Masterpiece.

Godawful.

schlag schneller, schrei lauter schlag schneller, leb schneller bis zum Kollaps, nicht viel Zeit This had me tapping my foot the whole way through, I loved it and didn't mind the abrasive elements at all. I do speak German, which perhaps removes one mental barrier a lot of people have where they dismiss anything in a language they don't understand, but I also just found it a really compelling clusterfuck of noise. I knew the name Einstürzende Neubauten from the meme list of experimental musicians: "Merzbow, Boredoms, Gerogerigegege, Coil, Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, Nurse with Wound, Einstürzende Neubauten..." but this was my first time actually listening to them. I will definitely come back to this and explore more of their discography.

Peak 80s

This generator isn't going to change my mind on Paul Simon or Billy Joel, sorry.

I just don't like Paul Simon.

Rikki>Night By Night>Any Major Dude is an amazing opening run of songs, it drops off slightly but it's still great.

This is the first artist I've been assigned that I haven't listened to at all before. I quite like artists like Lucinda Williams and Tracy Chapman, or Adrianne Lenker, whose harmonies with Buck Meek sound a lot like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings here. I also love prolonged retellings of events like the Titanic sinking or the JFK assassination, interspersed with 20th century American musical history, i.e. Bob Dylan's "Tempest" and "Murder Most Foul". However, I found this album a little uninspired and plodding. I'm not American nor particularly steeped in country music, but my impression is that sonically and in terms of its clichéd references to Americana, it's not too distinct from a lot of mass produced country dross. Seven minutes into the final song, "I Dream A Highway", I'm beginning to doubt what I just wrote. I'll give credit for giving this song room to breathe, it's a great closer. Maybe the album would have flowed better for me with a few more energetic songs, bookended by the lovely languid "I Dream A Highway".

Millennials really cooked with this one.

Boomers really cooked with this one.

Those Swedes sure know how to make good pop songs.

I've never really listened to Nick Cave, I don't love this but it does make me want to listen to more of his output. He has a compelling personality and attitude.

Masterpiece.

Perfect, the first album I got on here that I had been listening to on repeat right before generating it. It also inspired me to watch Un chien andalou, which was pretty cool, so check that out.

Dreadful.

Cool concept, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

If not the best Radiohead album, the one I reach for the most.

Take Me Out and The Dark Of The Matinée are bangers, but the rest is pretty forgettable.

Fuck Off

First time listening to Beck other than the song Loser, me gusta.

Very cool, the kind of thing I wouldn't have come across without this list.

Not at all what I was expecting, having never listened The The but having vaguely categorised them as "post-punk" in my mind. I suppose that speaks to how amorphous that term is. The piano on Uncertain Smile and the percussion (and chanting) on Giant are the standouts.

Intro is great, don't care for the rest. I hate the breathy late 2000s/early 2010s vocals.

The greatest, and perfect for this time of year.

The generator gave me Disintegration by The Cure yesterday and Nick Cave today, feeling very goth in the lead up to Halloween.

Mannequin = catchiest song ever?

I had too much to dream last night is a good song title, but there's not much more to the album.

Enjoyed it more than I thought I would, it chugs along nicely.

Peak 80s

Great bass from Bruce Foxton, and I like the Kinksian social commentary.

It's no After the Gold Rush, but it's alright. The guitar on some of the songs stood out on first listen, I looked up the personnel and found out that Hendrix and Clapton played on this. That'll do it.

A pleasant listen, a charming time capsule of a 90s vision of globalisation, world music and polyglot vibes-based social commentary. The album flows well from track to track. Spanish textbook, Erasmus-core.

Tedious.

If you "don't like Bob Dylan's voice" you are weak.

Shit Pink Floyd. I like the outro to the last song, but it's a real slog.

George gets to be as indulgent as he wants, it's fine.

I don't get all the adulation for Queen. I think the maximalist, theatrical delivery rubs me the wrong way -- I can't connect with it emotionally at all. I think the cliché that Queen is the quintessential Greatest Hits band is right, no Queen song that I haven't heard ambiently a million times sticks in my head.

Smooth.

Rock and roll is here to stay.

Godawful.

schlag schneller, schrei lauter schlag schneller, leb schneller bis zum Kollaps, nicht viel Zeit This had me tapping my foot the whole way through, I loved it and didn't mind the abrasive elements at all. I do speak German, which perhaps removes one mental barrier a lot of people have where they dismiss anything in a language they don't understand, but I also just found it a really compelling clusterfuck of noise. I knew the name Einstürzende Neubauten from the meme list of experimental musicians: "Merzbow, Boredoms, Gerogerigegege, Coil, Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, Nurse with Wound, Einstürzende Neubauten..." but this was my first time actually listening to them. I will definitely come back to this and explore more of their discography.

Robert Wyatt and John Martyn kind of blended into one in my memory, I've had albums from both come up and I've not returned to either. This was pleasant, with some nice jazzy moments, but forgettable. I did appreciate the Dylan pastiche, and also love the reference to Roger Casement in that song. I'm tempted to bump the album up to 4 from 3 on the back of that, but I don't think I'll realistically come back to it much.

Perhaps not as good as Doolittle, but it's a brilliant and cohesive album in its own right. I think I also generally like rock songs about aliens/scifi stuff -- Bowie, Radiohead etc. The "demented surf rock" also chimes with Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon which I just read and loved (not seen the film adaptation).

COOKIE!

Irrespective of whatever bad things he did, this is pretty bloodless 2000s Americana, no bueno. I'd much rather listen to Summer of '69.

Pretty good overall, with some classic songs that really bring me back to the 10s like Shutdown and That's Not Me. It drags a bit in the middle - I wasn't a fan of It Ain't Safe or Numbers. God I hate Pharrell Williams, mainly for the crime that was Happy, though I didn't mind his production on this album too much. Apparently this beat Blackstar for the 2016 Mercury Prize. That's criminal. I enjoyed reading all the upset Yanks complaining about the "Bri'ish" in their reviews. Vine, Charlie Sheen Winning, Usain Bolt, X Factor. RETVRN.

It's a very strong folk album, and Atlantic City is the standout for me. I think Springsteen works best at his most bombastic and cheesy though, so I'd give this a 4 rather than the 5 of Born to Run.

Swinging.

This album/band has been a blind spot for me, but I have to say I'm underwhelmed on first listen. It's mostly pleasant, though I'm not a big fan of some of the squelching synths. I think if I had grown up with it, it might be more emotionally resonant with me, but the sentiment of e.g. Do You Realize?? comes across as platitudinous. It is a decent song, but not mind-blowing. My first listen was sober on speakers, my second listen drunk on headphones after winning £100 at a pub quiz raffle and being devastated by the loss of David Lynch, and the album still doesn't really do it for me, sorry.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

This a competent but overly polished and uninteresting stadium-ready Radiohead rip off, as many have already noted. Definitely not something you need to hear before you die.

RIP Shane

The second greatest American band, only behind the Beach Boys, and one of the strongest ever debut albums from anyone.

I remember my French teacher in secondary school playing Life on Mars in our lesson just after Bowie died, and I wasn't massively familiar with him. I had probably heard the hits, and knew his look on Aladdin Sane, but I wasn't a massive muso yet. I did listen to a few of his songs on repeat on Youtube (when I was 15 in early 2016) (this was before I listened to full albums on streaming services or physical media) -- I think Starman, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes and Lazarus from this album. I couldn't quite appreciate the decades of music leading up to this final swan song like people who had spent decades listening to him, but I loved the songs. It wasn't until years later that I "got into" Bowie along with many other Rock icons, listening to discographies, reading and watching documentaries etc. This made Blackstar hit much harder than before, and I remember early January last year (2024) being totally immersed in Bowie between his birthday and the day he died, something I repeated this year. The context does make this album more powerful, but it is also a brilliant jazzy art rock album. However you want to label it, it sounds great. I'm writing this review a few days after David Lynch died, an artist I became much more familiar with in the last couple of years before his passing, and whose death really hit me. We need to cherish our weird Davids, we've lost Bowie, Berman and now Lynch, now we've just got Byrne and Cronenberg (sorry if I'm forgetting, or not aware of any other cool weird dudes named David). I've had a run of albums I already know and love in the past few days, it would be cool to discover another great new artist through this generator soon (Stereolab is the totally new to me band I discovered through here and listened to most so far). The second I saw this album come up, I knew my score would be 5 (black) stars. Like David Bowie, I want to stay up to date with and open-minded about new music until the end, and maybe have an album I've never heard of win me over to 5 stars. The next album I get will probably be shit, though.

Maybe.

SEX!

It's okay, but it's "heavy but flat", like the Foo Fighters or some White Stripes. I don't love it. I do like Maps and Y Control.

Pleasant and inoffensive enough, but I didn't need an hour of it. It certainly isn't an album you need to hear before you die, though it is representative of a lot of shit that fills up airtime on smooth radio stations and pumps noise into shops, cafés and bars. Whatever. It was clearly meticulously and skilfully recorded and produced, so I won't give it 1 star. I'm going to listen to Einstürzende Neubauten to counteract all this bouba with some kiki. The review "Bang bang Maxwell's Urban Hangsuite" from 6 Nov 2024 made me laugh.

I haven't done a deep dive into the Talking Heads, I'm mostly only familiar with their hits like Psycho Killer and Once In A Lifetime. I quite liked most of this album, although a lot of the things I liked also strongly reminded me of other artists (David Bowie, Devo, Joy Division). I think it fizzles out towards the end, but it's still pretty good overall. I'm going to rate this 4 rather than 3 because I suspect it will grow on me. I'm also going to watch Stop Making Sense, that's apparently a good jumping off point for the Talking Heads. (I watched Stop Making Sense and it was great)

This album never clicked for me like The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A and In Rainbows -- those four Radiohead albums are clear 5s to me, and I've listened to those far more than this one or the others. Giving it another shot now: I still don't love it front to back, it's a little too subdued/sedated. Still very good though.

It felt wrong listening to Mr Brightside on a Monday morning and not in a sweaty student nightclub or some other place with a lot of alcohol involved. It's quite front-loaded, but the hits really hit. I just looked at the top review after writing the above. Judging from the use of "uni", I'm guessing they're British. Despite Brandon Flowers being American, I refuse to believe Yanks can vibe with Mr Brightside on the wavelength all British people seem to. It unlocks something in us. I finally figured out the line in Somebody ToldnMe is "I never thought I'd lead a rumour ruin the moonlight". I hadn't consciously thought about it, as most of the times I'd hear that song I could hardly be described as conscious, but in the back of my mind I would think "what the hell is a roomaroo in the moonlight".

I've had a few albums from groups I love recently, like Amnesiac by Radiohead and Led Zeppelin III, which I like, but not quite as much as other albums of theirs. Like those albums, this has some great songs, but also some strange choices which don't quite work for me. Nevertheless, I feel inclined to be generous because of who the artist is. Oh well, that might not be fair, but I think there is value in listening to everything you can by an artist, even the not-quite-heights. This is far from the most obscure or poorly conceived Bowie album though, it's still a great listen even if it's a step down from Ziggy Stardust.

Decent. I hear a lot of Stereolab and Animal Collective, two bands I got deeply into in 2024. I might come back to this, but I'll probably rather reach for the above bands or MGMT, LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip etc. instead. The allegations against the singer do dampen my enjoyment of the album, particularly for some of the self-pitying lyrics contrasted with his alleged behaviour. I might track down some of the other band members more recent projects though.

A lot of hip hop albums suffer from the increased runtime allowed by CDs, and I often can't be arsed, or simply don't have the time, to listen to 1 hour+ albums twice in a day, which I try to do for every album I rate. This is not one of those albums. It's a real tour de force, incorporating so many different elements so masterfully. I was levitating from start to finish. POWER MUSIC, ELECTRIC REVIVAL

Greatest album of all time by the greatest artist of all time - at least for me today. On other days it's The Times They Are A-Changin', Bringing It All Back Home or Blood on the Tracks.

"He made Graduation, he made MBDTF..." It's sad and pathetic what he's become, but the album is unimpeachable. Kanye's sexual and emotional pathologies are on display here, and in hindsight it's clear he was doomed. "21st Century Schizoid Man" is perfectly apt, Kanye is finely attuned to the spirit of the age, sadly we live in degraded and stupid times. Great craftsmanship endures, idiots like Trump and Musk will die. His regrettable later output and antics don't matter, this album rocks.

I think Billy Joel rubs me the wrong way for the same reasons Paul Simon does, their American kitchen sink realism lyrics and how they position themselves. I don't know how exactly to explain it, this posture of being a wise observer chronicling scenes from Italian restaurants or wherever else. The instrumentation doesn't work for me either, it's too Elton John. This kind of thing needs either someone with some edge (Harry Nilsson) or an absolute musical genius (Paul McCartney).

This generator isn't going to change my mind on Paul Simon or Billy Joel, sorry.

The music rocks, but I can't take Australians seriously in general, and definitely not when they're singing like this.

Another group I was only familiar with by name, and I was pleasantly surprised that this was a 4 rather than my expectation of 3. The guitar tones are great, it sounds Beatlesque at times without being a rip-off, and at other times it's its own, cool, thing.

c'est chic

Boom.

Not available on UK Spotify, I listened to some of it on YouTube. I get the idea.

The top review (at time of writing) calls this the Taco Bell of punk. That's a pretty good comparison, but I'd give it a 3 for that reason. Like Taco Bell, it tastes pretty good/gets you pumped up while eating/listening to it, but when shitting/thinking about the music afterwards, you realise it wasn't that great.

This is an artist whose name I've only seen, and I had no idea what to expect sonically. I loved it, understated but cohesive, unlike some lo-fi, pared back folk. Reading more about Will Oldham, I guess he was and is super involved with artists I love (and their legacies) like David Berman and Jason Molina (RIP both), so I probably should have listened to this earlier. They all have a shared sensibility I deeply relate to. The fact that people are rating this harshly because it's not available on Spotify... come on. Get real.

It's a solid album, combining alternative rock dynamics with an Americana twinge. I don't see it as the best album of 1993 though, sorry Michael Stipe. It feels too low-key and subdued to me, even when it rocks out. Nothing really sticks in my head after listening, although it is a pleasant listen. This might be a grower, and I might listen to Grant Lee Buffalo's other albums, but at the moment Fuzzy doesn't particularly stand out to me.

Bob Dylan described Johnny Cash as having a "voice from the middle of the earth". That's true, his voice is elemental. The prison setting is pretty unique, and it makes this record an incredible document. B.B. King, Big Mama Thornton and the Sex Pistols apparently did live albums in prisons too, but this might have been the first? 5 stars.

I miss when cool young people in New York were woke and not fascist weirdos for some reason. Unlike the often execrable genre "pop-punk", this album mixes pop and punk successfully.

I'd only heard I Believe in a Thing Called Love before. I didn't realise how similar Justin Hawkins' non-falsetto voice was to Robert Smith's. That was particularly clear and slightly unsettling on Friday Night. The album as a whole is pretty good if a bit one note, the guitar pyrotechnics do bring a smile to my face.

Coincidentally I listened to this album in full yesterday before being assigned it, and again today. I have listened to Ege Bamyasi and Future Days front-to-back a lot more than this one, owing partly to it being a double album, and partly to Aumgn and Peking O being a little too far out for me. I have played Halleluhwah on its own many times though. I thought at times that I had "got" those songs listening to them just now, but they still elude me, I think. I'll still give it five stars though.

I mostly listen to the 68-72 run of Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. from the Stones. I'm not as familiar with either the US or UK versions of Aftermath, and I'm not entirely sure which version I should be rating. I do know Paint It Black, and that is a clear standout of all the tracks on both albums. Having spent more time with this music, the rest of it is better than I remember the last time I listened to Aftermath in full. The misogynist lyrics are more of a problem for me on Stupid Girl than Under My Thumb, the latter being catchy enough to ignore the lyrics, the former being pretty uninteresting musically. I appreciate the 11 minute song Going Home, but I think it works best at the end of the album as on the US version rather than the end of side a - though I am listening on streaming rather than on vinyl. I Am Waiting and Out of Time are some more stand-outs. Compared to other canonical 1966 albums, i.e. Revolver, Pet Sounds and Blonde on Blonde, this is the weakest of the bunch. Nonetheless, it's a very strong album.

Very fun listen. It complemented the warmest day of the year so far very nicely.

I quite like the Hammond organ in mid 60s Dylan, but here I don't love it. I don't necessarily dislike this album, but the concept of recording instrumental versions of other people's songs does make me feel like something is missing. Songs like Green Onions work well in film soundtracks, but I don't listen to many film soundtracks on their own, except a few by jazz greats. I suppose wind instruments can replace the human voice, but I find instrumental albums with only guitar/piano etc. to be lacking something like a human voice if I'm actively listening.

I wasn't necessarily in the mood for OK Computer today, but it's a certified 5 star album. I listen to sad sack bands like Radiohead or the Smiths less than I did when I was a depressed teenager, though this album still knocks the wind out of me.

The mix of genres doesn't work on every song, but I loved As Heaven is Wide and Fix Me Now, and already knew and loved Only Happy When It Rains. The

I do like University Challenge though.

I resent all the Yanks saying there's too much British bullshit on the list. We get so much more of your shit. However, I don't care for this album, it's extremely forgettable. It's been a couple of hours and I can't remember a single song from this.

I got the first Johnny Cash prison album, At Folsom Prison, not too long ago. This is shorter and tighter, but another masterpiece.

I liked this much more than the last 60s psychadelic rock album I got, The Electric Prunes. This has much more energy to it, psychadelic, garage and surf greatness. The songs may be a bit samey, but it's only 34 minutes, and sounds great.

A similar concept to 69 Love Songs in miniature, though this was released 2 years earlier. Semi-sincere and semi-ironic love songs, more interested in interrogating the form and conventions of the love song than true feeling. I don't mind the cheesy orchestral arrangements, they remind me of early Scott Walker. I like Neil Hannon, his voice and his posture, though he's no Scott Walker. This also points forward to Father John Misty, and makes me want to go listen to him. Also Father Ted, which uses a Divine Comedy song in the intro. I should give that a rewatch. I just watched The Quiet Man and The Departed for Saint Patrick's Day, so I'm all Irished out at the moment. Maybe next year.

I am incredibly attracted to Lucinda Williams on this album, but I think that's a legitimate reason to rate it highly. She's an immensely seductive MILF country artist. That's all I have to say.

The instrumentals are okay but boring, and Chris Martin's vocals and lyrics are so wishy washy. I can't abide him. I was on a train journey that was about the length of the album, and it felt like the longest journey of my life.

I got A Short Album About Love by The Divine Comedy recently, another 90s/2000s neo-crooner album from this side of the Atlantic. I was unfamiliar with Richard Hawley as a solo artist, while I knew some Divine Comedy stuff. The full-on sincerity of this album compared to the tongue-in-cheek quality of that album works much better for me. Hawley's voice is great, Sinatra crossed with Johnny Cash as others have said. The country elements also fit in nicely, and I love an ambient final song (some of my favourite albums, like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Manning Fireworks end similarly, and both are somewhat country tinged...) This is a great discovery for me, and although I don't think it is one of the 1001 essential albums in music history, it's a great album.

I pretend I'm blind you see, put on some Armani clothes and act like ET

Decent late 60s hard rock/proto heavy metal, charmingly shaggy.

Muy bien.

This album starts off strong with some of the vocal songs, but peters out into some unremarkable instrumentals.

Five stars What a surprise

I'm sorry, the government you have elected is not operative.

They'll never reach the moon, at least not the one we're after.

Oh no, I actually liked this. Zappa feels like a big can of worms to open, but now I may as well. I listened to Live-Evil by Miles Davis yesterday, so I was primed for some jazz-rock fusion. I remember a couple years ago, when I mostly just listened to alternative rock and singer-songwriters, thinking that I wasn't bald enough to "get into" jazz, prog etc. Now my hairline has receded some more, I suppose I'm ready. The day I get a Grateful Dead album and decide to go down that rabbit hole, all my other large discography artists/bands will go out the window.

I've always hated Bittersweet Symphony. The rest of the album isn't as irritating, I liked some of the psychadelic/shoegaze elements, Neon Wilderness is a good little song. It just drags on though.

"The President sucks, he's a war pig fuck" - a perennial truth. Maybe one day there'll be a female President of the US and she'll be a war pig fuck too. My favourite SY album varies from day to day, but Dirty is a five star album any day. "Accesible" is a word that comes up in a lot of reviews, and this album does tamp down slightly (but not entirely) on the amount of extended noise breakdowns, but the expert balance of noise and melody still shines through in more compact, linear songs. The drums are more prominent than on other SY albums, and Steve Shelley kills it.

It's much of a muchness with whatever soft, smooth, frictionless music people who don't care about music listen to. The instrumentation is quite good, but the vocals and lyrics really piss me off with how bland, mannered and impersonal they are.

I'm a nerdy guy with those same glasses, what can I say, I love it.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face stopped me in my tracks in a way a new to me song hasn't in a while.

Though my problems are meaningless That don't make them go away

Decent but kind of underwhelming

Don't you know you're life itself?