312
Albums Rated
3.29
Average Rating
29%
Complete
777 albums remaining
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52
5-Star Albums
18
1-Star Albums
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logical Progression | 5 | 2.52 | +2.48 |
| Dr. Octagonecologyst | 5 | 2.69 | +2.31 |
| Snivilisation | 5 | 2.71 | +2.29 |
| Peace Sells...But Who's Buying | 5 | 2.98 | +2.02 |
| Tanto Tempo | 5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
| If I Could Only Remember My Name | 5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
| Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo | 5 | 3.09 | +1.91 |
| Liege And Lief | 5 | 3.1 | +1.9 |
| The Healer | 5 | 3.19 | +1.81 |
| Here, My Dear | 5 | 3.21 | +1.79 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talking Heads 77 | 1 | 3.56 | -2.56 |
| Arrival | 1 | 3.49 | -2.49 |
| Blackstar | 1 | 3.48 | -2.48 |
| Crime Of The Century | 1 | 3.41 | -2.41 |
| Low-Life | 1 | 3.3 | -2.3 |
| The Bones Of What You Believe | 1 | 3.18 | -2.18 |
| Hunting High And Low | 1 | 3.12 | -2.12 |
| Here Come The Warm Jets | 1 | 3.07 | -2.07 |
| Ambient 1/Music For Airports | 1 | 3.07 | -2.07 |
| The Rising | 1 | 3.05 | -2.05 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Led Zeppelin | 3 | 5 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 2 | 5 |
| Fela Kuti | 2 | 5 |
| Megadeth | 2 | 5 |
| Bob Dylan | 4 | 4.25 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Brian Eno | 3 | 1.33 |
| David Bowie | 3 | 2 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Bruce Springsteen | 1, 4 |
| Kanye West | 5, 2 |
5-Star Albums (52)
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Popular Reviews
Fairport Convention
5/5
This is seriously an awesome album. I'd never heard of these guys, but definitely getting early Jefferson Airplane vibes in songs like Tam Lin as well as the lead singer's voice. There are also really cool folk elements throughout. This is definitely a complete album, and something I'll put on my list of stuff to go back to. That rare 5/5 that I'd never heard or even heard of.
4 likes
John Lee Hooker
5/5
Cool album and cool story behind this album. Mainstream commercial money well deserved for such an important character in blues. Collabs are great too, starting off with Carlos Santana being his usual epic self. Cool to hear Hooker singing with Santana riffs. Solid and moody all the way through after that, starting, appropriately, with a new version of In the Mood. It's not often someone this late in their career has such a great album, I think it speaks to JLH's attention to craft more than anything. 5/5
2 likes
Dr. Octagon
5/5
The stars align for Kool Keith on this album, where his weirdness, off kilter flow and swagger perfectly align with Dan the Automator's production. It also started off Automator's virtuous cycle, which led to Handsome Boy Modeling School, Deltron 3030, and the Gorillaz.
It's hard to gauge all the influence Kool Keith has had on rappers--everybody from Eminem to a whole genre of horrorcore. The weird concept behind this album ultimately opened up space for Deltron, Czarface, and probably MF Doom's phoenix-like rebirth from Zev Love/KMD.
There is a lot of folklore and rumours surrounding Keith at this time. Some I've heard were that he had been clinically diagnosed as insane, or that he spent all the money he made from this album on porno cassettes and locked himself in a hotel room in California somewhere, eventually leading to the Sex Style album that came out after. What is clear is that after leaving Supermagnetic MCs and embanking on his solo career with this album, he began releasing a huge amount of material, of varying quality, under a variety of personas that often never mentioned Kool Keith himself. None are quite as good as this one, though Dr. Dooom, Sex Style, and especially Black Elvis all come close.
Now, for the rapping, which deserves it's own treatment. Keith is off kilter, rapping often syncopated with the beat in a way that sounds like he almost misses it sometimes, but just hangs on enough to give you an eary feeling. He perfected this strange rhythm. Rhyme schemes are complex, up to the standards of his late-80s early 90s golden era pedigree. But of course it's the unhinged insanity, subject matter and wild imagination that really makes this unique. It's definitely one of those insane or genius questions. Probably both. "Amazing that they included this on the list. This is the first real underground, but nonetheless super influential, rap album I've seen on here, and it's a doozy. The stars align for Kool Keith on this album, where his weirdness, off kilter flow and swagger perfectly align with Dan the Automator's production. It also started off Automator's virtuous cycle, which led to Handsome Boy Modeling School, Deltron 3030, and the Gorillaz.
It's hard to gauge all the influence Kool Keith has had on rappers--everybody from Eminem to a whole genre of horrorcore. The weird concept behind this album ultimately opened up space for Deltron, Czarface, and probably MF Doom's phoenix-like rebirth from Zev Love/KMD.
There is a lot of folklore and rumours surrounding Keith at this time. Some I've heard were that he had been clinically diagnosed as insane, or that he spent all the money he made from this album on porno cassettes and locked himself in a hotel room in California somewhere, eventually leading to the Sex Style album that came out after. What is clear is that after leaving Supermagnetic MCs and embanking on his solo career with this album, he began releasing a huge amount of material, of varying quality, under a variety of personas that often never mentioned Kool Keith himself. None are quite as good as this one, though Dr. Dooom, Sex Style, and especially Black Elvis all come close.
Now, for the rapping, which deserves it's own treatment. Keith is off kilter, rapping often syncopated with the beat in a way that sounds like he almost misses it sometimes, but just hangs on enough to give you an eary feeling. He perfected this strange rhythm. Rhyme schemes are complex, up to the standards of his late-80s early 90s golden era pedigree. But of course it's the unhinged insanity, subject matter and wild imagination that really makes this unique. It's definitely one of those insane or genius questions. Probably both. "Octagon oxygen, illuminum intoxicants..."
Despite all this unhinged weirdness, the lines are often hilarious, where he's almost making fun of himself sometimes: "Now my helmet's on, you can't tell me I'm not in space..."
All of this and I haven't even mentioned DJ Qbert's turntablism, which adds a frenetic kind of eeriness as an appropriate backdrop.
Amazing that they included this on the list. This is the first real underground, but nonetheless super influential, rap album I've seen on here, and it's a doozy. I had been thinking they just chose a few of the most universally accepted and lauded rap albums but otherwise didn't look too deeply at the genre.
Anyway, groundbreaking underground album, years ahead of its time. 5/5
2 likes
LL Cool J
3/5
A fairly solid LL, which sees him start to come into the golden age from the mid-80s basic beginnings. A lot of people love those early albums, but I often find the production too rudimentary. This is where he starts to shine, in my opinion, for what turns into a pretty good 90s run of albums. Title track is absolute classic. Jingle Baby is great. To the Break of Dawn is a great diss track, aimed at Kool Moe Dee, Ice T and MC Hammer. Lots of smooth picking up girls type rap that has always been a focus of Ladies Love Cool J.
Production, which is mostly by Marley Marl, is classic for the era. 3.4/5 probably.
1 likes
David Bowie
1/5
You've gotta be kidding me. A week after one 2010s Bowie album, I get another one. Just as I said yesterday, this list is like 1001 bowie and Morrisey albums, with a few bonus other things. As I said with Bowie's 25th album, there is no reason someone's 26th album should be on this list. Even less. I get that he died right after this, but this isn't like Nirvina Nevermind or something when an artist dies right in their prime. Dimery really needs to douse his fanboy flames on this.
Anyway, ranting aside, the albums starts off oddly, but not really off character for Bowie. Some of these tracks sound like Bowie doing a dark interpretation of church choir music. It's not terrible, but it certainly doesn't deserve a place on this list. 1/5 for relevancy/impact. 2/5 on actual listenability.
1 likes
1-Star Albums (18)
All Ratings
Lou Reed
2/5
The good points of this album are great, but I'm not sure that they are enough to lift this above some of the cheese here to make this to a truly great album, one that I'd go back to. At least for me, it's more likely that I'll keep songs like Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side on general playlists and leave much of the rest as forgettable. There are a couple hidden gems--Vicious perhaps, Hanging Around and Andy's Chest.
Others like Satellite of Love are flawed, while Wagon Wheel, Goodnight Ladies, and NY Phone are straight cheese. In fact, if this were a five song EP that ended at Walk on the Wild Side, it would have been a much better product.
Muddy Waters
3/5
Elliott Smith
3/5
This soft rock album is pretty even in tone, and I can see it's strengths for the kind of people that like this stuff. It's a little whiny for me, too much high treble, and generally a perfect example of the kind of rock around in the late 90s/early 2000s. It's funny that this is the second album in this list I get, right after Lou Reed's Transformer. It seems like this is almost a spiritual successor to that album. That being said, it's probably less cheesy overall than Transformer, and maybe a better, more even-toned album.
So overall, not for me, but I appreciate how some people may like this. It's well done for what it is. I could see myself sipping quiet tea listening to this at a coffee shop and not being totally annoyed.
Frank Zappa
4/5
I haven't listened to this album forever--I used to like Zappa and the Mothers a lot when I was teenager. This albums starts off as a psychelic trip with Peaches Regalia--I always found it astounding that Zappa didn't do drugs based on their sound.
Like many Zappa albums, this is often instrumental, like a rock orchestra. I'm not sure if it's the best place to start on Zappa--he has dozens of albums. But it's certainly one of the better ones from what I remember. I didn't like it as much as a teenager--I preferred Joe's Garage back then. But it's great to relisten to this as an adult--I think my appreciation has grown for the sounds.
Coldplay
3/5
Seems like their classic album, and it's pretty well done. I'm not a cold play fine, so it's a little whiny for me--this list is heavy on the whiny soft rock album for me so far. Kind of depressing as well, but it fits right in there with Radiohead for suburban soft rock depression masterpieces.
John Coltrane
5/5
Super classic jazz album, and one of the ones I listen to the most after probably Kind of Blue. I don't have the jazz savviness to write a more in depth review about how good this is--I'm just an amateur passing fan in this category, but about as near to perfect as you can get for this style. Wild and frenetic but controlled in some chaotic way. Awesome.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
Classic big band jazz. Everything you'd expect to get. Just surprised this was released in the late 50s and not like 3 decades earlier.
The Vines
3/5
This album is all over the place. Raw rock riffs, ska-like beats, and some high treble early oughts sounds mixed in, though not enough of the latter to make this a complete write off for me. The album definitely stands above its era, though that isn't saying much. They certainly have energy. I may go back to this album.
The Offspring
5/5
A classic of mid-90s punk. A lot of people looking at this album, and probably Dookie by Green Day, may blame them for the subsequent watering down and pop-ification of punk. In other words, would there be any Blink 182 if it wasn't for these albums? I'm not sure what the answer to that is, but the answer doesn't change the fact that this album is rock solid, with banger after banger. It holds up from my teenage years--I've actually listened to it quite often in recent months after probably a big break. I'm not as familiar with their albums after this one, but none of the Offspring stuff I've heard gets near this album as a complete package. Raw energy, great melodies, social commentary.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
Starts off with a total classic, and ends with a grunged up better version of it. I love a ton of Neil Young songs, but have always found his discography daunting. This is supposedly the birthplace, or precursor at least, to grunge, the second half of the album. It's a good album, though I may prefer After the Gold Rush myself. Also impressively raw for the era in mainstream rock, which had gone in another direction. I'll definitely go back to this one.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
I have mixed feelings about this album. In a sense it's a pretty good album. But it also represents peak new Chili Peppers, basically the type of sound that started with Under the Bridge has nearly completely dominated their sound. The funky rifs are all but gone at this point--only maybe Purple Stain and Around the World have that old Chili Peppers sound. I don't love Scar Tissue or Californication, they sound too generic, like just worse remixes of Under the Bridge. Other Side sounds like that too a little, but the haunting melody in that one gives it a little more merit for me. So all in all, this is great for people who began listening to the Chili Peppers because they liked Under the Bridge. Not so much maybe for the fans of funked up rap-punk OG Chili peppers. It kind of reeks of sell-out in that sense. But 25 years later, I'm sure they don't care, the Scar Tissue side of them is what defines most of their career at this point.
The The
3/5
Hmmm, new wave. I've hated this era of music for most of my life. Goofy vocals and sounds effects, goofy styles--it always seemed so affected and forced. This album has all of that, but that being said, it is listenable, probably good for the people into this genre, and the songs sometimes manage to rise about the genre's inherent cheese--especially the last song, Giant. New wave typically doesn't age very well, though I can see that many albums like this one laid the ground work for bands post-2000.
Stereo MC's
3/5
I'd heard these guys' names back in the day but had never really listened to them before. A strange but sometimes soothing mix of early 90s house and rap. Not really unlike a lot of house that often had a verse of rapping, only this lasts a whole album, and the album is consistent rather than just one or two radio singles then a bunch of filler. It definitely has a kind of Lost in Time type feel to it. But it's definitely unique.
Neil Young
3/5
I got this one right after Rust Never Sleeps on this list, so cool to compare them in that way. I didn't think I'd like the latter more than this album, but I have to say that after a full listen of each, Rust Never Sleeps is more consistently good, whereas After the Gold Rush has some slow bits that come off a bit whiney for my liking. Perhaps that's why I've always seen Neil Young as an amazing song writer, but not necessarily as a great album maker. The high points are super high--Southern Man, After the Gold Rush. Then lots of forgettable filler.
The Psychedelic Furs
4/5
Most post punk, whatever that means, but I haven't really heard of these guys other than the name. Much better than The The, which I just had before this. This is a rawer sound, and doesn't have the goofiness of new waves. Some really good songs on here. Dumb Waiters is a banger. Hot drums on It Goes On. There's a lot more here to like that I didn't hear on a first listen. I'll probably come back to this album, good discovery.
MC Solaar
5/5
Classic foundational French hiphop album. Funky, great word play, great beats. MC Solaar sits somewhere between a Big Daddy Kane, Q-Tip and Guru in terms of style, flow and wordplay. Great to revisit this album, it's been a while. Worth listening to even if you don't speak French, as the beats are great, representative of the 1991 sound. Great album.
3/5
This is wild, experimental, visionary, groundbreaking, and close to unlistenable. I can appreciate that this is important for the development of jazz, and looking this guy up, I see he collaborated with thrash metal dudes, which kind of makes sense. But I probably won't be listening to this album ever again. And I typically like jazz and even some thrash metal. Maybe if I developed a meth addiction I'd listen to this at 4am. Ecars was pretty good, all that being said, and the closest thing to a track with melody on the album.
Stan Getz
4/5
A lesson in smooth. Cool to see how Getz started getting into samba before the Girl From Ipanema, collabs with Jobim and Gilberto. You can still hear some of that "getting to know the style" type vibe in this, like experimenting. Also, as far as jazz goes, this is like the polar opposite to the John Zorn Spy Vs. Spy that I had on this list immediately before this album. Short sweet and pleasant.
John Lennon
2/5
I tend to prefer John Lennon written songs when it comes to the Beatles, and post drug albums. But listening to this album made me realize there's such a thing as too much Lennon and too much drugs. Maybe the other three guys tempered John's excesses. In any case, there are a few good songs here, Imagine obviously and I really liked How do you sleep? but I'd never go back and listen to this album as a complete package. How? Is also OK. Kind of just shows you the start of the decline more than anything. Keep in mind when I write this, I'm only a passive Beatles listener, not a massive fan. I enjoy some of the best later stuff, but not crazy about them.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
4/5
A strange but soothing album. I don't exactly know what it is, but it might be something I'll listen to again when I'm in a kind of zen need to relax mood. Or at least mostly soothing. It has some very strange breakdowns here and there, odd solos, strange instruments or sounds that come from I don't know what. But it works.
Prince
3/5
For the longest time I thought the title song was actually made in 1999 because they played it so much on the radio that year. I always wondered why the sound was so dated and clearly not 1999 at the time. Anyway, having learned it was released in 1982 makes sense. Probably right at the beginning or in the thick of the synthy 80s sound.
Listen, I know prince is incredibly talented, and I've even grown to like some of his hits like Red Corvette and When Doves Cry over the years. But the sound just doesn't speak to me as an overall rule. So it's tough to appreciate a full album. Songs like Delierious are just straight goofy. Then again, there are some slept on funky gems here like DMSR that I might add to a playlist at some point. I just can't see this as an album I'd groove to on the regular, not my scene. Prince songs are best enjoyed here and there on the radio for me.
The Sonics
3/5
Raw and lots of power here. I can see why this is called proto punk, you can kind of draw a pretty direct line from here to the Stooges and such. This album is decent, and is certainly something I tend to like. I just didn't find it that memorable. I'll probably give it another listen at some point though.
Eurythmics
4/5
Kind of exactly what I expected to hear. A lot of strange, kind of dark 80s synth. The darker edge of this makes it a little better for me than a bunch of the goofier 80s synth pop stuff. Almost premoniscient of Nine Inch Nails in some ways, though nowhere near that dark, obviously. Especially the sounds of tracks like "I Could Give You a Mirror." The song "Sweet Dreams" is obviously a pop masterpiece, but surprisingly that's the only one I've heard before. "This is the House" is a little cheesy, but that's about the only real 80s-style pop cheese on this album. I'm surprised to find this so palatable for an era and genre I typically don't like.
The Mothers Of Invention
3/5
I just listened to this two days ago after pulling the Hot Rats album on this website. It had been like three decades since I'd last heard it. This time I at least knew what I was in for--as a 16 year old kid expecting something in the lines of other rock at the time, I had no idea what to make of it. Back then the only song I really loved was Trouble Every Day. Upon re-listen, it's easy to see why. That's definitely the most accessible traditional rock song. But then again, you get the sense that he just does songs like that to prove he can before delving back into weirdness--his bread and butter. Another example of this is Anyway the Wind Blows, which is a solid doo-wap kind of early 60s rock song.
Other songs like Hungry Freaks have promise, but then why the wazoo? I guess the wazoo is one Zappa's things. Outside of that, the album is all over the place. But that's kind of Zappa's thing. In some ways, it fits in with acid rock of the era, like Jefferson Airplane or Love. I Ain't Got No Heart is decent... I just don't love many of Zappa's choruses. It's like many of the songs that have promise go off into strange choruses, bridges or breakdowns, which is pretty consistent through much of Zappa's work.
I didn't find this album as good as Hot Rats, which seems to have polished some of the concepts that Freak Out began. Frank Zappa is always like this though. When he's on, it's really good. But you also never know what kind of spaced out stuff you're going to hear on a given album. A genius for sure, but one who often gets lost in weirdness. And this album is probably among the less weird of his vast discography.
In any case, it's fun to listen to Zappa again after all these years, but I can't say I'll go back to this for another decade or two.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Dylan goes electric. Classic album, lots of classic tracks like Subterranean Homesick Blues and Mr. Tambourine Man. But this isn't just a few hits and a bunch of filler material. Lots of slept on tracks here, like Gates of Eden, which I love, 115th Dream and It's Alright Ma. It's when he went partly to crossover to rock, but there is still plenty of classic folk here. Might not be my favourite Dylan album, but certainly top five, maybe top three.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
4/5
Pedro Navaja is the obvious biggest hit here, but there are a lot of other good tracks as well from these two Fanias members. I guess this is the top selling salsa album ever, which kind of makes it an odd inclusion on this list, which I've found so far has tended towards experimental and innovative rather than just plain good and universally liked. Anyway, back to the album. It starts off super strong, with a lot of the salsa dura type stuff I prefer, and none of the whinier type of "corta veina" salsa I don't like. For that alone, this rises above some of the other Fanias classic albums that I don't find as easy to listen to all the way through. Many of the latter just seem to have more filler. Ojos is a solid track, and Siembra super solid. Only seven songs and no faults here.
The Specials
3/5
I'm surprised I've never listened to this album, or really familiarized myself with these guys. I've certainly heard Message to Rudy. I guess these guys are among the first of the ska revival, which is probably why this album is here. So cool to hear on that level, as I'm a fan of later punk ska bands that built on this like Sublime, Operation Ivy. The sub-meta text on the fact that Little B*** uses a sample from the Stones' Brown Sugar, adds an additional issue to an already mysoginistic brutal song that I'm not sure people picked up on.
Harry Nilsson
3/5
Album starts off with a bang, almost circus like. But not completely unpleasant. Driving along kind of goofy. Third track, Early in the Morning, is solid. Coconut is odd but cool, and I'm sure I've heard that one before. Jump into the Fire is another great track. End track definitely on the weird side, and lots of other filler that sounds kind of dated. But I guess this album sounds like it fits the required experimental chops to make the list.
Astor Piazzolla
3/5
Strange mix of milongas and jazz. Kind of cool in many instances. Others seem to go off on tangents a bit. It's soothing background music for the most part. Like afternoon literary coffee shop type music.
Cowboy Junkies
3/5
A very soothing album in a way I didn't expect. My mom used to love these guys when I was like eight, so I can of have a vague recollection of it. Certainly not something you want to listen to all the time, but it has a definite appeal. The Sweet Jane version is awesome, and the songs following that are good too. Might go back and listen again at some point.
Morrissey
2/5
Not super amped about this, but then again I don't really love the Smiths either, so go figure. It's a little poppy for me, and a little too mainstream 80s. It seems like a decent album for people into that kind of thing, just not my schtick.
Depeche Mode
4/5
More new wave. This list should be titled "900 new wave 80s albums to listen to before you die, plus 101 bonus tracks that aren't new wave."
Anyway, despite being sick of new wave, I liked this album better than I thought I would. I always seemed to think of Depeche Mode as one of the main villains of 80s synth rock. These guys are a lot darker than I envisioned they were. I may listen to this again in the futrue.
The Byrds
3/5
So the Byrds go from a Bob Dylan cover band that apes the Beatles sound to a real band. Or that's how the wikipedia entry seems to describe them. I don't know much about them other than that David Crosby started here before Crosby, Stills and Nash. Definitely psychedelic elements here that sound like they probably inspired Jefferson Airplane, which is cool. Just not quite as polished or epic in the songwriting. More like fourth dimension, where Hendrix, the Doors and Jefferson Airplane are the fifth dimension... May listen to this again though, parts definitely give me that "worth coming back to" vibe.
John Prine
2/5
Country is certainly not my thing. This is sometimes more folky than country, which makes some of it tolerable, but still. Hard to get into this on any level.
Michael Kiwanuka
5/5
Newest album I've had so far on this list by a long shot. This one is pretty interesting, and something I'll probably go back to. First song is refreshingly epic. Kind of reminds me of Apache or something. The songs are pretty original and also very good. Not just typical rock themes here--you've got soul, acid rock, 70s funk and other elements. Getting introduced to stuff like this is what I hoped for from doing this list in the first place.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
This is a pretty good album by Simon and Garfunkel, though not sure it's their best. Scarborough Fair is a classic and I wasn't familiar with most of the other tracks in here, but found some good gems. A Simple Desultory Philippic is a banger. There are a few tracks like that which sound a little more rockin than S&G typically sound. A harder sound that is a nice break from their normal quiet type harmonizing.
The Zutons
2/5
This reminds me a lot of the White Stripes in some ways, especially in the first few songs. It is also much different, what with use of horns and such--stuff that departs from your average rock trio. It's pretty good, from an era that I don't know much about and mostly hate the rock I do know about, at least for the first half. It gets a little on the cheesy side on the B-side of the album. Not sure how well the country crooner elements work, for example, in the last track.
Pearl Jam
5/5
Finally I get an epic grunge masterpiece from this generator. The funny thing is, growing up I was a huge Soundgarden and Alice in Chains fan, and Nirvana to a lesser extent, but only really knew the Pearl Jam singles. I've gotten more into the latter in the years since, though.
Four of these are genre defining, and for me Even Flow and Alive are transcendent grunge classics. Jeremy and Black are merely excellent. But the album as a whole is not just the four singles. There isn't a dud here--the other six tracks are slept on for sure but still good. Porch and Garden are really growing on me over the years, for example. Release is a great kicker song.
Elvis Presley
3/5
I'm not an Elvis fan in the least but this one sounds better than most of what I hear. Bluesy, lots of crooning, but it works pretty well. Seems on top of his game here. I don't really listen to Elvis, but if I ever feel the urge, I guess I'll go back to this album.
Brian Eno
1/5
Wow, holy trebble on the intro there, Batman. Certainly not a fast way to my heart. Second song is just goofy--the computer buzz solo sounds like a discount knock-off of Daft Punk. Baby's On Fire, slightly less dumb, but still dumb. Driving Me Backwards.... skipped halfway through. On Some Faraway beach is the first tolerable song. Then a bunch more skips basically. This was the first album I was struggling to even finish. And the first 1-star I've given out.
Johnny Cash
5/5
A classic Johnny Cash album. I'd only heard the original release of this, but I listened to the Legacy edition this time. It was perhaps a little too long--it could have done without the outtakes at the end. But it does add some flavour that the regular one lacks.
But anyway, the original is great, and is Johnny Cash at his prime. I'm not a country fan at all, but Cash is the man.
Van Morrison
3/5
I remember listening to this years back and thinking it was better just as a few singles than a complete album. And it Stoned Me is classic, and the track Moondance. Coming back to it is good, more stuff to appreciate that I probably glossed over the first time I heard this. Overall good but perhaps not among the greats of this era.
Yes
3/5
I really had no previous knowledge of Yes other than Owner of Lonely Heart, which I always got mixed up and thought was by Boston anyway.
Starts off pretty cool, the first track, very prog rock. Lots of almost bluegrass-like breakdowns. Very southern rock in some moments, even though they are English. Singing is very early 70s. A little heavy on the organ in some tracks for me. In other senses, I get some definite Rush vibes.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
This is a solid Marvin Gaye album, perhaps his second best after What's Going on. Perhaps the best thing to come out of a divorce settlement, ever. I remember giving one of my exes What's Going On as a present once. I should have given her this CD when we broke up. Thematically, it's really a cinematic album, with the "When did you stop loving me" weaving in and out of the tracklist. Super soulful track too.
Jeru The Damaja
4/5
Solid DJ Premier work here in the early platinum age of rap, in a year full of absolute classics in the whole genre. It's been a minute since I listened to this album. Da Bitchez is the best known classic and Can't Stop the Prophet, but there's tons of great music often slept on here, like Mental Stamina, Ain't the Devil Happy, My Mind Spray. And underground producer-nerd-out tracks like Come Clean, with water drop sound... "You want to front, whatttt?"
Arcade Fire
2/5
I remember listening to this a decade or so ago when I was trying to get hip to indie rock or whatever this is. Back then I used to think all Indie rock of the mid-zeros was basically high treble songs about spatulas. This album pretty much confirmed my prejudice.
Listening again didn't change this impression overall, but it did reveal some nuance. Some good tracks, some stuff worth going back to. Sprawl II is a pretty good track, but it also kind of sounds a lot like MGMT. Not an album I'll go back to, other than to maybe harvest a couple tracks for a "best of the zeros" rock playlist. (That playlist is pretty short).
Skepta
3/5
I'd never heard of this guy, but glad to finally get another rap album. The album starts off strong, hard funky type beat on title track. Ladies hit squad pretty good. Not sure I love the rest of the album, but it's not bad for sure. Better than much of what's out there in rap these days, at least. Perhaps worth another listen. Base lines hit pretty hard in some tracks, but for others the beat is just more irritating than anything. Some tracks the lyricism sounds a little on the lazy side, like delivery on chorus on Numbers, for example. Shutdown is a pretty solid track, and That's Not me. Last trackis pretty tight as well. 3.5 stars.
Mylo
4/5
Pretty good electronic album. I didn't recognize the guy's name, but some of the tracks rang a bell. Sonically this is a nice journey, and something I'll probably come back to. Solid album, that really doesn't have any duds. Very listenable.
Supergrass
3/5
Ok, just doesn't really sing to me much. Kind of generic, but at least better than the terrible rock from late 90s. We're not supposed to a little on goofy side--sounds like the Chipmunks on helium.
Mariah Carey
2/5
Peak 90s R&B album produced by rap producers era. Some Q-Tip, Mobb Deep, Bad Boy, etc. Production is good, lots of hits. Features by Bone, Thugs. Despite all this, I can sometimes stomach Mariah, but just like honey, a spoonful is usually easier to take than a whole jar. A full Mariah album is the jar.
Aside from the fact that I would never listen to these kind of diva balladeer albums, the problem for is that while there are a few decent upbeat dance tracks that most would recognize, most of the rest of the album is vein-cutting whiney schlock. It's just not consistent.
But then again, who am I. I'm clearly not the market for this stuff.
SZA
2/5
Not really my kind of music, but not totally unpleasant. Her sounds do sound a little repetitive after a while, but it's also kind of hypnotic, I guess.
2/5
Starts off normalish on the first track then the second track kind of takes off. A little silly for my liking, even though it has an interesting cinematic concept. My problem is with the execution, not necessarily the idea in the first place. Of course Kinks fans would love this. I enjoy some of their singles, but this album doesn't do it for me. Australia and Shangri-La are both pretty good tracks for example. In general the second half is better than the first half. Well, at least until Princess Marina... ughh.
Peter Gabriel
2/5
Peter Gabriel. Ya, well, I tried. Not really my thing, and can't even see how this holds up in any longer sense. Just seems data rather than avante garde. And not super exciting.
The Residents
1/5
These guys sound like what would happen if you removed all the best parts of Primus, Frank Zappa, and maybe Kool Keith and just kept the weird junk. It's like they militantly reject harmony. And any time they have some cool element like the drum beat on the second track, or the base line on the third track, they ruin it with random annoying noise. On that note, I feel like this album would serve best in a hiphop producer's record collection, as a repository of random samples that nobody would ever track down to the original album. But it probably wouldn't be a good producer using them.
Blue Rosebuds sounds like a witch's spell, told with annoying cackle and everything.
Albums like this are why I'm starting to lag behind on my listening list on this generator--I've had too many lately. The song "Bach is Dead" is funny because the poor guy's probably rolling over in his grave listening to this. The last song isn't entirely unpleasant, which means it's a highlight here.
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
Synth pop. Ya. Well, I didn't dislike it as much as I imagined I would, but I still didn't love it. This list seems to have every single synth pop album ever made.
Ella Fitzgerald
5/5
Fascinating Rhythm is a great song I'd never heard before. But a lot of these are wonderful. They have that hypnotic quality of voice. Great album, if long, but you feel like you emerged from a flashback trance from decades ago.
The Who
4/5
Not sure I've ever heard this whole album, but great energy here. Also some gems I hadn't heard in a while and forgot about like Young Man's Blues and Substitute. Maybe this isn't such a work of art as Quadrophenia, Tommy or some of the other studio albums, but great energy and driving rock power. Basically a greatest hits album. Also a good refresher from the type of experimental schlock albums I've been getting on this list recently.
Slipknot
3/5
I remember when these guys came out I kind of thought they were a little gimmicky. I was into 80s and early 90s metal, Megadeth, Metallica, Pantera, Slayer etc., but these guys' costumes kind of threw me off and never really listened to them much. Hearing this years later, they have a lot of energy, tons of thrash and a little groove. Nothing really stands out to me on this album as a track though, seems more like a jam band.
Orbital
5/5
Orbital at its best. This album invokes that sense of wonder overlaid with the harsh industrial type samples that make for an amazing contrast. These guys are great for invoking a special mood, always go back to them. I prefer Insides a little to this one, but this is still great, and some classic Orbital on this.
Otis Redding
3/5
Groovy album. Soulful rendition of Change Gone Come, Wonderful world, and My Girl. Lots of Sam Cooke tracks there. Other solid tracks like Shake. It's a good overall listen, but I'm always hesitant of getting behind cover albums like this. I nearly always prefer original material.
2/5
Great, noise rock. Why the hell did we need this category of music. Another one of the few albums on this list where I couldn't bear to listen and skipped some tracks, especially early on. It's kind of like industrial but bad, takes out any of the melody etc. of say Nine Inch Nails or something. It does get a little better as the album goes on--the first three tracks are just like a warning. Last track is kind of cool on a sailer shanty/industrial/Tom Waits level.
Peter Frampton
3/5
Decent mid-70s rock. Not totally my thing, and don't love Frampton, but this was better than I thought it was going to be. I like his acoustic instrumentals. Funny that his original version of Baby I love you way is definitely worse than the Big Mountain cover. Probably won't go back to. Definitely not something that should be one of biggest selling albums ever, but then again, I've never really had mainstream taste.
Marty Robbins
3/5
The title of the album pretty much says it all here--you get exactly what you came for. Classic cowboy movie soundtrack plunder on this track list.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
One of my favourite albums of all time, and probably my favourite Hendrix album. Everything comes together here in peak performance, from the heavy wawa use to the rampant psychedelia. The album listens like a glorious acid trip, and is sonically something else. Hendrix is incandescent here, making his guitar talk via wawa glory on Still Raining, Still Dreaming, which picks up on where Rainy Day Dream away left off a few tracks early. Then there's the ornate riff of Burning of the Midnight Lamp--a masterpiece of psychedelia. The riff on Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) and the muted intro that predicts hip hop scratching and the solo on All Along the Watchtower, one of rock's alltime greatest solows. And it isn't just the guitar work here--this is a band effort. Noel Redding's Little Miss Strange sounds like the Beatles on more acid than usual while the drumming on House Burning Down and Gypsy Eyes drives the amazing rhythm of those tracks.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
I listened to this for the first time not too long ago as I saw it on a list of some of the best of Cohen's albums. Definitely a little more contemporary in sound, though this is mostly due to recording techniques--his sound is typically kind of timeless. The title track is amazing, vintage Leonard Cohen. Treaty is great writing. Traveling Light, Steer Your Way and It Seemed the Better Way are awesome. It's a great, complete album, and though I'm really only familiar with his earliest albums, this one definitely holds up. 4.5.
The Cure
3/5
Darker than I thought the cure was. I always kind of associated them with somewhere between New Wave and Synthed up pop rock, neither of which I like. Understated vocals and dark guitar tones. It's not bad at all. 3.5
Bob Dylan
4/5
Solid Dylan album all the way through. I think this was my dad's favourite Dylan album. A lot of timeless classics like the title track, Like a Rolling Stone and Tombstone Blues. And some lesser known great tracks like Desolation Row and It Takes a Lot to Laugh. For whatever reason, I've never much liked Queen Jane that much. The rest of the tracks are pretty good as well, there isn't really filler on this album, though it's probably not in my top 3 for Dylan. 4/5
Goldfrapp
3/5
Starts off sounding like the intro song from a James Bond movie in feel. Well, at least until the spooky solo comes in.
From there it pretty much stays spooky. I remember not being into the songs I heard when these guys first came out, but I was 19 back then. Now I can see the appeal. Kind of cool in a throwback way. Definitely unique. 3.4.
Grant Lee Buffalo
2/5
Not bad, but not super exciting. Wish You Well is a pretty good track. I'm not sure I'll go back to these, just not interesting enough.
Beatles
5/5
The Beatles start doing Acid, and become a truly great band. I'm not a huge Beatles fan, and mostly prefer their post-drugs albums to their early poppier stuff, so this one is for me. Starts off strong with Taxman, and stays strong. Eleanor Rigby is a song that I didn't initially like years ago but it's grown on me--now I think it's a great tune. A lot of sleeper songs that I'm not as familiar with but that are pretty solid songwriter as well, like I'm Only Sleeping with the backwards guitar solos, and Love you To with the tranced out sitar and Indian drums. Doctor Robert solid.
I hate Yellow Submarine--mostly because of the stupid sounding polka like jangle--but that's mostly the only fault I have with the album personally. The rest of the tracks more than make up for it. Then by the end, Tomorrow Never Knows takes you off into space. 4.5/5
Lightning Bolt
2/5
Jesus, second noise rock album in 2 weeks. I'm not sure I'm up to the task. At least it's better than the Liars. There are more riffs, for examples, and less of a sense of just industrial pots landing on the ground. At least this kind of sounds more punkish. Even if the singer just kind of sounds like he's having a seizure, but hey--that's something. Anyway, there are moments of greatness, like the final solo of 2 Towers is pretty cool sounding. Starts of grating like most of their songs, as if even your noise rock CD is skipping, then turns into something pretty epic.
Anyway, listening to these guys makes me think somebody needs to make a mockumentary like This is Spinal Tap, or even maybe just a hilarious documentary, about this movement. Just thinking about the studio decisions here makes me laugh... "No guys, that's not the crash I was hoping for... could you bang less tea pot and maybe smash a wok or something? And maybe turn up the fire alarm. I'm not feeling it yet..."
2.3.
Nine Inch Nails
5/5
I remember when I bought this when I was 15 even the jacket cover on the CD was epic--it looked more like an old vinyl album cover than a CD. This was one of those I bought back in the day before I even heard any of their music--music life before the internet--so I really didn't know what I was in for. I remember laying on the floor in my bedroom and listening to the whole thing through.
Now, 30 years later it's a gloomy day and I'm in the perfect mood to listen to this masterpiece. A masterpiece in production that basically rewrote the book on industrial rock. Trent Reznor's rage perfectly synthesized. One of the great things about this, among many I haven't gotten into, is the hard to soft and back again balance that NIN achieves so fluidly in this album.
The Cramps
3/5
Kind of a novel sound. Taking some of the goofier punk elements and sending it straight into rockabilly. I'm not sure if it was an influence, but I feel like Jello Biafra and Dead Kennedies took a bit of this into making their sound--maybe not this album as they DK was already around at this point, but maybe earlier stuff? Not clear on timeline there, but some affinity. The raw, screechy guitar sound really works for this kind of punk. I'm not sure I'll listen to this a lot, but may go back to in the future. 3.4
Fleetwood Mac
3/5
I like Rumours but am otherwise not a huge Fleetwood Mac fan. This album starts off with a few forgettable tracks before Sara, which is a solid one. "What makes you think you're the one" isn't a great track, right after. Storms has a certain hypnotic quality. Maybe I just prefer Nicks songs to Buckingham songs, which is generally true of their other albums as well. "That's All for Everyone" is a decent track though, then "Not that Funny" is just kind of goofy. "Sisters of the Moon" a solid track as well, so ya, I'm mostly a Nicks fan. "That's Enough for Me" is a dumb jangle. Then "Brown Eyes" is pretty cool lowkey sleeper track. "Beautiful Child" is pretty good. "Tusk" is a great track to close out the album.
Overall, the whole album is kind of a mixed bag for me. But that's mostly how I feel about Fleetwood Mac in general. Their best moments are great, but there is a large amount of forgettable material in between. This certainly isn't quite the album that Rumours is.
3/5
Mott The Hoople
1/5
Just not into this glam rock, and this isn't even a great example of it. Just like a Bowie side project. Gives me the vibes of like, when rappers make it big then try to put their less talented buddies on. Helping Iggy Pop get his career going was a great move. These guys, I dunno. When this album isn't outright annoying, it's boring.
Randomly, the book these guys based their name on kind of sounds interesting.
The Zombies
2/5
A lot of this sounds like some wannabee schlock that sits somewhere between the Beatles and the Beach Boys. There were plenty of super great things happening in rock in 1968. This wasn't one of them. Then again, the story of this album is crazy, having just learned it. And the Time of the Season really is something else, rises above the rest of the material. Still, one good song and a bunch of other average tracks does not an album make.
Fatboy Slim
4/5
Fatboy is f**ing and f**ing and f**ing in heaven....
Epic album. Takes me me back to grade 12. And then the Big Beach Boutique II concert, while I was living in Brighton, just around the corner from Norman's studio. This album, along with Dig Your Own Hole, Homework and Orbital's Insides are what first got me into electronic music, which was initially a hard sell as I was mostly into rock and rap. Love Norman's rap and funk sensibilities. The high points are super high on this album, aka Funk Soul Brother, Praise You, and really the first few tracks. There is some filler in the middle though, which is why I dropped this down to a four.
Johnny Cash
4/5
Solid Jonny Cash late in his career. Cool to hear him do songs by Nine Inch Nails, Paul Simon and others. You can definitely tell this has Rick Rubin's touch on it.
4/5
Billy Bragg
3/5
I'd never heard of this guy. Pretty interesting album, both in lyrical content and in terms of the guitar work. Definitely sounds punkish in the sound of his voice, and then folkish in his kind of cadence and subject matter. Like electric folk punk. This is probably one I'll go back to at some point. 3.4/ 5
4.5
Syd Barrett
2/5
Die hard Floyd fans may love this, but while I love Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall and maybe Wish you were here, this album is a little liminal for me. There are some decent moments, but it's not something that really shines like a crazy diamond, pun intended. Late Night is maybe the most interesting track for me. 2/5
Adele
3/5
I know some of these songs from the radio. Or the first two anyway--the first track is pretty decent, and Rumour Has it is excellent. From there it gets pretty whiney for the next two songs. But some rhythm and soul comes back in Set the Fire and He Won't Go, the in I'll Be Waiting. Take it All, unsurprisingly, more crying. I guess the surprise here was that the album wasn't all crying, and not as depressing as I assumed an Adele album would be.
Someone Like You was the track one of my exes sent me a few months after dumping me.
3/5, higher than I thought I'd be rating an Adele album for sure. It's mostly just not my thing.
The Kinks
4/5
I listened to this a few months ago for the first time out of curiosity about the Kinks. I really only knew a few of the hits, but heard they were good so listened to a couple of their more highly esteemed albums. I kind of forgot about this after listening. On my second listen today, this really came off a pretty solid album. Five tracks in and they are all bangers, then it keeps on strong. Animal Farm is a great track. Too bad some of this stuff doesn’t get much radio play anymore, they kind of stayed underground I guess. Anyway, I’m glad this came up, and that I listened to it again, because I’ll probably come back to this one.
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
The greatest funk soul album of all time.
I first heard of Curtis Mayfield from the Dead Presidents soundtrack, which was a solid intro into funk/soul when I was a teenager. Then my good buddy gave me a copy of this album on vinyl--each of his parents had one apparently, and his father had passed recently anyway. Solid gift from a great guy.
So where to start. I guess with the album itself--I'm not sure many new fans to this have heard of the movie first, but I later bought it on cheap VHS. The intro with the white caddy made that like a dream car for a while for me.
This album has absolutely everything. Hard social commentary, amazing music and great falsetto. The horns that Mayfield has are harder than almost anything short of Fela Kuti, and even that's debatle between legends. The percussion... basically this album's only weaker points are Cocaine, and even that song's grown on me. Pusherman, Little Child, Freddie's Dead--I have those on multiple playlists. In fact, nearly every song here is on a playlist somewhere.
I wish they never remade this movie, mostly because the remake has such a garbage soundtrack.
Clean 5/5 as one of top 5 soul albums of all time, and likely my GOAT.
Buena Vista Social Club
5/5
A classic album, both in execution and the back story behind its making. I remember watching the documentary about its making in a Latin American studies class in university. All these musicians, super popular decades before, were apparently working odd jobs to make ends meet before they were all brought together for this album. Given the fact that many hadn't been playing for so long adds to the timelessness of the sound. Almost like they picked up where they left off rather than having modernized over the decades.
Easy 5/5
Ice T
4/5
The OG of OGs. The originator OG. For some background, this album came out in 1991 when gangster rap had begun to pick up real steam for the past few years with groups like NWA, the Geto Boyz and others. But Ice T, along with Schooly D on the East Coast, were probably the the first two gangster rappers--the former with 6 in the Morning that was released in 1986. So half a decade later, this is Ice T declaring that he has always owned this shit. It's been a minute since I heard this album, but the stand out tracks are New Jack Hustler and the classic title song. But it stays consistent all the way through. Mind Over Matter, Mic Contact... classic. It's also probably the predecessor of metal rap, with the Body Count track.
4/5
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
Bollywood movie soundtrack! Ok. Starts off with some chase scene type music then Indian Cha Cha Cha... Already know I'm in for a journey here. Sitar Cha Cha Cha that makes fun of itself. There are a lot of just orchestral tracks -- some very Ennio Morricone via Sergio Leone sounding -- and a few actual songs, which are pretty decent. But at the same time, I'm not sure how to rate this as it's way out of my experience. Naag Devta has some appeal. Baby Let's Dance Together is kind of funky. Not exactly full on Bollywood, some of these songs, which I guess is why it's unique in that genre?
3/5 because I don't know how else to compare this.
Don McLean
2/5
I've never listened to this whole album, and probably really never another song besides the title track. My impression was McLean was a one-hit wonder. Listening to the album kind of confirms that, unfortunately. Basically there is the one song, then a bunch of whiny soft rock schlock. Not my scene. Winterwood is decent, I guess. I'd give this album a 1 out of 5 if it wasn't for the one classic track.
2/5
Willie Nelson
3/5
I'm not a Willie Nelson fan--he's typically too country for me. This one is a little better than most of his other stuff as it has a folkier feel. Probably still not something I'd go back to, but better than other Willie Nelson stuff I've heard, for sure.
3/5
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
This is a pretty industrial sounding techno album from back in the day. That being said, it still has groove. I'll always prefer Dig Your Own Hole to this one, but this still has its moments. Chico's Groove is the standout for me. Kind of has that slightly wistful sense that Chemical Brothers came to be in later albums.
Gorillaz
3/5
I'm not super familiar with this album other than the Del track. Being more of a Del fan than a Blur fan, I kind of gravitate towards that side of things. Interesting that this album came to be in part due to Deltron 3030--a truly epic album I hope is on this list. And in some ways you can draw a direct line from Kool Keith's Dr. Octagon album to this project. There are definitely a lot of hiphop sensibilities beyond just the tracks with Del rapping on them here.
Anyway, all that being said, I've never really been a huge fan. Relistening doesn't really change my opinion on that. 3/5
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
As well as I know most CCR singles, I'm not super familiar with their studio albums, so this is a great opportunity. Opens with a classic track, then followed by a great one I'd never heard in Bootleg. Third track a blue deep cut. Also Proud Mary, and a solid jam track to bring this short album to a close. Classic, short and sweet. Not a five but rounds up to a five.
4.5/5
Jurassic 5
4/5
Jurassic 5 is the classic answer to the terrible state of most commercial rap by the late 1990s/early 2000s, the so-called bling or jiggy era. These guys were underground, true to hiphop roots, and talented. I'm pretty familiar with Quality Control, but had never heard this album before--a definite oversight. Highlights for me on this first listen were I Am Someboy, and A Day at the Races--awesome to hear Percee P and Kane. Every rapper on that track goes hard, but man, Percee's flow and rhyme schemes... wicked posse cut.
Thin Line is the one track I think I've heard before, and a great beat. Chali 2na is on point rapping throughout with his distinctive delivery and baritone voice and some tracks showcase the wordplay of the other MCs. Full props for dropping the hilarious Kool Keith freestyle in the middle.
Anyway, there are definitely some filler tracks that could have been left off this album, but it's mostly pretty good all around. I'm not a huge J5 fan but always respected them.
Rounds up to a 4 probably. 3.7 or 3.8 in reality.
Lou Reed
3/5
I used to have this idea about the kind of artist Lou Reed was based on some of the singles I'd heard before, then I heard Transformer and I was pretty sure that I mostly didn't like Lou Reed. Or at least at his albums were slow, depressing and boring.
This album has restored some faith. It's also depressing, of course--kind of Reed's vibe--but there is a lot of character here, and it doesn't get too cheesy like Transformer. I don't know any of the songs on this album, but it was a pleasant overall listen and concept album.
3/5
Kelela
3/5
Not really my style, but her voice has a hypnotic quality and the beats are pretty good. She doesn't delve into complete whining either like some divas. I'm not sure what else to say about this. 3/5
The War On Drugs
3/5
Some of these tracks give me a Pink Floyd vibe, others something like a MGMT vibe. It's not unpleasant, and kind of a cool consistent vibe all the way through. Some psychedelia.
3.4/5
Brian Eno
2/5
As soon as I saw this I was like FML, another bloody Eno album in the same month. While that sentiment wasn't entirely proven wrong, this album is a little more palatable than Here Come the Warm Jets, which was a solid 1 star for me. This one is at least inoffensive ambient music with some weird ticks, which is a huge step up from the other one. Progress, right? I just read that this guy produced Bowie and U2 at some points. Well, to quote the poet and philosopher Oshea Jackson, "stick to producing." Two lofty stars, which is pretty solid for Eno.
Muddy Waters
4/5
Produced by Johnny Winter--now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. My dad used to have one of his albums on vinyl, and several Muddy Waters album. Anyway, this is solid blues. 4/5.
Rush
4/5
I had a couple Rush albums back in the day, and always had an appreciation for this musicianship, but I'd never heard this album for whatever reason, or even most of the songs. It's a pretty solid rock album as a rock album, forming kind of a bridge to their earlier Zeppelin-esque sound and their later super synthy progressive stuff. I like it because it still has enough rocking in it. Geddy Lee is still on his shriek level on vocal delivery, which I kind of prefer to his later delivery. A Passage to Bangkok is sweet--love the riff. Slayer must have loved that song. Not so sure about Tears. 3.8/5, rounds up to 4 stars.
Curtis Mayfield
4/5
I love Curtis Mayfield, but not super familiar with this album, so this is a great listen. It's certainly not up to the epic level of Superfly, but that's maybe the greatest funk/soul album of all time--it's incomparible. First two tracks are solid, and So in Love is a decent love track. The gospel track 4 is pretty iffy, but it's not bad musically, I guess. Just a little much for me. Hard Times is the standout track here--deep funky groove. Also the sample for a Ghostface or Raekwon track--I can't remember which "There's no love to be found..." Love to the People is a great finisher. All around short but sweet album.
4/5
Marianne Faithfull
4/5
Have never really listened to her music, but this album is kind of cool in a unique, and different way. There are a lot of good tracks to listen to here, and this is something I'll probably listen to again. Solid songwriting here. 4/5
Talking Heads
1/5
All I can think about when listening to these guys is Fred Armisten and Bill Hader's knock of in Documentary Now. What I didn't expect is that the the real band sounds even sillier than the mockumentary band. Really not my thing--I can't get over the goofy vocals. Not to mention the lyrics are stupid and nonsensical half the time, even on a rock level. And I don't love the music backing tracks, so it's not even like it's just the singer. As others have mentioned, Psycho Killer is the high point here. But not something I'd want to listen to more than once every half decade.
1/5
The Clash
4/5
Lots of energy in this album, as you might expect. I haven't heard this album, just a couple of their later ones. This one seems more even on tone than the others. Kind of cool to see the reggae cover of Police and Thieves--punk and reggae were hand in hand right from the beginning I guess. 4/5
Gang Of Four
4/5
As soon as I saw this was post-punk, my eyes rolled back in my head because most things described as post punk end up being some nerdcore high synth new wave junk like the Talking Heads.
This is not that. This is really just punk. Or maybe a bridge between early punk wave and the skater punk of the early 90s. This is great album full of good tracks that I'll probably listen to again. 4/5.
Bruce Springsteen
1/5
The loss of the World Trade Center on September 11 was terrible. But so is this album, for the most part. It almost just sounds like he's trying to stay relevant well into his career by doing a tribute album to the tragedy. Worlds Apart is pretty decent. But even at that point, I'm feeling like do I really have to listen to 8 more tracks? I just don't get the argument for including this album on this list--especially as I'm sure the list lacks of ton of great stuff 100% more deserving from anybody who isn't an absolute die-hard Springsteen fan. Seems like they included it out of a feeling of guilt--like "It's about 9/11 so we better include it." Anyway, there's a difference between dated and classic. He has older stuff that doesn't sound dated, but classic. This 2002 album sounds super dated. 1/5 not because it's as bad as some of the other art rock albums on this list, but because I see absolutely no reason it's relevant on any level.
Aretha Franklin
4/5
Seriously solid album. I've never heard a ton of Aretha beyond the few singles. This album starts off with the biggest of those. But there are a lot of good deep cuts here. Love Save Me especially. Love discovering Pete Rock samples by accident too, speaking of the latter track. 4/5
Queen
3/5
Haven't heard this whole album, just the singles for the most part. The first track is a great progressive metal track though. And the album is mostly good into Seaside Rendezvous, a goofy lowpoint that singlehandedly is bad enought that it almost negates the positive impact of You're My Best Friend, if not Bohemian Rhapsody. Luckily things pick back up in The Prophet's Song, which is a solid one. Love of My Life is a little soft and whiny for me. Good Company is kind of a dumb song as well. Anyway, I'm not sure where this album stands among Queen's discography as I'm by no means a superfan, but I'm not sure it stands up as a truly great album, though its high points are certainly high. 3/5.
The Police
3/5
The only track I recognized right away was Every Breath You take. Walking in your footsteps is alright, and O My God. King of Pain is probably my favourite track on this album. Murder by Numbers is OK. Otherwise I'm not really a huge fan of this. Not sure if it's just that I don't love the Police or that this isn't their best album--I don't mind Roxanne, Message in a Bottle etc. 3/5
Nanci Griffith
3/5
This is album is kind of a vibe. Not really my usual vibe by any means--I've tried to get down with country but can't. This is kind of like folk flirting with country though, so I can tolerate it. My mom really likes this kind of stuff, so it kind of reminds me of her music. I'm not sure that I can pick out any individual tracks, but the whole thing sounds pretty evenly done at least.
3/5
The Cure
2/5
This wasn't bad, but I actually enjoyed the other Cure album, Seventeen Seconds, a little more. First few songs were decent then it kind of sounded all the same. Not terrible, just not very interesting.
Moby Grape
3/5
Cool album from a band I'd never heard. They certainly sound similar in some ways to early Jefferson Airplane, though the songs aren't quite as good it has that same early psychedelic rock feel. I'll probably give this one another try--there were certainly a few tracks I liked. A high 3.
Dolly Parton
2/5
I feel like I probably heard this as a kid since my mom listened to this stuff, but it's hard to tell these songs apart from just Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt solo. I tried to give this a chance in her honour, but this is all a little too croony and whiny for me for the most part. I don't feel a burning urge to feel lonesome. Little Darling is a solid solid though.
Beck
5/5
A great album, and Beck's high point by a long shot, where the stars align on all the eclectic musical interests he has. The album isn't even of course--you wouldn't really expect a Beck album to be. Minus is a minus, for example, and High 5 is a little grating. But the high points of the singles--Devil's Haircut, New Pollution, and Where it's At--as well as deeper cuts like Hot Wax, Novocane and Jack-Ass, far outweigh the misses. 5/5
Stevie Wonder
4/5
I've only heard this album a couple of times and didn't remember it well. My problem with many of Stevie Wonder's albums is there are a handful of solid hard funk/soul then a lot of whiny songs that lack that hard funk edge. So most of the first disc doesn't suffer from that, it's best moments are transcendental--I Wish is my favourite, but Sir Duke and Pastime Paradise are obviously absolute classics as well. Have a talk with god isn't the kind of track you'd think would have a deep funk groove, but it definitely does. Second disc opens with a longer album version of single Isn't She Lovely which made me think my baby daughter was talking before I realized it was the track. Joy Inside My Tears... pretty whiney. Black Man is a solid funk track. Then the latter half of the second side gets a little slow for a while, with some high points. As is good, then Another Star solid.
4/5, would be a five if not for some filler--could have been shorter. Probably Stevie's best album.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Tons of hits on this album like Cecilia, The Boxer, and El Condor Pasa. There are also many slow points on this album--though I get Simon and Garfunkel are kind of known for being slow, you get what I mean. Keep the Customer Satisified is a pretty bad track, and the title track isn't great. In fact, outside of those three tracks, and maybe a couple other decent ones like Bye Bye Love, the album isn't stunning as a complete piece. Most of their albums are like this. It's just that those singles--especially Cecilia and the Boxer, are generational hits. 3/5.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
Among the two Lou Reed solo albums I've heard on this list--Berlin and Transformer, this is far super and much more listenable. Transformer was the worst, and Berlin was just kind of OK. It seems like the Velvet Underground somehow managed to rein in Reed's goofier and more "experimental" urges for the most part and just made low key soft rock that mostly works. The only song I'd heard before here was Pale Blue Eyes, but most of the rest is pretty even. I'm Set Free is a good track. Murder Mystery is a pretty good song, and something, randomly, that sounds like it would be a great System of the Down cover. 3/5
Kanye West
5/5
It's tough to see Kanye for what he was based on everything he's become. Kind of one of those situations where you hate the artist but can't hate the art. Anyway, this is definitely a great album, among his best--I don't listen to his albums enough to say for sure whether it's better than the three early albums. But it's solid all the way through. Beats are on point, he raps well. And his inner mania and psychosis doesn't get as annoying as it can be on other albums. But it's also the beginning of the end. It's not a clean 5/5 like some albums on this list I've rated, but it's close enough to round up.
Fairport Convention
5/5
This is seriously an awesome album. I'd never heard of these guys, but definitely getting early Jefferson Airplane vibes in songs like Tam Lin as well as the lead singer's voice. There are also really cool folk elements throughout. This is definitely a complete album, and something I'll put on my list of stuff to go back to. That rare 5/5 that I'd never heard or even heard of.
Derek & The Dominos
2/5
I remember first listening to this whole album years ago after my dad played the title track for me, on vinyl. Back then, I didn't love a lot of the songs on this album, other than the obvious one. And I've tried again a couple times over the years, but still--it's just not there for me. I feel like the sound here isn't as groundbreaking as the Clapton's stuff in Cream, and the album overall isn't as good as Cream's best albums. A little too southern rock sounding perhaps. Some bland blues. Anyday has its moments and Tell the Truth, but Derek and the Dominos--taken as an entity--is really just a one hit wonder. His Little Wing cover should put people to rest on the fact that Hendrix is a better guitar player, but I suspect that argument will never die. 2/5 because I really can't justify the 3 even despite how good the title track is. This list is supposed to be about albums, not singles.
Elton John
4/5
I've never heard a full Elton John album, and this one is pretty good. Bennie and the Jets and Yellow Brick Road are classic hits. I literally didn't know the latter was Elton John. Anyway, aside from that much of this album is pretty rocking, and not as slow-paced as I imagined Elton John to be for some reason. The only real terrible song is Jamaica Jerk Off, which is not only goofy and bad but near offensively bad. 4/5 but I could see how fans of this era would give it a full five. It's a pretty complete album--my only qualm is I'm not fully into Elton John in general.
Heaven 17
1/5
I've never heard of these guys, but this list seems to have every single synth pop album ever made while having nothing but a dim notion of genres like rap, so I guess that's not surprising. Anyway, it's weird as most synth bands are, and goofy, also like most synth bands. Not the worst synth pop album on this list--there is too much competition on the crap end of that formula--but pretty close to it. The first song is OK. Much of the rest sounds a little too heavy on the experimental side and low on the listenable side. Like "hey, we discovered electronic beeps and whizzes. Cool, let's put them all on the album at the same time." At least this album is short. 1/5
Fishbone
2/5
Sometimes it's hard to say why I don't like something but this really doesn't appeal to me. And it should, it's not like I dislike punkish ska and rock. It just seems all a little goofy for me. Like, too much of the goofy side of the 80s. I also like funk, but not cheesy 80s funk. Slow Bus Moving is kind of cool with the Clint Eastwood style. The last track, Change is pretty good as well. 2/5
Dwight Yoakam
3/5
I typically hate country, so this review is going to be coloured by that. The first track has a nice jangle to it at least though, it isn't as soulless as most of the genre. I don't mind the slide guitar here and there, and the guitar work in general elevates this above your average country rock album though. 3/5
Judas Priest
3/5
Starts off pretty high energy with Rapid Fire. Breaking the Law is a classic, obviously, probably the song I know best by JP. Well, and Living After Midnight. The singing on Grinder sounds like it inspired Dave Mustaine from Megadeth. This is probably one of those albums that will get better on subsequent listens, but not sure I love Judas Priest as much as some of the other OG metal bands. 3/5
Lenny Kravitz
4/5
I'm not sure if I've ever listened to this whole album, and it's definitely an oversight. I may have when I was a teenager and been annoyed that every song wasn't a full on hard rock riff song like Mr. Cab Driver or Are you Gonna Go My Way. Anyway, now that I'm over that, this stuff definitely holds up on a lot of levels. Lots of good soul tracks--even the slow stuff is well done and not too weepy. Mr. Cab Driver is still a rocking song, among Kravitz's best.
The Stooges
5/5
Raw power is the perfect title for this album. Just scratchy, distorted energy all the way through. I first heard this album a couple of years ago, and it's too bad--I'd only every heard a couple of singles from Iggy Pop before. Short, full of energy. Great stuff, and consistent all the way through. High 4/5 rounds up to five.
Paul Simon
3/5
First ska like song is a little odd. Duncan is a classic 60s Simon and Garfunkel type track. The next couple of tracks are pretty good as well. Other than the first track, the album starts off pretty strong, and mostly stays strong. I'm not sure I'd go back and listen to it a bunch, but I'm sure Paul Simon fans would love it. Maybe I'll throw some of this stuff on a playlist.
My Bloody Valentine
3/5
I don't know whether this is early emo, crossover punk or what. I can see why it would end up on this list as it's fairly experimental. Definitely seems to have made a lot of influence on 2000s rock bands. "You're still in a dream" seems to anticipate the Foo Fighters. All that being said, it isn't something super easy to listen to. Kind of grating at some points. Like the first track, where the weird noise seems off beat. "No More Sorry" and the next track after are like tripped out noise, Velvet Undergroundish. "Several Girls Galore" is a cool-sounding track. "You Never Should" is decent as well, also reminiscent of Foo Fighters--Dave Groll must have been a fan.
So I guess this is shoegaze music? Just learned about the existence of this trend. I don't really feel like I missed much there. That being said, it's a decent album. Better than some of the indie rock it seems to have inspired in the 2000s. It has a lot of energy at some points, and I guess that's something. 3/5
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
This is a pretty decent album for a band I'd always heard of but never really listened to back in the 90s. But it fits pretty well into that era, and appeals to me as a lover of grunge and alternative from early 90s. 4st 7lbs is a solid stand out track on first listen. Might throw that on a playlist. The Intense Humming of Evil almost sounds like a NIN song. 3.5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
I first listened to a Nick Cave album about a year ago as I'd heard a lot of good things. I guess I was expected something different from what it was the first time around--like he has a more punkish or hard rock kind of name, and it came off very slow and weepy. Kind of like if you took all the slowest stuff from Tom Waits and mixed it with some Leonard Cohen. It sounds like drinking alone at a hotel bar kind of music.
Anyway, now that I know what to expect, it's not unpleasant at all. Definitely a big Leonard Cohen vibe. There are quite a few good songs on the album, and it listens pretty well all the way through. I can't pick out individual tracks as they are not numbered/named on the Youtube full album version I listened to. The best bit is just after halfway through. I might go back to this. 4/5.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
This is a monster of an album, and really one of the first rock albums I leaned to love back when I was like 14. Really one of the first CDs I bought, after seeing kids with Led Zepellin t-shirts in the 90s. This is probably the most rocking, high energy of LZ's albums, with very few slow moments beyond maybe the Lemon Song. Even that is a chill blues song, just kind of overshadowed by the monster tracks around it. Whole Lotta Love and Livin' Lovin' Maid used to be my favourite tracks, though over time I've come to favor Ramble On and What is and What Should Never be.
Easy 5/5.
Sepultura
4/5
I haven't listened to thrash metal in years, but I can still tell this is a great album. Solid energy all the way through. Like the groove in Orgasmatron, a little different from the rest of the tracks. There are a couple of other standouts as well.
Fiona Apple
3/5
When I saw this come up I kind of dreaded it, and put it off a couple of days before listening. I don't what I remembered from the 90s when she came out, but I was pretty much into more hardcore metal, rap and grunge back then. Anyway, this isn't at all bad. Definitely has a groove to it, and a hypnotic personality. 3/5
Massive Attack
3/5
A pretty chill album. I didn't realize these guys invented trip hop. Definitely an album ahead of its time. It's a good album, and I can see why people like it. Kind of like lowkey background music though. Not sure it draws much emotion from me, though it's definitely a mood. 3/5
ABBA
1/5
Jesus. I must be the only person on the planet that his listened to a whole Abba album other than just the singles. And it's every bit as bad as I imagined it would be. My sense of duty to actually listen to all these albums is bordering on masochism at this point. It starts off bad, then there's Dancing Queen, which is also bad, but popular. Then there's Dum Dum Diddle. My god. This trash reminds me of when my parents dragged me to see the play Chess when visiting me one time--an Abba play. Knowing me knowing you is the only tolerable track, and just barely so. I dont even hate all disco--some disco is funky, decent, even dark. But this? Cotton candy garbage. Money tries to be dark, but just ends up vapid. Anyway, solid 1/5.
Tim Buckley
4/5
I'd never heard of this guy. First track starts off a solid folk ballad. Carnival Song is a little odd but the third track, Pleasant Street, picks up right where the first one leaves off. Hallucinations is great too, and at this point in the album I'm predicting another solid find here. Hopefully enough to balance out the Abba album I've been procrastinating listening to for several days now.
The rest of the album pretty much continues on this solid note. Somewhere between rock and folk. Really Carnival Song is the only real weak point. 4/5, perhaps would be higher on further listens.
The Birthday Party
3/5
This album is about half noise, with a few high points. Like angry teenager music. Several Sins is a great track though, and there are a couple more like that, though I wasn't paying close enough attention to the track list to say which. Probably wouldn't go back to the album, though might grab a couple tracks for a punk playlist. Release the Bats has a great drum beat--I feel like Green Day borrowed from that in their track Lonview. Just learned that this is Nick Cave's first band, and it certainly sounds more like I thought Nick Cave sounded like, rather than the later stuff with the Bad Seeds. You can start to see the elements of the more folk-like sound he has later, but just with lots more noise. 3/5.
Hugh Masekela
5/5
Solid album with some serious groove. I'll definitely go back to this one. Great listen all the way through. I'd heard of him before but hadn't really delved very deep. 4.5/5
Cat Stevens
3/5
This is decent in a kind of slow rock, down tempo folk way, but not super memorable for me. I liked On the Road to Find Out as well.
David Holmes
3/5
Kind of a funky electronic album. Might go back and listen to this. Still not quite a 4 but maybe a higher 3/5. Never heard of this guy in the 90s.
The Police
3/5
Starts off strong, with one of their classics. The only other track I know is Walking on the Moon from this one, another good one. The other stuff is sonically similar--you can imagein what you are going to get with this album. That said, there aren't a lot of other memorable tracks for me outside the hits. I like the Bed's too Big Without You, which I also feel like I've heard before. The album is decent, but not sure I'd buy the album based on this, and the other Police album I've heard on this list so far--Syncrhonicity. Not sure which I prefer of these two, probably this one. In any case, I'd proably stick to the greastest hits album with these guys based on these two albums. 3/5.
R.E.M.
2/5
I'm not a huge REM fan, and this album just kind of solidified that. Randomly, I got the sense that the Tragically Hip's first album borrows from these guys though. Otherwise the Gin Blossoms kind of sound like this, and those bastards made the Friends theme song, which gives them a special place of hate in my heart. Boring and twangy. And the singer is half mumbling gibberish anyway--more like mumble than murmur. 2/5
Leftfield
3/5
This album fits somewhere between Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim. More industrial elements though, and some slightly trance-like notions, also reminicent of Orbital in some ways. It's decent, but not sure I love it.
3/5
The Beach Boys
4/5
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
I Want to Take you Higher was the first Sly song I heard, on the Woodstock album version. Everyday People is also a classic, and Stand also very good. Second track is pretty solid funk. Some of these guys' albums have a lot of filler, but this isn't the case with this one. I'll definitely go back to this. 4/5
The Coral
4/5
Never heard of these guys but this is a pretty cool album. This is kind of the stuff I feel like I missed ignoring rock for the 2000s, that makes me regret completely writing the genre off. Definitely a unique sound. I like the psychedelic sensibility they have without sounding too much like a 60s acid rock wannabee band. Time Travel is a great finishing track. 4/5
Grateful Dead
2/5
I've never understood the Grateful Dead. I love acid rock--groups like the Doors, Hendrix and early Jefferson Airplane, who often toured with the dead have always been among my favourites. So I always thought I should love the Dead. But man, I struggle even to get through these albums. They just sound like twangy near country rock without much soul. I've been told that their live albums are much better, and have tried some of those as well, but still don't get it. Or the crazy following. The Dead aren't bad, they are just underwhelming. And I mostly love everything else around the late 60s culture, music, books on and about Kesey etc.
Anyway, back to this album. It's twangy, bland, and the singing sucks on almost any level. Like not even good on the Dylan "bad voice" level. These guys just sound like lazy, under qualified musicians. I really don't get how people go apeshit over this stuff.
2/5 not because it's terrible, but because the blandness is overwhelming.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
I was really only familiar with Son of a Preacher Man. She kind of sounds like the female counterpart of Tom Jones. This album starts pretty strong with the first track. Windmills of Your Mind is great too. Has a very OG James Bond theme song type sound to it.
Hüsker Dü
2/5
An OK punkish alternative album that probably played a role in the development of 90s alternative. I can see some of these influences in some groups, but mostly ones I don't love, like the Gin Blossoms and others that kind of softened up the harder grunge and other alternative of the early 90s. That being said, these guys aren't quite that soft and don't have as many songs in major tones. I just don't find it super compelling or original, though. 2/5
Afrika Bambaataa
2/5
There's a lot of foundational techniques here that are cool to hear for me as a hiphop head. And a Melle Mel verse is always welcome. Overall, I'm not sure how listenable this is, even to me, an old school rap lover, though. The place this plays in rap is very important, which boosts it above what it would be just for straight listenability. Though of course, that legacy has been ruined by all the child abuse allegations. 2/5
James Taylor
3/5
Not a bad folk album from a guy I've never heard of. Some of it veers a little on the country side, but never so much that it becomes boring or monotune. There's also some blues elements and more rock-like songs as well. Plenty of Jesus as well, enough to notice but not so much that you start to get the feeling you're listening to a Christian rock album. Not sure if I'll go back to this album, but might save a song or two for a playlist. 3/5
The Who
3/5
This album has a lot of energy but I guess I was expecting more from The Who. Really on one huge hit here, the title track. There are some other good deep tracks here, and the closer is a great drum-driven track. But not sure this stands up as well as their later albums. Kind of just shows them in their early development. 3/5
Fela Kuti
5/5
Many of Fela's songs start slowly, with a funky rhythm that builds and builds, as horns, call and response vocals and organ make their respective appearances. This album starts off with a massive funk kick right from the beginning. As one of Fela's first albums, it's a great introduction. And by this point, all the elements that make Fela a unique explosion are there.
A lot of people make a big deal of Ginger Baker's inclusion here. I don't hear it a lot. That's not to take away from his contribution, I just mean to say that this is a full big band experience, with everybody playing their parts. Plus, there is a lot of other percussion in here. Edit: At least I don't hear it until the bonus track, where Baker and Tony Allen go off. Solid collab.
As a Fela fan, I'd say there are a lot of better albums out there. But I could see why this one is on the list.
4.5/5
Bee Gees
1/5
The Bee Gees before disco. On the one hand, who cares. On the other hand, who cares about them when they did start doing disco? I dunno. I don't hate on disco like some, so this pre-disco stuff just seems kind of lame. Just slow rock. These guys' voices were meant for disco dancefloors, not this sappy stuff. The trouble here is the album is either sappy or boring. I really don't get what the point of putting this album here is. It's not a game changer, not experimental. And it sucks. The only purpose seems to be "Hey, the Bee Gees had some stuff before disco, and it sounded like this. Ok. Great. I feel personally enriched... 1/5
Eminem
5/5
One of those classic rap albums that seeks to offend anybody and everybody easily offended, and boy did it ever succeed. But outside the singles, you've got a great view of what made Eminem not only a hero for teenage white kids, but also the lyrical acumen and attention to rhyme schemes that gained him respect among other rappers. Today his place as a lyricist is nearly uncontested, but his appearance on the world stage at this time paved a rocky road, spawning a number of rap feuds with others in the game like Canibus and Everlast.
The album itself is obviously well-produced, with Dre overseeing the beats and lending street cred and belief in Shady that was critical to his success. "Some people only see that I'm white, and ignore skill..." It also is part of the reason for Dre's second wind, coming out just months before the Chronic 2000--it was basically Aftermath Record's first huge success.
Anyway, on the surface you've got the major singles, My Name is and Guilty Conscious, both excellent tracks. But underneath this there are a bunch of tracks that showcase Eminem's battle rap roots and lyrical strength. Brain Damage,
Creative songwriting is on display here with tracks like If I Had, My Fault, and 97 Bonnie and Clyde. The skits are generally funny and keep the album moving along.
Bad Meets Evil is my personal favourite on the album for its lyrical excellence, and for introducing Royce da 5'9, one of the few MCs who can sometimes outshine Eminem on tracks. The chemistry between the two is amazing.
5/5
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Very nostalgic sounding. Under My Skin is the classic one I know here, and Anything Goes, though I'm sure I've heard a lot of these other ones--Sinatra just kind of always sounds the same to me. I can't really say if good or bad, he's just an institution from a bygone era. This stuff all sounds pretty on point I guess, so Sinatra lovers wouldn't be disappointed. 3/5
Louis Prima
4/5
Nice to get this right after a Frank Sinatra, as they are kind of comparable, from the era at least. I much prefer this album to the Sinatra one. More personality and variation in the songs. I recognized a few of them from movies. Plus, it's not just a focus on his singing, there are good horns as well. 4/5
Taylor Swift
2/5
I tried to listen to this with an open mind. I get that it's probably better than your average pop album made by a former Nickolodean kids star, but at the end of the day, it's still a pop album made by someone who might as well be a Nickelodeon kids star. Plus, she's a Florida Panthers fan, and that is unforgiveable.
Grateful Dead
4/5
So as mentioned in my review of American Beauty, I've never got the Dead, even though I've definitely tried as I love other acid rock banks like Jefferson Airplane, the Doors and Hendrix. The Dead's usual twangy near country sound has always just seemed kind of bland for me. And I've even listened to some of their live albums and still wasn't sold. Their sound just didn't seem to match their whole marketing and legend for me.
This is all to say I went into this album with low expectations. I even procrastinated it on my 1001 albums list--I got this one like a week ago. I'm happy to say that I finally found some Dead that sounds pretty decent. At least the first live segment, Dark Star, sounds psychedelic and spacy rather than boring country rock. Maybe they were on the right drugs for this show. Turn on Your Love Light is great as well. 4/5
The Doors
4/5
The last studio Doors album represented something of a recovery to form, building from the momentum of Morrison Hotel and further distancing from the mess that was the Soft Parade. Some seriously classic Doors songs--the title track and Riders on the Storm rank among their best. Those two are boosted by the very good Love Her Madly, and the more underground banger the WASP, which is reminiscent of Five to One.
Now, all that praise being said, there are quite a few filler tracks on this album. Nothing completely terrible like the majority of Soft Parade, or from the lowest points of Morrison Hotel, but just boring. The Changeling and Been Down so Long are decent blues tracks. L'America tries to capture some of the fire of Not to Touch the Earth but doesn't really succeed. Cars Hiss by my Window is just boring. Hyacinth House doesn't really capture the eery wistfulness of tracks like Crystal Ship or Moonlight Drive.
All that being said, the high point lift this album into something special. The Soft Parade is their real only dud for me. The first three albums are nearly flawless, and Morrison Hotel is a little worse on average. Even if there are a few more truly good songs on the latter, Morrison Hotel has a couple truly terrible songs as well. And nothing that matches the LA Woman's two standouts. I'm sure other Doors studio albums will pop up on this list, but I'll lay out the ratings all here just in case. I could see arguments for WFTS at 3/5 just as MH at 4, but this is my current thinking:
The Doors: 5/5
Strange Days 5/5
Waiting for the Sun 4/5
Soft Parade 2/5
Morrison Hotel 3/5
LA Woman 4/5
Metallica
4/5
I first heard this album at my cousin's place when I was 13 or 14 in the 90s. Back in the day, this album got a lot of hate as it seemed to represent Metallica softening up for a wider audience. While it certainly started off a trajectory that ended up in a terrible run of albums in the 90s before they got back to some semblance of form, I'm not sure that the criticism of this album holds up over time. Looking back, it seems to fall more on the side of the previous albums, with the dividing line between sell-out 90s bad Metallica coming right after this and before Load. The Unforgiven and Enter Sandman are classic tracks. Wherever I may Roam is classic Metallica thrash, and for me, the best on the album. Sad but True is just OK for me, but Nothing Else Matter is a decent track. Many of the rest are mostly forgettable, but that was always true of Metallica albums--there is nearly always filler. Nothing here still hits the high points of the previous four albums, but it's still a pretty complete piece. Even the softer ones are good songs, even if pure thrash fans hate on them sometimes. 4/5
Daft Punk
5/5
A lot of the big electronic albums of this era kind of sit in the same realm, where the tracks vary between absolute bangers and repetitive experimental noise. It's the reason why most of the time, when I was bigger into EDM, I preferred listening to DJ mixes rather than producer albums back in the day. This is true of even the best of the mainstream producer albums, whether Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim or Crystal Method. Homework is an exception to this rule, for the most part, though there are still a couple tracks that are just annoying noise, like Rolling and Scratching, Oh Yeah, and Rock n Roll. The high points lift this to greatness though. There are the singles, Around the World and Da Funk, then a bunch of great deep cuts like Revolution 909, Phoenix, Fresh and Indo Silver Club. In fact, Fresh kind of provides the blueprint for the Stardust Track "Music Sounds Better with you" that came out a little after this. Teachers, High Fidelity excellent as well. The whole album is one I often come back to--it's a defining album for the French deep house sound of this era, although others like Dmitri From Paris were more foundational. 5/5
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
This album kind of foreshadows the grunge movement in a lot of ways, with the some of the darker themes you see in Soundgarden, Nirvina and Alice in Chains. It doesn't have the heaviness or energy though--this is pretty depressing. That doesn't mean it's bad, some of the songwriting is pretty good. I just don't think I'd listen to this a bunch.
The Go-Go's
3/5
Great, another new wave album. I feel like this list should be retitiled "600 New Wave albums to listen to before you die, plus a few other things here and there."
This one starts upbeat and chirpy. Great. First track is like a candy high. But it actually gets better. This Town is pretty good, and there are some other tracks that might grow on me if I listened to them more.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
Epic album. Led Zeppelin II was the first album I heard, then this one, back in the early 90s when I first started getting into rock in junior high. Back then II was my favourite, but this one has grown on me overtime based on the strength of songs like Babe I'm Gonna Leave you, Black Mountain Side and How Many More times--all kind of sleeper tracks I wasn't as into back then. Obviously, Good Times, Bad Times, and Communication Breakdown are classics--the kind of thing I loved when a teenager especially. And Dazed and Confused. Probably the weakest moments are I Can't Quit You Baby, and Your Time is Gonna Come. You Shook me has its moments. 5/5 because this album changed rock, and started an incredible four album run before the chinks started to shine through the armour of Led Zeppelin.
LL Cool J
3/5
A fairly solid LL, which sees him start to come into the golden age from the mid-80s basic beginnings. A lot of people love those early albums, but I often find the production too rudimentary. This is where he starts to shine, in my opinion, for what turns into a pretty good 90s run of albums. Title track is absolute classic. Jingle Baby is great. To the Break of Dawn is a great diss track, aimed at Kool Moe Dee, Ice T and MC Hammer. Lots of smooth picking up girls type rap that has always been a focus of Ladies Love Cool J.
Production, which is mostly by Marley Marl, is classic for the era. 3.4/5 probably.
Miles Davis
5/5
There's not much you can say about this album that hasn't been said. Generational, transformative, everlasting... Clean 5/5.
Beatles
4/5
The Beatles start doing drugs and become a way more interesting band. Norwegian Wood is the take-off point. But there's more to this than that.
I listened to the non-North American version first, a pretty big difference since they basically changed three tracks on such an album that runs a little more than half an hour. Although I like Drive my Car as a catchy pop track, "I've Just Seen a Face" on the North American release is a better track. On the European release, What Goes on is a bit of a dumb jangle. It's Only Love on the North American is much better. The only real loss on the North American version is If I needed Someone, which is a great track. Otherwise, the North American version is better. So
Not being a massive Beatles fan, there are some sleeper tracks I wasn't familiar with on both versions, but really liked Think for Yourself, Girl, and Michelle.
Overall, it's a very good album, but perhaps not as baroque in the acid rock as Revolver afterwards. 4/5
Faith No More
3/5
I recognized a couple songs, like Epic, which has an early Red Hot Chili Peppers feel to it, though it's a little more metal. As for the rest, I like this a lot better than the one Faith No More Album I think I had back in the 90s--King for a Day.
Dr. Octagon
5/5
The stars align for Kool Keith on this album, where his weirdness, off kilter flow and swagger perfectly align with Dan the Automator's production. It also started off Automator's virtuous cycle, which led to Handsome Boy Modeling School, Deltron 3030, and the Gorillaz.
It's hard to gauge all the influence Kool Keith has had on rappers--everybody from Eminem to a whole genre of horrorcore. The weird concept behind this album ultimately opened up space for Deltron, Czarface, and probably MF Doom's phoenix-like rebirth from Zev Love/KMD.
There is a lot of folklore and rumours surrounding Keith at this time. Some I've heard were that he had been clinically diagnosed as insane, or that he spent all the money he made from this album on porno cassettes and locked himself in a hotel room in California somewhere, eventually leading to the Sex Style album that came out after. What is clear is that after leaving Supermagnetic MCs and embanking on his solo career with this album, he began releasing a huge amount of material, of varying quality, under a variety of personas that often never mentioned Kool Keith himself. None are quite as good as this one, though Dr. Dooom, Sex Style, and especially Black Elvis all come close.
Now, for the rapping, which deserves it's own treatment. Keith is off kilter, rapping often syncopated with the beat in a way that sounds like he almost misses it sometimes, but just hangs on enough to give you an eary feeling. He perfected this strange rhythm. Rhyme schemes are complex, up to the standards of his late-80s early 90s golden era pedigree. But of course it's the unhinged insanity, subject matter and wild imagination that really makes this unique. It's definitely one of those insane or genius questions. Probably both. "Amazing that they included this on the list. This is the first real underground, but nonetheless super influential, rap album I've seen on here, and it's a doozy. The stars align for Kool Keith on this album, where his weirdness, off kilter flow and swagger perfectly align with Dan the Automator's production. It also started off Automator's virtuous cycle, which led to Handsome Boy Modeling School, Deltron 3030, and the Gorillaz.
It's hard to gauge all the influence Kool Keith has had on rappers--everybody from Eminem to a whole genre of horrorcore. The weird concept behind this album ultimately opened up space for Deltron, Czarface, and probably MF Doom's phoenix-like rebirth from Zev Love/KMD.
There is a lot of folklore and rumours surrounding Keith at this time. Some I've heard were that he had been clinically diagnosed as insane, or that he spent all the money he made from this album on porno cassettes and locked himself in a hotel room in California somewhere, eventually leading to the Sex Style album that came out after. What is clear is that after leaving Supermagnetic MCs and embanking on his solo career with this album, he began releasing a huge amount of material, of varying quality, under a variety of personas that often never mentioned Kool Keith himself. None are quite as good as this one, though Dr. Dooom, Sex Style, and especially Black Elvis all come close.
Now, for the rapping, which deserves it's own treatment. Keith is off kilter, rapping often syncopated with the beat in a way that sounds like he almost misses it sometimes, but just hangs on enough to give you an eary feeling. He perfected this strange rhythm. Rhyme schemes are complex, up to the standards of his late-80s early 90s golden era pedigree. But of course it's the unhinged insanity, subject matter and wild imagination that really makes this unique. It's definitely one of those insane or genius questions. Probably both. "Octagon oxygen, illuminum intoxicants..."
Despite all this unhinged weirdness, the lines are often hilarious, where he's almost making fun of himself sometimes: "Now my helmet's on, you can't tell me I'm not in space..."
All of this and I haven't even mentioned DJ Qbert's turntablism, which adds a frenetic kind of eeriness as an appropriate backdrop.
Amazing that they included this on the list. This is the first real underground, but nonetheless super influential, rap album I've seen on here, and it's a doozy. I had been thinking they just chose a few of the most universally accepted and lauded rap albums but otherwise didn't look too deeply at the genre.
Anyway, groundbreaking underground album, years ahead of its time. 5/5
Radiohead
2/5
I know people love Radiohead, but they've always been a bit depressing for me. That doesn't mean they don't have some satisfying grooves, and A Punch up at Wedding is definitely one of those, and Go to Sleep. Most of the rest is classic Radiohead--kind of like nerve-wracked meth music that sounds perfect at 3am after you split up with your boyfriend while a teenager. 2/5
Anthrax
4/5
This is a great thrash album. Wonderful energy--it just keeps going. I like this a lot better than the other Anthrax album on here. This reminds me a little of Rust in Peace--it just keeps coming. A few stand out tracks here, including the first one.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Growing up I usually gravitated towards Tribe's other albums like Midnight Marauders and Beats, Rhymes and Life, as it seemed to show a more polished style where Tip and Phife had perfected their beat making, flows etc. But this album is where it all began, and along with De La Soul's debut, heralded a new era in rap where you didn't have to be gangster. And the beat making is super on point and visionary.
There are so many classic rap tracks on this album--Push it Along, Luck of Lucien, El Segundo, Bonita Applebum. A lot of these are just great artists having fun. Tip's flow and delivery are on point right from the beginning, though Phife doesn't begin to shine yet in this album--it'll be Tribe's second disk where he really comes into his own.
Aside from the classics, the album is filled with many great sleeper tracks like Youthful Expression, the Art of Moving Butts and Description of a Fool. This is a complete album, and respresent the beginning of an epic run that inspired countless other rap albums in the future as well as spawning Busta's solo career, Mobb Deep and helping to propel J Dilla. Rap would not be what it was in its best points if it wasn't for Tribe. So Can I Kick it? Yes, I can.
Amy Winehouse
4/5
This one is Winehouse's first studio album, which doesn't have a lot of the hits I'm familiar with at least. But the sound of it is pretty much the same as her hits, which is pleasant for me. There isn't any filler for the most part, and the songs are nice sound, showcasing her unique voice. 4/5
I've never been very familiar with Rod Stewart, and listening to this album I feel like I haven't missed much. It's basically honkey-tonk rock, with piano riffs that sound like they come from the guy in the corner saloon in a cheesy cowboy movie. Then there is some goofy slide guitar, and plenty of jangles. Some of it has a homey kind of appeal. Memphis, Tennessee is OK, for example. 2/5
Deee-Lite
3/5
Most people just know "Groove is in the Heart," as this band mostly seems like a one-hit wonder, albeit an amazing one hit. But this whole album is a classic early 90s house/funk album. If you wanted to bottle all the sounds of the early 90s into one jar, this would be it. The album is quite good, beyond Groove is in the Heart. There are some cheesy moments that sound pretty dated, naturally--you'd kind of expect that on a group like this. But also a lot of house tracks you'd expect to hear on Chris Sheppard's Pirate Radio mixes. 3/5
Robert Wyatt
2/5
When I read about this album, I thought "Here comes a cheery morning. An album created by a newly parapalegic drummer called 'Rock Bottom.'" Indeed I was right, at least about the cheeriness. But not exactly what I was expecting. This album sounds like Pink Floyd on acid. Or, since Pink Floyd was already on plenty of acid, like Pink Floyd on ayahuasca, and perhaps with worse song writer and not even a slight sense of groundedness. It's out there, and not really in a way that makes it super listenable, although there are moments. 2/5
Elliott Smith
2/5
Light and soothing is the best way to describe this album. This is the second Elliott Smith album I pulled on this list. But not so much that I'll ever listen to it again. The dude looks like an emo--is this emo?? The more these songs play the more it seems plausible, though not having ever listened to emo, thankfully, I don't completely know. Close enough to what I think is emo that I don't want any more of it. 2/5
Lucinda Williams
2/5
Sounds about two or three years past the prime years for this kind of sound, so not sure why it's on this list. It's decent for the style of Americana folkish rock, though. I'm just glad it's not all country, as the name kind of suggested. Just near country, somewhere along the spectrum between Tom Petty and Dolly Parton. 2/5
Germs
3/5
Good energy, decent punk album. Had never heard of these guys.
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
Classic music of like 1,000 movie soundtracks. None of the other songs are quite as eternal as the title track, but they are mostly on the same mood and vibe, so it's not like you'll be disappointed. Just put Booker T down with Nas as two guys who put out memorable game-changing music when they were under 20 years old. 3/5
The Fall
3/5
Fairly cool punk album, with lots of originality and cool sounds. I'm not sure I have a ton to say about it, but might go back to this one. High 3/5.
Black Sabbath
4/5
I had all Sabbath's albums on CD back in the day. Vol. 4 is one of the ones I listened to a little less for whatever reason back then compared to the first three and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. I always loved Supernaut, and just coming back to the rest of this has given me a new appreciation. The first track is great, and the outro, or Straightener, of that first track is awesome. Tomorrow's Dream is pretty solid. Back in the day I always thought Changes was a little soft, but it kind of starts off an Ozzy tradition for soft metal ballads that culminates later in stuff like Mama I'm Coming Home and See You on the Other Side. Supernaut holds up as the best track on the album, Snowblind is pretty good, and makes sense as I hear these guys were on a lot of cocaine at the time. Cornucopia is pure sludge, the intro rif kind of hearkens forward to some of the Alice in Chains sounds. Under the Sun is a song I barely remember but it's banging. Probably a 4/5.
Little Simz
4/5
I'm familiar with Little Simz' next two albums after hearing Point and Kill somewhere and getting interesting. This album was in 2019, right before Sometimes I Might be an Introvert. It's pretty solid, with some great rapping, great tracks. She has compelling delivery and flow, a kind of 90s golden era ethos. The beats are pretty good as well. A great album to listen to, though I think some of her subsequent discs were a little better even. I sometimes struggle to appreciate British rap, with some exceptions--strange because I like a lot of old school French rap. I think it's usually just the beats I don't always love. But Simz is solid, and selects great tracks. So we have a sonically and lyrically good album here. 4/5.
Pulp
2/5
I struggle to tell in detail why I don't like this album. It's just whack. Not overwhelmingly whack, but forgettably whack. Kind of like the 80s throwback nobody wanted in 1995. 2/5
Garbage
3/5
I barely remembered these guys from the 90s until now. Kind of right at the end of the amazing early 90s run of grunge/alternative rock. In ethos, Garbage fits right in with this album. Attitude, depression, hard rock. First two songs are great, and the album stays pretty consistent throughout. I'm not sure if I'll go back to this, but I probably would if I'd had it back in the 90s, as it's onboard with the stuff I liked back then. 3/5
Megadeth
5/5
An absolute masterpiece of thrash metal. Just the first three songs could define--dominate the entire genre. So much energy, so much groove and even lyrics that are somewhat politically charged and not just singing about the same topics metal bands stick to like darknes, death and antichrist. I'm not saying Mustaine is a poet here, but at least it's something.
Anyway, we're really here for the raw technical skill. Drumming, bass and man, the guitars. The solos don't stop, the riffs are on another level.
My only regret here was that I came across this album relatively early in my metal phase in my teenage years in the 90s. It made it hard to appreciate other stuff after, honestly--it was so much better than the competition. Even other Megadeth albums didn't get near this level of excellence. In most genres I like, I can't name a greatest album. But in thrash metal--maybe metal in general--I never hesitate.
Holy Wars is an explosion of riffs. Hangar 18 arcane dark magic. Take No Prison a speed metal orgasm built on the back of wicked drums and bass. The whole thing sounds so polished, so perfect, it's crazy.
The pace finally lets up on the fourth track, Five Magics, just to come on with some arcane harmonizing riffs. Poison was the Cure comes right back with a monster speed riff. Dawn Patrol is the only slow point on the album, and it's not bad at all. Just merely a good song rather than transcendental.
Clean 5/5.
Black Sabbath
4/5
First of all, RIP Ozzy. Starting off an epic Ozzy career binge, so glad I got both this and Vol. 4 in the past few days.
On this listen I started with the European edition, which I wasn't familiar with as I had the North American album in Canada growing up. I'm probably biased by experience, but the North American version seems a little better to me, with Wasp being a better track than Evil Woman.
Anyway, particular releases aside, this is the rough around the edges start of an amazing band, solo artist, and in many ways, heavy metal as a genre. It's not quite as polished as Paranoid that came afterwards. There are a couple of weaker tracks, but the high points like the Wizard, Wicked World and NIB more than make up for them. Black Sabbath the track is a doomed foreboding of the Prince of Darkness' 55 years of reign. Based on its influence on rock music, it probably deserves a 5/5. But compared to Sabbath and Ozzy's later stuff, it's probably roughly a 3.5/5 or so for me. I'll split the difference here at 4.
Patti Smith
4/5
I always knew about Patti Smith being a kind of punkish folk character, but never actually listened to her for whatever reason. This album starts off pretty strong with a good rendition of Gloria, which manages to be unique and good despite all the various superstars like Hendrix who have also given it a go. The songs stay pretty consistent--it's almost like Patti Smith sounds like Lou Reed at his best without all the dumb songs the latter indulges in during heroine binges. In any case, this album has a kind of slow burning energy. It's a solid find, and I'll definitely come back to this one. 4/5
The United States Of America
3/5
This starts off sounding eery, like the effects make it so the sounds feel like they are coming from somewhere beyond the speaker in my laptop. I can imagine this would be wild with stereospeakers. That being said, I'm not sure the first song is entirely good, but certainly psychedelic, in a way that many bands from this era with that label don't achieve. Second song is a better track, and with the same echo-like effect, and something that sounds like tracks played backwards. Maybe slide guitar reversed? Hard to tell.
Some moments get pretty goofy--like on too many mushrooms goofy. Wooden Wife is a good example, and the first track on the album.
I'll definitely have to go back and listen to this under the influence at some point. With Where is Yesterday, the album hits its strongest song yet, and Coming Down is solid as well. Definitely Jefferson Airplane vibes here with the female/male harmony. In fact, that comparison comes in and out throughout the album. It's kind of like they took what Surrealistic Pillow accomplished and tried to push it further, with mixed results unfortunately. The high points are right there on that wavelength though.
There are some more circus tracks after that, and plenty of marching band music, skipable stuff really that screams of "too many drugs" rather than the right amount of drugs.
3/5
Bebel Gilberto
5/5
A great album. I've heard some of these songs here and there, but I really didn't know anything about Bebel Gilberto. I guess she's Joao's daughter. Seems to be following the family tradition pretty well. Some classic samba songs, and some that sound well as more modern takes on the style. Good and even all the way through--great if you like samba. Rounds up to 5.
Bill Evans Trio
4/5
Solid jazz album. Definitely brings a kind of feel with it, takes you into the scene back then. Would have loved to experience this live. 4/5.
David Bowie
2/5
Before even listening, I'm just going to go ahead and say that anybody's 25th album should not be on this list. No way you can tell me you couldn't find 1001 better albums out there. Putting Bowie's 25th album on here more confirms the author's own fanboy-ism on Bowie than anything else. Hopefully there aren't another 24 of them on here.
Anyway, having hit play confirms my thoughts pretty quickly. The album opens up with a pretty grating song where he says at one point "Here I am, not quite dying..." Indeed, that could sum up the whole album. Not quite dying in 2013 maybe, but close enough you might want to hold off on making albums. Second track a little better but nothing memorable. Starting with the third track, it gets a little better for a while, but the decent music doesn't last long. How does the Grass Grow has a strange kind of interpretation of the Incredible Bongo Band's classic Apache. Last track is maybe the best. It's somewhere between 2 and 3 stars, but since it's so dubious to even include a guy's 25th album on this list, I'm sticking with 2.
The Who
4/5
This is a pretty solid album, and I enjoyed it better than Live at Leeds and even My Generation, even though I really only was familiar with one track, I Can See for Miles. The song writing is solid, and the theme brings the whole thing together. You can see how they are working up to their later thematic rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia. 4/5
Nick Drake
4/5
I've never heard of this guy, but right from the beginning I really got a sense of later Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder. The kind of sound he had on the soundtrack for Into the Wild, for example.
Based on the description, I was expecting something a little more dreary, but the songwriting is really good here. Very clean crisp acoustic guitar. I'll probably go back to this one. 4/5
Sonic Youth
3/5
I had no idea before now that Sonic Youth's roots went way back into the early 80s. I'd always associated them more with the early 90s alternative/proto-grunge movement since a lot of my friends as a teenager were into them around that time. They have a great sound, and the fact that they were doing this in the 80s rather than early 90s certainly lifts them in my estimation as pro-genetors of grunge. I can hear some notes of Velvet Underground in their sound.
High 3/5.
The Bees
3/5
This album is pretty eclectic. Kind of sounds like a randomly generated "millenial playlist" in terms of songs. You've got some funk, reggae, some millenial psychedelia, some soft rock, and some organ heavy tracks. It's not bad, it's just a little odd.
David Crosby
5/5
This is a solid album. Real acid rock here, and puts you right in that era, with Jefferson Airplane. The whole thing comes on well written and psychedelic. I honestly didn't know as much about some of the other guys in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young other than Neil, but this is really good stuff. It makes me curious to check out some of his other solo stuff. A rare case of a 5/5 that I hadn't previously heard (though realistically more like a near 5/5). Will definitely come back to this.
Supertramp
1/5
Man, I've always hated Supertramp, so I was pleased to see that this album was at least only 8 tracks long. Thought jesus, do these 8 songs ever go on. Partly it's that I can't stand the dude's voice. And then there's the music, which I mostly can't stand. Plus the lyrics, which are already bad but sound even dumber with that nasal voice... "You're bloody well right." I don't hate progressive rock all the time--some of it is good. This is an example of how things went wrong. Essentially if you had to synthesize everything I hated about mainstream mid-to late-70s rock in one band, it would be Supertramp. In fact, this is probably the exact moment when the 70s went from good to bad. The real Crime of the Century is having to listen to this misplaced Pink Floyd influence.
Big Star
3/5
Early 70s southern rock with a tinge of Simon and Garfunkel elements mixed in. It's not bad at all, and many of the tracks are fairly rocking. It's bound to satisfy nostalgic rock fans for sure. There aren't any really bad tracks, though a lot of it doesn't move me much. Might just be due to first listen. Probably worth another listen in the future. 3/5
Queens of the Stone Age
4/5
I think I'd heard this once before years ago and thought it was decent. But this time around it sounds much better. Like the late 90s grunge album nobody else was still doing at the time. I'm definitely going to go back to listen to this album in the future. A lot of solid tracks on here, and the album overall is pretty consistent. 4/5
The Smiths
4/5
Has a groove to it. Something I would describe like "nerd rock." Rusholme has a catchy jangle. Barbarism begins at Home is a solid track. I've heard other Morrissey stuff and didn't love it, but this album is pretty good. The whole vibe kind of comes together here. Also, I dig the base player. 4/5
Tina Turner
2/5
I'm not really a fan of diva music and love ballads. What's Love Got to do with it is a classic, I guess. And at least some of these songs aren't just weepy love ballads. That being said, I didn't find most of the songs compelling really, on any level. 2/5
Goldie
4/5
So this is the beginning of drum and bass. It's a pretty sonically suave album that doesn't really have some of the hard edge that a lot of this genre later came to adopt. The fast drum beats are kind of subdued for the most part, just playing background to the atmospheric samples and keyboard work that dominates most of the sound here. It's a very listenable album--although I remember hearing some of these tracks back in the day at raves or clubs, I'd never sat down to get through the whole album. 4/5, and would likely be higher if I was more of a D&B fanboy.
OutKast
4/5
At this point I'm kind of wishing that Dimery just stuck to rock and left rap off his list. It's not that the albums he selected aren't necessarily good, it's just that he displays such a shallow understanding of the genre and the most important, game-changing albums that I roll my eyes every 2 weeks or so when one pops up. Again, it's not so much the selections as the absences.
Anyway, onto Stankonia. This is definitely Outkast starting to become 2000s Outkast, with all the southern weirdness and idiosyncrasy that Big Boi somewhat embraces and Andre 3000 overdosed on eventually (he just released a flute album...).
So there are a ton of hits on this album, Mrs. Jackson, Fresh and Clean, Bombs Over Bagdad. That's probably why the album made the list--Dimery recognized a few tracks.
Is Stankonia better than Aquemini, or ATliens? Maybe not. Is it more polished and commercial, palatable to a wider pop audience? Yes.
As an album it's not as complete. There is a lot of filler and weirdness in here. Snapping and Trapping is a chore to listen to, despite it being the first track most of us heard Killer Mike. Listening to this track again, it makes me surprised, and happy, that he didn't disappear into obscurity after this awkward track. ? is definitely a question mark. That's a weird one, but at least it's short.
There are great sleeper tracks on here though. Spaghetti Junction is super solid. Xplosion is a great track with B-Real doing a great verse. Red Velvet is cool.
The whole album is kind of infused with a lot of 80s synth sounds that make for a unique sound, and part of something you hear a lot in Outkast's work, and some of Big Boi's solo stuff. Gangsta Shit, great lyrics and beat overall.
Anyway, it's a very good album, but I don't listen to it as much as Aquemini or even southernplayalisticcadillacmusik. 4/5
Parliament
4/5
Straight up funk, from the Mothership Connection. Unadulterated.
So many classic rap samples in this, especially the West Coast G Funk stuff. I haven't heard many of George Clinton's albums, just the hits, so not sure where this sits in his discography relative to other albums. 4/5 because the best is great, but there are one or two fillers in a seven track album.
Air
3/5
They say you can never judge a book by its cover, but you can definitely judge Air by the name of their group. This is just atmospheric, cloudlike music. It's not offensive, but neither does it form any strong impression one way or another. It's a solid three stars, sitting in the limbo of the list.
Elton John
2/5
Honestly the only the second Elton John album I've ever listened to. I liked Yellow Brick Road a little better. This one is a bit more "piano bar in the corner of sad dive bar" of a vibe. I'd only heard Tiny Dancer before. It's not terrible. I'd put it as a high 2, but I really don't think there's any chance I'd listen to it again, so I'll keep it as a 2.
Foo Fighters
5/5
I remember when this album came out, a lot of us teenagers at the time kind of turned our noses up at this since it wasn't Nirvana. Especially due to the poppier single "Big Me," which was played all the time on heavy rotation with the Menthos commercial. Obviously that was just a product of the time. In retrospect, this album definitely bangs. It's super high energy, hard alternative rock with a lingering grunge edge. It kind of pushes the grunge sound forward in a way consistent with bands like Stone Temple Pilots at the time. I'll definitely go back to this one, and perhaps have to listen to some more Foo Fighters albums to see if more of them are this good. 5/5
Bob Dylan
5/5
One of the classic Dylan albums, right at the absolute top of his early acoustic game. Blowin in the Wind is timeless, generation-defining even. Then there's Girl From North Country, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, Don't Think Twice etc. But those big hits don't really do the album justice, because a lot of the lesser known tracks are amazing. Oxford Town, I Shall Be Free, and a personal favourite, Corrina Corrina. Clear 5/5, and among Dylan's best.
3/5
I hadn't heard a lot of these songs, and some of the ones I did know where reiminagined in this performance, so it makes for a unique listen. I'm not always a fan of live albums for the most part, but this is a solid performance, right at the beginning of Dylan's electric period. Apparently there was heckling going on here, though they must have edited that out, because I didn't hear it. The beginning acoustic part definitely sounds more intimite. Not sure this is as important an album as the Newport folk festival performance but I guess that one wasn't released as an album. 3/5
Morrissey
2/5
Great, more Smiths. This list is like 1001 Smiths and Bowie albums to listen to before you die, plus a few bonus albums from other non-Smiths and non Bowies. 2/5
David Bowie
1/5
You've gotta be kidding me. A week after one 2010s Bowie album, I get another one. Just as I said yesterday, this list is like 1001 bowie and Morrisey albums, with a few bonus other things. As I said with Bowie's 25th album, there is no reason someone's 26th album should be on this list. Even less. I get that he died right after this, but this isn't like Nirvina Nevermind or something when an artist dies right in their prime. Dimery really needs to douse his fanboy flames on this.
Anyway, ranting aside, the albums starts off oddly, but not really off character for Bowie. Some of these tracks sound like Bowie doing a dark interpretation of church choir music. It's not terrible, but it certainly doesn't deserve a place on this list. 1/5 for relevancy/impact. 2/5 on actual listenability.
Blur
2/5
Listening to this album just reinforces my previous understanding that these guys were a one hit wonder. And they didn't even have the creativity to give it a name--both the album and the one hit, Song 2. Without that song, this album would have been a 1/5. Really just twangy whining. This was a terrible era for rock, the late 90s, and bands in the U.S. and U.K. often just sounded like bland, watered down versions of early 90s powerhouses. This has no business being on this list--I could have very happily died before listening to this album.
New Order
1/5
Not memorial and kind of just junky 80s dance music. This album should be on the 1001 albums to demonstrate how musicians fell off rather than anything good. Stick with the Joy Division or earlier albums.
Thelonious Monk
4/5
First listen I didn't know what to make of this one, so I tried again the next day, and paid a little more attention. It's a little less smoothe than some of his contemporaries' great albums, like Miles Davis and Coltrane. But once it gets going it's on strong.
Lana Del Rey
1/5
Ah man, why do they do this to me. I can't help but be turned off by any album described as "Americana," mostly because if it was any actual style of music like blues, rock or something, then they'd just call it that. Dark But Just a Game is ok, probably the best track for me. The others were very forgettable. 1/5
Billy Bragg
2/5
A cool idea here, resurrecting Woodie Guthrie songs and giving them to new artists. The trouble is in the execution. Part of the problem here is that I don't really like Wilco. Billy Bragg is alright, but most of these songs just don't hit me. 2/5
50 Cent
2/5
This is 50 Cent at the absolute top of his game, and he's still a subpar rapper. He's basically the godfather of mumble rap, and the best example of what happened in the late 90s/early 2000s as the industry took the blueprint of what made rappers like Tupac successful and tried to replicate it, without any of the lyrical prowess. He not only raps slow, his rhymes are very simple. Even his slurrish delivery would be pardoned if he could build more intricate rhyme schemes. Just look at what G Rap did despite a slight lisp.
50's whole schtick is just selling this image--and with Eminem and Dre behind him, white kids in the suburbs loved it. To be fair, they probably would have eaten up anything those two produced at this point. But it wasn't, obviously, the image of an unsuccesful drug dealer who had been shot numerous times because of it. It was 50 reborn as some sort of street kingpin. Then there's the lyrical content--or lack of it, really. This is gangster rap at its most banal.
At this point we're a full three years past Supreme Clientele, which may be the last truly great mafioso rap album. And that album is powered by Ghostface's high octane lyricism, storytelling and use of non-sequiters at its finest. 50 Cent, meanwhile, has none of the self-reflection of Wutang or Tupac, none of the flow of Biggie or early Snoop, none of the grim street tapestry that Mobb Deep has, none of the rhyme schemes of Kool G Rap and none of the story telling ability of Slick Rick, Biggie or Scarface. Even all his G-Unit crew who features on this album suck--if Eminem didn't drop a couple of mostly unmemorable verses, this whole thing would be a workshop in mediocre lyricisms.
Which brings me to the production. There are some high points here. PIMP is a great track, In da Club, Many Men, 21 Questions, If I can't--maybe 50 Cent at his best flow on this album--even Heat. But even Dre's passing involvement doesn't seem to bring most of these boring tracks above the level of average early 2000s club hits. Some tracks, like Blood Hound, What's Up Gangsta and Poor Lil Rich are truly terrible. This was the worst era of rap, both for beats, lyrics and flow, and 50 is a central figure of that.
This album is certainly an important herald of everything to come for the next half decade or so. It's just that I hated what rap became before Lupe Fiasco, Kendrick, J Cole and even Kanye arrived to save what rap had become (remember when ye outsold 50's album on a bet and we all hopes 50 would retire like he promised? Kanye as the hero--simpler times!).
Anyway, since this list is so sparse on rap albums, I always find myself extra critical of the ones that Dimery did choose to place on here, and this does not reach the high bar set by what I'm sure are many classics that didn't make this list. If it wasn't for that, I'd probably put this as a low 3, based on quality of album. But based on impact etc., I'd give it a 1. Though it had an undeniable impact on rap, most of that was negative, proving to the industry that you could sell albums based on image alone without any real substance. So I'll settle for the middle on this. As a hiphop head, there's nothing I hate worse than bad rap. 2/5.
AC/DC
3/5
Solid AC/DC album. They never really disappoint--AC/DC is anything if not consistent throughout their career. Some people bash them for this, and I get that, but there is something to be said about steadiness, I guess.
I don't know a ton of these songs well, even though I'm decently well-versed in the band, other than the title track, obviously. There are a couple other bangers here, sleeper tracks. This is probably heresy for Bon Scott fans as this was his last album before he died, but I like the subsequent Back in Black better than this one. 3/5
Elvis Costello
2/5
Elvis Costello is one of those guys I've always heard a lot about, but have never heard much of his work. Listening to this album kind of makes me feel like I didn't miss much. I suppose he's on the cusp of this whole folk-punk-rock spectrum, and perhaps that was important at some point. By the time this album came out in 1994, I'm not sure it was saying much. Music had moved on by then. I'm sure some of his earlier albums will be on this list, and maybe they are better. A couple songs are alright, like 20% Amnesia, but mostly this just sounds like nerd rock or something. I just don't get it. 2/5
Prince
4/5
Less funky than 1999 but somehow better. When Doves Cry is maybe Prince's best track, and a lot of the first side of the album is very good as well. I've never been a huge prince fan, I don't always love the affected 80s sensibility he has, but this is an undeniably good album. 4/5
Neil Young
4/5
I like Neil Young, but didn't recognize any tracks on this album. I think I've heard the second track, See the Sky About to Rain, which is good. The opening track, Walk On, is a little underwhelming. Revolution Blues is solid. For the Turnstiles is a great folk track too. Vampire Blues is a good blues track. Other than the first track, the whole album is pretty consistent and good. Even though it doesn't really have any absolute classics, this album is more consistently good than some of the more famous albums. 4/5
Maxwell
3/5
Definitely a groove to this, at least for roughly the first half of the album. Then it gets a little elevator music-ish starting with Whenever, Wherever, Whatever--a vibe that continues through Lonely's the Only Company. Reading up on this album, they compare this to Erykah Badu, Lauren Hill and D'Angelo. But Badu kills this by a long shot, as does the part of Lauren Hill considered neo soul rather than rap. 3/5
Steve Earle
2/5
As far as country goes, it's not bad. But it's still country. The nasal voice and such are hard to get over for me, and it's always so bland and formulaic. Copperhead road is a decent track, but that's not on this album. Not that this is too different from that, so I guess for people who like country rock this is good. Tough for me to get into though. 2/5
Nitin Sawhney
4/5
Some pretty chill triphop, like most triphop is I guess. A lot of these tracks sound like something you'd hear on a Buddha Bar or Cafe del Mar compilation. I like the ongoing theme as well, brings cohesion to the album. Nice integration of eastern and western sounds throughout. Points for a Dream Warriors feature. I'll go back to this one. 4/5.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
I'm not really a Springsteen fan by any means, but this album is objectively pretty good all the way through. It's a first listen, but one of those that I feel like would get better over time. I like the acoustic guitar, the harmonica. A definite folk feel.
G. Love & Special Sauce
4/5
Kind of a wild album. Is this rap? Scatting? Something in between? I can't picture the guy singing this. Gonna have to find a music video. He sounds like he's blazed out of his mind on every track freestyling stuff that doesn't even make sense.
The songs are groovy as hell though. Mostly jam tracks. I never heard of these guys back in the day. Might listen to this again though, it's cool, even if a little weird. 4/5
Japan
3/5
I was delighted to see this album--and band--on the list because it seemed like a great chance to comtinue to test my oft-hailed theory that there has never been a good band named after an official place name. Europe.... Boston... Kansas... Chilliwack... Asia... Chicago... all these bands suck. Flo Rida.... ya. When I read their description and found it was yet another new wave band on this list, I was all but sure it would suck.
Anyway, for new wave, it kind of starts of dark, and continues to have dark tinges to many of the songs. Maybe not so much as Depeche Mode or someone, but at least not totally goofy like much of new wave. There's still plenty of goof though. I don't know what's going on with Halloween, for example.
Overall, it's not always unpleasant. Some songs have a weird kind of groove to them, and I can see why people into this kind of music would like it. But all of that doesn't do anything to stop my overarching theory about bands named after official place names sucking.
Fela Kuti
5/5
Fela Kuti is a force of nature, and this is Fela at the height of his powers. Nigerian Afrobeat is fully a force by this album. The political message super on point, the long grooves are everything you want and need. The title track is obviously the standout here, but Mr. Follow picks up on a more deep cut groove right after. Everything flows together smoothly as could be expected. These guys are the kings of vibe. If only Fela was better known in the West... but then we wouldn't have all the 15 minute jam songs. Mistkae is an underappreciated deep cut that definitely bangs. Clean 5/5, and props to Dimery for having two Fela albums on this list (so far!).
Thin Lizzy
2/5
I've never really been a Thin Lizzy fan, The Boys are Back in Time always seemed like a dumb song to me. This live album just seems to kind of enforce that opinion. It just seems underwhelming and bland compared to other metal and hard rock bands before, after and in the same era. 2/5
King Crimson
3/5
These guys sound like what would happen if a dealer mixed up Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd's drug orders. Plenty of acid either way. It's definitely interesting, but I'm not sure how much of that crosses over to a pleasurable listening experience. It's not totally unpleasant though either--it definitely has its moments. One of those albums that one listen probably doesn't do it justice. There is obviously a lot of musical talent here. Easy Money is a cool song as is Talking Drum. Probably a high 3/5.
Kanye West
2/5
I tried to listen to this with an open mind, given how much I don't like Kanye since he went off the deep end. Three tracks in, and I'll just go off and say it--I don't love Rick Rubin's production style. He brings too much abrassiveness into production often, and this kind of screams that Rubin touch. Don't get me wrong, I like rock music, and I like rap, but I just don't always love to mix my rock and rap music. This isn't exactly super rock like, as lots of Rubin's other stuff--the production kind of sounds more like 90s industrial rock.
So this is the problem, really. While I don't think Kanye is a great rapper, he's usually a great producer. This album doesn't do it for me in the same way his production does on early albums, or even Dark Twisted Fantasy.
The first three tracks are mostly not that great, though the third track starts to get better. New Slaves is better. Hold My Liquor is good too, and the track with the Nina Simone sample. Send it Up is just grating.
Fats Domino
4/5
Old time rock and roll. Haven't listened to a ton of this, but sounds pretty good. I'm not always into this super dawn of rock stuck, but I enjoyed this. 4/5
Roxy Music
2/5
So this list has certainly provided a few good new discoveries. But I would have lived a happier life having never learned of the existence of Brian Eno and anything related to him.
This album isn't as bad as his solo stuff at least. It's still somewhat experimental, just not as off the rails. There are some good jams--the intro track is decent. Mostly just not very interesting though.
Digital Underground
4/5
I'd only heard this album once or twice before. On this third listen it holds up a lot better. These guys are integral to the development of the West Coast sound--they also gave a career to their young backup dancer, Tupac Shakur. This has a lot of funk elements that later get boosted to their full potential with Dr. Dre and Above the Law. It's a funny concept album as well once you figure out what they are talking about. Condom-sized sex packet drugs that bring sexual relief? Or something? The singles are classics, the Humpty Dance and Doowutchyalike. 4/5
Alanis Morissette
4/5
I don't remember ever having listened to this whole album, though lots of the songs are familiar as a Canadian. There are tons of singles on here, and some of the songs that aren't singles could have easily been singles. The first track is a good example--I'd never heard it before. Pretty solid album all the way through. 1995, just before mainstream rock began to turn to crap for a decade or so. 4/5
Cocteau Twins
2/5
For some reason I always thought these guys were an electronic group. Maybe their stuff was just remixed a bunch by DJs. In any case, it certainly sounds a little better as one track mixed into a DJ set of other stuff than it does in a full album of very similar stuff. Maybe I'd like it more on ecstasy, I dunno. It all has a very floaty aspect. 2/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
I wasn't super familiar with a lot of these songs, but there are some good ones here. "Fuckin Up" was a good one, and "Over and Over" is a great jam song. "Love to Burn" is great. Farmer John is a little plodding, and some of the other tracks are just average. 3/5
David Bowie
3/5
At least I got the total junk Bowie--his 234th and 235th albums--out of the way a couple weeks back. Way back at his 11th album now, at least the stuff sounds a little more inspired. The first two songs are pretty rocking. Third track is pretty whack. A New Career in a New Town is like proto-house in the beat. At some point the album starts sounding like the movie score for an explorative science fiction in the 80s. I guess heroine is a hell of a drug. 3/5, as one of the better Bowie albums I've heard from the 400 on this list.
B.B. King
4/5
This live album starts off super strong, even from before the moment BB King steps on the stage. It keeps on hard from the beginning and doesn't disappoint. 4/5
PJ Harvey
4/5
Has a bit of a grunge-like sound here, which I like. I like the attitude and hard edge of this. I'll probably go back and listen again. 4/5
Röyksopp
4/5
I've heard a few of these tracks, like their single Poor Leno, which is pretty cool with a unique sound to it, and Eple, on some DJ mix somewhere. The rest of the album is pretty solid and listenable. Spacy at times, futuristic sounds. 4/5
The Killers
3/5
This is one of those mid-oughts records that I missed mostly because I had given up on rock for a long time after the late 90s junk that dominated the radio. I've definitely heard a few of these songs, and the whole album comes together pretty well. definitely a sound of that era, which I mostly didn't love. I'm giving this a three, but it's a high three. 3/5
Teenage Fanclub
2/5
This sounds more like a late 90s rock album than an early 90s rock album, so it's ahead of its time in that sense. Unfortunately for me, I don't really like late 90s rock sound. I guess it's not grungy enough for me. Reminds me of the Gin Blossoms or something like Third Eye Blind, which I hate. Some songs are pretty decent though, like Pet Rock--it's not all bad. Overall not very interesting though. Doesn't really seem good enough to make this list though. 2/5
The Teardrop Explodes
3/5
I was dreading this album based on the date--1980 isn't actually my vibe for most intents and purposes, especially if we are talking mainstream rock. Plus, yet another new wave brit pop album, ya.
Anyway, having expected to hate it, it wasn't that bad. Keep your expectations low, right? Second Head is a really solid tracks, and the first three are pretty good. I kind of like the driving baseline. The guy's singing sounds like every other new wave brit pop album of this era. I dunno, I might listen to it again. 3/5
Blondie
3/5
The big songs are big, the others kind of meh. There is a harder rock element here than I'd previously imagined from Blondie, which was a bit of a surprise. It's also better than like 80% of the bands called new wave out there, but that's not saying much, and it's also, at least for me, because they don't sound as new wave as the most annoying bands in that genre. So two baning tracks, One Way or Another and Heart of Glass, and a bunch of stuf I forgot about 5 minutes after the album was over. 3/5.
Depeche Mode
3/5
I swear if this list could give me 8 new wave albums in a week they'd do it. This starts off pretty strong with one of their hits, followed by more hits. This is probably what new wave fans call a banger. Anyway, this album sounds a lot more like the Depeche Mode I thought I knew than the other album I have listened to on this list, Violator. I actually liked that one despite myself. This one is just OK. 3/5
JAY Z
5/5
In rap, this kind of proved Jay Z's ascendance to the top or near top of the NYC rap world. People will argue forever on whether Takeover is a better diss track than Nas' Ether, but I'd argue both won, kind of splitting the title of King of New York rap they were fighting over. Jay Z proved he was the bling king, rapping about money and swag. Nas proved he was the underground king, the "rapper's rapper."
Nas battle aside, the beats really pushed rap into the direction that it would go for the next decade, for better or worse. Kanye makes his first big appearance as a producer here. Also a cameo from Eminem, who was still fresh in his career and excellent at this point. "Em murdered you on your own track..."--Ether.
Jay's flow here is relaxed, and almost sounds too comfortable at times, as it did for most of his career post his first two albums. He doesn't rap with the fast wit and flows he used while still a hungry no-name rapper. Swag is the driving force that carries him through these tracks. The top-notch beats boost him along.
As usual, and unfortunately, I'm always rating the very few rap albums Dimery includes on here against the ones he didn't include. Is this better than Reasonable Doubt, which likely wasn't included? No. Is it a solid album, among Jay's best, that should be on a list of 1001 albums to hear before you die? Yes. It's not a clean 5 like Reasonable doubt as there are definitely some filler tracks, but rounds up to a 5.
Rufus Wainwright
1/5
This was a struggle to get through. Whiny, depressing, and not super inspired in general. I can't really get over his affected voice. It's almost like he's trying too hard to pretend he's not trying. Then there's some boring piano riffs. Not my thing. 1/5.
AC/DC
5/5
The first album with Brian Johnson comes on like thunder...even though that classic isn't on the album. I know a lot of classic AC/DC fans prefer the Bon Scott era, but I tend to love more of the Johnson era songs more than the earlier ones. This album comes on super strong with Hell's Bells--an absolute classic. Shoot to Thrill is a little more on the average side for me personally, even though I know it's a big hit. The title track and You Shook Me All Night Long... nothing needs to be said about those two. Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution is a deeper cut that I always loved. As usual with AC/DC, there are a few filler tracks, but less than many of their albums. It's not like the slower moments are really slow, afterall. For me this is probably their best, or near best album. Not quite a pure 5/5 but maybe rounds up.
The Divine Comedy
1/5
Well, I'd never heard of chamber pop until today. I'm not sure that my life is more enriched for the experience. The first song sounds like Christmas music, and the third song sounds like a mix of Christmas music with Tom Jones' voice. The whole album sounds like a relic of mid-90s "let's see if this works." Given that nobody knows what chamber pop is, the answer to that is pretty clear. The longer this album goes on, the more I suspect Bowie had something to do with this, as that would mean automatic inclusion on this list for Dimery. Just a lot of cheese. It's only 11 songs but seemed to go on forever. 1/5
Alice Cooper
3/5
I've never been a huge Alice Cooper fan, he always seemed too much like a try hard, and the music was never really there for me. But I ended up liking this album more than anticipated. There are some really great moments like the spy-type chase scene sound of the song around 17 minutes in (I'm listening to a full play version on Youtube, so not sure the name of the track, but maybe Unifinished Sweet). No More Mr. Nice Guy is the only track I really knew here. Sick Things is a cool track as well, unique vibe to it. I love the Dead is a funny song, especially considering how much it must have freaked out society at the time. Probably a high 3/5.
Sly & The Family Stone
5/5
This album starts off with a funk tribute to Haight Ashbury, then gets onto a slow burn soul groove in Just Like a Baby. More deep funk in Africa Talks to You. A Family Affair is classic, obviously. A solid groove all the way through--consistent in a way that Sly wasn't always in his career, which is remarkable considering all the drugs he was on during recording, apparently. Rounds up to 5
Led Zeppelin
5/5
The last of the truly great Led Zeppelin albums. Once they started naming them, it seems like their mojo drained a bit on the next one. Or more probably, it has to do with Robert Plant losing his voice after IV.
Basically everything on here is flawless or near flawless. Overtime I've grown to appreciate some of the deeper cuts more than the obvious hits like Stairway and Black Dog. And Rock n Roll was always one of their more average tracks for me. Misty Mountain Hop is amazing. Battle of Evermore. Four Sticks. Going to California. Clear 5/5.
I just learned that Battle of Evermore's background female singer is from Fairport Convetion, which I discovered on this list. Just when you thought you knew everything about this album.
Joan Armatrading
3/5
Kind of a funky album, mixing blues and funk elements. Reminds me a little of Tracy Chapman--maybe she was inspired by Armatrading. Not sure I'd go back to this album, but I can see the appeal for sure. I think for me, I don't love some of the jingles and riffs that she has, so while some of the grooves are great, the songs are hit or miss. Not sure how else to describe it. 3/5
The Auteurs
2/5
I thought the whole thing about new wave was you didn't admit to being new wave...
Anyway, just what we need. A new wave album in the 90s, when music had finally recovered from that whole trash era. Anyway, this album's main problem is it's just a little on the boring side. There are a couple of interesting tracks. Housebreaker was kind of OK and Early Years is good. The guy's singing is super new wave annoying. And then there's the pretentiousness. Ughh. 2/5
Sex Pistols
4/5
I don't mind their songs, Anarchy in the UK is classic. Pretty Vacant, God Save the Queen--important moments in punk. The fact that they were put together as a manufactured punk image kind of takes away from their aura though. It wasn't really fake, at least with Sid Vicious, but it was somehow directed. It's an important conversation in a genre usually built on authenticity. Anyway, I think this is why I always preferred some of their contemporaries more than them, the Ramones, the Stooges. I'm giving this a 4 because I definitely think it deserves to be on this list for its importance in the punk genre, but for me, personal enjoyment would keep it at a 3.
Brian Eno
1/5
Why the hell is an album with this title even on this list? Do we really need the top 1001 albums to listen to in an airport before we die? The worst is this title isn't ironic--it's really how it sounds. And this is the third bloody Eno album I've had to slog through on this list. There are more albums on this list by Eno than there are of Bob Marley or Led Zeppelin. There are more Eno albums than Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana and Alice in Chains combined. So Eno is more important to listen to before I die than the entire genre of grunge? Jesus Dimery, get your head out of your ass. Anyway, this is fine enough as meditation music due to its sometimes hypnotic sound but really has not place on this list. Solid 1/5.
Van Morrison
4/5
I don't always appreciate Van Morrison. A couple of his hits are great, but the full albums I've heard aren't really that compelling. I also don't really love live albums, but this one is pretty solid all around. When I saw this was a double album I was expecting a chore, but it was pretty good all around. I'm giving this a 4, though just because I can understandand and appreciate how this is a good album, for fans. It definitely showcases Van Morrison's best side. Personally, I don't love Van Morrison and likely won't listen to this again.
Rod Stewart
4/5
First track starts off a little bluegrassish. Kind of a cool sound. Cut Across similarly folksy bluegrass elements. I like the slide guitar on Lady Day. I'm not super familiar with Rod Stewart, and liked this album a lot more than I thought I would have. 4/5
Paul Simon
4/5
My dad had this album, and I remember not connecting much with it when I was a teenager. Not sure it hits me as well as the 60s stuff with Garfunkel still, but this album is really its own beast, and it's pretty cool.
The first track has a nice swing to it. The title track is pretty cool as well. The African groove carries on to I know what I know and for a couple tracks until You Can Call Me Al, the album's main hit. I never knew for the longest time that song was from Paul Simon since it sounds so 80s--a far cry from his 60s stuff.
Talking Heads
3/5
More new wave, joy. This guy's voice is irritating as hell. The first song is kind of cool sounding, the second track just weird and goofy. Ditto the third track. Cities, for example, is a more rocking song and Byrne isn't too much on his usual trip, and the following one is OK too--Life During Wartime I think. Some of their stuff is OK, it's just hard to get over the dumb vocals and dumber lyrics. And plus, I always have that Documentary Now! spoof about them in the back of my head now. Also, to add fuel to my dislike, apparently Brian Eno had something to do with this garbage. The high points are enough to lift this above a 1 or a 2, which I would prefer to give them. Alas, it's a 3, grudgingly.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
I listened to this one right after Court and Spark, and it's cool to compare them side by side. This one kind of lights off more of where Court sparked. It definitely seems more like a rock album, where as the former is still mosty folk with rockish and jazz vibes sprinkled throughout. The first track and "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" are great tracks. The rest was pretty solid all the way through. 4/5
Jungle Line is a pretty cool song for 1974. It almost sounds like Bjork 15 years before Bjork.
The Doors
3/5
Solid, some more Doors. This album kicks off the pair of more blues-driven albums that finished off their run before Morrison died. Not that there hadn't been blue before, but the focus kicked up a notch here on the side of the blues scale.
Anyway, onto songs specifically. Roadhouse Blues, Waiting for the Sun--both timeless classics. For me the latter is the best on the album.
By track three, you start to see the more boring side of the new blues focus. You Make Me Real is kind of a part blues, part rock a billy track heavy on a cheesy piano jingle. It's not bad, just kind of average and forgettable. Track 4, Peace Frog, might arguably be the best album on the track, though I lean a little more to Waiting for the Sun. The boringness of You Make Me Real would be forgiven at this point if only they stayed on the righteous path...
Alas, we have a three-track sequences of terrible schlock. Blue Sunday isn't that bad but Ship of Fools is a foul song and Land Ho! is pestilent. Blue Sunday is kind of just a soft, whiny track that doesn't manage the kind of dreaminess that other similar ones like Crystal Ship executed with great success. It's not terrible, just a boring skip. Not even worth speaking about Ship of Fools and Land Ho!--it would be better if we just pretended those never exist. If only we could put these two tracks on Soft Parade and fire that album forever into space, then the Doors discography would be a solid piece of work, and this album would be redeemed.
But still not among their best. The nex three tracks are good but not enough to recover from the depths of Land Ho!--The Spy is quite good and Queen of the Highway pretty good as well. I really like Indian Summer, which does manage to recover that dark dreamy feel of Crystal Ship. Maggie McGill is just a decent blues song.
So overall, I'd say this is the second worst of all the Doors' studio albums before Morrison died. It's definitely a partial recovery from The Soft Parade, but not quite as good as Waiting for the Sun, and not as complete a recovery as L.A. Woman. As mentioned before, this is my Doors discography rating so far:
The Doors: 5/5
Strange Days 5/5
Waiting for the Sun 4/5
Soft Parade 2/5
Morrison Hotel 3/5
LA Woman 4/5
Madness
1/5
I got mildly excited when I read this was an English ska album. I guess I was expected something along the lines of the Clash. As I've learned from this list, I should manage my expectations. Four songs in and I'm like, what the hell am I listening to. Take the cheesiest parts of ska, get rid of the more punkish attitude and just take on some New Wave silliness, maybe some glam rock posturing. Add in some zany whistles and sound effects to bring a circus-like effect to this. "Calling Card" is atrocious. Not great. What's the neeed? Our House, the main single, was the only song that was half decent. But taken in context of the rest of this album, I probably enjoyed that song less given now that I see what it's part of. At least listening to this reinforces that these guys are a one-hit wonder. 1/5.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
It's crazy that I'm like 300 albums in and this is the first Bob Marley album on here. In fact, the only two reggae albums on the list so far weren't even Jamaican... great work Dimery.
Anyway, this album was made in London after Marley survived an assassination attempt. Maybe that was his own Exodus. With Jammin and One Love, this album may be Marley's most famous, or well-known. I'm not sure it was his best--I think the earlier stuff with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer hits a little harder for me. But I can see why Demery would put this one if he only chose one.
Here Marley is comfortable with the forces of his creativity. Natural Mystique is a great opening song, perhaps the best opener of all Marley's albums, or at least of the well-known tracks. The whole sound of the song conveys the message well. So Much Things to Say is a little formulaic, not among Marley's best for me. Guiltiness anis a good atmospheric tracks, though not among Marley's strongest. The Heathen has a really cool mantra-ish rhythm--a great deep cut. Starting with the title track, the rest of the songs are all super well-known. Exodus, Jammin and One Love are definitive classics. I'm a huge Marley and reggae fan, but I don't love Turn Your Lights Down low, and find Three Little Birds and Waiting in Vain on the average side. I listened to the version with Punky Reggae Party for this one, which is a pretty solid track that wasn't on the version of the album I had when I was a kid. 5/5
The Byrds
2/5
The Byrds ditch David Crosby and spawned the genre of country rock. Thanks guys, we have suffered ever since. Maybe this album is a cautionary tale of what happens when you do too many drugs?
The first two songs are just boring, then the Christian Life is an absolutely terrible song, perhaps enough to drop this album to a one singlehandedly. You Don't Miss Your Water is pretty bad as well. Just these boring, formulaic country jangles everywhere--music for the unimaginative.
Some of the later songs aren't as annoying, but that's about as good as this album gets. Groundbreaking it may be for people who like country rock. For those who don't like country rock, blame the Byrds. 2/5
Public Enemy
5/5
Epic, incredibly important rap album, both for the sampling and pushing rap music to be more politically conscious. Chuck D told Ice T he wrote this while listening to Sly and the Family Stone. Fight the Power and Welcome to the Terrordrome are super classics. And somehow Flav carried a decent song on 911 is a Joke. In terms of importance this is definitely a 5/5. That being said, I don't necessarily listen to this album--or any Public Enemy album--a ton, despite being a huge hiphop head. One of those James Joyce situations I guess, where everybody knows it's genius, but not always easy to listen to. Dense and driving beats and energy--you have to be in a mood for this.
Lorde
2/5
My first thought when I saw this on the list was that this must just be a bunch of old guys picking some new pop album at random to show they are hip with the times. It could have been this or just as easily Billie Eilish.
The songs aren't bad, just kind of generic. I had one of those long play ads come up before one track, a perfume add with music, and couldn't tell the difference--I thought it was a song on the album. Anyway, not terrible, but not my thing.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
This album starts off with a lot more energy than some of Cave's more minimal darker stuff like Boatman's Call. It's still dark, just a bit more fast paced, with more instrumentation. This is a little more like his early punk band, The Birthday Party. John Finn's Wife is great. The last track is very strong as well. I'll likely go back to this. 4/5
Joni Mitchell
3/5
"You can't separate a man and his Joni tapes," -- Mr. Chi Pig/SNFU
This album is pretty classic Joni Mitchell. A lot of great tracks. There were a few duds. "Raised on Robbery," for example, is a little cheesy for me. I think some of the jazz experimentation on this album works--like in "Twisted," while sometimes I'm left with the feeling that Mitchell should just stick with the folk elements she does best. Tracks like Trouble Child.
This is a high 3, but waving between 3 and 4. I'd listen to again.
Radiohead
4/5
Radiohead often depressed me and this one has its moments, but there are also a bunch of good hits here. This album still has a more rock feel, with some reverb and sound effects but not as much of the electronica infusion as their next album. I used to hate on these guys but it's not a bad album. I recognized three hits here. Not sure I'll listen again but I can appreciate its worth. 4/5
Traffic
3/5
Some great psychedelic tracks here. I've never heard of these guys. Roaming and Gloaming, Feeling Alright. There's a lot of filler too. I'd mine this for playlist tracks, but not sure it stands super well as a complete album. 3/5
Pulp
4/5
This starts off sounding super Pink Floydish, then kind of pulls back into a more 90s-like alternative sound. I think I remember a couple of these guys tracks on Much Music back in the day, but they never made much of an impression on me back then.
Anyway, the album is pretty cool honestly. Some of the tracks are definitely original. Probably a high 3, could see it as a 4. Might listen to again.
On another note, this guy's dancing is hilarious in some of the videos. Looks like someone's grandpa trying to get groovy.
Al Green
5/5
I feel like I've listened to this before but then again, I should have remembered an album this good. This is solid all the way through, with lots of hard-hitting soul here. It doesn't dip into the overly soft whiney type of song that Al Green sometimes does a lot of. This is funky and soulful all the way through the nine tracks. The first five tracks in particular are great. The title track is a classic. "Judy" is a great one I hadn't heard before. "So You're Leaving" on point. This is seriously a solid funk/soul album and belongs up there with the likes of Superfly, Cold Sweat, and What's Going On. 5/5
Can
3/5
Starts off with a pretty cool psychedelic rock track. The second track, "Mushroom," sounds a little more punkish in vibe, something like a subdued Iggy Pop. Once we get into the 18 minute tracks, the album is in peak acid trip mode. More trippy soundscapes than songs in the normal sense. It's not unappealing, but not sure how much I'd actually listen to this album. Seems to me more like put the first three songs on a playlist and wait till the right moment to listen to the album as a whole. And now that I'm older, those "right moments" don't come as often.
Peking O is just annoying rather than pleasantly trippy. I wouldn't want to listen to that on a trip.
These guys' main issue is they seem a few years late for the main wave of psychedelic rock. While that may have mattered in 1971, it doesn't really matter now in retrospect, as this fits right into the era.
Anyway, rates as a low 3 for me. Starts off well then kind of deteriorates in the long tracks.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
Classic Fleetwood Mac album. I wasn't a fan of these guys growing up, but when I listened to this album, I learned a better appreciate them. I usually always prefer the Stevie Nicks songs to the Lindsay Buckinham songs. But Second Hand News isn't bad and Go Your Own Way is a classic. Never Going Back also classic. Gold Dust Woman and Dreams are the best for me, and Chains, written by several of the band. First slow point of the album comes with Songbird--that one's a skip track for me. I Don't Want to Know isn't the strongest Nicks song, but Oh Daddy is a great sounding track by McVie, though the lyrics are a little masochist. Whatever you're into, I guess.
Overall, the one or two slow points don't detract from the excellent overall product. 5/5
Nick Drake
5/5
The album starts with a hopeful kind of acoustic rif backed by what sounds like a full orchestra. The second track has a great driving energy and his voice really carries the rhythm along. The extra instruments give this album a very cool feel--I like it even more than the other Nick Drake album this list has given me, Pink Moon.
The album also finishes out with a great vibe. The flute and guitar really leaves you with a mood. I'll definitely go back to this album. 5/5
Sigur Rós
2/5
I'm fairly skeptical of any musical genre that starts with the word "post" but I haven't experience much postrock. Anyway, they say you can't really judge a book by its cover, but you can definitely judge this album by its cover. It sounds exactly like the music an alien baby with angel wings and webbed hands still attached to the umbilical cord would jam to. Or float to, I guess.
It's not unpleasant, it just lacks rhythm, groove, character. Just floaty coffee shop music. Naturally, it's on the long side. 2/5
John Lennon
4/5
I'd never heard this album, or really any of John Lennon's solo albums, before this list. Just a few songs and hits here and there. Like many, I was also led to believe that Yoko Ono ruined everything. This albums shows apparently not.
It starts off really strong. "Working Class Hero" really sounds like a Bob Dylan song, even in the melody. It's a great track, and the previous three are pretty good too. Well Well Well is rocking. "God" almost comes off as a 1970 heavyweight rock star diss track--"I don't believe in Elvis... I don't believe in Zimmerman." Nobody in the world of hiphop would have let this fly without response. 4/5
CHVRCHES
1/5
You can guarantee that as soon as the editors of this list heard in 2013 that a new synth pop album came out, despite it being 30 years past relevance, they had a joy aneurism and immediately kicked off some more deserving album.
Starts off sounding like candy pop. Second song continues sounding like candy pop with more synth. As it goes on, the album kind of gives me the sense of some sort of millenial coming of age movie that bombed in theaters but 12 years olds say "Dad, you just don't get it. But our uncle Sven who grew up listening to 80s pop jams to it."
The Rolling Stones
4/5
"Gimme Shelter" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" are classics. Other than than there are a few honkey tonk country like songs, like a stripped down more folksy version of "Honkey Tonk Man" itself. "Let it Bleed" is a bit of a labour. "Midnight Rambler" is a solid blues track. "You Got the Silver" has good slide guitar, more countryish vibes. "Monkey Man" is a really cool sounding track. Probably the best deep cut on this album. I'll give this a four, because like many Stones albums, there are filler tracks here. Just not as many as usual. 4/5
Jane Weaver
4/5
Nice psychedelic vibe here. Some parts sound a little like MGMT, but only in a kind of tribute sense. They definitely manage a unique sound--it's not too much throwback to the 60s either, though there are notions of Jefferson Airplane and David Crosby. 4/5
Little Richard
5/5
Has a lot of groove to it. I like this a little better than Chuck Berry honestly--I don't always love these 50s rock albums, though I know they started it all. More soul and groove. Probably a 4/5 personally, but a 5/5 because of it's importance to rock and everything.
The Stone Roses
3/5
A band I've often heard of, especially in the 90s, but hadn't really ever listened to for whatever reason. Fool's Gold is the only track I've heard before, I think from The Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels soundtrack. Overall decent, but I don't know that I'd come back to this.
LTJ Bukem
5/5
Solid drum and bass. Takes me back to the 90s. Has all the good elements, the fast rhythms and spacy melodies and vocal samples. It's tough to find a full proper mix online of this one, at least on Youtube and Spotify. 5/5
Slint
4/5
This is a cool sounding album. Fits right into the moment, early 90s. Some early Soundgarden vibes, maybe some Black Flag ish elements. This one is a good discovery.
4/5
Cornershop
3/5
Definitely a band I assumed was a one-hit wonder thanks to a Fatboy Slim remix in the 90s when Brimful of Asha came out. Technically that's probably true, as I'm not sure anybody ever heard anything else from these guys, so not sure why this is supposed to be a game changing album.
All of that said, it's not a bad listen. There are plenty of spacy psychedelic moments mixed with more 90s rock like elements. And some Indian fusion. It's definitely a different sound. It's not bad, but not sure I'd go back to this. Kind of just a flashback to the 90s that briefly made me remember the one Fatboy slim mix. 3/5
Joy Division
3/5
Joy Division is one of those bands that I've tried to like more than I like. Tracks like Love Will Tear Us Apart and Disorder are the reason why I try, but before, when I've listened to their album, it's been a little too depressing.
Anyway, I'll give this another try for the sake of the almighty list. The album starts off with a cool track, Disorder, and I like the vibe of the second track, Day of the Lords as well. There some other good tracks here, but much of the album just kind of blends into the background. 3/5
Hanoi Rocks
2/5
The title track starts off pretty groovy, with lots of energy. The rest isn't bad, but it kind of sounds like glam rock that time forgot. Or like tracks written for the unproduced sequel of Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's much better than Mott the Hoople, which of course was on this list due to Bowie involvement. But not really great. The horns on Ice Cream Summer add a level of cheese unnecessary even for glam rock. Lick Summer Love pretty bad... that horn is back as well. Sailing Down the Tears sounds like glam rock mixed with some sort of country jangle. This album isn't the worst as some tracks have some redeeming quality, but definitely doesn't deserve this list. 2/5
Aimee Mann
2/5
Say Anything and Jacob's Chain are decent sounding tracks, the rest is kind of generic. I guess there's a reason why I've never heard of Aimee Mann despite growing up in this time period and listening to a lot of music. 2/5
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Starts off pretty cool with Mother's Little Helper, a track I didn't know. Love the sound of this song. Second song is pretty good as well. Lady Jane is kind of different, but not sure how I feel about it. Jagger's singing is a little weird on that track, though the music is pretty good. Under My Thumb is obviously a classic. Going Home is pretty groovy. High and Dry has a foot-stomping groove. Hearkens a little to Zeppelin's later "Bron y aur Stomp" track. Overall this album is better for me than Let it Bleed. Think is a great track as well. What to Do is a little too country western for me. 4/5 overall.
a-ha
1/5
A one-hit wonder new wave band from the 80s? Amazing. Put it on the list boys! As you know, the only thing that qualifies a new wave album's placement here is existence.
Starts off with this catchy but annoying Take On Me. I've had to put up with hearing this song since the 90s when I started watching Much Music in Canada because VJs loved the music video. Then a bunch of whiney new wave sop follows. Even compared to other new wave this is terrible. To cap off the album, they did an instrumental version of their one hit, because I guess they realize that's the only reason people bought this album anyway. 1/5
John Lee Hooker
5/5
Cool album and cool story behind this album. Mainstream commercial money well deserved for such an important character in blues. Collabs are great too, starting off with Carlos Santana being his usual epic self. Cool to hear Hooker singing with Santana riffs. Solid and moody all the way through after that, starting, appropriately, with a new version of In the Mood. It's not often someone this late in their career has such a great album, I think it speaks to JLH's attention to craft more than anything. 5/5
The Mothers Of Invention
3/5
This one is a pretty listenable Zappa album. There are a lot of good tracks and the Mothers don't completely lose themselves in experimentation in this one. Tracks like "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" are great, and there are some other bangers in here. Their message comes together pretty well here too. I kind of prefer this to Freak Out! Though maybe not as good as Hot Rats. Somewhere between a 3 and 4, but I'll probably stick with 3.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
I'm not super familiar with many of these songs--I hadn't heard this album before. It lacks the well-known bangers found on Innervision or Songs in the Key of Life. The first track is pretty good and the second track, a gospel song, is actually pretty funky. Too Shy to Say is one of those super whiney Stevie tracks that I can't stomach very well. Boogie on picks up as the best track yet. It carries definite Parliament vibes. Creepin' is a slow but groovy track. You Haven't Done Nothing is even better than Boogie On. Sounds like I Wish. Will definitely poach this for a playlist. Bird of Beauty is pretty good and fun to hear Stevie speaking some Portuguese. Please Don't Go is solid as well.
Overall a pretty good album, even sounding and doesn't delve too much into the sappy or depressing songs that drag some of his best albums down a little for me. 4/5
Megadeth
5/5
Solid album by legends of thrash. As can be expected from Mustaine, starts hard and doesn't let up. Wake Up Dead is epic. Peace Sells... superlative. Devil's Island...Bad Omen. Even the lesser known tracks are classic--a new one grows on me whenever I listen to this album, which isn't as much as I did when young, unfortunately. 5/5 metal album.
Ride
2/5
Great, just what I need, another shoegaze album. And to think, before this list, I was blissfully ignorant about what shoegaze music was.
Starts off less annoying than My Bloody Valentine, the other one I pulled. Has more rock energy. But the whole thing is a little bland. Not bad--a high 2 I guess.
The xx
2/5
Googling this band is not safe for work. Lo-fi millennial soft rock. That type that got famous just whispering rather than singing. They have a unique sound, I'll give them that. Like "We're disinterested in life, and only barely interested in doing this whole music thing." Perfect coffee shop music. Some moments sound vaguely Khruangbin--ish but without the wild funk and psychedelia. "Infinity" sounds like "Wicked Game" By Chris Isaak, but not as good.
Astrud Gilberto
3/5
Wikipedia says this is one of Astrud's less impressive albums in the 60s... so not sure why they chose this one. The first few songs are classic samba, until we get to Parade (A Banda), which is some sort of hybrid between parade samba and circus music which comes off pretty badly. You Didn't Have to Be So Nice is a little weak as well. I like samba but not sure I'll go back to this album. 3/5
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
It's refreshing to hear a non punk or metal album from mid 80s that isn't new wave and doesn't suck. The second track is pretty cool. Third track a little on the 80s side for me with some goofiness, but it's not way over the top like most new wave stuff. Overall, this is pretty good. Kind of has notions of Nick Cave. A little janglish at times, but not so much that it ruins the overall product. High 3, but I could see this growing on me.
TLC
3/5
Throwback to the 90s for sure. I didn't know a lot of these tracks, other than Waterfalls of course, and I kind of remember Creep and Red Light Special. "If I was your Girlfriend" is a pretty funky track. This is definitely a little better than some 90s R&B, due often to hiphop influence. Phife Dawg, Busta and Andre 3000 all make appearances. 3/5
Portishead
4/5
I kind of remember these guys in the 90s, but never really listened to them much. It was before I started getting into electronic music. Starts off with an eery sounding track. I remember the second track. Didn't think much of it as a teenager, but now that I'm a little older I appreciate the eery sound of the singing, the James Bondish guitar riff. The guitar sample on the third track almost sounds like the riff from Curtis Mayfield's "Right on for the Darkness." I don't remember hearing Numb before but it's good. Roads I've definitely heard, and also a quiet groove. Glory Box a good one to finish off the album. Also definitely remember this one. 4/5
Jazmine Sullivan
3/5
It seems good for what it is but I struggled to home in on the details. It kind of just played like background music. I like how the skits bring the whole album together, as a complete, well considered project. If I was into this kind of modern R&B maybe I'd enjoy this more. It seems like a good example of the genre. 3/5
Hookworms
4/5
Kind of sounds like MGMT, but also sounds unique enough to have a cool ring to it. Had never heard of these guys before. Kind of cool all around--I was expecting to be annoyed and was pleasantly surprised. 4/5
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
I don't think anyone could really say they were experienced before hearing this album. The beginning of the greatest rock guitarist of all time, sure. But this album and its two follow ups were electric shock to rock and music in general. Purple Haze put me onto classic rock, the Woodstock performance on record. And it doesn't let up the whole album through. Even the softer moments like The Wind Cries Mary and May This Be Love are seriously groovy. Plus there are those trademark Hendrix guitarplaying, something like rhythm and riffing at the same time. It's arcane really. The drumming is epic as well, tracks like If I Don't Live Today and Fire in particular, but also May This Be Love. The really only slightly slow point for me on the album are the last two tracks on the extended bonus track version: Remember and Red House, a more traditional blues song. But some of the others on the extended play, Stone Free, Can You See Me and Highway Chile especially, are bangers. 51st Anniversary is ok. Overall one of the most important albums to probably ever come out in rock, even if I personally like Electric Ladyland a little better. Clear 5/5
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
3/5
Pretty decent blues but I kind of wish Clapton was doing the singing--Mayall is better on the music than he is singing. It's not bad all around, but I can't help but think what Howlin Wolf, or John Lee Hooker, or Muddy Waters album got left off the list because this is. Or even Johnny Winter, who is also a little better. 3/5
The Avalanches
5/5
Pretty cool sounding album. Reminds me a little of a mixture between Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim. Maybe some doses of Mark Farina Mushroom Jazz sessions. Loving all the old school hiphop samples from Raekwon, De La Soul/Prince Paul etc. The Prince Paul stuff they sample is an appropriate nod, since Paul might be the progenitor of this type of sample-heavy type music. It also makes me wonder how they cleared all this stuff--De La Soul's first few albums were held up in litigation forever. Maybe the Avalanches were better at clearing the stuff they used.
Seriously, this album sounds seriously classic. Turntablism, samples... awesome. I also hear elements of albums like Dr. Octagonecologyst and Deltron 3030. Listening to this, it's almost a crime that they didn't collaborate with any 90s or 90s-style rappers over the past 20 years. A rare 5/5 that I'd never heard before. Will definitely go back to this.
David Ackles
2/5
Kind of a strange one. Never heard of this guy, but that's apparently the trend. Reminds me a little of Gordon Lightfoot at moments, but then in other moments it's just something totally unique. Maybe it's just his voice and singing style that is Lightfoot-esque. Ballad of the Ship of State is definitely on the strange side. And the strangeness doesn't really stop. Sounds like a cheesy movie soundtrack. Undiscovered genius or just random experiment from the early 70s gone wrong? I know which one of those options I choose. 2/5
Jack White
4/5
Just the antidote I needed after this Elvis Costello album I had before. Something that actually rocks. I'm mostly only familiar with the White Stripes singles, but this album sounds mostly like that does. It's a pretty diverse album as well, not exactly as one-sided as I kind of assumed the White Stripes were (which may be a wrong opinion). 4/5 but could see this growing on me to a 5.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
Starts off sounding a little better than the other Costello album I pulled on this list, Brutal Youth, which isn't saying much. I still hate the affected nerdcore way he sings, but what are you gonna do. Worst is I'm sure he also inspired a bunch of other new wave bands I also hate. First two tracks are ok. Oliver's Army is mostly just annoying, as is Big Boys. Good Squad is a genuinely good track, enough to bring this album up a point from the 1 star I was leaning towards. Moods for Moderns is terrible cheese, and then more cheese follows. 2/5
3/5
Not a bad album, just not sure that it has a lot of personality in and of itself compared to some of the other punk progenitors. I mean I like punk, but this just didn't move me hugely. 3/5