Maybe "Deceptacon" wasn't used on a Tony Hawk's pro-skater soundtrack but that's the only place it exists in my memory. This is my day 1 album. Can't lie, I thought this generator thing was pretty lame based on so many of the posts on the subreddit thinking that there is some sort of magic to the "algorithm" that literally just picks one of the albums at random unless pre-empted by the death of a particular musical artist. But I kept lurking the subreddit until I found myself commenting my nostalgic feelings for particular albums and now here I am. Le Tigre was always cursory to my interests since college. I guess their album opener is the only song of theirs I had heard (in Joachim Trier’s Reprise). The rest of the album is fine. I was a little surprised by the plunderphonics of "Slideshow At Free University", otherwise nothing sparked my interest. Caught up with the Yea Right! part directed by Spike Jonze. Street skating is so damn beautiful. Necessary declaimer: I'm not much for lyrics so there may be a depth to the feminist/political lyrics that I could grow to appreciate if I payed more attention to them. EDIT: While listening to my day 2 album, NIN's Downward Spiral I got a Nissan ad with a "Decepticon" ripoff by some awful band named the Smocks. The song is such a ripoff that they shouldn't get a dime off of it.

Would have preferred Pretty Hate Machine, unlike Trent who called it "immature" before this sophomore album's release. Never been a fan of NIN but Trent has composed numerous of my favorite movie soundtracks. He is the GOAT of contemporary film scoring but has yet to top his first feature OST for the Social Network. I was quite hyped to hear some similarities between that masterpiece and this album like the synth melody at the end of "Piggy". As suggested by the album’s wiki page, I don't hear the similarities to my favorite album, Low, but I get the art-rock vibes and sorta appreciate them. Similarities unlocked around "A Warm Place" and into "Eraser" which are two great tracks. Looking forward to hearing "Hurt" for the first time in over a decade and trying to divorce it from the obviously superior Johnny Cash cover. Christ almighty I hated that music video for "Closer". Kinda defines what I always expected to dislike from NIN's music right from the jump with the pumping heart to the sounds of the "music." Industrial just ain't my vibe. I think all my favorite parts of the extended album cut were my favorites in the song.

Pretty dull. The type of shit I ate up at 14 but grew to despise by 18. Now at 34 I feel mostly ambivalent about it.

This album made me feel old when it came out and I was only 26. Still doesn't connect but "The Louvre" is a standout track. I'm just not into the High School Musicalesque soul-bearing lyrics and vocalizations.

Had LP1 on CD back in high school, grew out of classic rock in college and upon relearning to like it, I have definitely come to appreciate LP3 as a masterpiece. I may never have heard this album besides "Little Wing", "If 6 was 9" and the title track. Now that I've heard the whole album I have to admit that even "Little Wing" and the title track may have been brand new for me. And "Castles Made of Sand" was most recognizable, possibly a track my guitar teacher tried to get me to learn. Overall a fine time, I may revisit.

Chungking Express is one of my favorite movies. It's hard for me to divorce this group from being anything but the source of the song in that movie and to be completely honest, I prefer the film's other needle drop, the Cantonese cover of the Cranberries' "Dreams".

Finally, an album from the 80s which should prove to be my favorite decade of music despite the utter lack of Hüsker Dü, Phil Collins' solo or as leader of Genesis, 4 seminal Replacements records and 3 by R.E.M. missing from the list. If you can't gather, I'm all for the inclusion of many albums by a single band. I've heard bits and pieces of this album. I definitely recall Sam trying to get me into them back in my undergraduate days and he most likely put "I Can't Help Myself" on a playlist for me more recently because that's the song I recognize the most (the allusion to the Four Tops is... well, tops!). What is so far the lowest globally rated album I've received is easily my highest rated. No surprise there. Load of bangers here, it's actually surprising to me that the rating is so low but folks hate the 80s so what can ya do? "Breakfast Time" and "Hokoyo" are standouts for me. Part of the fun for me here is going to be contextualizing the day's album with others that came out the same year or a year or two before or after. This album comes at the end of '82 less than a few months after Springsteen's sparse Nebraska which he would follow up with a similarly synthy album to this one in mid '84. Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, The Fall, Mission of Burma, Misfits and the Birthday Party are keeping punk alive while the Clash gets poppy on Combat Rock. In the world of popular music, Roxy Music releases their opus, Duran Duran is something I'll have to listen to at some point, Prince releases 1999 and of course there's Thriller. Every review of this album on here seems to mention Talking Heads. I'm glad that band has grown in stature recently but I got pretty tired of their arty-ness and will have to see how I rate their albums after a few years avoiding listening to them.

Sorta always knew this band as the one that featured Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page for a time. Neither's on this album so it would obviously be advantageous to look as a showcase for Jeff Beck's guitar work whom I've never tried to get into. Nothing is standing out to me. I have a lot of catching up to do with the Blues despite my vast love for the Stones and Bob Dylan. I like "Jeff's Boogie' alright and not just because Destroyer could be referencing it on Dan's Boogie. I listened to then stereo version and hope to listen to the mono before I submit the rating but we shall see. Feeling like I might have to give this one star to accurately portray my statistics at the end of this 3 year journey.

Finally, nine days into this, an album I own on vinyl. Let’s see how many times I play it tonight and tomorrow. Shit opens with a second person narrative about a crummy dude who keeps getting fucked over in "Do It Again". Classic! The album takes its name from a Bob Dylan lyric despite this being a hip new band and Dylan being a decade into his career of waning popularity and acclaim (I'm the biggest Dylan fan, but I'm playing the historian for objectivity's case). In fact, 1972 was a year after Dylan released his second Greatest Hits album and a year of very little public activity from him. Still, that's the influence Dylan had even so long ago. Can't get into "Midnite Cruiser" the only mediocre Steely Dan song on this entire list. The 2 singles are hot enough that this is a fairly easy 4 for me. "Reelin' In the Years" is such a depressing lyric to such an upbeat track, I love it! The whole Dad rock thing is kinda funny but when you think about it, I was eating this shit up as a ten year-old boy (admittedly yes, through my father) and I may never become a dad. Across the pond in '72 Roxy Music was debuting, the Stones released their greatest album Exile on Main Street, Bowie topped himself with the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Yes' opus Close to the Edge*, T. Rex's opus The Slider, Sabbath Vol. 4 and Nick Drake laid the groundwork for the coming wave of singer songwriters with Pink Moon. In the Americas Lou Reed sorta finally breaks through with Transformer, Eagles s/t debut, Big Stars' incredibly titled Number 1 Hit Record, Neil Young's insanely well selling Harvest, Al Green releases two classics and a large amount of MPB or Música popular brasileira that I guess I need to check out. *This is what I had to jump over to immediately after the Dan.

Day 10, first album I've never heard of before. Don't expect more than a dozen of those by the end of this. Album cover and its backstory are killer. It's like a document of how the Big Wigs in the American music industry used to work. I'd rather be listening to XTC. They do all this, only much better. More of a 2.5 for me but I'll give em a 3 because the last song was maybe a highlight.

It has been ages since I've listened to Tropicalia and back then it was pretty much just Os Mutantes. I have since grown tired of most psychedelic music so this may be a tough listen. First track is pleasant enough and goes a few places to keep it from being boring as the Pet Shop Boys would say. I'm guessing Caetano appears a couple of times on the Luaka Bop boxset I have of their first 3 Brazil comps. His name carries a lot of weight. I feared this was a Donovan album when I first saw the album cover. Not to be so hard on Donovan, I like his big hits. "Soy loco por ti, América" is the standout song for me although in kinda a novelty way I will hold onto this one because I too am crazy for you, America. I love and hate ya!

I had the great pleasure to meet Ry Cooder's son, Joachim, at a screening of Wim Wenders' documentary on this group, who at the age of 18 played drums and percussion with these incredible musicians. I'm not sure if it was as interesting to him as it was to me but I told him that Bob Dylan was recording Time Out of Mind in Miami at the same time not far away from their studio in Havana. (I was not much further off as a 6 year-old in Jupiter, Florida. Yes, I feel special having been within 200 miles of Dylan recording one of his greatest records!) We chatted about his many, often illegal, trips to Cuba to record with the group over the years. He was a really chill dude raising a nice family.

Ok never mind now that's two releases I've never heard of even in the slightest but I will chock it up to the fact that both acts are from the UK and this is a UK centralized list. So far I'm digging this. Not sure I'll be likely come back to it though. Probably the album which I have the very least to say about so far. Well, as a final note I'll say that detractors of this album seem to compare it to muzak and I don't find the description fair.

Day 14 is the first album I am absolutely dreading having to listen to start to finish. How dare a British organization choose this to represent 80s American rock! Where's the Dü for fuck's sake. Album opens with a 40 year old Steven Tyler singing about young lust. Just awful. I'm shocked that I can sorta enjoy listening to this. Again, it's a band I adored during my first phase of music appreciation which we'll call the Limewire Classic Rock/Kanye era. I haven't bothered with Aerosmith much since I was 17, half my lifetime ago. Pop Metal, which I don't really think is a thing, is a worst genre for me for sure. This might be the peak of Pop Metal though. I could almost give "Janie's Got a Gun" 4 stars but it's too long and repetitive. I'm sorta really interested in examining the singles for the albums on this list. "Janie's Got a Gun" has a single edit that's just 10 seconds shorter than the album version but also a clean version for radio that comes in over 72 seconds shorter than that and will probably prove to be my favorite version of the song. Similarly to how the much shorter single version of "Love in an Elevator" would be my favorite. Interesting that Hollan-Dozier-Holland successfully sued for songwriting credit on "The Other Side". Hidden track at the end gets 5 stars but it ain't really Aerosmith.

Day 15, second album I have in my collection. I think I'll save the tarnished legacy talk for the third and final MJ album I get. First, I'll tell a personal anecdote. Once, a girlfriend and I snuck into a beachside Marriott to swim in their enormous pool with her twin brother and a couple of their friends. Shortly after we get in the pool, a DJ/MC that works for the Marriott comes out with her setup. On mic she declares the guests will now participate in her Guess the Song Challenge as if it were the most well known gameshow this side of Lake Okeechobee. Not having properly expressed the rules, I turned to my girlfriend, Emily, and asked, "What's she mean, that she's gonna start playing "Billie Jean" and wait till someone says 'Michael Jackson'?" Approximately, 15 seconds later the DJ began playing "Billie Jean" and indeed let the track continue well into the vocals until someone said "Michael Jackson!". I think the fact that I was able to guess the song before it was played goes to show you how popular this artist and particularly this album are. "Billie Jean" stands as the highest rated song of 1982 on rateyourmusic.com. Put this on after 11am and "Thriller" started appropriately close to midnight. I'm amazed at the sequence and timing of the singles for this album of which "Thriller" came at the end of, subsequently doubling sales of the album a year after its release. First and only single released before the album was the "The Girl Is Mine" a fairly mild song compared to the biggest hits. Paul McCartney comes across as super milquetoast next to a cool, young MJ on that one. "Beat It" with the arena rock guitars is my personal favorite. "P.Y.T." though gives the former a run for its money. Quincy Jones' sole song writing credit was apparently the title of the song after Peggy Lipton wore lingerie for him that had "Pretty Young Thing" written on them. I vaguely remember making a "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" joke before I started watching Buffy and my friend pointed out that I am literally Xander. Just happened to watch the "Dead Celebrities" episode of South Park as I've been going back through the show and catching up on shit I missed and rewatching some classics. I had never seen this one but I remember the first MJ episode well. Dom DeLuise is seated next to MJ on the purgatory flight and earlier today I learned that my Grandmother is buried at the same cemetery as Dom and Tony Bennett are, just a few blocks from where I go for therapy in Long Island City.

Probably had this on vinyl at some point as I can imagine picking it up from a Goodwill for a buck or from a local record shop's used section for $5. Been ages since I've given this a listen. Been a long time since I've seen Harold and Maude, too. I love Hal Ashby but I don't think that particular effort will hold up well. Afraid my review is gonna be nothing much more than Nick Drake did it better and he didn't sound try-hard doing it. How come Cat Stevens sounds like a 50 year-old man at 22? My Dad got me into Cat Stevens so I guess "Father and Son" is a vibe. First few tracks are sorta better though.

Day 17 and already the third release I've never heard of before! The duo's label Ninja Tunes is a label I own a release from though, The Bug's London Zoo, which might better suite this albums spot on the list. Or maybe Eno & Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts which this album wishes it could be. Even though this journey is mostly about exploration, I'll be glad to get junk like this out of the way early on. I realize I'm being unduly harsh so let me just say it's cool that this duo got Mark E. Smith and a teenaged Queen Latifah on the same LP. I'd like to know the story behind their discovery of her. She's the highlight of the record and I guess she doesn't even appear on the initial UK release.

Listened to the English version plus the French only songs. French is overrated, those songs blew. Why do you think Phoenix sings in English? It's songs! With music and lyrics!! We got this but no Bon Iver? "Doesn't matter" is the only song that stands out but I doubt I'd Shazam it if I were out at a bar and it came on. What is it about the MJ impersonation that I hate so much while I love when MJ does it? I guess it's the same issue I had with Kevin Parker's John Lennon impersonation or Foxygen's Mick Jagger one.

The top ranked album over on rateyourmusic.com I was on the Kendrick train by the time Section.80 was out. I had a lot more interest in Hip Hop at that time, let's say from the period of 18 years old till I was about 27 with K.Dot's DAMN. closing out that era for me superbly. I wish I could get his albums in order of release so I could reexamine the trajectory, but I may simply do that on my own time because Kendrick has always been a favorite. This an easy 5, almost every track gets a perfect score, too. Jazz with rap is something I like a lot. There are so many talented musicians on this like Thundercat and Kamasi Washington. A lot of work went into producing this absolute novel of an album. Sorta just gave this a cursory listen as it's an album I've spent countless hours with in the past but I'll definitely be putting it back into rotation. The “Billie Jean” line about MJ has always been like woof but there’s an added layer of humor now considering my days earlier entry for Thriller where I gave my “Billie Jean” anecdote. One (kinda) criticism: the supposed layers to the album title being a backronym for Tupac after you change "Butterfly" to "Caterpillar" is either genius or pretentious.

This is a stark but welcome follow up to Kendrick's To Pimp a Butterfly. I almost wanna laugh at how only like 60% of this album is Hip Hop but it's early days for the seminal American genre. Oh to be in NYC 43 years ago. Well the 1001 albums to hear should definitely have at least one song dedicated to Stevie Wonder! Title track is an obvious real stand out. It's a piece of history. I'm trying to think where I've heard it before but it's left a cultural footprint that makes it hard to determine.

Day 21, third album I own. Haven’t spun it a whole lot and always figured I liked his other acclaimed albums more but considering this one comes late in his brief career, I want to pay extra attention to it and hopefully come back to it when I get other Tim Buckley albums. I believe I once thought “who’s this black woman singing?” and it was Tim Buckley. Did the same with Adele. Wild that the Boss stole the whole album title/postcard design theme just months later for his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Dylan's one time girlfriend/possible wife Clydie King sings backing vocals on this album which came many years before her time with Bob. Anyways, to the music. Over the top, maximalist self-indulgent classic rock that isn’t prog? This one may really need time to settle in. It’s a complicated listen. Didn't give the lyrics a good listen and I imagine they might be the redeeming quality to the meandering "Hong Kong Bar" and might altogether raise my opinion of the album.

Bowie recorded this album leading up to his death instead of spending time relaxing with his loved ones. It's fucked up but even those close to him probably agree it was the right move because Bowie was a consummate artist whose medium was popular music, thus he was positioned to gift the public with one last masterpiece. He absolutely accomplished perfection (a word I will be, and have been, using a lot in my reviews because hey! I like to like things). Since I've already spent hundreds of hours listening to the 9 Bowie albums included on this list I will take this chance to explore the Bowie I have never heard of the 90s and 00s. When I was a kid in the naughties, buying up every classic Bowie record I could get my hands on, the record store owner said he preferred that period of Bowie and I laughed because I thought he was joking. Now as a major fan of 80s-20s Bob Dylan I am fully aware that young rockstars can keep their light alive. This was my busiest day since starting so I didn't get to write much about individual tracks, but considering Low is my favorite album (and has been forever) I will just say it's absolutely genius for the closing track "I Can't Give Everything Away" to allude to the harmonica part on "A New Career In Town". I still think that album could be mined by young artists to create fresh sounds.

Hell yea, a Blur album I haven't dived fully into. This is going to be a great pleasure! The music video for "Beetlebum" is perfection. I need to go down the rabbit hole of Sophie Muller's music videos considering I've already seen hers for "Venus Like a Boy" and this album's following track "Song 2". About that second song, Pavement is one of the bands I have seen in concert most and story behind Blur's impersonation of their great American counterparts is great lore. Great too to follow up a Bowie album with "M.O.R." which alludes to Eno and Bowie's experimenting with identical chord progressions on Lodger. The third and final Sophie Muller music video for the album is for "On Your Own". I'd rate it over her "Song 2" effort but even that one is great. In love with how this song ends. Holy shit "You're So Great" is such a Guided By Voices song, I love it. Go Graham Coxon! Give your best impersonation of an American doing an English impersonation. Previously I had probably only heard the 3 singles that were included on Blur's The Best of compilation, so "Death of a Party" is my standout among the rest. Fantastically sad song. Nothing against the rest of the album but it doesn't inspire me to write much. Glad the boys got to experiment I guess. Not a bad time to bring up the Theory of Side A which I will lightly define as the phenomenon of full LP releases rarely having enough material to make side B even half as good as the first side. This album fails miserably and I'm such a full album listener it probably means I'll play this one a lot less. Hopefully I'll remember to put "Death of a Party" on a playlist, the one perfect track on the last side. "Essex Dogs" is a nice closer though. Ultimately my ranking averages out to a 4 based on 4 perfect tracks and a few more really great ones.

Peter Tosh's former bandmate Bunny Wailer's "Blackheart Man" is the real standout reggae album from 1976. And by most accounts, Tosh's follow up to this is the better record so I'll try to give that a listen soon. "Burial" is the standout track here written with the aforementioned Bunny. With a banger on either side of it in "Legalize It" and "Whatcha Gonna Do". Curious to hear if the earlier Wailers version of "No Sympathy" is the better one. The rest of the record is mediocre save "Ketchy Shuby" which is such a vibey track. I would have liked to have said more about the musicianship but I was a little too lazy.

Here it is. The day I have most been dreading. Music didn't mean much to me at 7 years old when this was released. Maybe I caught a glimpse of the "My Name Is" music video or heard a censored single on the radio but I have never been a fan of Eminem's. Horrorcore garbage, but I just read an incredibly negative capsule review from this site and the contrarian in me needs to like this finally. I guess I can appreciate Dr. Dre's constructions*, they are melodic and simple. Also Eminem's flow is undeniable, just rather not be listening to lyrics. "Bad Meets Evil" is a late album standout not in the least because of the featured rapper Royce da 5'9". I love that Bob Dylan could be the bridge between Em and MGK as he is an outspoken fan of both. Ultimately I don't have much to say about the album. Surely I'm not suited to parsing his syntax, but maybe I'll give that a shot upon a subsequent listen which I'm barely more likely to participate in now that I know Eminem's breakthrough album isn't unlistenable. *Oh wow I definitely thought production from the Bass Brothers was actually Dre. my bad shows how little I know about any rapper not from the East Coast.

I appreciate the cranked up and out surf rock vibe and none of the songs are bad by any means. Just so boring compared to their 80s records which I'm even a little bit unsure of how I will rate them upon a long overdue revisit. Would certainly rather have an entry for the Breeders before this album. "Dig for Fire" is the standout track. Sadly, I think every song they released before this album is better than that one. Track ratings average out at about 3.5 but the sum of the parts is not greater...

Love me everything I've heard by PJ Harvey, but I always forget that Rid of Me isn't her debut! I must have heard "Dress" once or twice, definite banger. The rest is completely new to me. Feels like the UKs answer to Kurt Cobain with exceptionally talented musicians (not a knock on Nirvana). God, if only Kurt had as much time to evolve as PJ has had. "Joe" is the standout track for me. Amazing drumming on that one.

Day 28, fourth pick I have on vinyl. Turning out to be a nice average! One of 6 records I own of the Heads. Loved this band since my youth. My dad would play “And She Was” and I’d hear some select tracks on classic rock radio. I remember being a senior in High School and thinking how lame it was that I had no one to talk to about how great this band was. Since my taste has veered more mainstream, I’ve been wary about revisiting Talking Heads. Byrne can be too winking in their artiness. Pretty hard to deny this from the first bit of percussion* and yelp that opens the album on "Born Under Punches". I think it's just the contrarian in me that turned against the Heads in recent years when their popularity rose even before A24's (ugh) rerelease of Stop Making Sense. There's a little too much energy on side A. Feels like you need to be on speed to match the rhythm of the music. Ultimately holds up and I can still greatly appreciate it. Just such a laugh that Born Under Punches charted in the 2020's. I have to give it 4 stars when 4.5 would be more convenient but 5 is just too high of praise if I truly want to know what my favorite albums of all time are. *Robert Palmer contributes to percussion on the album, gotta wonder if it's him! EDIT: Legit always thought MJ invented the moonwalk but it’s done numerous times in the “Crosseyed and Painless” music video from 2 years prior to its mainstream moment with MJ in ‘83. According to the wikipedia page on moonwalking, however, the earliest incarnations go back to the ragtime era. I love the music video for the opportunity it gave African Americans to represent themselves next to the obvious cultural appropriation of the album which only included one black participant, the backing vocalist Nona Hendryx.

Never been a Green Day fan. Would have been nicer to start with Dookie but I'll try my best to appreciate this despite it being the most mainstream punk ever got. This sounds so much like Now That's Punk for Kidz. "Holiday" is a minor banger as is the chorus to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" though I'm afraid that's all this album (band?) has to offer me. Turns out "Holiday" is Billie* Joe's attempt at Bob Dylan. I am the man I am today because I never had a pop-punk phase outside of being tickled by the Blink 182 music videos on VH1 and MTV. *Of course it's Billie and not Billy, that wouldn't be very punk now would it?

Goddamn hippies make me wanna hate John Lennon and especially the title track but it's damn good. Buncha dull tracks on side B but then he closes with a stunner. Have to count three obvious perfect tracks: "Imagine", "Jealous Guy" and "Oh Yoko!" But so much of what is left I never need to hear again that I think I have to average this out to a 3.

"It's My Life" is one of my favorite songs and I've spent many hours listening to Talk Talk's final two records. The album has slightly diminishing returns. The opening track "Happiness Is Easy" is killer and by the time you reach the end of side A with "April 5th" the sound has veered toward a far less exploratory sound. Love the sad tone paired with a children's choir on the opener, definitely the standout song for me. I'm surprisingly unimpressed by "Living in Another World" considering it was a single. It feels too standard for Talk Talk but maybe it'll grow on me if I check out the extended cut and the music video. Finally the weirdness returns on "Chameleon Day" but it's ultimately too dull until that wonderful final half minute that hints at what they'd do next. "Time It's Time" is the best on side B. Groovy bass line, sweet choir part.