29 is still 20 Somethings, right? I still belt every lyric when I play this album, it’s Solana’s best work by far. Lord knows how many times I’ve played “Love Galore” and “The Weekend” on repeat
Never been much of an Elvis guy beyond “Mystery Train” and a couple other classics. Although it’s cool to see where so many people draw influence from (I definitely heard a little bit of Tyler Childers in “I’d rather listen to Chuck Berry.
https://open.spotify.com/track/3YvIWQbOrEEAxCE1lktLpC?si=C_SadP1_R1ac1l_YyISl5Q Great follow up listen.
There are some absolute rippers on here (“You Took the Words…” and “All Revved Up…” are classics) and there is some absolute dogshit. I had fun listening to it
Crazy good guitar riffs all over the place, but this as a whole didn’t hold my attention. Too many sprawling songs and no direction, I need something a little more direct.
One of my favorites from 2019 (top 5 of the year), and one that I return to a lot. It kept me lots of company during COVID lockdown, mostly because it was one of the last records I bought before March 2020.
Kiwanuka is British, but he carries his political and musical influences on his sleeve, simultaneously channeling Nina Simone and John Lewis, and "Hero" is easily one of most important and powerful political songs of the century because of these factors. It's a song that feels like its melody and chorus could go on forever and ever, like the cycle of racial violence in the US. But it comes crashing to a halt, making way for the instrumental grief (with the most beautiful choral "oooohs" I've ever heard) of the intro on "Hard to Say Goodbye."
The first half of the album is great, but I think the second half elevates the final product to an incredible album deserving of any best of the 21st century list. "Final Days" into "Solid Ground" into "Light" and its haunting ending is god tier album structuring. It's a beautiful self-portrait of an amazing artist.
I listened to a lot of Metallica when I was younger and full of teenage rage, so this felt like a less-than-pleasant trip down memory lane.
Metal isn't my cup of tea anymore, I find it repetitive and I need some more performance from my vocalists. That being said, I see the importance of this album and I appreciate its technical strengths (especially the guitar and drums). The title track is a lot of fun and I still dig "Leper Messiah."
I also didn't realize how big of fans of Bowie these guys are/were.
I've never listened to a full Iron Maiden album before, and this is not the Iron Maiden I'm familiar with, so this was an interesting listen. It wasn't a life-changing experience for me, but like the Elvis album, it was cool seeing where so many artists have pulled influence from. "Phantom of the Opera" and "Transylvania" was a great 1-2 punch. I doubt I'll ever revisit this one.
I feel a bit befuddled as to why this one is on the list... I enjoyed and still enjoy 'Only By the Night' when it first came out, and I consider that to be an album a billion times better than this one. I don't really see why critics like this album so much. It is fine. It is a good rock album. It is nothing revolutionary.
I think KOL are a band that are actually served by overproduction on finished products, which seems to be the main difference between this and 'Only By the Night.' I give it a "meh."
This fucking rips. A near perfect album. So many rich and diverse soundscapes throughout it never gets boring. Mason was fucking jamming to it, too.
Vocals kind of ruined this one for me, but I enjoyed the music. I see the appeal, though.
It seems like every album after this one was Coldplay doing an imitation of themselves in an attempt to get another pop hit like "Yellow" (maybe not Rush of Blood, although that one had "Clocks"). I find this to be their most genuine album where they wear their influences on their sleeve. Great from beginning to end!
I enjoyed this well enough, although the production on some songs left a lot to be desired -- "Redondo Beach" sounds like some of the kid's music I play for Mason. I really loved the first track, but was left wanting more over the album.
I plan on relistening since there is such an emphasis on the lyrics and it deserves more attention. I'm always fascinated by the intersection of music and literature and have thought a lot about poetry in a musical space. I always think of Gilbert Scott-Heron, but Smith brings something unique to that conversation.
Trip-hop has all the elements I should like but I can never get all the way into it. Portishead is cool, but this sounds like the music playing in every bad club scene ever from any movie in the mid 90s featuring a club scene. Hell, I’m pretty sure there’s a scene in Batman Forever where Massive Attack is playing… while they’re in a club.
Oops, I was gonna complain about the lack of hip hop so far and then we get hit with this classic. We’ve all heard ‘Under Construction,’ but Missy feels a lot freer on this one. She and Timbaland are just so good together, but these songs don’t feel as timeless as anything on ‘Under Construction.’
I do think it’s weird that Busta is the first voice we hear on her debut album, but overall a great feature list. Da Brat is underrated. Lil Kim, Ginuwine, and Aaliyah all on the same album is nuts! Great stuff.
When I was younger I listened to the Pretenders all the time, but never their albums. I think this might be the first time I listened to this all the way through. I love Chrissie Hynde’s voice and the sound of the band as a whole. I don’t think they’re a great album band, though. Their hits are their hits for a reason.
“Brass in Pocket” still bangs.
When I was young, my dad played me this album and presented it as one of the greatest compositions ever. I was pretty amazed at first listen, mostly because I think it was my first conscious understanding of the link between storytelling and music. It’s a great concept album, although I find it quite pretentious music nowadays.
I still love the bluesy jam on “Money,” the keys on “Any Colour You Like,” and the backing vocals on most of the tracks. ‘Wish You Were Here’ is a much better album, though.
If you’ve never played this album while watching the Wizard of Oz, you’re robbing yourself of a fun trip.
Ride is the first name on this list I was unfamiliar with, but it turned out to be a great listen. I really enjoyed hearing some of the influences on contemporary bands I like. Shoegaze is a genre I love deeply but never spend enough time on. Dunno how often I'll return to them, but I'm very interested to hear what else they've created.
It's pretty great that you can hear how Scottish these guys are during each track. I'm also a sucker for album art that is made by comic book artists -- Kaare Andrews is a legend.
Never heard these guys before (to my knowledge), but I mostly dig their sound. It didn't hold my attention throughout, unfortunately. Certainly an album that came out in 2004.
Another album that was presented to me when I was young as the pinnacle of music. Except this one holds up!
The harmonies are the most attractive feature of any CSN or CSNY project, they just do it like no other. But as far as opening tracks go, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” is up there with the best.
Looking forward to our inevitable ‘Deja Vu’ review.
Growing up, my brother and I would watch the 'Rust Never Sleeps' concert film all the time, and it's probably why I enjoy live albums so much. It also made me appreciate Neil Young as much as I do.
Not my favorite Neil Young album, but one that has some of my favorite Neil Young songs. I could listen to "Cinnamon Girl" and "Down By the River" on repeat and probably never get tired.
It feels like a very long album for just 7 songs, but nonetheless a very complete collection.
I’ve always thought this was a boring album, and I still find it very boring.
Re: statement from a couple weeks ago of me not being a metal guy
My exposure to Pantera is limited to Sandy Cheeks’s workout routines and the couple songs my dad uploaded to my iPod when I was 12.
This was an aggressively fine choice. Good but nothing great.
Dave Matthews and his acoustic cover of "Angel From Montgomery" is actually responsible for introducing me to John Prine (he has a wonderful cover of "Down By the River," too). I was absolutely astonished by the songwriting, and then listening to the album in full showed me Prine's pen is unmatched. It also taught me not all country music is bad.
Prine's topics are timeless -- "Sam Stone" is one of the most important songs of the 70s, in my opinion. "Paradise" is, to my knowledge, one of the only songs that commits Western Kentucky's huge coal mining industry to history (fun fact: it was and still is bigger than coal in EKY).
I think Prine's voice can wear on the listener, but that's not the focal point of the album, and it's a collection that grows on me every time I replay it.
This shit was fun, maybe not life changing, though. Jazz rock isn’t something I listen to enough but some great songs here. I kinda expected a blue shell to hit me out of nowhere, though — “Birdland” sounds like a song playing during a Mario Kart race.
And if ya don't knoooow, now ya know
Fuck, I love this album. Biggie has never been my favorite 90s rapper, especially out of the East Coast, but, damn, every track is great. I think saying this album too long is a cop-out; there is not a single track that you could leave off because they're all 10s that a larger story about his life. Major hits aside, you've got "Things Done Changed," "The What," and "Everyday Struggle" on this one, all songs that really speak to Biggie's promise and lyrical talents as an artist. We've got a lot of topical range throughout, too, that gives the album a lot of replay value.
A lot of great diversity on the production side, too. Yes, D*ddy, is there, but more importantly DJ Premier and Lord Finesse(!). I find it to be the only Biggie album that doesn't feel over-produced because of the small list of producers involved. Maybe it's got some of the flash that made Diddy popular in the 90s, but there's still that East Coast grime on the shiny suits. Plus, the fucking samples are insane. Production used to be such an art, piecing songs together through the inclusion of this snare hit from this song here, and this bass line from this song here, and so on. "Warning" samples three of the best funk/soul artists to create one of the best rap songs of the era, which is only the result of pure genius and a master craftsman. Highly recommend looking through the sample list and exploring some of those sounds.
What I love about 90s hip-hop albums outside of Wu-Tang Clan is how few featured artists there were. After 'The Infamous' by Mobb Deep, we start to see that change a bit, and the late 90s there are a lot of features on albums. But this whole album is just Biggie rapping his ass off with one dope feature from Meth, who was arguably just as big (no pun intended) as Biggie at the time.
If you don't know much about Biggie, his life, or his music, I would highly recommend watching a documentary/docuseries on him. The one by Netflix is good (I Got A Story to Tell), but they're all about the same. I've always found hearing his mom talk about his life to be really special.
This was fun. "Alright" was the only song I had previously heard from this album, shoutout How I Met Your Mother. It's crazy how much this influenced the early Arctic Monkeys, whom I love. The jam on "Sofa (Of My Lethargy)" was pretty crazy, defintely a standout for me. I'll be back to this one.
‘Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness’ and ‘Siamese Dream’ are two albums I consider life changing and worthy of a list like this. Every song is a fucking kicker on this one. No skips, as the youth might say.
Minus one star for Billy Corgan.
I've gone back and forth about this one, but I think I overall liked it. I'm a huge fan of the blues, so I might be a little biased. I am having to alter my perceptions of heavy metal a bit and do some learning, thanks to this list. I would in no way classify this or Zeppelin as heavy metal -- it's just blues rock, in my opinion. Maybe it's just that no one understands what genre is or means (*insert Simpsons "No it's the children who are wrong" meme here)
I think the disconnected aspects of the songs are a bit hard for the listener to fully appreciate the final product. The mixing is pretty terrible but I think that also contributes to what they were trying to accomplish with this sound.
"Doctor Please" was my favorite track. The midpoint of the song kicks and I went back to the song as a whole a couple of times just because of the jam.
I wish I had not wasted part of my morning listening to this. The only reason I know about Spacemen 3 is thanks to Vinyl Me, Please’s (RIP) record of the month version of a Spiritualized album. That release featured some liner notes bragging about how the frontman of Spiritualized was in a group called Spacemen three, then spent the majority of those liner notes talking about Spacemen 3 instead of the boring album I had just bought and was listening to. I remember thinking “maybe Spacemen 3 is better than Spiritualized,” and the answer is “no, it’s equally boring.” I’m already upset because I’m sure that will be on this list, too.
I honestly couldn’t tell music was playing at some points, this album was just such a quiet, unimportant drone in the background.
My review ends here, because enough of my day was wasted thinking about this album. I want me time back, Mr 1001 Albums To Listen To Before You Die Man.
So many great songs on this album outside of “Killing Me Softly” and “Ready or Not.” Even without those two, “Zealots,” “Fu-Gee-La,” and “The Score” would make this a 5/5.
Unpopular opinion, but I really dislike the cover of “No Woman No Cry,” but the fact that the Fugees have funded a soup kitchen in Kingstown, Jamaica by crediting the owner as the original writer is awesome. And then “Manifest” comes in to save the album. Beautiful stuff.
I'm admittedly a Damon Albarn hater, and it's nice to know that the Oasis bros share my opinion of him.
That being said, I like Blur regardless of Damon's involvement. I discovered them backwards when they reunited for 'The Magic Whip' in 2015. I think I heard 'Leisure' next, then 'Parklife,' my least favorite of the three.
I appreciate the concept behind the album and enjoy some songs, but there are also some complete misses for me. The title track sounds like a song that plays at the end of a Bob's Burgers episode. "End of a Century" absolutely rips.
This album was very sleepy and lost my interest pretty quickly. The lead singer uses that strained, breathy delivery that he tries to make sound effortless, but it feels unnatural and nasally. The songs are very repetitive and it feels like they’re trying to imitate US acts that they love without the cultural capital to actually do so. I don’t think I’ll be back to this one.
Overall, this is not for me, although I did enjoy the instrumentation. It sounds like what 'This Is Spinal Tap' was making fun of with "Listen to the Flower People."
Jealous of those hearing this for the first time. It’s hard for me to separate my love for Sinnead the person and Sinnead the artist without sounding sycophantic. Maybe not perfect but an amazing album.
Wow, I can’t believe Don Henley and co. would blatantly plagiarize Frank Ocean’s “American Wedding.”
0.5/5, thievery will not be tolerated, but the guitar solo on the title track adds on half a star.
God, Keith Moon was such a legend. The drums on each song are just undeniably incredible. RIP.
Overall, this is a fun album but ultimately forgettable besides the title track and "The Kids Are Alright." I think the length makes it a bit harder to fully appreciate.
I fell for the old "judge a book by its cover" trap and expected something really astounding based off of the album art. Thoroughly disappointed. I would've enjoyed this much more had it been the soundtrack to a video game I was playing.
I’m a sucker for British rap, I think that British rappers have some of the coolest deliveries. Grime is a dope subgenre, and their spin on the drill sound is really unique, too. I also love how it feels like a parallel universe to the US rap scene, with their own beef and their own "king of Brit rap" conversations.
This isn’t my favorite Skepta album, (I love ‘Ignorance is Bliss,’ it's sadly too recent for this list), but there are some great tracks on this one. I always get a little bit of lead foot when "Crime Riddim" comes on in my car. Production across the board is fantastic stuff and also undeniably 2016-sounding. Rap was simpler back then (for better and worse).
One gripe I have with Skepta (and sometimes Brit rap in general) is all the Drake influence -- the way the chorus is sung on "Ladies Hit Squad" sounds almost identical to the melody on "Hotling Bling." Drake is on the intro and outro of "Shutdown" on this album. It cheapens British rap for me to know they're cannibalizing a style that has cannibalized US rap/hip-hop. I always appreciate the more authentic sounds of artists like Dave and Stormzy who carve their own lanes, and I think it stops me from completely appreciating Skepta.
If you're a fan of this one, check out Jme's 'Integrity>' or Giggs's 'Wamp 2 Dem.' Not the same caliber of rapper as Skepta, but still a lot of fun.
The Talking Heads have never clicked for me, but I’ve also never spent much time listening to their albums as a whole. I enjoyed this listen more for some reason.
Byrne still chafes me a bit, though. His voice and his shtick can be a lot.
This may seem like a lie after being exposed as the resident REM hater, but I actually like this album more than other REM albums. The concept (I know Stipe hates that label) really impresses me every time I hear it. The lyrics are maybe the most impressive part.
Okay, switching to hater mode.
Michael Stipe’s vocals do absolutely nothing for me. Their singles are incredibly overplayed to the point where I can’t take a single second of “It’s the End…” anymore. “The One I Love” is a boring song with no redeeming qualities and I heard it once a day on FM radio growing up.
I have listened to so many REM albums and all of my friends have told me they’ll fix me, but nothing works. If there were a band I wanted to love, it’s this one. Sadly they’re not a different band.
There’s a lot to say about James Brown the performer, but James Brown the vocalist is just as important. Brown really exemplifies the type of musician that focuses on using their voice as an instrument rather than a means of communicating an idea (although those aren’t mutually exclusive). Whereas someone like Jeff Buckley tried to make his voice work like a guitar in his music, I would compare Brown’s to a trumpet, blasting in a similar fashion to what we might hear on a jazz record. The way he’ll repeat a shouted line a couple of times is like when a trumpeter finds a really important riff and swirls it a couple of times, then improvises into a new thing that becomes a whole new version of the idea. It’s disorganized, organic, and wonderfully entertaining to listen to.
I’m also a sucker for call-and-response during a live show; when I go to see a group or a musician, I want to feel involved in the process of making the moment. Brown did that to a level that not many other musicians can say they do/did, and the crowd interactions are what really highlight this album for me.
The album art is also just a 10/10. Beautiful, haunting, mesmerizing. The album is an all around, finely crafted, incredible work of art that doesn’t feel like a forced product, but rather a unique experience.
I like how the applause sounds a little British
I was never going to be in the mood to listen to this album. Noise rock is not my thing.
I cannot remain objective about this album in any way whatsoever, but I mean every single word when I say this may be unequivocally the greatest art piece of the 21st century, and should be considered as one of the top 10 greatest albums of all-time. I do not know of many albums that have been so finely pieced together and intricately designed. It takes a wealth of time and knowledge of hip hop history to truly appreciate the amount of detail Lamar has devoted to this project.
Originally titled "Tu Pimp A Caterpillar" (TuPAC), Kendrick and Top Dawg knew they were ready to make an album that would shake the industry to its core. One that would absorb the cultural movement of the moment and embodied that in its different sonic influences. There are trap beats, classic boom bap, G-funk, and lots and lots of jazz, all of which Lamar floats over seamlessly. I think the diversity in its sound lends itself to invite different types of listeners in -- my dad, a devout Deadhead who has not listened to much hip hop outside of The Sugarhill Gang and other 70s acts from when he was growing up, became a Kendrick fan after I handed him a copy of this album.
Where 'good kid, m.A.A.d city' sees Kendrick hyper-focused on Compton and his upbringing, he shifts his focus to Black life in the US and the African diaspora's influence on the West Coast. All the while Lamar stays close to what made 'good kid' such an impressive debut, building upon the stories he created in songs like "These Walls" and "u" by relaying simple yet impactful allusions to characters from his first album like Dave.
TPAB has some of my favorite songs of all time. "Alright," "Momma," "Hood Politics," and "How Much a Dollar Cost" constantly enter and reenter my monthly rotations. It led to artists like Thundercat, Rapsody (who has the only other rap verse on this album -- thats huge!), Robert Glasper, and Terrace Martin becoming some of my most-played artists. "u" gave me something to see myself in at really difficult times in my life, and for that alone I owe this album so much.
Revisiting this in 2025 feels eerie, almost, as it's fascinating to see Kendrick warn against so many evils of the industry and the culture that still function to this day. Kendrick seemed to be incredibly aware of the predatory record deals that executives like Lucian Grainge (is it possible that he was the inspiration for the album's depiction of "Lucifer/Lucy"?) push on young artists. He speaks against culture vultures in "You Ain't Gotta Lie," which received a lot of attention during last year's beef.
I appreciate the messiness of the album, particularly Kendrick's political philosophy as he's changed and grown ten years later. There are some really tough lines to hear on the latter half of the album, but I think this aligns with Kendrick's personal stances on being unashamed of your mistakes and thoughts. He is not one to cover his mistakes, but let them stand for others from which to grow.
I'm sure others will say the same, but there is something different and fresh to appreciate with every time I press play or drop the needle on the record. I get still chills during the second verse of "Institutionalized" where Kendrick raps in the voice of his homies. I think that constant and unrelenting excitement with each new listen is a true sign of a great and timeless album.
I'll stop here to avoid doing a track-by-track breakdown, just take a month and listen to the Dissect podcast instead.
Along with the Pretenders, Steely Dan was an artist I had on my iPod and listened to all the time as a youngster. I can probably still recite all the words to "Kid Charlemagne."
I think its easy to say 'The Royal Scam' or 'Aja' are better, but 'Can't Buy A Thrill' holds its own against them. To have such an iconic lead track on your debut album is unheard of. And then "Dirty Work" right after? One-two punches as good as they come.
At no point did I feel adequately satisfied. At times I found myself thinking that I would be embarrassed to be playing this music out loud. There were some good beats here and there, though ("Bussing" stood out).
The Dandy Warhols are a band I've always had the intention of listening to, but have never made it around to them, so I'm thankful for this list in that way!
I found "Boys Better" to be very groovy, and was sucked into the song so much I thought it was a lot longer than it was. Some songs kind of fell into this same thing, for better or worse. The album could've been about 15 minutes shorter, I think.
I did enjoy the variety of the tracks (regarding tempo, mood, etc.), though, as it kept me more engaged than other albums on the list have.
"Peaches En Regalia" was presented to me at a young age as a perfect song. I surely didn't know enough about the world of music to disagree with my dad who seemed to have a limitless knowledge of music and its stars.
I still don't think I know enough now to say otherwise, but damn I love listening to Zappa. I love how much he pushed boundaries in his compositions, how ahead of a his time it all sounds (even if it hasn't aged as well as other late 60s/early 70s albums). I love me some electric violin.
This album benefits from the lack of lyrics, which certainly makes other Zappa less enjoyable. I could listen to "The Gumbo Variations" all day.
Not sure how many times I've listened to this album, but I've never taken the time to read about the album's background before. WOW. I never would've thought Paul Simon had threats against his life for writing "You Can Call Me Al."
I started listening to Eminem when I was 21 or so (I distinctly remember being infatuated with his BET cypher from 2016), which may explain why I really struggle to enjoy his music. I think ‘Revival’ came out that following year or the next and it was enough to convince me Eminem was not worth my time. ‘Kamikaze’ was fun to listen to the first couple times.
Anyway, I certainly don’t have the associated nostalgia that others do. Edgy humor just doesn’t make me feel good and I don’t think his content aged well at all.
That being said, his talent as an emcee is undeniable. Certainly in the top ten of all time. “Stan” is a classic for a reason.
Absolutely dreadful to sludge through. It’s a shame that there were moments I enjoyed that lasted all too shortly or, sometimes, all too long. On par with the Massive Attack album for me.
Please, sir, no more.
Another artist I listened to a lot as a child, my dad always had Elvis Costello on in the car and in the basement. Can't wait to get around to 'This Year's Model' and 'My Aim Is True.'
I have always really loved Elvis Costello's voice, especially on his 70s material, and it has a really mature sound to it on 'Brutal Youth.'
I don't think this is as good as anything before it in his discography, but "13 Steps Lead Down" demonstrates that he understands his sound, what makes it good and fun, and is able to keep it interesting, which a lot of other artists can't say two decades into their careers.
Maybe two songs too many on this one.
