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.

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.

Really enjoyed this one. Lots of funk and soul, easy to vibe to. Simple, yet varied.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This was fun. Good, solid glam rock that I had a great time listening to.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I really need to remember to look at some basic info on each album before I put it on. I listened once, and while some of the songs were enjoyable enough, the whole thing was pretty incoherent and the choice to put some of the best stuff at the end baffled me. Once I realised side A was a concept thing and side B was just individual songs I knew I had to listen again. Thankfully it's one of the shorter albums on this list, but I'm very glad I did! Understanding what it was supposed to be opened me up to enjoying it more. Side A was interesting, if a little weird. "Save the Life of My Child" was a standout, but I felt pretty neutral about the rest of it - it was fine, but nothing I really loved. Side B is full of bangers. I'd listen to just side B any day. Having read some of these reviews, I know this album seems to be pretty polarising... Half the listeners think Paul Simon is a genius (which on some level I can't deny), and the other half think he's pretentious (which is also hard to deny) and the album is rubbish. I personally think the album as a whole struggles because it's trying to be too clever... but when they're just doing good music, it's really good music. This places my rating somewhere between the coveted 5/5 and a lousy 2. Also I know this will be an unpopular opinion, but this version of "Mrs. Robinson" is way better than The Lemonheads' cover. Sorry. The Lemonheads' version is fine, but it just doesn't live up to the original. On the other hand, The Bangles' cover of "A Hazy Shade of Winter" is an absolute banger and far outstrips the original - although that's not to say the original isn't good.

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.... I just don't get this one. Especially the 10 minute tracks at the start and end. I guess technically it's clever? Well made? I just simply didn't enjoy it.

I know this is a weak-ass review, but the truth is I got bored. I listened to the whole thing, but just felt bored and confused - which sucks, because I usually find avant garde stuff interesting. Meh.

I don't have much to say about this album, but it was perfectly fine. Good even! Worthy of some praise, but not a stand-out to me.