411
Albums Rated
3.27
Average Rating
38%
Complete
678 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1970
Favorite Decade
Metal
Favorite Genre
UK
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
45
5-Star Albums
20
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)
Simple Minds
|
5 | 2.96 | +2.04 |
|
The Dreaming
Kate Bush
|
5 | 2.97 | +2.03 |
|
Fever Ray
Fever Ray
|
5 | 2.98 | +2.02 |
|
Ray Of Light
Madonna
|
5 | 3 | +2 |
|
S.F. Sorrow
The Pretty Things
|
5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
|
Devil Without A Cause
Kid Rock
|
4 | 2.04 | +1.96 |
|
Behaviour
Pet Shop Boys
|
5 | 3.04 | +1.96 |
|
Dare!
The Human League
|
5 | 3.05 | +1.95 |
|
Make Yourself
Incubus
|
5 | 3.08 | +1.92 |
|
Let England Shake
PJ Harvey
|
5 | 3.15 | +1.85 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
American IV: The Man Comes Around
Johnny Cash
|
1 | 3.89 | -2.89 |
|
Bad
Michael Jackson
|
1 | 3.8 | -2.8 |
|
The Score
Fugees
|
1 | 3.69 | -2.69 |
|
Stankonia
OutKast
|
1 | 3.55 | -2.55 |
|
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
OutKast
|
1 | 3.45 | -2.45 |
|
Stardust
Willie Nelson
|
1 | 3.39 | -2.39 |
|
Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth
|
1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
|
The Predator
Ice Cube
|
1 | 3.25 | -2.25 |
|
Songs Of Love And Hate
Leonard Cohen
|
1 | 3.2 | -2.2 |
|
Ambient 1/Music For Airports
Brian Eno
|
1 | 3.07 | -2.07 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 5 |
| Beatles | 5 | 4.4 |
| Van Halen | 2 | 5 |
| AC/DC | 2 | 5 |
| Coldplay | 2 | 5 |
| Peter Gabriel | 2 | 5 |
| Beastie Boys | 3 | 4.33 |
| The Cure | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| OutKast | 2 | 1 |
| The Jesus And Mary Chain | 2 | 1.5 |
| Leonard Cohen | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Michael Jackson | 2, 5, 1 |
| Stevie Wonder | 2, 3, 5 |
5-Star Albums (45)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Van Halen · 18 likes
5/5
Next level guitar, arrogant sleazy vocal delivery. Outstanding production. And then for that 'difficult second album' they go and release Van Halen II which is even better!!
Brian Eno · 9 likes
1/5
I'm already wound up by the album cover not being lined up properly. Not a great start if this album is designed to be chilling me out.
It is a just a bunch of random sounds grouped into 4 tracks. I didn't find it ambient at all because there was no rhythmic structure to it. Every random note kept interrupting my train of thought. If you gave 1001 baboons a keyboard and a chorus pedal each, they could each knock out one of these in about 40 minutes. Would they all be indespensible? No. So why the fuck is this one.
This album is a crock of shite. (And I'm rather pleased because my Summary page was looking very top heavy).
Solange · 8 likes
1/5
Dave Davies, Dennis and Carl Wilson, Mike McCartney, Martin Kemp, Danii Minogue, Liam Gallagher.
Rock & roll is littered with the less able, slightly less attractive siblings of talented musicians who only got in the band because of mothers' threats or who got a record deal because an executive thought that talent must run in families*.
They were wrong and Solange is a fine example of that.
In one song I genuinely thought she was singing about shitting her knickers. But she wasn't. And that's about as exciting as this album got.
Bland, monotonous and boring. With tedious 'interludes' (if I want to be talked at I'll listen to a podcast or the news thanks). 2 stars as it might have some use as background. But then with songs about shitty knickers maybe not even that.
* Bros and Jedward? Not even going there!
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band · 7 likes
2/5
I’m sure there are going to be people who give this a 5.
People who are the music equivalent to art-wankers. Those who think that if you put a 12 foot square frame around an emulsion wall, or place an unmade bed with a steaming turd in the corner of an art gallery then it must be art.
Those that would then write a 10 thousand word thesis on the feelings that the painter and decorator was having and the traumas they were going through when they created it.
In the same way that the shitty bed isn't art, this album is not music (in the sense that everyone else understands music). It’s not melodic and meaningful. It doesn’t have a rhythm that inspires movement or a melody that might implant itself into your unconsciousness so that when you hear it again - maybe decades later - it inspires you to remember what you were doing or who you were with.
No, pretentious art-wanker-music-equivalents would rather perpetuate an illusion that they (and the performer) were trying to express some deeper meaning to life the universe and everything that us mere mortals couldn’t hope to understand. And so they are somehow smarter than the rest of us. In short - they can see the emperors clothes. And it’s all bullshit. It’s just a bloke who can’t play the right notes and has no real sense of rhythm.
It does get a 2 though. The reason being that, unlike Eno’s ‘Ambient’ horseshit, it was never boring. I just wouldn’t ever listen to it again.
Ice Cube · 7 likes
1/5
Boring repetitive soundtrack of single bar repetition, with violent racist angry foul-mouthed poetry being shouted over the top. Sums it up perfectly.
4-Star Albums (129)
1-Star Albums (20)
All Ratings
Beastie Boys
4/5
Would agree with previous reviewers that the album was a little too long. Many of the tracks were a bit samey, but it was a quality set. 3½ but seeing as I'm stuck with whole numbers it'll have to be a 4.
Iggy Pop
3/5
The Who
4/5
Never heard this before even though I have seen the Who live and like their studio work. This is a great album. The individual musicianship is all high but superlatives cannot describe Moon. Surely a man who was born to die young. If not from the drugs, then surely from exhaustion! perhaps the legend wouldn't have been so great had he lived, because the man surely couldn't have continued to drum with this energy into his 40s. Extraordinary
Beck
4/5
Talking Heads
3/5
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Christina Aguilera
2/5
Long, samey and rather shouty.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
Fairly simplistic school-band standard songs. Not helped by listening on headphones as the mix isn't great so there is a lot of singing in one ear and guitar in the other. My assumption is that this album is on the 1001 list because they were an influencial band. However as a standalone album, although interesting, it's something I won't be listening to again.
Slayer
2/5
I love hard rock and metal. But never been into the superfast thrash metal that this album represents. No real melody, indecipherable lyrics. On many occasions it seemed the band couldn't manage to keep in rhythm with itself!!.
I assume it's on the 1001 list because it was "groundbreaking". Possibly in the same way as an album of white noise would be, or 45 minutes of drilling?
However! I gave this album 3 listens and it did grow on me a bit. Besst track Jesus Saves
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
Not what I'd generally listen to on Spotify, but then that's what this is for isn't it - to broaden your horizons. Great BIg Band music. Fantastcally talented musicians. It will stay on my list.
Astrud Gilberto
4/5
She has a lovely voice, slightly wavering and sometimes even a little off key but beautiful nonetheless. (The auto tuned abomination of today could learn a lot here). Nice gentle songs. I've never heard this version of Parade before but have definitely heard the tune somewhere can't think where. Don't know why this is on the 1001 list but I really liked it.
Neil Young
3/5
I tried REALLY hard with this album. 4 listens. The first 3 tracks are a dirge, Album doesn't really start until Heart of Gold which, with Old Man are by far the best tracks. Side two drags the album up to a 3. Pleasant background music, but just too much country lap steel guitar and harmonica for me (yes I know Heart of Gold has it - but it's such a great song)
The Zombies
5/5
I hate 60s music. But this album is a corker
Dire Straits
4/5
The album that launched a million other CDs. I remember this was almost the "test" release for new fangled CDs (a bit like "Journey into Stereophonic Sound" a 1950s record that my dad had).
As such pretty much every one I know bought it. Stands the test of time. All good songs. Still a bit sick of it though.
The Doors
3/5
Meh. Not bad. Not great. Roadhouse Blues sucks. Ship of Fools saves.
Middling 2½
Peter Frampton
2/5
The crowd seemed to love it. So something good must have been happening on stage during the long tedious tracks. Good tight solos, though the "wind box' effect sounds like he's cleaning his teeth. Should have been a single album. Jumping Jack Flash is awful.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
4/5
Good album. Monitor & Head Cut great. Voodoo Dolly poor. Definitely more good than bad.
Solid 3½. Wife hated it so 4.
Genesis
5/5
The haters gonna hate. But I don't give a fuck because this was and remains one of my favourite albums of all time. So I'll have a day's break from objective listening to stuff I've mostly never heard before and fill my boots with this absolute joy.
Best track The Cinema Show. No, wait, Firth of Fifth. No... Battle of Epping Forest. Fuckit the whole damn lot.
6/5
Beastie Boys
5/5
I'll say now that I'm not into hip hop. A lot of shouting about guns and "da hood" and "n**gaz this and hoes that. I've obviously heard 'Fight for your Right' before (a banger) but that's about it. So is this album Hip hop?
The first 4 tracks are awesome. Then it drops in quality a tad for the next 2 until Fight for your Right and No Sleep pick up the quality until the end. In places it sounds like it's the cast of South Park. So its a novelty record? just with great lyrics and great tunes?
After 2 listens I still dont know if this is Hip Hop or Rock What I do know is its a great big piss take and I love it.
Shuggie Otis
2/5
Who the fuck is Shuggie Otis? Never heard of 'im. This album is what I might expect to hear if I was tied up in a hotel lobby for 55 mins and 54 seconds. Background music. Kinda mello jazzy funk fusion. Some tracks too long. Some tracks ironically too short! Some tracks fade out in weird places. Some tracks just a fucking mess. I really needed to be doing something else when this is on because it struggled to hold my attention. Not awful but I can live without it. I know now why I’ve never heard of Shuggie Otis. Not quite bad enough for a 1 though.
1½
Pulp
5/5
I've rated a few albums 5* in the last week so I've started to think maybe I'm setting my bar too low? This is an album that passed me by back in the day. But such great songs, really good lyrics (and I'm definitely no poet) and no filler. I'm still listening to it the next day. Cocker you're such a perv.
Duke Ellington
3/5
Cool, Daddyo. Virtuoso musicianship. Spoiled a bit by all the chatter. I don't need to hear the long intros, and I'm definitely not interested in some priest talking about the rain, and where every member of the band lives.
I can understand that this is a historical record of the complete concert that day, and that's great if you were actually there - but for the casual listener there's too much padding and not enough music. I didn't really like the sung songs either. So, in summary:- Instruments outstanding. Voices no thanks.
Brian Eno
3/5
Listened to this twice. It's "ok". But there's no wow factor. Nothing toe tapping or singalong. Not that 'relaxing' either for so-called ambient music.I did recognise the theme tune to BBC2's Arena in there which I liked probably more from familiarity. The album seems to have been made primarily for the artist rather than for an audience. And 'experiment' as others have commented. Lucky he didn't need the money
TLDR : Ok. But it won't be going on my playlist
Megadeth
4/5
Good album. So much better that the Slayer album I had last week - more melodic, rhythm section kept in time together more accomplished playing. But just another (good) thrash metal album, nothing "special" so I wonder why it's on the list. Was it groundbreaking? I'd rather see some of the NWOBHM albums on here (Diamond Head/Lightening to the Nations or Girl/Sheer Greed) that really WERE groundbreaking.
OutKast
1/5
A few good 3 bar tunes, on each occasion repeated over and over 50+ times over 4 minutes and swamped by mysogenistic and racist (yes, I understand the word has apparently been rebranded but I still find it uncomfortable). Times have moved on and this outdated offensive shit should be consigned to landfill along with tunes like this https://open.spotify.com/track/61NcooPUwSPSwSyzF8UfYv?si=f141a54383c54e23 once loved by the similarly misguided.
Stevie Wonder
2/5
A pleasant set of tunes.
'Superstition' a classic (which I tire of). 'You Are The Sunshine Of My Life' another classic (though ruined by 'Rhodes abuse'). 'Maybe Your Baby' drags on 3 minutes too long, 'You and I' is sweet and 'Blame It On The Sun' is a gem.
The production is horrible. Has the boy Wonder just discovered stereo? He keeps oscilating the Rhodes piano between left and right channels like a kid. It's the equivalent of a strobe on the ear'oles and is unlistenable on headphones. 'You Got It Bad Girl', 'Lookin For A Pure Love' and unfortunately 'You Are The Sunshine' are all ruined by this fiddling. And then he goes and plays the mouth organ on Big Brother. An affront.
I used to quite like Stevie Worder. Until he wrote two of the worst songs in the history of popular music, 'Happy Birthday' and 'I Just Called To Say I Love You', banal dross, the latter which could have been written by a 2 year old, and the only song that actually makes me angry when it comes on the radio. Did he suddenly lose his talent in 1980 or did he just become lazy ?
But I'm reviewing this album. 4 stars for the toons. But loses a star for pissing around with the channels and use of the mouth organ. And another because I can never forgive him for IJCTSILY.
Screaming Trees
3/5
It grew on me. First listen a 2, second listen a 3
Erykah Badu
2/5
Pleasant chilled funky sounds spoiled by whiney voice
Bob Dylan
4/5
I tried SO hard to like this.
The guitar is great. The lyrics are thoughtful and interesting. Why spoil things by singing and playing that fucking mouth organ?
As the album went on I got more used to his voice and by the end it was ok. Almost like a pastiche of himself. The mouth organ was a bit more difficult to love. You got lulled into a false sense of security and then... oh shit here it comes again! But a bit like a screeching child a you do kinda get numbed to it in the end. How old was he when he made this? 22? He sounds sounds like an old man.
I tried so hard to like this and I think in the end I did.
Johnny Cash
3/5
Entertaining record of historical concert, but I wouldn't listen to it again as a complete package, except for "San Quentin" and "Boy Named Sue". Generally too much chatter and audience noise. Loses a star for bleeping out "rude" words.
The Only Ones
4/5
50 seconds into the first track I started laughing. Which isn't a good sign. The vocal performance takes a bit of getting used to - a cross between the Buzzcocks and They Might Be Giants.
But then the second track. hey I know that!? 'Another Girl, Another Planet`. Great song. Never knew it was them. Album grows on you. Excellent for a first album. Shame they never pushed on.
Paul Simon
4/5
Hated it after the opener. But it improves. Then it doesn't. Paul Simon writes some good songs. And then he writes some shite. A lot of the lyrics sound like he got them from a Christmas cracker. No Bob Dylan there. Better tunes though. Overall a "nice" album.
Supergrass
4/5
Rocky, hard,, tuneful, good
The Soft Boys
3/5
I was 18 in 1980 and bought 'Sounds' (a music paper) every week, yet I've not heard of them or this album. Maybe it's the naff name? (certainly not up there with Joy Division or Echo and the Bunnymen) or the
unmemorable tunes ( after 3 listens yesterday, I can't remember one track this morning). Still at least I gave it 3 listens so it can't have been that bad.
Madonna
5/5
I used to like Madonna back in the old days but went off her when she started her psychodivabitchslag period and I haven’t listened to a Madonna album since about 1990.
I think it helped that this album popped up on a chilled Sunday evening. It’s full of great tracks ; exquisite, atmospheric, ambient, trippy, rave electronica . The production is brilliant and her voice sounds great. I’m listening again on a Monday morning and it’s still awesome (Shanti is a dud, but everyone's entitled to one). I need to re-evaluate Madonna perhaps. Nah perhaps not she’s still a batty old fruitcake.
5*
Ramones
4/5
Happy Birthday Punk. Literally. So what if all the tracks sound the same? It's punk innit. Fack off you prog dinosaur wanker.
Iron Maiden
4/5
I forgot how good this album was/is. Some bangers from NWOBHM. But I think both the debut Iron Maiden album or Killers (with Paul Di'Anno) were better and either should have been on this list instead of TNOTB. Di'Anno was a 'character' and so got the boot. LIke Van Halen and AC/DC who changed frontmen (of course AC/CD had no choice) I think Iron Maiden were poorer for it.
Black Flag
3/5
Influential Punk album my arse!
Released practically in 1982. So only 3 years late to the party then.
Punk had burned out by 1979 you twats. Listen to Ramones, UK Subs, Sham 69, Sex Pistols, Damned if you want to be influenced. This album isn't at all bad, but influential? or something I need to hear before I die? Do me a favour, mate!
Bob Dylan
3/5
An album of 2 halves. or more accurately alternating killer/filler. Lovely melodic songs intertwined with more repetitive long formulaic "woke up this morning..." blues songs.
I liked this album a lot more through headphones than listening in the car. Also very glad there was only one song with 'harmonica' (why is it called that? harmonic it definitely isn't).
'Lovesick' 'Tryin to get to Heaven' (yes even with mouth organ), 'Not dark yet', 'Make you feel my love', 'Highlands' great. Other stuff less so but still a solid 3.
Johnny Cash
3/5
So similar to the other Johnny Cash "prison" album which came a year later. Very much a "warts and all" live set, voice was creaking in places and the guitar hopelessly out of tune in others. But that adds to the appeal. Better than the San Quentin set. But not quite a 4
Little Simz
2/5
I don’t know why a seemingly intelligent female UK rapper needs to use racist and misogynistic language from 1970s pornos. This album has well structured tunes and she has a good voice. Maybe she feels she needs to conform with the gun toting gangster US neanderthal rappers. I think she should grow up and do her own thing.
The Verve
3/5
The problem with the CD era is that some bands feel that they need to fill as much of the available space as they can. The Verve have done this by dragging perfectly decent songs to well past their ‘bored-by’ date.
There's a lot dreamy guitar on this album. Except it’s so dreamy that the best time/place to listen is on earbuds at bedtime if you suffer from insomnia. And that’s not a bad thing. I think I could really like this album if I managed to listen another 4 or 5 times. But I can’t be arsed.
Elliott Smith
4/5
Never heard of him.
Very listenable. Nice chilled mood music. And he's a great guitarist. I didn’t really listen to the words in any great depth so I can't comment on how depressing it was. And anyway listening to someone else whinging doesn’t really depress me.
Though his IS a sad story. A druggy who committed suicide by stabbing himself in the chest?… twice!?? Whilst his girlfriend was in the bathroom? She heard him scream so emerged and pulled the knife out???? Yeah right. Unlucky mate.
Van Halen
5/5
Next level guitar, arrogant sleazy vocal delivery. Outstanding production. And then for that 'difficult second album' they go and release Van Halen II which is even better!!
The Human League
5/5
I can't objectively rate this album as it's part of my youth. I bought it on cassette. Loved it. My sister then borrowed it and left it on a school trip coach. I've never let her forget. Great to listen to it again from end to end.
Super Furry Animals
3/5
Inoffensive. Formulaic. Pleasant but ultimately unmemorable. Maybe they should have become more well known? But at the end of the day the masses decide and we all probably got it right.
Black Sabbath
5/5
I was big into metal at school in the very early 80s. But with plenty of New Wave stuff around and regarding Black Sabbath (without the fired Ozzy) as has-beens I never sought out any of their old stuff.
I wasn't expecting an album like this. The standard Sabbath sound, but with melodic, thoughtful quiet bits too. Changes is a good song but let down by the horrible melotron behind it. It's really the only track that lets the album down. Could this be the third 5* album I've had this week?... I think so.
Laibach
3/5
Really enjoyed this. But maybe not for the right reasons? Had me smiling throughout. Great production. Not sure how seriously I was supposed to be taking it (I hope it's as tongue in cheek as I think).
Militaryesque martial music. Industrial with a strong heavy dark beat. Dictator music. The sort of music I'd expect to hear at a Trump rally. Only it's primarily in "foreign" so the insular fuckwit wouldn't have given it time of day.
The Queen cover is awesome. 'Get me a Litebeer' (yes... I know!). On second listen some of the tracks on side 2 drag on a little.
3½
Tricky
3/5
Slower, more moody and melodic than the typical aggressive shouty hip-hop. Fewer racial slurs (I counted just 2 and that was in a cover). Overall not bad at all. Maybe the female vocalist should be bigged up a bit more. This was her album more than Tricky's.
Beck
4/5
This album was ok. But it didn't excite me. Nothing horrid. Nothing great. Boring voice though. I imagine he's really dull live? (apparently he's not!!). Second listen. Better.
I was going to give it a 3. Then a saw I gave Odelay a 4. And after the second listen I guess this has grown on me in the same way. If I had more time then I would listen a bit more but this 1001 Album thing is relentless. It will stay in my Spotify library though.
AC/DC
5/5
Classic. Brilliant. Better than 'Back In Black'? About the same. Bon Scott definitely was a better frontman though. Easy 5.
George Harrison
5/5
When I read about the background to this album I thought George was just trying to get a bit more of the Beatles pie, writing some naff ditties that Paul and John had dissed, patted the young lad on the head and sending him on his way. But these songs are really good. Even (maybe especially) the ones that Lennon and McCartney rejected. Easily enough for a quality double album
I'm not sure it needed the third record 'Apple Jam'. I skipped a lot of that first time around as overlong and tedious. But after a second listen to the 'main' 2 records I think having the third set was a great chill out. Maybe I wouldn't listen to it very often but it's like the additional film director's narratives they used to add to DVDs. Interesting. A bit of self indulgent jamming - like a warm up before the main recording session with your mates. I'm glad it's there.
Most of my 5* ratings are previous loves rediscovered. This is a new love and a nailed on 5. How was there so much talent in the Beatles.
Travis
3/5
Nothing to see hear (geddit?)
Arcade Fire
4/5
What I've learned from the first 50 albums on this list is that, given a few listens, I pretty much like anything and everything, so long as it's not racist I'm-so-hard-done-by shouting, or the drivel written by Stevie Wonder post 1980.
It's taken 3 goes (one being a 'proper' listen sat on a plane) to enjoy Funeral but I got there. Maybe if I had more time then everything would be 4+
Eels
4/5
Excellent debut. So what happened? Would have been a 5 but lose 1 star for 15 seconds of pointless harmonica in Guest List.
Pavement
2/5
This is what happens when you make music drunk/stoned. Someone pleeeze tell him to tune that guitar. It was ok, but can't really tell the difference between these guys and every other indie grunge band from the mid 90s.
2½
The Police
3/5
The 4 'hits' are all great. The Bed's... being a forgotten gem. In fact all the Sting songs are quality (maybe that's why his head exploded a few years down the road).
Though could the same man who wrote 'Walked out this morning, don't believe what I saw 100 billion bottles washed up on the shore' have also really written 'Giant steps are what you take, I hope my leg don't break'??
Couple of duds, Deathwish and Any Other Day bring it back down to earth. Brilliant drumming, Stewart Copeland has always been one of my favourites. Hmmm 3 or 4?
The Birthday Party
1/5
Junk Yard? Yep. (and yes I listened to it all. and no, it didn't get a second chance)
The Modern Lovers
3/5
I've always like Jonathan Richmans voice and he's obviously a talented storyteller and songwriter. I mean I can just picture Picasso cruising around in his El Dorado and all the girls swooning over his hard stare and never callling him an asshole. The guy must have been on something really strong! Or maybe he just wanted someone who rhymed with asshole. Fidel Castro got lucky.
3½ for me. Though some of the songs failed to hit the mark so downgraded to 3.
Beatles
4/5
I've never listened to this over-60-year-old album and yet of 13 tracks, only 4 had I never heard before.
That shows the legacy of the Beatles (maybe overated?) and this isn't even one of their most 'popular' albums. I'm trying not to fawn all over this just because it's them, but of the tracks I didn't know, Any Time At All is a 5, I'll Cry Instead is very 'Beatles' and only When I Get Home and Tell Me Why fail to hit the mark with me. The rest of the tracks I knew before are all bangers however many time I have heard them throughout my life.
Considering this is such an early album (3rd?) that's quite good going.
Ella Fitzgerald
4/5
This is less an "album" and more a library. I managed to get through a lot (23 tunes) before I needed a break. Although great songs and an incredible voice the thing that broke me in the end was the repetitiveness of the band. The same taddah wham pow Nelson Riddle arrangement got tiresome. But did anybody ever expect to listen to this end to end? If you treat it as a library and pick a song or a side then it's a classic
Soul II Soul
3/5
I shouldn't read other peoples reviews before I jot my own. But I saw a lot of the word 'dated'.
Of course it's dated!! If you listen to Sex Pistols it's clearly late 70's. Beatles sounds very 1960's, New Romantic synth stuff take you straight back to the 80's. And this is clearly early 90's so of course it's 'dated', knobheads.
This album is what it says on the tin, a collection of club tunes. Great party tracks for chilled dancing to all night without being crippled next day. And for the record (and the reviews that had a pop at the rapping), I liked it. Understandable, clear, non-offensive. You can keep your illegible, chip-on-shoulder Outkast shit I'll take this any day.
Robbie Williams
4/5
I never bothered with this when it came out (because I wasn't a 13 year old girl) but it's surprisingly rather good.
A lot of humour (to be expected, but it's clear from some reviews that non-UK reviewers dont get it). Angels and Let Me Entertain You are great songs and well known (in UK at least). Ok so maybe there isn't the same familiarity and knowledge ouside the UK. I suppose I feel the same way about Elliot Smith (who?), but at least I gave that miserable twat a chance.
I particularly liked the 'fuck you' poem to his teacher at the end.
Well done, thingy!
Green Day
4/5
I saw Green Day at Reading Festival about 10 years ago (it was 2013 - ed!) and they played a lot of this album. I knew the 'hits' of course but the whole set was damn good. I thought then I'd seek out some more of their stuff. Of course I didn't, but I wish I had.
Guns N' Roses
4/5
Not a huge amount to say. Top class debut for the last of the US Hair-metal bands. What is it about US rock bands that most of the debuts are already the complete article? Was there never anything to improve or are they all manufactured? Anyway this isn't meant to be critical, it's a great album.
4½
Dead Kennedys
3/5
I used to read Sounds every week as a spotty youth and always remember an advert for Holiday in Cambodia by the Dead Kennedys, which I thought was a great name for a band and a great song title. Being a metal head at the time i never sought out neither song nor band. So here I am 45 years later finally hearing the Dead Kennedys.
Did they record it at the wrong speed? The Elvis cover of Viva Las Vegas is a massive improvement on the original.
Scott Walker
2/5
Pleasant voice, but seemingly recorded this borefest standing in a railway tunnel? Clearly of its time. Added a point for writing all his own songs. Took one away for sounding like an American Cliff Richard.
2
John Lennon
3/5
I really didn't want to like this. I can't stand the numbingly boring overrated song 'Imagine'. And John Lennon is possibly the least talented Beatle (if you include Ringo's 'Thomas the Tank Engine' work). But it's ok. I guess the dude can write songs.
The Pretty Things
5/5
There was a film that came out a few years ago about a songwriter bloke who had a road accident. When he woke up nobody knew who the Beatles were, and so he ripped off all their songs. A pretty lame chick flick notable only because Lily James was in it playing a rather hot girl-next-door type.
Anyway in another universe substitute The Beatles for The Pretty Things. Nobody knows who the Pretty Things are, and after the accident they are as big as the Fab Four or the Stones. That is the universe we re living in. Why weren't they huge? Their paths even crossed with Mick and Keef at Art College, but they seemed to go unnoticed and unpromoted by their record company. They were 'difficult' and did their own thing.
So of course I didn’t know anything about them and don’t recall ever hearing any of their stuff. But this is an amazing album. I’m currently on my third listen and it will stay on my playlist (and I thought I hated the 60s - I’ve rated both this and the zombies as 5*).
Oh what might have been.
Sufjan Stevens
3/5
I will come back to this review as I'm only three quarters through (why? because it's a fucking slog).
Sounds like it's been written for a Broadway show that he (I assume it's a he) never got the funding for (why? I hear you ask). Because it's mostly dull pap (ideal for Disney then??). There were a couple of songs I liked - so it's not a 1. But mostly it was dull, dull, dull, dull... so incredibly dull.
I've had another listen and a rethink. Its got humour and good tunes. It's still too long though. Quit while you're ahead mate. Better than I originally thought so upgraded to 3.
Otis Redding
4/5
Looks like the album cover to a 1970 Top Of The Pops album. Disappointed with the production, it sounded mono (it possibly was) and the fadeouts were a little severe.
But at the end of the day it's Otis. Smooth bastard. My new go-to blues album if I'm ever on the pull again.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
My new favourite Rolling Stones album.
Well, bearing in mind they were already regarded as past it even in my teenage years why would I have ever bothered to listen a Rolling Stones album before now? This is therefore (at time of writing) my only favourite Rolling Stones album.
It seems unbelievable that I'm in my 60s they're STILL going? At 90 odd. Or dead. Who knows. They only come out when the sun goes down.
I love this album though. Aside from the superb Brown Sugar and even better Wild Horses the stuff-I-didn't-know is brilliant. Keef's solo on Can't You Hear Me Knocking. I had no idea! Outstanding. What? It's not Keef? It's Mick Taylor? Well fuck me - why did they let him leave?
5 any day of the week
Led Zeppelin
3/5
I love rock and metal. And this is Led Zeppelin man. Gotta be a shoo in 5 surely?
Don't get me wrong. I like it but there's enough I don't like for it not to stay on my playlist. Whole Lotta Love is good, but drags on too long. I also don't care one iota about Robert Plant's knob so give me a break with all your dick lyrics. The whole album is too bluesy. Some good some not so. It's a bit samey guys. Leave the 'woke up this morning...' harmonica stuff to Bob Dylan. And the drum solo on Moby Dick is... well it's shit. What?! Thats Bonno!!! I dont care who it it, it's shit. Sounds like a fish thrashing about on a trawler deck (maybe that's the impression they were trying to make? Moby Dick and all that?). Anyway I can live without drum solos on anything other than live albums. And I can particularly live without shit ones.
So in summary. Good. But too many flaws.
3½
Drive-By Truckers
3/5
I enjoyed this album, but it's something I'd only want to listen to once. It really is a 'rock opera' in the sense that they have written a story and then they've shoehorned the words into multiple vaguely similar tunes (possibly in one recording/jamming session?). I'm glad I had the lyric sheet in front of me. I saw the word 'Educational' used in another review. And yeah to a Brit it was in some ways. There's 2 sides to every story though, but thanks for sharing your side.
Like any Opera or Broadway Musical, now I've seen/heard it, then I've no desire to see it a second time.
Oasis
4/5
Mad for it
T. Rex
4/5
For Christmas 1974, my Aunty and Uncle bought me a T-Rex compilation album called 'Get It On' which had a lot of these tracks on. I was 10 and couldn't hide my disappointment. I didn’t really know T-Rex or care for that sort of music at that age. When I got older I realised how shitty it feels when you give a present to a kid and they hate it, and what a spoiled brat I must have seemed.
Now that being said, 10 year olds are musically immature fools. This album is chock full of glam rock bangers. Cosmic Dancer I’ve not heard for years and is a standout. Even the filler between the hits is great. So I apologise to my now dead Aunty Eileen and Uncle Alf. What a fucking ungrateful idiot I was.
Elvis Presley
2/5
Talentless chancer with a penchant for hamburgers and 14 year old girls releases collection of other people's songs and covers and inadvertently helps kick off rock and roll as well as a stream of fat Elvis impersonators and wedding chapels.
The king? Fuck off. Alvin Stardust, Stray Cats and Mrs Mills did a better job.
Eminem
3/5
I once watched The Exorcist in a student halls common room. When the spinny head shenegans started, someone laughed and the whole room disolved into giggles. The film became the best comedy I'd seen all year.
This album is a bit like that. It's so violent and shocking that it's comedic. Like Tom and Jerry the sound effects and lyrics become meaningless and funny. There is some great wordplay on here too and the tunes are listenable.
The only problem with albums like this (and films and games) is that some non-level headed people can't handle them and take them too seriously (a fact that is aluded to in some of the lyrics). That's when it gets a bit dangerous (like the nut job Stan). So a wider social question is should this/that sort of stuff be banned?
Anyway, that's getting too deep. I quite liked it - but then (I think) I'm normal.
Morrissey
3/5
I can't listen to Morrissey without thinking of The Smiths. The voice is so distinctive that there's no escape. And whilst the melodies and sound aren't as good as The Smiths, the album is pleasant and obviously bears more than a passing resemblence. Nothing standout. Nothing excrutiating.
The Who
4/5
There are a lot of moaners on here. And I've read the word 'annoying' a lot in the reviews, but I think it's a great concept and well packaged. Ironically most of the people dissing this probably listen to US (or UK) commercial radio or are too tight to pay for Spotify and so what is the difference. I'd rather listen to spoof ads than real ones.
I certainly prefer 70's The Who to 60's The Who. And it does seem here like they are just following the 1967 psychedelic trend, but Sell Out works as a concept, even down to the album art, and has some great songs (I Can See For Miles, Mary Anne With The Shakey Hands) But there is unfortunately some cack to wade through too (Silus Stingy, Rael) so it's a 3½ from me
Bad Brains
3/5
Not hardcore. Not punk. Not Bad
3/5
Very Kinky
Ok puns done. Listened 3 times now over the course of 3 days. I do like it, and I think Ray Davies is a great songwriter, but some of the tracks do seem a bit simplistic and banal. And some are overly long (Australia). [ironically my first listen was straight after spending 3 hours looking for and booking a flight to Oz... spooky],
I don't think it's their best work. Still worth a 3 though
Electric Light Orchestra
4/5
I know it's true to say that a lot (indeed most) bands are pretty recognisable whichever of their songs you are listening to. But I don't think there are any bands MORE recognisable than ELO.
Out Of The Blue is another so-called 'classic' album that I've never listened to in full before (even though my wife has it in her vinyl collection). Although it was hugely commercially and critically successful I think the reason it passed me (and a lot of people) by is its timing - being relased just at the start of Punk - when such bands and overblown albums were having the piss taken out of them relentlessly.
Nonetheless I loved it. It's a great listen and a 4+
The Avalanches
2/5
Essentially an album full of samples of other people's stuff.
Coldplay
5/5
One of the reasons I’m enjoying 1001 albums is that it throws up albums I’d never normally listen to, and sometimes those I’ve never even heard of. But also because sometimes it throws up an old album that I played a lot at the time, but haven’t heard for many years. This is one of those.
I had it on CD in the car and listened to it to death. I loved it then. But 20 years later and Coldplay have become the band that everyone loves to hate. Chris Martin is a bit of a twat. In fact whenever I’ve seen them interviewed the whole band come across as nobends. Every album they made after 2010 was shite. And when I took my family to see them at the Emirates in London about 15 years ago the sound was diabolical. And they had the gall to have the fucking dreadful Rita Ora as support (because she was a 'prodigy' of Martin's bestie JayZee by all accounts). So their decision making is clearly suspect too. And they’ve headlined Glastonbury far too many times. So...if everyone hates them … why do they still sell out stadiums and fill the Pyramid Stage field?
Basically I’m hunting for reasons to dislike this album. But I can’t because it’s still brilliant. Pity.
Jane Weaver
4/5
Not heard of her yet she’s been around for years. Runs her own label. Maybe that was her mistake? Sadly half the battle is marketing and publicity. Surprised by how good this is.
The Cardigans
4/5
Nice looking, Nice vocal. Boring name. Boring album cover. Quirky songs.
Ah yes, Lovefool I remember that now. And a superb Iron Man cover.
I can't believe they are Swedish.. can't detect any accent.
Yeah pretty good. 3½
Marking up to 4 cos she's fit.
The Cure
4/5
I love The Cure and really wanted to give this a 5 star review, but it's not quite all there. A Forest is an enduring classic Cure track and will be forever. And some of the rest - Play for Today, In Your House, M are great.
But there's a bit too much dullity (At Night, Three I'm looking at you) that just pull it back from excellence.
I like the short instrumentals which some have dissed, particularly The Final Sound which is a great prequel to A Forest.
All in all a 3½. Pushed up to 4 because this is The Cure after all.
Pixies
3/5
I'm writing this review a couple of days after I listened to the album, I remember thinking at the time that this album was like a Double Decker chocolate bar. A rocky bottom topped by a punky chewy top layer. But the tracks were a bit samey.
And now a couple of days have passed I can't really remember a lot of the tracks.. so ...forgettable.
On listening I thought I'd rate it a 4 but downgrading to a 3 because of... I've forgotten
The Mothers Of Invention
3/5
Love me a bit of Frank Zappa. Weird and amusing and then even more weird. It's a bit long for one sitting but I made it through. Not the sort of thing I can listen too every day but I will listen again and the score may go up.
(edit : I have and it won't)
T. Rex
3/5
I’ve found a formula that works and I’m going to damn well stick to it. Same few chords, same strings, same vocal harmonies. Not quite as good as Electric Warrior though.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
Surprised by this. Great bassline. Love the jazz funk vibe. Amusing rather than the standard whinging hiphop lyrics. Had me dancing around the kitchen.
I didn't think I was into hiphop that much but this is really rather good.
Neil Young
3/5
Chilled and mellow. Good songs, well played. Made walking around Tesco almost bearable. But the bloke can't sing in tune. Sounds like a pub singer. I'm interested to see how he can command a young Glasto headliner audience in June with this sort of slow dirgy stuff.
Radiohead
3/5
Sound like a band very much up their own respective backsides.
Brian Eno
1/5
I'm already wound up by the album cover not being lined up properly. Not a great start if this album is designed to be chilling me out.
It is a just a bunch of random sounds grouped into 4 tracks. I didn't find it ambient at all because there was no rhythmic structure to it. Every random note kept interrupting my train of thought. If you gave 1001 baboons a keyboard and a chorus pedal each, they could each knock out one of these in about 40 minutes. Would they all be indespensible? No. So why the fuck is this one.
This album is a crock of shite. (And I'm rather pleased because my Summary page was looking very top heavy).
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3/5
Enjoyed some of the CSN songs. The Y songs not so much. Harmonies were good.
For an album full of "hits" I only knew 'Our House' from some lame uncool adverts.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
1/5
Similar sounding songs, over-reverbed lyrics, differentiated only by the different type of feedback in the background. Just noise. I can't see how it has influenced anyone (though some of the vocal sound did remind me of Stone Roses a few years later)
I complain that I don't get enough 1 star albums, and then I get 2 over the course of a long weekend. Careful what you wish for.
The Pharcyde
2/5
Good toons and a good beat. Some amusing rhymes (Ya Mama) but mostly the lyrics resonate a standard hip-hop victimised persecution complex which I hate.
Hadn't heard of them before but I assume they probably got gunned down somewhere a few years later
The Prodigy
4/5
Brilliant rave album. The illegitimate love child of dance-electronica and metal. I get the controversy about Smack My Bitch Up and that some people take music and lyrics too seriously (the video has a great twist at the end), but for well adjusted, normal people this is just a great dance album. Nearly a 5.
Ice Cube
1/5
Boring repetitive soundtrack of single bar repetition, with violent racist angry foul-mouthed poetry being shouted over the top. Sums it up perfectly.
Hüsker Dü
2/5
This is REM, right?
A bad REM.
Jangle balls
Dwight Yoakam
2/5
I didn't like country as a youth but have grown to respect, nay even quite like some of the more modern stuff. (I admit Shania Twain also changed my outlook a lot too!).
But this is the old school twangy honky tonk, shoot my woman tripe that made me dislike it in the first place. The squeaky thing he does with the vocal is annoying and if I'm going to call out the 'rape my hoe' lyrics of gangster rap then I have to call out shooting his girlfriend in the head as she's sleeping just because she shagged his mate. What is the beef Americans seem to have with women?
Music for good ol' MAGA boys.
Peter Gabriel
5/5
Possibly one of the best albums I bought in the 80s. Still brilliant. AND you get Kate Bush.
Stands up 40 years on. Gabriel's solo masterpiece.
Muddy Waters
2/5
To me these blues tunes all sound exactly the same. In fact 2 of the tracks on this album WERE exactly the same - I checked.
But I accept Muddy Waters has been a huge influence on popular music. A lot if which I like. So I cannot give it a 1.
AC/DC
5/5
I can't decide whether I prefer Back In Black or Highway to Hell. But since I gave H2H a 5...
Frank Zappa
4/5
I really didn’t expect this
First listen was in the car on a long journey. Ok but not really the environment to concentrate on a ‘new’ album. All I can recall about that listen is that there weren't many words. Which I thought was odd since my only real solid experience of FZ is “Joe’s Garage”, which is FULL of words.
Second listen on headphones.
This is what I imagine the Muppet Show band, y’know the one with Dr. Teeth, Zoot, Animal, Floyd, Lips and Janice would release if they made an album. An excellent accompished jam, with all sorts of unusual instrument sounds coming through. Really liked it. But I did miss the studenty lyrics. I think there are more FZ albums on the list I haven’t heard yet. I look forward to them.
Culture Club
3/5
A couple of good songs (Karma Chameleon not being one). Some obvious filler. Not dreadfully bad considering they were a bunch of clubbers who thought they'd have a go at creating a band. And credit to George for being so ahead of his time (though not musically).
But somebody please shoot the backing singer.
Moby Grape
2/5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3OjfK0t1XM
Have you ever seen Snakes v Iguanas? Sad that these Iguanas were totally screwed over by their manager. But the last laugh went to the band since, based on this album, they were't that good anyway.
LL Cool J
2/5
God this hurts.
It’s taken 4 sessions to get through this. A lot of rhyming couplets I would expect to read if I was marking a 12 year old’s homework.
“When we began her hairstyle was neat/But when I left the next morning it looked like shredded wheat”. Pathetic.
“And I can't make you/I sure wouldn't rape you”. Well that’s SO kind of you. And you've got a detention.
Lame lyrics, Boring repetitive tunes.
Got 1 star written all over it. But I feel I have to upgrade to 2 for shoehorning in a bit of Northern England slang “Big juicy legs/And a nice pair of kegs”. Sound.
Billy Joel
4/5
Creepy album cover, but the guy is a great songwriter.
Stan Getz
4/5
I defy anyone to listen to this without moving along with it. It's like bathing in a bath of chill. Fantastic playing. Definitely not "background" music - anything can be background music if you're not listening to it!
But still great to have on in the background.
Marvelous
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
I’m sure there are going to be people who give this a 5.
People who are the music equivalent to art-wankers. Those who think that if you put a 12 foot square frame around an emulsion wall, or place an unmade bed with a steaming turd in the corner of an art gallery then it must be art.
Those that would then write a 10 thousand word thesis on the feelings that the painter and decorator was having and the traumas they were going through when they created it.
In the same way that the shitty bed isn't art, this album is not music (in the sense that everyone else understands music). It’s not melodic and meaningful. It doesn’t have a rhythm that inspires movement or a melody that might implant itself into your unconsciousness so that when you hear it again - maybe decades later - it inspires you to remember what you were doing or who you were with.
No, pretentious art-wanker-music-equivalents would rather perpetuate an illusion that they (and the performer) were trying to express some deeper meaning to life the universe and everything that us mere mortals couldn’t hope to understand. And so they are somehow smarter than the rest of us. In short - they can see the emperors clothes. And it’s all bullshit. It’s just a bloke who can’t play the right notes and has no real sense of rhythm.
It does get a 2 though. The reason being that, unlike Eno’s ‘Ambient’ horseshit, it was never boring. I just wouldn’t ever listen to it again.
ABBA
5/5
I was 12 when Arrival came out and since I already had the rather prematurely released 1975 ‘Greatest Hits’. I trotted down to Woolies and gave them my £2.99.
It was a great album and I loved it.
But I was only 12. As I got older I was laughed at by my older step-brothers who were into hard rock and metal. I learned to hide my love for ABBA. I got into rock and metal.
I’ve not listened to this album in 45 years (though I've abviously heard the mega-hits off it endlessly). And it’s still as good as I knew it was. So 12 year old me was right all along.
Dancing Queen might be in my top 10 favourite songs of all time. And any other track on the album could have been a worthy single. I'm glad Fernando wasn't on the 1976 album at purchased by me, because I've always thought it was a bit duff. 'Arrival' is a perfect closing track so I would hope they didnt just tack Fernando onto the end of side 2 on the Aussie version like they have done on the Spotify stream.
Do youself a favour and stop listening after 'Arrival' ends. Don't sully perfection.
(edit. I managed to get through that review without once fawning over Agnetha. I'm so proud of myself)
Joy Division
3/5
I prefer 'Unknown Pleasures' and had never listened to 'Closer' as a collection. Took 3 listens to get into it, a luxury I might not have given a band I wasn't so familiar with. But this is the legendary Joy Division...they who begat New Order.
Don't listen if you're depressed.
Eerie and gloomy. Obviously.
Wavering between a 4 and a 3. Finally swayed by the fact that if I do listen to a complete Joy Division album again then it will be Unknown Pleasures.
10cc
3/5
There are some bands I'm prepared to give a lot of listening time to in order to like an album. 10cc are one of those.
Their singles were always quirky and different, immaculately produced and they are clearly all great songwriters.
I have listened to this album 3 times and am half way through the 4th. Generally it’s more of the same quirkiness, though sometimes I think they can sometimes be a little too smart for their own good. Worst Band In The World & Clockwork Creep get a little silly and tedious and are more what I would expect from Barron Knights (a ‘comedy’ group) than 10cc.
But overall I liked what I heard. I wanted to like it more though.
The Go-Go's
3/5
Poppy, hooky, upbeat album. Makes me question why Belinda Carlisle left to go solo? From what I can tell she did exactly the same sort of stuff when she left. Maybe it was just greed?
On reflection if she'd stayed with the Go Go's I think they would have been huge. Much better than her solo career. (I may be being simplistic here... they probably all fucking hated each other)
3½
Sister Sledge
4/5
As soon as i put this on and heard the first few notes of "He's the Greatest Dancer" I thought 5. That distinctive Chic style twin rhythm guitar and bass. What an opener.
I think having this album pop up on a Friday did it a big favour. I'm an aging rocker but never been one to shy away from a dancefloor. With headphones on it was difficult to keep still.
It's amazing to think all of the Sister Sledge bangers are on the one album. A couple of the slower tracks brought it down to earth a little bit, but it's still a brilliant disco album.
Elbow
4/5
I saw Elbow by mistake at the Reading Festival in 2011 - waiting for Muse - and they blew me away. I went out and bought the recently released 'Build A Rocket Boys' on the back of that performance (and what a great album it is) but never went any further back into Elbow album history than that.
Listening to 'Seldom Seen Kid' I can remember some of the tracks from that Reading set nearly 15 years ago, they are that strong and memorable. This is a really good album. I think the natural progression of prog rock (they may hate me for saying that).
The only reason it's not a 5 is Starlings which I think is a massive dud, and, as an album opener, almost puts the listener off. The rest is sublime.
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
Liked a lot of this, particularly the more unexpected stuff, Cha Cha Cha is excellent, then it goes into some Mid-European accordion ditty, and then straight into Ennio Morricone spaghetti western music - it flits all over the place and is really interesting.
It was just the rather stereotypical male/female reverbed wailing songs with soaring (similarly reverbed) strings that let the album down for me and reminded me of too many nights in Indian restaurants. I can tell from the other tracks on this album that Indian music is clearly not all like that. I'd definitely embrace more - but not the wailing thanks
R.E.M.
3/5
Ok. Inoffensive. No stinkers, though I don't understand why End Of The World was released as a single because it's easily the worst track on the album. Apart from the track that bangs on about business acumen! Though both are passable.
They do lose a point though for their shameless rip-off of the Kiss classic Firehouse... sounds nothing like it ...and they gave it the wrong title!
3½
Aimee Mann
4/5
Nice songs and a good voice. Voice has a little bit of the Kim Wilde about it I thought (albeit with an American accent), and a cute wobble that gives it a lot of character.
Seems to be getting a lot of 'meh' on here which is surprising me - though maybe not with this crowd. Not that it set the world alight (probably why I've never heard of her across the pond) but there's not too much wrong with this. Looks good in Doc Martens too.
A very pleasant 4½
The Stooges
2/5
4 lonely frat boys persuade their rich parents to buy them instruments. They teach themselves to 'play' them. They start a band. They have no clue how to write songs, but one of them has a uncle who is "big in the music business". They see him sneaking into a hotel with his secretary and blackmail him to let them record an album. But they only have 2 songs songs so then cobble together a few others there and then and fill the rest of the album with 10 minutes of droning *
* This has no basis in truth. But it sounds like it could do.
Extra mark for giving everybody in the band an album credit for being able to clap.
Jacques Brel
3/5
Clearly a lyrical album, sung by a pleasant voice with excellent diction. But rather wasted on someone whose only language is English. My O’level French did have me concentrating hard on translating as much as I could. Fish eyes, dancing midget, heart of an old wife, veneered mountain. Ah Amsterdam I understood that bit.
I can’t in all conscience give this a 1, but in reality it isn’t an album meant for my ears. Just going to bung it an average score and move on.
Patti Smith
3/5
What Patti needed was a strong producer to say "Enough!" "Stop" "It's done" "Move on". Too many tracks outstay their welcome. But looking at the sleeve notes this album was produced by someone from the Velvet Underground so there's your reason.
2½
The Louvin Brothers
1/5
Terrible harmonies. Awful voices even without harmonies. And bad recording makes the mandolin sound more like a bouzouki! After each track I was praying that I'd reached the end.
And here we go again with lyrics about men brutally murdering women for looking at other men. This record has absolutely nothing going for it.
Fucking dreadful.
Michael Jackson
2/5
It’s a pretty good album, full of well known bangers, though ‘Working Day And Night’ is weak and ’She’s Out Of My Life’ is unlistenable.
But how can you separate the ‘artist’ from the music? The man-child was a self obsessed freak, bleaching himself white and sporting that comedy nose - and that was even before we discovered he was sleeping with a chimp and masturbating over young boys (I assume with a diamond studded glove on his wanking hand).
Louis Prima
3/5
The real King. King Louie. (His missus had a great voice too)
Queens Of The Stone Age
4/5
Coming back to review this a week after listening. I definitely liked it. I can't remember why though.
Big Black
2/5
An album I had to listen to on a long journey when I'd rather have been listening to TMS. So not a good start.
Noisy dull and insignificant.
Probably why in my most formative years I never heard of them at the time. And why i am not bothered about ever hearing of them again
The Dictators
3/5
Another day. Another debut album by another American punk band.
Much better than yesterday's though (Big Black). The fun that they were obviously having filtered through on this record, even though the sound is very garage band. And the drummer seemed to be using it as an audition for any other band that might be listening.
Add a point for being on time for punk. Lose a point for the dreadful 'I Got You Babe' cover.
Bob Dylan
2/5
When Bob finally succumbs and goes to meet his maker, singing to himself, guitar strap around his neck, and playing his trusty harmonica, I hope God punches him in the face, jamming it in his mouth and he then spends eternity looking like Wallace (friend of Gromit), and every breath he takes all he can hear is that fucking mouth organ.
Then he’ll know what he put the rest of us through.
I've listened to a couple of Dylan albums on this list, a very early one and a 1990s one. Both were ok. But this album seems to be the point where fame had gone to his head. It sounds like it's been recorded by a bad Bob Dylan impressionist. He may be the great poet but how can you hear the poetry when he can't hold a note with either voice or harmonica. There are some nice songs on here. But most of it is just an aural assault.
If I was more mature then I would be able to separate my feelings about a band/artist from the actual quality of an album.
But I'm not, and Bono has always come across as a self promoting dickhead.
Consequently I've never really given U2 time of day..But this album is not at all bad. Bono is still a nob though.
The The
4/5
To all the Americans whining about the glut of 'Brit' synth-pop or 80s pop or whatever - this list is obviously subjective and the decision of one person, so rather than moan about it, why not write your own book and website and then you can put as much pop-gun cop-killer gangster rap and misogynistic country shite on it as you like.
Back to the album review, and 'Uncertain Smile' is the standout track but after listening to it I ended up with an earworm of 'Feels Like Heaven' by Fiction Factory. So how did that happen? Are those tracks so similar?
Nonetheless I enjoyed this album very much as an example of excellent 'Brit synth-pop' so nerr.
Bill Evans Trio
2/5
Bit too heavy on the bass, man.
I am not a jazz-hater but this was too samey for my taste. And I didn't rate any of the bass work - the solos seemed too long and random.
You know something's not right when you're wishing for it to be the final track. Maybe nice to have on as background in a coffee shop, but not for me as a focus piece.
2
Depeche Mode
4/5
Those spotty Essex oiks I saw on Top Of The Pops in the early 80s came a long way in a few years.
Dark, musical, produced to within an inch of its life, splendid record.
Aretha Franklin
4/5
Where would we all be without a Urethra? Franklin owhere.
Great pipes.
Ha ha, I'm pissing myself!
Fever Ray
5/5
Well this was a surprise. Having listened to Depeche Mode a couple of days ago this is like the evolution of synth pop. The love child of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore.
Ethereal and weird, a surround sound of sound. Love the voice. Not something I would have ever listened too if it wasn't on the list. And not a track on the album I didn't like. I guess that's the definition of a 5 isn't it?
OutKast
1/5
This isn't really a double album as 2 single solo albums. The first is the usual dull formulaic gangster rap shit; just more Stankonia. The second is a slight improvement, more melodic, more singing, more listenable, same shit lyrics. And still, on both albums, the same tedious attempts at amusing 'sketches'.
This was a real slog to get through. Over 2 hours. If it wasn't such a drag I would have considered 2 stars. But even though about 15 minutes is listenable, it's not nearly enough to drag it out of the bin.
First album - 1
Second album - 1½
Overall 1
So with Stankonia and this, Outkast drop 2 steaming turds..No more, please?
The Adverts
3/5
One of the better late 70s UK punk albums. Unusual in the fact that that the singer can sing and most of the band can play their instruments (though the drummer is totally out of his depth).
2Pac
2/5
A well titled album, since it ls fundamentally a long paranoid winge. Though not misplaced paranoia as time revealed.
Perhaps there should be a special Darwin Award for 2Pac who seemed to know where his lifestyle was leading him but did nothing to change the outcome.
The one surprise was that a lot of this album was listenable.
2½
Beastie Boys
4/5
This is hip-hop, right? So I must hate it, right? Wrong! So what's the difference between this and 2Pac and Outkast?
Its humour. It isn't up it's own arse. It doesn't have an agenda. And, most importantly it's got a great groove.
Hole
3/5
I had never listened to Hole and I have misjudged Courtney Love. All I really knew of her was from the media, as the wife and tormentor of Kurt Cobain, the Yoko to his John, the Blake to his Amy. Supplier of drugs and by by all accounts a bit of a state. Oh and by the way she was in some band.
Well it appears she was in some good band and had a modicum of talent, both as a songwriter and frontwoman. Maybe she was a fucked up addict and possibly all of the above but I enjoyed this album. Fair enough it was a clone of Nirvana, but a good clone. I like the album art too.
PJ Harvey
5/5
I don’t know where to start. How do you describe this album? Haunting. Quirky. Odd. Lyrical. Fascinating?
I found myself diving onto Google to research what she was singing about. Most of the war references were of Gallipoli. So yes England (Britain really) were involved but those battles were primarily Anzacs. And unfortunately (whatever Wikipedia may say) the bugle call used in ‘The Glorious Land’ I recognise as the US Army ‘Assembly’ call (I love that track by the way, and America is mentioned in the lyrics so I can let it go).
Minor quibbles. I love the compositions; Love the lyrics; Love the voice; Love the production. This is a superb album.
I actually rated all the tracks individually, but then thought that they are all part of a whole so I’ve binned those ratings. Overall it’s a clear 5.
Kate Bush
4/5
Confession time. I love Kate Bush. I could just give this a 5 and walk away. It's a cracking record.
But in the grand scheme of things if I had to rate all her albums then this wouldn't be in my top 5.
Although I still love it, if I was going to be ultra critical I think it's a tiny bit overproduced; some of the tracks just have too much going on in them. I get tired of fretless base which buries her voice in some places, and the Bulgarians do overdo it a bit.
But that IS being overcritical. I could still automatically give it a 5 because Kate can basically do no wrong.
But I'm going to be harsh and also give myself a bit of rating wiggle room before the joyous days whan I get Hounds of Love and The Dreaming (shame there aren't any more albums deemed worthy on the list). Please forgive me Kate.
Black Sabbath
5/5
As a teen metalhead in the early 80s "new wave of British HM" was my thing. Sabbs were has-beens to me so I never looked at their back catalogue. I have heard most of these tracks since and the whole album is a classic.
4½ bumped up to 5 for being such an influencer to all those NWOBHM bands
Todd Rundgren
3/5
Good American pop-rock. Isn't this the epitomy of what they call AOR? Good in-car entertainment when you don't have to listen too hard (probably more suited to an interstate than the busy M1 though). A bit vanilla but not bad. Recognised "I saw the light". Great track. Solid 3
Ray Charles
3/5
Good to listen to when coming down from a heavy weekend. I do like a big band. And a short punchy album. I did find it difficult to distinguish between some of the songs, but I was driving and concentrating more on the road. Enjoyed it though.
John Coltrane
4/5
Heavy heavy jazz shit man. I need to be in a dimly lit smokey room when listening to this. So much smoke that the guys up on stage can't see each other and just trip off on their own sweet way. Then some dame breezes past the stage, the smoke wafts clear for a second, and the guys can see each other just long enough to get back on track.
The best thing about being a jazz musician must be that you can just turn up at a gig and play any old notes without the hassle of rehearsing or even knowing who else is playing with you (and when I say 'rehearsing' I don't mean that they don't practice - cos these guys definitely know their shit)
Enjoyed it. Now where's my double bass and fags.
Just as a postscript; through the fug I'm sure I can see 4 guys up on that stage. The other 3 doing most of the heavy lifting. Maybe "The John Coltrane Quartet" would have been a more fitting title?
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
A tale of good and bad. Dominion, Lucretia, Corrosion good, Flood 1, 1959 bad. I did listen twice though, so more good than bad then.
ZZ Top
4/5
How can you not love an album containing Give Me All Your Loving, Legs, and Sharp Dressed Man? The rest are good too, if a little samey. You know what you're getting with ZZ Top
The Beach Boys
3/5
It's quite spooky that I get my first Beach Boys album the day after the death of Brian Wilson ...
(edit: not spooky at all.. someone flicked a switch and it seems everyone got a Brian Wilson album. A nice touch)
....And what a great producer and studio technician he was. And he wrote some great songs too. Good Vibrations and God Only Knows are brilliant, absolute classic songs. You can include Wouldn't it be Nice, Surfin' Safari, I Get Around in that list.
Sadly none of them are on this album. I don't want to diss the guy when he's not yet cold, but if you throw enough mud at a wall then some of it is going to stick. And this is an album of unsticky mud. Beautifully produced mud and, for the early 60s, a great wall of sound, but it's virtually the same song for the whole album. It was a pleasant listen though. But 29 minutes and 12 songs was just about the limit.
RIP Brian
Pink Floyd
4/5
Never listened the first time around. Hey! I was 16 and I didn't have money to burn on prog rock dinosaurs. It looked hugely pretentious and they always seemed to be at each other's throats. I just didn't fancy it.
That being said, 'Another Brick In The Wall' (part 2 apparently) was a brilliant single at the end/start of the decade.
So 45 years later... and what a great album. Apart from the regurtitation of the same melodies over and over - but then I suppose they are attempting to follow a theme. I will definitely give this more listens. I might become a fan.
Pink Floyd
5/5
Before University gave me much better things to do on a late Friday night, I was a Friday Rock Show regular (God bless Tommy Vance). Shine On You Crazy Diamond was a fixture in the annual Top 10. And deservedly so.
I have heard most of the tracks on WYWH over the years but have never listened to the album end to end. “Shine On” is a masterpiece. It’s a track that feels far shorter than its actual length. I wasn’t sure about reprising it at the end of the album. I thought it was lazy. But on subsequent listens, I appreciate the bookend.
Of the other 3 tracks there’s no weakness, though it does seem odd to have Roy Harper singing on Cigar - but it works.
Of the Pink Floyd albums I know (this, The Wall and Dark Side Of The Moon), this is my favourite.
Minor Threat
4/5
Fast, furious, short! And the first thrash punk drummer that can keep up with the band. What’s not to like. Listened loud on an otherwise chilled and lazy Sunday morning and it completely blew my thought process for a frenzied 22 minutes. Loved it.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
I pretty much had any love for reggae knocked out of me when I used to share a student house with someone who listened to it incessantly. So when I saw Exodus pop up this morning I let out an audible groan. But it has surprised me. Not only because it has so many hits on it. No, the surprise is that the tracks I am not familiar with are so good too.
Pixies
3/5
I must say I was surprised to see this album rating average 3.74 (at time of writing).
I thought it was "ok". Nothing special. But not terrible, The one thing that did get on my tits though is using the lyric "I don't mean maybe" to rhyme with baby. Fucking annoys me, that. Lose a mark.
The xx
3/5
Beige
Love
4/5
Ah so this is Love? As soon as the first track started I recognised it, though I know neither the band or the album.
If you were mute and blind and listened to this album knowing nothing about it (aha - as I did) then it would scream 1967 at you. It couldn't be more 1967 if the lyrics were exclusively "nineteen sixty seven, nineteen sixty seven, nineteen ...". So yes it's of its time. But on a steaming hot sunny day in the garden it takes you right back there (not quite as I was only 3). I really liked it.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
2/5
Monotonous and uninteresting. The vocal sounded like he recorded it straining on the toilet. Once I had that picture in my mind I couldn't get it out. Neither could he it seems. Even the song I knew fromm my youth - Bad Moon Rising - sounds a bit crap now.
Debating whether to give it a second listen. And even Outkast got that. It wasn't as absolute shit as Outkast though so it's probably a 2.
Elvis Costello
2/5
I only know Elvis Costello from his first few hits. Oliver's Army. I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea. Watching The Detectives. Pump It Up.
All great punky songs.
Then he seemed to go all mush. Some song about Roses and a fucking dreadful cover of the Charles Aznovoice song She. I've never listened to Elvis Costello since.
I was surprised that this album still sees him still a bit punky. So what happened to turn him back to his roots? Same sneery voice which seems to have mellowed since the early years (although I can do without the new Mariah Carey vibrato). Just the songs didn't really grab me at all. And it suffered from 1990s CD syndrome. "We've got an hour's playing time so we're going to bloody well use it all". Too long. And not enough pull to want to give it a second listen.
Sorry Elvis (you're still better than that other Elvis though).
The Kinks
3/5
It's fair to say that Ray Davies wrote some of the best songs that came out of the 1960's. Lola, Waterloo Sunset, You really Got Me, Sunny Afternoon - ok so Lola was 1970.
On Face To Face it's like he's writing songs based on just stuff that happened to him the other day. He heard a strangers' voice on a phone call. Ah Party Line. One of his session musicians pissed him off. Session Man. A girl he saw at a disco. Little Miss Queen Of Darkness. Holiday In Waikiki. Did he?? Lucky bastard
I can't decide whether it's genius or just filler. I've only had time to listen to this album once so I'm going to go away and listen to it again before final judgement. In the meantime it gets a 3.
Björk
5/5
Is it shallow to refer to the attractiveness of the artist in an album review? Because Björk is interesting, expressive, amusing, deep and fucking gorgeous. So if millions of pubescent 13 year old girls can objectify hundreds of boy-bands just because they want them to….well just ‘because’, then surely I’m permitted to as well.
But she’s more than that. She has such a beautiful expressive voice. I love the way she moves it around a tune. You can hear all the emotion and feeling she’s trying to put in. And it helps that I love the dance music vibe and the great production. This is a perfect amalgamation. Such a good album.
Beatles
4/5
The thing is, like a lot of people, you’ve heard pretty much every Beatles track there is, but just have no idea what album each one is on. So it’s been interesting to listen to Rubber Soul and wonder what might be coming next.
There’s some great stuff that I’ve not heard for years … Think For Yourself, Girl, Wait, The Word (which became an earworm for a few hours).
There’s utter classics like In My Life, Michelle, Drive My Car and Norwegian Wood.
And there’s an obligatory crap ‘Ringo’ track; What Goes On. (If I Needed Someone is weak too).
In order not to be a total hypocrite I need to acknowledge the lyrics on Run For Your Life, having been scathing about similar sentiments on some gangster rap and country albums. You naughty boys. It’s a great tune though; such a shame.
Overall not quite a 5.
Liz Phair
3/5
Not bad for a first album. Not sure I'll be searching out any more though. Fair tunes, good lyrics.
Vocal performance not the best. In fact she basically can't sing and has no cute idiosyncrasies to sweeten the pill. Sounds like she's smoked 40 Rothman's a day since she was 14.
Liked it more on second listen.
3½
King Crimson
3/5
I thought this before I read it in another review, but it hits the nail right on the head.
Too much Prog not enough Rock.
Easy Money is a great rocky track. Worthy of any Pink Floyd album. But the rest is a bit stop/start. Good meaty bits and then a lot of fucking about. And often when the green shoots of goodness start to poke through, they are stamped on by the grade 3 violin scraping in. I gave this 3 listens and the good bits were growing on me. But I hope Fripp fired the violinist
2½
Kendrick Lamar
2/5
The backing tunes aren't at all bad except some annoying bloke keeps talking over the top of them.
Simple Minds
5/5
I bought 'Once Upon A Time' in 1985 and I thought if there was going to be a Simple Minds album on this list then that would be it.
But it’s not.
This is.
And it’s just as good.
Unmistakably 1980s. And what's wrong with that? A huge band. Stadium rockers and Live Aid alumni. And Jim Kerr was my man-crush too (sorry, Jim, but you’ve not aged well).
But your band has. 5 All the way.
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
A whole hour I waited and my burrito never arrived!
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
I thought I liked the RHCP but it seems I was wrong. The whole album sounded like it was the same stuff regurgitated. The same sound. The same lyrics. Repetitive 'California' everywhere. I think it may improve giving it another listen with headphones but I just can't feel the urge to even be bothered. It's not you it's me. I'm not angry just disappointed. We move on. 2
Edit: So the weather has got a bit cooler and I'm not so tetchy. I did listen again and it's growing on me. But not that quickly. Now a 3
Hanoi Rocks
4/5
Enjoyed my day with Hanoi Rocks. It's not for me to question why it's on the list. But it is and I'm happy about that.
Fun fact : My stepbrothers' band supported them on their 1984 UK tour. Sadly I never went to any of the gigs.
Marianne Faithfull
3/5
This album is the equivalent of being fluffed by Hylda Baker for what seems like an eternity... before Gemma Arterton slinks into the room and sits on your dick.
It was a real dirge, dull songs, uninterested vocal and bad arrangements, plodding along down one-star street until BAM! just when you think you can't take any more you're smacked in the face by ‘Why D’ya Do It’ at the very end.
Was the whole album a set up for the sucker punch?
Why D’ya Do It is a sneering, vulgar, emotional masterpiece of a tune and worth the wait (just).
From bumpy one-star street I can’t now give the album more than a 3 - after all it’s basically one great song - but that song is a 5.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
In some ways I feel I owe some sort of loyalty to my generation. Early 80’s was when I was in my late teens/early 20s. And The Cutter and The Back Of Love were banger songs from my formative years which I liked as much as anyone else down the student nightclubs.
So surely I should rate this album?
I gave it a good go. First listen… it all seemed a bit waily. Just a bit monotonous. Give it another go! Headphones. Better? Not really. Still a bit…nothing. 3 listens. No I’m wasting my time. Believe what you hear. Dullness.
The White Stripes
4/5
Super album. But not perfect.
Black Math is a mess. You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket is heavily borrowed from Rush’s Rivendell (lovely song, but… it’s Rush’s) and Little Acorns is just shite. Apart from that...
Meat Loaf
5/5
Bloody brilliant. So good to hear this again after a very long time. And still remember most of the words. A rite of passage for any rock fan now between 60 and 70. Awesome record. Easy 5 from the moment it appeared on the screen (though of course I listened to confirm).
Amy Winehouse
4/5
Classy album.
Sounds like an album of 1950s and 1960s covers except with drug references and profanity! Of course they are not covers (apart from 'Tears dry...' I believe).
She had a wonderful voice. Such a shame she joined the 27 club. I'd love to hear what she'd be doing now.
4½
Jurassic 5
2/5
Never heard of Jurassic 5 and when it popped up I confused them with Maroon 5 and expected some boy-band pap.
When I realised it was hip-hop I was even more disappointed. However, this does have some good melodies.
...And ear worms. For a while I was singing to myself "You one of them niggas". But of course I can't because I'm an old white guy and if I was to be caught singing that to myself in public I'd either get my head kicked in or at the very least some disgusted looks.
And there's where the problem lies with hip-hop that uses this lyric; it's inaccessible and un-inclusive. I'm sure a lot of people can recall a young girl being brought up on stage at a festival and invited to sing along with Kendrick Lamar to one of his songs, and then when she does she's immediately shut down for singing the words that Lamar had written. Because she was white. How inclusive is that?
Anyway. I liked some of this album. The language was only used in some songs so I'm going to give it a 2
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
4/5
OMD have been a band I've wanted to see for years but the stars never aligned (and they are still too big to do 80's festivals). And as a pioneer of 80s synth pop I was amazed that in 1981 this was their third album. Really strong. But not quite a 5 for me
Sonic Youth
3/5
The album sounds like a group of youths who have just discovered sonic feedback. So an apt name then.
But you'd think after 7 albums they'd have moved on from feedback as a feature.
I think after a few listens this might grow on me so I'm not dismissing it out of hand. However, this project is so relentless that I can't afford it that luxury.
3
UB40
4/5
As a grammar school boy I remember thinking that UB40 were a bit too 'Labour Party' for me. A bunch of oiks whining about not being able to get a job. Later on I grew to dispise 'Red Red Wine' as it was played at every party and every wedding, I just grew sick of it.
Listening to UB40 nearly 50 years later, 'Signing On' is a bit of a revelation. I like the mix, in particular the bass. Some of the songs I recognise from house parties when I was at school (there were some oiks there too).
In truth I was mistaken. A lot of the tracks I really liked. Mainly on side 1 and 2. Then it kind of loses its way a bit, like they had slightly too much good stuff for a single album, so committed to a double album and then got writers' block.
I think if this was a single album with just the cream, then I'd give it a 5. But I did get a bit tired of it after 45 minutes.
4
DJ Shadow
3/5
First listen. Great driving music. Some duds though but on the whole good. Going to need to listen again.
Provisional 3½
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
Absolute cracker of an album spoiled by one song. And not because of the title or the lyrics - after all this was the 1960s. No this one song was all-round bilge.
Where the hell did it come from? How can a guy write and record such a bunch of good tunes and then shit this one out? I'd have given the album a 5 otherwise.
Britney Spears
2/5
I wanted to give this time of day and review it objectively and I have.
Sadly even without prejudice it's an overlong set of formulaic teeny pap songs dropping off the teeny-pop factory conveyor belt that could have been composed for any boy/girl/manufactured band/singer of the 1990s/2000s.
I'll give her this though - she does have a good voice and delivers them well.
Beck
4/5
I've listened to 2 Beck albums so far and don't remember them being like this.
Moody, atmospheric, gentle, good chords (I love good chords).
I said in a previous review that he must be dead boring live - and I was pulled up on it by someone who's seen him. But I totally stand by that comment as there's no way I would want to sit through him doing these songs live unless I had been given a guest pass and was right at the back near the exit.
However for pootling around in headphones, tidying away the garden stuff and putting the bins out then this is perfect.
So far Beck albums have got a 4 & 4 from me. He's consistent I'll give him that.
4½
Björk
4/5
I just love Björk's annunciation, her phrasing, her accent, her tone. I could listen to Björk sing the phone book.
This is my second Björk album after Debut and I found it a bit less accessible and a little less trippy. But the production and sound is great. Definitely headphone music though, and something that needs proper listening to.
For Björk though, I'll do it.
Tom Waits
2/5
I think the reason I can give Björk's weird stuff the time of day is that
a) she’s got a beautiful voice
b) I love her accent
c) she’s fit
On the contrary, Tom Waits gives the impression of a down-&-out old busker that has been given the keys to a multi-million pound studio.
“Yeah, mate, the percussion is over here; the instruments are over there; just bash and twang and blow whatever you like and I’ll be back in an hour”.
On the positive side, it’s entertaining. It’s fun. In fact some of the tracks are actually quite good. He seems to be using a different ‘voice’ for every song so he’s clearly taking the piss and enjoying himself.
Not dreadful but not one for my collection.
2½
Solange
1/5
Dave Davies, Dennis and Carl Wilson, Mike McCartney, Martin Kemp, Danii Minogue, Liam Gallagher.
Rock & roll is littered with the less able, slightly less attractive siblings of talented musicians who only got in the band because of mothers' threats or who got a record deal because an executive thought that talent must run in families*.
They were wrong and Solange is a fine example of that.
In one song I genuinely thought she was singing about shitting her knickers. But she wasn't. And that's about as exciting as this album got.
Bland, monotonous and boring. With tedious 'interludes' (if I want to be talked at I'll listen to a podcast or the news thanks). 2 stars as it might have some use as background. But then with songs about shitty knickers maybe not even that.
* Bros and Jedward? Not even going there!
Santana
4/5
Superb fusion of virtuoso rock guitar and Latin rhythm section. Liked it even more on subsequent listens.
4½
Big Star
2/5
So this album was released in 1978. I was 14. Possibly the period when I was listening to the radio, watching music tv programmes (OG Whistle Test / Revolver etc) the most, and reading the music press. Yet I've never head of the album, or the band.
Listening to this I know why
Eurythmics
2/5
I was never the Eurythmics biggest fan. Annie Lennox, although she has a great voice, used to freak me out a little. And Dave Stewart was just a bit weird (How he got off with Bananarama's Siobhan Fahey is beyond me).
Their early hits Sweet Dreams and Love is a Stranger got very tiresome very quickly. This album is listenable, but uninteresting.
I rank Eurythmics as substandard compared to Soft Cell, Human League, Heaven 17, Depeche Mode and most of their other synth-pop contemporaries.
David Bowie
4/5
I’ve been looking forward to my first Bowie album, knowing there are so many on the list. But it’s taken 190 days for one to finally arrive.
I was never a huge fan of Bowie growing up, but his music is difficult to avoid as you go through life and I’ve liked most of what I’ve heard.
But his is the first time I’ve sat down and listened to a full album… and this isn’t really what I expected. It’s almost ‘middle of the road’ funky soul. What I'd have expected to hear on 'old person' radio? Not at all what I thought a David Bowie album would be like.
But maybe that’s the point? Did he ever produce what people expected him to? I don’t know the answer to that but I suppose I’ll find out when I get the next Bowie album on the list.
So.. unexpected, but I’m not saying I didn’t like it. I rarely mark tracks individually, but for this album I did. Can’t be arsed to list them all but the average is 4.25. So there you have it.
Beth Orton
3/5
Kinda washed over me in a pleasant way. Liked the first couple of tracks a lot but then it petered away a bit. Good closing track too.
She has a good voice for the folky stuff she's using it for. Inoffensive.
Black Sabbath
5/5
So somebody has flicked the switch on the day of Ozzy's death and everyone has a Sabbath album to listen to. A nice touch.
I've been a little lax with 5's recently and this is my third Black Sabbath album, the other two both getting a 5.
If I was to be ultra critical I don't think this is quite up there with Paranoid and Vol 4. However how can I give a debut album of this quality, and an album which gave birth to a whole new genre of music a mere 4? I can't.
Rush
5/5
This was the first in the ‘golden period’ of, in my opinion, the 5 greatest Rush albums, between 1976 and 1981. Consecutively
2112, A Farewell To Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures.
Not that Fly By Night or Caress of Steel before those were in any way bad, or Power Windows after. (I don’t like to think about Signals or Grace Under Pressure too much. Geddy’s synth madness years).
I haven’t listened to 2112 as recently as I’ve listened to Hemispheres (regularly) or Permanent Waves (often) - but that’s clearly been a mistake.
2112 (the track) is up there with Supper’s Ready as one of the greatest “longs” of all time. And I’d forgotten how much I liked the whole of side 2. And how many of the lyrics I could remember (pretty much all of them).
Possibly the production isn’t as good as the later albums in that particular golden set, but this is the album that got me into Rush and for that it will always hold a place in my heart.
6
Paul McCartney and Wings
5/5
Wings is really just Paul McCartney being more inclusive. He plays nearly all the instruments and wrote all the songs after all. Fair dos he wanted his wife to feel like she was a part of the project. And nothing wrong with that.
Such a variety of great tunes and arrangements and everything fits together really well. I particularly like the reprises of Jet and Band On The Run in other songs. Some might call it a bit lazy but I think that’s what makes this feel like a proper collection.
Top quality. Really liked it
Blur
4/5
Never cared for Blur that much, or a lot of britpop in general at the time. But since hearing Pulp’s Different Class and now this album, I admit it must have had something going for it.
I know this album is ‘famous’ and highly regarded. I’ve even been asked a pub quiz question about the album cover so it must be well known
And yes listening to it in full a few times now, that reputation is deserved. It’s a good collection of songs. Tracy Jacks is the best track on the album so it’s really surprising that it was never released as a single at the time. I liked it. But not quite to a 5 level.
Franz Ferdinand
2/5
The top general review of this album is a 5 and it reads as follows…
“I love that this band doesn't sound the same in every song”.
Now either the reviewer is being super ironic, or is totally deaf.
Because to me every single track sounded EXACTLY the same.
I liked the first track. Hey it sounds quite like “Take Me Out” by… erm …
Then the second one was… the same jangly guitar riffs. The same drum beat. Ok a slightly different melody and different words, but…
And then the next one..oh that IS ‘Take Me Out’.
And then the next one. Same tedious riff. Same beat.
And the next.
I was praying for it to end. And surprised when I looked at the track list that I only actually suffered for 40 minutes. Felt like over an hour.
I’ll give it a 2 because I quite liked the first track. I just didn’t want to hear it 11 times!
Arctic Monkeys
4/5
Great storytelling. Great playing. Great to hear singing in a Yorkshire accent. Great album.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
1/5
Thankfully I had a long solo car journey to break the back of this. But it was a slog. A triple album of banjo, fiddle, guitar and ‘harmonica’. And sometimes ‘voice’. 2 hours of monotony. Good skillful playing, but soooo repetitive and sooooo over long. I actually took the sat nav off mute so I would have an occasional "in a quarter of a mile turn left" to break the tedium.
I will admit a couple of the tracks were ok. Exclusively they were instrumentals though, Nashville Blues and Lonesome Fiddle Blues were ok. And the version of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now was lovely (possibly because it was just a lone guitar - they didn’t let the rest of the band join in to fuck it up)
But the majority, indeed all of the sung songs were just awful. And some tracks (My Walking Shoes springs to mind) were so bad I was tempted to crash the car to make it stop. Oh and the chit-chat tuneup tracks? Just why!? I don’t fucking care how you recorded it, or what instruments you like!!
Just play the songs and shut the fuck up.
Special shout-out though to the female singer. Maybelle Carter, I think was her name? Dreadful! Utterly tuneless. Tone deaf. They could have found a better voice in a dockyard karaoke bar. I don't know how she persuaded the executive to give her a recording contract, but it certainly couldn’t have been by singing.
In summary I realise this album wasn’t recorded for me. And I understand that there are plenty brought up on this kind of music that love it. And good for them. But beyjesus, you should have gone for quality over quantity.
1½
The Undertones
4/5
Good songs, good hooks, good vocal, good lyrics, good album.
If John Peel loved them, then that's good enough for me.
3½
Tom Waits
2/5
Like a 3 minute 'comedy' sketch. Of a knarled old jazz club compere, at 1am, after a skinful of bourbon, trying to make lame gags and then growling half a tune over the house band.
Only he drags the sketch out to over an hour. And if you bought the double album then you'd feel compelled to listen to it over and over again.
I'm so glad I didn't buy it.
(redeeming quality; the house band.; drags this up to a 2)
The Temptations
3/5
Pretty much as it says on the tin. It's The Temptations. Good soul music. I don't know where the "psychedelic" comes on though, except Runaway Child drags on a bit. But all in all a pleasant listen.
The Roots
3/5
I'm not a big hip-hop fan. All the nigga and hoe stuff is outdated, jarring and tedious.
And whilst this album does have its fair share of that, I found it to be varied and surprisingly listenable. it may even stay in my library as my nod to hip-hop (you gotta have one I guess, just to be polite)
3
Miles Davis
3/5
I enjoyed the second track more than the first, though both were pleasant enough in a chilled out sort of way. It's the sort of music I want to fall asleep to, rather than to sit listening to in a critical way. But I will critique it anyway...
Half of the time Miles Davis isn't playing, so big up to the rest of the band. I do think that some artists get a lot of credit just because of who they are and not necessarily for the album itself. It's Miles Davis so it must be a 5?. If this was just any old trumpeter then the album may not have even been made. However I do like the way that Davis makes his trumpet sound like an oboe with the mute he uses. But you do have to think why not just use an oboe?
All things considered, I liked it. I will keep it in my library. But I think I will need to be an a particular mood or in a specific headspace to listen to it again
3½
Led Zeppelin
4/5
It's Led Zep IV.
The best Led Zep album.
I loved this album.
So why was I not excited to listen to it again.
Maybe I'm just a bit tired of it?
Don't get me wrong - it's a great album. It's an automatic 5.
But I'm just not in the mood. Not like I was about 2112 or Selling England when those popped up.
Should I just give it a 5 because really, deep down, I know it is?
Or should I go with how I'm feeling right now after hearing all these tracks again for the umpteenth time??
Stephen Stills
4/5
The problem with Spotify is that it ploughs through all the tracks on an album, one after the other, with no consideration for the natural breaks that were designed into a vinyl record.
Hence I was really enjoying this...and then it suddenly changed and I wasn't ... and then it changed back and I was again.
On second listen and after some research, I discovered that the album is split into 'themes'. So you get a natural break when you get up to turn a record over.
I sadly also confirmed that I really can't abide more than about 3 minutes of bluegrass at a time.
If I was a record executive in 1972, then my advice to Mr Stills would be ...keep sides 1 and 4 for a single album, release side 3 as an EP, and just dump side 2 on a bonfire.
In summary, I'd have given this a 5 but side 2 spoiled it.
Coldplay
5/5
Look, you really must learn to detach the artist from the album.
I didn’t manage to do that when I listened to Michael Jackson. Because whatever his sad fanatical fans and the Michael Jackson Estate lawyers say, he was a fucking weird plastic skinned chimp loving nonce.
However I admit I’m a total hypocrite because if there was a Best Of Gary Glitter album on this list then it would get a 5 from me, whatever the creepy fucker has done.
And similarly, as stated in the top review (at time of writing), Chris Martin may be an insufferable cunt, but this is a superb album.
Sorry.
5
George Michael
5/5
Great voice
Great songwriter
Sad loss
Adele
3/5
I remember all the hype when this album came out. Was it really over 10 years ago?
Fundamentally it’s a massive whinge about being 25 and past it. Bleedin' millennials! get over yourselves. Well you’re nearly 40 now so suck it up!
Some songs are really great, When We Were Young, Send My Love (later to be ripped off by Self Esteem), but there’s a lot of mediocre. I find it a bit suspect that each one has a different co-writer? Adkins/Uncle Tom Cobley Adkins/Pew/Pew/Barney McGrew. Either she’s difficult to work with (surely not!), or else these are songs that she’s added a line to and claimed a writing credit. Should I be such a cynic?
I also think her voice is overrated. Yes it's striking and in tune, but personally I find it a bit shrill.
Overall ok. Some great songs, mostly dull filler.
2½
Charles Mingus
4/5
This album is cool—and it's a grower.
Trying to listen to it, preparing for a bike ride, eating a bowl of porridge at 7:30 a.m. was a bit tough; my mind couldn't keep up.
But sitting in the garden on a warm evening with a cold beer and the barbecue going, it all clicked. The album is packed with great sounds—from the flamenco guitar and piano to the incredible noise coming from that trombone.
You might want to treat it as background music, but it constantly pulls you back in. The performance feels so spontaneous I can’t imagine them playing the same thing twice. This is definitely going on my playlist for when I want to impress people.
4½
Jerry Lee Lewis
4/5
Foot tapping and high energy rock & roll. It must have been a real experience to be a young kid at one of his concerts. Though perhaps not a young girl.
I had no idea he tried to kill Elvis!? So he wasn't all bad then.
3½
The Stooges
3/5
Clearly influential.
You can see the green shoots of UK punk sprouting from here (with a bit of Ramones thrown in). The sound here clearly had a major impact on The Hives, a band I'm a big fan of.
Listened 3 times. Sounds like it was recorded on a tape machine in a garage. I prefer the Bowie mix (probably only because I listened to it last) but to be honest it’s difficult to spot much of a difference. Clearly there wasn’t a lot to mix as both mixes sound raw.
The material isn’t great. But it’s better than The Stooges album where they ran out of material after about 10 minutes.
3½
Beatles
5/5
What can you say about The Beatles without sounding like you’re jumping on the bandwagon.
Nothing.
They are head and shoulders above anyone else. Like cricketer Don Bradman; they are not just the GOAT, but they are so far ahead of anyone else before or since that they may never be surpassed (partly because the evolution of cricket/music make it almost impossible).
Revolver has everything. From the effects to the production, to say nothing of the quality of the songs (yes even Yellow Submarine sounds great).
Nothing more to say here. Except I don’t even think this is my favourite Beatles album.
...And I can't put into words how good Eleanor Rigby is
a-ha
4/5
Take On Me has a special place in my heart as a track that reminds me of a particular moment in life. Notwithstanding it's a classic anyway.
The rest are pretty good mid 80s pop. Morten Harket struggles sometimes; his range is great but his tuning a bit suspect in places. But then he was probably very much chosen as a frontman for his looks rather than his singing talent.
The single releases were obviously picked well, but the rest isn't all bad.
Generally a 3, but boosted to 4 because of Take On Me
Femi Kuti
4/5
Had a good rhythm, but tracks could be a bit shorter and less repetitive.
I'd had enough by the 5th track, on the first listen. But my second listen I really got into it. Great party background music.
Bob Dylan
3/5
"Do you know what would make that great song sound even better? A few tuneless blasts on the mouth organ"
Said no-one ever.
The Stranglers
4/5
Was this the last bastion of the Hammond Organ? I don’t know but it certainly sounds perfect on a Punk record and makes this the best late 70s UK Punk album I’ve heard up to now.
p.s. I never realised the Peaches I knew and loved was a radio edit.
Joan Armatrading
4/5
Joan Armatrading is one of those singer songwriters who has always flown under the radar.
Someone who I wouldn’t have (and didn’t) give the time of day to as a teenager when this album was released, but now I can appreciate good songs played and sung well.
I doubt I’ll seek out any more of her stuff but my view of her has changed.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
Imagine an egg sandwich made with warm freshly baked crusty bread.
Egg isn't my favourite filling, but I'll eat it. And truth be told I'd rather have the gorgeous warm crusty bread on is own with a bit of butter.
This album is that sandwich.
2 great tracks bookending a passable filling. (And I'm so glad they redeveloped this original version of Honky Tonk Woman)
Sinead O'Connor
2/5
The songs are slow and dull. And those that aren’t slow are just dull.
I was screaming inside for the final (title) track to end which in particular was excruciating.
The use of reverb was interesting - like a 1990s attempt at autotune; trying to disguise the fact that she is a bit flat at the top end.
And I’ve never liked Nothing Compares 2 U. The song or the 'cool' spelling.
Oh - and I don’t like her hair.
Credit to her for standing up for what she believed in though.
But only enough credit to push this up from a 1½ to a 2.
Marty Robbins
3/5
Nice voice. Good stories. Reminds me of Sunday afternoons in childhood watching old Westerns on the telly.
I doubt it's something I'll come back to unless I'm riding a horse across Monument Valley.
Which is unlikely.
Calexico
4/5
Interesting sounds. Can't say I've heard anything like this. Gets better the more I listen.
Muddy Waters
2/5
Just like comparing a limerick io a novel , every blues song is the same old repetitive structure with different words and an ever-so-slightly different tune. It really had to evolve because it had nowhere else to go.
Hats off to Muddy Waters, the Edward Lear of popular music, for keeping old blues alive for people with simple tastes.
But thank God other people came along and developed it into something better.
Lana Del Rey
4/5
I have another hypocritical conundrum.
A few days ago I had a Sinead O'Connor album and I called it slow and boring. It.was. I should by rights say the same about this?
And even worse she played the diva at Glastonbury last year, turned up over half hour late and got the plug pulled pissing off everyone who waited for her.
But no. There's something about LDR I like. I don't know why. She has a dreamy voice and
I like her songs. And having seen her live I like her act too.
She's been called in some reviews a one trick pony. But I like her trick.
4.
The Clash
4/5
I wish I'd heard this album when it first came out.
It wasn't what I expected. Punk - but so many other things too.
Almost the polar opposite of the Sex Pistols. They could play their instruments for a start.
I'm not sure it's 5 standard and I think in a fight I'd back the Stranglers but this is still pretty good.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
I get the Stones v Beatles war, and how the Beatles won. Listening to each of the Beatles albums I’ve had so far I recognise at least 90% of the songs. Yet listening to a Stones album then I recognise about 10%. Thousands of radio stations and playlists can’t be wrong.
This particular Stones album took a few listens to get into - apart from the 10% (Mothers Little Helper/Under My Thumb).
On the whole I like it. Apart from ‘Going Home’. That one single track must have been the launch pad for a million Jagger impressions. Totally over-acted. And too long. Drags the whole album down to a 3.
Al Green
3/5
Pleasant soul album. Nondescript except for...
Highlight :Lets Stay Together. a classic.
Lowlight : How Can You Mend A Broken Heart. Total demolition job on a Bee Gees classic.
Cornershop
2/5
It was a nice idea, but like curry and chips, this doesn't really go together. One good song does not an album make and even that song (Brimful of Asha) gets tiresome. Norwegian Wood is particularly awful. Sorry.
Wilco
4/5
Oh great, I thought, when this album popped up. Wilco Johnson. I don’t recognise this solo album but today looks like being a good day.
Imagine my disappointment when I realise that it wasn’t “the” Wilco, but some other bunch of Americans I’d never heard of.
But hey! It’s not at all bad. Possibly not quite as good as an unknown album by “the” Wilco would be. But today wasn't too bad after all (just a bit long).
Miles Davis
3/5
Not bad.
But certainly not the birth of cool. More Big Band than jazz, and Big Band ain't cool.
Vibe kinda ruined by the one track that had a vocal. Really could have done without that.
I think this needs another listen but for now it's a 3.
Johnny Cash
1/5
An album of your Grandad singing his old favourites.
No idea why it’s on the list. Stop press: it’s NOT on the list - it’s on the expunged list. I agree. I can see no reason why an album of covers has any worth.
Particularly BAD covers. Whatever next? Lemmy Sings Carole King? Stay in your lane, Cash!
I quite like some of Johnny Cash’s stuff, and his voice is still ok. The same signature sound. And he’s generally in tune (take note Dianna Ross!). But this is pretty dreadful.
Incubus
5/5
Goodness me, reading through some of the reviews on here, these guys get a lot of hate. Quite polarising aren't they?
But I really liked this.
Typically American version of "metal". Highly polished. But melodic and suitably hard. Not sure about the scratching but I can live with it.
I wasn't previously familiar with any of their stuff. But I am now and feel better for it.
The Cure
5/5
I always liked The Cure but regarded myself as a bit of a part timer (y’know - greatest hits and singles) before seeing them headline Reading in 2012, where they were fantastic.
Disintegration is the best Cure album I’ve heard up to now. So good that I’ve listened to it 4 times over the last few couple of days (including the extra tracks that are not on the original release) meaning I’m getting behind on yesterday’s and today’s albums!
I don’t know how to review it for production/songwriting/lyrics/playing.
It’s just “The Cure”.
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
I don’t like to use the term dated. Everything is dated. But hip-hop for sure doesn’t sound like this any more. Which is a shame.
No mention of fucking hoes, and shooting niggas, and Oh I’m so oppressed.
And it’s all the better for it. Found it got a bit repetitive at times, but I’d listen to it again.
Lupe Fiasco
3/5
Second hiphop album on the trot. This time someone I’ve never heard of. Actually enjoyed most of the music. Maybe I’m softening up to hiphop?
Of course, this being 21st century hip hop, some of the lyrics are a bit crap. But in general I can’t understand what they are saying half the time and I can’t be arsed to read a lyric sheet. Like I care anyway. Nice of him to read the sleeve notes on the Outro though!
So based on the beats, the melodies, the rhythm. It’s a 3.
Suzanne Vega
4/5
I have Solitude Standing in my cassette collection.
I must have taped it off a friend’s album at some point. I have no idea which friend or why I chose to record it. I’ve not listened to it for nearly 40 years. But I do remember liking it a lot.
I’d never heard Suzanne Vegas eponymous debut album. But listening to it now I realise my decision making was good back then.
The Cure
4/5
Second Cure album of the week. And much earlier in their career. Not as good as Disintegration. And if I was in a Cure mood it wouldn’t be my first pick.
But I will listen again. Apart from the closing (title) track which is a bit of a mess.
3½
Nirvana
3/5
Rabbits are coprophagic. It means that the first time their food passes through their gut, since it’s primarily plant cellulose, the majority of digestion takes place in the caecum, after the point at which they can absorb any resulting nutrients. They then eat their own turds so that they can then get the maximum out of one meal.
Nirvana are also coprophagic. In Utero is Nevermind shat out and re-ingested. If you’ve never heard Nevermind before then it’s superb. But if you have then it’s the same old chords and same old song structures dumped, repackaged and sold on.
The Band
3/5
Inoffensive and pleasant enough.
But if you'd told me that this was an album by Rod, Jane and Freddy out of Rainbow then I wouldn't have questioned it (apart from not being able to hear Jane).
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Great opening track.
Classic closing track.
And a lot of good stuff in between.
Barry Adamson
1/5
This literally is the equivalent of a film soundtrack. But not a film soundtrack with hit songs like Saturday Night Fever or Guardians Of The Galaxy. No, it’s film incidental music with the odd sound effect.
And as such it’s not really complete without the accompanying film.
So, since only half of the project is here, then I’ll mark it out of 2½
Deee-Lite
4/5
Good well produced sounds. Gave me a party-around-1am vibe. Will listen again
The Jam
4/5
I always had a problem with Paul Weller’s aggressive confrontational delivery. He sounds like he’s one 'are you looking at his pint' away from kicking your head in. Even after he softened up a bit with the Style Council and is now an old man he still sounds like he wants to glass you.
This wasn’t totally what I expected musically. There’s a fair amount of variety on here. The bass is exceptional and it’s sad that Weller did the dirty on Bruce Foxton when he broke up The Jam.
Of the singles, I’d say That’s Entertainment is their very best and Start! Is one of their worst. The rest is somewhere in between.
3½
Deep Purple
4/5
Classic. Love me a bit of Hammond Organ and nobody does it like Jon Lord.
Enjoyed hearing this again after a long long time.
Bauhaus
2/5
I’ll always remember Pete Murphy in the Maxell cassette advert back the the 80s. Good looking guy and probably the best thing he ever did.
Because this isn’t. Not bad, but totally forgettable
2½
Jeru The Damaja
2/5
I've given up trying to listen to the words of hip hop albums. I mean who gives a fuck what they think anyway.
And I can't take anyone calling themselves 'The Damaja' seriously. It's like at school when the kid-with-no-mates tries to give themself a "cool" nickname. Mate, you're still a cock.
This has some foot tapping beats (Come Clean is great). But some stuff gets repetitive.
I've heard worse though.
2½
Garbage
3/5
A little bit repetitive. Songs are quite similar. But I enjoyed it.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
In a very similar vein to Juju (reviewed earlier), Scream has some absolute crackers on it (Jigsaw Feeling, Metal Postcard) and some tracks that drag on a little too long (Carcass, Switch).
For mid-punk’ the playing and production is better than I expected and Siouxsie’s voice is unique. I’m torn between a 3 and a 4. If I’m honest then I’d like a playlist of the best of both albums. So probably a 3 then.
Steve Earle
2/5
Couldn’t understand pretty much anything he was saying apart from the odd 'ghee-tarr', 'perdy lady' and other cliched codswallop. Listening to some of the tracks, I can only agree with other reviewers about it sounding more like a parody. And all I could see when I closed my eyes were old people with their thumbs in their belts line dancing.
I did find myself tapping my foot on the odd occasion which saves it from a 1. And if a friend was playing this in their house when I visited then I wouldn't ask them to turn it off. And they'd still be my friend.
But I never want to hear it again.
2
Bebel Gilberto
3/5
I've had a Gilberto album before, but that was Atrud Gilberto.
A bit of Googling reveals that Astrud was Bebel's dad's first wife. And the dad is João who was a famous Brazilian guitarist. And he has an album on the list too! It's like a bossa nova soap opera.
Not my go-to genre of music. Posh background music. Might be on my playlist if I was to open an obscenely expensive café serving Civet coffee and bomboloni. And even then I think I'd prefer the ex-wife's album.
Astrud had a vulnerability and wavyness to her voice that added something to the music. This is more self assured, and therefore a bit boring. But it will do in the café.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Sometimes traumatic events happen that can affect your whole life. A kind of PTSD if you like. For example being soaked in a tent for a whole week can make one never want to visit the Lake District again.
‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ is singularly the worst pop song ever released. True, there must be worse that never charted and saw the light of day. But this bastard song got to number 1. There must be some sick record buying fuckers out there. And that clouds my judgement of Stevie Wonder for all time. So today is going to be a traumatic day.
So in reality the trauma lasted more than a day because ths record is so damn long.
I concede there are some good songs on here (and some bad - Village gheto, Knocks Me Off.. ). Also a lot of hits. But every song seems to have the life squeezed out of it. Most of them overstay their welcome. The album could be literally 20 minutes shorter without the self congratulatory outros.
Conclusion. Pretty good. But not as good as everyone would have you believe.
And No I do Not want to hear a recording of your baby in the bath
Todd Rundgren
3/5
If I had to review this in one word it would be
Cacophony
A bit of a tinny sounding mess in places (maybe my speakers? I think not), but tuneful in others.
I do like an album where all the tracks merge into the next. So much more preferable to lazy fadeouts.
Incredible Bongo Band
2/5
Remember 1970 UK 'variety' shows. "It's Cliff Richard" or "Lulu" or "Summertime Special"? About half way through there would be some troupe of clean cut dancers doing a very 70's routine to some Norrie Paramor or Ronnie Hazlehurst orchestration.
Well this is appears to be the soundtrack.
Michael Jackson
5/5
As much as I have always disliked Michael Jackson, sometime you just have to separate the artist from the art and concede that this really is a great album.
Of course ‘great’ is always subjective. I’ve never listened to this album before in its entirety but I find that there’s only one track that I haven’t heard before. Probably because its heyday was the same time as my heyday, out most nights at student pubs or clubs where Thriller, Billie Jean, Beat It et al were played to death. And those clubs were all the better for it.
Even the track I had never heard before I liked. The only fly in the ointment was the ham of The Girl Is Mine (of which I was very pleased to see that Paul McCartney didn’t claim any writing credit - sensible man!).
(Of the artist, MJ probably had mental issues exacerbated by his sycophantic entourage's facilitation of them and society’s willingness to look the other way because of his celebrity. But the crazy fucked-up nonce is dead now and good riddance).
De La Soul
3/5
I wonder sometimes how hip-hop artists make any money when most of their tracks are samples of other people’s work.
That being said, this is a melodic and largely inoffensive piece of work with some recognisable (and I mean the tracks not just the samples) songs that I quite enjoyed. Well done hiphop (for a change).
4
But I did hate all the sketches in between songs. Why is that a thing in hiphop? It never works.
Knocked down to a 3 because of that.
Radiohead
4/5
First listen… perfectly acceptable.
Second listen…I liked it more.
Third… even more. It’s a grower.
I don’t think I would be prepared to give a lot of albums the time I’ve given this one if I hadn’t seen, and liked, their Glastonbury headline sets on TV.
That being said, Thom Yorke is just rung below Chris Martin on the ladder of rock stars you’d want to slap. If their heads hadn't disappeared up their own backsides.
Still a 4 though
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
3/5
I assume this is the Pakistani Cliff?
Every track starts really promisingly. But then becomes dreadfully wailey dreadfully quickly (with the exception of "Allah Who?" and "Ali Dum Dum" which have cracking singalong choruses). All the tracks are also overly long.
But then this is not my culture so I have nothing to relate it to.
However, I'm certain that if I gave Cliff Richard's 'Cliff at Christmas' to the Taliban to review, then it would be returned very promptly with a "Meh" and 1 star.
I like to think I'm better and more gracious than the Taliban.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
A bit like Dylan, you kinda know what you’re gonna get with Joni. Only real difference is Joni has a good voice, and doesn’t own a harmonica.
And unlike Dylan, this doesn’t disappoint
Baaba Maal
3/5
Things I liked:
His massive top end! I could almost feel the windows shaking. The predominantly afrobeat songs (thankfully that was most of them).
Things I didn’t like:
The more ‘western’ songs, heavy electric guitar. Stick with what you know, Baaba. The use of cheap synthesisers. The fake sax was particularly bad.
Bottom line…ok
Supergrass
3/5
Standard Britpop fayre. Good rocky tunes. Recognised more tracks than I thought I would .
Songhoy Blues
2/5
Typically good African beat but the single bar repetition in practically every track became tiresome.
I was glad when it got to the end.
Didn’t give it a second listen as I couldn’t take any more.
I bet Peter Gabriel and his WOMAD lot were all over this like a rash
Girls Against Boys
3/5
A full and fruity palate with lingering notes of Motorhead, and a hint of Marilyn Manson, but without the balls and the speed (both sorts of speed in the case of Motorhead). And I can detect a full-bodied influence on Muse.
I think I'll finish the bottle.
3
Kate Bush
5/5
I cannot review this album objectively since as an 18 year old I bought it when it was released and played it to death.
Except it never died because there’s always something new to hear.
Kate, you can experiment on me anytime.
4½
Boston
5/5
Boston is the zenith of pop rock.
Obviously this album is not as well know in the UK as the US where I understand it was played to death on the radio and is still, even nowadays, being flogged like a dead horse.
I hadn’t listened to it in full for years and so it was lovely to reacquaint myself with its brilliance.
Every track is a cracker, maybe save for the last track which is just a sparkler. But as a whole I still love this album.
Obvious 5
Steely Dan
4/5
There’s something about Donald Fagen’s voice that I really like. Unmistakable. Not perfect. It’s like Robert Smith or Björk or Kate Bush - it just has a uniqueness that makes it special.
I wanted to like this album, and I did to a certain extent. But it all got too bit too ‘easy listening’. So it’s a 3½ from me, but bumped up for that voice.
N.E.R.D
4/5
I don't get the classification of this. It's definitely not hip-hop. For a start I liked it! I can't hear obvious samples. They sing rather than read. Everything had meat. Plenty going on. Lyrics a bit crazy (the parts I listened to) but pretty good.
Never heard of them. I assume they were short lived (with Pharrell going onto bigger things). But a solid 3½ bumped up because I think it's a grower
Belle & Sebastian
2/5
Very whingeing whiny voice that grates a bit too much after a while. Songs all quite samey and - wait - did I hear a stylophone?
Much as I loved playing about on my grandad’s stylophone in the ‘70s, there’s no place for it in proper music. Put it in back in the toy box with your recorder, kazoo and harmonica (and then drop the box off a cliff).
CHIC
3/5
The overriding emotion listening to this is disappointment.
Maybe I was expecting too much bearing in mind Nial Rogers and Chic are still touring to rave reviews.
Yes it's ok. But I wanted more.
Formulaic bass (great bass it may be) and rhythm guitar. Most tracks do their thing. And then they hang on. And on a bit longer..I totally get that this is a dance record, but even on a dance floor I don't want to be strutting my thing to 3 minutes of repeating outro.
Le Freak and I Want Your Love (love the tubular bells by the way) are enduring classics (and even these versions overstay). The rest is...
Dexys Midnight Runners
2/5
I never liked Come On Eileen so I have low expectations.
The vaguely in-tune screeching of the violin is painful in places. And Rowland's voice isn't my favourite.
This album isn't a complete stinker - but it's a Too-Rye-Nay rather than Too-Rye-Ay from me.
Jackie Wilson Says is the best track on the album. But there's nothing else I particularly want to hear again.
2½
The Flaming Lips
4/5
First impression :
So I put this on my headphones and after about a minute I was so convinced that my bins were broken that I had to play something I was very familiar with to put my mind at rest.
Did they record the opening track in a nissen hut? And who the fuck is that singing? One of the engineers?
Second impression:
This really isn't that bad at all. I might even quite like it.
Quirky
Jury's still out on the singing though.
3½
Bert Jansch
3/5
A bloke
A guitar
And NO HARMONICA
= Very pleasant
Lovely guitar work, but didn't care too much for the bluesy tracks, particularly didn't like "Rambling's Gonna Be the Death of Me" much, though I think it's a salutary lesson for anyone thinking of rambling this weekend.
Hugh Masekela
3/5
Easy listening jazz
Magazine
3/5
I thought I had never heard of this band.
Until 'Shot By Both Sides' came on. Ah yes I remember that.
I wonder why they didn't break into the bigtime because a lot of this album is really good. Though it kinda loses its way towards the end.
Solid.
The Stooges
4/5
I can’t remember what I’ve written about the other Stooges albums I’ve had (and I’ve not gone back to check) but I don’t remember being overly enamoured by them up to now.
But this is exceptional.
“L.A Blues” is filler to pad the album out at the end, but the rest is superb.
Influenced possibly by Hendrix and the Stones. The guitar work is amazing.
Great album.
4½
The Specials
4/5
Talk of influencial. I may be a man of a certain age - I was 15 when this came out - but this album was the start of a massive ska starburst; which burned out in a flash of glory and 2 years later was gone.
Ska was all over my school. One of my best mates got a buzz cut and wore a set-forward beany and Doc Marten 1914s for ages. Made riding his racing bike rather amusing.
I was into rock and metal myself, but I was happy to engage in a lot of Specials, Madness, Selecter, Beat, Bad Manners and the like.
Yeah of all 274 albums I've had so far I'd say this is one of the most influential. To my school year at least. Never listened to it in full before. A nice treat.
(factoid for the fact fans : Too Much Too Young is one of only a handful of live singles to make it to #1 in the UK Charts - My Ding-a-Ling is one of the others)
Heaven 17
4/5
I’m reading a lot of hate here for this album. What the fuck do YOU know? This is more Human League than Human League. So much so that the last 2 tracks even sound like Philip Oakey singing them (or probably more likely the other way around since Glenn Gregory was the singer they wanted for Human League in the first place).
Not to detract from either the Human League or Heaven 17 - I like both their respective albums on this list as much as the other. Well no, maybe Dare just a teeny bit more. But they are basically the same band.
Supertramp
4/5
So Supertramp are the absolute epitomy of uncool, right? Never listened to a Supertramp album in my life.
But I really like this.
I'm reading in other reviews that `Breakfast in America' is better. But seeing as I hate The Logical Song then I formally endose this being on the list and not that.
Kid Rock
4/5
Kid Rock.
I’ve never heard of the bloke, but a lot of Americans seem to hate him? Why? Did he jerk off over young boys wearing a diamond encrusted glove and sleep with a chimp? Or was that somebody else? Surely not worse than that?
Ok I Googled him and he’s a MAGA Trump loving fuckwit that likes to mouth off. But surely that’s more likely a reason for 50%+ of Americans to adore him, right?? Also he appears to be a big campaigner against ticket-scalpers - and we all want that! (having tried and failed to get Rush tickets last week).
So, anyway, I’m going into this ‘bottom 5’ rated album completely blind.
And you know what - it’s not bad at all. Nice tunes. Great production. Ok so the lyrics are rather crass and juvenile to the extent that they’re laughable. More laughable than some of the gang related violent hip-hop stuff that is also on this list and meant to be taken seriously.
And he has a stupid name which he clearly loves since he mentions it in the lyrics in nearly every song.
But apart from that I think this is ok (will I ever be allowed into the USA again??)
Adele
3/5
Ok so another album that’s not actually on the 1001 list - it's on the ex-list. The expunged list. Removed because the author maybe saw the error of his ways and realised that this is not great, it's just overplayed.
I’m already bored and I’ve not even put the album on yet. Just looking at the titles makes me think oh no not THAT song again. And there are a lot of them.
It's an album my mother would love - because she’s got dementia and doesn’t even remember my name. So all these songs are forever new to her. For the rest of us it's a bit tiresome. But is suppose credit where credit’s due, to churn out an album of quality songs at 21 is impressive. It’s not her fault they were played to death in every shop and on every radio station.
Best songs are Turning Tables and
I'll Be Waiting. Worst are everything else that's been overplayed. But worst of the worst is a horrible version of The Cure's Love Song.
Don McLean
4/5
I took the advice of another reviewer and started listening to this album at track 4. Then went back and listened to the ‘big two’.
There were more than passing resemblances to Vincent and American Pie in some of the other tracks but I thought they were generally ok, with The Grave being the highlight of ‘the rest’.
Without the two monster tracks this would be a 3. With those two, and because I’ve never got tired of them, it’s a 4.
Dinosaur Jr.
2/5
Sounds like a badly recorded demo tape for a band I'm never going to sign.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Definitely music to bump and grind to, the dirty bastaad. A pleasant listen even without getting it on.
Kings of Leon
3/5
One of only 3 acts whose live set I have walked out of half way through (the other two being Foals and Taylor Swift), this was better than I expected it to be..
It must have been all down the tubes from here.
Paul Simon
3/5
This album is in my collection, though I think only because I got it from one of those record clubs prevalent in the 80s and 90s where you get multiple albums for free and then get lumbered with ‘album of the month’ for the next 12 months unless you actively cancel it.
At the time I probably thought it was ok - I certainly remember all the tracks when listening to it today - but I got tired of it pretty quickly (as I also did today) and it then most likely rattled, boxless, around my car for years being ignored and discounted as ‘boring’.
It’s all just a bit too ethnic and samey.
35 years later… it was pleasant to reacquaint myself with it, but I think if it was to be another 35 years before I hear it again I’d be comfortable with that.
2½
Isaac Hayes
3/5
An apt title. This is hot, smooth soul.
Perhaps, though, a few more concise tracks would a been a better choice than 4 bloaters?
Although the 18 minute ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ is great the first time; once heard, the 8 minute single-note talky intro is surplus to requirements on subsequent listens. So whilst probably brilliant at a live show, on a studio album it’s a waste of vinyl.
My first listen took 45 minutes. Subsequent listens took less than 30 (plus the time taken to trim the fat).
The lean was lovely though.
Frank Ocean
3/5
Pleasantly soulful album. How it can be also labelled on the hip-hop genre I have no idea..possibly because it has some waste-of -time 'skits' in it and he uses the N word, I dunno? But I'm not going to downgrade it because of that.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
I really wasn’t expecting this.
Really liked the first couple of tracks. We were definitely heading for a 4 or a 5. But then it seemed to lose its way with Little Red Riding Hood which is a bit of a mess and then some bizarre goose impressions on a sax.
Overall still enjoyed it in a weird way. And great to hear singing in a Kentish accent.
3½
Common
2/5
Not great. But not as bad as the usual US gangster rap stuff I've listened to.
The usual mysogyny and racism of course.
I didn't notice the length of it as I was working - so maybe I was only half listening? Lucky for Common perhaps.
3/5
Funky jazzy album and a good listen.
One annoyance...bad grammar. It's "Where were you" or "Where have you been" NOT "Where was you at" fuck's sake.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
Was really enjoying this album until I got to “They’re Red Hot” which is absolute shite. Thankfully it’s only 1 minute 11 long but it completely fucked up my impression of the whole album.
And lost it a star.
Guys, just because you’ve got 74 minutes playing time on a CD doesn’t mean you have to fill it with every bit of shit you record.
Sebadoh
3/5
Enjoyed this. But indistinguishable from any other NW US indie grunge of the time. Listened 3 times and can't remember any specific tracks, but end to end it's a good listen.
So I lied, I do remember Fantastic Disaster for its great use of harmonica. I hope it was a pisstake because it made me smile.
3½
Ministry
3/5
Started off as a 5. A great heavy sound, good melodies and not too fast and thrashy.
But then it ascended up its own arse.
Too much religious imagery and at the end a lot of white noise and feedback hiss.
Making my headphones sound like they are broken really pisses me off.
Started a 5. Finishes a 2½
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
An empty sandwich.
The two slices of bread being the excellent 'My My Hey Hey' and 'Hey Hey My My'.
But the rest is very forgetable. Songs about going to the dentist and a particularly dodgy song about hitting on single mums on benefits aren't that great. Especially as, even then, he sounded like a whiney 80 year old.
3 (-1 Harmonica tax)
The Temptations
3/5
The Temptations seem to have been around my whole life. i don't really think of them as a group, more of a franchise. A tool to sing songs that the writers couldn't or wouldn't sing themselves. Like 'Trigger's broom', 6 new handles and 8 new heads, but still the same broom. And there always seem to be 2 or 3 versions of "The Temptations" touring at any one time.
So I don't know which incarnation these guys were, but all the songs are pretty good, bar the opener live track which doesn't really fit.
Highlight is 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone', a classic. 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' is good though I prefer the Roberta Flack version.
Nice stuff.
The Coral
4/5
Very 1960s and very Liverpool.
Bearing in mind I don’t care too much for either then this is pretty listenable. Obvious influences mentioned by other reviewers so I won’t bother.
Nothing on it I didn’t like.
Radiohead
4/5
I think a downside of this 1001 project is that I’m prepared to give a bit more time to albums I think I should like. Or albums from which I like some tracks but don’t know the rest. Maybe it should be limited to maximum of 2 listens. Because generally by the time I've got to a 4th or even 3rd listen, any album is going to have grown on me (with a few exceptions).
Yes I do like this. It’s that sort of miserable navel gazing album I’d have played to death in my student days at 2am when I’d tried to get off with someone down Pickwicks and failed (yet again).
For the melody and production alone it could be a 5. Perhaps for the lyrics too if I could actually hear any of them. But I can’t disagree with the general consensus, Thom Yorke is so whiny he becomes inaudible.
So that… plus the whole band coming across as humourless and up themselves loses them a star. Though to be honest, I’m sure they couldn’t give a rat’s arse what anyone thinks.
Megadeth
3/5
I was surprised that a thrash metal album is getting so much love. But it’s not really thrash is it? Yes it has its super-fast bits but on the whole it’s just good heavy metal.
The only downside is Dave Mustaine’s voice. For me it doesn’t fit. It’s the voice of a weedy kid not a metal front-man. It may grow on me but fair to say it hasn’t after 3 listens.
JAY Z
3/5
Shock horror I quite liked this.
I think this is the first hip-hop album where I’ve been able to hear and understand every word of the lyrics. That’s not to say that they are all great lyrics. But I’m going to give Jay Z the benefit of the doubt and say that I’m think a lot of it is tongue-in-cheek.
I found there were a lot of ear worms on here too, even though many of the samples were quite repetitive (typically).
But on the whole this is pretty good.
Fiona Apple
3/5
The similarity between this and other US singer songwriters , say Tori Amos, Rikki Lee Jones, Suzanne Vega show that this Apple didn’t fall far enough from the tree to be of any significance. I’ve never heard of her or her music, and I can assume she wasn’t promoted on the UK side of the pond precisely because of this.
The tracks on this album are all ok, but there’s no USP. Basically, for every US Apple we can grow 10 of our own here.
And, personally, I prefer a nice pear anyway, fnarr.
2½
Stevie Wonder
5/5
I think this is as good as it gets with Stevie Wonder.
I can admit I wasn't looking forward to another SW record but this has been a pleasure. Just one track with harmonica, and even that was bearable with just clear single notes rather than the usual cacophonic mess. And even though I was getting it in stereo, at least it was all over and done with in the first track.
I'd also forgotten how good 'Don't You Worry Bout A Thing' (so the original is bossa nova? I never knew. Awesome) and 'He's Misstra Know It All' are. I'm kinda shocked to say I really like this album.
So what happened after this? A long descent to the absolute dogshite he wrote in the 80s and onwards. Stevie I think that the car crash did affect you after all.
4½
Sonic Youth
1/5
When I first moved down to Bournemouth in the mid 1980’s, whenever I went into town there was a vagrant/tramp/down-and-out who used to stand on a corner strumming a beaten up old ukulele at super high speed. Just the open strings mind.
CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!
He thought he was a legit busker and that passers by would give him cash. He was totally deluded.
CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!
Some people would occasionally give him loose change. Not because they thought he was talented, but because they wanted other people to see them do it.
But, of course, it just made him carry on. Every time I went into Bournemouth he’d be there
CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!-CHING!
Sonic Youth remind me of that old tramp guy.
The Youngbloods
3/5
Eclectic. A bit rocky, a bit folky, a bit psychedelic, a bit county. A pleasant listen. I guess they were one of those 'unknown' bands that never made it for whatever reason. Sad.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
If I took LSD, then I think it would be cool to be listening to this when I did.
Sounds a bit like I imagine the trip to be... mellow at the start, a descent into shite at the end (except for the jolly final track).
Fats Domino
3/5
Greatest respect for this album's place in history's musical pathway.
Though it's not going to be a stepping stone in mine.
Michael Jackson
1/5
Disturbing album cover for a start. We didn’t know it at the time but maybe Jackson was trying to tell us something with the menacing look, a nonce jacket and his right hand in a wank grip.
Anyway back to this record. So it took him 5 years to follow up Thriller and this was the best he could do. A couple of reasonable songs, Bad and Smooth Criminal, but the rest is forgettable formulaic trash.
My main issue with the whole album is the annoying Tourettes-like ticks throughout.
Heee-Hee!
Hah!
Ah-hhhea!
Uh!
Shaaamon!
For fuck’s sake give it a rest. It gets so tedious.
And I’m sorry I can’t listen to this without thinking of the comedy nose jobs, the strange skin whitening and the dangling of babies over 5th floor balconies. The behaviour was whacko enough before we even knew what he used to get up to with young boys and a chimp.
Leonard Cohen
1/5
They say his music is depressing? It’s far worse. A monotonous bass drawl drone, with a lot of it not even in tune. (But with some nice guitar, granted). If I wasn’t driving I’d have fallen asleep. Utterly dull and uninteresting. Never again.
The Verve
4/5
There’s a tendency to brand everything that came out of the UK in the 1990s as “Britpop”. This album is a lot more than britpop. Orchestral and melodic in places, rocky in others.
I was only aware of the big 3 tracks, Symphony, Lucky Man and Drugs beforehand. I'll be adding this to my playlist. Good album
Aerosmith
3/5
I bought Night In The Ruts back in the day and liked it a lot, but I never explored their back catalogue (pre NITR) and never really followed up on them as they never toured in the uk (between 1977 and 1987) - so as far as I was concerned fuck them.
Liked this album though.
3½
Anthrax
1/5
Name: Dan Spitz
Occupation: Guitar hero
Specialist Subject : Playing the track before the current track
I love hard rock and metal but I hate this. It sounds like each band member is playing a totally different track. There’s no coherence. Just sounds like they are all racing each other and playing whatever comes into their heads
Of the 'Big 4' thrash bands, I’ve enjoyed Megadeth and Metallica. But this is shite.
Janelle Monáe
3/5
Pleasant, upbeat album. She has a great voice. The album has the air of a film score or musical theatre about it.
Standout track - Wonderland.
Lowlight - BabopbyeYa (just drags on too long)
Dr. Octagon
4/5
Ooh a concept hiphop album?
You know how it is... you plough through 300 albums pining for a song about rectums, then you get an album full of rectal references. He should have called himself Dr. Proctagon!
I found the theme and lyrics a lot more interesting than the usual gangster-hoe-AK47-muthafucker-I'm-so-repressed posing braindead shite (I have Dr. Dre today - oh joy). But I bet a lot of the gynae humour will have upset the Gen Z-ers.
It definitely appealed to my sense of humour though.
Best hiphop i've had album so far.
The Bees
3/5
There is nothing on this album would make me want to listen to it again, although there are some nice chilled out tracks towards the end. Credit to them for recording this at home. But I think they were/are destined to be a support band forever.
I'd rather listen to The Hives.
Dr. Dre
2/5
First and foremost, the tunes are undoubtedly good.
But the lyrics?
I dislike reviews that use the word ‘dated’ but I can’t think of anything other word to use. The ‘motherfucker’, ‘niggah’, ‘beyach’, and ‘hoe’ count is so great that it turns what I assume was meant to be a 1990s gritty social commentary into a 2020s hour-long comedy record.
The inherent comedy is only exacerbated by Snoop Dogg’s cultural evolution into Grandpa Dogg, the crazy amusing uncle currently doing cooking shows and commentating on the Olympics.
Thus, the contrast between intent and outcome is why the album ultimately made me smile throughout. It's a hilarious time capsule which wouldn’t look out of place as a SNL sketch.
Elton John
4/5
Great songs. Starts with one of his best, Tiny Dancer, but everything on here is quality. This is hungry Elton. Before he became fat comfortable Elton.
Cat Stevens
3/5
I like Cat Stevens.
I don't know why, since the first thing I ever heard of his was a hymn. That hymn isn't on this album (Morning Has Broken of course), but there are some other tracks I've heard before.
Good voice, good songwriting and no duds. Nice to fall asleep to.
3½
The Young Gods
3/5
I'm happy to borrow from another review because it reflects my feeling entirely...
Sonically awesome. But I'm happy just to listen the once.
Fleet Foxes
3/5
Listening with no background knowledge whatsoever. Let's see how I do.
Folky start. 60s Steeleye Span feel. To start with at least. Production seems too clear and even to be 60s though. 60s band loved to overuse Stereo didn't they?
Ok so how wrong am I! For a start they are American. And it's 2008!
Quite mellow. Nothing I want to 'move about' to or that makes me want to listen to again more deeply. Could be any folk band of the last 50 years. Not bad though.
Digital Underground
3/5
I like music I can move about to. But some of the tracks overstayed their welcome. Lyrics were ok but represented a time clearly in the infancy of hiphop. The “rhyme” and “MC” lyric count was huge and some of the playful ‘gags’, like the announcement to radio DJs in Doowutchyalike sound very dated.
Overall ok as a museum piece.
The Sonics
2/5
One of the worst 60s cover bands you're ever likely to hear.
What these guys ARE from the 60s?!?
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
A weird one this.
I’ve listened to this 3 times over the last 4 days. Never a complete runthrough as I always get disturbed. I’ll be driving and reach my destination. I’ll be heading for bed and fall asleep. I’ll be listening whilst working and then work concentration takes over.
And then I can never tell how far into the album I’ve got and I either start again or guess. I know I’ve listened to these songs more than once as I can vaguely recall each one.
Vaguely.
But I can’t tell you anything about the songs except that they were ok and if this was the only album available I’d happily listen. Not the most ringing endorsement. I'd sooner chose something else. But I'd listen again.
Kinda beige then.
And the band name sucks.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
Sonically ok, but I couldnt understand a word they were singing.
I thought I would like it more on second listen but I didn't. It's not bad enough for a 2 though
Wilco
3/5
The other Wilco album I had I gave a 4 because it grew on me.
I've not had time to listen to this more than once.
Everything But The Girl
4/5
Clubby but super chilled. Great tunes. Great voice.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad, she was horrid.
I’m writing this review in the form of a nursery rhyme since Bob seems to like them so much.
Horrid : The Duchess, Was A Friend, Sunday In Madrid
Very, very good : Heaps of Sheeps, Maryann, Blues In Bob Minor, Free Will And Testament
(Pretty good - the rest)
And for the record... I love Robert Wyatt's voice. Give me his voice above the sanitised autotuned voices of today.
3½
Holger Czukay
4/5
A good listen and one I hope to come back to again. Kept my interest throughout (although I am on a 12 hour flight so it's not too difficult).
Serge Gainsbourg
3/5
Liked the music. Very French. Dodgy subject matter but since I couldn’t understand most of it I’m just going by the vibe which I liked.
But the most disturbing aspect of this album is that he fancied a girl from Sunderland!
The Doors
4/5
I wasn’t bowled over by Morrison Hotel. This is so much better. Gets a 4 just for L.A. Woman and Riders. But the rest is pretty cool too. Clearly their zenith. I guess it had to be as 3 months later Morrison was dead.
Astor Piazzolla
1/5
Piano, violin (possibly viola), accordion and vibraphone. Not really a combination that inspires any excitement in me.
And so it came to pass.
I found this neither interesting nor relaxing.
I can only imagine being taken to this gig and having to sit through it.
Just not my vibraphone.
Public Enemy
2/5
Actually some of the lyrics on here aren't that bad. Ok so there’s a lot of whining, but I think that generally comes with the hiphop territory. ‘Letter to the New York Post’ was a particularly memorable whine.
But where this let me down was the sonics. With a lot of hiphop I hate the lyrics but can dig the beats; the lyrics on here were ok, but the music was just monotonously repetitive. Pity.
Pretenders
4/5
Some great tracks on this album that I'd almost forgotten. Brass In Pocket of course, but also Stop Your Sobbing, Kid and Private Life, the Grace Jones version of which I loved and didn't even know this was a CH song.. and her version is as good if not better.
Extra star for Chrissie Hynde's drive, determination and desire to shag, snog, (nearly) marry and avoid her way to the top when it wasn't particularly easy for a female in rock.
A hell of a debut.
4½
Stan Getz
4/5
I think I’ve fallen for Astrud Gilberto. Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado are a class apart because of her, but the whole album is beautiful.
Pet Shop Boys
5/5
I didn't think I'd ever be writing a 5 star review for a Pet Shop Boys album but this is faultless.
Beautifully immersive synth pop, lovely production and a great sound.
The only possible criticisms might be the slightly whiny vocals but it's kinda them isn't it. And the shitty "brass section" synth on the closing track.
But overall I really enjoyed this.
4/5
We are DEVO. D-E-V-O.
That was an earworm that burrowed into my head sometime during my school 4th or 5th form years. And has resurfaced on multiple occasions throughout my 60 years. I obviously knew it was Devo, but thank you 1001 for finally rediscovering Jocko Home for me.
This album is everything that the Eagles is not.
4½
Eagles
2/5
"THIS IS ROCK AND ROLL RADIO.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE ROCK AND ROLL!"
That's the radio announcement that rings in my head whenever I hear an Eagles song.
A few weeks ago I went to an Adam And The Ants gig. The support band were a 3 piece, two girls and a lad, all still teenagers, playing raw punk (F.Y.I. they were called Yee Loi). I have no doubt they formed because they just wanted to be in a band. And chose Punk because they loved it. Maybe their songs have a message. I couldn't tell over the shouting. They certainly looked like they loved what they were doing. And I loved watching them.
I imagine the Eagles band meetings were rather different. "How can we make piles of cash? I know, we'll write songs that appeal to housewives and get a lot of radio play. Then we'll sell a heap of records. kerching". In that they were hugely successful.
The Hotel California title track is, no doubting, a true classic. But having listened to the rest of the album I'm now doubting myself. Is it just because I've heard it so often? No. I do think they stumbed on a gem. But they bloody milked it well. In fact they sold a gazillion albums on the back of one track.
Other tracks I had heard before.. Life In The Fast Lane - a soft turd trying to harden up. New Kid In Town - boring nothing ballad. And the rest of the album is just middle of the road, souless and sterile. Radio pap to sell soap suds with.
For a "classic album" I was hugely disappointed.
Queen Latifah
3/5
Good voice and diction. I like that accent, alhough I can't really tell the difference between her and Salt n Pepa (is that blasphemy? Are they from the same place?).
Mama Give Birth is horrific with the creepy fake baby voice. But the rest is bearable.
5/5
It wasn't until I got half way through this that I realised I have it on cd in my collection.
I'd stick my neck out and say this is probably their last great album before being totally suffocated by Bono's ego. It's certainly the last U2 album I ever bought.
But I'm really glad to have the reason and opportunity to reaquaint myself with it.
Dolly Parton
3/5
A sweet little album. I found the songs pretty simplistic with nothing I'd heard of, but I guess she couldn't write bangers all the time.
Probably great if you love country but it's not really my bag. Due respect for all she's done though.
Baaba Maal
3/5
I'm not going to question what should and should not be on the list. I find people who do to be selfish and unfairly critical. Its not our list and I'm grateful to have different choices each day to listen to. Usually stuff I've never heard before or that I would choose to listen to.
And this is one. Probably one of the best in it's particular genre. I don't know. And whilst a reasonable listen it's not really recorded for me. Similarly I wouldn't choose to read a book written in Albanian. The music was pleasant if a bit repetitive and long. Nothing I hated. Nothing I particularly loved. So a fair and average 3
The Byrds
3/5
Jangly 60s music in a great way. A reminder that the Beatles weren't the only jangly band about and kinda refocussing the way I think about 60s music.
Tambourine Man is so much better than Dylan's version.
All I Really Want To Do. I recognise. What a good tune.
Well meet again. I also recognise. But not such a good version (you can't beat Vera Lynn.
3½
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
Is this album really under 40 minutes? This is how you vacuum pack quality.
For a man with dubious skills himself, Mick Fleetwood definitely knew how to surround himself with talent. He's basically a CEO of every big successful multinational.
Great songs. Even the ones I didn't realise were on this album. It deserves its success.
Morrissey
4/5
I like Morrissey's lyrics even if I don't agree with them all (but do some!). At least he has something to say and you can hear it clearly.
But also the music is good too. I'm surprised I liked this so much.
Herbie Hancock
3/5
The only Herbie Hancock I have previously heard was a single of his that was out in the late 70s. So I was expecting a vocal rather than a jazz funk instrumental album. What do I know!?
A reasonable listen nonetheless. But a bit samey.
2½
Beatles
4/5
I really wasn't sure about this after one listen. But again with certain bands and reputations I'm more inclined to give them a second chance.
Of course there are some absolutely brilliant songs on here (Blackbird , While My Guitar...) but also a lot of stuff I've never heard. The lyrics are often a bit simple, or plain silly, but the tunes are quality.
Could have been a 5, but I can't give a 5 to an album that has a track of jumbled sonic mess. It's a skip every time (though I will make an exception when I finally review The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway)
The 13th Floor Elevators
3/5
Sounds like these guys took a lot of drugs and saw a lot of Rolling Stones concerts.
I quite liked the stuff that didn't have screeching harmonica in it.
The guy making constant 'durka durka durka durka" sounds throughout most of the tracks gets annoying after a while although he did give the band quite a unique sound. But I can see why they never hit the big time.
Donald Fagen
4/5
There are some people that have such unique voices. Not because they are perfect but just because they have a tone or a quirk that makes them instantly recognisable. Donald Fagan is one.
I had no idea he had made an album outside of Steely Dan. Some songs on here I recognise but have always thought WERE Steely Dan.
As a collection it's quite MOR and an easy listen. Add that voice and it's a 4
Various Artists
5/5
A standard for Christmas Lunch parties since my Graduates group of friends started having them annually in 1985.
Can be nothing but a 5
Sigur Rós
3/5
Lovely soundscape. Eno could learn a thing or two from these guys
Television
4/5
Punky but melodic. I was interested to read how Television were revered in the UK in the late 70s punk explosion. Personally I'd never heard of them, but then I was only 13 at the time.
I can see why we liked them though.
Germs
3/5
Yesterday I had Television.
Today Germs.
Both late 70s, both American, both 'punk'.
But worlds apart.
One melodic, the other angry with short tracks that are generally cut off at the knees after 2 minutes.
Sad to read that their leader went the same way as Sid Vicious.
Chalk and cheese - but liked both the same.
Great until the final track Shut Down which is just a total mess and makes this a 3
Van Halen
5/5
Another album in my collection that hasn't been listened to for a long long time.
Like a lot of hard rock bands in the early 80s, this is about the time that they discovered and experimented with synthesisers. Van Halen made a far better job of it than, say, Rush, and thankfully gave up after just a few tracks on this album (great though Jump is) and reverted to their USP, Eddie's guitar.
I think this is the last album to feature Dave Lee Roth. His light-hearted interludes and stage presence to a large part made the band what it was. He was a sad loss to the band and they were never the same afterwards
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
4/5
A lot of this isn't quite hip-hop. But the the standout is, of course The Message.
So what the hell happened to rap/hip-hop after this?
Ah yes it got taken over by the foul mouthed whining tossers from da hood. So sad.
3½
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
Cool funky rhythms. For which the album gets a 3.
But I don't want to hear a load of singing (and even more talking)! In a language I don't understand. Call me a xenophobe I don't care, but I wouldn't listen to this again.
I would actually say it's probably more because I don't particularly dig the fella's voice, because if this was Astrud Gilberto it would be added to my playlist.
CHVRCHES
4/5
A modern album for a change. Only 12 years old so a mere baby.
Loved the immersive sound and the vocal. An 80s inspired sound in the noughties.
4½
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
Heavy heavy beat, but a bit more repetitive than I recall the previous TCQ album (Peoples Instinctive Travels) and consequently I don't like it as much. But still better than the usual hip-hop offerings
The Crusaders
3/5
Easy listening jazzy funk.
I wouldn't say this is "jazz" as it has been described. It all sounds pretty preplanned to me. It's funk with long solos.
Great foot tapping chill-out music.
Morrissey
3/5
I have no problem with Morrissey.
I don't care if he whinges all the time or whether he is a vegan or not.
At least he has something to say.
And the music was ok too.
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
Standout track is California Dreaming.
The rest of the tracks are a bit 'variety show' cover. Even Monday Monday is kinda dull in retrospect.
But no doubting the harmonies are great, even though the orchestral and session arrangements behind them sound weak.
3.
+1 for California Dreaming.
-1 for the album cover apostrophe abuse.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
I admit the snarling nasal voice does tone down somewhat as he gets older, but on here it's in insufferable overdrive and it cancels out any toleration credits that are earned by the presence of a couple of minor hits (Accidents Will Happen & Oliver's Army). All the other tracks are gratingly similar.
Regarded as a generational talent. I just don't get it.
Rufus Wainwright
2/5
A cross between Thom Yorke and an operatic Danny Kaye in places. Except this is an overtramatic emotional drone of dross with none of Radiohead's melodic or production redeeming features, and none of Kaye's nuance or storytelling genius.
Of course nobody deliberately makes an album of impressions. So it's not Rufus' fault that he sounds like these other guys.
And even though I have heard of him, after a single listen to this overlong album, with the insult of an excrutiating 'bonus' track that definitely was no bonus - this is consigned to the bin lorry.
1½
Korn
2/5
This started off ok.
As a rock and metal lover I really wanted to like it.
But it switly went downhill.
...And then somebody got some fucking bagpipes out.
The Who
3/5
Look. I like The Who.
But Tommy all seems so rushed. Like they went into a studio in the morning with a story and no music, and they'd knocked out a double album by teatime. It's a bit like modern comedy sketches of West End/Broadway musicals where they just stick any old melody onto any old dialogue.
There are a few great tunes on here. Pinball Wizard for one. And some really bad stuff. Underture, a 10 minute jam that sounds like it was recorded because they had a bit of studio time left. And Fiddle About? that's rather unsavoury and I don't particularly want to know where the idea came from.
Most of the good stuff is unfortunately mixed up with a lot of chaff. The only time I saw The Who play live, they extracted chords from here and lines from there and just played those. I think they knew that the album as an opus didn't really work.
The good stuff is very good.
Mott The Hoople
4/5
A great collection of typically 70s rock glam. Held together but the dulcet unmistakable tones of Ian Hunter. Not the greatest voice, but then neither is Rod Stewart's.
4½
4/5
Another unknown (to me) early 70s album.
Follows the standard 70s recipe...key changes, mixed time signatures and tempo everywhere. Throw in a bit of Hammond organ, great guitar and bass and mix for at least 6 months.
I enjoyed this greatly.
Miles Davis
3/5
I can't remember how I've rated other Miles Davis albums in the past but I don't think I've been overly friendly.
On the contrary, this is mellow, chilled and dead cool.
Animal Collective
1/5
Some good immersive sounds but the whole album is held together by reverb. Gets tiresome after half an hour and unfortunately I'm only half way through.
Individually some of the tracks weren't actually that bad.
But as a collection when I'm praying for it to be over then it can only be a 1 star.
I know why the Lion is in a coma.
Kanye West
3/5
Very listenable for hip-hop.
I can understand why it received rave reviews.
It's a shame it all went to Kanye's head. He needs help not derision.
Fred Neil
3/5
Lovely baritone voice reminiscent of Johnny Cash. And good songs. None better than Everybody's Talking. Why they didn't use his version in Midnight Cowboy I don't know but that's history and probably why nobody outside of his fandom has heard of him.
Pleasant album spoiled by the final track.
Also generally a bit too much harmonica.
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
I knew nothing about NIN until I saw them at Reading festival about 10 years ago.
Well I say I saw them... what I actually saw was the shadows of some figures through the smoke and dry ice on the stage and an extraordinary light show. It was hugely memorable but I never saught out any of their albums so listening to this is something I've been looking forward to.
And I'm not disappointed.
When I listen to any album the first time it's naturally the music I concentrate on. And this is a sonic explosion. Sounded great on heaphones. But all I picked up from the lyrics was that NIN must be really into pigs. Later I read that it's an album laden with anger and angst. So that must be what all the screaming was about?
I will seek out more NIN.
But then I said that 10 years ago.
XTC
4/5
They went off my radar after the brilliant Making Plans For Nigel and Senses Working Overtime.
I don't know why.
I guess radio didn't like them?
After just one listen I can rate this as an excellent collection of songs.
I will listen again.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
2/5
My second JAMC album after Psycho Candy, which didn't grab me at all.
The songs are, again, repetitively samey. The overuse of reverb remains. But the background feedback has gone. They still remind me of the Stone Roses (of course I know they came first) with a bit of upbeat Leonard Cohen thrown in.
Better than Psycho Candy. But not much.
Steely Dan
4/5
Classy album.
This is American, middle of the road, inoffensive radio rock. But I don't mind. It contains a couple of absolute classics tracks but none of the others are bad, in particular the Donald Fagen sung tracks (which are most of them).
Leonard Cohen
2/5
This album was made 45 years after the last Cohen album I had, which I hated.
This is an improvement.
It's listenable for a start.
He still doesn't seem to do upbeat, but he has hired a good choir and backing singers. Most of the songs seen to be about God or the Devil. It's so bassy that when he does tey to move up the register it sounds like he's going to split something.
Overall ok. But I just don't want to listen to his downbeat dirge on a regular basis.
2½
Roni Size
3/5
I like a lot of this but I'm not keen on the "mononess" of the recording. I think it could be mixed much better than this.
Also I personally find it way too long... but then I'm not planning on getting spaced out and dancing to it until the sun rises.
But I applaud people who do.
Randy Newman
3/5
I had no idea the guy from the Toy Story theme wrote Simon Smith And The Amazing Dancing Bear, or You Can Leave Your Hat On.
There no song on here over 3½ minutes and some are under 2 minutes. He doesn't muck about with bloat does he! Bravo.
The voice isn't technically the best but it delivers a great collection of songs.
Neil Young
4/5
Well here's a thing. I really liked this. I don't know why. Its still the same voice, struggling at the top of the range, and overusing vibrato in places (I guess like Maria Carey it does mean you hit the right note twice every cycle). He's a good songwriter.
I do think that Birds is a natural closing track though.
Small Faces
3/5
Side one? Absolute belter. Swagger, hooks, psychedelic crunch, and groove. It’s loose, loud, and cool — the sound of the band firing on all cylinders.
Side two? The Stanley Unwin Show.
What was meant to be a whimsical fairy tale now plays like someone’s grandad doing a comedy turn you’re too polite to interrupt. Unwin was always a one-trick pony, popular in the days when you (Unwin, Norman Collier, Freddie Davies et al) could build a 'comedy' career on one joke .
The songs are still good, but they keep getting ambushed by wobbly-voiced nonsense that may have been quirky in 1968 but feels like hard work now.
So in summary...
Side one - classic. 4
Side two - practically unplayable. 2
Basement Jaxx
3/5
Bass heavy dance music with a couple of big singles. Totally fine by me.
Blur
3/5
I couldn't make up my mind with this album. Maybe I was expecting too much?
Liked some of it (Death of a Party, Strange News). Hated some of it (Country Sad Ballad, Theme from Retro). But mostly it was just meh.
Certainly if I was picking a winner in the great Blur v Oasis battle based on this debut then I'd put the house on Oasis. And so it came to pass.
Willie Nelson
1/5
I've refused up to now to question why an album might be on the 1001 list so I'm not going to start now. But what the fuck?
An old bloke singing other people's songs all in exactly the same style. A vanity project that could have been recorded by any karaoke singer with a few dollars to burn?
This is an album you would play to your Granny as you sit by her deathbed.
AHHH now I get it! This IS the actual 1001st album!
(edit: Ok I've reassessed. This isn't in the same shit league as Eno or Cohen. He has a nice voice and it's harmless even if it IS boring. Gonna boost this to a 1½
Peter Gabriel
5/5
Turns out I can be wrong. Very wrong.
Back in the day, when listening to an album meant financial commitment, I gave this a swerve — despite being a fully paid up Genesis fan.
I think it was 'Biko' that spooked me : too intense and serious (I was only 16). Joke’s on me, because now it sounds like one of the most powerful songs of the era.
'Jeux Sans Frontières', on the other hand, always had me hooked — and finding out years later that "she" did the backing vocals only made it better. Any album with Kate involved is already halfway to genius.
But beyond the songs, this record laid the concrete slab for the entire 1980s. Fairlight? Check. Gated reverb drums? Boom. (thanks, Phil Collins’ autobiography, for finally explaining what that noise is called)
So yes. I passed on it once.
I was an idiot.
It’s fabulous.
Not quite as good as So, but still a 5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
How old were they when they recorded this?
Between 20 and 24?
I didn't know who played the keyboards on this album and had to look it up. Jeez JPJ was talented, I had no idea. Of course they all were. It's a great debut album.
Yeah some of the tracks are a bit long (You Shook Me) and slow blues has never really grabbed me by the balls, but there's no doubting that they started something big, and even Dazed And Confused became an earworm. Whooda thunk.
4½
Metallica
4/5
No 10 minute 'where did the melody go' thrash marathons here. In fact I was 7 tracks in before I heard any of what I would call 'thrash' at all.
This as an album of polished growling melodies that you can hum in the shower (I did), but still heavy enough to rattle your teeth.
And it has 2 absolute classic rock tracks in Sandman and Nothing Else Matters.
I think this was the best thing Metallica ever did.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
4/5
You can't 'overproduce' an album in my opinion. If it sounds like an orgasm for the earoles then that's what I like.
This is really a Trevor Horn rather than a Frankie masterpiece.
The first record (of this double set) is fabulous, although it finishes badly with the embarassing 'Price Charles' skit. A real shame. The second has some excellent covers and and ends strongly with The Power Of Love.
I bought this album when it came out and played it a lot and it's been a welcome return to the pleasure dome.
Iron Butterfly
3/5
First impressions are of a group of bespectacled Austin Powers lookalikes in purple velvet suits. Very Doors sounding.
I adore the keyboards on this. The guitar isn't too bad either. Subsequent listens highlight the mediocrity of the bass, drums and vocal though.
Best track is the whole of side 2, although the drum solo spoils it a little, the keyboards ride to the rescue. I even caught a snippet of 'Good Rest Ye Merry Gentleman' in there.
Biggest selling US Album of 1968 you say? It's not bad, but that surprised me.
Foo Fighters
4/5
Coming straight off of Metallica's Black album, this sounded a little rough around the edges and like it was recorded in a bedroom in a week.
And hey presto it appears it was!
This is an impressive album for, literally, a one man band.
Credit to Mr. Grohl for taking a punt.
It paid off.
Slipknot
2/5
Great drumming. The rest is mainly noise.
There are some good bits, where it slows down for breath, but the best use for this album is to play in the car and let your passengers think you're a little bit whoa, little bit whey.
Madonna
4/5
It's only in the last 15 years that she's become a batty old diva. Before that she was still a diva but one who made some petty good albums.
I don't care too much for the autotune experiments, and the American Pie cover was brave, and ultimately a car crash, but the rest is ok.
3½
Emmylou Harris
2/5
The upbeat stuff is great. The downbeat stuff is a drag.
The Beatles cover in particular is so slow it almost grinds to a halt. Appreciated Mrs Mills on piano on the last track.
Unfortunately there's too much downbeat and little upbeat hence a sub-par score from me.
2½
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
The thing I don't understand is why they wanted to make a studio album sound live. Why not just record it live? Recording in the studio and adding crowd noise seems fake (bacause it is). And if you're in a studio why not use the facilities to get the best sound possible.
That being said, this was listenable, but I think it could have been done better and I didn't like being conned.
The White Stripes
2/5
I thought I'd like this.
But I didn't.
"My Doorbell" is a simplistic nursey rhyme of a track in the same shit league as Lennon's "Imagine". How either song became a hit is anybody's guess.
Other tracks are in a similar vein. The whole album sounds tinny and, although others have complimented the drumming, I found the drum sound is weak and like it's been recorded on a toy set. "Instinct Blues" is a tune up? And Meg White can't sing.
Anything else?
No I think I'm done here.
Fugees
1/5
Confession time. I just couldn't get the whole poetry thing when I was at school. So I'm not surprised that, what is essentially someone reading "poetry" over single bar repetitive samples doesn't float my boat.
But this isn't really poetry either. It's a lot of shouting, talking over each other, a bit of arguing, and a lot of "nigga"s and general potty mouthing. It also follows the standard hip-hop tedium formula of having 'skits' between tracks. Whoever thought of that idea needs poppin', know waaaaaaam sayin' know waaaaaam sayin'?
And if you're going to sample 'Recuerdos de la Alhambra', then why stick an out-of-sync drum beat over the top and totally gnore the rhythm of the tune itself? Fuckwits.
It's quite sad because Lauryn Hill has a nice voice when she uses it for singing.
Ok then stone me to death, because this is shite.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
4/5
I nice set of folky songs nicely sung.
I don't miss Young at all. His voice is too distinctive to integrate into the vocal harmonies of the other guys. Only dud on here is '49 Bye Byes', which just seems like afterthought filler.
The War On Drugs
3/5
Totally listenable.
But totally unmemorable.
I listened to this twice and I can't actually tell you anything about it.
But I wasn't praying for it to end, so it can't be that bad
Milton Nascimento
3/5
Nice tunes and nice singing. Not really made for me though. I appreciate world music, but I don't really want to listen to it more than once.
Kendrick Lamar
2/5
I used to smoke tabs walking from the rail station on schooldays. I didn't really like it but I though that when I walked past adults, they might think I was cool and hard.
Here is a record with tracks about wiping your arse, about my dick and with a "nigga" count of 115. Why? Is it a commentary about life in an American ghetto? Is it a social statement? No it's so you can play it very very loud, and hope that you're overheard by adults and they might think that you are cool and hard.
I'm an adult now and know that I looked like a dickhead.
(1½ for some of the tunes being listenable - even if they are rudely interrupted)
Michael Kiwanuka
4/5
I can't help thinking that with better marketing he might be a lot more successful. The album art isn't particulrly flattering. But this is a good listen with some fine songs.
Randy Newman
3/5
It's a bit shocking to hear the N word in the opening track, but I understand the satirical intention of the song and am aware that this album is 50 years old. I'm offended by the use of that word in any music, whether it's satire or the supposedly 'reclaimed' excuse that hiphop uses.
Sad, though, that Randy Newman's legacy is likely to be as the 'ToyStory' guy rather than his great singer/songwriting.
Gram Parsons
1/5
When you're praying an album to end half way through the first track then you know you're in trouble. There was "rock" in this? Well I fucking didn't hear any!
This twangy steel guitar country sound isn't my favourite, generally speaking, and so when he's singing half of the tracks out of tune (presumably stoned) then it's not going to make things better. Emmylou Harris is ok. She should've steered clear though.
Iron Maiden
5/5
In my collection (ok so I taped it off my step-brother)
Probably the absolute best album (and band) to come out of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, and easily the most successful.
Hard and melodic. I think the production is good too even though tha band have since slagged it off. Paul Di'Anno was a great singer and it's a shame he went off the rails on drugs and got fired.
I lost interest in Iron Maiden when they replaced Di'Anno with Bruce Dickinson after Killers. I never rated Samson, his previous band, and thought he was far too operatic. What the hell do I know!
Talvin Singh
2/5
This is the sort of soundscape I [was asked to] put into a lighting/loudspeaker control app for 'wellbeing' and all that mumbo jumbo.
It's pleasant as background music. Probably even innovative. Then we get talky bits. Then the female wailing begins.
Like a quiz show money countdown clock, the rating gets lower and lower as the album continues. Started a 4. Finished as a 2
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
2/5
Album cover just makes me think of him (and his buddy) sitting around a campfire eating beans.
A shitter Bob Dylan, without the songwriting talent.
Talking Heads
4/5
I alway wanted David Byrne's masssive suit. Enjoyed this lots. Never boring.
Beatles
5/5
We Boomers born in the mid 60's are just a bit too young to have bought and listened to Beatles albums at the time of release and just a bit too old to have been brainwashed by their "legend" aura.
During my teen/twenties years of being heavily influenced by music they were always a has-been band with some good songs. My only exposure to them was the endless radio play and wedding djs. So it's been nice to listen to Beatles albums as they were intended, and to place the 'famous' tracks into their original setting.
Of the tracks I've never heard before...
Oh Darling: Oh it's just formulaic blues shite. It really could be anyone. Absolutely nothing special and a real disappointment.
I Want You : What? An 8 minute prog epic? By The Beatles? Wow. Superb.
Because: A nice gentle ballad. Hated the synth bit though.
The "Medley". I had no idea that this existed. I did know Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight, but the whole medley end to end is wonderful.
Of the tracks I knew (i.e. the rest) - just Beatles classics. I suppose I'll never know what I would think of them if I heard them for the first time because they are just ingrained. Which is probably why they are legends.
Conclusion: Not perfect. Oh Darling sucks. Because could be better. Its a 4½, but because it's the Beatles...
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
This surprised me a lot. I never knew the Manics had such a heavy sound or were so lyrically deep.
Both of these things make this album very listenable.
Plus I never knew their back story.
I want to give this album a 5 for surprising me so much. But it's not quite there for me yet (after only 2 listens). I will listen again in a week or so and may come back and rescore...
Dizzee Rascal
2/5
You get a lot of words for your buck - and not one of those is the 'n' word
This is surprisingly listenable, although gets a bit repetitive and is a tad too long (a side effect of being made for CD release).
But it makes a nice change to hear hiphop/rap/grime (or whatever you want to call this particular flavour of talking on top of music) without endless profanities and offence.
2½
Justice
3/5
I love a bit of heavy dance music and I love quite a lot of this.
The heavy bass line cooks, but the tinny choice of top end sounds burned into my ears. I tried both on boombox and headphones and it makes no difference, it just hurts in places. The kids on "D.A.N.C.E." in particular are grating - that's a skip.
Actually this album got better the longer it went. I've added it to my list of re-listens, but for now it's a 3.
Mudhoney
4/5
I'm only going to review the original 23 minute album as the addition of the "...plus early singles" drags it down, and I have no interest whatsoever in the live tracks added to the "deluxe" version so I'm not ever going to bother with that.
Raw, punky, grungy and a great listen. I respect the band's choice of releasing just 6 tracks originally - because these are by far the best sounding and best produced.
I would guess it was the record company who decided to add the "early singles" to fill up a CD release? It was the wrong decision.
The Zutons
4/5
The only thing I know about the Zutons is "Valerie" (which isn't on this album). And Amy Winehouse did that better. What is on this album are 5 singles I've never heard of. So I'm not expecting much.
So how wrong am I? Very. There's nothing utterly killer on here. But it's all very listenable and catchy.
3½
Buck Owens
3/5
Quite an upbeat, fun, album. Even the 'woe is me' tracks didn't make me want to slit my wrists. The guitar wor is very good and he sings in tune.
Not something I'd ever listen too again, but I appreciate talent.
Jack White
4/5
He seems so much better without the tinny drums and voice of Meg.
None of the songs are duds, or samey (although Freedom At 21 had a definite 7 Nation Army vibe about it).
I see now that I rated Elephant a 4. I can't give this anything less (and I should give it more)
Def Leppard
2/5
NWOBHM sellouts
Ok so that's a bit hard. If I had a band, went across the pond, and got offered truckloads of money and girls then I'd probably sell my soul too.
There's a couple of strong songs on this album, but after Animal it all gets very samey - hair, shoulder pads, reverb, and vocal harmonies. All very stateside sellout.
Guys, you're from the steel city FFS! Have some self respect!
The drum sound is poor. And I'm gonna get controversial here... When I go to gigs, I like to watch a good drummer. I don't want to see a one armed guy on a Mouse Trap Game kit. The band deserve some credit for looking after their mate - but maybe just give him a future percentage and get someone else that can do a proper job. Sorry. Harsh.
Not strong enough to be classed as Dad rock. Mom rock yes. Bored.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
I didn't think I liked any reggae. And I'm not sure I like all reggae. But this is heavy mellow and good shit and relaxing as hell.
All I need now is a beach, a comfortable sofa chair, a large Wray and coke and a massive spliff.