A collection of songs that aimed to be great, but alas.

Witty lyrics, but the music sometimes fails to sell the story. Strong 3*

Beautifully tragic

In 2025, the Boss' words resonate more than ever.

Pretty fun, but can be more musically developed(?)

🍌

Where the parts are greater than their sum

Funny and funky

Seminal punk

Surprisingly fun album that gets better deeper into the tracks... might check out the expanded release

Magic in a bottle (album)

The sound aged well, the content less so

An unfortunate swan song that could not live up to a legend's legacy

Solid jammers

Straight Outta Compton seems to be the album that aged the least well amongst the "Golden Era" cuts; but it's still damn great when it hits

Actually better than I remembered

Daydream Nation feels very much like haphazard punches from Sonic Youth -- but they work

Ray Davies is such a damn fantastic writer he made me care about a bygone England

It is a Bowie album alright; "Fame" is a choice cut

Nothing awful, and nothing praiseworthy

Surprisingly fun album -- would warrant a closer listen

Cheesy lyrics, but gosh the hooks are effective. Won't pull this out usually if I want to listen to music, but a karaoke night? Heck yes

Queen is clearly a talented band, but they spend most of their talents on ecletic "experimentations" that more often than not misfire. Sheer Heart Attack is... not one of those albums; it's more like a musket... a novelty today that served its place in history, but should not be anyone's top choice of firearm.

I wasn't sure what to expect going in, and wasn't too sure what I listened to afterwards.

When you prompt the AI: "Make me complex rock music with deep lyrics"

If we review albums by starting at a 10 and then subtracting points from it with every misstep, Aja would be the world's best album. Good thing we don't do that. Aja is good album, but it offers little beyond its "perfection" (Deacon Blues being the one outstanding exception, possibly the best among Steely Dan's catalogue).

Leonard Cohen was at his best when singing about sex, God, and death. He didn't always do that.

I... like it? The music and singing are "not good", but that only makes it better

"Patiently Waiting" and "In Da Club" are the two clear highlights for me; by the second half, 50 Cent is die tryin'

Almost a parody of itself

A very clever album. I am not too sure if I agree with it.

Credit where credit is due: witty, snappy, angry, nasty -- all rolled up into one album

Cash had the charisma, charms, and singing chops; but the album is too thin for him to work with.

Haunting tunes, marred by baffling arrangement choices and subpar production

A Bowie classic heralding music to come

A collection of CSNY's middest hits

Too British to be good, too anti-Thatcher to be bad

All in all, a solid worthwhile rock and roll album

I don't think I hate it, but the suaveness just lingers in my mind long after I've heard the album

The greatness of Lennon's songs is inversely proportional to how much of a prick he is in them.

Beautiful and magnetic

Good: the definitive 80s hard rock album Bad: the definitive 80s hard rock album

A convincing performance

An album that represents Nick Cave well, perhaps too much so

Visceral

Fuck songs, if the "fuck" was screamed out loud.

There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark.

Everything in its right place

A tour de force

The frustration with Gaye's album is how singles-focused they are -- when they're good, they're GOOD

A pleasant welcome. Dusty delivers a convincing performance, though the songs and production may not always be up to par.

The Police has the wits and charms and self-indulgence

"Harvest" is a pretty album, but it might also be the least substantial of Young's classic 70s outputs.

Powerful and angry

Maybe about 60 minutes too long, but the remaining moments are surprisingly decent.

Inconsistent, but pretty fun album overall

I think there is some inherent expectation for albums on this list to be influential and game-changing. Modern Kosmology may not be one of these albums, but it is still very much an interesting listen I'm glad to have discovered.

The album's biggest fault is that it can be better (which CCR pretty promptly resolved)

Some great tracks at the start but tapers off towards the end

Rough and polished; blunt and charming.

Banger

A collection of songs that aimed to be great, but alas.

Probably the album that turned R.E.M. from a good band to a great band.

So messy and so great

This would probably be a crazy experience if I actually saw them live; an album just can't quite do the same.

Well-written, but inconsistent

More confident and unapologetic than it has any rights to be -- and it's pretty decent anyway.

It's an album you listen on repeat for one month and then never listen to it again.

Kinda cheesy, kinda cool

An album of angst and melodrama that Sinatra pulled off with unbelievable maturity.

I want to like it. And there are some great songs here (particularly sides one and four). But does it have to be a double album?