An over-excitable producer paired with the symbol of generic Mum rock unite to mildly irritate us all.

A strong opening four seconds. After that? Crap consisting of painful falsetto and lyrics which were exhausted even as they were being written. It’s not even shit. It’s nothing. Somewhere, somebody should be embarrassed about this.

Like the music but not the vocal nor lyrics. A microcosm of the 90s I guess.

This reminds me of everyone’s youth. Brilliant but terrible. Ruined by knowing the manufacture and what became of Lydon. Some of the lyrics too are the same depressing misogyny which seems to be unfortunately found on more of these albums than you’d wish. Also - is there anything more English than stealing a joke from Shakespeare and claiming it counterculture?

I’m so glad this exists. If only it weren’t even more relevant today than when it was made.

What a voice. What a passion.

A lot of these lyrics are really fucking off putting and creepy/egotistical at best. The delivery is one of the most irritating things ever put to record. I retain as a child and don’t get Dylan at /all/. What a fucking slog persisting with this this was. Absolutely dreading him coming up again.

Modern definition of MOR. Fine. Gentle. Became more sickly as it went on. This is ok. I never need to listen to it again. Was a single good lyric though; even if it was only so good taken into another context.

Kinda reminiscent of McFly, particularly Tom Fletcher’s solo written work. A couple songs - the ones I had hear before - stood out but the rest was kinda eh. I can see myself tolerating this if someone else put it on but it’s not something I would ever reach for myself. 2.5 I guess.

Similar of the Springsteen of the same era. First one I’ve listened to more than once - and returned the next day to boot. Love this.

Wow. I don’t know if I like it, but I am damn impressed by it. Can’t believe more don’t talk about this one. Don’t know if I’m gonna listen again but I’m so glad I did.

Man knows how to cultivate an atmosphere. … the same self gratification and ego as Dylan as it goes on though, everything about him … I do not like Lou Reed.

Christ her voice is so beautiful. Glad to finally be made to sit down and listen to more from her than Fast Car - that being the second track feels so bold and so understated in her brilliance. I gotta do more things more, man.

I didn’t even notice when it finished and started playing another song by another artist. I’m sure it’s great but it’s just background music to me.

Nice to wash over you. Good background music.

I really wanted to like this. But yikes.

This is what they mean when they scream ‘inject it into my veins.’ This guitar tone is fucking enticing. Had to go back and immediately listen to the first song again. Can’t get enough.

My instant thought, 2 seconds in, was ‘no’. That thought remained throughout. Couldn’t wait for it to end.

Enjoyed but suspect it’s a bad introduction; familiarity with original arrangements probably makes up most of the impact here.

Now I understand what old people mean when they say some music is merely ‘noise’.

Funky; impressive. Not for me.

He truly was a master.

Generic American: the album.

Interesting arrangements but not for me.

Different but fairly juvenile. Like Catcher in the Rye, what I would have fallen in love with if younger is just irritating.

Oscillated on this one. Ultimately can’t see myself listening again, though I do feel it’s important this is out there.

Good walking-on-a-cold-morning music.

I liked it less as it went on.

It’s the cure. It’s distinctively 80s.

Sung through a sneer. I would like this with another vocalist. Coxon is, and always has been, far too good for this band.

Fuckin’ wonderful.

The closest I have ever come to liking jazz.

Better than I expected. Wouldn’t mind someone else putting this on, but wouldn’t reach for it myself.

Music is much better than I gave it credit for when you separate and listen. Shame Chris Martin is so fucking wet.

Unlike Doolittle (which got worse as it went on), this got better as it went on. Still not for me though.

What an unpleasant vocal performance.

So fucking good at so fucking young.

Well. Distinctive, at least. … there’s like 30 good seconds on this album. Max. We all know what they are. Rest of this is absolute genuine torture.

What can you say? Some of the theft is painful. But elsewhere the shine is truly through. Not sure it’s consistent though, but damn deserves 4 for the songs I’ll sing my children.

Each individual song is SO REPETITIVE. It really takes away from the good parts. ‘I’m not gon’ compromise my Christianity’ may be the most hilarious pop lyric ever. Elsewhere the lyrics are downright disgusting. How, with no irony, are there feminist songs alongside posturing and slut shaming? All this only four songs in! How utterly vile this is, in a uniquely American sense. First album that’s straight up /offensive/.

We just don’t get this on a public scale anymore.

Absolutely soulless.

This band needed an editor.

A breathtakingly diverse range of sound. But for me? One song was enough.

This sounds like so many cigarettes you’ve smoked before.

Experimental and fun. The words are the best bit.

A great example of what it is - but both something I would ever reach for.

This reminds me of everyone’s youth. Brilliant but terrible. Ruined by knowing the manufacture and what became of Lydon. Some of the lyrics too are the same depressing misogyny which seems to be unfortunately found on more of these albums than you’d wish. Also - is there anything more English than stealing a joke from Shakespeare and claiming it counterculture?

Why can’t a single song on this record decide which genre it is?

I need to see them live immediately. Music that makes me smile and dancing not an option.

Super tight live. The crowd appreciation was enjoyable. Just confirmed I’d already heard the only Cheap Trick so songs I need to, though.

I’ve enjoyed other music from him. This is a disappointment.

I don’t know why I didn’t like this. I guess I waited too long to listen, and now I’m too old.

Is disco meant to be this boring?

Not one for me. Music is good, but the vocalisation drives me insane.

Man I bet this was great to go to. Listening was a joyous experience. Not sure if it should even be repeated - I don’t wish to find the flaws.

Everything here is practically perfect. I’d happily even go for a full album like Mother and feel the same. Never not astonishing, this band.

Funky? Yes. Rizzard? No.

You can see why this was big with teenagers.

Just can’t work out what to think of this. Know one thing - it is not good.

What happened to this dude? This is incredible.

Couple standouts, but I just don’t get rock and roll piano. It’s..fine I guess.

Absolute love of my youth. Only problem with this album is Train in Vain can’t be listened to eternally.

Hilariously nepotistically terrible. The Mary sue of pop songs. Imagine having all these words and nothing to say.

Can see myself chilling to this in the living room. Doesn’t do anything spectacular to me, though. Nice heavy bass is good.

Even with ‘Getting In Tune’ on it this is too phenomenal to be anything else. I haven’t heard something so good in so long.

Such a lot of difference, yet so little of it is good. Are the ableist lyrics really necessary?

Not for me; barely made an impression at all.

Like the music but not the vocal nor lyrics. A microcosm of the 90s I guess.

Now that’s a proper punk album.

A definition of background music.

I can see it, and I like how it’s so much less insipid overall than Taylor Swift types - here there are some things to say, in a voice that can actually sing. All this said, it’s not one for me.

The fact I enjoyed this despite the lyrics of Brown Sugar really underlines how good it is.

Nice and chill but too twee for me.

It’s always fun to be enjoying the beat and the flow only to be hit full in the face with needless and horrifyingly vicious misogyny, transphobia, and child abuse claimed as ‘jokes’. Was an instant 5/5 until then. So much fucking yikes.

The worst thing this experiment has done this far is made me realise I don’t actually mind certain portions of Coldplay.

Oh, I could fall in love.

An objectively good album, but not one for me.

Fine; objectively no fault to find other than that it’s not something I’d choose to listen to.

What impressively bad production. Overall with that aside, this drips with the 90s - not distasteful, but iconically generic of the era, down to a rip off best known as a theme for a forgotten prank show. Can’t get much more shitty British childhood than that.

This experience has provided me with vital information - that Bob Dylan is the measure of all music, as I don’t believe within infinite universes that there will ever be a professional musician as poor as Bob Dylan. I’d rather listen to the screeching of a thousand and one cats with constipation.

Enjoyable enough; nice and jumpy and obviously for its purpose. Proper dancing music. Honestly surprised for some reason how much I enjoyed the instruments used - particularly the xylophone and accordion. Can’t say that was ever expected. It’s wild that this is live.

Outstayed its welcome by track 3. A time capsule made not for me … moments of brilliance almost utterly lost in the tones of the time.

Liked this more than I realised at first thought - was disappointed when I finished and went to the top again. How something can sound so old and so fresh at the same time…stories aren’t a candle to Springsteen’s, but couldn’t hold that against anyone.

It’s never a good sign when you recognise the opening song by a superior cover. The entire record is a band and a man hurtling fast towards sensationalist for the sake of it. I can see why this did well in its time. My god it’s of its time.

It’s a Christmas album - filled with variations of songs with alternate versions which I prefer and (presumably) American tunes I have no desire to add to the repertoire of an already tired musical time of year.

What evil fucker told this cunt they could sing?! Then to hand them a rhyming dictionary?! I know the entirety of human history has many hells, but did we really deserve this?

There’s something so hilarious about the soulful way words are sung which would be uncomfortable today. Overall not what I expected, and a great example of this project expanding not just my musical knowledge but also my socio-historical awareness.

Wow, REM goes harder than I ever knew.

You can hear who they've influenced... who have also done it better.

Just behind every song, you can almost hear their anuses clenching from trying so hard.

Having heard of him for so many years, he isn’t what I expected. He’s so much better.

Two increíble songs surrounded by drivelled filler. If only they’d spent more time in the studio!

Worst thing you can be is boring. This is so inoffensively dull I had a headache from halfway through.

Sensationalism for its own sake is so exhausting. Get you, performer. How have you not grown up yet?

What a unique, mature, and healthy voice. The type of album that makes you wish you were the right age to appreciate it upon release.

As vile as it is uninspired.

Man can be write a chorus…but everything else leaves me cold.

Backing up my belief that Radiohead have one decent song. It is not on this album.

I was glad when this was over. Not quite sure of the point of it; I don’t think even they knew. Couple good beats though.

What an odd collection of nonsense lyrics combined with an uncomfortably high amount of religion, particularly religious misogyny. I actually got distracted halfway through and entirely forgot I had been listening to it for a good hour. So much nothing.

Ethereal and beautiful. Reminds me of some elements of Lindisfarne.

I’d have loved this when I was 13 and thought I was edgy.

I’m so glad this exists. If only it weren’t even more relevant today than when it was made.

Beautiful music with a bizarre vocal delivery that rapidly outstays its welcome then somehow comes around to be pleasant again. What an oddity.

An over-excitable producer paired with the symbol of generic Mum rock unite to mildly irritate us all.

All a bit too unbitten.

Pleasant background music.

Enjoyable but heard it done better (with less phobia, 90s or not). Outstayed it’s welcome.

The musical equivalent of tat.

Disappointing. Felt like a front of a heart rather than any heart itself.

I like Sinatra, but it’s really inescapable that it’s all the same. I suppose that’s what makes him so magical.

Kicking off with atrocious vocals was a choice; I can see why covers fared far better. I don’t hate this record, but it’s mildly irritating at best.

There’s so much bad going on in the world today. Being forced to listen to this made it all somehow worse. It is better than the others of his thus far, but a better Bob Dylan album is still a fucking Bob Dylan album.

This sounds like how ice hockey rinks smell.

Noise of nothing.

Perfectly frantic and equally beautiful. Only a handful of missteps - the inclusion and delivery of Jesse James is confusing at best. It’s also impossible to hear Dirty Old Town without replacing the lines with Virgil van Dijk.

The American bard. Every three minutes I fall in love again.

My life was missing nothing here. Yes there’s the voice (albeit which never personally appealed) but moreso there are the lyrics - dated and crude.

What the fuck.

Twee, performative, soulless. Forgettable snd entirely indifferent.

This feels intentionally uneven. Tiresome enough to help me understand why others hated hippies.

Moments of bite, but an ever-present overtone of boredom.

A strong opening four seconds. After that? Crap consisting of painful falsetto and lyrics which were exhausted even as they were being written. It’s not even shit. It’s nothing. Somewhere, somebody should be embarrassed about this.

Frenetic and so ahead of it’s time.

Not what I expected - but no worse for it. Just the sort of ramshackle I like.

From fresh to classic and still blowing everyone else out the water. (Note: this is considering the UK release; the American alternate cover and track listing significantly weakens the package.)

There’s so much going on for something so boring. This said - four tracks? What an absolutely bizarre and oddly impressive go at an album.

How exceptionally French - not that there’s anything wrong with that. There’s a lot wrong with this album, though.

If only the world recognised the majority of their songs are even better than Valarie.

An absolute triumph of production. Enigmatic and Electric.

This hit me to an audible ‘wow’ and has kept my attention since. Every listen a new layer. While early days, this could be the triumph of the project.

I think we can all agree elements of that intro have not aged well. It’s super important that this is here; I’m simply not within its audience.

I imagine this is how those who dislike Parappa the rapper felt in 1996.

Groundbreaking. Influential. Not for me.

This is not my sort of music. I have never had anything better between my ears. How is this so hard to find?!

Echoes memories of times I’ve never had. A record best used as a sleep aid.

Why are they so beloved but so bad?

Impressive and important and not for me.

Should you ever need a reminder of reasons to hate the 90s. Alternatively: what if the Persona soundtracks were uninspired shite which never. Fucking. Stopped.

One long album. One good song.

Pretentious marmite.

It certainly does a lot. I must’ve felt differently were I around when it was released. Instead I’m just glad I got the far superior stuff they influenced rather than having to suffer through the Beatles themselves.

The sound which makes you glad you weren’t alive in the 80’s. Nothing.

Two hours later and I can’t remember a single song.

Enjoyable but nothing special.

I remember trying to like this as a teenager, forcing myself like learning to drink coffee. It’s still hype holding together posh boy edge, but I’m half here for nostalgia now - it’s an objective 1.5, I admit.

A promising start which dwindles and fades to eventual boredom.

A perfect album other than the opening track.

Like The Lonely Island - I see it, but I don’t get it.

All over the place yet brilliance.

What happens when you mix desecration of your beliefs with S Club Juniors. I am angry, sad, and resigned in equal measure. The definitive sell-out album. What nothing to offer. What a fucking waste.

An intriguing opening couple songs followed by ten tunes consisting of so-so storytelling and a beautiful voice of insipid nothing.

Masterful, classic, tight.

So many wonderful ingredients, but I’m not sure it all really comes together for me. I suspect it would need multiple listens I just don’t want to invest time into at this age.

You can see why this was popular in dancehalls - as much dull nonsense, repetition, and the gross sense of a bad smell as eurotrash.

Everything about this undersells how paint-by-numbers while vile it turns out to be. There is no recover from a ‘romantic’ song about murdering your partner.

This is just intentionally listening to all the adverts of my (90s UK) childhood.

I can appreciate this, but I don’t want to have to.

Leaders of landfill.

Surprisingly progressive lyrically for the time (and the public personality!). This goes in the category of expecting I would have felt differently if alive at the time. For modernity it’s just not for me and I didn’t gain much from the exposure.

Not a negative second.

Too spotty to be truly great, but still better than most.

Like the music, not the lyrics. All songs were overt long.

What a wonderful thing to be lost in.

This isn’t punk. It’s posture.

This isn’t for me, but I’m glad I heard it. The lyrical content, particularly the sudden wild appearance of The Prisoner, had me rather confused and pleasantly surprised.

I have never heard anything quite like this. Such a shame it’s mostly torn down by lyrics which sound as if they’ve been rejected from children’s songs.

How was it a surprise to anyone to find Morrissey is an insufferable twat?

Everything here sounds like the soundtrack to a bad parody movie. Band name and titles included.

The proto Coldplay - a few undoubtable bangers you wouldn’t put on but wouldn’t turn off. The rest being forced soulful filler.

There’s a lot going on and not much at all. Whoever told Trent to stop trying to write lyrics really loved him.

There was something in the first half, albeit with the tinge of a cover band. Then it leapt into self-indulgent eternity. I wonder if they ever got out of their own way (tho not enough to seek out more!)

‘Generic’ is kind.

Another one so generic of the era that I hadn’t noticed when it had finished and songs by two other artists had played(!).

Like a dream nobody wants to have. Not a nightmare - just continually unpleasant and the antithesis of refreshing.

A mixture of the most boring elements of music in the 70s and 90s.

I can see why the blank teens in Sabrina the Teenage Witch liked this band.

Objectively there’s nothing wrong - it’s just not one for me.

What an epically long shit.

Not perfect, but close.

Safe for the radio.

Important and markedly American in a way I’ll never be able to fully comprehend. Glad I heard, no desire to hear again category.

Phenomenal…or filler.

I’ve never really given them the respect they deserve, even having seen them live. All these classics came from a single album?! Geniuses really do steal.

Man what I’d give for this music to go with a competent vocalist who does more than sneer every word into a single sound.

While I enjoyed this not made me feel equally young and old. Things held in such a specific time rarely stand the test of it.