When I was about 12 or 13, my best friend at the time had me over for a sleepover on a Friday night and we stayed up late and smoked cigarettes and chewed tobacco and listened to Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and this album. It was the first time I had heard the whole thing and I was blown away on how good it was. Not surprising after all those years ago, I still think this album is really good. Hard to find any flaws on it, and I'm not shocked that it was one of the best selling debut albums ever. 5/5 Can't miss tracks: More Than A Feeling Smokin' Hitch A Ride Yes, you should hear this album before you die. You'd be an idiot if you didn't.

FYI: I'm reviewing the Deluxe Edition which includes all of the singles and other stuff that Trent and gang were putting out around the release of this album. I'm a huge fan of NIN's early stuff meaning this album, Pretty Hate Machine, The Fragile (some of it), and Broken. This album ranks pretty high for me because it's such a huge departure from Pretty Hate Machine. Where PHM was designed and packaged for radio and MTV airplay, Downward Spiral goes all over the place. Closer being the lead single was pretty awesome though. It's the best song on this album, no contest. While I like the album enough to give it a 5 just for fanboying, I don't think it's as good as PHM which is a definite 5 out of 5. This is a solid 4 out of 5 for me.

When I was about 12 or 13, my best friend at the time had me over for a sleepover on a Friday night and we stayed up late and smoked cigarettes and chewed tobacco and listened to Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and this album. It was the first time I had heard the whole thing and I was blown away on how good it was. Not surprising after all those years ago, I still think this album is really good. Hard to find any flaws on it, and I'm not shocked that it was one of the best selling debut albums ever. 5/5 Can't miss tracks: More Than A Feeling Smokin' Hitch A Ride Yes, you should hear this album before you die. You'd be an idiot if you didn't.

Probably going to be a controversial album in the reviews, but I'll go right ahead and say this is my second favorite Van Halen album ever, including the Hagar stuff. It starts off with the electronic sync instrumental of 1984, which I KNOW pissed a lot of hardcore VH fans off immediately. What?!?! Van Halen is going New Wave?!?! What!?!?!! But then it hits you like a steam train.. Jump, Panama, Top Jimmy and finishing off the first side with the amazing Drop Dead Legs. I mean, those 4 songs all in a row are straight bangers. The guitar work is amazing, the vocals are great, everything is just perfect. Side 2 starts with Hot For Teacher and what a doozie out of the gate. I remember playing this in 4th grade with my friend because we literally DID have the hots for our 4th grade teacher who was maybe 23, 24 at the time and gorgeous, and I was just realizing that girls are pretty cute when they don't have cooties. I'll Wait was a track I skipped, but now I listen to it more as I found out that Michael McDoanld helped the boys write this tune, and it makes it a more interesting song. Definitely not a typical Van Halen song, but still really good. Girl Gone Bad and House of Pain are straight up strip club songs as Van Halen was going right after the Motley Crue fans. Simple as that. Is it good for their image? No, they broke up after this album... well they didn't break up, but David Lee Roth left to do his own thing, and actually had a couple of solid solo albums with the help of Steve Vai. The rest of the boys hooked with Sammy Hagar and you know how that came out. Good, but just not the same. 1984 was a bittersweet goodbye to the old Van Halen, but I still think overall, it's one of their most complete and well done records. 5/5

Ahh yes, the album that Jane's Addiction sold out. Well, that's what the cool kids always like to say. I wouldn't say they sold out. They got better, and this album is proof of it. It's a shame they couldn't perform or work better together because this album is magic. Screw you, Perry. Let's take a deeper dive since I know this album inside out, having heard it too many times to count. The album starts off with Stop! which just rocks right of the gate, and then following is No One's Leaving where you start to hear how fucking good Dave Navarro is on guitar. Perry Ferrell's lyrics and voice are like an instrument as well, and Eric Avery on bass and Stephen Perkins on drums are all going at it. Just check out how insane the drumming is on this song. The bass intro to Ain't No Right is so damn good.. again, this is like surfing, you start paddling out (Perry's weird ramblings), and then you paddle paddle paddle and you're up and going as the guitar and drums come in. So damn good. Obvious is my favorite song on the album, again, just pure magic on the guitar from Navarro. Been Caught Stealing was Jane's biggest hit to date, save maybe "Jane Says", but this is the one that put them on the MTV radar. It's a good song, not totally my favorite, but still solid. Three Days and Then She Did... are rock opera opus material stuff. The guitar solo in Three Days is so epic, it's almost 2 and a half minutes long. The last 2 songs are Of Course which kind of drags on a bit too long and Classic Girl is a classic love song to end the album and the end of the first era of Jane's Addiction. They would come back together, but nothing they did ever came close to how good their first 3 albums were, culminating in this one. 5/5