Mar 17 2025
View Album
The ArchAndroid
Janelle Monáe
Really liked this album, I love how varied it is although it sometimes felt a little too busy.
Fav song: BaBopByeYa - had a few picked out as favourites but I think this one really shows the variety of the album as it changes multiple times throughout the song.
Least fav: Neon Gumbo - is this backwards? I think it’s backwards. I love that she’s experimenting but it just doesn’t do it for me (although I like the thunder at the end)
4
Mar 18 2025
View Album
Disintegration
The Cure
I really enjoyed this album, moody and atmospheric in such a good way. Listening to the whole album through I sometimes found it fading into the background for me a little, but it was still enjoyable.
Fav song: Lovesong - probably partly because it’s the song I was already most familiar with. I also really liked Pictures of You and Untitled
Least fav: Last Dance - it’s fine I just didn’t find it as interesting as the other songs
4
Mar 19 2025
View Album
Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Mixed feelings about this one. The songs I enjoyed I really enjoyed but there were some I didn’t like very much - usually the ones with the strange rapping. I liked that there was some variation with some more intense songs and some slower songs.
Fav song: Scar Tissue
Least fav: Purple Stain
4
Mar 20 2025
View Album
Music From Big Pink
The Band
Really enjoyed this album, will definitely listen again. Loved the storytelling and the chill vibes.
Fav song: The Weight - also loved I Shall Be Released and Long Black Veil
Least fav: To Kingdom Come
4
Mar 21 2025
View Album
The Joshua Tree
U2
Some enjoyable songs but I find the singing style a little grating at times. Liked the harmonica, and the atmosphere but found it struggled to hold my attention.
Fav song: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - a classic (so is With or Without You but I’ve heard covers of it that I prefer to the original) also liked Bullet the Blue Sky
Least fav: One Tree Hill - maybe? Idk I didn’t dislike any of the songs just a lot of them blurred together for me.
3
Mar 24 2025
View Album
Doolittle
Pixies
Really enjoyed the variation on this album, not everything landed for me but overall I really liked it.
Fav song: Here Comes Your Man - also liked Monkey Gone to Heaven and Silver
Least fav: Tame
4
May 23 2025
View Album
Golden Hour
Kacey Musgraves
Enjoyed some of the songs but probably wouldn’t listen to it through as an album again. I preferred the middle of the album to the first and last few tracks. Definitely liked the more upbeat songs, but the slower songs could grow on me if I listened more.
Fav song: Butterflies (not sure if this is actually my fave but it’s where the album picked up for me and I started to enjoy it)
3
May 26 2025
View Album
Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park
It always takes me a minute to get back into this kind of music but then I like it. Linkin Park often plays at my climbing gym and I do sing along. It reminds me of being a teenager when they would play a lot (and In the End was a meme) I do now find some of it a bit cheesy though.
Fav song: A Place for my Head, I like the guitar at the beginning
Least fav: Runaway, I think this is the most guilty of cheesy lyrics. Particularly the bit at the end where the rhyming words are the ones that are shouted.
3
May 27 2025
View Album
Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys
Lots of songs I already knew and liked - coincidentally had listened to the album a few days ago when a friend put it on. Really enjoyed it but not sure I would listen to the whole album again - although I wouldn’t object to it being on.
Fav song: God Only Knows - a classic
Least fav: Here Today - it’s fine just didn’t like it as much as the others
4
May 28 2025
View Album
New Wave
The Auteurs
On first listen I found it a bit forgettable, but when I listened again I really enjoyed it (and then I listened a 3rd time and liked it even more)
Fav song: Showgirl, I also really enjoyed Housebreaking and Home Again.
Least fav: Junk Shop Clothes
4
May 29 2025
View Album
Chore of Enchantment
Giant Sand
Didn’t initially like this one but I enjoyed it after the first few tracks. Listened through twice and both times I started off not liking it and ended up thinking this was an album I might add to my rotation. Really enjoyed the mix of genres and the different instruments that get used. Also really liked the style of the singing.
Fav song: Shiver - I also liked Temptation of Egg, Raw, Astonished (in Memphis) and Bottom Line Man
Least fav: (Well) Dusted - shame it’s so early in the album because it made me think I wouldn’t like the album.
4
May 30 2025
View Album
Smile
Brian Wilson
Thought it was okay, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as Pet Sounds. It was interesting to read the history of the album and I can see why people love it but it just didn’t do it for me.
Fav song: Good Vibrations - also quite liked Cabin Essence and Heroes and Villains - Instrumental
Least fav: Mrs O’Leary’s Cow
3
Jun 02 2025
View Album
Synchronicity
The Police
Overall quite enjoyed it but didn’t find it particularly exciting. Actually did like Mother but it felt very out of place on the album so was a bit jarring. Other than Mother, it’s the sort of album I wouldn’t mind being on in the background but I wouldn’t seek it out.
Fav song: Synchronicity II - also liked Murder by Numbers and Every Breath You Take
Least fav: O My God - found this one particularly uninteresting
3
Jun 03 2025
View Album
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
I loved this album. It was very much my sort of vibe. I already knew Blister in the Sun but was delighted to discover how much I liked the rest of the album. This is one I will definitely listen to again. My main complaint is that Good Feeling is such a good album closer that it seems a shame to have put the bonus tracks on the end.
Fav song: Blister in the Sun - I also liked Gone Daddy Gone and Good Feeling
Least fav: Ugly
5
Jun 04 2025
View Album
Your Arsenal
Morrissey
I tried (and probably failed) to listen to the album with an open mind. I like The Smiths, I really dislike Morrissey. I didn’t particularly enjoy this album, maybe because I couldn’t get past how I feel about Morrissey, but I do think I also just didn’t enjoy the music that much. I definitely prefer his work with The Smiths to his solo stuff.
The national front disco could be an excellent track about people being drawn in by the far right, but when Morrissey sings “England for the English” it’s hard to view the song as a critique rather than an endorsement. Similarly when he sings “we are the last truly British people” it’s impossible not to read that in the context of his Xenophobia. All that aside, I think the music just wasn’t massively exciting to me, although there definitely were parts I enjoyed.
Fav song: You’re Going to Need Someone on Your Side
Least fav: You’re the One for Me, Fatty
2
Jun 05 2025
View Album
Music for the Masses
Depeche Mode
Enjoyed this more than I thought I would, but I probably wouldn’t listen again. The music was fine to have on in the background but nothing particularly grabbed my attention.
Fav song: Strangelove
Least fav: Sacred
3
Jun 06 2025
View Album
Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim
Frank Sinatra
I enjoyed this album a lot and it’s one I’ll probably return to, although I did find some of the tracks blurring together.
Fav song: Change Partners - I also loved The Girl From Ipanema and How Insensitive
Least fav: Dindi
4
Jun 09 2025
View Album
Figure 8
Elliott Smith
This took a little while to grow on me but then I really enjoyed it. Really like his voice and the contrasts between the quieter and louder moments. This is definitely one I’ll listen to again.
Fav song: Easy Way Out - also really liked L.A., Wouldn’t Mamma be Proud and Better Be Quiet Now
Least fav: Colorbars
4
Jun 10 2025
View Album
Here's Little Richard
Little Richard
I enjoyed listening to each of the songs but as an album I found it repetitive. Really liked his voice and I loved the music, would put any one song on and enjoy it, or even play the whole album in the background, just wouldn’t put it on to properly listen to again.
Fav song: Tutti Frutti (maybe? The songs felt similar enough that I struggled to pick a fav)
Least fav: Jenny, Jenny
3
Jun 11 2025
View Album
Femi Kuti
Femi Kuti
Really liked this album, for most of the songs I didn’t mind them being so long as I felt they changed a lot throughout, but a few felt a little repetitive to me. Put off a little by the lyrics on the last track, hoping I’m just not interpreting correctly, but didn’t get a great vibe - a shame because I love the music.
Fav song: Nawa - also liked Frustrations and Stubbor Problems
Least fav: WonderWonder
4
Jun 12 2025
View Album
The Wildest!
Louis Prima
Thought this one was a lot fun. I really liked how his voice and the female singer’s voice worked together. Some of the songs almost gave me musical theatre vibes, in the best way.
Fav song: Buona Sera - I think it stood out to me because the beginning is a little different to the other songs. Also loved Just a Gigolo and The Lip
Least fav: Body and Soul
4
Jun 13 2025
View Album
The Beach Boys Today!
The Beach Boys
Was disappointed on my first listen but enjoyed it more the second time through. Did find some of the songs a bit too repetitive. Not sure if it’s a bad thing that we got Pet Sounds first because it makes me think this isn’t as good as that - or if the bits I like are the bits where I can see Pet Sounds is on the horizon and that makes me look at it more positively.
Fav song: Help me, Rhonda - also liked Please Let Me Wonder
Least fav: Don’t Hurt My Little Sister
3
Jun 16 2025
View Album
Moondance
Van Morrison
Really love this album. Nostalgia definitely plays a part in my enjoyment of it - reminds me of car journeys with my family - but I also just think the songs are gorgeous. My main complaint is that I think the end of the album isn’t as strong as the beginning, but the beginning is so strong that this is sort of understandable. Shame he’s such a dick.
Fav song: Moondance - Into the Mystic, Crazy Love and And It Stoned Me - this feels very much like the sort of album where my favourite so my would change depending on the day
Least fav: Everyone
5
Jun 17 2025
View Album
Songs Of Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Another one that reminds me of car journeys with my family. I know people sometimes struggle with his voice but I like it and I really enjoy the style of these songs. On the first listen I did feel like a whole album of music in that style is too much for me, but on a relisten I didn’t feel that at all - maybe one I just have to be in the right mood for.
Fav song: So Long, Marianne - this is winning due to nostalgia, one we would sing along to in the car. I also liked Suzanne and The Stranger Song
Least fav: Winter Lady
4
Jun 18 2025
View Album
Abbey Road
Beatles
Definitely one I enjoyed more on a second listen - I think on the first listen I was only looking for the songs I knew well, but on a second listen I was able to enjoy it as an album. Lots of songs here that I loved but I’m not sure about the Medley towards the end.
Fav song: Oh! Darling - also liked Here Comes the Sun, Come Together and Golden Slumbers
Least fav: Mean Mr Mustard
4
Jun 19 2025
View Album
I See A Darkness
Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Was a bit put off by the album cover but then I really enjoyed it. Can imagine putting it on when I’m in a bad mood and just wallowing in it, although it was maybe a bit gloomy for the mood I was in when I was listening.
Fav song: Madeleine-Mary - I also liked I See a Darkness and A Minor Place
Least fav: Knockturne
4
Jun 20 2025
View Album
Odessey And Oracle
The Zombies
First listened on my commute where it was crowded and far too warm and I thought “this is just the Beatles but shit” and then I listened again on a walk and realised I actually really liked it. Strange to realise I knew the last track after not recognising any of the rest. When I gave it a proper shot in a good mood I thought the songs were fun and enjoyable and that there was a good variation across the album to keep it interesting.
Fav song: Time of the Season - I also liked This Will Be Our Year and Brief Candles
Least fav: Changes
4