Sep 04 2025
Green River
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Enjoyable southern blues rock, no real standouts for me. I suspect their other albums of the era probably had more to offer, this one was made so quickly after the last one... Still, perfectly fine, inoffensive music if a bit samey. I can see a lot of the influence this music has had on later artists.
2
Sep 05 2025
Cloud Nine
The Temptations
Really enjoyed this one. Lots of funk and soul, easy to vibe to. Simple, yet varied.
4
Sep 08 2025
The Queen Is Dead
The Smiths
I loved this one way more than I thought I would. I don't know why I'm so surprised in retrospect - on paper this album is a lot of the things that I like. For some unknown reason I was worried this one would be boring but there is a depth to this that simply demands your attention and definitely warrants another listen from me at some stage. What is at first glance generic post-punk by a band with the most bland name there could possibly be is full of rich musicality and bizarre insight.
5
Sep 12 2025
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
I wanted to enjoy this more. I like Led Zeppelin III and IV well enough (at least what I remember of them) and hoped this album would be another on that list. I'm not sure if their first album just isn't as refined, or maybe it caught me on an off day... but I found myself bored. After the first couple of songs it was a bit of a slog to get through. Don't get me wrong, the songs were all fine, it wasn't unpleasant - but it didn't feel particularly special or cohesive in any way worth noting. I may give it another go some time, and I'm certainly looking forward to some later offerings from Jimmy, Robert and the Johns when they come up.
2
Sep 13 2025
Automatic For The People
R.E.M.
I only knew one song off this album going in, and had in my head that R.E.M. were generally a bit depressing, maybe with the exception of "shiny happy people" - I only really knew a few of their hits. Imagine my surprise when the dreary, depressing R.E.M. sound I was familiar with came to life with all sorts of colours and tones, and frankly beautiful lyrical imagery throughout! This album is a masterclass in writing variety while maintaining a signature sound.
5
Sep 14 2025
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
John Lennon
After the first song I thought to myself "well the rest of the album must be better". Throughout the experience I continued to search for redeeming qualities. There are some, but not enough to overcome the fact that listening to this literally gave me a migraine. I'm sure there is some deep art in there, but to me it just seems pretentious at the expense of being enjoyable. I tried so hard to find a reason to rate it higher and just couldn't.
1
Sep 15 2025
Hunky Dory
David Bowie
This was great! I have a soft spot for life on mars in particular, but the album as a whole holds up well. It's catchy, varied, well written... You can tell he was writing from the piano for most of it, which I tend to like as a pianist. Songs just sound different when you write them from different instruments, even if those instruments aren't in the final recording at all. This wasn't quite masterpiece level for me, but a good time was had listening, and I'd definitely listen again.
4
Sep 16 2025
Either Or
Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith is not someone I had heard of previously, but his melancholic indie sound and deep lyrical themes really resonated with me. I also liked how unpolished it all sounded... As someone who wrestles with perfectionism in songwriting, I feel like this makes me feel better about things not having to sound exactly perfect. I will be listening to more of his stuff for sure.
5
Sep 17 2025
Haunted Dancehall
The Sabres Of Paradise
A hard listen. Nothing "bad" per se, but every song felt like it was just one idea - and even then it might not be all that different to the others. There is far better electronic music out there, and I really hope to find some on this list.
1
Sep 18 2025
Mott
Mott The Hoople
This was fun. Good, solid glam rock that I had a great time listening to.
4
Sep 19 2025
Eagles
Eagles
Solid offering by the eagles bringing country and rock together on an album that sounds consistently great start to finish and doesn't get boring.
4
Sep 20 2025
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
I adore this album. I'm not typically a listener of rap, hip-hop or RnB... and yet I cannot help but love this album from the bottom of my heart. Lauryn Hill delivers a "soft concept" album that is full of deep reflections, big questions and buckets of soul - exploring love, faith, parenthood, pain and hope. The composition is stunning, and her performance is captivating from the moment her name is called to no answer. To write so evocatively, compose with such precision and perform with such feeling is rare. I wish I understood more about where this album comes from, and indeed Lauryn herself. This is the second time I've heard this album and it won't be the last. A true masterpiece, the likes of which don't come around often.
5
Sep 21 2025
Achtung Baby
U2
This is a decent album, but definitely not my personal favourite U2 album, nor their most popular. It's got a lot of what makes U2 sound like U2 (specifically later U2), which is great if you're into that and I can't fault them for. I can't decide how I feel about U2 as a whole. At times I love it - I certainly can't deny the musicianship and passion in their music, and they've written some of the greatest songs of all time (including one of my own favourites). At other times U2 can feel a bit flat and boring to me... I'm not exactly sure why that is, but I suspect it's the tone and style. I feel that U2 are at their best when they're being strong and/or expressive (see City of Blinding Lights, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Miracle Drug, Pride and many more). Often I think the rest of their music can feel a bit flat. This album is mostly that - flatness. Not at all unpleasant, and certainly well written... Just missing a certain spark that engages me. That said, there are songs and moments across the album that earn some of that attention back, which is why I'm pushing the rating up to a 3. I'd have no qualms listening to it again, but I'm far more likely to just pick a few songs I liked rather than going start to finish on it.
3
Sep 22 2025
Sheer Heart Attack
Queen
Great fun, big glam/hard rock energy. This is where Queen really properly started becoming Queen, paving the way for the incredible A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. This album was great, and showcases a Queen that are finding their sound.
4
Sep 23 2025
Dummy
Portishead
Wow. I don't know what I expected when I saw that this was a more ambient album, but I was completely blindsided by what is one of my favourite albums to date. It's hauntingly beautiful, unsettling and intimate. One of my common criticisms of albums on here is that things sound boring or samey, but this has a simplicity that somehow defies that idea that simple or repetitive equals boring. It's so rich and full, even though a lot of the music involves just exploring one loop or idea. I cannot give this anything other than a 5, which it has earned completely.
5
Sep 24 2025
The Chronic
Dr. Dre
I thought long and hard about what I was going to rate this. I don't think any answer feels right to me and here's why.
This album is clearly (on some level, by some metric) good. On the one hand the beats are sick and the G-funk thing is really working.
...On the other hand, I find it almost unlistenable because every third word is something obscene. Even just writing this review without using any of their vulgar language was a difficult decision I had to make. I recognise that there's artistry in here, and if I pretend for a moment that this is a concept album where they're playing "characters" then I can sort of see what they're choosing to do creatively and engage with the vibe... But this rating is meant to be about my enjoyment of the album, and the lyrical content just isn't for me. I can only listen to two guys rapping about gratuitous sex, drugs and violence for so long before it just becomes uncomfortable. It's also one of the longer albums on this list so far, which doesn't help this problem.
Both Dre and Snoop went on to do amazing things, and while I can't deny that this album was hugely influential and launched them into greater things, I'm not rating those things. I'm rating this album, which feels to me like a very one-note slog - and that one note is "look at my massive schlong and my gun and my weed". I seriously reckon you could string together at random any combination of four particular profanities and the resulting lyric will be in here somewhere. Exactly which four profanities I'm referring to is left as an exercise for the reader.
One final thought: for people who claim to get so many women, this album has an awful lot of two dudes talking about slurping johnsons - and that's pretty gay.
2
Sep 25 2025
Sister
Sonic Youth
This was not my cup of tea. I can see that it's trying to play with noise and push some musical boundaries, but the simple fact is that I don't really care for it.
2
Sep 26 2025
Cut
The Slits
Well this was a weird one... Having read a few reviews I could see this was quite polarising, with some people touting it as innovative and influential, and others frustrated at the unpolished noise. Needless to say, I was worried.
To my delight, I found that I liked it! I can't see myself seeking it out to listen to again probably, but it was an experience I'm glad I had once, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared, and if someone else put it on I wouldn't object at all.
3
Sep 27 2025
A Love Supreme
John Coltrane
I listened to this on my way to work this morning, and didn't quite gel with it - which felt disappointing. I used to play sax many years ago and Coltrane is a legend... I had high expectations that were not met. I was all ready to pick apart the form and enjoy each player's solo and do all the usual melodic/chordal jazz things, and instead what I got was none of that. There's no structure, no system, no regular changes... just 33 minutes of through-composed modal/free jazz. In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised... the guy was a pioneer. I could tell it had some real raw emotional gold I wasn't seeing just under the surface, and certainly all the players have technical chops out the wazoo, but despite that I just didn't... get it? Connect with it? More than that, I couldn't work out what on earth I was going to rate this thing.
So I did something I haven't yet done for any other album on this list: reserved my judgement for the time being, and listened a second time. First I did a bit of research. I wanted to understand - even on a surface level - what it was supposed to be. I had no idea that the last movement had words! On my second listen, I could hear the motifs more clearly; the deep acknowledgement of the love of the almighty, the screeching wails of a sinner desperately crying out to his lord... during that last movement I had the words of his prayer in front of me, following along with the saxophone as it called out to God.
I am so glad I took the time to dig a little and listen again. This is a true masterpiece, that just needed me to pay closer attention to reveal its depth.
5
Sep 28 2025
The Fat Of The Land
The Prodigy
Didn't know punk electronica was a thing, but it makes sense... I've listened to this album once before some years ago, and my reaction is largely unchanged: it's not bad, the amen-break-style backbeat throughout makes it all feels a bit repetitive and samey, and I can't work out whether "change my pitch up, smack my bitch up" is misogyny or just a fun way of saying "I'm doing this, let's goooo".
I will say that starting this one immediately off the back of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" - a transcendent free jazz odyssey that is a cry to God himself as his saxophone prays and preaches... and suddenly being hit with "SMACK MY BITCH UP" was a weird time. I feel like I should be learning something about perspective from this, but I really have no idea what.
3