Wow. This album is incredible. The beats and samples are amazing. The lyrics are important, deep, and dark, and angry. This is the spiritual ancestor to Rage Against The Machine. The worst thing about this album is that it is still relevant 32 years after its initial release. 5 stars.

The vocals are lazy and out of tune. The guitars are out of tune. The arrangements are uninteresting. 1 star.

I can't get into this at all. I like weird music, but this kind of weirdness doesn't work for me. 1 star.

The vocals are like David Byrne at his most manic and constantly at the top of his range. The rest of the band is doing some interesting, if noisy, stuff. Too bad the vocals make this so painful to listen to. I'll go 2 stars because the band is doing interesting stuff.

i can see why people love this album, but i'm definitely not one of those people.

i have to be in the right mood for reggae, but this is pretty good.

modern hip-hop is not my jam. i can't pretend to relate to the lyrical content here, but then i tend not to actually pay attention to lyrics in any genre, listening to vocals mostly as just another instrument with melody and rhythm. the vocal rhythms are amazing on this album. the vocal timbres are flexible, giving the impression of different "voices" telling their part of the story, while not being so extreme as to be almost-comical like Nicki Minaj's alter-ego voice she busts out. the beats and samples and other instruments in the rhythm section are cool as hell. the counterpoint between the vocal rhythms and the underlying beats elevates the whole. arrangements are strong throughout. not an album i'll likely come back to often, but there's no denying this is a 5-star

never been a fan of Nirvana. never bothered listening to the whole album until today. the ambivalence i've had toward Nirvana and the existence of this album is slowly turning to active hatred with each song. the only redeeming quality of the majority of these songs is that they are short. would give 0 stars if i could.

this album is meh. I want to like the Foo Fighters, but they don't do much for me outside a handful of songs, none of which are on this album.

This album is much more interesting than i expected. Billy Corrigan's voice has always bothered me, but he isn't leaning as heavily into the super-focused whine on this one. There are hints of it throughout, but it's not persistent. As long as I listen to the instruments, I find plenty to keep me interested. 3.5/5 stars for the band, -1 star for his voice, so 2.5 stars that i'll round up to 3.

feels a bit like Massive Attack/Portishead/Jamiroquai with heavier guitars at the ready. I really like was the drummer was doing throughout. Best of the 90s albums this site has thrown at me so far. 4-star experience.

Strong opening few tracks, but starts to lose steam quickly. Seems like a spiritual predecessor of Thick As A Brick, but from a group that was not ready or able to take that kind of leap. In the end, they seem to be attempting psychedelia, but can't quite pull it off.

It's always interesting going back and listening to the originators of various styles. You hear all the cliches from that style and you might think it's pretty hackneyed. But then you remember that they're cliches because everyone since has been learning them from the originator. This isn't necessarily prime Muddy Waters, but even mid-tier Muddy Waters is 4-star worthy.

There's some really good music on Fear Of Music, but the odder tracks didn't always land for me. Overall, it's a 2 star album that gets an added star for the proto-Discipline-era King Crimson opening track (I Zimbra).

Having grown tired of hearing Billy Joel on classic rock radio for years and years, I was kind of dreading this one. This is the first time I've ever listened to an entire Billy Joel album start to finish. Damn if this isn't an excellent album. Starts strong with "Movin' Out" and remains strong throughout. The weakest track is the closer, "Everybody Has a Dream." My favorite track was one I'd never heard before: "Get It Right the First Time." 4.25 stars.

Can't stand the vocals. The only songs I could stand to listen to were Perfect Day and Take a Walk on the Wild Side. TaWotWS is only listenable if I can block out the vocals. Love the groove and the sax solo. The rest of the album was painful to listen to. 1 star, bumped up from 0 stars because: 1) This site won't let you give 0 stars, and 2) those

Vocally, it's a 180º shift from yesterday's Lou Reed. This guy's got a really good, rich, baritone. While not entirely "different styles filtered through a jazz crooner ballad vibe," this album does feel like a studio version of a laid-back, ballad-heavy Las Vegas residency. So, I can't say i love this album, but it's more listenable than yesterday's (Lou Reed, Transformer) by a long shot. Listening to it as a musician, there's a ton of stylistic authenticity of the parts that are carrying the underlying style. I suppose a more specific comp for this might be if Elvis did an album of ballads with a mix of his regular style and Vegas crooning. There are no sharp edges on this album. There's a lot of really, really, really great playing and arranging and quite good singing...but it's all just way too safe. "The Ocean" is utterly gorgeous, but is emblematic of the all that is good and bad about this album. 5 stars for the phenomenal playing and arranging and good singing, but 2 stars taken off for the utter lack of tension/drama throughout the album.

Interesting concept album. The album really showcases their fantastic harmony vocals. The three-song run of Our Love Was, I Can See For Miles, and I Can't Reach You is the highlight of the album from a purely musical standpoint, outside the overall concept. 4 stars.

Not a huge Thin Lizzy fan. Best thing about TL is their harmony guitar parts. Can't stand Jailbreak and I have to be in just the right mood for "The Boys Are Back In Town". Assuming this is actually live and not a mix of live and studio overdubs like Kiss Alive, they were quite solid live. If I was more into TL, I'd probably love this album. As it is, it's just an average album for me.

Title track and Season of the Witch are the highlights. Most of the rest is a snooze-fest.

it was alright. chill. would prefer it slow way down and be ambient. good sounds, though. 3 stars

This was a fantastic listening experience. There's a looseness to the grooves that is very refreshing. Not very adventurous from a harmonic standpoint, but it doesn't need to be. There's some questionable tuning between the trumpet and the sax making some of the harmonized lines (and even some of the unison lines) extra spicy. That would normally knock a couple stars off for me, but within the context of this vibe, it works. 5 stars.

solid opener. good choice for the only single from the album. competency is unquestioned, but it's not terribly interesting. just above average at 3 stars.

Beautiful voice paired with The Memphis Boys in the rhythm section. What's not to love? Even when the string arrangements get a bit drippy and syrupy, The Memphis Boys keep it grounded.

Crazy mix of Ska, Punk, Metal, and Funk. At times, I was reminded of Living Colour. 4 stars

The first of the 1001 dailies that I'd heard all the way through previously. When I'm in the right mood for it, I love this album. Luckily, I was in the mood for it when it came up here. 4 stars.

It might be nostalgia, but the sound of 80s punk/indie still doesn't work for me. I remember there being a few songs here and there that would catch my attention, but for the most part I really did not enjoy the sound. After all this time, I apparently still don't. I'm sure it largely has to do with my listening to predominantly classical, jazz, and rock/metal that required (sometimes extreme) musical competence back then (and now, for that matter). I'm not sure what to make of the fact that the first song on the album that I kinda liked was a cover of a band that I range from apathetic toward to actively disliking ("Black Diamond" by Kiss). That's a weird experience. 2 stars.

Beautiful Day and Stuck In a Moment are fantastic. The rest of the album doesn't come close to those two. Average album at best. 2.5 stars.

Did not enjoy this album. Really don't like the vocals. Overall, I heard a sort of proto-Nirvana on this album. For me, this is 1 star. If I objectively listen to the guitar work, however, it bumps it up to 2 stars.

Not a fan of R.E.M. at their best. The only thing that saves this album from being a 1 star for me is Peter Buck's guitar work. He does some pretty interesting stuff with material that would otherwise be completely bland. 2 stars, just for Peter Buck, otherwise it would 1 star.

outside of Peter Buck's guitar work, I just really don't like REM's sound. I really don't like Stipe's vocals. so again, 1 star that gets a 1 star boost because of Peter Buck's guitar work.

I have to be in the right mood for Steely Dan. I'm not necessarily in that mood right now, but focusing in on the individual performances, is at least giving me something to hang onto. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is in top form here. The vocal harmonies on "The Boston Rag" are more in the vein of CSNY than i'm used to hearing from SD. "Bodhisattva" hit harder than I remember it. the second track "Razor Boy" is pretty much everything that irritates me about Steely Dan. "The Boston Rag" is a slow jam that's actually pretty damn good. It's really like CSNY with a lead guitarist. I do absolutely hate the tone of the overdriven lead guitars, though. Dear God that tone is awful. There are plenty of examples of great overdriven/distorted lead tones from 1973, so it's not like it wasn't possible. Rick Derringer guests with a hell of a slide solo on "Show Biz Kids" "My Old School" annoys me. except the instrumental breaks. Overall, this album is more blues-driven than what i'm used to from them. Lots of one- or two-measure vamps, and only a couple instances of their "How many jazz chords can we squeeze into a verse?" tendencies.

Before starting, I assumed this would be a 2 or maybe 3 (at best) star album. The opener, which I already knew, is great. The rest of the album, however, exceeded expectations. This has a more aggressive rock drive to it than I remember hearing coming out of CSNY. I'd listen to this again. 4 stars.

Sarah Vaughan's voice. Ridiculous rhythm section. Live Jazz. As if to make sure everyone knows it's live, in "Willow Weep for Me" something falls close to a mic, some people close to the mics laugh, her lyric sheet runs out of lyrics before the rhythm section is done, so she improvises some lyrics about how she messed up the song. And then jokes, "that's probably the one they'll use." Sarah Vaughan is relaxed and in terrific voice. Given the musicians, the floor started at 4 stars for this one. It's an enthusiastic 5 stars.

The opening of this album is like an entire genre (Heavy Metal) kicking in the door and announcing it's birth to the world. The harmonica in The Wizard serves as a reminder that Black Sabbath was, at its core, a heavy blues band. This is an easy 4 for me. It would be a 5, but it loses steam with the final suite/medley (A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning).

I don't think I recognize any of the songs on this album by title. The opener starts off sounding a lot like elevator Muzak, but there are suddenly some harmonic moves that are unexpected. The arrangement/orchestration is fairly complex. In the context of Stevie Wonder albums, this is middle-of-the-road. In the context of the 1001 albums? I'd say it's 4 stars, even if there aren't any recognizable songs on it.

The only song I found interesting was Silver. Couldn't get into the rest of it at all.

The loops/rhythm section/beats are fantastic. His voice is not one I can listen to a lot of in a single sitting. Average for me. 2.5 stars. will round up to 3

Can ya dig it? Yes. Yes I can. The voice. The groove. The rhythm section. Enthusiastic 5 stars.

Easy 5. I have this album memorized. Everything about this album is great, from the classic-rock station staples (Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, Cross-Eyed Mary), through the "deep tracks" (My God, Up To Me, Mother Goose, Hymn 43), to the short interludes (Wond'ring Aloud, Cheap Day Return, Slipstream).

As debut albums go, it's hard to top this one. While EVH didn't invent tapping, he certainly popularized it. For fans of virtuosic lead guitar, this album set a new standard and influenced just about every rock guitarist to come after. The vocal harmonies should not be overlooked, either. They are tight as hell, even as they are sometimes ridiculous (e.g., doo wop break in I'm the One). DLR may not be the best rock _singer_, but he was a hell of a front man, and his vocals fit the material perfectly. The rhythm section is tight. MA's bass playing isn't very busy, but it absolutely doesn't need to be. And he's locked in with AVH's drum playing, which is also really creative but in a way that serves the songs. EVH's rhythm playing is probably my favorite aspect of his playing. This is a near-perfect album. 5 stars

Good beats, good flow, good guests. Overall, not a fan, but it's a solid album.

Really good, chill listen. "Clint Eastwood" is the well-known standout track. 4 stars.

I am not a hardcore punk fan at all. For people who gravitate toward this style, this is no doubt a 4 or 5 star album. For me? 2 stars. The only thing that really did anything for me was the sheer speed and inertia of it.

Did not enjoy this album at all. The musicians are doing damn fine work, which is the only reason this didn't get 1 star. Cohen's vocals on the album absolutely kill the experience for me. It's like the worst, most boring version of the worst, least-interesting Tom Waits material.

I liked the opener, but otherwise there wasn't anything spectacular about this album.

Dion has a great voice. Not thrilled with the production here. Way over done. I think these songs would be better stripped down to a rock-n-roll combo. None of the songs are faster than mid-tempo, so with the production it feels a bit like a slog. 3 stars.

Not a lot to say about individual tracks, but this was actually an enjoyable listen. Harder-edged trip-hop sound. 4 stars. In the right mood, I'd listen to this again.

Like yesterday's Primal Scream album, this was a great listen. The tango + electronica combination really works. I will definitely listen to this one again. 4 stars.

Not a fan of Punk, whether it's British or American (or any other nationality, for that matter). I think having heard "Anarchy in the UK" and "God Save the Queen" a number of times in movies or TV shows has made me not mind them so much. The rest of it was a hard list. 2 stars.

This is a near-perfect album of early 60s soul. I don't know why I've never heard of Solomon Burke before. It's kinda criminal. That guy's voice was amazing. 5 stars.

This is like a less-interesting, less-dark Nick Cave. 2 stars.

Cool riffs. Singer's voice is exhausting to listen to. Highlights for me: Them Bones, Sickman, Hate to Feel (HtF is uneven, but when it's on it's fantastic). Overall, 3 stars.

It's too bad this album is nearly impossible to find streaming anywhere. Still, was able to listen to it by piecing it together from YT uploads. Anyway, I loved this album when I first heard it almost 30 years ago, and it still holds up. The title track and "Who Says..." are really accessible for casual listeners. "Promental..." is a fantastic slow jam. Its lyrical content, and its overall sound remind me of some of Frank Zappa's humor-laden, socio-political satire slow-jams. "Cholly..." has one of the funkiest bass lines I've ever heard. Enthusiastic 5 stars.

This album rocks with a harder edge than most everything else from 1965. It's their first album, so they're still rough around the edges, but there are glimpses into their great harmony vocals. Sometimes, they sound like they're doing a Beatles tribute ("The Kids are Alright"), sometimes like a hella good blues band (covers of "Please, Please, Please" and "I'm a Man"). "The Ox" is a helluva feature for Moon and Entwistle, despite it basically being a 4 minute guitar solo for Townshend. 4 stars.

Radiohead is a band that, on paper, is the perfect band for me but in actuality, I've never been able to get into them. Mostly because I'm really not a fan of Thom Yorke's vocals. "In Rainbows" was surprisingly listenable. At times, Thom Yorke sounded a bit like Bono and at other times he sounded a bit like Jeff Buckley. Both were vast improvements over what he usually sounds like. There was much less sad-sack going on than usual, too. I'll give it 3 stars. i didn't enjoy it enough to recommend to non-fans, but i was surprised how much i did enjoy it.

Opening track is actually pretty cool. pretty heavy at times. Quite good female lead vocals. This is a strange album. The first track is pretty straightforward, clean verses, heavy choruses. The second track is bizarre, part rap, part alt-rock, part metal, part electronica. The third track is back to pretty straight forward hard rock. Apple music says Garbage is a similar artist to Skunk Anansie. I get a bit of Paramore. I'd give this one 3.5 stars. Not sure I can actually round it up to 4 for the limited whole-star grading on the site, but it was a pleasant surprise.

Some interesting beats/loops. Just not my vibe.

I can't compete with the humor of other reviews. If you know Ornette Coleman's music and if you know John Zorn's music, you'll have a pretty good idea what you're getting into with this album. The only real difference between what you'd expect and the actuality is that Zorn's usual Carl Stalling-like jump cutting isn't present. Otherwise, it's exactly as you'd expect. It is aggressively chaotic. As one other reviewer said, this is either a 1 or 5. I'd say it depends on my mood. Today, it's a 5.

Money for Nothing is still a classic. It's a bit of an outlier, though, in that it's the most energetic song on the album. The whole thing is competent, but most of the album is pretty boring. Mark Knopfler is a great guitarist and he does some interesting stuff, but it's not enough to make me want to listen to this album again. Musicianship: 5, interest: 1.5. Overall: 3 stars.

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I was aware of B.B. King from his appearances on Carson and in commercials for Burger King and McDonalds. He was Blues Grandpa. The elder statesman of The Blues. By the time I saw him play live in the 90s, he did everything seated in a chair and the audience was polite—quietly listening and clapping the "appropriate" amount between songs—as would befit a trip to the Blues Museum. What's really interesting about this album is hearing a 40 year-old BB King absolutely killing it and hearing an audience that was as raucous and fervent as teenagers at the height of Beatlemania. This is BB King at the height of his powers. This album is a document of the reason he became the legend he was. 5 stars

This has all the awfulness of the Circle Jerks album that came up a few weeks ago, but without the virtue of brevity. 1 star.

Reminded me a lot of Lou Reed. Her voice was generally more pleasant to listen to than Lou Reed, but the album was still an unpleasant listen. I'll give it 2 stars since it's better than Lou Reed's "Transformer" that came up a while ago.

That was fun

This was the first cassette tape I bought with my own money. I don't think I'd heard anything on it. I was only 10 years old and I think I picked it because of the display at Musicland and the cool cover. It's an album I have practically memorized. As I got older and more accomplished as a musician, I found more and more to love about this album and found new ways in for the songs that I wasn't really drawn to as a kid. This is one of my all-time favorite albums.

This is not a perfect album. They're not quite at their final-form, but they're still writing interesting songs, and they're playing tight as hell. It's a mostly a 3-star album, with two ridiculously strong songs in Message In A Bottle and Walking on the Moon. Bumps it up to 3.5, and I'll go ahead and round up to 4.

Take a shoegaze rhythm section and run the whole thing through a fuzz pedal. Then have the lethargic singer half-ass his vocals over the top of it. That's what's going on here. Nothing grabbed me as a listener. 1 star.

I can't stand Nirvana. This album does nothing to change that. Kurt's guitar is out of tune. Somebody's guitar gets run through overdrive, completely defying the spirit of "unplugged." I'm sure it was all about "they can't tell us what to do!" which completely missed the point of the unplugged exercise, which is to set up a limitation that requires creativity to get around. The best song on here is the Bowie cover, and even that is hard to listen to because of the vocals. 1 star.

Hard to find the whole album. Had to use a YouTube playlist of questionable sources. Anyway, it's exactly what you'd expect to hear out of 1967 San Francisco. Some of the guitar work was pretty good, but by and large the album wasn't very interesting. 2 stars.

It's an alright album. I've never been a fan of Elvis. This didn't turn me around. Universally, all of the cover songs on this album are worse than the original versions by the original artists. And this is the problem I have across the board with Elvis' discography: his most popular songs in the early part of his career are mediocre covers of largely black artists.

It opens with the title track, which is good, but not my favorite of his. the rest of the album is strongly competent music that isn't particularly interesting or memorable. Until the closing track: Fame. That song is one of my favorite Bowie tunes. The cover of Across The Universe is bizarre; not a fan. I love the original. This turns it into a mid-tempo snoozer. 3 stars, just because of Young Americans and Fame.

This was mostly a quite enjoyable listen. Some really cool sounds (for the time) and lots of great, chill grooves. The only problem I had with this album is that sometimes I thought I was listening to the Weather Channel's "Weather on the 8s". My son rates it 5 stars. I can't go that high, but I'll give it 4 stars.

This is top-tier panty-dropper R&B/Soul. The vocals are amazing, the grooves are filthy and the bass playing elicited a number of stank-face reactions throughout the album. 5 stars.

The album opens with two of his greatest his, and when they're not being overplayed by classic rock radio, I can appreciate how excellent they are. "Razor Face" is mostly dumb, and every time he sings the title it brings to mind the character in Guardians of the Galaxy named Taser Face. The song is almost completely redeemed, however, but they absolute kill accordion solo in the outro. The title track is my all-time favorite Elton John song. The rest of the album is borderline progressive rock. He never gives over fully to it, but he's definitely tapping into the more adventurous prog rock that was in the air at the time. Even if the rest of the album isn't as memorable as Tiny Dancer, Levon, and Madman Across The Water, it's really solid and there's a lot of interesting stuff going on. It's 4 stars for me.

So so so so so so good. The sound and feel of this album is both of its time and timeless. 5 stars.

Structurally interesting, good playing, but the production was ear-fatiguing. If I'm in the right mood, I can see enjoying this album more than I did on this listen, so I'll settle on 3 stars.

Better than I expected, but still not terribly interesting. 3 stars.

I'm generally not a fan of Johnny Cash's music. This isn't necessarily a huge departure on that front. "Hurt" is the standout. Most of the rest of the covers are just OK. 3 stars.

The gold standard for the 60s Folk Revival. The arrangements are brilliant. The vocal harmonies are incredible. And a surprising amount of diversity throughout the album. The closing track, with its juxtaposition of a beautiful arrangement of Silent Night and a newscaster reading increasingly horrific headlines (hard-panned left and right, respectively) probably got them an FBI file. 5 stars.

Cat Stevens doesn't do much for me, but it is very competent. 3 stars.

Not bad, but not great. Bang a Gong (Get It On) is definitely the highlight of the album, the rest of it is not terribly interesting. 2.25 stars. I'll round down to 2.

Opening track has a dark Spanish, Flamenco-like chord progression (without the aggression of Flamenco) that's pretty cool. 3rd track wasn't great, but 4th track is back to being interesting Strong cognitive dissonance between the music and the lyrics of "Live and Let Live". Red Telephone was an odd one with the weird voice-over stuff. The end of "Good Humor..." is a trip. Can't tell if it's artifacts from a messed-up digitization or if it originally ended with the splice-edit loops like that. "Bummer In the Summer" has some really interesting things going on in the rhythm section I can see why these guys didn't hit it as big as The Byrds or The Doors, but this is actually a damn cool album for the most part. This is like a hippie album made by disillusioned hippies--darker. The occasional strings and trumpet arrangements are probably the least interesting aspect of this album. they really anchor it to the standard fare for the time, while so much of the rest of it is a darker take on the genre. And yet, here comes Mantovani to bring up the lights and make everything a little sunnier. Not sure how often I'll ever listen to this one in the future, but it was a surprisingly interesting album. 4 stars.

The only listenable Randy Newman is Will Sasso's parody of Randy Newman. Would give 0 stars if I could. 1 star.

Not my thing, but the beats are great and Nas' flow is great. By the time this album was released, I was no longer a hip hop head and I was pretty detached from popular music. I mention that to make clear that I have no sense of how this album fits in the progression of hip hop. Regardless, the groove is deep enough throughout this album that it kept my head bobbing through the whole listen. I'll go 4 stars on it.

As with most Radiohead music, I like pretty much everything except the vocals. 3 stars (4 stars, minus one for the vocals)

Better than I expected. The samples of old blues records helps, and generally the arrangements are strong. Biggest complaint I had was that the samples of the old blues songs only took one phrase and there wasn’t any harmonic motion (stayed on I, never going to the IV or V) which can be a tough pill swallow when hearing old blues.

Pretty standard fare for British Blues Rock in 1968. “Feeling Alright” is great. The rest of the album ranges from OK to good. 3 stars.

Bizarre, but in a fun way.

Just Miles inventing a subgenre of Jazz. Not my favorite Miles, it’s still great. 4 stars.

Better than expected. Better than average. A good solid 3 star album.

Eminem's flow is great. Really interesting rhythmic stuff going on against static (albeit pretty cool) beats. Not one that I'll go back to often, but it's really good. 4 stars.

Some really interesting sounds, but the vocals take me out of it. 3 stars.

Wow. This album is incredible. The beats and samples are amazing. The lyrics are important, deep, and dark, and angry. This is the spiritual ancestor to Rage Against The Machine. The worst thing about this album is that it is still relevant 32 years after its initial release. 5 stars.

I get why people love Willie Nelson. It's certainly a better listen than modern bro country, but still not my thing. 3 stars.

Not a fan. Nothing here for me. I disliked it less than the Lou Reed solo album that was served up to me a while back, but that's just because he doesn't sing every song on this album. 1 star.

This album is a fun listen. Elements of West Coast Punk, but pop-ier. Belinda Carlisle sounds great, even when she's doing the punk "lazy vocals" thing. Lots of interesting stuff going on with the instrumental parts, too. Much better than I anticipated.

This album is awesome. Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson are British Folk/Folk-Rock legends for a reason. My Celtic Folk band used to perform Matty Groves. It's great to hear a more rock-oriented version (with a guitar solo!) that uses the darker version of the lyrics. The rockin' Irish fiddle tune set in the middle of the album is fantastic. 5 stars.

Competent, but doesn't do anything for me. 2 stars.

The vocals are lazy and out of tune. The guitars are out of tune. The arrangements are uninteresting. 1 star.

First time encountering her. What a great voice! Love hearing an alto instead of the usual sopranos. The album starts very strong, like solid 4 stars territory. And then track 4 hits (Love and Affection) and from that point on, everything is 4.5-5 stars. Overall, this album is so damn good that it's an enthusiastic 5 stars. There are some sick, filthy grooves on this album. A lot of the acoustic guitar work is out of this world great. I'm going to come back to this album frequently.

Side A (Side White) is pretty uneven. Definitely over-the-top with the vocal and guitar overdubs. The sword-and-sorcery prog lyrics don't help matters. Strangely, the highlight of that side is the one song where Freddy doesn't sing lead, "The Loser In The End." That song actually sounds more like something you'd hear from The Who than Queen. Side B (Side Black) is where the album really solidifies things. Everything that rocks, rocks heavier. Everything that is supposed to be more lyrical and sweet, is more skillfully lyrical and delicate. The biggest knock on this album, beyond the unevenness of Side White is the ridiculous dorkiness of the lyrics. But, thinking about this album in context of their overall output, the lyrics are no worse than what we get on the Flash Gordon soundtrack. The Flash Gordon soundtrack has the benefit of the ridiculously campy movie to take the heat for the lyrical content of the songs. Side White is probably 3 stars. Side Black is 4.5 stars. That averages out to 3.75, which I'll round up to 4 stars.

Another album I've listened to dozens upon dozens of times. The two tracks pretty much everyone knows are absolutely stellar, of course (Take Five and Blue Rondo A La Turk). But even the lesser known tunes on here are great. Strange Meadowlark has a great rubato piano intro; Three To Get Ready plays more with time (alternating between 6/8 and 4/4); Kathy's Waltz spends the first quarter of its run time in 4/4 and doesn't actually get to actually being a waltz in 3/4 until the first solo. I love the hell out of every second of this album. 5 stars.

Some interesting sounds and the arrangements are varied and interesting, but there is too much 4-on-the-floor and "boots-n-pants-boots-n-pants" beats. 3 stars.

This was a rough listen. Nothing here that I'd want to hear again. 1 star.

I wore out this cassette back in the day. I was a huge Run-DMC fan through this album. The year after this album came out, I began my love affair with hard rock and metal, but I have no doubt that Run-DMC was at least partially responsible for my ears to be ready for the harder sounds. I never lost my love for Run-DMC. Revisiting this album after all these years was pure joy. The back and forth rapping, with their trademark punctuations they each provide to the other's lines. The beats/DJ-ing by Jammaster Jay. 5 stars.

This was a pleasant surprise. I'd never heard of this guy and this album was fantastic.

I'm not a fan of Christmas music or Christmas albums. There are some classics on here, so it moves itself up from the 1 star I would normally give most Christmas albums. 3 stars.

Classic grooves. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards absolutely kill.

Interesting stuff. Fun to listen to.

Jerry Lee Lewis was a garbage human being. That said, this is a helluva live album. The biggest knock against it is that he keeps getting ahead of his band and that a good chunk of the album is made up of covers.

I can’t stand Randy Newman. 1 star

I can't get into this at all. I like weird music, but this kind of weirdness doesn't work for me. 1 star.

This was another pleasant surprise. Especially when listened to immediately after The Residents (yesterday's album). I can't go all the way to 4 stars on it, but it's a 3-and-change star album.

This is a really good album. Highlights are Scenario and Ron Carter's guesting on Verses from the Abstract. 4 stars.

Better than I expected. Never been a huge fan of CCR, but this is pretty solid throughout. Didn't care much for the covers, especially Ooby Dooby. Who'll Stop the Rain is a fantastic song. The opener levels up when the tempo slows. Overall, it's probably 3.5 or maybe 3.75 stars. I'll round up to 4.

This did nothing to change my opinion of late-70s British punk. Not a fan. Nothing here for me. 1 star.

This album is phenomenal. The music, the flow. Lyrically, it doesn't resonate with me, but I'm not the target audience. While I don't listen to hip-hop very often, this is definitely one I would reach for again. 5 stars.

This is competent but bland and boring. Which would have gotten it 2 stars, until the absolutely horrible cover of Stand By Me. That took it down to 1 star.

Easily one of the best debut albums I've ever heard. The songs are really damn good. I first heard Iron Maiden when Bruce Dickinson was their singer and I can't help but hear where Bruce would have been better on pretty much all of these songs. That being said, Paul Di'Anno was good enough to make this a great record. The only real let down on the album is the ballad Strange World. His voice doesn't carry the ballad very well. 4 stars

When it comes to CSN (and sometimes Y), the vocal harmonies are the draw. This album doesn't disappoint on that front. The classic rock radio hits are almost all here. The deep-cut highlights are "Helpless", "Déjà vu", and "Country Girl". I'm not a big fan of Neil Young's voice, so I would have preferred Helpless and Country Girl had different lead singers, but even still, they're great songs. 4 stars

This album is all over the place. Highlight for me was Thinking of Ways. 3 stars.

This album is frustrating. The opening track, the music is cool as hell and then Bob Dylan starts "singing" with a Tom Waits on helium gravel. This repeats throughout the album. Bob Dylan's voice ruins it for me. The strength of the songs and the performance of the band puts this at 4 stars. Bob Dylan's voice is 1 star. 2.5 stars.

This album got better as it went on. The mix of Beach Boys-like melodies and harmonies combined with the electro-pop rhythm section hit me just right on this listen. It strikes me as something that I wouldn't be able to pick up on any given day, but it's really well-crafted. 4 stars.

Fantastic album. Funk/soul grooves that prepare the way for Papa Was A Rolling Stone a few years later. They still have one foot (each, so 5 feet) in their Motown sound as well, so some of the songs are a blend of the Motown pop over their new funk/soul rhythm section sound. I think I have to go 5 stars on this one.

Even back when this album came out, I wasn't a fan. The hits are far more fun to play than to listen to, and the deep cuts don't do much for me.

I can't say why, but this album hit me just right. There aren't really any memorable melodies that stuck out, but it was an excellent laid-back listen. I'd listen to this again. 3.5 stars.

I'm not sure what it says about me that I love this album as much as I do. I've owned this album for years and occasionally dig it out (or up on a streaming service). This album is so very dark. It's pitch black. His treatments of the traditional murder ballads are cool as hell, and most of the originals work well alongside the traditionals. The optimistic cover of the Dylan tune at the end is a fun coda to the album, given the subect matter of the rest of the album. Can't give it 5 stars because O'Malley's Bar is too damn long. 4 stars.

The vocals are like David Byrne at his most manic and constantly at the top of his range. The rest of the band is doing some interesting, if noisy, stuff. Too bad the vocals make this so painful to listen to. I'll go 2 stars because the band is doing interesting stuff.

It's fine, but nothing really grabbed my attention—good or bad.

A couple good songs, but not even close to their best stuff.

Interesting beats/loops. Actual rap seems very conversational and free. Interesting stuff. 4 stars for the creativity, even though I probably won't come back to this one.

Some interesting beats/loops, but this album doesn't do much for me. 2 stars.

While I enjoy the chaotic sounds they wring out of the guitars, the chaos is practically unceasing. The lack of contrast makes it an exhausting listen. The vocals are terrible. An exhausting listen can be rewarding, but this isn't. 2 stars

This album is pretty campy. Lazing On a Sunday Afternoon is like Queen doing one of Paul McCartney's throwback vaudeville songs with over-the-top harmonies and Freddy doing a carnival barker voice (or maybe early radio show voice). And it leads directly into the song that spawned a questionable French movie ~45 years later: I'm In Love With My Car. '39 is a pretty cool, folky tune. Seaside Rendezvous is another tune on here that is quasi ragtime/vaudeville that's been Queened-up. It's pretty damn ridiculous, but I'm a sucker for all the vocal harmonies and all of the harmonized guitar lines. I mean, it's like "Bicyle Race" is a ridiculous and silly and stupid song, but there's so much cool guitar and vocal harmony stuff going on, that it's possible to overlook even the stupid bicycle bell thing before the guitar solo. But I digress. It's not a song I'd listen to often, but really paying attention to what's going on, it's very impressive and cool as hell, but it's all couched in a campy vaudeville/cabaret act. I don't think this is intended as a "concept album", but the collection of songs really runs the gamut of theatricality, and within that context, the few vaudeville/cabaret songs work. Even if all of the songs on here that aren't "Bohemian Rhapsody" absolutely sucked ass (they don't), this album would still get no lower than 3 stars. I can't go 5 stars on it, but as a whole, it's good enough for 4 stars.

I didn’t hate it like I did back when it came out, but I still didn’t enjoy it. 2 stars.

The OG panty-dropper artist. This is damn sexy soul music. 4 stars.

Better than expected. Good grooves and riffs. 3 stars.

The performances and arrangements are top-notch. His voice is not my favorite and the style doesn't do much for me. I'll go 3 stars because that band is really, really good.

This is a fantastic album. The production by Kanye and J Dilla is amazing. Common's flow is less fluid and more metric than someone like Kendrick Lamar, but still freer than the sometimes sing-song-y feel of old-school rap. It's definitely smoother and less aggressive or angry than KL, which may be too "Starbucks Presents...Now This is Hip Hop!" for some. But it feels to me more a matter of maturity. The grown man doesn't (shouldn't) have the same problems and perspectives as the 19 yr old angry young man. I get it. I feel the same way about bands like Metallica who lost their edge as they matured. Sometimes it's better to come across the more mature version of the artist before the young and hungry versions. anyway... There's a depth to his lyrics that would reward repeat listens. Helluva storyteller. Testify might be one of my favorite tracks on the album, though the twist in the final verse is a bit too abrupt. I can't go 5 stars because it's not perfect, but this is an easy 4 stars for me.

Progressive, but in their own way. I want to like this more than I actually do. Bloody Well Right is simultaneously really great and somewhat annoying. Dreamer is just plain annoying. 3 stars.

Highlight of this album for me was "She Floated Away," which sounded a bit like an Irish folk tune. Still, there are far better celtic-punk bands to listen to for that sort of thing (The Pogues, Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly). The production is fatiguing for the ears. The guitars are so top-heavy that they mask a lot of the vocals as well as cymbals. The melodies are more pop-oriented than I expected, like a spritual precursor to the pop-punk of Green Day. Overall, I did not enjoy this album, though it wasn't horrible. 2 stars.

As I sit listening to this album, we're getting blanketed with the first significant snowfall of the winter and air temperatures have dropped to single digits (F). This album is the perfect antidote. Beyond just transporting the listener to somewhere much warmer, the rhythm section here is sick. This is peak Bob Marley. "No Woman, No Cry" is the song everyone knows from this album, and rightly so--it's a beautiful song, but this whole album is the epitome of reggae. 5 enthusiastic stars.

Still not a fan of punk. This doesn't do anything for me. The biggest virtue of these songs is their brevity. I can imagine someone who enjoys punk would really like this album, but that someone isn't me. 2 stars.

Going into this album, I knew only 4 songs by War. The opening track here was one of them. And it's a song that has often annoyed me. But giving it a closer listen today, I heard so much more than I ever had before. It was still my least favorite track on the album, but I gained a far greater appreciation for it. As for the rest of the album, it's downright phenomenal. The slow jams, the lead vocals here and there, the harmony vocals, the rhythm section, the latin-infused funk grooves. The album just kept getting better and better. Easy 5 stars.

Very much not my thing. Can definitely hear how it could have influenced Nirvana's Nevermind, though.

There's a lot to like about this album. The overall sound is refreshing. Like progressive crooner. This might have have been 4 stars if so many of the lyrics weren't so ridiculous. 3 stars.

It was fine. Not my thing.

Everything you want out of Reggae and more. I'd really only ever heard the Marleys' Reggae before this. This album is much more direct in it political messages than Bob Marley's. It's a lot harder to gloss over the political messaging when it's not couched in the somewhat thinly-veiled metaphors Bob Marley tended to use. Listeners who don't want any politics in their music would be best served to stay away. Which would be a shame, because musically and lyrically, this album is brilliant. Maybe listening to this in Iowa during a week-long bout of sub-zero temperatures colors my opinion a bit, but I loved this album. 5 stars.

I liked this album better than I expected, since I'm not a huge fan of theirs in general. Their vocal harmonies are the highlight. 3 stars.

The very definition of the Stax sound. The laid-back R&B/Soul grooves. Everyone knows the title track. Loved this album.

I've always liked their vocal harmonies and it's interesting to hear so much 12-string guitar everywhere. The psychedelic elements are pretty cool for their time, even if they do sound quaint by today's standards. Their cover of Dylan's "My Back Pages" is yet another example of a cover that's better than the original. This is probably a 3.5 star album. It's not a 4 star album, so I'll have to round down to 3 stars.

This is pure, distilled 1980's synth pop. There are occasional, almost progressive moments that elevate it from just middle-of-the-road 2.5 stars to just over 3 stars.

One of my favorite King Crimson albums across all their various lineups. Both parts of the title track presage Prog Metal. When the band first bursts in, the riff is reminiscent of Black Sabbath, but it gives way to Robert Fripp's signature angular cross-picking moto perpetuo. This is an early incarnation of it, later perfected and further honed for the next 50(!) years. Bill Bruford is fresh off leaving Yes after recording Close To The Edge. He was already one of the best drummers in the rock world (progressive or otherwise), and King Crimson afforded him the space and the push to somehow improve. His drumming throughout this album is unmatched. John Wetton is a perfect vocalist and bassist for this KC era. There are similarities to Greg Lake's voice, so he bridges a bit of the past with the future of the band. His voice is strong with good depth. His bass playing is a wonderful complement to both Fripp's guitar work and Bruford's drumming. David Cross adds interesting layers of violin, viola, and flute. His contributions really set this and the follow-up (Starless and Bible Black) apart from the rest of the King Crimson catalog. Jamie Muir adds percussion chaos. Book of Saturday and Exiles are beautiful, if dark, songs. Easy Money is playful (and dark). The Talking Drum is one long crescendo whose payoff is the crushing pt.2 of the title track. For 1973, this album is insane. Some of the best progressive metal since could not exist without this album. This album won't be for everyone. And I don't mean that in a snotty/snobby way. There's a good deal of improvisation, but not in the usual structured manner that most rock and jazz fans may be accustomed to, and that can turn some listeners off. Like most progressive rock from that era, solid arguments could be made for tightening up the arrangements and cutting run times, particularly if the improvisations aren't your thing, or the general repetition of riffs/vamps is tedious for you. Me? I love every bit of it. 5 stars. 5 stars.

This would be a 5 star album if it wasn't for Neil Young's cartoonish voice. It's hard to believe that's someone's real voice. Beyond that, the songwriting is great and the performances (with the exception of the aforementioned vocals) are fantastic. 4 stars

This is an extraordinary album. I've never encountered another album that sounds anything like this. Jeff Buckley has such control over his voice that even when it sounds like he's going to completely lose control of it and it'll turn into a some sort of off-pitch screech, he sticks the landing perfectly. Everyone knows his cover of a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." That isn't even close to being the best song on the album. I'd probably put "So Real" or "Eternal Life" at the top of the heap. But then there's the really risky performance of Benjamin Britten's "Corpus Christi Carol." 5 stars. I would give more if I could.

What a classic. Important lyrics that touched on real problems that are all too relevant even today. Beautiful grooves. James Jamerson's bass on this album is a masterclass. And Marvin Gaye's voice is amazing.

This is actually pretty good. It definitely feels like the inspiration for Ming Tea's stuff in the Austin Powers movies. It's pretty loose and maybe borderline campy at times. It's a lot better than I expected. I'd give this a solid 3.5 stars, and I'm fine rounding up to 4 here.

This album feels like an EP, but with a bunch of undercooked filler to make a full album. Which isn’t to say everything in the non-filler is good. They just sound finished. Bad track sequencing, too. The track sequencing is completely flipped from where it should be. Everything from Southbound Again to the end should have been side A, and the rest of it on side B. Except keep Sultans Of Swing as the side B opener. 2 stars, and that's only because Sultans Of Swing is a well-done tune that I've come to appreciate when I'm not hearing it 5 times a day on classic-rock radio.

I was in the absolute worst possible mood for this album to pop up. I'd heard of Nick Drake, but never (knowingly) listened to him. Turns out, I'd heard the title track in a VW commercial back in 1999. Anyway, given my mood, and the blurb about the album in Apple Music, I was prepared to have an awful time of it. But dammit if this album didn't win me over. And keep winning me over for its entire 28 minutes. 5 stars.

This is the second Nick Drake album in a row served up by the site. My experience listening to this was quite different from my experience with "Pink Moon." This is over-produced; over-orchestrated; and largely cheesy arrangements. The intimacy of the sparse instrumentation was a major feature of Pink Moon. This is cluttered. I would really like to hear this album with just his guitar and voice; maybe occasional drums and bass. 2 stars

This was an uninteresting listen. This album couldn't quite figure out what it wanted to be. There are some artists who can put together an album of disparate styles and make it work. Someone like David Torn can mix ambient music with harder, more aggressive styles and maintain cohesiveness both within single tracks as well as across an entire album. This album doesn't manage it. The ambient-ish tracks were boring. I love ambient music, but this stuff was bland. The dip into a sort of proto-punk was bad and very much out of place. 2 stars.

This album is bonkers. On a different day I might hate this album, but today it's hitting me just right. It's avant-indie-prog-pop-rock. There's some cool acoustic guitar work, especially in the early parts of the album. There are times where the electric guitars sound like a musique concrete collage of Steve Howe guitar parts. There are crazy vocal harmonies all over the place that, along with the angularity of some of the melodies and grooves, bring to mind a recontextualized Gentle Giant. Overall, the album felt like a less spastic and more pop-y The Mars Volta. 4 stars.