557
Albums Rated
3.63
Average Rating
51%
Complete
532 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1970
Favorite Decade
Metal
Favorite Genre
UK
Top Origin
Cheerleader
Rater Style ?
132
5-Star Albums
25
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Suicide
Suicide
|
5 | 2.46 | +2.54 |
|
Antichrist Superstar
Marilyn Manson
|
5 | 2.46 | +2.54 |
|
Black Metal
Venom
|
5 | 2.47 | +2.53 |
|
KE*A*H** (Psalm 69)
Ministry
|
5 | 2.69 | +2.31 |
|
New Boots And Panties
Ian Dury
|
5 | 2.69 | +2.31 |
|
Orbital 2
Orbital
|
5 | 2.69 | +2.31 |
|
Snivilisation
Orbital
|
5 | 2.7 | +2.3 |
|
The White Room
The KLF
|
5 | 2.78 | +2.22 |
|
Scott 4
Scott Walker
|
5 | 2.81 | +2.19 |
|
Second Toughest In The Infants
Underworld
|
5 | 2.85 | +2.15 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Back To Black
Amy Winehouse
|
1 | 4.02 | -3.02 |
|
(What's The Story) Morning Glory
Oasis
|
1 | 3.85 | -2.85 |
|
Definitely Maybe
Oasis
|
1 | 3.53 | -2.53 |
|
On The Beach
Neil Young
|
1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
|
Frank
Amy Winehouse
|
1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
|
Parachutes
Coldplay
|
1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
|
The ArchAndroid
Janelle Monáe
|
1 | 3.45 | -2.45 |
|
A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Coldplay
|
1 | 3.44 | -2.44 |
|
Private Dancer
Tina Turner
|
1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
|
Live At The Star Club, Hamburg
Jerry Lee Lewis
|
1 | 3.27 | -2.27 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| David Bowie | 4 | 5 |
| Peter Gabriel | 3 | 5 |
| Led Zeppelin | 3 | 5 |
| Talking Heads | 3 | 5 |
| Stevie Wonder | 3 | 5 |
| The Who | 3 | 4.67 |
| Public Enemy | 2 | 5 |
| Prince | 2 | 5 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 2 | 5 |
| Pink Floyd | 2 | 5 |
| Sly & The Family Stone | 2 | 5 |
| Depeche Mode | 2 | 5 |
| AC/DC | 2 | 5 |
| Beastie Boys | 2 | 5 |
| Orbital | 2 | 5 |
| Michael Jackson | 3 | 4.33 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.33 |
| Queen | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Morrissey | 3 | 1 |
| Amy Winehouse | 2 | 1 |
| Oasis | 2 | 1 |
| Coldplay | 2 | 1 |
5-Star Albums (132)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
The KLF · 7 likes
5/5
There are some albums on this list that make me wonder how they justify their place on the list.
The White Room is not one of them.
Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond not only created a seminal album, but also an entire genre of music.
This was one of the first pieces of performance art to crossover into mainstream music, through their clever use of pop hooks and twisting the commercialisation of music into something weird, something novel and fun, but also subversive and cool.
Their use of samples, beats and synths all just works - it’s easy to dismiss it as ‘just another Brit electronica album’ but that misses the fact before the KLF they didn’t really exist as they do now - this broke the mould.
The hairs on my neck still stand up when I hear the start of 3AM Eternal and What Time Is Love - powerful floor filling bangers that have stood the test of time.
The KLF, also know as the Timelords, the Justified Ancients of MuMu - changed the face of music forever with one album.
The White Room.
Ministry · 1 likes
5/5
Now this is an album.
From the riffs on NWO, to the groove of Jesus Built My Hotrod, to the searing noise of TVII and the darkness of Scarecrow, Jourgensen and Barker created one of the most influential industrial metal albums of all time.
Picking up where A Mind… left off, this album is a sonic soundscape of hard hitting beats.
Often imitated - never bettered.
Coldplay · 1 likes
1/5
Bland, soulless music for middle class dinner parties where the food is varying shades of grey, and the conversation dull.
Utterly pointless drivel.
1-Star Albums (25)
All Ratings
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
5/5 for this absolute classic.
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
Classic 60’s songs, with Mama Cass’s amazing vocals. Loved it.
Iron Maiden
4/5
Blur
5/5
Gil Scott-Heron
5/5
The Smashing Pumpkins
5/5
Paul McCartney
4/5
Everything But The Girl
4/5
The Damned
4/5
Foo Fighters
4/5
Jeff Beck
4/5
4/5
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
What a debut. Hard hitting, infectious and full of hits
Kacey Musgraves
2/5
TLC
3/5
Animal Collective
3/5
Van Morrison
3/5
Tortoise
2/5
Not my thing..
Scott Walker
5/5
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
Amy Winehouse
1/5
Dinosaur Jr.
5/5
Iron Maiden
5/5
Joni Mitchell
5/5
The Byrds
4/5
The Zutons
3/5
Little Richard
4/5
Fred Neil
5/5
The Dandy Warhols
3/5
Public Enemy
5/5
The War On Drugs
3/5
Stereo MC's
4/5
Eric Clapton
3/5
Michael Jackson
5/5
The Last Shadow Puppets
2/5
Billy Bragg
3/5
The Boo Radleys
3/5
Prince
5/5
Nirvana
4/5
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
The Doors
5/5
John Grant
3/5
Nick Drake
4/5
Kelela
3/5
Norah Jones
4/5
CHVRCHES
5/5
Snoop Dogg
4/5
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
The Jesus And Mary Chain
4/5
Paul McCartney and Wings
5/5
Peter Gabriel
5/5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Michael Jackson
4/5
Alanis Morissette
4/5
Garbage
5/5
Kanye West
1/5
Pointless, self indulgent pap.
Jimmy Smith
4/5
David Bowie
5/5
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
The Lemonheads
3/5
Bob Dylan
5/5
Leonard Cohen
4/5
Motörhead
5/5
Shack
3/5
3/5
David Bowie
5/5
Steve Winwood
3/5
Underworld
5/5
N.W.A.
4/5
D'Angelo
2/5
Björk
3/5
Johnny Cash
5/5
Blur
3/5
Christine and the Queens
3/5
Joe Ely
3/5
The Velvet Underground
3/5
Neneh Cherry
4/5
TV On The Radio
3/5
Bob Dylan
3/5
It’s Bob Dylan!
It’s also… only ok? There’s a few standout tracks, but as always, I feel that Bob writes better poetry than songs. They’re more impactful on the written page.
Nick Drake
3/5
Le Tigre
3/5
Mike Oldfield
4/5
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
Bert Jansch
5/5
Herbie Hancock
3/5
Steely Dan
3/5
Bebel Gilberto
2/5
CHIC
3/5
3/5
Aphex Twin
5/5
Portishead
5/5
Steely Dan
3/5
Harry Nilsson
4/5
Destiny's Child
1/5
One of the most overrated albums of all time.
Anodyne, over produced, commercially cynical, not a single song on this LP even compares to the likes of the Supremes.
It would be harmless pap, but the cynicism just bleeds through so much.
Meat Loaf
4/5
Talking Heads
5/5
Various Artists
3/5
Black Sabbath
4/5
James Brown
4/5
Meat Puppets
3/5
Sonic Youth
4/5
Willie Nelson
3/5
Oasis
1/5
Overrated, overblown, ego filled shite.
It was football terrace chant shite when it came out, it remains shite now. In fact, I’d say it’s now like dogshit that’s been out in the sun for too long and has gone furry - it’s mouldy, pointless Dadrock for idiots who barely scrape two syllable words together.
Needs to be consigned to the trash heap along with the idiotic brothers Gallagher.
Badly Drawn Boy
3/5
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Nitin Sawhney
3/5
Paul Simon
4/5
Jorge Ben Jor
2/5
Earth, Wind & Fire
4/5
Love
4/5
John Lennon
1/5
Overrated, pretentious, overblown, meandering pap.
By this point the drugs had well and truly got hold of Lennon, combined with the talentless Yoko’s influence just ruined one of the countries best song writers.
There’s one outstanding track which earns the one star - Working Class Hero. The rest deserve to be consigned to the bin
Ray Charles
4/5
Pixies
4/5
After Surfa Rosa and Doolittle, I did wonder whether the Pixies could pull three absolutely amazing albums out of the hat - and they did. It’s all there - the growl of Frank Black, the accompanying harmonies of Kim Deal, the guitars of Joey Santiago - and it just works.
The Pixies were, and remain, the GOAT.
System Of A Down
3/5
3/5
It’s good, but not War’s best. The title track is a banger.
Bon Jovi
3/5
Yes it’s dated now, yes it’s a bunch of cliched AOR staples, yes it has about as much depth as a summer puddle, but I defy anyone to not shout along to Livin’ On A Prayer or Wanted Dead Or Alive if they hear them in the car or in a bar.
And for that it gets 3 solid stars.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Classic 60’s flower power era folksy, gentle songs.
Pulp
4/5
A great piece of 90’s Britpop!
3/5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
There is music before IV came out, and then there’s music after IV came out.
IV set the yard stick for rock for decades - and remains a high point.
Yes, Stairway has become almost a cliche, but so have sayings from Shakespeare, Dickens and Austin - they all share one thing:
Our language, our culture is enriched by their existence.
It’s that good.
John Cale
4/5
I hadn’t heard this before, but I really quite liked it.
Clever arrangements, poetic lyrics, harking back to a feeling of the Roaring 20’s in places, a quintessentially English country feel in others.
A nice collection of well made songs.
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
I can’t fault this album at all. It’s a perfect slice of 60’s Americana, perfectly framing the time.
Weather Report
3/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
Frank Sinatra
4/5
5/5
From the opening bars of Five Years, to the final orchestral chords of Rock N Roll Suicide, Ziggy is the perfect glam rock album.
Queen Latifah
3/5
The Beach Boys
4/5
Well… this is a strange one, and didn’t know what to expect.
But crikey, what an album. Dark yet somehow airy, the harmonies the Beach Boys are famous for are there but the lyrical detail fights with the style, to great effect.
It’s not Pet Sounds, but it’s a damn great album.
The Temptations
3/5
The KLF
5/5
There are some albums on this list that make me wonder how they justify their place on the list.
The White Room is not one of them.
Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond not only created a seminal album, but also an entire genre of music.
This was one of the first pieces of performance art to crossover into mainstream music, through their clever use of pop hooks and twisting the commercialisation of music into something weird, something novel and fun, but also subversive and cool.
Their use of samples, beats and synths all just works - it’s easy to dismiss it as ‘just another Brit electronica album’ but that misses the fact before the KLF they didn’t really exist as they do now - this broke the mould.
The hairs on my neck still stand up when I hear the start of 3AM Eternal and What Time Is Love - powerful floor filling bangers that have stood the test of time.
The KLF, also know as the Timelords, the Justified Ancients of MuMu - changed the face of music forever with one album.
The White Room.
Cornershop
1/5
What a terrible album. The only reason this ever got coverage was for the Fatboy Slim remix of Brimful of Asha.
1 star.
Khaled
3/5
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Talking Heads
5/5
Gang Starr
3/5
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
3/5
Duran Duran
4/5
Scott Walker
4/5
50 Cent
2/5
The Offspring
5/5
Rush
4/5
Björk
3/5
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
Jeff Buckley
4/5
Air
5/5
JAY Z
3/5
Adam & The Ants
4/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Not a great fan of Neil Young, so this was a bit of a slog, a few decent songs, but very nothing to light a fire.
Shivkumar Sharma
4/5
I’d never heard of this album, but I’m glad I have now.
The composition, artistry and themes are wonderful, the mix of influences just works so well.
Loved it.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
Magazine
4/5
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
White Denim
3/5
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
The Cars
3/5
David Gray
3/5
Hasn’t aged well - a few decent tracks, but nothing special.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
Frank Ocean
3/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Dwight Yoakam
3/5
Jethro Tull
4/5
The Sugarcubes
3/5
Public Image Ltd.
4/5
Wilco
3/5
Pixies
4/5
The Electric Prunes
2/5
M.I.A.
2/5
Just didn’t grab me.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Miles Davis
4/5
Raekwon
3/5
Sugar
3/5
Elvis Presley
5/5
Tears For Fears
5/5
Black Flag
4/5
The Doors
3/5
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
ABBA
4/5
Solomon Burke
2/5
ZZ Top
3/5
Fatboy Slim
5/5
The 13th Floor Elevators
3/5
Boston
4/5
David Crosby
3/5
Elvis Costello
4/5
Tom Tom Club
4/5
4/5
Les Rythmes Digitales
3/5
Happy Mondays
4/5
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Tito Puente
3/5
Marianne Faithfull
1/5
Eurgh, no matter how much I’m told she was a trailblazer, a wild spirit and huge influence, I just can’t abide Marianne Faithful.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
3/5
Ella Fitzgerald
5/5
Drive-By Truckers
4/5
Songhoy Blues
3/5
Dire Straits
4/5
Kate Bush
5/5
It’s Kate Bush.
It’s ethereal, quirky and amazing.
Tempted to knock a star off for not being Hounds of Love, but holy heck it’s a stunning album.
Sly & The Family Stone
5/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
The White Stripes
3/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
Jane's Addiction
4/5
Aerosmith
2/5
Coming off the back of Toys In The Attic, it suffers a lot.
There’s no hook song - no instant classic. It’s one of the Aerosmith albums you forget easily.
Madonna
5/5
Absolute banger of an album.
The title track is of course the hook, but even that is overshadowed by the likes of Cherish, Express Yourself, Dear Jessie (my favourite track on the album) and Oh Father.
The segue between Dear Jessie - a pure piece of candy floss pop, perfect for what De La Soul referred to as the Daisy Age, and the deep, soulful, heart rending Oh Father just works perfectly.
I love this album.
B.B. King
4/5
The Gun Club
3/5
A piece of post-punk, avant-pop history. Tinny guitars, off kilter beats and anguished singing make for a curates egg of an album - not sure if I like it or not, but enough here to make me come back for repeated listens.
Eels
4/5
As with Beck, Eels have an otherworldly feel to them, one that I love.
Queen
5/5
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
3/5
Louis Prima
3/5
George Harrison
3/5
Janelle Monáe
1/5
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Miles Davis
4/5
New Order
4/5
The Darkness
5/5
The Who
5/5
Steely Dan
4/5
Sufjan Stevens
3/5
Janis Joplin
5/5
Neil Young
1/5
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
k.d. lang
4/5
Ministry
5/5
Now this is an album.
From the riffs on NWO, to the groove of Jesus Built My Hotrod, to the searing noise of TVII and the darkness of Scarecrow, Jourgensen and Barker created one of the most influential industrial metal albums of all time.
Picking up where A Mind… left off, this album is a sonic soundscape of hard hitting beats.
Often imitated - never bettered.
Bill Evans Trio
3/5
Elliott Smith
3/5
Hookworms
3/5
Lou Reed
4/5
Hot Chip
3/5
Eminem
4/5
Nico
1/5
The Who
5/5
A perfect Concept album..
Stephen Stills
4/5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Radiohead
4/5
Big Black
4/5
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
Pantera
5/5
One of my favourite 90’s metal albums.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
Traffic
4/5
Holger Czukay
3/5
Talking Heads
5/5
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Elvis Costello
4/5
Violent Femmes
5/5
G. Love & Special Sauce
3/5
Gene Clark
4/5
Prince
5/5
Coldplay
1/5
Bland, soulless music for middle class dinner parties where the food is varying shades of grey, and the conversation dull.
Utterly pointless drivel.
The Fall
3/5
Sonic Youth
5/5
Fats Domino
4/5
Fishbone
3/5
Sleater-Kinney
5/5
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
Gene Clark
3/5
Deep Purple
5/5
The Beach Boys
5/5
Dolly Parton
5/5
Alice In Chains
5/5
Television
3/5
Elliott Smith
3/5
Digital Underground
3/5
Serge Gainsbourg
1/5
Lift music. Just nothing more than that. Over rated Muzak.
Heaven 17
3/5
R.E.M.
4/5
Beatles
5/5
Screaming Trees
4/5
Ramones
5/5
Soul II Soul
4/5
Slipknot
4/5
Amy Winehouse
1/5
Overrated, over hyped.
Queen
4/5
The Go-Betweens
4/5
The Flying Burrito Brothers
4/5
Billy Joel
4/5
Peter Gabriel
5/5
Youssou N'Dour
3/5
Jerry Lee Lewis
1/5
Nope, not giving a pedo anymore than one star. I couldn’t give two tosses how good they are.
Nick Drake
4/5
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
4/5
Brian Eno
4/5
Muddy Waters
4/5
Morrissey
1/5
Nope, can’t bring myself to give a racist arsehole who shat all over his legacy in the Smiths more than one star.
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
The Cult
5/5
Fleet Foxes
3/5
Lenny Kravitz
3/5
Aretha Franklin
5/5
Radiohead
4/5
Bob Dylan
4/5
I know I should love this.
I know it’s a classic.
But I just can’t gel with Dylan’s delivery. His lyrics are amazing, the poetry unsurpassed, but his voice just grates.
In the hands of others these songs would fly, so he loses a star from what otherwise would be a five star album.
Lana Del Rey
4/5
Van Halen
5/5
Sly & The Family Stone
5/5
Public Image Ltd.
4/5
The Clash
5/5
Radiohead
4/5
Doves
5/5
Black Sabbath
5/5
It’s Geezer.
It’s Tony.
It’s Tommy.
It’s Ozzy.
Without these four Aston lads there would be no Heavy Metal as we know it.
From the sound of the rain at the very start of the album, to the final chords of Wicked World, Sabbath laid down the blueprint for the next 50 years of heavy music.
Megadeth
4/5
Pink Floyd
5/5
Coldplay
1/5
It’s Coldplay.
It’s bland.
Not a single song stands out as memorable.
It’s just… dinner party music for boring people.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
4/5
Pure slice of Americana - a raw, somewhat simple record, it’s beautiful
Carole King
5/5
Depeche Mode
5/5
Buffalo Springfield
5/5
Queen
4/5
The Verve
2/5
Ice Cube
3/5
The Pogues
4/5
The Smiths
4/5
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
4/5
Joan Armatrading
5/5
Cocteau Twins
5/5
Patti Smith
4/5
The Cure
5/5
Nas
2/5
The Crusaders
4/5
Q-Tip
4/5
Randy Newman
3/5
1/5
Yet more over hyped, overblown dadrock by one half talented brother and one total idiot.
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Roxy Music
4/5
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
The Blue Nile
2/5
Tom Waits
4/5
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3/5
The Black Keys
4/5
Can
3/5
Nina Simone
5/5
Michael Jackson
4/5
Robbie Williams
2/5
Death In Vegas
3/5
John Lennon
3/5
Beck
4/5
Isaac Hayes
4/5
LL Cool J
3/5
AC/DC
5/5
The White Stripes
3/5
Hüsker Dü
3/5
Mike Ladd
2/5
Gorillaz
3/5
Chicago
4/5
Leftfield
5/5
What an album.
Mixing Afro beats with dub, uplifting trance and hard techno, Leftfism was such an iconic album.
Release the Pressure, Song of Life, Inspection, Original, Afro-Left and the anarchic, sneer laced Open Up (with John Lydon before he became a butter advertising, stuck up arsehole) the whole album is just perfect.
I’d give this so much more than 5 stars.
Parliament
3/5
The Shamen
3/5
Cocteau Twins
4/5
Little Simz
3/5
The Flaming Lips
4/5
5/5
Dennis Wilson
3/5
Supertramp
5/5
Depeche Mode
5/5
Madonna
4/5
Hole
4/5
U2
5/5
Cat Stevens
4/5
Otis Redding
4/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Sonic Youth
4/5
The Zombies
3/5
The Stooges
4/5
Sonic Youth
3/5
The Cardigans
3/5
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
Nirvana
5/5
Bauhaus
3/5
Dusty Springfield
5/5
The Undertones
4/5
Beastie Boys
5/5
Alice Cooper
5/5
Neil Young
3/5
Sister Sledge
5/5
The Beau Brummels
3/5
Soft Cell
5/5
Classic example sample of the post-punk era.
Influential even today.
R.E.M.
4/5
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
Django Django
3/5
Beatles
4/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Green Day
5/5
Nanci Griffith
3/5
Deep Purple
4/5
Marty Robbins
3/5
The Prodigy
5/5
The album that saw metal heads throwing shapes, and ravers jumping into circle pits.
From the outrageous sample from Ultramagnetic MC’s Give the Drummer Some, hooking Smack My Bitch Up, to the literally incendiary Firestarter with the distorted guitar and pounding drum beat, via the hip hop beats of Diesel Power and the trippy Mindfields, Fat Of The Land is a landmark crossover album that Liam & the gang have never bettered.
RIP Keef- the best rave dancer turned singer and the literal life of the party.
Tom Waits
4/5
The Notorious B.I.G.
3/5
The Adverts
2/5
The xx
2/5
Drive Like Jehu
3/5
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
Missy Elliott
3/5
Butthole Surfers
4/5
Rocket From The Crypt
3/5
Beastie Boys
5/5
RIP MCA.
Kraftwerk
5/5
Stephen Stills
3/5
Linkin Park
5/5
Kraftwerk
4/5
Orbital
5/5
Stan Getz
3/5
The Police
4/5
Common
3/5
Billie Holiday
5/5
Venom
5/5
Roxy Music
3/5
Jane Weaver
4/5
Big Star
4/5
Ice Cube
3/5
The Libertines
1/5
One of the most overblown, overhyped bands of the last 30 odd years.
Remembered more for being drug buddies to the likes of Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse than any of their bland, posh boy slumming it less than average indie pap.
Not one single redeeming feature.
Would give 0 stars if I could.
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
4/5
Morrissey
1/5
Richard Hawley
3/5
Beyoncé
1/5
David Ackles
3/5
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
4/5
Dr. Octagon
2/5
The Hives
1/5
Overblown, overhyped. Nothing original.
Suede
4/5
Crosby, Stills & Nash
4/5
The Style Council
3/5
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Giant Sand
4/5
Stevie Wonder
5/5
The Specials
5/5
Frank Zappa
4/5
Suicide
5/5
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
3/5
Lambchop
3/5
Pleasantly inoffensive, enjoyable to relax and drive to in a morning
James Taylor
5/5
David Bowie
5/5
Duke Ellington
3/5
Peter Gabriel
5/5
Bee Gees
4/5
Calexico
3/5
The Beta Band
4/5
Tina Turner
1/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Tricky
5/5
Burning Spear
4/5
Talk Talk
4/5
Judas Priest
5/5
The Chemical Brothers
5/5
Fairport Convention
3/5
Beach House
3/5
Hole
3/5
The Isley Brothers
5/5
Manu Chao
2/5
Anita Baker
4/5
The White Stripes
3/5
Mylo
3/5
Miles Davis
3/5
AC/DC
5/5
The Waterboys
3/5
Steely Dan
4/5
Incubus
3/5
Nine Inch Nails
5/5
I’ve been waiting for this…
Full disclosure: I am a HUGE NIN fan, and have been since 1989.
The second full length album from Trent Reznor - who wrote and performed the album with a supporting cast of session musicians, recorded (infamously) at Cielo Drive, the site of the Manson Family murders of Sharon Tate and her friends, came out at a time when music was changing once more - Cobain was dead, grunge along with it, and my-metal wasn’t yet a thing.
Coming off the back of the breakout hit of Pretty Hate Machine, and a Grammy win for Wish (off the Broken EP), expectations were high from both fans and the music industry.
And Reznor didn’t disappoint.
From the opening whip cracks of Mr Self Destruct (sampled from THX1138) and its pounding backbeat, Reznor set the tone.
The lyrics were uncompromising, nihilistic and bleak, Mr Self Destruct’s theme of internal loathing giving way to the sleaze rock of Piggy, with refrain of ‘hey pig’ evoking the murders literally, ending with ‘nothing can stop me now’ growled threateningly and with conviction.
Heresy picks up the beat, declaring the death of religion over a club beat mixed with a military march, , atheism was never so danceable, flowing into the relentless drumbeat of March of the Pigs, the staccato beat just off centre, unbalancing the listener as they can’t help but move to the beat.
Then there’s Closer. Ah, the NIN track most non-fans would know, thanks to it becoming a rock club dancefloor stable, the backbeat taken from Iggy Pop’s Nightclubbing slowed to a heartbeat, mixed with a sexually charged groove and lyrics, the refrain ‘I want to fuck you like an animal’ becomes its own form of religious mantra, the poetry whispered by Reznor over the electronic squarks and warbles seduces the listener into a delirious bliss.
Ruiner builds on this, reaching a crescendo during the chorus of strings and fanfares, pushing the emotions to the limits, repeating the ‘nothing can stop me now’ refrain, only this time from an confidence born of arrogance rather than a threat.
The Becoming evokes a sense of helplessness, of loss of self as the cogs and fears grind down the self into nothing more than a drone, helpless and alone, just another piece in the puzzle.
This sense of helplessness deepens in I Do Not Want This, a sense of drowning and loss coming to the front, foreshadowing the second half of the album, giving way to anger and passion, as the song builds to the screams of ‘I want to fuck everyone in the world, I want to do something that matters’, the the serotonin hit at its highest, pushing into Big Man With A Gun, evoking feelings of stardom and excess at its worst, with no regard for anyone but the narrator, until… oblivion.
A Warm Place, the lead track to the second half of the album is by contrast, peaceful, a gentle caress, an oasis of calm, the eye of the storm around which the maelstrom uproots and destroys everything around it, until… the disconcerting, menacing ticking and humming begins, heralding the start of Eraser. It starts gentle enough, ‘need you, dream you’ sings Reznor, but that doesn’t last, darkening into feelings of lust and violence ‘fuck you, use you, scar you, break you’ flipping into self hatred and loathing ‘lose me, hate me, smash me, erase me, kill me’, the sense of loss deepening even further.
Reptile offers, at first, a sense of relief - here the Madonna as the whore, the object of his desire, yet he knows that to be with her spells his doom.
The Downward Spiral lays that doom out - ‘so much blood for such a tiny little hole’, the inevitable happens, oblivion beckons, his thoughts bleed away, the blackness calls to him.
Hurt. Ah, beautiful, melancholy Hurt. The paean to heroin, ‘my beautiful friend’, that final respite from the pain he feels, his voice cracking as he cries out ‘if I could start again, a million miles away, I would keep myself, I would find a way’, knowing that he has truly lost himself.
I don’t overstate it when I say I truly think that without TDS, we would never have had the rock music of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and come to it, the music of Lady Gaga, Halsey, and countless EDM acts, all of whom drank from the well, with TDS becoming part of their musical DNA.
It’s a perfect album in so many aspects, and truly deserves it’s place on the list.
Marilyn Manson
5/5
Another great album - took goth / industrial metal up a notch, building on the roots of Alice Cooper, KISS and Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor produced the album and co-wrote several songs) The Beautiful People’s pounding double drum beat is so reminiscent of the Glam Rock days.
The Kinks
5/5
Massive Attack
5/5
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Ian Dury
5/5
Robert Wyatt
2/5
T. Rex
5/5
Public Enemy
5/5
Van Morrison
2/5
Bob Dylan
3/5
Maxwell
2/5
Skunk Anansie
5/5
Belle & Sebastian
2/5
Janet Jackson
2/5
Killing Joke
4/5
Orbital
5/5
The Auteurs
3/5
Culture Club
3/5
Brian Eno
3/5
Peter Frampton
5/5
Stone cold classic.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
4/5
The Psychedelic Furs
4/5
Brian Eno
3/5
Todd Rundgren
3/5
Billy Bragg
3/5
The Who
4/5
Baaba Maal
3/5
Teenage Fanclub
3/5
Bad Brains
3/5
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
5/5
What can I say?
A simpler time?
Buddy Holly was a wonderful songwriter, who along with his band, the crickets, moulded early rock and roll into the shape it would become. His voice had an otherworldly feel to it.
Without Holly’s ‘That’ll Be The Day’, ‘Oh Boy’ and ‘Maybe Baby’ we’d have never got the Beatles, the Stones, The Beach Blus and so many other who followed in his footsteps.
Such an amazing talent taken far too soon.
Pulp
3/5
The Louvin Brothers
3/5
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
Britney Spears
1/5
Manufactured, over produced pop slop with no redeeming features.
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
Morrissey
1/5
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
Isaac Hayes
4/5
Dire Straits
3/5
Funkadelic
5/5
2/5
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
Frank Sinatra
4/5
Pixies
3/5
Like it, but not as much as Surfa Rosa!
The Sonics
3/5
The Only Ones
3/5
Waylon Jennings
3/5
UB40
4/5
Grant Lee Buffalo
3/5
Richard Thompson
3/5
Lupe Fiasco
2/5
Gary Numan
5/5
Tori Amos
5/5
Ride
3/5
Slint
2/5
Astor Piazzolla
2/5
Tim Buckley
3/5
King Crimson
4/5
The Soft Boys
2/5
Stereolab
3/5
Happy Mondays
3/5
Arctic Monkeys
3/5
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Elvis Presley
4/5
Femi Kuti
3/5
Koffi Olomide
3/5
The Rolling Stones
2/5
Caetano Veloso
3/5
Blue Cheer
3/5
Radiohead
3/5
Bob Dylan
2/5
Daft Punk
4/5
The United States Of America
3/5
The Band
5/5
Iggy Pop
4/5
The Jam
3/5
The Fall
2/5
Malcolm McLaren
3/5
Mariah Carey
1/5
Taylor Swift
4/5
Gang Of Four
4/5
Grizzly Bear
3/5
Turbonegro
2/5
Milton Nascimento
3/5
Dion
2/5
The Jam
2/5
Todd Rundgren
4/5
Girls Against Boys
4/5
Elis Regina
2/5
Fiona Apple
4/5