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.
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.
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.
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.
I always thought of Exile on Main Street as their classic, undeniable album but I think I’ve been underrating this one. Loved it.
I’ve been listening to this album on a regular basis since the 1990s and I never get tired of it.
Some absolute bangers, but a couple I would skip on a re-listen.
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.
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.
Some great tunes, but a bit front-loaded.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I always thought of Exile on Main Street as their classic, undeniable album but I think I’ve been underrating this one. Loved it.
The banger to ballad ratio is maybe better on a couple of his other 70s albums, but still a classic.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s very atmospheric - my office briefly felt like a spooky Louisiana swamp. And Walk on Guilded Splinters is such a tune.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I prefer pop Queen to prog Queen.
Started strong but tapered off. I really enjoyed that start though.
This just completely washed over me - not unpleasant but nothing stood out.
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?
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.
Punk energy and pop smarts - a winning combination.
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.
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.
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?
A little bit sleazy, a little bit sloppy, and some fantastic tunes. I love it.
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.
I wanted to like this more, but I feel like the production is often more interesting than the actual songs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Listening to this gave me a new appreciation for Flavor Flav. It’s Public Enemy without the fun.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.