I love groups that come out of the gate with such definitive, iconic, and genre & era-defining albums with their first release. It’s like seeing a unicorn in the forest; it just doesn’t happen. The old guard music industry was you got a three record deal to allow for an artist or band at least one album to grow and define their sound. Oasis? Nope! They knew exactly what they were from the jump with Definitely Maybe a year earlier, such confidence. I’m not so sure they knew they’d then go from that explosion out the gate to then create one of the best albums of the 90s that still resonates a quarter century later. If Dedinitely Maybe was all bombastic rockers, Morning Glory gives more flavors of sounds including ballads so it’s the stronger release to me…just slightly.

I love the term “audiophile” which simply means lover of sounds. In that sense, every single person who loves music would qualify as an audiophile so I wholeheartedly claim it, but not the modern meme it’s become as an ossified dig at old guys who love “audiophile” pressings of Steely Dan and other 70s music, often aligned with expensive “audiophile” pressings and often spewed to make fun of “yacht rock.” Yes there’s some truth here, but really I love me some Steely Dan, and it’s amazing music so sure, I prefer to listen to it in one of the recognized best versions to hear the music. We chase for it because when you hear a really good version, this is one of the best produced and enjoyable listens around because these guys were literal demanding nutcases with the amount of attention to detail they dedicated to the production of their albums, this one being one of their best. It deserves it too; there’s so much…lushness in their music that in a good version, there’s new stuff that jumps out in the mix. That, and the amazing and unique songwriting, interesting characters, this is an easy classic, for sure.

I love groups that come out of the gate with such definitive, iconic, and genre & era-defining albums with their first release. It’s like seeing a unicorn in the forest; it just doesn’t happen. The old guard music industry was you got a three record deal to allow for an artist or band at least one album to grow and define their sound. Oasis? Nope! They knew exactly what they were from the jump with Definitely Maybe a year earlier, such confidence. I’m not so sure they knew they’d then go from that explosion out the gate to then create one of the best albums of the 90s that still resonates a quarter century later. If Dedinitely Maybe was all bombastic rockers, Morning Glory gives more flavors of sounds including ballads so it’s the stronger release to me…just slightly.

Wow, nice start to this new challenge: three five-star, stone cold classic albums, nice! Because this one hit when I was 20, it’s probably the most resonate in my memories. Two things stand out on that front: this smashed ALL presumptions I had about Metal as it literally would define what the next 20+ years of the genre would morph into. Secondly, I remember visiting the Sunset strip for the first time with a bunch of college buddies and being in front of Guitar Center and thinking we walked into the fever dream (nightmare?) right out of the “Welcome to the Jungle” MTV video. And that’s the beauty of G&R right out the gate: strong songwriting that provides vivid images, and it’s of the dirt, grunge, drugs and crime of LA during the mid-late 80s. The sheen was off of any 70s rock star glamour that was aspirational, replaced with the grime of real life in the mud and muck. Couple that with amazing singing, blazing dual guitars, and you got a classic.

Their first masterpiece. And I kinda remember there was a bit of a split in the music community at the time. Were Green Day the next big thing in rock, or way too commercialized pop/rock fraudsters. For me, it was clear they were special. Their mix of rock, pop, punk, and even grunge and keep the songs catchy and also have some songwriting depth? The proof is this album still holds up after all these years.

There’s always that one group that everyone loves, but you don’t get. The Doors fit that description for me. There are moments that grab and mesmerize me like everyone else. When they’re on, their moody, bluesy vibe makes me swoon, but when Morrison goes a little out there with too much of the hippie dippy angle that dominated the culture at the time, they can get a little eye rolling. But when the balance is right, and the majority of this album it is, it’s clear why they’re all-timers. This is probably my favorite album by them.

I’m going to have to dive into Neil’s full catalog at some point. He has all the key criteria that I like from artists I deem “worthy” of such investigation: an almost ornery resistance with a heavy dose of “I don’t give a shit” attitude about what’s commercial, and a unrelenting pull to trying new genres and styles as they chase after their artistic muse. The benefit of such artists is no two albums are the same, as they’re willing to challenge thenselves and ultimately us as listeners. Coming to this album from After the Gold Rush and Harvest, I was blown away at how different this was. Almost MoTown like in some of the instrumentation. But at the core, it’s Neil jamming with his soon to be legendary Crazy Horse crew, producing a classic.

Besides the "obvious" albums like The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, etc. this is probably my personal "easiest five star" album so far. Biggest thing I remember is this album was SO big, so immersed in the black community, that we were studying it with college-level rigor in our African American Studies course at UMASS, and no one including the college professors and administrative thought that was weird. Public Enemy was THAT prominent as a legitimate cultural representative of what the African American diaspora was thinking about. AND they had jams, lol. The whole album is revolutionary: Chuck D's rhythmic flow spouting KNOWLEDGE, Flavor Flav's appropriate mix of humor as a counter to Chuck's seriousness, and don't even get me started on the Bomb Squad's production. All the squeals, samples and beats come together in this chaotic cacophony that cuts through you but is also melodic and engaging in its own way. A classic, start to finish.

After hearing this and falling in love with it, I feel like I need to defend myself. It was ‘83 so I was deep into my pop music phase with all that was on the charts and MTV, and somehow I just missed this album and didn’t really get into R.E.M. until several albums later and I never went back to their earlier stuff. THAT was a mistake as I clearly missed out! So much just comes together to create this moody, atmospheric vibe that’s primarily built on the highlight of the album, the jangly acoustic guitars. That and the songwriting. I admit to the possibility of a bad case of recency bias but this might be my favorite R.E.M. album of all and that’s saying something considering their future gems.

Started off a little slow but got somewhat better toward the middle of the album. I hear a bit of Brian Eno-type soundscapes that were engaging in moments but I never felt fully wrapped up in the musical tapestry. I think the lead singer’s voice and amorphous genre mixing and “just okay” songwriting left me a little cold.

In coming to this album mostly fresh, it was interesting to learn that Kiwanuka is a significantly bigger star in his home base of England than here in the United States. Apparently there’s much hype and fan euphoria there for his full discography, including this release. And… I’m not there at the UK level. I really only know him from his track “Cold Little Heart” from HBO’s Big Little Lies. He’s clearly talented and I love the mixture of genres he pulls together to create this modern, moody, unique blend of R&B, soul, acoustic folk and jazz to name just a few threads he’s pulling from. And the strong songwriting based around deep, personal yet universal themes of self identity coupled with his authentic voice that’s comfortable embracing all these styles seamlessly is his strength. But for me, it slightly becomes his weakness here, where the album was spread a little too wide in musical styles, making it slightly less cohesive thematically. Still great though, so much so I’m looking forward to diving into his full discography.

It’s a two. I just don’t like most ambient albums, unless I catch an inclination of the themes being expressed to draw me in. This one didn’t 🤷🏾‍♂️

I liked it well enough but this challenge has exposed me to some other South American artists like Jorge Ben that I like quite a bit more. A good listen, but not one that I think I’ll look to listen to endlessly.

I get that tons of amazing bands, and even whole genres like EDM, look to Kraftwerk as the Big Bang inflection point for much that has come following their rise in the 70s, but I just don’t find this truly engaging.

And so my personal debate begins, but I think I like their previous album just slightly more. It’s more adventurous musically, with its mysterious vibe that it creates and sustains throughout. This has some of that moody vibe to, but it’s just not as cohesive. Part of it for me is Morrison slips a little too hard into his down on his luck booze fiend Shaman that took me out of the moment at times when it went a little too overboard, but there’s still some major gems here sonically.

I’m always leery of albums of “musical suites” from bands with multiple but often disparate songwriters. When done well, they can be great (thinking of you, White Album!). The ebbs and flows of mixing different creative snippets together can indeed produce exquisite masterpieces. But just as often it can deteriorate into a mashup of creative ideas that never gel really. It’s that tension that I like when it works; various ideas coming together to create something transcendent and impossible without such collaboration. Unfortunately… just as often there’s less collaboration and more throwing a bunch of separate creative snippets together in a hodgepodge, while the creative members can barely tolerate speaking to each other much less creating inspiring music together. Thankfully, despite ALL the vitriol and infighting going on amongst CSN&Y during the 800+ hours (WTF?! 😱) of recorded material for this album, often with bandmates recording separately because they pretty much hated each other at this point, we get a masterpiece from them. For me, the album started off OK with “Carry On”, but it hits its stride regarding sequencing from “Helpless through to “Our House”. There’s so much to love, from the songwriting, the harmonies (the harmonies! 🥰), to the musicianship. Actually, I think I prefer their cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” to her original, which is saying something. So why not a “perfect” five? Well, while I appreciate the end of the album, especially Neil’s “Country Girl/Whiskey Boot Hill”, it loses a little steam for me. Just a little 😜. I do think I prefer this album over their previous, by just a touch

I have to admit, based on the love I had for their 1988 debut when I heard it for the first time months ago, this was an underwhelming listening experience. The droning guitars were slightly irritating; I felt pushed away from the music rather than pulled into it. Only two songs were winners for me (“who sees you” and “in another way”), so it seems only appropriate to rate this as a two. If I want to get my My Bloody Valentine fix, it’ll be their earlier albums. Having said all that, a bit of a rant: as a Journalism major, I HATE the apparently long standing trend of artists forgetting all their grade school education and they only use lowercase sentences… ugh!

It’s too damn long!! Really, that’s my biggest nitpick with this album. Beyond that, it’s a great listen. Dizzee does a great job of addressing some deep, universally frustrating issues such as racism, police brutality, UK immigration policy, etc., but in an engaging way that’s pretty uplifting if anything. That, and the musical landscapes utilized that covers a wide range of styles keeps things fun and interesting. I could hear so many musical touchpoints done tastefully that ranged from early Run-D.M.C. to Parliament Funkadelic and so many other influences that worked well. Overall, a surprisingly fun album!

Remember when music videos were everything? I was all of sixteen, and I vividly remember the “What is this!?” feeling when I saw the video for “Smooth Operator” and being blown away. Sure, part of it was how stunningly gorgeous Sade was (and still is), but many people even today seem to confuse the lead singer with the band name Sade, and the whole group is amazing. For me, it was the uniqueness of what Sade was doing compared to other 80s bands. While UK synth pop and U.S. hair metal bands were ruling the top of the charts, here comes this band out of left field with this R&B, synths and jazz tinged album that for me was mesmerizing, even as a teenager. And the deep cuts are deep, this isn’t an album just about night clubs and gigolos. It’s a classic for a reason. Not all about Gig

I love this album, partly because it’s imprinted in my DNA like a baby duck stuck to its mother. Growing up every summer we would drive the 600+ miles to visit family in Pennsylvania, and almost religiously, my parents would play this album and other R&B classics during the long drive. And it never got old. To me, it’s EWF’s ability to have this be so clearly an expression of African-American cultural appreciation and positivity, yet never insular or unwelcoming for anyone else. And it’s tight; less than 40 minutes in total, yet absolutely engaging in the musical journey it takes you on. Easy five star for me, even with the childhood bias called out.

The Stones doing their take on American folk, R&B and Country? Sign me up! This album highlights everything they were dabbling in musically, and would eventually perfect into their own sound. I like a few of their other 70s masterpieces just a touch more, but this is a stone cold classic for good reason.

A big “meh” for me. It’s funny: Steely Dan is often disparaged as being quintessentially “Yacht Rock” but I find their discography for the most part anything but. To me, their music is entirely engaging and complex in all the right ways. Here with Donald’s solo album? Pretty forgettable “Yacht Rock”.