This is one of those special albums right there on the cusp of something greater. While Nevermind would be the album that changed the world just a couple months later, without Mudhoney and Surfer Rosa by the Pixies, you don't have it at all. This is the purest look at what the folk up in Seattle were cooking at the tail end of the 80's glam rock and hair metal overindulgence and taking a page from the books of punk and alternative rock that fell right under the periphery. This is exactly the album that comes to mind when people want to talk about the whole Sub pop grunge thing.

Two brothers who didn't play around. Not the first or most influential glam, arena rock, etc band of the time, but Eddie's guitar skills are unmatched, much like Hendrix a decade before. While the albums after this one can be a mixed bag as a whole, this one doesn't let up for a second and is the kind of debut you want to hear. Running With the Devil is a solid start, but always felt like Eruption/You Really Got Me would have made a bigger statement for the band's debut, and the riffs across every track show he was a step above his contemporaries in play, while still writing songs with a blend of catchy hooks and technical prowess.

Getitawaygetitawaygetitaway now!

I hold so much appreciation for these formative albums. I feel like Raising Hell and eventually their contemporaries in Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, LL Cool J are better musically, but this album comes before all of that in time when Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were first experimenting with this style, Run DMC shows the very foundation that would change the landscape of hiphop forever. Oh and right from the start with Rock Box sampling the guitar riff we saw what would eventually merge the genres together, which has always been a completion of the circle with rock and hiphops ancestral roots in jazz and blues music mixed with developing technologies of the 70's. Turntablism and sampling was a game changer with music and too many people sleep on just how important these albums are even if musically they may seem a lot more primitive. If we consider NWA's Straight Outta Compton the "Nevermind" of hiphop (in that it's an album that changed the landscape of the genre both artistically and commercially), then this album is closer to The Stooge's Fun House or MC5's Kick Out the Jams where you can link back to it as some of the most important albums that inspired the earliest generations of their styles and were already pioneering the definitive style of hiphop in this album years before most of their contemporaries.

First perfect score, and well deserved. What is there to say about this album? Talking Heads were innovating music in the 80's right from the start of the decade with this magnum opus that holds up 45 years later. It's complex, thought provoking, and resonant in ways that a lot of bands dream to be. Side A is a very technical display of polyrhythmic delights and an almost fluid stream of consciousness style where the band explores all sorts of themes and moods in their signature way before Side B kicks in with the band's two leading singles, one of the places where Talking Head's unique flavor stands out even among the radio hits as they challenge the listener with its experimental vibe and poignant lyrics over an otherwise upbeat 80's classic. I never grow tired of Once in a Lifetime just like I never grow tired of Psycho Killer or Burning Down the House from the following album.

Björk - Vespertine 3/5. Björk explaining how tvs work: 5/5

Driving 130km/h into the future. Fun fun fun on the autobahn.

25 years hasn’t let this age well. This album in its day brought a legion of angsty young white men to relate to an album mired in homophobia and misogyny. Stan is an all right track, but musically this does very little and lyrically it’s offensive.

Banger album from God herself.

Here’s the beef!

Is it normal to have an erection lasting the entire duration of this album?

Mom can we listen to the Beatles? "We already have the beatles at home." The Beatles at home: