but not really my cup of tea.

You can't spell "heavy metal head bangers" with AC/DC!

This is the album that made me a lifetime Rush fan (as it did for Dave Grohl, as well, apparently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTz2TDr79eI). It just simply rocks!!

Competent, but only sometimes interesting.

Really doesn't seem to hold up as classic after all these years.

The bluesy roots of so much of what was to come. A great album.

I don't think there's ever been a band whose sound is easier to define just from its name. This is exactly what you'll expect it to be. Skillful guitar work, and songs like "Peace Sells" almost rise to an Alice Cooper-esque level of songwriting.

Cute.

Not quite to the iconic sound that made up their greatest hits here.

Lyrically witty with over-the-top orchestrations? Must be Morrissey!

A very strong Christmas album, with versions of some classics that have really held up. Some very talented folks working here.

Surprisingly good! Walker had a smooth crooner voice, but his subject matter was surprisingly edgy. I'll be looking for more from this guy since he seems completely overlooked these days.

Kind of seems like they're trying too hard here.

A singular voice of her generation singing a fine selection of great songs from the 1960s. "Son of a Preacher Man" still bangs almost six decades later.

At least three all-time classic songs on this album, including the title track and "Everyday People." Though much of the rest feels like funkadelic filler, those tracks alone make this a great album.

Better as a middle of the road pop group than when they revert to screamo mode.

Some funny lyrics. Musically bland, but that's likely what they were going for in a generic love song kind of way.

Interesting, but largely forgettable, I'm afraid.

A very reggae-esque Clash sound. Not bad. But also not The Clash.

Well, yeah, an all-time classic. Very few albums ever made have this many good songs on them. What the Beatles were able to do musically is unlikely ever to be repeated.

Never has an album been more deserving of the renewed recognition this one is getting.

This generally rocked, but nothing really grabbed me and said, "You must hear more!"

This is the Bob Marley sound, all right!

There's a pretty voice here, but musically it often seems to be just making noise.

Some fun stuff here, from a group I'd never heard of before.

No one did prog rock like ELP.

A really great voice, and a fun live recording.

Mostly harmless.

All the great songs that you remember from the Monkees are NOT on this album. But it does show that they were actually musicians who put out a lot of music worth listening to.

A classic. Bowie at one of the several distinct peaks he reached in his career.

Rocks pretty hard. Not for the faint-hearted.

Otis is still remembered primarily as one of those singular talents who died way too young (at age 26), about a year before his biggest hit--"(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay"--became his only #1 single. But this album, released two years before his death, really highlights just how great and versatile he was. Chances are you will recognize every song here--though usually from a version by another artist. Otis makes each of these great songs his own, though. A really terrific record!!!

Some really beautiful stuff hear, though sometimes marred by less successful sound experiments.

This guy was having so much fun! An album to listen to if you need an instant shot of pick-me-up!

I was 40 years old when this album came out. A white guy. I can't imagine I was any kind of intended audience for this. But listening to it now has been a lot of fun.

Not among Bowie's top works, but he certainly showed he could still make interesting music well into his 60s. He was definitely taken from the world too soon!

Seven songs all nearly perfectly made. One of the great albums of its time, and it hasn't lost any of its luster.

The closest equivalent is probably DEVO. Some fun stuff on this album, but ultimately less cutting than that ground-breaking group.

Like very few groups, Oasis seemed to emerge fully formed with this debut album, and only got better on the efforts that followed! It now seems sort of inevitable that something this good could only exist for a very limited time.

Some smooth, easy-listening here.

A truly wonderful songwriter, but definitely more "vocal stylist" than "singer" as a performer. :-)

Much more my daughters' jam than mine, but three obviously talented ladies.

A great example of how anger and vitriol can be turned into timeless art! Still fun to listen to more than a quarter century after its release.

Absolutely beautiful.

Absolutely a sound of their time in the early 1980s, but still upbeat and fun to listen to more than four decades later!

Highly innovative in their time, of course; but what stands out about listening to this album now is how comfortable and familiar it all seems.

Some great Dylan covers on here, among other songs. A beautiful voice, reminiscent of Joni Mitchell.

An amazing number of great songs here, especially considering it's a debut album. Crow definitely hit the ground running!

Upbeat and generally fun. A terrific voice.

A high-energy performance of some of their greatest hits.

This is going to be exactly what you expect: high-speed riffs and screaming guitar wails. Great for what it's doing, but limited, of course.

Smooth and easy to listen to. Not particularly memorable.

Wow, this takes me back to my college years! As fun and infectious as I remember it!

Infectiously fun.

One of the greatest songwriters of the rock era. This is an often overlooked gem from Young.

"Sound and Vision" is among the second-tier Bowie songs that 95% of that artists out there would probably kill to have written. It kind of sums up this album, which is experimentally instrumental in its second half in ways that Bowie returned to on parts of Blackstar.

I've always had a soft spot for this one, though I get the impression true R.E.M. fans might be a little embarrassed by it. "Stand" is one of my all-time favorite bops!

A very smooth, jazzy sound from this group I don't think I ever heard of. Really like the often tongue-in-cheek titles, like "The Whole Point of No Return."

One of the greatest albums of the early 90s; U2 at their best. If you haven't ever heard this album, why not?!

Kind of a fun late-70s sound, anticipating groups like Shriekback from a few years later (though not nearly as hard rock as that example).

Seems almost the definition of a sophomore slump after the wild success of her first album, but there are some decent tracks here and her voice is beautiful.

Very much of their time, with a bit of an Oasis vibe. Entertaining to listen to, but not all that memorable for me.

It's Bob Marley. Anyone who can't find joy in this needs to reexamine many things about their lies. Possibly at his most political here, but you're hardly going to notice as you bop along with him.

Listening to it now, this is something of a mess. There's nothing NOT to like here, specifically, but somehow it doesn't really add up to anything.

Mostly harmless.

Morrison is a generational talent, no doubt. But this is a surprisingly low-energy set.

This album shows both the strengths and weaknesses of The Byrds. Tremendously innovative, and when it works (Eight Miles High), it's absolutely iconic. When it doesn't work, it's largely forgettable.

"Heavy" is the word here. If you like metal, it's not going to get much better than this.

Wonderful.

An important transition album for the group with a couple of songs that have become iconic. But not the first Beach Boys album anyone is likely to turn to when they want to listen to them, I think.

I don't remember this group, but, yeah, they sound a lot like my college days.

A transformational figure in the history of rock. And still a pure joy to listen to today!

A wonderful voice and talent. In addition to the classic, "Let's Stay Together," this album also includes a pretty great cover of the Bee Gees "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"!

I've long argued that song for song, this is the greatest album of the rock era. This is obviously a subjective judgement, but break breaking it down by track makes it hard to argue, I'd say. It includes three all-time classics in "Baba O'Riley," "Behind Blue Eyes," and "Won't Get Fooled Again." It's "middle three" tracks, quality-wise--"Bargain," "Love Ain't for Keeping," and "Getting in Tune"--would almost certainly be the top songs on about 90% of the albums ever released. And even it's "bottom tier" is a terrific mix of tracks, with "My Wife," "The Song Is Over," and "Going Mobile." There is absolutely no filler here! This is my go-to for solid greatness all the way through! It gets five stars only because I can't give it six.

I've always wanted to like this album more than I do. An early-thirties father of three young girls when this came out, I wanted it to give me insights into what I myself had always done wrong as a man and use this knowledge to help my daughters not become the disappointed women Phair so often writes about here. Alas, though I can see certain flashes of brilliance, instead of insights, I've mostly only ever heard anger. Instead of guidance, grievance. I still blame mostly myself for my lack of understanding. But after more than thirty years, I'm resigned that I will never change enough to truly appreciate what others see here. My daughters have turned out fine despite those limitations on my part, thank goodness.

Upbeat and not hard to listen to, but highly derivative of stuff Stevie Wonder was doing much better roughly a quarter of a century before this came out.

This feels like the album where Randy Newman fully found his folksy, R&B infused, political commentary voice. "Rednecks," "Birmingham," "Marie," and "Louisiana, 1927" are all essential tracks in his discography. Somehow, messages that would feel strident from other artists always invite a sharp laugh of recognition from Newman. He'll give us a moment to feel superior, then quickly pull it out from under us. A wonderful talent.

I've always wanted to like this group more than I do. There's nothing wrong with what they're doing. I just never find it all that compelling or memorable.

Surprisingly hard to rate this one. By my count, 5 or the 13 songs here are among the greatest written in the past sixty years or so. But (not surprisingly, I guess) there's a pretty big drop-off from the best of those to the filler. Still, this is an essential album for everyone to listen to if they care at all about popular music is the second half of the 20th century.

Some timeless stuff here.

My wife says Neil's voice is the Greatest Of All Time! Or maybe she's just saying he sounds like a goat. Either way, a fantastic songwriter and performer.

Yeah, this one just didn't do anything for me.

Still pretty rough and unformed here, without the smooth polish that would characterize the later stuff that they are still primarily known for.

A surprisingly fully formed debut album that includes all-time Petty classics "Breakdown" and "American Girl." Most of the other tunes feel less polished by comparison, but still a great listen nearly fifty years after its release.

Groundbreaking in its day, of course, but still surprisingly listenable today in a way that most of the "experimental" efforts of the late 60s are not. Lou Reed anchors it with a keen awareness of how to prioritize the music and assure the shock of the experimental parts are not overshadowing.

It's almost impossible to listen to this while you're trying to do something else. Parton tells stories that just suck you in.

I've never been a big country music fan, and 80s country usually sounds to me like the most generic, cliched version of the genre. I'm glad Buck Owens got another hit with his duet with Dwight on "Streets of Bakersfield," but this version is almost laughable if listened to back-to-back with Buck's original. Just not much here for me, I'm afraid.

Entertaining, with some fun takes on a couple of classic songs from the seventies. Parts feel overindulgent in the way a lot of rap from the nineties can feel today.

It was great that Raitt finally received some long-deserved accolades and financial success from the album.

This is certainly where they found the sound we still remember them for. But better albums were to follow.

My second Talking Heads in a row! That's not a bad thing, I guess. They were building their canon here by adding all-time classics "Life During Wartime" and "Heaven." And they had definitely discovered their signature sound in this second collaboration with producer Brian Eno.

I was all set to really ravage this one, because these guys were not much more than a joke to me back in the day. But unbelievably, I found it much more entertaining than I thought I would. Never underestimate the power of nostalgia!!

This is a guy in peak form after nearly two decades of great songwriting. While his vocal styling could be off-putting, the man could make music!

I wonder if albums haven't been added to this list just for their irritation value. Given the sound and the time period, this was probably an inspiration for groups like Devo and the Talking Heads, but it shows little of the musical skill and only some of the humorous charm of those groups. A six-minute noise experiment that serves as the album's penultimate track (and roughly one-sixth of its total running time) feels like time I'll never have back in my life now.

This is the sound of it all coming together, man! Fifteen years after being discovered by Buddy Holly, Waylon finally found the sound here that he would ride to superstardom in the '70s and on into icon status for the final decades of his life.

This sounds exactly like you'd expect an album from a British new wave group of the early 80s to sound. I wonder if their band name might have inspired all of those "number" band names from the next decade: Sum 41, Matchbox 20, Blink-182, and the like. :-)

No one did R&B any funkier!

It doesn't get much more metal than this!