Jul 10 2025
Hysteria
Def Leppard
Def Leppard is a band that made a career out of sounding like a Rocky III/Rocky IV soundtrack. The 80s were a strange time. I remember liking the song Rocket as a kid, not so much anymore, but it's still probably my favorite Def Leppard song. Seriously, this could be the soundtrack for Rad. There's the perfect combination of rock and rock ballads to last through a 90 minute movie about a kid who just wanted his dad to accept that he wanted to be a skateboarder rather than a mine worker while he falls in love with his rival's ill-treated girlfriend only to win the big race at the end and have his dad hug him at the finish line. Love Bites is terrible. Which song has been played at strip clubs more, Pour Some Sugar On Me or Panama by Van Halen? I had friends in the early 90s who still loved Def Leppard, hard to believe this lasted when so many other bands have gone by the wayside. This whole album is very dated. I liked Pyromania better, too many power ballads on this one.
2
Jul 11 2025
London Calling
The Clash
3/6
3
Jul 14 2025
Band On The Run
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/6
3
Jul 23 2025
The Genius Of Ray Charles
Ray Charles
3/6
3
Jul 24 2025
Vol. 4
Black Sabbath
5/9
5
Jul 25 2025
The Stranger
Billy Joel
2/3
2
Jul 28 2025
Low
David Bowie
This is Blondie's favorite album. The arcade noises on What in the World are not a welcome addition. They sound like sped up King Hippo noises. Just when I think I'm liking this album more, it has a track like Warszawa and I feel differently. I get the video game noises now. Art Decade could be the score for Final Fantasy VIII. These mostly instrumental sides on Heroes and Low just aren't great. The whole second side is like an emo video game soundtrack.
2
Jul 29 2025
Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan
5/10
5
Jul 30 2025
Now I Got Worry
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Random yelling right off the bat does not give me a good feeling about this album. This is too much like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Scuzz rock is not for me I think. This genre of music could more aptly be described as garage rockabilly. It's like if Brian Setzer went to prison. Dynamite Lover is good, like if Chris Isaak decide to rock. R.L. Got Soul is the best track on the album.
3
Jul 31 2025
Nothing's Shocking
Jane's Addiction
Perry Farrell's voice is one of a kind. This is very different than I was expecting, more rock than alternative. The Ted Bundy recording is an odd choice. I thought I was getting an album of Caught Stealing...this is much better. There has maybe never been a better example of someone writing a song of just whatever they were doing than Standing in the Shower...Thinking. At this point, I like the music and the vocals are kind of distracting. May distracting isn't the right word. His voice gives every song a similar quality. Jane Says is the hit.
4
Aug 01 2025
Amnesiac
Radiohead
4/7
4
Aug 04 2025
Led Zeppelin IV
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin is awesome. I recently watched Becoming Led Zeppelin and you realize how fortuitous it was that four super talented musicians found each other to make this band. Almost any other band would kill to have as many great songs in a career as Zeppelin has on this one album. Every song but Four Sticks gets airplay on Classic Rock stations. I hate that I came of age in the era of singles radio rather than album radio, music is worse for the change. The big hit, maybe their biggest hit, Stairway to Heaven might be my least favorite song on the album. This is literally better than almost any other act's greatest hits album. Are there 20 bands that have a better greatest hits album than this? Four Sticks is the least famous song and it's amazing! When the Levee Breaks is possibly the greatest cover of all time.
5
Aug 05 2025
The Gershwin Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald
What the fuck am I getting myself into? 3 hours and 15 minutes is a box set not an album. She has a lovely voice. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off is one of my favorite jazz standards. (I've Got) Beginner's Luck is really good. Oh, Lady Be Good is beautiful. Some of these lyrics are ridiculous. Just Another Rhumba's torturing of standard pronunciation to rhyme is ridiculous. How Long Has This Been Going On? is good as well. One disc of six done. My god, this is going to turn into torture. This is not meant to be listened to in one sitting. A third person self-reference in By Strauss. Someone to Watch Over Me is a great song. The Real American Folk Song is terrible, rags are not my cup of tea. The lyrics are like what a ten year old would write, My Cousin in Milwaukee is so bad. People in the early part of the 20th Century had a lot to contend with, but the Gershwins' lyrics might have been one of the worst. Disc two, done. I wonder if Nora Ephron or Gary Marshall just listened to this album and stole their movies from it...because I would believe they did. There's just too many songs. They could have made on amazing double album; four sides, six songs each. Instead, it's ten sides. Treat Me Rough is about rough sex and I'm here for a swinging, jazzy Closer. Two of the bigger songs in this back to back in They Can't Take That Away From Me and Embraceable You done well by a genius. There's a lot here and you realize that she's more talented in her way than the Gershwins' are in theirs. Her performance is spot on every song, even when the material leaves something to be desired. They close out the Ella portion of the album with I Got Rhythm which is way overrated. An album of showtunes and now a bunch of intermission filler and overtures. What is the point of tacking these on at the end? One on each side I get, but six in a row on their own record?
2
Aug 06 2025
The Suburbs
Arcade Fire
I think Arcade Fire is one of the most overrated bands but I do like the title track. This album is better than Neon Bible. Do I maybe like Arcade Fire? This album is about the lead singer's childhood in The Woodlands...rich kid complains about being rich. There's like a modern Cure feel to this album. In thirty years when they reboot Stranger Things for the 2000s, Arcade Fire is going to be all over the soundtrack. Month of May is as punk as a post punk band is going to get. We Used to Wait is good. This album threads the needle on continuity and variation across the songs.
4
Aug 08 2025
Talking Book
Stevie Wonder
You Are The Sunshine of My Life is a great song. Maybe Your Baby is a really funky song. It's about as far from You Are the Sunshine of My Life as possible while still being by the same artist. You And I reminds me of another Stevie Wonder song I can't place, vaguely Lately but not. Maybe I'm imagining things. Superstition is the other hit, good stuff. Big Brother is the worst song so far. The longer the album goes, the worse it gets.
4
Aug 11 2025
Fear Of A Black Planet
Public Enemy
3/6
3
Aug 13 2025
B-52's
The B-52's
God do I hate New Wave music. I hope Henry Mancini got every dime they made off this album for stealing the Peter Gunn theme and turning it into New Wave crap. This is a novelty band, there is no way the belong on this list. Rock Lobster could be the theme for a cartoon, and even then it wouldn't be particularly good. Rock Lobster is the worst song on the album, certainly the most annoying. Every other song on the album is better than it is. That being said, this album is not good, but it is at least short. I bet Courtney Love is a huge fan of the female lead singer. She's 1,000 times better than Fred Schneider's talk-singing. Downtown is one of the worst covers I've ever heard.
1