1001 Albums Summary

Boards of Canada are a really cool band and this album is neat but not my favorite from them. Funny that this was the first album I have to hear out of 1001, could have thought The Rolling Stones would be first.

Fun fact: Better than most Beatles albums

Good music to play for the goth dommy mommies

(First record picked that I did not hear beforehand) Later era Elvis is its own appeal from the traditional hey-day 50s period of Elvis. More soulful, country roots touched on versus the rockability rock and roll he was best known for. This would be amazing if he didn't do a bunch of movies and did the typical 1950s men thing of being in the Korean War (he didn't go in combat naturally). This album is in 1969, the US became a much different place. Should have done some acid Elvis because that would've made you even cooler. The record itself is alright, good morning music but really the best part of the album is the second half where the best known songs are. Elvis still is a singles guy more than an album guy, but for historical reasons this one is still up there for him. Shouldn't have done free PR for Nixon though, yuck.

I had something pre-written but I didn't save it right so I'll be briefer. Historically important album, Marvin Gaye is a legend although I prefer What's Going On and his more socially conscious stuff. I just prefer soul music sung by women over men as a personal preference.

Joshua Tree is an album that touches on 1987 politics themes almost primarily and the production done on the record is incredibly solid. A very powerful 1-2-3-4 to start the record and give it its iconic status. However I can't really care too much about U2 and would rather care more about how Brian Eno and Daniel Lenois helped make this record really great. The best U2 song is still New Years Day for me, but Bullet the Blue Sky helps solidify a three star ranking because I am biased and will continue my bias. I will give special shoutouts to In God's Country, Trip Through Wires, and Mothers of the Disappeared. Now may I please get some semi-obscure album instead of music I already know about that would be great.

PEAK

Finally been given an album I haven't fully heard of before, reminding me the reason why I did this challenge. To finally listen to some of these bands that I've heard of or remembered or otherwise find and learn new music that is highly regarded that isn't something super famous. I know of Faces primarily knowing it as where Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood had to go to get away from the crazy and fluid Jeff Beck. What makes this a "must hear before you die" record is Ronnie Wood being a boogie guitar hero. Especially on Memphis and That's All You Need, quite a hypnotic rhythm from the soon-to-be Rolling Stones member. It's otherwise a "dad rock" record, or 'Classic Rock' record if you ever listened to the radio for music before you ever used music streaming services. A Nod Is As Good As A Wink... captures that true rock energy before punk/new wave/metal would shape music going forward. Boogie rock is perhaps better heard in bands like CCR or John Lee Hooker, bands from America where blues began, but the English side of it (sans Clapton thank the Lord) also shows an interesting perspective and twist on it. I'm biased in favor of the John Lee Hooker type since it's what I was raised on, but this is still a good capture of that blues rock sound as it was beginning to wane out.

Rumours is an album. I have now listened to it, even though I have listened to this album via the radio for my whole life. They sure did make a whole lot of money, that Fleetwood Mac. Wonder if that made them all happy. This band would be significantly less insufferable if every member had no problem with orgies. But maybe that means they would have made less money. The music business.

The greatest singer of all time. You don't need any other notes to write about Aretha. One of the saving graces of American society.

I primarily know The La's for That One Song everyone pretty much knows: There She Goes. I did not think that much else about the band, nor its influence on Jangle Pop and the Britpop scene for an album in 1990 that stood apart from the rest of the rising musical trends of the late 80s ushering into the 90s. Turns out they were much more than one hit wonders: one album wonders. The bands perfectionist tendencies would self-immolate the bands future, but the results of their efforts are not in vain: this is a great sounding album. Jangle sounds nice, but it's never a sound I've felt like chasing music wise, R.E.M. aside. Nothing against it, more of a preference for dissonant atonal stuff on my end, though you can tell The La's wanted to feel unique next to bands like MBV or the Madchester scene. Certain parts of this album I like and there's parts of it I can care less for. Son Of A Gun is a weird opening track that kind of shows what the album will be about albeit in a more sing-songy way than most other songs on the album. As someone that likes jam bands and thus long music, the album's closer, Looking Glass, isn't really doing it for me. Freedom Song sounds like an intentionally dull 90s irony scene way. Other songs in between are kind of samey-sounding and not too eye-catching, bad pun may or may not be intended. There are some good positives on this album (aside from There She Goes which is a great song that does carry the record as well as the band's reputation as a whole): Aside from Son of a Gun (which is okay really) the album starts off strong up to Way Out. But that trademark contextual song that made this band stand out and attract influence for the next decade and a half or so of indie music just gets very samey. Like the same pastures of jangle pop guitar sound----it's really all that is. Would be very interesting to see this band evolve more but it seems that Lee Mavers takes the Mark Hollis approach to fame: getting out of the spotlight as best as possible and never answer any questions. I respect that. This was a nice rabbit hole of music to discover, but overall it's alright. Must hear before you die? If you like indie music absolutely, but for everyone else? I disagree.

I guess I am (un)fortunate enough to get both Fleetwood Mac albums within a 3 or 4 day span, lucky me. If only it was the Peter Green albums, my dad (and I)'s preferred Fleetwood Mac period. Glad they chose to not sound more like Rumours and instead sound like if Fleetwood Mac were more influenced by postpunk and all the music changes from the mid 70s onward to the album's publishing date. Great approach! I don't think this album suffers from bloat with its length of songs and being over an hour. There's a couple of songs I could relisten to on my ultimate shuffle placement like Not That Funny or Sisters of the Moon. Between That's All For Everyone and That's Enough For Me is ironically my favorite group of songs on the album. Aside from the self-titled song and maybe Over and Over and Think About Me, the rest just sounds like regular old Fleetwood Mac without any extra spicyness to it. Other than that, it's not bad. I don't particularly care for it, or post Peter Green era aside. It's good it existed and wasn't just standard pop music and was experimental for the genre (and their label's money). Okay that's enough. Please give me some random jazz musician by now please. I think I'm spared from further Fleetwood Mac selections, that's a relief.

Simply Red must be a band huge in England but as an American born a decade after the formation of Simply Red, I have literally never heard of them until this popped up in the 1001+ album generator. I'm going in as blind into an album as any other band thus far, the closest before was Faces--a band I already knew about. Quite an interesting album: the first sound sounds very disco inspired as the second one sounds like a big band live(?) performance with a crooner. Then they finally go in on the 80s synths on "Look At You Now"(holy DX7 batman). There's a Talking Heads cover of Heaven on here, and it's not good. Jericho closes side one to make this record definitely feel like it's stuck in the 80s. Side two opens with the two biggest hits on the album that launched Simply Red into the UK pop landscape. Money's Too Tight is a cover from an R&B band from Cincinnati that translates well to a UK audience. I'll Keep Holding On is the big hit Simply Red had in America, which is one of those songs you hear extensively in grocery stores and no where else. I used to work at one of those places, which makes me biased against the song when it's played on those crappy speakers. Now at home with a more hi-fi set up, hearing the little extra session music instrumentation adds much needed spice to the song, but it's still not something I would seek or search for, but it makes the DX7 sound a lot more grand. The rest of Side 2: Red Box feels like filler: nothing special happening in this song. No Direction is a nice shake-up of tempo, though at this point in the album I'm getting a bit tired of Hucknall's vocals. Picture Book, the self-titled song, concludes the album in a big (reverb) sounding fashion, with cryptic lyrics that finish an album filled of a variety of different sounds, blurring together as a 1980s cocktail of experimental, pop-infused innovation on a variety of blues/rhythm and blues inspired music. This is probably the most "okay" record I've heard thus far. I see its influence, not as much its importance beyond its presentation. I am so whelmed that it does not change my adamant nature on this album: probably really engaging when it came out, but sounds stuck in the 80s. Not a lot of re-engagement for me on this one, my favorite tracks being Sad Old Red and Look At You Now. I don't really want to write more about this. Is it worthy of being in the 1000+ music to hear before you die? very strong "eh" there, the big hits on this album are still played on 80s stations, but Simply Red did not realyl breakout overseas, they seemed like they were content being a UK/European band or sound of the time, America preferred pop music that was much more into vanity, something like this would not last too long. I would've replaced this album with something like Seal II. Perhaps I discount some good number of artists that loved Simply Red and were very inspired by this record to do their own famous records, but I don't hear any of that discussion.

Going to be fully honest: I never dug deep into The Cure aside from their popular singles that continue to hit the airwaves and affect pop culture. So this is overdue, and a good place to start in the band for me. There's some great tone and aggression on the album: very fun listening and not at all slow or otherwise passive pop variations of some 'woe is me' stereotypes one would have of Goth music. Pornography is upbeat, ready to hug your ears with 1982's form of abrasive music. The Cure would later get lighter (less so lyrically for the most part, but certainly of this kind of sound) but I see its relevance in the 1001+ album, given how much influence that not just the band themselves had, but how this was very much postpunk inspired and how other bands can see this album of The Cure alone and mold it into their own gothic image. Great record.

I'm not going to pretend I know anything about Khaled, how he has sold as many records as UB40, is basically king of Middle Eastern pop music, and uhhhhhh yeah that's all I could find out about him. Glad to see this list isn't just euro/american-centric. I love hearing music from countries that most of us fellow American cannot find on a map (I can find Algeria on a map though, it has a distinct shape). Let's hear it: It's interesting to hear a lot of western influence on this record, while still maintaining the Rai identity: at points on this album you can hear R&B, blues, latin, even some 90s electronic touches on it. There's like maybe one line in English, on the Imagine cover, while most of the songs are in Arabic save for one or two in French. Khaled is definitely a very good, powerful singer. I think it's important to hear from artists like Khaled to truly understand music as a global art form, rather than our skewed perspective on it from Western Culture (which in turn, was influenced from Eastern Culture a very long time ago, I digress). Is it truly "must hear before you die?", I mean I don't know his other records, and whether or not they were more influential perhaps if they were in Algeria or among the Arab-French community, but this is at least a good example of Rai and Middle Eastern pop music for us Western, typically English speaking folk to get a grasp of his music. It's good to step outside your comfort zone in music, it's something I don't see enough when people listen to music. Did I enjoy this album? Kind of. I'm very appreciative to hear it, it partially matches my own music sensibilities, but a record like this goes to more of the curious music hobbyists. You might not be let down to hear this.

I'm mostly familiar with Cash's classic albums of the 60s/70s/etc. Never really cared for cover albums, even with the Hurt cover being a focal part of it. The last album an artist ever releases (while they are still alive) can often leave the biggest impact for their presence not just on earth, but as a musician's final will and testament. Think of Bowie's Black Star or Tom Waits last album (as of time of review writing): it's hard to admit you're giving your final word and the approach of it, which explains that these are all songs (aside from the intro, which Cash wrote) are all covers. Johnny doesn't have much else to add, but will like to make various shoutouts to musicians many wouldn't think he would have time to listen to or otherwise appreciate at the end of life: covering stuff like Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode, along with the covers of songwriters and folk/country musicians of his time. For me, it's amazing how much his cover of NiN's Hurt is one of the biggest songs Johnny Cash has ever recorded. We're talking about a man with a whole line of country standards: Ring of Fire, Boy Named Sue (a cover, though the Folsom performance is just that iconic), I Walk The Line, The Man In Black, among many others. You can hear throughout the album that Cash doesn't have a lot of time left on this planet, his voice more gravelly than it ordinarily is. Cash would pass away a year later, recently widowed with the loss of the love of his life, June Carter Cash. For my own personal tastes, this record is so slow (naturally, but I like stuff a little more faster than my resting heart rate). Impactful, yes. Not denying the legacy of this record or its appearance in the 1001+ albums (could be a bubble pick but ultimately does have enough of a lasting impact). Of course the slowness makes sense, a settling down atmosphere for a music legend. It works for something like In My Life. Not much else to add after that. Good record.

I've listened to this album quite a lot as a kid, one of the many CDs my dad just sort of let available for me to burn onto my computer. Before I listened to so much music that my big shuffle folder went beyond insane for even a big music listener, I had maybe 15-20ish albums that I would always hear a few songs every other day or so: The Cars was one of them. And man oh man,. does this album have hooks for days. So many hooks, it's impossible to not hear this album and not have something linger in your head for at least a week. The Cars came at the right musical year of 1978: when the initial wave of punk rock is starting to distillate into a post-punk world, The Cars approached the crossroads of old school rock and roll and the emerging new wave/synthesizer driven music that was to become a big force beyond the disco era. They managed to combine both avenues like how Roxy Music approached glam pop with progressive rock, and make it work. The Cars were one of the big bands of the late 70s (and to very specifically note, again, not the 80s just yet) to make pop rock work with synthesizers to such a degree that it still has that futuristic sound that they went for. Almost ageless, if you don't notice the partially sarcastic lyrics from songs that became used in so many commercials that the sarcasm has been scratched away. In short, The Cars is a solid pop-rock album that helped define New Wave in its infancy. Still sounds great, has its legacy, yadda yadda yadda.

I've listened to this album quite a lot as a kid, one of the many CDs my dad just sort of let available for me to burn onto my computer. Before I listened to so much music that my big shuffle folder went beyond insane for even a big music listener, I had maybe 15-20ish albums that I would always hear a few songs every other day or so: The Cars was one of them. And man oh man,. does this album have hooks for days. So many hooks, it's impossible to not hear this album and not have something linger in your head for at least a week. The Cars came at the right musical year of 1978: when the initial wave of punk rock is starting to distillate into a post-punk world, The Cars approached the crossroads of old school rock and roll and the emerging new wave/synthesizer driven music that was to become a big force beyond the disco era. They managed to combine both avenues like how Roxy Music approached glam pop with progressive rock, and make it work. The Cars were one of the big bands of the late 70s (and to very specifically note, again, not the 80s just yet) to make pop rock work with synthesizers to such a degree that it still has that futuristic sound that they went for. Almost ageless, if you don't notice the partially sarcastic lyrics from songs that became used in so many commercials that the sarcasm has been scratched away. In short, The Cars is a solid pop-rock album that helped define New Wave in its infancy. Still sounds great, has its legacy, yadda yadda yadda.

Given Nirvana's short timespan of existence, they did not hand us many albums, and this as the only official live album they published in the band's existence. I've never listened to it in full before this, although I've heard over half the songs from this show many times. I'm making this review short: good album, kind of overrated (the Lake of Fire cover is horrible), probably belongs in the 1001+ albums (definitely more than some other albums I've gotten to), I only plead that people listen to other grunge music that isn't just Nirvana. The genre has plenty to offer.

After about 20 albums, I finally have a hip hop album. As a Californian (not SoCal), I must support one Cypress Hill, who helped put West Coast Hip Hop on the charts and to be noticed. Just as groundbreaking as Cypress Hill was for that fact, they were also essentially the first mainstream Latino Hip Hop acts. Also they love marijuana, otherwise known as a million other things, like cannabis. The more I reflect on this album and listen, the more I really see its importance in the world, its ripple effect on gangsta rap and what would follow hip hop throughout the decade, on its image for hip hop throughout the world. And all I can say is: damn I am incredibly high.

Raw Power is goated. Arguably the moment Punk was born, especially in the production booth. As for the production on the album....................best to stick to a modern mastering of it, albeit the album title pretty much is the warning that it's gonna sound, well, raw.

I've made modest effort to look into Wilco for the past year, by doing the sidequest albums with Billy Bragg. I've heard Yankee Hotel Foxtrot maybe a few years before that. I do know Someone Else's Song, it was my introduction to Wilco. I first heard it in the 'Meet the Engineer' video Valve created for Team Fortress 2, the greatest video game of all time in its prime. Lots of subversion going on, songs sounding pitiful and soft and then erupting with lots of fun loud guitars and other assorted madness going on from it. Not the biggest fan of Tweedy's vocals, as much as it works for a lot of the songs. That nasally white male indie voice thing is not my thing. Overall I did enjoy the majority of Being There and kind of understand why it would be on this list. It's certainly better than some other questionable choices. Wilco's a significant enough band to have a few albums on there, and I can see why this one was a choice along that other album Pitchfork loves.

R.E.M. is one of those first bands I really liked, long before music became a more serious topic of my life. Green represents the experimental transformation of R.E.M. as this college-aged band already known for their ambiguous and/or incomprehensible lyrics and were titans of a burgeoning scene in Athens, Georgia. Only R.E.M. would find a way to be mainstream and still sound like themselves without completely compromising their artistic integrity. I've already listened to this album before the challenge, so I'm not adding more than that it's a good album, probably not the only R.E.M. album on this list (and if it is, it begs quite a number of questions). They are an important enough band to have about 3 records on the list, Green probably being my third answer after Automatic and Murmur. Those three albums do a great job of briefly summarizing most of their music. Moving on.

Despite being very focused on music history, culture, and the ethnomusicography in between music and society/sociology, I feel like I must have failed something here. I'm from SF and I've never heard of Flamin Groovies, not from my parents growing up or from consuming as much music culture as I can to educate myself. Flamin Groovies were starting in San Francisco around the time the Hippie movement and psychedelia's presence in popular music was waning, but Punk and New Wave were not of age yet. Lot of the music left in between (and what would be the peak popularity of Flamin Groovies career) were somewhere in between, either fully Power Pop like The Beatles or going back to rock's roots with something Blues infused, like what The Rolling Stones would do. The one notable quote about this album that I can find via Wikipedia was a Mick Jagger quote saying that Teenage Head did the blues rock thing better than their own record that year, one Sticky Fingers(!). That's a hearty recommendation, but does that justify a slot to be a "must hear before you die album"? High Flyin' Baby opens the record--straight with the blues rock to go. That aggression is certainly felt on the percussion, not just the drums but the tambourine in addition to the (as expected with rock) guitar. City Lights follows up with a much more specific blues focus with a slower syncopated drumbeat and played on an acoustic. An interesting 1-2 to the record that gets followed up back to HFB's energy with Have You Seen My Baby?, a song that definitely sounds like where rock and roll was in 1971 if you ignored that Canterbury Scene influence. Teenage Head as an album (and the follow-up, Shake Some Action) seems to be the record where the San Francisco Psychedelic sound would informally end the first phase of the SF music scene, setting up the city for its foray into Punk to come. Michigan acts like Stooges or MC5 had some popularity here, but that music scene wasn't mainstream for the SF sound or viewed as anything other than the 'other delinquent music', for people that wanted no acid and purely wanted to drink and do the blues. Flamin Groovies represents the band of the scene that was firmly between both these camps, with Teenage Head being the record to say "we're blues rock guys" and they did deliver on that sound. On the other hand, you can hear why music critics of the time were skeptical of this record, or viewed any impact from it. Teenage Head represents that middle ground that was the early 70s: the aftermath of psychedelia after the rough end of Hendrix, Pigpen-era Grateful Dead (as they went to the country/folk path and retreaded their blues/R&B roots as the mainstay of the SF Sound). Teenage head holds some historical significance as a photograph of a very particular era of SF Music history, one that very much reflects the sign of the times of rock and roll evolving into a new era, it does suffer from that 'dad rock' fatigue that wouldn't really pull in many new (read: younger) people into it, let alone to find the significance beside its time capsule of blues rock. Aside from that, quite a solid record for people that would like to enjoy something on the guise of Montrose minus the studio trickery of the time or Bad Company without its polished production. There is a raw element in this recording that feels very distinctly like a music studio using mid 60s recording gear in 1971. Aside from grabbing as much context as I can find for this album, I still don't think it really fits in the 1001+ album mold. The Rolling Stones would, of course, overlap any influence this album could have in the mainstream the following year with Exile on Main Street, lot of critics and people upholding that as the greatest Blues Rock album ever (rightly so). The development of blues rock, like blues and rock separately, is a focal part of the evolution of American music and music as a whole. But I fear such a selection like Flamin Groovies adds a spot to cover an already well-cataloged list of albums that include those three genres. It feels quite Eurocentric in that regard. I feel like such a list (that this website/we all go around) could cover much more international acts, and for that to occur a band like Flamin Groovies would, again in history, be overshadowed by something else. Teenage Head is a good record, albeit obscured in history because of how fast the music scene was evolving in the 1970s-a phenomenon that affected pop music even more so than an SF Blues Rock band that can now be seen as underrated. I think that covers my thoughts on this album, and its inclusion on the essential albums to hear before death list. For the most part, a quite enjoyable record. I could leave out City Lights because it's a bit too slow for my rocking senses, but they're definitely a lot fucking better than Simply Red. Highlights: High Flying Baby, Evil Hearted Ada (Elvis impersonation), Whiskey Woman Not on the official album but the extra content filled with blues/R&B covers to me are almost as good as the album while also summarizing how bands like Flaming Groovies started back then. Many of them would cover songs they would already know (think of the music they listened to growing up like Louie Louie or something like Wipeout---songs not too hard to learn without formal tools available back then) and playing as fast or hard as possible. That represents the same era of music that this album selection is to represent. It'll make things I said here make a lot more sense.

This site does a bad job of actually saving album reviews when your computer crashes multiple times a day. It's utilizing the local cache wrong for whatever reason and it's annoying. Anyways this was a pleasant surprise of an album I've never heard before and enjoyed it. A key album to understand how the psychedelic music scene didn't fully waver by the 80s. This shows itself as a predecessor to shoegaze (especially with the album's finale in When I Dream. Other cool tracks included: Sleeping Gas, Treason, Bouncing Babies.

Hunky Dory isn't among my favorite Bowie albums, but is an important album for Bowie as much as it is for the Art Pop genre. No historical ranting this time, Hunky Dory is what David Bowie gathered the good aspects of pop music of his time into a better than average pop album for its time. Still probably his worst album that appears on this list. Yay.

One of the greatest and defining country folk albums ever recorded. I'm biased, born and raised by Deadheads, to view this way. Grateful Dead are primarily known as a hippie band that play concerts that last a long time, but they also threaded the needle of blending American music roots, weaved into the cloth and fabric of Americana. The country, folk, blues, R&B influences are touched here with the polished songwriting help of Robert Hunter. If you had to hear a Grateful Dead album and refuse to hear any of their live concerts you can find on archive.org right now, this and Workingman's Dead are essential for a "must hear album list", with American Beauty probably the better of the two. But a real peak list would include Anthem of the Sun and Live/Dead too :)

Curtis Mayfield is one of those big name artists I haven't found time to get to. I don't normally seek out soul music, and have been slacking in the funk department, so this is a good time to learn more about the Gentle Genius. There's great musical instrumentation on this album, coupled with Mayfield's famous soul-inflected voice filled with raspy cries for a better life, whether for America's soul and/or for a better tomorrow. Some songs here I don't really vibe with, but I can feel Curtis's messaging in tact. An important album for sure (equally important artist) although it's not my cup of tea, I don't regret hearing it like a few albums I've heard so far. tl;dr: it's neat.

Dion! That's definitely a name. Mainly known for his early rock and roll singles before the British Invasion, Dion enjoyed an extensively lengthy career (still alive and making music today at 89!) and anyone that's continued a music career that long spanning across numerous genre movements, could have an album on a long list like this. I think my parents had this album on vinyl, but never ever talked about Dion. Maybe it was one of those albums that everyone had to get back in the day to play at parties, even if they didn't like the music. I'm not fully sure what I'm getting into, but 70s pop doesn't exactly inspire me to think I will enjoy it, but I can be wrong. It's a great sounding record, and not to discredit Dion as a singer or anything but it's definitely not the sort of music I seek out. I did like the psychedelic influence on the album, however mild it may be it is noticed. I like the self-titled track the most, but even as a Phish fan I thought it went on a bit too long (which was the norm of 70s pop music). 70s Pop and 80s pop are kind of night and day difference. Songs got shorter in the 80s and were much more driven by synthesizers. 70s pop was in the singer/songwriter and slower R&B thing until Disco and Punk movements told pop to get more energetic, leading to new wave/etc. I can understand why it's on the 1001+ list but aside from Fleetwood Mac, Cher, and maybe a good half dozen of all other 70s pop that predates disco, I'd put this one on the bubble of being replaced by something newer that'll be more influencial in the future, something like Brat or the inevitable Next Frank Ocean Album (trademark). At least it's not yacht rock.

Interestingly enough I have listened to one Pogues album five years ago, Rum, Sodamy and the Lash and thought it was alright. Perhaps too Celtic for my tastes (I'm not a fan of chamber music which lots of classic Irish music is based upon), but I didn't hear If I Should Fall Grace With God. I enjoyed this much more than Run Sodomy and Lash, much more refined and poignant with the material. Don't really care for the Christmas song, but the production and the whole ensemble around the band's sound was fantastic. Not fully my cup of tea or Guinness but I won't deny its importance or anything else.

Interestingly enough I have listened to one Pogues album five years ago, Rum, Sodamy and the Lash and thought it was alright. Perhaps too Celtic for my tastes (I'm not a fan of chamber music which lots of classic Irish music is based upon), but I didn't hear If I Should Fall Grace With God. I enjoyed this much more than Run Sodomy and Lash, much more refined and poignant with the material. Don't really care for the Christmas song, but the production and the whole ensemble around the band's sound was fantastic. Not fully my cup of tea or Guinness but I won't deny its importance or anything else.

I'm now gonna listen to the rest of Janelle Monae's discography because that shit was awesome

Where punk formally began and got its name. Say no more.

Like most people, I think (and already listened to) All The Young Dudes when it comes to Mott The Hoople, and their influence on glam rock and the 70s and something else about David Bowie. And well, this album doesn't have that song. It's otherwise what standard glam rock music sounds like in 1973. And while the album is fine and the band is good, I'm not sure about where Mott The Hoople stands in the music history world and what music it has influenced 50+ years from now, aside from glam rock itself as a genre. Mott The Hoople was a focal part of glam rock. Given that this is the only Mott The Hoople record in the 1001 list, I assume this would be the best representation of the band (instead of their biggest single). This is a long winded way to say that I guess this album would pass my own criteria if I were to let it stay or be removed from a revised version of the list. shoutout to I'm a Cadillac/El Camino Dolo Roso

My main exposure to SFA before this was their song, "The Man Don't Give A Fuck", primarily from their sampling of Steely Dan song 'Show Biz Kids' as the main hook. IYKYK. Never looked more into their discography after that, although I liked the song. They capture a very eclectic, maximalist sound. You can hear how critics would think this sound would usher in the new millennium, up until a few months later in September of that year when some big global event would change our imagination and sense of direction for the future. This album sounds like the dreams of the 90s that have been achieved. I wish more stuff in the 2000s had this sound instead of what felt like a mini-era of devolution of music being boiled down to postgrunge, wangsty one-note pop punk/rock songs, nu metal, and whatnot. Certainly a fun listen, and maybe more of a hallmark of a short lived techno-optimist world that we were making in the late 90s/pre 9/11 world that maybe, just maybe, would be better if Al Gore won the presidency. Then again I'm talking about a band from Wales, and I don't really know how big Super Furry Animals are/were in America. But Rings Around The World is worth a heads up to check out, especially if you like music that sounds like a bunch of genres blurred together.

I was not raised, nor on my own volition, could get into the Beach Boys. Nothing against their work as musicians or their influence, it's weird optimism young boy harmonizing sound is something I just don't want to hear. Dennis is the drummer of the Beach Boys (I don't care about the band's history after he died or kokomo; it's cringe) and here was the one album he did finish in his lifetime. And it's okay. Noteworthy in the sense that his fellow band members thought it would be one of the better Beach Boys albums (I can see that) and that it was pretty much the only thing he could finish in his wild and chaotic lifestyle. Most of this album isn't my thing: bunch of soft stuff. I'm sure it's really good for certain kinds of people, but I'm a music weirdo and this one just doesn't cut it for me.

Bombastic, big sounding album that was the ultimate bridge of heavier rock music with the fast tempo rave/electronic music scenes crossing together perfectly.

If you can't jive to this we can't be friends.

Neil Young's magnum opus creates America's best selling album in 1972. I love Neil Young's blend of country, folk, and hard rock combined with brilliant songwriting crafted from his own life that translates well to anyone even in the modern age. Nothing short of brilliant.

Would put this on a list of 100 most essential albums to listen to. Words about it will not do justice, it is legendary.

Much more of a progressive, crazier space for a Hip Hop album during the tailend of the Gangsta Rap era. People cite Kanye West and The College Dropout for the mainstream hip hop appeal moving to a rapper's more personal matters rather than the old-fashioned "gangsta shit" but for the headier hip hop, that train was grooving and Phrenology gave The Roots a place for alternative hip hop again, mainly cause Dead Prez refused to get that commercial. Anyways, this album is the shit, Kanye is a piece of shit (derogatory) and this is a stellar, creative and fun hip hop album that goes to places and spaces you wouldn't normally take hip hop to go to. Not in the jazz fashion like Guru or Tribe, but even further than that into other genres.

Frank may not be the culture-shifting smash hit that was Back to Black, but represents the other side of Amy Winehouse: her original initial musical self with much more inflection of jazz (the R&B and Soul were always there, the jazz was toned down a bit on BtB). Given her short career and enormous impact that followed (RIP), I suppose it's fair that Frank is in the 1001+ album list, since Amy was a real, genuine talent. Especially in the UK, where those kinds of gravelly soul singers are harder to find then say, the American South. It's not fun to play what-if's, but man Amy could be as big as Taylor if it weren't for the alcohol and other vices.

The Monks were pretty much right there in protopunk. A bunch of American GIs stationed in West Germany, thankful they didn't lose the military draft lottery of getting their asses sent to Vietnam but plenty bored enough standing around, doing nothing, decided to make their own rock and roll band. Free from their hometown values of the USA and seeing the rise of the Beatles and the British Invasion from Europe gave them a special creative place in the 60s: to make some foul mouthed anti-war, pro-fornicating riff-based boogie rock. What The Monks talked about wasn't totally new in the recording industry, The Fugs were even more vulgar and four times as political as Monks. What made The Monks stand out more was that they were much more musical than The Fugs and less laser-focused on left-wing ideology (they were, after all, in West Germany not East Germany). But the catharsis of being in the mid 60s is all present in Black Monk Time (their sole album). Everything you would expect in punk music but placed in 1966, and without the 70s standards of recording technology. This was before Sgt. Pepper and the Psychedelic explosion that would change music forever. The punk sentiment was there, not just having long hair and defying nuclear family middle-american norms, but talking shit and being more explicit about fucking. MC5 would become The Monks on steroids (and like The Fugs, making music about left-wing 'Revolution') and The Stooges would take heavy inspiration from Monks to do their own thing. Those other two artists are seen as kingpins of Protopunk, which Monks can't take full credit for creating, but are definitely the bridge between music from the early 60s that was derivative at the time (The Kinks - You Really Got Me) and the latter 60s where the music sounded as chaotic as the lyrics. The bridge before the bridge between punk and post punk. While at the time Black Monk Time was not successfully commercially and nearly forgotten about in its initial time, until more musicians decades from its release would go out to praise Black Monk Time for inspiring them, people like Jello, Mark E Smith, Jack White and the Beastie Boys to name a few. The Monks are as important to rock and roll as the Sex Pistols or the Stones: being saved from history and being reissued several times after their one-and-done. It sounds maybe a little more primitive today--but that energy is still raw and right there. These guys dressed up as monks and talked shit about anything that they didn't like and made songs about wanting to bang women (which was the style at the time). Their influence is still felt on music today, perhaps more than they ever thought when they were just fucking around, being bored as hell stationed in West Germany and decided to make a rock album.

Yeah I don't like Coldplay. It's good music for someone that doesn't dive deeply into music but I understand its appeal. I did listen to it, which more or less validated my own beliefs about the band. The two songs I thought were alright were God Put a Smile on Your Face and A Whisper. If Coldplay were a shoegaze band they would be 1000 times better, but then people will complain about not hearing Chris Martin's ULTRA CRISPY DRY VOCALS which people like to hear. Whatever.

This band is a bigass rabbit hole that I have no time to explain. The music is comfortably weird. I would have 0 idea how to recommend this album unless they knew industrial music. If you like 80s uhhh martial (think of like if John Phillips Sousa had synthesizers) industrial music. The whole Yugoslavia thing was before I was born. I like weird shit, so it works. Before this album I had A Rush of Blood To The Head by Coldplay, and this is definitely cooler. Check out that time they played in North Korea

I cannot care for the critical acclaim of an album that aged like milk (50% artist, 50% that this style of music did not age well or evolved into something better a la System of a Down). There's already two RATM albums on this list, the Beastie Boys are surely covered. This is a waste of an album space that should go to some critically acclaimed band from China or Central Asia that a 'Westerner' wouldn't know about. Or like, a single Ween album.

You know, I'm a millennial and I haven't listened to Arcade Fire. This band is currently self-immolating with controversy that I'm not versed with, but it's not good stuff. I associate them with indie pop and that's just not my thing at all, critics love it like they love dramas over comedies. This is a full blind run for me on this album. And well, there's a lot in here about why I don't like indie music or its influence on 21st century music. I can't say Arcade Fire are unimportant or whatever, but it's certainly not for my taste. It's like if Coldplay were French-Canadian and wrote about more American I mean North American topics. The male singer is a total whatever, the female one is better in that she stands out more and doesn't sound like some whiny white boy singing about how his good upbringing has distorted his myopic view of the world crap. I can't hear lyrics in songs too well (unless I hear it 100 times) and so I won't go in depth about it. I guess they are fine. The instrumentation/compositions are fine. I don't have any big complaints on that, except that Sprawl II seems like a worse version of Prince's Mountains. In particular, my favorite songs from this album were: Rococo, Empty Room, and Month of May. Everything else sounded like generic indie pop (insert 'Seinfeld is Unfunny effect here, except I never liked that kind of sound to begin with) or millennial angst about the world not being perfect since you were born. Just because something is well produced doesn't mean that it's good, Raw Power is a total opposite of this album sound-wise but still manages to execute what it was going for. I have nothing against the maximalist sound of the record (it's one of the best strengths going for The Suburbs), but I wish it could lean more into that rather than the vocals which are not good. Not horrible, but above par. This album will work for certain people and their mindsets. It does not do that for me. So many backing strings and other assorted music and there's no distinctive drum beats or riffs that are catchy or engaging to my mind. It's impressively dull in a way this band is stereotyped for millennial coffee shops. It drags on like an unimpressive prog album. I cannot understand the hype because my brain isn't smooth enough.

LL Cool J represents the bridge from the golden age of hip hop to the new age, which was a shift in the style of hip hop we see today departing more from the soul/funk roots and leaning more into the rapping aspect of hip hop. LL Cool J was simply the master of that era that ended way before 1990, when Mama Said Knock You Out came out. This album cemented LL Cool J as a legend rather than a rapper whose star shined the brighten in a 3 year era of an emerging musical movement. Don't call it a comeback: LL remains a legend and reminds us why.

I love getting music selections that I would otherwise in my life, probably never hear. This album was pleasant to hear, something different and idyllic with songs longer than the western pop music for something seemingly accessible from Central Africa. That's all I can really say about it because that's what it sounds. For an hour. It's completely cromulent. I'm more of a fan of Afrobeat/that Nigeran West African scene as a percussion lover. I don't know, listen to this album on a beach in good weather I guess.

Iconic folk album blah blah blah

Al Green is one of the great later-era Soul Singers and this album has his most known song (Talking Heads fans be damned). I'm more into female soul singers for this genre and Al Green is quite an iconic voice and presence, but isn't something I'm going to seek out and put on very often. Nevertheless, the record is still enjoyable but misses something to really gravitate it better for me. I think I'd like some of his other albums more than this one.

I couldn't get into SOAD because I had a roommate in College that would the very same 8-9 songs every day for two semesters. Given that was 10 years ago, I guess I can finally listen to SOAD and not have to hear the same shit over and over again. I would've thought their next two albums would be on this list over their debut, they were more commercially successful and might have more of their memorable songs. At least they would make more sense than fucking Kid Rock being on this list. In any case, the SOAD self-titled debut is for people like me that find SOAD to be a bit obnoxious in their delivery, but in terms of nu metal this is a top tier record. That's mainly because of Sturgeon's Law, but Nu Metal as it was forming in the late 90s was becoming its own movement bringing metal with hip hop and pop punk elements. Genre bullshit aside, it's a fine record. Wait Korn is on this list aren't they? oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A quick bossa nova album that pioneered the genre and was generally okay for the most part. This is grandparent music :)

I could write almost forever (read: 15-20 pages) about this album, but there are many albums to write about so I'll try and be concise. Yes the album was made entirely with samples/sample manipulation and it's beautifully executed. But I'd like to add something more personal: There's music you like and can really relate to in one way or another, personal experience to something that connects to your metaphysical sense of reality and aspires you to act or change and/or hopefully improve yourself from it. Endtroducing(...) was the definitive album that made me want to become a musician. Then I looked into sampling laws and getting copyright approval, and went to buying a bunch of synthesizers instead as an alternative means to recreate the feelings and general soundscape Endtroducing provides. Fear, anxiety, wonder, chilled out, mellow, groove. There's a lot of emotions that run through the album and it never feels like it's out of place (IE: for 90s hip hop, the filler parts are working too). It's a transformative remix of humanity working as a reflection of 20th century art. With the horrific advent of "AI Music", this album will stand the test of time as one of the best testaments to the creativity of homo sapiens.

classic blah blah blah, but I want to point out that When The Levee Breaks is one of the greatest songs of all time. pure drumming bliss

Iconic album not just for Thrash Metal, but for metal as a whole. I prefer other Slayer albums, but it's obvious that Reign In Blood is their most iconic and emblematic work they've done. Rest in Power Jeff Hanneman

I listened to this album quite a bit in that transitional period between middle school and high school. That was (reading notes) around 15 years ago, when I was definitely not listening to this album with good quality headphones/speakers. It's a very good audiophile album in that regard, plenty of detail to hear better than some shitty 2000s monitor that came with speakers (skull emoji). It's a great album with a notable thing going against it: it's two fucking hours long. I shouldn't bitch when I like jam band music and stuff like Swans always released albums that are already lengthy. Other than that, Mellon Collie is a cornucopia of the 90s music sound in America (probably the western world too but I'm avoiding getting ahead of myself). Lot of genres represented under the 'alternative rock' banner (not sure why this site calls it grunge, its in a similar scene but I wouldn't lump the Smashing Pumpkins sound with something like Mudhoney or Alice in Chains). There's something in this album for any music lover, just be patient. Also that one star review guy at the top of the reviews is too British, you can ignore his opinion.

Fats Domino is one of the most important people of the 20th century for christening Rock and Roll. The repercussions of such music has affected so much of the cultural history of humanity and who knows what to humanity and creativity. Or to put it quite simply: this fucks. It fucked so hard in the 1950s it helped desegregate America because black and white people wanted to get drunk and boogie down to this dude. Elvis said he was the King of Rock and Roll, and it's impossible not to hear anything from this record and not hear the trickle

Really just a classic fun hip hop record. The other side of the LA rap scene that wasn't as glamorized vs gangsta rap. Bay Area had that rap scene focused more on partying and hustling over the gangsta shit, but that doesn't scare white people reading the news as much as NWA. Fun stuff.

I'm going to keep my personal thoughts about this album offline. But it's good.

Overall a pleasant, if boring album. Norah Jones propped up her career at the right time as corporate coffee shops became big and wanted to promote an environment where you can think or be in a calm place while drinking your overpriced caffeinated beverage and or a sweet pastry. Very uncontroversial and safe, especially after 9/11. This isn't my thing, but it's probably a lot of other peoples thing, the pop minded folks or the boring corporate legal/other world types. I like my music more rock-focused or crazy, none of that is here. Some good instrumental parts are here, but again this just isn't music for me, but definitely has that wide appeal that works so well. Norah is clearly talented (and comes from a music family) and it shows here.

this shit would go wild on some nitrous in the middle of an acid trip

At some point I had to cover the Smiths for this list. They exist. Morrissey's self-indulgent personality ("oh woe is me" personified and of course it would be someone British) is the one factor that separates The Smiths from being one of the greatest. OF course that gets rid of a good half of their songs. Insert joke about how Queen Elizabeth actually died here except I'm like a year too late to make that joke.

The Sgt. Peppers of Hip Hop in terms of the creativity and complexity of how it transformed the genre like The Beatles did with rock/psychedelic rock, Outkast created a timeless classic for generations to come.

shoutout to Frank Zappa and having some idiot with a flare gun at one of his concerts inspire rock music's Louie Louie riff part two.

Was going to have to go through some country albums, which after getting constant classic, rock albums I've already listened to several times before. The Louvin Brothers were classic (nepo babies) Grand Ole Opry country/folk musicians. One brother known for a violent temper and "womanizing", the other for being not that. At least most of these songs are darker in nature, because it could get worse. There's something to be said about the golden era of vocal harmonies that started around the 50s/60s, and its the strength of this album. Alas it is a old country record back when the music business was just as crooked but also more formal and business-like when it came to creating music (quickly) and releasing singles at incredibly random times. There's a couple songs here I like In The Pines, Katie Dear and Knoxville Girl, but my favorite is the opening track Kentucky, where the strengths of the Louvin Brothers and that close harmony-era is as beautiful as it was the day it was recorded. The flaws? If I wanted that sound I would listen to something more upbeat and good like Motown records. But for the sake of Americana music culture, it would be hard-pressed to skip this album. Not the most iconic country record ever (Louvin Brothers would have a short career together as one of them died from a car accident), so I guess this was 'the one' aside from the memed-upon 'Satan is Real' Gospel record. I'd rather hear country than Gospel, and I haven't come across any Gospel albums yet. Not sure how to end this review, it's more of a historic relic compared to some more exciting 50s records, that are almost all surprisingly jazz and blues related.....

hemispheres is better

A transformative early 70s album, the impact of glam rock on rock and roll/pop music and its influence today is still felt in the pop world and in the perception of rock and roll. While this is an iconic album, I wish it was a bit more uptempo (like all songs were like Rip Off), but still an enjoyable listen. RIP Marc Bolan and Mark Volman (no relation)

I've listened to a lot of Nirvana and can never really figure out my opinion on this album, until right now. It's about four stars, give or take.

Never heard of this guy before this selection. It's easy to see a Canadian artist and quietly think to yourself if the government funded promotion of Canadian musical artists has struck gold with this guy. I also question why that very same government can't help an impeccable band like Voivod, but alas. I'll get this out of the way: not a chamber music fella. I like rhythm and upbeat stuff, and chamber is simply not for my musical DNA. When my favorite artist Frank Zappa composed a chamber music album I still disliked it. Baroque stuff I don't feel as strongly. That stuff works well. The production is incredibly well put together. Lots of background instruments in good space from one another, creating a great theatrical vibe while feeling like some sort of Britpop record at times, except with better production (I'm explicitly calling out Oasis right here). The slower parts of this album make me question why this could be pop when it doesn't really gauge the listener too much, especially with longer than average pop tracks for all but two songs. I wish it blended more of an art rock sort of sound because this dude surely loves to use banjos on a bunch of songs. I can recognize that this simply isn't for me, with a couple of tracks I can highlight that I liked: Vicious World, Movies of Myself (mainly for the piano/organ/synthesizers) and Beautiful Child. But the rest is droll at best and I hate to say it but the album is just a drag to listen to and get to. It will appeal to probably some more musical-inclined people, chamber music folk, but I NEED DRUMS. I NEED PERCUSSION. I NEED RHYTHM AHHHHHH SHIT GOD DAMN FUCK. Fucking get vibraphones and make them louder or something. Marimbas are a fine substitute, but all this extra background shit and you only add percussive stuff on a couple songs is where it pushes me too far. Listen Canada, you're 1:1 with good and bad music. That's good! But it's also bad. As a result, there's plenty of mid. I'm sure there are better representation of your country's music than this guy. Great production only goes so far to save an album. This album has a sequel that is also in this collection. Perhaps I'm not aware of the significance of Rufus Wainwright in the chamber/baroque/"pop opera" world, but I don't think he needs two albums to be mentioned here.

My favorite Byrds album, and it is much better than Rubber Soul.

It's been a while since I've put on this album, and with a new sound system vs whatever I was using in high school when I last listened to this album in full, it's even better than I remember. Read whatever other people wrote about this album that made it significant for Manchester/England and its impact on music today. Very special kind of sound that is often imitated but never really quite replicated.

Ahh yes, the "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" guys, as they are known to Americans like me who have viewed this band as a One Hit Wonder in our country. I was messaging a girl on one of those contrived dating apps many moons ago and she told me her favorite band was The Darkness, and she was seriously into them even as she knew not many people knew about them. But you don't forget "I Believe In A Thing Called Love", a very early 2000s rock song that...works actually. And this album was....surprisingly pretty good. Especially as rock and roll was beginning to decline from its highest points of the 60s-90s. Even more surprising from a band that actually manages to mix glam metal and hard rock to make it not so very "cringe". I'm not sure there's much else to explore from this band, one of many to "suffer" with their debut album also being their creative best. They have a cultish following in America and are probably bigger in their homeland in the UK. Does it belong on this list? Ehhhhhhh, there's a lot worse on this list and The Darkness are sort of rock and roll (and more certainly for Glam Metal)'s last grasp of being in the mainstream. Also god damn yeah that dude can sing incredibly high pitched. That's probably worthy of the inclusion alone aside from their biggest hit. Wonder how many glasses he broke as a pub trick. The Darkness might have peaked quick and early, but they left some kind of impact: that you can make glam metal and not be totally cringe or too in on the joke like Steel Panther (good band).

The definitive Psychedelic Folk Pop record. Tragic story about the frontman. Definitely "peak" as for 60s hippie music goes.

YO THIS SHIT IS PEAK FR

Yo white boy speakin mad facts. If you want to know why people make fun of Bob Dylan just hear him on this album babble on like the beatnik he is. Not my favorite Dylan record but it shows that moment he was making early 60s rendition of earlier folk/blues records before he went electric and became modestly more palatable for people's earholes

This challenge has given me a good introduction to Psychedelic Soul: a genre I was probably interested in all along and never got around to it. This is so much better than My Girl.

The beginning of what the pop world would see as 'electronic music'. Sure there were other rock bands that used synthesizers like the Mothers of Invention, Sun Ra (I said rock bands but as a synth guy I would be hard pressed to mention who Moog gave their first minimoog to) or Silver Apples and 20th century composers that incorporated electronic music with avant-garde results but Kraftwerk were perhaps the first to make it all make sense in the formal dictionary definition of pop music (for the 70s). It's a bit more approachable than The Stooges we'll say. It's nothing short of an iconic record, but I'll shout out the other side of the album that doesn't get nearly the same amount of attention as Autobahn the song. Kometenmelodie 1+2 are dope

I just turned 10 when this album came out, and while I didn't truly begin my attention towards music listening for a couple years after, the songs of this album were unavoidable like hearing Rumors on the Adult Contemporary radio. And despite being the prime age for this record and all that post-DC emo bullshit and Linkin Park nu-metal drek, I NEVER wanted to hear this record. It's not that I hate Green Day (could care less/more into Dookie), it's that I could tell at a young age that it wasn't for me. Time to me a good sport and hear this record. American Idiot, the self-titled song, is good enough even though the guitar riff - stop - guitar riff rhythm is annoying. It shows the review theme of this album for me: when the tempo is high, it's fine. The slower song? Oh my G-d there is a reason that this album was very divisive. It was such a commercial success that Green Day changed their slacker 90s punk rock image into......well Green Day of today. As I would normally say, there's plenty of shitty bands in the world and I wouldn't put Green Day in that category. I would for Linkin Park though, fight me. Jesus of Suburbia, sort of a punk medley of 3-4 songs, is kind of a modern A Quick One While He's Away. The best parts of JoS is the middle. It's otherwise cromulent. Holiday I think is the best song of the album. The riff and chorus work perfectly together here. Not sure why some streamed versions combine Holiday with "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", a song to me at this point has lost all meaning and is essentially a meme. That and Wonderwall should not be these big explosive rock songs that people that had to think of rock music would think of those two songs before some better songs that I won't list that will make me feel like a boomer. The composition to Boulevard is good, which makes it superior to Wake Me Up When September Ends, which is essentially everything negative I said about Boulevard of Broken Dreams, but worse. After those songs, I think I'm at the point where I don't know the other half of the album. Are We The Waiting reminds me of how very hit or miss Billie Joe Armstrong's are, and get even worse with that backing chorus too. St. Jimmy is better (again I do not know why some of these songs are combined on streaming). Give Me Novocaine is alright, not much of a standout. She's a Rebel is fine, it's upbeat on this album so it's definitely not bad. Extraordinary Girl sounds like a generic late 90s/2000s rock song. At this point I should bring up that this is a concept album/rock opera about a story that can be summarized like this: young millennial feels jaded about the world!!!!! It's something that's very on-par for the 2000s (and to be fair, it's justified FUCK GEORGE W BUSH). I'll admit I can't be assed to read more deep into the rock opera stuff, though I respect the band's decision to try and not make it hamfisted about the Iraq War (which would've been more fun) in order to preserve the album's legacy. A bit of a costly trade-off for the time, because we could've really used Good Music in the early War on Terror-era over all the shitty "patriotic" country bullshit. One could argue the soul of punk died there without a bigger response against the Iraq/Afghanistan bullshit, but it did exist. Rock Against Bush was around, although not as popular as the dumbass Americans that felt like we needed revenge and not think about the consequence of our retaliation (that sounds very familiar....). I couldn't tell you more about how the general consensus of Americans were thinking at the time, because I was in grade school. Okay back to the album. Letterbomb is the good kind of energy I wish was universal for the album, even if it won't sell as many records as the next song up, that September bullshit song I already talked about. Homecoming is the second of the actually-a-medley song, and it's 9 minutes of basically the same power chord-Billy Joe singing structure that pretty much defines Green Day. It's at that point where American Idiot as an album gets too repetitive for its own good: there was a sharp reason why the Ramones never made an album longer than 50 minutes (aside from live records). THIS FUCKING ALBUM DRAGS ON, your nostalgia glasses can't really blind that. The few interesting guitar parts are on the bridge for the song, which makes it very shortlived. It crumbles on itself, other than the message the album brings out which is probably the strongest part of American Idiot: the idea itself before the executed concept. That sound is coupled with the Loudness Wars in peak form: the perfect storm of many early 2000s rock/metal music. There's dynamics funny enough, washed away by the singing and guitar. I'm curious how Tre Cool views the production on this album because it makes me feel bad for the guy. The last song (on the original release) is Whatsername. That's the name of the women-interest of the album's rock opera. I think I've had enough mini diatribes at this point for a review. The song itself sounds like almost everything else that came out in 2003/2004. This is a real love it or hate it album, but there's very few things I like from the album. The nostalgia of hating the War on Terror/Bush/Osama feels dainty 20 years in the future, as pretty much all of our problems from back then have not been fixed today and things have gone worse for the most part. In short, if you liked emo music and metalcore or nu metal or whatever cringe music was popular at the time: this record is an all-timer. If you're anyone else that has no passion for that era or those music genres: you have a generic (in a Seinfeld is Unfunny effect, although not 100% but plays a part) rock sound for the early 2000s that contributed to the staleness of the genre that would struggle to evolve further in the 21st century. I do leave finishing this album appreciating it maybe 10% more than I normally did (which was maybe at almost zero), but it does not give me a satisfactory feeling to listen or go through it, as the good parts of this album were all spaced from each other. But yeah, I know. People that don't really seek out the weeds of music know "American Idiot", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Holiday" (the good song), and that shit "Wake Me Up When September Ends" crap and are a mainstay in rock canon as the genre struggles to achieve the heights it had in the 50s-90s. Billy Joe Armstrong's voice is divisive, but I think the worst parts of this album is that the power chords and guitar just sound the same on almost every track. Again, the lack of dynamics is understandable for a punk record, but you're making a punk rock opera that's almost an hour long. You NEED dynamics to make that shit sound like you're doing something with it. It just sounds like a loud pop punk record which fucking Blink 182, another band I don't want to care for, could sound better. Green Day made a significant number of moneys from this album, stuck to their new popular image, and essentially retries the same formula from this album over and over again to success (mostly from their large fanbase, good on them to have one). This band would never stay as the pop/skate punk darlings of the 90s that Dookie created for them. Is this "selling out"? I'll leave that question as philosophical insight. Ultimately, I get why this album is on the list. It's iconic, which is a sign for the word that iconic doesn't necessarily mean good or epic or a must listen, just that it was very big for its time against an unpopular war (that started out very popular) and along with Californication by RHCP, some of the last big "rock and roll records". I don't know if it aged well with the loudness war shit, but I didn't fully hate it like I thought I would. I do still dislike the record, in part because most of it sounds too similar and most of the reasons you hear people not liking Green Day come into effect very much so here. Check out next time when I have to listen to Black Parade by MCR and write even more negatively about a band I also never cared for from around the same era that sounds worse. Joy!

No idea about anything regarding Calexico the band or this album specifically before I started listening to Feast of Wire. And it's another great pleasant surprise from the generator!. Calexico is a band that is pretty hard to define. "Alternative country" but maybe 2-3 songs on the album sound country. Regardless of whether or not its a notable album of music history, it is sonically a great album from a pretty unique space given that time period of music in the early 2000s. True indie gold.

I knew this band as one of the greatest band names of all time before I heard any of there music, until today. This is quite an eclectic record, especially for the mid 80s. Reminds me of Foetus but more approachable for weirdos that haven't gotten fully out there. Take 80s pop with strong post punk sensibilities and make it even weirder.

Right at the pinnacle of Eric Clapton's height and would be the best record he was on if it wasn't for Cream existing. Duane Allman (RIP) is the one that shines the most on this album, and it really pisses me off that Clapton the racist is the last one alive from this band. Although Jim Gordon did murder his mom and was genuinely an insane individual, at least he (probably) wasn't a racist bigot. But this is also one of the best blues rocks (studio) albums ever. Drags on for a bit more than the typical album of its time? Yeah but Duane Allman's time on this planet was short and his impact on the guitar is immeasurable like Hendrix. I implore you weird normies of this website: ignore the Clapton, praise Duane. Duane only did good in his short life. Fuck you if otherwise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll try and be brief: I really liked this album and was in a phase of my life at the end of high school/starting college when I listened to this album heavily and got into Kanye (thanks to a 21st Century Schizoid man sample in 'Power') for a while. I even saw him live with Kendrick Lamar opening for him. This album is a hip hop masterpiece in and of itself, Kanye at his creative height beyond the producer-turned-college-dropout indie rapper and into this maximalist king of both worlds (and still suck at mixing drums right). But he's also an avid nazi. Not even just a sympathizer, a nazi. He can fuck off. Outkast weren't nazis and made albums just as creative as ABDTF, and perhaps even better. 5/5 otherwise. But nazis are hateful scum. Such a shame.

Foreward: Aside from knowing the hit singles, I only heard Pornography from The Cure, earlier on in this challenge like two or three months ago. Excited to check out what Kyle Brolofski would call, "the greatest album ever". I would prefer Pornography over Disintegration but I like hearing more of that same sound than the mid 80s poppy The Cure. My only complaint is that Lovesong is kind of boring thanks to overexposure (probably helped by being one of the few pop-sounding songs for radio on the album). Solid band, terrific albums.

I don't celebrate Christmas and Phil Spector is a murderer. Never cared for Christmas music as a result. Pass.

Has Free Bird. 5/5.

Had to put off listening to this album for a week or so because of vacation and the post-vacation sickness. As to be expected with a Soulquarian-aligned album, you have some very strong production: J Dilla and Questlove are in on it! Erykah has a fairly unique voice: high-pitched with a hint of gravel to it. Probably not for everyone's taste, but she makes it work incredibly well. The album flows from song to song in an instant, no pauses or anything. Very fluid. Maybe because I'm listening to this on a rainy monday morning, but it hits quite hard. Not too much a fan of the love songs (In Love With You, Orange Moon is mostly okay) but overall a very solid album.

As the son of Deadheads, Janis along with all the big 60s psychedelic artists play a big role in my music upbringing. It's very upsetting she did not have long for this planet like many of those artists, but what she left still has a big impact on popular music today. Pearl is the last of her recorded work and contains some of her strongest stuff, although I still prefer the Big Brother and the Holding Company records. Would've been really cool for her to not die and be a cool guest for some future Grateful Dead shows.

Of Metallica's first four albums, Master of Puppets is probably the most refined for some newbie's first metal album or for those that don't like the general (because they are scared babies hearing loud music for the first time). Master of Puppets still rules, although my favorite of theirs is Ride The Lightning. MoP was the correct combination of a good sounding [production/mixing] metal album, which if you knew the thrash metal scenes at the time of the 80s, did not exactly have some of the cleanest sounding recordings around. Just remember that without Diamond Head, Metallica probably doesn't get their signature sound. RIP Cliff Burton

Spiritualized is cool but all their albums have slow openers or otherwise don't really get interesting until the 2nd or third song. After a while, the albums usually rip. Fun otherwise.

Aretha Franklin is THE greatest singer in American history. This record is one of several reasons why that is the case.

One of the more recent additions to this list, which really caught me off guard because I thought the latest album on this website was from 2019. I'm no expert in modern R&B vs the older stuff, I think it's important for people to truly have an open mind and actually try to get into music that is outside of their comfort zone. Which is my mindset for approaching this album for the first time. I'm certainly not the demographic as a white cismale, but I do own several synthesizers. I come out of listening to Heaux Tales without any real solid opinion of the album. It is okay, and that is fine. It is fine that it is an okay and fine album. I liked Bodies, Pick Up Your Feelings, Price Tags, and The Other Side. I could leave out the rest of the album. How impactful and its legacy is not something I can forecast or think of, with regards to this list and the albums on it. I will say it's better this is here than fucking Kid Rock or Korn/Limp Biscuit. Doesn't address my main criticism of the list being biased towards European ethnocentric artists, but it's something different. On a different note, Bob Weir died today and he is fucking amazing. Rest in Power to a real one.

The peak of my time listening to Muse was around my first few years of high school. For one reason or another, I just never really cared too much about them after a while. I think I still prefer Origin of Symmetry over Black Holes and Revelations. Just has more bangers. Will give this a four because Knights of Cydonia still hits.

I guess all The Smiths albums are on this list. Not quite sure why that has to be, when this is arguably the weakest of their strong repertoire (they're all fine albums so its pretty much picking the worst child, which was you Edward. Fuck you.). I would've picked some other album from a different band that isn't on this list instead of Strangeways, but I assume this was the "safe pick". I wonder how many David Bowie albums on this list were the "safe pick", since he has 9. Zappa should have at least more than four. This has now devolved to a meaningless rant, which is a far more interesting thing to read about versus all the self-indulgent wankery Morrissey sings and talks about for the most part. That guy is a dick.

David Gray is something of an interesting guy. My local radio station (remember when radio stations had character before corporate media conglomerates sucked the soul out of the creative artform?) would play "Babylon" all the time. One of those songs played often enough that captured the sound of the radio station, one of many stripes if it was a good one. KFOG (San Francisco) was a good one indeed. Back to David Gray: he might be the most random dude to pretty much inadvertently make one of the longest charted albums in UK history while being a fairly ordinary musician/dude (read: no known mental health issues/not an alcoholic or drug abuser). This guy made some album that catched as much fire as Dark Side of the Moon. White Ladder starts out pretty hot, but fizzles out (unless you like that sort of boring 'adult contemporary' music) near the end. Overall a fine record, nothing spectacular like the sales and chart figures would indicate, but can be defined as Douglas Adams once succinctly wrote about the human race, it's "mostly harmless". Babylon is still the highlight, along with Please Forgive Me and Nightblindness, but there's not too much more to this record than what you can grasp out of the first couple of songs. David Gray is a fine singer who made a fine album that won the music lottery in terms of sales. That's really great for him. There are plenty of worse people that have won the music lottery and have gone off the deep end mentally or socially or have some other negative social consequence. Now to meet someone, anyone, that calls themselves a diehard David Gray fan, just to see someone on the street that can name more than two or three albums this dude made if not for White Ladder alone. I'm sure there are dozens of these people, just probably not in the United States.

Manic Street Preachers are a band that has persevere through some of rock and roll's lowest moments in terms of a band tragedy. You could feel that ooze all over Everything Must Go. Richey Edwards meant more to to the band and their chemistry perhaps more than what he outputted as a member of the band. More than a hypeman, but more of a 6th man in basketball. The Holy Bible is a much stronger work over Everything Must Go, with a good percent of that difference is rooted in the dark lyricism and conceptual theme to Richey. But the band kept playing and had a pretty strong bounce back in spite of the trauma and darkness that led to Richey's disappearance (likely a suicide no matter what the band members and family say). So yeah, I would say Manic are a lot better of a band than Oasis's wankery for "britpop" standards. I think MSP were a bit more of a harder band than the typical britpop 90s act, much more clear punk influence in their music.

Perhaps one of the more obscure selections on this list, Giant Sand/Howe Gelb is not a band/guy that I hear too much about. That scene of music in Arizona in general doesn't get enough attention compared to other music scenes of America. Twin Cities Minnesota is a smaller are in population but have much more documented history than the variety of weird music that comes from the desert. Shout out to a band probably not on this list: Yawning Man. Kind of easy to just summarize the band as an Arizona/Southwestern version of Silver Jews or a softer Pavement or "Wilco-esque" but I strive to avoid cliches as much as I can. Chore of Enchantment has an interesting variety of sound on the album, perhaps not to the level that Calexico's Feast of Wire surprised me by. Something like "Satellite" is stylistically different from the rest of the album's more indie/alt-country dominant sound. X-tra Wide, Temptation of Egg and Astonished (In Memphis) were other highlights for me in ways that I felt too lazy to transition that last sentence to this one. That indie/slacker sounding stuff isn't much for me, though I dig the alt-country/southwestern sound influence. I'd prefer something like Silver Jews or Calexico, but this album definitely would scratch those that like that sort of music (I guess Calexico is less lyrics-focused than previous bands mentioned in comparison). Not quite sure how this album landed on the list, by streams alone it appears to be one of the least-heard albums on the list. But I think its uniqueness within the genre is worth noting, it's a bit more than it looks and seemingly not (if you know that Wilco/Silver Jews sound) at the same time. Overall as an album: not bad. Not necessarily a legendary or otherwise phenomenal album, but kind of an album that experience is like side-eying something modestly interesting from a long road trip, and that being one of the core memories of the trip that your brain, for one reason or another, just can't shake off. Not in a negative sense, but because brains are fucking weird and hard to control many times, sometimes, for people.

One of the most solid albums out there. Highly recommend for grieving people cause Michael Stripe's voice hits me like few singers before him (shout out Jerry Garcia). Thank you R.E.M.

Morrissey is a known asshole and while I like to veto albums of the "asshole" category (namely Kid Rock and Kanye West), I attribute his assholeness as an overly opinionated wanker that translates to his songwriting (half the time, essentially anytime he's not thinking about himself it's good). Or to put it bluntly, he hasn't gone full nazi. Personally I blame the Britishness, especially the tabloids. I don't think this album is as good as The Smiths stuff, but it convinced me that Morrissey is a person who is able to succeed in spite of himself, very rare to find nowadays. He can find good guitarists, great producers/engineers and essentially surround himself with people that know what they're doing. Incredible stuff. Your Arsenal starts well, really dig the first two tracks. Didn't like the next two following them. The rest was somewhere between okay and average, save for "You're the One for Me, Fatty" (what's with this dude and long song titles). I liked that one. Morrissey was a big enough name to get a spot on this list, but he has two records on this list. I haven't listened to the other to say which one "deserves" a spot over the other, but I think it's safe to say he doesn't need two albums on here. Would really like to give this two stars because Morrissey is a prick, but the overall album is a perfectly cromulent three stars, in spite of himself.

Daft Punk was one of the first electronic bands I got into, and as popular as Around The World was, I was more into Discovery, a truly remarkable record. Didn't give a lot of thought to Homework, but it's a fun record to reflect onto now as a Electronic musician myself (check me out at schles.bandcamp.com for avant-garde synth shit). Homework was a revolutionary album for Electronic music's impact on the world. Kraftwerk in Germany demonstrated the mechanical man-machine kind of sound, and Yellow Magic Orchestra in Japan showed a more colorful, creative approach if Kraftwerk was meant to be cold and calculating (but look at how much fun they have with their pocket calculators!). Daft Punk, in France taking influence from Chicago House, perhaps represented an accessible form of rave music to the masses. Indeed Revolution 909 is meant to be a statement of sorts against how the French government negatively portrayed people that went to raves vs rock concerts. Beyond that, Homework functions as a hallmark of electronic music's 90s sort of golden age. Reforming disco music and making it go harder, skipping formal songwriting and going straight into the groove of it. Homework functions as many things, and its eclecticism of its time has aged.........maybe not the best? It's very much an album that sounds like its time, something prone to the synthesizer tools of the time (for all the people complaining about it being repetitive, buddy you should learn how to use 90s sequencers). Daft Punk were doing something extraordinary, and easier to digest in the same groundbreaking way Aphex Twin was to the genre. Doing more with less with Around the World while also acting as an octopus for repetitive grooves (Da Funk) really does work well. but it also sounds so incredibly 90s. I don't think that means it is a negative version of the Seinfeld is Unfunny trope, but it can make the album feel cliche when it was something more than that. No but seriously how is Discovery not on this list?

Sometimes you can let white boys get a little funky and it works

I am a brave boy who is open minded enough about music for this and not linkin park specifically. That is my mantra before I listen to this album. A friend of mine suggested "don't think too deep and let your white boy fly". I will do that, maybe snort some glue while we're at it. I don't want to comment on album covers but it's definitely not the best look. Given the name of the album, I don't think I should have expected some minimalist bullshit or something half decent. I do respect that limp bizkit/suprisingly not a horrible person Fred Durst will do things their way and not give a fuck about what other people think. I'll also say this list has too much nu metal to actual metal on the list. They could've at least included Deftones' White Pony if they wanted a strong album in that field. We have Kid Rock, KoRn, and Limp Bizkit. I think I'd rather keep that one KoRn album over either of those three, but White Pony is a better album than those bands. Anyways to the actual music Even giving this album a chance, it hasn't really impressed me. It's clear to hear the music that influenced Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit, but it feels like conflicting styles and not really fully blended together, a staple of many a nu metal sound. There's some CD era-itis with having hidden songs on a few tracks and songs that feel a bit too much longer than they need to be. These problems would continue to many other albums over the span of the next few years, and this is merely a sympton of the problem rather than case zero. Rolling is good. Hot Dog is probably the one song I can't tell if I hate or like, but very much resembles that "conflicting of styles without being sure which lane to stay in works best" problem I mentioned earlier. Uniqueness isn't inherently good, because you can still produce unique shitty ideas. Look at Silicon Valley and their start-up company cults that get propped around there hundreds of times a day. Limp Bizkit were certainly, for their time, a unique band that blended rap and metal/rock differently from earlier attempts with a more pop focus that would inspire a bunch of mainly shitty bands in the 2000s. Some of this was "nu metal" and the tamer for non-edgelord people was "postgrunge". Neither of which helped rock and roll's popularity to continue past the 2000s with the further rise of Hip Hop overshadowing the genre and the groove of Electronic music would later blend to pop music and still be pushing on forward with EDM/dubstep and influence hip hop with drill/100 gecs shit. And so on, and so forth. I'd rather not get into high and low culture (let some shitty silicon valley startup company using mechanical turk-ass AI to get someone from southeast asia to answer your question about that instead of using wikipedia), but Limp Bizkit and Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water were certainly kings of low culture along with Insane Clown Posse. I mean no offense to this, but that is a legacy to have and behold. You gotta remember that this sold very well. It's not necessarily like TV where you appeal directly to the lowest common denominator for ratings, but it appealed to enough lower/middle class white people who could relate to Fred Durst's problems of being a working class Floridian. There's a lot of people in that market. Honestly many of the songs are fairly similar: the guitar riffs/tone, Fred's shockingly honest lyrics about being a melancholic white boy with some mild form of being bipolar, the bass somehow being out of the recording because it's not the lead guitar, and the drums are okay, if lackluster. Some songs stick out: The One is a bit more Incubus sounding on the guitar and mid-song tempo shift, and isn't really that typical 'limp bizkit' stereotype. Getcha Groove On (Xzibit version, which seems to be the new main version of that song) is palatable. Boiler has different riffs and more annoying screams. Hold On doesn't screech my ears and I actually appreciate or enjoy it similar to The One. Maybe Fred Durst could have tried doing post-rock, would have been much more interesting than this album. I can say now that I don't completely hate limp bizkit, but it's hard to find a reason to like this band as someone that really does not like to test the waters of a genre that sturgeon's law couldn't even defend. It's not even formally in the list anymore. It has a purpose and some legacy, not necessarily the most positive but not all negative either. It's like the famous metaphor of the Grateful Dead and black licorice. A lot of people really don't like black licorice, but the people that love black licorice really love black licorice. If you really like this sort of sound in music (record sales don't like unlike the music charts these days with streaming), it's a great record. But who am I to say, I've been to over two dozen Phish shows. People hate on them and their sound, and like Limp Bizkit haters, probably don't really know what the band actually sounds like other than memes and outbursts (Phish has significantly fewer mainstream memes than limp Bizkit/Fred Durst have). Now I can say that I have listened to Limp Bizkit, and still don't really care for them. I won't say I'm a hater, but I'll keep rolling rolling rolling rolling rolling my eyes whenever I hear the name.

What's crazy (or not) about Kings of the Wild Frontier is that it's one of the most 80s album to ever exist, only stopped short by its lack of synthesizers. This was the best selling album in the UK in 1981, which would not be my first guess. You can hear the early bits of this sound you would hear all throughout the 80s: new wave. Just add synthesizers, and you got the instant ramen of the record industry for the time. Aside from being overly 80s, it's a pretty alright record. Definitely channeled that punk energy from their early part of the career only add some nonsensical lyrics (we're not going to talk about The Human Beings), and an interesting mix of Burundi drums(!) and it becomes an album with an interesting sense of rhythm, especially for a new wave album. It's sort of sounds like Richard Hell and the Voidoids and David Bowie, if David Bowie liked cultural appropriation and stayed making Let's Dance-esque records. Lots of upbeat energetic stuff that keeps the album engaging. This album reminds me of The Teardrop Explodes' Kilimanjaro if it was less psychedelic and more punk/dived more into new wave. Both albums were released around one month apart in 1980, where 70s music and influence was in the process of crossing into the 80s commercial sound (new wave) as Disco was essentially phased out. I like Kilimanjaro more, but I do like the punk energy mixed with an interesting rhythm section you wouldn't hear in the typical new wave music that was to come. It somehow stands out in that fact, but cannot hide the shamelessly 80s camp vibe the album provides. Whether or not your view on 80s cheese and camp, still worth a listen.

This guy is a nazi. You often hear "yeah Kanye sucks/is a nazi but he made College Dropout!" grow up. Listen to the Roots if you want good alternative hip hop from the early 2000's that didn't involve gangsta rap/excessive bravado. Fuck this piece of shit.

This is a band I see talked more about music journalists or critics over day to day conversations. Not that their totally obscure or something, but even among my friend groups of people in different music scenes and tastes wouldn't ever care to bring them up. The whole 'indie pop' thing that exploded in the mid to late 2000s was not something that ever appealed to me. At least it's not a sad white singer-songwriter boy with an acoustic guitar. [Editor's Note, which is me who is also the writer that is also me: My last.fm logs say I have listened to this album in 2011, and I do not remember having done so at all. I have re-listened to the album of course] Let me expand more on my dislike for indie pop, since this album essentially fits that late 2000s/early 2010s mode to a T, minus the aforementioned acoustic guitar stereotype. The BPM/pace is slower, sung in a manner that makes the scene seem competitive on who can mumble or speak as softly as possible. There are synthesizers and I will never complain about that. Fantasy has this great bass on it that you have to go through a minute of boring indie pop singing to hear it. I'm not the best at hearing lyrics through songs so I may be rhythmically biased (as you can read), but my hearing focuses on the sound of the vocals like you could imagine hearing someone sing in a foreign language. The vocals aren't bad, just boring and not engaging. The engaging part feels forced on the deep breath-sounding reverb. Shelter could be engaging song if the drums could be played with someone that can play faster than a heartbeat. That gives me the most ire of the genre/xx: PLEASE SOUND LIKE YOU'RE ALIVE IN THE ROOM. Drums being this mellow enrages my soul. And even when the drums are present, it's got the repetitive boring beats to it and not even the Krautrock motorik style that you could appreciate or feel shroomed out hearing it. I could go on and on about certain complaints, but it's just me saying something that something is boring or basic. I don't like to rank things one star unless I truly abhor it (in contrast I'm fairly lenient about 5 star records, which is essentially a "fuck yeah" from me or really digging something I haven't heard before), but this album does capture a sound of a decade, a pretty shitty one at that I grew up in. I think in a sense it's an iconic and reasonable inclusion on the list. Lots of boring bands were inspired by this sound, in a small group of genres one ought to formally call "millennial bullshit". Stomp and Clap, Indie Pop, Postgrunge: working together to make rock music sound sterile in three different ways. There's nothing on xx, even the parts that I liked in most of the songs that makes me feel like hearing any of the songs again on my shuffle playlist filled of all the music I like, which is over 30,000 songs. All the cool surf guitar tones, synthesizer tricks, an occasionally interesting bass line: I can find all of that elsewhere. There's a reason they say you need to learn three chords, because using the same two over and over again on different songs would make the Ramones scoff and laugh. The reason for my dismay for this music is that I cannot stand the vocals, the lack of good rhythm, the slow-paced nature of a "pop" record, it's all too conventional and corporate-approved emotional music. I need life in my music, I want to feel energy or some kind of actual vibration or pulse of vibration to feel moved by music. It just sounds lifeless or a soul was sucked out of someone. This was the sound of 2009/2010 if you hated partying and club music, but felt perfectly okay about synthesizers lest you hear it go too fast, loose, and crazy. SAT/ACT prep music to study to ass shit. Music to lower your blood pressure to dangerous levels to. I feel like Miles Davis talking about that cat Steve Miller writing all of this. Two thumbs down.

Doolittle is one of my most listened to albums (I do listen to a lot of music on shuffle, and Pixies were one of the first bands I liked when I got seriously into music in freshman year of high school or so: so they came up on shuffle a lot). A genuine masterpiece mixture of strong songwriting, punk energy, and chaotic results. Something about the album has aged perfectly, almost making you forget it was a late 80s record. Too many classic songs to talk about.

The classic true finale of The Doors is an album that is at the crossroads of Blues and Psychedelic Rock in its waning years. A true masterpiece of both: the looseness feeling of both genres in L.A Woman makes you feel like you're in various stages of early 70s Los Angeles: the Freak scene at its end while many other songs pine about love and drugs and various other Jim Morrison poetry. A true 'classic rock' album that is best served with really good loudspeakers and some whiskey, around 6-8 hours into an acid trip. Shout-out to homeboy Ray Manzarek.

MGMT was a pretty big band around the time I started seriously listening to music, and as popular (and alternative for the 2000s) sounding as they were, I think I was more focused on stuff like Justice, Aphex Twin, Pendulum or Daft Punk for electronic sounding stuff. Certainly for Pendulum with how they blended rock and roll with drum and bass. MGMT I think was too "poppy" for me, what with Electric Feel and Kids being played enough times to help bankroll the band I mean record label for a good while. I think the production on the album is aging very well, the songs themselves are mostly fine. Vocals are eh, the synth-lines are mostly great and sound properly abrasive/distorted. It's weird this album is known for its hooks (Electric Feel and Kids mainly, Time to Pretend is fine) but I think the overall sound and production on this album is what saves it from being some ordinary millennial indie pop bullshit slop. But for pop based lyrics and hooks, this is about two standard deviations above the norm (this is good). They aren't bad songs but it's more like looking at it like a microscope is more fascinating than the fully zoomed image we're accustomed to seeing. tl;dr: not as cringe as I thought it would be I think stuff like "The Youth", "4th Dimensional Transition" and "Of Moons, Birds and Monsters" is better than the lead singles. Otherwise it's an alright album. As popular is it is/was, I can't feel myself strongly disliking it or digging it, save for the production. It gets a pass

I think the first track is overrated but the rest of the album is filled with bangers.

My favorite MSP album: dark and brutally honest as it gets.

I had something written up but this website doesn't save drafts very well and I don't feel like typing up everything I've typed all over again, I'll just say that it's a great last album from an iconic singer songwriter who knows he's at death's door.

I prefer Beck's 90s output, but Lonesome Tears and Round the Bend have some very good synth sounds for the early 2000s.

One of the lowest rated albums on this list, probably stemming from the fact that Throbbing Gristle is simply just not an easy band to listen to. Not in the pretentious Tool way, but in the incredibly weird avant-garde/inaccessible way. There wasn't "industrial" music in the 70s (we do not talk about Metal Machine Music), and some weirdo band had to foreshadow the sounds of underground 80s music/eventually mainstream(?!) by the late 80s/early 90s. But yeah, I guess somehow Kid Rock is better than this apparently. Easier to be lowbrow and ergo accessible than to make something crazily unique for no expectation of monetary reward for the most zonked-out people on the planet. Oh yeah the music. There really isn't anything quite like it before or since. Lots of synths, tape manipulation (some really find work in this department especially for the late 70s), spoken word. Like Crass if they were more musically-inclined and a bit more sophisticated. I love stuff like I.B.M., Dead on Arrival and AB/7A. Really great synth work for the late 70s, quite impressive stuff and good thanks to Chris Carter for that. I'm also the kind of person to find music that can make me feel disturbed or off-feeling, it's rare to get that out of music unlike choosing to watch a horror movie where you have a plethora of options, I don't find that much music that can give me the good ol' goosebumps so shout out to Hamburger Lady when I heard that the first time. Listening to this album for the list is the second time I've heard it all, and it's definitely a different experience coming into this album knowing what it sounds like. Less spooky. It never stays in the same mood as much as you remember and each song is somehow more distinct from one another. Kind of too much spoken word though. The dynamics of some of those songs (Weeping/Hometime/E-Coli/Death Threat) isn't going to sound great through standard speakers and also I think detract from the album's musicalness in favor of experimentation. Which is fine for an artistic choice but doesn't help with the album's pacing. It does sound like if the 70s heard some selection of mid 90s sample based electronic music from a time travel event. I first listened to Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle in 2020 and that was maybe the second darkest time period in my lifetime to have chosen to listen to that record to see what the band was about. Re-listening to this for this project has made me appreciate it more and like it better. I am admittedly a generous ranker and was thinking of giving this a three or four earlier, but it's definitely an album that takes two listens or so to really feel for it, kind of like the similarly low rated (and much better) album Trout Mask Replica. There is significantly worse music than this on the list, it's just that those albums are more sensible and easier to approach for people. This is definitely the polar opposite to that: a less sensible album for music weirdos. We need more of those in this world.

The Black Keys are my go-to band when ever asked the question, "what is the most generic blues rock music possible". But let the facts of history come first: rock and roll had hit a lull in the 2000s after an incredible 20th century run for multiple decades. The straight forward (blues) rock sound was out of vogue and as memey would it be to blame 9/11 for that, there's probably some big youtube video essay that can summarize "why rock moosick bad in 2000s" maybe more amusingly than I can be bothered to try. I'm aware of the garage rock revival that's probably best sphere-headed by The White Stripes more than any other singular band (I personally think The Strokes lean more to an indie sound over garage rock). The peak of The Black Keys was in the early 2010s as a continuation of a sound that would fade out rather quickly. This is one of the first two consecutive albums Black Keys made that continued that theme before the everlasting light betrayed its namesake. Anyways the name of this album is Brothers, and it's exactly how you imagine The Black Keys sound like. Here I will try to differentiate the madness. I find it funny that the outros are the most interesting parts of the music, where in normal blues music always ends in that specific kind of fashion that being cliche is the corny and correct choice most of the time. They made that part better, and forgot to make anything else different other than take what blues music meant (the suffering the moody blues and so on and so forth) and make it palatable for the white man to listen to while at the gym. I don't think being necessarily inoffensive or nonpolitical music is a bad thing, but that it's also a choice. Would I like to hear two white guys in Akron Ohio play blues music, or any singular person living in the Mississippi delta? It's a good thing and they made the right move to record part of this album in The Shoals. Nothing wrong with the production on the album (Danger Mouse is probably the only reason to make this album in the "must listen or die" category imo), merely that the music is merely just okay. The singles are like food kept in fridge a few days after the "fresh by" date. Despite the palatable album, Howlin' for you is not a good song. You can find much more energetic and better versions of "horny for you girl" blues music from the past or from the present in maybe any singular R&B song of the 2000s. The singing aside from some typical vocal techniques is not compelling to drive the emotions in. Blues is meant to be emotional. Songwriting feels neutered and corporate, sanitized for the aforementioned car commercial comparisons people talk about regarding The Black Keys sound. That's really all there is to it. Highlights: Next Girl, Black Mud, Sinister Kid

The easiest and funniest music contrarian opinion to have is to say something neutral or negative about The Beatles. It's fun. For example: Let It Be isn't actually that great! John Lennon and Paul McCartney are not better songwriters than Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia! See? It's so fun. Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band is probably the most critically acclaimed album ever. Rolling Stones thought it was the best before it was reminded that people made albums after 1967 that were really really good too. I prefer Rubber Soul over Sgt. Peppers, but my honest opinion is that this is still a phenomenal album, minus a couple of tracks that if Lennon/McCartney never sang it, people would've hated it like Getting Better, Fixing a Hole and When I'm 64, that last one is more of my own opinion over the other two. It's a very good thing a band as huge and enormous like The Beatles did LSD because that made their music significantly more fascinating. Certainly scared the shit out of folks like Nixon. I'd say more about that but you should make your own journey to Erowid and see other people's stories on it.

The Verve follow the classic rock and roll tradition of a bunch of good musicians that make good music with each other while also hating each other with great equal fervor. Such classic bands like The Police or Ramones or Cream all made really great music tempered by the fact they all wanted to kill each other at some point. The Verve continued that tradition by breaking up before Urban Hymns was finished, then they came back together again because catching music talent lightning in a bottle is about as rare as being struck by lightning. Twice. The end result was their most commercially successful release, that most people probably know the biggest hit off the album, Bittersweet Symphony, although ball-knowers probably recognize Lucky Man and The Drugs Won't Work, the latter sometimes described as the most depressing song ever. I do really like this album, but I don't really want to write more about the songs on it: If you know the old Verve albums, this is a much more commercial (dare I say poppish but The Verve were always kind of doing their own thing not like a band like Sparks for instance that is more pop-centric). The sort of mix of britpop, alternative/"college" rock and shoegaze were three different lanes of 90s music that the most you'd see a combination of the two, but on Urban Hymns you can hear all three blend together to make an album that emotionally is a bit like a roller coaster but is sonically wonderful and really does sound like what the songwriting on paper envisioned. There was a good reason this album exploded in popularity, as 1997 is one of those really good years in music like 1967. In the end I do prefer The Verve's earlier works, but Urban Hymns is a much bigger album than the band even expected. Rolling Stones writing disputes aside (that would end in The Stones giving writing credits back to The Verve, ending one of rock music's more bizarre music lawsuits), the production on Urban Hymns is really top notch and makes each song sound big, the music really making the landscape of the dark, bitter world around us while illustrating sound like a rainbow appearing in the sky at the end of a bad rainstorm. It's this weird mixture of dark songwriting and light instrumentation (please forgive the purple prose I can't think of a good metaphor at this time) that you don't come across often. Urban Hymns certainly sounds like a post 9-11 world, but coming four years earlier as sort of this cautious optimism vibe that you know will waver into pessimism quickly.

CCR's brief career consisted of many great albums, such as this one. Not my favorite CCR, but the band is so good that's not really a problem.

It's Bob Marley and the Wailers. I don't know what else to add other than I'm a big fan of Stop That Train. Essential stuff here

Never listened to Dusty Springfield (not related to Buffalo Springfield), and this is a decent sized gap in my big brain stored for music listening and trivia. I'm kind of biased toward the American R&B over the British kind because well, we invented it. Same with the Blues, but that doesn't mean the British don't do it badly, unlike most of their national cuisine. Dusty is a great great singer, and I don't know what else to add. Smooth and quick album from a classic mid 20th century singer. Lots of crazy shit was happening and going on in 1969, but here's this British woman who can actually sing.

Probably the most rock and roll album of all rock and roll albums, and this band even had a song called rock and roll which wasn't even on this album. Rock and roll!!

Went into this one pretty blind, only knowing FKA twigs by name only. The music itself was quite a surprise to listen to. Sounding almost like a precursor of Hyperpop-styled maximalist production while acting as a futuristic sounding R&B record. It's certainly a unique sound that fitted into the albums on this list that people rate under 3 stars that tend to be the more interesting or deviate too much for non music nerds to enjoy. Not to exclude the records rated lower because they are actually bad or unenjoyable to listen to, and at 120 records in (121 including LP1), I could only say 5 of those albums are trash. Enough about my personal rambling. I did really enjoy the production and the bass (most of the time), there's definitely some songs I didn't click with. Which I mean, I'm not a colored woman from the UK, I'm a white dude from America so my thoughts aren't important. Didn't really like Hours, Video Girl, or Give Up. I liked Pendulum, Two Weeks, and Numbers. My ears aren't best at hearing words in songs which really kicks in for a record like this, so I can't really gauge lyric quality or really any words that she sings (think of it how you would hear Bjork). I'll always respect a person doing pop music that tries to throw a wrench into the genre and do anything that deviates from the norm, which FKA twigs does with flying colors. Very much fits that mid 2010s production movement towards doing a lot of things in post production to make things close and distant with a careful approach to loudness. Is it more interesting than the songwriting? Sometimes. They blend well for a record like this.

After plenty of attempts at listening to the Beach Boys, perhaps I wasn't looking at the right albums. I'm used to Pet Sounds and their 60s stuff that I've had people point me to the direction of Surf's Up as the Beach Boys that I would probably like the most. And while they're kind of right, I'm coming to the conclusion that the Beach Boys are simply Not For Me. I'm not that big fan of their classic harmonies and the fiendishly whimsical music really just makes me feel more indifferent about it. I don't hate or dislike it, it just doesn't gravitate my attention That attitude keeps going through Surf's Up, instead of annoying harmonies it's just slower and kind of more acceptable to listen to. The songwriting is absolutely a step above here and is probably some of their best stuff (save for that one song I'll get to in a second). I think Pet Sounds is still better with my own meaningless personal criticism aside. I know how important this album is, but I can't really care that much more about this band. I'm not a pop guy. Also the Mike Love student song was really cringe. Could have been an acceptable 4 but that definitely had to stop it from being thought about in that rank. If you like the Beach Boys and that sort of pop music deconstructed from its "safe" 60s sound to the then modestly ominous period of the early 70s, this is the album. I can't care for it. Worth a "must hear or die" listen? Certainly.

Firmly on the list of "I absolutely should have listened to this before this challenge, but never got around doing so". Rio has got to be one of the greatest pure New Wave songs to exist. Everything about that song is played tight and is perfectly executed. Top notch vocals, simple but catchy riff, saxophone solo, satisfying conclusion. The rest of the album is a bop. New Wave at its absolute height is what Rio is.

Love this album, grew up listening to it quite a lot on bus rides home from high school. Some of Yes's finest guitar playing from Howe. Starship Troopers and Perpetual Change are some of my favorite songs ever. Everything else is still a banger. Yes!

My impression of Ryan Adams coming into this is that he's a bland country rock guy. Other than the hilarious constant confusion with successful Canadian man Bryan Adams, I couldn't tell you anything interesting about this guy. And I will be honest with you: incredibly mid. Like a neutered John Mellencamp. I don't like the Springsteen comparisons, this does not feel anywhere near politically charged as Bruce nor does this album have a shred of Bruce Springsteen's energy. Well, there's two songs with a beat which are not surprisingly the two most interesting songs which also have the fewest streams on Spotify vs all the other songs on Gold. Probably an indication I'm not going to like any of Ryan Adams's other music. Enemy Fire and Tina Toledo's Street Walkin' Blues. Everything else ranges from boring to incredibly mid. Just listen to Wilco or Calexico/Iron and Wine for alt country of this period.

One of the defining albums of the 2010s. I remember when Kendrick was coming up big since his Section 80 days, To Pimp A Butterfly was an incredible album that I was surprised surpassed how acclaimed Good Kid M.A.A.D City was. I could gush about it for a long time. Kendrick da living GOAT

Away from the 80s land of synthesizers and spandex and you will find the music for non-conforming weirdos that continue a legacy on music of today without the flashy new wave haircuts or chic fashion sense. Lot of this music the industrial/goth/noise rock was sort of the real continuation of the rockist world that would provide a gateway from My Sharona to Nirvana and the Seattle Grunge scene. This excludes metal, which really branched off to its own thing in the 80s, but not the influences of alternative rock. Psychocandy and The Jesus and Mary Chain as a whole, is probably one of the more important albums of the 80s for rock music. Not in the new wave or post punk sense, but for that continued 70s rock to 80s rock sound. It took in the aforementioned industrial/goth/noise sounds from the 60s (IE: being strongly influenced by Velvet Underground) and 70s with a good dash of the early era of The Cure. Don't forget to dip your paintbrush with a good dose of fuzzy guitar tone.

My two experiences with Crowded House go with their two biggest singles that are not on Woodface. Something So Strong as one of those songs I heard too much working at a grocery store with terrible acoustics, and Don't Dream It's Over which is more of a nostalgic song I heard quite a bit in my childhood from having VH1 Classic on in the background. Woodface is what you would expect a commercial rock album in 1991 would sound like, but with better songwriting. The Finn brothers are properly acclaimed from their home country but aside from their biggest international hits, you wouldn't really know the full depth to that without hearing Woodface. I do wish they had more of that organ sound from their earlier albums, it helped drive the emotional ties better in my opinion. Pretty important album from the Australian rock scene to be notably "must heard before you die", and I can sort of see that. There's much better stuff in the land down under though.

Nina Simone is one of the greatest singers ever. An exemplary album featuring some of her best performances with a decent variety of genres she sings in. Rest in power

Relatable album to my life, and I'm not just talking about the album name. Something about The Idiot keeps luring me with its krautrock-influenced rhythms and weird riffs/hooks. Sister Midnight/Nightclubbing/Dum Dum Boys always find someway to come back to my head every few months at the latest. A conventionally weirdo record.

Coming into this one totally blind about the band or any of their songs, and I enjoyed it. It's one of those weird 80s records that somehow ages finer rather than cheesier. It's sort of hard to explain, I enjoyed listening to it but I couldn't remember too much of it afterwards aside from Club Country. Only song I couldn't care for was the hit single: Party Fears Two. I guess Scottish music was pretty big in the 80s with this, Big Country, and Dire Straits being on the charts. I don't know if it's certainly a "must listen" category but it's not too shabby.

The build-ups Underworld does keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is the good shit and reason why I'm trying to do this silly challenge. Best surprise album for me since Teardrop Explodes.

My Last.Fm stats that I've been tracking since the 2000's were a decade people lived in shows that I've listened to every QOTSA album but this one. So thank you 1001 album generator challenge website for reminding me to listen to it. Kind of more Kyuss slowly turning into what Homme wanted QOTSA to be, and it's some good shit.

First Sonic Youth album selected after 133 albums, which is kind of crazy when they have 5 albums on the list. For the record, still no Rolling Stones popped up either, in case anyone cares. Sister isn't my favorite Sonic Youth record but it's still a damn good album. I prefer their stuff from Daydream Nation through Washing Machine. I don't feel like writing more sentences

There's a bunch of, dare I say it because eventually someone will call it, millennial-core (shudders) albums that I managed to not hear or listen to before this list for a variety of reasons, bands like the XX and MGMT I've managed to slip by despite being a hair over 30 as of time of writing. The Strokes were not one of them, but I can't say how much I value this album past its critical recognition. Rock music hit a lull in the 2000's, in the way that it's mainstream stay in pop culture felt like it was declining little by little till the late 2000's when electropop would boom and the focus on hip-hop and rappers as opposed to rock stars finally took hold. Needless to say, it makes me think if Is This It is one of the most important rock records of the decade. Which I admit I like the music and it's good and such, but I still don't understand the perspective of it being innovative for the genre. All of this is a long-winded, pretentious way of saying that I like most of the songs from Is This It, it's a good album, but I don't really take more of it than that. Also not a fan of Julian Casablancas as a singer, his personal life is a whole other story. As for rock music of the 2000s, I liked the direction of where LCD Soundsystem and especially other dancepunk music that made rock music a ton more rhythmic than this. For an album like this, I think the songs together are better than the sum of its parts, packaged as the album. The first four songs I've liked together, but after that the album doesn't really flow together for me. Someday and Last Nite are songs that are meh for me but everything else from the record is pretty good and remarkably not loud for the time period it came out in. It feels imperfect, maybe it was meant to sound like that. What is it anyways, an elaborate reference to the hit Faith No More song? Overall, I guess you could say I can Take It Or Leave It over This Is It.

My dad, for whom gave me a pathway into really enjoying music, was a big 70s music guy. With that, you either loved or hated disco. He was firmly in the latter camp, not for any homophobic reasons, just for oversaturation reasons. Now that I'm older and grew up with this idea that you can hear anything in recorded human history (for now before it's saturated with AI bullshit) with a simple search engine query. So I had a more open minded view of disco, understanding its importance within and beyond electronic music and what was actually good about the genre, which was the bass. Stayin' Alive is a dreadful song to me (I do not like the Bee Gees), but that bass is what makes that song work so well. But even before streaming music, I liked disco through that late 2000s era of post punk revival which produced dancepunk, a mashup of punk rock with disco beats/element to the mix. This made some pretty good music like Death From Above 1979 and Does It Offend You, Yeah? as well as influencing James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem. So here today I am selected with Chic's second album, featuring the famous Le Freak. For the most part, C'est Chic is an enjoyable record and sets out to achieve what its meant for: mindless fun. Just a good album to get loose too and vibe. The instrumentation is tight (as was the style at the time, etc) and that's what helped make Niles Rodgers the big bucks. Big shout out to the bassist Bernard Edwards for without his role, this record would be shit.

Probably near the total opposite of music I would normally listen to, a mid 80s country record. It's inoffensive, unless you're a misogynist of some kind. The music is alright, nice pedal steel guitar and some good songwriting. I couldn't tell you anything more about it. Always nice to listen to something completely different every once in a while.

Viva el musico chicano

Spacemen 3 is one of those bands on my own personal list to listen to and never quite found the time until I did this album challenge. Since I only have one day to review this, it's not very proper to write about this album on psychedelics as the band intends you do while you listen to it. I've only got weed on me. Spacemen 3 is probably the most honest band next to the Grateful Dead in that regard. I understand Spacemen 3 is space rock/shoegaze, but the big gaps of silence or lull moments in How Does It Feel is too much for me. Other tracks like Revolution and Suicide are more of my thing. Other stuff like Honey/Come Softly To My Soul/Let Me Down Gently are okay, annoying to begin with but evolve later as a good song. (upon a relisten check I think Honey is fine). Was leaning on a 4 rating and needed something to wow me to give it the 5 and Suicide was definitely the standout track to me. I like the jammy side of shoegaze/space rock and it delivered. I just wish that was most of the album, away from the poppier side. Overall Playing With Fire is something kind of special in 1989 in its psychedelic influences on a genre that needed some more influence in that area. It's their most cohesive of their first three albums (I listened to their first two after this one, Sound of Confusion is my favorite but not on this list).

Queen at probably their most prog for an album, and it's about as peak as one would expect. Not exactly the Queen most people know, but at Queen's core is the glammy/prog spirit with that wonderful dash of hard rock that bleeds somewhat into metal (for 70s standards).

Metal and symphonic/orchestral ("classical") have more in common than you would think. Metallica takes on an ambitious project with the help of the mighty Michael Kamen and the SF Orchestra and created something quite special. I do think it's a little odd that S&M was on the (revised 2010) list, you can argue each of the band's first five albums did something significant to the metal world, something this list really doesn't dig too deep into. I see why S&M is included as it's more unique than those albums, but Ride The Lighting is literally their best album and it's not in. "wah wah it's two hours long" it's a fucking CONCERT. every concert should have two sets and an encore. The Dead and Phish may have spoiled me with that regard, but people should get their money's worth as ticketbastard adds new fees for their infinite growth capitalism machine. bugger off with that criticism

Quicksilver Messenger Service may not be as big as The Who, Rolling Stones, The Doors, Beach Boys, Grateful Dead, and all the other legacy 60s acts, but they are firmly just as important as they are. Psychedelic rock took a lot from the blues, where QMS took more influence in classical which made them stand out in the rather lavish SF Psychedelic scene. The band members themselves never really sought out being big personalities and tended to stick towards their music. Happy Trails is a good capture of the band live at their finest, where the psychedelic part of psychedelic music/rock really shows off. QMS doesn't really have a standout album, mainly their debut and this and a greatest hits album or so. But if you were there, in the 60s, they were absolutely one of THE bands to see that people raved about. Though their music kept going, other music genres and niches outgrew them past the 70s, especially within their own genre with the Grateful Dead outgrew them in overall popularity and influence. Quicksilver Messenger Service still has that precious spot in history as one of the more focal bands of the late 60s San Francisco music scene.

If your parents are old enough to have loved Bruce Springsteen, they were probably just old enough to also have enjoyed Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf). If you like mellow, very well-written folk music: you get it here. This is the type of music I can very much appreciate, but isn't something I will go out of my way to listen to when an urge comes (although Wild World is about as close as I get to that, sometimes). Good music, not entirely for me, but I have no serious complaints about it.

Certainly in the top 50 most important albums ever, you can read Wikipedia or a BOOK to know more on that. Moonage Daydream is probably my favorite Bowie song that isn't on Station to Station. Crazy how well this album ages.

145 albums in, and this is the first one that doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. I really have no idea what I'm in for because that Wikipedia page reads more like a long press release page that only updates when Jane Weaver does a new album or tour. Early on, I really like Jane's blending of her voice to the synthesizers at work, some great production hear with the jangly guitar riffs on Did You See Butterflies? The self-titled track is a good dreamy sounding follow up that reminds me of some of Rosalie Cunningham's work. Some of the rhythms on this album remind me a mixture of Velvet Underground and Faust (so I guess the krautrock tag wasn't too bullshit). The architect is a banger as a synth nerd. Total kick ass synthing on that one. More fun synth arps and usage on The Lightening Back. Valley is a 60s-sounding folk song, or otherwise has that throwback vibe. Ravenspoint and I Wish are fun tracks to end the album on. Modern Kosmotogy is definitely a surprise gem of the list, but it's status of being essential is something I'm still scratching my head about. It's hard to know in the moment whether or not an album that just came out is going to be something that will withstand the tests of time of being supergreat, and I couldn't tell you 9 years later that this is definitely a "must hear or die regret not hearing it" or its importance on music or cultural impact. I still find the list to be eurocentric and doesn't highlight enough Middle Eastern or Asian influences (and can always add more afrobeat in my biased opinion). I know a lot of popular music worldwide came from America and England, but I think someone like Bad Bunny or Daddy Yankee could easily be on this list with how influential they are to Latin American music. Do we really needed to feel like the safe solution to putting a more recently modern record to the list instead of an older, better known album from across the world that impacted more people over an album that isn't even properly recognized by the world's greatest crowdfunding encyclopedia project? I'm gonna have to end that stream of consciousness tangent there, with the album selection criticism being fully warranted imo, but not to distract that this IS a good album. Really Good? All time must hear till you die good? I mean I'm really not sure about that. 9 years later, I'm not seeing a lot of people citing Jane Weaver or this album for the reason there's a new music scene or genre propping up. Wait a minute, Charli xcx isn't even on this list? YOU PUT THE WRONG BRITISH WOMAN THAT LITERALLY HELPED INFLUENCE A WHOLE MUSIC SCENE OR GENRE THAT WOULD MAKE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE SENSE IF YOU PUT IT THERE WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

I've heard all of Sepultura's albums before Roots, where I kind of never bothered to keep going because of being distracted by work/school/other bands. I really dig the percussion and indigenous Amazonian influence to transform what they could already sound like into something refreshingly different yet still true to the Sepultura sound. Metal is good.

Bjork is peak.

I'm more familiar with Nick Cave when it comes to The Birthday Party (which is on the list, interestingly enough), and The Bad Seeds quite frankly have a ton of albums and they don't sound enough like The Birthday Party enough for me want to dive in--until this project. Seeing how there's five (!) Bad Seeds albums on this list, I'm not quite sure if it's the best introduction to the band or the worst. I'll find out. As I've learned, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds had some hands indeed. 82 minutes across 17 songs and not one of them feels like filler. Like an Australian Tom Waits with a bigger backing group and many more harmonies. Solid stuff.

The Undertones are probably the biggest name band in Northern Ireland, a country that has around a million and a couple hundred thousand people. There's a lot of politics regarding the UK and the Republic of Ireland but I don't want to get too much into that trouble. By 79 punk had taken fold, new and still in vogue and these group of teenage Northern Irish (do I still say Irish? idk) took advantage of the moment to become the big punk band of a tiny country. Minor rant here: this band gets two albums on the list and the Ramones just have one. I really don't understand that. Rocket to Russia is as important as their debut. Moving on to me actually listening to the album. These guys sound very young and the energy they show off is infectious. You can hear some of the earliest examples of pop punk being formed here: a more clearly punk influenced power pop sound. Probably a lot nicer to write songs that typical schoolboys deal with, maybe as escapism with the ongoing conflict going on at the time. My favorites off this are Jump Boy, Here Comes the Summer, and Wrong Way. Definitely see the relevancy here with this inclusion and I don't know what else to add on.

3/4 Zeppelin picks at exactly 150 albums in, and still no Rolling Stones is kind of wild. I'm supposed to review the OG Led Zeppelin album? It speaks for itself.

As a simple minded American, yes I only know their one song they've ever made from The Breakfast Club. But did our fellow simple minded Americans also know that Simple Minds made more music, that was much popular elsewhere a good amount of time? I sort of did. New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84) is seen as the Simple Minds' magnum opus of sorts, by the fans, critics, and the band themselves. Can it stand out from any other 80s new wave album? There's part to this album I like, the cheesy and very on point synths of the early 80s and some of the song structures. The other problems of this album is that it's just not very interesting. Some songs don't necessarily have climatic moments but just sort of the same sequenced synth beats over and over again for several minutes while the (quite lively and good) bass exists as the synths and vocals are trying to bury each other in the mix on the quest of which will sound the "lead" role of the song as the guitar kind of acts more as a rhythmic thing, which is neat. What's not neat is trying to hear the kick ass Herbie Hancock solo in Hunter and The Hunted while the singer's whaling is still louder than him in the mix but hey, probably sounds good on Dolby Atmos. I think the earlier Simple Minds are more worth their time because of the overt punk/post punk influence that gives the songs some BEAT to them. New Gold Dream (idk why the numbers are there) is so much of a new wave cliche that it doesn't sound fun. Take Rio by Duran Duran: that is the objective of what a new wave album ought to sound like. This is almost like Rio, if you were on just enough quaaludes to function at the strip club, or a walk on a beach at 3pm. I don't think this album ages well in the sonic department. The songs are at best fine and at worst they drag on a little too long. It's importance and significance isn't as held up compared to that big hit single that changed the band to make more of this sound and less of their earlier sound, for better and for worse. I don't know where the problem lies between the production and the execution of the songs because the band members sound fine and capable. There could be better selections for this list than trying to remind Americans that this band isn't a one hit wonder.

A very pleasant listen.

I could not care less about Foo Fighters. Could I also couldn't care less about them? Almost so, I think Learn to Fly is a good song for the first 20 or so listens you hear it until it achieves its diminished marginal value. The postgrunge genre (arguably invented by Dave Grohl himself, and yes I know he did 95% of the music on the album blah blah blah) is not something that has ever appealed to me, nu metal might honestly be better because the music somehow sounds like it has more meaning then postgrunge's devoid of social commentary in favor of relationship songs. But Foo Fighters self-titled is before post grunge would help rock music get cratered by the 2000s. Kind of like System of a Down's first album would be for nu metal. I can't fault Dave Grohl for needing a musical catharsis after his good friend's death and thus from demos to proper mastering this album was created. But like, you could've founded someone that could actually sing? I know what he's trying to make in stuff like Good Grief and Wattershed, but I'll be biased and say it: Grohl is a decent singer without a good voice. The kind of music he executes like that is better done by Helmet. Big Me is the taco 'bout song to me. Hear it on the radio a bit too often and for a demo, it's nice it got radio play for end of time because it's corporately acceptable. I do like Alone + Easy Target because it could sound like a Nirvana song if Cobain didn't die and if he would not sing for one song. Weenie Beenie is the same way except I disliked it and Cobain could sing it. Overall, Foo Fighters by Foo Fighters isn't as bad as I thought I would, but it's as generic as I thought it would. The guitar/bass work is fine, but the songwriting and singing are just something I can't shake off and pretend to enjoy. These were demos, fuck around material essentially, but even when it's mastered by mastering wizards, it doesn't help out that part at all. I simply do not think this album is remarkable in anyway to warrant being on this list, no matter how big and commercial Foo Fighters are. I can get why Coldplay and some other pop artists are on here, but I think Foo Fighters had a bit more of a negative influence on music. It's simply mid and devoid of character. Something an average person would bring up for the "rock music" they listen to and they only know Everlong or My Hero, both of those songs are on the next album and would make more sense as an inclusion. Or put a single Ween album on the list. That's a 90s band that had a fuckton more character than Foo Fighters, and they even had commercial success. I've said enough negative things, so I'll end on a good note: Exhausted is a good song and closer for the album. I'm strongly resisting the urge to make a joke about that song name about listening to this album, because it wasn't quite like that.

I can only rate it as high as five hyuck hyuck Really just an all time classic, probably the best grunge record front to back. Stellar stuff

For as long as I've casually known Flaming Lips, I often think, "how come I like all this psychedelic music and don't listen to them more?". But I don't really think of it that deep: not that big of a fan of the vocals but that mostly shows up in the beginning and middle of the album. I think I prefer my psychedelic a bit more jammy than "experimental" for 1999 standards. It's sort of like Pavement to me where I like the material but not what it influenced, but less so in the Flaming Lips affect on neo psych over Pavement for indie rock. Soft Bulletin is pretty good. Some weird mixing decisions, a few songs I don't care too much for (or really where my issue with Wayne Coyne's vocals kind of lies), but cool enough. My favorites are Feeling Yourself Disintegrate, A Spoonful Weights A Ton, Buggin', The Observer, and Suddenly Everything Has Changed.

I grew up with The Who and the other British Invasion bands since I thought it was the formal music listening way. I didn't listen to My Generation in full, but I knew the singles/biggest hits very well. On a side note it took 156 selections for me to get my first The Who record out of five. Still haven't had one Rolling Stones selection either. For 1965, it goes very hard. Compared to the Beatles or Stones at the time, they were not afraid to sound loud and abrasive from the get go. My Generation was a spark to the ignition for the development of what hard rock would become for years to come. Still sounds timeless for the most part, some songs you can do without but definitely an important record.

I respect Fiona Apple's ability to be herself musically and stray away from sounding like someone else or pretending to be the next big thing. Her debut album is overall pretty solid aside from a few "sad white girl playing piano" songs (the white woman's version of sad white guy playing acoustic guitar). The result is an album that ages very well.

Country isn't my strong-suit and for whatever it's worth kd lang is seen as alternative country. With that, the production and backing musicians on this album are pure Nashville country legendary types like pedal steel legend and arguable GOAT Buddy Emmons and legendary producer Owen Bradley. Shadowland sounds really good, that pedal steel is truly perfect throughout. Aside from that, it's fairly average. kd lang can sing pretty well (especially on Busy Being Blue), but the music as a whole doesn't do anything for me. I'm not going to argue a spot on this list against a Canadian alternative country singing lesbian when a couple other genres are over saturated like Britpop or Nu Metal, let alone the whiteness or the amount of male artists to female artists, etc. But I will say one thing: this is better than the Norah Jones selection.

I remember TV on the radio as a kid for their appearance on The Colbert Report and not much else. I remember TV on the Radio as an adult for the past five or more years because their song, "Golden Age" (not on this album) was played by Phish in live concerts more times than TV on the Radio has ever practiced the song by this point. 0 expectations or a clue going into this. 159 albums in, and I think Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes is probably the weirdest album for me to rank yet. Certainly not the weirdest music I've heard, but for me to take in. Easier to write about it track by track. The Wrong Way is an okay start to the album, kicks in the opening seconds the right way. No strong opinion about Staring at the Sun. Dreams took a couple minutes for it to grow on me, and highlights the interesting falsetto singing that is kind of divisive for me in the sense I can either enjoy it or prefer something else. I'll give TV on the Radio all the credit in the world for trying to sound different in the 2000s: one of the most homogeneous decades for popular music since the 40s. 22 years later, it still stands out from other 2004 artists and albums that more or less closely aligned with a genre strongly, TV on the Radio sounds like a proper mixture of genres but put in a blender. Wikipedia says darkwave (for a couple songs, sure), avant-pop (the vocals yeah) and post punk, a genre best fitted for "idk it sounds kinda minimalist like punk but more abstract". King Eternal sounds like it's 2000s for sure, but better executed than the cliches of indie music of the time. Ambulance and Poppy are probably my least favorite tracks on the album, because they exemplifies a softer sound and the type of falsetto vocals I don't like to hear. You Could Be Love, the bonus track, fits this to an egregious degree. The album does end on a nice 1-2-3 of Don't Love You, Bomb Yourself (is it about Final Fantasy 7?), and Wear You Out. I don't think I've heard an album in a while that made me feel quite mixed about it as a whole. Some songs I can really vibe too, and others I can really do without. The middle ground exists in a few songs like Dreams or Staring At The Sun. I usually prefer liking specific songs and putting them on a bigass shuffle playlist for when I'm out and about touching grass away from the big compooter screen. That's where Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes is saved for me in the rankings: I don't really think the sum of its parts deserves a spot on its list (Dear Science is probably fine as the sole representative, but it hasn't shown up for me yet), but the songs and the unique structure of the album give it a compelling counter argument. When the record is upbeat, it's great. When it's not, it suffers for me. I tend to be a generous ranker for this site because it's filled with lots of negativity bias, so that's what gives this a 4 instead of a 3.

Pre-Listening Notes This album came out when I was in college, and while I was still very enthused about music for the time, CHVRCHES is a band I only read about and nothing more. Didn't know anyone that listened to them or brought them up at all compared to MGMT or Passion Pit. As a late stage millennial, I suppose it's my turn to hear them. Post-Listening Notes OOoff. No. This was a miss for me. Let's go with the classic psychological method of reasonable criticism, the positive-negative-positive. Kids pay attention, this is something incredibly important you should learn that schools will never teach you, as soon as you let Gemini or ChatGPT/whatever summarize this review to understand it. Alright, here we go with the positives. The synths and the production quality of the album are great for the most part. It's quite emblematic of that millennial electronic indie pop era. Shoutout to the DSI Tempest for being the most 2010's sounding stereotypical synth sound behind Massive. They love the Tempest, and it's a fun synth that isn't the easiest to control or use. Lauren is a good singer with an interesting high pitch voice that doesn't squeek. The band clearly has the chops to do anything! The negatives. Well it's quite emblematic of that electronic indie pop era. I can't stand that shit. It's so on the nose and stereotypical of "what would millennials and older Gen Z kids listen to in high school" for the early to mid 2010s music. Sort of like OneRepublic or One Direction for the music that was at their heights when I was in high school. Unlike those aforementioned bands, CHVRCHES clearly has the musical chops to go in some creative direction like shoegaze or happy hardcore or even post punk, and they instead make music that sounds like everybody else of their time and fail to innovate in any musical way. They're so fucking early 2010s that they even do a fucking drop in one of the songs, it's that bad. The Bones Of What You Believe is just way too poppy over the cool electronic/synth beats and drum machines. My ears aren't good at hearing vocals for the first time in songs even with some high end set-ups with good acoustics, so I can't say too much about the songwriting and what the songs are about for pop music. But when I mean it's too poppy for its own good and it's too stereotypical to go well for me, I think of Lady Gaga's early music. I don't care for pop but she made it all work into some great records that age well, and she's even more millennial than this band! There's music talent in CHVRCHES for sure. This is very much a band that checks off the criticslop factory for me. The universal praise from critics because they have to shut off their own personal biases and assume everyone still wants to listen to pop records because it's the default genre and picking the bands with the best inoffensive songwriting and talent, while ignoring the finished product. The synth hooks and Lauren could convince you that they can do something anything different or more creative and be just as good. It feels like it's a waste of something that can translate better with a different presentation. No this band didn't win a grammy despite me calling it criticslop or critic bait, but let's not pretend those are valuable. And we circle back to the positive-negative-positive. We cheer up the target I mean client and/or person to psychologically reaffirm ourselves that an optimistic outlook really helps us all out as a human species. Dick Van Dyke said that's the one reason he's lived to be 169 years old as of time of writing this review. Anyways, I thought Lies and Science/Vision were pretty good on their own. Guns almost had it, but that's okay because the band tried. CHVRCHES are certainly popular enough for the talented musicians in the band to make a living doing something they love. Even if that means playing the most stereotypical millennial/old gen z bullshit alive I----sorry. Even if that means playing the music they do which is absolutely not meant for me or possible future listeners, they won the musician lottery of actually doing what you love for a living and getting paid enough not to barely make ends meet. I'm gonna stop talking and unclench my teeth of which that refrains any further negative comment. Peace

The typical Simon & Garfunkel album with beautiful harmonies that are in full display on Scarborough Fair. Kind of flairs out at the end, of a short album. Nevertheless, it's good stuff.

All the Lenny Kravitz I know are his most popular songs, which aren't on this album. Let Love Rule is certainly something different, in that it sounds like a bunch of late 60s/early 70s album played by a musician that is somewhere between half-baked musical ideas and songwriting and decent musical ability. It's got some decent highs and some, well I'm just gonna say it, Christian-ass songs. No problem if you're into that, but it caught me off-guard for this album. And of course the name would imply that you wouldn't find those kinds of songs. Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum felt a bit more subtle. Let Love Rule is okay. Feels like it's on the list for brand recognition purposes (IE: his records sold well therefore we all got to know him), Lenny has always been more of a singles guy. I don't think anything new to the table comes with this album's inclusion. It's not bad, but it's chopped liver.

Traffic is a cool band, I however haven't listened to this record as much as John Barleycorn Must Die (also on the list) and Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (NOT on the list, what the fuck?). It's a solid record (aside from cringe ass Vagabond Virgin) by a group of great musicians. Their other aforementioned records are definitely better.

Iconic

Fairport Convention is one of those bands I should know better given my Deadhead roots of adjacently liking this kind of music. And they're totally fine. Sandy Denny I think is what saves this album from being the boring kind of folk music. I have this love it/hate it thing with folk because I prefer uptempo fast paced music or some cathartic jamming, but I love a lot of music close to it. Maybe I'm just particular about it. Fine album.

The Healer was John Lee Hooker's best selling album of his life, as he recorded and released this at the ripe age of 73. One of the best to boogie and to play electric blues with gusto and disregard for time signatures. My family was lucky to be neighbors with Mr Hooker when he got big for the second time in his career. I think Mr Lucky is a better later-era John Lee Hooker record that captures his energy better than The Healer, but happy to see John Lee Hooker on this list more than being excluded. Eat your musical vegetables and listen to the blues. It's where the heart comes from.

I've really only known M.I.A for her big hit "Paper Planes" that was huge around the time I was in high school. Non music wise, she endorsed Trump in 2024 and went on Alex Jones's show in 2000 and I think that detracts the good politics she otherwise had. I'll choose to ignore that and focus on her early albums that this list contains. But just gotta say: not a good look. Hating vaccines is wack, anti 5G shit is weirdo crap, and I'm not gonna get in on the Assange rapist defending, just a weird mess Arular is a very creative and interesting album, blending in UK/Brazilian genres and creating some pretty funky stuff. The trade-off is that it doesn't always hit for me, but I appreciate a creative approach rather than trying to be the same as everyone else. It hits a great creative flow in the second half of the record. I think for most people it'll be hit or miss, certainly not for everyone's kind of sound. I think it's neat but not something I'd dig too further into, lest the 5G radiation will kill me or whatever

There's a bunch of albums on this list, and I feel despite the modest modern day obscurity of Crusaders, I don't know what else other than to call it palatable jazz music. Not quite smooth jazz stereotypically, but a bit laid back with stronger R&B influences over something Kenny G sounding. Ironically I thought the title track was the weakest of the album, seems to drag on without really adding something new after 5-6 minutes. I don't think I would quite put this in the must listen before you die of an album, but it's certainly not trash or anything.

The second Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album I'm given on the list, after Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus. Henry's Dream is a pretty good record overall, the only track I had an issue with was Christina The Astonishing because it was too slow for me and didn't seem to go anywhere. As solid or mostly compact album as this is, wouldn't Let Love In be on this list over it or some of the other 90s records? I would've thought that was his biggest album. Good stuff, but probably not the best album of his on the list.

Pretenders are one of the first successful bands of the 80s, this being their debut album that came out on January 11, 1980. In that, it's very much a 70s album at heart with big singles you will hear on every classic rock station to ever exist because there's only two corporations that controls all the music radio in every station in America, and every metro market must have you hear Brass in Pocket and Back on the Chain Gang among several others, or you will fucking die. That said, Pretenders as a band are good music that's fairly ageless in their style and approach. Just that you're going to hear them on the radio. A lot. Pretenders, the album, is an example of why you don't judge a book by its cover. I have nothing wrong with Brass in Pocket, it's cromulent. But I was fooled because every other song on their debut is a total banger in different ways. We got some punk energy, some cool dark jamming with some synths. A good start for 80s music and/or final spark of the 70s. With the Pretenders, nothing is as it seems.

An underrated aspect of what makes this album age well is how it was produced for CDs instead of tape-based analog media. Dire Straits are really good. This is their most accessible record. Bam.

Pre-Listening Notes This list has quite a number of British bands that an average American wouldn't know. That can be good, but it can also lead to albums that have a questionable presence on this list compared to other albums that have critical acclaim and popularity when they came out, that missed the cut. I think of Lady Gaga's The Fame, Ramones' Rocket to Russia, and [insert your favorite example here]. I will say that replacing your keyboardist with the keyboardist from Primal Scream is a baller move. Post-Listening Notes Much more madchester sounding than the britpop I was reading about, in no doubt to Rob Collins's contribution to Tellin' Stories. That and the jammier sections in songs like Get On It, Only Teething and Area 51 (personal favorite on the album). Puts the album in a nice groove, especially from their signature track One to Another. It sounds mad familiar to me but I can't picture from where, especially that keyboard intro. The parts I don't like: North Country Boy is kind of what I thought the whole album would sound like, which to me would be that britpop dullness that this list gets good criticism for. Or maybe I just don't care for Oasis and for bands to sound like that when you're in (checks notes) 1997 when OK Computer and Urban Hymns came out. Tough competition. You're A Big Girl Now is simply not good and Only Teething takes a little too long to be a good song, with the best parts at the end and fading out. Overall, Tellin' Stories seems like a semi-important album for music in the UK and some parts of Europe. Maybe I'm too critical about its placement for how important the Madchester scene was. As much as I like to learn music and music history, that part is a bit of a blind spot to me other than the biggest names a yank like me would know (Primal Scream/Stone Roses). Madchester certainly deserves more spots on this list than the overly represented nu metal (we're lumping Kid Rock on that too even though he was more country than metal but it helps my narrative damn it). Tellin' Stories is underrated, and with the aforementioned really big albums that came out in 1997, easy to be overshadowed. Other than that, ladies and gentleman and benevolently powerful queer people we have another random British band that I didn't know about until this selection that gets a 4 ranking!!!!

No justice for Jason Newsted, although the band's mixing decision was a dick move (far from the worst thing they'd bully Jason about), I do kind of get what they wanted the album to sound like. But I mean at that point, might as well have used some of Cliff's demo tracks and just put it on AJFA. AJFA is one of the core 4 (or 5 if you like the Black Album, I'm not giving my opinion on that today) Metallica albums of their peak era. I'm sure it was a coin flip to pick either Kill Em All, which did a lot to make Thrash Metal as big as it gets, over AJFA. Ride The Lightening is easily their best album, but I suppose AJFA's lyricism is "more sophisticated" because it's more political than typical metal albums of that time and era. It just doesn't feel right that there's just 1 Cliff-era album on this list. He was significant to the band's sound and helped them become the legends as they were rising up the ranks. This list is unfortunately not that deep into metal, and it sucks!!! As for the album itself, like every song is really really good. Maybe each one exceptionally show, aside from a few. Prime Metallica. You really can't go wrong with any song.

I'm going into this completely blind, kind of know maps from Rock Band or whatever and didn't care too much for it aside from the drums. Fever to Tell has good spark and energy. There's cool guitar tones and interesting drum patterns and a great high energy vocalist. This is great for 2/3rds of the record, and the last 1/3rd feels like that energy burnt out and things get slower and duller, almost cliff like. Can't stress that it starts strong and keeps that momentum going for a good portion of the record. Maps is coming back to me, and although it's one of their most popular songs, isn't doing much for me. I'm struggling to understand why it's so popular and renowned (Rolling Stone magazine in 2025 called it the second greatest song of the century???????). I don't think it's hot shit. It's kind of at the part of the record where that cool punk energy turns into some opium withdrawal symptoms. It messes with the overall groove of the album for me. Y Control is good, but Modern Romance and Poor Song are definitely not as good as Maps. While the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (kinda iffy on the band name too ngl but you are what you is) have some influence and legacy in the special all-too-encompassing "indie" sound and vibe of the 2020s, I think at times I enjoy it more than Is This It, the other big hip "indie" record of the time, and other times (aforementioned last parts of the album) it does not. I guess The Strokes are a little more catchier for me compared to Fever To Tell. It's importance earned a spot on this list because enough music critics like it and well, any good rock music in the 2000s was like the later parts of the gold rush. Not much to find, and any nugget was a good nugget. Fever to Tell is okay. Would be much better if you cut a few songs, but it's mostly harmless. Much worse music in the 2000s, but I find it hard to think this is one of the better albums that decade. The band sounds good, they have another album on this list that might be better. I'll find out soon enough.

Sheesh people do not like this album on this website. As a Deadhead who likes psych folk music, I don't think they can be THAT bad. Then again I like the Grateful Dead and their 20+ minute songs they play live. So am I really the best judge of character for all this? Yes. Yes I am. Pay attention to me people, I'm an expert. People declining to listen to expertise is exactly what went wrong with this country promoting anti-intellectualism since people thought Alex Jones was a smart person. Wait where was I Oh yes, The Incredible String Band. Didn't hear them until this album, and it's a pleasant surprise. A bit over indulgent at times, but really just a hallmark of 60s music up to that point at times. The eclectic mix of instruments make this a pretty ambitious album for its time and it's executed mostly well. Some criticisms people have of this album are a little valid, but come across as a people whining and being vapid. It's very much a 60s album to the T, but I can think of much worse music of this type that isn't on the list. A Very Cellular Song is something that would benefit from streaming if you could just pick parts of the suites you want to hear and ignore the others. My Deadhead senses tingled during the "We Bid You Goodnight" from the beginning, so I can't fully dislike it. Some stuff like The Water Song is simply below cromulent. But overall, not too shabby. It's very much for people of a certain music taste, but this album and the band influenced British counterculture to a degree that affected the rock music of the time. Alright I'm out of things to talk about this band I got more albums to sort through. Just remember: don't trust people on this website and trust your gut. Trust me, most of those "lowest rated" albums on this list are fire. Find the good in people, seek out the cost of freedom, and buy real estate in an imaginary place. tl;dr: scottish folk album in the 60s with an eclectic usage of 'eastern' instruments that's pretty good aside from a tiny percent of cringe stuff you would expect from a normal 60s record

My milennialness is showing, I remember playing this album quite a lot in high school. This album is nearly 20 years old and still evokes nostalgia not just through the music influences James Murphy wears on his sleeve but through how it makes you feel. Dancing, drinking and sighing and other hangover blues, back to more dancing and something very melancholic. LCD Soundsystem at their finest.

Peak camp americana post punk. RIP Ricky Wilson, maybe one of the more underrated guitarists out there

Yeah I should probably listen to more Salsa....

I listen to tons of music, and I would still say Frank Zappa is my favorite after all these years on Earth. We're Only In It For The Money is maybe the most accurate telling of the 60s from someone who would qualify himself as a Freak, the "hippie" scene from Southern California that were around at the same time-frame as the hippies. The social messaging is Zappa at his most clever songwriting (before he did significantly more sex jokes). I think it's a misconception that hippies are seen as some target like a South Park episode. Much of the satire is hippies that are in it for themselves and not the greater 60s social/political nature of their perceived radical lifestyle.The companies that get rich off their fashion or drug choices ARE the ones that are only in it for the money. These are the people that would grow up to be the stereotypical boomers that grew up privileged and say the kids today have it easy, you know the type. Zappa ironically might have ended up that way, but he died of Prostate Cancer in his early 50s. Why does it hurt when I pee, indeed. Aside from the hippies themselves, Zappa makes it pretty clear in 'Concentration Moon' and 'Mom & Dad' that police brutality towards hippies was common, but also the attitudes of condescending conservative parents rejection of their child's ability to be themself. As absurd and silly Zappa's music is, these are probably the most poignant lyrics he'd ever write. At no point is Zappa against the hippies other than saying they're silly at best and misguided at worst. It's a message of personal freedom: you can be absolutely free, only if you want to be. Most of the other satire is much more direct, attacks at vanity and what inner beauty really means (What's The Ugliest Part of Your Body?, Hot Poop (the backmasked message if listening to the censored version), Lonely Little Girl), domestic abuse (Bow-Tie Daddy, Harry You're A Beast). Let's Make The Water Turn Black is a real story with Zappa's neighborhood friends doing gross things while The Idiot Bastard Child on the album is a continuation of that story, but is also about Richard Nixon. Fuck that guy, while we're at it. The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny was never finished because the budget ran out and the studio didn't want Zappa to do more weird studio/engineering shenanigans on a Velvet Underground-sounding avant-garde piece. The only other way to get it is to read Kafka's In the Penal Colony. Finally, this is a great album. There's no comment section under these reviews so I'll also add a hearty "fuck off" if you don't agree with me. I'm needlessly petty on an obscure music platform because I can. This album rocks, not my favorite Zappa or Mothers of Invention record, but it's probably his best or second best crticially acclaimed album for a reason: The Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Hendrix, The Doors, anyone else you could name would never talk about these subjects honestly and directly. There was a lot going on in the mid to late 1960s, We're Only In It For The Money is a great chronicle of all the madness condensed to an experimental rock record.

I prefer Bruce's 70s work but it's undeniable how iconic Born in the USA is, the song and the album. Keep fighting the good fight Bruce.

Probably the artiest music album to ever art. I'll give a quick rundown. 1/1: what you came for 2/1: creepy voices and shit idk don't feel that ambient to me I guess 1/2: combination of past two tracks and works well (of course) 2/2: arp 2600 synth solo perfectly majestic good stuff. giving a 4/5 only because 2/1 was 2spooky4me and not quite ambient >_<

Classic hip hop record for the most part. Part of it hasn't aged well. When Obama invited this guy to the White House, Fox News and other Republicans shit themselves over it. Remember that? If Q-Tip sneezed the White House would probably collapse. RIP J Dilla who produced this.

First of all, "Jarvis Cocker", that's certainly a name. Different Class is a pretty fine album. Magically not grating from "Jarvis Cocker" 's voice. The songs execute well that reminds me of XTC with bombastic 90s production (the Britpop styling). Most of the songs are pretty good or fine at worst. Disco 2000 sounds too much like Gloria for my liking., This would be my definition of a high floor low ceiling album, where in the end being entertained is good even if the product is average at worst. I'd say we can't all be extraordinary all the time. The British (who made Britpop) say this is the defining Britpop record, and I think it's better at Oasis in executing whatever Britpop meant. Oasis appealed too well to Americans anyways, and you can't say that about Blur WHOO HOOOOO. Ahem. Mr. Jarvis and his band of British people wrote on the back of the record, "We don't want no trouble, we just want the right to be different. That's all.". Sir, if you were an American you would never need to say that. That's what makes it Britpop, I say this as an American who prefers other British music movements that were going on at the same time. So yeah, not bad. There's a little something there for everyone mostly. This is at least better than Oasis, I still haven't been selected to hear Blur yet. WHOO HOOOOO

Muddy Waters is as essential to the transformation of blues music to the post WW2 world as much as Miles Davis is to Jazz. Hard Again captures that hard as nails energy Muddy brings to the table with several talented musicians with him like Johnny Winters. Top notch stuff from the master.

I'm always intrigued by anything rated less than a 2.8 on this website. I didn't know The Young Gods before this selection, and I take whatever the masses of this site rank with a grain of salt, lots of the lower rank albums are easily some of the less accessible on the list: Throbbing Gristle, The Residents, Zappa/Mother of Invention and even some Scottish folk band. As someone that likes this weird industrial/dark cabaret music, I'm maybe more equipped to bring a more honest review. L'eau Rouge at a glance is fairly similar sounding to the industrial of the late 80s/early 90s, think of Skinny Puppy (sans samples), Einstürzende Neubauten or Godflesh (sans Alesis drum machine). L'eau Rouge captures the hardness and executes it quite well. I'm not gonna pretend I understand the Swiss French lyrics, but I have a hard time hearing lyrics in songs in any language. Each song is a different surprise from the other, I particularly liked Longue Road and its clear thrash metal influence. The cabaret parts on the album are a little hit or miss, but hit hard on Les Enfants. I'm not sure if La Fille de la Mort is the best opener for this album, but it does follow under the "we're gonna do something a little unexpected for first time listeners" for each track. The intensity levels stay almost the same throughout the album, at a level where industrial music fans prefer them to be at. It's got more emotion and boldness than Laibach (who are their own rabbit hole with industrial music, seriously look at their wikipedia page). I wish I listened to more industrial music to give a better assessment, but I think this is quite a good album. At this point in the rankings, I should stop looking at other people who listened to like 3 songs and attempt to be witty by leaving a (lame) funny review and then bugger off. The point of this site is to expand your taste or at least show you stuff you would otherwise never listen to. It's probably up to me to stop reading other people's opinions, but I like the gauge the general perspective of 20,000 people who listened to this before. Though I'm sure maybe a quarter of those 20,000 people probably enjoyed the record. This is a great record, evidently not for everybody, but I mean, shit like the XX and CHVRCHES get higher ratings because it's more accessible, even though the actual music is total ass. I'm giving this a 5 because I rank albums a 5 when I've never heard of them before and actually enjoy them and listen to the entire album. Gonna end on a note that talks about the music: This is some good industrial, not sure if it's the best (I kind of like Godflesh more but they're not on the list, though they should be). Overall, if you like weird music, you'll probably like this. It's got a good number of tricks up its sleeve if you like industrial music. The musicianship is solid and nothing feels like it's too long (aside from maybe the opening track) or missing something. Pretty solid stuff, did you know David Bowie was inspired by them? I did not. I'm really encouraging you people to actually listen to every song and not turn it off after a few songs. Get a god damn open mind and listen to this swiss/french industrial band. It won't kill you, unlike zombie disco.

The Specials are a defining 2-tone ska band from the UK that were maybe too British for American ears, but definitely should have been big in the US if America embraced ska before the 90s. The band's chemistry and singers really make The Specials so damn good, even before the socially conscious lyrics and themes. The Clash may be "the only band that matters", but The Specials could easily be the second. Not on this record but Ghost Town, released a few years after their self-titled debut was also a very pivotal song for the UK's grim economic recession in the early 80s (before that bitch Thatcher was in charge). This record is a classic and hallmark for 2tone ska. Being this groovy and having lyrics that hit equally hard is no easy task. Rest in power Terry Hall.

Iconic song, timeless record, boy I love the Hammond B-3. No one is too shabby on this record. Just good stuff.

The day has come. I must make an honest assessment of Moby. If only I could merely just quote Space Ghost: "Nobody cares Moby. No one." and be witty it could cover all my bases and I can move on. But I am an honest man, and I will listen to bald ambient man that is not Brian Eno. Play is very much the sound of the turning of the new millennium. It captures the americana roots that helped seed the many music revolutions of the 20th century. Waved all together by later 20th century music technology with sampling and multi track productions (they didn't record that early in the 20th century but the music technology grew better and better by the decade starting in the late 30s/40s). Parts of the album wave a sense of techno-optimism and overcoming the burdens and strife of the past, but ends on what the 21st century would actually provide: pain, sorrow and misery. Also not good, compared to the rest of the album. I did like Guitar Flute & Spring though. Play feels important in a way I described in my review about Super Furry Animals' Rings Around The World: it distinctly sounds like the year 2000. I lived in that year, mostly as a five year old, and can remember Porcelain on the radio back then and maybe Bodyrock or South Side? It really captures that pre 9/11 sound of an aborted era of American (and possibly world) history. That sound being: what if many things sounded like the Apple startup music. The stronger emergence of computers coming into our daily routine (the internet soon to follow). Play feels like an important album more as a cultural capture point than maybe the quality of the music. This is mostly good! There's a lot of songs to go through and it's easy to at least find a few that are good for a blind listen. The B-Sides (and I choose not to go through all of them because I loved Space Ghost growing up) are a decent follow-up as like an optional side quest. There's definitely parts to the album I don't care much for but it's not too bad throughout. Not too much that would make me want to hear it again, but I understand its importance.

One of the earliest punk bands, and maybe THE earliest Australian punk band. Eternally Yours represents The Saints at their height and their early marks on the genre have left a big foot print on the genre, especially with their politically charged lyrics (shoutout Orstalia). No Your Product and The Perfect Day are also some pretty great songs while Know Your Product remains their signature song, next to the first punk song outside the USA in (I'm) Stranded (not on the album). From past albums I've covered, it reminds me of The Undertones first album but with more of the punk flair you would expect from the early early punk bands. Short and gets to the point, another five. We keep it going.

One of my most replayed albums ever, At Fillmore East is a masterpiece of jamming and guitar soloing. One of the greatest exports from the South. Top shelf, top notch music.

Adele, while very talented in her own right, is not really music for me at all. I'm going to be a good sport of course and listen to the album, but for anyone else reading this keep in mind: I'm not a pop guy, don't take this rating to heart. I listen to bands like Henry Cow and the Butthole Surfers, who are essentially completely different solar systems than pop music. Adele is by far and away one of the most successful musicians of the 2010s: Once she got big in the scene she kept it going. 21 is probably her better known album (with Rolling In The Deep/Someone Like You/etc), but could I really say that when the average plays on 25 are closer to a billion? Alright enough procrastinating on listening to the album by writing this meaningless introduction. Well, I survived. Wasn't as bad as I thought (definitely wouldn't be too abysmal), but I can still plainly say most of this music is just simply not for me. I'm glad it's good for most people! There's a few songs here I liked: I Miss You, River Lea (found out afterwards it was produced by Danger Mouse which helps), and the closing track Sweetest Devotion. Everything else: No. Simply no. If I didn't hear it a million times working in [retail-adjacent work], maybe I'd like it better. But I still dislike it. Overall: definitely an important album over the past 10-15 years, I'm never gonna say something like Adele is a bad singer when she clearly isn't, but like, this just isn't engaging enough to me. She has the conviction singing value, but I'd like to see what she can do with an orchestra or symphony. Something grander. 25 ends on a good note which was better than my low expectations, but I'm happy to not hear most of this again. Could definitely be a lot worse, and it's better than Taylor Swift at least. I'm not gonna feel bad for one of the best selling musicians this century though lol.

Post motown R&B is a blind spot for me. The "quiet storm" is a very vibesy specific time period where it was played to ease in people's anxieties about the outer world, something we could use right now. I'm not sure that production style would work in a maximized digital age. Anita Baker is considered one of the forefront smooth jazz/quiet storm singers of her time period. She's got a quite a voice! Unfortunately, every thing else around her sounds dated. The songs from the album are definitely important, the album as constructed is much less so. I mean I like 80s synths, the cheese, and knowing too much about electronic music and synthesizers to hear all the presets from various Yamaha/Korg/Roland synths that were big for the time (especially Yamaha). It's just too egregious of an "80s sound" record. Is this bad? No, but it is lame. This record did sell well for 1986, which gives it the notability to be on the list, but you're better off listening to the singles. Spotify sure thinks so. Kind of a shame.

Serge Gainsbourg is one of France's biggest music exports, although I think by now Daft Punk might have crossed that threshold for future generations because the subject matter would be canceled today !!!!!!!!! Putting the obvious aside, Histoire de Melody Nelson is considered Gainsbourg's magnum opus. It's such a short record at around 28 minutes and yet I feel like I can't fully speak about the story or songwriting because it's French and I don't speak it, but the instrumentation (and especially) the bass drive the motion of the album incredibly well. Like, the bass is fantastic. It feels so loose, and at times feels like a car crash is about to happen and you just have to take it in. For a pop record (kind of hard to boil this down to one genre but I mean, he IS the popular french musician guy of the mid 20th century), this is pretty well done. The worst parts of the album are coincidentally, the two icky songs that aren't pretty good to begin with. Not like I can understand what it was about when I was listening to it, but I also though it was instrumentally the weaker parts of the album clocking in at like 3 minutes of a 28 minute record. 10%! Yeah that's math bet you didn't expect that you wanker.

I am incredibly over due to listen to Sigur Rós, let alone their magnum opus Ágætis Byrjun (I totally did not just copy and past that). Ágætis Byrjun heats up in the early middle part of the album then it goes for a ride. Much like the Icelandic language, it's hard to describe but it's really good.

Another band I was due to listen to, and patiently waited for its selection on this list to do it. And yeah it's really good, especially for a synth weirdo like me. Looks like they have a fun discography to get into if you like this stuff. CAUTION: French

Forewarning: I am not British When I was in high school about a couple years after this album came out, it was an early time of wide music discovery for me. Streaming was merely in the womb, piracy and /mu/ sharethreads were the main way to go to finding new bands. But also in high school I was meeting people and we exchanged different bands and such to one another (at least I think, I wasn't in high school for too long). At some point the Klaxons came about as a band I would check out, following getting into Justice/Death From Above 1979/Foals and Bloc Party. I really like that electro rock mixture with the dance punk revival that was hot on its heels at the time of Myths of the Near Future's release. Nearly 20 years after the album was released (am I old that high school was almost that long ago for me? no it was the inner child in me that was deceived that is incorrect), I think it still sounds unique in its frantically paced execution. The singing and harmonies work great and is why Golden Skans is a great song. Atlantis to Interzone is the weird kind of frantic song that does a whole time signature shift and still keeps itself upbeat. I think it would be my favorite on the album after all these years later, so much going on in just a little over 3 minutes. Totem on the Timeline is above average filler music. Between Golden Skans and Gravity's Rainbow (which are almost the same song if it weren't for the great songwriting), I like the latter much more specifically because of the bass line. There is some form of a concept album going around with mythology and Pynchon-like references. It's one of the more creative albums of the 2000s and while clunky at times one way and another, I think at the very least it has heart.

Using one of my few vetos on Taylor Swift: an artist I am simply never going to like.

One of the most classic Brazillian albums, Africa Brasil is a delightful listen that makes perfect beach/chilling/vibes music. You really can't go wrong with this type of music, Brazilians have mastered the art of working hard and relaxing into music simultaneously. Great grooves!

Definitely among some of the least accessible selections on the list, but is the most important album for one of the harshest music genres and scenes out there, the stuff that's at the highest levels of "heavy music". Obviously that stuff isn't going to bother me because I wish people would be more ready to listen to music outside of their comfort range and discover more to life than constant The Office reruns. I'm not into grindcore, although I love most metal that I check out. Grindcore, for those unfamiliar, is essentially death metal on crack. That's the easiest way to put it. Scum incorporates the genres origin points: a mixture of something like Crass on meth, hardcore punk and a touch of metal. I actually ended up liking this more than I expected. I think Scum is certainly a 1001+ whatever album for music given it's legacy. But in some way it's not as inaccessible as the genre would mostly end up sounding. Between this and the black metal I've heard, I would much prefer this.

Strangely enough the only proper studio Fatboy Slim album I haven't gotten around to, but no longer. Better Living Through Chemistry is his debut and while I think his next two albums are certainly more notable and credible, the origin point of his sound was first big in London and the UK before it exploded as a more global sound. I don't listen to Fatboy Slim as much as I did in high school, but BLTC is a bit more original(?) than his other works that feature much more of his trademark sampling sound. BLTC is a bit rough, notably by the end of the album, but nevertheless is a fun ride to go through at least once.

Louis Prima seems like he would've put on killer shows to see live. Unfortunately since he died 50 years ago, this studio album is maybe the one that captures that live energy the best. Very fun, especially for a 50s album.

Did you know the song Murder By Numbers was written by Satan? Beezlebub? The Horned One? Lucifer? The Devil? Well it's true.

While Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle has some parts of the album I find particularly interesting even for an alt country record, I can't help but find the album too slow paced for me most of the time. I appreciate the good songwriting and creative artistry overall, but this isn't going to do it for me. Not really a fan of the vocals either, but that's more of a personal taste. Not the worst thing I've ever heard.

Believe it or not I haven't really ever bothered or cared to listen to the Artic Monkeys. I know of them, my only musical exposure to them came from roommates in college wanting to learn how to play "R U MINE?" (not on this album) and hearing it over and over again. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not sounds much closer to the post punk revival sound of the 2000s over whatever was happening to rock music by the time of AM. And......this record is alright. There's a decent chunk of the middle songs on the album I can care less about and the final track is goodish, and the rest is some honest to good rock music right as rockism was meeting its own end. For the mainstream to accept this, there could be sooooooooo much worse.

This is one of the best albums in the entire list. Two of the greatest drummers ever, nee alive in the mid 20th century in Ginger Baker (Cream) and Tony Allen. This is the summit or peak of this list y'all.

Paul Simon is one of the quintessential 20th century American songwriters. This is a classic album of his that isn't Graceland. It is quite good, especially for someone like me with a lesser threshold on more "softer" music (for lack of a better term, because I do enjoy that stuff up to a point). Definitely an essential for any "must listen to" music list. Almost timeless songwriting and with a style that ages better than expected.

Tubular Bells tickles my brain with prog vibes. Mike Oldfield actually has a pretty great music career but suffers from Nas Syndrome: when your first album is such a classic that the public won't see past you for making such a masterpiece. Nevertheless, if you're a Mike Oldfield fan you probably like some of his other albums better. The only real fault on this 'album' is that it's like Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull: the song is the album. And it's a great song!

yeah it's good of course but Hail to the Thief is better cause it has more interesting rhythms

It's probably the greatest Soul record of all time and you shouldn't need 20,000+ nerds on this site tell you otherwise

It's Exodus by Bob Marley: it is what has been defined in pop culutre as "objectively good" music. Bob Marley

One of the biggest rock records of the 1970s, Frampton does a little bit of everything stereotypical of the rock and roll showman pre-Disco era explosion: short and sweet blues jams, a strange song that brings up molestation, bland and boring love songs/ballads and long jammy solos with a guitar trick that makes the guitarist stand out; in this case it's a talkbox. The middle of this album is a bit of a slug that begins to heat up again around the solo of I Wanna Go to the Sun. The real good meat juice to Frampton Comes Alive is in the final quarter, where the rocking is up to a T for the most part. The biggest charm of the album is the hits it produced: Show Me The Way/ Baby I Love Your Way/Do You Feel Like We Do are classic dad rock, the latter a favorite with Radio DJs (RIP iconic job would've loved to have had one before corporate radio ruined everything) who needed to take a fat shit. There's not a lot that trickles down from that top, but stuff like the Jumpin Jack Flash cover and I Wanna Go To The Sun are fine and alright in that order. When this record was out, people couldn't get enough out of every song. I think it's at the point where aside from the biggest hits and stuff like Shine On/Jumping Jack Flash and the opening two songs, it feels a bit bloated. It is a Double LP so maybe that's to be expected, but then I think of another great live record in UFO's Strangers In The Night (not on the list but it should be) where the filler is pretty minimal. I don't think DYFLWD is bloated in any sense of being a long song, but it's surrounded by various 3-7 minute songs that are fine at best and boring at worst. Overall, Frampton Comes Alive a classic that is really the only inclusion of Peter Frampton on the list. I was thinking Humble Pie could've slipped in somewhere with all the other 70s rock on the list, but surprisingly they're not there. Your parents or grandparents probably fucked to this record, so it was a good soundtrack for that.

I've slept on Jurassic 5 and this album with the hip hop mainstream explosion in the early 2000s. I mean, when I think of alternative hip hop in the early 2000s I think of MF DOOM, Outkast, The Roots and Soulquarians, Dead Prez, and so on and so forth. Jurassic 5's Power in Numbers (coin flip with Quality Control) managed to succeed in maybe rap's most braggadocios era with music that was focused on critiquing that idea. Reminds me of a less funky sounding Blackalicious with A Tribe Called Quest. Shout out to Cut Chemist, he's managed to be on this list more often than Peter Frampton

Depeche Mode's best album. Boldy and moody. I don't know, other people can write better about this album then I can

Before he did every Pixar soundtrack that's ever been concepted, Randy Newman was the token singer-songwriter "funny voice guy" of the late 60s/70s, pre Weird Al. Not all of his songs were necessarily funny nor had some Tom Waits voice strangeness to it, it's in the Steely Dan way of irony and unreliable narrator storytelling. It's nice and clever stuff, but it's not beating out Warren Zevon to me. Unfortunately my ears are, for the most part, very bad at picking up following along with words in music. Not saying anything on this album is bad, because it is my kind of songwriting, but I like it when Zappa does this kind of stuff because there's a lot of interesting stuff going on in his albums with regard to instrument virtuosity and wild rhythms. Nothing against Newman's musicality or anything, it's just what perks up my ears more. It's got that 1970s styled pre punk production kind of staleness to it like a reused 60 year old high school science textbook. This is a real gem for those that like to follow along and enjoy those classic 1970s singer-songwriters that seem to have been pumping out of record labels like rabbits. This is one of Newman's classic albums, but not exactly my favorite. The second side is much much better than the first side.

It's fucked up for someone as iconic as James Brown to have just one album on a list like this. I suppose it's James Browns' most iconic individual record, as the first premiere live album in an era where repeating all your songs for a new record was seen as ludicrous. It ages like a historical relic: capturing one performance of James Brown's crazy live performance. While it was crazy successful for its time, I think it would have been better if it was filmed for better posterity. It's hard for me to rank this album with its historical impact vs listening to it nowadays where so much live music has been released and nearly perfected by various bands of various genres. Based on my own expectations and vibes, I've enjoyed shorter albums on this list(!) more than this one. This album to me is giving strong "Seinfeld is Unfunny" trope vibes. Nevertheless, if you were at this show: it must have been fucking incredible.

Boy that was a slog to get through. Is the musicality and songwriting bad? No, but it suffers from the ultimate sin of music and entertainment: being boring. Here I will list the good parts of Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, and don't worry, I was not prejudiced coming into this blindly as I could be: Freedom! '90: Best song on the album. Unconventional pop that works is great! Further proof Sturgeon's Law applies to even the best known pop figures with their own "must hear or die" albums. Cowboys and Angels: While my complaints on this album is that for a pop artist, everything is too slow and stripped down. The jazzy atmosphere of Cowboys and Angels works and I wish it could've been the whole album. Then again that smooth jazz shit was done back in the 80s and we needed to LOOK FORWARD in 1990. And uhh Soul Free I think was good. I don't want to hear it again to check though. I can tell this music just isn't for me. I don't think I really hate it hate it to give it a 1, and I don't feel disappointed either. If you're a pop artist and your direction is to get slower and more acoustic/piano involved, it's just not what I'd want from a pop artist. Things should be upbeat, it doesn't need to have pop optimism (boy I really do not like Wham....) but it has to be entertaining. This is simply not that. Good advancements in songwriting from a guy that wanted to prove more than being a pop star? Yes I think he achieves that, but that doesn't make the album any better.

When I think of Malcom McLaren I think of his time managing and forming the Sex Pistols and New York Dolls. I've never really thought about his musician phase of his career because I don't think he caught on in America. Maybe because Americans have better taste, I mean have you seen British food? Okay to be fair Chicken Tikki Masala is really good, but what else after that? Duck Rock is certainly An Album. It's trying to catch onto trends that would get superseded by other 80s trends really quickly. Trevor Horn saves the album with his synth wizardry. The hip hop elements are time accurate in corny levels to hear from a British perspective of a very American genre at the time. Duck Rock sounds like a haphazard studio ideas flying around themes of what was trendy in music at the time, a McLaren talent of understanding the market. But the result is mid. Very mid. Quite mid. Or in British terms, it was like the cheapest bin of beans you would find at a Tesco. Some songs were interesting, Obatala was a nice mellow opener. Merengue was cool I think. Soweto is cromulent. Song for Chango was good for the first half or so. Duck For The Oyster is a terrible song and should not close the album. The rest is honestly forgettable and nothing impressive. Duck Rock is like going to your neighbor's garage sale and seeing nothing but old shit from the 50s through the 80s (at best) and seeing shit that looked like it was preserved in some asbestos lined room and fades immediately once its exposed to sunlight. Now please buy this garage sale item for $150 because I too am a phone user that can use eBay to sell things at approximate value like everyone else nowadays. My tangents are keeping me entertained enough to keep writing about this. I don't think it's fully shit (or 'shite' for the locals), but I don't think the novelty of the record warrants a presence on this list. I'm not sure it holds any kind of legacy other than being another "super 80s!!!!!" album. I'd replace this record with The Egyptian Lover's On the Nile. Another very 80s (self-produced!) record that had a lasting impact on electro music. Also it still sounds good and is immediately impressionable, unlike Duck Rock where it's so weirdly bland despite trying to be innovative and getting swept away by much more creative artists of its time. At least it's not Disco Duck?

Le Tigre is solid. I know there's over a thousand albums on this list and I enjoy writing enough to want to talk at length about records but some days I find it hard to write that much more about it. I have some vague familiarity with riot grrl and the 90s feminist wave of women-led artists that succeeded in male spaces, although I do really enjoy Sleater-Kinney, who get a shout out in the song Hot Topic. So I will keep my mansplaining to some lower level of brevity. It's a very enjoyable and short record that's concise about what it talks about. It's fun! It's Hip! Very 90s sounding in a good way. Yeah that's all I got.

Sam Cooke is a legend and this album very much demonstrates it. Although his life was short (or perhaps average for a musician), he definitely shows off all his chops from this album. Upbeat and meant to make you swing and it would be hard to find someone that couldn't jive to this. Lots of bravado for the early 60s and great, great energy. Well done

Celebrity Skin sounds like what you would expect from a 90s grunge and alternative rock turned to a commercial sound would sound like. Very polished production (just in the nick of time before the digital loudness wars) and most of the songs are pretty good. The parts I didn't like were fairly spreadout through the album though the middle is quite nice and it ends on a strong note. The album song name is quite the earworm. People need to stop hating on Courtney Love for the dumbest reasons, some of which I'm sure is rooted in some form of rock misogyny about women frontmen (frontwomen? some college student will be the expert on this). She can entirely be her own person without her past lover who shot himself having any effect on her own musical ability. It's stupid criticism to bring up for a band that doesn't even sound like Nirvana, at least on this album.

As someone that quite likes XTC, it's obvious why Skylarking is on their list. But Apple Venus?????? Really?????? I mean it's a fine album, but it's no English Settlement or Black Sea. THOSE are must hear albums. Hell, Drums and Wires is probably the other album that isn't skylarking the pops into people's heads. This isn't a good introduction to XTC or their sound (it's essentially the first half of a bigger final album that was some result over long legal record label disputes. Classic rock and roll business procedures). Really one of the more puzzling selections on this list. As for the actual album, Apple Venis is a slow burn. Greenman on down is good, mostly. Everything above it is hit or miss. It's those 60s pop sensibilities with late 90s production and added taste to it. It's not the best XTC album, but it's still good. Shouldn't be on a list like this when there are much better alternatives in the bands own discography.

Best selling album of 1973 and absolutely earning that recognition in the era where pop music was pretty much at an all time lull. Very groovy and fun listen. My highlights are Cisco Kid, City, Country City, Four Cornered Room and The World is a Ghetto. War is one of the most successful multi ethnic multi racial groups in America and their music has aged better than our nation's dumb laws.

Leonard Cohen is a captivating songwriter that follows the ancient songwriting tradition of the nice Jewish boy + acoustic guitar. Between Dylan and Simon, Cohen is more baritone voice and his songwriting would imply it fits the tone but tends to be lighter for the most part. Not as cryptic as Bob, not as childish nativity as Paul. Special shoutout to Phil Ochs who is not on this list but fits that category. Songs From A Room is more stripped down from his first album, kind of more of a Nick Drake setting with minimal but not missing nor empty backing music. Charlie Daniels, of Devil Went Down to Georgia and the beloved "BENGHAZI AIN'T GOING AWAY!!" meme played on this record as a session musician. I had to tell you that the moment I learned that when I finished playing the album. Never forget. I will admit as a nice (I think) Jewish boy that the white boy playing acoustic guitar phenomenon is not my favorite kind of music. I like Dylan and Simon because they tend to have really great backing talent that makes their songs more engaging as someone that's more rhythm than lyric oriented. But I find Cohen's voice very gravitating in a way that it does command the room. The pinch of reverb on the room tone helps give a great moody atmosphere for the album. The only other Leonard Cohen album I've heard was You Want It Darker from the list. I'll await the other Leonard Cohen albums to come. This one helped me understand a bit more about the man other than his epilogue album. May his memory be a blessing.

Clandestino exceeded any expectations I had for this record I never heard of a few hours ago. Picking up Spanish as a second language 8 or so years ago has actually prepared me for this moment. Manu Chao is an excellent songwriter and it's crazy how he can do that with multiple languages. Terrific

One of the few albums that sound exactly like what the album cover would imply. You haven't lived until you get sucker-punched in the face.

One of the more creative acts that followed the turn of the Millennium, Gorillaz is both easy and hard to describe. The band "members" are characters illustrated by Jamie Hewlett of Tank Girl fame. The musicians are that guy from Blur and an assortment of quality musicians and producers like the famed Del and Dan The Automator combination. 25+ years later, this album I think still is one of the better mainstream albums of the early 2000s. Go listen to this on shrooms while camping just after sunset. No squealing, remember that it's all in your head.

Ride is on the Mount Rushmore for classic shoegaze. Nowhere is about equally as revered as Loveless, but is a little less popular. Definitely an essential shoegaze record and just a really great listen. Don't sleep on their next record Going Blank Again which is equally good or even better. Their career after that is uhh, existent. But at the time they were riding a killer big wave

So I'm feeling very conflicted about Microshift. The music? Good for the most part pretty synthy (great) a bit too poppy for my psychdelic-type music (bad). But that's only a little part of my issue with Hookworms. The book this website was inspired by was reissued several times, one of which was in 2018--this was the very latest album put on the list. A couple months after the list was republished, very serious abuse allegations were given towards one of the members (everyone in the band has initials instead of names but I wish that gimmick went further to their live appearances by doing weird stuff but I suppose Brits can either be 100% serious or 100% silly with wankers being everyone in-between). The allegations were serious enough that led to the dissolution of the group, a future lawsuit that was dismissed (which to correct a misconception: that does not mean the abuse didn't happen). A very messy affair that clogs my judgement of the very ill-timed selection to put this on this list, over several 2010s bands that deserve it (AND AREN'T JUST FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM). That fact could not escape my mind listening to the mostly good music. Look, I got another of those "newer" selections to the list earlier in Jane Weaver's Modern Kosmology. I have that same criticism about these popular in the UK and not much elsewhere bands to be on the list, and I quite enjoyed that album. But there's other albums that have better acclaim and current mainstream (as of middle 2026) that definitely deserve to usurp this selection. I should give this time to talk more about the music: It's got a great mix of synthesizer/psychedelic rock action that is definitely fun to hear. Must hear? Over a bunch of neglected hip hop/metal/music big outside the western world? No. Other than everything I just typed, it is a fine record.

One of the greatest and most consistent hip hop bands ever, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm was a cornerstone for Hip Hop as a movement and musical genre. It creates a direct connection to jazz while the sampling, early as it was when the album came out, doesn't age poorly at all. There's a lot I can write about this album that won't due it's justice so I'll just wrap it up by saying it's absolutely essential listen to a diet unlike ham and eggs, which are too high on cholesterol.

The evolution of Scott Walker as a musician is fun to read through. His early stuff like Scott 2 has a few good songs (Jackie, Next, The Girls and the Dogs, and The Bridge) and the rest of it is depends on your tolerance on baritone pop singers that can hold a note like they're from the 50s. Kind of waning in the last ten minutes but nevertheless the record is ok. Probably should have put some of his darker avant-garde career revamp music on the list just to counterpoint this era of his work.

As an American (which I have to repeat a lot about this list because it was curated by British people), Britpop is otherwise known as "that Oasis sound" because Blur's best known song in the States and is played at every sports venue is Song 2, the WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO song. You know it, your uncle knows it, and your pet iguana Sarah understands it. Well to my absolutely absence of a shock, that's not the Britpop sound and not what Blur actually sounds like. Yes I know Gorillaz and it's the same guy but please stick with what I'm actually going to say here. Modern Life is Rubbish is certainly not the snobby, obnoxiously over-produced and volume-maxxing as much as Oasis's albums are, and the end result is quite nice. Some sort of compromise between The Kinks, XTC, and 90s rock stylings. Was better than what I was expecting for the most part, but I think I'm still going to prefer Gorillaz.

Guided By Voices has 43 albums as of time of writing this review, and this is their sole representation on the list. With how short the songs are and how many of them are on an album, it reminds me of Minutemen and other punk music. GBV aren't really punks, more of the indie DIY stuff mixed with a lot of beer drinking. I'll give them their due props of recording at home rather than rack up a bunch of superfluous studio fees that get most bands with record labels start their debt clocks. They did have Bob Ludwig master and try his damned hardest to cut out the sloppiness, but that's part of the charm with Indie stuff. Unfortunately I don't like that lofi sound in production. Minutemen could get away with it because they went to tape and not cassette recordings, a difference in clarity that is night and day. The songs itself are mostly good. Some are pretty bad but everything is super short so it only disrupts the flow a little. I'd say a low floor with a medium to high ceiling. Is Alien Lanes a bad album? Not at all, but as someone that is biased against lofi production it's not something I want to relisten to anytime soon. But as someone that puts all the music they ever like on a bigass shuffle playlist, I don't mind some of those songs popping up again. Now they have 42 other albums to go through and maybe I'll do that some other time.

For 80s music, Diamond Life ages very well. Sade could be a timeless singer. Album is pretty great but many songs from the middle to the end are a bit samey sounding, but I guess if you're going to listen to Sade you know what you're going to get: smooth silky jazz/quiet storm singing.

Gram Parsons is sort of underappreciated in the hyper-specific category of "60s musical icons that died tragically young". Many artists on that list are big names you can picture in your head, unless you're a die hard The Byrds fan or were active in the country/freak rock scenes of Los Angeles in the 60s. The Flying Burrito Bros are more country than the folk of The Byrds, though Parsons always believed in combining rock and country together and his best example of that is The Gilded Palace of Sin. For the most part, The Gilded Palace of Sin is good. A clear staple of alt-country at some of its earliest beginnings. Kind of the spark of the genre like MC5 was to punk. I want to talk more about how The Flying Burrito Brothers are still around today, without any of the original band members and dropped the "flying" part out of the name. It's not like Lynyrd Skynyrd where most of the band died in a plane crash then were replaced by people who then died and then the original band members that survived died and they're still around today, somehow. I have no idea how The Flying Burrito Brothers are still here when they're best known for this album. Unfortunately that's all I have to say about that.

The sound I associate the most with Led Zeppelin is Physical Graffiti.

Of all the hard rock and blues rock bands in the 80s to dig into synthesizers, ZZ Top were probably the best ones to nail it and still sound like themselves even with drum machines. Aside from the typical blues boogie rock cheese (which some people on this very website called it, "unclassy" buddy this is rock and roll, shut the fuck up), it's creative mixture of electric blues and 80s music technological wonders has helped it hold up over time if not also being very much of it's time. It might have saved the blues from dying off and being castaway like ragtime. This album encompasses the one word I would call ZZ Top's music and Billy Gibbon's guitar tone: Bitchin'. Every song has a bitchin' riff and the songs are about cars, women, and TV dinners. Sharp Dressed Man and Gimme All Your Lovin' and Legs are the staples for the album of course but I'd like to give shoutouts to the aforementioned TV Dinners as well as the cool blend of bass and drum machine action on Thug. Also enjoyed Got Me Under Pressure, the ultimate "I'm down bad for this girl" song. Eliminator is a fun listen for thrills and to wear some cheap sunglasses and lamp up somewhere.

My Last.fm stats say I have not relistened to AC/DC since I was in high school, which is to say a long time ago. AC/DC is a band that does what they do best: chugging riffs and making music for you to drink to. High floor, low ceiling: you know the expectations and if you just need them to be met and that's all: they're perfect. The Bon Scott era makes people forget how big they were before they insanely won the music lottery again and became Icons. Give AC/DC their due, they are pretty good with riffs. The hooks would improve with Back in Black however. Highway to Hell (the song) is one of the many AC/DC songs that will be some part of the human international songbook alongside the Beatles, Hallelujah, Seven Nations Army, and Mr. Brightside. People will remember these songs (for better and worse) long in the future over most things we listen to in the current era. People are gonna still pick up guitars and want to play and sing this song live. God it must have been fucking crazy to see AC/DC in their Bon Scott prime and Brian Johnson prime. Their early live performances are what drove attention to them and moved them from Australian's darlings to an incredibly big Rock and Roll band across the world. Highway to Hell (the album) was a great breakthrough for the band and got them to be big outside of their home country. The album itself is filled with half good songs (title track, Walk All Over You, Touch Too Much, Show Down in Flames and If You Want Blood (You've Got It). They follow the AC/DC formula successfully. The others are either too bland or just not great. But the riffs man, the riffs are quite powerful.

The rhythm section of Talking Heads can make an interestingly strange yet incredibly groovy funk album. Good album to take drugs too. Aside from the classic Genius of Love, I really liked the haunting vocals Tina does on Lorelei. Fun weird funk record

Blaze It: The album. In reality it has quite a lot to do with Jamaican politics and Rastafarian culture. Tosh was pretty good in the Wailers and if you liked what he did with Bob Marley you'll like it here. idk it's a good reggae album I guess? I smoked a lot of weed while listening to this because Peter Tosh did not live in a world with legal weed like where I live. We must continue to make his vision a reality.

The Doors are one of the GOATs of the 60s and this album is their strongest example to earn that title. So many classics, my favorite personally being Light My Fire, which inspired me to take on keyboards/organs/synthesizers. Manzarek one of the best.

As a synth/organ/keys guy, I am inherently biased towards John Cage in terms of favorite Velvet Underground members. I love jamming out to Sister Ray all the time. His solo career is pretty interesting in that his songwriting was less William S Burroughs/Lou Reed but kept the Steely Dan-esque deception lyrics. Songs that sound idyllic are about horrible things or sometimes it's just completely on the nose like "the man who couldn't afford to orgy". When in doubt, he's probably talking about heroin or cocaine. Paris 1919 is probably the perfect amount of boutique pop I can take and enjoy it. There's enough variation between songs and is short yet melodically tough enough to leave a great impression. I gave myself a relisten to this album (heard it once before 5 years ago) and I still enjoyed it.

Side one of this album is really great, enjoyed the lowfi dub guitar trickery going on. Side two is slower and isn't fully my thing. Dancing is oddly catchy and my brain is telling me to enjoy it in a weird Christopher Cross artpop kind of way. Small Hours is good for a closer. I really would like that earlier vibe on that album for start to finish though. Otherwise not too bad, rest in power to the legend Lee Scratch Perry.

Despite being a millennial person that could have grown up to this sort of music, I didn't really seek out The White Stripes as much except for Icky Thump (not on the list). Great guitar work on that one! White Blood Cells is the first of the three albums The White Stripes have on this list. They're a notable 2000s rock band in the sense that rock music's role in the music status quo as "top dogs" (or rockism for academics) was waning. The Gold Rush was already passed its peak, you were not going to create a new Rolling Stones, Zeppelin, KISS or even a Nirvana once you hit the 21st century. Rap music helped push pop music back and reminded us all that the biggest music is the most accessible and rock music was becoming typecasted, not having the same marketable appeal as it had to boomers and gen x'ers. Rock was simply so big and had so many specific umbrella genres and niches, whereas pop was like corn or rice. Where am I going with this? Well, The White Stripes sort of represent some of the best 'rock' music of the decade. The Arctic Monkeys were the British equivalent (substitute garage rock with post punk) of a big 2000s rock band. White Blood Cells was the album/big singles that made The White Stripes go from indie act to pop culture. White Blood Cells has a bunch of songs that are quick to the punch, although not all of it is fully garage rock or punk inspired. I think that execution isn't fully flawless, but it does give them a certain sound that they were going for. But I don't know man, it just doesn't hit that hard for me. Some of these songs I can't care less for (Dead Leaves and Dirty Ground, Hotel Yorba, We're Going To Be Friends), some cromulent offerings and a couple of good stuff. It's overall a fine album, but compared to the other White Stripes albums, doesn't offer as much to me. It's bread you get for free with a slightly special butter selection while you wait for your food to get to the table.

Depeche Mode's one other album on the list is Music For The Masses, which was the band continuing to escape their earlier pop (but not too synth pop like Human League) roots and turning into something more bolder and moodier. Sort of like getting into leather and slowly entering the BDSM rabbit hole. I don't think my second listening for this Music For The Masses has changed my ranking of it. It's a little more gothic than I remember and has mostly some good enough synth and production work for the album to age fairly well. Martin Gore's vocals work incredibly well with the mood they were trying to pull. It's a solid album but just has either a little too much filler or kind of meh songs for about 20% of it. Depeche Mode is a great band, they've got other good albums (mostly in the early to mid 90s) that could've also been on the list compared to some other bands and their selection, but this list needs more goth music and this will have to suffice.

Jethro Tull's sole selection on this list is the prog rock staple Aqualung: an album that continues to kickass. Iconic opening riff, the incredible flute opening and epic crescendo in Cross-Eyed Mary. Also like the My God and Hymn 43 transition, hits as thick as a brick. It's a classic for a reason. Everyone talks about Ian Anderson's flute but it's Martin Barre's guitar chops and tone that really seals the deal and makes Aqualung such a great album.

I'm conflicted on actually listening to Marilyn Manson. When multiple women are accusing you of sexual assault/abuse and even claims of torture, that's morally too much to handle to listen to an artist. I'm not entertaining "art over the artist" argument when the man's art consists of edgy provocative content like that, even depicting sexual assault/abuse in some of his videos. Look, I understand half of the many controversies about Marilyn Manson (the band and the person) are bullshit in some way or form regarding Columbine influence or being able to perform in certain American states and Russia, but treating other human beings with fair human dignity is a bar that cannot be lowered. And, I mean, there's so much better metal and industrial records out there, there's a decent amount of industrial music on the list and I can firmly say this record is probably the worst one on it. I know Antichrist Superstar helped this dude blow up and made him notable as a conservative rally call against goth culture or kids that want to be different or whatever from white hetero christian nuclear family norms for the 90s, but I don't think you need to hear this before you die. Listen to like, 80's The Damned, Ministry, The Cure and Skinny Puppy. You'll get a better sense of the picture of that music scene better than this edgy abusing asshole.

To me, this is the definitive Bob Dylan record. Right at the apex of his fame as a smart young man when his voice was at its most iconic sounding with plenty of his iconic songs featured on this album, Dude is so talented you could also say those two sentences to his last album, Highway 61 Revisited, and still be correct. Though between the two, I like Blonde on Blonde's songs better, maybe because there are more of them, or just the entire middle chunk of the album is just banger after banger. So glad he decided to go electric, dumb objecting beatniks.

Blue Cheer was the heaviest band in the San Francisco psychedelic scene. Perhaps their answer to The Stooges but with a crazy amount of 1960s guitar distortion that only Hendrix could overpower. I listened to Vincebus Eruptum quite a bit growing up, don't fully remember how I found out about them but they still leave a great impression on me. You just don't hear a lot of guitar jamming in 'Doctor Please' that you can find in the 60s. The Beatles weren't being as hectic as that in Helter Skelter. Aside from the classic Summertime Blues cover, my favorite track would be Parchment Farm. Great heavy blues energy.

Knowing nothing about Cornershop, this album was another one of those pleasant surprises on the list. An interesting mix of sampling, raga-based electronics and some blend of alternative rock (Wilco-y at times) and big beat seasoned with some funk. While at times very 90s sounding, it has a pretty unique blend of genres and sound that make it worth hearing.

Album #250 is Hounds of Love by Kate Bush, perhaps England's greatest redhead of all time. This is her biggest commercial success and it really shows as one of the better pop albums of the 80s. My biggest highlight about this album is how Kate Bush uses the Fairlight and CS80 and wields the synths like a pro. For that, we stan. More than those Stranger Things people that got on to her.

Gary Numan is one of the original "synth guys", alongside Jean-Michael Jarre and everyone you need to know from Kraftwerk. I would equally recommend Tubeway Army's "Replicas" (Numan's 'band' before he just released music under his name) as it's just as good as The Pleasure Principle, a very peak album. You know Cars, but you should also know Are Friends Electric and Down in the Park. If you want something more protoindustrial, Telekon is up your ally. The Pleasure Principle is a hallmark of synthesizer sound and is just a completely solid album from start to finish. Please understand this dude is more than just "Cars", he's done quite a lot for the music world.

2/3 now with revisiting CCR: a band I knew very well but growing up I only listened to Chronicle, one of the best compilation albums of all time. So obviously I'm aware of Born on the Bayou (great song for testing speakers with) and Proud Mary. So I'm here to say the same thing I said about Green River: It's a banger. How shocking!

At 253 albums deep into the list, I finally catch Tom Waits and it's one of the two albums on the list I'm lesser-versed in. Tom Waits is probably one of my favorite singer-songwriters because of his focus on the cast-offs of society and other bizarre, grizzly and or morbid tales. Heartattack and Vine has a bit more strings than the average Tom Waits album while also capturing his slow musical descent from bluesy/piano bar guy to a Genuine Weirdo making crazy musical concoctions. Waits credits this album for pushing him more toward that direction, as well as Bruce Springsteen for giving him shit tons of good money for songwriter royalties. Everyone wins.

Idiot Wind is my favorite Bob Dylan song. Spiteful Bob is a powerful man. Every song is really good, it's a classic Dylan record, iconic album etc

From the start: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These), the song, is an 80s synth pop banner. One of the more infectious synth riffs of the decade alongside Van Halen's Jump. The album is quite good, some crazy synth work done by the non Annie Lenox member of the band, and makes for a more interesting listen than expected. An 80s classic

As an R.E.M. fan, I too, sleep on Document as an album. It's a focal point for the band that went from college rock radio station idols to a more mainstream band that turned jangle pop into alternative rock. While I would've thought Reckoning or Life's Richest Pageant could have taken over Document, those albums do not have It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) which was maybe the song that fully shows the crossover of "college rock" graduating into "alternative rock", waning in more post punk influence as seen in their cover of Wire's Strange. There's the 'must hear or die' aspect of the selection. The One I Love was technically the bigger hit on the charts, being one of those songs that are not what most people think it's about (the meaning is on wikipedia if you like books n stuff), but yeah I've said my piece.

Public Enemy was my gateway into hip hop as a young teenager that came from a rock/metal background. I think The Bomb Squad's efforts on all these crazy sampling mixes (back when it was legal to sample whatever you want, ohhhhhhh if only those copyright laxed laws were around today we could all be making Avalanches type wonders) while Chuck D was spitting hot fire into the mic with equally bombastic fervor. Along with Fear of a Black Planet, It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back is one of the most important hip hop albums of the Golden Age of Hip Hop as it made white people really like songs regarding black liberation, culture, and some cringe Nation of Islam stuff "that was the style at the time". While I think it deserves a remaster for it to sound nicer in digital distributions, it's still a hard hitting album that acts as a good gateway into the genre, avoiding some of the pitfalls that affected other 80s hip hop in the Golden Age that sound too corny.

listen to this sober then listen to it again on LSD, that is my recommendation to you

Crazy to think that Bruce Springsteen almost didn't make it out as a musician. Born to Run was a last ditch effort by Bruce to sell Big records (#1 with a bullet) after his last two albums didn't sell that well. Pop culture icon and patron saint of Fathers that just love to grill and New Jersey, almost never made it. Hail Mary pass to make one of the best selling, critically acclaimed albums of all time. Rock and roll. I did actually listen to Greetings From Asbury Park before and it certainly wasn't the Bruce you would hear of if he never made it. A good portion of what makes Born to Run stand out is that bombastic and much louder sound that made him less "70s singer-songwritery indie folky" (for lack of a better phrasing) and more as a polished formidable rock and roll record. I mean check out Tenth Avenue Freeze Out live, that gives you the kind of energy Bruce meant for a song like that. "Blinded By The Light" was literally made 10x better by Manfred Mann. All that wankery aside, it really is a great record as it's universally acclaimed by all Dads of America and possibly Europe. I know I joked earlier about the singer-songwriter thing but Bruce is more than some 'Classic Rock Dad Rock' stereotype that kind of demeans his hot chops with songwriting and incredible talent of the E Street Band. He's not a Bad Company, Montrose, Styx kind of musician/band. That said, Darkness On The Edge of town is my favorite kind of Bruce. I think the best Bruce Springsteen you should listen to is his live albums: that's where the Bruce magic really shines and you get how he got to be so Big. He isn't going to sound like Bob Dylan I promise. One final shoutout to Clarence Clemons the Saxophone player. Possibly the greatest Rock Sax player specifically. And they wanted Bruce to record in Nashville to some session musician instead. Sheesh

Headquarters marked the moment The Monkees would do more than just sing 'their' own songs, by also doing the writing and more instrumentation. Their early reputation that they didn't write or (mostly) perform their own songs casts sort of a shadow on their short but impactful career of being the most Los Angeles version of the Beatles in America. I mean, that was the style at the time. The one common denominator about the good songs on Headquarters is Michael Neismith, who I think benefits the most from the creative liberty they were granted. His sort of Byrds sounding songs I think are the best on this short album. But I think the lows on this album are pretty bad. Side A is simply does not cut it but Side B isn't too shabby. It's certainly very 60s sounding and when it gets bubblegum poppy it suffers greatly Nesmith songs hit more than the others and I guess saves the album from being cast-off like all the other Monkees albums that couldn't touch the list. There's simply plenty of other 60s bands that can do this sound and much better, I mean the aforementioned Byrds were also from LA and that's what the best Monkees songs mostly sounded like. Monkees were at least a big enough band and maybe a bigger pop culture zeitgeist to get a spot on this list. Headquarters is really just okay. I didn't hate it as much as I thought I was going to, but even when I was surprised or impressed it wasn't really a 'wow' factor.

My introduction to The Cardigans was actually from their Iron Man cover before I knew Lovefool. Always liked that slightly sardonic Swedish female vocal version of it, a great change of pace. Lovefool by itself is a fine song that seems to have been an example of "winning the music lottery" of actually making money in the industry, even though in classic fashion their music doesn't always Sound Like That. First Band On The Moon is the kind of power pop I can respect more than others of the 90s (WEEZER) and definitely has a kind of charm to it.

Obviously one of the most important albums with so many books and highly detailed writings about it. So this post is more about my opinion. While I don't really like or care for the Beach Boys, it's hard to not say that this is their absolute peak and best album compared to a lot of 60s manufactured slop they would churn out and "oh, you should at least check out Surf's Up!" crowd of Beach Boys fans tell me after I say my opinion. And I did check out Surf's Up earlier on this list. It was quite mid!! Production wise, this is definitely one of the best sounding albums of the 60s, really on par with Bob Dylan and The Beatles in that regard. I think my limitations with The Beach Boys is that I simply cannot dig that much into their songwriting on half of the songs. Wouldn't It Be Nice and Sloop John B are misses for me though I do really dig God Only Knows and Caroline, No as well as the two instrumentals (obviously). In spite of the high quality stuff in an era where people were still experimenting on how to get good sound, it can't change the fact that half the album isn't as exciting as the production. Fucking sue me if you disagree with me about that, I cannot care. I don't think it's a wrong or terrible opinion to say parts of this album suffer from the 'Seinfeld is Unfunny' effect. I do not think the same way about the production though, a big tour de' force on that one. Obviously Brian Wilson is good (most of the time) and aside from a few other members and especially not shitass Mike Love, they should have kept listening to Brian even as he got on to the deep end. Dude was a creative force and they'd rather institutionalize the dude than admit LSD is cool. I don't know where I'm going with this, or even who would want to read another random review of Pet Sounds, but it's definitely an album you should hear before you die. Of course

has keith moon playing on the drums live (Entwistle underrated)

Strangely haven't listened to Ready to Die before this challenge, I've only ever listened to Biggie's bigger hits and wow. There's a phenomenal reason why he's seen as the GOAT. While it is quite 90s in the fact that it's a longer than normal album and has some lude interludes, there's really no other filler or (for the most part) songs that drag on for too long. Absolutely one of the best hip hop albums of the 90s. Shoutout to the West Coast though, the feud seems like it was mostly 2Pac vs Most East Coast rappers cause you didn't see E-40 or Mac Dre try to talk shit to any of the East Coast guys. Also Mac Dre should definitely be on this list

Swordfishtrombones marks the distinctive point in Tom Waits career where he would "start getting weird with it" and become a rather different take on the American singer-songwriter path with some eccentricity not just coming from his delivery, but from moving beyond a piano and incorporating a lot of everything: banjos/guitar/aforementioned trombones/bagpipes/you name it. What he took from 'Heartattack and Vine" (on the list, for me 11 picks ago) he decided to floor it and move forward into that direction: his albums would get more out there. He has a great way of getting in your head with some of the weirdest vocals and deliveries with oddball rhythms. Truly is one of a kind.

They got Larks on this list? I guess it ain't all so bad

As a big Zappa guy, I am obligated to give my respects to the legendary Captain Beefheart and his quite different world of blues inspired music he put out in the 60s and 70s. He's like Tom Waits's middle career but with an extra helping of Screaming Jay Hawkins and even more eccentric than those two guys possibly combined. I've always defined Captain Beefheart's music as the extreme end of the Blues spectrum (mostly from TMR) that dabbles with absurdism and thus (possible) existentialism. Very bizarre, very cool. Safe as Milk is the more approachable or palatable alternative to Trout Mask Replica (on the list, of course)'s absolute zaniness. The experimentation is that along with Zappa and Velvet Underground, though compared to those two, it's closer to Zappa's similar blues and R&B influences: they went to the same LA high schools together. There's a bunch of weird sounding songs and rhythms on the album (a blink and you'll miss it appearance of Taj Mahal on 'Yellow Brick Road'). These songs and rhythms have never escaped my head since I first heard Beefheart in High School. My favorites being Zig Zag Wonder, Call On Me, Electricity and Abba Zaba. A shoutout to Samuel Hoffman's theremin performances on the album, really rounding out the weirdness of an odd instrument he was very proficient playing in. Safe as Milk is safe as milk. Drink it, and get some weird experimental influence in your music diet. Fucking please, we need this kind of human creativity and wonder when Private Equity and AI are sucking out the souls of human life for sweet hard cash.

thank god these guys did drugs because that's when their music was at its best. but like, pop music in the early 60s was kind of whatever (pejorative) and they did made it gooder. there are too many love songs for my personal tastes (something to say about this era of the Beatles until like Rubber Soul). while the harmonies singing are naturally good, the album is like blowing dust off an old record and your entire face is filled of old soot, and needing at least 3 or 4 showers worth to make yourself clean again. With The Beatles is dryer than unseasoned turkey. A Hard Day's Night is already on the list to cover the pre-drugs Beatles and that album is a better record of 60s love songs. not too many songs or anything to shout out about. it's obviously not the worst album on the list, but definitely the worst Beatles one, so a rating should be shown as more scornful. there you go, a negative Beatles review that doesn't bring up Scaruffi

My first time listening to PJ Harvey. I enjoyed it as it tied the grungy sound of the 90s that I like with a strong contralto woman leading the charge instead of some bumbling male heroin addicts. Interesting how she's from a rural part of England and has that pacific northwest music vibe to this album. Looking forward to her other albums on this list

Ladysmith Black Mambazo were part of the reason why Graceland was as iconic as it was. I'm not very big into a-capella groups but some of the backing rhythms (especially in 'Unomathemba') are really sick to hear. Probably better on certain kinds of drugs. Tolerable enough to be entertaining/acceptable listen and certainly intriguing but absolutely not for me.

Perhaps one of the most beautiful vocal albums out there. Buckley's story has been repeated tons of times but it is really sad he didn't know the real success of his album until a decade later. Wikipedia says that he grew much bigger in the 2000s when people were able to check back on his album and it blossomed from there. One of the best one and done artists (I mean I like sketches as well but it was never intended as his second studio album) to do it. RIP.

While the 90s and the specific time period when R.E.M. started to grow from college radio stations to big label music was the alternative rock era. Around the same time there was a darker undercurrent of a different kind of alternative rock was brewing, one with more postpunk touches to it. The DC Post-Hardcore/Emo scene and any project Steve Albini was ever involved with shared similar political vigors, the darker undercurrent (for lack of a better metaphor) was a touch more leftist than what was heard on the corporate radio and was basically music for outcasts and people that liked wearing dark shades and wore jackets wherever, whenever. You know the type. Girls Against Boys, a DC band, was one of the bigger bands of that darker scene, though they were obviously not the biggest band there and quite frankly I'm surprised they got on this list. I didn't really know them too well, but I do really love Fugazi and Dismemberment Plan and that Dischord Records-type aesthetic. Ted Niceley, who produced the first couple of Fugazi albums, was the main producer for this album which gives them that shared tone and touches from the scene. Other than that, they do not sound quite like Fugazi. Not quite like Albini's madhouse either, sort of a mixture of fuzz-focused bassy grunge and shoegaze's unintelligible vocals. I couldn't tell you if they're as political focused as their background implies. The BPM and overall intensity is more subdued and is not as dynamics-focused as Fugazi gets. I quite enjoyed Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby because I liked all the music I just described in the past few paragraphs. I couldn't tell you about its significance in being a "must hear to die" record more than what I guessed previewing the album. It just scratches the right musical itch in my brain, you know? The cathartic against music norm, abstract with power chord punkish minimalism just works really well for me. I would have slept on them without the selection. Gonna check out a few of their albums after hearing this, which is usually the formula that works for a five star review from me. Apparently their next two albums are as good or better as this one, which adds further speculation on why they picked this album over the others. I am, however, a brain genius and if my brain genius likes this album, then that's good enough for me.

I understand jangle rock is like really cool with that specific guitar tone and such that made early R.E.M./The Byrds/Big Star very popular but aside from Perfect Skin (best song on the album), Rattlesnakes and maybe Charlotte Street, this album is littered with 80s cliches for this type of music. You couldn't sound more 1984 with a DX7 and a standard ass Drum Machine tone that isn't buttered up. The way the music business operated in the era of needing to flip over the physical media to continue the music was that the first side was the best side, showing off the hit or best song at the beginning or end of the side. Perfect Skin is a good song, but not much else on the album is exactly as uptempo or lets the music breathe as much as Lloyd Cole has to keep singing about his love songs, which for his credit aren't always about the same cliches you would find in other love songs by involving darker subjects. The problem is that I don't like his singing. Most of the album involves him using his voice to sing. As for the second side of records in the 80s music industry business, those were the throwaway cuts for things that could latch on but didn't have the same catching value that your biggest singles would have. The best song is usually the first song so that your attention will think more good stuff is coming. Charlotte Street is mostly fine, I have some complaints but the rest of the record after it? More of the same. Jangle guitar though! That jangly tone is exactly like toying around car keys to your baby. I'm sure Lloyd Cole And The Commotions appeal to the right kind of British/Scottish Gen X'er or maybe even the youngest boomers for some form of timely vibe of their favorite 80s years while Thatcher would ruin their country with austerity bullshit, but I just can't see the appeal of this on the list. Big Star/R.E.M./The Byrds fill the jangle pop/rock/country vibes that have a good enough presence on the list. They seem more of a singles band than an album band, which was fine in the 20th century but not so nowadays when we view albums. The equivalent of the 80s music industry today would be like if a song popped off on TikTok, without needing all the clutter songs that Rattlesnakes provides. tl;dr: it's mid

Yes yes Big Iron from New Vegas is key, but El Paso is just as great or better especially when the Grateful Dead started to play it all the time. For as hated as Country music gets, Robbins was one of the first defining figures of the Grand Old Opry when country music was attracting the then-young boomers. Marty Robbins is very much that old fashioned establishment kind of country, and his booming voice filled of conviction has aged like [insert favorite wine simile]. The album itself beyond the two big songs he wrote on it isn't as exactly as equal as those songs reputation but nevertheless is pretty damn good. His singing is just that damn good. I wouldn't really seek out most of his other music, but this is his definitive album and inspired many different guitarists and songwriters as a cog in how music evolved. Sometimes you need to eat a good meaty beef stew from a 600 year old recipe to really get some perspective of what living in the past was like, and listening Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs was kind of like that.

You could probably afford to put on a few more Earth Wind & Fire albums on the list based on vibes alone

Fela Kuti left a big legacy on music to the world and Femi (one of his three children) is no slouch either. Continues his father's legacy with a more 90s studio sound accompanying him. Afrobeat is the peak music genre.

Knew the name but not the music. I think it's alright, I'm not that qualified to talk deep about country music but it never overstayed its welcome.

Red Hot Chili Peppers are a bit of a polarizing/mixed bag band for a couple of issues, but they are certainly a rock band that was important in the 80s/90s and even part of the 2000s to leave an impact on pop music culture. A certified California (cough mainly LA cough) core band (see: The Eagles, The Beach Boys). As a younger millennial growing up in California the band's presence was inevitable to anyone in our cohort that wanted to listen to music. I only really caught on with their bigger hits and the stuff you would find in Rock Band/Guitar Hero. I gravitated to funk-based rock and metal more from Faith No More,Living Color, and Jane's Addiction: a band that was always better than RHCP at almost everything they do. Blood Sugar Sex Magick is kind of a blursed album. No matter how much Rick Rubin wants to make everything sound fucked up and weird because he's a hack who doesn't know what he's doing, it's saved by Frusciante (most of the time) and Flea, holy fuck without Flea (shoutout to Slovak who was almost better) this band and album would so damn sterile and forgettable. They mix everything around Flea to his benefit and the detriment of everyone else in the band, because Rick Rubin is a hack who has no idea what he's doing at all times, his words himself mind you. Chad Smith probably did fine with his performances (Suck My Kiss being some crazy timing shit), Rick Rubin completely fucks up the compression on the symbols to make them super thin and short. He refuses to let them ring out, which goes against the damn instrument's purpose. It pisses me off that the drums were mixed the way they are because BSSM could've sounded even funkier than what it was intended. Keidis (coming around to the polarizing thing yeah) does the funk singing right in life but nothing right with anything else. Aside from Under The Bridge and maybe Scar Tissue, I'm not convinced the lyrics in RHCP songs have any meaning or depth but not in the nonsensical Parliament-Funkadelic way, but more of an AC/DC way. More on that later. This is where Mr. Bungle is evidently much better at their game than RHCP. I'm sharing that pettiness in this review as a Mike Patton stan I had to bring it up at least once. In spite of all these years being a token casual RHCP, let's call it "interested in a few of their songs, not necessarily a fan of anything other than that and probably Mother's Milk (not on the list)"-person; this was the first time that I listened to this album in full. As an album, Blood Sugar Sex Magick suffers from "90s CD length disease": making an album too long and full of filler because you can shove more music than cassettes or vinyl ever could. As a result: half the album is fairly ignorable, annoying (though not nearly half as bad as others on the list) or uninteresting. Probably not for everyone in that regard but that's what it felt like to me hearing it all the way through. BUT: and aside from a few eye rolls of overhearing Under the Bridge too many times, when BSSM hits, it's really good. Like the core of a dark chocolate caramel cake that you got at your local conglomerate-run grocery store 75% because if you don't eat it at the end of the day you will die. Most of the best work is the first couple of tracks, namely Funky Monks/Suck My Kiss/Blood Sugar Sex Magick and the album ends on my favorite with Sir Psycho Sexy and They're Red Hot as the 1-2 coda. Those parts are good enough to leave a somewhat positive enough review. This band is maligned for various valid reasons. They're sort of a California version of AC/DC, not in the types of music they play specifically but for how people use them as a punchline of sorts while still having some musical value/utility. For what AC/DC defined hard rock with questionable lyrics about women, Red Hot Chili Peppers defined mainstream funk rock with questionable lyrics about women. Though to their credit, they talked about drugs a lot more than AC/DC. Anthony Keidis a typical pedophile rock singer and he sucks, etc etc. In spite of its many flaws, it does remain an album that fits the list because it crosses the rare paths between "selling a shit load of records" and "being not too bad, actually".

The Kinks may be the "Anthrax" of the British Invasion Big 4, but their impact on rock and roll and being a witty, cultured British person is sketched into society. Face to Face is their earliest album on the list, probably best known today for Sunny Afternoon, an ode to taxing rich people, what a foreign concept). Much of the rest of the album is that old fashioned Kinks proto hard rock to riffing on old fashioned British culture and mindset, I think. I have to mention they're oh so very British because I am an American. You know how it goes. I very much like The Kinks, the sort of band that fits the "your favorite musician's favorite music group that deeply influenced their songwriting. More in common with The Who than the Stones or Breatles with respect to their tonality and loudness. Face to Face is a solid enough album to be one of their selected albums on the list, although I would have expected Lola Vs. Powerman to be on the list, or one of their 80s revival albums, but the British made this list, and here we are.

The synthesizers on this album for 1981 are done very, very well for an early synth pop group. No surprises here that the synthwork is from the guys at The Human League, I like this record much more than I've ever enjoyed a typical Human League song. What really makes this record good for Side A is the bassist session musician work of John Wilson. That guy should have been a band member because my God does he really work and fit in the space between the vocals and the synths to be super groovy. Side B is certainly weaker than Side A, mainly because Side A was such killer shit. Geisha Boys and Temple Girls is full of the bad kinds of 80s cheesy synth music, mainly in the lyrics because the synths on this album for the early 80s are really really good, and yes there is a difference in synth quality performances and recordings in the 80s, please understand the impact of the Yamaha DX7. This record predates Blade Runner and its iconic synthy soundtrack! The Height of Fighting sort of passed by, but the last two songs end the album on a great enough note, come and join God on the party line. For a very long time. For a pop-based record, the lyrics are pretty left wing and antifascist which is cool and a bit atypical for a non punk record in this time period. Much of it very prescient for the 80s in making fun of yuppies and the rise of corporate culture. It's easy to pass by this record as something typical of the era if you don't have a good grasp on new wave, electronic music, 80s pop culture or the advent of electronic music and the role of synthesizers. There's a lot more to the surface level for Heaven 17 than to other new wave acts, Depeche Mode wasn't even at this level in the early part of their career. Penthouse And Pavement is sort of a blend of Steely Dan musical sharpness or chops and Gang of Four's overt Marxist influences, though I would not put this band on either of those two's levels in terms of a finished product. The heights of the aforementioned Depeche Mode surpass Heaven 17 at their strongest (which might be their next album The Luxury Gap, not on the list), but I think for an early synth pop record it certainly punches above its weight. The ultimate 1980s corporate dystopian synth pop record.

Shaft is an iconic soundtrack in movie history and being THE blaxploitation film. A badass like Shaft is gonna need a groovin', bitchin', hard as fucking nails soundtrack to back up his hero aura. I think Isaac Hayes meets the moment there.

Elvis Costello's debut album is a perfect amalgamation of the music trends of the mid to late 70s, put together and comes out perfectly. He really knows how to write a lot of words in his songs and keep his songs short. It's all good okay next album hit send I mean vote

Shuggle Otis is one of the greatest session musician, a real musician's musician kind of player. He did most of the instruments on this album, including using one of the earliest drum machines (very noticeable near the end of XL-30/beginning of Pling!). Easier to say what he didn't play: the horns, harp, and flute. Inspiration Information is the perfect blend of mellow and smooth with some funk distillate. Very good end-of-the-night album. You can almost never go wrong with session musician albums if you want to hear some top notch underrated music. Shuggle was too good for the big name musicians to ever neglect bringing him up. He's got soul

Lust For Life is one of those albums that just connected to me immediately after I first heard it in my big music exploratory freshman-in-high-school age. Iggy's singing and stage presence is unmatched but imitated often-sort of the first true punk rocker with the help of David Bowie who contributed a lot to this and The Idiot, which I love more and have a more personal connection with. Lust For Life and The Passenger are classics, and I love the energy on Some Weird Sin, Tonight, and Success. Fall In Love With Me is another song that sort of matches my vibe. Superb album, la la la la lalala la

Wilco's best known album and probably the best 'indie rock' album of the 2000s. Wilco's sound is more of a mix of alt-country/rock more than the cliches of 2000s indie rock, with some zanyness to it like the occasional jarring noise/dissonance (much welcomed) or some backing strings. I'm too tired to write a long rant against Pitchfork and how people shouldn't take them seriously, though Yankee Hotel Foxtrot does deserve its proper critical acclaim. Soft 5/5 for me, but still a better record than Pet Sounds.

Haggard is one of country's most iconic singer/songwriters. Shines quite a lot when there's harmonies involved. Surprisingly, he only has one album on this list when he could at least have one or two more. Nevertheless, I'm A Lonesome Fugitive is probably not Haggard's best work, but definitely up there as one of his more essential records. Even for anti-country snobs (as they are many here), this is some of the best music you can find from the genre that isn't just Johnny Cash, or that one Ween album.

I'm mostly familiar with The Jam, the mod/punk rock band Paul Weller was the front man before. His music seemingly mellowed out overtime, and didn't live up to my expectations. Wild Wood is seen as a dividing line (specifically not a bridge metaphor) between the influence of Grunge music in the UK and the emerging Britpop movement. Neither of those two have any influence on Wild Wood, as it sounds more like a typical rock record without too many thrills to it. I'm going to spare writing another rant of how UK-centric this list can be. The Jam were not as impactful on American music like The Clash or Queen were, but that early punk energy was certainly shared with the CBGB crowd. As said earlier, Paul Weller sort of went more of a mature path while keeping his working class upbringing in mind. I definitely liked parts of this album, but absolutely not all of it. Some of it was just too slow or uninteresting to my chaotic and violent-minded American brain. I'd say my favorite on this record is Has My Fire Really Gone Out? The best parts are the first half of the record while the second half dozes off too much for my tastes. Paul Weller is an important guy for one country on the list but doesn't really need to have his imprint on here more than his best stuff with The Jam.

I love Husker Du, so I must open with yet another complaint about this list: Zen Arcade is their absolute best and critically acclaimed album, and it doesn't get a spot on this list? Over their last album? I need an essay's length of a reason why this is this case. Warehouse: Songs and Stories is much like other Husker Du albums that aren't Zen Arcade or New Day Rising, in that it's part of the Husker Du canon of solid yet incredibly unpolished production except this time we can't blame Greg Ginn for refusing to ever look at recorded albums when they're "finished" and we can blame Warner Brothers for allowing such tinny drums and, well, it was all recorded in a warehouse of sorts I guess. I don't like how Husker Du and XTC have some of their less remarkable albums highlighted over what sound they're best known for, but them's the rules. I liked the record as a fan whose heard all their other stuff before this one, but I'm still scratching my head about this selection. At least it's not another shitty nu metal record

If Donna Summer is the queen of Disco, Sister Sledge were the elite near-end game difficult boss fight of Disco. With the help of the brain trust of Chic (Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards), the Sledge Sister's singing and harmonies shine very bright and they became the most successful girls group of the 70s. No one could ever say Philadelphia was a city lacking in Soul/Funk music, a line they fit in perfectly. Yes this is the 'We Are Family' band, a song pretty much codified in the American Songbook and will certainly still be around hundreds of years when Balkanized America gets conquered by the powerhouse combo of Neuf Montreal, Greater Canada and a Zapitista-led Mexico. Don't question the future, just embrace it when it comes. The rest of the record is for the most part really good as well. Even better than the title track, maybe. The Sledge Sisters are incredibly sharp and sing with strong conviction. Disco definitely deserves more respect if you just factor in Sister Sledge by themselves.

I know nothing of modern French music that isn't like, Justice or Gojira and a couple of other artists. I also chose to review this with the French version of the album over the English because I can't really hear the lyrics anyways in music and it'll help the review's rating. Genderqueer identity and expression is something I read about in college (in a place that was more left wing than traditionally liberal college towns) and have friends that identify as such who are definitely more about this subject to talk about it. As close as I can get to that is to talk about synthesizers. There's always a connection from Queer/LGBTQ+ identity to synthesizers from Wendy Carlos to Disco music and Chicago House, and so on and so forth to the present. Well, as close to the present on this list as most albums are in 2018: a decade of strong synth resurgence as synthesizers got more affordable thanks to better mass produced chips BLAH BLAH BLAH I AM A FUCKING NERD. I was kind of shocked that of all synths used for this album, including "Moog" and the E-Mu (80s) synths, Rahim Redcar used a Hartmann Neuron for this album. There's like, maybe 1,000 of them that were ever created from a German company that would later go bankrupt when the synthesizer flopped in sales. Check this link and learn more about that: https://www.vintagesynth.com/hartmann/neuron Okay, okay, I'll talk about the album even though the synth stuff is infinitely more interesting to me to ramble on about. It's................cromulent. I'm not a pop person to really get this album nor gay or queer to connect with it better, but I don't think it was bad or unwarranted in importance to say it was anything horrible or atrocious. It has some good highs and what I didn't like was the more cliche pop compositions of most of the drums and some of the beats. The Neuron is such a fascinating ahead-of-its-time synth for the early 2000s that I think hearing it being used alone was the funnest part of all of this. And that's not an easy feat either. Needless to say, it's still follows the pop structure and such that doesn't really grasp me. I'd probably very much dislike it if I heard the English version. Can we get Arca on this list? That would be super cool and she deserves it. I don't know too much about French music culture aside some of the bigger names (I forgot to say Daft Punk earlier so I will bring them up now: Daft Punk.). From what I can tell Christine & The Queens is fairly popular in France and since that's not English or American music, I give it more of a pass.

Santana's only album on the list is his most iconic. If you can't feel or relate to the soul and the human condition from Abraxas then I'm not sure music is for you.

Given that I have a bunch of more albums to go through and I've already heard and enjoyed JuJu and the bulk of Siouxsie and the Banshees music, I'll just say: yeah this album is very good. Okay I have to move forward with the other reviews now. It's a great album and worth your time to hear it, some actually good 80s music whose weirdness helps it age better compared to many other such albums of its decade.

My favorite Bowie album: too much cocaine has made David Bowie activate prog brain and the experimental (west) German music that was en vogue for music artists at the time if they weren't head deep into American punk music. I just love every song on this album because it's perfectly weird and groovy with funky ass rhythms. One of the best albums on the list for sure.

Napalm Death may have the shortest song on the list, but Circle Jerks probably/definitely have the shortest album on the list, and no it's technically not an EP by old record standards. Circle Jerks were one of the first hardcore punk bands (Keith Morris being the OG singer of Black Flag before they made Damaged in 1980, you might have heard Wasted before this album), not to be confused with punk rock in its initial mid to late 70s heyday. It's like the progression of rock:metal. Hardcore Punk was designed to be shorter, more brutish, blunt and aggressive. Circle Jerks pretty much nailed that transitional sound. The 'three chords is all you need' maxim is much more literal. Think of the simplicity of genesis of punk rock: the Ramones, who were really inspired by 50s/60s tunes and recreating that with more distortion. Hardcore punk was trying to be much more straight to the point of punk rock: capturing that raw energy and snorting cocaine and adderall and being even more partyish. Group Sex (the album not orgies tho, shoutout to John Cale) IS what you think when you think of hardcore punk, it makes Damaged sound like prog in comparison (Ginn always liked to play a little slower, got to have been the Deadhead in him). I first heard Group Sex in 2019 and I can just totally relate to the visceral energy for the whole 15 minutes. Can mosh to this in my own room to it, really proving how much music is a powerful drug affecting your energy/mood and its medicinal effects to our brain. It's not super easy to play some of these riffs superfast or Lucky Lehrer's manic pacing. Not surprised to see its rating on this website in the interesting category (under 3, higher than 2.5), but I love it. I wouldn't be reading too deep into the lyrics or whatever people could objectify this album about. It's a formative album for the hardcore punk genre and the easiest way to explain hardcore punk to someone that doesn't understand or know it. This review took me as long to write as the album itself, and if you could read all this then you have to listen to it. Look how much effort I put into it! Got all those fancy paragraphs and shit using more words than the album probably has on it. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

One of those bands and albums that don't really need some deep background work to bring up. You know Oasis, you know >that song<. You know Champagne Supernova, etc etc. Not doubting its importance at all. I thought Raw Power by The Stooges was an album meant to defy dynamic range and high fidelity that bands like Steely Dan or [insert funk or soul record here] would love. I say this as a metal fan and a fan of loud abrasive music that a record like this cannot and should not be so brickwalled in its compression that makes Noel like the only audible thing at all times. I can't even hear the rhythm guitarist or the bassist do anything with how loud and jarring it is. Sure you can hear the snare and maybe sometimes a cymbal or two (hard challenge: not on champagne supernova), but it's so incredibly distracting to the (allegedly good) songwriting that it just engulfs everything. This isn't just any ordinary britpop record, it's THE Britpop record, and one of the most important and focal album of the 90s. But I have to admit it, What's The Story Morning Glory and Oasis are definitely overrated. Everyone knows their big hits (we'll get to that later) and they're cherished as one of those "post-Beatles Great British Bands canon" as England still holds a strong cultural capital in the world. I never listened to Blur before this site gave me Modern Life Is Rubbish, and that record sweeps. Maybe because it was mastered without any fucking issue with compressing the absolute fuck out of dynamics that would make something like Wonderwall better, or even make that cooldown part in Champagne Supernova stand out more. No, they let partied out Iggy Pop take his hands on the console for this. Well if they actually did that, he would have done a better job. Also it wouldn't be britpop either but that's the fun of thought experiments. So yeah, let's talk Wonderwall. A song that will live forever like Funkytown/Smoke On The Water/Mr. Brightside/Seven Nations Army, people will still play and know how these songs go until humanity is crushed by wild boars and dolphins. But the song is terrible. I don't mean that because it's played all the time and people sing along to it, but because it's such a cliche, daft love song that's so god damn cheesy that if you play it at a wedding, I will ensure I try to see you less often. Don't waste the most special day in your life on this planet to hear that fucking bullshit expression of love. There are so many other songs that would do the same trick. Don't get me started on how beginners like to learn this song on guitar first. Fuck that and fuck you!!!!!!! The guitar is such a fun instrument and people want to play this shit instead of trying to work hard and practice more to play literally anything else. I'm begging to you: please be more creative. Please. The other main song is Champagne Supernova. Aside from my criticism of that song in the "god damn this album is needlessly loud" section of the review, it's a much better song than Wonderwall. It serves its purpose and fits the Britpop genre perfectly. But I still don't like how Oasis essentially took the Madchester formula, did that work to make an album that sounds like fighting in the trenches of WW1 while talking about English life in the early to mid 90s at the same time. It's an example of the different goals at effect here: louder is not always better for every genre. If Oasis wanted to sound this loud, they should have gone for a more Shoegaze direction, but I guess that wouldn't sell better records than being all deep in the Britpop phenomenon. I did kind of like Don't Look Back in Anger, it's lyrics are (admitted by the Gallagher's) to be nonsense, but that can work with this level of mastering. Morning Glory is mostly good too aside from the fact you can hear clear brickwall all over the second half of the song, but it matches the production aesthetic Noel clearly wanted the record to sound like. Maybe next time they should make an album that sounds more like Spiritualized, but the guitar brain in him can only hear in the audible range a guitar has instead of remembering that bass and cymbals exist. The rest of the album is a total whatever. Probably would be so much better if it was never touched by Noel at all, but it doesn't matter. It sold a shit ton of records and made Oasis a household name, washing our mouths away from the filth of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain being big names. Oasis beat Blur in America (that's the Woohoo band as we know them here), the Gallaghers constantly pop up in the media and even on social media not giving a single shit about anything but themselves mostly because they made this record and some other stuff that would keep them in pop culture status forever. Almost like Guns N Roses was for their career, but Appetite for Destruction at least was a good record that was loud but didn't sound LIKE THIS WITH EVERY SONG AND GUITAR BEING IN ALL CAPS over the lowercase bass/drums/rhythm guitarist Oasis swears they employ in their band. I get why those big songs are so popular, but it would be better for the music world if Oasis was not as big as they still somehow are today. Without making any new records, they're still a big name. I can't really get that. I'd say because it appeals to the lowest common denominator but I think that would be somewhat offensive. I understand why this album is good for many people and less so understand how it's still so big today, but I can't shake off that it's just okay. Nothing more than just being okay. It's not even the best record of 1995! But it's just okay.

Murmur was perhaps the birth of what would be alternative rock: spawning a whole new niche of music that sounded like it was for 80s college kids of Gen X over the boomer music of the 70s. Not being pejorative, it was an album that soon defined what Gen X music would be. R.E.M. was coined "college rock" I guess as a contrast to disco's emergence in the late 70s as rock bands started to get a little funky with repetitive drumming and that scared predominantly white people. Enough generation talk, Murmur still rules today. Perhaps the most stereotypical R.E.M. album for Stipe's wonderful murmuring and hard to hear nature, but all that jangle rock sounds from the 60s and 70s was given a new chapter with Peter Buck's guitar playing. If R.E.M. didn't sound more clearly commercial in the 90s, I could've mistaken this album for being 10 years older than what it is. They were a band in the right place at the optimal time for a new generation of different music listeners, and also manage to sound uniquely timeless as well.