Probably my favorite country album ever. Right in Time, 2 Kool to Be 4-gotten, Metal Firecracker, I Lost It, Drunken Angel are all perfect songs, and the rest of the album is pretty great too. Amazing voice, songwriting and guitar work. Need to get this on vinyl.

They're a tight rocking band. As far as early Kings of Leon go, this feels a lot less memorable and lasting than Aha Heartbreak though.

Wanted to give this five stars. Clearly an amazing work. A little too rambling and lengthy for my taste.

This band is much better than Incubus, despite not having a guy who just does turntable scratching.

The ultimate 3 star band. Why do people treat Oasis reuniting like a second coming when Third Eye Blind has been kicking it non stop this whole time?

It was implied to me that if I did not rate this five stars, I would be kicked out of the group. Fortunately, it is in fact a five star album.

A masterpiece. Although my least favorite of the three album run of Lightning - Puppets - Justice - it's still OBVIOUSLY a five star album. So much unparalleled riffage in a five year period from a group of drunk guys in their 20s. Still can't wrap my mind around that. Their last great album.

Impressive album, all I knew was Common People, which is a banger. Yet I reserve 4 stars and above for an album that I would willingly put on its entirety in the future, and I'm struggling to think of a future scenario in which I would put on an hour of (what I think is?) snarky British pop taking very deep jabs at people I know nothing about.

So 70s rock critics trashed Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd albums but thought this was the shit? Da fuq. Would say its a snoozer but hard to snooze when he's yelling atonally like that.

Shit Sandwich. (Sorry. I won't repeat this.)

Listen man, I GET IT. Okay, maybe I don't. But I do think there should be more songs about metrocards.

Not as epic as their very-shortly-thereafter follow-up album, but all the parts of a legendary band are there, and mind blowing that they apparently recorded and mixed all of this in 2 days.

Sentimentality, Knopfler's singular guitar stylings, some fretless bass, and my West-Wing-influenced love for the title song help this album rise above the slog of some of these songs to a generous four star rating.

I know it's a little cheesy and boring at times, but I'm a little cheesy and boring at times.

Well, that was intense. It felt like a marathon to get through it, but as I listened I could imagine myself coming back to this album through life, and it feels singular in its atmosphere and its purpose. I even had a dream about it, which has not happened with any Kings of Leons albums.

A $2.99 used rack classic.

Confirming that if I haven't become a Smiths fan by this point in my life, it probably just ain't gonna happen. I enjoy the "hits" but otherwise Morrissey can save that drama for his mama.

I love that Judas Priest exists as a band. Distinct sound, epic look, killer guitars. But it all feels a little on the silly side of metal compared to Sabbath, Metallica, Maiden, etc. And lets face it those bands are not exactly unsilly.

The guitars and bass are damn impressive. The whole package not so much to me. But glad this exists.

The first couple songs were CD 101 (Columbus Ohio's once amazing and now defunct alternative radio station for which I am very indebted for my musical tastes) classics in the 90s. The rest of the album feels pretty boring to me.

It was a solid, solid album. Glad to be familiar with Paul Weller a bit. I feel like a bit of an ass giving this 3 stars and, say, Nick of Time 4 stars, but for these straight ahead guitar-based pop/rock songs, I just don't think I'd come back to this without some earlier life connection to it. Good on the UK for making Paul Weller a beloved star.

My Ramones era was mostly dominated by the various compilation albums - Mania and All the Stuff and More albums - which included every song on this album. It's big and dumb and I love it. In 1992 the Ramones were on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno playing Censorshit (I think). Around that time, I wanted to go see them in concert with Motorhead at the Newport Music Hall which was only a 1500 person club - amazing in retrospect when you think of how legendary those bands have become since then. My grandmother was for some reason watching the Tonight Show with me and after she saw the Ramones, she said "I'll pay you not to go see them." Good memory. I did not see them, because no chaperone type figure was interested in taking me to Ramones and Motorhead. All of our loss.

So I know this is blasphemy and will assure my blacklisting from the hepcat record club, but this...sucks. Some interesting early electronic sounds but tuneless and can't deal with an extremely morose "singer" who makes Bob Dylan sound like Luther Vandross. The 70s seemed like a rough time to be into alternative rock.

I agree with my colleague Mr. Ryan, particularly how much better in all ways that Public Enemy was at this same time. Also sorry can't get down with the incel-level misogyny then or now. My older brother and his friends were into all this stuff back then and now they all have Trump flags.

Five stars for Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith. Unfortunately, when you mix manure and ice cream, it doesn't really affect the manure but it does affect the ice cream. On the not so bright side, not sure why this was 2.5 times as long as classic Van Halen album.

This is the kind of album where I give it five stars, then some people be like OF COURSE you gave that five stars, and then I'm like yeah no shit I just gave it five stars. I prefer Seven Swans and Carrie and Lowell and I tend to be sparing on how much emo guy folky music I allow into my life, but as far as that stuff goes, this is primo.

A real QFM 96.3 classic here (Daddy Wags in the house). Thank you Ritchie Blackmore for your immortal contribution to beginner electric guitar lessons for dirtbag teenagers for over half a century now. Take it sleazy.

Think I got this CD when I was 19 in the last hurrah of Columbia House / BMG and had it for about 20 years. In that time I never listened to it all the way through. I realize now why not. Blowin' in the Wind, Girl From the North Country, and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right still hum for me. Mainly as I listened to it I developed a further appreciation for Timothy Chalamet's performance - although I still haven't made it all the way through that either.

I can safely say I've never listened to this much Duke Ellington continuously. Appreciate the history lesson, and very cool to be transported to a pre-rock-n-roll time where joyously yelling at jazz musicians was how you got your ya-yas out.

I listened to a fair amount of Ozzy solo in my youth, he was hard to avoid when you subscribed to multiple guitar magazines in the early 90s. Black Sabbath not so much, and I'm now wondering why their music was not played on the classic rock and hard rock stations, outside of Iron Man every once in a while. Also for some reason I thought Changes was an Ozzy song from the 80s/90s this whole time. This stuff is great.

Okay fine yes the Smiths are good, at least on this album. Morrissey has always been more of a meme to me than a musician, but yeah I GET IT. Some girls' mothers are bigger than other girls' mothers is indeed a lyric for which I must pay props.

I remember buying this CD with a Circuit City gift card around 2004. I must have listened to it quite a bit because I knew every song on here. Hadn't thought about this album in a long time, but it's damn near perfect.

Bjork is great. Fascinated to learn she put out an album when she was 11. I did love the last song, and Human Behavior was definitely an MTV staple of yesteryear, but chilling out to an album of Bjork just makes me nervous, bro.

Very solid. Totally new to me. Although I kept feeling like they sounded like a local band from Ohio or something that never made it big. Or like the soundtrack to a movie about a fictional rock band. Perhaps the vocals are just too musical theater for me. Or perhaps I don't have room in my heart for 90s rock bands for which I don't have a previous attachment. Further proof to me that this list is 1001 albums to listen to before you die as selected by an elder Gen X London hipster. But I'm going with it.

I love Fleetwood Mac but this feels coke-bloated. It's mostly solid, but can't say there's one song on here that really feels like a classic to me. It's like a Use Your Illusion without a November Rain.

Uhhhhhhhh....some of the bass lines were very cool. The album cover was also cool. Otherwise this sounds like open mic night at a coffeehouse in Venice Beach. What am I missing here folks?

I know people like Michael Stipe and Robert Smith were very inspired by Patti Smith and that's totes cool but Patti Smith mostly reminds me of a woman that worked with me at Pizza Hut in 1996 in Delaware, Ohio who did not like me and also scared the shit out of me.

Some obvious 5 star classics on here and some very good stuff that I didn't remember all that well from when I owned this album - e.g. Flip Flop Rock and Prototype - but man I can't condone an artist putting out a 135 minute album of two completely different solo albums with so much in the way of detour bordering on absolute frolic. As a 45 minute album of choice cuts, this is a clear five star album. I don't make the rules on how I rate these. Okay fine I do.

Very pleasantly surprised by the consistency and musicianship of this one. Had not heard this album before other than Brass In Pocket. Feels more similar to the Police than I was expecting. I googled to see if anyone had noticed the similarity between the opening guitar riff in Up the Neck to Def Leppard's Photograph. No one had. But they are for at least the first five notes.

Make fun all you want of the Dark Side of the Moon of CDs sold at Starbucks, but this is some smooth-ass shit and worthy of its accolades. Reminds me of a kinder, gentler nation.

Probably my favorite country album ever. Right in Time, 2 Kool to Be 4-gotten, Metal Firecracker, I Lost It, Drunken Angel are all perfect songs, and the rest of the album is pretty great too. Amazing voice, songwriting and guitar work. Need to get this on vinyl.

Radiohead is obviously a great band, The Bends is a 5 star album that to me is their best. This is pretty great too with some great songs, particularly Karma Police and Let Down. But I cannot abide the paranoia, which has since seemed to become Radiohead's whole brand. I know it might be a bit lame to say, but I do have this weird take that music should be fun and/or meet and comfort you in your lows, not make you feel exponentially and existentially worse. There are some great songs here that are buried in musical gloom, i.e. Climbing Up the Walls. Check out The Easy Dub All Stars cover version of this record, which is a 5 star album that matches the great songs on here with music that make you feel good rather than suicidal.

I think this is the first time I've listened to a Billy Joel album, much less one all the way through. I've always thought of him as Bruce Springsteen for dorks. I think I still feel that way. I get that Billy Joel is a legend, and I don't disagree, but we strictly do 80s Joel music, sir!

Just when I thought this list might be making me a Smiths fan - it certainly is trying with 3 of the first 43 entries being Smiths albums - this album came along and confirmed my prior stereotype that it's an alright band with one guy just kind of free associating in key.

This was pretty great. Being an avid subscriber of multiple guitar magazines in the early 90s, the specter of Jimi Hendrix was unavoidable, and rightly so. Very much a one of a kind and rightly holds the mantle of GOAT guitar hero. Can't help but wonder what strange and mysterious music he would have created if he stayed off the drugs. Had never listened to this entire album, and some stuff on here I'd never heard. Sounds decidedly less cheesy and dated than other late 60s rock albums that pop up on here, e.g. Jefferson Airplane. All that said, not all of it really translates to me in 2025 and some falls flat, but I'm the problem, not Jimi.

This was a little better than I thought it was going to be. Hadn't thought about Frozen and The Power of Good-Bye in decades so those were interesting sense memories. It's a fine album but let's not pretend it compares with her classic 80's output. I have to deduct a star because listening to this I was reminded of how when I was 15 in 1993 my friend and I were thrilled the box office girl sold us tickets to Body of Evidence thinking we were going to get all your 15 year old boy ya-yas out only to be subjected to the most boring movie I have ever seen. #neverforget

I'm getting pretty used to being disappointed by albums from the 60s on this list which sound dated and cheesy to me. This is pretty brilliant from start to finish. Hazy Shade of Winter - which like a good Gen X'er I associate with the Bangles - is underrated and amazing. I'm still not exactly sure what Art Garfunkel brought to the table, but it's undeniable that Simon and Garfunkel's music is so much more iconic than a lot of Paul Simon's later solo work.

Call it full-on middle age manhood, but I've found I cannot resist these classic 50s crooner records. The songwriting, the arrangements, the voices, it's like butt-ah to quote my dear friend Linda Richman. This one feels particularly perfect. And even though I kind of know Sinatra was like not a good guy, and that stuff often does get in the way of enjoying an artist for me, doesn't seem to matter here.

Definitely appreciate that Dire Straits is a one-of-a-kind band mixing a very specific kind of guitar virtuososity (and without distortion!) with thoughtful lyrics, songwriting, and an easy going almost yacht rock vibe, all with Dylan-esque vocals. I have a feeling Making Movies won't be on this list, but I think Romeo and Juliet stands as the best Dire Straits song. That said, it's a little repetitive for me and Dylan-esque is not really what I treasure in vocals.

We have a huge shortage of skilled nurses and yet we've got way too many people putting out albums like this.

Solid gold. Since Covid I've found so much of the music I used to find painfully boring in my younger years - Steely Dan, Frank Sinatra, hell even Bonnie Raitt - to be really interesting and entertaining. Sade is definitely one of those artists. (I still find Anita Baker boring, sorry Anita Baker). Smooth Operator as the opening song on a debut album is a Welcome To the Jungle level shot across the bow. So many of these albums are chores to get through and this is one where I was surprised and disappointed it was over. Also I appreciate a band where the name of the band is also the name of the singer. I'm going to write to the Band Name Bureau to see if I can get a full list of such bands.

There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again. Now let's order some pizzas, throw down some brews, and play Baba O'Riley on repeat.

A classic of my youth. I've listened to so many times in my life that it's hard to fully appreciate it anew, but still undeniable. Stairway and Black Dog were naturally some of the first songs I learned on guitar. Going to California still slays. Side B kind of slows down for me, and Houses of the Holy is still my favorite album to get the Led out, but c'mon people Stairway alone makes this a five-star album.

I would say that the lyrics are beyond ponderous, but considering the lead singer was 19, still way less ponderous than what I would have written (and did in fact write) at that age. Randy California is also an incontrovertibly fun name and I'm sad that there is not a guy named Randy California still around. His name alone gives this an extra star.

All these late 2000s bands named after animals and none of them had the cajones to actually dress up like the animals they claimed to be. Making whiny music doesn't make you an animal, it makes you a whiner. Speaking of which keep your eyes open for the hopefully late 2025 release of "Lighthouse" the debut album by Ghost Tyger & Friends which has a singer who does goes to the nines in dressing up like a tiger and does very little whining because REAL ANIMALS DON'T WHINE.

80 minutes of Zeppelin deep cuts and Kashmir works for me. Bron-Yr-Aur is beautiful - I remember getting the tab for that in a guitar magazine long before I heard the song and even with my imperfect playing it was great just based on the sheet music. Some slogs for sure but they are solid slogs.