I don’t feel experienced enough with jazz music to say where this falls on the scale of good-to-masterpiece. But I like it. Energetic, clean, background enough while still being engaging.
Not awful, but I’m glad it ended when it did. Made me think of magic the gathering conventions, and that’s both a good and bad thing.
It barely even sounds like a live album? It’s like a worse version of not good songs to begin with.
I can’t think of a song better deserving of being called an “anthem” more than time to pretend. What an opener. Despite loving the singles, I never have really listened to the album. And weirdly, it didn’t do much for me. It’s almost like the three singles latched onto me when they were released and I’ve enjoyed them for the last 15ish years, but my tastes aren’t the same anymore so anything new kind of bounces off me. Weird!
Some beautiful songs although the album felt disjointed at times. Black Is The Color is an all time favorite.
The album name and title are so intriguing, mysterious, then the opener is this weird, peppy, background vanilla jazz. I should have been primed to love this, but couldn’t wait for it to end. My least favorite style of big band-ish layered saxophones and whiney trombones. It almost made me wonder if Spotify had the wrong album linked.
Repetitive, stupid lyrics. Thin instrumentation. I guess it’s good at evoking a certain period of time. If you’ve heard one beach boys song you’ve heard them all. At least the harmonies are nice. Help me Rhonda was the best of the bunch. Can’t see myself listening to this again unless I’m cosplaying the golden girls.
Easy listening, enjoyable guitar licks and solos, definitive southern blues-rock vocals. Like it!!
As familiar as I am with REM, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to an album. They’ve always been down the fairway for me — a band people said they liked in high school because it was cool to say so.
REM does fine for me with more straightforward rock songs with slower vocals (Finest Worksong). But as soon as we get into attempts to be clever, uptempo, major chord voicing stuff (McCarthy) I find it extremely grating.
And End of the World has always been a hated song to me.
Sometimes fine, sometimes annoying, sometimes different. Seems like a pretty solid 3 to me.
Sounds like someone wanted to imitate flight of the concords, but took themselves too seriously. Unlistenable in parts, unless i imagined Brett doing that whisper singing to be funny.
Fun life hack. If you include this with the instructions of “ 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ” you can extend your life a decent about thanks to the egregious length of some of these songs.
I was fine having some of this on in the background as pleasant enough standard blues-ish jamming. And then some solos got way too obnoxious to be background music.
Listening to live albums is like listening to your friend tell you what they dreamed about last night.
The less I can hear the vocalist the better. Pablo Picasso is a big miss. Roadrunner is a lot of fun. I don’t mind the pre-punk driving guitar, bass, drums.
Kind of liked having it on in the background.
Pretty incredible how many timeless songs are on the same album.
When the songs hit, they REALLY hit. The open spaces are as tight as the horn hits are. Beats and grooves are great. But then some songs are total misses and feel stuck in time (Reasons). Surprise hit was Africano, loved it.
Listening to this made me actively irritable and angry.
Turned it off halfway through birdland. Aggressive DNF. Then I thought - hey, you’re better than that. Then I got to the end yowling of “break it up” and I wanted to throw my speakers out of my window.
This is bad singing done right, I guess. His voice is awful, but the song structures (and a pleasant surprise of a saxophone) and general upbeat-ness help a bit. I listened twice. Not good but not bad.
So this one is pretty interesting to get on the backs of a week with TERRIBLE vocals and lots of discordant punk sounds. Because Gorillaz has a good bit of that too — but I really like it. So it’s interesting to think what’s different for me:
- I know this album, so connects with my high school / college years.
- lots more experimental beats, hip hop, rather than generic driving punk style guitar/bass
- Clint Eastwood is an all-timer
- del
It’s not without some droning that gets a little old (slow country) but this is a fun album.
Some hasn’t aged well (money money money sounds like it’s got a parody of Halloween instruments behind it, with a super cheesy key chance). Dancing queen still hits, despite hearing it all of the time. But no other song really stands out to me.
Overall, a totally fine album that I was ready to end when it did.
Huh. Who knew AI was generating music 20+ years ago. Pedestrian and forgettable. In some alternate universe, Ben Folds lost all his talent, managed a Hollister, and wrote this album while never visiting California.
So I was totally prepared to hate this as soon as I heard the opening wails. I couldn’t listen while I worked — too distracting — and when I put in headphones late at night, there was a lot to like here. I particularly enjoyed the driving guitar and bass, when uptempo, to match her voice. I had a harder time when her vocals featured a bit more, although I applaud the raw effort and varying range.
Never heard of her before and now I’m glad I did.
It’s really hard to review albums of people who are SO familiar. It’s Elton John. It’s Tiny Dancer. It almost becomes a question of, “do you like elton john or not.” And I think he’s just okay. He is a little over the top, but he’s supposed to be. His songs all sound mostly the same to me, but that’s not a terrible thing. Everything goes on for like 2 more minutes of drama/chorus club kumbaya than I’d like.
I was in from the opening kick.
The whole package. The subtlety and restraint of the guitar and vocals. The sense of place this album communicates. A thousand years from now whatever AI has eaten our brains will keep this album around. Timeless.
Like weird al got together with sufjan and tried to imitate the worst parts of the Beatles.
I was excited for this one (given that superstition) but was surprised to find the slower jams a bit schmaltzy and overly long. I enjoyed finding Maybe Your Baby, which was a new song for me, that I really liked. Much of the rest was sadly forgettable, given the talent he’s got.
The funk grooves are excellent, while the more Motown feel gets a little same-y toward the end of the album. Enjoyable start to finish.
Dope.
Van’s wailing is tolerable on recorded tracks but grating live. Who keeps adding live albums to this list? I can’t think of a single song here I’d rather listen to live than recorded.
An album that I feel got the singles totally right. Sunday Bloody Sunday still hits hard, as New Year’s Day. My favorite was the album closer (40) which I listened to on repeat a few times. I’m not a U2 person so I don’t think I have ever really heard it.
A lot of fun, all the way through. Instrumentation was great.
At their best with heavy hitters with the right amount of unexpected indie elements (power out, wake up).
At their worst with whiny ballads that seem like playing indie band BINGO. they’re only missing a whiny pathetic trumpet player. Crown of Love is embarrassingly bad especially when it leads to a song as monumental as wake up.
Still it’s arcade fire. When I think arena indie rock they are THE band.
I feel like I’m in a Tennessee themed part of an amusement park … and I don’t hate it. She literally sings “here comes the train oooooo oooo ooo” like I’m a 5 year old.
Not offensive enough to 1-star, but what did I just listen to???
Still felt modern, some killer bass lines. Could be convinced to drop it to four stars for a couple songs that didn't land for me (One Love, Lately, and Hymn of the Big Wheel) ... but I listened start to finish multiple times. Five Man Army is a favorite.
Intro + VCR is legendary. The rest is totally fine. Love the understated nature of the album but they always felt like a lesser Sylvan Esso to me.
While sometimes a little screamy, her voice matches the electric guitars and driving beats so well. This sounds exactly like the 90s.
Only enjoyable if you imagine Roy Kent rapping this.
Awful. Whiny. Terrible flow.
One of the worst things I’ve heard.
Not a lot of feelings about this one. I don’t get the over-the-top love for David Bowie, but neither do I hate him.
I felt like I was watching a SNL parody of a cheesy family sitcom while listening to Young Americans. Across the Universe was an instant-skip on my second listen through. Fame really the only song I enjoyed listening to.
Loved it. Multiple songs new to me went on my favorites list. Rock n Roll Star is a killer opener. I listened to this all day.
Totally fine. Faded into the background pretty consistently for me. I think I knew Bang a Gong, but maybe it was just in a generic car commercial 10 years ago. Neither liked nor disliked.
Try to concentrate or work while having this play in the background challenge: impossible.
Like a banana duct taped to a wall.
I can appreciate how talented she is but don't particularly love a lot of the chaotic songs (Come Alive) or soundtrack/broadway-show adjacent songs. Tightrope was a standout for me.
Iconic, unreal first three songs. Then some hits or misses for me, and ending on Endless, Nameless, which is terrible.
If I were rating for influence, it's a clear 5, but sticking to how much I enjoy the music, separate from the history (within reason), drops it just a bit for me.
Great beats, good voice, average lyrics, but ultimately forgettable.
No idea why this and not any other random jazz album. It was fine and groovy in parts. It had weird trumpet pageantry in others that seemed a better fit for high school drama class.
total jam, start to finish.
I have read the phrase "Tubular Bells" so many times it's lost all meaning.
Killer opening track, loved the beat. The funk is great. Even better closing track. Amazing.
I don't think I'll ever really care for the slower R&B, high pitch voice of the temptations. Just not my thing. But a lot else on here I really liked.
Unlistenably dull, lifeless, boring, yet somehow annoying enough to turn off.
Really unclear what distinguishes this from anything at all. The vocals, guitar sound & style, general tempo, all feel like dime-a-dozen edgy-punk-pop.
The title track is an all-timer. The rest of this, I don't know, it was fine. Covers of other songs sounded a little cheesy, cruise ship music. Got pretty same-y quickly.
Never would have thought this album would appear here, but so glad it did. Diverse but cohesive.
I still don't love Bowie's singing, but thought Lazarus was an awesome song. Also enjoyed the closing track.
First song was pretty interesting, enjoyed the long jam.
Then, meh...
Then, annoying...
Steely Dan never transcends to the heights of nostalgic now-dad-rock that some people seem to love, nor do they slip to the grating lows of boring-dad-rock so many seem to hate. Totally fine. Never unhappy to hear this come on in the background, but would never seek it out either.
So to be clear, my ratings here are how much I ENJOYED the album, which includes, but goes beyond, how important, legendary it is.
For me, Black Sabbath has always been insanely cool guitar riffs, openings, but I have a hard time sustaining the song. For example, the first two minutes of this album are maybe the sickest first two minutes of any album ever. But I find myself losing interest (mostly because of the vocals) as the song bleeds into minute 5, 6, 7 ....
Iron Man is the same way. Undeniable legendary guitar riff. But then ...
And the album is the same way.
Unbelievably boring. I guess this would be nostalgia value if I were unfortunate to have to listen to this in the 90s.
The stereo panning is awesome in Castles Made of Sand. Not sure I've felt that way about a lot of songs before. Guitar is iconic. Little Wing is an all-timer.
Effortlessly cool. Smooth. Restrained.
I am surprised I didn’t enjoy this one more. I love the well known tracks (especially the power) but I had a hard time getting through two full hours of Corgan’s singing.
Gave me a headache and turned it off midway through song 3. You know it's edgy because of all of the lowercase letters.
Now TAMBOURINE!!
UNHH!!
Has the same energy of CJ doing the Jackal on West Wing.
If this is on this list surely Weird Al is on here somewhere.
I listened to this twice and still have no feelings about it. Sometimes there was a cool blues thing. Sometimes it went on too long. Sometimes it faded into the background. Oh and then I recognized Layla.
While Dylan's voice isn't great, it doesn't bother me as much as it does to some people. Girl from the North Country and Don't Think Twice are all-timers.
Opening and closing tracks were actually really enjoyable. I listened multiple times. I don't know if I'm supposed to call this shoegaze, but if it is, it's more engaging and enjoyable, while still being experimental, compared to others I've listened to on this list. Close to a 4-star, but there were a handful of tracks that got a little grating, and also, while I enjoyed it, I'm not really sure what makes it a best-of-all-time.
I quit after the flute from hell on track 4.
F off with this.
This is what this project is all about. Really enjoyed exploring something new. Felt like enjoyable time travel but with still a high quality of recording. A couple songs got a little droning on with the vocals, but on the balance, loved the instrumentation, percussion, chord progressions were often interesting and unexpected.
Time after time is maybe in my top 25 songs of all time but just couldn’t get into anything else. By the end, it made me realize that just one lauper song is enough for me.
Deltron 3030 did it better.
Some of the songs with a solid beat were alright for me (Airwave Hysteria, Bladerunners). The spoke word was pretty awful. Not a whole lot here for me.
Some was forgettable. Some I really loved (the first half of no sympathy), but then things are quickly ruined by droning monotony (the end of fragile happiness and the album) or by chaos into an otherwise great track.
Love the raw vocals, guitar tonality, and retrained drums. I prefer this version of About a Girl and is actually the one I hear in my head when I think of it. Love a live album that is actually meaningfully and significantly different than the studio.
I enjoyed hearing how much more existed to the Talking Heads beyond Once in a Lifetime. This was a surprising jam, with cool quirks around corners (like the dark ending to the overload). I always thought their vocals were a little too silly to be enjoyable, but I liked this. I also didn't even realize the Fela Kuti influence until I read about it, and now totally see it. Liked it!
Part of the great collection of 1001 Albums You Might Care About From the UK Between 1975 - 1985. That's what this website is, right?
I guess I can appreciate how technically interesting this was, but it was a difficult listen.
Another example of an album which has individual songs I really like, but are best served one at a time, at a football game, or a movie montage. Shoutout to Hell's Bells for being one of the best openers to an album, ever. At the end of the day, there's only so many times I can hear a grown man scream-sing "givin the dog a bone."
