How do you turn a 3 minute song into a 21 minute song? Pad it out with 85% self indulgent drivel. I thought the album would never end and was so exhausted by the end of it I stopped listening to music altogether.
Amazing talent but pure junk food, cheese pizza with extra cheese.
Immigrant Song is a strong opener from which it fizzles out and never recovers. If I wanted twangy mandolins and folksy ballads I wouldn't be listening to Led Zeppelin.
Such an upbeat mellow mood
If I had to name 1001 albums I'd probably be clutching at straws, too. But not this straw; never this straw.
Is doing the opposite of making enjoyable music creative genius? Or is it just choosing to make mistakes everyone else is aware of and avoided?
Even if I was listening full blast with headphones and my eyes shut this would still be background music. It's fine just not something I'd listen to again
An imperfect album only because one song is more perfect than the others, but if this doesn't get a 5 I'm not sure anything will! Love how you can hear their influences and who they influenced, despite having a clear and recognisable sound, even with so much variety on the album.
It's Aretha. It feels like someone took half of a best-of and added some filler but let's face it, it wasn't written as an album, it's just recording a bunch of songs. But who else could record a disparate collection of covers and make it sound like a best-of?
Amazing but not something I'd listen to again.
Thought it was alright at the time but 10 minutes later I certainly couldn't humm a single track. Generally forgettable angst-rock
Grew on me the more I played it, but its way too long. The middle segment turns into one long drone before Régine takes over the vocals and saves us with the most energetic, dynamic and unique track on the album.
After a couple of listens I put on arcade fire radio and loved everything I heard, so their influence is obvious, perhaps I just don't like Win's nasal whine.
I don't always listen to reggae, but when I do I'll probably start with this again
I enjoy Buddy Holly but the more you listen the more it sounds the same.
I do try to seperate the artist - so I won't deduct points for him being a physically violent cocaine addict - but its impossible to disregard that the art in question is itself two hours of rich white London kid, doing a poor Stevie wonder impersonation, singing about a climate crisis while collecting hundreds of exotic cars, wearing sacred headdresses from the other side of the world, and backed by yidaki.
George puts the p in funk
Aggressively normal rock, but you can hear the smiles.
Mediocre monotone mumbling. 28 songs and can't remember any of them.
Can't say I've ever felt the need to be transported to Clapham in 1992, but I imagine there's no better album to take you there!
They describe their sound as "adjusted and refined to take into account the new musical environment in which we found ourselves operating, and also to reflect our belated understanding of the aesthetic shortcomings of some of our less-than-accessible, more doggedly surrealist effort."
I'll settle for "boring and pretentious."
Yes, this was Music by Madonna. Though if you asked someone to sing a song by her I can't imagine any of these would be among them.
Yes, it's too much Hammond. But it's still a solid 5
The Indy rock bits are good, but then it goes straight back to weird electro
Bookended by masterpieces, but after a couple of re-listens even the ones in the middle were really enjoyable
Love the pared-back production, headphones on and it feels like they're playing in front of you.
Some of its ok but you can't escape the sheer insanity of the "artist"
Pretty boring - Dylan with a banjo
A reluctant 4 only because it's not something I'd have to be in the mood to put on. But if you are in the mood, boy is it a rewarding listen, and the more attention you give it the more impressive it gets.
Aka that time Robert Smith felt emo about his commercial success so recorded his most commercially successful record. Word is he's still emo to this day...
Sounds like someone brought some coke and a casio and started trying to sell raps to sesame street. There may be a reason I'd never heard of them.
This Quincy Jones guy is pretty good, hey?
I will never understand why there were so big. The first half of the record with their songs are bright and spangly and fun, but not unlike what you'd expect from any 60's pop record. The second half with the covers is extremely underwhelming and lacking in the soul and intensity of the originals. At least they had Ringo to stop it being boring!
Gave up after 10 mins. Then checked reviews, found out I'd been listening to the wrong thing, found a playlist of the right album, gave up after 10 (slightly better?) mins. But given the entire genre seems to be defined by the one bar of drums being on repeat, 20 mins was a lot.
It's The Who, but it ain't Who's Next. Also could only find Deluxe version which was a bit long and had some chaff
Definitely starts strong, but very quickly starts to drag
Sounds like someone put someone in a studio for a week with no supervision, recorded everything and have no notes
Less poppy Ben Folds. I don't dislike it but I wouldn't necessarily put it on or remember the name
Britpop's weird cousin - frantic, slightly confused, and charmingly chaotic.
Why does every hiphop album need to be an hour long? Is it just too easy to produce compared to other styles, so you may as well add more songs while you're in the studio? Is it too many bedroom producers not getting notes? Because the result is albums like this, and its ok, but I feel like if it was half as long, it would be twice as interesting and its commentary would hit twice as hard.
Duran Duran, Roxy, Depeche... They all wish they had a bassist like Mick Karn!
As sparkley 80's pop as it gets. If you can name a single Cyndi Lauper song you've heard this album.
The voice grates but the bop is boppin'
I wanted to like it, I tried to like it, but the ambivalence is overwhelming. In parts you know it might be really good, but the singer just sounds bored, the sound effects are irritating, and its all sort of dull
I know it's an assortment of covers, but every song is a banger and she owned each one, and that's kinda more fun to listen to than a mixed bag of originals with a few standouts like a couple of the other 5-stars I've handed out...
A powerful, bleak wall of sound, but very droning and repetitive
Exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to discover! Jangly psyc pop from the guy who wrote "Walking on Sunshine" mixed with surrealist poet and Dylan aficionado who wrote the folk music for a film I saw a couple of weeks ago. Annoying that streaming always seems to only offer the longest possible versions of albums packed with bonuses; but the structure, variety, and pacing of the original 10 tracks is great, and the extra tracks are still a vibe
All OMD sounds about the same, really. As someone who is used to The OMD Singles, this is a big more bland than the best-of
Gotta get me some African drums...
Sad boy with an acoustic sings background music.
On hold music. I actually forgot it was playing at one point.
Nick Cave is just private school Kanye
Surprisingly little umph, might just be hope clean the mix is but thought they'd hit harder
One of these lines was made up by AI, but you'll need to listen carefully to work out which!
"Swung from a chandelier, my planet sweet on a silver salver"
"You think you're a vegetable, never come out of the fridge."
"A clockwork swan on a silver tray, its feathers cast in concrete blue"
"C-c-c-cucumber. C-c-c-cabbage. C-c-c-cauliflower. Men on Mars. April showers."
...but I think the albums more enjoyable if you try not to hear the words
There's a lot of live albums on this list aren't there?
You can close your eyes and put yourself in the room, but that doesn't mean its particularly memorable.
Good fun blues rock, amazing cast of backing band
Solid fast fun punk. Lot of variety but no cohesion, just a mish-mash of songs. Apparently they had an album then threw together some more just to beat Husker on play length, then ordered them by band member, and 'chaff,' neither of which helped. But that bass is amazing, you can hear why Flea loved them
I'm clearly missing something but this feels very self-important and melodramatic. Like the very concept of basing an album on the battle of trafalgar, with ye olde time lettering, then singing about having a broken heart? What am I missing? And how is this their 9th album? Who was buying this? Naval aficionados? It's like yacht rock without the rock. Why did everyone try to sound like the Beatles most boring stuff? Was honestly surprised to discover it was nearly half the length of yesterdays, felt like forever.
Peak Zeppelin, back when they were a rock band, before Plant's weird folk nonsense. At no point could anyone else listen to this and think "hmm, now maybe slow it down and add some mandolin."
Took me a couple of listens but as into it but I still don't enjoy shoegaze
Nothing to write home about, its a pleasant enough listen but not quite getting what the significance behind it might be
I gotta go, but you keep on having a party.
When you go home, keep on having that party.
No matter where you're at, remember I told you; keep on having that party.
The title kinda gives it away; it's Dusty, in Memphis.
The lyrics change every few minutes but its still the same song. Except when it isn't, and then it's worse.
Raw Power, and a bunch of songs that sound like Raw Power.
I don't hate it, I just wouldn't listen to it. Best electric / dance pop type record thus far, just not my music
I didn't know I liked Prog-folk-blues-rock either
Maybe I'm just old, but maybe I just never got into the club scene because there's music you don't need to take pills to enjoy?
I'm surprised I'm rating a Hip Hop album so highly too, maybe I'm just in a good mood today. But I can't fault it.
The poetry, the imagery, the storytelling, but then the grating voice, and the harmonica...
So background you'd forget you were listening to it
Starting to think I need an acronym for "yeah its ok, but I wouldn't listen to it/not my genre." Perhaps "glad to have heard it once, but ready for the next"
Funky! Lost points for being a bit short and very "live," but can appreciate why, being self-funded and capturing the raw energy of the godfather of funk, this was an important album.
Excellent production but KISS are just pretty bland. They're significant for putting commerciality above creativity and marketing above music, but that doesn't make it an amazing listen, they just sound like watered down versions of other bands.
I'm clearly missing something that makes it special. Not offensively bad, just offensively bland if you interpret the lyrics as "drugs" rather than "deep?"
A big theatrical rock opera. Long, but glorious. Pretentious, but you know about it beforehand. If I was going in blind I imagine I'd have had a very different score
It's alright, like shoegaze but with a bit more going on. Just not enough to be memorable.
It's Ella. It's Gershwin. It's great. It's also really long. If you want to put on background music, or dip and out of, amazing. But waaay too much to just actively listen to in a sitting.
Nice to sit down and listen to an album you only know the hits from. But the rest of it does sound the same, and synth pop becomes background drone very fast
Not the worst electropop or whatever, but thats not a high bar for me.
Haven't I heard this one before? Pretty sure this is my third Nick Drake and the repetition is probably hurting how much I enjoyed it.
Meg is such a vibe. Opens strong, ebs and flows, solid album
Pretty good ambient, sets a mood, but is it an album?
A solid reminder how blues is the basis of all rock music.
Excellent crash course. I should get some tabla.
More fun than I was expecting. Its theatric but musically sound and great drum and bass riffs.
