80% generic early 80s drivel, 20% amazing synth runs that will be burned into my brain from now on. Truly inconsistent album, hopping between cuts I'll most certainly be coming back to and others I couldn't wait to be over. Highlights: While You See A Chance, Night Train

Edgy, so edgy! The album is a bit of a mess, not just in terms of the mixing (I can barely make out the vocals on most tracks), but the way it generally all comes together without feeling purposefully dynamic. I can appreciate the ambition of bringing together so many different styles and sounds, but it often ends up feeling more like a jagged collage than a beautiful painting. The upside is that I've never heard an album quite like this before, though I do see it as something of a precursor to acts like Linkin Park. Highlights: March Of The Pigs, Closer, Ruiner, The Becoming, Hurt

I listened through this album during my attempt to make my way through the 1001 albums chronologically, so I was somewhat dreading running back through this 3+ hour collection. Even calling it an album is somewhat misleading – it's more like 5½ albums rolled into one package. I'm not the biggest fan of show tunes in general, but Ella obviously has an amazing voice and makes what (in the hands of a lesser singer) could be an absolute slog into something tolerable. There are a decent amount of highlights across the 59 tracks, but most cuts aren’t particularly distinct from one another – if all my favorites were gathered into one short album and the rest were absent, it'd probably get four stars from me! Highlights: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off, Things Are Looking Up, 'S Wonderful, The Real American Folk Song, I've Got A Crush On You, Boy What Love Has Done To Me

Despite seeing Elton John in concert and knowing almost all of his hits (thanks to my wife, who is a huge fan), I had never actually listened through any of his studio albums prior to this challenge. MATW has made me understand why Elton is known for his singles, rather than his albums – outside of a couple highlights and some wacky bits of instrumentation here and there, this LP is just not that memorable. I didn’t find myself aching for the album to be over, but I also can’t really see myself coming back to listen to any of the songs outside of the obvious one that everyone knows. Hopefully there’s a fantastic album from EJ yet to come on this list! Highlights: Tiny Dancer, Razor Face, Holiday Inn, All The Nasties

The artwork goes insanely hard. The album itself isn’t my favorite, but it is pretty decent – it’s sonically a bit all over the place, with occasional lyrics about environmentalism and social justice somewhat bringing things together. The unique arrangements and effects across the board are ultimately what sell the album for me – I can’t really see myself coming back to any of these songs individually in the future. Highlights: Take A Load Off Your Feet, Feel Flows, ‘Til I Die

As an American who was only familiar with Song 2 before this challenge, I was immensely looking forward to digging further into Blur and hopefully finding some gold. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up particularly enjoying this album. It feels like Blur is trying to poke fun at different rock trends across the tracklist, but the lack of context made it hard for me to tell whether or not I should be taking anything seriously and I tried to just enjoy the music for what it is. There are a few tracks I thought were decent, but I didn’t come away from this album with a new favorite from the band (Song 2 unfortunately reigns supreme, for now) and I spent most my listen itching to move on to something else. Highlights: Song 2, Theme from Retro, You’re so Great, Look Inside America

This is the seventh album I've had to listen through for this challenge and is fortunately the first that truly feels like essential listening to me! The songs are generally catchy, aren't overly long (outside of Sex Machine, but even that one doesn't feel like it goes on for nearly 14 minutes) and are loaded with brilliant musicianship/lyrics across the board. Even the bonus tracks from the 2007 reissue are pretty good! There were a couple tracks I wasn't in love with on first listen, but the main thing holding this album back is the mixing – I found myself struggling to hear certain vocal/instrumental passages that I would have loved the mixes to focus on more. Highlights: Stand!, I Want to Take You Higher, Somebody's Watching You, Everyday People, Sex Machine

I legitimately didn’t know pop punk existed in the ‘70s until I heard this album. It’s certainly not a slog to get through (as the songs are both short and fast-paced), but pretty much every track is interchangeable. Something I can appreciate retrospectively for what it presumably added to the cultural conversation, but not something I can really see myself coming back to over later (and better) pop punk albums. Highlights: Male Model, I Know a Girl

I literally looked up which ABBA albums made the list just yesterday and the algorithm gave me The Visitors as today's listen. Huh. My dad had a major ABBA obsession for a few years, so I know all the hits like the back of my hand. However, I had never given one of their proper studio albums a listen, so I was pretty excited to see what this LP had in store! Fortunately, The Visitors is a very good album. Yes, it's a brilliant display of vocal/songwriting/mixing/production talent, but it also comes with a whirlwind of emotions, effectively serving as both a breakup album for the band and a response to the divorces each member went through during the months prior. Admittedly, nostalgia does play a role in how much I enjoyed the album as a whole, but these songs hold up much better than other songs I enjoyed during my adolescence. This is the closest I've come to giving an album on this list five stars. However, if I'm going to give something a perfect score, the deep cuts need to speak to me just as much (if not, more) than the hits and that's just not the case here. Not to say songs like I Let The Music Speak and Two For The Price Of One are bad, but they don't shine nearly as bright as the album's more known tracks. I even ran through the album again after sleeping on it and the chasm somehow seemed wider the second time through. Probably worth noting that the Spotify version has four bonus tracks compared to the original LP, though none of them feel out of place to me. I'd even say that the album is probably better with them included! Under Attack legitimately might be a top five ABBA tune for me – what an absolute earworm. Highlights: The Visitors, Head Over Heels, When All Is Said And Done, One Of Us, Slipping Through My Fingers, The Day Before You Came, Under Attack

I'm a simple man. Get a Scottish guy to play some moody guitar and I'm probably going to enjoy it. Really, the main thing holding this album back is that Bert doesn't have a particularly astounding singing voice, but it gets the job done on the more lyric-focused tracks like Needle of Death. Needless to say, the purely instrumental cuts were generally my favorites here! Seems to be how other people are feeling too, considering how many streams Angie has compared to other tracks. I listened to about half of the album while reading The Electric State and it actually added quite a bit to the already uneasy atmosphere of the book. Would definitely recommend pairing this LP with a road trip through the desert or some post-apocalyptic media! Highlights: Smokey River, Oh How Your Love Is Strong, Veronica, Needle of Death, The Casbah, Angie

This is the first album released during my lifetime that I've had to rate for this and it's a fitting one! The College Dropout is one of those highly-regarded LPs that I've never had the chance to properly listen through – albums like this are exactly why I felt like I needed to finally commit to doing this challenge. Kanye West's debut album isn't the first I've heard from him (it's actually the eighth, including KIDS SEE GHOSTS), but I think you could make a case for it being his best. For the first seven tracks, it feels like a bona fide five star album – the beats are incredible and uplifting, the track-to-track flow is impeccable, the bars are clever and unique. There's a sense of adolescence & humility that I've never really heard from Kanye prior to this point and it makes me understand (ever so slightly more) why his day ones have stood by him through his many controversies in the decades since. The College Dropout is a great album, but it's not perfect (for me, anyway). The album has a pretty sizable dip from tracks 8-13, in which it veers into fairly generic early/mid '00s club hip-hop territory without much of the character and charisma found on the rest of the project. There are interesting moments during the dip (The New Workout Plan is a highlight) and I don't outright hate any of the songs in that chunk, but I probably would have enjoyed the whole album like 25% more if it went straight from Jesus Walks to the first School Spirit skit. Overall, it's a solid project and one that I feel I've truly missed out on all these years (which is ultimately what I'm looking to get out of each album on this list)! It also inspired me to finally check out Late Registration and Graduation, since [SPOILER] neither made the cut for this list. Might share some thoughts on those in my eventual reviews of MBDTF and Yeezus, assuming there's anything relevant to share. Highlights: We Don't Care, All Falls Down, Jesus Walks, The New Workout Plan, School Spirit, Two Words, Through The Wire, Family Business, Last Call

I feel like I shouldn’t like this album – pretty much every characteristic of it is borrowed from what came in the decades before (arguably much better) and this is one of my least favorite decades for this kind of rock music (Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock & Roll is maybe one of my least favorite hit songs, full stop). And yet… I somehow feel drawn to it at the same time. Maybe it’s John Fogerty’s distinct stanky vocals, maybe it’s the rowdy energy some of these songs bring to the table (see Travelin’ Band) or maybe I’m just insane. I definitely wouldn’t say I LOVED this album and there were very few true highlights, but I couldn’t bring myself to rate Cosmo’s Factory any lower than three stars. It’s not one I’ll be revisiting actively, but I won’t turn it off if it happens to come on! Highlights: Travelin’ Band, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Long As I Can See The Light

I need to admit something. I am 28 years old, have lived 1/3 of my life in Washington and I’ve never listened to a grunge album before today. I’ve walked through the Nirvana exhibit at MoPOP, I’ve even bought records from Sub Pop, but my entire experience with grunge up to this point has been Smells Like Teen Spirit and Come As You Are (hearing them probably fewer than 10 times in total). Diving into grunge is something I’ve been dreading because it’s a genre with so many beloved albums and I don’t want to be that guy who gave it a shot and didn’t “get” it. Prior to EGBDF, I genuinely thought grunge was just dudes singing poorly over rough rock instrumentals with depressing lyrics. The idea of it being a genre with legitimate musical proficiency had not really crossed my mind. That’s why Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge came as such a pleasant surprise to me – it’s an album that simultaneously had me moshing in my kitchen and gave me a fair bit of musical intrigue to really sink my teeth into. The album’s title (referring to the most basic level of music theory) is brilliant because the songs feel like a middle finger to the rules, even when there’s so much evidence of technical skill visible in between the cracks. It’s not a perfect album and there were a few tracks that honestly didn’t do much for me, but the high rock energy, slanted rhythms and occasional harmonica solos gave EGBDF enough unique flair that I can easily see myself coming back to it sooner rather than later. This was an excellent first impression of grunge and (for once in my life) I’m actually looking forward to digging in further! Highlights: Generation Genocide, Something So Clear, Thorn, Into The Drink, Broken Hands, Who You Drivin’ Now?, Pokin’ Around

Another artist I had never heard of prior to this challenge delivering another rock solid album – should I even be surprised at this point? This is also the second album of my lifetime that I've had to rate for this and the first chronologically, with the LP releasing just five days after I was born. This might be the understatement of the year, but Either/Or is a very melancholic listen. Reading about Smith's death while working my way through the album only added to that sense of unrelenting sadness it carries. I'd say almost everything here is a worthwhile listen – the songs are highly effective. At the same time, it's hard to say I "enjoy" this album the same way as the others I've rated highly because it's not something I'm willingly going to put on (beyond the initial listen through) at this stage of my life. I don't desire to be brought down in the way Either/Or provides and (by the grace of God) I'm not having frequent enough depressive episodes for this album to be good mood music for me, even if only on occasion. That said, I'm going to break my own rules a bit. By almost every measure, Either/Or is a three star album for me – one that I appreciate musically, enjoy a few songs on and wouldn't mind listening to if it happened to come on, but that I'm unlikely to intentionally revisit. However, I'm going to give this album four stars because it's got the indisputable quality of a higher-tier album (even if it sounds VERY 90s) and is one that I ought to keep in my back pocket in case I'm ever in the right mood for it. R.I.P. Elliott Smith, gone way too soon. Highlights: Alameda, Ballad of Big Nothing, Between the Bars, Pictures of Me, Rose Parade, Say Yes

Johnny Cash is one of those artists I always point to when I talk about the sort of country music I actually like, but I had admittedly never listened to a full album from him until today. The timing is quite interesting as well, as I listened to Hurt less than two weeks ago after hearing the original NIN record! Part of me is a little bummed that my first full Johnny Cash experience isn't a studio LP and that it's the second album in a tetralogy of live albums, but another part of me is happy that this was the one I got to hear first, because it's a good one. At San Quentin is a special album – not just for the music itself, but for everything that happens in between. The prisoners add so much atmosphere to the LP, from booing a guard bringing Johnny some water to laughing during relatable parts of the songs to shouting song requests up to him before he plays I Walk the Line. It might sound corny, but I don't think I'll ever forget the reaction to Johnny telling the story of how he ended up getting arrested/fined in Starkville for picking some flowers or him playing through San Quentin (a song he wrote the day before) twice in a row because the crowd loved it so much. This is an album that tells a story so effortlessly, cover to cover – it's no wonder why it made this list. One could probably make a case for this being a five star album, but the rough recordings and the occasional miss in the curation department does honestly hold the LP back (if only slightly). I also want to leave space for At Folsom Prison to blow me away even more, so I'll give At San Quentin a very respectful four stars! Highlights: Wanted Man, Darlin’ Companion, Starkville City Jail, San Quentin, A Boy Named Sue, (There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley

I had never heard of Moby Grape prior to this challenge, but the fact that this album made the “Uncontroversial Albums” list with an average rating of three stars had me a bit worried. Would Moby Grape be one of the weaker entries on this list? Turns out, nope – it really just is a three star album! The reasons why probably vary from person to person, but for me it’s a collection of good rock songs that just don’t do anything particularly unique or interesting. The fact that it incited a bidding war between labels somewhat perplexes me, but I guess they must have been confident fans of this style in the ‘60s were going to eat it up. As with many of my threes, it’s an album I wouldn’t mind being put on, but it’s probably not something I’m going to go out of my way to listen to. The fact that the full album isn’t currently on Spotify makes doing that extra difficult for me anyway! Highlights: Hey Grandma, Fall On You, Come In The Morning, Omaha, Changes, Indifference

The Generator recommending albums in a random order is a double-edged sword for me – on one hand, it prevents me from getting too bored of a particular sound/era and giving up, but on the other hand, it makes it so I often end up listening to albums without as much context as I'd like to have going into them. I have not yet heard 36 Chambers and I really would have liked to listen to that one first, but I suppose the Generator giveth and the Generator taketh away. Raekwon is not an artist I'm incredibly familiar with (I literally only recognized his name from an old Flume track that I quite enjoyed), but I went into this one with an open mind. Most of these these post-ETWT solo albums are highly regarded and I wanted to make sure I could properly digest this one, even without the context I desired. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... is an album that I enjoyed, but I honestly wish I got more out of it. RZA's production across the entire project is incredible, Raekwon & Ghostface Killah play well off of each other and deliver some impressive bars and numerous guests bring just as much heat (including RZA himself, who might have the craziest flow on the entire album in Wu-Gambinos). At the same time, OB4CL feels bloated from an overabundance of skits that are often confusing (with several voices talking over one another) and don't add much to the songs they're part of. I also felt like there were many times were verses started/ended in different spots than they should have (based on the cadence of the beats) and that made a lot of the tracks feel sort of off. Ultimately, it's an album I appreciate for a lot of reasons, but also one that is dragged down by a lot of little things that add up throughout its 1+ hour runtime. It's definitely got me looking forward to hearing more RZA-produced albums like Enter The Wu-Tang and Liquid Swords, but The Purple Tape is probably not one I'll have in heavy rotation in the future. Highlights: Knowledge God, Rainy Dayz, Guillotine (Swordz), Can It Be All So Simple (Remix), Ice Water, Wisdom Body, Ice Cream, Wu-Gambinos, Heaven & Hell

Considering the Generator gave me The College Dropout less than a week ago and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (an album by Raekwon, produced by RZA) just yesterday, getting Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy today has me beginning to wonder if it truly is randomized. I'm catching on, Generator – you better watch your back! In all seriousness... MBDTF is one of the few albums on this list that I actually have heard, but it's been quite some time (probably around six years since I last spun it). Since then, he's released five new albums (haven't bothered to check out the most recent three, as I've heard nothing but bad things about them) and I've been properly educated on all his pre-2010 albums. That said, I feel pretty much exactly the same way about this LP as I did back in 2019 – these are some of Kanye's most iconic tracks, bundled together in a pretty odd way, with some baffling mixing decisions. If you don't think about it too hard, it FEELS like near-perfect album... However, for someone like me, who actually cares about an album telling a story through its direction and sequencing, it does fall flat. Don't get me wrong, MBDTF is a pretty strong album – it just plays more like a greatest hits reel than a bona fide concept album (which it's clearly trying to be). My biggest takeaway from revisiting the LP after finally hearing Kanye's first four albums is that there's a little bit of each project here – you'll find the chopped-up soul of The College Dropout, the infectious beats of Graduation, the emotional auto-tune of 808s & Heartbreak and even a little bit of Late Registration's conscious lyrics here. If someone were looking to get into Kanye West (no idea why they would in 2025) and knew basically nothing about his music, MBDTF would be a great place to start because there are so many potential avenues to explore depending on which style they're feeling. Kanye may not be a very good person, but My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a pretty notable and enjoyable piece of his storied career! Highlights: Dark Fantasy, POWER, All Of The Lights, Devil In A New Dress, Runaway, Hell Of A Life, Lost In The World

Maggot Brain is the first full album I've listened to from the world of the great George Clinton and, to be honest, I was hoping to get a bit more out of it than I did. The musicality on show is excellent, but the first & last tracks feel like they have a completely different sonic identity than the middle five tunes and I was hoping for the "funk" part of Funkadelic to come out a bit more than it did. It's an album I can appreciate and I certainly didn't have a negative experience running through it, but it's not something I can really see myself putting into heavy rotation. Highlights: Can You Get To That, Hit It and Quit It, Super Stupid

I’ve known Carlos Santana as the funny “Smooth by Santana feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty” guy for so long (yes, I have the t-shirt) that I never even considered the possibility of him being a serious musician with critically-acclaimed albums. You could definitely say that Abraxas came as a surprise to me, not only because it’s somehow nearly 30 years older than Supernatural (an album which is pushing 30 itself), but because it’s legitimately good fusion/psychedelic rock that goes so far beyond the boundaries of the “guy plays catchy Latin guitar melodies with popular singer” music he’d later score so many radio hits with. That said, Abraxas is a bit all over the map stylistically. It’s all perfectly listenable, but I definitely see myself gravitating toward certain cuts (Black Magic Woman is the big one) than the project as a whole. It’s a textbook three star album for me! Highlights: Singing Winds Crying Beasts, Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen, Mother’s Daughter, Samba Pa Ti

Another CCR album only eight days after getting Cosmo's Factory? I would have probably preferred someone new to start my work week, but I suppose I'll take it. I enjoyed Bayou Country about the same amount as I enjoyed Cosmo's Factory (three stars), though I do feel like the songs here have a little more identity compared to the 1970 album. BC is also a few minutes (and four tracks) shorter than CF, so I'd say I'm slightly more likely to return to this one in the future, but not enough to give it four stars. My main takeaway from Bayou Country is that Creedence Clearwater Revival wrote that "rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river" song and that it's apparently called Proud Mary? I might have gone my entire life without knowing that and I've heard the song at least a dozen times (probably more). Highlights: Graveyard Train, Good Golly Miss Molly, Proud Mary, Keep On Chooglin'

Slipknot is not a band I expected to show up on this list, but getting All Hope Is Gone as today's assignment was something of a welcome surprise. Despite the mixed things I've heard about their music and my lack of desire to dig deeper (based on what I HAVE heard from them), it's obvious they have a massive, enthusiastic fanbase and this was a good excuse to see what all the fuss is about. Unfortunately, I don't think AHIG is a very good LP. It's an album that is trying to be edgy, but often comes across quite dull. It's an album that is constantly trying to comment on modern religion/society/relationships, but doesn't have anything compelling to say. It's an album that tries to be accessible, but isn't catchy enough to stick with you. It's an album that is practically drowning in musical proficiency, but doesn't do anything interesting with that talent. Maybe I'm being a bit dramatic, but I am struggling to understand how anyone (outside of the most dedicated metal fans) felt like this LP was essential listening material. Some of the more melodic passages of the project (choruses, guitar solos, etc.) didn't even feel like they made musical sense when listened to in context. Like, was getting two Slipknot albums really necessarily when a band like Dream Theater doesn't even get one? The nicest thing I can say about All Hope Is Gone is that I didn't actively hate it while listening to it – Corey Taylor's yell-singing gets a bit grating by the end of the album, but the project as a whole generally didn't do anything risky or irritating enough to completely put me off. Slipknot will avoid a one star rating from me for now, but this is easily the worst album I've had to listen to for this challenge so far. I'll still give their self-titled LP a shot when the Generator gives it to me (assuming in good faith that they did SOMETHING to hook people in the '90s, beyond the mask gimmick), but I'm definitely less excited to do so at this point. Highlights: Psychosocial, Snuff

Albums like this are half the reason I’m doing this challenge to begin with – to hear ambitious genre crossovers from artists I likely never would have found otherwise. The little quote/blurb on the cover immediately hooked me and I had to listen to Ananda Shankar as soon as humanly possible. This album definitely delivers on its promise of combining Western and Indian music, though the execution certainly isn’t perfect. It sets out to do such a specific thing, but does that thing in so many different ways that it comes across a bit clumsy and lopsided. I couldn’t help but let out a laugh hearing songs from The Rolling Stones and The Doors covered in such a bizarre (yet legitimately good) way, with the songs recreated relatively faithfully, aside from the vocals being swapped with sitar interpolations. These are the kinds of tracks I’d sneak into a playlist while hanging out with friends or family, just to see how long it takes them to notice and what their reactions are like. The Ananda Shankar originals are generally the highlights for me, with songs like Snow Flower and Metamorphosis sounding genuinely compelling sonically. They make me feel like I’m floating through the galaxy in an endless Bollywood space opera. I can’t quite bring myself to give Ananda Shankar the four star rating that it probably deserves, as its longest cut (the 13+ minute Sagar, which takes up about a third of the album’s running time) was honestly kind of a snoozer, but this is an LP I’m probably going to be telling people about for years. Highlights: Snow Flower, Light My Fire, Metamorphosis, Raghupati

Finally, some bona fide jazz! I’ve been waiting for the Generator to give me something in this vein and a John Coltrane album was honestly the perfect place to start. A Love Supreme isn’t unlike a tasty sandwich – it’s got good bread as the first and last thing you taste, but the real flavor comes from what’s packed into the middle. Acknowledgment & Psalm are good jazz, but Resolution & Pursuance (particularly the former) really steal the show here with Coltrane’s sharp, killer saxophone melodies and the rhythm section’s tense, fast-paced grooves. I went into ALS crossing my fingers for a five because jazz is a genre I have so much admiration for and I’ve heard so many good things about this album in particular, but I unfortunately can’t ignore the noticeable dip in quality between the middle and outer tracks. Even Pursuance doesn’t quite reach perfection, as it ends with a baffling three-minute bass solo from Jimmy Garrison, which (despite some amazing performances from him on the rest of the album) comes across more like chord noodling and scales practice than something truly inspired, bringing my enjoyment of it down ever so slightly. A Love Supreme is solid four star album, largely because it’s built around what could very well be one of the greatest jazz recordings of all time (Resolution) and stays on its feet pretty well during its other 25 minutes thanks to its solid writing and instrumental chemistry. Will most certainly be coming back to this one! Highlights: Resolution, Pursuance

Muddy Waters is another name I hear come up from time to time, but if you had asked me to name a song by him (or even what genre he was known for) prior to today, I probably would have failed. For that reason, I'm glad this album is on this list. At the same time, it kind of feels like At Newport 1960 was chosen over one of his studio albums as an excuse to include a variety of his early career hits by proxy, as it isn't a particularly compelling live album (compared to something like At San Quentin by Johnny Cash). That said, it's an interesting time capsule with really good recordings (especially for 1960), but Muddy's blues formula wore out fairly quick for me here. It does pick up some momentum around the time he plays Tiger In Your Tank (and you can tell the audience gets a second wind around that point as well), but it's stylistically just not my thing. I'm a white man in my late 20s – who would have thought? Speaking of, I learned during my research of this album that I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man was actually the origin of the "stop-time riff" that would eventually be popularized by Bo Diddley. As a young white adult, I mainly know the riff from George Thorogood & The Destroyers' Bad To The Bone, which Thorogood apparently pitched to both Waters and Diddley before deciding to just record it himself. I genuinely can't imagine having the kind of self-confidence it would take to essentially rip off someone's song and then pitch that ripoff to them. Insane. Highlights: I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man, Baby Please Don’t Go, Tiger In Your Tank, I Feel So Good, I’ve Got My Mojo Working

I'm not going to beat around the bush here – I've never really considered myself a Christina Aguilera fan. I definitely wouldn't say I'm a hater or anything like that, but her hits never did much for me. That said, her career was already several albums deep by the time I turned 10, so it's probably fair to say that I wasn't in her target demographic during that time of my life. I've also been more open to the pop girlies of recent years (mainly Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo and Lady Gaga), so I was happy to give this album a fair shot. Aguilera's mission on Back to Basics is made clear in the opening moments of the album: to pay tribute to the soul/blues/jazz artists who paved the road before her. For the first few tracks, it feels like that's (at least somewhat) the case – the very next track after the intro is a full-on gospel tune (which oddly features Steve Winwood, the first artist the Generator picked out for me), followed by two soulful, upbeat tracks produced by the talented DJ Premier. The latter of the two (Ain't No Other Man) is especially fun and probably the single best track on the entire album. Unfortunately, what goes up must come down and down it goes indeed. After these first four tracks, the names Aguilera dropped on Back in the Day (Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Etta James, John Coltrane, etc.) come across as little more than lip service. The following nine songs aren't all that bad (and F.U.S.S. is legitimately a highlight), but are fairly forgettable for mid-2000s pop/R&B. Even some excellent sample-heavy production from Premier and Mark Ronson couldn't elevate the tail end of the first disc even close to the heights of Makes Me Wanna Pray or Ain't No Other Man. First disc? Oh yeah – Back to Basics is a double album. If BTB was just the first disc, it probably would have been an easy three star rating for me. Unfortunately, disc two completely tosses out the "tribute to the trailblazers" concept to focus on more standard Xtina fare and it's all the worse for it. The only true highlight here is Candyman and songs like Nasty Naughty Boy sound incredibly out of place on the album that gave us Makes Me Wanna Pray less than an hour earlier. Why this second disc wasn't released as a separate EP or saved for a future album is beyond me. It makes BTB feel so much more bloated than it already was and it completely loses the character than made the first disc remotely compelling. I'd even go as far as to say that listening through the second disc actively harmed my impression of the first – I let the album loop back to the beginning to re-listen to those first few cuts and the idea of it being some kind of tribute started to feel like a cruel joke in hindsight. If I can find some positives in this album, it's that Christina Aguilera has a great voice and knows how to show it off here. I can also appreciate her straightforward style of writing lyrics – it's often easy to know exactly what she's talking about without having to read into it too much. Additionally, I think it's nice that she attempted to put some respect on some of the great Black artists of the 20th century, even if the execution wasn't fully there. Ultimately, Back to Basics has too many good qualities for me to give it one star, but it's not an album that I ever want to hear from front to back again. Highlights: Makes Me Wanna Pray, Ain’t No Other Man, F.U.S.S. (Interlude), Candyman

They say not to judge a book by its cover. The same often goes for albums and Roxy Music’s self-titled LP is a prime example – I’m not sure what I expected going into this one, but it certainly wasn’t what I got! I don’t have a ton to say here, other than that I appreciate how weird the album lets itself get at times. The songs themselves generally aren’t astounding and they get much less memorable in the project’s back half, but there are at least a handful of interesting listens here. I don’t know if I’m the only one who feels this way, but I reckon Brian Eno’s contributions to this particular album are probably a bit overstated. Yes, he was a part of Roxy Music’s lineup at the time of this album’s release, but he’s not credited as a writer or producer on any of the songs. I love Eno as much as the next guy, but to think of this debut album as a “Brian Eno project” is probably a bit disingenuous – Roxy Music seems to be Bryan Ferry’s brainchild first and foremost. All in all, not my favorite album of this challenge so far, but I found much of the music to be decently compelling and I’m interested to eventually hear Roxy Music’s other entries on the list! Highlights: Re-Make/Re-Model, Ladytron, If There Is Something, Virginia Plain, Chance Meeting

Depeche Mode is one of the few artists on this list that I own and enjoy an album from (in this case, Violator), so I was definitely looking forward to giving another one of their albums a go! My first impressions of Music for the Masses are pretty positive! It's a nice mix of catchy synthpop and more experimental cuts, with everything somehow managing to fit together in a way that makes sense and doesn't feel too jumbled. I also very much appreciated the gapless transitions between certain tracks – they really made the album feel like a cohesive story in a way that not a lot of other albums on this list have for me. If there's one thing that holds the album back, it's that it sounds exceedingly 80s and lacks a certain timelessness as a result. MFTM is often epic in scope and provocative without being overly edgy, which puts it a notch above comparable albums like NIN's The Downward Spiral for me. I'd even say I like it about as much as Violator (the band's most celebrated LP) based on memory, but I'd have to hear the two albums side-by-side to know for sure and I'll probably wait to do that until the Generator decides to give me the latter, which could be several months from now. Will report my findings when the time comes! Highlights: Never Let Me Down Again, Strangelove, Sacred, Behind The Wheel, Nothing, Pimpf

Oh hey, this album shares a name (the first one, not the second one) with my son! I gotta be honest... I knew next to nothing about The Kinks prior to listening to Arthur. I think the first time I heard about the band was when my high school French teacher was telling us about a song called Kinks Shirt by Matt Nathanson, who she may have had a minor obsession with. I've also apparently heard You Really Got Me, but I never could have told someone it was made by The Kinks until today. I'm aware that I'm missing the context of several albums to be making a statement like this, but The Kinks often come across as a Walmart-brand version of The Beatles on AOTDAFOTBE. The LP was also released after every Beatles album (excluding Let It Be, which was recorded before Abbey Road), so I don't think it's unfair to say that that their influence is strongly felt here. With a name like "The Kinks," I was honestly expecting something with a bit more bite. That said, I don't think Arthur is a bad album at all! It starts off strong with Victoria and has a pretty enjoyable run of tracks from Brainwashed through She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina, which all felt like they brought something unique and memorable to the table. All in all, the LP isn't something I can see myself revisiting in my own free time (especially since a few more Kinks albums are coming up), but I'll probably show it to the kiddo someday for fun! Highlights: Victoria, Brainwashed, Australia, Shangri-La, Mr. Churchill Says, She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina

Listen... I get that this kind of music has an audience (and it's probably the exact same people who get genuine enjoyment out of true crime shows), but that audience does not include me. So many of the tracks on Murder Ballads (Song of Joy, Stagger Lee, O'Malley's Bar) make me feel gross, like I need to go take a shower to wash them out of my system. Of course, not all art is designed to make you feel good and I've enjoyed my fair share of downer albums (heck, I gave Elliott Smith's Either/Or four stars), but it just feels like Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds went a step too far here. PJ Harvey and Kylie Minogue ultimately saved Murder Ballads from getting a one star rating from me – their respective duets are genuinely compelling music, even if the subject matter isn't my favorite. I can commend the musicality on show throughout the LP as well, but it's generally hard to appreciate while my ears are being assaulted by some of the most vile lyrics and rank vocals I've ever heard in my life. Highlights: Henry Lee, Where the Wild Roses Grow

Portishead is another band that I've heard of in passing but have never actually gone out of my way to listen to (or knew much about, to be honest), so I was definitely curious to hear what they'd bring to the table on Third. At the same time, I'm often annoyed when the Generator gives me a mid/late-career album as my first exposure to an artist and that definitely rings true here. Then again, I've heard Beth Gibbons on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and Geoff Barrow on Meow the Jewels, so maybe that's all the context I need! /s I don't love Third, but I also don't hate it. The album sits in a bit of a weird spot where I can appreciate the experimentation of it, but also don't feel like all of the elements necessarily work together in complete harmony. I guess the main thing holding Third back for me is that Beth Gibbons' vocal/songwriting style just doesn't sound right over these kinds of instrumentals. That aside, I definitely found myself gravitating toward the more electronic-influenced cuts like Hunter, The Rip and We Carry On (which weirdly reminded me of Rollin' & Scratchin' by Daft Punk). Machine Gun is an interesting cut too, but I feel like its best moments are in its final minute. All that said, I’ve seen Third described as a sonic departure from Portishead’s first two albums and I’m actually quite excited to see how Beth Gibbons sounds in more of a trip hop or acid jazz setting (especially the former), because I can kind of picture it working. Crossing my fingers for the Generator to give me Dummy soon! Highlights: Hunter, The Rip, We Carry On, Machine Gun

It only took 32 days, but we’ve finally arrived at an album that I actually own a copy of! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve given The Fat of the Land a spin and I’m super into breakbeat at the moment, so I went full poggers when I saw that this LP as today’s assignment. Weirdly, I don’t honestly have that much to say about TFOTL. It’s just sick breaks with pretty memorable hooks! Every track is distinct, but also feels like it belongs alongside the other tracks. The album is also a tight 10 tracks and there really aren’t any stinkers in the bunch. I guess the only bit of negativity I feel about this project is that the songs are fairly long and generally pretty repetitive, so if you’re not feeling a specific idea, it’s going to get old real fast. I’m very used to repetitive dance music and even I felt like some of the tracks went on a smidge too long. That aside, The Fat of the Land is a great listen and a perfect time capsule for late 90s rave music. Keith Flint really shines here too - rest in peace, twisted firestarter. Highlights: Smack My Bitch Up, Breathe, Funky Shit, Narayan, Firestarter

This sort of thing seems to be happening a lot lately, but I found out about Fugees only a week or two ago because I wanted to see if Lauryn Hill ever released any music beyond Miseducation… and here we are. Part of me is a little salty that I didn’t get to experience Hill’s only solo album completely blind (since I’ve heard so many great things about it over the years), but The Score definitely wasn’t a bad place to start! In a lot of ways, this LP reminds me of Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… (which I got to hear/review a few weeks ago) – both could be described as East Coast hip-hop albums that are over an hour long, feature three core artists and tie tracks together with skits. The Score was also released only six months after OB4CL, which is a pretty wild coincidence. I don’t bring this up to disparage either album (there are probably loads of other rap albums I have yet to hear that fit the same criteria), but to paint a picture of how much I enjoyed The Score by comparison – it does so many of the same things, but in a way that I found more engaging and approachable. There’s so much chemistry to be found here, especially between Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean – they often trade off verses, double each other’s lines and take turns on hook duties, which just works. Pras definitely has a presence on The Score as well (and he’s never unwelcome), but it usually takes the form of a verse later in the track that helps break up the repetition of the other two MCs’ back-and-forth dynamic. Lauryn is an amazing vocalist and lyricist, which comes out in both her bars and hooks on this album. I didn’t realize Wyclef could rap prior to hearing The Score (electronic music is my background, so I’m mainly familiar with him through his collaborations with Avicii), but he’s got some great moments as well, excluding the poop bar on How Many Mics. He might even have the most insane flow on the entire project in verse three of Family Business – I had to relisten to that one a few times! The skits/interludes aren’t amazing in isolation, but they do a good job providing space between similar types of beats and introducing the next track. There’s actually quite a bit of cross-referencing across the project, which really makes it feel like a true ALBUM (as opposed to a loose collection of tracks, like many of the other LPs on this list are). If there’s one thing holding The Score back, it’s that it’s pretty long and the formula does get a little bit tiring by the end – there’s variety, but not enough to carry me through the full hour plus successive listens. It’s certainly an album I can see myself revisiting, but enough to warrant buying and putting it into regular rotation? Probably not, at least for now. Either way, The Score gets a strong recommendation from me – possibly one of the 5 best albums out of the 38 I’ve had to listen to for this challenge so far. Highlights: How Many Mics, Ready or Not, The Beast, Fu-Gee-La, Family Business, Killing Me Softly With His Song, The Mask, Cowboys, No Woman No Cry, Manifest

When I searched for Ryan Adams on Spotify to find this album, all I could think was “Bryan Adams has an evil twin and his biggest song is a cover of Wonderwall?” Fortunately, Heartbreaker is actually a decent listen. It’s a good reminder for me that country music can be great when it’s a vehicle for genuinely good songwriting/storytelling, rather than gimmicky songs about Fox News talking points and big green tractors. There were a fair few forgettable tunes on Heartbreaker and the harmonica bits sounded basically indistinguishable from track to track, but that’s the most negative thing I can really say about the album. I’m glad I got to hear it thanks to this challenge and there are definitely a few songs here that I can see myself coming back to! Highlights: To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High), Oh My Sweet Carolina, Damn Sam (I Love a Woman That Rains), Come Pick Me Up

As someone who only knows Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel through other artists’ covers of The Sound of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water, I was pretty excited to (for lack of a better phrase) finally get my S&G cherry popped with Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme! It’s also the duo’s first album on this list chronologically, so that made it doubly exciting. From the moment this album starts, it’s obvious that there’s enormous musical talent behind it. Scarborough Fair / Canticle really sets the tone for a project loaded with a wide array of instruments, engaging storytelling and occasionally dark themes. I can’t overstate just how instantaneously the first moments of the project hooked me. While I don’t think I thoroughly enjoyed any of PSRAT’s other tracks quite as much as the intro, the quality certainly doesn’t fall off! It’s hard for me to believe some of these songs came out in 1966 because they just feel so timeless. I literally listened to the album twice in a row because I felt like there was still so much more enjoyment to get out of it. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme isn’t QUITE a five star album for me, but it probably would have been in constant rotation if I were born 40 years earlier and electronic music didn’t exist. Looking forward to discovering more gems from Simon & Garfunkel before this challenge is finished! Highlights: Scarborough Fair / Canticle, Patterns, Homeward Bound, The Dangling Conversation, A Simple Desultory Philippic, A Poem on the Underground Wall, 7 O’clock News / Silent Night

I genuinely had no clue what I was getting into with this album because the Wikipedia page for it had no genre listed, the Spotify version of the album is named incorrectly and the band’s current most popular track has artwork that looks like approximately two dollars were spent on it. That said, Our Aim Is To Satisfy actually isn’t bad. As a first exposure to Red Snapper, it left a decent impression on me. There were a fair few highlights, like Keeping Pigs Together (which sounds like the theme to an early 2000s spy flick that doesn’t exist), the more ambient-leaning Belladonna and the jaw-dropping closer They’re Hanging Me Tonight. On paper, OAITS is an album I should love – trip hop with jazz influences, repetitive dance structures and occasional rap vocals is honestly right up my alley. Some of the songs just got so tiring so quickly or didn’t quite hook me as much as I hoped. While I can’t see myself coming back to this one in its entirety anytime soon, Our Aim Is To Satisfy got its hooks deep enough in my that I’m definitely curious to check out some more Red Snapper! They’ve got a new album that came out just a few months ago (and appears to be a bit more jazzy), so maybe I’ll start there. Highlights: Keeping Pigs Together, Some Kind Of Kink, The Rake, Alaska Street, Belladonna, They’re Hanging Me Tonight

I genuinely had no idea who The La's were until I loaded up their Spotify page and saw that 3/5 of their top tracks were different versions of There She Goes. At that point, I realized that they were the minds behind a song I've heard dozens of times – though admittedly, I'm much more familiar with the cover by Sixpence None The Richer than the original. Ironically, it looks like the original outperformed the SNTR version by only one spot on the UK Singles chart and didn't even come close to the cover on the Billboard Hot 100. I can't say I particularly enjoyed this album, but I also didn't hate it! It kinda just felt like background noise at a certain point, like the sort of thing I'd passively hum along to while walking around the grocery store and trying to decide whether I want to buy store brand or name brand applesauce. It did have a little bit more edge to it than I expected from the band that made There She Goes, but not enough to push it beyond a middle-of-the-road three star rating. One thing I will say is that the LP did pick up a bit toward the end, with Looking Glass being a truly surprising standout! I also liked All By Myself and Clean Prophet, but neither of those were part of the original album, so I can't let my opinion be swayed too far – it'd probably be the same rating regardless, though. Highlights: There She Goes, Freedom Song, Looking Glass, All By Myself, Clean Prophet

I had never heard of The The prior to this challenge, but of course it's a band that makes a genre with "post" in its name... classic. I honestly don't have a lot to say about Infected. It starts off somewhat strong with the title track, which is fun, energetic and even features a trumpet solo. While it doesn't necessarily take a complete nosedive after that point, it never quite hits the same highs again. I certainly didn't hate having it on, but tracks 2-8 all just kind of blended together into a sea of forgettable '80s mush. If there's one thing I really took away from this album, it's that I apparently have no idea what post-punk actually is. Infected just sounds like other '80s dance pop to me – in my head, it's much more similar to something like Depeche Mode than bona fide punk rock. I guess that's part of what makes it "post," but I'm still struggling to figure out where exactly the "punk" comes in. Highlights: Infected

When I reviewed Music for the Masses, I said I'd probably listen to it again when the Generator gave me Violator so that I could compare them side-by-side to figure out which one I like more. I fully expected that day to come months (or even years) down the road, but here we are... just 10 days later. I'm a man of my word though, so I listened to both albums back to back earlier today. To be completely honest, I think I enjoy MFTM a little more! Violator definitely has some stronger highlights (Personal Jesus is maybe the most unique Depeche Mode cut I've heard and Policy of Truth & Enjoy the Silence might be their catchiest tunes, full stop), but in terms of the flow, cohesiveness and average level of quality across all tracks, I reckon the earlier album has it in the bag. Violator is pretty stylistically similar to MFTM, so I don't have a lot else to say that I didn't already say in my review of that album. I guess I'd recommend actually checking out the bonus tracks on the deluxe version, since most of what's there genuinely rivals many of the nine tracks on the original LP. The songs are a bit more electronic-influenced, but if your tastes are anything like mine, that's probably not going to be an issue! Highlights: World In My Eyes, Sweetest Perfection, Personal Jesus, Enjoy the Silence, Policy of Truth, Clean

This album makes me want to slowly remove my glasses several dozen times while staring at my computer with an astonished expression and eventually join an anti-government rebellion with my hacker son to save the planet from an alien invasion. Highlights: When Will They Shoot?, The Predator, It Was A Good Day, We Had To Tear This Mothafucka Up, Who Got The Camera?

This album is how I imagine ABBA would sound if they forgot how to write good music and rebooted with a tone deaf Miley Cyrus as their lead singer. No disrespect to Marianne Faithfull – she had a distinct voice, made an audience for herself doing this kind of music and clearly didn’t have an easy life. At the same time, I’m glad this is her only album on the list because I don’t think I could take another batch of tracks like these (even if it’s as short as Broken English is). The one redeeming factor for me is that a couple of the tracks (Why’d Ya Do It, for example) have SOME compelling instrumental moments. However, they’re few & far between and don’t save the songs from being completely unreplayable in other regards. Never again. Highlights: N/A