FIRST LISTEN - Vocals really didn't gel with me, and they stopped me from appreciating the instrumentals. Might have to listen again just for that. Standout tracks were LETS GO AWAY FOR A WHILE and PET SOUNDS, precisely because there were no vocals. These reminded me a lot of Masayoshi Takanaka, in that tropical summer dreamy vibe. Other than that, kinda meh for me. 2/5

Classic My least listened to album of his from that era The synths are on point on this one Liberian Girl is still a standout to me

Louis Prima somehow has a different style for each song, from a call-and-response big band track in The Lip, to some slower but still fully jazzy tracks like Body and Soul. This came out of left field as a type of music I rarely explore, but it absolutely delivered. This album is so much fun, and on top of that the musicians behind it are GOOD. Giving this 5 ⭐ because of the listening experience

Nutty guitar all the way through Wish I could dive deeper into some lyrics Petit Metier stood out in particular

The vocals constantly distract from some legitimately banger arrangements 💀 -Standouts- Venus as a Boy was genuinely pretty, reminded me of a Little Dragon song Come to Me: the instrumental really shines here. Felt almost nostalgic for some reason 2⭐ only because these two songs did make me go back a few times. The rest of the album was a hard listen tho

Good fuckin album The bassline on Josie is 🤌✨ Very strong 4⭐ - nothing life changing, just some banger music EDIT 3 days later and just about every song is on loop in my head. This is more than a banger

Listened to it while cooking and had a fun time. Once my food was done, I still had 1h30 left. At that point I tapped out, it was too much of the same. To me then this album is great in adding a classy, old-school soundtrack to life. But as front to back, critical listening deal? I couldn't even do it for the challenge. In the end though, my carne adobada came out delicious as fuck, and maybe I have Ella to thank for that.

👋 Jazz 👋 This whole album feels heavy in experimentation - no minute goes by without a total switchup in the song structure. Maybe this is the zoomer in me, or maybe it's just a style of jazz I'm not used to, but as an album experience it felt absolutely disorienting. With so many different ideas every second, though, you do end up with a lot of very cool individual moments. Standout track was Bemsha Swing

This album fucked me up. My ass is not made for noise rock. Standouts: When You Sleep, Soon

The first two tracks were okay, but had me thinking this was going to be a bit of a generic rock album. I'm so glad I was proven wrong - everything that followed was weird, psychedelic, funky and fun. Some instrumental tracks (such as Butter the Soul) had me thinking, "this would go hard with Damon Albarn vocals and a guest rapper" - well damn if Candyman didn't deliver on that exact vibe later in the album🔥🔥 Lots of different genres at play here, but all around it was an enjoyable listen

An overall cohesive and energetic listen, but not much stood out to me. Certainly a refreshing listen in this challenge. Standouts: The Day I Tried To Live, Kickstand

I really dug the instrumentals, most tracks have a lot of layers to them. Other than some fuckass lyrics here and there (the dictionary song has straight stinkers from line 1) there really is a lot to enjoy here. 2.8 ⭐

Keep the Streets Empty For Me has a cinematic atmosphere that I enjoyed. As much as I tried to appreciate the album's production, I cannot give it more than 1⭐ when I actively despised the singer's voice on every single track.

As a big fan of hiphop I was excited to finally see some representation in this list. This album was a first listen for me, but being familiar with the members' later work, it was super fascinating to hear them at this very early stage of their career - notably Dr Dre's production and Ice Cube's rapping. Unfortunately, I don't think the album has aged terribly well, and don't see myself coming back to it much. Definitely a prime choice for this list nonetheless, and I appreciate its huge influence on everything that would come after it.

Absolute banger from beginning to end. Layered, jazzy, funky, with some fresh latin flavor and a dash of psychedelic. Easy 5⭐on first listen.

I found the vocalist to be really grating on first listen, but the rest of the band sounded really fuckin great so I gave it a few more tries over the course of the day. Eventually I warmed up to the vocals and everything clicked. Today, the British won.

I see the potential in Dog Man Star. This album had a couple of outstanding tracks (highlights: We Are the Pigs, Asphalt World), however they were usually followed by one or two duds that took me out of the album.

Some good jazz tunes, the vocals have some oldie recording quality that really adds to the charm. Standouts : Blueberry Hills, Blue Monday

It was..... Okay. Decent instrumentation throughout, but nothing that stuck with me. Sounded like background bar rock. One track did stand out as pure garbage, and it was ironically not "Trash" but rather "Frankenstein" with horrendous vocals that go on for 6 minutes??? Not all of the album is like that, but it IS just about the only thing I can recall about the album by the end of my listen. Actually, no, "-Ah, how you call your loverboy? -TRASH" did stand out as a great line. Perhaps I was too harsh.

From the moment I saw the album cover I knew this would be a fun one, and it did not disappoint. Every song has a different mood, the slower moments feel classy, and they always pick right back up with some type of fun and energetic (dare I say 💥 explosive) swing. This is some of the best jazz we've had on the list. Bravo Mr Basie 👏

Nothing clicked for me on this album. The very last track had some interesting drumming, but that's about it.

I have many memories with RHCP, and always enjoyed their bigger hits but never really bothered to sit down with their albums. This record has an insanely good run from tracks 1-8, and proceeds to shit the bed for the rest of its runtime. I'm fairly used to the band's questionable lyricism, and yet I Like Dirt still stood out as particularly awful writing. The last song, Road Trippin', is at least a real breath of fresh air to close the album, genuinely good song. Overall this is a bad album with some absolute banger tracks. Even the bad songs have some great instrumentations that are soured by Anthony Kiedis' weird-ass singing/rapping.

Now I'm a sucker for soul and disco, so I was very easy to please with this album. Some of the sounds are pretty dated by today's standards, and from a critical listening standpoint, a lot of the songs overstayed their welcome by 1-2 minutes. None of this stopped me from 🕺 BOOGYING 🕺 though. The 6-minute pan flute track hit me by pure surprise, and was ironically one of the few songs that never got old/repetitive - banger the whole way through. Highlights: Holdin' On, Feeling Free, African Dance

Ehhhhh *muffled guitar noises (Live)*

A lot of rock with country influence which I personally am not a fan of, but I wouldn't totally discredit it just for that. I at least appreciated the variety here, with every track trying something a bit different.

On first listen, this was pretty horrible. The music is messy and the singing sounds like rambling. It was once I read up on the album's context that I saw it in a new light. A close friend of mine was once admitted under very similar circumstances to Spence's. He's better now, but visiting him on those days he was unlike himself in ways that I see reflected here, on tracks like Weighted Down, Broken Heart, and Grey/Afro. Isolation, confusion and spirituality are prevalent throughout. Of course, I can't possibly claim to truly know what they were going through. I did however end up approaching and reflecting upon the album in a way I didn't expect.

Going in blind for this one was a bad idea. I did two first listens without looking up lyrics and was very confused, as this is a VERY narrative-focused concept album. This took me by surprise since my only true experience with Pink Floyd beforehand was Wish You Were Here, a much more straightforward, instrument-forward album. I could tell I was missing something though, so I sat down and did a full dedicated third listen with lyrics and a cold one in hand--- All I can say is DAMN. What a hard-hitting cinematic experience. The Trial + Outside The Wall was an incredibly cathartic ending (somehow even when I didn't understand the lyrics!). To truly give it a 5 I'd have to warm up to some of the songs a bit. Especially during the middle I felt that the pacing was a bit slow, though it did make for a great buildup to bigger moments like Comfortably Numb. 4.5⭐️ EDIT - 3 days after this review, The Wall has remained on constant loop in my head. The depth of this album is unbelievable. Now being familiar with the songs, the production and details stand out a lot more. Absolute cinema - 5 star experience

Another bit of a miss from the Rolling Stones, for me personally. At least it had some interesting moments like Can't You Hear Me Knocking and Moonlight Mile!

FUNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK ( 益 )

The first half of the album was forgettable. Every review was revering the final track, the 17-minute legend, the one and only title track, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. ....Shit, I think everyone gets misled by the runtime into thinking it's a masterpiece. I waited the entire duration for something interesting to happen and it just *never came*. It's all a series of instrumental noodling sections - if you were to separate each section into its own track, nobody would talk about this. It's just not that good I'll give it its props - Termination and Are You Happy were very decent, and the bass guitar throughout the album was pretty fucking great! With that said, maybe it's my fault for getting baited by the reviews, but my disappointment is unmeasurable. This is not an album I'd come back to either way, so for that reason I exercise my right to be a hater 😭

Pretty good music! Some of the earlier tracks were a bit on the weirder side, but the album really picked up after Tick. I especially enjoyed the singer's voice, I'd be interested in exploring some of their other material in the future. Standouts: Black Tongue, Maps, Y Control

Against all odds, the Stones have rolled in for a third time this week, and I am once again underwhelmed. 3 tracks out of the first 4 were pretty decent, but everything that followed was ehhhh. Special mention to the bad trip that is Gone Home: the 11 minute experience of Mick Jagger grunting. Even if I were to rate this by the US version, which has Paint It Black (🔥) and an all-around tighter tracklist, this is once again a miss from the Rolling Stones.