5 With the States as a impossibility, the Kinks turned their eyes toward British culture. Ray Davies's Music Hall-laden baroque Pop may have delivered the worst sales numbers ever. However, every track here was a single in waiting for the return to post-Summer of Love realism ("David Watts") and natural beauty ("Waterloo Sunset.")
5 This is my first! I know this one like the back of my hand. Bill Ward swings so hard. 5.0 naturally. The first of six straight classics.
3.5 While it really showcases Monae's powerful voice, the "hits" ring out as post-Outkast Funk/Soul today. If it is remembered for anything, it should be that Pop artists can be ambitious in their vision and place themselves in tracks that use features, not necessarily for star power, but to expand their potential.
4.5 Brother Ray brought a lot of his musical background to the table in the early years. However, finding the Soul in Country and Folk music was completely a surprise. Locking these well-written songs into big-band/Pop arrangements made it "crossover" ready. However, putting R&B and Country together was a giant leap for the Civil Rights movement.
2.5 Where the rubber hits the road. Outside of the singles, esp. "Yellow," the harmonies carry the best songs. However, as an album, this is why we still have a torrent or overearnest, emotionally pleading male singers that everyone thinks are honest. When its honestly dated and derivative.
4 While it is not my favorite live BB album (that would be 1971's searing "Live at Cook County Jail,) it is a brilliant document of BB leading a fever-pitch crowd from the stage. Side one is tremendous. "Help the Poor" is a good uplifting ending but I always want him to sail out like he does on 1969's "Live and Well" with "Why I Sing The Blues." [ALSO: there are several weird edits on the Spotify version. No deductions for that.]
What can I say that hasn't been said. If this isn't a solid 5, some of y'all are not truly listening. This is why it's called Soul now, because you invest yourself and your future self in this masterpiece. The beginning of a legendary run of albums.
Classic production by Butch Vig that changed everything. Shirley Manson taught everyone a thing or two about fronting a band. Unfortunately, only the singles ("Queer," "Happy When It Rains," and the Clash-sampling "Stupid Girl") have aged well.
4.5 In Dylan's career there have been so many twists and turns. But recovering from nearly losing him on "Time Out of Mind" remains a classic and the beginning of three-album series that define late-career Dylan. Brilliantly written.
5 A classic Jazz album that doesn't sound like a classic Jazz album. Meticulous composition from Mingus that skillfully matches themes and variations from Classical music with the undercurrent of Jazz. Masterful and still beautiful.
4.5 A celebration of the hard work Wilson originally did (85 sessions before it was abandoned!) on a true passion project. The myth around it is the closest any of the biggest 60s pillars came to a total flop. Wilson and the Wondermints reclaim the songs and give "SMiLE" its rightful place in ambitious studio creations of the Golden Age.
4 Muddy Waters left us authentic Delta Blues, practically invented the more Electric brand that was synonymous with Chicago, and revived the Blues on its own in the Seventies. Backed by some members of his last band, Johnny Winter and others, Waters sounds primal here. Not his last gasp, but one long deep cleansing breath of what the Blues was meant to sound like.
5 The history of Parliament/Funkadelic is like the tea leaves spelling out the future applications of Funk. It still has James Brown's stomp, Sly's filigrees, and the body-moving syncopation from New Orleans. Fused together into one endless groove here, it might as well be our Voyager silver record to a distant solar system. When you listen, go outside and maybe a sweet chariot will come down and let you ride.
2 While I realize the first to take the hill is important in battle, there are at least 20 other records from this time period that advanced House/Techno/Hi-NRG music further. Other than "Move Any Mountain," (#38 US which was a breakthrough) this one is soggy and derivative. In addition, it is to blame for the dozens of generic "House music" hits that followed in its wake. Now I need to listen to Derrick May and those twin KLF records that geared it up and cooled it down.
3.5 Urban Soul with a touch of Latin rhythms is highly enticing. Given the climate of the early Seventies, War was welcome. Over the years, its excellent singles ("The Cisco Kid") and the superior but underrated deep cut ("City, Country, City") have held up very well. However, what was once a door opening to Latin music is now bested by the output of Fania Records.
3 Timing is everything with albums like this one. In 1999, we were overrun with bleeping loud, shiny, noisy Pop, Hip-Hop and Electronica. So, Orton's smooth Linda Thompson/Marianne Faithfull esque-voice was soothing. Even better was the British Folk/Seventies singer-songwriter production. 25 years later, those are de rigueur in Indie Rock - especially with female singer/songwriters. Points for setting up the template but not the groundbreaker it is purported to be.
3.5 He is a genius. But the big-band style orchestration became such a standard after this. He is a brilliant interpreter. But he just pushed the limits with 'What'd I Say) (banned on many stations, but still a Top Ten hit.) A sign of things to come. Read that one both ways.
3.5 At the dawn of Rock N'Roll, Louis Prima, Sam Butera and Keely Smith took the history of Jazz and Jazz/Blues through the Big Band age into sax-led New Orleans music straight from Bourbon Street. Thankfully they didn't tone down Prima or Butera who pave the way for every Jump Band/Swing revival to burst out every few years like Rock N'Roll's Halley's Comet
5 This is the easiest album I have had the pleasure of reviewing thus far. When this dropped, time stopped. The 60s, 70s, and 80s all met in this retro-forward Manchester music. This is the big bang of BritPop and how it even came to cross the ocean. We bought every format because we needed every morsel they were serving. A stone cold classic that destined them for greatness and myriad problems in following it.
5 With the States as a impossibility, the Kinks turned their eyes toward British culture. Ray Davies's Music Hall-laden baroque Pop may have delivered the worst sales numbers ever. However, every track here was a single in waiting for the return to post-Summer of Love realism ("David Watts") and natural beauty ("Waterloo Sunset.")
4 The Golden Age of Hip-Hop saw the music bend and stretch in a variety of directions. Pharcyde are a symbolic victory for the last frame. At its time, a blazing single like "Runnin'" opened up so many ears to their bumpin' Psychedelic rap. However, it was not even the best song here. Smart production and a cohesion of tracks that is lost in this generation's widest swath possible styled drop. "Drop" whatta jam.
5 Improvisation at its height. Execution is everything to Miles and his group. An absolute mind-blower. Every facet of this recording from mic placement to chosen solos to design is to be studied. However, don't study the music. Just let it flow from the speakers and revel in feeling like you are placed between the instruments as Miles's music overwhelms you.
3.5 While not their best album, it is clearer and a more wide-angle lens vision of Celtic music and its impact. The new color of Spanish and Turkish music is a great touch. However, over the years "Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash" has aged the best - despite this one having their best single ever in "Fairytale of New York."
4.5 The last great 90s Alt.Rock guitar album. Side one may be the best single side of Radiohead in the catalog. The final three on side two gracefully bow out one by one until "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" leaves you not wanting it to end.
4 The template of Eighties Metal finally crashing into the Pop chart. The singles kick so much ass, but it peters out in the end. Harmonies, crushing guitars, those mountainous riffs all are excellent. "Photograph" and "Foolin'" are still tough to beat. Even "Too Late For Love" is a great power ballad. "Stagefright" is also underrated as well. Thankfully, the ideas come full force on "Hysteria" and yet "Pyromania" still cannot top "High N'Dry" for me.
3.5 The best of Coldplay's albums is their strongest songwriting before the deluge of ... Side one is especially well-produced and fits together. Then it falls prey to the past ("Green Eyes"') and future ("Amsterdam.") Move that title track up to follow "Daylight."
5 In the late Seventies, singer-songwriters became the new storytellers. They may need an album. They may need a song. But a concept album, sounded like a throwback until "The Wall" steamrolled everyone with acoustic songs, effect-slinging bridges, matching bits of dialogue all wrapped up into a swan dive into Roger Waters's wounded psyche. As a kid, I could sing the entire first side of the tape from memory. Seeing the film with my Mom, she leaned over and asked me if I understood this. As an adult, the second half came to me and left me dusted. It may not be my favorite Pink Floyd album, but when it plays and floods your memory banks with hurricane-strength guitar and gritted-teeth vitriol, it is hard to stop until they tear down that wall.
5 Breakbeats. MPC. Sample-delic Hip-Hop. Production is all a blur now. Beats. Hook. Title line. AND REPEAT. Shadow broke the mold and created music from other music. He could find just the right sample for every aspect of songwriting. Create moods and atmospheres. "Entroducing" is a planet all to itself now. Bonus points for the 2CD Deluxe Edition, the live excerpt on there shows how his skills were not just limited to the studio.
4 The.nucleus of ideas that will become Post-Punk. Recorded while Punk was still rearing its head, Siouxsie and The Banshees 1.0 manage to make uncomfortable music that entices you to stay longer underwater with them thanks to cavernous toms (no cymbals!,) shards of guitar, diving bass and hint of the lonely sax that will soon dominate the Eighties. Over it all, Siouxsie dominates like a Method actor turning the Beatles into a battle cry, and her own songs of mystery that still drive various interpretations. Bonus points for the single being added.
Big Band enters the second Jazz Age. Fast enough to be BeBop, but Basie is so sophisticated. Twinkling piano solos for subtlety. Bold brassy horn chart that callback his setups. It is at its best when it swings.
4 The moment where the Day-Glo color sheen of the Eighties becomes stark Nineties grainy black and white. Boiled down to its simplest attack, Rage is not blunt but wields their rage like a sword - ready to slice you open and then explain why you should have seen it coming.
5 I will not mention the famous name attached to it. I will not because the album transcends that. It is a schizophrenic dark brooding album, especially with Nico's cold beauty. However, there is a warmth at the center that buzzes out in the melodies you feel in the moments In-between craving junk, attention, and a better coterie. In Velvet terms, it may not be love (just yet,) but the primitive strum and bang are earthly desires that bash out the four-letter word in some kinda Morse Code.
5 To be succinct, there are three Stooges albums every household needs. There is one kind of wasted moment on them ("We Will Fall" on the debut.) The sound and the fury that leads Rock N' Roll into its next phase is right here.
3.5 Early Yes is a mess. But a joyful one at that. The covers were excellent ("No Opportunity Necessary") and the originals were taking shape ("Starship Trooper.") When Rick Wakeman joined, the writing sped up and they figured our to bottle the lightning ("Heart of The Sunrise" and "Long Distance Runaround." They even got a badass single with "Roundabout." The cohesion is not on "Fragile" and it is so vaunted in places. So, it makes me wish they slipped their amazing cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "America" in there. Then it wouldn't be so full of itself. Which ultimately is their downfall, ("Close To The Edge" is alive with tension and a need to make it work AND make it fit together - therefore, their best.) and the exposure of taking yourself too seriously as the Achilles Heel of Prog Rock.
4 So underrated. Simple Minds were always relegated to the off-season U2 especially given their sweeping arrangements and Jim Kerr's passion. However, when they found their sound on this album, this was Art Pop. Mel Gaynor gave them a real head-nodding drive/groove. Those riffs ("Promised You A Miracle") were sparkling and uplifting ("Someone, Somewhere (In Summertime")). "The King is White and In The Crowd" is a helluva closer too. In the end, everyone compares them to U2. No one takes into account, this was U2's inspiration - not the other way around.