Not quite my speed of country but undoubtedly important and impactful. Such empathy for those who have found themselves in troubled circumstances. I especially love how the recording quality emphasizes the uproar of the crowd- the crowd mic is constantly peaking and it’s so killer. The title track is an absolute riot.
I’ve always liked Michael Jackson well enough but never loved anything that I’ve heard. What a strange career to peak when you’re like, 12 years old.
I feel the same way about this album as I feel about Prince’s Purple Rain. The tunes are solid but there’s often too much going on, resulting in songs that sound more theatric than enjoyable. This is especially true of the singles, which are by far the worst batch of tracks on this thing. The slower, sparser songs really shine through.
I find it difficult to fully immerse myself in this album with Jackson’s reputation in the current day. The love songs are great, but are undoubtedly tainted by his actions.
Overall pretty good!
The first of the 1001 albums that I’m intimately familiar with already. Played most of these charts in high school and have had the honour of seeing the Basie orchestra live. I feel that many of the arrangements are more foundational than they are truly great, but every track still sounds so damn cool. A fundamental stepping stone for some of the greatest jazz recordings of all time. Radical album cover as well.
If I want to listen to Basie, I much prefer Straight Ahead, but there’s really no going wrong here.
One of the greatest albums of all time. Surprised by how familiar I have been with the album this generator has given me so far, though I certainly don't know more than ~30% of the albums on the list.
What's there to say? An album that artists (mostly unsuccessfully) try to recreate over and over because it's so damn good. Angeles has one of the 10 greatest guitar parts of all time. The guitar solo on Say Yes is fucking insane. 2:45 AM and Between the Bar are brutal. Every song here is endlessly catchy and has stuck in my head since I first heard this at 13 years old.
Competent, jammy, doesn't do too much for me! All the stereo sound stuff going on here is great. The songs just don't really stick for me outside of the hits (Down to the Waterline, Sultans of Swing). Really feels like this should be up my alley but there's not that oomph for me to latch onto.
Not as immediate of an album for me as Doolittle, but still good. Will be listening to this quite a bit. Much more audacious. Kim Deal is stellar.
Just completely washes over me. Don't care for this at all. I don't think it's bad or anything, just painfully uninteresting. The type of rock album that lacks any real character and coasts on solid instrumentation and songwriting. Made to be played at sports games and shitty dive bars and guitar hero games. The mixing on the vocals is horrendous.
Just superb. Takes so many absurd and huge leaps and somehow lands every single one of them. Okay, maybe not every single one— I could do without Touch Sensitive— but as a whole this is pretty incredible and feels quite singular to me. I've always dismissed neo-psych as something that's 'not for me' but I consistently find releases in the genre to be stellar and overflowing with creative and surprising songwriting. The electronics on No Sympathy are fucking insane and I love it.
Overflowing with energy. Wonderful stuff
Never been too into Jack White, or blues rock, really. This and Elephant are by far my favourites of his because I feel like they don't fall into all the blues rock tropes that hurt my enjoyment. Love how noisy this is but I especially love the moments when it quiets down. Meg kills it on the drums.
Certainly well done and Ella Fitzgerald is an unbelievable talent, but this just isn't for me and *oh my god* is this thing long. Really blends into itself.
My second favourite Fleet Foxes behind Crack-Up. I don’t think this reaches any of the highs of that album outside of maybe Blue Ridge Mountains. What this does it does very well. Catchy folk pop songs that are so full in sound and flawlessly produced. Pecknold is a master songwriter. Embarrassingly reminds me of my junior high “girlfriend”. Hope she’s doing well.
White Winter Hymnal is forever ruined by Pentatonix.
Pretty good! Understandably reminds me a lot of other 2000s hip hop classics (college dropout, blueprint, be) but rarely hits the same heights that those records consistently hit. The biggest issue with this album is that there are lots of moments that sound dated/haven’t aged well. Most of the beats are absolutely brilliant and Lupe is one of the best lyricists in the genre. Good stuff
pleasant. Not a big fan of the stereo mixing here- why is it almost only the bass in the right ear?? Unfortunately, none of the songs really stuck with me. Again, pleasant. Last song rips tho.
Perfectly fine. Has forever been uninspiring to me. Would much rather listen to a Kurt Vile record.
Like every other QOTSA album I’ve listened to, this is largely uninteresting rock moments with a few great moments over far too long of a run time. Doesn’t have one high that comes even close to some of their other albums, and the lows are generally lower. I do not like this band very much! The stereo output on this thing is kinda cool tho.
An undoubtedly quality pop album that unfortunately doesn’t do much for me. Genuinely impressed by how daring some of these instrumentals are and how conceptual the album can get. Wish it wasn’t 80 minutes long.
An album that’s familiar to me through the countless hip hop records that sample it. Some real beautiful moments here.
Certainly enjoyable but not my brand of metal. Master of Puppets becoming a huge hit with that length + time signature is truly baffling to me. I think I'd much rather listen to a metal-core or nu-metal album, but I don't mind this! Fun! Orion is the definite stand out of the bunch.
Proto-Dan Bejar. Not quite my thing but I respect it.
The songs here just don’t do as much for me as the ones on Dookie. Certainly more conceptual and daring, but not particularly better.
Fine and well written. Another rock album that just isn’t my speed. Wish there was more soloing/improvisation like the first track.
Absolutely stellar. The Beatles at the top of their game. Bloated, for sure, but even the bloat is good enough that I don’t mind. Better use of Stereo than most of their discography, though I still prefer the mono mix.
Have always adored the bird field recordings on Blackbird.
A stunning track 2 and a bunch of tracks that I find pleasant.
Surprised how much I liked this! Jammy and certainly a style of hard rock that resonates with me more than many of the albums on this list. More of 3.5
Pretty killer throughout. Don't Look Back In Anger is obviously one of the greatest songs of all time, but it's all great. Half of this album reminds me of GBV, which is probably an insane take. The idea that Oasis vs. Blur was ever a legitimate discussion is crazy. Oasis actually makes good tunes.
Perfectly competent, but why would I ever listen to this when pretty much every contemporary is so much better?
Love the big band horns here. Great tunes. Reminds me of high school.
Was really dreading this one once I saw that it was released this century. I have little faith in Ghostface Killah in the 2000s!!
Anyway, I was wrong and this is great. A bit bloated, edgy, misogynistic, but still great. The production on almost every track is incredible.
I was really expecting this to have more 'oomph' as a live recording, but this recording fails in a lot of ways to capture the energy of the live recording. There's little crowd interaction and the crowd mics needed to be quieted during some of the performances. Man, that squealing can be annoying!
There's also the fact that Cheap Trick has five or six truly incredible songs, but only three of them appear here. Still, those songs are so good that it lifts this from two stars to three.
A little rough in the middle, but bookended by some of the greatest songs of all time. Listening back to this now, it's shocking how much artist like George Clanton rip their whole shtick entirely.
Grown to love this a lot over the years and this listen it *really* clicked with me. Feels like proto-shoegaze in a lot of ways. Every song just has this grimy wall of sound that is so overwhelming yet works so perfectly. The Cure cover is obviously amazing, and was my first exposure to Dino Jr when my brother showed me the music video when I was 13 years old.
Poledo is a notable weak point of the album, but it is very obviously influential to Lil Ugly Mane’s *Volcanic Enemy Bird…*, which is also one of the greatest albums of all time. Impossible to hate on it.
A perfectly fine album. Coldplay/Radiohead influences are clear but it never really comes close. What the hell is going on with Grounds for Divorce??? Why is there a car commercial song in the middle of this album??? I don’t mind it, but certainly something I have no interest in listening to again.
I like ABBA way more in the abstract than I do in reality. The best moments of this remind me of the theatrics of The Cardigans, while the worst remind me of the sloppy surf rock of the Beach Boys (Bermuda, Bahama, oh pretty mama). The singles are great, and there’s catchy melodies here, but many of the instrumentals here feel kitsch to me.
Enjoyed part 1 way more than part 2.
1 sounds like the theme from Halloween
2 sounds like it's from Ocarina of Time
Until they both don't sound like that anymore.
It's good.
Absolutely loved this. Thinking about how liberally I should give out my 5s on this site, because this is absolutely stellar. Proto-riot grrrllll and every bit as good as the genre greats. Such energy. Love love love it.
As great as it has always been. Heart of Glass is by far the best track here and is a stylistic departure from the rest of the album that I wish they indulged in more. Very obvious influence on Regine from Arcade Fire.
I was raised to love the beatles, and thus I love the beatles. Every tune here is near perfect (sans Polythene Pam, which has never been great and has aged poorly).
By far The Beatles best use of stereo sound. This album sounds so incredibly full while listening on headphones. An album that begs to be listened to loud to catch all the details.
Specific favourite moments: the ‘bang bangs’ right before the chorus on Maxwell, the guitar riff on Oh! Darling, the guitar riff on Octopus’s Garden, the guitar riff on I Want You (I’m sensing a theme here), the entire medley, the horns on Golden Slumbers & reusing the You Never Give Me Your Money melody, and Ringo going crazy on the drums on The End.
It’s good. Lots of cool ideas but also lots that I find a bit grating.
Certainly my least favourite of the three CHVRCHES albums (what do you mean there was a 2018 album??) but still quality. Mother We Share is far and away the best part of this album. Never understood the tracks with the man singing- play to your strengths! Lauren is such a great vocalist, just stick with her.
Similar to what I said in my Master of Puppets review, I'm surprised that something this hardcore (at times inaccessible?) ever became a huge mainstream hit. Of course, the biggest hits are mostly the tamest, but something like Endless, Nameless is so radical and goes against my perceptions of what popular music is.
I've always shied away from this album thinking that it was overrated compared to In Utero, but no, it really is just that great.
I’ve always been a bit of a Springsteen agnostic. And by that I mean that I believe he’s great, but have never been able to quite get there. There are moments of brilliance within his discography, but it doesn’t do much for me ultimately. Mostly glad he inspired many of my favourite artists.
I respect Pharrell a lot as a producer, but have absolutely zero interest in listening to any of his music!
Multiple times on this record where I audibly went "wow, this sucks"
perfectly fine and pleasant!
A classic that I've never quite connected with as much as I wish. The first three tracks after the intro are unimpeachable, and I'll always love a track with Q-Tip on it. It's pretty damn good, but not as good as people often cite is as being imo.
Cool! More proggy than I'd typically go for, but lots of fun ideas on this one. Found some moments a bit grating and a bit too unserious, but it's a very impressive record. Can't be mad at it. More of a 3.5.
Liked it but certainly not blown away. Don't have a problem with the vibrato as many people do (though let's be honest, there's some amount of transphobia in a lot of those complaints) but it just didn't overly connect with me. Very beautiful arrangements!
A transitional album for the beatles between their pop and experimental sound. Doesn't have the juice of their later albums, but it's still damn good.
Great. Fantastic commentary and fantastic music. In 11th grade a guy tried to bully me for liking these guys, which is absolutely insane lol.
I prefer Prince at his more mellow (see: adore) but this album is undeniably quality and undeniably fun. I find some of the instrumental choices to sound a bit dated, but that’s a minuscule complaint for such a great work.
The fact that Ellington thought the original recording wasn't good enough so he had to fake it in the studio is absolutely absurd. Some incredible recordings here. So much energy, so much creativity. Loved this a lot.
The vocal tracks are by far the worst here, as vocal jazz is typically not very good!!
Fairly obvious that this is a debut, both from the title (haha) and the fact that Bjork doesn’t seem to quite have her identity as a solo artist yet. Still some real incredible songs, especially Venus As a Boy, but weaker and more by-the-numbers than a lot of her later works.
Best in its instrumental, jazzier moments but much better than I would have expected!
Had never heard this one before. It’s pretty good, but feels pretty weak in comparison to Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, which is a modern classic. Certainly a quality album and a great debut, but lacks the depth of her later work. She can write a hook though!
A real crazy drop in quality after track three, but those first few tracks are all-timers. That reverb-y guitar tone reminds me a lot of corporate HR videos lol
Better than I expected going into it. Some all-time bjork tracks with some rubbish/uninteresting tracks mixed in there. The highlights would be better if she just used a drum machine instead of the a cappella/beatbox stuff going on here.
Just awful. Jumps from genre to genre and, incredibly, never really sticks the landing. Every song feels like a fucked up caricature of Latin music and is offensive is in multiple, indescribable ways. Awesome.
You gotta respect it, but Zappa’s at his best when he’s doing crazy jazz shit and not this absurd, edgy, psych rock. I think this could be real great if it was 20% less grating, but I understand that goes against everything this album stands for.
Every time I revisit this album I always go “damn, this is better than I remember” and then proceed to forget about it for a couple years.
MGMT are largely a singles band, with the singles here, and on their other albums, being the obvious highlights. Time To Pretend, Kids, Electric Feel?? Whew! Though it’s more consistent than I really give credit for. The Youth is incredible. That one song with Monster in the title is a banger. Pretty strong album, honestly! Saw Porter Robinson cover Kids last year and that ruled. Saw MGMT live in 2018 or 19. A lifetime ago.
Much prefer their 2018 album Little Dark Age, which I can only hope is on this list.
This is probably more of a 3.5, but for this site I’m giving it a 4.
Perfectly inoffensive and not more. He’s white????
Brilliant through and through.
The type of perfectly fine landfill indie album that feels destined to be forgotten in the depths of Sirius XMU playlogs and long-abandoned, soon-to-expire music blogs.
Surprised this came immediately after Village Green Society because I find it much less compelling.
Steely Dan is one of the big influences of many of my favourite artists that took me a long time to dive into. Really incredible stuff. Aja is definitely my preferred Steely Dan, but this is right up there with it.
I have a very vivid memory of being 8 or 9 years old at my Grandma’s house, ready to go to bed, and my Uncle bringing me out to his truck to play me the greatest hits of Steely Dan. A real life changing moment.
Incredibly invigorating and so full of energy. Morello’s inventive guitar playing makes the album.
This website baffles me. For a site/activity centred around discovering new music and expanding horizons, so many of the users here seem to be unwilling to try and expand their pallets or try and meet artists and albums on their terms. There’s no attempt in so many reviews to understand the appeal and I think that’s a real sad way to approach it. There’s a real lack of curiosity, especially when it comes to albums released post-2000 (is this website just boomer bait??)
MPP is simultaneously creative, imaginative, absurd, and incredibly accessible. These are pop songs through and through. This is nothing more insane and noisy than anything The Beatles were doing, so why act like this is just ‘noise’? Are you deaf to the hooks on this album?? Summertime Clothes, Bluish, My Girls all have some of the greatest hooks of the 2000s. Pure hook heaven.
Would love to see how this site would handle Sung Tongs, Feels, Spirit They’ve Vanished, or Strawberry Jam. If they think this is inaccessible, hoo boy.
Brilliant through and through. Some of the best players performing some of their best work. Like I have said with every jazz record here, it reminds me of high school.
A side is so killer and B side is fine. Wild Horses is their best song I think. 3.5
It’s good but doesn’t change things up enough throughout its runtime. Love the saxophone playing here and the vocals are all great. Far from the Everything But the Girl that I’m familiar with.
Repulsive. Hate his voice. Hate what he writes about. Hate it all.
Never got what people see in Eminem. Even his “impressive” rapping sounds goofy and emphasizes technicality over actual quality. This album is overwhelmingly obnoxious and unnecessarily edgy. Just awful stuff throughout. Stan is the only saving grace on this thing.
Never been huge on this but certainly appreciate it. Good Morning Captain is an all timer and the album cover is GOAT status.
Radical. I don’t think it reaches the same highs as We’re Only In It For the Money, but I think overall it’s of a higher quality
Easily prefer this to American Idiot. Better songwriting, less obnoxious, not about Bill Clinton. Just a solid pop punk album.
What a brilliant album. Much prefer this over Different Class, though I'm looking forward to giving that another go whenever it appears here. A bit overlong, but almost all of it is great.
4.5.
Hate to say it, but this is great. Don’t normally care for Deep Purple, and Smoke On the Water is as obnoxious as ever, but this does everything a live album needs to do right.
Another album that I respect (hah!) more than I actually enjoy. Obviously masterfully made and soulfully performed, but it doesn't connect in the same way other soul/r&b albums on the list do.
Better than I expected. Always placed Alice In Chains as a 'bottom-of-the-barrel' grunge band, but they're certainly above average. grunge in general just isn't that good.
Wow! What a brilliant record. A real precursor to Richard Dawson and the stuff he's been doing the past 20 years. Absurd and fun.
The real 'hell yeah' moment here was realizing that Life Without Buildings reference tracks from this album multiple times on their near-perfect album "Any Other City" ("I like you mostly late at night, hotel hotel hotel!" and the whole "eyes like lotus leafs" refrain borrows from the last track on here).
Awesome!
Maybe the most difficult listen of this list so far. The beats are so boring and rudimentary, and the rhymes are uninteresting and have aged so poorly. Hip Hop in its infancy and going through some really rough growing pains. Rock Box is the only redeemable thing on here.
Certainly a product of its time.
Some additional watching inspired by this listen:
Northernlion's Kurtis Blow arc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7ZkWspxvOY&ab_channel=itsmeBR1AN
Rza makes a terrible beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59NVvnkJ0Sw&ab_channel=NicholasWilson
Definitely not nearly as consistent as Aquemini or ATLiens, but the highs on this album are highs that other artists could only dream of. Could probably be 20-25 minutes shorter but it's still quality despite that. Bombs over Bangdad! Ms Jackson! Red Velvet! So Fresh So Clean! Red Velvet! Humble Mumble! It's great!
It's a 3.5 but I'm feeling generous and rounding up.
Pretty good! Didn’t love track 3 but everything else is stellar. Maybe I should give another shot to Can.
Has always been a bit too meandering and over-long for me, but there’s some brilliant tunes on here. Moving On Up is obviously elite.
Great stuff. Way more Glam than I remember, and that works in the album’s benefit. Enjoyed a lot. Guitar Hero 3 classic.
I don’t like this album as much as I did when I first heard it as a teenager and Win is a sex pest and all, but it’s still such an excellent listen. Front to back it’s great. Such high energy, so inventive. Regine’s vocals are elite. Power Out and Laika- holyyyyyyyy. The Tunnels riff was one of the first things I ever learned on guitar. One of the easiest 5’s this site has given me
Liked this more than I ever would have imagined. Much better than "Elvis is Back!" which this generator previously gave me. Songwriting is much stronger and the country influences work great. Still not fully on board, but certainly an enjoyable listen.
Think the solo stuff is generally better than the full band, but it's all good. I find it a little exhausting and don't always think Dylan is the most interesting songwriter in the world, but it's undeniable in its quality.
Good, but not great. Power pop got better with time.
Dragged my feet on this one for a long time and boy do I ever regret it. A surprisingly quality album- some of the best grunge has to offer. The tracks are so hooky and the instrumentation rules. Especially on Sworn and Broken. Wow! What a track! Really enjoyed this.
One of my least favourite albums of all time. Find his vocals grating, the instrumental choices obnoxious, the songwriting annoying. Hang Your Head is this album’s one saving grace.
I like him in Licorice Pizza tho.
Better than I expected, but some of the hard rock stuff is just kind of eye-rolling to me.
One of the greatest albums ever made and Steely Dan's best. Such brilliant arrangements. Such catchy tunes. Just incredible.
Just brilliant. I think I have always disrespected Neil Young for no particular reason. It wasn't even a dislike, it was just a lack of acknowledgement of his brilliance. This album is total bait for me.
Reminds me a lot of Joanna Sternberg's album 'I've Got Me', which I have listened to a lot in the past couple months (and is also a brilliant and painful breakup album)
perfectly fine britpop. not much to say about this one
Oops! I listened to Marshall Mathers when I was supposed to listen to Slim Shady, so I'm reviewing for Slim Shady here.
I like this as a whole more than Marshall Mathers LP- I think it's musically a pretty great hip hop album, but good lord, the edge. I don't need to listen to a song about a guy having sex with a 15 year old man.
Biggest problem is that there's no song half as good as Stan, which is Eminem's opus, on the Slim Shady LP
