420
Albums Rated
4.27
Average Rating
39%
Complete
669 albums remaining
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2010s
Favorite Decade
Grunge
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other
Top Origin
Generous
Rater Style
196
5-Star Albums
6
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kollaps | 5 | 1.9 | +3.1 |
| Trout Mask Replica | 5 | 2.28 | +2.72 |
| Wonderful Rainbow | 5 | 2.28 | +2.72 |
| Locust Abortion Technician | 5 | 2.39 | +2.61 |
| Third | 5 | 2.43 | +2.57 |
| Black Metal | 5 | 2.46 | +2.54 |
| New Forms | 5 | 2.53 | +2.47 |
| Kenza | 5 | 2.58 | +2.42 |
| The United States Of America | 5 | 2.61 | +2.39 |
| Remedy | 5 | 2.68 | +2.32 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appetite For Destruction | 1 | 3.74 | -2.74 |
| Californication | 1 | 3.71 | -2.71 |
| Exile On Main Street | 1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
| Blood Sugar Sex Magik | 1 | 3.51 | -2.51 |
| The Marshall Mathers LP | 1 | 3.49 | -2.49 |
| Led Zeppelin IV | 2 | 4.36 | -2.36 |
| 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of... | 1 | 3.15 | -2.15 |
| The Bends | 2 | 4.01 | -2.01 |
| Physical Graffiti | 2 | 3.92 | -1.92 |
| Metallica | 2 | 3.79 | -1.79 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| David Bowie | 6 | 4.67 |
| Brian Eno | 3 | 5 |
| Sonic Youth | 3 | 5 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 3 | 5 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 5 |
| Talking Heads | 3 | 4.67 |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 5 |
| Aretha Franklin | 2 | 5 |
| R.E.M. | 2 | 5 |
| Funkadelic | 2 | 5 |
| Creedence Clearwater Revival | 2 | 5 |
| Elvis Costello & The Attractions | 2 | 5 |
| Rufus Wainwright | 2 | 5 |
| Cocteau Twins | 2 | 5 |
| Kate Bush | 2 | 5 |
| OutKast | 2 | 5 |
| Miles Davis | 2 | 5 |
| Tom Waits | 2 | 5 |
| The Band | 2 | 5 |
| Nick Drake | 2 | 5 |
| Neil Young & Crazy Horse | 2 | 5 |
| Leonard Cohen | 2 | 5 |
| Van Halen | 2 | 5 |
| Bob Marley & The Wailers | 2 | 5 |
| Stevie Wonder | 2 | 5 |
| Prince | 2 | 5 |
| Stan Getz | 2 | 5 |
| Bob Dylan | 4 | 4.25 |
| Beatles | 3 | 4.33 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hot Chili Peppers | 2 | 1 |
| The Rolling Stones | 5 | 2.2 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Albums | Variance |
|---|---|---|
| Deep Purple | 2 | 1.5 |
| The Mothers Of Invention | 2 | 1.5 |
5-Star Albums (196)
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Popular Reviews
Rufus Wainwright
5/5
extremely fortunate to roll this now since want two, one of my best new discoveries of the project, has been in my rotation recently. that record deffo feels a bit more out-there and sonically cryptic, where this hits u a bit more between the eyes...not a bad thing at all since, among the melody-writers id never even heard of before this project, rufus wainwright might be my very favorite. painfully beautiful, soul-rich, with that lavish yet intimate chamber pop sound thats been enchanting me on want two but a wee bit more cohesive and approachable. these two records are operating on levels of touch starvation even I almost cant relate to. almost!
3 likes
Travis
4/5
being a doofus with extremely limited knowledge, the main thing i was thinking of was rush of blood to the head-era coldplay which i only found out afterwards this predates by like three years. so ig rly the point of origin here is more bends era radiohead? neither of these are especially exciting comparisons for me tbh but this is prob my fave between all three,,,a real warmth is achieved here somewhere between the vocal delivery and the personal-feelin lyrics and the comfy winter vibe, and if its nothing mindblowing i find it very inviting regardless. comfortably uninsistent while still making room for some big choruses and the like, its rly nice! whole project has been full of little one-off experiences that it feels nice to unexpectedly have in my memory bank...cant believe im coming up on 100 days without having missed a single one so far, woooo
3 likes
Basement Jaxx
5/5
not my area of expertise obviously but i rly rly rly like this one! its like a party record for a party it sounds like i can actually handle...very very warm and un-intense (or perhaps just un-busy) in its timbres (some rly wonderful bass sound on here..), even where it still manages to have fun bangers. its all very flowy and approachable, lots of great peaks of total euphoria. as could be predicted, i rly like the ballady tracks...always be there in particular kinda took my breath away! just a very fun and pleasing record,,,didnt even rly feel its length to me!
2 likes
Brian Eno
5/5
its been so long since i last heard either eno's art rock records or bowie's berlin trilogy that i cant rly make meaningful comparisons and thus am more or less missing the two most obvious anchoring points here. that being said, it turned out not to be necessary...the cumulative effect of this album is absolutely magical and moving and even medicinal. winding up a tense storm of anxious jittery proto-talking heads thats as synesthetically and melodically satisfying as anything, and then all the tension is unwound perfectly on the gorgeous and moving back half for maximum catharsis. the unsung hero of the whole thing is the beautiful Here He Comes, which bridges the two halves and helps create an effect that doesnt hit u all at once but takes u in one step at a time, prolonging the feeling of unwinding and making the whole thing feel like a Whole instead of two halves. eno is probably among the most intuitive thinkers in all of music...every left field sound and stylistic switch-up feels absolutely inevitable. a lil bit in awe of this
2 likes
Red Hot Chili Peppers
1/5
the attempted "mature" reconfiguring of potential worst-band-of-all-time red hot chili peppers' image does not mean that their usual panic-attack-inducing levels of abhorrent douchebag vibes are gone, but rather smothered in a layer of boring detachment and faux-gravity that only takes everything further into the deepest levels of artistic hellishness. one of the smallest, most claustrophobic experiences ive ever had with any music ever, i genuinely do not think there is a single second on here that is of Any aesthetic or emotional value to me. im so not used to having blindspots like this anymore, because clearly people like the band, including multiple ppl in my Life who i love and care ab, but in my heart of hearts i have absolutely no idea why anyone would make or listen to music like this. and holy shit why does it SOUND LIKE THAT i was prepared for an overloud brickwall not, whatever the fuck this burnt cornchips palate is
2 likes
1-Star Albums (6)
All Ratings
4/5
my use of the daily 1001 albums generator (sticking strictly to cursory listens rather then full multi listen multi day chewings like i usually do now) begins by: derailing my already occurring beatles revisit project. yay!
as such i will leave it to that project to fully reckon with my weird relationship to this thing. i have instinctively strong reactions to all of the peak period beatles records Except this one...something about its particular showmanship keeps me at a weird distance even tho all the songs r nice. it makes me feel insane honestly, just within the boundaries of my own taste...this is an eccentric, striking, detailed piece of art that contributed dna to basically all of my favorite aesthetically unified pop albums from hounds of love to skylarking to the works of the moody blues. hope this gets easier to reckon with when i reach it in chronological order, but none of this difficulty is from lack of trying or experience...i have listened to Way too much beatles, but this is the only record so far where i rly feel that fact weighing on me
Public Enemy
4/5
as mind-expanding and exhausting as i remembered! huge sense of deliberacy to the tracklist here, a double LP with less then an hour of music total is a signal that just a little bit of extra space was needed to make room for everything they thought was Vital. disc 2 i think is the most packed with "i cant believe theyre basing the song around This Sound" moments for me, but the record is famous 4 that shit 4 a reason. considering this project is basically selecting my Morning Music its hard to imagine it getting much more startling to my half-awake brain then this, at least in the hip hop realm!
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
im in my normie era still ig, cuz this is a 5/5 finally fhgjsdhgjsd god. i rly just cant stop listening to it and finding new things to admire about the theatrical imagination, and more and more reward in the emotional arc. kendrick at this point in his career rly thought he could change the world with art and its so beautiful...the fact that tpab complicates it makes this feel even more powerful. when i was spinning this a bunch in the college dishroom in 2016/17 i didnt rly get the last two tracks which was the main thing keeping it from being a mega fave, but theyre clearly some of the most vital stuff to the album's power. staying alive for as long as u can is an Act Of Resistance. whether or not u are successful matters less...its the struggle, and telling others about ur struggle, that rly makes u an angel
Elvis Presley
4/5
elvis sings (and plays, to my surprise) with a wonderful mix of intentionality and intuition that i think would have stuck w/ ppl even in a non-white supremacist world. his backing band(s) impress me a little less...often feels like he's left entirely on his own to carry the more energetic cuts. the wrecking crew couldnt come soon enough ig (or even the beatles, who i enjoy the subtle instrumental character of quite a bit on those early records). still, for something so hastily assembled, there is a level of deliberacy in variety of style and the way its sequenced that feels like an actual test run for The Rock LP instead of something entirely from the beforetimes (making sure that tutti frutti opens side B is a move straight out of more polished 60s records). its extremely easy to be cynical about elvis as a cultural figure, to the point where its pretty trite and overplayed for me in spite of being well-deserved. but at least based on this, which represents him in a weird raw form before any of his more acclaimed peaks, the music itself doesnt rly do anything to earn that cynicism. itz just short and p sweet!
Steely Dan
4/5
something ive been looking forward 2 in this project is catching random snapshots of bands i have little to no familiarity with , with far less logical throughline or context then i usually provide myself when trying out an artist. i have heard aja before, but just hearing aja makes this a lil more jarring if anything...four tracks longer and six minutes shorter! this is rly rly delightful...a lot of density, a lot of economy, both aided a lot by the use of jazz vocab esp in the wonderful harmonic stuff goin on here. im not sure how much of a capital b Band they were at this point but obviously the performances r something 2 behold as well. i could prob like this band a lot! deserves some more time on my own time
Deep Purple
2/5
thank god for the deep purple rhythm section, carrying their absurdly overrated more famous members even harder then led zepp.
the reputation of this one has always baffled me because surrounding records (especially made in japan) absolutely prove that this lineup of deep purple was an absolute Rock Music Machine that could create thrilling and distinctive music for days. this lumpy mid-tempo slush is so inherently not for me that if im gonna make my peace with it i have to accept it as an intentional choice...a bit of a Back To Basics record in the vein of , uh, Take A Look In The Mirror by korn (first thing that comes to mind lmao). unfortunately i just do not like the individual parts enough to get a lot out of the supposedly more focused presentation of them...made in japan outdoes this not only in speed but in weight. no other song is anywhere near as bad as smoke on the water (there are other classic rock staples i hate listening to more, but none i understand the appeal of less), but neither does the Intentionally Holding Back presentation create sufficient tension for me pretty much anywhere here. the spectre of this lineup's world-destroying heights should hang in the background as intimidating, the unsettling feeling that theyre only using a fraction of their power, but its so textureless for me that it more just erases those heights from existence instead. might listen to made in japan later at least
Pearl Jam
4/5
somehow probably the most difficult record so far to write Thoughts about. certainly harder then nevermind! i enjoy it even more tho...maybe not by the same margin i once did but pearl jam's hyper-melodic, soulful niche within grunge has always been appealing to me. the big singles are some of the most consistently enjoyable songs im forced to hear at work and sound even better in actual headphones and not fast food speakers...gotta be one of the most lushly produced rock records of the grunge era, and one of the more genuinely beautiful and emotive rock records of the 90s generally. not a huge personal favorite or anything but it was an instant surge of delight to roll this one
The Kinks
4/5
i have my hangups with ray davies worldview that ensure he will never be MY 60s pop song prophet...brian wilson is in my heart, and arthur lee strikes me as much smarter and less overly-inward in his observations (i have a deep affection for hippie aesthetics but man were they ever wasted on white people). that being said , only a fool would deny the peak of rays songwriting powers...the record is a bit side a heavy, but every track has some kind of interesting details or hooks. and ofc the bittersweet pastoral mood, running from the anxieties of industrial living even as it is crushed by them, is every bit as striking as any one of these aesthetically unified 60s pop statements...its no pet sounds, but id take it over sergeant peppers any day. song for song i think i might prefer arthur a bit atm...but this is a more fundamentally likable project for me
Dire Straits
4/5
not an instant favorite or anything but honestly for being such a staple of "dad rock", there is something that is Still rly refreshing and bold about this band...sultans of swing is a funny anecdote made into something resembling a statement of meta-defiance in the face of what the expected face of rock music Was and Is. honestly this could prob come out near-unaltered today and get a fantano 7/10 or something. slick and quiet but also incredibly direct, its all in the licks. very cozy music tbh...instantly digestible in its musical information and just in general dedicated to not Overwhelming u. the solos especially are hugely likable. if u turn up the Complexity and Snark sliders i think thats how u get steely dan...also a great band, but a different itch then this, and tbh one i might be in the mood for slightly less often
David Bowie
4/5
since a semi-recent revisit of ziggy stardust i have been suspecting that as much as bowie is up my alley, its a tiny bit too late for me and him...as in, if i had put in the effort to get rly into his records beyond cursory listens when i was a teen, he could have ended up as a super mega important artist for me, and i have to wonder if the window for his music to be Revelatory has passed me by. i guess only time will tell if thats true (i hope it isnt, it seems like a cool discog and id love the motivation to rly sink into it), but as a concession i have found it far easier to enjoy his music Casually then when i was younger. this is no exception ofc, i suppose if anything sticks out its how much specificity it has for what could still be called a "transitional" album...and incredibly intimate too for all the theatrics, just about every song feels like bowie alone at the piano with all the other instruments as swirling figments of his imagination. lots of great Transitions Into Choruses. surprisingly rly nice compliment to the dingy cloudy morning (aka the ideal morning) outside my window rn
The Cardigans
5/5
got acquainted with this one in semi-recent memory but this revisit rly solidifies it as a favorite. even before ur chewing on the wonderful melodies its simply one of the most characterful albums i can think of...feels so entirely aesthetically unified that u start to wonder why the black sabbath quotes were ever jarring. overwhelmingly , unstoppable gender. tastes like cinnamon and cloves...a big jug of wassail and an endless starry sky that u can see from ur smoky balcony turning all ur pain into a beautiful haze. man i used to be able to write stuff like that all the time i need to re-learn that!
4/5
the most unfamiliar album (and band) i have yet rolled in this, and its a rousing success for me...somehow incredibly precise and disciplined while still being as vibrant and non-uptight as ud expect from a late 60s california band. tons of rly effortlessly appreciable melodies, and GREAT production from a david briggs, fresh off the beginnings of a very fruitful collaboration with neil young. not too much jumps to mind to specifically say, just cozy and good!
Radiohead
3/5
"this is the most i have enjoyed ok computer by radiohead" is about as utterly un-meaningful of a statement as can possibly be made within the confines of my history with music, but it IS true. i last heard this in basically the sorest spot i probably could have, i was a lot earlier in my music journey but late enough to have certain solidified opinions and expectations (mostly about melodicism and my preferred Emotional Palate In Art), to which this did not conform and thus its universal acclaim felt like some sort of Attack On My Values. ig it should be more exciting to see such an illustration of my expanded horizons (in particular my tastes have run far enough towards expressionism that i finally understand the winding emotive beauty of the basic musical ideas), but its not like The Most Acclaimed Album Of All Time is the most meaningful discovery ive made in those horizions. and tbh this is still not totally for me,,,sci fi/dystopia is not my aesthetic home, their political commentary has always been deflated for me by their longstanding inability to do basic shit like boycott israel, and for as many sonic layers as there are here i just think radiohead became so much more free and expressive and vibrant when they finally dropped the Rock Band Pretense. but its easier to place my years of performative distaste in their proper context now, and enjoy some enveloping and Pretty and occasionally striking Isolation Jams. and honestly if i can appreciate this this much now, i might just totally love their kid a and onwards output now. azzy normie era strikes again!
Duran Duran
5/5
expected to enjoy but wasnt expecting to be this floored...just genuinely immaculate , every song coaxes a different color palate out of both the big stimmy synths and the lyrical hedonism. makes constructing this kind of pop seem effortless...all u need is A Sound and a few good ideas for what to do with it. basically entirely the kind of experience im hoping for with this project thing: something ive been meaning to sample for a while but just needed my ass kicked. lots of raindrops on windows on this album imo
Cowboy Junkies
4/5
by far the most thoroughly New To Me record of the project so far, having never caught a whiff of either it or the band. obviously its a bit harder 2 write ab stuff i have absolutely no associations with but the things that jump out are (1) i kinda forgot something can be So Beautiful it actually kind of hurts. like wind up a bodily tenseness instead of just releasing it (2) not gonna assume this is the first band to do this, but country and slowcore is one of the most inspired Genre Pairings i can think of...the latter rly lets the former soak and bring out all its dormant feelings of loneliness, melancholy, and peace (3) i need to remember this record when im looking for autumn tunes in a few months. also some incredible bass grooves on this. its just incredible in general ig. maybe my favorite New Discovery of the project so far
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
4/5
an absolutely delightful Encyclopedic Tome of bluegrass/country/appalachian standards and contemporary performers of such. certainly far more of this kind of music then most ppl will be willing to take at once but taking the first hour while playing animal crossing and the second while just lazing around was entirely pleasurable for me! rly starting to think i have a big proclivity towards bluegrass in general...wish it was more of an Albums Genre lol, but thats Authentic Folk Music for u ig. just nonstop great playing and time-tested material, and some rly wonderful silly/kindhearted/Old And Experienced studio banter on occasion that just make the whole thing feel even more living and titanic in scope
The Doors
3/5
i have historically Never Rly Gotten The Doors. i get the mystique, i get the talent of the musicians that surrounded jim morrison, and i even get jim morrison a bit (tho more in theory then in practice), but not most of the actual songwriting. ig its lucky i rolled this one then cuz honestly i think i was always more likely to enjoy a Back To Basics approach considering i didnt totally vibe with the band trying to rapidly ascend Above The Basics on those first two revered albums. the most ive been "wait, its THAT song i hear at work all the time?" on an album since tom petty's greatest hits. all in all feels like really sturdy and tasteful white boy blues, which is not my favorite combination of things but no longer something i have an inherent wretching reaction to. i cant deny that the band absolutely kills it and in a less mystical setting the character of jim morrision appears just a bit more colorful...livening up a more "basic" kind of persona rather then failing to live up to lofty heights. other then deep purple i rly havent struggled much with any of these so far, idk if thats luck or just being stockholm syndromed into liking classic rock again lmao, ill take it tho
Aretha Franklin
5/5
the lazy and frankly Morally Despicable route that some have taken is to say that aretha herself is the "only reason" to listen to this record, even if that was true that reason alone is equal to ten reasons for a different record. the color and gravity and pathos and excitement here is all hers, propelled by the songs while also effortlessly spinning them into something distinct. the perfect soul performance, in other words! and the songs are ALL undeniable as far as im concerned...plus while the band is no wrecking crew, theres plenty of good moments for them too. the moments of genuine forward/authoritative sexuality (wrestled from songs written by men no less) are not only mind-expanding precursors to so many big pop divas afterwards, theyre also just good and interesting Art. so is everything here!!!
R.E.M.
5/5
yet another Insistence From The Universe that i need to freakin get into r.e.m.! im sure ill have more to say about this in the proper context of their career which is how i typically like to approach things but its not necessary at all to be in ecstatic enjoyment of the record. their songwriting and general melodic sensibilities are cryptic and emotive to a degree that makes their best songs feel like they contain the universe or at least A Universe or at least Some Kind Of Answers About The Universe. rly difficult to not get swept up in just about everything here. i rly gotta revisit murmur
New Order
5/5
i have to admit i slightly wrote off new order when i first tried to listen several years ago, thinking that the difference in style wasnt enough to overcome my fundamental disconnect that i also have with joy division. idk whats happened in the years since but this is one of the most Completely and Instantly good times ive had with these so far....maybe its just getting a Little More Morbid (these are still Goth Classics), maybe its the group having drifted further away at this point from the joy division routes, maybe its acknowledging that i basically want all music ever to have big synthesizers, maybe its just an undeniably tight and hard hitting tracklist idk FHJFS all i know is this is the coolest warehouse trip ever and i wish i could dance
Muddy Waters
5/5
after years of hacking and hurling at white boys play blues licks on their electric guitars, i sure did find myself Not Struggling At All with actual blues recordings when i finally got around to them! obviously theres a host of differences and breaks in evolutionary timeline but placing things strictly within the realm of my personal aesthetic tastes...besides a love of jazz which is probably my most obvious backdoor in, i think the basic foundation for it feeling at least a little Like Home is , tbh, musical theatre FHJSFHJFS both styles of music about expressiveness and performance on top of familiar material built for infinite iteration. i dont wanna go too far for that comparison lol but listening to a great theatre performer and listening to a great blues performer scratch similar itches for me...waters ofc inevitably kinda rocks my world here. not just a ton of color, its a ton of Shades of color, so when things are similar on the surface theres reason to pull in and pick out the variations. his band is also ofc wonderful here especially the drumming which feels very jazz influenced at this point (my understanding is that there was a sorta Volleying of influence between the two). just super wonderful and magical tbh!! kinda Why You Listen To Music
The Byrds
3/5
seems like a variation/diversification on the central Byrds Sound that might make a bit more sense to me were i more familiar with that sound. good fundamentals tho...harmonies, jangly guitar parts, arrangement details. apparently they were super into coltrane around this time??? i wish i could hear it more lmao but it is an indication as to the fun array of Outside Influences being grafted onto here. the songs are also fine lol
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
i find frank zappa's musical vision compelling enough that i regularly get re-obsessed with his music and check out a few new live records i havent heard yet, the mothers were one of his best bands (not his best tho...ull have to hit up the roxy/one size fits all era for that), and this represents a lot of his best and most memorable material in his Filtering 50s And 60s Pop Melodies Thru His Avant-Garde Stravinsky-Obsessed Hyper-Ironic lens. but its so, so hard to tolerate man...frank here shows a complete and utter unwillingness to do any material analysis of why hippies existed (multiple references and a full song about how their parents failed them, but nothing about vietnam???), and his most cogent criticism is reduced to a sexual assault joke with cartoon voices. the parody angle is frequently musically amusing, because any type of art that asks for a certain amount of buy-in can be easily detached from and made to look silly, and that is just not a style of pastiche that interests me at all anymore (unless you, say, genuinely like 70s art rock as much as ween does on the mollusk). this creates the impression that frank's problem with hippies is just that he finds them annoying and silly, which is fine as an opinion ig but rly weak for supposedly genius satire. a real criticism of hippies might be, for example, that they idolized the abstract ideal of freedom but were still mostly imperial white people whos idea of freedom was often self-centered rather then having any understanding of the shape of global power...but if zappa criticized that, the hypocrisy might be a bit too obvious!
Metallica
2/5
by far the album ive rolled so far that most makes me question the methodology of this godforsaken list. i can accept western and guitar music-centric bias and that that means some bands are gonna be over represented but man are u serious lmao. the actual album is kind of an interesting reflection on the most popular metal band thats Ever Been, bunching together material from all over their timeline with extremely non-revelatory orchestral backing (and it rly is just Backing, its never mixed with any of the same amount as importance as the band) and james' new alt rock voice. it feels to me like metallica's songwriting (at least past kill em all) is way more rooted in the rock idiom then the metal idiom (in other words, has an evolutionary line pointing more towards RnB then the blues), which gives their music a sort of comforting familiarity to a mainstream audience no matter how aggressive and heavy they made it. it also highlights the ugliness of metal bands attempting to over-emphasize their roots in nonblack music, as if taking from classical is a fundamental part of the genre and not something that was popularly grafted on after the genre was already formed. more then anything tho, over two hours long! james is kinda loose and audience participationy on the first few tracks but then drops off the face of the earth, esp in the second set where i dont think he says a word. theres like One crowd sung line on wherever i may roam and it feels like a jumpscare. disappointing lack of showmanship here all things considered
Violent Femmes
5/5
very hard to write ab cuz the charms are so obvious, ig ill just say that this Kinda makes up for the whole metallica s&m thing...from washed out alt rock uncles to jittery lecherous teenagers channeling their experiences into punky folky songs that have the distance to achieve disarming humor but the intimacy to still feel like ur seeing something very special that ur lucky to witness. more then anything, one of the most immediately catchy albums ive heard in a good while. at some point ill accept that this rly is just My Genre
Jurassic 5
4/5
the strain of hip hop that was in some way Intentionally Contrasting Itself With Gangsta Rap is a whole Messy Thing that i am the last person to ask about, but i appreciate that this record leaves it implicit with a minimum of arrested development-style preaching (and a lot more political maturity from what i caught!). i think what helps is that there is still a lot of lived-in experiences here, just less mythology and more Common People Trying To Navigate The World Of Antiblack Capitalism. years later its easier to see the merits of both...and speaking of aging well musically this is pretty awesome. a lot of boom bap foundations and the sounds chosen to be above the percussion can be rly immediately atmospheric considering how sparse they are. theres even an instrumental closing track just to flex the smoothness and tightness in full focus. rly effortless and buttery and entertaining listen. plus a hip hop album of the cd age thats less then an hour is always nice FHJKFHSJKSFHJKS
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
i think i spent years and years assuming this was a punk band HFJFHS theyve got the attitude at least! caught a lot of neat lyrics, but obviously the main appeal is just the unstoppable melodicism and moments of surprise in the arrangements. honestly a lot of big juicy catharsis by the end. whenever i return to this to chew on it more besides a cursory listen, theres lots of colors im excited to parse as to what the Overall Vibe of this thing is, but just being great great poppy rock music has me more then satisfied enough for now!
John Coltrane
5/5
i actually did relisten to this a while back when i was having another brief Coltrane Period and tbh it wasnt fully hitting me then...its hitting me now, but i can kinda see why my reaction fluctuates sometimes. coltrane's music is kinda unique among the group-focused world of jazz in that his records tend to be utterly dominated by His Specific Voice, honestly because in part he kinda cant help it, he's probably the most compelling voice to ever touch his instrument. this is not to underestimate the importance of the musicians he played with (especially the legendary quartet material) but it does mean that listening to a coltrane record kinda calls for a Different Mode of listening then a lot of other jazz, which i cant always readily slip into. this record is ofc as poetic and cathartic and immersive a demonstration as any as to Why people decided it was a good idea to just let coltrane take u wherever he wanted to go...tho elvin jones especially creates a sort of Cascading Waterfall backdrop thru much of the record which ive always loved. just in general a lot of coltrane deserves a revisit from me...its one of the most rewarding discogs out there, and tbh even tho i loved it when i was last exploring it, my jazz tastes were mostly in the attention-grabbing avant garde half of his career, and i owe a lot of those early records full appreciation now that i have become appropriately obsessed with the Fundamentals of the genre
Sabu
4/5
extremely exciting to discover an album this old that traces the roots of the idiom of Dance Music as it is known in western popular music to Dance Music as in the tradition that has existed for probably as long as music itself has. i honestly cant imagine unsuspecting listeners in 1957 (or apparently, suspecting listeners in 2024, given the bizarrely low rym score) rly knew what to do with it? its super awesome tho...sweaty hypnotic call and response beats that just go and go and go a little more, feels free while being incredibly tight, feels old (much older then the recording, roots in afro-cuban folk styles) while being incredibly vital, feels spiritual while having more libido then any contemporary rock and roll would manage for a long long time
Alice Cooper
4/5
i was introduced to the shock rock stylings of alice cooper and related artists not as music on its own or even thru a big radio single but as an explanation on several online frank zappa review pages as to what exactly he was parodying on The Torture Never Stops. based on that i assumed that frank was under the impression that he was taking someone overly self-serious down a peg (which he did all the time) and if he did think that ig this was an idiot cuz this album is pretty fugkigng funny and clearly on purpose. its also not musically abrasive at all! just decadence and morbidity draped over fun breezy catchy theatrical glammy rock music. not much 2 actually observe, just clearly a ton of fun to listen to. torture never stops is still pretty good tho.
Thin Lizzy
4/5
i talked in the metallica entry about a bit of thoughts im developing regarding the evolutionary divide between rock and metal (the former's songwriting idiom growing directly out of RnB, the latters owing more to the blues). ive also thought a lot about the lyrical divides between the two, in particular how a first person I is so much rarer in metal then in rock where it tends to be the bedrock. they both rely on fiction, but hard rock tends to favor the Idealization Of The Self rather then inhabiting a fully different dramatic roll. ig i was just thinking about that because while this is hard rock in musical idiom (at least the idiom we would recognize today), there is a kind of Spiritually Metal bent to it...closer to the led zepp songs that create the impression of an Unstoppable Force Of Nature rather then any of the ones that are strictly carnal. extremely enjoyable album btw! a lot more showmanship then the aforementioned live double lp, and more genuinely great songs then i expected. very sweaty!!! and very irish. i wonder if america/europe is a dividing line worth looking into re:the development of these styles...
Kings of Leon
3/5
finally, at long last, after so many people refusing, we finally have a band that asks "if u2 is so good how come theres no u3???"
okay tbh still quite enjoyable for me...songs feel very static and kinda glompy, but picking a Sound and a Melody to ride out cozily in the shape of an alt rock song isnt something that eludes my tastes. given a different context where id be coming back to this more (or if this was one of the albums i picked up from walmart when i was 15/16 and trying out this Music thing) i could probably even get rly attached, its comfy! but certainly not among my most significant discoveries from this project either way
Dolly Parton
4/5
seemingly deliberately unrevelatory, which is just fine by me. what could be an incredible amount of pomp and circumstance gathering this level of fame and talent instead presents itself as so inevitable as if to be mundane, if beautiful (especially in the harmonies ofc). ive often played animal crossing while listening to the albums from this project, this was one of the best pairs yet for obvious reasons. lindas outfit on the cover is incredible
Pink Floyd
4/5
the appeal and polarization in pink floyd is that, if they are prog at all, they are the most moderate and instantly digestible prog in existence. all the musical phrases inherit an instantaneousness from their grounding in capital b Blues, and all their cumulative statements inherit a big weighty gravity from their ability to achieve aesthetic/thematic unity and clarity in a way that is readable to just about anyone. in other words, if im being cynical (which i have a slight inclination to be given my loaded history with the band as one of my former favorites and Big Musical Gateways that i fell out of favor with), i could describe the band's style as cribbing from musicians more adventurous and/or More Black then them, and stacking up mountains of credit that they dont really "deserve" due to not actually being either of those things to a degree that will offend common consensus tastes. being less cynical, i enjoyed this revisit of my former favorite album of all time (as a teen) more then i expected , just because even (and maybe especially) in their instantly readable mellow tones, they created a very emotive record that pulls that quality from a variety of well-selected traditions. they are not a flashy band, and that Does have a bit more worth then maybe i thought...it makes all their big lofty ideas feel attainable and approachable, and thus more emotionally immediate. they will likely never be one of my favorite bands again, but here is yet another Day Of Reckoning where i was able to make some peace. at the v least, fun to discover that welcome to the machine is Easily my runaway favorite on the album now...comes the closest to fully recapturing that old vividness
Funkadelic
5/5
insofar as they are a real Band, i think funkadelic p much has to be in contention for Greatest Band Of All Time, not just for their ability to make transcendental music but to have that transcendence coexist with the pure brazen confidence it takes to name a masterpiece something like Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers)...whatever clinton and co had, its what frank zappa wanted! trite to even say for funk, but so much of the appeal rly is that every single idea feels totally mined for all its worth, hypnotic and colorful sonic painting to get turned around and lost in. im not super familiar with the bands various lineups (much less their cross-pollination with parliament), but this feels like it has to be one of the best theyve ever had...a million things to notice and plenty of time to appreciate them. the fact they can pull off a live version of maggot brain without eddie hazel and make it distinct and exciting is unbelievable. this discog (and parliament by extension) just seem like a treasure trove
Beck
5/5
difficult day yesterday, was rly nice to wake up and revisit and Old Friend. its no longer one of my favorite albums, but i rolled it in the dying days of summer which is pretty much the absolute best time to do so...beck in this period runs on pure Form As Content, nonsense lyrics chosen for their vibe and cadence spouted in west coast deadpan over songs that are constructed out of Literally Whatever is laying around in beck's head and mixing board. very fun album to listen 2 for obvious reasons, and maybe its just cuz im so familiar but i think its ability to pull all the parts into something instantly recognizable, on a track-by-track and album-wide level, is a testament to craft and intuition and also just the weight that those seemingly hyper simple hooks are pulling
Red Hot Chili Peppers
1/5
the attempted "mature" reconfiguring of potential worst-band-of-all-time red hot chili peppers' image does not mean that their usual panic-attack-inducing levels of abhorrent douchebag vibes are gone, but rather smothered in a layer of boring detachment and faux-gravity that only takes everything further into the deepest levels of artistic hellishness. one of the smallest, most claustrophobic experiences ive ever had with any music ever, i genuinely do not think there is a single second on here that is of Any aesthetic or emotional value to me. im so not used to having blindspots like this anymore, because clearly people like the band, including multiple ppl in my Life who i love and care ab, but in my heart of hearts i have absolutely no idea why anyone would make or listen to music like this. and holy shit why does it SOUND LIKE THAT i was prepared for an overloud brickwall not, whatever the fuck this burnt cornchips palate is
Foo Fighters
3/5
okay obviously anythings gonna sound good after rhcp but this is also genuinely a nice record. weirdly low-key given the grunge and post grunge styles it sits at the crossroads of, for which id point to the strangely warm production...maybe not a lot of super standouts, but very comfy, esp when u hit the more layered and impressionist tracks for which the production takes on an almost shoegazey vibe. that being said i wasnt paying attention to the lyrics at all but apparently one of the songs is about courtney love....so fucking lame dude, feel like i gotta dock it a star just for that lmao
Herbie Hancock
5/5
didnt think i would even get to this cuz ive had a very emotionally draining day, but it got better and this was the cap off to me slowly picking myself up, an album that i knew i liked suddenly clicking as the best thing ive ever heard in my life. its probably not That impressive to perfectly sequence an album thats only four tracks, but the balance of the A and the B side is absolutely perfect, with A as the perfect idiosyncratic introduction and B taking their overall vibes to greater extremes (sly is even more explosive and exciting then chameleon, vein melter is even more chill and relieving then watermelon man). so many instruments here sound nearly unrecognizable, its such a vivid and unique and creative palate that changes up slightly to give every track its own completely different rainbow (and yet still aesthetically Part Of Head Hunters). the band here is godly and every solo knocks me into next week, its hard to tell whether the hyper-disciplined tenseness or the moments of pure explosion hit harder. vibrant, sweaty, unbelievable music
The Rolling Stones
2/5
this was actually a Slightly more fruitful revisit then i expected, if only because i do think the songs r a bit better crafted then i remembered...probably part of my ongoing rewiring of my brain in a classic rock direction thanks to years of classic rock radio at work, but in general i would be remiss to deny that there is both tunefulness and creativity on here, and each song is impressively distinct in hook and arrangement. but absolutely no band could survive being fronted by mick jagger, who only comes across worse and worse with every bit of experience i get with the black vocalists he was biting. i can see how he's a very expressive singer esp for the time and place but he covers everything in layers of sleaze and sarcasm that make the intense moments unconvincing, the emotive moments condescending, and the "humorous" moments near unbearable. i think im the only person who intensely hates him as much as i do but So Be It.
The Rolling Stones
1/5
TWO STONES ALBUMS IN A ROW!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EAT MY ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wanted to leave it at that but i feel like i do need to explain why This is so obviously the nadir to me of a catalog i already obviously Do Not Like At All. the rolling stones doing boring, stiff, sleazy versions of black music was partly excusable on their early records cuz thats what Everyone Was Doing, and much like their contemporaries they started branching and experimenting as the 60s went on, going thru a weird sissy pop era , making that weird psychedelic thing, and by the time they went back to Rootsy music with beggars banquet they had an expanded palate that i can appreciate from afar even tho i hate listening to the actual music. but this record, the culmination of their most acclaimed stretch, is their full on Back To Basics record even more then sticky fingers, and that means the mode is purely in imitation and pastiche, which is just absolutely unholy (strangely similarly to led zepp's interminable physical graffiti, which also made the inexplicable decision to make their big double album a super monotonous back to basics affair after branching out on the last few records). just about the only thing keeping this from being one of the very *very* worst albums ive ever heard is that i can at least appreciate the hyper-dense arrangement approach...especially the rollicking pianos and organs, i like to hear those in rock songs. cant stand any other aspect of this enterprise, not the least of which that this is their second album in a ROW to have a song featuring brazenly horrible and tone-deaf slavery references, if u thought i had to give them any credit whatsoever for "respecting" who they stole their music from. i genuinely might hate mick jagger more then axl rose but i know im gonna roll appetite one of these days so i may eat my words
Fiona Apple
4/5
save me white girl
a bit stylistically one note for a 50 minute album but u could pick worse styles, certainly ones that are less totally up my ally...pianos, jazzy harmony, and Reflective Teenager Lyrics. my current exhausted self was also very glad how much faith this has in relatively simple structures...easy to parse, easy to get sunk into, easy to enjoy. its not easy to write about anything tho lol im so tapped. great album tho! hope theres more then one of hers on here
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
THANK U!!! SOME PEAK!!! also something thats very much been in my recent memory/rotation so i dont have super a lot of new thoughts about it but i do need to rly take my time to let the fact that CCR is peak soak in. while its hard to map their albums onto an arc esp considering in what quick succession they were made, im here to call this their Pop Masterpiece, the record where the savory rock band chops (creating arrangements and performances often just as dense as any of the fab four beatles material) and the smoggy swamp atmosphere both send all their strength towards pure tunefulness. i like the long jams and the rootsy genre excursions and all the other parts of CCR but if u want the same itch scratched as by most of the other Big Classic 60s rock bands, the album with bad moon rising and lodi is right here. fun and memorable and lonely and sad. everything ud want from living on the river ig!
Derek & The Dominos
2/5
walk out the door you see someone that you know and they ask you how you are and you just have to say that youre fine when youre not really fine but you just cant get into it because they would never understand
Bob Dylan
4/5
in yet another Cruel Twist (of fate) i now i have to talk about my blood on the tracks opinions. im a huge dylan fan (been very slowly doing a discog dive), and this is not only a great album but one that does (and should) jump out to many people as their favorite. in one of his early-ish live recordings dylan throws out a quip that he needs to adjust his "bob dylan mask", and this sentiment is surprisingly core to his entire body of work: dylan's mystique is his use of Artistic Artifice, not to Hide some "true identity" but to express that Truth and Identity are inherently multifaceted and irreducible. bob dylan is not an Authentic Country Star a la nashville skyline, but that albums existence and his playing that role on it still reveals something about him...its a very freeing body of work for me in that way. the unique appeal of blood on the tracks is that it is the most bob ever stripped away those layers of abstraction...it has some of his most direct and instantly emotionally readable lyricism (at least thats not a pastiche of some kind) and just pricks right at dylan's real personal life and emotions with total transparency. this is why i think even a lot of ppl who dont like dylan writ large like this one...its a unique and disarming appeal within his body of work. that all being said, as someone who Does like dylan writ large, specifically the way he uses the layers of abstraction he tries to strip away here, im left with an album that is often affecting but occupies my mind and heart very little compared to much of his other acclaimed material...its all kinda Right There, ive never personally found much to chew on or dig through. probably best illustrated in lily rosemary and jack of hearts, which is fine but so straightforward and grounded and literal compared to the dylan Epics that proceeded it that it holds up a lot worse on repeated listens. album is still great obviously, melodies are wonderful, so is his singing, so are the lyrics on their own terms, but even compared to dylan's self-consciously Slight music (nashville skyline and self portrait, two of my favorites), theres not a lot that i get stuck in here
The Rolling Stones
2/5
a nostalgic throwback to the days when mick jagger wasnt the smarmiest sleaziest most self satisfied piece of shit frontman on the planet, and merely a guy with an extremely annoying voice and singing sensibilities. could do a lot worse for a rubber soul equivalent made by a band that sucks ass, id say im even into the A side here more then im not...its nothing if not a very distinct lineup of songs, strong central musical and lyrical ideas, and its fun to map the View Of Women thru each track which fluctates wildly from sympathetic (and horrifying) observations of married women addicted to happy pills to at least one straightforward love song to Stupid Girl and Under My Thumb which are hilarious (on purpose) misogyny classics. ofc the arrangement creativity keeps popping up even tho im less into the second half. cant stand this band but how can i hate an album with multiple marimba parts on it??? u cant go wrong with a marimba. also this is actually my first time listening to the UK tracklisting lmao, only heard the US version as a teen, had to hunt down the other songs on the Flowers compilation
Queens of the Stone Age
4/5
honestly seems like yet another questionable inclusion for the goals of the list but it also turns out i like this a Lot so i wont complain. its not too often u hear rock albums this Singleminded...the goal is to be Riffy and Buttery and it turns out thats kinda all u need! it honestly kinda took a bit to adjust to how un-ornamental it is...tho obviously its very easy to lock in once uve done so. it trusts the riffs, trusts the guitar tone, and its trust is well-placed. in that way it weirdly reminds me more then anything else of tony iommi, but ig he's already unintentionally the reason for all of stoner rock's existence
Drive Like Jehu
5/5
a rly bad dissociative day today so i almost didnt get to this but i threw it on while closing at work and its even better then i remember and kind of the best music ever if we're being honest. moments here that do with hardcore guitar tone what autechre do with a daw...pure vivid sonic worldbuilding that make me hear the stomps of 50 foot creatures (i dont know what they look like but i know what it feels like to be in their presence) and the crashing of upsidedown waves (in oceans of liquids that are colors that dont exist in our world). fills up the entire space of my ears and brain and heart so theres no room for anything else while its playing...exhausting, but obviously rewarding, i think im gonna keep this one in rotation a bit beyond this cursory project listen. this album could be ur life
Lorde
5/5
man i almost cried like four times ghjasdghjsd. just an ocean of pop catharsis, with lorde's whole Already World-Weary At A Young Age vibe manifesting not for distant self-deflation but for trying to hold onto the fact that no matter how intense things are ur not the only person to ever go thru this and come out fine. reminds me, in its rougher moments, of my first relationship (in college) and how a lifetime spent consuming media About romantic relationships and their flow and how they end by that point made the whole thing feel even more uncanny then it already was. will never forget the first time i heard a song and instantly thought about a Specific Person. rly wonderful album obviously,,,,i should get back on the lorde train
The Smiths
3/5
there are FOUR MORRISSEY SOLO ALBUMS on this horrible evil list so ill have plenty of time to hash things out with him eventually, but at least ive been eased into it with what was when i last listened to their discog the smiths album i Got the most. still holds up to me as pretty good with some unique charms that help me connect with it over their other material, with a thick impressionist almost dream-poppy style. and ive gotta say that even tho on the whole the band's melodic style does not blow me away or stick with me, i no longer find it Utterly Bewildering which i guess is the best i can hope for atm. theres a couple moments here that extend things out instrumentally, not a Jam or whatever but theyre p striking anyway. the vibest smiths album which for someone not sold on their music or lyrics means it pretty much has to be their best
Nina Simone
5/5
obviously nina simone could sing the phone book and it would be a transformative experience, but extra praise must be given to the various recording lineups here. they create an unassumingly diverse spread of sound that nina effortlessly matches...her chops span so many genres and idioms. and yet somehow this is still so aesthetically cohesive...heartrending and mystical ect ect. im very very sick rn so idk how to string words together but i feel like this is potentially one of the best things ive ever heard
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
less ethereal then the debut and less polished and poppy then all the future records, this is their sweatiest, scuzziest, swampiest record. alternately something to wade thru at waist-level and something to zip along freely no matter how many reeds smack u in the face. scratchy and sticky and kinda gross (the noisiest guitar moments really slash thru the air), but wholly masterful wall-to-wall as far as im concerned. those interested in the band as a capital r Rock outfit will prob find the most to enjoy here...more overt blues and old school rock and roll here then on any record other then the debut.
Amy Winehouse
4/5
longstanding blindspot i should have filled ages ago. the mastering is rough on my ears unfortunately, which is a big issue, but its the only issue i can pawsibly raise. she has to have been one of the most memorable singers probably Ever, and despite my production complaints the actual arrangements are so Zesty and Poppy. some rly nasty licks on occasion too! hoping this one will get a better remaster eventually. the title track made me lift a few feet off the ground
Kraftwerk
5/5
enduringly aesthetically incomprehensible! full of stimmy wonder! and genuinely autistic. some rly unmatched sound worldbuilding on here ...assembled from aesthetic fixations that are complimented perfectly by available technology. kind of the biggest album ever tbh, but it might be more of an intricate miniature u got shrunk down into. i love artifice!! cant spell it without art!!!
The Replacements
5/5
ive been extremely exhausted due to recovering from sickness, its maybe questionable whether i should still be doing these daily albums at all but so far ive been fine if sparse on my writing. all this is to say that something in this reached into me and pulled out a very strong emotional reaction, but im having a hard time identifying what...need more listens with a clearer head and body for that. but lowkey this is one of my fave New To Me albums of this project so far...sits compellingly between deceptively numerous genres, but not thru pastiche or whatever, just feels like the most natural alchemy ever of this particular group of ppl writing and playing songs together in a Rock framework. feels as comfortably itselt as it is anxious and fluid...the moments of immaturity that u learn to not repeat but represent something painfully honest. idk. i loved this very much
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
im sure this isnt the only curtis mayfield on this list so its cool that the first one i rolled was one that was actually new to me! id need to revisit his other stuff (its been years) but based on my memories id say this one feels less lavish and more precise...no big wall of sound arrangements, but every instrument placed in its own deliberately prominent place in the mix. ig that should give it a harder edge and maybe it does but its angelic as ever anyway,,while he gets a surprising amount of tonal variety out of his songs, the default aesthetic of curtis' voice is a kind of idealistic humanity-wide kindness pushing through the vile evils of an unjust world, of which his only rival is probably stevie. so lovely
3/5
u can tell from a mile away that its mostly meant to be a showcase for a great voice, but it Is a great voice, with great performance decisions thruout as well. idk enough about country music to know how to judge the backing players....they seem fine but if theres anything great going on there its wasted on me. this goes rly hard on the sad and mistreated lady vibe for the most part which even considering the short length does lose momentum after a while. its v cool that three of the most memorable tracks (especially in terms of lyrical perspective) have a writing credit from lynn herself!
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
5/5
i know embarrassingly little ab elvis costello but being thrown into the thick of someones later career is deffo one of the more fun parts of this little project. idk what brought him to this point, how typical this is for him ect, but i was enamored with this almost immediately. its great, full-blooded rock music with a strange embryonic quality...like he shattered the whole genre into pieces and glued them back together partly in an attempt to rebuild from memory but also inject his own instincts into the very dna of musical history. the attractions kick an unbelievable amount of ass and the songs are hypnotic and offputting and very cozy to me honestly. rly excited for anything else i roll from him
Metallica
3/5
metallica do not know how to make prog (or at least forgot on this record), which fortunately for them has never rly been a barrier to Making Prog. One sticks out like a sore thumb for having the musical Coherency of the band's previous epics, elsewhere these tracks are not rly beating the riff salad allegations but the riffs are at least usually fun. kirk ofc also has great showings thruout. idk i love prog and prog metal and kinda sloppy prog and this is fine but even grading on the curve that is my general lack of fandom for this band, its hard to find this very exciting, or aesthetically coherent, or even much of a Career Culmination when it feels mostly like the same tracklisting formula as lightning and puppets but left out in the sun a bit too long. also is metallica the most famous/acclaimed band to have multiple albums known for Bad Production? much less production that is bad in Different Ways from the other albums with Bad Production?
John Lennon
4/5
ive not heard plastic ono band yet but from what i know about it this seems like an attempt to counteract that album's whole-hearted bitterness with something sweeter and more digestible. the results are predictably solid if amusingly compromised-feeling considering how much contemporary reception was propping up lennon as the Real Artist of the beatles (while trashing paul's Ram, a much more melodically and sonically exciting, and better aged, record than this imo). a whole album of post-1967 john lennon was always gonna be a bit hard for me to fully vibe with tbh...he plays rly well as part of the larger collage of personalities in the beatles, but its a little difficult for me to feel as stirred when he's out here on his own...but he's a skilled tunesmith, phil spector brings subtle but resonant colors, and john's biggest advantage had long revealed itself to be a propensity towards emotional nakedness without layers of showmanship. i like showmanship, but as much as i mock the contemporary deification of the guy, i can absolutely understand why he was so refreshing
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
an old friend...been years since i revisited the nick cave discog so i cant fully place this in its proper context outside of my memories, but esp listening chronologically its hard to forget the bolt of energy and color this is. nick cave strikes me at least in part as an alternate history where bob dylan rose out of literary tradition instead of folk tradition, and with a consistently greater interest in arrangement...or at least a consistent band that has such, the bad seeds kick all kinds of ass on here, draining so much energy out of u thru the course of disc 1 that disc 2 hits even harder as a big pool of balm. would love to do a big nick cave revisit at some point, and this may remain my favorite album of his...full of surreal emotive beauty, and the perfect meeting point between spiritualism and Flesh And Blood. lowkey a record about Dance in that way...or at least physical ritual of some kind!!! comfy cult vibes off the charts
Judas Priest
4/5
absolutely insane production job for a niche genre in 1980...a level of clarity and expressiveness that would work well for just about any music played with a traditional guitar band setup. lots of room to appreciate the band's work here, which is vibrant and subtly diverse in terms of influence thruout...they can soar, they can chug, sometimes the rhythm section even has a little funk in it. releasing the same year as iron maiden's debut, its rly striking as The Shape Of Metal To Come, but also a short and sweet record of oiled-up rock music on its own...rly wanna fill in all my vast knowledge blanks of judas priests' evolution eventually!
Bob Dylan
4/5
always reliable ofc, to the point where even tho i dont revisit this super often, our paths cross often enough that this is kind of a comfort album. ive developed a preference for bringing it all back home, but the ways in which this is an advancement make it absoloutely stunning that these came out mere months apart...the electric material on back home is not only so conventional by comparison but so much more Timid...dylan rly sounds like he's gonna conquer the world with his cascade of guitars and drums and organs on here. idk, u dont need me to tell u highway 61 revisited is good! my takes about it have remained almost entirely the same for almost half a decade...maybe ill have big revelations about it one day, but im fine with it the way it is
Dirty Projectors
4/5
never even heard of this one beforehand, ended up scratching itches i forgot i had...harmonic and melodic construction that is theoretically extremely spicy but delivered in a swirling sweet way. thought a lot about like, oil paints, mixing and unmixing in impossible ways to make impossible colors. fun to navigate, even more fun to fail to navigate. there are parts of my ears that can only rly be filled by songwriting like this...perhaps there is hope for me yet that i have not undergone full normieification after finding myself drifting towards more conventional and digestable music for a couple years. wish i had the proper words to capture this record's aesthetic experience, but rly thats just motivation to eventually return to it until i do!
Alice In Chains
5/5
pumped my fists a lil when i rolled this lmao. not my fave alice in chains ive ever heard (i am eternally partial to jar of flies) but definitely the band at their most razor-precise. cascades of venomous but lush harmonizing pouring all over crushing churning songs thru which layne slams down performances and lyrics that feel like theyre going to literally kill him. being Sick and Sad recently, this was my most emotionally powerful listen yet and i think im ready to fully claim it as a favorite. i promise ill get to self titled soon-ish! it might change my life tbh
James Brown
4/5
brown and his band blow through the A side with a bunch of songs less than 3 (sometimes less than 2!) minutes like a proto-grindcore band, and when slowing things down for a couple lengthy cuts in the second half the crowd is eating out of his hand. just an absolutely electric display of showmanship with one of the best voices ever on a Human Being...place-taking and exhilarating to this day. could have listened to way more of this, but the short runtime is also part of its power i suppose...and rly its just proof i need to listen to the double LP Volume II!
Gotan Project
4/5
obviously i have v little familiarity with any of the genres this is mashing up, but just on its own it strikes me as super cool...i think the secret weapon is the trip hop influence, which allows a great variety of subtle atmospheric touches that rly unify the smoky, sultry, nocturnal atmosphere on here. i cant say this authoritatively obviously, but this feels pretty forward thinking, as opposed to a bunch of pastiches. very funny inclusion: a cover of the title track from Chunga's Revenge of frank zappa's infamous flo and eddie era
Supergrass
4/5
so melodic its almost abrasive, or maybe a little bit funny. no complaints from me ofc..while not entirely Wowing all the way thru, every single song is a great study in Songs That Teach You How To Listen To Themselves, spreading and distributing musical information in a way that will almost inevitably be fully absorbed and probably lodged in ur head. lots of genuine power to the band here too, the tone is Big without any shred of ornateness which is always a fun vibe. kinda cant believe this is 40 minutes lmao it just flies by, maybe more then any other record ive rolled so far. ive been on a good streak recently i think!
Skunk Anansie
4/5
honestly feels like a lost and underrated stone-cold rock classic to me. skin is ofc an absolutely magnetic central presence but the band that supports her is also incredible,,particularly love the huge bass tone, and man idk what to tell u the songs absolutely rule. lots of ass kicked while never losing an intimate and personal-feeling edge, and when they stretch out for the more open and ballad-y songs the effect is just pure emotional magic tbh. i am in a very Music-Receptive mood rn and im glad i got to lay in bed throwing this on to get my daily album done and just being totally enraptured, barely moving except for the occasional semi-voluntary Shaking Of My Legs. i first knew this band from the sucker punch soundtrack so ofc i was going to like them. pretty funny choice for day 69 but would have been funnier as day 70
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
thank GOD for my several-months-ago experiences with axis bold as love, granting me some clarity about Ultra Popular And Beloved Guitar Player Jimi Hendrix Who Should Be Intuitive To Pretty Much Everyone But Eluded Me For Years Somehow. in that way i have to give him some credit for genuinely being so distinct that my expectations from the likes of jazz and prog didnt help me much, and were maybe even a bit counter-intuitive! my moment of clarity with axis and its psychedelic tapestry was that the cadence of sound coaxed from jimi's guitar matters often more then the individual notes he's playing...and i think even here on a more sonically conservative album (strictly compared to axis, goes without saying this was even more insane for the time), where his playing has a slightly more lyrical quality , its the stubborn part of my ears that is finally fixed. this isnt one of my fave albums or anything, i dont prefer it to axis i dont think, but it finally all sounds colorful and firey and In Place to me. electric ladyland might kick my head in if i revisit it idk
The Teardrop Explodes
4/5
im sure this is not the only band to try and answer the question "what if post-punk was Fun and Bouncy and Colorful" but its a good question for anyone to ask tbh. some blindingly bright synth horns on here, and a big dash of thrillingly expensive-sounding creativity generally. feels like an unassuming band was just given the chance to go wild in a super decked out studio...not that ur necessarily getting a lot of crazy studio tricks or whatever but just a bigger canvas thru which to channel the songs they always Wanted to play had they only had the resources. very fun!!!!!!!!!!!!
5/5
an overtly fun and deceptively subtle shattering of rock and roll's base components and reassembled by people for whom many of its subtextual gut feelings (especially of libido) are but an abstract curiosity, but they think its cool anyway and worth studying and replicating and performing to its fullest extent. in that way it somehow becomes a comical peak of these subtextual gut feelings? i need to stop trying to comprehend this thread i think its getting away from me. album is crazy fun, the ratio of runtime to Ass Kicked Per Second absolutely slams many hard rock bands... there's so little in the way of rock as pure Motion and Energy when u have no times for things like self-aggrandizement ! no disrespect on self-aggrandizement ofc...but this scratches an almost wholly unique itch. made me think about early rock n rollers just as much as talking heads
Beatles
4/5
at least this time its not disrupting the chronology of my slowly ongoing beatles revisits! i have acquired plenty of hot takes during this project about the band's (incredibly fruitful) early period, the hottest of which is a deep appreciation for beatles for sale as not just my fave of these early albums in terms of material but also the secret forgotten Great Leap in the band's diversity and ambition. with this leap in appreciation comes a Slight loss of magic for the much more beloved two records on either side of it. not super much mind you, theyre still great, but come across as more treading water than Advancements in the overall trajectory of the band. what that does mean is that esp in the case of this one, theyve settled very snuggly into their songcraft and a lot of the tracks do blur together for me (esp considering how much i like these early beatles albums and Can tell the songs apart lol), but it also means theyre working at a very very high floor of quality. and i dont wanna oversell the monotony anyway...theres some surprise bitter tones among the bubblegum here, as well as just a lot of great individual musical ideas with weird chord changes and little moments of subtle arrangement genius (if u didnt know, the secret to the famous opening chord is Theres A Piano In There). v good material from the world's favorite above average pop band.
The Strokes
5/5
if u saw the two star rating i inexplicably had on this from when i was 18 or so, no u didnt. the slowly dawning realization that this is probably one of the best albums ive rolled yet was not pretty. rly just inimitable songcraft delivering emotions deeply felt but struggled to be projected. in places , as elemental as something like the velvet underground, but never compromising on its nonstop melodic sensibility. kind of autistic honestly. feel very stupid that i just bounced off this years ago and havent spent the time inbetween getting super attached to this thing! will make up for lost time eventually, i am periodically slowly revisiting my new faves from this project...they can pop up in the most unexpected places
The Young Gods
4/5
almost every member of this band is credited with "sampler" except for the drummer who is the only one playing an instrument. rly striking and inspiring stuff, tho a lil more in its conception than the actual music, at least for now...the strange Unmoored feeling that comes from building semi-traditional songs out of a sampler can be hard to find a place in on just one listen. still, i literally havent heard anything that sounds like this...the strange theatrical undertone and the menace of the vocal delivery add additional wrinkles to what could just be a one-gimmick band. in its best moments, it feels like the sky is the limit but its also made of bronze and trapping u
Ali Farka Touré
4/5
once again, stepped in musical traditions that i have v little experience with (i dont even have enough knowledge of american blues much less this african fusion). lacking more specific language or fallback mental models ill just say this is v v enjoyable. there is a rly warm and sweet quality to this that certainly stands out against the typical perception of the blues, and probably owes itself to all sorts of things from the geographical move away from the center of antiblack oppression to these songhai/mande traditions i am not familiar with. songs are very hypnotic and can be surprisingly varied in terms of sound palate. a barely posthumous release, im not sure if it was a self-conscious swan song (toure was battling cancer for a long time) but regardless of how it got here, its moving qualities of liveliness and being-at-peace are likely to stick with me
Louis Prima
4/5
kinda afraid this has pre-emptively ruined any other 50s trad pop albums i might roll in comparison! absolutely covered in sparkles and giggles, a great swing band teams up with a gravitatious singer and trumpet player to create a fleeting and fluid set of tracks that carry so much character and charisma , humor often thru pure energy that has to go Somewhere as prima makes silly expressive noises with his voice even before u get to the scatting. simply the Sound Of Entertainment or whatever! comfy party vibes off the charts
Love
5/5
totally revelatory man...one of the nastier results of a perusal of the Canon is that while some bands are inevitably over-represented others are reduced to a single significant album, cut off from its evolution and context and often implying a narrative of "most of their music kinda sounds like this but this is where they did it the best." i rly like forever changes and ig was unconsciously expecting something in that mold, but i was totally wrong to do so...arthur lee flexes his songwriting and creativity muscles in directions i didnt even know he was capable of based on that one album, creating a diverse and ornate hippie fantasyland that still Has Things To Say. honestly he might deserve the cred that ended up going to jim morrision...such a magnetic presence, and here he is in full gonzo exploration mode that only enhances my appreciation for forever changes' tender apocalypse. so mind-expanding!
Laura Nyro
4/5
instead of simply building one of the most vivid smoky candlelight atmospheres thats ever been on a singer songwriter record, nyro somehow Starts there and just keeps adding on top. in that way it reminds me weirdly of pet sounds? and is a similarly impressive and ofc even more adventurous splitting of the difference between classic proven musical modes and intricate hyper-expressive songwriting experiments. some choices in vocal delivery here will always take my breath away. the longer my good streak goes on the more anxious i get FHJSHFDJFS
Coldplay
4/5
got this for the day after the band seemingly announced their final stretch, a kind of emotional announcement for me even as a critter who likes things to be Manageably Finite. there are few bands out there that hit the marks of Comfort as well as coldplay does, depending on the song and era the emotional impression is either that The Song Is Speaking To You Directly In An Intimate Setting, or The Song Is Throwing A Party That Everyone Is Invited To And You Dont Need To Come Its No Pressure But It Will Be Very Happy When It Sees You Arrive. obviously the former is where the magic lies in this very beautiful record, which ive been underrating p hard. there is an earnest and inviting and hyper-populist quality to all of coldplays music that i think deserves a lot more respect simply because basically no one else has worked so hard at this specific craft...the lack of self-aggrandizement and ability to speak across so many demographics genuinely reminds me of CCR or something. early coldplay is not my personal favorite, ive spent the most time in the post-viva la vida lush maximalism (x&y splits the difference rly well becoming my favorite of theirs currently), but the What If The Bends Was Sweet stuff is growing on me. and they got way way way better takes on palestine then radiohead too lmao
George Michael
4/5
am groggy and Bleh and not in the best mood for music. still rly liked this tho which makes me think i should revisit it some other day with a clearer head...very warm and glowing and soulful pop stuff with even kind of a singer-songwriter edge that i wasnt expecting from the guy i mostly know for the funny sexy meme song (granted that is culture's fault and not his). my fave tracks predictably are the big soupy comfy ballads, real fishbowl stuff i can just float around in, but even the ones with a harder rnb edge are mostly super good and hooky. i like how u can trace my level of mentally functioning based on how stilted my writing ab these albums is lol im sorry george u made good music u deserve better!!!
Supertramp
5/5
p much every part of this is engineered for maximum front to back Delight from myself! sparkling, soaring, winding proggy pop rock with a ton of big color and drama, synths and saxophones, hyper-melodic at all turns. plays at turns like a less glammy more dreamy ziggy stardust, a less monochromatic pink floyd, or a harder-edged moody blues, but i think this created whole new itches i dont even know how to articulate yet. tons of theatrical imagination without ever being overbearing, which i wouldnt have minded but which would have compromised the surprisingly cozy and warm quality this has too. a real gem for me, deffo time to stop overlooking this band!
Billie Holiday
4/5
when records come out of particularly significant circumstances, for obvious reasons because of how Art Works those circumstances arent usually visible in the final product in a totally unambiguous unavoidable way. just about the only way it can is if it noticeably changes how the record Sounds, and the instrument most prone to bearing the weight of the circumstances it lives thru (without being replaceable) is ofc the human voice. there is a great and beautiful orchestra present here delivering very moving (and sometimes heartrending on their own) renditions of the songs here, but it wouldnt have a tenth of the power without billie's voice. ravaged by decades of abuse, substance and otherwise, it still proves incredibly expressive both in its inherent characteristics and in the choices she makes...her jazzy phrasing is lowkey conversational, lends recognizable readable emotions to lyrics that might pass you by could u simply get lost in the melody. ive seen descriptions to the effect that she sounds like she's about to drop dead but this is counter to the appeal to me honestly...she sings with patience and presence , sounding not one bit fearful of time. a rly rly difficult listen honestly,,,partly because of billie's life ofc but more immediately and enduringly how that life created this sound, which is at times excruciatingly painful even as it is totally beautiful and approachable
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
4/5
this site has me fugking bugged this was literally on my slate of albums to get to rly soon , kicking off the fire in my heart telling me to do a tom petty dive. petty is strangely over-represented in the rotation of the classic rock station that plays where i work, and my relationship with him evolved from disgust at him somewhat signifying Shit I Was Forced To Listen To, to a slowburn casual appreciation of a few of his songs, to crying to his greatest hits album (which became one of my great Comfort Albums of recent). i figure i thusly owe his proper records some time and i think this sets a great precedent to how i will respond to them. a couple rly big hits that are probably the highlights, but comfortably cushioned by deep cuts that prod at different directions of petty's aesthetic interests and more than anything Pure Songwriting Sensibilities (its my understanding most of this album was written in a day). petty is one of the most intuitive songwriters to ever work in the Rock Idiom as far as im concerned, and front to back this is full of little melodic delights for me...and ofc petty and the heartbreakers absolutely kill their performances and bring out surprising subtle bits of variety track for track (including a few synths, the horror!). i think with all my ccr raving my tom petty raving is inevitable, he brings more Rock Star energy but perfectly balances approachability with total coolness and not an ounce of gross swagger...just a guy with a weird expressive voice who can smith a tune in his sleep and hand it to a great band
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
delightfully inscrutable! esp as it seems like an artistic climax of an arc of which i only know the one big hit. extremely confident mix of new wave and soul and stretches of spoken word to create something ornate and at times melodically decadent but somehow super casual...like its simply giving voice and form to a bunch of thoughts of no consequence. ends up feeling deceptively huge by the end, some rly great arrangements help a lot with that but i think more than anything its that even if something is small, it ends up feeling like it Matters, somehow, or should at least be treated as such
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
its difficult to tell which substance had a greater impact on the recording of this record between Cocaine and Utter Disillusionment. im glad that ive already heard Stand and a bit of Life because without the context of their earlier Brighter Livelier Idealistic material i dont think this hits quite as hard (which makes the discrepancy in number of ratings on this website a lil sad but its fine lol). slightly nightmarish and always wholly enveloping with arrangements it feels like u can never reach the bottom of, and bizarre musical ideas are somehow finessed in such a half-lucid state that they start to feel magnetic and inevitable. my only potential complaint is that they rly dont sound like a Band that much on this one at all,,,iir a lot of parts are just sly himself either from the start or in overdubs, but even this kinda adds to the fucked-up atmosphere cuz theres so little room to breathe and no direction to move except down. sly in general is one of the great unsung mega-influences on all popular music that came afterwards, the amount that goes back to his work is unbelievable, and his music is rly incredible too which is always nice!
Isaac Hayes
5/5
so good at worldbuilding that it creates a whole backstory for an already existing soul standard and its one of the most hypnotizing experiences u can have listening to a record. hayes and the bar-keys go absolute god mode finding every single possible bit of groove and emotion to be fleshed out in a mere four songs to create something so overwhelming im a lil at a loss for words even having heard this a while back and sort of knowing what to expect. idk how often id even be in the mood for this but what an accomplishment man. south park will pay for its crimes
Ramones
4/5
i tbh wasnt sure how i was gonna react to this but it turns out its not the 70s version of minor threat, its the 70s version of andrew wk (the fact that its the embryo for both is just an additional layer of admiration). even pumped up in muscle and tempo there is a very sweet melodic sensibility at the heart of this (inherited from the shockingly Wussy types of 50s rock they were into) that rly makes this feel like a Real Band with a Real Vision despite how many iterations in so many directions take off from here. and even if ur not into it for whatever reason, u could never claim it wastes ur time. once i get into classical music ill be explaining how this is exactly like totalism
Travis
4/5
being a doofus with extremely limited knowledge, the main thing i was thinking of was rush of blood to the head-era coldplay which i only found out afterwards this predates by like three years. so ig rly the point of origin here is more bends era radiohead? neither of these are especially exciting comparisons for me tbh but this is prob my fave between all three,,,a real warmth is achieved here somewhere between the vocal delivery and the personal-feelin lyrics and the comfy winter vibe, and if its nothing mindblowing i find it very inviting regardless. comfortably uninsistent while still making room for some big choruses and the like, its rly nice! whole project has been full of little one-off experiences that it feels nice to unexpectedly have in my memory bank...cant believe im coming up on 100 days without having missed a single one so far, woooo
Willie Nelson
4/5
i dont imagine there's a tonnnn of country on this list but there's probably enough to trip me up a little because, as is the case with most Online Music Fans, it is not a genre i have rly found a consistent way into yet in an album presentation. however not only is this rly good but its also v different from the couple of more nashville-y country records ive rolled so far...its a lot sparser and spacier and while thats not usually my intuitive preference i think opening up the space rly rly does something for my appreciation, simultaneously bigger and even cosmic while also being comfier and more intimate. some sparkling pianos on here i always love, and clearly beautiful country melodies even tho its not an idiom i can seamlessly navigate atm. if anyone has country recs (from any era really) lemme know, ive been living in texas for over half a decade now im running out of excuses!
Rush
2/5
in the year between rush making a very amateurish and full-of-visable-seams (but endearing!) stab at prog, and the oiling up of their prog ideas into a respectable machine (albeit one that has a couple tendencies not to my personal tastes), they put out this weird transitional album that for me lacks the strengths of whats on either side of it but is positioned at just the right point to be inevitably remembered as a classic for people more sold on the band than me. i was determined to force the B-side to make an impression on me but nothin doin i suppose!!!! it takes a couple more records for me to get a lot out of rush's "normal" songwriting abilities,,,i cant quite articulate what doesnt work for me other than continuing fan fiction of bands i dont super like, and a certain structural choppiness thats in a LOT of the band's material (its p much my biggest problem with them) but is less irksome in the context of the big multipart epics. speaking of which the title track's fine lol, but honestly i kinda end up preferring the super rough yet Cute prog attempts on caress of steel. i dont wanna say its not growth, it definitely is, but its growth in just the right space to be less to my tastes. deffo not my favorite band as u can tell lol but they are capable of making great music, i am (very) slowly working thru their discog
Wilco
5/5
i tbh melted so much and so firmly into this that when i got to the other side i realized i didnt actually form any cogent thoughts rly hfjsd. best attempt after the fact: sounds alternately like its being transmitted from the other side of the country or the other side of the galaxy, a bunch of the melodies feel like theyve been around for forever, and maybe its just cuz its when my lucidity started coming back to me but poor places is grabbing my soul as a Song Of Significance for the future.
Ella Fitzgerald
5/5
clocking in at over three hours, obviously this is more of an encyclopedic document of songs and performances than an actually intended Album Listening Experience. i did still listen to the whole thing in one sitting! and not even out of obligation necessarily...when i saw it was divided into discs, i was like "okay after each disc ill give myself the chance to stop", but i ended up not rly feeling the obvious need for a break at any point. definitely bad for its intended function As an encyclopedic document, as the sheer volume of songs and performances is just too much information to properly parse in a row, but i super enjoyed myself. if ur going to listen to anyone sing for this long, i think its gotta be ella fitzgerald...she's just this steady ray of light thats constantly inviting to Have In Ur Ears (esp cuz she still retains a fun and involving swing), and her diction is so clear and readable and comfortable that u never have to struggle to see the artistry of both her and whatever song she's singing. all the choices she makes are firmly in favor of The Song, a very humble approach that still leaves it self evident that ur listening to quite possibly the Objectively Best Singer humanity has ever seen. even the final stretch of instrumentals is a nice way to wind down to the finish line after a titanic experience. and ur telling she's got a whole separate album with louis armstrong for the porgy and bess material? wowie!
David Bowie
4/5
famously much more difficult to conceptualize as a Cohesive Art Object than its older sister ziggy stardust, but i can at least buy the Rock Star Neurosis that ties some of the songs together and works well enough as a flavoring for those it doesnt directly concern. the songs are pretty good too! not accounting for the boldness of ziggy's overall style at the time its probably the more musically adventurous album...the kind of loosey-goosey creative rainbow i always enjoy hearing from artists i like, esp a creative maverick like bowie. but if im gonna have any more insightful takes or whatever i think id need a level of investment in bowie overall i dont quite have, to rly mingle with those finer details and small differences. also finding out jean genie was the hit is kind of strange!!! the 70s were weird, man!!!
Brian Eno
5/5
its been so long since i last heard either eno's art rock records or bowie's berlin trilogy that i cant rly make meaningful comparisons and thus am more or less missing the two most obvious anchoring points here. that being said, it turned out not to be necessary...the cumulative effect of this album is absolutely magical and moving and even medicinal. winding up a tense storm of anxious jittery proto-talking heads thats as synesthetically and melodically satisfying as anything, and then all the tension is unwound perfectly on the gorgeous and moving back half for maximum catharsis. the unsung hero of the whole thing is the beautiful Here He Comes, which bridges the two halves and helps create an effect that doesnt hit u all at once but takes u in one step at a time, prolonging the feeling of unwinding and making the whole thing feel like a Whole instead of two halves. eno is probably among the most intuitive thinkers in all of music...every left field sound and stylistic switch-up feels absolutely inevitable. a lil bit in awe of this
The Black Crowes
4/5
idk what i was expecting, but it wasnt Kind Of A Version Of Exile Era Stones I Can Actually Tolerate. its actually very easy to improve on that central rackous southern tinged rock n roll Cascade with lots of pianos: less lengthy, less racist, less mick jagger! just real good fun and enthusiastically performed rock music, with enough little quirks to make me believe if i ever came back to rly soak in this id find a lot of genuine idiosyncrasy. im fine with just appreciating the enjoyable surface level atm tho! this may be the first time in this project where i get a fuller recontextualization of a song i hear all the time at work, which is something ive enjoyed doing periodically as my brain stockholm syndromes itself into classic rock mode
Joan Armatrading
5/5
somehow lowkey one of the best produced albums ive ever heard...the amount of precision on display without sacrificing an ounce of warmth is astonishing! obviously a lot of it is going to come down to joan herself, who is magnetic and powerful without ever once overplaying anything. i dont mind things that are cold or overplayed, but the discipline here in all directions is impressive, and creates something shockingly enveloping in ways that i dont even think i can articulate after just one listen. the start of every new track pulled me in all over again...great melodic ideas and expressive song structures, arranged tastefully and performed magically. what i caught of the lyrics (not typically my focus on a first listen) are also incredible. i cant believe ive never heard about her before even a little, this deserves way more canonization!
Steely Dan
4/5
i already have this record slated for a revisitation project where it will enter my actual rotation and ill actually chew on it and form hopefully better thoughts then i manage with these little blurbs lol. but maybe not! not for lack of things to talk about, its a famously intricate record, but the formula for its popularity has always been intricacy + hyper-clarity...in sound engineering, in the way musical information is dished out, in aesthetic. i tbh might push back on the lack of rough edges harder if that didnt in and of itself Become the colors and the texture, esp because for as approachable as this is it never quite feels Friendly...feels like u could slip and fall down it and it would just be a perfectly smooth bottomless pit. cool music!
Cat Stevens
5/5
did not fully absorb as much as i want due to a combination of grogginess and stress, but theres probably little else even under these circumstances that would be As Nice to listen to. life affirming in such a self-evident way it makes me feel less bad for struggling to form words about it. almost. might have to come back to this one later
Youssou N'Dour
5/5
there is absolutely no significance to whatever the random generator throws at me, so me getting a rly great record for my day 100 milestone isnt crazy, but it being my first easy First Listen 5/5 of the entire project does feel a lil extraordinary. ive been listening a lot lately to the black saint and the sinner lady, an absolutely unhinged musical accomplishment that combines a wide variety of disciplines into something that feels so effortlessly singular yet also in conversation with so many strands of history. i am far less familiar with the styles and cultures being mixed here, but even after just one listen it feels comparably vibrant and unstoppable, channeling the most color and complexity possible into pure gut-level dance and emotion. the feelings sliders are thrown way towards joyousness, togetherness, and healing. i have no idea how u even start to make music like this. i should explore a lot more west african pop whenever i feel the mental capacity for such a task
Aretha Franklin
5/5
less poppy then the earlier album i rolled from her, goes further on the harder rnb/deep soul edge to rly amazing results i think even those who werent into that other album could appreciate. just extremely vivacious and lively music, barnburners all over the place, even in its slower ballady moments it kinda makes me sweat just from the grit and weight. been acquainting and re-acquainting with a lot of legendary soul vocalists over the course of this project, and while nina simone is prob my personal fave there's nobody who quite matches aretha's Bright Belting , feels like the sun
G. Love & Special Sauce
3/5
extremely horrifying combination of name and genres, but the actual listening experience was not repulsive thankfully lol, even mostly good id say. a lot of it comes from the wide and respectable spread of sample choices, which combined with the efforts of the rhythm section lend some good swing that elevates g love's slacker rock white rapper thing. upon hearing the first song i was wondering whether this was an inspiration for (or rip off of) beck, but mellow gold came out the same year. even soul coughing's debut came out the same year!! where the hell did all these guys come from. g love's gotta be the weakest of these three (the record overstays its welcome, which reveals the limitations of his style), but it would be a mistake to Totally dismiss this out of hand
Suede
4/5
some infamously muddy murky production on this that isnt quite of a piece with the bright and dramatic arrangements, but i can at least put up with bad/questionable production as long as its not actively physically unpleasant on my ears. otherwise....uh, i think i loved literally everything about this HFJKHSFJKHFSJKHFSJKFHSJKFHKFS regardless of how its presented the musical palate on here is incredibly comforting to me...ridiculously heart-on-sleeve, melodic, autumnal, and expressive. its not often rock music with this much of a glam/theatrical edge feels this intimate, but its testament to how it feels like theres just no barrier whatsoever between the sound and the emotions. im rly thankful for artists who just throw themselves into stuff like this thats maybe easily mockable but is so so much For Me and id be sad to live in a world without. deffo one to come back to for me...have a feeling increased familiarity might make this one a lil transcendent
Beastie Boys
5/5
extremely funny and silly of me to wonder where g love, beck, and soul coughing all sprang up from and literally roll the beastie boys a couple days later lmao. owned by the RNG machine! kind of a funny contrast to g love cuz the beastie boys' delivery style is even more monotonous and theoretically way less conducive to an album of this length (and tbh im not Completely sold on it in a 10/10 classic way still) but where g love kinda dragged me across the finish line, this flies by. kinda gives me vertigo...rly kaleidoscopic, with their frantic trade-off style and weird combinations of words making even the non-sampled parts fit in with the Bottomless Pit Of Collage aesthetic. expectedly, very stimmy. may throw this on a bit when i need to drag myself out of bed for an early shift in a couple days lol
Carole King
4/5
expectedly extremely nice, unexpectedly full of little pockets of sadness that u can trip over easily if ur not careful. rolling this version of make me feel like a natural woman so close to aretha's rly drives this home...king's voice is sturdy but slightly pained, and it lends a bittersweet quality to a lot of the songs that makes them feel like there are details of the surrounding story and circumstance ur missing. lots to chew on whenever i come back to this
Nine Inch Nails
5/5
track after track of How The Fuck Did Trent Reznor Do This. he's one of those sound designers that just knows what Emotions sound like, so much so that u dont even need the lyrics most of the time. but thru their addition they transform these internal landscapes into anthems, burning rage directed at god and the self which are often the same thing. this whole exercise grants a comforting tactility and comprehensibility to feelings that, when felt on their own, can be too overwhelming to parse, which is p much one of The Reasons to make art...a desire to map some order onto the world even briefly, even if the direction of that order is straight to the bottom. a warm place/eraser/reptile/title track/hurt is pretty much the best five song stretch on any album...maybe others are As Good but im not confident theres anything better. unless i roll another old megafavorite soon, this will be on the v top of my ranking for this project for a long while
The The
4/5
v successful collaboration between Shining Sparkling new wave and utterly caustic acidity. every track is rly great and surprisingly distinct on first listen for me, it usually takes me a bit more familiarity to pick tracks apart cuz new stimulus is overwhelming and scary. last track in particular is one of the coolest new discoveries ive made in this project...rly hypnotic and spiraling. matt johnson's commanding voice is one of the most impressively corrosive ive heard because somehow it doesnt feel at all like he's Doing A Bit, just feels like all the darkness in his soul is spilling out his mouth on top of these fun flashy rhythmic rants
Talking Heads
4/5
apparently i heard the debut at some point but i dont remember that, so this entire listen i operated under the assumption that this was the first time i was venturing into talking heads from Before they picked up their more eclectic blend of influences and studio tricks. its maybe not entirely fair...i can at the v least see the Skeleton of those influences in a lot of the music here, but the emphasis is first and foremost on the band as a somewhat traditional rock setup, which im not super used to tbh! it absolutely rules, ofc...i should spend some time on a talking heads dive more broadly, but even hearing this out of context its just an absolute bolt of exciting subtly fucked-up jittery music. david byrne's hyper-neurotic vocal style brings out sinister colors to lyrics that might be totally innocuous read on their own, and id hear out anyone who said they p much had the best rhythm section in rock music of the decade. tina weymouth in particular! absolutely incredible!!! rly wonderful to see how well the band's proclivities stack up with a relative lack of frills to hide behind, esp since eno is still there to make everything sound incredible. can probably only grow and grow in appreciation
Lambchop
4/5
long and smooth, one of the times where i feel like my total lack of remembering anything specific that Happened on an album might have been part of the specific design. the smoothness makes u swirl around like a marble in a perpetual motion machine...more hypnotizing than anything. a couple tone shifts like the last couple of tracks do stand out, melodies are often beautiful, and i think more than anything my main takeaway is kurt wagner's voice which perfectly balances Commanding Presence with utter gentleness. also perfect fall music obviously but every season looks the same in the texas suburbs lol. kinda rly loved this one tbh
Soft Cell
4/5
i think the thing that most sticks out to me is that for how early this is in the history of synthpop, and for how rough and patchy the sound is, the band somehow knows Exactly What They Want To Achieve and how to achieve it with the confidence of infinitely more established technology and genre conventions. front to back quality tunes matched only by surprisingly layered aesthetic unity...i think the flavor that rly sells it is the Comic Edge which is mostly content to bubble under the surface, quietly enhancing the ramshackle qualities. closing track is rly beautiful and sad, and i think does even more wonders than the aesthetic to help me conceptualize this as a whole Album. a weirdly evocative halloween listen too!!
Doves
4/5
mixing/mastering can be not to my taste at points but otherwise wonderfully comforting and even creative slice of maudlin. made me feel coldplay feelings more than once, and surprisingly brisk for its length and lack of surface level Excitement. good melty music i should prob return to, esp if im ever in a place that actually has snow again fhsdjfshdj. feel like that would top it off rly nicely
Pink Floyd
4/5
in my early years as a music listener, the beatles set my appreciation for conceptualizing albums that are eclectic and "messy", and pink floyd set my appreciation for conceptualizing albums that are clearly unified wholes. the LP format in general as itself a Method Of Expression is probably floyd's most consistent strength in their peak period and certainly one of the central ways in which they built their Legend...the music is un-flashy and un-show-offy esp compared to the genre prog rock landscape, so a lot of what Blows Peoples Minds really is the Structure, which is something to think about and is also p personally vindicating lol. i tbh dont have a lot to say ab this...it was nice to revisit! and nice to make a little more peace with my past self. but atm this is pretty in the realm of Pure Functionality for me...i deeply admire the flow and the sonic palate but where Wish You Were Here was still surprisingly stirring, this washed over me in an enjoyable but slightly cold way. could be at least in part a function of mood ill admit, and it is hard to not feel Something at "you missed the starting gun" and the cathartic bursts of volume in great gig/us and them/brain damage. i tbh wonder if the wall will be a bit more exciting to me whenever i get to it...some theatrics and melodrama might bridge the gap a lil more for me
Rufus Wainwright
5/5
almost completely forgot ab the project today but i was rewarded for remembering with uh....the best album ever???? idk??? faggy forest prince music...just an immaculate vibe set almost entirely to my specific tastes. eccentric and longing songs with rly expressive and surprising compositions set to a bunch of creative ideas and/or beautiful piano playing, all overgrown with moss and mushrooms and ivy. will take a few more listens on my own time to rly pull apart, but i cant imagine i wont be rewarded. makes me think i like thom yorke's voice a lot more than i think i do, or that what he was rly missing was to sound way gayer, cuz Gay Ass Thom Yorke kept flashing in my mind!!!
The Crusaders
4/5
perilously , endlessly Smooth jazz funk the likes of which might be a bit too indistinct to people who are inclined to just dismiss out of hand. for me tho this is basically the perfect thing to slot into the way i tend to use the albums in this project as my morning routine. probably nothing here will blow ur mind (except maybe the opening title track, with commandingly beautiful vocals from randy crawford), but its all finessed and lovable and artful...packed with genuine experience and a ton of sweet little keyboard parts. might have to come back to this one just to vibe out!
Depeche Mode
5/5
a whole album about the bad bitch you pulled by being autistic
ive been visiting and revisiting this record on and off for years and the effect its produced has always been reliably wonderful, but its never quite broken into my personal favorites even tho i have no good reason for that! i dont even feel distance with it, i think its wonderfully spellbinding. honestly maybe the lubrication i need is to just actually get into the band as a whole and their other albums dkdnjd...i have an instinct that placing this in a more fleshed out context will finally push it over the edge into that This Is A Fave gut feeling. i suppose it is also quite mood based, as its deliberate and atmospheric pop music with a Churning quality rather than being necessarily bright and attention grabbing. still, its genuinely difficult to imagine making music thats better than this lol....literally flawless combination of enveloping well-realized vibe, incredible sound palate, and some of the best and most decadent vocal melodies ever put down on a pop record
Soft Machine
5/5
free and beautiful music. what i appreciate most is the care taken to make each of the four tracks as distinct as possible...different sound palates, tones, musical ideas. wraps from challenging to lovely any anything else u can think of probably...each central seed for a track is brought out and grown into a wide spread u can just soak in, with too many cool things happening along the way to count. my mind jumps to the image of a seed cuz this is a weirdly plantlike album for me...sort of in the vein of my experience with autechre's draft 7.30. rly looking forward to chewing on this more at some point
Kacey Musgraves
4/5
extremely precise and sentimental modern country, kinda washed over me but i deliberately let it do so. extremely good After Your Shower tunes, and would occasionally demand my full attention with an excruciatingly beautiful melody or delivery. what i caught of the lyrics always seemed extremely emotive and sweet and likable. im pretty disconnected from the resurgence country has seen in the mainstream recently, or well actually anything thats been popular recently tbh FSFHJSFHJSF. also this probably isnt exactly in that category esp cuz its pre-pandemic when pop culture seemed to Make More Sense lol. great and comfy record tho
The Monks
4/5
if any artist was capable of going back in time to make an album before most of their influences even existed, simply thru Sheer Force Of Contrarianism, maybe itd be mark e smith because this reminds me way more of the fall than i does the ramones, or even the early garage-y kinks singles. i dont wanna imply the main virtue of this thing is coming out in 1966 but its pretty impossible not to think about...i havent heard the sonics, but how much sounded like this Ever at this point in time??? it all comes out of genuinely creative and eccentric choices mixing antithetic repetition of barely-formed lyrics, free jazz atonal instrumental flourishes, and essentially no recognizable compositional conventions of the time whatsoever (at least, none that arent distorted beyond belief). a bit exhausting even at a short length but this still packs an unbelievable punch, i cant even imagine how it sounded on release to whatever small number of people actually heard it
David Bowie
5/5
i mean even if i wasnt really into this for whatever reason, it would probably still feel too immense for words. without strictly imitating any of his previous work (at least that im aware of, tho im sure it takes influences from all over), it feels like bowie grasps the core of the appeal of his chameleonic always-on-the-artistic-move persona by creating a cryptic and emotive blend of sounds and styles that make anything Seem possible. for as often as this album is described as morose or oppressive it most often feels to me like wide open spaces and cosmic bursts of creativity as hungry as anything else he made at any other stage of his life. the way bowie cracks himself open and spills his caged-up vulnerabilities everywhere will be most people's main takeaway from the record, rightfully so, but i think at this point i find myself most moved by the final of finals I Can't Give Everything Away, which finds a beauty and serenity in all the things that bowie Could have shared with the world but never will. the beauty i think comes from simply the enormity of not just existence, but existence that is potentially worthwhile, u will never ever run out of things to discover and appreciate in this life. even if he wanted it would not be possible for even a nonstop maverick like bowie to express every single worthwhile thing in his life and head. he sure made a better stab at it than most though
Neil Young
5/5
somewhat like bowie, i feel like i havent given neil young's music enough time and have approached his career to the extent that i have in a kind of unideal way: casual one-off listens to his most acclaimed albums that i never bothered to follow up on. a random number generator of acclaimed albums obviously isnt gonna solve this problem HJKFHSJKFHFSJKHFSJKFSHKFSJHK but i will pay more attention to our encounters. i think they will be fruitful, because i think his voice especially has clicked harder for me than it ever has before, both in vocals and songwriting,,,a good mixture of instant recognizibility and eclecticism across both. was v interesting to find out this was recorded in the aftermath of harvest, one of the ones ive actually heard...to bust out one of my signature tortured beach boys metaphor, this feels a bit like a wild honey/friends to that record's pet sounds/smile. incredibly whisky soaked in that way that makes me question whether people get drunk to escape or to wallow, a productive emotional tension that informs a rly incredible set of melodies and performances. borrowed tune in particular really cut to my center....how can i, number one Ballad Fan, continue to put off neil young???
Madness
3/5
this seems pretty good i was enjoying the swinging and melodic semi-theatrical style but i didnt actually take a good look at the album cover until i was in the second half or so of the record and i was like Is That Fucking Blackface and then i just lost my whole train of thought for the rest of the album oops!
King Crimson
5/5
was in my rotation semi-recently but its never a bad time to listen. much like violator this has never quite hit my Favorite Album instinct but has been a reliably perfect piece of work with nothing else that quite scratches its itch, especially impressive given its such a thorough stylistic almanac of so many ways in which prog would evolve from here...i talk to the wind sounds ripped right from the canterbury scene, moonchild's jam is in the dna of so many avant prog bands, and all the other tracks take up spaces inbetween from theatrics to jazz to metal. they are ofc also just perfectly crafted songs with a sweeping escapist atmosphere u cant find anywhere else. this album deffo didnt Invent prog rock, the moody blues/procol harum/the nice/probably a bunch of other bands had already been confirming that the existence of prog rock or at least something with a similar philosophy was inevitable, but its this album that set down the shape of the genre as something other than a general direction, like how black sabbath's self-titled set down the shape of metal beyond the simple instinct to make rock music heavier and louder. im prob due for a king crimson dive...
Cocteau Twins
5/5
another band i really need to learn More About, but i remember most of this record surprisingly vividly from my spins years ago in the college dishroom. its difficult to isolate any One Part of cocteau twins music and what exactly its contributing besides the fact that the music would be emptier without it, it feels strangely and comfortingly inevitable in that way. fraser always sounds less like someone singing at u and more like a voice inside ur head, like ur remembering her rather than hearing her. compared to holv which im a lot more familiar with this is less anthemic and more esoteric...while not ofc being one bit less melodic, and the mysteries here are all inviting, like theres reason to believe there's benevolence behind them. kind of the best music ever lowkey
George Harrison
5/5
obviously a huge album (more in scale than in runtime, even), and tho ive heard it a few times before i dont feel hugely confident writing ab it holistically so here's a couple random thoughts lol. (1) is george still the "cool" pick for best beatle? i feel like paul has cinched the title in recent years...something about him has proved enduring thru various eras of taste politics (2) i dont quite have the words for it but george's sense of melody is maybe the most distinct of the entire band. for as distinct as lennon/mccartney are from eachother, lennon/mccartney is still a recognizable Style that people in general call Beatleseque even tho it doesnt even really apply to all the beatles (3) the apple jam is an enduringly interesting inclusion to this thing...not necessarily cuz of the music itself (which is perfectly good, people are mean and dumb) but just the overwhelming Casualness and Backwards Looking Vibes. on a record most famous for sounding big and spiritual, its the biggest tether to earth besides a couple rootsier songs in the "main" tracklist (4) this might be the apex of phil spectors "instruments to be felt and not heard" style, in that u can hear all the instruments generally speaking but it feels so unintuitive to pick them out from eachother...they feel like a ghostly and occasionally ecstatic whole (5) im really bad at picking favorite songs on albums but im not sure i Ever could here. there's like half a dozen even contenders
Belle & Sebastian
5/5
also leaves me slightly speechless but for the opposite reason as all things must pass lol im so familiar and it feels so Small that its like, what do i even say about if you're feeling sinister. besides Its Been A While Since Ive Heard It and It Was A Delight To Hear Again, as always. i didnt hear this album for the First time in 2020 but if i recall that was when it clicked, very rough and tumultuous time when a lot of things were up in the air and of all the records i was spinning at the time this is the one i inevitably became traumabonded to...it seemed to take all my emotions and rework them into something soothing and warm. in that sense i suppose i can never really expect it to "hit" like that again, which is fine! even if i felt nothing (which isnt rly possible at this point), id still have the good sense to enjoy some of the best Strings Of Notes ever put in this particular order. and the title track is kind of taking on new dimensions in some of my recent patterns of thought too...theres probably enough in here to last me decades
Rush
4/5
freakily, this is exactly the place i last left off my rush dive, so i guess i'll try to pick it up HJKFHSFJKSF. my rush adventures have been pretty up and down unfortunately, i still feel like there's something really fundamental at the core of this band that i am just Not Getting. that being said when i was last listening i had just had my mind blown by permanent waves, a wonderfully vibrant and colorful statement that did a lot to justify rush's melding of melodic hard rock and shiny flashy prog. at least on this first revisit i think its clear i like this one a bit less...the goal here is not advancement or risk-taking so much as Refinement, and i miss some of the more eclectic moments from PW that showed off their ambitions a lot more. the tradeoff has many obvious advantages tho, not only is this just Obviously their tightest tracklist, but the start-stop jittery song structures that have always annoyed me about rush are p much entirely wiped away here. whats left is a level of pure unity and coherency that will inevitably be remembered by fans as one of the bands peaks, and ig its gotta be one for me too. limelight is undeniable as far as classic rock radio staples go, and i didnt know they had a song as moody and bubblebathy as witch hunt in them. yet more proof that all rock bands need synthesizers and im tired of pretending they dont
Jazmine Sullivan
4/5
almost strikingly , ig Unambitious? obviously the structure of it leaves very little room for ambiguity, which i have to admit does make me fidget a little...i dont think theres anything ontalogically wrong with making art that is Not Subtle and Not Ambiguous but its not very compatible with my Art Sensors most of the time cuz i dont just wanna observe it from the outside i wanna find a way into working with it, which is harder to do when its tryna do all the work by itself. that being said this made more and more sense the more i got into it (and it also saves what are likely its most moving track for the back end)...the ambitions it does have to express Lived Experiences with various degrees of abstraction (once through direct narration once through music, generally speaking) does have a genuinely interesting kind of transparency. and obviously a lot of the sentiments here are very moving and cover a wide variety of tones that allow for actual nuance and complication in how those involved view themselves. and for all my waffling about wanting ambiguity or whatever, a lot of these are perspectives that Havent been expressed in direct unmissable ways thru art and music history. maybe not one of my super favorites but fs a beautiful record in many ways
Elton John
4/5
i didnt realize it until i thought about it but i barely know who elton john is HFJKHFSJKFSHJKFS its impossible to miss his Existence as an outsized pop culture presence with a bunch of famous songs but besides being that piano guy i dont actually know much about his artistic vision or trajectory at all. just listening to one album isnt gonna help super much with that but this was v enjoyable for me lol...rick wakemen appearing on a few tracks kinda speaks to the grand and ambitious tone of this thing while still remaining pretty hit-between-the-eyes pop in most of its songwriting approach...a big string arrangement here, a theatrical ballad there, its all Good Stuff For Me. and the base materials seems rly good as well thankfully...john's cascading keyboard parts and strangely flamboyant-yet-approachable singing are definitely something i could stand to have more of in my life
Adele
3/5
are we sure? are we absolutely sure u need to hear this before u die? are we like Sure sure? over any of her other albums even???
almost inevitably there are moments where everything lines up right: the great timbre of adele's voice sings what just happens to be a genuinely moving melodic twist which just happens to be lined up with an effectively bittersweet worldweary lyric and its all washed over with that big echoy pop soul cathedral production. unfortunately it happens less for me than id like (tho more than i expected based on the tbh kinda drab and inert famous singles), and the Maturity here in place of the melodrama i remember from 21 kinda dulls the emotional colors all over the place. fair enough ig and im mom-coded enough to give this a passing grade but im sure she can do more vivid and distinctive work than this. at least its better in her vocal chords than it would be in many others
Culture Club
4/5
perfectly enjoyable kitsch imo! unfortunately idk if it quite beats the allegations of One Song Where The Songcraft Comes Together Notably More Than The Others but of all the songs in that category karma chameleon is probably one of the best and will not be denied by me. almost everything else is pretty glompy and structurally inert unfortunately but i still had a good time cuz its hard to beat this hyper-colorful new romantic sound palate...if the songs were more memorable, they would be very easy to tell apart with the genuine variety tied together mostly by admirable garishness. and no matter what he's singing boy george is a nice presence!
Kate Bush
5/5
i keep trying to put down words about it and i just cant. im considering a full kate bush re-dive at some point so maybe ill try to be articulate than but all i can ever manage to say about this one is that it feels like ive unlocked the secrets of the universe while im within it and than am unceremoniously jolted awake. kind of like the ninth wave but even more disorienting and harder to connect in any way to the waking world. kate gives possibly the best vocal performance in pop music across this record, if u wanna call this pop music. i do, but in a strange partially-remembered way. if i hadnt gotten the downward spiral recently this would be the best record ive rolled in this whole project so far by a landslide and its not like it lacks competition
Traffic
4/5
late 60s post-summer of love disillusion "back to basics" british rock steeped in blues and folk is never rly one of my preferred vibes but tbh this might be about as strong as it gets for me (unless like, abbey road counts). maybe because that description is already a slight misnomer (there's definitely some notable psychedelic remnants on this, just not super garish or whatever), but its still definitely part of that stylistic transition from the 60s to the 70s marked by a resistance to the excess that had been building thru the decade's innovations. and yet somehow it doesnt feel one bit less creative tbh! i especially love the last three songs here as a sequence, some muscular stretching out of ambitions before collapsing into a humble earthy finale. rly great guitar licks and songwriting twists in general across the record, again maybe not exactly my idiom but it all feels idiosyncratic and melodically strong. the hammond organ on here also kicks ass, and the gruff vocals here are some of the better british rnb growls ive heard (sounds like damning with faint praise LOL but theyre good!). strangely unsurprising that this band eventually became a prog outfit
Blondie
4/5
where lots of jittery new wave features vocalists that Succumb To The Neurotic Chaos to varying degrees, debbie harry always feels like the queen of it, channeling and commanding it. the chemistry between the unstoppable confidence of her presence and the eccentric, disorienting, jaggedy music is, among other things, some kind of theoretical Pop Perfection between chaos and order. frank infante's guitar lines go crazy all over here...just such constantly bright music in general, sunshine bent thru a bunch of sculpted prisms. is there anything more punk then being remembered by the superstar producer who orchestrated your """""sellout""""" album as The Worst Band I've Ever Worked With???? and still getting a bunch of immortal hit tracks out of it too...thats the stuff
The Beau Brummels
4/5
didnt really know what i expected but for what this maybe lacks in overtly unique characteristics (vocals are a little dylan, arrangements are a littleeee rubber soul, even the songwriting is a little simon & garfunkel tho it might be a bit early) it certainly makes up for in being brisk and tight and tuneful. a lot more genuinely rootsy than similar pop music of the time, unafraid to mix psychedelic flourishes with overt country-isms. could deffo use a better mix for maximum comfiness as it can be a bit sharp to my ears (tho i suspect this is a fucky stereo rerelease) but all in all a nice little semi-forgotten gem i could deffo see someone really latching onto
Slipknot
4/5
clearly not even the heaviest/most aggressive outing from the band based on everything ive heard ab but still even among the already strange Nu Metal Cultural Phenomenon, this has to be one of the wildest records to ever reach this level of pop culture notoriety. was kinda thinking ab this as the genre's Reign In Blood for reasons that are definitely eternal and impartial and have nothing to do with the fact that i was listening to a bit of reign in blood yesterday so i was already thinking about it HFJFHSJF. maybe not technically the genres high water mark for intensity, but does a really stellar job making that intensity involving with stellar musicality and real muscle that might be difficult to process in the flurry but is there waiting to be discovered...genuinely interesting grooves and rhythmic ideas across this thing that never lose their fun angst caveman quality. corey taylor deserves a lot of genuine credit for having enough versatility to actually do all the things that a nu metal vocalist is supposed to be able to do...its rare to have all those specialties combine into one person, and makes me wish that more bands had a linkin park style Multi Vocalist Setup lol. honestly maybe more bands in more genres in general
Hugh Masekela
5/5
an absolute fucking tome, not cuz its the longest album in the world or anything (its a mere double LP) but because of how constantly rich that runtime is...i can already tell even after a dozen listens i wouldnt be done with this. the record's biggest virtuoso is larry willis, who's piano can be jarring yet soulful yet spicy yet melodic...sometimes in turn, sometimes any number of those things at once. featuring a songbook of south african composers and released in the heart of apartheid which was keeping masekela from returning to his home country, the record is eclectic in style but constantly emphasizes the Roots of its styles to extremely potent effect. have i ever mentioned that jazz is just clearly the absolute best cultural thing to come out of the united states of america
Dexys Midnight Runners
5/5
im not mentally all here rn so youll have to forgive the lack of specific observations but oh my god this is so good lmao. a weird combo of styles (ska and soul and new wave in this case)? hyper-melodicism? constantly varied and unapologetically bright colors of timbre? barrelling forward momentum that doesnt sacrifice variety?? thats azzy miniike's music.......might have to give this band a real serious dedicated shake!
Sonic Youth
5/5
like being hugged by a thunderstorm. i genuinely might have to sleep to this album sometime lmao, for as obvious as the punky/noisey bones are, somewhere inbetween a bunch of musicians wildly thrashing around and me actually hearing it theres this comforting layer of removal, an eye of the storm type effect. and yet its still obviously exhilarating too...each new riff and guitar passage feels like it carries with it the ability to make me Lose My Mind if it hits me just right. yet another record that makes me think about how music is Touched into existence, and those touches are turned into Memory via recording technology. magickal record. if u saw my 3.5 rating from five years ago, no you didnt
Tim Buckley
5/5
hearing tim buckley's voice is a Before And After moment...seemingly no matter what weird thing he does with it , he cant help but come across as warm and sincere, his multi-octave antics sounding well and truly like one continuous vast Heart And Soul rather than mike patton style pastiche approaches (not that i Mind that obviously but u get it its a different somewhat less impressive thing). i had to keep reminding myself this was made in 1967!!! not cuz its necessarily predictive of the future, but because it feels so unmoored from time and unrestrained by popular conceptions of music. totally cohesive as this mystical soulful autumnal vibe while also having incredible musical and lyrical specificity for each track. amazing melodies all over too. i wish my younger self would have checked this out, but if i didnt make meaningful memories with it back then ig ill have to start now
Michael Jackson
4/5
ik its ironic considering that one of the big dividing lines this record marks is jackson's departure from motown, but this record more than anything ive ever heard rly makes me consider disco as a direct and vital continuation of the classic motown sound, maybe even more so than many things from motown's actual disco output. jackson and co's vision of the genre here has real grit coexisting effortlessly with the sophistication, obviously labored over perfectionism to the effect of natural free-flowing charisma. inevitably people gravitate more towards the funky bangers on side a but the soul-tinged ballads on side b are where i had most of my thoughts ab classic motown, and as the resident Ballad Stan i enjoy both sides about equally anyway. not at all an idiosyncratic or unexpected choice to throw on during a party but thats mainly because its probably near impossible to hear this and not think about its potential as party backing
Eminem
1/5
i know its such an increasingly cold take that eminem was always bad that theres no provocativeness left in it anymore (much like eminem himself lol). if anything i expect the backlash to the backlash to hit sometime soon just cuz people are tired of it and its not like people like(d) eminem for no reason. but also, holy shit, it cannot be emphasized enough, eminem was *ALWAYS BAD*, and not just bad but like some of the worst shit Ever. if ur going to latch onto eminem's obvious talent and technical prowess as a shield against the fact that he has absolutely nothing to say and genuinely embarrassing artistic/musical taste, i hope ur willing to extend that same defense to jacob collier or whoever. front to back meaningless and myopic faux-subversion occasionally dressed in unearned gravity that only exists long enough for em to deflect criticism with another "dont take what i say seriously i didnt ask to be famous" self-deflation...in a world where the surface level of puritian conservative culture has revealed itself to be just a malleable/discardable tool for the actual underlying horrors of white supremacist imperialism, which dumbass provocateurs like em never gave a shit about, who actually thinks this has any meaning whatsoever? important record for the fantasy of Free Speech, where a bunch of already privileged people diffuse whatever tension they feel under the world order by being loud and offensive and claiming thats the Authenticity we really need. if ur gonna do a shitty bit, at least commit to it without drowning urself in self-deflation (the lack of which might make kim the most enduringly vivid and artful song on the record, a level of genuine depravity he doesnt allow in his other edgy songs). for all the genuine shit eminem went thru in his life, its still comes across like he has absolutely no life experience whatsoever...too small, too self-centered, too reliant on the larger culture it pretends to subvert. and god has any acclaimed artist in the genre EVER been worse at hooks than this guy???
Portishead
4/5
absurdly pristine crafted nightmare music. many masterful Just Slightly Wrong But Not Enough To Realize You're Dreaming touches. beth gibbons can be kind of a comfort on dummy, a latchable human element in the misty darkness, here she is somehow more uncanny than she isnt...like something ur trying and failing to forget, but you Did forget why u were trying in the first place, leaving only contextless dread. kinda hot ngl
Dusty Springfield
4/5
a big chunk of dusty springfield's popularity has to be due to the simple face that of all the white artists singing soul and rnb in the 60s, she's one of the only ones who doesnt leave u a little embarrassed lmao. i think what's most impressive here is how she rides the line between obvious reverent enthusiasm for motown while not trying to specifically replicate anyone or put on a shitty Colored Music vocal affect. she is both indebted to her influences and wholly her own authentic thing, its a big part of why theres just absolutely no stiffness or lameness here at all...she's building from her influences, but finds her own thoughtful and charismatic way to reach the heights of warmth and grit u need for great performances of these songs. the spector-esque production is also a nice choice that rly drives home that she Knows and Loves her stuff. a good vindication of blue-eyed soul as its own evolutionary branch of music and not Just a dilution of something else, i think
Laibach
4/5
i tried to read up on it and i think i get the picture but tentatively i dont want to either fully praise or condemn the band's satirical fascist image cuz that would require a lot more hard-earned understanding of both their art and its surrounding context then i can get based on a few strong opinions. i am innately annoyed at parodic fascism because i dont think whatever point u want to make ever justifies indulging in bigotry, but to be fair to laibach from what ive seen their imagery avoids grotesque depictions of the enemy and is more about the self-glorification and self-mythologization within authoritarian ideology, which is a lot harder to object to obviously. plus it makes for an interesting active indulgence...embracing the strength of expression that comes from fascism's hyper-idealism to a couple interesting ends. a lot of this is equally ugly and masochistically euphoric, and the allusions to pop music further expand the scope of the satire towards the hidden and respectable fascism of western "democracy" and capitalism. honestly overtly satirical/deconstructive things On The Whole are increasingly not for me personally, but im glad this one pulls out a vivid and tbh kind of unforgettable aesthetic experience along the way, and that that experience is meaningfully intertwined with The Point rather than being ignored in favor of it. probably the best band to have an extremely long and fucking annoying žižek quote on their wikipedia page
Gene Clark
5/5
would take more listens for the material itself to fully set in but (1) the material is still clearly wonderful, tons of lovely melodic and arrangement ideas and (2) whats somehow more instantly unforgettable than anything else is the structure. the A side plays it really straight (tho beautifully) before hitting u with colorful psyched-out surprises, and then the B side plunges u right back to earth with country tunes that range from warm and sparkly to dark and mystical. the diversity would be a fun time no matter what but its the way its all stitched together that helps each style hit as hard as possible, perfect sequencing tbh. ive still got a shitmillion byrds records to roll on this thing lol but this is easily my favorite byrds-related music ive yet heard...rly good split between comforting and adventurous. maybe a total masterpiece tbh, commanded my attention way more than i expected!
Fugazi
5/5
obviously no secret to my friends and followers i had a big fugazi phase this year, and returning to this kinda feels like putting a cap on it. and after everything else, all the more overtly Arty embellishments of the later records (my fave is end hits atm), this still might have the most straightforwardly gratifying hit-between-the-eyes quality of any of their work. im not sure anyone has ever more effectively combined semi-minimalist exhilaration and punk values with this level of color and creativity and vibrancy. and despite the lack of those later more obvious flourishes, i do think this is supremely Colorful music...a lot of it is just the incredible individual talents and instrumental voices of each member (especially joe lally's mesmerizing, melodic, rich basslines) and how good of a job the production does at making sure u can hear all of it , at all times, distinct and yet part of a sustained combined Attack. picking my fave fugazi record between my two contenders (end hits and the argument) is hard, but picking my Third favorite fugazi record once those two are sorted out is somehow even more torturous lol. i think its probably this one tho...theres something just so rewarding in losing myself in each member's contributions. collectivism vs individuality is and has always been a false dichotomy, in all aspects of life and the world!!
Snoop Dogg
4/5
a collaboration between a rapper with so much obvious vibrant personality and a visionary producer hitting his stride creating arguably the peak of his iconic style...look its not Not like a madvilliany situation is all im saying HFJHFSJKFHSJK. even tho he's obviously firmly in his dangerous badass mode here (with the involvement in a murder trial to prove it), snoop's always had that disarmingly casual chill buttery quality...he doesnt yet sound like a parody of himself, but honestly even when he got to that point he remained famously intensely likable as a presence...the laurels he earns here have come fitted with comfortable places to rest already. and ofc when he's not having his talents wasted on obnoxious and skeletal work for marshall mathers, dre can make a really lavish and distinctive soundscape...g-funk at close to its most expensive-sounding. gotta be one of the most fully formed debuts ever! theres no straining to find out who anyone is here, they already know and are already nailing it
Sade
4/5
ive been thinking of what to say for hours but tbh im prob not in the right headspace for writing and also this is just about the most self-evidentially good music i can think of! if u share any values with western popular music, uve got something to chew on here...rich and melodic and polished and authentic and above all else constantly Touching. arrangements and vocal performances that feel like some kind of logical endpoint of those entire concepts, and yet idk its always human and approachable in all its mastery, never feels alienating or like its Above You even as u have to admire it. i cant even imagine what set of life circumstances could set u up to not love this besides like, racism HFJKFHSJKFSHKJ
OutKast
5/5
kind of brain-altering! speakerboxxx in particular is almost more impressive because despite hewing so much closer to the then-current popular vision of hiphop but still sneaking in all these wild structural ideas and cool production...really meaty glitzy wonderful stuff. still i wont pretend i dont understand why love below tends to be most people's big takeaway...the prince comparisons are more then earned across all the deeply felt eclecticism , certainly proves andre beyond being an all-time rapper is just an overall Artistic Visionary. kind of crazy to pair these records up not just for their differences but for how dense and rich they both are...kind of impossible to take all at once lol but clearly loaded with treasure, and honestly even the overwhelmed feeling of Drowning in the tracklist is its own interesting experience
Miles Davis
5/5
just such a total masterpiece lmao. i feel like at least part of the innovations on typical bebop here is the economy, u dont have 11 songs last only a half hour on a jazz record if ur wasting any time at all. beneath the warmth oozing from every horn and all the gorgeous melody lines and the general disarmingly Casual tone that is cool jazz's main subversion of bebop, theres this incessant pulse of urgent, effortful discipline. maybe its an intentional part of the vibe, maybe its just the result of this recording's innovations not being set in stone yet, either way it gives this collection a unique character that still holds up as noteworthy in the larger more developed history of cool jazz. an inspired compilation too...ud never know this was split across three bands and three sessions, the vision and musical fixations are as cohesive as u could ask for
Brian Wilson
5/5
has clawed its way in the last couple years to become my absolute favorite version of smile...almost makes me glad that the initial sessions fell apart purely so this version could exist in this form, with this old man brian wilson voice and this full breath technicolor production. smile is an album people get lost in even when theyre not listening to it, hearing the stories and putting together the pieces in various configurations...but it shouldnt be discounted that the record itself is , for me, one of the definitive Get Lost In listening experiences, utterly engrossing with the beach boy harmonic style and the brian wilson melodic style taken to absolute extremes in a series of dreamlike suites so real that u can reach out and touch them. and unlike what i thought for years (though it sounds so obvious in hindsight), this doesnt lose the hauntological appeal of the sessions one tiny bit, in fact it probably has it even more strongly...so much has changed, but smile refuses to die in whatever form it takes. a good contender for the single most vibrant and colorful record ever made. and the best ever in general, tbh.
The Cult
2/5
maybe this is just not the genre im most comfortable interfacing with but besides how fascinating it is to hear that this band was previously making music that sounded nothing like this (and for my lack of enthusiasm, it seems harsh to call this unformed or unconfident), this absolutely refused to take root in my ears for the most part. feels lacking in standout riffs or vocal parts, or really most any distinguishing traits at all...except maybe the lead vocals by ian astbury, a nice combination of gritty and soaring
Rufus Wainwright
5/5
extremely fortunate to roll this now since want two, one of my best new discoveries of the project, has been in my rotation recently. that record deffo feels a bit more out-there and sonically cryptic, where this hits u a bit more between the eyes...not a bad thing at all since, among the melody-writers id never even heard of before this project, rufus wainwright might be my very favorite. painfully beautiful, soul-rich, with that lavish yet intimate chamber pop sound thats been enchanting me on want two but a wee bit more cohesive and approachable. these two records are operating on levels of touch starvation even I almost cant relate to. almost!
Alanis Morissette
5/5
soooo so so so good man...i wonder if the bigger harder more rock-oriented songs could be spaced out a bit more to lift up the pacing slightly (tho they at least save ironic for close to the end), but we're talking about slight potential optimizations not fixing any huge structural problems. morissette is one of the best vocalists to ever reach this level of commercial dominance, a kind of post-grunge patti smith but with i think an even wider capacity for disarming beauty as she weaves her way thru a bunch of Idiot Winds for the 90s. that decades' obsession with causticness and irony (!!!) helped catapult her to stardom, but theres no defensive protective layers here...all the bitterness is vulnerable, heart-on-sleeve, earnest in its messiness. in that way, head over feet is the secret track holding the whole record together, and prob just my favorite generally...a beautiful celebration of embracing that vulnerability and losing those numb defenses. rly great as a collection of music, kind of transcendental as a total emotional package
Red Hot Chili Peppers
1/5
In his autobiography Scar Tissue, Kiedis described having sex with a 14-year-old fan who was the daughter of a Louisiana police chief, despite knowing her age. He wrote the song "Catholic School Girls Rule" about the encounter.[289] In 1986, Kiedis dated the actress Ione Skye when she was 16, below the age of consent in California.[290]
Ryan Adams
2/5
dude am i on my Evil Horny Boy streak or what. getting these two after alanis morissette is starting to make me think she has a point ab men! i literally first heard about ryan adams hearing ab his abuses back in the metoo wave , a memory that only sticks with me upon finding out that its Not in fact the summer of 69 guy. its a little difficult than to form a meaningful relationship with his music after the fact, but its made all the worse by the fact that his artistic persona is Sensitive and Sad and Regretful For What Could Have Been etc etc...just goes down bad with not just the knowledge that he's a douche but the Specific knowledge that he'd attempt to sabotage ppl who rejected him lol. the actual music seems okay...this is not my genre of expertise so im pretty unconfident in my ability to judge it as especially remarkable but theres absolutely at least a few beautiful melodies on here...come pick me up in particular stopped me in my tracks after almost losing consciousness in the sleepy cozy vibes (helped by great production). i kinda wanna be more generous to it based on those moments but i cant deny how huge a piece of the puzzle i feel like im missing not being able to buy into most of the lyrics...i could imagine myself getting emotionally lost in this , but in This universe i cant get much closer than a fairly vast distance
The Rolling Stones
3/5
i like this record and always have but oh my god this is the dumbest fucking artist streak ive ever had. a lotta white balls need 2 be chopped off. anyway, this is the only studio rolling stones record where my perception of it hasnt dropped off the face of the earth at some point, and i set out on this listen to figure out why. most likely perhaps is the subtle difference in genre priorities across the stone's Classic period...theyre all rootsy rock music, but of slightly different flavors, and to my ears the biggest contributing sub-flavor here is country. the result is a stones record that is both slightly funnier and slightly more emotive in turn from that which surrounds it, the least capital r capital s Rock Star of their most famous records. i still hate mick jagger lol but this more subdued environment is good for him...he's still often jaggering it up with gross self-parodic white boy blues inflections but for whatever reason ive always found this to be the most likeable studio environment for this. the real problem if i have one is that i find the stones as a whole to be quite boring and stiff performers...but even that doesnt stop them from a rare fully successful Rock Out with gimmie shelter, where the layers and layers of sound build up into a genuine intensity the individual parts couldn't reach alone. and even beyond that track, the songwriting works for me on this record way way more than not, comfy and even colorful. on the whole if i Have to listen to the rolling stones id reach for the suprisingly great classic live album ya-yas, but this is a good pick too. not a fan of this band at all clearly lol but im glad theyre not a total wash for me
Bobby Womack
4/5
the most Smoothed Over of smooth soul possible, just Drenched in early 80s cheese. so so enjoyable tbh lmao, its nothing revelatory but the glitz and idealizaed sexuality and big emotions are all pursued in effortful earnestness thats difficult for me to not respond to. its never got the very Best vocal performances or the very Best arrangements or the very Best melodies like maybe ud expect from a record being included in this 1001 canon thing, but theyre all quality, swishing around my senses and emotions v v pleasantly. and congrats to this guy, ive never heard of him before but he finally broke the unpleasantly horny men streak! very silly era but im glad it-...he did WHAT?????????
4/5
the very likely peak of ray davies as a songwriter, yet also where he chafes the most against the limits of his worldview. the fact that he DOES have a distinct and constantly articulated worldview is one of the most interesting things about the kinks, certainly sets them apart from their contemporaries, and i find a lot of resonance with it on village green because we suffer from many of the same anxieties and unreasonable idealizations. but his metaphorical tale of the british empire where the ultimate tragedy is its eventual slumping over into pathetic powerlessness...where the victims are the unfullfilled middle class surrounded by wealth that doesnt make them happy...its a little fundamentally wrongheaded lol. thats a p big complaint but its the only main one i can raise...while its deffo not a hard rock album or anything, the kinks shed their current (lovely) Wussy Pop Style to something that feels more connected to their earlier experiments in heaviness, a bunch of propulsive and extremely melodic pop rock songs with a powerfully anchoring guitar sound...lots of convincing Physicality to the sound here. and for whatever my hangups with the concept, its constructed extremely well...not a hyper-linear rock opera, but a collection of meaningful and illustrative moments arranged with real dramatic momentum. ill repeat what i said about village green ages ago...thats the more fundamentally likeable project for me, but i might prefer this one song-for-song
Grateful Dead
5/5
obviously a huge part of the grateful dead experience is a sort of Ritual aspect that i cant get from just listening to one show...becoming familiar with the songs as frameworks from which New but Metatextually Related experiences are to be grown each time. thankfully im atm perfectly fine just being left with The Music here which is so obviously incredible lol...ive been most prepared for this by my dives into live frank zappa and the like, but i already prefer this to a lot of that. the hypnotic, mind-expanding qualities are so sincere and carried to a great variety of places, from colorfully dexterous jazzy explorations to crushing churning blues to fucked up noise...extremely inviting for such supposedly difficult music, they just wanna blow ur mind!! intensely likable as a vibe and extremely pleasurable as a collection of sounds. im sure ill carve out more time for the dead at some point
Electric Light Orchestra
5/5
i fsr kinda bounced off this when i heard it a few years ago but idk what was happening other than maybe i was overwhelmed by the embarrassment of riches FHJFS. so monumental it kinda freaks me out...one of those double albums thats not this long for such pedestrian reasons as Wanting To Make A Big Statement That Requires A Lot Of Space but simply due to the fact that apparently jeff lynne was waking up just accidentally coughing out genius musical ideas every morning and he had to put them down somewhere. the effect is certainly inherently exhausting, ur eating a whole rich cake by urself in one sitting, but no quibbles can be had with the cake itself. all the harmonic elements make me feel like im swimming in them, all the arrangements are attuned to maximum color, half the lyrics feel like childhood daydreams treated with the gravity of the world's proggiest rock opera. something truly elemental here. i need to hear way more ELO
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
deep and physical and Gritty,,,an occasional sort of instrumental hip hop/plunderphonics vibe where bits of different fundamental audio temperance are pulled into semi-harmonious collage. the sparks of them smashing against eachother are usually more the main appeal then them melding seemlessly! and are ultimately where the record's aesthetic cohesion is found...it counts for a lot that the drumlines and bass grooves feel constantly Bottomless no matter whats on top of them
Neneh Cherry
4/5
almost comically of Exactly its moment in the late 80s (not a good time for drum production unfortunately) but never in an unappealing way for me! very fun and jumpy and jittery, and neneh is an absolute delight,,,her strange and eclectic career isnt Overtly shown here (u might never know she was in punk bands) but it is present in the freewheeling musicality. and her presence is so commanding...sort of a diva, but mostly a proud worldly-wise badass mom lady??? this wasnt like a crazy revelatory experience for me or anything but deffo one of the more memorable personalities i didnt even know about before starting this
Nirvana
5/5
im not a nirvana megafan, kurt tbh took an embarrassingly long time to fully grow on me as a songwriter, but im glad i eventually got there! this clicked semi-recently for me as a viscerally enjoyable piece of music, and now having settled into that i actually started to rly dig my paws into the emotional experience and general Mystique here...only for me to tbh have nothing to say that would be appropriate for a public forum. im sure u understand. there are probably a couple parts here that count as a tiny bit of a psychohazard for me, and ill mind that in the future. on a lighter note then, love the production here as much as anyone, but im starting to wonder if nevermind actually has the cooler and more unique sound...theres a lot of distinctive touches on there esp as far as instrument balance goes that makes it unlike almost anything ive ever heard, and while i dig steve albini i already kinda Know What An Albini Joint Sounds Like every single time yaknow hgjsdhgs. wonderful wonderful record, and despite its inevitable retrofitting as a self-conscious swansong (i dont know how i feel ab that tbh it feels intrusive), it certainly suggests kurt and co had a lot more avenues to explore and offer if they ever had the chance. Moderate Rock.
Mott The Hoople
4/5
not long before i actually got around to listening to this my grandma got me slightly drunk which was bad for my ability to write a meaty description but probably v good for my enjoyment. melodic and inventive and super super fun, a lot more dylan DNA then i expected from a glam rock act, and with a similar strange and charming sense of humor. it would take more knowledge of the band and familiarity with their music to parse that self-conscious silliness to any greater degree but it was maybe the most delightful surprise for me! sorta fitting for their coach z ass band name
Various Artists
5/5
ah right. my project is a day behind. lol.
its okay tho!! im still in my Pleasantly Sleepy Christmas Mood, and despite the general motown upbeatness this is basically the perfect compliment to that lol...obviously spector one of the genuine worst people in the music canon (albeit refreshingly, one of the only ones who actually faced consequences for his actions!), and hearing him on VOCALS on that last track is a huge jumpscare, but his production always fits in very snuggly with my own musical priorities. and for as influential as he was, this particular brill building sound, often Enhanced by the fact that recording tech of the day is often overwhelmed by the ambition to somewhat rough and tinny effect, rly is its own wholly unique little space and nothing else quite scratches the itch...feels like the details are stuck in your subconscious, and u cant quite claw them back to ur active mind but u still feel their effects even as u cant quite discern their presence. in that sense it is the perfect for a holiday as complicatedly loaded as christmas!!! i like christmas a lot tbh i have maintained a good relationship with both it and its surrounding music for my whole life, so my appreciation is more straightforward than i prob just implied lol but yea great record either way! darlene love save me!
Ryan Adams
2/5
at least a couple impressive things ab this, obviously its a long album but it seems like a good balance between having a clearly cohesive style and making sure that every track is distinct. and as with heartbreaker , occasionally a melody jumped out at me as Particularly lovely (tho nothing to the extent of come pick me up), and as a followup to heartbreaker i appreciate the stylistic swing. but im sure u cant blame me for fucking groaning as soon as this popped up !!! if my cold distance towards this dudes art was taxing on a 50 minute record it has no chance on a 70 minute one. mostly just though about how much better my time would prob be used listening to more bruce springsteen and/or neil young. ig theres no telling how id feel ab this if i had the chance to form an emotional relationship with this guys art Without the knowledge that he's a piece of shit but we do not live in that universe and i cant help but feel like there are far more distinctive and consistently moving artists that could have occupied the two slots he takes up in this godforsaken book
Fleet Foxes
5/5
the actual listening experience borderline refused to let me develop "thoughts" because i was just melting and the only thing i could break from the experience to articulate is "thats a godly melody huh"...attempting to reconnect with my semi rational mind in the aftermath, i think the closest thing i have to an interesting observation is how disconnected from Time this feels to me? folk music is proudly anachronistic, which is generally something to either be embraced or subverted , but more than anything else ive heard in the genre this feels almost absent of either history or perception of contemporary taste. ig that sounds like a criticism and tbh the effect is almost unnerving, but it feels like it comes from a direct cutting across those things to something more eternal...the sound that springtime itself has Always Had. rly special amazing record and a band i should rly sink my teeth back into
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
already been in my rotation recently but a delight to hear again. extremely hard to articulate things ab except that perhaps no political music act has ever quite managed this kind of populist chemistry...pure anthemic power while still being detailed and un-reductive, wholly catchy and accessible while still being on some level tonally appropriate for the atrocities being discussed, for the nerds as much as it is for the jocks. might be something in a description by my friend zoey saying "every ratm song is like a hard ass riff a 12 year old can play and also a solo that takes an engineering degree". excellent music to blast before heading in for an extremely long shift , byeeee
Lupe Fiasco
4/5
genuinely this feels like a college dropout-level display of hip hop debut creativity and color...theres a couple reasons in my understanding why lupe did not become more of a kanye-type icon (more for better then for worse at this point lol) but genuinely maybe part of it is that despite having a bunch of distinguishing characteristics (a dorky muslim with actual street cred but a latecomer to hip hop in general), he has the humility to put his efforts primarily towards the Songs rather than himself, which is ultimately just not the game artists in popular music are "supposed" to be playing, certainly for longevity. it pays off super well for the music tho, which is sonically dense and lush and rainbow-flavored, and matched by a ton of great lyrical ideas and lupe's frictionlessly likable presence. cant even imagine buying this blind back on release and just being slammed with something this eccentric without ingenuine affectation, and while remaining endlessly catchy and accessible
Radiohead
2/5
i was cautiously optimistic after ok computer finally Did Something For Me recently but man i still rly rly dont get this tbh FHJFSHJFS. whatever combination of brain chemicals have to go off for me to find aching beauty in the guitar lines and weird winding melodies has not happened yet, i think im still just sitting here not understanding radiohead as a Guitar Rock band at all, i dont hate it but it just washes right over me in an entirely uninvolving way both sonically and emotionally. i thought thom yorke had clicked for me as a vocalist, for a chunk of this i genuinely thought he had somehow unclicked, but tbh maybe i just prefer his semi-inhuman ghost voice floating over those more adventurous, expressionist soundscapes...the physicality and grounding of a Real Band, even one playing in a haunted cavern as is the vibe here, just seems unflattering to me personally. street spirit is pretty undeniable, but other than that...its pretty flower-power
Tom Waits
5/5
tom waits is one of music's great worldbuilders...esp in this stretch of his career where his arrangement ideas bring dizzying cohesion to his always-striking words (rly rly effective here, there is an emotional bluntness and clear expression to all of them even at their most cryptic). here is where also he reveals himself to be one of music's great worlddestroyers....the ever present sense that these songs had some semblance of organic life springing from them, which is now rotted away, but they still dont feel Aesthetically like theyre Missing Anything is a triumph. im not super familiar with most of tom's records but this has always leaped out to me as probably my favorite effort of the ones i do know...the strange feeling of emotionally opening up over time hit me especially hard this time. endings only hurt if there was something worth losing
im not v good at ritual-type deliberateness structured around specific Time so i pay no mind to what the first and last things i listen to in a different year are but the last song i listened to in 2024 was definitely some taylor swift song and the first album i listened to this year is the apocalypse tom waits record..........slightly cursed foreboding energy i have to admit
Bad Brains
5/5
ive never heard the sophomore bad brains record so idk if it at All bridges the debut and this but im not sure what could tbh FHJSFHJSF, even seeing the genre tags i dont think i was prepared, cuz tbh any way u scratch it this is just incredibly striking and creative music. its a forerunner to a genre or two but it fundamentally stems from authentic creative decisions...the picking and choosing of elements from punk and funk and metal into something aesthetically cohesive ...catchy and immediate but also meaty and stewing in its own emotions. and ofc just v v v enjoyable...riffs and melodic ideas often go crazy even when theyre just midtempo stompers. its hard not to imagine mike patton taking a bunch of notes from this and maybe his projects pushed these things even more Out There but (with all due respect) certainly never as fundamentally radical on any level
Justice
4/5
the mixture of sounds and samples of differing infidelities that creates an inviting comfy homemade quality on discovery etc etc channeled towards something that feels a bit more extroverted to me...more club-ready, a wider sensory expression, and best of all Lowkey Evil! but not rly in an intimidating way more in a participatory way, like if u choose to dance along ur knowingly complicit in something. an embrace of long dark arms...and the music goes crazy hard so why would u say no tbh. parties and clubs are too much sensory hell for me and this is sensory hell too tbh but i like that as an art expression. some rly good panic attack tunes on here
Jorge Ben Jor
5/5
sweaty, eclectic, rocks out and soothes the soul, really just Pure Pleasure kind of beyond articulation for me...except to sheepishly note that this seems to be at the confluence of a bunch of different cultural and musical ideas (wow i wonder what gave it away maybe it was the title), which makes me once again think that the best way to look at conventions is as a language rather than a rulebook. some absolutely RIDICULOUS melodywriting on here only augmented by how they are presented, repeated, emphasized.,..backing vocals are so so good...
The Adverts
4/5
didnt have the highestttt expectations tbh but this is rly vibrant and creative actually! prob the closest 70s uk punk comes to being candy-flavored, lots of great and shiny anthemic and melodic ideas while still feeling nice and handmade. the production is just rly rly good tbh, almost lush but with no sterility whatsoever, was delighted to find out it was the work of john leckie who was also behind the stone roses (and the bends funnily enough). kind of a hidden gem as far as records famous enough to be on this list, very fun and memorable, will have to make a note to come back to it sometime cuz i can imagine v occasionally being in the mood Specifically For this weird v specific little thing
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
a bruce springsteen dive has been on my to-do list for forever and ever, his melodic voice is not the widestest but its something that just instantly makes me feel at home, and ive enjoyed this record (and all the others ive heard) ever since first listen. ill reflect on it more when i hear it in the proper context of his discography but more than anything i think this just makes me think ab The Imperial Period Pop Magnum Opus as a format and how effortlessly this wraps his sweet and earthy into it, with near flawless results. i think the two main things that kind of record needs to nail are (1) establishing the coherency and vividness of the artist and (2) showing off their range Particularly in the big singles...every song here is v good but its esp impressive that the hits cover such a wide variety of ground and usually with some amount of emotional complication. u dont need me to tell u, but man the title track hits every time. every lyrical couplet is its own knife twist, and the tone of the song is Somehow not trampled on at all by the surface-level shininess, its a passionate bellow either way
The Band
5/5
Literally making their name as bob dylan's first electric band im not surprised to find some superficially similar elements and ofc a couple of dylan-written tunes, but what i didnt expect to carry over was the capacity to make me blubberingly emotional for reasons i literally cannot articulate. so unassuming but somehow feels like some kind of earthen magic. wraps around u and lays u on like, some moss or something. the weight is maybe slightly the best song ever made. feels like it has somehow implanted new, pleasant memories into my brain. and man thats a contender for the best album cover ever, isnt it
The Sonics
5/5
im not even sure how Subversive this is or whatever, ive heard the monks, That was subversive. this is closer to just cranking the contemporary state of rock and roll to its highest extremes yet reached...the essence always feels entirely preserved and unironic, its just overclocked and caught on fire. maybe one of the most purely fun records of the entire decade!! societal and sonic tolerances for rock music have been raised immensely since its inception when it was the most gut-level exciting sound yet made by man but that excitement is still there if ur looking for it , and if ur having trouble this might be a great place to look since its just reveling and emphasizing things that were already there
Janelle Monáe
5/5
there is, Pawsibly, a slight wonkiness to the cluster of breathlessly propulsive tracks near the front and slower more soaky tracks near the back, but thats something to see if its smoothed out on future listens i think. otherwise, maybe literally perfect HFJFSHJFS its a crime its been so long since i listened to this...perfectly produced, perfectly performed, feels enduringly like one of the biggest records ever made yet remains entirely distinguishable and cohesive, finds its stunning afrofuturist class warfare aesthetic thruline between the base elements of all the different styles in the pot here and builds some of the craziest shit ive ever heard on that baseline. i never heard their other (increasingly divisive) records but i think i trust the vision here more than i trust the taste of music nerds. amazing, placetaking, placemaking, placeremaking music
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
maybe the haziest, most impressionist effect that has ever been achieved by a record where thats not an obviously accurate description of the sound itself...everything is in clear space and precisely chosen and presented in perfect clarity, but it still feels like a dream somehow...maybe one u are currently having rather then one u are remembering in daylight. idek what else to say other then its cool im on a lil streak of records i havent heard in a long time but were overdue for a revisit :))) curtis has to be one of the goats
Funkadelic
5/5
i still like this blurb i wrote a while ago:
"cannot be emphasized enough, title track is Literally more tuned into The Reasons To Make Music then maybe anything else ever. the most effortless possible combination of the Creation Of Sound as pure pleasure and emotion for both the performer and the audience, with no other bullshit in the way. yes it technically ascribes to Some conventions because all music does but it feels plucked from some kind of immaculate vacuum of undiluted artistic thought anyway."
just in general, the most fun the End Of The Universe has ever been. funkadelic have to be in contention for greatest band of all time
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
i thought i might just miss today cuz Ive Got The Flu Baby and tbh even typing this feels like its taking energy that i dont have. but this seemed nice and undemanding so i threw it on and it ended up being p much perfect....aside from a couple "rockier" cuts that i tbh dont rly know what to make of, the mood is fairly constant in its combination of pastoral escapism and counterculture protest ...tbh kind of ideal for me being stuck in my suburban house and/or the sterile halls of the urgent care center. im not sure how Undemanding it ended up being tho,,,a couple places r so beautiful they rend me a little bit. idk why i didnt expect that tbh!
Killing Joke
5/5
im sickkkkk...and so is this ALBUm! gottem..
just the coolest music ever and a kinda insane achievement for 1980... its dark and metallic and icy and political but idk how Grimey it actually is? maybe its just the dancey grooves and synths but theres a layer of abstraction and even Theatre to the whole thing...doomy and gloomy and gothic in a very aestheticized way. and ofc not sounding one bit generic along the way! killer record, super entertaining, i hate the flu cough cough achoooo
Nick Drake
5/5
top ten record of ever for me at this point. so many of my favorite moments in music Period come from here... the beaming bright horn opening on hazey jane ii, the strings on the chorus of chime of a city clock which feel like uve raised the window and the whole song has opened up into an expanse of fresh air, every single melody twist on one of these things first...i dont just wanna do a checklist but i do have to reach the piano solo in northern sky, one of my lowkey favorite solos ever played on any instrument, augmenting what already has to be one of the very very best songs ever made. ull notice how many of these are the result of the contested arrangements on this record! i find them expressive, blissful, and a worthy complication of drake's hyper-inward sensibilities. obviously i feel many of my anxieties captured on here, but what they are translated to is what brings them full circle and melts them. this is also the peak for me of nick drake's very Comfy To Me Specifically gender expression,,,not trying to speak on the man himself, but My genderweird self interacting with the aesthetics of his music, there is a comforting apathy to traditionally Masculine and Feminine elements, still stumbled into but in a way that feels distant, muted, autistic, pastel,,,i see my soul in it. it kinda speaks to the appeal of the whole record for me...interfacing with the outside through a safe, protective bubble. there is not any time or any place where i would not listen to this record, its just an irreplaceable part of me now
Charles Mingus
5/5
just one of the most unhinged and amazing accomplishments in the history of music. combines so many styles but always feels so natural and singular that it never comes across as one bit imitation or pastiche...mingus and co just discovered a piece that could only exist in exactly this form. the main developing motif sounds like breathing in and out with various degrees of effort, a fitting image for a record that goes so many strange places in search of pure expressionism. gets more and more emotional every listen...everyone is putting in everything they got. some of the most passionate art thats been made in any medium
Blue Cheer
4/5
extremely stupid hole in my knowledge, and the closest thing ive personally heard to a whole record of helter skelter. dont wanna overstate that tho, the similarities are kind of superficial lol and this is actually much more earnestly like a proto-metal venture i think? the slower bluesier passages could deffo find some space on a sabbath record, and theres even some faster flashier stuff that's less typical of a standard 60s guitar master and more recognizably heavy metal. the Soul of metal as an aesthetic exploration clearly beyond rock music prob still originates in full flight on the sabbath debut , but theres a lot more purely musical stuff being prodded at and exposed to the sun here than i expected! definitely a fun record
Elvis Presley
4/5
i got elvis' debut wayyy near the beginning of this project, four years and one military service later its cool to hear the big strides that have been made! the biggest leap compared to the debut is the backing band , a relative weakness there but all aces this time, and every bit as dexterous as elvis himself. he's fully grown into his voice, a lot less raw energy then the debut but even better at adapting to the various styles and song idioms covered here, theres a little doo-wop a little rock n roll a little torch ballad, cant be faulted as a package rly! everyone involved is totally game for everything, and i hear a lot of enthusiasm and effort and desire to make each moment and twist and inflection sign. i know enough ab the history of elvis to understand that this level of affection for the material is not always a guarantee lol but i also assume those albums arent on this list ! i like when artists are into the art theyre doing :)
Bob Dylan
4/5
interesting to think ab how many central pivot points the Bob Dylan Legend spins on, where depending on ur point of entry u may have an entirely different base-level idea of what the Bob Dylan Legend even is. the rock-slanted music nerds who get in through highway 61 have a different perception of him then those who couldnt be grabbed by anything other then the confessional mask-slip of blood on the tracks who have a different perception then people like me who have heard a Bunch of his records and see him as defined more by his impish chameleonic qualities then anything superficially consistent. often left entirely behind are the original greenwich folkies who first defied him before declaring him judas! but for however non-vindicated they were by history, this is the record that makes me understand them the most...maybe not even my fave pre-electric dylan record at this point, but a spellbinding warning shot of just how Much he was capable of doing. tracks are hilarious, sad, blissful, bitter, wise, foolish, small and warm, huge and cosmic, extremely weird and extremely ordinary in turn. and all so Attainable which is one of the appeals of this kind of music i suppose...u could just be One Guy with a guitar and/or harmonica and theres still no limits on what u can do
Motörhead
4/5
ppl who can tell motorhead songs apart are Living The Dream. its a level of attentiveness to the outside world i wish i had. thankfully it is not a requirement to enjoy their music, esp in this live setting where they just constantly sound like the coolest band to ever play music....its amazing how the novelty doesnt wear off! and every time i do pick up a line or melody, it seems pretty awesome,,,again , more power to the legends who can tell motorhead songs apart. extremely good and sweaty music. and maybe the most ive ever felt the legend of lemmy specifically....the crowd is just eating out of his hand and it seems like he's some kind of big imposing monster alien stomping around the stage
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
near wall to wall songwriting monolith...some licks and melodies and chords that i swear ive heard before but i know i havent, theyve just been plucked from something so earthy that its like an inheritance of being alive. the stages set for soloing are almost as amazing as the soloing itself...always this meaty sturdy foundation upon which everything just Makes Sense. super rich and inviting music, every time i encounter neil young these days i feel like my mind is just blown. more indepth examination and appreciation should be On The Way
Common
4/5
maybe the most likeable album ever lol. for some reason i always remember this as a debut even tho i know its not, but i always forget specifically that common had been releasing music for over a decade by the time this came out...obviously a big part of this record's enduring legend is the involvement from golden era k@ny3 but im glad things worked out to get a bunch of eyes on common at this stage. not that he has Everything Figured Out or whatever, but the level of lived experience is oozing out of everywhere and is just in general the stage i wish a lot more artist of all types and mediums got to reach...being rich and successful esp can hold u in a myopic personal stasis (like some of the collaborators here, famously!), but at least at this stage common feels like he has never stopped living and thoughtfully accruing new experiences and understanding...just one of a myriad contributors to this being a very sweet and assuring record, esp for these Times,,,,bush-era stubborn optimism rly does hit nice about now
Roxy Music
4/5
kind of a lopsided and malformed tracklist...even considering that it amusingly predicts several future eno-involved projects with Explosive A Side, Atmospheric B Side, the b side's got a bit more to go...if anything, it perhaps remains Slightly too propulsive and jarring, and therefore hard to soak in! its hard for me to fault any individual song on either side tho, there is always something of sonic interest on offer, often densely and evocatively so...often the impression is that things are so much more then just a band playing in a room. also pete sinfield produced this??? i had no idea??? really great work, definitely a rly good album overall, but theres probably a better one with more or less this same material ordered in a more flattering way
The Stooges
4/5
two albums in a row where i kinda dont know what to make of the B side??? the first three tracks really feel like a total statement,,,i definitely buy we will fall as an intentional break in the momentum (and a rly rly good one tbh, kind of impish and semi parodic but still a thick and effective hypnotic experience), and after we come out the other side its like we're treated to all the relatively Normal output of the sessions in a row. its structurally weird in a way that i kinda feel like Has to have something going on under the surface, but if so, its eluded me every time ive heard this record throughout the years. its still p good material but i have to admit it sounds a lil less impressively stripped down/id-driven now that ive heard the monks and the sonics lol. i feel like ive just been complaining but this is definitely a good album and an impressively weird gangly art object generally!!! a surprising amount to Think About for eluding conscious thought this intently
Germs
4/5
i truly feel so out of my depth taking ab hardcore punk, but attention must be paid at the v least to the super cool production job (by joan jett of all people!)...the bass tone is super pronounced , and theres a ton of clarity in general even tho the timbre of the instruments is still rough n tumble abrasive...genuinely reminds me more than anything of the production on Nevermind? at least in overall priorities. hard to not notice darby as a vocalist too...extremely stretch-and-squashy voice thats as fluid as a cartoon character. love the closing track too, like a sloppy punky take on a hypnotic krautrock churn. definitely a fun listen on the whole. when i saw the cover i assumed it was a techno record
Talking Heads
5/5
shortest 40 minutes ever tbh.................the kind of balance of jarring chaos and sharp hyper-rigidity that can be made by many people but only perfected by The Autistics. ive not heard remain in light in a long while, and its a record im v attached to as one of my single most important gateways into music, but ive grown increasingly attached to this record's jaggedy, splattery vignettes, all of which feel so vivid and distinct and mesmerizing. the potency of this record is as such that it has at least once song i can barely listen to without crying (heaven) and at least one song i can barely listen to without cackling (animals), and theyre right next to eachother! it would take a full talking heads dive to completely confidentially solidify this as my fave record of theirs, but its certainly the one id be most excited to listen to at any random time
Suzanne Vega
5/5
kind of unarticulatable...which is funny considering how many words she can fit into a melody. sparkly and jumpy and folky and new age-y, just a ton of aesthetic and sensory appeals for me...lots to touch and feel, lots to Learn i feel like. i rolled this a couple days after getting semi fixated on a tom's diner ytp oops (shoutouts jish for sending it my way). hope ill be able to articulate more ab this eventually, im sure ill come back to it, its too nice to be around
The Only Ones
4/5
Sex Pistols
2/5
outwardly fun and catchy enough that i wont pretend to hate it but come on man lmao. very few """counter"""cultural institutions lamer than the sex pistols. johnny rotten is a time traveller who went back a few decades to provide inexplicable historical precedent for the great soothsayer paul joseph watson's eventual proclamation that conservatism is the new punk rock. ive seen some ppl describe their shift in perception as a rugpull but idk man i caught some of the lyrics on here, seems to be like they were at least partially transparent this whole time! and even when its not, theres endless privileged myopia that prevent any statements on the material world worth their salt being made, even if theyre dressed up provocatively. definitely easy enough to enjoy (theres an undeniable musical precision here that is appealing even [especially?] in the rough/sloppy context of 70s punk) but nearly impossible to enjoy enthusiastically
The White Stripes
5/5
i continually fail to form any opinion or have any reaction to seven nation army but all these other songs are sick as hell tbh!!! was kinda taken aback by how much i like this, i have no strong associations w/ this band at all but maybe i should. some months back i was talking to a critter more knowledgeable in Relevant Areas than me (pre-60s recorded music we'll say broadly) and she pointed out that blues is typically an extremely loose and expressive genre, and jack white's razor-minimalist take on it is actually rly unusual and interesting. it definitely makes sense to me...lots of hard-hitting stuff here delivered with ruthless efficiency but just enough space for diversity and distinctiveness. just rly admirably attuned for Greatest Impact Possible thru pacing and focus and clarity...could understand this being a Desert Island Pick for some ppl. man i used to be obsessed with that thought experiment i should play around with it again sometime lol. 1/5th of the way there btw wowie!
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
4/5
everything i saw ab this record before hearing it screamed Most Br*tish Album Of All Time in a slightly intimidating way lol but the actual experience is a defiantly low-key and handmade-feeling pop-ish record with a lot of subtle tasteful appeals. i didnt dig into the lyrics but they seem quite ambitious...could definitely understand falling into them, esp with the cozy-yet-cold sound of the record wrapping around u. one of those production jobs where it sounds like theres a protective layer between u and the music...slightly uncanny but very easy on the senses. kind of impressive how even with lonesome/folky/historical leanings, the aesthetic of this record shoots right beyond pastoral into the vividly urban. bryter layter is still prob the loneliest City Album ever made but its cool that theres more records with a comparable effect out there!
Brian Eno
5/5
an unexpected but genius way to find the beauty hiding in the alienating and empty and alien and blood-stained modern world...listen for the heartbeat of life and dance to it. there truly is so much more to existence than what we can see
R.E.M.
5/5
a long long time coming 5/5....even some of the songs i didnt think i remembered popped vibrantly. there is something ab this record that is situated perfectly between an alien wilderness and a comforting home, maybe u Make a home out of the wilderness but its more like the wilderness felt like home all along in some unarticulatable way. idk if literally anyone else gets those types of feelings and images from this record, but i can point at the v least to the combination of cryptic and warm elements as a springboard for all kinds of potential effects. i basically have no idea what micheal stipe is trying to say at any point but im still filled with the unavoidable sense of "man. that guy knew exactly what he was talking about." i feel like im remembering this sentiment from somewhere (i cant recall exactly) but its kind of crazy this is a debut album too...ik they had an EP before this, but this still sounds like the kind of quietly confident and seasoned record u usually only get from an artist who's six or seven records deep into their discog. it doesnt clamor for ur attention, it just lets everything speak for itself. when i lie on the ground, the grass and moss will wrap me up in a blanket
Leonard Cohen
5/5
got a lot of physical burnout atm from the busyness of work but i finally stopped falling asleep long enough to listen to what has to be one of the best possible albums for my situation lol. kind of equal parts uncanny/desolate and lush/pretty...cold in ways ive felt enough to be kind of comfortingly familiar. where dylan tends to be super dense and abstract, layering on tons of little gems and details and images that make the most sense as a sort of freefloating whole, cohen is maybe closer to a "traditional" storyteller...he certainly recounts a lot more specific, follow-able events...but he infuses these deceptively straightforward recountings with a lot of mystery and mysticism that make them feel like theyre a few layers of interpretation away from unlocking some Secrets Of Significance. very few new-to-me songs in this project have captured me as wholly and immediately as bird on the wire...something beautiful ab being surrounded by the shattered pieces of urself
OutKast
5/5
more than anything its crazy how enduringly, ig self-sufficient this record feels? most of this sounds like it could have come out yesterday, and i imagine thatll hold true for a long time. it also never feels compromised in any direction it stretches in...the big commercial hookiness feels totally natural next to the lyrical ambitions. kind of makes me think that such ideas of art construction are faulty at their core lol, just something that makes intuitive sense as a way to stop further thought. in either case, its stankonia! its loaded with elemental classics and tracks that, at the v least, dont embarrass themselves next to the elemental classics. theres an endlessly appealing Openness and even Vulnerability that unites both the silly lowbrow stuff and the big serious swings...if they dont all land the same, at least i know the ppl making it believed in all of them. and man with speakerboxx/love below being the last outkast thing i heard (courtesy of this project) i forgot how good the chemistry between the two can be...big boi's firey spewing intuition and andre's mega-calculated and densely crafted approach probably get more bounce off of eachother here than any other outkast record
Beatles
5/5
maybe not my fave beatles by as great of a distance as i expected, but that was entirely a result of connecting so strongly w/ abbey road again...push comes to shove, this is still my queen. my rediscovery that this is not just exactly as good as i remember but having experiences Even Better then the ones i had as a teen thanks to the 2018 mix was unbelievable. this and revolver are The records that set the tone for my attraction to eclecticism, theres a straight line between these albums kicking my head open and pretty much anyone since ive ever considered to be my "favorite artist" (bjork, ween, devin,). but the white album in particular remains potent and engrossing for its perfectly orchestrated disharmony...while revolver's various styles are anchored by the band operating as a joyful unit, the white album manages the magic trick of stringing together clashing egos with a nearly subconscious dream logic that can only be articulated after a million listens but is dictating ur experience from the very first time. perhaps the best argument in history that in the world of albums, u hear the Structure before u actually hear any of the songs. and really, in the world of music, or art, or perception of the universe At All, every moment is enabled by every previous moment. something endlessly and eternally vital to my view of art and life in here. the watusi. the twist.
JAY Z
4/5
the self-assurance coming off of this record really is something else, what with the context and only having a single feature (a somehow actually kind of good appearance from eminem, who's actually forced to say something semi-interesting within the song's sharply targeted thematic framework), rly gives u a lot of time to think about like what even Is It about jay-z that gives his presence such gravity. my best stab at describing it right now is that he's kind of the opposite of talking faster than u can think...he tends to rap at slow or midtempo but theres still a pseudo(?)-improvisational feel to it, like u can hear him taking the time and breath to come up with the next few lines. the results are often incredibly clear and well-articulated thought processes that are easy to follow along with even with the occasional fancy or ambitious flourish...conversational, but definitely not casual. just in general im not sure any artist in any genre balances the I Dont Have Anything To Prove U Already Know Im A Legend confidence with not feeling resigned or taking a chance to ease up, he still feels like he's trying to conquer the world on here even tho he already basically did. great beats too ofc, often lavish but still a lot of character rather then overly smooth or blank. great job jay z, i dont know what uve been up to recently but im sure its cool. i think ill google Recent Jay Z News after i close this tab!
The Gun Club
4/5
a clear forerunner to self-consciously stripped back Rock And Roll indie/alternative acts ...kinda fun to get this so soon after the white stripes. easier to enjoy and Get The Gist of then floridly describe lmao but such is a record with this set of strengths, generally speaking, in any era. tho ofc an actual old rock and roll record probably wouldnt carry quite the demented underbelly that this does,,,again not much to say rly lol but deffo an interesting one!
The Charlatans
4/5
more like 1001 britpop albums ive never heard of in my life!!!!!!!!!! more like!!! fr even just taking a cursory glance in various places does make this seem like a p interesting band, originating from baggy/madchester but staying commercially viable by transitioning to britpop that retains its clear connections to those scenes. these r all geographically connected scenes so im sure they werent the only britpop band to have good grooves and dancey type beats (esp since as this list has made clear idk shit ab this genre lmao) but its a good combination!!! very satisfying to listen to, if tbh a bit inherently exhausting, 47 minutes is toeing righttt up to the line of how much ambiguously smarmy britishness i can take. its not all that tho, last track is a tribute to their keyboardist who died partway through recording. not one of my fave records or anything, but one of those lil pockets of art and history i enjoy learning about on even briefly on this project
Led Zeppelin
2/5
my semi-recent re-exploration of the led zepp catalog reveals that on the whole i do like more of this band's material than i dont, which was a slight surprise but not an unwelcome one. there Is something to their capacity to create a song or a whole record that is more than the sum of its parts,,,the tendency towards structural and even melodic vagueness was not super appealing to me as someone getting into music through the beatles and pink floyd, but their best stuff has a lot of atmosphere and room to breathe that can be v powerful when things line up just right. which makes it all the more baffling that on this, their most famous record, the famed peak of their Mystical and Grandiose vibes, i constantly struggle to have literally any reaction at all. this isnt my least favorite led zepp (this is certainly a lot easier to tolerate than physical graffiti, and im not gonna pretend like coda is super worthwhile lol) but its probably the least vivid one, the one that leaves me most confused as to what the overall vibe and takeaway are supposed to be. in their self-consciously ambitious recording sessions in those old estates, they made something less like an album and more like a greatest hits collection (often literally given how famous most tracks here are, but mostly structurally). ive heard this record so so many times, but it always feels like it makes less sense listening to it than it does thinking about it. and if it Is just a collection of songs, i really only get any reaction from the last two, a lovely little duo of pastoral beauty and thundering apocalypse. intellectually i can imagine that for many people, that dynamic Is what defines this record , or otherwise some type of eclectic grandiosity, but for the former id take III any day and for the latter id take houses of the holy any day. i kinda just dont get it, dont care for the songs, and the record feels transitional more than a bold statement. a lot of words to say very little on my part, sorry!
Solomon Burke
4/5
way more about soul then rock, in fact this is more mellow then it is anything which i didnt quite expect. this tbh maybe lacks standout features in general (aside from the fact that burke's personal life as a mortician and a reverend and a father of 21 children is pretty wild), but its hard to go wrong with this type of music in general. some v beautiful tracks, a predictably great vocal performance (im mostly unsure about the backing singers tbh! they kind of clutter it up), and just a convincingly smoldering, carnal lover vibe In General which makes me wonder what this guy's sermons were like.
The United States Of America
5/5
calling music "dreamlike" feels like even more disappointingly limited than it is in other mediums because it often just means something hazy and fuzzy and chill/pretty but this is a really, really vivid expression of music taking on a convincing Dream Logic...just structured enough to feel like its pulling from waking life, but floating and abstract enough to be slightly uncanny and enchanting and horrible and beautiful. just familiar enough but u subconsciously know not to prod it in a certain way and overstretch the limitations of the illusion, liking knowing what not to do in a janky video game to prevent it from bugging out. extremely extremely good and cool music, easy to remember for its cryptic qualities but i forgot how flowingly melodic it is as well! among adventurous american music from around this time, id say this is even more forward thinking and beyond its time than the likes of the velvet underground, or maybe any non-jazz music period!
Metallica
2/5
finally growing beyond leaning on the ride the lightning tracklist as a structural crutch, metallica proceeds to replace it with No Structure At All aside from "well we should probably space out a couple ballads in here." tbf im not sure if there Is a structure that would allow for a more flattering presentation of such one-note material...all big stompy riff rockers way more mid tempo than they arent. i never thought of metallica as a super good proggy band but that level of ambition at the v least ensures that theres always a variety of distinct ideas. if i found all this fun or exciting it would make up for all this ofc, i like plenty of one note fun records, but whether thru overplay or just my disinterest in mid tempo stompers its just a big shrug from me. on a lot of levels this is genuinely a kind of artistic progress, they probably could not have escalated on their current path beyond what and justice for all offered and so cutting open a new path that takes advantage of the fact that metallica's songwriting sense has always had some amount of populist rock star appeal even when hung on something ambitious makes a lot of sense, beyond what the Selling Out narrative would necessarily imply. still, the exchange was not worth it for me, and im not even a big metallica fan to begin with. i accidentally wished for something stephen sondheim related on this list, and the monkey's paw gave me the west side story interpolation on the no step on snek song
Guns N' Roses
1/5
despite all his theatrics axl rose remains one of the most disappointingly one-dimensional rock frontmen of note...he doesnt sound at home doing anything thats not annoying and offputting sleaze, and even then he truly does have one of the all time Worst Timbres Of Voice On A Human Being. the surrounding record is melodic enough to be rewarding if ur into the aesthetic goals, which i am not, once the novelty is gone theres like nothing here lol. white dude Urban Mythology is so empty, man. slash is close to a saving grace because i cant deny that he's fun, but he's most fun when he just sort of ignores the song and runs off to do his own thing...generally a fine combination of melodicism and technical flash from him but he leaves very very little impression on me after the fact. whether he needs better songs or a better band idk, but honestly maybe his limitation is just that outside a couple weird outliers (like the borderline jangle poppy flourishes on think about you), everything just sounds the same...he doesnt have the breadth of sonic/musical vocab that jimi hendrix or eddie van halen had. just kind of an empty album all around, one ive heard quite a few times in my life but that has failed to make a meaningful impression on me other than an annoyance that has grown stronger over time
The Streets
4/5
what the fuck man HFKJHSFJKFHS. much to think about...
ive heard the streets debut before but its been years, and nothing i vaguely remembered from it prepared me for the pure shock of Stubborn Aesthetic Displeasure that this is, borderline a novelty record in pure garishness. rigid, obvious, embarrassing, maybe a little bit genius? mike skinner deploys hip hop's musical language in a context that couldnt help but make him a kind of Pathetic Cosmic Fool even if that wasnt the character he's playing on most of these tracks. honestly the chemistry probably goes off as a little bit offensive,,,part of the "silly" contrast with hip hop culture is that its mundane and "relatable" (read: not black). that being said, the longer the album goes on the more it became unavoidable that it was winning me over HFJFHSJFSHJ its a really fugking weird concoction but ultimately the combination of Obviously Constructing A Character and Obviously Earnest Emotional Reality becomes more and more endearing and involving as i get over the initial novelty...and tbh i do think the album is constructed in a way that makes room for that experience, there really is an almost The Mollusk-esque arc to it. not rly one of my favorite new experiences of this project but certainly among the most purely memorable
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
some may say the album cover is more fit for free jazz than this record, and idk maybe theyre right but more likely theyre underestimating The Power Of The Swing....it exists all around us....it changed the world!!! tasty and awsom album, its hard to imagine a bad time to listen to something like this....swing (the genre) is not at the forefront of my musical vocabulary but swing (the concept/sensation) absolutely is so its clearly only a matter of time! the less energetic tracks here are also clearly golden cuts, tho im worse currently at parsing a big band/swing band than later types of jazz ensembles. but its as seasoned and gratifying as i could want from a guy who just Never Stopped Doing Big Band for decades and decades, just continually honing his craft and collaborators, and hey sometimes u get lil tastes of bebop and onwards too it aint totally backwards looking...fine fine work
Kate Bush
5/5
its hard to imagine at this point me being associated more strongly with any record more than this, my favorite ever for years and years, and even after it having technically being dethroned it still makes up some ineffable part of both my brain and my social imprint. honestly was a bit of a strange listen, the same way any listen is when ur navigating dozens and dozens of acquired impressions both listening to and thinking about the record. ultimately i might tentatively come to the conclusion that i, in fact, love this more than ever,,,or at the very least, my already wide appreciation has become deeper. the gigantic 80s drum sound that towers over side a of this record becomes the heartbeat of the universe, all the synths become the vapor and crystals of strange shape and material that will themselves into existence around it, and kate's voice (which almost certainly Is something that i love more than ever before) throws itself into the role of a human-sized perception of these massive physical and emotional mountain ranges. but the main attraction ofc is and has always been the ninth wave, which hit me so hard im still not sure ive entirely returned to my body...like any good Dream Art it playfully runs the line between literal and figurative imagery, and keeps it in flux so sometimes u turn ur head and then look back and its slightly different. it concerns itself with observing the outside world from an ephemeral distance, some transparent barrier between u and it, and tbh its just kind of difficult to imagine something that resonates with me more...the image fills me with both comfort and fear for a variety of personal reasons, ive identified it in many many things but scarcely is it fully evoked with such intentionality and a breadth of emotional reaction that matches my own. wherever this places in my revamped canon (not even discounting the possibility that the dreaming May overtake it tbh, the first time ive felt that possibility), there is something here that i cant replace with Anything, and i thank it for all its done for me
Common
4/5
longer, more dated (the pimp skit makes me a lot more uncomfortable than the f slur uses lol), and less potent in overall mood than Be, which i have to admit makes the overall package a bit worse and harder to get excited about, but as neat as peak-era kanye is, he's just got nothing on j dilla in the position of Most Prominent Beatmaker For An Album and that deffo makes me understand anyone who prefers this record. dilla's drum programming is the stuff of legends, and even beyond that this whole record musically is just exquisite and subtle and rewarding. they do frankly often outshine common's presence, but ultimately they work in tandem with his delivery being the anchor that allows the whole beat to reach its max musical potency. definitely still a couple hangups but man...a ton of this has my heart
The Cure
5/5
obviously ik this isnt the only multilayered music ever made where each layer is like this distinct and clear thing creating a Symphonic effect, maybe not even with this set of elements (i suppose the general sonic setup isnt entirely uncommon for post punk), but also fuck man, i kinda feel like nothing else sounds like this regardless. or at least nothing else produces the same effect...surreal but precise, intuitive but cold, nightmarishly sad but baroquely beautiful, falling apart but literally everything is in exactly the right place. idk. theres some chemistry between Clear Construction and Freeflowing Feeling here that at least right now feels unique. also just loaded with a bunch of songs that are Slightly the best song ever. cure discog dive from me Sometime im sure
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
5/5
since first hearing blood and chocolate via This Project it has grown on me to become a minor but memorable all-time fave....the chemistry between being emotionally unlistenable with a level of musical rawness thats just super comforting and inviting for me is unmatched by anything else ive ever heard. apply the same rubric to this record would probably lead to unnecessary disappointment, as its Fun Bouncy Music Undercutting The Worst Guy Youve Ever Met dynamic is a bit less personally vital lol. but i cant begrudge anyone who thinks the songwriting is even better...it bops, it bangs, sometimes it even Swings which is often sorely neglected by these quirky white boy rock music singer-songwriters. even the pastichey retro stylings feel of a piece with the misogynist character portraits, thats the 1950s baby! almost certainly one of the most fun records ever made lol
Patti Smith
5/5
the idea of something being Influential is often less interesting to me as the creation of specific ideas that are iterated on than it is as something that just kinda kicks open ur conception of what's even Possible...a blueprint to be filled in with ur own materials or endlessly futzed with until it becomes something even more new. obviously patti smith did this here for equal parts punks and bohemians, a pretty impressive crossection! rly rly great maybe even better than i remembered...what really leaps out at me this time is that the record feels intensely singular and personal despite the fact that patti almost never writes explicitly from her own perspective. she assumes the guise of multiple characters from books she likes, a lesbian in california, her own mother, and uh van morrison ig HFJFHS. every role she chooses to inhabit Does feel like it speaks to something about her...maybe only she can know for sure in some cases, but its still a rich feeling. and john cale/her band 100% killed it on the production/playing...the arrangements are effortlessly intuitive and emotive and create memorable Shapes to the songs that have made them stick in my brain for years and years without many traditional "hooks" at all. birdland was my fave back then and probably remains so...probably the best example of patti and the instruments around her naturally morphing to suit her words, creating this just ridiculously moving monolith of delirious unprocessed grief...appropriately makes me feel like im slowly ascending but never quite reaching what im going for, more about the fantasy of going up than being able to actually do it. p much every song is a coherent and memorable little Artsy Theatre Production in ur ears but thats always been the one thats stuck with me the most...tho man free money is rly fugking good too huh. and land. and kimberly. all of them HFJKHFSJK
David Bowie
5/5
sorta mentioned this way back when i got aladdin sane but its becoming even more clear that a hurdle ill have to overcome whenever i finally dedicate myself to a bowie run is how difficult i find it to conceptualize many of his records as Cohesive Projects yaknow. even ziggy stardust's rock opera ambitions took Ages to click in my head as more than a collection of songs, idk just a weird problem to have for such an album-oriented artist. again maybe if i had been super into bowie in my formative music period this wouldnt be an issue! anyway, i do have the same struggle with this record (even compared to the similar structure of eno's Before And After Science from the same year) but i also used to kinda bounce off the material itself believe it or not, am thrilled to report that is no longer the case!!! eno's arrangements are the main catalyst of course, he is rock music's great Sculptor and there is as much synesthetic bliss and Sounds That Sound Like Everything But Also Only Like Themselves as u could want. he and visconti assist bowie in hammering out these miniature songs where their enveloping sound qualities almost clash with how economic they are...plenty of places here id like to spend more time (i have a similar experience with eno's another green world). if anything tho it just emphasizes that this is a record meant to be played and sunk into repeatedly, and not just given a couple disinterested one-off listens as a teen and then given another one-off listen as part of a 1001 albums project. it seems v rewarding and i would not be shocked at all to see it skyrocketing even more in my estimation once i do my bowie dive proper
Michael Jackson
4/5
realized theres a sorta primordial mix of Order and Chaos in mj's music that possibly sits near the center of his pop music throne,,,obviously everything is very lavish and labored over and produced and u get those ridiculously tight grooves etc etc but theres still room for space found in it, for exclamations or vocal vamps or instrumentally stretched legs. nice observation to get out of this but i dont have as much to say about this record in specific lol its good! by necessity a lil less Timeless than the likes of off the wall or thriller , in particular because of ofc how important the contemporary Wider Perception of mj was to the whole conception, but its got as many classics as it needs and its nice to hear them with some deliberacy on headphones in an album context instead of as cultural white noise. didnt even realize how good man in the mirror was my whole life. there better be some janet records on this list too tho...
Wu-Tang Clan
5/5
recently i had a fixation on The Best Of Muddy Waters which rly is a collection of spaces that are filled Entirely with personality, its only just now occurring to me fsr that the genre that rly ran with that effect is hip hop and possibly nowhere more so than this album. every wu tang member is something like the idealized version of themselves on record, obviously not an uncommon thing in hip hop but the aesthetic coherency, sense of mythology and ofc variety in the roster have always left an imprint both on Me and obviously music history generally. rly is just pure formal pleasure and energy!! rza's production has also fully clicked for me, in part because ive been thinking a lot about jazz form recently LOL the sour spicy bits of his samples are rly compelling and (compared to later hip hop beats that more try to stand On Their Own) particularly important as a harmonic component, as if the verses on top are a bebop solo. odb and ghostface are my my faves :) inherently a lil exhausting ofc but still one of the best times u can have listening to a record probably!
David Bowie
5/5
not that u need me to tell u, but man, almost no album covers are better than this one. hits the mark between a big brainy point and Visceral Emotional Reaction perfectly. every moment of your life is enabled by every previous moment of your life. just masterfully done tbh!!
album is great too, kind of funny to get so close to my earlier bowie pontifications because while i similarly struggle to find an obvious throughline, that does feel illuminating here. made well after many assumed bowie was retired from mainline solo records, and ofc paired with the aforementioned album cover, it is a pretty inspiring shrine to being a Creative Maverick with too many ideas not to share. while maybe not as strictly inventive as the berlin material or whatever it has a lot of similar strengths, never could i call this resting on laurels or whatever. honestly just a full embrace of this brain-and-heart splattery approach bowie has is probably the thing thats in order for me. again, will take more than single casual cursory listens LMAO but yea we'll figure it out! v fun to hear a bowie in his mid-60s rock harder than just about any other point in his career, while also being fully capable of beautiful softer tracks as well. tons of great, textured, colorful music on here
Ravi Shankar
5/5
despite ravi's Very Helpful (and v pleasant to listen to) educational spoken interludes, i am not musically literate enough to rly follow the structures here outside of very very broad strokes (sometimes helpfully delineated by the presence/intensity of the percussion). still , tho im not anti-intellectual enough to assume i dont Need to learn more (id love to finally get some musical literacy in me) but i think my proclivities have always been set to hear music more as timbre than as structure (this rly is the explanation for me getting into free/avant garde jazz before i ever got into more accessible jazz lol), and its hard to beat these instruments in a timbre competition. not to downplay ofc the mastery with which theyre played...idk if this record's relatively low rym rating is because this isnt a particularly exemplary performance from shankar or because rym is bizarrely and irrationally allergic to spoken parts/interludes/whatever. but in either case i think everyone involved rips down the house!! tbh who even needs western harmony when everything sounds this rich to begin with. western harmony is a scam invented by composers to sell more chord progressions
The Temptations
4/5
late 60s soul is tbh kind of a blind spot for me, i have stronger impressions of the periods before and after. this record is an A side of really overtly post-psych motown updates (including a very strange heard it through the grapevine cover that i like a lot tbh), and B side of music that is not nearly as obviously out there but still a delight and i can definitely believe it indicates an uptick in ambition, or at least recording technology. honestly maybe remembered for slightly misleading reasons but im sure its hard to go wrong with temptations harmonies and motown melodies even on relatively forgotten records, this is pure delight in ways that dont need to be explained rly. aaaaaaaaaah! the temptations!!!
The Go-Betweens
5/5
maybe the most crushingly sad atmosphere on an album thats also perfectly capable of washing over u pleasantly. feel like every time i caught the lyrics they made the world feel a lil colder. i dont even wanna say its unproductive,,,the sentiments themselves are, but lots changes inbetween the page and the actual final piece of art, theres more to interface with the sentiments thru. the lush and melodic jangle pop on here is both a good compliment and a low-key complication of the utter disillusion with love, other people, and their ability to connect that is strung thruout this. if i ever catch this again in a genuinely sad mood it might just plunge me into the icy water, probably a bad idea but im sure ill still try it. maybe this is what the smiths sound like to the freaks who think the smiths are catchy!
George Michael
4/5
benefits immensely from the aesthetic and thematic cohesion built around like a prayer-esque religious sexuality, esp since this is the version for leather homos which is just slightly cooler...and its cool how much he actually commits to the bit and creates these little devotionals to self expression and transcendental pleasure and reaching some elemental part of urself. often more about grooves and vibes and iteration than big pop melodies but thats not a bad fit for this obviously! im not sure if its better than the other george micheal album i got ages ago but its more obvious coherency has left a stronger first impression, im sure ill think ab this sometimes
The Mothers Of Invention
5/5
zappa's ambitions for big concepts unfortunately were not always matched by his actual insights or aesthetic completeness, a fact made all the stranger by the fact that he p much nailed it right out of the gate HFJFSHFS. this isnt my favorite record of his but it's arguably the most compelling of his career in many many ways. frank comes in with a clear interest and affection for various types of pop music but cuts them all open to drain every last speck of warmth or optimism, using pop culture as a canvas to bring tumultuous 60s anxieties and hatreds to the forefront. in that way its more than just a subversion, its an act of released tension and catharsis via desecration. and ofc its near perfectly structured, with the bubbling seedy underbelly eventually taking over and turning the record's last few tracks into a chaotic subconscious sprawl. and somehow all of this is summarized in surprising depth by the title...freaking out is bringing something suppressed to the surface. ive talked before about how frank doesnt have the deepest worldview lol, and even at the best of times i have v little ideological interest in "exposing" popular art as an evil machine (i seek to understand its material circumstances but my view of art philosophy isnt compatible with caustic dismissal of the objects and their meaning), but this is surely his best ever cross between semi-traditional songwriting pleasures and an actually expressive and vibrant conceptual framework. its a drag being a rock.
Iron Maiden
5/5
actually my first time venturing into pre-number of the beast iron maiden, and while im not super interested in anachronistic comparisons i will say theyre tbh very recognizable, maybe even more so than i was led to believe! its marginally rougher and more DIY and inherently has some punk connections but its still straining for big grandiosity within those boundaries, soaring leads and chugging riffs and intricate steve harris basslines. iron maiden always rly cuts to the heart of metal's Escapist appeal, up to and including their extremely accessible hyper-melodicism. honestly its easy to imagine a different set of historical circumstances that puts some of their tracks in the walmart playlist instead of enter sandman. album itself is maybe not the most "distinct" thing all these decades later but its hard to fault the listening experience in any way!!!! bangs p much front to back, and the lack of being couched in bigger resources lends its own appeal...the best songs to ever torment u from ur neighbor's garage
Bob Dylan
5/5
u know i never rly think about how this is probably in contention for the album ive heard the most times? or at least the most consistently over the longest period of time, im just always circling back to it and it has spoken to absolutely every era of my taste from Fresh-Faced Classic Rocker to semi-eccentric weirdo to Whatever The Fuck Is Happening To Me Rn which seems to involve pushing in both of those directions way further than i ever have before. bob dylan in general has just kinda always remained one of the best artists, and despite my attempts to be cool this has remained my favorite album of his. somehow theres no album that sounds like this, and no two songs on this album rly sound the same so really there are no 14 songs that sound like these 14. theres something kind of impressionist ab this record between the strange and varied Folk Band arrangements and dylan's voice which at its most emotive AND most inscrutable somehow and ofc the lyrics which are about the same. on the whole dylan's liquid catalog and enigmatic persona provoke something in me even beyond other eclectic artists, just something about the near infinite multiplicity of self and what "self" even means when ur always becoming a slightly different being than u were a moment ago. the prisms dylan expresses himself thru include responses to developments in his life (his christian trilogy), outright pastiche (nashville skyline), outright autobiography (blood on the tracks), and sometimes even combinations of all three (self portrait i INSIST), but more than anything i love when he's wearing his bob dylan mask, something abstract and cryptic and "artificial", which then means u can control it and construct it and inhabit it and exercise ur autonomy over ur own existence, or something. love bob dylan and love this album of literally nonstop perfect songs covering just about every emotion in existence
Pixies
5/5
inherently a bit exhausting lol but its hard to find a more whole and satisfying record in the rock idiom, surely. songs are strung together first from Sounds...basslines, yelps, and releases of euphoria. theres something v transparent and comforting about the whole process while also allowing for incredible diversity (i cant imagine even Hypothetically getting any two of these songs confused for one another), AND just being gut-level exciting! one of the tracks being an Answer to a track on VU&nico feels fitting in ways i dont even rly know how to articulate, other than theyre both records that are inspiring because of how much space they reveal exists inside of perceived limitations. i'd kill for a nick cave-esque all tommorows parties cover by this era of pixies
Miles Davis
5/5
mayb my favorite miles at this point, but i need to give him a lot more time as i always kind of neglected him in favor of coltrane lol. but this is a perfect pair of tracks with unbelievable symmetry despite their lack of overt structure...shhhh peaceful winds up spacey tension for a longgg time in a way that kinda foreshadows pharaoh's dance, the ambient stylings treated with those beautifully spicy jazzy chords to create one of the most mysterious pieces of music im personally aware of. the title track then im only now realizing is one of my absolute favorite songs Period, bookended by a "theme" section so gorgeous it feels like the universe is opening its arms to me. in the middle , the harmonic ideas melt into something more straightforwardly beautiful and comforting, before an absolutely amazing cloudy groove slowly tightens the song to prepare for the unbelievably cathartic release back into the closing theme. incredibly rewarding album, immensely moving, its shooting way way up in my personal canon
Ghostface Killah
4/5
a notably late classic on the overall wu tang timeline, theres not even any rza production on this (tho with occasional material from j dilla and mf doom its hard to complain, not even considering the high quality of the whole project), tbh if anyone was gonna stay vital past wu tangs prime its not a surprise its ghostface. theres something rly cohesive ab this whole record, the skits sticking everything together and the different angles each track takes on a heightened self-portrait character study,,,its not like an album-wide story i dont think (tho obviously there are plenty of self-contained stories on it) but as u get deeper into the tracklist ur perspective on the whole changes a few times. just in general theres a good mix of self-mythology and vulnerability on here, definitely not in equal portions lol but the latter often (re)colors the former...some lyrics on Momma feel like theyre a reflective shift from Whip You With A Strap for example. im not rly sure how to articulate the overall effect but i feel it under my skin in the aftermath of the record...it can be humane or silly or cruel and theres this darkness bubbling underneath all of it but theres also these quiet embers bubbling underneath That. deffo a record to sit with, and also just rly engrossing with a lot of great production and a forward momentum thats actually Carried by the brief skits instead of being punctured by it. hope supreme clientele is on this godforsaken list lol i remember rly liking that one
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
5/5
water magic music...river stream energy...just teaming with life and i can see all thru it and its cleansing and man ghsjdghjsd this had a rly strong effect on me tbh. i do remember liking it years and years ago and i think since then ive only grown larger in my love of this kind of synthesizer. sealand is an absurdly good setpiece on which the whole record pivots, just so soaky and wonderful, and everything else is pop songs that are as economic as they are lush and ornate. a huge amount of emotion, desperation, and warmth soaks thru all of it. impressionist emotional landscapes...super glad to rediscover this
fIREHOSE
4/5
im at a great disadvantage here only having minimal experience with the minutemen discog, considering this is a sequel band consisting of the minutemen rhythm section and a fan who didnt want them to quit music. i can see the obvious connective tissue even with my minimal experience...it is a Great rhythm section, and the songs are short and zippy and varied and definitely meant to be assimilated and picked out over many more listens than the one im giving it this morning. i will say tho, in lieu of any commentary on an individual song (not that i do that very often anyway lol im too Cumulative Effectpilled) that this does strike me as excellently paced...or at the very least, this spread of songs has been very carefully ordered. theres never too much of anything at once...sometimes its riffier, sometimes funkier, sometimes more melodic, sometimes electric sometimes acoustic, tempos and rhythms and other base musical ideas all spread out in a v nice way. even the drum solo track comes in at exactly the right time!
5/5
i felt so much and yet im struggling with actual words. this is p much exactly how i think Guitar Music should sound, just an unbelievable production job on this...its not ornate or lavish, its still got some grit to it, but its so lush and beautiful in its sound and melodic ideas. ik pj harvey is a rly chameleonic artist (one that shamefully this was my first real sit-down listen with!) so i dont expect all her records to be the same way but regardless of what her other music is like i cant imagine a more appealing introduction for Me Specifically...just smooths out my ears and head and heart, the combination of mystical vibes and down to earthness evident in everything from its words to its timbres. one of my fave new listens in the whole project probably
Janet Jackson
5/5
got my wish! in wonderful amazing fashion! janet is 1000% one of the coolest performers and Presences in the history of popular music, and i think both the huge booming production (that still has wiggle room for actual pacing and stylistic variation) matches her here. im not sure how comprehensively successful the whole concept is LOL but tbh it does rly cut to something at the heart of pop music, which works in ideals and shorthand, its an underrated medium for utopian thinking. helps just how tight each soundscape wraps around u...tons of details but remains very readable and cohesive. just an obviously titanic effort!
Ute Lemper
4/5
a prolific stage and screen actress/singer from germany id never heard of in my life, presented on this list with what is essentially a more modern, more left-of-dial version of an old standards record, with some pre-existing songs and some new compositions from the extremely striking lineup listed on the cover. i think the two most distinctive parts of this (other than the general offbeat/artsy quality of the material itself) lead right into eachother...first is the arrangements by the divine comedy, which even for my standards can be a Lil Gloppy in their cabaret takes on the material but are always v distinctive. a lot more variety in instruments, volume, and style than ud maybe expect, and its just a lot More Arranged than ud expect from something thats supposed to be a vocal showcase. thankfully the second distinctive part is just how well lemper holds her own in this often bombastic soundscapes...without ever going overly loud or frantic herself she remains the clear center of the sound, her acting chops always take the dramatic lead. would tbh be difficult to get the impulse to listen to this all the way thru again lol it can be a Lot even for me w/ my very theatrical-friendly palate . but yea throw this in the collection of cool little music pockets id prob never encounter without this list!
The Stooges
5/5
its funny that all things being equal, the original run of the stooges went out on what is probably their simplest and least ambitious record, and in doing so leaps the furthest into the future to foretell the shape of rock music to come. my association with this is always that its a good record that is never quite as facemelting as search and destroy ever again and tbh maybe those tempered expectations just get me caught off guard because regardless of relative facemeltitude, it never rly stops. its prob extremely stupid to try to put words to this record at all lol but it is continually a delight in exactly the same way it is every time u listen to it. few records are sweatier!!!
Siouxsie And The Banshees
5/5
even being a wellspring for so much afterwards (predating unknown pleasures by a whole year), im Still not sure ive ever heard anything like this, or comparable to this vibe...more uncanny and scary than depressive, angular to the point of abrasiveness yet punkier than most post punk, frontwoman who can sound like an evil creature or a diva. seems to completely separate itself from human emotion, which achieves its own emotional quality. i appreciate the aesthetic singularity most of all, but the extremely textured and distinct musicianship (including the aforementioned frontwoman's singing) is what holds everything in place. embarrassingly my first exposure to this band lol but certainly wont be the last
Buck Owens
5/5
got utterly jumpscared by this man's face but this is actually my favorite country record ive gotten so far!!!!!!!!!!! great songs, Really great performances, surprisingly decent recording. there is a lil of that harsh mid 60s panning but at the v least the version on streaming was not crazy disorienting for me on most tracks, i was even impressed by a lot of the engineering id say. ive kinda not known how to judge backing bands on other country records but this one is clearly all aces, just tons of warmth and tightness and golden timbres. and despite him jumpscaring me, buck owens is always just such a nice welcoming presence, effortlessly friendly and generous. he does surprisingly varied things w/ this voice too, love the track where he leaps down into that low rumbly register. just wonderful!!!
Blur
3/5
unfortunately does not break my streak of midly enjoying but not rly Getting damon albarn projects. something ab the songwriting on his stuff tends to slip right off me...tho they at least tend to have some good soundscapes, i can appreciate the flirting with louder and scuzzier guitars thru this album. this record is situated in an interesting historical place, a high-pressure attempt to keep up the band's trajectory after a contentious last album, internal tensions, and britbop essentially dying. the style reorientation here seems v smart, and ultimately allowed the band to finally break through in america, but just Knowing The Information only helps me so much when im missing so much of the context. wish i had more to say about the actual experience of the record, but moderate pleasure (and admiration even moreso, its rare a desperate course correction was this obviously successful) that just kinda falls out of my hands afterwards is all ive got for now
Van Halen
5/5
i went thru the DLR run of van halen records semi recently and had a rly great time, the vast majority of them are basically equal in high quality to me which is kinda wild considering theyre all pretty different, or at least scratch different itches. the final record of this lineup is still so fresh and vital and forward-looking that it genuinely feels like it could have been a debut...just bright and buoyant and consistently full of energy. the synths are the main experiment but they dont actually appear on more than a couple tracks...yet the impression they make extends so high, they rly are just How Synths Are Supposed To Sound. it feels like in this period, eddie just woke up every day and accidentally coughed out a legendary riff or lick without even trying. an always reliable record, one of the platonic ideals of an anyplace anytime listen in terms of Fun Rock Music. the pencil innuendo is incomprehensible tho...
Joan Baez
4/5
unambiguous, uncomplicated, and undiluted in its pleasures....just a spread of traditional songs being sung by one of the v best folkies to ever do it. theres some good tonal breadth in the selections, and joan is both earthy and angelic esp in her immaculately clear vibrato, but for the most part trying to explain it feels stupid lol...just a v generous piece of wax, for its simplicity
The Yardbirds
3/5
technically not monotonous, theres clear and sometimes v creative track by track ideas here, but since i feel kinda distanced from this type of white boy british blues rock im not the best critter to find the potential vibrancy here. the recording and mixing is also genuinely atrocious, even for this scene at this time. that being said , lucky me for getting a clapton-less lineup of the yardbirds LOL, this one is all jeff beck who is definitely my favorite of the three major white boy british blues rockers to be incubated in the band. he pulls a very flowing, conversational style out of his instrument...he's not playing remotely in jazz idiom but theres some jazz appeal to him. he also doesn't rly repeat himself...sometimes his tone is more traditional, sometimes its scuzzier, sometimes he's light and fluffy and sometimes he's got grandiosity, sometimes he's a flurry of notes sometimes he just lets chords ring out sometimes he's incredibly melodic. sometimes several things at once in the space of a track or solo! it never rly feels like he relies on the same trick. he's the only major reason to listen to this but he's a good reason, i hope at least one of his solo records is on here
Sam Cooke
5/5
oh my fugking god man jkghdjkghsdjkhsdkjhgsdkj. if aliens asked what music is this is prob one of the first recordings u should show them. just godly godly godly...with some great performances u just stare up at the performer in awe but cooke makes u a participant whether u expect it or not, just goes Right into my fugking bloodstream and puts me on the stage on equal footing. the combination of clarity/precision and rawness/grit in his voice has prob never been matched by anyone ever, and the band just reconstructs the material on an atomic level to its boldest self possible. there is absolutely no barrier, no hold on the enthusiasm, no reservations, its just incredibly freeing and visceral. ive heard some exhausting albums in this project, most of which are much longer than this, and none of which are as satisfying...by the end i feel like theres just nothing more i can ask for, ive already heard everything ive ever needed to hear Ever
Megadeth
5/5
infuriatingly good as always, with the caveat that ive never managed to listen to the current remaster all the way thru hjsdg. its always been the original mix/recording for me...dave sounds actually kind of tolerable on there! and its just a solid presentation of whats p close to the most undeniable material in the genre. deffo an album that deserves to be described as Blinding...the speed, the brightness, the density. there may not be a more wildly universally entertaining album in the world of techy flashy metal...just the perfect mixture of potent tightness in playing and structure while also being wild and unpredictable...ideal ratios for thrills on thrills. a height of form for thrash fs,,,tho i prefer the aesthetic palpablity of reign in blood these days
Ananda Shankar
5/5
an extremely different and perhaps inherently less "respectable" presentation of indian music to a western audience than the ravi shanker album i got a while back...mapping the instrumental palate onto what is mostly western popular music structures, including two cover songs (from the rolling stones and the doors). the lengthy Sagar is the clearest nod to more traditional form, but even then it doesnt seem super crazy in a psych rock context (tho the genre was often v influenced by south asian music ofc). honestly i love this KGJGKG like to a kind of ridiculous degree. the bizarrely maligned covers are v interestingly arranged and set a great template for the other more western tracks, which with vocals and another arrangement style could have made up a beloved rock record all on their own, the melodies are sooooo quality!! and sagar is as beautiful and engrossing of a departure as i could ask for. ppl might whine about the v Existence of this music and theres prob not nothing to it but every part of this from the note on the cover to the clear effort to make the music as good as possible makes it feel sincere and even moving. and god its just great great nourishing music...underrated classic!!!
Robbie Williams
4/5
i might have gone into this knowing more about robbie williams had i not been going thru Pretty Bad Movie Burnout for many a month and therefore i have not watched the unjustifiably awesome looking monkey biopic. it wasnt necessary to enjoy this tho, this is tbh kind of awesome FHJSHJFHFSJ rather than pure smarm like can wear on me w/ a lot of britpop and adjacent, theres a lot of theatrics and big brash moves on here that rly hook me and make me feel like im actually listening 2 someone who cares about their music. great melodies all around too...rly solid combination of surprising and reassuring. the biggest pull tho is the production from guy chambers and steve power!!! just huge meaty power, super super fun to listen to. gotta be an all time great album cover too lol! i struggle to say much beyond just Listing Out The Traits like a boring book report FHJFSHSJF which is not usually what i wanna do but this just strikes me as obviously wonderfully good music with a lot of stadium power, yet slightly vulnerable all the same. im sure ill watch the monkey movie someday
Led Zeppelin
2/5
90 minutes of me desperately trying to just focus on jpj and bonham, who are cooking hard as always, doing their best to carry jimmy page retracting every creative thought he's ever had and a completely voice-lost robert plant giving what has to be the worst vocal performance on any acclaimed album ever. u can prob tell i still dont like this album at all FHJFSHJFS besides coda this is clearly the worst zepp record for me. that being said, i do Get the two records that follow this one up (presence and in through the out door) and the general approach of those albums starts here...not much songwriting at all even by led zepp standards, just using a song skeleton as an excuse for the playing and the vibes. its not a bad approach, and i retroactively see the vision here, but the actual material still does nothing for me unfortunately especially in such large quantities. fair play of them to end the album by immortalizing their own pedophilia lol
Frank Zappa
5/5
inevitably, the Zappa Album For People Who Don't Like Zappa is a tiny bit less enthralling to me as someone who tho far from being an expert has heard his discog up and down and has a lot of reluctant but deep attachment to his art. i didnt realize till this listen how like...Normal the melody palate on here is? obviously u get a few weird spicy parts but on the whole if ur comfortable with Rock Music this shouldnt be a hard listen, even if u dont have much experience with jazz! the improvised parts are not as overtly fusiony as the likes of waka jawaka or the grand wazoo, and the composed parts are not as modern classical-y as many of his other excursions. the "disappointment" of this record is that zappa's artistic personality at least to me feels a lil muted on here, ultimately. but that is ofc also the appeal...and besides which, the personality it does display is the personality of Hot Rats!!!!!!!!!!! very few albums in history have ever had more color, combining garishness and lushness into a low-key psychedelic palate that has all the expansive freedom without any of the hazy vagueness. its rly just incredibly lucid and disciplined the whole way thru, but if was anyone other than frank zappa there would be no possible way to perceive it as (relatively) uptight. honestly this has never been one of my personal top favorites of his records, but its one of those albums i cant ever imagine not sounding good, its just full of what Music Is For. and for ppl who's affection doesn't extend beyond this record, id recommend the more modern classical-style Burnt Weeny Sandwich...different appeal than hot rats, but still lacks zappa's reactionary/juvenile aspects, illustrates his non-rock composition tastes in more adventurous ways, and tho the tracklist is not wall-to-wall individual bangers like hot rats its more about the overall sequence and symmetry, seemingly throwaway pieces coming together into a greater whole that builds and releases tension beautifully :)
The Chemical Brothers
5/5
idk if this is actually "better" than dig your own hole but at the v least im more in the mood for the chemical brothers today then i necessarily was back when i got that record (tho i did still rly enjoy it)...kind of illustrates the perils of the random album setup lol but sometimes it just works out. this absolutely rules...definitely feels less Gritty than dig your own hole but it still has that deep sorta scuzzy physicality...and this one just goes all in on warmth, joy, peace, even impressionism w/ its psychy sample treatments, while still reaching way down into the gut for the strength of its bangers. would be an amazing album to take a walk to, which i deffo should sometime. something rly physically and emotionally vivacious here...a tactile watercolor symphony
Black Sabbath
5/5
another record in the Always Great In Exactly The Same Comfy And Reliable Way Every Single Time Over Years And Years Of Occasional Listening category. while most hyper-creative 60s bands often reveled in some kind of studio trickery or diverse pastiche or just A Lot Of Drugs, to escapist and idealistic ends, black sabbath despite their theatrics rly channeled their imagination in much more down-to-earth ways. every song is built around not just a melody or a riff or a lyric but clear Ideas that inform the total construction. even theoretically similar ideas are diversified extremely smartly...the title track and iron man could both be called Incessant and Hypnotic, but where the title track's repetition creates an almost modal experience where the riff and the vocal melody switch focus (creating that frantic Maddening experience perhaps!), on iron man the riff and the vocal melody are the Same, along with literally everything else, creating its own single-minded display of raw strength. the whole record is similarly evocative and thoughtful...and while the lyrics are v silly, there is enduringly something to how much tension and darkness of the times they have a genuine (if clumsy) interest in...in tone if not always in subject matter. not one of my personal fave fave records or anything but a wonderful demonstration that if a band is inventive enough to be accidentally inventing a new genre, their creativity is probably expressing itself in smaller but equally meaningful ways across the music itself
Jacques Brel
4/5
i am too tired and too About To Go To Work for me to rly give this record what its due even over the course of one cursory listen...IE actually look up a translation for the lyrics that are obviously central to the whole performance (and genre). that being said i still kinda loved listening to this LOL like the delivery is just far too vibrant to be ignored,,,not knowing what the words are doesnt stop me from having a variety of actual Reactions thruout that feel like they must be appropriate to the text. mostly humor....some lines are sung like the wittiest punchline in the world and that energy comes thru across language barriers. theres some energetic and moving moments too, and surprising deftness with the orchestrations. a v cool little slab of wax documenting what has to be one of the most memorable performers ive heard work in the medium of music
The Human League
4/5
between this, architecture and morality, and non-stop electric cabaret, v few genres have had a year as explosive as 1981 was for synthpop. this is my least fave of the three but its probably the most populist of them,,just lots of great songs but more than that lots of great Sounds, theres prob not more then two or three synth tones on this that i wasnt immediately in love with lol. tbh other than its insanely predictive elements (certainly more music copied this record then those other two) im not super interfacing with this as a vibrantly Singular piece of art but i cant rly quibble with the actual listening experience!
Peter Tosh
4/5
not that this is a fair comparison but this well-loved wailers member never quite manages the frontman gravity or lyrical power of bob marley, but tbf he's kind of going for a different thing! on the whole id say his approach reads a bit more impish, ironic, and provocative, even extending beyond the title track theres some interesting uses of tonal dissonance i wouldnt necessarily associate w/ reggae. on the whole im more given to marley's warmer, more pressingly earnest approach, but its cool that tosh isnt just a weaker copy. rly solid, semi lo-fi roots reggae besides all that...idk if its particularly Lush in timbre but its still v Rich in sound generally, which is what i always like to hear!! a nice and more playful supplement to the more fervently political music of the time and place
The Mamas & The Papas
5/5
many have essentially said that california dreamin is this record's greatest strength but the actual greatest strength is the only one the album (and band) rly needs, which is that Their Voices Sound Amazing Together. it would take more and more dedicated listens to rly pick out and remember the individual songs but the wall of the band's harmonies is an ecstatic, comforting experience no matter what the material is. and the material is rly good anyway....extremely pleasurable, occasionally perfect sunny melodic 60s pop that just sounds absolutely incredible. a record so warm it could keep u alive in the arctic all by itself
Sonic Youth
5/5
sonic youth has some Best Band In History energy. im woefully under-familiar with their music, or even the general career trajectory, but i can feel a few of the evolved threads from daydream nation. slightly sharper, harder, usually more Concise, more alt rocky, probably a more difficult record to fall asleep to lol. but almost excruciatingly beautiful all the same...more in focus and more Attainable in a way than DN's dreamy storm effect. and thats not to say it lacks for more stretched out and abstract moments either, id say Mote is the obvious highlight of the whole record for me. rn im not sure any band has better split the difference between Viscerally Enjoyable In Every Individual Moment and Creates An Effect So Much Bigger Than Itself In Totality. id prob fall down the full rabbit hole soon if i was any good at "listening to music"
Kanye West
3/5
some ppl have wondered (esp in hindsight) why this album cycle, which essentially functioned as kanye's apology tour to the american public, seemed to Work and earn so much goodwill when he didnt actually convincingly apologize for anything and, in fact, doubled down on his abrasive bravado. i suppose the obvious answer, one im not interested in denying, is that his skills and instincts for aesthetic and musical creation were still incredibly sharp and vibrant and surprising and original, and his penance might be partially served in simply Bestowing compelling art upon the public (especially since, with all due respect to yeezus/tlop, this is his last album to feel like it has his full attention and effort). but despite the over-expensive, over-labored, no-holds-barred grandiosity of this record, kanye has close to literally nothing to actually Say...every vaguely political point feels undone by his history of incoherent contrarianism (and antiblackness!), every hedonistic indulgence feels bog-standard, and the self-deprecation...ik im partly filtering this thru the knowledge that he Did Not Improve, but even at the time this should be instantly recognizable to anyone who's ever had their abuser plead with them to stay. if i find anything still compelling in this record in my own sentiments, its certainly that sickly feeling...not well explored or resolved but the emotion is potent, and i think emotions in art are self-justifying. in general, i dont think i can say i do or will ever dislike this record, of which i have every note memorized. but its hard not to think that kanye's blank spaces were filled in subconsciously by a culture that defends, celebrates, and mythologizes monsters...he didnt need to say anything, he didnt actually need to buy back any goodwill at all, he was always going to be taken back. and aside from a couple surges of feeling, i cant say its very interesting or compelling anymore once u realize this is how the world operates every single day
David Bowie
5/5
maybe the most moving non-blackstar bowie experience for me...the raw desperation that glues together everything here is hidden enough to feel a little shameful but So Huge that the attempt to hide it is futile. extremely lost, clawing album, creates these big soups of endless grooves and feels around them for the answers to the universe. in experiential terms this means that the album goes Incredibly Hard, one of bowie's best-ever bands takes what could be very vague and aimless musical ideas and turns them into sharp hypnotizing fireworks. yet the non-bangers have my heart the most, little eyes in the storm where bowie just melts into a kind of dark beauty and comforting self-delusion that can only happen when ur at rock bottom in ur life. word on a wing has always been one of my pet Very Favorite bowie tracks. great album, has often been my fave bowie but as ive said like fifty times before i need to do a full dive still!
Deerhunter
4/5
aesthetically v cryptic particularly on a first listen but the tracklist rly seems to come more and more into focus as it advances. i like the motif of references to Memory and Remembrance because thats often what navigating this feels like...great balance here between the atmospheric hazes and the emotive melodies. feels like a record that should b changing people's brain chemistry when they find it at just the right time in their lives, tho to what im not sure. but certainly a lot of great songs, imaginatively arranged both in literal arrangement and in the involving and changing shape of the tracklist
The Libertines
4/5
kind of like a much sloppier, slightly more eccentric, more br*tish outgrowth of the strokes. one of the great things about is this it is that its not only a masterpiece but it makes the Creation of a masterpiece feel Attainable..dont need great production value, dont need super flashy techy skill, just need sincerely felt catchy songs channeling your eunni of choice. ofc its easier to identify the parts than actually making something more than the sum of them, and ultimately this is the kind of thing where the all-time great acclaim feels like a strange fleeting blip on the radar of music history. but i cant pretend i didnt have a great time tbh lol...still v catchy, full of little individual ideas to distinguish each song (not the most memorable with just one listen but the level of effort is clear), and the barely-hung-together slapdash nature of it Is a distinguishing factor...it feels rushed, but not necessarily Lazy to my ears, theres identifiable emotion at the heart of every slurred delivery and raggedy instrumental line. ultimately the kind of album that makes it easy to make fun of the 1001 books but i calls em like i sees em if i enjoy the music!
Ray Charles
4/5
i suppose having the A side be All firey swinging pop songs and having the B side be All silky orchestrated ballads counts as impressively Intentional album construction in 1959 but its fairly wonky as a listening experience for obvious reasons. otherwise uhhhh cant rly fault this HFJFHSJSF ray charles was a rare combination of a once-in-a-lifetime creative innovator and a once-in-a-liftime magnetic and multifaceted capital p Performer. this record shows him venturing into songbook-style pop with a ton of verve...despite the unideal listening experience i love both halves almost equally somehow. A side btw features arrangements by quincy fucking jones, which kind of illustrates ray's boundryless approach to music...he didnt totally leave jazz behind for greener commercial pastures, he just reconfigured it into a new series of strengths. should be no surprise that despite the huge arrangements, his piano always rings out the most powerfully. the record on the whole feels like a minor miracle, but the more i think about it perhaps its a major one instead...
AC/DC
4/5
there is perhaps no brighter example of the fact that ppl's articulated opinions on art are not necessarily a 100% consistent barometer for their actual visceral perception of the universe then the fact that i rly enjoyed this lol. and rly just the fact that, in general, for a variety of contradictory reasons based on my own attempts at articulation, i have Never had an anti-ac/dc period. im not sure i can do any guesswork as to why that wont seem embarrassingly date/off the mark in the couple years like the last few times i tried to explain myself FSFHJSFHJ but this Is the first time ive actually sat down with a record of theirs in full (the fact that ive heard every fugking deep cut on back in black get radio play doesn't count!) so my Sustained Enjoyment across more than just some comfortably nostalgic singles does imply that there is some underlying enabling factor between me and them...certainly for this period it's bon scott, who carries none of the reservations i sometimes have about brian johnson and just in general kind of illustrates all the little idiosyncrasies of their monolithic personality as a band...grimey, precise, earthy, confident, affable, performatively nasty in the most obviously harmless way possible. definitely feels like hanging out with a Specific Kind Of Person who u know well enough to have that bubble of safety over every dumb tasteless thing they say. and despite my general lack of aptitude for mid tempo stompers, it rly does speak to the young brothers that every same-sounding riff and anthemic chorus and song structure they slap together still tickles my ears in a perfectly enjoyable way, they have their formula down to a science and its hard for it to feel lazy when they just genuinely seem to get something out of it every single time. one of my previous Bad Guesses at why i liked ac/dc was that they "dont take themselves too seriously", i think its more that there's a strangely vulnerable quality to the entire enterprise, so many easily mockable or dismissable things inherent to their whole thing, and they are just so confident in it that they never miss a beat or feel beholden to any kind of outside pressure. its kind of comforting! im sure ill enjoy back in black too when it pops up
The Electric Prunes
4/5
poppy american psych rock who's main strength is just, rly rly strong and economical songs actually HFJFSHJFSH. i kinda miss the noddling and heavy indulgences of other similar records but it does make this record v distinct. theres also just in general a gritter, grimer, sometimes outright dark edge that kind of cuts thru the Whimsy inherent to the style...its not the velvets or anything but its a more than solid Seedy Underbelly type of record. v enjoyable album, didnt blow my mind but every song hit with a relatively equal amount of mental clarity which is a minor feat of pacing and delivering raw musical information
Le Tigre
4/5
v fun and characterful lil album, often has more in common with 90s twee pop than it necessarily does with bikini kill but obviously its the Coexistence Of Both that defines the record. definitely something for me 2 appreciate as a fan of aesthetic garishness/tastelessness as a method of Art Iconoclasm beyond just regular "aggression". if u ask me if that extends to their hillary clinton song i will enter my second phase and hit u w/ a whole new series of combos. i liek that this band spells "yr" like i do :)
Fats Domino
4/5
of all the proto-rockers ive heard, fats domino might exude the most warmth with the least effort...a steady and humble but still incredibly gravitacious presence the likes of which u just dont see v often in any era, plopped right into the bridge between rnb and rock n roll. was also delightful to find out that his songwriting is all over this collection...not because its a requirement, certainly not in this style and this period, but just cuz it feels like an extra mile of involvement and expression. rly this whole thing is just Pure Personality, itz incredibly hard to imagine not enjoying it!
UB40
3/5
like most ppl, i know this band for Genuinely Abhorrent covers of classic songs that amount to reggae novelty tracks, so this decently respectable and incredibly politically charged debut was certainly a trip to learn about. im not totally convinced of it still tbh...its too long, and while this Cold And Cryptic mood that drags reggae thru the thatcher administration is kinda cool i ultimately have to be boring and say i prefer the richer and warmer and more culturally rich protest stylings of much jamacian reggae. still, there is an aesthetic to it, its all respectably played and presented (sans maybe some corny saxophone tone but i dont mind that), and theres as far as i can tell a surprisingly dense history of reggae crossing over to br*ton...im not one to speak on it, but apparently its not As garishly appropriative as it initially sounds. UB40's later hits notwithstanding i suppose. i wonder when i'll get the clash on this project!
John Lennon
5/5
ppl who have talked to me ab the beatles or read my entry for Imagine many many many albums back may detect a hint of, uh, Wanting To Be Slightly More Contrarian About John Lennon Than I Actually Am Lol??? and tbh i think part of that instinct is falling into my own personal version of the taste politics that once championed him while thrashing paul mccartney, and the overall worth of that angle is Not Much. still, one of the clearest differences between the two is that paul is a real Musician's Musician, extremely into music for its own sake. john, certainly in his solo career, has obviously strong musical instincts but is more interested in curating them around a specific End that is different than some pure formal expression. obviously the results are mixed (given some of his Protest Efforts) but if the stars lined up exactly right for him just once, i guess it had to be here...a little record of emotionally irresolvable therapy, where the gut-level appeal of Rock N Roll is shaved down to its barest minimum and deployed as hypnosis. it is well and truly difficult not to feel Something, certainly with my psychological background...the efforts to cut through all the noise and all the baggage and achieve some kind of clarity that never comes. it was worth a shot ig. its no ram tho!!! pls tell me ram is on this list!!!!
Throwing Muses
4/5
an extremely clear post-siouxsie record, but with a more recognizably emotive indie rock flavor. i didnt rly pay attention to the lyrics which seem manic and strange, but i did fall every time for the trick where a more angular aggressive song gives way to a verse or bridge or just some one-off section that is soft and melodic and soul-baring. i do think the overall sound of this is like not the most exciting thing to me...maybe the siouxsie debut, which came much earlier and remains much more aesthetically disorienting/vivid kind of spoiled me lol, this sometimes plays less like a best of both worlds and more like slightly reheated leftovers...but honestly that could just be the result of only giving a cursory listen, thats always something i try 2 remember w/ this still project ghjsdhgjsd. good album! made me wonder if literally any drugs would work for whatevers wrong with me!
Pixies
4/5
my first listen fsr lol, ig i just never felt the urgency with this one? but man its rly good huh FHJSHJFS. far less on the manic Attack than the previous two LPs, i thought maybe this was something like Mellower Pixies but its more like Dreamier Pixies...a bit more impressionist, a bit more unsure, fewer layers of abstraction inbetween u and the beauty at the heart of many of their tracks. a v interesting penultimate swing for their initial run all things considered and honestly just as loaded with front to back great Ideas For Songs as ive ever heard from them! some v enchanting cuts on here
The Avalanches
5/5
basically the perfect combination of Having Already Listened Numerous Times and Been A Long Long Long Long Long Time Since I Last Heard for an ideal comfort revisit in the context of this project. and honestly given that i have been so fugking exhausted from work recently im gonna let myself off light here, u prob dont need me to explain why this is a good record lol. but i dont wanna waste this space so here's a few observations: (1) i forgot this record was a full hour long, i always remembered it as shorter. prob a function of the extremely melty tracklist? (2) ive always found this record very comforting but im only now realizing that idk how i would exactly precisely describe my emotional reaction to it. ig its bittersweet? maybe its the calm after the storm? or just a Too Brief eye in it? (3) an effect i often get from plunderphonics is a Dizzy one, like im falling thru an alice in wonderland rabbithole constructed of samples and i cant see the bottom and cant see the top. i dont rly feel that with this record??? maybe its the familiarity? maybe the dancey focus provides some grounding? (4) this might be an unpopular opinion, but that boy needs therapy
Billy Joel
5/5
the second side definitely gets a lil less precise/ambitious, tho i like it v much anyway. the A side tho is p much perfect...wall to wall literary, intricate, dense, and yet entirely approachable bangers. joel's melody and harmony instincts at their best are the perfect combination of Rich and Unpredictable and Entirely Digestible, a kind of populist artsiness that v few non-beatle non-pink floyd superstars have managed in their lifetime. im p sure my dad loves this album. not sure i forgive joel Entirely for uptown girl but this is a good argument!!
Michael Jackson
5/5
THE imperial pop album to end all others ofc, which is making me realize i need to do some more conscious thinking ab the whole concept, it scratches my historical brain to think about how artists successfully Meet The Moment (or even more interestingly, *create* the moment). my articulation for Bad where i proposed the appeal of MJ's music lies in the mix of Perfectionist Order and carefully deployed (or at even Simulated) looseness rings even more vividly here, and its hard to imagine that any of his other records or maybe even any other records Period nail it in quite the same way. for how terrifyingly Exact everything is, it rly does never feel cold or stiff, i kinda dont even know how he did it ghjsdghjsd. most obvious culprit tho is his expressiveness as a singer...i thought rly intently this time about how many MJ hooks are often iconic more for how he delivers them than the melodic content on its own, u cant mention them casually without imitating his inflections. i Think im pro-the girl is mine. i rly rly rly like that the title track on the biggest album ever and one of the most famous songs in history details something as mundane as taking ur date to a horror movie as an excuse 2 physically comfort them
The Kinks
4/5
not rly astounding to me as an album but kind of astounding as an outpouring of Creativity on the part of ray, who throws out a bunch of varied and compelling character sketches in a way that makes the whole record feel like it has great Worldbuilding. but tbh outside of a few songs im not quite sure it has the Sonic Chops for me to fully say that...the melodies r bouncy and genial but maybe a tad underdeveloped when deployed across the actual song structures, and the arrangements have some rly strong moments but on the whole i think village green nails a Vivid Cohesive Vibe more. still this is a cool step in quirky, literary pop music, definitely a lot of roots for indie and singer/songwriter stuff on here. im sure Someday ill be head over heels for a kinks record but i aint heard a bad one yet
Bert Jansch
5/5
a HUGE missing link in my knowledge...mystical, starry, fingerpicky folk thats got some blues and jazz in the pot. a clear point of reference to so many future musicians its kinda crazy i didnt rly know anything ab him other than the name until just today ghjsdghjsd...theres deffo no nick drake without this guy and thats extremely Personally Vital. the strange and emotive lyrics are a highlight, but theres a reason why theres so many instrumentals...hearing him play rly is just that mesmerizing, and he's got a deep bag of technical and melodic tricks that make it feel like he's never repeating himself. honestly a little bit the best music ever made ghsjdshdj it just feels culturally rich and entirely personal and magical and earthy and calming and exhilarating and just ghjsdghjsd man. moments like this are why ive never even once felt the desire to stop doing this project thus far lol,
50 Cent
4/5
unfortunately i dont rly have an Overall Take on this thats v interesting or that divergent from consensus...very catchy, too long, mostly fun, still kind of the ultimate measuring stick for mainstream gangsta rap records of this decade to be placed in some kind of relation to. i think i just have to jot down some disconnected observations again lol sorry for struggling 2 write a decent overall takeaway for a lot of these records recently! (1) this is obviously not the most lyrically diverse record in the world lol but it does i think deserve a bit more credit for the variety of samples and instruments it strings together on the beats, i dont think it ever feels suffocatingly monotonous musically which makes the bloated runtime go down a lot smoother than would otherwise be the case (2) outside a handful of features this is mostly 50 cent by himself, and that actually does feel like a rly distinguishing part of the record. theres not even a lot of vocal samples! in particular, just about every hook is handled by him, which is v confident and he handles them v well...it helps give the album a lot of character (3) i absolutely love big dramatic string samples on 2000s rap records
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
the Smokiest wailers record of the ones ive heard..its hard to split the difference between a lot of these albums ofc but there just always seems to be a few more layers of abstraction on here, at least musically. lots of v engrossing layers and little details too! honestly in a weird way this is harder for me to just Melt into than catch a fire, but thats not too much of a complaint cuz this is also one of the most song-oriented wailers records ive heard. ive only heard ab half of the Classic stretch of the wailers from 1973 to bob marley's death in 1981 , im hoping a few more of them will pop up so i have an excuse to hear them! of the ones ive heard this is Maybe my second fave ? idk FHJFSHJ u rly cant go wrong w/ this stretch im sure
Venom
5/5
kind of shocked by the relative apathy a lot of ppl seem to hold for this! obviously this sows the seeds of extreme metal w/ the lofi sound and the earnestly Evil aesthetic and the running w/ the hardest fastest edge of NWOBHM's fringes, but it hasnt quite crossed over and thus its fundamental appeals lie almost entirely in heavy metal. there is still a clarity of direction and a tunefulness that has yet to be stripped down to pure riffs and vibes, yet in a way that still represents a leap forward in abrasiveness and aggression (as opposed to say, later meloblack, which is a conscious de-escalation). short and sweet, extremely fun! dont know whats not to love tbh
Butthole Surfers
5/5
almost nothing in music writing will make u feel more like a dumbass than trying to put down words about a butthole surfers record, because its made of so many evocative parts and yet what are u supposed to even say about it. ig ill just say that part of the draw is that even compared to other artists theyre compared to, this album just constantly refuses to bother making recognizable Songs...not to litigate the definition of a song, but there's a different feeling between the relatively fully formed classic Human Cannonball and all the tracks where they find one riff or silly noise that they have fun making and just do that until it gets boring, which they clearly have a very low threshold for FHJSFHJSF. it rly is a record of far more Indulgence then the most outsized prog epics could ever be...no pretensions towards what the end product will even look like or how it will come across to people who are not the present tense Them. its hard not 2 have a good time!
Keith Jarrett
5/5
a solo piano performance that combines (post) minimalism with jazz harmonic ideas is basically something plucked right from my imagination and i have to stand in awe of its reality. i will listen to this many more times, but for as many Landmarks as there are (including more impressionist sections, sections that pull more directly from the language of western popular music, more minimal sections and more overwhelming sections) i can tell i want this to be as un-navigable for as many listens as i can, so the best parts can surprise me every time. u will be unsurprised to learn that several progression and vamps, sometimes fleeting ones, moved me almost to tears. maybe the final answer for What Is Music Supposed To Sound Like
John Grant
5/5
i did not superrr follow the lyrics apart from the tracks that unavoidably grab ur attention like silver platter club and god hates faggots, but even just those feel like enough to give me a vivid picture of the type of queer experience being depicted here...intensely aware of its own vulnerability and protecting itself partly under the guise of a clown, which also just makes the world easier to swallow in general. even without that tho, this is one of the most effortlessly wonderful singer songwriter records ive heard of any description...every melody feels inevitable, every decision is so specific and confident that it makes me feel like im listening to an unassailable classic. ig its not in the eyes of the music nerd consensus for whatever reason (the rym rating is good but seems low for how easy this is to like tbh) but certainly something im glad is included on this silly list!!!
Donald Fagen
5/5
downright saccharine by One Of The Masterminds Behind Steely Dan standards! impartially im fully aware that this probably makes the record less distinct and specific, but to no one's surprise it also makes it a bit more inherently to my own tastes...and honestly knowledge of steely dan writ large doesnt even undercut the sweet uncomplicated optimism, it feels like a conscious break from the norm or even an aspirational character of sorts being played by fagen (esp because he does have some amount of causticness just inherently in the timbre of his voice). i hear some of my own moments of mental and social oasis all thru this uninnovative but very cozy and easily lovable record...im not sure if id end up preferring this to steely dan on the whole, but id likely be in the mood for it more frequently!
Arrested Development
1/5
look obviously im a little out of my depth here but while im all for idealism, it doesn't surprise me that the afrocentrism Moment in pop culture was as fleeting as it was if it was as much about erasing contemporary black culture as this album implies it was lol. speech loves pointing out that black culture is defined by oppression but his solution on here is a flimsy (and often highkey conservative) escapism that just kind of erases the full breadth of past and present white supremacy. identity-policing tracks like people everyday all but flat-out blame individual people for being victims of antiblackness because of how they present themselves to white culture, like be so fr man. i like some of the beats on here but man i truly cant abide speech lmao. his performative nonthreatening "positivity" vibe does not mix well with his famous condescension, and like its not even like he's wrong sometimes but there is an utter lack of gravity that makes it seem like he doesnt even understand the seriousness of the things he's high and mighty about, again because he mostly seems to conceive of everything as an individual choice. at least this isnt the album w/ the abortion song lmao
Stevie Wonder
5/5
i recall (but am too lazy to check) a potentially apocryphal quote from stevie where he said that innervisions is his best album and talking book is his best collection of songs. regardless of whether its a real quote i do think it hits on somethin! this does not feel as inevitably paced and constructed as innverisions or sitkol, instead the momentum is carried by the fact that every track is a new masterpiece or close to it. this one is particularly ballad-heavy, an ideal match for peak stevie's strengths and producing a bunch of tracks that just make me melt. that it also happens to have superstition, one of the most visceral funk stompers of all time, is almost unreal. stevie makes v comforting music on the whole ofc, but it would be difficult to find a record even from him that creates this much of an unbreakable bubble of contentment
Lou Reed
5/5
great tunes from the Great Tunesmith of countercultural weirdos. the vague skeleton of 50s rock and pop that pop up in songs on VU&N like im waiting for my man rly feels like it comes back in technicolor for the full bowie/ronson production. aside from the catchiness, lou can also be disarmingly emotionally readable when he wants to...he seems like such an obvious pop master (albeit left of the dial) on this record that it makes me wonder if i actually even have a grasp on his avant garde instincts...ig id need to hear more of his solo stuff, see if i can trace any of the most out-there velvets moments to someone other than the obvious john cale? unless he just decided to make lulu out of nowhere in a few decades. anyway, front to back great songs, only a relative lack of my ability to conceptualize the record beyond the coherent sound of its production sessions holds it back if at all
Brian Eno
5/5
im almost kinda surprised this record as as widely loved as it is when i sit back and think ab it. in what way are u even supposed to Absorb this ...theres a couple more straightforward pop song structures here but eno often applies the same economy to the impressionist/ambient pieces in a way that it kinda feels like only He did (the bowie berlin suites are similar ofc). many tracks on here feel like places that future artists would let u stay in far longer...everything here is so fleeting. ig it drives home that eno's innovations were springboarded off of previously existing types of music...textured sketches in the same length and rhetorical presentation as a pop/rock song. its as good a reason as any to come back to the album repeatedly, anyway. i think ive said it before, but eno rly is the king of sounds that sound Like Themselves. also this is just the cutest album ever fsr...a mental toybox, spaces to run and roll around in, trees to climb, lakes to swim in, and this strange sheen over all of it that reminds me of a timid first-time confession of love
Portishead
5/5
the atmosphere on this record is v easy to describe but my emotional response to it has always been a lot trickier. im sure theres Something...surely to the stinging swell i feel every time i reach Roads. which perhaps hits so hard because the rest of the album seems to come at u w/ such carefully hidden intentions. maybe the record is less about The Night and more about The Stranger u meet in the night, who could change ur whole life, tho to what end its hard to tell. both directions seem v compelling and supported by the aesthetic of the record in different vibrant ways. lil bit the coolest album ever
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
idk if this remains my fave wailers album cuz it was the first one ive heard and it kicked my head open, but theres something ab the sound that continues to fill my ears in the most pleasing way...and while all marley's music is some of the most passionate ever made, theres something particularly felt for me here in both the political songs and the love songs. particularly in how they go together...i love the depiction of human feeling and life and how it Goes On despite a world so incompatible with and unaccommodating of it. maybe my fave mix between v punchy and tuneful songs that also have the ability to stretch and soak in a way that never gets old and feels natural, at least of the wailers records ive heard. theres rly never a bad time to listen to this!
Bad Company
3/5
obviously kind of mid/generic but grew on me more than i expected. theres some nice flourishes here (even some surprise sax parts) and paul rodgers has a great earthy voice for this kind of thing...im not the one to ask ab Mid Tempo Stompy Rock Songs but theres at least a lil bit of grit and glitter on these ones, which is a fine bar to clear for me. still not often i have this little to say ab one of these albums!
Cee Lo Green
4/5
back to back albums i kinda dont understand the inclusion of given the lists' own supposed methodology/goals, but that rly surprised me with how much i like them...this one way more so ! most of this is rly blissful, buttery, sunshiney southern hip hop with a big soul angle carried by cee-los rly memorable and powerful voice. the tracks that are just him doing his soul singer thing r extremely beautiful, and the production is p much all golden as far as im concerned (tho my sentiments lie v much w/ southern hip hop anyway). particularly interesting is a late-album set of "nighttime" tracks that are more dark and dangerous and dirty and prob some other words that start with D...a nice show of variety for an album that otherwise is all about smooth edges. the warm bop My Kind Of People, interestingly abstract braggadocio of I Am Selling Soul (with a killer beat switch), and staunch grittiness of Scrap Metal are particular highlights for me...not often i go out of my way to name individual tracks, whew! kind of an underappreciated classic tbh!! pure enjoyability!!!
Nick Drake
5/5
i mean just the best album ever obviously, and not even my current fave nick drake album (tho it has been!). i think something that particularly hit me this time, something not quite captured in the more stylistically cohesive followups, is the range of influences in the pot here...multiple kinds of folk, blues, jazz, arrangement ideas that include congas and cellos and vibraphone...theres a kind of raw creativity here thats in a more primordial form than the more focused statements of bryter layter and pink moon. in a way this is the least album-y of the three, which is perhaps why it didnt hold onto my Top Favorite slot, but the material is unassailable and benefits entirely from the variety of low-key colors it draws from. drake is certainly in contention for my favorite guitar player ever...nobody Sparkles in my ear in quite the same way he does,,,just like no one sings or writes songs like he does. despite becoming more familiar with both his forebearers and ppl who tried to pick up his torch, his irreplacability only becomes more obvious. ill be sad when i roll pink moon, im not ready for his presence in this project to be over
Aerosmith
3/5
its almost kind of a relief to confirm that aerosmith are indeed, or certainly were at this point, a WEIRD weird band. their approach here is extremely dense and hyperactive and exhausting, with a sort of fidgety twitchy energy even in the less traditionally rocky songs...essentially led zepplin 2 overclocked to the point of exploding. for a 48 minute record this style is rly pushing it for me personally...im not sure the musical information itself is rich enough to carry me thru such a battering (tho i think they are at least trying), esp with their whole hard rock self-aggrandizing horny rancid vibes...more than being offputting, im not sure theres anything actually interesting in it. all of this also kinda ties into steven tyler and like. i dont know if i like him as a performer tbh but he's certainly memorable, and perhaps everything has to be this overly pronounced just be heard over him. this is definitely not for me in aesthetic or listening experience, but it doesnt contain any of the aerosmith singles that i hate (the previous album contains most of those) and i do have a respect for its wild frenzy , this aint no boring mid tempo stompy hard rock. i even embarrassingly kind of like what it takes...the aforementioned ingredients lend an interesting chemical composition to ballady tracks
Ice Cube
4/5
prob not gonna change my life but one of the v few albums that has made me laugh out loud. in public too!! hope no one else in the taco bell was paying attention. the fact that this happened on an album that also features both halves of public enemy featured on separate tracks kinda illustrates the breadth of ice cube's appeal certainly in this era...translating the near-invention (or at least first Perfection) of the gangsta persona in hip hop into equal parts proactive anger and absurd disarming humor. production also goes ridiculous, always a highlight even on the weaker tracks. and some of the best skit implementation ive ever heard on a hip hop record too! theyre memorable, snappy, and feel surprisingly natural...seems weird to even put them in the same category as aimless studio banter
The Who
3/5
rly weird to think about, or try to talk about, because in many ways this doesnt feel like an album to me at all, and it kinda isnt! its the gutted remains of a far more ambitious project. the actual material is mostly fine...ive never liked the two famous tracks that close it out but everything else ranges from moderately pleasurable to baba o riley, one of the overplayed radio staples ive never felt like ive heard Enough Times. in general i think this is prob the closest that the who came to bridging their ambitious but somewhat sterile studio material with the big raw power they could manage live, and it makes sense as a totemic inflection point in that way. but on the other hand idk, this doesnt hang together v well for me and never rly has, because albums are more to me than just song quality. like i dont like tommy, but i dont think it would be rly improved if u gutted the concept and just pared it down to its most agreeable songs...it kinda has to be what it Is, and i think this is sorta the same way. i might not have loved lighthouse, but its a shame this exists instead of it, yaknow
The Lemonheads
4/5
another album im not sure i rly understand the inclusion of for this lists goals but. fsr it kind of made me emotional ghjsg. maybe i just havent heard this kind of music in a while and it v intrinsically feels like one of my home bases, so its just a long-dormant itch being soothed. in any case its clearly quality power pop, theres something so distinct about it that i just cant put my finger on...somewhere between the songwriting sensibilities (very economic) and arrangement sensibilities (making everything sound much bigger than the track lengths would imply, maybe evan dando's slightly weird vocals too. idk. great album, tho for such a short record i wish the songs were a bitttt more consistent...but the sound rules and the highs are transcendental
Julian Cope
4/5
obviously i have stumbled into a genuine maverick here, previously unknown to me, and who's history is too complicated for me to immediately grasp and summarize. still all things point to this being his moment of full Arrival as an artist following entirely their own muse, and if its not quite a masterpiece for me on one casual listen i can imagine it will stick with me a lot...prob too long and some of the more overtly pastichey moments make me roll my eyes, but i have to respect something this self-indulgent because i respect self-indulgence in general. a strong melodic sensibility (almost folky?) and what feels to me like a sour and disillusioned emotional thread do a rly good job holding together most of the material, very song-oriented and style-ambiguous enough to remind me of everything from R.E.M. to frank zappa, at varying points. idk when ill return to this, or this massive discography, but i can certainly imagine both being v rewarding
Jane Weaver
4/5
and so this last hundred ends 3 for 3 with shit ive never heard of in my life ghjsdg. this is awsom tho, prob my fave of them as long as im arbitrarily grouping them together. calls on a lot of traditions (art pop, neopsych, space rock, krautrock) but honestly i dont think ive ever heard something at quite this intersection or with quite this effect...honestly it doesnt feel overly indebted to the past at all, it feels very naturally and earnestly created...kind of timeless. and just absurdly great songs front to back imo,,,and many different Sound Itches being scratched from blips to bubbles to hazes and anything else u can get out of a synth arpeggio. lovely work!!
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
just an absurdly godlike display of musical vocabulary...lush hypnotic ballads, upbeat boppers, dirges, and ofc huge guitar workouts, all in a voice both literal and artistic that is just instantly vivid and unstoppable. many moments make me think this is exactly what music Should Be. difficult to write about, at least atm, but yet more proof that neil young is likely one of the great Defining Artists of future azzy, whenever i get to the full soaking in his work
Sister Sledge
5/5
rly remarkable cross-section of talent!! idk much about chic (or the other sister sledge projects, if theyre worth anything) but its rly awsom to listen to a record that has multiple star players and none of them rly overshadow eachother...theres tons of room for everyone. and the songs absolutely ruleeeeee...this has to be as close to good as disco can get for me. spacious, tight, glittery, warm, luxurious, v precise but with no stiffness whatsoever. feels kind of decadent in my mouth! wonderful record, wish it got talked ab a bit more!
Beck
3/5
feels maybe most notable thinking ab it as an inflection, or maybe un-inflection, point in the larger beck discog, of which i only retain a fraction but its hard to ignore that this is the followup to sea change is rly what im saying HJFFS. prob works best when its putting the quirky beck style in a more downcast, disillusioned tone...too old and grouchy for blissfully meaningless odelay-style nonsense, but heart firmly still back behind its protective cage. rly not my ideal setup for a beck record either way tbh (and this kinda sputters out by the end unfortunately) but in a strange way, despite this being one of his most accessible, its probably more for the fans than anything, those who have wormed their way into some kind of emotional trajectory in his mostly very cryptic and guarded music. could be rewarding if i ever have the time for it, i can dig a guy who just finds a couple sounds and is like I Can Make A Song Outta That, but my instinct is he's more of an arm-lengths artist for me, yaknow
Crosby, Stills & Nash
5/5
if its maybe a lil lopsided its only because the highs are so ridiculous. could just survive on being great songs performed by the ever reliable band structure of Guys Who's Voices Sound Really Fucking Good Together but theres also tons of nice little instrumental/arrangement flourishes and details...more than anything, that plus the obvious clashing/melding personalities create a v distinct sound (earthy with a celestial tinge) yet i never once feel like its repeating itself. but i sure did think "oh theyre just casually throwing out the best song ive ever heard in my life" at least a couple times
Erykah Badu
5/5
feels like one endlessly morphing and perfectly continuous god-tier drum groove until orange moon, at which point theres so much open space it almost freaks me out, but because it holds to this evolution (even as it gradually re-introduces the drums) it just makes the whole thing so melty and intoxicating by the end. just a great, great flex of production and performance, feels like the language of soul being pushed into something rly distinct and even years later still just clearly vibrantly creative. a rly good beneficiary of the bloated cd-era tracklist too...it rly just seems to grow in power the more time u inhabit it!
DJ Shadow
5/5
biggest album ever, obviously. drawing some easy comparisons to the other two points of the plunderphonics holy trinity, it feels like it expands outward where donuts dives inward, creating whole Landscapes. and where since i left you is maybe the most successful at creating its own entirely new and cohesive sound, entroducing often seeks to make its seams and disparate sources more Obvious, taking a ton of advantage of the original presentation and timbre of its various samples. but ofc all three records create the same feeling of being music About listening to music in some way, they make me think about how even when hearing the same soundwaves we all perceive them differently, we can all extrapolate different worlds and feelings and colors. idk if this record still has the full gut-level Fave feeling it once did for me but in some ways i admire it more than ever, and the impression it creates of the Night That Changes Your Life Forever, as it itself demonstrates new ways of Seeing and Hearing that which is around you. the idea of advocating for a world without these records for the benefit of idea landlords is truly , heinously evil to me in a way few things are....its the money!
The Psychedelic Furs
4/5
kind of part devo-esque highly unsentimental borderline deconstructive take on rock music as a Cultural Idiom, and part a fuzzy lush escapist landscape. into you like a train made me emotional for reasons i cant even understand, and if its the best song its got like three or four other competitors im p sure. theres something at the core of this emotionally that is deliberately undiagnosed but still felt and poured over the whole thing...v strange experience, equal parts jagged and silky, with a ton of great songs with great Sounds and vocal performances and little melodic pockets that are just Held Onto
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
not beating the best artist ever allegations....the way bruce writes and arranges songs is one of the most comforting things ever to me, it makes me feel the new jersey blood SOmewhere in my veins from my dad's side. of bruce's classic albums this is the hardest, most focused, sharpest, and hit-between-the-eyes ..the ornate and lavish quality of his earlier records is scaled down in width but not height, its all transferred to just going hard. even the big ballady tracks have this tighter sharper edge to them. just wonderful, pure melty comfort for me, i gotta do a full bruce dive. clarence clemons manages more in a four bar solo than almost anyone else in any other measure of time
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
5/5
ive heard this album more times than ive heard Most things, and it never fails to Cleanse My Palate more completely than just about anything else, it takes away almost as much as it Gives...hyperrythmic, hypertonal, the things ur ear latches onto are not thrown out but overclocked so far into the red they just burst into flames. theres kind of a lush quality to it as a result, which i think is part of what makes this so involving even to people who dont quite understand Why. most other mathy weirdo stuff that would maybe cite this as an influence is even more interested in pushing Further And Further, but theres a sort of underlying logic to the ideas here that keeps this one as totally singular and slightly impossible to replicate. i mean come on man its trout mask replica. its the king of musical worldbuilding.
Ice Cube
5/5
rly enjoyed ice cube's debut as a kind of freeform demonstration of the various aspects of his personality but its p clear that the LA riots became a channel for something more focused, and harder-hitting on the whole id say...probably more exhausting than AMW (tho there there is some funny levity, im here for the gangsta's fairytale tracks on these records!!!) but even that is kind of contextualized within the engineered (and vigilantly maintained) disposibility of blackness in the united states. public enemy is a clear influence, tho the (amazing) sample choices are less Disorienting Oddball and a bit more gritty and earthy. its prob not an essayic record but its still an extremely compelling insistence from gangsta rap on its Right To Exist and a rejection of all the things the white gaze attempts to create, pointing out the throughline between respectability politics and the justification of innocent bloodshed etc etc. again kind of an exhausting listen, the darkness rly hangs in the background of even the less overtly heavy stuff, but on the whole even better then AMW imo!!!
The Band
5/5
one of the downsides to me insisting i write about All These Albums is that i think it does occasionally adversely effect my actual listening experience at least a bit...not enough to where im super rethinking anything lol but i did spend too much of this listen trying to articulate differences from music from big pink and i just dont think theres a lot to be found over there...maybe as i return to it itll become easier to articulate, but the fundamental strengths are all the same and make for an album im sure is just as good or close...just gotta let it sink in over a few more listens. the band just continues to combine a stellar melting pot of creative voices into something that appeals equally to weirdos and normies...earthen and mystical like no ones business. only potential quibble relative to big pink is what feels like a slight de-emphasis on my favorite element of the band, the organ sound, but it still functions well as a kind of Secret Sauce and occasional centerpiece like the absolutely beautiful whispering pines. just clearly an all time great band. i gotta watch the last waltz.
Basement Jaxx
5/5
not my area of expertise obviously but i rly rly rly like this one! its like a party record for a party it sounds like i can actually handle...very very warm and un-intense (or perhaps just un-busy) in its timbres (some rly wonderful bass sound on here..), even where it still manages to have fun bangers. its all very flowy and approachable, lots of great peaks of total euphoria. as could be predicted, i rly like the ballady tracks...always be there in particular kinda took my breath away! just a very fun and pleasing record,,,didnt even rly feel its length to me!
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
close to a double dose of bruce...cant complain!! i think whats most striking ab this one isnt just the sound tho its a dovetail w/ the sound...a lot of springsteen material takes the mundane and elevates it to a kind of ecstatic, transcendental status, whereas the clear angle here is a much more complicated and shattered one presented with a kind of inconspicuous solemnity. even the most vivid stories on here are just One Of Many, part of a world that creates them all the time...the slightly uncanny, slightly horrifying, slightly comforting emotional alchemy is unique for bruce's catalog but also maybe just in music generally. also really love how bruce changes up his vocal styles here...a necessity ofc, but one that could have been accommodated with a lot less thought and effort than was clearly put forth here...he was looking for a New Mode Of Expression altogether. prob one of the best attempts by a distinctive artist to complicate their artistic project.
Elbow
4/5
starts and ends v strong imo , the middle kind of lost shape for me but there are quite a few cool qualities to this from front to back. theres a sort of Pathetic feel thats couched in the artsy/rocky arrangements, big guitars and small strange instrumental ideas with guy garvey's very un-assured as the chewy center. its an interesting vibe, one that reminded me of the first two nick drake albums within a couple of tracks, not in Sound but the effect has some overlap. p good record for the miserable texas summer that just kicked into high gear. and im a huge sucker for Big Bombastic Penultimate Track/Sparse Subdued Closing Track
Elton John
5/5
bernie taupin is not a great lyricist by most standards anyone could think to judge a lyricist by but the artistic chemistry between him and elton john was p undeniable...they matched eachothers rambling, freeflowing freak in their respective mediums. more than anything i find myself fascinated by how elton wrangles this big stack of taupin pseudo-poetry into song structures and melodic phrases, theres just something so unconventional and endlessly expressive about all of it...and this famously loaded and lengthy record p much has to be the peak of that raw energy. the couple of Massive Lapses In Taste are practically baked-in parts of the experience, and the highs, i mean what to even say man, im not sure anyones ever even Tried to write pop songs in this particular weird, sprawling, wonderful flavor since
Paul Simon
4/5
a v funny first encounter on this list with simon and/or garfunkel. even my copy of the book seems confused as to why its here, with its closing statement not being a reflection on the album but instead being like "it didnt do very well but then he made graceland so it was okay" FHJJKFHSJKSFHSF. in any case this is nice! simon's a predictably sturdy songwriter, but the main distinguishing factor is surely the very chintzy and sometimes eccentric production...it being the "best fit" is probably well-contested but i have a soft spot for this kinda thing. still, i feel like i lack the tools to fully interface w/ this atm...i need to refresh myself on his more traditional material first!
Fun Lovin' Criminals
4/5
this project has taught me 2 things: (1) there are a ton of mostly-forgotten britpop and britpop-adjacent bands with one or two semi-classic albums (2) the beastie boys inspired a ton of white guys to do genre mashy sample-heavy quirky silly hip hop stuff. as far as those go, these guys aint beck, and they certainly aint the beastie boys, but id be much happier to revisit this than like, g love and special sauce. the genuine roughness and grittiness in the vocals is kinda unique but maybe leans a bit too far towards sorta uncomfortable pastiche to me, i prefer the more overtly quirky delivery of similar acts. but the actual hooks and beatwork are actually v steadily fun throughout...the bangers are cool, but the overtly (and sometimes surprising) euphoric moments are my favorites, definitely illustrative of the great moments that can arrive from bringing together well-chosen samples. the whole record is a surprisingly good illustration of that! and the eclectic genre interests feel surprisingly well developed beyond pure novelty, prob the closest they get to beck's best qualities. a weird inclusion but not an unwelcome one
Sufjan Stevens
5/5
my friend, more than any other album has been rly. sufjan's specific combination of folk and minimalism (the type of classical music, not the broad aesthetic goal) on this record has always just hit like the sound of eternity to me, everything ive ever known, or have wanted to know. every emotional portrait feels like something i have gone through or have wanted to go through. i am deeply scared of changing my surrounding circumstances, living situation etc, even for the better, and theres something ab how this record both feels so familiar and comforting AND feels like packing your bags and trying to start over Yet Again that just absolutely kills me. this has soundtracked multiple full resets of my conception of myself, and has made even more sense each time. yet before i could articulate any of this, it was still always There for me...i remember back when i was 16 or 17, hearing it for the first time, i had practically decided on the spot that it was my new favorite album ever. maybe i wasnt even wrong.
Slade
5/5
so catchy and bouncy and textured and silly and fun that i kinda cant believe it FHJFSHJSF...its the perfect length too, just a big burst of swinging, crunchy energy that gets in and out before it has any time to get old, and just bursting with personality and a Completeness Of Vision that makes being a big dumb rock band look easy. the mispelled titles tell u most of what u need to know , rly...its not quite fully self parodic, but it sure is a good tribute to music's capacity to overwhelm u in ways that just Make U Dumber. its own kind of spiritual enlightenment. MAN this is fun!
Khaled
5/5
running into this with a dirth of relevant knowledge ofc but the arrangements on here do definitely seem extremely extremely western, rly nothing that doesnt make me feel at home! and besides that, uve got an absolutely towering and dexterous voice at the center of everything...running and climbing around the expansive and interestingly sculpted playgrounds that are the songs, which offer just so much time and space to absolutely everything...definitely one respect in which it feels a lot less western, and all the better for it. beautiful stuff thats also deep in the funk, inexplicably low rym rating idk whats wrong w/ ppl ghjshdgjsd
Lightning Bolt
5/5
obviously there are """normie""" thresholds for audio abrasion and demands for familiarity in structure and timbre that make it so that lightning bolt is merely an extremely popular "underground" band and not the most popular band in the world but tbh. it kinda feels like they should be anyway FHJSFHJFS like how could u ever not love lightning bolt??? they hit some absolutely magic ratio between no-bullshit minimalism but Just enough musical information to stay absolutely gripping. i think i might still prefer their more adventurous stuff from later on like sonic citadel but id have to recheck and in any case i dont think theyve ever lost the ratio...this stuff still makes me twitch my foot involuntarily in the right setting. might have to do a full discog re-dive...
Prince
5/5
i mean come on.
prince feels on some kind of shortlist for people who just Got Music, more than anyone else has ever gotten it. bringing together gut-level groove and rhythmic ideas with all-timer melodic sensibilities and ideas for production/arrangement/timbre...not to mention SINGING! theres just a richness to his music thats near impossible to find elsewhere...honestly something that kept popping up in my head is stevie wonder , who has similar strengths despite the massive difference in style, and is also clearly on that same shortlist. i suppose if theres a big contrast to be made its that stevie's peak runs on a kind of meticulous perfectionism...prince achieves perfection thru pure freeflowing messy energy. the whole universe is somewhere in each of these songs...pop's most illustrious and transcendental cathedral, an album about love so all-encompassing in the Types of love it depicts to their highest extent that it makes u wonder why we even still try to write about it. so much Pure Feeling that its amazing that i, too, can experience it, in and out of this record...something here thats available to all, out in the world. ive mentioned the concept of the imperial pop record before, and of records in that category, this is likely the very very best. and its not even my favorite prince album....fuckkkkkkk man
Slint
5/5
kind of an all timer streak huh! this does not give me the personal all-timer gut feeling but its v close. i think i wrote this before somewhere, but back when i was a budding music nerd teen going thru the big canon albums, i actually kinda bounced off this one cuz i found it cold and distancing, which is not rly the aesthetic home of my apocalypticlly sentimental heart. cold is true, distancing tho??? i was way off...if anything, part of my difficulty with this is that i find it just a bit too emotionally overwhelming and intimidating ghjsdghsd which makes it ofc a v useful record to have in my vocab cuz sometimes u need that. feels like the march to and away from the thing u did that doomed u forever, having eternal lucidity around the moment but not within it. finishing this record offers the cleansing feeling of waking up from a nightmare...yet more evidence in my assertion that the time After a piece of art is just as vital a part of the experience as that which is contained in the proper runtime
Doves
4/5
was prob inevitable w/ this project that i would eventually hit something that i clearly like but am kinda not in the mood for? definitely very cozy music and the sound has lots of big ideas and little touches i like, but i was not super receptive to the songs themselves...tho in a way where i can tell its more of a problem w/ my spd and scatterbrained morning dragging me away from the music. honestly even under better circumstances this seems like something of a grower anyway, so a revisit would prob help regardless. not a band that i expected to pop up Twice on this list, but the strengths across both records ive heard seem v similar...comfy, emotive, maudlin, melty...and potentially slightly better production than the sophomore, tho id have to recheck both!
Prince
5/5
well. guess i didnt have to keep u in suspense for long about what my fave prince album is FHJSFHUJFS
so many things i could say ab what is just clearly one of the peaks of Music Generally. whatever caused prince to make his sprawling eclectic album also be one of if not his absolute Purest funk album, it was one of the great benevolent forces of the universe...the record feels infinite not just in the variety of style but just how far down the beats reach in their endless swirl...the Cumulative Effect of this record just pulls me in deeper and deeper the further it goes on, each groove a new flight of spiral stairs. if this is pop music, its certainly highly decompressed...all about the space and the ambiguities and the weird squishy in-between bits that are what Define art for me personally. and all of this aside, theres not a single song on this lengthy tracklist that doesn't deserve to be considered in some sort of all-timer context , in at least a few if not all relevant categories. i cant believe i live on the same planet as the person who wrote i could never take the place of your man. one of the desert island discs to end all others.
Christina Aguilera
4/5
primarily a Diva Delivery Machine ofc, but thats a worthy goal when uve got someone with her voice and charisma...reeks of Effort in a way thats not essential for pop music but certainly a p intoxicating path, and, in what has to one of the big Influential Points of this record, having that effort and power coexist w/ insecurities and vulnerabilities...theres clearly a line from this to everything from reputation to short n sweet. and the songs aint bad either! i do rly need to fill in the big gaps that are my 2000s pop girlie knowledge...britney is clearly the blueprint but reading about this record its p clearly of comparable significance, a huge example of a pop star taking control of her platform and using it for both self-mythologizing and soul-baring ends...v good to be educated in!
CHIC
5/5
another nile rodgers project, not sure if anyone has more vocal presence than sister sledge but the songs and arrangements are just about equally wonderful!!! just incredibly decadent but not overfilling music yk yk...like honey or something. warm, spacious, very tightly wound, clearly made with tons of effort and consideration but Feels effortless and intuitive...pitch perfect disco p much , w/ some obviously classic tracks! has been cool to encounter this previously unfamiliar-to-me corner of music, good illustration of how even thru various waning moods and feelings ive rly never felt any drive at all to stop doing this whole project
Blur
4/5
at long last!!! a damon albarn project where the songwriting doesnt feel like its slipping through my fingers! idk if that will necessarily translate to a wider appreciation yet but i found this very effortlessly enjoyable...just great great tunes in a variety of flavors. his eclectic sensibilities are in place, but the record still feels crazy cohesive,,,urban landscapes, uncomfortable heat, encounters with remnants of History and Culture that are all well and good but they aint helping you pay your next rent. the writeup in my copy of the book talks about this record as placing blur within a larger lineage of disillusioned british Youth Culture, which was a thought i was already kinda baking while listening given how much this sounds in parts like a revival of both mod rock and the kinks. that seems like p much the heart of All britpop, and of its Definitive entries this has gotta be close to my fave ive heard so far. even tho i dont know why br*tish "people" make music in the first place
Johnny Cash
5/5
certainly one of the most unassumingly emotionally provocative records ive ever heard. its not exactly hard to talk about as a regular album but it does feel kind of stupid when its clearly about The Experience, but it also feels kind of stupid to talk about The Experience when everyone already has. more than anything it is just extremely good music, one that walks all across the spectrum from pitch black humor to crushing sadness to spiritual salvation...there is simply no redundancy in the material despite the surface level conceit. for as Metal as it is to hear the cheering about murder and stuff, theres still a radical kindness and humanism in the chest of this record that makes me feel like ive stumbled into some kind of religious text. im prob not saying anything new lol but the record rly does speak for itself...i enjoyed it in the moment, but it only grows in power when youre on the other side of it
Faust
5/5
its extremely healthy for the Soul to sit down with music so determined to conceive of The Future. a forerunner to so many things but still ultimately has a vision that by necessity no one else could have...and so kind of preserves its present despite being consciously separate from it. super vibrant and super vital but it doesnt feel like a righteous fight , it feels Effortless yk? many moments are breezy and funny, some sedate and peaceful, and almost everything else is just jawdroppingly beautiful and powerful. feels like how life should be yk
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
the beats are basically all the same in terms of effect but impressively different and wildly creative in terms of actual individual elements...some heavier, some more minimal, but always impressively matching run and d's chemistry which tbh if we're being real might still be completely unmatched...listening to these guys is the hip hop equivalent of jawdropping prog rock guitar interplay, still so exciting and fun. it is not the most diverse record in the universe, but its very concise and , if exhausting, its exhausting in a good way. and before it gets there, its as thrilling as any music has ever been tbh. cant even imagine the atom bomb this was in 84
Buena Vista Social Club
5/5
im sure this record isnt Encyclopedic in all the song forms it covers but the breadth still feels titanic, and the group of no less than 20 credited musicians just takes to all of them in full effortless flight. the songs are wonderful and have endured for a reason but the playing and the timbres are the most obvious thing that my brain kept looping back to. there is a variety of emotional vibes to the material itself but the performance of it is always imbued with so much Joy and Grace above all else...the love for every note played just oozes. one of these albums that has just grown in power even more after having finished it...feels unassumingly like a Journey to look back on
The 13th Floor Elevators
4/5
60s psych with what feels like absolutely no sentimentality, never heard anything quite like it before tbh! the tight and heavy songs (lacking big spacey excursions and the like), rough garagey sound , esp as complimented by rocky erickson's expressive and caustic voice, places this in a much different category then psychedelic music as it would come to be known. even w/ the alien and wonderful sound of the electric jug, theres something very physical and un-transcendental ab this record's odes to mind-altering substances. whether its because its not interested in exoticizing them or they just kinda couldnt with the resources and skills they had idk, but its a disarmingly grounded thing...not about exploring , but about realizing what is already there, the human body as an utterly mundane thing even when it has weird chemicals in it. v cool stuff!!
The Byrds
4/5
an extremely short record of about half covers and also some originals that seem nice but are difficult to make a full impression of when their mental competition is bob dylan...that all simply has to be draped in one of the coolest Sounds any 60s band ever had, jim mcguinn's 12 string guitar and the central angelic vocal harmonies create that perfect alchemy between worldly and otherworldly. aside from the one gene clark solo record and one csn record ive heard, i havently rly clicked entirely w/ the actual songwriting on any byrds or byrds adjacent projects, but not only do the dylan tunes help bridge the gap for me here, its just clearly a record thats hard to imagine not sounding Good...anytime, anywhere, equal parts capable of provoking a strong emotional response as it is just letting u relax and drift
The Beach Boys
5/5
thankfully the way this project project has shaken out has given me a little bit to recover from brian's death. even tho i still feel like part of me has been violently shoved out of place, the inevitability of it and my thankfulness for the length of his life dominates my heart a lot more. i have ofc been spinning some beach boys material regardless but it is never ever a bad time to listen to pet sounds. i have spilled words in public and esp in private the past couple days that make sitting down to write ab this feel kind of redundant, but just know it is always an intensely vibrant experience, constructed equally out of technicolor escapism and the most destabilizing moments u can have in ur personal life. i have always liked this record but i did not truly understand it until i had to take myself apart and rebuild multiple times. among other things it gives me hope that, for whatever may happen to me, however i may change, that there is some central unbreakable beauty and joy and hope that has always been in me and Will always be here in me, and will always in some way define me, even in times when it hasn't felt like it. brian wilson contributed to my sense of self with a depth im only just beginning to understand, and far before i began to comprehend it he and his bandmates were soothing the softest most fragile parts of my life, that i want to keep safe but that i also must prove are able to withstand the storm. the fact that he made it so long despite everything is more important to me than almost anything else in the world. i will always want to be like him when i grow up.
Parliament
5/5
bliss euphoria freedom aspiration dreams dreams dreams dreams dreams. george clinton could orchestrate a soundscape like no one else, everything ends up in exactly the right place with no visible effort or constrictions. the funkadelic material ive heard ranges from utopian to apocalyptic, but the parliament material ive heard is just pure floating joy...if ur not dancing to it, u better at the very least be lying down and imagining that ur flying. the first time in this project ive restarted a record Immediately after finishing it...some feelings u just dont want to end!
Mercury Rev
4/5
v good music, and its hard not to love the circumstances from which it arose...a resigned feeling of preemptive failure enabling full creative liberation cuz u might as well go out with a bang, leading to a surprise commercial success...the demons souls formula! didnt super grab me or shake my soul or anything, but i see the potential for it to do so if i heard it in the right place at the right time,,,the songs are great, but the barely-remembered dream quality esp as supplemented with jonathan donahue's voice (kind of a twee neil young timbre) is the main draw...lovely lovely stuff!
Television
5/5
has always been weirdly difficult for me to grasp and conceptualize as whole, not because its not cohesive, in fact this listen has made it clear it is Very Cohesive! but the vibrancy of the famed guitar interplay has just got so many Hues in it yaknow...its kind of aesthetically overstimulating in a way that has i think tbh subconsciously pushed me away in years previous. its like eating a cake thats just a bit too rich all by urself yaknow. still , i am basically complaining that the music is Too Good for my fragile ears, and thats not even rly entirely true anymore, this was a wonderful frequently euphoric listen...definitely an album to get lost in , whenever i have the capacity to do so
Van Halen
5/5
i flit between at least a couple choices for my fave van halen record and while i dont know if this is the Definitive Absolute One, its certainly the one im most likely to just throw on and listen to, and in many ways makes the most sense as a choice. bright and vibrant and just pure exuberance from a band w/ everything to prove and having a great great time proving it. even some of the songs that may appear slighter work their way into ur skin eventually just from how many freakishly memorable little moments eddie can slap out of his guitar. at least thru the david lee roth period (i cant speak for any later), that dude was just so in tune with how his instrument Sounded, the actual moment it makes contact w/ the human ear, beyond some kind of theoretical raw musical information. he could really liven up anything at this point! add to that the fact that the record is packed with classics, like yea man, in some ways this is as good as it gets!
Joy Division
5/5
ive already relatively hashed out my long fraught relationship with this record several months ago, and its been hard for it to not just grow and grow from there...tho i will say i do feel some intuitive distance from it still, this is still not completely for me, and esp given the fact that i was spinning the much more instantly Part Of Me pornography by the cure yesterday it became very very clear lol...my tastes just run a bit more expressive, baroque, and otherworldly. still, this was the most i enjoyed this record yet, and prob the most thrilled ive been at it song for song...even if some other things are more to my taste its difficult to deny that joy division were just one of the coolest sounding ensembles rock music had seen to that point, and everyone's part feels absolutely pivotal. so textured and imaginative, all-timer bassline record, capable of soundtracking both a dark cavern and a one-person party at a dingy warehouse. reflecting on my own history of being unable to project things into the outside world, and feeling a bit more compassion for my past self, was apparently the thing i needed to do for ian curtis' uncanny cardboardy voice to start making full sense, yk
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
another record ive written ab semi recently and one that has arrived on tbh a bit of an unideal day where im more catching up on a bunch of missing rest than i am receptive to its hyper-density. but still, even if i was ultra receptive and hearing everything in the Greatest Clarity And Thoughtfulness Ever its still tpab...its hard to imagine ever being Done with it! and i grow more and more impressed by the use of jazz language here every single listen, the ways it complicates both the backing and the delivery for cascading effects of thrilling harmonic and rhythmic bliss. feels about as limitless as any hip hop has ever felt. which ig maybe ties into the main thing i actually was able to form thoughts about this time: the finiteness of all things, and how they extend beyond the boundaries that seem to be set out for them by both the "natural" and "constructed" worlds. the words and ideas and sounds that persist in spite of both inevitable and preventable death. if there is something constantly enduringly powerful and Relatable to me about kendrick's art its the depiction of himself as someone who is just Really Tryna Figure Everything Out, has the patience and perspective to know that he probably never will, but finds the pursuit worthwhile anyway. and his records are these little Stops along the way, locking in the things he's learned recently and presenting them as a gift to anyone who may benefit from them. tpab is a young persons' record in many ways, its clarity of vision and ultimate optimism right before the trump pin dropped perhaps easy to shuffle away when it no longer seems to represent either the person or culture that produced it. but part of the point of making art is to encase these easily loseble moments in amber... a Full perspective could always benefit from many of the tapestries of thought and feeling present here. crazy album. i wonder if anyone else likes this one.
Dr. Octagon
4/5
always a pleasure to encounter something with this much creativity in both its high-level and moment-to-moment decisions. kool keith's bizarre character provides a fun context for the absurd and inscrutable lyricism, lots of great combinations of syllables and just Barely graspable ideas. its also a fun dovetail with his often deadpan delivery, especially in the strangely understated hooks...the understatement is rly the secret weapon in general actually, as the production and sound palate is theoretically very colorful and druggy but its treated in such a beige and soft-edged way,,,its hard to fully articulate, but it is extremely cool to listen to. the non-absurdist and non-musical jokes tend to be not my thing, predictably, but on the other hand there are some gutbusting deployments of scratching on here. rly just a lot of standout scratching in general, some of those breakdowns are so sick. all in all id prob rather listen to mf doom in this general sphere/palate but i was surprised how much of this i remembered from first hearing it years ago, cant say its not memorable!
The Temptations
5/5
a sort of reorientation of public image after a few tumultuous years and lost members, theres still influence from psychedelia but its more in creating a new kind of lushness separate from sticky motown balladry. theres also nods to the fact that we're in the 70s and there are appetites for grittier, funkier music. on the whole tho this is just great great soul as always...still capable of being silky, but a few more accomplished venues available to it to. the 12 minute rendition of papa was a rolling stone is one of the most effortless songs of its length i can imagine. great sounds and big feelings all over!
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
while ive yet to have a proper jimi Period where he becomes my favorite dude or whatever, my many years of inexplicably apathy/distance towards his music Were snapped out of by this very album, last year i believe? its technically the most songwritey hendrix record but i tend not to think of the songwriting itself necessarily on its own...more the way it provides a springboard for jimi's various timbrel ideas, a greater intimacy with the base elements of the electric guitar than could ever be Taught. every song is a relatively simple approachable base meant to be Complimented from the various colors of candy-coated fire that jimi launches off into. and that tonal balance between flower power and atomic explosion is rly only something that can be done this brightly on this specific configuration of the experience,,,not an ascended blues rock record like are you experienced, or a big exploratory spread like electric ladyland, but a relatively economic poppy psychy thing. prob still my fave! tho i owe EL a lot more time probably. obviously jimi influenced everybody and their mom, but i feel like dean ween in particular has gotta love this specific record.
Justin Timberlake
2/5
pretty much the most Total Ass music can be while still begrudgingly being "good", broadly. timbaland and the neptunes had a high floor at this point, tons of unstoppable grooves and flatly good ideas all over here, and theres not Nothing to justin's raw chops and ephemeral (tho fragile) charisma. but i think the 20/20 experience, an album i genuinely love, kinda spoiled me...not in terms of raw musical quality necessarily, but the layers of fantastical escapism. stuck in the relatively mundane world of the Suave And Sexy Reinvention Of A Teeny Bopper, its difficult to disconnect from justin's long-expired and easily popped bubble of mystique, and the hyper-misogynist pop culture that shielded him for so long. bumped down from a just barely positive score for the existence of cry me a river, one of those slices of pop culture psychological horror where all the undeniable chops and good creativity are put to the service of something built tonally around being as Mocking and Infantalizing as popular culture mandated as ammo for its continued crusade to abuse One Woman more than any other in history. some art functions just fine applying some amount of self-inflicted ignorance, and some art does not function at all without some amount of buy-in, and its hard for me to not see this at least partially as the latter. threw on to blackout immediately afterwards to save my soul!
The Doors
4/5
i like organs too much to stay semi-dismissive of the doors forever, call this another stop on the way them becoming Perfectly Enjoyable Music. whats funny tho is that ive long held onto a sort of truism that i get the mystique but not rly the music, i think thats inverted over time...the whole dark seedy hippie jim morrision thing was kinda lost on me as a vivid color this listen (FAR from my first, ive been trying to "get" this album for ages lmao), but the cool instrumental setup that often de-emphasizes obviously followable guitars in favor of this fucked up kaleidoscope of somewhat equally weighted and attention grabbing elements rly made some Visceral Sense to me this time. jim morrision is surprisingly unrelatable for a guy who spends ten minutes moaning and screaming about his mom but the insistent Drama of his voice gets me just a little bit. prob will never be one of my fave records or anything lol but not at all a bad portrayal of a Just Slightly Off bar band that semi-accidentally summons something from the gates of hell. the end absolutely rules ofc but it does have me kind of yearning for sister ray yk....
Cheap Trick
5/5
a big swirling candymeat gumbo Something! really is the ideal power pop blueprint, with sweet and sour melodic ideas delivered in the most sweaty muscly way possible,,,its not druggy music rly, but there is smth ab it that makes me feel like im lifting out of my body a bit. rick and robin especially whip things into an absolute storm. gonna have to listen to this more before im satisfied with pinning down what it is that just made me fall in love so fast and hard but with something this fun its not like im groaning at the homework! just a rly rly incredible rock outfit turning already bouncy songs into a roaring jet engine. ive liked surrender for a rly long time but im starting to wonder if its actually one of my fave songs ever FHJFSHJFS
Einstürzende Neubauten
5/5
ofc, almost nothing else on this list could beat this record in raw Cool Factor. but that does kind of illustrate the limits of this list in some ways, as despite all the crazy "sound design" (smashing metal objects together) replacing all conventional instrumentation, this still holds on very tightly and recognizably to Song Ideas, even if in a minimalist punky sorta way. its a lil disappointing to realize this is probably the most abstract this list gets yk yk. not an actual problem with the record tho! its hard to deny the music is awesome..masochistic yes ofc, but i dont experience it as necessarily Dark yk (maybe if i knew the lyrics this would change). its just kind of inherently playful and even fun, in the way only this kind of noisemaking can be, esp since its all so physical...i generally prefer my industrial and industrial flavored music being for cool explorations of Synthesized Sounds, but the fact that there is just no ephemerality to this whatsoever is also super interesting. its all very mundane, which is a fun word to be able to use ab a record like this. really the most normal album ever made when u think about it!
The Jesus And Mary Chain
5/5
ive not yet heard psychocandy (oops!), but its my understanding that this more commercially successful followup doesnt sound much like u would expect considering the pedigree. no longer in full shoegaze or noise pop mode, it settles for Merely being incredibly texturally involving , somewhat languid rock music. not sure how distinctive it is ultimately, or even how independently great the songs are, but i eat this stuff up, this was one of the best music stims ive had in ages...rainy, sleepy, soft as the pillow u hug in place of an actual person. i know everyone ultimately experiences composition Through timbre, but stuff like this makes me think that applies Even More to me than it does to most ppl lol, its just my flavor of autism. i know me liking this is probably not a guarantee ill like psychocandy, but fingers crossed! definitely filing this one in my memory
The Who
2/5
perhaps the best thing i can say about tommy is that im genuinely curious about why exactly it was so meaningful to pete townshend. surely all of its famously completely demented narrative choices have intuitive emotional roots in something a very real and probably very weird human being cared deeply about, like this was pete's Baby. but i just cant comprehend it at all. at best i can see some anxieties about reality falling apart and the fruitless search for some kind of universally satisfying truth, certainly still applicable to the present but obviously pronounced in the 60s. at worst, it feels like a never-ending first draft that uses disability and child abuse as (sometimes kinda comedic??????) window dressing on the most sterile and stilted performances/production u will find on a who album. i rly feel like i cant ignore the whole narrative framework because its the only way this record functions at All...if taken just as a regular rock album with arty framing, as i kinda saw it as as a teenager, its just a complete disaster. pete writes a handful of solid (even great) themes, and almost no good Songs, theyre so jaggedy and graceless, as if random pieces have been glued together. the larger context and structure is completely load-bearing in a way i dont think is nearly as true of many other somewhat contentious rock operas...The Wall is sometimes in song mode and sometimes in fragment mode in a way that makes total sense to me, but tommy feels stuck halfway between the two at all times in a deeply unflattering way. and so the most positive way i can think of this record is as a fascinating but kind of bad rock opera, rather than an extremely bad regular rock album. in the interest of fairness, i should point out it improves a lot live, as it fixes the sterility of the studio presentation...hope leeds is on here at the very least!
i tbh have very little knowledge of U2, either their specific music or even the broad strokes of their career evolution, and "critical comeback after presumably weirder albums" only does so much to fill me in lol. rly the most normal music of all time, esp considering that i wasnt even alive for most of U2's commercial dominance but the lexicon of Default Sound in the base background hum of pop culture , from other rock bands to car commercials, has been greatly contributed to by the band. hard to love, but not something im inclined to dismiss either,,,their formula was often copied because it is Easy To Copy, but also because it Works...the echoy dramatic sound giving an impression of richness and complexity while actually being paired with extremely simple and easily digestible raw musical information, and the emotive quality works at all levels of buy-in from full body sobbing to harmless background noise. prob not my fave band in the world, nor even my fave rock band to achieve their kind of populist power in relatively recent times (im a coldplay warrior), but despite all my attraction to eccentricity there sometimes is just smth pleasing about art that Makes Sense on some deep level
Death In Vegas
4/5
hard to find much information on with my usual cursory methods, tho i gather the band was originally associated with the big beat scene defined by the likes of the chemical brothers. i can still hear a little of that in the juiciest, most in-your-face moments, but this goes in a much trip hoppier and even pseudo-krautrock direction, with more instruments carrying the dance grooves. the tone is also just kind of subtly malicious, probably not a Good Times At The Rave record. v cool tho, maybe not the most precisely made music but that just enables the creativity...no two tracks sound alike, but there is a total World here of kinda timeless darkness...not looking forward, not looking back
AC/DC
3/5
im happy w/ what i wrote about ac/dc back when i rolled highway to hell so im not interested in retracing my steps too too much. i did say i have brian johnson "reservations" but im not sure i actually have any strong feelings on him at all, the possibility having been lost in a sea of just being desensitized to how Every Song On This Album Sounds (tho this was my first time hearing them all in order lol). i think its prob better to say that bon scott was a genuine asset to the band, and johnson, if not *necessarily* a liability, is not rly a strength in the same way. on the whole, the songcraft is in some ways Better than highway to hell, but i dont like it as much, prob because of scotts absence but also prob because of overexposure (tho theyre p sturdy regardless, a fun riff is a fun riff). otherwise, i did reflect a bit on ac/dc being Such commercial juggernauts and Such a staple of pop culture...maybe something about how the mid tempo rocker is a good way to deliver constantly digestible musical information (akin to my observations about u2)? maybe something like what i wrote on highway to hell about the feeling of utter harmlessness to their indulgently Edgy qualities (perhaps even more pronounced with johnson's goblin voice, which if anything is less recognizably human than scott, removing the band further from reality)? idk man maybe you shook me all night long just has a nice little jangle to it (prob my fave post-scott ac/dc track). pretty good album lol.
Roni Size
5/5
i opted to listen only to the first disc of what Can and Has been issued with up to four or five discs, thankfully rym has my back by vindicating the 1 disc 78 minute uk tracklist as its primary release, thanks rym! i prob couldnt have done a whole other disc cuz this Was v exhausting lol, but kind of rules spectacularly. a big soup of (sometimes quite patient and elongated) dnb breakbeats that grabs a bunch of delightful cinnamonspicy basslines from jazz recordings, and i can imagine some harmonic/structural influence from the genre as well. occasional hip hop vocals and influence also seep in from time to time, but all of the Musical Objects on here are constructed with those ingredients as the base, upon which a variety of comfy liquid elements are poured. not sure when id ever listen to this completely front to back again but id love to come back to the long tracks, all of which could have gone on a few minutes longer without objection from me. electronic music is not my forte, i feel like i missed out on establishing a strong relationship with it during my most developmental years, but i loved this a lot and it didnt even feel that alien considering its not rly a musical vocab that i have a strong intuitive grasp of. i do wish edm was more of an albums genre!
The Go-Go's
4/5
super super fun....can hit on some surprisingly effective punky edges even more than a lot of other new wave, and flirting with moments of darkness as well, but mostly just sweet and kickass Ramones In The Early 80s For The Girls, emphasizing the bubblegum roots with gleaming glittery Teeth. the aesthetic focus on california is also distinguishing i think, if not for total uniqueness than certainly for the quality of what it delivers. just wall to wall great songs...we got the beat made me light up in recognition immediately, but i dont know from what, surely it was in a movie montage or something!
Happy Mondays
4/5
have to admit as i was doing my cursory wikipedia reading my eyes completely glazed over. oh wow, a uk band ive never heard of...from the late 80s and/or 90s....and they discovered DRUGS! this list is a lil self parody sometimes man HFJFSHJFS i sometimes also glazed over while actually listening to the music, but i can tell it doesnt deserve that. its easy to write this off as more hazy druggy british rock, but theres at least three distinguishing features im sure ill remember: (1) songs that feel kinda loose and drifty instead of the hyper-punchy stuff that would become britpop, a lot of clear influence from psychedelia and even the more coked-out sly and the family stone records (2) some rly cool liquid basslines from paul ryder, accentuated by (3) EXTREMELY cool and vibrant production from unknown pleasures producer martin hannett. initially thought i could just write this off cuz again theres So Much Hazy British Rock Music but this is hazy in a way i dont think ive quite heard before...feels smeared and runny, almost oil painting-y, with a strong texture and physicality even as it seems to float in and out of existence, idk how to describe it if u havent actually heard the record but its cool! silly list, but good album
Stevie Wonder
5/5
it would be a stretch to call any stevie record """dark""" ofc but there is a more subdued, cloudy mood to this album than any of the others of his peak period, which are usually some kind of exuberant. this is most easily attributable i suppose to stevie recovering from a brief car accident-induced coma, a brush with death that recontextualizes the continual, stubborn idealism of his music to even greater heights. something v moving here even in the more lowkey sound with how often stevie affirms the beauty and order he sees in the world, even in the emotionally bleaker places. and ofc, lots of amazing songs with all of stevie's usual strengths of the period...the dense and warm arrangements with the intimate feeling that he plays almost everything, combined with the gorgeous melodies and structures that seem to have both their contents and presentation felt out with nothing but godlike heartfelt instinct. i got rained on while walking to this album and it felt like a wonderful compliment tbh...grey and overcast and Cleansing. i wanna single out you havent done nothin, not because its the best song on the record (the minnie riperton-featuring sensual masterwork Creepin is prob my fave), but because considering its kind of a rewrite of higher ground, which was kind of a rewrite of superstition, it rly shows off the records unique strengths via direct comparison...the darker clouds give i this Edge and Teeth that eclipses its predecessors...those are probably still the better songs on the whole, but they could have been on other stevie albums and made sense, this one could Only be here
The Police
5/5
i have for a while filed the police under bands im P Sure I Dont Like, and maybe their other albums are worse (this doesnt contain any of the singles that i Know annoy me), but if the maribma rocker opening track didnt melt through my defenses, the lyrics about dinosaurs on the second track made me throw my hands up in instant defeat. this record absolutely rules and just never stops ruling...just clearly one of the most creatively arranged and played set of songs on a rock album from this decade. the songs themselves almost dont need to be good when u have so many good Sound Ideas, and such a brilliant uneasy chemistry between the band where everyone seems to be playing lead (except funnily enough for my fave andy summers, who's watercolor-y guitar parts on here are kind of revelatory), but they rly Rly are anyway. ive had a passive annoyance with several police megasingles, but every breath you take has never been one of them, ive always been willing to hand it to them as That Good...just a perfect piece of emotional subjectivity and expressionism in a soft pop song context, and im never not moved by the "bridge" that seems to come at an inverted early place in the song and perform an imagined catharsis that is unachievable for the protagonist. yet with so many goodies here offering similarly Singular Pleasures im not even sure its the runaway fave...deffo gotta give this band more time at some point
Deep Purple
5/5
cant exactly prove that any number of problems in the world would be solved if this and machine head swapped places in relative acclaim/popularity/pop cultural notoriety but it feels true! theres an extent to which machine head being the ambassador for this band (and specifically this second lineup) feels kind of dishonest...the crunchy, lightning-fast updates on Rock And Roll on this record feel so much more Distinctive and much more emphasizing the band's strengths...a ritchie blackmore or jon lord playing mostly only at mid tempo is just obviously fundamentally incomplete! Speed King is one of the great track 1 Thesis Statements of this kind of hard rock, based around lyrical cliches from 50s rock n roll (affectionately!), in a way that fully establishes the lineage theyre attempting to iterate on...and what ensues is just a bunch of killer riffs, organ solos, and structural ideas that ive come back to pretty consistently for years and years. and the heart of the storm is child in time, one of the great Prog Metal Templates, rly driving home that even more than the great playing (and peak ian gillan, similarly short lived in the full power of his voice as robert plant, but peak gillan rly beats the snot out of even peak plant if u ask me), the intuition for song Structure, the creation of symmetry and surprise and thoughtful deployment of ideas, is rly the white hot iron that this lineup of deep purple struck. it was a brief iron, but hey, they got it on record!
Paul Simon
4/5
absolutely Killer set of arrangements on here...the amount this record constantly reset my attention by throwing a great instrumental idea out there is kinda staggering. its a great set of songs too..the s&g material ive heard tends more towards Elemental and Eternal, where i think simon took the breakup as a chance to get a bit more personal and down to earth...him namedropping himself on the very moving run that body down (mayb my fave on the record) is a rly striking moment. even theoretically slighter songs have their charms, like papa hobo being followed by a fun instrumental companion. a great companion to the extremely long, extremely humid walk i just got back home from.
Wire
5/5
punk being both Worshiped and Shunned for its restrictiveness is a funny thing to consider, seeing as how weirdo offshoots like this were contemporary w/ the classic ramones material,,,,and we're only a couple years away from This Heat's debut lp! but as punk has slowly clicked more and more for me (with fugazi being the biggest help along this journey), i do think the heart of my lens for the genre is just seeing What u can do within its boundaries,,,or i suppose rather, with its limited set of tools in an otherwise boundryless world. i think in a way punk attracted these weird art kids because restrictions and discipline can be deep friends of creativity...this suite-like record rly cracks open what u can do with two chords and a dream. every track is just a capital i Idea....fun, interesting, worthwhile enough to not need augmentation. not that im against augmentation, but theres something kind of comforting about just how Digestible this is...whether its cramming a bunch of false endings into a song thats less than a minute, having two songs next to eachother that have basically the Exact Same Chords but just slightly re-arranged, an unexpected build and frenzy, a disarming shout-along refrain..more than anything, just a bunch of good and impactful notes stuck next to eachother on a jittery jagged rhythm. i was not nearly punk pilled enough to rly appreciate the first three wire albums back when i first heard them, but i appreciate how different they all sound from one another (considering they could have just milked this record forever) and ive always enjoyed this one. how could i not, its basically the punk white album in less than 40 minutes! this album could be ur life
Soundgarden
4/5
the thing i kept coming back to was 70s metal, particularly black sabbath. idk if its a strange comparison, but in addition to some iommi-esque riffage, theres just a kind of elemental darkness that defines the whole vibe of this thing, like being up to ur neck in some kind of supernatural tar. ive heard grunge on the whole described as an introversion of punk...not the only such case i suppose, but certainly an often human-level exploration of what it means to live through the world punk takes a critical birds eye view of. that makes some sense applied to this record, but much like metal, the impression is often less human level and more Cosmic and Primal...perhaps the predictably sorta bloated cd-era tracklist even aids in this impression, certainly because while it could be trimmed and better paced ig there is nothing on here even close to bad. an album to drown to, as it makes clear up front
Cocteau Twins
5/5
the only album ever made, its been said. i had a thought that the lack of emotional signposting on this record is a big part of what has made it special to me...theres not a single emotional state in which it feels condescending, and yet its effect is undeniably medicinal...or at least, that of a temporary shelter. i once listened to this hiding in my family's car at my grandpa's funeral, avoiding all interaction or outside thoughts because my social, sensory, and emotional batteries had been so depleted. there are few albums that would have worked as well...its soft on you but it still Fills All The Space, it blocks everything out without being overwhelming or demanding. just kinda makes me think ab the miracle of art in general...a small selection of ppl have an idea, manifest it in the universe, and then its just Out There, creating singular experiences they'll never know about. idk. leaves me a little in awe. the worth of a work is not measured purely by how many contexts it "works" in, but in that category, just ab nothing comes close to this if ur asking me.
Iggy Pop
5/5
the writeup in my copy of the book makes the interesting observation that this record is what iggy was making while punk rock, which he's a godfather of, was getting started in earnest. obviously the same proclivities of stooges-era iggy arent at all Hidden here but through his own evolving sensibilities as bolstered by bowie collaboration, i end up thinking about his past a lot less often then i thought about like, the velvet underground while listening to transformer. he just sounds like a self-existent idiosyncratic wild rock guy on here...totally memorable and cool tbh! i love the buoyancy of the material here, the somewhat uncanny album cover ends up being much more of a compliment than i had expected going in. a wonderful wonderful listen all around..just a great and reckless but still Approachable and Considered display of capital r capital m Rock Music. complete with the sexualization of teenagers! every box has been checked!
Jethro Tull
4/5
im rly curious about earlier tull records, ive heard some of the songs and theyre rly good, more than that tho theyre v Different from this record in a way that suggests that jethro tull hadnt quite found their full idiosyncrasies yet as a borderline Contrarian prog band (they would after this make the semi-parodic thick as a brick). for better or for worse imo...i rly rly like this record, and musically i have no complaints, but as someone who rly loves prog in all its flashy fantastical Everything, its clearly not For Me in some ways. but the upside is that this rly is just a v distinct and memorable record...harder edged than most stuff in the genre while also deploying those acoustic and flute sounds, aiding in this sketch of a world that is physical and gritty and fucked up and extremely un-escapist by prog standards. ian anderson snarls out judgemental character studies and religious traumadumping with one of the most acidic, malignant voices ull hear on classic rock radio. its all very fun all things considered...it rocks Hard, and while sharp turns and reversals usually are not my thing in prog they add to the uniquely jagged quality here...dig the way the flute introduction crashes into the banger main riff on cross-eyed mary, or any number of other relationships between instrumental breaks and "song" parts. a nice familiar listen on this, the last day of my First Year doing this project thing. not a lot of space for reflection here lol ill just say that i havent missed a day and ive not Once felt the compulsion to stop! i can do anything!!
Shivkumar Sharma
5/5
the hindustani classical (and adjacent stuff like ananda shankar) that ends up on this list is an interesting phenomenon, partly because western classical is entirely ignored by the list, partly because connections to western popular music (being loved by george harrison et al) is clearly the main justification for them. whats cool tho about this one in particular is how well it pulls its traditional structure onto the LP format, two sidelongs with three main parts each that certainly fit in with the kinds of development ive seen in the other recordings of this kind ive heard...but all melded together into a genuinely rly well realized suite concept about the daily life of a shepherd. u can hear the sun rise at the beginning and the stars twinkle at the end and inbetween is a greater amount of activity but it ebs and flows, mostly emphasizing the pastoral beauty of the shepherd's work. it fits rly well with my general experience of this music, not being able to so much comprehend the structure beyond the very broad strokes i mostly hear the timbre itself As the composition, which is a very present-feeling way to listen to music that also obviously goes very well with the imagery here. ig what im getting at is that i dont mind hearing hindustani classical presented in a kitschy or overtly westernized way (tho i suppose im not the person to ask), i did genuinely love that ananda shankar record. but even with the use of flute and acoustic guitar itself feeling a bit western oriented, this doesnt rly feel compromised at all to me, just a rly rly good translation of these traditions into something that works not just functionally but Expressively with this new LP technology. its rly kind of a creative triumph! and great great music ofc
Van Morrison
4/5
van morrision has kinda torpedoed a previously unassailable stature (i remember when astral weeks was a staple in the rym top 100!!!) by being a bigass chud, and also i just think a general move away from blue eyed soul stylistics in the gaze of the online nerd music canon. still, having not rly had a chance to establish a relationship with his music until after all these shifts have happened, i definitely liked this well enough and can see the seeds of his following. my only real past experience w/ van morrision is listening to astral weeks when i was a teenager and having his voice hurt my ears (much in the same way bob dylan's used to), but obviously im now receptive to the cool qualities of it, it rly is genuinely gritty and emotive and more than anything its Sincere, with zero posturing or smugness or condescension towards the material (which really i think is where a lot of similar vocalists go wrong for me). and the songs themselves are lovely and punchy...not something that immediately becomes part of me, but i can understand why it would for some. i definitely owe astral weeks another shot sometime, there is clearly still some Pleasure to be gotten for me out of his music. even if he is a bigass chud.
The Undertones
4/5
maybe a shortage of big classics (actual or Deserved), but on the whole rly difficult not to smile all the way through. hyper-melodic, good-natured (even if occasionally lyrically macabre), and extremely irish...just about no ambitions whatsoever beyond momentary amusement and bounces and its hard not to respect something so wholly adequate on its own terms! mostly im just thanking my lucky stars whenever an band on this list that i dont recognize isn't br*tish
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
4/5
did my best to get at least a cursory understanding...this is an early commercial success for salsa, which on the whole is a much more recent genre than i would have guessed, with rly strong roots in nyc jazz clubs. i think whats most interesting to me here is the combined emphasis on loose Sustained structures for improvisation and dance together with a clear spotlight on ruben blade's lyrics, wasted on me ofc but many sources helpfully provide summaries of the general content ...a lot of commonplace and aspirational latin american stories. ive also seen rumblings that blades at least occasionally improvised verses, which i cant rly confirm obviously but which does add to this interesting incorporation of a lyrical focus into music that at least on the surface doesnt seem rigid at all, considering rigidity is where language tends to Live in music. im prob missing something about how this all works lol but its a good album, predictably i enjoyed it more than anything from a jazz angle. im unsure how much salsa there is on this list generally, but i am curious about its later, more "commercial" forms...tho i suspect this configuration would remain my favorite or at least close to it, i like jazz too much
Talking Heads
5/5
ive said it before but i rly just need to do an actual listening project for talking heads where i take full time for all their records, but even on cursory revisit its impossible not to be swept up in this little bundle of delights...bryne's hilariously prosaic proclamation that the band aimed to make "good music in a song format" feels like it explains things that i cant articulate. every track is a bundle of musical and thematic ideas u wouldnt Think to make songs out of, presented with an equal uncanniness and warmth, hyper-perception of tiny details that overwhelm into a fuzzy haze...peak autism ofc! ultimately im a little boring, as i do prefer the eno-enabled expansion of the band's palate (cranking up the uncanny side of the slider, and somehow becoming a lot more emotionally transfixing for me in the process), but cmon man its talking heads. for a good while they were just bursting with nonstop good ideas, no matter the size of their canvas
Leonard Cohen
5/5
a slight bit of redundancy in the b side imo, or at least a demonstration that cohen's musical vocabulary at this point had a few distracting limits...note tho that im saying this within the boundaries of all the musical austerity which still pays off amazingly. cohen's lyrics are a lot weirder and squishier than i remembered but theres almost always some kind of emotional or sensory component that sets off a domino and creates an overall effect thats genuinely difficult to describe...more desperate and Fleshy than dylan but at times even more inscrutable. whenever a slight change in arrangement happens it feels like the tide rushing in.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
probably a much weirder and more unweildy album listening experience than the likes of superfly but still great individual parts. if it succeeds in communicating the vision of anything its a looser, more improvisational approach to film scoring as opposed to constant attentive control...lots of songs are jams on a theme, with one particularly long one near the end that im v curious about as to if and when it appears in the movie. and the themes themselves are great too ofc...apart from the jams theres also a tiny selection of great vocal cuts and a variety of smaller sketch tracks that are as precise and tight as anything. kind of a weird entry but hard to deny the greatness of this type of music executed on this level, no matter the somewhat strange context or presentation
The Dandy Warhols
5/5
rly rough day today so i rly couldnt take anything that would be a challenge, thankfully despite my lack of current articulative ability i happened to roll this Melodic, Eclectic, Sound-Focused Rock Album so im playing total easy mode. not rly able to form thoughts or words but this was wonderfully inviting and comfortable...lots of great little sounds, lots of yummy tunes, and lots of great overall pacing through which the different Types of songs can be deployed. im sure ill enjoy it even more if i listen a bit more lucid, but dont let my terseness undersell just how pleasing of an experience this was
The Killers
4/5
kind of hard to fully evaluate something so infamously frontloaded, but the frontloading is less about Song Quality (tho that is the end result) and more about actual eccentric and creative Ideas...theres a uniqueness and slightly unhinged vitality to those first five songs that make them feel like the product of creative mavericks. the rest of the tracks are Merely delivery vehicles for what is a pretty cool sound and palate all things considered...i still rly like the melody twists, the band's taste in synth textures and when to deploy them is extremely azzycore, really the whole production is warm and fuzzy and interesting, definitely a different direction for the pollination of post punk and arena rock that also produced u2. yet there is certainly little Rock Star Energy here, even in the sentimental guru bono-ish way...its mostly just cranked up ugly neurosis and feelings that dont make sense and strange moments that are hard to process, brandon flowers always sounds At The Mercy of the surrounding music and even his own words. funnily enough, its a little bit talking heads in that way. for what it is, i like it a lot, limitations and all. im not denying the all-timerness and personal emotional imprinting for mr brightside, what do you think i am, not white???
Morrissey
2/5
look, say what you want about morrissey. does he have shitty bigoted beliefs? of course. but does he have an engaging personality? well no obviously he seems like a piece of shit ghfjsdgh. but does he have an engaging Art Image? well also no! unless a british coat of paint on tim burton-esque solipsistic faux-outsiderness becomes interesting to u with a dash of racist white queer for fun and flavor. but can he Write A Song...fuck no dude!!!! he's gotta be one of the most terminally aimless, shapeless, tuneless writers to stumble their way into the canon. well yaknow what fuck morrissey, at least johnny marr is here to..oh its a solo record. hm.
(genuine credit where its due for the vast increase in dense and intricate and moody arrangements, picks right up from strangeways [my fave smiths record] and helps to compensate for the lack of the rest of the band. genuinely sounds great, very good gothic romantic appeal that id probably love if there were any vocal melodies at all, or a remotely compelling central presence at the heart of it)
Black Sabbath
5/5
feels in a way like all the tricks of heaviness and shape that were honed on paranoid/mor being taken back and reimplemented into the more winding and fantastical vibes of the debut, less b-horror movie this time but still a bit of that mario bava swag. the song style they honed on the last two records are essentially still recognizable as Riff Rockers (even if in the process they were writing the beginnings of the playbook for metal song composition writ large), everything is a bit more colorful and complicated here...maybe the most Accomplished songs of the first four records. for all its relative monotony tho i do prefer master of reality slightly, and i think part of it is how that record just totally nails its pacing to place every track in the most flattering possible light. theres only two "outlier" tracks on here, a ballad and a weird experiment, and while i dig them, i kinda wish there were more of them and they were more dispersed thru the whole album rather than just being lumped together at the end of side 1. maybe slightlyyy less than the sum of its parts for me in that perspective, but this rly is their most structurally and melodically vibrant material to this point. ive yet to fully revisit the next two albums, but ive been happy to take ozzy's memory as a chance to re-familiarize myself with sabbath's classic records, which on the whole are even better than i remember
The Smiths
2/5
EAT MY ASS RNG MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i have attempted to Get the widely and apparently easily beloved smiths record the queen is dead what has to be close to a dozen times over the time ive been into music, and ig ive made some progress? but often in a one stop forward three steps back sort of way where i increasingly lose patience with the supposedly blindingly self-evident virtues. its not something that happens often for me!!! i understand mass appeal, i understand Music Nerd Appeal, yet the smiths at least on a musical level remain near impossible for me to conceptualize the draw of. i think i genuinely prefer the morrissey solo record i just got for its lavish arrangements...johnny marr is cool but he aint That cool im sorry! my eternal stumbling block tho is the utterly inscrutable delivery of the vocal melodies, which after so long trying to even Understand the smiths on a base level, still make me feel like im the only person who hasnt been let in on a crazy elaborate society-wide lie....maybe it rly is the timbre of his distinctive but painfully terse and dry voice, it smushes and swirls everything together in a way that makes it impossible for me to pick out any actual Notes...theres no shape, no brightness, no color at all, its all the same neverending string of beige, with only the occasional repetition of words alluding to the band's supposed pop power. and since i couldnt give less of a shit ab the lyrics even if i Wanted to dislike the smiths as much as i do, idk theres just nothing for me here besides my appreciation for the timbre of a good jangly guitar...and thats not nothing, but certainly doesn't counter my frustrations. i dont wanna have this kind of utterly bewildered op anymore, ive come around on similarly oddly unintuitive stuff for me, i like ok computer now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but i rly dont think Any artist has so furiously resisted my engagement, left me feeling so entirely unrewarded, all while having the knowledge that i should be able to at least Understand something this beloved In The Abstract even if i dont personally feel it, and yet i dont! at all! fucking ugh.
Jeff Buckley
5/5
a couple of production proclivities and stylistic cross-pollinations indicate that this was in fact recorded in the early 90s but other than that im not sure theres much overtly tethering this to Any decade, at least on this planet. but im not sure i wanna use such otherworldly language anyway...i can imagine hearing this as a Mystical record but its very grounded and specifically sensory to me, every song is a lived-in room with a bunch of scattered objects that tell u a little something about the people who spend time there. jeff's voice is far too full of character and thoughtful choices to be written off the way some people write it off, he's gotta be doing something right if he can take on a song i know from nina simone and have me not come out the other end disappointed. never been one of my very very favorite albums personally but its involving and moving and Singular from front to back, its got a ton of space for the listener while being vibrantly specific and expressive, definitely an album you Visit in the same way i visit the likes of yankee hotel foxtrot. it certainly Should be a lot of people's very very favorite album
Orbital
4/5
a few circumstances of compromised receptiveness to the outside world are making it extra hard for me to form thoughts ab stuff i have very little language for in the first place but i still had a v good time. ig my main observation is just how unexpected the sources of some of the rhythmic power are, theres always a lil bit more shape than just a regular drumbeat. theres a quirky and vaguely dark edge to the whole record, which reading about it does come in that moment in history where the uk was attempting to legislate rave culture out of existence. theres impish rebellion, a bit of fearfulness, and a lot of beauty ofc
U2
4/5
yet another u2 album that comes at a pivot point in their career that i dont understand cuz im not familiar with u2 lmao...tho i do know enough about the general perception of rattle and hum to understand the ways in which this sharpens and hardens what was beginning to be perceived as bloated and overly soft. in that way ig its maybe not quite the winding floaty Sincere To A Fault stuff that most hits my personal buttons as far as U2 goes, but a slightly less lush and dreamy u2 album is still p lush and dreamy by most ppls standards, and i like this! as per usual, its more an instinctive and vague feeling of enjoyment then anything that grabs me by the throat (so fucked up of me that Coldplay is the disciple of U2 that most does that!), but this flew by with panache in my ears. since i dont buy into any of the larger aesthetic objections to U2, if i was gonna hate them it would have to come down to their actual music, and while ive never heard a U2 record ive loved i havent heard one ive hated either. how can u turn down the icons of everyones favorite genre, The Big Music....
Garbage
4/5
somehow a lot more lowkey than i remembered...a wonderfully distinct pairing of the fluffy pink cover and sensual feminine quality thats always being basked in with something kind of dark and understated and rumbling. very cool aesthetic, very cool songs, if maybe for me personally a bit much to take 50 minutes of at once but that could just be a mood thing. lots of breath and air and shadows and lights reflected in puddles....kind of urban but with way more space than that implies yk. and rly rly impressively well-realized for a debut too...its a lot like murmur in that it sounds like it should be album four or five yk?????
The Vines
4/5
the music on this record is good but its probably mostly a symbol as to just how fickle the longevity of the extremely short lived garage rock revival was. my copy of the book doesnt have this one, which makes it pretty obvious that it was in maybe one or two editions closer to when it came out and was quickly swapped out once history started setting in. ig its a bit like that libertines record i got a while ago, tho i think i might like this one better just by virtue of the fact that its tighter and more diverse which makes it a bit less exhausting...u get to hear the trendy strokes worship swirled with some mccartney-aspiring pianos right next to some punky aggressive tracks with that acid-tinged grungy lead vocal. a littleee in one ear and out the other, Is This It is an album that seems rly easy to replicate until u actually try, but its a worthy effort i think!!! totally pleasant slab of wax
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
an album u clearly need to spend a long time building up a big involved relationship with and cut your own path through, which i have not done because ive spent all the smashing pumpkins listening time in my life with only siamese dream. inevitably i get lost in here but not in a bad way...it would be one thing if i just got more and more exhausted over time but the record's world is so expansive and so attention-grabbing that its more like i wandered aimlessly and was only occasionally able to take full note of my surroundings. but the surroundings are always There, yaknow. on the whole, its hard not to be taken by the totemic aesthetic power of this thing...at 70 or 80 minutes it might have been bloated, but at 120 the sheer length of time u spend in it adds a whole new dimension to every individual track. even without a dense personal history, seeing oft-dismissed emotions treated with such seriousness and grandiosity is the kind of thing that makes art feel like its reaching out to help Me, Specifically. intensely moving, really.
Dinosaur Jr.
5/5
i spent years confusing this band with T. Rex, a group they share neither a genre nor even a Decade with but do share dinosaur-flavored names. anyway, this is kind of the cutest album ever! a lot of that comes down to j mascis' vocal style and presence, a surprisingly soft center considering he can work in the Rock Singer Idiom, but the whole sensation of extremely bright and immediate melodies cutting through all the fuzz is just a rly snug and comfy one. and the melodic sensibility rly is just often sweet....some jangles and sparkles bubble their way to the top of the guitars, and theres more bubblegum in some of the vocal melodies than some would expect (people who dont know the ramones, anyway). a personally vital image evoked by all this: staring at a pouring thunderstorm through the window. wonderful record!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! made me very happy
Pretenders
4/5
coming out months before remain in light, theres something kind of similar in the side a/side b setup here, where tightly controlled bangers give way to something more uncanny and expansive. in both cases full of great songwriting ideas and more than anything just gives plenty of space for chrissie hynde's vast voice, managing the warmest punk snarls youll ever hear. hynde is embarrassed about her old days writing half-baked philosophical drivel and nonsensical tirades" for nme but like many of these new wavers i can see the connection between that and the desire to make music Wider and Deeper, big lofty ideals given form that is "mundane" in the best way possible...jittery, jangly, joyous, and probably other words that start with j too
Air
5/5
a band so french they make sure to tell you so on the front cover! rly tuned on the perfect wavelength of earnestly forward looking, old enough for that forward looking to be kitschy, but so aesthetically powerful that it still feels like it could point to a potential future anyway. writing about architecture and morality for rym some months back i proposed that its blissfulness pointed to a Utopia rather than a Paradise because a Utopia still has room for all the pain and complications of Human Behavior and Interaction, and i feel much the same here. emotionally subtle but rly gripping i think,,,,lil shades of feeling and experiences all over. all wrapped up in some absoloutely killer low-key pop tunes, prob The record to study if ur trying to write something in that vein. another record i slightly bounced off back when i first heard it but man it rly hits the spot now! an unassuming masterpiece
Koffi Olomide
4/5
with this album, its even easier to find rumblings of discontent ab the methodology with which this list has selected african records than it was with the khaled record i got a bit ago, and even not knowing what the more authentic version sounds like i Do hear the late 80s/early 90s western pop production-isms that i suppose could mesh weirdly with the more local song structures. whether such criticism is more owed to the artists or to the curators of the book, or how much its even due at all, im not the one to ask ab that, but as far as actual music goes i like this one! tho i liked the khaled record even more so u dont gotta trust me ig. i started off thinking that maybe the song tradition this is pulling from ,which starts with a more melodic and vocal focused first half before breaking into a dance-oriented second part (often with encouraging vocalizations) would be a bit exhausting for a full record and it sort of is, but theres a lot more divergences in shape than that lets on, including some lovely full length ballady songs (which are extra sellout-y and westernized i suppose but i rly like them lol). should probably check out some of this guy (and khaled's) other records for a less constrained picture, but just as much i think this is plenty fun and sunny and often beautiful. hilarious and amazing album cover too...it takes inhuman confidence to pull off those pants.
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
p much everything i said ab the debut still applies, but everything is a bit tightened up, more rock-oriented, and generally a bit more coherent in terms of central Song Ideas. lots of delightful classics on here, and while there is a divide between them and the rest of the tracks its hard to articulate....i suppose ill just have to fall back on Same Strengths, Just Not As Strong? incredibly fun, obviously! enough vision and talent and energy to make five minutes of aerosmith tolerable!
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
5/5
honestly took a little bit for me to settle in, and perhaps the actual songwriting is not always the most immediately grab-me-by-the-throat stellar (tho it could just be the morrissey taste coming off the vocals, impressive given the smiths debut was the same year). but my barriers could never survive this kind of jangly, emotive pop music for long...i lack for specific observations (beyond being delighted to learn of the source of that camera obscura song) but this is a type of album i could listen to a hundred of and still prob find vibrantly comforting and emotionally prickly. i do get the feeling it deserves more coherent listens from me tho....it feels like theres enough musical and lyrical detail that it would be rewarding to experience as something other than a big warm blob. but its a nice blob anyway!
Beth Orton
4/5
took me like half the album to actually get into the mood for the album i was listening to, which u would think would doom the whole thing but im willing to believe that the whole album Is as good as the chunk that hit me the hardest and my brain was just being stupid. wonderfully watercolor singer-songwriter stuff w/ trip hop and folktronica being used to break down the fences that mark out the Obvious way these songs "should" be done. creative and precise but still lots of air and nothing overly flashy...and rly rly beautiful once i was able to fully give myself over to it instead of just letting it drift by. which is v easy to do ofc, but u get out what u put in yk!
The Clash
4/5
as passionate and melodic a slab of punk rock as can make me wonder why anyone bothers listening to the sex pistols. most everything here is a great and subtly intricate shout-along, by the time u get to police & thieves (the big stab at creative Ambition) it feels weirdly un-jarring cuz everything else has already done such a fine job introducing u to every instrumentalist's strengths...thus the Scalability of the sound is revealed, it can be tight and economic just as much as it can be decompressed and hypnotic. im not entirely green to the clash ofc but im glad this was the first record of theirs i ended up rolling for this project...will be nice to have this background in recent memory whenever i get to their more eccentric stuff,,,maybe its just speaking with the benefit of hindsight, but it does feel weirdly inevitable!
Boston
4/5
i always forget just how Early this album came compared to the other stuff that could be described as meat and potatoes aor. far more oriented towards Rock And Roll than pop or hair metal. it makes it distinct from its descendants, but maybe not the most distinct as music unto itself...if anything those more "generic" offshoots of AOR actually expanded the possibility space, just about everything here sounds roughly the same especially in melodic style. still its a fine thing to have a slab of....i used to kinda hate peace of mind fsr but my slow transformation back into a classic rock critter makes it a lot more tolerable these days, and everything else is good and catchy and shiny (yet with some amount of grit and libido still) in comfortingly predictable ways. foreplay/long time is genuinely great....even without the intro, its rly dense with musical ideas in a way i never fully picked up on before. the inverse is more than a feeling, which has exactly one minute of an idea but the idea is fine enough that its allowed to be repeated a few times. everything else is good too!!! a fine night on the town. or sweltering walk at noon in texas, in my case
The Cars
4/5
another day another ahead-of-the-curve 70s dad music classic where the first three songs are inescapable big hits...conceptual continuity! my biggest revelation sitting down to listen to this record in serious earnest is that its somehow like five passes of Deliberate Annoyingness away from just being sparks...its incredibly yelpy, staccato, shout-a-long pop tunes where every beat and offbeat is its own Event. very bouncy, VERY catchy, so energetic and jubilant that honestly its not exactly that im fully receptive towards rn.,...summer depression is dulling my sense of fun immeasurably. but its a clearly great and almost impossibly tight record on its own terms...a very very memorable slice of jittery sunshine. gotta love the synth tones on here.
The Damned
4/5
another day another eccentric 70s punk album??? conceptual continuity????? this one makes the clash debut sound downright normal (tho perhaps not some of the clash's other records), something like the first half of it has all these bizarre pastichey arrangement ideas locked and loaded for maximum destabilization...almost feels like ur listening to a ween record. it pulls itself back together after a certain point for a back half thats less kooky but often hypnotic and beautiful...theyre out here making five minute songs on a punk album. to be honest im not sure how well the whole structure comes together for me...it makes theoretical sense, but at least on a first listen its difficult to parse the effect (by far the hardest thing to do as well as ween is album sequencing). its also a bit hard to making a sweeping overall description of considering how often it switches things up, its almost like i have to name every song on the record. i can tell you the best song is a shockingly gorgeous, driving, and gleaming tribute to plan 9 from outer space, but that feels incomplete without mentioning it is Immediately Preceded by a bizarre circus-based groove song that laughs itself to death. done a disservice by the one-of first impression format im using for this project, but id love to chew on this one more...its undeniably a Ride
Stan Getz
5/5
impeccable and Immediate bossa nova, a case in which my inability to articulate much ab the music doesnt feel like because its beyond my grasp (tho ofc i didnt follow every nuance or whatever) but because it feels so self-evident. beautiful, patient, but economical delivery of some rly gorgeous melodies from some absurdly great musicians. i dont encounter getz often but im always taken aback by the warmth and joy of his saxophone. "background music" in the best way possible...as uninsistent as it is interesting, a level of cool confidence capable of evoking all these little waves of emotion. a great record to just Fill Your Ears.
LTJ Bukem
4/5
as i write this i still have like a half hour left in this album, but unless they stop putting ambient pads on top of breaks anytime soon i think its safe to assume the last chunk wont shift my opinion too much. all i can rly say is that this is a lengthy but remarkably consistent dj mix...i feel like just about every track is good enough for me to take notice of it at least once even as the lengthy runtime makes my brain start to ooze out of my ears a little. the more club music i listen to the more convinced i become that autechre never stopped making club music, they rly have been my main way into a lot of this stuff...confield is basically just this with extra steps
Goldfrapp
4/5
the biggest cult indoctrination vibes on a lowkey pop album this side of the beach boys' Friends. some lyrics like those on Happiness almost literalize this, but even without those, theres something kind of freaky about how little this is vying for your deliberate attention...like its trying to sneak something past you, or seep into your subconscious while u dont notice. the subtle colors that are here are very naturey and mythical...and occasionally something does totally grab my brain as an extremely beautiful pop song. seemingly designed to be slight, but clearly very artful, and for all that ive said its certainly never boring
Sarah Vaughan
5/5
none of the readings here are revelatory, but theyre all wonderful and warm and atmospheric. vaughan has charisma for days and the venue is captured vibrantly... from its space, the sounds of its patrons, occasional clinks of glass, the time taken for lengthy mellow piano stretches. vaughan all but opens the record by playing off an unexpected extension like a champ, and ends the record by improvising lyrics and scatting to how high the moon. that rly sums up the whole experience of this thing...transparent, transporting, casual, comfy, a series of things just falling effortlessly into place. this would sound good in just about any context i could imagine
Black Sabbath
5/5
a couple surprises here...i havent rly been feeling music that much the past week or so, rarely listening to albums that arent my daily from this project, and i also thought i was comfortable in my opinion on this record due to revisting it very recently in the wake of ozzy's death. but this kinda hit me like a bolt fhsdajhsdj an easy bump up to a perfect score and probably just barely behind master of reality as my favorite sabbath now. the infamous tritone riff on the title track is so screamingly simple and yet so unbanal that it feels like something that was discovered rather than created...its no wonder that tbh, iommi never did anything quite like it again. but what he does do is have one of the most vibrant, recognizable, satisfying, and addictive musical vocabularies of any rock guitarist, and there is no better record to just roll around in that fact that this album's loose and liquid expanse. ozzy comes out the gate perfecting his presence that uses its campiness to increase its urgency and uncanniness, filtering embryonic Rock Star tropes through a kind of earnest Acting that could be directed by george romero. geezer is one of the coolest bassists out there (and ofc the creative nucleus of the band in many ways), and bill ward makes a great argument for being possibly my favorite rock drummer of the 60s or 70s. everyone is on the same aesthetic page, every song gives everyone a chance to lock together yet also show a great deal of autonomy, and the sound itself is one of the greatest creative accomplishments in the history of recorded music. without being traditionally "flashy", its effortlessly dramatic and involving even beyond the more overt atmosphere on the title track. close to the best album cover of all time, too
Mylo
5/5
intensely lovable, warm, sometimes adorable handcrafted dance songs in pop song lengths and structure. if for some reason ur not into whats happening rn, ur never more than a few minutes away from the next idea...tho given how consistent the strengths are im not sure how likely that even is. extremely pastel music, a subtle palate made hooky enveloping, way better then i was expecting tbh! a great midpoint between Introverted and Extroverted dance music, if that makes any sense
The Monkees
5/5
the biggest creative control given thus far to the prefab four, to quietly miraculous results. the songs are adorable, humble, sometimes disarming, and so shockingly varied that it nearly manages a white album sprawl in 30 minutes without any overt genre pastiches. really, it hardly "breaks" the boundaries of this kind of 60s bubblegum at all, it just reveals so much unexplored space within those boundaries. as authentic music as a "fake" band ever mustered
Stereolab
5/5
this was the most recent record i got obsessed with before my current relative music drought, further proof that this site has me bugged. its wonderful ofc, and im glad i get to talk ab it in a state of reflection more than raw reaction. i had a thought in my early listens of this record that it captured my beliefs, which is true in some sense, but its more that it captures Why i believe them. its so vibrant and joyful and creative and never feels constrained or stiff at all, but its also precise metronomic (ayy) clockwork propelling everything forward...its a strangely cogent musical expression of the record's marxism as a kind of inevitable advancement powered by Numbers and Mathematical Inevitability (a pillar thats often under-explored even by leftists). this also speaks somewhat to the post-cultural ideological expression of krautrock i suppose, but stereolab makes the optimism unmissable by pouring incredibly sweet pop elements all over it to bubble all the hope and unfettered harmony with The World As It Actually Functions to the surface. an irresistibly golden disc, and one of my new very very favorite albums. (quick addendum: i listened to this on a walk, and it didnt last me the whole walk home. in an attempt to keep my music energy rolling beyond my daily album, i decided to throw on There's A Riot Goin On, which has some shockingly similar musical appeal but also that coked-out emotional and sensory numbness as a stark contrast. very cool double feature!)
Grateful Dead
4/5
box of rain is the kind of song where the fact that its so intricate and dense kind of dawns on you rather than being unavoidably announced...i dont have enough experience with the wider ethos of the grateful dead to meaningfully place it on any sort of scale, but it does feel like a strange bridge between their sprawling live sensibilities and their more straightforward songwriting. its a fascinating overture to the rest of the record, which is just about the most grounded music ull hear that also has Hippie Energy this strong...firmly planted in the earth, very sturdy, very comfy. even outside the live stuff, they had a genuinely unique aesthetic, which is impressive given how unassuming it is...just like box of rain i suppose, and perhaps a consistent strength of the dead at least from what ive heard
The Modern Lovers
5/5
a powder keg of near instant memorability....the minimalism hammers every refrain home and brings so much clarity to the central creative ideas. some crazy bangers, and some deeply uncanny stuff as well. would be great on its own, but its rly put over the top by the singularity and utter Weirdness of jonathan richman, out here recording proto punk five years before the ramones debut (tho it ended up released the same year) yet approaching the stark minimalism not in the context of rebellious subversion but a chasing of, as he repeatedly puts it, the Old World. some of the lyrics are so square that they become dangerous objects when combined with the Sharpness of the songs. elvis costello scribbled notes during this record like his life depended on it.
Metallica
4/5
ive always thought this was vastly better than ride the lightning, which is funny considering its one of the most shameless examples of a band copying their own homework, with every song having a RTL equivalent sequenced in almost entirely in the same order. honestly on closer inspection, i think it might be a case of Less Bad rather than More Good, for as down as i kinda am on it RTL does have a lot of fine raw musical ideas and i think in a direct song for song comparison theyre mostly pretty close to eachother. but the two big weakness of RTL for me, the production and james' vocals, are both improved pretty starkly here. the production honestly still aint no great shakes (slayer outsells) but its not a weakness, and james still isnt perfect (honestly i think his vocals are one of the only things ab metallica that actively improved as they went on) but he's clearly found his style and is comfortable in it. i feel like ive been v complainy here lol and yea metallica aint my favorite thing unless theyre kicking with lou reed. but it Is hard to deny songs this good...metallica's secret weapon of being more based in the rock songwriting idiom then metal is at its most vindicated here. my fave is thing that should not be, the equivalent to for whom the bell tolls which is probably also my favorite on RTL...the band giving themselves room to breathe is very flattering on them, i almost wish they had done some fully Doomy stuff at some point. but p much everything here is Some sort of classic,,,for whatever else i think ab it, RTL was a good album structure and formula, so an even more confident and refined iteration is a pretty guaranteed smash. its hard not to laugh whenever i accidentally notice lars tho.
Serge Gainsbourg
4/5
obviously difficult to fully sanction but the tonal and aesthetic unity just about pulls it together for me. its so tense and repressed and fucked-up-sounding that i cant say the accusations of full romanticization hold up for me (at least without actually knowing the lyrics). more than that tho, it still manages to convey How and Why the protagonist feels , entirely through musical expression, and if its a classic just for its ability to replace ur own heart with that of a fucked up person, its well deserved for being so instantly readably understandable without knowing any french. its construction as a holistic piece is detailed, precise, and rly grabs u by the throat. still, id probably be better off just reading lolita yk...russians outsold the french
Stan Getz
5/5
man i dont know why i havent sought out more bossa nova on my own. it captures so many of the things i love about cool jazz, sometimes in an even more vibrant way. i have listened to this record quite a bit at least, and i always lose sight of the tracklist halfway through in the best way possible. slightly bittersweet, slightly numb, a comforting distance between me and an overwhelming outside world. a consistent slab of golden autumnal comfort...im so damn ready for summer to be over lmao. another contender for best album cover of all time...feels like a sequel to the Time Out cover (speaking of the cool jazz lineage), and honestly i think the palate enhances this record even more
Lauryn Hill
5/5
embarrassingly, my very first listen of this classic. just an absolute miracle on every level...one of the most masterfully dexterous records ive ever heard. on a surface level theres ofc lauryn's obviously hyper-versatility in singing and rapping, but theres also just a precision and color that effortlessly turns all the late 90s hip hop album "weaknesses" into strengths...its long but feels refreshing all the way through, and its built around a series of pseudo-skits that have to be close to the very best in the entire genre with how well they genuinely enhance and contextualize the music. and for all this, the lyrical content is kind of starkly un-grandiose...just a bunch of Emotional Truths given the most effortful delivery possible. in a weird way, maybe the most humble album that also loudly screams I AM A CLASSIC. glad to finally check this one off!
Sonic Youth
5/5
the most direct and rock-songwriting-oriented of the sonic youth albums ive heard recently enough to give an opinion on, which kinda makes sense seeing as how nevermind had been released in the gap between goo and this record. the two are definitely closely connected albums, and song-by-song everything is even more tightened up here...the vocals are by Far the most prominent of their records ive heard, theres no big expansive jams, and despite the overall length song lengths are relatively terse and oriented around big riffs. its very enjoyable and approachable and just Totally Great, tho at least on first brush its probably my least favorite of their records ive heard so far personally. i just prefer when theyre a little looser and more elemental, the focus on vocals means the whole 90s slacker apathy vibe is a lot more pronounced, which isnt my favorite thing in the world. but while they Were reacting to a decade of Overproduction and Decadence, theyre still making music that is as purely Massive as anything they were contrasting in the mainstream. and ofc as beautiful as a thungderstorm
Tricky
4/5
definitely not in the right mental state to write about or fully absorb music rn lol but this is a great album so ill squeeze out a couple thoughts. this record rly makes me think about trip hop's roots in dub, the Ascended Consciousness and Sense Of Possibility that comes with fucking around with a recording to make sounds that cant exist otherwise, its rly creatively rich. Dark Sensuality is a pretty common vibe for this kind of music but this record feels like it goes extra hard on both the Dark and the Sensual, a series of thrillingly on-edge sexual encounters. a great soundtrack to replacing god with the flesh. or maybe insisting that the flesh Is god.
a-ha
4/5
im Pretty sure that even under better circumstances these other songs wouldnt have managed to be take on me-sized hits , but honestly im not completely certain. the sun always shines on tv certainly deserves more flowers even in this universe. and otherwise, im kind of shocked at the level of consistency and emotiveness here! one of the secret sauces of take on me is the slightly broken english that takes on its own kind of emotional rawness, and thats a weirdly consistent strength here with the big yelpy vocals and even bigger sparkly synths. all the sounds here scratch my brain just right...i love synthpop baby!! and even if this was just a chance to listen to take on me this morning, there are worse justifications for records...its an easy song to take for granted, an active listen sometimes makes me cry
4/5
the rosetta stone of car commercials. at this point it feels like i could hear a million u2 records and have my feelings remain the same kind of Passively Positive...4.0 stars as far as the eye can see! ive hashed out a couple of my feelings ab the band in previous entries so theres not much left to say...except perhaps that my instinctively warm feelings towards their music are very much tied to both the earnestness and the sensory sparkles, and this record is a clear height for both. im not sure i even really agree with the frontloaded perception...the big singles are the best Songs but i care more for the Sound when it comes to U2, theyre a surprisingly loose band with lots of room for big space and ambience and melodic ambiguity, so the hardest-hitting songs arent necessarily my absolute faves...i get a comparable amount out of the last three songs! ig one last thought is that im not sure this type of "soulful" mainstream rock band exists anymore? okay maybe Mainstream Rock Bands dont exist anymore hgjsdghjsd but still, i genuinely kinda like creed for filling this niche, and even im not crazy enough to kinda like creed without liking u2 a lot more. i'd much rather ppl believe in their art to an embarrassing degree than act above it!
Tom Waits
5/5
i throw out the word Worldbuilding every now and then to describe particularly aesthetically cohesive or space-carving music but it scarcely feels less theoretical than on this record, with which even a cursory brush feels like ur wandering up and down a single street in the world's smallest, seediest port town. instruments weave in and out of the tracklist like reoccurring characters, like ah marimba always a pleasure to run into you, oh wow its banjo its been forever since i last saw you. to say nothing of tom's many voices (he always sounds like tom waits ofc but his versatility is underrated)! ive previously found the length of this a bit much but it felt perfect this time...long enough for sprawl, but short enough to not require the biggest mental commitment in the world. many of my fave pieces of art are simply Places You Can Go. time and downtown train always melt my heart
Baaba Maal
4/5
almost forgot to even listen to my album of the day cuz i was caught up playing ufo 50 HFJFHSJFS. but i pulled myself together to listen to this rly great record...endlessly lush, and so hypnotic that it makes me feel like the word "hypnotic" applies a little less to any other music ive applied it to. this rly is just trance-focused, with only a small amount of musical phrases and progressions looped endlessly per song,,,and the quality of them especially when paired with all the cool instruments theyre played on gives a record that scratches many of my itches nicely. also i usually take the album cover straight from the website when i upload these entries to social media, but i went out of my way to use the original, much better cover art for this one
White Denim
5/5
the title/band name/album cover combo did not pass the vibe check when i unveiled them and im kinda glad for it cuz i got to be fully shocked at how good this is HFJFHJFS like legit prob one of the best records ive gotten from the project that ive Never Heard Of Before. i expected some flash in the pan indie or garage rock and ig it is but it sets itself apart by packing the performances with colorful jam-band intricacy...while very few stretches could properly be called a Jam, there is a level of chops and creativity here that just constantly blew me away. combined with the incredibly warm, fuzzy production, i was just about in heaven for most of this. very very eager to revisit these winding, zippy, busy, yet wonderfully economical songs...comforting and exhilarating tbh! maybe i have a new band to check out!
Adam & The Ants
4/5
consciously slowed down and got a lot of rest today and almost forgot to even write ab this oops HJFHFSJKFS. its awsom and fun! the writeup of it in my copy of the book is amusingly slightly pissy in its framing of this record as a rejection of punk music's Aesthetic Conservatism and Anti Pop Sentiments and that feels like a strange thing to ascribe to any single record FHJSHJF but it does speak to its reckless, buoyant, jittery, and even Campy strengths...a lot of garishness that feels borderline glam...some theatrics, some great tunes, some creeping anxiety. a bit inherently hard to pin down but undeniably a super fun listen
George Jones
5/5
almost forgot to listen to this KGKHJ but its rly short so i was able to fit it in on my walk to work, which is where im writing this from so ill try to be brief lol. but this is possibly my fave traditional country record ive rolled so far?? rly enjoyed that buck owens record too and that might have better capital s Songwriting but jones has that commanding-yet-vulnerable dark chocolate voice down to a tee and he nestles in so emotively in these big lush slightly syrupy 70s nashville arrangements. the heartbreak songs r rich melancholy and the love songs feel like almost unattainable ideals and hyperbole. idk if he was specifically Goin Thru Somethin or if this is just something country lands on a lot, but its very enveloping presentations of very emotionally provocative material esp when taken as a whole...the most album-y country record ive yet rolled in that way
The Rolling Stones
3/5
at least two crushing lows that somehow punch their way to the top of the highly contested Most Racist Rolling Stones Moment (i gotta move somehow being their most insulting half-assed Black Musician Pastiche, and brown sugar being skipped by me after about 20 seconds because ive already spend too much of my life listening to that all-time-terrible shit), but i always find something to complain about even on rolling stones songs that are far less morally objectionable. for a certified stones hater like me, this definitely doesnt have the worst hit rate, in fact, the songs i love outnumber the songs i hate by one. bitch is an all-timer fun and bouncy stones rocker that assures me that im not Always too prudish for this band, moonlight mile is a surprisingly azzycore bombastic closer, and sister morphine is a pitch-dark vivid and powerful track that almost sounds like the velvet underground, featuring probably the only mick jagger vocal i unambiguously love. and while i dont dislike the first half of cant you hear me knocking, the second half's lengthy instrumental break is the clear star of the show, maybe even the whole album...maybe second only to merry clayton's solo spot on gimmie shelter as my favorite rolling stones moment. i suppose the records weakness and strength is that i feel most inclined to talk about it as a collection of songs and not an Album...im not sure it ever fully coalesces into anything more than the sum of its parts. but its parts are varied and surprising...all the way up thru the end, ur always capable of being hit by an actually creative idea. not my fave stones record (like that means anything coming from me anyway lol) but i can mostly see the appeal for ppl who dont want to strangle mick jagger whenever they hear him. and who dont know the lyrics to brown sugar ig.
Randy Newman
3/5
extremely unique and singular and Striking in a number of ways...extreme musical economy from the song structures to arrangements, newman's distinctive somewhat old-timey voice, but more than anything how the surface-level sappiness of both contrast with the content of the songs being buried in so many layers of tonal and dramatic irony. inevitably, this is what keeps me at a bit of a distance...despite occasionally prodding at some things from reality i wish he wouldnt reduce to a self-congratulatory abstractions, i suppose there is some inarguable cleverness to Just How Much newman commits to the bit in every song. but the fact that i rly cant reliably tell if Anything is supposed to be sincere here is just Not The Experience For Me...even an early track that seems like unadorned simplehearted religious faith is later upended by the pitch-dark anti-religious closing track, it makes the whole album feel Unreliable in a way that i guess is cool but is not terribly fulfilling for me personally. i am far too sentimental and sappy of a person myself to get much out of the uncanny skewering of these styles that newman does here. the universe does not revolve around me and my taste, and im happy that it doesnt. but yk, its all i can speak for
Stereo MC's
2/5
probably fine but im in way too much mental noise and nagging physical pain rn to deal with british rapping over Perfectly Okay but very repetitive dance beats. i dont usually like to be this flippant my apologies ghjsdghjsd