426
Albums Rated
3.42
Average Rating
39%
Complete
663 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1950s
Favorite Decade
Post-punk
Favorite Genre
UK
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
54
5-Star Albums
16
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Suicide
Suicide
|
5 | 2.46 | +2.54 |
|
The Modern Dance
Pere Ubu
|
5 | 2.48 | +2.52 |
|
Live At The Witch Trials
The Fall
|
5 | 2.64 | +2.36 |
|
The Infotainment Scan
The Fall
|
5 | 2.72 | +2.28 |
|
Call of the Valley
Shivkumar Sharma
|
5 | 2.95 | +2.05 |
|
Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches
Happy Mondays
|
5 | 2.98 | +2.02 |
|
Kimono My House
Sparks
|
5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
|
The Modern Lovers
The Modern Lovers
|
5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
|
Scum
Napalm Death
|
4 | 2.07 | +1.93 |
|
Dirty
Sonic Youth
|
5 | 3.11 | +1.89 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Master Of Puppets
Metallica
|
1 | 3.73 | -2.73 |
|
She's So Unusual
Cyndi Lauper
|
1 | 3.48 | -2.48 |
|
Reggatta De Blanc
The Police
|
1 | 3.45 | -2.45 |
|
A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Coldplay
|
1 | 3.44 | -2.44 |
|
...And Justice For All
Metallica
|
1 | 3.43 | -2.43 |
|
Smash
The Offspring
|
1 | 3.38 | -2.38 |
|
Ready To Die
The Notorious B.I.G.
|
1 | 3.37 | -2.37 |
|
25
Adele
|
1 | 3.36 | -2.36 |
|
The Yes Album
Yes
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
Channel Orange
Frank Ocean
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| David Bowie | 8 | 4.63 |
| Radiohead | 4 | 4.75 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 5 |
| The Smiths | 3 | 4.67 |
| The Fall | 2 | 5 |
| Pixies | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Metallica | 3 | 1 |
| Aerosmith | 3 | 1.67 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Beastie Boys | 5, 2 |
| Fleetwood Mac | 5, 2 |
5-Star Albums (54)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
The Notorious B.I.G.
1/5
This is a difficult one to review. I liked the music and Biggie's vocals flow well. However, some of the lyrics are absolutely appalling. I'd feel embarrassed to listen to this album with other people around - and considering I'm happy to listen to Kunt and the Gang, that's not an easy thing to achieve. The glorification of violence, the casual homophobia and, in particular, the horrific levels of misogyny mean that I can only give this album 1 star, even though I thought the music was good.
Some of the more delightful lyrics:
From Me and My Bitch:
"And I admit, when the time is right, the wine is right
I treat you right, you talk slick, I beat you right"
From Just Playing (Dreams). Where Biggie "Dreams of fucking an R&B bitch"
"Make Raven Symone call date rape"
Fuck off you creepy, vile weirdo.
11 likes
David Gray
2/5
My first reaction to seeing this album come up was anger. I had to force myself to listen to it and in listening to it, I examined just what it was that makes me hate this album so much.
White Ladder isn't a one star album, sure it's bland as fuck, but the music itself didn't actively annoy me in the way some others have. I think the thing that angers me most about this album is just how popular it was. It's success damaged my faith in humanity a little. Now, considering I'm writing this on the day Donald Trump was re-elected, my faith in humanity has already taken a pretty big hit, but I can at least mitigate that by pretending that Americans are stupider than us civilised Europeans. Unfortunately, this album being so successful in my native UK shows that people here are in many ways just as horrifically idiotic as they are in the US.
At least David Gray isn't a proven rapist I suppose. Two stars.
4 likes
Astrud Gilberto
2/5
There seems to be quite a lot of these Bossa Nova albums on this list. They all sound pretty much the same, perfectly inoffensive, but pretty uninspiring.
They're three star albums for me. This album however, has two standout tracks, Parade - which is annoying and shit and You Didn't Have To Be So Nice, which is self indulgent, annoying and shit. No one, outside of their parents, nonces and Aled Jones botherers, wants to hear children singing. So I'm knocking off a star because of that.
3 likes
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
This is incredibly cheesy but you'd have to either be a miserable bastard or a desperate try hard to not enjoy it.
2 likes
OutKast
3/5
I find it almost universally true that a double album would have been much better as a single one, but this isn't really a double album, it's two solo projects that have been released together because of management decisions, so giving it a single rating seems odd as there is, unsurprisingly, no real link between the albums.
Speakerboxxx is by far the more consistent of the two albums, and the only one I'd bother listening to again. GhettoMusik I already knew, and liked, from the b-side of Hey Ya! but I also particularly liked Bust and Flip Flop Rock, both featuring Killer Mike.
The Love Below is a mixed bag of mostly rather self indulgent songs but featuring one of the true great pop songs in Hey Ya, the only song I'd go out of my way to listen to again.
Both albums suffer from the common hip hop inclusion of skits and interludes that don't really add anything other than becoming more annoying the more the album is replayed. There's also a clear degree of grating misogyny, also something that is a frequent feature in, but hardly exclusive to, hip hop.
Speakerboxxx 3*, consistently decent with a couple of good songs.
The Love Below 3*, mostly 2* songs with Hey Ya! being a 5* banger giving it an extra mark.
It's tempting to give the whole thing 2* because listening to it all in one go make it worse than the sum of its parts.
2 likes
4-Star Albums (165)
1-Star Albums (16)
All Ratings
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Fine. Not particularly exciting. A little pompous and overblown, but nice enough.
Muddy Waters
4/5
Good. I liked this one. The last few, non live tracks feel a bit tacked on, but overall, lovely stuff
Fatboy Slim
3/5
Much better than I remember it being. This came out when I was 17 and heavily into American alt rock. I've had Dub Be Good To Me and his remixes of Body Movin' and Brimful of Asha on my playlists for years and I've always had a soft spot for the Housemartins but I guess my teenage cynicism about this album has unwittingly persisted. The reality is, this album is pretty good in places, but is patchy, the singles are enough. The rest is just filler.
Cyndi Lauper
1/5
This feels like a warning about how American centric this list may be. With so many exciting and innovative artists making music in the 80s, it seems incomprehensible to me that this uninspired and clichéd album could be in anyone's top 100,000 albums, let alone 1000. There's a couple of songs on here, Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Time After Time that are okay, a few that are mediocre and the rest are just incredibly grating with Lauper's vocals turning a bland song into an annoying one.
The idea that someone, who presumably has listened to at least several thousand albums thought this was an album to be lauded has made me feel quite angry. It's like claiming Meghan Traynor is the most innovative and exciting artist of the 21st century. Absolute toilet.
OutKast
3/5
I find it almost universally true that a double album would have been much better as a single one, but this isn't really a double album, it's two solo projects that have been released together because of management decisions, so giving it a single rating seems odd as there is, unsurprisingly, no real link between the albums.
Speakerboxxx is by far the more consistent of the two albums, and the only one I'd bother listening to again. GhettoMusik I already knew, and liked, from the b-side of Hey Ya! but I also particularly liked Bust and Flip Flop Rock, both featuring Killer Mike.
The Love Below is a mixed bag of mostly rather self indulgent songs but featuring one of the true great pop songs in Hey Ya, the only song I'd go out of my way to listen to again.
Both albums suffer from the common hip hop inclusion of skits and interludes that don't really add anything other than becoming more annoying the more the album is replayed. There's also a clear degree of grating misogyny, also something that is a frequent feature in, but hardly exclusive to, hip hop.
Speakerboxxx 3*, consistently decent with a couple of good songs.
The Love Below 3*, mostly 2* songs with Hey Ya! being a 5* banger giving it an extra mark.
It's tempting to give the whole thing 2* because listening to it all in one go make it worse than the sum of its parts.
King Crimson
4/5
I liked this a lot, it sags a little in the middle, which is the reason I'm not giving it 5*, but there's a lot a good things going on here. 21st Century Schizoid Man is a great start to the album.
On Spotify, the only version that is available is a remastered version with bonus tracks that add nothing to the overall experience - which is frustratingly common with older albums, but I'm not marking it down for that.
Devendra Banhart
1/5
The music on this album is perfectly pleasant, but Devendra's voice is bordering on annoying. The whole thing has a twee smugness which winds me up. It feels like coffee shop music, if the coffee shop was run by wankers.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
I was looking forward to this as I love a bit of Stevie Wonder but I only know the big hits. I didn't recognise any songs on this album and there's probably a reason for that. Most of the songs are fine but unexciting. Boogie on Reggae Woman and Please Don't Go are better than that, and were the only songs I'd like to hear again. You Haven't Done Nothin' would be up there too, but the base line is so similar to Superstition that I can't help thinking I'd rather be listening to that instead.
Guns N' Roses
5/5
I don't listen to much stadium rock as it's often dull. This however has a sleazy, slightly menacing edge to it that many of Guns N Roses cotemporaries lack. The songs are for the most part punchy and even the longer ones don't really outstay their welcome.
Axl Rose might now look like Mama Fratelli from the Goonies, but before all the drink and drugs took their toll he had some serious pipes. His powerful, slightly raspy, vocals add a lot to the music.
I think this just about deserves 5*. If I only gave it 4* I'd be setting the bar very high and barely giving out any.
Beastie Boys
5/5
A surprisingly musically diverse album that still remains coherent. There's a lot of distortion on some of the vocals, but it's still very distinctively Beastie Boys. There's hip hop, jazz, world music influences as well as rap-rock before nu-metal came along and made that a dirty word.
There's still a few bits of frat boy humour, but the whole thing is a lot more mature than Fight For Your Right era Beasties. I liked this a lot.
Harry Nilsson
3/5
This is a perfectly nice album, but nothing more than that. At times it gets quite silly, which isn't a bad thing but it means the whole album feels like a collection of songs rather than a coherent work.
I liked Gotta Get Up, Without You and Coconut was fun, but I expect would quickly become grating.
Threeth stars
Le Tigre
2/5
This album starts off pretty well, with Decepticon being a fun, bouncy track.
Unfortunately, the album falls off sharply after that with the remaining tracks varying between just about ok and not very good.
It's a shame, I like the ethos of the band and wanted to like the music more, but it's fundamentally weak.
A semi-foof.
Paul Simon
3/5
I have memories of my dad playing this in the car occasionally when I was a kid and I wasn't particularly impressed by it then and I'm not now. There's nothing wrong with it per se, but there's nothing that draws me in or excites me. The only song that I would go out of my way to listen to is Call Me Al and even that I'd be perfectly happy to never hear again.
Threeth Kens out of Val.
Syd Barrett
3/5
There's a little man, in a little house,
With a little pet dog, and a little pet mouse,
I know where he lives, and I visit him,
We have Sunday tea,
Sausages and beans.
I only really know the legend of Syd Barrett not any of the music. This was a pretty bog standard album. Nothing particularly good or bad about it, with the exception that the only version on Spotify is a crappy deluxe version with outtakes tacked on the end which add nothing other than annoyance. Thanks record companies, on your hands at last a dead star.
New Order
4/5
Not the first album that comes to mind when I think of New Order, but a fun one nonetheless. There's no real stand out track here, like a Blue Monday or Temptation, but it's all good quality and it's definitely worth another listen.
Lightning Bolt
4/5
This is the first album that I've had where I've never heard of the artist.
There's a lot to like about this one. It's punchy, aggressive, wall of noise. However, it also does feel relentless. I'd have liked a few contrasting quieter parts to provide more texture and variation to the album.
All in all, I'm going to have to give this a few more listens to properly make up my mind, but I think this is a pretty good album, that I'll only want to listen to when I'm in a certain mood or frame of mind.
Jeff Buckley
3/5
I don't really get the hype that surrounded this album. I can only think that it had a lot to do with Jeff's tragic early death.
Mostly it's fine, but just that and it does tend towards sounding like a poor man's Manic Street Preachers towards it's more rocky end.
Ironically, despite Leonard Cohen being famously self depreciating about his voice and the very 80s production of the original, I still much prefer his Hallelujah to Buckley's.
It feels a bit harsh to give this 2 stars, as it's not terrible, so I'm just about giving it a 3.
Nightmares On Wax
3/5
I read some of the reviews and a lot of people seem to be unhappy with this being background music. I don't really get that. There's definitely a place for music to have on while concentrating on something else or for when you just need to chill out a bit.
This certainly isn't up there with the great ambient works of Eno or Aphex Twin, but it's pleasant enough and I'll add it to my rotation of chill out tunes.
Os Mutantes
3/5
On hearing the first few seconds, I thought I was going to hate this, but it wasn't too bad. I liked many of the songs individually but, as an album, it doesn't really hang together, the changes in style from track to track and sometimes within the same track can become quite jarring.
A Minha Menina is a good song as are Bat Macumba and Ave Gengis Khan, but overall, the album is weaker than the sum of its parts.
The Band
3/5
I have neither anything good nor anything bad to say about this album. I'm entirely indifferent to it.
Barry Adamson
4/5
There's a lot to like about this album. It certainly beats the pants off Nilsson Schmilsson, which was recommended last week. There's a diverse range of music on offer that holds together as a singular work well. I enjoyed the contributions from Jarvis Cocker and Nick Cave too.
My instinct, after a few listens, is to give it a 4. There's not much that stops it from getting a 5. Vermillion Kisses being the only duff track - a faintly misogynistic and twee story that adds nothing and deserves skipping on every listen after the first.
I'll definitely be adding this to my rotation of albums and look for more by Barry.
Yes
1/5
I only really knew Yes from Owner of a Lonely Heart and Rick Wakeman's capes. Unfortunately, as someone who often enjoys a bit of prog, this album feels like a list of reasons why people don't like the genre.
There are occasions where you start to feel that something good is about to happen, but then there's a crappy bit of, very dated, synth (not Wakeman's) or a twatty folk track with some random clapping that kills any momentum that was building.
To add insult to aural injury, the only versions available are wanky deluxe editions - shit off with your demos, single versions and remixes.
Utter guff.
Black Sabbath
2/5
I'm tempted to write that, even post covid, I'd rather bite the head off a bat than listen to this album again, but it's not that bad. Just.
I'm wavering between giving it a one or a two. I definitely don't want to ever listen to this album again, but I don't think it genuinely annoyed me enough to get a one.
A, feeling generous, two.
Van Morrison
3/5
Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I didn't have high expectations.
Mostly it's fine, but And Then It Stoned Me is the only song I'd want to hear again and the album does tail of towards the end with a couple of real duffers.
Tom Waits
4/5
When I first heard Tom Waits, I found his voice rather over the top and slightly annoying. However he grew on me after a few listens and I started to appreciate his music. This album was like listening to Tom for the first time again. It's so stripped back at first that it was a tough listen and I was relieved when the album came back to more traditional Waits territory. However, after listening a couple more times, I found myself enjoying the whole album - bar the cover of I Don't Want To Grow Up - which I could definitely do without.
A gravelly foof.
Michael Jackson
4/5
Michael Jackson,
Here's the basic facts son,
He was born black,
He died white,
And in the middle he fiddled with kids.
It's hard to get away from the paedophilia accusations, Jackson's own childhood exploitation and abuse and just how many people facilitated these things for a slice of money and or reflected fame. However, for me, it's even harder to get away from the nostalgia this album brings.
Bad came out when I was 6 years old and was one of the first albums I ever owned (along with Pump Up the Jam by Technotronic and Get Even by Brother Beyond - my childhood music taste was shite). When I read the reviews before listening again, I found myself agreeing with the more negative ones, but listening to this album again transported me back to a simpler time when I'd get this tape out of my Thomas the Tank Engine tape box, put it in my ghetto blaster (super bass on) and enjoy an untainted Jacko's music in my Superman wallpaper covered bedroom.
The slower songs, Liberian Girl and I Just Can't Stop Loving You, are exactly that. But the rest of the album is good fun, even if Jackson can't pronounce basic words like come on or Annie.
I expect if I was hearing this for the first time as an adult, I'd be much harsher on the album, but I just can't help but enjoy it.
The Notorious B.I.G.
1/5
This is a difficult one to review. I liked the music and Biggie's vocals flow well. However, some of the lyrics are absolutely appalling. I'd feel embarrassed to listen to this album with other people around - and considering I'm happy to listen to Kunt and the Gang, that's not an easy thing to achieve. The glorification of violence, the casual homophobia and, in particular, the horrific levels of misogyny mean that I can only give this album 1 star, even though I thought the music was good.
Some of the more delightful lyrics:
From Me and My Bitch:
"And I admit, when the time is right, the wine is right
I treat you right, you talk slick, I beat you right"
From Just Playing (Dreams). Where Biggie "Dreams of fucking an R&B bitch"
"Make Raven Symone call date rape"
Fuck off you creepy, vile weirdo.
Everything But The Girl
4/5
I like this one a lot. Top end of a 4 for me.
Incredible Bongo Band
3/5
This starts off quite fun, but goes on for far too long and you just feel bongoed out by the end. I think I'd enjoy each track individually, but there's 19 of the bongtastic bastards for nearly 80 minutes of bonging.
I'll definitely put some of the tunes on my wake up playlist, but I don't think I ever want to sit down and listen to the whole thing again.
Three Bongos out of a Wagner.
Burning Spear
4/5
This is good. It's a tight 10 tracks of quality reggae.
There's a dub version of the music on this album - Garvey's Ghost, which I prefer to the slicker version on this release, it would have been interesting to have that with the vocals from this album.
Funkadelic
5/5
The cover of this album looks like it was drawn by a 13 year old and, unfortunately, only a few songs from it are available on spotify.
I managed to find it on YouTube and it's as good as the cover art is bad. At first I found the songs a bit overlong, but the more I listened to it, the more I got into its borderline prog funk.
It's a pain that it's not available to stream. I'd probably listen to it a lot more if it was.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
A beautifully tender album, made a pretty difficult listen by knowing the circumstances in which it was conceived.
I do tend to prefer Nick Cave's more upbeat songs. They tend to cover his tendency for slightly non-sensical and overblown lyrics, which are exposed on this record.
Still, a great album for a melancholy mood.
Ray Price
2/5
Bad, but not so bad it's actively annoying. It's so generic that I didn't notice when Spotify started playing similar artists afterwards.
It was great when he sang about getting drunk and hitting his girlfriend though :/
Arcade Fire
4/5
This is a decent album, but compared to Arcade Fire's previous two offerings, it's pretty weak. The only songs I'd really care to hear again are The Suburbs, Empty Room and Sprawl II.
The other songs fail to grab my attention and lack the bombast I'm used to from Arcade Fire.
It sounds like I'm being a bit harsh, but it's only because I loved Funeral and Black Mirror. It's still just about a 4 star album for me.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.
Good fun. Foof stars.
Franz Ferdinand
5/5
A big nostalgia hit as this album was part of the soundtrack of my twenties. A lot of that music I don't really listen to any more (The Rakes anybody?) but there's still a lot of good stuff on here, Michael, The Matinee, This Fire, Take Me Out, Jaqueline and Darts of Pleasure are all a cut above the usual landfill indie of the time.
The Beach Boys
2/5
I have fond memories of the Beach Boys from listening to them in my Dad's car on childhood summer journeys, but this is actually pretty bad. Help Me Ronda and Do You Wanna Dance are pretty good fun, but the rest of the album is just the same thing but worse, except for a shitty, self indulgent out take at the end. There's a time and a place for the Beach Boys, and it's probably on a best of compilation.
Depeche Mode
3/5
Starts off strong but ends weakly. Which is a shame as I think Depeche Mode are a sweet band.
Public Image Ltd.
4/5
This album a bit of a difficult listen, but when I gave it my full attention I found that I liked it. I doubt I'll listen to it again often but, for the right frame of mind, it's a good album.
Hole
2/5
When a new musical trend emerges, music executives are desperate to find something similar to flog and you end up with tat like this landfill alt rock.
Celebrity Skin (the song) is fine, Malibu is just about tolerable, but the rest of the album is so dull. It felt a lot longer than its 50 minute run time.
Boring
The Rolling Stones
2/5
It's surprising the I'm giving an album with the 5 star song, Sympathy for the Devil such a low score, but most of Beggar's Banquet is really bad. I liked Street Fighting Man and Stray Cat Blues but, Dear Doctor and Factory Girl are utter dog shit, some of the most annoying, anger inducing music I've heard since I started 40 or so albums ago. The rest of the songs are pretty crappy too.
I can't give this more than 2 stars, frankly it's lucky to get that.
Louis Prima
4/5
At first it felt I little like I was listening to something in a museum. After a while though, I started to enjoy this and, on a second listen, I had a lot of lovely fun.
Billy Joel
4/5
Cheesy as hell, but I'm enjoying it.
5/5
Love this album, probably my favourite by PJ Harvey. An easy 5 for me.
Queen
3/5
Queen, are another band, like the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones, who have a great best of compilation (in this case two great best ofs), but whose album tracks are pretty bad. The album tracks on A Night at the Opera aren't so awful that I'm giving it two stars despite the presence of a 5 star song (unlike Beggar's Banquet) but there's still a lot of guff on this album. Bohemian Rhapsody is an obvious stand out, You're My Best Friend is fun, but don't bother with the rest.
Spacemen 3
3/5
Found it difficult to get into this one. The bonus tracks at the end of the re-release didn't help. I think there's some good stuff here, but it didn't quite work for me.
Hanoi Rocks
3/5
Like several other reviewers, I don't really get why this album is on the list. It's a perfectly serviceable glam / stadium rock album, but there's nothing more than that. Nothing new, interesting, vital or exciting. If it's your type of music, you'll like it, but it's hardly worth going out of your way to listen to.
Pixies
5/5
I've listened to this album plenty of times in the past, but over the last few years it's pretty much just been Debaser and, occasionally Wave of Mutilation. I thought going in, that I was going to give it a 4 but, listening to the whole thing, I think it just about deserves a 5. There's a few absolute classics on here and the rest of the songs are upbeat alt rock that puts me in a good mood.
Pavement
4/5
I like this one, although it does tail off a little on the last few tracks. The vocals prevent it from being a top, top album, but it's still a lot of fun.
Pavement
3/5
Thanks to the random number generator, I've had two Pavement albums back to back. For me, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain is a significant downgrade from Slanted and Enchanted. I enjoyed several songs, particularly Cut Your Hair and 5-4=Unity, but the more polished sound didn't have the energy or little pockets of interest that Pavement's debut album did.
Crooked Rain Crooked Rain is still a good album but, as someone who doesn't listen to Pavement all that often, I can't see why I'd listen to it over Slanted and Enchanted. 3 Stars feels a little harsh, but giving it the same 4 as their previous album feels overly generous. If it were out of 10, this album would be a low 7 whereas Slanted and Enchanted would be a high 8 for me.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Good Dylan, but not great Dylan. This is a step or two behind Blonde on Blonde or Blood on the tracks. Still pretty decent though.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Yeah, this is the good stuff.
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
I've always found the Manics' lyrics and willingness to speak out on political issues more interesting than their actual music, which has a tendency towards middle of the road dad rock. There's a couple of songs that I enjoyed on this album, although, as it came out when I was 15, there's a degree of nostalgia colouring my thoughts. Really, the only truly good Manics' songs are Motorcycle Emptiness and a couple of tunes from the Holy Bible.
Silver Jews
3/5
This felt pretty one note and generic. There was nothing hugely bad about it per se, apart from a few slips into tweeness, which blights many American indie bands, but there was nothing particularly good either. I can't think why I'd want to listen to any of it again.
Thin Lizzy
4/5
This was quite fun. Very dad rock, but enjoyable.
The Fall
5/5
Pleasantly surprised to see this on the list. I love a bit of The Fall. Easy 5
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
I enjoy a bit of Elvis Costello. On this album, Oliver's Army and What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding are the highlights. For me, the use of the n-word in Oliver's Army has to be seen in the context of the time and as a critique of British colonialism in Ireland - even if it is a rather crude analogy.
Dolly Parton
4/5
This isn't really my thing, but I quite enjoyed it. However, I was amazed the album was recorded in 1987. It sounds a lot more old fashioned than that. Like stepping back in time.
Alanis Morissette
2/5
Objectively, this is shit. Alanis' silly voice, the dated production, the often inane lyrics. It's basically music for people who have "Live, Laugh, Love" pictures on their walls.
In very small doses, much like the music of William Shatner, I find Alanis Morissette so bad she's funny. It quickly wears off, but it's the only thing stopping this album from getting a one.
Aerosmith
1/5
Pump can be used as a slang word for fart, which seems appropriate in the context of this album.
This isn't so bad it makes me angry, but it is definitely very bad indeed.
Edit: Actually, the last song - What It Takes, is so terrible, I'm giving this a one. The musical equivalent of shitting in your hands and clapping.
Bert Jansch
3/5
This was okay, but it felt like a tribute album. Why is a Scot singing about highway's and smokey rivers? There are points where Jansch's Scottishness comes through and the album feels much more authentic and better for it, Needle of Death, in particular is a beautifully melancholy folk song. For the rest though, it just feels like someone pretending to be an American, and even though he's doing it pretty well, it doesn't quite get there.
The Police
1/5
I liked Message in a Bottle, but this album is soon starting to grate. The cod-reggae feels like it's taking the piss at times.
Jesus Christ, On Any Other Day is as bad as anything I've ever heard. I was debating whether Message in a Bottle meant that this album deserved a two, but, fuck me, I hate this song. Does Everyone Stare is several times less awful than On Any Other Day, but it's still offensively shit.
This was no 369 on Rolling Stones greatest 500 albums of all time list. How much cocaine were they taking at the time? I've taken 500 dumps that I'd rather listen to again than this heap of tod.
Django Django
3/5
This is an album that I feel that I should like, but I just can't get into it. In a way it reminds me of Field Music, who make similar indie music that's slightly more interesting and intelligent than the norm, but unlike say, Alt-J, none of their music, nor Django Django's really capture my imagination.
Three stars feels harsh, but I can't think of a reason why I'd want to listen to this again - I gave it three full playthroughs and still couldn't pick out a song other than Default, which I already knew.
The Cure
4/5
Love The Cure. This isn't my favourite thing they've ever done, but it's still better than most things around.
Frank Sinatra
4/5
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. However, it really felt like music to have on while doing something else rather than music to sit down and actively listen to. I'll keep listening to it, as a change from my usual Eno and Aphex Twin albums, when I want some background music that doesn't distract me from what I want to concentrate on.
David Bowie
4/5
Bowie at his peak is magnificent, but this album isn't his best. Young Americans and Fame are great, most of the rest is fine but nothing more. The cover of Across the Universe is pretty bad.
Overall, this just about deserves a four, but there are much better Bowie albums out there.
Dire Straits
3/5
I liked Down by the Waterline and Sultans of Swing, but nothing else on the album really grabbed me. There was nothing I'd go out of my way to switch off, but nor was there much to make me want to listen again. Another band where I'd put on a best of, but not studio albums.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
I enjoyed the actual album a lot, although it's only available in a shitty extended version on Spotify, which makes it feel overlong at nearly 80 minutes as opposed to the 40ish minutes of the original album. I wish record companies would stop pulling this shit. I only want to listen to the actual album, not a ton of outtakes, alternative versions and b-sides.
Lorde
3/5
I didn't really get the reason for this album being on the list. It seems very generic and no better than many other similar modern female pop artists. I'm not a big fan of the genre but, to me at least, people like Taylor Swift, Marina, Janelle Monae, Charlie XCX etc are a significant step up from this.
It's not bad, but it's not something I'd go out of my way to listen to again.
David Bowie
5/5
Easy 5 for this one. There's a couple of songs that aren't amazing, but mostly this is Bowie at his best. Changes, Oh! You Pretty Things, Queen Bitch, Life on Mars. Fantastic.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
I loved Smashing Pumpkins when I was a teenager, but I've not listened to this album for at least a decade. On putting it on I wondered why, it opens strong and I enjoyed the guitar tone a lot.
I don't quite have the same opinion of it as I did 25 years ago, the album gets a bit samey and repetitive and Corgan's lyrics often come across as the words of a teen poet. Corgan also is one of the arseholes of the music world, but I haven't docked the Smiths stars for Morrissey and I won't do that here either.
This is a strong 4, it might have got a 5 on a generous day, but the tail end of the album is significantly weaker than the start and prevents it from getting the full 5.
John Martyn
3/5
This was decent enough. There were times where I thought it was going to be genuinely good, but it never quite got there. A high three.
Metallica
1/5
This is poor. I don't understand how such loud, in your face music can be so boring, but it's really, really dull.
I'm just coming to the end of the second song and it's already starting to piss me off with it's shit repetition. An easy one. Total shite.
Sepultura
2/5
I audibly sighed when I saw this was today's album. Yesterday I had Metallica's Master of Puppets, and after listening to that aural turd, I really didn't fancy more of the same. Fortunately, however, while this genre isn't my cup of tea at all, this was significantly better that Metallica's crappy offering.
I didn't like the death metal vocals, there was too much growling and not enough singing, but the music had some variation and points of interest to accompany the chugging guitars.
It's not something I'd listen to again, but I didn't hate it, like I hated Master of Puppets.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
4/5
I enjoyed this a lot. Definitely the good side of prog. Totally pretentious, overblown and unnecessary, but still very enjoyable despite, or perhaps because of that.
This album felt a bit like a rich dessert, too much would make you feel sick, but in smallish amounts (which is why I avoided the extended edition like the plague) it's very enjoyable.
A high 4.
Radiohead
5/5
Since The Bends, Radiohead albums have been near universally excellent. This is no exception and an easy 5.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
2/5
I'd never heard of these guys before. They sound okayish, pretty generic 60s pop. Not the best example of it by a long shot. Not Your Stepping Stone is a good song but besides that there's nothing I'd want to hear again. A harsh 2 but not good enough for a 3.
Nine Inch Nails
2/5
I've heard songs by NIN that I've enjoyed but, unfortunately, there weren't many on this album. Hurt was ok, although Johnny Cash's version was far superior (which isn't unusual). Besides that, there wasn't much. I think I prefer NIN when they're slightly more poppy and melodic.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
After Beggar's Banquet being so bad, I wasn't looking forward to this, despite the fact that Gimmie Shelter is a fantastic song.
Listening to it. As soon as Gimmie Shelter finished, I was starting to get annoyed with the album. It's amazing just how big the delta between the Stones', stone cold classic, best songs and their faux honkey tonk, dog shit, album tracks is. In a way, the few good songs being great makes me more angry with the other songs, as they show how good the band can be when they get it right. It's hard to comprehend how a band can write songs as good as Gimmie Shelter or Paint it Black and then think songs like Country Honk deserve to be on the same record. I'm genuinely baffled.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
Yeah this is good. Perhaps not quite as good as having cocaine blown up your arsehole, but good nonetheless.
Radiohead
5/5
Easiest 5 so far. A masterpiece of an album. Probably my favourite thing that they've done.
Muddy Waters
4/5
This is good, but too samey to get a 5 from me.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
Yeah, this is the good stuff.
Sister Sledge
5/5
Nile Rodger's fingerprints are all over this album and that's a very good thing.
Another easy 5.
Happy Mondays
5/5
Brilliant. Love this album.
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
This was nice enough, but it didn't really do anything much for me.
David Bowie
4/5
I adore David Bowie. The man made some of the greatest albums of all time but, this album being on the list is ridiculous. When you've only got a thousand albums to list, why include a sub par Bowie album when you've already got multiple stone cold classics by the same artist?
As an album, this is fine, there are some good songs and I prefer it a lot to a significant number of albums I've listened to so far. However, it falls a long, long way short of Ziggy Stardust, Low, Hunky Dory, Blackstar, Diamond Dogs, Let's Dance, Heroes, Station to Station, Scary Monsters and Super Creeps or the second Eponymous album. So why bother when there's a lot more than a thousand artists that are worth listening to?
Where Are We Know and If You Can See Me are my favourite songs but, frankly, I'd rather listen to the Labyrinth Soundtrack than this.
Still, just about a 4 for me. I do love David Bowie.
Dr. John
4/5
I'd heard of Dr. John, but not heard his music. I'd assumed it was just more white man, southern funky piano, but this album was a lot more interesting than that. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It reminded me of Captain Beefheart to an extent, but with more structure and less weirdness.
Bob Dylan
4/5
These are the plums I've been looking for all weeeeeeeeeek.
The curse of the double album strikes again. This would probably be a 5 if the weaker songs were cut. Just Like a Woman, One of us Must Know and I Want You are classic Dylan but there's too much filler and Rainy Day Women is annoyingly crap.
Marty Robbins
3/5
I was ready to take this piss out of this album, but I ended up quite enjoying it. It's very samey, so the enjoyment wore thin towards the end of the album, even though I don't think the later songs were any worse than the earlier ones.
4/5
Another album that I thought I was going to hate in the first 30 seconds of listening to it, but that I started to enjoy as it went on.
It's a challenging listen for sure, but after giving it a couple of goes, I think it's actually pretty good. It's certainly different and fits more in the theme of a list like this than one of the more mediocre Beatles or Bowie albums.
Tangerine Dream
4/5
Another 40 minute album that's only available in a bloated, multidisc, "deluxe" edition on Spotify, which is shit. I don't need to listen to Barry Chuckles Oh Dear Remix (Radio Edit) when the original song is right there.
However, the actual album is pretty good. One to add to my rotation of ambient music to have in the background when I'm concentrating on something else.
Mudhoney
3/5
A 28 minute album that's only available on Spotify as a 'deluxe' edition that's over 2 hours long. Fuck off.
As for the actual music, it's pretty bland, middle of the road grunge. Nothing particularly good or bad about it. I wouldn't cross the room to turn it off, that's about it.
Also. Muffs.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
This is a classic but, for me, it didn't quite do enough to get a 5. I like it a lot, but I don't love it.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
This is okay. Art "Tiny Eyes" Garfunkle has a wonderful voice. However a lot of the songs are run of the mill. The best songs are reworkings of traditional songs rather than original compositions.
Overall, decent, but no Bridge Over Troubled Water
Alice Cooper
3/5
This feels like the soundtrack to a musical theatre show. That's not in of itself a bad thing, but it's amusing to think that something so camp caused any outrage.
Overall the album is fine, not really my cup of tea, but decent enough. If you're a fan of Cats, Blood Brothers, Hamilton etc, then you'll probably enjoy this.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
I enjoyed this well enough although I don't think it's Young's best work.
Just about a 4.
LL Cool J
3/5
Several years ago, I found out that LL Cool J stood for Ladies Love Cool James and it's been difficult to take Cool James seriously ever since.
The title track is a great song, but besides that, there isn't much to recommend on this album, Around The World Girl is pretty enjoyable I suppose. There's nothing particularly bad either. Cool James even promises a woman that he sure wouldn't rape her, which definitely puts him above Notorious BIG.
David Gray
2/5
My first reaction to seeing this album come up was anger. I had to force myself to listen to it and in listening to it, I examined just what it was that makes me hate this album so much.
White Ladder isn't a one star album, sure it's bland as fuck, but the music itself didn't actively annoy me in the way some others have. I think the thing that angers me most about this album is just how popular it was. It's success damaged my faith in humanity a little. Now, considering I'm writing this on the day Donald Trump was re-elected, my faith in humanity has already taken a pretty big hit, but I can at least mitigate that by pretending that Americans are stupider than us civilised Europeans. Unfortunately, this album being so successful in my native UK shows that people here are in many ways just as horrifically idiotic as they are in the US.
At least David Gray isn't a proven rapist I suppose. Two stars.
Malcolm McLaren
4/5
How much of this album was actually by Malcolm McLaren and how much was just plagiarised or others' work that McLaren claimed is debateable. He always was a slimy shit of a man.
That said, the actual music was enjoyable. A four star album by a one star human being.
Steely Dan
2/5
Mostly bland and dull, occasionally mildly irritating.
Hookworms
3/5
This is pleasant but nothing special. There are moments when I thought it was going to be more interesting than it was, particularly the tracks with a more electronic bent. However, the guitar parts of the album have a faint whiff of the landfill about them.
Ullswater was probably the only song I'd go out of my way to listen to again.
Klaxons
4/5
I have fond memories of this album and then memories of their subsequent stuff being surprisingly bad. On listening for the first time in years, the album does not hold up as well as I remember. The singles are very enjoyable still, but the rest of the album falls a bit flat - and indicates that the follow up albums being poor shouldn't have been as much of a surprise as it was.
Still giving it four stars, possibly a little nostalgia tinted, but I do really like the singles from this album, so it's kind of deserved too.
Kraftwerk
5/5
I don't think this is quite as good as Radioactivity, but it's still an easy 5.
The Kinks
4/5
I enjoyed this. The title track and Big Sky are the standout tracks, but most of it is pretty good fun. The weakest songs are the last two, which means the album ends on a bit of a sour note, but it still deserves a four.
The Prodigy
3/5
I love the Prodigy. I saw them live, they were fantastic and I have fond memories of listening to them throughout my teenage years.
However, the elephant in the room needs to be addressed. This album starts with the song "Smack My Bitch Up" and there is no defending this awful piece of misogyny. Unlike Notorious B.I.G's album, where this vileness was a constant undercurrent, the rest of the tracks on The Fat Of The Land aren't so cretinous. If it wasn't for the opening track, I'd give this album five stars. It's a shame really.
R.E.M.
3/5
Decent R.E.M but not great R.E.M. For me, they've done much better albums.
Foo Fighters
3/5
Eminem
3/5
This was a difficult album to listen to. The music was good in places, but very dark. There was a lot of extremely violent and angry lyrics, particularly directed against his wife / partner. But they, for the most part, didn't feel like glorification.
The album tails off towards the end and after the intense first half, that did mean it dragged on a little.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Mostly excellent. One of the big names of the sixties that seem consistently good.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
The upbeat songs are good and Superstition is amazing, but the rest of the album doesn't really do it for me. A 4 because Superstition is just that good.
Aretha Franklin
3/5
While this was nice enough. I didn't enjoy this as much as Lady Soul. Which I loved.
Respect is, obviously, a classic, but I can't really remember another song on the album.
This is a 3 borderline 4 album for me.
Roxy Music
4/5
There's nothing as good as Virginia Plain on this album, but I still enjoyed it to an extent.
Just about a 4
Aerosmith
2/5
Another Aerosmith album. For fuck's sake. The idea of using 2 slots for this wank when you're limited to 1001 is ridiculous.
As to the music itself. The album is better than Pump. But then again, a solid turd is better than a runny one. They're both still shit at the end of the day.
I think this album just about scrapes a 2. It's bad, but my real anger is at the fact it's on this list, not in the music.
Pearl Jam
2/5
There's bits of this album that I liked. Alive and Even Flow are decent enough songs. However the vocals started to annoy me after a while and, as the album is nearly an hour long, I was glad when it ended.
Stan Getz
3/5
Unobtrusive background music. There's nothing here that I'd choose to listen to, but it would be perfectly pleasant to have on in a restaurant or while I was concentrating on work.
Arcade Fire
4/5
I thought this album was going to be an easy 5 as I loved it when it was released but it's not as good as I remember it being to be honest. Perhaps that comes from over-listening, but when Spotify played Laika when the album finished, I enjoyed that a lot more.
It's still a good album, with several stand out tracks, but it just didn't hit the spot.
Stan Getz
3/5
I preferred this to the other Getz album, but it's still music that seems designed to be as non descript as possible. The lyrics helped add a bit of interest but the album is still very much background music.
Doves
3/5
I occasionally listen to The Last Broadcast and think that I should listen to Doves more, but this album is why I don't. It's mostly pretty landfilly, non-descript indie rock. The Cedar Room is the only song on the album that I'd go out of my way to listen to again, but the rest fall into the Elbow/Coldplay generic genre. Inoffensive but not worth listening to again.
Patti Smith
5/5
I've listened to this before and I'm not quite sure why I haven't listened to it more. The album starts off really strong and doesn't get much weaker after that. Gloria and Land are the stand out tracks, but it's all good.
Joy Division
5/5
I prefer Unknown Pleasures, but this is still a great album. Easy 5
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
I feel slightly dirty admitting this. But I like Clarence, Clearwater Revival.
The cover of Heard It Through The Grapevine on this album is over long and massively self indulgent shite. Besides that though, I really enjoyed the album. Several of the songs sounded like countryfied versions of Good Golly Miss Molly, but their derivitaveness didn't bother me.
Shivkumar Sharma
5/5
This is only available on YouTube. It took me a while to get around to listening to it because of that and it will be rare that I get to listen to it in the future. This is a shame, as I've a lot of time for this album. It's very different to what I normally listen to, but makes perfect music to have on in the background while working or to relax to. I think a 5 is deserved here.
Jeff Beck
2/5
I was going to moan about this album being too long before I realised that the last 5 tracks were CD bonus tracks not part of the original work.
Musically, it's all pretty samey, which is why the length annoyed me. It also felt rather fret wanky and, frankly, a bit dull.
Alice In Chains
2/5
This is very similar to Pearl Jam. Although not quite as bad.
It has the silly, 90s American rock vocal, but not quite as silly as Eddie Vedder's. More Chris Cornell.
It's too long, like Pearl Jam, although it's slightly more varied. If the album was 40 minutes rather than an hour, I'd be tempted to give it a 3.
Beatles
3/5
I like later Beatles albums a lot but this has a lot of twee shite on it. Hard Days Night, Any Time At All and And I Love Her keep this from being a two.
Public Enemy
4/5
This album is very much of its time. But as a child of the 80s I have fond memories of that time. Sure it's dated, and the wordplay could be sharper and flow more easily, but I don't care. I enjoyed this quite a bit.
Beatles
3/5
Not as good as I thought it was going to be. There's some good stuff on here. Come Together and Here Comes The Sun are obvious stand ours. However, there's also some right toss on here too. Maxwell's Silver Hammer, in particular, can fuck right off.
The Allman Brothers Band
3/5
This album did nothing at all for me. It just happened and then it finished. Utterly forgettable.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
I couldn't tell you a single song from this album. It was perfectly decent, but nothing stood out at all.
Mekons
3/5
I didn't really get this. There were some songs I liked, Trouble Down. South, Psycho Cupid and Country but the more country the songs were, the less they worked for me.
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
This gave me the same feelings as watching Duck Soup. Historically interesting, but not something I'd bothet to do again.
Also, considering the introduction said Sarah had a lyric sheet, she sure did forget a lot of the words.
Nick Drake
5/5
This album has a fragile beauty that I love. Easy 5.
Willie Nelson
4/5
It's not really my genre, but I enjoyed this a decent amount. You could clearly tell the difference in quality between this album and the stuff Spotify autoplayed when it finished.
Randy Newman
3/5
While I liked the slightly sardonic lyrics, once I got over that this was the Toy Story guy, I found that the music didn't do much for me. For 70s American piano, I preferred Billy Joel.
Al Green
5/5
This album consists of the magnificent Let's Stay Together and 8 more songs that are good, but not as good as Let's Stay Together.
I think it just about deserves a 5.
Pulp
5/5
Easy 5. Pulp were comprehensively a Different Class to the rest of britpop.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
Another 5 for Jimothy. Consistently great.
Queen
3/5
More of a conventional rock album than A Night At The Opera and more consistent, but Seven Seas of Rhye is the only song I'd care about hearing again.
Dagmar Krause
1/5
This sounds like the music for an overly earnest regional arts theatre group.
The White Stripes
4/5
Not as good as I remember, but still pretty decent. Black Math(s) and Fell in Love With a Girl are the obvious stand outs
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
This is incredibly cheesy but you'd have to either be a miserable bastard or a desperate try hard to not enjoy it.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I've a lot of time for early Leonard Cohen. Songs like Chelsea Hotel and Bird on a Wire are great. However, at some point in the early 80s, all his songs started to remind me of Chris Rea. I like an egg in my bath as much as the next man but, musically, this isn't a good thing.
The album is fine, nothing more.
Bob Dylan
3/5
It's fine. But I don't get why it's on the list. It's hardly Dylan's best.
Cowboy Junkies
2/5
Pretty dull to be honest.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Much better than Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. There's a couple of not great bits that keep me from giving a 5, but for the most part I really liked this.
The Cardigans
2/5
I liked Lovefool, but I had to make an effort to finish the rest of the album.
Various Artists
4/5
I'm not a big fan of Christmas songs, and the ones I do like are more things like Slade and Wizard. However, this is the best version of these sort of songs that I've heard.
Good work for a murderer.
Adele
3/5
Adele is clearly very skilled, but it's just not my sort of thing. The singles are nice enough, the album tracks are okay and the cover of The Cure just makes me want to listen to The Cure.
The Smiths
5/5
As good an album as Morrissey is a shitty person. Although considering he's just a bigoted, awkward arsehole, when there are actual, paedophiles, murderers and rapists on this list of albums, grouping him in with the true shits of music seems a bit harsh.
Easy 5.
Sigur Rós
4/5
I've only ever listened to Taak before but this is very good too.
Sigur Rós songs often have a fragile beauty to them and, in not knowing what they're saying, it's easy to let the music and emotions wash over you.
That said, while I think this is very good. I barely ever get the urge to listen to Sigur Rós. Perhaps it's a me problem, because when I do, I like it, but it just doesn't get to the 5 star point for me.
Cornershop
3/5
Both better and worse than I was expecting. This is a pretty erratic album quality wise. At points it was just bland Britpop with a touch of India, but when things were more eclectic, the music was much better for it.
A mix of 2-4 star songs, so a 3 seems about right.
Beck
5/5
Love this. One of my favourite albums from my teens. Easy 5.
Kate Bush
5/5
Kate Bush is great. The album gets a bit weird and very 80s in the middle, but I'm here for it.
Billy Bragg
2/5
I've a lot of time for Billy Bragg. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time for his voice. Which is shit.
The Strokes
4/5
This was good, but not as good as I remember it being.
The White Stripes
4/5
There's some really good stuff on here: Seven Nation Army, Black Math(s), Hardest Button to Button. There's also a couple of absolute stinkers, It's True That We Love One Another in particular - which stops me from giving this a five.
Bob Dylan
4/5
I think this album is close to Bobbers at his best. It's good enough, but it's still not great. I think he's probably another classic artist where I'd rather just stick to a best of or two. That and Blood on the Tracks, which is genuinely very good.
Beth Orton
3/5
Nice enough but utterly forgettable.
Air
5/5
I enjoyed this when it first came out, but unlike several albums from my youth that have appeared on here, I think I like this even better now than I did when I was a teenager. My reaction to seeing this pop up was that it would be a 4, but I think it's actually a 5. Lovely stuff.
Astrud Gilberto
2/5
There seems to be quite a lot of these Bossa Nova albums on this list. They all sound pretty much the same, perfectly inoffensive, but pretty uninspiring.
They're three star albums for me. This album however, has two standout tracks, Parade - which is annoying and shit and You Didn't Have To Be So Nice, which is self indulgent, annoying and shit. No one, outside of their parents, nonces and Aled Jones botherers, wants to hear children singing. So I'm knocking off a star because of that.
Metallica
1/5
Oh fuck off.
Wait, no, it's 2 hours and 13 minutes long. FUCK RIGHT OFF.
Actually, not wanting to miss my streak, I gave this a chance and listened to the whole thing and you know what? It was significantly better than I thought it would be. I thought it would be the worst album I'd ever heard and, in reality it was only in the top ten.
Hugh Masekela
4/5
I think this is the best of the traditional jazz albums I've heard so far. I enjoyed it, and will definitely listen to it again but, I still didn't love it, just liked it.
Songhoy Blues
4/5
I enjoyed this. Not quite enough to give it a 5, but it was very good.
Teenage Fanclub
3/5
Nice enough, but didn't really do anything for me.
The Last Shadow Puppets
4/5
Better than I remember it being. Although I'd still rather listen to Scott Walker than 00s indie northerners copying him.
Wu-Tang Clan
3/5
A mixed bag. I liked a lot of the music, but I'll never understand why 90s hip hop albums had so many intermissions, skits etc. They always spoil the flow of the album and are rarely enjoyable to listen to, even once.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3/5
I am genuinely amazed that this album is on the list.
Can you imagine the conversation?
"Guys, guys. You know what album must be on the list. That Scooby Snacks album. It's definitely one of the thousand best albums of all time. Hughie Morgan is a visionary."
I can understand why some albums I hate are on this list. Maybe they're from a genre I can't stand, are of historical interest or were very successful. I don't hate this album, in fact there's the odd part I quite like, but it is so bizarre to see The Fun Lovin' Criminals alongside Bowie, Dylan and the Beatles as a must listen to before you die choice.
Boston
2/5
All the cheese and none of the fun of ELO
Suzanne Vega
2/5
Not totally awful, but pretty bad. Whiny, uninspired and dull.
David Bowie
5/5
Oooh, one of the good Bowie albums. Today is going to be a good day!
Travis
2/5
I'm tempted to give this a one, as there really is some whiny shit on here. The singles, Writing To Reach You, Driftwood, Turn and Why Does It Always Rain On Me are just about acceptable enough to give it a two.
It's still music for bedwetters though.
Brian Eno
4/5
This feels like a protean version of music that I would really like. I'm a big fan of Talking Heads and I enjoy a lot of Eno's work too. What stops this album from getting a five is the vocal samples. I'd have much preferred to hear David Byrne's slightly awkward singing than the samples used, which I felt detracted from the music in places rather than adding to it.
Adele
1/5
The Venn diagram of people who like this album and people who have owned a "Live, Laugh, Love" poster is practically a circle.
I tolerated the first Adele album but, however good her voice is, this really started to get on my tits.
Guided By Voices
4/5
Better than I thought it would be. There is definitely the air of a demo tape about the album and I would have preferred if the songs were more fleshed out, but I did enjoy the lo-fi production and think this album will grow on me the more I listen to it.
Skunk Anansie
2/5
Including this album seems strange. Skunk Anansie's previous albums were inconsistent, but had a degree of edge about them and at least one or two quality songs. This album is much more consistent, but has smoothed away most of the edge the band had to leave a rather bland selection of songs, albeit sung by someone with a wonderful voice, and nothing anywhere near as good as Weak or Hedonism.
Sparks
5/5
I enjoy quite a bit of Sparks, but it's tended to be a selection of songs rather that whole albums. This was really enjoyable. Bombastic, witty, almost circus like music at times. Loved it.
Santana
4/5
I thought this was going to be shit but, actually I quite enjoyed it.
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
I like the Pet Shop Boys but, a few of their singles apart, I don't love them. Just about a 4 for me.
Spiritualized
4/5
I didn't like this as much as Ladies and Gentlemen We're Floating in Space. But I did significantly prefer it to Spacemen 3. It is very much background music, but that's not a bad thing.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
This album had most of the songs I liked from the best of Leonard Cohen. It can be a bit samey and the religious imagery is overdone, but I liked it.
The Teardrop Explodes
4/5
I liked this quite a bit. Julian Cope is a bit of a legend, but the music itself was fun and catchy.
The Temptations
4/5
Fun enough, although there's no real stand out songs, no My Girl or Get Ready. The Heard It Through The Grapevine cover is a interesting change, but pales in comparison to the original or even to The Slits version. Better than Clarence Clearwater's version though.
De La Soul
5/5
The skits detract from the great music, but they are mercifully short so I'm not docking a star, although I was tempted.
As for the music itself, I love it. Say No Go is probably my favourite track, but the whole album is strong.
John Lennon
3/5
Can we all just agree that John was the worst Beatle?
Imagine makes me genuinely angry, the po faced, total lack of self awareness being demonstrated in this song is ire inducing.
That said, on the rest of the album, the music is pretty decent, even though the lyrics are shitty. The only genuinely good song is Jealous Guy. The only song where John Lennon addresses what a prick he was.
Jamiroquai
4/5
I have a friend who's worked with a former member of Jamiroquai and I'm sure it will surprise no one that the Stevie Wonder impersonating, Native American headdress wearing white guy who sings about an Emergency on Planet Earth while owning a collection of highly polluting super cars is a bit of a bell end and loves to phone people up early on a Christmas morning coked up and lonely.
That said, I like the music. It's derivative, but it's also quite good fun. Despite Jay Kay being, alongside The Edge, the King of the Hat Wankers.
The Dandy Warhols
4/5
More shoegazy than I expected from knowing just the singles. I enjoyed it, but it could have been shorter. It still just about gets a 4, but would have been better if it was a tight 45 minutes rather than just over an hour.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
I wasn't that impressed with Physical Graffiti, but when Black Dog came on, I thought I was going to really like this album. However, once the first couple of tracks finished, the rest of the music just didn't grab me. At their best Led Zeppelin knock it out of the park, but a best of album is probably the only thing I'd listen to with any regularity.
Tori Amos
5/5
I've a lot of time for Tori Amos and I'd listened to this album a few times before. I thought I'd give it a 4 before I listened to it again, but it's probably a 5.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
Fine, but pretty non descript shoegaze. I don't really get why this is on this list. Wonder 2 was the only song that struck any sort of chord with me.
George Michael
3/5
Mostly this is a pretty bland album. Freedom 90 is great, of course, and I quite enjoyed the jazzy Cowboys and Angels but, for everything else, I was just waiting for it to be over.
5/5
I'm not a huge fan of the Beatles and it irks me that all of their albums are on this list. However historically important they were.
This though, is the good stuff. One of the two truly excellent Beatles albums'
Iron Maiden
4/5
Better than I thought it would be, although it was odd to hear Iron Maiden without Bruce Dickinson.
It's not really my genre, but I enjoyed it and would happily listen to this again.
Slint
4/5
I'd never heard of this before, but it was intriguing enough to give it a couple of listens. Similar to a lot of shoegaze music, it would have been nice to have the vocal a bit more prominent in the mix, but overall, the more I listened the more I started to get into it.
Kendrick Lamar
2/5
I liked to Pimp a Butterfly, but this was hard work. Falling into rap stereotypes, the misogyny in particular put me off. Musically, it didn't do much for me either. It didn't make me actively angry, more disappointed as Kendrick is supposed to be the gold standard of rap - a bit like when I tried to listen to Kanye West's The College Dropout, I just don't get why this is popular.
ZZ Top
4/5
I was all ready to slate this before I listened, but I found myself quite enjoying it in parts. The lyrics are totally inane and the slower tracks wear on my patience at times, but songs like Gimmie All Your Lovin, Legs and Sharp Dressed man were good fun. I wouldn't listen to ZZ Top often, but this daddest of dad rock was alright.
Gram Parsons
3/5
This was perfectly fine, but it didn't do anything for me at all.
Meat Puppets
3/5
I liked the music a decent amount, but found the vocals irritating and something I had to push through to enjoy the music underneath.
Rush
3/5
Fine, but a bit too stadium and not enough prog for my liking.
The Youngbloods
4/5
A bit of jazzy pop. I found the poppy bits a bit generic, but I enjoyed the more jazzy numbers. Just about a four, would definitely listen to again.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
I've enjoyed Creedence Clearwater Revival, but a third album, especially one that's so heavy on the covers seems pretty pointless. The cover of Good Golly Miss Molly did make me smile, only because, on Cosmo's factory, I'd said that "Several of the songs sounded like countryfied versions of Good Golly Miss Molly" so I felt a nice bit of validation. This is the weakest of the CCR albums I've listened to though.
Deep Purple
2/5
Highway Star was alright, but the only Deep Purple song I properly like, Fireball, isn't on this album. A lot of the music is pretty dull, livened up only by the more interesting drumming. I don't really get why this was popular.
Bobby Womack
3/5
This was fine, but nothing to write home about. As for the title, Womack is hardly Keats.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
Fun enough. Just about a 4.
Neil Young
3/5
It's fine, but I don't really get why Neil Young was so successful. There's nothing here that grabs my attention or makes me want to listen to the album again.
James Brown
4/5
This is a lot of fun. I don't think the live aspect adds much, but it doesn't take too much away either.
For some reason, despite James Brown's massive influence, the album doesn't quite do enough for me to give it a 5. I'm not sure entirely why, it is very good, but I like it rather than love it.
Napalm Death
4/5
This wasn't actually that bad. I enjoyed a lot of the music and, on a second listen, the vocals didn't have the annoying quality that my first impression thought.
It's an awkward and deliberately difficult album, but one where I think would benefit from repeat listens - if you have the stomach for it!
The Stranglers
4/5
Decent enough to just about get a 4. I'd listened to bits of The Stranglers before, but never a whole album. It was actually a little New York Dollsish in parts - although I'd rather listen to them, despite my preference usually being for the British punk they infuluenced.
Dr. Dre
4/5
Musically, I enjoyed this quite a bit. The lyrics are pretty one note but, despite some of the reviews on here, they never plumb the depths of offensiveness that Born to Die by Notorious BIG did. Bitches Ain't Shit is tastelessly misogynistic, but not enough so for me to dock a star - like with Smack My Bitch Up on Fat of the Land.
I enjoyed the cameo from the Lady of Rage, it added some needed variety to the vocals and I'd only known Afro Puffs before listening to this album.
Peter Gabriel
2/5
There's a couple of songs I like on here, not just Solsbury Hill. Humdrum and Waiting for the Big One are alright. Only Excuse Me genuinely annoyed me, but the whole album doesn't really hang together. The difference between one song and the next is often jarring as there is such a mish-mash of styles. It makes the whole weaker than the sum of its parts.
Motörhead
3/5
I've never really tried listening to Motorhead, which is odd, as I've always enjoyed Ace of Spades.
This album seems like a poor introduction to the band. The vocals are too low in the mix and it's hard to distinguish between songs that I'd never heard before. It's a shame, because I think I'd enjoy listening the the studio versions. It's almost like I'm listening to the echo of something I think I might enjoy.
I'm giving this three stars, not because I think the album itself deserves them, but because it made me want to give the "proper" Motorhead albums a go, so it has merit in that at least.
George Jones
3/5
There's nothing hugely wrong with this album, but I can't say I'd listen to it again, country love songs just don't do it for me. That said, I did enjoy the final track Our Private Life, a more upbeat and cynical song about the intrusions faced when you achieve recognition.
5/5
Easy 5. Love it. Is this the best Bowie album? Possibly although I think that might be Diamond Dogs. It's definitely right up there.
Beyoncé
4/5
Better than I thought it would be. There's none of the big hits on here and the album is pretty samey, but I enjoyed it. I don't see myself listening to it regularly, but when I do, I'll enjoy it for what it is. Good pop.
Crowded House
3/5
It's a bit strange to see this on here. I have fond memories of the singles, Weather With You, At Your Feet and It's Only Natural, as they were played a lot when I was a kid. The album, and frankly the band in general, is just middle of the road AOR without any real excitement or innovation. It's fine, but a long way away from a must listen.
Ray Charles
4/5
I think Ray Charles is great and he did a great job on this album. There is a fundamental problem though and that's that I find the original songs pretty dull and uninspiring, so however well done they are, this album can only scrape a four from me.
N.W.A.
4/5
I enjoyed this one. The violent posturing didn't bother me and I can definitely get on board with the anger at the police. There are some misogynistic moments, but they're not like the awfulness of Smack My Bitch Up by the Prodigy or Notorious B.I.G's entire album. They're more 2 dimensional cynical visions of a certain type of woman - one who tries to use her femininity to exploit men - that are probably applied to too many women rather than a celebration of treating women like shit. This doesn't bother me enough to dock it points.
Musically, the beats are good, the rapping's often slick. The album does go on for too long and gets weaker towards the end. Cutting the last 3 tracks would make it better overall.
Talk Talk
3/5
I don't get why this album is on the list. It's fine, but utterly forgettable.
Taylor Swift
2/5
Taylor Swift is a cultural phenomenon. It's therefore unsurprising, and right that one of her albums is included on the list. However, musically, there's not anything much to recommend. It reminds me of Coldplay in way, utterly beige music that a lot of people absolutely love but I've no idea why. The Coldplay comparison is a little harsh, as this album doesn't display the cynical attempts at emotional manipulation that Coldplay's music does, and Taylor's lyrics are more personal and confessional, which I respect. It's just so bland though and too long. By the end I was glad it was over.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Free Bird is a great song. The rest of the album isn't as good, but is still pleasant enough. This just about gets a four from me.
The Triffids
3/5
I've had quite a few bland albums to listen to lately. Usually, I can understand why they're on the list. Sometimes it's because they sold incredibly well - Taylor Swift, Adele or David Gray. Sometimes it's because of their associations with other, important, artists - The Band, or they're historically interesting - A lot of the 50s jazz. This album and band are none of those things. I really don't get why it's on the list.
I wouldn't make an effort to turn it off if I was in the middle of something else, which is my definition of a 2, but its non-descript, middle of the road, AOR only just about scrapes a 3 from me.
Bauhaus
4/5
I've a lot of time for goths. Once I saw a group of them playing swingball in the sunshine of a local park and it really brightened up my day.
Anyway, I enjoyed this album quite a bit. I'll definitely give it a few more listens.
Common
3/5
I'm a STEM guy, but I'm quite partial to a bit of hip hop. Perhaps it's because I'm also a vaguely rounded human being?
Anyway, this was fine, but not too exciting. I liked the soulful production, especially when a bit of brass came in, but I'm not desperate to listen to it again.
Minutemen
3/5
I feel that I should like this album a lot more than I do. But it's too long and frankly, this period of American Punk just doesn't do it for me. Slint, Black Flag, Gang of Four, they all sound like something I should like, but I just don't that much.
Aphex Twin
5/5
This is a great album. One of my favourite things to put on while working. It's up there with Eno's best stuff for me.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
4/5
I had no idea what to expect from this. I ended up enjoying it a decent amount. It's not amazing, but it's been better than a lot of the country music I've heard so far.
Miles Davis
4/5
I liked this, but I didn't love it. It all got a little samey.
Richard Hawley
3/5
Perfectly pleasant, but dull. I don't get why Richard Hawley gets a lot of critical acclaim. Tonight The Streets Are Ours is the only song I've heard of his that's more than a 3 star song.
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
4/5
I've never heard of this, it looks fun.
I enjoyed this a decent amount. I liked the political lyrics and the jazzy beats. It was definitely preferable to the much more popular gangsta rap going round at the time.
David Bowie
5/5
Magnificent. Another one of Bowie's best.
Paul McCartney
3/5
Better than I thought it was going to be, but still unexciting. A top end 3.
Joan Armatrading
3/5
Pleasant enough, but I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it again.
Coldplay
3/5
I wanted to hate this but it's not actually that bad. It's certainly better than things like Travis and David Gray, but it doesn't, at any point, stray into acutally good territory.
I think the thing that annoys me most about Coldplay is how many people say they're their favourite band. It's like saying your favourite colour is beige or your favourite food is plain rice. It just makes me despair for humanity a little.
The Stone Roses
5/5
I've listened to this a lot before and thought it would be a 4 star album. However, I think it deserves a 5. I never realised that Fool's Gold wasn't on the original album and, as great a song as it is, it does feel tacked on. Its inclusion also changes the dynamic of the end of I Am The Resurrection - with Fool's Gold following it, the long ending to the song feels overlong and self indulgent, spoiling an otherwise great tune. Without Fool's Gold following, the ending feels like a conclusion to the whole album and significantly more appropriate.
Röyksopp
4/5
I enjoyed the mellower beginning to the album, but the more uptempo it got, the less I enjoyed it. Still just about a 4 star for me.
Metallica
1/5
Really? Another Metallica album? What in the name of shitting crikey did I do to deserve this guff.
This is absolute shite. Simultaneously dull and intrusively loud. I'd rather listen to virtually anything else.
The Beta Band
4/5
I liked it, but I didn't love it. The Beta Band have done better,
Neu!
4/5
A bit of a slow burner, but I liked it.
Heaven 17
4/5
I enjoyed this. It didn't have the immediacy of something like the Human League, but it was interesting and fun.
Beatles
2/5
This album pissed me off. There's some absolute classics on here. While my Guitar Gently Weeps and Blackbird stand out in particular. Back in the USSR and Happiness is a Warm Gun are both good too. However, for every great song there's a couple of average ones and for every average song, there's one that's absolute dogshit. Wild Honey Pie and Bungalow Bill are particularly egregious.
Every time and artist thinks about making a double album, they should be forced to listen to this and cut out all the chaff.
Laura Nyro
1/5
I don't get why this album is on the list at all. It's not good, nor was it a major hit.
There are some moments that are quite pleasant, but it keeps drifting into amateur show tune territory, to the point where it becomes pretty annoying.
The Sonics
4/5
Just about a 4. I enjoyed it but it did start to get a bit samey. Fortunately, it's half hour run time meant it didn't outstay its welcome. Also, this is the 3rd cover of Good Golly Miss Molly so far. I wonder if the original is on here.
Pixies
4/5
It's not Doolittle, but it's still pretty good.
Eminem
3/5
Girls Against Boys
3/5
There were brief occasions where I thought this album could turn into something I'd enjoy, but they quickly drifted away and the album never really went anywhere.
Also, the band biography on Spotify says that the vocals are reminiscent of Mark E. Smith which is a fucking bizarre statement to make.
The xx
5/5
It's been a few years since I've listened to this album. I gave it a couple of goes and I think it just about deserves a 5 from me. I've never been a fan of either Romy or Jamie xx's solo stuff but this laid back indie hits a spot.
ABBA
3/5
I enjoy a bit of Europop, but this album gets pretty samey after a while.
Also, When I Kissed the Teacher is very much of another time. Cripes!
Beastie Boys
2/5
I'm tempted to give this a one as parts of the album genuinely made me angry. I love the late Beastie Boys, I gave Ill Communication a five, but this is pretty cretinous at times. Part of me, if this wasn't by a band that I have such fond memories of, would I even question giving a one?
On reflection, there's enough that I think is okay about this album for me to give it a 2. But this is terrible compared to their best work.
Dwight Yoakam
2/5
Seems pretty generic country to me, from what I've heard so far on this list. Why do so many country musicians feel the need to slip a bit of domestic violence into their songs about being heartbroken and drunk? As a genre it seems as misogynistic as hip hop.
Massive Attack
5/5
I love a bit of trip hop and this is the starting point. I think I even prefer it to Mezzanine.
An easy 5 stars.
Television
5/5
The random number generator is being kind to me at the moment. This is a great example of New York art rock / post punk. I love it.
Neil Young
4/5
Heart of Gold is a great song. The rest of the album, I could take or leave to be honest. Just about scraping a 4.
Scritti Politti
2/5
The first few songs on this album were really bland. It got better, but never something I'd actively chose to listen to.
Frank Ocean
1/5
Apparently Frank Ocean is the 120th most streamed artist on Spotify at the moment.
Absolute dog shit. Not the worst album I've heard, but definitely a 1 starrer.
Coldplay
1/5
I thought I hated Coldplay, but when I listened to Parachutes properly, I had to admit it was alright, not good by any means, but not terrible either. So I wasn't too bothered about listening to this album.
A Rush of Blood to the Head however, is exactly what I hate about Coldplay. It feels so cynical with its stadium rock key changes designed to elicit emotion substituting for any genuine feeling. It might as well be Westlife getting up off their stools.
I didn't think I was going to give this a one. Technically, there's not a lot wrong with the music. I can cope with a song or two, but a whole album of this manipulative shite really rapidly starts to grate.
TV On The Radio
4/5
I'd only heard Wolf Like Me before and I liked, but didn't love it. This album is pretty good, it's quite varied, so I didn't get bored, which I think I would have if all the songs were like Wolf Like Me. I gave it a couple of goes and I'd happily listen to it again. It didn't hit the heights it needed to to get a 5 from me however. Good, but not great.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
4/5
It took a bit of getting into, but I'm enjoying this. I didn't realise Eno was involved, it seems that his fingers are in many lovely pies.
4 stars I reckon. Although I might look back and think that after more listens it deserves more, there's been a couple of albums where that's been the case. It's a shame there's no edit button.
Pixies
4/5
I like the Pixies, but there doesn't really need to be three of their albums on here. There's not enough variation in them to make it necessary.
I enjoyed the more poppy songs on this record, Velouria, Allison, Dig for Fire. They were a bit different to Doolittle and Surfer Rosa. The other songs are nice enough, but tend to be lesser versions of things that came before.
Small Faces
3/5
I feel let down by this album. I liked the music on the first side. It was fun 60s psychedila. I'd definitely listen to these songs again. However, the second half of the album is riddled with stupid little spoken word parts, even more annoyingly, they're part of the songs, not seperate tracks so you can't skip them. They really put me off listening to this album again, so I can't give it more than a three, without them it would have been a solid four.
Taylor Swift
3/5
I wasn't looking forward to this and, while I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it again, 1989 wasn't as bad as I thought.
I listened to the Taylor's version of the album as I do respect Taylor thumbing her nose at a controlling record company. I was going to complain about it being overlong, but the original was nearly 30 minutes shorter, so I won't. Ironically, the only song I would like to hear again aside from Shake It Off - which was good fun, is only on Taylor's Version - New Romantics.
Overall though, most of the album is just generic, mass market, pop that I feel I could get from anywhere.
Michael Jackson
4/5
Much like Bad, I wanted to dislike this album, but I don't. The slower songs are weak, particularly The Girl is Mine. For the rest though, I can't help tapping my feet.
Obviously the man himself was a deeply flawed character who did some awful things, but judging purely on the strength of the music, I think this album is a four.
Nick Drake
4/5
This is the most polished and produced of Nick Drake's albums and, while I still enjoyed it, it loses something because of that in my eyes. The thing I love most about Nick's music is his fragile voice and it gets lost a little here, especially when instruments like the saxophone are included.
It is a very worthwhile listen. I liked Hazey Jane II and Northern Sky in particular. It's just not as good as Pink Moon or Five Leaves Left for me.
Incubus
3/5
I don't hate Incubus, in the way that I hate a lot of other Nu Metal bands, they don't have that same twatty frat boy energy - even if some of their lyrics are a pubescent poet's idea of profundity. However, listening to this album still feels like quite a bit of work for not very much reward. I like Drive, but that's pretty much where it ends. I wouldn't turn this album off if I was in the middle of doing something else, but I would never choose to put it on either. For me, that's the definition of a three.
Little Richard
4/5
This was a lot of fun. Although I expect it would start to wear on me after a while as it is pretty samey.
Elton John
5/5
Like virtually every double album I've ever heard, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road would benefit from having 20 minutes cut from it. That said, the good stuff is very good and the filler isn't anywhere near as frequent or as poor as say, the Beatles' White Album.
If the weaker songs, Jamaica Jerk Off, Roy Rodgers, This Song has No Title, Harmony and Social Disease weren't on here, this album would be a definite five. As it is, it's borderline.
Having given this another listen, I think it just about deserves a five. When it is good, it is very good and when it's bad, it's not too bad.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
Another album that's only available as a shitty expanded edition, which is frustrating.
As for the music itself, The Killing Moon is a good song and Seven Seas is decent enoug. However, for the rest of the album, I just wanted it to be over. Even at only just over 40 minutes, the album felt like a bit of a slog.
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
I'm a bit unsure how I feel about LCD Soundsystem, they've got some good songs, but there isn't a lot of variation in the music. When I first listened to this album, I found the repetition in the music of the first two tracks quite hard work, only starting to enjoy myself from North American Scum onwards.
On a second listen, while walking the dog, the repetition wasn't so jarring. It became more enjoyable as a background for doing something else.
There's definitely better indie electronica from the noughties, Hot Chip being the most notable example. Nothing on this album compares to music on The Warning or One Life Stand, but I found myself liking it nonetheless.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
I've listened to this album a lot today. I thought I liked the odd bit of Michael Kiwanuka and I loved the work he did with SAULT, but I never really got into his music. I think this is partly because there aren't really any obvious stand out tunes that I could stick on a playlist of other music. However, as a whole, this album and Kiwanuka's music in general really grew on me. The more I listened to the whole album, the more I enjoyed it. This is very good indeed.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
This is my third Led Zeppelin album so far. Each one has had one or two really good songs - on this album it's Communication Breakdown, but I find the rest a bit plodding and samey. Led Zeppelin is a slightly more interesting album than IV or Physical Graffiti with a light psychedelic influence, but it's still not enough to get a four. A greatest hits band for me.
Slade
3/5
I have a soft spot for Slade. Mostly caused by Christmas and Reeves and Mortimer. The odd song is quite fun and I like the simplistic, in your face, style of glam rock. However, let's not pretend that they were actually good.
Anyway, where's me cuppa soup?
Radiohead
4/5
I somehow missed this album when it first came out. I'm not sure how, I've listened to a lot of Radiohead, both before and after this album came out.
Like everything Radiohead have done, bar Pablo Honey, this is a very polished, well worked piece of music. There's part of me that wants to give it a four, but I think that's because Amnesiac doesn't, for me, hit the highs of The Bends, OK Computer or Kid A. I think I probably prefer Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows too. Another part of me, however, thinks I might be being harsh in not giving this a five as, if this was the first time I'd heard Radiohead, I'm pretty sure I'd give it a five. I guess the problem is that, no matter how consistently good you are, there's only a finite number of songs you can record without a large number of your songs just being worse versions of what you've already done.
After all that rambling and several listens, I think I'm going to go with a four. Despite this album being probably being better than several albums I've given a five to, it fails the "do I love it" test, with Life in a Glasshouse being the only song I'd go out of my way to listen to again. At the end of the day you can have too much of a good thing.
Beatles
2/5
Oh piss off. I've just written a review for Amnesiac where I said that there were too many truly excellent Radiohead albums on this list for me to want to listen to a merely good one. Having every Beatles album on this list is a real waste of a limited space. Only Revolver and Sgt Pepper's are truly great albums, the rest of the Beatles works are occasional great songs, a lot of filler and some real shite. This album has the extra annoyance of being nearly 50% cover songs. On the one hand, the cover songs mean there's nothing truly crap like Maxwell's Silver Hammer or Wild Honey Pie on this album. On the other hand, they're still just pub band covers. Ultimately, despite this album barely being more than half an hour long, I was mostly just waiting for it to be over.
Megadeth
2/5
I don't hate this in the way that I've hated every Metallica album I've had to listen to, but Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? is still a pretty dull album. I just find that chugging bassline present in so many metal songs incredibly boring. The faster lead/rhythm guitar on this album helps mitigate that somewhat but no where near enough to make me want to listen to this again.
Jane's Addiction
2/5
I like Been Caught Stealing, but I've never listened to much Jane's Addiction before. Trying to listen to the whole album, the thing that strikes me is how difficult it is to get through that much of Perry Farrell's voice. It's incredibly grating. The only other song I vaguely enjoyed on this album was Then She Did, the song with the lowest ratio of Farrell to instrumental. Mostly I found myself wanting this to stop.
I'm giving this album a two because of 1) Been Caught Stealing and 2) Only one song genuinely annoyed me, Of Course, where Farrell sings about "It being like slapping yourself in the faaaaaace" Which is what a lot of this album felt like.
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
I wanted to like this album, but I just didn't. It's fine, but I much prefer something like De La Soul or Jurassic 5.
ABBA
3/5
There's none of the big ABBA hits on here, so The Visitors feels like an unusual addition to the list. It's perfectly pleasant pop, but nothing I'd go out of my way for.
Kraftwerk
4/5
I've a lot of time for Kraftwerk. This isn't my favourite of their albums -I prefer The Man Machine and Radioactivity - but it's still very good.
Bon Jovi
2/5
Due to my age, I've a nostalgic fondness for the singles from this album. They're not very good, but they remind me of the freedom I had as a child. Thanks to this I'm giving the album 2 stars because otherwise, frankly, it's shit.
Janis Joplin
4/5
I know of Janis Joplin, but I've never gone out of my way to listen to her before. I enjoyed this album quite a bit. With the exception of Mercedes Benz, which reminded me of the cancer of American Christian materialism. Besides that though, I liked her raspy voice and will definitely include some of her tracks on my playlists.
Rocket From The Crypt
2/5
What a bizarre inclusion on this list. It's up there with Come Find Yourself by the Fun Lovin Criminals for making me think "What the fuck is this album doing here".
I have fond memories of On A Rope, it's a fun, if not particularly sophisticated song, delivered with a lot of energy. The rest of this album however, is shit.
The Birthday Party
4/5
This album took a couple of listens, but it grew on me and I ended up quite liking it.
2/5
U2 front loaded this album with all of their best songs, and I don't like them very much. The rest of the album gets worse. I'm honestly not sure if the music on this deserves a one, or it's just residual Bono that's colouring my opinion. I'm going to be generous and give it a 2 because I don't want to listen to it again to see if I truly hate it or if I just dislike it.
Living Colour
3/5
After the aural turd that was The Joshua Tree yesterday, it was nice to have a rock album that had bits I actually enjoyed on it. There are some parts where it gets quite funky and Cult of Personality is a good song, but there's still not enough to make me care about listening again.
One nice point though is that, despite being American, they've spelt colour correctly, so well done for that guys.
Black Sabbath
3/5
I just don't think metal is my genre. This is probably the best metal album I've had so far and I still, with the exception of Paranoid, found it pretty dull. I wouldn't turn it off, but I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it again either.
The Byrds
4/5
This was pretty fun. Although, with the exception of 8 Mile High, nothing really stood out. Just about worth a 4.
The Doors
4/5
I like the Doors quite a bit but Morrison Hotel, while still enjoyable enough, is definitely the weakest of their albums, so it's surprising to me that it's on the list. L.A Woman and The Doors are 5 star albums, but this only scrapes a 4 from me.
Missy Elliott
2/5
I didn't hate it, but I was glad when it was over.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
A bit of a mixed bag, but quite enjoyable.
Arcade Fire
4/5
I played this and Neon Bible to death when they came out. I'm not sure if it's over familiarity or if Arcade Fire were just not as good as I remembered them being but I didn't love this album on relistening. I was pretty sure that I'd give both this and Neon Bible 5's but I've given them both 4's. I still like them, and Wake Up and Rebellion are great tunes, but I just didn't like them enough to give full marks.
Also, the new album, Pink Elephant, which I also listened to today, is absolute dog shit.
Cheap Trick
2/5
This album is everything I dislike about stadium rock, without doing quite enough to make me truly hate it.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
At his best, I love Nick Cave. This album however, is a bit of a mixed bag. Some songs, Where the Wild Roses Grow and The Kindness of Strangers are really good. Most of the others are decent, but there are a couple, Stagger Lee and O'Malley's Bar where it feels like Cave is trying too hard to be dark. They're a bit adolescent. It stops Murder Ballads from being great, but it's still a good album.
Gang Of Four
4/5
Gang of Four are one of those bands that I think I should love but I just don't. They've inspired several bands I love and I enjoy punk, post punk and indie rock a lot. However, for me, this album only just about scrapes a four.
Cat Stevens
4/5
This album had just enough good stuff on it for me to give it a four. I'm not sure poor Salman Rushdie would agree though!
GZA
3/5
I found it very difficult to feel anything, positive or negative about this album. It was fine.
Björk
4/5
I really enjoy a lot of Bjork's earlier work, but I've never gotten round to listening to her later stuff. While I like this, I don't love it like I loved Debut or post. Perhaps it's one of those albums that take more listens. It's definitely interesting enough to make me want to give it another few goes.
R.E.M.
4/5
I've heard this many times before and enjoyed this a decent amount. It's not good enough to get a five from me though.
Supergrass
4/5
I listened to this album plenty when it came out and I'd forgotten how fun it is. It does tail off towards the end and Alright was massively overplayed and feels trite, but the first three tracks on I Should Coco put me in a great mood. A high four.
Brian Eno
4/5
I like Brian Eno but, at first, I really didn't like this album. However, as it when on, it turned into something I very much enjoyed. The first couple of tracks are the weakest on the album. They border on annoying. From Kurt's Rejoinder onwards though, the album really picks up. Ending with a series of beautiful, soft songs.
Deep Purple
2/5
This sort of stadium, overly long, self indulgent, dad rock just bores me. At first I thought that the two hour long "deluxe" edition of this album on Spotify was the original and was going to give it one star as the sheer length of the tedium got very annoying. However, I realised that the original album was only an hour long, so it deserves a two.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
I didn't get the point of this album. Generic, middle of the road, dad rock. There was nothing particularly good or bad about it.
The Pharcyde
3/5
I enjoyed the music to an extent but the juvenility of the lyrics started to wear thin after a while. I have a childish sense of humour, but mine is more that of a 15 year old, whereas this album's is more that of an 11 year old.
George Michael
2/5
I like the song Faith, but the rest of the album Faith leaves me cold. I was glad when it ended.
The Who
4/5
A great start with Baba O'Reilly and a strong finish with Behind Blue Eyes and Won't Get Fooled Again gets this album a four. The rest of the music I could take or leave, but those three songs are very good. Another band where a best of compilation is probably the best option.
The Kinks
4/5
Something else is a collection of songs that, while perfectly fine, don't have the charm of those on Village Green Preservation Society. However, it ends with one of the truly great songs in Waterloo Sunset a perfect piece of music which is head and shoulders above anything else on this album and 90% of the songs on this list.
Kanye West
2/5
I remember buying this when it came out. Lots of reviews said is was revolutionary, a masterpiece. I didn't get it then and I still don't get it now. The College Dropout is a bland, self indulgent album, finishing with a twelve minute track that is just Kanye talking about how he got signed (he had to assemble his own Ikea bed - the horror!). I didn't absolutely hate it, and I'm not going to dock marks for his increasingly bizarre behaviour, but this album is a two star album at best.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
I never realised Dusty Springfield was British.
I liked this album well enough. Son of a preacher man is a great song. The rest of the album however, doesn't hit that height. It's just about good enough to give it a four.
Derek & The Dominos
2/5
With the exception of the last two songs, every song on this album sounds the same. I wouldn't mind too much as, while a bit bland, there's nothing too wrong with them. But the album is so overlong that it gets pretty dull.
2/5
At the time I was definitely more of an Oasis fan than a Blur one, but looking back, I can clearly see that I was wrong. Blur were the far more varied and interesting band. That said, this album seems a strange one to include on the list. Perhaps it's because it was at the very start of what became britpop, but it's mostly pretty poor with only For Tomorrow being any good. Popscene, Blur's best early song, isn't on the album, only the deluxe extended edition. Which again, is mostly filled with very average songs.
Merle Haggard
3/5
This was fine. There was a pleasant lack of wife beating, which has been rare on the country records on this list. I wouldn't listen to it again, but I didn't mind it.
Tears For Fears
4/5
It's nice that the original is available on Spotify, alongside the deluxe and super mega deluxe 3000 editions.
Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule The World are the obvious stand out tracks here, but the other stuff is fun enough to just about get a four.
The Psychedelic Furs
3/5
I like Pretty in Pink, but there wasn't much else on the album to make me want to listen to this again.
Christina Aguilera
2/5
When I saw this was a double album, I really wasn't looking forward to it. In reality, it wasn't too bad. When compared to other middle of the road ladypop, I certainly prefer Christina to say Taylor Swift, and especially to shite like Adele, which is music for the Live, Laugh, Love brigade to cry into their prosecco to. If it wasn't a double album, and therefore bloated with filler, I'd give this a 3. As it is, it's a 2 from me.
Elvis Presley
3/5
The fast songs are fun enough, the ballads are a bit dull. But at the end of the day, this is just a bunch of covers of songs that were done better by the original artists. Tutti Frutti, in particular, pales into comparison with the original.
The Black Keys
2/5
I really struggled to see the point of this album. There's a point where having retro influences becomes a pastiche, and this crosses that line in places. Besides that, it's just so generic. It wore me down.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
This was like the other 3 Led Zeppelin albums I've heard on this list. There was the odd song where I thought "This is pretty good", but for the most part it was all very middle of the road. This album is probably the weakest of the 4. Partially because Whole Lotta Love, the main song, is such a thinly covered reference to Robert Plant's penis that it might as well be bareback. It's still just about a 3 though. Like the rest of them.
Simple Minds
4/5
Another album where the only version available on Spotify is a bloated, extended edition. This one is a ridiculous 5 disc version.
When it comes to the original songs, I liked them well enough. The singles are the obvious stand out tracks, but the rest of the music was good enough that I'm just about giving a 4.
Parliament
4/5
This album is the funkiest, funker in funk town, funkhamptonshire. It's almost too funky for me.
I love a bit of funk, but Mothership Connection starts to fall down the other side of the funk peak, stopping it from getting 5 stars. It's a 4 from me.
Wilco
2/5
This would be three star album but there is no justification whatsoever for music that is this average going on for this long.
The Byrds
3/5
Fine, but unexciting.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
There are moments where this album is properly good, but mostly it just happened and then, after too long, it ended.
T. Rex
5/5
It's been a couple of months since I've had a contender for a 5 star album and I think this just about fits the bill. A couple of the slower tracks aren't particularly great, but I love pretty much everything else.
Paul Simon
4/5
I prefer this to Graceland. Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard is a fun song. The rest of the album is decent enough that I'd just about give it a four, but it's very much at the low end of that score.
Animal Collective
4/5
I'd not listened to much Animal Collective before, but I enjoyed this quite a bit, even if it did start to get a little samey. I'll have to give them more of a go.
Jack White
3/5
Jack White is clearly a talented musician, but his stuff gets very samey. There's nothing on here that's as good as the best of the White Stripes, but it's fun enough.
The Temptations
4/5
At the beginning and end of the album, The Temptations are bringing the funk and it's very good. In the middle, as they go more soulful and less funky, the album loses its way a little. But it's still decent.
Funkadelic
4/5
This didn't grab me in the same way One Nation Under a Groove did, but I still enjoyed it quite a lot.
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
I only really thought of Dexy's as the Come On Eileen band, which was a bit unfair. This album is good fun, I love a brass section and I enjoyed the Northern Soul cover.
The Doors
5/5
The best of The Doors albums for me. Lovely stuff.
JAY Z
3/5
I really wasn't looking forward to this, but I actually enjoyed the music a decent amount. The album is overlong and could do with the last 15 minutes or so being cut out as it gets weaker towards the end. Lyrically it's also heavily infected with the cancer of American capitalism, with it's celebration of materialism, but it's hardly the first album to be like that.
Lambchop
4/5
This album kept feeling like it was going to turn into something I really enjoyed, but it never quite got there. I still liked it and would like to listen to some more of Lambchop's music as I've never really heard of him before.
The Clash
4/5
This starts off really well. Janie Jones and White Riot in particular stand out. It tails off a little towards the end, which is why I'm not giving it a five, but it's definitely a high four for me.
Carole King
4/5
Besides It's Too Late, I'd not really listened to much Carole King, or at least I thought I hadn't, there were plenty of songs on here that I knew, but didn't know they were her's. At first I thought this album was going to get the full five stars, but the album tracks don't live up to the big hits. Still, compared to something like Adele, this is light years ahead, despite being recorded well before Adele was born.
Basement Jaxx
3/5
On an individual level, I enjoy Basement Jaxx's big hits quite a bit, not just the ones on this album, Rendez Vu, Red Alert, Bingo Bango but their other singles like Where's Your Head at too. However, the album tracks are pretty weak in places and, even with the good stuff, I wouldn't want to hear a full 50 minute album in one go. A couple of songs is enough before it all starts to get a bit samey.
Christine and the Queens
3/5
This is a strange addition to the list. It's just generic pop. Nothing particularly good or bad. It happened, then it ended.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
A so so album. I prefer Phil Collins.
Pere Ubu
5/5
This is why I keep listening to the albums on the list. I'd heard of Pere Ubu, but never any of their music, or even what genre of music they played. This album is right up my street, I listened to it 4 times yesterday and I can see myself listening a lot in the future.
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
This is the sort of music I normally like a lot and Superfly, the only Curtis Mayfield song that I can recall hearing before this album is great. There's No Place Like America Today, just does nothing for me though. It's too mellow to be funky and too funky to be mellow, it sits in a halfway house position that doesn't really work.
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
Only the expanded edition is available on Spotify, with its pointless a cappella versions and demo tracks. As for the actual album, it was good fun, but it got a bit samey. A low four for me.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Besides Blue and a best of, I've not listened to much Joni Mitchell. I'm not sure why as Blue is a great album. This isn't as good as Blue, but it's still very enjoyable. A solid 4.
The Who
2/5
I enjoy a bit of The Who, but this is self-indulgent, over-long, toss. It never made me truly angry, except for Tommy's Holiday Camp, which is mercifully less than a minute long, but I was glad when it was over.
Motörhead
4/5
I enjoyed this one. It did get a bit samey, but at 36 minutes long, it didn't outstay its welcome.
Bob Dylan
4/5
This is earlyish Dylan at his peak and I still don't like it enough to give it a five. It's decent enough and I did enjoy it, but I struggle to see what all the fuss is about.
Cee Lo Green
2/5
I didn't actively hate this, but it wasn't good. I have done farts with more soul than Cee-Lo Green... Is The Soul Machine
Aerosmith
2/5
Another Aerosmith album. Sweet Jesus. Why on Earth are three Aerosmith albums on this list?
Upon listening. I don't hate this as much as the other two Aerosmith albums I've had to endure. Although there were points (Big Ten Inch Record) that came close. It is still however, very much a bad album.
The Cure
4/5
There were no real stand out tracks on this album and I tend to prefer the Cure's poppier stuff, but this was still good.
Peter Tosh
3/5
This is fine, but there wasn't really anything that made me want to listen to it again. Legalize It certainly doesn't reach the heights of the Bob Marley or Burning Spear albums on this list.
Soft Cell
4/5
I bought this album about 20 years or so ago, mostly for Tainted Love, but never listened to it much as the rest of the album didn't grab me. Upon revisiting it, I realised that, like a lot of albums on this list, the CD released was spoiled by having several demos, outtakes and alternate versions tacked onto the end of it. When you listen to just the original tracks and cut out the chaff, it's a much better work. It's still not perfect, but I enjoyed it enough to just about give it a four.
Destiny's Child
2/5
I'm of an age where I have a nostalgic fondness for the singles from this album, but the rest of it is pretty rubbish. If it wasn't for Independent Women, Survivor and Bootylicious, I'd be tempted to give it a one as parts of it do make me genuinely angry. In particular, the complete lack of self awareness in sandwiching a song about how a promiscuous woman is nasty and should be ashamed between songs about their big booties' and going out dating and the very American lauding of wealth and consumption alongside loudly proclaiming their Christianity, are pretty tasteless themes on this album. Well done Destiny's Child, you can buy your own blood diamonds.
Fats Domino
4/5
This was good fun, if a little samey.
Donald Fagen
2/5
This didn't make me angry, my requirement to give a one, but it was very dull.
TV On The Radio
3/5
I enjoyed the other TV On The Radio album on this list, but Dear Science didn't really do much for me. It's pleasant enough, but not much more
Elliott Smith
3/5
The cover made me think this album was going to be annoyingly twee, but it was actually decent. Not great, but fun enough
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
I like Bruce Springsteen, but sadly I'm not a big fan of his music. Born to Run is a good song, but the rest of the album did nothing for me
Killing Joke
4/5
One thing I've learned from this list is that I like post punk a lot more than the average person on here. I enjoyed Killing Joke a lot, but didn't quite love it in the same way as I did with Pere Ubu. I will definitely add it to my albums though.
Talking Heads
4/5
I like Talking Heads a lot, but this isn't my favourite of their albums. I prefer the afrobeat influences on albums like Remain in Light. This is still decent enough, just not great.
U2
2/5
I think there are good arguments on both sides as to whether you should be able to separate art from the artist, and I'm not sure which side I come down on. What I do know, however, is that it's much easier to separate the art from the artist when the art in question is actually any good, not dull, plodding, stadium rock shite. Realistically, Bono is no bigger bell end than Morrissey, but the big difference between the two is that the Smith's made some great music.
I'm going to resist the urge to add a Hat Twat Tax and give this album a two rather than a one. Either way though, I'd be happy to never hear this again.
Mike Oldfield
3/5
For a lot of this album, I enjoyed the music. It fits well into the genre of music to listen to while concentrating on something else. However, there's a couple of really wanky moments, a little towards the end of the first side where Oldfield feels the need to introduce the instruments like he was presenting a children's tv program and a couple of minutes on the second side where he twats about with the sailor's hornpipe and some weird monster voice. These moments took me out of my enjoyment and spoiled the rest of the album somewhat.
David Bowie
5/5
David Bowie's death was one of the only celebrity deaths I felt genuinely sad about. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was still making new and interesting music, rather than milking his back catalogue.
Because of the circumstances, Blackstar is a difficult listen. It is however, very good. One of the few late stage Bowie albums that come close to matching those from his peak. I'd have to be in the right frame of mind to listen to this album, but in those circumstances, it's a 5 from me.
Jimmy Smith
4/5
I enjoyed this well enough. It's good background music.
The Beta Band
4/5
Squares is a great song and I enjoyed the rest of the album, but it did start to get a bit samey.
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
I think this era of American alt rock holds up better than the slightly later grunge bands. I enjoyed this album well enough, although I don't think it really did anything to take me away from the best of compilation that I usually go to when I listen to Dinosaur Jr.
Björk
3/5
I like Björk a lot, Post, Debut, Homogenic, Vespertine are all great albums. Medúlla however, is so sparse, that it ends up being something I admired more than something I enjoyed. Triumph of the Heart is good fun, but I don't think there's anything else I'd want to listen to again.
4/5
This is the weakest of the three Kinks albums I've heard so far, but still worthy of a four. Good fun.
PJ Harvey
4/5
PJ Harvey's debut has some great moments, Sheila Na Gig and Dress are, in particular, songs that I love. The album as a whole is a borderline five for me. Perhaps I'm being a little unfair in giving Dry a four. My knowing how good her later albums can be is causing me to mark her debut down but, the album as a whole just doesn't do quite enough for the full five.
Portishead
5/5
Love this. Trip hop has been one of my favourite genres since I was a teenager and this album is part of where that love started.
AC/DC
4/5
As a lot of other reviews have said, this is a fun enough album, but it is 10 slight variations on the same song. A low four, as that song is quite good.
The Pogues
3/5
Fun enough but, like the local wine you drink on holiday tasting far better in France or Italy, I think it would sound much better in a lively Irish pub than at home.
Minor Threat
3/5
Decent enough but didn't really excite me.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Each Led Zeppelin album I've heard has had a great opening tune or two and a rather mediocre rest of the album. This had a great opening tune, but the rest of the album was pretty decent too.
Nina Simone
3/5
This was fine, but more something I respected rather than enjoyed.
The Smiths
4/5
Probably the weakest Smiths album for me, but still very good.
1/5
I can't believe that this album was included as anything other than a juvenile joke and, as a joke, it is significantly more witty and sophisticated than anything Limp Bizkit have ever done.
For a short moment, I found an element of this being so bad, it was actually quite enjoyable. Much like say, William Shatner. However, listening to more than about 20 minutes became a tediously annoying chore.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
An enjoyable and interesting listen. But I didn't love it. Just liked it
Marvin Gaye
4/5
Much better than Gaye's post divorce concept album, but still not enough to get a five. A solid four.
Jorge Ben Jor
4/5
I enjoyed this a lot. A high four from me.
Orbital
4/5
I had low expectations of this album, I'm not quite sure why. I think it's because I thought Orbital were more of a dance band. This, mostly quite laid back electronica was quite a bit better than I expected and, while it didn't blow me away, I did enjoy it.
The Police
3/5
After the aural turd that is Reggatta de Blanc I really wasn't looking forward to this album. However, Synchronicity, while still not being something I'd choose to listen too, is miles better than that heap of shit.
The Offspring
1/5
Considering that Americans pretty much invented the genre, 90s skate / pop punk genre was a real low point in punk's history. I wasn't a fan at the time and I think The Offspring were significantly worse than Green Day or NOFX. On listening to Smash for the first time in 30 years, it was significantly worse than I remember. I didn't think it would be a one, but it is utter garbage.
Sonic Youth
4/5
I'm a Sonic Youth fan and I have listened to this before, but my go to albums tend to be Dirty, Goo and Washing Machine. This probably deserves to be on rotation as well. A high four.
Jethro Tull
4/5
I wasn't really sure what to make of this album, I enjoyed parts a decent amount, but others left me cold. I liked it most when it was more folky. Probably a low four for me.
Brian Eno
4/5
A solid, but not spectacular Eno album. The man's done a lot of good stuff.
Fela Kuti
4/5
I enjoyed this. Probably not as much as Jorge Ben Jor, but still enough to give it a solid four.
The Modern Lovers
5/5
I'm not sure what led me to listening to this album originally, as it's well before my time, but I've loved it since I first heard it. A five star classic for me.
DJ Shadow
4/5
Although I'd heard the name, I'd not heard anything by DJ Shadow before this album. I feel like I have been missing out. Endtroducing is an original and intriguing album. I gave it several listens and, although it didn't do enough to get a full five from me, I enjoyed it quite a bit. A strong four.
Earth, Wind & Fire
3/5
I felt that this was very middle of the road stuff. There were bits that I enjoyed but, overall, I've heard a lot better from similar artists.
Sonic Youth
5/5
Nice to see another Sonic Youth album on the list and it's one of my favourites. "Lovely stuff", not my words, the words of Shakin' Stevens.
Jurassic 5
4/5
I'm not a massive hip hop fan, but I do enjoy the odd bit now and then and J5 is one of my go to albums. Perhaps if I listened to more, I'd appreciate the difference between that album and this one but, as it is, Power In Numbers just feels like a worse version of J5. Still good enough to get a four though.
Fleetwood Mac
2/5
Compared to the excellent Rumour, Tusk is just a mess. Overlong, self indulgent and with mostly very average songs. Like every double album I've heard so far, it would have benefitted massively from some judicious editing. If it was 40 minutes long, I think I'd give it a 3, but I'm dropping it down to a 2 because there's far too much of it.
The Fall
5/5
After having to listen to a couple of duffers in a row, it was a pleasant surprise to see a second Fall album on this list. Easy 5.
Garbage
3/5
I bought this album when it first came out and, while it's perfectly pleasant, there's a reason why I haven't listened to it for the best part of 30 years.
Suicide
5/5
Suicide starts off strongly with Ghost Rider, which immediately grabbed my attention, before quickly mellowing out. The later songs didn't have the immediacy of the first, but they grew on me with successive listens and I ended up enjoying this album a lot.
Orange Juice
3/5
This was nice enough but, besides the title track and Can't Help Myself, there was nothing that stood out.
David Bowie
4/5
Good Bowie, but not great Bowie.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
I'd heard Perfect Skin a few times before but nothing else on this album and, while it was all decent enough, nothing on Rattlesnakes made me want to listen to it again.
The Smiths
5/5
For me, this is the best Smiths album and Paint a Vulgar Picture is my favourite Smiths song.
An easy 5.
Venom
3/5
Metal really isn't my genre, so I wasn't looking forward to this one. In the end though, it wasn't too bad. The higher tempo made it less boring than the Metallica albums that I've loathed. I wouldn't choose to listen to Venom again, but I wouldn't turn it off if it came on.
Nirvana
4/5
I listened to this album to death when it came out, but I haven't listened to Nevermind for decades. I've barely listened to Nirvana at all since my twenties, perhaps just a go of In Utero every few years for a bit of nostalgia.
Listening to this again, it's a lot better album than I remember it being, but I just can't get fully into it. I think it's a sadly a case of my overplaying it when I could only afford a handful of CDs ruining it a bit for me.
The United States Of America
4/5
Not what I expected. There were parts that I enjoyed a lot, but it also veered into being 'wacky' rather than interesting at times so I can't give it more than a 4.
Kate Bush
4/5
I enjoyed this, but it didn't quite have the impact that Hounds of Love did. A strong album, but without any real stand out tracks.
Femi Kuti
3/5
This isn't the easiest album to rate. There were parts that I loved, but there were also parts that sounded like an out of control clown car.
I'm going to go straight down the middle with a 3.
Emmylou Harris
4/5
One of the only country albums that I've heard so far that I actually enjoyed. Good fun.
Elvis Presley
3/5
It was fine. But, for me, Elvis has only done a couple of truly great songs. Suspicious Minds and In the Ghetto.
The La's
3/5
I bought this in the 90s and wasn't much impressed. 30 years on and it's better than I remember it being, but still not particularly great. I think a high 3 is the best I can give it.
Blur
4/5
I was very much on the Oasis side of the (clearly manufactured with hindsight) Blur vs Oasis rivalry when I was a kid. Looking back however, it's pretty clear that, while I don't always like Blur's music, they were by far the more interesting and varied band.
This album is one of their better ones. It tails off a bit towards the end and would probably have benefitted from only being 10 or 11 tracks long, but I still enjoyed it a decent amount.
Pretenders
3/5
Several of the reviews mentioned the Pretenders being more edgy and punky than the hits would lead you to believe, so I was keen to give this album a go. Ironically however, it was the middle of the road hits that were the most enjoyable songs for me. Still, while pleasant enough, there wasn't anything on this album that makes me want to listen to it again.
Nirvana
5/5
For me, In Utero is clearly the better of the two good Nirvana albums.
UB40
3/5
I thought this was going to be shit. It wasn't at all, but it didn't do anything much for me. As cheesy as it is, I'd rather have had the nostalgia of hearing their cover of Red Red Wine.
N.E.R.D
3/5
I bought this album when it came out because I liked Maybe. Which is a fun song. The rest of the album has some fun moments, but the lyrics are often horrendously cringey. I'm not usually one to be too bothered about the lyrics, preferring to let the music wash over me but "Her ass is a spaceship I want to ride". Really?
3/5
Spotify keeps trying to push early XTC on me. I can understand why, as I like a lot of similar music from that time but, Making Plans for Nigel aside, I've never really got into it. This album is quite different to their 80s stuff, with more melody and less edges. It was fine apart from Your Dictionary, which was a bit shit, but nothing more.
Iggy Pop
4/5
The hits on this album are easy 5 star songs, but the rest of the music didn't do enough for me to give it a full 5.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
Liked it, didn't love it.
Radiohead
5/5
Another Radiohead album and, as a big fan of their music, it's another difficult one to rate. This is one of their least cohesive albums, but it is still head and shoulders above most of the 400 albums I've listened to so far. It also contains some of my favourite Radiohead songs in 2+2=5, Myxomatosis and A Wolf at the Door. Fuck it. I'm still giving it a 5. A weaker Radiohead album is still a very good album.
George Harrison
2/5
There's nothing actively bad on this album but nothing really stands out either and it's just so, so long. You could take half the songs out of this album at random and it would be instantly better. As a result, even though it's three star music, I'm only giving it a two.
Kanye West
4/5
I wasn't happy seeing this album come up on the list. The College Dropout was heavily praised in some quarters, but I found it tedious, overlong and self-indulgent. Also, Kanye West is a grade A tod warrior. However, I was very surprised to find myself enjoying Yeezus from the get go. Musically, it's far more interesting the The College Dropout and the whole album feels focused and tight. Kayne isn't a great rapper and his lyrics stray into being mildly cretinous at times, but the rhymes didn't get in the way of me enjoying the music. A surprising four.
Scissor Sisters
4/5
I'd forgotten how fun this album was. There's a bit too much filler for it to be a five star, but I had a gay old time.
Miles Davis
4/5
Aside from the final track with its very dated vocals, I enjoyed this album. I don't think it's the style of music that I could ever truly love however.
TLC
2/5
I didn't hate this but it took an effort to get through it all. A pretty insipid collection of tunes.
The Crusaders
2/5
The titular track is good fun, but the rest of the album was very dull. Even as music to have on in the background, it felt like a bit of a slog to get through.
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
There's a lot of energy here and I can understand why Lewis was a great live performer, but this is essentially a cover album making Lewis just a very good bar singer.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
This was a more downbeat album than a lot of the Bob Marley songs I'd heard before. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but not enough to give it the full five.
Randy Newman
3/5
It was fine. Some of the language was pretty awful by modern standards, but I think, with it clearly being used to critise racism, it's pretty unfair to judge it by modern standards.
Talking Heads
4/5
I love a bit of Talking Heads. Their debut isn't their best work for me, although it does have Psycho Killer, one of my favourites. The rest is good, but not as good as the stuff they did when Eno started working with them.
Arrested Development
3/5
This is pleasant enough buy no more than that. Mr Wendel and Tennessee are good doses of nostalgia for me but I can't see myself enjoying them as much without that. The album's also longer than it needs to be, like so many hip hop albums.
The Electric Prunes
3/5
Little Simz
3/5
I liked how tight the album was, without the frustrating skits and interludes that you hear on a lot of American hip hop albums. The songs themselves were fine, but not that exciting. The only Little Simz song I've heard, that I'd go out of my way to listen to again, is Point and Kill, which isn't on this album.
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
I enjoyed this more than m b v although I needed to listen to it on my speakers. On my earpods, the vocals were so low in the mix that they were barely audible even after fiddling with the settings.
It's a bit of a cross between the Cocteau Twins and Sonic Youth, without really hitting the heights of either. Good, but not great.