256
Albums Rated
2.94
Average Rating
24%
Complete
833 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
1990s
Favorite Decade
Britpop
Favorite Genre
UK
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
15
5-Star Albums
13
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Kimono My House
Sparks
|
5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
|
Electric Warrior
T. Rex
|
5 | 3.54 | +1.46 |
|
Born To Be With You
Dion
|
4 | 2.62 | +1.38 |
|
Transformer
Lou Reed
|
5 | 3.67 | +1.33 |
|
Live At The Regal
B.B. King
|
5 | 3.68 | +1.32 |
|
Dummy
Portishead
|
5 | 3.71 | +1.29 |
|
Doolittle
Pixies
|
5 | 3.74 | +1.26 |
|
Alien Lanes
Guided By Voices
|
4 | 2.75 | +1.25 |
|
Vol. 4
Black Sabbath
|
5 | 3.75 | +1.25 |
|
Hms Fable
Shack
|
4 | 2.77 | +1.23 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Head Hunters
Herbie Hancock
|
1 | 3.55 | -2.55 |
|
At Mister Kelly's
Sarah Vaughan
|
1 | 3.38 | -2.38 |
|
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
Charles Mingus
|
1 | 3.32 | -2.32 |
|
Astral Weeks
Van Morrison
|
1 | 3.27 | -2.27 |
|
Kenya
Machito
|
1 | 3.27 | -2.27 |
|
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Pink Floyd
|
1 | 3.11 | -2.11 |
|
Songs In The Key Of Life
Stevie Wonder
|
2 | 4.07 | -2.07 |
|
Heavy Weather
Weather Report
|
1 | 2.99 | -1.99 |
|
Tarkus
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
|
1 | 2.79 | -1.79 |
|
Histoire De Melody Nelson
Serge Gainsbourg
|
1 | 2.75 | -1.75 |
5-Star Albums (15)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Stephen Stills
3/5
The trouble with Stephen Stills is he never elevates himself above fine. This is four sides waiting for something to happen, and it never does.
The music is decent, he is talented enough but this is a sprawling concept album that is pretty average.
4 likes
Pulp
4/5
This is one of my favourite albums from the 1990s, and listening now gives me such nostalgic feelings.
Pulp are very much influenced by Ray Davies. Slightly more waspish in their lyrics but definitely fits that Kinks are The Village Green… vibe. I also hear a bit of Scott Walker in there too.
Really enjoy this slice of life in a northern town, and I think Common People, Sorted for Es and Whizz, Disco 2000 and even Mis-shapes are still absolute bangers!
If you know, you know.
2 likes
5/5
Not listened to this one in a few years, and it’s better than I remember. It’s consistent, It Ain’t Easy notwithstanding, and it’s cohesive.
This is one the best and most influential albums ever. What else is there to say?
1 likes
The Verve
4/5
This is totally in my wheelhouse, and I have been a fan of this since it was released; back in the day, before we knew anything about Urban Hymns.
I enjoy the dreamy shoegaze landscapes and RA wailing over soaring guitars. It’s got an abrasive, unpolished sound, which I really love. Lyrically it’s very angsty, and that suits the low-Fi sonics. However, it’s long and a bit flabby. It starts off well, but then runs to fat in the middle. It picks up again with History and No Knock on My Door, then loses me again at the end. Overall though, I still enjoy it.
1 likes
Pink Floyd
1/5
I absolutely hate this. Not one note of this makes any sense to me, and it feels like it goes on and on for no good reason.
On the plus side, Syd Barrett’s tendency towards whimsy saves this album from the full blown pomposity and conceit that Roger Waters will shower over Floyd.
TPATGOD really is of its time. That’s not to say it’s dated necessarily, but it is a product of the psychedelic age. It was undoubtedly influential in its time. but that doesn’t necessarily make it good.
For me it is the sound of a drug addled and confused mind, obvious Kinks influence notwithstanding.
1 likes
4-Star Albums (46)
1-Star Albums (13)
All Ratings
Nick Drake
3/5
It’s fine. It’s not wildly different from his first album, and I feel like it doesn’t really go anywhere. I listened to it three or four times and kept waiting for it to take off and was disappointed that it didn’t. Hazey Jane II is a highlight.
Bob Dylan
3/5
I already own this one.
His vocal is very high in the mix.
Some songs could be shorter because they start to feel too long.
Overall it’s a rollicking affair, and enjoyable enough. Not sure it’s essential listening, though. It just expands on Bringing It All Back Home which for me is the better album
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
This is my first listen because hip-hop isn’t my genre. However, it’s there is a lot of jazz and funk on it.
I love his powerful lyrics and the challenge they throw down, particularly on The Blacker the Berry, which was a highlight.
The album is KL’s self awareness and understanding of the social and political environment he is living in, which comes to a point on Mortal Man.
While the album wasn’t made for me, it’s an excellent piece of social and optical commentary.
Booker T. & The MG's
2/5
It’s light. It’s fun. It has some tasty guitar licks. It also reminds me of something for the old timers at the North Pier in Blackpool. I didn’t like it much.
I can see how it influenced southern rock, and there is a real bluesy feel on a lot of the tracks, but the organ becomes wearing after a while.
It should be in the book because it does something new, but it isn’t for me.
Beastie Boys
3/5
I was a young teenager when this came out, and I remember the fuss it caused. There are a lot of cliches on it, and some of the lyrical content sounds outdated now. The album is mostly a lot of nonsense, but there is a joy in it. It’s party rap. It’s about having a good time which is reflected throughout, most overtly on Fight For Your Right
I have no idea if it’s technically good or not, but I like it in a way I have never really liked the Beastie Boys again. Whether that’s nostalgia or because it’s really good, I neither know nor care!
Adele
3/5
Big voice, big talent, but this album is a big disappointment. It’s polished and it’s over produced. There are some great tracks - Hello is the clear standout - but it’s very safe and predictable. It’s 21 lite, and it’s not even half as good.
Guided By Voices
4/5
I heard this album for the first time about a year ago, and I really quite like it. I like the half arsed, demo quality and its low-fi sound. I’m not really a GBV fan, but I enjoyed this offering
Spiritualized
3/5
A shoegaze, sonic experiment, that reminds me of all the bits of 1997 that I can remember.
There are some beautiful tones on this album, and there is a huge amount of layering on each track. It’s a collection of genres that intermingle well with each other, but it’s long. The final track, a 17 minute sonic journey that left me feeling the tiniest bit exhausted.
As much as I enjoyed this album, I did find it a bit inflated and lacking any more substance than pretty soundscapes.
Michael Jackson
3/5
This is sounds exactly like the late 1970s. It’s filled with colourful, glossy tunes and a very polished and smooth production. The tunes are pure disco funk and so much fun.
I think the album is pretty front loaded, side two is not so uptempo, and I think that lets it down a bit.
It’s a great album and it’s the start of MJ’s meteoric rise to pop mega stardom, but it’s not for me.
The Beau Brummels
2/5
I really struggled with this one and I didn’t like it.
The singer does that Bob Dylan inflection in his singing, which is an unnecessary affectation.
The album is described as mystical folk rock, but that hobbits and elves vibe doesn’t really kick in until after Magic Hollow, but there doesn’t seem like the band feels any conviction to it. It should sound a bit whimsical,like early Pink Floyd, or a less committed Led Zeppelin , but it doesn’t. This makes the album start to feel really long on side two.
The album floats along at a fairly sedate pace, but while the band plays with the folk rock genre, and pulling out the harpsichord and psychedelic strings, it’s a pretty lacklustre display.
The Byrds
3/5
Let’s be real here. This isn’t really a Byrds album. It’s the album Gram Parsons made when he stole The Byrds for a backing band, and took Chris Hillman home as a souvenir.
The album is fine, it’s inoffensive and the players are really good. It just doesn’t excite. Hickory Wind notwithstanding.
I recognise the importance of the album as a crossover and an experiment, and while it’s far from terrible, I will never deliberately listen to it again.
5/5
Not listened to this one in a few years, and it’s better than I remember. It’s consistent, It Ain’t Easy notwithstanding, and it’s cohesive.
This is one the best and most influential albums ever. What else is there to say?
The Charlatans
3/5
I have had this album since it came out back in the day, and it’s hard to review this one without nostalgia.
It’s a decent enough listen. A bit safe, but the Charlatans weaved some nice melodies. Better than a lot of their contemporaries , this album is a pleasant way to spend 40 odd minutes.
Van Morrison
1/5
Mystical jazz dronings that go on for what seems like astral weeks! Hated it. I’ve tried a few times over the years to get into it, but it’s just not for me.
Beach House
2/5
I don’t mind a bit of shoegaze dream pop or whatever, but I do mind when it’s safe, samey and on album that feels long than 40 odd minutes. Every track sounded like a minor revision of the one before, and they lack any rough edges. It doesn’t surprise or enthral , but it’s not terrible.
On the plus side, it’s gentle and soothing, and the lyrics don’t really trouble the brain much. Better Times was probably less not great than the other songs, and it has a floaty feel about it. I also liked 10 Mile Stereo because it reminded me of MGMT being played at half speed.
Overall, though, it ain’t for me.
The Police
2/5
I don’t like Sting’s voice and I’m not a fan of his cod reggae, which I find becomes offensive at times on this offering. Not for me at all and not required listening in my view
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Actually better than I remember it being. The piano is relentless, and gets a bit wearing after the halfway mark, but I liked more than I didn’t like.
I reminds me a lot of Leonard Cohen’s Songs of Love and Hate, which isn’t a bad thing. Some of the lyrics are uncomfortable, and he sounds quite detached, but I like the melancholy and the sparse sound.
The B-52's
3/5
I always want to like the B52s more than I do. That’s not to say I don’t like them, they always just sound like the aural equivalent of a 1950s B movie.
This album is a lot of fun though and I enjoyed the quirky vibe throughout. I like they have taken the post punk aesthetic in a totally different direction than every other post punk struggler. However, the last track is fairly horrible and the album, generally, tends to tip into self-aggrandising their weirdness. I like the album well enough, but not that much.
The Velvet Underground
3/5
It’s a decent album, but it’s nothing really to get over excited about. VU have made better albums, but it was pleasant enough listening.
Not keen on The Murder Mystery and hated it after near 9 minutes. It doesn’t seem to fit on this album, it’s got more White Light/White Heat vibes. Huge fan of Candy Says and Pale Blue Eyes. And the Moe Tucker closer is an underrated classic.
It’s a pleasant enough effort, and although I have a copy it’s rarely in my rotation selection.
Stephen Stills
3/5
There is nothing really wrong with this except that it’s uninspired and, frankly, a bit dull. He’s got all his famous pals playing on it, and it still doesn’t excite.
It’s a no from me. I will never listen to this album again, or if I do, I will forget it half an hour later.
Don McLean
3/5
Unremarkable for the most part.
The exceptions being American Pie: rambling, nonsensical, epic; Vincent: sad, slow, a bit self-conscious; and Everybody Love Me Baby: ridiculous (with Don doing Dylan inflections throughout); really quite bad.
Rush
2/5
Is it prog? Is it rock? It’s not a million miles away from Tarkus by ELP, and there is an early Genesis vibe on Tears.
It has a very long opening track, which I was expecting to absolutely hate, but didn’t. I don’t love it either. I’m just not fond of the subject matter. And at the 14 minute mark, I was exhausted.
The rest of the album is not quite so exhausting but doesn’t do anything particularly remarkable. It covers much the same ground as ELP and Genesis, and sounds more like indulgence than innovation.
Beastie Boys
3/5
This album is all samples and layers and I don’t particularly like it. It’s incredible how many samples there is, and that’s where the innovation is. The problem is that PB is not as good as 3ft High and Rising. It’s also very long and the shouting gets wearing after about 40 minutes.
It was okay. I didn’t hate it and technically it’s very accomplished. I wouldn’t turn it off if I heard it, but it would not make my play rotation.
The Verve
4/5
This is totally in my wheelhouse, and I have been a fan of this since it was released; back in the day, before we knew anything about Urban Hymns.
I enjoy the dreamy shoegaze landscapes and RA wailing over soaring guitars. It’s got an abrasive, unpolished sound, which I really love. Lyrically it’s very angsty, and that suits the low-Fi sonics. However, it’s long and a bit flabby. It starts off well, but then runs to fat in the middle. It picks up again with History and No Knock on My Door, then loses me again at the end. Overall though, I still enjoy it.
Grant Lee Buffalo
4/5
Back in my wheelhouse. I really like this album but its inclusion in the book is mystifying.
The album plods along nicely, and it’s fairly standard 90s alternative fare. It’s got a grunge feel, and GLP, lyrics and vocals suit that grunge vibe. If you crossed Neil Young with early Radiohead, this is what you would get.
I can see why people find this album bland and/or stodgy because there is nothing that truly excites, or is innovative, which is why I don’t think it should be in the book, but it’s consistent and warm and I will listen to it many more times.
Foo Fighters
3/5
This album is fine. It’s rough around the edges, and DG shows off his musicianship and grunge roar adequately. I like the songs for the most part. They have a decent energy and catharsis.
However, there isn’t much variety on there, and the beat is relentless. It sounds very much like the cheap band you booked because Nirvana were too expensive. It’s pretty front loaded and drags a bit towards the end, but on the whole it’s a decent listen.
I like it well enough, and it’s probably the best offering from the Foos. It’s just not that innovative or inspiring.
ABBA
4/5
ABBA do exactly what it says on the tin. They make well crafted, upbeat (for the most part), pop tunes. Sometimes the lyrics are a bit silly, but the music is constructed in such a way as for that not to matter. I don’t understand why people get all snotty about them. ABBA are not going to make political songs, they are not going to spiral into a 25 minute sitar solo in the middle of Dancing Queen. They ARE going to make a 40 minute album of delighted pop music, and they are no less good, or important because of the genre of music they make.
This album is upbeat, unpretentious and joyous. It opens with momentum and it takes that energy through to its conclusion. Dancing Queen isn’t my favourite, but it goes with the vibe on this album. It’s perfect pop music delivered by fantastic performers.
Weather Report
1/5
This is like the Brian Eno of the fusion jazz world. I’m sure the players on here are proficient, and may well be gifted, but I found it wholly soulless. It just sounds like bland, background music from wine bars in the 1980s. The cover is more interesting than the 37 minutes of music and it didn’t
engage me at all.
I never want to hear this album again and I’m pretty sure I didn’t need to hear it before I die either.
JAY Z
2/5
This is my first (and last) listen because this is really not music that was made for me.
Some really nice samples, and it is a very slick production, but my god he goes on! Not a fan of his style, his constant grunting would have been better turned into some kind of melody. Also not a fan of his or amazing ability to praise himself. The album is at least 20 minutes too long and I almost gave up listening 4 or 5 times. Maybe it’s a grower, but my ears could stand giving him the chance.
Definitely won’t listen again.
Will not listen
Solomon Burke
4/5
I am a big fan of this album. I love SB’s voice and this selection really shows it off. There are a lot of church phrasings and lyrics in there, which I enjoyed.
The album could possibly have been a bit more polished in the production, but I love those rough edges that are on there. So that under produced vibe really works for me and especially with his voice.
Weird to think this isn’t a greatest hits, because there isn’t a consistent sound on the album, and because it’s got the big hit Cry To Me on there.
Love it.
Sparks
5/5
Until about 6 months ago, the only thing I knew about Sparks was this Town Ain’t Big Enough… and that they are bit quirky. Then I listened to this album for the first time time.
I love this album. It’s punchy, it’s upbeat and it’s ever so slightly deranged. Such a vibe!
Some of the songs are similar in sound but, for me, that doesn’t detract from its off kilter charm. I really like it a lot and listen to it often.
Django Django
2/5
First time listen and I thought it was fine. Nothing spectacular, nothing terrible. Just fine, if occasionally annoying. Wouldn’t listen again though. The 21st Century psychedelia feels a bit like a modern age Pet Sounds. It is essentially fairly harmless background noise.
Elton John
2/5
I’ve heard this one before, and I still don’t like it. Tiny Dancer is great, but the rest just bleeds into one. It’s mercifully short however, which saves it from a one star score.
Elton builds his style to vaguely glam and vaguely pop, but this album seems more vaguely prog, and doesn’t hold my interest being the first two or three tracks.
Won’t listen again and I know there is at least one better album he has made.
The Blue Nile
3/5
As a Scot, I am familiar with the Blue Nile and I’ve got a nostalgic affection for Tinsel Town in the Rain.
However the pretentiousness of this album, is not lost on me. It sounds dated, and as smooth and polished as it is, it still sounds like 1984. The songs feel long, even though the album is relatively short.
The album desperately wants you to love it, but it’s actually just an okay listen.
Sister Sledge
3/5
This is not my genre. There is nothing really wrong with it, it’s just not for me. The production is very slick, and the album is very smooth and polished. However as uptempo and decent as the songs are, it gets a bit samey. That’s said I find it easier listening than many other disco tinged funk albums.
I didn’t hate it, I see the influence of it, but the album doesn’t interest me, and I neither the music or the lyrics, as good as they are, connect with me.
De La Soul
3/5
I have long familiarity with this album, and while it’s fun, I wish it didn’t have so many skits in it. That game show theme wears a bit thin for me.
The album is fun and poppy, a bit cheesy at times, but it has some great sampling on it and the tracks are groovy and a bit trippy. Probably can be described as the hip hop Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
It’s a fun album, it’s got a relaxed vibe, but the skits could be fewer. It’s obviously influential and deserves its place on the list. I would listen to it again, it just wouldn’t be in my heavy rotation list.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
One of two EC albums I enjoy. I like the punchy pop punk of this one, and I was actually quite surprised to find that I liked it. It’s maybe not as accessible as My Aim Is True but I think on the whole this is a better album. The songwriting is great, I like his pathos and balance of the social and the personal. The music is fun, and catchy. I liked it a lot.
Definitely will listen again and should be included on the list because it has influenced a lot.
The Kinks
4/5
Generally not a fan of The Kinks past their early blues band days. However, I am a big fan of this slice of quintessential Englishness.
Ray Davis’ ability to capture aspects of his culture and turn them into charming and ironic pieces of song is far beyond that of anyone before or since. I own the deluxe edition of this album which includes the mono version of the album, which gives in a cold and more distant quality which works quite well.
The Kinks, and particularly TVGPS, is so influential on 1990s acts. I can hear a lot of the influence on Blur (who try the same thing less well), Pulp who do with more waspish wit, and on Belle and Sebastian who also use that vignette style storytelling with more pathos.
More accessible than the Beatles and less cool than the Stones, The Kinks are the quintessential English band.
Orange Juice
2/5
Where to start with this one?
I don’t like it, and I have heard it so many times over the years that it starts to make my ears want to bleed.
Edwyn Collins is the world weary Morrissey of early 1980s Scottish pop, and I just can’t get behind it.
The songs are a mish mash of genres, and none of them done particularly well. Conga drums, jazz elements, horns, it’s just a horrible intersection of Haircut 100 and The Velvet Underground; and The Smiths and Chic.
Not for me but escapes a score of 1 because they are Scottish and I am biased!
Neil Young
3/5
I like this album. It’s quiet and chilled, and I like his quiet low-fi rage. It’s not as good as some of his other offerings but it’s worth a listen.
His voice is either something you like or something you don’t, and I like it because of its unpretentiousness. His lyrics are vague and indirect swipes at the political and the personal alike.
Definitely an album I revisit every once in a while, but not his best effort for me.
TV On The Radio
2/5
First time listen for me, and there are some decent noises on it, but it could have been a bit more interesting and a bit less wearing. I’m sure it’s all very innovative and arty but most of it is discordant and occasionally shrill. Maybe it’s a grower, but it isn’t something I have any interest in hearing again.
Overall it was nothing better than fine, but I won’t listen to it again on purpose and I don’t think it is (or was) essential listening before you die.
Tim Buckley
2/5
Horrible pseudo-jazz themed howling from Jeff Buckley’s dad.
Okay, so his voice is pretty good, and he reminds me often of Jeff when he’s singing. Sadly, I can’t get excited about his lyrical musings.
The songs are long and a bit dull, and the album feels much longer than the 45ish minutes. I was hoping at one point we were half way though, but it turned out it was just going onto track 3! The shorter songs were better, and I did particularly like the tone in his voice on Sing a Song for You.
Still, it was a slog to listen to it, and made Nick Drake seem quite lively.
I won’t ever listen to this again, I’m sure it doesn’t need to be on the list.
Cat Stevens
3/5
This is my second ever listen, and it’s inoffensive, occasionally charming and largely unexciting.
There is nothing particularly edgy or challenging about any of it. It’s just Yousef/Cat with his guitar and some decent lyrics. It’s an intimate album, and there is al folkie kind of sound.
Father and Son is a highlight, but otherwise I found little to excite me. It’s an album that you listen to when you have had too much to drink and you are in a reflective mood. Whack this on, and you will cry the sad tears of nostalgia and lost innocence. It’s fine.
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
This is a banger! I have loved this album since it came out and I think it’s a solid debut, certainly better than their second offering, which is similar but less good. The vibe reminds me a lot of The Strokes, it’s got that loose garage sound, and it’s pretty stompy for the most part, which I really enjoy.
Some tracks are a bit pretentious, and it’s kind of front loaded, which lets it down a wee bit.
I still really enjoy it, though, and it gets an airing in my house every so often.
Radiohead
3/5
This is my first listen, and it’s both how I expected and not how I expected it to sound. It’s got the usual Thom Yorke wails, which are standard Radiohead fare, but it’s a lot more tuneful than I expected it to be. I prefer Pablo Honey era Radiohead, when they were noisy Nirvana wannabes (Creep notwithstanding) but this offering is pleasant enough. A little bit distant and emotionless, but I expect that from them.
The vocals are mixed too low down, and the rhythm is quite bland so there’s nothing interesting there. I think that’s the influence that Radiohead have had on contemporary popular music. The songs are also quite similar which makes the vibe dull, and I think it totally loses its way 3/4s of the way through. The last couple of tracks are dreary and protracted.
On the whole though it’s better than I expected. It’s influenced future music but I don’t think I’ll be listening again too often.
Serge Gainsbourg
1/5
Even separating the album from the subject matter, this is still horribly creepy. Serge’s perv whispering, and Jane Birkin’s nubile gasping really made this the most uncomfortable listen so far.
The music on the album is far and away the best thing about it, and even it’s not that great. It’s pseudo jazz tinkerings, and menancing guitar chords hovering on the sidelines. Serge whispering and performing fellatio on the mic ruins what could be vaguely listenable.
I found the whole thing nightmarish, and nearly gave up with it. Thankfully the album is short and my unease was over with a half hour.
I fail to see why this should be on the list, and I definitely won’t be listening again.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
I am not a huge Aretha fan, but the first time I heard this album, I was so knocked out by it, I went straight out and got myself a copy. I don’t think I fully appreciated how talented she was until I heard this album.
It is sublime, her voice is tremendous and it’s nice to hear her interpret other people’s songs. I love the ‘church’ phrasings in the way she sings, and she boots the arse out of soul music. Her voice on A Change is Gonna Come is perfect.
This album puts all other soul albums to shame. Great great album, and a worthy addition to my collection. This should definitely be on the list because the entire album is faultless.
Hawkwind
1/5
Well that’s two hours of my life I will never get back!
Horrible space prog with ridiculous lyrics and noise that went on forever. There are no riffs and there is no groove. This is what happens when you want to be Emerson Lake and Palmer, but all you have is Lemmy and too many drugs.
Hated it!
Santana
2/5
This wasn’t great for me. It wasn’t terrible either. I just find Santana boring. He hasn’t changed his sound ever, and as good as he is, he’s not particularly remarkable. The debut album is probably are more persuasive example of his work. I’m just not into this one.
I didn’t enjoy this, and I’m not convinced that it’s essential listening before you die.
John Lennon
3/5
Okay, so this is where we are at. John Lennon, angry man, is recording his primal scream therapy sessions, and allowing the listener to hear them as a nice treat. Pfft!
Mother starts off reasonably well, then descends into a howling tantrum that would get a toddler banished to the naughty step. And this appears to be the general theme of the album. A track starts off vaguely, gets a bit good, then ends in a howling tantrum. Good one, John. Glad you feel a bit better. However, I don’t need your trauma.
It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve listened to. It’s pretentious and self-indulgent and I will never deliberately listen to this again.
Radiohead
3/5
I hated this album when it first came out, but after hearing my brother playing it a lot, I started coming round to it a bit more. After 28 years, I like it marginally more than I don’t like it.
Sonically odd with lots of layering and screaming guitars; TY doing his weird wailing; and words that seem to have been chosen for their sound rather than their meaning, it’s quite good. Radiohead have never been shy about experimenting, and they have really gone experimental in this. There are loads of weird sounds on this, but it’s a bit overloaded with sound. The tracks start well, mostly, and some are decent, but they descend into noise which I don’t like.
I think these dips into sonic experimentation are to disguise the fact that this album isn’t half as good as they think it is.
The Temptations
3/5
Not at all bad. Liked it but didn’t love it.
I love the social commentary and the deep, gold soul these guys have. I wasn’t put off by the funk aspect because it sounds quite cool. I think I like this better than their smooth soul. I like the grittier edge. However, I didn’t really like the jazzy kind of vibe that’s on there. It seems a bit out of place somehow.
Overall though, it was well worth a listen and I will listen again because I think it’s a slow burn grower.
The Adverts
4/5
I really like this album. I know it is technically punk, but it’s more fun and less angry than some earlier punk bands.
It’s a good album and there is more going on than it at first seems. It takes a swipe at some other punk tropes. Pretty varied and inventive for punk, and more produced than most punk albums.
Enjoy this, own the original of this without Gary Gilmour’s Eyes. Cracking album.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
This is kind of like a greatest hits album from a band that you don’t really know that well. 4 half the songs are out and out classics, and the other 4 aren’t all bad.
I like Skynyrd’s sound. They have a nice southern groove about their music. I’m less keen on Van Zandt and his posturing when he gets his socio-political, but his voice suits the laid back southern sound.
I have this album and I listen to it regularly, and I think it deserves a place on the list.
Drive Like Jehu
3/5
This is my second listen, and I will admit to having totally forgotten everything about it after the first listen.
It’s noisy, angry, postmodern punk and very much in the vein of Fugazi. I think I probably would have enjoyed it 30 years ago, but now it’s just too much noise about nothing.
The album is okay, but the tracks are too long and I can’t connect with them. It obviously influences a lot of bands going forward so probably deserves to be on the list, but I just don’t like it much.
Talking Heads
2/5
I really don’t like Talking Heads beyond some of there hits. This album was more art school tinkerings with no consistency of sound or feel.
The influence on Franz Ferdinand is especially evident on this but I just can’t get into it. I’m not even that into acknowledged “classic” Once in a Lifetime.
Too many noises, too many different styles, and no cohesion.
The Beach Boys
3/5
Was half expecting a Beach Boys album today, after the passing of Brian Wilson yesterday.
This is probably my favourite incarnation of the Beach Boys. It’s likeable, feel good, sunshine rock and roll. A bit of Spector-esque wall of sound orchestration and a lot of layers, so you see how that developed into their future sound.
The songs are bit samey, and relentlessness of side one’s uptempo tracks gets a bit wearing. The ballads on side two get a bit wearing too. It would have been nice if there had been more balance between uptempo songs and ballads.
Overall a nice summer time vibe.
The Verve
4/5
It is 1997. Noel Gallagher has effectively killed Britpop and The Verve record the sound of the comedown.
I have never considered The Verve to be Britpop, because they never had that hedonistic vibe. They tend towards shoegaze and a much heavier sound than the swirling, jangly guitars of the Britpop vanguard.
While I enjoy this album on the whole, it’s not perfect by any stretch. The pattern is very similar to A Northern Soul - album is too long and loses its way round about the middle, where there is a lot of excess fat, bit it brings it back just in the last couple of tracks.
For me, not as good sonically as A Northern Soul. It sometimes gets a bit self-conscious in its gloom. Space and Time has the sort of guitar swirling that Oasis would have killed for, I have an abiding fondness for Velvet Morning, and Bitter Sweet Symphony is a perfect opener.Its just that everything else is a bit samey and missing a vital spark.
Overall though, this is completely in my wheelhouse, and I enjoy this album a lot.
Gillian Welch
4/5
I’m really into this album, and this kind of stripped back Americana. So this one is on my rotation list. Gillian Welch is a the love child of Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams, and I really like her ability to tell a simply constructed story, even if she is heavy on the metaphor.
This album sparkles and twangs. It’s got a rough, early recordings vibe to it, and that really suits the style of music. Her voice is great but occasionally sounds a bit thin for what she is trying to do, and David Rawlings harmonises, it gives the moment more punch. The album gets stronger as it progresses, and my only minor niggle is that I Dream a Highway could be shorter.
Overall, it’s a great album, although depends on my mood as to how great I consider it to be.
2/5
I was filled with mild horror when this showed up as today’s album because I have a general aversion to prog rock. However, I endeavoured to listen to it and was quite surprised by what I heard. Not to the point that I enjoyed it, because I didn’t, but it was kinder on my ears than I thought it would be.
The 3 tracks on this album are typically inflated and baroque, and the title track is an 18 minute play in 4 acts. However, it feels less self-aggrandising than a lot of progressive rock. There is relatively little showboating on the whole album, and there is a definite commitment to brevity. The entire album is under 40 minutes. That said, I cannot connect to the pomposity of the album, the pipe organ or the themes a in book I have no desire to read. It reminds me a lot of early Pink Floyd, without the whimsy, because it has that smug “Art” vibe on it.
This album is the musical equivalent of reading Kafka in the original language. I will not deliberately listen to this album again.
David Bowie
2/5
I don’t like this album. The first track puts me off right away. I don’t mind Tis a Pity She is a Whore apart from the mad jazz backing, and Lazarus is fine. The last track is the pick of the bunch.
I get he was making a concept album about dying,but I find the mix of genres quite jarring and I feel like it tries too hard to be remarkable. If it were not for the fact that this is very obviously a farewell album it would not be in the book at all. David Bowie has been a million times more influential, more progressive, and more innovative than this.
It’s a no from me, I’m afraid.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
Oh dear me, no!
The Tarkus Suite is prog indulgence at its most gluttonous. Side two has horrible organ noises on it, and Infinite Space feels like it! Are You Ready, Eddy? is nearly good but offers far too little, far too late.
Hate everything about it.
Faith No More
3/5
This album is very average. Some good tracks are cancelled out by some bad tracks, and you can see how Faith No More influenced Limp Bizkit, and the other one that was around at the same time.
I think the album is pretty front loaded. Out of Nowhere and Epic are the big hitters, and the next two tracks are fine. The second half of the album is not so fine, although The Morning After is decent. The War Pigs cover is pretty much a carbon copy of the original, so what was the point? And the last track is too jazzy.
It’s an average album and gets a bang average score.
New Order
4/5
The Albumator has kept me in a prog rock abyss for the past few days, so this is a welcome change.
I really enjoyed this album. It’s concise, it’s upbeat and it’s really dancey. A bit of a change from Power Corruption and Lies, but I love the vibe on this album. Bernard Sumner’s vocal style isn’t for everyone, but I love his loose style.
Great album from a really influential band.
Jorge Ben Jor
2/5
I really struggled with this one. It’s my first listen and it was a bit too samba/ funky disco samba for me. He has a good voice and the guitar is really fresh and crunchy but I didn’t really connect with it.
Nice to listen to once, and nice to hear more samba and less bossanova, but I won’t be checking it out again.
The Beach Boys
3/5
I think this is my first listen. I may have heard it once before but I am in no way familiar with it and don’t really know what to think about it. It is both awful and brilliant at the same time.
The vocals, the harmonies and the production are so stripped back and don’t have that fat sound that the Beach Boys usually go for. Although Feel Flows has that fatter sound.
The songs are ridiculous: Take a Load Off Your Feet, Student Demonstration Time and A Day in the Life of a Tree. Disney Girls (1957) is an unexpected slow waltz which jars the flow of the album.
It gets a bit psychedelic for my tastes on side two and dips into that Pet Sounds vibe. It also has the fatter sound that I associate with the Beach Boys.
I really can’t decide if the album is genius or junk but I would listen to it again.
Public Image Ltd.
2/5
This album starts with a ten minute trance, that kept making me think of Billie Jean, and it gets worse from there. It’s 6 sides of discordant noise with John Lydon groaning and howling in the background.
Albatross would probably be better if it was shorter. In fact all the songs would be better if they were shorter.
Is it meant to be taken seriously? I can’t decide if it’s mocking Joy Division or being influenced by them. Either way, I don’t like this album and can’t see myself choosing to listen to it ever again.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
Love this album. Probably my favourite Pumpkins album and have played it regularly since 93.
The album is so intense and tortured, and Billy Corgan pours so much emotion into everything. The production on it is lush and the sounds are deep and fat.
Absolutely adore this album.
Small Faces
3/5
I enjoyed this charming slice of concept psychedelia. It’s very polite and it’s very English but it’s got some catchy tunes that don’t intimidate the listener.
Wilco
3/5
Not Wilco’s best effort. It’s a fair enough album, but I spent most of the time listening to it waiting for something to happen and it never did.
It’s got a gentle vibe, but it doesn’t excite. For all the experimentation on it, it doesn’t light any fires.
Bon Jovi
3/5
Ah, Bon Jovi, the poppiest of all pop metal bands, and here they are before they became the blandest of all stadium rock bands.
It’s very difficult to excited by this album because it lacks any grit or edge. It’s just pop music with guitar solos. It lacks attitude, and it really hasn’t aged well. It was over-hyped in the 1986, and listening to it is still like being mauled by a toothless tiger.
The songs are pop standard and is it quite fun, but there is nothing to really blow your mind.
Pulp
4/5
This is one of my favourite albums from the 1990s, and listening now gives me such nostalgic feelings.
Pulp are very much influenced by Ray Davies. Slightly more waspish in their lyrics but definitely fits that Kinks are The Village Green… vibe. I also hear a bit of Scott Walker in there too.
Really enjoy this slice of life in a northern town, and I think Common People, Sorted for Es and Whizz, Disco 2000 and even Mis-shapes are still absolute bangers!
If you know, you know.
10cc
2/5
This album is supposed to be “fun” rather than just pure irritating, and it’s meant to be meta, which is why every song is in the style of either Queen or Sparks, Buggles and at some points the Beach Boys.
10cc obviously wanted to show off how terribly talented and clever they are, which is never a good idea. If an album can be smug, then this is it.
At one point these oddball, pop rascals sing “don’t want to annoy you…” Sorry, lads, you have very much annoyed me!
Nirvana
4/5
I haven’t listened to this album in years, and it’s pretty much as I remember it. It is sonically and lyrically better than Nevermind, although you can tell that the singles were remixed because they have a smoother, more refined sound. I enjoy this album, and I think it shows both pop and punk sensibilities.
It’s an above average album, with a bit of bite about it, but overall, I think Nirvana are a bit underwhelming. Come for me!
Sarah Vaughan
1/5
There are so many things about this that i hate.
It’s jazz, it’s scatting, it’s repetitive, it’s pretty bland and I feel like she is completely underprepared.
On the plus side, her voice is great and the glissandos she can produce with her vocals are awesome.
Not for me.
Fela Kuti
2/5
My heart sank when I saw the albumator had thrown this one up. I’ve heard it before and I wasn’t all that impressed.
I don’t connect with funk music, and I find jazz funk that doesn’t let up for over an hour even less relatable.
The musicianship of Fela Kuti and the band is undeniable, but I didn’t find anything to savour. There is also really good energy on all the tracks.
It’s not that anything on here is bad, because the album is a brilliant fusion of jazz, funk and soul with Afrobeat. It’s just not the album for me.
Marilyn Manson
1/5
Well this is a load of shit. It’s just trashy screaming and saying controversial things for the sake of being “shocking!”
The concept - mad rockstar demagogue starts the apocalypse - is not just a cliché, it’s laughably banal.
The album is over 71 minutes long, and comprises that tired 90s trope of “the hidden track.”
His look is Alice Cooper with a blue contact lens and no eyebrows. And if he wasn’t such a rapey creep, he would be a pure joke.
Nothing on here wasn’t done ten times better by NIN and Trent Reznor. It’s contrived, unoriginal and tired shite.
KISS
2/5
KISS: purveyors of sleaze metal for the pre-teens. The one mercy of this album is that it is short. It’s short in length, it’s short or lyrical prowess, it’s short on innovation, short on originality and it’s short on any real talent.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3/5
I have heard this album a few times over the years, and I never feel like i am fully satisfied with it.
It is a pleasant listen, laid back, chilled out folk rock music. I think Young adds something a bit more exciting, because CSN are duller without him.
It’s technically a very accomplished album and the tracks are decent. They harmonise well together, and it’s a distinctive sound. It just doesn’t quite hit the mark for me.
John Martyn
3/5
This was better than I remember it being. The first track is a bit odd, and I’m not a great fan of his voice, but it grows into a better than average background sound album.
While I am not rushing out to buy a pristine copy, I would listen to it again.
A nice, pleasant album that grows into its sound.
Terence Trent D'Arby
2/5
This didn’t age at all well. It’s vey 80s, with all that synth, and over production.
I like his voice, but I can’t help feeling it wouldn’t sound so good in a live setting.
This is not my kind of music, and it sounds very dated.
Miles Davis
2/5
I don’t understand jazz. I don’t know what makes it innovative, or controversial, but I know Miles Davis is an accomplished musician.
To my ears this was just 38 minutes of noodling guitar and gently brushed percussion, and a bit of trumpet. It is audibly not just cobbled together nonsense, and parts of it reminded of the fade out of the Doors’ Riders on the Storm, but ultimately I just didn’t like it.
The Dandy Warhols
4/5
I haven’t listened to this beauty for a few years, and it’s better than I remember it being. However, I find that repeated listens can wear you out, which is probably why I haven’t listened to it for a few years.
This is the intersection between pop, shoegaze and post grunge, which is a delightful, sludgey Britpop-esque noise. It reminds me a bit of Sonic Youth at their more poppy, and Super Furry Animals, which is no bad thing.
I love the soundscapes on their shoegazey tunes, and I the swing to catchy tunes makes it a good listening experience. It’s more cohesive than their debut but doesn’t have quite the same rawness.
The last two tracks are entirely unnecessary, which make the album too long, but a lot of albums were in the 90s.
Overall I enjoy the vibe on the album, and I can connect with (most of) it.
Stephen Stills
3/5
The trouble with Stephen Stills is he never elevates himself above fine. This is four sides waiting for something to happen, and it never does.
The music is decent, he is talented enough but this is a sprawling concept album that is pretty average.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Generally speaking, I'm a fan of 90s Nick Cave, but I do struggle with these Murder Ballads. Some of them I really like, but others, I just hate.
I don't mind the disturbing and weird feel of the album, and i quite like a wee murder ballad. I think Nick Cave's voice is a taste that I have acquired, and his style is a bit quirky which I enjoy. Tbe album is a grower, and I've listened to it a few times recently, prior to the albumator throwing it up today, and liked it a tiny bit more each time.
This album is so long, and there are only so many times you can be battered to death with a fucking really big brick, which sometimes what this album is akin to. Nick Cave also has a tendency to sound like a depraved serial killer at times, which puts me off.
All in all, there is as much that I like, as I dislike. I don't think the album is essential listening however. There are better Nick Cave albums.
Sufjan Stevens
2/5
This is the musical equivalent of bread sauce. It’s boring (in that all tracks are kind of the same), it’s uninspiring (in that it’s all just a wee bit dull) and it’s unnecessary. It’s also far far too long, and the vibe feels more like Iowa than Illinois.
Tim Buckley
2/5
Very dated and ultimately underwhelming. Tim Buckley is only retrospectively acclaimed because he is Jeff’s dad. He is a mediocre musician at best.
I reviewed Happy Sad and thought it was dull Hello Goodbye is no better. The only thing I like about this album is his voice, which is pleasant on the ear.
Otherwise there is no way this is essential listening. I won’t be listening again.
Pink Floyd
1/5
I absolutely hate this. Not one note of this makes any sense to me, and it feels like it goes on and on for no good reason.
On the plus side, Syd Barrett’s tendency towards whimsy saves this album from the full blown pomposity and conceit that Roger Waters will shower over Floyd.
TPATGOD really is of its time. That’s not to say it’s dated necessarily, but it is a product of the psychedelic age. It was undoubtedly influential in its time. but that doesn’t necessarily make it good.
For me it is the sound of a drug addled and confused mind, obvious Kinks influence notwithstanding.
Harry Nilsson
3/5
Big Harry did not make this album for me. It’s pretty meh in a Beatles-esque way.
There’s nothing really bad on here (okay Coconut is outright bad), but there is nothing standout good either. He can sing, and the songs are fine, but his can’t be arsed attitude to getting dressed for the cover art is probably the best thing about this album for me. This fact is counteracted by the drum solo in the middle of Jump into the Fire which I didn’t care for at all.
I’m hugely indifferent towards this album.
Randy Newman
3/5
Points for being the Tin Pan Alley political satire department, but I can't say I enjoyed this album. Newman's whiny voice grates on me and while I think he is a decent lyricist, I would rather he let someone else sing.
This album isn't for me, but its competent enough.
Jean-Michel Jarre
3/5
Not as good as Kraftwerk, and infinitely easier on the ear than Tangerine Dream.
It takes itself very seriously but for one guy in his own makeshift studio in 1976 it is pretty innovative.
For me there is too much phaser and flange, which makes it too swirly for me, especially on side one. Side two is better and Oxygène 5 is what Bolero would sound like if Maurice Ravel had a synth!
I can’t do cosmic laser for 40 minutes, it makes my ears hurt, but there is nothing overly offensive about it. It just makes me think of a Vangelis soundtrack track.
I get why it’s on the list, and its influence on electronica is evident, I just found it too space agey and naive. It is ultimately accessible though
Deerhunter
3/5
First listen and I’m underwhelmed. It’s an okay listen but nothing outstanding.
I’m a fan of that dreamy, shoegaze sound that opens the album. I love the jangly guitar on Memory Boy, which reminded me of Stereolab and 80s indie pop. But it gives it a slightly inconsistent feel - some tracks are lazy soundscapes and others are a bit more uptempo. It’s the sort of band you stay to listen to in the student union.
I really don’t find much of the album to be remarkable, but it’s decent enough and a pleasant listen.
Neil Young
3/5
I first heard this album years ago. Possibly around the time it was released on CD, and I hated it. In the intervening years, I have tried it a couple of times and it has grown on me. It’s very much a “be in the right mood” album. It’s not background music, it’s music to turn in on yourself with.
Sitting down and actually listening to it today, I think I appreciate it a bit more for what it is. It’s the sound of a disappointed man reaching his breaking point. It’s rough around the edges which adds to the rawness of the emotions he is channelling, but it’s still a very consistent chill album.
On The Beach (track) goes on a bit too long for me, and the low-fi mood continues throughout side two. I enjoyed side 2 less, and got shades of Sister Morphine by the Stones from Ambulance Blues. Including the length.
Overall, it’s a bit of a mixed bag for me. It starts off well, but loses me at the end.
Haircut 100
2/5
Haircut 100 are Orange Juice with sax breakdowns and fluffy cloud pop hooks.
It’s clean-cut jazz funk pop, nonsensical lyrics (albeit with an impressive list of vaccines), and very little substance. Fantastic Day was my favourite song when I was about 8 and everything on here is pretty much geared toward the indiscriminate ears of pre-teen girls and grandmothers.
There is no way this is essential listening because it’s just not that good.
Paul Simon
3/5
First listen, although if someone said that I had heard it 10 times before, I wouldn’t be surprised. There is nothing really bad about this album, it’s just instantly forgettable and some of the lyrics sound forced. Johnny Ace is probably the pick of the bunch.
I don’t know why this is in the book. I could have died without hearing this. As it is, I will probably forget I have heard this before I die.
Elton John
4/5
Normally, I can’t really be doing with Elton John, which is why this album is a first listen for me. I know the hits and they don’t really put me up nor down.
Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed this album. There is a lot to like on it, despite its vaguely prog aspect. It’s got a good mix of genres, from ballads, to rockers; prog to boogie woogie, and it’s really light. Even the album title is a nice piece of self-aggrandising fun.
Reginald himself might be a prize wanker, but this is a damn fine album.
Guns N' Roses
4/5
As iconic as this album is, it’s really just three massive hits and a couple of other decent songs.
As a debut album it’s really solid, and none of the tracks are awful. I just find side one to be really, strong and side two only has Sweet Child…
I have scored it for the times it brings to mind rather than reasoned critique, and I do still give it a spin every so often.
Black Sabbath
5/5
I knew I would get a Sabbath album today. RIP Ozzy.
The first time I heard this album, I loved it. It’s has got a gorgeous thick sound, and dark intensity. I love the sludgey riffs and the stoner groove. I even love Ozzy’s whispered “cocaine” in Snowblind, like he thinks no one noticed. This is cocaine rock at its most sublime, and metal at its most beautiful and its most heavy.
The album is a monolith and a force.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
3/5
This is quite an enjoyable album. It’s nothing very special and it times it sounds like every other guitar band in 1966. It has a very British Blues Boom sound, which appeals to me. At times it sounds like the Monkees, and at times like the Beach Boys.
Melody for an Unknown Girl was horrible, but overall it was quite an enjoyable album.
Jack White
2/5
It’s fine but not essential listening. A bit of a weak effort actually.
I find Jack White to be a bit of a one trick pony and his music is just milk pudding - sustenance but lacking in any real nourishment.
Marvin Gaye
5/5
Perfect
Cyndi Lauper
4/5
This is such a perfect pop album, and Cyndi Lauper should have been bigger than she was.
I love the quirkiness of her voice and this album is fun, and light. There are some classics and some bangers. It’s such a great album.
The Doors
3/5
Much as I dislike Mr Mojo Risin, I do like a few Doors albums. This one isn’t their best, but it’s not their worst either.
I love the blues influence on this album and most of the songs. I do think the album lacks cohesion but it’s consistently decent.
Jim’s voice sounds better than ever with that whisky and nicotine stained growl, and Robbie’s blues guitar is light and subtle. I also love the sinister whisper behind his lyrics on Riders on the Storm. Creepy as fuck but really cool.
The album isn’t perfect but it is decent. The roughness of JM’s vocals marks a move away from his pretentious posturing on previous albums.
Fatboy Slim
2/5
A less refined version of You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby, but equally repetitive. While this one influenced that late 90s big beat sound, the repetition really rips my knitting! Especially on Santa Cruz.
Not my favourite album that I have heard this week, but does put me right back in the big Ibiza clubs, off my tits on mandy, and basking in the laser strobe glow. Good times.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
Polytonality, multi octave vocals, polyrhythms, challenging, chaos, pushing musical boundaries, blah blah blah.
I hate it. I think it’s shit.
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
The first four tracks on this album are incredible but then they take the foot off the gas and the rest is less immediate, more underwhelming. It’s a shame because this is such an influential slice of hip hop. If Run DMC had kept the energy levels up this could have been untouchable. As it is, this album fires into action, then undulates its way to the end.
Still it’s a great sound that I didn’t appreciate when it first came out.
Beatles
4/5
This is a really likeable slice of the Beatles before they got pretentious and carried away with themselves. Back when they were all about frenzied pop moppetry and the lighter side of life.
It’s a pretty consistent album, and likeable in many ways. It has an upbeat spirit and the songs are simple. There is real cohesion between Lennon and McCartney, which gives the songs a consistent sound that they won’t have from Rubber Soul onwards. It’s got an energy throughout, like you can feel the mania of a million screaming fans just beyond the music.
Hard Day’s Night is probably the best pop album by the Beatles, and feels like the pre- British Blues boom sixties.
Bob Dylan
2/5
I am fully prepared to hate an album that opens with Blowin’ in the Wind. However, it’s got Don’t Think Twice… It’s Alright, so it redeems itself.
This is not the album for me. It’s whiny, screeching and sprawling. I know everyone says it’s influential, but is it? It popularised folk music, but it wouldn’t exist without Woodie Guthrie or Pete Seeger/The Weavers.
It’s mixed like it pop music, with the vocals way high up in the mix, and he crams too many syllables into a line.
Bob Dylan is a great lyricist, but my god he’s harsh on the eardrums!
The Stooges
3/5
This is my first listen. I’m familiar with Iggy Pop as a solo artist, but less familiar with the work of the Stooges.
More bluesy and Velvet Underground-y sounding than I expected, but the Stooges haven’t quite made BFFs with heroin yet.
We Will Fall is the sound of the Doors at their most pompous, and doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the album. It’s a psychedelic odyssey and takes up more space than it should.
The album is rough around the edges, which I like. It opens strongly and the last two tracks are good, but everything in the middle lets the album down.
The influence on every scruffy garage band since is undeniable, but just because it’s influential, doesn’t make it good.
James Brown
4/5
I don’t generally like live albums, but this is great.
There is the usual James Brown performance, which is Church with loads of soul. I prefer Godfather of Soul JB to funky JB, so this album is fine by me.
Loads of cool here, loads of emotion, and a lot to enjoy.
Sisters Of Mercy
4/5
Lush, prog goth. It’s the sound of deep claret velvet.
I have loved this album since i first heard it. It’s just so cool. Andrew Eldritch plays the pomp so well, and the sounds are rich and dark. The track are longer than they probably need to be but they don‘t feel long, and it adds to the subversiveness of the music. Pop was all about bright and shiny colours, while this is bedroom painted black without the angst.
Beautiful, and probably the best goth album ever made. Anyone who doesn’t like this is wrong!
Talvin Singh
2/5
No, sorry this isn’t for me. It’s my second ever listen and it’s not for me.
I respect the idea behind it and I appreciate what Talvin Singh is trying to do, but I will stick to Cornershop for my indie Indian fusion from the 1990s.
Laura Nyro
2/5
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this album, but it certainly wasn’t this!
It’s very musical theatre, and I don’t like musical theatre. She is obviously a technically accomplished singer, but her technicality means her voice lacks emotion. Her voice is mixed so high she really caterwauls at some points.
I don’t like her jazz roots either, the backing music to her mad howling is distinctly bland.
There is no consistency in any of this, I don’t know where it’s going, and I don’t know what is happening. In her defence, I don’t think she knows either.
Ooh, no, I didn’t like it, and I won’t be revisiting.
Ray Charles
3/5
This is a bit big band for my tastes but it has a really good swing along energy.
Machito
1/5
I have an aversion to trumpets in most forms so this is absolutely not for me.
I don’t know if it’s technically good or not, it just sounds like cacophonous trumpets and relentless bongo-ing to me.
Hated it.
The Stooges
3/5
I listened to the Bowie mix first and the Iggy mix second. Bowie’s mix is cleaner, crisper and a bit thinner but Iggy’s mix doesn’t really improve the overall listener experience either.
I don’t really rate this album. It’s fine, it starts out strong and the songs are decent. Throughout the album the hints to Iggy’s teeny crush on Jim Morrison, are evident, and some tracks have a Doors vibe, especially I Need Somebody.
I know people wank lyrical about this album, and The Stooges generally, but i don’t think this album is any better than decent, regardless of who mixed it.
Blur
2/5
Generally speaking, the 1990s is my vibe and I’m a fan of most Britpop ( although this tends to be the less well known Britpop brands rather than the big hitters like Oasis and the ghastly Blur.
I don’t care how Kinks tinged this album is, I don’t like being shouted at by cockneys, even if he was in Quadrophenia.
Charles Mingus
1/5
Christ, I hate jazz, and today I learned that avant-garde jazz is even worse than the other kinds.
I thought this was sprawling mess of wtf?!? It’s just too crazy, and I really don’t think that avant-garde is my kind of jive.
I don’t like it, I don’t want to like it, and I am not going to like it.
Coldplay
4/5
I love this album.
It’s much more polished than Parachutes and infinitely less pretentious than X&Y. I enjoy the mellow vibe on here, which stays just a fraction away from being bland and boring.
Really good in a way that Coldplay never will be again.
PJ Harvey
3/5
I always want to like PJ Harvey more than I do, but I don’t.
This album is like the others (apart from Stories) in that I find it pretty average. This one is a bit more pretentious than her other efforts, and I wonder if it needs a few more listens to get really into it because the concept of the collection is quite interesting. PJ is channelling her inner Björk on England, and her voice is quite annoying throughout, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever listened to.
It’s all fine, but I’m unlikely to revisit this.
Meat Loaf
4/5
Judging by the cover, I think this album might be just too subtle to be any good!
This has to be the most overblown, overproduced, over the top album than has ever been created. Operatic extravagance with motorbike engines and musical theatre earnestness. It’s all very safe, and very high camp drama. Meat Loaf seems permanently on the cusp of a breakdown, but never more so than on For Cryin’ Out Loud, which camp drama in the extreme.
I never know whether to take Bat Out of Hell seriously or not because it works best as a great party album. I don’t think it stands up to intense critique of the artistry. I love it.
The Saints
4/5
First listen, and while I don’t particularly like the horns on the first track, I did enjoy this album.
Some of it is very Ramones-esque in its rhythm, with a bit of Stooges in there too. The Hives have drawn from these guys quite a bit.
It’s a cool album, with lots to like. There is energy in the music, a bit of bite in the vocals, and mercifully few horns. It’s less consistent, and more eclectic, than I expect punk to be, and there is a pretty cool pop vibe on there that lifts it from being too Ramones lite.
Enjoyed it a lot and will definitely revisit.
Anthrax
2/5
Thrash isn’t really my thing, but it’s not the worst thing I have ever heard. It’s not even the worst thing I’ve heard in the relatively short period of time I have been doing this challenge. It obviously influenced Faith No More.
Of the big four, Anthrax aren’t my favourite, but I would rate them over Megadeth. The songs are too long, and at times are less thrash more playing fast, but overall i didn’t hate. It sounds more like heavy punk, and there is something a bit off about it. It sounds so poor compared to Reign in Blood which was out around about the same time.
Overall, it wasn’t terrible but I won’t be revisiting.
Radiohead
2/5
2 plus 2 is not 5, and this album is not good. I thought I might like this because I don’t mind shoegaze or dreampop, but this is just a gaping void of emptiness.
If I have to listen to an album 5000 times to “get it” then I’m not going to bother, and this random lot of soullessness seems to be exactly that sort of challenge. I’m all for an album that grows on you, but this is the sort of album that wants to make you feel stupid. I listen to music that speaks to me on an equal level, not this sort of snotty Art School pretentiousness.
Parts of some songs are good, and some tracks I almost liked entirely, but overall this is just Radiohead being pseudo-highbrow music intellectuals. And quite honestly, I can’t be bothered with it.
Tortoise
3/5
Post-rock put me off straight away but I gave it a go anyway. It was fine.
The first track is distressingly long but the rest plinky plonk their way along quite quickly. It is blandish background music that occasionally lets out a squeal to make sure you are still there.
It’s nothing that I will revisit but it was better than “post rock” would imply.
Tom Waits
2/5
Okay, side two is better than side one, and I managed to get over his voice but the jazz elements and the tin pot tinkerings put me over the edge. I did like the Howlin’ Wolf style Gin Soaked Boy.
On the plus side, the cover art is cool, and it’s better than Trout Mask Replica.
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
The last time I reviewed a Kendrick Lamar album, I used words like socio-political commentary. Well, this time I’m just going to say, I didn’t particularly like it, but Kendrick Lamar is better at rapping at me for 75 minutes than most.
John Lennon
2/5
I’ll be honest, I skipped the bad third form poetry that is Imagine and Jealous Guy because Bryan Ferry does it better.
Everything about this album is so thin, from the production to the vocals and the lyrics. This is John Lennon being a pissy wee bitch as usual.
It’s really not that great.
Afrika Bambaataa
2/5
This might have influenced hip hop but it is badly dated and a bit boring really.
Kate Bush
3/5
I don’t mind a bit of Kate Bush, but I do really struggle with a whole album. There are moments on here that I really enjoyed, and others than just didn’t work for me.
Some of this is well crafted and a bit folkie, other parts a bit hard on the ears, and Rocket’s Tail was too out there and Floydian for me. This Woman’s Work is THE standout track, powerful, painful and has such a beautiful tone
Talking Heads
2/5
I liked the first track, but I kept thinking it sounded like Roy Orbison’s I Drove All Night. For me, that’s no bad thing. It descends into weird musical theatre after the first two tracks, which is not what I expect from post punk bands.
This is the direct line to Franz Ferdinand, and I prefer their sound because David Byrne’s vocal style is very annoying. As influential as Talking Heads are, I would have preferred to the hear more songs BY building and food.
Beck
3/5
This wasn’t as bad as I remember it. It’s a mish mash of genres and sounds, bordering on pretentiousness, but often it’s enjoyable enough. When it’s good, it’s good. The problem is when it is bad, because then it’s awful.
Beck does this mix and match genres all the time, and only half the tunes land. This album has a lot of fat in the middle that should be cut out, because this album is nowhere near engaging enough to be almost an hour long. And overall it gets worse towards the end.
While I’m not busting my bra to hear the album again, it wasn’t truly terrible.
The Black Keys
2/5
There are better Black Keys albums and I’m not convinced I need to listen to them before I die, never mind this one.
Michael Jackson
3/5
Colder in tone than Off The Wall and Thriller, but just as polished and slick. There are some classics on here, but it’s so dated.
The one I like best of his big three, but not sure it’s a must hear before you die.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
Love a bit of Janis, and the bluesy feel of the album really works well.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
It opens with Gimme Shelter. It closes with You Can’t Always Get What You Want. It’s got Monkey Man on it, and all the other songs are dirty blues/country blues bangers.
Of course it’s a 5!
Frank Sinatra
2/5
I think I prefer sad, In The Wee Small Hours Frank. This is relentless swing and theatrical winks, and everything song sounds the same.
The piano tinkles, Sinatra twinkles, and it’s smooth, but I can’t be doing with choral brass sections. The lovers can swing away, but I’ll stick to drinking bourbon in smoky bars with sad Frank.
Moby
4/5
This is not a perfect album - it’s very long, and some of the tracks are not great. Some tracks have been used to death (Porcelain I’m talking about you!) But when it’s good it’s really good.
The blues influence in it speaks to me, and his new takes on old spirituals elevates the source material. I’ve always been a fan, and each listen gives me something new, so yeah, it’s not perfect but I kind of like it.
Coldcut
3/5
The noise is early house, my friend. It’s the sound of illegal raves in abandoned warehouses, smiley face T-shirts and Es.
Reminds me of my mid teens, but it’s not really my vibe. Nostalgia will make me score it higher than it actually deserves.
Blondie
4/5
This is a really solid album. Not all the songs are bangers, but they are decent and the album is pretty consistent from start to finish.
Definitely one you should hear before you die.
3/5
I was going to say I didn’t like this album, but to be fair, it blended so much into the background that I don’t remember much about it. That tells me two things: it wasn’t awful, and it wasn’t remarkable.
It’s the musical equivalent of eating a cloud - no substance and no sustenance, but fine if that’s what you are into.
Fleet Foxes
3/5
If the Beach Boys did bluegrass, it would sound like this.
It’s been a while since I listened to this album. There is something that I really like about Fleet Foxes, although I can’t say that it’s my kind of vibe.
It’s clean and crisp, the harmonies are rich and warm, but it can become a bit relentless and wearing about it.
Nice to hear it again.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
Another gloomfest from the master of mournfulness. It’s stark and intense, and his anger at times rasps. The sound is heavy and almost oppressive at times. Cohen’s lyrics are as potent as ever, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes passive aggressive.
I really enjoyed this album from my first listen.
Missy Elliott
2/5
This isn’t my kind of my music, and it’s not what I expect from Missy Elliot. This is a firmly 90s vibe album, and pretty indistinct from other artists doing a similar style. It’s a shame because Missy Elliot deserves to be on the list given her influence on female rap/hip hop artists.
This album doesn’t challenge the listener, it’s too long and it’s too soft and smooth. I expect Missy’s music to be all sharp angles and defiance. She is so much better than this album would suggest.
Eagles
3/5
This is fine. It opens well, although I have heard Hotel California (the song) so many times that I have to turn it off when I hear it. Wasted Time is a bit of a low point, but the rest is pretty laid back rock, a bit ballady at times but it’s fine. Definitely front loaded, but inoffensive enough. I personally prefer other Eagles albums, but they don’t have HC on them, which I rather think is the point of this album’s inclusion.
The Eagles have influenced every alt country band since, so they probably do deserve a place on the list, I just don’t find this album to be particularly special.
The Modern Lovers
2/5
This was like listening to the worst Velvet Underground tribute band in history. In fact, this is the worst VU tribute band ever. It just isn’t very good, and there is no way I needed to hear it before I die.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
I’m really not sure how to score this one. I was filled with dread when the albumator spewed it up because I found Trout Mask Replica so disturbing and I was afraid this one would be a similar state of cacophony. It isn’t. It’s much more accessible.
This was is either really good, if slightly challenging, blues, or just monstrous noise. You can really hear the beginnings of TMR, in here but this album is also steeped in the blues.
I enjoyed more than half of this, but the tracks I didn’t like, I really hated. I don’t know if this is a grower, and I’m not sure how many listens i can endure, but this album was infinitely better than I expected.
Public Image Ltd.
1/5
This is just the same antagonistic shit that the Sex Pistols threw up except longer and without the Shangri-Las-esque pop swing.
Adele
4/5
A voice still sounds a bit rough on this, which I love, and the emotion is well and truly in there. It gets a bit lost towards the end. But this is great in a way that Adele albums will never be again.
Slayer
4/5
Thrash isn’t really my thing, but I quite enjoyed this. It’s not going to be in my top 20 all time favourite albums, and it sounds pretty similar throughout. But I enjoyed the vibe of it. Blows Anthrax and Megadeth out the water!
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I don’t really know how to rate this album. On the one hand it is almost shoegaze in its musical landscapes, and the other it is sparse and minimalist.
Knowing the back story of it, makes me want to like it more than I do, and while I enjoy the emotionality of it, it runs very long.
Black Sabbath
4/5
There are some absolute monster tracks on here, and i love the bluesy feel of it.
The The
3/5
I like my post punk/new wave a little bit less bland. It’s fine but doesn’t excite. It blended so far into the background, I forgot I had listened to it.
Big Black
2/5
This sounds like every teenage garage band in the 1980s. It’s nothing special, it’s a melodic Throbbing Gristle at worst, and a proto-Nine Inch Nails at best, which I grudgingly accept makes it a pretty important album.
I didn’t like it, but it paves the way for Steve Albini the engineer and Nine Inch Nails. So even though I will not listen to this again, it earns a place in the book.
Deep Purple
3/5
Heavy solid rock. A bit stodgy at times
3/5
That’s a lot of funk! There is jazz in there and soul sounds too. It’s not my preferred genre of music, and it feels quite long.
The album opens well, but I feel like it lost its way after the Cisco Kid. Overall it was fine.
Van Halen
4/5
I just need to get this out the way - I accept that EVH is a talented and innovative guitarist. I know he is good, I am just not a fan of his style.
So to the album - it’s a tight, rocking set. I don’t know what I thought it would be like, but it’s not as hard as I thought, and not as hair metal as I thought. I quite enjoyed it. My issue is EVH’s tendency to showboat, which isn’t easy with DLR in the band! Eruption is a perfect example of one guy showing us all how terribly talented he is, and these are the tricks he can pull off.
The tracks on here (bar Eruption) are great. It is a band working as a unit, and the consistency of the album is incredible. It’s fun without being tacky, and it’s rocking without being heavy. Good stuff.
Dion
4/5
For some reason, I quite like this, and I can’t really work out why. I imagine that should I ever be in a coma, it will feel like this.
There is no edge to these tracks at all. I think they would be worse for not having big Phil’s wall of sound around them and Dion’s voice is warm and not unpleasant. It’s got a smooth, gentle vibe with a vaguely country twang, and a quasi-religiosity. I’m not surprised to read that Bobby Gillespie is a big fan, and I can hear some of the influence on Primal Scream in parts.
It’s a big change from his early Dion and The Belmonts days, like jumping out of a speeding car into a box of extra soft cushions, and it’s a bit naff. There is no way it should be in the book, but i did enjoy it.
The Band
3/5
I can’t help thinking that no-one would be so excited about this album if the players were Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band. This is fairly average LoFi music by accomplished musicians, but it’s not that exciting. It does get points for the intimacy captured in the recording, and the quality of the genres covered (except Chest Fever). Despite the funeral organ, it’s just a bit cosy.
It’s the album that you put on when it’s cold and dark outside, you’ve got your thick jumper on and a you have big mug of soup warming your two hands.
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
I enjoyed the laid back vibe of this and some of the samples on here are so good. Hip hop isn’t my favourite genre, and at times this gets a wee bit too jazz for my tastes, but I would pick this over Beastie Boys every day of the week.
Liked more than I didn’t like.
TV On The Radio
2/5
Halfway Home is a banger, but the rest is a mish mash of genres, and I didn’t really enjoy any of them.
This isn't an innovative album, its not even an interesting album. Its not essential listening and i hope i dont have to listen to it again. Halfway Home is still a banger though.
Mariah Carey
2/5
This is everything that epitomises 1990s R&B. It’s so polished you could see your face in it, and very slickly produced, and it has a smooth caramel sound. In fact, the sound of the music is the colour of the cover.
It’s boring in that there no edge at all to the music, and it’s full of Mariah’s melisma.
I don’t like it, make it stop!
Paul Simon
3/5
This isn’t vastly different from Simon abundance Garfunkel’s outpourings, and I don’t suppose there is any reason in should be.
It’s very even, and the beat remains fairly consistent throughout. Nothing to get terribly excited about and nothing too terrible. Although I could probably die without being told what it’s like when you have a room next to noisy shaggers! Honestly, does he think this is an unusual experience??
I always feel like Paul Simon makes music that has stay within two parallel lines, and if the music goes outwith those boundaries, the world will cave in. This is a man who doesn’t go over the lines when he colours in.
This album lacks innovation and inspiration and Paul Simon will be locked into this groove until Graceland.
Fatboy Slim
3/5
Huge nostalgia for this album, and I prefer it to Better Living Through Chemistry. Both are masterclasses in big beat repetition, but YCALWB has more bounce.
On more critical listening today, this album comes out swinging, which makes it very front loaded. It’s also very long and plays longs, there are a few tracks in the second half that could be weeded out to make this more concise album with more punch.
As much nostalgia as I have for this, it’s an album that sounds better when you are in Ayia Napa, or Amnesia.
Rage Against The Machine
3/5
I know this album more by reputation than actively listening, and of course I know Killing in the Name. This is my first proper listen, and it’s like an over-wrought teenage rebellion. There is lots of repetition in there, and I suspect the subtlety of their argument was lost among the swearing for some young listeners.
Rage’s manifesto is well set out, front of shop from the offset, but the message is drowned by their Faith No More “Nu Metal” vibe. The power is in the lyrics, not the chugging guitars or thundering bass.
I’m not a huge fan of the style of the music, and I probably won’t listen to this again, but this deserves its place as something you must hear before you die. Even if it did inspire apathetic teenagers to buy band t-shirts to feed the very machine against which they raged.
Al Green
3/5
This is all the things I expect from Al Green. Warm soul with a bit of funk, and the odd nod to James Brown. It’s got a slight gospel vibe which isn’t unpleasant. The players thrum gently in the background and none of the songs are bad.
But horns… I can’t go horns, and they are all over this.
Merle Haggard
3/5
I love a bit of Merle Haggard. His voice is so smooth with just tinge of pain in it. It suits the Bakersfield sound perfectly. However, this album isn’t great, and Merle isn’t Waylon.
There is nothing specifically wrong with it. The sound is pretty laid back and sauntering, the players are solid and Merle is great, it just lacks a bit of something.
The songs are a bit samey, and while the groove changes, it doesn’t lift the songs much. The album is pleasant but that’s all it is. It lacks bite, and Merle’s voice is so clear there isn’t a lot of snarl there either.
Skunk Anansie
3/5
Typical Skunk. Heavy, mildly aggressive, and confrontational. Skin's voice is great and the power in her delivery adds to the vibe. It's less in your face than previous offerings but it is still an album that doesn't want to be ignored.
It's a bit long, which about 25 years ago I didn't mind, but Skin's forthright politic gets a bit wearing to my old ears.
Depeche Mode
3/5
1980s Depeche Mode always sound like they are the soundtrack for a sex dungeon. And this collection of ditties is no exception.
Frankly, I think its a bit dull. It has that industrial sound that NIN will extend into something more substantial. The tracks are a bit flimsy and empty but are the epitome of Depeche Mode. Behind the Wheel starts like Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now, which amuses me.
I don't hate it, and i don't love it. DM were never a band that i was particularly into, and i remain stoically under-impressed with their not-quite-Gothic sex chamber music.
David Bowie
3/5
This album is okay but it’s not Bowie at his best. Some of it is catchy enough, but overall it’s not outstanding. I think our Mr Dimery included it because he is a massive Bowie fan, and he perhaps thought it would be Bowie’s last album.
As a collection of songs, I enjoyed it, but I don’t think there is anything essential about it. It’s like holding bird, there is something there but there is no substance or weight to it. It also loses its way completely for the least two tracks.
As an album to hear this before you die, it’s not one, but it is an enjoyable listen.
Herbie Hancock
1/5
I become ever more convinced that I dont like jazz fusion.
Mike Ladd
2/5
Just when I thought I was doing okay with hip-hop, which isn’t one my usual genres to listen to, this album comes along and ruins everything.
It’s really not good. It’s like trying to listen to Oxygene while your flatmate is ranting about totalitarianism.
The beats are fine but the lyrics are poor. The album sprawls, and when you think you’ve got a handle on where it’s trying to go, it doesn’t even try to get there. It’s far too long and there is no way this is essential listening before you die.
The Clash
5/5
For a long time I refused to listen to this album on the basis that I don’t like the song London Calling. However, I forced myself to listen one day not so long ago, and found that the praise that this album gets is actually deserved.
The Clash are an intelligent punk band that can play their instruments and write decent songs. Their ability to blend different genres of music, while still sounding punk is remarkable. They never loosen the sound, never let up on the bite of their lyrics. It comes at your right from the opening note and doesn’t let go till the last note.
This album is a gobby narrative of life in late 70s United Kingdom and sounds as relevant today as it did then. I still don’t particularly like the song London Calling, but I do appreciate the vibe, the strength and the quality of this album. Classic.
Finley Quaye
2/5
“Pass me the headphones, I’m dying and I forgot to listen to Maverick A Strike, by that Finley Quaye chap,” said no one ever!
This came out at the time there was a mad passion for reggae influenced music. I thought this was pretty soulless soul and clichéd reggae in 1997, and I haven't changed my mind in the intervening years. His voice is like 2 day old bath water and his music is what porridge would produce if it could.
It’s bland, it’s passionless and it’s not even worth hating.
Scott Walker
3/5
I always want to like Scott Walker more than I do. I like the timbre of his voice but his style is a bit musical theatre for me.
This album is full of glossy, crooner style songs, but his lyrics have more twists and politics than your average crooner standard. He’s like a goth Frankie Valli or a cool Tom Jones.
The pared down backing music gives it a less bombastic feel than Scotts 1, 2 and 3, but it still feels quite Brelian. Scott Walker doesn’t change the way he sings, and with the stripped back sound, I don’t really think it works for me though.
I hear Neil Diamond in this, and the influence on Jarvis Cocker and Morrissey. It has a place in the book because it is so influential, it’s just a very odd sound.
The White Stripes
3/5
I find Jack White to be one of the most over-rated musicians of the last 30 years. There is no way this is essential listening.
This album is just another example of the benign mish mash of genres that The White Stripes generally offer up. There are more piano based tunes on here than previously, which doesn't help, and the guitar based 70s rockers fare better imo.
Its not great, and its not dreadful. Its just a bit flat and I can't see myself revisiting this.
Television
3/5
Personally I like my post punk to be more garage and less jazz, but this is still a decent collection of songs. It’s avant garde punk for the masses. Some are too long, and his vocal style takes a bit of getting used to.
It’s a hugely unique album, and Television have probably influenced every guitar band since. Despite being a little bit prog in places it’s enjoyable enough, and probably one of the better post punk bands around.
A few more listens and I think you could get heavy into it, but at this moment in time I enjoyed more than I didn’t.
Sabu
2/5
I can’t tell you whether this is technically good or not. I’m not the intended audience, and I don’t get it.
This sounds like accidentally wandering off the tourist trail, and into a Hispanic neighbourhood in the 1950s. There is a warmth to it, and I get the sense that it means something on a deep level to those who understand it.
I found the bongos exhausting, and it reminded me of the consistent beat of Autobahn by Kraftwerk, but with emotion. On the whole, I preferred the tracks without singing, and I really liked the flamenco feel of Rhapsodia Del Maravilloso.
I liked it more than I thought I would, but it’s not the album for me; it’s not the genre for me.
Lou Reed
5/5
I love this album. I can’t remember how or why I got into it, but I have loved it since the first listen. It’s the Velvet Underground in eyeliner and suspenders.
This has a scruffy cool feel to it. It is short blast of raw and abrasive glam punk. REM’s Monster and The Strokes owe everything to this album. I can’t imagine there is a garage rock band that doesn’t nod to this album. Great stuff.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
4/5
First listen, and I loved it. I’m a fan of Nick Cave generally, but this is eviscerating inclinations hidden in lush, beautiful soundscape Nick Cave.
Abattoir Blues is energetic and intense, vaguely gospel, vaguely blues and Nick Cave’s trademark gothic, sinister undercurrent is never far from the sound.
The Lyre of Orpheus has a lighter touch. It opens with a bristling, crawling, call and response blues before following a more whimsical, pastoral path. It’s also shamelessly pretentious.
There are definitely some fatty parts on the album that could be trimmed down, but I adore the lushness of this.
Belle & Sebastian
4/5
Twee as fuck and yet still one of my favourite albums. For the most part, this are simple vignettes set to a back beat that canters amiably behind the words. The exception is Electronic Renaissance, which is like being at a terrifying rave.
If this album was a cardigan, it would have a front zip, leatherette elbow patches and pockets. It’s got couthy charm, loose arrangements and a massive debt to Donovan. Love it!
Fugees
3/5
Hip hop is really not my thing, and I don’t know what makes this album so highly regarded. It’s decent, it bounces along nicely, sounds quite smooth and laid back, some nice hooks, but it’s not something I will reach to play again.
Digital Underground
2/5
This is bad 1990s hip hop. It is so dated; the 1990 sound is practically a time and date stamp. Very trebly and vocals way high in the mix, and over an hour long.
It’s so amusingly low effort and dated, I can’t even rouse myself to hate it.
Common
3/5
Even though i’m not a mathematician, hip hop isn’t my genre. In fact, I’m probably what the PhD maths guy would describe as a hipster with a humanities degree, and I didn’t much care for it.
It’s very smooth, and a wee bit shiny but it’s too jazzy for me, and I found it quite annoying. I have no idea if it is technically good or not, but it sounds like it probably is. It just doesn’t speak to me.
Björk
4/5
This was such a decisive album when it came out - people either thought it was genius or it was dire. I was a fan of Sugarcubes so I was familiar with Björk’s quirky vocal, and I adored this album. It’s difficult to remember how unique this album was at the time especially because it hasn’t aged that well, and so much new stuff, including Björk’s own stuff, has build on it, and pushed it on. Trust me though, kids. This was groundbreaking in 1993.
Björk sounds like she screams in coastal caves for warm up, and the album sounds like walking atop rainbows. The only misstep for me is the first 34 seconds of Aeroplane, and I think that’s my least favourite track. Overall, I adore this album, although it’s arguably not her best effort, and the groundbreaking nature of this earns it a place on the list.
The Crusaders
2/5
Street Life opens with a 1970s porn sax, and the genre is funk jazz, but I gave it a go anyway.
It’s horrible. The players are good, the sound is so polished you could slip on it, but it essentially it’s just fluff. There is no substance to it, it’s just the sound of piped music in the 1970s. There isn’t any edge, although as much I don’t like it, Randy Crawford’s vocal gave Street Life a little bit of something. The album is short but I plays really long. I felt like I had been listening for about an hour.
Not sure why Mr Dimery thought this was essential listening, but it really isn’t. You have probably heard it in an airport lounge bar without even knowing it.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
This is a debut album, and it sounds like a debut. It’s decent, and there are some flashes of really good. It’s jingly jangly, The Byrds in leather jackets and motorcycle boots, and nicely paced. Tom Petty can do much better, though. It’s a shame because I do think Tom Petty deserves to be in the book, I just don’t think this effort is essential listening.
The Triffids
3/5
I’d not heard this before and I was interested to hear this exploration of insanity and rootlessness. This is so saccharine sweet, over produced and a soft duvet of an album, it made me feel like a calentured sailor!
There is so much earnest melodrama on side one, and a couple of songs that sound like they could be Echo and the Bunnymen if Echo and the Bunnyman gave a fuck. Side two is better. It has Jerdacuttup Man, which is basically the love child of The Pogues and Nick Cave.
There are some songs that if you cut through the gloss and sheen, and get over the fact that it sounds exactly like 1987, are pretty likeable. Overall through the album sprawls along visiting different influences and taking all the best bits out.
I can only think that Robert Dimery got a bit obsessed with all things Australian after watching too many episodes of Neighbours back in the day. There is no other explanation for this donkey being in the book.
Nico
2/5
Flutey and a bit mad
Elvis Presley
3/5
Bloated, Vegas crooner Elvis in training on this effort. His voice is smooth and round, and there is a distinct country flavour to it, but I kind of like it.
Linkin Park
3/5
The sound of teenage rebellion in 2000. So many bands sounded like this in the very late nineties and early 2000s. I think Linkin Park were one of the better ones, and this album was everywhere. However, it's not great.
It's relentless noise, but it works sometimes. In The End and Crawling let up on the screaming noise, and I don’t mind the almost flamenco guitar intro for A Place For My Head. It gets a better towards the end, but it’s not a fantastic specimen of sound. It is fairly short though and that works in its favour for me.
The Divine Comedy
3/5
The reviews of this album are infinitely more entertaining than the album. I love how everyone has taken it so seriously and become infuriated by one particular line.
The album is twee, orchestral and pretentious. It’s the intersection of Scott Walker and Noël Coward. It’s absolutely preposterous. All the tracks pretty much follow the same pattern, and it gets terribly wearing after about 10 minutes. However, think there is something weirdly compelling about the album.
This album is the aural equivalent of watching a car crash - you know you don’t want to, but you can’t tear yourself away. When it’s done, and this album is over quick, you never want to hear it again, but it sticks with you longer than it should.
Jane's Addiction
3/5
This was a bit of a slog, tbh. I didn’t find much to engage with. The first side is better than the second, but it is pretty inconsistent throughout. The last two tracks are a real struggle.
Sonic Youth
3/5
I don't get Sonic Youth. Some stuff I don’t mind, but others stuff just destroys my will to live. This album is mostly the latter. Although, Teenage Riot is an all out classic.
While I love the distant vocals and some of the distortion, I like it better when it’s less Pink Floyd Art School Noise, and more distorted heavy pop.
This album is just noise for too much time. As influential as it is, you can hear every garage rock band since in every note, it is pretty pompous and overblown. It could have been slimmed down by a good half hour.
I will never think this album is good, but it does signpost the route that SY will take for their 90s sound, and it is undeniably influential, particularly for the then up and coming riot and grunge sound.
Curtis Mayfield
3/5
This is not my genre of music, and the album really wasn't made for me. However this is smooth. It is soulful and poetic. Social Justice has never sounded so sleek and accomplished.
I probably won't listen to this again, but I enjoyed the time I spent listening to it today.
Brian Wilson
3/5
Oh dear no. This is too bitty and to confused for my tastes. There are some good enough bits but overall, its just not that great.
I do like the fact it is so wackadoodle though.
Incubus
3/5
Creed meets Faith No More. This album is so of its time, and it’s very samey. His voice is a whiny affectation, and the lyrics are a weak spot, but there is nothing truly terrible about it. Although Battlestar Scralachtica comes quite close.
I’m not sure this album really deserves to be in the book, it is fairly standard Nu Metal. There’s nothing innovative about it, and nothing that really differentiates it from any other ‘metal’ band of the late 90s/early 2000s. I will never deliberately listen to this album again, I also hope not to hear it by accident.
Funkadelic
3/5
This album isn’t my vibe, but that is some shit hot guitar.
The first five tracks are great, but it gets way too strange at the end. I’m not a huge fan of vibratone.
However, the album has a lot of funk energy, and it is ridiculously upbeat. It’s pretty Zappa, and it demands attention straight off the bat, but overall i find it a little too psychedelic prog for my tastes.
Also, the cover freaks me out.
The Soft Boys
4/5
I loved this album. It has a foot in about every camp. It’s shambolic punk, it’s got post punk vibes, it sounds like Syd Barrett doing an internship with The Byrds, it has early Primal Scream vibes, You’ll Have To Go Sideways has that early 80s synth sound, and at times the album reminded me of mid-era Flesh For Lulu. This is what early Pink Floyd should have sounded like.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
3/5
This album was a monster back in the day, and was released around about the time I was really getting interested in all things pop culture. The massive problem with it is that it tries to shock more than it tries to be good. This is FGTH trying to sound like Depeche Mode, but actually sounding like Heaven 17.
There is no way that this needs to be a double album because it is just the four singles, and some other half-arsed rubbish. Side three is redundant, and if you substituted The Power of Love with the War cover, you have a really strong single album. It’s also a greatest hits.
Beatles
5/5
I really enjoy this album, it’s sometimes my favourite Beatles album, sometimes not. It’s that sweet spot between the pop mania of their previous releases, and the psychedelic territories they will explore later. This is the Beatles do Bob Dylan - that move away from boy meets girl romance songs, and looking towards more conceptual themes.
It’s good such a fresh clean sound, and it has a straight forward charm. Although the piano made into a harpsichord sound on In My Life points the direction the band will take.
The tracks are all over the place, different genres all mixed in together, but it flows really well. It’s not too grandiose, and Lennon and McCartney still have enough cohesion to produce a decent album.
This is great. Psychedelia starts here!
The Specials
3/5
This album starts off really well, it’s firing on all cylinders straight off the bat, and then it falls into chaos and ends really poorly.
I get that The Specials were trying to build on their debut, and it’s starts out well going from ska to dub then getting a bit more reggae, but then it just loses its way completely. I’m disappointed, lads. I’m disappointed.
Not sure this needs to be in the book really. The debut was the catalyst for ska/dub/reggae. This is just an album
Influenced by the previous one.
Kings of Leon
3/5
There is nothing really wrong with this album, apart from (possibly) the track Milk. It’s the incoherent mumbling over crunchy garage rock that you expect from KoL. It lacks any real inspiration or innovation, but it’s not terrible.
No idea why it’s on the list. It doesn’t inspire, it’s not culturally significant. It’s possibly better than Only By The Night, but it’s still pretty mediocre
Janelle Monáe
2/5
First listen and it was like being stuck a room full of people auditioning for X Factor.
She has a good voice, but this is so generic and samey. Maybe it was influential back in the day, but it hasn’t aged well.
Joy Division
4/5
I really like this album, it’s cold, clinical and very dark. Ian Curtis’ voice is an acquired taste but there’s something chilling about it.
Joy Division - punk banshees screaming for impending death. It’s just a shame that the cover of this record has become a fashion accessory.
The Hives
4/5
Well, not quite my new favourite band, but i do really like this chaos.
Not as good as The Strokes, and better than the Vines who were around at the same time. This is noisy garage rock with Scandinavian attitude and takes the best bits from their debut album and EP to create a solid sounding short album.
I love the chaos and urgency in this. Great stuff!
Method Man
2/5
I didn’t like this. I prefer my hip hop to have more hooks and quirks than. It’s very polished and has lots of layers, but this just isn’t for me.
It’s not bad, I’m just not into it.
Portishead
5/5
This album has an oppressive, suffocating beauty, but it is delicately sad. It’s so intense, it’s like wrapping yourself in a heavy invisibility cloak while you stalk through the dark night, to peer wistfully into some lost lighted haven.
It’s gorgeous music for the witching hour, and it haunts you long after the closing sounds of Glory Box. I love this album.
Brian Eno
2/5
Does what it says on the tin. It’s ambient music, and I have probably heard it in an airport. It very much stays in the background and I don’t need my airport music to be a banger.
Ironic that Mr Dimery thinks that it is music we should hear before we die because a) you aren’t really supposed to “listen” to background music; and b) we probably heard it in a funeral parlour.
Queen
3/5
I don’t think anyone can deny the influence of Queen, but this really isn’t my vibe. Freddie’s voice is brilliant, and he puts it through different operatic shapes and sounds. I just don’t like the prog aspect of this album. The songs run into each other, which is in danger of being too clever, and the op and the vocal warm-up halfway through the Prophet Song leave me a bit cold. But, I could list worse operas, frankly.
Of course this has the incomparable Bohemian Rhapsody on it and for that reason it deserves to be list, and the single thread that morphs and moulds throughout each track is a neat touch. I prefer 80s soft rock Queen to 70s prog posturing Queen, but there is a fair bit to enjoy on this album.
Femi Kuti
3/5
Upbeat, funky, jazz tinged rhythms. Sadly, I don’t relate to either jazz or funk, so I didn’t particularly enjoy this album.
I appreciate it, and it’s an accomplished and well produced album, but I’m just not into it.
3/5
Despite the Lennon-esque opening bars to Don’t Look Back in Anger, it turns out that Oasis are Slade.
This is chugging, turgid stadium rock with the occasional swirling guitar. It has neither bite nor balls, and is one of the few Britpop albums that isn’t even as good as Definitely Maybe.
The should have called this one Definitely Average.
Shack
4/5
The sound of post-Britpop exhaustion.
There is a much less snarky vibe to these tunes, and it owes more to the loose, jingle-jangle, 60s folk of the Byrds.
A lot of late 90s bands sounded like this. Shack were one of the better ones, if less well-known. Having said that, Lend Some Dough is a horror
I’m not sure how much this deserves to be on the list, but I do really like it.
Aphex Twin
3/5
Why should I hear background music before I die, Robert Dimery? Why?
It’s more interesting than Eno, but it’s also very annoying.
Nick Drake
3/5
This album could have been magnificent, but he never really lets go of his emotions. It’s very clipped and controlled vocally, which I don’t think suits the lyrics, which are raw and melancholy. It doesn’t suit the bare production either, which is totally stripped back. Having said that, I feel there is more emotion in this than his previous albums
This is the sound of a defeated man trying to control himself completely. It is also the sound of Belle and Sebastian, without the rhythmic quirkiness.
This is probably the Nick Drake album i like most, but it misses something essential in his delivery.
John Lee Hooker
3/5
This is fluffy, house-trained blues that will water your plants when you go on holiday.
John Lee Hooker deserves to be on this list, but not with this limp, overproduced blues collection.
Bauhaus
3/5
Bauhaus are Joy Division for pop poseurs.
This album is fine but does very much sound like a less committed Joy Division.
The Cult
3/5
The Cult turned into the caffe latte of pub rock covers bands and this album is the proof.
George Harrison
5/5
I adore this album. It’s a fine showcase of what George was capable of.
Apple Jam is bit mad but you can appreciate All Things Must Pass without listening to sides 5 and 6.
This just feels good and sounds fantastic.
Metallica
2/5
When James Hetfield isn't groaning over it, the album is like a twisted, never ending James Bond theme.
Caetano Veloso
3/5
I don’t know if this is good or bad, I have no frame of reference for it. It’s a bit psychedelic, and it was inoffensive enough in the background. So, I’m scoring on the basis that I thought it was okay.
Sade
2/5
I don’t like this type of music. It’s sax heavy, dinner party jazz, as favoured by yuppies in the 1980s, and I don’t think it has aged particularly well. It points to mid eighties aspirationalism to my mind.
Sade’s smoky, smooth voice is perfect for this polished, wine bar vibe. Definite nods to the Crusaders and Minority Report in this, and it will influence all the super-polished RnB that comes later.
I still didn’t enjoy it.
The Byrds
3/5
The Byrds ditch Dylan and jump on the psychedelic bandwagon. 🙄
Sam Cooke
3/5
I really enjoyed this album. I enjoyed hearing the scratch in Sam Cooke’s voice. The tunes swing along nicely and the light touch makes this a thoroughly enjoyable listen.
Germs
2/5
As chaotic punk noise, this album does just fine. Immediately recognised early Lemonheads in the cacophony, so it’s clearly influential.
For me, it lacks the 60s girl band pop chime of the Pistols, the charm of the Ramones, and the arrogant insolence of the best punk. There are some hopeful moments though.
The Cars
3/5
Glossy shiny pop, full of hooks.
Bee Gees
2/5
The evidence of that time the Bee Gees thought they might like to be the Beatles.
Fred Neil
3/5
Apart from the last track, which is like going on an acid trip with Scott Walker and a Maharishi, this album is Scott Walker without the Theatre School melancholy.
And if Fred Neil has never been within 50ft of cocaine!
Pink Floyd
3/5
Just like Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter was a reassuring heartbeat, this album is reassuringly warm and womb-like. The clock chimes at the start of Time notwithstanding.
Not the best Floyd album. It’s a bit pretentious at times and takes itself entirely too seriously but there is something safe feeling about it.
The Vines
3/5
The tantalising love child of Blur and Nirvana.
It has been a while since I listened to this album, and while there are better bands doing that fin de siècle garage rock sound, it’s not a bad album.
B.B. King
5/5
This is truly outstanding. I love BB’s languid blues style, and the way he can make his guitar sing. The influence of T Bone Walker is clear to see in BB’s style of almost jazz noodling, and there isn’t a blues player alive that isn’t either directly or indirectly by this guy.
One of the all time great live albums.
Jeru The Damaja
2/5
Dated and misogynistic. It just doesn’t do it for me.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
This album comes out swinging and doesn’t let up until 11 minutes of I Heard It Through The Grapevine, that I don’t need in my life. By the time we get to Long As I Can See The Light, which is a great song, it feels like the lights have just come on at the end of the night.
Despite that, this is a phenomenal album.
The Mars Volta
3/5
First listen and I liked this better than I thought I would. It doesn’t seem to be overly pretentious despite the title and the cover.
There are couple of bits that distinguish it from other rock band around at the time, but I played it twice though and both times it blended so far into the background I didn’t notice it had stopped playing.
Laibach
2/5
If they ever have the Nuremberg rallies again, this will be the soundtrack.
Glorious 80s pomp, but ultimately a bit shit.
Pixies
5/5
If the early Beach Boys were Gen X , this is what they would sound like when it's too dark for surfing.
Absolute classic, hugely influential and ultimately the gateway drug to Pixies other albums.
2/5
Modern life is very much like this album then. Blur were much better before they thought they were the Kinks, and even then they were much like modern life is.
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
This album starts like a seventies porno, then moves into a more soulful groove. I found it sonically thin. His falsetto is thin and the band are mournfully compressed. I didn’t enjoy it.
The only thing I really like about this album is the cover, which hits harder than the somber music itself.
Morrissey
3/5
Bit random in the mish mash of sounds - glam, rockabilly, rock. There are lot of hooks which is unusual for Morrissey. I had forgotten how much it loses its way towards the end though.
Overall, despite some provocative lyrics, it’s decent enough.
Stevie Wonder
2/5
This is just not my thing. His voice is great and it’s got super slick production, but I’m not that fussed by it. It’s fine but I won’t listen to it again.
Rufus Wainwright
2/5
Smugness disguised as Radiohead doing musical theatre.
Lou Reed
3/5
Love Transformer, but I struggle with this one. It has some great stuff on it, particularly on side two, and I love the rage of it, but it’s a bit too chaotic at the start.
The White Stripes
2/5
What’s this shit, now? Just the same noise the White Stripes trot out time after time, like they don’t sound like glam rock also rans. Just because Jack White told you it was good doesn’t make it so.
It wasn’t innovative in 2001, and it sure isn’t now. Never let me hear it again!
Joy Division
4/5
I love the darkness and intensity of this album. It’s a much more challenging listen than Unknown Pleasures, but there is also the very early sound of New Order in some of the tracks.
It’s a mood dependent album for me. I wouldn’t reach to put it on unless I was in the mood to hear it. But when I am in the right place, and in the right mood, it’s starkness and bleakness really resonates with me.
Radiohead
3/5
This is my first listen to Kid A, and it’s basically the smug soundtrack for a post nuclear apocalypse world.
How to Disappear Completely hints at the shimmery ballads Radiohead will eventually get to, but this is art school wankery at its most wanky. And yet there is something inexplicably compelling about it (apart from The National Anthem - an unlistenable, pretentious fusion of avant garde free jazz and Krautrock).
Goldfrapp
2/5
If Portishead were shit they would sound like this.
N.W.A.
3/5
This isn’t my genre, and I don’t think I will ever listen to it again. However, it’s a strong album, it has consistent flow, and it sounds honest. The beats are good and the rhymes are good in style, if not necessarily content.
This is also a highly influential album, and is a very important debut.
Brian Eno
3/5
It's fine
Cypress Hill
3/5
This album is fine. I can’t really find much more than that to say. It’s a bit repetitive and sounds like 1991, but there is nothing specifically wrong with it. I just don’t like it much.
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
This is how B.B. King would sound with overdrive, gain and effects.
I have been listening to the original UK release for years, which is not perfect but is hugely influential. Today I listened to the full combined UK and US releases, so I basically listened to a Greatest Hits album, and I have to say, strip back the effects and you have B.B. King with a fender and acid.
T. Rex
5/5
All the feyness of Syd Barrett mixed with playful, sexy, sleaze rock.
There is a direct line from this to early 80s Prince, although not quite as funky. There is so much to dig into on this album. It’s like old fashioned rock n roll with overdrive electric guitars. I love the switch from Tyrannosaurus Rex’s acoustic psychedelic folk, without losing that whimsical essence. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and you can hear Marc Bolan’s charisma in every vocal.
Rip off is a low point, but the other 10 tracks please me greatly.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
I love this album. It is intense and rich in tone with sparse production.
Various Artists
4/5
Sheer festive joy. When Phil Spector’s wall of sound plays behind Darlene Love, it’s like twinkling fairy lights coming on. This is my all time favourite Christmas album.
In retrospect, Big Phil probably should have stuck to slaying Christmas anthems.
The Isley Brothers
3/5
Both smooth and funky at the same time. It’s consistent throughout but it doesn’t excite me.
Sleater-Kinney
4/5
This album is a glorious mess of righteous rage and indie punk angles. The tracks smash through rock n roll heartbreak, like female Ramones.
Anyone who dislikes this because of whiny or shrieky vocals needs to get off the tracks. This is the sound of feminism taking up arms.
Iggy Pop
2/5
Bowie without the glam.