146
Albums Rated
3.14
Average Rating
13%
Complete
943 albums remaining
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Taste Profile
2010s
Favorite Decade
Punk
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
13
5-Star Albums
10
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exile In Guyville | 5 | 3.02 | +1.98 |
| Tanto Tempo | 5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
| The Fat Of The Land | 5 | 3.41 | +1.59 |
| Paul's Boutique | 5 | 3.47 | +1.53 |
| Fear Of Music | 5 | 3.47 | +1.53 |
| The Clash | 5 | 3.54 | +1.46 |
| Mothership Connection | 5 | 3.61 | +1.39 |
| Aladdin Sane | 5 | 3.61 | +1.39 |
| Shalimar | 4 | 2.65 | +1.35 |
| Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby | 4 | 2.66 | +1.34 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hail To the Thief | 1 | 3.44 | -2.44 |
| Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus | 1 | 3.32 | -2.32 |
| Darklands | 1 | 3.23 | -2.23 |
| Sunshine Superman | 1 | 3.09 | -2.09 |
| Make Yourself | 1 | 3.07 | -2.07 |
| Nighthawks At The Diner | 1 | 3.01 | -2.01 |
| New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84) | 1 | 2.95 | -1.95 |
| Two Dancers | 1 | 2.75 | -1.75 |
| Bright Flight | 1 | 2.68 | -1.68 |
| The Stone Roses | 2 | 3.64 | -1.64 |
5-Star Albums (13)
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Popular Reviews
Slipknot
2/5
I think maybe this album kind of sucked? I think I just have to note I don't really know metal or any of its branches, just as surely as I would say the same thing when reviewing a country, jazz, or crooner album. Just like those genres, any given song on this album was fine, and some of them kind of rocked, I probably would have liked it in a vacuum. But as song after song went by and they all sounded exactly the same (except the ones that were somehow whinier), every part that I had liked blurred into one and every part I disliked was highlighted through repetition. At one point I decided the album was pretty good and I would give it a decent review since it was almost over. I looked and I was only on track four or five.
1 likes
Alice Cooper
2/5
I cannot believe that people were worried about the kids based on this music. This is so obviously theater kid music. How did anyone generate a moral panic about it? That said, it's a little too broadly theatrical for my tastes. A little theatricality is a nice seasoning. Full theatricality is a broadway show, which I love. This is stuck somewhere in the middle.
1 likes
Bad Company
4/5
I was going to give this an enthusiastic 4, but I didn't care for the slower songs on the back half. Prob now a 3.5 rounded up to 4. Overall I'm happy this genre existed, I enjoyed the meaty songs
1 likes
Prince
3/5
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.
1 likes
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
These are the singles I want, 1000% on point. There are some tracks I might swap out, but more amazing than meh.
1 likes
1-Star Albums (10)
All Ratings
The Stone Roses
2/5
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.
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
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?
The Verve
3/5
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.
Skepta
4/5
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
Hüsker Dü
2/5
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.
Sufjan Stevens
3/5
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
Elliott Smith
2/5
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
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
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.
Linkin Park
3/5
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
Rocket From The Crypt
4/5
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
The Byrds
4/5
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
Janelle Monáe
4/5
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
The Temptations
3/5
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.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
1/5
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.
Shack
3/5
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.
Orbital
2/5
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
Kanye West
3/5
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
The Prodigy
5/5
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
Iron Maiden
2/5
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.
CHIC
3/5
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
Liz Phair
5/5
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.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
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
5/5
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
R.E.M.
3/5
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
Beach House
4/5
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.
Bebel Gilberto
5/5
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)
Parliament
5/5
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.
Lorde
4/5
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
Rahul Dev Burman
4/5
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.
The Band
3/5
I should have liked this but I just found it sort of tedious and pretentious. Maybe it wasn't at the time.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
This didn't really do anything for me. Maybe in a different time or a different place...
Flamin' Groovies
2/5
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.
Elton John
2/5
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.
Duran Duran
2/5
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.
Donovan
1/5
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?
Girls Against Boys
4/5
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.
The Specials
4/5
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)
U2
3/5
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.
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
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.
Incubus
1/5
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.
Django Django
3/5
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.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
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
Yes
2/5
meh. Some songs were kind of interesting, some were tedious. There wasn't enough new here to make me want to listen to more.
Herbie Hancock
3/5
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.
Wild Beasts
1/5
nope
Eagles
3/5
You know, if you take out all the cultural baggage of this band, it's a decent album
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
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
Fiona Apple
4/5
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?"
Brian Eno
4/5
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
Various Artists
4/5
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
Supertramp
3/5
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
Tracy Chapman
3/5
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
Crosby, Stills & Nash
2/5
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.
Christina Aguilera
3/5
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
Adam & The Ants
4/5
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
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
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.
Paul Simon
5/5
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.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
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
Nightmares On Wax
4/5
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.
Richard Hawley
4/5
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.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
3/5
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.
Beatles
3/5
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.
Wilco
3/5
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*
Cream
4/5
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)
The xx
3/5
Eh. Wasn't really for me but wasn't actively irritating either. 2.5 rounded up
Scott Walker
3/5
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
Depeche Mode
3/5
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
3/5
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.
Black Flag
4/5
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.
Jamiroquai
3/5
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.
Echo And The Bunnymen
4/5
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.
Michael Jackson
4/5
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.
R.E.M.
3/5
Started strong (fun REM) but faded (whiny REM).
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
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
Simple Minds
1/5
everyone else is only listening to the tracks on the original release too, right?
Straight up didn't like this.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
1/5
I just don't like this band. I've tried, it never works. I think it might be his singing because some of the music is great, or at least interesting. But that talk singing gets so old so fast. I'm not totally anti-Nick Cave, I like Grinderman, but every time I've tried the Bad Seeds I bounce off of it. This band almost certainly deserves a better rating but hits my internal rule: if you can't get all the way through it, it's an automatic 1.
You know what? I went to listen to Grinderman to make myself feel better and I don't like them all that much either, really just a couple of songs.
David Bowie
4/5
I am totally, 100% in the bag for Bowie. This set of albums (Low/Heroes/Lodger) is not my favorite, but I'm glad I relistened to it. I hope one of the Man Who Sold The World/Hunky Dory/Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane albums comes up so I can give Bowie the 5 he deserves for his entire career.
Steve Winwood
3/5
None of the content of these songs really reached me because the shell of genre ricochetted off of me first. Neither liked nor disliked. A perfectly pasteurized collection of songs. This is probably a 2.5 but I round up unless I'm actively pissed off at the album.
(aside: I spelled ricochetted and pasteurized correctly on the first try. I would have bet money against that)
Bad Company
4/5
I was going to give this an enthusiastic 4, but I didn't care for the slower songs on the back half. Prob now a 3.5 rounded up to 4. Overall I'm happy this genre existed, I enjoyed the meaty songs
The Kinks
3/5
I wanted to like this way more than I did, it's the Kinks! I think it's time to fess up that I only really like those original singles. The era of Kinks get a ton of praise for song writing, which I don't dispute, but they're not all that much to listen to.
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
I liked this, but I still identify with the 17-year-old who turned his nose up at this album because Pretty Hate Machine was obviously the superior album.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
These are the singles I want, 1000% on point. There are some tracks I might swap out, but more amazing than meh.
Portishead
2/5
I really like Dummy and was looking forward to this album but I was shocked at how little I liked it. Where Dummy was a great trip hop album, this felt... I dunno, not good. It felt like shoegaze meets industrial with trip-hop vocals. Which is maybe the description of trip-hop. but this album didn't feel like a cohesive whole. 2.5, rounding down to 2 because I was so disappointed in comparison to Dummy
Machine Gun was a great example of this - the music and her vocals just didn't gel at all
Fugees
4/5
Somehow it's the year of our lord 2025 and I've never listened to this album before. Probably because it was released and super popular when I was still actively rejecting music that didn't fit my identity. I really liked this album, it's a classic for a reason. I found it odd what a 90s hip-hop album this was - verse-trading MCs, fairly straight forward beats, it was good and comfortable. I could absolutely have done without the (period appropriate) skits though, they're always so bad.
Joe Ely
2/5
Fingernails was the only song on this album that I genuinely enjoyed listening to. I started skipping about half way. Giving it a 2 for making me stop skipping temporarily. When I don't know a genre, all I can fall back on is "did I find this interesting/entertaining to listen to", and this album failed pretty hard for me.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
I loved this album without reservation. So much so that I wonder if a family member played this a lot when I was very young or something. Every song hit right this morning. Every song was great, but I found Ramble Tamble was such a great opener for an album full of known hits. I kept imagining how great it must have been to see a live show where they band all hit that tempo change at the same time and downshifted the song, I bet it was electric. I imagine it as the 1970 rock equivalent to a bass drop.
Side note, how are these guys from California? I would have laid money on being from the south.
The Clash
5/5
I haven't even started listening to this yet and I have thoughts. I love this band and always will. This album is going to get a 5. Interesting though that Spotify has the original UK release and I owned the US version on CD and have that blazed into my brain. I'm sure the UK version is good, but looking at the track list I'm shocked at the removal of (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais and I Fought The Law which are great songs. Jail Guitars is not a Gret (tm) song, but it's fun. Anyhoo, to make it interesting I'm going to listen to the UK version and see what I think vs the US version.
OK. US vs UK - the US release is better. I expected to think that anyway, but I really think it's true and it's not even close. They took off 5 and added 6. One of those is a better version of the same song. None of the other 4 were show stoppers for me. Of the 5 new songs added, 3 were A-side singles and 1 was a B-side. The US version is just what the UK version would have been if they'd had another couple of years to work on it.
I know I'm not breaking new ground here, but if you break punk down into stereotypical-music punks and cultural punks (music punks being Sex Pistols, cultural punks being, I dunno, Talking heads), The Clash were very much cultural punks. This album is there punkiest musically, and even then it's not all that punky. I love three chords and a cloud of dust, but I think I will always love cultural punks more, where it wasn't about the music sounding the same, it was about being different and unaccepted.
Anyway, I love the Clash and I love this album, and if you think this was long wait until we get to London Calling, which I assume MUST be on this list.
Buck Owens
3/5
No real notes, other than the cover of Memphis being unexpected. It wasn't quite as fun as it would need to be for me to be excited about this genre, but it seems to be doing what it does well. 2.5 rounded to 3
Einstürzende Neubauten
1/5
I wanted to like this and I just didn't. Maybe on another day. Stopped listening halfway through the second track
The White Stripes
4/5
Love me some White Stripes. This isn't my fave album but still scratches the itch
David Bowie
5/5
If anyone else made this album it would be a full 5, but it's a 4.5 because I know there are multiple better albums in his catalog. Also, I always thought the Aladdin Sane persona was forced. Ziggy Stardust was an actual concept album, Aladdin Sane just feels like an attempt to recatch that lightning in a bottle. I do love this album though, so much that I am relistening to it this morning even though I just listened to it a week or two ago after the last Bowie album.
Tom Waits
1/5
jfc
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
It was ok. I remember not being annoyed and being kind of interested in parts, but now that it's over I can't really remember anything about it.
William Orbit
4/5
Hard to rate this. I would never put this on for pure enjoyment or a car trip, but it was pretty great to work to this morning and definitely went on my "Concentration" play list. By my own rules that's a 4 or 5, think I'll make this a 4 since "it distracts some parts of my brain without distracting others" seems like faint praise.
Bill Evans Trio
3/5
I see this has been voted best live jazz album ever multiple times by credible sources. I believe them, I just don't possess enough sensitivity to jazz to be able to tell a difference. I liked listening to this and put it on my concentration list, but it weirdly tickles a part of my brain that needs to focus on other things when I listen to that playlist so I might take it back off. Glad I listened. 3
The Police
3/5
No complaints, they're exactly what you expect, pretty listenable
Def Leppard
3/5
I don't know what to do with this. I kind of like it in a vacuum, and singles like Photograph are permanently etched in my brain. But I listened in the purest environment possible, a 4 hour road trip, and it didn't capture me, I turned it off with a few songs left. I actually skipped out of Foolin' - great chorus but the rest of the song sucked. I wanted to like this more than I did because Hysteria is permanently etched into my 11 year old brain. I finished the album this morning and it was better as background music, but that's faint praise. Can I rate this the shrug emoji?
As an aside, when the first track started playing, I genuinely thought it was AC/DC, a thought which kind of makes me want to kick my own ass
Terence Trent D'Arby
2/5
I am preemptively annoyed by this album. OK, fine, the artist changed their name. I still sort of think it should be under the name used when they released the album(*), but ok. But Spotify also changed the name of the album to Introducing the Hardline According to Sananda Maitreya with a release date of 1987. WTF, you don't get to retroactively change the name of the album, that is very much not the name of the album that was released in 1987. This is the mood I'm in going in to listening to this album.
It's fine, I'm just in no mood to listen to it today. Sorry Sananda.
(*) ok, so discussion item. Elliot Page transitioned during the run of Umbrella Academy. Cool, good for him. But if you go back and watch (watch, not read about or something - they re-edited the video) the earlier season, the credits lists Elliot Page. But that wasn't Elliot Page. I know this is just one of the wonderful things about humans that don't need to fit into my programmer brain, but it seems strange. Kind of want to buy our local librarian a beer and ask questions about a personal right to identity and a societal right to accurate data. Or a slightly abstracted form of that which doesn't involve gender identity, which is in itself not really the point.
Abdullah Ibrahim
3/5
I anticipated dour sound experiments based on the title and the artwork, happily wrong.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
Thank you site-gods, I needed this today.
Green Day
5/5
I'm really interested in what everyone thinks of this album. I listened to it a LOT when it came out and I was interested to see how it holds up. I have to say, I think the answer is "pretty well", I genuinely like the songs and am enjoying listening to the album. Also, remember when the biggest thing we had to worry about was Bush the Younger? How quaint.
Fats Domino
4/5
Kind of fun. Not an all-the-time food, but a nice place to visit.
Roxy Music
4/5
I really like Roxy Music, but sort of at a distance. I think maybe it's that I like all the bands that Roxy Music influenced. I know most of these songs from being covered on the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack. I didn't think this was a perfect album but I really enjoyed it
N.W.A.
3/5
This is another album I can't separate from my youth. Some of these songs are amazing and some don't do anything for me. Getting a 4 for nostalgia, downgraded to a 3 for actually listening to the lyrics
Moby
3/5
I really liked the upbeat first half. The downbeat back half (everything after "Everloving" more or less) was ok but kind of a bummer after the first half. I feel like if this had been an album and an EP the album would have gotten rated higher.
Slipknot
2/5
I think maybe this album kind of sucked? I think I just have to note I don't really know metal or any of its branches, just as surely as I would say the same thing when reviewing a country, jazz, or crooner album. Just like those genres, any given song on this album was fine, and some of them kind of rocked, I probably would have liked it in a vacuum. But as song after song went by and they all sounded exactly the same (except the ones that were somehow whinier), every part that I had liked blurred into one and every part I disliked was highlighted through repetition. At one point I decided the album was pretty good and I would give it a decent review since it was almost over. I looked and I was only on track four or five.
Ice Cube
2/5
I found this to be sort of a joyless record, and I didn't really identify with whatever other emotion it was trying to center. I thought maybe it was because I knew Straight Outta Compton so well, maybe any other Ice Cube would pale? But after this album ended other NWA tracks came up that I didn't know (specifically 100 miles and runnin') and I really enjoyed it and found it to have a spark that The Predator just didn't have. The one exception was Check Yo Self, which I genuinely enjoyed and made a point to look at the track title for.
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
genuinely loving this. I don't know if it's ground breaking and I don't think it's the soundtrack to the revolution, but sometimes my brain just wants to latch on to that thing where it goes doom doom doom doom and then that other weedy weedy weedle wit wee wee part happens and then the doom doom drops out and you're like where did the doom doom go but it the doom doom comes back because the music knows what you want
Coldplay
3/5
I could see being in a different time or place in my life and this album being very important. I'm not currently in that time or place. It was ok.
Miles Davis
3/5
I toyed with the idea of marking this as not listened. I mildly liked what I heard, but almost none of it made any sort of impression unless I sat and actively listened to it. I needed a beanbag chair and big phono earphones. I assume this would be higher if I knew more about jazz and/or dedicated 45 minutes solely to listening to it, but neither of these things happened.
Brian Eno
3/5
I enjoyed this a lot more than I feared.
Adele
3/5
This was really similar to the Coldplay album for me - I totally get why it's a huge hit, it's just not for me.
John Martyn
3/5
There were some parts of this I really liked, but if I wanted to listen to this genre/period I'd listen to something else.
Addendum - I stand by the above, but his cover of Glory Box is great
Beastie Boys
5/5
I am so excited. There have been a few albums I knew I was going to rate a 5 before I pushed play, but this is the first one where I felt giddy and thought "this is awesome, I get to listen to this album again".
Alice In Chains
4/5
Alice in Chains has never really been my bag, but I liked that, would dip in again.
I can't wait until we get to Sap, right Sant?
Queen Latifah
3/5
I liked this but not as much as I hoped. Many of the tracks were just straight beat and verse, which just weren't that fun to listen to. The tracks that got a little more inventive were more listenable. The sax on Latifah's Law was pretty good. I wasn't in a place for the lyrics to sink in, I suspect if I had been I would be a little more pro on this
Alice Cooper
2/5
I cannot believe that people were worried about the kids based on this music. This is so obviously theater kid music. How did anyone generate a moral panic about it? That said, it's a little too broadly theatrical for my tastes. A little theatricality is a nice seasoning. Full theatricality is a broadway show, which I love. This is stuck somewhere in the middle.
Missy Elliott
4/5
Made my butt move around while I worked
OutKast
4/5
This was a strange listen. Going into it I had positive thoughts about the singles from these albums, but listening to it, I must have had access to these albums at some point. Maybe ripped from someone at work in the 00s? I knew all the dumb interludes and most of the songs, but I have no memory of choosing to listen to this in the past.
As for actual review, I likes this. It was too long, exacerbated by the interludes, but it was a fun listen. I think I preferred any given Andre 3000 song over any gven Big Boi song just because I respect how weird they are, but overall I think I liked the Big Boi album better, it was more consistent and less wearing. All that said, holy crap that was long, I almost skipped this today just because of the length.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
I didn't like this as much as I expected to. The title track is great, but the rest of it all blurred together for me.
Roxy Music
2/5
Sort of interesting, but in the unlikely event I needed to listen to a Roxy Music album, it wouldn't be this one.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
2/5
Strange listen. I couldn't help but try to place them in a context, and I kept failing. I expected a Buddy Holly thing at first (I know this is stupid, but I think because of the name formation?) and was surprised when it was more of a Donovan thing. But then you got from Stepping Stone to the more Buddy Holly-style There She Goes. I couldn't pigeon hole it, which is usually good, but in this case I wasn't especially excited for any version of the band's output.
Melody for an Unknown Girl made me laugh out loud. First, it sounds like a parody. Second, they needed a vocal introduction to explain that the song didn't have lyrics. What is this album? Oh holy shit, they repeat it at the end? wtf?
Surf too? I think I actively hate this album
I was going to give this album a 1, but I looked into the album more and it was originally released as an 11-track, 28 minute album. I think it would be much more palatable in that form, especially considering I went from 2 to 1 because of the end of the album. That said, I can't believe Melody For An Unknown Girl was an original album track. I think I would have given a 2.5->3 if that track wasn't on it. With it, the album gets a hard 2
Goldfrapp
2/5
I generally like atmospheric music, but this just annoyed the shit out of me. I'd much rather listen to Black Box Recorder.
Talking Heads
5/5
I love Talking Heads so much. Great music and song writing, and vocals that are my kind of weird. I was worried about this album since it's earlier than what I usually listen to, but nope, it was just what I wanted
Radiohead
1/5
I liked a lot of the music on this, but that constant falsetto singing made me want to stick a screwdriver in my ear. I know in what high regard this band is held and I don't doubt they deserve it, but this just reaffirmed my desire to never knowingly listen to this band (other than Creep of course, 'cause I'm a basic bitch).
Gorillaz
3/5
I really liked the start of this album and probably would have liked any given track, but I didn't find that it justified its runtime.
Haircut 100
2/5
Just sounds like bog-standard new wave to me. I couldn't even get interested in it enough to get mad at it
Simon & Garfunkel
2/5
I kind of hated this album and I really expected to love it. I thought I liked S&G but I guess I only know the hits. Mrs. Robinson is obviously in the pantheon of great American songs, but most of the other stuff left me flat. I don't think it's the song writing, I think it's the arranging and production. Hazy Shade of Winter is an amazing song but I just kept thinking how much I'd like someone else covering it. 1 for the album as presented, 2 for Mrs Robinson and the songwriting.
Norah Jones
3/5
I don't know, it was fine. It just wasn't really what I wanted to be listening to this morning. I could see listening to this some other time though.
As an aside, more than once (at least three), Spotify has gone from whatever the day's album is to ...Like Clockwork-era QOTSA and it's not even that much of a stretch. It happened today and it happened with Radiohead. Stop calling me out on albums I do like being kind of similar to albums I don't!
Nick Drake
3/5
I respect these songs, production, and singing. In a different world (in the dark, in a beanbag chair, wearing a giant headset connected to a hifi turntable with one of those curly wires) I think this album might become my entire personality. But that time has passed for me, and it's just a lot of potential that didn't quite land for me.
Stan Getz
4/5
I listened to this three times yesterday. I also didn't especially like it or hate it, I just felt compelled to relisten to it. I suppose that's worth something.
Boston
4/5
I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. They're hits for a reason.
Silver Jews
1/5
This was an absolute miss for me today. I scrubbed through most of the songs. The only one I listened to all of was Transylvania Blues which was ok. In another time, another place this might have scored higher, but it wasn't today.
Bob Dylan
2/5
I really like fun, upbeat Dylan. I'm hit or miss on slow Dylan. I absolutely hate mid-tempo, drawn out word, list of random things he happens to be looking at when writing the song Dylan. This album has them all, but not enough of the fun songs to make the others worth it. There's probably a single album's worth of material here that would get a 4 from me, but the double gets a 2.
drawn-to-listen-to: many covers of Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again (Grateful Dead, North Mississippi Allstars, Old Crow Medicine Show, Cat Power, so many more)
Johnny Cash
4/5
I love this album. It has some great songs on it, but even the ones that aren't my faves are buoyed by an incredible sense of life.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
Not really sure what to do with this album. I actually kind of like the genre, but this album didn't do much for me, and I can't even really be arsed to think about why.
The Boo Radleys
4/5
This hit me right in my 90s kid brain. 97x BAM! the future of rock and roll.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
3/5
This was a weird experience. I'm not even sure I listened to the right album. It's supposed to be "Devotional Songs" but the album cover and the Spotify link are to a differently-titled album, released in 1988 instead of 1992. I spent a while poking at this but decided to just listen to it and move on with my life.
I liked this a lot. It's not a new genre I'm going to explore or anything, but I found it to be perfectly serviceable background music.
Blur
3/5
It was better than I expected given the whole "Song 2 was a joke" thing.
Nas
2/5
I wasn't really sure what to do with this. I'm willing to put this on me the listener rather than the album itself, but the whole album felt like one identical song, and I wasn't a huge fan of that song.
Sly & The Family Stone
3/5
I liked this for the most part but the production drove me nuts. Rounding down to 3 for the production.
Tina Turner
3/5
Before I rate this, can we all just appreciate that moment in the 80s when Tina Turner and Rod Stewart had the same hair cut?
I like Tina Turner's voice a lot, but I don't think she was helped by this era of arrangement and production. I feel like if she had recorded this same set of songs in the 70s or 90s I would like it a lot more.
Buffalo Springfield
3/5
I really liked the first song. Then I mostly liked the second song. Then it all just sort of blurred together.
Beck
4/5
I think this is my favorite Beck album.
The Byrds
3/5
It's been interesting listening to these older albums. In general even if I don't really care for it I appreciate the reason to listen to them. Sometimes I actively hate them, but most of the time I'm left with a "wasn't for me but I'm glad I listened to it at least once" feeling. Definitely the case today. classic 2.5 rounded up.