Obvious references are Radiohead and Flaming Lips but YHF leans less heavily on studio tricks than either of those bands. Compared to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots it has clearer provenance and compared to Kid A it is a lot more accessible. The trade-off is that it's more boring than either of those records. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart begins with a pleasant musique concrete hum which continues in one form or another throughout the album. There's a nice contrast between the warm and fuzzy guitar tone and hum and the story of regret. Kamera is an indie rock song and it would be fine if I turned on the radio with friends in the car to find it playing. Radio Cure starts with quite a nice tense acoustic guitar strum but occasionally swells into a twee pop thing at odds with the message about a long distance relationship. The single War on War is a fun and upbeat number with a climax that pays tribute to Sonic Youth. Jesus Etc. starts a bit more interesting with a lounge number with surrealist lyrics and a fiddle. Ashes of the American Flag is indie sludge that shows you everything that was wrong with music in the 2000s. The other single Heavy Metal Drummer has the best studio work, with breaks and a heavy synthetic bass line in the chorus making it the rare Indies song that you could dance to. I'm the Man Who Loves You keeps the energy going with a country tinged song with simple yet effective lyrics and some great brass. Pot Kettle Black is a pretty standard indie pop number which does nothing for the album. Mellotrons are nice I suppose. Poor Places again channels Sonic Youth with lyrics that could have come straight out of Thurston Moore mouth before a pop resolution which morphs into a kind of cool instrumental vamp and then back to noise. Reservations is a ponderous and overwrought love song which is entirely skippable. The final three minutes of slow piano chords and the ubiquitous radio noises are fine but won't win any awards for sound design. As an unrepentant jungle and IDM freak I was surprised by how often the overdubs and abstract stuff in the album felt like it took away from the story telling. I know the album is full of radio themes but why? There are flashes of brilliance and a few songs which I'd put on a mixtape for my girlfriend but ultimately this isn't earth shattering. On the one hand what they did to secure the master and self release on the internet was super cool, but I think if a label had a bit more control and cut the length by 15-20 minutes this could have been a 4.

Combining the worst of jazz and rock we aren't off to a good start with a prog album... Overall says nothing that Pink Floyd hadn't in the preceding decade. Bloody Well Right has moments of groove ruined by tenor sax noodling. Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson's love of the keyboard. Hide Your Shell is years behind Bowie, who was already looking past glam with Diamond Dogs. Listening to this you can literally hear John Lydon straining to rip it up and start again. Asylum is an over orchestrated ballad mitigated only by some wild vocals by Davies at the end. The album single Dreamer is the standout, with a catchy hook leaning into their London accents. Nonetheless the structure of the track betrays it, the lack of verses means it cannot claim its place as a successful straight pop song. Rudy has some great classic rock moments but ultimately repeats the mistakes of Bloody Well Right, occasionally sounding like Kenny G had wandered into the wrong studio before quickly exiting. If Everyone Was Listening and the Title track are pointless prog ballads. Like all prog most of the tracks are needlessly over 5 minutes with over-complicated structures and are in desperate need of a producer with a razor blade.

Worthy successors of Ali Farka Toure's legacy building the link between West Africa and the US Songhoy Blues blend blues rythyms with more sophisticated Malian techniques on Music in Exile. Soubour combines Malian lead with blues rhythm sections. Al Hassidi Terei goes one step further by incorporating time signature changes and polymeters(?). Sekou Oumarou finds the synthesis with a stripped back 2/4 call and response. Nick sounds like something straight out of the Chess back catalogue with a strong electric 12-bar blues. Al Tchere Bele takes us furthest away from the blues paradigm featuring complex rythyms and anxious guitar melodies and vocals. Kaira Arby provides beautiful backing vocals to Wayei, another track closer to Malian traditional music. Petit Metier starts with a familiar yet distinctive vocal intro before introducing almost gospel choir call and response. Jolie begins with a syncopated ballad before slowly building up to something reminiscent of Rokia Kone's Bamanan (2022). Desert Melodies and Mali round out the album with simple traditional sounding techniques on guitar and vocal. While many of the tracks feature virtuoso Malian, blues and R&B guitar they are mixed bass forward, recognising the importance of the rhythm section in all the styles they incorporate.

By 1975 classic rock was already being eclipsed in the charts by Elton John and a plethora of excellent funk acts. In this environment Springsteen entered the scene sounding like he has lung cancer every time he tries to belt out a verse. Columbia was paying attention to trends though and the album is saved by a magpie approach to production, with the E Street Band stretching across multiple genres and styles while staying faithful to their rock aspirations. Thunder Road is a Twangy country rock that probably sounded a lot fresher 50 years ago. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out is a competent motown tribute. Night is a bit more interesting as an up tempo love song about knocking off work. Backstreets is an unintended gay masterpiece about making out with a non binary person. The title track has a legitimately spine tingling chorus although by this point we're rehashing lyrical themes. She's The One takes some sixties pop riffs in an interesting direction. Meeting Across the River is the best track from a structural and vocal standpoint, starting with a great little sax solo and prefacing a tragic meeting. Jungleland ends the album with a pretty epic sax solo. While there's a lot of competent music on here the phill spector style of throwing pianos and strings at everything doesn't really work with the lyrics and I wonder what this album would have sounded like if they'd taken the 'less is more' approach more common in the second half of the decade.

Very pure punk album from before the Clash started experimenting with other genres and styles. Some very satisfying tracks, stripping back all of the pointlessness of prog and studio rock in the 1970s and criticising the state of Britain. White Riot and London Burning are now classics, but sitting here at the end of 2024 Police and Thieves is the standout, already looking past punk, which was always going to be a self terminating movement. The moments of dub are artfully executed given the otherwise handsoff studio production. Garageland is a great reflection on what was going on with punk (and maybe a shot across the bow of Malcolm McLaren?) Structurally there's a lot more going on than Never Mind the Bollocks or Ramones, it's not surprising that The Clash pushed boundaries for a longer time than either of the other two although ultimately it limits the impact of this album compared to the statement made by Never Mind the Bollocks or the sheer energy of Ramones.

A seminal album which sets the foundation for all the good rock and roll in the 70s. I had actually convinced myself that this was a post 1969 album and was surprised to see so much cynicism and sleaziness in a rock album from 1967. I was also surprised to see how much bands like Sonic Youth had taken from the solos and production styles of the album. Sunday Morning is a lullaby for clubbers with blissed out strings and slightly paranoid lyrics. Waiting For The Man set the tone for the late sixties and seventies and shows Bowie the way forward. Nico presages Kim Gordon on Femme Fatale with a production style that wouldn't have been out of place on a Sonic Youth album in the early 90s. Venus in Furs is the sleaziest piece of psych ever created and Lou Reed's. Run Run Run is a blues standard mutated by screeching guitar solos. All Tomorrow's Parties could only have been sung by a Berliner (and a seamstress no less), stoically meditating on the inevitability of partying. Heroin is fairly boring as far as melody but structurally foreshadows the quiet /loud style of grunge even if the link to the lyrical heroin rush is a bit trite. There She Goes Again subverts expectations by using a 60s pop vehicle to talk about hustling and violence against women. I'll Be Your Mirror is the low point of the album, the lyrics' optimism clashes with the rest of the album and the song itself does nothing. The Black Angel's Death Song gets the album back on track by force-feeding Woodie Guthrie LSD and manipulating him into joining a violent sex cult. John Cale's viola performance is truly unhinged. European Son closes out the album in a cacophony of guitars phasing between styles (is there some surf rock in there?) The themes and lyrics are refreshingly upfront and don't hide behind the need to sanitise allusions for commercial appeal (which this album never had). This album deserves a 5 just for how futuristic it is (even if that future is a tired and filthy and poorly recorded one).

Obvious references are Radiohead and Flaming Lips but YHF leans less heavily on studio tricks than either of those bands. Compared to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots it has clearer provenance and compared to Kid A it is a lot more accessible. The trade-off is that it's more boring than either of those records. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart begins with a pleasant musique concrete hum which continues in one form or another throughout the album. There's a nice contrast between the warm and fuzzy guitar tone and hum and the story of regret. Kamera is an indie rock song and it would be fine if I turned on the radio with friends in the car to find it playing. Radio Cure starts with quite a nice tense acoustic guitar strum but occasionally swells into a twee pop thing at odds with the message about a long distance relationship. The single War on War is a fun and upbeat number with a climax that pays tribute to Sonic Youth. Jesus Etc. starts a bit more interesting with a lounge number with surrealist lyrics and a fiddle. Ashes of the American Flag is indie sludge that shows you everything that was wrong with music in the 2000s. The other single Heavy Metal Drummer has the best studio work, with breaks and a heavy synthetic bass line in the chorus making it the rare Indies song that you could dance to. I'm the Man Who Loves You keeps the energy going with a country tinged song with simple yet effective lyrics and some great brass. Pot Kettle Black is a pretty standard indie pop number which does nothing for the album. Mellotrons are nice I suppose. Poor Places again channels Sonic Youth with lyrics that could have come straight out of Thurston Moore mouth before a pop resolution which morphs into a kind of cool instrumental vamp and then back to noise. Reservations is a ponderous and overwrought love song which is entirely skippable. The final three minutes of slow piano chords and the ubiquitous radio noises are fine but won't win any awards for sound design. As an unrepentant jungle and IDM freak I was surprised by how often the overdubs and abstract stuff in the album felt like it took away from the story telling. I know the album is full of radio themes but why? There are flashes of brilliance and a few songs which I'd put on a mixtape for my girlfriend but ultimately this isn't earth shattering. On the one hand what they did to secure the master and self release on the internet was super cool, but I think if a label had a bit more control and cut the length by 15-20 minutes this could have been a 4.

CCR and this album in particular hold a special place in my heart - this tape (along with the Big Chill soundtrack) were practically stuck in the tape deck on family road trips. Because of this I had to put it on while I went for a long drive. The album holds up well on a revisit. Despite their rep as a singles band the filler tracks show the highs and lows. Ramble Tamble starts with a surprisingly funky groove before indulging in some credible psych rock. All the singles are gold with the exception of As Long as I Can See the Light which is a nice ballad but a bit ponderous. Only thing stopping this from getting a 5 is that it isn't trying to accomplish anything new. It feels more like a Swan song for rock and a reminder of where it came from which maybe is important as a beacon for the dark days of the early 70s.

Pete Tosh comes out from the shadow of the Wailer's with a great reggae and rocksteady album which, while masterfully produced is let down by fairly generic vocals. The album starts with the title track, the questionable medical advice in the lyrics play a back seat to dub mixing and psychedelic phaser effects on the backing vocals. I never realised the links between dub, Burial and General Levy revealed in the second track. Watcha Gonna Do feels a bit lame with the corny organ drowning out some good guitar skank. Wailer's classic No Sympathy gets back on track with a heavy hook and lyrics. Why Must I Cry opens with a soul break and heartbreak, again the synths feel a bit out of place but at least sit in the back of the mix this time. The proselytising on Igziabeher falls flat but there are some great piano vamps at the end. Ketchy Shuby is a nice little rocksteady number but isn't going to blow minds. Till Your Well Runs Dry constantly shifts between a ballad about an on again off again relationship and a reggae skank chorus. Brand New Second Hand closes out the album with more dub mixing. The return of the synths in this song doesn't grate as much as the others. Beautifully arranged with a complex roster of studio musicians, the album demonstrates Tosh's natural musicality. The mixing is bass forward as it should be. Sets the scene for Tosh's brilliant solo career.

Forgettable, indulgent, sub-Bowie glam. A cynical cash in. Occasionally good hooks (Whizz Kids, Violence) ruined by over-production and those annoying talking/singing vocals. Drivin' Sister is about as good as it gets thanks to a simpler structure, much more restrained arrangement (although not immune from studio tricks) and a few proto-punk guitar riffs. I'm a Cadillac has some okay psych noodling. It's telling that the best two tracks are not in the style of the rest of the album. Really struggled to devote much headspace to this, looking at Allmusic it's supposed to be a wry commentary on rock and roll? Maybe some other glam rockers can transcend that self-reflexive pop thing but not these guys.

The Rolling Stones play competent blues covers on their debut album. The Stones are at their best when they put the rock and roll elements in front. I Just Want to Make Love to You ramps up the energy of the Muddy Waters original. Carol rocks hard. Slower bluesier tracks like Honest I Do and I'm a King Bee don't really feel sincere coming out of Mick Jagger's lips. The poppier Tell Me is actually a lot more exciting than a lot of the other tracks and makes you wonder what would have happened if the Stones took as varied a path as the Beatles did. While everyone knows the Beatles vs Stones rivalry I think a more fruitful comparison is with the Sonics who shared a similar stylistic focus to the Stones. When you put this up against The Sonics' singles from the same time it's really clear how much less rock and roll the Stones were. Compared to the Sonics heaving version, the Stones' version of Walking the Dog right at the end lacks rhythm and leaves the album feeling fairly derivative. The Stones are one of the greatest bands of the 20th century and its well deserved for their live act and subsequent albums, if it weren't for the fact that this is the start of something amazing it would probably have scored lower.

Run DMC's third album goes hard and Rick Rubin knows how to get the white boys into rap. This album and its four singles represent rap finally being recognised in the charts. Peter Piper is pretty standard 80s rap riffing on nursery rhymes over a stripped back mardis gras beat. Rubin and Jam Master Jay's pop genius is on display with It's Tricky sampling My Sharona. My Adidas continues to demonstrate Jay's chops on the deck with a series of complicated scratch routines over a clever homage to Adidas. The Walk this Way cover achieves the seemingly impossible task of making 80s hard rock funky (although points off for paving the way for rap rock I suppose). Is it Live struggles to squeeze some groove out of an 808 and while the boasting is fun it hasn't aged well. Perfection keeps things stripped back with a (live?) drum track and more lyrical boasting. Hit it Run brings back the turntablism and amps up the vocals with Run and DMC aggressively spitting bars. You can see where the LA rappers got their ideas from. The title track brings the guitar locks back but the vocals don't maintain the energy. You be Illin has some great storytelling in the style of the Biz. Dumb Girl has a great 808 and feels like a bit of inspo for Memphis. Proud to be Black closes the album with an important message for the bigger audience the album attracted. 1986 is a huge year for rap (Licensed to I'll, Eric B is President, The Source, Kool Moe Dee, 2 Live Crew). Not sure what else we're going to see from this year in the list but Raising Hell earns it's place for figuring out how to give rap commercial appeal. Anyone who got rich rapping in subsequent decades owes this album a lot.

Not feeling confident after seeing the MS Paint cover. I could have gotten Nevermind or Loveless or Screamadelica or Low End Theory but noooo, the RNG had to give me this gen x sludge. The Concept opens the album with a by the numbers indie rock number with some truly atrocious lyrics although some nice harmonisation in the chorus. They add insult to injury with a few minutes of prog guitar noodling at the end. Last 20 seconds of Satan rocks but only increases my concern that the rest of the album is going to be ponderous and frustrating. December confirms my suspicions. What You Do to Me recovers a bit with an acceptable glam number (although the lyrics remain vapid). I Don't Know occasionally has some My Bloody Valentine style dissonance but otherwise remains in the comfortably mediocre depths. Star Sign continues the primary school level rhyming (why do they sing with American accents?). Metal Baby has some nice jangly moments but is let down by a forgettable chorus and would have had more impact at half the length. Pet Rock as a title and as a track perfectly encapsulates what this album is. Tenor sax in a rock song tells you all you need to know about their sensibilities. By the time we get to Sidewinder I'm ready to hit the eject button. The final track Is This Music is actually pretty alright, the fact that it's an instrumental should clue you in to what's wrong with the album. The drums sound like they were recorded inside a sofa. There are occasional noisy bits at the start and end of all their songs. They would have had much better effect stringing those together and releasing it as a single than wasting my time with this nonsense.

Fetch the Boltcutters is a great little piece of anxious pop. Complicated percussion tumbles over sometimes beautiful and sometimes dissonant piano and vocals. I Want You to Love Me opens with some wonky percussion before revealing a wonderful piano line and Apple singing about love. The addition of a double bass in the second half makes it even more powerful. Shameika amps up the energy with the same piano motifs combined with improvised percussion creating a tumultuous song about not fitting in. The title track continues the themes of Shameika but at a slower pace. Under the Table borrows blues and gospel structure, maybe a little too much. The rap style vocals don't necessarily hit the mark but there is some redemption in the bridge. Relay status with an anxious chant about evil before returning to the less enjoyable rapping. Again the song is saved by a fun improvised bridge. Rack of His tells a story infatuation with an anxious string line. Newspaper opens with a desolate percussion track before lyrics about what's shared between women who've had a relationship (and not necessarily a good one) with the same man. Ladies continues this theme with a more conventional pop structure. Heavy Balloon starts with a stripped back percussion and bass track which slowly grows in frustration. Cosmonauts starts with dubby percussion before morphing into a fun pop track about devotion. For Her is a hyperactive song speculating about other people. Something that could only be written from neurodivergence or trauma and not necessarily as fun as it sounds at first. As the name suggests Drumset has one of the better percussion tracks in an album that should be pleasing to anyone who enjoys good rythyms. On I Go is what I imagine Mike Patton would write if he was a woman. The track closes without resolution and leaves you feeling confused about what you just went through - the perfect conclusion. Formally the album is a treat. Arrangements quickly change pace and climaxes quickly melt into delicate and vulnerable solos. Choruses and overdubs come and go seemingly without reason. The improvised percussion and disjointed production style owes a lot to Matmos. The lyrical theme of the complex relationships that women have is worthy of Apple's treatment. I can definitely see how this album would be divisive, and I can already think of quite a few subsequent female singer-songwriter albums that sound like copies of this. The rapping isn't really called for and sometimes the chants and repeated phrases start to grate (noting that this is what I think she's going for) Suspect it won't age well if the copycats continue but this is nonetheless a great album.

Very credible album from the Doors. I'm mostly surprised by how funky some of the tracks can get. Roadhouse Blues is a fairly traditional 12 bar blues song but with occasional psych vocal flourishes from Morrison. Waiting for the Sun has an organ line that presages Suicides synthetic punk. The song lurches from a quite pretty intro into an intense and anxious middle section. You Make Me Real has some great 8:4 drumming in the chorus, adding some interest to an otherwise traditional 50s rock number. Peace Frog is a nice little piece of funk. Bue Sunday slows things down with swirling organs and Morrison crooning about love. Land Ho! is a regrettable bluesy number which shouldn't have made the cut. The Spy is stripped back paranoid blues. Queen of the Highway is another funk number, constantly shifting from psych rock to blues and back. Indian Summer is a very slow and beautiful piece of psych. The album ends with another dirty blues song with Maggie M'Gill. Bruce Botnick's engineering is impeccable. The mixing positions instruments sensibly and captures the dynamic song structures perfectly. The album integrates a lot of diverse ideas in seemingly simple tracks.

Fine blues rock. Sort of bridges the gap between Muddy Waters and Sabbath. Waiting for the Bus has some proper chugging bits. Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers is practically hair metal with a few 'virtuouso' solos over the most boring bass line you can imagine. Master of Sparks hints at something more interesting in the intro before reverting to type. Precious and Grace is the highlight, essentially a Sabbath song, with a stripped back bassline cascading guitar fills and Dusty Hill reaching for Ozzy Osborne lyrics. La Grange rocks hard with the John Lee Hooker groove but also reveals that unlike Sabbath, at the core this is just white boy blues and isn't trying to accomplish anything new. Sheik is a funky number with stabbing guitar licks, it's fun coming off like a Stevie Wonder/Hendrix/Average White Band tribute. I suppose this album is fine but I'm sitting here in the 2020s with the music industry in shambles and every song ever written at my fingertips. If I want to listen to blues I'll listen to the originals.

What a lovely surprise! A wonderful piece of soul from an artist I'd never heard of. The album weaves jazz, soul and motown arrangements with psychedelic lyrics and Nyro's impressive vocal range. While the album is full of high energy songs Nyro's vocals and piano excel in the quiet bits. The songs all take full advantage of this, with regular tempo changes and unaccompanied solos. This is used to excellent effect in Poverty Train, where they accentuate the psychedelic peaks created by Jope Farrell's flute. The album is dense with ideas and the songs don't really conform to traditional pop structures, but the seams don't really show and you are left with the impression of cohesive songs and themes across the album. The back half of the album is the highlight with the strong rythym section in Woman's Blues accentuating its sophisticated songwriting.

1978 was a great year for synthesizers, with Kraftwerk in full swing, Human League's first single and Gary Numan's first solo album right around the corner. The Cars is much more accessible for the rock and roll heads. Interestingly the band members met in Cleveland in the 60s. The album released the same year as Devo's first one and the parallels are easy to hear. Something in the water I guess... When this opened with anxious guitar and keening vocals in Let the Good Times Roll I had to double check that this wasn't a Gary Numan project. I had to check again when the synths come in. I had to check a third time when the bass arpeggio starts. My Best Friend's Girl is a little more trad rock with some decent fake banjo solos over lyrics about stealing girlfriends. Its not amazing and its let down by a corny refrain at the end. In 2025 this doesn't sound like it should have been a single. Just What I Needed is a classic, the complicated phrasing changes in the beat is something I hadn't noticed before and adds to the subtle motoric influences without going full Kraftwerk. I'm in Touch with Your World goes nods towards Cleveland with angular guitars and synth flourishes. Don't Cha Stop continues the Devo love and actually sounds a lot more like some of Devo's later work. Bye Bye Love weave the synth and guitar lines perfectly in wailing solos, interspersed with crooning from Ocasek. Moving in Stereo goes back to the goth/hard rock from earlier in the album and creates a great sense of desolation while still rocking out. All Mixed Up almost makes the same mistakes as Best Friend's Girl but has some redeeming harmonies from the chorus. It makes the fatal mistake of closing out with a tenor sax. Occasional proggy moments never get out of hand. Some critics are noting that the lyrics are sarcastic and ironic but I think in the context of the year they are a lot more sincere than Hutter or Mothersbaugh or Oakey. I'm not sure if that's what's making me shy away from giving this a 5 - the lyrics are not as sly as other post punk acts from the era and the classic love song motifs don't gel with the futuristic sounds. Also tenor sax right at the end leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Folk taking full advantage of state of the art recording techniques. Its fun to hear Williamson go wild on different instruments in the arrangements but the whole thing is let down by hippy dippy psych lyrics... like.... its cool and all, and there's some mind-bending stereo tricks and all but you can tell these guys really _believed it_ The album is the best when its restrained. The Very Cellular Song demonstrates this when it changes tack halfway from polyphonic nonsense from the first half of the album to a limited set of voices and some beautiful melancholy harmonies. Unfortunately its 13 minutes long (!) and the first half really says nothing (literally and metaphorically) that hasn't already been said in the first 15 minutes of the album. Three is a Green Crown is the highlight and almost elevates the album to something great with that kind of pulsating tension that makes Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit such a hit. The exotic instruments are out in full and my face is melting by the seventh minute. Swift is the Wind serves as a lovely coda to the song. Unfortunately most of the rest of the album is tonally at odds with it. Any album of essentially two players and this much instrumentation is a technical achievement, but their virtuosity lacks the discipline and erudition of the Mothers. There's a good single here but you have to wade through a lot of self-indulgence to get to the gem.

Recorded in New York, this tribute to Illinois achieves the dubious feat of being naand boring at the same time While all the elements (and there are a lot) are beautifully arranged, they are thoroughly predictable and the songs all blur into one. Its hard to really pick out anything as special. Whether its a happy song or a sad song it still kind of all feels the same. I suppose you could argue that this is the intention of a good album, that it takes you 'on a journey', but in this case the journey is very long (its only a day's drive to Chicago!) The Blues inflected Jacksonville is the highlight with cascading banjo and countered by string. Do I need a song to learn about the town of Jacksonville, Illinois (pop. 17,616)? No. Poppier moments like Chicago feel trite and over-done nowadays, and I don't think would have actually been that exciting back in 2005 either. My last album was Incredible String Band which I think suffered from the same problem in terms of baroque virtuosity and self-indulgence. I singled it out for having nonsense lyrics but now I realise that the alternative is even worse, the didactic stories about Chicago make it clear just how far away from the ground Stevens is here. In 20 years Stevens has managed two states from his 50 States series. I'm not going to reward failure.

Disco and prog inflected funk from some of the best players of the 70s should be an instant five but unfortunately this album melts too far into the background for a band full of big, iconoclastic personalities. As promised the title track unites nations under a very groovy and fully fleshed out rythym section. Worrell's synthesizer flourishes add an edge to what is otherwise a very laid back track. Groovallegience invented calypso funk. Not necessarily surprised it didn't go any further than this song but the Belafonte indulgences are redeemed by some excellent bass and drum breaks. Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock? rocks with the confidence of the only bandleader ready to inherit Hendrix's legacy. The Doo Doo song would be a great interlude in a live performance but definitely drags a bit on the album. The album starts to drag after the highs of One Nation. Into You improves things by combining classic blues with some highly technical bass grooves from Collins and a wonderful baritone from Clinton. Cholly reprises the disco themes of One Nation Under a Groove and is a great little low-key tracks. One of my favourite things in a Funkedelic track are the murmurs and chattering that are woven through the backing vocals, they give every recording a wonderful 'playing in the backyard' feel and are in full effect in this song. Lunchmeatophobia goes hard and almost extends into Sabbath territory. P.E Squad (a reprise of the Doo Doo song) and the live version of Maggot Brain weren't really necessary. As you would expect there is lots of brilliant weirdness and crazy ideas that threaten to fall off the brink. The prog-influences are apparent with some of the breaks getting a bit noodly and song-lengths that will have you muttering 'feet don't fail me now'. If they'd taken a razor to the songs and maybe chosen some shorter cuts this would be an instant five.

Proto-glam love ballads. Some of which have a widescreen glamour but generally lacking in energy. The single Trafalgar is moribund with the boys struggling to get the chorus out despite clear intent for it to be a belter. Some of the songs (Don't Wanna Live Inside Myself, How Can you Mend a Broken Heart) display the occasional flashes of a rythym section and what lies in the future in terms of hit singles, but these are just flashes of brilliance trying to keep its head above an ocean of boring. This feels like what mum and dad would have been listening to in 1971 while the kids were losing their minds to LA Woman and Sticky Fingers.

What kind of vegetable do you need to put in your mouth to sound like this? But seriously there is some beautiful songwriting and production on this album. With thoughtful, wry and timeless lyrics about social issues Prine's limited experience is overcome by some subtle production and arrangements. Nonetheless this is more poetry than music and it only really shines if you push the hard-working studio musicians into the background to focus on the meaning of the words.

Was dreading this when I saw it show up. A prog supergroup? 1971? 20 minute long, 7-part cycle about a battle between an armadillo tank and a manticore? This can't end well. But then the drums start and you realise you're about to hear the 70's equivalent of Venetian Snares. Tarkus brings a massive amount of energy to a genre badly in need of it. By putting the drums out in front rather than the noodly guitar work ELP show what was so frustrating about the rest of the prog groups in the 70s. That's not to say it isn't prog and doesn't sometimes succumb to its excesses. ii. Stones of Years is a kind of lame sci-fi/psych thing with boring organ solos. Thankfully its quickly replaced iii. Iconoclast which ratchets up the tension and energy. iv. Mass starts noodly but relies on fairly traditional blues scales to avoid getting too naff. The track ends with some fancy studio effects and stero images in vii. Aquatarkus. The second side is weaker and doesn't get off to a great start with Jeremy's Bender. Bitches Crystal is great for maintaining the energy and has some wild piano but is a bit too chromatic for my tastes. The Only Way combines Beatles crooning about Hitler with pipe organs and baroque piano. It goes about as well as you'd expect. A Time and Place is a pretty fun Led Zep tribute and closing out with a straight rock number is a welcome relief from the high concepts. This is the best prog rock album I've heard. That's why it gets a three.

All killer no filler. Hits harder than a lot of later funk albums but also brings a sense of euphoria and bliss that won't be seen again until rave in the 90s. Stand! opens the album with a call to action and breaks down into a dj-ready funky coda which was sampled multiple times in the 90s. Don't Call me Nigger, Whitey continues the socially conscious lyrics with p-funk style noodling punctuated by intense build-ups powered by lung popping horn scales. I Want to Take You Higher is quintessential '69 with punchy blues inspired guitars and organs, euphoric vocals and a great harmonica solo. Somebody's Watching You is a nice piece of soul with a great message but its let down by weird mixing (why do they have the backing vocals running through a drivethru speaker?) Sing a Simple Song recovers the otherwise excellent production with hard hitting drums and horn stabs and a highly differentiated stereo image. I can't do justice to Everyday People in words. Sex Machine is a blues instrumental number which gradually picks up pace with double-time high hats being joined by increasingly intense solos, culminating in a highly processed guitar solo at the end (at times sounding like a neurofunk bassline!) You Can Make it If You Try ends the album with a positive message and an infectious (and rythmically clever) hooks. Bonus points for being the defining sample for the Jungle Brother's album. This album is the whole package - it carries a strong message about unity that's lived by the band itself. It's driven by the rythym section. The performances are tight and the mixing (with the exception above) finds a place for every part. Not a single second of its 41 minute run time is wasted.

A thoroughly weird album. I would not want to listen to this on LSD. It kind of falls into this uncanny valley between pop sensibility and avant garde inaccessibility Our Prayer/Gee starts with a pleasant chant before leading into a classic Beach Boys a capella and immediately into Heroes and Villains, which is kind of like Zappa and Oingo Boingo had a baroque/doo-wop/barbershop wedding with tempo changes, caesura and disjointed organ phrases. The a capella continues with Roll Plymouth Rock except now with what sounds like tongue twisters. Barnyard evokes late period Residents replete with sheep and chicken noises. Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine is a wilted Kenny G rendition of the classic. Cabin Essence brings out a bazouki to imitate a banjo as far as I can tell. Wonderful goes back to Zappa weirdness in the vocals and scale and chord changes. Song for Children plagiarises Good Vibrations but without any of its catchiness. Child is Father of the Man - all you need to know is in the title. A sort of cool string and piano outro I guess. Surf's Up is probably the closest thing to a pop song but Park Van Dyke's vocals have this jowly Flinstones thing going on. I'm in Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop is just hiding the fact that Wilson had some sketches lying around that he couldn't figure out how to finish. Vega-Tables is about vegetables but nowhere near as funny as Zappa on the same subject. On a Holiday is only surprising in that it took this long for the album to break out the slide whistles and sea shanties. "Though its hard/I try not to look at my wind chimes" - genius. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow provides some welcome relief with an actual guitar riff and anxious moaning from the ersatz beach boy choir. What I do like about the album is it leans into the vaguely sinister aspect of all Wilson's songwriting and this song is where the curtain comes down and you discover the monster. That monster is quickly shuffled away in Blue Hawaii and then as if Wilson is in terror that you'll ask more questions he punches out a rendition of Good Vibrations. Heroes and Villains (instrumental) was not necessary. Without the vocals the unfinished aspect of this is really clear. Its unfinished and it sounds like its been realised on Soundblaster general MIDI. I have no problem with Brian Wilson getting some love in the list but I'm not convinced this should be here. Nonetheless this is so bizarre its charming.

Avant-glam. I was familiar with Roxy Music and ambient, I hadn't heard Eno's solo work. Its a pretty cool stepping stone on his career from synth operator to eminence grise by the end of the century. Needles in the Camel's Eye cold-opens the album with a shoegaze queasiness. The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch demonstrates a really virtuosic talent for studio work with multiple guitar voices fading in and out, subject to some beautiful effect treatments. A synth line with a fine understanding of key velocity punctuates it. Baby's on Fire starts as a classic glam track although loses some punch when it descends into prog-noodling in the middle. Cindy Tells Me almost goes back to early Bowie in format before a phasing guitar washes over the top of the song. Driving Me Backwards includes disconcerting changes to phrasing and (I think) some reverse reverb and cool guitar squelches. On Some Faraway Beach is mixed really weird with Andy Mackay's keyboard work out in front despite not being very good. On the one hand Eno is kind of beating My Bloody Valentine to the punch by 20 years but it doesn't quite hit with the clear melody on the keys sitting on top. Blank Frank is a sleeper hit with a psychedelic take on Sabbath with blues bassline, soaring guitars, synths and studio in full effect. Eno can be really hit and miss but when he hits he knocks it out of the park. Dead Finks Don't Talk is fine I guess. Its a plodding number with a 60s pop structure (albeit with screaming in the background of the chorus!?). The last 20 seconds is ace and may be the inspiration for Kouhei Matsunaga. Some of Them are Old is a pleasant exploration of tape effects punctuated by Brian Wilson style acapellas. Its interesting that Smile had been my last album as there are a lot of similarities in what they are doing trying to marry pop sensibilities with boundary pushing. Eno did significantly better thanks to his technical skills and his better mental health. Here Come the Warm Jets closes the album with another proto-shoegaze album. I want to like this more as I love Eno and the influences this album had on later musicians which I love. There's part of me that would have preferred this to be just the experimental parts as the glam/pop stuff is a bit generic. I suppose it adds a nice contrast though.

I feel like I'm being railroaded here. I question whether a live album is appropriate for the list (even for the greatest live performer on earth) and I feel like I'm doing Mr. Dynamite a dirty by not giving this a five. Anything from Brown's JB's era is an easy five, as are some of the later Famous Flames albums (love The Popcorn) and while this is an amazing performance it doesn't actually translate to that great an album. The album starts with an intro to the set by Fats Gonder, promising some high energy R+B before dropping into Try Me - a fairly low energy doo wop number. Things pick up with Think, great horn cadenzas but it has nothing on the Lyn Collins number. I Don't Mind then goes back into a low energy soul number about not loving too hard. Lost Someone stays low energy and plods along for over 10 minutes. The players are fine but you really feel Brown carrying the tracks with his unique vocal style. There are full minutes of essentially the same phrase. Please Please Please is a great soul number and the crescendo at the end of I Found Someone is a terrific counterpoint to Lost Someone. Night Train finally closes us out with three and a half minutes of proper R+B to get you grooving but the payoff takes way too long. The saving grace of the album are the little vamps and hyping by the MC. You can visualise Brown sweating out each of the songs but you mostly just feel jealous that you weren't there on what must have been an iconic night - Brown basically staked his faltering career on this performance. Its an absolute travesty that this is the only James Brown album on the list. Surely one of the interminable prog bands could have made some more room for his later work.

Its interesting to critically listen to a ten year old pop album. There's just enough separation from its tropes that you can place it in a particular era without it just forming part of the FM slime permeating shops and your friends' car stereos. This holds up pretty well. Green Light combines Sia-esque melancholy vocals with heater production, building up tension without ever providing a satisfying resolution. Sober draws on the soca trend (which was a cool time I suppose, people drawing on wider Caribbean influences than just reggae and dancehall was the start of a more internationalist dance music scene.) Homemade Dynamite is the second single and along with The Louvre has this really satisfying crunchy percussion treatment. Liability strips back the instrumentation to highlight Lorde's heartfelt musings on fame and heartbreak. Hard Feelings continues to highlight Lorde's vocals by keeping the production backgrounded. It also continues the heartbreak themes. The production is great when it is restrained, giving you a sense that the whole studio is struggling to hold back heavy teenaged feelings. Loveless has a cutesy almost hyperpop style tonally at odds with Hard Feelings, hard to understand why these are mastered as a medley (although shout outs to the Kane West tribute FM congas and Phil Collins sample). The back end of the album starts to drag a bit with a lot of tracks just reprises from the first half. Supercut is an alright bit of electropop but doesn't wow as much as Green Light. Glad I heard this all the way through but given this kind of music is still pretty ubiquitous I might just settle for keeping an ear out for it in the supermarket.