An excellent album, made more poignant by the fact that it was his last album released before he died (prehumously?) Leonard Cohen has always struck me as an unhappy dude, trying to find peace in religion or a near religious fervor of love & coitus, and ultimately stuggling with how both are deeply human. What I love in 'You Want it Darker" is how the love of his muse, his troubled mentor (whom he later describes as a 'filthy beggar, guessing), and the capital G God are intertwined almost inseparably. The OG Tortured poet. Fav: Treaty, for the verse "I heard the snake was baffled by his sin... The poison enters everything". I fear I still don't quite get the titular track, You Want It Darker, which I am assuming is on me considering it is the most well known of the album.

fine for grilling burgers , a little samey. i do like simple man

Best one yet Liked that it was international, the story, familiar musical elements but also different

quite good! i wish the french version was listed first

timeless classic sound, which comes with it never sounding terribly adventurous

An excellent album, made more poignant by the fact that it was his last album released before he died (prehumously?) Leonard Cohen has always struck me as an unhappy dude, trying to find peace in religion or a near religious fervor of love & coitus, and ultimately stuggling with how both are deeply human. What I love in 'You Want it Darker" is how the love of his muse, his troubled mentor (whom he later describes as a 'filthy beggar, guessing), and the capital G God are intertwined almost inseparably. The OG Tortured poet. Fav: Treaty, for the verse "I heard the snake was baffled by his sin... The poison enters everything". I fear I still don't quite get the titular track, You Want It Darker, which I am assuming is on me considering it is the most well known of the album.

pretty alright, no complaints. I enjoyed the album but I'd Love to know some context from the guy who made 1001 must listen albums about why this one in particular. My main takeaway is how usually when I say an album doesn't sound like it was made the year it was made, I am talking about how an old album sounds like it could have been made very recently. This didn't sound like a 2010 album because I would have assumed it was a good bit older. Whether that makes it stale or an homage to the Zombies is a matter of taste

Hell yeah 4/5

For the longest time I never gave Radiohead a fair chance. I had always assumed Radiohead was too angst, too sad for my taste. (Of course, the few songs I happened to hear I invariably love, as well as some of the members’ later projects) But this is the first album on my list that made me say “oh shoot, why hadn’t I heard this earlier?” 10/10, I’m hooked

pretty good. I haven't listened to this since I was a kid, and I think I was holding a little too much U2 resentment since they put an album on my iPod touch without my consent, burrowing their way into my shuffle. That album wasn't great. This one is solid.

I've got a theory that "imagine" is ironic. He asks "why can't we all be nice? no war, no fighting, not that hard guys!" and then every other song answers his own question, seemingly without him realizing. 'just a jealous guy', 'how do you sleep', ' i frickin hate hypocrites'... its a budding theory, i haven't ironed out the kinks. Maybe I just think it would be funny if the universal "give peace a chance" anthem were written as a joke, and he never got the chance to lift the veil. Maybe that's nihilistic Great album, 4/5

he said it himself- he makes music for high school kids. this did bring me back to freshman year (In the worst way). tough one to finish, but its not for lack of skill

"Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" is a standout track, I love the loving intro. I thought it was a pure instrumental track and was satisfied, but it only got better halfway through. Bit jarring to follow it with Unhappy Birthday, which was... not my favorite. Overall a pretty fine record, not the Smiths album I would have chosen but not bad

Pop sellout garbage. I was in a wannabe-joy-division punk band in college. I was excited for this one, really! Someone needs to bonk this guy on the head and remind him he's a terrible singer, and that was OK in previous albums. This is a must-listen as far as it is a warning for any artist getting too big for their britches and think they're hot stuff.

Hell yeah

Pleasantly surprised by how much I actually knew off this album. Not my genre, but I grew up with a lot of these. I was also impressed by the range of style of both Aguilera and the production . It was dreadfully long, though. I made it through ‘soar’, thought that Must be the end, and realized there were 6 more songs. 1 hr 17 minutes? Have mercy please.

Quite good. Monty Python would describe it a good woody album, not tinny at all

Hell yeah brother What else can I even say here

Pretty great stuff, definitely influential. there's a bassline in here that 100% must have inspired DEVO. I'm surprised I never heard of this, glad to have had the chance. My punk history isn't as good as I would like

I don’t understand enough of anything to quantify how good this album is, but I was hooked line and sinker. How he can put together so many concepts, so many genres so cleanly is remarkable. Big winner here

Apparently there’s a lot of history going on here, and it was indeed good enough for me to want to delve into it.

lmao. for real? Planet Rock was alright, it was the best of the bunch by far. the PerfectBeat was the least compelling beat of the album. Where were these guys at? i spent most of this album wishing it were the Digital Underground.

Hell yeah man

wildly good, i just wish when he said 'no one man should have all that power' he wasnt talking about jews. everyone wanted to be on a kanye track until ... they didnt. 5/5, and also 1/5

Going to go against the grain here and say It's just good. I think I prefer when they're plugged

Thematically, there are two songs: baby I love you, and baby I miss you. No points docked for that, I think it's a plus. A modern "I'll cry if I want to" by Lesley Gore, which I know realize might be an apt description as this album apparently revamped the teen pop genre. I recommend the deluxe edition for the club edits of ... Baby one more time, they're a time capsule of what remixes wanted to sound like in 1999

Give me more of this

Is it Kid A? no. Is that a really high bar? certainly yes. I was in less of a constant fugue-like dream for this one compared to Kid A, which is a minus, but I suppose the plus is it's easier to listen to with company.

You hear half this album and you've heard all of CCR

I groove with this, I rock with this. Most undoubtedly I fuck with this

The first half of this album is a 5/5 for “raising kids” music. My mom loves U2, and I heard every track on here so many times growing up. The sappy lyrics, the spacey wailing vocals, the instrumentation, all as familiar and to me as the color of my bedroom or my childhood dog. I’m almost now my mom’s age when she first had kids, and this is hitting in a way I can’t say I expected. Stepping back from sentiment , the second half kind of dawdles

It’s pretty good, but I honestly can’t stand the cover of Across the Universe

If these guys were contemporary with their genre, they would be 60% as interesting as anyone else. But they're not, and that's worse. Instead, it sounds like a 40th anni reunion tour that lost its spark, but without any original. It sounds like they were familiar enough with Americana to know that Mark Knopfler could jam on an intro/outro for 4+ minutes, but not enough to know that Mark Knopfler could do that because he had chops.

Guy has some really interesting melodies and chord progressions. Its irresistable (and markedly difficult) to whistle along

Yeah, I like this. Great album for babies - he likes to sing about animals and places

I foolishly went into this wondering “isn’t a-ha the quintessential one-hit-wonder band? Does the album with Take On Me really warrant a must listen?” I was immediately corrected. This is excellent, genuine, dramatic and sincere stuff. Have you heard Manhattan Skyline?

I came in skeptical for another old rock album that for it's way here on some guy's nostalgia. There's no playing around though- this is some tasty stuff. I was fully in it, head rocking, all that jazz, until Smoke on the Water. Maybe it's because it's all anyone could 'play' in middle school music class when they got out the guitars, but I couldnt seriously enjoy the song. Which is a shame, considering its probably more interesting than I ever realized.

I get it, they did that one song about Vietnam. I can see maybe one Creedence album on this list, but just cause 2 albums have 1 song worthwhile each doesn't make them both a 'must-listen'

This is a hit. Big fan here, glad I heard it

Surprised by this. I expected more junk nostalgia mix, as I’ve come to expect from the list. What I forgot was that these guys are nerds for music theory and technique, and that makes the best rock/metal. Good stuff

Smooth operator? 10/10 The rest? Absolute snore. I thought “hey, maybe it’s just the genre that’s not for me.” No, every song that came on recommended after was a banger. This was just so same after Smooth Operator

This album would have been great about 4 years ago after my last hard breakup. As it is, it's not my favorite Sinead O'Connor album, but still pretty good stuff

Somehow I never realized these were all on one album. This is like a greatest hits

Quality stuff. Interesting that this kicked off the US craze for bossa nova, but of course it had to be the white guys' rendition. I wonder if there are any Brazilian bossa nova albums on here. If this is music I "must hear," I think it should be the music that Stan Gets heard, no? I'm sure he would think so

They're having a good time, I'm having a good time, everyone's happy. Real good stuff

I feel like this is the missing link between 80's Elvis Costello and 90's rock. Fantastic piece

I can't decide if this is a 2 or a 5. It's a 5 because this is really excellent, top notch. It makes me think I'm in a dirty basement in a college town, fog machine running, cheap lights. In the corner, a couple on something- who knows what- is getting a little too handsy and a little too undressed. Between sets I dropped my earplugs case while passing around a joint and a cig, and when I go back up to get it they ask me what are the pills inside. Estrogen and Adderall, I have class in the morning. It's only a 2 because deep in my heart I don't believe people listen to ~albums~ of this music. The subgenres are hyperlocal and niche because the artists know everyone that plays around here, and the variation in the gene pool is from those two guys from Worcester who come around every once in a while. I'm hitting 5 because I know the low scores here probably just don't get it, but I think you had to be there

4/5 for the vibe, minus 2 for "jailbait."

Big fan of Björk and the Sugarcubes, I was actually not wowed by this. There were some real winners here (Venus as a boy, Come to me, Anchor Song--a brilliant outro) , I was here for the Weird. I just don't feel like its very cohesive sonically for a debut album. Björk's vocals remain Björk, but the everything else can't decide what it's going for.

I wish I could quantify what separates Good trancy electronica from bad. It really is an ineffable groove, or something. Whatever it is, this has it in spades

Some good fortune that the US release has watching the detectives. Great album

I love when British bands get a little "pish-posh queen of England", and dont realize how weird they are for it

I can't remember if I first heard these songs in Twisted Metal or ATV Off-road Fury on the PS1 & PS2, but goddamn does it bring me back

I can understand the significance but it didn't really do it for me

Its exactly what it says on the tin

A relentless display of skill

Man, what a drag. The mix and instrumentation suggest that these ballads are carried by the lyrics, but they're just not that great. She keeps threatening to do something interesting and then backing off. Way too long. "Precious Things" was ... almost good

Quite good. I made the mistake of listening to this when I was late for work and thought I'd hated it. On second listen (casually doing some bike cleaning on my own time) I love it

Dreamy sleepy sappy

Great Beats

Peter Gabriel is capable of doing some epic shit. Peter Gabriel 3 and 4 are non-stop tour de forces of very cohesive sound, and some of my favorite albums . PG1 is... Interesting, because it's incohesive. I feel like it's his first foray finding his own sound after Genesis, and so its all of his experimental pistons firing at once. It's not my favorite, but I still really do like it. In between a 3 and a 4 star

Undeniably good, a little long

This list is trying to make me metalhead, and it's so working. This rips the whole way through,starting strong and only getting better.