Musically, this album is a fantastic rendition of southern rock with twanging guitars, gravelly vocals, and rebellious spirit. Conceptually, this album is re-litigating southern pride. These rockers who grew up in the racist south say "it's complicated" and "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater". They turn the mirror on the high-horse northerners. Unfortunately, it isn't up to some white rockers to decide the legacy of George Wallace and the Confederate flag. There is a nugget of truth in here though: I love America despite it being a fucked up place. Rebellious free spirit IS cool.

Sound bridges between eras. classic rock without the grandeur nor enough alternative sound to be interesting. Not much punch. Proto oasis/coldplay chud rock. Not my bag. At least there's a bit of scuzz.

Industrial drum and bass with 90s angst and attitude. Unapologetically repetitive and grating which makes the mixups surprising and exciting. I haven't listend to anything like this before. Guaranteed to make the lofi girl shit herself.

This is like a weird folk/post punk child. The instrumentation didn't really work for me. Going from sweet south african drumming to a drum machine was jarring.

This rules.

This is undeniably well made with a lot of interesting pieces, but all the best elements are pushed to the background. Instead, we get overbearing light pop about the most boring things: getting in a cold taxi, a girl who's dad doesn't let her stay out, or Maryanne with the shaky hands. (Stingy Mingy was funny). Reading the album title, you would expect more anti-commercial themes. The few parts of the album that do use satirical commercial sounds play the best. Overall, this album is afraid of the experimentation that makes it any good.

Manic, synthetic, dramatic with some real heart. The world is plastic, so let's have some fun. Using the same drum machine beat for every song ironically adds to the effect.

The chuds try lounge jazz... The only thing significant about this album is that they are British. Time and time again the brits sing about the most mundane garbage.

Billy's got pipes! Vienna is an all timer.

Take jazz and blues music, sand off all the sharp edges, and plug a pretty white lady at the front. This is safe music that like a Disney movie promises to not make you uncomfortable and hand you a happy ending. A warm boring hug that I guess people really resonated with after 9/11. The recordings sound great!

Solid 70s fusion record with the synthy keys and funky bass of the 80s.

I liked the range of style on this album. I really liked the long Papa Was A Rolling Stone.

80s synth punk. Sleazy and manic. The album leans so heavily into irony that it crosses into parody at some points. The Born to Run cover feels part wonder and part mockery. Punk is cool, albeit a bit exhausting.

An evergreen bottle of 90s angst and rage. Fuck you.

This is the side of REM I don't like. Smug and whiney. The End of the World as we Know it is the epitome of both. The B side is able to shine once they slow down and turn down the preachinga notch.

Summer of love psychedelic feel good rock with Janis Joplin's voice that pop music has been chasing ever since. Ahead of it's time and massively influential. Kick back and enjoy some dripping guitar solos with chilled out bass.

I prefer Black Sabbath.

Post-humous music really rubs me the wrong way. Taking Woody Guthrie's unreleased lyrics feels like peeling back a curtain we weren't supposed to see. I understand that his daughter asked for this, but it still feels like plundering incomplete ideas for the sake of money.

Orchestral rock, but no where near ELO. Some songs here are insufferable while others work well.

Sleazy alternative rock. Guitars and drums are bouncing. Hedonistic dive bar bangers.

DNA everywhere. One of those albums you can hear in tons of modern pop, indie, and rock. Interesting rhythms. Catchy melodies. Soulful singing. It's easy to see how this album is such a strong influence.

Masterful guitar playing with restrained supporting instrumentation. Top tier hifi recording. The track Brothers in Arms is an all time great electric guitar song. Very solid album.

Tom Waits is always cooking. Some parts hit. Other parts don't.

Musically, this album is a fantastic rendition of southern rock with twanging guitars, gravelly vocals, and rebellious spirit. Conceptually, this album is re-litigating southern pride. These rockers who grew up in the racist south say "it's complicated" and "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater". They turn the mirror on the high-horse northerners. Unfortunately, it isn't up to some white rockers to decide the legacy of George Wallace and the Confederate flag. There is a nugget of truth in here though: I love America despite it being a fucked up place. Rebellious free spirit IS cool.

A couple nice songs on here. I could see this growing on me if I listened more. If you like this in 1999, indie music is about to get so much better.

One of the greatest to ever do it. I wish we got more. I love the distortion on here.

A less manic The Doors. Still has some great guitar.

Classic Nashville! This has interesting song writing, but it's like a musical dinosaur with how poorly that old twang has aged. Even modern country has moved on from this sound.

ELO transports you to another world with whimsical romantic orchestral rock. Rarely is pop music this interesting and catchy.

A full album of catchy licks mixed into a loop 10 times. Clearly influential in electronic music, but electronic music has gotten so much better.

CHVRCHES used the new wave heavy synths to make a great pop album. It stands on its own as a fun unique listen between modern dance music and earlier electronic. This album came out around the time that House EDM was growing into a global moment. No album really captures that sound due to the genre heavily existing in singles, mixes, and live sets, but this album does an alright job.

Fantastic song writing and production. I really want to listen to this on a hifi set-up.

Hell yeah.

Playing With Fire has a lot of dimensions to it. A bit of Velvet Underground, a bit of new wave, a bit of noise, all with well crafted distortion. For a distortion based album, this is minimal and patient. I found it interesting and relaxing. I do love long distorted guitar.

Solid classic country song writing with the most twangy vocals and instrumentation. Dinosaur!

This is fun, but not a whole lot to it.

This is the most on the nose Bjork at her most Bjork.

Almost cut my hair!

Grating, boring, and influential for all the wrong reasons.

The nerds are allowed to have rock too. Unfortunately, I found this one to be rather devoid of any emotion outside of a few tracks (or passages?).

Punk band doing an Elvis cosplay or an Elvis impersonator doing a punk cosplay. I can't tell and I'm not sure why I care either way. This is fine, but ultimately it doesn't hold the charismatic charm of Elvis or the edge of punk.