Started strong with some big bangers and went out with a little bit of a whimper. Good instrumentation!

Is this the Beatles before they were cool? Vocals all being in exclusively the right ear is not pleasant.

Some absolute generational bangers in here. Album falls off in the second half.

Fun, groovy. They’re really talented musicians. I see what the hype is about.

This is my first time hearing Hello in its original form. Wild. Very good singing but bland otherwise.

Angry, novel. Very British. Sounds like British Invasion punk/alt.

It’s all good, but the thing is… it all sounds the same.

I can feel how this is influential on what would follow. Feels like proto-techno.

Competent but dull

So much fun stuff going on. Blues is Jazz, but for the peeeeeople.

Feels like a bad ruined by the meteoric rise of a single, which then defined them in everyone's eyes. Kinda fun until I had the realization they sound like U2 and then finishing was tough.

First time I’d encountered a concept album outside the confines of prog rock. Amazing story, amazing execution. Kendrick’s Magnum Opus of story telling. Swimming Pools is a masterpiece masquerading as a turn-up song.

Good but not for me

Runaway child, running wild is the standout so far. This is nice. Super wide stereo balance again, though. Not so nice in headphones.

Trying to find some redeeming qualities, but this is so grating. Some of the sax instrumentation is nice. Guitar too. The vocalist though, ugh…

Ayyy, I’m tryna fuck

No extra points for pretentiousness, unfortunately, and I just can't with this man's voice. Lots and lots of this album sound like local studio jams that show flashes of brilliance, but nothing inherently cohesive or enjoyable.

Good but dull can only go so far, and apparently this is the limit.

Okay listening to a few of these tracks here I think there’s some interesting sampling stuff going on back when sampling wasn’t exactly trivial. Particularly on “Time To Get Ill” is when I first caught wind of that, but I think there’s more than that. It actually reminds me a lot of that video of when A-Trak won the DJ championships in… idk 1999, at the age of 14 or something like that.

For reasons I can’t put my finger on, this agreed with me more than other late 60s music that is stylistically similar.

A somewhat fun bass line and tone carried me through this one. Maybe punk is not for me? This was a slog.

Not the Jay Z album I’d have selected

Great 90s alt rock