Solid rap album with jazzy production. Better in second half
Generic 80s soft rock album.
Solid 80s classic with several great songs. ‘Mother’ is one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard, and is completely jarring with the rest of the album.
One of the greatest British albums of the 90s that still sounds just as good today. Not a truly bad song on it. 5/5
Grand ambitious record that’s deeper than its big hit. Some excellent guitar work (particularly In the Flesh and Run Like Hell) and generally a decent experimental album.
Hard rocking experimental album but wouldn’t listen to any of the songs on their own.
Great blues album with jazzy influences. Varied musical styles between songs keep the album from becoming stale. Especially strong from its middle on.
Solid enough acoustic album. Very simple musically and reminds me a lot of Tracy Chapman. Songs are a bit samey
Interesting album with an almost otherworldly feel about it. The high singing and heavy use of strings give it a very unique sound. Not to my tastes but I’m sure some people would love it.
Decent jazzy album but struggles from a lack of variety.
A solid debut album with a surprising amount of variety by the immortal pioneer of rock and roll.
Melancholic acoustic album that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Very stripped back that works well for a solid enough album.
Decent jazz album but not to my tastes
Good wee calming album. Lowkey and understated without becoming forgettable
Great modern rock album with bluesy influences
Good folk rock album with a surprising amount of variety. Maybe a bit too long
Bland and forgettable compared to some of their brilliant earlier albums. Credit to them for trying different musical styles on the album but ultimately doesn’t produce a great or even memorable record
Very 80s soft pop album with a jazzy twist. Decent overall, but Carlos Sainz is better at singing Smooth Operator
One of the first punk rock albums that still holds up today. Best track is Judy is a punk but ultimately the whole album is easy to listen to and most songs are not that different to one other.
Slightly protentious acoustic album which has operatic and jazzy influences
Heavy Mince
Nirvana’s last album that picks up where Nevermind left off and then some. Louder guitars, angrier lyrics, and more of cobain Screaming. Very ape and all apologies my favourite tracks (and some of the least grungey).
Okay rock blues album. Nothing special
Great classic rock album. Babe I’m Gonna Leave You the best track, but the album flies by despite the length of its songs
Another great classic rock album. Best tracks Red White and Blue and Living After Midnight
Decent East Coast rap album. Easy to listen to but probably only worth listening to the album as a whole.
Certified Metal Mince
Ok rock album. Some great guitar riffs but is ultimately forgottable
Just a bit slow, boring and repetitive. Can’t hold a candle to his work with the Smiths
Expected to enjoy it more than I did. Maybe leans a bit too much into the pop of britpop. A few great songs, but too much forgettable filler.
OK man and a panio album. A bit samey and longer than it needs to be.
Overall a pretty good album. Surprisingly varied and experimental in a world that hadn’t yet acclaimed Sgt Pepper and psychedelia in popular music. While there are no standout tracks, none of the songs are duds either, making for a very enjoyable listen.
Solid punk album with a few great riffs. Not too long.
An excellent Christmas album. Almost all of the Ronnettes’ and Darlene Love’s contributions are brilliant and Sleigh Ride and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) are among the greatest Christmas songs
This album serves as a reminder that Ella Fitzgerald is one of the most talented singers to ever live. That being said, I can’t see most wanting to listen to 6 discs, 59 songs, and 3 hours of this.
Solid enough dance album. A few great tracks but a bit meh overall
An entirely instrumental album created only from sounds and samples. Worth listening to and likely hugely influential? Yes. Would I listen to it again? Probably not.
Generally a bit boring. Some great instrumentation, but a bit slow and samey for my liking.
A lot of fun. A mix of hip hop, rock, pop, and even a bit of jazz. Maybe a bit too long.
A brilliant soul album with great instrumentation and vocals that almost mask a dark subject matter, dealt with in a deft way in this solid album. And at only 36 minutes, a very easy listen.
A brilliant album that’s far deeper than just its several hits. No duds and a lot of fun in a 9 song, 42 minute whirlwind. Best songs Vienna and Only The Good Die Young
Fine. Downbeat lyrics make the album feel like a bit of an unenjoyable slog at times, even if it’s fairly short. 2:45 AM the only song I’d maybe listen to again
My giving this album 2 stars is not meant to indicate a reasonable level of enjoyment for the album, as I wouldn’t listen to it again, or that I enjoyed it as much as other 2 star albums. However, many albums I give 2 stars to are mediocre, forgettable, and feel like a drag, and to describe this album like that would seem unfair.
I skipped through several songs on the album as I wasn’t enjoying listening to them. But many I didn’t. Hurt is a genuinely great song and an unbelievable piece of songwriting, I also really enjoyed A Warm Place. To give this album 1 star like other metal albums I don’t have much time for would be reductive and unfair as it shows far more variety and generally talent than these albums. I wouldn’t listen to it again, but I can respect that as far as industrial metal goes, this is about as good as it gets.
Pretty good electronic album. A few great songs and many that you recognise from this album’s huge commercial footprint. Perhaps bit long as many songs go on too long due to their repetitiveness.
An extremely dark and emotive piece of work that given the tragic events before its release, strikes you as a sort of brooding suicide note for Ian Curtis. That being said, I find the vocals and lyrics too depressing to go alongside the upbeat and catchy bass lines on some songs to the point of being at times, fairly jarring. A bit of a slog, and not an album I'd rush back to.
A lot of fun. Same great guitar riffs and catchy tunes and although Iggy’s singing probably isn’t to everyone’s tastes, it definitely fits this excellent punky record.
A solid punky rock album that I would listen to again. No standout songs, but every track is solid nonetheless.
Decent enough and definitely hits the mark in giving a cosmic otherworldly vibe. Just goes on a bit too long and ultimately ends up dragging.
The Beatles meets Willie Nelson. A fun album with several catchy hooks. Would definitely listen to it again.
Prince’s guitar playing carries this absolute powerhouse of an album on its back. The first half is weaker than the second, but that is fair enough when the second half has ‘When Doves Cry’, ‘Purple Rain’ and several other great songs in a brilliant finish to this classic album.
An album that really pleasantly surprised me. The first song lowered my expectations, but the rest of the album I really enjoyed. A real oddity of a record, but one I would return to.
Couldn’t shake the thought that it sounded like a Disney villain singing. Decent album overall and a bit out there
Fine, but all but one of the songs are covers, and being honest, it probably would be nowhere near this list if it wasn’t for the careers the Rolling Stones went on to have
A very fun album. Easy to listen to and the skits don’t ruin the albums flow. Fairly long, but doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Very brooding. Very depressing. Not a bad album, but one that makes me glad that The Cure became a bit more upbeat over time.
A pretty solid album from Prince with excellent guitar work and some very funky synths. Unfortunately, doesn’t quite hit the heights of his next album and some songs can tend to go on too long. Overall, decent.
A great album from Dylan at the height of his powers. A few sleepers and a few songs that have too much harmonica even by Dylan’s standards. Nonetheless, an enjoyable album that merits its runtime.
Probably the most 80s album ever made
An unusual album where most songs are arranged like Bond themes with bizarre lyrics. Very dramatic sounding and surprisingly easy to listen to, but I’m not sure I’d pick this as an album people must hear before they die.
I’m not usually a big Taylor Swift fan but this thing is an absolute hit parade. Beyond its 4 or 5 massive hits, most songs are still hugely recognisable, likely from this record’s complete dominance of the charts and for good reason. Probably Swift’s most consistent album with no real misses and one most could easily enjoy.
Who doesn’t like Ray Charles? I’d prefer more songs to be fast paced and upbeat, but still an enjoyable album, if maybe a bit long.
A great album that shows a mix of electric and acoustic styles for a great record overall. Seven Nation Army is obviously one of the greatest iconic album openers ever made, but the rest of the album is in no way outshone by it. A very solid album and one I’d definitely come back to.
66 albums in and finally one that I’ve listened to before. It might be boring of me, but hearing it again has maybe made me appreciate it even more. Sure, it’s a bit ‘ooh edgy’, but come on, it’s brilliant. A brilliant album, and one that’s even better listened to as a whole to really appreciate the amazing transitions between tracks.
Having been on a run of great albums, I came to Pet Sounds, one of the most acclaimed and influential albums of all time, and is considered one of the greatest records ever made.
I already knew ‘Wouldn’t it be nice’ which is brilliant and iconic. And the rest of the album was, fine? I feel like I’m missing something. I listened to it twice to see if I just didn’t appreciate it the first time, but no, it was just fine. ‘God only knows’ is good, but not mind-blowing and the best thing I’ve ever heard like some reviews say.
For the most part though, the album is kind of boring. Knowing exactly how ignorant this sounds, I thought it would be more interesting and sound more revolutionary. I’m sure it was ground-breaking at the time, but for me, there’s no comparison between this and Revolver or Sgt. Pepper, or even albums from around the same time by the Byrds and the Yardbirds that I’ve had so far.
I give the album credit for being out before these other examples, and there’s no denying how much of an influence it had on them, but I’m not sure it’s aged as well as these other albums it paved the way for. Consequential? Absolutely. But in my opinion, not an album that still sounds amazing today.
(Although I was amused to realise that a few football chants are actually derived from ‘Sloop John B’, so that was pretty cool)
The first mainstream rock opera and one that still holds up today. The at times very dark subject matter might put people off, but Tommy is well worth hearing, if only for its influence on later efforts.
An extremely well-written album with many beautiful songs. I feel sort of bad giving it three stars as it’s a solid album, but I think I just don’t enjoy it as much as some others. Just a bit too downbeat for me.
A slow starter, but a solid enough album overall even if it is a bit plodding at times. “Listen To This” and the end of “This Is What She’s Like” the highlights of the album.
A pretty great album that kicked off the Stones’ most successful period. Split roughly half and half between harder rocking tracks which were my highlight of the album, and bluesy country efforts which are sort of lessened by some of the vocals.
No standout hit on this album but “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Jig-Saw Puzzle” would be my favourite tracks. “Stray Cat Blues”, a song about the singer trying to bed a 15 year groupie and her friend, has surprisingly not aged well, but is actually a pretty good song if you can look past the words.
A very fun album that is absolutely dominated by some excellent guitar work and catchy hooks. At only 38 minutes, it absolutely flies by and leaves you wanting more, and is one I will definitely come back to.
Starts really strongly and falls away a bit around the middle, but still a solid album.
This album is like 90% beeping and drum machines and still slaps
Speakerboxx - A great Rap album with excellent lyricism and instrumentation at points. Probably a more consistent album overall than The Love Below, and at just over 40 minutes is extremely tight. Falls away slightly towards the end due to the number of interludes. 3.5/5
The Love Below - Hits higher highs than Speakerboxx and shows an unbelievable level of variety, from the several Prince-esque tracks to the fully rapped “A Life in the Day of Andre Benjamin (Incomplete)” (I assume a clever play on Sgt Pepper’s iconic closer). I also love the way the interludes add to the album and connect songs, compared to the aimless skits of many albums. However, I feel the album does slightly overstay its welcome, with the stretch of songs between “Roses” and “Dracula’s Wedding” really dragging for me. 4/5
Overall, I think that the two albums can be enjoyed individually from each other, without detracting from your enjoyment, as the two are essentially two completely separate albums that have been grouped together, and this thing would be an absolute mammoth listened to back to back (I listened to them on separate days). That being said the variety on display in the 134 minutes of this combined album make for a great overall record that does enough to keep your attention the whole way through.
Bowie does soul. Pretty good and an example of his extraordinary versatility.
An album that is completely timeless. It could’ve been made yesterday and not sounded at all dated or out of place. A quite amazing record and one that stands out as one truly deserving its place on a list of must hear albums.
A solid album and one of the less depressing of The Cure’s earlier works. The whole thing has a sort of cool, eerie vibe to it especially with some of the instrumental tracks which makes the album pretty cohesive overall.
A lot of fun. The vocals aren’t great, but the songwriting is solid across the board. The main highlight of the album however, is the ever present, infectiously joyful brass, which really elevates the album from potential mediocrity. A high 3 stars from me.
In 1982, ‘Kings Of The Wild Frontier’ won the Brit Award for Best British Album as the best selling album of 1981 in the UK (they changed to use a jury instead a few years after this).
This means that it outsold Queen’s Greatest Hits album, as well as the Human League’s ‘Dare’, containing ‘Don’t you want me’, Phil Collins’ ‘Face Value’, which has ‘In the air tonight’, and John & Yoko’s ‘Double Fantasy’, which has ‘Beautiful Boy’. I would sooner listen to any of these three songs for 41 minutes on loop than to this festival of bizarre, lopsided, mediocrity.
Singer needs to take a chill pill
Pretty standard 80s fare but still decent and easy to listen to.
An eclectic mix of hip hop, Latin, and African music that McLaren largely nicked. That being said, the album is very easy to listen to and most songs are quite catchy, so I’ll turn a blind eye.
Far from your typical Britpop album. Morrissey-esque lyrics over varied and orchestral instrumentation. Definitely not for everyone and in my opinion not as good as the best from the other big 3 britpop bands, but still a great album.
Pretty good
Heavy metal with a bit of circus music thrown in for good measure. I think the French lyrics complement the music well though and I think that elevates this album above others.
Some folk’ll never eat a skunk, but then again some folk’ll, like Cletus the slack-jawed yokel. (I did find the title track beautiful though)
An album of fairly cool ideas but ends up being a bit repetitive and not that great to listen to. As a whole it works, but I feel most songs would seem quite weak on their own.
This album does everything right that a live album should. It feels intimate and ‘live’ while the songs sound just as good as they would in a studio, and there’s a real sense of fun and humour to it. Coupled with Sarah Vaughan’s amazing voice, it makes for a great album that flies by.
