212
Albums Rated
3.08
Average Rating
19%
Complete
877 albums remaining
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1960s
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Top Origin
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Rater Style ?
21
5-Star Albums
11
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
John Lennon
|
5 | 3.24 | +1.76 |
|
Horses
Patti Smith
|
5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
|
It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Public Enemy
|
5 | 3.37 | +1.63 |
|
Get Behind Me Satan
The White Stripes
|
5 | 3.41 | +1.59 |
|
Dirt
Alice In Chains
|
5 | 3.47 | +1.53 |
|
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
|
5 | 3.5 | +1.5 |
|
1984
Van Halen
|
5 | 3.51 | +1.49 |
|
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Flaming Lips
|
5 | 3.57 | +1.43 |
|
Ramones
Ramones
|
5 | 3.58 | +1.42 |
|
Exile On Main Street
The Rolling Stones
|
5 | 3.61 | +1.39 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Atomic Mr Basie
Count Basie & His Orchestra
|
1 | 3.5 | -2.5 |
|
Surf's Up
The Beach Boys
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
Celebrity Skin
Hole
|
1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
|
Cross
Justice
|
1 | 3.27 | -2.27 |
|
Sheet Music
10cc
|
1 | 2.96 | -1.96 |
|
Rapture
Anita Baker
|
1 | 2.94 | -1.94 |
|
Time Out
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
|
2 | 3.84 | -1.84 |
|
Chris
Christine and the Queens
|
1 | 2.82 | -1.82 |
|
Parallel Lines
Blondie
|
2 | 3.76 | -1.76 |
|
Atomizer
Big Black
|
1 | 2.72 | -1.72 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Jimi Hendrix | 2 | 5 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| The Beach Boys | 2 | 1.5 |
5-Star Albums (21)
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Popular Reviews
The Verve
2/5
Pre-listening: This album prompts an interesting question: what do you think is the single song you have heard the most in your life without ever hearing another track from its album? Because I think this one would be in the running for me (at least until today.)
Listening: I would probably like Bittersweet Symphony more if it weren't played repeatedly at UT football games. It's obviously a catchy tune though. And I am reading the lyrics while listening and laughing that despite nearly 30 years of repeated listening I had NO IDEA some of these verses/words were in this song. Now for the rest of the album: This second song almost sounds like Tom Petty. Third song: sounds like Oasis. Losing interest... This fourth song sounds like something somebody would sing at a Scott Weiland tribute concert. Meh... OK, I'm starting to understand why I never heard another track off this album. I ABSOLUTELY did not need to hear this before I die.
2 likes
The Soft Boys
3/5
The only things I recognize from this album are the names Soft Boys and Robyn Hitchcock, and the opening track which Uncle Tupelo covered but I never could have told you who played the original. That song sounds like punk to me, like something the Stooges would have written. The rest of this sounds like a mix between Elvis Costello and early R.E.M. It also kind of reminds me of the only Hawkwind song I'm really familiar with ("Silver Machine.") The Apple Music description of this ("The sound of the Soft Boys is the sound of 80s college rock before its time") is pretty spot-on. These guys missed MTV by just a few years. This music would have fit right in with the early videos I remember. I really like track 6 ("Tonight.") It's kind of funny that the same dude who wrote "Walking on Sunshine" also co-wrote "Old Pervert."
2 likes
Mekons
2/5
So I have never really explored the Mekons, but a band I loved in high school - Too Much Joy - had a song called "If I Was a Mekon" and it made me curious about them. What little I had heard before today didn't do much for me so I didn't go any farther. This will be a good opportunity for me to give them a proper chance.
Listening now, and on paper this sounds like something I SHOULD really like - it has rock, country(ish), and punk(ish) elements, which is what features in a lot of the new music I like today. But I think it's the vocals that bother me. And the production sounds very 1985/flat/muted to me. I've read that this band was great live and I bet they were, but this particular studio work doesn't do it for me. I got all the way to track 9 ("Last Dance") before I thought, "OK, I like this one."
1 likes
1-Star Albums (11)
All Ratings
Cream
3/5
I give this one three stars (out of five) and one of those stars is for Sunshine of Your Love being used so well by Scorcese. Never been a big Cream fan.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
One of my all-time favorites, easy 5 stars. There was a considerable period of time when this was my favorite Hendrix album. I wore this thing out from about 1995 through 1998ish. It may just be my computer speakers but the production sounds worse than I remember it being.
The White Stripes
5/5
10/10, no notes.
Bob Dylan
5/5
I suspect there will be several albums like this that I really don't need to listen because I already know it by heart, but I am listening anyway. So, so good. This may force me to adjust my ratings from this point forward. I of course loved Get Behind Me Satan but it seems silly to give it the same rating as Highway 61. I may need to save my 5-stars for the true classics.
Keith Jarrett
3/5
This is fine. I think that I am going to give a 3 to all albums that don't really do much for me but are clearly from a genre that I am just not into. It did grow on me though. And I enjoyed reading the Wikipedia page about Jarrett and learning what an important figure he is. (He's still alive! He sued Steely Dan! He was referenced by Steve Buscemi's character in a Sopranos episode!) The album having 45 seconds of clapping at the end seemed unnecessary.
Dusty Springfield
3/5
I've never heard this album other than the obvious hit. I had no idea she was English. I'm giving this the same 3/5 I gave the Keith Jarrett album yesterday (not my cup of tea but I won't penalize it just because I'm not into the genre.)
The Rolling Stones
4/5
Of all the Stones albums from their peak years, I think this is my least favorite. It's a great album, obviously, but I am partial to Let It Bleed, Exile, and Sticky Fingers. So I'll give this one a 4 because those are all 5s IMO. I think the best songs on this album are as great as any Stones album but the other songs don't hold up for me personally like the non-hits on those other albums. (Also, I missed listening to this yesterday, so I listened AFTER listening to the Mekons album, and this one makes the Mekons album seem even worse by comparison - THIS is what Brits singing country music should sound like.)
Mekons
2/5
So I have never really explored the Mekons, but a band I loved in high school - Too Much Joy - had a song called "If I Was a Mekon" and it made me curious about them. What little I had heard before today didn't do much for me so I didn't go any farther. This will be a good opportunity for me to give them a proper chance.
Listening now, and on paper this sounds like something I SHOULD really like - it has rock, country(ish), and punk(ish) elements, which is what features in a lot of the new music I like today. But I think it's the vocals that bother me. And the production sounds very 1985/flat/muted to me. I've read that this band was great live and I bet they were, but this particular studio work doesn't do it for me. I got all the way to track 9 ("Last Dance") before I thought, "OK, I like this one."
Anita Baker
1/5
Yeah, not my cup o' tea. Did not need to hear this before I die and DEFINITELY did not need to hear "Sweet Love" again. Because of this assignment, I did however get to learn that there is a German record label called Ariola, so that's pretty funny.
The xx
3/5
Never checked this band out before and happily surprised to see such a recent album included in this project. Listening now, this sounds NOTHING like what I expected - for some reason in my head I had them lumped in with all those early-2000s bands from New York and they are definitely not that. I don't know that this was an album I needed to listen to before I die, but I like this. It's a little more electronic than I am into, but good album, glad I listened.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
5/5, no notes. Story time: When I had first started dating Elizabeth she came to my dad's for Sunday night dinner (Maryellen was there) and we were sitting around the table post-meal talking, which was kind of a Tipton tradition passed down from my grandparents. Dad was telling us that he had seen a VH-1 thing about the greatest rock n' roll bands of all time and he was going through the list from memory. When he got to #3, he told us - to our shock - that it was Def Leppard. It turned into a big Tipton-style argument, as I am sure you can imagine, with Maryellen and me absolutely incredulous and refusing to believe that what he said was true. Elizabeth was probably simultaneously entertained and looking for a way to politely leave. After at least ten minutes of this - and depending on who is telling the story it was closer to half an hour - Dad somewhat sheepishly said "Oh wait, I think it was actually Led Zeppelin." This story still gets referenced any time anyone in the family says the names Def Leppard or Led Zeppelin.
R.E.M.
3/5
I am notoriously (at least among my music-discussing friends) not a big REM fan, though I definitely respect what they did for alternative music/culture, and there are some REM songs I do love. If you care about why I think I don't love REM as much as some others my age, ask me about my Older Sibling Theory. All of that being said, the hits on this album are among the first REM songs I remember being exposed to on MTV (after the tracks off Document that got a lot of airplay) and I generally like them. I like this album now but it annoyed me back then. I also like most of what REM did before this album more than I like what they did after it, so this was kind of an inflection point.
Cheap Trick
3/5
Ha, I have actually never listened to this (that I can recall.) I just realized for the first time ever that "Hello There" - which I only know as the intro song for Rock Band 2 on the Nintendo Wii - is Cheap Trick. What a fantastic song to open a show (or video game.) I was never a big Cheap Trick fan. I feel like they were a much bigger deal to people about a half-generation ahead of us (basically the kids in Dazed & Confused.) I've never really liked "I Want You to Want Me" but this version is pretty great. And holy shit, I don't think I ever knew that the opening to Check Your Head was sampled from the beginning of "Surrender" off this album. This was a fun listen. (P.S. - Another live album with 40 seconds of crowd noise at the end? This HAS to have something to do with pressing vinyl back then.)
Can
3/5
Have heard a lot ABOUT Can (particularly in the context of their inspiring a lot of the Nels Cline-era Wilco stuff,) but had never made an effort to listen. Glad I did, this is cool and I can totally hear how this inspired Tweedy et al.
Pink Floyd
4/5
Ah, yes... So many memories of this album, so much to say... What an amazing debut album and what a bizarre career arc this band had (and continues to have!) I don't remember Pow R. Toc H. being this long, but it's possible I wasn't sober the last time I listened to it all the way through, lol. (Also, I could have sworn that Pow R. Toc H. was the song with "Tock! Tock! Tock!" over and over in it but that's actually the next track.) As much as I love this album and it brings back so many memories, I have to give it just 4 stars. I just don't find it as good as their best stuff.
Beck
4/5
Oh wow, really love this album. Choosing between 4 and 5 will be tough.
Fatboy Slim
2/5
I liked that one song that was everywhere off this album ("Rockefeller Skank") but never had any desire to explore further, just not a genre I am into. Of course I've heard that "Right Here, Right Now" song about a billion times in commercials and at sporting events but I never knew that was Fatboy Slim. I did know "Praise You" was them. This album had some bangers, as the kids say. In the middle I got tired of it though - "Build It Up - Tear It Down," "Kalifornia," and "Soul Surfing" just annoyed me and the repetitive crap is why I don't like this genre. Ben used to listen to it constantly and I just didn't get it. But I'm sure it was great in the clubs, where I wouldn't be caught dead.
Lauryn Hill
4/5
I've listened to this album before but never closely. This was a good excuse to pay attention. I didn't realize it was basically a break-up album about her split from Wyclef. And it's crazy that the guy she is singing to in the love songs led the 1993 Miami Hurricanes in tackles. I really enjoyed the game I saw him play in that year.
I think this album is great but it doesn't blow me away like it seems to everyone else.
The Verve
2/5
Pre-listening: This album prompts an interesting question: what do you think is the single song you have heard the most in your life without ever hearing another track from its album? Because I think this one would be in the running for me (at least until today.)
Listening: I would probably like Bittersweet Symphony more if it weren't played repeatedly at UT football games. It's obviously a catchy tune though. And I am reading the lyrics while listening and laughing that despite nearly 30 years of repeated listening I had NO IDEA some of these verses/words were in this song. Now for the rest of the album: This second song almost sounds like Tom Petty. Third song: sounds like Oasis. Losing interest... This fourth song sounds like something somebody would sing at a Scott Weiland tribute concert. Meh... OK, I'm starting to understand why I never heard another track off this album. I ABSOLUTELY did not need to hear this before I die.
The Velvet Underground
2/5
This is not my favorite album of theirs, though it obviously has some of their best work, making it tough to rate. I could take or leave Nico, but I think they were better with Cale. "The Murder Mystery" is unlistenable drek. It would be three stars for me without that song.
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/5
Wings! I hated this band for so long without even knowing anything by them except the title track off this album. When we were about to see McCartney live a couple of years ago and I looked to see what setlists he was playing, I finally decided to listen to some Wings and was kind of amazed at how good they were. Which is of course ridiculous, but I was young and dumb and too under the "John was better than Paul" spell. This album is a classic and has some amazing songs on it. "Let Me Roll It" was one of the highlights of the show for me. Glad I finally grew up a little bit.
P.S. - This album also has a really interesting backstory if you haven't read about it.
Miles Davis
3/5
To my undiscerning ear, this sounds like another Miles Davis album, a little heavier on keyboards than what I would expect. But reading about the context is interesting. My buddy Walker, who is a big jazz fan/player, got me into Weather Report (something along the lines of "You're such a big Primus fan, you should check out Jaco Pastorius,") and I've listened to their album Heavy Weather a lot. Miles's band around the time of this album included the guys that would go on to co-found Weather Report. Knowing that and listening to this, I can hear it. It's like Weather Report with a trumpet.
Hole
1/5
lol
Hole
3/5
Are we getting a second Hole because it's Masters week? I actually like this album. And it seems even better by comparison to yesterday.
Big Black
1/5
Pre-listening: I own one Big Black album (Songs About Fucking) and it didn't do much for me so I never bothered to explore further. Maybe I will like this one more... Quite a week of personalities, going from two Courtney Love albums to a Steve Albini one.
Listening: Yeah, this pretty much sounds like the other album I have. There may have been a time in my life when I would have liked this, but that time was well before 50 years old. This music just gives me a headache now. And I have always found Albini's lyrics pretty repulsive.
Nirvana
5/5
TWO Kurt Cobain albums in one week?!? ;-)
Every time I listen to this album I am amazed by how SLOW it is - I've gotten used to the live versions of all these songs and they played them MUCH faster live. "In Bloom" almost sounds like a parody of itself.
It's simultaneously cool and depressing that "Something In the Way" now reminds me of a Batman movie.
Beatles
5/5
Immaculate. There was a stretch in my junior year at FSU where I listened to this album on repeat for weeks.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Ashamed to admit I have never sat and listened to a full CCR album start to finish. They would be high on a list of bands that I love what I have heard but have not really explored.
Jurassic 5
3/5
A pleasant surprise! This album (and group) are exactly what I was hoping for when I started this project - I had heard the name but couldn't have even told you what genre these guys were. Judging by the year I would have guessed some kind of electronic/dance/house thing. But this is a straight-up hip-hop group and they are great.
Nick Drake
4/5
Love Nick Drake. Pink Moon will get 5 stars from me. This gets 4.
Prince
5/5
Desert island disc for me.
Cocteau Twins
2/5
I remember these guys being on 120 Minutes occasionally. I kind of like the title track but this isn't really my cup of tea.
John Cale
2/5
I had never sat down and listened to anything by John Cale other than Velvet Underground. Not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. A few songs (especially "The Endless Plain of Fortune") reminded me of a Welsh Warren Zevon. This is OK. I like "Half Past France." John Cale is obviously an important figure in the history of rock/popular music, but I am unable to see/hear why this was an album I needed to listen to before I died.
The Louvin Brothers
3/5
Well, this is a curveball! I was wondering when/if we were going to get something from before the advent of rock 'n' roll. LOT of local connections to these guys. And Dylan was heavily influenced by them so I have heard some of their music in documentaries about him and heard a lot of covers of their music. And of course I've known the brutal "Knoxville Girl" for years. (There's a marker across the street from my office recognizing that song and the Louvin Brothers that is part of the "Cradle of Country Music Tour" trail downtown.) It is frequently covered by local artists of all genres.
The Slits
2/5
John Lydon's step-daughter fronted this group so I have read a lot more about them than I have heard from them. This album sounds kind of crude, almost like demos, but it has some interesting rhythms. Definitely hear the reggae influence, a lot more reggae-ish than punk-sounding to me. Some of it would probably be called appropriation today. At any rate, this album seems to have more historical significance than musical appeal, IMO. The Marvin Gaye cover is a novelty but Jack Black did it better.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
The opening track is one of my favorite songs by any artist from the 2000s. THAT BEING SAID... Back when the Strokes-era NYC scene was exploding, these guys were critical darlings and I didn't really get it. I thought they were fine, but didn't see what all the fuss was about. I figured there must be something about seeing them live. I had the opportunity to do that at one of the Bonnaroos I went to and... I guess I sort of got it? Karen O definitely had stage presence. And she is certainly attractive but I never understood the whole "sex goddess" image the music press seemed to bestow on her. Oh well, I like these guys OK and this was pretty a good album. I just never understood what the big deal was. I guess like a lot of the albums in this project, you had to be there. ("There" being NYC at that particular time, not just being alive in 2003-2009.) P.S. - I listened to the "Deluxe Edition" on Apple Music and it included 4 extra acoustic version tracks and I liked those better than what ended up on the album. Good songs that I liked more without all the synthesizer crap.
OutKast
4/5
Hell yeah! I was just reading about this album (and Outkast) yesterday, in two separate places for two separate reasons, one of which was the announcement they will be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame this year.
Blondie
2/5
Random Blondie thoughts: I don't have a lot of vivid memories from my early childhood - probably because of a combination of trauma repression, general old age, and alcohol killing brain cells - but one of them is of lying in my parents' bed and watching Blondie sing "The Tide is High" on Solid Gold. That song is not on this album, of course, but it's usually the first thing I think of when this group is mentioned. The second is the hip-hop "pioneering" they did in "Rapture." And the third is that Maggie and I used to have fun doing "One Way or Another" on Rock Band 2 on the Wii.
I had never listened to this album start to finish. Now I can die. (lol)
The Zombies
3/5
I can feel my hipster bona fides strengthening with every track! lol
I didn't know much about these guys before this morning, but it's kind of amazing to me that (at least according to Wikipedia) four of the five of them are still alive. The story of recording this album is interesting and sad (tl;dr: they broke up before it was released, and then "Time of the Season" became a hit after they weren't a band anymore.)
Based on this album's reputation, I expected more of these songs to sound familiar to me. Like from TV shows and movies maybe?
Ramones
5/5
This album is amazing. 14 songs in 29 minutes.
"Blitzkrieg Bop" is on the short list of greatest opening songs on debut albums of all time. I vividly remember the first time I heard it (or at least a piece of it): I was in 4th grade (spring/summer of 1984) at a friend's birthday slumber party and his parents let us rent National Lampoon's Vacation. When the kids put on their headphones in the car on the interstate, the beginning of "Blitzkrieg Bop" plays. From that point forward I forever associated the song with coolness. I was 9.
In middle school I was an Anglophile, so I always leaned Pistols over Ramones. But I was young and foolish then. I'm no longer young, still foolish, but I can admit now that THIS was and is the real shit. Sadly, the only time these guys came to Knoxville (1991,) I was out of town.
Alice In Chains
5/5
Lolla '93 may have changed my life more than any other single show/festival I attended.
This album is sublime. These guys were at the top of their game (and would remain so through Jar of Flies.)
Nas
4/5
It was tough choosing between 4 and 5 stars for this one. I ultimately went with 4, because although the entire album is strong, none of the songs other than "New York State of Mind" really grab me. Nas is an amazing MC but I need more melodic hooks in my music these days. This whole album is great, even without the melodies I crave.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
PRE-LISTEN: Is this our first repeat artist? I gave the previous album 3 stars - I liked it but it didn't have enough songs that I consider "CCR classics" on it. Looking at the titles on this one, I expect to feel about the same but we shall see...
POST-LISTEN: So I looked through our albums so far and this is NOT our first repeat artist - I had mercifully forgotten that we had two days in a row of Hole, lol. Also, I like this album more than the last one we had. So 4 stars it is.
Simple Minds
2/5
PRE-LISTEN: I did not know anything by Simple Minds beyond the MTV stuff (the obvious Breakfast Club hit, but I know there was another video in heavy rotation that still gets shown on MTV Classic and I can't remember what it was,) so this was an interesting selection to me. According to Wikipedia, Herbie Hancock guested on this album (solo on "Hunter and the Hunted.")
POST-LISTEN: I did not recognize any of the songs but they still sounded so familiar, like soundtracks to '80s movies I've forgotten I watched. Especially the instrumental track - it really seemed like something you would hear while Andrew McCarthy brooded over some girl. An odd but cool sensation. If I were ten years older I bet I would have liked these guys a lot growing up.
Marvin Gaye
3/5
The lyrics of the second track don't seem to match the title at all - was that intentional? Anyway, aside from the opener I wasn't familiar with any of these songs. I am sure What's Goin' On will be in this list at some point, and I like that album better than this one.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
Good memories. I really love this album but I feel like it has enough filler to dock it a star. And I would not put it on quite the same level as Siamese Dream and Gish. So it's a victim of the band's own greatness - I think Billy would appreciate that, lol.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
Sly has been a blind spot for me aside from "Everyday People", and I have been meaning to explore his music for a while, so I am eager to listen to this.
LISTENING: Holy shit. The opening track was featured in a Sly Stone tribute in the HBO Pee Wee Herman special in 1981 that Maryellen and I watched when we were way too young. I never knew what the song was or where it came from. Mystery solved, 44 years later. (And it's apparently a Sly Stone hit that I just never encountered outside of that childhood memory.)
I had heard of Track 2 because of its eye/ear-catching title but never listened to the song.
And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby.
This album is fantastic.
Slade
3/5
One of my favorite videos/songs in the early days of MTV was Slade's "Run Runaway." Weird coincidence that I also loved Quiet Riot back then and had no idea until years later that a few of their biggest hits were Slade covers. These guys had a sense of humor that resonated with me - they seemed Monty Python-ish. And I always liked the name Noddy Holder.
3/5
Huh, never noticed Kanye's name on the cover of this album before...
My Bowie experience has been pretty strange but probably not all that uncommon for someone my age. For the first 30-ish years of my life I basically knew no Bowie that wasn't on MTV in my childhood and my impression of him was some combination of the "China Girl" video and the ludicrous "Dancin' in the Street" video with Mick Jagger. When I started reading more about rock history and the influences on artists I loved, Bowie always came up and I didn't really get it. Fast-forward to the last ten years or so and I read a biography of him that made me want to explore the music more and I've been blown away. (I am sure this was at least in part encouraged by the public Bowie renaissance sparked by his death and brilliant final album.)
Count Basie & His Orchestra
1/5
Not a genre I have any interest in, beyond historical importance/influence. I have been listening off-and-on to Andrew Hickey's "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs" podcast (I am only up to Screamin' Jay Hawkins, which is a full 53 episodes in!) and I remember a lot of the early episodes discussed Basie, Ellington, etc., pretty heavily. We are so lucky we grew up in a time with rock music. LOL, imagine getting excited by this.
Johnny Cash
3/5
Like everyone, I know the Folsom Prison album. I don't think I had heard this one other than this version of "Sue," which I think is the most famous version. Lot of crowd interaction on this one. That had to be a surreal environment for a show. It was anticlimactic to have a clipped version of "Folsom" as a closer. I think this is important as a historical document but doesn't work that great as an album start-to-finish.
The Isley Brothers
3/5
First track was sampled in B-Boy Bouillabaisse! And track 5 is a good Doobies cover. And holy shit, Summer Breeze? This may be my new favorite version of this song. I have never listened to a full album by these guys and I am glad this project made me finally do so. Classic funk.
The La's
3/5
I had first heard "There She Goes" on the soundtrack for So I Married an Axe Murderer, which is excellent, and then I bought this album when Pearl Jam started playing "Timeless Melody" on their 2000 tour (when I was obsessed with PJ and buying/trading/downloading/burning every PJ bootleg I could get my hands on.) This is a good album but its novelty has kind of worn off for me. It has some classic tunes though.
Little Richard
3/5
I mentioned in the Count Basie comments that I had been listening to Andrew Hickey's "The History of Rock Music in 500 Songs" podcast, and obviously the early episodes have a lot of Little Richard discussion. I found this excerpt (copied from his website) interesting and had never heard it before:
"He was becoming a huge star, and that meant he had to *break* a lot of contracts. He’d got concert bookings for several months ahead, but those bookings were in second-rate clubs, and he had to be in Hollywood to promote his new record and build a new career. But he also didn’t want to get a reputation for missing gigs. There was only one thing to do — hire an impostor to be Little Richard at these low-class gigs. So while Richard went off to promote his record, another young singer from Georgia with a pompadour and a gospel feel was being introduced with the phrase 'Ladies and gentlemen—the hardest-working man in showbusiness today—Little Richard!'
When James Brown went back to performing under his own name, he kept that introduction… "
And now you know... the rest of the story. Good day!
Beck
3/5
This is one of the very few Beck albums that I LIKE (don't love.) Most of his stuff I am either crazy about or not interested in at all. I remember I found it a little disappointing when it was released, but looking back that was at least partly just because he was coming off such an amazing streak of albums. Listening to this today, it's a little better than I remembered. I always liked the stronger/catchier tracks ("E-Pro", "Girl", "Hell Yes",) but never really got into the rest 20 years ago. (Also, I can't believe this album is 20 years old.) After a strong opening 3 tracks, tracks 4 and 6 still do nothing for me though. Kind of brings the album to a screeching halt for me, after a several-album stretch where I would play Beck albums start to finish without losing interest (Mellow Gold, Odelay, Mutations, Midnite Vultures, Sea Change.) I am also convinced nobody is reading these things I write on here, so I feel free to ignore that One Foot in the Grave was in the middle of that stretch and I own it but am not sure I have ever listened to it all the way through, lol. Looking at his discography chronologically, this is the album where I lost interest in Beck. I bought the next one but may have only listened to it once. Didn't get anymore after that. If I could give this 2.5 stars, I would. But I can't, so my love for the stronger tracks earns it a 3.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Hell yes. I really enjoy the anticipation of reloading this screen every day when I turn on my computer and seeing what we get. Some days it's something I've never even heard of, some days it's something I've heard of but never checked out before, some days it pisses me off (in other words, some days it's Hole,) and some days it's an album I already love and am excited to hear again. This album falls in that last category. Perfect Friday before a holiday weekend music.
I think my conversion to latter-day Stones fan is well-chronicled, so I won't go into it again here. But this album was basically the skeleton key for that.
Ella Fitzgerald
2/5
Respect to everyone involved but this does nothing for me. I'll give it two stars because it's not BAD, just not something I have any interest in.
Talvin Singh
2/5
Never heard of this or him. Not really my genre, but it is hard to describe how refreshing this sounds after 3 hours and 14 minutes of Ella Fitzgerald singing the Gershwin song book. That wore off fairly quickly, though.
Gillian Welch
3/5
PRE-LISTEN: Heard her name quite a bit - she and Dave Rawlings play here pretty often - but have never explored her catalog. Let's see how it goes. I predict I will like it.
WHILE LISTENING: My prediction was correct! I went to her Wikipedia page because her accent made me curious where she was from. I was caught quite off-guard by the "Early Life" section.
Deep Purple
3/5
My knowledge of this band until about ten years ago consisted solely of "Smoke on the Water" and I just imagined all of their music sounded like that, so I didn't explore any further. Then one year at the neighborhood Christmas party I was talking to a guy who is a big classic rock freak and he was extolling the virtues of these guys and he loaned me The Very Best of Deep Purple. It had two of the tracks from this album ("Speed King" and "Child in Time.") I think this band is essential for an understanding of rock music, but I don't think I agree that this particular album is one you need to hear before you die. A greatest hits collection like my neighbor loaned me would definitely suffice IMO. (Although "Flight of the Rat" and "Into the Fire" were not on that collection and I think I liked those songs the most from this album.) There are times when I'm listening to this band that I feel like what they were playing was so ridiculous that Spinal Tap HAD to have been at least partially inspired by them.
Kanye West
4/5
PRE-LISTEN: Ooh, problematic! I have never "gotten" the whole Kanye thing. Granted, I have not really tried to "get" it, but the music of his that I have heard has not made me even slightly curious to check out any more. And everyone just accepts it as FACT that he is a "genius." I was intending for a while to try to give his alleged classics a serious listen to see if I could figure it out and then he went full Nazi and I basically forgot about it. I guess this project is as good an excuse as there will be, so let's see...
LISTENING: Hey, I recognize "POWER"! Never paid attention to the lyrics before. Holy shit at all the guests on "All of the Lights." And then "Monster" too. OK, I see why this album was such a big deal. I kind of like "Runaway." OK, I think I get it. This album is really good. But what a weirdo.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
4/5
I used to love this album so much. It still brings back some pleasant nostalgia, but the combination of what this band has become and reading Kiedis's autobiography have complicated my feelings about this one. It is possible that there is not an album I listened to more than this one between 1991 and 1993. I doubt that's actually the case but it is on the short list with PJ, Nirvana, the Metallica black album, Achtung Baby, and the GnR Illusion albums.
The Mothers Of Invention
2/5
Zappa is another artist I have been meaning to check out, really haven't listened to much of his stuff before this. I was kind of surprised to see this album came out in 1966, but listening to it you can tell. This seems like something important more for what it laid the foundation for, not something that was that great on its own. Most of this sounds like psychedelia for psychedelia's sake. I'm sure it terrified our grandparents.
David Bowie
3/5
I recounted my latter-day conversion to Bowie in my Ziggy Stardust review and this album was part of it. The story of this album is fascinating and the title track is really cool. I have a No Man's Sky playlist that I listen to sometimes when I play and this is on it. Fits well with drifting through space and exploring strange worlds. (P.S. - NMS has a new update today. Woo hoo!) I would give the title track 4 or 5 stars but the rest is a 3, I think.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
I could have sworn we had a Stevie Wonder album earlier but I just looked at the list and we apparently did not. I was not familiar with this album and the only track title I recognize is "Higher Ground."
Talking Heads
4/5
Like Bowie, another staple of early MTV that I would have had a MUCH different perception of had I been older. I'm happy I came of age when I did (and certainly don't want to be older than I am,) but I would have been a MUCH bigger fan of these guys a lot earlier if I hadn't been a little kid when I saw their videos. I read for years about how amazing a film Stop Making Sense was and remember thinking "It's Talking Heads - how great can it be?" Then I watched it and holy shit. These guys were fantastic.
Fleetwood Mac
3/5
My favorite thing about this album was the scene in Flight of the Conchords:
Murray: When you're in a band, you don't get with your bandmate's girlfriend - past or present.
Jemaine: Yes, well thanks for that.
Murray: You get a love triangle - you know? Fleetwood Mac situation.
Murray: Well there there was four of them, so more of a love square. But you know, no one gets on.
Jemaine: Okay, I see.
Murray: Mind you, they did make some of their best music back then.
Bret: Rumours.
Murray: No, that's all true.
Supertramp
2/5
PRE-LISTENING: I am very vaguely familiar with the music of Supertramp but cannot imagine that this truly is an album I need to listen to before I die. I don't recognize any of the song titles but we shall see if any of it sounds familiar...
LISTENING: The opening track ("School") does not sound even remotely familiar. Wikipedia says it was released as a single and was kind of a hit, which is wild to me. Wikipedia calls Track 2 ("Bloody Well Right") their "breakthrough hit" and again it doesn't sound remotely familiar. I have MAYBE heard "Dreamer" before? (Or more likely, it just sounds like generic Supertramp to me.)
POST-LISTEN: Absolutely not an album anyone NEEDS to listen to.
Taylor Swift
3/5
PRE-LISTENING: This will be the second time I have listened to a Taylor Swift album. I listened to one of them a few years ago the day it came out (Google tells me it was called Midnights.) I have also heard at least some (maybe all) of Ryan Adams' version of this album. Here goes!
LISTENING: Catchy, I get it, it's just not for me. My wallet and I are grateful that I basically missed this phenomenon with Maggie. Enjoyed it more than Supertramp though.
The Beach Boys
1/5
Very well done, 1001 Albums Generator! I wonder if everyone got a Beach Boys album today? I have been arguing with some music buddies since yesterday about my inability to get into the Beach Boys. Yes, I recognize Brian Wilson is a genius, yes I know I'm wrong about this, but I just couldn't ever separate them from their dumb surfing/girls/cars stuff from the early days despite several Pet Sounds listens. You can't control what you like. But I have seen some talk about this album being underrated, so I am interested to give it a listen. The only title I recognize is "Feel Flows," which was on the Almost Famous soundtrack (and which I kind of like.)
LISTENING: LOL, this first song is absurd. I'm experiencing cognitive dissonance amid all this "Brian Wilson was a genius" hoopla. Looking now I see it is credited to Jardine and Love, but still, come on. Third song may be even more preposterous. I am really trying to keep an open mind but this is just so dumb. And this is one of the songs Brian co-wrote!
"Student Demonstration Time" started out kind of cool musically but then the siren noise started and the idiotic lyrics. We are at the end of side one and four of the five songs so far have made me laugh out loud. I'm starting to feel like it is disrespectful to listen to this so soon after Wilson passed away. And now they're singing "Stay away when there's a riot goin' on" - now I'm laughing and disrespecting Sly Stone too? Imagine listening to something like "Kick Out the Jams" and then this song comes on, lol. This album is dreadful. On to side 2...
"Feel the Flow" is still good. The music on side 2 is MUCH better so far, but then the lyrics of "A Day in the Life of a Tree" start and I'm laughing again. I just can't take this seriously.
"'Til I Die" is decent. "Surf's Up" is decent. Strong finish! I am going to give this two stars based on the music on side 2 and the fact that I would feel bad giving it one star the day after Brian Wilson died. (Edit: Nope. I came back today and decided the grace period is over. I was laughing about this album all night.)
DJ Shadow
3/5
I have heard OF DJ Shadow, but could not have told you why or how. This album came out at a time when I would not have been AT ALL receptive to instrumental DJ music. I guarantee my buddy Ben (RIP) loved this though. Listening now and I really like this. See? I can grow!
Dusty Springfield
2/5
I knew Dusty's hits. She's fine. I'm not sure I needed to hear everything else before I died. LOL, holy shit, I didn't realize the version of Mockingbird they sing in Dumb and Dumber came from Dusty Springfield.
John Lee Hooker
3/5
Sounds like JLH! I like it. He's a legend and doesn't get enough credit for the big role he played in early Dylan's development.
FKA twigs
2/5
I have heard OF FKA twigs but otherwise knew nothing about her. Listening to it, I am OK with it but this isn't really a genre I'm into.
Mercury Rev
4/5
I remember seeing this band's name in magazines (and maybe ads for shows in town?) but don't remember ever actually listening to them. Starting the first song I am immediately reminded of the Flaming Lips, then I open their Wikipedia and see there are good reasons for that. Holy shit, Levon Helm and Garth Hudson played on tracks on this album!
I like this.
The Who
3/5
Obviously a classic, but I was never able to get into The Who like other people. I had the greatest hits and that was more than enough for me. This album was well-represented on there. The hits on this album are of course great, but the rest does nothing for me. I wouldn't use ANY of them for CSI theme songs.
Pretenders
4/5
"Brass in Pocket" was one of my favorite videos/songs in the early days of MTV. I was surprised to not see "Back on the Chain Gang" on this album, but Wikipedia says they originally released it as a single and then it was on their third album. Chrissie Hynde was and is awesome - her background is fascinating. I'm glad I got to see these guys open for the B-52s about 25 years ago.
I guess this was probably called new wave at the time? But a lot of it sounds just like what would have been called punk a few years earlier. This is awesome. If only I had been a little bit older back then...
New Order
2/5
I watch a lot of 120 Minutes on MTV Classic and one of its weaknesses is they do not seem to have a very large catalog of videos available - I'm sure it has something to do with contracts/rights/whatever - so you end up seeing a lot of the same videos over and over. And they are VERY New Order-heavy, in my opinion. Which would be great if I were a New Order fan. (Or even a Joy Division fan.) Alas...
According to Wikipedia, the "hit" off this album was "The Perfect Kiss" which doesn't sound even remotely familiar to me, and I think I would remember the frog sounds.
I don't hate ALL dance music, but there is not very much of it I really like. And I don't hate this. But I don't like it.
3/5
I think this album is VERY close to the line between good (even great) albums I really enjoyed, and albums people need to listen to before they die. I listened to this album a lot back in the day (especially my 4 months in Washington) but never really understood the fascination with these guys. So it presents a rating dilemma - I would probably give this album a 4/5 if I were just rating how much I liked it. But it doesn't seem like I should give an album a 4 in this thing if I don't consider it an album people need to listen to before they die. So I'll probably give it a 3 and that's the reason. That, and these guys being unsufferable douches.
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
I could have sworn the title track was in the Blues Brothers movie but looked it up and I was wrong. Wikipedia says they covered it (which makes sense since Cropper was their guitarist,) but I don't know where I would have seen/heard that. Who knows. This album is obviously a classic but I think it suffers a bit by including instrumental versions of songs that originally had lyrics. "Twist and Shout" almost sounds like an organ in a baseball stadium.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
Perfect, no notes.
I wish I had known their music better (and been somewhat sober) when I saw them at Lollapalooza.
Funkadelic
3/5
A bit of deja vu as I press submit on ATCQ with a comment about wishing I had known their music better when I saw them on Lollapalooza and then seeing (what was essentially) another group about which the same thing could be said. Same Lollapalooza, even.
The universe is so weird. While listening to this album this morning, I am reading an article about the death of Dave Parker and it mentions his famous tee shirt that said "If you hear any noise it's just me and the boys boppin" which was inspired by lyrics from Parliament's "Mothership Connection." I don't REALLY believe we are living in a simulation, but things get really weird sometimes...
And then about 15 minutes after I typed that last part, I receive a text message from the guy I went to that Lollapalooza with, first time I've heard from him in almost a year.
The Soft Boys
3/5
The only things I recognize from this album are the names Soft Boys and Robyn Hitchcock, and the opening track which Uncle Tupelo covered but I never could have told you who played the original. That song sounds like punk to me, like something the Stooges would have written. The rest of this sounds like a mix between Elvis Costello and early R.E.M. It also kind of reminds me of the only Hawkwind song I'm really familiar with ("Silver Machine.") The Apple Music description of this ("The sound of the Soft Boys is the sound of 80s college rock before its time") is pretty spot-on. These guys missed MTV by just a few years. This music would have fit right in with the early videos I remember. I really like track 6 ("Tonight.") It's kind of funny that the same dude who wrote "Walking on Sunshine" also co-wrote "Old Pervert."
Beatles
4/5
NEARLY perfect. Listening again, it's jarring how disturbing "Run For Your Life" was/is. For that and the ridiculous inhale during the "Girl" chorus, I'm docking a star.
10cc
1/5
I listened to this in the car on a work trip and I think it's the first album that made me want to buy the book just to find out WTF this guy was thinking when he decided people need to listen to this album before they die. It is preposterous. I laughed out loud several times. It sounded like an album written by a conference room full of people in suits who were trying to write something to be marketed as a disco-oriented Broadway play about yacht rock with hopes that ELO would do the soundtrack. Several songs reminded me of the Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig characters on Weekend Update who make up songs as they are singing them. I need to get on Genius.com and re-read the lyrics to this album because so many of the songs were utterly ludicrous. My first instinct was two stars just because I didn't think it deserved the worst possible score simply because I was entertained by how bad it was, but shouldn't that basically be a textbook one-star?
(P.S. - one of the members of this band was literally named Lol. I bet the suits in the conference room patted themselves on the back really hard for that one.)
Stan Getz
3/5
When I saw the first song, I thought "Ooh, I hope every song sounds like "Girl from Ipanema" and friends, that is EXACTLY what I got.
Johnny Cash
4/5
Obviously a classic. I would even go so far as to say that of the MULTIPLE Johnny Cash live in a prison albums we have already covered, THIS is the superior one. And I also feel pretty confident that if you heard this one but not the other one, it would be OK to go ahead and die if you needed to.
And welcome to the group, Willie!
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
There was a time in my life when I was obsessed with all things Allman and listened to this album constantly. It has been decades since I did that - I kind of Allman'd myself out and being a Clapton fan hasn't aged very well - so I was interested to see how it holds up. And the answer is pretty damned well. This is just great music being made by virtuosos. All of that being said, I'm pretty sure my favorite part of this whole album is the "Layla" piano outro, because of Goodfellas. It just sounds kind of naked without Ray Liotta talking over it.
Tom Waits
3/5
I'm pretty sure the first time I ever heard Tom Waits was as the voice of Tommy the Cat. He's an acquired taste, sort of like Captain Beefheart, and I will sometimes skip his songs when they come up on shuffle because I have to be in the right mood for him. Or I have to be ready for him to change my mood. I used to love seeing him show up as a guest on Letterman and his acting work is fantastic. He's a true American original.
That being said, this is not one of my favorite Waits albums. When I saw him on the "Glitter & Doom" Tour in 2008 I don't think he played a single song from this. It does have some songs I love, though, like "16 Shells from a 30-06," "In the Neighborhood," and "Gin Soaked Boy."
According to the Wikipedia article, in 1989 SPIN named this the second-best album of all time. That seems a bit high.
Pixies
3/5
I'm not sure I would agree there are multiple Pixies albums you need to hear "before you die" and if I were choosing ONE Pixies album for this project, it would have been Surfer Rosa. But that being said, I do like this album and consider myself a Pixies fan. I like the Breeders more though.
The Smiths
2/5
I really like ONE Smiths song (yes, the obvious one,) and don't really care about the rest. My teenage depression needs were fulfilled by The Cure, thank you very much. I don't DISlike this album, but it just doesn't do much for me.
Coldplay
3/5
I have always thought "I don't like Coldplay" but it's really based on hearing "Yellow" too many times. I liked this album. Pleasant surprise.
American Music Club
3/5
I like this album. That being said, I cannot imagine thinking people need to listen to this before they die.
The singer kind of reminds me of Evan Dando. I enjoyed it. But again, not essential IMO.
Terence Trent D'Arby
3/5
Unfortunately when this came out I was completely ignorant of the genre and uninterested. I do look back fondly on "Wishing Well" and love when the video comes up on MTV Classic. We enjoyed listening to this while driving around Maine today. Kind of sounds like what Bruno Mars did decades later. (And the mix of "suggested music" that came up after the album was over on Apple Music was fantastic.)
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
Love me some ELO, but I think I'm more of a "enjoy when a song comes up in a playlist" ELO fan than a "listen to an entire double album start-to-finish" ELO fan. It sounded almost like the soundtrack to a movie I've never seen. Looking at the cover and title, shouldn't the ship be EXITING the station?
"Birmingham Blues" was a refreshing return to structure after that "Whale" nonsense.
Boston
4/5
Bangers on bangers on bangers. This entire album is like listening to a classic rock station in the summer. Had never read about its recording, that story is wild. If you asked me yesterday if I liked Boston I would have said "Eh, they were OK." But this album is fantastic.
The Flaming Lips
5/5
Truly life-changing for me. Part of my origin story. I am sure I have told everyone reading this about it. Probably several times.
The Killers
3/5
I somehow completely missed the Killers phenomenon the first time around. I usually blame Maggie's birth and infancy for my ignorance of a lot of pop culture from roughly 2003 - 2006 but I also just don't think I was receptive to this genre 20 years ago. I'm a little more open to it now. I never would have guessed these guys were American, based on their sound and their popularity abroad.
OK, I said I'm a little more open to it now, and I did like this album at first, but by track 7 it all started sounding the same to me. #ImOLD I think using the same voice effect on every single song is part of the problem for me.
This was the first time I've ever read the lyrics to Mr. Brightside, and why TF is that such a big song at sporting events? I get that the music is catchy and peppy, but the subject matter seems bizarre for Michigan football fans to chant together at every game.
Black Sabbath
3/5
Appropriate choice, random album generator. I listened to a few Ozzy solo albums yesterday but didn't dig all the way back to Sabbath. And I don't think I've ever actually heard this album so I'm interested to see if I recognize any of it. Having read the Wikipedia section about this album's provenance, I'm hoping this cup of black coffee will be enough to put me in the right frame of mind.
When "FX" came on, I wondered what the story behind it was, and Wikipedia did NOT disappoint:
"'FX' came about unexpectedly in the studio. After smoking hashish, the crucifix hanging from Iommi's neck accidentally struck the strings of his guitar and the band took an interest in the odd sound produced."
P.S. - I remember reading about "Snowblind" but otherwise none of this sounded familiar.
Les Rythmes Digitales
1/5
Pre-listening: Any time I have never even heard of the artist, I chuckle about it being an "album I need to listen to before I die," but let's see what *checks notes* Les Rythmes Digitales has for us today...
I enjoy reading the Wikipedia pages of these albums for some context before I listen. Sometimes those pages are WAY too long to read in one sitting. That was not an issue with this one, lol. But it included enough information for me to gather that I will probably not like this album ("In a 2005 review of the album's re-release, Paul Sullivan of BBC called it 'ahead of its time' and credited it for launching much of the electro-pop vogue of the 2000s... In 2015, Thump placed it at number 97 on the '99 Greatest Dance Albums of All Time' list."
Oh well, here goes...
Post-listening: The lyrics to "Soft Machine" were hilarious. I do not believe they were intended to be. At the risk of hyperbole, this album's inclusion shakes my faith in this whole project. But only slightly. According to the history page, we are now 99 albums in, and I have really enjoyed it and even learned quite a bit. But I absolutely did not need to hear this album.
Funkadelic
3/5
This album does not appear to be on Apple Music, so I had to find it on YouTube. Funkadelic songs being interrupted by ads is some bullshit.
Of the two Funkadelic albums we've had now, I think Maggot Brain is more "essential" than this one, but this album is cool too.
U2
3/5
1. On Apple Music, the album cover is animated and the kid blinks. It is a little unsettling.
2. I consider myself an odd sort of U2 fan, in that I was not a huge fan of anything they did in the '80s. I didn't DISlike them and actually liked some of their songs, but never went and bought an album of theirs until Achtung Baby. My friends all went nuts over Joshua Tree and I just never got caught up in it.
3. But when I bought Achtung Baby I got a little obsessed with it and nearly wore out my copy freshman year of college. And later on my roommates had all the early stuff so I was able to go back and listen to the things I had been missing.
4. I finally saw them live in 2011 and was blown away. I think I actually turned to Elizabeth during the show and said "OK, I get it now. I understand why everyone is so crazy about these guys." Nonetheless, Achtung Baby is still the only album I have really been crazy about.
5. So all of that being said, let's listen to War...
6. Of course I knew the hits off this album, and always liked (never loved) them. I don't remember the violins being so prominent in "Sunday Bloody Sunday" - I wonder if the version I'm more familiar with is a live one.
7. One thing I'm struck by listening to this is how YOUNG they sound. Which, well duh, of course, but being used to the polish of their present-day mega-stardom you can practically hear their youth in these songs.
8. I thought this album was good (maybe very good,) not great. I think it is more important as a big part of U2's history than as a complete collection of great songs though.
Saint Etienne
2/5
I don't recall ever hearing of this band or this album. I guess that shouldn't be too surprising considering that they are in the "indie dance" genre, but it still seems strange. Maybe they had no MTV presence? Anyway, I don't hate this but I am just not into dance music and never have been. I did kind of like "Kiss and Make Up" though. Did NOT like "Like the Swallow."
The Hives
2/5
I listened to this in the car on the way back from depositions in Bristol and it was... fine. Too much screaming for my 50 y.o. taste, but whatever. When I got home I was trying to find it in their discography on Wikipedia and it wasn't there. So I searched for it directly by name and it turns out it's not really an "album" but rather "a collection by The Hives released in 2001, featuring tracks from their first two albums and the A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T EP"? I call foul, sirs!
So it's not really an album and I definitely didn't need to listen to it before I die. That drops it from my original three stars to two.
Mott The Hoople
2/5
1. I have not really looked into the background of the guy who wrote the book and created this project, but as we have gone along some of the album choices have made me strongly suspect that he is British. I think today's album is the one that made me 100% certain that is the case - only a Brit would think that Mott the Hoople's 6th album is "essential" listening.
2. When I was in college, an aunt and uncle gave me one of those compilation CD sets called "Those Rocking 70s" for Christmas. I always thought it only existed as a cash grab from the popularity of "Dazed and Confused" but I just looked it up and apparently it actually came out all the way back in 1991. Anyway, it was a great collection of songs. I unfortunately lost one of the two discs in Tallahassee, but the disc I still have includes Mott's "All the Young Dudes."
3. In my humble American opinion, if you own anything that has "All the Young Dudes" on it, then you own all of the Mott the Hoople that anyone needs to hear before they die.
Arcade Fire
3/5
I own exactly one Arcade Fire album, their debut, and while I liked a couple of the songs it never really grabbed me and I didn't investigate further. Several of my friends with similar tastes in music to mine have raved about this band and expressed shock that I didn't also love them. So let's see how the third album sounds...
... turns out to be very similar to the first one, unsurprisingly.
I liked "Rococo."
As with their first album, I don't DISlike this. I just don't like it enough to want to listen to it again or explore their catalog further.
The Rolling Stones
3/5
I don't love early Stones nearly as much as I love 1970s Stones. This was OK.
Kid Rock
1/5
This is bad. Worse than I remembered. It's like sonic Four Loko.
Van Halen
5/5
Core memory, origin story, etc. When I hear the words "Van Halen," THIS album is the first thing that comes to mind. One of the first cassettes I asked my parents to buy for me (the very first was Def Leppard's Pyromania. Thriller was somewhere in there too.) When I was a kid I would get to the end of "I'll Wait" and fast forward to the end to flip it over, but when I got a little older I realized "Girl Gone Bad" and "House of Pain" were great songs too. It is hard to describe the excitement I would feel when the VJ would say "Up next, it's Van Halen with 'Jump'!" I loved a lot of the music this band made (and I hated a decent amount too) but nothing they ever did was as great to my developing ears as this album.
(P.S. - It's kind of insane that on Van Halen's greatest album you don't hear a guitar until about a minute into Track 2.)
Justice
1/5
Never heard of them, of course. Click on the link, Apple Music opens, and I see "Electronic." Oh joy. Let's get this over with...
First song does not sound terrible, but I see this getting VERY old VERY fast...
Second song starts off sounding like someone fucking around with a Casio and then turns into noise that seems intended to annoy someone.
I don't think I hate ALL electronic music. I have been to shows at Big Ears that I have enjoyed that would definitely be considered electronic music. But a lot of it annoys me in ways that other genres don't. Like, there's a lot of pop/country/pop-country music that I don't LIKE but I can listen to it in the background and basically ignore it. But a lot of electronic music actively bothers me - I can't ignore it because it aggravates my ears. Much of this album fits that description.
(Sort of funny: While I was working with this in the background, part of this album was especially annoying so I clicked on the Apple Music window to see what song it was, and I was relieved to see that it was almost over. The song was called "Phantom." Then I looked to see what the next song was and it was "Phantom, Pt. II" and the annoying noise just kept going into the next track.)
Unsurprisingly my favorite track was the first one with lyrics ("The Party.") Reminds me of Lords of Acid. Wikipedia says this track is actually called "TThhEe PPaARRtTYY" aaaaand now I'm annoyed again.
Heard another terribly annoying sound later and clicked to see what it was and the track is called "Stress." At least it's an honest title.
I now hate this album. I will be so happy when it ends.
Fleet Foxes
3/5
I have heard these guys on compilations but never listened to a full album.
Post-listen: I like this album! I wouldn't want to listen to these guys all the time, but I enjoyed it. I'm struggling with the rating to give it because it seems better than a 3-star but not quite a 4-star for me. We need half-stars!
Favorite song: "Blue Ridge Mountains" (mention my home in a non-derogatory way and you get points!)
Beastie Boys
4/5
When I saw this pop up today I thought "Oh, that's an easy 5-star, one of my favorite albums of all time." And it remains one of my favorite albums of all time, one I listened to every day for about a year in college. But I haven't listened to it start-to-finish in a long time and I was a little surprised today at how much filler there seems to be on the back side. And it is great filler, to be sure, but the album didn't keep me as locked in on it as it used to. I definitely don't think it's as strong top to bottom as Paul's Boutique, and I never have. But I really feel like this needs to be one notch below five stars, and it pains me to say that. Another victim of the no half-stars problem, I guess... This gets the highest-possible four-star rating from me. And it is probably unfair to compare it to Paul's Boutique, which is a perfect album in my opinion. The front side of this one is perfect too, but the back side has too many instrumentals and songs where they use that voice effect where I can't understand what they're saying. If I go back and look at all the albums I have given 5 stars to, I guarantee I will see at least one that I like less than this album. But I'm choosing to rate this in a vacuum today.
The Black Keys
3/5
I have never DISliked this band, but I have never really LIKED them that much either. I've enjoyed some of their catchier stuff but fair or not I have always compared them (unfavorably) to the White Stripes. I only own one of their albums and it's not this one - it's the next one, El Camino.
Reading about this album on Wikipedia, it sounds like "Tighten Up" was "the hit," but it doesn't sound familiar to me at all. "Howlin' for You," on the other hand, sounds VERY familiar. Pretty sure it's been in a bunch of commercials. I would give this album 2.5 stars if I could, because I feel pretty meh about it. I'll give them a 3 because I'm feeling generous.
The Beach Boys
2/5
I just can't get into the Beach Boys and listening to more of them doesn't seem to be helping. I know I'm the crazy one here - there is too much evidence in favor of everyone else - but what can you do? The music is OK, I guess. The lyrics are just inane. And I like some pretty inane stuff, but this is inane in ways that annoy me.
I do appreciate that this album is only 29 minutes long.
Gorillaz
3/5
This really sounds like a specific time period to me, like the soundtrack for the turn of the millennium. I always found this band's story more interesting than their music, but I was just more into guitars at the time. Revisiting them with Willie's help/recommendation, I like it more than I did back then.
R.E.M.
4/5
My relationship with R.E.M. is one I would describe as "complicated" and everyone in this group is probably sick of hearing about it (good thing none of them read these things anymore!) But the short version is: my early exposure to R.E.M. came mainly through MTV/radio and I was not impressed by any of it (though of course I would scream "Leonard Bernstein!" along with my friends.) I had friends who loved them, almost all of whom had been exposed to it by older siblings, so they had probably heard the old shit like this album. I did not discover this album until college and then it finally clicked for me. I loved this album and it was a key that unlocked the rest of R.E.M. for me. I still don't love everything they did, and would never describe them as one of my favorite bands, but I like R.E.M. now, thanks to Murmur.
"Perfect Circle" may be my favorite R.E.M. song. And "Pilgrimage" and "Catapult" aren't far behind. I really like this album.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
2/5
I mean, I don't hate it? But it definitely felt like being in a hotel lobby for half an hour.
The Only Ones
4/5
I can't believe I've never heard of these guys! They sound like if Daniel Ash and Paul Westerburg joined Big Star. It's fantastic. I definitely needed to hear this before I die.
The Cure
3/5
I'm pretty sure I've never heard this album. It sounds about how you would expect an early Cure album to sound. I would give it 2.5 stars if I could but it's closer to 3 than to 2.
The 13th Floor Elevators
3/5
The entirety of my knowledge of this group/album is enjoying "You're Gonna Miss Me" on the High Fidelity soundtrack. Based on that song, I expect to like this. Here goes...
Yup. Garage rock goodness, as suspected. I enjoyed it except for "Fire Engine," which is appropriately named but not particularly fun to listen to.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
In my review of The Verve's Urban Hymns album, I wrote the following about "Bittersweet Symphony":
"Pre-listening: This album prompts an interesting question: what do you think is the single song you have heard the most in your life without ever hearing another track from its album? Because I think this one would be in the running for me (at least until today.)"
This Peter Gabriel album contains three songs that I've probably heard more than "Bittersweet Symphony" but I am pretty sure I have never heard anything else off the album. I'm sure I don't even have to name them, but "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" were of course MTV staples (and "staples" probably isn't even a strong enough word - MTV constants?) and then there was the Say Anything phenomenon for "In Your Eyes."
I didn't dislike any of those songs at the time but it wasn't a style of music I was interested in so I never felt the need to explore further. So I am interested to see what 50-year-old me thinks of the rest of this album.
Post-listening: wasn't expecting so many guest stars! I enjoyed this and would give it 3.5 stars if I could. I can't give it the same rating as Ill Communication (that rating is going to bother me on my deathbed) so 3 it is!
Radiohead
5/5
I can't really add anything that hasn't already been said about this brilliant album. Masterpiece.
Cyndi Lauper
3/5
Even in 1984 I dismissed Cyndi Lauper as vapid pop and I was only 9 years old! It turns out I was missing quite a bit. As I got older I learned there was a lot more going on with this album - one of the biggest revelations to me was when I learned she had covered Prince's "When You Were Mine," which I first heard (even before I knew it was a Prince song) covered by Ry Cooder in the Hot Dog ski-comedy movie.
And I continue to learn about She's So Unusual - I recently read Greil Marcus's book The History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs and one of the ten songs he wrote about was "Money Changes Everything," the opening track on this album. Lauper has gone on to have a fascinating career and is obviously a lot more than the one-(or two- or three-)hit wonder that the childhood me thought she was. Would give this 3.5 if I could. It has run up against my 4-star Ill Communication ceiling, as I suspect may 3-star albums will for the rest of this project. A 5-point rating system has pretty obvious limitations.
Tom Waits
3/5
I mentioned on his last album we reviewed that Waits is really music I have to be in the mood for (or at least open to letting it change my mood.) When I am in the mood for it (often drunk,) it is fantastic. An entire album of it, sitting at my desk, at work, does not seem like a fair environment to listen and assess. But we play the hand we are dealt. This is one of his better albums. And I learned for the first time today on Wikipedia that the guy on the cover is NOT Tom Waits.
Happy Mondays
1/5
Second sentence of the Wikipedia article: "During 1987 and early 1988, the band discovered house music and the rave drug ecstasy." Oh fun.
If I didn't already know the author of this book/project is British, the selection of this band/album would have convinced me.
I don't care for this. I guess the music is OK - I probably would have loved this in 1989 if John Lydon were screeching over it.
Thin Lizzy
3/5
Pretty fantastic selection heading into a holiday weekend.
This album answers the question "Is there such a thing as too much Thin Lizzy?"
The Police
4/5
I somehow missed this album when it was assigned (must have been Labor Day holiday) and am now listening on December 1. I vividly remember going to the Record Bar at West Town Mall with my mother to get the cassette for Men Without Hats ("Safety Dance!") and while we were there she bought this album on cassette. She later gave it to me and I still have it somewhere, probably the attic. I was never a huge Police fan but did like their MTV hits and later came to appreciate them more as I got older. I wouldn't have guessed it would happen, but when I was able to see them at Bonnaroo in 2007, I actually got really excited for the show. This was my favorite album of theirs. I'd give it a 3.5 but I'm rounding up to 4.
Pixies
4/5
It may be blasphemy in Pixies circles, but I like this one more than Surfer Rosa. It has more high points for me, anyway. But regardless I still like the Breeders more.
ABBA
2/5
For most of my life I had no use for ABBA whatsoever. Then my daughter appeared in her high school's production of Mamma Mia! and how ironic that a Swedish band would give me such an acute case of Stockholm Syndrome.
Still not something I love, but it's not horrible. An album with more of the songs I recognize from the play would get 3 stars.
Rod Stewart
3/5
I get an e-mail from SPIN magazine every week and it has a "5 albums I can't live without" feature that I usually enjoy reading. A week or two ago, the featured artist was Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) and he listed this album as one of his 5. Interesting coincidence to get this album soon after reading that.
The only original track name I recognize is "Maggie May," which is of course a classic, but I didn't know he had also covered Dylan. Reading the description of this album, it sounds like something I should like. Let's see...
I liked the title track but it went on a little too long. Liked the Dylan cover.
I enjoyed this. Easy 3 star.
T. Rex
3/5
The music is fantastic and the lyrics are so inane that at times they sound like Flight of the Conchords. Before this I had only heard "Bang a Gong" but it conveys the message pretty well.
Dire Straits
4/5
Absolute classic. While the first three tracks certainly got plenty of airplay, I think this album and band are actually under-rated, at least among people my age and under. Mark Knopfler is a musical genius.
Having become a big Dylan fan in the decades since this album came out, it's kind of crazy listening to it now and hearing the obvious influence they had on each other during this period, something I had no way of knowing at the time being all of 10 years old.
Orange Juice
2/5
Another example of how obvious it is that the guy who put this together is British. I had never heard of this band, didn't know Edwyn Collins had been in a band before the '90s, and the "hit song" single doesn't even sound remotely familiar to me. It's OK, I guess? Definitely not essential IMO. "Turn Away" reminds me a little of Talking Heads.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
A classic I own but have not listened to in a long, long time. It took me a while to understand everyone's fascination with Cohen, but it was worth the effort.
The Young Rascals
2/5
Ehhh... I don't hate it but there was so much other music being made in 1967 that I am so much more interested in. Definitely not something anyone needs to hear before they die IMO. I didn't know until today that they wrote and originally performed "You Better Run," the Benatar cover of which I also learned was the second video ever shown on MTV.
Beck
4/5
I have a vivid memory of hearing "Where It's At" for the first time. I was driving across the country for my first post-college job in Washington state and had spent a night with a college buddy in St. Louis. I was pulling out of his parents' neighborhood when the disc jockey announced with much fanfare that he was going to play the first single off Beck's next album and I immediately loved it. The album came out a few weeks later and was a big part of the soundtrack of the summer of 1996 for me. Based on this album and Paul's Boutique alone, I think the Dust Brothers probably belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I would give this 4.5 stars if I could.
Kraftwerk
2/5
I have not heard much Kraftwerk - the only song of theirs I would say I'm familiar with was "Tour de France" because it was featured in a great scene in Breakin'.
The first song here ("Robots") sounds almost like a prequel to that song.
I don't hate this but couldn't imagine listening to it a lot. It sounds like the soundtrack for an old arcade game. The lyrics are unintentionally hilarious but I'll give them a pass on that because English isn't their first language. "The Model" reminds me of the "Space Pants" SNL skit with Peter Dinklage and Gwen Stefani.
Patti Smith
5/5
I'm a little ashamed to admit that before today I had not listened to this album from start to finish, although I am certainly aware of its reputation and legend and had heard portions of it.
It's worthy of the hype. Struggled between 4 stars and 5 because it's not something I would just put on and listen to regardless of mood, but it's a classic so I'll go ahead and give it 5. (Nothing matters anymore anyway.)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
I have never been a big Neil Young fan, despite Pearl Jam's worship of him (and my one-time worship of them.) I don't DISlike his music, and I like him in interviews, but his stuff just doesn't do much for me. I know "Fuckin' Up" off this album because of Pearl Jam. "Days That Used to Be" sounds awfully familiar, lol.
This is OK. I would give this 2.5 but rounding up for PJ/Dylan.
Christine and the Queens
1/5
Sounds like an interesting artist, interesting story/background, but this music does absolutely nothing for me.
Bill Evans Trio
3/5
Enjoyed this, it reminded me of going to jazz clubs in New York with my uncle. Reading about the album I was saddened by the tragic death of Scott LaFaro.
Solomon Burke
3/5
Nearly everything I know about Solomon Burke (which is admittedly very little) came from reading Nick Hornby's High Fidelity.
(Weirdly the track listing/order on Apple Music does not match what is on the cover or on Wikipedia. But the Wikipedia page also lists only Burke (vocals) in the "Personnel" section and I definitely hear instruments being played, so who knows...)
The lyrics to "He'll Have to Go" are kind of hilarious.
"Hard Ain't It Hard" sent me down a Woody Guthrie rabbit hole.
Good album.
Van Morrison
3/5
I was never a big Van Morrison fan. I've loved some of his songs and I know his importance in the history of popular music, but I just never got into him. Wasn't thrilled to see that I will be listening to 90 minutes of him today, but I will try to go in with an open mind...
About halfway through: I think getting old has raised my Van Morrison tolerance. This is OK.
Living Colour
4/5
Hell yes. This band was big but never got as big as they should have.
I somehow did not know about Mick Jagger's involvement in this album before today, and also did not know that Corey Glover was in Platoon.
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
Some true classics on this album.
They should remake "Voices of Old People" today except it's just Paul and Art talking.
Muddy Waters
3/5
Johnny Winter (who also produced it) was credited on this album for "miscellaneous screams." This version of "Mannish Boy" may be the definitive one (thanks to Johnny's miscellaneous screams, of course.)
Nick Drake
5/5
On the previous Nick Drake album we had (Five Leaves Left) I wrote:
"Love Nick Drake. Pink Moon will get 5 stars from me. This gets 4."
I was in a generous mood, because although I do love Nick Drake, I'm not sure people need to hear TWO Nick Drake albums before they die. Still, this is the one.
Public Enemy
5/5
Genius, start to finish. Every time I listen something new jumps out at me. The hits from this album deserve their flowers but the non-hits may be even better.
Kings of Leon
2/5
Ah yes, the Kings of Leon. I remember when they were the Next Big Thing. I bought one of their albums but I don't think it was this one. (According to Google it was two albums before this one) and enjoyed it for about a year. I saw them at Bonnaroo one year and they were fine but it was memorable mainly for the power going out mid-song and they continued playing acoustically and finished the song. Of course I couldn't hear it from the roughly a mile away I was. As these guys got bigger (and then enormous) I was less interested in their sound. By the time this album came out I had moved on entirely.
Anyway, let's see how I feel about this one in 2025...
I remember hearing ABOUT "Sex On Fire" a lot back then but this song doesn't sound familiar to me. I guess I was really tuned out of popular music in 2008-09. "Use Somebody," however, did make its way to my ears quite a bit. (Funnily, though, I could have sworn the name of the song and what was sung in it was "Be Somebody," which is obviously incorrect but is the name of ANOTHER song on this album.)
This is... OK, I guess. I liked "Notion." Some of these lyrics are creepy for a band of dudes in their late 20s, particularly "I Want You." I guess they were singing to their audience but it still sounds creepy to me.
Dolly Parton
3/5
It makes me laugh thinking how disgusted 1987 me would be at how much 2025 me enjoyed this album. Three legends. What an unfortunate cover photo for Emmylou.
Blur
3/5
Never got into the whole Britpop craze - the closest I came was enjoying the Oasis albums. Or maybe loving the Trainspotting soundtrack - yeah, that's probably it. I did/do like "Song 2" but mainly when it's blasted at sporting events. The rest of this didn't bother me as much as I expected it to. And obviously it hasn't changed since 1997, so I suppose I have. (I considered the possibility that I have grown, but that seems unlikely.)
I am finding, however, with a lot of these albums I like them for about 4-5 songs but then get tired of them and like them less by the end of the album. I wonder if that is related to the way our consumption of music has changed in the streaming age where we can call up any song any time we want and we are mainly listening to playlists and not albums. Do I just not have the attention span for an album that I used to?
Whatever the case may be (maybe it's just because it's Friday afternoon,) I dare say I like this album.
The Clash
5/5
I remember buying "The Story of The Clash, Volume 1" on a school trip in 8th grade after reading so much about them and listening to it and liking it but thinking "THESE guys are considered punk?"
I finally bought this one in high school and wore it out. My family must have been so sick of it.
For me this album is the audio version of the sensation of watching The Graduate and realizing how many movies that came after it referenced it in some way or used something from it. So many of the artists I loved in the '80s and '90s wished they were The Clash/Strummer.
I have this entire album committed to memory to the point that I don't really even need to listen to it anymore, but I still get goosebumps when "London Calling" begins...
The Bees
3/5
I should probably stop quibbling over whether these albums are really NECESSARY to listen to before you die and just enjoy being introduced (and re-introduced) to music. But this album is one that would have fit within that argument pretty well.
Parts of this reminded me of Sufjan Stevens. I like it, don't love it. Very British. I liked the Os Mutantes cover. If half-stars were available it would be 2.5 for me.
Tim Buckley
3/5
I don't think I had ever listened to Tim Buckley before this. Clydie King (backup singer for Dylan, alleged wife of Dylan, mother of multiple Dylan children) sang on this!
I enjoyed it.
John Lennon
5/5
Happy birthday, John Lennon!
I really love this album. I had Imagine on vinyl in high school and probably love that one more, but this one is right up there with it. So kudos to Arthur Janov?
While listening to this, it occurred to me that The Beatles : Lennon solo :: Seinfeld : Curb Your Enthusiasm.
"Well Well Well" is the only song on here that I would describe as filler lyrically.
"Look at Me" was on the Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack (and in the movie) but could (should?) have been on the White album.
B.B. King
3/5
The Beale Street Blues Boy! 1965 was a different time, because I can't imagine a live album of a blues master/legend only being 35 minutes long today.
B.B. is so cemented in my head as an old bluesman that it is strange to hear him performing when he wasn't even 40 years old yet.
"How Blue Can You Get?" (not this version) was sampled by Primitive Radio Gods in that one song they had in 1996!
Was there a skip/error in the beginning of "You Upset Me Baby" or was that an Apple Music screw-up?
This is good but too short.
Soundgarden
4/5
It surprises friends to learn that I am not a huge Soundgarden fan. They check all the boxes of what I like in music, but I just never really got into them. However, this was my favorite album of theirs. The hits off this album were everywhere, of course, dominating MTV and radio, but I really like the other songs on here too. Cameron's drumming was really interesting and I still can't believe he ended up as Pearl Jam's drummer for nearly 30 years.
This was a great album by a great band (who just never did it for me for some reason.)
Morrissey
2/5
Ugh, Morrissey... Not a fan. I liked "Margaret on the Guillotine" because it meant the album was almost over.
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
I had heard OF this group (and album too, I guess?) but knew very little about them. Not a genre I have much experience with - reminds me of when I used to play Tropico on the PC about 20 years ago. It was cool to see that Ry Cooder was involved with this. His name seems to come up a lot when I'm reading about things I like.
I tend to focus on lyrics more than some listeners, and so it is tough for me to really and fully love music with lyrics in a language I don't speak or understand, but I do like the sound of this album. It is pleasant.
Crowded House
2/5
I never really got Eddie Vedder's fascination with Neil Finn and his bands. There's nothing really wrong with them, they just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the music Vedder championed. Must have had good childhood memories of Split Enz or something. We all have bands like that...
Anyway, this sounds about how I would expect a Crowded House album recorded in 1991 to sound. And it is absolutely NOT an album that anyone NEEDS to listen to. I liked "Four Seasons in One Day."
Blur
2/5
So for some reason my browser didn't save my review when I refreshed my screen. I do remember saying "More Blur. Hooray." somewhat sarcastically. And I believe I said that I liked each song approximately half as much as I liked the previous song. And I did like "This Is a Low." I believe that's all of it.
Miles Davis
3/5
This is alright. I prefer Kind of Blue.
If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis.
Lorde
3/5
Before listening to this, I am going to try to keep an open mind but cannot imagine that there are actually TWO Lorde albums I need to hear before I die and if there's even ONE I would assume that Pure Heroine would be it. But let's see...
I liked the first song. It reminded me of Taylor Swift, but better. About halfway into the second song, however, I am already getting kind of tired of this. Just not my genre. But I don't hate this. "The Louvre" was kind of cool.
The Go-Go's
3/5
I love this album and I am pretty sure I have never listened to it start-to-finish before today. My sister had the Vacation album on cassette when we were growing up. The Go-Gos were so fun. Belinda's delivery in "Lust to Love" reminds me strongly of Carrie Brownstein's singing in Sleater-Kinney. Used to love singing "We Got the Beat" with my daughter on Rock Band 2. I would give this 3.5 stars if I could. Or 3.9.
The Clash
4/5
I would have given this album 5 stars if we hadn't listened to London Calling so recently, but this album is definitely slightly below that one in my mind. The high points are amazing but the lesser-known songs are lesser-known for a reason. On historical importance alone this probably deserves 5 stars, but I can't give it a perfect score. It goes into the high 4.9s with Ill Communication and others.
Aretha Franklin
3/5
Aretha's version of "Respect" is so definitive that I never even knew until just now that Otis Redding did it first. Are the backing vocals on that song the greatest backing vocals in music history? I think they might be.
(I also love that this album is 32 minutes. Look, I love Jeff Tweedy and his music, but a TRIPLE album? Come on, man.)
Duran Duran
3/5
A true classic, from cover to music to videos. "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Rio" are some of my first memories of having MTV. I never owned any Duran Duran albums as a kid because you really didn't NEED to own them - they were already everywhere on the radio and MTV anyway.
The two biggest hits would get five stars from me, but the rest of the album doesn't do a lot for me (including "Save a Prayer," never really liked that one.)
Beastie Boys
4/5
Ah, dumb youth. This album was so fun when I was 13 years old and it still takes me back there. But I am glad the Beasties grew up while I was growing up - I literally cringe at some of these lyrics listening today. These guys were old enough to know better, but of course it was a different time.
Musically, it is so simple (especially compared to where they later went,) but so catchy.
I struggled with how to rate this. I really do love it and like Rio (Duran Duran) yesterday it is a genuine classic album, but I would definitely place it a rung below Ill Communication, which I rated a 4. I'm trying not to let that rating control what I give everything else, and it is tough to be consistent when you only have a 5-point scale, so I am giving this one a 4 as well. But I think an argument could be made for a 3 or a 5.
Joe Ely
2/5
I am somehow not familiar with this album or Joe Ely at all.
Which is surprising because it sounds like most of what I was exposed to listening to WIVK every day growing up in East Tennessee. And I'm sure he was in heavy rotation on that station back then.
As a teenager I would have hated this. Having (mostly) shed my lifelong disdain for all things Country, I don't love it but I definitely find it listenable and interesting.
I'm now reading the Wikipedia entry for Ely and I can't believe this dude toured with The Clash. (He sang backing vocals on "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?"!!!) Time really is a flat circle.
"Fingernails" is bizarre.
The Specials
2/5
I just never got into ska, not even the '90s re-revival. There are Clash songs I like that would probably be categorized as ska, but that's about as far as I can enjoy it.
There's a Specials video in heavy rotation on MTV Classic but I looked it up just now and it's "Ghost Town," which isn't on this album. I don't have anything else to add.
Neil Young
2/5
From my previous Neil Young review (that one with Crazy Horse): "I have never been a big Neil Young fan, despite Pearl Jam's worship of him (and my one-time worship of them.) I don't DISlike his music, and I like him in interviews, but his stuff just doesn't do much for me."
I think a big part of my problem is his voice. I like the lyrics and I like the music, but delivered by his voice it just doesn't move me. I'm somehow able to enjoy Bob Dylan, Billy Corgan, and Tom Waits singing but I guess Neil Young is where I draw the line, lol.
Green Day
3/5
I knew this album was coming at some point, lol... I liked the IDEA of it and I liked their message, but I was pretty sick of Green Day when this was released and the singles were quite over-exposed in the media I was consuming at the time so I disliked this album. Interested to see how about 20 years' distance has potentially changed that.
MID-LISTENING: It has not.
I really liked Green Day in college. But I was already getting a little sick of them by Nimrod (1997.) I still like the band, but their music all sounds the same to me now. I guess I've changed because it doesn't sound to me like they have.
Part of the repeating bridge in "Jesus of Suburbia" ("It says 'Home is where the heart is' but what a shame,") reminds me strongly of Motley Crue's "On With the Show" off Too Fast for Love, followed by the next part ("City of the damned...") sounding a lot like "Summer of '69."
Complaints about the American political climate of 2003-2004 seem so quaint now.
This album SOUNDS like it was written with the specific purpose of becoming a Broadway musical, which of course it did (and according to Wikipedia, the band listened to the cast recordings of West Side Story, The Rocky Horror Show, Grease, and Jesus Christ Superstar while recording the album.)
Ultimately I was planning to give this a 2.5, leaning closer to 2 than to 3. But then I woke up this morning to see that Dick Cheney died last night, which I interpreted as a sign to give this album a 3.
Mike Oldfield
2/5
What a shame - this album would have been perfect for last Friday (Halloween.)
I was of course familiar with at least the opening of the first track from The Exorcist but am pretty sure I had never listened to the entire song. It takes a weird turn about 6 minutes in! The part at the end where they are naming instruments and then playing them seemed unnecessary, but it's a 26-minute instrumental piece so I guess "necessary" is a pretty relative term.
I found the story of this album fascinating, particularly how it was discovered/chosen for the film and its essentially accidental role in the survival of Virgin Records.
I actually liked the first few minutes of "Tubular Bells, Pt. II" more than just about anything else on this album. And then that one gets really weird about 12 minutes in. And closes with a very familiar tune that I now know is called "Sailor's Hornpipe."
I don't hate this but it's not really my cup of tea.
Aerosmith
3/5
LOL I don't remember ever seeing the cover of this album. I would have loved that in 1989.
The return of Aerosmith! I was a big fan of their first greatest hits album in middle school, owing largely to Run-DMC and peer pressure. I still like that old stuff but never really got into this Bon Jovi-esque turn for them. The videos were great though - I was, after all, a teenaged boy. It never occurred to me at the time how creepy it was for Steven Tyler to have his own daughter portrayed that way. Ah, youth. But that all came later, I suppose... Pump - let's see, I only recognize a couple of track titles here. And all of them are just because of MTV.
Had never heard the "Dulcimer Stomp" intro to "The Other Side," that was kind of cool.
I love how they just ran out of lyrics in "Don't Get Mad, Get Even" lol.
There are some interesting ideas here (probably mostly from the brain of Jim Vallance) but this is ultimately just bland late-'80s MTV rock.
When I scanned the track titles, "What It Takes" did not look familiar to me, but when the lyrics started I was singing along - I know this song! Bumped it up from a 2 to a 3. (Also, never having listened to this album I didn't know that "F.I.N.E.-fine" was a callback to another song on the album.)
Devendra Banhart
3/5
(Note: I know I clicked "Save" multiple times after finishing this review yesterday but turning my computer on this morning I can see portions missing. That's annoying. I've tried to replace them from memory.)
Have seen the name a lot but never checked out his stuff.
I like this! Reminds me of Donovan or someone else I can't put my finger on from the '60s. Saw T. Rex comparisons online but not sure that's it. Hmm.... Mungo Jerry? Nick Drake! The sparse accompaniment and the vocal effects (but not the actual vocals) remind me of Nick Drake. That's it. A happier Nick Drake. "Autumn's Child" strongly reminded me of Sufjan Stevens.
About halfway through the album I am not sure if this is something I can listen to constantly but seems like something I would enjoy popping up in a mix.
The closers ("Insect Eyes" into "Autumn's Child") were my favorite part of this album.
The Who
3/5
My previous review of Who's Next holds true for this album as well: "Obviously a classic, but I was never able to get into The Who like other people. I had the greatest hits and that was more than enough for me. This album was well-represented on there. The hits on this album are of course great, but the rest does nothing for me. I wouldn't use ANY of them for CSI theme songs."
This album is rawer than that one and I like that. The lyrics are rawer too and I don't really like that. Some of this reminds me of the former groups shown in This is Spinal Tap.
The opening guitar tremolo of "Out in the Street" reminded me of Johnny Marr's opening to "How Soon Is Now?" Daltrey's impression of Bo Diddley for "I'm a Man" was surprisingly passable. I don't think I knew Jimmy Page played on this album until I read the Wikipedia page.
This is fine. I don't dislike The Who. I just don't see what the big deal about them is. And Townshend is a weirdo.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Yikes, a double album on a Monday morning?
I saw this group at Lollapalooza one year and it didn't make me want to go find more of their music. Let's see if the 30+ years since then have opened my palate up a bit...
It may be just because I watched part of Rocky Horror this weekend, but at times Cave's singing reminds me of Tim Curry in that film. Other times he sounds like if Tom Waits had never smoked a cigarette. And this is another album (albums?) that sounds to me like it was written with a stage show in mind.
This is OK. Don't love it, don't hate it. I liked the closer, "O Children."
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
A friend burned this onto a cassette for me in middle school. I remember listening to it for the first time on my yellow Sony Walkman and feeling my mind get blown. I came to love other Hendrix albums more over time, but this one will always be special to me. Enjoyed listening to it again today.
Pere Ubu
2/5
Had heard OF these guys but never heard them. Don't care for the high-pitched noise throughout the opening track. There are moments and aspects of this album that I like but it is a little too noise/avant-garde for my current taste.
Kate Bush
3/5
Kate Bush was a huge blind spot for me until Stranger Things. I had heard her name but could not have told you a single thing about her or her music. I blame MTV, lol.
I like this. It sounds like the '80s, but not in a cheesy, commercial way. While listening to these 1001 albums I've often wondered how different my musical taste would have been if I had been born ten years earlier. Coming of age and actually being in college when "college rock" was first becoming a thing. I feel like Kate Bush would have been a favorite of mine in that alternate reality. I like what I hear from her now, but it can't "grab" me like I think it would have if I had first listened to it as a teenager.
The Kinks
3/5
My personal history with the Kinks is kind of hilarious (considering their import and influence) but probably somewhat common of people close to my age: I was introduced to them by "Come Dancing" on MTV and that will always be the first song I think of when I hear their name. And of course that song is in no way a representation of who the Kinks were, at least not a complete one. I still love it though.
Anyway, I read quite a bit about this album before ever hearing it. It is always listed on "Greatest _____ albums ever" or "[Rock legend]'s favorite albums of all time" lists. When I finally got around to listening to it I liked it but it didn't blow me away. I guess you had to be there. I like the Kinks - they sort of remind me of a British proto-Replacements, with their garage-y, shambolic sound. And the cheekiness. Can't forget the cheekiness. This album also reminds me a bit of the poppier side of early Pink Floyd.
I really liked "Wicked Annabella" and "Monica."
Van Morrison
3/5
My previous Van Morrison review (for a double album): "I was never a big Van Morrison fan. I've loved some of his songs and I know his importance in the history of popular music, but I just never got into him. Wasn't thrilled to see that I will be listening to 90 minutes of him today, but I will try to go in with an open mind...
About halfway through: I think getting old has raised my Van Morrison tolerance. This is OK."
Moondance is the Van Morrison album I would have most expected to see in this project. Actually no, that's probably Astral Weeks. But this was very popular with girls in college. I dated a girl who was very fond of the non-word "fantabulous" - that did not help me enjoy this album today. But recognizing "Everyone" from the end of Royal Tenenbaums DID help me enjoy it.
Lucinda Williams
4/5
This is fantastic. I briefly wished I had discovered music like this sooner in my life but then I realized that I wasn't ready for it back then.
Primal Scream
2/5
Yet another band I had heard OF but don't think I had ever actually HEARD. Seeing that it came out in 1997 made me a little nervous - that year was kind of the threshold between a lot of music that I loved and a lot of music that I hated. This music sounds familiar to me - maybe I actually DID hear it at some point? It was probably playing in a lot of the bars I was hanging out in back in those days. The singer reminds me of Damon Albarn. The first song was OK but I liked it less and less with each song. I think this music was on the other side of that threshold. "Kowalski" samples the movie that Axl was quoting in "Breakdown" on Use Your Illusion II. Just looked up the video of the original and never knew it was Cleavon Little! Guess I need to see Vanishing Point now. Did not like "If They Move, Kill 'Em" at all. Nor "Stuka." I am going to disagree with the author that anyone needs to hear this album before they die.
Aha! "Trainspotting!" Of course I've heard that! OK, I like that one (although probably less than any other song on that soundtrack.) But that's about it.
Air
3/5
PRE-LISTENING: I have not seen the film so this will not have any nostalgic value for me, but I am going to try to go in with an open mind. That being said, I am not encouraged by the description of the group as a "French electronic music duo."
WHILE LISTENING: I like this more than I thought I would. But it definitely seems like at least a passing familiarity with the film would help. Being a film score with very few lyrics, this is pretty good music to have on in the background while working. The opening of "High School Lover" sounds almost exactly like Pink Floyd's "Great Gig in the Sky" (and reminiscent of "Breathe.") I chuckled aloud when I heard this really upbeat song and went to look at the title and it was "Dead Bodies."
POST-LISTENING: A pleasant surprise! I may even check out the movie eventually. Sounds like a light-hearted romp.
Nina Simone
3/5
Nina is of course a legend, but I hadn't heard more than a song here and there, or snippets in documentaries. This is not music I would want to listen to all the time but it is undeniably good.
Neil Young
3/5
OK, I'm about Neil Young'd out. (This is the third NY album we've had, and all fairly recently.)
I liked the opener ("Walk On")! And the second song too. It appears that 1974 is my personal sweet spot for Neil Young. Musically, a lot of this reminds me of what Dylan was doing around this same time, which of course makes sense. It also reminds me of MJ Lenderman, who I've been listening to a lot lately. Similar vibe.
I like this more than Ragged Glory, which I also gave a 3 but was more of a 2.5. This is a 3.5.
Paul Simon
2/5
I would describe myself as an "extremely casual Paul Simon fan." There is some of his music I really enjoy, but most of his catalog - including this album - I am completely unfamiliar with. My mother had just a couple of cassettes in her car when I was a kid, and I remember hearing them on repeat on trips. One was a Juice Newton cassette and the other was Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years. Hearing his music reminds me of that time. Coincidentally, this album was released during the actual time I'm remembering.
Some of this (particularly "When Numbers Get Serious") strongly reminds me of what Talking Heads were doing around this time.
I know I've seen/read the title of "Rene and Georgette Magritte with their Dog After the War" and possibly heard it, but it doesn't sound familiar to me. And I've never heard the rest. I liked "The Late Great Johnny Ace."
I'd give this a 2.5 probably. Rounded down because of "Cars Are Cars."
Little Simz
3/5
Unsurprisingly, had never even heard of Little Simz until just now. 30 seconds into the first track and I LIKE this.
Jerry Lee Lewis
3/5
I've been listening to a podcast called "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs" (which like this project is also written by a Bristish music fan) and despite having listened to 62 episodes I am only up to "Susie Q" by Dale Hawkins - it is a very granular look at the history of the form. But Jerry Lee has already featured prominently in several episodes. He was obviously a legend for good and bad reasons and I think this album does a pretty good job of showing what his shows were like in 1964. And the songs here are all classics, of course. (At the end of "Long Tall Sally" Apple Music interpreted the final lyric as "A lost bubble leave by the lost bamboo," which I found pretty funny.)
OutKast
4/5
Ah, memories of 2003! Haven't listened to this album all the way through in over 10 years, maybe over 15? Always preferred Andre's disc and today was no different, but both were refreshing today.
The Smiths
2/5
More Smiths. Yay. /s
The Auteurs
2/5
Before listening, I am going to make a wild guess that an album by a British rock band I've never heard of that came out in 1993 - around the time my musical awareness may have been at its peak - is NOT going to be one I needed to listen to before I die. But let's see how it goes...
First song, I kind of like the music but this singer sounds like he is doing an affectation. Like he's trying to be funny. Like Bret from Flight of the Conchords aping Bowie.
Each additional song: Is this just how this guy sang? I don't think I could listen to a lot of this. But I see how the Wikipedia article quoted people saying this kind of paved the way for Britpop - I can hear some of this influence in Blur.
I thought this was decent at first but liked it less and less as it went on. "Idiot Brother" had some funny lines.
Would have given it a 3 about 4 songs in. Having finished the album, it's a 2 for me.
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
I loved Sisters of Mercy but really only loved ONE album of theirs: Vision Thing. Listened to it CONSTANTLY in high school. I had Floodland but didn't like it nearly as much so I didn't listen to it a lot. I wonder if any of this will even sound familiar?...
"Flood I" sounds like what would be playing in a trippy nightclub sequence from an '80s movie about vampires. A lot of this album does, actually.
I do remember "1959."
This was better than I remember it. Still no Vision Thing though.
Rahul Dev Burman
3/5
A Bollywood soundtrack! Interesting! The entirety of my knowledge of anything related to Bollywood comes from my love of the Cornershop song "Brimful of Asha." That song is a tribute to Asha Bhosle, who has a song on this soundtrack, and it mentions others that were involved with this film.
I'm not sure how "necessary" this album is, or how much it would have been enhanced by at least a passing familiarity with the film. I enjoyed listening to it but the entire time I was aware that the music was supposed to accompany visuals that I couldn't see. In an odd way the experience reminded me of watching an Italian movie (with no subtitles) in Italy last summer, so while I could see what was happening I couldn't understand what anyone was saying.
David Bowie
3/5
I could be wrong, but I think this is our first THREE-time artist appearing in the list? I don't think I have ever heard anything off this album, so let's jump in...
This is fine. Sounds exactly how I would have expected late-era Bowie to sound.
The last song ("Heat") and a few other moments on here reminded me a lot of Blackstar, which makes sense.
3/5
All I know of War is the hits I heard growing up ("Spill the Wine, "Low Rider," "Why Can't We Be Friends?") Trivia I just learned from Wikipedia: "Their show at Ronnie Scott's Club in London on September 16, 1970, is historically notable for being the last public performance for Jimi Hendrix, who joined them onstage for the last 35 minutes of Burdon and War's second set; a day later he was dead."
I bet these guys were amazing live.
It just occurred to me that the album cover reminds me of the intro to Bob's Burgers - I wonder if that is intentional.
Maxwell
3/5
I remember the name Maxwell but was not into R&B at all when he burst onto the scene. And until reading the Wikipedia entry, I was not aware that "quiet storm" was a genre.
Found myself enjoying the repeating guitar outro in "Welcome" and went to look up who played it. Ah yes, of course! Wah Wah Watson! (lol)
I Googled and find it hard to believe that Maxwell was never on an episode of Beverly Hills 90210. This really seems like Peach Pit After Dark music. But he apparently went straight from this album to MTV Unplugged, so I guess he skipped the 90210 step.
I liked this but as I have noticed with a lot of the albums in this project, I got tired of it about halfway through. I wonder how much this is caused by how we typically consume music these days, not listening to entire albums anymore. (Theoretically this project should mitigate this effect, since I am listening to at least one album all the way through every Monday through Friday.)
Violent Femmes
5/5
In March of 1992 I went on my high school's "Senior Spring Break Trip" to Cocoa Beach, FL. It was unchaperoned, which looking back was absurd and dangerous. While there, my best friend's brother (a college freshman at Northwestern) and his college friends drove through Cocoa on their way to Key West and my buddy and I decided to join them.
We were in a Subaru station wagon (where I slept for the entire Key West interlude) that had a cassette player and we had two cassettes: THIS album, with which I was not yet familiar, and a cassingle of Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" (the back side was the same song in Spanish.) Over the coming days I got to know both cassettes EXTREMELY well.
Every song on this album takes me right back to that station wagon. It is a classic and deserves every star I can give it. And I think 17 years old was the perfect age to discover and fall in love with it.
Harry Nilsson
3/5
About ten years ago an aunt and uncle expressed disbelief that I was not familiar with the the catalog of Harry Nilsson, so I went and bought this album. He really was underrated/unsung, at least to people roughly my age and younger. Some great and classic songs here, my favorite of which is "Jump Into the Fire" which will always remind me of the helicopter scene from Goodfellas. I would give this 3.5 stars (or even 3.9!) but it doesn't quite reach 4 for me.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Is this our first Springsteen entry? I think it is. I LIKE (don't love) most of Springsteen's stuff but this would be my favorite of his. I have no problem with The Boss but I just never got why people go so nuts over him, even after seeing him live (and everyone assured me I would "get it" when I saw him live.) Not sure why but his music just never clicked with me. That probably means I could never be a sportswriter.
This album is a classic though, and deserves all its accolades. I can't personally give it a 5 but it's very close. And that is saying quite a lot with my general Springsteen attitude.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Two in a row? I have listened to this before but it's been a while and I was not as Springsteen-tolerant back then. Let's see how it goes THIS time...
Still sounds like Springsteen doing a decent Dylan impression. It's fine. I did really like My Father's House.
Tori Amos
3/5
I've never explored the catalog of Tori Amos and I'm not sure why - she fits the description of music I would like. I think it probably has to do with the timing of when she burst onto the scene (with this album, coincidentally,) and it didn't sound like anything that I was into at the time.
I've liked just about everything I have heard from Tori and that includes this album.
Fred Neil
3/5
I'm somehow not familiar with Fred Neil, and after reading about him that surprises me. I remember reading that Dylan used to cover "Shake Sugaree," though it doesn't sound familiar to me. And of course I know "Everybody's Talkin'."
I now see that Dylan wrote in Chronicles about getting up onstage with Neil when he first got to NYC, but I read that book like 20 years ago and that detail didn't stick with me.
Wire
3/5
Nearly all of my knowledge of Wire comes from reading about them rather than listening to them - when I learned about this band/album and their importance, the internet did not yet exist to make it easy (and free) to listen to it. Wikipedia classifies them as "post-punk" but 21 songs in 35 minutes sounds pretty punk to me, particularly from 1977. Apple Music classifies it as "Rock," which of course most of what we call punk basically was, musically at least. It's interesting to me that we are retroactively calling this "post-punk" when it was released about a month after Never Mind the Bollocks.
Nomenclature aside, I like this more than I expected to in my old age. I read on the Wikipedia page that "Three Girl Rhumba" influenced Elastica's "Connection" and wondered if I would be able to pick it out, which is kind of hilarious now listening to it.
This is very close to 4 stars for me.
Norah Jones
4/5
Ha ha, I felt so eclectic, so open-minded when I started listening to this album non-stop in 2002. It was very different from the music I had been listening to since basically childhood. It was a transitional time in my life in a lot of ways and I was broadening my horizons musically too.
Norah is brilliant and this album is amazing.
Arcade Fire
3/5
I don't think I've ever listened to this album. I didn't love Funeral like everyone else did, so I didn't feel the need to check any more of their stuff out. I'm curious to see if I recognize any of these songs though, because these guys were everywhere for a while.
Sounds pretty similar to Funeral. I kind of liked "Intervention."
I'd give this 2.5, rounding up because I'm feeling generous. I just don't love these guys like a lot of my friends do. Not sure why.
Sugar
3/5
I was never a big fan of the Bob Mould stuff I heard growing up. When I was in 5th grade I remember the "cooler" seniors at my school had Husker Du posters in their lockers and it made me curious to see what they sounded like. When I eventually did after buying Zen Arcade in college, it didn't do much for me. I'm much older now, so let's see how this goes...
I like this but Mould buries his vocals too far down in the mix. "Helpless" sounds familiar - I must have seen that on 120 Minutes back in the day.
Beach House
3/5
This was OK, hadn't listened to much of them before and an entire album was a bit much for me but wouldn't mind hearing some of these tracks in a mix.
Various Artists
4/5
I now wish I had checked in on Christmas! Kind of weird listening to Christmas music on December 29. But this album is obviously a classic. Phil Spector was an abusive weirdo (and murderer) but he produced some great music.
AC/DC
3/5
As Winston Wolf says, "If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor" - had four albums to catch up on today because of the holiday. I feel like this album deserves more commentary than I'm about to give it but I'm not really in the mood. I enjoyed AC/DC when I was younger but at some point it all started sounding the same to me. RIP Bon Scott.
Queens of the Stone Age
3/5
I considered myself a QOTSA fan until yesterday when this album came up and I realized I had never listened to it. I came in on Songs for the Deaf and only went back as far as Rated R. This is good, as expected. And rawer/more basic, as expected. The seeds were definitely here, but they were already pretty well-sprouted. This is better than a 3 but not quite a 4 for me.