The atmosphere achieved by this album is nothing short of brilliant, especially considering its genre. No electronics or funky effects, just expert instrumentation and layering. The vocals are the more obvious stand out. His voice is smooth as butter, setting the standard for this type of music. Wonderful background vocals as well. So much emotion behind it. Great lyrics as well, political and unflinching, while also feeling personal and intimate. While it's obviously a seminal R&B record drawing from jazz and other historically African American genres, I feel a lot of influence in modern rap and hip hop. People like Kendrick Lamar must have listened to a lot of Marvin Gaye. A lot of the tracks flow right into each other, more of that jazzy influence that makes it feel like a cohesive story. I'm blown away by all of the different instruments. Stellar percussion. Moments where the strings, flute, sax, horns, get to stand out. And then his voice is an instrument in itself. It's a masterpiece, plain and simple.

It's impressive how powerful the songs can be with such simple instrumentation. Sure there's a horn section and an organ, but so much of it is driven by drum and bass. The vocal performance has a chokehold on the audience. The screams are captured so nicely on the recording. At times there's this conversation going between James and the audience, they're participants in the performance. Special. The band is tight, electric, like there was a current running through them and each hit was a burst of energy. Vocal control is off the charts good and gets better as the performance goes on. Gritty when it needs to be, clean when it needs to be. It can be soft and intimate one moment and blaring the next. The moment he launches into the medley of his best known song is so much fun, you can feel the thrill sweeping the audience. It's a textbook on how to design a live performance. Obviously there's tons of great musicality on display here and some great bits of songwriting, but this album isn't essential listening because of the music. It's the experience that you get to be a part of. Live performance at its peak.

This album is obviously a landmark in the funk/groove genre. It doesn't resonate with me the same as others in adjacent genres as I don't connect with the songwriting itself. There isn't a ton that feels memorable from a catchy standpoint. However, the vibes are immaculate. I read somewhere that it's "more progressive rock than critics like to admit" and I feel that for sure. Sometimes it feels like if Jimi Hendrix joined Pink Floyd. Unfortunately the repetitive nature doesn't vibe with me as strongly. But the bass and guitar playing and the groove generated by the drums make it engaging. The bass especially is just crazy good, not a ton of albums have that attribute but maybe in funk it's not possible to have a great album without great bass. For its instrumental mastery, vibes being created, bringing this kind of music forward, and the tight interplay of the band, along with what I'm sure was major influence on the genre, it's easy to see why this album is on the list. As far as something that moved me and makes me want to recommend it to others, it falls a little short of the others. I'm glad I listened to it, but I don't imagine returning very often.

What a perfect sound. The original pop punk band? Sets a standard on how to blend the punk sensibilities into something mainstream and fun. Beyond that, they are clearly inspired by all the other genres of the day, disco, new wave, etc. And a lot of the songwriting could receive only minor production updates and not sound out of place today. There's a timeless quality to a lot of it. Debbie's voice is so great, doesn't even need harmonies or anything complicated, just enjoyable to listen to.

A very good album. Maybe even great. A few songs did stand out but ultimately it didn't blow me away as something fresh in its genre. Often felt like an evolved Nirvana record, which is a compliment. But rarely did it feel like something that was pushing us forward. I'll think of it fondly and probably return to some of these songs, but when we're talking about the greatest albums ever made it's tough for me to count this super high.

I'm nearly inclined to give this 5 stars because it's crazy how influential it was. There are sounds solidified on this album that resonated in punk and punk-adjacent music for 30 years. What I mean by that is, of course we're still hearing these sounds and ideas today but for 30 years after this album came out it was still part of the cutting edge and mainstream sound of punk rock. With the exception of maybe Nirvana, The Clash might be the most important band to debut after 1975. The only reason this album doesn't get 5 stars is because London Calling exists and does everything this album does, but better.

I wish I had time to really dig into my thoughts here and listen 2-3 more times to do so. For now I'll just say that it might have the best 3 opening tracks of any album of its ilk, that includes Bruce and the like. The Edge is on another level here, Bono has fully matured, and the band makes simple instrumentation sound like an orchestra.

In the context of this list I'm a little tempted to give this one 3 stars because the songwriting isn't amazing beyond a few songs. But with the context - coming out a year after Kurt died/In Utero, Dave doing everything on it, and a lot of the sound working to define the next decade of alternative music, makes it a landmark release. And the sound and feel of everything is so so good.

Really close to giving this a 5/5. A masterclass in beats and rapping. I know a lot of it isn't his most famous stuff, but this is some of my personal favorite stuff I've heard from him. The thing holding his albums back for me is that they're too long. If it was a solid 10-12 tracks, less than 40 minutes, just the best stuff, I probably would give this a 5 but I feel that there's filler here and particularly in the second half things don't flow as well.