I’ve been a big fan of this album for years. As a nascent cynic, this one spoke to me when I first found a used copy. Memo to My Son is probably my favorite Randy Newman song.

I need a few more listens and this might go up to a 4. Has a Peter Gabriel feel to me - art damaged orchestral pop.

The first song is a mission statement. The new direction is apparent. When the album veers into heavy R&B, I like it less than the "scary music" they intended to make. There are plenty of other good moments but Black Sabbath (the song) is straight up bad ass. It sounds great echoing down my street in the darkness on Halloween. Beware children!

I don’t remember her voice being this grating. Production suffers as a product of the mid 90s. Most lyrics are super facile and it’s not just Ironic. Not entirely useless given its part in the acceptance of women’s sexual agency, but I didn’t enjoy re-listening to this.

Beautiful voice but the album does not really do anything for me.

Pretty and chill. Impressive that’s it’s all improvised as I understand it.

This is pretty much why I’m here. Revisiting Boston is fine, but this was cool. I’m a fan of Brazilian music like Astrid Gilberto and Os Mutantes but don’t have a particularly deep well to draw from. Liked this record a lot and the samba soul sound. O Filosofo was a particularly great cut.

One of my favorite albums of any time and certainly the 90s. It still sounds great and pretty timeless to me. Ballad of Big Nothing is my favorite slacker anthem. My 21 year old daughter, who loves Elliott Smith, was born on the same day he died and likes to imagine some piece of him was reborn with her. :)

I had heard this album a couple times but I am more familiar with the latter-day side projects than the source, so I’m glad this came up.

I don’t have enough death/trash metal depth to distinguish this from other acts or say if this is particularly good, but I didn’t hate the experience.

New to me and I enjoyed the party the first time through.

I’ve been a big fan of this album for years. As a nascent cynic, this one spoke to me when I first found a used copy. Memo to My Son is probably my favorite Randy Newman song.

I need a few more listens and this might go up to a 4. Has a Peter Gabriel feel to me - art damaged orchestral pop.

Funky and fun.

Never really explored the Waylon discography much despite having multiple Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, etc. albums. I don’t like his voice as much as the others I mentioned, but this is a fun listen with lots of good songs. Happy to be exposed to it.

My Mom loved this album but it still doesn’t do it for me despite loving early Dolly Parton. 80s era country is not my favorite.

I hadn’t listened to it in 20 years and enjoyed the experience pretty well. They are not all great songs, but there are enough good and great ones to make that album better than I remembered.

Pretty, but the crooning got to me eventually.

I missed the years he was decent, so I just associate with his mostly terrible 80s stuff. And Maggie May. This is probably not going into regular rotation but was a lot better than I expected.

I have some small level of affinity towards the 70s hard rock and prog rock sound, but mostly don’t like this album. However, I’ve Seen All Good People is their best song, and it’s not close IMO. Toward the end of part A (around 2:50) the bass and organ finally come in on the last chorus and it’s a glorious moment in pop music. It raises this album from a 2- to a 3. That song is written around the vocal hooks and most of the others are not, so the virtuosity comes off as self- indulgence.

Muscular riff work and aggression, I just don’t have enough interest in the genre to fully appreciate it, I think.

This album shows up a on a lot of best lists, so I’ve tried getting into it a couple of times before. Got a little closer this time, but I’m not a full convert yet. I’ll try again in another 10 years. I really like Faron Young, though.

Happy to add context to my 80s-flavored perception of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and I really liked a few of the songs, including Keep on the Sunny Side, You Are My Flower, I’m Thinking of My Blue Eyes, and Both Sides Now. I’m a Carter Family and Doc Watson fan, so most of their songs resonated. Roy Acuff not as much. While the title track is pretty good, it doesn’t crack the top three versions of that song, IMO. For me, bluegrass is the speed metal of country music, and I have limited patience for it. This gargantuan collection exceeds those limits.

I’m a big fan of the song Kimberly, and I like most of this album. The song Birdland probably moves this from a 4 to a 3 for me. Too long and too much warbling.

The album covers a lot of ground from drill-ish songs to jazzy arrangements that remind me of Jamila Woods. This might be a 3 in reality if I had enough listens but I was intrigued enough to spin it 3 times. I will probably listen more times to this.

My favorite Bob Marley album has always been Kaya but that’s only because that’s the one I bought in freshman year of college. Then I bought Uprising and stopped. I stopped too soon. The amount of hits on this record is nuts.

It’s not even in my top 5 Beatles albums but it’s great. When I’m Sixty-Four, A Day in the Life, Fixing A hole are all kick ass songs, and none of those probably are considered a “hit” from this album. It’s hard not to grade on a curve for the Beatles, but the 5 years from 1965-1969 are the most fertile period anyone has ever had in pop music, and so even though this album exists next to Revolver and Rubber Soul and Help and Abbey Road and the White Album and Magical Mystery Tour, it’s still great.

It’s inconsistent like all Sebadoh albums, which is a reflection of how they’re organized and a sort of Minutemen-ish ethos. You’re going to get ballads, noise rock, tongue-in-cheek songs and more. It’s kind of amazing that I had never listened to this album considering I really like III and Harmacy and I’ve listened to every other album. I really can’t explain how I never got to this one, but I’m glad I did. Soul and Fire is super great, and I like a whole lot more. That said, I feel like there are better versions of some of these archetypes in their catalog. Take Think (Let Tomorrow Bee) - it’s a very pretty love ballad. It’s also not as good as Truly Great Thing from III or Willing to Wait from Harmacy.

Forty years later, it sounds pretty rudimentary. Still some bangers on there and middle schooler in me was very happy to hear Son of Buford.

I’m a big fan of the Kinks and this is probably my second favorite album. I’m a sucker for British cultural commentary pop from this era. Australia and Shangri-La take some time to get to, but are the heart of the record for me.

I listened to this several times through, enjoyed it and rounded up to 4 stars. I am an easy mark for this one because I like Digable Planets and Tribe Called Quest which they seem to have modeled their sound on. My main criticism is that they haven’t really pushed anywhere beyond their influences, but it’s a fun listen nonetheless. Incidentally, before listening to this, I kind of thought this was a jam band which is pretty funny. I had heard the name before but never listened to them…probably because I thought it was a jam band. :)

Probably would have been 4 stars to 20 year old me, but that ship had sailed. I will need to be satisfied with Local H and Primal Scream to scratch this itch. Love the filthy grooves and while I don’t mind his growl, it doesn’t do enough to push this farther into my rotation. Glad to hear it on balance, though.

I’ve had the vinyl of this album for years and there are six songs on it. It’s fine, but includes some of the more self-indulgent numbers including Young Man Blues and 15 mins of My Generation. I was surprised and delighted at the 14 songs on the expanded version including some on my Who favorites like Tattoo, Happy Jack and a Quick One. There’s a good mix here of pretty things and raw aggression. Btw, if you’ve never seen A Quick One from The Rolling Stones Rock n Roll circus, it’s worth your time. It’s also live and you can see what this looked like live. As I understand it, the footage was supposed to be turned into a BBC special, but the Who blew The Rolling Stones off the stage and they changed course. https://youtu.be/RJv2-_--EY4?si=Ie-MA3FelDjmHV02

Does anyone need my opinion on this album? I still have the vinyl I bought as a grade schooler and enjoy Beat It, Billie Jean, and Human Nature.

The rapping doesn’t measure up to his contemporaries and seems really OG like Run DMC. The album is mostly notable because the extreme content.

I have always really liked the first two albums of this band where they were grimy, son-of-a-preacher-man mirrors of the Strokes. This album smells like a rock n roll dive in a very good way. They even cover some ground from sleeze blues to tight indie rockers to sort-of ballads. Everyone needs to pay their rent, so I don’t begrudge their turn to arena rock, but that band isn’t for me.

Maybe I would get more on repeated listens, but I’m pretty ambivalent about this album on one listen. They kind of remind me of the Mekons.

I’m a fan of this album and It rewards multiple listens. Even though it is weird and uneven, there’s a lot of breathtaking stuff and new discoveries around every corner.

Meh.

Some of that lyrical content is red flag material, which is especially unfortunate for Under My Thumb. The back half is way stronger than the first half. I don’t care for most of it besides the opener. Out of Time is great, along with I Am Waiting and Take It or Leave It.

Similar to many Smog/Bill Callahan albums, I liked it but not every song and don’t feel like I need to acquire more. That sounds maybe too negative since I enjoyed the experience.

I think this album suffered from our group due to the obvious similarities with Bill Callaghan - baritone and sing/talk vocals plus generally slow tempo music. I listened to this maybe 10 years ago when it was on some other beat of list and my opinion hasn’t changed. I liked it pretty well, but there is not enough to get me to go deeper. Let’s hope the National isn’t the next album.

I liked this way more than I was expecting. Songs about F$&king didn’t make a huge impact on me 25 years ago when I was introduced to it, but maybe I was just not ready to hear it then. Now I will need to revisit that. Lots of interesting songs here, and I especially liked Kerosene, Bad Houses, and Bazooka Joe.

I rounded up because I appreciate ambition in art, but this is not my thing. I think I prefer Rush when they sell out and are more economical.

While nothing really offended me on this album, it’s way too long and uniform.

I’m not going to say this is punk AF, but it was more punk than I remembered. I feel like it got marketed to me as pop, but it’s pop punk with 80s stylings.

I liked more than I didn’t.

Most Byrds albums I’ve listened too are uneven. This one is too, but more solid than most.

I enjoy this album, but I do think from London Calling on they found their voice whereas this album seems more like someone else’s voice and more typical of British punk music. That said, it has tons of great songs including Career Opportunities which is an all time great.

Some probably find this too precious but I’m a sucker for orchestral pop. I was introduced to this album by This Will Be Our Year which is the best song by a fair margin. Some of the tracks took time to grow on me but did with the exception of only a couple. Colin Blunstone has one of my favorite rock/pop voices of any era.

I don’t have bad word to say about Willie Nelson. This is a great album and a favorite of mine.

After the first two songs, I really wanted to like this, but I really didn’t. In the 80s I dismissed Wham! as a limited, manufactured, corporate entity. I really enjoyed the recent Wham! documentary and that helped me realize how talented George Michael was. The guy knew his way around a pop hook and obviously has an incredible voice. This album covers a lot of styles but mostly badly. We have piano ballads, guitar ballads, folky tunes, jazzy numbers, and, um, a reggae song. The album is saved from 1 star by the first two songs, especially Freedom! ‘90. That’s a real banger.

I went through a pretty good classic rock phase in high school, so I’ve heard this before. I was curious to see if I maybe I was more ready to hear it now. Not really. This is not my thing, and I rounded up for the definitive version of Me and Bobby McGee. Cool rock/blues voice but the whole leaves me cold.

The 9 song original album is pretty good. I definitely didn’t need the 2 disc set version, or two versions of Suicide. I like the idea of the homage to Suicide more than I like the results. I have listened to and like a couple of Spiritualized albums but it was fun to hear this and how that band grew out of the shoegaze scene. I like a fair amount of the genre, so this was an easy sell to me, but not sure how much I’m ever going back. Really liked Lord Can You Hear Me.

I feel like production held back my enjoyment of a lot of Leonard Cohen’s albums beyond the very early stuff. This one seems like the production well matches the content of meditations at the end of life. It doesn’t have a ton of spotlight tracks but definitely gets the message across so I’ll round up to 4.

It’s got Hyacinth House and Riders on the Storm and I really like both of those. When they start blues jamming, I lose interest quickly.

I like this style of music and have listened to some Ali Farka Toure records and Mdou Moctar. It was cool to hear a different take on desert blues, but no tracks really grabbed me and I’m not super sure I will revisit this.

This is the best Smiths album in my view. I can’t quite pull the trigger on 5 stars since my ceiling for the Smiths/Morissey isn’t quite that high. The run on this album from Cemetry Gates through There Is a Light That Never Goes Out is pretty great.

I rounded up to two stars due to the wit, but I really didn’t like his voice or the production. There’s an element of theater or melodrama that I like in the Magnetic Fields, but I would rather hear about electric eels under the covers rather than riding your lover like a horse at dawn.

Initially I had a strong negative reaction to the production on this album and the first song, which sucks despite being very real for Paul Simon. I listened twice and liked it much more on the second listen. I’m not choosing to listen to this over Graceland or There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, but it was pretty interesting to see how some of the songs would transmute into songs from Graceland. You Can Call Me Al is a dumb, catchy song that bears resemblance to Cars Are Cars which is a very dumb song. Similarly, Hearts and Bones sure has things in common with Graceland, especially when he says “are traveling together.” The melody and phrase is really close to “my traveling companion is nine years old”. Train in the Distance has elements that sound like Under African Skies. Glad I heard it but not sure I will go back.

This was an interesting album to listen to since I’m not sure I even really like it but I definitely appreciate it. I really, really like the drums/beats used. All the instrumentation is creative and evocative. I actively dislike the vocals. I think her voice is perfectly fine but the vocal lines aren’t my thing and irritate me. I think they are going for haunting/creepy but I just find them overwrought and grating. I really like The Rip which I already knew and Magic Doors which I didn’t already know.

Not a ton of depth beyond the two hits and 40. It turns out Under a Blood Red Sky really is a better “early” U2 document and there are other U2 albums that have a more cohesive and distinct idea rendered.

I bought this when it came out on the strength of The Concept. It’s solid and without waste tracks, but when I want something in this era of power pop I tend toward Lemonheads, Matthew Sweet or Weezer.

I hadn’t listened to this album as a whole in at least 10 years. My memory was of an album with great singles but also filler. As a 30 year Flamingo Lips fan, I’ve admired their ability to push their ramshackle psychedelia to different places, and that always made Soft Bulletin a bigger step for me and a near perfect album. This album and the one that follows, kept playing in the same sandbox that got forged by the boom box experiments and then Zaireeka. There are a lot of good songs here besides the big three (Fight Test, Yoshimi 1, and Do You Realize) including Are You a Hypnotist?? and In the Morning of the Magicians and that got me to 4.5 stars. It’s not Revolver but it’s a really good record and it has the state song of Oklahoma (Do You Realize), which is probably the coolest thing Oklahoma has done in the last 30 years.

I slightly prefer the darker energy of There’s a Riot Goin’ On but there’s a reason half the greatest hits album comes from this one. I hadn’t listened to it before and so I’m glad it’s on this list even if it is a bit uneven.

Not enough hooks besides the title track to get me interested.

This band has 52 million Spotify listeners, so I’m obviously missing something. I couldn’t wait for this to end.

I’m glad this was on the list since I’ve never heard of this band but liked a fair bit of contemporaneous bands like Grizzly Bear and the Dirty Projectors that mixed prog rock with indie. White Denim introduces some southern rock elements that at times reminds me of My Morning Jacket and even the Allman Brothers. I was really between a 3 and 4 and might regret the score I gave this, but I don’t see myself going back to this a ton.