3.5, some decent tracks in there, need a bit more experience with the genre to appreciate it
the well established radio songs on this album were of course great and lots of fun to listen to, can only imagine how innovative the instrumental work was at the time. Most of the other songs are pretty rough lyrically but I had to kind of laugh at the performative swagger.
Rating: 2.5
This one wasn’t really for me in instrumentation, musical texture or lyrics. Bit of a lack of diversity in the songs for me.
Rating: 2
Seems like the pinaccle of boomer albums. Claptons ego is on full display. These are some pretty silly lyrics. I felt like the run time was too long for me, but I enjoyed many of the instrumentals and a lot of the guitar work.
Rating: 2.25
Great album, loved the high energy production and amazing performance. The lyrics are top notch and have sadly held true as our society continues to get dumber and more bigoted. But art like this album gives me hope that voices like Public Enemy can continue to reach the mainstream and educate.
I loved the texture of the production, gave the whole album a raw and immediate edge. This is one I’ll keep coming back to, there’s great depth here.
Rating 4.5
This was a truly visceral emotional experience, sparse and simple keeping a perfect length for this retrospection on life. It’s an album I can see myself coming back to periodically to take in its genius.
Rating: 5
Pretty fun, can see why this is a seminal live album.
Rating: 4
When this came out 15 years ago I was a highschooler and I could not have been bothered, but listening now was a bit better than expected. There's definitely more compelling and timeless similar albums from this time, such as Helplessness Blues. With all that being said it does deserve at least another play.
Rating 3.5
This wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be, I think most people find to cool to dislike Bob Dylan since everything he did here was aped to oblivion by plenty of other popular musicians in the intervening years.
I preferred the solo set, with its minimalist hypnotic vibes. I didn't really get much from the electric set, it just felt so generic.
I started to finally understand and appreciate the vocal delivery near the end of the album.
I do feel vindicated in knowing that I too can tunelessly dick around with a harmonica.
Rating: 3.0
Excepting the rote Exorcist passage this was quite compelling for me, just pretentious enough in that special prog rock way. This is nice long form music to soundtrack your day.
Rating 4.0
Yeah, what else can be said, this was amazing. Been a while since I listened to a full album from LZ and gladly, this is front to back bangers. I’m in awe of the performances across the board, and there’s such a great variety of sounds throughout the album.
Rating: 5
I’ve always found FF to be a bit generic for lack of better word, but there is catharsis here for Dave Grohl in getting out of the shadow of Nirvana. This album overstayed its welcome a tiny bit for me with a lack of diversity in songwriting. However, I believe that this is another case of fatigue due to Dave’s outsized influence on what would later be considered generic, radio friendly accessible songwriting. While this may not be a master work, it showcases a talented musician who changed the face of mainstream rock in the 90s and 00s. The album is solid with some standout cutting edge radio rock tracks.
Rating: 3.25
This was pretty good, my experience with Chemical Brothers is that they usually have 2 or 3 real standouts per record and a lot of repetition. I’d say this album follows suit, with the first three tracks establishing a great energy. Listened to the record twice and can’t really remember too much else about it, but I will certainly return to it again.
Rating: 3.0
Really enjoyed this one, and I’ll be returning to it, just a masterpiece.
Rating: 5
People will hate Taylor Swift and 1989 on principle and while I went in with said stance I will concede that the album is completely fine.
This is tightly designed pop music that is showing its age 10 years on. Ultimately the album references for me a time in popular music which I am not positively nostalgic of. 1989 targets a young audience and leaves a saccharine impression but at the end of it all you cannot completely deny the sweet tooth for catchy, massive choruses.
Rating: 3.5
Dookie held up pretty well honestly, this was a fun listen and more detailed than I remembered it to be.
Rating: 4.25
Wasn’t quite as wacky as I expected, and there’s some decent tracks on here. Beefhearts performances are amazing. The instrumental back half dragged a bit for me.
Rating: 3.75
This slapped what else is there to say
Rating: 4.0
It was fine. The performances were next level.
Rating: 3.0
Generic psych mindlessness. This is a much worse grateful dead
Rating: 2.0
The introduction monologue was so hilariously bereft of confidence that I was started on a good foot. The first track was really great and holds up well. As the album progressed it slowly became apparent that every song would feature identical instrumentation, singing and lyrics. I can see why this didn’t make it on the fallout soundtrack.
Rating: 1.5
This was a fun romp, this feels like it is a foundational album for future rock and even metal. There’s some nice heavy riffs in here that allude to the parallel sound of black sabbath or the later on High on Fire. This album will stay in rotation when I want something fun and immediate.
Tasting: 4.25
I don’t know what to say about this one, it barely held my attention. Not to be completely unfair as I could tell there were some diamonds in the rough but finding them would require me to relisten which I have no desire to do.
As a band unit they definitely shone but the repetition in songwriting and production was too fatiguing.
I hadn’t listened to the band before and I will give them another chance with their earlier, more seminal work.
Rating: 2.0
Solid groovy album, this is what virtuoso playing should be instead of unfounded wankery.
Rating: 4.0
Yeah plain and simple, Queen cooked with this one. I like that I didn’t know a single song here but could feel the reverberation of influence up to current prog music. The jacked up guitars and vocal harmonies were sick and I loved the heavy staccato riffing that’s all over this thing.
Rating: 4.5
Lots of great groove to like here. Without being a complete coward I couldn’t get into the vocals due to the language barrier.
Rating: 3.5
Got about halfway through, everything I heard was pretty interesting, I’ll have to come back to this one.
Rating: 3.5
This was great, and kept getting more poignant and enjoyable as the album went on.
Rating: 4.0
This is the best album I’ve yet heard from the list. Haunting, sorrowful and beautifully idiosyncratic, Nina clearly has been a persistent influence on a wide range of current music. This is one of the most personal feeling albums I’ve heard in a while, with capstone performances that stare directly through you.
Rating: 5.0
On Janis’s singing alone this gets a 7.
Rating: 3.5
Pretty interesting album, just got locked in to the dense hypnotic layers. I’ll return to this one.
Rating: 8
This was pretty great, I was fully onboard for a lot of this. In true krautrock fashion there were so many echoes of music to come in the 90s and on, really enjoyed that component.
Rating: 4.0
This one didn’t do much for me, since I kind of got lost in the drawn out repetition of the album around the third track. It is pretty sonically enjoyable so I can’t roast it too much.
Rating: 2.5
Rating: 3.5
Rating: 2.5
This was a challenge for me, and I appreciate the artistry but doubt I’ll seek it out again.
Rating: 3.5
Rating: 3.5
This was pretty fun, not gonna lie.
Rating: 4.0
It’s nice to get an album that solidly grooves, and with an overall bright tone. The more you lock in with this album the better it gets.
Rating: 4.0
The funk tracks singularly lift the rest of the filler out of the muck.
Rating: 3.5
Pretty solid, actually felt like this lifted far above the ‘influential’ tag that everyone on here is using as an insult. Felt more like modern rock songwriting than 90s grunge in a way.
Rating: 3.5
This just kept getting better the further I got into it, I appreciate how this wasn’t really limited by genre.
Rating: 4.0
This is an album I have a lot of nostalgia for, and am very familiar with. There was definitely a time when this was my favourite album and it certainly reaches very high to this day.
Rating: 4.5
I liked it, it’s nice to have a grunge era album that actually tries to push against the dogmatic strictures of the genre.
Rating: 4.0
This album was a little too corny for me. With such a focus on the vocals you get these amazing harmonies and performances but are forced to suffer through the cornball hippy platitudes. The lyricism and production texture of the album just makes me think this was cooked up in a lab for maximum profits.
Rating: 2.5
Really solid nostalgic album for me. Dirt is a radio album that, for once isn't shit. It is chock full of harrowing vocals and epic riffs.
Rating: 4.5
If you ever wanted to enter the sewers with Mario for an hour, this is the album for you. It didn't resonate super emotionally for me, but I can appreciate how sick of a soundscape this is.
Rating: 3.5
This was really fun and delightful to listen to, a good mix of many genres, per its plunderphonic origin.
Rating: 4.0
Great album, can't really go wrong with Bowie. Top notch production and performances.
Rating: 4.0
Jimi is goated for this one, that is for sure. Let's talk about the sound of this album as a whole: out of this world guitar and drum work that continues to be cheaply imitated to this day. This is a touchstone of modern rock as a genre, and a gem of an early psych album.
Rating: 5.0
So fucking bleak, but compelling. A portrait of absolute darkness, in a way a pure state.
Rating: 5.0
Damn. this is actual trash.
Rating: 1.0
Wasn’t that bad, pretty definitive sounding early hardcore record. It just didn’t push the envelope for me in this day and age.
Rating: 2.5
Weird but compelling. Will need to check back In with this on my own time, not the best soundtrack for work, bit too intricately produced.
Rating: 3.0
Solid nostalgic album. It was a fun listen to take me back to being a kid discovering this lite prog. I was fully invested about 80% of the time, but got some prog fatigue by the end
Rating: 4.0
3.5
The album really delivers on the concept that there are no surprises, but in a powerful way. The opener sets the stage perfectly for this melancholic tour de force. The lyrics don’t mean much to me, but I could listen to Adele sing anything.
Rating: 4.5
This is good, but extremely boring haha
Rating: 2.5
I don’t have much against the overall sound of the album, but it was so mellow it became wallpaper.
Rating: 2.5
Again blown away by how modern and truly unmatched Jimi is, this album is just a joy to listen to.
Rating: 4.5
This is pretty tame as far as the genre goes, not bad by any means but overall just a bit more mellow than I wanted.
Rating: 3.0
Couldn’t do it.
Rating: 3.5
Banger after banger
Rating: 4.0
This was exactly what I expected it to be, but very solid at that.
Rating: 3.5
Damn, this is a haunting, powerful and also strongly optimistic album. The power of the albums words lie in the relative simplicity and monolithic power of the messaging.
Rating: 4.5
Not much for me to add to the discussion here. There’s the obvious mega-hits and then there’s the rest of this.
Rating: 3.5
Really enjoyed this, just a nice early glance at the Clash’s songwriting skills. It was angry where it needed to be and had a biting raw edge.
Rating: 4.0
Generic in a good and nostalgic way, like it’s a hermetically sealed time capsule from 1992. It’s calming in a way that only this uptempo college rock can be.
Rating: 3.5
For many of these nostalgic albums I’m at a give and take of memory versus objectivity. When I was 13, this was hot shit, but in 2025 it has substantially cooled off.
Rating: 3.5
This is the first album in a while that I actually want to return to, I feel that there is a tonne of depth below the surface which was fantastic in its own right.
Rating: 4.5
Nice, unrefined version of iron maiden, I feel that every other album amps the quality on all fronts. The vocals are nowhere near Dickinsons power and charisma, but you can hear the raw early version of the band cooking.
Rating: 3.5
Kind of annoying but much better than I expected. White British man rips off every genre.
Rating: 3.5
Actually I dig this, self aware and different, comical and ridiculous.
Rating: 4.0
Really beautiful melancholic album, was an experience to just be in this realm for this short time.
Rating: 4.5
Wasn’t really into this, but it was by no means bad. It just feels like paint by numbers via ChatGPT of an exploitation movie soundtrack.
If you’re a newcomer to the dead, It’s an alright starting point, but it’s easily trounced by the plethora of live tapes out there. The appeal of this band has always been the more free quality of their live output.
Rating: 3.5
