311
Albums Rated
3.33
Average Rating
29%
Complete
778 albums remaining
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Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2000
Favorite Decade
Singer-songwriter
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
42
5-Star Albums
12
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Spy Vs. Spy: The Music Of Ornette Coleman
John Zorn
|
5 | 2.23 | +2.77 |
|
American Gothic
David Ackles
|
5 | 2.49 | +2.51 |
|
Bitte Orca
Dirty Projectors
|
5 | 2.69 | +2.31 |
|
I Am a Bird Now
Antony and the Johnsons
|
5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
|
Nighthawks At The Diner
Tom Waits
|
5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
|
The Modern Lovers
The Modern Lovers
|
5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
|
They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Liars
|
4 | 2.11 | +1.89 |
|
Loveless
My Bloody Valentine
|
5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
|
No Other
Gene Clark
|
5 | 3.18 | +1.82 |
|
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
|
5 | 3.23 | +1.77 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Van Halen
Van Halen
|
1 | 3.63 | -2.63 |
|
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Red Hot Chili Peppers
|
1 | 3.5 | -2.5 |
|
1984
Van Halen
|
1 | 3.5 | -2.5 |
|
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Sinead O'Connor
|
1 | 3.25 | -2.25 |
|
Melody A.M.
Röyksopp
|
1 | 3.21 | -2.21 |
|
Fisherman's Blues
The Waterboys
|
1 | 3.2 | -2.2 |
|
Exodus
Bob Marley & The Wailers
|
2 | 3.94 | -1.94 |
|
Who's Next
The Who
|
2 | 3.91 | -1.91 |
|
Leftism
Leftfield
|
1 | 2.9 | -1.9 |
|
Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Country Joe & The Fish
|
1 | 2.85 | -1.85 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.67 |
| Radiohead | 3 | 4.67 |
| Pink Floyd | 2 | 5 |
| Kanye West | 2 | 5 |
| Elliott Smith | 2 | 5 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Van Halen | 2 | 1 |
5-Star Albums (42)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Neil Young · 2 likes
5/5
My favourite Neil Young record. It’s a lovely mix of Young playing with a full band but still having the sparseness to his sound that he doesn’t have on his stuff with Crazy Horse. The trilogy of ‘[ ] Blues’ songs on this album alone are a great representation of Neil Young’s strengths, but then you’ve also got beautiful heartfelt songs like Motion Pictures. I think Neil Young is one of those artists that you’ll love the first couple you hear, and so On The Beach is firmly cemented as an album I love.
MC5 · 2 likes
4/5
Man, what a fucking album. The decision to have the first MC5 release be a live album was a stroke of genius. They birthed an entire genre of punk music from these tracks, with an energy to rival a lot of modern day songs that the band influenced. Just one of the all time great American bands.
Herbie Hancock · 1 likes
4/5
Herby Hancock man, that’s one groovy motherfucker. Had a blast revisiting this one. Short and sweet and will get you dancing no matter what. Top stuff.
Bob Dylan · 1 likes
4/5
Hard to be objective about these early Dylan albums, they’re all just brilliant and Highway 61 Revisited is no exception. Like A Rolling Stone is one of Dylan’s better songs overall, and the rest of the album keeps up that quality. Having a full band behind him really makes his songs shine in ways that weren’t possible on his more folk orientated albums. Ending on the epic Desolation Row, this is one of Dylan’s stronger records and it was a joy to revisit it after seeing the recent film which really focuses on this period of Dylan’s career.
Jimi Hendrix · 1 likes
4/5
I’m obviously familiar with a lot of Hendrix’s songs, but have never listened to a full album of his. Goes without saying, but the guy had some chops. There are some outright bangers on this thing and some surprisingly long winding jams. Unlike most other double albums, this one didn’t feel like it overstayed its welcome.
1-Star Albums (12)
All Ratings
Bob Dylan
4/5
Everyone gets their first intro to Dylan through his early ‘golden period’ albums, but I think this may be his best work outright. Idiot Wind and Shelter From The Storm were standout favourites on this re-listen.
ZZ Top
2/5
I feel like I’ve heard all these songs before, and have liked some of their standout singles in the past (although that could just be songs I’ve heard playing Guitar Hero games), but listening to this album in its entirety like this really shows up how generic these songs are. If this came on the jukebox while I was throwing back crappy beers and playing pool in a bar I’d be in my element, but this kind of sucks when listened to as an album. The influence some of these riffs had on Queens of the Stone Age is very apparent.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
This is the first album to give me what I wanted to get out of this experience: I knew the big hitters off this album, but had never listened to a Stevie Wonder album. Listening to this record was a real treat; a real mix of soulful ballads and the sort of funky upbeat numbers I know him for. The bass lines on this album in particular were outstanding, and made me want to sit down and learn to play them all. It did sag slightly in the middle with the two songs that bookended the incredible Superstition, but otherwise this was a great listen and one I’ll likely return to.
Bob Dylan
4/5
My first introduction to Dylan was CD boxset of his first 8 albums. Of those 8, Blonde On Blonde must have been my most played, so I came to this recent listen very familiar with it, but not listened to in several years as I thought I was sick of it. It still holds up as one of Dylan's best (maybe his best overall, although Blood On The Tracks and Desire are neck and neck with it). Blonde On Blonde's strength is that it perfectly bridges the old folky Dylan into the more band focussed sound that he would tackle. I used to like shouting random lines from Leopard-Skin Pill-Box hat at the noisy end of my old band's live sets, so that song is particularly fun for me. This is Dylan at his peak, but I still think his stuff doesn't get above 4 stars for me; it's just a sound I'm not that invested in any more, but I can't deny the guy's got chops where it counts.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
This may be a bit too trad-folk rock for me. I can acknowledge how well crafted the songs are and just how well Paul and Art's harmonies work together, but this was just too light and airy for it to make much of an impact on my feelings. Getting to stuff like 'The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine' and the quite brilliant Dylan parody 'A Simple Desultory Philippic' was like finding an oasis in a desert of rather dry and dusty songs. I can clearly hear the impact it had on stuff that came after it, but listening to it in 2025 I can only appreciate it from afar rather than truly enjoy it.
Mike Oldfield
4/5
You’d think that this album would exist in the shadow of the opening being the basis for the Exorcist’s main theme, but by the time the bass and piano comes in, you’re firmly back in Tubular Bells land for the duration of the ride. I remember seeing the cover of this album amongst my dad’s (of course; this is the quintessential Dad Album) Pink Floyd and Rush LPs as a kid and finding something very striking about the shape on the cover. I remember my dad showing me Oldfield’s performance of Tubular Bells on the Old Grey Whistle Test and it being a real catalyst for my love of instrumentals, soundtracks, and post and prog rock.
It’s been a long time since I last sat down and listened to it and I’ve got to say, it’s still got the stuff. It could easily have been a bloated and pretentious mess, but Oldfield builds the piece with such sincerity that even the spoken word introductions to the individual instruments elicits a smile rather than an eye-roll. It’s wild to think Oldfield was only 19 when he recorded this album; it feels like the work of an Old Master, so profound is its delivery and its confidence to give each movement room to breathe. I particularly love the turn that Part 2 takes midway, but I know even my dad thinks that is “a bit wanky”.
Jerry Lee Lewis
2/5
Jerry Lee Lewis being the epitome of a human garbage bag aside, judging this album on its own merits, I found it surprisingly boring. Because it goes full on bombast-mode from the start and never lets up it makes for a very dull and repetitive album with versions of songs I’ve heard better elsewhere. Jerry Lee Lewis’ showmanship can’t be denied, and this is a surprisingly great sounding album for its time, but this isn’t for me.
Arcade Fire
5/5
In my mind Funeral was among the greatest albums released during the indie-boom of the 2000s and thankfully it still holds up today thanks to having such a strong through-line of theme and sound. Each song feeling like a cohesive part of a complete body of work while still standing alone to give the band some of their best singles – Power Out is still the best thing they have ever done in my opinion. Arcade Fire had such a drop off in quality with each subsequent release (to be fair, I do like The Suburbs) that it makes looking back on this album quite bittersweet as I realise now it was almost a fluke how good this album is and maybe not an indication for how good they are as a band, but I'm glad we got this one great album from them at the very least as it remains up there with my favourites.
Minutemen
3/5
Hell yeah, brother! Have always found this record a fun one to revisit, its length and structure so antithetical to punk it goes full circle and becomes punk in itself. It’s one for dipping into though, as listened in one sitting it’s quite long, but it’s the ultimate road trip album and I can’t knowingly rate anything with Mike Watt playing bass less than a 3.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
1/5
Man I fucking hate this band so much. It’s even more painful acknowledging the musicianship on display here, and that when pulled away from the Chilli Peppers Chad Smith, Flea, and especially Frusciante have all worked on music I really love. Instead they choose to play this dogshit whiteboy circus funk like they’ve been forced to by Anthony Kiedis at gunpoint.
The Electric Prunes
2/5
This album is kind of nothing? It just sounds like an amalgamation of all the generic 60s garage rock I’ve ever heard. Maybe you had to be there, but nothing about this feels notable, and its inclusion on a list of albums you have to listen to before you die is baffling.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
The perfect record for valentine’s day. An album of unabashed odes to straight up raw dogging it shouldn’t be as good as this, but Marvin’s got the juice to make it work. Smooth as hell vocals from Motown’s golden boy and Jamerson’s unmistakable thumping bass, this is one sexy half hour ride.
I could have done without the bongos and the tambourine: the unsexiest of all the instruments.
The Roots
3/5
I should really love The Roots as on paper their skills both from a performance and production standpoint are of the highest calibre, but there’s something about them I find just a bit too polished and sterile, and so whilst I enjoyed this album, I couldn’t remember a single song from it an hour later; I prefer my hip hop with a bit more grit.
My Bloody Valentine
5/5
Where to even start with this one? A genuine masterpiece of an album that influenced a whole new genre of music. Every single person who has ever bought a guitar pedal owes this album some gratitude. It’s hard to talk about specific tracks on this album (except for the memed to death ‘when you sleep’) rather than see it all as one big piece of prickly fuzzy bliss. One of the greatest to ever do it; I can’t imagine how much this would have kicked my ass if I heard it back in 1991.
I once met Kevin Shields while he was wandering around a car park with J Mascis and that was pretty much the coolest day of my life.
Herbie Hancock
4/5
Herby Hancock man, that’s one groovy motherfucker. Had a blast revisiting this one. Short and sweet and will get you dancing no matter what. Top stuff.
The Beau Brummels
3/5
My initial thoughts were ‘oh no, not another 60s pop rock bank’ but these guys were actually decent. Quite liked the singers voice and the songs had enough about them to stand out compared to some other early albums I’ve heard so far on this list.
Cat Stevens
5/5
I have quite complicated feelings with Stevens’ music in general — regarding a friend who passed away a few years ago who would always play a couple of Cat Stevens songs whenever I saw him play live — so I always worry I’m putting too much of my own emotions into his music and inflating it’s standing in my mind. But no, on listening to it again this album is genuinely brilliant. There’s the big singles everyone knows (Father And Son might just be one of the all time great songs), but every other song on this album is no slouch either. Coming in at just a squeak over 30 minutes there’s not an ounce of fat on this thing, and to end with such a flash of excellence as the title track shows real skill and dedication to Stevens’ artistic vision. I’m not a big fan of the reimagined album he released in 2020, but we were all going through some things then weren’t we.
Slipknot
2/5
I’ve not really kept up with Slipknot’s music since their first few albums, but these guys need to hang up their masks. There’s nothing of note here, it’s just an overly long album of bland melodic rock with the occasional pinched harmonic. Gone is any of the bite found in their first couple of albums. I have a feeling metal as a genre is going to be poorly represented in this list, and it’s a shame because there’s so many more interesting metal albums out there than this weak shit.
Jimi Hendrix
4/5
I’m obviously familiar with a lot of Hendrix’s songs, but have never listened to a full album of his. Goes without saying, but the guy had some chops. There are some outright bangers on this thing and some surprisingly long winding jams. Unlike most other double albums, this one didn’t feel like it overstayed its welcome.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
I’ve always felt that the Stones are best represented by a greatest hits collection, and this album does nothing to change my mind. A really rather dull collection of tracks (I listened to the UK release so I didn’t even get the joy of Paint It Black). Under My Thumb is a great track as always, but I found everything else on this record very generic; the fact that The Beatles released Revolver around the same time and somehow people compare the two is baffling to me. I’m docking a star purely for the self-indulgent wankery that is Going Home. 11 minutes of a basic sketch of a generic blues riff, just awful.
Black Sabbath
5/5
I don’t there’s ever been a better statement of intent than the storm sounds at the start of this album. I sometimes forget that this album was released the same year as Let It Be. That storm lets you know that a change is coming, and over the next 8 tracks an entirely new genre of rock music will be birthed, kicking and screaming. This is up there with the greatest debut albums of all time and it still feels fresh and exciting to this day. Even the cover is mysterious and sinister in a way that makes you want to listen to is. Geezer Butler doesn’t get enough credit for absolutely carrying this whole record (and band) on the back of his bass lines.
The Cars
4/5
I really recognised the cover but hadn’t heard this album before. What a bop! Really enjoyed this perfect half hour slice of synth heavy pop rock. Great stuff!
The Kinks
3/5
Alright on the whole kind of middling Kinks album. This continues the trend of me finding the 60s stuff way more drab than I expected it to be; I understand why they released the best songs of that decade as standalone singles outside of albums. It’s hard to rate this album objectively because Waterloo Sunset is one of the greatest songs ever written and is worth 5 stars on its own, but the rest of the album pulls it down to a 3 for me.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
A fucking classic. The production on this album is unmatched, just a genius move to pair lyrical acrobatics with such trad jazz instrumentals. There are MCs still living in Phife and Tip’s shadows, their level of skill on the mic still rivals most of the rappers working today. And to end it on that phenomenal Busta Rhymes feature - this album is firmly one of the all time greats.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
2/5
I expected this to be more exciting with a name like Rattlesnakes, but it was dreadfully dull. Very middling music all round and not really sure why it’s on the list. Not offensive, just entirely forgettable.
George Harrison
5/5
The greatest of the solo Beatles albums, and the only album to justify being a triple. This feels like years of pent up ideas unleashed all at once, and is great documentation for how Harrison’s music writing really made The Beatles’ sound what it was.
The Stooges
4/5
Not my favourite Stooges, but it can’t be denied just how solid they are as a unit on this album. It’s almost krautrock-like in parts, the rhythm section is like a driving sledgehammer through these tracks. Just such a fun record to listen to.
The Stooges
4/5
Two Stooges albums on the trot. I really do like this band, and even though punk isn’t really my go-to genre, I like these better than most other bands of that style. I think you stick with the Stooges album you first get your teeth into, which for me was the debut. Still, Raw Power is a great listen and one I was happy to get so soon after the last Stooges record was served up.
Metallica
3/5
This album was a very nostalgic listen for me. Not my favourite Metallica era, more stadium dad rock at this point really, but it can’t be denied that these boys can write some great hooks and melodies.
Muddy Waters
3/5
I find a whole album of this kind of delta blues a bit repetitive, but I can’t deny how good these songs are. Proper toe tapping thigh slapping riffs from one of the best the genre has to offer.
Red Snapper
2/5
Been doing this a month now and this is the first band I’ve never heard of, so had no idea what to expect going in (from the cover I expected a Bloc Party style indie band). I was surprised to hear a pretty decent trip-hop album. You have to be incredibly good at this sort of thing for a whole album to have staying power for me, and this just didn’t do it. Some really nice beats and drum work on this, but not one I’ll be returning to. That track with all the vocal samples about shagging was cringe as hell.
Sigur Rós
3/5
I haven’t heard from Sigur Rós in years, but it felt like they were everywhere in the 2000s. This is a very pretty album, but does feel like a product of its time. Some real lush string work and vocal harmonising on this album throughout. I appreciate it more than enjoy it.
The xx
4/5
I bounced off The XX the first time around, but this album is great. The moodiness and tidal wave of delay pedals really heralded in a whole new wave of copycat bands at the time, but these guys really knocked it out of the park from the start. I listened to this album after playing a gig whilst driving on the motorway at midnight, which is probably the perfect environment for this.
New Order
3/5
A very 80s album, even from these guys. I like New Order and everything they stood for, but I can’t help but feel I’d rather be listening to Joy Division whenever I hear them, no matter how good their stuff is.
Roxy Music
4/5
I’m only really familiar with these early Eno era Roxy Music albums, but what a debut this is. That opening track in particular is such a distillation of everything I love about the early iteration of the band. This album does sag slightly towards the end, but I’ve always got time to listen to Bryan Ferry and co.
Dire Straits
3/5
Is it time for Sultans Of Swing yet?
Is it time for Sultans Of Swing yet?
Is it time for Sultans Of Swing yet?
Is it time for Sultans Of Swing yet?
Is it time for Sultans Of Swing yet?
Hell yeah, brother!
I miss Sultans Of Swing.
I miss Sultans Of Swing.
I miss Sultans Of Swing.
Jefferson Airplane
3/5
The 60s were an odd time for music weren’t they? The ‘album’ feels like such an underused format for delivering music. I assume the kids just wanted the 45s which is where the best music was to be found, but albums don’t really feel like they come into their own until the 70s. This is yet another 60s release that has a handful of bangers on it, but is mainly padded out with much inferior tracks. The singles here do so much heavy lifting.
Kelela
4/5
An artist I wasn’t familiar with, which is mad as this is my kind of thing. Real soulful pop music, some lush instrumentation, and Kelela’s honey rich vocals make this album a winner. One I’ll be returning to.
Country Joe & The Fish
1/5
I had a real hard time finishing this one. The sound mix is atrocious, that hard panned guitar and organ are so loud over everything else it was an obnoxious listen more than anything else. Might be a better experience listening to a better mix, as I can really see the roots of The Doors here, but in the state I have access to this is hideous.
Soundgarden
4/5
I’m not a big grunge guy, but Soundgraden leans more towards the grunge I do like. Chris Cornell was such a great frontman and really elevated this band with his voice. I was only really familiar with Black Hole Sun before going into this album (the video of which used to terrify me as a kid), but there’s some great stuff to be found here. Runs too long like all 90s rock albums.
The Undertones
3/5
I’ve heard plenty of Undertones over the years but not heard their debut until now. Liked this one though — The Undertones sit in a really warm and comforting place for me and I can’t help but have a good time listening to them. Not mind-blowing, but enjoyable.
R.E.M.
3/5
R.E.M. are the band I most regret not seeing, so it’s always good to have an excuse to listen to them. Document is one of their weaker releases in my opinion, but it’s R.E.M., it is still really good.
Radiohead
5/5
It’s not my favourite Radiohead, but it’s probably their best on paper. There’s not a wasted second on this thing; every song is undeniably great, and it’s a lot shorter than I remembered — I was shocked by how quickly I got to the perfect ending of Videotape. I gave myself more homework and listened to In Rainbows disc 2 as well and even that is better than most bands’ best albums (Bangers & Mash is up there with my favourite Radiohead songs). An easy 5 star for me this.
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Wasn’t familiar with this guy before but really liked his sound and the vibe of this record. I read afterwards this was released posthumously and Ali recorded it knowing he was dying, but you’d never tell because the guy sounds chill as hell on this. I can see the influence his guitar tone alone has had on more recent bands like Songhoy Blues, and will probably check out some of his earlier records.
Culture Club
1/5
An example of the worst 80s music had to offer: just a horribly synthetic and over-produced sounding record. There’s some nice singing on this, but this was too long with few redeeming qualities for me; just not a fan of this at all.
Donovan
2/5
Listening to this album you can clearly tell the time period it was released in. It is straddling the trad folk of the time while also being influenced by the psyche pop released in the late 60s. Despite this, I found it quite a boring listen. Nothing wrong with it, just a very middling listen for me.
Neil Young
5/5
My favourite Neil Young record. It’s a lovely mix of Young playing with a full band but still having the sparseness to his sound that he doesn’t have on his stuff with Crazy Horse. The trilogy of ‘[ ] Blues’ songs on this album alone are a great representation of Neil Young’s strengths, but then you’ve also got beautiful heartfelt songs like Motion Pictures. I think Neil Young is one of those artists that you’ll love the first couple you hear, and so On The Beach is firmly cemented as an album I love.
Pantera
2/5
I really am going to struggle with most of the metal on this list. I’ve never liked Pantera. Anselmo’s dogshit politics aside, they’re just really fucking boring to listen to. Just endless chugging. When the album ended and Spotify kept playing different Pantera songs I didn’t even realise. Rubbish.
Dexys Midnight Runners
3/5
Dexy’s always seem like they’d be a fun band to go and see. I like their take on a more poppy folk and I like this album - outside of the excellent Come On Eileen it doesn’t do anything too spectacular, but it was a solid listen.
T. Rex
3/5
T. Rex have always had a strange mythology around them that I’ve found to be quite impenetrable, so this is the first time I’ve truly listened to them. Marc Bolan is likely the best to ever carry glam rock on his back, but as a genre I feel it’s quite limited; there’s a reason Bowie left the genre behind to move onto (arguably) better things. This album was good, but just good.
Bad Company
2/5
Full to the brim with dad rock. A fine album, but yet another where I need to get a copy of the book to find out what makes it so special, as this sounded very bland and generic to me.
Dolly Parton
4/5
How have I never heard this album? Among the greatest supergroups to ever exist. Listening to this album makes me feel guilty to be a man. Country banger after banger. Loved this!
Bee Gees
2/5
Really interesting hearing some pre-disco Bee Gees, but they definitely grew better into that sound. One of the Gibb’s voices on this is really bizarre and made some of the songs sound unintentionally funny.
Dolly Parton
3/5
You can’t really go wrong with Dolly Parton. She manages to make the most beautiful melancholic songs and pulls a few bangers out of her boot as well. She has stronger songs not found on this album, but this was rock solid.
Ravi Shankar
3/5
Would love an album like this for more genres of music. It’s a great idea to get one of the pioneers of a genre to give context and attempt to provide a further understanding to a western audience. As an album of songs it’s not one I’m likely to put on all the time, but I appreciate what it’s doing.
Spiritualized
3/5
I like Spiritualized whenever I hear them, and they’re kind of perfect for music to slip into the background or to chill to. This is one that sort of washed over me, but in a nice way.
Beatles
4/5
I’m a big fan of this middle period Beatles where they were still straddling the early pop sound of their early albums with the experimentation of their later period. I much prefer Revolver, but there’s some gold on Rubber Soul and it was nice to revisit it as one of my least listened to Beatles albums.
Kate Bush
4/5
I’ve somehow not heard the songs on this album, but they’re great! Some incredible vocal work from Kate Bush on this one including a lot of growling and snarling which really added to the sound. Will be listening to this one again for sure.
Destiny's Child
4/5
Banger after banger after banger. Weird to open with the Charlie’s Angels song and the album is way too bloated like all other albums of this time, but Destiny’s Child could really smash out a pop hit couldn’t they.
The Pharcyde
4/5
We’ve had the first week of proper sun where I’m living and this album couldn’t have come at a better time. The type of classic hip hop I love, listened to with a beer or two in the sun. Perfect.
Thelonious Monk
4/5
It’s Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins bouncing off eachother, what’s not to love? Some superb dark jazz throughout this album and a beautiful solo piece by Monk towards the end. It wasn’t one I had heard before but it’ll definitely be going into my rotation now.
Bob Dylan
4/5
Hard to be objective about these early Dylan albums, they’re all just brilliant and Highway 61 Revisited is no exception. Like A Rolling Stone is one of Dylan’s better songs overall, and the rest of the album keeps up that quality. Having a full band behind him really makes his songs shine in ways that weren’t possible on his more folk orientated albums. Ending on the epic Desolation Row, this is one of Dylan’s stronger records and it was a joy to revisit it after seeing the recent film which really focuses on this period of Dylan’s career.
Britney Spears
3/5
This really is an album of two halves. The first half is banger after banger; just the biggest pop songs of the time and still infectious to this day. Sadly, the second half is dragged down by a few too many ballads that feel incredibly dated now with that superficial 90s production. Still, it can’t be denied that this is an important album as a showcase of the dominance Britney had back then.
Cocteau Twins
5/5
Maybe the sexiest album on the list. This whole album is dripping with a specific kind of tension that makes it a dream to listen to. They really pinoneered a sound all of their own and despite it influencing the shoegaze and dream pop genres, there’s still nothing else that really sounds like it. I could listen to this forever.
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Considering this is apparently Mitchell’s biggest selling album, I wasn’t familiar with any of the songs on it. It’s a good enough album, but feel one of her more interesting records like Mingus should have made the list instead.
Björk
3/5
I got a bit burned out on Björk because my brother went through a period of playing nothing but her albums, but revisiting this now it feels really fresh and contemporary for an album released in 1993. She is a singular talent and nothing else sounds like her. It’s interesting that her debut solo album already goes the ground running with her signature sound, I expected her first album to feel more like a Sugarcubes record, but yeah I enjoyed this.
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
My wife’s a big Rufus Wainwright fan but I’d not heard any of his stuff save for a handful of songs and his cover of Hallelujah from the Shrek soundtrack. This was a superb album, so many beautifully miserable ballads. Standouts were The Art Teacher and Old Whore’s Diet, as well as the couple of live tracks sung in French.
The Who
2/5
I’ve never really got on with The Who. As a band they have always felt they’ve tried to cover a few rock subgenres at once, but as a result they never feel like they’re committing to a sound. They’re not heavy or bluesy enough, nor are they psych or art rock enough. They’re have some decent hits like Baba O’Reilly which opens this album, but as a whole they’ve never really clicked into place. This album reflects my feelings of the band, it was alright but didn’t really feel like it was worth a listen.
The Everly Brothers
3/5
Extremely clean cut, but my god these bastards could harmonise. A classic for a reason.
Van Halen
1/5
This was only about half an hour long, but felt like an eternity. I appreciate Mr Van Halen has shredding chops, but to me this is like hyper realistic illustrations: technically impressive, but utterly soulless and devoid of any interest.
Johnny Cash
3/5
I was in college with a guy who would play nothing but Johnny Cash which killed my enthusiasm for him, but this is alright. I enjoy his patter with the audience, and I do have to admit he has the stuff, but for me it’s merely okay.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
Reggae is probably the genre of music I struggle with the most, as it all ends up sounding incredibly samey. Bob Marley is obviously the king of the genre, and I’ve liked the songs of his I’ve heard enough. This album is alright; the title track especially I enjoyed a lot more than I expected. I think there’s just something that specific drum and guitar sound that doesn’t gel with me. I realise this is probably great for people who like it, but it’s not for me.
Paul Simon
4/5
The other Paul. I much prefer Paul Simon’s solo work to his band stuff. You can feel early signs of the influence he’s had from African music on this release (before really ramping it up for Graceland), but it still has a rooting in his early folk period. This is a great little album.
Thin Lizzy
4/5
In 2015, Vice published Timothy Faust’s article “I Played ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ on a Bar Jukebox Until I Got Kicked Out”. This piece of writing had such a profound effect on me and my best mate that we got matching tattoos as a result. I’ve never really listened to much Thin Lizzy though besides that song. Listening to this live album, I’m glad to know they’re an incredibly good band. This whole set slaps, they have great patter in between songs (more bands need to work on this), and this whole set sounds like a celebration of their whole career (I’m guessing; as established I don’t really know much about them). As a fellow bassist with far less charisma I love to see Lynott just absolutely killing it on bass while singing such great melodies; the man had it all in spades.
Pink Floyd
5/5
As near to perfect as albums get. It’s pretty hard to put down in words just how great this album is, but it’s Floyd firing on all cylinders: Wright’s delicate build up of synths during the intro and outro tracks, Waters’ acerbic lyrics, Gilmour’s unmistakable guitar doing unspeakable things, and Mason’s rock steady rhythm keeping it all together. Nestled amongst this, one of the most beautifully heartfelt songs ever written about their former band mate. It’s a good one this.
Leftfield
1/5
If I was in a field and off my bin on cider I’d probably love this…but I’m in my house doing dishes, so I don’t.
The Magnetic Fields
1/5
I was dreading this album since I knew it was on the list, and so here we are. Unbelievably obnoxious in its length while not offering a single song good enough to warrant this project (I appreciate the commitment to the 69 bit though). People compliment Merritt’s lyricism, but these songs have lyrics more akin to the childish shallowness of a Moldy Peaches album than anything profound; it’s criminal this is on here when not a single Mountain Goats album makes the list.
So yeah, didn’t like this album one bit. My friends used to get together and we’d spend a whole weekend writing and recording really dumb songs just for the sake of it: this album feels like that, just quantity over any quality. There’s some songs better than others (worst among them has to be the dreadful genre pastiches like the jazz and world music ones, they actually feel insulting to listen to) but as a collection I don’t ever want to listen to this again.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
2/5
It probably doesn’t help that I had another Bob Marley album this week, but reggae just isn’t for me.
Electric Light Orchestra
5/5
I knew some of the singles and j remember my parents having some ELO albums when I was a kid (those futuristic space jukebox albums covers really stuck in my mind). This was an incredible listen. I’m more familiar with Jeff Lynne’s work with the Traveling Wilburys, but I’ve really been won over by the whole ELO sound. It sounds like music from the future without being hammy. I can feel the influence this band has had over so many modern musicians, and I can’t imagine how wild this would have sounded when it released. I listened to it 3 times yesterday, an easy 5 star for me.
T. Rex
2/5
There’s some really superb and heavy guitar outros on this album that wouldn’t be out of place on a Queens Of The Stone Age song, but I just think this very specific glam rock sound just isn’t for me; I find it all quite one-note.
Jacques Brel
4/5
This is the sort of album I crave from this experience. I had no idea what to expect, but damn this knocked my socks off! Brel has such an intense delivery of these songs, and I definitely think my first taste of him being a live album was beneficial; the man oozes a frantic charisma that I’ve never really experienced before. As this was only short, I listened to some of his studio stuff afterwards and it all delivers. I’ve no idea what this guy is saying, but I am 100% in on this.
The Pogues
3/5
I sadly only got into The Pogues after Shane MacGowan’s death, but this album is grand. A great mixture of their more trad Irish stuff and a way to show off the other musical strings in their bow. The Irish Rover is one of my favourite songs, and whilst The Pogues are nowhere as good as The Dubliners, these lads still hold their own over the course of the album with their more punk-leaning Irish music and definitely paved the way for great modern bands like The Mary Wallopers.
I didn’t listen to Fairytale of New York. Great song, but it’s April.
JAY Z
4/5
This takes me back. Jay at the top of his game, classic Kanye beats, even a Timbaland track (nobody was doing drums better at the time). Flow wise, Jay Z is solid as a rock, but lyrically he’s always felt a bit weak to me. Still, this album is a classic for a reason and was among the handful of rap albums I first got into so I’ve got to rate this one. The production on this album is so fresh, it was a joy to revisit this one.
Stephen Stills
4/5
It’s a shame there’s no Graham Nash album on this list; it would have been nice to be served up the individual components of CSN&Y. Anyway, Stills is probably my favourite of the CSN trio (they all pale in comparison to Neil Young), and this is a cracking little album. It feels like a showreel of everything Stephen Stills was capable of, lurching from nice trad folk to dancier rock songs and brooding blues numbers. Just a very solid and dependable collection of songs.
Janelle Monáe
4/5
Incredibly opulent from start to finish; this album sounds expensive. Nobody can do what Prince did, but Janelle Monáe gives it a damn good go. I hadn’t listened to this album in a while and had forgotten just how great it is. Some superb features by Saul Williams and Big Boi, but Monáe could have carried this album all on her own; she is an extreme talent and this album was a joy to revisit.
Megadeth
2/5
Not a Megadeth guy — there’s a reason Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica — I just find them way too cheesy, and I’m not really into this kind of thrash metal. It wasn’t objectively bad, just not my thing.
New York Dolls
4/5
This albums rips. Proto-punk greatness with roots in glam rock, this album sounds so fresh you’d be surprised to realise it came out in 1973. Got a big Replacements vibe from it. Had a blast with this one.
Johnny Cash
4/5
What a way to end a career. This collection of mainly covers is a great full stop on one of the most prolific country singers we’ve had. A truly poignant listen knowing this was the end, Cash unpicks the melancholic thread from each of these songs beautifully.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
It’s Zeppelin IV, it’s rock solid. It’s tricky trying to give this a score because about half the songs on this album are absolutely five star, but if I’m being honest the other half just miss out of reaching that. It’s still incredible though, and maybe I’ve become a little burned out by listening to Zeppelin a ton when I was younger, but yeah, you know this is good.
Hot Chip
3/5
I love Hot Chip, but somehow they seem to have a whole album that has completely passed me by. Genuinely no idea how that’s happened as I listen to all their other albums quite a bit. Weird. Anyway, it’s Hot Chip. They’re great, and it’s great to have a “new” album of theirs to listen to.
That being said, this is most definitely their weakest album. It’s still good, but for this to be the only Hot Chip album on the list is a baffling decision. I really do wonder what goes into decided the albums that make the cut.
If you enjoyed this, their Tiny Desk Concert is worth a watch. Wonderfully stripped back versions of their songs including Look At Where We Are which is probably my standout from this album.
5/5
Fucking hell. This is the most exciting jazz album, no — the most exciting album that I’ve heard in ages. What an onslaught, but it still has that great thing jazz does where if you focus your hearing in on one specific aspect you basically get a different song. I’ve never listened to John Zorn, but you can tell the influence he had on some of the early Mars Volta stuff for sure, and I now need to go check out the rest of his stuff.
Breathtaking, challenging, thrilling, kinda obnoxious and scary. A thousand times this over some of the boring bland shit on this list.
David Bowie
3/5
I’ve always found Low to be one of Bowie’s most overrated albums. It still has great moments, but I feel it doesn’t quite deserve the accolades it receives.
Nitin Sawhney
2/5
Expected something exciting from this album cover but this was an incredibly boring trip hop album.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
4/5
I’d never listened to any of Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s work, but this was excellent. It’s hard to make music this dour and melancholic whilst still sounding sincere. Will be checking out more of his stuff.
Tracy Chapman
4/5
One of the most powerful live performance videos I’ve seen is when Tracy Chapman, very early on in her career, had to fill in for Stevie Wonder at a festival in Wembley, and just the total command she had over the thousands of people watching. That’s what this album is: it demands your complete attention for its short runtime and you daren’t even breathe. Beautiful stuff.
Muddy Waters
3/5
Cracking live album with phenomenal sound for the day. There’s only so much I get out of this type of blues, but I can’t deny it was great toe-tapping time while it lasted.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Never really listened to Peter Gabriel as much as I should have, but every time I do I come away thinking he’s great. This album is sonically quite challenging in parts and I don’t think the 80s production does the songs many favours, but there’s definitely an interesting bunch of songs here.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
Not my favourite Belle & Sebastian, but a lovely collection of little ditties that they seem to do best. Nice to hear their earlier stuff before they got a little too twee.
I once saw Belle & Sebastian at a festival where it was drizzling with rain and I was drinking a cup of tea, and I can’t think of a more perfect environment to have seen them in.
Funkadelic
4/5
Such an iconic album cover. It’s a good thing that it’s backed up by being a pretty great album as well. Effortlessly groovy with guitar playing potent enough to melt off entire faces. A delight to revisit this one.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
Having a great run of funk and soul albums at the moment. Larry Graham’s bass man, nothing else like it. Compressed into a squawking, clucking buzz, but those grooves are unmatched. Sublime.
The Last Shadow Puppets
2/5
Definitely the most undeserving album to be included on this list. Just utter nothing landfill indie. Alex Turner at his most mediocre. I’ve no idea what dirt Miles Kane has on him to continually be involved with his music projects, but the man brings nothing to an already empty table. Doesn’t even warrant the notoriety of getting 1 star.
Thought this was surprisingly great. Rod’s scratchy voice really works well with this kind of bluesy rock. Wasn’t as fussed with the songs sung by the bass player (although he has some great bass lines on this thing), but overall yeah this was pretty good!
The Police
2/5
I love The Police, but this album is a stinker. A real sour note for them to go out on. Mad that they only have two albums on the entire list and this is somehow one of them. Justice for Outlandos D’Amour!
Os Mutantes
3/5
Thought this would be another boring 60s psych rock album, but this was pretty fun. Can really feel the influence the guitar tone on this album had over Jack White’s whole sound. Some fantastic fuzz for an album from 1968.
Joanna Newsom
4/5
The reviews for this album on this site are insane - a 2.89 average? This album is stunning. I still really enjoy her debut album, but the songwriting and lyricism on Ys is such a step above. It’s a shame this is her only album on the list (if have put Have One On Me above Ys), but I’m glad people are getting a taste for one of the most brilliant artists of our generation.
It still melts my head when I remember she’s married to Andy Samberg.
Black Sabbath
5/5
Another 8 bangers from Black Sabbath. It’s wild they released this album in the same year as their debut; 1970, what a year! This is such a great collection of songs that it’s difficult to think of what else to say. Just perfect.
Al Green
4/5
One of my favourite soul records, Al Green’s range is just a tremendous thing to hear across these 9 songs. Can’t remember when I first heard this (the spray painted neon AL GREEN on the cover has always felt out of place to me), but this album has been a staple of my summers for a long time. Just great stuff.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
My wife loved Leonard Cohen but I’ve never really listened to him. This is powerfully 80s and sounds like a Roger Waters solo album.
The Waterboys
1/5
Jesus Christ this is bad. And almost 2 hours of it as well! Just endless saccharine noise and Poundshop U2 ballads from a band that sounded worse than most open mic acts I’ve seen. This was really quite dreadful, but not even in an interesting way. Found this an utter slog to get through and was none the wiser about its inclusion on the list by the end.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5/5
Stunning. The guitar work on this is some of Young’s best, and the decision to overdub live tracks gives these songs a fantastic depth in sound. Some of Youngs best songs on display here, and it’s always a good time when he’s recording with Crazy Horse.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
A friend of mine in college had a car that whenever he started the engine, it would restart the CD in the player, and he always had Rumours in. I must have heard the beginning of Second Hand News more times than any other song, and yet it is still incredible.
I thought it would be hard to evaluate Rumours as an album, as the songs feel like they have all taken on the weight of being separate, but I needn’t have worried: this album is as close to perfect as it can get. I like Fleetwood Mac anyway, but something about the circumstances surrounding this album or a particular alignment of the planets (or something else less wanky) has given this album a presence and impact that few others can match. Just outstanding front to back.
Sonic Youth
4/5
Hearing Sonic Youth as a teenager was such an exciting moment for me as it really opened my ears to what guitar music could achieve. This album still gives that feeling. Really great to revisit this one, there’s just something about that scratchy lo-fi sound I love and will always have time for.
Sade
3/5
I think Sade has been done dirty by history - as soon as I saw this news today’s album I rolled by eyes at the initial impression that I was in for a cheesy 45 minutes. This slaps though, Sade’s voice is wonderfully smooth with just a grain of grit to it that stops it being sickly, and the instrumentation is sublime; the bass in particular is really taking a leisurely stroll through the park to get to where it’s going.
Bob Dylan
3/5
Considering there’s like 8 more Dylan albums on this list, including Time Out Of Mind feels like one album too many. Really sticks out as an inclusion for just being a random later-period Dylan album; there’s nothing notable about it. The fact this album made the list and Desire didn’t is a travesty. This is fine, but just average for a later-period Dylan.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
The first of many Elvis Costello albums to come. Pump It Up was a known banger, but I have to admit that the rest of the album really landed for me as well. Weirdly felt a lot of Green Day in this album, I wonder if there was any influence there? Either way, this was good.
Happy Mondays
2/5
Turns out I am not mad fer it.
David Bowie
5/5
It’s hard to remember what my initial thoughts were of Blackstar; those couple of days having the album before Bowie died feel lost to time, as the album took on an immense weight from that point forward. An artist right up to the very last second, this album about his illness, his life, his awareness of his impending death…very few albums are constructed of such emotional pieces — I Can’t Give Everything Away is a perfect end and took on an incredible sadness after his passing. This is by no means my favourite Bowie album, but it’s definitely the most impactful.
The accompanying No Plan EP is a great afterword for this album.
Christine and the Queens
3/5
A perfectly fine pop album. Chris really has the vocal chops to elevate this to something better than average, but the songs themselves just kind of wash over me so I’m kind of left with no lasting memory of what I’ve just heard.
The Psychedelic Furs
4/5
Didn’t know what to expect from this one but it was a lot stranger than I had anticipated. Real fun art rock, very 80s sounding but not in a bad way. Yeah, enjoyed this a great deal.
Marty Robbins
4/5
This album has been memed to death, but it really is great. Proper storytelling cowboy songs, American songbook kind of shit. Leave your scepticism at the door and this album is nothing but a great time.
Public Enemy
4/5
Nobody has had to carry the weight of a hiphop band like Chuck D. He is consistently phenomenal whilst having to deal with the clownshoes Flavor Flav cheesing up every song he gets his hands on. But D manages to bring home classic after classic after classic, just the best that old school hiphop has to offer.
The Young Gods
4/5
Hahaha fuck yeah what is this?
Like Tom Waits, Rammstein, and some Camembert was put in a blender. This is wicked. Loved every second of this miserable French bastard grunting over these 50p beats. Another great 1001 discovery.
Hole
3/5
Not really listened to Hole before but I know grunge isn’t my genre. Appreciate some of the themes of this album surrounding motherhood and being a woman in the music industry, but this is doing nothing for me. Not bad by any means, just not to my tastes.
Run-D.M.C.
4/5
On the cheesier side of the hiphop I like, but this album is a classic. Side A in particular is relentless in how it keeps serving up great tracks. Really appreciated the production on this album this time round, and it’s no wonder it was the first hip hop album to go platinum or to gain a bunch of different awards. The quality does drop off slightly in the second half, but it’s still a superb album. Plus it gave us SSX tricky, the greatest snowboarding game of all time.
Justice
5/5
Didn’t expect to see this album on here so was very excited to see that it was my album today. An immediate 5, one of the nowt important albums in my life. This hit right when I turned 18 and the whole Ed Banger/Boys Noize thing was going on, so my Saturday nights were filled with going to places that played this kind of sample-heavy electro house. Nothing comes close to Cross for me though. Effortlessly cool, grittier than Daft Punk, not as self-deprecating as LCD Soundsystem, and with one of the greatest closing tracks on any album. A great reminded that Uffie was a thing as well.
Germs
2/5
This was a tough listen. Musically I vibed with a lot of this, but the vocals felt so sloppy and half-assed that it just sapped all the good will I had for these tracks. Not my kind of punk, but I appreciate its rawness and the speed at which this was performed at.
Janis Joplin
5/5
Now we’re talking! A voice like no other. I was used to Janis Joplin’s more soulful heartbreakers, but I didn’t realise she had such heavy grooves on her albums. This was an utter delight to listen to (I went through it multiple times today) and I’ll be returning to listen to the bonus tracks on the expanded edition soon.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
I’m always excited to listen to albums that have such a low rating on here because they’re usually at least an interesting listen. This was no exception! A very whimsical, alt-folk path winds through these songs with Wyatt’s unusual vocals telling the stories. Odd, but interesting! Reminded me in parts of Richard Dawson and Ivor Cutler. A weirdos album for weirdos.
3/5
Classic Devo zaniness. I like Devo, but they’re not generally a band I’ll sit down and listen to; think you’ve got to be in the mood to want to listen to a whole album of theirs, otherwise it can be quite relenting. Still, they do what they do best and the production on this album is top notch.
The Beach Boys
5/5
Okay so Brian Wilson just died so it’s quite hard to be subjective about Pet Sounds, but it was a perfect album before all this. Perfectly crafted pop songs by one of the best groups to exist. Pure magic was captured during these recording sessions. God Only Known may be the most perfect song put to tape, but then you’ve got the likes of Sloop John B and That’s Not Me and basically the rest of this album as well. No one group has ever harmonised vocals better. I listened to this album when I heard that he’d died yesterday, and I gladly listened to it all over again today. A masterpiece.
Yes
3/5
A wonderful mess of an album. Bookended with two of the best Yes songs (Roundabout is an all timer), but the middle of the album feels like sketches of an idea rather than a coherent work. A joy to listen to this album as a bass player though, Chris Squire really had it going on here.
Missy Elliott
3/5
This was a great listen if slightly bogged down by the trend at the time to bloat hiphop albums with too many filler tracks. Missy Elliott never got big enough in my mind, I really felt she had something special but it was maybe a bit too ahead of its time. She’s at her best with Timbaland producing, just an incredible duo that I wish we see more work from, but it feels like the time for this specific style of hiphop has passed. A good listen, but could have been great if the album was tightened up a bit.
Michael Jackson
3/5
Not my favourite Jackson era, but it can’t be denied that there’s some bangers on this album. Something sounded a bit off with the production to be on this one in that very cheap hollow way that people really leant into during the 80s. Still, the greatness of songs like Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal can’t be denied.
David Bowie
3/5
One thing I’ve learned from doing this is I’m not as into Bowie’s Berlin trilogy as I thought I was. Heroes is a cracking song, and I really like the instrumentals that close out the album, but otherwise I found the rest of it quite lacking. Not bad by any means, but merely okay.
The Cure
2/5
They’re a band I should love, but I just can’t get into The Cure no matter how hard I have tried. They’ve a few singles I quite like, but I’ve got to admit they’re not a band for me: the instruments are so soaked in chorus it just sounds cheesy, and I don’t really care for Robert Smith’s singing. This album didn’t really change my mind on them, but I think I may have a better chance with some of their later albums. This was just a slog.
Grant Lee Buffalo
4/5
A corker of an album this. Completely unheard of beforehand, but really enjoyed it. Had something of a Frank Black solo album about it. Was fascinating to read about the band’s history and got the sense they never quite made it to the heights of some of their contemporaries. This debut is a haunting collection of dusty Americana alt-rock and really landed with me - I’ll be giving the rest of their albums a listen after this.
Fever Ray
3/5
When I was a kid I had rubbish word search game on my PC: David Bellamy’s Discovering Endangered Wildlife. The music on this album reminds me of the music from that game if Bjork was wailing over the top of it. That’s a good thing.
Nirvana
2/5
Maybe one of my most controversial opinions that will appear on this list, but I just really don’t like Nirvana. I’m not the biggest grunge guy at the best of time, but I find them so incredibly boring, not even Albini at the helm could make this a good listen for me. I’m interested for their unplugged album to come up as I feel I may like that more, but I’ve really tried to get into them over the years and they just don’t do a thing for me.
The Modern Lovers
5/5
I’ve heard and loved Roadrunner before but I had no idea how good this band was. It’s no surprise they’re one of the bands mentioned in LCD Soundsystem’s Losing My Edge; the influence from Jonathan Richman to James Murphy is a straight line. It’s crazy this came out in 1976, it sounds so contemporary I can only imagine it was a very divisive record at the time. Glad this list got me to listen to this though, it was exactly the sort of thing I love and now a ton of other Jonathan Richman albums to check out as well.
Eagles
3/5
When I saw the Eagles’ debut as today’s album I rolled my eyes expecting to hate this, but this was actually alright. Nothing groundbreaking, but a nice enough mix of country rock. Feels like having this on as the sun was going down on a BBQ where you’ve had a couple of light beers would be perfect. Gains an extra star for Earlybird which is a real weirdo of a track.
De La Soul
3/5
It’s been ages since I last listened to this. Me Myself & I was one of the first non-Eminem hiphop songs I ever heard and showed me the genre could be fun and light without coming across as corny. This album has flashes of brilliance, but it suffers from the usual issues sold the era: its way too fucking long and the skits are dire. But the way the three of them throw the bars back and forth to each other is sublime and the production is top notch. This still holds up as a great hiphop record, even if you do feel its age slightly now.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
I understand why Bruce had to make this album when he did, and why it’s on the list (The Boss’s post 9/11 album is surely something that demands listening to). As far as Springsteen albums go, I find this one to be one of his most sombre releases. Sadly, it’s missing the energy I love from his earlier albums (and even more recent ones like Wrecking Ball). Seems unfair to mark this album down for being quietly hopeful, but it’s not a Springsteen album I return to often.
Hookworms
4/5
Dreamy and creamy synch indie. Pleasantly surprised to see a release from Hookworms on the list. Really enjoy this one (and the band in general). Love how to tracks all seamlessly phase into each other, and there's some really hypnotic loops in here. Good stuff!
The Mothers Of Invention
3/5
You can tell this is the first Zappa record, but there are still flashes of utter genius found throughout. A little too rooted in traditional 60s psych for me, but tracks like Trouble Every Day and Who Are The Brain Police really show how forward thinking and ahead of its time some of the ideas on this album were. There’s better Zappa records out there though by far.
Aretha Franklin
4/5
A stunning record. The banger that is Respect aside, the rest of the album is track after track or heartfelt brilliance. One of the all time great jazz and soul singers, here I feel is Aretha at her best; everything you could want from an Aretha Franklin song can be found here. I much prefer her more soulful ballads than her uptempo numbers, and thankfully this album has them in spades.
James Brown
3/5
The closest I ever came to seeing James Brown was seeing The Screaming Eagle of Soul, Charles Bradley (who started his career as a James Brown tribute act). James Brown’s voice is so powerful you think it’s going to go horribly wrong at parts, but he manages to hold it back from breaking completely. I think he’s at his best live, and this album certainly showcases his showmanship and energy as an entertainer; the crowd also adds an electric energy to this album and is the better for including it on the recording. I found the tracklist quite dull though compared to other live recordings I’ve seen/heard from him.
Mercury Rev
2/5
I struggled with this one. There were one or two moments where the band really brought it all in and it sounded great, but the majority of this record was nails on a chalk board for me. Limp songs, a voice that I really couldn’t vibe with (reminded me of Wayne Coyne’s singing from The Flaming Lips, the one aspect of that band I can’t stand), and a feeling of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what stuck. Sometimes that works, but for me this time it didn’t.
Radiohead
4/5
Went into this fully expecting it to be a five star album, but it’s not as consistent as I remember it being. There’s obviously some essential Radiohead songs on here (Karma Police is an all-time great), but I found there was a lot more padding on the album than I remembered and I’m not sure if I’ve just heard it to death or if aspects of the album have dated poorly, but my memories of this album certainly hold up better than my current feelings.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
3/5
Nice little acoustic numbers, CS&N are at their best where they’re all harmonising together. I prefer their work with Neil Young, and The Beautiful South did a better cover of Everybody’s Talkin’, but this is a nice enough record.
The Human League
2/5
A fine singles band, but I don’t ever really want to listen to a full album by The Human League. Not a big new wave guy, so this was a bit of a struggle. Fun in bursts, but that’s about it.
King Crimson
4/5
Gooey creamy prog goodness. I really should listen to more King Crimson outside of In The Court Of The Crimson King, because this was fucking great. Riffs on riffs on riffs, all gnarly and weird, and a great piece of work front to back. Loved it.
Sam Cooke
4/5
Another outstanding voice on a live record. You can just feel that Sam Cooke has an effortlessly cool stage presence here. The live mixing isn’t the best, and the crowd sounds muddy the songs a bit, but this is an electric performance that I was really into. I thought I was a bit over live albums on this list, but when they’re of this quality keep them coming.
George Michael
4/5
Man, I miss George Michael. Outside of having an utterly amazing voice and being an actually transgressive left-wing artist, he was also just a top bloke. This album is so good, a definite step up in maturity and songwriting compared to his debut. It loses points for the hokey reggae pastiche of Soul Free which honestly is the only blemish on this record for me.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
The Pet Shop Boys are at their best when their songs have a certain poignancy to them. This is a great collection of Neil and Chris at their most melancholic. Whilst not some of my favourite songs instrumentally (the keyboard work on this album can get quite hokey), lyrically they’re firing on all cylinders.
The Prodigy
4/5
The Prodigy are one of those bands that reach across the genre divides to a point where everybody likes them. EDM fans, goths, mums… everyone loves The Prodigy. This album is full of classics and was a joy to relisten to after seeing their recent Glastonbury set. I have a vivid memory of how much each of the videos from this album scared me as a child, but something about them stuck with me and made me fall in love with this album. Gutted I never got to see them with Keith at the helm.
Beach House
4/5
A lovely slice of dream pop, this whole album (and let’s be honest, all of Beach House’s work) washes over you like a wonderful fizzy blanket of noise. They’ve released better albums than Teen Dream that should have made the list, but I’m just glad they’re represented on here at least.
Fats Domino
3/5
Kind of hard to pin down the exact tracklist for this album. Blueberry Hill is a classic, and Fats always delivers. Nothing groundbreaking here, just some solid tunes it was fun to listen to again.
4/5
Thought I was going to hate this, but I had a blast with this album. Powerfully 80s but it really worked. The bass in particular was filthy, some beautiful lines on this. I’d heard a few of these songs before but didn’t know they were by ABC.
Stan Getz
3/5
A little bit too Monsters Inc. Opening Sequence compared to my usual taste in jazz, but this was a pleasant little album to run through. Suits the sleepy sunny weather we are having at the moment. The guitar on this album was particularly nice, and really complimented the horn work at the front.
Manic Street Preachers
3/5
I get why of the two Manics albums on this list their first album post-Richey Edwards had to be on here. As a release it’s incredibly interesting to see how a band continues following such a tragedy and the already notable absence Richey left on their sound. As an album, it’s not my favourite Manics (I do wish they could have squeezed Generation Terrorists onto the list), but it serves as a blueprint for the style of music they would go on to play for the rest of their career. Decent!
4/5
Man, what a fucking album. The decision to have the first MC5 release be a live album was a stroke of genius. They birthed an entire genre of punk music from these tracks, with an energy to rival a lot of modern day songs that the band influenced. Just one of the all time great American bands.
Elvis Presley
3/5
Opening with Blue Suede Shoes was very powerful, and must have knocked people’s socks off back in 1956. It’s a good thing Elvis was hot, because he does some weird ass stuff with his voice they wouldn’t fly if he was an uglier dude. Hard to be objective about the debut album of one of the biggest artists of all time, especially as the album format wasn’t really the thing back then. This was fine, heard them all before, some ballads some fancier numbers. Alright!
Gene Clark
5/5
A solo album by a guy from The Byrds with this hideous album cover? I wouldn’t have given it a second’s notice before, but my god what a brilliant album. These compositions are so forward thinking for an album from 1974, pulling in influence from the grandiose country rock that was happening at the time, but still keeping the rock solid songwriter stylings that made The Byrds such a popular band. All of the songs here offer something in their own right, but Strength Of Strings is a particularly strong showing of the scale of Clark’s songwriting prowess and ability to bend a vocal line from powerfully ballad-like to devastatingly sombre. A genuinely surprising album for me that I’ve already listened to twice today and will be delving into the bonus discs on the 2019 reissue.
It’s criminal that this album was suffocated by its label and basically killed off any success Gene Clark would have as a solo artist. Between how they handled this album and all of Judee Sill’s career, Asylum Records have a lot to answer for.
Skepta
3/5
Not a big grime guy (find the British accent incredibly grating on rap, and I’m British but yeah, always sounds corny) but this is one of the few grime albums that has really spoken to me. Still one of the best examples the genre has to offer I reckon. It’s been a while since I’ve heard these songs but they still hit as hard as they did when this album dropped - the Queens Of The Stone Age sample on Man is still a genius inclusion. You can feel Drake’s influence on the hooks which give the songs a bit of a poppier sensibility which honestly I think was needed for Skepta to break into the mainstream like he did with this album. The skits still suck ass though - painfully embarassing.
ABBA
4/5
I can’t believe there used to be a time where I didn’t like ABBA - they’re fucking great. A lot of great songs on here I had never heard before, including a rare lead vocal performance from one of the lads. The bass lines on every ABBA song goes hard and this album has delicious riffs in droves. Anyone who doesn’t enjoy these songs, stop being boring.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Probably Led Zeppelin at the top of their form, this album covers every genre the band could really nail, there’s so much on offer here. Quite self-indulgent at times and I think it would have been a stronger album if they cut it down to the one disc, but you can’t deny tracks like Trampled Under Foot and Kashmir don’t just remind you why you like rock music in the first place.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Quite a mid Stevie Wonder album, not sure why it needed to be on the list. There’s some bangers on here for sure, but as an album it’s quite lacking compared to Talking Book or Songs In The Key Of Life. Higher Ground is still a great track though (when not being murdered by the red hot chilli peppers).
Santana
3/5
I seem to remember Black Magic Woman going a lot harder than this. This was an alright album, but it did make me realise Santana is mad overrated in the grand scheme of things. There’s some decent instrumentals on this album, but I’ve heard better.
5/5
An undeniable classic 5 star album. I went to a David Bowie DJ set hosted by a drag queen last year (great fun) and they basically played this whole album in full. This is Bowie’s most successfully played out character, and this album really backs up just how well crafted the Ziggy Stardust mythology was. Bowie shows he could do glam rock better than anyone else on these tracks (sorry Marc Bolan), along with real driving rock songs like Suffragette City, and grandiose ballads like 5 Years. This album really is so strong front to back it does make some of Bowie’s other output feel weaker in comparison.
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
The Killing Moon does an awful lot of heavy lifting on this album. I found the rest of the tracks quite dull. Not my favourite genre at the best of times, but the music just felt overly soppy and uninteresting and the singer’s voice came across was screachy in too many places. New Wave just isn’t for me.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Had to get an Ozzy album today. Admittedly the weakest of the first four Sabbath records, but with tracks like Supernaut and Snowblind there are still some incredible moments on this record. Changes always felt like a sore thumb to me and still does, but I guess it also shows the range the band had even at this early stage. I’m grateful I got to see Black Sabbath on their final proper tour, and am glad that Ozzy had such a triumphant send off so close to his death. These albums will continue to influence budding princes and princesses of darkness for years to come I’m sure.
Madness
3/5
I forget how huge Madness were back in the day. They’re a brilliant singles machine, but I didn’t get much more from listening to an album. Will always be a good time when Baggy Trousers comes on in the pub, but not sure I’d ever choose to listen to them in the house.
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
Some really funky jams on this. I was surprised to see it was released in 1976, the sounds in this album are so contemporary. The repetitive rhythms are really hypnotic with some great vocal work over the top. I’ll be adding this to the summer rotation for sure.
Robbie Williams
3/5
As is evident from the reviews here and the reception of that monkey film, America just doesn’t get the cultural phenomenon that was Robbie Williams in the 90s. When he left/was kicked out of Take That and skewed more towards this Britpop Badboy sort of sound, it really made an impact. From his debut through to his fifth album, he was a pop juggernaut in the UK. I totally get why his debut is on this list for that alone, even if listening back to it now you can really hear where the ideas run a bit thin. Still, I’ve always liked Robbie so I was happy to see this album pop up this morning and relive a bit of nostalgia through it.
Randy Newman
4/5
It’s easy to forget just how influential Randy Newman’s work is. The true modern American Songbook, he manages to say so much in such a concise way, rivalling Dylan and Springsteen for sheer storytelling heft. His voice is very Marmite, but I love it. I’m sure many people have written him off at the Toy Story guy, but Newman has the ability to play a humorous little number that at any moment can wrench your heart straight out of your chest. He’s a singular talent and I’m glad more people will get to hear him from his inclusion on this list.
King Crimson
5/5
A huge sounding album. King Crimson really came screaming out of the gate with this one; that first song being responsible for one of the dirtiest riffs in music and would serve as an influence to an entire subsection of prog-rock. I think it’s safe to say they without King Crimson, there’d be no Rush, no Pink Floyd, and no Mars Volta. I know to some that would be a blessing, but they’re probably the three most pivotal bands in shaping my music tastes, and so I can only be grateful to this incredible album. On its Owen it still sounds incredibly fresh, and I know people who say them on the 50th anniversary tour for this album and said it blew them away. There’s incredible intricacy here in the movements and the way in which sections build and deconstruct. There’s classical and jazz influences as well as early signs of more complicated metal and post & math rock. King Crimson threw everything at this, and somehow it all stuck.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4/5
Much gentler than my usual taste in jazz, but you can’t deny the smoothness and fluidity of this album. Take Five aside (it’s a classic, everyone knows it) the rest of the album includes such tight yet airy playing, it really bumbles along like a long pleasurable summer’s day. A real treat to sit down and listen to.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
An immediate 5 star rating. In my mind one of the most perfect albums ever made. It’s really hard to put into words just how special this album is. Joni Mitchell manages to concentrate everything it is to be in a relationship across these 10 songs. The details of these songs are so intimate in their storytelling they really capture the true heart and soul of what it is to love another person and what it is to lose that love.
This is probably the best album on the list; it’s all downhill from here!
The Cure
4/5
Opened up today’s album thinking it would be another Cure album I wouldn’t like, but much to my surprise I really enjoyed this one! The songs on Pornography has a much more driving rhythm section that really gave the songs a more industrial edge which I liked a lot more than their usual sad goth flouncing. I wish they’d made more music like this, but at least I can say I like The Cure now.
Lauryn Hill
3/5
I went into this album expecting it to be an easy 5, but it didn’t land nearly as well as it did the last time I listened to this album. Not sure if it just feels a bit dated to me now compared to other hip hop releases that have come since, but the instrumentals and the skits felt stale to me this time round. A clearly influential album, but not one I’m going to return to any time soon.
The Kinks
3/5
I’m finding that a lot of these 60s bands don’t really treat the album format in the way I like to listen to music - they’re more just a collection of songs than a coherent project. These are all fine Kinks sounding songs, but I could honestly just get by which a greatest hits compilation of theirs and be done with it. Sunny afternoon is a banger though.
Sinead O'Connor
1/5
I respect Sinéad’s vocal abilities — she has a great voice — but Jesus Christ this was a dour listen. Music for the worst person you know who is probably into beat poetry. Lyrics so irredeemably on the nose over the top of incredibly stale production.
Steely Dan
2/5
Surprisingly dull for a Steely Dan album, like an album full of filler tracks. Expected more from this one, but it just kind of happened and left no lasting impact like I’ve got from other records of theirs that I’ve heard. Great album cover though.
Robert Wyatt
4/5
Robert Wyatt is one of the most interesting artists I’ve come to know through this project. I was surprised to see yet another album by him on this list, but I’d take a hundred of these over some of the dull albums I’ve had to listen to. This album is far less folksy than his album Shleep that I heard before this one. Rock Bottom almost verges on Krautrock grooves with lead guitar lines that could appear on a Mars Volta album. Wyatt’s voice still tries to keep up with the music, but is all the more charming for it. I noted in my review of Shleep that it reminded me of Ivor Cutler, and then he turns up on this album! Just goes to show: I know what I’m talking about.
Dizzee Rascal
3/5
Listening back to some of these was a real nostalgia trip, and the singles still slap. A whole hour of Dizzee Rascal was tough going though. It’s mad to think just how much this album broke through to the UK mainstream; it’s quite a hard listen if you’re not already bedded into the grime genre a little.
Billy Bragg
3/5
I’ve only seen Billy Bragg live once (as a support act for Paul Heaton). It was a great set singing along with a big crowd of people, especially when the big guns like There Is Power In A Union came out. But I’ve found the best way of hearing his songs is not by seeing him live, or by listening to his albums, but by finding them woven into the fabric of life: a recent funeral I attended where everyone sang along to The Red Flag, or at countless protests and rallies where his songs naturally become a glue that holds people together. That’s where the power of his music is found.
Coldplay
4/5
Really enjoyed going back to this. The Radiohead influence has never been more obvious, but there’s some cracking tunes on this one. Interesting to hear this now knowing just how incredibly huge they’d get, and having to admit to myself that they had the stuff from the very start.
Snoop Dogg
3/5
Hard to go back to this one, a lot of it sounds embarassing as hell these days. The production is killer though. Snoop has always worked better for me when he’s doing a verse on someone else’s track; I like his lazy flow, but a whole album of it is a bit much.
Eminem
2/5
Incredibly juvenile and dated. I thought Eminem was like 19 or something putting this out, but kind of embarassing he was 27 rapping some of these bars. It’s a bit of a nostalgic listen as 10 year old me loved this, but this was like rewatching the American Pie movies and making you question if you ever had good taste.
Blur
4/5
I knew a few of the singles, but I went into this album expecting to be bored. Man, this album rocks. Blur showing here just how varied and textured they are as a band. There’s some obvious early signs of Gorillaz here, alongside songs sounding like The Fall and early Pink Floyd. Just a great showcase for the band being much more than their early Britpop sound.
Antony and the Johnsons
5/5
I remember watching the Mercury awards the year this album won. I’d not heard any music from Anohni before, so I was really unprepared for when the band played Hope There’s Someone and just how hauntingly beautiful it was. I bought this album immediately and was in love with it from that point on. The features on this album are so perfectly chosen, each one compliments Anohni’s voice beautifully. The album runs through so many emotional peaks and troughs before ending in the triumphant Bird Gerhl, which not only feels like a perfect end to the album, but like a real milestone in Anohni’s life and journey. I genuinely love this album, and it disheartens me to see how poorly it’s been reviewed on by users of this site.
Love
2/5
The cover of this album feels a lot more known than the album itself as I’ve never heard these songs and would be hard pressed to tell you who the band was from memory. It’s cursed with my usual criticisms of the 60s album: a strong leading track or two followed by some really weak filler.
The Smiths
3/5
The Smiths at their most experimental, the songs on Strangeways feel different to the rest of their output whilst still having that characteristic jangle. There’s some real all-timer Smiths songs on this album, but also a couple of clunkers like Unhappy Birthday that feel more akin to Morrisey’s solo output. Half a good album for sure.
Metallica
4/5
There’s some stone cold classics on this album, even if I’m not the biggest Metallica fan I still get a lot of enjoyment out of this record. It’s not my favourite of theirs, but it’s a solid entry that I was happy to listen to again after many years away.
Ministry
3/5
A truly bizarre record. Can see smatterings of Nine Inch Nails, System Of A Down, and The Prodigy in here, all whilst remaining its own thing. I’m not sure I actually enjoyed much of it, but I respect what it was doing and can imagine this was a huge inspiration for a lot of stuff I like.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
The start to Springsteen’s lesser 80s period, but with enough bangers for it to remain a classic. Not as hard hitting as some of his earlier work, but far more anthemic and feeling like is it tuned to larger stadium crowds. One of the first of his albums I heard, and Dancing In The Dark has been my go to karaoke song ever since, this one will always have a place in my heart even if it’s nowhere near his top 5.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
2/5
I can understand why Janis left the band now. Very generic blues rock, riffs that don’t go anywhere, that weird live gimmick of just adding crowd sounds to studio tracks. Something about this stinks to me.
PJ Harvey
2/5
Incredibly melodramatic and grungey. I’ve never liked PJ Harvey and this album has done nothing to change that. What was it about this thread of 90s rock music that took itself so seriously? Harvey murdered that Dylan cover as well. Drums sound good though.
Beatles
5/5
Gun to my head, probably my favourite Beatles album. I love how it straddles the influence of their earlier boy band sound with the more experimental approach they would take on future albums. It also feels like the first time McCartney’s bass playing was elevated to be a prominent sound across a whole album. The early attempts of experimenting with tape delays and unconventional instruments are charming and show a band hungry to leave their past behind. Revolver marks the turning point for The Beatles being the biggest band at the time to becoming the biggest band of all time.
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
3/5
Fine? This wasn’t bad, and I get why the best selling salsa album should be on this list, but also this just washed over me. Fantastic background music, but to listen to with purpose, this fell flat.
Foo Fighters
3/5
A proof of concept for what the Foo Fighters would be. An interesting album for the drummer of Nirvana to put out on his own, with a nice variety of different styles on display here. Big Me is the only song I remembered from this album and it’s still the best thing on here.
Alanis Morissette
5/5
Unquestionably 90s in its production and writing but damn, if this isn’t the best of its time. Perfect and complicated pop songs delivered with as much force as a runaway truck, Alanis nails every second on this album. It’s just extremely good!
Amy Winehouse
4/5
It’s hard to separate the myth and legacy of Amy Winehouse from her music, as each of these songs holds so much weight it’s quite difficult to judge them on their own merits. These are some great songs though, and even though they tried to rinse her of every scrap of material she had posthumously, Back To Black still holds up as a phenomenal collection of songs and a record of an extreme talent.
Portishead
3/5
Some interesting grooves in this one but I’ve never really gotten into Portishead beyond some surface level enjoyment. I much prefer Beth Gibbons’ and Geoff Barrow’s more recent projects, but I appreciate where this is coming from and what a landmark album it is.
The The
4/5
Huge 80s sounding weirdness. I only know The The from some soundtrack work they’ve done that I’ve really enjoyed, but this was excellent. Can really hear the early signs of influence it’s had on modern artists like Geordie Greep. Yet another band I now have a full catalogue to go and check out, thanks generator.
Ozomatli
3/5
This album was a chore to listen to, having to piece together from random YouTube videos, some of which were just live recordings. I’m glad I did though, as this was a bizarre little mashup of a lot of different Latin music styles with some great rapping and hiphop beats laid over the top.
Ramones
3/5
Hugely influential for its time and stacked with the best songs The Ramones ever did. Not a great album to listen to as an album as all the songs kind of blend into one long power chord rhythm. Still a lot of fun though.
Iron Maiden
2/5
I’m not the biggest fan of Iron Maiden fan at the best of times, but I’m definitely not into pre Bruce Dickinson Maiden. There were some decent instrumentals across the album, but I just find their variety of metal quite dull and overblown.
Big Star
1/5
Ironic this album is called third, because it took me three days to finish it. Incredibly meandering and boring. I thought I liked Big Star, but clearly not.
Steely Dan
4/5
After not getting on that well with Pretzel Logic, this is more like the Steely Dan I know. A great album, some real fantastic loungey grooves and some wonderful thigh-slapping licks. Just classic dad music.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Bad Moon Rising doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. A perfectly fine album, and while I appreciate John Fogerty as a band leader, I can’t see me returning to this album. Good road trip music.
Fugazi
4/5
I got onto Fugazi a bit late as I was only familiar with the compilation 13 Songs I borrowed off of a friend’s brother after I professed my love for At The Drive-In. This album is great, and really put me on to the whole post-hardcore thing (whatever that genre definition means these days). Listening to it now that I play bass, I can really appreciate what the bass is doing and it’s making me want to learn some of these tracks. Great stuff.
The Blue Nile
3/5
A real mish-mash of sounds this. Like a cross between Talking Heads and Bowie’s 80s period, but not as good as either of them. Might grow on me with more listens, but as of now it’s just okay.
Guns N' Roses
2/5
Just bland nothing-rock of the sort dreaded coming across on this list. Heard all the singles before, the album tracks do nothing extra, just the sound of divorce.
Supertramp
3/5
I was always put off Supertramp as my only memory of them as a kid was an advert for their greatest hits voiced by Jeremy Clarkson, who proclaimed it was “proper music”. Understandably I thought it would be wank of the highest degree as a result so never listened to them. This was really up and down - some great pop ballads that reminded me of Elton John, mixed with some really annoying parts. Real middle of the road stuff.
Chicago
3/5
This album is insane. It’s all over the place and is so far removed from the soft rock monolith that the band would become. I can’t decide if I like it. The songs feel like sketches or demos, but there’s definitely some interesting stuff to be found here. This really is a strange curio of an album.
Bee Gees
2/5
Another pre-disco Bee Gees album that’s all over the place. This one was better than Trafalgar, but still went on too way long for the little good that was on here. It’s a shame there’s none of their later album on the list, because that stuff walks all over this.
Deep Purple
3/5
I went into this thinking it was going to be dull paint-by-numbers heavy rock. I was pleasantly surprised to find I actually enjoyed it. The guitar lines were fun, the vocals were excellent, and you could tell the band were just having a blast putting this together. Smoke On The Water is actually a pretty good song as well, despite my initial reservations.
Crowded House
3/5
I knew a few of these songs going in, but enjoyed this more than I thought. Some pleasant pop numbers, little flashes of Beatles and Fleetwood Mac vocal Melodies. Good stuff.
Garbage
3/5
Shirley Manson has a cracking voice, and I like a handful of Garbage songs, but they fall into that quite bland British rock vibe of the 90s that I don’t really gel with. This was completely fine, but didn’t make an impact.
Scissor Sisters
5/5
When my dad found out that Scissor Sisters had done a cover of Comfortably Numb, he declared it the worst thing to happen to music. As a contrarian 14 year old, I obviously had to insist it was actually great and that he just didn’t get it. As a result I bought this album (one of the first I can remember buying with my own money) and realised that there was actually some truth in what I had claimed. This album is brilliant. Pulling influence from the dancier side of Elton John and David Bowie, along with the New York Electronica scene that was making a rise at the time. I’m gutted I never saw them whilst Ana Matronic was still in the band, but their Glastonbury set from this year shows there still got the juice.
Radiohead
5/5
My favourite Radiohead album. Always loved the story of this apparently being made bad on purpose for them to get out of a record deal (has any band ever done thet legitimately?) because I’ve always thought it was brilliant. Moody and pushing far more into electronic synth soundscapes than their prior work, it’s aged wonderfully compared to my relisten of OK Computer for this list.
John Lee Hooker
2/5
Incredibly dull. Not bad, so gets more than one star, but this sort of blues guitar just leaves me cold. Fine in the right setting but I’m never choosing to listen to this.
Massive Attack
2/5
How is this on the list but Mezzanine isn’t? I’d not actually heard this album before, but I wasn’t missing much. Incredibly mid from a band that is capable of much better. Just nothing of note on here and was glad when it was over. Boring.
AC/DC
3/5
AC/DC are the quintessential bar band for me. If I hear them when I’m out drinking I’m guaranteed a good time. Expect this album not to land as well just listening in the house, but no I still had a great time with it.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
3/5
Hiphop of this era doesn’t usually do much for me (I can appreciate its roots rather than enjoy listening to it). This was really fun though, some cracking rhythm lines and while the MCing is kind of corny, it was still a fun time.
Flamin' Groovies
2/5
Shake Some Action is one of the best songs ever written so I had high hopes for this, but like a lot of other music from the time, the album started strong then fizzled into a bunch of standard covers. Merely fine, and exciting to hear someone say fuck on an album from 1971, but I won’t be returning to this any time soon.
Django Django
3/5
2012 was a weird year for British music. It felt dominated by Mumford & Sons and Jake Bugg; a real wave of boring twangy guitar/folk rock had washed over us unknowingly. Django Django fall into the more creative end of that sound, but it’s still a little too twangy for me, just with some quite rudimentary chiptune elements thrown in. There’s some good moments in this, but I feel there’s a reason this band made no impression on me initially; it’s all a little bland and calculated for my tastes.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
There are better Velvet Underground albums than this, and better Nico albums than this. Its influence cannot be denied, and as a project backed by Warhol it is the epitome of a ‘cool’ album. Trouble for me is, these are some of the VU’s weakest songs. There’s flashes of brilliance throughout (All Tomorrow’s Parties remains a favourite) but the songs here feel very basic compared to anything on Loaded or White Light / White Heat. Was nice to revisit this though, I probably haven’t listened to it in full for about ten years.
The Monkees
2/5
Was interesting to listen to the first Monkees album where they had any input into the song writing, but save for a few moments it’s kind of obvious that they weren’t great song writers to begin with. The bizarre soundscape of Zilch pushes this up a star, but otherwise it was quite derivative.
Kanye West
5/5
I was wondering which of Kanye’s three entries on the list I’d get first, and I couldn’t have asked for better than this.
Maximalist Kanye at his finest, this album has everything he has at his disposal thrown at it: unbelievable features, some of Kanye’s best production work ever, great poignant use of auto tune and vocoder, championing young talent, and actually great written verses by Kanye himself (fuck, remember those?). He felt like he still had something to say on this album, and it’s a strange experiencing listening to it now knowing how he destroyed his marriage and pushed away every single person that helped him make his magnum opus.
Runaway would deem this record a masterpiece on its own, but the intro through to All Of The Lights is a 10/10 experience. Monster used to be one of my favourite tracks but it’s waned on a repeat listen. The outro skit of Blame Game goes on a bit, and Devil In A New Dress is kind of boring. The outro of Lost In The World going into Gil Scott Heron’s Comment #1 for Who Will Survive In America draws this album to a perfect close.
I haven’t listened to Kanye in the longest time for obvious reasons. It’s hard to listen to this now with what he became. It’s a shame the man didn’t seek the help he so clearly needed and became an attention obsessed piece of shit, but it’s hard to deny the impact his pre-Pablo career had on me.
2/5
Can’t believe I had to listen to a full Oasis album…the things I do for this list. I’ve been unable to avoid the singles off this album so was familiar with them, and the rest of the album was more of the same. I just find them so bland. When music critic Simon Price said they have no fast rocking songs he was hounded for it, but he’s right! These songs plod along with no urgency or heart. The band were already a sort of religion in the UK and it’s been made even worse with the recent reunion. Seeing America pretend they always loved the band has just been bizarre knowing they famously flopped over there first time round. I just don’t get it man.
Fleetwood Mac
4/5
I always had it in my mind that Tusk was a bad album and its only good song was the title track. I was entirely wrong, this was great. I still think it doesn’t warrant being a double album, and feels a tad self-indulgent as a result, but there’s some great moments here and Christine McVie in particular really gets her chance to shine on this record. So yeah, it’s good. Tusk!
The Beta Band
3/5
The only person I know that likes The Beta Band is extremely annoying so I went into this with hesitation.
Turns out it was a ‘Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point’ moment, as this was actually pretty good. A bit meandering, but yeah some great songs on this thing.
The Crusaders
3/5
Slick and soulful, the musicianship on this album is superb, and Street Lights is a classic song. Got a little samey and drifted into the background when I wasn’t paying full attention to it, but yeah this is great chill party music.
Jimmy Smith
3/5
A decently fine album. Nothing necessarily wrong with it, just nice background music with a fun groove. Not an album I'd listen to again, but was pleasant enough while it lasted.
White Denim
3/5
I've seen White Denim (at a festival I think) and thought they were a great time. Not sure if I saw them play many songs rom this album (way too much beer was drank that weekend and its been years) but this didn't have the same oomph I remember from seeing them live.
Elliott Smith
5/5
I was walking home to my flat after a night out when it started pouring down. I ducked into a bar to get out of the rain and ended up catching the end of someone's open mic set. I was utterly captivated with the song I was hearing and having picked out some of the lyrics, I ran home before I would forget them (my phone was long out of battery). After a bit of drunk Googling at a stupid time of the morning, I learned that the song was called Needle In The Hay by some guy called Elliott Smith. I've been a diehard fan ever since that day (which I realise was 15 years ago now; christ I'm old).
While the self titled album will always be my favourite on the whole, Either/Or contains some of Elliott's best songs. Between The Bars is the closest he came to a true hit single, Angeles has the most covertly complex guitar work I've ever heard on an acoustic song, and Say Yes is a beautiful bittersweet closer with some rare hope for an Elliott Smith song. The man never released a bad song, and even the droves of unreleased work that has been "released" since his untimely passing has been better than most other bands' entire catalogues. Elliott with a true one of a kind, and it's my biggest regret that I found out about him too late, but his work continues to give so much, and with a huge quantity of live recordings from fans kicking about the Internet, thankfully there will always be plenty of his work to be listened to.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
I have a bit of a love hate relationship with The Flaming Lips. For every good thing they do, it feels like they release another five massively cringe projects. Yoshimi is up there with the best of their work though, and it was lovely to return to this album after so many years. It does get a little samey throughout the middle of the album, but the start and end are so strong, the album as a whole doesn't suffer for it.
I once had tickets to see The Flaming Lips play in a tiny local venue and was too ill to go. They still managed to squeeze in their full range of wacky inflatable bollocks into the room and it's one of my biggest gig regrets of all time.
Animal Collective
4/5
The music of Animal Collective is so alien but so unmistakably them I find it comforting. I prefer earlier stuff they did, but was happy for the commercial success they gained with this album. It’s good! It’s not Strawberry Jam but it’s still really good! I haven’t really kept up with the band on their last few releases, but I probably should because this reminded me how much I like them.
John Grant
3/5
I should love John Grant. His slower acoustic ballads land somewhere between Father John Misty and some of the more heartfelt Scissor Sisters songs, and are genuinely really good. But then he goes and injects a bunch of electronic production and produces some of the worst songs I’ve ever heard. And I like that kind of music usually, he’s just really bad at it. So yeah, much like every other John Grant album I’ve heard, I half loved and half hated this.
David Ackles
5/5
Wow, where has this album been all my life? I’ve never heard of David Ackles before which is a crying shame, as I’d put him right up there with Don McLean, Randy Numan, and Jimmy Webb in absolutely nailing that specific style of American storyteller music. Unlike those singers though, I sense a vain of darkness and oppression running deep within the songs on American Gothic, reminding me of some of Nick Cave’s better works. This album is magnificent, and for being rather sparse instrumentally, Ackles absolutely commands attention through his writing and voice. A magnificent album.
Solomon Burke
4/5
What a voice! Burke’s versions of some of these songs are the best I’ve ever heard. He should be a bigger name in soul up there with Otis Redding and Al Green, because this was excellent.
Judas Priest
4/5
Breaking The Law used to be on some metal compilation CD I had in my car back in college, and whenever it came on me and my friends would roll the windows down and point at people during the chorus. Stupid.
This album is great though. I’ve got a lot of time for Rob Halford, and he’s got one of the best voices in metal. This album sounds tight and runs along at a real pace. The drums are among the best sounding drums I’ve heard on a metal album as well; the sound engineer deserves all of the accolades. But yeah, a rare metal edition to the list that deserves to be on here.
Can
4/5
Can are just in a league of their own. They can lock into a groove and keep it going for eternity and I never get bored of it. Damo Suzuki is the band’s secret weapon though; his voice and singing style really elevate this music over any other krautrock band. Ege Bamyasi is my favourite Can album so it’s a shame to not see it on the list, but I enjoyed revisiting this one.
The White Stripes
5/5
I had tickets to see the White Stripes on what would have been their last UK tour, but they cancelled the tour and I never got the chance to see them.
I always liked the White Stripes’ earlier stuff, but this was the first time where they felt like a huge deal. The amount of bangers on this album is staggering. It’s not my favourite Stripes album (we’ll get to that eventually), but this is such a strong album all the way through whilst keeping as true to their garage rock roots as they ever got again.
Taylor Swift
4/5
I already liked this album, but it feels incredibly good coming off the back of listening to the dire The Life of a Showgirl that was released last week. This is my favourite TS album outside of the folklore/evermore period, and it’s great to listen to her doing some proper pop bangers from before she was *the* biggest star on the planet (don’t get me wrong, she was still hugely successful, but it felt like she still gave a shit about her work). I haven’t listened to Taylor’s Version of this album yet, so I’m going to give that a whirl after this, but yeah: great album that I’m sure every boring old bloke on this website has reviewed fairly and objectively…
Started listening to the Taylor’s Version of this album, and it’s just the exact same thing - I thought she might have mixed things up a bit and composed the songs a bit differently but no, so I binned that idea off.
The Beach Boys
3/5
Beautiful pop songs as would be expected from The Beach Boys. I find their pre-Pet Sounds stuff slightly one note though. Still lovely to listen to, but doesn’t have as much of a lasting impact.
Lana Del Rey
4/5
It’s utterly bizarre that between the 2018 and 2021 editions of the 1001 book, this album was chosen to be part of the list and not the superior in every way, Norman Fucking Rockwell!
Anyway, this album is still good. The delivery of the ‘down at the men in music business conference’ line from White Dress will never fail to make me laugh; it’s so weird, but I like it.
The title track is beautiful, and finds Lana really dialing up the faux-vintage vibe she’s known for with the vinyl crackle and reverb-laden vocals. The rest of the album follows these same production cues and makes for a really solid and cohesive project. There aren’t any big out-there decisions like ten minutes of Venice Bitch, but it’s solid from beginning to end carrying on Lana’s incredibly strong run of albums.
LCD Soundsystem
5/5
This album came out when I was 16 and was basically the soundtrack to every awful Skins-aping parting I went to at the time. An incredible album and LCD Soundsystem at their peak. All My Friends is up there with the all time greatest songs, and is certainly the song of my generation for that time. The rest of the album is no slouch either; LCD albums all feel like they have just one or two too many filler tracks, but this one has no fat on it at all - from front to back it goes hard and doesn’t stop until the final track where you finally get a chance to catch your breath.
Frank Zappa
5/5
One of my IT teachers would always play The Mothers Of Invention album Weasels Ripped My Flesh in class. It was weird, I don’t think I knew if I liked it, but it made a huge impression on me at the age of 15 that the name Frank Zappa was branded into my brain for a time where I would seek out my own taste in music. Years later, when I had started collecting vinyl records (of course) I bought a copy of Hot Rats for £4 before the price of vinyl got stupid. The striking pink and white of the cover along with the bizarre photo of Frank Zappa looming out of that pool let me know I was in for a wild ride. Every song on this album rocks so much. It’s a jam record, it’s jazz, it’s garage rock, it’s all of music at once but also its own thing. Listening to it this time I still found it utterly exhilarating, and listened to it all again as soon as it finished. A wonderful record.
Adele
3/5
Laptop? What?
This is the soundtrack of days out with my parents. They still have a CD changer in their car and I’m pretty sure four of the five trays are taken up by Adele albums. I went into this ready to roll my eyes, but she actually is a very good singer. Not as many hits on this album as on her others, but if you don’t think she has an incredible voice you’re just lying for the sake of it.
Little Richard
3/5
It’s Little Richard. It’s fun. It’s old. It’s got a real groove. Man was a born performer and we owe him a ton. To listen to now, this is a little dated, but it still gets you moving.
Dirty Projectors
5/5
Can’t quite remember how I first came to listen to this album, but it’s been a firm favourite of mine since it was released. At the time, I hadn’t heard anything really like it. It had that ramshackle naughties sound but way more eccentric than the likes of Arcade Fire and even Animal Collective. It still sounds as fresh as hell. Even though I had listened to it only last week, I was still really happy to have a reason to listen to it again.
The Shamen
1/5
Absolutely dreadful. Just the complete opposite of what I like. Boring and repetitive instrumentals, awful 90s production, and lazy vocals. I really tried to find the redeeming quality in this, but this is the worst album I’ve heard on this list so far.
Leonard Cohen
2/5
Leonard Cohen is someone I should like a lot more than I do. I *appreciate* him more than like him. He was a brilliant lyricist and by rights should have won the Nobel Prize over Dylan if they had to award it to a musician. I just find his actual music to be so dour and repetitive, I feel I’d have a better experience just reading his lyrics as a form of poetry rather than listening to a man struggle to perform them.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
Better than the previous Leonard Cohen albums I’ve listened to (I think having a huskier, Tom Waits voice suits his songs more). Still, musically all his songs sounds like the demo buttons on a keyboard and while he’s definitely a great writer, I can’t way I’m swayed by his music. This album does have a closeness and intimacy that raises it above the others for me.
AC/DC
3/5
Another classic bunch of AC/DC bangers. Hadn’t heard most of the songs on this album before, but of course I had heard them before because they all sound the same. A great if predictable time.
Bad Brains
4/5
Bad Brains fucking rock, I don’t listen to them nearly enough. You forget how dripping with riffs their music is, this goes metal, jazz, funk, new wave, the lot. The current wave of post-punk bands owe a ton to these lads. Not my Bad Brains album of choice, but really enjoyed listening to this.
CHIC
3/5
Some iconic guitar and bass licks on this thing, had a real good time listening to this one. Chic are quite weak vocally though, and ‘At Last I Am Free’ is too long of a slow ballad and really drags the album down.
The 13th Floor Elevators
2/5
Yet another shitty 60s psyche album. This was one of the better ones I’ve listened to but it was still an ordeal to get through.
Moby Grape
4/5
Surprisingly great. These lads could write some cracking melodies, and some of the instrumentals were very Beatles-esque. Dreadful band name that has put me off listening to them before, but yeah I’m glad I got to hear this.
Method Man
3/5
This album was decent, and Method Man is one of the best solo members of Wu-Tang. I still feel that each member on their own is nowhere near as good as the Clan together, and this isn’t among the better solo projects of the members.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
The best Zeppelin album? Definitely the best of the numbered albums. This album sounds a lot darker and angrier than a lot of their other stuff and I’m all for it. Since I’ve Been Loving You is probably my favourite Zeppelin song, and I could easily listen to a 20 minute version of it. Solid stuff.
The Monks
3/5
It’s seemingly impossible to listen to this album on streaming services at the moment, so I’ve just listened to whatever songs of theirs I could find. A really interesting band, and you can tell how The Doors were hugely influenced by them. It’s a shame I can’t find a way to listen to this album, but from the one random compilation that seems to be on YouTube, these guys are pretty fun.
Ice T
4/5
I’m really not into the gangsta rap of this period so I expected this to be a 2 star album, but this was great. I thought the hour plus run time would be a chore but I breezed through it. There’s an incredible range of stuff here and you forget Ice T is actually a great rapper. Even the skits weren’t dreadful! A real surprise this one.
The Who
2/5
I’ve come to learn I really can’t stand The Who from doing this list. They’re a decent singles band, but Jesus this album fucking sucks. I love a long overwrought concept album but this was bloody awful. I can’t believe it’s held in such high regard.
Christina Aguilera
3/5
What a time capsule. I forgot this album has so many bangers on it. It’s unfortunately plagued with the trend at the time of filling every spare second of a CD, and it really drags this one down. Christina was always my favourite of the pop girlies of the era so it’s a shame this is her only album on the list, but yeah you can’t deny she’s got a cracking voice and this album has a ton of range.
The Allman Brothers Band
2/5
A live Allman Brothers Band, what a chore! Honestly what is this doing here? Whether this show has some historic significance I don’t know, but as an album it was just boring. Really meandering with the same guitar lick played again and again. Not for me.
David Bowie
3/5
One of my least favourite Bowie albums from his good period. A short album that still feels like it drags. Really no standout Bowie songs here and I actively dislike Golden Years. He’s got like 8 other albums on this list, I could have done without this one.
Depeche Mode
4/5
Never really considered myself much of a Depeche Mode fan, but after listening to this album I now get it. I enjoyed how sparse a lot of the songs sound at first before layering up the synths and drum machines until they became something quite spectacular.
3/5
This album has such a wild drop off. It opens so strongly that after the first four tracks I was certain I was going to give it 5 stars. I forgot about the really quite bad middle portion of this album. Knights Of Cydonia pulls it back a bit, but it still never really recovers.
Shame this is the only Muse album on the list. At the time they felt like the biggest band on the planet, and I’d have much preferred listening to Absolution or Origin Of Symmetry again.
Brian Eno
4/5
Outside of his work with Roxy Music and his ambient stuff I’m not really familiar with much of Eno’s work. This was a wild ride! I recognised some of the tracks here, but it felt all over the place in an exciting way. I could have guessed that Robert Fripp lent a hand with the guitar on this album, it rips.
Kanye West
5/5
Trying to listen to Kanye objectively is kind of hard as this album is still a stone cold classic to me and landed at such a pivotal time in my life I can’t help but still love it. Listening to how passionate he was about his craft on this album is painful knowing where he’s at now. Some of Kanye’s best production work can be found on this album, it still hits incredibly hard. Once again, could do without so many skits but otherwise there’s not a dropped beat on this whole thing.
It’s no surprise that since he became a huge piece of shit his music has also become some of the worst stuff I’ve ever heard. I don’t recognise the 50 year old edgelord racist prick he is now, but I lament the loss of this young and hungry 27 year old.
Coldcut
3/5
Saw the genre notes for this and thought I was going to hate it, but it has more in common with something like The Avalanches, and the beats on this were actually interesting. So yeah, pleasantly surprised.
Dinosaur Jr.
4/5
Dinosaur Jr. are up there with the band I’ve seen play live the most. I got into them in their more modern era from Beyond onwards, so prefer their cleaner studio recordings over the older stuff. Still, this has to be the best of their lo-fi era with some of their all time best songs to be found on this record. My old band used to play a cover of their version of Just Like Heaven so listening to that again brought back some great memories.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
I know it’s a trope of this list that there are too many Elvis Costello albums, but the ones I’ve had so far have really landed (I may not be saying that in 8 albums time mind you). As a band leader, he really knows how to put out a cracking album. This one had a lovely mix of slower emotional tracks and more upbeat stuff. Yeah, not ground breaking, but solid stuff.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
Smithers, have The Rolling Stones killed.
I think I hate The Rolling Stones. They’re such a great singles band: Gimme Shelter that opens this album is such a good song, but the 8 tracks that follow are so so bad. They’re sound phoned in as hell, just really boring blues riffs and lazy yelps from Jagger. Just an awful time.
Dwight Yoakam
3/5
Trad’ 80s country. The instruments all sound plastic and hollow, and the songs plod along at a regular pace. Still, some toes were tapped during the listening of this album.
Röyksopp
1/5
Truly dire. Weirdly, it’s actually impressive to make electronic music this boring. Just entirely frictionless and with no emotional feeling at all.
Fela Kuti
3/5
Fela Kuti is at his best when playing live. Classic afrobeat stuff, long but never outstays its welcome. The only thing that does go on a bit is the Ginger Baker drum solo, a musical phenomenon I’ve never really had time for.
The Young Rascals
3/5
Thought I was going to hate this, but this ended up being alright. There’s a lot more to this than just the bad Beach Boys pastiche I expected.
Beth Orton
3/5
Generally just quite nice singer-songwriter stuff. Not sure why it’s on this list, but it’s pleasant enough.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
2/5
The Jesus And Mary Chain are one of the most overrated bands I’ve had the misfortune of seeing live. Thankfully it was at a festival and I could go watch something else. Just boring as hell, and I’ve no idea why they’re held in such high regard.
Elvis Costello
3/5
Some flashes of great songwriting on here, but as a debut it still feels a little rough around the edges in places. Not Costello’s best outing, but not bad.
Queen
2/5
As far as I know I’ve never listened to a Queen album track before but am obviously familiar with their singles. I’ve always found them to be incredibly dull and a real shame that someone with the voice of Freddie Mercury was wasted on such a boring band. This album doesn’t really change my mind, and doesn’t have a single banger on it.
Hanoi Rocks
4/5
From and album cover and name of the band I thought this was going to be some awful 80s synth thing, but this was actually great. Was always on the verge of going full cheese, but this was just a really fun album to listen to. Surprisingly great bass lines on this one.
Fleet Foxes
2/5
The worst of that wave of mid 2000s folk revival we had to endure. Just feels incredibly phoned in and without any real heart at all. I’m glad Father John Misty jumped this ship when he did.
Tom Waits
5/5
The quintessential early Tom Waits experience. It was a stroke of genius to put out a manufactured live recording so early into his career. The life and energy wheezing through this album, you can almost smell the cheap cigarette smoke. Wait’s drunk poet character is at its best here. I prefer his later more experimental records, but this album nails the tortured lounge jazz artist thing so perfectly, it’s always a joy to listen to this through in full.
Gillian Welch
4/5
Very pretty sparse country music, and Gillian Welch delivers great playing and singing to make for an album way more engaging than it should be.
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
3/5
An interesting curio compared to the Moby Grape album I had a few weeks ago. Reminded me a bit of Syd Barrett’s solo stuff after he left Pink Floyd, or some of Nick Drake’s work. This album is way too long though and outstayed its welcome about half way through. As his sole solo album I get he maybe just wanted to get it all out there at once though.
Pink Floyd
5/5
…we came in?
This album is so important to me. It’s the first album I can ever remember hearing: My dad is a big Pink Floyd fan and I vividly remember the minimal album sleeve on a shelf at home; no writing just white bricks covering the whole thing until the gatefold was opened and I saw Gerald Scarfe’s mad illustrations. I remember my dad playing this album when I was really young, but can’t recall what impression it left, if any. Fast forward to my early teenage years where I’m starting to form my own music tastes, I come across this album again and actually listen to it this time. It’s so different to the pop punk and metal I’d usually listen to on MTV2 and Kerrang tv channels. This album was dramatic, it was rich in its storytelling, it was long as hell. The Wall was unlike anything I’d ever heard, and so it became the catalyst in me going back and listening to music that had come before me, and to truly try and discover new types of music. I have quite a varied taste, and I put it all down to hearing this album at such a formitive time in my life. My first tattoo was an image from The Wall, this album is and will always be a big deal for me.
It’s not even my favourite Pink Floyd album. There’s moments in it that even I roll my eyes at now for how melodramatic and pretentious they are. Roger Waters gets a bad rap, but nobody else could have made this album and I think it just proves how important he is to the Pink Floyd sound (look where we end up without him, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason indeed). Isn’t this where…
4/5
Electric, exciting, and very New York. I dig this, but do get why it has such a low score on the site and how people would find it challenging. I think it’s a great indication that music can be anything, and by disregarding any imposed rules or structure it can lead to a very freeing creating process.
Suede
3/5
Suede are among the better of the britpop bands of the era, and there were moments of this I was into. It wasn’t really my thing though, but can appreciate that’s my issue and this is a good album.
Iron Maiden
3/5
There’s elements of Iron Maiden I can really appreciate. I think Bruce has a fucking phenomenal voice for this music, and Steve Harris is one of the best rock bass players of all time. Saying that, I find their output so dull. They have some great singles, but to listen to a whole album of this stuff is tough going.
Bert Jansch
4/5
I can hear the influences of a lot of singer songwriters in this album, Elliott Smith especially. Bert has quite a haunting voice that adds an edge to these folk songs, and his guitar work is very textured and exciting.
Elliott Smith
5/5
When I really got into Elliott Smith I gravitated towards the lo-fi acoustic stuff, so I didn’t really give XO or Figure 8 a fair go and dismissed them as not being the Elliott I liked. I’ve since overcome that stupid opinion and realised that this album contains some of his best songs. It’s bittersweet that this would be the last true album we would get from him while he was alive, because I’d have really loved to have seen where he’d take his sound next. One of the greatest to ever do it.
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Had a better time with this than I expected. Ali Farka Touré seemed like a really chill dude and that ended up colouring his playing. A nice duet album with Ry Cooder that gave the songs some extra oomph. Good stuff.
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
I either find Sufjan unbearably twee or beautifully poignant. This album is more in the latter camp with some superb songs. The run time outstays its welcome a bit, and there are a few eye roll moments on the album, but amongst all that is a collection of wonderfully sad songs that I can always listen to.
Queen
2/5
Really trying to find something about it Queen to like, but they just sound so boring. I really don’t get why they got massive.
Traffic
3/5
Like an amalgamation of several bands, but doesn’t feel like they’re doing anything truly their own. I enjoy the little stabs of organ that took a lot of these songs up a notch for me. Decent, can imagine jamming along to this in the car on a road trip.
Van Halen
1/5
The worst of really over-produced American hard rock. It all just sounds so phoney and soulless. Hate it.
Deep Purple
3/5
I’d written off Deep Purple but this is the second of their albums I’ve had on this list that is pretty great for what it’s doing. Hadn’t heard any of these songs before, but this was a good time.
3/5
Really not a PJ Harvey fan, but this is probably my favourite record of hers if I had to pick one. She has an air of sincerity on this album that makes it more bearable compared to her earlier work.
Simple Minds
2/5
Oh no, this isn’t for me. I’ve heard a couple of Simple Minds songs and thought they were okay but this is 80s to the point of being nauseating
Michael Jackson
4/5
Before I was old enough to really know what music was I was really into Michael Jackson’s music (I’m not saying I was really into Michael Jackson, behave). There’s lots of footage of me as a child singing along to songs off of Off The Wall. I have a long term memory of every song on this album, so listening to it again was a nice trip down memory lane. His musical chops can’t be denied, and some of the greatest pop songs of all time can be found on this album. There’s one or two duffers, but this is such a solid album I’ll be listening to it again soon.
Billy Bragg
4/5
A wonderful album this. I’m not the biggest Wilco guy, but they really add to Billy Bragg’s sound here. I do prefer the tracks where he’s singing though, something about his delivery always stirs an emotional response from me.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were such a big deal when I was younger, and I remember really liking this album back then, but time has not been kind to it. There’s still a few standouts on here, but the majority of the album sounds quite boring and dated now.
Lorde
3/5
I’m one of those sickos that prefers Lorde’s more recent albums, but Melodrama is still great. There’s a sincerity to her writing that saves a lot of her songs from being cheesy. Great pop music, and always someone who delivers
Pixies
5/5
Pixies have tipped over into Weezer territory for me now where they’ve released more bad albums than good, but their early run can’t be beat. This album is such a perfect slice of the best alt rock of the period, with songs destined to be covered by pub bands forever. Cracking.
Charles Mingus
5/5
My favourite album from my favourite jazz conductor. The journey you’re taken on by Mingus through the three movements of this album are unlike any other jazz album I’ve heard. They’re cinematic, they’re dramatic, they’re a showcase for everything brilliant that Mingus ever achieved. Just unmatched in the genre and one of my favourite ever albums.