216
Albums Rated
3.36
Average Rating
20%
Complete
873 albums remaining
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Taste Profile
1960
Favorite Decade
Punk
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Wordsmith
Rater Style ?
39
5-Star Albums
11
1-Star Albums
Breakdown
By Genre
Top Styles
By Decade
By Origin
Albums
You Love More Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Gold
Ryan Adams
|
5 | 2.83 | +2.17 |
|
Bandwagonesque
Teenage Fanclub
|
5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
|
Seventh Tree
Goldfrapp
|
5 | 3.09 | +1.91 |
|
Pieces Of The Sky
Emmylou Harris
|
5 | 3.12 | +1.88 |
|
The La's
The La's
|
5 | 3.14 | +1.86 |
|
Achtung Baby
U2
|
5 | 3.3 | +1.7 |
|
Celebrity Skin
Hole
|
5 | 3.3 | +1.7 |
|
Live At Leeds
The Who
|
5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
|
Live Through This
Hole
|
5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
|
A Girl Called Dusty
Dusty Springfield
|
5 | 3.33 | +1.67 |
You Love Less Than Most
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
|
good kid, m.A.A.d city
Kendrick Lamar
|
1 | 3.64 | -2.64 |
|
To Pimp A Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar
|
1 | 3.63 | -2.63 |
|
Eliminator
ZZ Top
|
1 | 3.37 | -2.37 |
|
Pelican West
Haircut 100
|
1 | 2.97 | -1.97 |
|
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Raekwon
|
1 | 2.84 | -1.84 |
|
Vulnicura
Björk
|
1 | 2.79 | -1.79 |
|
Two Dancers
Wild Beasts
|
1 | 2.74 | -1.74 |
|
Movies
Holger Czukay
|
1 | 2.71 | -1.71 |
|
Next
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
|
1 | 2.71 | -1.71 |
|
The Queen Is Dead
The Smiths
|
2 | 3.67 | -1.67 |
Artists
Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| R.E.M. | 3 | 5 |
| Green Day | 2 | 5 |
| Hole | 2 | 5 |
| The Rolling Stones | 2 | 5 |
| Nirvana | 2 | 5 |
Least Favorites
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 1 |
5-Star Albums (39)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Raekwon · 1 likes
1/5
This was very long. Not built 4 my tastes. Too many repellent words, and I couldn't follow any of the stories, which left only the music, and that tended to be a single phrase repeated for an entire song.
Joni Mitchell · 1 likes
5/5
A wonderful album, even though like C&S it doesn't have most of my favorite Joni songs. Brings back personal memories of the mid-1990s when I was heavily into a bunch of singer-songwriters. Not so much Joni, more people I could see live at local joints, but all of them were influenced by her. River is achingly beautiful.
Manic Street Preachers · 1 likes
4/5
I know that they are lyrically angry and important, but I lacked the energy to track what they were saying very closely. Some great songs though. Weird story about the disappearance of one of the founders. Unpleasant cover art by someone I’ve learned is an important Young British Artist.
1-Star Albums (11)
All Ratings
Mercury Rev
3/5
interesting - will listen again
George Harrison
4/5
If this had "What is Life" and a bunch of total filler, I'd still be tempted to give it a four, because that is one of the greatest pop songs ever. But there's other good stuff on here too, most of which I'd never heard. "Awaiting on You All," "Isn't it a Pity," "If Not For You," and "Let It Down" are some of my other favorites. (I've never liked "My Sweet Lord.") The rest does include a lot of filler but it's mostly listenable.
The Stooges
3/5
Accurately titled. I like some Iggy Pop, but I'm guessing this is on the early and more raw side -- I prefer my punk a little more melodic than this. Some good riffs, and pretty listenable, but nothing really grabbed me.
Black Sabbath
3/5
My problem with a lot of metal is the vocal style. Ozzy doesn't have *that* kind of vocal style, but I still find his voice best in small doses. And with some tighter songs. I think Sabbath improved a lot after this album.
Alanis Morissette
4/5
I find Alanis kind of annoying, but I'd forgotten how good most of this is, and enjoyed listening to it again. You Oughta Know is a 5-star song. Also like All I Really Want and several others. The bad parts: the a cappella hidden track, one or two of the other slow ones, and everything in Ironic except the chorus.
Lauryn Hill
2/5
Nice voice, and I know this is an important album. But it isn't to my taste. (Nor is most R&B and soul, as those terms have been used since the 1980s or so.)
Sarah Vaughan
5/5
Not what I would usually feel like listening to, but this is great stuff. So smooth. The improv on Willow caught me off guard and was hilarious. (I was ready for it the second time around, but still good.)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
3/5
I don't really get why Tom Petty became a star. To me his stuff seems competent and listenable but straight down the middle, with his odd voice the only distinguishing feature. "American Girl" is a classic, but I don't think he approached it until "Free Fallin'," many years later.
Norah Jones
5/5
The first of these that I owned on disc. Have never gotten tired of it. Many great songs, but "One Flight Down" is my favorite.
David Bowie
2/5
I like a lot of Bowie songs, but none of them are on this album. "Young Americans" is okay, but it's the best of the bunch.
Britney Spears
2/5
The title track is a great song. The rest is forgettable. Not sure why it made it to this list.
Keith Jarrett
5/5
If I didn’t know the backstory, this might be rated only a 4. But I can’t separate the music from the story here.
Boston
4/5
I'm always happy to listen to More Than a Feeling. Most of the rest is good-to-great. Most of the lyrics are dull or outright stupid (mainly Smokin', but also, "dancin' in the streets of Hyannis"!?), but the amazing riffs carry the day. Let Me Take You Home Tonight is a fantastic finisher. No one else sounds like Boston.
Jorge Ben Jor
2/5
Some good passages, but the songs lose their freshness after a few minutes and sound repetitive.
Elliott Smith
4/5
The second one to come along in our queue that I've owned in physical form. It's great stuff, but I think he could have used one more uptempo song to give a break from the prevailing mood.
Wu-Tang Clan
3/5
Rounding up from 2.5. Not my thing at all, but interesting. The first track is good.
Sepultura
2/5
I don’t at all like the metal growl-style vocals. Or the muted sound of the high-speed drums. The rest is decent though.
Haircut 100
1/5
It's weird. These guys are about 85% of the way to being Squeeze, who I really like. But I didn't enjoy this at all. Hits some kind of stylistic allergy I have but will not bother trying to describe.
Randy Newman
4/5
This is good, but musically it's very samey after a while, and I don't usually pay enough attention to the lyrics to get the full benefit of Newman's smarts
Stan Getz
5/5
Elbow
3/5
Liked this more the more I listened to it. A couple of standout tracks (Grounds for Divorce and One Day Like This).
Dr. John
2/5
Based on what I'd heard before, I thought I liked Dr. John. I still like those songs. This bunch of noodling and pseudo-voodoo BS is different. Ugh.
Fela Kuti
3/5
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
Springsteen at less than his best is still very good.
Waylon Jennings
4/5
Yes
4/5
Prog fan here. Owned this one on vinyl. I don't listen to Yes as much as I used to, but I still like this one. Würm is the best; Perpetual Change a close second.
The Who
5/5
I know this one very, very well. Definitive versions of Young Man Blues and Summertime Blues. And while I'd have voted for tighter arrangements of Magic Bus and My Generation, I still love it.
Green Day
5/5
A favorite of mine. Loved seeing the band do it live on their recent tour. Jesus of Suburbia is fantastic.
Beatles
5/5
Great of course. Particularly nostalgic for me because I taped it off the radio one time before I was buying music, and played it over and over again. Amazingly, I still enjoy most of the songs, especially "For No One," "I Want to Tell You," and "Tomorrow Never Knows."
Johnny Cash
4/5
This is most of what I love about Cash. Only doesn't get 5 because of the truncated Folsom Prison Blues; could have used a few more songs in fact. "San Quentin" is amazing.
Rush
4/5
I've listened to the first two tracks a billion times, and look forward to the next billion. When #2 kicks in after "...inherit the Earth" is one of my favorite moments in music. The rest of the concept album is pretty good too. Second side falls off a bit, but "Something for Nothing" is a powerhouse finish. So, even though it's probably Paul Ryan's favorite album, I love it.
Marvin Gaye
2/5
this is pretty easy to listen to, if I don't pay any attention to it
The Go-Go's
4/5
this probably deserves a 3, but it gives me happy nostalgic feelings so bumped up a notch
Holger Czukay
1/5
Scattered among the tuneless noodling, this had a few minutes of grooves I enjoyed, but not enough to raise it to a 2.
De La Soul
3/5
I'd of course heard of them, but didn't know any of this. Some catchy stuff. Too much talking, though.
The Byrds
2/5
Captain Soul is a great instrumental track. I don't care for the rest, although I know this has a few important and innovative tracks. And every sound David Crosby produces annoys me.
And why didn't they call it Fyfth Dymension? Missed opportunity.
Prince
5/5
Great. I think "Computer Blue" is the only weakness, and it's still pretty decent.
The Clash
5/5
This is for the 1979 US version of the album, which includes the standouts "Clash City Rockers," "Jail Guitar Doors," and "I Fought the Law," among others. It's the one I owned and remember. For the English version, I'd probably drop a star.
The Zombies
4/5
Good, varied stuff. Btw OK Go recorded an excellent (albeit not especially innovative) cover of This Will Be Our Year.
Willie Nelson
4/5
I think for this one, the whole is way better than the sum of the parts. The individual songs are pleasant enough, but "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" is the only one I think is great on its own. But listening to the album start to finish is a great experience. Probably even better with whiskey.
George Michael
2/5
Very much not my thing. Freedom is a good song, but twice as long as it should be. The rest is a boring mix of 80s drum sounds and too-breathy vocals.
Janis Joplin
5/5
Gods, this is wonderful. Ten stars.
Spacemen 3
2/5
Maybe a 2.5. I didn't totally hate it, but there wasn't much interesting either.
The Doors
2/5
Riders on the Storm is a great song. The WASP is a weird song that's about 50% great, mainly because of trippy, epic-sounding lyrics like "out here on the perimeter there are no stars; out here, we are stoned, immaculate." The other 50%, sadly, includes a musically stupid chorus and one line in particular that, like the Doors' music generally, has aged badly.
John Coltrane
3/5
I've liked some other Coltrane (Blue Train), but I don't think I have the musical vocabulary to really appreciate or enjoy this one.
Songhoy Blues
4/5
this Desert Blues is good stuff!
The Smiths
2/5
I can't stand Morrissey's voice and find the Smiths unbearably pretentious. Some of the music is pretty good, though.
The Divine Comedy
3/5
Paul Simon
3/5
A Paul Simon album I've never heard of, with not one song I recognize by title. This should be interesting. From the timing I guess it's the one before Graceland.
...
It wasn't that interesting. One or two songs that caught my attention, but I'm apparently one of those shallow Simon fans who needs more Kodachrome.
R.E.M.
5/5
When this popped up I thought I'd give it a 4, because I think REM really hit their stride at Fables, and I wanted to leave room to give it (and probably almost everything following it, at least through New Adventures in Hi-Fi) a 5. But then I listened to it, and realized it's another Revolver. Man, it was great to hear all of these.
Portishead
2/5
This has some commonalities with music I like a lot by Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, but not enough to make me like it.
Wild Beasts
1/5
Ye gods I dislike this. Irritating in every way, except that the vocals are beyond irritating. It's like in Dumb and Dumber when Jim Carrey makes the most annoying sound in the world. I feel bad for some of the other 1's I gave.
U2
3/5
This is pretty good stuff, and is when U2's career started to take off. But - I think they made much better records later. Especially, Bono's vocals got much better than the whiny wail he overuses here. And the songwriting improved too.
Teenage Fanclub
5/5
Love this album. I came to TF way after the fact, as I explored power pop after realizing that I loved Big Star and Matthew Sweet and Velvet Crush and the Bangles and Letters to Cleo and Cheap Trick...
Anyway, great stuff.
Depeche Mode
4/5
On the fence between 3 and 4, but I’m feeling generous and rounding up because the deluxe edition has a second version of the excellent first track.
David Gray
2/5
Maybe should have given this 3, but it caught me in a mood in which I found it offensively boring.
Madonna
3/5
Why is *this* the Madonna album that belongs on this list?
Linkin Park
2/5
Very very much not my thing
White Denim
4/5
pretty good stuff, although I had a hard time making it stick in my head. Rounding up from 3.5.
The Beach Boys
4/5
I've learned more recently about the Beach Boys from listening to Andrew Hickey, so I no longer think of their music as stuck-in-1960 teenage fluff oldies. This has some great stuff on it, especially the wall-of-sound songs. And I think it will reward repeat listening; I'll definitely put it on again. "I'm Waiting for the Day" is my favorite, and I'd never heard it before. Rounding down from 4.5 because I don't like "Wouldn't It Be Nice," and that's the biggest hit here.
The Monks
3/5
I prefer my punk a bit more pop- and less proto-, but this is good stuff. Too bad they only made the one (I think - haven’t done much research on them).
Alice In Chains
3/5
I somehow missed AIC the first time around. I think they were big during the -10 years I was mostly listening to singer-songwriters. This is pretty good but seemed monotonous after a while. I should listen to more of it.
Prince
4/5
Has some great songs, but the whole is not nearly as good as Purple Rain. Several tracks (especially Automatic) are way too long, and Something in the Water (Does Not Compute) is outright awful. Drop that and shorten several songs and it might be a 5.
Nine Inch Nails
4/5
Could use some tighter edits, but I love the epic sweep and hammering rhythm of many of the tracks.
Fela Kuti
3/5
Okay, but not great. Don’t know the genre much.
The Band
2/5
I know, I'm a Philistine. This would be a higher rating, but I really dislike the strangled wail that makes up 2/3 of the vocals.
Fiona Apple
3/5
Criminal is a wonderful, 5-star track, and Carrion is pretty good too, and I like her voice -- but most of the rest of the album doesn't grab me.
Deee-Lite
3/5
My first reaction was, why is a one-hit wonder on this list? Having read a little more of their bio, I guess it's probably because of their major impact on the New York club scene, dance music, etc. Also, I guess they had more than one hit. But I don't like dance clubs or scenes, and although the music is inoffensive I don't find much here for me. Rounding up from 2.5 because Groove is great, though.
Television
4/5
Had heard of but not heard these guys. Pretty good; not crazy about the lead vocalist's voice. Rounding up from 3.5, partly because so many of the songs have really strong endings that I quite enjoyed.
Radiohead
3/5
This seems complicated and interesting, but not enjoyable. No memorable songs; a lot of cool sounds that would be good as the soundtrack for a Blade Runner knockoff where a guy in a trench coat is walking down an alley.
Dusty Springfield
5/5
I mostly know Dusty's hits, and they are wonderful. Most of the songs aren't quite as good here, although I really like Anyone Who Had a Heart (Bacharach/David; no surprise it's good). But as a debut it's fantastic, and I love her voice so much it carries through even the weaker songs. Rounding up from 4.5
50 Cent
2/5
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/5
Falls off steeply after Jet.
R.E.M.
5/5
Easy 5 for me, as forecast when we rated Murmur. Exhuming McCarth" and Strange are my favorite not-as-well-known-as-the-two-massive-hits tracks. I didn't realize the latter was a cover for a long time, but it and Superman and Toys in the Attic and the Hindu Love Gods album confirm my opinion that REM is a great cover band, as well as great at most other things. Anyway, back to this: the last four tracks aren't as flashily great as the rest, and I confess that back in the day I didn't listen to them as much as the part before, but they are excellent too.
ZZ Top
1/5
Before this album, I would have said "yeah, ZZ Top is okay, I like a few of their songs." I mean, La Grange and Jesus Just Left Chicago aren't particularly original, but they're great songs. This album changed everything. Its mix of synthetic dance-club drum tracks and weird Richard Marx-esque vocals and general pop aspirations was awful, but also was monstrously successful, meaning that I heard it (and saw the terrible videos) constantly. On top of everything else, I think they are the worst lyricists in pop music:
"She might get out a nightstick, and beat me real real bad...by the roadside."
"Gimme all your lovin'...all your hugs and kisses too."
"I'm needing someone like you, that I just wanna do love to."
TV Dinners almost seems profound among this dreck. They should have gone back to being fake Zombies.
k.d. lang
4/5
Smooth and pleasant. I knew Chatelaine and Constant Craving, but had not heard the rest. Enough variety within and among the songs that it held my attention. I almost deducted a star for the lyric "The ground on which we leave on" in the otherwise excellent Season of Hollow Soul.
Talking Heads
2/5
Except for once in a lifetime, I find this boring. Many of the songs have a cool sound or groove, but then repeat it monotonously for way too long.
5/5
Didn’t catch these guys the first time around, although eventually, I heard this song Madness, but I really like this. Has a Kansas-like prog quality to a lot of it that I really enjoyed.
Björk
1/5
It turns out that while I like the concept of Björk, I don't like her music, which is aggressively unpleasant. (At least on this album. I sorta remember thinking "Army of Me" was an okay song.)
The Thrills
3/5
I liked this pretty well, especially the first song and One Horse Town, but could have used a bit more power in this pop. And too much of the lead vocal had a wispy gut-shot quality that I wasn't crazy about. Still, I'll probably check out some more by these guys.
Megadeth
4/5
I’m metal-ignorant enough that I barely know the difference between Megadeth, Motörhead, and Metallica. I like loud guitars, but don’t like the common metal vocal growl or, often, whatever that drum style is called. This didn’t offend me in either of those ways, so I dug it. Will listen to again.
Sonic Youth
3/5
Some good songs, some cool sounds, but mostly not melodic enough for me, and I don’t like one of the (two?) main vocalists.
Malcolm McLaren
3/5
Preconception going into this: MM was a music impresario who put the Sex Pistols together. Cool!
Result of listening: Well, that was different than I expected, but not terrible. Parts were pretty catchy. Guess it's on this list because it was influential in popularizing Afropop or world music or the like. Maybe South African music particularly -- I caught a reference to Soweto. It does seem like it may have been delivered without giving any credit to the actual musicians on it.
Raekwon
1/5
This was very long. Not built 4 my tastes. Too many repellent words, and I couldn't follow any of the stories, which left only the music, and that tended to be a single phrase repeated for an entire song.
Nick Drake
4/5
This all sounded about like I expected ND to sound based on the handful of songs I've heard before, and that's pretty good.
The Beta Band
4/5
I had a hard time deciding what I thought of this. Haven't heard of them and didn't read anything about them. Sometimes I thought it sounded like a pretty good bar band, sometimes like brilliance. Sometimes like cool psychedelic rock, sometimes like aimless noodling. Some songs were great, and some were okay but went on way too long. In the end I decided to round up from 3.5.
Sonic Youth
3/5
I don't have anything to say that I didn't have to say about the last SY album. I still feel like there's something I'm not getting about them.
The Magnetic Fields
4/5
This mystified me when I bought it based on a good review after it came out, but I've come to love it. Much of it, anyway. It has about a dozen wonderful songs (esp. Grand Canyon, when my boy walks down the street, the luckiest guy), some that are fine, some that are trifles, and some that are pretty rough listening. The self-conscious cleverness is a little off-putting, but I still like this a lot.
Supertramp
3/5
Okay, not great. Supertramp has one song I love: Goodbye Stranger. It's not on this album. I like a lot of individual passages and parts of songs, but most of the songs have flaws (e.g. the chorus of bloody well right) that undermine them.
Paul McCartney
3/5
This has one total powerhouse (Maybe I'm Amazed, probably McCartney's best non-Beatles song apart from Live and Let Die). The rest is pretty listenable but none of it really stuck with me.
Van Morrison
4/5
Rounding up from 3.5. Maybe influenced because I know this is regarded as great. Also, there’s a batshit organized-crime story behind its recording. Anyway, this would be really good to listen to by the fire with a glass of whiskey.
Funkadelic
4/5
Glad I heard this -- can you get to that was the only song I'd heard before. Good grooves. The first track is abominable but most of the rest is very solid.
Skepta
2/5
A charity 2 because I couldn't make myself listen to the second half, which seems a little unfair. But I did not enjoy this at all.
My Bloody Valentine
4/5
Good stuff! Liked the droning, fuzzy guitars. Will listen to more from them.
Stevie Wonder
3/5
For all Stevie's amazing talent, I just don't like many of the songs on this album. YATSOML is good, and Superstition is an all-time great, but I only liked one or two others.
Saint Etienne
3/5
Had not heard of them before. Reasonably pleasant, mostly, but forgettable Euro-weenie blandness.
R.E.M.
5/5
A bit of a letdown from Document for me, but it's still great. And listening to it again, I thought I need to play this more often. "Stand" will always make me smile (partly because I think of Chris Elliott throwing newspapers at the beginning of Get a Life). And the untitled track is a perfect closer, following the downbeat minor key of I Remember California.
The Sugarcubes
3/5
I like this better than the Bjork solo album, but I think it still doesn't quite do it for me. Will re-listen, though.
Santana
3/5
Disclosure: I ran out of time to listen to this and only got about halfway through. But I'm pretty confident in the rating. Doesn't have my favorite Santana songs on it (She's Not There, Evil Ways, Smooth, a few others) but I like it pretty well. Occurs to me that Carlos S. is an unusual sort of guitar virtuoso in that he fits himself into what sounds like a giant band with all kinds of other instruments. I really like the big jams, like the song that flows out of the end of Black Magic Woman.
Something I learned only recently: Greg Rolie, the lead vocalist on this album (and on all of Santana's first few albums) co-founded the band with Carlos, and after leaving Santana went on to co-found Journey with Neil Schon. I found this out because I was looking up who was that really good vocalist on some of Journey's earlier tracks, e.g. Anytime, before they decided to entirely give over to Steve Perry's awful whine.
The Verve
3/5
Pretty good, and showed me there was more to the Verve than Bittersweet Symphony. (About which I vaguely remember there's one of those unjust music-IP-troll stories in which the band gets screwed and some parasite benefits heavily.) Liked Drugs Don't Work, Space and Time, a few others quite a bit. OTOH I found a few songs dull and repetitive. So, a 3.
Dead Kennedys
4/5
This would be a five, probably, if I liked Biafra’s vocal style more. As it is, there are a bunch of good songs and a couple of duds. I like that they are about something. And the one two punch of Holiday in Cambodia, followed by Viva Las Vegas is a great way to end the album. The first is a solid angry classic, and the second shows they don’t take themselves too seriously. I think I always like a punked up cover of a standard.
Pixies
5/5
This was great! As a casual Pixies fan up to now I knew five or six songs; I think Velouria was the only track from this one that was even slightly familiar. I liked practically all of this a lot so it's hard to single out other tracks, but some of my favorites were Cecilia Ann, Allison, Is She Weird, and Stormy Weather.
Green Day
5/5
I've been a Green Day fan for a long time. Saw them live on the recent tour when they played Dookie and American Idiot through, so now we've covered both in this list. I think this is a good pairing with American Idiot: this being more singles-focused, AI more thematic. On this album, Longview and She are the standouts for me, but I like it all.
Super Furry Animals
3/5
I liked several of these songs very much: (Drawing) Rings Around the World, Sidewalk Serfer Girl, a couple of others. Note: I'm a little confused about track names and which ones I heard since I started with the deluxe edition and then reverted to the original, and the track listings are very different. One thing I'm sure of is that Juxtapozed is atrocious, though. That and some of the other more aimless tracks pull it down to a 3 for me. But I appreciate the variety and am glad to have found this.
PJ Harvey
3/5
Kinda like the Bjork situation: I think PJ Harvey is deeply cool, but I don't like her songs so much. They're okay, and all have interesting parts. But this album is mostly too dissonant, and the songs too loosely structured, for my taste.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5
I'm a Springsteen fan, but this has never been one of my favorites. Tough for me to separate how I feel about many of these songs' quality from how their ubiquity during my college years made me sick of them. I'll take them in turn. Forgive the length.
- Born in the USA: great song but I can only listen to the live version. On this one, drum monotony strikes again, and there's nothing musically interesting about the last several minutes. Live version (on the 3-disc compilation that came out a little after this) adds a lot of oomph and some screeching guitars that are very welcome.
- Cover Me: okay song, not quite as overplayed
- Darlington County: great song. Why wasn't it a single? Sounds like something from the River.
- Working on the Highway: So-so. A little too much forced yee-haw for my taste.
- Downbound Train: The one song I had to hear again to remind myself what it was. It's okay. Like a rocked-up outtake from Nebraska. Nits: (1) Calling a train "downbound" seems weird. (2) Bruce says "mister" too much. (3) I don't like the keyboards.
- I'm on Fire: good track. Points off for the creepy little girl/daddy thing, which Bruce's lyrics have always had too much of. (He's not alone in that, of course.)
- No Surrender: great song; I don't need to hear it anymore.
- Bobby Jean: maybe the best on the album.
- I'm Going Down: boring.
- Glory Days: objectively a good song, but I'm heartily sick of it. Can't decide if the "speedball" lyric deserves points off; it's so bizarre I almost like it.
- Dancing in the Dark: great song, and I can still listen to it and enjoy it, but I've always hated the monotony of the drum track.
- My Hometown: kinda boring downbeat end to the thing.
All adds up to a 3.
M.I.A.
3/5
Mostly this doesn't do it for me. Rounding up from 2 point something on the strength of Paper Planes.
U2
5/5
Moderate-level U2 fan as I may have reported before. This is the band at the peak of their powers, I think. Pretty sure this was one of the few CDs that my wife and I both brought to our marriage, but it's been a while since I've played it all the way through and I'd forgotten about some of the songs. Not a bad one in the bunch; most are full-on great. Mysterious Ways may be their best kick-ass radio-friendly anthem, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.
Neil Young
4/5
I am almost allergic to Neil's voice, but I often really like his guitar sounds. And these are excellent songs.
The Adverts
4/5
This is really a 3.5, but I'm being xmas-generous and also trying to give fewer 3's. Pretty good but could use more variety. The guitars reminded me a lot of the more melodic subset of Clash songs (Death or Glory, say). Which is a good thing.
Don McLean
3/5
The title track is great, and the other folk-rock tune is pretty good. The rest is kind of ho-hum, but fine.
The Electric Prunes
3/5
Too Much to Dream, which I knew a little, is the only great song, but the rest was decent, and sometimes enjoyably weird.
Van Halen
5/5
I mostly disliked Van Halen when I was in my teens and 20s; thought their songs were stupid, and the hits were massively overplayed on the AOR stations I was listening to. At some point in the last 10 or 15 years something flipped, and now I really enjoy their brand of stupid, loud, *fun* rock. (I've had similar changes of view as to Def Leppard, Joan Jett, and Bon Jovi.) I think it helps that they always seem like they're in on the joke -- until the Hagar years that is, because Roth's persona really helps sell that bit. Anyway, this is really good Van Halen. I imagine it's on the list because of Eddie's guitar work, but another thing I've realized is that the band wouldn't be anything much without Michael Anthony's backing vocals. (Sorry, Van Halen drummer, whoever you are. I like your sound too but you're probably the least essential.) The end of Eruption / beginning of You Really Got me is an amazing kick in the ass that I've always loved, even when I didn't like the band.
The Soft Boys
4/5
First three songs and several of the later ones reminded me of 1980s arty college-rock bands I liked such as Thrashing Doves and Let's Active. But this was 1980, so I guess it may be on the list because of being pioneering in that genre. (Genre?) The talky imitation-Velvet-Underground stuff didn't work as well, but I'm still giving it a 4.
Johnny Cash
5/5
"Every man knows he is a sissy compared to Johnny Cash." Fuckin' A.
SAULT
2/5
2020 seems late for the theme to be considered what makes this sensitive. Sometimes-interesting collage of styles that I mostly don’t like. Stop Dem was good.
Various Artists
4/5
Up from 3.5, in the holiday spirit. The Darlene Love stuff is amazing; much of the rest is good, but the Bobby whatever wasn't. And I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause is still unbearable.
Ms. Dynamite
2/5
This genre has a low ceiling for me. Didn't finish.
Elton John
4/5
Not an EJ fan particularly, but this is pretty good.
Donovan
2/5
I know Donovan was kind of important, and I know I like at least one of his songs (First There Is a Mountain), but this is a dull album. Except for Legend of a Girl Child Linda, which is awful -- sounds like the boring type King Crimson songs that I don't like. (I do like King Crimson and prog generally, just not the pseudo-Renaissance ballads.)
Traffic
4/5
Up from 3.5. Great piano sound.
Joni Mitchell
4/5
Based on her voice, on the handful of songs I know well and love (Big Yellow Taxi, River, Both Sides Now, California, Chelsea Morning, Raised on Robbery), and on kind of her whole deal, I love Joni Mitchell. If I'd been in 17 in 1974 -- and although I'm old, I'm not that old -- I would definitely have had a crush on her. But only ROR is on this album, and while the rest is good, it's not quite as good as the songs I love. And there's a clunker or two. Anyway, bravo Joni, and I hope we have more albums in the queue.
Beck
4/5
I probably need to listen to this more. Some good stuff for sure.
The Cure
2/5
More like seventeen hours. Dull stuff. The Cure is like the Smiths without the interesting parts and the good guitar. Friday I'm in Love is a great song, though.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
A wonderful album, even though like C&S it doesn't have most of my favorite Joni songs. Brings back personal memories of the mid-1990s when I was heavily into a bunch of singer-songwriters. Not so much Joni, more people I could see live at local joints, but all of them were influenced by her. River is achingly beautiful.
The Damned
3/5
I should probably listen to this more. Okay, but so far it didn't grab me.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
Excellent stuff. My only gripe is that the quiet interludes go on too long.
Isaac Hayes
3/5
Dr. Octagon
2/5
Part way through and I can tell this is a solid 2 for me. The rapping is okay, though not my thing. The spoken interludes are just awful.
Ramones
4/5
The timing was great here, following a pretty weak run by the RNG. But I'd have given this a 4 in any case. Two or three great pop-punk tunes (BB, Judy, Boyfriend) and a bunch of very good ones.
Fatboy Slim
3/5
I saw Jason’s review and couldn’t help diving in to see if it was really that bad. For whatever reason, this worked for me.
Muddy Waters
3/5
Probably a 4 with better sound quality. The songs are kind of limited by having about 12 words each, though.
The Young Rascals
3/5
I was close to giving this one a four. The title track, although I don’t actually like it that much, is definitely a classic. And I like their version of you better run at least as much as Pat Benatar’s cover of it, which means I like it pretty well. Most of the rest sounds to me like stuff that the Monkees did in a better way, but it’s still pretty good. And I liked reading about the band and finding out that they were the ones who did several songs I knew and liked, especially people got to be free.
Ryan Adams
5/5
Johnny Cash aside, there hasn't been enough Americana / alt-country on this list so far. What a welcome addition. Ryan Adams is someone I've known *of* way more than I've actually listened to, but that will change. This album hit me really strong right from the gate, and I think it will improve on re-listening.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
4/5
This might deserve a five just for "Piece of My Heart," one of the best songs ever. (Other wonderful versions are also out there, particularly the original by Aretha Franklin's sister Erma and a cover by Dusty Springfield. Even Sammy Hagar's cover isn't bad!) But while the rest is very good, for me its jam-oriented approach holds the album to a 4. And most of the live audience sounds are apparently studio additions, which is a little weird.
Hugh Masekela
3/5
Joy Division
2/5
Too droning, too atonal
Stevie Wonder
3/5
Much like the other Stevie album, what I hear is an amazing talent who focuses on a type of music I don't really like. "I Wish" is the "Superstition" of this album: a classic I'll always enjoy, with an amazing groove. I also liked hearing Coolio's source, which I didn't know.
The La's
5/5
I know this one well from (as with Jason's comment in the chat) playing the shit out of it in the 1990s. Haven't listened to much of it more recently except for There She Goes, which has deservedly become a standard. It was a lot of fun to revisit the rest. Other favorites from this trip through: I Can't Sleep, Timeless Melody, Failure, and the epic Looking Glass.
So weird, and unfortunate, that this was the only album from these guys. My two minutes of research gave me no insight on wtf happened, just something about doomed by perfectionism.
Marty Robbins
2/5
Listened to the first 3 and I think I got the flavor. Not something I would like in most circumstances, thus the low score. But it did make me think about how my enjoyment of music is very context-dependent. If I were cooking flapjacks in a rural cabin, or driving down a lonely western two-lane highway, or sitting in a diner in a David Lynch movie, this would have been perfect.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
I'm a greatest-hits-level EC fan. This is mostly very good -- the unbearable "Moods for Moderns" is the exception. Barriers to giving it 5 stars: it's hard to make out the words in his clever and meaningful lyrics, and it's hard to understand what he's talking about without hitting up wikipedia. That's not a huge deal or a flaw per se; it just means that at my level of enjoying the music otherwise, I seldom will spend the energy to go to Genius or SongMeanings and figure out what, say, "Two Little Hitlers" is actually about. Maybe if I did I'd think it merited a 5.
Pixies
3/5
Gigantic is great, but mostly this is too raw for me to love.
Kendrick Lamar
1/5
Have I mentioned before how much I have come to dislike dialogue interludes? I really don't care where the motherfuckin' Dominos is at.
Christine and the Queens
3/5
I disliked the first few tracks; then it grew on me. I didn't finish but will probably return to it at some point.
Duran Duran
3/5
A very solid 3. Rio is a great song; the rest is listenable.
Lupe Fiasco
2/5
based on the first four tracks
Cocteau Twins
4/5
I’d heard of the Cocteau Twins before, but I think I’d conflated them with the Thomson Twins, and didn’t actually know the CTs at all. This was quite good.
Snoop Dogg
2/5
Bitches, hoes, etc. Motherfuckin' yawn. But kinda listenable in places.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
Way better than I expected; tempted to give 4, but it mostly didn't have enough oomph for my taste, and the wispy vocals got tiresome after a while. Favorite tracks: This Must Be the Place... and Jealousy.
Devendra Banhart
3/5
Started off good, but I didn't make it to the end.
John Grant
4/5
Had never heard of this guy, but it's quite good. I get notes of ELO and Gordon Lightfoot. Will reward repeat listening.
Hole
5/5
I was familiar with Live Through This, and like it pretty well. But somehow I'd never heard any of Celebrity Skin before. It's great! I think I put all but two or three songs on my (very large) favorites playlist. I prefer its slightly more polished sound to Live Through This -- come to think of it, it's kind of like how I like Bleach but love Nevermind.
Adele
4/5
I like Rolling in the Deep quite a bit, but I'll Be Waiting is the standout here. I'll never get tired of that one. Most of the rest doesn't hit me as hard, but it's all very listenable.
Goldfrapp
5/5
Sigh, more Euro-weenie stuff I’ve never heard of…
(Listens.) Hey, this is really good! Lover her voice and the lush emotionalism. 4.5.
The Prodigy
4/5
Rounding up a little here because: (1) almost every song has a very cool 30 seconds or so, before in most cases taking too long to wrap up, and (2) the L7 cover is excellent.
Tom Waits
4/5
One time in college a friend played some of Rain Dogs at me and I thought, "what is this unlistenable shit"? But 20 years later I heard it again and loved it. Tom Waits has the folk-blues-rock growly weirdo genre sewn up. This isn't my favorite collection of his songs, but it's solid. Earth Died Screaming may be my favorite -- it's (I think) a great cry of environmental protest.
Soft Machine
2/5
I only listened as long as it took for our dog to wake up, bark, run around the house, and demand to be let out. And to figure out that this is like the parts of King Crimson albums that I skip past to get to the good stuff. Not for me, even though there are good grooves from time to time.
The White Stripes
5/5
Rounding up from 4.5. I've casually enjoyed the White Stripes, but had never heard most of this. Great stuff. Can't really figure out why Jack White's voice works, but it does. The guitar is the star, of course.
Iggy Pop
4/5
IP is a walking piece of beef jerky who seemingly never wears a shirt, but (and?) he does good work. About 1/3 of these didn't land for me, but the rest were excellent, especially the propulsive title track. I'm going to go watch the beginning of Trainspotting now, and maybe Repo Man for good measure.
Christina Aguilera
3/5
Liked this way more than I expected. Couldn't stand a few songs, but quite enjoyed a few, particularly Slow Down Baby.
Later edit: BTW I didn't get around to listening to the second disk.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
1/5
Made it 1.5 songs in. I don't even dislike this style of music, but this is shite.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Opens and closes with two of the greatest, most distinctive, most iconic rock songs ever. In between, with the exception of the mediocre Midnight Rambler, are a bunch of good-to-great songs. "You Got the Silver" is an excellent slightly obscure one.
The Merry Clayton vocal on Gimme Shelter is one of the best 30 seconds of listening you can find, and takes the song from great to all-time great. Jagger's "woo!" after her voice breaks is an excellent little contribution that I never noticed until it was pointed out to me a couple of years ago. And speaking of Merry, the documentary 20 Feet From Stardom is worth your time.
1/5
I gave this a good 10 minutes; life's too short and I have stuff I want to listen to that won't upset my dog and give me a headache.
Todd Rundgren
3/5
I like Rundgren when he decides to rock: Wolfman Jack, Couldn't I Just Tell You, and Slut were excellent. (And see especially the amazing Open My Eyes from his previous band Nazz.) As for the rest, some of the Carole King-ish stuff, like the opening track, was okay, but not really my bag. Didn't like most of the rest much, although Rundgren was clearly talented and had an impressive range. Too much experimental meandering for my taste, and it was too long.
The Streets
2/5
Didn’t get far
Lou Reed
3/5
I could quickly put a triple album together of Lou Reed / VU songs that I love. They're spread a little thinly on this one, although Satellite of Love is one of my favorites.
Elton John
4/5
I love the title track and Funeral/Love, and Saturday Night's better than all right. Candle is great too, and most of the rest is pretty decent. The exception being Benny and the Jets, which I hate so much it singlehandedly drops it to 4. Not a fan of the Jamaica song either.
The War On Drugs
2/5
Why is this on the list? Boooooring
Buena Vista Social Club
5/5
I heard some of this back when it was a hit and liked it well enough, but had pretty much forgotten about it. Was great to revisit -- smooth and pleasant throughout.
Caetano Veloso
3/5
Smooth and cool, but not quite for me. Caetano Veloso is a fantastic name.
Ride
4/5
High 3, rounded up. I like the crashing noise of it; some of the vocals aren't my favorite. And could use a little more variation among the songs.
Otis Redding
5/5
The more I listen to Redding beyond Dock of the Bay (which is great, but I've heard it plenty) the more I love it. His voice is amazing, but I think a huge part of the appeal is the Memphis Horns. They make everything they touch great.
2/5
I may not have been in the right mood for this. Started okay, but didn't hold my interest.
Ray Charles
4/5
Not my favorite Ray Charles stuff, but it's still very good.
Kate Bush
2/5
Every Kate Bush album I've ever heard has had 1 to 3 songs I love, and then mostly a bunch of pretentious bullshit. This is at the low end of the former and the high end of the latter.
Morrissey
4/5
I still don't really like Morrissey's voice, but this is pretty good. Enjoyed it much more than the Smiths album. Billy Budd was my favorite.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Didn't need to play it again to rate it. Tangled Up In Blue is an all-time great; Twist of Fate, Idiot Wind, and Shelter from the Storm are regular great; the rest is not bad.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2/5
Cool sound, but I don't like the songs. Or the cartoonishly dire vocals.
AC/DC
5/5
As with Van Halen, AC/DC is a band I mostly disliked back in high school, whose brand of dumb fun I've come to appreciate over the years. Shoot to Thrill is my favorite song of theirs.
The Monkees
4/5
Some great stuff on here, even if most of the band's biggest hits aren't. Guessing it belongs on the list because it's the one where they seized creative control. I'll again recommend the Andrew Hickey podcast episodes on the Monkees: https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-144-last-train-to-clarksville-by-the-monkees/ and https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-162-daydream-believer-by-the-monkees/.
The Bob Dobalina throwaway is weirdly hypnotic.
The Bees
2/5
It's a bit above 2. I quite liked A Minha Menina. On the other hand, I skipped multiple songs after 10 seconds to a minute. Kept thinking, why is this here and what great album is it displacing?
Public Enemy
4/5
Not my thing, but I do like some of the tracks -- just not the super-long, super repetitive ones. And it's obviously important, even prescient.
Hole
5/5
I remembered this as more polished-sounding than the other Hole album we listened to, but I'm not sure that's right. I'll have to listen to them both again in sequence. Which will be fun; this is great stuff.
3/5
Decent. But, I knew two Spirit songs going into this: Nature's Way, which is vomitous treacle, and I Got a Line on You, which kicks ass. Guess which one is on this?
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Sympathy for the Devil and Street Fighting Man are powerful, fun, iconic, era-defining classics (a la Gimme Shelter and You Can't Always Get What You Want from Let It Bleed) that I still enjoy. Salt of the Earth and No Expectations are sneakily excellent, laid-back gems. The rest is pretty decent; enough for a 4.5 that rounds up to 5.
Jimi Hendrix
3/5
Skill and talent, but I thought most of the non-famous songs weren't that good.
Nirvana
5/5
A rougher listen than Nevermind, but still great. All Apologies is one of my favorite songs, period.
3/5
I liked this way more than I thought I would. Enjoyed the furious energy of it, and the fun groove of the middle bit. Down side: too much nonmelodic squeaky bouncing around.
Janelle Monáe
3/5
After a painfully slow start, this really got going in the middle with Cold War, and from then on it had impressive variety even if I didn't actually like most of the songs.
Big Star
4/5
The many Big Star songs that I love, I love as much as anything. But there are too many clunkers on this for a 5.
Wondering a bit about calling this an "album," since I think it's a clump of two albums that may have had some release weirdness. With this pair on the list, I hope we'll see #1 Record/Radio City too.
Derek & The Dominos
4/5
3.5, really. Two great songs: Bell Bottom Blues (my favorite) and Layla, a bunch of quite listenable blues-rock jams, and a clunker (I'm Yours). Couple of other thoughts: (1) Clapton's voice is fine, but I just don't like the harmonies. I think they sound actively bad. Not sure why. (2) A bunch of basic blues lyrics in succession is kinda boring. BBB is poetry; the rest are blah.
Al Green
4/5
I didn't realize I liked Al Green so much. Smooth, yes, as he famously is, but there was also a lot of fun variety.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
My favorite jazz album. I'm not musically savvy enough to get all the innovative and cool time-signature stuff with Take Five, but I do love the sound.
Kendrick Lamar
1/5
Kate Bush
3/5
Same as the previous Kate album: one track I love -- Love and Anger -- and a bunch of diverse semi-experimental stuff I don't like as much.
Steely Dan
4/5
Good stuff. My nitpick with it is that I don't like how Donald Fagen uses the upper register of his voice, like the phrase "reelin' in the years" in the chorus of that song. Dirty Work is great.
Emmylou Harris
5/5
This is perfect. Boulder to Birmingham is the perfectest part. Along with whenever she is singing.
The Cure
3/5
This is on the high side for a 3, but that might be my Cure ceiling as I don't like Smith's voice, and about half of the songs on this album (especially the second half) were booooring. But I did like the melodramatic orchestral sound, especially on the punchier tunes.
The Birthday Party
1/5
Pure unpleasantness. Did not finish.
Animal Collective
2/5
Every now and then there would be a bit I liked, but never a whole song. Most of the instrumental parts sounded like a nightmare calliope.
Bob Dylan
4/5
This is about 2/3 great songs and about 1/3 kinda middling ones, plus Fourth Time Around, which just annoys me because it (I think?) is a snarky response to Norwegian Wood while being not nearly as good a song as NW is. Thus the 4. My favorites are Most Likely, One of Us Must Know, Stuck Inside of Mobile, and I Want You.
Hot Chip
2/5
Some pleasant sounds here and there, but I'm not into this genre at all.
Manic Street Preachers
4/5
I know that they are lyrically angry and important, but I lacked the energy to track what they were saying very closely. Some great songs though. Weird story about the disappearance of one of the founders. Unpleasant cover art by someone I’ve learned is an important Young British Artist.
George Jones
4/5
It's more croon-ish than the kind of country I like most, but this is excellent stuff. Listened to it while driving home from a hike and found myself doing some serious toe-tapping.
Traffic
3/5
This is fine.
Steely Dan
2/5
My Old School is a good song, but the rest of this didn't move me. I have just a nodding acquaintance with SD, but as an album this seems inferior to the other one we listened to, and also not as good as Aja, which should be on this list somewhere.
Michael Jackson
3/5
Man in the Mirror is great, and the other hits are catchy. Liberian Girl and I Just Can't Stop are awful, though admittedly I dislike almost all R&B. I've always found the braggadocio of the title track kinda ridiculous.
Pixies
4/5
Mutilation, Here Comes Your Man, Debaser, and Monkey are fantastic. The rest are hit or miss for me. But it's still great.
Antony and the Johnsons
2/5
Didn't like her voice; didn't make it very far.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2/5
Man Out of Time is a pretty good song, but I didn't like the rest of this at all. I mostly like only his uptempo songs, not whatever this stuff is.
Willie Nelson
4/5
Not my favorite Willie, but still great.
Oasis
5/5
I knew a handful of Oasis songs before; had only heard one on this album. This was great. I like the snarling vocals and the wall of sound. Rounding from 4.5.
The Specials
2/5
Eh, some of this was all right.
The Beau Brummels
2/5
what is this and why is it here?
Nirvana
5/5
This was an easy one. I don't especially like the idea of unplugged performances, especially when the band is so fantastic when plugged in. But man, this is great. I've already cited All Apologies as one of my all-time favorites, and the version here is maybe the best, ramping up the song's sense of guilt and longing to a pitch that's almost unbearable, especially when you think about where Kurt was and where he would be going. Where Did You Sleep Last Night is amazing too. Other favorites: About a Girl and Come As You Are. But it's all great.