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