240
Albums Rated
3.43
Average Rating
22%
Complete
849 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1950
Favorite Decade
Soul
Favorite Genre
other
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
43
5-Star Albums
12
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Club Classics Vol. One
Soul II Soul
|
5 | 2.82 | +2.18 |
|
Vento De Maio
Elis Regina
|
5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
|
Sound Affects
The Jam
|
5 | 3.26 | +1.74 |
|
Tommy
The Who
|
5 | 3.33 | +1.67 |
|
Joan Armatrading
Joan Armatrading
|
5 | 3.34 | +1.66 |
|
Fear Of A Black Planet
Public Enemy
|
5 | 3.34 | +1.66 |
|
Odessey And Oracle
The Zombies
|
5 | 3.41 | +1.59 |
|
Rio
Duran Duran
|
5 | 3.5 | +1.5 |
|
Songs For Swingin' Lovers!
Frank Sinatra
|
5 | 3.52 | +1.48 |
|
So
Peter Gabriel
|
5 | 3.53 | +1.47 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
...And Justice For All
Metallica
|
1 | 3.42 | -2.42 |
|
Real Life
Magazine
|
1 | 3.06 | -2.06 |
|
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Byrds
|
1 | 3.04 | -2.04 |
|
Ray Of Light
Madonna
|
1 | 3.01 | -2.01 |
|
For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music
|
1 | 2.98 | -1.98 |
|
Vulgar Display Of Power
Pantera
|
1 | 2.97 | -1.97 |
|
Viva Hate
Morrissey
|
1 | 2.96 | -1.96 |
|
The Sun Rises In The East
Jeru The Damaja
|
1 | 2.91 | -1.91 |
|
BEYONCÉ
Beyoncé
|
1 | 2.86 | -1.86 |
|
Songs The Lord Taught Us
The Cramps
|
1 | 2.84 | -1.84 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 3 | 4.67 |
| Nirvana | 3 | 4.67 |
| Black Sabbath | 2 | 5 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Metallica | 2 | 1.5 |
5-Star Albums (43)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Peter Gabriel · 4 likes
5/5
And my heaven will be a big heaven / And I will walk through the front door
So much I love about this album. It was important to sensitive kids in the 80s. It’s great, maybe not perfect but close enough.
Pearl Jam · 2 likes
5/5
Along with Nevermind, the album that most defined an era. It’s terrific
The Jam · 1 likes
5/5
This is a great album full of spectacular drums, bass and guitar. I could listen to it all day. In fact, I just did.
That's Entertainment and Start! are classics for a reason (sure, Start! lifts the bassline from Taxman, but if it didn't bother the Beatles, it doesn't bother me).
Boy about Town though, which I'd never heard before Is two minutes of joy. What a great song. I love the horns on this track and god, the drums are great.
Hard to find a weak spot on this album. Really good from start to finish and the drums and bass are killer throughout.
If Peter Weller was just a little bit stronger as a vocalist, this album would have been a monumental classic and broken through in North America. He's not quite show-offy enough for the US.
The Auteurs · 1 likes
3/5
I don't hate it, but I think this album could have been so much better if the arrangements and production were simplified. I often find myself asking "did this song really need a cello or a harmonica or a xylophone?"
In contrast to the instrumentation, the vocals are a bit generic and lacking a punch that would lift this above the other bands of the day.
Not sure I'd come back to this album again, but "American Guitars" is a good tune that I hadn't heard before. I also liked "Housebreaker" and "Idiot Brother"
Beyoncé · 1 likes
1/5
Overproduced and self-indulgent.
I’ve never listened to an album that so desperately needed an editor to step in and kill half of what’s going on.
Every song seems to have 20 things happening simultaneously, making it impossible to pay attention to anything. I’m sure there are great songs here, and I wouldn’t mind listening to a stripped-back version of some of them, with more focus on Beyoncé’s voice and less layered synth, tinny drum sounds, random background vocals, samples, and pounding bass.
The whole thing gives the effect of trying to listen to multiple radio stations at the same time.
Ultimately, this is one star because there’s not a single song I would include on a playlist, and as an album, it just a tedious bore that goes on and on and on.
1-Star Albums (12)
All Ratings
Moby
3/5
Like a time capsule within a time capsule, not only for the extensive use of blues samples but also because this album feels totally tied to 2000.
The first half of the album feels stronger to me than the second which gets looser and more ambient and the theme of using blues samples is abandoned.
The grooves on the big singles elevate this well beyond the ordinary though. A happy piece of nostalgia through over-licensing has made it feel like sitting through a loop of perfume commercials.
5/5
When the most popular band in the world decides that instead of cashing in on what has already made them popular, they will instead change the history of rock and roll by producing an inventive concept album that includes not only what would become classic radio hits, but also sitar and a some about a 19th-century circus act, you've got to respect that.
This may not be the greatest album ever, but it might very well be the most important.
Alanis Morissette
2/5
There's something fundamentally dishonest about this album of slickly produced pop tunes. It captured a moment in the 90s when girls could be angry, but Alanis never actually seemed angry. It was all a put-on. Alanis has a great voice and might have thrived as a singer-songwriter singing honest, heartfelt tunes, but instead the legacy is this. At the height of the "alternative music", borrowing heavily from Seattle sound, a Canadian pop teen and former television personality pretending to be tough and perverted.
Kraftwerk
4/5
All hail our robot overlords.
What a fun record. I wouldn’t listen to this every night but it is a great reminder of the optimism of futurism in the 1970s.
Michael Jackson
4/5
For the best selling album ever, this is a disappointment. Not a terrible album by any means. Beat It and Billie Jean are great songs that totally stand the test of time. Wanna Be Starting Something is also pretty good though I don’t love the drums (frankly the drum machine on the whole album aren’t my favourite.)
But can Thriller really be a classic pop song when it has been reduced to a Halloween novelty?
The (Doggone) Girl is Mine has to be the worst song either Jackson orPaul McCartney ever recorded.
And then the rest of the album is fairly charmless adult contemporary filler.
Four stars on the strength of Beat It and Billie Jean.
Elton John
4/5
Great range of songs here, including some all time greats but at about half a dozen songs could have been left out to make a single album would have been absolutely killer instead of a double album that drags in places.
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting is a towering classic.
I know everyone loves Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. It’s not my favourite but I can get behind the idea of it as almost an overture of sorts.
Candle in the Wind is such a tearjerker even after so many listens after so many years.
Bennie and the Jets. People love this but I get distracted by the Bu-bu-bus and that hiss at the end of Jets every time.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is lovely though and Grey Seal is underrated as an Elton John song. It’s got a lot of pep.
Sweet Painted Lady works for me as a quieter song that helps balance the album and while not a classic, Dirty Little Girl had its charms. With All the Girls love Alice these make for an interesting collection of songs about girls in one kind of trouble or another.
Roy Rogers is a keeper.
There’s a bit of filler here though that could have been easily cut and the album would have been stronger for it
- This Song has No Title
- Jamaica Jerk-Off (obviously)
- I’ve Seen that Movie Too
- The Ballad of Danny Bailey
- Your Sister Can’t Twist
Norah Jones
3/5
The definitive Coffee House chill-out album and certainly not without its charms, but there is an overwhelming sameness here that makes the whole album blend into a pile of pleasant mush. Jones has a beautiful voice with terrific texture though, and there are a few tracks here I'd happily listen to again.
But ultimately this winds up being boring and doesn't reward much from re-listening.
The Auteurs
3/5
I don't hate it, but I think this album could have been so much better if the arrangements and production were simplified. I often find myself asking "did this song really need a cello or a harmonica or a xylophone?"
In contrast to the instrumentation, the vocals are a bit generic and lacking a punch that would lift this above the other bands of the day.
Not sure I'd come back to this album again, but "American Guitars" is a good tune that I hadn't heard before. I also liked "Housebreaker" and "Idiot Brother"
CHVRCHES
4/5
What a self-assured debut record this is. Fun, well-produced synth-pop with a bit of an 80s feel to it, but updated for the 2010s.
Lauren Mayberry has a terrific voice that you want to spend time with.
The Mother We Share is a strong start and there are a lot of songs here that reward repeated playing. We Sink, Tether, Lies, Recover and a couple others are all strong. Overall this is an enjoyable album, even if the songs do tend to blend together.
The Jam
5/5
This is a great album full of spectacular drums, bass and guitar. I could listen to it all day. In fact, I just did.
That's Entertainment and Start! are classics for a reason (sure, Start! lifts the bassline from Taxman, but if it didn't bother the Beatles, it doesn't bother me).
Boy about Town though, which I'd never heard before Is two minutes of joy. What a great song. I love the horns on this track and god, the drums are great.
Hard to find a weak spot on this album. Really good from start to finish and the drums and bass are killer throughout.
If Peter Weller was just a little bit stronger as a vocalist, this album would have been a monumental classic and broken through in North America. He's not quite show-offy enough for the US.
Pixies
4/5
Just a really good album from a great band that defined alt-rock.
The three-song run Velouria, Allison and Is She Weird? is one of my favourite sections of just about any album ever and Dig for Fire has a great hook that lives in my head for days anytime I hear it. Maybe just shy of greatness.
AC/DC
5/5
What do you say about an album that is surely perfect for what it is, even if it’s not to your taste?
Now 45 years since this album came out and it has stood the test of time better than just about any record I can think of. The music has nearly the same ability to capture testosterone-fueled young men today as it did then. These drum-and-guitar-driven tunes feel as relevant as ever to the people they were aimed at.
There's not a not to think about here, but that's not the point. It's an absolute classic and an amazing achievement and the fact that it also came together just after the death of Bon Scott makes it even more remarkable.
Fairport Convention
3/5
Sandy Denny’s voice makes this album work for me, but the updated traditional songs full of the doings of lords and ladies and faeries and knights aren’t my thing. It would be very enjoyable at a Ren Faire or a Caleigh it’s just not the sort of thing I care to listen to outside of that context.
New Order
3/5
It is quite a pleasant record, but ultimately I find it a bit boring. Electro-pop can be lacking in emotion and that's what I find here. If there were some big ideas or something that would be another matter, but this is just pleasant dancehall fodder. Nothing excites me, nothing offends me, nothing challenges me. There's nothing terribly wrong with making a pleasant record, of course, it's just not my thing.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
2/5
Kicks is great. It is like one of those songs that appear in a Quentin Tarantino movie and you’re like, wow, what is this song? Of course, another Paul Revere tune, Hungry, was used in exactly that way.
There are a few other bright spots on the album and it’s definitely of its time with influences of the British Invasion and The Beach Boys very evident. This is a step down from those other bands though and unfortunately much of the album is a bit dull.
Lou Reed
5/5
I'm a sucker for Lou Reed. His time with the Velvet Underground was groundbreaking and mind-expanding for everyone who heard the music.
For this album, Perfect Day is one of my favourite songs of all time. It stops me in my tracks no matter where I am when I hear it.
Of course, Walk on the Wild Side is a monumental work of art. So simple with its bass line and brushed snare and the fact that a song about a transvestite prostitute giving head can be played on the radio just blows my mind.
Satellite of Love is also a beautiful song that I could listen to over and over again.
Steely Dan
2/5
To me this sounds like the embodiment of my memories of inoffensive AM radio. Real Boomer music here.
It’s all very competent and pleasant and may even have been innovative for its time but there’s nothing here that gets me excited.
Beyoncé
1/5
Overproduced and self-indulgent.
I’ve never listened to an album that so desperately needed an editor to step in and kill half of what’s going on.
Every song seems to have 20 things happening simultaneously, making it impossible to pay attention to anything. I’m sure there are great songs here, and I wouldn’t mind listening to a stripped-back version of some of them, with more focus on Beyoncé’s voice and less layered synth, tinny drum sounds, random background vocals, samples, and pounding bass.
The whole thing gives the effect of trying to listen to multiple radio stations at the same time.
Ultimately, this is one star because there’s not a single song I would include on a playlist, and as an album, it just a tedious bore that goes on and on and on.
The Cramps
1/5
Sounds like it was recorded with tin cans and strings at the bottom of a disused backyard swimming pool. Can’t hear a goddamn thing. Every instrument and vocal is echoey and garbled.
I can almost get behind "I Was a Teenage Werewolf," but, honestly, I only like the opening guitar riff. Then, they ruin the track. I really don't like anything else here.
This is the sort of album that many people love because of how terrible it is. It’s raw and weird, and in some ways it’s what rock and roll is all about, but come on. This sounds like a band you hear in a friend’s garage in high school on a Tuesday afternoon, one week after they figured out how to plug in their amp. It’s not campy or fun, it’s just juvenile.
Jazmine Sullivan
3/5
I don't hate this but It's not for me. I admire the ambition of it, even if I won't listen to it again.
Amy Winehouse
5/5
Brilliant, soulful, and ultimately sad. I could listen to this a thousand times.
Guns N' Roses
4/5
A miracle of a debut album. How do you put together a bunch of songs that are best suited to getting an entire arena jumping before anyone knows who you are?
It's almost incomprehensible to think that there was a world before Sweet Child O'Mine or Welcome to the Jungle. Etc. Only reason to keep it out of 5 stars is that I personally find it a bit boring, but that’s probably just that it’s so familiar.
ABBA
4/5
I’ve never listened to ABBA outside of hits compilations so it was interesting to hear a few songs I wasn’t familiar with but I think I’ll stick with the hits if I want a dose of ABBA. Hard to argue with the big hits here though that are as comfortable as the couch in your mother’s basement.
The Stooges
4/5
1969 and I Wanna Be Your Dog are an amazing 1-2 punch to open this album but then the sleepy "We Will Fall" ten minutes of B-grade psychedelia mars that amazing start.
Other than We Will Fall, though, this is otherwise a pretty flawless, classic proto-punk album.
The Byrds
1/5
From totally generic folk rock to unlistenable noodling on a MOOG synth this is an excruciating album.
The Allman Brothers Band
3/5
These guys seem like great musicians. They should try writing some songs.
The Cure
4/5
This is a terrific album. I just don’t want to add it to my list of five-star albums because I don’t want to listen to it over and over again. I totally understand why people love this album, I just don’t need any help feeling depressed.
The Police
3/5
This album is a lot like tantric sex. It’s pleasant but it goes on and one without ever coming to a climax. After you’ve experienced it once it’s a bit of a bore.
Sisters Of Mercy
3/5
Goth classic. It’s okay and I really dig Mother Russia but the rest of the album doesn’t really do it for me.
Frank Sinatra
5/5
I mean, what a voice. No one has done it better since and many have tried.
Beatles
5/5
In so many ways the quintessential Beatles album. Mature and confident with Lennon & McCartney at the peak of their powers. No sitars, no George Martin experiments or Phil Spector Wall of Sound, just clean, pure, well composed and produced 60s pop music. I love it.
4/5
Just short of 5 stars from me, but I love the album.
Nas
5/5
There are so many amazing things about this record. It’s not just the miracle that exists and Nas’s story, that the lyricism is great and that the album is honest and real, it’s that this is musically such a sophisticated and purely enjoyable album on top of all of that. A masterpiece.
Peter Gabriel
5/5
And my heaven will be a big heaven / And I will walk through the front door
So much I love about this album. It was important to sensitive kids in the 80s. It’s great, maybe not perfect but close enough.
De La Soul
4/5
Remember when rap used to be the most fun genre of music? De La Soul was the pinnacle of that. Extra points for how thoroughly happy this album made me.
Hugh Masekela
4/5
This is exactly the type of stuff I was hoping to discover when starting this project. I’m not sure I would have stumbled upon Hugh Masekela myself. Really enjoyable album. My only complaint would be that many of the songs get ragged towards the end as drum solos or crazy horns move away from the beautiful musicality of at the beginning of the track.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
A monster of an album. Funky and creative and full of classics. Never annoying, never boring. I love it.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
2/5
Not really into this, though it was fine background music for an afternoon. I didn’t annoy me, which is more than I can say for a lot of music.
Kings of Leon
2/5
Nickelback, but three times more successful and twice as dumb. Not bad enough to be one star, but so generic and forgettable.
Louis Prima
3/5
A bit goofy, really. And if you’re in just the right mood for it, this could be the album you need. It’s a novelty album though and would have made a great live show. As for something to sit at home and listen to, I’m not so sure.
Jump, Jive, a Wail is great though. Extra star just for the joy of that.
Pink Floyd
3/5
The only concept album I’m really interested in is this: “Me and my friends thought it would be a cool idea to put together a whole album full of songs people would really like and want to listen to over and over again.”
This album is a slog. I don’t want to have it explained to me. I don’t want to have to be high to enjoy it. I don’t want to watch the accompanying film. The Wall may be a great piece of art, I don’t know. What I do know is that the great tracks here are buried under an endless Roger Waters’ wank-fest. If you cut out all the faff, this would be an incredible album. Instead, it is a three-star album with pretensions of greatness.
Elite tracks:
Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2
Comfortably Numb
Good tracks:
Mother
Hey You
Good enough for filler:
In the Flesh?
Goodbye Blue Sky
The Show Must Go On
Run Like Hell
Chuck everything else. Now you’ve got an album I’ll happily listen to on repeat.
The Zombies
5/5
Criminally neglected classic.
Jacques Brel
3/5
A fun puce of cultural history. I think that even non-French speakers can appreciate some of the wordplay, just from the sounds of the words. Not an album I’m dying to listen to again but I don’t regret spending a day with it.
The Black Crowes
3/5
Doesn't hold up as well as I thought it would when the album popped up for me this morning. The big hits feel tired and the album as a whole feels derivative and a bit boring. By no means terrible, it just doesn’t excite me at all.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
More than anything, this album makes me sad. Leonard Cohen was a giant, a genius, a ladies man, a hero and a victim. I can’t listen to this without thinking of him recording it in his living room, in pain, suffering from spine fractures not long after a manager stole most of the money he had earned.
This is not m favourite Cohen album but it is a more than worthy final bow. I think I’ll have a good cry now.
Blondie
4/5
A classic new wave album that brings back a lot of memories. Maybe a bit too poppy, a bit over produced and clean, but a classic.
Charles Mingus
3/5
Such a strange album. It's all over the place and just when you think you know what's happening, here comes some flamenco guitar. I'm aware that Mingus was a genius and that this is a great work of art. It's just not for me.
The Electric Prunes
2/5
What a weird album. It’s often described as early psychedelic but there’s not a lot that’s recognizable as psychedelic here. It’s really all over the place. At least these guys sound like they are having fun. By the time you get to “The King is in the Counting House” it’s really impossible to classify the album and it only gets stranger from there. Bravo, I guess.
These guys wind up sounding like The Monkees on acid. Just a wild mix of everything they find amusing. This whole thing would have benefited from cleaner production though. It’s fine to be goofy if your sound is clean and the songs reward re-listening. These, mostly, do not.
Ministry
2/5
I hate this. I respect it, but I hate it. I’m not young enough or angry enough to start getting into metal.
The Avalanches
4/5
At first I wasn’t into this at all, but it grew on me surprisingly quickly. Now I find myself randomly thinking “This boy needs therapy!”
It’s a bit inconsistent but overall I wound up really enjoying this.
Foo Fighters
3/5
I hated this when it came out, just because it wasn’t Nirvana. I thought it was an insult to the memory of Cobain. That was way too harsh.
I don’t hate it anymore and I now realize something that the much younger version of me didn’t: Grohl had more grief than I did about Cobain and at least he did something creative and productive with his.
But it’s not a great album. It’s amazing what Grohl could do all alone but too much of this winds up sounding generic. Foo Fighters would get better when they became an actual band.
Beck
4/5
Almost a great album that veers occasionally into madness. Where It’s At and Devli’s Haircut are two iconic tracks though.
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
It’s hard for an album to make you feel so many different things all at the same time: nostalgia, joy, sadness. It’s a really solid pop/dance album that still feels fresh today.
Magazine
1/5
Not punk enough to be punk, not prog enough to be prog. Truly annoying, nasally vocals and silly keyboards everywhere. Post-punk, I suppose but it winds up sounding like what would happen if Pink Floyd suddenly forgot how to make music.
It’s a slog to get through and there’s not a single track I’m dying to hear again.
Brian Wilson
3/5
I admire Brian Wilson but this album is not the greatest. Despite of really terrific moments it feels unfinished.
Talking Heads
3/5
Not my favourite Talking Heads. I think this is a step backwards from their first album and the collaboration with Eno winds up making this whole album into a bit of a bland mess.
Musically it’s not bad at all but the vocal mix is muddy and Byrne sounds like he’s singing on the other side of a bathroom stall, nothing is clear and it’s all echoes.
Fela Kuti
4/5
Even though I don’t understand the language and can’t truly appreciate the political context, this is still a way better album than many of the other albums on the list. Totally enjoyed the listen.
The Offspring
2/5
Has any band ever gotten so much traction out of yelling “Oh yeah yeah?
Self Esteem is a nostalgic song but this is a fundamentally boring album that is like what a marketing executive thinks punk rock is.
Def Leppard
3/5
In the attempt to make heavy metal radio friendly, they’ve produced an album that’s pretty bland. Not pop not metal but something in between that feels dated and sad. Not horrible though, it’s actually pleasant background music.
Rod Stewart
3/5
This is not what I was expecting. An interesting mix of musical styles and an entertaining album with one huge classic in Maggie May. Not my favourite but much better than anticipated.
Deep Purple
4/5
It’s really an amazing album, that Deep Purple sound is instantly recognizable. Just short of 5 stars in my opinion because it can be a bit repetitive.
Elliott Smith
4/5
Beautiful and sad.
Morrissey
1/5
Tedious and charmless, just like Morrissey himself. This album is like “what if a bad Smiths cover band didn’t know any Smiths songs?”
Pearl Jam
5/5
Along with Nevermind, the album that most defined an era. It’s terrific
Calexico
4/5
I enjoyed this. Not my usual listen at all, but a fun album.
The Doors
3/5
Some psychedelic blues? Sure. Maybe I’m just not in the mood for this but I come away either wanting some real funky Delta Blues or wilder, more psychedelic funk. This leaves me feeling mostly bleh.
Nick Drake
5/5
The ultimate rainy day record. Every song is beautiful and sad. None outstays its welcome.
Soul II Soul
5/5
Top to bottom a solid genre-busting album that goes far beyond the normal house or dance context and veers solidly into pop music. Really enjoyed this.
Cocteau Twins
4/5
Beautiful and dreamy. Really enjoyed this album
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
I tried to come up with reasons not to give this five stars but I gave up.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
5/5
One of the greatest folk rock albums ever recorded. Four geniuses making timeless songs that still hold up more than 5 decades later.
Suede
4/5
I’m a sucker for BritPop and this is right up my alley.
Iron Butterfly
3/5
Sometimes groundbreaking ambition and creativity are enough, even when the result is an oddity and not a timeless classic. Musically and lyrically it’s just not the best, but man, hats off to these guys for doing something new and interesting and inspiring.
Rage Against The Machine
5/5
I’m not sure any other album has so perfectly captured the anger and frustration of being a middle class male just coming into adulthood in a world dominated by politicians and phonies. It’s Catcher in the Rye with outstanding drums and guitar.
I have little doubt that suburban teens will be playing this album thirty years from now just as there were thirty years ago.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
4/5
It’s hard to believe this album was released over 40 years ago. Everything about it seems modern. You could turn on a college station today and hear songs exactly like it.
Strange that this seems so familiar when I had never heard them before. Maybe not the greatest thing ever, but I really enjoyed it.
Muddy Waters
4/5
Delightfully unadulterated blues from an abstract legend. These guys sound like they had a lot of fun making this record.
Tom Waits
3/5
When I’m around much cooler people than me, I pretend to like Tom Waits, but really I don’t. I mean, I get it, admire it even as a curiosity and a cultural relic but I don’t really enjoy the experience of sitting and listening to it. Unlike Bukowski or Carver, artists who are sometimes mentioned in the same breath with Waits, I don’t see the beauty here amongst the squalor.
Duran Duran
5/5
Maybe the quintessential new wave album. Full of synth and great bass, with iconic vocals that manage to never be cheesy.
Sigur Rós
3/5
A dreamy atmospheric album. Beautiful background music but just not something I can really engage with.
Tears For Fears
4/5
A great 80s synth-pop album that occasionally indulges in cheesy saxophone, maudlin crooning and unfortunate experiments like the interminable Listen. Hard to argue that Shout or Everybody Wants to Rule the World or Head Over Heels aren’t great though.
Black Sabbath
5/5
I never gave this album, or this entire genre, proper attention when I was younger. Metalheads and stoners were bad kids. Losers. Christ how wrong I was.
What a magnificent album. Bluesy, funky, musically complex and intricate as hell. Every instrument is great. The vocals are wild and charismatic.
The fact that four working class blokes from Birmingham without much going for them could just invent a whole genre of music because the idea of horror-influenced rock amused them and then record this masterpiece in 12 hours is totally mindblowing.
The world really can change in an instant.
Stephen Stills
3/5
“Love the one you’re with” is a triumph but honestly, the rest of the album is a bit dull.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
3/5
Hard to listen to this album without thinking that Joplin is already on a disastrous ride that she won’t be able to escape.
When Janice is singing this album is powered by her ferocious voice. When she’s not singing it’s a crazy jam fest that doesn’t really do it for me.
AC/DC
3/5
I really like a lot of AC/DC but other than the title track here, this album is not their best stuff.
Bad Company
2/5
Bad Companies by Bad Company is bad company other than the one song, Bad Company, which is pretty good.
Can
4/5
If you wanted to introduce someone to krautrock for the first time, this might be the album you gave them. It’s experimental without being exclusionary or annoying. It’s a totally delightful listen, continually surprising and full of joy.
Red Snapper
3/5
Like the background music they would play at a nightclub that appeals to really cool vampires.
David Bowie
5/5
My favourite Bowie.
Joan Armatrading
5/5
What a fantastic album. This is the absolute real deal and approximately 100 times better than any modern imitators.
The Modern Lovers
4/5
Such a quirky delightful album that captures the wide-eyed innocence of art-scene proto-punk. Fits in great with Talking Heads and Velvet Underground and lays the groundwork for alt-rock for decades to come.
Eurythmics
3/5
A blast from the past for sure, but it turns out that there's a good reason I haven't listened to this in 40 years. It's not bad at all and you have to tip your hat to Annie Lennox and her incredible vocals. Plus I admire just how ground breaking this was but now if all feels a bit tiresome.
Nirvana
5/5
Unless you’re talking about the Beatles, it would be hard to point to any album that had a greater impact on the whole culture than this one. That’s an unbelievable and unexpected thing for a group of three guys from Seattle who no one expected to change the world.
To deny this album five stars is to deny history.
Iron Maiden
3/5
I love the drums and guitar but the vocals are weak and the lyrics silly. Does not belong in the top tier of metal albums.
N.W.A.
4/5
It’s really too bad that the anti-authoritarian and expressive tracks about Black life also tend towards so much misogyny and homophobia. Lots of killer tracks but this doesn’t age very well on a few fronts.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
I mean, if this isn’t a 5 star album what would be? How inventive, groundbreaking, yet totally listenable and cool would an album need to be in order to satisfy you? I get it if this isn’t your favourite album in the world but my god, you’ve gotta respect it.
Q-Tip
3/5
A cool, low key, vibey album. I liked it but wasn’t blown away
The Gun Club
2/5
This one just isn’t for me, sorry
Supergrass
3/5
Alright is a great song but the rest of the album doesn’t rise to the same level.
Herbie Hancock
3/5
I don’t know why I can’t get into this album. It’s a bit goofy, like a cross between a children’s album and the soundtrack to a 70s blacksploitation comedy. It’s possible that I’m just in a bad mood today and not feeling this one.
Steely Dan
3/5
I liked this better than Pretzel Logic, but I’d still never choose to throw this on the stereo. The definition of bland.
Sam Cooke
5/5
The standard to which live albums should be held. Manages to capture the excitement of the moment in all its glorious imperfections. Sam Cooke is a legend and this album shows that in its purest form.
Dire Straits
4/5
Cool album, country-inspired guitar rock. What part of the Southern US are they from again? Wait. They’re English? Well now I’m just confused. Still cool though.
Yes
2/5
I really tried to like this. Roundabout sucks you in but after that it’s boring high-concept prog that is better forgotten.
Rush
5/5
If you give this album less than 5 stars, they revoke your Canadian citizenship. I don't make the rules, I just obey them, like a good Canadian.
Drive Like Jehu
2/5
So much obvious talent, but very raw. It never comes together into something that actually works.
Method Man
3/5
Listened through this twice but didn’t enjoy it more the second around. Its missing punch and the layered production of samples distracts from Method Man’s raps. It does get repetitive. There are great rap albums on this list, this one is just not my jam.
OutKast
4/5
There’s a lot here that’s fun. Great beats and inventive hooks, but like most double albums it winds up being a bit self-indulgent and in need of some paring down. The length here is the biggest problem.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
I had no idea how good this was going to be.
Otis Redding
4/5
An amazing cultural artifact, precious and important. It’s not something I’d want to listen to frequently but that doesn’t mean it’s not great.
Radiohead
3/5
Kid A is not my favourite Radiohead album. This is a transition state for the band. Kid A is the pupa from which the later brilliance of the band would emerge, but this feels half-formed and, ultimately, a little boring.
Elis Regina
5/5
What a goddamn cool record that I doubt I ever would have come across but for this project. Yes, I will play this again, yes I will introduce new people to it. It’s a joy.
Joy Division
3/5
I really wish I liked this album more. But it’s depressing without also being beautiful.
Paul McCartney and Wings
4/5
There are timeless albums and they there are albums that are of their time. This album falls into the second category. It's a bit goofy and over-produced, too many twangy interludes. The songs have a great base appeal though that you could only get from a master of the art, but it ultimately fails to transcend its moment. A fun album, but not a great one.
Orbital
2/5
Electronic music is often held to a higher standard than other forms of music. This is as it should be. If you are making music that doesn't require you to write any lyrics or have any talent with instruments, then what you make better be incredibly inventive and impossible to ignore.
This album is not that. It winds up coming across as totally generic and unforgettable, basically indistinguishable from a hundred other albums just like it. I didn't hate it, but I was bored by it.
Steve Earle
2/5
Maybe this is just so iconic that listening to it feels like a parody of country music? Anyway, not my thing at all.
Fleetwood Mac
3/5
What a huge disappointment after Rumours. Goes to prove that artistic genius is a delicate and volatile thing. The band was clearly too much in their own heads here. Trying to follow trends a little too much, trying to both capitalize on their success and not get stuck in a box. This is not a bad album at all and it certainly has some great songs, but overall its a huge step down.
Marvin Gaye
4/5
I may be reading a bit too much into this, but if I’m picking up on the signals correctly, I think Marvin is interested in getting it on.
Fleet Foxes
4/5
Out of all the bands operating in this genre of melancholy folk, Fleet Foxes were ahead of the rest. A beautiful, pretty, polished album. Not one I want to listen to every day, but it’s solid.
The Roots
4/5
This is a crazy album that probably goes in too many different directions at once. Most of them are enjoyable though. Though it does occasionally test my patience with Pussy Galore and Thirsty! In particular. Still, a fun ride overall.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
Can a record be a classic when it’s this uneven? Lots of stuff to admire on here and the RHCPs were certainly having fun and claiming ground all to themselves but too many tracks on the album are skips.
Johnny Cash
3/5
The covers get a little bit silly by the end of this album. Johnny Cash owns Hurt though, that feels more like Cash than Trent Reznor. But I could easily have gone without hearing the Johnny Cash versions of Personal Jesus or In My Life. This Rick Rubin production is interesting and I'm happy to have listened to it, but other than Hurt, I can't see myself coming back to this.
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
Tedious and boring. Every song sounds the same, an endless rhythmic mumbling. Springsteen has some great hits but this album is not his best work. This one is for serious fans of The Boss.
Paul McCartney
3/5
Maybe I'm Amazed totally holds up as an all-time great Paul song. The rest of the album comes across as a goofball recording session of songs that could have gone through ten more rounds of revisions.
Aerosmith
4/5
A lot of fun, a bit goofy at times, but mostly a good time. These guys don’t take themselves too seriously and that helps.
Buena Vista Social Club
5/5
Such pure joy to hear these guys make music.
Radiohead
3/5
I actually like this better than Kid A, but Radiohead is still more interested in amusing themselves than in entertaining the audience. This awkward middle part of Radiohead's discography is my least favourite part of their work.
John Coltrane
4/5
I do love this album and listen to it at least a few times a year. But is it perfect? It is no. I’ve criticized other albums for endless freestyle noodling and there are moments when here when I wish drum solos would just end already.
Alice Cooper
4/5
This is a great album. Fun, campy, experimental without ever becoming annoying or self-indulgent. Art that entertains. Alice Cooper is so much more than shock rock. He is a surrealist.
DJ Shadow
3/5
It’s not unenjoyable but it’s not great either. An interesting curiosity.
Garbage
4/5
A pretty stunning debut album. Stupid Girl is great and the whole album just hums along.
Raekwon
2/5
Dull and repetitive. This never captures my attention.
Bon Jovi
2/5
Layer upon layer of processed American cheese.
Nirvana
5/5
How the hell do you follow a world-changing album like Nevermind? How do you satisfy your millions of new fans who maybe don’t appreciate your weird punk roots? Now that every band in Seattle is famous thanks to you, what the hell can you do that will not be an absolute disaster and disappointment?
You do this. You somehow manage to deepen your sound. You challenge your new fans but not enough to alienate them, but enough to get them to follow you to new places. It really is a triumph.
Ramones
5/5
The Cure
2/5
So boring. I can't even imagine being into this as a depressed teenager in 1980.
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
Belle and Sebastian walked so Sufjan Stevens could run. There is a ton to like about this album and the more you listen to it the better it gets. “I Don’t Love Anyone” is a seriously underrated track. A great songwriter, Murdoch is not quite a strong enough singer to carry this off himself though. Very good, almost great.
Metallica
1/5
Tedious to the point of absurdity.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
I could happily listen to this record once a week for the rest of my life.
Pink Floyd
4/5
I'm not the biggest fan of prog concept albums. In general, I find them pretentious and self-indulgent. This is an exception to that rule. It's still a bit overwrought but it is still beautiful and highly listenable.
Buzzcocks
3/5
Fast Cars is a pretty good song but after that this feels repetitive and derivative.
Scissor Sisters
4/5
So much fun. Sometimes I want my sad bastard music and sometimes I want this. It’s a ray of sunshine.
Stephen Stills
2/5
Wake me up when this double album finally ends will you?
5/5
An absolute colossus of an album. Every single track will continue to get radio play until they bury the last member of Generation X.
Snoop Dogg
2/5
Too rude, too goofy, too grating.
PJ Harvey
4/5
Like a breakfast of espresso and cigarettes, this album has no interest in comforting you. PJ Harvey is here to get shit done.
I prefer her later albums that balance the hard edge with a bit of beauty and longing but there’s no question that this album accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do: namely, kick your ass.
The Velvet Underground
5/5
This album is so charming that even when it descends into noise or clumsiness it’s great. Beautiful, weird, profane.
Influential? Sure but it’s not great because it started an art rock movement, it’s just great.
I could spend a lot of time complaining about its flaws like the unnecessary distortion and pointless jams but I get more delight from listening to this album than just about any other I’ve ever heard.
Randy Newman
2/5
If Elton John didn’t have Bernie Taupin, you might wind up with something like Randy Newman. Credible piano playing and a bit of style but ultimately dull.
The Who
5/5
The rare example of a concept that actually works. Yes, The Who was sick of making radio-friendly singles and wanted to achieve something more, but this still feels like a rock album and not a half-baked experiment.
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
No matter what is going on, this album always makes me feel better. What a rare thing.
Common
2/5
Tedious and annoying.
Metallica
2/5
If this was an hour shorter it would only be 30 minutes too long.
The Killers
4/5
Some great tracks in the first half of this album but it feels like they ran out of ideas halfway through.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
A really solid album, I don’t love it quite as much as People’s Instinctive Travels though.
Pavement
2/5
I haven’t listened to any Pavememt in a really long time. Now I remember why.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
3/5
I love a lot of Elvis Costello, but not when he decides to become a crooning lounge singer.
Animal Collective
2/5
Anything that is experimental or innovative is going to challenge conventional aesthetic ideas. The thing about this is that the result is neither interesting nor appealing.
I’m glad I had the experience but I can’t see ever returning to this album again.
The Cars
5/5
The Cars come out with confidence and swagger and make a debut album for the ages. It’s New Wave, but it still rocks, I want to slip a cassette of this into a shitbox car sing all the song with my buddies while we talk about the girls we’ve got crushes on. Let the good times roll.
Miles Davis
4/5
A really interesting album, totally enjoyable and chill. Though in general I don't like jam albums very much, this is an elevated example.
Jeru The Damaja
1/5
What a messy album. Something annoying is happening in the background of nearly every track.
Did someone let a cat randomly walk across a piano while they were recording D. Original?
In Mental Stamina it’s impossible to listen to the rhymes because some kind of missile warning alarm is constantly going off.
At other times people clatter around with drums or toot a trumpet for absolutely no reason connected to the song.
There might be a good album hiding in there somewhere but you would need more concentration that I have to find it underneath all the random crap happening.
The Smiths
3/5
Death of a Disco Dancer and Girlfriend in a Coma shine through what is otherwise a pretty tedious and boring album.
Brian Eno
3/5
I admire it more than I enjoy it.
David Bowie
3/5
The Low point of Bowie for me. Not bad but not the Bowie I prefer.
David Bowie
4/5
This era of Bowie is not my favourite. I’m more into Ziggy Stardust than the Thin White Duke, but I see why people dig this. +1 star for Golden Years, which is a really good track.
Hüsker Dü
3/5
There’s a pretty good album hidden in here somewhere, but finding it would be like combing through your old baseball cards trying to find the ones that survived water damage and neglect.
Black Sabbath
5/5
I'm not a fan of metal. Sabbath is the exception. Everything on this album is just great.
Kendrick Lamar
2/5
I really want to like it, but it's just dull and adolescent and ultimately kinda boring? It's like being beaten with a pool noodle: frustrating and leaves no lasting impact, despite all the energy put into it.
The Rolling Stones
2/5
In the great Beatles vs. Stone debate this album is highly relevant because the Beatles never made an album this bad. Dull, plodding, repetitive. Totally absent of joy.
Public Enemy
5/5
Such a great album. Never boring. Fun yet political. An absolute delight from beginning to end.
4/5
I’ve got a lot of time for experimentation that also doesn’t take itself too seriously and produces something enjoyable.
The White Stripes
5/5
The apotheosis of garage band music. Somehow slick and filthy at the same time. Plus the most iconic bass line of all time.
Travis
4/5
Slightly off-brand Radiohead. I don’t mind though. I feel like more powerful vocals could lift this to five stars.
3/5
Only for the Bob Dylan completist. This is Bob. It’s a good show. Is this the best way to listen to this music? Probably not.
Keith Jarrett
4/5
This is an incredible achievement and an incredible story. I can’t quite get past the moaning to really love it but I’m go glad I listened to it!
Beatles
4/5
Not my favourite Beatles album. Even setting aside “Run For Your Life” which may be the worst song John ever wrote, this album doesn’t have the energy of the early albums or the sophistication of the later albums.
Though many people regard it as their triumph, to me this js the ugly middle child of the Beatles oeuvre.
Stereolab
3/5
Pantera
1/5
Unlistenable music for incels.
Devendra Banhart
1/5
Grating. Annoying. I hate it.
Neil Young
3/5
Dull and repetitive but not unpleasant. Background music for Boomers.
Radiohead
4/5
I really wish Radiohead were more interested in melody and less in creating an atmospheric experience. This is good but I get bored of it.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
3/5
Eno produced chill piano music? Sure, I’m into that.
Nirvana
4/5
I used to love this album. Now it’s sad and strange. This is the version of Cobain that people wanted. The sensitive, troubled rock star in the frayed sweater, striped down, intimate, unplugged. But this was contrived. It feels like a proximate cause of Cobain’s death. The sanded-down anaesthetized version of the man they could put in the spotlight and make millions of dollars from.
Still a decent listen though.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
I’m a Lou Reed fan and Pale Blue Eyes is a classic sad song, but the rest of the album is dull and repetitive until it gets weird and unlistenable.
Wu-Tang Clan
4/5
A classic. C.R.E.A.M. is the absolute highlight
The Youngbloods
3/5
This album feels like at any moment, a classic song is about to come on, something that you remember listening to in the car with your parents. Then it never does. It's all build-up and no release.
CHIC
2/5
Le Freak is a disco classic that reminds me of roller skating rinks. Most of the rest of the album gets pretty tedious pretty quickly.
Queen
3/5
Queen? Oh I love Queen. I’m sure this album will be full of songs I already know, plus some deep cuts you never hear on the radio.
Wait. I don’t know any of these songs. And they are all kinda samey. Not terrible and great guitar but nothing that stands out.
Guess I know to stick to the Greatest Hits.
Björk
3/5
Björk Björk Björky Björk Björk.
4/5
Three pretty stellar tracks to open. Even if it's not your thing, these songs are iconic for a reason. Then they lose their energy. The rest of the album stumbles along without much that makes you sit up and take notice.
The Boo Radleys
2/5
Mostly noise.
Elvis Costello
4/5
A remarkable debut album but frustratingly inconsistent. There are brilliant songs like Alison and earworms like Watching The Detectives and Angles Wanna Wear My Red Shoes and even Welcome to the Working Week, but Costello sometimes descends into something that sounds like a lazy lounge act.
Still, it's a great album that I find myself listening to over and over again and even the bits that are a bit grating at first eventually become part of its overall charm.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
Starts so strong but then drags on without much change. It gets old quickly.
Sonic Youth
3/5
I dig this but it still leans a bit too heavy on noise making over music making for my taste.
John Prine
2/5
So. Much. Twang.
I could almost get into this. It’s almost beautiful but the twang, man. The twang. It drives me batty.
Jefferson Airplane
4/5
So much to like here. The Slick tracks are great and the whole thing has aged surprisingly well.
Patti Smith
3/5
I’m admire this album and Patti Smith a lot. Incredibly important to the history of punk and everything after. Just not my favourite listen.
LTJ Bukem
2/5
So long. So repetitive. It’s not horrible it’s just background music for a mediocre club.
Neil Young
4/5
It’s a miracle that this album is so good and so listenable, so iconic, given how supremely annoying Neil Young’s voice can be.
Funkadelic
4/5
Even when this album gets a bit noisy, it’s still fun and highly entertaining. The opening track is a masterpiece.
Finley Quaye
3/5
People sometimes ask me what music I’ve discovered through this project and now I can answer “I listened to some Scottish Reggae the other day!”
Inevitably they will ask: How was it?
And I can say: Meh.
Coldplay
4/5
The fact that this album produces so much rage in people amuses me.
I mean, it’s a bit dull and uniform and it never breaks out of its comfort zone, but it’s not terrible. For a debut record it’s confident and slick. A perfectly pleasant album that knows what it’s doing and does it well.
Aphex Twin
4/5
While listening to this, I like to close my eyes and pretend I'm playing a really cool video game and this is the soundtrack.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
One absolute banger followed by 10 decent songs. Hard to meet the bar set by Immigrant Song but a totally decent listen, almost to the end.
Kanye West
4/5
Before Kanye went nuts, he made some green music. In fact, he continued to make great music even after he went nuts. Separating the man from the music, this is a good album except for the blathering on. Kayne isn’t nearly as smart as he thinks he is and the interstitials on College Dropout are just plain annoying.
3/5
Like a slightly crumpled photocopy of Radiohead. Not too bad, but not like the real thing.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
Every Springsteen album seems to have one or two absolutely iconic tracks (Thunder Road & Born to Run here) and a bunch of mumbling pointless songs.
The wild swings from greatness to dreck are unlike anyone else.
Sex Pistols
4/5
A messy bitch of an album. Love it for what it is, don’t wish it was something else.
Led Zeppelin
3/5
I know that this is a classic album but half the songs on this album are like: Ooh da da bada boo yeah yeah, baby! Over some bluesy guitar and syncopated drums.
It’s not all bad, but god it is ever into itself. I like Thank You and Ramble On by themselves but just sitting and listening to a whole album of this is not for me.
Wilco
4/5
I'm not a fan of country, even 'alt-country' but this is a solid, genre-busting album. I acknowledge that it might overstay its welcome in places but overall, I really enjoyed this.
Al Green
5/5
It’s so rare to encounter actual emotions in pop music that we almost don’t know how to react. This is soul. It’s got feeling. It’s not fake or overpackaged. It’s goddamn great.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
I imagine this as a live performance of the score to a movie about robots and zombies.
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
Funky and fun and sexy. What it lacks is something with a bit more of a hook that would keep drawing me back to it. As it stands it’s somewhat forgettable.
Duke Ellington
4/5
This would have been an amazing show to be at. There's something about a live show and the incredible solos which makes them better and seem less indulgent than they seem on studio albums.
Green Day
5/5
Almost perfect. Everything pop punk could hope to be. It might be a bit commercial, a bit self-indulgent at times, but it’s so goddamn charismatic that you forgive all that.
Weather Report
4/5
Simon & Garfunkel
5/5
Not rating this 5 stars just seems ungenerous. An absolutely era-defining record that will still be played in another 50 years by anyone who loves music.
The Doors
3/5
Mostly a substandard blues album but Riders on the Storm is a great track.
The Band
2/5
Other than "The Weight" this is so, so boring.
Digital Underground
4/5
What a fun album.
John Martyn
2/5
Just. So. Dull.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Double albums need to be jammed with greatness in order to justify their length, otherwise they can’t help but sound self indulgent. This one doesn’t quite make it.
It just goes on too long and what’s here isn’t the pinnacle of Stevie Wonder’s greatness. You can’t deny the influence or importance of this album but it’s nowhere close to Innervisions in terms of overall quality and innovation.
4/5
Fun, funky soul. Great listen.
Madonna
1/5
The apotheosis of terrible 90s music.
Madonna—the ultimate bandwagon-jumper—in a desperate attempt to stay relevant, produces an entire album of bland electronic club music so shitty it would never get played in a club.
I’m mystified that anyone could like this. If you like electronica, this is bad electronica. If you like pop, this isn’t poppy. If you just like Madonna this isn’t a good Madonna album.
It’s trash, it goes on forever, and that’s before Madonna starts chanting in Sanskrit or whatever.
The Replacements
2/5
Not a single stand out track. It’s not terrible but the more I listen to it, the less I can recall anything about it.
Incredible Bongo Band
3/5
I enjoy Apache as much as the next peson, but a whole album of this is too much. It's a novelty band.
Van Morrison
5/5
A lovely album for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Cozy, comforting and warm. This album accomplishes what it sets out to do flawlessly.
Depeche Mode
2/5
Man, Depeche Mode could just crank this stuff out. Forgettable, mindless, meaningless, nihilistic. But I don’t actively hate it as much as some other stuff.
Queen
4/5
So much fun. So strange. So so much. The only thing that keeps from being 5 stars is that it’s a little too much.
TV On The Radio
2/5
I don’t get the hype here at all. This album refuses to be anything. Not experimental, not poppy, not lyrical, not beautiful, not weird, not anything. It’s just dull.
Jurassic 5
3/5
A fun but forgettable album.
Dire Straits
4/5
Tons of great stuff here. A bit quiet in places. Feels like it needed one more banger in the second half to really make this a towering classic.
Marty Robbins
3/5
This was fun and I’m glad it’s on the list. I can’t think of another circumstance in which I would have listened to it.
Roxy Music
1/5
Plodding, pretentious, dull. There is nothing that makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills more than the praise heaped on Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno.
Adele
4/5
Not my taste but it's hard to deny the power and range of the voice. My wife likes this kind of thing.
Fats Domino
4/5
A true classic of swing.
R.E.M.
4/5
When side 1, track 1 of your debut album is Radio Free Europe, that’s just amazing.
A great debut with many tracks that have stood the test of time. A bunch of forgettable stuff too though.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
There are album bands and there are radio bands. RHCP is a radio band. Love hearing a Peppers song once every few hours during the day and they are almost always good. But sitting through a whole album is not where this band comes across the best. It’s grating and the white-boy hip hop is terrible.
Donald Fagen
3/5
I could swear that New Frontier is the opening credits music to a network sitcom about a quirky family who grapple with the complexity of modern life while trying to love each other and I’m here for it.
IGY doesn’t hold up as well.
Rest of the album is a bit dull but I like it better than Steely Dan.
Scott Walker
1/5
If you tried to convince me that this was the soundtrack to a particularly terrible and forgotten Michael Caine movie, I would absolutely believe you. Horrid.
Gang Starr
3/5
Fun. A bit raw and a bit simple, but I understand why this is so influential.
Television
4/5
Never quite reaches the heights of some of the other CBGB bands of its day. A bit more raw and less poppy than Talking Heads but totally enjoyable for an afternoon listen.