corny corny CORNY bullshit i don’t understand how so many people can take this music seriously never mind actually THINK IT’S GOOD. i cannot take seriously any song that says “i don’t give a hoot” in earnest. it’s all the worst bits of a paul mccartney song turned up to 11. the melodies really are quite lovely and complex but there’s something so tacky and stupid about the lyrics/vocals/harmonies that i simply cannot ignore. UGH.

lovely stuff! if i were a barista in a cool bookstore/cafe/bar i would be bumping this all shift. sadly i was a barista in a distinctly uncool cafe so i would not have been allowed to bump this.

billy joel is a very talented man in that he somehow manages to make an album with only 9 tracks on it feel overlong and bloated. how does he do it! 2.5/5 stars if we're being real

started off really really strong but i started to lose interest by the end, especially with the ooga chaka type ethereal chanting on the final two tracks. i like depeche mode, i just can't see myself listening to this as a full album on a regular basis. fav tracks: never let me down again; the things you said; strangelove; to have and to hold

i feel like i don't have much familiarity with the kinks outside of their hits and whatever was included on the compilation record "come dancing with the kinks!" which i loved as a teenager but i would not go so far as to classify it as "good music"... i guess what i'm saying is it's hard for me to take them seriously as rock/pop musicians because i think of them as just goofy catchy 60s dance music and not anything worth thinking deeply about. and i don't think that this album changed my view very much. it has its charm but i frankly found it a bit grating. you can definitely hear the roots of all damon albarn's worst musical tendencies in this record lol. fav tracks: victoria; shangri-la; australia

move over rover......and let jimi take over!!!!!!!!!! i mean what is there to say about hendrix that hasn't already been said...i feel like it's impossible to really talk about this record objectively because his influence is so ubiquitous. that being said i probably hadn't listened to this album in full since i was a teenager so it was nice to revisit it as a complete item. i wish i knew more about guitar to i could understand just how talented he really was! all i know is that it sounds damn good. also mitch mitchell's drumming is great. fav tracks: may this be love; fire; third stone from the sun; are you experienced?

if every song on here was as good as "pump it up" it would be a very good album! otherwise it's just OK. fav tracks: pump it up; the beat; you belong to me; (i don't want to go to) chelsea

the skits are goofy ofc but that's pretty much always the case (something to be said for the inanity/levity of the skits in contrast with the heavy narratives of the actual songs—necessary in order to maintain some kind of emotional equilibrium?). i really really liked this, more than i ever would have expected honestly!!! i actually knew "whip you with a strap" from the j dilla album but other than that this was entirely new to me which was exciting too. a lot of solid tracks, engaging lyricism, nice beats...idk what else do you want from a rap album. more like a 4.5 because i hated that ne-yo feature so much. deeply unserious man. fav tracks: shakey dog; kilo; be easy; jellyfish

even as a known enjoyer of mediocre british guitar bands from the 1990s, i can wholeheartedly say that this sucked. you do NOT need to listen to this album before you die.

i think that his music would work best in the context of a movie soundtrack because the songs are fun but i don't have any desire to listen to a full album of them, nor do i want to concentrate on them individually as works of art. i could see them providing fun dynamic background music for a good shopping mall montage. fav tracks: miracle man; no dancing

this is difficult for me to rate objectively, and i imagine it will NOT be the last album on this list that feels fraught and unquantifiable. basically, all music from this era stirs in me two kinda contradictory but equally visceral responses: the first is extreme nostalgia and affection, and the other is extreme cringe and revulsion. i cannot hear "time to pretend" without seeing in my mind's eye the same vision of an incredibly detailed skins post-canon fanvideo that i imagined when i listened to it obsessively the summer between 9th and 10th grade. i still think it's a beautiful song, but it has this tinge of childishness that i just can't ignore. basically i am unable to extricate a band like MGMT from my own adolescence; therefore it will always sound adolescent and a bit silly to me. of course it is still immensely fun, and i might like the melancholy vaguely existential lyrics contrasted with the boppy pseudopsychedelic synths even more than i did as a teenager. but it's hard to imagine anybody over the age of sixteen taking this album seriously. i just can't tell if it actually Sounds dated or if that's just what my own past sounded like.

i loved this. so beautiful and atmospheric. it was interesting especially to listen to this back to back with oracular spectacular because the mgmt album uses the same kind of bird/forest ambience effects that this one does. in a similar vein it's really easy to hear the influence that this album had on the beatles and other western artists in the 1960s, which of course i've read about but never actually heard in action. honestly a lot of classical/purely instrumental music can be a bit of a challenge for me to listen to, in the sense that i know it's good and/or interesting but i don't earnestly Enjoy it because it doesn't hold my interest for the length a whole album...but i genuinely enjoyed listening to this and i found it engaging throughout.

some cool bass lines i guess. i can see how this would sound really good to someone who’d never heard any other music before in their life.

now i need to listen to the patti smith version of "my generation" 50 times in a row to cleanse my mind and heal my soul after enduring this slop. save me patti smith and john cale fav tracks: it's not true, the ox, a legal matter

this wasn't nearly as unlistenable as i anticipated honestly, but i still didn't really care about it. i liked the more experimental/freak-out guitar tracks toward the end of the album. the first half was too heavy on the brass for me personally. also insert obligatory cowbell joke here. fav tracks: free form guitar, i'm a man

this was pretty good...the first half of the album reminded me a bit of early john cale/talking heads but less groovy in the sense that it was like...pretty goofy? in an incongruous way that grated on me a bit. i liked the second half of the album a lot more. his 'serious' lyrics are really very beautiful. fav tracks: king's lead hat, julie with..., by this river [absolute knockout song]

i liked this so much, very relaxing and intimate...her banter was so cute, i especially loved the silly scatting in the final track :') her warmth and charisma as a performer is so apparent even through audio. fav tracks: september in the rain, honeysuckle rose, how high the moon

yep it's still good. ya gotta hand it to them. i wish that the shine on you crazy diamond parts were broken up into individual tracks for the sake of the current ~streaming era~ but like most things of that ilk, i appreciate that the work is so linked to the original physical format (i.e. a vinyl record)—i think it's a great demonstration of how practical technological limitations influence our conception of something like music. the medium is the message as they say 😳 idk if that makes sense but we can talk about it later lol. fav tracks: have a cigar, wish you were here [i may or may not have teared up while listening to the latter......EMBARRASSING!!!]

verrrrry nice...i've always liked iggy pop more as a concept/icon than as a musician and of course i am automatically endeared to several of his songs for velvet goldmine reasons but this is a damn good record regardless! fav tracks: gimme danger; raw power; i need somebody; shake appeal

whatever....again, through no fault of its own, this record suffers from an inherent datedness in my mind due to the timeline of my own life, but i did find this quite tiresome by the end of it. i was like shut the hell up with that pitch please oooh woooooaaah a cappella choral harmonies!! the songs that stuck out to me this time were the ones i also liked way back when, so revisiting it now didn't really alter my opinion of the album. fav tracks: white winter hymnal; ragged wood; blue ridge mountains

MICHAEL STIPE PISSES ME OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what the hell is up with this guy. he makes "monster" (1994), one of the best albums ever of all time which SHOULD be on this list but isn't—my conspiracy theory is that nobody likes that record because it's too faggy BUT IT'S LITERALLY THEIR BEST ONE. and nothing else in their discography sounds like it. anyway. we aren't talking about "monster" here, unfortunately. we're talking about "green," which is in fact the only other R.E.M. album that i will classify as good. this record has some beautiful lyricism and hints of the sound that would later define monster (i.e. "orange crush"). "you are the everything" and "hairshirt" are both fantastic in terms of the lyrical imagery and dynamism of the music imo. the back half of the album is really very good overall and stipe mostly manages to avoid the stipiest elements of his voice. however this record is ruined by the inclusion of "stand" which is actually one of the worst songs ever committed to tape. i hate that song more than words can possibly say. i couldn't get to my phone fast enough while listening to skip it entirely and i accidentally heard like one millisecond of it, and that was one millisecond too many. i find it humiliating to listen to. so minus five billion stars for "stand," 3.5 stars for everything else. i fucking guess. fav tracks: orange crush; you are the everything; hairshirt; i remember california

i enjoyed this but i can't say it stood out to me much. i could tell it was well-produced and it was nice to listen to, but it was almost too clean...? idk how to describe it but it just didn't capture my interest. i can't say it was bad though. maybe i just need to give it another listen.

WOW!!!!!!!! i enjoyed this so much. i loveeeeee how intricate the percussion in indian music often is. sounds much closer to 60s kitsch/yé-yé music than late 70s western music, but that’s obviously part of why i liked it so much lol. i can definitely appreciate the point that some others have made in their reviews about this being an odd choice because it’s a movie soundtrack and perhaps not the best/most interesting representation of indian music, and that if the editors of the list had a greater familiarity with indian music, they might not have picked it. fav tracks: title track; baby let’s dance together; mera pyar shalimar

my art pop could be anything…….including peter gabriel apparently….. this was actually pretty groovy and i liked it more than i expected but still. why does all 80s music have to sound Like That. i find it so repulsive. even the best of it sounds like there’s a gross sticky residue smothering everything underneath it.

that was nice! idk what to say, you know i'm not a jazz head...i gotta have some words to hold on to....but it was pleasant enough.

ALEXANDER!!! OUR OLDER BROTHER!!!! i have not listened to this in years lol. it IS good and clearly ushered in a whole new sound that i think ended up defining the mainstream alt pop/folk-adjacent scene of the mid-2000s*, but i personally don’t like it as much as the suburbs so it gets docked points for that. on some songs it leans a little bit too far into stomp clap hey territory… nevertheless, the one-two punch of “rebellion (lies)” to “in the backseat” still knocks the wind out of me the way it did when i was a teenager. i love that triumphant grandiosity—when it works, it really works in a way that’s almost overwhelming. fav tracks: neighborhood #1 (tunnels); neighborhood #2 (laika); rebellion (lies); in the backseat [i seriously forgot how good this song is…i can tell i’m going to be obsessed with it for the next month or so…] *i feel like this combined with wilco’s yankee hotel foxtrot is the platonic ideal of mid-2000s alt pop, with funeral being slightly more interesting musically. and sufjan’s illinois i suppose…

obviously this was cheesy and stupid and i would never in a million years listen to it again of my own volition. BUT it was not entirely unbearable and i can once again see how it would appeal to people who have had no exposure to other music, or people who do not value artistry or beauty. do i think those people have bad taste and do i look down upon them—nay, pity them—for thinking this is genuinely good music? yes. was i relieved when the album was over? yes. (because it meant i could listen to pavement.) however, i can understand its appeal. i would not throw a fit if somebody insisted on listening to it around me, but i would still sulk for at least five minutes and bitch about it under my breath periodically.

this album vexed me for years and years because i knew it was the paragon of Cool Guy Music* but i just didn’t get it…it finally clicked for me only a year or so ago and yeah, now i get it. i’m obviously not a huge anco stan and honestly i think they can be a bit cringe but i’m trying to focus on this album as an album and not as an indie electronica talisman with all the weird cultural baggage attached to it. i do think it’s beautiful! it sounds like the better summers of my adolescence: lovely and fretful and bright. fav tracks: in the flowers; my girls; summertime clothes; bluish; Yno more runnin *this is also how i felt about pavement for almost the exact same amount of time.

what can i say. i love da pavement. it took me a while to get there but i did eventually. i think this is their most listenable and cohesive album. fav tracks: well all of them actually. but specifically newark wilder; unfair; cut your hair; range life; fillmore jive; silence kit/d

lovely autumnal music. i think his voice can be a bit silly especially when listening to a whole album of it but it's still enjoyable and nostalgic to me

crazy how people will go to the ends of the earth insisting that punk music was a radical political scene when the music that came out of it was truly some of the dumbest in the world. these guys were not starting a revolution they were singing stupid songs about getting high off solvents. AND THAT’S OK! but sometimes you just gotta call a spade a spade. a spade that’s young dumb and full of come. why does it have to be anything more serious or substantive than that? fav tracks: judy is a punk; i wanna be your boyfriend; 53rd & 3rd

i think this is a thing where i’ve heard so many imitations that the actual originator of the style sounds boring to me now. i liked the instrumental parts a lottttt but the vocals were just monotonous to me…idk i’m surprised cos i thought i would like it more. “john cooper clarke, james murphy, grian chatton—it’s all the same bullshit.” — jane goodall

i always get the ick from this genre in this era but it’s possible that i only feel that way about that genre/era because it reminds me of being 14. and because i didn’t know this album back then, it doesn’t carry the association so actually i suppose it’s nice to have an example of that music that i CAN listen to with fresh, mature ears and perhaps judge more fairly as a result. but i don’t think it objectively sounds that dated regardless. i had fun!!!!!!

james brown has of course always been invoked as an influence for literally everybody…but i’ve never actually listened to him properly! so this was an exciting opportunity. you can feel the fervor of the crowd in his presence, that great tight-throated style of singing that he has, everyone screaming in response. my only complaint is that all of the songs felt weirdly short?? every time i felt like i was really getting into the groove of each song it would just stop abruptly. considering he was known for the duration of his live shows i was a little surprised by that ngl. i wanna DANCE, goddammit! give me more!!!!

i marked this as “never heard of” but i actually do recognize the album artwork because it always gets included in those charts people make of their favorite records of all time lol. anyway i liked it, i don’t really have any strong feelings about it but i enjoyed listening to it. i would be happy listening to this while #chilling with my #friends.

this was so astronomically dumb i couldn’t stop laughing…it really sounds like they put all the grossest edgy bullshit that a 15 year old redditor would find cool in a hat and pulled them out at random to compose (generous word there) the lyrics. there was an instrumental break (end of “altar of sacrifice” into “jesus saves”*) that i found mildly interesting but as soon as the vocals started again it was back to total dumbass horse shit. the best part of this record is that it’s less than half an hour long. thank god for small mercies. *even typing these song titles is making me laugh

i looooveeeedddd this….it sounded like it could have easily been on the trainspotting soundtrack which makes sense cos it reminded me of underworld aka electronic rave music but like. somehow more intelligent? idk i really enjoyed it. fav tracks: sereia; a noite sem fim

i mean it’s literally fine. i recognized “roundabout” from…somewhere…this certainly wasn’t as teeth-grittingly bad as some other prog rock but i would never listen to this of my own accord.

insanely well-structured songs, no frills or indulgences, just a terrific command of what a pop song should Do. it’s a shame that jefferson airplane get written off as one-hit wonders because of “white rabbit” in the grand scheme of things (NOT BY ME!) considering how good they actually were. fav tracks: today; comin’ back to me; DCBA-25

silly silly stuff. show tunes adjacent frankly. i feel like this would be very appealing to a little kid. probably i could learn to like it if i listened to it enough but i am not gonna do that.

vital and true. her voice is so smooth. i especially liked the songs that went a little outside of the typical singer-songwriter acoustic guitar + basic percussion formulation with the more syncopated (??!?!) drums. fav tracks: fast car [duh]; baby can i hold you; mountains o’ things; why?; for my lover

oh yea let’s go crazy. nick zinner hometown hero SHARON MASSACHUSETTS REPRESENT!!!! i think it’s fun. overall i’d say it holds up a hell of a lot better than most of the shite from this so-called scene, in that it still sounds fresh (albeit a little samey when listened as one contiguous album) to me! is it the best record in the world? no. is “maps” the best song in the world? well now that just might be possible… fav tracks: maps [obviously]; y control; modern romance; poor song

TOO MUCH ORGAN OMFG. lay off the keys my man…i don’t like the guy’s voice—that very 70s strained-sounding style (not sure how else to describe this). i feel like these albums are difficult to rate because i literally don’t feel anything about them but “0 stars” implies i think it’s bad—but i don’t. i don’t think anything.

luuuuvvvvv it. kinda hard to believe this is from 1974 honestly it really does sound so contemporary. groovy as all get out.

i don’t CARE!!!!!! i just don’t give a CRAP about this stupid ass easy listening music. obviously it’s not bad but it’s just so boringgggg and cheesy my god. the guy’s voice is so fuckin goofy. whatever. grocery store/dentist’s office music.

genuinely kind of befuddling that this voice comes out of a little blond british lady. gorgeous, dynamic. fav tracks: all cried out; i wish i’d never loved you; summer is over; do re mi

wait a second this is actually kinda good…i remember listening to this album a couple years ago cos i put the title track on a playlist i made about the terror lol and i was thoroughly unimpressed by the whole outfit but now i’m thinking it’s alright…i think it’s maybe because the 80s schmaltz element (inescapable) has a distinctly springsteenian dimension (see: “walk of life,” which sounds like it could have easily been a bruce song) and is therefore more bearable to me. money for nothing is a good song but i do wish he didn’t say the F word in it. EVEN THOUGH I UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT. i guess the takeaway here is #notall80smusic fav tracks: why worry; the man’s too strong [which i added to my kendall roy fanmix]; one world

*i’ve seen this happeeeen in other people’s liveeees….and nooow it’s happening in mineee………….* i assume that this will be as difficult for me talk about objectively as all the other smiths albums on this list*, although i will be honest and say that this one has never been a favorite of mine. it’s certainly not BAD but it just doesn’t have the same kind of pathos that i associate with their debut and *the queen is dead* (not enough slow, contemplative songs maybe?). but something about them just cuts right to the quick no matter the context. ever since andy rourke died i’ve been a lot more conscious of how integral his bass was to the smiths’ sound: defiantly melodious, insistent, full-throated. rusholme ruffians??!?? he was crazy for that. of course moz is always Doing Too Much and his yelps and caterwauls are frankly distracting. the animal sound effects on the title track are goofy ahh hell and (dare i fucking say it) hamfisted. tbh they kind of ruin the song for me. but nevertheless we soldier (haha!!!) on. fav tracks: i want the one i can’t have; that joke isn’t funny anymore; nowhere fast; well i wonder; barbarism begins at home; meat is murder [minus the animal noises] *sorry i keep saying this in like half my reviews btw. a lot of these albums were ones i listened to as a teenager!!!

i saw “emo” and “hardcore” in the genre tags and immediately wanted to kms but this is actually pretty good. i mean it’s obviously still what it is and i can’t say i’m always in the mood to listen to this kind of music but i can dig it when i am. how does his voice not hurt after all that…also in “human interest” i thought he said “i’d never make you supper / i know that wouldn’t do” which i thought was a pretty good line but apparently he’s actually saying “i’d never make you suffer” which is lame. the whole thing is kinda like a kirkland brand version of spiderland by slint. fav tracks: golden brown; super unison; new math; sinews (original version)

this is the smiths album i’ve listened to the least for whatever reason. well you know me i always cry at endings…anyway i kinda like that there’s something a little bit more melodic/traditional sing-y sounding (omfg hopefully i can explain this later lol) on here compared to most other smiths songs. maybe it’s morrissey singing in a slightly higher register? i don't KNOW his voice just sounds more pop here. i like it. fav tracks: a rush and a push…; girlfriend in a coma; stop me if…; paint a vulgar picture; last night i dreamt…; i won’t share you

i actually liked this a lot! i got a little bored of it by the end of the second listen but the first half of the album is pretty fun, i was dancing a little bit. also between the cover of all tomorrow’s parties and a non-album track called european son…i know these guys were velvet underground heads…respect… fav tracks: quiet life; fall in love with me; in vogue; despair

this sounds a lot like led zep. the blues influence is really apparent and i think i would be more appreciative of this kind of music if it hadn’t evolved (?) into something so far away from the blues especially in terms of the guitar sound. there’s a SUBTLETY and a certain level of restraint here that i do not think applies to later hard rock/metal music (at least what i’ve heard so far). yeah the devil lady ghost stuff is silly but so was zeppelin’s lord of the rings schtick. i can imagine that this would have been pretty goddamn mindblowing to hear in 1970 if you were just some random british kid. also i love the fact that the first song on the album *black sabbath* by the band black sabbath is called “black sabbath.” OK branding!

I mean sure. I feel like I don’t have much of an opinion on this cos it’s just mambo and not something you really listen to for the sake of listening to it. Play that funky marimba Tito! fav tracks: hong kong mambo; estoy siempre junto a ti

i think these guys should have written a musical or something it feels like that’s what they really wanted to do here. some of the melodies are kinda fun but they are just patently silly overall. THESE ARE NOT SERIOUS PEOPLE. they sound like if the who and the beach boys had a really annoying and mid baby. also whoa that song hotel is pretty racist!

you know i love that sweet sweet saxophone soundddddd…obviously i liked this a lot! it reminded me of the kind of music my dad listened to a lot when i was a kid, so listening to it was oddly nostalgic even though i’ve never heard the record before.

i like hüsker dü so let’s see if i also like this… update: i forgot i actually do know this album. it’s fine!! but there’s soooo much music from the 90s that sounds like this that it just doesn’t stand out at all. except for bob mould being gay i guess. also (and this isn’t even my anti-stoughton bias talking) the production is really horrendous. i loathe that extremely tight treble-heavy compressed-sounding production on a lot of “harder” alternative rock from the 90s. let the music breathe a little why don’t you… fav tracks: a good idea

i mean what is there to even say. masterful storytelling. one of my favorite things about joni is that i don’t think her voice sounds that ‘impressive’ at first listen—just cos she’s not belting or doing anything that obviously crazy, and it has a lighter tone that might be mistaken for ‘weakness’. BUT if you actually try to sing along it becomes apparent just how flexible her range was. just so effortless…i would describe her voice as being nimble which i think also suits her very dense lyrical style. incredible vocal + narrative dexterity. yeah. the way she slightly mispronounces “percolator” in the last time i saw richard is like a lance through my heart. i cry every time. fav tracks: the last time i saw richard [probably in my top 5 songs of all time tbh..]; california; all i want; river; carey; little green

i have a lot of appreciation and a strange sort of affection for kurt cobain as a figure but this is the only nirvana album that i really Listen To (besides *mtv unplugged*). i associate it (especially “dumb”) with fall 2019. i think all apologies is one of the most beautiful songs ever. idk… nirvana is angsty across the board of course but i think there’s some genuine, nuanced pathos on this record and it does move me. pennyroyal tea is a hard fucking listen. :( fav tracks: dumb; all apologies; pennyroyal tea; serve the servants; frances farmer…; heart-shaped box; rape me

you should not be using this vocal style to deliver political manifestos you should be using it to say shit like “i’m in a lava lamp” and making references to the flintstones. cool bass lines but just impossible to take seriously. in the eternal words of laura shrago, “i liked it until the guy started singing.”

i dig it. it’s interesting to remember that hendrix was doing not just brilliant guitar stuff but also contributing to the foundations of experimental music/soundscapes/sound art. i mean this must have absolutely knocked the socks off anyone who heard it when it first came out. fav tracks: crosstown traffic; little miss strange; all along the watchtower; voodoo child (slight return)

whatever…it was kinda fun i guess. i like the bass a LOT. it just didn’t really hold my interest but i certainly didn’t find it offensive. i would not be mad if someone put this on in a backyard BBQ setting. fav track: down to the waterline

fucking righteous mannnnn. kind of insane that this is from NINETY-NINETY-ONE. i love the reggae influence, as well as the 1970s soul moments…they’re clearly drawing from a lot of different sources of inspiration and combining them to form something totally new and exciting. massive attack has always been one of those bands where i knew i would like them a lot if i ever sat down and listened to them properly—so i’m glad i finally did cos i was right. i do like them a lot. fav tracks: safe from harm; five man army; hymn of the big wheel

you know those rubber chicken toys that squeak and squawk when you squeeze them? this guy’s voice kinda sounds like if someone were dancing all over a giant one of those for 35 minutes. all i can say is thank god it was only 35 minutes (and even then that was too long)! some of the slower instrumental bits (”caligari’s mirror”) were interesting but that’s about it. actually i couldn’t finish this cos it was too irritating and pointless to me. sorry messrs. ubu…

i KNOW i can’t be the only one who has seriously been vibing to some music lately… i enjoyed listening to this!! it always feels a little weird to, like, sit down and listen to a dancey pop album like this; nevertheless i did like it. yeah it’s cheesy but it’s cute!!! yay!!!

i must renege on my prior abba hate…this wasn’t so bad!

my parents had best of bowie on CD so i know all the hits, and i’ve picked up various songs from soundtracks and references and other people’s playlists, but i’ve never Sat My White Ass Down And Listened to any bowie album all the way through….which seems kind of insane/borderline impossible. but it’s true! i really liked the pop songs on this album but the atmospheric instrumental chanting stuff really lost me toward the end i fear…i guess i just don’t get it…it’s kinda nuts that “sound & vision” is on the same album as all the ambient stuff but the progression to get from one to the other wasn’t in fact that jarring, so. maybe it was more effective than i’m giving it credit for? either way the bass goes crazy!!! fav tracks: breaking glass; sound and vision; always crashing in the same car; a new career in a new town

this was perfectly pleasant. i don’t think it’s any better or worse than a lot of the same music in this genre around this time. it was certainly less cheesy than a lot of the same stuff. the less densely-orchestrated songs kinda remind me of big star but idk if i know enough about music to identify 1. what exactly about it reminds me of big star and 2. why big star is so much better. overall i’m not mad at it but i doubt that i’d return to this in my own time.

man…i would have dug this immensely as a teenager. i would have loved listening to “kerosene” and being miserable on purpose. as an adult it’s pretty good even if i can’t help but find it a little silly in its melodramatic edginess (see: violent femmes). love the blistering guitars tho. fav tracks: big money; kerosene; bad houses

i love her voice and her lyrics are so funny but i admit that i find the lounge lizard style / bossa nova tempo pretty tedious after a while when i listen to it all as one album. i wish all of the songs sounded more like “amy amy amy”… idk i wanted to like it more but i think i prefer to hear the songs individually. i’m sorry women!!!! fav tracks: amy amy amy; what is it about men; in my bed

i actually quite liked this lol. i don’t really think i would listen to it again as a full album but i enjoyed listening to it. i like annie lennox’s voice! side note how come the name “jennifer” and its variants get used so frequently in songs…doesn’t anybody want to write about an EMILIA… favorite tracks: jennifer

this shit is genuinely repulsive to me

billy corgan sucks for a million different reason but one of the main reasons is that his delivery surely inspired the likes of gerard way and other similarly SHIT emo music. so that alone is a crime against humanity as far as i’m aware. the music is good!!!! his voice and terrible vibes really ruin it which is really too bad. i actually liked the slower songs better because that’s more my vibe re: annoying man voice…the faster/more metal songs are too emo-adjacent! fav tracks: beautiful; lily (my one and only)

i really liked this…i guess i don’t know too much about ray charles cos i didn’t realize how much of a sad boy he is….almost all of these songs are about getting left at home alone by his gf! get up ray!

am i over folk music? perhaps :( this was nice but i found it pretty boring, which i was kinda bummed about honestly. the mild tone that lends the album its prettiness just isn’t super dynamic. maybe i should have listened to it on a higher volume?

okay. this had literally no impact on my life. but i didn’t hate it.

love obviously…chain of fools is definitely in the top 25 best songs ever in the world. idk i agree with everything laura said but i don’t wanna be a copycatter….

corny corny CORNY bullshit i don’t understand how so many people can take this music seriously never mind actually THINK IT’S GOOD. i cannot take seriously any song that says “i don’t give a hoot” in earnest. it’s all the worst bits of a paul mccartney song turned up to 11. the melodies really are quite lovely and complex but there’s something so tacky and stupid about the lyrics/vocals/harmonies that i simply cannot ignore. UGH.

for some reason i always mix up the replacements and the proclaimers cos their names are kinda similar. so those were my only thoughts going into this album even though i KNOW i’ve listened to it before and i’ve known “androgynous” since i was a teenager. i think these guys are kinda pranksters…naming their own album after a famous beatles album is such a cheeky move. is paul westerberg the latest in our line-up of little stinkers? it’s very possible. GREAT fucking guitar riffs my god. the middle part of “seen your video” is just perfect. kind of incongruously (for the era/scene) tender and empathetic lyrics which, when delivered with that strange desperate inflection in westerberg’s voice, come across as really earnest, despite the overall piss-take tone of the record given the title and the tonsillectomy song and the boner song. honestly the songs that i didn’t like as much musically i still enjoyed because of the lyrics. i know they took inspiration from alex chilton vis a vis his guitar sound but i actually think the replacements are very much operating in the tradition of big star’s startlingly sincere and plainspoken lyrics (*”i loved you, well, never mind.”*). plus the influence of lou reed’s ambiguously gay storytelling which also seem sincere if sometimes a bit muddled, and anyway the stumbling is sweet to me. this is what every suburban power pop group thinks they sound like but they DON’T. this is another album i wish i’d known as a teenager beyond “androgynous”…i would have loved crying to “sixteen blue.” fav tracks: i will dare; favorite thing; unsatisfied; seen your video; sixteen blue; androgynous

one of the best album openers evahhhh. they were so good at that (”taxman” off *revolver* is another good example). i really think “drive my car” is one of the greatest pop songs of all time. it’s so well-constructed: terrific, instantly recognizable opening riff, a coherent story and a genuinely funny punchline, the imminently singalongable “beep beep yeah!” bit. paul at the absolute top of his game. this album will always remind me of driving to the cape in the summer with sophia next to me in the backseat and us and my mom all singing along as loud as we could. i have such a fondness for this record but especially for that memory that it conjures in my mind every time i hear a song off of it… fav tracks: all of them frankly except for “what goes on”…but i can still get into that one depending on my mood….i do like “run for your life” and think it’s really fun in spite of the lyrics 🫢 SIDE NOTE: obviously i love this album to death and i love listening to it but it is also kind of mind-blowing to me that the velvet underground were starting to perform “heroin” the same year that the beatles cut this record. like, “heroin” makes all the songs on this album seem like kiddie nursery rhyme bullshit. I KNOW IT’S DIFFERENT THINGS. but it’s kind of hilarious to compare that song to all the coy allusions to sex and drugs and ‘naughtiness’ that the beatles managed to sneak past the censors (see: “girl”).

you know what actually. this wasn’t totally dreadful. it was just TOOOOOO much. i really liked the song “some day one day” and i didn’t mind “the loser in the end” because they felt slightly more subtle (lol) even though they were both still obviously over the top. fav tracks: some day one day

the drums do go hard as hell. i found myself bopping along to quite a bit of this so i can’t say i hated it. maybe peter gabriel was never truly bad, he was just a victim of 1980s production conventions… fav tracks: lead a normal life

all i know about william orbit is that he produced 13 and think tank by blur and said some crazy stuff about how both those albums are about damon and graham breaking up and damon pining for graham. so he’s alright in my book! i thought this was nice. it didn’t blow my mind or anything but i did enjoy listening to it. the british electronic/trip hop scene seems really interesting, i feel like they were doing a hell of a lot more with the genre than anyone in the US at the time.

this made me feel sleepy but in a pleasant way

kinda headache-inducing but i can’t say i hated it. pretty good noise i think. i much preferred the non-lyric tracks/sections of songs. however the song titles and lyrics are sooooo 2002 edgy artsy dude humor—think fall out boy and their obnoxiously long song titles that you KNOW they thought were just so goddamn clever—that it makes me want to roll my eyes. it would have been better 1. without lyrics and 2. if every song were just called “untitled #3” or whatever. the second half of the album was much better than the first.

i like it! i like reggae a lot actually, i just never listen to it on my own cos i don’t know much about it at all…but i almost always enjoy it when it’s being played in my vicinity (i.e. when my dad listens to it, which he did all the time when i was a kid). there’s something about the particular cadence of reggae that really scratches something in my brain… fav tracks: jordan river

i agree with laura that it’s of its time but i think that also could be BECAUSE this was such an influential album and informed all the rap albums released after it. [this article](https://crackmagazine.net/article/long-reads/retrospective-get-rich-die-tryin/) seemed like a good explanation of its impact in the post-90s meld of east coast and west coast rap and revival of harder gangsta rap: > Where so many big-name rappers in 2003 (Diddy, Nelly) were busy softening rap, blurring the lines between pop and hip-hop, *Get Rich…* was a reaffirmation of gangsta rap. > i totally see/hear that! but as something to listen to it’s not really my thing—as much as i like the beats and a lot of their sonic elements i really struggle to overlook the misogyny and homophobia (the latter especially…woof) in the lyrics especially because i don’t think 50 cent is as clever a lyricist as other “classic” rappers. i can tell it’s well made and i can definitely understand its impact but i’m not falling over myself to listen to it again.

oh yah. i liked this A LOT. every time i listen to this kind of music i have to wonder how come not all music sounds like this? i love the instrumental affectations of soul music soooooo much. fav tracks: funky music sho nuff turns me on; papa was a rolling stone; mother nature

homer simpson voice: brilliant. [chuckles] i have absolutely no idea what's going on.

this shit is so unserious and so mind-numbingly boring. i think the contrast in the intended “edginess” of the album’s overall aesthetic—the skulls, devils, gangs, whatever—with the total drudgery of the music is ironic and kinda pathetic. it defangs the whole thing. beyond silly. the songs are well-constructed in a very standard way…just no real imagination or innovation at all. but in that sense it was not unlistenable.

truly an excellent record. heartbreaking to listen to, given what happened to john (obviously). but even disregarding that, it’s such an emotionally fraught album on its own because you can hear that he was trying so, so hard. people forget that the beatles really did come from dirt in a way that feels impossible today—john had the most economically-privileged background and the most formal education, but growing up in postwar liverpool with a broken family certainly didn’t do wonders for his mental health and emotional intelligence. the songs were the only way that he could poke any air holes in that suffocating layer of repression. to me this album is about someone who is desperately lost and unsure of himself and his place in the world and is trying to grapple with who he wants to be now that he isn’t a beatle. i think he was deeply and sincerely troubled by war, inequality, etc. and was frustrated by his inability to do anything meaningful about it, and he was trying very hard to articulate all of that. i like the sound of that effort. i think that’s what places him in opposition to paul tonally, because paul’s music has always been so effortless. not that paul didn’t try very hard—i think he did, and often tried too hard—but he rarely allowed that vulnerability to be reflected in the music itself. his ‘vulnerabilities’ were calculated and careful and affected, whereas john’s were laid bare and plain especially on this record. it’s sometimes a little uncomfortable or even embarrassing to hear, but i think it’s worth hearing! if i were paul mccartney i would have simply killed myself after “how do you sleep?” got released. fav tracks: jealous guy; i don’t wanna be a soldier mama; gimme some truth; oh my love; how do you sleep?; how?; oh yoko!

the messaging on this album is so confusing…following “bootylicious” with a song about some poor girl who’s apparently a huge skank honestly made me laugh like why would you say that… i really liked the outro when they were talking about how much they love each other though. peace and love on planet earth obviously i love the hits and think they’re great especially to dance to but there’s also something that i can’t help but find inherently silly about sitting down and listening to a whole album of r&b/pop/dance music while i’m doing boring office work. THAT’S NOT THEIR FAULT of course but i was thinking about it. i think if i understood more about the process of making this kind of music i would appreciate it more. fav tracks: independent woman pt I, bootylicious

i don’t careeeeeeee. just another 60s guitar band full of white guys trying their hardest to sound black. BORING and DERIVATIVE.

ok i do not think i have to listen to more than a couple of these songs to get the gist. goofy and distasteful. really just not my thing at all…

it’s kinda too stupid to really get mad at or feel any strong way about. just dumb stoner california rock…same as it ever was. it would probably sound pretty good in the background at a party where everyone was stoned out of their minds and also it was 1971 so maybe we didn’t have that many options. the title track is far and away the worst song on the record i think. fav tracks: cars hiss by my window; hyacinth house

it’s fine of course i can’t say it was BAD. but it’s certainly not all that interesting to me. i think laura made a comment elsewhere about how some music (like sinatra) is just so buttery that it ends up being kinda boring cos it’s TOO good. there isn’t enough variation here... thank god they invented rock & roll cos i would have been bored to tears if this was all i had to listen to. i think jobim’s voice is more interesting than sinatra’s. idk how to rate this cos i know it’s not bad but i also don’t care about it on literally any level. these are not intelligent thoughts but oh well.

i like it!!!!!!! reading about this album led me into a wikipedia rabbit hole about different rioplatense dialects and jargon which was fun too. LISTENING (to cool music) and LEARNING (about argentinian slang).

i forgot how well i know this album. i have my dad’s vinyl copy and used to listen to it a lot in high school (especially whenever i was rewatching freaks & geeks lol). it’s fine. i can’t say it moves me but it’s fine.

i mean come on lol. imagine my shock when i discovered that radiohead are, in fact, just as good as everyone has always claimed. something i love about this album is that it’s not super guitar-focused—i LOVE how the bass and the drums get brought to fore in so many of the songs. it’s crazzzzyyyy that weird fishes is a human drummer (s/o phil) and not a drum machine how tf does he do that…and dear colin’s bass adds so much depth to the tracks, i like that his entry is often delayed so it’s really noticeable when the bass comes in and then the song kicks into gear. obviously i’m mad at thom and jonny so i don’t wanna talk about them but they are so good….weird fishes and all i need are some of thom’s best lyrics i think….fuck it actually the run from weird fishes to jigsaw is just absolutely gutwrenching unbearably beautiful. BLAH. fav tracks: all of them except bodysnatchers and videotape and sometimes nude. but depending on my mood i like those too.

actually confession time. i love “jane says” as a song it’s such a guilty pleasure. i know it’s so annoying…but it’s CATCHY and i do love a good story song. so i was pretty devastated to see that that song is #9 on this album. it’s not a good enough song to make the rest of this crap worthwhile anyway. the really bloated bass really does appeal to me a lot but i hate those horrible hard rock 80s guitars and of course their shit from a butt lyrics are unforgivable. one thing i will give them credit for—it’s crazy that this album came out in 1988 because it sounds so much like all the dumb fucking shit that every edgy white guy band would go on to produce until at least 2007 or so. like, you could have told me that this was from 1995 or 1999 or 2004 and i would have believed you each time.

i love when WOMEN yell. this would have hit so so so hard when i was scary depressed and probably would (will) hit so so so hard the next time i’m feeling really self-loathing and hopeless. that doesn’t sound like a particularly glowing review but it is COMING FROM ME. i like the pretty jangly guitar juxtaposed with the incisive brutal lyrics sung in her weirdo voice. music that makes your stomach hurt in a good way. fav tracks: call me; green; soul soldier

perfect music for staring wistfully out of a train window passing through new england in early december…nick drake’s music is too lovely and tragic to write about in words i think. he was never someone made for this world. fav tracks: time has told me; cello song: man in a shed; day is done; saturday sun; river man

hey that was actually pretty good. it felt less indulgent and silly than a lot of other prog that i’ve heard, much more dynamic…these guys know how to edit! i know this is revered as one of the best albums of all time and i suppose i don’t have any reason to dispute it, but i also don’t think i’ll become obsessed with it anytime soon…i quite like robert fripp’s guitar playing on a lot of other songs out there in the world (especially on ”hammond song” by the roches AKA one of the best songs ever recorded) so that tracks.

what the freak ever honestly. i find the “lo-fi” effect of julian casablanca’s voice on most strokes tracks so irritating—it makes his vocals sound incredibly one-note, boring, trite. what is the artistic value of this choice? to me it comes across as an attempt at sounding Cool For Cool’s Sake and obfuscating the very boring reality of his melodies/vocal quality. it also makes the songs sound VERY samey—”take it or leave it” for example could have stood out (i like his shouting during the chorus) but that dumbass effect flattens out any variety. again the super compressed production does not appeal to me on a personal level. i don't like the shrill guitar, the snare/hi-hat (?), all these SHARP sounds. also i know that they are doing the compression thing because they're trying to imitate the velvet underground which i find really embarrassing cos um…this ain't the velvets. it's goofy cos the velvets and the stooges retained that effect because of the equipment they were using—they purposely emphasized it of course but their music ultimately HAD to sound like that because that was kinda their only option due to the technology available at the time. so artificially recreating it for aesthetic effect is stupid and shallow to me. the other song that stood out to me musically was “barely legal” but the lyrics suck so i can't commit to calling it a favorite… btw i did not go into this trying to be a hater!! but at the end of the day the strokes are only worth anything TO ME because of the one time nick valensi (?), in an attempt to praise “girls & boys” as a song, described blur as “a kind of homosexual band.” p.s. the one song on this album that i do actually like is “new york city cops” which got pulled after 9/11 from all subsequent pressings i think. just another thing those terrorists took from us along with comfortable airports…

my favorite zeppelin album ^_^ i listened to this soooo much as a teenager so my fondness for it is a little clouded by nostalgia but i do think it's a great record and frankly underrated in the zeppelin canon. i just looked at the wikipedia article and i was surprised to see it described as folky but i guess that IS why it appeals to me—i like the gentler, lighter sound, the acoustic guitars and the mandolin. robert plant’s crazy ass voice contrasts well with the acoustic-ness. i think “tangerine” and “that's the way” are two of the most beautiful songs in the world… FUN FACT: “bron-y-aur stomp” is about robert plant’s dog who was named strider after aragorn in lord of the rings. fav tracks: tangerine; that's the way; gallows pole; celebration day

i reallyyyyyyyy liked this…especially the title track which i thought was SO beautiful. that combination of guitar + flute is always super magical to me…fairy elf type music. very john fahey which i love. fav tracks: glad; john barleycorn

lovely stuff! if i were a barista in a cool bookstore/cafe/bar i would be bumping this all shift. sadly i was a barista in a distinctly uncool cafe so i would not have been allowed to bump this.

idk if i can really rate or even talk about this album i’ve just heard it way too many times. but it’s still so beautiful, fun, silly, heartbreaking, sincere…a vast and complex range of human emotion….and it sounds good too!

this started out surprisingly strong but didn’t hold my attention for very long. too bad! i was having fun but then the energy just petered out. fav tracks: wearin’ that loved on look; i’ll hold you in my heart (till i can hold you in my arms)

i think i would have liked this much more when i was younger and really into, like, keaton henson and artists like that. i’d like to know what allegedly makes this so special compared to every other melancholic white guy with a guitar. it does sound VERY 2010s (in a bad way, unfortunately) despite being from 1999 so i guess i can give it credit for that? i’d rather just listen to the magnolia electric co. by songs: ohia......

it’s kinda crazy to me that i’ve never listened to a whole elliott smith album…i’ve picked up so many songs here and there but i managed to bypass him almost entirely as a teenager (which seems like a minor miracle). in fact his voice is most solidly associated with that one heartwrenching scene in the royal tenenbaums where “needle in the hay” plays in the background, to the point that hearing his non-heatmiser pushed-through-a-sieve vocals instantly transports me into that emotional space: anxious and hollow, overwhelmed with despair…i almost wish i didn’t have that association because it makes him really difficult to listen to outside of that context. blah. where was i…well it’s just sad and brilliant for the most part even the overplayed bits. fav tracks: speed trials; rose parade; angeles

that was fun! the music is admittedly not really My Thing but i can understand the appeal and i think it’s cool that cash, who relied on that “outlaw” image for a lot of his branding and song inspiration, was not only willing but eager to actually engage with real prisoners and give back to them in a way. it hearkens back to the function of music as a kind of oral storytelling, a kind of fully embodied entertainment as opposed to something more passive/something to have on in the background. fav tracks: jackson

it would have been literally soooo amazing to hear this music while fucked up on 17 different uppers in the club pre-AIDS crisis…idk if it hits as hard in any other context but i think the absurd synths/preset drum beats etc. are pretty fun and i just love listening to marc almond’s lovely gay voice. we need gay men to start speaking with lisps again. anyway so i like the disparate elements but they just don’t gel super well to me for some reason.

ok this has nothing to do with the music itself but i started thinking about how unfair it is that god took sterling morrison from this earth so young when it should have been eric clapton instead so then i got really mad at eric clapton for still being alive. which made me not want to enjoy this album. which is not really eric clapton’s fault i guess. but still…god if you’re listening we are ready and willing to trade clapton for sterling. i LOOOOVED the guitar on “anyday.” and “little wing” also jumped out at me but clapton didn’t even write the goddamn thing. overall this is just atrociously long—the self-indulgent lyrics combined with the guitar noodling and the album’s length really create a sense of tedium. “layla” is a good ass song though i will give him that. except for the extended middle part…again, this guy does NOT know how to self-edit.

god this was dull. there were a moments where it got a little funky and i was like YIPPEE but then it went back to being what my brain perceives as standard muzak fare. i think it’s the tone of the keyboards which sound unbearably dated to me, especially on the final track.

the stuff that i write is even tougher than dykes!!!!!!! the beats go harddddd, catchy and satisfying with a great variety of sound/melody, not too repetitive or samey. i liked this a lot. and obviously i loved all the NYC references. the outro of “the world is yours” made me kinda tear up ngl… fav tracks: NY state of mind; halftime

honestly this just sounds like if early radiohead were american and therefore slightly worse (ESPECIALLY the first song). i really expected this to be shit but it’s perfectly fine. the drums are mad boring but i like most of the other elements of the songs especially the quieter ones. the album was way too long tho. fav tracks: regular john; i was a teenage hand model [even with all the stupid sound effects]

why is there so much goddamn TALKING

ik they had issues with the production/distribution of the record so it was not actually written as a post-9/11 album, but that’s when it got released anyway and i think it’s extremely interesting to look at YHF as a time capsule of that moment in terms of american identity. i mean, the very first words on the record are literally “i am an american”—but then they’re immediately followed by “…aquarium drinker,” which is such a non sequitur and yet so evocative—of what exactly idk but it still evokes SOMETHING in me. (is it an aquarium-drinker who’s american, or a drinker of american aquariums, or a drinker who is himself an american aquarium…?) “war on war” (”you’re gonna lose / you have to lose”) and “ashes of american flags” are the other obvious ones but i think that kind of well-meaning anxiety, a confusion about and dissatisfaction with oneself that is mostly clumsy but has the potential to cause genuine harm, is felt throughout the whole album. or maybe that’s just what it’s like to be in your twenties*: wanting to do right by people, not knowing how exactly to do it, wishing someone would tell just tell you what to do, knowing no one will, knowing you wouldn’t listen even if they did… the music is also interesting—the electronic elements are deployed really carefully and i think that’s part of what keeps the record from sounding too dated sonically. except for “kamera,” that is unfortunately such a target/cvs song…but if that’s the album’s ‘low point’ then it’s still pretty damn good. HEAVY METAL DRUMMER BEST SONG IN THE WORLD!!! everything good that’s ever happened in the summer can fit inside it. it never ever gets old. fav tracks: radio cure; i am trying to break your heart; heavy metal drummer; i'm the man who loves you; reservations *ok i looked it up and jeff tweedy was actually in his mid-30s when they made this album. i guess i listened and connected to it first as a teenager so i split the difference in our ages….i really thought this was giving quarterlife crisis mid-to-late 20s. well whatever.

folk music sounds so good when you ain’t got a bitch in ya ear impersonating carl wheezer…no but seriously this was great. very touching. i like that a bunch of the songs are sexy, only with a kind of sly, subtle tone. i think it's funny and very of the time but in a nice way. and i like the lyrics very much. fav tracks: suite judy blue eyes; guinnevere; song with no words

i felt pretty silly listening to this while sitting hunched over my desk doing work cos this is obviously meant to be listened to at a fun outdoor party in the summer. but it was enjoyable anyway. though a bit overlong, i found a lot of the second half album fairly emotionally engaging in a way that surprised me—”scrap metal” was an evil diss track while “when we were friends” was really lucid and moving…i’m sorry cee lo i was unfamiliar with your game…

i only know this album because naomi got it the other day and she told me, “the opening track is an incredibly INCREDIBLY horny song featuring jarvis cocker,” and i said, “all jarvis songs are incredibly horny, that’s kinda his whole thing” and she said, “it’s even hornier than he usually is” and i thought, “there’s no way.” but then i listened to it and was like WHOA this is incredibly horny even for jarvis. so the moral of the story is that i should never have doubted naomi’s ability to assess jarvis cocker’s horny levels. but anyway this was kind of whatever to me. the best track was composed by this guy along with tricky and massive attack, so it’s hard for me to be impressed by him as an artist i guess. as far as imaginary film soundtracks go, this would work very well in a cinematic setting so he succeeded there…on its own, though, i don’t think it’s anything special. fav tracks: something wicked this way comes; the big bamboozle