what a fantastic way to start this challenge!! I have not listened to a lot of nina simone beyond her most well known songs, and I’m not a huge early jazz/soul listener in general, but WOW her voice is so gorgeously powerful and iconic, this record was a joy the whole way through. there’s a few tracks I didn’t save and I may not revisit on their own, but they’re all beautiful as a collective and a couple did make their way into some of my playlists. some stand-out tracks for me were “i love your lovin ways”, “that’s all i ask”, and “break down and let it all out” i also love the album cover - what a fab pink 🩷

icon… only 3 stars tbh because sonically only a couple of tracks really stood out to me and i’m currently voting based purely off initial listening experience and not any critical thought - it was fun realising i’d listened to half of the album already and i hadn’t registered any of the songs starting and finishing because it all flows so seamlessly into each other and a lot of the tracks reference other tracks. “what’s going on” and “mercy mercy me” are the only two i knew before this and remain as 2 of the most solid tracks from this!! also loved “inner city blues”

already knew this one quite well, cbf reviewing right now what a BANGAAAA with some absolutely classic tunes

this was okay?? i looove a lot of prince tunes but this album was quite long with not enough memorable songs to me personally (considering i was listening this for the first time). as a massive 80s fan though i didn’t hate how any of this sounded - it just started to all blend together and a lot of the songs were long af. definitely need another go with some of these song tho “i can never take the place of your man” was the most stand out to me !! catchy as

ms winehouse the icon you will always be

objectively good jazz, i mean it’s miles davis, nothing stood out to me though it was just one long jam

??? wasn’t particularly offended by this but pretty random and i don’t know why it’s included in this - even 10cc themselves have better albums LOL no standouts tbh, every song felt like 67 ideas all thrown into one

this was just uninteresting daft punk. had 1 or 2 fun moments but for the most part fell short for something that made its way onto this list.. maybe i don’t get it idk but i have definitely heard more exciting things! seemed to just fade into the background. some of this record would also be good as the the soundtrack to an online platformer game from 2005

bloody 70s dad yacht rock.. MY FAVE!!!! nothing groundbreaking in terms of the genre and never heard of this guy but i throughly enjoyed the vibes

WAIT.. THIS BANGED??? God damn it