Didn’t listen this time but remember it as a deeply sad album.
The Beatles starting to find their feet.
Funky
Decades ahead of its time.
Over the top, ridiculous, but utterly brilliant and unlike anything else. If anyone else tried to make an album like this it wouldn’t work, it shouldn’t have worked when Meat Loaf did it, and yet it does.
Enjoyable 70s prog rock time capsule, has aged well
Quintessential punk.
Intent to shock and does but still great tunes.
Nice melodies.
Classic after classic
Eighties
Interesting album, guitar oriented rock, difficult to pigeonhole into one genre.
Enjoyed it more than I thought I would, soulful.
Shame he’s such a prick because this is a great album.
Some great songs, the rest hasn’t stood the test of time
New, eclectic, brilliant. Knocked me out the first time I heard it.
Dark
Deserves a quiet night.
Energetic fun.
Great atmosphere on this album.
Hasn’t aged well and the crass sexual innuendo even worse. Quieter songs are OK. Can’t get past the awful lyrics though.
Some great tunes but a tad too long.
Stands up well, less than half an hour and no time wasted.
I liked the vibe of this.
Unique, some of it a little tedious but overall groundbreaking and interesting.
Music for ads, a bit dull. 2.4
I remember a lot of hype around Wild Beasts and when I listened to their music I didn’t get it. I still don’t. A couple of decent songs but interspersed with mediocrity and an awfully high pitched voice, not for me.
An all time classic, there are weaker tracks but the good ones are timeless
The obligatory rap related misogyny but without the good tunes. Overall boring.
It has been my opinion for a while that the reputation of The Fall exceeds the quality of their music. This album hasn’t changed my mind. Not bad, just not all that good either.
Eclectic. Yes, there are weaker tracks but the good stuff is more than in most shorter albums.
Manages to be both backward looking and forward looking at the same time.
Fun
Enjoyable, not exceptional
Fun
I’m not really feeling it, sorry. Left out the first part of the title. His son was decent though.
Good pop, very clean sounding.
If Michael Buble is a pale imitation of Frank Sinatra, Adele is a pale imitation of Aretha Franklin. I get the appeal, she does have a great voice but this is not a consistently strong or original album.
The greatest by the greatest. Broke down the walls that everyone afterwards walked through.
Absolute perfection, every song shimmers. Fast paced, fun, gorgeous melodies, relentless.
Never fussed on the Jam/Paul Weller, never sounded original enough to stand out from other bands. I’m still not, it’s all very similar.
Virtuoso rock, full of energy.
Basically sex music.
Nice background music
Virtuosity and some great tunes but a bit too self indulgent.
Smooth, and there isn’t enough saxophone in modern music.
Angry. Not my type of music but I enjoyed a lot of it, hated a lot of the rest of it.
Too angry for me to enjoy it.
Quality rock
Nothing special, I don’t get the hype
Sounds like Dylan and I love Dylan
Love a bit of soul
Meh
Soulful
Of it’s time
Melodic anger
Dreadful country shite, nothing remarkable about it at all, has no place being on this list.
Save it snobs, this is good pop. No, it’s not Revolver, but for what it is it, it’s great.
All time hard rock classic.
Yes, the lyrics are a bit misogynistic but it’s over 40 years old and was never about the lyrics. Every song is a banger, has to be 5/5.
To others saying that this is some sort of pastiche of 60s music or that she isn’t sincere, you’re wide of the mark. The best music takes something familiar and changes it to make it new, that’s what Winehouse does here. As for sincere, listen to the lyrics then look at how her short life panned out. She meant it.
I think what is said about Wagner applies to this ‘it’s better than it sounds’. Not for me, no melody, no structure. Influential/important etc. etc. yes, clearly. Enjoyable to listen to? Nope. All the 5/5 people are giving it that to look like they’re musical intellectuals but I doubt if they have this on vinyl that it’s worn out.
Beatles inspired but enough of its own thing to make it enjoyable.
Slightly ridiculous and of its time, but enjoyable in parts.
I can appreciate that she’s talented but this was boring to me
Of its time. The unique thing about them is Noddy Holder’s voice, which is also the worst thing about them, they seem to be a decent bunch of musicians held back by that screaming banshee of a man.
One of the defining albums of my teenage years, I can’t not give it 5 stars. It holds up well after 30 years.
Loved this
Fun
Enjoyable rock
The epitome of psychedelic music.
Influential but also boring in parts.
Fun rock
The hits still stand up well after almost 70 years.
I don’t like country.
Very enjoyable
Wonderful indie rock
Funky
Weird but entertaining.
Primal Scream before Primal Scream
Yet more Neil Young!
Over the top in places, but surprisingly very enjoyable.
Colossal!
To date (over twenty years later) this is his only album, and you can hear why. How do you top this?
A magnificent snarl of an album
Sinatra at his best, timeless.
Very eighties.
The word ‘country’ filled me with trepidation but it wasn’t too bad, but not too good either. I can hear that it has been influential but I found it a little boring.
Hasn’t aged well, some decent songs but the rest has dated.
Fun
Some good songs but overall mediocre.
I can’t fairly grade this since I don’t understand the lyrics but from what I can hear, unlike her producer, I could have died without hearing this.
Far too long and self indulgent. About 30 minutes of decent music padded out to over 2 hours.
Of its time. Hard to judge it nearly 50 years later as a lot of what sounds tired now would have been fresh then.
Enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would.
The good stuff is brilliant but there’s still a lot of filler.
Generic turn of the millennium dance music, didn’t notice it at the time, I can hear why.
Unknown to me beforehand, good find
Stoner/garage rock. Would have given it 3/5 except for the track with snoring in the background.
There’s just so many great songs on here, even though not all 2 hours is excellent, I can’t not give it 5/5. Others will say it’s too long of course, but I can’t overlook the quality of it.
Funky social commentary
Didn’t like them at the time, still don’t
Enjoyable.
I love the Divine Comedy but this was just dull.
10/10 a genuine genius at his peek.
Lovely surprise, great fun.
Some decent tunes but could have been edited to remove a few of the lesser tracks.
Extraordinary
Funky but dated in parts.
Eclectic and great.
Nice ambient sounds
Just good fun, not earth shattering or pushing the boundaries but great rock.
Of its time, decent.
Fun
Excellent
Questionable name, boring and at times annoying music. Nu Metal is absolute gash.
No bad tracks. I don’t feel funereal vibes, I just remember it from the time as a great live performance by a great band. No need to get maudlin about it.
Not my cup of tea.
Two good songs and a lot of meh.
I forgot how good this album is. Prophetic also, worrying about the dangers of mixing religious fanaticism with politics. We’ve now seen where that leads.
Five stars for two reasons. 1) It’s brilliant, everything rock music should be, bright, exciting, just different enough from went before to be interesting but not too different to not be accessible 2) I see a lot of tossers giving it one star. Really? One star is for an album that’s so bad that you see no merit in it whatsoever, not for ‘I’m a snob and this isn’t Revolver so I hate it’, it’s not Amazon in 2006, there are other options than one star or 5.
Melodic horniness. Lots of great tracks on this and their other albums.
Some good tunes but not his best work.
Difficult to review from the perspective of 2026. I wasn’t born when it came out. Some interesting sounds and the obvious hit of the title track, but I doubt I’ll listen to this again therefore I can’t give it a high score. 2.5.
Not bad, not great, probably better without Spector’s production but we’ll never know.
Nice ambient sounds, a wee bit dull in parts though.
Fun, nineties artefact.
It’s often said that McCartney lost the ability to finish a song towards the end of the Beatles and through this period, this is said in a negative way but look at the end product, A Day In The Life, side two of Abbey Road and Band on The Run. Not a bad stretch of music and his ability to splice together the fragments of unfinished songs influenced others who came after to do the same (Paranoid Android for one), so we’re all better off for it. As for this album, it stands up well after over 50 years and there isn’t that many albums that can be said about, which is why McCartney is rightly regarded as one of, if not the, best songwriters of the 20th century. There is a bit too much cheesiness which shows that McCartney did need Lennon’s vinegar to go with his honey, but Paul could lay down a melody better than Lennon, who’s own post Beatles work is a lot worse in my opinion.
Hard to believe this is more than a quarter of a century old, it still sounds as fresh and potent as it always did. No bad tracks and the good ones are amazing.
Good hard rock, if a bit repetitive (although that’s the point) would have rated it higher if it didn’t contain a song alluding to paedophilia.
Outstanding album, diverse and brilliant, poignant in places without being syrupy, tunes you can dance to, others just to enjoy. Yea, it’s derivative, all music is derivative and if you think the music you like isn’t, you haven’t listened to enough music, but the talent is taking something that went before and crafting something new from it. 5/5 (mainly to balance out all the 1/5 who thought they were being clever by saying ‘I can hear Talking Heads in this as if that’s a bad thing)
Incredibly dull music, when it got to ‘I’m not done’, I said to myself ‘More’s the pity’. A bit like Massive Attack in places, if Massive Attack had been told that their music was far too exciting and took out all the interesting parts. Listened to it on a run, big mistake, made me want to stop, not because I was tired, but out of sheer boredom. I’m not taken in by the ‘ooh it’s all mysterious and Scandinavian’ thing either, I’m half Norwegian, I know about Scandinavian culture/winters etc.
Bruce divides opinion but to me this is a great album full of great songs, an easy 5/5. I can see from some reviews that there are, even now, people who don’t listen to the title track beyond the title.
A bit bland but I can hear it was influencial on later music.
Over the top, pompous lyrics, extended musical sequences that seem to go on forever, I shouldn’t have liked this but I did, it was very enjoyable and stands up well nearly 60 years later. I remember seeing that album cover in record shops when I was a teenager but I had no idea who King Crimson were then.
I know Ryder can’t sing but there is some great music in this.
Gets in, gets the job done, gets out. Loved it.
Excellent debut. Not their best album but hints of what was to come. Very low-fi in parts but that adds to the charm. Those giving it 1/5 are not listening to the lyrics which are some of the best around. Without the lyrics I can see why people would hear it as boring but that’s like saying without the paint, the Mona Lisa wouldn’t be famous.
Of its time. Not as innovative as Beatles records from the same era but some decent blues based rock. I’ve never really got into the Who although I accept they have some good tunes and I can’t objectively measure their impact because they made their music before I was born but I think it’s a huge stretch to call this ‘proto punk’. Definitely not as good as the Stones or the Kinks. 3/5
I know it’s influential etc. etc. but I just didn’t enjoy it.
Full of classics.
I feel like this album is goading me into giving it 1/5 but I actually enjoyed a lot of it. Definitely not boring, noisy but some decent listening in amongst the cacophony.
Exquisite voice, the godfather of chamber pop
Good voice, boring music, the attempts at social commentary just don’t land when juxtaposed with such dull music. A double album has to contain phenomenal music to be worth hanging around for, like Songs in the Key of Life or Blonde on Blonde, this just isn’t. Too long, too dreary. 2/5 because if I was out somewhere and this was on in the background I wouldn’t be offended by it, but I’ll never choose to listen to this again.
I really don’t like The Who. They’re a band whose whole is less than the sum of its parts. Around the time they rose to prominence you had the Beatles, the Kinks and the Stones, all far superior bands. I would have given it 2/5 for Keith Moon’s drumming but then there was the inevitable 70s paedophilia song so it lost a star.
If the third Reich had persisted beyond 1945 and somehow Queen had been formed, this is what they would have sounded like.
Maybe this is super influential or whatever but I just found it boring.
It’s hard to explain to people who grew up in a later era but this album was unavoidable for a couple of years around the millennium. Turn on the TV and an ad. comes on, a song from Moby Play. Go to the cinema, a song from Moby Play. Walk through a shop, the radio is playing a song from Moby Play. Not all the time obviously but enough that everyone heard the songs. Some drag a bit but the good stuff is still good.
Quite like Crowded House, not bad in parts
It’s difficult to rate this without thinking about what came next for them, I.e. music by numbers for people who don’t like music. Having said that, the strong tunes on this are very good, not musically innovative but they definitely hit a spot and that’s not as easy as people would like to believe. It was heading for 4/5 from me but it really tails off towards the latter third. As Super Hans said ‘you can’t trust people, people listen to Coldplay and voted for the Nazis’ IYKYK.
It’s very long but it’s brilliant and eclectic. One of the all time greatest albums by one of the all time greatest artists. I knew it before this but I didn’t know it was his 18th album, no wonder he was getting burnt out and thinking of jacking it all in and emigrating. I’m glad he didn’t though and instead produced this at a stage in his career when most other artists, including some legends, had long since checked out creatively.
I wouldn’t be doing this project if I didn’t have an open mind but I hated this. I hate melisma and I hate Mariah Carey for becoming so popular that she inspired generations of singers to do it more (I know Whitney did it, I’m not claiming Carey invented it). I also have an aversion to songs with ‘feat.’ in the title based on listening to them before and almost always finding them to be rubbish. I’m not downgrading this because I’m a snob, good pop is a lot harder than a lot of people like to admit, I’m downgrading it because great as her voice is, she wastes it on showing off, and the clean production coupled with such dull songs makes this an absolute chore to get through. Sterile pap.
Weird is fine, weird can be fun and interesting. This was neither, this was just boring.
The inevitable misogyny present seemingly in all rapid albums aside, listenable enough. I don’t think it breaks any barriers though, just well produced and polished rap.
Nice melodic rock.
It’s always difficult to rate their first two albums in light of what they later became, I.e. stadium rock, music by numbers for people who don’t like music but want something on in the background and to tell their friends they went to see Coldplay. Nevertheless this is a solid debut album, well produced with good moments and Yellow holds up well after more than a quarter of a century. Some of it is a bit bland though, 7/10
It sounds like they were looking for hooks for a lot of their songs, mucking about until they found one but never actually did. They’re clearly talented musicians with some good ideas but for me it never coalesced into anything enjoyable to listen to. I have no doubt there are people who will love this and give it 5 stars as an ‘incredible new discovery for me’ etc. but I’m not among their number.
Decent
Bruce Springsteen influenced southern rock, not terrible, not particularly remarkable. Oh and an unhealthy obsession with Lynrd Skynrd.
Nice ambient music but nothing earth shattering
Actually quite disappointed with how mundane this was. It was funky in parts but not as funky as Isaac Hayes’ music from around this time etc. OK to have on in the background but I doubt I’ll be coming back to it again.
It’s a bit too long but edited down it would be much better regarded. I’m giving it 5/5 because the good stuff is really great and for the bravery to go in a different direction after releasing such a commercially successful album as Rumours. The easy and obvious choice for them would have been to churn out more of the same, which probably would have been OK but a lot less interesting than this.
It’s alright I suppose but I don’t think I’ll listen to it again. It’s that sort of vibesy music that critics in the 2010s seemed to love but personally I prefer music with passion, that isn’t trying to be cool. There are films that are obvious Oscar bait, this sort of music is critic bait, well produced and musically good, and a little bit different from what went before but ultimately a bit soulless. No one is going to hear this and start a band, it’s as bland as the cover.
Guttural growling with cool drums. Not for me but I can appreciate the appeal.
Gorgeous folk/acoustic
I haven’t learned French for nearly 30 years and even then I wouldn’t have been at the level to follow along at the tempo of this album, but I enjoyed the music a lot.
Lovely voice, not that much variation throughout the album though.
Not usually into hip hop but this was enjoyable.
I know it’s very influential etc. but to listen to it was just OK.
Couldn’t understand a word but quite enjoyable.
An awful combination of pretentiousness and sheer boredom. Maybe it’s my Eurocentric ignorance but I didn’t feel the non western elements worked at all with the electronica. Flour, eggs and sugar can make a cake, but that doesn’t mean every random combination of flour, eggs and sugar makes a cake, or even anything palatable. This album was just chucking random elements together and cajoling the critics into professing their admiration of it because it’s different. I wager very few listened to it more than twice, they might have admired it but no one truly loves music like this.
Music for sleazy assholes but some decent enough pop at times, 3/10.
Funky!
Decent instrumental organ music.
Enjoyed that more than I thought I would.
I don’t know what music was like in airports in the 1970s, I wasn’t around, but I’m glad that it wasn’t replaced by this. Everyone would miss their flight because they’d have fallen asleep out of boredom, although if the pilots were also listening at least they’d be asleep as well so the plane wouldn’t leave without passengers. I appreciate it has influenced other, less dull, music, but I also think that others such as Kraftwerk have been more influential on later ambient music. I also realise that this is meant to be background music, but I find it impossible not to listen to any music I hear, even if I don’t like it, so for me background music doesn’t work, I just want music I can listen to. 2/5
Very pleasantly surprised by this, I chiefly knew them for Enola Gay but I’m usually wary of synthpop albums as it can all get a bit samey after a while and soulless. This is neither, although it’s an hour long it rarely felt like it. 4/5
If the Kinks didn’t exist or if the Beatles hadn’t made Sgt. Pepper’s before this maybe this would be seen as something substantially different from other late 1960s British rock, but since those things had happened I don’t know why this is on the list. Some of the music isn’t bad but the meandering stories in contrived ye oldey English are just annoying.
Starts off really well and there are some great tunes and ideas in here, but it’s not universally strong.
This is great, heavy but tight, fuzzy but not unfocused. I can see why Kurt Cobain liked them so much.
Decent enough punk album but a bit repetitive after a while.
Enjoyable but a bit too light for me to love.
Of its time, decent enough.
Decent start to their career, doesn’t really stand the test of time but clear signs of talent, a cut above other early-mid 60s British rock bands except for the obvious exception.
Reasonable background music
He may be a total abomination as a person but he makes good music.
Very well produced, as expected, and she does have a decent voice but I found myself bored quite quickly and I absolutely despise melasma, so my rating declined the more it went on.
I don’t think much of Clapton as a person (Rock against Racism was founded in response to his behaviour) but I believe in separating the art from the artist and this is pretty good.
5/5. Their masterpiece. The Joshua Tree was a very good album but it doesn’t stand the test of time as well as this. If U2 had carried on as they were in the 80s, they would have disappeared up their own arses, much as Coldplay did after A Rush of Blood to the Head. U2 are at their best when Bono reins in the preaching, which he mostly does here, and the result is magnificent. Also a great album to run to. This will get a lot of 1/5s purely because people hate Bono. They’re wrong about Bono (although he does need to stop preaching) and they’re wrong about this album.
Made to dance to and good for that.
Signs of things to come
Enjoyable enough
I think I’m going to need to come back to this one, I enjoyed it but I think I’ll get more from it with repeated listens. Me and my gun is a hard listen, I don’t know how anyone couldn’t be affected by it, but also brilliant.
He’s a very good musician and he performs the covers competently and some of the tracks do absolutely rock. That being said, Rod Stewart is mostly known for his voice and his songwriting so it seems bizarre to feature an album that contains very little of the latter.
Could have easily died without hearing this and not regretted it (if I was capable of regret at that point which clearly I wouldn’t be, as I would be dead)
It’s fine I suppose but it doesn’t really stand out for me among other 2000s indie rock, I may have even seen them live at some point but they’re just not that memorable to me. Absolutely not something that I needed to hear before I die, even if I had died before getting it on this list I would have died not sure if I had heard this before, since it’s so forgettable. Was going to give it a 3 to symbolise how middling it is but all the 5/5 reviews need balance. 5/5, really? One of the best albums you have ever heard? It wasn’t even one of the best albums of the year it was released in, behave yourselves.
She’s like no one else and that’s a good thing.
Not my favourite of his but still very good moments. 3/5
50s rock and roll pastiches mostly, without enough of a modern twist to make it worthwhile. I presume reviewers liked it so much because it reminded them of the music they heard as children. If ‘you had to be there’ to enjoy music then it’s not good enough to be counted as among the best of all time. They had one idea and repeated it for almost an hour, which they clearly realised themselves since some songs (yes, not just one) were literally repeated, and it wasn’t a good idea to begin with.
Mostly bland but I liked the last track a lot.
False advertising, while young, James is clearly not a baby when this was made. Not bad, he has a great voice and some of this is interesting lyrically, and if I was somewhere and this was on I wouldn’t protest, but I doubt I’ll be coming back to it.
I remember when this was released. I only had a vague notion of who Johnny Cash was, some old boy who was big in the 60s in country and who was once in Columbo. The ingredients didn’t seem there to make anything noteworthy. My expectations were therefore low, but this album blew me away and it still does, some of the covers are better than the originals, others take the songs in a completely different direction. A lot of the critical reviews focused on how Cash was dying which added poignancy etc. which it does, but I think even if that wasn’t the case and Cash was still alive now the music would still stand up (although maybe he wouldn’t have made such a good album if he hadn’t known he was close to the end).
Great. Definitely eighties and yet not dated. Some weaker tracks so I can’t give it a 5/5 but not far off it.
It’s OK, had it on in the background and it was pleasant enough.
There was an awful lot of hype and excitement about the Libertines when this came out. It is a good album but it’s reputation is better than the music, as a British indie debut it’s not up to the standard of Definitely Maybe or Whatever People Say I Am… A decent time capsule of mid noughties (I never called it that at the time, always sounded too cringey) rock and the good tunes are still good, but a lot is a bit repetitive.
Maybe if I had heard this in 1982, when it was fresh, it would have blown my mind but I’m not hearing it in 1982, I’m hearing it in 2026. To me it sounds like a load of unfinished ideas, some of which were finished by other bands, Pixies being one that springs to mind.
I love Nick Cave’s solo work but I suppose we all do things in our youth that make us cringe when we think about them later.
From his golden period and that reputation is well deserved, it stands up well over 50 years later. I did chuckle at the line ‘Please don’t leave, don’t leave Steve’. Not as strong as Songs In The Key Of Life but still great. 4/5
Enjoyable enough, driving rock, strong rhythm section but not varied enough to make it one of my highlights from this list. I think there’s probably a reason I’ve never heard of this band before.
