I'd only ever heard "In the End", and the rest of this is about what I expected. The whole thing comes across as like a 10-year-old's idea of badass music. Chugging alt-metal riffs, angsty lyrics, bad white guy rapping, and production elements that probably seemed dated in the year 2000. It's bad, but it's not even really groundbreaking in any sort of way. They mainly come off as a less fun version of Limp Bizkit. I did not need to hear this before I died, which might be sooner than before I listened to it. 0.5 stars.

Awesome album that beautifully blends post-punk, art rock, funk, and electronic elements. Every song rules. 5 stars.

Starts off really great and fizzles out a bit at the end. Favorite tracks are "Writing to Reach You", "As You Are", and "Driftwood". 4 stars.

Good, but I don't think it's anything I haven't heard done better elsewhere. "Richard III" and "Cheapskate" are probably my favorites. Feels like a 3.5. Enjoyable, but probably nothing I'd ever go back to.

Great album. The last side is pretty inessential, but there's a ton of greatness on the first three sides -- Custard Pie, In My Time of Dying, Houses of the Holy, Trampled Under Foot, Kashmir, In the Light, Down By the Seaside, Ten Years Gone -- these are some of the bands greatest songs. The last side keeps it from 5 stars, but still a 4.5 for me.

Normally, I don't think this type of album would be in my wheelhouse as 70s Singer-Songwriter is not a genre I usually jibe with. However, I think Carole's songwriting really elevates something that would normally bore me to tears. I think her background in 60s pop and R&B really gives the material an ethos that is unlike the typical guy/girl at a piano stuff from this era. I also really like her voice and the fact that she sings in a normal register. There's a nice soulful quality and some imperfections there that really set her apart from her peers. 5

Really cool blend of funk, afrobeat, electronic music, sampling, punk, and new wave. Super groundbreaking and ahead of it's time. 5 stars

Perfect album. Excellent opener, super groundbreaking and influential. One of the greatest albums ever. 5 stars.

Not the most essential Husker Du album by a long shot, but there's still some good stuff here. I was always higher on the Grant Hart songs than the Bob Mould songs, and this album continues that tradition -- "Charity, Chasity, Prudence, and Hope", "Too Much Spice", "She Floated Away", and "Actual Condition" are the best songs here. 4 Stars.

This rules. Might be Ice Cube's finest album and one of the best hip-hop albums of the early 90s. Written around the time of the '92 LA Riots, the lyrics are still relevant today and the production, mostly from DJ Pooh and DJ Muggs, is fantastic. 4.5 Stars.

Rules. That is all. 5 stars.

Starts off great, but fizzles out midway through the album. "Common People" is probably the best song of the Britpop era though. 4 Stars.

Released in 1995 when the alternative rock boom was winding down and it wasn't clear what the next big trend in rock was going to be. As result, it incorporates some sounds that were big at the time, but ultimately feels very dated. "Vow" is great, and the other big singles are decent, but as a whole the album is just okay. 3.5 stars.

Awesome album that beautifully blends post-punk, art rock, funk, and electronic elements. Every song rules. 5 stars.

Good, but not deserving of the GOAT-level praise regularly heaped upon it. The big singles are great, but you also get a pair of instrumentals and and some lesser songs that are just okay. It gets some props for being pretty revolutionary in terms of production and arrangements, but the songs leave a lot to be desired for me. 3.5 stars

First side is incredible, second side is filler. Would've made a great EP. 3.5 stars.

Great album. Super pretty folk/Americana songs - 4.5 stars

Pretty cool slice of early freak folk. The title track and "Season of the Witch" are obvious highlights, but pretty enjoyable throughout - 4 stars.

Meh. Very repetitive and the songs go on forever. Even the songs you think you know and like, like "Praise You, are twice as long and monotonous as the single versions you're used to hearing. 3 stars.

Lots of diverse sounds, but overall pretty sterile and dull. Much of it has the feel of a film score, where it work nicely in the background of a scene, but it's not interesting enough to be a standalone work of art. It's not bad, but it's not that great either. Light 3 stars.

Sounds like Les Claypool fronting Ween and releasing and album of circus music. 2 stars.

4 stars

Inoffensive, but bland. 3 stars.

Awesome Slacker Rock classic. 5 stars.

like the sound of the band -- there's some very cool fuzz guitar -- and Janis' voice is cool, but the songs themselves leave a bit to be desired. The stuff I knew was my favorite, but the rest was kinda filler. 3.5

I knew the Go-Gos singles from hearing them all the time as a kid, but never listened to a full album until much later in life. I was surprised at how cool and punky they were, and at least on this album, how great their deep cuts were. They have a similar aesthetic to the Ramones for me, where they take what's essentially the sound of the early 60s and give it a modern sheen. I really like the vocal interplay between Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin, and Charlotte Caffrey has some really cool surf-influenced guitar work. Probably my favorite album of 1981. 5 stars.

I remember hearing this when it came out and not being quite as enamored with it as critics were, but I really liked Lupe's last couple of albums, so I was excited to revisit it. It's very reminiscent of Kanye West's early albums -- the College Dropout and Late Registration most notably -- but with notably better lyrics. Lupe actually got his big break appearing on Kanye's "Touch the Sky". Overall, I think it's really good -- one of the more sophisticated mainstream rap albums of the 00s -- but it does suffer from being way too long. You could cut like 40 minutes and there's probably a 5 star album in here somewhere. There is some cool stuff here though -- really like "Kick, Push", "I Gotcha", and "Daydreamin'". Going with a light 4 stars.

Some really great material here that rivals Charles Thompson's best work with the Pixies, unfortunately at 22 tracks, there's also a lot of unnecessary filler. Highlights include "Headache", "Thallassocracy", and "Superabound". 4 stars.

First side is cool, second side is kind of sappy.

First three tracks are solid, rest of the album is pretty forgettable. Not essential at all. 2.5 stars.

Really wimpy yacht rock that makes Boz Skaggs sound like Black Sabbath. 2 stars.

Moments of greatness, but bloated and messy as is. I prefer the Speakerboxxx half. 3.5 stars.

Perfect. 5 stars

Eh 2 stars.

Beautiful album. One of the best of the late 60s. Candy Says, Pale Blue Eyes, What Goes On, Jesus --- some of Lou's best songs. 5 stars.

This just isn't my thing, I'm afraid. It's not bad, there's definitely some moments I think are cool, but the songs are so devoid of structure and hooks, I really have a hard time getting into it or wanting to go back to it at all. 2.5 stars.

3 stars. Good but forgettable

A slightly lesser batch of songs than Heartbreaker, and I definitely like the overall sound less. I also think the second half, with maybe the exception of "Harder Now That It's Over" and "Goodnight Hollywood Blvd" is mostly filler. However, there are some excellent songs here. "New York, New York", "La Cienega Just Smiled", "The Rescue Blues", and "When the Stars Go Blue" rank with his best songs. There's probably an album here that gets close to the excellence of Heartbreaker with some scrappier production and some of the fat trimmed. 4 stars

Excellent Blur album. 4.5

21st Century Schizoid Man is cool, but the rest of the album doesn't do much for me. 3 stars.

Starts off really great and fizzles out a bit at the end. Favorite tracks are "Writing to Reach You", "As You Are", and "Driftwood". 4 stars.

4 stars

Great! 4 stars

Peg is cool, Josie is pretty good. Deacon Blues and Black Cow are okay, but this is sort of the beginning of the yacht rock era of Steely Dan that I don't really like that much. 3.5 stars.

Started off okay, but got really repetitive and boring after a while. Not really enough hooks to keep me interested. 2 stars.

Excellent follow-up to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie gets a little less glammy and a little more rockin'. Highlights include "Panic in Detroit", "Cracked Actor", "The Jean Genie", "Drive-In Saturday" and a rockin' cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together". 5 stars.

Good playing, just not that enthusiastic about the fairly straightforward blues covers here. Obviously, British blues rock would get a lot more interesting. 3 stars.

4.5. Great slice of 70s California coke rock.

Would definitely be a 5 if the album ended with "Comfortably Numb", but the 4th side is largely forgettable. Even "Run Like Hell", which was the second single from the album, is just okay. Lot's of awesome highlights otherwise, including "In the Flesh?", "Mother", "Young Lust", "Hey You" and the aforementioned "Comfortably Numb". 4.5 stars.

I think the band has a really cool sound on this album and it really foreshadows a lot of 90s alt-country. They're working withing the folk rock framework, but adding a lot of really interesting elements and taking it in new directions. Highlights for me are the title track, "Mr. Spaceman", "What's Happening!?!?!", and of course "Eight Miles High". Second side of the album isn't quite as strong as the first -- I'm not super high on their version of "Hey Joe", but overall, it's probably my favorite Byrds album.

Soulless European pop. Dancing Queen is okay as is Knowing Me, Knowing You and the instrumental title track. 2.5 stars.

Great. 4.5

I've always kind of struggled with Joni Mitchell. I think she's a good musician and a reasonably good songwriter, but I don't like the way she sings at all. I don't like the constant shifting between her lower register and higher register. I just find it totally irritating. I think River and A Case of You are good songs in spite of the vocal stylings, but I don't think I can do more than 3 stars.

I think "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Head Over Heels" are really good. Never been too crazy about "Shout". The rest is just sort of meh filler. 3.5 stars since there's a couple of gems in there.

One of my favorite albums of all time. Waits is just firing on all cylinders here, and you get such a weird mix of genres from blues, jazz, and caberet to heartland rock and country. It's also one of my favorite guitar albums of all time. Marc Ribot is a mad scientist making me rethink what lead guitar on an album could sound like. And Keith Richards and Robert Quine show up too. Side one is perfection. Side two is a little more uneven, but certainly enough highlights that it's still an easy 5 star album. Highlights for me are "Singapore", "Clap Hands", "Jockey Full of Bourbon", "Tango 'Til They're Sore", "Hang Down Your Head", "Time", "Union Square", "Downtown Train" and "Anywhere I Lay My Head". 5 stars

Near perfect album with great production, great songwriting, and tremendous musicianship. Highlights include "Second Hand News", "Never Going Back Again", "Go Your Own Way", "Dreams", and "I Don't Want to Know". If only they could've made room for "Silver Springs". Still a classic. 5 stars

Not bad 3 stars.

Terrific album with numerous highlights. Into the Mystic is awesome.5 stars

Decent proto-Britpop album. There She Goes kind of overshadows everything else. 3 Stars.

A few clunkers, but some good stuff here. Only the Good Die Young and Movin' Out are the highlights. 4 stars

Good debut. Not as good as subsequent albums. 3.5 stars.

I guess this is actually a compilation and it's pretty obvious since it starts of as fairly standard MBP and turns into this smooth jazz thing by the end. 2 stars

I like when she mixes in more modern production elements, but when she doesn't, it kind of sounds like it's trying too hard to be this retro throwback thing. Some of her vocal mannerisms are a bit over the top too. 3 stars

There's a 5-star album in here somewhere, but it really suffers from bloat. The first disc is really good, but outside of the hits, the second one is mostly forgettable. 4 stars.

I like that they kind of build off an Americana sound, but end up in a place that isn't what you'd typically associate with an Americana/Alt-County artist. At times, it's reminiscent of what I like about Meat Puppets II, but it's a more modern, less abrasive, more eclectic version of it. My favorite tracks are "(Well) Dusted (For the Millennium)", "Raw", "Shiver", "Astonished (In Memphis)" and "Satellite". 4.5

Cool, fun Madchester album. "Kinky Afro" and "Step On" are both pretty great. 4 stars.

I'd only ever heard "In the End", and the rest of this is about what I expected. The whole thing comes across as like a 10-year-old's idea of badass music. Chugging alt-metal riffs, angsty lyrics, bad white guy rapping, and production elements that probably seemed dated in the year 2000. It's bad, but it's not even really groundbreaking in any sort of way. They mainly come off as a less fun version of Limp Bizkit. I did not need to hear this before I died, which might be sooner than before I listened to it. 0.5 stars.

The title track isn't bad, even if it goes on about 8 minutes longer than it should. The rest is competently played muzak. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to get a root canal while being on hold with the cable company, this is the album for you. 1 star.

I think it's pretty good and it definitely influenced some things I like, but I don't really enjoy the songs as much as their contemporaries, like the Jesus and Mary Chain or Pixies or even Sonic Youth. "Lose My Breath" is probably the highlight for me here. 3.5

This album is pretty great. One of the best examples of gothic post-punk and one of the finest albums of 1981. The tribal drums and flanged out guitar parts make for a really cool sound. "Into the Light" is awesome and one of their best songs. 4.5 stars

Decent but not great album that was probably somewhat influential at the time but feels pretty dated now. I do think it's fun at times, but nowhere near essential enough to be on this list. 3 stars.

Super fun and catchy and really reminded me of New York Dolls/Johnny Thunders stuff. I really liked "Malibu Beach Nightmare" and "Tooting Bec Wreck". 4 stars.

Great live set from a good point were pop band. 4 stars.

Nice sounding album. 3.5 stars

Super awesome goth rock that's one of 1982's finest albums. 4.5 stars.

like Big Star, but I prefer the next two albums by a good margin. I think they got better after Chilton took more control over the band. His songs here are really the cream of the crop, where Chris Bell's stuff is more a mixed bag. I don't find Bell's more rocking stuff like "Feel", "In the Street", and "Don't Lie to Me" to be very good. Still there's some great stuff here. "The Ballad of El Goodo", "Thirteen" are excellent, and Bell does stick the landing with "My Life is Right". 4 stars.

Great live set that did an excellent job of showing the more rustic side of America's favorite abrasive grunge band. A lot of their originals didn't translate to the unplugged format, so the set relies heavily on covers -- from Bowie, Leadbelly, and three songs from Meat Puppets II. 4.5 stars.

Thought it was overall pretty good, but kind of sagged a bit in the middle. I don't know if any of the songs were truly amazing, but "In My Mind" and "Time With You" were a couple that kind of stood out. 3.5 stars

Sonic Youth's most complete work -- it's noisy and abrasive, but also really catchy and accessible in it's own way. The guitar work throughout is really cool and inventive. My favorites are "Teen Age Riot", "The Sprawl", and "Total Trash". 4.5 Stars

"Our House" is good, but the rest is a little too British Granny Music for me. 2.5 Stars

Cool 00s angular dance punk. "Jacqueline", "Take Me Out", "This Fire", and "Auf Achse" are all super cool. 4.5 stars

It's very good and Frank sounds incredible as always, but maybe a little ballad heavy for my taste. Not quite my thing, but I appreciate it. 4 stars.

Cool garage rock. Too many covers hold it back a little. 4 stars.

Objectively, I think it's great, but it's just not something I would ever really get the urge to sit down and listen too. Apologies in advance for the jazz nerds out there. 3.5 stars.

I think A Grand Don't Come For Free is a pretty sweet album. I'm normally not high on concept albums/rock operas, but this takes the idea of having a cohesive narrative throughout the album and makes it work. I think the rapping/speak singing makes it somehow less cheesy than when a traditional rock band does it. It kind of feels like a UK Garage version of the first few Hold Steady albums. This genre of music definitely isn't something I normally gravitate towards, but I think Mike Skinner really elevates it. Highlights for me are "Fit But You Know It", "Blinded By the Lights", "Dry Your Eyes" and "Empty Cans". 4.5 stars.

I don't really care for "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", and some of the other songs featuring prominent Robin Gibb vocals (he kind of sounds like Kermit the Frog to me), but the rest is all pretty good. "Israel", "Don't Wanna Live Inside Myself" and "It's Just The Way" are all highlights. 3.5 Stars