I can see why people like Bowie. But for me this is pretty dull. Not bad. Just a bit dull.

This is good. Like a bit more of an involved bandy white stripes with more thought to the arrangements. Some good songs too, but none that I wanted to save as a 'great' song.

Good intro to east coast hip-hop. A few stand out tracks, e.g. C.R.E.A.M. All the talking skits felt a bit hammed up though.

Very good! Some good songs are Arthur and Victoria. Lyrics supposed to be good too but I didn't really listen too hard. Overall very listenable but not enough to save songs specifically.

A short album but very very good! Young Americans a great find for me. Never thought much of Bowie but that changes here.

Nik Radmore introduced me to this and it changed my musical world! This melodic and arrogant funk rock mix was an elixir to 15-year-old me. It still holds strong today (the bass and guitar lines are amazing), though it does sometimes feel quite juvenile and pretentious. In my old age I find the slower acoustic-driven songs more palatable. Highlights: Sir Psycho Sexy Under the bridge I could have lied. Funky monks

I can't remember why I fell in love with Meat Loaf. I must have been about 16 or 17. It was a superb transition from heavy rock (AC/DC, metallica, black sabbath) to a gentler, more lyrics-based world. The songs have humour embedded deep inside them, they are flamoyant, unapologetic and extremely carefully written and produced. This is still up there, though some of the shine has gone in the last 20 years or so; some of the plastic arrangement makes them fall a little flat, e.g. on For Crying out Loud. Highlights: Paradise by the dashboard light (a song with a punchline; surprisingly has double the plays of Bat out of Hell on Spotify. I don't think the UK plays this song a lot at all) Two Out of Three Ain't Bad ... (Hot Summer Night)

This *should* be an album I really like. But in reality, after the first song (which was great) this was a pretty tough listen.

It was good. Not so good that I want to listen to any of it again, but I enjoyed it at the time.

This is a very palatable live blues album. Really nice to listen to, great songs, amazing singing and instrumentation. A great album to listen to in the evening or when working. My main gripe with it is that it doesn't feel like a very cohearent live album. I think BB King gets 'introduced to stage' on a couple of different songs, which makes it feel like they have just taken songs from a few different recordings and smashed them together rather than the feel of a continuous concert. It's short at 35 minutes; I would feel shortchanged if I'd paid for a physical copy. But overall this is 4.5 stars which rounds up to 5.

This is extremely difficult to listen to. I think this is the first real album I've heard where I have thought \"given a day or two I could probably make something better myself\". I don't think there are any redeeming songs, and some of these songs go on for a very long time. The singing isn't good or enjoyable to listen to. The songs are not catchy or enjoyable to listen to (i.e. if a good singer were to sing them I don't think that would save them). The instruments sound bad and the arrangements are bad.

I bought this album on CD when I was 17 years old, having had it recommended to me by Total Guitar magazine as one of the "best guitar albums of all time". I felt conned out of £11.99; after a steady diet of AC/DC and Metallica this felt like pathetic and dreary soft rock. When I re-listened to this in my twenties I grew to really like many of the songs on it. Now I'm approaching my 40s, my body is genetically predisposed to love it in its entirety. The only dud is Oh Daddy which I will typically skip. Perhaps I will take guerrilla action here and create my own playlist of this album with Silver Springs in its place, which should always have been included here. This is a very very high 5 star rating. (I feel bad now I ranked some other 'good but not amazing' albums as high as they are).

This is a good album. There are some duds, but mostly this has a lot of very palatable (if slightly forgettable) blues rock.

I can see why people like Bowie. But for me this is pretty dull. Not bad. Just a bit dull.

This was perfectly listenable to but didn't blow my socks off

Just like what I said for the yardbirds: this has a lot of very palatable (if slightly forgettable) blues rock. Easy listening.

This was fine. Not bad! Enjoyable. I was going to rate it about a 4 but after the album finished Live Wire by the Meters came on and showed me music which really is a 4. So this gets a 3.

This is hard. By virtue of having once been 14 years old, I know most of the songs on this album well. While they are probably meant to shock and offend, for me this is basically easy listening; I can happily put this on on the background and work, potter around the house etc. But not all of the music is very good, and there aren't any songs which make me think "oh that's a very good song". So this is probably a 2 or a 3. Maybe a 3 based on other albums I've given a 3 to.

Ok. I need to rethink my ratings system. So far I have been far too generous, and there isn't enough room for nuance at the top. So I'm going to adopt a new system, roughly adapted from a message I read on Reddit somewhere. 1 star: this offended me or was of such poor quality I would have commented on it if I heard it as background music in a restaurant. I could have done better myself. 2 stars: this was not a good or enjoyable album, but it could happily exist quietly in the background somewhere. 3 stars: this does nothing for me, but I could work to it. Either quite dull, or maybe an album of bad songs but with one or two ok ones. 4 stars: I might choose to listen to this again. But I'm not going to tell anyone about this. Happily would have this on rotation, and it might even have a few really good songs which I like a lot. 5 stars: I'm going to tell someone about this. This is a great album, which has 'changed' me in some way, emotionally or musically. The world would be a sadder place if this album were gone. With all this in mind, this album is a 4.

I don't like live albums. Why do I want to listen to something full of mistakes and sloppiness when I could listen to the "real deal", i.e. the studio version? Anyway, I first got into Thin Lizzy when I was about 15 years old. I loved their 'greatest hits' CD, and this album in a way is a version of that. There is something incredible about the pared back lack of noise, where a lot of most songs are just bass and drums and vocals. It makes me wonder what the guitarists would be doing on stage, awkwardly standing around waiting for the next solo? But when their turn comes around, the solos are powerful and incredible. That twin lead guitar sound is really unique and their overall sound contrasts so well with rock bands which in my opinion fill the sonic spectrum with too much (e.g. Metallica). So while I still hate live albums, this is a clear 5.

This is an easy 1*. A very challenging listen. The only good bit was the 10 second guitar solo in \"World up My Ass\".

I didn't enjoy this quite as.much as I thought I would. Some of the songs were a bit forgettable, but the good ones were: - the losing end - down by the river - everybody knows this is nowhere This is either a low 4 or a high 3

This album was good. Fine. ok! Lots of fun! Big songs and big sounds! I don't think I'm going to rush to listen to it again though.

A nice album. I have to confess I preferred the sections which were both in time and in tune.

This is great. It's not their best, but it's an easy 5.2 stars. I am hugely biased of course by listening to this album a lot and knowing it all and enjoying it by not needing to focus on it. How would this score change if I was listening fresh? Maybe it would be 4*s?

I am pleased this list made me listen to this album. I liked some of it. But while I liked how this album sounded, I didn't really think any of the *songs* themselves were good. On a second listen this didn't really get much better either. In fact, I'm going to switch this off right now.

This is three stars. Listenable, but forgettable.

I really appreciated the uniqueness of this album. This band was clearly trying to experiment with sounds and arrangements. There are some good songs e.g. "The Wall Street Shuffle" and "Clockwork Creep". There is also a lot of stuff that doesn't *really* work. But overall – very nice to hear something that isn't the usual 60s/70s/80s rock/pop.

When I'm not listening to this album I remember it as a 3 or a 4. How many marks could an ABBA album really deserve? When it is playing I couldn't allow it anything less than full marks.

I enjoyed this a lot. I think it could have been 5* if more of the songs had choruses. Whenever the songs give hints of a chorus or a 'hook' they take a 90 degree turn and go back to more verse. Which is a shame. But very listenable to. I can imagine after 10 listens or so I could really get into the songs and really follow the lyrics.

I had never heard of Janelle Monáe. Maybe she isn't so big in the UK? I don't know. But this album is brilliant. Yes it drags a little towards the end. But this is a fantastic sound, with catchy songs and a consistent musical theme binding together the multiple genres. I loved it and will be putting this on rotation.

I didn't think I'd like this but I did so there

This was an ok album, but I find it hard to get over an unreasonbly-founded dislike of bono

This took a while to get in to. I still don't really like it, but the second half of the album wasn't as hard to like as the first.

This had some good bits towards the end of the album. But I struggled a little with the lack of hook etc.

I have to say I really enjoyed this grunge/blues/rock mashup. Top tracks: Country Home Love to burn Mansion on the Hill Worst tracks: Farmer John (this song alone nearly dragged this album down a star)

This was easy background listening. Reminded me of the sweaty jungle room in those parties at the students union.

This started really really well. After track 1 I was ready to give this album 5 full stars. By the end, after I'd been dragged through Moonchild and back, my opinion shifted significantly.

Absolutely fantastic. This is my kind of melodic heavy metal. There are low moments. I feel parts of 22 Acacia Avenue drag more than they should. But overall this is superb. Highlights: Run to the hills The number of the beast Hollowed be thy name

I wasn't sure about this AT ALL the first time I listened. But on the second listen I started to really enjoy it.

I realise a big problem with rating these albums is that I listen to them when I'm working. So I tend to favour music which suits that environment. This includes either (a) albums I already know and am familiar with, or (b) easy listening 'background work' music e.g. drum n bass or blues rock. Billie Holiday fits into none of these categories, so it's a pretty tough workday listen straight off the bat. So I need to take this into account. Really this is a great album for the first hour of a cocktail party, as people arrive and I'm making Campari Sodas all round. Or maybe the last hour, as we sit around with herbal teas at 2am. With those (hypothetical) scenarios in mind, this is a great listen. Her voice is obviously fantastic, and the production sensibly puts it centre stage. It's very atmospheric. Yes the lyrics are all a bit trite, and I'm not going to actively seek this out to listen by myself. But next time we spin up the Dansette and open the drinks cabinet, I'll be looking through the vinyl for Billie.

Overall this album is ok. Bad ok, but ok. It's got some good songs at the start of it! But even they are generally forgettable, and when compared with rock/pop bands from a similar era e.g. Bonnie Tyler or Huey Lewis and the News I think this really falls short. Her voice is good; it's the songwriting and production which is just a bit lacklustre. After the first 3 songs the quality really went downhill. Cry on my shoulder I really suffered through. "Thing called love" is a good song. Not great but good. Overall this is a classic 2 star album. Fine, but forgettable.

Imagine the Red Hot Chili Peppers without any musicianship or songwriting ability. And then make it a bit worse than that.

The first song: Wow great, 5/5! The rest of the songs: 2/5.

I have similar thoughts for this as I did for 'Lady In Satin'. This is a great album, but is hard to listen to when I'm working. It's an album that makes you think! It needs 110% of your brain! There's a lot of good stuff going on here. It's not an album I'm going to rave about and actively seek out (unless I'm throwing an extravagant cocktail party). But it is very good.

Welcome back! This is the album which broke my project. It was so complicated and difficult to give a score to this. Do I hate it because it sounds like all the other stuff? Or because it's so dull? Or do I love it because of the wonderfully expressive sonic landscapes? The moody beats? The smattering of catchy songs? Maybe I'm just saturated with the chore of assigning daily star ratings to albums. So all of that (and the cvpr deadline) led to me abandoning the project for a few weeks, and letting a small backlog build up. Back to Halcyon Digest. It's probably a 3 or a 4. I was going to listen from the start to decide, but because they broke the project they get a 3. Next. Best track: Memory Boy Worst track: Basement Scene

The sound was a bit muddy and blah. The songs weren't very catchy and it didn't do anything to me emotionally. There wasn't anything here I really enjoyed. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to listen to it though and find out what Jane's Addition is all about.

I kinda like this. It's fun! But none of the songs are wildly memorable. It's just good background grooves.