Like, it was fine. When it started I was sort of fighting against it. I had a thought like "this sounds sort of like music I would put on to concentrate on something, but I would never choose this specific music". By the end it actually had slid into the background and I was focusing on work. But I don't "it's tolerable when you forget you're listening to it" to be a huge selling point.

before: I've never listened to this full album before. I know some of the songs, but I think many just by name. I couldn't sing lyrics or melodies from them like I can from his debut (Hey Joe, Purple Haze, Fire). I should say I mostly know Hendrix's actual music from the BBC live album, which is amazing, I love the vitality that comes through in his live playing The first track instantly made me think of how innovative his playing must have been seen as at the time. Like hearing Tom Morello in 1992. One (overly simple) way to categorize songs is vibe songs vs plot songs. To me the best Hendrix songs combine those, and I'm not getting that from this album, I'm getting too much vibes. That said, I just looked and the song that was playing while I had that thought was Voodoo Chile, which is 15 minutes, so I might just be commenting on that one song Stopped thinking and started listening for a bit. This is obviously a great album. The two 13+ minute tracks don't really fit with my tastes. I'm reminded of the saying "genius is a great idea and not quite enough time to work on it". I think constraints can add to great art; those tracks were unconstrained. I'm very aware of the tendency to downplay the works of innovators when you hear the people they influenced before you hear the influencer themselves. I suspect I'm falling prey to that here. How amazing would it have been to hear this album in 1968?

Because yesterday was a holiday I didn't find time to get through the whole album. Listened to the first 5 or so songs then skipped around. I could see a time when I would want to put this on but it wasn't today.

pre: Oooh, genuinely excited, I have no idea what this is going to be is the sample under "Man" from Queens of the Stone Age? (I found it, Regular John from s/t) I don't know enough to comment intelligently but I liked this, would listen again

Pre: I obviously know Husker Du and have liked and appreciated Bob Mould and Grant Hart's post-HD stuff, but the band itself has never been my favorite. I respect what they did, but their music rarely catches me (except for Statues, which is one of the best punk singles ever). All that said I'm fairly certain I've somehow never listened to this album before. The spotify description listed them as post-punk and a bridge to poppier stuff in the 90s. That actually helps me contextualize their music and appreciate it a bit more Bed of Nails caught my ear, I liked that one. I caught some vibes in there that reminded me of (the much more on-her-sleeve) Trans Mantra by Ezra Furman. I know not everything is about gender or sexual identity, but in retrospect maybe Bob was dropping some pretty big hints. Anyway, good song, it's one of the few that made me stop and listen. Overall I have a tremendous respect for Husker Du but the album didn't do a ton for me.

pre: never listened, I tend to associate Sufjan Stevens with pretention in my head. Looking forward to being wrong I liked this more than I anticipated, that's about as far as I'm willing to go

pre: I know nothing about Elliot Smith except recognizing the name as a musician I actually liked this album, for some value of liked. Seemed like Ben Folds on Xanax. That said, I will never listen to this album again

pre: don't know this album per se, but I know a ton of songs on it. Esp looking forward to hearing the studio version of wait until tomorrow; the live at the BBC version is one of my faves. Man, I get almost angry when I hear a song like Up From The Skies. Like, it's fine? I guess? But knowing how little output we would ultimately get from JH, simple little tracks like that seem like such a waste. Not that that's his fault for not displaying his genius on every single song, but still I liked this much better than Electric Ladyland. It's funny to me how well his guitar playing has aged and how quaint his lyrics seem.

pre: I am not really looking forward to this I forgot that Linkin Park is rap-rock. In my memory they're Rock With Very Heartfelt Lyrics that the Singer Feels So Hard He Can Barely Get Them Out(tm). It's hard for me to take this genre seriously. I liked some of the music, less of the singing, and almost none of the rapping. If someone else put this on I wouldn't complain, but I wouldn't choose to listen to this again

pre: I owned Circa: Now! at one point, back in the days where a CD purchase was a big deal and you sometimes bought blind. I wanted to like this band more than I actually did. The only song I remember liking at the time was Hippy Dippy Do, which is basically a novelty song. Looking forward to seeing if I like this album more I don't know when but I've definitely heard On A Rope before. This should be a 5 star album for me based on genre and content. There's just something about these guys that are slightly too try-hard. One too many guitar? Too many harmonies/bv for the genre? Some of the back half of this album has early QOTSA vibes, in particular You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar... keeps popping into my head. It's definitely not as good though. I'm so puzzled by this album. It should be up my alley but it's not. Even weirder, there are definite similarities between this album and the s/t album by Dig which is one of my guilty pleasure albums. Shrug. The heart wants what it wants I guess 3.5, a mixture of neutral and I might listen to this again

jfc, I Come And Stand At Every Door is a laugh a minute, huh? I like a lot of this. The vocals are 100% Wonder Years. Most of the music was really good, much of it made me realize what Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were making fun of, especially the weird guitar noodling. I would definitely listen to this again

pre: I really like Janelle Monáe but I mostly know her from songs here and there (I have listened to Come Alive approx 1 million times). I like the theatricality of her performance. Looking forward to seeing if a straight-through listen holds up. Not my normal listening but I really enjoyed this, I will listen again

There are parts of this that I really liked, and parts I liked less but respected. It made me want to learn more about the Temptations' catalog, but didn't really hold up for me as an album. More specifically, the first three songs were muscular and awesome. The back half of the album was obviously skilled, but too slow and downbeat for my taste.

pre: I only know the name and have a vague note in the back of my head that people I respect respect them. nope nope nope. I recognize this period of this genre as important in linking music I like to music I like, but I do not like this specific period. I fully support everyone's right to be whiney about they emotions, but it needs to be better music for me to listen. Listened to the first two songs then sampled every other song, nothing for me here.

pre: to the best of my knowledge I have never heard of this group before. I don't mind this, it's perfectly fine background music, but I'm not really sure what made this get included on a great album list. It's like the arithmetic mean of 100 other bands in this genre.

Pre: don't know much about orbital other than the name and listening to Halcyon and On and On a bunch as part of the Hackers soundtrack I have a 20 year old file somewhere on my computer names sbtechno.mp3, which Strong Bad making a techno song via saying stupid stuff. I swear it sounds exactly like 1:07->2:14 of Sad but True (I found it under "The System Is Down" on spotify, verify for yourself) I couldn't finish this. I was at least excited about having some background music to work to and I couldn't even use it for that. Usually not finishing is a 1, bumping to a 2 because I'm pretty sure at least some of the issue is my mood

pre: not a fan of kanye as a person. Never listened to an entire album, but there are a few singles I have worn out (including Jesus Walks and School Spirit from this album). Interested to hear them in the context of an album. Super mixed feelings. Any given song, in a vacuum, was pretty damn great. I like Kanye's lyrics and vocal style, and he's an inarguably great producer. As an album, I'm not sure what I would think, but my listening was so disjointed today that I didn't really get that experience. I hate the skits, as I do for pretty much every rap/hip-hop album that incorporates it (except Enter the Wu-Tang of course). And then there's the Kanye of it all. Oof. I think this would normally be a solid 3.5 for me (between "I wouldn't mind if someone else played this" and "I would choose to put this on"). I have rounded up in the past, but I think the Kanye-ness of it plus the skits are going to make me round down. Specifically, they are genre and period appropriate, but they would be a slight deterrent to me listening to the album again. I do want to listen to the other two albums in this trio though

Listened to this on a car trip after an emotional experience and it was perfect. I don't need a ton of albums from this genre in my life, but this one is perfect. My only real criticism is that the attempted rapping in a couple of songs detracted from the songs as a whole

I think this is probably another album that was groundbreaking at the time but I've heard so many derivative bands that this doesn't really make an impact. Not liking this. Some is better than other, but the operatic singing in particular isn't working for me. I appreciate the almost proggy music but it's not doing much for me emotionally.

By my own scale this is a solid 3, but I have to admit I was disappointed. Maybe I wanted less disco and more funk? Good Times was amazing, and some of the other songs were fun, but reading the CHIC bio I kept wanting to hear songs that weren't on this album, like Le Freak or stuff the produced for Diana Ross

pre: omg do I have thoughts I love this album. I've listened to it a million times and listen to it a million more. I'm sure it's not everyone's cup of tea but it is mine. A couple of thoughts while trying to listen critically: 1) the phased guitars sound really dated, and the production overall sonuds more like a street corner busker than a studio album. Not sure if that's a bad thing or not. 2) I have always been dismissive of the "It's a response to Exile on Main Street" line. But this time through I think I could build a case about taking a feminine position in the world vs the hyper masculine Stones album.

pre: I know the name and some of their place in late-70s London, but I don't know that I've ever really listened to them. I'm not sure what to make of this album. It's a 3 on my scale in that it didn't actively piss me off, but it's not great. I found Monitor to be useful. When that music started I actually got excited and thought maybe I judged this album too early. But then she started singing and I became much less enthusiastic. I don't know if it's style or lyrics or her voice in particular but the vocals take me out of it a bit. Which is a bad sign for a band that has the singer's name in the band name

pre: I haven't listened to this in years, but probably because it's the one I played the most when I was much younger. I can sing most of these songs by heart, and have memories of my Dad singing some of them to me. I'm going to listen to it, but it's going to be a 5 No notes

Putting any one of these songs on and I would be fine, but as an album it annoyed me. I would not choose to listen to this again. So much of it is Michael Stipe's voice. It's not bad, it's just such a specific thing, it gets tiring after a while 2.5 -> 3

pre: never heard of this band before I would never choose to put it on for a car trip, but I would throw it on in the background if my brain was occupied by something else. Strange album. Not engaging enough to be a primary focus album, but just when I thought it was background music it would pull out a weird key change or vocal.

pre: no idea who this is, and once again highlighting the 2000-2015ish range when I stopped trying new things Love it. I don't know if it's just Bossa Nova or what, but loved the Seu Jorge-esque guitar. Beautiful voice. Foreign language that's not too distracting. This is going into active work rotation for me (except for the last song, which is in English)

pre: yes please post: no notes on the album, but reading briefly about George Clinton's career makes me want to read a full biography, and also go down a deep Parliament/Funkadelic/P-Funk All-Stars rabbit hole.

pre: not usually my genre but I'm excited about this The arrangement of the back half of Hard Feelings/Loveless (which is maybe just Loveless itself?) is kind of great, it reminds me of old Art of Noise. This is not representative of the whole album, but it was kind of fun to feel my ears perk up when it came on. Solid 4 for me. Won't be in heavy rotation but I will definitely choose to play this again.

pre: I love the Faces. Rod Stewart without quite so much pretense. mid: maybe I only like the singles or the up beat numbers. This album feels very uneven to me I found this super uneven. If any one of these songs came on the radio I'd be happy, but I found listening to them in order to be a chore. 2 as an album, 3 as a collection of singles to sample

I can't fit this in any sort of continuum of music I normally do and don't like. It was totally left field for me as an album. I didn't even listen to it in the same circumstances that I've listened to most of these other albums. That said, I kind of loved it.

I should have liked this but I just found it sort of tedious and pretentious. Maybe it wasn't at the time.

This didn't really do anything for me. Maybe in a different time or a different place...

I had a huge review typed in here that appears to now be lost. My main thesis is that they sound like a really good bar band (and that's based on their originals, not the extra covers at the end). You could pick Grateful Dead vocals, Elvis, Rockpile, and a bunch of other similarities out of their music. I'm not accusing them of copying, just of not having a strong identity. They get a 2 because they annoyed me - they are so close to being something perfect to me and they just kept not being.

Hold me closer, Tony Danza! "According to Gus Dudgeon, Taupin named the character in the song after the Band's co-founder, drummer and singer Levon Helm. The Band were apparently John and Taupin's favourite group at the time. In 2013, however, Taupin said that the song was unrelated to Helm." - that's funny, that's instantly what I thought of when I read the track name Holy hell Indian Sunset is six minutes of something else. Not for me. I kept wanting to complement the lyrics, or the orchestration, or anything; but to be honest I found almost all of it annoying. Tiny Dancer is kind of a comfort just because it's so famous. In the end I would say that I tend to like John's voice and performing. But other than that it was trite lyrics and overworked arrangements.

I didn't enjoy this as an album. The singles were good, but frankly any individual song was pretty good by itself, but as a whole album I found it boring and tiresome.

I checked twice during Legend of a Girl Child Linda to see if it was somehow still the same song. Sheesh. I really disliked this album, with the exception of Sunshine Superman and Season of the Witch. Most of it just sucked. There were a few upbeat, groovy-ish songs that gave me hope, but invariably their lyrics made my brain want to move out. Which is the worse idea, that he's a sheister who thought these lyrics could be passed off as deep, or that he was sincere and thought these lyrics actually were deep?

I think I knew the name of this band but nothing else. I ended up really liking this. It started a little slow but as the album went on I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. Oh dang, I've been listening to whatever Spotify suggests after this album for a couple of hours and enjoying it quite a bit. Kill the Sexplayer (which I know from the Clerks soundtrack) just came up on shuffle - I did not know it was by Girls Against Boys! Makes me like them even more. This is crazy, I've spent all day listening to artist radio and I really like this band. I'm leaving this album at a 4, but there's at least one other I would give a 5. This is reductive but their best albums me of Big Black mixed with Kyuss. Also learned about Hot Snakes, which is a band worth checking out.

I think this is worth the 3.5/4 I'm going to give it, but I was really shocked that they didn't choose the first album. And also by how week Side B of this album was (compared to other Specials at least)

1995 John: fuck U2, they suck 2024 John: I expected to hate this. I didn't. There are some bands whose singles always make me think I hate the entire band (Smashing Pumpkins) and I think U2 is on that list. I like almost all of the rhythm section on this, some of the guitar, and the song writing is great. It wasn't really for me, but it made me respect their obvious talent.

I liked this but didn't love it. There was nothing in it that annoyed me, but there wasn't a ton in it that grabbed my attention either, save the Paul's Boutique samples.

Thanks to the penny arcade podcast I know that Incubus means "to lay on top of" (compare succubus, to lay under). This kind of sucks. I want to give it credit but I can't. I grew more and more annoyed the longer it went on.

Never heard of this band before. I can't decide if I like them or not. If they can keep themselves from using dumb sound effects they kind of sound like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (which is a compliment). But I feel like they can't help but throw in dumb sounds to justify being an "art" band. There are some sections of this I would give a 4 and some a 1. Going to give it a 3 I guess.

It was alright, it was fun as a novelty, a point in time of the development of a world-strangling genre. Worth acknowledging the ground breaking thing that it was, but also worth acknowledging that it mostly isn't that much fun to listen to. Still, it was better than I expected. I found it interesting that the back half had actual singing, and the music was still basically funk. 3 for making me think without being too annoying, but also 3 for not really being that arresting

meh. Some songs were kind of interesting, some were tedious. There wasn't enough new here to make me want to listen to more.

I appreciated the musicianship but not always the music. Any 30 second span in isolation was amazing. Strung together, I was ready for the album to be over.

nope

You know, if you take out all the cultural baggage of this band, it's a decent album

I don't really know how to rate this. I don't know enough about jazz, I either like what it sounds like or I don't. As evidence of this, Spotify played 9 songs after this album and I didn't realize they were different artists. I guess this gets a 4 because I would definitely listen to it again, but it's pretty faint praise coming from me

Pre: Criminal is easily in my personal top 100 songs every written list Post: I didn't like it quite as much as I anticipated but I liked it a lot. It also gave me the amazing experience of having my born-12-years-after-this-album's-release daughter walk into my office and immediately say "hey, is that Fiona Apple?"

Sort of like the jazz from yesterday, I don't know enough to speak about this genre intelligently. But, this was a great vibe album for coworking. I was worried when the first track came on as some of the "electronic" noises were very dated bleeps and bloops, but either they settled down or I got used to them. Solid 4, would listen again

I mean... It's absolutely perfect for what it is. It's a wire-guided missile of talent and content designed to deliver a perfectly crafted payload. I absolutely put this on my christmas playlist and am glad to have learned of it. Oof, I wrote that without having listened to the last track. I'm downgrading it from a 5 to a 4 just for the Phil Spector voice over

pre: I just realized this band hashes to the same bucket as Cheap Trick in my head. I have no idea if I've consciously heard any of their music before I almost didn't listen to this, I started skipping in the first track. But there was something in the second track that made me stay with it. There were parts of this that I liked and parts I didn't. It feels like what would come out if someone was tasked with making an album that was clearly rooted in the 70s without being prog, punk, disco, funk, hard/blues rock, etc. 2.5, rounding up to 3

I wish I had listened to this before reading Mike's review because I would like to know if I would have come up with the same words on my own. Message/lyrics on point, music not 100% my style

As a thing unto itself I really appreciated the harmonies. However, as a whole the album just felt like "generic sound to indicate it's the 60s". I know that's not their fault, but it's not great for me personally. All that said, I did really like Helplessly Hoping. I watched Annihilation a couple of days ago and they used the song and it was really great for mood setting. But I also think that underscores my main point. Still a great song though.

This album definitely wasn't for me, and the from-your-toes diva singing isn't my favorite, but I found somethings to like in some of the lyrics. I think if I were a 15-25 year old girls in 2002 this album would have destroyed me, and even outside of that scenario I think beautiful is a genuinely good and important song. I will never put this on again (with the possible exception of Make Over, which I found interesting), but I'm surprised at how glad I am that I listened to it. 3

This album was ridiculous and I kind of loved it. I liked the mono-style shuffle of the side-openers, and Jolly Roger was so dumb it made me like it. I would choose to listen to this again

I have such mixed feelings about the Boss. Listening to Badlands right now and I'm annoyed. But I also see Adam Raised a Cain and Candy's Room are on this album, which are such great songs. This album so very much wasn't for me. I reached my daily recommended value of bombast midway through the first song. I ended up skipping around the second half and didn't find any reason to stop. I didn't even like Candy's Room as much as I remember.

I love this album without reservation. Everything I would say about another album (it's too of the era, etc) is negated by my memory of being a 10 year old driving in my Dad's Jeep with the top down singing along to all these songs playing on the tape deck.

I'm sort of surprised I didn't like this more. There definitely wasn't anythingI actively disliked, but I'm surprised there weren't more songs that grab me. This would probably be a 3.5 for me, rounding up to 4

I liked this a lot. Given the name and the album art I was afraid it was going to be a Cyprus Hill clone. Not the best album I've heard in this genre but I added it to my concentration playlist, will definitely be listening to again.

I'm surprised but I really liked this. I went from "nah" to "it's really competent but not for me" to "I should check out more of his catalog". I don't even know who I am anymore.

I like this music. Half way through the first song I though this was going to be a 4 or 5 (dumb but super fun). Then Gang Bang. At first I thought it was just dumb, but when they got to the section from the (one) woman's point of view and the words "she was smiling through the tears". Just eesh. That song is terrible and I think exacerbated by the song lengths. Each of these songs could be half as long and still get the job done. And if Gang Bang ad been half as long, it wouldn't have had that particularly atrocious verse. Jesus christ what is this band? Any one of these songs is interesting and entertaining, but this is one of the most disparate albums I have ever heard. Is Next actually a german theater song ala Alabama Song or were they just aping it? (Holy shit, I called it - it's a cover of a song by a Belgian theater composer). Man, I don't know. some of it was 5, some of it actively angered and offended me. I think if it weren't for Gang Bang I'd give it a 4, but that song gets it a 3.

Didn't care for it nearly as much as I expected to. The singles were great, though maybe just because I've heard them a billion times each. I think this album is more about potential than achievement. I liked the harmonies but it mostly sounded like any other early 60s album to be.

I always want to like this album more than I do. I think Jeff Tweedy is in Dylan land, both the good (amazing song writer) and bad (a voice which is, um, distinctive). I think I would give this a 4 for the songwriting and a 2 for the performance. Check out a great cover of I Am Trying to Break Your Heart by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound. *chef's kiss*

I really like this band. The first two CDs I ever purchased were Appetite for Destruction and a Cream greatest hits CD. Some of these songs were real clunkers, but the highs are so, so high. (not really related to this rating, but I spent the rest of the day listening to "album radio" for this album and it was all great)

Eh. Wasn't really for me but wasn't actively irritating either. 2.5 rounded up

It's only the first song, but is this the ST from a Musical? The huge instrumentation plus the lyrics plus the delivery. wtf? This guy should have written a Bond theme. As a popular music album, I have no idea or what to do with this. But my joke about it being musical theater ended up helping me. If I treat it as a ST to a play I've never seen and get in that headspace it's kind of fun. Jackie and Next are both good examples of this. I'm never going to listen to this again or even think about it again after this, but I'm glad I listened to it at least once. 3 addendum: I came back to this to add "The Girls and the Dogs" to the list of particularly-musical-y songs, and decided to actually read up on this album. Those three songs are actually covers of Jacques Brel songs, the Belgian "composer and performer of theatrical songs." That's kinda interesting, but that led me to realize that the song Next on this album was also covered on the Sensational Alex Harvey Band album we listened to last week. It's kind of fun to compare these covers. The Alex Harvey one is sparse and kind of fits with a German Cabaret. The Scott Walker one is much more lush and belongs in a play, it's much better. But most likely, the Scott Walker one fit better in the vibe of his album than the Alex Harvey one did in his I like this album must less now that I know most of these songs are covers. I thought this was a weirdo taking a big swing, but as a covers album it's just sort of a mismash. Boo. I'm leaving it as a 3, but this kinda dropped from a 3/4 to a 2/3 in my mind

It was fine. I will never choose to listen to this again, I wouldn't complain if someone else put it on. Classic 3 on the John scale

Prince is a genius, but this album was kind of meh to me. The first half was sort of funk-lite. I liked the overtly sexual songs in the second half more. Not a bad album but it felt like a let down since it was prince.

I feel like I've been slagging a lot of albums lately because there's nothing on the album supporting the singles. I think this album is the opposite - the singles are good, and the whole album is great, singles and non-singles supporting each other. Great album.

I feel like I don't know enough about this genre to really judge. It was a fine album with good vibes and I don't regret listening to it, but I got the feeling that it was not the real thing, and that I could cast a line in a record store funk/soul section and pull back an album better than this pretty easily.

I liked this more than I expected. I've always been turned off by the dumb name and the fact that my brother made fun of my sisters for being fans of them in the 80s. Digging into their catalog now. From their bio I expect there will be one or 2 albums I love and the rest I could do without, but it's worth looking at. Having spent some more time with this band, I'm leaving the album at a 4, though maybe it's a 3.5, but I didn't find better albums in their catalog. Their sound hints at something I would really like, but there's a little too much pop and polish in it to be interesting to me in that category.

I liked this more than I expected but less than I hoped. Thriller/Beat It/Billie Jean is an absolute murder's row. Other than those, the album was 50% "I can see why some people really like this" and "jfc, what even is this". Is there an MJ album that just has songs in the vein of Billie Jean on it? That's all I really want.

Started strong (fun REM) but faded (whiny REM).

I wasn't going to listen to this album due to life getting in the way yesterday, but Sant's review convinced me. Always liked Bad Moon Rising and CCR feels good to listen to. Probably shouldn't factor into my review, but I also enjoyed the sub-30-minute album

everyone else is only listening to the tracks on the original release too, right? Straight up didn't like this.