Fells somehow even more bland and pandering than the Springsteen he's ripping off, buuuuut I can hear a lot of sounds that probably inspired bands I like today, so he gets a bonus star.
Very Radiohead meets Coldplay. Really shines as background music you actually don't want to pay attention to.
Better every listen
Who's this drunk mumble rapper trying to rip off Leonard Cohen?
Beats were good. But the rest is just...generic trap. It increasingly feels like a "1001 albums that have been popular in Britain over the years" list.
Run of the mill classic rock. Some of it is pretty good when I'm in the mood, but mostly I just don't know what is supposed to be particularly good...besides Baba O Riley.
Kind of a slow burn for me. Definitely just felt very 80s pop at first, then realized it was very much the original of that sound gave me some appreciation. All in all just sorta grew on me. Super solid.
Just.......no. I don't need Songs from Underground.
Also, I get it's going for grunge, but dissonant does not mean out of tune.
They're not wrong. It is music. There are sounds and instruments and rhythms. But it's what is playing when you walk out of a coffee shop and say, "oh yeah. There was music playing". Legitimately, I've listened through 3 times and I'm like 95% sure it had lyrics.
I would give it a 3 in my normal life, but the list demands more.
Every song would be better with no keyboard solo. I'd happily take banger 2 minute songs over these self indulgent 6 minute versions.
It's just....... captivating. Somehow it makes 2 15 minute adventures feel like one 5 minute song.
Can definitely feel the Wayne shorter vibes as they start exploring a bit more free jazz-fusion type ideas.
I mean. It's 70s Brit punk. What more do I really need in my life.
Really foreshadows all the emocore of the early 2000s...which was 90% of my teenage personality. As a more, shall we say, discerning adult, it's a bit harder to stay in it and not get blown out by the drone. But I'm somehow still here for it.
Before this I had heard of the name Blondie, but that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge. Then I saw all the names of the songs on this album. All the hits. All bangers all the time, even the ones I had never heard before.
That opening synth, though! To whom did Dre sell his soul to be a Synth Lord?
Just all around incredible. Completely changed the entire world of music. It's still definitely not as good as 2001.
Far from music I actually like, it somehow still has a vibe. Her voice is amazing enough I think she can just do whatever she wants and I'll pay attention to it. Nevertheless, half an hour of old country covers just doesn't seem like it's worthy of the list, and I am again very confused about the reason this album was picked over so many better, more impactful ones.
I appreciate that if I heard it in 82 it would have felt.....less dated? But today, to me, it just feels like what you'd get if a 14yr old kid opened up garage band and said what's a key-tar. Nothing really interesting or exciting about it. Sorry.
Feels like a worse Bob Dylan, and it's interesting cause he got screwed by a record company?
So good! It sounds a lot like most late 80s pop/funk/jazz fusion stuff, and it should, because it's incredible and inspired all the kids who were 10 in 1973. Absolutely hasn't aged. So subtle and smooth with all the instrumental bits. None of the solos feel selfish or even wanted, just what the vibe needed at the time. Groovy, groovin', grove.
Really cool example of what I want from the list. I wouldn't say I liked it in the way I normally like music, but it was neat and interesting and felt like it would be foundational to a lot of Latin stuff. Maybe it's also the novelty.
If you asked me yesterday, I would have said I was a decent pink floyd fan. But this....I guess it's fine. Pretty good listening. Honestly doesn't excite me in any sorta way. Wish you were here is obviously a good track. Idk. White noise, I guess.
A good edit for me would be to have Crazy Diamond 1-3, throw the other 6 parts in the trash, and maybe write another 4 songs that did anything different. It just gets real repetitive real fast after that first chorus finally resolves.
Also, have a cigar is deeply bad. Dislike on all levels.
It's fine. Mostly pretty good, but a few really bad ones being it down as a whole.
Honestly rolled my eyes when I saw this, but these are banger songs. They're definitely way popular and she gets written off as a pop artist, but she's really good. I think they're also new enough they still really suffer from being overplayed, but as my fiance likes to say, songs get overplayed for a reason....
Look. It's super good, and I love it, but it's just not quite there for me. Funk without being funky. Jazz without being jazzy. Idk. I want more fun and fresh and dancy. Oooorrrr more jazz and technical and complex. It's just....not quite there for me and I can't explain why. Maybe I just think Herbie is better than this.
Just bangers all the way down. 29 minutes of raw, unfiltered energy.
But like....where's the drop!?
It definitely feels ahead of its time, and I don't doubt it has been immensely influential, but man is it hard to listen to! It's not chill enough to be actually ambient and background noise but it's way too boring and bland to be fun and dancy.
As beats go, these are pretty banging. You can kinda groove, but they're not overwhelming or steal your attention. But that feels like exactly the problem: they're beats, not songs. It feels incomplete. They'd be super great as background for a hip hop album or like, the intro to a Muse song.
Yes it's relentlessly poppy and commercial, but that's what it's supposed to be. It's very good at what it wants to be good at. I also don't think you can argue against that scale of global success.
Nope!
Sooo, what I'm hearing is that Scotland invented grunge in 1985.
It's a lot of good, early, raw "rock" sounds that definitely moved the genre forward away from more pop stuff. I wouldn't say I enjoy it, but I respect it.
First impression was that it was just more ambient electronica garbage, but quickly realized what it actually was: a masterpiece of sample mixing. Really cool and interesting. It's nice to find an album that's the opposite of most, where it doesn't really work as background, but definitely rewards closer attention.
Never listened to any Dead before.
Pretty banging. I could definitely spend a decade or 2 following these guys around the country. If you told me they were a bluegrass band formed in montana in 2016 I'd absolutely believe it. It's just that good, folksy, bluesy timeless sound.
It sounds exactly like everything from the early 2000s.....10 years early. Feels kind of washed out and bland today, but is still sneaky good when you really sit and pay attention to it.
A lot of it just kinda sounds like impressions or almost soundscapes. Obviously the 10s tracks do, but even the longer ones. I don't feel like they really take me anywhere or change at all the way a normal song would. Generally boring and dated, but I do see the influence of it, and I guess it isn't bad.
Obviously South Side is a banger.
She's so incredible. Pulling on so many different sounds and influences with what is essentially just a singer over some chord changes. How do you say sad in every genre?
As a complete, thought out work of art this is amazing. Absolutely one of the better full-album arcs of music I've heard. And I do appreciate the bookending steel strings.
Certainly nothing memorable, just felt like 1/3, maybe 1/4 as good as what I'm used to hearing with his voice.
Live these guys. Absolutely an essential listening album
As always, the skits just kinda take me out of it, but the music is absolutely top notch. And, while it's not quite at the level of ATLiens or Speakerboxx, it's still way better than rubber soul.
This is a weird one, and I have to keep reminding myself that it's from 1994, and the reason it sounds so much like a lot of things from the mid-200s is that it clearly inspired and influenced it. All in all, I think I'm here for it? It's just a bit too engaging and out there to be truly background coffee shop noise, but it's not really listenable or "easy" enough to be truly enjoyable. I think it just truly lives in that trip-hop, trance, chill electronica space that it was clearly designed for.
I do also really appreciate the variety of flavors going on here, all the way from jazz flute to reggae to noir film score. A few tracks were giving me strong Dune and 300 vibes.
Just kinda nothing.
But like.....what else is about it? Yeah she's a good singer but the only reason this isn't all immediately forgettable is because it's kind of bad?
I would refuse a Grammy too, if I knew I didn't deserve it.
Was he Billy Eilash's voice coach or something?
Look. It's not good. But it is always hard to argue against wildly popular things, even if their popularity doesn't really last. These are far from timeless sounds, buuuuut they definitely completely changed the face of music. There is undoubtedly some historical significance there, regardless of how problematic her life and treatment was/is. For at least a few years before she was the poster child for exploitation/manipulation/abuse, she was the face of pop music, and that means something.
Maybe I'm amazed, but maybe it's just pretty mid.
They mostly just feel like all the songs he had started writing before the breakup, and he wanted to rush and get them out while he was relevant. Didn't bother actually polishing them all, and it suffers for it.
Obviously Maybe I'm Amazed is amazing.
Another one I probably would not have ever heard without this project. Obviously I wish I spoke Portuguese, but it's still pretty dang enjoyable stuff.
Today I learned Dire Straits has a song other than Money For Nothing. That song is not called Walk On By.
Saw the album and rolled my eyes at more boring, bland, nothing classic rock. Was pleasantly surprised at a few random sounds that came out. Learned the title and artist of a song I've been mis-hearing my whole life.
Yep. No impressions. No nothing. Why did the entire rock genre spend 15 years writing the exact same songs over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over?
+1 for Saxophone.
Never heard any Bjork before. Came into this album with a fair amount of negative bias, and within 2:00 of Stonemilker that was completely overturned.
It's all absolutely incredible, artistic, impressive music, but that sort of emotional weight starts to wear on you over the course of the whole album. It's not fun, poppy, dancy time, and it doesn't want to be. Definitely can't just leave it on repeat in the background, but that's more because of how much it rewards close attention.
Love the Gorillaz sample to open the album.
I almost want to call it modern soul? It's a really cool mix of a lot of sounds. Big fan.
Pretty solid. I don't think it's his best.
Oh great. 80s brit-pop. Gross.
I don't know if I'd even call them skits, but it's a nice change that the little interludes feel so at home, actually pulling you into the music instead of distracting from it.
Absolutely top tier. No doubt it's one of my best 20 of all time. You just don't see a lot of cohesive, full album narratives, let alone ones this well done, with songs that are also capable of standing on their own.
Wasn't impressed on the first listen, but really came to respect the impressive breadth of music on here. Pretty much running the gamut of musical genres.
Also, banger album art.
Look. I get that's it's historically important, but I was utterly blown away by how bad it was and how little I wanted to listen to it. Before today I honestly thought I liked run dmc, and now I'm questioning everything. I get that 80s hip hop has not aged well and is always a tough listen, but this was truly bad. Zero interest in ever hearing it again.
Never really heard the Police before, other than their big 3 or 4 songs. It was fine. I'd call it a pleasant surprise. Nothing very life-changing, pretty generic, but I have a feeling it was other bands copying them more than the other way around. Really enjoyed the titular track.
I would die for the flying burrito brothers
Thanks to advances in modern science, we can now make Springsteen 80% more bland, boring, and unenjoyable.
Never heard this before. Only cee-lo I knew was fuck you. Obviously he did a ton of work with Outkast before this, and that sound definitely comes through. He is definitely a soul machine.
I'll go with ....better than expected? I know it's one of those albums everybody knows and raves about, but it's still classic rock. Took a few tries to get over that hurdle, but it wasn't terrible.
I saw Alice Cooper and immediately thought there would be nothing of value. That was a mistake. There were a few lovely moments of West Side Story covers.
With a name like the Jimi Hendrix experience, I assume he is the lead singer? Whoever that lead guitarist is, man they are incredible. I hope they have a long and prolific career ahead of them.
"Noise" rock has never felt like such an adequate description of something....
Obviously there's some all time great songs here, but a lot of it just feels kitschy and silly and weird.
I just don't see the appeal here. Every song, musically, and lyrically, just bleeds right on into the next one over and over again. And it's not good music, either. It's incredibly simple, repetitive chords under "oh no I'm sad, let's go murder the woman who made me sad, oh no I'm still sad"
A bunch of 16 year olds singing covers. It's basically kidzbop.
You had me at harpsichord.
They are a band I always forget is amazing. In my head they're just some random folk duet, but the music is secretly very diverse. It's subtle and honestly pretty complex in a sneaky sort of way.
Made me think of a lot of generic late 70s stuff. But I have to be charitable and imagine that's just the sound of the times or even them inspiring later bands, not them just being copycats. I was also impressed by the general breadth of sound they managed within that framework. All in all a really good listen. Except for whatever the heck that last stupid "thank you" track was.
It's just so hard for me to enjoy just about anything from this era. I appreciate he's important historically, but it is really not for me.
I don't know how they do it. They just feel timeless and incredible, but somehow it's so clearly just that beach boys, 50s, California vibe.
I guess it's on the list because....blowjobs? It's definitely not good or interesting musically.
Like all the doors music, I find this incredibly bland, boring, and self-indulgent
At first, I was thinking it was pretty boring 80s trash, but somehow it was still enjoyable. I almost felt like I was talking myself into hating it. As the album went on, I realized there's some actual depth and complexity to it. It's just buried in the mix a little on the earlier tracks and comes out more further in.
It is really nice to see this on here. I was originally a bit put off by the fact that this list has no classical music, but I guess it gets weird with where does a "Symphony" become an album. Buuut, there's just something so enjoyable about the full orchestra that is severely lacking in modern music.
Also, there are a number of reviews about this being a compilation album, and I wholeheartedly disagree. If anything, I would say it's a cover album, but realistically it's just Ella taking on an absolutely massive project to bring light to music that has inspired her over the years. I think it just looks weird to or modern eyes to see the actual songwriters get credit on the cover, when today they're buried deep in the credits, if the rights aren't bought outright behind the scenes by the labels themselves.
It's punk. But funk. What now do I want on my life?
Perfect cool vibes on a rainy, dreary day. Otherwise, very generic, kinda eclectic/fusion sounds. Nothing really stands out.
Like anything experimental, there are some hits and misses. This one has more good than bad, and really did feel ahead of its time.
Absolutely one of my favorites. As with all skits, the battle scene still kinda takes me out of it, but it is pretty well done and sounds like a fight. The rest of it is definitely some of the best the lips have to offer.
Just feel like Heart of Gold and Old Man stand head and shoulders above the rest of the album. But they also stand head and shoulders above most music that's ever been written, so what are you gonna do?
It's very late 90s, solo female music. But I'm kinda here for it. There's a lot of nice little touches that definitely makes it a step above a lot of the other names of that time.
It could just be the nature of soul, but it doesn't really sound dated. Idk if maybe that genre just hasn't really changed much over the years. It also is just good quality music, even if the only song ever written is "baby I miss you"
Just really wasn't feeling it. Maybe it's because spotify only had half the album and it came the day after another soul album, but I was just incredibly sick of hearing "I miss you" sung over and over and over and over again
Was really not enjoyable at all. So forgettable I wasn't even always sure the album was playing.
Expected absolute bangers, but it turns out of youve heard one Offspring song you've heard them all. Frankly disappointed.
Every time I see Rolling Stones I roll my eyes a bit, but this was good. I think the problem is that their more popular stuff is kinda crap, and a lot of the music that was a bit edgy for the time is actually pretty neat and interesting and has held up a lot better.
I legitimately don't think they've ever written a bad song, and I am loving getting to listen through more than just the 10-15 I already know from them. Obviously "America" and "Mrs. Robinson" are all time, but hazy shades of winter was a revelation!
I don't think it's their best, but obviously B-dubs doesn't make anything bad.
It's a bad version of a bad genre
Not really my genre, but clearly ahead of its time a bit, and honestly kinda neat.
To my modern ears it sounds a bit generic, definitely not bad. They clearly pre-empted a lot of early 2000s music. I'll go with...decent enough.
Nope. Nope. Nope. Absolutely one of the worst ways to spend my time. Would give zero stars if I could.
No white, 90s, electronica band has any business being this incredibly fun and funky.
Just because it's experimental doesn't mean I have to listen to it.
You could really hear the inluence of a lot of very famous bands, but none of it really sounded new or original. Don't get me wrong, it was good and I'm a fan, but I don't really know what I'm supposed to have been getting out of this album.
I'm in a weird spot here. I don't particularly love it, but I don't dislike it. I can hear where it would have been amazing in 1980 and I bet a lot of the bands I love would have loved it.
Iconic.
It's like everything bad about classic rock all rolled into one place with no redeeming qualities.
While it's not their best, it's still super solid, and picture book is an all-time great. Feels a bit like a stepping stone album toward what they would accomplish.
Absolutely essential listening. The samples and covers of these songs have echoed throughout the history of music.
The Metallica songbook is just a series of How To Play Guitar exercises for 4th graders to learn their first 5 notes, where half the quarter notes are triplets and "advanced" musicians play it double time.
I didn't realize Nick cave was capable of writing a good song.
I'm so often confused by the inclusion of these albums that are entirely covers. But I just have to keep reminding myself that's how it worked back then, and you just choose the one that has the best overall versions rather than 20 distinct albums by different artists, which may or may not just be singles. Either way, she's great, and these are all amazing songs.
They're fine. Dave Grohl does his job. Couple good ones, but it's mostly noise.
It's like a bad talking heads. Not terrible, but certainly not anything fantastic
So freaking good. Absolute classic.
Another example of the kind of stuff I'm here for. I never works have gone looking for African 90s jazz, but I'm super glad I found it
A lot of it sounds very quintessential 90s, but overall kinda kooky and eclectic. I'm definitely here for it.
While very much of its time and sounding perhaps a bit dated, I find it absolutely incredible. I'm amazed how something, at face value, can be this simplistic, light, and airy, but at the same time hide some real complexity and richness. How does something so deep feel so easy?
Plus it's got great art.
Obviously, you have to have Bohemian Rhapsody on here. It's one of the greatest masterpieces of musical history. That being said, the rest of the album is distinctly mid, especially by Queen standards. '39 was a revelation, but otherwise it was all bland noise.
Very 90s and clearly dated, but it's fun and I can definitely hear where a lot of electronic music since has been inspired.
Definitely a top-10 all time album.
They're really good, and I don't know if they've written a bad song, but none of their best stuff is here. The stuff that is all feels a bit forgettable.
This was really cool. I don't particularly know why we keep getting so much of these spa sound albums, but this one was better than most in that realm. Maybe it just caught me in the right day, but I absolutely found myself just getting swept along by it, cool and calm.
