soul is always a winner for me :)

surprised how much i enjoyed this! soooo 90s coded with the groove and the questionable lyrics about women personal faves: - excursions - butter

meh, this didn't do much for me. very samey throughout and just generally depressing. easy listening in the sense it didn't spark much joy or focus to it, so I guess I would listen again, but can't say i'd recognise anything that made an impact on me

yeah i enjoyed this! its pretty cheesy, but there are some good hits on the album, such as "girls just wanna have fun" and "time after time" that deserve to have lasted in the musical stratosphere for as long as they have. i particularly enjoyed yeah yeah, feels very quintessential of the timing of this album. overall, I listened twice through and enjoyed it!

yeahhhh, this is so great. Sade is the epitome of cool. her voice and the endless sax are a combo I can definitely get behind. i knew smooth operator and your love is king already so my "fresh" listen of the album only really started with hang on to your love and oh boy, what a start. sally another hot fave from this album. love love love this one.

meh .. its a great beat, sure, but after 1999 it starts to sound really repetitive

i can see how this would be a very influential album (jay z basically carbon copied the rapper on 7th chamber), but it's not my style of music. really not a fan of the chatting at the start of almost every song (edit: OMG STOP TALKING ITS NOT A PODCAST). i get that it has its time or plan (love it on Kneecap's Fine Art) but its used to death here and really takes you out of the flow. enjoyed: - shame on a n***a - cool minor sequence on the piano! - da mystery of chessboxin - CREAM not a fan of: - clan in da front - method man (had to skip it 30 seconds in) - tearz (shame, cause I like it without the 30 seconds of terror at the start) count of songs saved: 0/15 would I listen again: no

surprised myself with how much i enjoyed this album! its not like anything I've ever listened to before, and I wouldn't be familiar at all with sengalese music. i found it really beautiful to listen to a culture of music so (assumedly) different to my own, only to hit lilts of what i'd recognise as Irish trad sounds in the opening track. however, in saying that, i didn't love the cheesy synth in olel or lem gi, it made me feel like I was on a cruise ship. this would be a 4 star album without the cheesy synth. particular shout outs to: - yela - hamady boiro - sy sawande didn't like: - daniibe (but not strongly dislike) - olel songs saved: 0/11 would I listen again: yes

I had to listen to this twice in a row because the first three songs sounded so similar that it took until I reached "look at where we are" for me to realise we're onto another, let alone the fourth, song. some of the songs sound like they're taking progressions from really famous songs and incorporating them in to catch your attention. which like great, its working, but if I wanted to hear those progressions i'd just listen to the original? a lot of "kooky" songs in the second half too .. is this really the best we have to show for the 2010s? enjoyed: - flutes - how do you do - look at where we are not a fan of: - night and day - now there is nothing - HATE the time sig change count of songs saved: 0/11 I probably would listen again, passively, if it was on in a cafe in the background or something. but I don't think i'd go out of my way to listen again

this was surprisingly cute! its giving grease I listened to this twice on repeat and I enjoyed it equally both times :)

I surprisingly loved this. A really great introduction to the genre, one that I would’ve never listened to before trying out this challenge. I’ve relistened about five times already. Something so satisfying about the steady flow of it, and the progression between songs was so smooth!

this is a little too ............ american for me its grand, easy listening, but I won't be donning the stripes and stars just yet.

expected more from this tbh as i've listened to the national before and really liked their sound. this was really dreary

what in the psychedelic shit show was this

soul is always a winner for me :)