Amazing acoustic guitar playing and what a voice. Have long been aware of him and this album but never listened to it. I grew up with this kind of sad-guy singer-songwriter stuff and have mostly avoided it since my early 30s but this was fantastic.
Eddie Van Halen is a god and this is his origin story. Incredibly revolutionary band and the older I get the more I appreciate super solid music that is 100% about having fun.
I still remember walking from school to buy this in the old long form cd box the day it came out. Document - Green - Out of Time - Automatic for the People have got to be the best four-album streak by band ever, although for me the REM artistic energy kind of ran out after this. I don't think this is as consistent as those other three albums but Nightswimming, Everybody Hurts, and Drive for me in particular are classics.
What a monster 5 x 5 star album. Gigantic hits from start to finish. It was only in this decade that I learned Michael Jackson stole his leather and zippers look during this era from Warrant who were still a still unsigned LA local band at the time. More people should know that.
The #1 reason you shouldn't trust anything I say is that I prefer Sammy Hagar to David Lee Roth and think 5150 is VH's best album. But, while there is some filler here, Jump, Panama, and Hot For Teacher are simply three of the greatest songs by an American rock band ever.
Was not in the mood for today's offering so went back and listened to this. The second best album by the first best American band. This and Green (their best in my unpopular opinion) cut through the hair metal and teenybopper music of 1989 and made me the weirdo I am today.
This band is way better than Incubus which is extra impressive because this album came out 33 before Make Yourself and the Beatles didn't even have a turntable guy.
One of my all time top ten favorite albums. And maybe the #1 most influential on me. I bought this in sixth grade when the Monkees-esque Stand video was all over MTV. At that point for me, it was all about Bon Jovi, Guns N Roses, Def Leppard, Warrant (sorry not sorry) and the rest, with a lot of U2 in there too, but REM was truly the first "alternative" band in my life, in that they were just weirder and more unpredictable and elliptical than U2, and certainly much more so than the hair metal (which I still love) that dominated MTV and which everyone else in school was listening to. This album still kills. You Are the Everything is the most underrated REM song out there. I do feel a lot of nostalgia for this so that may bias me as I know most REM fans do not consider this their best (and indeed a lot of them hate this album), but whatever.
I have a high tolerance for silly classic metal, but this pushed it a bit. The guitar work and attitude are something to behold, but if I'm looking for a classic British metal fix, it's going to be Maiden or Sabbath, not this.
My love for fretless bass, idiosyncratic guitar soloing, singers that can't really sing, and mid-80s sentimentality elevates this above the boring parts.
Some good shit. Not nearly as good as Paranoid which came out only six months later (!) but still listenable and rocking. A little self-indulgent.
Now I Got a Headache
This must be that "LA sound" everyone is talking about. I love it.
Most of this was new to me (well everything besides Me and Julio) and it was an unexpected delight. Never heard him so stripped down, and he's a beast on guitar. Also I had no idea that Gatorade was ubiquitous enough in 1972 to be mentioned in a song - f'ing fascinating.
Was not expecting to see 2 (so far) pre-Sex on Fire Kings of Leons albums here. Hmm. Solid rock n roll band and I'm all for that, but not much in the way of tuneage here.
Of all the Beatles' solo careers, Lennon's is definitely in the top 4.
Loved it. Listened twice in a row. Want to get a copy of this vinyl, a lazy-boy, and a glass of whiskey.
Interesting that this was the 2nd best selling album of 1982 after...Asia. The era of the 80's superstars had not really begun. Pleasant stuff. Belinda Carlisle forever.
One of my three favorite albums ever since about the time it came out - and yet not even my favorite U2 album, which is The Unforgettable Fire. I like it now even more than back then. 10 out of 5 stars.
Was way into the Ramones in perhaps their least popular era, the last few years of their existence in the early 90s before they became dead legends / t-shirts to put on your kid to let people know you're a cool parent. Honestly, I heretically like the later more produced stuff a bit more, and even though there's like four songs in a row that sound exactly alike, this is a got-dam classic.
Extremely familiar with the hits but never listened to the whole album. Super fine. This album could come out today and be a critical smash.
This came out a few years before my entry into the 120-minutes-verse, and I was familiar with the first two songs (which are solid) and the general "classic" reputation of the album, thus I was confused as to why the rest of the album was just kind of boring.
I was excepting and hoping for some deep cut Yacht Rock a la "I'm Not in Love." What I got seems to be the original cast soundtrack of an off-broadway show that opened and closed on the same night in 1974. Things have changed for me and 10cc.
Definitely most apt album title relative to the quality of the band ever. Big props to the bass player though, he is underrated.
Dark, repetitive, haunting, I'm into that.
Not my thing. I feel like a lot of the music that I find annoying - and which is far more pervasive now than in 1997 - can be traced back to this. And yet that bassline in Around the World (which I have certainly heard before) is about the greatest thing ever.
Owned this album when it came out and I remember it the same as I hear it now - some amazing songs and a lot of slow, unmemorable dirges. Fight Test, Yoshimi, and Do You Realize are classics, but overall not as great as The Soft Bulletin.
Had never really listened to LCD Soundsystem so interesting to have the chance. One song - Someone Great - I loved, the rest didn't really do it for me, but I can sort of see the appeal. More accessible than Daft Punk.
Glad to finally hear this album after knowing about the Tom Tom Club for a long time - big fan of Talking Heads and of the Genius of Love segment in Stop Making Sense. Liked Under the Boardwalk and Lorelei. Some of the other songs a bit more prosaic. Don't know that I'd listen to the whole album again, but good and enjoyable listen.
Wanted to give this five stars based on the rock and roll perfection of Walk This Way, Sweet Emotion, and Toys in the Attic, but damn there is some filler crap on this album and Big Ten Inch Record subtracts a star on its own. Aerosmith rules, but I can't abide the cheesiness.
Amazing acoustic guitar playing and what a voice. Have long been aware of him and this album but never listened to it. I grew up with this kind of sad-guy singer-songwriter stuff and have mostly avoided it since my early 30s but this was fantastic.
Not exactly my go-to music genre, but has all the hallmarks of a five star album. Inventive, sprawling, and no filler. I had heard SOS but never any of the songs on this album. I shall return to this album.
Loved it. Never heard the full album before. High standard deep cut disco is always good by me. Brilliant guitar and bass, solid tunes. Will go into regular rotation.
Loved Just Kids and Because the Night. This however makes me doubt my commitment to SparkleMotion. Maybe you had to be there.
I owned a digital copy of this in that odd period before Spotify but after we stopped buying CDs. And like many of those albums from that period, totally forgot it existed. Still rocks although doesn't really have any "hits." Unexpected to see it here.
Another guy I've always heard about and never really listened to it, can't believe this came out all the way back in 2003, which is the same year White Winos by Loudon Wainwright III came out which was a song I was quite obsessed with. This feels like Billy Joel meets Radiohead both of whom instill existential anxiety in me. 3.5/5
I always thought this was some kind of second-tier 60s jam band. I must have been mixing them up with a similarly fruit-titled band. Moby Grape? Anyway. This is great. In fact this kind of music is literally the soundtrack of 1980s B-movies which is my shit. Their wikipedia page is way more complex than I ever would have imagined. 127 albums and several dozen members. May 18, 2025 is the day I finally understood Tangerine Dream.
I don't know, CAN you? In fairness, at 18 I would have given this five stars.
Another band I missed out on, although I recognize Novocaine. Didn't realize Eels and E were the same guy - one of the first shows I ever saw E was the opening act and I figured that guy disappeared but Wikipedia indicates he is quite successful in the soundtrack world. This was right up my alley genre-wise and for when it came out but somehow I just can't get into it. Maybe a little too much ironic detachment for me. Maybe I have no further capacity for alternative rock that came out in the mid-90s.
I guess this is here for historicity, but I'm not quite seeing it. Jimi Hendrix's first album came out the year before which had the guitar sounds but with infinitely better playing, songs, and singing. And The Who were already well into their career. Having a somewhat heavier distortion on its own doesn't seem like a big deal but I guess I'm missing something here.
Of all the songs I’ve ever heard about a gypsy woman casting a spell on an unsuspecting singer-songwriter, this one was the longest.
No one told me we were going to have to listen to Tom Waits albums. I feel a little misled.
I would advise against offering to hold on to the hard drive of any person who owns this album.
In high school, I thought maybe being into Sonic Youth would get me in with the hipsters, but they all - to the extent took the time to look - saw the truth that I was really a Soul Asylum guy. I have a feeling Grave Dancer's Union is not on this list, but if it were, instant 5 stars.
When I saw the cover and title, I hoped this would be an underground yet critically-acclaimed Christian metal album that would be new to me and potentially life-changing. Twas not. D.A.N.C.E. was pretty great however - one of many things that eluded me in 2007. All in all, better than Daft Punk and if I was home-invaded and forced to play EDM I'd be okay with putting this on.
Surprised Bert Jansch has never been on my radar - he is a g-damn guitar hero. Astounding guitar work for a 22-year-old in 1965 and I can hear the influence on Jimmy Page and Neil Young and later virtuosos like Michael Hedges. That said the songwriting and vocals leave a bit to be desired, particularly in comparison to Nick Drake from a couple weeks back. .
Much like with Bert Jansch, I can hear the sizable influence MBV had on its immediate successors - a lot of whom are my teenage favorites - in the 90s, specifically Smashing Pumpkins. And to extend the comparison, I was missing the more dynamic songwriting and vocals of those successors.
Curious choice over It Takes a Nation of Millions... Good reminder of how big of a deal of Public Enemy was for a couple years there in my formative youth. And a good reminder of how big of a deal Anthrax was for me for a brief period too. One of the most important groups ever but this doesn't feel like their best work.
I was 9-10 years old when this album came out and very much attuned to what was on the radio. Nothing more annoyed my soul than when Anita Baker came on - the musical equivalent of waiting in Jo-Ann Fabrics with your mother for two hours. Now that I am a lover of all things soft rock in my elder years, I appreciate this a good deal more. But not tons more.
Another artist I never really paid much attention to. I recall it being a favorite of stoner grad students in the mid-aughts, and now that I hear it, that checks out. A little aloof for me, but that seems like the point.
This band reminds me of the house band at the go-go bar in Girl in Gold Boots, as presented by Mystery Science Theater 3000 in one their most entertaining episodes. I think that band might have been better. They certainly didn't play anything as awful as The Toonerville Trolley.
Not cool (or fair) that I had to listen to a 20+minute song to get to a song with my name in it which was over in less than 2 minutes.
Didn't like them then, don't like them now. The patron saints of guys who want to be in bands but can't sing, play guitar, write songs, or express themselves without unmerited scorn. That said, it has some nice moments.
Sounds like they had a good time dicking around and cool someone had enough storage on their iphone to record it all. Wonder if they ever formed a band and recorded an album.
Well I guess I'm an old man now because I love this.
Great stuff. The output of music by the Beach Boys between 1962-66 is staggering to state the obvious. A little dated and teenage-y for me to truly get into but definitely appreciate the work. RIP Brian Wilson.
Elvis Costello is brilliant. But it's so much output and it runs together. Hard to see myself going to this over a greatest hits collection. Also I feel like so much of his later work makes more sense if you're a fairly well-to-do Brit.
I had to google Incubus to see if they are a Christian band based on that vocal styling. They are not. Some very solid guitar and bass work. However multiple penalties for "Battlestar Scralatchtica" and this: "And it feels like a matador is taunting me With his reddest red cloth and I am the bull Yes I feel emphatic about not being static And not eating the bullshit that's being fed to me no more 'Cause now I'm full"
As far as EDM goes, not too annoying and enjoyable at times. More soulful than the typical stuff I hear in the genre.
I can finally put a full-length album with the name. Giving this one star feels like what they want, so I'm going to give it two.
Major props for this band putting out an album in 1988 that sounded like nothing else, merging metal and alternative. Mountain Song and Jane Says are five stars. That said, Perry Farrell is so annoying.
It's mind boggling that we went from Meet the Beatles to this in five years while most popular pop, rock, and country today sounds like it could have come out in 1984. A veritable, dare I say, smorgasbord of iconic riffs, I basically learned to play both guitar and bass from this record.
Even though this came out in the height of my teenage music idolatry years, I was never into them. Maybe too nasally, too dark. I was surprised by how much I dug this. That voice is otherworldly. 4.5 stars that I'll round up to 5 why the f not.
I appreciate that this album made the list. Listened to it when I came out and enjoyed it. Musically though it never transcends beyond background music for me though.
Fascinating artist from the (well at least my) glory days of 120 Minutes who sometimes but doesn't always do it for me. We Float is gorgeous.
You could give a room full of monkeys with typewriters a trillion years to come up with a better name for this band and they would not succeed.
Beautiful voice, beautiful guitar. Trying to figure out what makes this feel like 3 stars compared to Pink Moon's 5 stars. Presumably the songs themselves. But going forward can't imagine needing a Nick Drake fix and putting this on over Pink Moon.
From now on, whenever someone brings up the song Sex Machine (which does not happen!), I can be a twit and mansplain how Sly and the Family Stone released a song called Sex Machine *before* James Brown and claim that it's far superior (which it's not!).
As background work music goes, this is pretty top notch.
Solid funk album, feel like it just needs a little more on the hook side to bring it up to five stars.
A pretty perfect soul/funk album from Cincinnati's own. Ronald Isley has been the lead singer of this band for 70 consecutive years which is funkin crazy.
Interesting from a historical perspective of that era of hardcore music which I know very little about. Guitar and bass are off the chain. But can't get into the whole package.
An absolute top-tier five star band. But a little too much atonal filler here for a five star album for me.
A sentimental favorite. Bob Mould's voice and guitar sound were definitely a key part of the soundtrack of my mid-teens. That sentimentality rounds this up to a 4.
Pleasant, easy listening jazz (the kind of jazz that involves flutes). I'm assuming this album has some historical significance that did not come through for me based on just listening to it.
Norwegian Wood, In My Life, Nowhere Man, Michelle...just mind-boggling that guys in their early 20s were writing and recording these songs in 1965 out of thin air.