Loved this in highschool, my dad loved this when he was in his 20s, is it that good not reeeally but do I fuck with it? Yup. Pot kettle black!!!

Nostalgia and suburban malaise are things I think about a lot. And I’m sure there’s bands that make better music than Arcade Fire about these topics. But… none of them have Regine Chassagne on backing vocals and percussion

I've loved this album for years and I am of the opinion that Liz Phair's endearingly untrained vocal inflections and self-taught guitar skills frame her songwriting as supremely relatable and affecting. I think a lot of women of varying ages and life experiences can relate to the picture painted in 'Fuck and Run' of waking up in someone's arms ashamed of yourself and wanting to instead be with "the kind of guy who tries to win you over". (In the original demo, the second verse acknowledges that the male love interest also wants a relationship and isn't just playing her - "you want a girlfriend, the kind of girl who makes love cause she's in it".) When Liz makes us uncomfortable by admitting she has been engaging in this sort of manipulative and self-sabotaging behaviour since she was twelve, it alludes to the fact that many girls first experience uncomfortable attention from men and become sexualized at this age. Liz Phair's conceptualization of the 90s rock scene as 'Guyville' is so specific to her experiences as a young woman participating in it, and yet her cynicism and bemusement towards the whole thing feel generalizable to anyone.

First album in the challenge, idk it’s jazzy? It’s strange to comprehend an album with entirely different appeal from current pop music being as popular as it was. It’s indicative of the extent to which electronics have transformed our culture

Sometimes very good but sometimes only ok!

Marvin Gaye was shot by his father with a gun Gaye had bought him for Christmas the year before and I cannot stop thinking about it. Cool album!

Jazzy jazz I wish I liked jazz more :( I need more instruments :(((

Take Me to the River cover 10/10 rest of album meh

Liked it more on second listen. Fave tracks were A Short Term Effect and A Strange Day

Loved this in highschool, my dad loved this when he was in his 20s, is it that good not reeeally but do I fuck with it? Yup. Pot kettle black!!!

Did not vibe unfortunately

Me likey le jazz when le man sing

Another obligatory 4 due to loving this in high school

Steven correct everyone else wrong

tommmyyyyyyy

Goaded

+ 0.3 for woman singing, + 0.7 for Where Is My Mind

I have a complete lack of opinion on this and I don’t like the babies on the cover

21st century pop owes a lot to her. The Romance And Social Issues themes, the spoken bits, the genre soup, every song sounding the same…

God is dead 😤😤😤 and no one cares 💥💥💥 If there is a hell 👹👹👹 I’ll see you there🔥🔥🔥

I was so optimistic and then he started singing

All I wanna do is stop listening to this album!!

This is a high 3. This album is swanky

There's things I liked about this - mostly, it was much more sonically varied than the previous Paul Simon album while still feeling cohesive. So while it was better than PS Self Titled it is still in the 3 category due to some boring songs and stupidly tautological lyrics (cars are cars? wdym?).

truly devastated to not put this higher. It has so much potential but it sounds terrible in my AirPods :( Truly the lyrics, melodies, cool guitar, and spirit/verve in the music is all there, and I’m sure it is incredible live, but on my cruddy plastic 200 dollar listening devices it sounds like shit. 26 year old Brucey sounds like he has severe respiratory issues and the production is just grating. I am so sorry

Unfortunately this is no Careless Whisper. I did like Soul Free though

I have a feeling I will be returning to this one

I was expecting to be sick of this album due to listening to it 1683828 times in grade eleven. However instead I was finding deeper meaning in the lyrics than ever before. Is the homemade dynamite meth? Surely not, right?

I struggled to get through this. I sometimes liked the production and some of the slow songs were nice but half of it was just way too janky. Like talking heads if they were bad

I like how I played the album multiple times through without being able to discern the beginning, and each time new bits of guitar would jump out at me or melodies would become familiar. felt very stylishly dreary

mildly unsettling

An absolutely phenomenal vocalist, it is a shame she couldn’t find someone to write the songs less generic and mid

The title track I love it so much

guys I know his voice sounds weird but it is so comforting to me 😔

I like Morrison Hotel album better :(

Really liked the concept/framing device, interludes, vocals, and production. Will definitely be listening to again. Only song that put me off was the one about wanting to be rich but I will choose to take it as satire

basically study beats for me. all techno sounds derivative of this now so I understand why this is on the list

The cultural significance and impact of this performance in particular is mind boggling

had 5 potential but there were some skips towards the end. I like the sound a lot

iiiiitts never ooVVERRrr, a kinGDOm fOr a kiss UpOn hERRR SHHoOoUULLDERR

I dont think this is bad but I think I am not a metal enjoyer. just not the sound for me. it's kind of grating on my ears, almost like it's at the wrong frequency for me. in many places just sounds like hitting 1 drum really fast with the guitar playing 2 notes. however the guitars were awesome in places. I get why this stuff is popular and I can understand moshing to this stuff. the lyrics and vocals suit the instrumental sound. but it is not something I would ever listen to unless I could get an edit of just the midtempo guitar parts.

Nostalgia and suburban malaise are things I think about a lot. And I’m sure there’s bands that make better music than Arcade Fire about these topics. But… none of them have Regine Chassagne on backing vocals and percussion

I had never heard the pogues before besides the one christmas song. and. this is like a 2 or 3 for how much I would normally like this music. but. the pogues are special. the idea of a bunch of Irish punks forming a celtic folk band is something you make a heartfelt christmas movie out of (or the best christmas song ever.) I think it is so wonderful that this band exists.

I like the timbaland beep boops

straight fire

I like this old hiphop stuff

Really liked some parts, liked how it sounded in many places but the more experimental noise parts were not my favourite

I've loved this album for years and I am of the opinion that Liz Phair's endearingly untrained vocal inflections and self-taught guitar skills frame her songwriting as supremely relatable and affecting. I think a lot of women of varying ages and life experiences can relate to the picture painted in 'Fuck and Run' of waking up in someone's arms ashamed of yourself and wanting to instead be with "the kind of guy who tries to win you over". (In the original demo, the second verse acknowledges that the male love interest also wants a relationship and isn't just playing her - "you want a girlfriend, the kind of girl who makes love cause she's in it".) When Liz makes us uncomfortable by admitting she has been engaging in this sort of manipulative and self-sabotaging behaviour since she was twelve, it alludes to the fact that many girls first experience uncomfortable attention from men and become sexualized at this age. Liz Phair's conceptualization of the 90s rock scene as 'Guyville' is so specific to her experiences as a young woman participating in it, and yet her cynicism and bemusement towards the whole thing feel generalizable to anyone.

I remember when I was younger I really wanted my jeans to fit the way his did on the album cover. didn't like the harmonica so that was kind of an issue

Groovy

did not like, agree with the top reviews that this is a smarmy and overdone piece of work, the vocals are like bad Radiohead, the tracklist is disjointed, maybe if I had heard it at age 13 I would feel different but it just feels so pretentious

+1 for gay -1 for karma chameleon

so torn because I used to really like this but upon relistening it is... rather misogynistic. I used to see this album as 'before he went crazy' but I fear it was there all along

this for running >>>

I wish my dad had played me this when I was a kid

rather nice, low 4

sorry Ewan

high 3.

-1 for wonderwall

Actual lines from this album: "We get this bitch shaking like Parkinson's" "I keep it 300, like the Romans" "I'd rather be a dick than a swallower" "Pussy had me floatin'/Feel like Deepak Chopra" "Eatin' Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce" "Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign" "Uh, I be speakin' Swaghili" "I hit her with Jamaican dick, I'm the new Shabba" "Star Wars fur, yeah, I'm rockin' Chewbacca"

Some good songs but didn’t like the vocals in some places

She’s magic. Fast Car are you kidding me?? Baby Can I Hold You Tonight???

generic and anonymous in a very nice way

reggae is great when it's not made by Sting

I really liked Harry’s House / Centerpiece especially the talking bit

how do I explain that I love this album despite hating morriessy despite being a vegetarian

woman sing yaaayyieee

ants

Bear with me... In 2012, when a 22-yo Taylor Swift was onto her 5th Famous Boyfriend and her public image as a serial dater was catching up to her, she acquired a straightening iron and released her signature Break Up Album, Red, the cover art eerily similar to Blue. As far as I am aware she never acknowledged Joni's influence on either the aesthetic or intensely confessional music of the Red era. (But music critics caught on.) In 1971 when Joni Mitchell released Blue, Rolling Stone dubbed her the 'Queen of El Lay' in mocking acknowledgement of her supposed string of sexual conquests, many of whom were also famous talents. Her lovers and collaborators—Graham Nash and David Crosby of CSNY, Swift's namesake James Taylor, Leonard Cohen—felt she was leagues ahead of them in terms of songwriting ability. Fans and music writers would read into her lyrics in an attempt to guess which iconic resident of Laurel Canyon had inspired which song—swifties will find this familiar. Joni was far from the first songwriter to have a tumultuous personal life, but she pioneered the notion autobiographical lyrical content, weaponizing her warbling soprano into a narrator of small, intimate moments shared during and after love. She expressed upon the release of Blue that she had been in a dark place and 'needed' to make the album—a common sentiment coming from artists today, but music in the late 60s was yet to become a domain of personal expositing. One could argue whether or not things have changed for the female songwriters of high-profile affairs since Blue—Swift has turned notoriety into a billion-dollar empire, after all. Public opinion has come to agree with that of Joni Mitchell's contemporaries in terms of her artistic ability, but her promiscuity is still condemned when replicated in artists (and women) of today. So I think in some sense Joni paved the way and was scorned for doing so. Either way this album is towering and beautiful, and even the men towards whom Joni directed her hurt and bitterness on the album agree.

Hard to think of another album from 1977 with as many recognizable songs as this. The mystique of the band drama adds to it for me