Already know and love this album. Have it on LP. So fabulous.
It's... fine. Nothing special to really recommend it.
There is no reason for this to be on a list of "must listen" albums. It's fine. It's a solid folk-rock album. But there's nothing special about it. It came out in 1979. It has some good songs, but doesn't pioneer, experiment, fuse, or perfect anything. Everything it does well has already been done better by earlier albums.
I really liked this. Didn't have enough chance to listen to it through closely to fully form an opinion, but I want to give it a closer listen.
I did enjoy that it's a concept album. Musical variety and production quality were great.
Didn't immediately jump out as something obviously super special. But very good.
Great album by one of my favorite artists. Will listen again. Would enjoy owning.
Some fantastic but approachable soul-jazz.
Good stuff. Will listen again.
Funk yeah!
Great piece of art. Great musicianship. Great arrangement. Solid production. Enjoyable to listen to, while also being hugely musically and culturally influential.
This was really great. I need time to sit down and listen to it more closely.
Great album. Solid alternative rock classic.
Fabulous jazz classic. Probably not for people who aren't already into jazz. It is almost ecstatic and impressionistic at times. Going off into near pure emotion. Masterful artists walking the very edge of spinning out of control.
This was surprisingly enjoyable. Lots of energy. Crazy good bassline. Raw punk energy.
This was surprisingly enjoyable. Lots of energy. Crazy good bassline. Raw punk energy.
It's Bowie. It's good. But not his best. Neither as experimental, or conceptual, or peak poppy as his other albums.
So hot. This album is fantastic, start to finish. "Walk On By" is possibly one of the greatest popular songs ever recorded.
I've heard this called "Progressive Soul". I think that might be labeling it wrong. This arguably predates Progressive Rock. It's clearly doing it's own thing, too. And I think drawing from vastly divergent influences.
It is sweeping and epic.
This is everything good about early hip hop.
If you went out to a street corner in New York, put down a boom box, and slapped "play" on a cassette of this, you would still have a party. Slap down some cardboard, and someone would randomly start break dancing.
One song is a ballad where five grown, straight, men sing a love letter to Stevie Wonder because, "He's the greatest." 10/10. No notes.
Great album. Mix of latin, jazz, psychedluc rock. It is expansive and full of passion.
The sort of exploration where you can imagine musical rituals taking casting magicspells and transporting your consciousness.
4.5 stars
Solid punk. Not their best album.
Solid and enjoyable Blue-Eyed-Soul. It's good stuff, but I don't think blazes many trails.
It sounds like a demo tape. The recording is too muddy and incomprehensible to really speak to the quality of musicianship.
Great live album. One of the few cases where the live recordings surpass the studio ones as the definitive versions of the songs.
Great album. Love it. My favorite Steely Dan, but not their best.
Has some "meh" songs (Garrytown, and Through with Buzz).
Not their finest work
Very nice. 3 or 4. Reminds me of Radiohead or Massive Attack, but with lush strings and wind instruments.
Just sort of rambles. I get that that's the point, and it's exploring. But like... it's like watered down jazz.
Dylan was/is very influential, but I don't care for most of his work. He opened a path, but I think he was surpassed by many other artist.
Even among contemporaries, Paul Simon and Townes Van Zandt are better.
Nearly unlistenable.
First track was just noise. I sat with it for a while thinking it was maybe a "Close to the Edge" type of intro, but no. Just noise.
Later tracks the audio quality was so distorted to be unpleasant.
Does not hold up. (Wasn't sure on 2 or 3 stars. I'll say 2.5)
This certainly did a lot to bring EDM into the mainstream, but is honestly very lackluster.
Today, the songs sound like someone who has finally learned how to use Garage Band. They're decent, but kind of bland.
Even in it's day, it falls well behind the quality of other contemporary or even preceding music. There is nothing this does that wasn't already being done better by other artists.
At same time, other artists were working in the same or adjacent genres and truly pioneering new ground.
At first I thought it was... fine. Sort of whatever.
But it grew on me. It has an energy that their later music lacks. But with good playing. I found myself listening again.
My album before this was 'Play' by Moby. For two artists so superficially similar, these albums could not be more different. Where 'Play' was very "meh", 'Odelay' really holds up and soars.
This is an absurdly fun album.
It is experimental, playful, absurd, and almost poking fun at itself - but it does so with so much conviction and intention to pass through the realm of being a joke, to coming full circle to being serious art. It includes intentionally absurd samples, nonsense lyrics, or jarring and dissonant instrumentals - but it knows exactly what it is doing throwing them in.
Good 90's Brit-hop. A bit trite, but good at what it is. If this is your sort of thing it will give happy feels, but not exceptional. If this isn't your thing, it is very "meh".
The title track "Connected" is a certified banger though.
I was fully prepared to be bored with this as trite boy-band schlock. I enjoyed it more than I expected to. It's a bit dated and not edgy at all, but... I'm impressed that THIS is what a corporately manufactured boy band used to sound like. Real singing. Real instruments. DIFFERENT instruments. Like harpsichord an banjo?!? WTF?
"Zilch" is fun and absurd and actually experimental.
It's incredibly playful and listening to it was just... joyful.
Still not quite my thing. But I went from rolling my eyes to happily listening through the whole album.
I wanted to hate this more than I do. Definitely not going to keep listening, but I can't bring myself to hate it.
It's competently done. The mixing is surprisingly energetic and organic after being so used to mainstream music being pitch-corrected and quantized to death.
I can very easily see why this was so popular and influential.
But in the end...
It's kinda schlocky and trite white middle-class rebellion.
I was prepared to be hard on this album. I was expecting the songs to be trite and cliche in hindsight.
Instead I got a soaring, gliding, elegant album. Listening after a massive break from U2's music. This is better than I remembered.
Remember when MTV used to play music videos?
Those were great times...
4.5/5 stars. (really 6/7)
This one is a bit tough to rate. The first 3 songs "So Far Away From Me", "Money for Nothing", and "Walk of Life" are 5/5 easy.
"Money for Nothing" is one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time. Find the best guitarist you know, and watch how fast they would "nope" out of being challenged to play it.
The rest of the album after it is great, but doesn't rise to the level of those first three songs. I'd tell anyone to listen to those first three (with caveat to younger people about how much culture has changed since "Money for Nothing" was recorded), but the rest of the album isn't going to excite everyone.
Another album I was prepared to roll my eyes at being over-hyped boomer-bait, but I think it lives up to its reputation.
Not an album for everyone. I will probably not return to this often, but an album that is truly worth listening to for every music fan.
A beautiful work of elegant simplicity.
Spare and personal, often just one voice and one guitar. The minimalism is personal. It is perfect in its raw imperfection.
The overproduction on this killed it for me. She's got a great voice. Just let me hear what it actually sounds like.
Yeah, I'm an older generation than this is meant for, but I don't think that was the issue. I actually think there were some good songs underneath and some heartfelt lyrics... but the over-processing of her voice blanketed over the humanity. Not in an artistic way of adding distortion to make a statement of pain or dehumanization or anything, because that's not what the songs were about and it was the same effects on every song.
Tough to rate. I think it's better than a 2, but I feel like a 3 may be overly generous.
2.5 maybe.
It has some fantastic and iconic songs, but I think it is just "meh" as an album. The lesser songs drag things down.
I was set to rate this a 3 until I got to "Everyday People". From there on, it hits a better stride. But still not great.
3.7
Classic blue-eyed soul. Rich orchestration. Some fantastic tracks.
Ugh. This is basically a bunch of covers of blues and rock and roll songs by black American artists. But nowhere near matches the quality of the original versions of these songs.
The only reason it's on here is because iT's ThE rOlLiNg StOnEs!!1!
Yes. They did great albums throughout their career, but this is NOT one of them.
This album is not worth a listen, unless you're listening to this to be reminded how unfair the music industry has been to black musicians.
Competent, but not impressive. I'm only passingly familiar with hip-hop, but this sounds like a stepping-stone album that maybe laid the groundworker for future masterpieces, but is not a masterpiece itself.
It reminded me a bit of Wu-Tang and Tribe Called quests. But this came out in '91, whereas 'Midnight Marauder' and 'Enter the 36 Chambers' both came out in '93. So it may have been a strong influence on some of the greatest hip hop of the 90's (or all time).
But was nowhere close to perfecting what it was doing the way those other artists and albums were.
Wow. This album is banger after banger.
Is this a guilty pleasure album? Possibly. I want to be harder on it, rate it lower for being schlock or something. It's not a grand political statement, sweeping concept epic, or pioneering of anything new. It's just really good rock and roll for the 2000's.
Can't quite bring myself to give it a full 5-stars, but it is easily 4+.
4.5/5
Smells like hairspray. I'm pretty sure this album had a measurable impact on the hole in the ozone layer.
I can't fault the job it does at being what it is. But it's very dated at this point. I'm sure this will bring back a lot of memories for a lot of people. But if you weren't the right age when this came out... it's just fine.
4.5/5
This surprised and thrilled me. A wonderful and modern mixing of musical influences. Clearly exists primarily in the Hip-Hop/R&B genre, but draws heavily from all over - reggae, jazz, Latin, tango. Nods to Amy Winehouse and Outkast. And all of it feels like authentic and loving incorporation, not aping styles you don't understand for novelty.
The instrumentation and production were fantastic. No lazy shortcuts. If a live instrument is the right choice, they use one. No lazy samples.
I'm very tempted to give this a 5/5, but don't know if it quite rises that high. So a strong 4.5/5.
Up its own butt. Too artsy for its own good.
Tries to use a bunch of spicy and complex chords, but the singing is not precise enough to pull them off, so they just sound atonal. Songs are long and dragging and lacking true movement. I kept skipping ahead looking for things to gel to a purpose, but they just stayed the same.
Contrast to things like "Close to the Edge" that starts dissonant and chaotic, but builds to a purpose and has movements. This is all just self involved.
A developmental album moving towards eventual seminal works, but not there yet.
Massive Attack are one of the greatest Trip-Hop acts. This album you can hear the beginnings of what they turn into, but they're not there yet. They are still trying to be hip-hop, reminiscent of acts like Tribe Called Quest. But they're just... okay... at that. You can hear the beginnings of their eventual sound and style, but it's still evolving. They haven't fully found or embraced the genre they will go on to define.
It is the middle of January, 2026. This album made me cry.
Remembering that this was originally organized to play on an LP record helps understand it. It is in two distinct halves.
The first half is "Natural Mystic" through "Exodus". It is fire and anger at oppression and injustice. An ever burning flame that we have to keep fighting. Keep marching. Keep standing up against oppression. Keep moving forward.
The second half is "Jammin'" through "One Love / People Get Ready". It is pure love and compassion. That however hard the fight is, we can and must still take time to relax and care for ourselves and for each other. Because only Love will conquer Hate.
But that second half is not a different album with a different message. It is the other side of the same fight. Listening to it as a whole, really makes the messages of those songs clear.
Take "Jammin'". I used to think how it was just a chill out, smoke some weed, "no worries" kind of song. Not so. It is a call to rest between the hard fights, and the lyrics make that clear:
"
No bullet could stop us now, we neither beg nor we won't bow
Neither can be bought nor sold
We all defend the right, Jah-Jah children must unite
Oh, life is worth much more than gold
"
It is not naive to the danger and threat. It just recognizes how vital rest and replenishment is to that struggle. We must embody the good we want to bring into the world. Even "Three Little Birds" is really, "Every little thing is GOING TO BE alright." It isn't now. But it will be if we keep the fire burning against tyranny and oppression, and show love for each other.
6/5 stars.
Meh Americana rock. Very derivative of Bruce Springsteen, but doesn't really tread new ground.
The album art really encompasses the feel of the whole album. A blatant nod to 'Born in the USA', but without the same weight and energy.
Tainted Love is a fabulous song.
The rest of the album is everything you would make fun of about the 80's. Like... I can't tell if this is serious or Andy Kaufman level satire.
I'm rating this high. Could be personal bias. I think it's one of the best albums of its style.
On the fence between 4 and 5, I'm giving it the full 5 just because of how fantastic the conversation between "Fire and Rain" is with Carole King's "You've Got a Friend".
I enjoy some hip-hop, but not my primary genre. Among hip-hop, this isn't the style I usually lean towards. But it is so good and so influential, I've got to give it props.
This isn't my thing. I probably won't listen again, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it at least once.
One of the greatest live albums ever. This is why live albums exist.
Discordant and half baked. Unpleasant, but doesn't feel like it's really challenging anything or trying to push boundaries.
Most like an inferior attempt at Velvet Underground or Talking Heads.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is the greatest song in western popular music.
Go watch the video of the entire crowd singing it (and doing all the harmonies) before a Green Day concert.
This is a fabulous album. It is also *very* much a sound of it's times.
It is dripping with the sort of 80's production styling that has not aged well and makes albums from this era sound dated and cliche. But for this album, it *works*.
This album is what all those bad 80's albums desperately wanted to be, but could never achieve. In fact, it does those 80's stylings so well that I can't imagine this album *without* them. If this had been made 10 years later with different production sensibilities it would not have been as perfect as it is.
If aliens came to Earth and asked, "What is this 'rock-and-roll' that we have heard of?"
First I would show them Chuck Berry
Then I would show them 'Back in Black'
I recognize how influential Bob Dylan is and how significant and influential he has been on music. But the music itself...? It fails my basic test for "great music": Rewards Attention, but does not Demand it.
I'm sure there's a lot going on in this poetry. That it says a lot if you sit down and analyze it. But you would have to sit down and analyze it. And if you don't do that, it's mostly... monotonous and runs way too long.
His voice is hard to understand. When the poetry is what matters, that makes it hard to appreciate.
His delivery does not cue you in to when you really need to pay attention. It just sort of rambles. And the snippets you catch? Lack the weight on their own that you would get if you isolated a random line by Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Townes Van Zandt, Kendrick Lamar, Leonard Cohen, or Tom Waits. His lines aren't interesting on their own from either a melodic or rhythmic perspective. They don't mix up.
And he goes on like that for 6 minutes straight (6/9 songs on this album are >5:30).
