Album art is sharp. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning David Bowie thinks about tight leather pants and ponders the end of glam rock AKA the end of the world. Unfortunately praising K. West ages POORLY. D. Bowie secretly Nazi-sympathizer? Must investigate.
Would the news man really weep now if he told us the earth was dying and we had five years? Some might argue it would be a relief. Sorry David this ages POORLY. Send the meteor! 1/5.
Moonage Daydream back to back with Starman. HEATERS. D. Bowie secretly Nolan Ryan? D. Bowie secretly Randy Johnson AKA Big Unit? Regardless D. Bowie inspiration for X-Files CONFIRMED. 6/5.
It Ain't Easy being so bold to pen song imagining being CHRIST tempted by LUCIFER on top of mountain. Sacrilegious! Life's problems cannot be solved by Hoochie Koochie women. Recommend D. Bowie tests for Great Pox. Satan/5.
Sources reveal secret fourth verse involves Lady Stardust FALSELY WINNING Women's Volleyball NCAA Championship. Thank you for SAVING our country Mister President! Androgyny/5.
Flirtation with SACRILEGE, APOCALYPSE, and NAZISM notwithstanding D. Bowie's paeans to the pleasures of SELF-LOVE on Hang on to Yourself and the close-kneed women of SUFFRAGETTE CITY seal deal and make ZIGGY STARDUST a certified CLASSIC ALBUM.
CLASSIC / 5
DEBATE ME IN COMMENTS
We're going to look back if we're not doing it already and compare some of these 90s NYC rappers with the all-time singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s. Biggie has to be one of our most evocative songwriters and the delivery and phrasing is on par with Sinatra and Dylan. Calling Ready to Die cinematic is probably a tired cliche but it's there for a reason.
Came into this expecting to hate it after being drowned in AM against my will by my friends when it came out 2013. This is not that album and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Get the sense this would've been a fantastic band to see live at the peak of their powers. Unbelievable energy, these guys know how to put a hammer down.
I really wanted to like this album because Nick Drake has such a great reputation but I am ashamed to admit I found myself pretty bored for the majority of this album.
Serial killers, the Douglas-Lincoln debates, and UFO sightings with magnificent arrangements. Definitely adding this one to the rotation.
Dear Gabriella, I'm sorry I blasted Misty Mountain Hop and Four Sticks in the car on prom night instead of asking if you were excited for the evening but John Bonham's drumming seemed more interesting than the way you had done your hair.
I can’t imagine not liking this album
I wish I had discovered this album when I was fourteen
I just couldn't get into this. First real stinker of this endeavor.
If there's an album more Sixties than this one I'm unaware of it. If I was an undergrad when this came out I would've either been convinced these guys were the height of Western Civilization.
Album has some outstanding highs in Homeward Bound, Flowers Never Bend, and For Emily and some real low lights like the Dangling Conversation and 7 O'Clock News. Paul Simon said something to the effect once that he could only sound earnest in his singing and was incapable of sounding ironic which is both a strength and limitation on this album. You can actively hear Paul Simon's songs entering the Great American Songbook with Art Garfunkel singing them. Dude can sing.
You know the hits. You don't know the songs that aren't the hits for a reason.
I want my goddamn MTV. I don't care how oversaturated Girls Just Wanna Have is you bet yer bottom I'm shouting the lyrics in the car. There aren’t misses on this album just songs you don’t dance as hard to.
This album is a blast. 1001 Album Listeners Just Want to Have Fun.
Consider me intrigued, Pet Shop Boys. Maybe even a little curious. Definitely flattered.
In an era of horny motherfuckers Prince might have been the horniest.
Absolutely got my rocks off listening to this. Someone hand me a Kleenex.
They've definitely been lost in the rain in Juarez when it's Easter time too.
It's like this, Aja, and Rumours for best albums of the 70s. Television can't believe they're being grouped with Steely Dan fifty years later.
Nice little album, getting exposed to a genre you've never heard of in Folktronica is what keeps you coming back to a project like this. Unfortunately I found my mind wandering way too much while listening to this album. Blame the phones.
Too much of this album reminded me of Adriana’s ex-boyfriend’s band from the first season of the Sopranos that she wants to produce with the rapper that wants to sleep with her until Christopher beats the shit out of the guy that owns the studio and holds the band at gunpoint.
Hallelujah is an outstanding cover though. Now that's a hit.
Things to do instead of listening to Bono's whiny-ass treacly screeching:
1. Watch paint dry
2. Taxes
3. Rip your fingernails off
4. Sell life insurance door to door
5. Stare directly at the sun
This album fucking sucked. I've never understood why people lose their shit over this band.
Sometimes you need to encounter music at a specific time in your life to truly appreciate the artistry. If only I had encountered Rage Against the Machine as a sweaty eighteen year old in my dorm room instead of many years later as a suburbanite with a mortgage who likes fussing in the yard. We could have had a fling once upon a time, Rage, but when you own land you are the Machine.
EDIT: Listening to this later in light of the onslaught of outrages coming down from our present day wannabe fascist regime is definitely an experience. I appreciate the lyrics much more now but I don't think I'll ever be able to get over the metal-rap thing. But I have more respect for the band and its fans.
I listened to this imagining I was a detective in an 80s neo-noir movie where I go into a downstairs nightclub in the Midlands or a seedy part of London to search for my quarry among the men with hollow faces laid off because of Mrs. Thatcher's austerity.
This is an album that's less than the sum of its parts. Everyday People and Stand! are all-time bangers but the rest of this album is pretty underwhelming.
Typically I'm not really a David Bowie guy and I was very lukewarm on this album when it came out but listening to it ten years later good gravy does it hold up. Probably a 4.5/5 but the title track is as good a song as any popular musician has made the last 50 years.
Look past the white people with dreads and shitty graphic t-shirts and see what is an outstanding album.
The musical equivalent of answering the doorbell and stepping in the flaming bag of dogshit the neighbor kids left on your stoop. Bjork has a way of phrasing words in the most annoying fucking way possible.
de-vvvvvvvOOOOO-SSSShhhhiooonnnnnn
First half of this album was delightful. Jazzy little ditties to tap your toe along on a nice cool morning. Takes a turn at A Gospel which functions as the Jazz Police of this album in the literal sense. Strength of Your Nature felt like when Monty Python yelling "and now for something completely different" halfway through the album. Overall an extremely pleasant listen, probably a 4.5.
I am sad to report I did not make it through this album. This is fun music to play in the background during nocturnal adventures but I can't imagine just listening to this by itself so I was fucking floored to see two of their top ten songs on Spotify were live renditions of their songs.
2.5/5
I was genuinely startled by the first guitar hit on The Nurse, don't if that's ever happened to me when I've listened to music.
They're able to cut their own path and respect the many rock traditions they're working in without being a purely derivative band like their fellow Michiganders Greta Van Fleet.
I've always thought of the White Stripes like Detroit-style pizza, hometown heroes fiercely defended because they're local and it must always be Detroit vs Everybody. However, unlike Detroit-style pizza, I've sampled this and found it actually matches the hype.
This reminded me of the first time I listened to Lee Hazlewood, rarely do you get to listen to an artist for the first time and have them scratch almost every musical itch that you have. I think this is what I wanted Nick Drake to be when I was listening to him earlier in the process. 4/5 for now with the chance to grow into a 5 with time.
This worked shockingly well for me. Delightfully hypnotic with the repeating drums and droning synths or guitars or whatever it's got going on and her vocals are quite otherworldly. Felt almost like the Minecraft soundtrack.
Splendid to return to the chart toppers of the high school years. Had completely forgotten pounding desks shouting RUMOR HAS IT waiting to start religion class.
Adele is one of our best singers working. However I wish she had better judgment in picking what's going on around her voice.
Thelonious Monk has to be the most distinctive musician we've had since they started recording music. The notes sound incorrect but it just works. He's just as impressive for what he doesn't play as for what he does.
Solo Monk on I Surrender Dear has to be one of the loneliest sounds out there. It's not a warm, comforting solitude like Bill Evans or Marty Robbins yodeling his cowboy songs, this is the solitude of the guy you ignore asking for money at the exit on the highway.
A STRAIGHT LINE EXISTS BETWEEN ME AND THE GOOD THING
It's the fourth-best Talking Heads album, all the live versions of these songs on Stop Making Sense are superior versions and it's still a fucking masterpiece. Get ready to dance and be agitated.
Finally, as a rebuttal to Mr. Byrne: I wouldn't live in New York City if you paid me to.
Our Great American Rock Band. It feels very American that a bunch of San Francisco boys could ape the Deep South this successfully. They've always felt a little like an anomaly, I can't think of a band that evokes the Sixties and Vietnam more than these guys but they don't really sound like anyone else from that era.
Graveyard Train could've been 2.5 minutes instead of the 7.5 they give it but this is me quibbling, Born on the Bayou, Bootleg, Proud Mary, and Keep on Chooglin' more than make up for that shortcoming. Bootleg is a goddamn banger. Maybe with more familiarity and time with Graveyard and the Penthouse Pauper this can get to a 5 but this is a solid 4.5.
I enjoyed looking at the Spotify profile picture
The God Only Knows needle drop in Boogie Nights is an all timer.
Rest in power young king
Everyone tells me I should like you Neil Young and everybody tells you that you should like me but when the time comes and we try spooning on the couch there's just no spark. Sorry, pal.
This album always makes me think of one of the guests on the Bob & Tom Show trying to make a vibrator pulsate to the riff of Whole Lotta Love.
Great fucking album. These guys made the same album seven times over seven years and they're all A+ All-Star efforts. Long Live John Bonham.
This is the kind of bloat, self-seriousness, and terrible lyrics that people crave in their prog rock. 1812 Overture riff four minutes into the twenty minutes is a nice touch. Always appreciated how ugly Geddy Lee was. One of us!
Liked this about as much as I could for an album I'll never listen to again. The droning guitars and the moodiness work surprisingly well and the melodies they sneak in there can make for nice little ditties.
Side note for a lot of these albums from the 90s on, moving to CDs after vinyl/tapes was terrible for the consumer. Too many of these artists think they need to fill sixty to eighty minutes with songs that normally would've been left out when an album couldn't be more than 45 minutes. Less can be more. Fitting for our demented post-Cold War era.
Good to know I wasn't missing anything by waiting to listen to this for a month or two
Blueberry Hill is such a great song. Let me tell you in 1950s euphemisms about how I drove out to Inspiration Point and got a handy from Barbara in the front seat.
Not my favorite Smiths album but still rock solid. Always loved the pop melodies and Morrissey's weird lyrics. Only my truest friends are getting Unhappy Birthday sent to them on their big days.
This had much more variety than I was expecting out of a Byrds album. I might need more time with the album but after a couple listens I was left with a "just fine" feeling.
The weird uncles of America owe the rest of us an apology for making this guy into a thing. It took me until this album to realize that American culture is too materialistic and that there are flaws in our political process. It's too bad I'm dead now that Frank Zappa bludgeoned me to death with the message for 35 minutes.
Absolute masterpiece. If you're looking for Great American Album you could probably stop your search right here.
Mercy mercy me I need a cigarette after that. Let's Get It On has the wonderful quality of having a beat that makes for steady, purposeful hip thrusting.
Really appreciated the grandiosity of the production--the epic organ on Intervention stands out. Seeing some apt Springsteen comparisons and I endorse all of them, good and bad.
Not sure I'll ever listen to this again so by definition it can't earn more than a three, which I grant it.
Al Green can whisper sweet nothings in my ear anytime. The backing band can come too.
I appreciate that the Who took this impressive of a swing even if it resulted in as violent a miss as peak Prince Fielder trying to plant the ball in the right field seats. If there's one redeeming factor to this album it's that Keith Moon's drumming is epic enough to almost carry the opera piece of this.
Unfortunately, the lyrics and story are about as awful and terrible as you’ll hear on an album. As a serious album it’s self-parody, and if it’s deliberately a parody the Who do not possess the lyrical prowess of a Randy Newman to properly deal with their chosen subject matter. If you’re going to be offensive you better be funny.
The Who made great songs and great albums, and I appreciate their ambition here, but this album is a fucking atrocity.
After the first several songs I was expecting an album of straightforward early 70s rock. Then we hit the country portion of the evening and my estimation of this album went up two rating scores. Give me rock bands that can properly play country AND western.
This is a wonderful album that's just a shot of sunshine. If there's a drawback I prefer most of the originals to the covers presented here, although Satisfaction comes pretty damn close to beating the original.
Don't Stop and Rock With You are inner circle best pop songs OF ALL TIME. Just perfectly constructed. Those fucking strings on Rock with You...mah gawd.
She's Out of My Life sounds like it belongs on a straight to VHS Little Mermaid: Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The A-side of the album is as good of an album side as exists on this list of 1001+ albums and worth a 10/5. The B-Side is probably a 3.5/5--still good but a lot closer to just fine. Average it out and it’s still five stars.
Elvis Costello seems like he's big with the crowd of people that flatter themselves for having correct political opinions and intelligent music tastes so naturally I took quite nicely to this album. Seeing as how he's somehow at the cross-section of Springsteen and punk/new wave, this shouldn't come as that big of a surprise. I like fishing, the movie Patton, and No Kings protests. Pat me on the back and give me a lollipop.
Really funny listening to Poetic Justice in light of...everything.
Local sports radio uses the sample on Sing About Me I'm Dying of Thirst as an intro to rant about Steve Yzerman's decision making and the hubris of Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell. Same same.
Great album, Kendrick is one of the great songwriters of our generation. Feel like it drags a little bit at the end but I think this is probably my favorite project of his.
Ska music. Hell yeah
Helps my half baked theory that punk music works better as a means rather than an end. I’d rather listen to the Pogues and Talking Heads than the Ramones and the Clash. Fun convergence of punk and Jamaican music.
This is on a very short list for my favorite album of the 80s. There are times listening to this album that are spiritual experiences. Perfect example of a project being infinitely more than the sum of its very very 80s parts.
The Crime of the Century is including this album on the 1001 list. Presumably Breakfast in America is coming later so I guess we're doing two Supertramp albums.
I came to this primed to enjoy this album because the song Goodbye Stranger is a banger so I was rather disappointed for what was mostly an unforgivingly boring album full of songs that are escalators to nowhere. I'll start with a two because it's not gratingly terrible like Tommy but I reserve the right to revise this down to a one at a later date.
I appreciate the use of nature imagery, it’s something that’s been on the way out in modern songwriting for a long time. Production really captures a modern lonely prairie feeling quite nicely.
Fun album. Definitely a little long and it drags a little in the second half but this still grooves. It's a limited list but this is a personal favorite of the 2010s.
Liked this more than I thought I would but I was primed for a patented one star pan so you could say this gazpacho soup burned my lips.
I DON'T WANNA DO YOUR DIRTY WORK NO MORE --Tony Soprano, gentleman loser who never had the makings of a varsity athlete
Definitely on the shortlist of greatest worst album covers.
Don't trust anyone over thirty. I think Abe Lincoln said that. Don't trust anyone over thirty that doesn't like Steely Dan. I said that.
Tony Blair's primary contribution to the War on Terror was giving a copy of this to Dubya so the CIA could blast it at the black sites and Guantanamo.
I listen to a lot less hard rock and metal now than I did when I was a teenager but this was good enough to make me want to revisit the Megadeth album we got a couple months ago that I gave a firm 2. Hard to believe this and the other early Sabbath albums were happening as early as they did. Truly one of the few bands dropped from outer space.
Fun and offbeat. Definitely got the Brian Eno vibes. Solid 3.5
Fun album but this didn't grab me like a lot of other bands from the same era have. Absolutely one of the most gifted bands of the 70s and 80s but a lot of the songs on this album don’t really seem to go anywhere.
Brazilian music of the sixties is such a trip. This is the weird Sixties Psychedelia I've been waiting for from the generator.
Funkiest thing this side of James Brown. Somehow the first time I've listened to this and whoa nelly this did not disappoint. 4.5 for now but might come back later to revise it up into a 5.
I don't want to disrespect Alice Cooper but there wasn't a lot here distinguishing it from other rock and roll of the same era. Really more of a 2.5.
Is there an album whose sound matches the cover as well as this one?
Many fond memories of avoiding studying during undergrad and listening to this album with the headphones in the library.
Pueblo Nuevo is one of my all-time favorites, the way that thing builds like a sunrise to the trumpet at the end is pure magic.
+2 for being in Spanish and not being able to understand the lyrics.
Perhaps there's hope for me liking 90s music yet. This is the right amount of noisy guitars and moodiness. Really appreciated the quieter songs like High and Dry and Bullet Proof.
I'm sure this was a common problem in America and the UK at the time but there was this aspiring musician at my high school that played Wonderwall with his little acoustic guitar at every assembly or school function so I've deliberately avoided Oasis and Britpop generally as a result.
That said I enjoyed this way more than I was expected, there are a lot of rip off indie bands that came after these guys in the 21st century. Somewhere around a 3.5 I believe but the door is cracked to let more Oasis into my life.
I tried getting into Joni Mitchell by way of Blue and it never took until I listened to this song and then I finally got why the people love Joni. Help Me is another one of those inner circle All-Time pop songs.
I feel like I'm giving Fives out like they're candy but a hit is a goddamn hit.
Nice little album that I'd definitely play again. Bonnie Lass can definitely pipe a tune.
Are the songs a bit too long and noodly? Yes. Did I care? Not really. Really enjoyed this one, this is going next to the Wynton Kelly album I like to play when making the Thanksgiving turkey.
I strongly recommend listening to this full blast in the car with loved ones during the harmonica solos
The hits (Riders on the Storm, LA Woman, Love Her Madly) all absolutely rip. A couple deeper cuts like Hyacinth House hit too but the other stuff leaves a little to be desired. This is probably their next project after the debut album but it's really only a 3.5.
Really liked this album so I guess I have to dress in sack cloth and dump ashes on my head according to my fellow 1001 killjoys.
I judge Peter Gabriel's solo work by how many songs on any given project I'd play on a boombox I held above my head outside of Ione Skye's house. Solsbury Hill qualifies but the rest of this album is pretty uneven to downright bad. The more of these 70s prog rock adjacent albums we get the more refreshing the late 70s punk/new wave albums sound. There's just a vitality and spirit to those other projects this lacks.
The bad songs aren’t that bad but the good songs aren’t as good as the hits in the debut album and LA Woman although Roadhouse Blues does rip. Another 3.5 from rock and rolls favorite pervert.
You can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat is such a great fucking line. My favorite part about the Band is that they look like they could've fought in the Civil War. Lieutenant Robbie Robertson orders his Acadian regiment on a bayonet charge into Levon Helm's boys of Alabama to defend Little Round Top thus driving Old Dixie Down.
Paul McCartney could craft a more beautiful melody but I'll be damned if you can find a finer English lyricist from the Sixties than Ray Davies. I prefer Village Green and Arthur more than Something Else but this is as good as rock and roll can get. Waterloo Sunset is another one of those Inner Circle songs. 4.5 for me.
This went well with the pseudo-fall weather we've been having. Felt like strolling down to a dumpy college coffee shop putting a scarf on and pretending to read my French existentialists.
Aptly named album. Really wanted to shit on Aerosmith coming into this but they made me eat that shit. Glad to do it too, half this album is getting saved in a variety of playlists.
NOW THAT'S what I call psychedelic rock! Turns out Eric Clapton can play the guitar pretty well. Who knew? First half of the album made me think we were headed towards a 5 but the last half is just fine. They're better incorporating the blues into a more psychedelic song than playing the straightforward blues they had at the back half of the album.
After the first two songs took me to pop music nirvana the rest of the album was just fine.
Will definitely return to this on days that require a lot of chores around the house. Really enjoyed it.
Modern tales of infidelity blues and retro sounds. Loved how raunchy this album is. Tears Dry On Their Own is a magnificent song. Yee-fucking-haw. New add to the 4.5 list.
Music to listen to as the cocaine wears off. Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross look out, there's a new monarch of Yacht Rock Island and her name is Sade. Smoove and cool.
I might get crucified for this but most of this album was shockingly boring. The experiments with feedback are best left unrepeated. Little Wing and Castles Made of Sand are obvious standouts.
I appreciate the swing here and chaotic nature of the album, I just found little to enjoy here.
George Clinton feels extremely underrated, the opening track might be the best single song we've gotten on this project. The rest of the songs are still really good but don't grab me quite the same way. I just love how much is going on in these songs, it's overwhelming in the best possible way. Sweet and sour bowel movements is also an amazing throwaway line lol.
Like the 2002 Red Wings adding Dominik Hasek the Talking Heads adding the African drums turns this from Stanley Cup winners to one of the finest albums we have. Add Crosseyed and Painless and Once in a Lifetime to the Inner Circle Pantheon of Popular Songs
POV you walked into a CSI knockoff produced in 2006 that's headed to a nice little syndicated run on A&E for your dad to watch on Sunday mornings
This is a very pleasant, very accessible jazz record. Pieces of pop without sacrificing too much of the true blue jazz elements. Don't know if this quite rises to a 4 for me, so we'll lay it down in the cellar as a 3.5 and see how it ages with time.
This feels like an album I will really like and that my partners in review will wonder why the fuck this is on the list. Anyways this was a pretty solid entry into the list of 1980s rock and roll. Nice little melodies and what appear to be thoughtful lyrics.
More of a Samba Esquema Novo guy but this plays too. Even if I have no idea what's being said Portuguese is such a great language for song.
Good clean living. She doesn't get enough credit as a songwriter outside of country enthusiasts.
Dolly's secretly up there with Paul Simon and Tom Brady for biggest winner after breaking up a successful partnership with Porter.
Country music by criminals for criminals. Go jump in the creek with your limp dick try that in a small town ya Nashville cocksuckers.
Donald Trump is the greatest American to have ever lived and anyone that says differently is a goddamn communist and should be put on one of those Venezuelan drug boats. He read econo.
What's the deal with all these Peter Gabriel albums? --Jerry Seinfeld
Couldn't believe how much I liked this, there was a moment when the French really had a monopoly on making the best dance music
Couple of pure noise moments that are the Jose Mourinho headphones meme but outside of that this is a solid album that I would definitely play again. A+ cover of Just Like Heaven.
It's a solid album, Yes is always shooting for Mozart and usually ending up around Salieri
Delightfully strange and close to magnificent. If I needed to turn to someone to make five to ten seconds of perfect music Jeff Lynne would probably be one of my first calls, there are moments on Turn to Stone and Sweet Talkin' Woman that just go places few people in popular music can take us. The album drags a bit in other places but when it's on holy mother of god does it hit.
Pretty underwhelming and indistinguishable from the other noodly albums of this era. Count me among the haters, I don't think I've really gotten the appeal of Janis Joplin's voice.
Rock steady mid-70s rock. Nothing to complain about and nothing to write home about either. Don't know if I realized how many Bad Company songs were staples of the classic rock radio of my younger days.
Delightful. Cannot believe this is from the mid-70s this sounds so fresh.
There is a combination of raw power and precision that's exclusive to big bands that is here in spades. Great-Grandma and Grandpa could throw down and keep time. Pretty good for a guy who lived in Nick Kroll's attic.
I understand why this is "influential" and there are moments that they are clearly looking into the future like on Peking O. However, that doesn't mean I have to like it this was about as tough a listen as we've had on this list.
Waterfalls is a heater and Red Light District or whatever is pretty good but the rest is very flaccid and mediocre.
Really liked how loose and accessible the instrumentals were, sometimes the punk and punk-adjacent bands can be a little too grating on first listen. I understand the vocalist's very intense English accent will cause controversy among some of us but it worked for me. Solid 3.5.
The hits don't fly as high as Off the Wall and the filler doesn't fill as much either. Normally I'm a fan of obvious eighties production quirks but it got a little old as the album went along. Still a toe tapper but there are other places in Michael's mansion I'd rather spend my time.
I think I prefer Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Flying Burrito Brothers Gram Parsons to solo Gram Parsons but this still really works too. Emmylou Harris is the ultimate country music glue guy, this album is just fine without her contributions.
The two greatest moments of the 1980s were Ronald Reagan dragging his nuts across Gorby's face shouting tear down this wall and the second minute of Money for Nothing where they build into the greatest riff in rock history.
I'm starting to think that the Who are just one of those cultural blind spots.
When I smoked a lot of weed I thought the Beatles post-drug discoveries were the best Beatles. But now that weed is something to be chased from my front yard instead of smoked early Beatles are starting to sound better than post-LSD Beatles.
General rule of thumb, rock and roll is best when it's at its most straightforward.
I remember being vaguely interested in the Black Keys as a teenager and undergrad but I think it had more to do with the sort of retro rock sound than anything special they were doing. If you're going to play this heavily it has to be skillful like Zeppelin or have a vitality to it like the Ramones or the early Green Day.
This has aged poorly, future generations will look at these guys like we look at the Monkees. Her?
This is a tough one to rate. Billie Holliday is in that inner circle of Very Important American Musicians with Ella, Dylan, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Elvis, Sinatra, Bing, Gershwin etc. but this is an extremely diminished Billie Holliday whose voice is a rough listen at times. It's a magnificent orchestra that's accompanying her though and it makes for a good send off. Three with all due respect.
Pretty easy listening but this is in one ear and out the other for me.
It's hard to hear this with fresh ears, this and Jimmy Buffet were the soundtrack to the backseat of my Mom and Dad's car. Such a great album, this album is just hit after hit after hit.
The absolute perfect blend of pop and punk. I will be back later to upgrade this to a Five later but I need a little bit more time with the lesser-known songs. The hits have aged magnificently.
I think I have a new favorite hip hop album, this was an amazing listen. After Ms. Jackson I was moving and at Bombs Over Baghdad I was dancing on top of my desk at work. Probably too long but this was a blast.
Splendid. This is on a completely different planet from the Big Brother and the Holding Company album, where that is noodly and often an escalator to nowhere this is tight, focused and powered by that throaty howl that makes Janis so beloved. The hits hit here and Half Moon is a revelation. Me and Bobby McGee is an all-time cover.
I'm starting to think the Who are that one meme with the three hot chicks in bikinis (Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks) next to the squat girl in the one piece and bathing cap (the Who). Simply shocking I thought I was primed to really like this band.
Truly the year I discovered I am much lower on the music of the hippies than previously believed. Presumably Donovan did a lot of yoga in this sitar phase because it requires immense flexibility to crawl this far up one's own asshole. The title track is a heater on an otherwise unremarkable project.
George Clinton has an excellent claim to be the premier musician and bandleader of the 1970s, the man is very much not afraid to let his muse take him wherever the fuck it decides he's going.
I think I can admit that I've never been the biggest hip-hop guy but that I enjoyed this about as much as I can for a hip-hop album I've listened to the first time.
Southern California had a good thing going in the 70s huh
Came into this wanting to give a contrarian take on the title track and the overrated nature of the Eagles in general but I can admit when I'm an idiot. The first twenty seconds of Life in the Fast Lane is on the Mount Rushmore of dad rock. This is short of a five because I didn't really care for the Wasted Time interlude in the middle.
How about that, an album of the 1990s that I actually enjoy. Like everyone else I've heard Alright but the rest of this album plays. Nothing terribly innovative going on here but that doesn't matter if it as pleasant to the ear as this is. Making me a little curious as to what is in store for the rest of the Britpop, I just imagined it was Oasis and Oasis knockoffs.
I understand I might be off on my own here but this album is great fun. One of music's primary functions to make your body move and that's here in spades. It drags a little towards the end but that's a criticism of electronic dance music in general, my endorphins and dopamine have a time limit.
Hilarious album cover too. Someone do a where is he now with the little fella wearing the t-shirt.
Boy, do I feel ancient seeing this is almost twenty years old. The big hits (Time to Pretend, Kids, Electric Feel) still really hold up. I also really appreciated the modern psychedelic twists like on Of Moons. The more acoustic stuff is just fine.
Tangled up in Blue is the best American popular song since the end of the war. It’s that simple. To dissect yourself and a relationship that many different ways from that many different perspectives and making each verse a novel on its own...it’s just fucking perfection and delivered with the force of a goddamn freight train.
And yeah the rest of the album is pretty good too. I don't care if Shelter from the Storm is used to sell insurance or whatever, that song fucking rips too. To me this is the album that earns him the Nobel Prize. Seasons come, seasons go but remains hands-down my favorite album ever.
Anymore I get annoyed when the albums are this obviously "save the world", "everybody love everybody", and "will someone please think of the children", but when it sounds this damn good with peak Motown productions and put through Marvin Gaye's sultry voice it plays. Orchestras add such depth to anything they're on (see Gordon Lightfoot before and after stringed production).
Half-assed internet research also reveals that three Detroit Lions sang backing vocals on the title track. How about that.
This is actually a pretty good listen but this comes out at a time when rock music in general ceases to have anything new or interesting to say. Also, THREE Kings of Leon albums? Heh???
Fond memories of getting high as shit with Tyler and listening to this on Isaac's couch. Not the world's biggest Pink Floyd guy but this is definitely my favorite. Plus one for the nostalgia piece.
Wasn't expecting the clip of the Prisoner, that was a lot of fun. I AM NOT A NUMBER I AM A FREE MAN. Some of these albums (the Megadeth comes to mind) I wish I had really gotten into when I was a teenager. It's not that the music is juvenile it's that I no longer have the spare energy to head bang the way that this music demands of the listener. Still a rock solid 3.5.
Aw HELL yeah. The title track is just a mind-trip. Look at the band on this too. Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, and Buddy Emmons. You probably can't make a better country record than this in the 1960s without the novelty of recording in a California state prison. I don't know if you can find many other projects with a steel-guitar that sounds better than this. Country is such a singles driven genre, there's just a huge difference between the number of great country artists and great country albums outside that 70s outlaw period when Willie Nelson goes on his tear so I'm grading this on a curve and adding one star because of it. Ray Price is the fucking man.
There’s no way the Secretary Rock review is real, I refuse to believe we live in a world where Comic Book Guy and Ben Shapiro are capable of procreation.
What's the Mount Rushmore of car songs? It has to include Fast Cars, right? Probably something by Bruce Springsteen (I'd pick Thunder Road but know some would probably be more partial to Born to Run)? Are the trucker songs of the 1960s and 1970s like you're Convoys and Six Days on the Road qualifiers? Does the car have to be a means of escape like it is for Tracy and Bruce or a means of returning home like it is in so many country songs? It probably has to be by an American given the automobile's place here after the war, and there are personal bonus points if they mention the make/model and Detroit.
This feels back to basics for the folk genre when a lot of the giants of the genre were trying and failing to experiment with synths and creating ill-advised super groups. This feels as forward looking as the Joan Armatrading album we got earlier. Extremely fresh and modern sounding even 40 years on. After the first two songs there's a bit of a drop off but that doesn't diminish the power of those first two.
I get why this receives a lot of hate here and I fully expect my compatriots to hand out a couple of ones but I can't help but really appreciate and like how raw the album sounds and the pure energy song to song.
I have mixed feelings about David Bowie. He's solid but good grief we're 150 albums into this and this is like Bowie album number five. I really like his Berlin period and that swan song was pretty phenomenal but, and I know this is sacrilegious, I find most of his stuff to be pretty underwhelming and boring and this doesn't prove to be an exception to that rule. Absolutely hideous cover of Across the Universe.
I don't know if Snoop is giving us many insights into the human condition but holy moly will this make you chuckle and tap a toe.
