"Congrats on her 17 years sober!" - Rob. What a thing to say!
how is this album 31 years old jesus.
What a time capsule into the mid 90s. I still remember mumbling the lyrics to Longview in art class in 4th grade and getting in trouble for it.
Great album, deserves a place high on the list.
This sounds very early 80s and very early 90s all at the same time? Somehow Stipe's voice sounds younger in their 90s stuff (with which I'm more familiar). Enjoyable, probably won't listen to it again.
REM was founded in Athens, Georgia, home of the University of Georgia, a school that once had Justin Fields in their QB room, but he transferred to Ohio State after some of the UGA baseball players called him an n-word. Kirby Smart eat shit O-H Brœthers.
Green Light is a 10000% certified banger.
baseline here is 2-3 stars. Not typically a big fan, and really only heard the hits.
I actually really liked this! Lots of bangers, a lot of fun. Would gladly put on for Butt Rock Breakfast, or on a golf course. 3/5.
not sure I like bossa nova. I like Jazz, but I feel like I need to be either a lovely level of drunk, or at least really high to appreciate it. Not sitting at my email job under florescent lights.
That said! I really did enjoy this album, and after doing some research you can see why it is so important, not only to the genre, but to music, generally.
For me, it's a 3/5, but a 4/5 wouldn't be crazy.
Would have preferred Pet Sounds, but fitting tribute to Mike Love I mean Brian Wilson.
The Beach Boys have never really been my thing, tbh. I love the musicality of it, and I respect the gorgeous harmonies, but surfer rock never appealed to me, and I really only enjoy the stuff post beach and car rock. Today! is the first real transition album from the surfer genre into more album rock, and it's a great start.
3/5
now we fucking go.
A classic from start to finish. Beam it into space so that the aliens know we're cooking with gas down here.
I have very little experience with these blokes. But it’s fun I guess? 2000s pop punk was such a full genre and then these muppets came about. It all feels like background music for the OG version of Shameless (derogatory)
First time dealing with Pharcyde and pleasantly surprised! Early 90s rap is so much more fun than the more hardcore gangsta rap that dominated the time (and the time after). Love the jazz influence and pure comedy in the bars. A true fun ride that I'm glad I got a chance to jump on; I doubt I'd ever hear this album if not for this collection. Good shit!
(cough still getting a 3, but def a 3 push 4)
God. I hated this. Soooo boring and lame. I remember no part of it. Pass.
Have never listened to this all the way thru, and am really shocked at how well it holds up. I've never been a big Kurt guy (I think the best thing to come out of the grunge era was Foo Fighters) but he's on one in this, Dave is playing the fuck out of the kit, and Krist is hammering some steller bass runs. Good shit!
Is it possible for an album by a band I like to not contain my two favorite songs that they did, and for that album to still be a 5? The answer may shock you!
What a treat of an album, a band at the absolute height of their powers.
Start to finish, just banger after banger. Stairway is an overrated song, but only because it's so widely considered one of the greatest songs of all time, but, come on, it's still Stairway!
When the Levee Breaks is a tremendous track, an alzheimer.
5.
the man the myth the legend.
I was never a huge Cash guy, but have enough knowledge to respect and even revere a classic. Johnny is most certainly that. It's like Willie Nelson with a deeper bass register.
If there's one thing I know, it's that 9/11 was successful in two ways: It created the current political environment, and it destroyed country music for 25 years, turning it into the most flag-fucking, troop-worshiping, god-fearing hosreshit. This is true Americana, in a way that several artists are bringing back (Isbel, Sturgil, etc), thankfully.
The covers are all very much him, and he owns all of them. Hurt is iconic. Troubled Water is deeply emotional and tragically beautiful. Desperado is a different (and better???) song. Better Personal Jesus than Depeche Mode, eat shit Rob.
What the fuck is this?
Is this really good or really bad?
progressive glam rock?
Musically this kind of rules.
The more I listen the more I don't really love it. It just kind of exists?
This is for someone, it's probably not me.
Did I need to hear this before I died?
All these songs are the same.
I'm out.
Let's do the Boys again! Jews from New York be spitting BARS.
Girls --> Fight For Your Right --> No Sleep
This is a goated fucking run right here. On a debut record they just pump these three right fucking together. Some truly iconic shit.
Hold it now, HIT IT is a banger.
Still hate Brass Monkey, have for decades.
Album rocks.
a classic. What more do you want? Album art would make a sick arm sleeve tattoo. 4.
This was really good! Sounded incredibly mature for a debut, and musically it felt like it was even more mature. Great shit.
wow, an album by the third best Beatle! (fight me)
Look, I'm not going to say this isn't good. It's John, it's categorically very good. But...not really for me. I'm more of a Beatles guy than any of them solo, but that's a product of my musical upbringing more than anything.
Imagine is an important song, I've heard it a zillion times, I've sung it in concerts before (shoutout Harmony Project), and I watched a video of a zionist pig singing it during Covid. Stands the test of time that it is still amazing even after Gal Gadot ruined it.
Jealous Guy is great, I've heard a better cover it it tbqh.
Oh My Love is a wonderful song, beautiful in it's simplicity.
Etc.
Wish this shit at half ratings because this would be a great 3.5 for me. Just depends on which side of that I want to go on.
Nvm he ended with a song about Yoko, fuck this. 3
Another classic on deck!
Again, as with so much, I never really give Bowie a shot other than the hits and I'm excited to hear some album cuts. The top of the album puts us in 4 territory without breaking a sweat.
Changes is a banger. O!YPT another great one. Life on Mars? is truly an amazing song, maybe an all-timer.
Back half of the album is all very good, fun stuff. Bowie rocks, end of discussion.
A great listen! The big band stuff is wonderful, his voice and keyboards are nearly unmatched. It doesn't have the hits from later on (where was the Pepsi jingle????) but you can't really do better in the genre than Ray fucking Charles. Don't even try.
Prime listening hours for that good shit. Rage rules, and the early stuff has an edge that cooks so hard some 30 years later. ZDLR might be one of the best screamer-singers there is. Even the politics still matters in the year of our lord 2025. Fascist Pig Cops do burn crosses! Etc.
god, this fucking rocks so hard. Even just on vibes, it sounds incredible. Even if you just wanna be like, okay, ZDLR, we get it with the politics, it's still amazing music.
I’m not sure who it’s for? Like, I feel like there’s obviously a fandom for this but other than, like, and I mean this, Brad Linville, what is it?
What a weirdo.
3 for the effort, 2 for the listen.
The only thing British I'm listening to today is The Open sorry.
wow what a gorgeous album to listen to you while you chase 100 sleeping pills with a bottle of Jack.
Fun album! Near genre mix, and great use of horns. Like the Whale Ad, but a record.
Fun album! Near genre mix, and great use of horns. Like the Whale Ad, but a record.
kinda ild that they're just giving the playlist at the top of the show! I guess they didn't have setlist.fm back in 1963 lol.
His part in Rocky IV still my favorite James Brown moment.
This is fine. I feel like the 70s and 90s were really the good times for amazing live albums, and a 30 minute live show just ain't it for me, boss.
Still love the old school feel of soul and r&b but it really isn't my bag, baby, so I'm going to say good listen. Probably one of the 700 or so albums on this list that could charitably be characterized as albums I'll listen to once before I die.
Begging for half points here, so this gets a...
I have no clue what this is or who it is, or what we're dealing with other than this is jazz. And most of my experience with jazz, generally, is confined to "I've listened to that one song by Dave Brubeck 1000 times" and one (1) episode of White Collar that takes place in a jazz club and Diahann Carroll sings in it and it's good. Anyway, here we go.
Oh, she can SING sing. Nice. This is gorgeous. Really nice and great background music, and super talented artists on this. It's gonna be a solid 3 because I don't think this is groundbreaking or anything (how would I know?) but great. One of the 700 albums to listen to (once) before I die for sure.
this shit sucks. nerds trying to do punk in the year of our lord 1986. Shit wouldn't fly then, or now. Miss me. Go Guardos.
I'm still listening to it and spending zero effort on it. and I hate it.
what even is this.
ok it's growing on me a little. Trying to figure out what this is or what i've heard like it.
Lyrics and singing don't match the music.
Yeah this sucks.
like this! So much better than Murmur imho. Sounds more modern and a better highlight of Stipe's vocals and writing. TEOTWAWKI and One I Love are the big hits, but the rest is very good!
REM was founded in Athens, Georgia, home of the University of Georgia, a school that once had Justin Fields in their QB room, but he transferred to Ohio State after some of the UGA baseball players called him an n-word. Kirby Smart eat shit O-H Brœthers.
Here for this. I loved Dookie, but I think this might be a better album, at least from a conceptual standpoint.
Love the ABSOLUTE CINEMA of this thing. Just hits you in the face with a whole concept and goes for an hour of really big and boisterous highs, and depressing lows. It's a whole thing.
let's see just how 80s we can be on this shit. I've never, ever, been a big super 80s guy, and this reeks of it.
It stinks.
let's see just how 80s we can be on this shit. I've never, ever, been a big super 80s guy, and this reeks of it.
It stinks.
not as good as What's Going On but still great. What a voice. I got pregnant listening to it.
High bar going in. IV was a 5 in my book, we'll see where this goes. It's all going to come down to the b-sides for me, and some of the stuff I haven't heard a ton.
So having listened to two zeppelin albums on this journey, the one thing that I keep coming back to is that it's all very long-winded. Both lyrically and musically. For every Living Loving Maid (2:39) there's a The Lemon Song (6:19). This isn't bad, just an observation.
That said, I don't think this album is bad at all just...kinda boring? It also just makes me want to listen to the Zep songs that I like more than anything on this album (Levee, Immigrant Song, Kashmir, etc.)
All around Meh for me.
Brad Linville music. Not my cup of tea. Not for me. I don't think so, Tim.
Take Five is the song I most associate with this style of jazz and I'm here for it. Excited to get the rest of the album.
This is fun! Real quaint and full of fun plays on rhythms and themes across the tracks. Flawless handoffs between the 4 of them.
Got damn, Take Five hits so fucking hard. What a perfect song.
I really need to get more into jazz. I don't ever listen to lyrics first, always music, and that's all this is! Time signatures, what even are they???
That was great. Solid 4 push 5.
i don't get it. not my thing. wouldn't seek it out.
God this is so fucking good. What a talent.
Top to bottom, what a fucking album. Rehab was super overplayed, but that was a giant hit so it makes sense. But the R&B and soul and jazz and blues of it is just something that isn't really in music post 2010. Great shit.
Fuck, this is a 5. 1 cuts, 34 minutes, not a single wasted second on the album.
God the Talking Heads are so fun.
This would have been such a fun album to listen to in the late 70s, sneaking out of the disco and into more progressive rock dance music. David Byrne's voice is one of the most unique in music, and it shines here against the rest of the band's expertise. Eno's hand is on every track and it rules. Fun stuff for sure.
Better than a 3, not quite a 4, we round down.
SNA a certified banger, one of the most important songs of the last 25 years in terms of...everything? 2B plays on Spo***y kinda speaks for itself.
Meg White is a shitty drummer, not a hot take, but it works when it works. That said, I can play most of her drums and I have no ability to do separate rhythms with multiple appendages.
Ball and Biscuit rips. Weird that I like a song that was in The Social Network, huh?
Album kinda meh other than the big songs. Probably a "not my thing" album. Come for the hits and then peace out.
This stinks. Not my bag. outta here.
extremely meh. Just kinda boring. a bunch of background music for a shitty movie that I second screened. 2.
huh. Not a lot to say about this. I put this on in the background and it stayed there for the duration, save one song with a dumb title ("Rene and Georgette"). Didn't do anything for me. And I like Paul Simon! There are so many better songs and albums for me, tho. 2.
as a non ball knower about Jazz, this is lovely. Furious and frenetic, paced to within an inch of its life. It's four dynamos at the top of their game.
I have no fucking clue what this is at all.
Meh. Didn't need to hear this before I died tbh.
Hell yeah fuck yeah.
I just want to be high as fuck in a basement with 10000 cold beers listening to this.
Goddamn, that's so good. If I'm honest, Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar do seem a litttttle out of place compared to Shine (1-9) and Wish, but still just a completely wonderful success.
5. Going away.
i don't like 80's brit synth pop. This is very that. mehhhh.
God I love this album. Haven't given it a run thru since they announced the tour so I'm looking forward to this.
7 songs in, not a single skip, or close to it. start to finish this is such a fun album. Musically it's great, lyrically it's great.
11 songs in, same thing.
Whole thing, no skips, this album is great.
I don't hand out 5s willy nilly. I think my record is very firm on that. And I don't want to make giving out a 5 too much of "a thing", but this album is capital-I Important. It contains two of the most important 90s Brit rock songs off all time (Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova), and between those songs is a collection of bops and bangers. We love it. 5.
meh. Starts great and then it's a clash record. Not really my thing.
No clue what this is. I assume it is some kind of LES rap rock thing. Let's see how wrong I am!
/Starts song 1
Lmao I was waaaay off.
I've never heard of PJ Harvey, which is clearly on me. It's really interesting! Grungy as fuck, raw as hell, very fun, if aggressive sounding.
hell yeah fuck yeah
Normally I'd scoff at 30 songs and 1:33 runtime. Brothers, I wanted MORE. This album cooks from start to (almost) finish. I think we get a little caught up in the Lennon of it all at the end a little bit, but the whole experience is really impressive. 1968 is my favorite music year of the 60s, and in the starting lineup for best music years ever. This is one of the many reasons why.
A 5 before the listen, a 5 after.
Good recordings of meh songs.
not even his best album. Fuck this, what the fuck, who needed to hear this?????
This was a super fun listen. Great run thru some early and origin story ska. Many are saying. Solid ass 3.
This was fun as hell! Enjoyed it quite a bit, the eclectic overtones were tons of fun and loved going thru different styles. Great lyrics and fantastic vibes throughout. Solid ass 3.
No idea what this is.
"you can call 1-800-pee pee 5 Doo Doo" lmao
This is one of the weirdest ass rap albums I've ever heard. Very different from what I usually listen to in hip hop. Scott said it's like if Adult Swim was rap and...yeah, that's 10000% accurate lol. That said, I'm actually surprised I stuck with it. I didn't actually love it, I thought it was good, and fine, but just didn't tickle my pickle, exactly.
3 for me but American Girl makes it a 4. Banger.
I don't like disco. Great bass lines.
NOTES: I will not be listening to this whole thing. Don't got that kinda time. Gonna be a vibes based review. As such, I'm taking 1 and 5 out of consideration, as there's no way I'll get all of it. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
CRK.
Ok, so I'm 4 songs in. Many things can be true:
- The Gershwin's contribution to the American Songbook™ cannot be denied. Classics all the way down. Like 90% of the tracks listed have their own wiki page, which isn't a giant thing, but it's interesting?
- Ella is "the First Lady of Song" for a reason. Dynamic voice, beautiful in every way, probably in the team picture of greatest vocalists in history
- This is too much music. This isn't the kind of thing you can get thru in a day, so doing it as "One Album A Day" is doing it a disservice.
- I ain't listening to this whole thing lol.
So how do we rate something like this? As above, you can't do a 1 or a 5, that's not fair. So we have to do the 2-4 range. And there's no way a 2 is fair at all - the bona fides of the singer and songwriters are just too myriad. So it's between a 3 and a 4.
So then it becomes a question of how are we going to hone in on a rating? I think you have to do vibes, historical significance, and talent. Which means this is a 4 overall.
TO BE CLEAR: This is a 1 in terms of this exercise. This is not an album that should be listened to in a day, but over a long weekend with coffee and pastry while doing a crossword puzzle and not worrying about what the kids are up to.
This is boring as hell tbh.
I have no idea what this is supposed to be or who it's for. It sounds like noise more than music. I feel like an old man yelling at clouds listening to this. All the songs are very different but all sound exactly the same.
This was fun and cool. Not sure I’ve ever just listened to an instrumental hip hop album.
God what a throwback classic. East coast has always sat behind west for me, but no denying how fucking HARD east coast rap goes. This was great.
Is an album that you can get thru in a half hour a bad thing? No! Is this album good? No! There's a time and a place for everything, and I have never heard something more Y2K coded in my entire life. 2? 3? who cares.
"In the end it doesn't even matter"
What a prescient statement about this album, very self-aware.
Sounds fucking incredible in dolby atmos. Probably my second favorite of their records (viva la vida heads, we tha best). There was that whole pop off about them when that CEO got got fucking his HR Director at a concert, and like what’s worse than that doing it at a Coldplay concert. And their stuff after VLV is very different, going from brit rock to standard pop rock, to wtf is maroon V doing on this coldplay record (derogatory). But the first three albums are great, this one is great. Is a 4 crazy for this shit? hell no.
hey this is the woman from The Blues Brothers! She can really sing.
solid 4. good shit!
Fucking great. I don't even love Radiohead and it's great. What a treat.
Wasn't aware they did other songs than Blue Monday?
Ok, so this just sounds to be like replacement level 80s britpop electronica, which, not really my bag, generally. It's a 2 for me, maybe a 2.5 if that was possible. Musically it's kind of fun but it's just not for me. Call it one of the 600 albums I should hear once before I die, if that at all.
We have Depeche Mode at home ass album. A cure, not The Cure. A contented subsection more than a Joy Division. The whole thing is Erasure erasure, tbh.
This was weird. A mix of the Beatles music and lyrics with dashes of the beach boys, the who, and even some led zeppelin. Good but strange as hell.
Maybe one of the most important live albums ever released, they say. I get it. I'm not really a Nirvana guy, as we've established, but deep diving them has been fun (we did Nevermind a few weeks ago and I enjoyed it very much!) This is great and raw and important. Not a 5. Strong 4.
What a fun album. A true 50s rock and roll ass album. There's a reason he's the King. I've never really given the full catalog a listen because the music is so ubiquitous and in any movie about the era, but that's because it's classic shit! 4!
But it gets a 3 because racism!
I remember when this box came out, and it was one of the pivotal, must haves of the 90s, one of those albums that you had to have in your Case Logic. Tonight Tonight bangs quite hard, but I'm a sucker for big, energetic, orchestral ballads, and this more than qualifies.
Hits sprinkled throughout, special shoutout to "1979" which plays on a loop in my head when I think of mid-90s Emo Rock. Vivid memories of playing GTA IV and searching for this track on Liberty Radio. Something about driving thru Liberty City with the bridge to this song going hard is a core gaming memory.
Good stuff. A for sure 4 but at 2+ hours it does drag. If you're good with picking and choosing, you can create a great LP that's a solid 4. As it is, it's a 3 for me.
This shit is great. Alt-hip hop is a really underserved genre now, and the early 90s had some good good. This is one of them. The writing and bars are all so fucking smooth. You can hear this style on a lot of artists afterward, and its evolution into the late 90s. For all the hard rap and aggressive sampling that went en vogue in the decade that followed, this is still the shit that hits harder with it's lack of hard hitting. Great shit.
feels loik oi ‘ave it, bout to get in barney wif mi bruvs in a pub then fack off in the lorry innit true (derogatory).
British fucking electronic music, miss my ass. Where's Moby when you need his ass?
Sublte, haunting, contemplative, beautiful. Sounds like mid-90s indie accoustic, but it's a brit from the 70s. RIP a king.
this is good and stuff. hipster as fuck to be honest. Wake Up is a fucking BANGER. Win Butler is a dork and a sex pest, but so are a ton of folks on this list. This is not a justification. Rebellion Lies is also good.
Whatever, it's a 2.
This is weird shit. Started strong and was interesting, but sort of devolved into weird 80s synth brit pop, which is extremely not my shit. There's a song called Old Pervert, which is reminiscent of Donald Trump.
Anyway, this is not my shit, but I can hear where its influences were placed over the next 10, 20 and future years. And it's all shit I don't listen to!
Keep it. 2.
Also, the extended version has like 20 bonus tracks and is more than 2 hours long. lmaoooo.
I've never seen this movie or heard this soundtrack, but apparently both are good? Idk. The whole thing feels like a Final Fantasy soundtrack. There's no part of this that I couldn't hear without seeing Cloud walking thru an overworld. Sephiroth in the wings at all times. This is not derogatory! I enjoyed it. But if this is one of the best film scores ever, per the critics, then damn, idk what we're doing.
One of the things I do for this whole exercise is put it on in the background and see if I can tell when the first song that gets algo-generated after I finish the album comes on. I couldn't on this one.
2
Not really my thing, but I appreciate that's out there! Great production and voice, not something I'd seek out. 2.5 if it was possible. Round up because I'm not a racist like Gregg.
Kate Bush is admittedly a hole in my music knowing. It's a vibe, and in a vibes-based economy, this would be the currency of the realm. But it ain't my realm. Running up That Hill slaps, tho. Stranger Things brought it back, and it's one hell of an opener. The rest is just operatic white chick belting. It has it's place I guess? it's a 3.
It's really telling how different this album and the next one are in all of Coldplay's discography. This feels very small, almost intimate, compared to A Rush of Blood. I don't like it as much! Even the louder tracks like Shiver and Yellow just don't pack any punch. I like loud and ambitious coldplay, so Rush and Viva la Vida are much more my shit. This just feels kind of dated.
3
this is early 90s hip hop as fuck, frankly. lotta media sampling. lotta lyrics. Almost spoken word shit, not so much rap. Political as fucking hell. Feel like Zohran all about this shit. idk man, it's kinda wack to me. I will happily listen to political hip hop if there's an iota of flow, which here there is not. Eye roll shit tbqh. "The only cola that I support would be a universal Cost Of Living Allowance" like, ok, sure, good point, but if you’re gonna preach at me, then you better have some dynamic flow or be fucking Chuck D. 1 for the art, 3 for the message, that's a 2.
groovy and fun. very enjoyable.
not quite my tempo, I can appreciate what it is. Prime Matt Linville Listening hours for sure.
This is super fucking fun! Irish Folk Punk Rock, whoda thunk it? If you can get over the fact that you can't understand a word Shane MacGowan says, it's even better.
As an aside, I think "Fairytale of New York" is the best Christmas song in existence. Somehow, I only heard it in the last 7 years or so, and it's a piece of music I'm so, so happy is in my life.
Spanking a child turns him into a snot. Fear, that's what makes him a man. I know a place where a man's worth is measured by the ears hanging off his dog tags. The real hardcore shit.
A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.
Feels like big rice paddy hours here. Knee deep in the shit. If this album had Fortunate Son it'd be a 4. Strong 3 otherwise.
