May 12 2025
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Young Americans
David Bowie
Talking strictly about Bowie's songs without everything else his persona/career encompassed is a bit reductive, but here we are.
This just reinforces my view of him as a "greatest hits" kind of artist. Album opens and closes with a couple bangers, does OK with a Beatles cover and then shuffles through whitesy funk a lot with a bunch of songs I've already mostly forgot about. I think it's the "I'll forget about this" that makes this seem so flat as an album.
3
May 13 2025
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Stardust
Willie Nelson
Nope.
1
May 14 2025
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Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park
I was surprised this album was included on this list, but then again, there's probably not a record that epitomizes the execrable early '00s hard-rock era like this one. After hearing many of these song a bazillion times on the radio during that era, it's hard to separate it from one of the most mookish spans of music.
I hadn't listened to this end to end since I reviewed it on original release. I remember then thinking that it was a successor to PWEI, and, man I sure was optimistic (stupid?) in that regard. These days, it comes off just like a slightly less idiotic Limp Bizkit, and most of non-stupidity comes from the fact that Bennington seems unable to sing about anything other than his feelings - no context for them, no situations, nothing but emo, emo emo. Yeah, someone else has probably already pulled on that rather uninteresting thread since his suicide.
There are dozens of other albums from his epoch that are probably worse if you're going to go back and listen, but why would you? Millennial tough-guy-with-feelings hard rock is something we just need to let go. Forever.
1
May 15 2025
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Exile On Main Street
The Rolling Stones
This is one of those albums that have been reviewed 99 million times in more than 50 years. Yay for listening notes.
As an album it's good - just not my thing unless I'm in a very precise mood. It's good, but not quite sure why this is heralded as one of rock's pinnacle achievements.
4
May 16 2025
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Let It Bleed
The Rolling Stones
Getting this the day after "Exile on Main Street" was weird.
Hearing this right after that one, it really struck home how when the Stones weren't trying so hard to be the kind of band Alan Lomax recorded, they had some good songs. These were, invariably, the least American blues/roots influenced - "Gimme Shelter," "Monkey Man" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" - that really makes me wonder why they spent so much time chasing the blues and not working toward their strengths.
3
May 19 2025
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Lust For Life
Iggy Pop
So seemingly primitive on its surface, this is one of those albums that just haven't been replicated since it was recorded. I'm sure having Bowie at the decks helps, but this is raw atmosphere. A classic.
5
May 20 2025
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The Chronic
Dr. Dre
This will always be the sound of the dorms to me.
2
May 21 2025
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Pieces Of The Sky
Emmylou Harris
Awful taste, good execution.
I have no idea if I'd ever heard any of these songs before in my life. If I hear them again, I don't know if I'll remember them when it happens.
1
May 22 2025
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Fishscale
Ghostface Killah
2
May 23 2025
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Sound Affects
The Jam
The song that epitomizes this album is "Music for the Last Couple." It's musically interesting and took a lot of skill to put together. Also, it's just not all that fun to listen to, nor is it particularly immersive.
I'm a decently big fan of The Jam - have all the albums on CD and pretty regularly listen - but "Sound Affects" is a weird one for me. On one hand, it has some of the band's best tracks - "Start" and "That's Entertainment," the latter being arguably their best song ever, at least lyrically. It also has songs that probably didn't need to see the light of day ("Pretty Green" and maybe "Set the House Ablaze").
This album was where The Jam hit the point of diminishing returns: All the albums before this were better, and "The Gift" is even less interesting. (Or maybe "Setting Sons," the album prior to "Sound Affects," is better seen as the band's artistic zenith?) It's a shame, as the band's mix of Northern Soul and Motown into its London (Woking, actually) could produce some of its best, most interesting songs, it came with a tradeoff of more clunkers.
3
May 26 2025
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Deep Purple In Rock
Deep Purple
Even though I never really listened to Deep Purple before, I always figured that if I gave them a chance I would hate them.
I was right! Unbearable '70s hard rock at its douchey-est.
1
May 27 2025
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Sea Change
Beck
With more than 20 years of perspective, this really does seem to capture the Pitchfork bro vibe of the early '00s. It's sad and melancholic and easy to listen to. Its use of strings screams sophistication, if you're the kind of person to confuse a large studio budget for sophistication. It was also a transformational record - something those hipsters really got on board with - as Hansen seemed to stop fucking around with the party sound and get down to serious biz.
It captured the timber of the self-important early aughts, but, man, it's just another folk-thing chronicling the unbearable pain of being white and boring. These songs are fine enough, but are they worth making room in your life for? Not really.
3
May 28 2025
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Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
An immediate and unfiltered look at teenage loneliness and lust. Punk’s promise is shaped into a different form on a record that still seems amazingly modern.
5
May 29 2025
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James Brown Live At The Apollo
James Brown
5
May 30 2025
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Savane
Ali Farka Touré
NPR world-beat wankery.
1
Jun 02 2025
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Talking Heads 77
Talking Heads
This really seems like the kind of album I would like. '77-era punk. NYC art-school nonsense. The playing is just so stupid, and even at this early stage David Byrne is insufferable.
2
Jun 03 2025
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The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
Charles Mingus
I know, I know that jazz is the foundation of all rock music and the bedrock of human culture and all that other crap that old white guys on NPR say. But, damn, it's also the wellspring of basically I hate in rock: outwardly flashy showmanship for the sake of showmanship, structure that's all over the place, "music for musicians," and all the other chin-scratching concerns of ponderous quasi-intellectual music praise.
1
Jun 04 2025
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Ctrl
SZA
I was surprised that I didn't hate this.
3
Jun 05 2025
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Time Out Of Mind
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is the Boomers' ultimate scourge on all later generations. Had his name (and Daniel Lanois) not be attached to this, this is just some dork-assed, coffee-shop dad playing blues that nobody wants to hear.
1
Jun 06 2025
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Drunk
Thundercat
I’d heard peole talk about Thundercat, but never heard him before this. I didn’t know what to expect, but not this.
This is goofy, wacky stuff that seems exactly like what that band on Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time” would play (another thing I’ve never heard before). Or maybe Meat Wad would be part of it? I don’t know. It’s just so silly and goofy, it’s impossible to hate. It’s also impossible to take very seriously, too. I guess it’d be your jam if you want to hang out with sentient food products who make music or kick out the jams with a magical princess and a talking dog or whatever the fuck that show is supposed to be about.
2
Jun 09 2025
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Electric Ladyland
Jimi Hendrix
5
Jun 10 2025
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Black Holes and Revelations
Muse
This wasn't a mid-'00s emo album, but it sure benefitted from its proximity to it. Instead of using punk-inspired theatrics for the the overwrought drama and bludgeoning sense of self-importance, Muse taps into a weird mix of glam rock, pseudo-prog and other pretense. It's never particularly good at any of it, and even almost 20 years later, seems just like a bunch of nerds trying to come off as something more meaningful than they are.
2
Jun 11 2025
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The Low End Theory
A Tribe Called Quest
This is one of those albums I vaguely remember from college house parties.
Before listening to this, all I could tell you about Tribe was Q-Tip was in it, and they had a lot more mellow tunes than the tough-guy guns'n'bitches bullshit of early hip-hop. I dig the chill vibe and the stronger basis in jazz, but still think Q-Tip's voice is the main reason to come back.
Like most hip-hop, not my thing, but it's chill.
3
Jun 12 2025
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The Libertines
The Libertines
There was so much press surrounding Pete Doherty and his rocky relationship with the rest of the band before this, opening this with "Can't Stand Me Now" was a stroke of genius of its own right. Arguably one of the coolest opening tracks when taken into context of the dialogue at the time.
Anyway, just when punk was getting all stuck up on tween-ready bubblegum and tough-guy posturing in the States, the Libertines came through and showed just how much life was still in the old style.
Sure, it doesn't sound like The Ramones or Sex Pistols or Black Flag, but neither did "London Calling." (The Clash's Mick Jones produced this, in case you forgot.) So unless you're stuck on skate- or pop-punk formula as the only available flavor for the genre, just embrace that this is a direction that punk went in the early '00s.
It's crazy all the contortions listeners and punk-averse critics were about that realization. This isn't indie rock, and was never shooting to be it. I get that it spawned a lot of godawful shamble-rock (remember The Fratellis?), but this is a pretty singular take on British punk - and really punk worldwide - that still stands up a couple decades after it hit shelves.
5
Jun 13 2025
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Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys
As much as I've been told this is a work of staggering genius and the most influential piece of music since the Magna Carta, I just can't bring myself to enjoy it. "God Only Knows" and "Caroline, No" are pretty OK. The rest is white-white-white bread.
3
Jun 16 2025
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1999
Prince
When this hits, it hits hard. When it doesn't, I understand why Prince supposedly has like 328,356 unreleased songs in his vault when he died.
3
Jun 17 2025
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Beggars Banquet
The Rolling Stones
I've had a physical copy of this for probably 25 years, and have only listened to it maybe 10 times. The Stones are weird: They had some truly iconic rock songs on here - "Sympathy for the Devil," "Street Fighting Man" and, to a lesser extent, "Stray Cat Blues"- but all they really wanted to be was a blues band. They're not a great blues band. There's probably a lot of "you can't always get what you want" in there.
The hits save this from disaster, but it's not a fun record to listen to.
3
Jun 18 2025
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Hysteria
Def Leppard
I was pretty familiar with more than half of these songs, which is testament to their popularity in 1989 and 1990. I'm not sure if I've heard any of them since 1995, which is testament to their staying power.
Cheese metal perfected.
1
Jun 19 2025
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Medúlla
Björk
This isn't something I'd return to frequently, and is outside my usual stomping grounds, but it's really captivating. I've never really heard anything else that sounds like this and is engaging to listen to, which seems all you can want from a concept piece like this one.
5
Jun 20 2025
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Atomizer
Big Black
I've always wondered why Big Black wasn't more popular with the punks.
4
Jun 23 2025
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Fear Of Music
Talking Heads
This is the most overrated band in the world.
1
Jun 24 2025
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Dusty In Memphis
Dusty Springfield
It's wild that this type of music was still being made the same year that Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin, Tommy and The Stooges were released. This album is so whitebread and lame.
1
Jun 25 2025
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Connected
Stereo MC's
I guess I can see why this got popular at the time. I can also see why it's been totally forgotten outside of the title track.
Early '90s Gen X styled "end of music history" stuff that was probably destined to become an evolutionary dead end.
2
Jun 26 2025
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Music for the Masses
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode is one of those really, really rare electronic acts whose older songs don't sound outdated or cheesy, even decades after the fact. I know Violator gets a lot of (deserved) love, but this is also a hell of a record.
4
Jun 27 2025
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War
U2
Meh. It's like a bunch of dudes who wanted to be The Clash as well as be commercially smash popular got together, and came up with this. It's fine, but opened the door to a lot of late-career bullshit from U2.
3
Jun 30 2025
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It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Public Enemy
4
Jul 01 2025
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Doolittle
Pixies
Obviously great.
5
Jul 02 2025
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I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Aretha Franklin
She's obviously a tremendous singer.
Are these tremendous songs? Hoo boy, no.
3
Jul 03 2025
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Live Through This
Hole
This is neither an important nor interesting representation of grunge.
3
Jul 04 2025
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Youth And Young Manhood
Kings of Leon
The '00s revival of '70s hard rock was one of the worst, most needless things to happen in that decade. Even setting aside the unnecessary portion of this, Kings of Leon were among the most bland and uninteresting of that crew.
2
Jul 07 2025
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xx
The xx
This really seems like something I should like: atmospheric and minimal production, cold instrumentation, male/female vocals, programming. It's fine, but ultimately kind of mundane.
3
Jul 08 2025
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Jagged Little Pill
Alanis Morissette
This was so omnipresent in the late '90s, but then disappeared. I hadn't heard these songs in ages.
Artist's voice is weird and interesting. The backing tracks are generally nothing, studio musician doing alt-rock ish stuff. I'd never really paid much attention, but most of her lyrics are crapola. Still a fun enough listen for old time's sake.
3
Jul 09 2025
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Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Stereolab
Yawn. Still.
3
Jul 10 2025
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You Want It Darker
Leonard Cohen
I don't know if this would have had the same impact if it wasn't from a longtime artist released right on his deathbed. Like Bowie's "Blackstar," it's hard to separate an artist exploring mortality around the same time they're dying. I guess he gets as pass for his decayed voice because of that.
That said, this is decent enough Cohen, separate from rock'n'roll but highly influencing rock'n'roll. It's fine. I don't think I particularly need to revisit it.
3
Jul 11 2025
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For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music
This was my first "discovery" on this list, although I was vaguely aware of this band. This brings a lot of theater kid rock that came in its wake into clarity. It also shows just why we needed punk rock. You can probably guess my rating based on that last sentence.
Somehow, I already knew I hated Bryan Ferry though.
1