159
Albums Rated
3.47
Average Rating
15%
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930 albums remaining
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1950s
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27
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5
1-Star Albums
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You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loveless | 5 | 3.17 | +1.83 |
| No Other | 5 | 3.18 | +1.82 |
| Daydream Nation | 5 | 3.3 | +1.7 |
| Juju | 5 | 3.33 | +1.67 |
| Hot Rats | 5 | 3.36 | +1.64 |
| Haunted Dancehall | 4 | 2.37 | +1.63 |
| Debut | 5 | 3.37 | +1.63 |
| It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back | 5 | 3.37 | +1.63 |
| The Köln Concert | 5 | 3.39 | +1.61 |
| Sound of Silver | 5 | 3.42 | +1.58 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parachutes | 1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
| ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down | 1 | 3.13 | -2.13 |
| Woodface | 1 | 3.1 | -2.1 |
| Connected | 1 | 2.94 | -1.94 |
| Red Dirt Girl | 1 | 2.86 | -1.86 |
| Bad | 2 | 3.8 | -1.8 |
| Band On The Run | 2 | 3.67 | -1.67 |
| Hotel California | 2 | 3.6 | -1.6 |
| The Number Of The Beast | 2 | 3.59 | -1.59 |
| At Newport 1960 | 2 | 3.55 | -1.55 |
5-Star Albums (27)
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Popular Reviews
De La Soul
5/5
When De La Soul's music finally became more widely-available streaming/digitally a few years ago, I ate this album up. I don't know a ton about the history of hip-hop, but I know this album stands as one of the most important, and it is still fresh. However, it still suffers from the skit and filler tracks of the time, though they aren't as annoying as others, and there are places when the album could have been trimmed as it is quite long. But the high points overshadow them. I can't say much that hasn't already been said about this album-- it's a masterpiece. Pretty much all the "major" tracks are bangers and would easily be on a best-of: "(3 Is) The Magic Number", "Change in Speak", "Ghetto Thang", "Eye Know", "Tread Water", "Potholes in My Lawn", "Say No Go", "Buddy", "Me Myself and I". So, some fat could be trimmed around these, but I'll overlook it.
2 likes
Nick Drake
5/5
This is Nick Drake's magnum opus, most full and well-rounded work. His minimal voice and guitar are well complemented by the string arrangements and full band in some songs. It's one of my favorites, I've heard it dozens of times, and it hasn't gotten old. I'm glad I got it in September; it's a perfect listen as summer transitions to fall. It's one of the best albums ever.
1 likes
Suzanne Vega
2/5
This was a new listen for me, an album and artist I had not heard before. I was really torn on it. Vega is a gifted singer, but I mostly found myself either annoyed by her inflections (like a knock-off Patti Smith) or just bored as her voice did not feel unique to my ear. Her lyrics did not stick with me, and her melodies felt too similar from song to song. The second track, "Freeze Tag" is especially emblematic of her trying to be Hejira-era Joni Mitchell with Pat Metheny but without the interesting jazz motifs and impeccable melodic singing.
I think much could have been saved with different production. Much of the overly-compressed guitar, chorus pedal, and synth felt very dated and cheesy. Mixed with the serious and often-pretentious lyrics, there were times the album felt like parody. I don't think this album aged well, and may have been more enjoyable 40 years ago. I would compare some of the feel to a modern band like Men I Trust, which have very different lo-fi production underneath, and I could see much of the same ideas working in that way (though I concede that Men I Trust may also sound cheesy in 40 years).
I am trying to appreciate this album in the context of its contemporaries, but I just feel very apathetic to it-- didn't love or hate it, and I will probably forget it. After the album finished, "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac auto-played and I was reminded of how interesting the instrumental side can be to back Stevie Nicks' unique and provocative voice. Of course, it may be unfair to compare an album to a masterpiece like Rumours, but that's what this generator is all about, right?
1 likes
The Beach Boys
3/5
This was my listen the day after Brian Wilson passed. As far as I can tell, he was 99% of The Beach Boys, and their lasting influence would be little to nothing without him at the helm. I listened to the mono cut of this record for him.
I don't know much Beach Boys beyond Pet Sounds, Smile Sessions, and their early singles. This album seems to sit somewhere in a transition from the surfy hits to the lush arrangements of Pet Sounds. Almost like an appetizer to Brian Wilson's masterpiece. For that, it was more of a historical intrigue rather than an inspiring listen for me. It was good, but not something I'd probably seek out again. The stand out track is definitely "She Knows Me Too Well" which feels like it could've been on Pet Sounds.
The final track "Bull Session With 'Big Daddy' #1" seems to serve no purpose except maybe to hit a time quota. Even then, the album is under 30 minutes.
It is also one of the ugliest album covers I've seen. Nothing like a solid brown block taking up a third of the art to really draw the eye in.
1 likes
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
4/5
What a trip. This is like early "outsider" or "bedroom" music. Weird, lo-fi, messy but ultimately very unique, intimate, and honest. It is interesting as a record of Skip Spence's mental health issues, but it transcends that, because it's actually very good. Whenever you think a song is going to unravel, it just kind of holds together and works. I was never bored, and I'll definitely be re-listening to this for both its instrumentation and to pay more attention to its lyrics.
1 likes
1-Star Albums (5)
All Ratings
Sepultura
3/5
This isn't in my comfort zone of genres, so it's hard to evaluate. It was hard to listen all the way through as much of it felt like a very similar tempo with drum and guitar banging on in my skull. Maybe that's how most thrash metal heads want it. In the transition between "Subtraction" (track 5) and "Altered State" it was quiet for a moment and I literally had a sigh of relief. However some parts were interesting and I found my foot tapping along to some songs so it's not as if I hated it. Just not my taste.
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
Biggie is undisputedly one of the greatest rappers ever-- his voice, his flow, his presence. This album supposedly reflects "life to death", very ambitious. Where it suffers are the dated interludes like "Fuck Me" and the blowjob that ends "Respect". The 3+ minute "Intro" could be cut. It feels very 90's, of-it's-time. I don't think it's aged well.
I also found the production lacking. Many of the beats were so similar, they blended together. Not so many hooks. These really put the spotlight on Biggie since they don't overshadow him, but they are also a bit boring.
Ultimately, I can only take so much of the narcissism prominent in gangsta/mafioso rap. I cringe when Biggie talks about the size of his penis or is repeatedly misogynistic. Some of it is performance. But most of the lyrics and message are just not something I can relate to and find enjoyment in.
Television
5/5
This comes about as close as you can to a perfect album. The guitar parts are as delicious as a full meal, but never overstuffed. Just perfectly placed notes. No skippable tracks, each one unique and solid.
I read that "Marquee Moon" was done in one take, which the engineer thought was a rehearsal. Amazing. It goes to show what years of playing live and honing craft can produce.
Elton John
4/5
Elton John's magnum opus. If I'm not mistaken, the 3rd of 6 straight #1 albums in the US. I would call it a flawed masterpiece. It's very bloated, with over-the-top production in some places. As many people would agree, "Jamaica Jerk-Off" should have been cut as it doesn't fit and is the most annoying track. I also think "Dirty Little Girl" and "All The Girls Love Alice" are a bit weak.
I've also never been a fan of the ordering of the tracks. "Candle In The Wind" (one of my least-favorite songs ever, but probably because I heard it too much as a kid) right after "Love Lies Bleeding" takes out a lot of momentum from what is a much more upbeat album overall. It should be reserved for maybe the end of side 2 or 3.
I would put "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" as track 1 as it quickly establishes the mood, then "Bennie and the Jets"-- the audience noise reminiscent to the transition to "With A Little Help From My Friends" on Sgt. Pepper. "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" could be earlier, maybe the opener to side 2. I think "Love Lies Bleeding" actually serves better as an album closer than opener.
Frank Zappa
5/5
My favorite Zappa record. Perfectly off-kilter, heavy, melodic, and weird. Five of six tracks are instrumental. Although his comical lyrics and non-sequiturs are integral to the Zappa sound, he was first and foremost a composer of unique melodies and wild soundscapes. Zappa's early-career talents are on full display on this record.
"Peaches En Regalia" is one of his fullest, catchiest compositions. "Willie the Pimp" is the only track with lyrics (Captain Beefheart) and features some of my favorite guitar playing. "Son Of Mr. Green Genes" is a mash-up of the first two to close out the first side. "Little Umbrellas" is a breather which eases you into the second side of the record. "The Gumbo Variations" is controlled chaos with dueling sax and fiddle (or is it some effect on the guitar? idk) "It Must Be A Camel" brings it all home with wonderfully jazzy motifs from a different planet. It's not a perfect album, but it is immensely enjoyable and I haven't tired of listening to it over the years.
The Clash
5/5
What more can be said about this album? It's iconic, it holds up, it's still relevant. "The Guns of Brixton" still feel ominous. "Train In Vain" is perpetually danceable. "Hateful" will be stuck in my head for days. The album's long, but none of the tracks feel like filler. They are each unique, catchy, edgy without feeling pretentious or overdone. Strummer and Jones are at the pinnacle of song-writing talents. It's arguably the best album of its era and genre.
Nirvana
4/5
I was not looking forward to listening to this album. I've kind of been a Nirvana hater since I was younger, I think because I found them overplayed, and I usually find Kurt Cobain's voice grating. But this is an instance I'm grateful for doing this 1001 Album Generator because without it, I never would have come to realize why this album is so deeply loved.
I used to just see this as an MTV cash-grab to exploit the popularity of the band, and a lame gimmick for a hard rock band to play their hits acoustic like this. Furthermore, this obviously was recorded only a few months before Cobain's passing, and I always wondered if people just thought it was good for sentimentality's sake. There is indeed something ominous about the stage being decorated as a funeral.
Perhaps now that I'm older, nearly 10 years older than Cobain was when this was recorded, I can understand the sincerity and vulnerability in the performance. You can hear Cobain nervous and stiff at first and become more comfortable as the recording goes on. I do not know how much was being played up for performance's sake, but it felt very real to me.
I enjoyed the latter half of the album more than the first. Some singing still felt grating to me, and I'm not a fan of acoustic-electric guitar sounds in general. Although Nirvana's songs translate surprisingly well to acoustic renditions (credit to good songwriting), I felt the most enjoyable songs were the covers (perhaps because I could just hear the Nirvana songs in their original and constantly comparing them). The Meat Puppets' performances and songs "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire" stood out, and I'm going to listen to Meat Puppets II shortly.
I'll admit it, I cried a little at the end of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night". This album really gives a glimpse to what Nirvana could have evolved into, that they were not limited to just being a grunge band, and that is what makes this record so bittersweet.
Elvis Presley
3/5
I've been a bit soured on Elvis ever since I understood that most of his music was appropriating that of black artists. It is evident here in "Tutti Frutti" and "I Got A Woman" amongst others.
Elvis' singing is undoubtedly great, like a stuttered tremolo. It does get a bit tiring after a while, with many of the songs a similar tempo. It probably would have been better as dance/background music rather than sitting and listening intently as I did. As immensely important as this first Elvis record is, it didn't leave a lasting impression on me. An exception is "Blue Moon" which remains one of my favorite songs ever.
Beatles
3/5
This remains one of my least-favorite Beatles albums. It feels disjointed, unfinished, almost rushed to release. A lot of good ideas not fleshed out. Throughout listening I am constantly reminded of the rift between Lennon and McCartney during this time, and all the signals towards pointing to the band's breakup, and it bums me out. It's still The Beatles, so the song-writing is phenomenal, but overall the double album is bloated and unrefined. It is iconic and important in the history of music, so I cannot dock it too much. The low rating is due to my enjoyment of the album, not necessarily the general quality. I can understand folks loving this album, but I've never been a big fan in comparison to so many other Beatles masterpieces.
Arcade Fire
4/5
It was probably about 10 years ago that I last listened to this album. When it came out in spring 2007, I was a senior in high school and in a production of "Into the Woods". The day the album was released, I booked it from school to Best Buy to purchase the CD, tear it open, pop it into my Walkman which was connected to a wired cassette adaptor in my car, and narrowly make it on time to rehearsal.
It was a formative album for me. Arcade Fire was one of my favorite bands in the time period from Funeral to Reflektor. It was tough to go back to Neon Bible in particular because the time that I associate this with was very tough-- leaving high school, saying goodbye to friends, the uncertainty of where I was going next, the angst I had about everything. Even listening now this album is very dark and has a lot of emotional weight, probably dragged down even deeper by my emotional baggage.
It still holds up. I thought it might end up feeling cheesy (for being overly serious or overproduced, which it is in some places) or even hypocritical (re: Win Butler sexual abuse allegations). Obviously it is hard to appreciate Arcade Fire in the same way as before 2022. "Keep the Car Running" is one of their catchiest songs. "Intervention" still stirs some inner demons in me about being raising Catholic and hating it. "(Antichrist Television Blues)" actually stuck out to me the most on this re-listen-- I don't think I'd ever really listened closely to the lyrics or meaning of this song (written about the manager-father of Jessica and Ashlee Simpson) and it's better than I remembered.
I'll always remember that video of them playing "Neon Bible" in an elevator, and part of the percussion is tearing pages from a phone book. And another personal memory of my friend being way too drunk and needing to hear "No Cars Go" and insisting that the "best part is at the end".
The Beach Boys
3/5
This was my listen the day after Brian Wilson passed. As far as I can tell, he was 99% of The Beach Boys, and their lasting influence would be little to nothing without him at the helm. I listened to the mono cut of this record for him.
I don't know much Beach Boys beyond Pet Sounds, Smile Sessions, and their early singles. This album seems to sit somewhere in a transition from the surfy hits to the lush arrangements of Pet Sounds. Almost like an appetizer to Brian Wilson's masterpiece. For that, it was more of a historical intrigue rather than an inspiring listen for me. It was good, but not something I'd probably seek out again. The stand out track is definitely "She Knows Me Too Well" which feels like it could've been on Pet Sounds.
The final track "Bull Session With 'Big Daddy' #1" seems to serve no purpose except maybe to hit a time quota. Even then, the album is under 30 minutes.
It is also one of the ugliest album covers I've seen. Nothing like a solid brown block taking up a third of the art to really draw the eye in.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
This album is an old favorite of mine, an entry-point into jazz. It is obviously interesting for its non-standard time signatures (the title Time Out even indicating that time is a major motif throughout), most notably its two major songs, "Blue Rondo a la Turk" and "Take Five", in 9/8 and 5/4 respectively. In comparison to other jazz this is not that wild, but from a general audience perspective this is novel. After listening to a lot of jazz over the years, these songs feel "safe" to my ear, but mass appeal is not necessarily a bad thing. And I may be overestimating a general audience's interest and attention span for an album like this.
But I shouldn't worry about what others think. This is a gem in jazz and in music in general. It has that especially "cool" feel between the drums and Paul Desmond's sax. Desmond's distinct sax tone remains my favorite across all artists-- I once heard it described as being like black oil spilling through the reed. The time signatures and Brubeck's piano add just enough spice to give a little edge. Ultimately it feels a little like a distillation of complex ideas and theory into something digestible for wide audiences.
Three of four men in the Dave Brubeck Quartet were white (notable to have an integrated band in 1959), including Brubeck himself. So some may interpret this album as appropriating jazz (and even Balkan music with "Blue Rondo a la Turk"), but it seems to be done with reverence and still adding something novel to the discourse, i.e. not just copying it for profit. I don't doubt that "Take Five" and the album welcomed quite a few people into a world that is often gate-kept.
Ultimately, this is a triumph in taking complex ideas and making them presentable and understandable. This translation is often the most difficult task in the academic/scientific world and is just as difficult in music. The album is, ahem, *timeless*.
Suzanne Vega
2/5
This was a new listen for me, an album and artist I had not heard before. I was really torn on it. Vega is a gifted singer, but I mostly found myself either annoyed by her inflections (like a knock-off Patti Smith) or just bored as her voice did not feel unique to my ear. Her lyrics did not stick with me, and her melodies felt too similar from song to song. The second track, "Freeze Tag" is especially emblematic of her trying to be Hejira-era Joni Mitchell with Pat Metheny but without the interesting jazz motifs and impeccable melodic singing.
I think much could have been saved with different production. Much of the overly-compressed guitar, chorus pedal, and synth felt very dated and cheesy. Mixed with the serious and often-pretentious lyrics, there were times the album felt like parody. I don't think this album aged well, and may have been more enjoyable 40 years ago. I would compare some of the feel to a modern band like Men I Trust, which have very different lo-fi production underneath, and I could see much of the same ideas working in that way (though I concede that Men I Trust may also sound cheesy in 40 years).
I am trying to appreciate this album in the context of its contemporaries, but I just feel very apathetic to it-- didn't love or hate it, and I will probably forget it. After the album finished, "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac auto-played and I was reminded of how interesting the instrumental side can be to back Stevie Nicks' unique and provocative voice. Of course, it may be unfair to compare an album to a masterpiece like Rumours, but that's what this generator is all about, right?
Kate Bush
4/5
This was my first time listening to a full Kate Bush album. I had only ever heard a few of her singles and never thought it was my jam, putting her as something akin to Peter Gabriel.
I was surprised to find I really enjoyed this album, not even from just a technical standpoint. I better understand why so many people, even her peers, are so amazed by her. The range on her voice is absolutely breathtaking. Paired with her meaningful songwriting (I didn't realize she wrote all her own songs) and the eclectic instrumentation, this album is nearly a masterpiece. Sometimes the production is dated but mostly it just seems ahead of its time-- I hear a lot of Bjork and Alanis Morrissette in there.
My favorite song was "Heads We're Dancing" which seems to be about a love affair with Hitler. The title track is based on Molly Bloom's soliloquy which ends Ulysses, absolutely wild that it doesn't feel pretentious but just very honest. Bush is really an amazing artist I've overlooked, and I'll be looking more into her music.
The Smiths
5/5
I hate how much I still love The Smiths, because I dislike Morrissey so much. But now is not the time to talk about him.
There is a lot of personal baggage for me listening to this album. I think of my angsty younger self, and I haven't listened to The Smiths much since a long relationship with someone who loved them. So, I wanted to find issues with this album.
But I can't. It really is a perfect album, never a dull moment. It plays like a greatest hits album. I am partial to Marr's guitar and the production, but Morrissey's singing and lyrics do shine throughout. All the macabre, tongue-in-cheek, pretentious, sulking, playful words that they are. There's nothing more I can add that hasn't already been said.
Ms. Dynamite
2/5
I found this pretty middle-of-the-road and unremarkable. Not bad but not my style. Just sounds like late-90s RnB.
Megadeth
2/5
I think I'm just not a fan of this genre. If I had heard this in high school, I think I would have eaten it up. But thrash metal of this era just all sounds kind of cheesy to me. It's trying to be edgy and fast but it just hasn't aged well from my perspective. I do think that there is a more honest, political (almost punk) message underneath the lyrics in contrast to the superficial hair metal of the time. And I do think the playing is very technically proficient.
The songs that stuck out to me were the title track "Peace Sells" (very recognizable bass intro...) and the last track "My Last Words". The rest of the songs just seemed to kind of blend together to my ear. Maybe it would be different if I relistened, took some time to adapt to it and the genre. But as it stands, this just isn't my thing.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
This is one of the greatest classic rock albums ever and perhaps the Stones' best. But this isn't a 5/5 for me because I think I just don't enjoy the Rolling Stones all that much. While I understand the appeal, Jagger's vocals, especially when he puts on the southern drawl in songs like "Dead Flowers", frequently annoy me or draw me out of the music, they are just too over-the-top in a studio setting. I admit I'm a "Wild Horses" hater, it seems to go on and on. Aside from the organ solo (I assume that's Billy Preston?) on "I Got the Blues", I find it just kind of standard blues. Much of it doesn't feel innovative so much as a re-interpretation of a lot of Americana. I think Exile on Main Street is better, and I enjoy the Kinks' Muswell Hillbillies more.
There are many strengths. "Brown Sugar" has one of the Stones' catchiest and most iconic riffs (putting aside the problematic lyrics...). The timing of the guitar riff in intro of of "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is so tasty, and its extended outro is vibey and awesome. The slide guitar on "Sister Morphine" is so cool. So it's not as if I dislike this album, but I can't seem to rate it perfectly due to my own tastes.
Tracy Chapman
4/5
I was really impressed by the first few tracks on this album-- the intimate singing, the sincere message, the stripped-down production-- but towards the end I found myself getting a bit bored and realizing some of the lyrics weren't as deep as they seemed. "Fast Car" is obviously the pinnacle of this album and is one of the best songs ever written (I wonder if it raises the bar so high that the other songs seem worse than they really are). Without any instrumentation, "Behind the Wall" spotlights Chapman's moving voice. "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution" is just as relevant today as in 1988. "Mountains O' Things" is underrated, love the afrobeat under it.
But some of the songs just didn't hit as hard. I think "She's Got Her Ticket" was my least favorite, with its distracting reggae beat and too much going on. Some songs kind of border on protest-song cliches and platitudes, e.g. "Why?" and "If Not Now...". Songs like "For My Lover" and "Baby Can I Hold You" felt a bit cheesy and didn't do it for me. I do think this album is an important classic and it feels very timeless, even if it's not entirely my thing. I'm hovering between 3-4 stars and will round up.
Fairport Convention
4/5
This was an album and artist I had never heard of, and I found this very interesting. It sits somewhere alongside Jefferson Airplane, earlier Joni Mitchell, traditional folk, psychedelia, and even Velvet Underground. It feels like this should have been a bigger hit or cited more as an influence, or maybe I have just been living under a rock. I can see this potentially turning into a 5/5 after a few listens.
Morrissey
2/5
I just cannot stand Morrissey post-Smiths. This is probably his best solo album, but it just annoys me throughout, with the exception of "Suedehead" which just feels like a subpar Smiths song. Morrissey is one-dimensional, and without Marr to add depth and counterpoint, it's just not good. There are some interesting/risky production choices throughout the album, and for the most part they don't work for me.
Bob Dylan
5/5
What more can be said about this album? It's possibly Dylan's magnum opus. This was written and recorded in such an unbelievably short amount of time for such a dense behemoth of an album.
I think if this were my first time listening, I might find it exhausting, especially the harmonica and unrelenting word play. But it was a formative album for me, one that shaped my guitar playing and how songs can be written. It was good to return to it, and settle into the music, like a cozy Thanksgiving meal. It remains my favorite Dylan album.
Tortoise
4/5
I love Tortoise. I can see how they could be polarizing to new listeners, but give them your time and attention. This is an album you need to just sink into. The opening track "Djed" is one of their best songs, a behemoth that tows the line between krautrock, electronica, minimalism, etc. The album's beats and bass lines are phenomenal throughout, nothing is ever conventional or cliche.
Muddy Waters
2/5
Muddy Waters is an all time great but I just wasn't feeling this album. There wasn't much "edge" to it.
John Lee Hooker
2/5
As to be expected, the guitar playing is phenomenal throughout the album. However I really disliked the production. It has those 1980s drums and chorusy guitar effects, so dated and not befitting John Lee Hooker's vibe which should be more organic or even spooky (thinking like Tom Waits' Mule Variations as a better example of a vibe that could fit). The best song is his duet with Bonnie Raitt, but even then it's a bit off-putting given their difference in age and I don't feel any tension between them, almost like movie actors doing a scene but they are actually not in the same room. Many of the later songs sound the same. I just didn't vibe with this at all, but respect JLH and his playing.
DJ Shadow
4/5
God this was phenomenal, first time hearing it. It's not only extraordinary from a technical standpoint, but also the music itself is great. I just don't understand how this level of sample-based music can be assembled so well. I don't know exactly where this fits in the history of the genre, but it seems to be a leap from 80s and early-90s sampling, and pre-dates people like Madlib, or at least perfects it prior to its peers.
Listening all the way through got tiring in a few spots, as some ideas are jarring or short or disjointed, but other tracks are vibey and atmospheric. I think this could be a 5/5 after some repeated listens (thinking like Madvillain which I didn't completely connect with the first time but is now one of my faves).
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
4/5
What a trip. This is like early "outsider" or "bedroom" music. Weird, lo-fi, messy but ultimately very unique, intimate, and honest. It is interesting as a record of Skip Spence's mental health issues, but it transcends that, because it's actually very good. Whenever you think a song is going to unravel, it just kind of holds together and works. I was never bored, and I'll definitely be re-listening to this for both its instrumentation and to pay more attention to its lyrics.
Lambchop
4/5
This is an album to really slow down and settle into. It's such an interesting mix of Americana-- the polished string arrangements of the 50s, clean and twangy tremolo-ed guitars, clapping as percussion like something out of the Beach Boys, soul guitar and falsetto. There's a lot of vintage influence here, but the vocals lend an indie modernity, and are often "bad" in the sense that limits of his voice feel pushed and it gives unpolished honesty to counterbalance the instrumentation (I often found the crackling falsetto grating and distracting). It sits somewhere around Bill Callahan or Will Oldham or Wilco or Sufjan Stevens or Lana Del Rey. I don't know. I've heard such good things about Lambchop and I wish I'd listened to this about 10 years ago, I would've eaten it up. My tastes have changed a bit, and this isn't so much my style anymore. But I still expect to return to it when that mood strikes.
Earth, Wind & Fire
3/5
First time listening to Earth, Wind & Fire intently. This really slaps. Perhaps it caught me on the right day. I can see it being over the top and cheesy and annoying when not in the mood. It feels like every member is a master of their instrument. The funk falsetto is off the charts. It feels like a time capsule to the 70s soul scene. A lot of fun, though not something I'd always listen to.
Gotan Project
4/5
Something I'd never heard of, and I loved it. Great vibes. Got a big smile from the Zappa cover. It veers a little into that Y2K-era dance thumping in some spots. But overall it was a great listen. It's at the same time modern dance electronica and vintage French new wave and smoky jazz club. I want it on vinyl. It could turn into a 5/5 after some time to sink in.
Talking Heads
3/5
There was a time when I would've said the Talking Heads were my favorite band, undisputed. I still love them. 77 is not my favorite album by them. The songs are great, but I'm not a fan of the production. From what I recall, they had issues with the producer during recording. The guitar are flat and kind of shrill, the energy is off and restrained. Compare to the energy of their CBGB live shows of the time.
The songs are arguably better than their follow-up More Songs About Buildings And Food, but the difference is Brian Eno. Talking Heads became full force under his production and the focus shifting to rhythm. 77 is driven by guitars and Byrne's singing, which is tight and idiosyncratic, but not to the level of peak Talking Heads.
77 hovers somewhere around a 3 or 4, depending on whether you listen to it remastered or not. For some, this will be their favorite Talking Heads album, but for me I connect more with Fear of Music and Remain In Light. While listening to 77 I'm constantly thinking how it can be improved with more eclectic rhythm additions or Adrian Belew guitar effects. It just doesn't feel fully fleshed out to me, but I still like it.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
3/5
I'm not a bonafide RHCP hater. This album is good. Catchy songs, big hits. As with much of their catalog, it suffers from some songs being too similar, or Kiedis being downright annoying. Flea's basslines and Frusciante's feel are fantastic throughout.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
5/5
This was my first listen to Siouxsie and the Banshees, and I can't believe what I was missing. This album is so ahead of its time and it rules. The guitar on every single track is powerful, unique, and innovative. You can feel it at the heart of what came after: The Smiths, R.E.M., Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. "Monitor" especially stands out with a riff that is a decade too early. Siouxsie's vocals sail over everything and can't be tamed. This just makes me want to be a teenager in 1981 and put on my headphones and my eyeliner and forget how much Reaganism sucks.
Eminem
2/5
Oh, so edgy. This brings me back to like 7th grade, and maybe that association just makes me still think this is so childish. It hasn't aged well-- it belongs with the Y2K misogynistic gross-out humor of Jackass, American Pie, Tom Green, etc. Eminem's voice as Slim Shady annoys me, the beats aren't particularly interesting, the skits are a waste of time. All that said, Eminem still has amazing flow, and I can see how some people can enjoy this even for nostalgia's sake, but I just wish the energy wasn't put toward this dated joke concept. This is not my thing.
Wilco
3/5
This is Jeff Tweedy pouring everything out that he has. It's solid alt-country, at times overly melodramatic, with tricks and licks similar to the Rolling Stones in the early 70s. There are some interesting instrumental choices, but mostly it's good old-fashioned Americana and straightforward songwriting. I look at this more as Wilco coming into their own and showing what they've got, rather than breaking any boundaries or doing anything innovative. It's also a bit long. It's not that some songs aren't good enough for release, but I wonder if it could've been split into two records.
Metallica
3/5
I listened to Metallica too much when I was in 8th grade, so I think that's why I have a juvenile association with this album and most of their discography. I've tried several times to sit down with this album, but just can't make it through. It's like it's trying too hard, taking itself too seriously, and I just cringe. I don't feel like this sound has aged well, or maybe I've just heard many of these tracks too many times. It's tough to rate, because it's not as if I hate it or love it. I'm just a bit indifferent. It just seems to lack passion and sincerity, like it was manufactured just for airplay. I don't know enough about the Metallica story to weigh in on them "selling out" when this record was made, but I can see how many argue that this album is mostly pop songs under the guise of metal. I'll rate it in the middle since nostalgia is convincing me to be kind.
Thundercat
4/5
I read a thread once that asked what music Frank Zappa would listen to if he were still alive, and the top answer was Thundercat. I think that's spot on. This album is groovy and weird and funky. "Them Changes" has one of the best basslines ever written. Some songs are short and do not feel fully fleshed out, but I think that adds to how off-kilter much of the album feels. I dig it.
Beatles
3/5
It's The Beatles, it's obviously good. I'm not big on this era of them, but it's better than 99% of the pop music of the time. "All My Loving" is the standout for me, as that always gets in my head for days after hearing it. "Don't Bother Me" is also interesting as a George song. I'm not as interested in the covers like "Please Mister Postman" or "Roll Over Beethoven" but they are certainly good. That's kind of how I feel about the album overall: it's good, but not very remarkable, especially in the context of the Beatles' catalog.
I really disliked the stereo 2009 remaster of this. The hard-panning left and right is absurd and unlistenable with headphones. It wasn't until I found a mono mix on YouTube that I could really sit down and listen to the album in full.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
Ah yes, the Bay Area boys born on the bayou. This is just good, old-fashioned American rock. They evoke the swamp, or at least the stereotypical mythology of it. The greasy clubs, mud, mosquitos, hanging trees branches. Fogerty channels Screaming Jay Hawkins or Howlin Wolf as his growl is completely over the top, and the spooky hoodoo blues works its magic.
"Proud Mary" stands out here as one of the best American rock songs ever, perhaps the quintessential CCR song. The opener "Born On the Bayou" is a banger, sets the tone, and has a great guitar tone and effect. I think "Graveyard Train" lags a bit, and "Good Golly Miss Molly" isn't very interesting as a cover, so it's not as though the album is perfect. "Bootleg", "Penthouse Pauper", and "Keep On Chooglin" are solid blues songs, strong but not exceptional. Good CCR album, but I'd put other albums above it.
The Flaming Lips
4/5
I never got deep into The Flaming Lips. This is my most listened-to and favorite album of theirs. My favorite tracks and parts are actually more the instrumentals-- "Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon" is one of my favorite songs of all time. This is nearly a perfect album. I would fault some of the production on the drums, and some bits are a bit abrasive to my ears. Some production is too busy. Some things get cheesy. Maybe I've heard "Do You Realize?" too many times. The opening tracks and flow are epic. I love this album, but it is imperfect.
Silver Jews
4/5
I have a particular soft spot for Silver Jews. David Berman was as much a poet as lyricist. This is perhaps his darkest work, deep in drug addiction and not far removed from his 2003 suicide attempt. This is not an album for everyone, and only befitting to a certain mood or the right headspace. But it's beautiful, tragic, honest, and brilliant.
The Dandy Warhols
1/5
I couldn't get into this. The Dandy Warhols just sound so fake and inauthentic. Very generic. An American band regurgitating Britpop half a decade too late. BJM won the fight.
Keith Jarrett
5/5
This is an absolute masterpiece, a work of art in its improvisation and spontaneity, capturing a genius at his best. Just sit back and fall into Jarrett's world.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
How much more can I really add to the praises sung about Stevie Wonder? I'm in the camp of people who think he is one of the most talented musicians of all-time, and it would be true even if he could see.
FFF is right at the center of his incredible run of albums in the 70's, at the full force of his creativity and power. It gets a little overshadowed by Innervisions before it and Songs in the Key of Life after it. It doesn't have the same chart hits as the other two, but it is more introspective, slow, and reflective, more of an album you settle into with headphones on rather than play for your friends and dance along to.
Method Man
3/5
I'd say this is good not great, especially when compared to other Wu-Tang solo projects which followed it. It's dark and mostly murky, almost like an extension of 36 Chambers (see callbacks "Mr. Sandman" and "Method Man" (remix)). Overall it just doesn't stand out among the other Wu Tang projects. Many of the instrumentals are similar song to song, and they get a bit repetitive. A few tracks annoyed me, like "All I Need", "Sub Crazy", and "Release Yo Delf". My favorite tracks were "Bring the Pain" and "Meth vs. Chef".
Aretha Franklin
5/5
This is Aretha Franklin in her prime, one of her best records. Some of my favorite "deep" cuts are on this album: "Niki Hoeky" and "Come Back Baby". Listening all the way through, not a single song is weak. It of course has very recognizable tracks like "Chain of Fools" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", but her cover of "People Get Ready" was especially moving. The guitar and studio band are tight throughout. It's a short and nearly perfect album.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
Abattoir Blues = 4/5
Lyre of Orpheus = 2/5
The first half, Abattoir, works much better than Lyre. It is high-energy, and I dig Cave's preachy spoken vocals contrasted with the choir and grand piano behind him, like a dark twist on gospel. It has a big feel, like you can picture the live concert.
Lyre is quieter, more mellow, and dare I say pretentious. Maybe I'm just not in the right mood for it or it needs another listen, but it just kind of feels tacked on to the coattails, like they knew it wouldn't sell well as its own release but they didn't want to throw out the songs. I'm just glad they didn't mix them in since I enjoyed the momentum of Abattoir alone, and Lyre songs would certainly derail it.
Honestly this seems like an odd choice to include on the list. There are better albums in Nick Cave's catalog. Maybe there was recency bias when this was released. It's not bad, but it's not particularly memorable, and I don't think I'll reach for it again any time soon.
Crowded House
1/5
Found this really bland and forgettable. It's diet Lennon-McCartney pop songs. Unless I'm missing something, I'm not sure why this is innovative or deserves to be something I need to hear before I die. It's not offensively bad or anything, it's just too "safe". The production is dated, the lyrics are not clever, and the album cover is ugly.
Fats Domino
3/5
(This was hard to find, but I think I got the correct track list. There was a lot of confusion and mislabeling with the similarly-titled This Is Fats!)
I really enjoyed this, just great oldies RnB. It seems Fats Domino gets forgotten alongside players like Ray Charles or Little Richard. I'm not knowledgeable enough to say if it's because he wasn't as pioneering as those two, but he was very good. The best song on this album is "Blue Monday" (not New Order), and I also had "Honey Chile" stuck in my head.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
3/5
Contains some of Neil Young's best-written and most lyrically rich songs, such as "Pocahontas" and "Powderfinger". I just wish this weren't a live album that was overdubbed. Tracks like "Thrasher" have that ugly acoustic-electric guitar sound that just takes me out of it. The first half which is basically all acoustic, could have been better with more polished studio work. The second half is more raw and electric, but the recording quality is still flawed, a little flat. The album progresses in chaos from the gentle acoustic version of "Hey Hey My My (Out of the Blue)" to the absurdly gritty version "(Into the Black)", which is interesting. I understand the raw and improvisational sound throughout is probably what was intended, but I just can't help but wonder how much better some songs could have been as studio recordings.
Incubus
3/5
"Drive" makes me feel like I'm 12 years old again. I never got into Incubus outside their singles when I was younger, so this is effectively my first time hearing them. I was pleasantly surprised in the first few tracks, then the songs just became rather repetitive, formulaic. A better sound than a lot of nu-metal but a bit generic and mainstream after a while. Overall I'd say this is middle-of-the-road and dated to Y2K.
Black Sabbath
4/5
God, I can't imagine hearing this for the first time back in 1970. As has been said, metal may not have been invented by Black Sabbath, but it surely wasn't invented after them.
In this debut, they still cling to a lot of blues roots, but the heavy riffs are still prominent, a foretelling of things to come. This album is more Zeppelin-like than, for example, what they'd evolve to by Master of Reality, which is more doom metal.
Where I'd say the album is not that great is in the longer pieces. I really dislike the wide panning vocals in the "Behind the Wall of Sleep", and it drags a bit on, with the bass section before "N.I.B." (where "N.I.B." is maybe the best part of the album) just feeling like filler. The same "filler" happens in the last medley. Although Iommi's guitar licks there are amazing, and Page-like, they are not as musical or melodic as some of his other work, and it just comes across as noodling or showing off. Still, the album as a whole is ground-breaking and pioneering, still fresh over 50 years later.
Shuggie Otis
4/5
I have utmost respect for artists that can do it all, like Shuggie and Stevie Wonder and Prince. This album is pure chill and funk, but it is not quite perfect. While I think of lot of it was intentional style, I think I would have preferred more "organic" feel on some tracks. In particular, I wasn't completely on board with the drum machine, and it seemed like because Shuggie was overdubbing, some rhythm feels a bit sterile, whereas it would have had more soul with a full band. Still, the songs and there composition are outstanding, and many production choices are interesting and innovative even if they don't completely land. I see myself relistening to this quite a bit.
Black Sabbath
3/5
This is coked-out Sabbath, much faster tempos and slicker guitar playing than the albums preceding this. It foretells more of the hair metal genre than the doom metal in Master of Reality, with exceptions. The strongest songs are "Supernaut" and "Snowblind" back to back. I'm just not a big fan of "Changes" or especially "Laguna Sunrise" which draw the album to a halt and just feel like time filler, though I know a lot of people especially like "Changes". Overall the riffs and songs just aren't as strong as the albums preceding it, and I wonder how much they were burned out by this point, considering this was the fourth album in two years.
Iron Maiden
3/5
I can't say this was really to my taste, but I found it more enjoyable than other 80s metal I've listened to. The guitar is a bit more raw and melodic, and it has opportunities to breathe. The vocals are cheesy, but in some places remind me of the rawness of Rory Gallagher, weirdly enough, and it kind of works. "Phantom of the Opera" is an especially interesting track, kind of a classical feel with a bit of Brian May in the solo. I thought "Running Free" was the standout track, and I also liked some of the Pink Floyd feel of "Strange World". I think ultimately I get really worn out after about 15 mins of metal, so this album just started to drag and feel repetitive for me after a while. Much of it feels like "standard" metal of the period, with some shining moments. This is something I probably wouldn't listen to again, but it's not bad.
The Jam
4/5
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It's a mix of new wave and punk, kind of The Clash meets Mod-era The Who: the singing is similar to Joe Strummer, and there are full downstrokes of guitar reminiscent of Pete Townsend. A really fun record with many strong songs, I'm surprised I'd never heard it.
Michael Jackson
2/5
It's so hard to separate the music from the artist, especially on an album where he's proclaiming he's bad. I tried, but I can't separate Jackson's pedophilia and mental illness from this, when, not to mention "Bad", songs like "Man in the Mirror" draws attention to him changing himself, "Smooth Criminal" describes a predatory criminal, and all the sentimental, innocent-sounding lyrics are just plain insincere and unbelievable.
This is Jackson trying to adopt a heavier, more-dangerous attitude, perhaps a reflection of his own real inner demons. Yet it doesn't even feel sincere. Most of the album is over-polished with over-produced synth, which maybe was cutting edge then but now sounds a bit goofy. The worst culprit is "Just Good Friends" with Stevie Wonder, a shame. I found "Dirty Diana" misogynistic and "Liberian Girl" interesting but ultimately annoying.
This album is undoubtedly important and influential. I admit I'm not a fan of most 80's pop music and this sound which carried into the 90's. I bet it also influenced other pop artists who came to reject their initial clean image and adopt a bad facade later in their career when they started to become irrelevant and needed attention again. Overall, I'd say the songwriting is really good here-- many of the hits are super catchy and timeless melodies-- but the production is too busy and dated. And of course, Jackson's child molestation and mental illness hangs over it all.
My Bloody Valentine
5/5
When Brian Eno calls one of your songs the sound of the future, then you know it's good.
What more can be said of Loveless? It's the most important album of shoegaze and has influenced hundreds, maybe thousands, of bands. It's still fresh even after 30 years. One of the best albums ever.
The Beach Boys
4/5
This really blindsided me. It's a big change from conventional Beach Boys sound, which doesn't completely work. It feels a bit insincere, as if they're trying to get with the times and grow out of their niche, but there are growing pains. It's an inconsistent and flawed record, but it is interesting. My favorite part was the last 3 tracks ("A Day in the Life of a Tree", "Til I Die", "Surf's Up") which are actually all the Brian Wilson-written songs on the record. I guess that goes to show that when I say I like the Beach Boys, I'm really saying I like Brian Wilson.
I think the rest of the album needs to sink in for me, and will get better with re-listening. It sits around a 3 or 4 for me after one listen, so I will round up with the expectation it will grow on me.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
"This is just a tree of life. This record is the watering hole." -Tom Waits
It really is the Stones' masterclass of Americana. A culmination and anthology of all the rock-n-roll, blues, gospel, and outlaw country that existed up to 1972. They didn't invent the genre, but it's ironic a bunch of white boys from England could perfect it. Yet it still has their own brand on it; it is still distinctly the Stones.
Even as a double album, there aren't really any weak or skippable tracks. It doesn't feel bloated, just a massive pouring out of creativity and ideas. The recording history is interesting, and I think how it was recorded in pieces, in different places, under turmoil and disagreement and drug-addled tension, just adds to the outlaw and raw character that persists throughout. It really is a quintessential rock record and just about as good as it gets.
Coldplay
1/5
I was surprised to see this on the list, but I gave it an honest listen. It's truly the musical equivalent of white bread or a Hallmark movie. Bland, inoffensive, formulaic. It's like adult contemporary pretending to be indie. It certainly was popular and influential, but I cringe at all the bands like The Fray and Owl City which Coldplay spawned. I acknowledge I'm a hipster.
Chris Martin pretends to be Jeff Buckley or sometimes Dave Matthews, but he truly is a great singer and I can understand why he's captured the hearts of so many middle-aged moms worldwide. The lyrics are all so cliche and boring and melodramatic and sugarcoated. The album doesn't flow song-to-song. I will admit there was nostalgia over "Yellow" and "Don't Panic", and I'll embrace them as guilty pleasures. But "Yellow" doesn't even seem to fit within the rest of the album. "Shiver" was also kind of an interesting song but I'm already forgetting it after a few songs. It's really all just so forgettable.
The Saints
4/5
This is a hidden gem. I was surprised by the horns at first, worried this was going to be some kind of proto-ska, but they don't dominate throughout. The album is just filled with really solid punk fused with 50s rock-n-roll. Some songs feel like they could just be by The Stooges or MC5, more Detroit punk than British. I think this must get lost in the saturation of great punk records around 1978, but it should be more in the discussion. Rating 4/5 for now, but I could see this moving to a 5/5 after some relistens.
The Dictators
2/5
This is the type of music I would enjoy and write when I was 16. A lot of satire and intentionally edgy lyrics. I get big Beastie Boys energy from this. It's like you're at a house party and these guys are playing in the basement and there's only so much time before the cops show up. I would say some of "Back to Africa" is a bit insensitive, and I panicked when the next song was called "Master Race Rock", but it is all tongue-in-cheek. I guess the shock is the point.
The album is interesting and important from a historic standpoint, but I didn't find it a particularly enjoyable listen. The guitar is especially interesting for 1975, but just not my thing. I liked the energy though, and I respect it.
Pixies
4/5
It can be argued that Bossanova is just as good, and maybe better, than Surfer Rosa or Doolittle. It's kind of an inevitable synthesis of the two, but more focused, more calculated. A little prettier but still not mainstream. None of the songs really have the common melodic structure or hooks for widespread appeal, but they are all quality. It's got the usual balance between cacophony and harmony that the Pixies were masters at. It leans toward some old school surf or rock-n-roll motifs a la Chris Isaak or Echo and the Bunnymen. Like a darker extension of "Here Comes Your Man" with a little sci-fi mixed in. It's hard to describe, but it's still fresh 35 years later.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
The MVP of this album is John Paul Jones. It incorporates more acoustic arrangements and folk instruments than I and II. To me it marks a pivot and expansion in Zeppelin's sound from just a great hard rock band into one of the best bands of all time. The songs are creative, more complex, and more daring. But there are still hard rockers, "Immigrant Song" being iconic and "Out on the Tiles" being underrated. "Since I've Been Loving You" is the epic peak of the album. That said, I'm not a fan of "Tangerine" and "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper". The latter especially just kind of annoys me, though I commend them for trying something different.
Rod Stewart
2/5
I found this to be pretty vanilla. Rod Stewart obviously has an iconic voice, but I feel like if you've heard him once you've heard all of his songs. None of these really stood out or have stayed with me after listening. I suppose there's a certain "honesty" in his music: no frills, just good ol' soft rock country feels. Ronnie Wood's guitar parts are good, but predictable and kind of bland. It's all well done, but nothing novel or surprising to my ears.
Also, the mix on YT Music seems to not be very good, even through my good headphones. Stewart's vocals sound very quiet on most tracks, when really they should be star of the show. Not sure if this is a YT thing or if that is how it was originally mixed, but it made it less pleasurable to listen to.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
This is a musical time capsule. All the dirty psych rock of the 60s embodied in a single album. The (artificial) crowd noise really lifts this album out of the studio, and it makes you feel like you're out in the field tripping balls with the rest of them. Like you're a part of something bigger.
Joplin's vocals are obviously at their height here, in all their wild, weird, impassioned force. It does get a bit exhausting after a while-- e.g. I'm not sure if I like the cover of "Summertime" or if I'm just a bit annoyed. Either way, I respect it. But what I did not expect was the insane guitar tone through the album. So many delicious fuzzy riffs and dimed amps. It's not the best from a technical sense, but the emotional force is there (case in point: "Ball and Chain").
R. Crumb album artwork: 5/5 stars.
Sarah Vaughan
3/5
I'm not the biggest fan of Sarah Vaughan. She is very gifted technically and an important singer but I've never found her voice and inflection to be that pleasing to my ears.
Germs
3/5
Even though hardcore punk isn't my thing, this is good. The rhythm section is really tight throughout. The vocals snarl and spit and are incomprehensible. It's cool, but hard to listen to for long periods, especially when so many songs sound similar. There are some differentiating songs-- I liked the ringing guitars in "Strange Notes" and the slower intro to "Manimal". The closer "Shut Down" is probably the most interesting track at 9 mins and with an improvised section. Overall it's a good album, but not my taste, and I don't think I'll return to it.
The White Stripes
4/5
This is my favorite White Stripes album. I guess it's kind of the inflection point between their lofi garage sound and their more full and fleshed out sound when Elephant blew up. The chemistry between Jack and Meg is unbelievable. The songwriting is fantastic-- simple ideas over classic progressions that just work and feel timeless. It's essential listening.
SZA
3/5
I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this. It's not overly polished or produced like so much pop/R&B is these days. The autotune is there, but it is not over-used. It is mostly just chill, woozy tracks with SZA upfront in kind of conversational singing with rap inflections or even jazz harmonies. Whether intentional or just natural for her.
Of course, there are the usual pop cliches and refrains, e.g. "Drew Barrymore" is a standard pop song that producers put some strings and a seasick hook under, but it's definitely catchy. Overall this is a great album, but it's still pop, still mass-produced. However it does feel more honest, more gritty than many other productions, and it feels cohesive as an album rather than just a series of disconnected singles. The album drags for me a bit in the second half as some songs start to sound the same. I liked the beginning of the album: "Supermodel" to "Love Galore" to "Doves in the Wind", and "Garden (Say It Like Dat)" to "Broken Clocks" is another high point.
The Sabres Of Paradise
4/5
This is straight off of Uncle Fester's party mix. Bordering on cheesy and almost novelty in some spots, it really is just a lot of fun. It fits an evening walk/run as summer turns to fall. There are some remnants of the 90's techno scene and some repetition drags on if you are just sitting and listening, but it would be fun to play at a Halloween party to see how others react. I found the hooks to be mostly chill, spooky, and engaging, and many of similar vibe but different enough that not everything felt the same. Standout track is probably "Wilmot" which goes into an ethnic scale mixed with tango or salsa that sways between old world heat and industrial electronica. Really interesting fusions throughout. I'll definitely listen again.
Sisters Of Mercy
2/5
This made me feel like I was stuck in the movie Donnie Darko. I grew pretty tired of listening after a while, especially the production on the drums which sounded so 80's throughout and nearly the exact same tempo every song. It overall was too dated and sounded cheesy. The vocals sounded like wannabe David Bowie from his Berlin days, but about 8+ years too late. The over-the-top goth rock just didn't really do it for me.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
3/5
Good vibes. Feels grittier, less polished, darker, than expected. Many songs are similar and blend together, though I suppose that really just comes with the territory. It was a good listen but not much stood out to me.
k.d. lang
2/5
What I gleaned from this is that k.d. lang is an extremely talented musician but that I don't particularly enjoy her music. This album is very cabaret but with spatterings of country and Americana. I can't say it was bad, but just a bit milquetoast and most of the songs blended together so that as I write not much stood out. I'm not sure why this warrants a place on the list.
Goldfrapp
2/5
This isn't bad, but I'm not really seeing why this warrants a place on the list. It's pretty, but most songs a kind of boring. Kind of wannabe Kate Bush but without the substance. After a while, it just felt like a series of downtempo lullabies. Most songs seem to follow the structure of slow, soft opening to crescendo of drums or strings by the end. I don't think I connected with it in the same way others might. Most songs kind of blended together. I thought "A&E" stood out as something that could top adult contemporary radio-- not my style but at least it broke the mold of the rest of the songs. I thought "Caravan Girl" was the most fleshed out song, and I'm surprised it wasn't put closer to the top of the album to break out of the downtempo lull (or, it could have even been extended as the album's closing song to end with a bang, mirroring how every individual song seems to crescendo). A lot of good small ideas throughout but it didn't come together well.
Beck
3/5
This is a good example of how my tastes have changed. Twenty years ago this would've been a 5/5 from me. Now, it is still good, but not to the extent I remembered. A lot of moody heartbreak songs without much depth. Surface-level orchestration and blips and bloops throughout to cover mostly cliche lyrics and Beck's singing which is inconsistent song to song. Often it sounds like he has cotton balls in his cheeks, like distracting intentional mumbling-- "Sunday Sun" is a good example of this. Overall it just doesn't come together well enough for me. The standout song for me is "Round the Bend" which evokes Nick Drake. Most songs don't know whether they want to be organic or electronic and the blend doesn't quite work. I admire that Beck is trying something different here though.
Jacques Brel
3/5
This is a great instance of why I'm this generator-- to find music I haven't heard and maybe wouldn't have found on my own. It was fun to learn more about this style of songs (chansons) and to read all about Jacques Brel's interesting life. The music itself, though not my style, was interesting and his performance breath-taking. It would be much different seeing the power of voice live. Very old-world and operatic, like a classically trained singer at the height of his craft. As pretentious as it sounds, I'd like to get his music on vinyl since I think it will sound good with the warmth and crackling.
4/5
I recently watched the Netflix documentary (2025) on Devo, so I was excited to have this come up as I think I underrated Devo for a long time. This album was really fun, like Talking Heads meets Kraftwerk and surf rock, kind of. The standout track to me is "Gut Feeling / (Slap Your Mammy)" but I was continually impressed throughout. The rhythm section in their cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is wild. The simple composition but energy in "Uncontrollable Urge" is great. There isn't really a bad track, though the peaks of the songs aren't really as good as compared to, say, Talking Heads' albums of the same time.
We can only wonder what this album would've sounded like if Brian Eno had been allowed more control in the studio. It's wild that anyone would restrict Eno so much, but I suppose he didn't have the same credentials that he has now. I respect Devo sticking to their vision of their songs and putting out what they wanted.
Lana Del Rey
3/5
I like Lana Del Rey, but this album is so similar to the sound of Norman Fucking Rockwell. Everything it does, Norman Fucking Rockwell does better. Not bad, but I don't understand how it's novel enough to make this list.
De La Soul
5/5
When De La Soul's music finally became more widely-available streaming/digitally a few years ago, I ate this album up. I don't know a ton about the history of hip-hop, but I know this album stands as one of the most important, and it is still fresh. However, it still suffers from the skit and filler tracks of the time, though they aren't as annoying as others, and there are places when the album could have been trimmed as it is quite long. But the high points overshadow them. I can't say much that hasn't already been said about this album-- it's a masterpiece. Pretty much all the "major" tracks are bangers and would easily be on a best-of: "(3 Is) The Magic Number", "Change in Speak", "Ghetto Thang", "Eye Know", "Tread Water", "Potholes in My Lawn", "Say No Go", "Buddy", "Me Myself and I". So, some fat could be trimmed around these, but I'll overlook it.
Radiohead
4/5
Whereas Kid A and Amnesiac are cerebral, Hail To the Thief is physical. It is more immediate, more raw, though I wouldn't describe it as guitar driven or entirely a rock album. It's kind of an ongoing clash between guitar driven rock and electronic synthy atmospheric aspects.
A lot of folks complain about the length. It's long, but it's not an absolute deal-breaker. I do think it could have been trimmed to give a more focused sound or theme. But I think the length and variety of songs convey a sense of chaos or frustration that sits at the core to many of these songs. Likewise, it's described as a political album. I really think that's exaggerated-- yes, the Bush-era protests and reactions are there, but they sit backseat to the musical ideas.
Overall, it's a behemoth, like a Thanksgiving meal of sound. It's not Radiohead's best album, but their bar is so high that it is comparatively a far better album than nearly all music of its time. I'm glad I spent time with this album as it had long been my least favorite Radiohead, and a close listen was worthwhile. My favorite tracks: "Sail To the Moon", "Where I End And You Begin", "There, There", "A Punch Up At a Wedding", "Myxomatosis".
Paul McCartney
3/5
I'm a little conflicted how to rate this. It's a bit uneven, but has lots of good ideas, almost sounds like a bunch of demos rather than a finished project. It really feels like McCartney is just pouring out every idea he can to get past a tough time, clearing house post-Beatles. It's something that probably wouldn't have been released by a new or unestablished artist, but because it's Paul he could do what he wanted. There are strong pop songs like "Every Night" and the timeless "Maybe I'm Amazed". Some songs just feel like he's testing genres without much depth (e.g. "Hot As Sun / Glasses"). The track that surprised me most was "Momma Miss America" since it's the kind of cool instrumental stuff I enjoy from a lot of contemporary bands. In all, the peaks are high, but there are skippable tracks that don't do much for me.
The Doors
4/5
I never had a "Doors phase" like a lot of my friends did, but I usually enjoy The Doors when they come up. Divisive opinions on Jim Morrison, whether he was over or underrated, don't really concern me too much. All I know is that his voice fits well with the other musicians around him and that's what matters. Everyone is really at the top of their games on this album, but I really want to call out Robby Krieger's guitar work which stands out on a lot of songs. However Ray Manzarek appears to be the best musician in The Doors, as usual. I just really wish they had a dedicated bass player since the bottom end often feels empty on many songs, but I suppose that is just part of their sound.
There is a high energy throughout (the tone is set by "Changeling" right away), almost feeling like a live album with a sense of improv. It has a few all-time classic rock songs ("Love Her Madly", "L.A. Woman", "Riders on the Storm") and solid dirty blues ("Been Down So Long", "Crawling King Snake"). It's really a solid album which transports you back to dawn of the 70s.
Queen Latifah
2/5
I'm appreciative of a strong female voice in hip-hop but a lot of these songs just sound like average hip-hop songs of the time. Unfortunately a lot of the rapping wasn't that impressive. A lot of songs sound the same and formulaic, and if you like that sound then that's good, but to me it just makes it kind of boring. The standout track is "Ladies First" which has that classic sax hook over the break beat. The voice modulation in "Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children" is one of the most annoying things I've heard in a song, and ruins an otherwise solid track featuring De La Soul. There is also some reggae mixed in, e.g. "The Pros" or "Princess of the Possee", which gives a break to the similar jazz-over-breakbeat songs, but they didn't quite do it for me, and it goes on too long. Overall, I think this probably hit differently in 1989 but it didn't quite hold up.
The Zutons
2/5
This is fine, but it's another album where I'm not sure why it's novel enough to warrant a place on this list. It really just shows the English bias of the author. The album is basically a hodgepodge of classic rock and pop ripoffs and references, and my brain goes crazy going "oh that sounds like this and it's almost the same as this and oh that's just like this". There's just so much stuffed in and gets tiring. It's not especially enjoyable to me but I can see this band having a cult following and live shows being fun. There was a resurgence of old school rock in 2004, and I can see this sound kind of being an antithesis to that, the nerdier version of bands like the White Stripes or Strokes, more akin to Frank Zappa but without the generational talent.
Nick Drake
5/5
This is Nick Drake's magnum opus, most full and well-rounded work. His minimal voice and guitar are well complemented by the string arrangements and full band in some songs. It's one of my favorites, I've heard it dozens of times, and it hasn't gotten old. I'm glad I got it in September; it's a perfect listen as summer transitions to fall. It's one of the best albums ever.
The Mamas & The Papas
3/5
The standout here is obviously "California Dreamin", which remains one of the best songs of the 60s. I also thought "Somebody Groovy" was great. But outside of that, I just didn't find much that was too interesting to latch onto. The harmonies are solid, the instrumentation polished, but ultimately it sounds just like a lot of the California pop of the time mixed in with some staples of British invasion. Of course The Mamas and the Papas were crucial to the counterculture movement, but I don't know if this album as whole is representative of that.
Buck Owens
4/5
I'm not much of a country fan but my god this album slapped me in the face with its swelling pedal steels, its stabbing Telecaster twang, and Buck Owens' voice soaring above it all. It's quintessential honky tonk Bakersfield sound by way of rock n' roll and Appalachia. It knows what it wants to be and what it wants to say and it does it well. I hate that modern pop country has turned into a bastardization of this.
Jeff Buckley
4/5
There's a quote about Jeff Buckley that's something like, "he has the voice of both an angel and the devil." Truly, it's one of the best natural voices ever in pop/rock music. It's tragic this was his only album and we could never hear him age, perhaps turning gravely or wiser or more nuanced.
Buckley falls into one of those paradoxes where he's so hyped up that people think he's overrated and in turn he is underrated. Let's take him for what he is-- a generational talent that made a really good album, Grace.
It's not totally my style of music, so I'm trying to remain objective. His performance and range are out of this world. The songs are sometimes a bit generic or cheesy, with dated production on the drums and dry guitars that remind me of typical 90s adult contemporary. I also found that sometimes his voice was a bit quiet in the mix, though perhaps it's a stylistic choice to showcase more of his dynamic range? Also, the album felt quite long, but I'm not really sure what would warrant being cut. Some songs just seem to drag and follow a similar formula.
Jeff Buckley's voice is certainly something you need to hear before you die.
The xx
4/5
I'm really glad this album held up as it was one of my favorites when it came out. Cool, dreamy, minimal, and lush. The maxed out surfy reverb guitar paints over everything with simple hooks or long chords. The beats are minimal and synthetic to balance it. The lyrics are understated and mumbled like shoegaze, and the male-female interplay keeps interest ever when words get a bit cliche.
I don't think it's perfect though. The biggest gripe is how front-loaded it is. The "hits" (e.g. "VCR", "Crystalised", "Islands") are all in a row in the first half. Then the second half is much more mellow, lacking the energy or upbeat of the first half. In fact, I'd say the second half kind of slogs, and doesn't build to much. I do think that kind of split is okay in some albums, but it works better when there is more distinction in the style or theme (for example, Bowie's "Low"). Here it just kind of feels like all the bangers got pushed forward and the filler got left behind, and the track order is unbalanced.
Dead Kennedys
3/5
This is obviously essential punk-listening. Its message is legendary and instrumentation is tight and angry, a West coast style that is more like the English Sex Pistols than the East Coast Ramones. I wouldn't say it's not necessarily a "new" sound in 1980, but it is well done and would certainly resonate. This seems like something I would have loved when younger but I never got into DKs because I'm just not a fan of Jello Biafra's voice. The way it kind of falsettos and sometimes warbles (see "California Uber Alles", which is maybe the most memorable song), it's kind of annoying or goofy.
Fred Neil
4/5
This is one of those albums that is probably more fun to learn about than it is to sit down to listen to. I had never heard of Fred Neil nor his royalty amongst the Greenwich Village beat crowd. His voice is deep and rich and powerful, I could imagine it being a show-stopper in those NY bars. The songs are all well-written, not really a weak one here. "Everybody's Talkin'" is clearly the most recognizable due to Harry Nilsson's cover, which is superior to the original. The song that stuck with me most was "That's the Bag I'm In", and "Cynicrustpetefredjohn Raga" was an extremely interesting ending track considering this predates the Summer of Love and Beatles psychedelia, etc. This sits around a 3.5 for me, but I'm rounding up to 4 due to Neil's impact and influence.
James Taylor
2/5
My mother is a vehement James Taylor fan, and I heard him while growing up. I never got into him, so I was excited to sit and listen and see if my taste changed in 30+ years.
I just don't get it. While Taylor is an extremely gifted singer and songwriter, I just think this is the safest and most inoffensive music possible. That is, it's completely milquetoast, bland, etc. If it were food, I'd eat it and it would fill me up, but I'd be reaching for salt or hot sauce just to feel something. It would be a food served at the old folks home, which the boring suburban elite can eat up between their reruns and not worry about black pepper being too spicy.
Perhaps this is too harsh, but it's just disappointing there is absolute no spice or edge here. Disappointing because of the backstory of Taylor being "essentially homeless" and broke when recording and due to his immense talent, so there could have really been deeper messages on capitalism (maybe indirectly with "Suite for 20 G") or loneliness or perseverance, etc. Some spice slips through in "Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip On Me" or "Country Road", and "Fire and Rain" is indeed an excellent song. But overwhelmingly this is a white guy distilling folk, gospel, blues for a mass audience, with standard boring production.
Sorry, mom.
Björk
5/5
Bjork leaves me speechless. Her music is a smorgasbord of sound and influence and creativity. I eat it up like a maniac.
She could sing the clothing tag on my T-shirt and make it interesting. Her phrasing and dynamics and range are just so nonstandard, it's often a controlled explosion. It stretches and morphs, but never strays too far into absurdity or avant-garde. When things get weird, we are grounded by the beat. It is infinitely danceable yet intimate.
What stops this album from being perfect is some of the production on the beats and synth. It comes through as distinctly 90's, rather than timeless. In some ways it does add to the quirkiness though, and nowadays I'd say it's more "retro" than cliche or goofy. A lot of this sound is circling back to being in vogue again, and I could see people getting down with many of these songs at a 2025 party.
Debut is not quite as good as Post in terms of overall strength, but it has similar high peaks and is a preview of a sound that is perfected and extended in Post. It's maybe a 4 or 4.5 but I'm rounding up because I freaking love it and I know I'm going to go on a Bjork binge after this.
Teenage Fanclub
4/5
I'm surprised I'd never heard this, and I'm a bit torn on it. I absolutely love the guitar work. The tone of the interplaying guitars throughout is sublime-- just above the edge of breakup, snarly and jagged yet lush and clear. It straddles somewhere between 70s power pop like Big Star and some 80s noise rock influences like Dinosaur Jr or maybe Sonic Youth.
It's just an interesting clash between the overdriven guitars and absolutely clean singing and pop song composition. It reminds me of 2000s-ish Wilco, like maybe Summerteeth era. It reminds me of something but is hard to pinpoint.
I don't know if it's really my thing, but it's well done. To be honest, the song structures and tempos are very similar throughout, and the singing becomes kind of a slog. I kept hearing those guitars and wanting things to pick up. There was a slow tension but the release didn't really come. Ultimately, I loved the instrumentation and production, but I didn't find the songs or lyrics that interesting.
This is sitting in between a 3 and 4, and I'll round up because I think it might grow on me and may be one of those albums I appreciate more in a different mood.
Holger Czukay
3/5
This is one of those albums that I liked but I assume the global reviews will be low, or at least be polarizing. Weird and quirky but funky and catchy. I also like Can (but don't know their later albums), and there are some similarities, but this feels like an extension of them into a new era of music. I like the sampling, and some of the guitar fills are actually sublime. It's bursting with creative ideas, but it is a bit uneven to listen to all the way through. Overall I need to hear this a few more times to adapt to it, but it will probably rise in rating over time.
The Offspring
4/5
This was one of the first CDs I owned, so it is impossible for me to be objective here. I had a great nostalgia trip listening through this again. It is one of the best and most important pop punk albums, helped define a sound for the 90s-00s, and is The Offspring's best album. There isn't much that is innovative or breathtaking on this album, but it's just catchy pop song after catchy pop song, infinitely sing-a-long-able. Many songs follow the same formula, and Dexter's voice is probably grating to a lot of people, but it just reminds me of my own 7th-grade voice singing and shouting along to it.
I'm not a trendy asshole, I don't give a fuck if it's good enough for you,
'Cause I am alive
Gene Clark
5/5
"He put everything into that... everything. Heart, soul, money, everything he had he poured into that thing because it was going to be his reclamation, and when they killed it, it killed him."
The history of this album is as interesting as the music itself. It truly is a lost masterpiece. I'd never heard this until it came up here on the generator, and I had to listen to it again because I enjoyed it so much.
All the songs here are rich and bursting with creativity. It is a feast of Americana, gospel, rich harmonic choral structures, lofty classical orchestration, some funky bass lines like Sly Stone, some soaring guitar work like David Gilmour, and deep lyrics of religion and virtuosic struggle like Stevie Wonder. It seemingly has a little of everything, both a melting pot of existing American musical styles and a stepping stone from a softer folk age to a more complex and electronic era.
It is an absolute shame that Clark didn't receive the praise for this album that he deserved while he was alive. Fuck David Geffen, fuck Asylum Records. This is one of the best albums of the 1970s.
Van Morrison
4/5
There isn't really much more I can add to the discourse on this album, it's one of the best and most important ever made.
It's not one of my personal favorites. I don't find Van Morrison's voice all the pleasurable, but I can objectively say his performance is masterful. The expansive freedom and spontaneity of the instrumentation throughout is great, but there are few spots where I don't know if the string arrangements were needed.
But this album really seems to be one of those flashes in pan, where everything came together just right in recording and all the artistry outpoured all at once. It's still fresh today.
Parliament
4/5
This album is a real hang out. Such good vibes. There is a certain simplicity to the groove throughout, but anything looks easy when a master is doing it. The MVPs on this album are Bootsy Collins holding down that backbone and Bernie Worrell adding the color with all the wild, spacey synth work. Of course, the vocals on top are like a party aboard a spaceship. It's iconic in its Afrofuturism and unapologetic weirdness and freedom. It's not perfect, some songs slog on after a while, perhaps it's better in an actual party setting or under the influence. But it's really a journey you can sink into and slow down with, more of an astral road trip where a schedule or destination is not a factor.
LCD Soundsystem
5/5
When I was younger and more outgoing, a local bar called Rocky's had a dancefloor upstairs where all the hipsters would hang out on Saturday nights. Small, always with too many people stuffed in and no AC in the summer, the place was suffocating and claustrophobic. At 2 AM closing time, without fail, the looping piano of "All My Friends" began, and everyone jumped along, inevitably without any actual rhythm or synchronization due to the mess of drunkeness permeating the place. For its nearly 8 minutes, everyone shouted along with the song, "WHERE ARE YOUR FRIENDS TONIIIGHT", screaming into the faces of both friends and strangers, the floor throbbing up and down. The lights slowly went up, revealing people standing on the bar, arms on shoulders. A mess of sweat and stink crescendoed and then faded into the night, LCD Soundsystem our candle leading us to bed.
So I have good memories of this album, it's one of my favorites of all time. The sound is ultimately very derivative-- ripping off 1980s dance and electronica and new wave, musicians like New Order and Talking Heads and David Bowie. But it's more of a synthesis of these styles into something greater, and it stands as a pinnacle in the genre. It's both synthetic in its electronica and organic in its live instrumentation and raw vocals. A genre I see this under is "dance-punk" and I guess it captures the sentiment pretty well.
I don't know if this is a perfect album. Many of the tracks are similar, the album is a bit long, and sitting through it starts to drag on-- perhaps I should have stood up and moved with it. James Murphy's voice isn't always my favorite, but it's raw and honest. I do feel this album will stand the test of time and be a classic for decades. For its impact and pure enjoyment of listening, it's a 5 in my book.
Public Enemy
5/5
Raw, visceral, unrelenting for an entire hour. The interplay between the beats, samples, scratches, Chuck D's verses, and Flav's hype is all controlled chaos, proof that music is organized noise. Its political and cultural statements still resonate today-- sadly, this is a testament that not enough has changed, and because of this it's both a powerful time capsule and a prophecy for modern times. That is to say, it's timeless despite its distinct 1980s sound. It's one that should be required listening for every single human.
YEEAHHHHH BOOOIIIIII
Can
4/5
The sound is hard to describe on this album, especially in relation to Can's other albums. It's more open and fresh, more sunny. It doesn't rock or stay grounded in the same way as Tago Mago or Ege Bamyasi. It's lighter, more tropical, or happy. Like recognizable music that's been stripped down and then built up again in a way that's just a little uncanny. I can't put my finger on it, and I guess that's the fun of it.
I'm not a fan of how the vocals are mixed in most tracks. It's obviously intentional how quiet or incomprehensible they are most of the time, but I just think it could've worked better. Some tracks just seem like unfinished ideas that were patched together. The ideas are great, but just don't seem totally fleshed out. This results in a feeling that there isn't a "point" or "objective" to the album, but rather it's more chaotic and kind of wanders forward without getting anywhere. The drums reflect this forward motion. Perhaps the point is that there is no point, who the fuck knows.
CHIC
3/5
This is a Nile Rodgers masterclass. He's one of the best to ever do it, and alongside Bernard Edwards, they're one of the best pairs to ever do it. Their respective guitar and bass interplay across this album is tight, seems like they never miss a note or beat.
As technically savvy as they are, I'm not a big fan of the song structures and lyrics. It's disco. Most songs are similar, have cliched lyrics, feature cheesy string arrangements, and are a bit long so everyone can keep dancing. It's better than nearly all disco I've heard, but it's still not my thing unless I'm in a rare mood. Stand out songs are "Le Freak", "Happy Man", and "I Want Your Love", while the rest are a bit forgettable. Rodgers/Edwards are 5-star players, but the songs are 2-star.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Bright, snappy pop production (Nick Lowe baby) on the surface, with dark, political lyrics underneath. This album is immediate and dense, with a Phil Spector wall of sound feeling, a barrage of things going on and added in. I'm getting similarities to ABBA, Beach Boys, The Clash (London Calling came out the same year), Bob Dylan ("Sunday's Best" is like a bad impression), Tom Petty, 60's Motown, and new wave. In fact this is almost the pop counterpoint to London Calling. I see a lot of 00's indie rock drawing inspiration from this album.
The melodic compositions are so good, but I just can't help but wonder about the political lyrics which are so on-the-nose. Does Costello really believe what he is singing, or is it just to add depth to his music, or to show that he is the cleverest person in the room? I can't judge him for his intentions since I don't know them, but it sometimes comes across as pretentious and contrived. Still, the fascist and imperialistic messages are actually still relevant today in 2025.
There's so much stuffed into every song. It borderlines on too much, should we take a breath? It can be overwhelming. I'm wavering between 3 and 4 rating, but I think this will get better with repeated listens, as there is so much there for your ears to sift through and to appreciate each layer.
**Special shout-out to the "accident" in "Chemistry Class". https://alt.fan.elvis-costello.narkive.com/5Wn6LShD/chemistry-class-skip
Ananda Shankar
3/5
I'm a bit torn on this, since the covers come off as quite gimmicky, yet they are technically well done. I just feel that "Jumpin Jack Flash" especially is just the original song, with a sitar as Jagger and some extra cosmic synth added. It's not bad, but I don't feel like it's adding anything to the discussion except check-out-how-good-of-a-sitar-player-I-am. I just feel like the Stones and Doors covers here are cashing in on a trend, and the soul isn't there. Then again, I can understand that these are here to attract Western pop/rock listeners. Again, I'm torn.
I enjoyed the original compositions and traditional arrangements more. I thought "Metamorphosis" was the highlight of the first side. "Sagar (The Ocean)" dominates the second side with its length and seems pretty simple at its core, but actually has some breathing room and takes its time while most of the other tracks don't. My favorite track was actually the last, "Raghupati" with its catchy and beautiful chant and fade out. I would've liked to see this lengthened to close out the album.
Venom
3/5
I actually enjoyed this more than other metal offerings so far through the generator. The lyrics are all playfully over-the-top Satanist, like a parody. I don't think Venom wants you to take them too seriously. I'm sure Reaganism parents will agree, right? The guitar playing is impressive throughout, though I'm not a huge fan of the sound. It's very woofy and boomy, like the wrong microphone was used either for it or the bass.
But I really need to take, like, a graduate-level course in metal music. I do not understand the distinctions between all the subgenres and the evolution of one to another or how to tell whether a band or album is "good" or not. I suppose I have not listened to enough yet to hear the differences. This album apparently began "black metal" most prominent in Norway, but is not really the same, and it's linked to extreme metal and thrash metal and speed metal, etc. etc. Overall, I enjoyed this, but the songs all just started to sound the same after a while, and I probably won't listen again.
The Beach Boys
5/5
What can I say that hasn't already been said about Pet Sounds? It's a true masterpiece, as important for the history of music as it is pleasurable to listen to. It's still fresh today. Et cetera.
Also, it may have the biggest discrepancy between the musical quality and the cover art. Goats, green, and yellow. Don't judge a record by its cover.
The Fall
3/5
I liked this album until I didn't-- it kind of dragged on with the same one-trick pony. The guitars are groovy and old school and have simple hooks, and the vibes verge on dark and gothic. Chaos is introduced by way of the vocals, which are loud and unhinged, except they continually just repeat the song title over and over in multiple songs. The album is just too long without a lot of change in formula or tempo. It's a good sound but starts to slog on.
Paul McCartney and Wings
2/5
This begins with the big bombastic showman numbers "Band On the Run" and "Jet" but falls off after that. The title track is a catchy medley, but has always felt like just a stitching together of good ideas, which makes it feel rushed rather than fleshed out. A lot of Paul's songs are this way for me-- he is one of the best-ever pop and melody writers, but he's never been the greatest lyricist or one to have emotional weight (that's where he was complemented well by other Beatles). That's kind of how I felt throughout this album, that there are lots of good ideas here, but they feel hacked together or not fully realized or are more about show than content. The fragmented and stilted feel could be because he is recording so many overdubs himself, having only Linda and Denny Laine with him rather than a full band to get a live, organic sound.
"Jet" feels like an Elton John song and is fun but doesn't have much substance. I also feel like it is a bit overproduced or overdubbed. Songs like "Bluebird" and "Mamunia" (and even "Band On the Run" itself which is reprised in a couple songs) fall into a repetition of singing the title over and over and become rather annoying. "Let Me Roll It" has a great guitar riff but just sounds so much like a John song, I can't believe it wasn't intentional. "Picasso's Last Words" I got into and grooved with, but it again fell into the Paul-medley problem, which is that once you start sinking into the song it changes, like we have some kind of attention-deficit disorder and can't be trusted to stick to something for longer than a minute.
Overall it just falls into this problem of feeling stitched together or rushed. I can understand many liking it, but the sound is not for me.
Prince
4/5
This album is Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic, and Devo chewed up and spat out through a computer. Some kind of funky nuclear fallout orgy. It really blindsided me, the unapologetic processed drum loops and artificial synth contrasted against the hot funk and animalistic sexual tension. Technology vs. human nature, destruction vs. love.
The whole album is danceable, not really a dull track. I don't really know Prince outside his big hits, so it's reassuring to see he is just as talented in his big hits as smaller tracks. "Little Red Corvette" is certainly the massive track here, but the album's sound is better reflected in hits "1999" or "Delirious". Less famous tracks that stood out to me are "Lady Cab Driver" (sick bass and great guitar in the breakdown), "Automatic" (though it could be trimmed), "Let's Pretend We're Married" (with the lyrics "I sincerely wanna fuck the taste out of your mouth" then confessing his love of God a minute later).
Where this album suffers is its length. The middle of the album is "Let's Pretend We're Married" (>7 mins), then "DMSR" (>8 mins), and "Automatic" (>9 mins). I'm not saying every track should be 3-minute-radio-friendly pop song, but the album really starts to drag on with these drawn out tracks. "Let's Pretend" is great as an extended track, but I don't know if the other two need to be so long. "Free" has a good message and is well-executed, but its composition is a bit cheesy and doesn't fit well among the drum machine laden tracks. This is all to say, there are a few places where this album could use trimming, maybe bring it to under 50 mins or at most an hour.
Neil Young
3/5
It took me a second listen before acclimating to it. It's so "off" on the first listen-- you notice all the mistakes, off-key singing, things that wouldn't normally be there in a professional recording. But this off-kilter approach lends a certain edge, darkness, intimacy, grief, unsettling feeling. Something's wrong. And this darkness pervades the entire album.
Kendrick Lamar
5/5
This is an album where I can't say add anything to the discourse that hasn't already been said. A modern masterpiece from the instant it was released. The cultural impact, the social message, Kendrick's technical skill and flow, the beats and arrangements. It's a behemoth of hip hop that will be praised for generations.
Björk
4/5
One of the stranger albums in the Bjork catalog, this isn't exactly a pop album that you blast and sing along to in the car (but you could). It's an achievement in testing the human voice's limits as an instrument and (I say this pretentiously) a force of nature. Creatively, it's an example of how limiting your tools (to primarily vocals in this instance) can produce profound results.
The album is at once unsettling, unique, weird, but it is still grounded and familiar, somehow-- I guess the word here is "primal". Some tracks feel like medieval Latin choral arrangements from another universe (or maybe just Iceland), some like pure pop songs with Bjork's usual electronic twist, some like what you might expect to hear as you march to a seance circle in the woods, or to the gallows, or as Charon picks you up in their boat and you sail through the River Styx. It will make you smile in its quirky choices, make you wonder how they achieved certain sounds, and make you cry in its wailing passion. This is not my favorite album, but truly something to hear before you die.
Iron Maiden
2/5
Continuing on from my previous '80s heavy metal album, I still haven't understood the genre, still haven't taken any lessons in its history, still don't understand its critical appeal, etc.
This was okay, better than other metal offerings so far. Both singles "The Number of the Beast" and "Run to the Hills" were good, full of energy, tightly played, etc. I understand the technical skills needed to play guitar and keep time and wail, but... it is still always cheesy to me. I constantly think that Spinal Tap hit the nail on the head for the genre, and this album isn't silly enough to get into it from a playful or satirical angle. It's not bad, but not my style.
Drive-By Truckers
2/5
I understand the huge concept and epic scope behind this, but the album is far too long. It really drags. I feel as though I'm being hit on the head over and over with the same message. That is to say, it is heavy-handed, and the constant cliched soapboxing makes me feel like I'm being lectured rather listening to a piece of art. I would contend that the best artists take big ideas and condense them into digestible packages or intimate portraits. It's not easy to be Neil Young.
The underlying sound is okay-- the guitars sound dirty and massive, but it is just too similar song to song. I'm not a fan of the inflection of the singer. Sometimes it almost feels like parody, or like he's trying too hard. I couldn't get into it.
It's kind of a one-trick pony extended an hour too long. I can see people enjoying this, but it didn't grip me, and I ended up skipping through a lot of the second half just hoping for something different.
Fugees
4/5
Ironically I'm struggling to determine The Score for this. This is sitting somewhere between a 4 and 5, but I'm hesitant to give it a perfect score. Overall, I just didn't feel the final "punch" to bump this to a 5, i.e. I don't think I totally resonate with it.
This album is still fresh. This is one you can still put on for a summer drive or doing chores, etc. Where it is not perfect are some of the lackluster verses, some of the hooks being a bit too similar or plain, and overall just not hitting home the social message that peeks through every now and then. I cannot say for certain, but it feels as though the social commentary is either dialed back or is just disingenuous. I also really hate the skits on 90's hip hop albums, and luckily there is only one here that really annoys me, at the end of "The Beast".
Where the album excels is in vibes and in Lauryn Hill smoking everyone else throughout. The cover "Killing Me Softly With His Song" is a showcase for her, but kind of doesn't fit with the rest of the songs. Her verses on both "Zealots" and "The Beast" are some of the best ever. I still respect it being a 5 for many people.
Metallica
3/5
Overall this album feels pretty bloated, with every song over 5 minutes long, and most are filled with riffs and shifting tempos. The compositions are mostly interesting, but it's so tiring to sit through one after another.
On top of this, the mixing is really terrible. Infamously, this is the album without bass. More than that, I hate the sound of the drums throughout. They have this weird small clicky sound that is borderline annoying. What is it with Metallica and their drum mixing woes? It's like there is no reverb or room tone, and the whole production sounds really flat, no "pop" or air to breathe.
"One" really is a masterpiece and is the standout on this album. Otherwise, most songs are good but similar, and I just felt really tired as the long songs slogged on. Maybe it's just my personal preference. It just seems like Metallica is better for radio, in isolated singles, rather than sitting through over an hour of terribly mixed tracks that overstay their welcome.
Spiritualized
3/5
A really good album, but one that I didn't resonate with as much as I expected. It's early dream pop, gentle shoegaze, every song a crescendo into the air. I guess that's where I kind of struggle with it-- each song has a similar formula of ascending to something, but it never really reaches a goal. The sonic textures are clean and simple, but what are we building towards? Each track feels like the introduction of something else or the opening tracks to an epic album, but it's like that for an hour. There seems to be a lot of space-filling (and maybe that's all the goal is) but with it seeming to build, and then nothing coming, it's like being musically teased over and over.
That said, it's a nice album to turn the lights off and sink into for a while. Put on your noise-cancelling headphones and turn it up to hear all the layers of instruments. I just felt it missed the opportunity to rise to the next step of releasing the tension that builds throughout.
Common
4/5
This is my favorite Common album. It's a full course meal of hip hop, full of amazing beats and samples, socially conscious and philosophical and self-reflective lyrics, positivity mixed with dark realism, etc. Is it too ambitious though? Sometimes Common does seem up his own ass, maybe trying too hard.
But the production throughout is outstanding-- shout out to J Dilla. I love the samples from funk and Afrobeat, like Fela Kuti and Parliament and James Brown. It all lends a certain organic chaos and movement. This is all balanced by the spoken-word tracks and parts which come back down and command your attention.
Orange Juice
3/5
Coolest album cover ever?
This album started so strong with the opening title track. Definitely wasn't expecting that saxophone. Clean funk guitar riff with dripping fun keyboards and a straightforward beat, a la much new wave of the time.
The next track "A Million Pleading Faces" goes to Africa and is good, but feels a bit orthogonal from the first track. Then this is following with "Mud In Your Eye" which is like an old soul R&B ballad featuring a bunch of white guys. So only three tracks in, I'm not sure what to expect next.
"Turn Away" is really interesting as it takes an orchestral opening and spins it into a bluesy riff, then into new wave Afro-inspired chorus, and I'm totally lost but liking it at the same time. I get some Berlin Bowie vibes mixed with 80s Talking Heads here.
"Breakfast Time" is somewhere between a reggae and creepy circus music and even what sounds like a gypsy scale, while "I Can't Help Myself" could have been pulled from Stop Making Sense with its Bernie Worrell-like synth fills.
"Flesh Of My Flesh" and "Louise Louise" have similar vibes as "Mud In Your Eye", but the former has more disco or late 70s flare and the later is rooted more in 60s pop.
"Hokoyo" goes back to "A Million Pleading Faces" by switching singers and its Afrobeat influence. It is cool but this and the other feel completely out of place. Then we close out with "Tenterhook" which is another soft ballad overlaid with weird industrial synths and keyboards like what I'd hear in Earthbound.
I write all this to say, the musical influences are all over the place. It's like the kitchen sink was thrown at all of these songs, and it sometimes works, but it sometimes feels incoherent or too unfocused. Overall I'm not a fan of the yawning crooning singing style of the main vocalist. There's too much whiplash from song-to-song. I rate it a bit high just for their ambition and willingness to take risks and because it definitely felt unique. It may grow on me in a few listens, but at the moment I don't feel compelled to return to it.
Booker T. & The MG's
4/5
This is will never not be cool. Obviously "Green Onions" is one of the most iconic songs ever made, but I love the whole album. The grit on Steve Cropper's Telecaster is something that just can't seem to be replicated. Has there ever been a band that is so tight? The key here is really the simplicity-- not doing too much, serving the song, making something that is bigger than its parts. Nothing is re-invented here, but it's just master session musicians at their peaks.
The Smiths
4/5
This is not quite the jingly jangly pop Smiths from earlier albums. This has a certain dark weight, a foreboding turn to the horizon, a grappling with fate. But it is still distinctly the Smiths with Morrissey's usual poetic lyrics and elevated delivery, and Marr's furious guitars and lush compositions.
The haunting musical scope is felt especially in "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" and "Death of a Disco Dancer", especially its outro. Yet we still get shorter sing-a-longable songs like "Girlfriend in a Coma" and "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before". My least favorite track is "Unhappy Birthday", where Marr's instrumentation is great but Morrissey's lyrics almost sound like a parody of himself. In general, the second half of the album is weaker than the first. Sonically, I would say that this is Marr and The Smiths at their best, but Morrissey's lyrics aren't always his best-- an example of this is "Paint a Vulgar Picture" which kind of plods along for over 5 minutes.
It's argued that this is the best Smiths album, that they finished their career with their best. While some songs are their best, the album start to finish was not as strong. It's certainly not as iconic or recognizable as The Queen Is Dead. It actually feels more like a transitory album, as if they stayed together it would mark a transition to darker soundscapes. But of course, this just marks the transition away from the band, a separation and unfolding.
UB40
3/5
This is a difficult album to rate because I respect the intention and message, but mostly I find the music a bit tepid and uninteresting. I am trying to remain unbiased because I don't usually like reggae. This album exemplifies why that is: each song is a bit too similar, as if it must adhere to the formula. There is no breaking free here, and in that way it often feels a bit dispassionate despite the bite in their political lyrics. Each song has nearly the same beat at the same BPM, similar dub bass line, nearly the same melody and method of vocal delivery.
I'm largely impressed after reading their backstory, that they effectively learned to play their instruments with each other and practiced these songs for years before recording in what were very self-made environments. This album sounds very professional and not overly produced, and the band is tight throughout. But all of it is too similar. After a few tracks you can pretty much say you've heard the whole thing. If you really love the reggae sound, then that's a good thing for you, but it's not for me.
Santana
5/5
No one sounds like Santana. I always think of his story at Woodstock, where he hallucinated the headstock of his guitar as a snake which he had to fight off. This actually reflects his playing style pretty well-- it's like a wild animal he is constantly trying to tame and control, and sometimes the guitar bites and screams before he can bring it back.
This album is perhaps their best as a full band concept too, a sweeping epic of Latin soundscapes, from the gentle opening of "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts", to the bluesy twists of "Black Magic Woman", to the danceable grooves of "Oye Como Va", to the anger and grit of "Se a Cabo", to the melodic masterpiece "Samba Pa Ti". I don't think any track is skippable here. It's one of my favorite albums alongside their debut, which is arguably even better.
Emmylou Harris
1/5
Overall I felt like the production was trying to do too much. Most songs were well-written folk/country songs, perhaps a little too full of themselves, and Harris is a good singer, but the songs just weren't distinct enough to get much from them. The production just felt kind of try-hard, as if to attempt a spin to make it novel or contemporary, but it just distracted and didn't fit. I found myself skipping around through tracks. I could see why people like this, but it felt like some safe pop country music trying to disguise itself.
Kate Bush
5/5
This knocked my socks off. I suspected this album was far more than "Running Up That Hill", but I had not truly understood until experiencing it. This is one of the best first listens I've had.
Every track is an eclectic feast of sound, never uninteresting or conventional. Yet it works, in what is both pop and avant-garde. It feels like a folksy celebration of humanity and also a reflection on modern despair and disillusionment. I don't know, it makes me want to wax poetic and laugh and cry all at once.
The pure vocal range and emotion in Bush's voice, both stunning and weird all at once, maybe only rivaled by someone like Bjork after her. Pair that with the songwriting which is powerful and never cliche. And on top layer sonic choices that are sometimes windy Irish folk sounds, sometimes 80s glitching synth or electric strings, sometimes the deep droning of Eberhard Weber, sometimes a bright stinging piano, sometimes choral wails and chirps, sometimes the sounds of wind and storms and everyday people, and on and on. It all somehow comes to together for something coherent and not even overproduced, just amazing and breathtaking. I'll be listening to this again and again.
Michael Jackson
4/5
Another Michael Jackson record that is brilliant in isolation, but so difficult to rate because I cannot separate the music from the man and his actions. So much now feels inauthentic in retrospect.
I am not a disco fan, but this is as good as it gets. An evolution from his Motown work into the infinitely danceable and confident songs, this really is a masterclass in pop under the thumb of Quincy Jones. It is reminiscent of the growth of someone like Stevie Wonder (who wrote "I Can't Help It" and it really just sounds like a cover), and some of the sounds even feel derivative of him.
It all really feels like a climax of the disco sound, and once this was done, nothing more could really be added that wasn't already done. But it also extends into funk and R&B that is still fresh and not a retelling of disco mania. Jackson's voice and now-cliche vocal fills are really what help elevate this beyond a well-produced album into something iconic.
It's a 5-star for the first half, then gets weaker. The cover of "Girlfriend" is a bit plain; "She's Out of My Life" is good but feels dated and really slows down the momentum; "I Can't Help It" would have been better in Stevie Wonder's hands; and "It's the Falling in Love" feels dated.
Leonard Cohen
3/5
I like Leonard Cohen, both his music and his poetry. I remember crying when he died, and this album as a consolation to that time. It really is his final testament, his confrontation with death, his goodbye.
There is a depth in Cohen's voice which is both powerful and frail. The spoken word may even be said to be creepy or frightening, like death itself. The lyrics themselves are not quite Cohen's best in my view, but they are concise and on the nose, appropriate for the message of this album. The surrounding string arrangements and choral singers and upright bass add an even dark layer underneath. There isn't anything too weird or unexpected in all of this, but I wouldn't call it cliche, just clear and compact like a masterful songwriter with nothing left to prove.
William Orbit
2/5
This was enjoyable, but I didn't get much out of it. It's possible I don't have the ear for different genres within electronic music, but this just feels like that kind of lazy formulaic electronica where there is a slow build and a beat is put under some world music influences and mix in some spoken word here and there. It's not bad, just sounds cliche quite often, and doesn't veer from this formula much at all. At over an hour long, I found myself zoning it out and kind of relegating it to "background music".
Prince
5/5
Reading up on the origins of this album and all its incredible songs, it's unbelievable that so many different projects could come together in this and not be a total mess. Instead, it's just an explosion of ideas and creativity. It's relentless and energetic. Although some of the production is very 80's, it's still fresh and danceable and even weird in some places. By weird I mean unpredictable, especially in its pitch-shifted vocals and background additions and shifting styles song to song.
It's really a masterpiece in both content and execution. This has convinced me that Prince is indeed the GOAT multi-instrumentalist. The fact that he worked so quickly means that he could hear the music in his head and his immense talent allowed him lay it down exactly how he wanted without needing to convey it to a band. It effectively seems like he could constantly stay a step ahead of everyone else and experiment along the way and pour out his creativity upon the tape. I doubt there will ever be anyone like him, surely not as great as him.
This is a clear 5/5. It's a behemoth double album, but doesn't feel that long. A reviewer described it as Prince's "White Album" but it's better than that.
Eagles
2/5
I'm not an Eagles fan. *insert Big Lebowski joke here*. It's not so much I hate them as I just can't take them seriously. This was cemented even more after Documentary Now spoofed the Eagles and similar California bands with Blue Jean Committee and the making of "Catalina Breeze".
It's well-made, but so safe and predictable and pretty boring. It's at one time astonishing that the Eagles are one of the best-selling bands of all time (their Greatest Hits sits at #1 and this album at #4), and at the same time not so surprising that this would appeal to some many people and be so easily marketable.
I don't even have too much to say or criticize here, as I just feel so indifferent to it. Maybe it's that I've heard "Hotel California" too many times or that all the slower songs sound the same. "Life in the Fast Lane" is the highlight for me-- that Walsh riff is really fun. I also just feel apathetic to this kind of commentary on California. It's one note. We get it.
So it's not as if this is bad or insulting, just uninteresting.
Skunk Anansie
2/5
This is a band that had not reached my American ears until now. It fits in that angry nu metal or hard rock genre that is distinctly Y2K, but the black feminist lyrics actually have feeling and meaning behind them. The American analog to this sound would be Evanescence, but with politics and social meaning.
Does it work? Not for me. I find it extremely grating or annoying, though maybe that's the point. There is something about the production where the vocals sound too polished, too sterile, disconnected from the rest of the band. It's like a bad Bjork impression. I can envision this all being a lot of fun live, but it falls kind of flat over my headphones. All of it slides off my ears, like so much barrages you that nothing really sinks in.
I appreciate the risks involved here, that it is trying to be unique, and it has a lot of interesting choices. But it just doesn't work for me, and I won't seek it out again.
Julian Cope
3/5
This seems to be one of those albums where the artist and story behind it are more interesting than the album itself. Cope's life as a best-selling archaeology writer, a once LSD-burnout, a survivor of the 1966 Aberfan disaster, and a musician constantly on the periphery of international breakout and bumping shoulders with famous musicians lends him to a certain mythology and air of self-importance. This album was made in the aftermath of the Poll Tax Riots which he participated and was photographed in, and he expounds on his anti-police and anti-Thatcher sentiments, his rejection of religion, his reflections on the occult, and some pseudo-scientific and spiritual reckonings on humanity's relationship to Earth and nature. It is all over the place, and feels like an unorganized dump of ideas and sentiments that sound important when you're high and the main character, but aren't as profound to an outsider looking in. All of this stuff lines up with him calling John Sinclair's Guitar Army his holy book while making this album.
Perhaps the above is a bit harsh. Its jumble of ideas is not necessarily bad. What comes to mind is that it is "Pynchon-esque"-- a whirlwind of hippie counterculture reflected on and reinterpreted, with many threads of story and style that the listener gets lost in. It's long (75 mins) and a bit dense (not as dense as Gravity's Rainbow and surely not as well-researched) in the sense that so much is going on and so many sounds and styles are colliding. Perhaps some Zappa is there too, at least in sentiment and wah pedal, i.e. without the virtuosic compositions.
There are quite a few styles and song structures here; it never is boring. I think the most memorable song is "Soldier Blue" which actually has this kind of pop funk flavor to it. Most of it is blues-inspired psychedelia and pop rock with uninspiring droll vocals over top which range between bored Nick Cave and bog standard Britrock inflections. This is all to say, I wasn't a fan of his singing but enjoyed most of the instrumentals.
Overall, I just found little to latch onto, but I respect the scope and daring in ideas. I expect this is an album that needs more than one listen to really sink in.
4/5
Brothers and sisters, are you ready for the revolution? The unrelenting energy and raw power of Detroit rock? It's messy, it's polemic, it's imperfect, but it's powerful, primal, and will kick you on your ass.
This live album marks perhaps the origins of punk, and is a staple of the hard rock counterculture rooted in blues and psychedelia. On the surface the message is political, which dates it to distinctly late 60s and early 70s messaging, but its guitars, its force of sound, is about ten years ahead of its time, and still as loud and in your face today as in 1969.
The message is not deep. This is not the hippie movement of peace and flowers. This is a war for change, a screaming plea for people to rise up together against the oppressors, a message relevant to Vietnam, to Reaganism, to 9/11-era warmongering, to Trump fascism. It's at once a sad reminder that 65 years later the revolution still has not come, but also an anthem for progress yet to be made.
Paul Simon
5/5
This is music that transports you somewhere else. To South Africa, to the French Quarter, to the backroads of middle America, to all around the world. It's Paul Simon in some of his most masterful songwriting, supported by the sounds of the world. Yes, this is an overly purple way of describing the album, but it's one of my favorites and most-replayed of all time. It's pop music and folk songs you can dance to and sing along to and cry to.
However, we should not forget that this album was made in South Africa with South African musicians during apartheid. Controversy arises in that Simon broke the cultural boycott against apartheid, and he does not address the injustice of apartheid directly in Graceland's songs. I cannot speak for Simon's intentions nor those against him. I can say that the legacy of Graceland is that its popularity at least indirectly gave attention to anti-apartheid causes, and it cast the music and culture of native South Africans in a positive light. That is to say, although Simon may have been short-sighted in his privilege and although Graceland isn't directly a protest album, it is a celebration and bridge between cultures. I recognize that I may be short-sighted myself, but I see it not as a colonial appropriation of music so much as it is an integration and synthesis.
The biggest hit, "You Can Call Me Al" is perhaps the outlier on the album and my least favorite (maybe I've heard too much). I don't like that Linda Ronstadt sings on "Under African Skies"-- this should have been a spotlight for a South African singer. I think Graceland shines brightest in tracks like "I Know What I Know" and "Gumboots" or later on "That Was Your Mother" and "All Around the World". The title track "Graceland" is a classic in Paul Simon songwriting. The a capella track "Homeless" is one of the most beautiful tracks ever laid down.
So, despite its flaws, this album is a masterpiece. I hope its controversies will allow us to never forget and never repeat the injustices of apartheid, and I hope its triumphs will allow us, especially new listeners, to continue to celebrate the native music of Africa.
MGMT
3/5
"Time To Pretend" was my party anthem at the start of college, in particular the original recording from 2005. Perhaps I've become an old man, because I had a bit of a headache after listening to the whole album. Part of it is the production which is an absolute wall of sound. The drums sound clipped in nearly every track. It's a glut of pop electronica, and mixed with some of the falsetto harmonies, it's like an ice pick chipping away at my brain.
But nothing is meant to be subtle here. It's an album for partying, especially with millennial indie classics like "Electric Feel" and "Kids". The lesser tracks shift into some weirdness, sometimes like a Flaming Lips knockoff (see "Weekend Wars" or "The Handshake") or an Animal Collective cover band ("4th Dimensional Transition" or "Future Reflections") or even an annoying Daniel Johnston impersonation ("Pieces of What"). These songs aren't bad, but my god the production is so overblown everywhere. There is no space to breathe.
As a whole, it's more like a collection of singles than a cohesive whole. Better to listen to these songs in isolation than all the way through. Party on.
Neu!
4/5
This album feels a bit diffracted-- it is a heterogenous mix of soft and hard songs. You can tell the difference between a Rother track and a Dinger track. The opening track of the first side, "Isi", is distinctly Rother, a lush bon-voyage into the land of kosmiche Musik. The opening track of the second side, "Hero", is distinctly Dinger, a proto-punk spitting anthem that pulses along into the night.
It's a pretty even split along the two sides of the album. In my opinion, Dinger's side, with more energy, may have been better first. I especially think that "Leb' wohl" which closes the first side is much better as a closer for the whole album. I'm reminded of Bowie's formula in Low, where the more straightforward pop or energetic tracks are first, and the more avant-garde tracks are second, and I think that formula could've worked well here. Overall, I would argue that the album just doesn't flow optimally, or doesn't feel as cohesive.
However the tracks on their own as masterful and definitive works in German rock (is "krautrock" offensive? I've never been sure, and don't like to say it). Tight, pulsating drums mixed with soaring and sprawling guitars and keyboards, often with incomprehensible lyrics that growl and spit. The influence of this album is obvious, from Bowie to Eno to Iggy Pop to punk and post-punk to electronica. It's essential listening.
Sonic Youth
5/5
Daydream Nation is the embodiment of the sprawl. It's a long album that verges on improvisation, with unapologetic vocals and fast searing overdriven guitars and long winding instrumentals and repeated musical motifs sprinkled throughout. Its lyrics capture youthful 80s disillusionment with its mix of science fiction allusions and surrealist themes. In this way it feels almost apocalyptic, a death by a thousand cuts.
So much has already been praised about this album it's hard to add much of anything unique to the discourse. I will say, Sonic Youth is a band I never got into very much when younger. I didn't see the appeal, didn't have the patience I guess for the longer songs. After listening closely due to this generator, I got it. I went back and listened again. Yeah, it's great.
OutKast
4/5
Stankonia is undoubtedly one of the best hip hop albums ever made, but its age is showing. I have a soft spot for this album with it being one of the first hip hop albums I listened to, when it first came out. But it was hard to get through the whole thing. All the interludes and skits that were endemic to rap albums in the 90s are at their worst here, interrupting the flow and not providing anything of value and all around are mostly just embarrassing. It's a waste, and the album could be about 15 minutes shorter and be perfect.
*BREAK*
The songs themselves are some of the catchiest ever-- "Gasoline Dreams", "So Fresh, So Clean", "Ms. Jackson", "B.O.B.". They are P-Funk, Prince, Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, Daft Punk, all filtered through a rave in the Deep South. Andre and Big Boi complement each other as one of, if not the best, rap duos ever. The bones of this album are masterful, fun and profound and unhinged. But there is so much extra fluff and fat that can be cut.
Stereo MC's
1/5
This just sounds like that really cliche pop electronica popular in the 90s, where there is a fusion of jazz and world music over a breakbeat. This one is particularly British, with some Caribbean affectation in the voice, like Snow meets Moby. Every song sounds like the same gimmick and it's forgettable.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
This is an album that needs to be heard with full attention more than once, as evidenced in the bad reviews it got when released vs. the critical praise it receives now. This exists in a sort of transitional period in Mitchell's career, away from the folk singer songwriter prior to Court and Spark to the jazz pop fusions fully realized on Hejira.
I think it takes a keen ear to pick up on what Mitchell is doing in some of these songs, since her voice seems to attune so naturally to chord changes and melodies that bob along. Her tapestry of lyrics are as if you combined Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen with singing abilities of Ella Fitzgerald. So you get poetic social commentary on culture, male-dominated society, individuality, fine art, and loneliness in modern life, all underpinned by jazz stylings and even some African drums and rhythms which predate Peter Gabriel or Paul Simon or the Talking Heads.
Where this album falters is not in what's there, but what's missing. All of these songs are strong, but could have been elevated even more with the right backing musicians. I'm thinking of the energy in the live recordings of Shadows and Light, which feature jazz legends Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Don Alias, Michael Brecker, and Lyle Mays. That is to say, Hissing of Summer Lawns does not have the improvisational edge that many jazz recordings do, and it feels more like pop musicians playing jazz rather than the other way around. The songs are intricate and complex, but planned and contrived. There are a quite few adept session players in these sessions, including Larry Carlton and Victor Feldman, but overall something is a bit flat compared to the cohesiveness and spontaneity that you can hear in true jazz bands.
Nevertheless, this is one of Mitchell's best and a must-listen.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
This album exudes the sounds of the late 60s, as counterculture turned from peace and love to guns and riots. As a popular multiracial band, the very existence of Sly & The Family Stone is a progressive statement, and this album very obviously promotes cultural and racial unity in both its lyrics and its blend of black and white musical genres-- soul, funk, and psychedelic rock.
This unfortunately dates the album, and I get a bit sad realizing how little we learned from this social movement and how little we've changed as a society since then. But this means the protest songs and messages are still relevant. Unfortunately much of the production is really dated; I'm thinking of "Somebody's Watching You" as an example of a song which is great in ideas but its execution just kind of annoys me. Some tracks drag on too long or a bit sloppy, but overall it's a collection of classic songs with energy and passion.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
There are a few things to note first-- Stevie Wonder recorded this as he turned 23 years-old, and this was his SIXTEENTH album. Granted many of those early Motown recordings do not take the same time commitment or level of energy as later or modern albums. But I point this out to say that Wonder's life from a very young age was and is music. He's more than a practiced professional; this is a master at the height of his craft. He may even be called a genius savant in that he plays nears every instrument on every track on this album. Oh, and by the way, he's doing all this while blind. Let that all sink in for a moment.
Even if Stevie Wonder didn't make any albums after this, Innervisions would cement him as one of the greatest musicians ever. But he did go on, and this still stands as one of his best, and it's probably a top ten album for me.
In contrast to something like Songs in the Key of Life, which is sprawling, reverent, and contemplative, Innervisions is tight, compact, and explosive. It's beautiful fusion of soul, gospel, funk, and rock all filtered through Wonder's piano and clavinet.
I can't imagine hearing the beautiful warble of "Too High" in 1973, like Thundercat transported himself 50 years back. The rest of the first side is delicate in "Visions", gutting in "Living For the City, groovy in "Golden Lady. Side two is optimistic in "Higher Ground", provoking in "Jesus Children of America, breathtaking in "All in Love Is Fair", playful in "Don't You Worry Bout a Thing", and tongue-in-cheek in "He's Misstra Know-It-All". All of these songs make a sum greater than their parts, and their influences are obvious throughout the history of pop, even in some of the greatest artists in Prince and Michael Jackson. They would not exist without Stevie Wonder.
Tim Buckley
2/5
I wanted to love this, I even laid down on my bed in a dark room to give it my full attention and sink into it. But it lulled me to sleep.
So after listening again while awake, I recognize it's certainly a slow burn, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it seems these songs just kind of meander toward no particular place. Five of the six songs are over 5 minutes, and two of them are over 10 minutes. It's not as if the tracks are epic compositions, just long, drawn out folk songs sprinkled with vibraphone and light jazz ideas and other sounds. The are gentle and roll along like a car on a coastal highway with no particular destination.
Many of the tracks have good ideas that either don't feel fully realized or are not well-executed. "Strange Feelin'" is just the rhythm and chord change of Miles Davis' "All Blues" for over 7 minutes without much change. "Buzzin' Fly" is more upbeat and well-served by the vibes and vocals interplay, but there is this noodling guitar for nearly the whole 6 minutes that is distracting and gets old after about 30 seconds. "Love from Room 109 at the Islander (On PCH)" is a slow ballad with a beautiful haunting acoustic bass, but the lulling ocean noise for 10 minutes just puts you to sleep (apparently this was to cover an noise issue they had in the raw recording). "Dream Letter" is an emotionally heart-wrenching song about his ex-wife and son Jeff Buckley (about 3 years-old at the time), but it again goes on too long at over 5 minutes. "Gypsy Woman" is probably the most interesting track in that it feels like a proper 12-minute jam, but again it just doesn't go anywhere to warrant the 12 minutes. "Sing A Song For You" feels like a tacked-on 2-minute folk song to try to appease those looking for it.
So overall, I can understand the experimental nature this album is going for, but it just doesn't get there. Additionally, Buckley's singing voice wasn't to my taste, and I thought Lee Underwood's lead guitar work was uninteresting and actually detrimental to many tracks.
Pixies
4/5
It's odd not listening to this paired with Come On Pilgrim. Both are raw early Pixies, with a sort of grotesque or nihilistic underground sentiment, like they just wanted to do whatever they wanted without worrying about being famous. It's punk without adhering to the common punk sound or formula. Steve Albini is the producer here on Surfer Rosa, and shout out to him for capturing that raw sound.
As a full album, lyrically it's a bit all over the place thematically. What sticks out to me are the themes of body horror and mutilation, like a weird atmosphere of Thomas Ligotti or surrealism of William S. Burroughs. Yet there flows a warmth in the Spanish lyrics and some upbeat percussion. Each song is like a chopped up body part, and when they are put back together, things don't quite fit right, and it's sliced up and maybe you want to look away, but it's too interesting not to look at, and after a bit you kind of recognize familiar pieces and where they belong.
What doesn't work for me is the candid studio banter, e.g. "you fucking DIE" and "he was into field hockey players", which are a bit cheesy or too try-hard in my opinion. And while I respect Kim Deal, especially her work in The Breeders, "Gigantic" feels very out of place on this album-- the repeated chorus of "Gi-gan-tic" is boring and annoying to my ears-- and it disrupts the flow of Francis basically losing his mind. In fact, I think the album does have a problem with the flow of songs, though I'm not sure how to correct it, and it may be unavoidable or even intentional as a way to instill some discomfort or disorientation in the listener.
The influence of the Pixies doesn't need to be stated again. It's an essential listen in alt rock, but not my favorite of theirs.
The Fall
2/5
There are things I like here but more things I dislike. I like the attitude, the vocal deliveries, the scathing and rebellious vibes. It sits somewhere between punk and post-punk, almost like a beta-testing of things to come.
But I dislike a lot of the production. The guitar has this chorused glittery sound that is just kind of thin and annoying most of the way through. The bass and drums don't sit particularly well together. There is kind of this metallic reverb on a lot of the vocals that sounds unnatural. Overall it feels amateur, in a bad way rather than a "homemade punk" kind of way.
So there are a lot of good songs here but I find them hard to listen to because of how the mix sounds.
Japan
2/5
Good, not great. I'm not finding much here beyond the synth-pop of its time, kind of in the vein of Bowie's Berlin era. It's not bad, but I'm not seeing why this warrants a spot on the list. Frankly it's another instance where the British bias comes through, and the spot could have been better served by an album from another world artist.
Carpenters
2/5
This album is kind of exactly what you expect-- easy pop songs that are generically produced but catchy. I guess I'm a bit of a Carpenters hater, but I find most of their sound cheesy ("Mr. Guder" or Mr. Gouda?) and annoying. Karen Carpenter is an iconic voice but not unique, and I'm not sure if that's because she imitated the common style or her voice became the common style. Their whole vibe of strings and flutes and soft harmonies feels contrived and evokes pearl-clutching Christian moms.
But perhaps I'm being influenced by the stereotypical labels put on them. I don't rest blame solely on Karen and Richard for their "squeaky clean" reputation, but it certainly what the studio did to them and what the production evokes. I don't judge those who find Carpenters a guilty pleasure as they are certainly talented musicians and the songs are certainly well done. But if you take the Carpenters as some kind of symbol of true American values or a reflection of your own virtue, then I raise an eyebrow. (Perhaps this seems overkill to state in this day and age, but it is a sentiment I heard growing up.)
This is just a pop band making pop songs, and the album is fine.
Miles Davis
5/5
One of the best albums by some of the best to ever do it. So much has already been said about this album that I can't add anything new. It's about as perfect as it can get.
Nirvana
5/5
This is the seminal album of the 90s, and everyone has something to say about it. Its cultural impact cannot be understated. Does it sound as good as its importance? Yeah, it's great.
To hear this album for the first time again would be something. It's hard to appreciate some of the big songs when you've heard them dozens of times over the course of your life. But I would still say they are objectively great songs, simple and radio-friendly yes, but we need to remember that this was the breakthrough into radio, and they only sound like every other radio grunge hit because everyone after them wanted to be like Nirvana, or studios forced bands to be like Nirvana, or they wanted to find the next Nirvana. For a window, Kurt Cobain was bigger than John Lennon who was bigger than Jesus. We can't ignore this cultural impact, not only on music but on fashion and on attitude.
The range of songs is really what's impressive here-- yes, it's a bit of a distilling of hard rock and punk for the pop masses-- but there is a range of hard to soft, punk to pop, dissonant to melodic. There are absolutely massive worldwide hits, but even the lesser known songs are great. I think the most interesting stuff comes at the end with the haunting "Something in the Way" and the sharp experimental "Endless, Nameless".
Yeah, it's one of the best of all time.
OutKast
3/5
Much of the music is good here, but I am soured by the context in which this album was released. This should have been two solo albums, and it feels like the studio's greed decided to put them together for easier marketing. Nevertheless, each side is good in their own way, but as a whole it feels less than its parts due to the cynicism surrounding it.
Speakerboxxx (Big Boi): Bold, consistently good, fully-realized, solid. 4 stars.
The Love Below (Andre 3000): Playful, inconsistent, higher peaks but lower lows. 3 stars.
The Specials
3/5
This is quintessential British ska and reggae revival. Think the Clash with a little less edge; this was released a few months prior to London Calling after all. There is also an underlying pop, surf, and rock n' roll feel to many guitar parts.
On the scale of reggae to punk, this sits closer to reggae in terms of the happy instrumentals and song structure, but the lyrical social consciousness is present throughout. This means that most of the tracks have laid back and slow timing which contrasts the youthful anger. This doesn't always work for me-- some songs seem to plod along, like "Doesn't Make It Alright" or "Too Much Too Young". There is not much variation in pacing track-to-track and I find myself initially liking a track, then getting a bit bored with it and wanting to skip because it feels slightly lethargic. It's as if some songs are being played at about 90% speed. It is surprising to learn Elvis Costello is the producer here for the album to not have that "snap" or "edge" to them.
Overall, this is an enjoyable album with good songs and ideas, but it is missing that energy that could bring it into Clash territory.
Jeff Beck
3/5
I have mixed feelings toward this album. On the one hand, Jeff Beck is one of the greatest rock and blues guitar players ever. On the other hand, I find Rod Stewart's voice overly try-hard and distracting, too derivative of many black singers. The full band is an all-star cast: Ronnie Wood on bass, Micky Waller on drums, plus guests Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and others. It's a real who's-who of white English blues players.
Perhaps I'm being overly cynical, but in my mind, The Bluesbreakers with Clapton already made the first side of this album two years earlier in 1966. The second side is hailed as "the first" heavy metal album, which I don't quite agree with, though it certainly exhibits many qualities, like the sheer force of Beck's guitar and classical music influences, e.g. starting with a rendition of "Greensleeves". The explosiveness of "Beck's Bolero" is the most interesting thing on the record.
Overall I really praise the technical playing aspects here, but there are too many bog-standard covers, not enough original songs. Just too generic overall for it to cross from very good to great.
Oasis
4/5
It's interesting to listen to this album after reviewing Nirvana's Nevermind just a few days ago. Perhaps the two biggest alt rock bands of the 90s, with two different sounds, capturing two different zeitgeists. Nirvana was more cynical and disillusioned; Oasis is more optimistic and sentimental. Nirvana comes from punk; Oasis comes from psychedelia. I don't see Oasis as a response to grunge, but just a complement to it, and the seminal sound captured by 90s Britpop.
I hadn't listened to an Oasis album in full prior to reviewing this. As a whole the album is an unrelenting wall of sound that wore out my ears, like every inch of space needs to be filled on almost every track. The intricate layered guitars coagulate into a monstrous entity, sometimes like the glam guitars of the 70s ("Cigarettes and Alcohol" is T.Rex, hello) and sometimes like the massive tower of shoegaze. I am not always the biggest fan of Liam Gallagher's vocal inflections. They are iconic but also cheesy after decades of satirical impersonations and bad connotations with 3-chord guitar bros obsessed with "Wonderwall". His vocals often take me out of the song when there is so much to take in.
"Is it myyy imaa-gi-nay-shee-un/ Or have I finally found/ Something worth living for?"
So it took a second listen to extract more love for this album. You need to just immerse yourself in the noise, go along for the ride, accept the rock star lifestyle without worrying too much.
Brian Eno
4/5
I expect this will have a low rating here with many calling it boring and bland, and this may be another case where the story of the album is more interesting than actually listening to it.
I'm a bit concerned that I have pre-existing bias for the album: that because the name "Brian Eno" is attached to it, I must believe it's good. Would the album be on this list if his name were not attached to it? That is kind of the wrong question, because we must remember that this album coined the term "ambient music". That is, if another artist had done exactly this, the album may be here anyways. But that begs the question, would an album like this even be noticed if not for a name like Brian Eno? He did not have the same mythology around his name in 1978, but he certainly was famous enough to be noticed. Did Brian Eno make this album popular, or did the album make Brian Eno popular?
I think it's a bit of both. Certainly it took a while for this to enter the zeitgeist, and some of it may have been due to Brian Eno becoming more famous as a producer after this album was made. But on its own merits, this is an important seminal album in an innovative genre of music.
It's boring, but that's sort of the point. It's hard to pay attention to, because its intention is to lull you into a peaceful state and induce some sort of clarity in you. Like calming, meditative music. More experimental and intentional than elevator muzak or the bland pop they blast over airport speakers nowadays. You'll feel good after listening to it.
3/5
I spent a lot of time with this album wondering, what am I missing, what isn't doing it for me? This is often ranked amongst the greatest of all time. Am I just not a U2 fan? Is it personal taste? Have I heard some of these songs too many times on the radio?
So I listened again and tried to really be objective, and read the Wikipedia page for context and more appreciation of the creative process.
Well, I'm still pretty convinced that U2 is up its own ass, and Bono is a wanker. And I think that's where the flaw in the album comes for me-- Bono's voice and singing, which is just so self-aggrandizing and pompous and even annoying in its inflections and breathy lead ins. See for example "Bullet the Blue Sky" which is just cheesy and unlistenable for me. Chill, dude.
There is some kind of obsession with being "special" in their celebrity lives and their commendable but performative humanitarian efforts that also leaks into their music. All must be big and profound, yet they want to strip down to musical roots, especially American themes. They talk about limiting themselves to the "primary colors of rock", i.e. a fancy way to say guitar, bass, drums. Yet they want to capture huge lyrical themes and grandiose emotions. So that is where a certain tension and drive manifests in these songs. The rhythm section always moves forward. The Edge's style is at once minimalistic and huge with its screaming arpeggiated delays. Bono's voice often sails over this like a bird over mountains.
Overall, the album as a whole is great in terms of songwriting and playing, and I'm better understanding why so many love it. For me, I cannot get past Bono's frequent posturing and over-singing. Remove it, and it's one of the best ever. Wish I could just listen to an instrumental version of it all.
Michael Jackson
4/5
"Thriller" to "Beat It" to "Billie Jean", is there a bigger three song sequence in all of pop music? This album is undoubtedly one of the most impactful ever. Michael Jackson was already a star; this propelled him into immortality.
Thriller takes most of the foundation of Off the Wall and pushes its extremes-- it rocks harder (e.g. Van Halen's guitar solo in "Beat It"), its bass lines are even more danceable, its soft pop ballads are even smoother. His talents as a vocalist are no longer just a shadow of Stevie Wonder, but are full force here.
Jackson said he wanted Thriller to be the biggest album of all time, wondering why can't an album just consist solely of singles. That nearly holds true here, as every song has a hook, but there are clearly lesser songs. A lot of lyrics in the soft pop songs are overly cliche. "Baby Be Mine" has an insanely good bass line, but what saves the dumb lyrics is Jackson's delivery and melody. The Paul McCartney spoken word section on "The Girl Is Mine" is so cheesy that the song overall approaches parody. "The Lady in My Life" is my least favorite song, too long and cliche and not much substance. I suppose this is just Jackson and Quincy Jones speaking the R&B "language" but I find it pretty played out and boring.
And then I cringe so much at so many of these romantic lyrics and themes. The worst is probably "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" despite its strengths in the instrumental section. I just can't separate the man (pedophile) from the music.
But many songs do achieve incredible highs. What is interesting about "Thriller", "Beat It", and "Billie Jean" is the edge that these songs have. There is a certain paranoia, even anger or isolation and darkness permeating these songs, which lend them honesty. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" also fits into this category, which builds excellent momentum and interest at the beginning of the album. Unfortunately, momentum is an issue in the track listing, as the best songs are packed in the middle. It's not that other songs are bad, but they feel more like standard fare.
Objectively, this isn't a perfect album, but it is one of the most significant ever. Giving credit where it's due, this is also significant in Jackson reaching superstardom as a black musician, breaking a racial barrier. Of course, he did much to physically change his appearance and reputation over the following decades, and he remains controversial as a sort of misunderstood, tragic character.
If he had been any lesser of a musician, he would be cast off as a criminal and monster. However, his complicated legacy lives on, a reminder of why we must be wary of our heroes.