I'm sceptical of one listen reviews as some of my favourite albums were not on first listen.... but... this was okay, some interesting tracks but not one I'd return to. Lots of 80s electro drumming and a little synth.
Not my cup of tea but understand that there are people who like this sort of stuff.
I enjoyed this. A good album with some great songs. You can hear the echoes of influence it has had on future bands.
This is an ok album with some listenable songs. It is of its time though I think - it should have stayed in the 1990s. Astonishing to see how many 5* reviews listeners are giving this. If this is 5*, what is Ziggy Stardust?
All the songs you've heard before. Just what you'd expect.
Again an ok album that might be of its time. Some innovation and interesting lyrics... And again, I'm conscious of one listen reviews. But can this justify being one of the greatest albums of all time?
Poignant to be reviewing this the day after Ozzy's death, it really is a very good album. The best of any genre is always great even if it's not your taste and this is testament to that. It's easy to forget how groundbreaking this stuff was.
Sounds like a great gig, uncomplicated and raw. Fantastic live recording. I suspect this one is in the list because JLL was such an influential figure in popular music - though enjoyed his peak before the concept of the album enjoyed its own. So as a record capturing an important musician, it's a good listen, as an important album, maybe less so.
I've never liked Michael Jackson and this is an album full of songs you already know and didn't really like. I suppose it's among the best of that late 70s disco but not something I'll make a habit of listening to.
Oh this is good. Interesting, innovative, listenable, and a bit of brass in the opening track.
A fabulous album. Great collection of songs and that influential sound....
There are a lot of tracks on this album. Not sure they are all necessary. Quite a lot of it sounds like incidental music to a Miami Vice Crocket introspection scene. Dick Cuthell's trumpet on The Walk is a highlight.
I think a good album, raw and rambling. Great voice. You can hear its place in music history, pre-Dylan.
A solid 3. An enjoyable album.
At several points, I forgot I was listening to this. It's not too long though.
This sounded unfinished like they had laid down a decent backing track but forgotten the songs. Droned on a bit.... A generous 2.
This one might need another listen. Good but not brilliant.
If energetic 1980s synth pop is your thing, this is the album for you.
How on earth did this album make the list? It's bland, uninteresting, and drearily monotonous. Maybe you need to be on drugs to enjoy it, but today you'd just ask AI to produce something as boring as this.
An incredible piece of music mixing styles and sounds. Powerful and original, comprising superb musicianship.
Just look at the cover... makes you wonder how it took so many band members to produce such a mediocre album. It's a listenable collection of songs but really nothing special and derivative throughout.
Litening to the US version, opening with Paint it Black (though the cover here shows 'UK'). This album is not universally brilliant but contains a handful of classics, and this was 1966 so there's a mix of the early decade rock n roll and a taste of what was to come. Great stuff. Probably shy of a 5 but rounding up to rebalance some of the silly 1 reviews....
A very nice album, I'll be playing it again. This was Dennis Wilson's only studio album, he makes up for the dearth here with a recording the length of three ordinary albums. And it's an eclectic mix of styles and genres even dipping into prog rock at times. A little bonkes but a decent album to review for a change....
You can almost hear the hair. Sounds like the soundtrack from a 1980s teen movie starring Judd Nielson.
This is a nice piece of music though I expected to enjoy it a lot more than I did. I like REM, though haven't listened for years, and on relistening I'm afraid this album is a bit bland, dull, lacking energy.
This is an incredible album and a classy goodbye to the world. Brilliant songwriting, amazing moody jazz band.
Thought I was going to hate this and actually only dislike it. It's all a bit dull teen angst from the 80s with far too many monotonous instrumentals.
Pretty much what you expect. Great voice though very repetitive in sound and theme.
A really wonderful Album.
When it's good, it is very good. But sometimes it's a bit horrid.
Ok but not as special as the reviews suggest. Starts with disco which could have been recorded at any point since about 1976 and then moves on to an entire range of other familiar genres.
Faboulous. Great songs, great voice, and a Hammond Organ.....
Bland 1980s studio pop trying to be edgy. Marginally better than the other Cure album I had to listen to but just as monotonous.
Nice. Probably better enjoyed in the smokey club, sipping an Old Fashioned.
Largely uninteresting. I forgot it was playing at one point and then a track played that I thought ‘this is better’. Turned out the album had finished and it was playing Joy Division.
Now that’s how you do a debut album. Brilliant, still fresh, original, funny. Passes the test of time.
Lots of guitar, drums and high pitch wailing. Spinal Tap.
Improved on second listen. Some good stuff but not universally enjoyable.
What a brilliant album. Exceptionally good. 20 years ahead of its time.
Good music to play in a lift.
Bemused at the number of 5* ratings this dreary album has attracted.
Great album. Great voice. Great sound of the 90s.
Not sure how this managed to get recorded let alone make the greatest album list. Terrible.
Inoffensive. Nice voice and some nice songs. Perfectly listenable but somewhat forgettable.
A genuine classic. Timeless.
Not my thing but something very engaging, energetic, distinct. A soundtrack to go nuts to.
If you like a lot of drumming, guitar and screaming, this is for you. For what it is, it’s good but goes on a bit…
Perfect background music for a French bistro. Nice to listen to but inconsequential.
In a list of all too often mediocre recordings, this shows what a great songwriter can do.
Doesn’t elicit strong feelings either way. It’s ok with a few nice tracks.
Mr Soul itself might be enough to justify a 5*. It jumps around in genre and quality a bit but some of it is superb, notably when Young is leading.
Distinctive and engaging. Some of this is good, some a bit dancey.
Has its moments but somewhat tiresome.
Not very good. Almost parody prog rock with long intros and indulgent instrumentals.
Familiar 90s light grunge inde rock. Not completely terrible but surely not one of the greatest albums.
Remains a good album having not listened for 3 decades. This was such a massive hit, it was ubiquitous in 1996. Tad dated but still sounds the biz.
Pleasant album at times. It promises to be less bland than it sounds.
I can’t let the unoriginal nature of this music get in the way of the fact it’s a really listenable album. Very white stripes.
I expected to like this more than I did. Similar to the last one, maybe I’m just not a fan of the Pixies.
Haircut 100! Really? It’s actually not as terrible as I expected but come on.
All a bit unnecessary. DM really is an overrated band.
Really quite boring. That one track that was a hit stands out.
It’s not dreadful but I didn’t need to listen to it. Probably better enjoyed with some neon lights, a Budweiser, and a pool cue.
Repetitive and tiresome but he’s good at rhyming and knows a lot of rude words.
Didn’t expect much from this and it was much as I anticipated. Really crap lyrics accompanying monotonous sound.
Seemed much longer than 57 minutes. One or two bright spots but mainly uninspiring.
Fairly listenable - and Brimful of Asha remains memorable - but no pressing need for this album to have left the 1990s. It might have been improved by cutting out the whole of the middle section.
Fun, raucous, romp which at 28 mins doesn’t outstay its welcome. For that reason it scrapes a 4.
Nice enough but a bit boring.
Soundtrack from an 80s teen comedy drama starring Molly Ringwald.
Much as I remember it. Good, funky, tracks with decent musicianship. Probably an album you only really must have listened to before the end of 1993. If you haven’t in the intervening decades, you probably don’t have to squeeze it in before you die. My test for a 4 - would I play it again? Probably. It’s good.
Another nice enough album that didn’t need to leave the 90s.
Part 80s throwback, part mediocrity. Really nice voice but it needed to make more effort.
Some enjoyable tracks but not enough to justify the extended edition. Tempted at times but not quite a 4.
Not university brilliant and I could do without the self-indulgent Oh Yoko. But it contains Imagine, How, and the bitchy How do you Sleep? I think for that it scrapes a 5.
Essential listening only for teenage boys in the 1980s. It’s not completely terrible but the songs are juvenile and it just goes on. The lyrics to Hallowed Be Thy Name are like a 12 year old trying to write a version of The Mercy Seat.
Superb. One of the great jazz albums of all time. Creative, unconventional (even 70 years on), incredible musicianship, and truly original compositions. Nice.
It’s a solid 3, maybe higher. Some good tracks though jumps around reaching back to the 50s but ahead of its time with an 80s sound.
This was alright as it happens.
Reasonably okay. Not standout but some good stuff. Could lose the excessive synth.
A solid 3. Almost a 4. It’s a good listenable album but doesn’t do anything new. Not a landmark U2 record.
A pleasant surprise. Very listenable. Some nice tracks, trumpet.
Not my thing but I found it pretty monotonous. And it’s too long.
37 minutes of background music for deodorant commercials.
A great album. A great debut. The occasional low points are more than compensated for by the groundbreaking classics.
Gorgeous album. Beautifully written and performed.
There’s only so much of this I can take. Glad it’s only 35 mins long.
A rare surprise. One of those artists of course I knew but never listened to. He’s an incredible songwriter. And thanks to the reviewer who pointed out the Malcolm Gladwell podcast. Recommended listening alongside this great album.
Incredibly, released a year after Ziggy, the same year as Pin ups, and a year before Diamond Dogs. Young Americans followed a year after that. It goes on. An incredible run of outputs.
This really isn’t as good as Ziggy Stardust….but what is?
Nice. An album I’ll play again. Great horn. Very listenable.
My 100th album and at least it’s a good one.
Come on. Really? Tears for Fears can’t make a list of the best albums of all time. Mind you, it’s no worse than Depeche Mode. Probably better.
Music so inoffensive you’d think you’d been put on hold by a call centre.
An enjoyable album. Worth a replay.
Rounding this one up to a 5. Not JM’s best album but beautifully sung.
Expected better. There are a couple of classic tracks but a lot is pedestrian.
Despite some winyness, a much better album than Meat is Murder.
It’s ok with a couple of decent tracks but can’t justify higher than a 3.
Packed with classic pop tracks. Not my favourite listening and they have yet to reach their creative peak in 1964, but we are unlikely to have much of the rest of the list without it.
Not my thing. Stronger conceptually than musically. Goes on too long.
An enjoyable first solo effort. Some of it does sound like a kid pressing all the buttons on a Casio keyboard but it’s good nonetheless.
It could almost be one long track. When they did overkill I thought it was a reprise of ace of spades.
It might be influential but this album isn’t very good.
It’s good, not as good as the hype, but good.
While the quirky use of Radio London and advertisements might have seemed creatively surreal when they sat at the mixing desk, they are irritating on first listen and prohibit repeated playing. Unfortunately the rest is fairly pedestrian.
Dire, self indulgent, rubbish. How did this crap make the list?
Quite liked this though didn’t need 2 hours of it.
Well it has Sympathy for the Devil and Street Fighting Man. Those two songs justify a 5*.
I don’t feel very strongly about this album. It’s a strange mix of styles but largely what you expect.
Nice enough. There’s better Willie Nelson though. That said, he really can reinterpret a song.
A fun ,rockin’, 34 mins. Nice album.
Not bad but it’s another one of those albums, good in It’s day, that doesn’t warrant praise 20+ years on…
Insufferably boring. Maybe you need to be on drugs.
It’s ok and of course Layla is a classic but a lot of bland rock sound.
A band I should have come across but who has passed me by. Fab album with reminders of the Stones and Elvis even and a foretaste of Zappa and Kings of Leon.
Brilliant album. Packed with classics. Original, influential, class.
This made me come over all Austin Powers. I guess there’s a reason Somebody to Love and White Rabbit are remembered and we’ve forgotten the rest.
I wanted to like this more but it didn’t ‘arf go on….. I know going on is their thing but, as other reviewers have said, the first part is much better. Maybe they should have resisted including all of that previously unreleased material in order to make a double album.
I’m not averse to a bit of experimental music but this is mainly (not entirely, but mainly) terrible. It’s only 35 minutes though feels longer.
It’s better than the previous Sonic Youth album but isn’t really worth shouting about. It’s very ordinary.
I expected to completely hate it, but actually some of it’s more interesting than anticipated. Not my thing, and I won’t be re-playing, but maybe there is something in this.
There are a few too many of these albums on the list. Records from the 90s that were pretty good in the 90s but where there is little reason for them to leave the 90s. That said, I quite enjoyed the album and there were 2 or 3 really decent tracks.
I can see this album is probably trailblazing but it doesn’t entirely pass the test of time. It has been superseded by much better music, songwriting and recording. Still it’s only 35 mins which is fine to listen to a bit of musical history.
Not my favourite Leonard Cohen album But wouldn’t you like to be able to write songs like this? A master at work.
