A classic. Already owned this but nice to revist.

I was not prepared for the length of these songs! Didn't love this one.

I avoided this LP at the time because I didn't love the singles, which were played all the time on the radio. listening to it all the way through, I sorta get it, but its not for me.

A surprise. Really great.

I had never even heard of this band. A bit derivative but okay.

I already know this record well but a fresh listen was fun

Had never heard of this band. Not a genre I typically listen to. The sound of this record is good but after a while it was boring.

Didn't know much about this band, but liked this.

Already knew and liked this LP. Don't think I'd ever heard the UK sequence with Sunday Best. I get the context, but the slur in Oliver's Army always makes me cringe.

I don't know enough about jazz to evaluate this record. Not for me, though probably a great record.

Already own and love this one. "Casimir Pulaski day" always makes me cry.

Probably one of the first 25 to 50 lps I bought as a teenager. Hard to evaluate now since I associate it with that time in my life.

I only knew their monster hit "don't you forget about me" and it never occurred to me to listen to their lps. This was pretty good.

Sounds like the grateful dead but with precise non-noodling performances. I'm just not a fan of the vocal styles or the vibe, though I can recognize its a good record.

I liked this mostly but a double Lp was a lot to take in at once. What a talented horn player he was. I hadn't idea.

Better than I thought it would be but not my thing.

Why is this on the list? Forgettable lightweight pop. I only made it thru 4 or 5 songs. If you want good French pop try Air (which is on this list) or Les Rita Mitsouko ( which isnt)

Aw yes, that's more like it. Already know his catalog pretty well but this is a pretty good representation. Coconut has not aged well tho.

Never noticed the Bowie backing vocals on satellite of love before. This is a pretty decent record from someone who let's gave it doesn't have a great singing voice

Omg I listened to this so much in my 20s I can't not love it now. Would be interested to know what a tabula rasa experience with this lp is like. Gotta 10/10, sorry not sorry.

Oh yeah. I legit love this period of hip hop where things were gleeful and nobody was routinely called a ho.

This was a weird one. I've heard all their back catalog, but this is one without any obvious singles/hits on it. Kinda prog rock (in a good way) and you can definitely see how they go from this to bohemian rhapsody. This is fine but I feel like sheer heart attack, NATO, DATR are stronger conceptually and more fun to listen to.

over the last 30 years I've tried to get the Dylan mystique and it has not happened. Is Dylan a better vocalist than famously anti-singer vocalist Leonard Cohen? no. Is Dylan a better songwriter than Leonard Cohen? debatable, but I like Nick Cave and Jennifer Warnes covers of Cohen better than any non-Hendrix Dylan cover i've heard. Maybe I'd be more sympathetic to Dylan's schtick if Brel, Cohen and Scott Walker didn't exist, but they do, and I still don't get why this dude became the standard bearer instead of, I dunno, Mimi Farina.

Like big pink that we got last week, I'm just not into this style of music. But this album was okay, though I'll never pick it up again. That last song, King Harvest, was my fave and I would have loved to see Queen cover it.

This was fine but I don't see it as a must hear.

Still don't understand dylan veneration.

I don't love this guy's voice, but I didn't hate this. A few cringy hippie rhymes. I've already forgotten about this record a few hours after hearing it.

I think "Loaded" is one of the greatest singles of the 1990s, and the Screamadelica (1991) LP that single is one is on this list, so I guess we'll encounter that eventually. The other songs I know of theirs are "Rocks" (on the Give Out But Don't Give Up 1994 lp, not on the list) which is kinda a Black Crowes groove (vs the Madchester sound they are associated with) and "Movin on Up" (also in Screamadelica). So what I'm saying is I get why Screamadelica is on this list and I'll rate that one better than this, but I don't see why there are 2 primal scream lps here, especially this one. While I'll admit this LP was a nice balm after all the Dylan/Band 60s stuff the algorithm has thrown at us lately, it was too long (no one wanted 53 minutes of this) and superfluous if Screamadelica is already here. plus the cover of Motorhead by Hawkwind (and later motorhead) was not needed at all.

More bluesy than I'd expected. Tumbling dice was the only song I recognized. Will listen again.

Okay I do not like this bandbut this was not as terrible as I thought it would be. I really liked the east st Louis instrumental. 3 more SD lps on this list, ugh.

If I wanted juvenile misogyny and undeserved swagger, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are more radio friendly. If I want a hip-hop group that samples pfunk/george Clinton a lot, digital underground did it better, without nBombs or bitch/ ho lyrics. Sex Packets by DU predates this by 2 years and is a masterpiece. This is machismo garbage, no matter how catchy the underlying groove might be.

I know these guys have progressive politics, but I didn't love it for 2 reasons: 1) the songs were a little too repetitive/anthemic. If I'd been 16 when this came out instead of entering grad school, maybe it would move me more. 2) I can't help but feel like these guys might be somewhat responsible for Nu Metal.

One banger single, and the rest of it is good, though i suspect this lp is on the list for its influence more than it's merits. What is the background "bubbly" sound in most of these songs? Its prominent in "through the rhythm ". It could be a vocal or could be something run thru an effects pedal, but once I heard it, I couldnt ignore it and I liked the songs a bit less.

This was a big deal when it came out, and I didn't get it then. I know this came out a few years before Oasis but I can't help but think that Oasis is the much better band of this type and there's no need for this to be on the list.

Better than the snoop dogg record, but I'm just too old to see how "n***a wipe your ass" gets you a Pulitzer.

Okay, this is obviously on the list because the first rap lp to hit #1 on the billboard charts was by white dudes. But how does it hold up, especially knowing that Check your head ( #10 on the charts) is a more sophisticated and probably better album ? It's hard to evaluate it now. I was 16 when this came out and "fight for your right to party" was -everywhere-. At the time this seemed snotty and brash and like it was maybe not cool for rich white guys to co-opt rap. The music is more minimalist than I'd remembered. The album is definitely juvenile. But it works.

A pleasant surprise! I wonder how many other jangly-pop guitar bands like this I missed out on at the time due to the Grunge Ascendancy. I will listen to this again.

Interstingly enough, in the 2018 print ed of the bk, the doves record is Lost Souls. Revision, or error? This was pleasent enough but I don't understand why it is on the list.

I think this is as good as classic Buzzcocks, even though it's borrowing heavily from other post-punk classics. "Waking up" is the Stranglers "No more Heroes", Connection is Wire's "three girl rhumba", etc. While relistening, I noticed "blue" is similar to siouxsie's "Mirage". there are likely other borrowings I can't place. BUT IT DOESNT MATTER because all the songs are catchy, not too long, and still sounds great 30 (?!) years later.

This was fine, but didn't leave much of an impression. I knew the 2 smash hits on this record already. Probably wouldn't play again but it was okay.

Oof, I thought this was old people music when it came out. Now I'm also old, but it still doesn't appeal to me. Technically proficient but just screams "early 1990s movie soundtrack" to me. Like I never saw Indecent Proposal, but this is what I imagine is playing during all the bedroom scenes. I also feel like this sounds dated, but I don't listen to enough of this style of music to know who is singing like this in the 2020s and if they use so much saxophone.

What a pleasant surprise! This is the type of thing I was hoping this exercise would point me to. Really liked this record and will check out more of their material!

I feel this is another case of a band that was big in the Uk and made no impact in the US. Reminded me of scritti politti with a touch of Culture Club or Fine Young Cannibals. Today it sounds a bit over produced. Not really my thing, but harmless enough.

Not my genre, but much more listen able than Dylan. Richard Thompson is another musician that loads of musicians I like seem to adore, and it's just never clicked for me. That said, I'm ready to deep dive into Sandy Denny because she has a great voice.

This is a fine 1950s vocal album but I see no reason you need to hear this to understand contemporary rock and pop.

Holy crap. I always assumed CK was like a proto Dianne Warren and never took her seriously. Turns out she's Harry Nilsson without the dying young part. Even "natural woman", a great song where Aretha's version is near perfect, sounds good and fresh. Im sorry to have dismissed this lp for decades because it is near flawless. Docking star for sax parts/solo in Way over yonder that did not need to exist.

I can see why this was influential and important but it is so not my bag.

I dont understand why this record is on the list instead of Control, the superior JJ album in my opinion. Production has not aged well, and I'm glad the 80s/90s hip hop trope of having skits or collage intros between tracks has died. While some of the singles on this are ones I remember (title track, black cat, escapade), theres also sincere but maudlin tracks like "Livin’ in a World (They Didn’t Make)" that I found embarrassing. "School shootings are bad" is not exactly a bold hot take. I looked at the singles fron Control (nasty, when I think of you, what have you done for me lately) and it just made me want to listen to that record instead.

Gay Radiohead somehow escaped my notice but I actually really like this. I'm not sure it belongs on The List but I dig it a lot.

This is fine but doesn't seem like a must. Nice background music. Bet a lot of these tracks have been sampled in hits over the decades.

This is a bowie record i return to a little, even without any huge singles. I think I might like it more than ziggy or diamond dogs.

77 minutes. Geezus. At least most of the records on this list that originated as vinyl releases are over in 45 minutes (except for the rare double lp). I'd somehow forgotten that MM was Trent reznors first signing/protege on his Nothing label. You can definitely hear the NIN influence, but NIN is a much better band. I can see how this appeals to a brooding high school mall goth who reads Camus more than say, Slipknot, but I haven't lived with my parents for 30 years, so I am not the market for this. There are moments where the music interests me but on the whole I'm ambivalent. While a concept album/rock opera about the antichrist is appealing on paper, I'm afraid the prog rock LP 666 by Vangelis/aphrodite's child ( a double LP as long as this one, btw) is my goto in this category.

Some timeless singles and some egregious padding here. "Don't call me N$%&&, Whitey" did not need to be 5+ minutes when it only has one verse. I also didnt need 15 minutes of the Sex Machine jam. But you cannot deny how good their pop songs are when they stay in that lane.

One of my biggest regrets when this lp came out was assuming that the Pixies were like the Sundays or the Blake Babies because I'd only heard Here comes your man and Monkey gone to heaven. So I ignored this band for way too long and I should have seen them when they played my crappy college town in 1990. Ah well. HEY may be the best minimal ballad ever to repeatedly use the word whores.

When the mid 1980s bands like Duran Duran were new, they would list their influences as Bowie, Roxy music, and T Rex. At the time I'd never heard of T rex and when I finally heard them, I didn't entirely get it. It wouldn't be the first time a band was huge in the UK and virtually unknown in the US, and I guess Bolan had to be dead for 10+ years before Bang a Gong ascended to Classic Rock radio. What I'm saying is that T rex was kinda tabula rasa for me because I'd gone my entire life without hearing their material until I was 15 or so. Anyway, I own this record. I like it okay. Probably more on the list for it's influence. Like a lot of glam rock, the records are never as engaging as the live performances and the LPs are never as good as the singles. One wonders if 50 year old Bolan would have ascended to Bowie levels of recording godhead, or burned out like Sweet or Slade.

It's impossible to separate groundbreaking musical movements like this from the well meaning white college boy fans of the next 3 decades who ruined it for everyone. Also not my genre. 4 stars for white liberal guilt at only knowing the Wailers, Jimmy cliff and Steel Pulse as the stars of a genre way more rich than what I know about it.

Ugh , I referenced this band last week in the T rex entry but didn't know they actually had an lp on the list. The UK authors of the list seem to be desperate to find tolerable lps from bands that had a lot of hot singles (slade: 17 uk top 20s between 1971 and 1976, including 6 number 1s, according to the latest print edition of Dimery's book). So we get entries like this and THREE lps from dexys midnight runners. I feel like a us based list would have ignored both dexys and slade in favor of something like Pinback's s/t lp because trying to squeeze a competent album from a singles band is a mugs game. I still mostly know this band from the two Quiet Riot covers. I get that uk listeners may have a nostalgic fondness for this band that north Americans don't understand but I still can't give slade a 3 based on hearing this.

Think I ignored this when it was released even though I liked Check your head a lot. This is too long and has some filler but is interesting enough to warrant further listens.

Pleasant enough but not my bag. Thought I recognized a variation on "Fly me to the Moon" toward the end but otherwise this was unfamiliar to me. Reading the backstory of this LP makes me understand its place in the canon more, but I'm too ignorant about improv to really get this.

I knew the singles but never heard this all the way thru. Wow. Not a filler song in the bunch, really. Proof that if you avoid LPs full of hit singles for 3 or 4 decades, it can sound fresh then.

This was fine, but nothing that wowed me. Not sure why this is on the list.

I played this so much back in the day. Is there even a filler track on here besides Stormy weather?

How many bands have put out a great debut and either broken up immediately, or followed up with something meh before breaking up? In the latter category, there's Elastica and the Stone Roses. This record holds up better than most of their contemporaries, and yet the goddam Happy Mondays, a shambling group with a few singles that don't hold up well decades later,manage to have TWO records on this list. At least Dimery had the decency to forget Inspiral Carpets on his list.

The first 2 intro songs are a bit slow/filler, but once it gets going, unstoppable.

After this record was done, Spotify gave me Peace Frog by the Doors. yep, seems about right.

Fine I guess. How do you review this?!

Unexpected! first track appears to be the inspiration for Walk like an Egyptian. Good record. Sorry to have missed this one back in the day.

Not my genre, but this was fine. I didnt know any of these songs. Docking a star for the in between song skits that were everywhere back then and have thankfully fallen out of favor.

I like this material, but a 4 cd box set that you have to hear and rate in a day is like one of those restaurants that will give you the 96 ounce steak for free if you eat it in 60 minutes. Even if you like steak/Ella, it's too much for one sitting.