1001 Albums Summary

Rating: 6/10 Never actually heard of Small Faces or this album before but it’s just some pretty solid brits late 60’s psych, and the songs still make for some good pop. The mono mix actually makes for a nice fuzzy sound. Interestingly the back half of the album introduces a narrator who starts to tell a strange story that I don’t really remember, across the tracks with some experimental and diverse sounds.

Rating: 6/10 An album that may be on this essential list for its cultural significance rather than being a ‘top 1000 albums ever’ kinda thing. These Afro-blues rock songs are definitely not bad but the genre isn’t really my thing and this probably isn’t something I’m going to return to ever

Rating: 6/10 We get our first rock classic in our project and it’s one I haven’t personally listened to in full. Of course we probably all know at least of the big ones, Walk on the Wild Side, Perfect Day, Satellite of Love, Vicious. But it’s also inconsistent to me outside of the great highlight tracks. Adding this to my library though

Rating: 9/10 Ahead of its time in just about every way, from the implementation of electric instrumentation in folk music, to it being pretty much the birth of the concept of the singer-songwriter and modern style double album, and those aren’t the only reasons why it’s so good and endures through time. You can continue to listen to Dylan’s strange lyrics in his unique vocal style and come away with something new each time 60 years after it was revolutionary because it is pure poetry. Top quality

Rating: 7/10 Solid collection of tunes. Has a couple of skips but also some real highlights. Message in a Bottle and Walking on the Moon among others. The only really annoying song is the one where they tell you they’re about to play a corny one and they do not lie. Sting’s reggae voice is almost never too grating and the whole album has this hypnotic feel, the tracks mostly sound distinct and each has this melodic repetition that I enjoy.

Rating: 6/10 I really don’t care much for the Stones, and after Gimme Shelter, the album doesn’t do a lot for me until the second half comes along to pick it up more

Rating: 5/10 An early blueprint, but one that doesn’t fully hold up as a quality album experience. Express Yourself really is a good song, but even the first few major hits, while great tracks, don’t really age too well compared to the stacked collection of classic 90’s hip hop albums that will follow this and pop up on our list

Rating: 4/10 Doesn’t exactly get grouped into r&b slop, it’s technically proficient enough, but I still find it forgettable. And I don’t think anyone outside of a specific group of British r&b fans from the early 2000’s really knows or remembers who Ms. Dynamite is.

Rating: 8/10 one of the best and influential modern r&b albums imo, the songs are emotional and longing as they cover everything about a young woman’s experience with relationships, SZA’s lyrics for someone who is at the top of the charts in her genre are SAD, veering towards insecurity and self-loathing rather than hedonism. It’s a nice touch that she has her mom’s calls recorded throughout to guide her through this period and these experiences

Rating: 9/10 Really cool shit throughout, every track is like its own crazy journey and it’s definitely one of those pieces of music that can’t just be digested understood and loved immediately, you really cannot brute force something so titanic. Favorite song was Spanish Key.

rating: 10/10 Ask me what the greatest album ever made is on a given day and it’s probably Abbey Road. It’s not my #1 favorite but definitely near the very top, and honestly could be one day, who knows. It’s just the Beatles at their consistent best after what was already the best generational run for a band ever, this is the synthesis of that. Their true artistic crowning achievement at their collective heights before dipping out after dropping Let It Be which is…an album. This had to break brains in 1969. I can’t imagine anything other than fans flipping the vinyl over and over all day long. A side is pretty much perfection. I won’t even hear any shit talking about Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, which I concede might the thing keeping me from concluding that is actually perfect, but I still love the song regardless. It ends with the absolutely monstrous She’s So Heavy, which is my absolutely favorite Beatles song. I would have a tough time of ordering a favorite 20 Beatles songs but I know for sure that She’s So Heavy would be #1. I’m pretty sure the band literally invented like 5 different genres with this one. Side B continues with some great early highlights (every song) and then flows into some great quirky little songs and ends triumphantly with the medley at the end. You literally feel uplifted by the mood of these tracks at the end of Abbey Road. The warmth of the Beatles is nearly unmatched, can’t wait for the 4 other albums that will eventually pop up here

Rating: 7/10 I was really into this Eurythmics album as an interesting take on fun and weird early 80’s synthpop. Its dark and mechanical tone combined with singer Annie Lennox’s great vocals worked for me. Love is a Stanger and Sweet Dreams are highlights but also the last track is awesome. Tracks 3 & 8 were the only lower points and are skippable.

Rating: 8/10 A nice little collection of eclectic folk pop songs, which is my shit. I don’t care as much for the straightforward stuff. Another one of these albums to keep in mind that this guy wrote these songs when he was basically a young kid 60 years ago. I’m just impressed when people make cool art, like I could never conceive of writing any songs this good even now

Rating: 10/10 The grandfathers of metal were so good that still almost nothing compares to the collective talents that this band had during this run. Ozzy isn’t the only legend here, because Tony Iommi is one of the best metal guitarists ever, Geezer played incredibly groovy bass lines and his political and dark lyrics hold relevance to this day, and Bill Ward is easily one of the most underrated drummers. Paranoid is absolutely sick all the way through with its classic metal tracks and deep cuts both. Impossibly heavy for its time

Rating: 7/10 A good attempt from the band still in its post-punk flavor, I usually like the sound with more edge to it. I enjoyed it but would have to go back to War to delve more into the lyrics here, and I probably should because it’s cool to have Irish music about politics and history. In the 6 7 range

Rating: 5/10 The only thing I knew about the Zutons before this is that Pressure Point is one of the banger songs on the soundtrack of the GOAT sports game, MVP Baseball 2005. Otherwise, the rest of the album just started to get pretty boring for me as it went on. I think the album is another example of a clear recency bias the author of the book has for new albums released in Britain, as if he’s predicting these artists’ legacy rather than fitting in a deserving and proven essential album. Basically I’m asking this list to stop making me listen to 2000’s albums that no one has heard of or remembers just cause the author was completely wrong about them being fundamental or important

Rating: 4/10 Out of all the Tim Buckley records to choose….whyyy this one? It may be representative of his personality but not his sound, this album is a huge departure from his usual Avant folk sound where he is weird and inaccessible but much more adept

Rating: 9/10 Probably was the greatest album ever recorded when it came out 60 years ago right? From a Buick 6 is maybe the only lull for me but I still can’t say it’s anything less than a good song. So highly consistent over a satisfying runtime. I would say the best of his 60’s output and one of the best aging pieces of music made

Rating: 8/10 Turns out this has been in my listen list for almost 3 years. I see how it got there, with just the kind of influence I think it might have had on the modern sphere of art pop artists who I like now, who have some of the most exciting songwriting and production around. Will be needing to dive into this more and the rest of her songs

Rating: 4/10 Songs are fine and well made enough I guess but weird and not my thing, and I don’t want to spend my time listening to this

Rating: 5/10 I like it less than Let It Bleed, which at least had some extra highlights for me outside of the main big songs. Maybe the next one will get me, hopefully it’s next year instead of next week

Rating: 5/10 some decent inessential house tunes

Rating: 6/10 Nice collection of interesting folk tunes from this era of pitchfork-core indie music, a really solid example of this iteration of the genre. Check out Grizzly Bear member Daniel Rossen’s album from 2022 “You Belong There” it’s cool stuff

Rating: 8/10 Good noisy grungy shit from the late 80’s when alternative rock really started to take root, and bands like Dinosaur were part of growing non-commericial scenes of punk, DIY, distortion and fuzz and raw sounds. I love the bookends of the big standout Freak Scene and the pure noise rock closer Don’t. Lead vocalist isn’t always the best but it’s part of the charm that makes this album

Rating: 6/10 Never heard Led Zeppelin III before (I’m sure we will get every album they’ve ever made on this list). These are decent songs and the album length doesn’t overstay, but I think the band is just a touch overrated for how much they’re revered. Still much better though than all of the classic rock of the next 15 years that they influenced

Rating: 9/10 I really like synthy progressive electronic music and as the prototype this is still really fun and holds up against the modern stuff it influenced. I think the the concept and themes behind “The Man-Machine” with its artificial futurism sound is really cool. Basically the Blade Runner of music if that makes sense

Rating: 8/10 Sorry Tom Waits I wasn’t familiar with your game Really did not expect this because I thought Waits was just a guy with a guitar or something, but this is the kind of completely unique rock unlike anything I’ve heard. My closest comparison I’ve listened to is Nick Cave and now I’m pretty sure he was just influenced by Waits. If anything this album was a little long but not a big deal. I should check out more of Tom Waits’ experimental work, and could see myself really loving this years down the road

Rating: 9/10 Actually peak, thank you Mr. Harrison. Is this lowkey the best solo Beatles material? The first disc is literally a perfect collection of songs I think, and from there it just keeps going on and on and on and I'm just jamming the whole time. Great stuff

Rating: 5/10 Perfectly fine and listenable, and something I may never listen to in full again

Rating: 8/10 after some big stinkers for 2000’s albums in my opinion, I didn’t expect ANOHNI to be featured and this is a really cool and unique piece of music. Born from painful personal experiences but also filled with hope

Rating : 4/10 This is not the worst thing ever, it's a weird and interesting attempt at a satire of the hippie psych sound and culture permeating the times and made as a comedy album. But it's not very enjoyable and I would really rather just listen to some quality classic psychedelic pop, rock tunes. Might just have an interesting place in the discussion of 60's music history though. And it's probably better than a lot of copycats of the sounds of the era

Rating: 7/10 Not bad at all! Fun and weird, political lyrics in classic albums like this are usually a plus. Fun highlights early like Victoria and Some Mother's Son along with the more progressively driven Australia and Shangri-La. Starts to fall off for me a bit in the last few tracks until Arthur finishes off strong

Rating: 7/10 I thought this was pretty cool, Holger definitely succeeds at making his own type of rock album with experimental sounds, just enjoying the grooves

Rating: 7/10 Future Days is technically great but something isn’t clicking for me to really love it after two listens. Hypnotically flowing passages that can be played pleasantly in the background but also can be listened to closely for its intricacies. And of course, definitely made to trip to.

Rating: 7/10 It’s a good debut by a really young person, who of course has a great voice front and center with a good jazzy backing instrumentation. I think the album starts to get better towards the second half

Review Rating: 8/10 Bad Brains might be more known for their first two albums in the early 80’s, during which the band was maybe the most prominent emerging live act in hardcore punk in D.C. and out of the East Coast. But a few years later, Bad Brains swapped the raggae style of their early works for a funk + metal sound while keeping the elements of hardcore ethos that defined them. The result is something that influenced genres to come and is a damn fun time in its own right. As usual, the band brings an infectious energy, unique vocals, thrashy riffs and funky grooves. I'm actually happily surprised that this is the album in this book, even thought I think Bad Brains S/T also probably should be. But I Against I is maybe the first example we can find of an alternative metal and funk metal album, it is straight up influential alone because of this. These genres and the post-grunge and nu-metal waves that followed can't trace their influence back further than this. I mean, I feel like this thing is even begging for some rap verses to kick in, it seems like it just misses sharing a space with the also emerging hardcore hip-hop sound on the East Coast. I don't think Bad Brains gets the credit they deserve for pioneering alt and funk metal sounds, compared to some bands with a grungier hard rock style. Here they are in 1986 on I Against I literally doing it first. Extremely underrated and underappreciated now, and the only reason I don't rate it even higher is because I don't think it's perfect, just a very solid alt metal and post-hardcore classic. Absolute highlight for me is House of Suffering into Re-Ignition. If I actually could recommend a definitive Bad Brains release, it would be The Youth Are Getting Restless, a live album at the peak of their powers. And to add a recommendation for a mandatory listen if you like this style of music, check out the modern classic Diaspora Problems by Soul Glo. It might just be the ultimate evolution of the sonic ideas presented on this album.

Rating: 7/10 It's a solid album, and maybe the perfect recommendation for a Beach Boys record in the winter, moodier rather than sunnier. I'm not the biggest fan of this band but literally can't be anything other than a good listen

Rating: 6/10 The first Nick Cave album that is fully piano driven and more overtly Christian (I think). it’s good, the first song is really great, but I don’t love this one

Rating: 6/10 Good and consistent even though that consistency doesn’t ever reach great heights to me after the first track. And then they tried to tack on the news broadcasts juxtaposed with the Silent Night rendition at the end, I wish they did more with that idea

Rating: 7/10 Some lush New Wave goodness. I feel like a lot of these bands might be considered ‘singles bands’ and it kinda checks out here, the first track on each side with Someone Somewhere in Summertime and the title track are beautiful, with some other good tracks around them. Pretty decent stuff for a band coming off the Joy Division post-punk wave and being part of the turn of the 80’s synthpop sound in the UK

Rating: 8/10 What can I say, this is a great lively and energetic jazz performance by Duke and the boys. Love some good crowd cheers in a live album. Diminuendo was awesome and an insane finale

Rating: 5/10 Technically good and not without its merits. But I don't care about this band. At least they saved the best for last

Rating: 7/10 Definitely a cool result from this list, I hadn’t even heard of Joan and if I had to guess what year it was made it wouldn’t be 1976. Some really good instrumentation to go along with Joan’s songwriting. I wasn’t able to dive in lyrically too much in one listen, and I’ll need to listen more to feel more firmly about the album as a whole.

Rating: 10/10 now THAT is a SKIPLESS record. I truly didn’t realize just how effortlessly Stevie makes this 1hr45min album feel like not a single moment is wasted, it’s divine and uplifting and inspired the entire way through. We all know who Stevie Wonder is. He’s a blind black man. Who created this work of art 50 years ago. This is a guy who knows he can do absolutely anything he sets his mind to and wants you to feel the same while listening to his soulful rhythms. A really cool album cover as well, and probably the most perfectly apt album title ever conceived. I have to seriously consider if this is the greatest musical achievement ever, it honestly still feels like the future.

Rating: 6/10 Maybe The Sonics is exactly the kind of music I should like as a 60’s rock band with a raw and abrasive sound before that was really a thing. But I find it kind of annoying at times and the production (something that isn’t often a barrier for me) sounds like it was recorded through a tin can. Despite that, some raw infectious energy straight out of 1965 is interesting to hear

Rating: 5/10 Pretty alright as I probably listened to it in the best way possible, on the speaker while doing some Saturday morning kitchen chores. I think I might have actually liked the second half songs better.

Rating: 7/10

Rating: 10/10 Maybe the perfect classic pop rock record, an obvious classic with a collection of hits that would be the #1 song most bands have ever made, along with deeper cuts that almost never miss. If there was any weak point on the album, maybe Oh Daddy? And Silver Springs is a must listen when you play Rumours. A lot of songs that are basically impossible to get out of your head once they become stuck in it after listening

Rating: 7/10 Michael's post-Thriller album that he and Quincy put together was surprisingly just...fine? Outside of the big hits there wasn't very much for me to love. It's more like reaching some pretty decent heights with Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, and Smooth Criminal, none of which come close to Thriller's best songs in my opinion, with some average lows scattered through the rest of the album. I did like Dirty Diana though, I think that's a pretty good song.

Rating: 8/10 Maybe my 4th or 5th favorite album by The Cure. It's great. Recorded and released right at the birth of the British post-punk wave that would become gothic rock, 17s is a pretty damn accomplished effort for the young band. It's sometimes a little bit different sounding than more of the dream pop and alt rock style of the band that would begin to develop later in the decade, but it's something I really love about the Cure is that a lot of their albums are actually pretty distinct in progressing with different genres. This is one of their early records that incorporates the coldwave sounds of cold and metallic synths. As always the bass lines are one of the coolest prominent features of what makes The Cure so good, this band IS Simon Gallup as much as it is Robert Smith. Another trademark of the band that you see on this early album is how instrumental they actually are, with Smith often not vocalizing on the track until minutes in. And damn are the instrumentals great. This album is a vibe, it's one of their most mysterious and atmospheric and is very rewarding when you can settle in and really let it wash over you in the headphones.

Rating: 4/10 It's pretty fine, I would rather hear this kind of music in some sort of soundtrack for an appropriate movie or show or Fallout game but not just listening to an album. Sorry to the brothers but I will not be coming back

Rating: 5/10 A collection of rockin’ classic Christmas song renditions. Heard these version of the big hits too many times to count on Christmas radio. 1001 Essential albums, nah.

Rating: 8/10 Incredibly top notch 80’s production plus some great pop rock songwriting makes this a really fun listen. It’s just got a great atmosphere. Starts and ends really well with Red Rain/Sledgehammer and In Your Eyes but the rest maintains a pretty high quality

Rating: 9/10 Another day, another 70's experimental German rock album on 1001albumsgenerator.com. Faust was absolutely cooking here. As a fan of droning and vibey metal and rock these guys are some of the pioneers. Krautrock is absolutely massive, Jennifer must have defied all classification when it was first released. They also get a little silly with it, like on Giggy Smile (great track). Also these Krautrock albums never overstay their welcome, they always just deliver 45 minutes of great psych jams.

Rating: 6/10 It’s not bad, and even something I might think is pretty cool given more time with it. It’s weird and trippy and I’ll have to keep this one mind if I go through some 60’s psych some time in the future

Rating: 9/10 The pinnacle of 90’s artsy alt rock and all that and it is exceptional all the way through, has so many different tracks that you could argue is the best and maybe change your answer for a lot, but then again I always want it give it some award for the best album that is almost somehow the most overrated. Because as quality as it is from front to back, it’s not perfect and I could definitely say frontloaded is an accurate descriptor. Tracks 1-6 still feels like a perfect run for me while 7-12 (besides the amazing highlight No Surprises) kinda grow off of me over time. In conclusion Kid A better

Rating: 3/10 Assigning my first 1. Completely unenjoyable to me

Rating: 7/10 Obviously a lot has changed in the realms of synthpop since the release of the CVHRCHES debut so this album really serves as a time capsule to this moment when this particular sound was the sauce. Truly the mid 2010's millennial pop rock band in style that just uses electronics and drum machines. Almost every song hits for me until the last 3 tracks or so start to lose some steam. The first track is probably the best but my deep cut favorite is Recover

Rating: 10/10 Deserves to be more widely known as one of the great American rock records. So inventive and fun packed with melodic rhythms. The whole album has an improvisational feel and yet it’s clear the whole band is exactly on the same page. Each instrument is so clear and the mix and you can spend listen after listen exploring each element individually. Guitar passages so good it makes you want to learn yourself in the hopes you could one day be even a fraction as good. Most art punk and rock records today can still only aspire to make something as awesome as Marquee Moon is 50 years later.

Rating: 5/10 Feel like this doesn’t deserve a 2 even though I don’t want to give it a 3 either, it’s a perfectly fine listen that I continually didn’t necessarily want to finish as I got closer to the end. Just good and pleasant enough and doesn’t stir too much in me besides Track 1. Probably underrating it but that’s just my opinion

Rating: 8/10 It’s short and very sweet, just a consistent quality experience all the way through. Let’s Get It On is an all timer and I think the best song here but there’s a bunch of solid cuts through the next seven tracks. How many people made albums fully about fuckin before Marvin Gaye?

Rating: 5/10 Putting this album on 1001 You must listen to before being deceased is silly, it’s not like the ENTIRE Beatles catalogue needs to be present. This one is less essential, it is much more forgettable to me, maybe if you’re a fan of the early Beatles era which I am not really. I’m sure it was some really cool stuff in 1963. What they built on from this and the evolution they would have in just a couple short years though is simply insane

Rating: 5/10 The most 5/10 for me ever. Perfectly fine and not something I would choose to play as background music but it would suffice. One of the most iconic recognizable soundtrack songs ever and then a bunch more instrumental chill jams

Rating: 6/10 Never heard of these guys before. Pretty cool. Punkabilly? Didn’t get much of a chance to dive into the lyrics and all around will have to give this one another listen. The album cover is questionable

Rating: 7/10 The self-titled Beyonce album is kinda a weird one in her discography. It doesn't really have any smashing hits you would find in her 2000's output, and as far as artistic statement goes, she would follow this one up with two even better albums, her magnum opuses in my opinion. But nonetheless still a great mid-career release for her. Amazing bombastic production as always with Be. A great few tracks in the opening only leading to a bit of a lull in the middle before finishing stronger again. I don't think the album ever gets as good as it starts with Pretty Hurts and Haunted but that's because I really like those songs

Rating: 4/10 Really didn’t care for this I was pretty bored

Rating: 8/10 I don’t think it’s peak Talking Heads but it’s pretty close. Eclectic tunes produced by Brian Eno (the 🐐) that continue to push the band in a more experimental direction, feeling like a stepping stone towards Remain in Light but still very strong on its own merits. I love Stop Making Sense so much that my favorite moments on this album are really just when I’m reminded of their live rendition, like when Tina Weymouth first joins the stage to play Heaven and just the perfect Life During Wartime

Rating: 7/10 So weird and out there but I respect the shit out of it. Very punk and I love how they made this album and then peaced out forever

Rating: 9/10 I didn't listen to this nor will I but since I have at least a couple dozen times in the past and it being one of the first CD's I owned, I'll give my unbiased MBDTF thoughts here. Feels like it's fully the end of the conscious outsider rapper Ye was on The College Dropout and the start of the truly manic and narcissistic version of him that would lead to Nazi Kanye who huffs his own farts and doesn't have any semblance of songwriting ability anymore. It's maximalist and bombastic and was in danger of being his most unwieldy project to date with all of its ideas, progression, and collaborations, but instead it all came together as a cohesive concept, despite its complex and almost surreal nature. Has a few of Kanye's best songs ever easily. I think after the one-two punch of Devil in a New Dress and Runaway though, the album continues on with almost 20 minutes of its weaker material before it's all over.

Rating: 7/10 All around enjoyable and pleasant listen, I like the arrangements and such

Rating: 5/10 So weird and unnecessary that this White Stripes album is here. This has to be their worst one, it’s like they forgot the songwriting on this collection, they drag on and don’t really do much interesting stuff, and typically don’t even rock too hard with more of a focus on bluesy piano and softer songs. It’s ok at best. Highlights are opening track Blue Orchid and The Denial Twist, if the rest of the songs were fun like this I would have enjoyed it quite a bit more

Rating: 10/10 An original work of wild and eccentric genius, Kate Bush's most experimental and avant-garde album challenges the listener's attempts to even try to define and solve the puzzle that makes up the world of The Dreaming. It's completely understandable how this album will confuse and alienate on first listen, and maybe even second and third and beyond, but if these weird songs with all their chaotic progressions and their unique and varied vocal stylings resonate and speak to you in any way, if you feel this or that song was really cool and you're itching to listen to it again, do it and you will be rewarded more and more each time. I'm barely scratching the surface of what makes The Dreaming so cool. From a modern perspective, it feels like an album that redefined what pop and rock can be even though Kate really still doesn't get the recognition she deserves compared to her male contemporaries.

Rating: 8/10 Really an album’s album. When you think of a solid popular 80’s album this could probably be it. Doesn’t mean as much to me as it does to a lot of other people so it’s not some classic 5 stars in my eyes but it’s undeniably great music

Rating: 7/10 Turns out I really like this New Wave stuff. Doesn't feel wholly original for the year it came out but it's just so many solid rock songs with a punk edge. This might firmly be considered this a classic for the genre in this period, a clear staple of the sound. Lots of fun and Chrissie Hynde's voice is great

Rating: 8/10 Definitely one of my favorite Beatles albums as hard as it is to rank and rate a top 5 of this band. The A side is incredibly good, with lots of absolute classics, and What Goes On might be the only weak song on the album for me.

Rating: 3/10 boring shit, even though it's not technically the worst thing ever I can't say I enjoyed a single moment really. let's actually give it the 1 treatment because I was on a really good run on the site and this ruined it.

Rating: 6/10 I think it’s decent. More like The Beach Boys than I was expecting and some good tunes. Mono remaster mix was nice and I’ll try to give this one another listen at some point

Rating: 8/10 A great album experience beyond the certified classics it contains. Feels pretty distinct from other records in the pantheon of 90’s east coast hip hop. Great production. Some radically political lyricism. One thing about Fugees though is that whenever Lauryn Hill isn’t currently present on the track…you just want her to come back. She can sing and she’s got bars. I think the best song on here has to be Fu-Gee-La. While it’s not a personal 5 I still think it’s great and I’m not sure how you could rate it low!

Rating: 5/10 I'm usually a fan of the kind of acclaimed posh alt rock that Elbow inhabits but I just found this boring. This album won the UK's Mercury Prize for some reason. I really tried with the album and stuck with it in my headphones on the bus full concentration and wasn't having any fun with it. There was really no clear highlight to me until at the very end One Day Like This finally sounded interesting. Very meh and doesn't deserve to go in my 3 bucket at the moment

Rating: 9/10 One of David Bowie’s many incredible classics. When I think of the start of the modern music era, it’s the late 60’s and it feels like this came along to just be so refreshing and unique. Great lyrics and delivery here, the A Side is just full of amazing songs, I love Queen Bitch, and The Bewlay Brothers might be arguably my favorite song here. Works so well as a closer and the mixing and layering of the instrumentation are great. He even has a song for our guy Bob Dylan. 4.5 is the accurate rating but let’s make it a 5 here

Rating: 5/10 Really glad I didn’t miss this one before I died

Rating: 8/10 Orbital goes hard. Some of the best 90’s techno if you’re into that sort of thing, just an hour+ of beautifully constructed rhythmic club beats. If there are weak points for me, it’s Philosophy by Numbers for the annoying vocal sampling and the quick interlude Quality Seconds (ironic). The last two tracks make up nearly half an hour and are very rewarding for the time investment because they’re the best ones. This album is sick

Rating: 8/10 As a piece of rock history, I have to say this album is just really good. As far as the 2023 remasters go, Iggy mix is actually superior I think because it brings the raw punk sound a lot better. Vulgar, sexual, and rebellious lyrics present with all these early hard rock bands would be a lot cooler if it wasn’t for the fact that they were definitely all doing horrible shit during drug benders with underage groupies. Well, as far as a piece of music goes it’s really quite good and influential.

Rating: 7/10 A consistently good collection of soulful songs from one of the most well regarded singers of all time and so I am probably definitely underrating it. I enjoy it, but I don’t know if this is necessarily a favorite at the moment. But yet I really think I could get into Aretha.

Rating: 10/10 Long been a 9/10 for me but I fully realize there’s nothing stopping The Colour of Spring from being a 10. Lush and intelligently composed progressive pop songs that create a beautiful soundscape. I love every song, the A and B sides are equally fantastic with the slight exception of Chameleon Day which just atmospherically leads into the closer. Life’s What You Make It is literally one of the greatest rock songs ever made and I never want it to end when it’s on. I love every little piece of instrumentation from the addicting bass line to the keyboard, soaring guitar riffs, and shakers that make a really cool percussion. Oh, and a gorgeous album cover art also

Rating: 5/10 Never even got more than a resounding ‘meh’ from me as the album carried on this Al guy is extremely overrated.

Rating: 7/10 It's some pretty good Britpop with a raw garage sound from this time. The first half is fast paced and fun, then the stretch of tracks 7-9 weren't my favorite. And then really slowed down in the last few tracks but I thought they were decent too I was having enough fun with it, maybe not something I would return to all that often. I'm sure a lot of us have heard 'Alright' which is a good song and really feels like a true influence on a style to come around the turn of the century with the post-Britpop indie sound. The album cover art is cursed

Rating: 7/10 Really solid live blues set full of originals which is what I really like. A big turn off for me in 50’s and 60’s music is the heavy prevalence of covers and it makes it far more fresh to have a guy like this just play some good original compositions. It’s also well produced for its time and stands as a good listen to this day. Really no complaints even though I’m not particularly passionate about its genre

Rating: 7/10 I’m not even close to a reggae expert but I expect it doesn’t get much better than Bob Marley. I should continue to dive into his deep discography despite a career cut short because this later record of his and the Wailers is quite good. Good rhythms and amazing lyrics, I really like the background vocal singers as well

Rating: 6/10 This is an artistic and creative ass album from this time that I can appreciate. Got a little tiring for me to finish as it went on, so my highlights would be the first couple of tracks. Will I be going back and playing Machito in my off time, probably not, but it was a pretty good listen

Rating: 9/10 Simply put, an iconic staple of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and the true start of Iron Maiden’s legendary 80’s run, with Bruce’s excellent vocals, dual guitars going crazy and bass (love Steve Harris) and drums carrying sick grooves. These elements would continue to get better but what a great time. Title track->run for the hills is the best

Rating: 5/10 The album and this duo have a really interesting story and history and they're British so their inclusion here makes sense. As far as the music goes I don't really know how to feel about this one and don't have much of an opinion after my one listen. I will give it a very fine middle of the road rating and move on for now, and maybe check out their other album 'Chill Out' one day to see if my opinion of the group is swayed

Rating: 10/10 Not a bad middle of the winter album but really serves best as one for autumn or spring on a dreary, rainy day. One immediate thing I feel about Disintegration is that it evokes so many bittersweet emotions, as it can be romantic, loving, longing, melancholic, lonely, cold and sad throughout. It’s not just a depressing album. One thing that’s actually awesome is Robert writing Lovesong for his fiancé/wife who he is still with 4 decades later and will die with. The beautiful, lush, dreamy and rainy atmosphere this album creates is pretty much unmatched. It’s pretty long, yes, but it really takes its time in establishing this tone and then building it up, which works nicely when the first part of the album is filled with some really melodic poppier moments, and then the latter half has these sprawling tracks filled with amazing bassy grooves. Lullaby, Fascination Street, Prayers for Rain, Disintegration, Untitled are just flawless and keep continuing to bask in unmatched atmosphere. The band really capped off the 1980’s by releasing the pinnacle of Gothic Rock paving the way to a dream pop future, and it’s easily a front running contender for the best album of the decade. It is to me. It’s not my favorite album of all time but it’s definitely top 5.

Rating: 8/10 The Amherst guys are back. Some raw lo-fi noisy indie rock is the best way to describe Dinosaur Jr., and they definitely influenced the bands of the 90’s who did all this type of stuff. This one stands strongly as a genre staple, especially for the run of the first few tracks, SludgeFeast being the highlight. It’s abrasive and chaotic and so good at being those things

Rating: 10/10 Of all the psychedelic rock albums made in the 1960’s, this is the one that most genuinely feels *groovy* and *far out* literally like it’s from another time and dimension. The most revolutionary thing ever when it was released and still rocks to this day. The use of fuzz and distortion was just amazing. And the fact that these songs were created by a 3 piece band is just unreal. Jimi’s inhuman guitar abilities alone make that fact seem crazy. There’s a UK release version that’s short and is missing some key classic songs, and the double length American deluxe version is pretty much just perfect all the way through. If you have the time for it I don’t think I would ever purposefully play a shorter and less complete version of this album. Specific highlights for me are Purple Haze, Hey Joe, I Don’t Live Today, The Wind Cries Mary, Fire, Foxey Lady, Are You Experienced?, Red House. Third Stone from the Sun is so fucking great I just want to call it my favorite. Worst song if there has to be one is definitely Remember. A while ago I mentioned that Stevie Wonder’s album title is one of the most apt ones ever, and this is right up there at the top too. Are You Experienced? Yes, yes I am

Rating: 7/10 Certainly a bit of a controversial choice for the essential album list, since even among the LCD Soundsystem fanbase it's divisive. Probably due to a mixture of being a reunion album that arrived so soon after their hiatus, and that it still couldn't possibly live up to their "final" album This Is Happening and their mega epic sendoff with their "final" live show/live album at MSG. And it's true, it can't really live up to the band's pre-hiatus output, but now about a decade removed from that reunion and new album drama I will say this album american dream still has some pretty good stuff. In my opinion, the highs are not really up there to the best moments of Sound of Silver and This Is Happening, and the sonic palette shifts from bouncy and rhythmic electronic punk stylings to moodier, darker pieces. It's basically like James Murphy's electronic worship of post-punk music at its least dancey. I definitely don't think I ever gave this album much of a fair shot. But I would still call it all around 'consistently pretty good' at worst, with my highlights being Oh Baby and the title track.

Rating: 4/10 Really started to veer the line of irritating to me as I was just not getting into the songwriting. I think at the point of Star Sign and Metal Baby I had decided that this record just wasn’t going to work for me at the moment, which is a shame because some sweet power pop tunes with a little bit of noisy feedback isn’t theoretically something I should be turned off from. Extra shame that I was actually really into that first track and nothing hit the same at all the further into Bandwagonesque I got. Maybe I can get more into this band one day but for now I’ve got plenty of other indie rock I can reach for.

Rating: 7/10 A great Smiths album, Strangeways has a lot of dense and layered instrumentation which is probably my favorite aspect of it. Would have been interesting where they had gone from here. I honestly don't know how I would rank their 4 albums and might just prefer to have a best songs list. Tracks 1-6 is a really great run but I like Death of a Disco Dancer and Last Night I Dreamt best.

Rating: 7/10 It’s a fine 60’s folky rock album, would go as far as saying it’s “pretty good”. Wait, these guys were doing this in 1965? You know what, this is great! The A side is an all around good time, the opening track being the highlight, an Eight Miles High should go into 60’s playlists for sure. Then we get to hear Hey Joe again, and I was into the groove of Captain Soul. Maybe it’s not quite a 4 for me right now, but this could be an actually cool Beatles-esque band to get into

Rating: 4/10 I like modern alt country but I found this to be a mediocre release that is most notable for being a niche sound at this time. Crazy that a British band tried to do this. And of course that means the arbiters of this book thought it meant that I should listen to it. The alt country sound really develops into the 90's, in the US, and those records are not ones with a punk edge. I will forget this one exists for sure

Rating: 8/10 No less than a great piano-driven pop rock/glam classic packed with hits. The first six track run is really excellent until Jamaica Jerk-Off, worst song on the album by far, comes along. I actually just looked and it turns out that is LITERALLY the only song Bernie Taupin isn't credited for writing lyrics, but given to "Toots Taupin" which seems to be a pseudonym for the pair of them, which is pretty amusing. It's like they wouldn't put their name on that one yet still included it to have one shit song on the album. There is rarely a miss on disc two, even though the best highlights have passed by on the first disc. Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting is definitely my favorite on the back half, but there's some other strong songs like Sweet Painted Lady, All the Girls Love Alice, Harmony. This is consistently wonderful and fun record, split between 8 and 9 for this one at the moment but what I know is that I really enjoyed it.

Rating: 6/10 A trimmed down track list would have really served this Fatboy Slim album because when it hits the tracks can be infectiously energetic and dancey and overall lots of fun. Absolutely mix this shit into DJ sets and party playlists because a few minutes of these funky beats would slap. I really don't mind sampled repetitions in electronic dance because that's sort of the point, there's just a balance. And even here it's fine for me. This veers a bit into the "too much" range where a 40 minute album of the best hits would have made an all-timer because I honestly think this ages well. It's fun. Looking back at the track list though I already don't remember its moments outside of the ones I really enjoyed. First two tracks are obviously awesome, along with Gangster Tripping, Praise You, and the appropriately named Acid 8000 would have made the bulk of a good project as it is. This is dangerously close to 7 as it is for me.

Rating: 5/10 It's really not bad, 90's British DnB fused with traditional Indian sounds. Seems unique in this regard and I enjoyed some of the beats. It's likely I'll never return to this album again and forget it ever existed but that is not the same for me as saying I don't think it has good qualities and artistic merits.

Rating: 8/10 The debut for the masters of French House has the duo finding their footing with their "signature" sound, if they could have one considering Daft Punk actually has so much sonic variety in the progression of their career. While there are only a few songs that stand up to the all time greats that they would release later on, Homework must still be one of the best and most revelatory electronic records of the decade. The Revolution 909-Around the World run is excellent, and the repetitive length of the album only, just barely, starts to drag a little because a few of the songs in the back half aren't quite as good.

Rating: 7/10 I think Fleet Foxes’ following two albums, Helplessness Blues and Crack-Up, are modern folk masterpieces, but as it stands their debut is definitely the best introduction to the band as their least complex, most familiar and straightforward, and ushers in the indie folk sound of the era that many lesser bands would follow. Really good debut effort that’s always good to return to.

Rating: 5/10 Some songs are good, some are annoying, as a whole package it leads to a pretty alright geeky 90’s alt rock album and there’s many other options of artists similar to solo Frank Black that I would prefer to listen to. The length and track list weren’t too bloated considering it has 22 songs but only 63 minutes long, not the worst average double album that one has to sit through.

Rating: 8/10 I'm not really a big fan of Duran Duran but Rio is pretty much gold. With only 9 tracks and two hits, that leaves some good deep cuts with only a couple lesser moments. Loved My Own Way, The Chauffeur, and especially New Religion and Save A Prayer. The album has the beautiful lush sound with melodies and groovy bass that you expect from the 80's new wave, and does it particularly well for the poppier side of things. Still though, I honestly really don't know if the music here would feel a fraction as good without its addictingly cool bass lines.

Rating: 9/10 Amazingly innovative metal that does not deserve to be lumped in with shitty 90’s nu-metal, because SOAD manages to have so much crazy off the wall songwriting that also holds up as quality extreme heavy music to this day. It breaks so many conventions of metal and rock music to create insanely memorable moments by the minute. Sick riffs throughout, and the band has obviously so well defined themselves already at this point with their lyrics, which are politically hard-hitting and also come across like the ravings of a man writing a manifesto, and Serj’s completely unique vocal delivery with wild range. And also with the help of Rick Rubin’s production it still sounds so tight through the chaos and rawness. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this album, only really that some of the tracks don’t reach the heights of the best the album has to offer. An insane debut and a defining alt metal classic

Rating: ?/10 I don't even know what score to truly give this collection of music at the moment, which is over 3 hours of this legendary vocalist singing to part of her career long project of playing the entire canon of 'The Complete American Songbook'. It was best group background music which gave me the chance to listen to it in full in the background but not enough of a chance to really take it in and give a firm opinion on. Looking at some of her other released albums of her singing to standards, I definitely think they could have just added any of the other ones that are much, much shorter instead.

Rating: 7/10 Now this Scott Walker album is definitely a lot more accessible and simultaneously a good amount better than the last one I got, Scott 2. It actually made me go back and listen to a few Scott 2 songs which I thought were both interesting and strange in its theatrics, that is one that will be due a re-evaluation down the line. As far as Scott 4 goes, it's a good collection of nicely composed traditional pop songs. Not much to complain about at all, and honestly feels very influential to a lot of modern stuff of this variety.

Rating: 3/10 Sorry but I find this to be the caliber of mediocre 2000’s indie pop that the British music press raves about and gobbles up in which I find myself having absolutely nothing to latch onto. This one feels a little different as an atmospheric artsy vibe rather than hitting you with any upbeat melodies or poppy hooks. Which is great if I were enjoying the vocals and arrangements and not being sounds that go in one ear and out the other, never to be remembered again.

Rating: 6/10 Marty Robbins cosplaying as a cowboy and crooning over a guitar, telling outlaw stories of the old west. This storytelling aspect is probably the best part of the album. It's not a bad listen at all but it gets a bit samey through the whole of the album as I felt some of the tracks were like lesser versions of the best ones. Big Iron is easily the best one in my opinion, there's a reason it's a country classic and still actually holds pop cultural relevance in ways.

Rating: 4/10 Funny how I'll say that I usually really like any New Wave that pops up but in the case of this early influential release, I almost can't stand it. I just find this to be annoying grating pop rock, pretty good playing, I almost could have enjoyed it but I really just didn't. If I had to choose a best song it would just be Pump It Up, that one sounds pretty good

Rating: 5/10 I'm comprising a list of mid in the 1001 Albums book and it's all 2000's rock Mercury Prize nominees. My beating of a dead horse aside, it's fine, it's not bad. It's got a sleepy and dreamy night time atmosphere and feels very closely aligned with Coldplay's music when they were developing at the exact same time. Doves feels distinctly different enough here with more of an indie rock sound and a touch of psychedelia. It has a bit of a warmth and coldness to it. All around this feels like a commercialized radio friendly version of lots of better dream pop and indie that was made before the turn of the century. I definitely like N.Y. the most and really wasn't into The Sulpher Man. Crazy how this hit #1 on the UK Chart. Times really were different even 25 years ago when rock music could still chart.

Rating: 1/10 Fuck this guy! He didn't write or compose or produce any of the music created on this record and as a super early example of turntablism this thing might have been influential to Beastie Boys and whatever else after it, but the whole story of this album is lame as fuck. True turntablists and plunderphonics artists put in such heavy work to transform the art they're using into something unique and interesting. This dude just appropriated international sounds and styles and didn't pay any of them for the work they, not he, actually put into this album. And I really don't think anyone gives a shit about this album anymore, if they ever did

Rating: 8/10 A fantastic double album and send off for The Beatles' peak creativity, really not bloated at all and excellent pretty much the whole way through. Removing my least favorites, like Wild Honey Pie and Why don't we do it in the road, really wouldn't even change this album much because they're such a short part of the runtime. I don't really care for Piggies Me and My Monkey but I would never take them away because I'm sure there someone out there's favorite Beatles songs. So many great songs, Revolution 9 is some cool weird experimental noisy shit that sounds like the end of the world

Rating: 6/10 Decent collection of bluesy rock tunes from the 60's. Nothing more nothing less to me really. Favorite song was Omaha

Rating: 3/10 Simply not my thing. A record for listening to in a seedy country bar or nightclub in the 50's except this was even made in the 60's. I was really waiting for it to end, the samey songs never sparked any semblance of joy

Rating: 9/10 Beautiful music. Her gorgeous soulful voice is a beautiful instrument in and of itself, her piano playing is excellent, and she's got some good band instrumentation backing her. There's really no point where any of these songs are anything less than great, probably a high point of 60's recorded music. If I'm choosing a favorite song it's Four Women, that's pure poetry, reminds me a lot of Toni Morrison (or would more accurately be, she reminds me of Nina Simone). Really the whole thing does though.

Rating: 6/10 Fun,cheesy, and funky late 80's hard rock and protest music that just barely veers the line of metal. Not my favorite thing cause it never hits the heights of the first song and starts to overstay its welcome a bit, feeling a bit samey. But it's not bad. Cult of Personality got stuck in my head the rest of the day and now it's stuck in my head again writing about it.

Rating: 7/10 This is honestly my type of shit. An album that's definitely on the early side of this kinda sound that I really enjoy, the folky and dreamy country that you really need to be in a type of mood and setting to properly enjoy. And you need to really like the slow, melancholic stuff. The biggest issue with the album for me is the slightly long runtime and its lack of total standouts, it's more of a good experience throughout. Reminds me a lot of bands I like who would follow this up, like Low.

Rating: 9/10 An early gothic rock achievement and an album I love a lot, the first song is a good indication of the kind of sound Juju provides, which is spellbinding. The band gives a dark and haunting performance in these songs led by Siouxsie's vocals, a highlight of the record, singing a lot of really strange lyrics. I think almost every song on here is great, my least favorite being Head Cut. Voodoo Dolly is a weird one but gets pretty interesting at the end making for a good closer. All around the B side is little weaker than A, that first few tracks run is fantastic. Spellbound is absolutely an all-timer for punk/rock hits but my favorite is actually Monitor.

Rating: 8/10 Another Bobby D classic. 1963 is crazy. Lots of good tunes on this one, it might not be technically his best on a hit to hit basis, especially as the album progresses, but it's the best choice if you just want your Bob Dylan a little simpler, just playing his acoustic guitar and harmonica and talkin about war and stuff. I also love the album cover to the point where it's my favorite of his

Rating: 7/10 Get me off of Frank Zappa's wild ride. This was really interesting and wacky experimental shit though, just super out there. He's a lot better when he's just jamming out and seeing where he progresses these wild songs than when he's being making comedy music

Rating: 7/10 R.E.M. is a surprising blind spot for me as I really haven’t gotten into them before, and Document is an interesting one for me. The songs can really verge on annoying sometimes but can also be really enjoyable. I didn’t really especially like the last few tracks of the album, which didn’t help with the length of them. There’s some bangers though. This is clearly a very influential band, they have their own brand of the post-post derived jangly sound of the 80’s while also having aspects, good and bad, that really influenced some 90’s stuff in the pop/rock field that I don’t enjoy. it’s the end of the world as we know it it’s the end of the world as we know it it’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine it’s the end of the world as we know it it’s the end of the world as we know it it’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine it’s the end of the world as we know it it’s the end of the world as we know it it’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine

Rating: 6/10 Ehhhh I don't know, I'm very likely underrating this but as funky and creative and well crafted the music that this collective makes together is, I don't love listening to the whole album in one chunk. It can be pretty cool though. I believe the best song is Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?!

Rating: 6/10 Cool punk feminist political music that feels way ahead of its time. Like it must have influenced a lot of riot grrrl and later women’s indie punk, and sax in punk way before people thought that was cool for a bit. I’m sure I would like this band the more I listened because a grating voice can grow on me and the first listen is always hardest in that aspect. Identity was really cool

Rating: 8/10 Guided By Voices really is Beatles worship if it were raw and lo-fi 90's Midwestern slacker shit. They pack 28 tracks into 41 minutes that move along chaotically and the results are mostly great. Lot of cool tracks here, but the longer ones turn out to be the most effective, like Motor Away and My Valuable Hunting Knife. The only tracks I really don't like are Hit and Gold Hit they kinda suck. This band is right up my alley so of course I like this. 2.75 average on this site is a bit of a joke, but I can tell the community here does not like noise and lo-fi production.

Rating: 6/10 Well made stuff but I won’t pretend to be the biggest fan of this Janis Joplin record, there just weren’t many highlights that stood out to me. Country blues that sounds distinct from a lot of the American rock that was popular at this time, just never amounted to anything more than mild enjoyment. She only has one other album, maybe I’ll find something more in that one

Rating: 9/10 Rightfully considered the proto-everything album, because it really does sound like the future of all rock music as we know it through its run of bold experimental tracks. Still hard to beat the strange feelings and reactions this album evokes. Lou Reed is a great songwriter and has excellent pop sensibilities through all the weirdness. He and Nico both make great leading and backing vocals. The droning guitars and piano with the drums all come together with arrangements that somehow work. Like the weirdest garage band ever assembled. My favorites are Sunday Morning, just classic and timeless, Venus In Furs, in which that guitar tone and the viola strings really are haunting, and Heroin, for making such a great poetic tune about the experience of doing hard drugs. It might just verge on a 10 for me because the more I think about it the more I think there’s only one lesser track in my eyes as I listened to it a couple more times again. At the very least I’ll round up to 5

Rating: 7/10 Hard to judge this very fairly. It's French boom bap where the lyricism can't be understood or fully appreciated if you don't speak it, and it seems like the lyrics are a prominent feature of the album where the jazzy beats flow along taking a backseat to the poetic rhymes. Some turntablism in the mix. Overall it sounds nice and and be kinda fire sometimes, and as I listened the run of good tracks just kept going.

Rating: 5/10 Hmm...I didn't really end up liking this one much. Interesting sonic ideas, cool vocal and lyrical presentation, but I'm not into the songs so much. I liked a few songs like the promising opener Charlie Big Potato, and then a couple like Secretly and You'll Follow Me Down, otherwise it's a bit of a slog where this metal-esque band playing with rock and pop synthesis doesn't fully work for me

Rating: 7/10 Perfectly pleasant enough, the era of the U2 that starts to go almost full pop rock is upon us. The first song I really enjoy is One, and then it moves along fine until the great back to back The Fly and Mysterious Ways, really like those ones. Tracks 9-12 don't have highlights that reach those levels to me. All around it's pretty good.

Rating: 3/10 God I hate this guy. Maybe I don't get why he's so brilliant or something but I don't want to. I don't even understand the argument that this album might have good melodies because to me it just sounds so annoying. It gets a single bonus point for political concept that Elvis sticks to compared to the shit he sang about in the previous album but I still hate his voice and I don't care about the lyrics themselves either. The album honestly just keeps getting worse in the last few tracks. A personal 1

Rating: 6/10 Definitely not a bad hip hop album that came before the 90’s and clearly had some influence on the genre to come, and an album I hadn’t heard of before. The beats are pretty cool, and has good lyrics that albums which highlight Afrocentric pride often do. Maybe it’s a little dated and the rapping could be a lot more standout, and does start to run long, so it’s a good but not great album for me.

Rating: 3/10 Known mostly for the intro song on their debut album, I’m not really sure what The xx’s third output is on this list for, besides what I think is massively undeserved critical hype for the band. This is a real case of boring uninteresting textures for me here with the songwriting just not being there and I have no positive opinion on the vocals, with lyrics that amount to nothing much. It’s not the worst thing ever but really just a whole lot of boringness

Rating: 8/10 Easily one of the best pop rock albums of the 80’s, the people got this one right when they made it and all the songs on it the most popular thing ever. Bruce crafts great melodies from all variety of rock instruments and even synthesizers, and creates an incredibly consistent and satisfying album which found him at his undeniable peak. The only lower point of the tracklist is Darlington County-Working on the Highway which are the two more annoying songs on the album, even though they’re still not bad. But from Downbound Train on it’s all just great, with the two incredible hits I’m On Fire and Dancing in the Dark being the highlights. Every song is such an anthem but there is still a great depth on the lyrical end.

Rating: 3/10 Don't like it. I feel like this kind of music was done a lot better by other artists already 5-10 years before. First two tracks were fine enough, and Only You Know did grab my attention more than any other song, that one is a nice little tune. That cover was pretty shit

Rating: 6/10 A decent entry in the genre of electronic that follows the mellow and calming sound and atmosphere which 90's Downtempo and trip hop influences perfected. It's good, but doesn't hold up to the giants of albums that preceded it. Reminds me most of Boards of Canada but almost with this synthpoppy feel, and clear smooth vocals in the songs

Rating: 8/10 It’s the fucking Ramones, not much more can be said about how seminal and influential the debut self-titled album is. A whole bunch of punk pop songs that rock hard through their raw energetic nature, simple repetitive song structures, and just a few chords

Rating: 5/10 Sort of in the genre of the annoying theatrical Scott 2 school of music, this was not the kind of thing I want to listen to even though it's adequately made eclectic stuff that is surely for some people.

Rating: 8/10 Wow, what a low rating for a piece of art that is actually so inspired and unique. You obviously don't put this on for some fun and easy background listening, it's a strange record that breaks many conventions of rock music that was firmly established by that point. Rock Bottom is an actually experimental and insane effort with a somber feel and a psychedelic touch. I've really been sleeping on this, in my first time listening I don't understand much of it but I am really intrigued and believe there is such a depth here that can be uncovered with more time spent. That's usually the first sign of great and touching art. Has a mad genius kind of feel. The album honestly kept getting better as it went on, with the closing track being my favorite. And it sounds like it was actually supremely influential to art rock that has been made in the many following decades. 4 for now, could be higher one day honestly.

Rating: 6/10 I always appreciate when pop music shows up on the list, but I've never been a big fan of Xtina. But despite the bloat in album length and the weaker production, this is a pretty decent pop album, I definitely wouldn't be surprised if it's the best Christina Aguilera album. Cool that she has writing and production credits throughout the tracks. Maybe a case where the singles are the best songs; Fighter, Beautiful, and Dirrty are all memorable hits from the era, even though she can feel really like a lesser version of better Pop RnB stars at the time. But also the run after Fighter, with Infatuation between the interludes and Loving Me 4 Me was good too. Definitely fun enough to say I enjoyed it.

Rating: 9/10 One of the titans of grunge that needs no introduction. Really seeping in this masculine dark, brooding, drugged out vibe, the production hits hard, the guitar tone is absolutely perfect, and it's a stellar run of tracks from beginning to end. Not a personal top favorite but an excellent 90's album

4/10 60's bluesy Americana that I just found boring and unremarkable on my listen. Even if I'm in the mood for this sound I would like to reach for other stuff. I thought Across the Great Divide was the best, so after the first track I was losing interest

Rating: 7/10 A late, late career and life album by Leonard Cohen with some dark poetry and spoken world style lyricism. It's sparse and minimal, with his vocals driving the songs. I need to give it more listens for it to grow on me and have a firmer opinion where it could well deserve a 4

Rating: 8/10 Absolute banger! Psychedelic funky beats with the classic Woodstock feel. Lots of great performances with all these instruments led by Mr. Sly himself. Short and sweet, lots of good tracks and just a well made album. I've definitely heard I Want To Take You Higher before, the long jam Sex Machine was fun. All around one of the best albums from 1969.

Rating: 4/10 Pretty boring, just kinda noodling along and nothing memorable really stuck out. Forgetting this one

Rating: 7/10 Arguably U2 at their best, though I'm not sure if I would wind up liking Achtung Baby more. This one probably has higher highs, and it might be very frontloaded. Beautifully produced by Brian Eno, that guy knows how to make great atmospheric music. Nicely mixed, strong sense of dynamics, all the buzzwords. They have good singles for sure. While they're pretty boring on the surface, they still have this almost undeniable enjoyment to them. U2 is the definition of a 7/10 band for me. Turns out they were a pretty good band, but I never find them spectacular. I'll keep the same score for this one but I'll also bump it up to 4 stars, why not

Rating: 6/10 It’s alright. Liked the first three songs, Shining Star being one of their downright iconic songs and the title track being a great one too. After that, it’s fine and pleasant

Rating: 5/10 I'm not even sure I listened to the right thing. Whatever the collection of songs I listened to actually is, he's a talented old timey guy. Don't think I'll become a of Fats

Rating: 7/10 This is pretty cool, always went under my radar so I'm happy for its inclusion. With a collection of good emcees, and a fun lighthearted and comedy angle, the group feels kinda ahead of its time in the world of west coast hip hop. I could go back to this more and appreciate it more over time.

Rating: 5/10 Not as good as You've Come a Long Way Baby, with more repetitive sampling in a less interesting way, and less fun vocal samples that are present the best songs of Slim's second album. Maybe the 5 is a bit harsh but I only gave the other one a 6

Rating: 7/10 Obviously a classic west coast hip hop gangsta rap album, and maybe the only good thing Snoop has ever really done. It's synthy and funky, and it's also chill and melodic, with great Dre production. A lot of songs are bangers, and Who Am I (What's My Name) is the best one here in my opinion. Pump Pump isn't my favorite as a closing track and skits make the album draw out

Rating: 3/10 Feels inoffensive and also mildly insufferable at the same time to me. Technically well made but I will never remember I listened to this

Rating: 3/10 I didn't like it. One hit wonder band and there wasn't a single song I really cared for honestly. It's adventurous and tries to be fun but it's not for me

Rating: 4/10 Not the best for me. Lots of singer-songwriter material I would rather reach for than ever listen to Sheryl Crow. A grating country rock style that's kinda cornball. A few decent songs at the beginning. The songs are a little too drawn out and hurt the pacing more. Even All I Wanna Do is annoying. The album ends with a moody lounge-y piano tune that I don't like and an ok closer that doesn't save the last 50 minutes of mild suffering

Rating: 9/10 An excellent 80’s American rock achievement, and another banger of a Brian Eno produced record, one in which he’s basically another member of the band. Wild experimentation and funky polyrhythms are employed with the band reaching their creative peak. I wouldn’t even call it post-punk at this point, but what it is is really good shit. It falls off a little bit more in the end for me after the insane first half album run, but Listening Wind is still really solid. The first four tracks are some *chefs kiss* perfection

Rating: 4/10 You know, it's really not that bad but even the 'best' of the chili peppers is really just on the edge of tolerable. In the case of this album, you can absolutely claim that this is a talented group of musicians making shitty music that sometimes turns out ok. I don't care for the funk rock and rap rock sound that they make, and Kiedis's vocals and lyrics are so annoyingly shit to me, sometimes ruining the songs for me entirely on their own. The best part of the album is the run of Give it Away-title track with its guitar work-Under the Bridge, pretty solid. As far as I'm concerned everything after that stretch could have been cut up until Sir Psycho Sexy, with a good outro that of course gets ruined by the inclusion of that last song.

Rating: 7/10 A good helping of peak mainstream 90’s hard rock but Pearl Jam and Ten were never my favorites of the genre or era. Some absolutely timeless highlights in the first half of the album that mainly comprise of the singles, they’re just well crafted and anthemic with good riffs and guitar solos that are definitely more reminiscent of classic rock. Once to Jeremy is a pretty massive run with the shorter cut Why Go being on a lower rung. Later tracks are decent with strong ones in Garden and the closer Release. All around good stuff but not a top tier classic in my eyes

Rating: 10/10 I love the top review of this album. It perfectly and succinctly describes the breadth of Entroducing..... as art and the questions and ideas it poses. One of the finest and most unique pieces of musical experimentation and a display of the limitless possibilities of the medium. In terms of quality and enjoyment, to me it's an otherworldly sound collage that hypnotizes through its run, like something out of a dream. The density and technicality in these songs through its meticulous sampling is incredible. There's so much personality expressed purely through instrumentals that still manage to maintain a sonic cohesion, while remaining distinct from each other and never staying in once place for too long, even within the same track, like in the long medleys. Enveloped with a trippy and dark atmosphere further driven by a cool vocal sample or the sound of a scratch or crackle in the production. All in all, this album has so much that keeps me intrigued listen after listen, and probably always will. A classic

Rating: 8/10 Janelle Monae's ArchAndroid is one of the most interesting and unique contemporary r&b albums with a cool futuristic sci-fi themes and a production style and sound to match. While it runs long and the first half of the track list is much stronger, the album as a whole is still both fun and ambitious and really pulls it off. And it's a debut.

Rating: 6/10 Perfectly fine and pleasant relaxing smooth jazzy tunes. Feels like I’m in a Pixar movie. Not my thing for listening as an album

Rating: 8/10 Gorgeous ambient waves of post-rock bliss, like you're floating. They create a beautiful soundscape that you can love even not understanding the words, which makes me realize that I've never ACTUALLY dived in to the lyricism of this album. I'll have to change that next time I listen

Rating: 8/10 Saying that the album is so smooth is an extreme cliche, but the way the songs on Diamond Life glide by with its mellow mid-tempo arrangements and Sade’s soulful voice leaves a very warm feeling. The very modest album length has me enjoying the experience without getting bored, and it’s really consistently good. A great first three tracks but my favorite is Cherry Pie

Rating: 7/10 Went in with mild expectations and came out enjoying the album well enough. It's old fashioned folk pop but definitely still has a timeless feel. The description suggests that this is the end of their creative endeavors and the peak of the band, and I can see it. Better than their last album that I listened to with more interesting musical diversity. There are two clear highlights in the tracklist to me, the title track and The Boxer, with the rest maintaining 'pretty good' status. Maybe I'll become more of a fan of the duo in time

Rating: 5/10 Definitely a weird eclectic album that sounds exactly like something I would expect to hear on an alt rock radio station in the 90's. I was all around not psyched about it but also just interesting enough sometimes to hold my attention or move to the midtempo tunes. Maybe a 6

Rating: 9/10 A great achievement of 2000’s alternative music that feels both contemporary and like worship of 80’s electronic dance and post-punk flavor with its genre blending. I love the upbeat dance-y rhythms juxtaposed with the sarcastic and existential lyrics that feel related to the anxieties of growing up and getting older (in New York). Bangers throughout, with almost entirely amazing songs besides the more middling Watch the Tapes and a personal not favorite in Us V. Them. Fantastic opening and closing tracks with the amazing All My Friends in the middle. I’ve decided it’s a 5, especially because their next album is sadly missing from this list.

Rating: 7/10 As a piece of art, it’s crazy, bold, subversive, confrontational. Reading about the band and the album is a truly wild ride. It’s a satirical presentation of the feeling of being at a European white nationalist rally. The repetitive grand arrangements really work for the militaristic tone they were striving for. The repetition is by design but as a result it’s not the most engaging on a moment to moment basis. It would have been better if I realized before that the last four tracks are in fact not part of the original album. Still, despite that repetition pretty much every track just works and Laibach really achieve the idea they’re going for here.

Rating: 6/10 I can definitely admit that I don’t get this on yet on first listen, it’s like old school pop rock but also a little bit weird and feels like a precursor to the production styles low budgeted indie music would take on. Wasn’t my favorite but I’m interested in revisiting Big Star

Rating: 7/10 Capping off a decade of making spacey prog rock masterpieces, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters writes a overlong and pretentious conceptual rock opera double album, and it's still good. Quite effective in its theatrics and themes at telling a cohesive story with the power of music. I really wouldn't find myself putting this on to listen in full, I would much prefer to put on plenty of other Pink Floyd. Very interesting piece of art and important piece of rock history, but one I don't love

Rating: 6/10 Decent UK 70's punk, not much more to me. None of the songs particularly stood out as great but it was mildly fun

Rating: 7/10 Look, it's good, this is classic British blues rock done really well, but it's just not my favorite thing. Dazed & Confused is awesome, but it's my only real highlight while the rest borders on enjoyable. So it's good but I'm not crazy about it. Earlier Led Zeppelin in particular just doesn't do it for me, I know I will find more to like in their 70's output though

Rating: 8/10 Maybe it's less perfect and more scattered than Rumours, but I still love it. Its 20 tracks and 74 minutes make for a great soundtrack to a weekend morning and the variety between its three songwriters is quite nice. Sara is amazing, my favorite song, but there's also Storms, the beautiful Sisters of the Moon and Angel, Beautiful Child. Oh, I just listed all of the Stevie Nicks songs so you can guess where I regard her in the band. Christine McVie has some great contributions too though, like with opener Over & Over and Brown Eyes. The only thing about this album is that the Lindsey Buckingham songs are the ones that don't do it for me as much, but they're still enjoyable. It would be a very respectable choice for one's favorite Fleetwood album, so much to love

Rating: 6/10 It’s a decent debut. Taken right from the time of the post-Joy Division beginning of the 80’s post punk wave, dark rhythmic grooves. I would probably rather listen to early Cure but I’m surprisingly not too familiar with Echo and they might have better albums after this. First couple tracks are good and I liked Rescue well enough

Rating: 8/10 An album I love, fka twigs showed in her early EP's and debut album LP1 how she's one of the most unique and interesting in the world of modern art pop. It's still hard to find anything like it and its hypnotic sounds. There are some songs that are better than others, like Lights On, Pendulum, Video Girl, Kicks, and the incredible Two Weeks which could still be to this day her best song, but it's still all around great from start to finish.

Rating: 9/10 A legendary live album from its prison setting to Cash's performance. The outlaw country vibe works so perfectly in this context and the storytelling in his songs is amazing. I love the run of the first five tracks and last five tracks, with a little lull in the middle, special shout-out to Cocaine Blues and 25 Minutes To Go. Just one weaker track if anything (Egg Sucking Dog). 5 stars

Rating: 7/10 A promising debut for a band that would make a great trilogy, which set the stage for noisy garage rock and punk. It's also a tale of two halves for me. The first four tracks are awesome, and I do enjoy the long droning We Will Fall. As great as I Wanna Be Your Dog is, my favorite might be No Fun, which is actually fun as hell. But the last four tracks, totaling 11 minutes, aren't quite as good to me, especially Not Right which goes into wanky guitar solo playing that's not great. Maybe the strongest of 3's at the moment

Rating: 6/10 Between video game soundtracks in the mid-2000's and my Pandora radio stations a few years later, Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out is an iconic staple and still one of the best rock songs of the decade. Nowadays, the huge UK post-punk revival wave of the time doesn't do as much for me outside of the occasional song and landmark album. This band's debut is still decent and pretty fun and I don't think they would ever go on to match it. It really gets by purely on its energy and its runtime that would get tiring by being a little bit longer. There's some clear better songs like Jaqueline, Dark of the Matinee, and This Fire.

Rating: 6/10 It's interesting, sort of a unique kind of spin on the New Wave sound, and kinda incredibly based with cool political concepts and album cover, but still a bit of a mixed bag for me in terms of sound and execution. We Don't Need This Fascist Groove thing starts pretty cool and was apparently banned by BBC Radio (? very lame) and the title track and Let's All Make A Bomb were both good too. Otherwise, I'm not sure how much I like the weird disco infused mechanical synthpoppy tunes, but then again the three tracks alone I listed take half the album's runtime so it gets just over a middling score

Rating: 9/10 Certified nostalgia classic. One of the only albums I didn't have to stream cause I have that shit in my iTunes library. The first band I ever saw perform live, I was even so hype to see them as an opener. The Arctic Monkeys debut is probably my favorite of theirs and still one of their best. Alex Turner's songwriting and his vocals are already on point in the songs, they have an anthemic high energy, great guitar riffs, there's really not a weak song here. Starts strong and ends strong with the first 3/last 3 songs, with their best hits, and the fantastic closer A Certain Romance. This genre of music doesn't do too much for me like it used to but this one has aged really well for me.

Rating: 10/10 My review got deleted. This is a 5. I love alternative 90's singer-songwriter folk and this is some of the best. Maybe Elliott Smith's best album in a great body of work. I would say the album is literally perfect outside the comparably weaker (but still good) track Punch and Judy. It's not easy to name a favorite song but it's bookended amazingly with Speed Trials and Say Yes.

Rating: 5/10 Early British blues band with, as usual, a debut that's just full of covers. Route 66 and Carol are pretty good. This actually makes me evaluate some of the other Stones albums better because they did rock and were much more interesting. Still not the band for me though

Rating: 8/10 One of Jay-Z's best albums. It's long but it's got lots of good tracks, split between Just Blaze, Kanye, and Bink production, and I think it's clearer than ever now that Kanye's songs are the serious high points of the record, and basically shows off what he could achieve and what would come with his incredible sampling and chipmunk soul sound of The College Trilogy. Enimem also comes in for the sick feature, and it's got the closer with the shoutout to mothers, which we got on Mother's Day so I'm thinking that was done on purpose.

Rating: 9/10 Obviously one of the greatest popular rock albums ever made, Johnny Marr's songwriting on this one is at full power, and despite a couple weaker tracks in my eyes like Never Had No One Ever and Vicar in a Tutu, this album is the 80's jangle pop sound done to near-perfection. To me, it's not as beloved as some of the classic 5's albums though, and I would not love seeing this be my group's #1 album with a solid 5 average

Rating: 5/10 Maybe the definition of average. At this point we've gotten a good few albums in the realm of the rock, funk, and soul that Kravitz plays here in the year 1989, like The Beatles, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, and Prince; and this album which obviously takes influence from them all to the point of homage is just not nearly as good.

Rating: 6/10 Interesting singer-songwriter record that's pretty unique for folk. There's not much to come after that I would readily compare it to, it's got its own vibe. It does start really well with Strange Feelin' and Buzzin' Fly and then kind of falls off more, with Gypsy Woman just jamming on too long

Rating: 5/10 It's mostly just boring to me. I like pop music that's ambient, atmospheric, dreamy, minimalist, all those things, but the xx specifically doesn't really do it for me. I find it pretty unmemorable and I really don't like their vocals. It's well produced, it's a vibe, especially that damn intro, and it's not explicitly offensive so it gets a middling score

Rating: 9/10 Absolutely rules. I have to say that as a fan of avant-garde, experimental art punk shit, there's still almost nothing like Pere Ubu, who had this quirky Talking Heads post-punk sound but dialed up to 11 on the insanity. This is obviously not for everybody, but I have a special love for music like this which are purposeful in all the dissonance and chaos, it tries to not be catchy or accessible in any way, and really challenge the listener, which can effectively draw you into its mysteriousness if it doesn't repulse you And it's incredible at achieving the desired effect with its sound, reflecting the anxieties of modern urban life as a sick joke in a work of dystopian surrealism. An early punk masterpiece, what the genre is all about tbh

Rating: 9/10 Honestly rocks hard. It's actually really good hard rock and ahead of its time proto-metal. The front half I believe is better but the last few B-side tracks are still good, especially the crazy heavy ending of Hard Lovin' Man. The start of Speed King is definitely an insane way to start a rock album in 1970, and Child in Time absolutely deserves its classic status. Bloodsucker and Flight of the Rat are great. Now the lyrics...not always the best, but I'm paying attention to the better parts of the albums like the soaring guitars and shredding solos and ferocious drums. I listened to this one on a high compression youtube mix which sucked so I would actually like to hear it again in higher quality to judge the production.

Rating: 9/10 Fuck it's actually really good. Listening to Aja in full there is not a single weak song and the album as a whole package is just really well made, basically to perfection. Really good musicianship all around and peak studio production. Even though Donald Fagen's vocals are one of the weaker parts, the lyrics are interesting and his synth playing is great. The weakest track is Home At Last, and I otherwise enjoyed every song. Favorites are probably Aja and Josie. Surprised by this one, am I in denial that it's just a solid 5?

Rating: 7/10 Resoundingly solid glam rock, fun and energetic and has a fuzzy and raw sort of sound which is cool. The songs are all pretty good but after Metal Guru I don't think there are many exceptional highlights for me

Rating: 4/10 If I could say something positive about Syd Barrett's songwriting in old school Pink Floyd, is that it's certainly unique. But that uniqueness does not result in making many songs that I find even remotely enjoyable. It actually feels like nightmare fuel for the most part, with this element that sounds like taking a psychedelic trip in a fun house, except you're getting chased by killer clowns. This actually seems to check out, because in doing some research, there was apparently a hyper-specific British genre called 'toytown' which featured whimsical, childlike elements with dark and ominous undertones...anyway. It's weird and experimental for sure. I do like the space and fantasy vibe it occasionally gives. But not the quirky creepy nursery rhyme shit. The first two tracks are better and Interstellar Overdrive is quite a journey

Rating: 7/10 A great little collection of folk tunes from a band I had never heard of, and surprisingly were British. Apparently it's mostly classic folk renditions and three Bob Dylan covers that were invited to listen to and record their version. The vocalist Sandy Denny was a highlight. Besides Cajun Woman I really like these songs. A Sailor's Life was my favorite, I really enjoyed the progression on that one. Not a very original sound though as it's clearly influenced by the 60's American folk rock, but they've got this great atmosphere to their sound that I particularly like. Could be a 4

Rating: 7/10 Blur is a pretty good band and this has some of their best songs. There's a clear love for The Kinks and The Beatles, but also a direct line of influence from the British New Wave. And it also sounds so modern suburban (for its time) that really drives the personality of the record. It starts to run a little long but there are back tracks are actually some of the best like London Loves & Clover Over Dover. Girls & Boys is of course some classic Damon Albarn

Rating: 3/10 Now this is that shit I despise. My 1's so far have comprised of music I was unfamiliar with and found almost entirely unappealing on first listen, but the ubiquitous easy going rock of the Eagles almost starts to make the blood boil when listening in full album form. Bland, edge-less pop rock baby boomer commercial music

Rating: 9/10 Deservedly acclaimed as one of the best live albums ever. Very cool that Kurt continues his tradition of his distaste for fame and doing things his way even when he's making a record for MTV. The entire set could have been Nirvana mega-hits, even almost entirely with Nevermind, instead the band plays mostly deep cuts and covers (and the covers are so good). This choice clearly gave the album even more of a timeless classic quality that gets to stand out on its own in the Nirvana discography. A great display of the band's playing in a quieter intimate setting. Seeing them live would have been an incredible experience, but you know with all the noise and stuff

Rating: 5/10 Feels like something deeply personal and important for the artist who made it, and probably some people who have connected with it over the years, which is what art is all about. That does not automatically make an enjoyable album for me though and I just didn't really like any of the songs. It's fine, the last song actually was pretty good

Rating: 7/10 I actually really liked this and thought it was good, dare I say underrated. It can be a bit silly and absurd and not always work but also a lot of fun. I didn't like Giddy Up and Vambo Marble Eye as much but the rest I actually enjoyed. I don't know if it's for the 4 bucket though

Rating: 8/10 The experimentation is gone here, it's just good old straightfoward rock at its finest. Soft and mellow now instead of noisy. It starts off really strong with the A side and then dips just a bit, but there is not a weak song here. I swear the folky lo-fi nature is a decades long precursor to the mellower side of indie pop rock. Afterhours is twee as hell. A very pleasant album to just put on and enjoy and hopefully will grow on me further

Rating: 6/10 The absurdly vulgar and offensive debut by Eminem. Very unique. The eeriness of the album cover grows stronger when listening to '97 Bonnie & Clyde as the song it's depicting. Pretty front-loaded, and the best tracks unsurprisingly are the Dre productions. Songs like Guilty Conscience and '97 Bonnie & Clyde are some horrific content and straight up horror-core vibes, but when I think about it I would compare it to a grizzly slasher movie, still worth the critiques of its content though, even though Shady is obviously a character. I find most of the Bass Brothers' production and beats are not the most dynamic, largely depending on Eminem's storytelling skills and outrageous lyricism & vocalism to carry. The second half honestly gets a bit boring and drags on a little too long. Out of all those tracks, Rock Bottom is good and the closer finishes strong. A lot of value in this very interesting piece of art because of the discussion it enables since the day it came out

Rating: 6/10 I think it's decent. Pretty well made and original entry in the list but I didn't love it, I can see how those who are into it really love it though. The type of shit playing on the speaker at my family function. I didn't enjoy like songs like Wild Cats of Kilkenny and The Gentleman Soldier. Highlight has to be a Pair of Brown Eyes. The Band Plays the Waltzing Maltida was also a solid closer. Next time I visit Ireland I'll use them as a soundtrack

Rating: 10/10 Masterpiece. Maybe the greatest example of pure concentrated 90's Alternative Rock (along with Radiohead). Loved this whole album when I was in high school, still love it in full now, funny how it's mostly just 90's alt rock albums that applies to, probably because it was some of my only decent taste back then. So many fantastic songs, even the weaker run of Spaceboy-Silverfuck-Sweet Sweet I love all of. Has at least three alt rock classics. The best part is the guitar tone and sound that's achieved, the songs are accessible but also densely layered and fuzzzzy like makes you go hell yeah guitar pedals rule. Total sucker for this shoegaze-adjacent sound. I don't understand the Billy Corgan vocal hate I think it's a straight up good element of 90's Smashing Pumpkins. All around love it, it's not my absolute favorite entry of this genre but it's up there.

Rating: 6/10 Fine. Well sung cover album. I like it better than the other Dusty which felt more old timey but I'm still not exactly reaching for it. It would be good mixed in some background easy listening speaker music and that's about it for me

Rating: 5/10 Well performed. I don't love this so much, all of the compositions feel very...samey/not distinct from each other? At least on first listen that's how it seemed. The bass is just kinda doing its interesting improvisations while the pianos chime against the soothing background percussion. I like the way the drums started to pick up at the end of All of You. I don't care as much for the mellow easy listening cool jazz style. I struggle with actually enjoying my time with it and wouldn't put it on, I can appreciate it for its quality. Basically it could be good but it's not my thing

Rating: 8/10 I'm not really a Beck fan but Sea Change may just lowkey be an early 2000's folk masterpiece, probably his magnum opus. It's produced by longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, and you can definitely feel that influence even though the style of music is very different. It actually sounds a lot like the folk pop masterpiece A Moon Shaped Pool that Godrich would help Radiohead make 15 years later. He also seems to be doing his best Nick Drake impression sometimes, which is kinda fine by me. These elements make for a dramatic left turn from Beck's usual silly quirkiness that his previous music had. Instead it's pure melancholy. It's not the most original creative thing and the first half is better, but all around it's a really great listen.

Rating: 9/10 ohhHHh his voice I just hate his voice ohhhh. skill issue. Another Bobby D classic, A side is amazing and Shelter from the Storm (my favorite) and Buckets of Rain end the album beautifully. If I'm picking a least favorite, Lily Rosemary and Jack is the lengthy track with the walking line and it's cool but it does alter the length and pacing of the album a bit

Rating: 7/10 This group is pretty cool. It definitely has an extremely historic release, on Juneteenth 2020 which makes it an interesting landmark of an album. I'm very familiar with SAULT's founder Inflo as the producer for Michael Kiwanuka and, more importantly for me, Little Simz (until their unfortunate rift which has caused him to no longer produce for her). Simz is in my opinion one of the best rappers in the world right now and he was significant factor in the phenomenal discography she has. These artists make a great collective of UK conscious hip hop artists who are all doing really great work. Anyway, back to the album, this might not be standout but is still around a solid listen. I love the chill Wildfires, probably my favorite of the bunch. Why We Cry Why We Die and Black are also a good back to back. Songs flow along nicely, powerful stuff. Listen to Little Simz.

Rating: 6/10 It's decent and never not enjoyable but is not the strongest collection of songs for me, I don't really see Queen as an full albums band. It doesn't help that the first two tracks Brighton Rock and the great Killer Queen are the best the album has to offer in my opinion. Put like any of these songs on the aux and I'm having a pretty good time

Rating: 5/10 It just seems like a pretty average mostly indistinct bluesy garage rock & roll album, in just enough of a more modern sound? But almost like these guys are still stuck in the 60's. It's fine and could maybe grow on me more if I let it. I tapped out after the 9 track standard album because I fear my opinion would only further sour if I listened to all those bonus tracks. Plus I decided to end it on what was actually a good note with the closer Whiskey Woman. Good enough to be a 3

Rating: 7/10 Pretty cool live 70's album and could just be the way I would most prefer to listen to some Thin Lizzy. You can definitely tell it has a studio revision quality to it but it still makes for a good 'live version' of a lot of these fun rock songs. The main highlights are the whole tracks 1-6 run, and Cowboy Song and The Boys Are Back In Town back to back is great. Warriors had some cool soloing. After that the double album starts to tire a bit. I like a lot of the canon around them. A Dublin band, a black hard rock frontman at that time, and him being a groovy bassist at that, is a pretty cool and unique combination of qualities. I'm not sure if I'll ever really become a big fan but they definitely have my respect, I may be shuffling their songs in the future to check out more of their extensive work.

Rating: 4/10 big oof on this one, it's obviously a sound I love but there are a lot of bands I want to listen to instead of The Verve. This one I find boring and the album goes on and on and I got tired of most songs before they finished, especially after the first four. It gets a point or two purely for its strongest run at the beginning

Rating: 7/10 I can't give this legendary classic the highest of ratings because I don't actually have a substantial love for it. There are so many great elements, like Gaye's incredible voice and hard hitting political lyrics, the free flowing smooth soul throughout the run time. It's a sad fact that these lyrics are just as effective today as they were during the time of protest counterculture, since we are still making the same political pleas and in some ways has only gotten much worse. This is one of those that I am going to round up instead of down

Rating: 5/10 These guys again. Wannabe Oasis or wannabe Radiohead or combination of the two, and definitely not distinct or interesting enough for two album inclusions. Went on way way too long. It's a very average rock album, and well performed musically, with a good atmosphere, but just doesn't inspire me in any way. I definitely don't hate it. Just extremely middle of the road stuff

Rating: 4/10 It sure is a ZZ Top album, but now worse. I should probably bump my La Grange scores up a point because the earlier career dirty blues sound is better than this. The first three tracks are generally the best the album has to offer, with Sharp Dressed Man being the highlight with its solid groove. After that though the monotony and lack of diversity further gets to me. The back half is entirely unremarkable. And thankfully I didn't really even take in the lyrics in my listen.

Rating: 6/10 Pretty fun maybe first American punk rock album ever? Made by a CBGB scene band that definitely had some influence with this. Deeply unserious and rebellious teenage feel and it's crazy to think it was released at a time when young people born in the 1940's-50's would be offended. A few solid tracks, like the opener and closer, and Two Tub Man. I Got You Babe (among others) sounded like a Jeff Rosenstock song so that was cool

Rating: 5/10 This album is 100 percent something that feels like it should be made for me, it's this quirky weirdo pop creation that is simultaneously some kinda Beatles/Beach Boys worship and proto-Animal Collective psych pop music. But it borders on annoying to me a lot of the time. Highlights for me were Easter Theatre and Greenman. I may need to try this one again in the future but for now I'll leave it with a harsh rating

Rating: 4/10 I really don't like listening to AC/DC and I don't like this album. Saving it from total devastation is are some fine classic songs in Back in Black and You Shook Me All Night Long (which I might like the latter more), Shoot to Thrill is ok, and Hells Bells has this cool opening concept with the bells into the band playing, then revealing their new lead singer's vocals in dramatic entrance style. Unfortunately those vocals are a contender for most obnoxious of probably any I will listen to on this list. Please for the love of god can we keep the 80's hard rock that follows this to a minimum

Rating: 7/10 Filled with two absolute all timer pop rock songs, a title track that I swear I know even though I don’t listen to this album, and a good collection of other deep cuts, this is just a pretty solid record. It definitely doesn’t beat the pretty astounding magnum opus GYBR he would follow up with after, and has a couple songs that are closer to duds (Rotten Peaches), but this one is a lot easier to digest. Indian Sunset is pretty beautifully arranged and performed even though the lyrical content was a choice that did not age well. Definitely feel like essential Elton John has been covered here and both albums are very deserving of acclaim

Rating: 6/10 I was never into these guys weirdly enough. This is their big one and to me if this is the best they get then I kinda just Echo as some fairly decent jangly post-punk. This one is more ambitious and probably a fair bit better than their debut but I guess have them down for the same score. The B side is pretty solidly better and to be honest The Killing Moon is far and away the best song here. Adding that one especially but this could certainly grow on me

Rating: 8/10 Gillian Welch and David Rawlings make some beautiful, genuinely and authentically made folky Americana out of Nashville, a modern release but traditional sounding. The duo make great tracks out of just an acoustic guitar, a banjo, and Welch's excellent voice, they really put in the work of a full band quality with just these minimal elements. The first track, Revelator, is absolutely stellar, and the rest of the album really flows along nicely until reaching its 14 minute finale I Dream A Highway. What a song. It could have gone on longer honestly. So the bookends are the best of it, especially because the penultimate Everything Is Free is such a good one too, a nice song about the genuine, human things that will always drive artistry even in the face of money and industry. One minor point that doesn't really matter much is that I feel like the cover art could have been some sort of beautiful country scene that evokes the feel of the songs

Rating: 5/10 Imagine is a really annoying mixed bag. The title track and Jealous Guy are both undoubtedly really well made songs, but god the lyrics coming from this guy really give both a sour taste. I don't even like many of the songs after that very much. They're fine. Oh Yoko! is a pretty cute and fun one to end the album, I might just go with that as my favorite.

Rating: 8/10 I love when chaotic avant noise shows up on the list, like that's just the type of shit I listen to for fun, put it directly into my veins. There's almost nothing like Lightning Bolt, they really deliver such a unique surge of manic aggression with just a bass guitar and drum kit. So yeah, this music is obviously for very few people and I am one of them. It's not totally perfect for me as 41 minutes is maybe a long ask for music of this nature, and the best songs are found in the front half. If I were picking a favorite it would be 2 Towers, absolutely sick

Rating: 8/10 Some truly influential stuff. Just so ahead of its time. So proto-Strokes and all the bands they influenced that it's actually surprising the band isn't from NYC. Just incredibly cool in a way that's different from the crass and bad boy kind of shit that this band's punk contemporaries displayed as their image. Instead, front-man Jonathan Richman has this charming, quirky, romantic affectation that really suits the feel of the record. An all around great album, but there are some cuts that are better than others. Roadrunner is a killer opening track, winning me over so quickly with its references to their native Massachusetts. I really enjoyed Pablo Picasso, Hospital, and the closing title track, but it doesn't even end there because there are deluxe tracks on this thing that continue to feel like an essential part of the record, particularly Dignified and Old, and I'm Straight. So good, and even though I'm leaving it at an 8 for now this could possibly be even higher in time.

Rating: 6/10 A solid alternative hip hop record with cool sampling and a collection of good emcees that doesn't quite live up to its full potential, but is quality and has a bunch of good tracks regardless. It almost feels like it teases you in through the first couple tracks with this conceptual idea of the power in numbers, with lyrical themes stemming from racial inequality, systemic injustice, and uplifting political messaging. But after that the lyricism quickly starts to feel like it's actually about...nothing, really, just some catchy rhymes with good flows. It starts to lose itself more after the halfway mark, and begins to feel like the record could have been a little tighter than its 56 minute length. All of this combined with the fact that J5 and this album weren't exactly innovative anymore and feel stuck in the 90's, while 2000's underground hip hop would soon quickly outperform this. I probably won't be returning to listen in full but am cool with some tracks in a jazzy hip hop playlist

Rating: 10/10 The psychosexual and depressed mind of Trent Reznor. It's perfection. Even after all the years since its release it's still sonically mind-blowing. Perfectly produced it's basically just cinema. It's also one of those albums that you can say is the single best ever made in it's genre and probably nothing will ever top it. So many amazing tracks, and there isn't a single one that's less than great. March-Closer-Ruiner is such a good run and might reperesent the absolute best of the album. Hurt feels like dying, and is pure poetry

Rating: 10/10 The best thing to listen to on the hottest day of the summer. If Disintegration is the ‘pinnacle’ of Gothic Rock, then Pornography is probably the one that best represents the sound, the tone, the dreary and dark feel of the genre. Has some of my favorite Cure songs, like One Hundred Years, Cold, and The Hanging Garden, but really as a whole it’s the band’s definitive gothic statement of the first era of their careers. The final lines of the closing title track, “I must fight this sickness, find a cure” really express Smith’s depressive mind, which to me makes the band’s shift to a lighter, poppier style and his mental health recovery suggest an optimistic, hopeful touch. Especially since the lines before paint a despairing picture of absolute suicidal ideation. It’s a goth essential and classic. Amazingly, it might only be my third favorite album of theirs now since I just love their new one that much.

Rating: 5/10 It's like, almost interesting and good but ultimately is very long, not so unique 90's indie rock. It does try for a lot of different things and I wish it stayed more focused. To be honest Be-In was a pretty sick first track and I would have liked more of it, and Boys Better is a pretty decent song along with some others. Lead singer's voice can be annoying. Not nearly noteworthy enough to be here

Rating: 9/10 So now the fourth untitled Led Zeppelin album, the third of them out of the four I’ve gotten on the journey, THIS is the one that is pretty much a whole lot of classic hard rock excellence. If there’s one weak track I can name, it’s Four Sticks maybe, then there’s a sprinkling of songs that are pretty damn good and also some serious all timers. Stairway to Heaven one of the best rock songs of all time obviously. Starts and ends so amazingly with two of the other top tracks of the album as well. Love Rock and Roll and the acoustic folk switch up Going to California. A good improvement to me on previous albums that were already pretty good, and could certainly be considered a ‘masterpiece’

Rating: 5/10 Really wanted to like this one as I saw it was yet another bottom rated experimental noisy album on the site, I was prepared to listen to peak. Unfortunately I didn’t really get it or enjoy the experience much after the promising first track, sort of just eluded me. I’m actually very surprised and a little unsure why this album is on the list. Hate to give it a 2 but 3’s actually warrant an album I had a good time with. I’m going to try giving their next album a shot and see how that goes.

Rating: 5/10 Meh. I don't want to do tango for an hour straight. French electronic with a fusion of the mellowed out trip hop sound you would expect from its release date. Gave it a chill background vibe. Perhaps notable here for the inclusion of a highlight of a distinct genre, which I can respect more than the 100th addition in a US/UK genre we've all heard before or yet another album by the same usual bands. Favorite song was Santa Maria, I guess? Pretty sick there's a song called Chunga's Revenge that's awesome

Rating: 10/10 The second album of Sufjan Stevens’ 50 state album project. But for real, it’s much better that he abandoned that terrible concept that might have been a joke all around and instead just put everything into making this masterpiece of a concept album and proving himself to be a musical genius. A brilliant album and one of the absolute best of the 2000’s. Something only a depressed gay classically trained musician with theater kid energy could make. All of the dense arrangements throughout make for so many unique and interesting songs that you can come back to and appreciate forever. So many cool instruments used here and Sufjan plays ALL of them, well except for the string quartet which is an absolutely beautiful element of the record. All of the little interludes are fun and every single longer full song is incredible that it’s so hard to pick the favorites. BUT the tracks 3-5 run is just an incredible start to the album after its introduction, and the back to back of Chicago and Casimir Pulinski Day is wonderful. Predatory Wasp and Night Zombies are so much fun. Then there’s the gorgeous instrumental closer that is Out of Egypt. A work of genius, this album will forever mean a lot to me. Little fun fact about the album is that it actually has a recent super acclaimed Broadway musical adaptation, Illinoise, that my partner and I were very excited to see as Sufjan fans, and it was fantastic. Really transformed the music in its own interesting way and was one of most unique stage productions I’ve ever seen

Rating: 10/10 There will be no unbiased review here for one of my favorite all time albums and groups. HOLV is for sure the ‘definitive’ Cocteau Twins album, the magnum opus, and easily the album one should listen to for an introduction to the band. It takes the Ethereal Wave style that CT is basically synonymous with and building up throughout the 80’s and giving it their strongest touch yet of the dream pop sound that they were developing with a whole collection of incredibly melodic pop tunes. The ethereal sound is still here, Robin Guthrie and Liz Fraser make sure of it with his lush washed out heavy guitar effects filled with reverb and delay and her otherwordly soprano vocals that are pure romance. There’s just less of the gothic atmosphere and experimental feel in favor of the tight song structures and sweet hooks that make these particular tracks so memorable. The guitars and vocals are the stars of the show here (guitars typically are, in shoegaze music) and Fraser’s lyrical style truly gives her vocals the quality of being an instrument of their own in her music. She actually sings more in English than usual here, and it’s always fun to catch those few moments where you might actually know the words. Otherwise, don’t put your attention towards trying to decipher them, that is not the point. There are some groovy bass lines here as well that are particularly noteworthy in Pitch the Baby and Fifty-Fifty Clown (the gibberish of the track names does follow Fraser’s lyrical style too). Ten phenomenal songs. It’s actually almost unfair for the B side to follow up the perfect run that is the first five tracks of HOLV, but the band does so admirably, with a gorgeous last track that takes its time to build up and it really pays off. The weakest track to me is Road, River, and Rail, it’s a really nice slower one that doesn’t quite match up with the rest. The title track is dream pop perfection, but favorite has always been Iceblink Luck.

Rating: 10/10 I absolutely love this short lived band. Has the DNA of just about everything I like in modern rock music to make for one really incredible album filled to the brim with catchy pop songs. It's like a synthesis of influence from 60's psych pop and the 80's jangle with the indie rock sounds of 90's bands that surely aimed to make music that sounded like these guys did. The album starts of with three amazing tracks that are all distinct from each other, and has so many deeper cuts, the best being the very fun Made of Stone and the closing track. The only song on the album I don't care for is less than a minute long anyway. I just had to listen to it twice more and have all the songs stuck in my head right now. An album that has really made a lasting impact on music today whether you know it or not