236
Albums Rated
3.28
Average Rating
22%
Complete
853 albums remaining
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2010s
Favorite Decade
Funk
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
25
5-Star Albums
21
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
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Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Now I Got Worry | 5 | 2.52 | +2.48 |
| I See A Darkness | 5 | 2.97 | +2.03 |
| Ghosteen | 5 | 2.97 | +2.03 |
| Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind) | 5 | 2.98 | +2.02 |
| S.F. Sorrow | 5 | 3 | +2 |
| Scum | 4 | 2.08 | +1.92 |
| GREY Area | 5 | 3.24 | +1.76 |
| The Seldom Seen Kid | 5 | 3.26 | +1.74 |
| Stardust | 5 | 3.39 | +1.61 |
| The ArchAndroid | 5 | 3.45 | +1.55 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| In Utero | 1 | 3.83 | -2.83 |
| Brothers In Arms | 1 | 3.74 | -2.74 |
| Illmatic | 1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
| 1984 | 1 | 3.51 | -2.51 |
| Blonde On Blonde | 1 | 3.5 | -2.5 |
| Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols | 1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
| Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs | 1 | 3.39 | -2.39 |
| Seventeen Seconds | 1 | 3.38 | -2.38 |
| Ready To Die | 1 | 3.37 | -2.37 |
| Wish You Were Here | 2 | 4.3 | -2.3 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Bob Dylan | 3 | 1.67 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Van Halen | 1, 4 |
5-Star Albums (25)
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Popular Reviews
Fugees
5/5
The Chinese restaurant skit is an odd choice to have included in this otherwise perfect album that captures the politics of the mid-90s (even if I do hate any and all references to Newt). The amount of iconic songs that get packed into a one hour album is truly incredible. This is an easy five star album for me.
2 likes
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
This album was clearly crafted by someone who has known death first hand. It caught me off guard with how perfect, unguarded, and haunting it is.
1 likes
Solomon Burke
3/5
Sonically, this is good soul. I'm always down for that kind of throwback sound and glad when we get it. Burke is clearly good at it and knows how to master his instrument to make it do what he wants it do, so good for him!
That said, it does suffer from some of the lyrical tropes of the genre and time. These may be at odds with Burke's personal ethos (he was married to the same woman without cheating for 40 years during which he released this album - and he came of retirement to release an anniversary album for her). But at the same time, these are not great tropes and I'm docking a star for it.
1 likes
1-Star Albums (21)
All Ratings
Janelle Monáe
5/5
I remember there being a lot of critical discourse in the late 2010s that genre was dead. The existence of this album proves that such discourse was at least several years too late.
Depeche Mode
3/5
I can recognize that this is good music. However, if this is the best from Depeche Mode, I can also recognize that they might not be for me.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
Not my favorite classic rock album, but there are definitely a few good songs on it (especially Houses of the Holy).
Willie Nelson
5/5
Willie Nelson was formative in my development of an appreciation of country and folk music, turning me into the closeted country lover that I am today. Growing up, my exposure was mostly through compilation albums promising "The Very Best of" that my parents would play on road trips. I don't think I realized just how many came from this single album.
The Go-Go's
4/5
A perfectly solid album with several upbeat, high-energy bangers.
Nirvana
1/5
Grunge was a particular time in the American music scene. It should stay that way.
Kings of Leon
3/5
Did I enjoy the return to a bygone era of early aughts rock? Yes. Will I forget that this album exists in the next few days? Also yes.
Favorite song of the album: Joe's Head
4/5
This was a gem of an album. It was just fun to listen to and it might find its way into my regular rotation. I would give it 4 1/2 stars if that was an option.
Favorite Song: City, Country, City
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
With the exception of the title track, what a surprisingly forgettable album. It all just kind of blends together.
Joy Division
2/5
I'm sure this album is for someone. Just not for me.
Abdullah Ibrahim
4/5
This isn't necessarily an album I'd listen to with my full attention. But it is something that would be nice to have on in the background while I'm doing something else.
Oasis
4/5
I had not understood the hype for Oasis before this (after all, Wonderwall is an overplayed meh of a song). But now I think I get it.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
A very solid album. This was the perfect funky blend to get me through the Friday afternoon of a very long week.
Arcade Fire
3/5
This album is the embodiment of the phrase, "so bland as to be inoffensive". The only reason I'm not giving it 2 stars is that Wake Up is the one exception to that phrase.
John Lennon
3/5
There is some interesting stuff going on in this album, but much of what makes it interesting is the consistent sound and sonic callbacks to his work in The Beatles.
Van Morrison
4/5
This was surprisingly good. I think it does some interesting things to blend other sounds into traditional late 60s early 70s folk - but not enough to justify giving this album five stars.
Spacemen 3
2/5
This is a solid album to have on in the background as ambient music, but is not one you can do a deep listen to without being driven out of your mind by its repetition.
Supertramp
4/5
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Admittedly, I had definitely judged an album by its name (and the name of the band that produced it), but 4/5 would listen to it again.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
This album is like a bad sandwich where the bread is the best part - the first and last songs are classics, but what comes in the middle is best forgotten.
The Pretty Things
5/5
Look, this album is hitting two of my sweet spots: 1960s, Beatles-esque Britpop and rock opera concept albums. I would give this 4.5 stars if that was an option. But since it is not an option, I'm rounding up.
Loneliest Person is an emotional standout. Baron Saturday is just fantastic.
Sam Cooke
4/5
There are few live albums I actually enjoy. In my experience, they generally have poor audio quality and a bunch of audience clapping. But this album avoids that problem and captures the performer's energy - not the audience's. And in that way, it is a good example of what live albums should be.
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
I remember being obsessed with this album in the mid-00s as a touchstone of indie rock. It still holds up twenty years later as an exemplar of that sound.
Deep Purple
2/5
Cut to Skinner Meme -
Panel 1: "Am I out of touch?"
Panel 2: "No, it's the classic rock who are wrong"
I just don't think I get classic rock. I get why people CAN like it, I just don't.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
The first half of this album has some problematic songs (Stupid Girl) that just aren't great. The back half though has some decent songs that show off the transition from the Britpop of The Beatles to a more rock sound. These songs are certainly better than Let It Bleed, so 3 stars.
Elbow
5/5
This album is a vibe. And baby, I'm vibing.
Slipknot
4/5
I always forget how technically competent Metal musicians, including singers, have to be. And then a song like Gehenna comes along to remind me.
Eminem
2/5
Is this technically interesting rap? Yes, I guess. Does that make it good? No.
Buena Vista Social Club
4/5
This album is what I wanted to be listening to while we're getting 3.5" of snow. It's a fun album that captures the vibes of being somewhere warmer and is able to transport the listener there.
Elliott Smith
4/5
Listening to this, it was very clearly the progenitor for a bunch of mid-2000s sad-boy indie.
Christina Aguilera
3/5
A throw back to my teen years of the early '00s. It holds up better than the work of some of her peers of the time.
Harry Nilsson
2/5
This was a fine album, some might even say a good album. But then came along "Coconut" and I was forced to relive the inescapable mid-00s meme of a Coca-Cola commercial.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
Taken individually these are really interesting songs that show how much fun rap can be, both for the audience and its creators. But it does drag a bit by the end of the album (although possibly that's just the bloat of some of the remixes at the end for the 25th Anniversary Edition).
The Black Keys
3/5
A solidly meh album. There are one or two good songs that are classics for a reason, but I'm not sure they're enough to justify going back to listening to the album again.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
Like the notes and the skips, there are no comments necessary about this masterpiece.
DJ Shadow
4/5
Some fun boom bap rap in here. If that's all it was, I'd probably just give it 3.5 and round down. But "Why Hip-Hop Sucks in '96" is the shortest piece of musical (and comedic) genius I have heard in awhile. So I'm rounding up to 4.
Devendra Banhart
2/5
Based on this, I can only assume folk music in the early-00s and mid-00s was a dark, dark time. I don't think I realized how much the *stomp, clap, "Hey!"* resuscitated the genre.
Fun Lovin' Criminals
3/5
When it leans into fusing hip-hop with other genres, it does something interesting. But when it doesn't, my goodness does this just sound like generic and forgettable mid-90s rap.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
2/5
I kept shouting "Play Free Bird" for 34 minutes. 34 minutes in purgatory. 34 minutes listening to Lynyrd Synyrd. 34 minutes listening to Southern Rock. I don't think that was 34 minutes well spent.
The Doors
3/5
Nothing really jumped out at me in this. Like it wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't great. Maybe it's just the things that made The Doors innovative is no longer that sonically different from what others have been up since this first came out.
Sebadoh
4/5
Look, I can't explain what it is about it, but this gets four stars from me. It's good and there are some songs that I will go back and listen to after this round, and that's really my definition of a 4 star album for me.
Le Tigre
4/5
As someone who's really only heard Deceptacon, I was pleasantly surprised with this. The DIY-ness of the sound is fascinating and is what makes this so much fun to listen to.
In reality, it's 4.5 stars and I struggled with whether to round up or down on this. Ultimately I decided if I can't figure it out, it probably means I should round down to 4.
Solange
4/5
This has been on my to listen to list for about a decade, because of the critical praise it received when it was released. I can see why it got the praise it did when it was released, as it is sonically beautiful. But I also think it was an album of its time, and the time when it was relevant may have passed.
Derek & The Dominos
1/5
There was a moment when listening to this when I almost DNFed. But then I convinced myself that if I could make it through Nirvana, I could make it through the most dad of the dad early 1970s rock.
Beatles
4/5
Not the best Beatles album IMHO, but still a pretty damn solid one that pushes recording arts forward (e.g., first use of recorded audio played backwards - check).
Big Star
4/5
There's some fun elements to this album that Big Star introduced to the musical landscape that make this a good album. But ultimately, this is a "X had to walk, so Y could run" situation, because while the building blocks are all there, Big Star doesn't really do enough with them. 3.5 stars rounding up to 4 because of that.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
There are a few songs here that I get and understand why they get broader play. But there's a good number (dare I say most) that are forgettable. However, I chalk it up to the fact that this is part of a larger cultural project that I am not part of and am not the target audience for. So with that in mind, I'll give this the benefit of the doubt and round my 3.5 up to a 4.
Ghostface Killah
4/5
If there weren’t the skits in it (some of which are just problematic), this would be a great, 5-star rap album. But alas, the album before us has the skits in it, so I am downgrading it to a 4.
Black Sabbath
5/5
Rock Band introduced me to the hits from this album. 1001 Albums introduced me to the fact that all the songs on this album are hits.
4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.
The Zombies
3/5
There are a couple good songs that bump this up from the 2/5 to 3/5 that I want to give it, but overall this just seemed like generic Beatles knock-offs
Guided By Voices
1/5
New rule I’m identifying from past votes (c.f. Nirvana) and this one. Any album by straight people that involves casually dropping the f-slur for no real reason gets a 1 star vote.
The Band
3/5
A 37-year old man drives across the state to the hospital where his wife has been airlifted to prematurely give birth to his first child. As he speeds down the highway, he listens to his favorite band - The Band - on cassette. Perhaps it is a recording of their first album, Music From Big Pink, and the first song on the album hits him extra hard as it discusses a daughter and father after all he is convinced his first child will be a girl. When the baby is born and he is shocked to find it a boy, he must scramble to find a name for the child. Thinking of the music that kept him company on the drive, the man names his new son Daniel, after the song "Daniel and the Sacred Harp".
The man, driving his family on their vacations now that his children are grown enough to appreciate travel, still listens to The Band - no longer on cassette, but on CD. He ignores the protest of his children and continues to play only The Band on these trips, especially that of his eldest who is named after one of their songs, and as a teenager, is the one most prone to complain.
Now the man's son is fully grown, and a man of 37 himself. He finds himself in an activity with friends in which he listens to 1001 of the Best Albums out there. The system recommends him "Music From Big Pink", and he listens with apprehension - aware of the scars his dad's music choices listens. But as he listens to it now, he realizes that the album is ... just fine and 3 out of 5 stars.
Wire
3/5
Pink flag? More like beige flag. Amirite?
Johnny Cash
5/5
What a haunting series of meditations on death and the scars we leave behind. There were several times while listening, where I was not emotionally prepared for the lyrics and Cash's sound in ways that will, in their own way, leave a scar behind.
Guns N' Roses
2/5
For something so aggressive, it is a shock that this is so aggressively mediocre.
Van Halen
1/5
Look, it's not a decent album when you find yourself thinking, "You know, I think I prefer the Glee cover of this song to the original." several times while listening to it.
Bob Dylan
2/5
Look I generally don't have a problem with speak singing, so long as that's what the artist is saying interesting things and they have a halfway interesting voice. Unfortunately, after listen to this, I am more convinced than ever that Bob Dylan has neither.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
I don't think I've ever heard a breakup album that is as horny as this one. It sounds nice (and I finally get the idea of baby-making music), but that's only so long as you don't actually listen to the lyrics and just enjoy the vibes.
Otis Redding
4/5
It takes real skill to make covers as good as - if not better - than their originals. Covers that are so good that people forget that they are covers and that they become the staple version. This album is full of those types of songs - covers that outshine some of the originals.
Funkadelic
4/5
You know, I would describe this as a good funk - in that it lifted my mood with the energy and playfulness that they brought to a bunch of their songs - but I would not describe it as great funk - in that it did not immediately make me want to start dancing.
Common
4/5
This is a good album. It's fun rap. There are some great features (old school Kanye, *chef's kiss) and the lyrical play is nice.
Lyrically, it's ... interesting ... in a couple places as Common seems to grapple with how he feels about women, often falling into the traps that have historically marred rap as anti-woman. The opening song talks about his feelings for his daughter and the hope that he has for her and wondering if she is the Messiah. There's a song in here grappling with how he would feel about his faith if God (and Jesus) were women. It ends with (what TBH sounds like a response and callback to Baz Lurhman's "Everybody's Free") a bunch of children, may of them talking about what they want to be when they grow up.
But at the same time, there's songs about his sexual fantasy of a FFM threesome that devolves into the fetishization of lesbians. He has a song portraying a wife as a crime queenpin that's pinned the crime on her husband (and apparently doesn't know about the appeal process?!?!?!). There's a song about a tragic woman who can't seem to escape poverty, despite her hopes and some desperate measures. It's all complicated, and very much of its time.
With all that, I can't give this album the five stars it probably deserves for the sound of it all and that I was so ready to give it based only on the first song. So, 4 stars it is.
Black Flag
4/5
This may be an exemplar and a critical album in the evolution of the hardcore punk sound, and for that I'm willing to give it four stars. But I just don't think that it's a fantastic sound when everything sounds so similar and is at the same intensity and emotional tenor.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
5/5
This album does not have frills, but you don't need frills to leave a mark like "I See A Darkness" does.
Eagles
2/5
Fortunately, unlike the Hotel California, you can leave the Hotel California album. There are two good songs on this album, the title track and Life in the Fast Lane, so this gets one star for each of those.
Herbie Hancock
5/5
I do not feel the need to justify my five star review. It is self-evident upon listening to Head Hunters why it deserves it.
Anthrax
3/5
I was fully prepared to give this album two stars. But then I saw the lyrics to "A Skeleton In the Closet" and the part that said "<FUN PICKIN' PART>", and that was a good reminder that this is kind of fun.
The Soft Boys
2/5
If you put a gun to my head, I'm not sure I could remember anything about this album or any aspect of any song besides the fact that it can't have been so bad as to make me remember hating it.
Steely Dan
4/5
*Gordon Ramsay voice* "Delicious. Finally some good fucking dad rock" (and by good, I mean four stars).
The emergent-yacht rock sound of some of these songs is great. And I think its what I want from my 1970s rock, a group that doesn't take itself too seriously and is willing to have fun with their music.
Nick Drake
5/5
Look, maybe I am primed to appreciate some quiet, soothing singer-songwriter right now. But I would like to think that even absent everything I have going on right now, I would appreciate Drake's calming vibe in Bryter Layter. I'd give this 4.5 stars if an option, but given how it's helped - rounding up to 5 stars.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Frank Ocean
4/5
The Byrds
4/5
Supergrass
3/5
Generally good 90's Brit Rock. I'd probably give this four stars. But then there's the song, "She's so Loose", and I'm not sure if it's slut shaming or not? So downgrading to 3 stars.
James Brown
4/5
Korn
1/5
I have one rule for an automatic one star, use of the f-slur.
Pantera
2/5
The xx
4/5
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Patti Smith
4/5
This album is a pretty convincing argument that not all punk needs to rock to be punk. It can be quieter and more acoustic and still be great. Fur and a half stars rounded down to four.
(I also feel like I better understand the sonic lineage of Regina Spektor, one of my mid-00s faves, having listened to this)
U2
3/5
Was this album offensive in any way? No. But that doesn't mean it's anything better than pretty generic 90s rock.
Marty Robbins
4/5
Death In Vegas
1/5
Everything sounds the same on this album and as a result this just drags on and on making it seem as if it will never end. As a result, this sounds like the soundtrack to Purgatory in that it is extremely boring and undergoes very little in the way of change.
The Clash
3/5
It states its thesis early in the first song with a rejection of The Beatles and creating a new sound, and then it doubles down on it as it acts as a bridge between the 70s and 80s. Despite being historically important, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a great album though.
3.5/5 stars, rounding down.
Beatles
4/5
This is not The Beatles at their best, but you can start to see what they will end up with in these early songs. And so even if it's not fantastic, it's still pretty good.
Violent Femmes
4/5
Not all punk goes hard.
Buffalo Springfield
4/5
Part of the fun of this project is getting to discover the earlier albums of your parents favorite artists, especially when in the case of Buffalo Springfield, it's from before they joined their later more famous supergroups or solo projects. It also doesn't help that this album has the feel and sound of weaponized nostalgia.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
I don't understand Frank Sinatra's reputation as a charismatic singer when "Makin' Whoopee" has so much negative rizz.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
Is this life-changing funk? No. But is it good funk? Yes.
The Band
4/5
They have a better sense of their sound in this album than in the Big Pink, and it leads to a better album overall.
Napalm Death
4/5
Look, I know that I am not the target audience for this. But it really doesn't mean that I can't appreciate and recognize the technical artistry that it takes to make music metal.
5/5
I've been exposed to Bowie in other contexts and mediums (like film), but never really spent much time listening to his music. I'm glad this was a chance to change that.
Bowie is an icon for a reason, and this album is part of it. Bowie redefined what musicians can do and can look like or how they present themselves as capital-A Artists in ways that weren't really possible in mainstream music before.
Queen
4/5
Most of this is "meh" for Queen.
Really it only has one standout song that holds its own compared to their other hits, "The Seven Seas of Rhye", and it really just goes to convince me that Queen is really at their best when they're doing weird fantasy world building in their music. It's for this song alone, I'm giving it four stars - otherwise, it would probably just justify a 2.5
The Temptations
4/5
Look, you can't have a Motown record with the classic, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and give it a bad rating. I'd round up from a 4.5 to a 5 for this one because it's a great record, but unfortunately there is that weird child having a break down in "Runaway Child, Running Wild". So I'm rounding down to account for that.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
4/5
I was not looking forward to listening to an hour plus long album that has been described as "one of the most harrowing documents of pain and confusion ever made". But the shagginess of it caught me off guard and I wasn't prepared for how much I liked enough of the songs as a result to give it 4 stars.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
5/5
I was fully prepared for this to be a 1-star, chaotic mess of noise. But then "F**k Shit Up" started and my entire outlook on this album changed.
5/5
The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight is an absolute banger of a burn song - but then almost everything else on this is album is a banger in ways that I was not prepared to appreciate. 4.5 stars rounding up.
The Doors
4/5
I went in rooting against this album. I don't know why (I do know why, I just don't want to admit that I thought it was dad rock and I'm on the record against dad rock). I just did. But damn if it didn't turn me into a fan by the end of the album.
ZZ Top
2/5
I can't take an album with an ode to the TV meal on it seriously if it isn't a from a band that is actively trying to be a comedy band.
T. Rex
3/5
This album was full of surprises. There were some fantastic, 5-star songs (Jeepster, Bang a Gong). But it felt like there were just as many, if not more, forgettable songs that cancel those 5-star songs out. I'd give this 3.5 if that was an option, but absent that option - rounding down to 3 stars.
William Orbit
2/5
It does some cool stuff making electro and world mash-ups that I can recognize, but it is a slog of an album to get through it all.
Fugazi
4/5
I want to start off my review by saying I do not like this and it is not my jam. In part because the singer just lacks any tonality and just sings in the same monotone the entire time. However, there came a moment in this album where I realized that he wasn't changing his tone, but his intensity. And that made it more interesting again.
The Smiths
3/5
My head cannon conspiracy theory is that PETA paid The Smiths to write the the title track of this album. It has all the hallmarks of PETA's rhetoric after all. If I wasn't already vegetarian, I feel like that song may have been the one to make me.
Jeff Buckley
4/5
The range of sounds (from the lilting softness of Hallelujah to the aggressive shout singing of Eternal Life) and diversity of genres that he taps into in Grace is fascinating. It would have been interesting to see how it would have evolved over the course of a fuller musical career and its a shame we didn't get to hear it.
Beck
4/5
Beck's jumping from genre to genre is fun and playful in a way that only a few artists can pull off.
Dagmar Krause
3/5
I'm not really sure what to say about this album. It isn't for me, but I guess I understand its historical significance of trying to extend the reach of 1920s Wiemar music and can appreciate why it is on the list. But again, it's not bad - just not for me.
Gene Clark
3/5
This was good, but ultimately forgettable in the late 1960s/early 1970s folk pop wave. I think I appreciated Gene Clark better when I appeared with the rest of The Byrds rather than this solo project.
Television
2/5
I don't know if I get this album in any sense of the word. It just sounds whiny and generic, but I have to assume that it is good and has a place in this project. I just can't understand why that might be the case.
ABBA
4/5
There are some fantastic, feel-good classics on this album (Dancing Queen; Money, Money, Money). But there are also some songs that are just kinda meh - enough to bump this down to a solid 4.
Big Black
1/5
I only need two words to describe this album: Abrasive noise.
This was not a pleasant listening experience and I don't think I would listen again (given that I almost DNFed the first time around.)
New Order
3/5
This sounds like ambient music, but with words. It just kind of exists in a non-offensive way without anything to draw your attention to it. It's not bad, but it's definitely not good.
Brian Wilson
3/5
This album was a playful one and I can appreciate an artist in their fifth decade of music still having that kind of energy. But at the end of the day, there doesn't appear to be enough new sounds or anything really interesting that grabs your attention too much. 3.5 stars, but rounding down to 3.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
I'm not sure I'd call this a perfect album, but it's very near to one. Near enough to justify 5 stars.
The Strokes
4/5
The Strokes have one sound. Don't get me wrong. It sounds good, but I wish there was more diversity to their sound. 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4 just because, again, it is a good sound.
The Pogues
4/5
Some pretty solid Celtic rock here.
Marilyn Manson
2/5
I came into this album, really wanting to hate it. Like, "I am so behind on this project after the past couple weeks, let me just go ahead and give this a 1" hate it. And yet, it's good‽ It's angry and fun and gets the heart pumping in all the right ways starting with the opener and the line, "I wasn't born with enough middle fingers"‽ It's good enough that I had to google the interrobang so that I could get the symbol enough to emphasize my thoughts on this album good‽ It's like "pre-sages much of the moral panic of the late 90s, early 00s in the Conservative right" good? It's like caught off-guard, give it five-stars good‽ I think the answer is yes and I was not prepared for that.
But at the same time, it's hard to disassociate the artist from the art. Marilyn Manson is not a good person, which really shouldn't surprise any of us because you can't make music like this and not be broken deep down in ways that will break others. So I'm in a quandary about this album, I want to give the art five, but I want to give the artist a terrible score.
TV On The Radio
4/5
I've enjoyed Tunde Adebimpe's solo work, but have never (knowingly) listened to TV On The Radio before. I enjoyed it and am glad to have had that opportunity.
Johnny Cash
4/5
Live albums are hard, but this one pulls it off. I'd call this 4.5 stars, rounding down.
Willie Nelson
4/5
There are a few classics, but there is definitely better Willie Nelson out there (and on this list).
Kraftwerk
4/5
I went in not knowing anything about Kraftwerk and what there sound would be like. I was not at all surprised by this. In honesty, this is a 3.5 stars album, but I'm going to round up.
Aerosmith
2/5
Nothing in this record has changed my stance on dad rock and how absolutely trash it is. 1.5 stars, generously rounded up.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
5/5
This album was clearly crafted by someone who has known death first hand. It caught me off guard with how perfect, unguarded, and haunting it is.
The Offspring
4/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
There is one good song (the title track). Otherwise, I'm not sure why people like the Red Hot Chili Peppers - or at least why this is their album that gets the most attention.
Iggy Pop
3/5
I kind of expected better from this album. It was good and I enjoyed listening to it, but I wanted a certain je ne sais quoi to it given the hands involved in its creation. And I couldn't find that here, which is disappointing.
Sheryl Crow
3/5
I don't think it's Sheryl Crow's fault that when listening to this album for this project I had to hear the song "All I Wanna Do" twice: once in my car on the way to the grocery store and once over the loudspeaker in the grocery store while I was shopping. But I do think it is her fault that she made a song so inoffensive that grocery stores play it.
The The
3/5
The punk is alright, but just alright.
Miles Davis
4/5
This is great jazz. Unfortunately for it, I am of the opinion that jazz music only functions as background music and this did nothing to dissuade me of that fact.
Elvis Presley
2/5
Nothing screams the start of rock and roll like a white guy blatantly covering black artists and riding it to stardom. Although my personal favorite example of this is Elvis covering Tooti Fruti, a song about gay sex. I'm giving this a bonus star just for that fact alone.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
The sound wasn't super novel by the time Dusty Springfield released this album. But as I tell my students when we're writing papers - you can either be first or you can be right. And while Dusty may not have been first, I get the feeling that she did it right with this record.
Madonna
4/5
This is some good, quintessential 80's pop. There are some fantastic singles off this album that became pop anthems for a reason and one or two fun discoveries as well (Dear Jessie). But for an album of this length, a few singles and good discoveries meant a decent number of skips - keeping this from a 5 star album in my book.
Gram Parsons
3/5
I'm not sure I'd describe this as country (as 1001 Albums seems to do), but solidly within the folk rock tradition of the time. With that said, the thing that makes it stand out from the other bands in that genre is the one thing that isn't in the name, Emmylou Harris. Otherwise, Gram Parson doesn't do much to distinguish himself from the pack on this one.
Wilco
4/5
This is a classic piece of indie music history - and it deserves it for helping to define the sound of indie music for the aughts and early teens. It is a solid 4.5, but not quite a 5. So alas, I must round down, despite its influence.
Jack White
2/5
Sometimes speak singing does it for me. And sometimes it doesn’t. Jack White’s speak singing is in the latter camp for me.
The Byrds
2/5
Maybe we've had too much of The Byrds or related solo projects, but I found this album to be far more boring than their other works, which is kind of disappointed since I liked the earlier ones on this list so much more.
The Bees
4/5
Did this inspire the "lo-fi chill beats" sound that we've been inundated with for the past decade? It certainly sounds like it did. And for that, I can't fault this album.
50 Cent
1/5
There's some some real cognitive dissonance in "Da Club" where you're fetishizing queer women but slamming your rivals as queer men.
Nas
1/5
You cannot deny that a lot of 90s rap is fantastic and that its rappers were extremely skilled.
But equally you cannot deny that a lot of they lyrics did not age well.
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
I think there are a few more sleeper bangers than the Madonna album we had a week or so ago, but there are still a few skips on this record that are just off (e.g., "I'll Kiss You"). With that said, it is a more interesting and coherent take on feminist pop in the 80s as it tries to grapple with negative tropes that makes it seem like Cyndi is the real Material Girl.
Grateful Dead
3/5
Surprisingly decent and better than I expected? But at the same time, nothing jumped out as memorable. This is the definition of a 3-star album for me.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Black Sabbath defined their sound early on in their career with this debut album. It took them a while to perfect it (which is why this isn't a five-start album for me), but the pieces are all there in an album that starts to lay out their sonic signatures (like the Devil's chord).
Motörhead
2/5
I forgot I was listening to different songs for a good 20 minutes. Then "Jailbait" started playing and I started hoping that it was knowing satire about their reputation and treatment of fans. Because, if not, big yikes.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
It dragged a bit at the end, so it could probably have done with trimming some of the fat from the track list. But, overall I can see why people like the Stones.
Tears For Fears
5/5
Every time I listen to an album from the 80s that is quintessentially 80s, like this one, I am surprised that music's circling back for inspiration never seems to come back for this. Maybe it's just too of-the-moment for pop to try to repurpose for today, but I think society would benefit from some influence from this near perfect album. Even the songs that weren't hits were great (with the exception perhaps of "I Believe"). But still, I genuinely enjoyed this and would give it 4.5 stars if that were an option. But it isn't, so I'm going to round up.
Supergrass
4/5
I'm here for this style of Britpop. This was a better album than the other Supergrass album we've had so far, but I don't think this is enough to justify giving it five stars as I probably won't be coming back to listen to anything on this album again after this project is over.
Massive Attack
4/5
Perfectly fine ambient electronic music to edit your manuscripts to. 3/5 stars rounding up to 4 because I wouldn't be opposed to putting it on the background and half-listening while editing a manuscript again.
The Incredible String Band
2/5
Look, I'm not sure I was high enough to enjoy this album as it is seems to be one that definitely sounds better on some sort of mind-altering substance. There were enough songs that I liked enough to salvage the listening experience, but only enough to save this from a 1-star rating.
The White Stripes
5/5
I don't know what it is about Jack White when he's in The White Stripes, versus his solo work. But, whereas I found his solo album Blunderbuss bad (if not terrible), I really enjoyed him in this one. The first few songs were good enough to get White Blood Cells a four. But then we got to "Fell In Love With a Girl" and this album kicked into a high gear and earned itself five stars.
Solomon Burke
3/5
Sonically, this is good soul. I'm always down for that kind of throwback sound and glad when we get it. Burke is clearly good at it and knows how to master his instrument to make it do what he wants it do, so good for him!
That said, it does suffer from some of the lyrical tropes of the genre and time. These may be at odds with Burke's personal ethos (he was married to the same woman without cheating for 40 years during which he released this album - and he came of retirement to release an anniversary album for her). But at the same time, these are not great tropes and I'm docking a star for it.
Kate Bush
3/5
Bush's vocal control and ability to manipulate her voice is on full display throughout the album, even if it isn't always a pleasant sound (e.g., her Toad voice in "Suspended in Gaffa"). You have to recognize the technical artistry of what Bush is capable of.
Interestingly, the title track seems like it wants to condemn her native Britian's colonial past. However, Bush does it in ways that may not hold up to today's expectations of what that looks like. For instance, "The Dreaming" co-opts Aboriginal sounds, but doesn't really have any aboriginal artists. That probably would have been fine in the 80s (and is definitely a feature of the musical legacies that Bush is part of), but it's not great now. This leads into a song that is heavily Celtic influenced, which felt like an intentional choice by an artist living through The Troubles.
3.5 stars, rounding down to 3 for not aging the best.
Little Simz
5/5
I have one note on this album. As someone who read "The Alchemist" and did not change, I feel personally attacked by it.
In all other regards this is a perfect, surprisingly introspective rap album. No (other) notes. Five stars.
The Stooges
3/5
I'm not sure that this album was for me, but I can't fault it for that. The sounds of the album are just grating, but I get it and the why The Stooges would make it. I guess Iggy Pop would always be a musical contrarian and wanted The Stooges eponymous debut to be a rebellion against the prevailing music of the late '60s.
Sex Pistols
1/5
If I could have this album without the song "New York", I would take it in a heart beat. It's brilliant and fun to see Brit Rock taken to 11 and embrace the punk sound that it would inspire. That album would be a five-star album for me.
But alas, I can't just ignore songs and I have an established rule about the use of the f-slur. So, unfortunately I have to give this one star.
Dire Straits
1/5
I'd forgotten about this album for decades. I'm sure I last heard this on a road trip growing up. It was forgettable then. It's still forgettable garbage now. I'm not even sure I need to use my "f-slur rule" to justify giving this a 1, it's just that bland.
Portishead
2/5
A few weeks ago, I described Massive Attack's "Protection" as perfectly good ambient music to edit a paper to. I would describe Portishead's Dummy as perfectly good ambient music to forget you're listening to. This is part of the goal of ambient music, so I guess that's good if what they were going for. But I refuse to believe that's what they wanted.
I also had to make sure that I wasn't listening to the same song twice. Biscuit and Glory Box are the same song, right?
All in all, this is a 2.5 star record for me. I'm rounding down to 2.
Ice Cube
3/5
Ice Cube's flow is top-notch and this is some very good early 90's rap, even if it is plagued with the regressive politics of the time that would set the stage for a lot of rap's misogyny for decades.
The best song on this thing by far is the one that does the best to challenge (?) this narrative and offers a platform to a female rapper, It's a Man's World feat. Yo-Yo, to do so. Although, again, that's an incredibly low bar.
The Divine Comedy
4/5
I think it is genuinely difficult for men to write love songs that aren't overly trite and schmaltzy. The Divine Comedy does a pretty decent job of doing it in this one. There are a few lines that go a bit too far over that line into cringe turf, but he just comes across as earnest in his intent. And as the youths will tell us, earnestness leads to cringe.
I'm also a sucker for chamber pop and orchestral backing. This album has it in spades. So overall, I'd give this 4.5 stars, rounding down to 4 though for that horse line. You know the one.
Kanye West
4/5
In retrospect, we all probably should have seen the line "The prettiest people do the ugliest things" as Kanye foreshadowing the turns he's taken in the past decade.
This album though is fantastic, a near masterpiece that reminds me of why Kanye rose to fame and was EVERYWHERE in pop and rap in the mid-and late-00s. He was a great rapper who knew what he was doing with a unique and interesting sonic brand.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
I've often been a bit more dismissive of the jazz we've been served in this project. But this one caught me off-guard in a way that could keep me engaged. It may be because this is more swingy than some of the other albums and have leaned in to the big bandness of it all, but I enjoyed it. Splanky was a favorite, but maybe because its the one that's stuck around in the culture the best.
Astrud Gilberto
4/5
I feel like I better understand the musical legacy that Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward are part of with their She & Him project. That makes me appreciate them slightly better knowing that they didn't just create their sound themselves - they basically stole it from Astrud Gilberto. And much like many an imitator, the original does it much better.
The Dandy Warhols
1/5
I want my 3 hours back. I know the album is only a little over an hour. But bloody Hell, the droning and sameness of it all made it feel like it was 3 hours.
Tim Buckley
3/5
Happy Sad is a feeling. I'm not sure happy is one I'd use to describe it as it's just introspectively sad. Buckley seems very interested in making sure you feel the same way after listening to it. If you're willing to do that, then I can see this being a fantastic album. But I wasn't, so this was a just okay one for me.
Blondie
4/5
I'm not going to call this a perfect album by any stretch of the imagination as there are definitely one or two skips (e.g., Fade Away and Radiate). But there are enough of the five-star classics (Heart of Glass, One Way or Another) to bump this up to 4.5 stars. Unfortunately, there are not enough classics to round this up to 5 stars - so 4 it is.
Bob Dylan
2/5
Dylan's vocal quality and style is trash and not good. I do not care if it is an important exemplar of the folk singer-songwriter style.
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
If the point of language is to effectively communicate concepts and ideas, then this is not language. But if the point of music is to communicate emotions and feelings, then oh boy, does this communicate emotions and feelings. Mostly anger - but that is an emotion.
Adding this to my fuck the world playlists.
Joanna Newsom
4/5
New age-y harp music was not something I was expecting to have cross my ears as part of this project, and yet, here we are. Surprisingly enjoyable, but it started from a low bar I will see. If I could, I'd give this a 3.5 stars, but it was good enough to justify rounding up.
Public Image Ltd.
1/5
Look if you're just going to be noise, at least have the audacity to change the noise so it all just doesn't sound the same.
Snoop Dogg
2/5
Is Snoop Dogg supposed to be funny? And more importantly is Snoop Dogg to rapping what Rocky Flintstone is to self-published erotica?
They both have an obsession with gin-based drinks. They both have a comedic, over the top way of discussing sex acts. They both embody an unearned swagger.
As Rocky would say, "Questions, questions, questions!"
Radiohead
5/5
Often imitated, but rarely successfully. I can see why this might be a cultural touchstone for the likes of Muse and Coldplay. This album is perfect and varied in tone and style while exploring a diversity of techno-future ideas.
Destiny's Child
4/5
This does feel like a time capsule of an album that captures the essence of early 00s girl pop. There is nothing wrong with that, but if Beyonce wasn't part of this, I don't think it would be viewed as important as many of the other albums from that time period.
With that said, there are also some very good songs on this album - including the classics. Enough to justify giving this a four-star rating.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
1/5
Full disclosure - psychadelic rock is not my thing and I don't think it ever will be my thing. Generally, if I don't appreciate a genre, I'll at least try to recognize that an album that typifies can be good even if it's not for me though.
This is not the case with Happy Trails. It's boring and monotonous. Pretty much everything has a droning sameness which I guess if you're high is fun? But if you're not, it's just boring.
Nico
4/5
Nico seems to be evidence that one doesn't need to be able to sing to be a singer. She barely adjusts her pitch, and when she does, she sounds pitchy and off.
But that works on this album for the most part, in part because the instrumentation behind her is gorgeous and she knows how to play into it. This album is getting these stars for knowing how to do accompaniment and work that into the album.
Fugees
5/5
The Chinese restaurant skit is an odd choice to have included in this otherwise perfect album that captures the politics of the mid-90s (even if I do hate any and all references to Newt). The amount of iconic songs that get packed into a one hour album is truly incredible. This is an easy five star album for me.
Judas Priest
2/5
I didn't actively hate it, but I also definitely didn't like it and wanted to get it over with. It just kind of shouts "I am an edgelord" at full blast and that permeates everything about this - right down to the animated album artwork my streaming service uses: dripping blood from a razor blade.
The Thrills
3/5
This album has plenty of retro call-backs to the 1960s wave of California coastal infused rock, which gives it a bit of charm. I'm not sure how much though of their summer in Santa Cruz actually rubbed off on these Irish artists though. For a self-proclaimed summer album, this sounds more like a winter one. Less sunny June in Santa Cruz, and more late November and December rainy season in coastal Northern California. It's an easy listen, but it's a quieter one, and so may miss what The Thrills were trying to accomplish with it.
3.5 stars, rounding down.
Bad Brains
4/5
Mildly aggro punk music that's decent. I can see why it's on the list, even if I don't fully appreciate it.
UB40
3/5
This has the curse of reggae to be eternal ambient music that can't hold my attention - with one exception: Strange Fruit. This is one of my favorite versions of Strange Fruit and it alone is going to bump this up to a 3-star for me.
Queen
4/5
There are enough fantastic songs to justify this album's existence and a good rating. Not all of the songs are hits and some are just *mid* enough to justify not giving it 5-stars. With that said, it's still the best Queen album that we've had so far in this list and probably one of the best that we're likely to get from the group.
Bob Dylan
1/5
I've never wanted to dnf an album so fast as the first verse on this album. I pushed my way through it and it didn't get much better.
But I at least have to hand it to Dylan for telling us to tolerate his work at the end of the first verse when he says, "Everybody must get stoned."
The Go-Betweens
3/5
I forgot about this album as soon as I finished listening to it. Utterly unremarkable in its mediocrity I guess, which feels like the most mid review.
Paul Weller
4/5
This feels like a lesson in not judging a book by its cover. Saw the album cover, thought this has to be from the 1960s given the aesthetic choices. Refused to believe that it was from the 1990s originally when I saw that, thought it had to be a reissue. Finally was convinced it was from the 1990s, saw the genre was rock. Refused to believe that too.
But then I listened. And boy was I pleasantly surprised.
Bad Company
4/5
Earlier I described Steely Dan as "some good fucking dad rock". I need to revise. Steely Dan is good dad rock. This is good fucking dad rock.
It's a 4.5 star album. I'd round it up, but the last song falls flat and I can't overlook it.
The White Stripes
4/5
This is a good album, but not a great album. There are a few misses (My Doorbell springs to mind), and a few fun ones (Little Ghost must be the inspiration of Wolves of Glendale's "Olivia"). But overall, White Blood Cells is a better album by The White Stripes.
The Who
3/5
Some of the sounds in the album are different and more hard rock than The Who's contemporaries that make it stand out from other albums of the time. That makes it interesting and fun to see how it shaped the sound of the music that will come in the next decade or so. But, in and of itself, there is only one song on this album that is a stand-out, the title track. So it doesn't have enough to justify rounding up a 3.5 to a 4.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
This is exactly the type of album that I'm doing this project for. Something I would never have found or heard on my own, but am deeply appreciative for having had listened. It's atmospheric and beautiful and something I will add to my regular rotation for a quiet Sunday morning as KIWANUKA deserves that attention and fits the vibe.
This is an easy five-star album for me. I'd give it more if I could.
GZA
4/5
I agree with Vaasavi that the rapper to weeb pipeline needs be studied given the overarching story the skits tell. This is an easy 4.5 star album for the technical skill. But I'm going to round down to 4 stars because one or two of the skits are off and don't contribute to the overarching theme of the album - keeping this from being a perfect 5 star in my book.
Incubus
3/5
When it's good, it's good. But when it descends into parody (Battlestar Scralatchitca) or self-parody (the title track's lyric "I'll fuck me in my own way." is nothing if not laughable), it is laughable and knocks a 4-star album down to a 3-star.
Ray Charles
3/5
Overall this was a pleasant listening experience, but I'm not sure there was enough here to grab my attention, let alone keep it. This would be a perfectly good album to have in the background playing at a dinner party, which is a vibe - but not a 4- or 5-star one.
B.B. King
4/5
It's a fun live blues album. It's not perfect - as it is hard for a live album to do that. However, it was a good listen and it was able to grab and keep my attention.
David Bowie
4/5
When Bowie is good, he's good. When he's bad, he's schizophrenic and decides to end an album with instrumental music when it started with rock. But if I'm honest, there's nothing else I'd want or expect from him.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
My confusion and dismay with why Frank Sinatra is popular continues with this one. It doesn't have the same cringe as "Making Whoopie" but it's still not good enough to justify his name as the King of Cool.
This is my hill, this is where I die.
The Monkees
2/5
I made it to the second song, heard the overuse of hand-held percussion instruments, and decided that The Monkees are just The Jingle Jangle Beatles. Nothing will shake me from this belief. Not even if you shook me as much as they shook a tambourine on this album.
Ray Charles
4/5
I'll start by saying that I don't think this is a fantastic album. It's a solid 3.5 star album for me.
But, I think this is a good album and a historic one that punches back against white musicians stealing black sounds (*cough* Elvis *cough*) by doing better things with the genre that was originally the White one when recording got started. So, for that I'm rounding it up to four stars.
The Cure
1/5
This just drones on and on and on and on and on. There isn't much here to say besides just being surprised at how boring this album was to listen to.
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
Sometimes music is just an emotion screamed at 11, and this one seems to be screaming "HAPPY" at 11. And you know what, sometimes you just have to let the music do its thing and boost your mood.
The Crusaders
4/5
I've generally dunked on music that could be described as "background music", but mostly because the exemplars of the sound are ambient music. Now if I could have some funky, jazzy background music like The Crusaders' Street Life playing as I go about my day, my life would be immeasurably better. This is just facts.
Green Day
5/5
Maybe it's pure nostaligia as someone who was in his mid- to late-teen years in the early 00s, but this thing slaps. The hits per track density on this album is wild and sadly, still relevant today - somehow even more than it was in the GWB administration of American politics.
David Bowie
4/5
After listening, I read the Wikipedia summary of the album where it was mentioned that Bowie worked with Brian Eno on Low. And suddenly, everything fell into place. This thing has Eno all over it as Bowie makes a song or two too many ambient tracks on this record. It also has the bleeps and bloops of early electronica on it as well.
4.5 stars, rounding down because of the too many ambient songs.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
This album is smooth as hell and I was deeply concerned with listening to it in the office lest anyone judge me for listening to it. I get why it is understood to be sexy (and it's certainly better than the other sex song we've had (here's looking at you Fred)). With that said, I think my 4-star rating is mostly an acknowledgement of its cultural significance. That's enough for me to round this 3.5 stars up to 4.
Love
3/5
I'm giving this a bonus star for the pan/poly anthem that is "Alone Again Or". Otherwise this is a eminently forgettable piece of psychedelic rock that I don't hate enough to give it 1 star (as the baseline I'm adding that bonus to).
Steve Winwood
3/5
There is a time and a space for yacht rock. That time is now. That space is wherever I am. So from a personal perspective, 4.5 stars.
But from a more objective perspective, this isn’t that exciting, novel or great. So it’s probably closer to 2.5, rounding up to 3.
10cc
3/5
10cc seems to be a band that had their vision limited by the technology that they had access to at the time. The bands they had an influence on (and I refuse to believe that 100 gecs is not among them) have been able to leverage what they were trying to get at with some modern electronic music and synths. If this was purely on its influence, 4 stars.
But I have to dock a point for Hotel. That's not a good song for the exoticism tropes it leans too heavily into.
Pink Floyd
2/5
I can confirm that this is not an album to listen to while you are driving unless you want to be lulled into nearly crashing your car by its droning sameness. There's bursts of originality that come every once and a while that save this from being a one star, but not enough to make me like this.
Iron Maiden
4/5
I don't think it's the best Iron Maiden that's out. But you can see the vision in this debut and it has just enough of the good stuff of later Iron Maiden to justify a 4.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
I'm not sure it's quite a perfect, no-notes, 5-star album. But this was still quite good. The flow was good and the guest stars know what they're up to. My only quibble is that the songs do start to sound a bit same-y from song to song. But at least when they sound this good you don't mind the same-ness too much
(That and the date rape song. That's a mild yikes from me bro.)
David Bowie
3/5
Don't get me wrong, I think this is a good album. But I think that maybe Thin White Duke Bowie isn't for me. I much prefer Berlin-era Bowie.
There are a few good songs (TVC15 springs to mind), but the rest were just okay and I probably wouldn't come back to this one.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
This album is one note for the entire hour plus run time, but at least it has the decency to be one good note.
Sufjan Stevens
5/5
This thing was ambitious of Stevens in just how big of a project this album was given how much of the instrumentation was Stevens playing it.
With that said, this thing just oozes the the mid-00s indie pop wave era it was made in. But it at least has the decency to hold up to today's standards. I'm alright that the whole 50 states project was a joke if it meant that we got this gem of an album out of it.
5/5
There was a moment of dread when this thing came up and I knew I was going to owe Alex an apology. I guess I do like psychadelic rock - and this album is part of it. I don't think there's a single miss on this album and its historic influence on the sound for the decade afterwards.
Genesis
2/5
Way too much filler and not enough killer in this double album. There were one or two songs that grabbed me early on and at the end (like "Counting out Time"). But that middle just drones on and could be cut without any real loss of the quality of the album.
The Chemical Brothers
1/5
I was not high enough on ecstasy to enjoy this. I can see why it's good rave music, but that doesn't make it good music. In fact, it may make it bad music.
Moby
4/5
I'll be honest, I was not enthused to have another electronica/ambient album after yesterday's. But I guess... I actually like Moby ... and actually enjoyed this. I'm not sure that this is an album that will make its way into my normal rotation. But if I need a background track for something where I don't want the focus to be on the music, I know what I'm picking. 3.5 stars rounding up to 4 stars.
Elton John
3/5
I'm glad I finally listened to an entire Elton John album instead of just hearing the hits. But with that said, Elton John just seems to be the living embodiment of kitsch. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is not something that leads me to think you are making a good album.
Green Day
4/5
Not the best that Green Day has to offer, but it's still enough to get the same emotional response and headbanging.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Beautiful, smooth harmonies do not make for an exciting album. It makes for a beautiful one that is great at fading into the background and make you forget you're listening to one.
Artistically this should be a 4, but because of how soporific it is, I'm docking a star. Plus, "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" is a sex thing, right?
Pixies
5/5
I don't think I had ever really listened to the Pixies before getting this album today. That seems odd given how historically important this album seems to be and the fact that it influenced a bunch of the music that came after it.
Having now listened to it, I get it. I understand why this album matters and why it's on the list. There were a couple arresting moments where I stopped in my track to make sure that I was still listening to the right album because of how varied it seemed to be. I'm not sure it's a perfect five-star album and would give it 4.5 if I could. But alas, I cannot. So five stars it is.
Einstürzende Neubauten
3/5
I came in fully aware that this was going to be German industrial experimental noise that is music in theory only.
I came away fully aware that this was going to be German industrial experimental noise that is music in theory only - and while not good, I'd certainly say it is not bad.
Paul Simon
3/5
I wish this album was more exciting - in one direction or another. But I listened to it, and then immediately forgot nearly everything about it.
My three star rating isn't an endorsement of this album, it's an acknowledgement that I am neutral on it.
Deep Purple
3/5
I get that this is apparently a historically important record for its influence on later heavy metal sounds. But if it weren't for "Smoke on the Water", I would ultimately want to forget that this existed and just chalk up this album's popularity to "you had to be there at the time". But Smoke on the Water is a decent song, enough to bump up an otherwise 2-star album to a 3-star.
Dexys Midnight Runners
4/5
I'm giving this four stars purely for what appears to be an interpolation of Lynyrd Skynrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" in "One of Those Things".
The National
4/5
I often criticize electronic music that we get in this project as dull and droning, hence 1 star. But here, when it's vocal droning (as opposed to instrumental droning), I love it! It's great, but mostly this is just a nostalgic vibe that I'm responding to here (and I'm not ashamed to admit it).
4.5 stars, but rounding down to 4 because of the potential nostalgia of it all.
Talk Talk
3/5
I can't get a read on this album. I generally didn't like it, at least the vocals and lyrics. But the instrumentation was actually kind of lovely. So, if you can deal with the vocals (which isn't something you should have to do for music), I can see why you'd enjoy this.
I'm giving it 2.5 stars, rounding up to 3 stars.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4/5
There are enough mediocre songs on this album (Country Girl, Almost Cut My Hair) that this isn't a perfect album. But when it hits (Carry On, Teach Your Children, Our House), it really hits (and I'm only 80% confident that it wasn't purely nostalgic influence over my sane judgement).
Sonic Youth
3/5
There were a couple fun songs ("Providence" anyone?), but not enough to justify rounding up from 3.5 stars, if only because this album seems like it could have benefitted from some trimming of fat.
The Flaming Lips
2/5
If I'm honest, there's only one good song on this thing (and it's part 1 of the title track). Everything else just seemed utterly forgettable.
Stephen Stills
2/5
What dull, boring 1970s folk rock. Stills is good on the guitar, but not enough to justify rounding this up from a 2.5.
Soft Machine
1/5
This thing nearly put me to sleep while listening to it. If that was the artists' attempt, then I would give it a five star review.
But I highly doubt that it was, so I'm giving it the one star it deserves.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
If someone put this on to have in the background, then I wouldn't complain and I might even enjoy a few songs. But, I'm not sure I would ever ask for it. It's a 3.5-star-album for me, but not enough to round up to 4 stars
The Beach Boys
3/5
This isn't The Beach Boys album that I would have expected. Instead, it's The Beach Boys grown up and trying to grapple with the issues of the late 60s and early 70s. Or, it's them trying to keep their work relevant as the world grows up around them. I'm not sure which it is, but it's interesting enough if you can gloss over some of the weirder plays they have in this market.
Afrika Bambaataa
1/5
I was going to give this a five-star just for how funky this thing is, but it turns out Afrika Bambaataa has been credibly accused of trafficking children. So, that's not great.
Ian Dury
2/5
I don't think I realized how little vocal talent it took to write an album worthy of inclusion on this list until I listened to this thing. I'm only not giving it a 1-star because the instrumentation on it isn't as bad as Ian Dury's singing.
Rufus Wainwright
3/5
I want to like this album more than I actually do. It's a bit too experimental for my taste and there are a few songs where I got tired of Wainwright's technique. So I am inclined to round my 3.5 stars down to 3 as a consequence.
Van Halen
4/5
I went in with preconceived notions of what this album was about. And I wouldn't say those notions have changed. But the valence I associate with those notions (bad) may have changed (to good). At the very least, I'm willing to round up the 3.5 stars I think this deserves to a 4 star album.
The Notorious B.I.G.
1/5
This thing takes all of the elements of 90s rap, turns it up to 11, and concentrates into one hour plus long package. On the plus side, it's technically brilliant. On the other hand,it concentrates and amplifies the worst morally repugnant elements of it. And masterful skill to abominable ends does not make for great craft.
(Plus there's the f-slur and you know my rule.)
King Crimson
3/5
This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be based on what I had heard about it previously. There were a few songs I actually liked (Talk to the Wind). But there were also songs that dragged. And I get that that is the point (to a certain extent) is the longer run time of songs allowing for more sonically interesting things. But at the same time, I'm not sure it pays off.
Tim Buckley
1/5
This album should be listened to only when you need to induce vomiting. If the image of Tim Buckley sucking on a woman's toes doesn't do that to you, you have a stronger constitution that I do.