232
Albums Rated
3.28
Average Rating
21%
Complete
857 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
Rating Timeline
Taste Profile
2000
Favorite Decade
Hip-hop
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
24
5-Star Albums
12
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Freak Out!
The Mothers Of Invention
|
5 | 2.83 | +2.17 |
|
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Lucinda Williams
|
5 | 3 | +2 |
|
Nighthawks At The Diner
Tom Waits
|
5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
|
Roger the Engineer
The Yardbirds
|
5 | 3.11 | +1.89 |
|
Achtung Baby
U2
|
5 | 3.3 | +1.7 |
|
Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
|
5 | 3.3 | +1.7 |
|
Nebraska
Bruce Springsteen
|
5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
|
The College Dropout
Kanye West
|
5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
|
It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Public Enemy
|
5 | 3.36 | +1.64 |
|
Songs Of Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
|
5 | 3.38 | +1.62 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Aja
Steely Dan
|
1 | 3.47 | -2.47 |
|
Pretzel Logic
Steely Dan
|
1 | 3.39 | -2.39 |
|
Garbage
Garbage
|
1 | 3.38 | -2.38 |
|
Countdown To Ecstasy
Steely Dan
|
1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
|
John Barleycorn Must Die
Traffic
|
1 | 3.17 | -2.17 |
|
Aha Shake Heartbreak
Kings of Leon
|
1 | 2.97 | -1.97 |
|
One World
John Martyn
|
1 | 2.82 | -1.82 |
|
Basket of Light
Pentangle
|
1 | 2.76 | -1.76 |
|
Take Me Apart
Kelela
|
1 | 2.75 | -1.75 |
|
Doolittle
Pixies
|
2 | 3.74 | -1.74 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Johnny Cash | 3 | 4.67 |
| Beatles | 3 | 4.67 |
| Miles Davis | 2 | 5 |
| Radiohead | 3 | 4.33 |
| Stevie Wonder | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Steely Dan | 3 | 1 |
| Kings of Leon | 2 | 1.5 |
Controversial
| Artist | Ratings |
|---|---|
| Curtis Mayfield | 5, 2 |
5-Star Albums (24)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
N.W.A. · 1 likes
4/5
I grew up in a culture that was horrified by gangsta rap, and I still have trouble reading it as reflecting a different experience because of its aggression and misogyny.
I tried to listen to this thru the prism of the imprecatory psalms, poems that lamented and sometimes wished for violence to befall their enemies -- and that actually helped me appreciate the anger as well as the desire to insist upon one's dignity, even in a roundabout way that plays into patriarchal or tribalist logics.
I came away from this feeling like it was a force of nature, especially the early tracks. I don't know if I'll ever go back to it -- I don't love what kind of person it asks me to be to really embrace it -- but it certainly to me places and stretched me.
Tom Tom Club · 1 likes
3/5
I couldn't tell if they were trying to be funny or not on most of these tracks. Are these songs what they spoof on Portlandia?
Some of the lyrics are prosaic, and in other songs it's like they were running out of money for lyrics and just had to keep reusing the same lines. That can be effective if you can assure your audience you're in control of it. When I imagined then just having fun and being goofy, I enjoyed it a lot more.
Tito Puente · 1 likes
4/5
This doesn't have to be your favorite music, but something may be wrong with you if you don't find it irresistible.
Buck Owens · 1 likes
2/5
Took a couple listens not to feel like this was some of the cheesiest county I'd ever heard, like he was parodying himself. One you get past the self-satisfied smile in many of the songs, you can appreciate some of the pathos that the humor is covering up. Still not one I expect to return to, but I can appreciate why some of his stuff was influential.
Steely Dan · 1 likes
1/5
You're killing me, Smalls.
1-Star Albums (12)
All Ratings
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
Kind of a electro Gothic vibe with at times almost belligerently repetitive, almost monotonic melodies. Feel like I can hear the seeds of acts as different as The Pretenders and The B-52s.
Eels
4/5
Musically really interesting, feels very personal while still exploring the medium itself. A little uneven in that it starts strong but flags towards the end.
Throbbing Gristle
3/5
Less an album of songs than a series of soundscapes for an Alex Garland run of Black Mirror. Evokes a sense of fragmentation, disarray, and paranoia.
Cream
5/5
I mean, c'mon. Just a great album with so many great hooks and drum fills.
Franz Ferdinand
4/5
Fun and upbeat
Goldfrapp
2/5
This one didn't do much for me. Lots of soft vocals and mellow moods, but I never felt hooked. I liked some of what happened musically on "Little Bird" and"Monster Love ."
Iron Maiden
2/5
I can see the musical talent, but this wasn't my thing in the 80s, and it's not my thing now. The first couple tracks were all right, but for the just pay the melodies didn't do it for me.
k.d. lang
3/5
I don't know much about lang or country music from the 80s, so I was surprised at how old-fashioned this sounded. Maybe it makes more sense in context. She's got a great voice, and there's some fun stuff on here. I'm open to hearing more from her, but it hasn't quite made me a fan
Fugazi
4/5
Starts really strong but gets a little long by the end. Like a lot of punk, a lot about a vibe as much as the music, but there's also plenty of good rocking happening here.
The Divine Comedy
2/5
Gave it two listens and can't get past the campy lounge act quality. If the lyrics weren't so banal, they may have saved it for me.
The Beach Boys
5/5
While there are certainly several great songs on here, this isn't the kind of thing I would choose to listen to, normally. But it's also clearly a different kind of album; it's like you can feel it's significance even today.
Michael Jackson
4/5
There are, like, five great tracks on here and four cringey ones.
Pet Shop Boys
4/5
I was just fighting with my girlfriend about how irritating synths were in the 80s, and then I get this album. Doesn't totally redeem the aesthetic, but it feels less manipulative and melodramatic. Nothing here sticks out, exactly, but each track has something interesting going on, and it was enough to get me to explore more of their stuff.
Dusty Springfield
4/5
I didn't realize so many of her iconic tracks were on this one album. But, then, there are a lot of tracks here. I don't hold her up against my favorite female vocalists, but a lot of these tunes are lodged in my head, and I don't mind.
Miles Davis
5/5
The first track is more of a soundscape than a melody, though it also has movements, and you're either going to go with it or resist it.
The title track is easier to settle into and is really beautiful.
Not the easiest thing to get into, but reading reviews and appreciation of this album confirms some impressions and gives language for others: psychedelic, fusion, minimalism, negative capability. One guy compared it to Dylan going electric.
Like so much of Davis's work, this album deserves to be listened to on vinyl on a hot night with a bottle of wine. It grows on me every time I hear it.
U2
5/5
I don't know that I've ever listened to this straight through, but it's so good.
Funkadelic
4/5
That first track is majestic; the rest is a ton of fun.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
This album stood back so much of what makes his music exciting and let's the storytelling shine through. Even when he gets sentimental or slows the tempo down farther than seems necessary, he's so tapped into the dynamic of hope for redemption versus wandering through purgatory as described in the idiom of the American Dream that it's still always poignant.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
I never really listened to Cohen other than heading songs here and there. I've always liked him, tho listening to a lot of him in a row reveals how much he likes certain song structures. Still very good storytelling, and many some are compelling while you hear them even if it's hard to remember the melodies, such as they are.
Buck Owens
2/5
Took a couple listens not to feel like this was some of the cheesiest county I'd ever heard, like he was parodying himself. One you get past the self-satisfied smile in many of the songs, you can appreciate some of the pathos that the humor is covering up. Still not one I expect to return to, but I can appreciate why some of his stuff was influential.
Paul Simon
4/5
I've known this album for years, and it took me a lot of listens to really appreciate. It's one of those albums that I don't necessarily choose, but when I hear it, it always takes me on a journey.
Garbage
1/5
Okay, this is the first one I feel I have enough context and familiarity to wonder why it's on this list. I liked it fine in H.S., but even then "Only Hair When it Rains" felt a little disingenuous, or at least like a lyric that's trying too hard and also not hard enough. It brings back some memories, but I don't know that I feel one *must* listen to it.
Finley Quaye
3/5
Found a lot of this interesting and fun, some of it was a little meandering. Liked "Supreme I Preme."
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
I feel like this was a band the "real" music kids were into. This album wasn't enough to help me understand them; they should have gone with Loveless, which is more accessible. M b v feels like an album you like if you already like the band. Also, do the lyrics actually matter, or are they just more texture? I don't think I understood a single line.
Jorge Ben Jor
3/5
A lot of fun stuff on here. Doesn't grab me quite the same as Burns Vista Social Club, say, but someone I'll keep exploring.
The Byrds
3/5
I don't think of The Byrds as a band I love, but they are uniquely able to put me in another state of consciousness, wch is not nothing.
The Teardrop Explodes
2/5
Bob Marley & The Wailers
4/5
A strong album, and it led me to a few other acts like The Frightners.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
4/5
Randy Newman
3/5
This is a guy who's really got his own thing going, and sometimes it's fun or poignant, and sometimes it feels rambly. It's never something that has grabbed me when I'd I can appreciate it conceptually. I liked "Louisiana, 1972."
Nanci Griffith
4/5
4/5
Maybe not a perfect album, but the first half is so strong that I don't really care. I didn't grow up with but came to it in college, so the nostalgia factor is not strong. It made an impression then and still grabs me now.
Steely Dan
1/5
Today I learned I don't care at all about Steely Dan. Literally skipped thru every song. Just felt so cheesy.
George Harrison
4/5
There's nothing on here that hits me as hard as his Beatles stuff, but I still find it a powerful album. Possibly his most personal, but still with his characteristic sense of the absurd.
Sam Cooke
3/5
Lots of great energy here, and you can see why he was popular. It's a different side of him than I know from the radio, for sure. I didn't really love any of the arrangements, tho. It felt like a lot of show without real emotion. I'm sure it was fun to be there, and it's interesting as a document, but I guess it's not what I enjoy about Sam Cooke.
Johnny Cash
5/5
This album has some great music, though it doesn't have a lot of my favorite Cash sounds even from that era. But it's about the performance and the immersive feel of it and the way he connects with his audience. However edited it may be, it still feels like a moment, an event, and it's iconic.
Black Sabbath
4/5
Was not into metal growing up, do I learned a lot today and was pleasantly surprised.
Ministry
3/5
Beatles
5/5
Wire
3/5
White Denim
3/5
This was fun and unexpected in the way they explored so many different sounds.
The Band
2/5
I know people love these guys, but I had a hard time connecting with this one.
Kelela
1/5
Marilyn Manson
2/5
I actually appreciate some of the musicality, here, but this is the music of a deeply hurt person who is shrieking his pain at the universe. It's too dark for me to listen to.
Jacques Brel
2/5
The Go-Go's
3/5
Light and playful, and it led me to Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's, which had more interesting music.
Tortoise
4/5
Dusty Springfield
4/5
Her debut album, which was on this list earlier, was fun, but this album has some of that same joy plus more depth and range. You can hear how much she has matured as an artist in a few years. That said, some of the later tracks on the expanded edition feel like she's casting a wide net, searching for something that will connect.
Coldplay
3/5
John Martyn
1/5
Radiohead
4/5
Stevie Wonder
4/5
Beck
4/5
I like this side of Beck.
Wild Beasts
3/5
I think I could get into these guys if I can just figure out what to do with those vocals.
Eric Clapton
3/5
Some good stuff, but it doesn't show off his real talents.
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
This doesn't feel like an album; it's a whole soundscape, a cinematic experience. You don't even have to "like" all the songs; they just take you somewhere that only they can take you.
Milton Nascimento
3/5
Raekwon
4/5
Metallica
2/5
I was willing to hang with this for the first couple tracks, the grandeur, the bombast -- it didn't strike me as different in spirit from a lot of metal. But after 15 or 20 minutes I had had my fill.
Common
4/5
The White Stripes
4/5
Emmylou Harris
4/5
Not my favorite album of hers, but still a lot in here that showcases the best of what she can do. Worth the listen if only for "Boulder to Birmingham" and "For No One."
Elliott Smith
4/5
"Angeles" & "Pictures of Me" stood out most to me on this very mellow collection of tunes. I can imagine having been really into him if I had found him in college, but I wasn't able to give it a close enough listen to really connect with anything. That said, I let it play off and on all day because it really creates its own world, which is a unique achievement.
The Byrds
3/5
The Byrds have always been an interesting novelty to me without ever really connecting. I can appreciate all the genre mixing and experimentation, but none of it really elevates any of the songs, wch on this album probably play better stoned.
2/5
I think one has to be in the right mood to give this a real shot. Otherwise it's very chaotic and hard to find the melody that's holding it together.
Stevie Wonder
4/5
I like a lot of Stevie Wonder songs (how can you not?) but often find the albums as a whole are not as captivating. This one has a lot of highs if not a lot of real earworms, but if only for "Superstition" I feel I have to give it a 4.
Electric Light Orchestra
2/5
This is a sound it would take me a long time to get into. There are moments that I start to get it, like "Mr Blue Skies," but so much feels corny to me.
Eagles
3/5
I know there are Eagles haters out there, and I'm not going to die on that hill, but they could write a catchy song and, when they had a mind to, a good guitar riff.
Tito Puente
4/5
This doesn't have to be your favorite music, but something may be wrong with you if you don't find it irresistible.
Louis Prima
3/5
I have a feeling this guy would irritate me if I saw him perform, but as recordings it's a lot of fun.
Willie Nelson
3/5
I like the concept for this concept album, and I'd like to like Willie Nelson more, but while this grew on me after a second listen, I still had trouble connecting with it.
The Verve
3/5
Slint
4/5
These guys were new to me, but they found a groove in my brain and were really working for me. I just hope he wasn't saying anything important, cuz the vocals were not easy to hear.
Public Enemy
5/5
This album is like a force of nature.
Morrissey
3/5
I can appreciate this, but I feel like it's the kind of thing that you have to find at the right time in your life.
The Byrds
3/5
Liked this a lot more than Byrd Brothers and helps me see how people got so into these guys.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
4/5
You can't go too wrong when half the album winds up on Chronicle.
Magazine
3/5
Sepultura
2/5
I can appreciate the technical skill, but it's hard not to feel like all the songs sound alike. I guess it's not for me.
Le Tigre
3/5
Prolly not a group I'll spend a lot of time with, but I enjoyed the encounter, especially the way they are more than just a punk middle finger to whatever but show their genuine appreciation for bubble gum pop.
Coldplay
4/5
This album feels more mature and sophisticated than the other one we had, tho I'd have to listen more closely to figure out why. They're the kind of group I like in moderation, but they get so much radio play when a new single drops that I think it turns me off. Anyway, I enjoyed the chance to spend time with this album.
Country Joe & The Fish
4/5
I've never really listened to these guys, but I found them really entertaining in a similar way that Louis Prima was -- not really connecting personally but still fun to have on while driving or making lunch.
Brian Eno
4/5
It's the guy from every third NYT crossword! I don't know that I've ever actually heard him, but I think I'm going to be exploring more. I appreciate his sense of melody and the meditative quality of much of the album.
The Smiths
4/5
I suppose anytime a group has internal friction it's hard not to take sides, wch is what a lot of the reviews seem to do. But however you may feel about each individually, you can't really separate them musically -- and that can energize the music with a fruitful tension, or in the case of The Smiths, emotional contrast. Marr's energetic, often bright or effervescent guitar wants to be pop punk, but Morrissey wants to be a subculture troubadour, and together they stretch the canvas of each song across a broader range of emotion than they could if they were more in sync.
For me, it's compelling and interesting even when a song doesn't quite take form, making them unavoidable regardless of how you feel about them.
Steely Dan
1/5
You can call it tight harmonies if you like, I guess, but to me the vocals just sound blurry. In fact, the whole sound feels like you're listening to them behind glass at a supper club. There's wood paneling on the walls and everything looks like it was filmed directly onto VHS.
Megadeth
2/5
Technical skill aside, something about their vibe feels like a schtick, wch I guess is fair enough -- all performers have stage personae -- but I guess I'm not buying.
The Libertines
3/5
I dunno, I thought they were interesting enough to let Spotify run and play me other stuff.
Neil Young
3/5
Liked the blues-iness of this and generally enjoyed it musically, but it feels like something I'd need to give closer attention to to really appreciate.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
3/5
Tom Waits
5/5
Part jazz concert, part stand-up, part performance art, entirely a good time with a an intelligent entertainer.
Prince
4/5
The Everly Brothers
3/5
This is truly music from a different era; it feels difficult to imagine ever being this innocent as a culture -- and of course, we weren't, we were in denial, but if you can settle into a certain pop music space, the energy and the harmonies here are still compelling.
Fleet Foxes
3/5
Every time I hear Fleet Fixed, I imagine then trying to come up with a concept for the band and someone going, "How about ethereal male harmonies?" and everyone else going, "Yes! That's what the people have been waiting for!"
I do actually like their sound, but I've never locked in with them or their quivering forests. Hard to say why -- maybe it's a little feeling that the whole thing is a schtick. Like, they're not exactly exploring the style so much as showing off that they can do it?
Led Zeppelin
4/5
"Immigrant Song" is, of course, awesome, and there are lots of hints at what's coming in IV, but this stands on its own really well with great energy and range.
Norah Jones
4/5
It's been years since I've listened to this, and I was a little worried it would feel like an album that had served its purpose and was more a document than an experience. Well, it does feel of its time in places, but in others, Jones's thoughtful piano playing and probing voice still pulled me out of myself.
Kinda fun to see where Rod Stewart started, and I liked some of the blues influence. Did not turn me into a Faces fan, tho.
Björk
4/5
Like so many artists, I didn't really find Björk until college, at wch point my first inclination was to think she was trying too hard to be weird. But it's clear she's not just hitting random notes to be provocative; she's in control of whatever it is she's doing, wch on this album sounds like some kind of techno jazz? I spent the most time with "Post," but this is still challenging and compelling in its own right.
Miles Davis
5/5
Do I understand this album? No. Do I groove with each of its tracks? No. Do I even feel touched at an emotional level? Not exactly.
So why the hell do I like this album so much? I think it's because of its ability to create soundscapes that, even more than 50 years later, feel unexplored and possible. There's an optimism and curiosity and boldness and ebullience to this album that keeps me coming back.
Traffic
1/5
I feel about Steve Winwood the way the Korean family felt about Frank Costanza: "This guy... This is not my kind of guy."
I saw him and Clapton at the United Center once, just the two of them jamming in acoustic guitars, and frankly, it was boring.
Listening to this album, I felt like Elaine telling Jerry about all the things she had asked with him, with the appropriate modifications: "Skip, skip, skip, skip, skip."
Sorry, Steve, no soup for you. Next!
Manic Street Preachers
2/5
Steely Dan
1/5
You're killing me, Smalls.
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
I feel like I've been traumatized by proxy. There's all the violence and bravado and misogyny that freaked people out in the 90s, but there's also a lot of creativity and vulnerability and candor that makes you felt like the machismo is compensation.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
I'm learning that Stevie Wonder albums often take me a couple listens to really lock in, and then even if I didn't love the while things, I usually can't deny the guy's got all the rizz.
He can write hooks, but it seems more often he wanders around inside the music to explore an idea that is also a feeling, which is perhaps why every tune pushes against itself with weird minor or discordant elements. But if you're able to give him your attention, you'll at least go on a ride, and you may even resonate with his vulnerability and passion.
And then other times he's just really fun. "Boogie Woman" and "You Haven't Done Nothingl'" are easy favorites, but I also liked " Heaven" and "Too Shy to Say."
Fiona Apple
4/5
Listening to the whole album helps me appreciate her soulfulness and creativity as a songwriter beyond the radio hits. This is something I could have gotten really into in college had I encountered it.
Amy Winehouse
4/5
The sound she creates that feels both from another era and totally fresh is a real achievement, and beyond that, it's just pretty irresistible. The energy of the music often masks the rawness of the confessional quality of the lyrics. She's not just complaining about men, she's admitting her own dysfunctions, too.
XTC
2/5
There were several tracks on this album. The songs were played by musicians. One guy sang the words.
Sister Sledge
3/5
This album starts with really fun tracks, has some okay ones. I'm not sure and of these songs really shows off their true talents; the energy of the songs does a lot of the work.
Bon Jovi
3/5
I don't know that Bon Jovi has anything to say to us, but he can be fun when you're open to it. The first 5 tracks here are fun and have a good energy, then it starts to get corny and melodramatic, and the thinness of it can't keep me anymore.
David Holmes
2/5
Outside of Moby, I've never really gotten the DJ thing, at least not as an album that would be the center of attention. I thought I could get into this at first, but about 1/3 of the way thru it was losing me.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
Another example of an album that Van do what it does really well for about half the run time. I was with the psychedelic blues and Joplin's voice at least thru Turtle Blues, but then it starts to devolve into stuff that might play better live it in the background but feels too formless for focused attention.
There's solid musicianship here, but Joplin obviously elevates it, or rather, transforms it, into something primal desperate.
Orbital
3/5
File under: Leads into a good Spotify playlist for listening to at work.
Anthrax
2/5
They're good at playing fast, but neither the music nor the storytelling got through to me.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
1/5
I know there's some kind of cult following of these guys, but one has to wonder if it's because of the music itself or something else, because the music itself seems intentionally off-putting, making itself as unpalatable as possible to troll the squares. This album was made in a similarly turbulent, chaotic, and frightening time for our democracy to the present, but I didn't feel the music was emerging from or even naming the chaos so much as adding to it. Was it the 6-7 of its day? The joke is that it's a joke?
All that said, there are a couple moments when folksy or bluesy melodies peek out, and I'd start to think I could get on board, but then it'd go away.
I don't like Meatloaf, either. Is the listen to beware of bovine-themed music?
Metallica
4/5
I don't know exactly why this works better for me than other metal. I think I just like the melodies better.
The Coral
4/5
Never heard of these guys, but I enjoyed this quite a bit. I pictured They Might Be Giants singing British Invasion psychedelic rock with a punk band. There's a lot of playfulness here, but there's enough musicianship to be entertaining.
N.W.A.
4/5
I grew up in a culture that was horrified by gangsta rap, and I still have trouble reading it as reflecting a different experience because of its aggression and misogyny.
I tried to listen to this thru the prism of the imprecatory psalms, poems that lamented and sometimes wished for violence to befall their enemies -- and that actually helped me appreciate the anger as well as the desire to insist upon one's dignity, even in a roundabout way that plays into patriarchal or tribalist logics.
I came away from this feeling like it was a force of nature, especially the early tracks. I don't know if I'll ever go back to it -- I don't love what kind of person it asks me to be to really embrace it -- but it certainly to me places and stretched me.
Don McLean
3/5
I was hoping to find some sleepers on here -- the guy who wrote "American Pie" surely had some other good songs that somehow slipped out of radio play, right?
Apparently, "Vincent" made the charts, but I wouldn't rate it among my faves from this album, partly because it has such a sleepy melody like many songs here. McLean's voice can convey enough pathos to almost carry them, but then he likes to sort of wander around in the melodies like he hasn't quite committed to them. Compare Joni Mitchell, whose melodies are also unconventional and can make wild and unexpected shifts, but there's a strong core that she swings around on like monkey bars or a balance beam.
I want to like "Winterwood" and "Everybody Loves Me, Baby" more than I do; they feel close to being really good for different reasons. "Empty Chairs" is similar, though it has an intimacy that got to me, not to mention hitting close to home on a personal level.
So, lots of thoughts on this album that I ultimately only thought was okay. But I could see putting it on a folk playlist for a coffee shop or camping or something.
Eagles
2/5
No thank you
Donovan
2/5
The songs you know from this album are pretty much all the songs you need to know. I was trying to figure out why Led Zeppelin and Cream can sing about dragons and mists and castles and I'm fine with it, but I had little patience for Donovan's princesses, and I think it's cuz those other songs are musically good songs and I don't care about the storytelling. Donovan's Neo-Raphaelite thing is more about the lyrics than the shapeless music.
The Zombies
3/5
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
Another artist I typically like when I hear him but haven't given a lot of close attention. Wainwright has a lack for plaintive melodies, poignant lyrics, and dramatic, even flamboyant instrumentation that avoids camp and cringe both. Had to listen to this album in a car with three friends, so maybe this vote is a little more for the artist than the album itself.
Air
3/5
Maybe we need more of this kind of chill, atmospheric music these days. It's hard for me to imagine being all in on something like this, but something for the focus and work playlist? Sure.
Roxy Music
4/5
This band feels like it's both ahead of its time and on its own wavelength. It flirts with pop while always racing beyond it, or maybe it's that they just aren't constitutionally able to stay in that lane. This isn't music that immediately grabs me, but at the same time it's hard to turn off.
Jimmy Smith
3/5
Was more excited by the description than the music, which has a decent enough groove. Led to a weird playlist of cool jazz and precursors to smooth jazz.
Tom Tom Club
3/5
I couldn't tell if they were trying to be funny or not on most of these tracks. Are these songs what they spoof on Portlandia?
Some of the lyrics are prosaic, and in other songs it's like they were running out of money for lyrics and just had to keep reusing the same lines. That can be effective if you can assure your audience you're in control of it. When I imagined then just having fun and being goofy, I enjoyed it a lot more.
Radiohead
5/5
This is an endlessly exciting album for me. Almost every track takes a surprising turn, is full of experimentation, and it still has a ton of pathos. Certainly has a nostalgia factor, too, but this seems like an undeniably brilliant album.
The Shamen
2/5
Not really my thing, though I found parts of it at least interesting as upbeat work music.
Joy Division
4/5
Didn't get to give this a close listen, but it was intriguing and energizing when I could.
System Of A Down
4/5
After a couple of days' news of new political horrors justified by mobs of complacent and nihilistic Christian nationalists, this album hit just right. They also have the musicality to make songs with an often surprising mix of rage, sadness, and playfulness.
Destiny's Child
4/5
This is not a genre I spend any time in, like, at all. But this album is undeniably strong, showcasing great songwriting, beautiful and evocative harmonies, and Beyoncé's seemingly preternatural vocal sensibilities that that always feel right.
Kings of Leon
2/5
This feels like something I should like, but I have this mental block with certain groups over things they can't necessarily help. These guys remind me a little of Mumford and Sons in that, with both, I find the lead singer's voice gratingly earnest in a way that feels arch, like he thinks he's hot shit. It's a turn off.
R.E.M.
3/5
R.E.M. are such a part of the fabric of my musical life that I can't be impartial. I don't universally love everything they do, but they got me through some hard times, and for that reason alone anything I hear them I feel a certain affection and gratitude.
Murmur is good enough. Like lots of albums, it peters out toward the end a bit. It's more a document for me than a direct emotional tie.
I'm not sure I get why the wiki places them in relation to punk other than needing to differentiate them from bigger rock acts. I don't hear the animus of punk nor the scrappiness, and the compositions feel too tight. But whatevs.
The Adverts
3/5
3/5
I like their punk Kinks kind of sound on several tracks; "Colin Zeal" is even an attempt at their own "Well Respected Man." This was intriguing enough musically to keep me listening, but the storytelling kinda circles the same few ideas, and none of the tracks quite jumps out enough for me. But I appreciated the excuse to give them a real listen.
Cat Stevens
3/5
Stevens' earnestness, occasional weak lyrics, and something about the timbre of his voice make me want to find him cringey, and sometimes I do, but other times I can appreciate the attempt to explore genuine questions. "Father and Son" is of course strong, but even there I'm not sure how deep the feelings go. One reviewer said he relies too much on dynamics for emotion, and I hear that in this album.
Happy Mondays
2/5
There were a lot of things going on with these songs that made me really want to like them, but I found myself forgetting to listen all day, so I guess there wasn't enough.
Korn
1/5
I know people love these guys, but I never caught the bug, and this album didn't do it. It feels closer to Marilyn Manson in its impotent rage that feels more like a tantrum than declaration, insistence, or even resistance. Except that it also feels like teenagers that think lots of obscenity, homophobia, and rape-yness counts as sticking it to the man of squares or whatever.
Hawkwind
2/5
This was prolly a real experience to have been at and would perhaps make for a good concert film, and it is prolly satisfying if you already like them, but I could not stay interested long enough to finish the first disc.
Pulp
4/5
Maybe the mood was just right or something, but I really enjoyed this despite it having many features that often don't work for me. I think there's just enough self-awareness as well as gravity to sell the dramatics.
Traffic
3/5
Whatever Steve Winwood album we had before felt a lot different from this. This has me thinking about the Beatles and Cream and the whole psychedelic blues thing that was going on for a while there, and for the first 4 or 5 tracks I was really into it. After that, it starts to feel repetitive.
The Cramps
3/5
These songs didn't get me super excited or anything, but they have an energy and enough musicality that I let the album run a couple times over the course of the day.
Lauryn Hill
5/5
This album feels so complete and rich and miraculous. Like, how are all the harmonies and vocalizations exactly right every time? Hill takes us on a varied, personal, and profound journey musically and thematically. It's a statement, it's a confession, it's a vision of paradise. Some albums feel like grenades, some like immersive films -- this album is a crossbow dart piercing the veil of the invisible world. It's probably a top 10 album for me.
Paul McCartney
4/5
The best work the Beatles did after the breakup were their first solo albums. This album isn't perfect and perhaps would just be an interesting document were it not for "Maybe I'm Amazed," but every time I listen to it, I feel like I'm hearing a kid tooling around in his room with instruments and recording equipment and discovering his love of music. It's intimate and exploratory and shows Paul at his creative best insofar as he's a guy with tons of songs and song ideas bouncing around in his head.
Booker T. & The MG's
3/5
As a backing band? Yes. Soundtrack to a playful movie or video game? Absolutely. As an album to sit and listen to on its own? Eh ... I guess I didn't get it.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
4/5
Bold choice for an album cover, but Basie delivers with an explosive opening number. This was full of fun and entertaining music that certainly led into more great music for my work day.
Yes
2/5
No
Okay, I got that out of my system. Apparently I'm not that into prog rock, because every time I hear something that's called that, it doesn't do anything for me. I can appreciate some of the harmonies and some of the tracks were fun, but ultimately not my speed.
Talking Heads
4/5
Beatles
4/5
I mean, there aren't any Beatles albums I think are "bad," though I was surprised to see this rank so highly on so many lists. In many ways it feels like a continuation of Please Please Me, though they already sound more produced and tighter, like a band learning how to use the studio differently than the club stage. I prolly like the original songs on Please Please Me more but the covers here more; they were so good at making covers sound fresh and exciting without obscuring the original.
Black Sabbath
3/5
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
2/5
I was feeling open to this for the first 3 tracks, but then they lost me. I've never been big into electronic music, anyway.
Sebadoh
4/5
After giving them a second listen, I started to appreciate this more. I can hear a lot of different indie artists here, though mostly they sound like Pedro the Lion having a good day. They're scrappy, goofy, energetic... I could see them growing on me.
The Cure
4/5
This prefigures emo a bit, but I like this side of the Cure more than their more mainstream stuff.
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
I've been reading the reviews of people who are meh on this album and just can't see it. I can see it not being your favorite Springsteen album or not making your top 100, but I can't see not responding with it at all. Even when he's not at the top of his have as a songwriter, Springsteen is very good at tapping into fundamental hopes and desires of the American psyche -- in a way that makes me realize I'm more American than I sometimes want to believe.
Here he's wrestling with the questions of national identity, character, and patriotism that strained us as a nation after 9/11, and like so many of his best earlier songs, many of the songs here put us in a place of disappointment, critique, and sadness while still inviting us to hope that we can be better than we have been.
If anything, it feels almost quaint in our current context when it doesn't feel like many of our fellow citizens harbor the same dreams anymore, so one wonders if this version of America really ever existed or can exist again. There are few artists able to confront us with these questions in rich ways that speak to as wide a swath of the American spirit as does Springsteen.
Pixies
2/5
This one felt like they were throwing a lot of stuff at the wall to see what stuck, but none of it take stuck with me.
Beatles
5/5
I don't know how you can't love this album. It's full of such joyful music grounded in the gravity and simplicity of fundamental desires, driven by a youthful energy that wants to conquer the world, stretched beyond the ordinary by sensitive harmonies, and elevated by a vein of vulnerability you can almost miss. And it's prolly not even their best record.
Malcolm McLaren
3/5
I don't see this entering regular rotation, but it felt interesting as a document of a time.
Django Django
4/5
There's a weird corner of the sonosphere where Fleet Foxes, The Beach Boys, Portugal the Man, space jazz, and something else intersect, and these guys found it. Extra points for keeping me guessing.
Method Man
4/5
Amy Winehouse
4/5
This album isn't as big and flashy as Back to Black, nor does it have the same caliber of hooks and melodies, but I felt like it was more thoughtful and intimate.
Kendrick Lamar
4/5
This is one that will take several listens to really sink in. Musically and lyrically, you feel like you're in the presence of a capacious mind capable of making thematic, metaphoric, and metonymic connections just about anywhere.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Wound up hearing this, like, three times yesterday, and each time there were moments I thought I liked it and others when it was just fine. They sort of straddle a line between The Smiths and The Cure, wch isn't a bad thing. Can't say any track really grabbed me; maybe "Killing Moon."
Tangerine Dream
3/5
Okay, so on my kitchen radio or in my car, during my morning routine, this was not hitting right -- too formless and vague. Later in the afternoon on my TV with my sound bar, it was a different experience. I found more of it grabbing my attention (away from work) and making me feel at least something. It makes sense they do film and video games scores; these aren't quite sit-by-the-speaker songs.
Janelle Monáe
4/5
I'm a bit of a sucker for a concept album; I'm impressed by anyone who can cast and execute a coherent vision like that. This would take me several closer listens to decide if I love it, but I was definitely intrigued, surprised, entertained, and delighted. I couldn't pay enough attention to the lyrics to follow any themes she was developing, but the album art and the music itself seemed clearly enough about imagining alternate futures for black folk -- and all Americans, really -- and they are futures I would be very open to at the moment.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
2/5
I don't have any good reason for not being more into this, since a lot of it is kinda in my wheelhouse, but it's just okay for me.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
2/5
Good for background music at work, but it wasn't enough to keep me actively engaged whilst out and about yesterday.
4/5
I know people who think The Kinks were the best British band of the 60s and 70s. Albums like this help me appreciate how they may have felt like a viable alternative to the other two; there's a bit of a punk feel to a lot of it, tho maybe in that art student way that is self aware and sometimes a little cute.
I found these songs compelling for their energy and satire. Even when I thought things were weak or off, I still felt a draw to the imagination behind it all, wch is no small thing.
MC Solaar
2/5
L'enemy publique? I can't claim great familiarity with hip hop, but this felt decent if sort of rudimentary.
Mudhoney
3/5
Some days feel chaotic and you want someone somewhere to be in control, and some days are chaotic and you want someone to get it and not be overwhelmed by it, maybe even find a way to laugh at it even if they're not able to totally rise above it. This album fit in that spot for me yesterday, feeling like a proper soundtrack to a world where the president flaunts his cruelty and corruption and tells us the economy is just fine as we're hustling every day to be able to afford fewer and fewer groceries. It feels like the screaming heart of grunge that more mainstream bands were able to smooth out enough to find a larger audience.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
Some of the orchestration still feels corny to me, but the guy has a great sense of timing and an iconic voice.
Leonard Cohen
4/5
Cohen is like Dylan I'm that a lot of his best songs are sung by other people, but there's also an undeniable vulnerability aided by the simplicity of the musical concepts that keeps me hooked.
2/5
Lou Reed
4/5
Reed's vibe is so dark and edgy that it's easy to miss the innocence and even joy in his work, but I caught it listening to this album. This is a guy whose world is probably darker than I'd want to live in, but it's honest, and he wants the same things we all do -- and he loves rock and roll.
Klaxons
4/5
I feel like this shouldn't be my like if thing, but I found it really energetic and fun and interesting.
Talking Heads
3/5
First few tracks felt all the same, then we get "Once in a Lifetime," who is iconic, and then there's a lot of stuff that feels very experimental. Not the stuff I like best about them, but it grew on me.
Kings of Leon
1/5
Kanye West
5/5
This is clearly an epic and masterful performance that I definitely could not fully process in just the one listen.
N.E.R.D
3/5
Patti Smith
4/5
What a fascinating blend of lyricism, musicianship, and attitude. I think she'd scare me if I met her in real life, and maybe some of her music kinda scares me, but in a good way.
Sonic Youth
4/5
Interesting to hear this so close to Talking Heads and Lou Reed, with both of whom I hear similarities when as they are clearly doing their own thing. Really cool textures and a fun sensibility.
Sonic Youth
4/5
Various Artists
3/5
These are mostly pretty fun as they go, I guess, and I'd rather here this than most of what they play in stores, but it's not the Christmas music I'm generally interested in listening to.
King Crimson
2/5
I dunno, I just have a hard time getting into a lot of prog rock.
David Bowie
5/5
I was prepared for this to be a good album on the basis of just a couple tracks, and Life on Mars can do a lot of heavy lifting, but I found something interesting about almost every one of them. Bowie isn't an artist I choose, but I always find him compelling.
The Fall
4/5
Carole King
5/5
This is a powerhouse of an album in which King manages to achieve something like the accessibility and strength of a Dusty Springfield and the tenderness of a Joni Mitchell or James Taylor. There would be a where song here or there where I'd think the album was losing streak, but then she'd get it back in the next track.
Joan Baez
4/5
I do genuinely enjoy this music, and I appreciate Baez updating it with her own sensibilities, but I've never felt the connection to it that people apparently did in the revival period, and some part of me wishes I did, I guess because it would feel sophisticated in some way?
Pentangle
1/5
Jefferson Airplane crashed into Joan Baez and whatever this is emerged from the wreckage. I can almost imagine being really into it when it came out -- it combines really influential elements of music culture at the time -- but it also feels a little too much like a parlor trick, like the videos where someone plays a dozen songs using the same the chords. Okay, now what? I didn't feel a deeper connection to anything going on.
Radiohead
4/5
The Beau Brummels
2/5
Johnny Cash
5/5
What an album. It's what helped me understand Cash enough to go back and learn to love so much of his work. It's haunting and dark, then sweet and delicate, and never without the gravitas of a man who has been to the top and bottom of it all and learned what's really important as he confronts his final years. It's truly a crowning achievement.
Jean-Michel Jarre
2/5
Tom Waits
4/5
I'm never immediately sure what I think of Waits' music other than that it grabs my attention. He can sell both wry parody and heart-on-your-sleeve balladeering, and he's never boring. Something about his particular range resonates with my inner life, if not always my outer. I'm not sure I want to live in his world, but there are ways he makes me feel less alone in mine.
Frank Sinatra
2/5
Maybe on another day or in other circumstances, I could settle in and appreciate the languorous, melancholic times of this album, but on a day I was busy doing this and that, it really felt shapeless and meandering.
The White Stripes
5/5
These tracks don't make me feel as much as other albums I rate highly, at least not in the poignancy and grief department, but they are irresistibly catchy and hard driving and fresh.
2Pac
3/5
Wu-Tang Clan
3/5
Bold and insistent vocals against really interesting samples. Felt like too many of the songs were just about how cool they were.
The Police
3/5
A couple iconic tunes here and some that are entertaining enough but still mostly filler.
Lucinda Williams
5/5
Whenever I listen to this album, part of me feels a little self-conscious that some of the tracks are a little too conventional in structure or too poppy -- some of the choruses are just repeating the titles, right? Maybe I love this album because I discovered it at the right time in college when my mind was particularly open to it rather than for its intrinsic virtues?
But then her voice grabs me, and the storytelling opens me up, and the band demonstrates its versatility and keen sense of when to go big and when less is more. And for my money there's not a truly weak song on here; it's a remarkably consistent and rich album.
These songs all feel very personal, yet they also evoke and critique an American myth of the purity and simplicity of Southern life that resonates with the myth if small town life I grew up with.
At the end of the day, I find this album unimpeachable, and I'm glad to have an excuse to hand out another 5.
Calexico
3/5
Julian Cope
3/5
There's enough going on here that it's no surprise some of it was intriguing and entertaining. I appreciated the musical diversity and sense of humor and the way it sometimes sounded like an alt rock adaptation of Motown. Nothing quite clicked for me, tho.
Queen
3/5
This was a fun window into a moment in their journey.
Spiritualized
3/5
Gene Clark
2/5
If I was already into The Byrds, I could see enjoying this as a personal solo effort. Not being that into The Byrds, this is just okay.
Curtis Mayfield
2/5
This one might need more attention to appreciate. As backdrop to light work, a lot of the tracks sounded the same, and I wasn't able to really listen to the lyrics.
Sex Pistols
2/5
I guess you had to be there. It's fine, but it does feel like they were a lot about vibes and publicity more than the music. But also, it's fine to be about chaos when you're part of a complacent but unjust society. When you're in a chaotic society, it feels almost privileged.
Hanoi Rocks
1/5
Tried to give this another listen, but I really just don't like it. The first three tracks have an energy and playfulness I can almost get into, and when she interesting instrumentation, but then it devolves.
The Monks
4/5
I found this surprising and delightful in its mix of garage band DIY rock and doo-wop and Motown sounds.
Muddy Waters
4/5
Okay, we can admit that a lot of blues songs sound kinda alike, and Waters' selections here do not do justice to the real range of his music like, say The Best of Muddy Waters (1958), which is a phenomenal album. I find this live performance a great illustration of how much Waters' voice and delivery matter for his music. Just like a comedian can find a rhythm and timing that makes a bit all their own, Waters has a distinctive sound that is compelling even when he literally plays the same song twice in a row.
Grateful Dead
3/5
Not a huge jam band guy, but I could appreciate this even in the background -- or maybe because it was in the background? Couldn't imagine going to a concert that was just this.
Sly & The Family Stone
4/5
I started enjoying this more when I thought of it as a kind of odyssey through Sly's mind, and in the expanded edition, there's a lot of fly-on-the-wall recordings. Not everything has the coherence I usually want from a song, but it definitely created a sonic world I enjoyed exploring.
Portishead
3/5
Doesn't quite sustain itself for the whole album, but I do like their sound and vibe, and some songs powerfully evoke my freshman year of college when I was discovering a ton of new music and having my mind blown open.
Abdullah Ibrahim
2/5
Nitin Sawhney
3/5
I do like a concept album, but I'd have to study this more closely to appreciate that aspect of it, mostly because of the language barrier. It feels cosmopolitan in the sense that it never stays too long in one place or adopts a single POV, or at least it's anti-colonialist in that it doesn't privilege a Western POV. There were some notable tracks here ("Nadia," "Serpents," "Anthem without a Country") but also some that sounded almost poppy and others that, again, I'd have to spend more time with to appreciate what's going on.
The Yardbirds
5/5
This hit just right. It checks a lot of my typical boxes: bluesy rock, fun licks, that British invasion sound, genre and instrumental experimentation, and a sense of humor about themselves.
It's not quite new pantheon for me, and maybe I'll wear myself out about it after a few more listens, but I don't get to hand out a lot of fives, so it's your lucky day, Yardbirds.
Songhoy Blues
3/5
Appreciate the significance of this, and I liked hearing the blend of blues and West African sounds. Wouldn't say it for me as excited as, day, summer of the Ry Cooder stuff that came on when I let Spotify keep playing.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
3/5
I wish these guys had a little more self-awareness of how grandiose they are, but I can't help but still find some of it catchy.
Led Zeppelin
4/5
Even when these guys are not great, they're still great. Is it on the long side? Sure. Are there some misses? Okay, yeah. But they still rock.
Lorde
3/5
Nick Drake
4/5
Nick Drake always feels like someone I want to be really into, and maybe if I could sit with his music and listen more closely I would get there. Otherwise, I enjoy his wispy voice and gentle tones. I think I prefer him unaccompanied, but this was good too.
Johnny Cash
4/5
Maybe not his best performance but certainly an iconic one. We see Cash's audacious solidarity with the prisoners over and against the label and the guards while not alienating or othering anyone. And the reaction to Folsom Prison Blues, wch is of course about a different prison and comes after a song written for their prison, speaks to the way the universal shines through the particular.
The Flying Burrito Brothers
2/5
At first this felt right in my wheelhouse despite the dumb name. By mid-album, however, I was starting to lose track of the differentiation between songs, particularly in the harmonies.
The Band
3/5
Another case where I might have really been into them in the moment, and I can still enjoy what they do, but it's not rocking my world.
Eurythmics
4/5
I was prepared to find this interesting but not necessarily exciting. But I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and drama and confidence. Each track felt like it was coming from someplace new, and the mix of instrumentation, voice, and lyrics had energy, joy, and gravitas.
Little Richard
3/5
Hard not to hear the various Beatles covers of many of these, which is not the worst way into an album. The energy here isn't as unleashed as the Beatles versions, but I suspect the label had him turn it down so as not to scare the white people.
Randy Newman
3/5
This is the kind of thing you expect from Randy Newman, and to the extent I like that kind of thing I liked this. He likes to describe little vignettes of American cities in a nostalgic way like Springsteen can do that's not sugar-coating. His real strength is in creating an intimacy with the listener thru his spare instrumentation and a feeling like he's working out the lyrics and melody in front of you.
Serge Gainsbourg
3/5
This album has elicited everything it was designed to elicit. It's whole frame is to make you want to retreat into the safety of moral offense or intellectual superiority, neither of which takes on the album as a whole. Though trying to be the sophisticated person who understands how to be both morally disturbed and aesthetically pleased may be yet another temptation.
But even if I grant that it dies everything it wants to do well, one of the things it wants to do is dare me to like it despite its subject matter, and that feels crummy.
So, I'll thread the needle on it, I guess.
Rage Against The Machine
3/5
The drive and outrage of these songs gives them a real power even as they start to blend together for me. They also make me reflect on how uncomfortable I am with anger still. It's music I don't want to write off for that reason, but also not stuff I want to immerse in much.
The Mothers Of Invention
5/5
I can't help but find this entertaining and funny. Zappa manages to find that "smart silly" zone that is inhabited by the Pythons, Fry and Laurie, and Tina Fey. It's essential that they're also musically talented, so they know how to write songs that are interesting but also musically absurd. They're probably spiritually in the same region as Captain Beefheart, but they don't ask us to forego musical coherence. Wound up listening to this twice on the road and loved it both times, so this has to be rewarded.
Simon & Garfunkel
4/5
This reminds me of Concrete Jungle in that many tracks were familiar, but I'd never heard them in context of the original album. This has some so-so tunes, but they all still have elements of that magic that made them work so well together: poignant harmonies, lyrics that can be wistful or sardonic or Romantic, an ability to laugh at themselves, eminently catchy melodies that never feel trite. This was a fun listen.
Metallica
4/5
Still not a group I reach for, but this album finds a way to transcend its genre without ever pretending to be anything but metal. It's quite the showcase of range and talent, and at the end of the day, it just straight up rocks.
Richard Hawley
3/5
This album sounds old-fashioned and contemporary at the same time, wch is typically a sign that the artist has really internalized the music he's paying homage to. There's a nostalgic quality that suits the theme, and I feel like he does a lot of things well. But it still was mid an interesting listen than a great discovery.
Fairport Convention
3/5
Was really grooving with the first several tracks, and I was intrigued enough but their explorations of folk songs to listen carefully all the way thru. Several arrangements felt cumbersome or like they didn't quite hit. But I will give them credit for the stuff that entertained me.