Nice jazz album but not really my cup of tea overall. Couple of familiar tunes 'Blue Rondo à la Turk' and 'Take Five' that I liked well enough.
Nostalgic but still really fresh. Never gets boring or too slow and is filled with classic GD hits like 'Holiday', 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' and 'Wake Me Up When September Ends'.
Over 20 years old and still a banger of an album.
Great album. Hadn't heard much beyond the title track before, but enjoyed it as a whole after a full listen.
Every tune offered something new but contributed equally.
Can hear what made 'Americana' such a great album. Couple of great tracks 'Self-Esteem' and 'Gotta Get Away' but a little samey overall.
Not for me. Doesn't make me feel anything and is very slow. Not sure jazz is my cup of tea.
Vibey album. Great mood/background music with a few bangers.
I respect the experimentation and willingness to try something completely new. As a listening experience though, I can't say I found it very enjoyable. Sometimes noise...is just noise.
Classic Britpop album. Far more experimental than many rival bands of the period but lacking memorable hits beyond the obvious. Good listen.
Great bluesy hard rock album. Paul Rodgers' voice is amazing throughout. Bad Company are one of the best rock supergroups and this debut album was a great opener.
Interesting combination of jazz/folk/rock. Winwood has a great voice and the album is great background music but overall isn't for me.
Had not listened much beyond 'Pet Sounds' but really enjoyed this album. The first 4 songs especially are among my favourite Beach Boys songs. For a 17th album (!!!) it's a great listen.
Great vibey ambient music and mood setter.
Scarcely music.
Nothing special.
Classic 80's album with some excellent tracks but loses steam in its 2nd half. Peter Gabriel's voice was pretty great though and it has some interesting world music influences.
Experimental pop (I think) it's quirky, full of interesting sounds and vocals, Bjork is cool af, cool album.
Nothing like I expected. So much variety in styles keeps it interesting the whole way through. There's country, rock n roll, orchestral, and definitely some Beatles influence.
One of the best debuts of all-time.
Bored me to tears. Disconnected sounds, long stretches of nothing then explosions of noise. Pass.
Arguably the best Grunge album of them all. Brilliant from start to finish.
Jazz rock blows
Strong opening but quickly becomes repetitive which is kind of AC/DCs gimmick in a lot of ways.
Fave Tune: Back In Black
??????????????
Outside of Fast Car there wasn't a huge amount here that I found memorable.
Face Tune: Fast Car
I really don't get Peter Frampton. Every time I have tried to work him out, I have ended up bored to tears and sadly it happened again.
Just not that interesting. Pleasant enough but wildly overrated as I see it.
One of the greatest albums of the 21st century and full of nostalgia. To this day it's a killer listen.
Favourite track = One Step Closer.
I just cannot get into The Who, at all. Something about them leaves me cold outside a handful of hits.
Always been a huge fan of AJFA. Probably my favourite Metallica album. Powerful lyrics, crushing riffs and despite the controversy, I never miss the bass.
Fave Tune: ...And Justice For All
Zappa is hard because his music was so complex and varied. Every now and then though he nails experimentation and complexity with genuinely immersive music. Excellent album.
Fave Tune: The Gumbo Variations
I think the problem with this album is that it has aged very poorly. At the time I can well see how this would be seen as an ambitious, bold album in a genre dominated by men. 30 years later the lyrics read like an 'edgy' tumblr post of someone who discovered feminism 15 minutes ago. Shame as I was very curious about this one.
Drivel.
Boring psychedelic noodling. That's how I honestly felt listening to this. I've never really been into Hendrix though I appreciate his skill and influence.
Fun, fast-paced pop from early on in the Beatles career.
Amazing live album that captures the energy Motorhead brought. Made me feel like I was there and regret never having seen them perform.
Fave Tune: Capricorn & Ace of Spades
Pretty boring. Nothing stands out or is memorable. I think the album worded because of the timing post-9/11 but in 2025 it juzt isn't anything special and I'm a big fan of the Boss.
Fave Tune: Not sure I actually had one!
Strong opening 6 songs but falls away thereafter. No bad songs just far more memorable early on. Would have preferred it wasn't a double.
Pleasant folk-rock with a handful of decent tunes. Nothing groundbreaking but surprisingly enjoyable.
Apparently the Bakersfield Sound is not for me. Don't mind country music as a general rule but Yoakam's style leaves me a bit cold.
Pleasant jazz/blues/swing album with plenty of catchy tunes and memorable vocals.
Had never listened to Rufus Wainwright before but was pleasantly surprised. He has a very unusual langid sounding voice that suits his music perfectly. I enjoyed how much instrumentation there was which I think was a source of criticism at the time but that I appreciate. Something new is happening on every song.
Fave Tune: Go or Go Ahead.
Strong opening with quality lyrics but the album for me does lose momentum at the halfway point. I quite like Morrissey's voice and lyricism, just not a hugely consistent album.
Fave Tune: The More You Ignore Me the Closer I Get.
Great mix of tunes that make you want to dance, traditional Irish folk songs to swoon to and Shane McGowan's amazing lyricism. Has both the greatest Christmas tune of all time and the greatest Irish song (on the extended version anyway). Couple of dodgy tunes 'Worms' stands out but otherwise very enjoyable.
Fave Tunes: The Irish Rover & Fairytale of New York.
Disappointing really. I expected I waa going to enjoy this but maybe Trip Hop isn't my thing? Lots of lanquid, not very interesting songs. Very little memorable.
Fave Tune = Clint Eastwood
Same old, same old. Feel like I've heard identical lyrics, scenarios, gripes and boasts from a 1,000 rappers going back 30 years.
Nothing new and just as lame.
Fave Tune = Impossible to choose between some of the worst "song" i've heard. Gives Ghostface Killah a run for his money.
Fairly uneven album that starts strong, sags in the middle but picks up at the end. Not a super long album but like many RHCP albums perhaps has 4 or 5 songs too many. Flea's bass elevates a few otherwise middling songs such as 'Get On Top'.
Fave Tune = Californication & Otherwide
Solid album throughout that didn't ever totally lose me. I enjoyed songs like 'The Guns of Brixton' which were a bit more Ska-influenced so mixed it up a bit, 'Hateful' as well is a good tune. Not a huge punk-rock guy so was never likely to love this one
Fave Tunes = London's Calling & Hateful
Incredibly boring. Baez's voice is shrill and the songs too samey.
I honestly think it is nothing really to do with her or the music per se, more the genre and amount time that has passed since it came out. It just isn't very interesting.
Very cool album and totally different to what I normally listen to. Lacks a proper standout tune but every song is interesting.
Fave Tune = Piano Joint (This Kind of Love)
Of all the Britpop albums of the mid 90s this has aged the best in every way possible. Common People is an anthem for a whole generation and class.
Fave Tunes = Common People, Misshapes & Disco 2000
Fave Tunes = Time to Pretend & Electric Feel
Not for me at all.
Lovely vibey jazz. Great moodsetter but not terribly exciting.
Not my thing at all, however, as punk goes a female lead is different to the norm. The 2nd half of the album is also noticeably better than the first. Still punk but far more memorable and catchy.
Fave Track = I Live Off You
I should like Lenny Kravitz but there is something about his vocals that I find incredibly offputting. At times he seems to screech for no apparent reason and it's deeply unpleasant to listen to.
Not a massive country fan but this was a great listen full of memorable songs and melodies. Robbins' vocal style reminds me a lot of Elvis, who may have been influenced by Robbins. No real downpoints on this album, it's relatively familiar with simple songs about gunfighters, adventure, love and the old west.
Best Track = Big Iron
Never going to be a fully card-carrying convert to the cult of Bob. However, he was undeniably a talented writer and his vocals in this early period fit the music perfectly. I do think many of his lyrics would have been better suited to poetry recitals than an album though.
Best Track = Mr. Tambourine Man.
Never really been a huge Kate Bush fan. She has a unique sounding voice and has an interesting combination of influences and styles in her music. That said, I have never really found her music that interesting from an emotional perspective, her music doesn't really move me. It's nice, it's creative but it doesn't truly connect with me. I think it is connected to her vocals which are very pure and always sound to me like they quite cold and piercing, as well as echoey.
This was a decent album nonetheless, some classics on here and none that lacked for diversity of sound.
Best Track - Running Up That Hill (obviously).
Not a hiphop/rap guy but this is a nostalgic album for me as it reminds me of a time when rap was actually interesting. So much of modern rap is far less musically diverse and creative, and lyrically self-absorbed, whereas Public Enemy have so much going on in each song that it's consistently interesting.
Though it couldn't sound more of its time if it tried, its message is just as relevant in 2025 as it was in 1990.
Best Tracks = Brothers Gonna Work it Out, Fight the Power & Welcome to the Terrordome.
Lovely sounding country album filled with nostalgia, romance and longing. Beautifully sang by Nanci Griffith who has a sweet voice ideal for this style of music.
Top Track = The Last of the True Believers, Lookin' For the Time (Workin' Girl) & Goin' Game.
Never been a fan of the Pixies, never likely to be, nor of Frank Black whose vocals do very little for me. The album itself is perfectly listenable 90s alt-rock and the first half of the album is decent enough. However, I struggle with unnecessarily long albums and at over an hour and 22 songs I found it tiresome. You need a good reason to go that long and if it's The Wall...fine, but Frank Black ain't Pink Floyd.
Top Track = Speedy Marie
Punk almost always sounds the same to me though there is more melody here than in many punk albums of the 70s. I admire punks energy and ferocity but I feel like it was a 'you had to be there' movement.
Top Track - Smash It Up Pts. 1 & 2
Perfectly pleasant listen but it really just needed a little more energy and power as many of the songs have a languid, almost flat tempo to them. I have to assume that this was the artists intention for it to be dreamy but in this case it's a little bit uninteresting.
Top Tracks = Wake Up & In the Backseat
One of the best early grunge albums with one of the strongest first sides of any album with Even Flow, Alive, Black, Once, Why Go and Jeremy as the first 6 tracks.
Top Track = Black & Even Flow
The Lemonheads were swimming against the tide of grunge in 1992 with this album. It lacks the emotional weight, fury and aggression of grunge and that's a welcome deviation. However, save for the title track and an absolutely cover of Simon & Garfunkels 'Mrs Robinson' there is little worth remembering about this album. It's all decent but nothing special.
Top Track = Mrs Robinson
Never been a fan of U2. There is something about their music that leaves me cold, i'm not sure if it's Bono's vocals or the production, but it also seems sparse and empty to me. Bono is always echoey and that rarely works for me.
Overall this album is passable musically, perhaps the lyrics carry more weight than I realise, don't know, don't realy care. If it isn't interesting musically then the lyrics pass me by.
Top Track = Like a Song..
Never bought into the idolisation of Tupac, whose early death has granted him a near untouchable status in Hip Hop/Rap circles. I listened very carefully what Tupac had to say so I could get as close to understanding him as possible. I then came to the conclusion that you can be a great poet and have a lot of great points to make about injustice but if it's just not very interesting to listen to as music...I'm bored.
Also, 30 years of parody of the gangsta lifestyle on television and in video games hasn't done this any favours. Tupac frequently refers to 'yet another funeral' and his friends clogging up morques, at which point I ask myself 'Is it any wonder?'.
Seems they all had a deathwish and if you f**k around, you eventually find out. A review from the time said it best that the only thing greater than Tupac's persecution complex was his inflated self-regard.
There was IMO far superior hip-hop/rap artists and albums in the early 90s than this offering.
Musically quite repetitive and flat. Rarely do songs on this album change much over the runtime and the vocals are very samey as well. Never quite got Siouxie and the Banshees or many bands of that era and style.
Couple decent songs but deducted marks for how unremarkable most of the album was.
Top Tracks = Into The Light & Night Shift
Pleasant listen that has quite sophisticated production. Always perceived and enjoyed the haunting tone to many of their songs, including 'A Rose for Emily' and of course 'Butchers Tale'. The Zombies offer a distinct sound that allowed them to standout even during the height of thr Beatles.
Top Tracks = A Rose for Emily & Time of the Season
Meh.
Prog often goes one of two ways. Either it's great storytelling set to music and mind-blowingly beautiful or it's inconsequential noodling with fractured lyrics here and there.
Yes is the latter. Songs/Suites mostly ranging from 6 to 9 minutes in length that go on and on and on. Saying in 7 minutes what could have been said in 4 is not a flex.
Top Track = Clap
Very solid debut album that is eclipsed by its follow-up, however, the Oasis sound is established right out of the gate with classic tracks like 'Supersonic', 'Up in the Sky' and 'Rock'n'roll Star' on offer.
For many this album and Britpop generally represent a period of optimism for those growing up in 90s Britain. As a kid at the time I remember the feeling well and DM played a big part in that.
Top Track = Cigarettes & Alcohol
What the album lacks for me is pace and standout vocals. The music itself is really quite good but without a bit more ummph and high points there it's like a less catchy, slower Daft Punk.
Top Track = Motion Sickness
28 songs averaging 90 seconds a piece, you need a good reason to have that many tracks on an album. Releasing a ton of music doesn't make it good and before you even get into most of the tracks they end and a new one starts.
Monotonous.
Not much to say as it's all funk-rock instrumentals with plenty of bongos. It's cool just not something I am likely to revisit.
Top Tracks = Apache & Last Bongo in Belgium
Decent listen that has the same problem of many Hip Hop albums which is monotonous, repetitive looped samples. The absolute worst example is the Ennio Morricone sample in 'Remember His Name' that was so irritating I couldn't finish the track.
There's some interesting and creative sounds added, but the constant looping of the same sample over and over again just doesn't do it for me. The intent and fact it is a staple of the genre doesn't make it interesting to listen to.
Top Track = Freedom
Brilliant album with two equally enjoyable sides emphasising different styles and themes.
Outkast's brand of progressive/southern Hip-Hop has always stood out to me as someone who tends to get bored with most Hip-Hop and its preoccupation with violence, beefs between rappers and repetitive looped samples.
This album instead has beautiful instrumentation and immense variety from song to song. The music itself is streets ahead of what is typical of the genre and it interspersed with interludes that flesh out the story being told. Immensely relistenable and much deeper than the hits that got all the airplay.
Top Track = Last Call, Ghettomusick & Hey Ya.
Fun album of catchy music that makes you want to dance! It has standout hits like 'Laura', 'Filthy/Gorgeous', 'Take Your Mama' and 'Mary' but also one of the maddest covers of all-time in the form of 'Comfortably Numb' which I give them credit for even attempting a pop-disco version. Love the bass in 'Tits on the Radio' which is a cool song and underappreciated songs like 'It Can't Come Quickly Enough'. Overall the album is just a lot of fun.
Top Tracks = Laura, Mary, It Can't Come Quickly Enough & Filthy/Gorgeous
Not really a ska/two-tone kinda guy, it's fine, just nothing...special.
Top Track = Hey Little Rich Girl
