May 23 2025
Run-D.M.C.
Run-D.M.C.
Absolutely loved the album, the two MCs have amazing chemistry and are incredibly fun to listen to. Best part is it's all tied together by the great DJ.
5
May 24 2025
Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys
It was an okay album with some major ups and downs. Wouldn't It Be Nice and I Just Wasn't Made For These Times were both 10/10 amazing songs, the rest of the album was anywhere from pretty good to rather boring.
3
May 25 2025
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A Tribe Called Quest
Just some good, groovy '90s jazz rap. Not a whole lot to say other than the middle of it did lose some steam, but it picked it all back up in the end. I loved Luck of Lucien and Ham 'N' Eggs. The 4 guys are all awesome lyricists.
Also shoutout to this album for making a song berating wife-beaters <3
4
May 26 2025
Parachutes
Coldplay
Went in expecting some flavor of budget Radiohead given the discourse I've heard/seen regarding the album, definitely more than that. The lead vocalist has a really calming voice and it was a great wind-down album given how wild of a day I had when I listened to this. I could easily see this becoming a part of my regular rotation when I'm in the mood for some moody alt-rock :>
5
May 27 2025
21
Adele
Absolutely love her singing voice, I mean, who doesn't? My one issue with the album as a whole is it lacks that edge that most soul music does. It was a little shaped to fit a global palette and it certainly worked. Otherwise amazing album.
Also she covers The Cure, that alone adds a star.
4
May 28 2025
Superfly
Curtis Mayfield
3
May 29 2025
The Next Day
David Bowie
Of all the Bowie albums, The Next Day? My first experience with this album was laughing at the fact that the album cover is literally "Heroes" with a big white square on it. Admittedly, that's the absolute worst part of the album. Past that it's a totally fine and serviceable record, but it's just that and not much past it. Not quite "You should listen to this before you die."
2
May 30 2025
White Light
Gene Clark
This just shouldn't be on here. The Wikipedia blurb this site gives me literally says the album flopped on the charts. He's just trying and failing to sound like Bob Dylan.
1
May 31 2025
Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz
There are two albums my high school band director would always talk about, this one and Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, now I can see why. Definitely one of the better jazz albums I've ever listened to. This feels like a great album to relax to at night. Not to mention all the jazz classics and standards on this album like Corcovado or The Girl From Ipanema.
5
Jun 01 2025
Untitled (Black Is)
SAULT
I love how unique this record is. The sampling and background vocals are my favorite part of the whole album, not to mention it's violently groovy.
Also some people in the reviews of this album suck at masking their racism. To those people, you're literally the reason this album was made. Do better.
4
Jun 02 2025
Murder Ballads
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Just not for me, "Draining" is the first word that comes to mind. Even the better songs on the album like O'Malley's Bar just drag on and on for far too long. Not 1/5 because I listen to artists who were primarily influenced by this guy.
2
Jun 03 2025
War
U2
What a grand album, loved every song. The lead vocalist has an amazing voice and knows how to use it. Really glad that this was my introduction to U2.
5
Jun 04 2025
London Calling
The Clash
This is definitely the punk album of all time, nothing beats it. I already listened to this one way before I got it on this list and loved it from the start.
5
Jun 05 2025
Songs Of Love And Hate
Leonard Cohen
Amazing storytelling paired with subpar vocals and instrumentals, solidly 50/50 to me.
3
Jun 06 2025
Maverick A Strike
Finley Quaye
I'm really glad I don't care about Game of Thrones or take public transport, thank you reviewers.
Anyways the album's pretty good, I don't really understand why it's on the list though.
3
Jun 07 2025
Are You Experienced
Jimi Hendrix
These guys are obnoxiously high. That drives the whole album, how drugged out they are. Sometimes it leads to greatness, other times it leads to "oh..."
A totally fine album, just maybe a little too druggy for me.
3
Jun 08 2025
Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin
Really cool listen. For how varied the album is, it feels incredibly bloated. Still an awesome listen and definitely up there when it comes to Led Zeppelin albums.
4
Jun 09 2025
Music From The Penguin Cafe
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
A lot of this album is fairly uninteresting to me, and then all of a sudden it hits The Sound of Someone... and I understand it. A deeply relaxing listen if nothing else, but one I'm unlikely to come back to.
3
Jun 10 2025
Coat Of Many Colors
Dolly Parton
I didn't expect a Dolly Parton album of all things to be this good. Filled with amazing stories and a really bittersweet tone throughout the whole thing that I loved from the start.
5
Jun 11 2025
Trout Mask Replica
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
This is the most horribly chaotic and genuinely entertaining album I've listened to in a really long time. It's awful, but in the best way possible. It's fun, it's goofy, and by every religious being on earth is it a delight to sit through in one go. It takes as much stamina to listen through this album as it probably did to create it, but it's insanely worth it.
5
Jun 12 2025
Tubular Bells
Mike Oldfield
The first 4 minutes really were the best part of the album. The other 44 ranged from pretty good to mentally taxing. Ironic saying that since yesterday's was Trout Mask Replica, but I just didn't find this one as fun.
3
Jun 13 2025
Smile
Brian Wilson
I feel like I should like the Beach Boys more than I actually do. I really liked this album but something just felt really off about it that I can't put a finger to.
3
Jun 14 2025
Nilsson Schmilsson
Harry Nilsson
Pretty interesting album, I loved the goofier cuts of the album and the serious ones met with it pretty well.
4
Jun 15 2025
Frank
Amy Winehouse
We don't tolerate cheaters in this household.
2
Jun 16 2025
Lazer Guided Melodies
Spiritualized
Really nice and relaxing listen, just started going in one ear and out the other towards the end.
4
Jun 17 2025
Fear Of A Black Planet
Public Enemy
I mean, come on, it's Public Enemy. they made two of the most powerful and influential rap albums of the 80s and this is one of them. Every song is great and they really did want to dig in their point in the most "we don't really care if you think the title '911 Is a Joke' is offensive" kind of way possible, deserving of all 5 stars.
5
Jun 18 2025
Antichrist Superstar
Marilyn Manson
This guy is Ronnie Radke for 90s goth kids. Past that it's a pretty okay album but I don't understand why it's on this list.
2
Jun 19 2025
The Atomic Mr Basie
Count Basie & His Orchestra
This site never misses with its jazz picks, I swear. It's a major compliment to a jazz artist/band to make a face like you just smelled moldy vegetables from their playing, and this whole album made me look like my tongue was about to go flying out of my head. Beyond amazing.
5
Jun 20 2025
Ocean Rain
Echo And The Bunnymen
Those two opening songs made me think I was getting the best album I ever heard, the other 9 were just really good.
4
Jun 21 2025
Tea for the Tillerman
Cat Stevens
My parents always disliked Cat Stevens. I never really understood it. This album was 70s perfection and I loved everything about it.
5
Jun 22 2025
Mask
Bauhaus
I can hear these guys' influence in basically all of my favorite bands. Past that, it's a pretty good record that acted more like a history lesson for me. Not hugely likely to come back to it but it was pretty cool.
3
Jun 23 2025
The Soft Bulletin
The Flaming Lips
I don't know why I never bothered to listen to The Flaming Lips until now, this might just be my favorite album of the list so far. It's everything positive about psychedelic pop as a genre in one album. If I could give this 6 stars I absolutely would.
5
Jun 24 2025
British Steel
Judas Priest
Nice and accessible. I'd give this to someone saying they want to get into metal and don't know where to start.
4
Jun 25 2025
Hunky Dory
David Bowie
Bowie Album #2 out of 9
Totally fine, I really liked a few songs and the rest were fairly forgettable. Oh! You Pretty Things and Song for Bob Dylan were really good.
3
Jun 26 2025
Heroes
David Bowie
David Bowie album #3 out of 9, and definitely his best work to me. His regular songs on this are amazing, his ambient ones are interesting and really textured, just an all around amazing work of art.
5
Jun 27 2025
Picture Book
Simply Red
The best part of this album is the two covers. Past those, it's pretty decent, just missing something I can't quite put my finger on.
3
Jun 28 2025
So
Peter Gabriel
How on earth did he manage to make Kate Bush sound boring? That's just plain impressive.
1
Jun 29 2025
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Sinead O'Connor
I, probably like a lot of y'all here, knew this woman from that time she ripped up the Pope's photo during her performance on SNL. Really glad to know her music carries that same energy.
By the way, for anyone that needed to know, her name is pronounced like "shin-AID." spared you a Google search.
4
Jun 30 2025
Remedy
Basement Jaxx
Might just be the most middle-of-the-road album I've listened to from this list so far. It's okay house music and I wouldn't be mad if I went to a gay bar or something and heard this album.
3
Jul 01 2025
Bossanova
Pixies
All around great album, my only thing about it is how similar some of the end tracks get. Past that it's worth anyone's time and then some.
4
Jul 02 2025
Pearl
Janis Joplin
Holy hell this woman can sing, had me standing up and everything. Scared me with the first note she sang. Might just damn-well be the most talented blues singer I've ever heard, and this might just damn-well be a 5 star album.
5
Jul 03 2025
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
My dad always talked really highly about Bob Dylan. I can definitely see why. I'm a big fan of those "a man and his guitar" kind of albums, especially artists like Nick Drake, and this one ticked all the boxes. It's nothing but a good time for 50 minutes. Not to mention how adorable this man is with the way he sings.
4
Jul 04 2025
A Love Supreme
John Coltrane
This is 4 guys jerking themselves off onstage for 31 minutes and that description just about describes my favorite and least favorite parts of the album.
4
Jul 05 2025
Lost In The Dream
The War On Drugs
I got an ad, and thinking that the song I was hearing was a part of the album, I looked down and immediately got kind of upset that it just an ad.
Semi-Jokes aside, the atmosphere was neat. I really liked that ambient track towards the end. Past that I don't see myself coming back to this one.
2
Jul 06 2025
Kenza
Khaled
It's really fascinating that that's what pop music sounds on the other side of the ocean. I loved the guy's voice and the instrumentation. Some songs had some really kickass strings and others had some kickass synths. The one major problem that brings it down for me is how bloated it is. This album could've been 30 minutes long and be near perfect. Instead it's 78 and drags towards the end. Don't be me, listen to this in two sittings.
3
Jul 07 2025
In Rainbows
Radiohead
I feel like I've heard all I need to with Radiohead from their other two big records, OK Computer and Kid A, along with some of their more typical alt-rock stuff. As an album, it's good, albeit incredibly Radiohead.
3
Jul 08 2025
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin
I feel like Led Zeppelin is always a good time, this one is no exception. Some really heavy hitters on this one too. Something about That's the Way just got to me.
4
Jul 09 2025
The Contino Sessions
Death In Vegas
I genuinely thought I was listening to this for an hour, only to look down and see I was on track 3. It's a whole album of a guy making random sounds with the same 4/4 kick-hat-snare-hat pattern for the whole album.
1
Jul 10 2025
Sheer Heart Attack
Queen
Addressing the elephant in the room, the album cover alone stops this from being 5 stars for me. 3/4 of the people on the cover don't look human and it's just uncomfortable to stare at for 39 minutes.
Anyways, the actual album is great. Lots of Freddie Mercury's trademarked theatrical singing, and even some good vocal moments from the guitarist. The highs on this album were incredibly high, but much like all Queen albums to my knowledge, this one has some extreme standouts. On this one it's Brighton Rock, Flick of the Wrist, and In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited (imo). The rest of the album was good, but nowhere near those 3 songs.
4
Jul 11 2025
Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus
Spirit
For the fact that I generally don't like psych rock, this was a really good album. It was really fun the whole way through and I like the more funky tracks like Mr. Skin.
4
Jul 12 2025
Endtroducing.....
DJ Shadow
"The only pieces of equipment Shadow used to produce the album were the AKAI MPC60 12-bit sampling drum machine, a pair of turntables and a borrowed-by-visiting Pro Tools setup from an early adopter of the technology, Dan 'The Automator' Nakamura." -Wikipedia
I don't know what's crazier, that sentence or the fact that it sounds amazing.
5
Jul 13 2025
Want Two
Rufus Wainwright
I simultaneously love and hate saying Gay Messiah was the peak of this album. I have nothing more to say.
3
Jul 14 2025
Isn't Anything
My Bloody Valentine
I guess you could say there Isn't Anything of note on this album.
1
Jul 15 2025
Fulfillingness' First Finale
Stevie Wonder
Now THIS is some soul music I can get behind. I wish I could tell all the pretentious music nerds that Songs in the Key of Life and Innervisions aren't his only albums. What a gift to the world.
5
Jul 16 2025
Groovin'
The Young Rascals
This was a lot more jaunty and entertaining than what I was expecting from an album cover like that. They make themselves look like The Beatles but slightly worse and kind of end up going in a different direction while still clearly being Beatles inspired. Regardless, it's just good fun.
4
Jul 17 2025
Nixon
Lambchop
This album doesn't make much sense to me. Everything about it should, in theory, be great. It's relaxing, the band knows what they're doing, and the vocalist does really well on his part. It's an incredibly well-done album that just doesn't have much in the way of real interest. The parts where the vocalist goes super high and strained with his voice sometimes work and sometimes don't, the suddenly more electronic instrumentation on The Petrified Florist was interesting for the fact that it's finally something different, but even then it feels like too little too late. Maybe it's the lack of risk-taking on this album, maybe it's how clean everything sounds, or maybe some third thing that I can't make out, but this album as a whole was just okay, but that seems to be exactly what it's going for.
3
Jul 18 2025
Bummed
Happy Mondays
The result of 4 guys finding out what ecstasy is and going "now what if we made music on this shit?" I'll tell you what, this music sure as hell sounds like 4 guys high out of their minds making drug music. The whole album is insanely psychedelic and weirdly groovy for how hard it is to get a hold of at some points. Regardless, I love psychedelic pop and this album is no exception. I have no clue how I haven't heard of these guys and only just recently found out about The Stone Roses, but Madchester is definitely a genre for me to look into moving forward. Nothing but a good time.
4
Jul 19 2025
The Bends
Radiohead
I've already listened to this album like 5 times before it came up on the list. My favorite Radiohead album by far. I've always loved really mellow, relaxing alt-rock albums and this one is top tier in that regard. Nothing but beautifully written songs with a great atmosphere, perfect for an evening listen like when I usually do these albums.
5
Jul 20 2025
Transformer
Lou Reed
It was just so damn goofy. Lou Reed's really flat and out-of-tone vocal delivery fit much more to me on this album than something like The Velvet Underground & Nico. Also his lyricism ranged from goofy to neat and I liked both sides of it. Just an all round fun album for it's relatively short runtime.
4
Jul 21 2025
Can't Buy A Thrill
Steely Dan
I feel like the storytelling is simultaneously the best and weakest part of the album. On some songs it's great, and on others it's really "you you you you you." Past that, i'm never gonna complain about sax solos, and there are like 3 or 4 on this one.
4
Jul 22 2025
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Flaming Lips
I hate it when I find an album that's like "this is a 10/10, this is peak [insert band here] and nothing will ever beat this in the genre" and then the band makes a significantly better album that blows me further out of the water than the first one did. This is that album, and this album is perfect. this is one of those rare 11/10 if it were possible kind of records. Incredible storytelling, incredible instrumentals, incredible everything. Astounding beyond words.
5
Jul 23 2025
Homework
Daft Punk
I'm gonna join the masses on this one and say that this album is too repetitive to be listened to anywhere other than a club. That being said, there was the occasional really good song like Rollin' & Scratchin' or Rock'n Roll, but past that it's a moderately okay house album. I would've much rather had Random Access Memories over this.
P.S. I totally agree with the guy that called this tippy tappy plinky plonky noises that go round and round for 74 minutes
3
Jul 24 2025
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Out of obligation: Rest in power, Mr. Osborne, your influence on music as a whole will never go unnoticed.
It's metal with harmonica solos, that alone makes this album great. On top of that, it's a self-titled album with a self-titled song. It's just funny to say "Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath on the album Black Sabbath." Past that, it's an amazing metal record. For how early this was in the creation of metal as a genre, it's still pretty damn heavy, especially that title track. Only real complaint is how much the latter half of the album drags on compared to the first half, but it still ends great.
4
Jul 25 2025
I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Aretha Franklin
Why did they make her so quiet in the mixing? I swear this is the only time I've ever found production/mixing so poor to make a comment on it. Franklin's such a powerful singer but the damn audio engineer took all the power out of her. Past that the album's great, but it really needs a remaster.
3
Jul 26 2025
I Should Coco
Supergrass
These guys are so British. I like that in a British singer, for them to actually have an accent instead of it disappearing when they sing. The album itself is pretty good, I love their energy and overall sound. Bonus points for making a really good song about what cops can do to a person.
4
Jul 27 2025
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo
Devo
This was so simultaneously of its time and ahead of its time. On one had, this album came out in 1978 and that's insane. On the other, it's really clear that this album came out in 1978, mostly because of the slurs. My favorite song's title is a slur against people with Down Syndrome. For it's time, though, the song is surprisingly progressive, talking about how people with it are totally normal and have jobs and hats and stuff. That's the main word I'd use to describe the album, progressive. Both stylistically and lyrically.
4
Jul 28 2025
Everything Must Go
Manic Street Preachers
I love finding new artists through this website that I would've never checked out otherwise. First Coldplay, now these guys. Everything about this album is so beautifully well-done. The instrumentals, the vocals, it's all a really nice experience.
5
Jul 29 2025
Rubber Soul
Beatles
This really is the most nothing Beatles record. Minus points for having a song that glorifies cheating.
2
Jul 30 2025
Siembra
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
I read "best selling [insert genre] album of all time" and assume it's either great or terrible, this one was definitely the former. The whole album has this incredibly dancey feel to it. Make it a challenge to try not to move around while listening to this, you'd fail in the first two songs. Not to mention those trombones, they were the best part of the album.
4
Jul 31 2025
The Marshall Mathers LP
Eminem
This is one of like two albums that Eminem is actually known for. Whenever anyone's talking about how good of a rapper he is, they're usually just gonna bring up examples from this album. There's good reason for that, too. Stan and The Real Slim Shady are some of his biggest songs for a reason. I'd especially call Stan one of the best songs in rap. As for the album as a whole, it's definitely better than I expected, but even then it sometimes got pretty grating and 72 minutes is unnecessarily long. It's the Marshall Mathers LP, not the Marshall Mathers Double LP.
Also I'm definitely not the first to say it but I'll say it anyways, the skits were pretty bad. That one of the guy getting head genuinely made me gag.
3
Aug 01 2025
In It For The Money
Supergrass
Got both Supergrass albums of the list one week apart. While I prefer I Should Coco, this one's pretty good in it's own right. As an album it doesn't feel as consistent, though. I'm a really big fan of their overall sound and energy and this one has some really banging solos, I especially liked that synth solo in Sun Hits the Sky.
4
Aug 02 2025
If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears
The Mamas & The Papas
It's incredibly important to note that the lead vocalist, John Phillips, sexually assaulted his daughter, Mackenzie Phillips, for an entire decade.
So these guys are The Beach Boys crossed with Fleetwood Mac. That's to say, shitty vocal group music combined with every band member getting into relationships with eachother, subsequently cheating, and then writing songs about it. Overall it isn't terrible, but there's a certain point where "Easy Listening" music gets too easy to listen to and it just fades into the background. That's this album.
3
Aug 03 2025
Sail Away
Randy Newman
This guy is like if Weird Al Yankovic decided he hates the US. He's a really good songwriter with an almost painfully witty since of humor that rides the line between being too corny for its own good and being too real for its own good. I love the really Vaudeville or Cabaret-ish tracks like Lonely at the Top or Political Science. The best part is how well the album aged despite being from 1972. Much like all punk, funk, or anything else anti-establishment, a 53-year-old message is still just as real and relevant as it was 53 years ago.
4
Aug 04 2025
Kind Of Blue
Miles Davis
This album as a whole is really important to me. There were two albums that my high school band director always talked about, Kind of Blue and Birth of the Cool, both by Davis. He's moving to Illinois to take a job as the band director of a whole district this year, and I'm gonna miss him. He's the entire reason I've ever heard of this guy, and he's the sole reason I decided to major in Music Education instead of Law when I was really stuck between the two. He really created a home outside of home for not just me, but hundreds of people during his 19 years at my school. To you directly, Mr. Howell, even if you don't read this, I hope to be just like you in a decade.
"The world is full of ignorant people, don't be one of them." -Page Howell, 2021.
5
Aug 05 2025
Power In Numbers
Jurassic 5
I love these guys' flow and lyricism, everyone in the group is operating on the same wavelength and it really shows in this album. Nothing but great lyricism and flow from the rappers, and great mood and beat from the producers. I'm with the majority here that's never heard of this album and wish they did sooner.
4
Aug 06 2025
Reign In Blood
Slayer
I never realised that metal was always like this. Granted, I'm really not well-educated on Thrash Metal as a genre but regardless this was way crazier than I expected. That's the fun of it, though. These guys are all deranged and everything from the instrumentals to the lyricism screams edgy in the goofiest way possible to me. My only real issue is the vocalist. Sometimes his brain goes faster than his mouth and that paired with how fast everything is feels like it drowns him out at some points. Maybe I'm missing the point, but this was an incredibly fun metal record.
4
Aug 07 2025
Scum
Napalm Death
This is simultaneously the very first grindcore album and the epitome of the genre. It's pretty much exclusively fueled by raw anger towards god knows what half the time. They really let their rage guide the album, too. Nobody else was making half-second songs where they just shout "YEEEUUUGGGHH" and then move on. It doesn't take a PhD in data analytics to tell that this album is generally hated on this site, but I'd call it one of the rare examples of a genre-founding album also being really good.
4
Aug 08 2025
Live At The Regal
B.B. King
First live album of the list, and of all of the blues I've listened to, this certainly is an album of it. I feel like compared to something like Pearl or pretty much anything by Aretha Franklin, this feels fairly basic by comparison. By no means bad, but incredibly middle-of-the-road for me.
3
Aug 09 2025
It's Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Before this, I really only knew the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from that time the lead vocalist got featured on a song by Swans. Now I know that the one thing Dance-Punk was missing is women, as is the case with most kinds of dance and punk, and quite honestly just music in general outside of pop. I love the atmosphere of the whole album and the singer herself brings a lot to the overall sound. A good mix of some dancey stuff and some really nice, layered, artsy songs.
Also this album's Runaway is significantly better than Kanye's runaway, fight me.
5
Aug 10 2025
Metal Box
Public Image Ltd.
This has everything I'd normally like in an album from this era. Goofy parts, wild experimentation in an already experimental genre, a good groove, etc. The problem is that it all comes together to make some of the most annoying music New Wave has ever produced. It's only made worse by the fact that these guys have a second album on the list. The only interesting part is the cover, or I guess, case.
1
Aug 11 2025
Steve McQueen
Prefab Sprout
Everything about this album is so violently 80s, from the cover to the instrumentals. I love 80s music so that's not a problem at all. Lots of interesting influences on the album and they all lead to a pretty cool sound, especially on a song like Hallelujah. An all around pretty good album.
4
Aug 12 2025
Deja Vu
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
This one really wasn't doing it for me. Yet another band that my dad raves about and i'm totally neutral with. I like their vocal harmonies and they occasionally have interesting songwriting, but as an album it's very easy to tune out.
3
Aug 13 2025
The Dreaming
Kate Bush
This is my favorite Kate Bush album. It's so wonderfully artsy and theatrical in a way that feels really unique to her. All the songs tell really great stories as well, especially All the Love, that one still kills me the third time around. All around her best work to me.
5
Aug 14 2025
Selling England By The Pound
Genesis
All around good album, but I can't help but feel like I've heard other bands do this really big, symphonic sound much better, i.e. The Who. Still, that opener is insane and the album rarely loses its intensity without good reason. I like how much the lead singer sounds like a dwarf/elf/other fantasy creature, it makes it sound like something from The Lorax or similar.
4
Aug 15 2025
Vulnicura
Björk
note: it's pronounced vul-nee-CYU-ra
anyways, this album is absolutely beautiful. It sucks that artists' best work is always brought out of horrible grief and trauma, but it really does create some of the most unique works I've ever heard, even from artists who already have an incredibly unique sound, like Björk. I love the mix of strings with electronic production, and her really freeform vocal style fits perfectly above it, all with some of her best lyricism of her whole career. Not to mention those vocal harmonies, absolutely otherworldly. Sometimes it's uncomfortable, sometimes it's upsetting, and there are a few points in the album that are nothing but devastating, but at the end of the day that's what a divorce is, or a loss of any kind. Absolutely incredible in every way an album like this could be.
5
Aug 16 2025
Bad
Michael Jackson
As an album it's definitely better than I expected. Just all around good fun, except Liberian Girl. That song is terrible. I didn't realise how many hits came out of this album, Bad, Man in the Mirror, Smooth Criminal, etc. They're definitely the best songs, who would've thought, but they're definitely hits for a reason, although The Way You Make Me Feel just feels uncomfortable with the context of MJ being a CP. That about describes the whole album, great songs that are made uncomfortable because of who made it.
3
Aug 17 2025
Eagles
Eagles
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JlmvtAHhnc
Just wasn't doing it for me, much like the other harmony-heavy country rock bands I've heard. They're decent, but really the only amazing song is the one everyone and their grandma has been hearing for the past 53 years. A lot of it is that The Eagles sound like every other band to come out of Laurel Canyon in the early 70s. Not bad, just pretty forgettable.
3
Aug 18 2025
The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Velvet Underground
That damn banana haunts my dreams, and it really doesn't get much better on my second listen. I can't think of many albums I've listened to that I feel got worse the second time around. It's really close between this and Rubber Soul by The Beatles for the most overrated album ever in my opinion. There are two or three good songs, but the album as a whole is an absolute slog and significantly more influential than it is good. Lou Reed's solo work is better in genuinely every way.
1
Aug 19 2025
Come Away With Me
Norah Jones
She really just seems like a diet Fiona Apple with softer songwriting. Every song sounded nearly identical and it really started to become easy to tune out towards the middle. A bit of a relaxing listen, but still not good.
2
Aug 20 2025
Rings Around The World
Super Furry Animals
Totally love the genre-blending in this album, I think it's great how it'll just randomly pull from more electronic/EDM genres to create some needed variation. My favorite song of the album is something closer to Trip-Hop than anything from the general sound of the album. Sounds like if Pink Floyd and Ween got together and made a pop-ish album. Much like Pink Floyd, sometimes the songs can get a little too long or freeform, but still, an all around great album.
4
Aug 21 2025
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel
These guys are amazing songwriters. That title track is an all-around incredible piece of music that the whole rest of the album almost fights to keep up with quality-wise. It's wild that they named Frank Lloyd Wright of all people for a whole song, but granted, I'm not nearly as well-educated on Simon & Garfunkel as I should be. There's a real intimacy to this album that I find really interesting. I feel like it's an album that's easy to find comfort in, even despite it being the duo's final record together.
4
Aug 22 2025
Clandestino
Manu Chao
I feel like I was more impressed by the amount of languages this guy can speak than I was by the music itself. It does get better as it goes along, though, and I like the samples of speeches throughout the album. As a whole it's okay and I agree with the people that say it's mediocre Latin bar music.
3
Aug 23 2025
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
It's really common for political songs to age well because they're about the American government not changing anything. This album aged really well because the American government never changes anything. It's 2025 and this album is more relevant than it was in 1988, from every single point the album makes. You'd think that some part of this album would've aged in 37 years, but nothing has. Not the instrumentals, not the lyricism, not anything. Behind the Wall is especially relevant today with how awful the pigs that call themselves "peace officers" treat assault victims, Talkin' Bout a Revolution is especially relevant because that revolution still hasn't happened, and this whole album is especially relevant because rampant fascism and equally rampant indifference keep it relevant. This is one of the best records of the 80s, not just for the music itself, but for the fact that the people at the top inadvertently keep it relevant by continuing to treat people beneath them like shit.
Past my ranting, this album is also amazing musically. Tracy Chapman has an amazing and amazingly unique voice that's nothing but pleasant to hear for the whole album. Her songwriting is great even when it isn't incredibly political, like in For My Lover. This album comes to mind when I think "Albums you should listen to before you die."
5
Aug 24 2025
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
John Lennon
The best part of the album was getting to hear John Lennon aggressively growl "COOKIE" in the middle of one of the songs. Anyways, it's pretty good. There are a handful of songs that make me think that I was doing more thinking than Lennon was when he wrote this album by thinking about that, but there were some great songs in there, too. I actually did enjoy the album. It feels a lot more personal than anything the Beatles could've made and it's pretty nice listen, albeit a pretty nice listen that's occasionally un-niced by John Lennon listing off things he doesn't believe in or out-of-place screaming, but mostly nice nonetheless. I don't have much nice to say about it that I can actually put into words, mostly because the bad of this album is pretty funny, but I swear it's good.
3
Aug 25 2025
Stardust
Willie Nelson
Hearing the Outlaw Country guy take songs from the Great American Songbook was certainly neat, but at the end of the day it was a country covers album. It was okay, but I've heard a few songs from this album covered much better, and the ones I've never heard before weren't particularly mind-blowing. I'm mostly indifferent to the album more than anything.
3
Aug 26 2025
Stand!
Sly & The Family Stone
It was okay. 60s Funk has a lot to offer, and I feel like I've just overall heard better come out of the same period. Points for making a long instrumental track that sounds pretty good, though. I feel like they should've either leaned into the lyrics or the funk a little more. Instead they shot for both and couldn't do both well enough for either to be great outside of a handful of tracks.
3
Aug 27 2025
Billion Dollar Babies
Alice Cooper
Some of the least shocking shock rock out there. It feels like the soundtrack to a spoof version of Stephen King's IT, but way less interesting than that description sounds.
3
Aug 28 2025
Clube Da Esquina
Milton Nascimento
Finally, something to break up my seemingly never-ending streak of 3 stars. Reminds me a lot of Gustavo Cerati, just without all the electronics. There's always something about good Latin music that feels both really strong and really relaxing at the same time. This album especially feels like I could sleep-dance to it. Both singers have amazing voices in their own ways and the whole album is absolutely beautiful. I can see why every Brazilian grandma knows and owns this album.
5
Aug 29 2025
Bluesbreakers
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
This sounds like British people approximating what blues sounds like. They literally covered an actual blues song, Parchman Farm, and got rid of the second half of the song so they don't have to sing about a guy shooting his wife. It's pretty damn clear that nobody is feeling this as much as they should, considering the genre they're trying to recreate. That drum solo in What'd I Say especially screams "I think this is what a blues drum solo sounds like." I'm pretty carefully using every word except "playing" blues here, because this isn't blues. It's bordering on being a parody, and not even a funny one.
Insert obligatory statement about Little Girl here.
1
Aug 30 2025
Maggot Brain
Funkadelic
Very rarely does someone get the chance to play a 10 minute long guitar solo with the only other backing being another guitar. The guy in the opener took that rare chance wholeheartedly and made one of the best guitar solos in funk, period. The cool part is they gave us a whole 26 minutes of bonus tracks following it. Jokes aside, the rest of the album is good, but that solo is transcendent. Power to the pussy.
4
Aug 31 2025
The Nightfly
Donald Fagen
It feels like the kind of music that'd play in the waiting room of a therapist's office or a cheesy 80s movie intro. It's polished almost to the point of feeling sterile and there's something off about the vocals that hardly makes them sound human. The #1 word that comes to mind is "Inoffensive," and that's just not where good music comes from.
2
Sep 01 2025
Van Halen
Van Halen
All around a pretty great album. It feels like 70s concert energy as an album, crazy guitar solos and everything. The radio hits are pretty good, the deeper cuts are really good, and it was just really fun. Also the guitar solos are violently 70s in the most fun way possible, I know I mentioned them twice.
4
Sep 02 2025
MTV Unplugged In New York
Nirvana
Funny enough, listening to this album turned into a really interesting research project for the future. Music preservation is a surprisingly powerful tool that allows us to listen to stuff like this. This album was released months after Cobain's death and it shows a pretty good side of him that isn't shown in his in-studio works. it feels a lot more stripped back and that brings out Cobain's singing a lot more. I pay more attention to the noisiness of Nirvana's works more than Cobain's vocals a lot of the time and this kind of environment brings out how unique of a singer he is. The covers were by far the best part of the album, really unique take on The Man Who Sold the World especially.
4
Sep 03 2025
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
Crazy how these guys turned doing MDMA into an entire genre. It sure does feel like ecstasy, though, very light and sparkly in a way that's very pleasing to the ears. Kind of feels like what Isn't Anything by My Bloody Valentine could've been. At some points it gets a little samey and the album as a whole starts to get stale towards the end, but as a whole it was good.
3
Sep 04 2025
Purple Rain
Prince
Maximum horny jams, I mean this guy is feral in half of these tracks. I'll never complain about something being this violently 80s, especially since this is THE defining violently 80s record. Prince really is a character in every sense of the word and he struts that damn character around whenever he makes music. TL;DR the world's gayest straight man makes really entertaining sexy jams. In other news, the sky is blue.
4
Sep 05 2025
Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
Lupe Fiasco
Damn you, Kanye West. I may hate him as a person but he really did make some of the best beats of the 2000s. I loved style on this album and Lupe really does a lot with what he's given. The whole album has this really cinematic feel to it, like he's some larger-than-life figure, and the album cover helps with that. Granted, the album cover is the most violently 2006 cover ever, right down to the Nintendo DS in the bottom-left. Anyways, the non-rap influences on some of the songs were the really cool part to me, like the Soul and Latin inspired beats and singing in the latter half of the album. The whole experience is just that, an experience, and it's a great one.
"The ink of a scholar is worth a thousand times more than the blood of a martyr" is one of the hardest quotes to ever show up in a rap song.
5
Sep 06 2025
Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Bill Evans Trio
The bassist is the best part. It's crazy to ever say "man, that bassist really stole the show," but here I am. Man, that bassist really stole the show. He's the one part of the album that stops it from being any lower, because it really is the definition of background jazz.
3
Sep 07 2025
Night Life
Ray Price
Completely fine. I struggle to really find anything to hold onto with this album, and I feel like I've heard much better in every regard from other singers from the same decade, like Marty Robbins. The storytelling kind of hits all of the 60s stereotypes and you can get the gist of the album off of any one song.
3
Sep 08 2025
Live At The Harlem Square Club
Sam Cooke
I really need to re-learn how to have fun. There's so much going on in this album and it sounds like such a good time, but the energy of the album just isn't hitting me the same way it is everyone in the crowd. Sam Cooke seems like the kind of person to have every single woman in a 150 meter radius screeching like they just watched Jesus come down from heaven for the first time in thousands of years, and you can hear that at some points in the record. For me, It's way too bubblegum. It's a great album, and I wish I could feel it more, but it just isn't my kind of fun music.
3
Sep 09 2025
Beggars Banquet
The Rolling Stones
My dad always said that when he was a teenager, you were either a Beatles fan or a Stones fan. I think it's pretty hard to pick, but if the rest of the Stones' discography is like this album, I'm leaning more towards their side. Granted, I have a soft spot for 60s folk rock. Bob Dylan and The Band are both great, it sure would be great if they made music together. Anyways, I feel like this album's proof that you don't need to completely reinvent the wheel to make a good album, as much as I love artists that do that. It's a good folksy album with really silly and well thought out storytelling throughout it. There isn't much that's needed in the genre past that.
4
Sep 10 2025
Odessey And Oracle
The Zombies
Of all the things I was expecting with that combination of band name, album name, and album cover, Beatles was not anywhere in my top 5. I was expecting something closer to Jimi Hendrix's flavor of psych rock. It's fine, but really nothing noteworthy, or notable for that matter. I've heard this sound before in like 5 different bands from the same year. Changes was a good standout, though.
3
Sep 11 2025
GREY Area
Little Simz
Stuff like this is why we need more women in rap. Little Simz is an amazing lyricist with an incredibly strong flow. I think the beats on the album were the best part to me, though. They were incredibly varied and all brought out a lot of different aspects in her rapping in a really cool way. Shoutout to the literal cartoon sound effects in the opener. Admittedly I liked Side A a lot more than Side B, but even Side B was pretty strong.
4
Sep 12 2025
Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Spiritualized
A massive step up from their debut. The only word to describe this album is powerful. Most of the songs are powerful in different ways from eachother, but they're all powerful. The opener and Broken Heart feel like a massive hug from space, songs like Come Together or Electricity are incredibly heavy on the groovier side of indie rock, and The Individual is an amazing soundscape that just washes over you for nearly 5 minutes. Who would've thought that a group of guys rambling about drugs and space for an hour could be so compelling?
5
Sep 13 2025
Juju
Siouxsie And The Banshees
I was expecting to like this a lot more than I actually did. It's okay, but it starts to get pretty samey pretty fast and a lot of the songs sound empty or hollow. Maybe I'm just too tired, but I don't have a lot to say past that.
3
Sep 14 2025
Peter Gabriel 3
Peter Gabriel
No cymbals. You either notice it within the first few songs or you never notice it, but there are no cymbals. This was completely intentional. That describes the whole album, it feels very intentional despite how crazy and artsy the whole thing is. It's impressive how many influences and weird experiments he can throw into one album and have it come out great. The innovation of the album brings out a lot of really cool aspects in it and generally a lot more emotion compared to the other stuff I've heard from him, especially on songs like Intruder or And Through the Wire. This was also the first album to use gated reverb, so that's a plus. The best part of the album, however, is that it didn't make Kate Bush sound boring. I will forever despise So for not being able to do the same.
5
Sep 15 2025
Cee-Lo Green... Is The Soul Machine
Cee Lo Green
I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one, good to know I was wrong. What I've learned from this list so far is that I have a soft spot for earlier rap music. It wasn't particularly deep or meaningful, but it was just a damn good time for an hour. Lots of personality and some really fun beats.
4
Sep 16 2025
The Village Green Preservation Society
The Kinks
I'm starting to think that every 60s pop record sounds the same. This one at least had a few cool moments, but overall I swear this sounds like the last five 60s pop records I've gotten at some point. Worst part is it's always the bands that I hear my parents talk really well about.
3
Sep 17 2025
Yeezus
Kanye West
Kanye making a rap album inspired by 90s Electro-Industrial is the most surprising and most Kanye thing imaginable, double points on the latter for the album title. I love how socially conscious this album is when he isn't saying stupid stuff like "I keep it 300, like the Romans." Maybe he should've rewatched the first 15 seconds of 300 before writing that down. Still, I think this album has Kanye's absolute best instrumentals paired with lyricism that can get a little all over the place quality-wise. While I prefer Late Registration, I can't deny that this is one of Kanye's better albums by far.
4
Sep 18 2025
(Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd)
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Great country rock, definitely some of the stronger music from the genre I've heard. The guitar solos on this album all go insane and it has some pretty deep moments. I can't really understand why my parents hate this band so much since it isn't for the Florida trademark flavor of Southern Racism™, but I like this album a lot. Of course, it ends with Free Bird, so the album automatically isn't hateable.
4
Sep 19 2025
Teen Dream
Beach House
Depression Cherry has been a really important album to me for a while now. Me and my boyfriend loved it since the first time we listened to it, I have it on vinyl, the whole thing. I'd honestly say that this is pretty close to Depression Cherry quality-wise, even if it doesn't have the same emotional connection for me. Beach House really knows how to consistently hit that really depressing kind of dream pop sound in a way that nobody else from the genre can.
5
Sep 20 2025
The Clash
The Clash
This album is really good at making London Calling seem even more impressive. The fact that they went from this to one of the best punk albums of all time in two years is crazy. As for this album, it's okay. Some pretty good songs mixed in with some that really didn't do much for me. Nothing bad, but very little that's particularly great. Special shoutout to Protex Blue for telling teenagers in 1977 to use a condom, though. I'd much rather listen to Joe Strummer say it than my parents if I were alive back then.
3
Sep 21 2025
Roxy Music
Roxy Music
These kinds of albums are why I do this challenge. Crazy how one guy singing like a weirdo can accidentally spawn a whole genre 5 years later. This weirdo is incredibly fun and knows how to compose a damn good song, so he should keep being this weird. The instrumentals on the album are amazing and really make a great pair with the vocals. Every member of the band is great at what they do and they all have great standout moments throughout the album. The whole thing comes together to make the most unseriously serious album I've heard in a really long time and I loved every second of it. Bonus points for the saxophone, that always makes music better.
5
Sep 22 2025
Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
It's pretty good, but also pretty hard to get through. Lots of really sparse improvisation in most of the songs. It has its moments, especially in Spanish Key and Sanctuary but as a whole it was fairly boring. The best part by far is the album cover, that goes incredibly hard.
3
Sep 23 2025
From Elvis In Memphis
Elvis Presley
Surprisingly good. Elvis has a voice that's really nice to listen to and he has a few really good songs throughout. That being said, take a shot every time he says the words "Love" or "Girl" if you want a free ride to a hospital. It makes In the Ghetto and Don't Cry Daddy stand out more than they have any right to, and the album would be way better if it focused on songs like that rather than the usual love songs that take up most of its runtime. Even those love songs are pretty well-performed. Key word is performed, he didn't write the majority of the songs. I don't hold it against him, most country artists were doing that in the 60s.
Bonus fun fact: Elvis has a version of In the Ghetto that he did at a sound check where he replaces "As the snow flies" with "As the shit flies" and proceeds to laugh about it for a minute or two. Good to know me and Elvis have one thing in common, a twelve-year-old's sense of humor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq0Cwd41c1w
4
Sep 24 2025
Astral Weeks
Van Morrison
This album is more than a breath of fresh air after all of the mediocre pop I've gotten from this same decade so far. I don't know why I'm all of a sudden getting some of the best music from the earlier decades of the list, but I'm completely fine with it if it means I get more music like this. It's like Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, but 30 years earlier and a lot more improvised. I wonder if there's a version that doesn't have all of the overdubbed instruments, since Morrison himself said he didn't want them in the album. My own hunt for it showed nothing, or else I would've done that version. As it stands, this is still an incredible album. He's a real wordsmith with some deeply touching storytelling and a very unique voice to support it. The really cool part of the album is that it's mostly improvised, obviously outside of the overdubbing.
5
Sep 25 2025
The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd
A mix of perfect music and songs that are exclusively there to pad the runtime of the album to fit on an LP, and it's perfectly clear which is which. There can even be runtime padding inside of the really good songs. Still, it's one of the most well-known albums ever for a reason, and the parts that aren't 3 minute stretches of nothing are amazing. As always, bonus points for the saxophone.
4
Sep 26 2025
(What's The Story) Morning Glory
Oasis
I'm both deeply surprised and happy to know that Wonderwall is not the only good song on this album. The guitars feel really overwhelming in a way that only 90s British ecstasy addicts could do for some reason. That and the vocals make the album uniquely Oasis while still sounding like the stuff that inspired it. Maybe it's the fact that I haven't listened to the radio in a pretty long time, but I think this album was one of the bigger surprises so far from this list. I am now contractually obligated to say "anyways, here's Wonderwall," so anyways, here's Wonderwall.
4
Sep 27 2025
Birth Of The Cool
Miles Davis
Pretty cool jazz. I don't have a lot to say about the album but I really liked it. Lots of good standards came out of it like Boplicity.
4
Sep 28 2025
Timeless
Goldie
If this list has taught me anything, it's that I really should put more thought into trying LSD or Ecstasy at some point. It's very clear that I'm not the target demographic for a lot of the albums on this list because I've been sober for 19 of the 19 years I've been alive. That being said, it's a pretty good album. The parts that deviate from the DnB/Jungle kind of style especially stand out. The actual DnB songs are pretty good, too. I like the really high energy that the style brings, and I especially like what the singer does with it. To reference my favorite review I've seen on this website so far, this album is full of tippy tappy plinky plonky noises that go round and round for 113 minutes, and it's great.
4
Sep 29 2025
Supa Dupa Fly
Missy Elliott
I saw the number of features on this album and got a little scared that they were gonna drown out Missy Elliott on her own album. Glad to know that really isn't the case here. She sings and raps really well and it brings an album that's as good as it is varied. Always a big fan of the really driving soul feel that the album and others like it have.
4
Sep 30 2025
Gorillaz
Gorillaz
The fact that this was picked over Demon Days and Plastic Beach is criminal. We can shave off a few Bowie albums to fit one of those in. This album is pretty good and has some absolute classics on it, especially Clint Eastwood, but the album as a whole struggles to add up to some of the ones that come after it. Some pretty annoying voices throughout along with a fairly similar feel between songs made this hard to get through at some points. The parts that were good were really good, but everything else ranged from fine to rough.
3
Oct 01 2025
Behaviour
Pet Shop Boys
These guys are like a slightly more modern Simon and Garfunkel, but they say "years" in a really brain-tickly way so they're better by default. Anyways, turns out 1990 had the best synthpop. The fact that this and Depeche Mode's Violator came out in the same year is wild. I should stop comparing these guys to other bands I like and just talk about the music. The music is crazy and adds some good LGBT+ representation to this list that isn't wildly flamboyant bisexuals. One of those "I never would've guessed but it makes perfect sense that he's gay" type situations. Really nice for relaxing nighttime listening, despite how funky a lot of the songs are. Great writing in all areas and definitely one of the best 90s albums of the list so far.
5
Oct 02 2025
Vauxhall And I
Morrissey
I can't hate this. As much as I want to because of all the weird stuff Morrissey said, I really like it. He has some interesting and insightful things to say when he isn't yapping about how Chinese people are subhuman. I like that the album keeps the Jangle Pop roots of The Smiths' discography and turns it into his own thing.
Unrelated fun fact: Morrissey wrote a 50-page rant about the British government in his autobiography.
4
Oct 03 2025
90
808 State
Roland really is responsible for every good electronic genre. These guys named themselves after the Roland TR-808 Drum Machine. Anyways, this album is great. I love the really distinct TB-303 synth sound in house music, makes it sound goofier. The music goes pretty hard, too. I especially like the more aggressive parts of the album like Cobra Bora and Donkey Doctor. They sound like music for an old Flash game that I would've randomly found on NotDoppler like 12 years ago.
4
Oct 04 2025
Unknown Pleasures
Joy Division
Probably the single most T-shirt-able album cover ever, equally as simple and iconic as The Dark Side of the Moon but a lot better-looking in my opinion. As for the music, it's pretty good. Sure sounds a hell of a lot like it's cover. There's something about the instrumentals that always sounds a little too empty to me, but they do use that emptiness well in some parts of the album. The singer's voice is really satisfying to listen to and fits perfectly with the instrumentals. Definitely flawed, but the album plays into its flaws enough for it to not really be an issue.
4
Oct 05 2025
Melodrama
Lorde
I swear a lot of the positives I have to say about this album get ruined as soon as I start to think positively about the album. My number two pet peeve in music is pop artists swearing just once or twice per song to seem hard or strong or something. It's just annoying and it shows up constantly in this album. I guess she says shit more than twice in Homemade Dynamite, but it's really only to get us to say it along with her in the chorus. Some of the harmonies are cool and I did genuinely like Liability until I saw that there was a part 2 (speaking of which, why did she think that two songs were good enough to warrant a part 2?), but as a whole this album feels like every other pop album I thought I was going to like until I listened to it and realised that it sounds like every pop album I thought I was going to like. For the record, I can also swear exactly once in what I'm writing to prove an imaginary point to myself.
2
Oct 06 2025
Back At The Chicken Shack
Jimmy Smith
I love the little fun fact in the Wikipedia blurb for this about him recording two albums in the same session and wearing the same shirt in both, adds the kind of continuity that isn't at all necessary but makes the guy a lot more memorable. Anyways, good Jazz. It's really upbeat with a lot of good lines throughout and I love Jimmy Smith's tenor tone. I'll definitely be Back at the Chicken Shack more often.
4
Oct 07 2025
Seventeen Seconds
The Cure
Minus points for the fact that this album is significantly longer than 17 seconds, unforgivable. Anyways, I love The Cure's specific flavor of Gothic music. It still has the sparse lyricism and cold, empty instrumentals that makes the genre what it is, but unlike other bands in the genre, it isn't so empty that it starts to sound like it's lacking something. Pair that with great instrumentals and even great fully instrumental songs and it makes a really good album.
4
Oct 08 2025
Yank Crime
Drive Like Jehu
Shoutout to the guy that called this band Slint if they weren't incels. I wholeheartedly agree and this album is much better than Spiderland and about equally as influential. Influence is a stupid way to measure quality so I'm just gonna talk about the quality of the music itself, and the music itself is absolutely quality. Some of the best post-hardcore out there next to Big Black and Unwound (really upset that there's no Unwound on this list). Incredible energy, even in the slower songs like Luau. The opener is especially insane, and gets bonus points for being mostly in 5/4, the objectively best time signature. While I wouldn't call it the best album to come out of the post-hardcore movement, it gets a very, very strong second place. The best one isn't even on this list, so it's at least the best on the list.
5
Oct 09 2025
Gasoline Alley
Rod Stewart
What I've learned from this list is that artists should really stop trying to cover Bob Dylan songs, unless you're Warren Zevon. Anyways, I feel like I can tolerate the singer's voice a lot more than most people on this list, but I'm also used to really out there voices. As for the music, it's an album of okay country covers. I loved the opener, but I feel like nothing quite reaches its level.
3
Oct 10 2025
Emergency On Planet Earth
Jamiroquai
The very first sound on this album is a didgeridoo, peak music. This is one of those albums that you have to listen to while standing up, no sitting down for this one. You need your whole body working to get the full experience. For crying out loud, he's literally telling you to in the lyrics. Special appreciation for the bassist, Stuart Zender. I feel like bassists in general are pretty overlooked in most genres of music, but this guy's pretty hard to miss. He does nothing but lay down these incredibly technical and funky as hell basslines throughout the whole album. Much like all good jazz and soul, underneath the crazy amounts of groove is a real message of hope despite every political challenge and a need to keep the earth clean. Maybe I'm way too easily impressed by good grooves, but it's also damn hard to keep a good groove for nearly an hour, especially one that's so varied.
5
Oct 11 2025
Highway to Hell
AC/DC
People weren't kidding, every AC/DC song sounds like every AC/DC song. Even if they wrote one song eleven times, it's one damn good song and it was a good time. Not really much to say past that.
4
Oct 12 2025
The Seldom Seen Kid
Elbow
I've been eating good this week with this list. First I get Drive Like Jehu, then Jamiroquai, now these guys. What a beautiful album. A great mix of that British kind of indie rock with really nice strings and keys. I always love finding bands I've never heard of through stuff like this and coming out with masterworks. That's what this is, a masterwork. The instruments, the singing, the lyrics, the flow, the everything. Masterful.
5
Oct 13 2025
Rock Bottom
Robert Wyatt
Very dreamy for a prog album. Reading that a guy made this album after becoming a paraplegic is insane and I wonder how much of that pain was put into the making of this album. I loved how flowy and almost disjointed the album feels at times, like lots of parts are being thrown at the same thing and they happen to line up really well. Some of the songs on this sound straight-up ominous in a way that I feel like I haven't seen any other prog album/artist attempt. I really fail to see how this is the 18th lowest rated album on the site.
4
Oct 14 2025
Pretenders
Pretenders
I feel like this is an album that's definitely going to grow on me, but as it stands it's okay. I wasn't expecting a song with parts in 15/8. That was interesting, took a second for it to even register. Still, not a whole lot stands out to me about this album compared to other New Wave bands of the time like The Clash or Devo. Perfectly fine, but not much more.
3
Oct 15 2025
Doggystyle
Snoop Dogg
This album never calms down, just pure 90s rap energy for almost an hour. I love all the features and backup vocalists and stuff throughout the album. I never knew Snoop had actual talent since all I've seen him in for the past 10 years is T-Mobile commercials and baking shows. Crazy what one good album can do to your career. He does make good mac and cheese, though. Anyways, excellent album. Definitely one of the best I've heard from the 90s so far.
5
Oct 16 2025
Station To Station
David Bowie
The fourth of nine Bowie albums, and this one's more proof that nine is excessive. Ziggy Stardust, Blackstar, and either Low or Heroes is really all you need to get the full idea of Bowie. If you want to listen to more before you die, he made twenty-six albums. Three is a fine sample. Maybe it's the fact that this is the sixth overall Bowie album of listened to in my lifetime (iirc), but I'm running out of things to take note of in these albums. TVC15 was good, I guess. Of the 4 I've gotten so far, this is the least noteworthy. Heroes and Blackstar were incredible, Hunky Dory and The Next Day were bad, and this one is somewhere in between. A perfectly surface-level review for a perfectly surface-level Bowie album.
3
Oct 17 2025
Sticky Fingers
The Rolling Stones
Man, Brown Sugar sure is one of the songs ever. I felt emotions when listening to it, none of which I liked. That has to be the single worst song the Stones ever put out. The rest of the album is great, so it's fine. I think they're the only British band that can consistently do Blues Rock well to any capacity. Side note, the guy on this album cover is the same guy on The Smiths' self-titled record. Massive peenus on that guy, that's impressive stuff. Anyways I'm tired and getting all over the place, back to the music. I prefer Beggar's Banquet overall, but the standout tracks of this album stand out a lot more to me, like Can't You Hear Me Knocking. Really good solos all throughout, but the ones on that song are particularly good. You Gotta Move as a song makes this album for me, it's just so goofy. I don't know why they randomly decided to throw in a wind section in the second half of the album, but the only reason I'm complaining about it is because it isn't in the first half. I'm gonna cut myself off before I ramble my way into doubling the length of the longest review I've made to date.
4
Oct 18 2025
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys
This is making me realize that I've never heard an Arctic Monkeys song in full, let alone a full album, before this. They're like The Strokes but less fuzzy and more fun. More than anything else, this album is a damn fun time. Not particularly deep, but I'm scared of the idea of the cross-eyed guy smoking a cigarette on the cover making deep music, so it's fine. I guess he's no longer cross-eyed or smoking because I said he is, and whatever I say he is is what he isn't. Anyways, the music. Good fun, I really like the majority of the tracks. This band seems pretty good to throw in a party mix of some kind. Much like party music, I started to tune it out at some points, though.
4
Oct 19 2025
Eliminator
ZZ Top
Immediately started with "Who are these guys? Oh, I know this song." And it was the best song on the album. I feel like this music was designed for people who would still drive the car on the album cover in the modern day. I drive very comfortably in my Kia, so I didn't really get much out of this one. Most of it feels pretty uncomfortable. The lyrics paired with the instrumentals feel like the kind of music you'd vaguely listen to for the feel of it and then tune into the lyrics and awkwardly turn down your radio. Sadly, I can't really uncomfortably turn down the music because the 1001 Album Gods gave me this and I must listen.
2
Oct 20 2025
Face to Face
The Kinks
Pretty fun album, can't say I was expecting a harpsichord in most of the songs. My big issue with a lot of the 60s bands on this list is that they all sound exactly the damn same. Quoting a review from this site for a Mamas and the Papas album: "Most 60's groups had three choices: copy the beatles, copy the beach boys, or sexually abuse minors." These guys chose to copy The Beatles, but actually did their own thing with it, and by that I mean they used a harpsichord. Jokes aside, most of these songs are good. I especially like Rosy Won't You Please Come Home and Rainy Day in June. Lots of interesting lines and a fun feel no matter what direction the music itself goes in. Definitely one of the more creative albums of the 60s.
4
Oct 21 2025
A Night At The Opera
Queen
This is such a strange album. It has Bohemian Rhapsody and Death on Two Legs on the same album as I'm in Love With My Car. Granted, that's just Queen. They really were never album people, more "produce as much varied music as possible until the public picks something up" people. That something was Bohemian Rhapsody, so this album is 4 stars at a minimum by default. I really like most of the songs on this album, though. The Prophet's Song and '39 are incredibly overlooked and the whole album feels very Queen in every way, sometimes for better, and sometimes for I'm in Love With My Car or God Save the Queen.
4
Oct 22 2025
More Songs About Buildings And Food
Talking Heads
There's this band called Shellac, no albums on this list for some reason. My favorite thing about them is the time they said that every single song they've ever written was about one of two things: Baseball or Canada. Even if it's an offhand mention of one of them, it always comes back to Baseball and Canada. I really wanted to know if every Talking Heads song was similar, and I even started thinking of ways it would be connected (take Listening Wind being about blowing up a building). I am very sad to announce that very few of these songs are about buildings or food. You should go to Remain in Light if you want songs about buildings, though. Still an amazing album, but if that career-spanning idea came true, it'd be one of the best albums to come out of the 70s, if not, the entire 20th Century.
4
Oct 23 2025
Nebraska
Bruce Springsteen
My major weakness: One Man, One Guitar. Every damn time. Elliot Smith (kind of), Nick Drake, now this guy. Maybe Springsteen should stick to this and not pop rock. It sounds like he's telling stories around a campfire, really nice feel. Most of the songs are absolutely heartbreaking. Kind of struggling to find words for this album, but it was amazing enough for me to tolerate the Faux-Southern accent. That's saying a lot.
5
Oct 24 2025
New York Dolls
New York Dolls
I found that my new favorite kind of 70s music is people singing weirdly with funny rock beats. Thank you, 1001 Albums List. I like these guys for the same reasons as a band like Roxy Music, just these guys are a bit more directly punky. The dichotomy of 5 guys in drag makeup screaming and making punk-before-punk style music is the real fun of it. Frankenstein and Subway Train in particular are really fun. Granted, this whole album is really fun, and really good. Really really good. Side note, I would so dress like the guy on the far left.
5
Oct 25 2025
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
A review for this album makes me wonder what The Weeknd covering a Violent Femmes song would sound like. Probably awful, but it would at least be funny. Anyways, what a classic album. Never would've guessed this came out in 1983. I really like the singer's voice and the whole thing has a great parody kind of feel to it. Why can't modern incel music be like this?
4