314
Albums Rated
2.81
Average Rating
29%
Complete
775 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2000
Favorite Decade
Punk
Favorite Genre
UK
Top Origin
Critic
Rater Style ?
24
5-Star Albums
25
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
Badly Drawn Boy
|
5 | 3.12 | +1.88 |
|
Who Killed...... The Zutons?
The Zutons
|
5 | 3.15 | +1.85 |
|
The Seldom Seen Kid
Elbow
|
5 | 3.25 | +1.75 |
|
The Specials
The Specials
|
5 | 3.29 | +1.71 |
|
A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector
Various Artists
|
5 | 3.3 | +1.7 |
|
Figure 8
Elliott Smith
|
5 | 3.33 | +1.67 |
|
Smash
The Offspring
|
5 | 3.36 | +1.64 |
|
Debut
Björk
|
5 | 3.38 | +1.62 |
|
Parklife
Blur
|
5 | 3.39 | +1.61 |
|
Nilsson Schmilsson
Harry Nilsson
|
5 | 3.43 | +1.57 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Heroes
David Bowie
|
1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
|
In The Court Of The Crimson King
King Crimson
|
1 | 3.61 | -2.61 |
|
Moving Pictures
Rush
|
1 | 3.57 | -2.57 |
|
Blackstar
David Bowie
|
1 | 3.48 | -2.48 |
|
The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd
|
2 | 4.43 | -2.43 |
|
Heaven Or Las Vegas
Cocteau Twins
|
1 | 3.4 | -2.4 |
|
Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Bill Evans Trio
|
1 | 3.31 | -2.31 |
|
The Wall
Pink Floyd
|
2 | 4.13 | -2.13 |
|
Roxy Music
Roxy Music
|
1 | 3.1 | -2.1 |
|
Kind Of Blue
Miles Davis
|
2 | 4.05 | -2.05 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 4 | 4.5 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| David Bowie | 4 | 1.75 |
| Bob Dylan | 5 | 2 |
| Grateful Dead | 2 | 1.5 |
| Leonard Cohen | 3 | 2 |
5-Star Albums (24)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
The Mamas & The Papas · 2 likes
3/5
There was a chunk of time where, every time we saw friends, we played Singstar. The three songs none of us ever successfully duo'd were 500 Miles by The Proclaimers, Stay by Shakespear Sister and California Dreamin'. When you sing along to a track, you tend to sing a combination of both vocal parts and trying to stick to the "boy" vocals or the "girl" vocals, especially when you've had a decent amount of wine, was basically impossible for us. But it wasn't as painful as listening to us butcher Stay.
Anyway, back to the album... The vocals are lovely. I have always liked Monday Monday. I liked the honky-tonk piano on the slightly oddly chosen Beatles cover. The Do You Wanna Dance cover is not as fun as The Beach Boys version or The Ramones version.
I enjoyed this. Probably a 3.5 but not a 4 level enjoyment so:
3/5
The White Stripes · 2 likes
2/5
I never got into The White Stripes when they first came out (I generally liked my dose of Jack White in the form of The Raconteurs instead) so had only heard the singles from this.
Songs like The Nurse are a weird experience wearing earphones - Meg frequently sounds like she's in a different room off to the left, playing a completely different song. I don't like the production on a lot of this album - it sounds quite empty and the tone on the drums is very thin.
Highlight for me is My Doorbell, mostly due to the piano. I can't say I really love anything else on this album. And much has been said of Meg's drumming, but it pales in comparison to her singing (I hope she's happy somewhere well away from the spotlight living her best life).
Should be 2.5 but...
2/5
Bob Dylan · 2 likes
2/5
135 albums generated so far, this is the fifth Bob Dylan. That's a Dylan album every 27 days. For someone who has so far given every Dylan album a 2/5, that's too much Dylan.
The first song sounds like Nick Cave so that was slightly confusing. His voice sounds pretty different on this (much later) album and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I like his voice more (I couldn't really like it less), but I like his songwriting less throughout most of this record. It's frequently just very plodding.
By the time Cold Irons Bound hit, I realised that the parts of this album I was enjoying the most, were the bits that reminded me of Nick Cave. And them he butchered his own song (I don't even particularly like Adele, but her cover of Make You Feel My Love is so much better).
This possible scrapes a 2.5 but it's not enjoyable enough for a 3/5 so it's another
2/5
Soft Machine · 1 likes
1/5
The first 1/3 of the first track on this record very nearly made me give up (the project, to be clear, not life). I don't understand how anyone can sit down and listen to that for pleasure.
I don't know if it was some sort of Stockholm Syndrome but I enjoyed some small parts of some of the later tracks. Overall however this was not a pleasant listening experience.
I didn't hate it as much as some other albums, but it's really not deserving of a 2/5, so it's going to have to be another:
1/5
Thin Lizzy · 1 likes
2/5
Reading about the controversy around this live album was possibly more interesting than listening to this live album. I did think it sounded particularly clean, so reading conflicting statements about just how much of the finished production is overdubs was fascinating.
I would have much preferred a studio album on the generator, so finding out this is the only Thin Lizzy record on the list was disappointing.
This would probably have been a 2.5 but as no half stars,
2/5
4-Star Albums (48)
1-Star Albums (25)
All Ratings
Iggy Pop
3/5
Seems weird I never listened to this before.
Lust For Life (the song) has such a ridiculously long intro - never noticed before! I had no clue The Passenger and Lust For Life were on the same album. Ture Blue sounds like it should be in Rocky Horrors but not in a good way and its far too long. Fall In Love with Me also outstays its welcome.
David Bowie
1/5
This is not for me. Extremely long, extremely weird tracks.
Pearl Jam
3/5
Solid 3 out 5, with some absolute standouts. Jeremy and Alive obviously, but I've never heard Porch before and loved that. Release is pointlessly 9 minutes long.
Air
4/5
Never listened to the full album before, but it turned out I knew more of it than I expected (i.e. way more than Sexy Boy). I ended up knowing 5 of the tracks and liking all of them.
4/5 would definitely put on when its a warm summer day and I'm sat in the garden.
David Bowie
1/5
Outside of the hits everyone knows and likes, Bowie just isn't for me apparently. And I can get behind a good instrumental, but what the heck was that?!
1/5 (and it should be grateful I can't give it less)
Yes
2/5
I grew up with Yes fans for parents so it's very difficult to give this an unbiased listen. I have always liked Roundabout as tune, but generally prog rock's tendancy towards 8 minute noodling tracks is not my thing. I would listen to Runaround and Long Distance Runaround again though.
2/5 (I'd get 2.5 if I was allowed half stars)
Michael Jackson
5/5
Is this aggressively 80s? Yes. Is MJ morally questionable? Also yes. But it's such a bop! The fact it includes Leave Me Alone meant it was always getting a minimum of a 4 (because that song is fantastic) but as a whole it's just a really entertaining record.
5/5
Bill Evans Trio
1/5
I didn't hate Alice In Wonderland but I clearly don't understand the appeal of jazz.
1/5
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this, but I enjoyed it far more than I ever would have thought. It is something I'll listen to again.
3/5
Jean-Michel Jarre
2/5
So far in this listening experience, there's been a surprising number of albums I was subjected to by my parents. So they were apparently more culturally aware than I ever realised. I knew J-M J turning up was only a matter of time.
6 tracks and 39 minutes long! Unacceptable.
The first track's primary reason to exist is to have a new age lady play it during relaxation sessions. I actually recognised track 2, so my childhood attempts to make this fade into the background clearly failed. The space lazer "pew-pew" noises were clearly enough to be memorable. Track 4 is what pops into my head automatically when anyone mentions J-M J, which happens rarely these days.
Just not a genre, and therefore an album, I enjoy listening to much, although I can understand why others might.
2/5
Rod Stewart
2/5
I love Maggie May. It became quickly apparent that I would have enjoyed this album more, had it just been 40 minutes of Maggie May on repeat.
2/5 (I really do love Maggie May)
Nick Drake
3/5
I went into this completely blind, and really enjoyed it, with one (fairly major) reservation - I just don't like his voice very much. It's breathy and insubstantial. Pretty much everything else I liked. Standout tracks: Hazey Jane I, Northern Sky
3/5 (3.5 if I were allowed half stars)
Parliament
4/5
My frustration with over long tracks is apparently significantly reduced if a track is sufficiently funky. I very much enjoyed it and will definitely listen to it again.
Also, it's my favourite album cover so far, and its not even close.
4/5
Sade
2/5
Another artist my parents subjected me to a lot in the 80s. I'm a big fan of brass instruments in general and think they almost always improve music, but by the 400th sax solo I wanted to throw stuff.
Interestingly I liked some of the album tracks more than the singles I already knew well (Cherry Pie for example) but I can't see me listening to this again.
2/5
George Harrison
3/5
I was expecting not to like it, on the basis that the only song I don't like on Sgt Pepper is the one Harrison wrote, but I actually enjoyed most of it a lot. I've had My Sweet Lord stuck in my head all day and liked Wah-Wah, though I can't see me ever revisiting the jam tracks at the end - I fundamentally don't see the attraction in listening to a recording of a jam session.
3/5 (3.5 if I was allowed half stars)
OutKast
4/5
Based on very little, I went into this expecting to not care at all for Speakerboxxx and really enjoy The Love Below. But Speakerboxxx is great - fun, funky, catchy. I really loved Bowtie and The Rooster. The Love Below is all together weirder than Speakerboxxx, maybe with higher highs, just inconsistent.
A single Outkast album culled from the best bits of both (taking out all the interludes for a start) would have been an improvement I think, but I recognise that this was hugely influential exactly how it is.
Enjoyed far, far more than I expected.
4/5
The War On Drugs
2/5
I couldn't get into it at all - I listened to it and it entered my brain and immediately exited without leaving any trace it had ever been there.
As I'm leaving 1/5 scores for things I actively dislike, I guess this gets:
2/5
Pink Floyd
2/5
I don't think I gave it a fair enough run through, as I was pretty rushed, so marking is tricky - if I'd been in a different frame of mind, the score might be higher.
As it was, they were altogether too many sound effects slowing things down for my liking, and it's difficult to listen to as a music album when you should really be listening to it as a story.
But Another Brick In The Wall Pt 2 is absolutely enough to get it 2 stars.
Ray Charles
3/5
So far in this list, I haven't met a double (or triple!) album which wouldn't have benefitted from a good editor to whip it into a nice 45 minute album. This is no exception, as it drags a bit in the middle.
That being said, what a voice! And I'm predisposed to love big band, brass numbers so parts of this were really up my alley. Bye Bye Love was particularly enjoyable in this style.
I think this could have been higher, but the filler in the middle brings in down to
3/5
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
It's undeniably atmospheric and really, really beautiful in places. However, at the risk of sounding like my mother, there's no tune. This project is making it really clear to me that I prefer music that gives me that cathartic release of singing along at high volume. Even if I knew the words, I could never do that with Ghosteen.
But in the right frame of mind, I could see me listening to this again. It feels like a headphones on, sit in a dark room and really pay attention type record.
3/5
Sugar
4/5
Really liked this, helped enormously by the fact Bob Mould sings like the guy from China Drum (basically, I enjoyed a relatively obscure US band because I really like an even more obscure UK one). I'm even considering listening to the stupidly long Deluxe edition of the record, which is high praise indeed.
4/5
2/5
I think I expected to like this more than I actually did. It was certainly different to what I was expecting, far more bluesy in places. I just didn't like the vocals much and that's a big sticking point.
I ended up listening to it more than once, because I didn't know how I felt about it. As I was willing to do that, I guess this gets:
2/5
2/5
Oh the conflict: it turns out I like funky soul/jazz way more than I get would have expected based on the albums that have come up. Parts of this really remind me of Gorillaz which was a surprise. But...
A 13 minute 18 second long instrumental?! No.
A 2 seems harsh, but a 3 absolutely too much... As no half marks, a 2 it is:
2/5
1/5
They can certainly come up with a fun song name. Its a toss up between "If You're a Wizard Then Why Do You Wear Glasses?" and "They Don't Want Your Corn, They Want Your Kids" for me.
But sonically, it's 99% noise and nothing much else. It sounds a bit like it should be playing in a dark basement in a Blade movie.
A rare: 1/5
Joe Ely
2/5
"Ely sang backing vocals on the Clash single "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"." 😳
I always, without listening to much at all, assumed I didn't like Country music. It turns out that's true. I liked Boxcars, and can objectively see this is probably a good example of a Country album, but it just doesn't grab me like other genres of music.
2/5
Blur
5/5
I did debate not even listening and just automatically awarding 5 stars, because I adored this album in the 90s, but I thought I better check.
Still love it.
Especially "End of A Century" and "This Is A Low".
5/5
Soft Machine
1/5
The first 1/3 of the first track on this record very nearly made me give up (the project, to be clear, not life). I don't understand how anyone can sit down and listen to that for pleasure.
I don't know if it was some sort of Stockholm Syndrome but I enjoyed some small parts of some of the later tracks. Overall however this was not a pleasant listening experience.
I didn't hate it as much as some other albums, but it's really not deserving of a 2/5, so it's going to have to be another:
1/5
Ozomatli
4/5
Impossible to listen to in the UK on streaming, but after my friend bought a secondhand CD, I've come back in time to review it.
Why is this not on streaming?! It's catchy as hell. It merges so many styles, so it's never dull. It's perfect warm weather music. It won a Grammy (Best Latin or Alternate Album) for goodness sake!
I particularly like (Who Discovered) America, Who's To Blame and Saturday Night is fantastic.
This has been my biggest surprise of this project so far. Clearly given the difficulty of getting hold of it meant I never would have heard it otherwise, but I'm so glad I did. My actual album today was Leonard Cohen, and my goodness, this was the perfect antidote to that...
4/5
Fiona Apple
3/5
Beautifully chaotic. I enjoyed that despite my previous protestations that I prefer music I can sing along to at high volume - this feels cathartic in a completely different way. And I love the percussion and her voice.
I feel like this is better than a 3 but not quite a 4, but as I need to pick, I'm going for 3.
3/5
Portishead
3/5
Sour Times and Glory Box are perfect alternative pop songs and I'll not have a bad word said against them. Despite how much I love those songs, I'd never listened to Dummy before.
I'm apparently not someone who is going to really love a full album of trip hop. It just becomes a bit samey over 50 minutes. Also I listened to this in the morning before work and it's definitely an evening album.
So I think this makes it a:
3/5
Oasis
4/5
An album I owned as a teenager, and which I'm pretty sure I last listened to in the 90s.
It turns out I have the same issue with it now that I did then - Noel has a significantly less annoying voice than Liam, so let Liam fart around with a tambourine or something like Bez from Happy Mondays, and I'd enjoy it more. But clearly Oasis, and this album in particular, did perfectly fine without my advice.
A band who expertly stole the best bit of lots of other artists who came before them (which sounds like an insult, but it's really not). It's very obvious why this made Oasis stars, not least that it oozes confidence.
4/5
Os Mutantes
3/5
It's things like this that is why I wanted to do this project - there's no way I'd have been listening to a 60s Brazilian rock band without it.
This was weird, and when it stayed the right side of the weirdnesses line, I really enjoyed it. The Mamas & The Papas cover was great and got downloaded as a result, but I liked a lot of the original songs too. Sometimes the desire to add a completely tuneless solo of some description completely lost me though.
If there is ever a South American equivalent of Austin Powers, something from Os Mutantes should definitely make the soundtrack.
3/5
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
I have a major issue where I expect every CCR song to at some point morph into Bad Moon Rising, and on this album at least it never happened. They certainly have "a sound".
That's mostly due to that guy's voice, which a definitive rock and roll voice. I enjoyed this album, particularly Run Through The Jungle and Up Around The Bend which I already knew.
I think this gets a 3 because I enjoyed it and would happily rap my foot to it if I heard it in the wild, but I can't see me choosing to put it on.
3/5
Ravi Shankar
2/5
This got off to a great start when I realised it was 5 tracks but 53 minutes, and one of those tracks was greyed out on Amazon, so I had to find it on YouTube. Plus the only track on Sgt. Pepper I have never liked is the one inspired by Ravi Shankar. But Ravi told me I had to listen with an open mind, so I really did try...
Less an album to listen to for entertainment and more a sitar lesson, I can absolutely see they're skilled musicians but it's just not for me. I would rather listen to his daughter (sorry Ravi, but Come Away With Me is a lovely song).
2/5
Turbonegro
2/5
It made me want to listen to Rocket From The Crypt.
2/5
Suede
2/5
I think The Wild Ones is a beautiful song and I was hoping to like this album much more as a result. But 24 hours after I listened to it, I couldn't really tell you anything about it. I think my big issue is that Brett Anderson's voice is appreciated best in small doses, as it can be a bit grating over a full album.
Not really a 2 and not really a 3, I'm going to plump for a 2 but possibly try again with this album in future.
2/5
CHIC
3/5
I want disco-y goodness from Chic, so At Last I Am Free did nothing for me with it's slower vibe and repetitive lyrics. Pretty much everything else I really enjoyed though. Not sure it's an album I'll regularly return to, but Le Freak is such a classic track. I also enjoyed spotting all the song parts that other musicians subsequently sampled.
This feels like another occasion I want a 1/2 star option, but as I don't, I'm going for
3/5
Mike Oldfield
2/5
I remember seeing a re-release of The Exorcist in the cinema in the late 90s. Having never seen it before, I didn't really know what to expect, but both me and my mate dissolved into fits of giggles at the infamous head revolving scene. The rest of the cinema was unimpressed at our disrespect.
Anyway, to the album: it's another album my parents listened to when I was a kid in the 80s! Not one of the ones I remember with any fondness, or really remember at all minus the Exorcist theme. I am not sure how I'd blanked out the werewolf, but I clearly had.
I am glad I listened to this as an adult, I liked parts of it a lot, but for the love of god, give me a proper song structure! And less grunting.
2/5
Ali Farka Touré
3/5
Went into this with no idea what to expect but ended up enjoying it. I had been hoping for some blues to turn up on the generator, but hadn't anticipated my first blues album would be from Africa. Best tracks for me were the title track and N'jarou.
3/5
Thelonious Monk
2/5
I keep wondering if one day I'll wake up and have suddenly gained an appreciation of jazz. It's not happened yet. At one point during Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are, the drums reminded me of roadworks.
I did not hate this like I hated Bill Evans, but I can't say I particularly enjoyed it either. Once again, I'm bemoaning the lack of half stars.
2/5
Beatles
5/5
I mean, it's just a classic. I could do without the sita (Ravi Shankar's attempt to educate me on the beauty of the sitar in a previous album pick has clearly failed) but I love everything else. Yes, including Yellow Submarine.
From The Beatles getting political on Taxman to apparently inventing electronic dance music on Tomorrow Never Knows, it's a collection of fantastic songs. I sometimes struggle to get through a whole album pick when the album generator is feeling mean, but I listened to this at least 4 times.
The sitar was not enough to knock this down a star, so a well deserved
5/5
Pink Floyd
3/5
"The album begins with a long instrumental preamble" says Wikipedia and it was accompanied by a long sigh from me. Pink Floyd are a band where I really love parts of songs (the actual lyrical part of Shine On You Crazy Diamond is great*) but you have to wade through so much noodling to get to the good bits. I could have also done without the parts that made it sound like my headphones were broken. I like the majority of the title track though.
* I absolutely accept this might be down to nostalgia - both parents loved that song, and Pink Floyd in general, so I heard it a lot as a kid.
I enjoyed this more than The Wall, so I'm going for a 3, even though I think it's technically a 2.5.
3/5
Roxy Music
1/5
My grandpa used to sing songs in, as he described it, "a wavery voice" to try and make us laugh. Little did I realise at the time, this was actually a pretty accurate Bryan Ferry impression.
This was not for me. I listened to the first track three times, not because I liked it, but because I kept trying to listen to the album and struggling to get past track two. Virginia Plain was the only song I knew before going into this, and its probably the highlight of this album, yet I would still categorise it as "fine, I guess".
Irritating but not completely unlistenable, so by rights I should be giving this a 2/5 based on my self imposed scoring system, but I realised that when it ended, I was actively pleased it had stopped, so:
1/5
Billy Joel
4/5
Billy Joel is an artist I've always assumed I would probably like from the famous songs alone, just never got round to sitting down and listening to an album.
And that turned out to be a good call. I even liked Scenes From an Italian Restaurant despite it being 7 and a half minutes long and featuring a pretty cheesy sax solo or two - parts of it made clear where Ben Folds got some of style of playing piano.
I am definitely going to listen to this again and try to learn to love the sax solos.
4/5
Tangerine Dream
1/5
I just think a lot of people in the 70s didn't know how to start and end songs. Intros go on forever with nothing really happening, something mildly interesting happens for a couple of minutes in the middle and then the song sounds like it's done, but no! Surprise fake out! Have another 5 minutes. Urgh.
I think punk started not as a backlash to all the animal noises and ambient bollocks, but just because they wanted to show it was possible to create a fully formed 3 minute long song.
Anyway, I knew I was going to hate this from the first 3 minutes of the 17 minute first track. Either we've been extremely unlucky with the randomness of the generator, or the makers of this book were obsessed with 70s nonsense that feels like it'll never bloody end.
This is nowhere near as unlistenable as some of my previous 1 star albums, but given it actively made me grumpy:
1/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
With no real Neil Young listening experience, I'm not sure what I expected from this, but I wouldn't have guessed "a bit dull". I didn't dislike it, but I didn't engage with any of it. And I am not a fan of his voice at all.
I think that leaves me on:
2/5
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
It's really surprised me how much it turns out I like funk, and the bits of this record that leaned into that I loved. Love to the People was great for example. On the flip side, Billy Jack outstayed it's welcome by being so melancholy for so long. Jesus's preacher-like vocal wasn't my favourite though I really enjoyed:
"But what He gave us never will die!
He never had a hustlin’ mind
Doin’ crime wastin’ time!
Drinkin’ that wine"
I genuinely adored Curtis Mayfield's voice and I suspect that a different album of his will be something I could really love (I'm assuming it's only a matter of time before album generator gives me a second CM record). This particular album though gets:
2/5 (because 2.5 isn't an option)
Cream
2/5
Where I like it, I really like it - the first two tracks are great.
But when it's Blue Condition (boring) or Mother's Lament (wtf?) I REALLY don't like it.
I feel like Cream might be a "greatest hits" type artist for me (assuming I get past Clapton being a complete dick and willing to listen to more of him outside of this project).
2/5
Leonard Cohen
2/5
My mind kept wandering while trying to listen to this. I was feeling a bit guilty about not giving it my full attention until I realised that we're just not a compatible pair. I don't mind Suzanne or So Long, Marianne but I don't particularly enjoy the vocals and a lot of the instrumentation felt quite samey between tracks. The weird ear-to-ear wailing and warbling of One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong was the final nail in the coffin.
2/5
Brian Wilson
4/5
Listening to this the day after Brian Wilson died (along with many others, as the generator pushed relevant albums to people who hadn't already listened to them, a move which honestly made me a little misty-eyed).
There's something about the Beach Boys that scratches that musical itch in my brain. I can't explain it or objectively justify it, it's just something about the vocals and melody that feels *right* to me. It makes me want to smile.
That being said, Smile is certainly not perfect, which given it's history is hardly a shock.
Brian's voice is still really engaging for me, but it's no surprise that it had lost a little spark at this stage in his life. Mind you, Brian Wilson at 75% power was still better than many artists as far as I'm concerned. And I imagine some people's patience will be pushed a bit by songs referencing vegetables or farmyard animals (but as a fan of They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies this feels completely reasonable to me).
The album suffers from having Good Vibrations on it, because its so iconic and (whisper it) a patently better song than the rest, but I'm so glad I got this album today. Frankly, had I been forced to listen to God Only Knows I would have been bawling my eyes out...
Wishing for half stars again (3.5) but in their absence:
4/5
Bob Dylan
2/5
I distinctly remember my Mum telling me as a kid that some of my favourite artists "can't sing", yet she loved Dylan. Life is full of mysteries.
So plus points: Hammond organ (songs are always improved by Hammond organ), the lyrics are often beautiful.
Negative points: the voice (god, the voice), the siren whistle on the title track, most tracks are 20-30% longer than they need to be, Dylan absolutely murdering the harmonica (an instrument that can be great, but not in his hands in my opinion).
I am genuinely baffled that Like A Rolling Stone was at #1 on multiple versions of Rolling Stone's Greatest Songs of All Time. I mean it's a good song, and I get it was influential, but there are so many better but still influential, tracks to listen to.
It's certainly not unlistenable, but I can't imagine returning to it.
2/5
The Chemical Brothers
3/5
I like a lot of later Chemical Brothers singles, so I think I was expecting to enjoy this more than I did.
I've ended up with no real strong feelings about it either way, other than the low noise in Three Little Birdies Down Beats that sounded like someone was hammering on the door and made me feel weirdly anxious.
It's the first album in a while that I ended up listening to the morning after because I had a couple of false starts, but I liked the second half better than the first.
3/5
David Bowie
3/5
So far the generator has given me 55 albums, three of them have been Bowie and the two before this (Heroes and Blackstar) I gave 1/5. I was starting to think it'd purposely set out to prove my previous assumption that I like Bowie was wrong.
I like the title track a lot despite it being a bit repetitive and long. Love the bass and piano on it. I have always really loved Golden Years too with it's funky guitar and handclaps.
By track 3 (Word on a Wing) it's dawning on me that I have either found a Bowie album I like, or I've now just listened to enough Bowie albums that something has clicked. My Dad had a theory that there was a minimum number of olives you have to eat before you start liking them and maybe this is the audio version of that. I did like the first half better than the first though, so baby steps...
In the absence of half stars:
3/5 (and believe me, no one is more surprised than me)
The Cure
3/5
The first few tracks of this had me nervous. Yes it was moody and brooding, but was all a bit samey. But then I got Lovesong, Lullaby and Fascination Street pretty close together and things perked up.
My big complaint, as someone who thinks that most tracks benefit from being max 4 minutes long and who likes Robert Smith's voice, is that you could cut out a lot of the noodling and let Mr Smith sing his little heart out.
I can understand how Cure fans think this is a masterpiece, because it's likely giving them a lot of what they enjoy, but for me its just fine.
3/5
Adele
3/5
I find it really hard to have an opinion about Adele's music. She has an astonishing voice and based on the odd video I've seen of her, she seems like a brilliant person who I'd very much like to be friends with. I just don't find her songs very interesting.
I liked the piano that's on a few of the tracks. The songs were all perfectly lovely just not my thing.
3/5
The Crusaders
2/5
The album version of Street Life (the song) does not need to be 11 minutes long. The single version of Street Life (the song) clocks in at nearer 4 minutes and is excellent. Too much of a good thing.
As for the rest of the album, I listened to it on a warm but breezy walk to work and something about the sun and the fact it's a good walking tempo meant I really enjoyed it. Weirdly though, I listened to it again after work and was far less enthusiastic.
So where that leaves me is at is wanting a 2.5, but being forced into giving a:
2/5
Side note: Amazon Music described The Crusaders as playing "hard bop" which is a frankly excellent genre name.
Elvis Costello
4/5
My first of the many Elvis Costello albums on this list.
The mix on this is weird. If you're wearing headphones at points it sounds like Elvis is shouting directly into your ear drowning out the music.
13 Steps Lead Down is great and I really liked 20% Amnesia because of the slightly off-kilter backing. The backing vocals on This Is Hell are unintentionally hilarious - like he decided to use the worst fake Ringo accent he could conjure up - and it almost wrecks a song I otherwise really liked. My Science Fiction Twin was another track I really enjoyed.
I know Elvis Costello is divisive, as a lot of people hate his voice. I am not one of those people.
4/5
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
This sounds dated in a way that many earlier albums the generator has given me don't... but as long as you can get past all the casual misogyny (it was the 80s *shrug*) it's just fun. Personal lyrical favourites include:
"Like Martin Luther King, I will do my thing
I'll say it in a rap 'cause I do not sing"
and
"It's McDaniels, not McDonald's
These rhymes are Darryl's, the burgers are (Ronald's)"
Again bemoaning the lack of a half mark so I'm settling for:
3/5
Badly Drawn Boy
5/5
I was so pleased to see this pop up - I bought it on CD when it was released and still listen to it 25 years later. This is such an incredibly accomplished debut album.
The instrumentation is beautiful on all these tracks - haunting and gentle and soaring one minute then slightly discordant and off-kilter the next. Personal favourites are Everybody's Stalking, Once Around The Block (the reason I bought the album in the first place), Magic In The Air, Disillusion, and Bewilderbeast is my favourite of the instrumentals.
My only real negative is that listening to This Song with good headphones is one of the most discombobulating things ever, as it pans between ears. It's a bit like the audio form of standing on a ferry when the sea is a bit choppy.
However, for me this album was always going to be a:
5/5
LCD Soundsystem
2/5
An artist where I knew the name, but couldn't remember ever hearing anything by them.
The discordant rhythm of "other voices" was almost uncomfortable to listen to but I liked "i used to" a lot more. "tonite" actually made me audibly laugh. "change your mind" I absolutely hated the guitars on. I found "how do you sleep?" just dull.
I don't know how to rate an album that had tracks I really liked, absolutely hated and thought were meh...
2/5 I guess?
Stevie Wonder
3/5
This album really suffers from having Superstition on it, because frankly what album wouldn't - that's as near a perfect track as it's possible to get.
I would have absolutely loved Maybe Your Baby if it cut the number of repetitions of "maybe your baby" in the last 3rd of the track by about 50% (we get it!). You And I having the theremin-like synth on it seemed like an odd choice for a fairly schmaltzy ballad. It did set it apart from the various other schmaltzy ballads though.
I like funky Stevie Wonder much better than ballad Stevie Wonder, but it's hard to deny the talent. I enjoyed this just fine, but a little less than I expected I think.
3/5
The Notorious B.I.G.
2/5
I think I heard more n-words during this album listen than I've heard in the last year. And I was not expecting the extended Biggie having a shag skit. The rampant misogyny was less surprising.
It's not like I automatically rule out sexist lyricism (Sublime were hardly angels and I love them) but the music has to be good and it was all a bit meh for me. This style of hip hop not my thing.
Baaba Maal
2/5
About 2 minutes into track one I was thinking the rhythm was really pretty and atmospheric. By minute 4 I was losing patience. By minute 6 it had completely lost me. And that's basically how the rest of the album went.
I assume that the repetitive melody patterns are a traditional Senegalese music thing, but it's just not for me. Or rather I'd have been able to appreciate it more had each song been half the length. It's also no fault of the artist obviously, but I'm finding I generally appreciate albums more if I understand the lyrics (my attempts to find English translations on the internet failed).
I certainly didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.
2/5
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
The hit being the first track of the album always makes for a nerve wracking start - will it all be downhill from there?
I actually quite enjoyed all of it, in a background music kinda way. Though this make directly correlate with how much I enjoy Hammond organ on anything.
3/5
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Another artist I got to hear a lot as a kid - my Mum loves Joni Mitchell - but that, Big Yellow Taxi aside, I cannot remember at all.
I like her voice but for the most part this album passed me by (though I liked Raised on Robbery a lot). It is however a record I'll try again in the future as I think I could really get into it after a few listens.
3/5
Eurythmics
2/5
I really wanted to like this but was surprised to find a lot of it was just a bit dull?
My very official and technical ranking system ended up on two songs I really like, four that were fine I guess, and four that I just found uninteresting.
Should be a 2.5 really, but I'm plumping for 2 because I can't see me listening to 8 of these tracks again.
2/5
The Beau Brummels
1/5
I had never heard of these guys before and was excited about discovering a new (to me) artist - especially as this was a tight 28 minutes, so my normal objection to self indulgent over long songs couldn't apply.
Alas from the first held note, which unfortunately occurs 6 seconds into the album, it was apparent I HATE his wavery vibrato. Like "have a visceral reaction to his warbling nonsense" level hate. I tried to stop listening to him so I only heard the instrumental, and honestly that was helping a lot until I hit Nine Pound Hammer.
The "tink" sound (that I assume was supposed to be a hammer, but which actually sounded like someone tapping a 10p coin against a teacup) was nearly as annoying as his wibbly wobbly crooning.
If I were to mark this on the songs, it'd probably get a 2.5/5, but I was pleased it was over, so:
1/5
Solomon Burke
3/5
Firstly: what a beautiful voice. Genuinely, heartbreakingly, lovely.
Cry To Me was great, particularly the honky-tonk piano bits. I also loved Won't You Give Him (One More Chance) and You Can't Love 'Em All, with its mariachi style brass accompaniment. Also I have weak spot for that 60s slightly-shouty female backing vocal thing that happens on a lot of these songs. I was generally less keen on the slower tracks than the more upbeat ones, as I don't think they lived up to the rest, so that brings down the overall score for me.
Every song on this album sounds like it's a hairs breadth away from appearing on an Edgar Wright film soundtrack.
As is so often the case, I would like a half mark (3.5) but in the absence of that option:
3/5
Minor Threat
4/5
As someone who was a teenager in the 90s and therefore into Green Day, Rancid, Offspring, Bad Religion etc you'd have thought I'd have listened to Minor Threat before, but no! The most hardcore punk I ever got was Dead Kennedys.
I can certainly hear the elements that later bands were going to be inspired by - some of the basslines are very Matt Freeman for example. Minor Threat were so influential in so many ways and I wish I'd have listened to them as a kid when I listened to punk and ska almost exclusively. But middle aged, middle class me really enjoyed listening to this on my walk to my cushy office job.
4/5
Love
2/5
There are few things that will really put me off an album as much as the phrase "19 minute jam session". I do not understand the mindset that creates a 7 song, 36 minute album but chooses to dedicate 19 of those minutes to the final track.
Other than that monstrosity, we got a bit of harpsichord (including a bit of jumpscare harpsichord right at the end) which was my first so far on this project and some perfectly meh songs.
2/5
Marvin Gaye
5/5
The album generator has taught me to approach an album where the most famous song is the first track with an element of caution. But this time I needn't have worried because this is a fantastic album.
Yes, Gaye has a gorgeous voice, but also the lyrics are amazing, the music is beautiful. Just a great, great record.
5/5
Nina Simone
3/5
I think this might be the first time during this project that an album has included a song (Wild Is The Wind) that was also covered on an album the generator already suggested to me (Station To Station by Bowie). And it was a good follow-up to yesterday's artist (Marvin Gaye) given that both were political throughout their careers - this idea some people in 2025 have that activism should be "kept out of music like it was in the past" is such nonsense.
Reading about this album was really interesting, for example, Four Women being banned from some radio stations in the 60s because they considered it racist despite the fact it was intended to highlight racist attitudes, seems about as absurd as can be.
She had a lovely voice, and this album is very diverse in terms of styles, but this didn't grab me as much as I thought it might. But I did enjoy the listen so:
3/5
Jeru The Damaja
3/5
An artist I had never heard of, or heard anything by, which is always fun while doing this project.
Absolutely loved the discordant piano on D.Original because it was so interesting as a backdrop, and that sort of interesting choice carried on being made for the rest of the album (like the high pitched beeping - dial tone? - on Mental Stamina for example).
In terms of the actual lyricism, I am not a big enough hip-hop fan to know if this is out of the norm - it felt like the standard "I'm great, be wary of women who just want your money, I'm gonna kill my rivals" schtick to me. I found it started dragging a bit towards the end.
3/5
Thundercat
2/5
I am not sure how to feel about this at all. It was... samey?
It was sort of like listening to a single 23-part, 51 minute song, that sounded like someone was just stream of consciousness rambling and then occasionally someone like Kendrick or Wiz Khalifa would try and interrupt to get him back on track.
I had to listen to it in two parts because I realised half way through that I didn't really want to finish it but that I wasn't really sure why. I didn't hate it, just didn't have the patience for it.
All of which I think gets me to:
2/5
Simon & Garfunkel
3/5
This left me with Homeward Bound stuck in my head all day because I'm a certain age and so it's inextricably tied to Michael J Fox voicing a Bulldog.
I think their voices are lovely and the songs are pleasant but that this particular S&G album didn't really do it for me. I have always liked "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" and "A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)" though.
Bemoaning the lack of a half star again, I'm going for:
3/5
ABBA
3/5
To enjoy ABBA you have to disconnect the part of your brain that internally cringes at lyrics talking about kissing your teacher or being jealous of a man's relationship with his fiddle. Once you get past the idea music has to have "poetic beauty" or "importance" and surrender yourself to the ABBA sound, you're going to have a much better time. That being said, I admit I'd rather listen to Erasure covering ABBA than ABBA being ABBA (I said what I said!).
Despite the original UK version of this album not included Fernando, I'm counting it because I like it. Dum Diddle Diddle is bonkers. Money Money Money is fab.
This feels like a 3.5 for me, but in the absence of half stars:
3/5
Supertramp
4/5
I feared the worst, given my track record with 70s prog rock (and prog rock adjacent stuff) has been patchy at best. But I was already really liking this at least partially due to it being pretty keyboard/piano heavy. Then Dreamer started.
I have rambled on a lot about my Dad during many of the 70s albums on this list, and this is another opportunity. He loved this song. The absolute wave of nostalgia hearing this for the first time in probably 25 years made me a bit misty-eyed on my walk to work. When I started this thing, I wasn't expecting to have days where the album just really, really made me miss my Dad. He would have enjoyed the idea of this project, because he genuinely loved music, though I'm sure would have despaired at some of my ratings (Pink Floyd always worth 5 stars to him).
It made me feel feelings (and listen to Breakfast In America later in the day).
4/5
The Young Rascals
2/5
This is one of those albums where I just have no strong opinions. It was fine. I wouldn't turn it off if it was playing in the background, but I'm pretty sure it has left absolutely no impression (positive or negative). So:
2/5
Beastie Boys
4/5
I can absolutely understand why you might not like the Beastie Boys. The rapping is nasally, they shout, and finish EACH others SENTENCES!
But I was a teenager with access to MTV when Sabotage was released and I watched that music video thousands of times but never got bored of it. While Sabotage and Sure Shot are probably the high points of this album, I still really like the rest of the record so....
4/5
Queen Latifah
3/5
I was a bit too young (and firmly not into hiphop) to have listened to this the first time round, so I don't remember having ever heard any of this before. Plus nothing from this album made the UK charts, so my main source of music as a pre-teen (Top Of The Pops) would have been no help.
This is a really weird mix, as parts of it sound pretty fresh - you could imagine releasing them today and it not sounding out of place - but parts of this sound so aggressively late 80s, it's really jarring. Also, it appears Will Smith based his entire rap style on The 45 King ("A King and Queen Creation").
I enjoyed it, but less than I was expecting.
3/5
Digital Underground
1/5
On track one and the lyric about his nose being "big like a pickle" made me roll my eyes. And then that song pointlessly went on for 6 1/2 minutes.
The next track (The Way We Swing) decided to one-up that, by being even longer. And the whole album sort of carried on in the same vein - everything was longer than it needed to be, there were excessively long outros where nothing happened and everything just sounds so dated.
It might be that this comes immediately after the generator giving me Queen Latifah and Beastie Boys, but I did not have patience for this album. The idea that 2Pac started with this group is inexplicable.
"Peace and humptiness forever"? Pah!
1/5
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
3/5
Upon opening the 1001 generator this morning I saw the artist name, rolled my eyes and thought "oh great, fucking jazz". While I enjoy a lot of jazzy music, me and actual jazz have not really got on so far, but I tried to put that out of my mind.
Someone in the reviews described this as baby's first jazz album, which probably goes someway towards explaining why I actually enjoyed this. I already knew Take Five obviously, and like it, but I honestly enjoyed every track. I don't think there's anything wrong in wanting to enjoy melody and tap your foot rather than be "challenged" by discordant and "difficult" music.
I listened to this more than once, high praise for me and a jazz record.
3/5
The Offspring
5/5
Given that I owned this on cassette (cassette!) when I was a teenager and I also listened to it a few weeks ago when I felt the need to cathartically yell into the abyss, there is no need for me to listen to this today to rate it. But it'd be rude not to.
When I was about 12 we got MTV and within a couple of years it completely changed my listening habits. I think the first Offspring song I heard as a kid was Self Esteem because MTV played it to death, but for me, Come Out And Play is the best song on here. The fact they're remembered for Pretty Fly For A White Guy and not something from Smash is a crying shame (but I'm sure that song built Dexter Holland a house or two, and probably paid for his solo flight nonstop around the world, so I can't begrudge it too much).
This was a pivotal album from my childhood.
5/5
Radiohead
3/5
My experience with Radiohead is almost entirely limited to their mid 90s output (I love Just), so I had never heard this before.
In 15 Step Thom sounds like he's singing while trying not to sneeze but I really like the drum beat. The band also appear to be channeling their inner Pink Floyd with the shouting children.
By Bodysnatchers I'm fighting the urge to yell enunciate. I quite enjoyed the start, but it's a bit too much of a jam track by the end for me. Nude seemed to start with some interesting (and creepy) reversed audio but otherwise mostly passed me by.
I again really liked the beat on Weird Fishes/Arpeggi. Part of the backing vocals reminded me of Mike Mills from REM for some reason, which is definitely a plus point.
All I Need's low booming noise throughout was very appealing, particularly through headphones, plus Thom has dialled down the muttering. Very chill but feels like it needs to explode and never does.
Faust App's strings are all Beatles loveliness. Reckoner I found a bit dull. House of Cards I quite liked, but once again Thom's delivery of the vocals grated on me. Jigsaw Falling Into Place was more mumbling but the music itself was nice enough. I liked the piano on Videotape but nothing much happened despite a long build up suggesting it might (again I liked the percussion a lot).
I can't say I always liked it, but it was mostly interesting. Should really be a 2.5, but:
3/5
Lauryn Hill
3/5
I remember all the singles from my teenage years, and I would argue that they are the highlights from this album, especially Doo Wap (That Thing) which I've always really liked.
I could have done without the skits (which seems to be a common theme with all the hip hop albums I've heard that include them) but I get that they're world building. I'd just rather a tighter running time than listen to a guy pretending to be a school teacher.
The actual music I don't have a lot to say about, but I like it.
3/5
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
2/5
I'm sorry Neil Young, what sort of lyric is:
"Welfare mothers make better lovers
While they're washin' you can hear this sound now
Welfare mothers make better lovers
Di-vor-ceeeeeeeee"
???
And while we're on the topic of lyrics:
"I'm gonna ride my llama
From Peru to Texarkana
I wanna ride him good"
???
This is my second Neil Young album since starting the project, and I found this album less dull than the last one (I think I've moved on to "questionable" now), but I still hate his voice.
2/5
John Cale
3/5
What I thought was the first track (there was a slight issue were I clicked on the title track instead of the album and then got extremely confused when the second track on the record was "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen) pleasantly surprised me - the musical parts of the song reminded me of Harry Nilsson, Divine Comedy or Badly Drawn Boy and I loved it. I also liked the lyrics. What I was really struggling with was his voice.
After the mistake was realised and I played the actual first song, that continued. I don't like his lyrical delivery at all, but I do mostly like everything else. I do really struggle to get into an artist, no matter how talented in other ways, if I don't enjoy the singer's voice. Conversely, for the artists I do love, it's a voice that always cemented my love of them (even in some notable cases, where it's band with a beautiful voiced backing singer).
I had to try very hard not to laugh at his pronunciation of Chipping Sodbury.
I think I'd give the musicanship a 4/5 (I did really like the songs) but his voice 1/5, so:
3/5
Songhoy Blues
4/5
This was a huge surprise.
The generator previously gave me Djam Leelii by Senegalese artists Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, and I struggled with the repetitive licks, finding it pretty annoying by the end. But Songhoy Blues doing similar short repetitive musical phrases I didn't mind it at all. In fact, I was really tapping my foot. It felt like something that was traditional from Mali but very modern at the same time.
I had a good 10 minutes trying to find a lyric translation for the full album, sadly coming up empty-handed. I wish I knew what the songs specifically meant, rather than just knowing the general theme. The general theme is heartbreakingly sad though; fleeing your country because the people ruling it believe playing music is a sin.
I really, really enjoyed this album, more so than I ever could have expected (though I would say the first half is stronger than the second, particularly the first two tracks).
I want a half star again, but in it's absence:
4/5
A Tribe Called Quest
3/5
I enjoyed the jazzy funkiness of this record, but reading the lyrics did make me laugh a couple of times. Particularly "Go get yourself some toilet paper 'cause your lyrics is butt". Also a round of applause for getting "a smidgeon" in, and extra cheers for rhyming it with "the pigeon".
This already felt like a good time and then Busta Rhymes turned up right at the end, like the cherry on the cake.
3/5
Van Halen
2/5
Full disclosure: this type of thing, in general, just isn't for me. That sort of 70s rock vocal delivery and twiddly 2 minute guitar solos just doesn't float my boat. If it did however, I can see that this is a great example.
The Kinks cover was surprisingly faithful to the original, just a lot more waily. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love made me want to listen to Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub by Apollo 440.
I liked I'm The One for starting off quite punk then suddenly turning into Queen. I also quite liked Jamie's Crying, but throughout the whole album I felt like I should really be watching an episode of Supernatural.
Even though it's not my kinda thing, I would say it's an accomplished debut.
2/5
Black Sabbath
4/5
Yesterday's album was from Van Halen and I said that really wasn't my kind of thing, so given this shares a number of similarities, I was convinced it was never getting a very high score from me. However it turns out I like Ozzy as a vocalist way more - that Van Halen album was almost cartoonish as a result of the vocal but Ozzy sounds genuine and that's far more engaging. The guitar solos on this record also feel less like someone just showing off how good they are - they fit the groove of the song far better for me.
Changes is a fantastic song that I already knew (though Bowie takes gold in the "Best Song Called Changes" Olympics). I really liked the main riff in Supernaut. By Snowblind I'd realised I did really like this (love the strings).
Despite the fact I would have felt like I was committing some sort of crime the day after Ozzy's death, I was very much prepared not to like this and give a low score as a result. But nope, I like it a lot.
4/5
Funkadelic
2/5
This was a bit of a mix. Bits I thought were completely pointless and uninteresting (sorry all you 10-minute meandering guitar solo fans out there). Bits I really liked (Can You Get To That, Super Stupid*). Bits were, and I cannot stress this enough, really fucking weird.
I listened to this while trying to tame the tomato plants taking over the garden and I was balanced on the edge of the raised borders trying to construct a branch and string contraption when the wet fart noises started and I was so surprised I nearly wobbled into the courgette plants.
Wikipedia highlight: "Guitarist Tawl Ross reportedly had a traumatic drug experience after getting into an "acid eating contest, then snorting some raw speed, before completely flipping out", and did not perform with the group again".
That is absolutely what parts of this album feel like.
I want 2.5 but 2/5 will have to do.
* After finding out Audioslave covered Super Stupid, I had a listen after this and it's fantastic.
Harry Nilsson
5/5
I love Harry Nilsson and regularly listen to this album, so the moment I saw this pop up I knew it's rating.
As a teenager in the 90s I was massively into Reservoir Dogs - many things attracted me to it (not just Tim Roth, sigh...) but the soundtrack was a major part. Every time I watched it, I fully watched the credits so I could listen to the weird man sing "She put the lime in the coconut, she drank 'em both up". That was my introduction to Harry Nilsson.
Gotta Get Up is one of my favourite songs and it was used to excellent effect in the first season of the Natasha Lyonne show Russian Doll with is worth a watch. His cover of Without You is another fabulous song, made far more famous for people of my age by Mariah Carey (who apparently loved his version of the song).
I love Nilsson's lyrics (he tells stories), I love his voice (especially his falsetto, which is just dreamy), I love the instrumentation (lots of brass and piano is the way to my heart).
My only down point to this album is that Jump Into The Fire is too long - I am not a jam track lover- but it's not a big enough negative to change the fact, this is one of my favourite albums, even though doesn't contain my favourite Nilsson songs (One and 1941).
5/5
Joni Mitchell
2/5
The second Joni Mitchell album the generator has handed out and I don't think my opinion is much different from the first: she has a lovely voice but I'm not sure she's really for me.
Joni Mitchell is very different to what I thought she was as someone who only really remembers Big Yellow Taxi - parts of this reminded me of Fiona Apple (The Jungle Line in particular) and its far weirder that I ever expected. This album passed the time while I made a lamb curry but I can't imagine I'll listen to it again.
2/5
Talking Heads
3/5
I feel like I should really absolutely love Talking Heads - I do really like the music and I enjoy the lyrics, I'm just never fully sold on the vocal delivery. And I get that David Byrne's singing is really their USP so replacing that would really be taking away what makes Talking Heads, Talking Heads. It's definitely a "me" problem.
That being said, their cover of Take Me To The River is obviously fabulous and I enjoyed everything else, just not as much as I wish I did.
3/5
Eminem
2/5
Well this is a whiplash change of direction from yesterday's Talking Heads album.
Full disclaimer, I bought this when it was first released but probably haven't heard it in its entirety in 20 years. I remembered very little except the famous tracks.
My Name Is might be the most unhinged opening track ever, but it very much sets the scene. Eminem makes me slightly uncomfortable, which frankly I suspect he'd enjoy enormously. And he's incredibly good at what he does plus the beats are great.
When it comes to the lyrics, they're frequently clever but often *mean*. Funny but *problematic*. I have never entirely understood how much of Slim Shady is a joke and how much is true for him. And I'm also not sure how much that matters, given that regardless of how seriously he takes what he says, some of his listeners really do?
Judging it purely off the record, I liked "The Marshall Mathers LP" better in the early 2000s (but again, I've not heard it for a long time) and I like this less than I did when it was released. I'm far too much of a pearl-clutching, middle aged middle class woman.
A surprising 2/5.
Bert Jansch
3/5
The guitar work is lovely but everything felt a bit samey over the length of a full album. I really liked Do You Hear Me (including the little voice crack) Alice's Wonderland and Angie.
It was interesting that, presumably as it was recorded for £100 in someone's house, you could occasionally hear breathing during the instrumentals. Everything is often so polished and produced now, it can be easy to forget a human was responsible.
I think this would have been best experienced sat cross-legged in a field at a folk festival rather than on my commute.
3/5
Bob Dylan
2/5
Second Dylan album the generator has served up, and I assume one of the few (only?) that spawned two cover albums (Mary Lee's Corvette and Ryan Adams*).
I still dislike Dylan's vocal delivery although possibly a bit less so on this album than the previous one (maybe I'm accidentally conducting exposure therapy). I still dislike his harmonica playing.
Meet Me In The Morning had a nice groove I liked. I was not really into much else.
2/5
* I had a quick skip through and of all the versions I think I'd pick Mary Lee's Corvette.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
Track 1 and every member of the band seems to be playing a different song at the same time. Track 2 fixed that by eliminating everything except the vocals and the crackle of vinyl but then we reverted back to type on Track 3 (which also featured a noise that sounded like a squealing pig).
Did they ever try and play these songs a second time? Is this jazz but worse? The whole album sounds like something The Mighty Boosh might have written as a musical act for a 30 second bit in a longer sketch. But for what felt like forever.
A little way through Hair Pie: Bake 1 and I realised what this really reminded me of: this is the noise that happens when you let a load of toddlers have access to a box of musical instruments and make no attempt to manage the cacophony of sound.
My two main thoughts on finishing this album:
1) thank fuck that's over.
2) so that's on the list but you had no room for one of the 23 They Might Be Giants studio albums? What the fuck, Rob Dimery?!
1/5 (but I still hate that Liars album more)
Siouxsie And The Banshees
2/5
I knew Spellbound which I've never held much opinion on - it's fine - but nothing else on this album. Now I've heard everything else, I think "it's fine" might be my position on the whole album. Post-punk has never been my thing.
2/5
Tom Waits
3/5
I'm not going to lie, I was expecting to hate this.
Underground, weird as it is, I actually liked a lot. The second track, Shore Leave, was a bit too discordant for me, though the whispery delivery of some of the lyrics coupled with the instrumentation put me in mind of a classic era Disney cartoon bad guy. Think the snake from The Jungle Book.
16 Shells From A 30.6 had a lovely groove to it (though Tom sounded a bit like he'd been smoking 50 a day, or had a sore throat like sandpaper). Town With No Cheer cruelly introduced bagpipes, a decision that has no defense, but then balanced it with some lovely accordion work. I loved In The Neighborhood (ahhhh, brass instruments). I liked Swordfishtrombone despite (or maybe because of) it having more Disney villain vibes. Down, Down, Down was extreme toe-tapping time. Gin Soaked Boy was no Gin Soaked Boy by Divine Comedy, but was still enjoyable.
As to the instrumentals - the first was circusy but dark, second more accordion (lovely), last atmospheric but a bit of a letdown for the last track on the album.
I feared after the horror of Captain Beefheart earlier this week, I would despise this too, but this is very solid - mostly the right side of weird, rhythmic, loads of interesting instrumentation. It made me want to listen to more Tom Waits and that must be a good sign.
3.5 if I had half stars, but as I don't:
3/5
Madonna
3/5
I have a tendency to open the day's album on Amazon Music and immediately check the length. Even for an artist I've heard of and like, I'll see an running time of over an hour and my heart will sink a little bit. This is 1 hour 6 minutes long and that's a lot of mystical Madonna.
That being said, I actually enjoyed this in more of a background music kinda way. I knew far more of it than I expected (given I never owned the album) but I guess releasing 6 singles from a 13 track album will have that effect.
I would definitely pick 80s Madonna over this, but that's my inherent uncool rather than any slight on the record.
3/5
Adele
3/5
On the last Adele album offered up by the generator (25), I said find it really hard to have an opinion about Adele's music beyond her incredible voice.
This album I liked a little more than the last, helped a lot by it including Rolling In The Deep which is a such a belt out loud sing-along it's hard not to love it. I still prefer the upbeat version of Adele though and start to struggle when everything gets a bit schmaltzy.
While saying that I enjoyed this album more, I don't think I liked it one whole star more, so this would be a 3.5... but I'm still plumping for 3 given the lack of half stars. I am reserving the right to re-evaluate this in future though (a think a few more listens has the possibility to change my score).
3/5
U2
3/5
U2 are the absolute definition of "meh" to me - I'm not going to rush to press skip if the appear on shuffle, but I'm also never going to choose to listen to them. The first play through of this I was really distracted with work, so I had a second go in the evening so it got a fair shot.
Yeah, it's just not really for me. I like Mysterious Ways and One but pretty much everything else passed me by. None of the album tracks seemed any more enjoyable to me than the singles I already knew.
This is really a 2.5 for me, but I'm going to say it scrapes:
3/5
Bob Dylan
2/5
There's four Dylan albums on this playlist, and at around 100 albums in, the generator has now given me three of them. I am cursing it.
Just to prove I'm consistent, I will once again say I do not like his voice. It's like nails down a chalkboard.
Musically, I liked the bluesy rocky bits like Outlaw Blues. I think this maybe the first time I've ever fully paid attention to Mr Tambourine Man and it's way longer than I thought - cutting out the pointless harmonica solo would have made me happier.
I think I could potentially enjoy a Dylan album if you got someone else to sing it, but as it is:
2/5
3/5
This was a weird one. I got to the end, decided I had no idea what I thought about it, and listened to it again the next morning.
I enjoyed Animal Zoo although was a bit puzzled by the lyric "Oh no, something went wrong
Well, you’re much too fat and a little too long" so I had a look at Genius to see if anyone had an explanation:
"Expresses Spirit’s belief that humans had become an aberration of nature, and built up civilization to the point where they were out of touch from the natural world."
Yep, I wouldn't have got that in a million years.
I liked Mr Skin too - organ, brass and the funky bass is a combo that I generally find hard to resist.
As a whole, I think I've settled on liking it. I would like a 2.5, but....
3/5
Iron Maiden
3/5
First off, and entirely immaterial to the music, I feel like I must point out, Iron Maiden album covers are ridiculous. Just absolute nonsense. And, I would argue, completely misleading as they're a far more melodic band than that cover art suggests.
After listening to this twice, I am now categorising Iron Maiden in the same list as U2: wouldn't turn it off if it came on shuffle, never going to choose to listen to it.
3/5
Joy Division
2/5
It was fine, just really not my thing. I found myself wishing the one Joy Division song I knew was on this album.
Tempted to give it a bonus star because I ended up with "Let's Dance to Joy Division" by The Wombats stuck in my head for most of the day, but I'm going to stick to the spirit of marking and say:
2/5
Talk Talk
3/5
Bubbling under the surface, there's an album I think I could really love here. But there's some potentially insurmountable obstacles:
- Mark Hollis sounds like he's singing whilst in the grips of a terrible head cold. By the end of the album there were glimmers of hope that he could potentially win me over. But they were teeny tiny glimmers.
- each song feels like it runs out of ideas before the end of it's running time and then rather than accepting that a song could just end at 3 minutes, there's a lot of pointless vamping.
- the fade out to Life's What You Make It might be the longest fade out in history and I didn't see the point.
- I'm not convinced that any song has ever been improved with the addition of a primary school choir.
- there was also absolutely no need for the recorders on the final track.
Recorders aside, the actual instrumentation I really liked for the most part (bonus mention for the discordant piano noise that randomly appears in Living In Another World). To the extent that after listening to this, I listened to a few covers - it's so long since I listened to it, I forgot Weezer covered Life's What You Make It and it was inexplicably sung by drummer Pat Wilson and somehow I liked his vocals more that on the original track. I also liked the Duncan Sheik version.
I would say 3.5, but I'm going to plump for:
3/5
Talking Heads
3/5
I seem to be on a roll of records I would really appreciate if you replaced the lead singer. Musically: loved it. Vocally: Talking Heads: yeah, not for me. David Byrne sounds like they employed someone to intermittently, and completely randomly, stab him with a needle during the recording process.
I think I said this on the previous Talking Heads album the generator gave me, but I do understand that Talking Heads without those vocals wouldn't be Talking Heads. But it doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.
Instrumentation = 4/5
Vocals = 1.5/5
I'm going to plump for a generous 3/5 because of Psycho Killer.
Elastica
3/5
If you played this album for someone with no knowledge of Elastica and asked them the nationality of the artist and era of release, there's not a cat in hell's chance they'd get it wrong. It's extremely of it's place and time... But then so am I.
I surprised myself by knowing more of this than I expected, and weird Kula Shakerish song aside, the tracks I didn't know did not sound particularly different.
I expected to like but not love it, and I like but don't love it. Perfectly pleasant.
3/5
N.E.R.D
4/5
This was weird. Good weird, but weird nonetheless.
I only knew She Wants To Move going into this listen - nobody in the history of music has said the word "sexy" with anywhere close to that level of drama - and I genuinely didn't know what to expect. I particularly liked Breakout and Thrasher, but I enjoyed pretty much all of it and would absolutely listen to it again.
I am frustrated that Wikipedia did not explain why two members of Good Charlotte ended up on a track (Jump), but shout out to the Genius contributor who annotated the line "Now I'm in with the - negotiator" from Fly or Die with:
"The negotiator is now helping the teen with his problems, who is now on the verge of ending it all. Let's hope the negotiator is skilled at his job, like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 1 (when he saves the guy from killing himself by jumping off a roof)."
I surprised myself with how much I liked this.
4/5
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
I have probably not heard Can You Forgive Her in 20 years before today, yet I still remembered all the words. Why is valuable space in my rapidly deteriorating middle-aged brain, still being filled with lyrics to a song that came out before I was even a teenager?
Still, I do still love it. And Go West too (I enjoyed the Guardian quote that said it distinguished "itself by making the Village People original seem flagrantly heterosexual").
The Theatre has a synth on it that sounds almost exactly like I'm Going Slightly Mad by Queen, a song I have always loved.
As for the rest, I mostly found it kinda dull, which was disappointing. There's now a few artists I would have said I liked before starting this project, but now I've listened to a full album it turns out I like the big singles and not much else.
This is getting a 2 and that's made me a bit sad.
2/5
The Who
3/5
I only knew (and liked) My Generation before listening to this. In my head, The Who are an early to mid 70s rock band through and through, so hearing them being quite 60s jangly guitars (and in Mono!) was slightly discombobulating. La-La-La-Lies was a bit Beach Boys which somehow made it even more confusing.
They gets bonus points for rattling though 12 songs in 35 minutes, but I'm honestly not sure why people hold this in such high acclaim. It's fine.
3/5
Primal Scream
3/5
Rating based off the original tracklist, not the Vanishing Point "(Expanded Edition)" Amazon Music gave me. Having never seen the film Vanishing Point, I have no idea whether this works as intended either. So this is purely based on the music.
I appreciate that Primal Scream are not adverse to a bit of brass, but otherwise, I'm not sure this is entirely for me. I will say, you don't often get to hear bass clarinet outside of orchestral music, so that was nice. I also remember, and like, Star from the time of release (I weirdly don't remember Kowalski despite it charting higher in the UK). Trainspotting sounds like it was written by Gorillaz (or rather Gorillaz sounds like it I guess) as it's very Tomorrow Comes Today in places. It's interesting that, for a band I associate so much with Bobby Gillespie's voice, there's far more instrumental than I would have thought.
This feels like another "it's fine" review. But, you know, it's fine, just not anything to get too excited about.
3/5
Donovan
3/5
Donovan did the sneaky thing of putting the two songs I really like at the beginning of what would be side A and side B of the vinyl. Very cheeky, Donovan! I see your game!
The rest of it was alright but nothing to write home about. And Catch The Wind is by far my favourite Donovan song and it's not on this album, so didn't make it onto the 1001 Album Generator at all, which is a travesty.
Another 3/5
5/5
The whole 'being a teenager in the UK in the 90s' thing means Oasis were inescapable, and I liked them but I was never their biggest fan (Blur over Oasis, and Pulp over both). However I would have said Definitely Maybe would have been my favourite Oasis album, and I gave it a 4 when it popped up on the Album Generator. I think I need to reevaluate my Oasis rankings.
(WTS)MG? still suffers from the same issue (for me) that all Oasis does, namely that I like Noel's voice so much better than Liam's, but this is objectively a great album.
I get that Wonderwall is hated by many people due to being played to death, memed to death and generally invading people's dreams while they sleep, but it got to that level of ubiquity because its a good song. Not as good as Don't Look Back In Anger, but a good song nonetheless.
And this album has She's Electric which I always loved too, not least because Noel's backing vocals are genuinely beautiful.
Honestly, if I had half stars this would be a 4.5 (because of nasally Liam), but I don't and I genuinely don't think this deserves to lose a whole star. So....
5/5
Bob Dylan
2/5
I like Blowin' In The Wind. Happy now, 1001 Album Generator?! Can you give me a break from the bloody Bob Dylan albums now, please!? Seriously, I've had 120 albums generated so far and four have been sodding Bob sodding Dylan! That's too much Bob in too little time!
Each new Bob Dylan album gets me more and more annoyed at the lack of They Might Be Giants albums making the cut, and I'm trying to not let it influence the rankings, but my goodness it's tricky.
I found his voice marginally less annoying on this one than the last three, but not enough to make me actively want to listen to it again.
2/5
The Who
3/5
Baba O'Riley is a great start to an album, which is both promising and worrying (a disturbing number of albums seem to start with the most well-known - and best - song). But this seems to keep up a good standard throughout.
I like Tommy a lot, which was the same era, so the fact I like this album so much more than I liked My Generation makes a lot of sense.
This should be a 3.5, but as no half stars, it's going to still get a 3 (given it's not quite 4 star worthy for me).
The Flaming Lips
4/5
I have a lot of goodwill towards The Flaming Lips, due to a combination of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots and them once releasing a record on vinyl that had four records that had to be played simultaneously for the record to sound right - essentially I have a certain level of tolerance for odd bods (though not Captain Beefheart levels obviously).
Race For The Prize is a great song that sets the tone for a record. I like A Spoonful Weighs A Ton, The Spiderbite Song (with the weirdly Phil Collinsesque drum fills), and The Gash.
I think this is another 3.5, but good enough to get me to round up, not down.
4/5
Tracy Chapman
4/5
Track 1 I know best through Reel Big Fish's ska version so this was a very different experience, although I have always loved the "run, run, runs". Away from Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution I knew Fast Car and Baby Can I Hold You, the latter also mostly via a (terrible)cover version. The former has great lyrics that I honestly never really paid much attention to before.
I actually enjoyed this quite a lot, which I think might have a been helped by listening to this in an airport (AKA a place I find extremely stressful) because she has an extremely relaxing voice. It might not be the most exciting album in the world but it was extremely lovely.
More a 3.5 for me, but I'm plumping for:
4/5
Björk
5/5
I love Human Behaviour, always have from the moment I first heard it on MTV in the 90s. I also absolutely adored the music video. That was, I think, the first Björk song I ever heard, but I think I've liked ever single she's ever released. But never listened to a full album.
By all rights, based on how I feel about singers with similar vocal styles, I should hate Björk's voice, but I love it. I mean, her pronunciation of ghetto blaster alone is enough to make me love her.
I loved this album. Easy 5 stars to me, though I suspect it's enormously polarising.
5/5
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
2/5
Another album not on Amazon to stream so I got to experience this through YouTube. The playlist I listened to had an unfortunate hour long crypto ad after the first two songs (boo, hiss, down with that type of thing etc, etc).
I should have known from the name there would be a bit of talk-singing on a par with Shatner (which is not a compliment), but I liked San Francisco Baby Blues once he started singing. And track 2, Ol' Riley. It did make me giggle that he was slightly obsessed with insects (The Boll Weevil being immediately followed by Bed Bug Blues). Woody Guthrie turning up was a surprise for me as I had no idea of their history together.
This made me think of the soundtrack to O' Brother Where Art Thou (which remains the only time I've walked out of a cinema at the end and gone straight to HMV to immediately purchase the soundtrack). I can't see me regularly listening to this in the same way, but I did enjoy some of the non talk-singing bits.
It loses a least 1 star for the ramblin' though.
2/5
The White Stripes
2/5
I never got into The White Stripes when they first came out (I generally liked my dose of Jack White in the form of The Raconteurs instead) so had only heard the singles from this.
Songs like The Nurse are a weird experience wearing earphones - Meg frequently sounds like she's in a different room off to the left, playing a completely different song. I don't like the production on a lot of this album - it sounds quite empty and the tone on the drums is very thin.
Highlight for me is My Doorbell, mostly due to the piano. I can't say I really love anything else on this album. And much has been said of Meg's drumming, but it pales in comparison to her singing (I hope she's happy somewhere well away from the spotlight living her best life).
Should be 2.5 but...
2/5
Leonard Cohen
2/5
It may be a bad sign that the thing that's stayed with me most from this album, is that I liked the female backing vocals a lot. I did not appreciate the children's choir in Dress Rehearsal Rag (gently but insistently I tap the "A children's choir never improved any song" sign) although I did enjoy finding out that the choir came from a school with such alumni as Dean Gaffney.
I quite liked when he decided to get a bit more upbeat (if you can consider a song including the lyric "And there are no letters in the mailbox, and there are no grapes upon the vine" as upbeat). But my word, Leonard drones on a lot of the time and everything is too long.
Maybe, one day, I'll "get" Leonard Cohen. But that day is not today.
2/5
Sheryl Crow
3/5
Firstly a small rant about deluxe editions: if your record label wants to make a deluxe edition to generously give the fans more music/fleece the fans for more money (delete based on your level of cynicism) that's great. But do not delete the original from streaming services and force me to have to check where I'm supposed to stop listening to properly assess an album for this project. It keeps on happening! Tut!
For an album that spawned six singles, I genuinely would have only been able to name All I Wanna Do, such was its ubiquity in the early 90s charts. But listening to this, I remember a lot of it. I remember Run Baby Run which would probably make the record company happy as they released it 3 times in the UK in the hope of making it work - genuinely a bonkers choice for first single given some of the other songs on this record. For example, Leaving Las Vegas which is a much better option for first single.
Reading about Leaving Las Vegas made me nostalgic for the era when singles a) got physical releases and b) got multiple versions in multiple formats, each of which would have different b-sides so you ended up collecting the lot. LLV had a 7", cassette and two different CDs in the UK! See people complain about record companies now but you only get 15 different vinyl colours for an album because they can no longer flog you four versions of the same single.
This feels like damning with faint praise, but this was mostly a very pleasant album to listen to. I'm not sure how I feel about Solidify which is extremely early 90s (the instrumentation could easily have had Micheal Jackson singing over the top), and the second half generally doesn't feel as strong as the first half but I did enjoy it. All I Wanna Do remains the absolute stand out track though.
3/5
Raekwon
2/5
I started off enjoying this quite a bit - loved the beats and the flow of Raekwon - but over the course of a full album I started to lose interest. My mind started to wander, and by the 4th or 5th song about standard hiphop things (crime, women trying to take your money, how bloody fantastic the rapper thinks he is at rapping) I was wondering how to google hip-hop artist that talk about more interesting things over the same types of beats.
As a result it's a bit hard to rate this, but I think, disappointingly, it's:
2/5
Nirvana
3/5
Starting with the Unplugged album feels an odd first Nirvana album for the generator to throw out, no matter how famous it is.
I was pretty much the perfect age to be obsessed with Nirvana in their heyday, but I was fairly unbothered by them, Come As You Are and Heart Shaped Box being the two tracks I actively liked. Of the songs I'd never heard before on this apbum, I liked Plateau a lot.
Overall, I liked this, but didn't love it. It's a decent listen, but I don't think it's the album to win over new fans, more an album to give people who are already fans a different experience of the songs they love.
3/5
M.I.A.
3/5
I only knew Paper Planes before this listen.
I really loved Boyz, which musically just feels full of joy (though is lyrically sparse to say the least). Jimmy, despite being Bollywood inspired felt all ABBAy and 20 Dollar samples Blue Monday (and obviously interpolates The Pixies) which surprised me, but the obvious constant in the album are the drum beats which reflect her heritage.
I think I wanted to like this more than I ended up doing (I really didn't like XR2, which I found really grating) but I end up thinking its fine, no better no worse
3/5
Frank Zappa
3/5
6 songs, 43 minutes? I can't lie, that's not a good sign in my book. And then 5 out of 6 being instrumentals was another nail in the coffin. And finally, the one song with vocals being sung by Captain Beefheart? It's like a recipe for disaster (or a 1 star rating at least) in my head.
However... I actually quite enjoyed this. Zappa I knew by name but would have struggled to name any of his songs, and therefore simultaneously had no idea what he'd sound like but also never would have expected it to sound like this. It's very funky.
It's getting an automatic 1 star deduction for including a nearly 13 minute track where it sounded like someone was trying to murder a saxophone though.
3/5
Ella Fitzgerald
3/5
If "too much of a good thing" was an LP. Or more accurately, 5 LPs.
Her voice is amazing, the musicians are wonderful, the songwriting is great. Even admiring the ballsiness to release this, it's too long to be a fully enjoyable listening experience (ironically, her previous Gershwin album is too short at only 25 minutes). The Wikipedia page also defeated me, as I normally like reading the background to the album, but this had a page for basically every song and frankly, I ran out of enthusiasm half way through.
All of which makes this hard to mark. A nice trim 50 minutes likely would have got a minimum 4 from me, but an album shouldn't be a test of endurance.
3/5
P.S. Even as a Brit, the phrase "Carry on, old fluff" in Stiff Upper Lip made me giggle.
Hot Chip
3/5
This was another album that just sort of passed me by. I listened to it (twice in fact!) but remember virtually nothing about it the next day, although I will say he has a nice voice. On one song, he sounded so much like Damon Albarn, I had to google and check there wasn't a guest appearance.
Another for the "wouldn't choose to listen to it, wouldn't skip if it came on shuffle" pile.
3/5
Bob Dylan
2/5
135 albums generated so far, this is the fifth Bob Dylan. That's a Dylan album every 27 days. For someone who has so far given every Dylan album a 2/5, that's too much Dylan.
The first song sounds like Nick Cave so that was slightly confusing. His voice sounds pretty different on this (much later) album and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I like his voice more (I couldn't really like it less), but I like his songwriting less throughout most of this record. It's frequently just very plodding.
By the time Cold Irons Bound hit, I realised that the parts of this album I was enjoying the most, were the bits that reminded me of Nick Cave. And them he butchered his own song (I don't even particularly like Adele, but her cover of Make You Feel My Love is so much better).
This possible scrapes a 2.5 but it's not enjoyable enough for a 3/5 so it's another
2/5
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Another album that doesn't appear on Amazon Music so I ended up listening to it via YouTube. The extra ad breaks are really not the best way to listen to an album (I do not want Hello Fresh YouTube, please stop).
I love the track Beyond Belief already but based entirely on former Reel Big Fish trumpeter and backing vocalist Scott Klopfenstein's regular Twitch streams - it's on his list of covers people can request (along with 9/10 by Jeff Rosenstock that I also fell in love with because of that stream).
Of the songs I didn't know, I loved Man Out Of Time, ... And In Every Home, Little Savage and Town Cryer. The weird out of tune guitar solo in Pidgin English was not for me though, and really took away from a track I was otherwise enjoying. It was like those old comedy routines where songs were purposely played wrong for laughs.
In general though, the 1001 Album Generator has really driven it home that I like Elvis Costello.
4/5
The White Stripes
3/5
Only 11 albums ago I was listening to Get Behind Me Satan saying I never got into the White Stripes when they first came out, and now they're back. It honestly surprised me there was another White Stripes album on the list (and then I checked and discovered I have another one to go). Once again, not one They Might Be Giants album made the list - harrumph!
I like Hotel Yorba despite a massive list of things that mean I should hate it - the shrillness of the vocals, the Megness of the drumming, the fact there's basically nothing to it - but nope, the catchiness is undeniable. Same with Fell In Love With A Girl.
"Jack asked recording engineer Stuart Sikes more than once "not to make it sound too good."."
...and then the album went platinum in the UK and USA. The music industry is a bafflingly entity.
I liked this album a better than Get Behind Me Satan but I can't really put my finger on why.
3/5
Wilco
4/5
I had a brief period of my late teens/early 20s when I listened to a lot of Wilco, but only specific albums, and mostly the first two Billy Bragg/Woodie Guthrie Mermaid Avenue records. This was not one of the albums (it's weird to remember a time where, if you discovered an artist you really liked, checking out their back catalogue generally meant spending a whole lot of money on something you might hate or infecting your computer with multiple viruses).
I loved Monday - the brass, the vocals, the upbeatness (I don't care that's not a word), the handclaps, the fact it all sort of falls apart at the end. It's my type of song. Red-eyed and Blue is another high point for me (whistle solo!) and I Got You (At The End of The Century).
I'll basically always prefer a tight 40-50 minute album rather than this 1 hour 15 minutes, but reading that the band recorded too many tracks and, knowing it would mean an expensive double album, negotiated it being priced as a single record with their label, losing their share of the album royalties in the deal, makes me love it a little bit. Still, I think this would be much better at 50 minutes as it's a little uneven.
This would be a 3.5, but I like it too much to be a 3, so
4/5
Beatles
5/5
Some absolute classics on this album. And I appreciate that some of the most famous and respected songs in history are barely 2 minutes long - no pointless filler to stretch out a song for Lennon and McCartney in the mid-60s, just perfect pop. I have always loved Tell Me Why and Can't Buy Me Love, and this era of the Beatles in general, so while I have very little to say about the record, it's clearly worth a:
5/5
Elliott Smith
5/5
Elliott Smith is a name I recognised but, to the best of my knowledge, I had not listened to before today.
I really, really enjoyed a big chunk of this album. I particularly loved Son of Sam for multiple reasons but the ooh ooh backing vocals just really spoke to me.
The vocals really reminded me of Badly Drawn Boy, who I love, so as the singer's voice is normally the first hurdle for me when listening to a new artist, we started off on a good foot. And then there way a ton of piano too.
This nearly scraped the top mark, I liked it so much, but I'm going to settle for a still great:
4/5
EDIT: after a couple of months where I have regularly relistened to this album, I'm accepting that this always should have got a 5. So it's my first ever remark...
5/5
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
I seem to be building up quite the list of albums I'd love if you replaced the lead singer whilst also recognising the lead singer is kinda the point of the album. And the vocals really aren't *too* far away from artists I do like, like the B52s, but there's just something about the rhythm of the delivery that I find irritating over a full album.
The music, however, I really enjoyed (especially all the tom tom percussion) so that leaves marking this quite tricky. I'm going for a 3 because the music is probably a 4 and the vocals a 2.
3/5
Wu-Tang Clan
3/5
I really like hiphop beats - the music has a great groove and the skill of putting samples together in a way that creates a whole new sound but simultaneously sounds like it never could have been anything different, is so impressive to me - but I find it so hard to connect with the lyrics, especially in this era.
For me, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Method Man are just miles ahead of the rest in terms of being fun to listen to, even it they aren't technically the best rappers.
I can't be arsed with skits. It's like every rapper in the late 80s/early 90s was a frustrated action movie actor and this was their only outlet.
This would be a 3.5 if I had half marks, but as it is, it's getting a 3.
3/5
Tears For Fears
3/5
I really expected to like this more than I ended up liking it. But I'm not entirely sure why it didn't click with me.
Everybody Wants To Rule The World is obviously great, as is Shout, though suffers from being too long.
I think I will probably revisit this at some point, but for now it's a
3/5
The Temptations
3/5
Absolutely loved side one, other than Papa Was a Rolling Stone being far far too long at 11 minutes 44 seconds - no vocals kick in until nearly 4 minutes have passed, during which time very little had happened. The single version, at 6 minutes 54 seconds is already long enough. It is one of my favourite songs with handclaps though, and the strings are perfection.
A Side - beautiful voices all round, funky, made me want to dance (which given I listened to this the evening after I'd been awake most of the previous night, is high praise indeed).
Side B was too slow and ballady for me to enjoy it anywhere as much as the upbeat funk of the previous tracks. Mind you, I think I might be a bit in love with Melvin Franklin's bass vocals.
If I was just marking the A side it'd be a 5, but overall it's going to be a 3
3/5
Genesis
2/5
Right, so prog rock is definitely not my thing, but this was less awful than I feared. I mean I still wouldn't chose to listen to it on a regular basis, but it wasn't as annoying as I thought it might me.
Much as I'm sure it's considered heresy by Genesis fans, I actually really like their pop years (the song Jesus He Knows Me is my favourite song about TV evangelists, though it's weird there's more than one). Hopefully we'll get some of that later in this project.
2/5
Cocteau Twins
1/5
I had no idea what anyone was saying through a good chunk of this album. I like paying attention to lyrics, so it would be lovely to be able to hear them. They aren't even on Genius because it turns out someone (the band?) got grumpy they were incorrect. You know how you fix that, Cocteau Twins? Enunciate!
The vocals annoyed me so much, this is getting a 1, even though it would probably have got a mid-table obscurity 2 or 3 otherwise.
The Who
4/5
My parents had the London Symphony Orchestra version of Tommy when I was a kid and I used to listen to it all the time. I was too young to really get some of the implications (Fiddle About - *shudder*).
It may just be familiarity or nostalgia, but I like that version so much better than the original (or the film version despite Elton and Tina Turner making an appearance). I think the story fairs better with different vocalists doing the various roles and the richness of the fuller orchestral accompaniment.
That being said, I still like Tommy. It's probably my favourite individual concept album (as a series, the many albums that make up twenty one pilots Dema storyline, would be my favourite concept overall).
The orchestral version would have got a 5 from me, and knowing it exists means this can never score as highly. I would say 3.5, but in a world with no half stars:
4/5
Radiohead
4/5
This surprised me. Not really the album: it's Radiohead of a certain era and it sounds like what I'd imagine Radiohead of a certain era would sound like. My reaction to it was the surprise.
When we previously had In Rainbows on the generator, I liked the vast majority of the music but found Thom's mumbled vocals absolutely infuriating. But on Amnesiac, I'm weirdly sort of fine with it - I even relistened to a bit of In Rainbows to check I wasn't just having a bad day when I heard it, but nope still not a fan.
"I'm a reasonable man, get off my case" is a very funny line to have as a repeated phrase/chorus, so bonus points for that. It immediately loses those points for the terrible spelling in the name of the same track.
Pyramid Song I like a lot. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors is just too indistinguishabily weird for me, but I'm back to enjoying it by You And Whose Army and I like I Might Be Wrong even more due to the guitars.
I got a chunk if the way into Morning Bell/Amnesiac before realising they seemed to be playing a kids xylophone and rather than be annoyed by it, I found it really endearing. It was at that point I decided I actively liked this record.
I have no idea if I would ever sit down and listen to this again (I absolutely have no idea what the right mood for playing this is) but I can't deny I mostly really enjoyed the experience. I think this would be a 3.5, but I'm rounding up.
It's a (confusingly surprised):
4/5
System Of A Down
3/5
It's a bit like listening to someone with multiple personalities, and about 20% of them have a perfectly acceptable voice and the other 80% are just not my thing. I like the heaviness of the album, which occasionally turns into circus music with no warning, but just can't get on board completely with the vocals, especially the growling, so... it's fine I guess.
3/5
Bob Marley & The Wailers
5/5
This is a weird review, as I have virtually nothing to say about it other than the fact I really, really enjoyed it. And just to add to the weirdness of the review, I'm going to call out the female backing vocalists for really adding to the greatness everywhere else.
Loved it. That is all.
5/5
Pink Floyd
2/5
I assumed this was going to be Money plus 37ish minutes of nonsense, but no!
It's Money and Brain Damage plus 33ish minutes of nonsense!
Would get a 2.5, but...
2/5
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
3/5
To set out my stall early here, I hated Trout Mask Replica. To date, it is the second worst thing this Generator has subjected me to. So I was dreading this.
It's sort of normal? Of all the things I could have expected, it sounding like The Doors or someone of that ilk was not ever going to be my guess. I'm Glad feels like it should be playing at a school dance in the early 60's and the the idea of playing anything from Trout Mask Replica at a school dance suggests a *very* different kind of event (maybe one run by a psychopath).
I quite enjoyed this (though I did stop at Autumn's Child where the original album ended and ignored the bonus tracks). Clearly my tastes are too pedestrian for where Captain Beefheart was going to take his music in later albums.
2.5 would be my rating with half stars, but its going to get a 3. It's been bumped up due to all the theremin.
3/5
Side note: I discovered today that every time I mentioned Captain Beefheart to my child previously, they thought I was saying his name was Captain Bee Fart, so that's nice.
Derek & The Dominos
2/5
That was dull. Even Layla is more boring for about 50% of it's runtime than I remember it being.
I feel like I can't give an album 1 for just being boring, and they're clearly very skilled musicians but it just wasn't my thing at all.
2/5
Pixies
3/5
I was a bit surprised that this was the first Pixies album to turn up, mostly because I'm no Pixies expert, but the songs I know and love are from their debut album.
I liked this but possibly less than I thought I might. The Pixies influence on the music that came later cannot be underestimated, but that genre has never really been my favourite, so I don't have quite the reverence for it than many grunge fans likely would.
An album I certainly wouldn't turn off if it started playing, but one I may not return to on purpose.
3/5
Dolly Parton
3/5
I was starting to think Dolly would never arrive, but she's finally turned up and brought friends! They all have beautiful voices and they meld together really well, though I think I'd always plump for Dolly's voice as the lead if given the choice.
Some of these songs have such a history (To Know Him Is To Love him, written by Phil Spector has been covered/interpolated by The Beatles,
Pink Floyd, Amy Winehouse and - urgh! - Gary Glitter, amongst others), and then there are the originals - Wildflowers has such lovely lyrics.
I sometimes felt the 80s-ness of this (Telling Me Lies for example, feels very 'of it's time' due to the keyboards) which stands out a bit on the otherwise fairly timeless album. It's not much for rip-roaring, yee-haw country music though - more melancholy/bittersweet songs about death is the order of the day here.
I think this might be a 3.5 if there were half stars, but in the absence of them, this will get:
3/5
Pavement
3/5
I was quite excited to see this turn up. I really loved Cut Your Hair as a teenager in the 90s but never listened to anything else (despite being a big fan of early Weezer - in reading about this album, I saw someone describe Weezer as Pavement for people who like Elton John instead of David Bowie and this is disturbingly accurate in my case).
I really liked Trigger Cut/Wounded Kite At :17, Conduit For Sale! (the spoken word parts reminding me of a weird combination of REM and Will Wood), Here and In The Mouth A Dessert.
I think this is another artist where I like the music more than the vocals though - it just feels too raw and unpolished for me most of the time. I realise that's probably a big draw for their fans, but I think I'd enjoy that far more live than listening to a record in my own home.
All in all, I like a lot of but I didn't love it, so...
3/5
Beatles
4/5
Firstly, the album artwork is hysterical. I can't decide if the designer realised that the four Beatles heads in a row would be the wrong proportions for the vinyl, so skwished Ringo down there at the bottom, or they accurately predicted which Beatles would have the most influence on musical culture and acted accordingly. I'd have been pissed if I was Mr Starr though.
I like early Beatles, honestly possibly more than most later Beatles (which I'm aware is probably considered sacrilege). To me it just conjures up a particular era than I have a massive affection for in terms of the music, fashion and interior design (but not the general intolerance or misogyny). I would have firmly been an overexcited teenage girl screaming at them, had I been born in the 50s rather than the 80s.
It's interesting to hear some flat/sharp notes on this in places. I assume a combination of the expense of recording records and the sheer rate of knots they were churning out albums, meant a little bit lower quality control.
I really enjoy Beatles covers so Mr Postman, Roll Over Beethoven (entertainingly, very much sung with a Liverpudlian twang) and You Really Got A Hold On Me, being on this album made me happy. Especially the latter song, which I think is one of the best songs of it's generation.
I think this would be a 4.5 but I'm going to round down, at least partially to stop me giving 5 stars to every Beatles album the Generator throws at me.
4/5
Nine Inch Nails
2/5
I only knew Closer (which has the unfortunate problem of my brain wanting to turn it into the Weird Al Alternative Polka version) and Hurt going into this.
Hated the first track. Found the second track kinda interesting. By the third track, when Trent started yelling "God is dead and no one cares" and playing a very satisfying guitar riff, I came to the conclusion this was going to be a wild ride.
I think I would need to listen to this album again to really form a proper opinion on it, but that's juxtaposed with the issue that I'm not sure I really want to do either. It's one of those occasions where I think the artist is talented but it's not enjoyable for me to listen to a good chunk of the time.
Trent Reznor's later career has genuinely been fascinating though - who would have expected that the man who wrote the lyric "I wanna fuck you like an animal" would later go on to win multiple Academy Awards for his soundtrack work, one of which was for a kids film about a jazz musician in a coma.
2/5
Elton John
5/5
Elton sweetly singing about a guy called Razor Face over the top of someone playing a bitchin' accordion solo? Yes thank you very much, sign me up.
I love piano-based songs and I love Elton John's voice. I listened to this album once, then immediately listened to it again, all the way through. It made me not hate a sitar (which I believe to be a first). Given Wikipedia says this is Prog Rock, it also made me not hate Prog Rock, which is at least a rarity.
My only negatives are:
- I'd prefer snappier running times (which is entirely a personal preference for sub 6 minute songs);
- the lyrics to Indian Sunset have not aged particularly well (who'd have thought a white English bloke in the 70s writing about the lives of Native Americans might not be the best?!); and
- when the choral ladies appeared at 37 seconds on All The Nasties I had to stifle a laugh (tone it down ladies).
Parts of this really reminded me of the Symphony Orchestra version of Tommy (which I bang on about all the time) sort of crossed with Tim Minchin when he's feeling particularly dramatic.
I think this is going to be controversial, but I loved this and even with my quibbles, it's getting:
5/5
Magazine
2/5
This was a very confusing listening experience. Definitive Gaze for some reason made me think it should have been used for the theme tune for a Tomorrow's World rival in the early 80's. My Tulpa was ska-ish. Burst was sort of Rocky Horror but rubbish.
There was a lot of this album that, on paper, meant I should have really enjoyed it. Dear reader, I did not really enjoy it. The Goldfinger cover from the bonus tracks sealed its fate.
2/5
The Cars
4/5
I had a couple of listens through of this record because the first time it lost me a bit in the middle. I really liked the synths in Let The Good Times Roll and the backing vocals were pretty Queen adjacent at points (which continued throughout the album), which is never a bad thing. A little bit too long though.
My Best Friends Girl is sort of cheesy but it didn't matter at all and I still really enjoyed it. I'm In Touch With Your World was sort of weird but I also still really enjoyed that.
This took the bits of Talking Heads that I like and removed David Byrne. Which I'm guessing for a lot of people might be a downgrade, but for me improved matters.
It still lost me a bit in the middle the second time around but I loved the last track. I think this might be a 3.5 album, but in the absence of half stars and because I gave two Talking Heads albums 3/5, this is getting a:
4/5
The Afghan Whigs
2/5
I enjoyed a lot of the music but I apparently do not have the patience to listen to Greg Dulli's whinging. It's not even that he has a particularly bad voice, I just cannot stand his delivery.
2/5
Everything But The Girl
2/5
I found this so astonishingly dull. But it wasn't painful to listen to. But it was incredibly boring. What to do, what to do.....
Thanks to the whole star rating system this is getting a 2, because I can't give it a 1.5, and I have listened to far worse 1s.
2/5
Adam & The Ants
3/5
This ended up very middle of the road to me. I love Ant Music and everything else sounded pretty much like Ant Music, just not quite as catchy. I certainly wouldn't turn it off if it showed up on shuffle, but probably won't ever choose to listen to it.
3/5
Frank Ocean
3/5
His falsetto is lovely. Otherwise I have very little to say. It was fine.
Would have been a 2.5, but I'm rounding up
3/5
The Strokes
3/5
I heard The Strokes at the time this was released, but have never listened to the album. 11 songs, 35 minutes is a promising run time. No hanging around.
This sounds astonishingly early 2000s, I think mostly due to the guitar tone, which I'm all for. However I hate how far back in the mix and distorted the vocals are. I really like the shouty-scream vocals we occasionally get though.
I loved the singles when they came out, but over a full album, I'm not as big a fan. This would be a 3.5, but I'm going to go for
3/5
Side note: I had never seen the US cover of this album until the generator made me read the Wikipedia page. It's absolutely rubbish.
Red Snapper
2/5
An album where I went in completely blind: to the best of my knowledge, I have never heard anything by them, or indeed heard of them at all, prior to this listen.
I liked parts, particularly any bits that leaned into a more reggae vibe and had lyrics (although I did a full on double take listing to The Rough and The Quick), but each track was too long for my liking, and without vocals on many songs, it made everything seem even longer. I liked I Stole Your Car though.
It at times reminded me of Massive Attack or an instrumental Gorillaz, but it's just not an album I'd sit down to listen to.
Once again, I'm back to wishing for half marks but this is going to get a
2/5
Paul Simon
4/5
Another album where the only track I knew was because Scott Klopfenstein (ex member of ska band Reel Big Fish) covers it on his Twitch livestreams (Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard). If I had a nickel for every time that's happened blah, blah, blah...
I really enjoyed this album. It was another where I played it through once, then immediately looped round and started again. I even, and this is almost unheard of, voluntarily listened to the bonus tracks.
My favourite tracks were Me and Julio, Everything Put Together Falls Apart, Hobo's Blues and Paranoia Blues. I'm not sure why the guy chose to put two songs called [blank] Blues on his album, and sequence them one after the other, but it shows a certain level of confidence.
My only negatives were that I swear he slips slightly into a fake Jamaican accent briefly on Mother and Child Reunion - just because it's reggae tinged Paul, doesn't mean you should be mimicking the accent - and a personal dislike of the flute on Duncan.
I did genuinely really enjoy this album though. I think this would be another 3.5 in a world of half stars (I think there's better Paul Simon to come), but I'm rounding up:
4/5
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
4/5
I like this project because it keeps throwing up albums I meant to get around to listening to but never did. This is definitely one of them. I'm predisposed to like a supergroup combining a member of Blur and a member of The Clash, so I had high hopes.
By all rights I should hate Damon Albarn's singing, and he seems to be floating in and out of tune throughout this record, making the position even more tenuous... but I inexplicably really enjoy it. Although the really high bits on Behind The Sun really tested that enjoyment and I can absolutely understand people hating it.
I have a weird amount of goodwill towards him - he's had a career dominated (as least in the UK) by two big bands, but he constantly has side quests into other, odder, projects. He clearly loves music and to me it's really endearing.
I really enjoyed this record. It may be because I listened to it after waking up far too early while feeling a bit bleurgh, but it just fit the time and feeling perfectly. It felt like a slightly melancholy hug.
I also want to call out one of the most accurate descriptions of my country of birth ever written: "A stroppy little island, of mixed up people".
I think it's more a 4.5 but I'm going for:
4/5
Radiohead
4/5
Due to mumbling Thom Yorke, I've so far found Radiohead albums a bit of a mixed bag in terms of my marking, but this one has No Surprises on it, and I love No Surprises.
I was a bit surprised to see the song from this album with the highest popularity on Amazon Music wasn't Karma Police, but instead was Let Down. I should have guessed it was Tiktok's fault, but it's still surprising to me that a nearly 30 year old album track can suddenly become massive due to social media - it made the Billboard top 100 in August!
On the negative points, there are now two songs on two different albums with a computer generated voice that I don't like (the other is "You Liked This (Okay, Computer!)" by Will Wood, named for Fitter Happier by Radiohead). I don't care that it's intended to invoke a certain emotional response - in me, the emotional response is irritated.
The singles are all great. From the non-singles, Electioneering is fantastic and I really liked Climbing Up The Walls.
I can absolutely understand why this album gets all the plaudits. It's not something I'd personally want to regularly listen to from start to finish, but it's incredibly accomplished.
4/5
Big Star
2/5
It's probably a bad sign that the two songs I liked best were covers. And yes I can see how Big Star influenced R.E.M., but frankly I'd rather just listen to R.E.M..
It's fine, just nothing really jumped out at me musically other than Down which I didn't like, but is absolutely bonkers. Lyrically, parts are really not good listening to this in 2025 (calling a song about a dying parent Holocaust, is... yeah, just no).
2/5
The Rolling Stones
3/5
I have never been that fussed about Jagger's voice (something that has culminated this year in me taking the piss out of the way he sings the word strange in the Slow Horses theme, every time we watch an episode - "stwwwwaaaaange").
For the high points, I like Brown Sugar and I'm a fan of brass instruments, and there was much more of that than I expected. For the lows, as far as I'm concerned, jam sessions are only fun for the people playing them, so Can't You Hear Me Knocking and Bitch were absolutely not for me.
It was fine. One for the "never gonna choose to listen to it, won't turn it off if it turns up on shuffle" collection.
3/5
Mj Cole
1/5
In an effort to say something nice, Elizabeth Troy has nice voice but I kept expecting someone to yell "the crowd say bo selecta" at any moment.
I thought this was shite and I resent the 1001 generator for making me listen to it.
1/5
Kendrick Lamar
3/5
In general, this just isn't for me but it did grow on me over the course of the album. I liked good kid, with it's retro vibe and the music of Swimming Pools (Drank) was really cool. I also liked Sing About Me, I'm Dying Of Thirst and Compton.
I still don't like hiphop skits, and on a practical level, the skits being part of if the track on streaming so you'd be unable to skip through them, makes them even more annoying to me. They also make the album very long.
I feel like I'm probably not appreciating the short movie format of this album, but it's just fine to me.
3/5
Charles Mingus
2/5
I don't get jazz at the best of times, but experimental jazz like this is 85% just discordant noise to me. I liked the bit of Spanish guitar playing we got briefly.
If I am to judge this against jazz the generator has previously thrown at me, I enjoyed it (a tiny bit) more than Bill Evans and less than Dave Brubeck so...
2/5
Mudhoney
3/5
Another artist where I knew the name but had never knowingly listened to any music.
I was not particularly into the first two tracks, but I liked Good Enough (which I admit is partially because the drums reminded me of, the significantly less cool, Two Princes by The Spin Doctors). I liked Who You Drivin Now? a lot too and, harmonica solo aside, Pokin' Around was enjoyable. I could have done without the snoring on Don't Fade IV.
Mark Arm's voice was occasionally a bit Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, which I very much approve of, but ultimately for me this was fine, but not particularly stand out.
3/5
Sidenote: one of the facts Amazon Music gave me about Mudhoney made me love them a little:
"Mudhoney was given $20,000 to record the song "Overblown" for the Singles soundtrack. The band recorded the song for a grand total of $164, and pocketed the rest of the loot."
Willie Nelson
2/5
This contains a cover of one of my most hated songs ever (Unchained Melody) so, despite me being someone who enjoys a cover version, that didn't bode well.
Willie Nelson does get two albums on the list and I recognise this album was a massive hit, but it does seem weird that the man released 77 solo studio albums and the book decided a covers album was one of the two top choices to represent him. Feels a little dismissive.
I was mostly ambivalent to this album. Except Unchained Melody which I still hate.
2/5
Fiona Apple
4/5
I only knew Criminal from this record, which I do like a lot, and we'd previously been given Fetch The Bolt Cutters by the generator, which I gave a 3 but really thought was a 3.5.
I really love her voice, but on top of that I think the instrumentation is also really interesting and beautiful in places. This sounds incredibly accomplished for a debut album (later reading that in 2022 Rolling Stone put it at number 25 on the top 100 debut albums of all time, wasn't a surprise... and made me want to check the list to see what albums didn't make it onto the generator).
On the more negative side, which is very much a personal preference for sub 5 minute songs (ideally sub 4 minutes), the tracks are often a little too long. It might be a little too samey in the middle section too.
Overall though, I really liked this. And slightly more than Fetch The Bolt Cutters, so
4/5
Duran Duran
3/5
Classic 80s.
The singles are all great, though I do have a particular fondness for Hungry Like The Wolf due to the Reel Big Fish ska cover version on a Duran Duran tribute album (which starts with a spoken word intro that includes the phrase "little bit of hot nookie, yeah?" and ends with "was that too much? I never know...").
Of the non-singles, I particularly enjoyed Last Chance on the Stairway and The Chauffeur.
This is getting a very solid 3/5 and I'm now going to listen to the Goldfinger cover of Rio (which is also an excellent Duran Duran ska-punk cover).
3/5
Thin Lizzy
2/5
Reading about the controversy around this live album was possibly more interesting than listening to this live album. I did think it sounded particularly clean, so reading conflicting statements about just how much of the finished production is overdubs was fascinating.
I would have much preferred a studio album on the generator, so finding out this is the only Thin Lizzy record on the list was disappointing.
This would probably have been a 2.5 but as no half stars,
2/5
The Stooges
3/5
I really, really like a lot of the instrumentation on this album, but the Iggy Pop delivery of lyrics is *a lot* on a number of these songs.
I always knew before embarking on this project that the singer's voice was hugely important to my enjoyment of any album, but it really is make or break. I could see this getting a much better rating with a different singer, although it felt like the last track was never going to end, so it was never going to get full marks even with a vocalist I liked.
Probably more a 2.5, but I'm going to give a generous 3 because I really liked Search and Destroy.
3/5
Paul McCartney
3/5
Look, McCartney is my favourite Beatle. I'd pretend to be cooler and say George Harrison, who I think is the default pick to pretend you aren't selecting the obvious choice (Lennon) or being a contrarian (Starr). But I love Paul's voice and he wrote my favourite Beatles songs (Lady Madonna and Fool On The Hill). However...
I do not see the point of multiple tracks on this album and I think it gets a pass solely because of who he is. I have absolutely no issue with the lo-fi recording style or Linda doing backing vocals, but some of these tracks barely count as songs. There is no reason for The Lovely Linda to be an actually recorded song on an album released by a man who was in the biggest band in the world at the time.
That's not to say that I dislike the entirety of this album, not at all. I like a lot of the songs, but the idea that people are out there rating this 5/5 is incomprehensible to me.
3/5
Jamiroquai
2/5
I assume the reviews for this album are mostly middle aged British people saying "Fucks sake, Jamiroquai is on the list!" and pretty much everyone else saying, "Never heard this".
I would be surprised if, were a new version of the book to be released in 2025, this would make the cut now. It is decidedly uncool and I think time has not necessarily treated it particularly well, but that being said, I do actually like bits of this.
I liked We're Too Young To Die and Emergency on Planet Earth when I was 13, and I still do now. I had never heard the full album before today though, and can now safely say that Music of the Mind can get straight in the bin. It also became pretty samey throughout the record.
This feels like a 2.5 kinda album for me, but I think this needs rounding down rather than rounding up.
2/5
Dion
2/5
We coincidentally got this album the day before Dion released a biography and tie-in album The Rock ‘n’ Roll Philosopher. The longevity of some of the artists on this list is genuinely impressive - he released his first album with The Belmonts in 1959!
I was pleased to learn that this had been packaged with another album on Amazon Music and so to be true to the Generator, I only had to listen to the first 8 tracks. The question then became, would this be enjoyable enough that I would keep going?
No.
Nice voice, mostly fairly dull songs (I liked Good Lovin' Man).
2/5
A Tribe Called Quest
5/5
When I say I don't like jazz but I do like jazzy, this is what I mean.
This takes a lot of what I really like from this era of rap/hiphop and replaces the parts I don't like with something more interesting. The songs aren't all about crime, misogyny and the rapper's ego and so are instantly more attractive to me.
The samples and loops on this album are fantastic, creating such a funky backdrop. Plus it has Can I Kick It? on it. A genuinely inventive, fun and interesting record.
Probably a 4.5 for me on first listen, but I think I'd enjoy this even more with repeated listens so
5/5
Killing Joke
2/5
I have a very patchy record with post punk albums and this turned out to be no different. It was very much the law of diminishing returns, as I really liked Requiem and Wardance, but the longer the album went on, the more the repetition started to get to me. First it was annoying, but by the end it was just forgettable.
Would be a 2.5, but I'm rounding down
2/5
Mekons
3/5
More post-punk... but make it slightly country?
My first impression is that Tom Greenhalgh cannot sing. My second impression is that Jon Langford can't sing either. Weirdly they sound a bit better in combination and I have no idea why that should be the case.
I nearly did a little cheer when my adopted hometown got a shout out, but then I zoned out for a little bit. I was very much snapped back to attention when I heard Jacqui Callis say "my sex drew back into itself tight and dry" (which resulted in me googling the lyrics to double check I heard her correctly).
I think parts of this are abysmal, especially the singing, but for some reason it started to grow on me over the length of the full album. I think it might be because they sounded like they were enjoying themselves so much. I would guess that they're great fun to see live. Particularly if you go into the gig absolutely hammered.
I cannot objectively justify this marking at all, so I'm not really going to try:
3/5
Sly & The Family Stone
2/5
Today's album, as reviewed by my teenager (minus the track full of the n word which I deemed for grown ups only):
"It sounds like hold music"
"It's not awful for some background noise, but they should have hired new lyricists"
"There was absolutely no need for a 14 minute song with no lyrics: absolutely awful"
"This sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks"
I don't disagree. I like the funkiness, and Everyday People is a classic, but all in all:
2/5
Mercury Rev
4/5
I have never listened to this album despite loving Goddess on a Hiway, Holes and Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp as singles in the 90s.
I kept expecting Endlessly to turn into Silent Night and then the bowed saw appeared - I always enjoy a weird instrument appearing and reading that Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips were sharing a studio and producer during the recording of this makes complete sense.
However the instrumental The Happy End (The Drunk Room) is a strong of example of why I suspect some people hate this album: it could certainly be accused of pretentiousness. But then Goddess on a Hiway is up next and I forgive them everything because it's a perfect 90s alt-rock classic. I really enjoyed The Funny Bird immediately afterwards too.
I enjoyed this a lot. I would say it's a 3.5 for me, and I've really agonised over rounding up or down but the second half felt really strong to me so I think I'm going to go:
4/5
Bobby Womack
2/5
I think Stand Up was a little bit above the rest of the tracks, but overall this is the very definition of background music.
2/5
Orange Juice
2/5
I'm not sure why the Generator has decided to provide a rich vein of post-punk albums in the last fortnight, but I can only assume it's decimating my average 1980s score.
Rip It Up is the song I already knew, and it's ok. I didn't mind Turn Away and Breakfast Time had the nice reggae keyboard (which almost instantly got buried in the mix under so much other stuff, including a vibraphone?!). I also liked Hokoyo.
However, to talk about the elephant in the room, the vocals annoyed me so much. The entire album seemed to be a battle between a Bowie impersonation and a Costello impersonation (with hints of Morrissey), and I'm not sure I wanted any option to win.
Another album where replacing the vocalist would have likely gained at least an extra star from me.
2/5
King Crimson
1/5
The review is solely based on the original tracklisting, not the expanded version on Amazon Music.
21st Century Schizoid Man (Including "Mirrors") I liked the beginning of, hated the middle of, and was indifferent to the end of. Trimming that down, well chopping it in half, would have made a song I'd enjoy.
I Talk To The Wind I just found long and fairly uninteresting.
Epitaph (including March for No Reason and Tomorrow and Tomorrow) had the vocals so low, both in general and in the mix, at times that I had to turn up the overall volume to try and hear him. I was surprised to read Brett Gurewitz's Epitaph Records label (home of most of my favourite bands from the 90s, and one of my current favourites, Roe Kapara) and was named after this track. It was ok, but too long.
Moonchild (including The Dream and The Illusion) is over 12 minutes long and makes me want to scream with frustration. Not sure if that was what they were going for. IT IS SO LONG AND MEANDERING! Even they don't seem to see the point in it, as they first played it live 48 years after releasing it. I cannot imagine how boring a live experience this song would be.
The Court of the Crimson King was marginally shorter, so at least there's that. There's actually some small parts I like in this track, but not enough to make me enjoy the whole.
There are parts of this album that I didn't hate, but I disliked Moonchild so much, it's sullied the whole LP for me. Once again, I do not understand the attraction in 95% of Prog Rock.
1/5 (it would have got 2 had Moonchild been banished)
Grateful Dead
1/5
The first track, Dark Star, is 23 minutes long: I entirely see why the Grateful Dead's audience were normally off their tits listening to their gigs as it would presumably be the only way to survive the experience.
I didn't hate all of St. Stephen and Turn On Your Love Light but that's my one vaguely positive comment. Frankly, there was no way they were coming back from that first track though, so while I would have considered a 1.5 if half stars were available, it's a:
1/5
Miles Davis
2/5
I just, don't see the attraction in jazz. I'm trying, because the generator is throwing so much jazz at me, but I just don't get it. I can objectively hear that Miles is clearly a talented trumpet player, and I love brass instruments generally, but I just don't find the songs being played interesting at all.
Maybe somewhere in this list, there will be a jazz album that scores more than a 3 from me (my current high score), but if something like Miles Davis doesn't, I'm not holding out much hope. I sort of wish I could hear what other people do, but alas...
2/5
OutKast
3/5
I spent most of the day after listening to this with So Fresh, So Clean stuck in my head. It's not even the best track on the album, it's just infuriatingly catchy. The best song is of course Ms. Jackson which is one of the absolute best songs of the early 2000s.
Overall, I dislike most of the interludes, which make a very long album longer than it needs to be, and there are some... questionable... lyric choices in places, but when it's good, it's really good.
I actually liked Speakerboxxx/The Love Below better as a whole (or two halves I guess), so this is a
3/5
The Boo Radleys
4/5
Considering I only really know The Boo Radleys through Wake Up Boo, this turned out to be altogether weirder than I ever expected.
I really liked the dub baselines whenever they appeared, and the Beach Boys style harmonies, the occasional bit of Beatles influenced instrumentation. This album jumps between styles pretty much every track, which I'm sure people label as "inconsistent and muddled" but is something I really appreciate in a record.
Upon 9th And Fairchild was a highlight for me, sounding quite Clash-like. I also really loved Butterfly McQueen and Thinking Of Ways.
On the negative side, it's too long. I think sometimes bands forget that just because they can, doesn't mean they should - a tight 45/50 minutes is far preferable in my book. I could also have done without the chorus of Best Lose the Fear being repeated what felt like approximately 42 times at the end.
Ultimately though, I really enjoyed this album so
4/5
Yes
3/5
Well we had a few days off, but the 70s prog rock is never too far away on this list.
I actually think there's an alternative universe in which I could really like Yes. One where they reel it in a bit and learn brevity. I like Jon Anderson's voice and the bass lines are often really fun.
Once again my Dad's prog rock love resulted in me thinking I didn't know this album at all but then instantly recognising Starship Trooper the moment it started. I actually really like that track. Or at least I would do if it wasn't so blinking long. I also recognised I've Seen All Good People, with it's heartbeat bass line and key change fade out.
I went into this sort of dreading it, but I enjoyed it far more than I expected. It would be more a 2.5 if I had half stars, but the nostalgia kicked in and I'm rounding up
3/5
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
There was a chunk of time where, every time we saw friends, we played Singstar. The three songs none of us ever successfully duo'd were 500 Miles by The Proclaimers, Stay by Shakespear Sister and California Dreamin'. When you sing along to a track, you tend to sing a combination of both vocal parts and trying to stick to the "boy" vocals or the "girl" vocals, especially when you've had a decent amount of wine, was basically impossible for us. But it wasn't as painful as listening to us butcher Stay.
Anyway, back to the album... The vocals are lovely. I have always liked Monday Monday. I liked the honky-tonk piano on the slightly oddly chosen Beatles cover. The Do You Wanna Dance cover is not as fun as The Beach Boys version or The Ramones version.
I enjoyed this. Probably a 3.5 but not a 4 level enjoyment so:
3/5
ZZ Top
2/5
I really struggled to get into this but I don't know why. I kept getting distracted and listening to new releases that came out the same day instead. I went into this thinking I didn't know anything on the album, but of course I know La Grange.
The album is fine just not really my cup of tea. I was trying to put my finger on why, but other than the slight disconnect that I associate music of this ilk almost entirely with watching Dean, Sam and Castiel defeat demons, I'm not sure. It is a bit too much "meandering jam session" in places so maybe that's it.
Anyway, that means this should get a 2.5, but it's going to get a 2 because I don't have the nostalgia factor to bump it up to 3.
2/5
Quicksilver Messenger Service
1/5
I mean.. frankly... what the fuck?
Not as bad as the Liars album, or Trout Mask Replica, which I still hate with a firey passion but this was shit.
1/5
Todd Rundgren
2/5
This was looooooooooong. I ironed all my kid's school uniform, then prepped a Sunday dinner and made a chocolate pear pudding, and it was still going.
I knew I Saw The Light from somewhere but otherwise was going into this blind. It was surprisingly varied, so there was bound to be at least one good track for most people. In my case I really liked Wolfman Jack, The Night The Carousel Burned Down (which felt a bit Harry Nilsson to me) and Little Red Lights. I Went To The Mirror was interesting, though I'm not sure I could entirely say I enjoyed it.
Surprisingly I did enjoy Todd explaining studio screw ups during Intro (the last time I got a lesson on a 1001 Album, it was Ravi Shankar trying to educate me about Sitars and I did not appreciate that one little bit).
The hit rate was pretty low for me, and the ridiculous length means it gets marked down. Would have been a 2.5 with half marks, but I'm rounding down.
2/5
Green Day
5/5
Oooh, this is going to be hard/impossible to rate objectively...
I was obsessed with Green Day from the age of 14 due to being the exact correct age when Dookie came out for it to blow my mind, and that obsession carried on for about 10 years (and recently got resurrected for the release of Saviours). Which is to say, there is so much emotion and nostalgia tied up with this period that there is no objective lens to view 10 years of Green Day albums through, this included.
This is not my favourite Green Day album (that title goes to Warning, an album considered a commercial failure, but that for me, was their most beautifully weird record) but the margins between my favourite Green Day albums and the Green Day albums almost universally accepted as "The Best ™️" during this period, are tiny.
American Idiot (the album) is bloody ambitious for a pop punk band. American Idiot (the song) carries on being hugely relevant and makes you pine for the days when George W Bush was the idiot in question - I admire Billie for continuing to be outspoken about his politics regardless of pushback (and the many weird posts from Mike Dirnt's wife).
Like most successful singles from most massively popular albums, I have heard the singles from this album too often, and in too many random shops, to judge them fairly, so I'm going to highlight my favourite non-singles.
She's a Rebel is just stupidly catchy and I loved it from the moment I first heard it. Whatsername is another favourite, as is Letterbomb (mostly because it feels like they partially ripped off 86, a song I really like from Insomniac). It just feels like a very cohesive album, to the extent that while I usually get frustrated with nearly 1 hour long records, this properly whips by. It's considered a classic for a good reason.
This mark was inevitable:
5/5
The The
2/5
It took nearly a minute for the lyrics to start. I expect this madness from prog rock but, much as I don't like it much as a genre, I expected more from post punk. But then he started singing, and part of me longed for the pre-vocals period.
Stray thoughts:
- This Is The Day is alright.
- This album is aggressively 80s.
- I wonder how many songs have the clap/pause/clap/pause/clap/pause/clap-clap/pause rhythm thing in them?
- What the hell is the noise at the beginning of Uncertain Smile?!
- I looked it up: its a xylimba.
- I like the piano on Uncertain Smile (EDIT: Oh, Jools Holland!) but this song feels like it's been going on forever...
- And it bloody finished on a fade out! Unnecessary!
- I got distracted during The Twilight Hour and discovered the guy who played trumpet on this record also played trumpet on I Will Cure You by Vic Reeves.
- Soul Mining is also alright... And as soon as I wrote that, it went all plinkly plonky and it was no longer alright.
- somehow Giant increased the 80s-ness. I'm surprised that was possible.
- there's a second The The album on this list?! Yet again I complain at the complete absence of They Might Be Giants.
- Giant descends into drumming which I assume is supposed to evoke African music based on the call and response vocals, but made me think of roadworks.
This is a 2. I don't dislike it enough to be a 1, nor like it enough to be a 3. In another universe where I'm allowed half stars, it might have even scraped a 2.5. Maybe.
2/5
Can
2/5
This was odd. At times it sounded extremely 1970s and at other times very modern. The vocals, set back so much in the mix, frequently reminded me of Gorilliaz, but then Spray reminded me of Yes.
John Peel, quote about Moonshake is fantastic - it was "great", but its chances of becoming a hit were "roughly comparable to his chances of being asked to join Ivy Benson's All-Girl Orchestra on harp".
Everything except Moonshake could have benefited from a good trim to get to a sensible song length, especially Bel Air. I'm starting to develop a new aversion to records where one entire side of the vinyl was dedicated to a single song.
Their sound weirdly started to grow on me a bit over the course of the record, so I think this would have been a 2.5 had I been allowed half stars. I'm rounding down though because no song needs to be 20 minutes long.
2/5
Bill Callahan
2/5
Firstly, this is a very confusing album name / cover art combo.
Secondly, I think a lot of the songs on this record are beautiful but the vocal delivery is *weird*. I think I could get into this a lot more if Bill actually sounded like he wanted to be there - he sounds so dispassionate. It's certainly giving Shatner in places, if Bill was feeling particularly dispondant on the day of recording.
Thirdly, there should be more nonsense words in songs.
Fourthly, just because someone sings with a little bit of a twang, doesn't make them country. The genre classification for this record makes no sense to me. It's far more modern folky than country.
Not entirely sure where this leaves me, but I think previous albums where I mostly really liked the music but not the vocal delivery have tended to get a 3. So while the same would have happened here, the pointlessly long and repetitive last song broke me, so
2/5
The Temptations
2/5
You know when you expect you'll love something, and then its just fine? Yeah, that.
The voices are obviously incredible - just the most emotive, gravely, beautiful voices. That version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine is definitely not for me though. And I could definitely do without the crying child in Runaway Child, Running Wild.
I guess I like my soul less psychedelic.
Should be a 2.5 but I think I'm going to round down.
2/5
Orbital
1/5
Starting off a record with a clip of Worf from Star Trek should really appeal to me, as I am a nerd. But my goodness that opening track was annoying. And then it was followed up with 9 minutes of "Withnail and I" plus an incessant beat.
By about a quarter of the way through, I was considering allowing myself a DNF, but the completest in me decided to stick it out. Suffice to say, I suspect being completely off your tits on amphetamines in a field is probably the optimum way to experience this album. I however, was completely sober making leek and potato soup.
By the time the didgeridoo appeared I had well and truly had enough.
This album was basically my idea of hell.
1/5
Miles Davis
3/5
I imagine that if you like jazz, this is probably top tier jazz - it is Miles Davis afterall - but it you're me, you see this pop up and think "Oh goodie.... more jazz for me to not get".
The beginning made me think of the soundtrack to an Oceans 11/12/13/8 film, but where the composer was going through a particularly difficult life event at the time of creation and had channeled that into his art. Sort of cool, but deranged.
I obviously object to a 27 minute jazz song, even one that changes as often as Bitches Brew, because jazz already makes me feel slightly anxious and listening to music shouldn't feel like an endurance test.
Overall 1 hour and 45 minutes of experimental rock jazz is far too much for me in one go, which is a shame because I did enjoy bits of this. This is probably the closest I've got to actually properly enjoying jazz next to Dave Brubeck. It would get a 2.5, but it's better than a 2, so:
3/5
Nick Drake
4/5
I so really want to love Nick Drake.
I like the instrumentation, I like the lyrics, I like the way this was recorded where you can occasionally hear the squeak of fingers on guitar strings, I like the whole feel of the record. I am just still not sold on his voice - it's just so breathy.
On my review of Bryter Later I said his voice felt insubstantial and I'm not sure my opinion has changed much. I do really like everything else though. I particularly enjoyed the song Know as something about that riff really appealed to me (it reminded me of Gomez I think).
Last album I said it would have been 3.5 with half marks, but settled on 3. I'm going to say 3.5 this time too but as I like this album marginally more, I'm going to round up. So I'm averaging out to 3.5...
4/5
Electric Light Orchestra
3/5
ELO: a band my Mum loves so much, she regularly goes to see an ELO tribute band.
I'm certainly not going to go those extremes but I did enjoy this. There are some interesting instrumental choices, with really different changes of direction at random points in songs. I love the multilayer vocals.and the piano.
The strings/guitar on Night In The City sound almost exactly like the Orchestra version of Pinball Wizard at one part, which I found a bit distracting (parts of Standing In The Rain also reminded me of Tommy). It's too long (though I'm sure that if I were an ELO fan I'd be wishing it was triple album).
I'm a fan of a lot of weird, goofy, theatrical artists (TMBG, Barenaked Ladies, Will Wood, Bear Ghost) and I'd be genuinely amazed if they weren't all big ELO fans. I was wavering between a 3 and a 4 throughout this listen, but I'm settling on a 3 as I don't like the more plodding ballardy tracks anywhere near as much as the upbeat ones. It was so close though.
3/5
The Zutons
5/5
I don't have much to say about this album, other than that I really, really like it. It's just a very stylish, fun album to listen to. Love the vocals, love the brass, really enjoy the whole feel of it.
It feels weird giving such a high mark without a long explanation as to why I reached that conclusion, but it's just my kinda thing.
5/5
The Flying Burrito Brothers
2/5
They get a 5/5 for the band name. But not for anything else.
Its a toss up between whose voice I dislike more: Gram Parsons on lead or Chris Hillman on backing vocals. The combination on the first couple of tracks was a bit like nails on a chalkboard to me. I found it less annoying as the album went on, but I'd never say I really enjoyed it.
The actual music is fine, if a bit dull to my ears.
5/5 for Chris Hillman's suit (love the blue), 2/5 for the record.
2/5
Kraftwerk
2/5
Another band my Dad liked and which got played a lot in the house when I was a kid... and which I don't understand the appeal of.
The Model is alright (and short!) but otherwise this isn't for me. I did enjoy that the German accent made "Metropolis" sound like "call the police" every time they sang it.
Bleepy bloopy background music.
2/5
Metallica
4/5
So far there's been a distinct lack of "heavy" music on this list, so I was looking forward to this.
I was never particularly into Metallica at school, but I was into music and would hang out in the music room at lunch, and I'm not sure I ever sat in that room without hearing a teenage boy play the picking part of One on an acoustic guitar. It's a genuinely fantastic song - I am admittedly a sucker for songs that are all quiet LOUD quiet LOUD, but it's just a great song regardless. Sometimes familiarity means you like singles better than album tracks, but I would say that in the case of this album, One is head and shoulders the best track here. That's not to say the rest of the album is a disappointment, One is just too good.
It was really interesting reading about the way this was recorded and poor Jason Newstead's bass getting completed obliterated in the mix. I know very little about the internal politics of Metallica, but it doesn't feel like the most collegiate band to be a part of.
I enjoyed this a lot helped enormously by the fact I like James Hetfield's voice a lot. It's the perfect metal voice for me.
4/5
The Waterboys
3/5
I went into this really wanting to like it due to a continuing love of Whole Of The Moon (which isn't on this album, and therefore doesn't make it onto the 1001 album list). However...
...the fiddle on We Will Not Be Lovers might be the single instrument that has caused me the most annoyance in the 212 albums I have heard so far. It started off mildly irritating, but by the time it had got to the 7th minute of doing the same thing, I was just angry. Well angry and thinking how bored the violinist must be playing this live.
I liked World Party a lot. And I enjoyed the Van Morrison cover.
The Waterboys apparently really like an extremely long fade out, as it appears on multiple tracks and just makes the album longer than it needs to be.
Overall, there were parts of this I liked, parts I was pretty indifferent to, and a violin I hated with a firey passion. I think in a half star world this would get a 2.5, but it's not a 2, so a 3 is where I'm sticking.
3/5
Big Brother & The Holding Company
2/5
I had clearly not had enough lsd before listening to this. Piece Of My Heart is great, everything else is fine I guess. The added crowd noise is a bit odd? Why would you bother?
Just not for me, but I'm not angry about it, so
2/5
Slade
3/5
I listened to this while walking the hour to work and so, while I'd noted the version of this album was the extended one, I'd not made any attempt to work out where I was supposed to stop listening to get the normal experience. As a result, Noddy appearing to do an ad read was really very surprising. That might be the oddest thing I've ever heard on a deluxe album.
I really don't have that much to say about the rest of the record. I enjoyed it, in a toe tapping way, but I have subsequently remembered none of it other than the song I already knew. The very definition of "alright".
3/5
R.E.M.
5/5
During the pandemic, I tried to learn all the words to "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)". I utterly failed but in a world where we'd all lost all semblance of control, it helped me me feel like I still had a tiny bit left. All of which means, I heard this album a lot.
Michael Stipe very much fits into the category of "I could listen to him sing the phone book and still have a wonderful time" - I love his voice. And Mike Mills is a fabulous backing vocalist (and lead vocalist on the rare occasion that happens). Despite them having extremely different voices, they combine beautifully.
The whole band just fit together so well. And my goodness, they wrote catchy songs! I spent all day with "Your finest hour!" ringing in my head.
I love this album, and though it's not my favourite R.E.M. record, it was never going to get less than:
5/5
Joan Baez
2/5
Joan really likes a bit of vibrato doesn't she? Such a wibbly wobbly voice!
Lots of traditional folk songs over (in most cases) a single guitar accompaniment, makes for not the most exciting or dynamic album. I love House of the Rising Sun, so I should have at least loved that, but it was just ok. Girl (Man) of Constant Sorrow is another track I should have adored from the bonus songs, thanks to an abiding love of the Oh Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. It was fine.
It may be a case of wrong album, wrong day (full of cold and little sleep really required something shouty I think) but this has been filed into the "it's alright I guess" category in my head. That would be a 2.5, but it's forced into being a 2.
2/5
The Velvet Underground
3/5
One of those occasions where I was incredibly aware of the artist name, but completely oblivious to the music (at least on this album), and I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't Candy Says, which is sort of 50s high school slow dance.
This was a perfectly fine album to have as background music, but only made me properly pay attention to it twice. Pale Blue Eyes was the first occasion, when the lyrics made my brain go "Wait! Whose wife was Lou Reed shagging?!".
The second occasion was The Murder Mystery, which was beautifully weird and clearly where The Strokes got all those "just ripping off The Velvet Underground" comments from. Were it not so long, I would say it's my favourite song on the record.
A hard one to mark, but I'm settling on
3/5
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
Crosstown Traffic is a bonafide classic. As is Voodoo Child. As is his version of All Along The Watchtower.
I am on record as being unmoved by long periods of guitar noodling... But Hendrix's guitar noodling is just better. Funky and soulful and just perfect for the track it's on. And I find it so interesting he was critical of his own singing voice, because it's perfect for these songs.
However, as a record this is too long to sustain my interest over the full album, and for every great song, there's a forgettable one, meaning this can't get more than:
3/5
Missy Elliott
2/5
I only knew The Rain (which I don't like) going into this. I found the whole thing really slow, boring.and repetitive. Not even the appearance of Busta, a man whose voice genuinely makes me smile, saved this. I didn't hate it, but have no desire to ever listen to it again.
Would get a 1.5 but I can't justify a 1 so it's getting a default 2.
2/5
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
This is, as far as I'm concerned, a perfect album. It hits that beautiful combination of being an album I'm very nostalgic about, as both my parents loved it and played it a lot when I was young, and being an album that's also genuinely great.
I love that the voices meld beautifully and that different songs have different genders taking the lead vocals so there's a real variety in sounds. I like the simplicity of Songbird recorded in an empty echoy room. I adore Go Your Own Way which was a particular parental favourite. I love that The Chain turns into the theme tune to the BBC's coverage of Formula One for most of my life, thus making me think it's the weekend.
This album absolutely deserves it's spot in the global rankings vying for the topspot with The Beatles.
5/5
William Orbit
1/5
Listening to this was such a slog. I listened to the first 5 tracks, then jumped ship and had to pick up the rest the next day.
I just don't get the attraction in this type of music, especially outside of a club setting. It feels utterly bizarre to me that, even if this type of thing is what you're into, you'd put this record on while doing the ironing.
For my tastes, this had no redeeming features at all.
1/5
Heaven 17
2/5
Another stray thoughts review:
- this needed two listens as I had no idea what I thought about it after the first listen
- during (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing at one point the bass sounded like Uptown Funk and I spent ages trying to work out why
- Let's All Make A Bomb has a bit in it that sounds like they rounded up a load of Premier League refs and got them to whistle along
- everything is too repetitive and too long (you could fix the latter by fixing the former)
- The Height Of The Fighting is bloody weird: HEAT! WAR! SWEAT! LAW!
- the bleepy bloopy synths often sound like they're playing a different song to the one everyone else is playing
- the bass player is *great*
- I really like the vocals. I cannot in any way justify that statement
- I actually liked We're Going To Live For A Very Long Time a lot until the point they repeated the title 1 billion tomes during the fade out.
This is a 2.5 for me. I objectively think I should probably hate it, but I don't. I'm rounding down to 2, but I really did consider rounding up instead.
2/5
The Cult
1/5
I assumed I wasn't going to have fun with this album because it would be all gothy as that's how I think of The Cult, and traditionally, I have not enjoyed goth. Well, it turns out I didn't have fun with this album because it was uninspired classic rock.
Mostly, even if I don't enjoy an album, I understand why it ended up on this list. Not this time. Mind you, I wasn't hating it, just not seeing the point of it, so in my self imposed marking system that should mean it gets a 2. However the Born To Be Wild cover was so indescribably horrific it's getting:
1/5
The Police
3/5
I sort of expected to really like this because I love Message In A Bottle and I love reggae/ska influences... but then it was just fine for the most part.
I was really surprised by how lyrically sparse some of these tracks are - I think of the Police as having interesting lyrics, so I wasn't expecting Sting to repeatedly sing rio rio rioyo. I also started getting a bit fed up of the "repeat a phrase a billion times as the song fades out" schtick.
On Any Other Day doesn't seem to fit on this album at all, but I kinda liked it. I also liked Bed's Too Big Without You.
Ultimately this feels very middle of the road with a few exceptions, so it's getting a middle of the road score.
3/5
Solange
2/5
I obviously know who she is, but had never listened to anything by Solange. Somewhat unsurprisingly she has a lovely voice, so it hung on the instrumentation and songwriting for me. Well mostly, given I'm on record as finding interludes incredibly annoying.
I still find interludes incredibly annoying.
This is alright but not particularly interesting. I listened to it on a long train journey, and coupled with the gentle rocking of the train (something that always makes me a bit tired), this record really made me want a snooze.
I only really perked up at one point. I am too white to type out the actual lyric, but at one point I thought she was singing "All my knickers around the world" and I had to check.
Nice voice, just not for me.
2/5
Ride
2/5
I knew absolutely nothing about this going in, which is always interesting.
Seagull is very discombobulating while wearing earphones as it pans back and forth. It also reminded me massively of Let Forever Be by Chemical Brothers, because of the drum/bass. It did not need to be 6 minutes long, but it did feel like a decently high energy start to an album.
Kaleidescope sounded fairly similar to track 1 and I started to think this was going to feel like a very long 1 hour 11 minute album. It was at that point I read the Wikipedia, learned the Amazon Music version of this has 15 songs but the original only had 8, and breathed a sigh of relief - an easy point to bail out if things didn't change.
In A Different Place, slowed things down a bit and I realised who the singer reminded me of: Damon Albarn, but if Damon Albarn couldn't sing.... And I recognise that I'm in the 5% of the population who thinks Damon can actually hold a tune.
By the time we got to Decay, I was very much done with the vocals, and didn't find the music interesting enough to balance out my dislike of the singing.
I absolutely bailed out at the end of Vapour Trail.
2/5
P.S. My favourite bit of the band Wikipedia:
"The album was not well received by critics, Bell explaining "These were good times but the music took second place. When we recorded the Carnival of Light album we got indulgent". By the end of 1994 even the band themselves were critical of the album, referring to it within the group as "Carnival of Shite".".
(I am relieved to know, that album did not make the cut for the Generator)
Beastie Boys
3/5
This, in general, was less enjoyable for me than the previous Beastie Boys album the album generator gave us, and I'm not sure why.
I did enjoy playing spot the sample again, with 5-Piece Dinner being one of the most random examples of that: Shucking The Corn from the Deliverance soundtrack? Sure, why not. Plus The Beatles, The Isley Brothers, Curtis Mayfield, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Chic...
But overall, I liked Ill Communication much more. The vocals, which have always been whiny-shouty didn't annoy me there, but I found them grating on this album.
This feels like a 2.5 but I'm going to round up because I enjoyed the sampling.
Black Sabbath
3/5
I think Ozzy had the perfect voice for this style of music and I enjoy little hints of his accent coming through every now and again. I also liked the heaviness of the guitars. I didn't enjoy this quite as much as Vol. 4 though, I think because the songs felt a little less focused to me.
Still a really solid album that I don't have much to say about.
3/5
Stan Getz
3/5
Oh... more jazz... But bossa nova this time! AND its only 33 minutes long! This is more like it!
It turns out I quite like the type of jazz that sounds like it should be playing on a beach front establishment on a tropical island better than the type of jazz that sounds like it should be playing in a dark smokey basement bar. This will be unsurprising to anyone who's ever met me.
Not sure it was best experienced on a cold drk winter walk to work, but I still thought it was ok.
3/5
The Undertones
4/5
Unsurprisingly for someone who likes punk, I liked this. It's the melodic Clashy-end of punk rather the purely shouty-end of punk, and I appreciate that enormously.
However it does suffer from having some *extremely* well known tracks on it... plus everything else. It positively belts through 16 songs in 34 minutes though, and it it definitely something I actively enjoyed listening to, so much so, I heard it three times yesterday.
I am predisposed to enjoy this type of thing, and I enjoyed this type of thing.
4/5
Common
3/5
I loved the Intro, which was a promising sign.
Reading the featured artists in the first track were Kanye and John Mayer felt like a double-whammy of "problematic" (though to very different extremes) and as I know nothing about Common, I looked him up. He seems like a great guy who genuinely tries to make the world a better place and then gets called hokey for it.
I think this is probably more a warm summer day album, than a dark dismal UK winter day album, but I enjoyed it regardless. I like that it feels like a positive, uplifting album thanks to the lyrical content. And yes, I like the production. If only Kanye had stuck to producing records like this instead of becoming what he is now.
Should be a 3.5 but I don't think this is quite a 4 for me, so:
3/5
Bonnie Raitt
2/5
I got to this late, due to a trip, so came back to it while stood up on a packed train.
I would like to think this didn't affect my marking too badly, but I did not find this album interesting. At all. She has a nice voice but the tunes are dull. I am not mad at it, but I genuinely don't understand why this is one of the 1001 Albums you should listen to before you die.
Following my self imposed "just being dull can't get you 1/5" marking system means this is a 2 (but should have been a 1.5 in a better scoring system).
2/5
Lynyrd Skynyrd
3/5
I am a being of simple tastes: give me an album I suspect I'm not going to enjoy, but add honky-tonk piano to parts of it, and you are guaranteed to get, at least, an ok mark.
I did only listen to the original first 8 tracks though, not the demo versions now tacked onto the end, because I'm a purest (that's definitely the reason, it's not because I couldn't face 1 hour 15 minutes of classic rock).
I liked Things Going On and Mississippi Kid a lot. Free Bird is too long and only interesting when it ups the tempo... unfortunately it then makes my think of car commercials.
All in all, a much better than I expected:
3/5
Hugh Masekela
2/5
I am going to have listened to more jazz during this project than I have during the entirety of the rest of my life. I'm genuinely starting to wonder what proportion of this list is jazz, because it's beginning to feel like I'm never more than 4 days away from more jazz. And, at best, I'm indifferent to it.
The piano section in the first track is horrible, which is a shame as I wasn't hating the rest. I was somewhat surprised by the noise that I assume was a saxophone, but sounded like a swanee whistle. When your song is nearly 10 minutes long, you do not need a fade out ending.
After that I zoned out a bit, though I did quite like (at least bits of) Nomali. I still don't really find jazz that engaging though, so we're back to some more low scores:
2/5
Meat Puppets
1/5
Well this is shouty. And also sort of initially sounds like a group of people having their own individual panic attacks while performing. And then goes a bit country. And then I recognised a song from a Nirvana Unplugged cover. And then we're back to a (new to me) dissonant guitar-noodling instrumental.
It's sort of impressive to make an album that's so weirdly eclectic, and yet I don't really like any of it.
I really debated the score here, because this absolutely isn't as offensive to me as other albums I've scored 1/5, but I didn't like the music that much and hated the singing. My only thing that really pushes the score a little is that the songs were mercifully short, and that doesn't get you a full star of recognition. A regrettable, not for me,
1/5
Dolly Parton
3/5
I do love Dolly's voice, and I enjoyed the album, though I don't think any particular song stood out over any other. I liked it enough to listen to the album twice, yet nothing has really lodged itself in my brain. I am however now hugely curious how many times Dolly had written "Mama" or "Momma" into her song lyrics...
I am still looking for the Dolly album that I can really love, because I think there's probably one out there.
I think this is really a 2.5 album for me, but I'm going to give a generous rounding up as it's better than a 2.
3/5
Sonic Youth
2/5
Sonic Youth: a band where I am familiar with the name yet am not convinced I'd ever previously heard anything by them. I had about 4 false starts trying to listen to this album. Just kept starting it and then getting distracted and doing something else, then picking it up again, then thinking I wanted to listen to something else instead, then picking it up AGAIN.
So many 7 minute songs of intermittently screeching, then noodling, guitars. I have fairly consistently not been a big fan of post-punk so I just think this wasn't really for me. I objectively know that Sonic Youth, and this album in particular, had a massive influence on music in this era, and I sort of liked Thurston Moore's talky vocals, but I have no desire to listen to it again.
2/5
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Firstly, love an alliterative album appellation.
If I were only rating Boogie on Reggae Women, the album would be getting a 5/5 without any hesitation. I absolutely loved it. There were other songs I found fairly forgettable, or that I liked but they didn't set my world alight, but I thought that track was great. It has been a surprise to me how much I like funk. And a harmonica.
As for everything else, the "bum bum ti didi" part of Smile Please was hysterical. It certainly made a song that I otherwise would have probably instantly forgotten, very memorable.
The slower, more plodding, songs were generally less interesting. For me, the best of the bunch of that type was They Won't Go When I Go which I thought was really beautiful and Stevie sounded fantastic.
I really enjoyed whenever the female backing vocals kicked in on tracks because they were a really lovely contrast to Stevie's incredible vocals. I have no idea what the weird sound in Bird Of Beauty is, but the vocals were great.
You Haven't Done Nothin' sounded like it was going to turn into Superstition as any moment. Which meant it was a really enjoyable song, but slightly disconcerting.
I am wishing for a 3.5 again... I think this was more great tracks than forgettable ones, so I'm rounding up.
4/5
Nirvana
4/5
Historically, I hold a "completely ambivalent" position on Nirvana, but this album has Heart-Shaped Box on it, and I do really love that song thanks to my parents getting MTV when I was in my early teens and it being played constantly. I loved the music video too.
Of everything else, I liked Scentless Apprentice and Milk It a lot (absolutely the right type of screamy), and Pennyroyal Tea (I like how it descends into shambles at the end). I liked Radio Unfriendly Unit Shifter and Tourettes too. Plus it's nice to hear All Apologies in the proper recorded version (MTV also obsessively played the Unplugged version of that too).
I actually enjoyed this album way, way more than I thought I might. I will say, now I've seen that clip of Dave Grohl telling Pharrell Williams that while in Nirvana he just ripped off disco drums, I can't unhear it, which certainly adds to the listening experience.
Genuinely a surprise to me how much I liked this album (which I imagine is a bizarre statement for a lot of people my age to read). It very nearly got the top mark, but it definitely deserves a 4.
4/5
Richard Thompson
2/5
My Mum loves Richard Thompson's voice. Me, I don't get it. I like Linda's though.
This was a perfectly fine folk album but I have little to say about it, either positive or negative. Would have been a 2.5, but I can't stretch to 3, so:
2/5
Eminem
3/5
The Generator linked to the clean version on Amazon Music by default, which was very confusing given that it dealt with the opening Public Service Announcement by just completely skipping it. I nearly carried on playing the clean version out of pure curiosity - I assume it's 75% silence - but searched and found the original instead.
I loved this record when it was released. I still see why I would have done to be honest. Songs like Kill You and I'm Back are catchy as hell. But when the Generator gave me the Slim Shady LP, I mentioned that I felt very differently about that as a middle aged woman than I did in my late teens/early 20s. I wasn't sure if the same would be true for this record.
It's probably not the popular opinion, but for all their shock value, I think Eminem has always thought carefully about his lyrics. However the subject matter in this album is where he started a bit more self reflection, in places at least. The writing is far better for it, despite often being as hate filled as on previous releases.
Stan is a really powerful song and I entirely understand why it was such a massive hit. It changed the world's vocabulary. I genuinely find it fascinating there are people who use "stan" in context and have no idea where it came from.
The Real Slim Shady basically defined an era. I can entirely play the MTV VMAs 2000 performance of this song in my brain while listening. It's still great.
To me, this is a much better album than The Slim Shady LP. I still enjoy this (with reservations) while my memories of that album were so much better than the reality of listening to it in 2025. There is still an absolute ton of misogyny, homophobia and violence on this album, but there feels like (a little) more commentary on where that came from and (a little) more thought about the impacts. Though, you know, he still wrote tracks like Kim, which urgh.
I hate skits and I had completely forgotten this album has the Ken Kaniff skit on it, which is probably the worse skit in the history of skits (bet that didn't make the clean version of the album).
This was probably a 3.5 for me, but I can't justify a 4.
3/5
[After listening to the record, I read the Wiki entry. I particularly enjoyed:
"In his book Edited Clean Version: Technology and the Culture of Control, author Raiford Guins writes that the clean version of The Marshall Mathers LP "resembles a cross between a cell phone chat with terrible reception...and a noted hip-hop lyricist suffering from an incurable case of hiccups".]
Marilyn Manson
1/5
I had been doing so well at separating the art from the artist in this project until now, but fuck you, Marilyn Manson.
I saw MM at Leeds Festival in 2001, which ironically means I saw him duet with yesterday's artist, Eminem. I remember nothing about his set at all (it was the same year Rocket From The Crypt made people face the back of the tent "to experience the music differently" so it's not like I blanked out the whole weekend).
I like The Beautiful People. Everything is basically summed up as MM ripping off Nine Inch Nails, and I don't even like them very much.
This probably should get a 1.5, but, again, fuck you Brian.
1/5
Massive Attack
3/5
I'd not managed to get to this album, as it was Christmas Eve and I had stuff to do. But then it turned out I had a bout of insomnia and at 1:10am, I realised this might be the perfect thing.
It was going well (making me sleepy) until Spying Glass - what a weird vocal! But then I started nodding off again and, when I was clearly so sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open, I took off the headphones...
Well it turns out, all but the last track of Protection is what I need to fall asleep. So while this may sound like damming with faint praise, very relaxing album:
3/5
Various Artists
5/5
It feels a bit weird to say an album put together by a convicted murderer is "perfect", but this is a (near) perfect Christmas album for me.
It does help massively that it has one of my all-time favourite Christmas songs - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love - but I genuinely loved the whole thing. It made me feel strangely nostalgic despite not being alive when these songs were released.
I could have done without Phil having a chat at the end, but I'm not marking the amazing Darlene down for that.
5/5
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
More Elvis Costello - we're up to album number 3 - and this one has my largest "already know this song" ratio so far. Admittedly I only found out afterwards, I listened to the 2021 remaster which added Radio Radio, but I also already knew (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea, This Year's Girl and Pump It Up.
I genuinely had to check that Elvis wasn't singing "big cheese" at one point during this album (this may be due to it being Boxing Day and therefore our house being fairly full of various cheeses).
I really like Elvis Costello. Every album of his I've heard so far has reaffirmed that.
4/5
Finley Quaye
2/5
Genuinely very surprised to see this on the list. There was a brief period of time in the UK in the 90s where is was impossible not to hear a Finley Quaye song whenever you listened to the radio (mostly Sunday Shining to be fair, as it was a massive hit). And then he almost completely disappeared from the radio and the charts.
I had never listened to this album before. I thought I might like it, as I remember liking all the singles and I am pretty keen on reggae-tinged tracks in general. I actually found it dragged a bit, and I didn't like any album track as much as the singles (particularly Your Love Gets Sweeter).
Just fine.
2/5 (because it can't be 2.5)
2/5
Obviously, like many people, I find Bono insufferable, but given this is clearly such a massive album, I wanted to try and give it a fair shot...
... I still don't get the attraction in U2. I think I liked this less than the previous U2 album the generator gave me, and I gave that a 3 while thinking it was more like a 2.5. So I'm giving this a 2 while thinking it's more a 2.5.
2/5
Joni Mitchell
3/5
Joni Mitchell album number 3 (inexplicably meaning there's one more to go - seriously, for a list that really underrepresents women, Robert Dimery has quite the thing for Joni).
My Old Man felt extremely familiar, so this might be one of those songs my parents played a lot when I was a kid? I quite liked it, as it was very reminiscent of Tori Amos (along with a few other tracks). I quite liked California too with it's steel guitar.
I still think she has a lovely voice whilst also thinking her music isn't quite my thing, though it did grow on my over the course of the record.
3/5
Janis Joplin
3/5
The generator decided to follow Joni Mitchell with Janis Joplin - the 70s female singers are out in force.
Janis sounds like she must have had a permanent sore throat, but I do really like her voice - it's raspy and bluesy, and so full of emotion. And this album has a ton of Hammond organ on it (which I love). And it's a snappy 34 minutes!
I would say I think I enjoyed this a little more that Joni yesterday, but not quite enough for a 4, so
3/5
Portishead
3/5
I was extremely surprised that I actually enjoyed this. It might be that I was in a bit of a doom and gloom mood while listening, and I was doing housework at the same time, so it was background darkness rather than anything I was really focusing on, but I liked it. I can't imagine it would be the best album to listen to while in a good mood though.
3/5
Django Django
4/5
This was completely new to me: never even heard of the artist, let alone heard a track before.
Hail Bop kept reminding me of something else, but the name was just out of grasp the whole time. I liked it but that sense of "what is this?" was really distracting. I liked Default too - instantly catchy for my brain. Firewater was back to reminding me of the mystery other band...
The album carried on in this vein: always liking it, always trying to place it, until I got to Zumm Zumm and then it hit me: it was Free The Bees by The Bees but with synths. I'm not even convinced the two bands sound in any way alike but at least my brain could stop trying to puzzle it out.
I did genuinely enjoy this whole album, though absolutely understand why others would mark it down, because it is a little samey. It's just I like the thing it's repeating, so that doesn't bother me.
4/5
The Specials
5/5
I listen to this album regularly, so this was one of those occasions where I debated whether I even needed an "official" 1001 Album Generator listen... But any excuse to listen to it.
I love ska, from the original wave in the 50s and 60s, all the way through to the tracks being released in the 2020s. The Specials were a really incredible band of the genre though, and this album in particular is fantastic.
Too Much Too Young is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the best songs ever written. But then, so is A Message To You Rudy. I do have a real soft spot for the Toots and the Maytals cover Monkey Man too, although that started due to the Reel Big Fish cover version.
This was never getting less than a 5 from me. I was however today years old when I discovered Elvis Costello produced this album, which makes a lot of sense.
5/5
Echo And The Bunnymen
2/5
Oh, more post-punk... This is starting to become my new "oh, more jazz...". I just don't really get it most of the time.
Bits of this reminded me of U2 - I think specifically the vocals - which, as I am at best indifferent to them, that wasn't helpful. I like the brass on Back Of Love, though I'm not sure I like much else. In general, it's all very jangly guitars and echoy vocals (it sounds like he's singing in a cave). Not even the handclaps on In Bluer Skies saved it.
Just not my kinda thing at all.
2/5
Talking Heads
2/5
Second consecutive post-punk album in a row, but at least as this is Talking Heads, it'll be a little bit funky and a little bit odd. Also, you know, it includes Once in a Lifetime...
... well that was disappointing. 2 stars, solely for Once in a Lifetime.
2/5
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
2/5
I wasn't sure what to expect listening to this album, as basically my entire Tom Petty knowledge centres around Into The Great Wide Open, but I wasn't expecting this.
It sounds like an amalgam of a ton of bands around in the same era, all smushed together. There were Beatlesesque parts and bits that sounded like The Stones and bits that sounded like generic 70s blues rock. I enjoyed American Girl, but mostly because I have a soft spot for the Everclear cover version.
It's not that I didn't like it per sae, its that I didn't understand why it would be considered such a big deal? I think this is a prime example of a 2.5 star album for me because it was perfectly fine but nothing particularly stood out or endeared me to it. I am going to be a bit harsh and round down, because I just didn't see the attraction:
2/5
Steely Dan
2/5
My parents listened to a lot of Steely Dan during my childhood, yet it had somehow left zero impression on me.
The first track included all the bits I hate about Prog Rock and a lots of extra stuff I hate from Soft Jazz. Bodhisattva is all noodley guitar solos and a part that sounded like the needle had stuck on the record because they repeated Bodhisattva so frequently.
I started to enjoy some bits of it after then though. I liked The Boston Rag (I think because of the layered vocals) until the interminable guitar solo kicked in and then we went back to repeating a small number of lyrics until fade out.
I actually do think I might have liked this album, had the band limited their ceaseless soloing. You can all play your instruments, I get it, I don't need you to stop the song for a minute to all prove it to me.
Should be a 2.5, but alas...
2/5
Megadeth
2/5
I'm really not sure if it was the fact I listened to this while trying to not fall over on black ice while on my commute, or it's inherent thrashiness, but post listening I was extremely anxious.
I thought it was incredibly samey and the lack of variety really hindered it.
I also had Master of Puppets stuck in my head all day afterwards and I'm assuming getting a different artist's (superior) song as a earworm is probably not a good sign.
2/5
Bon Jovi
3/5
The high: Wanted Dead or Alive is probably my favourite Bon Jovi song.
The low: The start of Social Distortion made me want to crawl into a little ball (urrrgghh), and somehow it being sandwiched between two massive hit singles made it even worse.
However, I do not care that this album is dated and cheesy and possibly the least cool album on this 1001 Album list, I (mostly) had a good time listening to it. It's so unbelievably 80s, I felt like I should be wearing leg warmers and sporting a fresh perm.
Fun. Should be 3.5, but in a half starless world, it's getting:
3/5
(Side note: Classifying this as "hard rock" is absolutely laughable)
Count Basie & His Orchestra
3/5
I don't like jazz (so far), but I do like big band and swing so this was an interesting test of which position won out.
I enjoyed a ton of this album because I love the sound of muted trumpets (Duet was great). Nothing was too long and outstayed it's welcome, though I tended to enjoy the more up tempo tracks that the slower ones (After Supper and Midnite Blue were a bit too plodding for me). I liked the drummer going a bit Animal from the Muppets during Flight of the Foo Birds.
I think I knew Splanky from somewhere, and I can't work out where, but it was one of my favourites on the album. Very 1950s Las Vegas, it just sounded cool.
I can't actually ever imagine I'll sit down and listen to this again (I'm learning through this project that I need lyrics and an interesting vocalist for repeat listens) but I did enjoy it.
3.5 stars would be my ideal, but I'm going for:
3/5
Soundgarden
5/5
Yesterday I said I needed interesting lyrics and a great vocalist for repeat listens and today the generator was a kind and benevolent god, providing me one of the greatest vocalists of my lifetime.
Chris Cornell made singing sound effortless. His voice was perfect - emotive, amazing range and one of the best rock "screamy" vocals ever.
I never got into grunge despite being about the right age during it's heyday, but Black Hole Sun was such an important song to me as a kid. When we got MTV I remember becoming obsessed with the music video, which was so trippy.
Despite that (and liking Spoonman, which I really don't think I appreciated enough in my early teens), I never bought an album and really haven't ever subsequently sat down to listen to any Soundgarden album, just heard bits and bobs over the years. I was so excited to finally listen to this album from start to end.
This is really, really great for the most part. The vocals yes, just perfect, but the instrumentals too. The guitar in tracks like Superunknown is just so, so catchy. Away from the most famous songs, I really loved Mailman.
For my personal tastes it's a little too long, as I definitely prefer sub-60 minute albums (preferably 45ish minutes), but it's definitely accomplished. It's sort of annoying I have first listened to all of Superunknown in my mid 40s.
Even with my quibble over the length, giving this less than a 5 seems massively unfair due to the overall quality and the fact Chris Cornell's voice makes my stomach do flips, so:
5/5
Baaba Maal
3/5
I really enjoyed this, much to my surprise. When the generator previously produced Djam Leelii by Baaba Maal, I really struggled to get into it. The lack of being able to understand the lyrics and the repetitive beats made me lose interest pretty quickly.
This album still throws up the lyric issue (I'd genuinely love someone to translate the songs and put the lyrics online somewhere - I'd really appreciate knowing the topics) but it felt much more varied, with more influences. It seems wrong to say you enjoyed an album more because it felt less linked to the traditional sounds of the singer's homeland, but this is much more of a fusion, and I guess it means I find it easier to listen to as a result (which is very much my problem, not the artists obviously).
I really liked Hamady Boiro and Ndelorel. And the funky bass playing on Daniibe was great. I'm not sure I'll necessarily return to this album again, but I do appreciate it.
3/5
Public Enemy
3/5
I continue to be surprised by how much I appreciate a lot of late 80s/early 90s hiphop, and this was no exception. I enjoyed this album, even... and this really is a surprise given how much I've whinged about them on other albums... the skit-adjacent bits!
Fight the Power is obviously the standout here, but I liked a lot of this album. The style of sampling on albums like this is just so impressive to me and I appreciate that Public Enemy were outspoken about their politics and experiences.
Probably a 3.5, but on balance I'm rounding down not up. It was a close run thing though.
3/5
2/5
Third, and final for this project, Yes album. After getting over the shock of the extended version being over 4 hours, I listened to the first 3 tracks* of the Deluxe album so I could hear the album as the artist originally intended (and only have 37 minutes to get through).
For me, it's very much like the other Yes albums on the list: I quite like the singing bits, I don't have patience for the non-singing bits. This album also didn't have the same nostalgia factor for me either, as there was only one part I think I recognised from my Dad playing it around the house.
A chunk of the modern music I've been enjoying recently is being described as prog rock, which I find bizarre based on my complete indifference to 70s prog rock, but maybe that's what listening to a lot of my father's record collection in my youth has done for me.
2/5
* Which because it's Yes, are actually like 9 tracks squished together.
The Police
3/5
As someone who (until this project) solely knew The Police through singles, it appears they were far, far, far weirder than I ever previously appreciated.
The start of the opening track sounds like a mobile ringtone from before the time we had mobiles, and later has a lyric I misheard as "spirits that will spoon me" (he's actually singing "spiritus mundi" aka world spirit in latin and that's equally odd just for very different reasons).
Sting's pronunciation of footsteps, in Walking in Your Foodsteps... I mean Footsteps... was fascinating. And, you know, unexpected songs about dinosaurs always get a tick from me.
Wrapped Around Your Finger resulted in another excellent misheard lyric: "vegetable well, a bastard" aka "[I will turn your] face to alabaster". I'm not sure if it was Sting's pronunciation or my ears, but there was ample opportunity for misunderstandings during this listen.
I thought Murder by Numbers was a good way to round out an absolutely bizarre album.
Now, to address the elephant in the room, which I have so far skipped... Mother. I started off thinking "What is this shit?" but something happened before the end.... I think I started enjoying it? Given that I enjoyed the rest, and (I'm sure to the horror of the other listeners in my group) I actually liked Mother too, I think this gets a:
3/5 (but I was very close to a 4)
The Cramps
2/5
The "solo" on track 1 set a worrying bar for quality early on. I did appreciate a song with Frigidaire in the lyrics though.
I quite like a lot of rockabilly, and I absolutely like a lot of punk, though to the best of my knowledge, I've never really heard much psychobilly. I am a bit concerned that The Cramps might be considered the best psychobilly has to offer though.
The vocals are the end of punk where the singer has little ability to actually sing, and while I'm all for the punk attitude of "just get up there and do it, regardless of ability" that doesn't mean I want to listen to it. I'm also not convinced they were capable of playing a full song at a consistent tempo? The drums kept seeming to slow down then speed up, mid song - it was a bit White Stripes, just with zombies.
I wanted to like this (tongue in cheek songs about werewolves and spooky stuff should be right up my alley), alas, I did not.
I was a bit concerned that there was going to be 53 minutes of this album, allowing me to really build up a festering hatred, but I then checked Wikipedia and discovered the original album contained 13 tracks, mercifully allowing me to bail out 5 tracks, and 15ish minutes, early.
As a result, this gets a generous 2/5.
Muddy Waters
3/5
Lovely voice. Lots of 12 bar blues. The Levi's advert from the late 80s where the bloke takes his jeans out of the fridge. Harmonica solos. I Can't Be Satisfied was great. The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll, Pt. 2 is an amazing name for a song.
I am feeling very bluesy. Maybe a bit too bluesy (I think this slightly outstayed it's welcome for me despite the obvious quality).
3/5
Paul Simon
4/5
It's another album my parents played to death during my youth and which I probably haven't listened to once as an adult.
Paul Simon has such a soft, lovely voice and he writes great lyrics - it's a killer combination. Especially on this album which, depending on your viewpoint, is infused with the sounds of South Africa / stolen from apartheid Africans.
I haf no idea that Simon was a bit of an arse who stole the whole idea for this album from someone else (Heidi Berg) who he was supposed to be producing an album for. Major tut. I listened to this while reading a message board post from 2011 where Paul Simon stans argued with each other about how much of this album can be credited to him and it was genuinely fascinating. Parasocial relationships with artists are nothing new.
Back to the music... Ladysmith Black Mambazo have just the most beautiful voices - there are some great songs on this album that are so well known, but Homeless just is so lovely and tragic and gorgeous.
I really enjoyed revisiting this album, and regardless of it's complicated back story, it's so understandable how this became the huge hit it was.
4/5
Rush
1/5
I tell you what doesn't make me like prog rock more: making it sound like naff 80s rock bands.
1/5
ZZ Top
2/5
A surprising number of "classic" albums start with arguably a band's biggest track.
This was very much an album of the singles plus the other stuff. I've never been a massive ZZ Top fan anyway, so I wasn't even that excited to hear the singles, but it turns out they were the most interesting part. My mind kept wandering throughout and it was a real struggle to force myself to pay attention.
Not terrible, but (for me) not good.
2/5
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
So it turns out I don't really like Bruce's voice very much. This project has been full of surprises.
It was alright. I didn't particularly love anything and I didn't particularly hate anything: it just wasn't for me. I liked Adam Raised A Cain, though I couldn't tell you why.
2/5
Arrested Development
4/5
So getting the bad out of the way first: this is too long. My attention started wandering just past Mr. Wendal, though it locked back in around U, so I think cutting a couple of songs would have improved this (but my personal preference has always been for 45/50ish minutes max).
Other than that, I really enjoyed this. The mixing and sampling is really engaging, I like Speech's sort of talky-singy rapping style and the general timbre of his voice and I like the backing vocals too.
I realise that one of the insults that gets thrown at Arrested Development is that the lyrics are corny, and I just don't get it. The lyrics are talking about social issues earnestly and just because they aren't full of angry and violence, that doesn't make them lesser than others who talk about similar topics.
People Everyday slightly threw me for a loop, because I have only ever heard the much quicker single version, but I still liked it a lot. I even didn't mind the skit-adjacent bits of the record (although cutting them would have helped reduce the length).
Bonus point for the yodally yell at the beginning of Mr Wendal, as I've always loved it.
4/5
Brian Eno
2/5
No One Recieving felt a bit Talking Heads, but without David Byrne singing (thus instantly making it a bit better). The vocals also reminded me a bit of Tally Hall but I can't put my finger on why. I wish it was less repetitive, but I liked it.
Onto Backwater which felt a bit They Might Be Giants and not just as a result of the lyric "Ooh what to do, not a sausage to do". I think it was the programmed brass that really sealed it. Well that or the handclaps. I liked that too.
Kurt's Rejoinder was, to my ears, a cacophony of insane base, noise and Devo-like vocals. Energy Fools The Magician was all Yes styled prog rock, just mercifully brief. King's Lead Hat sounded like someone torturing a piano during a Talking Heads song. Here He Comes sounds a bit like a theme tune to a 70s sitcom, just far too long (but also again, a bit They Might Be Giants). I was somewhat surprised to find out Dave Mattacks, of folk legends Fairport Convention, was the drummer on that and Kurt's Rejoinder.
About half way through the album I became aware that while I was not particularly liking it, I thought I potentially could get into it with repeated listens. There were enough parts that have clearly influenced things I do like, I could see (small) glimmers of hope. And then the second half of the album happened...
I did not like the b side of this album. At all.
2/5
AC/DC
4/5
Finishing yesterday's beepy bloopy Brian Eno album and immediately moving on to Highway To Hell was quite a vibe shift.
I really enjoyed the chanting backing vocals of Walk All Over You, but honestly I enjoyed the whole thing. The gang vocals on multiple tracks particularly are really fun, but I didn't even get annoyed by the guitar solos. The hook of the bassline on Love Hungry Man is very funky.
Look, does this sound pretty cheesy listening to it in 2026? Yes, but you know what? Cheesy can be fun. This just makes me smile and tap my toes. The last words being spoken on the album being a quote of Mork (of "and Mindy" fame) feels very fitting, even if the song it appears on is tonally different from the rest of the album.
I am wishing for a half star, as I think this is more a 3.5 for me but it's much better than a 3 so:
4/5
The Smiths
2/5
First, full disclaimer, I think Morrissey The Person is a ginormous dickhead. It's extremely clear that he's descending into becoming a bitter old man who is angry about his lot in life, treats his fans like shit if he can't be arsed to play a show and generally thinks he's better than everyone else... and they're the least of his transgressions. I am now attempting to ignore all that and focus on Morrissey The Singer.
I don't particularly like Morrissey's voice but he's not awful - it's very grating over a full album though. The actual instrumentation is much better than the vocals in my opinion, but much like Talking Heads, I get that for fans his voice is 80% of the attraction. Johnny Marr deserved better though.
My highlight is probably The Boy With A Thorn In His side (the fact someone has transcribed the outro "lyrics" on Genius made my giggle). Ending your album with a song about boobs is probably the low point.
This should be a 2.5. Rounding down because of the annoying voice.
2/5
Deep Purple
2/5
Back to more artists my Dad adored when I was a kid. This feels very Hendrixy and very Led Zeppeliny but then also a bit Yesy. It's precisely the type of thing he was destined to love.
I think this is alright but it didn't really click with me in the way something like Black Sabbath did when I first heard it. I think the prog parts are the bits I struggle with - in general I like the metal parts much better. Too much guitar noodling and keyboard noodling for my patience overall, particularly on the longer songs. They even managed *drum noodling* on Flight of the Rat.
I do want to briefly call out the album cover: it looks like something Terry Gilliam might have made for Monty Python and I love it.
Should be a 2.5 and was on for a 3 until the last few tracks, but I really lost patience with it so:
2/5
David Bowie
2/5
I've had a surprisingly patchy record with Bowie albums so far, so I wasn't sure how Bowie no: 4 would go...
I like the opening track (despite it repeating itself for what felt like ages) - the Sgt Pepper reference always seems extremely out of place though. I also liked the closing track, and other big hit, Fame because of its general funkiness.
As for everything in the middle: it was just really dull? I am still taken aback at how little I like Bowie over full albums, when I'd absolutely eat up a greatest hits album.
This is getting a 2, and that feels generous.
2/5
John Lennon
3/5
I thought I'd like this, given how much I like The Beatles but I definitely like them more together than as solo artists.
Imagine is an iconic song and definitely a stand out. Following it with the honky-tonk piano of Crippled Inside is an interesting choice - it's a bit of a whiplash change of direction. And then we get to Jealous Guy.
Knowing how much of an utter bastard Lennon was to the people he was supposed to love means Jealous Guy leaves a very sour taste in my mouth. I don't have the patience for all his "woe is me, it'll be different next time" bollocks. Good whistling though.
And then I sort of stopped really listening. The album was happening, but I was struggling to pay attention to it. On a second quick pass through the album, How Do You Sleep? might be one of the most mean spirited, bitter tracks a Beatle ever wrote, though it is a pretty good song - I particularly liked the strings.
This was a very mixed bag for me. On balance, I think it's getting:
3/5
(because I can't give it 2.5)
Funkadelic
2/5
I have this issue with funk songs, and Funkadelic songs in particular:
Minutes 0-3: "This is great!"
Minutes 4-5: "Yeah, this has been going on a bit too long now, I'm ready for the next song"
Minutes 6+: "Is this ever going to end?!"
That being said, the first 3 minutes of the opening track was the perfect song to walk to work with. I was pretty much strutting. The lyrics are hysterical as well, so that was fun. Overall however, I have not pledged "a groovallegiance to the funk".
2/5
Van Morrison
2/5
It's soooooooooooo looooooooooooong.
I paid virtually no attention to this but it passed the time while working. After what felt like half a lifetime, I checked to see how much was left and was relieved to know there were only two songs left so I could finally listen to a different artist.
His voice is nice. I like the brass. Van Morrison is another rank bastard (there's been a few on the list recently). The album was fine but far too long.
2/5
The Isley Brothers
3/5
I went into this thinking I didn't know any songs by The Isley Brothers, started the first track and instantly realised how wrong I was.
I thought they all had great voices and I liked the funky soul vibe. I bailed out after the standard tracklist was done, but that was because I don't need to listen to the same songs again, just in shorter, single versions, not because I hadn't enjoyed it.
This probably isn't the type of thing I'm going to choose to put on again, but I enjoyed listening to it. I particularly liked their cover of Listen To The Music.
3/5
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
The last time The Pet Shop Boys appeared on the list I ended up really sad that, away from the singles, I found it really dull. And that album had some of my favourite PSBs singles on it. So, round 2...
Reading the tracklist going into this I was happy to see Being Boring but knew nothing else. And it was fine. I think Pet Shop Boys are another artist that is firmly a greatest hits act for me. They have some astonishingly good pop songs, but over a full album? They just don't do it for me.
3/5
Little Richard
5/5
I bloody loved that.
I have an affinity for a lot of 50s things: the fashion, the homewares, the music (the politics and racism is very much the opposite end of that spectrum). Somme questionable lyrics aside, 1950s rock and roll is great.
I loved his voice, the piano was fantastic, nothing outstayed it's welcome (it was one of those albums I listened to and them immediately listened to again, because for once I found it too short). It was upbeat and fun and great to clean the house to. I ended up listening to 50s rock on shuffle all morning.
5/5
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
It's only two weeks since the last Bruce album where I said I didn't really like his voice. I stand by that comment.
Its alright. I think I liked it better than the last Bruce album but I still don't really get the big deal. I like the majority of the instrumental parts just fine (there's some lovely piano, I particularly like Tenth Avenue Freeze Out for the piano and brass) and I enjoy him as a person, but the singing just doesn't grab me.
I'm plumping for a 3 this time as I think both albums were closer to a 2.5, so I'm averaging out.
3/5
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
1/5
So many 1970s prog rock synths. Sigh.
To me, this sounds like a bunch of disparate notes thrown together with little to no concern for musicality (or repeatability - there's no way they ever managed to duplicate all the notes played on this album).
I would say, at least it's short, but it REALLY doesn't feel short while you're listening to it. I don't think that's at all helped by the a-side being a singular track in 7 parts.
Also, the lyrics! Good god, the lyrics!
"Can you believe god makes you breathe?
Why did he lose six million Jews?"
Also, when he sang "Sleep in a dream of butter milk cream, You dance on a beam, dancing on a beam" I genuinely thought he was singing dancing on a "bean".
How the first track and last ended up on the same album is baffling.
The album cover is genuinely astonishing though.
1/5
The xx
3/5
I am irrationally annoyed by the band being called The XX and the album being called XX yet the album cover being singular X. There better be a second X on the reverse of the physical copies, I swear...
I saw the name and assumed I didn't know them (this was released during my wilderness years - it's amazing how having a tiny human who refused to let me sleep impacted my desire to listen to anything new). Then I pressed play and instantly recognised the opening track.
I wasn't sure how to feel about this album. I listened to it twice to try and work it out. I kept starting tracks, instantly disliking the vocal, then during the song it would start to win me over, and by the end I'd think it was alright. And then cycle would start again. My first run through was on my walk to work and the second was lying in bed in the dark - it definitely worked better at night.
I liked Intro, Crystallised and Basic Space quite a lot but overall I think this is a 3 for me.
3/5
Wire
4/5
I like the vast majority of punk and therefore I unsurprisingly liked the vast majority of this.
I knew this album as "the one Elastica completely ripped off for Connected" but hadn't listened to it before. And yep, Elastica very much ripped off Three Girl Rhumba and because I'm a 90s kid at heart, my brain kept adding the "nee-naa, nee-naa" bit in.
It's a funny experience listening to this, because I kept thinking it sounded like one band or another, and then realising it predated all of them. It was really influential in it's own quiet way.
I cannot tell what he's singing approximately 80% of the time, which would normally drive me nuts, but it was somehow charming. I did pick up "Take your fucking money and shove it up your arse" as a lyric though.
I really liked Ex Lion Tamer, 1 2 X U, Champs, Mr Suit, and Strange.
Should really be a 3.5 but I liked it enough that I'm rounding up.
4/5
Prince
2/5
1999 (the song) is fantastic, although once again during one if these 1001 album listens, it gave me a new appreciation for the single version (though for the first time because the single version doesn't have a creepy childlike voice saying "Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?" at the end).
The album as a whole though? I was disappointed. It's a bit samey. It's very long. It's could have been half the length and been more enjoyable for me. Prince might end up another one of those artists where a greatest hits would do me just fine.
I would want a 2.5 but I'm not in a generous mood so:
2/5
The Icarus Line
1/5
It was always a concern it would happen one day. I hoped it wouldn't, but it really did feel inevitable after all this time. I didn't want it to be true, but I have to admit: I may be turning into my mother.
This was just noise. So much noise you could barely hear the vocal. Seriously, the vocal was so low in the mix, I have no idea why they would choose to do that on purpose.
The weird noise that sounded a bit like a squeaky duck getting further and further away from the microphone at the end of Meatmaker might have been my high point.
I thought this was shite.
1/5
The Chemical Brothers
4/5
Anecdote time: My one and only time seeing The Chemical Brothers live, was at the first ever Leeds Festival in 1999, so very much this era of their music. They infuriated the crowd by mixing tiny bits of Setting Sun into the music, but never actually playing it properly. It was a fun time.
I still love Setting Sun. I really like all the singles from this album to be fair. I just am not sure I like anything quite enough to entirely justify the length of the album. It's extremely catchy and danceable though, and certainly fun if you're a teenager stood in a field in park with your mates and some smuggled in vodka. It's a bit odd listening to it as a middle aged lady while washing up the dishes.
I like this better than the previous Chemical Brothers album the generator threw at me, and that got a 3. So, length niggles aside, this is getting:
4/5
Kate Bush
4/5
I love Kate Bush's voice. And parts of this album are astonishingly weird; honestly some of the weirdest things the Generator has provided (and I've already heard Trout Mask Replica). Waking the Witch might be the peak weirdness, but I did enjoy finding out one of the random voices on it was old Hagrid himself, Robbie Coltrane.
The "conceptual" side of the album is, for me, a little weaker than the other, though having said that, I still liked parts a lot (like Jig of Life, where I loved her vocals). The singles though? The singles are universally great.
After my second run through of this record which was needed for me to really make up my mind, I listened to The Futureheads version of Hounds of Love and China Drum's version of Wuthering Heights, the later because I need no excuse to listen to it, not because it features on this album. Both are great covers - well worth a listen, despite (or maybe because?) they all very different to the original compositions.
I think this would have been a 3.5, but it's worth a 4 for her voice alone, so I'm rounding up.
4/5
Beatles
4/5
The second of the Generator's "Big 2" albums that are continually vying for the top spot on the Global list of top albums. I gave Rumours a 5, so what will The White Album get...
Firstly, it's The Beatles, and I like The Beatles. Secondly, it's really fucking long, and I get annoyed when albums are really fucking long.
It's clearly a great album but for me, there is just too much of it to feel like a coherent (double) album. It was The Beatles at the height of their powers, but also at the near height of their "actually we think we might hate each other" phase. They were too big and powerful to really say no to, and too competitive to feel like one of the other members was "winning", and the result is a two album epic with songs I would definitely consider filler.
But then it also has some stone cold classic Beatles tunes, that are among their greatest ever songs. I love Back In The USSR (because The Beatles pretending to be The Beach Boys is always going to go down well with me), My Guitar Gently Weeps is incredible, Happiness Is A Warm Gun is one of my favourites, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da is one of the catchiest songs ever written.
But like, did you really need Piggies and Don't Pass Me By (sorry Ringo) on this record? Especially as you left off Hey Jude, which was recorded in the same sessions! Madness.
This is so difficult to rate, because it's a cultural icon from perhaps THE cultural icons. But I've always been clear about my favourite Beatles album, and it's not The White Album. This is a 4.5 for me, but the lack of a ruthless editor means I'm marking it down rather than up.
4/5
Leonard Cohen
2/5
Leonard Cohen is so depressing. That doesn't mean an album can't be good obviously, but there's a time and a place for this record. And that's not when you are in a great mood, because this would instantly reverse it.
He can't sing. At all. And, you know, there are some artists who objectively have terrible singing voices and despite all the odds I still enjoy them (see both Johns from They Might Be Giants, and John Darnielle from The Mountain Goats... so weirdly, mostly people called John). But not Leonard.
He is, I will admit, a great storyteller. And that's a plus point. But it's all so... dour.
This is not for me. I don't have a high point, because it essentially all sounded the same to me, and it made me sad.
2/5
The Youngbloods
2/5
Sometimes the Generator provides an album which makes me wish I owned a copy of the book just so I could read the justification for its inclusion.
Darkness, Darkness's weird echoy vocal choice in verse 2 was it's most notable moment. Otherwise it was entirely forgettable. The nearly 7 minutes of instrumental in On Sir Francis Drake was annoyingly twee for half it's running time then suddenly turned into a bog-standard blues track.
At the other end of the spectrum, 15 seconds, including a fade out, where nothing happens, is not a song (I'm looking at you Turn It Over). I appreciate it was the last "song" on the a side of the album, and therefore more of an instruction, but I don't need you to warn me to turn the vinyl over.
It may just be because I'm listening to this in February in the UK, a time of traditionally unsettled weather (and currently over 40 days of rain in some parts of the country), but I took against Rain Song (Don't Let the Rain Bring You Down). The weird echoy backing vocals were back in places too.
Then the b side continued in much the same way as the a side. With not a lot interesting happening. And the last song sounding like elevator music was the cherry on the cake. I'm not mad at it, it was just a very forgettable album.
2/5
Sufjan Stevens
4/5
I was really interested to hear this for a fairly odd reason: I always watch Mic The Snare videos on Nebula/YouTube and he mentions Sufjan Stevens on an extremely regular basis. I'd heard the name enough to think, I really should listen to that, but I'd never got around to it.
I am an appreciator of long song names which I will subsequently be unable to ever remember (I'm looking at you, "The Song with Five Names, a.k.a. Soapbox Tao, a.k.a. Checkmate Atheists! a.k.a. Neospace Government, a.k.a. You Can Never Know"), but "The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'" might be the finest example I've ever seen. I also liked the song.
On yesterday's album I complained at the existence of at 15 second track, and Sufjan decided to one up The Youngbloods with "One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' for the Pullman!!" - 6 seconds is not a track! Tack it onto the start or end of another song!
Favourite songs: "Jacksonville", "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!", "Chicago", "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!".
There is a lot about this album that should make me dislike it, not least the length of the whole thing, and the individual lengths of some of the tracks. But I don't dislike it. I actually really, really enjoyed this and fully intend to listen to a lot more Sufjan Stevens in the future.
4/5
Grateful Dead
2/5
I passionately hated the previous Grateful Dead album the Generator provided. This wasn't that bad, but it wasn't good either.
It just didn't seem that interesting - songs came and went without leaving much of an impression at all. I think my high point was liking the backing vocals in a few songs, like Till The Morning Comes. Bits of the vocals were a bit Beach Boys in places too.
All in all, I cannot see me listening to this again.
2/5
The Sonics
3/5
What this singer lacked in skill he made up for in sheer enthusiasm. The whaaaaahhh's were loud and extremely frequent, like he was constantly being stabbed with a needle. I wonder if Gerry Roslie was pleased with the Paste review which described his singing as "deranged squawking"?
Away from the... distinctive... vocals we got a lot of fairly standard rock and roll covers plus a small number of original songs. I enjoyed the covers because I like this era of rock, but it was disappointing just how many there are. It's fascinating to me that this kinda thing was seen as completely standard in the 50s and 60s, but an artist trying to do that today would get absolutely torn to shreds for not putting the effort in. I liked the original songs as well.
I feel like I should hate this album, but I kinda enjoyed it against my best judgement. It reminded me a little bit of The Hives, just with terrible production quality.
Its a surprising:
3/5
Paul McCartney and Wings
5/5
Oh we're back to "albums that got played a lot in the house when I was little". Both parents were fans of Paul McCartney (my mother's favourite Beatle, though not my father's: he was a George Harrison man) so this was in regular rotation. Unlike most of those albums however, this did not leave much of an impression and I've never listened to the album as an adult.
I take after my Mum Beatles-wise, so really like Paul's vocals and Paul's writing. I really like Jet, Mrs Vanderbilt, Let Me Roll It, No Words (love the Bee Gees vocals!), Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me), Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five... it's probably easier to list the songs I'm not so fussed about to be honest. I like the instrumental choices on this album a lot - lots brass and woodwind and strings.
I will say that, I'm not sure a solo Beatle album can ever really surpass an actual Beatles album, but also it feels wrong to judge them in that way. In it's own right, this is a really inventive, interesting album that doesn't outstay it's welcome. And Paul's voice remains beautiful.
I'm not sure why this didn't grab me as a kid, but I love it as an adult.
5/5
The Shamen
2/5
Move Any Mountain makes me think of Top Of The Pops. This came out when I was 10 years old and when TOTPs was becoming a weekly must see, and where it stayed until my late teens. The 1990s TOTPs had such a massive impact on my musical taste, introducing me to a lot of bands that stayed with me my whole life (Green Day playing Welcome To Paradise in 1994 changed everything).
The Shamen I know solely through this opening track and Ebenezer Goode (sadly not on this album), so most of this is new to me. And my word it sounds "of it's time" - it's so astonishingly early 90s. Sort of slower than I expected, and not particularly exciting. None of the new tracks really stood out, though I did sort of like Evil Is Even.
It's not for me.
2/5
The Who
2/5
I am still sceptical about the general principle of live albums appearing on this project, no matter how great sounding that live album is. And it's not even that I'm against the idea of live albums in general as I own some (of bands I adore). But *seeing* a band live before you die makes more sense to me than listening to a record of a band live before you die.
This specific album was fine, but I'd much rather have heard some of these songs for the first time in the way they were originally intended to be heard.
2(.5)/5
The Auteurs
2/5
This entire album was spent with me going "who does this sound like" and reaching the end with no satisfactory answer. I had to start googling, and at that point realised it was a Sheffield singer called Mark Stoney.
This has nothing to do with an album review, but it does go some way to explaining why this album is getting a so-so mark: it's generally not a great sign that I'm so distracted with other stuff that the music is secondary.
I appreciate all the xylophone(?) and found the album perfectly pleasant to listen to, if not particularly exciting. I think this would have been a 2.5, but I'm going to round down on this occasion.
2/5
Earth, Wind & Fire
3/5
I'm off on another tangent. An artist I really like, The Dear Hunter, announced a new album yesterday which is the next part of a story they are telling over short films, LPs, an EP and an augmented reality game. The last LP has very funky Earth Wind and Fire vibes in places and I'd been meaning to listen to some EW&F as a result, so this was lovely timing.
I really like funk. I've said this a few times now, but I genuinely didn't know before starting this project that that was the case. 300 albums in, the Generator has provided some utterly terrible records (in my opinion) but it has shown me the way of the funk, so for that I am grateful.
That being said, this album is a bit variable for me. Shining Star, That's the Way of the World and Yearnin' Learnin' are all great. For my taste, the other tracks vary from pretty good (Africano) to "no, absolutely not" (All About Love).
So it's getting a middling mark.
3/5
ABBA
3/5
The title track, which I'd never knowingly heard before, is great. The backstory is also fascinating: I'm no ABBA expert, but I'd certainly never considered them a political band.
Given that I was 1 at the time, I don't remember the documentary Let Poland Be Poland (which apparently got ABBA banned from the USSR) but the idea that so many world leaders would speak to a country's people direct, in a film broadcast to 185 million people in 50 countries around the world feels incomprehensible now. Admittedly Poland didn't show the whole documentary until 2011, but countries at least tried to act as a bloc to push back against martial law being installed. Not sure the world is capable of that anymore.
Anyway, back to the album: I Let The Music Speak is enjoyably theatrical and Two for the Price of One is very funny (and I love rhyming "trivial occupation" with "local railway station"). Their voices are still great. I think I'd prefer a greatest hits though.
I think this should get a 2.5, but I'm being generous.
3/5
Kate Bush
2/5
Two Kate Bush albums in less than a month on the Generator. This one as weird as the last one.
I start off liking the weirdness and then towards the end start thinking it's a bit much. I love her voice when she's just plain singing, but the random voices and shouty bits just becomes *a lot* over a full album - especially when they just become silly voices like those I'd have done while reading books to my kid when they were a toddler. I thought the it was the fault of the b-side being "conceptual" on Hounds of Love, but the same thing happened here. Houdini for example is great musically, lovely when she is singing in her standard vocals, but then the comedy voices happen and it loses me.
I really wanted to like this more than I did in practice. There is so much about it that should make it a 5 star album to me, but then there's a noise like someone is strangling a cat or pretending to be Eeyore and I'm rolling my eyes.
2/5
Otis Redding
4/5
Just a beautiful voice on some classic songs. I think I'd happily listen to Otis Redding sing the phone book in his gorgeous raspy voice. He's so emotive. The whole album was a very pleasant listen and with plenty of brass, which always makes me happy. A very tight run time of 32 minutes made this one of those rare times I wish the album were longer.
I would say that Respect is a *very* different song when sung by a man. I realise it was his song originally, but Aretha's cover is the definitive version. It's a teeny bit creepy when sung from the point of view of the working man coming home to his perfect housewife - like the type of thing an alt-right dude wanting a tradwife would say.
Despite my minor niggles with lyrical content, this is a beautiful record and I would say well worth a:
4/5
Coldplay
4/5
I'm one of those rare people who has heard all the singles (repeatedly) but never listened to an album... and yet is indifferent to Coldplay. They exist and I've never really felt the need to dig deeper, but I also don't understand why they get so much hate or end up the butt of so many jokes.
Before we get to the run of massive singles, I actually really liked Politik as an opener - it's dramatic and urgent and a great start. Of the singles, I think I have just heard some of these songs too much and the over exposure has not been kind. Except God Put A Smile Upon Your Face exists and I have always and will always love that song. Rolling Stone described it as "slinky" which is a perfect word for it.
Onto the other album tracks, I liked Green Eyes' honky-tonk sound. The Whisper was also really enjoyable and I liked Amsterdam (though Chris Martin sounds very different during chunks of it which threw me slightly).
This is a very solid album, with undeniably massive appeal, which generated some global mega hits.
If I had half stars, this would be a 3.5, but even though I'm not sure it's totally for me (I like it and can see the quality, but it doesn't grab me emotionally like many other records do) it deserves more than a 3, so:
4/5
Korn
1/5
Oh... oh dear...
Jonathan Davis is an acquired taste as a vocalist. And I have not acquired it. I had only heard Freak on A Leash going into this which I thought was grudgingly ok(ish). Everything else was new to me.
I like the guitars on most of the tracks. I like the heaviness. And I didn't hate Ice Cube turning up.
As for everything else, I think the low point is Fred Durst turning up (and increasing all the homophobia), but I'm not sure the bagpipes on the next song were much better.
This is essentially an irredeemable album for me. At one point I started daydreaming about Faith No More, and how much I'd rather have been listening to them.
Just no.
1/5
Travis
4/5
I really enjoyed this. So many classic singles (including my favourite, Turn) and the album tracks are good too. I have always liked Fran Healy's voice just never listened to a full album. I don't really have a lot to say about the record though. They write an excellent pop-rock hook and as a result these sings are very catchy.
I imagine they have also attracted a lot of complaints from non-Brits about "more shitty britpop on the generator" despite this not being Britpop. If so, it's their loss.
4/5
Janelle Monáe
4/5
I enjoyed this album a lot.
Highpoints:
- I adored Come Alive.
- The melody in the chorus in Locked In sounds like Mario Kart, which somehow made me like it more. Also, I'm always a sucker for clap-clap songs.
- I enjoyed Big Boi turning up on Tightrope.
- It's so diverse in sound, surely there's a track for everyone here. Bond-like in places. Full pop in others. Plus a bit of pure soul. And 50s TV shows. Parts that are channelling Prince. And Bowie.
- I really like her voice.
- "Classy brass".
Lows
- Honestly not too much.
- A whole track of reversed lyrics wasn't too fun (Neon Gumbo).
- Say You'll Go morphing into Clair De Lune was not my favourite.
- And it's pretty long.
This was another album I'd been meaning to listen to for ages. And it was really good, so I'm glad the Generator was benevolent.
4/5
Marianne Faithfull
1/5
Hmmmm... I'm not sure you really should take against a whole album based on the opening note, but I fear I did. However, as first instincts go, it seemed to be pretty dead on for my opinion on the full album.
I hated the vocals. Absolutely despised them. I realised there's a good reason she sounds that way on this record but that doesn't mean I am going to enjoy it... It was genuinely difficult to say motivated to listen right to the end. And the last track? WTF!?
Longest 37 minutes of my life.
1/5
The Slits
2/5
Well objectively this should be a 1 because it's technically dreadful, both instrumentally and vocally. But on the odd occasion, I actually didn't hate it. I even vaguely enjoyed the Heard It Through The Grapevine cover.
So, I can't justify it in any way, but this is getting:
2/5
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
I discovered during this listen that 56 minutes of Anthony Kiedis's singing in one go, is too much Anthony Kiedis for me. His vocals are distinctive but pass over into annoying very easily.
However there are some really good songs on this album. Scar Tissue is the highlight of the singles for me, but I also like Californication a lot. There are some pleasant enough album tracks too.
Then there are some absolute stinkers. I mean, did the world need Get On Top or I like Dirt? I suspect RHCPs think they're sexy as hell during some of these songs, but they were in their mid to late 30s during this period and it's just cringey.
Overall, I think this is just scraping a
3/5
John Prine
3/5
Sometimes when an album by an artist I've not heard of turns up, I try and guess the genre based on the album cover alone, then press play. There was never any doubt about this one.
That country twang is something that I tend to really struggle with (Dolly excepted of course). But this guy is funny:
"Well, I sat there at the table and I acted real naïve,
For I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve"
He's also angry: 'Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" is lyrically great even if it's not my kinda music. Given that only a few days ago the US President started bombing Iran and I woke up to the news that six US soldiers are dead (the article glossed over the increasing death toll of local civilians obviously) and headlines like "Donald Trump boasts about $400m ballroom after paying tribute to US soldiers killed in Iran", this seems pretty relevant. Which given we're 55 years on from this album's release, is just depressing.
I was surprised that I sort of enjoyed bits of this album. Don't get me wrong, it's not turned me into a country fan but I liked this more than I expected and I appreciate the storytelling if nothing else.
Very much a 2.5 for me, but I'm rounding up because he made me laugh and then made me angry.
3/5
Elbow
5/5
Another album where I only knew the singles (one of which has been stuck in my head for the last 3 weeks due to a cover I heard) so I was really happy to see this appear.
"You are the only thing, in any room you're ever in, I'm stubborn, selfish and too old" from Starlings is such a great lyric to set a mood. Mind you that track already set the mood by deafening me as I'd turned up the volume on the gentle bits only to be attacked by the horns. Loved it.
And the lyrics that make me smile continue into track 2: "Overdraft speeches and deadlines to make, cramming commitments like cats in a sack". They have a way with words.
I continued to really enjoy the tracks until we got to Grounds For Divorce: I ADORE Grounds For Divorce. The lyrics are great, the hook is incredible. It's an insanely catchy song with a really interesting melody. If I could give it more than a 5 as a single track, I absolutely would.
There's then, for me, a slight lull but only because it would be impossible to keep up that level. I still really enjoyed the songs though. Of the album tracks I didn't know, I think my favourite would be The Fix, with local lad Richard Hawley. I very much enjoyed the Specials-like backing vocals.
One Day Like This is a behemoth that broke containment. I think basically any person in the UK would recognise the hook, even if they couldn't name the song. I once heard the band play this as I lay in the grass in the sun and confetti gently floated down on top of me. I remember nothing else about their set (my fault not theirs, I was sleep deprived and drunk) but that one moment formed a core memory for me. That song is meant to be sung by crowds.
I have said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a sucker for brass and there's a lot sprinkled throughout this album. And strings! I went into this thinking I'd probably like this album, but now I'm considering buying a copy.
5/5