Pleasant indie rock that's enjoyable enough, but Deerhunter has never been one of my favorites from this era of indie. The first half is sometimes jangly and sometimes hypnotic, with the jangly songs not sounding different from other artists and the hypnotic songs not making an impression. Things turn around with Desire Lines, which feels more immersive than the other tracks. The album continues to be much better after it; Coronado has some great horns and there's cool drumming on the closer (though that one does kind of overstay its welcome by getting repetitive by the end). Would get a lower score if it didn't pick up by the end.

8 or 9 nicely written pop folk songs with a few more songs thrown in. While the songs are nice I can't help but find them a bit schmaltzy, even Father and Son. Stevens also doesn't have much, lyrically of musically, that makes him unique, and I find the louder moments with drums to mostly not work. An exception to all of that is the opener, Where Do the Children Play?, which I like quite a bit and which climaxes nicely. Otherwise it's mostly forgettable. (I also can't help but agree with folks who say that Wild World comes off as condescending, and even if that was intentional it doesn't make me like it more.)

Incredible funk and soul album. What I like most about this album is how it mixes some great pop tunes with longer funk rock jams like Don't Call Me and Sex Machine. The ending run is especially great, with the 5/5 song Everyday People giving way to the disgusting (in a good way!) extended jam of Sex Machine. Just when you think the album has nothing left to offer besides that guitar and harmonica it hits you with one last solid pop song as a parting gift. Throw in some social commentary and this still holds up as a hard hitting album over 50 years later.

Arcade Fire were part of a wave of bands that brought large line-ups and chamber music to indie rock, and they inspired many more such bands. But few if any did it as well as they did it on this album. The piano and strings perfectly compliment the guitar and drums, resulting in an album that's lush but still rocks at times. "Wake Up" is the big hit, but the first three "Neighborhoods" and the closer are even better. Speaking of the closer: the lyrics on this album can have a beautiful subtlety to them, something that's missing from the band's later albums. At no point does this show better than "In the Backseat," where metaphors hide the themes of growing up and taking control of your life as your parents and relatives disappear.

You likely know two or three songs from this one even if you haven't heard it, but all three of those songs already have major flaws. "Jump" and "Panama" are both catchy but a little too simple, while "Hot For Teacher" is less a song and more a show of the band's instrumental prowess over some hastily written lyrics. I might like "I'll Wait" more than any of those songs, but all of it is pretty standard 80's hard rock fleshed out with some synths. A little more variety or better lyrics might save this a bit. As it is this is the same so-so formula repeated for pretty much every song.

There's more variety here than the piano ballad "Hello" would initially lead you to expect. The next track does kind of an alt pop thing (though even that sounds pretty much like any other alt pop you'd hear on the radio), and there are a couple other left turns throughout. But there are still a lot of piano ballads with dramatic vocals. It wouldn't be such a drag if Adele didn't seem allergic to injecting any kind of personal touch to her lyrics. Everything is vague concepts and ideas, no specific details of break-ups or love, which is universal yes but also uninspired. The vocals? They're good, if a little overdone at times, but they don't make the music more compelling.

There are a lot of great Irish folk instrumentation on this album. There are also a lot of mid-tempo drinking songs that kind of crawl by. When the band really lets it rip like on "Billy Bones" it's a great time, and even when the songs are slow the backing music and vocals are always great. The highlight is probably the closer, where the story and emotion makes up for the slower pace. With a little more energy this could have been a great album, but as it is there are definitely some songs worth skipping.

The main word that comes to mind while listening to this is "safe." When Ms. Dynamite gets more assertive, like on "Put Him Out" or "Now U Want My Love," her songs have a lot of personality. But on other tracks, that personality doesn't shine through, resulting in songs that feel anonymous. On those songs, the lyrics feel more played out and the laid back singing can make for forgettable songs. The beats don't change much during the course of a song, which can make them tiring, especially when the drums sound a bit thin. When the songs get funkier or try new things, like the reggae influence on "Now U Want My Love," they're much more engaging. Unfortunately that's just not always the case.

Delightfully smooth. While the sax and piano are great my favorite part of this may be the lazy, rhythmic percussion. Nowhere is that demonstrated better than on the closer, which is my favorite song on the album. I love the pace at which the song moves - it feels like a slowcore song to me - and I think it has Sade's most longing vocals on the album. Sade's music got more nuanced after this but this is my favorite album I've heard from them. It's great for late nights and puts a lot of 80's sounds in a more refined, relaxed package.

When this albums rocks - like on the title track or "Keep on Growing" - it rocks. When it moves in a more bluesy direction, it suffers. This is partially because I find Clapton's voice a bit weak for conveying these emotions, and partially because while the guitar is great it doesn't have the soul of the best blues I've heard. I'd also be lying if I said it wasn't hard to take the songs about love being so hard and his woman cheating on him seriously given the album's most well-known song is famously about wanting to sleep with his friend's wife. Even then it would all be fine if this album wasn't 76 minutes long; after the first four songs the only new sounds on it are the title track's second half and the short (and limp) closer. A forty minute version of this with the best material might get a 4.

This album is exhilarating. And somewhat exhausting. My ideal house music has bouncy drums and something light over the top with cut up vocal samples. The tracks on here that sound kind of like that - like "D.A.N.C.E." - are great. But most of the others put way more emphasis on the synths than the percussion, and when the beat primarily comes from those distorted synths it's harder for me to get into. The first track is a good example of that - I'm not sure how I'm supposed to dance to that mid tempo synth line. By the end the noise overwhelms me, especially on "Stress." And I'm someone who likes noisy sounds in noise rock and other genres! I just done want it in my dance music.

For the most part, the playing on this is great, especially Keith Moon's drumming. But it suffers from the lengths to which it goes to tell its story. The choruses on so many of these songs are simple and lame, presumably to make sure you know what's happening. The pacing suffers from multiple minute-long interludes and a 10 minute one that seems to only exist for the "Underture" wordplay. The story ranges from goofy to hard to take seriously. The worst moment is when we hear about abuse by Tommy's uncle in the painfully annoying "Fiddle About" chorus, which is quickly followed by a song about how Tommy is super good at pinball. Talk about tonal whiplash; there are themes here that are worth exploring, but they aren't treated with any care. The biggest problem is simpler though: none of the songs, even "Pinball Wizard," are really all that good.

Slickly produced to within an inch of its life, even compared to earlier Steely Dan records. And I think it fits the laid back nature of the songs. The songs are mostly long and expansive, leaving room for those impeccable guitar parts, drum fills, and horns. But it still leaves me cold, and I think it's because of the songwriting. The Dan's earlier work was tighter, which allowed for more hooks and grooves. Here the grooves are looser and the hooks more spread out. While the instrumental flourishes sound great, I find myself wishing there was less space between them. "Peg" is the outlier, and the best song, as the melody continues during the verses and makes the song interesting throughout. I like parts of "Black Cow" and "Deacon Blues" too, but I find myself wishing the songs were shorter and hookier.

Less energetic and freaky than the Animal Collective albums that came before it, but the many layers of synths still give this a ton of complexity. There are a lot of different sounds, from the watery to the bouncy, that wash over each other and provide a lot of melodies to follow. I'm most immediately drawn to the poppier songs, especially "Summertime Clothes," and sometimes I wish there were more moments like the chorus of "Daily Routine" that really popped. But I also know an entire album of that would get tiring, which makes me appreciate the more hypnotic moments of songs like "Guy's Eyes" and "Brother Sport" more.

I absolutely love "We Will Not Be Lovers." I love the bassline combined with the folk instruments and the momentum it carries throughout. It's a really interesting mix of folk tradition with modern (at the time) rock. I wish there was more like it here. I like the opening track and the "Sweet Thing" cover quite a bit too, but the straight folk songs don't do it for me. This includes most of the second half of the album, as well as what seems to be the centerpiece in "And a Bang on the Ear," which goes on for too long for me. I think it's at least in part because I don't love the vocals. It's a pretty interesting throwback, but an album with more songs like "We Will Not Be Lovers" might get a 4.

Rap has come a long way since the 80's, and a lot of once-classic albums sound a bit weaker next to what came out even in the 90's. This is not one of them. Yes, the rhyme schemes are pretty simple, but the energy the MCs bring is top notch, and they're even able to sell a song about nursery rhymes. The beats hit hard too, they're very percussion-heavy and sometimes fairly complex. A few of the tracks mix in some rock elements, and it feels more seamless than some rap rock tracks made 30 years later. There are a lot of fun ideas here on tracks like "You Be Illin'" (let's forget about "Dumb Girl" though, yeesh...). This definitely sounds like an 80's rap album but turns those elements that are no longer in fashion into something great.

Ryan Adams can undoubtedly write a song. Most of the songs here have a pleasant hook or melody. The problem is that he's written too many on this album, and too many of them are ballads. "Firecracker" has some great country twang and the kind of hook that makes Adams's best songs great. But it's the only song of its kind here. So much of the rest of this album is slower, aiming for a kind of melancholy or nostalgia that just doesn't come through. "Sylvia Plath" is the worst example for me, there's almost nothing there musically and the lyrics are weirdly parasocial. There are some rock songs that get things going a bit, but they all feel like they're cut from different clothes and don't belong on the same album. A prime example of an album being less than the sum of its parts.

Impeccably played jazz funk, but to what end? The title track, the only one with vocals, puts you in a world of a late night in the big city, down on your luck or worse. The whole album feels very nocturnal, but the title track is the only song that makes full use of that feeling. The other tracks fade in and out without sounding all that differently, and while they sound good I can't call out anything that differentiates them from other jazz funk tracks. They mostly play it safe; the funk isn't that deep, the solos are short, the grooves nice but not challenging. I do like this, but there would never be a reason to put this on over similar albums.

Raucous folk punk celebrating life in the face of death. If you just listened to the music while ignoring the lyrics you might think this is a happy album, but far from it. There are lots of songs about death, dying, and uncertainty. But the joyful music adds to the lyrical nuance about celebrating one's culture and family in the face of tragedy. It starts with a bang with the terrific first two tracks, "Fairytale," and "Thousands are Sailing." After that I do think the new ideas wear a bit thin, but the upbeat folk sounds mean it's never boring.

Great performances by all three MCs here, especially Lauryn Hill. There's urgency behind their rapping, and I enjoy the conscious lyrics. That consciousness sometimes slips into a holier-than-thou attitude though, which means this isn't always a positive album (and it's thus a bit ironic when stuff like that Chinese restaurant skit is included here). And speaking of urgency: I wish that was reflected in the beats. These beats are laid back, almost to a fault. The sung covers switch things up, but those songs are also pretty subdued. I think this could use some more energy or variety - there are two MCs here who excel at both rapping and singing, but they rarely do so on the same song. For an album lacking in hooks, that seems like a missed opportunity.

Bog standard blues rock, but that doesn't mean it's all bad. If I was at a state fair and I had a couple beers in me, I'd be super into this. But I don't think it rewards a casual listen that much. If there was something more to this, like more keys or more variety, maybe it would. Though maybe not on the variety front, since the acoustic-heavy "She Talks To Angels" is actually one of my least favorite tracks; the singer's voice seems more suited to rock songs. "Sister Luck" was probably my favorite song, it's slower too, but more of a power ballad. I kind of wonder if this would be as loved if it came out in my the 70s and wasn't seen as a throwback, because I don't think there's any doubt this is inferior to bands like The Rolling Stones.

Of the New Order albums I've heard, this is the most consistently engaging and upbeat, and also the best. The songs have a lot going on, but it's never overwhelming. The opener almost gets to that point, with all the synths and guitars flying around in the beginning, but the way it moves from one set of sounds to the next keeps it moving nicely. Elsewhere the bass thumps, the synths sound bouncy, and the guitars compliment everything well without taking the focus off of the grooves. The lyrics are mostly ignorable, but lyrics have never been a strong point for the band. It's hard to pick highlights as it's so consistent throughout, but "Run" and "Vanishing Point" are definitely two of the best songs. All in all just a fun album that brings together a lot of different influences well.

A swirling ocean of immaculately produced ethereal post punk. It surrounds you with feelings of longing that almost drown you. The lyrics are dripping in that melancholy, but they never feel overly dramatic or inauthentic. They feel real and honest. Each song feels carefully crafted, with intricate synths and guitars that compliment each other perfectly. And there's so much range here: the regret of "Pictures of You," the sinister "Lullaby," the pulsing, desperate "Fascination Street." On a different album "Love Song" would be a thoughtful pop tune, but here you begin to second guess whether it's also somehow a downer. Whenever the album gets to those last 5 long songs I always think they're going to drag by, but each has such a lovely, enthralling melody that I feel disappointed when each song ends.

Super smooth and enjoyable R&B, but I can't help feeling it would be better if it tried more things. The most well-known songs are great: "Creep" has a nice and funky vibe and "Waterfalls" is the catchiest song of the bunch (not surprising since it was the big hit). There are a few good rap verses, both from TLC and also from Phife Dawg and Andre. Outside of those moments, it's largely filled with slow jams. These songs aren't bad, but there's also not much to separate them from similar songs from the era. Like "Red Light Special" is a good song, but it sounds like a song many other 90's R&B artists could write. Definitely has a nice vibe, but there's also not enough unique about it to make me want to come back.

I like the driving basslines on this. I like the guitar tone, although on some songs like "Halloween" it's a bit too high pitched. And most of all I love the thudding, tribal drums. Yet put it all together and it sounds a little...thin? That bone dry guitar tone may be one reason. I also kind of wish it was more menacing? "Spellbound" is basically a jangle pop song and "Arabian Knights" feels like a standard post punk song. So is "Sin in my Heart," but it's faster and more urgent. "Into the Light" is a good example of a more interesting song, the angular guitar on that one is incredible. And the closer is a nice way to end - very drawn out and climactic - but it also feels like it's missing something. I think that as dark and gothic as certain elements of this are, it doesn't feel meaty enough to really get that atmosphere across.