368
Albums Rated
3.62
Average Rating
34%
Complete
721 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1950
Favorite Decade
Britpop
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Cheerleader
Rater Style ?
66
5-Star Albums
6
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ys
Joanna Newsom
|
5 | 2.79 | +2.21 |
|
Supa Dupa Fly
Missy Elliott
|
5 | 2.92 | +2.08 |
|
Chemtrails Over The Country Club
Lana Del Rey
|
5 | 3.05 | +1.95 |
|
Pacific Ocean Blue
Dennis Wilson
|
5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
|
I'm Your Man
Leonard Cohen
|
5 | 3.09 | +1.91 |
|
Golden Hour
Kacey Musgraves
|
5 | 3.09 | +1.91 |
|
Rid Of Me
PJ Harvey
|
5 | 3.11 | +1.89 |
|
Let England Shake
PJ Harvey
|
5 | 3.15 | +1.85 |
|
Screamadelica
Primal Scream
|
5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
|
No Other
Gene Clark
|
5 | 3.18 | +1.82 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears
|
1 | 3.17 | -2.17 |
|
Live / Dead
Grateful Dead
|
1 | 2.82 | -1.82 |
|
Southern Rock Opera
Drive-By Truckers
|
1 | 2.82 | -1.82 |
|
Happy Trails
Quicksilver Messenger Service
|
1 | 2.8 | -1.8 |
|
Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers
|
2 | 3.7 | -1.7 |
|
Orbital 2
Orbital
|
1 | 2.69 | -1.69 |
|
In The Court Of The Crimson King
King Crimson
|
2 | 3.6 | -1.6 |
|
Hotel California
Eagles
|
2 | 3.6 | -1.6 |
|
Morrison Hotel
The Doors
|
2 | 3.59 | -1.59 |
|
Moving Pictures
Rush
|
2 | 3.58 | -1.58 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| PJ Harvey | 4 | 5 |
| Beatles | 4 | 5 |
| Radiohead | 4 | 4.75 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 3 | 5 |
| Bob Dylan | 3 | 4.67 |
| Talking Heads | 2 | 5 |
| Marvin Gaye | 2 | 5 |
| Blur | 2 | 5 |
| Johnny Cash | 2 | 5 |
| The Rolling Stones | 5 | 4.2 |
| David Bowie | 3 | 4.33 |
5-Star Albums (66)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
The Yardbirds · 6 likes
4/5
Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds because he thought they were getting too commercial, but who wants to be on Clapton’s side in any argument? I’d rather listen to proto-psychedelic pop rock than a load of white English blokes doing blues covers, and this was so much more fun than I was expecting.
Amy Winehouse · 4 likes
5/5
I bought this album when it was released but hadn’t listened to it in full for a long time. It’s really held up - what a talent and what a loss.
Death In Vegas · 4 likes
2/5
The first track is called Dirge, but I actually liked that one - the real dirges come later. My main issue with this album though is that it’s trying a bit too hard to be a very 1990s idea of cool, and has aged like milk as a result.
Sam Cooke · 3 likes
5/5
Of all the live albums I’ve had so far, this is the first one that made me wish I’d been there. Sam Cooke clearly had charisma to burn along with being an incredible singer-songwriter, and the audience sound like they are having so much fun. No listening to endless solos in a respectful/stoned silence for Sam and his fans. Loved it.
Funkadelic · 3 likes
4/5
I really enjoyed listening to this (once I found it) but it might have been five stars if some of the tracks didn’t drag on a bit too long. Who says a funk band doesn’t know when to stop? Me, but I say it with love.
1-Star Albums (6)
All Ratings
Beastie Boys
5/5
I’ve been listening to this album on a regular basis since the 1990s and I never get tired of it.
Steely Dan
4/5
Some absolute bangers, but a couple I would skip on a re-listen.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
I first listened to this album as a teen when I played my parents’ vinyl copy, which sparked a (mild) argument about who bought it - my mum or my dad. I can see why they both wanted to claim credit, because it’s a masterpiece.
Jethro Tull
3/5
I wasn't looking forward to this one as I'm not a big prog fan, but it wasn't
a slog to listen to and I liked a couple of the songs. Don't think I would revisit it though.
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
Some great tunes, but a bit front-loaded.
Amy Winehouse
5/5
I bought this album when it was released but hadn’t listened to it in full for a long time. It’s really held up - what a talent and what a loss.
ABBA
4/5
I’d always thought of Abba as more of a singles band, and this hasn’t entirely changed my mind. Those singles are pop masterpieces though!
Jacques Brel
3/5
I quite enjoyed this, but I do have a soft spot for showtunes, and as a non-French speaker, this was quite musical theatre in feel and delivery. The audience is certainly into it.
Stereolab
3/5
I had a couple of Stereolab singles in the 1990s, but had never listened to a full album before. I don’t feel like I was missing out - I liked this but nothing really grabbed me like French Disko.
The Saints
3/5
I’d never heard of them, and at first I thought I’d made a real discovery as I loved the mix of punk and horns. However, by the end of the album I did feel like the songs were all bleeding into each other.
Ramones
4/5
Yesterday, I marked an album down for being too same-y, and here I am today giving four stars to the Ramones. In my defence, it’s catchy as hell, is too short and snappy to wear out its welcome, and no one said I had to be consistent.
Funkadelic
4/5
I really enjoyed listening to this (once I found it) but it might have been five stars if some of the tracks didn’t drag on a bit too long. Who says a funk band doesn’t know when to stop? Me, but I say it with love.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
I always thought of Exile on Main Street as their classic, undeniable album but I think I’ve been underrating this one. Loved it.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
The banger to ballad ratio is maybe better on a couple of his other 70s albums, but still a classic.
Madonna
2/5
I’ve always thought that Don’t Tell Me is Madonna’s most underrated single and that American Pie is her worst. The rest of the album is somewhere in the middle - and largely forgettable.
New Order
4/5
I don’t think the generator needed to add a year - everything about this screams 1989. Still, timelessness is overrated and I really enjoyed this.
Dirty Projectors
2/5
I feel like I should appreciate the ambition and that it wants to be more than just another indie album, but I also don’t really want to listen to it again, so…
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
I started off loving it, thought it dipped in the middle, but they pulled me back in with the last track. Always good to go out on a high.
Rush
2/5
Prog and 1980s soft rock aren’t my favourite genres, but put them together and you get… something that’s still not my cup of tea. Good drumming though.
Red Snapper
2/5
If it was 2000 and a friend invited a few people back to their flat to hang out after the club and put this on in the background, I bet it would sound fantastic. I listened to it in 2025 while cleaning my kitchen, so it probably lost something.
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
Some absolute bangers, but it goes on a bit. If he’d wanted to make some edits, cutting out the grim sex skits would have been a good starting point.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
It’s Springsteen at his most Springsteen-esque (there are songs about cars! And factories! And the chorus of The Promised Land sounds like someone doing a Springsteen impression!), so it’s unlikely to convert a non-believer. I’m fully on board with the Boss though, so it’s five stars from me.
PJ Harvey
5/5
I discovered PJ Harvey at the right time - she definitely spoke to me as a teenager. But even without the angst, this is such a great debut from an artist who arrived fully formed. I also don’t think she gets enough credit for the tunes - Sheela-na-gig is straight up catchy.
Dr. John
4/5
It’s very atmospheric - my office briefly felt like a spooky Louisiana swamp. And Walk on Guilded Splinters is such a tune.
Violent Femmes
4/5
I knew Blister in the Sun, but because for me that song walks the very fine line that separates amazing from annoying, I never tried listening to anything else by the Violent Femmes. Turns out they can walk that line for an entire album - I really enjoyed this.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
I’m only 25 albums in but this is my second by the Stones. The first was Sticky Fingers, and although I liked this one, it suffered a bit by comparison.
The Hives
3/5
I bought this album in 2001 on the strength of Hate To Say I Told You So, but would have struggled to name another track on it. After re-listening to it in full for the first time in years, I quite enjoyed it but I think that’s still the only song I’m likely to keep playing.
The Who
3/5
Just when you’re thinking this could be by any generic 1960s British band, along comes a track that makes you realise why The Who were exciting.
Van Morrison
5/5
By all accounts, Van Morrison is a deeply unpleasant person and he sings (as a review I once read put it) like a man trying to attract your attention across a crowded pub. But music works in mysterious ways and this album is a thing of beauty.
Arrested Development
3/5
In the 1990s, I mentally filed Arrested Development under “rap for people who don’t really like rap”, but after listening to this album, I can see that was unfair - there’s some good stuff on here. I still think Mr Wendall is patronising though.
The Young Gods
4/5
This is why I signed up for the generator. I’d never heard of The Young Gods before and based on the reviews, I would never have sought this out (even the good ones didn’t make it sound like my cup of tea) but I really enjoyed it. Who knew I liked Swiss industrial rock with a dash of the theatrical? Not me.
Queen
2/5
I prefer pop Queen to prog Queen.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
Started strong but tapered off. I really enjoyed that start though.
Wild Beasts
2/5
This just completely washed over me - not unpleasant but nothing stood out.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
I’ve known this album since I was a kid, it has some absolutely undeniable songs, and I always think of it as a classic. However, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve listened to Bridge Over Troubled Water all the way through because it just never crosses my mind to play it, and while I enjoyed revisiting it, I’m not sure that will change. Maybe that’s the difference between a four-star and a five-star album?
PJ Harvey
5/5
I’m only 36 albums in and this is my second by PJ Harvey. That’s not a complaint because I love her and this is one of her best. Bonus points for quoting Summertime Blues (“take my problem to the United Nations”) in the context of a song about war crimes.
4/5
Punk energy and pop smarts - a winning combination.
John Coltrane
4/5
I was excited to get this one as, if I’m honest, I’ve never really given jazz a chance. What if it turns out I love it and didn’t know? Based on this, I probably won’t be buying a load of black polo necks and taking up smoking just yet, but I did enjoy it.
The Police
2/5
I thought this would be bland, but fair play - Mother is unhinged. Otherwise, some decent tunes and I can hear they are playing around with different genres/ideas, but somehow it just doesn’t grab my attention.
David Bowie
4/5
It’s impossible to separate this album from David Bowie’s death. But if you could take it out of the equation and judge Blackstar on its own merits, how many artists make an album this good and interesting 50 years into their career?
The Rolling Stones
5/5
A little bit sleazy, a little bit sloppy, and some fantastic tunes. I love it.
Arcade Fire
4/5
Up to and including City With No Children, I’m thinking “this is a five-star album, why is it so long since I last listened to it?” Then it starts to sag… They claw it back to four stars with Sprawl II though.
FKA twigs
2/5
I wanted to like this more, but I feel like the production is often more interesting than the actual songs.
Tom Waits
4/5
I can completely understand why some people can't get past Tom Waits' voice - it veers from 'a drunk doing Springsteen on karaoke' to 'a drunk who's about to cough up something gross into a dirty handkerchief' - but I really enjoyed this. The songs are good, and whenever the production on the ballads threatens to gets too syrupy, here comes that disconcertingly wet rasp to give it some edge.
The Pogues
3/5
Tom Waits yesterday, The Pogues today - the generator clearly won't be happy until I'm swigging whisky in the gutter. I preferred Waits, but this did prove the Pogues aren’t just for Christmas.
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
I was relieved to find this had held up - Franz Ferdinand were always a bit too smart and angular to get lumped in with the British 'indie landfill' of the 2000s.
George Michael
3/5
I prefer funny, poppy, making-videos-to-troll-the-LAPD George Michael to this version that’s trying a bit too hard to be a serious artist. He can’t totally suppress those pop instincts though, so Freedom 90 is a banger.
The Sugarcubes
4/5
I was aware of the Sugarcubes, but thought of them as just a footnote in Bjork’s career. Turns out I was wrong - I really enjoyed this.
Air
5/5
At university in the late 1990s, I had a CD player with a timer function, and I used Moon Safari as my alarm - the first track fades in with rain noises so it’s good for waking up gently. Hearing it again made me feel like I was late for a lecture, but also reminded me why I liked it so much in the first place, and not just because it’s perfect for snoozing when you’re a student who struggles to drag her lazy arse out of bed.
Lou Reed
4/5
I knew this by reputation as a 'difficult' album, so I went in expecting something borderline unlistenable, and instead was surprised by how much I liked it. Don't get me wrong, the lyrics are beyond bleak but it definitely has tunes. Darkly compelling.
Death In Vegas
2/5
The first track is called Dirge, but I actually liked that one - the real dirges come later. My main issue with this album though is that it’s trying a bit too hard to be a very 1990s idea of cool, and has aged like milk as a result.
Fela Kuti
4/5
When I saw one of the tracks was a 16-minute drum solo, my heart sank. That did test my patience, but it turns out it's a bonus track and therefore, under my personal project rules, it doesn't have to taint the rest of this joyous, groove-filled album.
Beatles
5/5
People who say the Beatles are overrated are obviously the most annoying, but people who say they didn’t really get good until Rubber Soul/Revolver aren’t far behind. Five stars.
The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy
2/5
Listening to this gave me a new appreciation for Flavor Flav. It’s Public Enemy without the fun.
Bee Gees
4/5
A reminder that the Bee Gees were a much weirder band than their Saturday Night Fever-era bangers suggest. I’m glad I heard this overlong, sometimes beautiful and deeply odd album.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
I’ve always been lukewarm on RHCP’s singles, and the album tracks all sounded like worse versions of those singles, so this was never going to be a winner for me. The last third was a real slog.
Deep Purple
2/5
Fifty-seven albums in, and what I'm learning from this project is that I have limited patience when it comes to solos. Deep Purple were clearly amazing musicians, but I don't think it's a coincidence that the two tracks I found the most enjoyable (Highway Star and Smoke On the Water) are also the shortest. At one point, I checked to see if Space Truckin' was nearly over, and there were still 14 minutes left.
The Slits
4/5
I liked this spindly, ramshackle mix of punk and reggae a lot more than I thought I would. I’m not sure the Slits would take this as a compliment, but I found it oddly charming.
Peter Tosh
4/5
“It’s good for asthma… goats love to play with it.” You can’t argue with that. You also can’t argue with the tunes.
Keith Jarrett
4/5
Another jazz album I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. Maybe I just like jazz. If in 50 albums time, I decide I actually like prog too then this project will have been truly life-changing.
Ash
4/5
Well, this transported me back to being a teenager in the summer of 1996. I could practically taste the cider. I think it could stand to lose a couple of tracks but I don’t think it’s just the nostalgia talking when I say I enjoyed this.
Sex Pistols
4/5
Were the Sex Pistols anti-abortion? For me, that was the biggest shocker on the album. The rest of it was fun, although I don’t think it can ever have the impact it evidently had in 1977.
Talking Heads
5/5
What an incredible debut. I considered giving it four stars because I know there are even better albums by them to come, but it seems unfair to grade them on a curve.
Syd Barrett
2/5
Do people genuinely love this album
or have they just romanticised the idea of the troubled genius? I’m not convinced that anyone hearing this without knowing who Syd Barrett was would understand what the fuss was about.
Paul McCartney
4/5
I have such a soft spot for this album, but (maybe) I’m amazed that it made the cut above Ram. I think Ram takes the same charmingly lo-fi, playful approach but applies it to a more consistent set of songs. Still the best songs here (Junk, Every Night, Maybe I’m Amazed) are gorgeous.
Lana Del Rey
5/5
I really like Lana Del Rey but was initially surprised this album made the cut over Norman Fucking Rockwell. However, it was better than I remembered - I like the slight country twist she puts on her usual schtick - so now I just think they both should have been included.
Depeche Mode
4/5
I've been meaning to listen to more Depeche Mode since they were unexpectedly one of my highlights at a festival a couple of years ago - it made me realise how many of their singles I like. Over a whole album it gets a little same-y, but I did enjoy it.
Cee Lo Green
3/5
I liked the soul/hip-hop sound but I am not sure that any of the tracks really stood out to me apart from My Kind of People and that’s because I was trying to work out where I’d heard the melody before . (Eventually realised it was Pass the Dutchie.)
KISS
2/5
I like the concept of Kiss - I’m all for embracing the dumb, fun, theatrical side of rock - but I find their music oddly underpowered. Great Expectations in particular sounds like watered-down Meat Loaf. Was the image covering for a lack of chops, or did they need a Jim Steinman to push them over the top into the gloriously ridiculous?
Van Morrison
4/5
Say what you like about Van Morrison, but at his peak he made some truly beautiful music. My least favourite song on this is actually the title track, which I find grating, but there are some real moments of loveliness on here. Also, why didn’t he sing in his Crazy Love voice more often? (Probably because he thought people might like it, the awkward bastard.)
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
Based on the opening track, I thought this would be my first one-star review, but I did quite like a couple of the other songs. That's kind of disappointing, as I feel like this album was meant to be something you either love or hate, not something you give two stars out of five.
Orbital
1/5
I’m 72 albums in and this is the first one where I seriously considered not seeing it through to the bitter end. It just bored me.
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
I listened to this at work, and it drifted by pleasantly enough (apart from You Didn't Have to Be So Nice, which is a bit sugary for my tastes). However, I think the optimal conditions for listening to this would be in a 1960s New York bachelorette pad while mixing a cocktail. I bet it would sound terrific.
Deep Purple
3/5
I've already had Deep Purple's live album, Made in Japan, which took some decent tunes and stretched them out to breaking point with endless solos. This still has a bit too much noodling for my personal taste, but it keeps it to more acceptable levels.
The Replacements
4/5
I liked this - it’s now my second favourite album called Let It Be.
The Yardbirds
4/5
Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds because he thought they were getting too commercial, but who wants to be on Clapton’s side in any argument? I’d rather listen to proto-psychedelic pop rock than a load of white English blokes doing blues covers, and this was so much more fun than I was expecting.
Joy Division
5/5
This is one of those albums I always felt like I should have listened to, but somehow never did. I wish I’d got round to it sooner.
Destiny's Child
3/5
Talk about front-loaded - it begins with three all-time bangers, but then gets a bit patchier (and surprisingly slut-shamey).
Shivkumar Sharma
3/5
Of all the albums I’ve listened to so far, this is the one I had the least frame of reference for. I found it a soothing listen though.
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
I’m in a group chat where the other members are excited about My Bloody Valentine touring for the first time in a decade. This is my second MBV album and while I liked it more than Isn’t Anything, it’s confirmed my hunch that I won’t have FOMO if they all go without me.
Talking Heads
5/5
I always thought Talking Heads didn’t sound like anyone else, but I stand corrected - The Overload sounds like Joy Division covering Tomorrow Never Knows. Still Revolver and Unknown Pleasures are both five-star albums and so is this.
David Bowie
5/5
I get the argument that this is a lesser version of Ziggy Stardust, but if you’d never heard another Bowie album, wouldn’t you think this was all killer, no filler?
The Cure
4/5
It kind of washed over me, but in a good way. It’s very atmospheric.
The Band
3/5
I love The Weight so I expected to love this, but the killer to filler ratio was a bit off. It probably didn’t help that what I’d always assumed was a comedy “crazy Chester” voice in The Weight might just be how Rick Danko sings?
Queen
4/5
When the generator gave me Queen II, I thought it would at least be fun, but instead found it a bit dull. This is more what I had in mind - it’s all over the place, but I can’t say it bored me.
Elvis Presley
3/5
Elvis had the voice, the looks and the charisma so it would probably feel unfair if he’d also been blessed with a great sense of quality control. This album veers all the way from the sublime to borderline self-parody.
Thelonious Monk
4/5
I started this project because I was in a bit of a musical rut (my Spotify Wrapped felt like an intervention) and wanted to expand my horizons. And so far it's working, because I'm enjoying the jazz albums a lot more than I thought I would. I really liked this.
Cat Stevens
4/5
I used to think Father and Son was twee, but listening to it today, I found it surprisingly moving. It could be the peri-menopause or maybe I just had to hear it in the context of this rather lovely album.
Green Day
4/5
Jesus of Suburbia started and I thought “oooh, I really like this” followed by “is this song still going?” That basically encapsulates my experience of this album- some really strong tunes but a shade too long.
Miriam Makeba
4/5
I don’t know much about Miriam Makeba but I have to assume that a black South African woman who managed to carve out an international career in 1960 was a total badass. She also has a great voice.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
Three days after the generator gave me Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens, it gives me an album that begins with a rip-off of Father and Son. To be fair though, this album also proves that Flaming Lips have some great tunes of their own (although I do prefer The Soft Bulletin).
Missy Elliott
5/5
Is it too long? Possibly. Is it still supa dupa fly? Definitely.
Nick Drake
4/5
An album that feels like it was made to be listened to late at night alone in your bedroom. I listened to it on my headphones at 11am in a busy office, but it still felt intimate.
Suicide
4/5
Maybe it was the reviews or maybe it’s the name Suicide, but I thought this was going to be an unlistenable racket. Either way, this might have benefited from my lowered expectations because I ended up liking it. (Still, Suicide as a band name - bit try-hard, right?)
Wu-Tang Clan
5/5
I love this album so much that for my birthday last year, my brother gave me a Wu-Tang Clan doormat. (It’s got the logo with ‘watch ya step kid’ written underneath.) Easy five stars for both the present and the Wu.
Herbie Hancock
4/5
Really enjoyed this jazzy, funky album. It felt like it should be the soundtrack to something cool.
fIREHOSE
3/5
Short but sweetly melodic.
Radiohead
5/5
It’s not Radiohead’s most ambitious album, but it might have their best tunes.
Iron Maiden
3/5
My generator summary says that metal is my worst genre but I thought this was fun. Admittedly, I probably won’t listen to it again but at least I can now appreciate that Iron Maiden had the tunes as well as a knack for branding.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3/5
It's my 100th album! It would have been cool if I'd got something I either loved or hated to mark this milestone, rather than something I thought was pleasant, but that's not Crosby, Stills, Nash or Young's fault. (Well, maybe Nash's - Our House and Teach Your Children are so pleasant they are verging on twee.)
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
2/5
Like Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs, this album has got me thinking about whether rock critics have an uncomfortable tendency to romanticise mental illness as some sort of marker of authenticity. Or at least mental illness in white men - big thumbs up to the review saying that an album like this by a woman would never make it anywhere near the list.
Miles Davis
5/5
This project is making me wish I knew more about jazz. Partly because I've been enjoying the jazz albums a lot more than I thought I would, but also so I can work out why I have close to zero tolerance for extended rock noodling (Deep Purple's live album really tested my patience), but unexpectedly loved In a Silent Way, which has only two tracks but lasts nearly 40 minutes.
Beatles
5/5
As a Beatles nerd, I’ve read a lot of people saying this would have been better as a single album, but I’ve never seen a track list I was fully onboard with. That suggests to me that a) one person’s filler is another person’s underrated gem and b) this album works so well because it’s a weird and wonderful collection, full of fascinating bits and bobs along with the undeniable classics.
Fatboy Slim
3/5
I bought this album but I could only really remember the singles. It turns out there’s a reason for that, but the singles are still fun.
Duran Duran
4/5
I've heard the title track so many times but I don't think I'd ever listened to it with headphones before, because I'd never noticed how great the bass playing is. The lesson is that I should have been paying more attention to Duran Duran - there are some serious bangers on here.
2/5
It starts with someone testifying like he’s Cyrus in The Warriors telling the gangs to join forces and overthrow the police, getting you all pumped up for... some sloppy garage rock. I couldn't dig it.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
This feels more like it could be the background music at a cocktail party than some of the other jazz albums I've had so far, which demanded more of my attention. But it would be the most sophisticated cocktail party of 1959.
Beatles
5/5
If any other early 1960s band had written something as evocative as Things We Said Today or as catchy as You Can't Do That, it would have probably been their biggest hit. For The Beatles, they were deeper cuts because they knew there were plenty more pop classics where those came from. That's why they were always ahead of the pack, even before they got experimental.
Fiona Apple
4/5
Fiona Apple kind of passed me by until I listened to Fetch the Bolt Cutters a lot during the covid lockdown (it was released in 2020, but it also suited my mood). I've been meaning to go back and listen to her earlier stuff so it was good to get this one - it's less distinctive than Bolt Cutters but it's still a great debut. I should have got on the Apple train a lot earlier.
Brian Eno
4/5
I can see why he ended up working with Talking Heads - besides maybe naming a song after them (in anagram form), there’s definitely a shared vision here. That’s a compliment by the way - this has more tunes than I was expecting.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
Is it evocative dream pop? Or is it twee indie baby talk? I’m genuinely on the fence.
Sister Sledge
4/5
Did Sister Sledge ever bother releasing a “best of” compilation or did they realise people could just buy this?
Brian Eno
4/5
A few months ago, I felt like I’d fallen into a musical rut so decided to listen to a supposedly classic/influential album I’d never heard before, picked Here Come the Warm Jets, and enjoyed it. Then I discovered there was a website that would generate the classic albums for you… So, Brian Eno is essentially the patron saint of my project and I should probably build a shrine to him similar to the one on this album cover. He’s still only getting four stars though.
Ryan Adams
3/5
I bought this in 2000 but I hadn't listened to it in at least 15 years. To Be Young and My Sweet Carolina (those Emmylou Harris backing vocals!) in particular reminded me why I liked Ryan Adams at the time, but I can also see why I never really revisit this. Even taking his personal life out of it, there are early signs that quality control wouldn’t be his strong point and the Dylan knock-offs are a lot more blatant than I remembered.
David Bowie
4/5
It was fascinating to get this in the same week I had two Brian Eno albums (Here Come the Warm Jets and Before & After Science) – it's striking how much this sounds like them. But then Bowie's openness to new influences and collaborators is part of what kept him interesting - even Black Star is clearly the work of a man who has heard To Pimp a Butterfly.
Janis Joplin
4/5
I love Janis's raspy wail but what I like about this album is that she seems ready to use it more judiciously - Cry Baby turns it all the way up to 11 from the off, but other tracks have a bit more light and shade. It would have been so interesting to see where she went next, but sadly we'll never know.
Jamiroquai
3/5
As homages to 1970s soul and funk go, this is incredibly skilful. There’s just still that nagging sense of “why would I listen to this when I could listen to the genuine article?”
Bebel Gilberto
3/5
With the caveat that I don’t think the version on Spotify is the full/proper album, I enjoyed this chilled take on bosa nova.
3/5
I know you shouldn't judge a book/album by its cover, but this one has always put me off - it's very 'yep, that's right, we're the new Pink Floyd'. As other reviews have stated, it's probably more Radiohead meets Queen, and while there are some decent tunes here, it's all a bit overblown for me.
Primal Scream
5/5
It's a mark of how great this album is that it bought Primal Scream at least 20 years of goodwill in the UK. We even indulged Bobby Gillespie playing at being Mick Jagger more than we maybe should have done, but on Movin' On Up and Damaged, it works.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
One of the top-rated reviews for this album brought up Randy Newman, which surprised me based on the Peter Gabriel tracks I know. Then I heard Excuse Me and Waiting for the Big One, and it all made sense. This album does feel like an artist trying on a lot of different styles to see what suits, with the result that it's a very mixed bag. But when it does gel (Solsbury Hill), we get an all-timer of a song.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
My third album by My Bloody Valentine – the first two both got two-star ratings. I don't know whether this one has better tunes, I've adjusted to their seasick shoegaze sound, or the generator has just beaten me into submission, but I quite liked Loveless. Now give me something else.
Dolly Parton
4/5
Sometimes I think we're all so busy adoring Dolly Parton for being a human ray of sunshine, we underrate her as a singer-songwriter. This album is a testament to her ability to tell a great story in a song as well as in an interview.
Dion
2/5
It’s fine but not especially memorable.
The Everly Brothers
2/5
Great harmonies obviously but this felt like a surprisingly long 28 minutes.
Public Enemy
5/5
In the best possible way, this album pummels you into submission. Is it too long? Probably, but Public Enemy never give you time to think about it because they're too busy hitting you with their righteous racket. They even save the best track for the last, that's how committed they are to never letting up.
4/5
Smart arse new romantics try to do old school sweeping romanticism, and largely succeed. I can see why it was all downhill after this though - it feels like they had one big idea, and nowhere else to go.
Metallica
3/5
Starting with Enter Sandman is a bold move. I love that song, so everything after that felt a bit like diminishing returns. (My ears pricked up a bit at Don't Tread On Me though - I wasn't expecting the lyrical flag waving or the musical nod to West Side Story.)
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
I studied English literature at a British university in the late 1990s – they might as well have handed out Belle & Sebastian CDs with our degree certificates. Luckily, I'm ok with being a twee indie cliche.
Prince
4/5
I'd always been under the impression this was Prince's What's Going On, his big social conscience/state of the nation album, but that's just the title track really. We're soon on to the Ballad of Dorothy Parker, the heartwarming story of how Prince agreed to take a bath with a waitress he'd just met, but warned her he'd be wearing his underpants out of respect for his girlfriend. (Spoiler alert: they don't stay on.) That's not a criticism - I like my Prince funky, funny and filthy.
Brian Wilson
4/5
The big question over this album is whether the myth became more important than the music? I like it but those lost masterpiece expectations were always going to be hard to live up to.
System Of A Down
2/5
I started off thinking I might like this, but it got more annoying as it went on.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
I was on the fence about the first Cocteau Twins album I got (Treasure), and when I saw that one of the tracks on this is called Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires, I was expecting it to double down on the irritating aspects of that album. Instead, I liked it - I thought it was still atmospheric but had stronger tunes and was less cloying.
Genesis
3/5
So far, the generator has largely re-enforced my anti-prog prejudices, so I was not looking forward to this one, but it wasn’t as much of a chore as I was expecting. In fact, if it had just been a single album, it might have got a “surprisingly enjoyable” four stars, instead of an “alright but it goes on a bit” three.
Elliott Smith
3/5
Maybe it’s the shadow cast by his death or maybe it’s because the two Elliott Smith songs I know best are Waltz No 2 and Needle in the Hay (aka the one from the most intense scene in The Royal Tenenbaums) but I was expecting this to be bleak and instead it’s very Beatle-y. In some ways that was a relief but it’s also not that distinctive.
Incredible Bongo Band
4/5
One of the tracks is called Last Bongo in Belgium, so you know that this is going to be a good time. And have a lot of bongos.
Jefferson Airplane
3/5
I knew Somebody to Love and White Rabbit, but they are the outliers here - some of the other tracks felt more folky than psychedelic.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
My rating system isn’t very scientific but, as a rule of thumb, three stars means I feel like I got something out of listening to an album but am unlikely to revisit it. Rock Bottom fits into that category - I don’t think it’ll be turning up in my Spotify Wrapped, but I am glad I heard this fascinating, challenging and haunting album.
Sleater-Kinney
4/5
I like a couple of Sleater-Kinney songs (I even bought Little Babies as a single) but have never listened to a whole album, and if I’m honest it’s because I thought the vocals might work best in I small doses. I should have put that misgiving aside earlier - I enjoyed this.
Michael Jackson
4/5
So many disco bangers, but I’m deducting a star for the pure sap that is She’s Out of My Life. (I accept there are other, stronger reasons for marking down a Michael Jackson album.)
Mylo
3/5
I didn’t dislike this, but even assuming the title is tongue in cheek, calling an album Destroy Rock & Roll raises your expectations for something more exciting than “all back to mine” post-club background music.
Tori Amos
4/5
I loved this album as an angsty teen - 14-year-old me really thought she'd been silent all these years. I hadn't listened to Little Earthquakes in a long time, and while I found a couple of tracks a bit overwrought this time around, angsty 40something me really enjoyed revisiting it.
Big Star
4/5
It turns out the Beatles influence was even stronger with Big Star than I realised - I knew they had two main lead-singer songwriters, but I didn't know they also let their bandmate have one token song about India. The Alex Chilton-sung tracks are my favourites (and the ones I knew best before this listen - I'm a sucker for a bit of wistful jangling), but this is a solid album all-round.
Nina Simone
4/5
The cover has it right - Four Women is unforgettable, and the stand-out track here.
Love
4/5
It’s like if you asked AI to make you a psychedelic 1960s album - all the expected ingredients are there, but there’s something a little bit off about it, creating an uncanny valley effect. But, you know, in a good way.
Goldfrapp
3/5
I saw Goldfrapp live circa 2003/2004, and she played a theremin with her crotch, which may be why I was expecting this to be more exciting than it was,
The Doors
2/5
For an iconic band fronted by someone nicknamed 'the Lizard King', a lot of this is pretty generic.
Big Black
2/5
I feel like this is supposed to be one of those albums that provokes an extreme reaction, but I thought it was… ok?
Grateful Dead
1/5
Blimey, this was tedious. As it's a live album, I'd say maybe you had to be there, but I'm pretty sure that if I had been there, I'd have got bored and left.
The Beach Boys
5/5
As a teenager in the 1990s, I did my own mini version of this project by borrowing classic albums from the CD section in my local library. That's how I first heard Pet Sounds - and I've loved it ever since. So, I would have given it five stars whenever it came up on the generator, but the fact that Brian Wilson died yesterday made this listen even more poignant.
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
As someone who bought Siamese Dream when it came out but thought it could stand to lose a couple of tracks, I've always been a bit daunted by the idea of a Smashing Pumpkins double album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was pretty much what I expected - there are some good songs here, but it would have just worked better for me if it wasn't so very, very long.
SZA
4/5
I liked this a lot. It did dip slightly in the middle but SZA pulled it back with the last two tracks.
The Cardigans
4/5
This feels like the midway point between the kitschy 60s pop of Life and the rockier sound of Gran Turismo, and for me that’s the Cardigans’ sweet spot.
Common
4/5
It's not doing anything particularly groundbreaking, but I enjoyed this as a soulful, laidback hip hop album. I also now know Common as someone other than that bloke from John Wick 2.
The Associates
2/5
The Wikipedia summary says David Peschek of Mojo called Sulk "their florid, hysterical masterpiece". I agree with florid and hysterical at least.
Rod Stewart genuinely has one of my all-time favourite voices, and yet I couldn’t really call him one of my favourite artists because he’s recorded some right old dross over the years. Give him a bit of bluesy 1970s rock though, and he's so good that I'm slightly disappointed when Ronnie Lane sings lead instead. No offence Ronnie, but Rod would have knocked You're So Rude out of the park.
Willie Nelson
4/5
In the immortal words of Marge Simpson, you just don't say no to the Red Headed Stranger. I enjoyed this a lot, and I love Nelson's voice - it's so effortless but so evocative.
Beatles
5/5
Giles “son of George” Martin believes Abbey Road does so well on streaming because the way it was recorded means it sounds more modern than the other Beatles albums. Obviously it’s a five-star classic and there's always a degree of hair-splitting when it comes to your favourite Beatles album, but I am intrigued to know if he’s right and that’s a factor in why it’s currently rating higher than Revolver and Sgt Pepper.
k.d. lang
3/5
I wasn’t totally sure what this album was trying to achieve. She has an incredible voice and the fact she worked with country greats on it suggests she genuinely loves this music but something about it has a tongue-in cheek feel that made it all a bit kitsch?
Sisters Of Mercy
4/5
Although definitely gothic, this was also a lot catchier than I was expecting. With the benefit of hindsight though, you don’t brings in Jim Steinman as a producer if you’re allergic to fun.
Arcade Fire
4/5
My general attitude towards Arcade Fire is that I like them, but I don't love them, so it's four stars from me.
I like U2 - I own a couple of their albums, I've seen them live and enjoyed it - and I think Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of is one of their best songs. And yet, I'm surprised this is on the list. It was definitely a return to form after Pop, but it's not doing anything that Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby didn't do first.
Radiohead
5/5
One of the many remarkable things about Kid A is that it went platinum in multiple countries. Radiohead’s ‘we’re sick of being successful, let’s get experimental’ album was still an honest-to-God hit back in the days when people had to part with their hard-earned cash for a CD. So, although I can understand why someone wouldn’t like Radiohead in general and Kid A in particular (full disclosure: I'm a fan of both), I‘m less sure how anyone could argue that it doesn’t deserve a place on this list.
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart
2/5
For his next album, Jah Wobble brought in more guest singers, which was a wise move. I quite liked some of the music, but whether he's singing or doing spoken word, his vocals are definitely a sticking point.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
This is such a touchstone - I know in my own reviews here, I've already used a variation on "this was supposed to be [artist]’s What's Going On." As well as proving that I'm not that original, I think the fact that you can use this album as shorthand for a socially conscious masterpiece says it all.
Love
5/5
A friend made a painting for me based on the cover of Forever Changes, which is one reason why I have a soft spot for this album. It’s also just a gorgeously off-kilter psychedelic banger.
Iggy Pop
4/5
It ran out of steam slightly towards the end, but I enjoyed this sleazy stomp a lot. I might prefer Iggy Pop’s version of China Girl to Bowie’s.
Elton John
4/5
Is one of the secrets behind Elton John and Bernie Taupin's decades-long songwriting partnership that were both equally keen to pretend they weren't English? Between writing songs from the perspective of a Native American warrior and whatever is going on with Elton's already transatlantic accent on Holiday Inn, there were some real choices made on this album. Luckily, there are some incredible tunes too - Levon in particular is up there with Tiny Dancer.
U2
4/5
It's not that I don't see where the U2 haters are coming from - Bono's messiah complex, the wheels coming off circa Pop, that automatic iTunes download, yada yada yada. But Sunday Bloody Sunday is still a remarkable sounding record, and this whole album reminds you why U2 became big enough to get on our collective nerves in the first place.
The La's
3/5
There She Goes deserves its ubiquity, but I think the whole 'Lee Mavers is the great lost genius of British pop' mythology raised my expectations a bit too high for this.
Drive-By Truckers
1/5
By the song Dead, Drunk and Naked, if you'd told me that this band weren't really American, let alone Southern, I would have believed you - even the name Drive-By Truckers sounds like a parody. And there was still so, so much of this absurdly long album left to go.
Lou Reed
5/5
Lou Reed in 'giving the people what they want' shocker. No wonder he had to make a depressing concept album about an abusive relationship next to put everyone off again. (The joke's on him though, because I like Berlin too.)
Janet Jackson
3/5
Everything about this carbon dates it to 1989 (including the reference to Tiananmen Square, which sounds so jarring amid the “children are our future” level of social commentary in the lyrics). That being said, it’s a lot of fun, and if Janet did bite off slightly more than she could chew, I respect the ambition.
Yes
2/5
It’s a bit too prog-y for me but I do appreciate that they kept it relatively short.
Blur
5/5
My hot music take is that despite the success of Blur and Gorillaz, Damon Albarn doesn't get enough credit for being one of Britain's best songwriters. Blur weren't a one-man band though, and they all get to share the praise for realising they'd hit a dead end with The Great Escape and massively course correcting with this album.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
3/5
This felt like it was trying too hard to be serious. Break out more pop bangers like Souvenir - you know you want to.
Leftfield
3/5
The opening track, Release the Pressure, started and I thought 'ooh, this is good', then seven minutes later I thought 'is this still going?' Essentially, if this album was shorter, it would have got an extra star.
Rahul Dev Burman
4/5
It's easy to forget when I'm merrily giving five stars to every album by the Beatles, but I started this project because I wanted to hear something new. Getting an album I would probably never have listened to under my own steam but really enjoyed like Shalimar was definitely a reminder. It's so much genre-hopping fun.
The Doors
3/5
My second Doors album, and I definitely preferred it to Morrison Hotel. I'm still a bit on the fence about the Doors (love Break On Through, think The End is a pretentious dirge, reckon Light My Fire gets covered so often because people realised it was a great pop song struggling to break free of the unnecessarily long organ solo), but I can at least understand what other people see in them based on this one.
3/5
I preferred the songs where she’s telling some no-good, cheating drunk to buck his ideas up to the more sentimental tracks like There Goes My Everything and I Can’t Keep Away From You.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
I read a memoir by a woman who started her career in the music industry working for the Beatles at Apple, and ended it at what she considered her rock bottom - being a tour manager for Echo and the Bunnymen. She honestly writes about it like it’s the ultimate humiliation. I thought about that book while listening to Crocodiles because while they’re no Beatles (who is?) , they are pretty good. Certainly not a mortifying stain on anyone’s CV.
Tears For Fears
3/5
Never let anyone tell you this generator isn’t educational - I thought I Believe sounded a bit like Robert Wyatt and then discovered Tears for Fears actually dedicated the song to him. Not sure I would have made that connection 180 albums ago. But despite I Believe giving me a chance to feel a bit smug, I have to say I preferred the poppier tracks, so I’m still a basic bitch at heart.
5/5
As well as introducing me to some new artists, this project has been a welcome reminder of how much I bloody love PJ Harvey. I’ve already given five stars to Dry and Let England Shake, and this isn’t going to break the streak. At the risk of sounding like her mum, it's nice to hear her sounding happy.
Dusty Springfield
5/5
Dusty Springfield had such a great voice, and these songs and arrangements suit her perfectly. Is the "being good isn't always easy, no matter how hard I try" verse in Son of a Preacher Man the sexiest delivery in pop?
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
The track Come on Feel the Illinoise started off reminding me of Badly Drawn Boy, then I had pause it to work out where I knew the hook from because it was bugging me (eventually realised it was Close to Me by The Cure), and by the time it ended, I was thinking how gorgeous it was. That encapsulates my experience with this album - a meandering journey of unexpected twists and turns that ended up somewhere rather lovely.
The Velvet Underground
5/5
We all know it’s influential and that everyone who bought it in 1967 formed their own band, yada yada yada, so I'll just say that the thing that most surprised me about this album the first time I heard it is how pretty some of the tracks are. I'll Be Your Mirror is so genuinely lovely, even Nico softens her imperious honking.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
1/5
I’m not keen on the Grateful Dead, so I was probably never going to enjoy their non-union Mexican equivalent.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
I knew their cover of Dear Prudence but didn’t know they covered Helter Skelter too - were they working through The White Album? That was one of the tracks that stood out - a lot of the others ran together.
Bob Dylan
5/5
What I love about this album is that along with the classic 'voice of a generation' songs, there are some tracks where he's clearly having fun, and I find that infectious. With the benefit of hindsight, people probably didn't need to wait for Dylan to go electric to know that he was too freewheelin' to be pigeon-holed as an earnest political folkie.
Bob Dylan
4/5
It was only yesterday that I had The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and today I get The Grapplin' With His Mortality Bob Dylan. That might have worked in Time Out of Mind’s favour - hearing how much his voice has aged made it more poignant. And he still managed to knock out another standard with Make You Feel My Love. It makes you glad that the grizzled, contrary old git cheated death and went on to tour for another 28 years and counting.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Black Sabbath are one of those bands that I always feel like I should have listened to but haven't really - my knowledge of them begins and ends with Paranoid (which I do love). So, I would have been pleased to get this, even without the added poignancy of Ozzy Osbourne passing away yesterday. I can see why they were influential - some tracks were more bluesy than I was expecting, but you can definitely see the birth of heavy metal here.
King Crimson
2/5
I feel like it's not a coincidence that the track I enjoyed most on this album (I Talk to the Wind) was also the shortest. That reminded me of Air, which I was not expecting. The plinky, plonky cod-medieval stuff though? Honestly, that kind of is what I was expecting this to be.
Alanis Morissette
4/5
Like a true 1990s teenage girl, I had Jagged Little Pill on a cassette a friend copied for me, but with the exception of You Oughta Know, I haven't listened to it in years (well, decades). That's definitely still the stand out track for me, but the gap between You Oughta Know and the rest isn't quite as big as I'd remembered - I enjoyed revisiting this.
The Allman Brothers Band
2/5
I honestly try to approach all these albums with an open mind but I’m increasingly finding that if it’s live, has fewer than 10 tracks and yet somehow lasts longer than an hour, then it’s probably not for me. I can hear that they are good musicians, I just don’t think endless jamming is my jam.
Peter Gabriel
4/5
It definitely sounds like something you’d play on your newfangled CD player to impress your guests at a 1980s dinner party, but those Yuppies weren’t wrong about everything. In a very 80s way, a lot of this slaps.
Foo Fighters
3/5
I’ve always been quite “eh, they’re ok” about Foo Fighters and this album just confirmed that.
Le Tigre
4/5
Deceptacon is on my running playlist and always gets me pumped up - and if you could see me wheezing round my local park, you’d know that’s no mean feat. This whole album is a fun shot in the arm - energetic and catchy with a bit of righteous anger thrown in for an extra kick.
Meat Puppets
2/5
It sometimes sounded like the singer was performing a different song to the rest of the band. I generally preferred what the band were playing.
Sam Cooke
5/5
Of all the live albums I’ve had so far, this is the first one that made me wish I’d been there. Sam Cooke clearly had charisma to burn along with being an incredible singer-songwriter, and the audience sound like they are having so much fun. No listening to endless solos in a respectful/stoned silence for Sam and his fans. Loved it.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
It’s my 200th album. The generator clearly thought that deserved a little R.E.S.P.E.C.T and threw me a soul classic.
Country Joe & The Fish
2/5
To give this album the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was so influential, everyone else ripped it off and that’s why it sounds like generic psychedelic rock today. If that is the case though, the people copying them had better tunes.
Donald Fagen
3/5
I have a nagging feeling that this must be what Steely Dan sounds like to people who don’t like Steely Dan. It’s a bit too slick for its own good.
CHIC
4/5
It starts to run out of steam towards the end, but the first half is disco at its finest.
3/5
Last summer, I started going to a weekly pub music quiz where the format is usually 'songs by bands in alphabetical order'. So, I've probably heard more XTC in the past 12 months than in the rest of my life. This album shows XTC deserve to be more than just the band you shoehorn in when you can't think of anyone else starting with X especially if you like anything Beach Boys/McCartney-esque. Which I do.
Girls Against Boys
2/5
I didn’t hate it but I’m also not convinced I would recognise any of these tracks if I heard them again. It went in one ear and out the other.
George Harrison
5/5
This was a dilemma, as I could honestly live without the Apple Jam. But the rest of it is so good, it might have to be five stars anyway. (Speaking of Apple though, Apple Scruffs is all the sweeter for coming from the Beatle you'd least expect to appreciate fans hanging around on his doorstep.)
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
I thought I knew what I was getting with a Simon & Garfunkel album, but I was wrong. When Save the Life of My Child started, I briefly thought I'd put the wrong album on. Then there's the sheer oddity of Voices of Old People, and the ghostly way Art's voice floats in on Overs. I liked it though. Maybe they should have got weird more often.
Brian Eno
4/5
I listened to this on a train journey while staring out of the window, which might be the optimum way to hear it. It’s a good soundtrack for drifting off into your own little world.
The Divine Comedy
3/5
Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy wrote the songs for the movie Wonka, and with the benefit of hindsight, I do think musical theatre is a better fit for him than vaguely indie-ish pop. The man can write a tune, but there’s an archness to this that sometimes threatens to tip into flat-out novelty songs.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
The cover is a very bold move, but the contents lived up to it. I really enjoyed this.
Gene Clark
5/5
When No Other was reissued in the early 2000s, I bought it on a whim as part of a 3-for-2 CD offer, and was underwhelmed by it. Then around 20 years later, I heard Life's Greatest Fool on a playlist and loved it, listened to the album again, and finally got those 'lost masterpiece' reviews that convinced me to take a punt on it in the first place. So, if you're on the fence about No Other now, just give it a couple of decades, and it might grow on you too.
The Go-Go's
4/5
Fun, poppy and the perfect length so there's no chance of it wearing out its welcome.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
2/5
It's got the two Red Hot Chili Peppers hits I like (Give It Away and Under the Bridge) on it, so I guess this is my favourite of their albums, if only by default. Ultimately though, they're just not a band I enjoy listening to for more than a couple of songs, let alone for over an hour. By the time Anthony Kiedis started going on about the demons in his semen, I'd mentally checked out.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
I listened to this on headphones in the office, and realised during Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out that I was grinning like an idiot at my desk. It's not my favourite Springsteen album (Darkness on the Edge of Town slightly edges it out), but it's still a really good time.
Eels
4/5
I was really into Eels back in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Around Shootenanny, it started to feel like diminishing returns for me, but listening to this reminded me why I became a fan to start with.
Queens of the Stone Age
3/5
It was a bit same-y, but I liked it.
The Cure
4/5
This is my second Cure album. I liked the first one, Seventeen Seconds, but also felt like it washed over me - it was maybe bigger on atmosphere than tunes. This one was much more intense but also held my attention more. So, it's a thumbs up for intense, attention-grabbing Pornography.
Lucinda Williams
4/5
This album put me in mind of a grittier (or should that be more gravelly?) Sheryl Crow, which isn't something I knew I needed in my life. I liked this a lot - it's not re-inventing the wheel (more title puns), but I enjoyed the rawer take on country and there are some strong songs here.
The Only Ones
4/5
I know and love Another Girl, Another Planet, but I'd always thought of The Only Ones as one-hit wonders. Luckily, it turns out they had plenty of other tunes where that came from.
American Music Club
3/5
I got a bit of a Replacements vibe on Somewhere, which isn't a bad thing, but sums up that this album is 1980s US alt rock to a fault.
Meat Loaf
5/5
I always think Bat Out of Hell is poking fun at the inherent ridiculousness of rock & roll, but it's like Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein - a spoof made with such skill and care by people who genuinely love the thing they're parodying that it becomes a classic in its own right.
Coldcut
4/5
A song from 1989 about being addicted to your phone - now that’s prescient. Otherwise this is very of its time, but in a fun way. Along with the playful samples and impressively eclectic mix of collaborators (Mark E Smith and Queen Latifah, together at last), there’s some catchy songs here.
Hugh Masekela
4/5
I’m 223 albums in, and the biggest revelation so far is how much I’ve enjoyed the jazz albums. This was no exception - I especially loved the funkier tracks like Inner Crisis.
Patti Smith
5/5
It’s pretentious, arty nonsense and I bloody love it.
50 Cent
3/5
I've never been a huge fan of 50 Cent's flow (I always think he makes it sound like hard work) but this album has some absolutely undeniable hooks.
Kate Bush
4/5
It's not as extraordinary as Hounds of Love, but what is? It's still great, and This Woman's Work is one of her best.
The Jam
4/5
I've never thought of myself as a Paul Weller fan, just someone who likes the odd song by him. However, over the past couple of years, I've been realising just how many of those songs there are. (The Guardian made a playlist of the best 30 tracks from across his career, and they honestly all slap.) Listening to this album was another step towards admitting that maybe I just really like Paul Weller.
The Clash
5/5
London Calling is the rare double album that's all killer and no filler. The title track may be overplayed (thanks unimaginative directors who don't trust viewers to know when something is set in London), but if you're bored of that, there's always The Card Cheat, Death or Glory, Lost in the Supermarket, Rudie Can't Fail and so many other songs that would have been most other bands’ classic hit single.
Don McLean
2/5
Is this the most middlebrow album ever made? American Pie is catchy as hell though.
Mike Oldfield
2/5
I live near a medieval church and often cut through the graveyard on my way to the local shop. Today I got to do that while pretending I was in a horror movie as I listened to the bit from The Exorcist. But that was probably the most fun I had with this otherwise slightly dull album.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
It lacks a standout banger like Move On Up or Superfly, but it’s Curtis Mayfield so it’s still going to be great.
10cc
2/5
I feel like I now know what you would get if you crossed Steely Dan and Queen, and it’s not pretty.
The Cramps
3/5
I appreciate the trashy, campy horror vibe they are going for and I bet they were really fun live. As an album though, the novelty began wearing off before the end.
Billie Holiday
3/5
I’m more familiar with Billie Holiday’s earlier recordings, so hearing how much her voice had aged on this was poignant. Her singing is still expressive, but the arrangements and tempos are so similar, the songs kind of blend into each other.
Pretenders
3/5
Although I really like a couple of The Pretenders’ singles, most of the songs I know by them are variations on a theme. So while I thought this album was patchy, I do appreciate that it was more varied and punky than I was expecting.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
The Wikipedia entry says Elvis Costello changed producers for this one because he thought Nick Lowe wouldn’t let him experiment as much in the studio. I’m team Lowe - I liked a couple of songs but I prefer my Costello angular and punchy rather than baroque.
PJ Harvey
5/5
When this came out, I remember reading in the music press how scary and intense it was. However, as a 15-year-old girl in 1993, I found the unapologetic rawness so exhilarating. Even today, when I got to 50ft Queenie, 47-year-old me was lip syncing along while adopting a power stance in the living room. This was just such a formative album for me and I love it.
Rage Against The Machine
3/5
Yesterday, I had Rid of Me by PJ Harvey, which was my formative teenage 'yeah, fuck the lot of you!' album. RATM was clearly that album for a lot of people around my age, so I completely understand the love for it in the reviews. For me though, while I was amped up for the first few tracks, it eventually got a bit wearying.
Nightmares On Wax
3/5
I'd never heard this album before, but it sounds like something I would have liked in the 1990s, when I was going through a bit of a chill-out/trip-hop phase, and then not listened to in 20 years. Then it would have come up on the generator and I'd be like "Blimey, Nightmares on Wax is on this list? I can see why I was into it at the time, I'm just surprised someone considered it one of the best albums ever made."
Digital Underground
3/5
Is not being able to finish a common side effect of Sex Packets? Don't get me wrong, a lot of this was good for me but remember fellas, it is possible to last too long.
ZZ Top
4/5
I have fond memories of my dad playing Eliminator in the car when I was a kid, but this is my first real exposure to 1970s ZZ Top. There's nothing here as flat-out fun as Gimme All Your Lovin' or Sharp Dressed Man, but as blues boogie rock goes, I liked this a lot.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
It's so joyful and occasionally jazzy - and Q-Tip has got crazy prophylactics. What's not to love?
Gang Starr
4/5
I had People’s Instinctive Travels by A Tribe Called Quest yesterday, and this feels like it could be the missing link between Native Tongues and the g-funk gangsta rap that was coming. I liked it a lot.
Hole
4/5
The music press did Courtney Love so dirty in the 1990s. This album holds up really well - it’s angry and grungy but it also has tunes.
Gorillaz
4/5
I like this album a lot, and I don't think Damon Albarn always gets the credit he deserves for being one of Britain's best and most consistently adventurous songwriters. But if there's only room for one Gorillaz album on this list, this wouldn't have been my pick.
Holger Czukay
3/5
I don't know what I was expecting this to be, but definitely not whatever Cool in the Pool is - it actually made me laugh when it started. However, after a long run of albums by artists I already knew, it was fun to get something so completely new (to me) and off kilter.
Marty Robbins
4/5
Well, this was unexpectedly charming. Anything that lets me feel like I'm riding the range when I'm actually at my desk job gets my vote.
Steve Earle
2/5
I didn't hate this but it feels a bit like what you would get if you asked AI to make you a country rock album. Even his accent sounds put-on (especially on Little Rock 'n' Roller, where it gets weirdly Jagger-ish).
Marvin Gaye
5/5
When did we stop using "ball" to mean sex, and is it time to bring it back? Or do you have to be Marvin Gaye to make it work? As this album proves, he can make a lot of stuff that would sound cheesy or sleazy from lesser mortals sound pretty hot.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
“Four gentlemen and one great, great broad.” Everything about this album is so of its time, including the intro and art work, but at least no one was pretending that Janis Joplin wasn’t the star attraction.
The Beach Boys
3/5
She Knows Me Too Well is creepy as hell - “I’m jealous and abusive but she understands that I only act like that because I love her so much.” Yikes. Other than that, this is a fun midpoint between the early singles and the more ambitious Pet Sounds.
4/5
It's a sign of how ubiquitous this album was in Britain in the 1990s that even though I didn't buy it, I still know every track - everywhere I went, someone was playing it. I felt like I owned it by osmosis. I never asked anyone to turn it off either, because while I'm not an Oasis die-hard, there are some great songs here. And Liam sings them like they make sense, which is no mean feat.
Fishbone
3/5
For some reason, I was under the impression Fishbone were a Grateful Dead-esque jam band (I think I was getting them confused with Phish). As a result, this had a lot more tunes than I was expecting, although I found it a tad wearying over the course of a whole album.
Justice
4/5
In 2007, I saw Justice at a truly shambolic festival - the acoustic stage had been cleverly positioned to be drowned out by the dance tent, there weren't enough toilets or bar staff so the queues were horrendous, and the food vans had sold out by early afternoon. So, by the time Justice came on after dark, a lot of the crowd had given up and left, and those of us who had stuck it out were hungry and pissed off. And yet I still remember how much I enjoyed their set, which I think is a testament to how good this album is. It can force you to have fun despite yourself.
The KLF
3/5
Funnily enough, I heard What Time is Love at the weekend for the first time in years and I'd forgotten what a total banger it is, so I was pleased to get this. It starts and ends strong (although I prefer the Tammy Wynette-single version of Justified and Ancient - just the fact that they got her to do it still impresses me) but it gets a bit saggy in the middle.
The Isley Brothers
4/5
As well giving them a chance to rock some frankly incredible outfits on the cover, this funky, soulful album shows off the Isley Brothers' writing, singing, musicianship and their ability to make other people's songs their own. Sorry Seals & Crofts, Summer Breeze is theirs now and they are not giving it back.
Kelela
3/5
A bit of a mixed bag - some tracks I really liked and some interesting production choices, but some duller patches. It’s a three-star album with a four-star trying to burst out,
Blur
5/5
Without the fond memories of being a teenager and listening to this album on my friend’s Walkman on the bus (we had a earbud each), I’ll admit the title track would be an little annoying. However, the rest of Parlikfe holds up so well. Forget the whole Britpop/Blur v Oasis bollocks - This Is A Low and End of a Century are just incredible songs.
Nirvana
5/5
I loved Nevermind at the time (so much so, that I owned two copies - I had it on tape and then bought it on CD), but I'd somehow forgotten just how great it is. I haven't listened to it all the way through in years, and now I'm wondering why.
R.E.M.
5/5
I was one of the Johnny Come Latelys who only got into REM via Losing My Religion - my excuse is that as a five-year-old living in Yorkshire, US college rock wasn't really on my radar in 1983. When I did hear them though, I loved them so much, I bought all their earlier albums. I can't quite agree that Murmur is their best (Automatic for the People and Life's Rich Pageant both edge it out for me), but it is an incredible debut that still sounds striking. And Perfect Circle is so lovely, even former British PM David Cameron claiming it's one of his favourite records can't put me off it.
Portishead
4/5
A couple of albums on this list had got me thinking that trip-hop as a genre just hasn’t aged particularly well, but Dummy proved me wrong. It’s just so atmospheric and cinematic.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
3/5
I'm not averse to a bit of old-timey country and I already knew a fair number of these songs (mainly through Johnny Cash), but this might be too much of a good thing. Cutting out all the studio chatter would have been a start in keeping this to a more manageable length.
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
Jimi Hendrix was obviously an incredible guitarist who I don’t think gets enough credit for how distinctive his voice was too, and when this is good, it’s amazing. But swathes of it are kinda dull.
Michael Jackson
4/5
It’s Thriller so mostly killer - but also some filler.
Eagles
2/5
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I hate the fuckin’ Eagles (man), but they’re a hard band to love. Take It Easy aside, there’s something charmless about this album.
The Who
3/5
The closest my dad has ever come to disowning me was when I told him I prefer Elton John’s version of Pinball Wizard to the original. Sorry dad, but I’m now doubling down and saying that Tina Turner’s version of Acid Queen is better too. Essentially, my ideal version of Tommy would combine the best tracks from this album with the highlights from the soundtrack to the (completely bonkers) movie - and it would be a single disc.
Slade
4/5
I know and love Slade’s run of 70s glam hits - it’s not Christmas in my house until Noddy Holder says so - but I’d never listened to any of their albums. I think they may have been more of a singles band (Gudbuy T’Jane and Mama Weer All Crazee Now are the stand out tracks for me) but this was still fun.
Machito
4/5
Well, this was fun. Next time I’m due at a mambo-off against a rival gang of street toughs, I’ll listen to this first to get me in the mood.
Bob Dylan
5/5
“People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act.” It must be very weird being Bob Dylan, but this album is so good, I can kind of see where the obsessives are coming from.
The Police
3/5
Like Hansel in Zoolander, I can respect Sting’s music without really wanting to listen to it. There’s a lot to like about this on paper - it has tunes, it’s punchy and the Police are clearly experimenting with different genres, and that should be right up my alley. But I still feel I’m unlikely to listen to it again.
The Temptations
4/5
I knew the Temptations had got tougher and funkier in the 1970s but Run Charlie Run still took me by surprise. They’re just not a group I expected to be dropping the n-word. You can hear the Sly Stone and Isaac Hayes influences on this album, but their vocals make it their own.
The Gun Club
3/5
I’d never heard of The Gun Club so based on the cover, I was expecting something less… obviously white? On its own merits though, I liked it.
Björk
4/5
“His wicked sense of humour suggests exciting sex.” Forget whatever shit the manosphere is spewing, and take tips from Bjork on what women want. Also, she’s incredibly charming herself on Debut - she'd make more ambitious albums but this might be the most purely enjoyable.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
What a singular, fascinating album. It varies from the fun (Heaps of the Sheeps) to the beautiful (Maryan) to the flat-out annoying (The Duchess) - and that's just the first three tracks.
Madonna
4/5
Every day's a school day - I never realised Hung Up was referencing Madonna's duet with Prince. Maybe the reason I'd never heard Love Song before is because that track is less than the sum of its parts - for two of the 80s most provocative pop stars, they don't have much chemistry – but the rest of this is Madonna at the top of her game.
Little Richard
4/5
It's very much variations on a theme - but what a theme. And Little Richard's energy is still infectious.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
The generator gave me the all killer, no filler Sticky Fingers as my 13th album and unluckily for the Stones, it may have spoiled me for their other albums. Don't get me wrong, this one is still really good, and it begins and ends with two of their all-time greatest tracks. But around Midnight Rambler it starts to get, well, a bit rambling.
Badly Drawn Boy
4/5
I’ve seen Badly Drawn Boy live a couple of times, and he doesn’t try to hide the fact that his career hasn’t panned out the way he’d hoped. In retrospect, maybe this album had all his big ideas and that’s why it proved hard to top (and why it’s a shade too long) but it is a great debut.
Sepultura
3/5
I surprised myself by liking this. The mix of Brazilian percussion and heavy rock on some tracks was really interesting. If this was 10 to 15 minutes shorter, I might have given it four stars.
The Cure
4/5
To use a generator term, The Cure are one of my uncontroversial artists - I’ve had three albums by them and I’ve given them all four stars. If I had to pick a favourite though, I’d go with this.
John Martyn
4/5
Is it considered poor form to give one review multiple thumbs up? Because the person who described this as 'yacht prog' has got it bang on. That's a genre I didn't know I needed in my life. (I also like the way Martyn draws on dub influences without lurching into awkward white reggae territory.)
Everything But The Girl
2/5
One of the tracks is called The Heart Remains a Child but I’ve always found Everything but the Girl a bit too grown up. Tracey Thorn has a great voice but they went from making tasteful pop to tasteful dance without ever sounding that excited about it. I just want them to put a bit of oomph into it.
The Avalanches
3/5
A bit of a mixed bag - the tracks I liked, I loved. At its best, this is a really fun and inventive use of sampling. However, some of it just kind of washed over me.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4/5
I heard Heads Will Roll for the first time in ages recently, and was reminded what a banger it is. This album proves the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had more great tunes where that came from.
Einstürzende Neubauten
2/5
One of the rare albums where you can say “that’s not music, it’s just noise” without sounding like an old fart because that’s what they were going for. Some tracks might even feature literal old farts. It was interesting as a one-off, but can’t see this one turning up in my Spotify wrapped.
The Mothers Of Invention
1/5
I don’t really know what Frank Zappa was trying to achieve with this. It’s not enjoyable to listen to, it’s not funny and I don’t know what the message is beyond “everyone is stupid except Frank Zappa.”
4/5
As this site is pretty much anonymous, I'll reveal I first heard this album when my brother had it on cassette when we were kids - I have an inkling he now wouldn't want anyone to know he was once a U2 fan. I suspect he's not the only person rewriting history where U2 are concerned, but if you ask me, there's no shame in liking The Joshua Tree. There's a reason this album turned them into the biggest band in the world for a while.
Michael Jackson
3/5
In 1987, people probably hadn’t realised just how bad Michael Jackson truly was (like really, really bad), but they must have noticed that he was hitting a creative dead end. There are some fun tracks but as an album, Bad is pretty patchy, and his vocal mannerisms are starting to slip into self-parody territory.
Sugar
3/5
I knew I'd bought If I Can't Change Your Mind as a single, but was under the impression that I'd never heard the whole album. Then when I was listening to Copper Blue, I realised I knew a lot more of the tracks than I thought I did. There are some good songs here (and I still love If I Can't Change Your Mind), but the fact that I might have owned this album or at least borrowed it from someone and then forgotten about it isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.
Julian Cope
3/5
The opening track Pristine reminded me of the Velvet Underground, and there were a few other songs where I found myself wondering “who does this sound like?” It's not bad, and I really liked a couple of tracks, but I'm not sure it's quite good enough to justify the length (or maybe it's place on this list).
4/5
In 1960s pop, it was often a very fine line between social commentary and outright sneering at people who have day jobs and live in the suburbs, and I'm not sure Ray Davies always walks it that well on this one. However, there are some great songs here, and Victoria is one of the Kinks' best.
Kanye West
4/5
It’s real separating the art from the artist territory. Because Kanye West is a terrible person, but this is a great album.
Ms. Dynamite
3/5
Ms Dynamite - now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. And I say that as someone who owns this album. There’s some filler, but the best tracks have held up much better than I was expecting. It’s a promising debut, so it’s a shame she never really delivered on it.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Ah, the late 1960s, when you could sing about The Lord of the Rings and still be considered a dangerous rock 'n' roll sex god. Led Zeppelin are one of those bands where I only know the 'hits' (in inverted commas because they didn't release singles in Britain), but this made me think I should have been checking out their albums before now. I enjoyed it a lot.
Lenny Kravitz
2/5
If Lenny Kravitz didn’t look like a rock star, would we have turned him into one based on his music alone? Obviously Lenny can’t help being conventionally handsome, but this album feels a bit like the record company wanted a Prince without the sexual ambiguity. Unfortunately, he also didn’t have the tunes.
Eminem
4/5
Yes, it's misogynistic and childish but I must admit that even when I was wincing at the lyrics, I was having fun.
Radiohead
5/5
I'd always thought Kid A marked the end of Radiohead's golden era, and it was all gradually downhill after that. But clearly that was bollocks, because this is great. Sorry, Radiohead, have five stars as an apology.
U2
5/5
I always thought I didn’t believe in musical guilty pleasures - if you like a song or artist, why should you feel bad about it just because someone else has decided it’s uncool? Then I signed up for the generator and realised that I’m weirdly defensive when it comes to liking U2. So fuck it - I got this album for Christmas when I was 14 and I still love it.
The Fall
3/5
I started off thinking this really wasn’t for me but liked it more as it went on. Is “side two” just better or are the Fall an acquired taste that I was gradually starting to acquire?
Merle Haggard
3/5
The title track reminded me of an ex-boyfriend and the time we dodged a train conductor after realising our tickets weren’t valid on that service. I felt so guilty, I asked him if he thought they could track us down via CCTV and he started singing I Am A Lonesome Fugitive at me. Credit where it’s due, that was pretty funny. Anyway, despite clearly not being cut out for the outlaw life, I enjoyed this.
Queen
3/5
It's fun in an 'everything but the kitchen sink' kind of way but after three of their albums, I think I can safely say that Queen are one of those bands where I'm fine sticking to the Greatest Hits.
Todd Rundgren
2/5
This was definitely straddling the fine line that separates interesting and irritating. I liked the first few tracks but by the end I was ready for it to be over.
Paul Simon
5/5
In his book Yeah Yeah Yeah, Bob Stanley puts forward his theory that Paul Simon has soundtracked more family car journeys than any other musician in history, which rang true to me. Graceland was definitely a favourite in our car when I was a kid, but that's only one of the reasons I was smiling all the way through this. Despite some of the questions hanging over how it was recorded (and how credit was shared), this is just a really great, joyful collection of songs.
Dennis Wilson
5/5
I recently read a book which suggested the cult that’s sprung up around this album has more to do with Dennis Wilson being photogenic and tragic than the music. I truly believe Pacific Ocean Blue is so good, I would still give it five stars if it was by the balding, belligerent Beach Boy Mike Love and not the handsome, hirsute one, but you’ll just have to take my word for it.
Neil Young
4/5
I've always been a Neil Young agnostic - I like the odd song, but never really felt the need to delve into his back catalogue - but I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I'm intrigued now for his other albums that must be coming my way.
Shuggie Otis
3/5
It started strong, then settled into a nice laidback groove without any particularly memorable songs, then started sounding like he was playing around with the pre-sets on a new keyboard.
The Killers
4/5
Yesterday I was talking to a friend who said they didn’t know why Mr Brightside is so overplayed when The Killers have better songs and I was bit like “do they, though?” And then today I got Hot Fuss. (Coincidence? Yes, 100%.) So now I can say Mr Brightside is overplayed for a reason, but The Killers do have other good songs.
Jeff Buckley
4/5
This takes me back to my teens - listening to this album in the dark, thinking I was really deep. I still enjoy it, although I can now admit there might be a couple of skippable tracks (cough *Lilac Wine* cough). It would have been so interesting to see where Jeff Buckley went next, but sadly we'll never know.
Neu!
4/5
Definitely an album of two halves - one ambient, one a bit punkier - but luckily I liked them both.
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
I don't think I've ever given Nine Inch Nails a fair hearing before. I wasn't familiar with the term 'edgelord' in 1994, but if I had been, that's definitely how I'd have described someone living in Sharon Tate's old house while writing songs called Piggy and Mr Self Destruct. It just all smacked of trying a bit too hard to be shocking and dark. I shouldn't have been so quick to write them off though - this has some pretty strong songs. (I still prefer Johnny Cash's version of Hurt though.)
Minutemen
3/5
When you call yourself Minutemen, there's an expectation that your songs are going to be short. And they are - the problem is there are 43 of them. I liked a lot of this, but it could have easily lost a good to 10-15 tracks.
The White Stripes
4/5
Although I like this album a lot (and bought it!), I'm not that surprised to read it was dropped from later editions of the book. If you've already got Elephant and White Blood Cells, then the White Stripes are pretty well represented on this list. That being said, this has some great songs and I like that they are trying a different sound.
Jazmine Sullivan
4/5
I’d never heard of Jazmine Sullivan, so this was a good discovery. I liked this album a lot - frank, funny and short enough that it’s never in danger of wearing out its welcome.
Amy Winehouse
3/5
It’s definitely a promising debut (and a welcome reminder that Any Winehouse wasn’t just tragic - she was also sharp and funny) but Back to Black is where she delivered on that promise.
Beck
5/5
It's hard for me to be objective about this album because it unlocks a lot of great memories. Odelay came out when I was 18 and it's an album I usually put on when I was already in a good mood, so it's the soundtrack to the best bits of starting university - and the following year, Beck was the undoubted highlight of my first festival. I had a Beck poster up in my student house, and now I have an (amazing) artwork a friend made for me based on the Odelay cover hanging in my living room. Aside from the nostalgia though, I do believe Odelay is a genuine banger. It's quirky, inventive and eclectic, but underpinned by some great tunes.
Sonic Youth
3/5
Are Sonic Youth a lot more tuneful than I've been led to believe or has getting the Einstürzende Neubauten album raised the bar for what I consider to be 'just noise'?
Jeru The Damaja
4/5
There are some really strong tracks here, but I have to imagine this album would have hit a lot harder if it hadn't come out a year after Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Still, no shame in not being quite as good as one of the best albums of the 1990s.
Elvis Costello
3/5
It's not that Brutal Youth is bad (although it is a bit too long), it's just that if you’ve already got five other Elvis Costello albums on the list, you probably don’t need this one.
Sarah Vaughan
4/5
Sarah Vaughan has a great voice but I liked the playful moments too, including when she admits she's gone wrong while still singing. It all adds to the feeling that you're listening to this at a table in a dark jazz club.
Paul Simon
4/5
I’ve never thought the two Pauls sounded alike before but some of this reminded me of Ram-era McCartney, That’s a compliment by the way (as is the fact that while I liked this, I prefer Graceland - how many 60s artists made their best album in the 80s? It might be just Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen.)
Talk Talk
4/5
This was a pleasant surprise. It felt like variations on a theme, but it was a good theme.
Frank Sinatra
4/5
This Frank Sinatra kid is definitely one to watch - he can really carry a tune.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Stevie Wonder was on such an incredible roll in the 1970s. I was thinking of downgrading this to four stars just because I slightly prefer Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life, but that feels like I'm penalising him for being too much of a genius.
The Beta Band
3/5
As someone who read the NME and Select in the late 1990s/early 2000s, it always felt like the music critics were willing The Beta Band to be better than they actually were. This album re-enforced that - I quite liked it, but I'm not sure I'd listen to it again.
Johnny Cash
5/5
Has anyone made a 'captive audience' joke yet? Maybe the crowd seem so into it because it's not like they had a hell of a lot else to do, but I also think Cash's charisma, humour and the great songs played a part too.
Fats Domino
3/5
Prior to listening this album, I only really knew Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino. It turns out though that if you heard that, you've kind of heard them all - but in a good way.
Dagmar Krause
3/5
I love a show tune, I took A-level German and I gave the Young Gods album four stars because I liked that there was an oompah/Kurt Weil-ish tinge to their industrial metal. So I feel like I should be the prime target for this but somehow I can’t see myself listening to it again.
Jimmy Smith
4/5
I enjoyed this chilled jazz album. I listened to it while doing housework, but I think it would sound best while you read a book with a glass of red wine.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
I’m a bit of a sucker for a retro soul vibe, but I love that this then puts an interesting, contemporary spin on it.
The The
4/5
I was expecting this to be dark and rocky, but it's pretty poppy (and synth-y). That's not a bad thing - This Is the Day and Uncertain Smile are bangers.
Faust
4/5
One thing I'm learning from this project is that I have unexpectedly high tolerance levels for 1970s experimental electronic music. I've already discovered I like Brian Eno and Suicide, and it turns out I like Faust too. I'm now intrigued for what other krautrock may be coming my way, as it's a genre I'd always been a bit daunted by.
Snoop Dogg
4/5
It's not like I can't see where the people criticising the lyrics are coming from, but the combination of those G-funk beats and Snoop's drawl is just too hard to resist.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
I enjoyed Led Zeppelin II a lot more than I thought I would. This was more what I was expecting (a bit too long, basically), but the good bits are so good it pushes it up to four stars. However, before I accuse Led Zep of being predictable, I should say if you'd played me Down by the Seaside and asked me to guess who it was, I would have said Neil Young
Louis Prima
4/5
The cover sets the tone - it’s just so joyous.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
I liked this a lot - and in among the lurid gothic thing he’s doing is the rather lovely Straight To You.
The Zombies
5/5
Audiences and critics in 1968 must have been really spoilt for classics if they felt they could give this album a miss. It’s a baroque psychedelic gem.
Everything But The Girl
2/5
Tracey Thorn has such a great voice, but blimey, this is bland. Everything But the Girl were in their mid-20s when they made this album, but it all seems a bit self-consciously 'grown up'.
Justin Timberlake
3/5
Every time I hear Senorita, I think of a skit I saw pointing out that the intro sounds like Pharrell Williams is stalling for time because he's forgotten Justin Timberlake's name. Anyway, I think at the time this album benefited from being a lot better than anyone expected from that bloke out of NSYNC (see also Timberlake's acting career). When you include it on a list of 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die though, that maybe raises those expectations too high for what is a decent but patchy pop album. Rock Your Body is still a banger though.
Taylor Swift
4/5
I was under the impression that Folklore and Evermore were the albums that made the music snobs go "I always thought Taylor Swift was a vacuous pop star, but now I know she's heard of The National, I guess it's ok to listen to her", but you lot are clearly a tougher crowd. Luckily, I've always been uncool enough to really like this album, with the caveat that I'm surprised it made the cut above Folklore.
Radiohead
4/5
I bought this album and was underwhelmed by it. Then I saw them live a couple of months later and it all clicked. (Seriously, Radiohead are incredible live.) However, if someone put forward an argument that if you’ve got Kid A on the list, you don’t need Amnesiac too, I’m not sure I’d have much of a rebuttal.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
This probably made it on to the list for its historical significance. But surely only white blues purists/those people who insist Brian Jones was the real genius of the outfit/professional contrarians would argue this was the best Stones’ album?
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
It’s admirable that they didn’t want to just make Rumours 2, but maybe they should have decided what to make instead before they spent over a million in 1970s money recording it. There are too many good songs for it to be a failure but it does sound a bit like a band with an identity crisis.
Guns N' Roses
4/5
It's a lot of fun with some great tunes, although the harder they try to sound cool and dangerous, the funnier they get. Is it just me or does the swearing on this sound weirdly self-conscious?
Leonard Cohen
5/5
My dad loves Leonard Cohen (he wanted to name our dog after him until my mum vetoed it), and we listened to I’m Your Man a lot in the car when I was a kid. So maybe it’s genetic or maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome, but I adore this album. After a couple of pints, I could even try to mount an argument that the production is a deliberate artistic choice to add ironic distance and not just Cohen using the presets on a cheap keyboard and calling it a day.
Kate Bush
5/5
This is such a great album by such a singular artist.
Various Artists
4/5
1960s girl groups are one of the casualties of a list that prioritises albums over singles, so I’m glad that’s there’s some Crystals/Ronettes representation. Also, Phil Spector’s maximalist approach works so well with Christmas songs.
The Strokes
4/5
This album may have been a victim of its own success - it spawned a lot of mediocre indie bands. Listening to it now though, I remember why so many people wanted to be the Strokes.
Baaba Maal
3/5
When this started, it seemed like the perfect soundtrack for a chilled Sunday morning (and a nice change after a run of albums by artists I already knew). But I must admit that towards the end, I started to get a bit bored with it.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
I can see why the live version of No Woman No Cry became the definitive one - that version is so warm and tender, the original is more “cheer up love, it might never happen”. There are some other great songs here though.
Pink Floyd
3/5
Pink Floyd are one of the big gaps in my “classic rock” knowledge, so I was intrigued to get this. Now I’ve heard Dark Side of the Moon, I like it, but it wasn’t quite the “where has this album been all my life?” revelation I thought it might be.
Ministry
2/5
I liked a couple of tracks - Jesus Built My Hot Rod and Psalm 69 - but as a whole album, it got a bit repetitive.
Chicago
2/5
I can understand why some fans would think of this as the real Chicago, rather than the soft rock hits, and there are some good tunes here, even if they are stretched out to breaking point. However, I’d take the cheesy charm of If You Leave Me Now over the torturous Free Form Guitar or never-ending Liberation any day of the week.
Soft Cell
3/5
Tainted Love and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye are such great tunes, and the rest is pleasantly sleazy.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
When I got Born to Run, I said it made me smile at my desk. This one makes me want to throw on a plaid shirt and take a moody walk to an abandoned factory - but in a good way.
Neil Young
4/5
I used to feel about Neil Young the way a lot of people feel about Bob Dylan - like his songs, hate his voice. He is growing on me now, although I still prefer Dolly Parton’s version of the title track (and not just because I’d put better odds on her surviving an apocalypse).
Kacey Musgraves
5/5
I listened to this album a lot when I was living alone during lockdown, which could be why Rainbow still gets me a bit misty eyed. I think I needed someone to tell me it would all be alright, and Kacey Musgraves was as good as anyone. But I also think this is just a lovely, well-crafted country album that weaves in its indie and even disco influences in a subtle, skilful way.
Van Halen
3/5
Fair play calling this 1984 because it really couldn't get much more 1980s. Or maybe it could - it's fun, but I must admit I prefer the synths of Jump to the guitar pyrotechnics.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
1/5
What in the MOR jazz rock is this? That version of God Bless the Child sounded like if Joe Cocker had been the guest singer at the gymnasium dance in West Side Story. There’s certainly a lot going on but I don’t feel like any of it really gelled.
Fiona Apple
5/5
Was there a better year to release an album called Fetch the Bolt Cutters than 2020? It really resonated with me during lockdown, but it still sounds extraordinary when I don’t feel like I’m being held prisoner. (Although if I need to feel frustrated again, I could just remember that one of the highest-rated reviews for this album seems to suggest that a successful female artist in the 2020s couldn’t possibly still experience sexism before speculating that Fetch the Bolt Cutters only got rave reviews because male music critics fancied Fiona Apple in the 1990s.)
The Byrds
3/5
This feels like a transitional album. There are pointers to the more country sound that was coming as well as David Crosby's work with CSNY, while some of the production choices straddle the line between experimental and gimmicky. It all adds to the sense of a band who are throwing a lot of stuff at the wall to see what sticks. The best song though is still a relatively straightforward Dylan cover - My Back Pages is the standout track for me.
Eagles
2/5
For a band that seem to provoke strong feelings in a lot of people, I find The Eagles ... meh? I wouldn't ask a taxi driver to turn them off (a la The Big Lebowski) but I would't actively seek them out either. It just sort of slides by.
Joanna Newsom
5/5
So this is why I’m so glad I signed up for the generator. I’ve always meant to listen Joanna Newsom because on paper she seemed like an artist I would like but because she’s not on Spotify and I’m basically bone idle, I never did. Now the generator has motivated me to go to the huge effort of firing up YouTube, I can say I loved this ambitious, individual and beautiful album.
David Ackles
4/5
You know in the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall where Jason Segel’s Dracula musical for puppets is described as sounding “like a dark, gothic Neil Diamond?” I have to imagine it sounded like this. I’m not going to lie though, I’m into it.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Although I love The Velvet Underground And Nico, I’ve never really listened to any of their other albums. Listening to this made me wonder why - I liked it a lot.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
This is such an achingly sad, heart-piercingly beautiful album, I feel weirdly guilty for not giving it five stars. I just found it a bit much to listen to in a single sitting, in more ways than one.
Cream
3/5
Due to my anti-Clapton bias, I was bracing myself for this to be two straight-up bangers (Strange Brew and Sunshine of Your Love) followed by a load of old blues wank. So, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that while Disraeli Gears is a tad patchy, it's not boring.
Roni Size
2/5
I know it's not like anyone is checking, but I always listen to these albums in full. (Original track listing only – reissued bonus tracks don't count.) For some reason though, Spotify is missing the last two tracks of New Forms and it came as a bit of a relief that I had a valid excuse not to see it through to the bitter end. I think an album that tries to expand the artistic possibilities of drum and bass is more interesting in theory than in reality.
Johnny Cash
5/5
There's probably an argument that if you've got the Folsom Prison live album on the list, you don't need this too. However, they're both fantastic – and if I have to give one the edge, it's San Quentin. (Cash is pretty funny here, but the real comedy genius might be the prisoner who shouts "get on with it!" during the intro to Walk the Line. Did he have somewhere better to be?)