Prince was undoudbtedly a highly talented singer, instrumentalist and stylist, but the songwriting in this album is mediocre, using predictable and overused patterns. There are moments of interest, typically in background instruments suddenly doing something brilliant, but all in all it's a very long bore.
Sounds like it's trying very hard to sound modern and cool. The production is good, the lyrics & composition are trying so hard it sounds kind of pathetic. This is an album that tries to ride on the wake of better, more authentic albums, and will ultimately be forgettable.
Sure, songs are repetitive to the point of absurd, but with almost every one of them being unforgettable even decades later, this is a definition of a 5.
Most songs are good, some are great. Well crafted and executed, a pleasure to listen to.
Happy 50 years to this album!
The album starts with its weakest track, so stick to it for a bit longer before judging.
Overall musically this album is very solid, diverse, well crafted and made me curious about the band and their other works. I don't like the combination of punk and ambient - I understand this is kind of experimentality, but 50 years later of modern music development, I prefer more cohesive listening experiences. I don't mind variety, but punk+ambient is a bit much.
For being a 50 year old album that still sounds relevant and interesting this is almost a 5, but enough songs don't land that it's a 4.
But this is definitely the kind of musical discoveries I'm here for.
The guy can sing, but the music is mediocre and uninspired. In addition, some of the lyrics I managed to catch aged like a lecherous old man.
Overall this album is nothing memorable, just a good singer making mediocre music with an annoyingly repetitive back-choir. It's a nice one-off listen, nothing more.
Two negatives make a positive? I'm not a fan of neither post-punk nor disco, but turns out the post-punk disco is definitely a thing!
Really interesting combination of groove, hypnotic rhythms and weird (in a good way) sound design
Feels like the work of a great musician playing to their strength, effortless and good.
Overall I enjoyed most tracks here, both the catchy and the quirky ones.
Smooth sound and top notch mixing, but the music itself is not doing it for me at all. I listened to the whole album, couldn't tell one song from the next, and had a distinct feeling that if I don't hear it ever again I won't be missing out on anything.
I'm awarding it 1 additional start for craftsmanship, I might cue this album up as a reference track when I'm making my own music. But for an entertainment product, this isn't going above 2 stars.
The biggest problem of this album is the mixing. Wikipedia says the band and the producer didn't agree on the sound - to me it sounds like the producer isn't a heavy music listener and he just mixed this as a pop album. If it was my band, I wouldn't agree with it either.
The result - everything is too clean for thrash music, especially painful with the back vocals totally not fitting in.
But overlooking the the unfortunate mix, the music is pretty cool and interesting. It's mostly carried by the strength of the guitar, that still sounds interesting and fresh today. I agree with other reviewers that the singing isn't what I'm looking for, but it's not as bad as some people say it is.
Overall, I'd probably go back to listen to this again at some point!
The review is for the "normal" edition - The deluxe edition is way too long and has really really bad songs: Typical girls (blink style dub) was so full of clicks it was painful to hear.
It's a bit too much avant-garde/arthouse for my taste, but even despite that, it's still a fun interesting listen, and there are some truly great songs there. The reggae with punk influences was new to my ear (at least, the way it was done here) and it was very well pulled off.
These girls sound like they know how to freewheel it in style and pull it off, that's a rare talent.
I am definitely going to listen to this one again.
Not a good album - some songs were okayish, others were bad. There was not a single good song. The singer's voice isn't good, and the mixing choice was to put it upfront and center, which further reduces the album's quality.
This album is a big no thank you from me.
Cookie cutter songs that were manufactured to satisfy a specific clientelle. They are well made and well performed, but the album is musically bland. It's the kind of music you'd expect in a rock/biker bar, makes for a nice background and that's about it.
To me it sounds like they're easily capable of better and therefore it was probably a conscious decision to maximize the commercial aspect of the album.
The good: The singer can SING. Some of the songs have cool riffs and are worth revisiting.
The not-so-good: The lyrics are really bad. They're not even good in a campy way. Just bad. The mastering is awful. Beside the 2-3 songs that are relistenable, the rest isn't.
Clearly created by someone who understands grooves, hooks and the power of a great bass line. Not all songs hit, but those that do are really well written. The production is quite basic to my taste (stock drums, sparse soundscape and preset-sounding sounds), but the songwriting more than makes up for it.
Some songs are literally annoying to listen to, I was considering deducting a star for the 2-3 bad songs, but i'll just pretend that the album didn't contain them.
While I hear a lot that influenced later music, this was not an enjoyable listen for me. The self important yet droning vocals, the grating industrial sounds, and the kind of bland songwriting made time stretch. When I felt I just about had enough I looked at the playlist to discover that I'm only halfway through. o no, I felt.
The best part of the album was a song that started with 1:30 mintues of instrumental. Once the singing resumed, so did my time dilation.
Personally this is a 1 for my own taste, but i'm giving it a second star in recognition that it did have a significant influence on other artists.
For better or for worse, this isn't a product, this is art, and so it can land very perfectly or not at all. I can hear later singer-songwriters productizing this style for wider consumption, and by doing so, cheapening it *coughsufjanstevenscough*
Within 2 songs I thought the album would quickly overstay its welcome, but, damnit, if Old Legs here ain't grown on me and I enjoyed it till the end. I can imagine this to be something to dive deeper into, with the lyrics in hand.
The music does its job while being a little too predictable, yet has flashes of genuinely creative moments to spice it up, which in my opinion is a recipe for 3-4 review.
But the experience is ultimately mostly carried by the lyrics. Considering that most albums I've heard on this project so far had throwaway lyrics that bordered on the laughable, this is a very welcome change, and that alone pushes this to 5 for me.
Some interesting musical moments , but overall, this is first and foremost a pop album, so it relies on a driving a hook home, and except one song, they're not driven home. I feel the artist was capable of doing something more interesting had they chosen to.
Mixing-wise, vocals are too upfornt and overall the sound is very hyped and tough to listen to for a prolonged period of time. It'a as if they try to make you like the music through sheer repetition and aggressive mixing.
I do think they have a lot of talent as musicians, but the feeling to me is that they consciously chose a very commercial path and for me that doesn't make for timeless music.
Servicable, enjoyable music, but at least on first listen, not more than that. A song or two feel like a 4, but the rest aren't, so the album as a whole doesn't make it to 4 territory.
Feels like a step back compared to previous albums - I feel that whatever made Elliottt Smith an interesting musician wasn't really captured here, and I wouldn't choose this album as a representative of him for new listeners.
Started as an interesting mix of singer-songwriter and electronic music, but as the album progressed it leaned a lot more to singer-songwriter. Too bad, this album could've earned its place in this list if it leaned harder into this innovative direction.
But despite that, pretty good and enjoyable songs. There were maybe 1 or 2 songs I felt an urge to skip, but that was it.
Love the cover art.
Just straigthforward good music. Love the hammond sound, the fact that the album is not overstaying its welcome (I've had trouble with some of the albums on this list having 15+ songs where a lot of them were obvious fillers).
Listening to this I immediately thought I'd be happy to own this on vinyl. That's a 5 in my book, even if there's nothing exceptionally flashy goingo on.
I think the first song of the album inspired the title music of Transport Tycoon Deluxe? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmL4HoG5ehQ&list=PLB0C4CF334E53E241&index=1
Wow, what a great album, everything works, and literally banger after banger. Controversial content aside (not gonna go into a debate here on whether the controversy is justified or not), the lyrics aren't braindead as they are for some other bands in this genre, and therefore don't subtract from the experience.
I think a lot of metal fans have a problem with this album because it's more Hardcore Punk than Metal. To me, it's the best of both worlds, but I can see how someone who has a problem with HC Punk would struggle listening to this.
I see this was produced by Rick Rubin, gives me some idea for why he's such a celebrated producer. This guy really understands so many different genres and how to make them work, rather than trying to copy the recipe of genre A and apply it to genre B.
Simple and formulaic music, pure packaged product to satisfy the masses. No innovation whatsoever - the significance importance of this band isn't in its music, but in its architecture as a "band that writes its own music". I appreciate that, but that can't be worth more than one star
Performance-wise it's good, but the music just makes it a slog. Even for a relatively short album, I got tired of the formula halfway through. The last song fortunately pick up the energy a bit as a payoff for the listen.
Amazing debut album from basically teenagers. Easy & fun listen, ambitious and experimental. Not everything lands for me, but enough lands that it works, and some tracks are pure fire.
I'm not a huge rap fan, but I prefer positive-minded rap like De La Soul and this gave me similar vibes. Not quite making it to the 5-star sphere, as it is still somewhat sophomoric, but well deserving of a place on this list.
With music, the harder it tries, the more it fails. This is where the comparison to Radiohead fails - Radiohead is just are. This album, it's trying so hard it just sounds pathetic.
Honestly, it's been a while since I've heard an album I disliked so much. I hated every second of this album, which is quite an achievement! Here's hoping this band elbowed only one album into the list.
Let's be real, this is a single masquerading as an album. Hello is a killer song and adele has the perfect voice for it. The rest of the album is pure filler with strong disney vibe.
The album feels as a whole like a 2 for me, it sounds great and she obviously has an amazing voice, but the music is very very middling and forgettable. Hello is such a massive song, though, that it adds a whole star on its own.
Totally not my style of music, but I can appreciate that it's a good album: The music is interesting, the singer is good, the production is pretty creative (though not always landing for me), and the album itself is braving into conceptual territories despite being a pop r&b album.
I'm curious what R&B listeners make of this, whether this is "yet another" album, or really a standout album that should be included in this list. I am not familiar enough with the genre to make this call.
In the beginning I was leaning towards 4 but as the albums progressed the appeal kind of wore out.
In 2200's edition of 1001 albums, this one will still be on the list, because if there's any band of this era that may still be talked about in a century or two from now, Radiohead has a good shot at being that band, and OK Computer would be the reason. Not just for its historical significance - but for its own rights as a musical piece.
Nearly 30 years old and still entirely relevant, this album has everything: ambitious songwriting, great performance, meaningful lyrics, and an overarching vision. No song is equally great but there are no fillers.
I swear I'm not a die-hard Radiohead fan, but I feel something in my gut every time I listen to this album.
The Beatles fully deserve their legacy as the most influential band in modern history. But while this is a good album for its era, isn't not a representative for why the Beatles deserve this legacy.
Too many songs are forgettable, a lot of the good ones are covers (though the best one: All my Loving, is original), but it's still a good listen from start to finish. Unlike many albums of the same era, this one doesn't suffer from same-ness. It sounds to me like there was thought given to the overall listening experience, rather than just a string of songs, and therefore there's enough variety is peppered through that when the album was over I was not yet tired of it.
Overall, a good entry to the Beatles discography, but not an album I'd go back to regularly.
Jazz isn't exactly my genre and it's tough for me to trace what modern Jazz is drawing from this album, but I imagine it's a lot since I've heard so many student bands trying their hand at this kind of improvisation, and it's not easy to get it to sound good. This one sounds good.
However, while I think the piano is great, there's way too much sax and the sax isn't that great. I really want to hear more of Monk's piano, and this album gives only a taste of it. As it stands, this album has its moments, but that's about it.
Neither timeless or memorable. I'm struggling to relate to those who claim this is an essential album. For me this is nice background music that passes through without any impact whatsoever.
You wouldn't pin the Beach Boys as Psychedelic music, yet they can be far more trippy than any psychedelic music I can think of: This album in particular is like watching a Disney movie on acid.
This isn't my favorite of the Beach Boys but it's definitely an interesting work with very strong moments ('Til I die)
I don't know what's going on with the mixing/mastering of the album, but some songs are really suffering from imabalanced mixes and inelegant distortion. Bordering on being bad enough to deduct a star.
2 radio hits surrounded by 7 passable fillers. You've probably heard what this album has to offer without ever listening to this album, making this a "non essential" listen.
Very 70's rock&roll, very of its time.
Not sure how i feel about the album. I like the stripped down sounds where everything is in its place and there are no unnecessary frills, and I appreciate that the musicianship is very hgih. But I am not really jamming with the vocals and the songwriting.
I can tell it's not your average rock album, but it's not for me. I understand the 4-5 ratings but I will not be returning to this album.
The album started off sounding like 5 to me: incredibly modern right off the bat, and taking into account Apple was only 18 when this came out, already makes this pretty incredible. But the second half of the album is noticeably weaker. There are some great songs, Fiona Apple is obviously a very talented musician who knows how to channel her emotions to effective musical output, and I love her voice, but I feel this album is stretched a bit with a few songs that should've been cut.
Very far from my musical taste, but listenabl, well written and performed. I think the album shows its age, it's quite laid back and old fashioned, also like for other listeners, everything kind of blends in for me, I think due to the vocals and instruments being pretty much the same throughout.
I think it wouldn't do amazing if it was released today, and I definitely am not going to go back and relisten to this voluntarily, but definitely deserves a place on the list due to its historical context, importance and overall production.
Another entry to the list of "glad I heard it but I'm not going to rehear it". It has significance as a historical album, but it does almost nothing for me today. The monotony of the vocals and the genre creeps up quickly: The eponymous song is the best in the album, and it has no singing.
Oh yeah baby. This album is kind of fire? This is coming from someone who could hardly be more removed from this genre.
What I like is the organic improvisational style fills, the clever songwriting defying expectations in pleasant ways, and overall just a fun listen.
The main problem is that the album is front heavy and back light (the best songs are all at the front). Still, I would put this vinyl on from start to end and feel good about it. A classic 5.
Totally not my musical taste, but it's overall enjoyable start to finish, with Waterfalls obviously being a bona-fide classic. I feel it's very close to a 5, but to want to relisten to this I'd need a bit less filler.
This sounds like rock and country's bastard child: Taking the clichés of each genre to make music that tries hard to feel anthemic but falls short. Instead, it demands Springsteen's vocal chords' heoric effort to imbue the music with a feeling of gravity.
The lyrics come off as a romantization of "I'm just a simple Joe and life is rough", an experience im not sure Springsteen is actually personally familiar with.
If I was a teenager I could see thinking this is cool. As it stands this funk-rock comes off too juvenile and thus a bit hard to listen to, particularly with so much of it in one album.
However, they clearly know how to write songs (even if they tend to the repetitive side), and the production is super tight and creative (one thing I learned from this project is that I'm a Rick Rubin fan).
I think it's very telling that the best songs are not funk-hiphop, but ballads (like Under the Bridge). If only they did more of that.
It started promising, but as it was playing it faded into the background. It's an enjoyable listen since I like the genre in general, but it's heavily generic, taking absolutely no risks and just delivering predictable, listenable music.
I listened from start to finish and haven't had a single song catch my attention or stick in my memory, but at least I didn't suffer through it.
Well, this album was a chore to listen to. It started out nice, but very quickly it devolved into self indulgent performant masturbation.
It insists upon itself.
I love the cover with the album name - really captures the experience of being a musician, and gives an idea that the band is taking things lightly but puts an effort to well-craft that lightness. The listening experience matches this assessment - well crafted songs that aren't too self-serious .
That said, I'm not a big britpop fan and I'm not a big fan of the vocals. Also the album has a gritty noise to it that makes it a tiring listen from start to finish. I can imagine the singles being fun to listen to, but I can't imagine putting the vinyl from start to finish.
The mixing of the album doesn't sit with me. The drums sound like they're coming through a screen, the kick sounds like someone hitting a speaker cone, the bass is only hinted, and the guitar is heavily reverbed and overly panned (I understand it's the idea is to bring VH's playing to the front, but it's a bit heavy handed, especially in a continuous listen to the whole album on heaphones).
The songs themselves don't feel anything special to me, just generic hard rock with more shredding than usual, with the exception of Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love which is a song I'll want to relisten to, and Runnin' with the Devil a distant second (it has a great starting riff but that's about it).
IMO this album sounds exactly like what it is: A debut album of a band that's better at playing than writing, and packaged in unfortunate mixing. I think VH got better later in their career in songwriting. This one leaves me wanting.
Well, it was a fun listen, and I probably wouldn't mind listen to it again once enough time has passed. The production is great and the performances are great (though sometimes too many things are vying for attention at the same time).
But let's be real, how much can you listen to the same riff on repeat? You can walk away from this album for 5 minutes and come back and pretty much have missed nothing.
If someone played a song here and told me this is Franz Ferdinand, I might've believed them before I listened to this. The good aspect is that this albums sounds a few decades ahead of its time, which is very impressive. The bad aspect is that it still sounds like generic try-hard pop. The name, the look, the singing, all come off to me as an attempt to craft a specific, marketable image. Call me old fashioned, but what I seek in music is authenticity, and this album and artist took a conscious choice to go the other direciton.
I'll split the middle and say that in 2025 this is a listenable album, but not something to seek out or come back to.
Nice production, well-focused songs that don't tire themselves, good performances and a great voice. The only thing holding this from 4 stars is that I don't really connect to the genre.
There are some highlights in the album, but mostly it's a pretty boring listen to me. The repetitive, slow rhythm puts me to sleep, and nothing else exciting is happening with the music. It's too saccharine and predictable. The breakout songs are way overplayed and not really exciting to relisten in the context of the album.
I was hoping/planning to give this a 4 or 5 and be one of those who rediscover Bob Marley by a thorough listen, but alas it's not to be. It must've been a classic for its era, but I guess all the replays, covers, derivatives over the years killed the novelty.
I think this album has an interesting musical concept to bring to the world. I feel it leans too much to independent/punk aesthetics to really leverage the most out of the concept, so it just feels as another wild 70s experiment that doesn't land. But this specific experiment hit some interesting vein and I would've liked this vein to be explored deeper.
Having said all that, realistically, I'm not gonna listen to any song on this album ever again.
Experimental without giving up on satisfying musical ideas, "The Walls" stands (heh) as a model for how concept albums should be made. Despite its long running length, the song arrangement and variety keeps one's attention pleasantly humming along with the music.
The mixing and production are top notch; most of the time the sounds are crisp and pleasant, like an ear massage. And with Gilmour being my favorite electric guitar player, his presence is a cherry on top.
The album isn’t flawless. There are moments I would cut or skip — but it’s not bad enough to deduct a star. “Comfortably Numb” remains one of my favorite songs of all time.
Overall, easy 5, and I'm on my way to the record store to find a vinyl copy.
I still like "Imagine" and its message despite it being played to death, and even realizing that John didn't live the ideals he espoused. I still think it takes balls to sing "no religion" and "no countries". The rest of the album is coffeeshop worthy - nice for background but not really gripping or mould-breaking.
With a name like "Apocalypse Dudes", you gotta know you're going into an album that doesn't take itself seriously.
Starts strong with a satisfying combination of punk, rock'n'roll, and lighthearted songwriting, but kind of goes downhill. The album is mostly front-loaded.
The mixing is lacking, it sounds quite flat and too compressed, even for a heavy music. Sounds nitpicky, but the mixing makes it impossible for me to listen to more than a few songs in a row.
Kate Bush is the full package: Creative, talented, and in this album, willing to take significant risks.
For me this album is too experimental to win full score as a timeless favorite, but it's absolutely a great, listenable album even when it's pushing boundaries.
The "We have Sinatra at home" album. Or more like, we have Sinatra at our middle-of-nowhere truckstop cafe.
Neither bad nor brilliant. I'm not an expert in the era, but I'd bet this is quite derivative of other works of the time.
It starts out nice, with a "fallout retro" vibe, and the eponymous song being the best in the bunch. But listening to a full album of the same exact vibe, tempo and style, loses the magic very rapidly.
And my guy, maybe give your spring reverb a raise, it's been working overtime in this album.
Lovely album with a few very strong songs: I enjoyed the listen, but my attention was only grabbed a few times.
Overall it's very much a product of its time, and some aspects didn't age well (e.g. the keyboard sound/improvisation style), but still, the songwriting and performance are timeless.
When the first song started playing I immediately suspected this is going to be another front-heavy album where all the good stuff is at the start and the rest is filler. Many albums on the list are like that.
Not this one! The album is peppered throughout with songs I'd like to relisten to. The lyrics are consistently great, the music is creative and original, the whole thing sounds way fresher than early 80's, and it's a debut album no less. Incredibly impressive piece of work.
I've always liked punk, yet never "got" folk-punk, but now I get it.
This is one of these albums where I feel like I should've known this way way earlier. Exactly the kind of album I'm hoping to discover through this project.
More like "Boring Stones", amiright? That's what I expected going in and for the first few songs, that's what I got.
As I was listening, I slowly realized that this is a deception: The album comes off as cookie cutter rock'n'roll songs (with the added spice of Jagger's jagged voice), but beneath the repetitive hooks there is a creative and experimental spirit that surfaces here and there: Use of sitar here, soft ballad there, going home's minimalist stretch.
Also taking into account this is one of the earliest works in the project (page 93 in the original book), there's actually a lot to admire here. I can literally imagine myself as a teenager in the sixties with my eyes closed, lying on a bean bag tripping out to Going Home (a beautifully mixed song that maximizes the tension between sound and silence).
I'm not sure I would come back to this album in the future, as it's way out of my musical generation, but put in the right context, this is more than just another rock album: Beneath the repetition there are glimpses of genuine art.
The initial listening experience has a wow effect, but as the album progresses, it turns out to be mostly an attitude and roughness overlayed basic rhythms and basic chord progressions. A lot of cover, but rudimentary substance.
Still, a good cover has its place. Individually the songs are interesting, it's only in a single, continuous listen that haflway through they lose their individuality and blend together, as the riffs, rhythms and singing all basically tell a single story.
As a punk afficionado I can appreciate the spark that started a flame. But like most albums of historical importance, the importance itself won't put this back on my playlist on a regular basis.
