Real spontaneity to the fusion of electric and rock elements. pretty angry lyrics. I enjoyed Myxomatosis and Go To Sleep. I definitely get the appeal of Radiohead and I think there's a lot of layers in this album I haven't uncovered yet. Good!
Very poppy. Did the Beach Boys get inspired by this sound to make Pet Sounds? (Answer- no, but "Pet Sounds" was inspired by a later Beatles album, "Rubber Soul").
Halfway through first listen- the instrumentation is there, but the sound (personally) for me is not. I UNDERSTAND in context this is a good album and WHY it is, but it's just a little too jingle-jangly for me.
3rd listen- lowkey growing on me. Very catchy. Can’t Buy Me Love makes me want to put on my spurs and jangle.
Final score- 3.5 rounded down to 3. Would definitely listen again and it grew on me but don’t know if it’s at 4 level yet.
First half- some of the songs are great, some of them sound like musical theater songs.
Second half- really like the conceptual direction and instrumentation, but same thing as the first half where some have this really obnoxious theatricality to it I dislike
Super unique voice, incredible production and instrumentation, but it’s really hard to enjoy some of these Chappell Roan ass songs
Also, some of these songs sound like music from the “Sonatine” soundtrack by Joe Hisashi, which I do really love
Final vote- 3 stars. Like the sound but not the vibe.
Brit pop? Doesn’t sound like it to me!
After listening to this around 4~ times I ended up really enjoying it. I’m still a little miffed about getting 4 British artists in a row but…
It’s very youthful, very full of energy, a little brooding but resplendent with teenage energy that shines outward rather than turning inward. It’s a lot of fun. However, the second half falls off kinda hard. Still a great showing from what was such a young band. 3.5+.
This album is so good. Not a single song that doesn’t need to be here. “Iron Man” is a mainstay in my gym playlist; had no idea that the other songs from this album are just as good. It’s metal, sure, but it’s not screeching lyrics, gory graphics, or blown out basses; it’s singular in focus, coordinated, melodic, rhythmic, and passionate. Extremely good.
They’re calling it the hardest album cover of all time
This album, in the right circumstances, is a 5. Could totally see myself on the dance floor completely busting ass to this song. However, under normal circumstances, it’s a 3. There are some real bangers but I struggle to find myself listening to this album on repeat. Definitely a different sound for EDM and I fuck with what The Prodigy did
For an album that pretends to be interesting and new, it is neither. It’s not even a good movie soundtrack. 2/5
Lowkey fuck with this album. Way more of a concept album compared to other rap albums from this era, great production, and some of these tunes are really catchy. Snoop has a great flow. If only the album art wasn’t so bad…
“Oh but the lyrics I can’t stand the lyrics rap is so bad” eat my shorts. How about learn to catch a vibe instead
Ok. On a few relistens the lyrics are indeed a bit cringe. Unfortunately still not enough to give this crazy production and flow anything less than a 4.
Boring! There’s like two interesting tracks on here and they’re the first two. Sounds like the soundtrack to a shitty outdoor market in the north side of Chicago where they try and scam you into paying 10 dollars to enter. The story about how this album was made is very cool and Scholz is clearly a talented musician but the music is BORING!
This album isn’t Loveless but anyone who thinks this album is bad has never spent the night staring up at the ceiling of their room in the dark thinking about every decision they’ve ever made with only the soundtrack of crunchy guitars to lull them to sleep
This album for me is a 4.5 but I will be rounding it down to a 4 since the first half of the album is well-tread ground for MBV. The second half is so inventive and SO COOL from them, and I wanted more of that ambient-drone-shoegaze DnB inspired sound. I liked the first part but it’s not really anything new. Great album.
This album is horrible. It’s like the Boston album but worse. Some ok sounding guitar riffs aren’t enough to save it from its dogshit ass singing and lyrics. Genuinely everyone involved with producing this album and adding it to this list should be ashamed. To all the old heads saying “oh it does what it wants to and nothing more!” Wake up Gramps. This isn’t 2003. It was outdated when it came out and you’re just trying to relive the glory days.
Really enjoyed this album. The jug is not really necessary on all track but on the ones that it belongs, it hits. What I would give to have heard this album live or on a better mix…. CURSE YOU 60S STUDIO EQUIPMENT
It’s fun but not particularly noteworthy. I feel like it’s on the cusp of being good, but never really gets there… it is a fine album, but it is never exciting. Did not improve on subsequent listens. Big nothingburger album
He wanna be Bob Dylan so bad
I like the textures and the production- it’s actually very good. That being said, the second half of this album is so BORING. It does NOT need to be 59 minutes long it is a slog to get through the last 3 songs
RIP OZZY 🙏 I like to believe the reason we got this album was divine providence. This is somehow better than Paranoid- it is SO GOOD for a debut album. They are the first people ever to make music sound EVIL! It’s awesome. 5 stars.
Look, it’s technically very good. These guys are great musicians. It’s just boring. I’ve heard this music so many times. Boomer rock is not what I’m here for.
The first song starts off super strong, but I feel like it drops off from there. I love a lot of the things that came after (and because) of this album, but the source material itself unfortunately isn’t my favorite. 3 stars.
This album went triple platinum in my household during middle school. Too bad it sounds awful. Adele is a generational talent but this album is boring and the instrumentation all sounds like it came out of a keyboard. The only reason this is getting 2 stars instead of 1 is because she is extremely talented.
It’s not bad, I don’t hate it (in fact some bits I quite like), I just think it could be doing more.
It's catchy! Some songs that are fun to groove to. Unfortunately, even when remastered, it sounds like The Who recorded this album in a nuclear submarine 200m underwater through two cans tied together with string.
The good songs are REALLY good. The rest are just ok.
Good album but I hate the British geezers on this rating app who are like “perfect. 5 stars” then give every other experimental album 1 star. You are clouded by nostalgia!
I’ve been listening to this album on and off for the past few weeks, as I have been unavailable to really figure out what rating it deserves. Had I rated it after the first listen, I likely would have given it a 2- but it’s really grown on me, and I’ve saved more and more songs off of it. I was struggling to pick between a 4 and 5, but ultimately decided on a 4. It’s a wonderful album, but I don’t find myself coming back to it in the same way I come back to my 5s. 4 stars, but a strong 4 stars- if you don’t like this album, just try and sit with it a little more.
Great instrumentation and production. It’s a really fun dance album. That being said, it drags at the end, and although I am reluctant to agree with the other reviewers on this site, some of the songs are just a little longer than they need to be. Don’t care about the lyrics though- this is disco. You’re here to dance. If the music world was run by lyric-cels, every pit and dance floor would turn into a Socratic seminar. No thanks!
One good song off this entire album. Not offensive but not good either.
Grew on me after the first listen. I was sitting on my veranda watching the afternoon fade into pinks and deep blues, and this album was a perfect companion. 4 stars but I could see this going up on subsequent listens.
They’re calling it the most millennial-coded album of all time
Giving this 3 stars not because it’s not a HUGE achievement in rap and it should be celebrated as such but rather just because it didn’t click with me. I think I need to give it a few more listens but it didn’t fit into my brain the way I wanted it to. This is an INCREDIBLE album- just not for me.
Awesome. Loved this live album. Every listen I save another song from it. Could see this going to 5 stars.
I love electronic but this is not it. Boring and repetitive and long. Have to agree with other reviewers here as to why this was included.
Instant 5. This shit is so groovy. Anything less than a 4 should mean jail time.
Punk for 50 year olds who think they’re still hip.
Liked this album a lot, and a lot of the music I enjoy is downwind of this album influence-wise. Just wish there was a little more variety.
This album is so strange since it’s one of the few where I like the second half much more than the first. There are some BANGERS on the B-Side but the A-Side didn’t do it for me. 3 for the first album, 5 for the second.
There’s a few songs on here I really liked, and the vibes of this album are great. That being said, it wasn’t doing enough- many of the songs felt like well-trodden ground. 3 stars but I think my dad would give this a 5.
Two great songs on here. Not really loving everything else.
The only thing that would have made this album better is if Lindsey Buckingham wrote and produced ALL the songs instead of half of them. I love an album produced by a neurotic genius that costs an exorbitant amount of money to make, is considered a commercial failure, then becomes critically acclaimed (*cough cough* Loveless). We can keep Sara on the new Buckingham album though.
I’m going to rate this now because I think if I keep listening to it I’m going to hate it more and more. One of those strange albums that I LOVED the first time I listened to it but as I played it more it started to becoming grating and annoying. Race for the Prize is one of the best songs I’ve ever found through this project but the rest of the album is a mess.
I got halfway through my second listen and decided I had heard enough. Meandering, unfocused, long, and unexciting. Hate to give it 1 star but I just did not like this album at all.
You can tell this is the hip-hop album that put the British public on the genre because it’s 1. Made by a narcissistic white guy and 2. It’s bad. The only good parts are the parts stolen from various African artists.
It's a great album. I slept on Led Zeppelin for a long time. The instrumentation is fantastic. But I don't come back to it again and again. 4 stars.
Very funny to get 2 Arcade Fire albums in the same week. Funeral is one of my favorite albums of all time; I enjoyed Neon Bible as well, but not the extent I enjoy Funeral. There’s a lot to love on this record, but I don’t think it captures the raw emotions or the highs and lows you get on Funeral. Good instrumentation and production, but this is not a 5 star like Funeral is.
This is a hard album for me to rate because it’s one of my mainstay college albums. I think I listened to this album on repeat while playing Battlefield 1 and Minecraft. I really love the sound and beats on this album- it’s this hypnotic mix of house beats and mellifluous singing. However, this album never made it to my main rotation of albums the same way some others from that period did. I’m not going to call it filler, but there’s a lot of songs off this album that break the flow from the singing and beats I mentioned above to dip its toe into some heavier sampling from movies and television that kinda brings the sound to a screeching halt. I still really like this album, but I won’t let my nostalgia blind me to some of its flaws. 4 stars.
This album is maybe the most 2020 crap ever produced, which makes this all the worse because SAULT are an extremely talented group with great production. Just a wasted album filled with saccharine platitudes about what black “is,” without ever taking a critical look at its message and delivery. The only reason this gets 2 stars and not 1 is because of the musicality of it. Seriously, I’m woke as hell but the inclusion of this album seems to be a dated, vestigial cultural relic of 2020. Just pick another SAULT album.
This is one of the first albums I ever bought. I must have listened to this record a million times when I first got it, then a million times more when I got to college. Am I clouded by nostalgia? Maybe a bit. For me, however, this album will always represent a part of my life, filled with both unbridled optimism and cautious exploration, peeking over the precipice of the gaping maw of the chasm named the future. 5 stars.
First song is a banger. Rest of the album is just ok.
I grew up with my parents playing Manu Chao in the car- I think I must have heard “Bongo Bong” at least 100 times. I remember rediscovering the song back in summer of 2019, when I backpacked across Europe and found this song playing in a seedy underground bar in Prague. Since then I’ve fallen back in love with his oeuvre- I think he’s a fantastic musician that a lot of people don’t click with because they associate him with a certain vibe or time in their life. I, for one, love the music.
XTC is a strange band where I absolutely love 20% of their output and am indifferent to the other 80%. There’s a few songs on here that I adore, but the rest are just meh. Great production though!
One of those albums that grows on you every listen. In many ways, this is traditional, classic rock from the British Isles- however, it subtly subverts expectations in many ways, and the sound is really clever. Experimentative without ever seeming like it. Also, love the idea of an album that chronicles the British decline- they got it right! They need an updated version for post-Brexit.
A LOVE SUPREME A LOVE SUPREME A LOVE SUPREME A LOVE SUPREME
I enjoyed this a lot! He’s got a great voice and the production is really nice. I vibe with this.
Really enjoyed this album! There’s a lot of cool influence from the Germans that I enjoy. Liked this a lot more than Bowie’s usual fare. Don’t find myself coming back to this album the same way I do a lot of my 5s but had a great time with this one.
Interesting addition, like the vibe, but not an acapella fan and the sound tends to be too samey across songs
This album is AWESOME. I had already save a song from this before but didn’t know the rest was even better. These honkies know a thing or two about instrumentation and sampling!
Didn't love this. I am going to give it another listen but I just found it a little uninspiring. Some really creative directions on this album (especially for a folk album!) but I just couldn't really get behind. Didn't really click with me.
Great freaking album. Morrissey? Annoying as hell. But his singing is the perfect accompaniment to Marr’s guitar. Loved this.
I really like where this album starts off on- it’s such an interesting direction to take folk music. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really get any better from there. 3 stars.
I try to listen to every song on all the albums I listen to but I had to skip multiple songs off of this. This is just boring. Glass Animals and The Knife did it better. 0 reason this should have been included. Only reason I’m giving it 2 stars instead of one is that it’s not offensively bad.
First (actual) song is cool but the rest of the album is a little too one-note for me. I get what the Cure is going for but it just felt the same by the end. At least it was short.
I have no idea why but I LOVED this album. I was torn between a 4 and a 5 but decided to give it a 5. It just hits all the notes for me. The instrumentation is awesome. Every time I listen I find something new to enjoy.
When the album is mid, uninspired, boring and trite 🔥🔥🔥
Some good stuff but just all together too similar.
Just started to get on my nerves before I was finished with the album. Not good.
This is a great album that took me waaaay too many listens to finally get. 4 stars solely because I had to listen 10+ times to finally make the neural connections to enjoy it.
Couldn’t keep listening and had to stop halfway through. Musical equivalent of watching paint dry.
Sorry guys. I just don’t like Leonard Cohen very much.
The thing about Pink Floyd is they take a lil while to start singing
Ok guys, Kanye wrote an apology in the WSJ now, we can stop pretending he's not the GOAT of rap of the aughts and 2010s. A little too RnB focused on this record compared to his other records, which I'm not the biggest fan of, but it's still a fantastic album. Not giving it a 5 because it's not Graduation, and he did say all that terrible stuff, but come on. He made Graduation.
If you don’t like this album you are a BAD GUY!!!
The third song is called “Suffering” because that’s what I was doing while listening to this album
R.E.M takes a pill in Ibiza
This is killing yourself music for when you've been into killing yourself music for years. Such an excellent album. I could listen to it again and again and again and again and again and....
MILBB (Man I Love Beastie Boys). These guys really brought sampling to the forefront, and I love sampling! Beastie Boys albums are all about 3 white guys having a bunch of fun jumping around on a beat, and it's hard for anyone to hate that. It's not as good as Ill Communication, though.
R.E.M. has great musicality, production, and hooks- the problem is that the albums themselves are so BORING! You are good musicians, let's do something cool instead of 20 years of the same jangly sparse indie rock!
He's freewheelin'! He's song-singin'! He's Bob Dylan...in'?
The second half of this album is, if anything, a decent attempt at prog rock with some sounds very reminiscent of Sunny Day Real Estate and guitar fingering like the Smiths. The first half… is not that.
Every time I listen to a Paul Simon record I always find something new to enjoy. Every listen reveals a new song to enjoy or a catchy tune that ends up getting stuck in your head. Will be listening to this one for a while. That being said, is it as good as his eponymous debut? Don’t know… the hits on Graceland are better, but the vibe of Paul Simon is much more my speed… much to consider….
If you were to believe the reviews on this website about this album, you would think that Pere Ubu stole someone baby and stabbed the mother with a rusty piece of sheet metal. Then you finally listen to it and it's... fine. I actually enjoyed this a lot, and it's crazy this came out in the 70s. I'm not denying that there are some more... grating bits to this album, but there are things on here I really enjoy and I don't understand the hate. Just because you don't understand doesn't mean it's bad.
An album that throws in an all vocal harmonization track is usually amazing. An album that’s only tracks like that is, well…
Meh, it’s crunchy rock, which I like, but I don’t really feel that it has an identity past that.
Man, I LOVED the first two songs but after all the music kind of just coalesced into an 80s rock miasma. No distinct sound or mood coming out of it. I applaud U2 for using this album as a way to cover political topics close to their hearts (and the idea of U2, or any big band, doing the same thing today is unthinkable), but I just don’t think the musicality matches the message.
Maybe one of the best sounding, produced records on the list. But you can't have the Steely... without the Dan.
Sparse and it gets kinda spooky. It also gets kinda boring.
The first five seconds to most of these songs are usually quite interesting. Then Elvis Costello opens his mouth and it all goes to hell. The Attractions should mutiny and throw him overboard.
Whenever I play Deadlock and get tilted I play Steely Dan to calm myself down like a dog given a pill hidden in peanut butter. 5 stars.
There are some parts to this album I really enjoyed, but overall it's just another millennial late aughts rock revival album. Good for a night out, I suppose.
I have a few notes before I give my rating.
1. Knowing that the main two audiences for this platform are from the US and the UK, I think there are genres from both sides that the other generally underrates. For the Brits, they tend to dislike hip-hop and country- I think that they don't really get why rap and hip-hop is important, but that's fine. For Americans, however, they really do not like DnB and British electronic music. That's a real shame. I love this stuff! I think it's one of the best exports to ever come out of the British Isles.
2. That being said. This album is waaaaay too long and has too many disparate parts. There are some things on here I quite like, but they're buried between mountains of mediocre music, none of which really relates to other parts. It just seems like a DnB compilation album of music that wasn't good enough to make it on the first compilation.
I did really enjoy some songs, but a 20 minute opening track? Let's be serious. Don't know why this is on the list.
Such a good bit to have an album named “White Boy Reggae” and have, like, two songs that sound like reggae songs. Loved the hits on this album, but loved the in between songs even more. Fun!
Giving this a preemptive 5 as it will become a 5 the more I listen to it. Great album. Love the cover art as well, it's sublime
Great jazz. Perfect for a stroll by the water or sipping on a cocktail. Not as memorable as some of the other jazz albums on this list, but a fantastic, soulful addition nonetheless.
Folksy Radiohead with a flute. Not for me!
The next version of the 1001 albums book will only be Brazilian albums and Jorge Ben Jor will be on the cover
It might be sacrilege to give what many people consider to be Steely Dan's magnum opus a 4 instead of a 5, but I just didn't enjoy this album as much as the others. The first 4 songs are pure Steely Magic. The second half, though, is just not that exciting to me. There's no doubt the production is incredible, the instrumentation is a masterpiece, the this and the that, everything you come to expect from the Dan. I just think that Aja lacks a bit of that magic in the second half. When everything has been scrubbed into a shine, you lose a little bit of the magic you can get from a production that's not as good. 4 stars.
Not a boring album but I'm bored. Does that make sense?
Every time I listen to a Radiohead album I'm falling asleep by the end. Snoozefest! Instead of calling him Thom Yorke they should call him Thom Boring. Or Boring Thom.
