I hate this album. Remember those pretentious goth kids who hung out behind the mall smoking cloves? This is the album they really wanted to like, but wasn't even listenable for them. The air of "art school dropouts" lingers on this album like a thick fog. Borderline awful.

RIP Ozzy. This is fine, but clearly not Sabbath's best album, but all of the elements are there - tight drums, awesome guitars, crisp bass, and a very charismatic (and fucking NUTS) frontman. They were a little too high-concept for their own good, but it's Sabbath. Sabbath rules.

Solid record. I like the alternate recordings and live versions better than these, but a good snapshot of this era.

The middle sags a lot, but this is a solid record. Win Butler's voice can start to grate on you after a while. Smart orchestration, some really fun time signatures.

All-time great record. The first half of this album absolutely cooks. But it does have a sequencing issue - after the certified stadium bangers on Side A, Side B almost feels like a different album. It may have been a deliberate choice, or a casualty of the cassette era's "you have to assume they're not flipping the sides" mentality. Still, either way, it feels like starting the meal with dessert before serving the vegetables. It's a landmark record, and both sides have their merits, but side B fades with a whimper.

A few decent songs (Thrasher, Pocahontas, Powderfinger) and utterly forgettable ones (Ride My Llama, Welfare Mothers, Sedan Delivery) sandwiched between an absolute banger cooked two ways. It's fine.

This album is a masterpiece.

Not necessarily my cup of tea, but the musicianship is great. This band is absolutely locked in, and the vocals are crisp. The production is a little muddled, and unlike most albums, the backend of this record is MUCH better than the front. Solid stuff.

This album is insane. It’s a work of art. It’s unabashed in its intensity, its craftsmanship, and its explosiveness. Funny, wry, sardonic: everything about this album is deliberate. Fiona redefined herself on this as a singular artist of her time. Damn near perfect.

Missy is the best. So much fun, so engaging. I’m sure I’ll return to this, but I don’t know if it’s exactly legendary. Really good, though.

I didn’t care for this at all. Too over-indulgent, too self-important. I always wondered where the worst metal bands got their inspiration. Now I know.

I was not in the right mood for an hour of someone claiming to be the king of soul when Al Green is still alive.

Legendary record. Absolutely the best thing The Who ever did, and some of the best songwriting Townshend ever produced. The middle sags a little bit, but it's literally impossible not to have some sag when the bookends are some of the most epic anthems ever produced.

The best album by a former Beatle of all of them. This album is great cover-to-cover. I'll even tolerate some of the indulgences because the rest of it is so good.

I LOVE Willie Nelson, so this album is right in my sweet spot. Is it his best album? No, but it's a top 3 choice. The late 70s production comes through here, but his voice and guitar playing are crisp and dead on. No missed notes, no hair out of place. It's impossible not to love these songs, and the arrangements here are ideally suited to Willie's voice and style.

A snapshot of the year when rock and folk collided. Dylan is the reluctant hero of this, which spawned thousands of bands. This set is great. The playing is free and loose, and Dylan’s vocals sound great. This is a quintessential moment in rock history, preserved in wax. Reverence in the highest order.

This is good. I wasn't in the mood for jazz, but it was a nice introduction to Hugh Masekela. It's a decent enough jazz album, but not a ton to return to here.

I put this album in a very small set of albums that may have absolutely no skippable songs on them. This album is iconic - a bridge between where rock was in 1995 and where it would go. "Fake Plastic Trees" is a perfect song. Honestly, this album and the two that follow are all unassailable.

Not exactly in my wheelhouse, but I appreciate it for what it is. Some of the production was VERY 1992, which really threw me off.

First off, this album contains certified BANGERS. "Clint Eastwood" may be a top 10 all-timer for me. Putting Del in anything elevates it. And yes, this album was groundbreaking, and Damon Albarn & Co. moved the needle for popular music with this album. BUT. A solid one-third of this album feels like good ideas that were never fully developed, which contributes to the "Damon Albarn is too decadent" narrative. Three stars, but throw another in for the sheer presence of Del The Funky Homosapien.

Absolute classic. I love Springsteen, and there are timeless songs on this. This marked the beginning of his transition from his "bar band era" to his "troubadour era." The results are fantastic, even if some of the songs don't resonate as much as the others.

It’s fine. Not great, not bad. Just… fine.

Disco is not for me. Nile Rodgers is though. This is fairly solid. The production is slick, and the instrumentation is well done. It's just not a thing I'll return to.

Total classic. Knowing the background on the album does help, especially that this was the first time a folksinger had transitioned to "rock," and how revolutionary that was. It's probably one of the most "important" albums ever made, and the fact that it sounds so loose makes it more accessible. In the top 3 Dylan albums, I have nothing bad to say about the album as a whole.

I like this album. I wouldn't rank it in the top Costello records - the back half sags a bit, but he's just a brilliant wordsmith. Good, not great.

This was not for me. I can take the Beach Boys in small doses, and I can recognize just how transformative a songwriter Brian Wilson was, but these songs are just SO old-fashioned and quaint. I get that it's the era they were produced in, but this is overwhelmingly "aw, shucks" and broadly insincere. Looking forward to "Pet Sounds" coming up, though. This is just not a great record.

Pretty good! Not the best Who record, but for the era this must’ve felt pretty revolutionary. Good stuff.

It's the Clash, man! Love this band. Great, great album, if not a little longer than it should be. I wasn't prepared for just how much the album tracks stand out among the more popular cuts. "The Right Profile" and "Death or Glory" are fantastic songs that get very little acclaim. I will return to this.

This was a great introduction to this style of songwriting. As a historical document, I found it to be compelling. The production was surprisingly crisp for the era, even if this isn't my favorite type of music. Tough to say I'll come back to this, but I appreciate it for what it is.

I love this album - have since it came out. It's inventiveness, it's production - everything. It falls off a little at the end, which is fairly common for concept records of this era and ilk, but that doesn't stop it from being an absolutely awesome listen. So happy to revisit this.

This was not for me. At all. I appreciate it, and I appreciate Nick Cave, but this is not my cup of tea.

This is good. Very high-concept - very reminiscent of Odessa by the Bee Gees, or Tommy by the Who. Great songs, very late-60s production. I could return to this, for sure.

A top 3 for me. Perfect in every way. The songwriting, the instrumentation, and the sound are simply fantastic. “Mercy Street” is incredible. I can’t love this any more than I do.

This was slightly better than I thought it would be. A few decent songs, but the sound wasn’t for me.

Look, I really like Talking Heads. This album just doesn't land for me the way others do. No question they're brilliant, and no question that David Byrne is one of the best "true artists." In fact, on paper, I should adore this. I just... don't. "Pulled Up" slaps. The rest is... good? Some of this will find its way on mix tapes. The rest will likely never be revisited.

I really like this album. Adele can sing the damn paint off the walls, but beyond that, the production is big where it needs to be, and sparse where it doesn't. Some of the "not massive" songs drag a little, but not enough to detract from this being a fine listen.

I liked this for a while. Then it just...kept...going. In brief intervals, this would be fine, but it felt more like music played in a Gap in the early 00s. It's fine. Just not for me...most of the time.

Really good. I forget how much these guys veer into prog rock. The back half of the album feels almost like a different project completely, which I dug. It grates on you after a while, but I liked.

There is nothing bad I could possibly say about this album. It’s perfect. Aretha will forever be the greatest female vocalist of all time. Automatic 5 stars.

Wondeful album - one I've returned to a LOT. It's like Paul Simon's mini-world tour, mixing folk, African, Zydeco, rock, etc. It's a ton of fun to listen to, even though its themes are all over the place.

I really like this, surprisingly. Some of it feels repetitive, but he has a great voice, and the beats are awesome. Oddly, I liked the French versions better than the English. I'll definitely check out his other stuff.

A really good album… that could have been two spectacular albums. I know the Beasties always create really eclectic albums - hell, “Paul’s Boutique,” anyone? But this album does not mix the bangers and the more avant garde pieces well at all. That said, I love this album, but it falls off a cliff in the 2nd half.

This is a perfectly pleasant album, but not my favorite style of jazz. It's sleepy, and a little too "safe" for my liking.

Interesting. This really provided me with a lens into "how did Adele come about" more than anything else. Perfectly fine. The "wall of sound" production style has always been lost on me. I just starts to grate on me after a bit, and I want to hear individual instruments. The production does nothing for her voice, which has always been tremendous. It's... fine?

I hate this album. Remember those pretentious goth kids who hung out behind the mall smoking cloves? This is the album they really wanted to like, but wasn't even listenable for them. The air of "art school dropouts" lingers on this album like a thick fog. Borderline awful.

I like this album. The VU is one of those bands that is hugely influential, and has heaps of praise foisted upon them, but to me? They're fine. More than fine - they're good. But "legendary?" I have never felt that way. I will say that having Nico sing a solid chunk of this record works to its benefit. It's got some interesting production and feels extremely loose. Some absolutely iconic songs here, but I rarely ever return to this. Maybe I will now? Gotta knock it down a full star for the needless cacophony in "European Son." I have a headache.

Go on, try to make me say something bad about P-Funk on a Friday. I’ll wait.

You can really see all of their potential just ready to burst out of them. Great production, playing, and the vocals are spot on. Not my favorite Beatles record, but… well, it’s still a Beatles record.

This is pleasant enough as background music. It sounds like it could just play on a loop in a boutique clothing store in the early 00s. Honestly, I'm not sure how this is on the list, but it was... indeed a thing I listened to once, and will likely never again.

SUPER-prog. At times, it's almost classical music. The musicians are amazing. Tony Levin is the man. I never really spent time with this band, and the barrier to entry is quite high if you're not expecting it. This album weird. Good weird, but not super accessible. I would listen to others by them, but likely won't return to this.

RIP Ozzy. This is fine, but clearly not Sabbath's best album, but all of the elements are there - tight drums, awesome guitars, crisp bass, and a very charismatic (and fucking NUTS) frontman. They were a little too high-concept for their own good, but it's Sabbath. Sabbath rules.

This is extremely reminiscent of a TON of other English bands (and INXS). I don't know who came first, but I really didn't love this. The whole of the album feels VERY 1986, and I don't mean that in a good way necessarily. I'd be compelled to listen to some of their other stuff, but not anytime soon.

This is a fantastic album. It absolutely rocks. I have listened to this a lot, and will come back to it. 8/10

I like this. I like Eno's ambient stuff a lot more, but there's a prog bent here that is kind of cool. I'll return to Eno's other stuff, but some of this may make its way onto a mix tape. 6/10

This album is terrific. I didn’t expect this to be as good as it was, but the band is tight, and I can hear a lot of threads that other bands picked up from them. A definite return listen. 7/10

This is a 10/10 album. It's perfect. Prince is a genius. He's immortal.

This was fine. Decent background music, but nothing I'll likely return to. Some of the stuff was repetitive, but overall... fine.

This is a good Temps record. It kind of falls off after the first half, but I'm never going to rate a good middle-era Motown record low. 6/10.

Second album by Fela Kuti, and yeah: I’m officially a fan. 7/10

This is one of Joni's best records. It's beautiful, meandering, and definitely jazzier than her other works. It's no "Blue" or "Hejira," but it's a classic, nonetheless. 8/10