I adore this album. There was a point somewhere in history where I could play every guitar part on this album because I was just obsessively listening to it. The last few songs aren't as strong as the rest of the album which is the only thing keeping this away from a 5 for me. Great album, love Jack, hope we see him again on here.

I have never purposefully listened to this band or Janis before, here we go. This is a very solid blues/psych rock album honestly. Not what I would go for in casual listening but I definitely see the appeal and why this is on the list. Janis definitely takes a minute to get used to but she is a phenomenal vocalist. The marge simpson comparison is apt. The piece of my heart cover is iconic if not only because of that 30 rock episode where they make fun of it. I don't know man I like this album. I just gave blunderbuss, a clearly better album a 4, but this is like the lowest four I can give.

In the words of Jeremy Bolm, I’ll go to L. Cohen to answer my questions cause Ian Curtis was dead. Truly powerful album, just a man dying on a mic. Introspective, scary, and celebratory idk it's the ideal album to come out 17 days before you die.

Alright this is wonderful but I got bored during the first half of it. Let’s go crazy rules and the when doves cry to purple rain run is phenomenal. Everything after let’s go crazy but before doves sounds like it exists solely for the accompanying movie. Great movie though.

Preemptive review - I love this album and it’s getting a 5 before I even listen to it. Actual review, this might be the best full synth-pop/new wave album of all time. Unbelievable song writing, arrangements, and mixing. Im really in awe of how they got the mix to sound how it does. The first four songs are incredibly strong. I believe is the first part of this album that starts to lose interest but I can’t deny it, for I am a Virgo too. The energy is immediately picked up by broken, which is a perfect intro into head over heels, the best song on the album. Listen is a perfect soundscape anti Cold War protest song album closer if one ever did exist. Im going to call Liam’s mom to talk about this album, my mom was more into INXS.

This is a perfect example of something that I’m sure in the right context/setting is great but that context is not at my desk while I’m playing pokemon. Very cool to see where drum and bass originated but thank god artists have been able to make it significantly more interesting as time has gone on. State of mind was great, the sensual vip mix is a crazy track name but also pretty good. One positive is the album does a great job dropping in motifs throughout the mix and call backs to 45 droning minutes ago. Not my thing but a good history lesson.

This is a great reminder that The Smiths really don't do it for me. The album starts of great with A Rush but then takes a nosedive into some of the most average songs to come out of this band. It turns around with Last Night I Dreamt Someone Love Me (a song that would be better without its 2 minute intro) but is immediately followed by one of the worst lyrically written songs I've ever heard in Unhappy Birthday. "I've come to wish you an unhappy birthday because you're evil and you lie" followed by "It should be this way? I say No, I'm gonna kill my dog" The last three tracks amp back up to an enjoyable listening experience but leave me teetering between a 2 and a 3. I'm landing on a 2 because I Won't Share You reminded me that I'd much rather be listening to REM's Document that came out the same year and is infinitely better.

This is that kind of album that my dad puts on and goes "shit my dad loved this shut up and listen" and he is correct. Eric Clapton as a person aside, this album is so tight. Vocally, harmony-ly, guitarly, what have you all solid. Even the self indulgent guitar parts manage to be interesting almost all the way through (Key to the highway and Have You Ever Loved a Woman excluded). Solid version of Little Wing, and of course Layla rules but could be 2 minutes shorter. Not necessarily something I would seek out to listen to but a very comfortable sound.

This shit rules. Songs to listen to with my grandmother.

This band has been highly recommended to me for years by a friend from college who was homeschooled and in private cello lessons since he was 3. The first four tracks didn’t do a lot for me on first listen but for whatever reason Two Doves was a turning point that I really enjoyed. It made me realize they’re capable of more than I was giving this album credit for. I let it run and loop back after that and really loved the first four tracks too. Maybe a real grower of an album, I will definitely be returning to it.

Perhaps not for my grandmother but this is another example of shit rules. Such a sick album to come out when it did. This is close to my brand of 80's "post-punk". I remember listening to this in high school bc Tanner made me and thinking eh but since becoming an REM fanboy this really stands out more clearly as a great album. Gary's Got a Boner is so good. I'm happy the list made me relisten to this as I will continue to relisten to this.

I can't express the how genuine the "fuck yes" that escaped my body when this album popped up after submitting yesterday's review was. Linkin Park is one of those bands that was everything to me in like 2006 but has not aged along with me; I'm guilty of immediately skipping any time one of their songs come on because I just don't need to hear In the End for the 2823rd time in my life. That being said, just a phenomenal album all the way through. Is it cringe? Is it shit rap rock? Is it everything I love to make fun of? Yes, but goddammit if these songs don't slap harder than anything else. I'm ecstatic I had to hear "FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM" today as an assignment. With You and By Myself are low points compared to the rest of the album. I think Cure for the Itch is a solid instrumental but doesn't have much replay value. The only criticism I really have is I think the track order could have been better; it's confusing to end on the only instrumental track followed by an average tier song. In closing, if you've never seen Luckybucket's RSMV (Runescape Music Video) for In the End that is required viewing to cap off the day of listening to this album. Since I can't go 4.5 I will skew up to 5 because I think it's deserving of that.

Is this an album you need to listen to before you die? No. Is it great? Kinda. It runs the same thing all 90's electronic music does where it's unnecessarily self indulgent and long, but a lot of the sound design here is great. The album feels like a long primer for Are We Here? a song that I think outlives this project as it comes up in all electronic music textbooks at this point. I really enjoyed the Alison Goldfrapp contributions and I suspect that we'll get an album or two of Goldfrapp eventually which I'm excited for. In all, a good listening experience and sound design but not something I'll return too unless I'm really in the mood for it. There's better drum and bass on here than on the goldie album. Sorry that I'm a linkin park enjoyer I will do better.

I've meant to relisten to this album, I don't think I've heard it since maybe 2012. Intro is cool. VCR is cute and great. Crystalized is a really great song immediately followed by Islands which is just as strong. If it was just these four songs it would be a 4/5. The album starts to nosedive a little after Islands for me with each track progressively getting worse. The MIDI harp on Heart Skipped a Beat hurt me. Fantasy is a great idea but a bit of a snoozer, I'm sure it's stronger live. Shelter rights the ship slightly but there is only so much Direct In Reverb Guitar I can take and it never really reaches the climax it was building to. Basic space gave me false hope again that they were going to pick it up but nah. Infinity did bring an improvement finally, though those claps were infuriating. The melody is the same as Party All The Time by Eddie Murphy. Night Time is like a good attempt at making a band focussed Crystal Castles song, I liked that. Stars is another song that I want to like but the idea is so stretched out that it's difficult. I think if I listened to this album nonstop all day I would come around to like it, it definitely needs to grow on you. There is a lot to like about the songwriting on this. I often see people cite The XX as a gateway to Dreampop which I did not understand listening back to this. I don't think Cocteau Twins or Loveliescrushing is going to magically make sense to you after listening to this if it didn't before. I think the main appeal of Dreampop's lofi sound is that there is such strong intentionality and production behind those bands where this xx album feels like they just didn't know how to record and instead of learning to mix they called it lofi. I'm probably being too harsh, it can take this light 3 and we can move on.

Our first of I assume 57 Bowie albums finally hit. As a lifelong Bowie indifferent person, this is was a great experience. God this album is so strong. The first two tracks are great, and then the Iggy Pop collab just runs away with it. I don't love Sound and Vision, Always crashing is a little sleepy but really solid, and Be my wife rules. Such a beautiful shift on A new Career where the rest of the album went almost fully ambient. It's so good. I love you, Brian Eno. Those ambient tracks are so good oh my god. I think sort of disliking one song makes this a 5, right?

White man review here, white man reviewing! My dad put this album on our family shared iPod when I was like 6 and that was the earliest I heard it and I listen to it maybe every couple years. I have been told by Mr Lamar that this is an excellent cultural representation of the west coast at that time, but I am not here to speak on that. I am here to say musically this album is incredible. The beats, sampling, and playing on it are mind-blowing honestly. Dr Dre as a producer, true chef's kiss moment. What I love most about Dre solo albums is he lets other people really shine. Snoop is the obvious star of this album. The fact that this album is cited as so culturally important, musically impressive, and doesn't take itself seriously at all are all very impressive. I do have to comment on how misogynistic this album is and how hard it is to get into when he's just spouting hate/violence towards women and gay people. Snoop makes an interesting argument for this that they're just rapping about what they know and that's what they knew growing up but that's the easy way out of not addressing the issues with the lyrics. I don't think anyone needs to apologize for rapping about their life experiences or what they're about within reason, but I don't need to agree with it. That aspect of this album has really aged horribly. Lyrics aside, I'm really enjoying this whole project. Also huge shout out to the dude who reviewed this album a 1 and said this album decimated the neighborhood of Salisbury, Midlothian, Va when it came out. I grew up in the neighborhood truly right next to it, just a life changing review please go seek it out.

Imagine if Wham! sucked ass. The word girl was painfully boring. I was begging for small talk to end. Absolute finally has a cool instrumental but is 20 years long. Right back to boring for a little knowledge. Don't Work That Hard at ripping Prince off, am I right? Perfect way is listenable but again, 5 minutes? Lover to Fall asleep, am I right? Wood Beez is alright but I feel like I'm truly trapped in hell at this point. Hypnotize is fine and perhaps the only song that didn't feel like it overstayed its welcome. I hope I never have to hear anything on this album ever again. Garbage.

Really trying to stare another electronic album in the face and get through it right now. All I can really say is I'm sure this went hard in a club in 1995 but it's 30 years later now and we have the Macarena. Song of Life and Original were pretty good. This album is another example of the purgatory of drum loop torture that this list seems to love.

#1 Steely Dan apologist right here. Bought this in a used bin freshman year of high school and never looked back. Potentially the most pretentious band of all time but I'll be damned if Do It Again doesn't slap. Do It Again unironically domino effected me studying music composition in college and led me down the demon path of AV, all thanks to the steam powered dildo. The hits on this album hit and the fodder are all fun. I won't lie and say they're all incredible, but I love this album all the way through.

I don’t love the Beatles, I have never been a fan. I understand their impact, I understand it’s pretentious to write off the fucking Beatles, but that’s where I am. It’s good but it sounds like children’s tv show music so often. In my life is a great song. Great song writing, amazing harmonies, just really not for me. I like them more at the beginning and end of their career than this point. I’ll give a strong 3.

I went into this ready to hate it but I am so surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Is this what they mean when they say country used to be good? Dude’s got strong one liners, great stories, and really hates the Vietnam war. Sam Stone is one of the most devastating songs I’ve ever heard. The instrumentals aren’t amazing but they’re exactly what this needs. A perfect example of an album you need to hear before you die, especially if you wouldn’t have otherwise like I wouldn’t have.

Really solid musicians and good songs but just boring. Nothing really stood out to me as a gotta come back and listen to this. Somebody to love maybe. More a single you need to hear before you die, not an album.

Bruce if he was terrible. So sparse, so boring. Appreciate his outspoken socialist views, wish he was better at making music. He’s got back to back shows at tin pan in Richmond coming up, might have to add a rule that if the list subjects me to an album I have to go see the artist if they’re in town.

There are parts of this that slap and there are parts of this that are so boring I wanted to quit. Questions 67 and 68, a slap. Free Form Guitar, legitimate torture material. The skill of the group is undeniable, Terry Kath is absolutely one of the greatest guitar players to ever live, but the songs ain't really doing it for me. This is the most 3 star rating I can give.

I guess I wasn’t ready for this yet when it came out. This is a densely textured nightmare of sound in a very positive way, a really cool predecessor to the sick computer music that is still coming out now. I can’t believe this was made in 2007 on Logic. It’s not all hits, there are some misses on here but the aesthetic choices are so sick that it saves it. Shout out paper planes of course.

Man, that is some jazz music. Compositional wonder, amazing playing, incredible piece of art.

This album starts playing the moment you enter Fredericksburg. Billy Gibbons is such a solid guitar player and riff crafter, but damn if the lyrical content doesn’t suck. Almost every single song on here is about bangin women and how hot women are but they won’t let me hit sometimes so I gotta jerk. Tv Dinners is at least funny simply in that it’s not about that. Hand the instrumentals to Steve Earle and we solve everything wrong with both bands, might even have a 4 on our hands. 8 out of 11 of the songs had a fade out on a guitar solo, just play the one and end the song man. Overall really disappointed, waste of great guitar.

This album does a lot with only a 28 minute run time. I didn’t grow up with these boys, this is my first time purposefully listening to music of theirs other than sound of silence. Good writing, fun instrumentals, I get it. It makes full sense to me that this came out the same year as revolver and pet sounds. I don’t think I’ll come back to much if any of this album but it is deserving of the list.

Hard for me to get into a trumpet/flugelhorn driven jazz album. Obviously, the musicianship is top tier and those chord changes are incredible. I found myself often wishing that this was a solo piano album as my boy Larry Willis was really holding down my interest in this album single handedly. Inner Crisis immediately stood out to me as sick and if you look up the writers, who wrote it? Larry Willis. Minawa also sticks out as killer with it's piano intro, maybe I just only like Jazz piano. The drums on Blues for Huey are incredible and the outro piece ties the album together while really demanding that you focus on it in the end. I do think this falls onto this list well, I just wish I was sitting with every Jazz instructor I've ever had so they can explain the nuances of it to me.

Listen, this isn’t devoid of musical value. It sounds so much like a parody of the 50s that I can’t tell if that makes it a good love letter or if it’s an insult to how easy it is to make music that sounds like this. I understand that it was common for artists to cover other artists all over the place, but there’s not a single song on here that Dusty is either the original songwriter or even performer of. For that reason alone I don’t think this deserves to be on this list. Easy listening, great vocalist, but artistically next to nothing of value. I want to slap this with a 1 but I think that’s too harsh, this 2 is a 1.5. That mockingbird cover was doodoo.