The "harmonies" on this album are monotonous, the music without melody. I know it's rap, but it is as dull as a room painted black with black furniture. Not for me. 1.5/5
The best, most enduring, of metal albums. Back in the day, we called this \"thrash metal\" while Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden did everyday \"metal\". Now a days, Metalica doesn't sound as edgy, especially in comparison with other kinds of metal. Still, I love these songs, I love this level of rock perfection, I love how this album works, embodying the best of metal rhythm and of rock melody. 4.5/5
A fantastic soul/funk album of the 70s. The covers are just brilliant. Innovative keyboard, satisfying guitar work. 4.5/5
2112– Rush– I had always heard that early Rush is the poor person’s Led Zepplin. While I can hear some licks and some vocals that are reminiscent of LZ, this album is more like what Rush would become. This album has a more dramatic presentation than later Rush, but that quality of musicals suits them. This will probably be my favorite album by Rush. 4.5/5
Willie’s greatest inspiration was Frank Sinatra. Here, he shows that he can wield the power of American pop standards just as powerfully as Frankie ever did. 4.5/5
Pleasant, but not compelling
I heard the first three songs too often in the 80s, so I'm bored of them. However, the rest of the album reminds me of the smooth, jazzy vibe of Dire Straits and how I love them. I'll need to make a playlist, but this album isn't exceptional. 3.5/5
Like Depeche Mode dance music. I always preferred the Depeche Mode depression-inducing music. It's good stuff, but not something I would listen to. New Wave/Disco. 3.5/5
An excellent post-Smiths solo album. More musically interesting than any other album I've heard Morissey do. Powerful guitars, provocative effects, rockabilly, hard rock. Right up my alley. 4.5/5
I never did like this version of Van Halen. I love the drums and DLR's vocals are always good. Shameful secret: I never cared for Eddy Van Halen's guitar work. He's in such a hurry to get moving on. He rarely repeats a riff, and he doesn't lengthen them out. And, while I love synth rock, it didn't improve VH's style-- for me. Obviously, I am outvoted here. I love Hot for Teacher and Top Jimmy-- the more bluesy tracks. But this will never be a favorite of mine. Given how many people love it, I feel like I'm missing out. 3/5
What a wonderful mix of music! They put so much in such a tight 40 minute package, but I felt that I was exploring my pop-rock loves from the 70s to the 00s. For a proper rating, I will have to listen to it again. And I will. 4.5/5
Thoughtful, adorable, mellow songs about love. As usual for Simon, the shining jewel are the lyrics that make unexpected turns. What a shame he kicked Garfunkel off the album, that might have made it great. Still, it is pleasant enough. 3.5/5
I love the mellow but powerful statement "catch a fire" for slavers, firmly telling them to "go to hell". A statement of Marley's utopia-- a new land without oppression, and liberation to have awesome sex. The music is familiar, the Marley reggae groove, perfect for a nightcap. And, of course, such great influence throughout the world. 4/5
Does an album all about sex count as a concept album? Only appropriate for a nice JW boy. Great dance music, and the long rhythms are just perfect, remind me of the stuff I listened to in my disco days. Some of these are excellent songs, ("Free", "Delirious") but I doubt I'll listen to this album as a whole again. 4/5
Wait, this was created in THIS millenium? Not in the 1950s? Gorgeous and overpowered, expansive over many genres. Richard's voice doesn't quite match the power of the music. We need Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash or Elvis. Still, it works and it is lovely. 4/5
One of the rare live albums that I can 100 percent imagine being in that place, listening. And the concert is perfect entertainment. Moving from one familiar song to the next, throwing in some completely unknown ones. And June Carter coming in for a few songs to add richness to the text. Best of all, it is a concept album. The songs were collected to be identifiable to the prisoners, so Johnny chose songs about people askance of the law, whether guilty or innocent. Both upbeat and dark, collectively powerful. 4.5/5
Energy Rock! Like an Aerosmith album dropping almost all the dull bits. Each song is unique, a sound to itself. I love almost every song... except "We're Not Supposed To" which is simply irritating. BTW, I love the cover. 4/5
Generally solid music, but Morissey can sometimes be too Whitney or trying too hard. I wished he grooved with the music more. A couple of these songs I love, eg “Bigmouth Strikes Again” but I can’t recommend the album as a whole.
Very punk, for 1969. In some ways, harder and more radical than Jimi. I will need to listen to it a few times to get a hang of the music, but this 60s acid rock is delicious, so I'll enjoy it some more. 4/5
I've listened to this album for the last 55 years, and it is a key to my musical appreciation. Yusuf's voice is gentle and lyrical, his playing is magnificent. This album plus Paul Simon,James Taylor and Carole King are the foundation of the singer-songwriter movement in the 70s. One of the best albums ever. 5/5
If you want a punk album, this is it. Rough, shouty vocals, short songs, musical errors, discordant, not really polished in any way. We get a full punk aesthetic, almost 40 minutes of tension and inspiration to mosh. This isn't pre punk, or post punk, this is the real thing. The lyrics are political, rebellious and powerful. Overall, not my personal style, but if we are music completionists, we have to experience punk. And I am growing to it as I finish the album. Powerful and addictive. We will Bleed begins to allow us to hear the music, and we get that more through the magnificent bass in Shut Down. I appreciate Joan Jet's work here, and I appreciate the influence this movement had on later music. Thanks, yall. 4/5
The "harmonies" on this album are monotonous, the music without melody. I know it's rap, but it is as dull as a room painted black with black furniture. Not for me. 1.5/5
I've been listening to this album since it came out. In the 70s all of us and our cousins had this album. After all these years, it is still a masterclass in song writing, mood and saying more with less. This is one of the best. 5/5
A great sci fi album. Whether it is fully conceptual or not, it is fun. My favorite track is Do you Realize? but it is all a good time. 4/4
Wonderful alternative pop. Ambient mixed with unique beats. Quite fine, but uneven. Some of these tracks are the best in her class, tho.
I believe that an album can truly change in one's listening by having some of the songs be overplayed on the radio. The first half of this album is so good, fresh innovative. The second half is mostly made up of songs that were overplayed in the 80s, and I am still not ready to listen to some of them (Specifically "Every Breath"). I wish I had got this album in the 80s because I would have loved it without a previous listen. 3.5/5
So Dennis Wilson is a Beach Boy. But this album isn't full of the tired harmonies and the bright melodies. This album is occasionally dark and filled with the vocals of a man who has lived a hard life. Classic 70s music. I think this might become one of my favorites. 4.5/5
A mellow drive through the country, meeting your family and gazing over the farms and woods. A plesant drive, but it doesn't really grab me. However, the similarity to Lorde's Solar Power is wonderful for me.
What a fantastic set of rock songs, perfectly crafted, perfectly curated. If only the vocals didn't smear a sharpie all over it. I hate that whiney voice. 3.5/5
Sleepytime Depeche Mode. Still excellent, but I prefer Black Celebration, Construction Time Again, and Music for the Masses.
This is world music I can get into. When Ravi Shankar and George Harrison started mixing Indian and Western Music, this is the nirvana they would have liked to achieve. 4.5/5
Sleepytime Depeche Mode. Still excellent, but I prefer Black Celebration, Construction Time Again, and Music for the Masses. But listening to DM, it’s all good.
This is the metal that I grew up with. Kinda boring, actually. Its all the same, or so it seems to me. 2.5/5
Just brilliant. A huge variety of music, all well produced and edited. I think the section of elders voices was too long, and it ruined the flow. Still, I wish I had heard this as a whole album years ago instead of just bits and pieces.
Everyone says Dylan is a genius. Although he has one other album before this one, this is where his genius begins. His weird humor, his anti-war lyrics, his deceptively simple tunes. Sure, he has a reedy voice and his harmonica is palatable at best, but these are still some of the best songs ever written, and skillfully delivered. 5/5
At first I'm like, "Meh, I like Toad the Wet Sprocket better." Then I keep exploring the layers and variety of this music. I am stunned by Streets of Kenny and Beautiful. Okay, this is a great album, worthy of many more listens. 4.5/5
Someone more skilled in music than I can surely hear the beauty in the complexity. However, I just hear chaos. for many, this is a 5/5. For my ears and my untrained brain, this is a 2/5
I can't believe I've never heard a bit of this album before. It is BIG and powerful and broad. So amazing. It contains so much and gives me new ideas and visions. 5.5
Bowies glam rock phase is my favorite. I'm not as much a fan of the experimental title song, but the combination of this album and Ziggy Stardust is a one-two punch on ho-hum rock that has never been forgotten. 4.5/5
This is the album that fully blended classical Indian and modern Western styles of music. Sometimes it is kinda elevator music, but it is very influential and has some amazing tracks. 4/5
Some great dance tunes on here, but would it hurt to use more than a single phrase repeated through the whole song? I love the punk/alternative/dance mix. It's cool. 4/5
Going between gorgeous folk and upbeat hippie, the album is a pick me up and full of the most gorgeous lyrics. Until the final song, which is a deadly, almost frightening, recognition of reality. 4.5/5
Non stop black power. I can understand why white kids back in the day knew every lyric, sang it loudly, and just didn't get it because they never lived it. Powerful album, a musical representation of all the great black preachers, and yet goes a different direction. It will be hard for me to listen as often as I should, I need to get used to the sonic energy of the band. 4.5/5
A fine psychadelic blues album. So much better than their first album, as much as I love it. Just solid blues rock I could listen to over and over. 4/4
I love listening to the radio, always have. The problem with that is less the songs they play you don't like but the songs you do like and they overplay. 2/3rds of this album was massively overplayed. The songs are great but I just don't want to hear them again. As for my preference, I'd give it a 3.5/5. For the world, it's a 4.5 because it certainly should be heard by evryone.
My favorite version of Van Halen. David Lee Roth vocally swaggers and Eddie VH speeds his guitar. Right on the edge of heavy metal, but because David's voice stays in the blusy range, instead of the high pitched screaming, they stay in the rock range. Full of energy and not a hint of boring. 4/5
Frankly, just not that interesting. I'd rather go back and listen to their second album. 2/5
The Monks– Black Monk Time 60s rock with lots of chanting. Melody is ignored, mostly, but it has a lot of energy. Lyrical work, not so much. Sounds like they had a good time making it, though. 3/5
Somewhere between EDM and Chill. Great background music. 3.5/5
As far as I'm concerned, the heart of the Boss is Born in the USA album. Many Boss fans disagree, but I'll admit that I'm not as serious a fan as many. Generally, I don't have patience to listen to his album from. beginning to end. Except Born. Same with this album. I know this album was made a few years before Born, but if a song is too much like a track on Born, then it is lesser. If a song on this track is innovative and catchy in a way the ones on Born aren't then I want to add it to my playlist. But as a whole I think this album is quite good, but not as good as Born 4/5
Taking classic Christmas songs and making them "cool" with his "wall of sound" at the time must have sounded like the worst idea ever. I'm still shocked at how well it worked. Only one song-- Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)-- really worked, and this was also the only original song for the album. It doesn't all work, but the concept and much of the execution really works. We know because some 60 years later we are still listening. 4/5
Certainly skilled. But it's not my style. I'm impatient to stop focusing on it. 1.5/5
The best, most enduring, of metal albums. Back in the day, we called this \"thrash metal\" while Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden did everyday \"metal\". Now a days, Metalica doesn't sound as edgy, especially in comparison with other kinds of metal. Still, I love these songs, I love this level of rock perfection, I love how this album works, embodying the best of metal rhythm and of rock melody. 4.5/5
Play that funky music, white boys! Powerful dance, stirring up the club. I wish the lyrics had more variety. I wish there was more than just the boom, boom, boom. Great stuff, but it feels like there should be more. And kinda loud. I guess I'm not meant for the club scene. 3/5
Solid post punk album with great blues and country riffs in a couple songs. I'm glad I listened to it, but probably won't listen to it often 3.5/5
If I had heard this album when it was released, it certainly would have been among my favorites beside Depeche Mode, Peter Gabriel and Sam Phillips. Unique, and out-of-your-mind bonkers. It will require much more examination. 4.5/5
Most of this album is some cosmic pre-Radiohead wonderfuless. The last coulple songs sound like a weak version of U2. The album as a whole doesn't get me, but the first part certainly is wonderful. 3.5/5
Stunning. A lot of Bowie, but also so much unique, spacey vibe. I love it. 4.5/5
British psychedelia tended to look back, toward childhood, or, like here, someone else's childhood. The guitar work is fantastic, but I'm not a fan of the brass. Still, I can see how the Kinks might be considered "the foremost band" as one of my friends claimed. Still, Beatles and Stones and Floyd before this. But they desperately deserve to have a landmark place in the history of rock. "Austailia" and "Shangri-la" are two of the greatest songs of the 60s.
Pretty standard metal, which I usually find pretty dull. A couple of the songs have something extra, such as Teacher's Pet, but generally they stick to the fast-guitar-shouty-vocals shtick. 2.5/5
What a unique mix, tied together by hip hop. A little bit of everything. The longer songs are the better ones for me-- Water and Breaking It Off were great. 4/5
What a jubilant party with celtic rock! 4/5
What a wonderful, but familiar mix Morrison has. Blues, jazz, folk,and something that one can't put a finger on. That is more true of his album Astral Weeks, but this album, although having familiar radio tunes, has a deeper meaning together than separate. 4/5
I'm a Beatles fanatic. I have always loved the Beatles since I can remember. And this man, is one of the main reasons why. I can hear this album being an extension of the White Album, along with Harrison's first solo. Certainly one of the greatest albums. 4.5/5
I hadn't really noticed that most of the albums I consider "great" are also pretty depressing. They might be ironic or heartfelt, but rarely just happy. I was surprised listening to this album how upbeat many of these songs are. And how much I enjoyed them. They remind me of Paul MacCartney's "granny" songs, which I also really enjoy. 4/5
It does sound like "common" rap. Or perhaps it's truly innovative. I don't have much of a baseline for rap to know. I have to hold it lightly until I listen a couple more times. 3/3
Full of the soul I love, all mixed in a pot with a funky groove. I love it already. 4.5/5
The only Tom Waits song I've heard before this listen is his version of Heigh Ho, which felt very industrial and his rough voice felt perfect. What surprised me in this album is how much the same his style is and how much variety there is from song to song. It is all powerfully rhythmic and wonderfully sung with reduced melodic impact, but each song is clearly reaching for a different genre, while all of it, in the end, is simply Tom Waits. Perfect. 4.5/5
One of the initiators of progressive rock, of course I like this album. It feels less like symphonic rock, and more of a musical based on a dystopia novel. Very dramatic and intense but not the kind of music I'm looking for in progressive rock. Perhaps that label is misplaced for me. Still, it is full of inspiring and innovative rock. 4/5 for personal preference. 4.5 for influence on future rock.
Kings of the catchy hook and southern rock anthems. Makes me feel good all day long. 4/5