Considering the title track is one of the best things ever, this album could have plummeted in quality almost immediately. Luckily it doesn't!

Good, interesting album. It reminded me a lot of Pet Sounds in how it's both overflowing with fearless and forward looking ideas that push against the standard form of folk music, yet also sounds really unsure of itself and uneasy. It gave the whole album a low key haunted vibe, which I liked. The slight problems are that I'm not fussed about The 59th Street Bridge Song, the heavy handed Silent Night/contemporary news bulletin juxtaposition hasn't aged well, and I could have done without the jarring Dylan parody. Those miss-fires are all a result of the albums core strength though, so swings and roundabouts.

The huge drop off in Spotify listens between the first 2 songs and the last 2 songs really amused me. Overall, I thought it was a pretty stunning album. Chameleon, Watermelon Man and Sly are all incredible. I was fairly meh on the last song, but came round to it on repeated listens. I'm still not sure how I feel about it as the albums closer though? I both like the way the funk slowly fizzles out of the album as it goes along, but the end isn't representative enough of the album as a whole, so i’m always left in a weird mood when it’s done. I may have preferred it if Sly and Vein Melter were switched round.

Hhm, I think this is an album I respect more than actually enjoy listening to. Objectively, I think this is probably one of the pinnacles of music. Sonically it’s beyond astonishing, and probably the high point of sampling in hip-hop. It’s just such a claustrophobic, dense and violent sounding record that’s a complete sensory overload and absolutely flaws me. Sadly that denseness does mean I get exhausted by it relatively quickly. I think I could probably get myself to enjoy the whole thing if I forced myself to listen to it a load more, as I do ‘get it’ and it’s appeals. It’s just a really singular listen that’s both a braggadocious howl of righteous anger and a deeply confused paranoid mess with all the bleakness, uncomfortableness and remorselessness that comes with that. Rather than being a record with lots of political answers like you’d expect, it’s more a labyrinth of confused, unfocused seething anger that merely throws out questions rather than providing any answers. There’s something about its uniquely suspicious and scary vibe that I find really compelling. It’s like a case study of what desperation can do psychologically to members of marginalised communities, in all of its unpalatable and unrestrained glory. Hopefully it will fully click for me one day, as I would really like it to and I do think it’s amazing.

This album/Bowie period always low key fascinates me as it’s effectively been written out of history. Despite how big and acclaimed this was on release, the subsequent all powerful combo of ‘Blackstar’ and his own death has seemingly made this album completely redundant. As such, this album has seemingly had no lasting cultural legacy, with all the songs largely forgotten. As I suspected, the album is only even in this generator on a technicality (it was included in the 2014 edition of the book and then removed from all subsequent editions once being made obsolete,) and as such it appearing to us is like a ghostly relic from a bygone age. Anyways, has this album always been this good? I’d liked it well enough beforehand, but something really clicked with me yesterday. There’s problems with it: It’s obviously too long, it probably could have done without ‘Boss of Me’ and ‘Dancing Out in Space’, it’s not even in touching distance of ‘Blackstar’ etc etc. My god though, the majority of the songs here are fantastic! Particular highlights for me are the raging and surprisingly virile title track, the menacing and all encompassing ‘Love is Lost’, the incredibly addictive ‘Valentine’s Day’ and the absolute insanity of ‘How Does the Grass Grow?’ I do also the like the way it has the vibe of Bowie taking a victory lap as he audibly has an absolute ball. Maybe my favourite thing about the album, is that it may surprisingly be the most 2013 sounding album ever? It’s deleted from memory standing may go someway in giving me a sort of hauntological pang when listening, but this has ‘2013’ burnt into the absolute core of its being. The reason behind this is probably due to the fact that despite James Murphy not having anything to do with this, the influence of ‘This is Happening’ era LCD Soundsystem hangs large over this album in the same way so many else from that period did. You can safely file this away with other long since forgotten 2013 albums that could only have been released in that specific year, like ‘Comedown Machine’ by The Strokes and ‘Reflecter’ by Arcade Fire (an album that is actually produced by Murphy and even features a cameo from Bowie on it’s one good track.) Good, underrated album though. Thoroughly enjoyed being given a reason to come back to it.

I love AC/DC, but something about this album always leaves me cold. It would be easy to blame this on the lack of their relentlessly deceased frontman Bon Scott, but i’m not sure that’s quite my issue with it. His replacement Brian Johnson is charismatic enough, and all the songs are still about the only 5 things AC/DC songs are ever about (women, the power of rock, electricity, engines and balls) so I don’t think it’s that. It’s more that the production job given to this album manages to sand away the majority of the Bon era’s quirks and idiosyncrasies, including replacing that era’s swing and danceability with a relentless concrete like stomp. This is all fine, like it’s good and it works but there’s also something really joyless and clinical about this whole album. Despite liking everything on here to varying degrees, putting it on always gives me ‘fun time is over’ vibes. The attempts of reacting Scott’s sleazy lyrics also come across as overly unpleasant and mean spirited at times, due to the crushing impersonalness of the music. I dunno, I can recognise that this album does technically rock, but it doesn’t rock me and that ain’t what rock’s about maaaaaaaan. On a more positive note: ‘Hells Bells’ and ‘Shoot to Thrill’ are both great. Obviously the title track is one of the best rock songs ever, although my enjoyment of it is somewhat tampered by the fact it’s so omnipresent in life. My absolute favourite on here though is ‘Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution’, which as well as being an amazing title, is the only time I can really sense the old DC on. It’s just this ridiculous, defiant and kind of moving dirge that serves as both a send off to their fallen frontman, their fan base and rock itself. I wish more songs gave me the buzz I get from it as opposed to just being a technically proficient grind. So yeah: it’s technically one of the best rock albums ever, and better that this is bizarrely the 2nd best selling album of all time than something else, but I really wish it excited me more.

This is a very good album. Doo Wop (That Thing) is obviously outrageous and there’s plenty of other highlights, such as Lost Ones, To Zion and When It Hurts So Bad. I enjoyed listening to this. I don’t really get what’s THAT good about it though. What with the recent push to make this be considered one of the best/if not the best album ever, I kind of expected a bit more than what I got? I think I’m slightly put off the album by its crushing length and the fact I could feel more of my life force drain away with every new skit. I do also find Lauryn Hill kind of annoying as a person, and some of that annoyance infects the album for me. There’s a bit too much of that spiritual faux deep ‘all is love’ type vibe here, which is my literal least favourite thing in the world. That sort of thing often disguises a deep centred preachiness and conservatism, and this album is lyrically no exception. Doo Wop (That Thing) though…

Absolute masterpiece. The combination of Bjork’s wide eyed, first entering Narnia style vocals and restrained techno creates this wonky, sensual, slightly sinister and curious album that sounds both incredibly of it’s time and something too advanced to be released even now. Of the albums many highlights you have the transfixing and tense ‘Human Nature’, the bossaova of ‘Aeroplane’ and the wispy erotic day dream that is ‘Venus as a Boy.’ It’s only weakness is that it doesn’t feature ‘Army of Me’ on it.