It's Like A Whirlwind Inside Of My Head 1001 Albums Generator 13 (04/21/2025) Recently, I have seen discourse among music discussion boards that the introduction and overuse of the word "mid" has effectively destroyed music criticism. It is a word that can be employed endlessly and requires no justification. However, I would argue that the "mid epidemic" is the latest of a string of meaningless criticism - an evolution from a criticism that Linkin Park was all too familiar with: "edgy". In the 2000's-2010's, there was nothing worse that you could be than cringe (which edgy was a subset of), and Linkin Park was a total edgy cringefest. However, Gen Z is embracing the formerly cringey. As a wise man once said: "Kill not the part of you that is cringe; kill the part of you that cringes". As such, this band, especially this album and Meteora, have seen quite a critical reevaluation by the youth as of late. Is this an instance of Gen Z rebellion against their uncool Millennial counterparts, or is it a well-deserved reframing of an unfairly disrespected band? The hits off of Linkin Park's debut, Hybrid Theory, are really quite good. The opening track, Papercut, is probably my favorite song by the group. It features a really interesting electronic sounding guitar part and a great, catchy chorus. One thing that Linkin Park does not get nearly enough credit for is their pop sensibilities. It really is no surprise to me that they got as popular as they did. This song also has this really cool drum thing where halfway through the verses, the drums switch from a closed hi hat to open, which to my ears gives the impression of going into a halftime grove, even though the timing hasn't actually changed; it's just pure genius on display. In addition to this song, the two biggest hits on this album are the oft memed In The End and Crawling. The two biggest sins of Linkin Park in the eyes of the cringe police are on this album, and both of them are honestly pretty good in retrospect. The verses of Crawling are very forgettable, but that chorus is electric. In The End is the finest example of LP's songwriting trope of Mike Shinoda rapping on the verse and Chester Bennington belting the chorus. This song is iconic, and no amount of calling it cringe will change that. Outside the hits, there are a couple of other bright moments. A Place For My Head has a great Phrygian groove and is probably the most memorable guitar part on this album. It also has one of the heaviest moments on the album in its bridge. Pushing Me Away is good but ultimately comes off as a slightly worse version of In The End. By Myself has a really heavy riff, but a terrible verse part that feels so whiny. The vocals on this album in general just do not sit well with me. I feel so bad saying that about a hometown hero like Chester Bennington (the house he lived in when he tragically took his own life was really close to where I grew up), but I've just never really bought his whole thing. There are moments on this album, such as the chorus of Forgotten, where his voice sounds more nasal than oral. In general, the mixing on this album is very much a product of its time. Anyone familiar with the contemporary history of music production will know what I mean: Hybrid Theory is a victim of the Loudness War. This thing is compressed to fucking shit. In spite of this, there are production moments that I like. The electronic elements can be really cool, especially seen on Papercut and the interlude Cure For The Itch. The guitar tone on this is also one of the best that I have heard in nu-metal. So, is the critical re-evaluation Gen Z rebellion and counterculturalism or well-deserved and long overdue? Well, Hybrid Theory has high highs and features iconic pop-oriented choruses with great guitar tones. However, it has lots of filler, rough mixing/mastering, and a dated sound. I would say the good and bad elements just about outweigh one another, so unfortunately, the jury is still out. 2.5/5, rounded down to 2/5. Favs: Papercut In The End A Place For My Head Least Fav: Runaway

1001 Albums Generator 1 In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man Does it get more iconic than this? Play the opening of Dazed and Confused for an uncontacted civilization and they will immediately understand the appeal of advanced society. The first two chord stabs that open the album? Good Times Bad Times, for my money, has to be one of the most unforgettable opening tracks to an album ever. Meanwhile, the guitar solo for Communication Breakdown sounds like what AI would generate if asked to write a hard rock guitar solo. It's that paramount. You don't need me to convince you of the greatness of the hits on this album. The parts of this album that I have really come to appreciate are the slower moments. The folksy cover of Babe I'm Gonna Leave You. The open tuning and almost American Primitivism sound of Black Mountain Side. The way that John Bonham's drums and JPJ's organ in the chorus of Your Time Is Gonna Come hit like a ton of bricks, while Jimmy Page keeps a soft, acoustic sound throughout. These little details, while done even better in their subsequent albums, show what separates LZ from the pack. Led Zeppelin is not a band accused of high levels of originality, but I think that the derivativeness of their work does get overstated, while the creativity of their work goes relatively unsaid. This inventiveness is seen in moments such as the middle of the solo in I Can't Quit You Baby, where the band transitions from a relatively normal 12-bar blues to a strange start/stop instrumental interplay, before going right back to something more standard. Similarly, You Shook Me is a largely normal affair before Jimmy Page and Robert Plant enter into one of the strangest call-and-response sections that I have ever heard. Plant moans into the mic while Page responds in kind with a backwards echo sort of effect. The closing track, while not my favorite, has its share of creative production choices strewn throughout it as well. There are some moments I don't love. The aforementioned You Shook Me is a bit too slow for my tastes and does seem to overstay its welcome. In general, although this album was short enough to fit on a single LP, it does feel a bit overlong at times, especially considering 3 of the songs are over 6 minutes. This band had not reached their creative or songwriting peak yet, so these longer songs (with the exception of Dazed and Confused) don't justify their length the way their long jams on later albums would. Overall, this album is a great start to an even better discography. Hard rock forever. Favs: Good Times, Bad Times Dazed and Confused Your Time Is Gonna Come Least Fav: You Shook Me

Musically, the Quest is on the rise 1001 Albums Generator 2 Oftentimes, after a successful or acclaimed debut, an artist will struggle to follow it up. This phenomenon is so common, the phrase “sophomore slump” has become a common critique in music circles. A Tribe Called Quest not only avoided this fate, but surpassed their debut (and subsequent) albums with their 1991 sophomore offering. The Low End Theory is quintessential 90’s hip hop in all aspects. The chill, jazzy, sample-heavy beats, the “hippity hop” vocal delivery, the occasionally questionable lyrics. Every aspect of this album oozes the sound that would dominate the decade that would follow. The finest aspect of this album is Q-Tip’s production. The sound of a jazz bassline is as key to this album as it is to any “true” jazz album. Hell, they got jazz legend Ron Carter to play live bass on Verses from the Abstract. ATCQ’s sample choice throughout also shows their depth of jazz knowledge. From Art Blakey to Lonnie Smith, Jack DeJohnette to Weather Report, even non-jazz legends like Funkadelic and The Doors show up on this album's WhoSampled page (seriously go read through this page, it is fucking amazing to see all the elements they pulled together for these songs). The way that the beats often open up during the choruses (expemplified on Excursions, Vibes and Stuff, and Check the Rhime) show that Q-Tip is doing more than just looping samples. The attention paid to the layering is something special on this album. With all this said, it turns out this album isn't an instrumental hiphop album. Tribe has two primary MC's: the aforementioned Q-Tip and Phife Dawg. As I mentioned previously, this album exudes 90's hiphop energy, which can certainly feel outdated when done poorly. Lyrics like "Go get yourself some toilet paper 'cause your lyrics is butt" and "What type of crap is that? Yo, how's about a smack?" do not have the swagger that they must have had back in the day. Although some songs on the album, such as Everything Is Fair and Rap Promoter, do deal with conscious themes, this is not a typical heady, triple-entendre rap album. However, I think that this album is one of the best examples of this style that I have ever heard. So many albums from this era end up being "My name is Joey and I'm here to say / bitches love to blow me, every day"-core. While there is some of that on this tracklist, The Abstract and Phife are able to embrace this style while not taking themselves too seriously. Now, this is not to say that this album is parody; no, this is very much a labor of love for the artform of rap (and jazz), but at the same time, the lyrics and delivery do have a bit of a cheeky feel to them, which saves this album from falling into the trap that so many old school hiphop albums fall into. It is able to perfectly straddle the line between humorous self-awareness and serious artistry. Even in this, as with their beats, they mimic and pay homage to jazz legends such as Charles Mingus and Sun Ra, who were also known for incorporating a level of non-seriousness in their serious art. While a couple of songs near the end do not hold up to the rest of the tracklist, The Low End Theory is a must-listen for anyone that is interested in hip-hop. The beats and lyric delivery are among the best the genre has to offer. Favs: Excursions Check the Rhime Scenario Least Fav: What?

1001 Albums Generator 3 Blues is a genre that has always been a blind spot for me. While I do love some Blues Rock, a la Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, I've never really found myself listening to blues. It is fitting that the first album in this challenge that is new to me is an album from the so-called King of the Electric Blues. Muddy Waters was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist who was a highly influential figure in the rise of the electric Chicago Blues movement, which gained prominence through the 40's and 50's and began influencing musicians across the globe in the late 50's to early 60's. But while the world moved away from this pure blues sound and the rock it inspired began taking over the charts instead, Waters stuck to his roots and at the age of 63 in 1977, far beyond the peak of the genre, released Hard Again. The opening track, Mannish Boy (known previously to me as "Bad to the Bone"), is a fantastic opener, featuring one of the most famous and archetypal blues riffs of all time. While it does go on for a bit long (unfortunately not uncommon for this album), the power of the riff and the ad-libs provided by Johnny Winter make this a wonderfully memorable vehicle for the political message of the song. While most of this album, and even parts of this song, are very sexual in nature, the chorus of this song is a direct attack on Jim Crow era America, in which black men were referred to as "boy" in spite of their age, as a way to infantilize and dehumanize them. Muddy Waters wrote this song in 1955 "[as] an assertion of black manhood" goddammit, and the energy and passion of his voice, in spite of his relatively advanced age, forcefully enshrine this song in the blues cannon. As iconic as that song is, it is only one of ten. The other nine songs, to my ears, are largely less memorable basic blues, with songs such as Bus Driver, Deep Down In Florida, and Little Girl feeling much too long for my tastes. This isn't even to say that the songs on this thing are bad; they certainly aren't. Every song is masterfully played, with the guitar and harmonica being standouts throughout. Waters' voice throughout is perfect for this music; his energy is absolutely infectious. My body was moving while I sat at my desk listening to this album. However, by the time I finished it, many of the songs had gone in one ear and out the other, even on subsequent listens. A man can only hear and truly appreciate a 12 bar blues so many times. My favorite songs were the ones that felt distinct from the pack. The largely acoustic affair of I Can't Be Satisfied is a nice break, and is surprisingly one of the songs I could most see myself coming back to. I Want to Be Loved #2 is probably the most infectious song here; Pinetop Perkins prevalently plays piano... persuasively and percussively. Jealous Hearted Man features some rockin guitar and harmonica soloing, probably the best of the album. The previously mentioned Mannish Boy finds itself distinct in that it does not follow a 12 bar blues, instead being built around its signature riff, which is great. This being the first new album for me in this challenge was certainly interesting. While the highs are quite high, I wish I was able to enjoy this more. The general repetitiveness of the music, in form, tempo, and texture, make this album one that I may not come back to often in full, although there are certainly some songs that I loved. 2.5/5 Favs: Mannish Boy I Want To Be Loved #2 I Can't Be Satisfied Least Fav: Bus Driver

Looking For America, With Its Kooky Nights And Suicide 1001 Albums Generator 4 (04/08/2025) Before listening to this album, I knew precisely two things about Blur: that they were one of the big four of the Britpop movement and that they had that song that goes “WOO HOO!”. These two facts existed in conflict in my mind, as Song 2, though poppy and British, is decidedly not Britpop, but I honestly didn’t think much of it. Blur, the self-titled fifth album by Damon Albarn’s Blur solves the mystery. You see, Blur was the first of Britpop's big four to shed themselves of the genre, and Blur was the album that marked this shift in their career. It also happens to contain their biggest hit, Song 2 (the WOO HOO! song). Let's start here. When listening to this song with the context of Blur beginning to move away from Britpop, which never took off in America due to being "too British" (those Revolutionary War grudges go deep I guess), it is impossible to not feel as though this was a big fuck you to the American music industry, showing that they could have a hit in the states if they wanted to. The song is comically simple on its surface, and started out as a joke between Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon. But, and maybe this is due to the fact that I am an American, this song is amazing. It is perfectly catchy, fuzzy, and faux-amateurish, but with the polish of a band in the midst of their prime. This album is nearly as eclectic as an album squarely in the alt/indie rock sound can be. The first five songs are an amazing run, featuring the two biggest hits in Beetlebum and Song 2, the nearly alt-country Country Sad Ballad Man, the upbeat, punky M.O.R., and the psychedelic On Your Own, which features great acoustic/electric guitar layering. Honestly, if you were to diffuse this album down to its core sounds and influences, it would probably look something like this run of five. Other highlights include Death of a Party, which has an amazing organ sound and great lyrics about the rise of AIDS in the party scene, and the hardcore punk rock Chinese Bombs, an homage to the late great Bruce Lee. Movin' On is one of the best "garage rock" type songs here. The repeated highly fuzzed riff that plays throughout the verses between vocal phrases and the chorus with its wordless backing vocals are both so catchy. The eclecticism of this album works against it at points. You’re So Great, I'm Just a Killer For Your Love, and Strange News From Another Star are relatively soft, sleepy, psychedelic songs that don’t stick with me. Essex Dogs, the experimental closing track, feels more like a studio exercise than a full blown song. Some of those exercises work; the last 2 minutes of the song are quite striking, but the song does not feel cohesive. My first foray into the works of Damon Albarn outside of his work with (as?) Gorillaz is a mixed bag. Masterfully produced throughout, there’s more good than bad here, especially in the first half, but there’s a handful of songs that don’t do anything for me. Solid 3.5/5 Favs: Song 2 M.O.R. Death of a Party Least Fav: Strange News From Another Star

When The Truths Of Love Are Planted Firm, They Won't Be Hard To Find 1001 Albums Generator 5 (04/09/2025) Talking Book is the fifteenth (!) album by world renowned singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Stevie Wonder, and the second of his five consecutive "classic" albums. You don't need me to introduce Stevie Wonder. If you know only one thing about him, it's his smash hit Superstition, the first song on side B of this LP, with its quick tempo, catchy-as-hell chorus, and ferociously funky horn stabs. If you know two things about him, it's that he has been blind from a very young age (even the title of this album is another term for an audiobook, a method by which the blind could read), If you are lucky enough to know a third thing about him, it is the fact that this blindness is a condition that does not prohibit Wonder's ability to beautifully describe things that we see and experience every day. Talking Book is an album that I had heard once before, but didn't remember much about. I have always been more of a Songs In The Key Of Life guy. While my favorites on that album are more soul than funk, my favorites here are largely the funkier tunes. Songs like Maybe Your Baby, Tuesday Heartbreak, and smash hit Superstition represent three distinct flavors of funk, but all of them will get you moving in different ways. Maybe Your Baby is like a sleeper agent activation if the agent being activated was the transfiguration of my face into a stank face. I'm sitting at my cubicle stankin' it up right now, looking absolutely insane if anyone walks in, but I don't care. Meanwhile, Superstition is quick and energetic, with some really interesting syncopated rhythms, especially in the interplay between the multiple synths and the horns, that will get you dancing in no time. Don't get me wrong, there is some fantastic soul music here too. Opener You Are The Sunshine Of My Life features sweet lyrics and a fascinating chord progression in the verse. I love the way he modulates halfway through from Cmaj to Amaj before smoothly transitioning back to C for the chorus. Masterfully written. The Moog-led You've Got It Bad Girl is the closest this album gets to the jazz fusion sounds that Stevie would play with in later albums. The way the lyrics switch from "You've got it bad, girl" to "You'll have it good, girl" in the outro is so simple, but so clever. The closing I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) - great title by the way - builds up at just the right speed, starting very chill with just Stevie's voice and his synth before building into the gospel-inspired repeated chorus and finally ending on some funky shit. The only songs that I don't love are the slow, plodding You And I and the overly smooth Lookin' For Another Pure Love. The former is a boring ballad that excels at going nowhere slowly, and the latter, while featuring interesting guitar work from the late, great Jeff Beck, contains the least memorable Stevie Wonder chorus I've ever heard (side note: "Do it, Jeff" is the original "21, can you do something for me" and I will not accept any disagreement on this point). It's not Wonder's best work, but it's a damn fine album. Nearly every song has something that will catch your ears and move your body. Fantastic 4.5/5, which I want to give a 5 so badly, but I happen to know that another Stevie Wonder album will capture that title later :) Favs: Maybe Your Baby Superstition I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) Least Fav: You And I

Eternal Whispering Winds, Rough Discordant Seas 1001 Albums Generator 6 (04/10/2025) São Paulo Confessions is the fourth studio album by Serbian electronic musician Mitar Subotic, released under the stage name Suba. Tragically, Subotic died during the promotional cycle for this album as he was rushing into his burning studio to save the recordings. He was only 38 years old, and he has since been honored in both his birth country, Serbia, as well as the country he moved to and produced this album in, Brazil. This is an album and artist that I had never heard of, but the genres excited me. Acid Jazz is a genre I am unfamiliar with outside of Jamiroquai's incredible Virtual Insanity, which I love, and the bits of Bossa Nova and Samba I have heard are great. The album cover is striking and really feels like a candid view of the streets of Sao Paulo. I have never been, but I can say it reminds me of (and makes me nostalgic for) some streets I saw in southern Spain when I was there. This is a slow burn of an album, but there are moments where this slowness works to its advantage. The vocal tracks, especially those featuring Cibelle's sultry vox (Tantos Desejos, Felicidade, and Sereia) all stand out, and the chill production melds well with her voice. The opener particularly rocks, and had me very excited for this album. The live-sounding drums, jazz-y piano riffs, and bassline that reminds me of A Love Supreme at points, along with her voice, transport me to the streets of some big city in the wee hours of the morning (maybe Sao Paulo, but I wouldn't know). Antropofagos is potentially the most upbeat song and has the strongest groove on the album, although it does overstay its welcome just a bit, which is a theme for this project. The consistent pace of the album, as well as its length, cause the whole thing to wash over me. The songs, even the ones I enjoyed, never really build anywhere and the lack of real dynamic change throughout makes the album a bit of a slog to get through. It's hard for me to even point out specific songs I disliked, since so many of them blend together. Upon a second listen, I particularly noted the last four songs as being unremarkable to me, but maybe I was just starting to get a little tired of the album by this point. I will admit this issue may be partly due to my musical bias, as electronic music in general is not something that I have a lot of experience with, but reading other reviews, it seems I am not alone in my feelings here. Suba was undeniably a talent taken far too soon. While this is not an album I see myself coming back to as a whole, the creativity shown here feel more like an artist rising towards their peak than one that has said all that they need to say. Unfortunately, as a piece of music, this sits somewhere around a high 1.5/5, rounded up to a 2/5. Favs: Tantos Desejos Voce Gosta Sereia Least Fav: Pecados Da Madrugada

Sometimes I Feel Like I've Been Tied To The Whipping Post 1001 Albums Generator 7 (04/11/2025) At Fillmore East is a live album by The Allman Brothers Band, recorded in 1971. Recorded just half a year before the tragic death of guitarist and founder Duane Allman, At Fillmore East was the band’s first live album, first embrace of the jam band label that would define their identity from this point on, and it was their critical and commercial breakthrough. The Allman Brothers Band were foundational to the development of both southern rock and jam rock, and this album represents the finest of both in my opinion. This is a stylish album, even by modern standards. The slow build of Stormy Monday has the energy of crescendo-core post-rock, played through the lens of blues rock. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed features abrupt tempo and timing changes, as well as angular riffing that wouldn’t be out of place on a Slint record, all while maintaining the jazzy sound at the core of the song. It’s amazing how well the songs on this album have aged; I was really so surprised to hear the freshness on display, as I often think of Allman Brothers as just a (very good) boomer-core band. Whenever anyone talks about this album, the primary focus is not on the songwriting (although as I mentioned above, the songwriting is quite inspired); the primary focus is on the instrumental virtuosity on display. And yeah, this is one of the most musically impressive albums I’ve heard in all of rock. Duane Allman is oft regarded as the best slide guitarist of all time, and this may be the finest showing of his life. He is the core of the band’s sound here on every single song, and although I do love Eat A Peach and Brothers And Sisters, it is clear that Duane was an irreplaceable force for this group. His brother Gregg plays the organ and the piano and I believe his finest showing to be the upbeat instrumental jam Hot 'Lanta or the aforementioned Elizabeth Reed. The elephant in the room, of course, is the length, both of the album itself and of the two side-long jams in the middle and end of the album. The first of these, You Don't Love Me, is a cover of a 50's blues tune by Willie Cobbs. This song features perhaps the catchiest guitar riff on the album, and for the first 7 minutes or so, it sounds like a relatively standard jam. Then the band cuts out, and the only thing that you hear is Duane's slide guitar mastery. This moment is quite emotional in retrospect as it really forces you to focus only on the artistry of a man who, unbeknownst to him, was mere months from meeting his maker. This song also features incredible soloing from the oft underrated Dickey Betts. Although Betts would reach his prime after Duane died, his work here is still incredible. The other side-long jam, Whipping Post, features an opening riff in in 11/8 (talk about hip), as well as an ambient section around the 13 minute mark that really reminds me of Get Up With It-era Miles. This song is hailed as the band's greatest achievement, and while it isn't quite my favorite song here, it is a fantastic piece of music. At Fillmore East is everything a live album should be. It showcases the chemistry of a band in their prime, improving upon studio recordings, and giving extra life to the songs performed. It's a long journey, but it is one that I loved taking. My weekend was better for having listened to it on repeat. 5/5 Favs: Stormy Monday In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed Whipping Post Least Fav: Done Somebody Wrong

We Are The Kids Of War And Peace, From Anaheim To The Middle East 1001 Albums Generator 8 (04/14/2025) Even just looking at the track lengths and cover of American Idiot, it was clear that this was not going to be a return to form for Green Day. Gone were the days 2-3 minute pop punk song, filled with lyrics about masturbation, grouchy old dudes, and blowing up planes. This was a new Green Day, one that, fresh off the heels of 9/11 and the Iraq War, would be leaning into the political edge that punk music was built on originally. This was a new Green Day, one that would focus more on songwriting and dynamics than ever before. This was a new Green Day, one that could write a rock opera full of global hits, still playing on rock radio to this day. I was in diapers when 9/11 happened, so it's an understatement to say that I don't truly understand what it was like at that time. In a time when the population (somewhat) trusted that our government had our best interests in mind, at least more than people do now, it was unimaginable to the average red-blooded American that this terrorist attack could be the work of anything other than Islamic terrorists. Of course, we had to go kill them for what they did to our country, it was almost a no-brainer. The 2004 Presidential election, while relatively close, was nowhere near the nail-biter that 2000 was, indicating that America as a whole was still on board with Bush's hawkish foreign policy. Of course, the world has changed now as much as it has stayed the same. War rages on, pushed by corrupt politicians who fill their pockets with the blood of soldiers. But people, especially the young, on the left and right are beginning to realize the folly of war and some even recognize that some combination of Dick Cheney, Israel, and the CIA were fully or partially responsible for the tragedy that happened on 9/11. An album like this would hardly even register as politically edgy nowadays, besides its use of the words "faggot" and "retarded". Of course, an album must be judged in the context it was released. In 2004, this really was quite brave. Green Day were far from the first group to criticize the Bush administration, but this was a group that was not known for being political. Additionally, they were floundering commercially after their sixth studio album, Warning, so the safe thing to do would have been to release a return to form, agreeable, fun album. This is not that. Singles American Idiot and Holiday are both overtly political, and Wake Me Up When September Ends is a slow rock ballad about the death of Billie Joe Armstrong's father, and in spite of this, they were all massive hits. Why? Well, first of all, these songs are catchy as fuck. I remember so many of these choruses growing up; American Idiot, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and Wake Me Up most of all. Some of Green Day's finest melodies are on this album. However, while Green Day albums after this would lose the punk and keep the pop, this album has a great balance between the two. The title track, St. Jimmy, and Letterbomb embody the punkier side of this album and show that in spite of what contemporary critics may have said, these boys can still rock. The centerpieces of this story are the second and second-to-last songs on the album, Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming. The former, named after the main character of the album, and by Armstrong's admission, his attempt at making Bohemian Rhapsody of the future, is a nine minute, five-part punk and progressive rock epic that features styles from pop punk to glammy piano rock to theatrical acoustic rock. Hey, we even get some time signature changes. The titular character is a disillusioned American teen, living on pharmaceuticals since his childhood and growing up in a broken home. This "anti-hero" ends the song by leaving his home city. Amazingly, this song was also a single. The latter, Homecoming, is another 9 minute, 5 section track, and was actually written first. My favorite part of this song has to be the nearly rockabilly Tre Cool-led Rock N Roll Girlfriend. This is one of the coolest things I've heard this band do. This song isn't as good as Jesus of Suburbia, but it's underappreciated for sure. While the singles and some other songs are great, the middle section of this album does drag a bit. The run from Give Me Novacaine to Letterbomb is especially boring. Extraordinary Girl wouldn't be out of place on a modern Green Day album, which is not a compliment. Additionally, I don't like how so many songs here are combined into a single track. This is a nitpick, and is specific to the streaming version that I am listening to, but I don't understand why, for example, St. Jimmy, which is exciting and fun, is attached to the bland, plodding Are We The Waiting. This really isn't a big issue but it has annoyed me since I was a kid. American Idiot is not my favorite Green Day album. However, its level of artistic ambition was never met by the band before or since. The good songs are great, but the bad songs are completely forgettable. Overall, 3.5/5, rounded up to 4/5 Favs: Jesus of Suburbia Holiday St. Jimmy Least Fav: Extraordinary Girl

I Wish I Was A Fisherman Tumblin' On The Seas 1001 Albums Generator 9 (04/15/2025) Although the violin was originally made to play classical music, my favorite uses of the instrument (besides Vivaldi's Four Seasons) are all from outside this context. From Thank You Scientist to Sufjan Stevens' Illinois to Black Country, New Road, violin is just done best by the rock bands; I don't know what it is. By the time I reached the fourth minute of We Will Not Be Lovers, I realized that The Waterboys' fourth studio album Fisherman's Blues belongs in the rock violin pantheon. The Waterboys are a rock band with members from all four countries within the UK. While their first three albums helped to jump start the beginning of the so called "Big Music" genre, Fisherman's Blues represented a move away from that sound and features an embrace of Irish and Celtic folk music, infused with their rock sound. As I alluded to earlier, the star of the show here, besides band leader, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Scott, is the incredible violin (fiddle) playing of Steve Wickham, who appeared on only one song on the band's previous effort, This Is The Sea. I will be speaking in this review about the non-expanded edition, which is the first disc on the Spotify version of the album. Fisherman's Blues is really a story of two albums: the first is a brilliant combination of heartland-influenced rock and Irish folk instrumentation, and the second is an unremarkable Irish folk album. The first of these two albums (Fisherman's Blues through And A Bang On The Ear) is incredible. With the exception of Strange Boat and the bonus track Jimmy Hickey's Waltz, every song here is explosive. The first two songs especially highlight the incredible mix of rock and fiddle, with the second song, We Will Not Be Lovers, being perhaps my favorite song on the whole album. World Party features a really strange piano line that opens up into an almost post-punky Celtic inspired jam. There is also a cool moment in Sweet Thing where Mike starts singing Blackbird, and it is a totally dope recontextualization of that tune. The second of these two albums (Has Anybody Here Seen Hank through This Land Is Your Land) has precisely one song I like. Has Anybody Here Seen Hank? is a beautiful piece of Irish country. While it is simple, it is very well performed and Mike Scott's voice sounds great here. Every other song through to the end of the album is some mixture of boring and just plain bad. From the appallingly inoffensive When Ye Go Away to the painful slam poetry on The Stolen Child, side B of this LP has little to offer. This is a hard album to judge. On the one hand, I added two songs from this thing to a playlist, which is quite rare (normally I try to just do one per album). On the other, I have no desire to listen to this in full ever again. I can't go below a 3/5, just because the first half really is fantastic. Favs: Fisherman's Blues We Will Not Be Lovers World Party Least Fav: The Stolen Child

Is She Weird? Is She White? Is She Promised To The Night? 1001 Albums Generator 10 (04/16/2025) Made it to double digits, almost 1% done ;) Bossanova is the third studio album by Pixies, best known for their hit Where Is My Mind off their debut Surfer Rosa, famously featured in Fight Club, as well as their second album Doolittle, which is one of the most acclaimed indie and alt rock albums of the 90's. Bossanova, following these two critically acclaimed projects, had a lot to live up to. I had never heard this album, but I am familiar with Pixies' earlier work. In a lot of ways, this album is more of what I have come to love about this band: a grunge-y take on alternative indie rock, huge inter-song dynamic shifts, esoteric vocals and lyrics, and a touch of surfer rock. There are also some touches of psychedelia on songs like Ana and closer Havalina. Lead songwriter Frank Black AKA Black Francis shows some of his strangest songwriting I've heard from him on this album. 3-bar and 6-bar phrases abound, and chord progressions need not be functional here. The opening trio of songs is extremely strong. The first song, Cecilia Ann, is an instrumental surf punk song with great energy and guitar work. Rock Music is the most aggressive song on the album and features the first example on this album of something Pixies do a lot that I call "I can't believe it's not 4/4!". Normally the drums are playing as though the piece is in a standard 4/4, but the harmonic rhythm reveals that either we are actually in 6/4 or 10/4 or 14/4 or something. The chorus of Rock Music is in 6/4, but a passive listener might miss it; Black Francis just decided to have a three chord loop instead of a 4 chord loop. Velouria, the lead single, is an even more extreme example of this, as the chorus switches between 6/4 and 4/4, all while the drums stay relatively stagnant. It also has a theremin btw. Rock on. All Over The World and Dig For Fire feature really abstract lyricism, even for the band that wrote Monkey Gone To Heaven. Side note - I can't help but hear Daft Punk's Around The World during the chorus of All Over The World. I know they are drastically different, but the similar lyric and repetition just gets me. Anyway, both of these songs are quite good, with the former being the longest on the album and featuring the band's signature quiet-loud-quiet dynamic shifting. The latter is, by Black Franics' admission, their Talking Heads imitation (although it really doesn't sound like Talking Heads at all, except maybe in the second verse), and has one of my favorite examples of "I can't believe it's not 4/4!" on the album in the explosive chorus. After this, the album does falter in quality a bit for me. In spite of this album's short length, I did find myself checking my proverbial watch a bit by the time I got to Down To The Well on my first listen. On subsequent listens, it was easier, but there is some noticeable shift in quality in the second half. The Happening, the slower Stormy Weather, and Havalina (shout out to my home state Arizona) are all cool songs, so this isn't as egregious as yesterday's album, Fisherman's Blues, in this regard. Bossanova, Pixies' last really critically acclaimed record, is great, although not quite on the level as the two preceding it. I am happy that I listened to it and can say that I've completed the trifecta, but it really just made me want to go relisten to Doolittle. Gonna go do that rn. Overall, not bad at all, 4/5 Favs: Rock Music Velouria Is She Weird Least Fav: Hang Wire

Melody Nelson Has Red Hair, And It's Her Natural Color 1001 Albums Generator 11 (04/16/2025) Here we have an album about a man who falls in love with a fourteen/fifteen year old girl. The album has largely spoken vocals and the lyrics are in a language I don't understand. That's three potential strikes against this album that I was able to gather from only looking at Wikipedia and RateYourMusic before I had even heard a second of it. Now that I have heard the album, let's talk about it. Potential strike 1: The elephant in the room is this album's narrative. From reading translations of the lyrics, the protagonist of this story hit a young girl, Melody Nelson, with his car. He falls in love with her (despite the fact that she is only fourteen) and decides that he wants to take her virginity. They go to a hotel and consummate their relationship. On her flight home, she dies, and the narrator is left depressed and alone. I do feel like this story is better than I was expecting, as you do feel that it's a tragedy. Of course, it is tragic for Melody, who is groomed into sex as a minor and then dies, but I believe there is some tragedy for the narrator. My reading of the lyrics is that the narrator is alone in the world, starving for some sort of love. From his perspective, he has found love for the first time in his life, and it was taken away from him. Don't get me wrong, if the narrator of this album were a real person, I would certainly be calling for his jailing and/or chemical castration, but I do think this album forces you to recognize the humanity in someone that does one of the most disgusting things a human can do, and that makes it great art. VERDICT: NOT A STRIKE Potential strike 2: Spoken word vocals. This is where the album gets tough. The first song and the last three all feature spoken vocals, and the mixing is like... kind of terrible. Like, especially in the first song, the mixing of the instruments with his voice is just bad; it sounds like he is speaking directly in my ear and I can barely hear the instruments over his speaking. I also just hate how Jane Birkin just spends the whole album saying "Melody" and then laughing obnoxiously during En Melody. VERDICT: STRIKE Potential strike 3: Non-English lyrics on a story-based album. Okay, I'm not trying to get in trouble here; I obviously understand that people speak languages other that English. My (potential) gripe is more with the fact that I perceived this to be such a vocal-centric album that I would not be able to get a full appreciation for it. While I do think that may be the case, I don't think that it posed as much of an issue as I thought it would, because while the lyrics are important to understanding the album, the vocal style does honestly drag down the overall quality as mentioned above, so being able to not focus on it was probably a positive. VERDICT: NOT A STRIKE Hey 2/3 ain't bad. By the way, did you know there's actually music on this album? I know, it's hard to believe; we've already discussed so much without talking about the music itself, and the music is ultimately... fine. Looking at other reviews, I imagine this is blasphemy, but I don't know. The mixing killed it for me. There are moments, such as Melody and En Melody, where the band is jamming hard and I love it. However, in the former, his vocals overpower the mix, and in the latter, her laughing is really fucking obnoxious. Other moments, such as the two short songs Valse De Melody and Ah ! Melody show a quieter, more restrained approach to songwriting that really works, but these songs are so short that they struggle to make an impression in my opinion. It is worth noting that Jean-Claude Vannier's orchestral arrangements are at the core of this album's sound, and it is much better for it. The chamber elements throughout and the choral elements in the closer Cargo Culte were really great additions to these compositions. The orchestration and the way it's produced remind me of Umm Kulthum's Arabic style of pop music, which is interesting. Overall, this is an album that I believe is less than the sum of its parts. Instrumental compositions ranging from decent to great, an interesting, tragic story, and fantastic orchestration coalesce into a messy mix of pop, funk, and blues rock that bores me. I would say this is somewhere around a 2.5/5 for me, rounded down to a 2/5. Favs: Melody L'hotel Particulier Cargo Culte Least Fav: Valse De Melody

Don't Look At The Carpet, I Drew Something Awful On It 1001 Albums Generator 12 (04/18/2025) Low is the 11th album by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David Bowie, released in early 1977. 1976 was a tough year for Bowie. It may have seen the release of his critically acclaimed Station To Station, but it also saw him at the height of his cocaine addiction, seemingly consistently in controversy that often involved views on a certain German leader and his ideology that lay far to the right of the Overton Window. In Bowie's defense, he did partially blame these comments on living in Los Angeles, which is the most hilarious defense of Nazi apologia that I could imagine. Anyway, all of this controversy led to him and Iggy Pop moving to Berlin (of all places) to get off the powder, which led to what has in retrospect been referred to as "The Berlin Trilogy", of which Low is the first album. It's time for me to admit my biases right out of the gate. Low is my favorite David Bowie album (of the four that I have heard as of writing this), and it's kind of not even close. The sound of this album is very intentionally split in two along the rim of the vinyl. The A side features krautrock-inspired electronic rock and is certainly the more accessible half. The two international singles from this album, Sound And Vision and Be My Wife, are both on this side. The B side features ambient and largely instrumental pieces. It is not at all surprising the Brian Eno was so intimately involved with this album; it has his fingerprints all over it. Side A is one of the best sides of an album I have ever heard. Every single song is fantastic and sounds contemporary today. The weird, abrupt fade in to Speed Of Life, which opens the album, catches the listener off guard, and that almost saw-like synth that plays throughout is so catchy. It feels like a precursor to the New Wave movement. Sound And Vision is perhaps my favorite Bowie tune period. George Murray should be a household name for his work on this album alone; his bass on this song (and really the entire A side) is extremely catchy and funky. Side B is what had this album at a 4.5 instead of a 5 for me for the longest time. As I mentioned before, there isn't really any rock here. All we are left with are electronic textures, ambient soundscapes, and a dark atmosphere. When I first heard this album, I didn't appreciate this, but I have come to love it just as much as the A side. The opener Warszawa is a beautiful introduction to this new sound for Bowie. More that the first half of the song is instrumental, led by Brian Eno's multi-synth arrangement, and the moment where Bowie's voice comes in is powerful. Weeping Wall, which was my least favorite track on earlier listens, has grown on me a lot. It really reminds me of some of the minimalist music that I've heard, such as Music For 18 Musicians or Terry Riley's In C. Subterraneans is a beautiful, dark finale to the album. The saxophone is haunting, and I'll be brave and admit I had no idea Bowie could play the saxophone like that. One last thing: this album is famous for having one of the most imitated drum sounds in all of rock history, and that is not without reason. Whatever black magic and crack Tony Visconti put into this drum sound, especially on the rock side, would probably be illegal if it was sold on the streets. Low marked a new era in one of the most decorated music careers in history, and it more than earns a spot on not only this list, but in the canon of Western music generally. David Bowie revolutionized popular music multiple times throughout his career, and I think this one may be my favorite. 5/5 Favs: Speed Of Life Sound And Vision Subterraneans Least Fav: Art Decade

It's Like A Whirlwind Inside Of My Head 1001 Albums Generator 13 (04/21/2025) Recently, I have seen discourse among music discussion boards that the introduction and overuse of the word "mid" has effectively destroyed music criticism. It is a word that can be employed endlessly and requires no justification. However, I would argue that the "mid epidemic" is the latest of a string of meaningless criticism - an evolution from a criticism that Linkin Park was all too familiar with: "edgy". In the 2000's-2010's, there was nothing worse that you could be than cringe (which edgy was a subset of), and Linkin Park was a total edgy cringefest. However, Gen Z is embracing the formerly cringey. As a wise man once said: "Kill not the part of you that is cringe; kill the part of you that cringes". As such, this band, especially this album and Meteora, have seen quite a critical reevaluation by the youth as of late. Is this an instance of Gen Z rebellion against their uncool Millennial counterparts, or is it a well-deserved reframing of an unfairly disrespected band? The hits off of Linkin Park's debut, Hybrid Theory, are really quite good. The opening track, Papercut, is probably my favorite song by the group. It features a really interesting electronic sounding guitar part and a great, catchy chorus. One thing that Linkin Park does not get nearly enough credit for is their pop sensibilities. It really is no surprise to me that they got as popular as they did. This song also has this really cool drum thing where halfway through the verses, the drums switch from a closed hi hat to open, which to my ears gives the impression of going into a halftime grove, even though the timing hasn't actually changed; it's just pure genius on display. In addition to this song, the two biggest hits on this album are the oft memed In The End and Crawling. The two biggest sins of Linkin Park in the eyes of the cringe police are on this album, and both of them are honestly pretty good in retrospect. The verses of Crawling are very forgettable, but that chorus is electric. In The End is the finest example of LP's songwriting trope of Mike Shinoda rapping on the verse and Chester Bennington belting the chorus. This song is iconic, and no amount of calling it cringe will change that. Outside the hits, there are a couple of other bright moments. A Place For My Head has a great Phrygian groove and is probably the most memorable guitar part on this album. It also has one of the heaviest moments on the album in its bridge. Pushing Me Away is good but ultimately comes off as a slightly worse version of In The End. By Myself has a really heavy riff, but a terrible verse part that feels so whiny. The vocals on this album in general just do not sit well with me. I feel so bad saying that about a hometown hero like Chester Bennington (the house he lived in when he tragically took his own life was really close to where I grew up), but I've just never really bought his whole thing. There are moments on this album, such as the chorus of Forgotten, where his voice sounds more nasal than oral. In general, the mixing on this album is very much a product of its time. Anyone familiar with the contemporary history of music production will know what I mean: Hybrid Theory is a victim of the Loudness War. This thing is compressed to fucking shit. In spite of this, there are production moments that I like. The electronic elements can be really cool, especially seen on Papercut and the interlude Cure For The Itch. The guitar tone on this is also one of the best that I have heard in nu-metal. So, is the critical re-evaluation Gen Z rebellion and counterculturalism or well-deserved and long overdue? Well, Hybrid Theory has high highs and features iconic pop-oriented choruses with great guitar tones. However, it has lots of filler, rough mixing/mastering, and a dated sound. I would say the good and bad elements just about outweigh one another, so unfortunately, the jury is still out. 2.5/5, rounded down to 2/5. Favs: Papercut In The End A Place For My Head Least Fav: Runaway

I Had A Feeling So Peculiar This Pain Wouldn't Be For Evermore 1001 Albums Generator 15 (04/22/2025) So apparently Travis Kelce's girlfriend makes music, who knew! This individual is named Taylor Swift and evermore is her ninth album. Written as a sister album to her eighth outing, folklore, these albums represented a new direction for Ms. Swift, moving towards some sort of folksy, 'artsy' sound that was meant to not be as poppy as her previous records. These albums were conceived during the COVID-19 quarantine and were both surprise releases. Now, as I am a human being living on planet Earth, I do have an opinion about Taylor Swift. However, I think that doing something such as this challenge is a good excuse to put aside all my biases, as best as I can, and judge this album with fresh eyes. This is a singer-songwriter album at the end of the day, so what better place to start than the lyrics? I feel like a contrarian asshole, but I struggle to find the depth in the lyrics here that is supposedly on display. Everything that I read about this album emphasizes that this album is much more introspective and focuses on character studies, emphasizing themes of escapism, but I don't see it. One of my problems with Taylor Swift has been her shallow lyrics, so I was excited to get some T-Swizzle with deeper lyrics, but maybe my expectations were a bit high. every song with the exception of No Body No Crime and Marjorie are about falling in love or heartbreak. This isn't necessarily even a bad thing, and Taylor Swift is totally competent at writing songs about these things, but calling this album lyrically deep is a bit misleading, no? Musically, there is certainly something interesting happening in a lot of these songs. Willow, the opening track, is chamber folk, with a glockenspiel, flute, and strings backing the more standard instrumentation and vocals. It also features a truly interesting finger picked guitar part. Very Americana, Ms. Swift! Tolerate It features a really interesting rhythm and is very restrained in its songwriting, staying as just piano and Swift's vocals for the majority of it until a light electronic beat slowly comes in (which totally changes how I hear the rhythm by the way. I was hearing it in 7/4 with the slower four piano chords being quarter notes when it first started, but the drums are in a triplet 10/4, with the faster four piano chords being quarter notes. Who would have thought?) Very interesting rhythms, Ms. Swift! Closure is pretty fascinating piece of glitch pop (?) with electronic drums in a 5/4 rhythm. Kind of got some IDM vibes from it, expecially with how the piano and drums are handled. Very Aphex Twin, Ms. Swift! The closing title track is perfectly simple, with a memorable piano part during the verses and choruses that change into a more high tempo bridge with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. Very great album closer, Ms. Swift! While about half the tracklist showcases a good amount of eclecticism on display (at least by pop standards), the other half unfortunately approximates the sound of beige. The second track on the album, Champagne Problems, is boring 4-chord slop, but the guitar part between the verses is kind of cool. There's this run near the end of the album from Coney Island through Marjorie that is particularly dreadful. The only song in that run that had anything that impressed me was Ivy, which featured some cool banjo, played by Justin Vernon. In general, this album, while perhaps interesting and eclectic by Taylor Swift standards, still struggles to justify its hour long runtime. I feel as though this album is overrated due to being "more artsy" than her other projects. While this is true (although greatly overstated), artistic ambition alone does not a great album make. 2/5 Favs: Tolerate It Dorothea Evermore Least Fav: Coney Island

No More Mr. Nice Guy, No More Mr. Clean 1001 Albums Generator 15 (04/23/2025) Alice Cooper (band) was (is) a band led by frontman Alice Cooper (guy). Active during the first half of the 70's, Alice Cooper (band) was a key group in the glam rock movement that emerged in the UK, but they always had a very theatrical, American sound about them. Billion Dollar Babies, released in 1973, was their most popular album and features smash hit No More Mr. Nice Guy. It was also the last of their critically acclaimed quartet of albums that started with 1971's Love It To Death. As a personal note, as a kid growing up playing music in the Phoenix area, Alice Cooper (guy) was an awesome presence in the community. He hosted a yearly battle of the bands called Proof Is In The Pudding, and I got to play a few shows at his restaurant Cooperstown before it sadly closed in 2017. He is a really cool guy for allowing young, local Arizona musicians to play on such cool stages. Because Billion Dollar Babies, at its core, is hard rock drenched in glam, I expected it to have a very basic sound, but there are a lot of really strange elements here. The second song, the unfortunately titled Raped And Freezin', features a random Mexican sounding breakdown at the end. Unfinished Sweet and Sick Things are quite experimental, with the former featuring some droning instrumentals throughout, perhaps the closest the band ever got to Krautrock, and the latter sounding like a gothic, slowed down version of a normal hard rock song. Generation Landslide has a Beatles-esque intro and a country breakdown. Mary Ann, the penultimate track, is a vaudeville ragtime tune. The whole album features Alice Cooper's (band) signature theatrics, although it is tuned down from the show tunes of their previous outing. There is a lot more than meets the eye happening here and it's really amazing that this thing went number 1 in the US and the UK. Alice Cooper (guy) is a captivating showman and is the godfather of shock rock for a reason. His raspy voice is so distinct, showcased best on the upbeat, symphonic rocker Elected, where he screams about wanting to be elected President of the United States in a way that is very similar to Ramones' I Wanna Be Sedated. He also has a great falsetto register, which features prominently on the title track and the chorus of the iconic No More Mr. Nice Guy. The lyrics on this thing are very unserious, which I love. Alice Cooper (band AND guy) set out to shock people, and I'm sure that in the age before Liveleak and 4chan, it probably worked, although the shock value is gone with the ages a bit. I'm sure necrophilia, sexual harrasment, and the dentist were shocking topics back in 1973, but now I open Instagram and am immediately greeted by a video of a Chinese man dying in an industrial accident. However, the societal desensitization to violence is not something that I can properly hold against this album. Some of the tracks don't work for me. Raped And Freezin' feels like a pretty boilerplate rocker, at least until that outro, and it doesn't stick with me. The pair of tracks Sick Things and Mary Ann near the end of the album are also a bit of a lull, although both for different reasons. I appreciate what Mary Ann is as an interlude, and the piano really is well played, but it's a bit cheeseball for my tastes. Sick Things is certainly experimental, but I don't think the experiment works and this was the one song that I really think would have been better left on the cutting room floor. I have always thought of Alice Cooper (band) as a back-to-basics hard rock group with quality singles but not much else. Billion Dollar Babies surprised me, in both its surprisingly experimental, artistic nature and its relatively consistent quality. While there are moments that I don't like, I would say this is a solid 4/5. Favs: Elected No More Mr. Nice guy Generation Landslide Least Fav: Sick Things

I'm Swimming In Blood Like A Rat On A Sewer Floor 1001 Albums Generator 16 (04/22/2025) Two Alice Cooper albums in a row, huh? If you're curious, the odds of that happening at this point in the list (given that there are only 2 of them on the list, and I already had done 14 albums) is 1 in 577,275. The odds of this Alice Cooper double header happening on THE DAY that the band gets back together to release new music for the first time in over 50 years feels astronomical. I guess I gotta go buy a lottery ticket now. Anyway, School's Out was released in 1972 and directly precedes yesterday's album, Billion Dollar Babies. That album surprised me with its relatively artsy sound and consistent quality outside of the singles. How does School's Out compare? The opening title track is one of Alice Cooper's most iconic songs. Played by quasi-rebellious teens across the anglosphere throughout the month of May, even 50 years later, School's Out is an iconic Proto-Punk anti-school tune. Released 6 years before Pink Floyd's similar Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2, School's Out was actually banned off of some radio stations for encouraging rebellion in children, which is how you know a song is good. I can't think of a more perfect song to be Alice Cooper's first major hit single. In the 70's, Alice Cooper was synonymous with shock and offense and is often called the Godfather of Shock Rock. As such, a single that rebels against the school system, one of the supposed pillars of Western civilization, was a perfect way to introduce people to Alice Cooper. Spoiler alert - no other song on this album nearly hits the highs of the opening track. This isn't to say there aren't great moments. Blue Turk is my next favorite song. It is surprisingly jazzy and features an awesome sax solo and super fusion-y electric piano sounds throughout. It also has a bassline that is totally inspired by walking basslines of old school jazz. Gutter Cat Vs. The Jets is a cool almost proggy song. I love the changes that happens throughout. The first one is about halfway through where the song becomes almost tribal with just drums and a picked bass. Then the song picks up to a 12/8 jam with a cool, sliding synth line. I'm not sure which synth this is, but it sounds like something I would mess around with on FL Studio. The second side is a bit weaker but still features some interesting moments, such as the growling, almost wordless vocals at the end of Public Animal #9 and the shoutout to Camelback High and Cortez High, two local high schools in Phoenix, on Alma Mater. As I alluded to, the second half of this album does fall off in quality. I find all three of the last songs to be mostly forgettable for different reasons. Public Animal #9 has great energy but not much substance behind it. Alma Mater has lyrics that are honestly pretty moving; it captures the feeling of leaving high school, and the uncertainty that comes along with it. I think of it as the Yin to the title track's Yang. Although the lyrics are good, the song is set to a slower, mostly acoustic number, which is not a style that I think Alice Cooper does particularly convincingly. I do like the doo-wop backing vocals. The final song is a perfectly acceptable instrumental, but begs the question a bit by declaring itself "Grande". School's Out is a good album. It is not as consistent as Billion Dollar Babies, but it does feature what is perhaps Alice Cooper's finest song in the title track. This, along with some other interesting moments are enough to bring this album to a 3.5 for me, rounded down to a 3. Please no more glam rock tomorrow. Favs: School's Out Blue Turk My Stars Least Fav: Alma Mater

I May Be Dumb, But I'm Not A Dweeb. I'm Just A Sucker With No Self-Esteem 1001 Albums Generator 17 (04/25/2025) The Offspring are a pop punk band from California that saw their critical and commercial peak in the 90’s. Along with Green Day, The Offspring brought punk rock to the mainstream by combining its blistering speed with strong pop sensibilities. Smash is their third studio album, released in 1994, and represents the start of their most commercially successful period. It is also the band’s most critically acclaimed record and features two of their most popular songs: Come Out And Play and Self Esteem. I had never listened to this album before, and I didn’t know any songs off of it outside these two. Both are classic for a reason. The former features its start/stop drum intro, the iconic “you gotta keep em separated” hook and its surf guitar parts in the pre-verses. This is a great song, but the latter is even stronger in my opinion. Self Esteem, for my money, is an encapsulation of everything that made The Offspring great: a great rhythm section, good guitar riffs, and Dexter Holland’s slightly ironic, self-aware lyrics that don’t take themselves too seriously. There are other great moments on this album too. The forgotten third single Gotta Get Away is a bit slower but features a great, catchy guitar part that switches from lower register to higher register chords. Perhaps my favorite song on the whole album is the extremely fun Genocide. The energy on this thing hits you like a ton of bricks and it is so fast. The speed and drums are almost thrashy. Other highlights include the ska punk of What Happened To You? and perhaps the most hardcore punk song of the whole album: the one minute So Alone. One thing I am not a fan of on this thing is Dexter Holland’s vocals. He often sounds like he’s wailing in quite an annoying way. This is most expemplified on songs like Bad Habit and Something To Believe In. The latter is actually pretty catchy and has some good riffs but his backing vocals in the chorus just kill me. Even Self Esteem is guilty of this if I’m being honest, but that one gets a pass. This album also features one of my least favorite tropes of the 90’s: the godforsaken hidden track. This one is even worse than other notable examples from this decade since it is just reprises of songs on the album after like 5 minutes of silence. This, more than anything else here, dates this album in a negative way. Overall, The Offspring’s Smash is a high octane album with as many great songs as bad ones. I’m glad I finally gave the “Keep Em Separated” band a chance and found some new favorites. Overall, I’m feeling a 3/5. Favs: Genocide Come Out And Play Self Esteem Least Fav: Bad Habit

Keep Your Eyes On The Final Hour 1001 Albums Generator 18 (04/28/2025) Last week kind of sucked. Work was annoying, my dog regressed in her behavior, and I was dealing with a lot of negative thoughts about myself. On Sunday, we had a problem with our garage door that cost us almost a full dollar for every album on this list. Ouch. In addition to that, the 5 albums last week, while varying in quality, did not contain a single album that would be on my version of this list. There was no stone cold classic, with the closest thing being Billion Dollar Babies. The same will not be said about this week, which is opening with the eternal neo-soul classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. I think this is going to be a good week. Lauryn Hill, along with Jeff Buckley, is the platonic ideal of a one-album wonder. Unlike Jeff Buckley, Lauryn is still alive; she just... hasn't made any new music. Noone can truly say why, as Lauryn seems to blame everyone but herself and everyone but Lauryn blames her. What is certain is her one album, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, is more acclaimed than many artists' whole discographies. This album lives on both indirectly through its influence on hip hop, neo-soul, and R&B and directly through the nearly 200 professional examples of this album being sampled. Drake, Logic, Kanye, J. Cole, Lizzo, Cardi B, Vince Staples, and hundreds of other artists have paid homage to this album through the art of sampling. However, I would argue that influence alone is not necessarily equivalent to quality. Does Miseducation deserve its acclaim? I will have lots of hot takes as we work through this list (wait till we get to Loveless or VU&N), but my take on this album is as cold as it gets. This is a fantastic album, deserving of all the praise it gets. People often focus on the vocals of it all, but I'd like to start with the instrumentation. Many of the beats on this album are played live in the studio and arranged by Lauryn Hill. I think she deserves as much praise as an arranger as she gets as a writer and vocalist. She said "The first day in the studio I ordered every instrument I ever fell in love with: harps, strings, timpani, organs, clarinets. It was my idea to record it so the human element stayed in. I didn't want it to be too technically perfect." Her goal was achieved: this is a deeply human album. This is an album that a machine would not be able to create; the way the drums are often just so slightly early on some songs, the way the lyrics and melodies change slightly from chorus to chorus. These are things that require a human touch. That's a huge part of where the beauty of this album lies. The first four songs (after the intro) start the album off really strong. Lost One, which is firmly planted in a hip hop sound, features strange guitar chords and heavy turntablism. Ex-Factor, which is sampled in what is perhaps Drake's best song, Nice For What, is as soulful as it gets and has a legendary bridge with beautiful, soaring harmonies. To Zion, which features guitar giant Carlos Santana, has a distinctly Latin flavor and features powerful lyrics about Lauryn's choice to have a child in spite of outside pressure to do otherwise. Doo Wop (That Thing) is perhaps Ms. Lauryn Hill's most popular song for good reason. With an iconic piano beat behind her, Lauryn speaks directly to her African American community, telling the men and the women to not distract themselves with "things". For the men, this is in a literal sense ("timbs and rims") and for the women, the "thing" is more metaphorical. Lauryn tells the women of her community to have self-respect and to value themselves. Other highlights include the beautiful Christian imagery on the jazzy boom bap Final Hour (which has a similar message to Doo Wop) and the reggae-inspired Forgive Them Father. Additionally, the cover of Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You is a beautiful piece at the end of this album. Amazingly, it wasn't meant to be included originally, but thank God it was. The second half of this album is a bit weaker in general. The D'Angelo collab Nothing Even Matters is a sleepy bit of soul and the title track is a minimalist song that fails to stand out. The piano is nice, but this song felt a bit boring. Over half of the songs on this album are over 5 minutes, and I feel as though some of these songs are stretched out maybe 30-60 seconds longer than they need to be. I also found the skits, primarily present in the first half of the album, to really take away from my enjoyment. Especially as they are mastered much quieter, so when listening to this album in my car, I had to keep adjusting the volume. Although Lauryn Hill only released one album as a solo artist, her influence on modern hip hop, neo-soul, and R&B cannot be overstated. This album is chock full of beautiful harmonies, interesting orchestral instrumentation, and boom bap beats. However, some dim spots in the track list, slightly overlong songs, and the school gimmick keep it from a 5 for me. 4.5, rounded down to a 4/5. Favs: Doo Wop (That Thing) Final Hour Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You Least Fav: Nothing Even Matters

There Are Heroes In The Seaweed 1001 Albums Generator 19 (04/29/2025) Songs of Leonard Cohen is the debut album by Renaissance man Leonard Cohen, released in 1967. Before this album, Cohen was primarily known as a writer, but after penning Suzanne and being encouraged by close friend Judy Collins to play it live, he was signed to Columbia and his music career began. The fact that someone could start their musical journey with a song as perfect as Suzanne is astounding. This is perhaps Cohen's most acclaimed record, featuring three of his most popular songs, and it features a very stripped back sound. Primarily backed only by his acoustic guitar and some light orchestration, Leonard Cohen quietly sings his way through these 10 songs with an imperfection and amateurishness that somehow add to the charm and memorability of this wonderful album. It is so sad to see people on 1001albumsgenerator.com getting one-shotted by this thing. Complaints of "boring", "minimal", and "poor singing" miss the mark in my view. The minimal production and simple vocal melodies force you to really listen. As a listener, this should be your job, but when presented with a flashy, maximalist rock album, it's easy to let it flow in one ear and out the other. If you let an album like this one wash over you, it will be very easy to call it boring. In fact, it probably is boring to listen to it in this way. Besides the bits of orchestration provided by John Simon (which led to Cohen's consternation), the sound of this album is a man and his guitar. However, I think the simplicity of this album's musicality, even by its fans, is wildly overemphasized. Listen to the baroque American Primitivism-esque guitar work on The Stranger Song and Teachers. These are seriously challenging to play, and while I would never argue for Leonard Cohen as more of a guitarist than a songwriter, his guitar work is a bit underrated. Listen to the psychedelic cabaret of Sisters Of Mercy. It sounds like a fucked up carnival, especially when listening with headphones. The first part of So Long, Marianne feels very country. This song has really interesting structure, starting out with almost full instrumentation before fading into just guitar, bass, and vocals. Then it becomes as energetic as this album gets as the drums come in. The ending of One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong sounds like a precursor to slacker rock, with its lofi sound and nearly screamed wordless vocals. With all this said, Cohen was of course a poet first and foremost. I don't think it is an over-exaggeration to say that the second verse of Suzanne could be the best stanza of lyrics ever. He describes Jesus as a sailor and then a watchman, realizing that he is only prayed to by those who need something from him. Jesus is forsaken by God through crucifixion, but he rises from the dead. However, in spite of this miracle, Cohen seems to realize that his love for Suzanne overtakes even his faith. I feel like there are even more layers here that I have yet to uncover in all my listens. This song is just beautiful. One small hit against this album is that Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye is definitely similar to Suzanne in its melody and guitar part, especially in the verses. Being similar to Suzanne is certainly not a bad thing, but I don't think this helps this album fight against arguments of homogeneity. When I think of perfect folk albums, this is one of the first things that comes to mind. Blending the incredible, thoughtful lyrics of a man who was a poet first with the minimal, yet detailed, production of John Simon leads to a perfect album. Songs Of Leonard Cohen is a 5. It was a 5 when I listened to it the first time a couple years ago, and it's still a 5 now. What a privilege to get to listen to this project today. Hopefully no Kid Rock tomorrow. Favs: Suzanne So Long, Marianne One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong Least Fav: Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye

Tonight I'm Gonna Party Like It's 1999 1001 Albums Generator 20 (04/30/2025) 1999 is the album that propelled 5'2 Prince into stardom and is largely responsible for introducing the Minneapolis Sound brand of funk into the mainstream consciousness. Defined by funky synth basslines and programmed drums, Minneapolis Sound was most popular in the 1980's, but it continues to influence artists today such as Bruno Mars and Usher. Prince is an artist who has somehow, to this point, escaped my grasp other than the fantastic song Purple Rain, so I was excited to finally listen to a full album by the man who would become O(+>. First things first, this album is horny as fuck. I feel like I just had sex with Prince just by listening to this thing. Look at the lyrics for Automatic, Lady Cab Driver, and International Lover to start. Anyone that claims that music is "too sexual" nowadays should listen to this album right here. The sound of this album is also very funky. The only other Minneapolis Sound album I have heard is Janet Jackson's Control, and this has the exact same specific types of busy programmed drum beats with lots of fills and synth basslines. The sexual swagger exuding from this little guy can be so strong that it can almost feel like over-compensation, but I'm sure that he really was gettin down and dirty. The album starts with its two most well known songs. The first song, the title track, is the most popular song on the album. Opening with Prince's voice with a robotic filter over it and based on the paranoia at the time that the world would end in 2000, Prince asks one simple thing of the listener: party like it's 1999. In the world of this song, the world is at war, and Prince chooses to dance instead of die. This is the strongest song on the album, and honestly it's not really close. Unfortunately, the second track, Little Red Corvette, is much less exciting. Prince metaphorically describes a one-night stand by comparing it to a ride in a sports car. It's clever, but the music is a bit placid and Prince croons his way through the verses until the pretty good chorus. The guitar solo is nice too. I know this song is popular, but it's unfortunately not quite as good as I was hoping. The rest of this album is quite variable in quality. Delirious features a very silly synth that takes away from the sexiness of the song. I kept getting reminded of that guy on Reddit that listened to Cbat during sex to feel the rhythm lol. Prince's energy is good, but I just can't with this instrumental. D.M.S.R. brings the quality way back up with perhaps the funkiest song on the whole album. I also felt seen when he said "All the white people, clap your hands on the four now". Thanks Prince. Free is a dreadfully cheesy ballad about being grateful for what you have or whatever, while Lady Cab Driver is a wonderfully cheesy boogie about, erm, intercourse with the titular lady cab driver. The final song is strong and has a fun little bit of theming with the whole "Prince Air" schtick. Overall, Prince's 1999 is an album that defines the period in which it was created. In doing so, it also intrinsically ties itself in the cliches of the time, making it hard to appreciate as a modern listener. While I can appreciate the influence this has, I don't find myself coming back to it in whole, in spite of some really strong individual moments. 3/5. Favs: 1999 D.M.S.R. International Lover Least Fav: Free

But I Fear Tomorrow I'll Be Crying 1001 Albums Generator 21 (05/01/2025) After graduating from Chelsea College Of The Arts, Barry Godber decided to become a computer programmer. Disillusioned with the working world, he later left this corporate job with his friend Peter Sinfield. When Sinfield asked him to paint an album cover for his band's debut album, Barry painted the only piece of album art he made in his short life, featuring a distorted representation of what he saw when he looked in his bathroom mirror. Soon after this (self-)portrait of the so called "Schizoid Man" found its way to hundreds of record shop windows, Barry Goldber died of a heart attack in 1970. He was 24 years old. While researching this album, I learned the word phantasmagorical. Don't act like you know what it means. Phantasmagorical means "full of different images, like something in a confused dream", and I think this word describes perfectly Barry's art, Sinfeld's lyrics, and the musical world that King Crimson was able to build on In The Court Of The Crimson King. Personally, this is not my favorite album by experimental English proggers King Crimson, as I believe they peaked with the proggy new wave of Discipline and the proto-prog metal of Red, but this is still a classic album for a reason. As there are only five songs here, I feel like I can go track by track. The opening 21st Century Schizoid Man is King Crimson's most well-known song, owing in part to its iconic use in one of Kanye West's finest songs, Power. Even removed from its use as a sample, this is clearly one of King Crimson's strongest songs, and may be objectively their best. I said earlier this week that Leonard Cohen starting his career with the sublime Suzanne was amazing, and 21st Century Schizoid Man is a similarly unbelievable start to an artist's career. Taking inspiration from both the psychedelic acid rock of Jimi Hendrix and the jazz sensibilities of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, this song redefined what rock music could be. In the same year that Miles Davis "sold out" to rock audiences by embracing electric elements to his jazz on In A Silent Way, King Crimson was approaching this fusion from the other side by incorporating jazz improvisation and instrumentation into a rock context. The formerly opposed rock and jazz worlds were coming together and in both cases, the results were fantastic. I Talk To The Wind is much more tame by comparison. Led largely by Ian McDonald's flute, the second song on In The Court Of The Crimson King is hardly a rock song at all. Playing more like a folk song, I Talk To The Wind was originally penned by Giles, Giles, and Fripp, the precursor to King Crimson. It's a good song and a nice reprieve from the cacophony at the end of the previous track, but not the strongest moment here. Special shoutout to Michael Giles' super interesting drumming on the chorus. The following track, the similarly chill Epitaph, is another triumph. This song also has some folksy moments, but it allows itself to rock out more, and it features some of Sinfeld's best lyrics. This song was a chilling statement against both the deadly Vietnam War and the mutually assured destruction of the Cold War. To this day, politicians play with the lives of the common man while they sit in their bunkers twidling their thumbs. As with many of King Crimson's pre-80's output, the second to last song here, Moonchild, is a piece of free improvisation, and as with many of these free improv songs, it is the weakest on the album. After a two and a half minute ballad, the song devolves into about 10 minutes of pure improvisation that goes beyond even the experimentation of free jazz that Ornette Coleman famously spearheaded in the early 60's. While that music still maintained some sort of jazz sensibility, Moonchild is something different, where even the most key elements of music, such as rhythm and harmony, are eschewed in favor of complete chaos. This is not an aggressive piece of free improv like AMMMusic, but rather a more chill, folksy take on the radical genre. By virtue of personal preference, this is just not my thing. The final song, the nearly titular The Court Of The Crimson King, is fantastic. I love the acoustic guitar arpeggios in the verses and the huge multitracked vocals of the chorus. It is also extremely jazzy and has a silly little flute part near the end. You can't go wrong with that. So, is this the first true progressive rock album? Perhaps not, as both Caravan and Soft Machine had released their self titled albums by the time In The Court Of The Crimson King released. Don't mishear me; this isn't to take away from what Fripp, Lake, McDonald, Giles, and Sinfield did here on their debut. It is a remarkable album and while its status as the first true prog rock album is shaky at best, I don't think it's a stretch to say that this is the first GREAT prog rock album. With that said, the weakness of Moonchild, which is the longest song here, puts this album at a strong 4/5 for me. Favs: 21st Century Schizoid Man Epitaph The Court Of The Crimson King Least Fav: Moonchild

Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer; Count The Headlights On The Highway 1001 Albums Generator 22 (05/02/2025) Madman Across The Water is the fourth studio album by British pianist, singer, and songwriter Elton John. It was far from hit when it released, peaking at #41 in John's home country of the UK, although it did perform significantly better in the US, peaking at #8. Although Wikipedia repeatedly refers to this album as prog rock, I have trouble seeing it. While it does feature elements of progressive pop, I do not see much in common with this album and yesterday's album, In The Court Of The Crimson King, which is pretty much the quintessential prog rock album. Genre labels aside, I was not familiar with this album, other than the marvelous Tiny Dancer, so I was excited to get into it and listen to my first Elton John album. This album is quite top-heavy. The first two songs (which were also the two singles released before the album) are pretty much the two strongest songs here. Tiny Dancer, the opener, is obviously a classic for a reason. I love that it takes so long to get the the first chorus, going through an intro, two verses, a middle 8, and a pre-chorus before finally getting to it. This song was actually a slow-burn single, not reaching high levels of popularity right away, in part due to this strange structure and relatively long run time. Recall, this was 4 years before Queen revolutionized what a rock single could be with Bohemian Rhapsody. Anyway, Tiny Dancer exemplifies the strengths of this album: great piano playing and singing from Elton, fun soft rock slide guitar, and lush baroque orchestration. Side note: I heard a shitty remix of this song at the gym and it killed me as all the tension that builds in the original was completely vanquished. The second single, Levon, while not as strong, is much of the same. The ending of this song is just epic and feels more like the ending of an album than the second song on one. By the way, we are 11 and a half minutes in and I haven't heard a second of prog rock. Wikipedia, what are you doing? The rest of the album is not near the quality of its first two tracks. The rest of the A side is okay, with Razor Face having a bit of a tedious tempo but featuring cool organ work from the talented Rick Wakeman and an accordion solo and the title track having some interesting guitar work but not much else going for it. Indian Sunset is another interesting point in the album. Although it is also slower, it features a good structure and tells the story of an American Indian who is at war with some unnamed white European. This is by far the closest the album gets to prog, but I would still argue it's with a distinctly pop flavor. The rest of the album kind of washes over me. Nothing in the last four songs stuck out, and this is emblematic of an issue that I have with piano-led rock music in general. I play both piano and guitar (and I love both), but I think that the guitar, in general, is a more diverse instrument. This is obviously no fault of Elton John, who is able to make the piano his bitch with the best of them, but it is truly just personal preference. Madman Across The Water was my first Elton John album, and with such a strong opening, it felt like a great way to start my journey into his discography. However a lackluster second half prevents the album from greatness. 3/5. Favs: Tiny Dancer Levon Madman Across The Water Least Fav: Rotten Peaches

Let's Start What We Have Come Into The Room To Do 1001 Albums Generator 23 (05/05/2025) I was hoping I would get some Mexican music for Cinco De Mayo, but I guess Nigeria is the next closest thing. Mexico is an observer state in the African Union after all. Fela Kuti was a Nigerian musician who pioneered and popularized the genre Afrobeat in the 1970's. Recorded near the beginning of his 70's peak in the famous Abbey Road Studios, Live! was the sixth album released by Fela Kuti and his band Africa '70. In spite of the name, this is not a live album in the traditional sense, having been recorded "live in studio" as opposed to "live in concert". However, it certainly has the energy of a live album, with banter between songs and song introductions by the ever-entertaining Fela. Additionally, Ginger Baker, the drummer for Cream, was featured on this recording after appearing on Kuti's previous album, Black Men Dey Suffer. Baker had spent time exploring Africa alongside Kuti to familiarize himself with the music and rhythms of the continent. Before this album, I had only heard one album from Fela Kuti: 1975's Expensive Shit. The way that Fela mixes western jazz and funk elements with African rhythms and instrumentation on long jams on that album really intrigued me, so I was excited to hear more from him here. What better place to start than the man himself, Fela Kuti? As a Yoruba man from Nigeria growing up in the mid 1900's, Fela experienced a lot of chaos throughout his life. When Nigeria became independent of British rule in the 1950's, tensions between the different ethnic groups in the country (including the Yoruba) were extremely high. Then in the 1960's, Nigeria saw the secession of the Biafra state and the ensuing starvation of over a million of its people by the Nigerian government. This Civil War ended in 1970, one year before Fela recorded this album. Interestingly, this chaos is translated into music not as anger, but as rebellious joy. What made Fela such a unique character in the history of music (among other things) was that while he allowed his circumstances to fuel his music through the lyrics, album covers, and messaging (oftentimes his songs would feature lyrics describing the plight of his people), he did not allow these circumstances to negatively impact the energy of his art. He instead opted to take the disarray around him and focus it into unbridled vitality. And that vitality is infectious. One needs only listen to the nearly screamed vocals of Black Man's Cry or the Hey Jude-esque la la la's at the end of Egbe Mi O to hear this. The man could command a room like no other. In addition to his duties as frontman, Fela found himself behind the organ quite a lot, with my favorite solo of his on this album being on the aforementioned Black Man's Cry. Another key element of Fela's music, and one of the definitional aspects of Afrobeat in general, is the call-and-response between the vocals and the instruments. On this album, this idea can be seen most on the B side, with Ye Ye De Smell featuring Fela's wordless vocals sparring with the Africa '70's horn section. Let's talk about this Africa '70. Africa '70 was Fela Kuti's trusty band, with whom Fela released a huge portion of his extensive output throughout his career. The most notable members are Igo Chiko on the tenor sax and the incredible drummer Tony Allen, of whom Fela Kuti once said "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat". Additionally on side 2, we get a second drummer, the equally talented Ginger Baker, who, after travelling throughout Africa alongside Fela, fits right in with the rest of Africa '70. The double drumming, along with the percussionists and conga players, make this an extremely rhythmic album. My body was moving the whole time. This really is a nearly perfect album. It is exquisitely played and the mixing is really cool, especially on headphones. Fela's songwriting, while simple in theory, is masterful in execution. While I would lean towards encouraging Expensive Shit as a better introduction to Fela, Live! may very well be just as great. 4.5, rounded up to 5. Favs: Black Man's Cry Ye Ye De Smell Egbe Mi O (Carry Me) Least Fav: Let's Start

Hang With Me Joe, Hang With Me Joe 1001 Albums Generator 24 (05/06/2025) After a series of 3 EP's released throughout the early 80's, post-hardcore pioneers Big Black decided in 1985 that their fans deserved more than just 20 minutes of tinnitus at a time; they were going to record a full length album. Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Steve Albini started Big Black as a solo project in 1981. Before he became renowned for his work as a producer for artists such as Pixies, Nirvana, Fugazi, Slint, and hundreds of others, Albini was an innovative figure in the growth of noise and industrial rock, largely through his work with Big Black. Taking inspiration from the No Wave scene growing out of NYC in the late 1970's, Albini took its atonal, noisy energy and combined it with the industrial sounds that had become more prominent during that time, notably by Throbbing Gristle. Additional touchpoints include the early noise rock of Sonic Youth and the burgeoning post-hardcore movement of the mid-80's (although the term "post-hardcore" had not yet been coined at this time). With such a wide array of influences, to call Big Black's brand of rock "unique" would be an understatement. On the band's first LP, Atomizer, these influences exploded in a cacophonous roar, but was it worth the hearing damage? From the feedback and arrhythmic metallic clangs that start the opening track Jordan, Minnesota before leading into the quick, punishing riff that plays throughout most of the tracks runtime, Big Black do not waste time easing you into their musical world. The key sounds of this album are on display immediately: from the heavily distorted and industrial guitar sound to the fuzzed up bass; from Albini's manic, screamed vocals to the TR-606 drum machine; this song is a distillation of what defined Big Black's short career. That drum machine does deserve a special mention. While not the first instance of a rock album featuring programmed drums (The United States Of America's self-titled released in 1968), the way the drums are used on Atomizer was unique at the time. The drums are not meant to emulate a human drummer; no, the drums here are entirely unapologetically machinistic, oftentimes repeating the same 4 bar pattern over the course of an entire song. This is best represented on the blistering Bazooka Joe and Bad Houses, which has my favorite drum beat on the whole album. The lyrical themes here, unsurprisingly, are quite dark. The opener Jordan, Minnesota is about a real sex scandal that happened in the titular city and is told from the perspective of the abuser. The only single released before the album, Kerosene, is about a man in a small town who decides to set himself on fire while having sex. The closer, Cables, is about simply watching bovine get slaughtered. This one is great especially because it is a live recording, so it features even more energy and aggression than the rest of the album. Additionally, the guitar tone on this album is famously brutal. Albini used a guitar made entirely of aluminum, which still fails to fully explain the absolutely insane tone achieved on songs such as Passing Complexion. While there are many things I love about this album, and at 37 minutes, I could hardly call it "too long", I do find myself less interested in the B Side in general. What I was wondering was whether the songs on the latter half of the record really are weaker or if this sound is just hard to maintain throughout the length of an album. Upon listening to this album on repeat twice, I came to the conclusion that the writing is just stronger on the first half than the second. The first five songs are such interesting, punishing pieces of noisy post-hardcore that would have made a fantastic EP. While the second half has some songs that I really enjoy (especially Bazooka Joe and Cables), it does lose me a little. I have similar issues with No Wave albums that I have heard from Swans, even albums like Filth that I enjoy overall (side note: there isn't any fucking Swans on this list wtf). Atomizer is a strange album. On the one hand, it is exquisitely produced with more aggression than many metal albums could ever hope to achieve, but on the other hand, that aggression and the relative simplicity of the musical forms on display lead the album towards some sort of monotony (although the monotony this album lands on is quite the melting pot of influences). I enjoyed it overall and it sits right at a 3.5 for me, but I will need to round it down to a 3/5. Favs: Jordan, Minnesota Kerosene Bazooka Joe Least Fav: Strange Things

You Look Just Like Sylvia 1001 Albums Generator 25 (05/07/2025) For my quarter-centennial album, I got the sixth album by the British band Pulp, This Is Hardcore. I had a very difficult time listening to this at work because of the album cover, but I was able to get around it lol. I know Pulp only as one of the big four of Britpop, but I have never listened to them. Interestingly, this album fulfills a similar role to the 4th album I got on this journey, Blur's self-titled, as This Is Hardcore similarly represents a band shedding their Britpop sound in favor of a different form of rock music. While Blur went for a more American alternative rock sound, Pulp opted to stay with sounds of the U.K. and instead pursue a distinctly British form of artsy glam rock, a la David Bowie two decades earlier. Often cited as the definitive album of the post-Britpop era, This Is Hardcore sees Pulp embracing more experimental, electronic soundscapes and darker themes. In general, this album is best when its energy and tension is bursting from the seams. Opening track The Fear is a haunting, gothic song led by great guitar harmonics and Jarvis Cocker's sometimes spoken, sometimes yelped vocals. While it sticks to a slow tempo, the tension is palpable. Party Hard is a really fun noisy rock song that is the most obvious single on the album. Cocker is doing his best David Bowie impression here. The lyrics were written as a cynical criticism of party and clubbing culture, in stark contrast to much of what Pulp's musical peers were writing about at the time. The title track is the most popular song on the album and features a jazzy trip-hop inspired instrumental and lyrics comparing musical success with being a porn star. Talking about his inspiration for the song, Cocker said "You'd see the same people in films, and they'd seem to be quite alive, and then you'd see a film from a year later and there's something gone in their eyes. You can see it, that they've done it all and there's nowhere else to go." I wonder if these ideas are still relevant today... A Little Soul and I'm A Man are unapologetically jangly Britpop. The former is a bit cheesy with its *clap clap* chorus but it's fun. The latter features a really great guitar solo. Sylvia is one of the strongest songs here, featuring heartbreaking lyrics of memories of a lost love, sung in a flying falsetto. This one almost gave me second-wave emo vibes when the chorus comes crashing in, a la Mineral or the more emo moments on You'd Prefer An Astronaut. However, this is quite a long album and features some slow songs that, to me, do not justify their place on the tracklist. Dishes is slow and psychedelic in a way that could be interesting, but it never gets off the ground, and it feels strange as a second song on the album. TV Movie is another slow moment, a piece of chamber pop led by acoustic guitar as opposed to the synths of Dishes, but it similarly fails to really pick up until around the last minute or so. Seductive Barry has orchestral touches of the post-rock movement that was gaining traction in the U.S. and Canada at the time, but I don't think it's done as well as many of the popular bands in that movement. I absolutely love the Spotify version of the closer The Day After The Revolution, which is a multilayer glamfest through and through, but the full 15 minute version doesn't do it for me. I can appreciate the experimentation of ending the album on a 10 minute drone, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it. This Is Hardcore. This is an alright album. This is an album with some great songs and a hefty serving of filler. This Is Hardcore. This is a 3.5/5, rounded down to a 3. Favs: Party Hard This Is Hardcore Sylvia Least Fav: (Original version) The Day After The Revolution (Spotify version) Seductive Barry

I'm dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun 1001 Albums Generator 26 (05/08/2025) I was surprised to find an album by Meat Loaf on here. I knew that he made music, and I love his part in Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I had only ever heard I'd Do Anything For Love before, which doesn't even appear on this album. I didn't know much about Mr. Meat's career. Turns out this album has somewhere in the top 10 highest sales for any album ever. What the fuck. Okay Mr. Loaf, you have my attention. Equally attention grabbing is the incredible album cover, drawn up by Richard Corben, featuring a shadowy figure driving a motorcycle through a graveyard with a demonic-looking tombstone behind him. This may be the most power metal cover I've ever seen on an album that is not power metal. The opening title track is iconic. It is a quintessential piece of progressive rock, with more changes than I can count. In spite of this, it still manages to have an absolutely memorable, albiet cheesy, chorus. Like many songs on this album, it is essentially a self-contained rock opera. Bat Out Of Hell was written by Jim Steinman as an homage to his love of "car crash songs" and tells the story of a young man who wanted to take the love of his life out of their small town but dies driving his motorcycle to her. The whole 10 minute song is great, but the way the outro is structured is pop rock perfection, with everything cutting out as Meat Loaf screams "Then I'm dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun". His voice on this song, especially at the end, is so over-the-top but it is perfect for this style of music. The other multi-part song is the incredibly titled Paradise By The Dashboard Light. While not as strong as the title track, this song certainly earns its runtime, with the jazz funk baseball announcer breakdown near the middle being my favorite part. The first three minutes, which sound straight out of Rocky Horror, are also expertly done. All Reved Up With No Place To Go is the most fun song here. Similar to Paradise, it sounds like a classic rock 'n' roll tune, you know that blues inspired 50's stuff, but it's turned up to 11, in both volume and tempo. You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth had real single potential but is certainly brought down by the weird spoken word intro that goes on for like a minute before the song actually starts. This is one example on this album of Meat Loaf and Steinman's ambitions getting in the way of their art, as opposed to helping it along. The sound of prog legend Todd Rundgren's guitar is essential to this album. Meat Loaf said that Rundgren recorded all of his parts of the title track in 45 minutes. Considering that this song is 10 minutes long, featuring multiple layers of pretty difficult guitar parts, this essentially implies that it was recorded in a single take. This is absolutely amazing. The two worst songs on this album, Heaven Can Wait and For Crying Out Loud are made worse by their lack of this guitar work. For Crying Out Loud at least has great orchestration played by New York Philharmonic and some cool build up, Heaven Can Wait in particular really has nothing going on. Favs: Bat Out Of Hell All Revved Up With No Place To Go Paradise By The Dashboard Light Least Fav: Heaven Can Wait

I’m A Million Different People 1001 Albums Generator 27 (05/09/2025) I was in Portland this weekend so no big review. It was alright, with the first half certainly being stronger overall. Bitter Sweet Symphony is a stone cold classic for a reason. Favs: Bitter Sweet Symphony Sonnet Lucky Man Least Fav: Velvet Morning

Well, I Said It Once Before, But It Bears Repeating Now 1001 Albums Generator 28 (05/12/2025) The White Stripes’ third album, White Blood Cells, packs a punch throughout its whole runtime, even the songs I don’t like. Unlike its successor, Elephant, all the songs on here are quite short, but that means the ones that are bad don’t last very long. This is an album of runs, at the first four songs are incredible and the run from We’re Going To Be Friends to I Think I Smell A Rat is also really good. Overall, 3.5/5 rounded down to 3/5. Favs: Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground Fell In Love With A Girl We’re Going To Be Friends Least Fav: Aluminum

We Are Driving On The Autobahn 1001 Albums Generator 29 (05/13/2025) German weirdos Kraftwerk are a band that largely found themselves at the forefront of the musical stylings of their time. Their first three albums are Krautrock (or “Kosmische Music”), which was a phenomenon in West Germany in the early 1970’s that saw local bands producing strange, repetitive, and experimental rock music. Often these bands would incorporate electronic elements to their sound, and no band did so more than Kraftwerk. However, their fourth album, Autobahn, hardly sounds like Krautrock at all and instead sees Kraftwerk shifting their sights towards a new horizon, thus far largely unexplored in popular music: progressive electronic music. Eschewing themselves of nearly all traditional rock instrumentation, on Autobahn Kraftwerk sheds themselves of the rock label entirely, opting instead for an ambient synth-led sound. It is worth noting that later in their careers, Kraftwerk would be the progenitor for the synthpop sound that dominated the 1980's. These boys just couldn't stay still. I suppose before we get to the music, I must express my displeasure at the album cover on Spotify. Some of you may be surprised; "it's not so bad", you say, "it may not be the most interesting art style, but it's inoffensive". If you really know your stuff, you may even say "Actually, the blue and white cover is an autobahn sign, which can be found on the side of the highways in Germany". Ah, you sweet summer child, I beg you to leave your Spotify prison and look at the original cover for this album. Painted by German artist Emil Schult, the original cover perfectly exemplifies the feeling the title track aims to exude, while the newer cover feels sterile by comparison. The original painting shows a first person view of a car speeding down the autobahn on a warm summer day, with the band crammed into the rear-view mirror. It is perfect. Autobahn is dominated by its title track, which is 22 minutes and takes up the entire first side of the vinyl. This song was simply written about the German boys' love of driving on Germany's beautiful autobahn. Amazingly, though the lyrics are so simple (largely just repeating the phrase "We are driving on the Autobahn"), there are three members of the band credited with writing them. In spite of its deceptive simplicity and repetitiveness, Autobahn is far from a waste of 22 minutes. Kraftwerk manage to fill this time with interesting textures and an ever-evolving piece of progressive electronic, pulling largely from their Krautrock roots, but through the lens of an electronic group. Surprisingly, this song was a hit, and not only that, but it was Kraftwerk's first release in the U.S. after getting play on some radio stations there. Kraftwerk then performed their first tour of both the U.S. and the U.K. largely on the back of this song's popularity. The B side varies in quality quite widely. Kometenmelodie 1 is a boring ambient piece that does not progress anywhere. While the textures are nice, this song simply does not earn its 7 minute run time the way the title track earns its 22 minute one. The only instruments present are a synth bass and a whistling synth that follows the bassline exactly, while a kick drum adds a soft heartbeat under the proceedings. Meanwhile, Kometenmelodie 2 is way poppier in a good way. It is the most upbeat song here and features a slidey synth line that has been stuck in my head since I heard it. Mitternacht is another really strange song. The shortest song on the album, all we have here is a repeated 5 note motif, played on a bass synth, with constant percussive sounds in the background and bursts of noise between each repetition of the motif. The final song, Morgenspaziergang, is very different, featuring both a flute and a piano as opposed to their electronic counterparts. The flute and piano have an almost classical sound to them strangely enough, while there are also some glitchy noises happening in the background during the first half. The second half of this song is really quite pretty. Autobahn was an interesting introduction to this band for me. The first album in their core discography, by their own admission, feels as good a place as any to get started. Luckily, the longest song here is the best one, which keeps this album, in spite of some useless meandering, at a 3/5. Favs: Autobahn Kometenmelodie 2 Morgenspaziergang Least Fav: Komentenmelodie 1

I Got Sunshine In A Bag 1001 Albums Generator 30 (05/14/2025) Gorillaz is the debut album by virtual band/art project of Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett of the same name. Albarn and Hewlett met during the former's days with Blur and the idea of Gorillaz as a band made of four fictional members came to them as a commentary on what they felt like were "manufactured bands" pushed by MTV during the boy band craze of the 90's. Although the band was created in the late 90's, their first album did not release until 2001. A quite eclectic album (similar to what Blur did on their self-titled), Gorillaz features influences from trip hop, hip hop, alt rock, and psychedelia. Do these influences come together in a cohesive way throughout this relatively lengthy album? Well, I need to be honest. I feel like I'm missing something with this one. It seems to be well loved but to me it feels as though many of these songs are completely forgettable. Of course, in such a long album, there are bound to be some great moments. The two biggest hits, Clint Eastwood and 19-2000, are both popular for a reason, especially Clint Eastwood. Del The Funky Homosapien from legendary abstract hip hop group Deltron 3030 does the verses here and they are fantastic. This song also features its iconic chorus and almost cabaret-like piano beat, which extends out instrumentally for the last minute or so. It is really great. I thought 19-2000 was a little annoying the first time I heard it with its silly little synthline, but it's grown on me. Unfortunately, these are pretty much the two best songs here. Other light highlights include the Afro-Cuban jazz inspired Latin Simone (which got me really in the mood to listen to Dizzy Gillespie's Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods (which should totally be on the list btw, it's a perfect album)). Anyway, Latin Simone features Spanish lyrics and a cool droning background instrumental with jazz stuff happening on top of it. Sound Check (Gravity) has a pretty heavy, psychedelic trip hop beat that has some interesting production, although at times it feels like it's all form and no substance. This may honestly be an accurate criticism of the album as a whole. Besides the few songs that I've brought up, a lot of these songs, even with their eclectic styles and production, go in one ear and out the other, or worse. Man Research (Clapper) is really annoying with its consistent whining vocals and Punk could be seen as an interesting change of pace, but to me, it feels extremely out of place. Songs like Double Bass, Starshine, and Slow Country, while all quite different from one another, do not have any aspects that stuck with me on any level deeper than the occassional "oh that was an interesting sound". Favs: Clint Eastwood 19-2000 Latin Simone (Que Pasa Contigo) Least Fav: Man Research (Clapper)

I Feel Like I'm Dying From Mining For Gold 1001 Albums Generator 31 (05/15/2025) Have you ever sat in an old gothic church and just listened to the denizens of the world carry on around you? Every sound from the footsteps of tourists walking through and admiring the glory of God to the whispers of a stranger to their loved one about how beautiful the stained glass is carries through the walls of the building. The way that the sound reverberates off of the walls is kind of unlike anything that I've heard before. I was lucky enough to have this opportunity when visiting Spain recently, as on my side of the Atlantic, there are really not many big Gothic churches, since this style had kind of fallen out of style by the time people were here to build them. However, there are a few prominent churches/cathedrals that are of the neo-gothic style, one of which was the birthplace of Cowboy Junkies' 1988 album The Trinity Session. Recorded in 1988 in Toronto's Church Of The Holy Trinity, The Trinity Session is the second studio album by Canadian (mostly) family band Cowboy Junkies, featuring alt-country music pulling from influences such as blues, folk, and Americana. Boy, what a place to record an album huh? As I mentioned, the walls and ceilings of these churches are perfect for carrying sound, so this album sounds great. Despite the relatively minimal instrumentation on most of the album and the fact that the recording was not mixed or overdubbed in post, the album does not sound empty at all. Even the opening song, a short, haunting a capella rendition of an old traditional work song detailing the horrors of working in the mines, manages to capture your ears and is actually one of my favorite songs here, in spite of its use as just an intro. The church is a perfect place to record an a capella piece and Margo Timmins' vocals sound amazing. The album continues on a strong foot from here with Misguided Angel featuring great harmonica work and Blue Moon Revisited featuring vocals that border on soulful at times and a jazzy acoustic guitar solo near the end. There are lots of covers here as well with the two best being their proto-slowcore cover of The Velvet Underground’s Sweet Jane and their heavily slowed down version of Patsy Cline’s Walking After Midnight. While an over-reliance on covers can sometimes be a negative, the covers are done so unapologetically in the style of Cowboy Junkies that they work here to add some familiarity to what can, at times, feel like a sea of sameiness. The main complaint I have about this album, besides a couple of relative weak points near the middle of the tracklist, is the fact that a lot of these songs are hard to distinguish. They almost all have a slow, swung feel with ambient acoustic instrumentation and while I maintain that the lack of overdubs/mixing is impressive, it can also be a weakness with an album whose sound is as minimal as this one. In spite of drawing from a wide array of folk/country styles, there isn’t enough happening on a lot of these songs to break them away from the pack. In short, my introduction to Cowboy Junkies left me feeling impressed overall. Their haunting take on Americana and alt country is memorable as a whole, but individual songs tend to leave a lot to be desired. Overall a 3.5/5, which I unfortunately must round down to a 3/5. Favs: Misguided Angel Blue Moon Revisited (Song For Elvis) Walking After Midnight Least Fav: Dreaming My Dreams With You

Tell Me, Where Do The Children Play? 1001 Albums Generator 32 (05/16/2025) Tea For The Tillerman is the fourth studio album by Cat Stevens, and sits smack dab in the middle of his most well acclaimed trilogy of albums. The style of Tea For The Tillerman is, despite what Wikipedia says, not rock for the most part. Aside from a few moments where the drums start knockin, this album is pure acoustic guitar-driven folk pop a la Simon And Garfunkel. Adorned with an adorable piece of art painted by Stevens himself (he went to Hammersmith School of Art for a year), Tea For The Tillerman caught my eye immediately after gracing my screen, and knowing nothing about the album going into it, I didn't know what to expect. The opening song, Where Do The Children Play? is a great distillation of the best aspects of this album. Opening with a simple, catchy melody played on an acoustic guitar and an organ with another acoustic strumming in the background before a bass and Cat's vocals come in, within 30 seconds, you have heard many of the sounds that you would get familiar with throughout the length of this album. In asking the titular question, Stevens questions the true benefits associated with the technological advancements that he had seen happen all around him. Specifically, the verses seem to hint at a level of skepticism at the ceaseless industrialization around him. With skyscrapers and roads being built everywhere, where can the children go to play? The two most well known songs on this album, and Stevens' most well known songs in general, are Wild World and Father And Son. The former was written about a real life relationship Stevens was in at the time, written as a warning to a love lost, and the latter is written as a conversation between a father and a son. The father gives his son advice and questions why he must leave and in the final verse, the son tells his father that it's his destiny and he will be okay. This song was famously featured in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and has been covered countless times. I also love Longer Boats, with its group vocals that sound straight out of the Caribbean. This album also has some really good chamber moments with more extended instrumentation, such as the piano and string ensemble on Sad Lisa. The only complaint I can provide about this album is that there are a few songs that are laid back to a fault. The biggest perpetrator is Into White, which features an okay guitar arpeggio part, but just failed to stick in my brain. On every relisten, I had to remind myself of this song's existence. The outro title track is short enough that I don't feel justified in complaining about it, but I don't really understand the purpose of having it here. Tea For The Tillerman was a nice surprise after a week of albums that ranged in quality from pretty bad to just above average. I will certainly be taking some time to explore Cat Stevens' albums that bookend it, as I have heard good things about both. 4/5. Favs: Where Do The Children Play? Longer Boats Father And Son Least Fav: Into White

Learn To Work The Saxophone 1001 Albums Generator 33 (05/19/2025) Steely Dan was on a fucking tear in the 1970's. Between 1972 and 1980, they released 7 albums, all of which have seen critical acclaim, and they were (and still are) the most recognizable figures of the so-called yacht rock movement that they helped lay the groundwork for in the early 70's. Steely Dan's brand of yacht rock, while sticking to the West Coast, soft rock vibe that defines the genre, is undeniably jazzy, which is both due to the general composition techniques used here as well as the prominence of the saxophone, jazziest of all instruments. Aja, pronounced Ay-czah but mispronounced by me for years as ah-jah, is the most highly acclaimed of the seven acclaimed albums by Steely Dan, but it surprisingly does not feature any of their three most popular songs (all of which appear instead on Steely Dan's debut Can't Buy A Thrill). This is because Aja is a stylistically tight piece of work that is made to be listened to as a whole rather than in parts. When someone thinks of yacht rock, this is likely the first album to come to mind. The title track is perhaps my favorite song here. It has some of the finest soloing on the whole project, with clavinet and guitar solos and the legendary fusion saxophonist Wayne Shorter doing what he does best. Steve Gadd's drums in the last minute with the pad synths in the background is an all-time moment in music history. Following this song is Deacon Blues, which is one of the jazziest compositions here, with Donald Fagen's voice sounding strangely similar to Dave Lawson's from Greenslade. The sound, especially with its synth-heavy layering and smooth sax solos, often reminds me of some chill Japanese jazz fusion that I've heard, namely Masayoshi Takanaka's Seychelles and Himiko Kikuchi's Flying Beagle. Black Cow and Josie, the opener and closer respectively, are both extremely funky. This is one aspect of this album that I don't associate with it nearly as much as I should. These boys can really groove. Deriders of this band often state that the production is too pristine and that resulting tunes sound like elevator music. D Riders say "that's like the point man". I tend to align with the D riders, at least in this case, as I think this album's status as an audiophile's wet dream is not overstated. That is to say, the production is fantastic, and yeah, that is the point. I will say when it comes to Peg, there's something about this song that I just don't love. It's not bad, but if there is any song here that lends some credence to the "Steely Dan is elevator music" crowd, it's this one. Penultimate track I Got The News, out of all songs here, sounds the most empty in production in contrast, and I am not a huge fan of the verses. Aja (which I am still saying wrong in my head as I type it out) is one of the albums on here that is a classic for a reason. It is every bit as smooth, jazzy, pristine, and perfectly played as its haters claim it to be, and that's why I love it. 4.5/5 that I will round down to a 4 since there are a few slight problems here and there. Favs: Aja Deacon Blues Josie Least Fav: I Got The News

I've Got The Spirit, But Lose The Feeling 1001 Albums Generator 34 (05/20/2025) Radio astronomy is not a field of study that is ubiquitous to really any part of everyday life. The study of radio waves from space has perhaps two great claims to fame outside of those few who choose to pursue it professionally. Firstly, it led to the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background, a seminal piece of evidence for the Big Bang Theory. Secondly, and most importantly, it created some pretty cool shirts. You see, Harold Craft was a radio astronomer who created an image for his dissertation in 1970 that featured a collection of radio waves measured from a pulsar, cleverly organized vertically as opposed to the more traditional horizontal method of visualization. Nearly a decade later, after inverting the colors, Joy Division used the image as the cover of their debut album Unknown Pleasures, and a couple decades after that, Hot Topic made like a gazillion dollars selling the design to moody 17 year-olds. In my review for The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, I mentioned Loveless and Velvet Underground & Nico as my hottest music nerd takes, but I had actually forgotten about Unknown Pleasures, which maybe shows what my thoughts are on this iconic album. Out of every album in the Western music canon that I have heard, this is the one that I would say I understand the least. I hear that it had influence that it had on the music of the 80's, but it just doesn't feel as ahead of its time as other similarly regarded albums such as the This Heat's Deceit or the aforementioned VU&N. I mean, hell, Marquee Moon came out two years previous and did everything this album tries to do but way better. By virtually every measure, I should love this album. There are many post-punk albums that are some of my all time favorites, the 70's are my favorite decade in music history, and I even love The Cure, who have a similar sound to this album. But while I find The Cure's songwriting to be interesting and Robert Smith to be an interesting frontman, Joy Division and their lead Ian Curtis do not resonate with me in the same way. By the way, I know that Ian Curtis had severe mental health issues and that he took his own life. This is a tragedy, but does not affect my enjoyment of the music on display here. REST IN PEACE Ian Curtis. He died at 23. Oh and don't mishear me; I do not hate this album. Opening track Disorder and penultimate track Interzone have great energy and feature my favorite aspects of Joy Division's post-punk, which is at its best when it is danceable, rather than gothic and brooding. I am also happy to report that Day Of The Lords and New Dawn Fades are perfectly moody and show that this more chill side of the band that they are most known for certainly led to some fantastic songs. I would even go as far as to say most songs on this album aren't bad; instead the quality, unlike the energy emitted by dying stars as they rotate in space, is relatively linear. As a whole, this album feels a bit like a formless, mushy substance. Peter Hook's messy bass playing and Stephen Morris' drumming lay interchangeable foundations for all of these songs, while Ian Curtis' sings imperfect, unmemorable vocal melodies in his low register and Bernard Sumner's lightly distorted guitar plays some high register chords. Sure, Insight has some electronic stuff going on, but does that really make that song better or just more annoying? There is no X factor here that made this album click for me in the way that it has for others, even two years after I heard it for the first time. And that makes me sad. Enjoying music is so much more fun than not enjoying it. However, while everything is for someone, nothing is for everyone, and Unknown Pleasures, while never straying far from the path of "just okay", is not for me. 2.5/5, rounded down to a 2/5. Favs: Disorder New Dawn Fades Interzone Least Fav: I Remember Nothing

The Wolf Of Velvet Fortune Is Upon His Merry Flight 1001 Albums Generator 35 (05/21/2025) It's always interesting to get an album and artist on this challenge that I haven't even so much as heard of. Today's album, The Beau Brummels' fourth studio album Triangle, is one of those albums. The first thing I needed to know was what the hell a Beau Brummel was. According to Wikipedia, The Beau Brummels took their name from the Regency era English dandy Beau Brummell. This definition became helpful quickly after looking up when the Regency era was and what an English dandy could possibly be ("1795-1837" and "a middle-class man who is known for emulating aristocratic style" by the way). So I guess Beau Brummel was a guy in Britain who was able to become an associate of the Prince Regent for always being bathed, perfumed, and dressed nice. I do this every day and don't get so much as an acknowledgement by my local representative. Fucked up. Anyway, this is an album from the San Francisco Sound scene that came to be in the city in the 1960's. The Beau Brummels have a distinctly psychedelic flavor to them similar to their more popular contemporary Jefferson Airplane, but while that band was more rock and less folk, Triangle is more folk and less rock. These acoustic guitar folky jams remind me a bit in style of Love's Forever Changes with vocals that sound like Bob Dylan from an alternate universe. All but two of the songs are bite size tunes, less than three minutes, and the whole thing clocks in at just under 29 minutes! All killer, no filler? Well, not really. The beginning and end of this album pop the hell off, with the middle part being a slump in quality. The 1-2 punch of the poppy Are You Happy? into the great guitar work and instrumentation of Only Dreaming Now is an awesome intro into the album. Interestingly, the longest song here, The Wolf Of Velvet Fortune, is one of my favorites. The verses feature a strange, oriental sounding guitar part with constant harmonics ringing in the background. Then the song transitions during its climax into a freaky folk part that I really can't compare to anything other than a precursor to Comus' First Utterance. The last song grew on me a lot, being one of my least favorite on first listen, but becoming one of my favorites by the end. Once you accept that the album is going to end rather anti-climactically with a rootin-n-tootin country jam in Old Kentucky Home, you can recognize and appreciate that at least it's a good rootin-n-tootin country jam. In spite of its stunted length, or perhaps because of it, this album by and large washes over me. It’s a pleasant experience, don’t get me wrong, and it’s one that I don’t regret having (I spun it three times today because it’s so digestible), but I don’t see myself desiring listening to it in the future. The stretch in the middle from Painter Of Women to And I’ve Seen Her was really hard to focus on (besides the wonderful Nine Pound Hammer). Though this stretch of songs is short, it’s a huge percentage of the music here. Triangle by The Beau Brummels is all in all a pleasant, albeit inessential, listen. Some great moments here and there, but a largely unmemorable affair. 3/5. Favs: Are You Happy? Triangle The Wolf Of Velvet Fortune Least Fav: Painter Of Women

Broken Skin, Distant Fears 1001 Albums Generator 35 (05/21/2025) Smiling Buddha was the ironic name of India's first successful nuclear test, which was conducted in May 1974 and which the Indian government assured was only meant to test peaceful nuclear explosions. The Pakistani government disagreed and a Pakistani nuclear physicist later stated that this test was what drove Pakistan into developing their own nuclear armament. Beyond Skin is an album by British artist Nitin Sawhney that was inspired by the ongoing conflict at the time between India and Pakistan and revolves around nuclear weapons throughout time. As of the time I am writing this, we are less than two weeks removed from a ceasefire between these two countries after they "effectively" went to war in a completely different, but related, conflict to the Kargil War that was happening during Sawhney's time. This conflict is the first time in my life that two nuclear armed countries have engaged in hot conflict and is the first time that I personally have really felt the pressure of mutually assured destruction. Luckily, this conflict was resolved swiftly, but who is to say we will be so lucky next time? So the ideas in this album are clearly still relevant. Unfortunately, humanity has not yet achieved nuclear disarmament, and once the nuclear genie is out of the bottle, I really don't think we ever will. Every great world power will believe (with some good reason to) that their enemies will not disarm alongside them. However, this doesn't mean that we can't dream of such a world, and this is precisely what Nitin Sawhney did in his third album, Beyond Skin. The sound of this album is strange, as it combines multiple styles of electronica with vocals that are at times soulful in a Sade-esque way and instrumentals that incorporate elements of Hindustani music. This certainly leads to a unique sound, but does the experiment work? In my opinion, no. This is my least favorite album thus far. While this album is eclectic, it somehow manages to have songs that are bad and uninteresting in completely new ways. The rapping on songs like Homelands and Pilgrim are absolutely cringey, with the chorus of Homelands featuring one of the least cool attempts at a triplet flow that I have ever heard and Pilgrim featuring verses in a whispered tone that just annoys me. The chorus features the line "Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet", which doesn't make any sense, but at least it's repeated like 200 times throughout the song. In the words of a great philosopher of our time: repetition legitimizes. Serpents features production that borders on interesting with its snake-charmer flute and glitchy vocal samples but my god, 6 minutes is so fucking long. Anthem Without Nation is a dreadful 6 minutes which features precisely nothing for its runtime. It could have been cut down to a 60 second interlude and it would still be one of my least favorite songs here. The two best songs here are Broken Skin and Tides. The former is the intro song and does a good job of introducing the theme of the album with a vocal sample of the Prime Minister of India after their successful nuclear test in 1998, the first such test since the previously mentioned Smiling Buddha. I also love the R&B vocals here. Tides is an interesting piece of jazz fusion in a non-traditional way. It features a piano part that sounds straight out of a cool jazz song (for all I know, it could be a sample) and electronic DnB-style drums. This is a cool combination, even if 5 minutes is a bit extensive. Nostalgia is a slower song with some trip-hop energy and good vocals in the chorus, and the title track that closes the album is split into two distinct sections, with the first half featuring an electronic 5/8 beat and the second half featuring a slow arpeggiated acoustic guitar and female vocals. Nitin Sawhney's Beyond Skin does not deserve a place on this list. The fusion of inspirations does not work and it is not a good representation of world music, which has much more interesting albums than this. 1.5/5 rounded down to a 1/5. Favs: Broken Skin Tides Beyond Skin Least Fav: Anthem Without Nation

Your Setting Sun, Your Broken Drum 1001 Albums Generator 37 (05/23/2025) Beck is a bit of an anomalous artist. He never found himself fitting into a box and any attempt to label him with a specific genre was swiftly discarded once he released his next album. After the melancholy and folksiness found on his eighth studio album, Sea Change, Beck completely switched it up with a somewhat back-to-basics return to form in Guero. With a sound that harkens back to his early career hits off of Odelay and Mellow Gold, Guero is certainly more similar to what people had come to expect from the eclectic multi-instrumentalist. However, this album features wide ranging inspiration beyond its alternative rock base, such as trip hop, alternative country, and psychedelia. Similar to yesterday's album, Nitin Sawhney's Beyond Skin, Guero is a melting pot of genre influences. Hopefully Guero is able to execute its experimentation better. The album opens with its biggest song and the first Beck tune I had ever heard: E-Pro. While I don't claim to know what the lyrics are about, I know that ever since I heard that chorus on Rockband when I was a young child, it's been stuck in my head. Que Onda Guero is a hip hop song with a great 90's style boom bap beat. Beck raps with his usual abstract lyricism while field recordings play that are meant to emulate the sounds of a largely Latino area in Los Angeles, similar to the area that Beck grew up in. The third track, Girl, is one of my favorites and also features the first bit of country inspired slide guitar on the album, which we will see much more of throughout the tracklist. From here, we get Black Tambourine, which struck me immediately as being like an inferior E-Pro. It just has a very similar feel but is not able to quite capture the energy of its more popular older brother. Hell Yes, the third single from this album, is another hip hop song, which I actually like even better than Que Onda Guero. It just has such an interesting beat with a kind of glitchy, cut up sample that plays throughout right before Beck says "Hell yes" in a robotic voice. This song's experimentation is great. Following this is the very unique Broken Drum, which is far and away the most heartbreaking song on the album. It was written for Beck's friend and fellow artist Elliott Smith, who had died suddenly a couple years previously. The last third or so of this album is not as high quality as the rest. I think that in general a lot of the energy found earlier on the tracklist is not present from Scarecrow to Emergency Exit. Scarecrow is kind of a boring acoustic blues rocker and Go It Alone features Jack White on the bass, which makes sense, as this song sounds a bit like a rejected White Stripes song. Farewell Ride has an interesting alt-country ambiance to it, but it fails to really go anywhere. Rental Car is my favorite song in this streak, but Emergency Exit is a weak ending to the album. I read somewhere that there were two more songs considered to be added to the album, but I'm glad that they weren't. I think that the advent of CD's, while a great technological advancement, did lead to artists being able to bloat their albums, as opposed to the constricting vinyl. Guero is an example of that. Guero certainly features more good songs than bad, but it struggles with a problem that is all too common in albums from its era: bloat. Despite this, it jumps between various styles with relative ease and gracefulness, and overall I am glad that I listened to it. 3.5/5, rounded down to a 3/5. Favs: E-Pro Girl Hell Yes Least Fav: Missing

We Think We Know What We're Doing, That Don't Mean A Thing 1001 Albums Generator 38 (05/26/2025) She's So Unusual is the debut album by 80's pop diva Cyndi Lauper. Ironically, in spite of the name of this album, a huge percentage of discourse revolving around Lauper is comparing her to fellow popstar, Madonna. I have been guilty of this myself as someone who was not very familiar with Lauper outside of her two biggest hits, Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Time After Time. I was surprised to see that both of these tracks are present on her debut album, which certainly means that she started her career off strong. I was also shocked at how much New Wave was present on this album, as I do not associate this genre with Cyndi Lauper of all people, but this is undeniably a new wave album. As a pop album from the 80's, it could be either pop perfection or a total cheese-fest. Which way, Ms. Lauper? Let's start with the two biggest hits from this album, both of which are sitting at over 1 billion plays on Spotify, which is fucking wild. The first of these, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, is a total classic. Originally written in the late 70's by Robert Hazard, Lauper took it and changed some lyrics to be from a female perspective and made it her breakthrough song. I especially love the silly popping synth that comes in after the first chorus. Also, this song has like 5 different hooks that will all get stuck in your head. The other huge single from this album is the ballad Time After Time. Very different from the rest of the album, this song is a slow piece of adult contemporary that manages to still be memorable, beautiful, and sweet. One of the many moments of genius on this album is when the first pre-chorus fakes you out and goes straight to the second verse instead of the chorus. Honestly, it's somewhat surprising that Time After Time became as big as it was. Not because it's a bad song, far from it, but rather because it is so different from the rest of this album. This is a pop rock album first and foremost, and no song shows this better than the opener Money Changes Everything. From that open kick snare that starts the whole album, you can tell that She's So Unusual is going to be fun. That synth that plays in the intro and throughout the song was stuck in my head all day. There's also a melodica solo, which isn't something you can say about a lot of pop songs and Lauper's vocals in the outro are powerful and epic. She can really belt with the best of them. Meanwhile, All Through The Night reminds me of some stuff off of Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory's album from earlier this year, just four decades earlier. Somehow, Cyndi Lauper crafted an album that is both squarely in its time and ahead of its time. The only real issue I have with this album is that the second half can't hold a candle to the truly perfect first half. The ending of this album isn't even bad, but some songs, such as the reggae-inspired Witness, are not my favorite. He's So Unusual is a pretty unnecessary tin pan alley interlude that leads kind of awkwardly into the fun, but slightly forgettable, Yeah Yeah, which ends the album with less energy than it started with. Again, this last run isn't even bad per say, and if it was some underground new wave EP, it would probably be regarded much higher than it is, but as the second half to an album that starts off so strongly, it's impossible to not compare. She's So Unusual is nearly as close as you can get to pop perfection. Cyndi Lauper is a convincing, talented frontwoman, and she has a great collection of musicians and producers around her helping to elevate these songs even higher. While it loses a little bit of steam at the end, there aren't really any songs that I would call "bad". 4.5/5, rounded down to a 4. Favs: Money Changes Everything Girls Just Want To Have Fun Time After Time Least Fav: Witness

Don't You Meditate, Sing 1001 Albums Generator 39 (05/27/2025) Ladysmith Black Mambazo are one of the most popular African groups in the Western hemisphere. Hailing from South Africa, the Zulu vocal group are known in the West for a few things. Firstly, they are the group that Paul Simon prominently featured in his magnum opus Graceland where he aimed to explore African styles of music through the group. This was the Western world's introduction to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Secondly, they were featured on the soundtrack for The Lion King 2, which, like the first movie, featured music from African artists doing this a capella Mbube style. Shaka Zulu, named after a 19th Century king of the Zulus, is an album released by Ladysmith Black Mambazo shortly after their prominent features on Graceland, and Paul Simon even produced it, so this was their opportunity to capitalize on their newfound popularity in the West. Here's where I let my bias show. I struggle with a capella music. While I am a sucker for a good vocal harmony, I find an entire album of nothing but that to be hard to get through, despite how pleasant it is. A few months ago, I listened to Compostela Ad Vesperas Sancto Iacobi by Ensemble Organum, which is a Gregorian Chant album, and I had the exact same issues. I will say that my enjoyment of Shaka Zulu was slightly higher than that of the Gregorian Chant, since Shaka Zulu has a very upbeat sound and relatively short songs, but I still wouldn't classify my feelings here as "enjoyment". It's a completely competent album and for what it is, it really is done quite well, but the songs all blend together to me. My favorite songs, which really just stand very slightly above the pack, are Unomathemba, Yibo Labo, and Wawusho Kubani? Unomathemba is a good introduction to the album, with its call and response structure and sliding vocal chords. Yibo Labo has an extremely catchy outro and features some extended vocal techniques that are a lot of fun. Wawusho Kubani?, which is the last song, features some in and out percussion, which feels extremely cathartic after an album that had been essentially fully a capella. Overall, even these songs that are my favorite are only a hair above the rest of the songs, or they just have some specific moment that I liked. This album feels like one big song in a way, even though the songs do have beginnings and endings. It's not bad, but similar to some other "world" music I've heard on the list, I do not think that it is a great representation of the country/region that it comes from. African music can be so much cooler than this. 2/5. Favs: Unomathemba Yibo Labo Wawusho Kubani? Least Fav: Ikhaya Lamaqhawe

Mom You're Just Jealous, It's The Beastie Boys 1001 Albums Generator 40 (05/28/2025) After growing in the burgeoning hardcore punk scene in New York City and releasing a single punk EP in 1982, trio Beastie Boys (short for Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence... Boys) decided to do a complete 180 and become the first mainstream white rap group. Although they would begin incorporating punk sounds in their music again starting with their third album Check Your Head, Licensed To Ill, their debut album, features none of the Beastie's punk roots. No, this is pure mid school hip hop, cut from the same cloth as contemporaries Run D.M.C. and Slick Rick, but the Boys' high level of musicality comes through in both the sample choices themselves and the intricate ways that the production weaves all these samples together. In the 80's, the art of sampling was the Wild Wild West, so the Boys did not need to concern themselves with sample clearance process that limits modern artists. The Beastie Boys first five albums are all considered classics, but Licensed To Ill is often unfairly maligned as just a little brother of the highly acclaimed Paul's Boutique. I wouldn't argue that Licensed To Ill is inarguably better than its follow-up, as Paul's Boutique is really a natural extension to everything that this album was doing, but I think these albums are closer in quality than is often stated, and this may be my personal favorite Beastie Boys album. Rhymin & Stealin has a great Led Zeppelin drum sample and perfectly introduces us to the Beasties. The "Ali Baba and the 40 thieves" build up near the middle is especially epic, and this song is one of the highest energy songs here. I love the instrumental chorus of The New Style with it's great turntablism and funky beat. The ending of this song where the tempo slows down and we get a heavy 808 beat with the boys all yelling in the background is iconic, having been sampled prominently in Travis Scott's Carousel. The third song, She's Crafty, is the first of a few songs that are explicitly meant to be funny, and it really is quite humorous. It tells the story of the Boys getting scammed by a girl who comes to their place, sleeps with them, and then steals all their stuff. In this song, like many of the funny songs on this album, the Boys make themselves the butt of the joke, which is why I think that the humor on this album works. Even a song like Girls, which is undeniably dumb, is still funny since the perspective of the narrator is such an exaggerated stereotype of a specific type of guy that is overly confident, misogynistic, and not nearly as cool as he thinks he is. We've all met guys like this, which is why that song works so well. You can also just tell Beastie Boys are having so much fun on this song. I love in the second verse when the guys doing the backing doo wop vocals start laughing. Licensed To Ill also contains some of the Boys' biggest hits. Fight For Your Right and No Sleep Till Brooklyn show them leaning back into their rock roots, with the latter even featuring Slayer's Kerry King, which I always thought was so funny. The same year he was on one of the best thrash metal albums of all time, Kerry King made time to feature on a hip hop album by three nerdy Jews. It's just awesome. Brass Monkey was also a hit that has a surprisingly jazzy beat with some electro elements that foreshadow sounds that the Boys would explore further on later albums. Slow Ride and Hold It Now, Hit It are both underrated tracks here. Slow Ride has a distinctly Latin flavor in its beat and Hold It Now, Hit It has a super memorable chorus with fun little spoken word one-liners between verses. The closing track Time To Get Ill is a truly impressive piece of plunderphonics which samples 16 songs according to WhoSampled. I especially appreciate the CCR sample. I find Paul Revere to be the closest thing to a dim spot on this album. Even though its reversed 808 beat is unique, the verses here are the most awkward on the album and there isn't really a chorus or any moment where the song gets more energy. Overall, the Beastie Boys' debut album is a great encapsulation of an oft forgotten era of hip hop history. While some lines may be slightly dated, the plethora of clever samples and just pure energy of the three MC's make this a memorable, fun experience. It's a 4.5/5, rounded up to a 5. Favs: Rhymin' And Stealin' No Sleep Till Brooklyn Hold It Now, Hit It Least Fav: Paul Revere

They're Dying To Switch 1001 Albums Generator 41 (05/29/2025) Siouxsie And The Banshees were a legendary, highly influential post-punk band that came onto the scene extremely early. Their tentacles of influence stretch far, from more contemporary artists like Joy Division and The Cure to even later artists like Slint, with their angular guitar work. The Scream is their debut album and features dark, gothic vibes paired with unmistakably punk rock energy. I had never listened to this band before, although I was aware of them and I know that their most popular album is Juju, from slightly later in their career. Going into The Scream, I didn't have much in the way of expectations, since Joy Division isn't really my thing and I know Siouxsie was inspirational for them. The first half of the album is by far my favorite. After the strange, almost ambient intro of Pure, we get perhaps the best song on the album, Jigsaw Feeling. This is high octane, artsy punk that is an encapsulation of the sound of the album. From the angular guitars to the industrial edge on the drum sound, this song features the best elements of Siouxsie And The Banshees. From here, we get Overground, which occupies a special place in my heart for having the 5/4 clave rhythm in a context that is just beautiful and unique. They took the most common odd meter rhythm and engrained it into a post punk timbre that rocks and sounds way ahead of its time. The closing track, Switch, is the longest song and features many different parts. The guitar arpeggios that open the song are interesting and the song builds from there with some parts of the song even reminding me of new wave. The song eventually cuts to this psychedelic delayed guitar playing these strange chords with no obvious tonal center. It's really weird and certainly earns its 7 minute run time. Doing a Beatles cover is always a brave move since chances are there are probably already a million covers of the song out there. With that said, Siouxsie And The Banshees' cover of Helter Skelter manages to maintain the energy of the original but channels it in a completely different, cursed way. My favorite moment is in the chorus when Siouxsie sings the famous guitar riff after the titular line. However, her signature yelping can come to be a bit much, such as in Meal Postcard, which has some really annoying vocals in the end. The following track, Nicotine Stain, has some cool guitar parts and even a solo, but her vocals sound out of key at a few points, which just really takes me out of the song. I also, just as a matter of personal preference, find the sound of The Scream to be a bit repetitive for my tastes. This flavor of post punk nearly always fails to stand out to me, but this is just my preference. The Scream is not a bad album. It features some great songs and I can hear all of the influences on bands that I love. It's incredible that this album came out in 1978 and it features such an original sound for the time. However, the vocals and songwriting aren't as strong as I would like. 3.5/5 rounded down to 3. Favs: Jigsaw Feeling Overground Switch Least Fav: Nicotine Stain

Hang Up And Run To Me 1001 Albums Generator 42 (05/30/2025) Parallel Lines is the third album by American new wave sweethearts Blondie. Led by the charismatic Debby Harry, Parallel Lines was the band's international breakthrough, featuring two of their biggest hits of their career in One Way Or Another (famously covered by One Direction, according to my wife) and Heart Of Glass (famously covered by Miley Cyrus, according to my wife). Blondie were regulars at East Village's CBGB club, which was, in the 1970's, a sort of home base of some of America's most forward thinking punk acts. Artists from Patti Smith to Television to even Talking Heads frequented the club, but Blondie brought a sort of poppy energy to punk that many other bands in the scene lacked. Think less artsy fartsy, more dancey wancey, you heard? One Way Or Another is the first Blondie song I ever heard, as it was featured on Rock Band 2 (which is a totally cool and valid reason to know this song, unlike knowing the 1D cover, okay? Boy things are fucking sick and girl things are fucking lame-o). I always thought this song was so cool. The chorus is super catchy and that little octave riff the guitars go into between verses is really interesting. I love the little elements of surf punk in this song's rhythm too. Heart Of Glass is the other big hit here and was actually Blondie's international breakthrough single. This song is basically a disco song, which makes its huge success almost more impressive since it was competing with every disco song ever in 1978. I also really appreciate the bit that is in 7/4; very stylish. Other highlights include the infectious Hanging On The Telephone and the artsy, spacey Fade Away And Radiate, which features guitar from King Crimson's Robert Fripp. It's an absolutely insane crossover, but it works so well. When this album hits, it hits like crack, but unfortunately there are lots of songs here that aren't very good. Not bad, per say, but just not very interesting. The middle section from Pretty Baby to Will Anything Happen is especially guilty of this, and I find myself struggling to find anything particular to say about any of these songs. Parallel Lines is an album of mountains and valleys. The hits are amazing and there are some deeper cuts that deserve just as much praise, but about half of the album is not very memorable. Overall, 3.5/5, round down to 3. Favs: Hanging On The Telephone One Way Or Another Fade Away And Radiate Least Fav: I Know But I Don't Know

No One Man Should Have All That Power 1001 Albums Generator 43 (06/02/2025) The circumstances surrounding the creation of Kanye West's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, are almost as legendary as the album itself. After his infamous interruption of Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs, Kanye decided to hole up in Hawaii and make the ultimate comeback album. The 2009 VMAs were, shall we say, a free trial of the kind of celebrity that Kanye West would turn out to be: a man that, for better or worse, would refuse at every turn to do what others pressured him to do, and would instead do what he felt was right, regardless of the mental health state he was in that led him to those actions. In recent years, we have seen this unwavering rebelliousness taken to its logical conclusion, and I don't think many of us like where it has led. But in 2010, the worst thing Kanye was doing was saying George Bush doesn't care about black people on live TV and interrupting Taylor Swift at an event none of us would ever be invited to. Just to get my bias out of the way, Kanye is my most scrobbled artist and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is my third most scrobbled album of all time on last.fm, and every other album in the top 5 has over 20 tracks. I love this album. It is my favorite Kanye album and one of my favorite albums of all time. It is a maximalist expression of genius and every aspect of it is done expertly and with unbelievable precision. The album opens with Nicki Minaj reading a play on Cinderella before we get the first of many iconic choruses on this album, sung by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver fame and Teyana Taylor. This is the perfect introduction to this album and features some of Kanye's best rapping ever. Gorgeous features a great guitar sample and Kid Cudi and Raekwon both provide incredible verses. POWER is the first super-duper hit on the album and it deserves it. The most famous part of this song may be the King Crimson sample, but every aspect of this song is amazing. Kanye famously claimed that this song took 5000 hours to complete, which may be an exaggeration, but if any song would take 5000 hours, it would be this one. In the last verse, Kanye ends with the line "so exciting" which echoes and begins to sound like "suicide" before singing in the outro about jumping out of a window. Maybe there is more darkness here than the bravado would lead us to believe. The other massive superhit on this album, amazingly, is the 9 minute Runaway, which features no beat switchups and instead has West humming wordless, distorted vocals for the second half after verses from him and Pusha T about being manipulative assholes. So much has been speculated about the meaning of this outro, but my favorite interpretation is that our lack of understanding the words through the fog of the distortion is precisely the point. Perhaps this is how Kanye felt his public statements were being perceived (of course looking back at this in 2025, some of his public statements seem pretty difficult to misinterpret). All Of The Lights is a song that I can't help but stare at in awe every time I hear it, even though musically it is probably on the lower half of this album for me. Gathering Elton John, Rhianna, Drake, Alicia Keys, Kid Cudi, Fergie, and more into a single track and actually making it work cohesively is such an impressive feat. I need to briefly mention a personal favorite of mine, Devil In A New Dress, which has an amazing guitar solo and the best verse of Rick Ross' career at the end. The structure of this track is really great. It feels weird to call any song on this album underrated, but I think So Appalled and Lost In The World are the closest it gets. I always felt like including So Appalled right after Monster was a bit strange since these are the two posse cuts on the album, and this seems to have led people to underrate So Appalled, when really I think these are similar quality. So Appalled may not have any verses as good as Nicki on Monster, but it also doesn't have any verses as bad as Jay Z on Monster, which is the worst verse on this album. Lost In The World was my favorite Kanye song for a long time. I still think it may hold the place as my favorite production by him and depending on the day, it could be his best song. It's a complete journey, opening with relatively strained vocals from Justin Vernon before slowly opening up with more vocal harmonies and a bigger choir. When the beat really kicks in, it is electric and Kanye's verse, which was originally a letter to Kim Kardashian, is quite beautiful. In the end of the song, more tribal drums get incorporated as a Gil-Scott Heron sample plays, which leads into the outro track. The only kind of weak song is Blame Game, with Chris Rock doing a mediocre sketch comedy bit at the end (although "Yeezy reupholstered my pussy" is really funny in fairness). The beat is good with its Aphex Twin sample, but the song as a whole is never my favorite to listen to all the way through. MBDTF is an album that is hard for me to describe. It isn't my favorite album ever, but it's up there. It's an album that gave me a new appreciation for hip hop, which is one of my favorite genres now. I struggle to find any meaningful negatives with this album, so it's obviously a 5. Favs: POWER Devil In A New Dress Lost In The World Least Fav: Blame Game

Music Makes You Lose Control 1001 Albums Generator 44 (06/03/2025) I have a massive issue with the electronic album choices of this list so far. Electronic music is a genre that I am not very well versed in besides the basics like Daft Punk, Justice, Aphex Twin, and a bit of Boards Of Canada, so it is one of the things I was most excited to learn about through this list. However, so far I have gotten 1. Suba - Sao Paulo Confessions (boring) 2. Kraftwerk - Autobahn (not bad, but not amazing) 3. Nitin Sawhney - Beyond Skin (terrible) And now the newest addition to this shitty electronica agglomeration, Darkdancer by Les Rythmes Digitales. Unfortunately, I knew from the moment that I saw the cover that this would not be the album to break the electronica curse that I seem to have found myself in. It might be the least cool album cover I've seen that is making an honest attempt at being cool. To be clear, this isn't as bad as Beyond Skin. Music Makes You Lose Control is fun and incorporates its titular sample in a catchy, memorable way. Soft Machine has a really strange syncopated beat that is initially hard to catch on to, but once you hear it, it's quite infectious. Hey You What's That Sound? is okay, with the highlight being the Buffalo Springfield interpolation that made the familiarity neurons in my brain start firing. Monkey happy. Mdc Vendredi and About Funk occupy a similar spot in my brain. Both songs overstay their welcome but they have some interesting aspects to them. The former has some ambient parts between the more standard dance stuff that are pretty cool as well as a good build up around the 3 minute mark and the latter settles into a great groove in its second half once it gets past its kind of annoying intro. The worst song on any album so far is the miserable Disco II Disco, which I saw described as sounding like someone strangling a duck. I would go to my local park and strangle ten ducks if it meant I never had to listen to this song again. My god, it is terrible. It's the first time in this challenge that I have actually skipped a song on second listen. Jacques Your Body Makes Me Sweat also has a really annoying vocal sample. Overall, the songs that I didn't explicitly mention range from bad to just below mediocre. Even the songs I mentioned as being highlights feature no reason for me to return to them. Why is this album almost an hour long? We will never know. Why is this album on the list? We will never know. 1.5/5, rounded down to a 1. Favs: Music Makes You Lose Control Mdc Vendredi About Funk Least Fav: Disco II Disco

But Then My Homework Was Never Quite Like This 1001 Albums Generator 45 (06/04/2025) Move over Nirvana baby, your cooler older brother is in town and he smokes cigarettes buddy. Chasing your lame little dollar when you could be a little cherub smokin that shit man. Lame ass. Our favorite cig smoking cherub dawns the cover of 1984, the sixth album by hard rock legends Van Halen, and the last album before founding vocalist David Lee Roth departed due to artistic conflicts with guitarist Eddie Van Halen. After an album that was reviewed negatively by contemporary critics, 1984 feels like a return to form for the band. With that said, this album saw Van Halen playing more prominently with synth sounds than on previous albums, to mixed results. There are three all time great tunes here. Jump was an interesting choice for the first single, as it doesn't necessarily sound like the rest of the album, but it's great. Playing damn near like a synthpop song at times, Jump showcases EVH shredding on his synthesizer just as much as on the guitar. That intro riff is just iconic and this is Van Halen's most popular song. Panama is their second most popular and my least favorite of the big three here, but it's still awesome. After being criticized by a reporter as being a band that only writes songs about partying, hot women, and fast cars, David Lee Roth responded that they hadn't written any songs about fast cars, and thus Panama was born. The chorus is an all-timer and the guitar part in the bridge always struck me as strangely emotional even though David Lee Roth's lyrics don't match that feeling at all. Hot For Teacher is the final of the three amazing songs on 1984 and it opens with a powerful drum solo from the overshadowed Alex Van Halen before falling into a fast, swung groove and one of Eddie's most famous guitar solos. David Lee Roth is horny again in this one, with his eyes being drawn to an attractive teacher this time. Van Halen as a band was designed to appeal to rebellious teenage boys and this song is the perfect example of that. A combination of a "school is lame" mentality with a sexual frustration is about as teenage boy as you can get. Drop Dead Legs is a slower paced rocker that has a really cool, groovy outro part and a great start/stop riff with generous hammer-ons. My main issue with this song is that the guitar solo isn't as melodic as Eddie tends to be. Top Jimmy has some interesting guitar parts that border on art rock at times, but it doesn't have as much energy as some other songs here. I also don't love the slow, crooning I'll Wait. This was a really weird choice as a single. I don't find it catchy or memorable and it has a sound that is unlike anything else on the album. I think that the non-hits on this album suffer from a lack of distinctness in general, although the sound of the album is good enough to make that not as negative as it could be. 1984 was a great way to end the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen. It features some of the strongest songwriting the band ever did and while the final product doesn't stand up to the debut in terms of overall quality, it does have more sophisticated composition and instrumentation that make it an interesting listen. It also doesn't overstay its welcome at all, coming in at a cool 33 minutes. 3.5/5, which I just have to round down to a 3 unfortunately. It's close to a 4 though. Favs: Jump Panama Hot For Teacher Least Fav: I'll Wait

The first four songs are great but it kinda falls off after that. Female backing vocals are pretty terrible tbh, but the sax was cool throughout. Favs: Enjoy Yourself Man At C&A Holiday Fortnight Least Fav: Sock It To 'Em J.B.

Birth Of The Mode 1001 Albums Generator 47 (06/06/2025) I was worried the day would one day come when there were no lyrics on an album, which kind of messes up my whole titling scheme, but oh well, at least there is some jazz on this list, good to know! We are starting our jazz journey with one of the most important and influential albums in the genre. Miles Davis had been around for over a decade by the time that he released Kind Of Blue, and it came right in the middle of his first great period between 1957 and 1960. It also saw Davis playing the modal jazz style over the course of an entire album for the first time. While he had played with this new style on his 1958 track Milestones (one of my favorite Davis compositions), Kind Of Blue was a full exploration of all that the modal style of composition could be, with Davis explicitly giving each soloist a set of scales to use for each piece of music. It is impossible to overstate the influence that Kind Of Blue had on the history of jazz, with it and Coltrane's Giant Steps from the following year both being seen as marking a sort of turning point for jazz, introducing and expanding the ideas of modal jazz on top of cool jazz and hard bop respectively. Does Kind Of Blue hold up to its reputation, or is it overrated? Miles Davis is one of my favorite artists and is definitely my favorite jazz artist. While his electric era is my favorite of his, there is something so undeniable about the era around his first great quintet. The way that Miles Davis was doing cool jazz at this time was so interesting, and Kind Of Blue is the best example of this. It is by far his best cool jazz album and the best of his 50's work. One needs look no further than the opener, So What, with its catchy, simple head chord stabs and its lead bass line played by Paul Chambers. Bill Evans' chord voicings on this song are also iconic (so much so that this particular voicing is referred to as the "So What Chord"), and they harmonize with Miles' trumpet so well. Freddie Freeloader is rather underrated as far as this album goes. It is a 12 bar blues with a slight variation on the traditional 12 bar chord progression, and it features Wynton Kelly on piano instead of Bill Evans. While I do love Bill Evans (he is one of the best pianists of all time), I think the inclusion of the more blues-minded Kelly makes this song unique in the context of this album. All Blues, the longest track on the album, is another highlight. From the first moment you hear the low trill on the piano, it is clear that this song will have some great energy. It has perhaps the most catchy head on the whole album, with Davis harmonizing great with the dual saxophones in the background. While the entire album is very chill, the really slow songs here are my least favorite. Blue In Green is one of Miles' most popular songs, but I've never really understood that. I've always felt it was the weakest piece here and it brings the album down slightly. I am aware that I sound insane right now, I'm sorry. The other real slow song here is the closer Flamenco Sketches, in which Coltrane and Adderley really steal the show. The saxophone solos here are very restrained, but interesting. I particularly love the little oriental flare that Cannonball gives near the end of his solo, which Bill Evans plays with a bit during his solo. While Kind Of Blue is not avant-garde, especially compared to what Miles would do in his second great period, it undoubtably took jazz out of its formulaic comfort zone and helped to expand the sound of this genre as it headed into its golden decade. 4.5/5, rounded up to a 5 for pure influence. Favs: So What Freddie Freeloader All Blues Least Fav: Blue In Green

Could You Stay With Me? Don't Let Me Go 1001 Albums Generator 48 (06/09/2025) I knew this guy's name sounded familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on why. Ah yes, he was the feature on that great Black Thought and Danger Mouse song Aquamarine. Okay, now I'm excited. This is the type of album that I am going through this list for. I never would have listened to Michael Kiwanuka's third studio album, KIWANUKA, without having it assigned to me. And honestly, I am surprised to see it here. Not because it's bad, far from it. I'm just surprised to see such a hip, new album on this list that often seems to be overwhelmed by the authors' biases towards British rock of the 80's and 90's (which don't get me wrong, can be great. There's just too much of it on the list). KIWANUKA is a unique combination of soul, funk, and rock all blended into a psychedelic smoothie, led by British multi-instrumentalist Michael Kiwanuka and produced by the legendary Danger Mouse, along with Inflo, who has worked with artists such as Little Simz and Tyler, The Creator. The opener, You Ain't The Problem, is my favorite song on the whole thing. It is so creative and expertly produced, showcasing the highly compressed production style that defines this album. While remaining soulful, it also features some parts that rock pretty hard, in a way similar to Funkadelic. By contrast, Rolling feels a bit derivative, and I realized that's because its main riff reminds me so much of Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf. After this, we get I've Been Dazed, which has these amazing call-and-response gospel-like vocals. It is very moving. Piano Joint (This Kind Of Love) is a beautiful piece, led by Kiwanuka's piano, with some lush orchestration and a soft drum beat filling in the gaps. Hero is another highlight. It almost has a bit of an island vibe with its flanged guitar in both the rhythm and lead parts. Kiwanuka's vocal melodies are on point here and it makes sense that this one was a single. It also has a great noisy guitar solo that melts your face off. I think this song in particular is a great example of a theme throughout this album, where the instrumental parts are not necessarily technically advanced, but they are played with a lot of feeling and they are produced so well. Hard To Say Goodbye is the album's epic, which feels a bit too long, but weaves its multiple parts together really well. Crazy pull, but the guitar riff that comes in around 2:40 reminds me a lot of the main riff in Ronald Snijders' Soweto Friend. I am not a big fan of Solid Ground, which is the penultimate piece on the album and is a very slow song. I think that this late into a long album, it is hard for me to justify having such a slow song. This album also has a lot of interludes, 4 to be exact. From an artistic perspective, I can appreciate that these interludes help theme the album and add some flow between tracks. I believe that the interludes are largely what help the album feel very cinematic. However, they do add almost 10 minutes to an album that is already a bit on the longer side. I know that by modern standards, 51 minutes might as well be an EP, but what can I say, I guess I'm old fashioned like that. Overall, KIWANUKA is certainly a new favorite. I definitely see myself coming back to it and I'm glad that it was included. 4/5. Favs: You Aint The Problem Piano Joint (This Kind Of Love) Hero Least Fav (not including interludes): Solid Ground

Coast To Coast, L.A. To Chicago 1001 Albums Generator 49 (06/10/2025) Sade is a band? I really thought it was just the lady. Okay wow. I also have always associated Sade with the 90's because of Love Deluxe, but that was the only album they released that decade, with 3 of their albums coming from the 80's! Idk, this is probably not crazy to people that know more about music than I do but it's just blowing my mind. Diamond Life is Sade's debut album and was the best-selling debut by a British female vocalist until Leona Lewis (literally who) took that mantle in 2008. However, high sales do not necessarily imply high quality, so do Sade deserve this success and the critical acclaim that has followed them their whole career? Well, I will say that it's really amazing that Sade found their sound so immediately. I have noticed a trend with the debut albums on this list where the first song is just an incredible artistic statement that defines the sound of the artist for their careers. Led Zeppelin I, Songs Of Leonard Cohen, and In The Court Of The Crimson King come to mind. Diamond Life is no different, opening with the incredible Smooth Operator. This song is Sade's most popular for good reason. It showcases their sophisti-pop sound that they would help pioneer with a Latin flare and they manage to do smooth jazz in a way that feels unique and artistic. As someone that loves jazz, when I think of smooth jazz, I think of that curly haired fuck Kenny G. It turns out that smooth jazz is something that can be soulful and beautiful. Your Love Is King and Hang On To Your Love are also great. The former has a great 6/8 groove and almost sounds like Steely Dan at times. I don't know if that's crazy to say, but the sax solo just gives me Aja vibes. Hang On To Your Love is groovy and has a fantastic drum sound in particular. Cherry Pie is a funk-fest, which is again a sound that I do not associate with Sade in my head but damn they can groove. I could see someone arguing that this song gets stale, with its slower tempo and minimal changes in dynamics throughout, but I think that it is written and played masterfully enough that I don't have that problem with it. I do think that this album suffers at times from smoothness overload. This is an argument I also saw leveled against Steely Dan, but that album had enough technical playing that those arguments could be quickly dismissed with a simple "you just don't get it man". On Diamond Life, I think there is more of an argument to be made. Songs like Sally and Why Can't We Live Together don't add much unique to the tracklist, and they certainly don't earn over 5 minutes of runtime each. It would be hard to say that these songs are bad; they have catchy moments and sound great in the background, but I just wouldn't reach for some of the tracks here in particular. From Kind Of Blue to KIWANUKA to Diamond Life, I have been blessed the last few days with different styles of cool, smooth jazz (or jazz-inspired) music. While these three albums are very different in their approach and influence, it has been a great three days. Diamond Life deserves its praise, although it does drag at times for me. 4/5. Favs: Smooth Operator Your Love Is King Cherry Pie Least Fav: Sally

It's The Suede Denim Secret Police 1001 Albums Generator 50 (06/11/2025) 50 albums in, wow! Dead Kennedys are one of the most popular hardcore punk bands of all time. They are a band who I was familiar with for years before I started listening to any punk, and this is in part due to their highly controversial name. One thing that I think is so interesting is that their name was actually against the assassinations of JFK and RFK, as opposed to what many contemporaries (and modern listeners) believe. Dead Kennedys are defined by the unique voice of Jello Biafra and the angular, surprisingly technical guitar playing of East Bay Ray. Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, donned by a picture of cars on fire taken during riots in San Francisco, is the debut album by Dead Kennedys, released in 1980. This album is full of hits on hits. The opening song, Kill The Poor, features satirical lyrics sung from the perspective of someone offering a solution to the poverty in the US. In the words of Sam Hyde "we're just gonna kill em". The chorus is so catchy, and I caught myself singing it throughout the day, forgetting what the words are that I was saying. California Uber Alles has been my favorite Dead Kennedys song since the first time I heard it. Although the specific politician Biafra is singing about is long gone from any sort of public knowledge, the song itself is so timeless. With its surf punk undertones and the great bridge that cuts to half time, this song is just so unique. Holiday In Cambodia is their biggest song. I know Biafra said "the word" but come on, this song is so great. East Bay Ray's unique, heavily delayed guitar parts are so weird, and once again, the chorus is great. Also, does punk get better than the build-up of Pol Pot chants near the end? Just awesome. This album is also weird as hell. The manic energy of Drug Me's verses is insane. I can't claim to know a single word that Jello Biafra is saying in this song except for his signature vibrato'd "drug me" in the chorus, but I love how it sounds. Chemical Warfare features a cursed carnival part before erupting into just pure chaotic noise with the sound of people having been bombed in the background. The most underrated song on this album by far is the progressive Ill In The Head. I cannot believe that I haven't ever seen someone mention how much this sounds like a Voivod song, 4 years before Voivod released their first album. This is the only song that featured founding guitarist 6025, who left before Fresh Fruit was released, supposedly due to musical differences. The one complaint I could understand about this album is that Biafra's vocal style can be offputting. Hell, the first time I heard this album, I was not a big fan of his voice, but it has grown on me. I can't imagine a song like California Uber Alles without his amazing vibrato. Besides a few more forgettable songs in the tracklist, such as I Kill Children and Funland At The Beach, this album is quite consistent in quality. Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables is a hardcore punk classic for a reason. From its scathing satirical lyrics (remember when leftists were actually cool?) to its surprisingly diverse sound throughout its runtime, Dead Kennedys knocked it out of the park with their debut. 4.5/5, rounded down to a 4. Favs: Kill The Poor California Uber Alles Ill In The Head Least Fav: Funland At The Beach

Well I Feel So Broke Up, I Wanna Go Home 1001 Albums Generator 51 (06/12/2025) Man, are we sure that this "random album generator" is really all that random? Brian Wilson died yesterday. He was one of the great American songwriters of all time and was best known for his time with The Beach Boys. Pet Sounds is their eleventh album and it is considered their magnum opus, with only The Smile Sessions coming close to the level of acclaim leveled onto this album. I remember the first time that I listened to this album, I didn't really get it. I had heard "best pop album ever", "inspired The Beatles", etc., and I just couldn't see it. Don't get me wrong, I recognized instantly the genius of Wouldn't It Be Nice and God Only Knows, but I found a lot of the other songs to be unmemorable. However, due to its short length and easy listening, I found myself coming back to it over and over again. I don't think it has quite entered into my personal canon of best pop album ever, but goddamn, I have seen the light. Wouldn't It Be Nice, the opening track, is a unique piece of pop. The majority of popular music romanticizes youth. Be it partying or innocence, young love or young lust, this commonality exists amongst Western pop. However, the Beach Boys open this album (after a modulation from the A major of the intro to the F major of the majority of the song) with a simple question: "Wouldn't it be nice if we were older?" This turns the aforementioned common theme of pop music on its head, with a yearning for the future, rather than a reminiscing on the past or a narrow-minded focus on the future. This 1-2 punch of a harmonically dense and interesting modulation into interesting, sweet lyrics is the perfect way to open this album. Of course this song is a classic; you don't need me to tell you that. God Only Knows, which opens the B side, is the other transcendent piece of music on this album. Believe it or not, the invoking of "God" in the title of a piece of pop music was seen as scandalous during that time, but the song was so undeniable that it became a hit anyway. I believe, along with most of the human population, that this is one of the greatest love songs of all time, in both its lyrics and its music. That outro is particularly special. Look, basically every song here is great. The main melody of You Still Believe In Me has been stuck in my head for days. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) has this drone in the background that is haunting and so strange. Here Today is super underrated, being one of the least played songs on Spotify. It has an infectious energy and such a fun trumpet part in the chorus. The instrumentals on this album are often cited as the weak points, and I somewhat agree. Let's Go Away For A While is the weakest song on this album. It has a strange energy, but doesn't go anywhere. Pet Sounds (the song) isn't so bad. I love The Beach Boys' take on exotica, and it does stand out among all the songs on this album. Besides these songs, there is really no obvious weak point on this album. I would also hate to fail to mention Phil Spector. His Wall-of-sound production style is in full swing here even though he himself was not involved with the album. Brian Wilson definitely channeled Spector's production techniques here, to great success. Pet Sounds is a classic for a reason. It is one of the best and most interesting pop albums of all time, and I understand why The Beatles took so much inspiration from it for Sgt. Pepper. RIP Brian Wilson. 4.5/5 rounded up to a 5. Favs: Wouldn't It Be Nice Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) God Only Knows Least Fav: Let's Go Away For A While

It's A Fact That I'm A Seventh Son 1001 Albums Generator 52 (06/13/2025) Let's talk about the elephant in the room. Do you see it? Of course, I'm talking about the elephant on the cover. You don't see it? Okay, I'll give you the hint that Jack White gave me: "If you study the picture carefully, Meg and I are elephant ears in a head-on elephant. But it's a side view of an elephant, too, with the tusks leading off either side." You still don't see it? Okay, well I'm going to be honest here. I don't think I've seen a picture in my life that resembles an elephant less than the cover of The White Stripes' fourth album, Elephant. Jack White may be a musical genius, but when it comes to the shape of elephants, maybe not so much. Don't mishear me by the way, this is an amazing album cover, and I spent 10 years loving it without even knowing there was intended to be an elephant on it. There's a reason this cover has become iconic and received so many accolades. Luckily, the music behind the cover is just as great. I don't even really want to talk about Seven Nation Army. Yeah, it's catchy of course and every sports team in existence uses the riff as a theme song, but I honestly find it to be one of the least interesting songs on Elephant. There is so much more to appreciate here. Even the following song, Black Math, is so much better. It has such undeniable energy, with an awesome solo played through an octave pedal. The guitar tone on this song is so unbelievably crunchy. There's No Home For You Here is the first of many songs that features White Stripes signature trick: extreme changes in dynamic from the loud, fuzzed out chorus to the chill verse. This is one of the best examples of this trope that they have in their discography, with the addition of an organ in the verses being a great layer, and the part near the middle with the guitar feedback and the harmonized vocals is perhaps my favorite individual moment on the album. The pacing on this album is weird, because after these three great songs, we get four in a row that are softer and weaker to varying degrees. In The Cold, Cold Night and I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart are particularly unenjoyable. As for the former, any song with Meg singing is pretty much guaranteed to be one of the weakest songs on any White Stripes album. As for the latter, I don't love Jack's soft falsetto range most of the time, even though I have always had more of a soft spot for You've Got Her In Your Pocket for some reason. Maybe that's because my wife always jokes about putting people in her pocket lol (no relation to this song). With that said, I can still recognize that this is one of the weakest songs here. From this point on (besides the last song), this album is fucking perfect. I love the epic Ball And Biscuit, which is one of the coolest 12 bar blues that I have heard and features Jack White's best soloing. The spoken word at the beginning of Little Acorns with the blues-y piano in the background is amazing. Hypnotize is a great, short rocker in a way that Aluminum off of The White Stripes' last album was not. Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine is one that I always forget about until I'm relistening to this album and I start singing the chorus. Unfortunately, the album ends with the flaccid It's True That We Love One Another. This song sounds like a scene in a musical where a couple is in couples counseling and then they just start singing it. The weird thing about the story of this song is that Meg doesn't even voice Jack's significant other, she's the mediator. It's so strange. In spite of some moments of weakness, Elephant is truly The White Stripes' magnum opus for a reason. I have a lot of nostalgia associated with this album, but even beyond that, this album is great. The harder, rockin' songs are pretty much perfect all the way through, so this is a 4/5. Favs: Black Math There's No Home For You Here Ball And Biscuit Least Fav: In The Cold, Cold Night

A Proto-Ambient Masterpiece 1001 Albums Generator 53 (06/16/2025) Just play it like you don't know how to play guitar. This is the advice that trumpeter, band leader, and jazz legend Miles Davis gave to guitarist John Mclaughlin when Davis was unhappy with his complicated, chord-heavy arrangement that the first part of In A Silent Way was originally based on. Mclaughlin decided to take this to an extreme, stripping the arrangement back to revolving around a single E Major chord, one of the simplest chords on a guitar. To say it was played like a beginner would be disingenuous however; nothing about Mclaughlin's delicate, beautiful playing sounds like something a novice could play. It is also worth noting the guitar itself. This was not an acoustic guitar, which was more traditional for jazz arrangements; instead, Mclaughlin brandished an electric guitar. Meanwhile, Davis had not one, not two, but three of the greatest pianists in jazz history all playing electric keyboards. The trio of Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Josef Zawinul add constant layers of keyboards, with the most iconic parts being the organ that starts the whole album at the beginning of Shhh / Peaceful and the descending 3-bar chorda line that repeats throughout various points of the title track. The implementation of electric instrumentation into jazz, while not entirely new (even to Davis, whose last two albums had incorporated sparse electric elements), was very controversial. In A Silent Way is not the first jazz fusion album, as Frank Zappa and Larry Coryell had already started playing with the sound. But, both of these artists came onto the music scene with rock backgrounds. For Miles Davis, the jazz master, to incorporate rock elements into his sound was seen by some as a betrayal of his roots. Can I just say, this whole discourse is so strange in retrospect. This is not a rock album. Besides about two minutes in the title track, it's not even close to a rock album. But to contemporary reviewers, the sound of an organ or a guitar plugged into an amp was enough to classify it as "rock-adjacent". These are not the only players on the album, however. Dave Holland is playing an acoustic bass on this album, and the great Tony Williams has remained from the remnants of Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet. Wayne Shorter's saxophone adds an undeniable jazz element as well. And of course, Miles himself is still on the trumpet. I can only imagine that these reviewers' minds exploded when Davis started playing organ on later albums, but for now, he remains on the brass. His compositional skills are on full display, with his modal method of composition combining with a surprisingly ambient timbre throughout the whole thing. The greatest moment on this album is in the title track when, after 13 minutes of building, the drums open up and everyone's energy skyrockets. This is the moment. The other hero of this album is of course Teo Macero. In many ways, this album can be seen as a beta test for what would come on Miles' next album, Bitches Brew, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the production techniques. Similarly to that album, these songs are not only products of the musicians: they are products of the studio. Macero took the recordings on tape and physically put them together to create these 20 minute songs out of individual recordings of Davis and his band. For the most part, these cuts are very good (although not as good as the cuts on Bitches Brew). There is one cut around 9:07 on Shhh / Peaceful that is not very smooth, but besides that, Teo does a great job. In A Silent Way is my favorite album by Miles Davis. I have rated 50 of them, and this is the one that I come back to the most. It is a sublime musical statement and is so ahead of its time. It's an easy 5/5. Favs: Shhh / Peaceful In A Silent Way Least Fav: NONE!