13/1001 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience is definitely the Ocarina of Time of psychedelic rock. Both revolutionized the landscapes they were a part of and also Jimi and Link are both left-handed. Great improvisations, catchy melodies.
63/1001 - Guitar and singing was cool but they need to find a drummer who knows more than one fill. Songs got better as the album went on. I liked it overall.
94/1089 - Kinda fun to piece together this album (seems to be a mistake/oversight on the bookmaker's part). Jazz fusion is one of my favorite genres for some reason so I really enjoyed listening to this. So much variety in sounds and harmonies while still retaining catchy melodies and a great voice. I'm gonna listen again in the normal order (from the 1972/3? album).
109/1089 - This Charlatans album sucked and was very derivative so I'll recommend some other albums that are influential/interesting and are not currently on the user list: Bill Evans Trio - Portrait in Jazz (1960) : Changed the game for jazz combos by allowing every member to contribute as a "leader," instead of just the melodic instruments. (I like "Explorations" better but this one is more historically important) Mort Garson - Mother Earth's Plantasia (1975) : Early electronic “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” made with an early Moog synthesizer. Chock-full of optimism. Take 6 - Take 6 (1988) : Debut album of a gospel a'cappella group which had a big influence on modern vocal harmonies. Stereolab - Dots and Loops (1996) : One of the first albums made with a digital audio workstation. Cool blend of experimental and accessible sounds. Gorillaz - Demon Days (2005) : Loose concept album with a cool blend of alternative rock, trip-hop, and dance-pop. It also has "Feel Good Inc." Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon (2015) : Neo-soul group with a very eclectic sound and a strong vocalist. Tennyson - Rot (2022) : Experimental electronic music by a brother (producer, vocalist) and sister (drums) duo. Amazing production skills and intriguing vocal effects. I've found a lot of the songs translate well to piano as well.
1/1001 - Mildly enjoyed it. Nothing super memorable.
2/1001 - Not a fan of Hetfield's voice or Metal in general. Can cut 30 seconds off the start of many songs without losing coherence. However, the Enter Sandman riff is cool and the music is overall well produced/competently made. Solos are alright.
3/1001 - Voice is very nice, not a fan of the lip smacking though. The yelling on the final song at the end was bizarre. Other than that, very nice guitar playing with tasteful orchestration sketches throughout. Overall an enjoyable experience.
4/1001 The start of the loudness wars. It's alright. It was refreshing when Noel sang one of the songs instead of Liam.
5/1001 An enjoyable experience! It seemed a tad-bit samey with some of the songs having a similar drumbeat and tempo. On the other hand, "Money" is stuck in my head! What a catchy bassline.
6/1001 - Biggie's rapping is right in the pocket. The skits seemed unessecary, the album would have worked with just the songs. A lot of the instrumentals were nice too. (One of them switched tunings a lot of the time for some reason).
7/1001 - The instrumentals were better than the repetitive vocal songs. "Two Hearts in 3/4 Time" was in 6/8 time. Enjoyed it more than I thought I would!
8/1001 - Instrumentals are alright but the screaming/moaning vocals are annoying.
9/1001 - Byrd's guitar playing is really creative and compliments the other instruments well. Not a fan of Getz's sound (way too much subtone, almost like a classical saxophone player!). Overall a cool introduction of Bossa Nova to U.S. audiences.
10/1001 - The acoustic songs work better than the electric ones (the fuzz guitar stands out in a bad way). Tracks are very inconsistent (instrumentation-wise amd quality-wise) which makes sense given the tension and isolation of the band members throughout recording this. It's okay overall.
11/1001 - The rhythms, textures, and riffs are homogenous and could be more interesting throughout with more variation instead of relying on background woosh effects.
12/1001 - It feels like most film music to me: the vocals are the most important thing (Beyoncé has good technique) and all of the other surrounding instruments have to have no rhythmic activity (or repeat the beat with barely any variation). Some songs were more interesting to me "Haunted", "No Angel", and "Blue".
13/1001 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience is definitely the Ocarina of Time of psychedelic rock. Both revolutionized the landscapes they were a part of and also Jimi and Link are both left-handed. Great improvisations, catchy melodies.
14/1001 - Sounds like this band would've been fun to see live. Voices sound a bit weird, but it kinda works! Backing instruments are solid.
15/1001 - Not my style of music for sure but the guitar playing is good (voice is not since it keeps the same quality for the entire record). It makes sense why it was influential.
16/1001 - The jazz music is cool. His voice timbre is too strange for me. Unsure if I'm looking forward to 8 more albums of Bowie.
17/1001 - Skits/intro "shop-talk" were unessecary. Background improvisations/comping sounded great. Seems like a good reference for writing country music. Much better in two different listening sessions with Disc 1 and Disc 2, still too long.
18/1001 - I wish there weren't any strings. The parts would sound much better on electric guitar or piano (maybe electric piano too.) Once there are too many classical musicians in the room, it gets hard to do "feel" based music like soul or rock and the rhythm of the song suffers. Other than that, the harmonies are really cool combined with Springfield's smooth voice.
19/1001 - Voice is too high and has a weird effect on it that is quite grating. Instrumentals are alright (technically very proficient).
20/1001 - I liked this more than I thought I would. Chromatic riffs were cool and the backing instrumentals had a great sense pocket. Wasn't a fan of the sex moans/noises or the lower backing vocal.
21/1001 - Improved as it went on. Kind of reminded me of Eric Whitacre choral pieces, swap the voices with distorted guitar. Drumming is very simplistic/same-y. I don't get the appeal but I also don't dislike it.
22/1001 - Fun and catchy. It would be nice if songs had B sections/more variation instead of pretty much removing or adding parts. Voice is good and some effects were cool to hear.
23/1001 - I like the guitar fills. Normally I do not like redundancy too much, but I think it's done well here due to the variation in comping and "microshifts" inbetween the various phrases. I don't listen to reggae much so it was really interesting to listen to, especially with it's non-standard drum patterns (backbeat is in a different place).
24/1001 - Inoffensive but quite boring. The music seems like it was produced well. Definitely "80s" sounding (and quite influential) which I dislike, but there aren't too many reverb-caked snare drums in this which is nice.
25/1001 - Not sure why this is on here. In terms of influential music, it seems "Doolittle" by the Pixies, did the dynamic shifts first. Other than that, I never liked how "talk-singing" sounded. Pick one or the other. Instrumentals are either boring noisiness or ugly Penderecki sounding contemporary-classical strings.
26/1001 - It's alright. Voice has too much vibrato for my liking.
27/1001 - Instrumentals sounded cool on the first song but then the voice came in and I was immediately disappointed. The singer is consistently flat throughout all of the songs, and the instrumentals become a lot more boring and passive. "Jesus, Etc." was alright though.
28/1001 - The weird intro was more fun than the large sections of jamming with mostly uninteresting solos. Singer is very British (gonna have to get use to that on this list). Last song was kinda cool but the intro was too long and then a random piano intro started and I realized there was 8 more minutes of the same song again!
29/1001 - Enough with the sex skits. That being said, the beats weren't bad (though a couple sounded like Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg which threw me off and the "Funky Worm" (moog saw-wave with some glide) is quite irritating). Just got to the end of "Murder Was the Case". Going down a point for that high-pitched tinnitus crap.
30/1001 - Energy is super high and fun. I like how the high octane rapping contrasts with the relaxed jazz and soul samples. This has some good variety due to the many different rappers contributing to this album. A few interludes seemed a bit unnecessary but they were luckily short.
31/1001 - I never could get into Miles Davis. He for sure is an important person in jazz music, being a pioneering many styles (cool jazz, modal jazz, fusion, etc.), but his trumpet technique wasn't as good compared to his contemporaries, and I personally prefer proficiency a lot of the time over "new sounds." That being said, this album was influential to jazz and enjoyable to listen to (despite some occasional rhythmic sloppiness in the large ensemble).
32/1001 - I try to be analytical while reviewing, but this album struck me with a strong personal response of complete neutral-ness. This is one of the most average albums I've heard. It sounds well made, they know their instruments and voices, but I don't feel one way or the other at the end of the day.
33/1001 - This was very enjoyable. The songs seemed largely on the shorter side but they were compact. I'm gonna learn "English Rose" on piano.
34/1001 - Guitar wanking, some okay funk-rock, and a bunch of screaming and farting over an unchanging cowbell groove.
35/1001 - A lot of the problems I had with "Rid of Me" aren't present in this album. Some instrumentals are still on the safe/boring side: providing a "bed of sound" for the voice instead of reacting to it (which to me is a lot of the fun in rock). The Thom Yorke duet was neat. I liked it more than I thought I would.
36/1001 - Seems somewhat derivative of Radiohead but I mildly enjoyed it.
37/1001 - Suprisingly jazzy! Lots of variation in all the types of songs and the effects were cool.
38/1001 - First song is 11 minutes long where nothing happens for 7 minutes, drums come in, then nothing happens for 5 minutes. Panning is super hard left and right. There are some cool things here and there but there's also way too much vamping/repetition of the same idea without any meaningful variation and it gets stale.
39/1001 - Before listening: Sometimes I'd try to imagine what the worst possible yet acceptable music is. Drum beats that aren't quite in time, messy guitars all over the place, random whooshing synths, incoherent vocalist, etc. Anyways, I listened to Joy Division and it was the bad music I was imagining the whole time! That being said, one of my friends said New Order is better than Joy Division so I'll do my best to be unbiased. After listening: comes across to me as unfocused to have okay rock songs and dance songs. Maybe if the songs were inter-weaved (like the piano and IDM in "drukQs" by Aphex Twin) I'd like it more. Definitely better to my ears than "Unknown Pleasures" was.
40/1001 - Can't understand the vocals (strong de-esser or lisp?). Can understand the loud and awesome guitars drums and flat sax.
41/1001 - I thought I'd get filtered by 80's music (especially the reverb snares and absolutely everything having some sort of chorus effect) but I'm warming up to it/reevaluating my idea of what 80's music is. This has a lot of cool basslines, lots of syncopation and call and response between instruments. Side note: Save a Prayer has a really cool minor-third substitution (F# minor to B minor then F# minor to D minor). Rio gets a bit same-y sometimes but the ones that stand out really do stand out (got better on side two).
42/1001 - I honestly don't know what I was expecting. Hard to hear the lyrics, but everything else is fine I guess. The ducking of the instrumentals was weird and noticeable.
43/1001 - Texturally homogenous and not particularly interesting given the amount of songs.
44/1001 - Weird sounding upright piano. I recognize that it's objectively good/well sung (the production and recording is pretty awful though, lots of weird compression and clipping artifacts) but I didn't like it very much.
45/1001 - Cool and unique instrumentation but not a good voice and pretty uninteresting songwriting.
46/1001 - This was somewhat enjoyable. The songs got VERY repetitive at times and I'd like to hear more vocal/dynamic variation and a lot more melodic variation.
47/1001 - Not a fan of the children's choir. Or the voice or the instrumentation or the songwriting. Was looking forward to this based on the description but the Debussy and Bartok influence seems superficial at best.
48/1001 - Would be better if he wasn't flat all the time. Very average.
49/1001 - A little better than Doolittle (less screaming/makes more sense when screaming happens). Song structure seems samey.
50/1001 - I might need to re-listen. That went in one ear and out the other. Sounded okay but hard to hear lyrics.
51/1001 - I listened to a "dynamic edit" by reddit user TopConcern because of the crazy clipping and weirdness going on in the original recording. (I realize it's intentional to sound like older Motown records, but I think there's a difference between using old equipment (sounds fine) and making things sorta sound like old equipment (sounds uncanny)). Not a huge fan of her voice (specifically the way she articulates vowels) but it fits the genre. Winehouse and the backing musicians have great rhythm and feel.
52/1001 - Started cool but got long-winded and same-y the longer it went on. With the exception of the free-form guitar song (I don't have an opinion on it. You probably had to be there in the 60s amongst all the counter-culture and psychadelia stuff to see this as something cool or worthwhile I'm guessing).
53/1001 - British James Hetfield voice and sloppy musicianship.
54/1001 - I really should have excluded Metal when I started this project. It's clear to me that I don't like the genre and as a result I'll end up muddying the ratings for any metal albums in a non-objective way. On the other hand, I can sorta see why this album was influential (some songs are very samey unfortunately like the first and last track).
55/1001 - Paint it Black was cool. I could hear the unique instruments used on the various tracks and how they added to the songs but I didn't find them very interesting for whatever reason. I'll probably listen again another time.
56/1001 - Some cool melodies here and there but I wish it was played by better musicians.
57/1001 - I listened to her cover of Radiohead's "Black Star" first to get an idea of her sound. Honest competent guitar playing (two guitarists for sure on the album). Not a fan of the vocals and the last song could've been half as long (or a quarter since it was the same instrumental for 14 minutes).
58/1001 - I should have realized this earlier but I now know this list isn't a "here are albums that influenced music list" or anything like that. To be fair, it is harder to determine which albums have more "staying power" the closer it gets to the present day and music today in the 20s is in a weird place societally. I don't like this album but I respect the musicianship and competency of the musicians.
59/1001 - The tenor saxophonist needs to practice long notes in the low register. Didn't like the picardy third ending on "John Barleycorn." Sequencing seemed weird to me, would be more accessible to start with a song with vocals instead of an instrumental jam. Other than that, I liked this album quite a lot; they have a great flute player and pianist.
60/1001 - Great voice. I like the rock instrumentation and the different genre songs like "Solidify" and "We Do What We Can." It is missing something and I'm not sure what (experimentation with different song forms, dynamics, general excitement, etc.).
61/1001 - All the songs have very similar structures but feel different and nicely varied because of the different tempos and textural choices of the musicians. Energy is great throughout.
62/1001 - Nothing happened but it wasn't awful sounding.
63/1001 - Guitar and singing was cool but they need to find a drummer who knows more than one fill. Songs got better as the album went on. I liked it overall.
64/1001 - Music has little substance and becomes redundant fast. Very competent drummer.
65/1001 - Messy and samey. Opening track is very good.
66/1001 - Competent band but that's about it. Squeaky end to the first track (fit the song imo).
67/1001 - Strange. A mix of genuinely good techno (Sad But True) and baby's first fl studio beat (Kein Trink Wasser). Good outweighs the bad in this instance.
68/1001 - Lots of TR-909 and repetition on this one. I heard Discovery and RAM are better albums from them and I'll give them a listen. Around the World and Burnin' were cool.
69/1001 - Beastie Boys walked so Eminem could crawl.
70/1001 - I liked it but don't understand why it's on the list. It's a bit repetitive but there's enough different layers and musical ideas to keep the songs from becoming too samey.
71/1001 - I think this will grow on me. Very coherent instrumentation (can definitely hear the Reich influence) which is rare for indie music in my experience. I would have appreciated more loud vocals in certain places ad wasn't a big fan of the odd-time stuff but that's just my personal preference and not really a problem with the music.
72/1001 - One reason I dislike the 80's gated-reverb snare is how artificial it sounds in rock music. It makes the drums sound like I'm listening in a large bathroom instead of a normal room or a concert venue. Songwriting seems fine but the 80s sound takes me out of the album.
73/1001 - What the hell, pop music used to be so cool! Now it's just for girls and gays :(
74/1001 - The out of tune horns took me out of it a little. Otherwise, very straightforward reggae music.
75/1001 - Something sounds weird with the mixing or it might be my ears since I can't currently hear high-frequencies due to sinus issues. I'll listen again. Some good straightforward funk music but a bit too much synth noodling for me.
76/1001 - In my previous Beastie Boys album, I made a joke review which I now regret. I still didn't like "Licensed to Ill" (not a fan of stock 808 sounds and jokey covers although Paul Revere was cool due to the reversed sounds, and Eminem still sucks). This one was better overall (the QTip feature, Sure Shot, and Sabotage were especially cool) but I feel they overall missed one of the core points of jazz music: exploration of a set of ideas. Most jazz songs have a "head" (the melody), and go through solos over the chords of the head creating a sort of Theme and Variations for each player to contribute their ideas. There are too many short ideas for this aspect of jazz music (the main inspiration of Ill Communication) to be successfully achieved.
77/1089 - I don't really understand prison performances. On one hand, the pro of prison performances is treating prisons as a place of rehabilitation and providing some sort of societal connection to make it easier for prisoners returning to society possibly decreasing the chances they become repeat offenders. On the other hand... you're playing for murderers! I'll do my best to put my biases aside and listen only to the music. After listening to this recording, I found the music to be just okay. It seemed well done for the genre it was and the murderers seemed to have fun, but it was also very samey and predictable.
78/1089 - Great bass player. Cool comping on piano (both acoustic and electric), and a nice amount of variation given the genre constraints.
Smart use of effects to cover up Ozzy Osbourne's pitchy vocals. Some cool songwriting throughout. I also liked the more subdued drum groove on "Hand of Doom." It might grow on me.
80/1089 - Kinda reminds me of Stereolab. Cool bass-lines, drum breaks, and chords and I thought the canon thing in the middle was quite unique. For sure has a dated sound with the primitive electronic instruments complimenting the 60s recording. I didn't really understand all the found sounds and calliopes but it didn't get too in the way of the psychedelic experiments.
81/1089 - Good but samey.
82/1089 - I'm glad it was short and didn't have any skits.
83/1089 - I liked this one the best so far out of the Pixies albums on the list. Still not a fan of the main singer's voice and some chord changes seemed weird for the sake of being weird (lots of parallel shifts from major to minor that work fine theoretically but sound off-putting in execution) but I think I understand what they're about a bit better (granted this is the most mainstream sounding of their albums). I might re-listen to the other Pixies albums with this in mind at the end of this project.
84/1089 - Sounds like your average classical composition major senior recital. I didn't enjoy this.
85/1089 - I liked this a lot. I wish there was more micro-variation in the actual beats and that "Say Your Prayers" didn't have a flexatone every 4 bars. These wishes are more my taste than fundamental problems with the music however which is very solid throughout.
86/1089 - The drummer in this band stole my Dad's socks at the gym. Anyways on to the review: It's okay. Some good songwriting here and there but some very homogeneous sounds throughout.
87/1089 - Eh. Would've benefited from trimming the fat and making the story more concise. Pinball Wizard was cool.
88/1089 - I prefer the Ravel orchestration. The Tchaikovsky "Nut Rocker" song kinda reminded me of "Cliffs of Dover" at parts.
89/1089 - Why the interludes? Good music.
90/1089 - I like Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin's versions better. Overall it was okay.
91/1089 - This sure is blues rock.
92/1089 - Fuzzy. This might get me used to Bowie's voice (they're similar and work a lot together), interested to listen to more. Wish more songs were like China Girl and had some dynamic/instrumental variation throughout.
93/1089 - Pretty boring, but I'm used to his voice now which will make listening to 7 more Bowie albums more bearable.
94/1089 - Kinda fun to piece together this album (seems to be a mistake/oversight on the bookmaker's part). Jazz fusion is one of my favorite genres for some reason so I really enjoyed listening to this. So much variety in sounds and harmonies while still retaining catchy melodies and a great voice. I'm gonna listen again in the normal order (from the 1972/3? album).
95/1089 - A Top 5 album for me. Very creative and catchy instrumentals, lots of different vocals from Damon Albarn and others (even the ones that sound bad/out of tune like "Gravity" fit the context of the song) and a definitive Y2K sound and message.
96/1089 - Not horrible but not a fan of the voice.
97/1089 - Amazing soloists. Cool harmonies. Crowd was loving it. A fun live album to listen to.
98/1001 - Read that they vowed to not do drugs or alcohol... Nice, that's rare in rock music. The music itself dosen't "ramble" like they mention in their interviews but also doesn't go anywhere either. Voice was a little annoying at first but I got used to it.
99/1089 - "Rid of Me" with distortion and slurs.
100/1089 - The Bossa compositions are good but I'm not a fan of the players. Both singers are super dry and lifeless to my ears. I never liked Stan Getz's "subtone-only" sax sound and playstyle either. That being said, I get why it's on the list and I enjoy playing these songs on piano every once in a while.
101/1089 - Went in one ear and out the other.
102/1089 - Ah, the last one before MI5 installed the new Paul McCartney. One of the more consistent of the experimental Beatles albums. The first and last songs are really great. Cool sonic textures throughout with reversed guitar solo, string octet, sitar, tabla, french horn, canons, vocals through a leslie speaker, etc.
103/1089 - My first Björk album so far. Pretty good but very washy textures throughout. Would have appreciated more drier staccatto sounds at points.
104/1089 - Very similar to Radiohead's "The Bends" but mellower and with a worse-sounding accent. That being said, "The Bends" is one of my favorite albums so I enjoyed this one too.
105/1089 - Wait a minute, this isn't new wave... (It's actually boring proto-britpop nonsense).
106/1089 - Take out the repeated sax/trumpet/nails-on-chalkboard/tea-kettle sample and all the interludes with absolutely nothing going on and it goes up a star or two. Annoying as fuck to listen to.
107/1089 - It was alright. "Laughing" kinda reminded me of The Police so I really enjoyed that song over most of the album.
108/1089 - This sure is 80s music.
109/1089 - This Charlatans album sucked and was very derivative so I'll recommend some other albums that are influential/interesting and are not currently on the user list: Bill Evans Trio - Portrait in Jazz (1960) : Changed the game for jazz combos by allowing every member to contribute as a "leader," instead of just the melodic instruments. (I like "Explorations" better but this one is more historically important) Mort Garson - Mother Earth's Plantasia (1975) : Early electronic “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” made with an early Moog synthesizer. Chock-full of optimism. Take 6 - Take 6 (1988) : Debut album of a gospel a'cappella group which had a big influence on modern vocal harmonies. Stereolab - Dots and Loops (1996) : One of the first albums made with a digital audio workstation. Cool blend of experimental and accessible sounds. Gorillaz - Demon Days (2005) : Loose concept album with a cool blend of alternative rock, trip-hop, and dance-pop. It also has "Feel Good Inc." Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon (2015) : Neo-soul group with a very eclectic sound and a strong vocalist. Tennyson - Rot (2022) : Experimental electronic music by a brother (producer, vocalist) and sister (drums) duo. Amazing production skills and intriguing vocal effects. I've found a lot of the songs translate well to piano as well.
110/1089 - Singer is out of tune and the songs are repetitive dance songs. Surprisingly didn't hate it though, and I understand why it's on the list (kind of a proto-Screamadelica sound).
111/1089 - Multiply the generator number by 6. Liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I think this is because Bruce Dickinson's voice is a lot cleaner than a lot of metal singers (that I've heard). Music is also quite good, tight players.
112/1089 - Great drummer. Vocals are very quiet and it adds to the "spaciness." Hits the right balance of experimental and familiar to me.
113/1089 - Well I liked London Calling and the first two Gorillaz albums but I wasn't a fan of this. Kind of all over the place; middle part seemed better than the beginning and end.
114/1089 - Competent but samey.
115/1089 - What an awful voice. At least it was a short album. The more energetic songs barely save this from 1 star.
116/1089 - This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but his accent is very thick. A problem with a lot of singer-songwriter types is they focus so much on words/story that their actual melodies aren't memorable or musical. While there definitely was some English folk influence (and a rip of "Rudie Can't Fail" on "Help Save the Youth of America") in the melodies, nothing was catchy to my ear.
117/1089 - Music is decent. Not a huge fan of the voice but it doesn't sound bad. The a'cappella track "As Yet Untitled" was alright. I honestly think I'm burnt out on most 80s pop sounds (except for New Wave, the best genre) because of all the 80s throwback music today in shopping centers.
118/1089 - All I know about this band is that the lead singer is an annoying vegan. After listening: not bad! Kinda reminds me of the Cranberries lead singer for some reason. I think the melody notes stay on the same pitch too much throughout all the songs, making them directionless at times. Also all of the songs blend into each other (except for the funk one near the end, but that's mainly the bass player adding variety) and don't really stand out.
119/1089 - I don't care how influential this was to synth pop. I'm not rating midi saxophone above 1 star. The other songs on the album were also awful. In order to not make my 1 star notes too negative, I decided I'm gonna recommend albums I like that aren't on the list (like my Charlatans note). Toto - Toto (1978) A band of solid session musicians making some cool genre-blending songs (mainly rock, pop, soul, some synth stuff). Some stand out songs are "I'll Supply The Love" "Georgy Porgy" and "Hold the Line" but I like pretty much every song on this album.
120/1089 - The more I listen to Clapton the more convinced I am that people like him because he has a cool name and nothing to do with the boring music. This album is well made and recorded however which evens it out somewhat.
121/1089 - Sounds like she's singing through a fan. Lots of songs seemed to blend into eachother but it wasn't bad.
122/1089 - Production is good but that's about it. The problem with strophic form songs is you need to offset the lack of different sections with strong melodies. This is why folk songs work well and screaming doesn't. At least a minute could be cut off of each song and it gets the point across the same. And now for a different album to neutralize my negativity: Brecker Brothers - Out of the Loop (1994): One of the greatest saxophonist players and his cool trumpet brother mess around with tape loops and world music to make some awesome sounds. My favorite on it is "African Skies." Has some nice surreal album art too if you're into that sorta thing.
123/1089 - I never got the appeal of Kendrick. My favorite hip-hop is "A Tribe Called Quest" and East Coast rap. I mainly like the jazzy beats and swung vocal delivery. With that out of the way, I'm willing to give this album another shot. After listening, I dislike the skits and don't understand why hip-hop artists put them in (De La Soul being an exception because they at least add music to it). Kendrick doesn't look like OJ, that's as delusional as Soulja Boy's "bitch I look like Gohan" lyric. Some songs seem fine but he ruins it with his best Squidward impression on the choruses. Overall I didn't like it but I'm glad I listened to this.
124/1089 - Neat! I'm completely unfamiliar with this, excited to listen. After listening, it's pretty westernized (drum beats mostly except for one of the last songs) and kinda doesn't go anywhere. Good voice though.
125/1089 - Sade but more boring than relaxing.
126/1089 - Eh. It's experimental hip-hop for sure. I don't care for the kid/chipmunk voices. Got better in the middle. Would trade this for a DOOM album.
127/1089 - Good start of the album. Pow R. Toc H. is cool bird imitations followed by the most dull piano solo. Overall pretty good but the guitarist is kinda sloppy.
128/1089 - Cool! Still in chronological order for Björk. Let's see how long that lasts. Strange in a good way. I like that the pitches of the percussive instruments come first with the harmonies built around them. Lots of different genres represented with a focus on more "out-there" harmonies like add 2s or diminished chords.
129/1089 - The switch between screaming and singing is irritating. Drumming is flashy, obviously takes a lot of effort to be good enough to sound like that but I'm not sure I enjoy how it sounds. At least they were relatively nice to Nardwuar. No good reason for this to be on the list as other nu-metal albums are more influential, so -1 star for that too. On the bright side, my reviews 125-129 is a straight! Non-list recommendation: I am using one of my free four album recommendations from the Charlatans notes - (Demon Days - Gorillaz).
130/1089 - Well it sounds like pop music. I read that this album was made "ironically" which I call total bullshit on. You can't do things "ironically," that's just a smokescreen for doing what you want to do without others judging you. Maybe you can start things out ironically, but putting that much effort into releasing an album definitely takes willpower and some genuine love and respect for what you decide to record. I obviously am putting my own experiences and viewpoints into writing this but I am so sick of irony permeating society and the people I interact with on a day-to-day basis. Got off track from the review, well made pop music but not really my thing and seems frontloaded.
131/1089 - I'm going against the grain here but this is honestly one of the weaker Zeppelin albums for me. The songwriting overall is very redundant (slightly related too is Side A is all in the same key of A minor [arguably there are some A major ones I guess but it's still all A]), and I'm not a fan of the constant starting and stopping on Black Dog. Stairway to Heaven is good but definitely overplayed and the start and end of When the Levee Breaks was pretty cool.
132/1089 - Woah! What are the odds of getting two albums by the same artist back to back? I know it gets more likely as you go on with the project so it's pretty cool it happened early on for me! On to the review, it started strong. Honestly, Immigrant Song, Friends, and Since I've Been Loving You are worth the 5 on their own. The folksier B side was nice overall and a little strange on the last song (but it makes sense with historical context).
133/1089 - Drums should be much louder in the mix. I can see why they were influential and all but this was really boring to listen to. All the songs sound the same and themselves have redundant forms and similar tempos. Dissonance is fine and all but if you repeat it too much, the listener gets used to it and the dissonance starts to become consonant. Having a balance between consonance and dissonance is a key part to having music that actually takes you somewhere (not to mention rhythm, register, form, etc.).
134/1089 - 80s pop with sperg-out vocals.
135/1089 - One of my favorite albums! The wurlitzer-riff on Where It's At pops in my head all the time. Cool experimental folk/hip-hop music that covers a lot of genres with finesse. In addition to tasteful instrument fills there's the most random crap like yelling through a megaphone, vehicle warning beeps, or a bitcrushed? jaw-harp which really complement the sound. Each song was quite interesting and fun to listen to.
136/1089 - I forgot what Come on Eileen sounded like so I'm surprised to see how similar it is to the rest of this album. I expected it to be a bit jarring like Creep on Pablo Honey, but it sounded like it fit right in! A bit of an upgraded version of their debut album (now with strings) but I don't really see why it's on the list.
137/1089 - This was surprisingly good. I'd like if more tracks had the style of drums on Being Boring and My October Symphony and less of the reverb gated snare that plagues 80s music (and early 90s it looks like). I'm also not a fan of the casio keyboard orchestra hits that sound like I'm playing Super Mario World on my SNES.
138/1089 - Based on my experiences with lo-fi hip hop and rock, "lo-fi" seems to be a code word for bad. But in this case, the lo-fi production is the most interesting part of the album. Kinda reminded me of some indie tracks on the Newgrounds audio portal. Overall an adequate album.
139/1089 - Really good! A very original voice in songwriting and arrangement. I liked every song on it and am surprised I haven't heard a lot of these before. I guess it was inbetween the two of Wonder's most critically acclaimed albums so it got pushed down a bit. Honestly this rivals Innervisions for my favorite Stevie Wonder album, gonna have to relisten.
After listening, it's better than a lot of disney pop (more like disney poop XD loooool) but it's still really overproduced and I don't like how they treated the vocals. Too many overdubs and melismas that sound impressive to normies. The songs are "varied" but in a way which makes them feel inconsistent. I liked some of the Neo Soul stuff but the pop production and drum sounds they're using kinda get in the way. It'd be nicer sounding in my opinion to use drier 70s drum samples. I respect the musicianship but I thought it wasn't very good overall and dislike the effect this album had. Barely getting a 2 star because that jungle part on the last song was sick.
141/1089 - Sounds like Joy Division with violins and electronic drums (so a slight improvement from Stephen "can't keep the beat" Morris). Non-list recommendation: First Circle - Pat Metheny Group (1984) Great guitarist and keyboard player playing a very unique type of jazz fusion.
142/1089 - Damn it. I just shit-talked Joy Division in my previous review. At least I get the worst album on the list (so far) early on in the project. It isn't good when the second song's hook "when will it end" is making me think "when will the album end?" I don't mean to be a snarky Christgau-esque blowhard so I should explain what I find fundamentally wrong with the music, and I just need to use "Disorder": the first drumbeat was off-time (and many more), then the sloppy guitars came in with stupid wooshes caked in reverb and finally Curtis's monotonous yet somehow pitchy vocals slurring about. Even if the instrumentalists were good at keeping time and making intriguing parts, Curtis's voice would drop this to a 0 star. I read some positive reviews which talk about the dark and gloomy atmosphere, and I should add I don't mind that Unknown Pleasures is dark and gloomy, I mind that it's shitty. The album art is cool I guess but it kind of proves the "don't judge a book by a cover" idiom.
143/1089 - It certainly sounds like pop music. Nothing remarkable or horrible about it. Apparently it's the first album to steer Pop in a more Hip-Hop direction so I can see why it's influential.
144/1089 - So much variety with a faint underlying eerieness connecting everything together. I think of the stupider songs as pallete cleansers (Wild Honey Pie into While My Guitar Gently Weeps) but I honestly enjoy them too.
145/1089 - RIP. This album is kind of a proto-Pet Sounds. There's something missing from this and I'm not sure what exactly. The interview at the end was unnecessary. Overall a good album.
146/1089 - I wasn't originally a fan of the voices but they work really well with everything and the melodies are very catchy. Very good playing from all members and cool stylistic differences between all of the songs.
147/1089 - Sounds like alternative rock with a hit or miss vocalist. Why is this on the list? Maybe lyrically it has something going on but that's not music, that's literature. Musically it's nothing special at all.
148/1089 - I like Mingus's songs better. For example: Nostalgia in Times Square, Moanin, Fables of Faubus, etc. Overall, Mingus is definitely an important jazz composer, and had a quite different mind for arrangement than many of his contemporaries, but this album isn't the best showcase of that. The compositions themselves are good but the backgrounds and comping are very repetitive and the players sound like they just discovered the octatonic scale and want to show off all they're cool altered chords to each other. The "Ah Um" album is an easy 5 star.
149/1089 - Great voice and laid-back sounds. The bass is loud and there are some aliasing problems sometimes but it's also an early 70s recording so I can accept some production artifacts here and there. The only mistake I can hear is on "High Tide or Low Tide" where the clavinet and organ aren't agreeing on the C# minor chord (organist is probably wrong since the vocals are in C# minor). It's a bit annoying but I think every 5 star record is allowed to have a dud track. I just realized I'm probably one of the few people who both like reggae and hate weed.
150/1089 - The melodies are repetitive and the voices are a bit on the grating side but other than that this was a good listen.
151/1089 - Barely any substance to the songs at all. Very redundant. I do like Iggy Pop's voice though.
152/1089 - I liked this a lot. First track sounds like a cartoon villain is selling drugs to kids. It's interesting that there are no cymbals at all and it hits the threshold I like of experimental and accessible. I don't think he knew how much the gated reverb snare would damage the 80s but it was used very tastefully here.
153/1089 - Excellent debut for an excellent band. I think Imagine has a stupid message too. Not as big of a fan as the tracks where Fagen isn't the lead vocalist and I'm glad they got Michael McDonald later on in the band.
154/1089 - It's alright at times. Too many songs with one-line hooks repeated too often.
155/1089 - Name a better combo than music hipsters and gay loads of cum! I liked the New Wave parts and disliked the Synth Pop parts.
156/1089 - Solid debut. A bit simple and generic at times but some of the hits are very creative and show what the future has in store.
157/1089 - It's almost listenable but his voice sucks too much. Flat and monotonous. The instrumentals also aren't nearly as interesting as on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. Very forgettable. Thankfully there's only one more album with them and it's with that country guy with the strong accent so it might sound a bit different. Non-list recommendation: Jamiroquai - Traveling Without Moving (1996) The last of the initial acid jazz/nu-disco sound of Jamiroquai (Toby Smith and Stuart Zender are largely integral to this) with great hits like "Virtual Insanity" and "Cosmic Girl."
158/1089 - Solid. Arrangements are the best part. Like the recent Beach Boys album nothing stands out in a way that would make this a 5 star imo. Needs more solid and varied song structure.
159/1089 - I now understand people's complaints when they say this book is too "eurocentric." The "world music" picks I've gotten so far are very safe and westernized and don't really show a lot of what the different cultures music is about. If the list-makers are going this western with the world music, they might as well cut the middleman and just feature Peter Gabriel and Sting albums (actually they should feature those in general because they're phenomenal musicians!) Anyways, it was alright, very strong classical music influence. Nice to see Gary Burton on the list.
160/1089 - I like how the voices sound production-wise but dislike how they sound quality-wise. The female vocal is better than the male vocal. It's probably not very good when the best thing I can think of to say is that it sounds inoffensive. The song structure was alright in the beginning, and Islands was cool.
161/1089 - Kinda like Parliament and the Beatles fused together. He also did most of the rhythm instruments himself which is impressive and cool! However, the production is hit or miss and too many songs are the same tempo. There's also something weak about it that I'm really unsure how to describe. I felt it previously on the Beach Boys Today album and the Saints album. I need to listen to more music and more deeply so I can articulate myself better. Overall it's adequate.
162/1089 - This really doesn't sound like the album cover. In fact, it really takes don't judge a book by it's cover to another level. I thought I'd dislike this based on the description (odd-time signatures, strings, indie, math-rock, etc.) but it was really well executed and the string sections were CHAMBER strings and not ORCHESTRAL which was nice. Gives it a more intimate feel and allows for more striking counterpoint. One issue I noticed is many of the songs are in G major right in a row but it's just a minor complaint. Overall, I feel like I learned something today. P.S. Does the above sincerity read too millennial? I'm a zillennial so I should probably balance it out with some zoomer-speak: Jacob Collier if he was good at music 😎" Nah but seriously I enjoyed this.
163/1089 - It's nice to see folk musicians who can write actual melodies. As an album there are too many ideas going on with the concept Side A and unused material on Side B. I wonder if they could've fit Side B within the concept album and had it make sense.
164/1089 - The excellent song forms are what sell this album for me. The sounds are very unique and beautiful and atmospheric and all that for sure but the sounds are arranged in a very functional and structural way that grounds it and elevates it. Cool sounds with purpose.
165/1089 - I admit I am biased with this album. I was sick when I first listened to this and a couple seconds in I started laughing and it put me in a good mood for the rest of the album. The music sucks (to listen to, they're playing everything competently!) but it sucks in a very intriguing way, more than any contemporary classical piece from Boulez on could do. It helps that there are hints of accessibility here and there for example the last track having a nice jazzy vamp. I sincerely enjoyed my first experience listening to this album.
166/1089 - There are only three good songs on this one ;) I don't usually like a lot of prog rock because it usually sounds like almost-classical music and kinda misses the mark for me. This Yes album is clearly more jazz influenced and the solos and riffs are really cool.
167/1089 - Bloody Well Right was cool. Some parts kinda feel almost like Boston or Chicago which I'm not a huge fan of, the bands not the cities. I enjoyed my visits in Boston and Chicago. Overall, this was above average. I'll listen to "Breakfast in America" sometime in the future. I listened to "Breakfast in America" too. Damn, 1979 was a great year for music. The Police, The Clash, Toto, Michael Jackson, Music for Airports, etc. I wish this one was on the list too, I'd give it 5 stars.
168/1089 - Come Out and Play is far better than all of the other songs on this. Everything else is pretty good too.
169/1089 - This is most certainly alternative country music. I'm getting sick of this bit I'm doing with the 3 star albums, but I really don't have anything to say. Before I give any of these albums a listen, I like to imagine what they sound like. If it sounds like what I imagined, I'll probably give it a neutral rating. I might change my rating style in the future. There are definitely some albums I rated previously that I changed my mind on. Since I Left You is a 5 (not a 4) and Beyoncé is a 2 (not a 3) in my opinion. This one will probably be a high 3 and stay that way.
170/1089 - Above average playing for sure. Not a fan of her voice and sensed a lot of missed opportunities in the music (staccato thing at the end of My Old Man could've been done throughout the track to break up the Paul McCartney piano textures). There are cool chords here and there but no melody stood out to me which is arguably the most important part of folk music. Then again, maybe that's the point because it's supposed to be her most personal album. No melody stood out in a way other people could sing it because the melodies are optimized for her voice. Overall, I find it to be just okay.
171/1089 - Sounds like Alternative Rock. Competent but that's about it.