Pixies were my favorite band in college and their early albums are still among my favorites. While Kim Deal went on to more great things with The Breeders, The Amps, and her first solo album this year at age 63, Frank Black’s post-Pixies solo albums are poor. This is not worthy of a place on this list.
A great album. I listened to it a lot when it first came out and considered it one of the best albums of the 21st century. Revisiting 20 years later and with their image tarnished by the allegations against Win Butler, it still sounds fresh and every bit as good as I remembered.
Mixed - 3 great songs (Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side and Satellite of Love), and a lot of mediocre songs.
One of the greatest albums of all time. It still sounds fresh and innovative 56 years after it was recorded.
Pixies were my favorite band in college and their early albums are still among my favorites. While Kim Deal went on to more great things with The Breeders, The Amps, and her first solo album this year at age 63, Frank Black’s post-Pixies solo albums are poor. This is not worthy of a place on this list.
The second one star album in a row. Growing up in North of England while the Madchester scene was happening, I have tried very hard to like the Happy Mondays but have never been able to understand their appeal. This was not an easy listen.
Inoffensive background music. Formulaic and bland.
The album starts great with Beetlebum and Song 2 but is mixed after that.
This was a struggle to get through. Bland soft rock.
This was a fun(ky) listen. Not a genre I would normally listen to but I really enjoyed this.
Pretentious and dull. I was not a fan of the The The when I heard them in the 80s and they don’t sound any better now.
I've had a visceral dislike for Billy Joel since hearing Uptown Girl and Just The Way You Are. I have never listened to a whole album and was not looking forward to it, even more so when I saw The Stranger was from 1977, the year punk broke, where there was so much good music being released. It was better than I was fearing and I enjoyed Vienna and She's Always A Woman but some of the tracks were dreadful, particularly Only The Good Die Young and Get It Right The First Time. I'm relieved to see this is his only album on the list. It wasn't quite as bad as I expected, but I in no hurry to listen to it again. 1.7 stars rounded up to 2.
It has been a long time since I listened to this and it was a lot better than I remembered. I don't care much for Blowin' In The Wind but Girl From The North Country is a great song and Masters Of War is very powerful and sadly even more relevant in 2025 than it was in 1963.
Completely forgettable - nothing stood out. 31 minutes including a 2 minute intro and almost 11 minutes of Lost Someone which just ambles along with crowd screams in the background. He was a great showman and has an incredible voice but I don't think this album showcases his best songs.
I was lucky enough to see them play this album in its entirety on the 20th Anniversary of its release at Boston Calling. It was a great show, complete with 30 foot inflatable pink robots on the stage. This is their masterpiece , and Do You Realize?? gives me goose bumps every time I hear it.
I listened to the UK version which does not include Paint It Black which may have nudged the rating slightly higher. This has not aged well. The lyrics are extremely misogynstic and the music is unexceptional.
The best thing about this album was that it was only 33 minutes long although it felt a lot longer. Tedious, middle-of-the-road dad rock. The penultimate track, Charlie Freak, was the only one worth listening to. My second Steely Dan album in the first 55 days. Can't Buy A Thrill was bad - this was even worse.
I like The Cure but they were to go on to create a lot better albums than this. A Forest still sounds great, but there was nothing else memorable.
This is a review of Throwing Muses eponymous debut album from 1986, released in the UK, not In A Doghouse which was released in 1998 in the US and contains their debut album, plus the Chains Chained EP and demo tracks. Lead inger Kristen Hersh was diagnosed bipolar after suffering a double concussion in a bike accident. After the accident, she continually heard music in her head, which became the songs on this album. The songs have constant tempo changes and go from singing to screaming and back again. A completely compelling listen. Almost 40 years on, I can still clearly remember the first time I listen to this record. At the time, I was fascinated with everything released on the UK 4AD label (also Cocteau Twins, early Bauhaus, Dead Can Dance and later Pixies, Pale Saints and Lush). I had not heard anything like it and didn't know what to make of it, but listened to it obsessively throughout my college years. Kristen Hersh must be one of the most underrated and overlooked artists. As well as Throwing Muses, she released several excellent solo albums and fronted 50 Foot Wave. Choosing a favorite album of all time is always difficult and I have several contenders, but if pressed to choose one, the debut Throwing Muses album would come out on top of the pile for me.