there's always something to be said when a white artist or group releases music in a traditionally black genre/style and the white artist is who finally brings that genre into mainstream media and acclaim. i saw a quote on their wikipedia that called the Beastie Boys "the Elvis of hip-hop" and from this listen, i think that's an accurate assessment, although not necessarily a bad thing in itself. it's clear from the way the album is produced and the intelligent sampling that they know what they were doing and were knowledgeable of black hip-hop artists that they were obviously influenced by, along with their own previous experience with punk and rock. could we call combining hip-hop aesthetics with punk and rock a sanitization of black hip-hop in the same way many are critical of early white rock n roll artists? i'm not sure, especially because rock is itself a traditionally black genre, even if it has been taken over in the wider cultural imagination by white men. in my mind, this kind of sound is more of a subset of the larger hip-hop genre as a whole, but i think i need to do more research into the Beastie Boys and refresh my memory on classic hip-hop before i make any definitive conclusions. not something i'd listen to in my own time probably, but interesting nonetheless!
I need to be in a dark smokey jazz club swaying gently with a negroni in hand NOW
this is a great album that really showcases Aretha's vocal talents and the heart and soul she puts into her singing. It's crazy to think this is her tenth studio album but she's still really only at the beginning of her mainstream career and there are still so many amazing songs to come. Of course "Respect" is iconic, but I really loved a lot of tracks on here that I had never heard before just because I only really knew her biggest hits. I do wish I could have heard it on vinyl because I think the sound quality and mixing might come across a bit better, but I'll be on the lookout for it now in my local record stores :)
not really my style, but Slashās guitar playing is INSANE so i gotta give credit for that
i feel like this is one of those albums that we all acknowledge is one of the greatest of all time but we never actually consciously listen to it (at least in my experience)ā¦maybe i should change that though because it is truly SO good- the āKing of Popā title is well deserved for this album alone. I ended up knowing a little over half of it already (all the singles) but even the lesser known album tracks were masterfully written, performed, and produced and i found a new favorite that i hadnāt heard before with āBaby Be Mineā
i came into this album with absolutely zero expectations or prior knowledge and i was very pleasantly surprised to find that i loved it! this is exactly the type of sad indie rock with a twist that was a staple in my high school days and still holds a very special place in my heart so idk why i havenāt listened to them before- this album will definitely be going in my future rotation though, and iām excited to check out more of the Flaming Lips work
not really my thing- i do like electronic music sometimes but this was never fully catchy or active enough to be good dance/rave music, nor was it ever fully ambient enough to be relaxing or meditative. i can appreciate the effort and the artistry that went into it though, and i can see why it's considered important in the history and development of electronic music
i was a bit skeptical for the first few songs and i was honestly kind of thinking "oh god a whole hour and a half of this?" but "There She Goes, My Beautiful World" converted me, and it was only up from there. as i said above, i love the Dylan/Cohen/van Zandt parallels in his songwriting and i think his lyrical imagery is beautiful, especially for the love songs. the album is a bit dense though, so i think i'll need another listen or two to really get the nuances of some of these songs but overall i think it's very strong! i don't think i'm quite converted on his voice- it's fine, nothing special- but i think he's a great lyricist. i was also recommended to listen to Let Love In as well, so I will definitely do that, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of his discography in general :)
fun and catchy! not normally the genre of music I listen to in my own time but I enjoyed myself and I think George Michael has a great voice and can write some really good songs
this is SUCH a good album and it's really such a tragedy that Janis died right at this moment when she finally had the creative freedom she wanted as well as a backing band that was able to match her talents beat for beat and had incredible chemistry with her. I can't believe so few recordings of her and the Full Tilt Boogie Band exist...Wikipedia says that none of the concerts she played on tour with them were recorded and we only really have two appearances on The Dick Cavett Show and this album to immortalize their sound. all the more reason to be grateful for what we have- but just imagine the kind of career Janis could have had if she hadn't died when she did. truly a one-in-a-million voice, and a one-in-a-million artist, and i treasure this album and her three others with all my heart.
again we should bring up the fact that a non-black singer is taking a genre traditionally sung by mostly black musicians (the blues) and mixing it with a genre that is seen as culturally white (punk) and that's what makes the sound (somewhat more mainstream) successful. I don't know if he really needed to sing the n-word on that one song either. still, "cowpunk" is an interesting concept that results in an interesting sound when it melds together in the right way. however, i do think it works better on some songs than others, otherwise, it's either too disjointed or too clearly in one direction or another. i do agree with Jack White that "She's Like Heroin To Me'' and "For the Love of Ivy" are great songs though.
this one is tough because obviously this album is very famous and considered iconic to 90s music history but at the same time i can't help but wonder how much of that is as a result of Kurt Cobain's death and if we would view the album differently if he hadn't killed himself. obviously he was going through a lot and felt that it was important to use this album as a kind of exorcism or outlet, and you can definitely hear that in the songs, but that doesn't automatically mean that i like them or think he was doing anything unique or profound in the way he chose to express his pain. i didn't like when John Lennon screamed on Plastic Ono Band, and i don't like the screaming here either! there are some nice songs on the album, and i have a feeling that if i went more into Nirvana's back catalog i think there would be things i would like a lot more, but unfortunately for the most part this just wasn't for me
whew so much that I could say about this one...the production is crisp as hell, the songs are catchy, this is basically the textbook example of how to write a great pop album in the 21st century. HOWEVER, i think this album tends to get a similar treatment to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in that it is generally seen by mainstream music criticism to be her best work even though I don't think the entire album as a unit is her strongest work. still, it's impossible to deny its lasting cultural impact, and this was the album that brought Swift into a whole new level of stardom. people may gripe about my comparison of Swift to the Beatles, but when you speak about cultural impact and influence on pop music and culture at large...there really is no one else on that same level. Taylor Swift is the millennial Paul McCartney. that's not me speaking as a fan of either Taylor or Paul, that's just an observable fact. it's also interesting to remember things like the whole streaming debate and to compare that to the Beatles also not being on streaming services for many years. of course, it's irrelevant at this point in time (money wins out always sadly) but it also shows you how much has changed in the music industry and landscape over the past 10 years.
this was another album that surprised me with how much I liked it! I had never heard of this band before, but I found a lot to love here and I'll definitely be diving into more of their discography at some point. it is interesting that critics seem to consider them more psychedelic/prog rock though...i do hear the psychedelia on some songs (mostly "River to Consider) but honestly I hear more country and folk influences...but maybe that's just because they're from Texas lol. all and all though, i'm really glad i discovered this band and this album!
this one is also tough because i haven't seen The Virgin Suicides, and i generally don't listen to movie scores by themselves except in very rare exceptions, and certainly not without seeing the movie first. also, i don't listen to a lot of electronic music so i don't have a lot of intelligent things to say about the music itself lol. with that said though, there were some cool tracks and i like the vibe of this kind of electronic music more than what i heard on Phaedra. the final track was really the only one that caught my attention- it was absolutely chilling- and i assume kind of encapsulates the story of the film? i am more motivated to see the film after listening to this though, because i assume the film uses the score in a very smart way if it was so critically acclaimed
i remember liking this album a lot when i first listened to it ages ago and i still really like it now! we need more artists to Yearn like this....get ur fucking asses up and YEARN no one wants to yearn anymore....but seriously i really enjoyed his melodies and i like the kind of folksy production of this album a lot. i don't know if i'll become as big of a Neil stan as a lot of people i know are, maybe i need to listen to the rest of his catalog, but i enjoyed this album a lot!
I thought it was great! something about folk music just scratches a particular itch in my brain....i always love the melodies and arrangements and this album was no exception. it definitely seemed to lean more in the trad folk direction rather than folk rock in my opinion, but i thought everything sounded great and it was fun to listen to...i'll definitely have to check out some of the other albums from this group as well!
really nice sound! this is another one that i had absolutely no prior knowledge of but really surprised me with how much i liked it. the production is crisp and interesting and not overly dated by 80s synth sound- it actually sounds pretty timeless. the lyrics are also smart and contemplative and i like the lead singer's voice. i also like the electric and acoustic versions of the song equally well, which shows how strong the songs are by themselves and also how smart the production (of both versions!) is. i will definitely be checking out some other albums from this band!
honestly i was so bored for so much of the album....really such a laughable difference from listening at age 12 with basically a blank slate of musical taste (my parents had little to no interest in music so did not shape my music tastes whatsoever) to listening now with much more knowledge and distinguishing preferences. Adele has a good voice, but she doesn't do anything interesting with it except belt with a good tone. it's kind of the textbook example of how a good voice is simply not good enough if you don't put emotion and a distinct perspective behind the music. and it's not because she isn't primarily a songwriter either, there are many amazing singers who are not songwriters who are still great interpreters. this was just boring! the maybe two exceptions were "Turning Tables and "Someone Like You", but after 45 minutes of album filler that isn't even well-performed, it isn't enough to save the album
i was a bit worried at first, but those last five or so songs i was like okay there's the Beach Boys i know and love! i'm a big fan of the classical influences with the flute in "Feel Flows" and organ in "A Day In the Life of a Tree" and "'Til I Die" and "Surf's Up" are two Brian Wilson masterpieces. it is kind of evident that he wasn't as involved in the production of this album because the harmonies aren't nearly as interesting as they are in other albums like Pet Sounds, or even their earlier massive radio hits. i'm sure Pet Sounds is included too but it makes me wonder if this album's inclusion was mostly due to nostalgic purposes when honestly i think only about half the tracks on the album (on the B side no less) are worth writing home about
i just really don't think heavy metal is my kind of music lol. i think its a cool concept to merge Indigenous music with heavy metal, and i think its great that they wanted to do that to celebrate Brazil's marginalized Indigenous population. I did enjoy the moments on the album without the screaming where it was more melodic- or the songs like "Jasco", and "ItsƔri" with a more traditional Indigenous sound. but overall this was not for me. i'm just really not a heavy metal fan and i don't think this project is going to change that lol
this is not normally the kind of music i listen to in my own time, but i enjoyed myself! i might even add some tracks to my running playlist because they have a good drive behind them. the final track with the kind of folksy melody mixed with electronica is a cool concept
this is one of those albums that i've put off listening to for so long because i knew deep down when i finally did listen to it i would love it so much that i'd become obsessed with it. and i was right!! i liked Bruce before, but now i understand why people are paying upwards of 300 dollars to see him in concert. this album is ELECTRIFYING, it makes me want to dance and cry and scream and get in my car and drive off into the night on the open road until the sun comes up. the songwriting and arrangments and performances are all just absolutely phenomenal- there is so much discourse in music about authenticity, which i've always thought is silly, but what i finally realized today while listening to this album is that most of the time when a person says they love an artist because of their authenticity what they really mean is that they love them for their earnestness. Bruce doesn't have a particularly great singing voice, his melodies and lyrics are good but not revolutionary, but the thing that sets him apart and elevates him to such an iconic status is the way he (and the rest of the band) perform these songs with such 100 percent hand-over-heart earnestness. he MEANS that shit!!! and because he means it we feel it too, and THAT is the magic of this album.
not gonna say much because i feel like i said it all for 21 and this is mostly more of the same. there are a few songs in here that are fine/a bit catchy but i attribute that mostly to the production decisions of Max Martin and Greg Kurstin. but at the end of the day (and i said this last time too) i kind of feel like Adele is good music for people who don't listen to a lot of music lol
honestly they kind of remind me of Fleet Foxes except even more boring and background music-oriented. "Two Weeks" is nice and I'll probably add it to my playlist, but that's really the only song on the album that stuck out to me. The rest is 2010s indie elevator music
girl he released this in 1967.......that's crazy. i said this before with my post about Pearl and Janis Joplin but it truly is such a tragedy that he died so young- especially considering just HOW innovative he was with his guitar playing- think about how different rock and roll guitar music might sound today if he had lived only even ten years longer and was able to release more music. i know there have been a lot of posthumous albums released with demos, jams, and studio outtakes but i kind of have mixed feelings about that bc it just isn't the same as having a polished finished product to evaluate and appreciate. still, it is clear from the very first notes of this album how important and influential and frankly groundbreaking these songs are, and it's only his debut! also, in addition to his insane guitar skills, you can tell that Hendrix is an amazing frontman just from the way he delivers his lyrics- I don't even need to see his face to know that. many other rock guitarists cannot say the same! truly a once in a lifetime talent and i'm so grateful his work is immortalized for us to listen to and inspire us whenever we want.
i saw this was the pick today and thought "oh god not another heavy metal album..." but it actually wasn't too bad! idk if i would even really call it heavy metal, certainly not in the same way as 80s or 90s metal, although you can see the origins of that sound in this music as well. but i think i liked it more because 1) there was rock screaming, but not actual screaming like on Roots or In Utero and 2) the sound and energy was more balanced with some breaks/lulls compared to the full hour of balls to the wall insanity of Appetite for Destruction. i still think that the songs were about 2-3 minutes too long and i started to get a bit bored toward the end of the album but this was still miles better than what i expected at the onset
the universe must hate me bc why is the algorithm picking so many metal albums lately. i got nothing intelligent to say about this album except i'm glad to have it checked off the list
i really enjoyed this album! I had never heard of this group before, and from my limited research they seem to be a bit less well known even in rap/hip hop circles, which is a shame because i was very impressed by them! I'm surprised that this is the only album from Jurassic 5 on the list (i checked), especially it's linked sonically with the previous album. i think it would be interesting to listen to both almost as a double album to see how they fit together. but overall some really nice chill cali beats, incredible rhymes and flow, great lyrics (for the most part), and really intelligent production and album sequencing. this is definitely an album that is meant to be listened to as a unit from start to finish, which i really appreciate. my only major complaint is that the end feels a little bloated at times to the point where if they cut one or two songs or even just a little bit off a few of the songs it would feel tighter imo- but overall this was a great introduction to this group and i am looking forward to checking out their other work as well.
i thought it was fine! a nice mid-60s rock album, pretty straightforward. the most interesting songs to me were the ones that used unconventional instruments, and the rest i could mostly take or leave. for some reason, the Rolling Stones have never really scratched that itch in my brain the same way a band like the Beatles have, but to be fair I am just starting to dive into their discography- so maybe that will change as time goes on and I get further into this list.
i don't know too much about Latin music so i'm not sure if i can give it a truly accurate review but i thought it was alright. i was a bit bored by the songs on the first half of the album ngl but really enjoyed the collaboration with Chali 2na on "Who's to Blame" and i also liked the more acoustic songs like "Santiago" and "Cuando Canto" as well as the more dance-y tracks like "Ya Viene el Sol". definitely an interesting foray into a genre i don't really listen to on my own
i liked it a lot more than i expected to! normally punk isn't really my thing but there were some nice sounds on this album, particularly in the instrumental backings. it did get a little repetitive and sometimes it was hard to tell the songs apart but it made for nice background music when i was at the gym today lol
this album is a masterpiece- and Hill's Album of the Year award and every other award given for this album is highly highly deserved. The melodies are both catchy and soulful and are shown off by Hill's skilled vocals- her runs and lower register are particularly impressive to me, the rapping is energetic and engaging and speaks about culturally relevant topics like misogyny and racism, and the production is extremely sharp, with the framing and structure of the album pulling everything together. I'm not quite sure if I would call it a full concept album (again bc my definition of one is extremely limited) but it definitely has elements of one and I really love that the overarching theme of the album (as demonstrated by the various recordings of students talking in the classroom during the first half of the album) is love <3
i really wanted to like this a lot more than i did especially bc i think Justine is so cool and gorgeous....but honestly this was just fine. very britpop sound crossed with some punk influences but none of the songs really stood out to me that much except for a few. the overall sound is alright and it's good as background music but i don't really have strong feelings about it one way or the other. maybe i should listen again at some point cause i feel like britpop bands take a few tries for them to click for me but for a first listen it was just fine. sorry feminism!
i said it before and I'll say it again- get your fucking asses up and YEARN no one wants to yearn like this anymore!! this was another great album from Bruce, though a much darker tone than Born to Run (as the title would suggest lol). i did think some of the songs dragged a bit on the second half of the album but overall the songwriting, lyrics, production, and emotion was all top notch. this is another album that will be going into the rotation for sure.
electronic bossa nova? okay sure! nice sound overall, good background music but nothing really stood out to me, which is why i don't have listening notes or favorite tracks for this album. but it's alright for some chill background music- i like the reviews that called this 90s wine bar music lol
kind of a mixed bag? there were some cool proto-indie pop songs that i really liked- almost in the same vein as the Prefab Sprout album i listened to earlier. there were some cool ambient electronic songs as well. and then there were some songs that were painfully corny 80s pop sounding. i didn't really hear the religious music influences but maybe i need to listen to it again more closely.
not bad! I actually like the country & western sound for them, and i think it sounds good in Jagger's voice. there weren't really any songs that knocked me out with how good they were (other than maybe "Gimme Shelter") but I enjoyed myself and I'll probably listen again at some point in the future
i think one of the reviews on the website said it best in that thereās all the elements of a good album here but it just doesnāt ever fully come together. the guitars are the best part, and the sound is very obviously influenced by george harrisonās style of playing, along with a bit of the byrds twelve string acoustic. the vocal harmonies are very beatles-y as well. but the lyrics are very middle of the road imo and the second half of the album kind of falls apart entirely for me. itās fine overall, and thereās a few really nice songs and melodies/riffs in there (weird predatory lyrics not withstanding) but iām a bit confused by people calling it a 5 star album. itās 70s pop rock and it obviously had an influence on people like tom petty and later artists but at the end of the day other bands do the same kind of thing much better.
this is definitely the worst album iāve heard in this project so far and quite possibly the worst album iāve heard in my entire life. when i saw that it was described as a ārap opera concept albumā i was like oh thatās interesting and unique! and foolishly trusted that its inclusion on this list meant that it at least had some baseline of musical standards and quality. i was wrong. if i wasnāt committed to listening to the full album for this project i would have turned it off halfway through the first song. the beats are terrible, ranging from pathetically thin to downright annoying to actively dissonant with the vocals, and this guy has the worst flow of rapper iāve ever heard- there is absolutely no rhythm and it is so syllabic and repetitive that it is actively grating to listen to. and his singing is even worse! my guy, if you wanted to practice your shitty spoken word poetry over the worst beats ever recorded in human history go do that at a basement open mic night instead of terrorizing the general public with it. the guy doing the spoken verse on blurās āparklifeā is a better rapper than this!! finally, the albumās story itself has no direction or structure and just plods from one boring scenario to the next, and the conclusion of him finding the lost 1000 pounds on the back of his broken TV feels very much like a āand it was all a dreamā cop-out. the whole idea of a rap opera concept album is interesting in theory but with this execution feels self-indulgent at best and delusionally pretentious and downright masturbatory at worst. if this is what british rap is like i think we just need to throw the whole island away and start over. i am truly baffled by the amount of 5 star ratings on the website because i have to assume that those people have never heard a good rap album or a good concept album in their lives- the only thing saving my sanity rn is the large percentage of people also giving 1 star ratings. i definitely didnāt need to hear this album before i died and actually i think my life is worse now that i have.
kinda sounds like Tom Jones does experimental bossa nova? idk i guess it was fine for what it is and there were some nice grooves but it was a bit repetitive and nothing really stood out to me
when i heard Jaggar's first "ow!" on "Sympathy for the Devil" i thought "oh we are soooo fucking back". but i soon learned that (other than a few exceptions) I spoke way too soon. this is not a BAD album per se, and I think the production and performances from all the band members are very strong, but there's just something missing from a lot of these songs, especially the more politically oriented ones like "Street Fighting Man" and "Salt of the Earth". I can appreciate these songs for their historical context and how apparently they were so influential as to be banned from several radio stations at the time, but it also feels a bit like posh London boys playing at being working class. sort of in the same vein as John Lennon's "Power to the People". i think their cover of "Prodigal Son" fits in nicely with this political messaging too, and i'm a big fan of the arrangement they did. Overall, "Sympathy for the Devil" absolutely knocked my socks off, and i also really liked "No Expectations" and "Prodigal Son", but the rest frankly was a disappointment! idk if that's a spicy take, but we might be doing a little revisionist history/letting things slide simply on the sheer strength of that opening track alone.
finally a 50s record!! i mean, Frank Sinatra's music is a classic for a reason, and this album is no exception. his voice is smooth as butter and the production sounds incredible. though i have to say i'm not really a fan of his more downtempo renditions of songs like "Pennies from Heaven" or "Anything Goes", but maybe that's just because i'm more familiar with uptempo versions. it all kind of blends together in an easy-listening sort of way, but honestly this type of music from this era was designed to do just that, so i can't really complain. sounds like the soundtrack to a 90s rom com lol
i'm sad to report i didn't really like this one :( this album felt very Leonard Cohen-esque in the sense that it's basically poetry over like a slow/mid-tempo song played on a single instrument, but honestly most of the songs sounded so similar to me that they blended into each other and it was hard to focus on the poetry because i just kept getting bored. "Green Eyes" where he speaks the lyrics as like an echo after he sings them was sooo cringey i could barely get through the song š like some sort of bad cross between the Inkspots and an amateur poetry open mic reading. the first song was alright though, and at least "West Country Girl" was a bit more interesting melodically
kind of a mixed bag! there were some songs that i thought sounded cool, the guitar sound especially sounded a bit like oasis except with more interesting chord changes, but many of the other songs were either too experimental or too distortion-heavy for my taste. this is another band i've never heard of even by reputation and judging by their seemingly relatively low cultural impact seems to be included on this list mostly as a personal favorite of the author's
I feel like I don't really have enough cultural or musical context on West African music to give this a real intelligent review, but I did like it for the most part! I think his voice is really nice and the way he was able to move his voice with the vocal runs sounded cool. the instrumentals sounded like an interesting mix of western and traditional African instruments, which worked better for some songs than others, and I think it's cool that he sang mostly in Pulaar, with only the last song being in French (with some very schmaltzy instrumentation to boot). it is disappointing that there is no specific Wikipedia page for this album, especially considering that Baaba Maal seems to be reasonably well known (at least enough to collaborate with Brian Eno and Marcus Mumford, and to contribute to the Black Panther soundtrack!) but overall, an interesting pick for sure!
