It makes me think of an opening band for someone that you actually wanna see, and then halfway through the concert you’re like “wow these guys are actually kind of fun!” and then the real concert starts, and you forget about the opener and never think about them ever again. I don’t really think they were polished enough at this stage. Maps is good but none of the other songs on the album are anywhere similar to it. Also enjoyed Black Tongue and Y Control, but there were a lot of just plain annoying songs. I actually really like her voice so it sucks that this album wasn’t one where she was surrounded by enough greatness to fit it.

Not my favorite overall, but the band was PLAYIN’

Overall solid. Started off with a couple really good songs and then sort of lost steam in the back half of the album, but still solid

I understand that Bjork is popular for some reason but her voice annoyed me to no end and the music didn’t vibe with me either. I’m not sure how people sit down and listen to this and enjoy it.

I loved the overall vibe. Kinda chill jazzy dad rock. There were some parts that didn’t connect with me, but especially considering I have never listened to Steely Dan before, I can really appreciate the production and understand why people like it.

The lady can obviously sing extremely well. It just wasn’t anything I could see myself listening to. Great for being in a jazz club in the middle of the 20th century or walking around Disney World but that’s about it. It’s fine, but 59 songs and 3+ hours of a bunch of songs that sound nearly exactly the same also seemed a bit unnecessary.

This would probably be cool at a nighttime jazz club or bar. I probably shouldn’t have listened at 1am when I was half asleep.

It was a little hit or miss for me, with the misses being wild pitches off the plate that hit the batter. I liked a few songs, particularly the opening and closing ones, even though some of the better songs overstayed their welcome. Again, liked some, but others were extremely annoying noise that made me want to rip out my ears. I wanted to give it a 2.5 but I rounded up to 3.

There was a big variety of songs, and unfortunately most of them were incredibly weird. I suppose I could get why someone would like it, especially considering my wife was vibing to it. But it wasn’t for me. Candyman slaps tho

I had only ever previously heard Black Hole Sun, which is an all timer. Really solid overall album. Chris Cornell’s voice was sometimes overpowering, but at the same time, I love it. Some really great guitar riffs (specifically Spoonman, which was a fantastic song), and Like Suicide, which was a great way to close out the album. I didn’t like it *as* much on second listen as I did on the first. But I’m still giving it a 4 because it had some really good songs.

Absolutely not for me. I can’t believe people heard this album and then wanted to listen to it on purpose.

It was okay I guess. Nothing really stood out in my mind at all. I could tell they were probably doing something cool but it sort of wasn’t executed amazingly well. Will not be going back to this one.

Good beats, obviously an extremely influential album, especially covering the topics it did at the time when it did. Just not for me.

It took almost two weeks of album listening, but we finally have my first 5-star! Santana has always been one of my dad’s favorites, and so I grew to appreciate them as well and it’s a very important band to me. Saw them live in 2023 and it was one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. This album has two songs I already knew, Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen and Oye Como Va (which are both bangers), and I think you kind of get the whole Santana experience in those two, between the keyboard playing, drums, and guitar. Certainly helped by Carlos Santana being one of the greatest guitarists of all time. But I enjoyed the rest of the album too (Mother’s Daughter stood out to me), and there weren’t any songs I hated and wanted to immediately skip. Great album.

I’m glad that some modern rock made it on the list, and Arctic Monkeys definitely have some bangers. It’s a good album overall. It’s only brought down by the fact that most of it all sounds the same (plus some unnecessary filler songs that contribute to the sameness), and the singing style occasionally is annoying. Overall though, it’s good. I’d say a 4 or 4.5.

Apologies to Suede but it just didn’t click with me.

Overall, this is a very fun album that just puts you in a good mood and makes you want to get up and dance. It’s simple, but simple isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Simple, but fun, and it left me wanting more. Fats is not only a New Orleans legend but a music legend in general and I was lucky to see him play a few times at Jazzfest as a kid even if I don’t really remember it.

I understand why it was influential but that’s the last of the compliments I have. Nothing really made an impression on me.

A really fun listen overall!

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. A good bit of it sounded like early Beatles, but the back half of the album had a lot of old blues-rock influence and it had a strong finish. 3.5/5, rounded up to a 4.

I’m conflicted about this one. The run from Around the World to Californication is superb. Scar Tissue and Otherside, specifically, are great. After the title track, though, it severely falls off and includes too many stinkers. But I can’t let the back half bring down the overall enjoyment THAT much because of those other four songs being on it. 3.5/5, rounded down to a 3.

Most of it was ok, but I had to skip too many of the more annoying for it to be highly rated. Back to Life (However Do You Want Me) slaps though.

Obviously influential for reasons, and I get the appeal if you’re seeing it live; seems like it’d be one hell of a party. Outside of that, it was kind of incredibly annoying to listen to. The singer was dreadful.

Sympathy for the Devil is an all-time great song and I was excited to hear the rest of the album led off with that! Unfortunately, the entire rest of the album sucks, with little to no redeeming qualities on any of the songs. Why was Sympathy for the Devil even on this album? It was nothing like any of the other songs on it.

I think this album made the list only because of the story behind it because the music itself sucks.

That was quite an experience. I think to be able to fully appreciate this album, I had to especially focus on viewing it as the whole concept and piece of art, essentially becoming a theatre performance, instead of just a collection of individual tracks to vibe to. Unfortunately, I’m not the biggest fan of musical theatre, and many themes may have been lost on me. I shouldn’t have to read a whole Wikipedia article to understand what’s going on or why it matters. And unfortunately for a good bit of it, I found myself incredibly bored, as I would be at a musical. Still one hell of an experience, with some really good tracks individually as well. Hey You stood out to me as really good. I had heard of Comfortably Numb but it never really stuck with me until I listened a few times in this album. I respect the overall production enough to bring the rating up to a 3.5 or 4, but I don’t know if I necessarily would seek it out again as a whole.

Super enjoyable album! Keith Richards’s guitar in this is really some of the best it’s ever been. Can’t You Hear Me Knocking is one of the greatest songs ever, especially considering the giant instrumental jam that takes up most of the song was completely improvisational!

It was fine. Good, even. Very funky. Unquestionably influential in the 70s, and I can’t help but imagine people dancing to this in that era when listening. I’m not sure it’s aged particularly well outside of that era, though. No song really stood out in my mind except the 13-minute long Sex Machine, which really overstayed its welcome.

The title track brings the album from mostly forgettable to good. An overall enjoyable experience.

It makes me think of an opening band for someone that you actually wanna see, and then halfway through the concert you’re like “wow these guys are actually kind of fun!” and then the real concert starts, and you forget about the opener and never think about them ever again. I don’t really think they were polished enough at this stage. Maps is good but none of the other songs on the album are anywhere similar to it. Also enjoyed Black Tongue and Y Control, but there were a lot of just plain annoying songs. I actually really like her voice so it sucks that this album wasn’t one where she was surrounded by enough greatness to fit it.

The singles were on the lower tier as far as popular Rolling Stones singles go. Certainly not enough to bring up the rest of the album, which was painful to listen to.

I think many people, including myself, will hear Blitzkrieg Bop and go “THAT’S what that’s called?!” It is appropriately named, because it’s a bop. It’s 29 minutes of a bunch of 2-minute songs that all sound the same. Really fun overall and because of the length, didn’t overstay its welcome.

Wild coincidence that this album came right after the Ramones debut album in the challenge. I found myself enjoying the Ramones one more. This somehow overstayed its welcome, despite also being less than 30 minutes. I appreciate the energy but the songs just felt annoying after a point. I also am honestly not sure if I’d be able to tell the difference between The Hives and The Vines. Hate To Say I Told You So is awesome. I also liked the last song on the album, probably because the singer stopped screaming and i enjoyed his silence lmao

Really enjoyable listen overall, with some unquestionable hits and lesser known jams. Jimi Hendrix is an absolute magician on the guitar. The best part of the album was the last four songs, basically. Really strong ending. All Along the Watchtower and Voodoo Child (Slight Return) are all timers. Never heard Crosstown Traffic before but loved that. Also liked Rainy Day, Dream Away.

It was perfectly fine. Not really sure why it was on the must-listen list.

We’ve already had a Mali blues album, Music in Exile by Songhoy Blues. I found that a lot better than this one. This just kinda put me to sleep. It was fine, but I wouldn’t listen normally.

Meh. Not my thing.

Fantastic listen that I was surprised by. I also was genuinely sad whenever each song ended. I think that qualifies as a 5-star album.

I don’t think weird ass albums like this are must-listens at all. Felt like a waste of time. There were some slightly interesting parts of very few songs but nothing made me want to ever listen to it again.

This might have caught me on the wrong day, but so much of it felt annoying that I can’t say I enjoyed it. Nearly every song on the album started okay, then ran way too long and overstayed its welcome and eventually got annoying. Not a good album to listen to when extremely tired.

I feel like this kind of music is extremely polarizing and might get annoying in certain contexts. Super simple stuff, lot of the same samples over and over and over again. But… idk, I found myself movin’. Great beats and it never felt too samey to me. I can’t help but love it. I’ll call it a guilty pleasure. I knew a few before listening to the album. The Rockafeller Skank has an extremely nostalgic connection for me, but it’s good regardless (maybe a little too long). Praise You is awesome. Gangster Trippin was a new one to me and it slaps. Found myself bopping along to most of the middle of the album too. I’ll definitely be revisiting this one.

I rolled my eyes whenever I saw that today’s album would be Madonna but it was actually really good! If I didn’t know who it was, I would’ve thought it was a random chill indie artists. It surprisingly went by really fast considering it was an hour long. Really enjoyable listen with good vibes.

Something branded as a country/folk album with the word “cowboy” in the title is obviously not gonna be for me, but I didn’t hate it at least. The singer’s voice was incredibly soothing and thankfully not twangy at all. But the whole thing was painfully slow and almost put me to sleep. There were technically separate songs but they all kind of blended into each other.

This was a weird one. The style completely shifted after a few songs. Overall it was fine I guess.

Went back and forth on how to rate this for a while. I think the music (instrumental composition) is fantastic. I also felt myself completely taken out of songs by the singer’s voice, which was fine on some songs, but whiny and grating on others. I think I liked enough songs to give it a 3.5, but I’m still conflicted. (Side note, Lovesong is incredible)

This album had no idea what it wanted to be. So many genres and it does almost none of them well. Any halfway good instrumentals were overshadowed by how awful the singer is. The best songs were the ones where he didn’t open his mouth.

Terrible execution on an already dumb concept album idea. This came out after their debut album but somehow sounds even older than it. The commercials were stupid. The only song off of it that I’ve heard before was I Can See For Miles, but even that one wears out its welcome. Actively hated listening to nearly every part of this.

This was awesome. I’m not sure I could pick out any songs that stuck out in my mind that I want to immediately go back and listen to, and that’s the only reason why I’m not giving it a 5, but it was a very enjoyable experience overall. It was also incredibly fun learning that Sufjan Stevens just kinda decided to learn every instrument known to man in order to produce this album. Flawless execution. What a guy.

The music behind him was solid but unmemorable. His voice overpowered nearly every song and took me out of what would’ve been an enjoyable experience otherwise. Not only that, but why did it sound like crappy early 60s music with more expensive production equipment? Leave that era behind! I don’t think I enjoyed any song on the album.

I think I’m too white to rate this. Didn’t resonate with me at all.

No idea why this was on this list. It certainly didn’t make any impact on me. I feel like the only way someone could love this is if they had a nostalgic connection to it. And judging by the l number of listens, I don’t think anyone does.

It was fine. I think the only people who would love this were people who already were Bowie fans because it’s not really doing anything special. And I don’t think any musicians are doing anything special on their 25th album. (Though I’ve heard his last one is better) From what I’ve read, there are nearly double-digit Bowie albums on this list. Not only does that seem completely unnecessary, but I also think it’s especially unnecessary to have a Bowie album from 2013 on the list when his prime was before the turn of the century. Not only that, but this was from the expanded version of the list. That means they had 1001 albums already, many of which were Bowie albums, and then they decided to add YET ANOTHER ONE. Because of that, artists who were doing cool stuff in the 21st century were left off the list. 2.5 rounded down to 2 because of everything I just mentioned.

The randomizer graced us with back-to-back Bowie albums, which had me less than enthused for today considering I didn’t love the last one. This was a lot different. I was surprised to really enjoy the A side, which had some legitimately great songs. The B side was a complete vibe shift and I would enjoy it under a different setting, but it kinda makes no sense while attached to what the album had previously going on. Completely jarring, and the only thing that takes it down to a 4 instead of a 5.

I don’t think I was angry enough to listen to this. It just ended up being annoying and loud.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was really, really good. Great guitar, and I love love love Shirley Manson’s voice. Didn’t have to skip any songs, and I loved the overall style that wasn’t really all in your face. Really surprised I hadn’t heard of them before today’s album. It’s Garbage, but it’s definitely not garbage!

It was about as ok as a 1960 album could be. A lot of the bands from that era just kinda blend together in my mind and sound the same. At least it was under 30 minutes.

Solsbury Hill was very good. The rest was ehhhhhhh as he was experimenting through many different genres for his first album and none of them were really my thing. This is like a 1.5 in my mind but I’ll round to a 2 because it probably appeals to someone I guess.

This is one of those albums where half of everyone’s glowing reviews mention the big long complicated backstory for its production as a major part of the reason why it’s good or important. I tried to go in with an open mind, but I just didn’t “get it,” I guess. Even after learning about its whole history it didn’t click with me. RIP Brian Wilson

Prior to this album popping up, my only connection to Black Sabbath outside of the big hits was my stoner uncle who loved them so much that they ended up being the soundtrack to his funeral. Honestly, I kinda get it now. This album kicked all kinds of ass. It’s less metal and more hard rock, and peppier than some of their other stuff, which made it fun. From what I’m reading in some other reviews, that might be related to unprecedented amounts of cocaine. I’m fine with it. It started great and ended great, with some great stuff in between. FX was weird but I just kinda consider it an interlude and it doesn’t take away from the kickassness of the rest of the album. Supernaut was an instant like. What a fun time!

No idea why this was on here. Not great, not terrible, just blah. It was fine.

Another entry in “why on earth was this included in the list?” Some good parts, some incredibly weird and annoying parts. Won’t be revisiting. Shoutout to whoever put “Stillness Is The Move” on the NBA 2K13 soundtrack though

I knew about Frank Ocean before but had never heard a single song. Really enjoyed this. It kinda fell off toward the end, but for most of it, the vibes were immaculate.

Really starting to wonder why way too many of these are on this list. It was fine. Extremely generic 90s pop rock. Definitely not a necessary listen.

It didn’t click with me like I had hoped. Some kinda fun songs in there, but most either didn’t resonate with me or went on too long. It wasn’t *bad* though. I just probably wouldn’t listen to any of it regularly.

At first it had good vibes, then it almost put me to sleep. Blah.