Sounds very mid 90s. Shirley Manson’s voice is fairly distinctive. They sounded like a more poppy version of Hole on some songs.

Pretty great. Definitely has Beatles vibes of course. Very listenable. No doubt why it was a hit. This could come out today and it would still be a hit or it could have come out in 1968. Too bad the brothers couldn’t get along. A few more albums like this and they would have been the band of the decade.

My favorite Pixies album. It sets the template for 90s and early 2000s indie rock. Still sounds fresh and relevant today.

Definitely a classic. A bit front-loaded but a great listen overall. A lot of different styles covered. Made for a fun listen in head-fi.

Sounds of its time. A lot of experimental electronic sounds mixed in.

I’m very biased on this album. I have enjoyed it for 30 years now and every time I hear it I feel like a teenager again. Great energy throughout, great production and much more informed lyrics than I realized.

First cassette tape I ever bought. Still sounds great over 35 years later. Every song is strong and well produced. This album helped save hard rock in the 80s.

Basically defined the sound of the early 80s new wave-pop scene. Still sounds good 40 years on.

This album is almost completely full of hits. It’s crazy that it isn’t discussed as much as his earlier albums. It’s not as raw as earlier more, poetic works but it is still very strong lyrically. It just has better production. One of the few Springsteen albums that I can listen to all the way through.

A much sadder album than Born in the USA which came after. Paired with the album cover, it paints a bleak picture. I prefer his more upbeat numbers so this album doesn’t do it for me.

I’m generally not a fan of older live albums due to poor production but this one sounds pretty good. I would still go for the studio recordings of most of these songs. Sam’s voice is very powerful and cuts through the thin recording but the instruments are a bit weak. Typical of live recordings.

Angry, aggressive but more thoughtful than their first 2 albums. Maybe the most listenable of their albums. I still generally prefer their first album but I think it is because I was a little more mature when it his one came out and I was moving away from music this heavy. Still a very heavy, enjoyable listen.

Side A is really strong. Great songs, different styles, not surprising for Bowie but this was a departure from his previous work. Germany seems to have rubbed off on him. Side B is less engaging for me. Instrumentals that are often noisy, synth driven and not as melodic as the first side. Still some great moments but side B lost my attention.

Probably the first really great Priest album. Bangers all the way through. There is a reason it comes up on greatest metal album lists all the time.

Very glam. Lots of Bowie influenced sounds. Not as poppy as Slade or the Sweet but a little more upbeat than Lou Reed’s catalog at this time. Well produced, well balanced but nothing as catchy as All the Young Dudes. It could use a little more edge.

Classic Australian punk that should be better known. If the “I’m Stranded” single was on here then it would be talked about in the same discussions as the Clash and the Damned.

Not as good as I expected. There were a couple songs that hit harder than expected which was nice but most of it was forgettable. Seven Seas of Rye was the only standout that sounded like the Queen I am used to. I’m sure some of the sounds on here were new and exciting in 1974 but they did it all better later.

Not for me. I recognized Human Behavior from the weird video that was all over MTV in the 90s. I’ve never been a fan of Bjork’s voice and most of these songs were too poppy for my taste.

Better than I expected. I have a love/hate relationship with this band. Sometimes they are a bit too jazzy for my liking but this album has some nice funky bits that reminded me of Zappa. Also Rikki Don’t Lose That Number is such a classic that it makes up for some of the lesser tracks. Overall, a good listen!

Interesting. Sounds a bit like early REM at times and other times more like Duran Duran but harder edged. Sometimes boarding on electronic noises similar to Pretty Hate Machine. Overall a good listen that has me interested in hearing more.

I’m not a huge country music fan but Dolly’s talent is undeniable. I didn’t realize she was this mature as a songwriter by 1971. A very enjoyable listen that I would gladly listen to again.

Good mood music for a dinner party or as background music.

Fantastic listen. His most consistent album in my opinion. Quite the departure from Astral Weeks which was very jammy and spaced out. These songs are much tighter, more radio friendly and they stick in your head in a good way.

Better than I expected! I think I like this better than Back To Black. More like lounge singer jazz with some very biting lyrics. Feels more genuine for some reason. I generally liked it.

I forget how good this album is. I think I like it better than the Joshua Tree because it is less produced. They were just a good rock band at this time and not superstars. I’ve had this album for close to 30 years and I probably haven’t listened to it in 20. Quite a pity. I’ll be getting it back into the rotation!

A solid rookie outing. It is obvious that they had been honing their craft for a while before this came out. They are very mature and tight. Their sound is basically the same as it would be for most of their career. Overall a good album that shows what they were capable of.

I liked this much more than I expected. It is more structured than some of their earlier works. Peter Gabriel’s lyrics are still obscure to an American like myself but overall it was still easier to follow than Foxtrot or Nursery Chryme.

Not my type of music. I like the playing on the album but it is too repetitive. Nick Drake has an ok voice but not a lot of range. It makes the music rather boring to me.

Fantastic. Love his melodic style. Very distinct voice and really interesting guitar tones. Even when the tones are harsh, they feel appropriate.

They say dogs can smell fear. I think they can also smell pretentiousness. My dog got up and left the room partway through the second song of this album and didn’t come back in until the album was over. I would have liked to join her.

A much more enjoyable listen than Kid A. It seems he forgot how to sing on that album but shows he is quite capable of holding notes and singing with emotion. Still not my favorite singer by a long shot but I don’t actively hate this album. My biggest complaint is a general overuse of effects. I felt it was egregious on Kid A and only slightly annoying on OK Computer. Step away from the effects board!

Very 80s. Reminds me of INXS at times and Nick Cave at other times. Not as foreboding, just similar vocals sometimes. I generally liked it.

Karen O has a great voice that is very identifiable. Especially when she goes a little lower and that smoky side comes out. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have a nice mix of power pop and alternative. Never full blown dance music but not shoe-gaze or emo either. A good listen!

Could t finish it. Not my type of music at all.

Classic. This is one of the first rap albums that I purchased in the early 90s. Along with Dr Dre’s The Chronic, this album defined 90s rap. I am not a big hip hop/rap fan but if it sounds like this, I can dig it. Something. About all those P-Funk samples, mixed with booming bass and Snoops smooth lyrical delivery just works for me.

Love it. Probably my favorite later 70s Bowie record. The guitars and bass on this album are fantastic!

Not bad but not my type of music

Very cool. Great music to work with. Smooth but not so smooth that it would put you to sleep. A lot of talent on these tracks. A tight band making it sound easy.

I never really got into this band. I think it’s a combination of the singer’s voice and the rap aspects. Some of the music is pretty good. Jazz inspired I think in some places and more metal in others but it’s just never worked for me.

Not my thing. Album suffers from loudness wars. Everything sounds too loud and also too polished. It’s like a slightly more interesting version of Mumford and Sons except Mumford has better dynamics. A lot of music in the past 15-20 years has suffered from too much polish. Everything is maxed out and clipped and the highs and lows are missing for me.

A very street wise, confident album. Easily my favorite Lou Reed album. The songs have a lot of swagger and when they get more introspective or romantic, it feels genuine. The tunes stick in your head.

Too much like yacht rock for me. Deacon Blues is ok but too long. Peg is better but in general all are too long. Some great musicianship but just not my type of music.

Much better than the first couple Queen albums. More rocking songs and more familiar Queen sounds. I’m not sure why this album isn’t talked about as much as Day at the Races or Night at the Opera.

I can’t get past Bjork’s voice. Music is interesting but her voice doesn’t work for me.

Not my type of music.

Nope. Can’t do it. Rave music to me is just background music and only works in a dance club. It has no purpose outside of that setting. Way too repetitive. Who would ever want to listen to this outside of a rave? I would rather listen to Polka.

Interesting listen. Sometimes it sounds like 70s soul and r & b and other times the music is much more modern sounding like the Strokes. Overall I like it.

A prog classic but I would rather listen to In The Court of the Crimson King or Meddle. All 3 can meander but Tarkus is a bit too much meandering. Greg Lake’s vocals save this album for me much as he did on early Crimson. I may have liked this better if they broke it up into more tracks where I could get a breather between parts. Just too much wanking off here but I cannot deny that they can play.

Classic grunge by one of the leaders and founders of the grunge movement. In many ways Mudhoney were more grunge than Nirvana could ever hope to be. I will always prefer their early singles but this is probably my favorite album of theirs.

Sounds very mid 90s. Shirley Manson’s voice is fairly distinctive. They sounded like a more poppy version of Hole on some songs.

I definitely like their pop songs better than the slower moody songs. There is some very nice playing here but I think I like the more spare music they were doing earlier in their career.

Better than I expected. Most of the songs that I liked the best were released as singles so I probably have more history with this album than I consciously thought. Some great production and sounds that would be used again and again on future dance pop hits. Definitely an inspirational album for aspiring pop stars of the time and probably still used as a yardstick for dance album production. Will I go out and buy it? No. Will I download it? No. Will I download some songs? Sure. Considering this is not in my normal wheelhouse, Moby can consider that a win. Although, I’m sure he wouldn’t lose any sleep if I hated it either.

A classic but a little softer than what I typically want to listen to

Not something I would choose to listen to but I didn’t want to turn off the album either.i can see why she is popular and has had a pretty long career.

Lacking hits like on prior and latter albums. Sounds pretty good overall. They were still finding their sound.

Pretty great. Definitely has Beatles vibes of course. Very listenable. No doubt why it was a hit. This could come out today and it would still be a hit or it could have come out in 1968. Too bad the brothers couldn’t get along. A few more albums like this and they would have been the band of the decade.

I generally like Patti’s voice. Her lyrics lost me at times because she is more poet than traditional songwriter. It gives her music a different quality more like Bob Dylan. Thankfully she is a better singer than Dylan. I prefer the songs where she doesn’t drone on stanza after stanza for what feels like forever before hitting a musical break or chorus. Gloria is a little tiring to me for that reason and Horses definitely hits me that way. Great playing by the band. I just wish some of the songs were a little shorter or more sparse lyrically.

I’ve had this album for 30 years and I haven’t listened to it in at least 25 years. The songs I like the most are the ones that are played on the radio the most. I’ve always felt that Pearl Jam weren’t really a grunge band but more of a standard rovk band. After this album they got much softer. Some of these songs feel like leftover Green River and Mother Love Bone but with a worse singer. I prefer the nasal , wild delivery of Mark Arm over Eddie Vedded but sales show that I’m in the minority. Evenflow, Alive and Black are great, powerful rock songs and Jeremy tells a sad, creepy story that is the template for so many other teenage pain songs. Nothing on this listen made me want to revisit Pearl Jam but I can’t deny the impact of the album.

Loved it. Great mix of jazz and African traditional music. Fela was an interesting guy for sure and would probably be a big star today with music being much more globally available. He had a way of never going too far in any one direction but not being boring either. More people should listen to his work.

Good but I tend to get bored with reggae. Sometimes it’s too repetitive and I stop paying attention.

Classic. I’m not a big rap guy but I enjoy a lot of 80s and 90s rap before it became about rapping as fast as possible or mumbling through verses like you are barely coherent and have a mouth full of marbles. Also not a fan of overly processed vocals like a lot of modern hip hop has. I like how I can make out most of Eminem’s lyrics and how most of his songs have stories. Gives me a reason to listen and focus instead of just letting it slide into the background. Hard to get engaged with background music. For that reason this album makes my short list of rap classics.

I had never heard of this band. Some good stuff here. I like the synth strings and the harmonies. Good guitar playing and overall production. I really like Streets of Kenny. Also Lend’s Some Dough, Comedy and Captain’s Table are standouts. There a few tracks that could have been cut and it would have made for a stronger release but this was the CD age where everyone thought they needed at least 12 tracks on every album. Cornish Town is a clunker for me. If this band would have released a video for Comedy on MTV they would have been huge in the U.S. Sounds like they never really got big outside the UK. Shame.

Powerful voice. Great sounding recording. Her voice is deeper and more masculine than I expected. Sounds good, just surprised.

This is my favorite Metallica album and has been for over 30 years. The only complaint I have is with The Thing That Should Not Be. I have always felt that it should be placed somewhere else on the album or maybe on a different album. After the one-two punch of Battery and Master of Puppets, The Thing That Should Not Be feels like too much of a slowdown to me. If I’m complaining about sequencing then that means I have no real complaints.

I mostly enjoyed this but it felt like it could have been two albums. Just a bit too long. This would have been two albums in the vinyl era and I think it would have a stronger presence if it was split up and tighter. By the middle of the album I had already forgotten how the first few songs went. That said, pretty much every song on their own are great. Lauryn’s voice is just full of emotion without being over the top and the music has some great grooves. Lots of soul inspirations, throwbacks to Stax and Motown. Good stuff.

A some cold classic. It feels like some of these songs have always existed. They are part of my DNA and it is hard to listen to them critically. Overall this might be one of their best balanced albums. Highway to Hell, Touch Too Much, If You Want Blood, Night Prowler and Girl’s Got Rhythm are the standouts. Basically all hits.

Their best early period album before they started experimenting on Rubber Soul. It’s their best early album because all of the songs are Lennon and McCartney originals. Everything is good, nothing objectionable or clunky. I probably wouldn’t turn to it if I was in a Beatles mood per se but I would t skip any of the tracks either.

Well that was something.

I was only familiar with Celebrity Skin from this album. After listening to this album, I can see why. The other songs are all fine but none have much punch. You can tell that more time and money went into this song. It’s a good song but u wish the rest of the album sounded more like it.

Interesting but I can’t say that it does much for me. The voodoo chanting takes me out of it.

It’s good, very relaxing. So relaxing that it put me to sleep.

Such a hard hitting album. One of the best hard rock debuts ever. Still sounds fresh over 30 years later. Nothing else really sounded like this at the time and that made Rage legends. They were smart to break up before they lost the magic. This album should be in every hard rock/metal collection.

A solid debut. I still prefer For Your Pleasure but this is undoubtedly good. There are Brian Eno touches all over it but I feel that the album still has a pop sensibility that Eno would lean away from in later years. Some crazy Phil Manzanera guitars on here that sound better on headphones. Otherwise they get a little lost. Virginia Plain is the standout which is funny since it wasn’t on the original UK release.

Album sounds like it came out about 10 years too late. Sounds more like early 80s new wave than anything 90s. The songs that lean into this aesthetic or lean into more of an early 70s Lennon/McCartney/Harrison thing are my favorites. I see the Auters referred to as Britpop but I have always considered Britpop to have come later with bands like Oasis, Pulp, Blur and the Verve. I also don’t hear enough pop on this album to consider them as Britpop but instead more New Wave just as the album says. Some good songs but nothing jaw dropping to me.

I quite liked this album. I had never even heard of this one and was quite surprised how much I enjoyed it. I have meant to listen to more Neil Young outside of his first few albums so this is the start of that journey for me.

Probably my favorite Soundgarden album. It feels like the best produced. Not as hard-edged as their earlier albums but much more mature and with more universal appeal. It’s no wonder that they became superstars after this release. Favorite songs are Fell on Black Days, Spoonman and The Day I Tried to Live. least favorites are Half, Kickstand and Limo Wreck.

Cool album. While I am not fluent enough in Spanish to understand much of the lyrics, I like the overall melodies and tone. I did translate a couple songs and a couple were very socio-political which was interesting since the music wasn’t very hard edged. I liked some of the more modern sounds added to the salsa music. Made it feel more edgy that way but overall it’s just a pleasant background album that I could groove to while doing something else.

A fine m album showing his early folk side. It’s just not something I would choose to listen to. I’ve never been a big fan of his voice and some of these songs sound too much alike. Don’t all sort of blends together for me. I know it was an important album for the folk rock scene but it just doesn’t do much for me.

Most of the songs sounded the same to me. I could see why Perfect Way was a hit but nothing else on the album really stood out.

My favorite Elvis Costello album. More cohesive sounding than the first one. No skippers on this one!

My favorite Elvis Costello album. More cohesive sounding than the first one. No skippers on this one!

Definitely the Weather Report album I am most familiar with. Birdland and Teen Town are absolute jazz fusion classics. I came to this album through hearing about Jaco over and over in music magazines.

Sounds like 90s rap. Good but forgettable compared to the bigger name releases of the time such as Snoop Dogg, Warren G, Tupac, Biggie, Nas and Bone Thugz-N-Harmony. Had this come out in 92 or 93 then it might be referred to more often. By 94 a lot of this sounded more derivative of earlier albums.

never got into this band because they never really made it in America. I read about them all the time in UK music magazines but they got very little air time on US radio. I like the first few songs on this album because they have a bit of a 80s new wave sound (I wanna be adored and She bangs the drums) but then the tracks get a lot more ephemeral with long droning passages that remind me of the worst of the Beatles. Then the album swings back towards a more pop inspired, funky sound near the end. The last song, Fools Gold sounds like a hit. A funky dance song similar to Mysterious Ways by U2 from Achtung Baby. If the album got rid of the trance-like, meandering shit in the middle and stuck to the pop songs then they probably would have broke in the US and would have been all over MTV. Oh well.

I found most of these songs forgettable. Many sounded like less interesting Cure songs. I’m not a huge Cure fan and I am even less of a Dexys fan. Best song is Come on Eileen by a country mile and that’s so overplayed that I didn’t get any enjoyment out of listening to it again. The Jackie Wilson song sounded familiar and had a catchy bit and then I realized it was a Van Morrison rip off. Van did it much better. Overall the musicianship isn’t bad but Kevin Rowland’s voice just gets old. Also don’t bother with the bonus tracks. Come On Eileen was originally the last track but later releases tacked on 4 or 5 more and they are mostly bullshit.

It’s fine but Southern Rock has never really appealed to me. Reminds me of too many rednecks that I grew up around. Their hit songs have been played to death and even though I like them well enough in the moment, I never search them out.

I quite liked this album. Reminded me at times of Duran Duran mixes with Joy Division and other times more of Roxy Music. The lead-off track, Quiet Life is the most memorable and poppiest song on here but all of them are pretty good. I now need to check out the rest of their catalog!

Overall a solid album. Jack White has a distinct style that you either like or hate and I like it most of the time. Most of the songs are varied enough that his nasally singing style doesn’t grate on my ears too much. A lot of foreshadowing here for what their next couple albums would sound like and that is a good thing.

Fantstic

A bona fide classic. Front loaded with hits. I haven’t listened to this album in a long time but it is a really fun listen. The hits all bounce along with the type of funky, dance energy that you would expect of a hit 80s song. It’s just that this album is full of these songs. Even the songs that I never heard on the radio are infectious and could have been the best songs of many other bands.

Definitely the best of Syd’s solo works. That said, it’s not as great as anything on Piper at the Gates of Dawn which is a shame. Terrapin, Octopus, No Man’s Land, Here I Go, Long Gone and Dark Globe are probably my favorites. Some sound a lot like hits by later bands but with less production. The album definitely gets weird and some songs are very nonsensical but there is a charm to that. Like nursery rhymes being sung by someone on acid. Which is basically what this was. Fun, but not something I would put in regular rotation

Probably two of the best lead off songs for side A and side B ever. Thunder Road starts off the album with a lot of energy and power and Born to Run brings side B back to that level and then out to the stratosphere. It’s hard not to sing along to either song no matter how many times you have heard them. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out is a strong track 2 but then we have Night. That song is a mess. It’s like they took the loud part of Thunder Road and just did the entire song at that level. The lyrics get lost in the mix and there aren’t enough dynamics to keep my attention. Backstreets is better but the outro goes too long in my opinion. Probably works well live but as a studio recording it felt to me like they didn’t know how to end it. Born to Run, as mentioned before, is a fantastic side B lead off. In the age of streaming it works as a great pick me up after the last two songs as well. She’s The One has some great piano and nice sax work. Meeting Across the River doesn’t do much for me. Jungleland is a nice closer. It has a lot going on including violin, piano and a great sax solo. A fitting end to a fine album.

Pretty good.Reminded me of Lauren Hill. I had never heard of her and it appears she really never made it in the U.S. she sounded really good and the songs were written pretty well. Maybe not unique enough to stand out in the U.S. market though.

Smooth, jazzy but also funky. Great arrangements and a great, powerful voice.

Painful

Pretty cool. Some obvious Husker vibes since Mould sang and wrote all the songs. More melodic than a lot of Husker Du songs but the songs still have hard edges. Quite enjoyable although maybe a bit dated now as it sounds very early 90s. That is a plus for me but might not work for others. Whatever, it’s all subjective.

Reggae done right

Fantastic. Better than their 90s output imo but before their egos took over st the end of the band’s life. I like this more than most rap I hear because it is more interesting to me musically. Not as formulaic. I also think this still sounds fresh nearly 25 years later. A great listen.

Pretty good renditions of these Jobim classics plus some other standards all done bossanova style. Much better than I expected although I will say that some of the scatting from Sinatra sounded goofy. I’ve always loved the original Getz/Gilberto version and wasn’t sure what it would sound like with a male singing the English parts but in this case it works!

A fine album but Ray of Light is the only song that really stands out to me. In general I consider Madonna and most dance artists as singles artists more than album artists. The modern digital format actually benefits them because most of their fans only want the one or two radio/club hits anyway. I’ve noticed she has leaned hard into the singles and remix strategy for the past 20 years and that seems like a good strategy.

My second favorite DP album! Such a statement of purpose for the mk2 lineup. Even though the concerto album came out before this, it didn’t really represent DP at all. It didn’t show off their strengths and was really an anomaly that Jon Lord pushed for. This album shows what the rest of the band was about. Ian Gillan gets to show off the voice that got him the job, Blackmore finally sounds like the guitar hero that he was building up to be and Roger Glover gets to shine as an innovative bassist. Paige and Lord both get to stretch out more than in mk1 and it’s all great. All of the tracks are pretty great except I would put Living Wreck and Flight of the Rat at the bottom. At the top, either Child in Time or Speed King. Hard to believe this is the same band known for their covers of Hush and Kentucky Woman just 2 years prior!

The spoken interlude parts are annoying. They aren’t clever and don’t add anything positive to the experience. The songs are ok but too repetitive for my likes. Nothing here that makes me want to listen again.

One of my favorite Chili Peppers albums. I have fond memories of listening to this album on the way to work for weeks on end when it came out. The album is a bit front loaded which seems to be consistent with most other Chili Pepper albums. I would still put this in my top 3 Peppers albums though and I don’t think they have done anything nearly as good since. Most of the albums since this one seem to be trying to relive the spirit and energy of this album and Blood Sugar Sex Magik but they fail. Not everything on this album is great. Some of the later songs sound too much like other songs. Cutting out a few lesser numbers like Purple Stain, I Like Dirt and Right on Time would have resulted in a much tighter, better listening experience. Unfortunately it was the norm to cram too many tracks on CDs at this point. Now that vinyl is back in vogue, I hope that modern artists are curating their track lists a bit more and saving some of these lesser tunes for EPs or singles. Still a great release overall.

Pretty good. A little more mellow than what I normally gravitate towards but still solid. I recognized a few songs which was a nice surprise.

Blues done right. Great collaborations.

I forgot about this album. I had stopped listening to Beck after Mutations. Turns out I recognized a few of these songs! Some good stuff that feels more like Odelay than what came between Odelay and this one.