1001 Albums Summary

1st song. Kinda reminds me of REM in the oddest way with the lyrics that feel almost too fast for the tune itself, Definitely starts running. Suprised this is early 90s and not mid 90s 2nd song. Gives Greenday Vibes in the pop punk feel, but specifically the earlier (and better) Greenday albums. Some great guitar work but I'm not hooked on the singing yet. 3rd song. Not my favorite so far, sounds like something off a burnout soundtrack and unfortunately not in a good way. Cool post chorus transitioning into the next verse though! I like how breezy and fast these songs have been so far but I wonder if that leads them feeling a tiny bit one dimensional and not fully fleshed out to me over longer songs. 4th song. I really like the background singing in this, and the instrumentation is at its best so far, but the lyrics still are so hit and miss for me. It's not that I don't connect with them, but they feel like they hit the mix of vagueness and angst that give pop-punk a bad name as being a more vapid form of punk. 5th song. Wow this is a pretty huge shift from the previous songs, and I really like it! I feel like a younger me would resinate with this more and find the lyrics a little less eye-roll worthy, but I feel that's the way of this kind of music in general. It works best at a specific time in your life, and that's great in its on right. 6th song. The downside of an album with so many songs like this is that I'm a quarter of the way in and yet the songs are starting to merge together for me. This one didn't do much for me. 7th song. Great Intro, mediocre song. Skipping forward a bit because I don't have much new to say. The cover songs here are god damn great! Mrs Robinson is played with the kind of deep sarcasm that the song deserves. I don't like it more then the legendary original, but I totally get it. This feels like the kind of cover Alien Ant Farm wished it could be but never could. By changing the genre it reinforces the sardonic nature of the song whilst updating it in a way that feels like a commentary on how little the topic has changed. Also there's a cover of Knowing me, Knowing you on here??? This song feels like it was made for me. There's something almost MTV unplugged about this uncover, which I do really like. It's lowkey, and appropriately somber. Maybe the covers are the things I like most about this album? On the otherhand, I can never imagine really listening to this over the original which has so much more emotion with Frida's beautiful voice. I think I liked this album, mostly! I don't think it was incredible by any means, but the highlights were pretty high. I do wish the album was a bit more focused and the best songs were a little more fleshed out, especially because some of the middle tracks meld into one another in a way that didn't make for a great album listening experience. It feels like a 3 for me but not in "mediocre" way and more in a "the positives and negatives balance each other out"

Well I've listened to a fair amount of Radiohead before, but actually have not listened to Amnesiac all the way through so this will be a first. "Packt Like Sardines In a Crushd Tin Box" is quite interesting to me. The instrumentation is extremely out their and works well, and yet taken as a whole, there's something almost pop-adjacent about it. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I do really like it. "Pyramid Song" I've seen this song mostly talked about due to the 'music theory' involved in it, but the song is doing a lot more then just trying to be pretentious for the sake of it. I love the feeling like the song is "catching" itself. Almost the musical equivalent of the feeling of falling asleep, only to catch yourself and wake back up at the last moment. Its also very cinematic, I can see the line between something like this and their attempt at a James Bond intro. "You and Whose Army?" just reminds me of Incendies at this point, great movie, never gonna watch it again. God damn "I might be Wrong" is good, sometimes radiohead just finds a tune and explores it perfectly and suddenly I "get" the hype. I am very off and on about the entire discography of Radiohead but when they hit it, they do it out of the park. "Knives out" sounds dramatically different from everything so far, and feels like it belongs on another radiohead album. It's very much a radiohead song that blends into all the other songs. The second half of this album really feels like it goes to nowhere after the first half. I don't know if that's the intent, but it feels quite unfulfilling and not nearly as fully formed as the first half. Perhaps I'm not in the mood for it, but it did feel like the album stalled out and so did my interest.

Well I can't say I'm usually into aggressively heterosexual albums, which this definitely is. So much of this album is fawning over guys that I instantly knew this was going to be an upward battle for me. I prephise the album with this because the fact that I like this album so much is really a testament to how good it is that it's completely out of my wheelhouse. My god, the singing on this. The way the songs blend conventions of music with a kind of stream-of-consciousness is incredible and I should have listened to this a long time ago. Especially because I do love so many singers influenced directly by Joni Mitchell (Weyes Blood being an obvious example)! It almost makes you forget Joni Mitchell did blackface and refused to apologize for it up until today because she said she was basically black despite being the most archetypal white Canadian Woman to ever walk the earth. ...But anyway the album itself is good. Funnily I heard River playing just two weeks ago, but I'm not one for christmas songs. Favorite songs are California, Carey and A Case of You.

About half way through listening to this I realized that this was from 1963. 1963! I mean there's ahead of its time and then there's THIS. There's something so theatrical about this, its like a sung through musical with no need for singing. The way the music moves through sections works so well- just as it feels like a piece is becoming too at home, the music switches up completely. I can't say I'm all that knowledgeable on theory of this kind of music so I don't have too much to say but I both extremely enjoyed and felt suprisingly anxious listening to this. The classical guitar and Spanish influence really shakes up the big band sound in a way that was very complementary. I really love the way themes and leitmotifs are repeated throughout, it gives both a level of stabilization ( going back to something that's already been established) but also suprise (seeing something we've heard before in a new context) that never got old for me

I dunno, feels kind of like a 1960s folk album where every song goes on about twice as long as it needs to. I enjoy the strings quite a bit but they can only do so much to hold up the album. Honestly just don't think its for me considering what other people seem to think of it has such a mismatch to my own listening experience.

A really good album that makes me wish I listened to Prince more before now. Somehow I've managed to dodge basically all the-artist-formerly-known-as-Prince's music but god damn some of this is like peak 80s. And this is very early in the 80s to be at the peak! I do think some of the songs are almost a little bit too goofy sounding and haven't aged great (Delirious, All the critics love U in New York) but damn the title track and Little Red Corvette is great. The unrepetant horniness mixed with the Funk work incredibly when they do work. Almost a 5 for me but its just not quite consistent enough, and I get the feeling there's other Prince albums on this list I'm going to like more.

Yeah, it's good! I actually don't really know what I'm looking for between a good and "bad" jazz album. With most genres I've heard some of the absolute worst and some of the best, so I have good perspective on the line between them. Jazz though? I've mostly only heard the greats so differentiating between "good" and "great" is really hard for me. Well, that's not changing anytime soon because I know this was great! Just on a purely listening experience, this was a nice calm vibe that felt like it was just the right length for me. The way the album shifts towards increasingly relaxed vibes as it goes on with moments of dramatic shifts and great release, makes the entire album feel very cohesive. I definitely got the fusion vibes, but considering how much I read about how Jazz was apprehensive to the shift, I was expecting it to lean harder into the fusion. That's not a fault though, as I feel it's perfectly balanced for the music that is being presented. Would love to listen to this again in a car on a dark, quiet night.

This list has a whole lot of British New wave so I guess we've got to settle in for that. The band throughout this album is pretty good but, by god, Elvis Costello... I think after this album I hate this guy. He reminds me of other singers I like far more then him. It made me really want to listen to a Clash album or even The Boomtown Rats. I do not like this snide nice-guy core. You Belong to me and Hand in Hand was about the point I realized this would be a long listen. The band itself being so good makes the fact that I've got to hear Elvis Costello whine over this entire album even worse. Songs like Lip Service have a great sound to it completely destroyed by Costello's "ranting about another woman" hour. I wish this album was an instrumental. THIS GUY IS ON THIS LIST 4 TIMES? God damn it.

My immediate reaction to seeing this album was "Wait didn't these guys sing that one song?". Why yes, yes they did. I saw a Todd in the Shadows video about this band once. The first immediate thing I noticed when listening to this is that the mastering of this album is god awful. It sounds like the music is playing on an MP3 player at the opposite side of a really echo-y hallway. Luckily, this can SORT of be fixed by listening to the 20th anniversary version. This was fun, mostly. The first few songs kinda suck, but the one hit wonder "I believe in a Thing Called Love" is pretty good. It's goofy and an earworm. I don't really get why this is on this list though? It's a very early 2000s rock album that doesn't really feel very special, except maybe the singers voice. I feel like they should have committed more to the comedic and absurd elements, but it doesn't and so it feels trapped between goofball anthems and semi-sincere love songs. It's like they can't work out if they want to be Electric Six or The-Killers-does-glam-rock.

I'm suprised at myself for this, but it was weird in a way I liked! Kinda reminded me of a The Piper at the Gates of Dawn era Pink Floyd. A chaotic clashing of sounds that every now and again comes together to make me go "wow this is really going off". I'd totally get if someone said they absolutely detested it, but I think I was in the right frame of mind for it. I was a bit skeptical at first but the outro of fuzzy birds had me hooked, and the weirdness of Something 4 the weekend really caught me and from there I was along for the ride. I, too, would've liked to hang out with Howard Marks. It's so hard to choose between a 3 and a 4 because it isn't at all a consistent album, but I think it just eeks out a 4 on this listen. I could see downgrading it a bit if I listened to it on another day.

I still think I prefer Willy and the Poor Boys, but this is pretty great too. It's suprising how little of the hits I know are on this Creedance album and yet I think it still comes together really well! Some great instrumentals on this one, and in comparison to yesterday's album- very consistent. I just think it lacks the clear standouts needed for 5 stars to me, everything kind of melds together towards the end.

Very long songs and riffs the album. Idk I guess it was fine? I do not know what I'm listening for with this genre but there was something about the way this sounded that distinctly sounded off to me, beyond just the songs all being way too long. The bass feels oddly burried in the mix, whilst the whole thing has a muddy, overprocessed sound to me that I just do not really enjoy. I'll be the first to say do not trust my opinion on this entire genre as its just not my thing, but hey, I have to review each album up here so here goes.

Apparantly this book was made by a bunch of different critics and I have to assume all of them were British by what I've heard so far. I like some of this, I'd like it a lot more if it was maaaybe 30 minutes long instead of anywhere between 1 and 2 hours depending on the version. It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from an "English Drum and Bass album that's very late 90s" but I think my ear is somewhat attuned to that by the fact that I've actually at least heard one of these songs before but didn't realize it at the time (Brown Paper Bag). Still it is very, very repetitive. If I imagine myself listening to one or two of the songs instead of sitting through the whole thing though, I think I'd have a pretty good time. My favorites are probably "Share the Fall", "Down" and "New Forms". I swear you could play 10 second snippets of half these songs, say they're a different song from the same album and no one would be able to tell the difference.

Okay well it's one of my favorite albums ever and I've listened to it too many times all the way through so this wasn't hard to rate. There's a lot that makes this album so amazing and I don't want to turn this review into an essay so I'll TRY to go through everything quickly. Firstly, the ability for the album to mix awesome pop hits with such a dark and tragic and clear story can't be ignored. The use of Skits to connect the songs together is done so well, it feels like a movie encapsulated into an album as a result. The absolute consistency of the album cannot be understated either. I know TPAB is usually held in higher regard, and partially for good reason, but I don't think anything can beat the pure listening experience of Good Kid for me. The run of songs between "Good Kid" and "Sing About me I'm Dying of Thirst" is probably my favorite run of songs in any album ever, the flows on Good Kid are incredible and Pharell's production is actually at his peak. m.A.A.d city is just an immaculate song, Sounwave's production is on another level. The dark subject matter combined with Kendrick's incredible flows on this song blow me away. "Sing about me I'm dying of Thirst" fucks me up everytime. I could go through literally every song like this but for sake of time I will not. I literally cannot glaze this album enough. I loved this album when I first heard it in full around 16ish, and I love it more with every single listen.

Elvis Costello did the production for this album, he should stick to it he's quite good at that. This album sounded pretty good to me at first but it did get repetitive and old fast. The songs are all very samey and not really a subject matter I care for, it almost feels like a caricature of Ireland with how much they talk about drinking and little else. But I did really like the instrumentation so there is that!

Wow I should have heard this album before now! This is genuinely the first album listening experience from the list so far where I've not just enjoyed it, not just found it great, but immediately known I will be listening to this over and over in future. The guitar, the SOUND of this album is so good. It feels like a splash of cold water after having sat through a year in music that I have found to be pretty stale. The album listening experience here is sublime in my opinion, the way it moves between tortured, deeply soulful to Lush and retro-infused sounds. Damn! If you haven't, listen to this album.

Y'know I think the world does not need another breakup album from the perspective of a man about a "toxic" breakup that is, in fact, just a collection of songs where a dude whines about wanting to fuck. Sounds like the type of album from a guy who goes through a bad breakup and then starts obnoxiously talking to his coworkers about how he has been "blackpilled" and how women suck. I'm gonna go now and listen to yesterday's album instead.

I feel like I'm listening to this music wrong by not listening to it whilst laying on a hammock with a caipirinha in hand, but this is lovely anyways. The original chill beats to study and relax to. Such a good evening listen before relaxing to sleep. I really do not have much to say about this album, I think it sounds great and I know it's a bit of a "babies first Bossa Nova" due to its ubiquity in America, but there's a reason for that and it's because it's lovely.

More brazillian music by a political anti-authoritarian countercultural singer and, *oh for fucks sakes*. Sorry y'all but I gotta hit the pedophile alarm. I'm not exactly settled on how I review albums by people who have either done awful things, or believe awful things yet. "Artist is dead" is a literary analysis tool, not a reviewing guideline, and I find this kind of thing hard to look past when listening to music. At the same time there's innevitably going to be cases where I don't know things prior to reviewing and I don't want half my reviews to become solely opinion pieces on the people themselves. So I'm mostly only going to rate albums down for that IF what they've done or who they are interact or come through in the songs themselves in any way (as we will see when we innevitably get to a Kanye West album). Okay so now half a page of ick out of the way, time for review proper. I didn't really care for it, also the remastered version sounds suprisingly bad. I've heard Gilberto Gil before so I know I CAN like this genre, and some of the songs sound good (Soy Loco Por Ti America). A lot of the album sounds kind of like the psychedelic equivalent to mush to me though. The last 3 songs are definitely the highlight and stop me giving it 1 stars, but this didn't really vibe with me and I do like most of the influences it pulls from. I've heard this was an important album in Brazillian music so I don't want to trash it too hard and would rather put it in the "not for me" category.

Glam Rock was truly home to the first weebs. This sounds so wild I don't know how to rate it or what to think of it, but I er... I think I like it? The issue with an album every day is it doesn't give a lot of time to digest it and this is a whole lot to digest. This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us is a suprising earworm to me and each listen through the album seems to make me like it more so that's a good thing? Yeah this is the first album in a long while that just has me completely stumped. I don't know get back to me in like a year and I might've formed a concrete opinion on this... Maybe. Uh... 4 stars I think? Update: This album has stuck in my brain since listening to it and is definitely a 5. That's my more concrete opinion

So, I don't like Grunge. That's not to say its objectively bad, but its like an acquired taste in food I don't have. I can admit its got its place, but that place is not on my palate. This certainly sounds like grunge. I feel I'd appreciate this more if I forgot to take my antidepressants for like, a week straight.

Wow can't believe they made fallout soundtracks all the way back in 1962. This was alright, but it was a little slow at points. If you're willing to dig, there's definitely some gems in here. Generally the more big band inspired and orchestral it gets, the more I tend like the songs on here, which I've definitely heard more of in other Ray Charles albums. You are my Sunshine and Don't Tell Me Your Troubles sounds great on here. Both Discs start really well but begin to fall off towards the end, so it isn't the most consistent. In the polar opposite to the Grunge yesterday, I have a real soft spot for this type of music that makes me really want to give this a 4 even though its very borderline. This site doesn't allow half stars, so just know if it did I'd go 3 1/2 stars.

Jesus Christ this album is so English. Imagine if Tenacious D was not in on their own joke, that's this album. I had fun listening to it but it ain't good. I can see the inspiration lyrically on some of later metal, I think In that they sing like they're talking about a weird biblical-themed DND homebrew but seem to be unaware its not as cool as they think it is. It does get a point for making me laugh though.

Well the name of this album sounds like a threat if I've ever heard one. Phil Spector pulled a gun on 4 different women for not wanting to screw him before murdering Lana Clarkson. Also he did so much abuse to write it here would take more time then their is in the day. Anyhow this is a compilation album and it's not like he sings on it so I'm going to reaaaaally try to block out the thought of who I'm listening to. Then again he does SPEAK on it which activated my fight or flight senses hard. Overall I think its just okay. The issue with the wall of sound is that it sounds better the worse the equipment is, so I'm listening to this in the worst way possible. It was designed for 60s radios afterall. This is the only of The Ronettes and The Crystals on here, which is unfortunate because I think they had songs a lot better then those on here. Sleigh Rides, Santa Claus is coming to Town, and Winter Wonderland are huge standouts though and these recordings have almost transcended the album itself in pop culture. I really can't get over the production though, I've seen it work elsewhere but here it's just too much

Dusty Springfield had one hell of a voice. Kinda was suprised how many songs on here I do actually recognize, because y'know, its a covers album. That said being a cover album prompts the question: why THESE songs? Dusty's voice is the highlight of this but I feel like most of these songs ultimately sound better in their original forms, and don't give Dusty enough chance to shine. "You don't own me" for instance, is a great song, but am I ever listening to this version over the stunning Lesley Gore version? I don't really think so. There's also a lot to say about the Elvis-like implications of so much of these covers being from black artists and are here being covered by a White English Woman in the 1960s. So it puts me at a crossroads: It sounds good, but it doesn't make me feel all that good and I can't imagine listening to a lot of this again. There's a Dusty album I know is much better already on this list, but I still think there's other albums of her that are contenders to be on here before this one.

I think I can listen to about 1 song that sounds like this until I lose my ability to actually comprehend anything. Uh, the drums sound good? I kinda like psychosocial despite really not liking the... Amount of edgy singing going on in some of these other songs. It's not AS bad as I expected it to be? The only song I didn't think "jesus this is going on a bit long" was the opening track which isn't a great sign. Don't listen to my opinion on this kind of music, if you like it good for you! Remember to check in with a therapist now and again if you can, and remember to talk to a friend if you need help.

I understand this list probably can't encapsulate all albums "worth listening to" but there's something that stings really wrong about the fact that any non-European and non-North American music must, for the most part, be some kind of cultural fusion with European or American music. But that's not the fault of the individual musicians on the list I suppose as the list itself. I didn't quite know how much I needed to listen to a Sitar version of Light my fire until now. Some of this really goes off crazy and sounds great, the album definitely builds and builds. I certainly enjoyed sitting through it more then the past few days albums but I think the real best pieces on here are those that are original. Metamorphosis sounds incredible to me, there's a section about 2 minutes in that just goes so hard. The first half of the 13 minute long Sagar didn't really capture me, but I really enjoyed the second half. Dance indra is probably my favorite song on here but honestly, there's a lot to like.

Oh Hell yeah! An album I know I already love and have heard a number of times before but I am happy to listen to it again. Incredible songs with amazing production throughout this album. Y'know there's a review on here saying that "talkin' Bout a revolution" is too vague? Like that any protest song has to exist as a list of specific demands. Wild. Anyhow, Fast Car is like, the very high peak of 80s Folk singer songwriter music. That said I worry it overshadows, in popular discourse at least, the rest of this album which is also great and very worth talking about. This is a straight up harrowing album the different forms of violence and oppression ubiquitous in America. Highlights for me, besides the obvious two headliners, include Mountain's o'things and Behind the Wall. I guess if I had to complain about one thing, it's that towards the end of the album it feels a little like the romance and love themes overpower the afformentioned inequality and violence themes in a way that makes me feel a bit conflicted. After hearing songs about being unable to stop domestic abuse, about racial violence and starving children I don't feel like I can just swing back to songs about loving someone so seemlessly. That's mostly an album sequencing issue though, and it doesn't undermine an incredible album enough for me to take away any points.

Huh Now I finally know what those people complaining about the "damn hippy music" feel when they listen to psychedelic. Middle-of-the-road instrumentation meets lyrics that kind of feel like a parody of the time. I feel like I'm more critical of this music because I know I like so much psychedelic that I can be confident in saying this is very just-below mid to me. What was radical politically and sonically at the time simply isn't anymore so what we're left with is some weak prose and a feeling of "maybe you just had to be there". One of the songs is a reference to Jefferson Airplane, and I wish I was listening to them instead.

Insert Joke about the name of the album here. The English Bias is actually amazing its kind of hilarious. Why is this here? It wasn't rated well. The critical reception page of wikipedia STARTS with "this album was featured in 1001 albums you must here before you die" The album peaked at number 20 in the UK and nowhere else. When you look this album up on youtube the top comment is thanking the uploader because its the only place to find it and they needed to listen to it for the 1001 albums review. It's house. I like house music sometimes. I like People Hold On, the first song, I guess. So I was thinking to myself "maybe I'll find this okay". Then the rest of it was god awful. Most of this sounds like the menu music for a ps2 game you found in a bargain bin and is all scratched up. In a weird way I can see the link between music like this and something like The Avalanches, but y'know, one of those bands is interesting and the other is this. I'm gonna be real I didn't want to finish this and ended up just doing other stuff whilst it was on to satisfy the time. This is the worst one so far for me and its actually not even close. The best part of this album is the featured artists, I guess. They could do the best singing part ever and it'd be a 1 star still.

Okay I can't complain about the English bias every time it comes up so... Let me complain about the weird electronic music bias that I'm sure is not due to the average age of the reviewers happening to grow up listening to this music. This sounds like music from one of those cheap movie studios that create knock offs of major franchises for a spy themed film. They'd call it something like "mission: unlikely" and it'd air on the syfy network for some reason. It's not good but it is absolutely inoffensive which means a lot after yesterday. I know there's good albums on this list and I really could use one about now.

The algorithm listened and did give me something at least a little better, and a short and sweet half an hour. Is it dad rock? Absolutely. Has it been overplayed on radio? God yes. Do I have a soft spot for Dad rock and really needed something else after the past few albums? Also yes. I've heard most of these songs way too much, but when they come on the radio I am always like "yeah I'll listen to this again" which is a good sign. As an album experience it is either nicely cohesive or slightly motonous depending on how you feel. Like the radiation levels at Chernobyl it's not great and not terrible, which is to say it probably is actually pretty bad but in the context I've heard it in it feels fine.

Interesting that this is the only Ghostface Killah Album on here despite most people usually putting this at 2nd or 3rd best. Guess they needed space for all the mid electronica albums. That said, y'know, 2nd or 3rd best Ghostface Killah album still means absolutely incredible. My god the performance throughout this is so good. The production is some of the best of the mid 2000s. It really lifts this album up massively, and I found it a treat to listen to. I do have to say, this is the period of terrible skits filling up an album and this has some pretty deeply meh skits. I don't really rate albums down for skits unless they're actually intrusive enough to get in the way of the album though.

Rod Stewart is tory scum and I hate his singing voice. I really don't get it, it just felt like a dull album made worse by a singing voice that actually kinda grates on me. It has the same effect as listening to fingernails scrape on a chalkboard, I can't focus on anything else and I viscerally do not like it.

HELL YES ITS BOWIE TIME. I do prefer Low over this for the berlin trilogy, but damn I do really like a lot of this album. There are no less than 9 Bowie albums on this list and this is one of my least favorites despite having the incredible Heroes, the wild Beauty and the Beast, Robert Fripp and Brian Eno collaborating. That's not a dig against the album, but the quality of Bowie's work in my eyes. Overall it's great, but I think most David Bowie albums are. Its funny that Heroes is such an anomoly on this album compared to every other song. The issue is, I know Bowie can do better then this. It feels lacking in the consistency of other albums as well as the high highs (with exception to Heroes and maybe Blackout). So take this as a very high 4.

So this list CAN choose music from outside of Europe and North America! I mean, it's once again heavily inspired by the obligatory inspirations for acceptance into the anglosphere, but I'm more forgiving of that given the nature of the bands origins. Especially because this sounds great! This is a very guitar forward album so to make 40 minutes last that guitar work needs to be good, and here it is damn good. It is really helped along by the production too, and it makes for a very consistent album that I'd really recommend listening to. I guess one could complain that it is a bit one note in spots, but given the runtime that really did not bother me like it would in an hour plus album. * On second listen I am editing this down a point, whilst I really like the sound I do think it wears out its welcome a little by all being very similar songs.

Starts very fun, and slowly gets more repetitive until it wears its charm. It feels like these songs are trying to hit the 4 minute mark like a youtuber tries to hit the 10 minute mark on a video with 3 minutes of content. The early 90s in music had no idea what it wanted to be and it kind of shows, The big hit on here is undoubtably the best song, and its not even close. Which is kinda wild considering that is also probably the most out there song of the lot, I mean, it references Horton hears a who and prominently includes a slide whistle. Overall it never really reaches the potential of its best moments, and so sinks into mediocrity. I bet these songs would go harder if I was doing dance-fitness classes though.

Cod zombies ass album cover. I know the reputation this album has so I really came into it trying to enjoy it and knowing that if I didn't like it, its probably more due to my distaste of the genre then any look at how "good" it is. I did kinda like some of the songs, Hangar 18 in particular, but overall this was such a wash for me. It's like handing someone who doesn't like wine a bottle of Krug. It could be incredible but all you're gonna get out of them is "yep, sure tastes like vinegar and grapes". I get the feeling that every heavy metal review is gonna be me finding ways to restate this. I'm giving this a 3 but less in a neutral sense and more in a "N/A" sense.

U2 is like my generations version of Gen Xers with Disco. It is so cool to hate them. So much so I had never actually listened to any of this album despite how iconic it is pretty much due to that cringe-complex. So it turns out its like, a completely alright 90s alt-rock album with basically nothing interesting going for it in either a good or bad way. This is the kind of highly palatable album that it's almost aggressive in how merely okay it is. I know the litany of reasons people hate Bono or U2 on personal grudges (Remember that time they just forced themselves onto everyones itunes account? That sure was a time), but honestly I could not imagine having a strong opinion about this album at all.

...And now for the David Bowie Tribute act! This was fine but I mean if I wanted to listen to David Bowie I'd listen to one his many albums and not someone trying very hard to be him. It's an alright Glam rock album, it's fun, it just feels weird to see a band whose identity is very clearly based around a dude who was still producing some of his best work at the time. I don't really like the singing either on some of these songs, like Violence. I'm not really sure what didn't hit for me like some other glam rock does but this felt very much "just okay" to me.

I spent a lot of my teenage years in a rural island in Canada and people there were very proud of being from the "country" and I god damn hated it. My hour-and-a-half school journey on the bus played exclusively country music, and every friend of the family I was forced to visit would give the same spiel nearly everytime about how "new country sucks, but that old country? That's the good stuff." Then they'd get drunk on piss water beer and listen to albums like this. You'd think that would mean I've grown a deep hatred of albums like this but it has instead created a perverse nostalgia. So despite this being an album I do have to mark down for being so damn slow for the most part, I did still find it kind of charming. It's far from the best country album I've heard, again it is just too slow for me, but it has some pretty nice singing and a concept throughline that almost kept me engaged! Almost!

Okay so I've listened to this album so many times in my life I have genuinely lost count, it is probably in my top 10 favorite albums ever. Shine on You Crazy Diamond is an incredible, mostly instrumental ode to a former band member. The titular song helped keep me sane in my first couple of years of University when I felt very isolated and alone. This entire album just sounds so spectacular. I feel like I can't say anything about this album that hasn't been said hundreds of times before, the highest of 5 stars.

It's alright. I hear the proto-punk garage rock sounds and I can imagine a world in which I like them but it's let down by the tracks themselves just being mediocre. The first song is probably my favorite, but it really failed to capture me. It's definitely an album that feels more important due to how early it is and what it inspired, then an album that stands on its own

Sounds like listening to the unfinished work of a quite good lo-fi indie rock band. Unfortunately the mixing here easily crosses from good lo-fi to that kind of muddy, messiness that feels like it detracts from everything else, and that's quite sad because I do like some of what's on here. It's like hearing a first draft of a great rock album, The edges in areas adds to it but mostly leave it feeling undeveloped. I really like "as we go up, we go down", sounds like something a band that are acolytes of REM would make. But once again it sounds like listening to half a song. It's annoying because what I like here I really like, but it really does sound like someone released a half-finished album. "Temptation creeps to you like rapists in the night" is a lyric so terrible I am knocking an entire star off though.

It's a weak britpop album. I don't really like the singing much on this, and it just generally comes across as underbaked to me. I've never liked Suede though, they're like the britpop band that even half of England forgot existed and it is very easy to forget about them. A discount The Smiths which, lets be real, is already a discount band. I really don't hear the david bowie comparisons wikipedia says they're compared to, especially early bowie, unless they're talking about like The Laughing Gnome Bowie.

Suprised with how much that my friends growing up seemed to like this album that it is so... Boring. I think this genre has reached critical overexposure for me in the early 2010s and now my brain can only associate it with adverts for PG movies and woodland retreats, so much so I find it hard to feel anything for what I'm hearing. I kinda like the concept that is going on through this album which has actually aged pretty incredible, but the music itself is just... Milquetoast. The music video for the titular track is depressingly prescient though.

Well whether I like it or not, its nice to have some actual variety on this list. Yay for French Queer music! This is just a really good modern pop album, if you absolutely cannot stand any form of modern pop then you will probably hate this. The mixing and production is absolutely great and really helps with this 80s throwback style that was quite popular towards the end of the 2010s. There's a French and English varient of each song, which I find quite cool and so listened to both. On the negative side, I think its unfortunately front loaded with its best songs leaving it to kinda spiral out into the less interesting back end. I don't really know if it fits on a list like this, but I have that complaint far more for other albums on here. I feel like pop music is always going to be rated harshly by people who review album lists like this because they're probably listening to get away from whatever the modern pop sound is and explore new avenues. This won't change anyones mind about pop. But I really quite enjoyed it, especially the first two tracks which I think are actually great.

Preeeeetty great! Some albums are better when you keep all your attention on them, this one is incredible in the background in my opinion. Really makes me wanna sit back, relax and sip a cocktail. The kinda jazz that relies on three musicians each knowing and having ultimate trust in each other and collaborating to just make it all work. I will say it eventually felt like it was wearing out its welcome for me in the end, and some sections felt like they stuck to the straight and narrow a little too long versus more experimental Jazz pieces, but these are quibbles against the entire piece.

A terribly sad quintisentially 2000s indie rock album that I've somehow never really heard before. I think this genre is very hard to get right enough for me to enjoy, but I really "enjoyed" this experience if that's what you can call the relationship people have to listening to this kind of music. You can really feel the creeping mellowed apathy of depression that I'm sure many people who have chronic depression can very much relate to, and I wrote all this BEFORE reading up on his life and the backstory behind much of his music.

This really does feel like a straight continuation of The White Stripes, with perhaps something slightly missing in the instrumentation due to the absense of Meg. Like the white stripes, it's certainly not for everyone, but it is for me. We're on a run of albums that are "almost 5s but not quite" and this feels like another one of those to me. The Electric piano really adds a lot to these songs, and I just loved the inclusion of it throughout.

The only Liz Phair album I have ever listened to all the way before this is Funstyle, and I kept it that way for the longest time because I thought that was a really funny thing to do. If you haven't heard any of the songs on that album, listen to "bollywood" and try not to die laughing. So needless to say its pretty hard for me to take her seriously. I get why this album was such a big thing, but part of me feels like that's more due to the messaging of the album and its writing then... How the album actually sounds or is. This is one overly long, inconsistent mess of an album. When it's good it typifies the feminist singer-songwriter indie styles of the 90s, but when it's bad it is a slog. I don't want to dismissively call this "white feminism music," but when some of the songs came from mixtapes with names like "Yo Yo Buddy Yup Yup Word to Ya Muthuh" its hard not to cringe a little.

Despite not having my favorite specials song on here (ghost town), this was a largely very fun album that I enjoyed quite a bit despite covering some suprisingly dark subject matters. I enjoy Ska, and this was some overall pretty good Ska but nothing reaaally to write home about. The production is kinda awful imo, and does detract from some of the songs. So I guess I take back what I said about Costello sticking to production. I'm inbetween a 3 and a 4 overall, but I think it just loses out as I did feel like it wore thin by the end of the album.

Well I think this sounds incredible. Yeah I totally get this, its at the cross intersection of Hard and Prog rock and that is absolutely my zone. Its rock music that sounds like it could be played at a renaissance fair, and you are either going to hate that fact or love it. The flute playing is great, the instrumentation is varied enough to hold the album throughout. The singing did take a bit for me to get used to, but I think it really complements the style of music they're going for. Its suprisingly dynamic inbetween the more lush songs and more rock-heavy pieces like Hymn 43. I can very much hear the lineage between this and the bands it would go on to inspire, kinda crazy that this was 1971. Though we need to talk about the lyrics because I do not know how to think about them. The topics here are very dark, underage prostitution, pedophilia, homelessness. Sometimes I do not think it handles these topics very well at all, especially on "cross-Eyed Mary" which feels almost like its trying to make light of an incredibly dark topic that I felt needed to be handled with more care. I hate that I've got to mark this album down for it because everything else is so incredible to me, but It is enough that I get the ick about listening to certain songs again.

Very odd inclusion, pretty much an unnoteable album in terms of reception and what it changed. Deeply 90s. I sat here for about 15 minutes until I realized I really have nothing to say about this album. The first time listening to it I zoned out so I went through it again and I zoned out again. It's like, very okay.

Rap from the 90s can sometimes sound a tad archaic to me, but in a way I enjoy. As a genre, it probably has undergone more evolution since inception then basically any other. It's hard to seperate from the era it was made in, and I definitely don't think this is as good as a lot of the east coast rap revival era. At the same time, that's a very hard bar to reach considering it sits alongside some of the best rap albums of the 90s. Taking it on its own, its a pretty good album though- I really like Brooklyn Took It, but at the same time songs like Da Bichez just doesn't feel like they've aged well at all. I'm of two minds what to rate this: On the one hand I think its a pretty solid album with a few occassional hiccups that sounds a little out of date even for the time it came out, and on the other hand there's a reason I think I haven't listened to this album when you look at everything else that was coming out at the same time and how good the scene was doing.

My parents really liked Oasis, I really hate Oasis. I hate Liam's incredibly whiny voice, I hate the god awful production that is designed solely to be played on crap radios, I hate the overblown sound of every song, I hate the nonesense ass lyrics and I especially hate the fact that living in the North of England means that there's this nonesense tribalism expectation to enjoy this shit music. Don't Look Back in Anger is the only Oasis song I ever have managed to even slightly like (random fact, the name is a reference to a Bowie song off Lodger) and that's because I can slightly stand Noel's singing sometimes. I had to listen to this album so much growing up and I do not get why people like this crap. Blur won the Top of the Pops with Country House, and Oasis wins "my least favorite band" award. I know that Oasis is beloved and if you like them, that's great! I would rather listen to a Modern Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Maroon Five collab album then listen to god damn Oasis.

I guess listening to The White Stripes when I was younger I just totally ignored the lyrics, mostly because I couldn't really understand what was being said most of the time. I kinda wish I could go back to that ignorance because a lot of these songs are unignorably nice-guy misogyny. Then again I've never really listened through their albums and mostly just enjoyed the singles I've heard. The Jack White solo album wasn't too long ago and Katie really didn't like it due to that misogyny, but here its way, way more nitceable. Still, I get why this album was so important to Garage Rock when you compare what came before versus after it, and I do like the rough-around-the-edges tone the entire album is going for and executes pretty well in my opinion. I've always personally liked Meg Whites drumming whenever I've heard it, despite knowing that's a somewhat contentious take. I just don't quite think The White Stripes works as well here as an album listening experience then a bunch of individual songs. Beyond the afformentioned misogyny, something didn't quite work for me here and I'm not sure exactly what.

I am as unbiased as I can be about Led Zeppelin. Despite being a band I should have heard everything of, I've heard practically nothing of them before this. I mean I heard stareway to heaven and thought it was "just" okay, but that's about it. This was good! When the instruments get weird with it on "whole lotta love" it reminded me of the intro of Station to Station, which is very big praise if you know me. Kinda hilariously crude lyrics though, it goes straight to horny jail. It's really just hit after hit, the sheer quality of each song lead to an insane consistency throughout the album. There's a few songs on this list that fall into the usual tropey songs I've heard before like "heartbreaker" that made my eyes roll a bit, but I think they're somewhat balanced out with genuinely sweet songs of love and romance, especially the song "thank you". My Favorite songs here were probably: Whole Lotta Love, Ramble On, Thank You, and Bring It on Home.

I feel there's actually a pretty incredible single album of songs in this double album. I really don't remember Christina Aguilera growing up, or at least I thought I didn't until listening, and I had a lot of apprehension to this album I had to put aside before listening. Makes me Wanna Pray though, started this album on a really strong note for me. I do think the songs here have an issue with staying pretty static throughout, like there's a lot of the 2000s habit of having pretty basic structure. I'm going to be honest though, Ballads are extremely hit or miss for me and here they miss. I much prefer the upbeat powerful albums. Despite it being a common complaint on the site, I actually love the production here. It's punchy, jazz-infused and full of little flourishes that I think elevates songs like "Slow Down Baby" quite a bit. I just really think the fatal flaw of this album is being a double album. Towards the end of Disc 1 I felt like it was running out of steam and had started to become one note, and then I realized I was only half way through. I still think its a strong 3.

Mostly just very boring. I didn't hate it, I think I struggled to feel anything for most of it. I think Neil Young is actually probably quite talented but I am not sure what quite leads him to this insane status where he has 7 albums on this list. Most of it is nice, fairly uneventful tunes that make you go "wait how long has this got left?" about half way through. I like the writing I guess, but I just fail to see anything too exciting here.

This sounds so fucking incredible that I have no point of comparison. It's just an album of pure, immaculate vibes. The production on here is second to none, the singing is incredible and by god the instrumentation here. For once I have pretty little to say about an album because, to me, this is close to perfection. Its obligatory when talking about this album to mention how much it fucks, and it fucks so hard it has become the pure ideal of fucking in music. This is one of the first albums on the list that my only wish was it to be longer.

Ah yes, welcome back Dad Rock. Honestly I find the tunes and compositions here quite interesting I mostly just do not like the singing. Or I guess the kind of inane and repetitive lyrics. Like the instrumental on Bodhisattva sounds awesome, but then you get to the lyrics like "Can you show me, the shine of your Japan, the sparkle of your China?" and my eyes roll. The Boston Rag is another example of this, its like 2 minutes of a pretty great song mixed with 3 minutes of a very okay 70s dad rock song you'd not think twice about if you heard on the radio that repeats itself way too many times.

My favorite Cohen is You Want it Darker, I wouldn't say this is the kinda music I would listen to on a regular basis though. I certainly don't hate it, but its not exactly the most exciting album I've ever heard. Depending on the day I imagine this'd either be contemplative or downright boring, but today I do feel more the former. I've seen some people in the reviews on the site say "just write poetry", which is a common thing levied at spoken word folk, but to me this really does blur the lines between being a music album and a poetry reading with musical accompaniment. I think if you're open minded to the idea of that, which tbh its understandable why many people aren't, there's at least something to find here. My favorite two songs is probably "the stranger song", which I interpret as a sad look at the cycle of women who are used in relationships by men and "hey, that's no way to say goodbye" which I think is complemented by the backing singing pretty well. It isn't incredible, it kind of dragged for me and if someone hated it I'd be like "that tracks" but I thought it was fine.

This is an uneven Bowie album in a way, mostly because it starts with my tied-favorite Bowie song (the other being Rock and Roll Suicide) but then doesn't QUITE keep up the pace. But first lets talk about that titular song because wow. I love the way the intro builds so much, I mean, I love everything about the song. The train sound into the, for lack of a better term, chorus and the musical change up afterwards. Its like listening to someone spiral out in real time. This album is probably the most uncomparable David Bowie has ever sounded, usually you can point to some kind of grounding in influence but this really is all over the place for better and worse. It's Funk and Krautrock and art rock with a bit of soul. Does it come together as a whole though? Perhaps not as much as other David Bowie. I still love it.

Katie was surprised I haven't heard of this album before, and there's songs in here I definitely had heard of, but this is so out of my usual genres and tastes that it doesn't surprise me I haven't heard of them. What did surprise me is how much I enjoyed the entire thing! I will say I liked the heavier tracks like the opener to songs like D.A.N.C.E , perhaps because I associate that song with adverts at this point. That all said I think this album has held up shockingly well for a genre that tends not to weather time well. It's a very high 4 for me, which again, kinda shocked me considering my usual hate for electronic-pop music.

I have a soft spot for the synth heavy sounds of mid-late 80s new wave, but I don't feel this album has aged very well. It really feels like a middle of the road synthpop album that doesn't really do much to stand out to me. The slower songs like "The things you said" reaaaally drag for me especially with the weird proclivity for repeating the same lines back to back. That's not to say there's nothing on here I don't like, I think Strangelove 88 is pretty great. On the other hand... Little 15 is a song that clearly is meant to be unsettling but just comes across as unenjoyably gross seemingly being about a relationship between a 15 year old and someone significantly older which, ew. Idk by the end of this one I was happy it was over, but its certainly not without any merit.

It's THE dave Brubeck album. It has take 5 on it come on! I enjoyed it greatly from start to finish. Cool jazz is such an apt name for this genre. It's incredible to me how the odd time signatures manage to both keep the listener on their toes whilst at the same time never feeling shoehorned in. It always just "works" for the music. Paul Desmond and Joe Marello deserve special shout-out for this. The former plays an incredible sax that sounded soooo good throughout the album whilst the latter managed not to skip a single beat on drums whilst playing some wild time signatures, especially for the late 50s!!

So remember that whole spiel I give whenever we get to heavy metal? Well luckily I don't have to give it this time because this is an album, as it turns out, I actually quite like! Which probably says a lot due to my general apathy towards the genre as a whole. When people tell me what they like about heavy metal they tend to cite the energy it carries, the punchiness, the sheer sonic power- and usually I don't hear it. Here however? Absolutely! The eponymous Master of Puppet track especially works so well that I was very suprised did not feel like it dragged on to me at all. I also did a double take and had to google it immediately when I noticed the crazy David Bowie reference in there that somehow sounded just at home in the song as in the original. Other highlights for me was Battery as well Orion. I really don't feel like EVERY song needed to be so long, but it's a minor quibble. I dunno if I'm rating this a 5 because I really think it is one, or because I'm just shocked that Metallica gave me an album full of music I actually quite like in a genre I don't at all.

Beautifully sung, and the highlights are so pretty its hard to understate. Its slow, sometimes too much so for an album listening experience, but it doesn't outshine the beauty of it all to me. Misguided Angel sounds incredible, the backing vocals work so well. The instruments play quite understated, accenting the singing most of the time, but I think they're playing perfectly for their role. Blue Moon to me will always be a song I intrinsically tie to Fallout in my head, but the cover or... Reinterpretation? Here works so well and really comes into its own. The reverb and acoustics here also stand out excellently. I think if I sat and just listened to this straight through in one go I would have found it far too slow to enjoy by the end, but listening to it in a couple of songs at a time it really is an incredible album I'm amazed I've never heard of before. I was going back and forth between a 4 and a 5, but after taking a break and coming back to it I reaaaaally enjoy this album so... Three 5's in a row wow.

It's interesting how different this sounds to the previous Led Zeppelin album I heard (II). I think its better then that album but I'm still not really in love with this sound. I'm still not a huge fan of Stairway to Heaven, I don't know if I've been overexposed or what but it doesn't really do anything for me. That said I did really enjoy Rock and Roll and Black Dog. I think I just don't really like the delivery on some of these songs and it knocks it down from being really incredible. Misty Mountain Hop is a great example of a song I like the instruments of but I hate the delivery of those verses. Low 4 seems about right.

Honestly I think the things it inspired is probably better then this album itself, I don't neccessarily think this holds up to a full album listen. I can do with albums that all center around similar topic matters, Clipse have been rapping about that one time they sold cocaine for 30 years and I am yet to be bored of it, but at the least there's got to be diversity in the WAY the subject matter is talked about. That's not really the case here and the result is an extremely one note affair, especially with the delivery being very similar throughout. It sort of makes all the songs feel interchangeable with one another.

I know people hate the idea of compilation albums on here, but I'd rather have that then albums which feel included due to 2 out of 8 songs being important. Slightly more Punk Franz Ferdinand watered down by about half a liter of arena rock. It carries its energy well so its hard to hate, it ticks all the pop punk boxes and as such I am whelmed. Like if you put this on in the car I would not be annoyed, and I would probably nod along a bit if I felt good, but that's about it. It's going to be really hard to find new ways to rephrase "it's mid" another few hundred times reviewing these albums.

Okay I can now confirm after two albums, Neil Youngs voice is very hit or miss for me. That said the rest of the constituent elements of this album are far better then the previous, though that may be a taste thing because I do like this general era of country-rock. Opposite to a lot of albums on this list, it starts bad and gets better as it goes. I was very worried about the first two songs, but then it does pick up into something I actually enjoyed. Heart of Gold is absolutely great. I really like Old Man too, which gave me a big "OH I know this one!" moment. The build into the chorus is sooo good. Alabama is a great guitar piece with a strong chorus. Also in the last leg of this album we start getting some really good vocal harmonies out of nowhere. I didn't really get people liking the previous Neil Young album and hearing the first few songs I thought that was going to be the case here again, but I left very pleasantly suprised! It gets a 4, and honestly it could've been a 5 had it not been for the first 3 songs which I do not like.

Its a live double album with a song over 20 minutes long on it. Any good part of this is buried under the noodling and jam-session versions of songs that I'm sure sounded great live in person with the atmosphere, but sitting at home and just listening to feels like someone riffing for far too long. Its well recorded, and the structured parts do really work and sound great, I just think this being the live album actually hinders it so much then it helps.

Huh. Well Patrick Bateman wasn't kidding when he said Genesis in the 70s was experimental. I get the feeling this album has a marmite like quality to it, but I really like this! The way "Dancing with the Moonlight" builds is kind of wild and definitely hooked me. Its interesting, I can hear aspects of the Genesis I know in here, which is to say the later pop-genesis the original fans largely hated, but its mixed in with daring and progressive ideas that largely are gone from the later era. The way Firth of Fifth goes from a Grand piano introduction to rock to flutes and then synth really keeps up the pace of these longer songs. The thing that suprises me is each section in itself works so well and the sum of its parts is even better. Honestly the entirity of Firth of Fifth is incredible. I was debating between a 4 and a 5, but I think this just eeks out a 5 for me.

Do you want to hear late stage Elvis? I'm asking because I'd like someone else to write this review for me please because I would not. It's... Fine I guess. If you like Elvis you'll like this. I do not particularly like Elvis. A lot of the songs here dragged a hell of a lot (I'll Hold you in My Heart, Don't Cry Daddy, It Keeps Right On a-hurtin'). I just feel like there's not enough power behind his voiced for some of these songs, like Power of My Love feels like it needs someone who can really throw their voice and at this point Elvis cannot. On the other hand songs like "suspicious minds" and "I'm movin' on" save it from being absolutely rock bottom. Idk if its this or dad rock hell that I've been dragged through recently, I'll take the latter actually.

I love Bob Marley and The Wailers, but unfortunately I'm poisoned with the knowledge of just how good Exodus is and I always thought Catch a Fire never could reach those heights and, in fact, I even like Burnin' more than it (especially the deluxe version including the live tracks). That's not to say its anything other then incredible, Concrete Jungle and Slave Driver are such a strong one-two punch starting an album and especially with the lyrics of the latter, make for my favorite songs of the album. Whilst I usually like the more socially conscious songs, Stir it Up is a lovely song that deserves a mention too. The production on this is great, but its almost a little too clean for my taste. It definitely constructs an atmosphere, but I think it results in a lacking of rawness sometimes which are present on other Bob Marley albums. I know that's a bit of a hot take however, and this cleaner production does end up working great for Exodus. I think if this was the first album I was coming into Bob Marley with, it'd be a 5, but I've listened to pretty much the entire discography and I just think that, despite this often being seen as one of the groups absolute best, it doesn't hit the highs of some of the others.

Okay so the mumbling singing style is definitely not for me, but I'm thankful its only a problem on like, half the tracks. The instruments, on the other hand, are pretty consistently nice throughout. Its very jazzy folk, conjuring the feel of a smokey backroom bar in the 70s. That alone puts it above most folk I've heard so far, and songs like "over the Hill" and "Dreams by The Sea" I genuinely like quite a bit! It's a little uneven with songs like "May you never" feeling more like generic folk for me. The afformnetioned mumbling singing style unfortunately hurts the album a fair bit in spots especially on songs I would otherwise like (for instance "The Man in The Station") but otherwise I like it. It gets a high 3 for me, not quite reaching a 4 due to the hang ups I have.

Well it's unique, I guess. The singing sounds like a open mic towards the end of a pub crawl and the whole thing did give me a migraine. Gotta admit I don't really hear the "post punk" unless they mean post-punk as in that the production is shit and the singing is off key. The country elements in here really clash against everything else in an off putting way that doesn't quite work and the talk-over songs like "psycho cupid" just straight up suck. The idea of a country infused post-punk alt rock album is not inherently a bad one, but the issue is everything else in execution. I liked Flitcraft and Last Dance I think? I am glad I listened to this album before I died, but that doesn't make it a good album. I am giving this the most generous 2 in the world for being interesting and actually picking up towards the end.

This album reaaally grew on me! I mostly knew The Jam from a few songs here and there, Going Underground being my favorite, but I had never actually sat down and listened to an album from them. This album feels like a bridge inbetween the late 70s and early 80s of music, and songs like "It's too bad" would've totally worked in the mid-80s. I was thinking of giving it a 3 at first because nothing totally stood out to me, it feels more like just a good early new wave album then anything standout but I think that's all it needs to be. Especially with the final song, Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, that ends things on an incredibly dour tone that still hits home just as much today as it did in the '70s

For Britpop this is ahead of the curve, but I've got to admit I am starting to get serious British rock fatigue at this point. I never realized growing up how samey the entire genre sounds. Unfortunately this suffers from the existance of its inspirations largely following the trend, making this all feel fairly mediocre. Also Ian Brown is both a Covid Conspiracist and banned from driving so y'know, fuck him.

Bossa Nova feels so locked into its stylings that you could place a few of the songs off this album 10 or 20 years prior with slightly different production and I wouldn't bat an eye. Depending on who you are this is either a bad thing, pointing to some stailness and saturation in the genre, or proof that Bossa Nova knows exactly what it wants to be. I could imagine this being an issue if it was as oversaturated as some other genres on the list, but its not, so I can appreciate the beauty even if it shares a lot of similarity with all the other Bossa Nova. I thought this was lovely! I swear music like this has the same effect on my stress as a relaxing hot bath, it's such a vibe. There's some elements of the production that felt a little dated in a very late 90s way, most present on songs like "Alguém", but for the most part it was pretty great! Though the summer Samba version here pales in comparison to the Walter Wanderley version, but that's so iconic I don't think any cover could match up. Overall a strong 4!

I liked this but it is incredibly unremarkable. I'm not quite sure why this gets on here. I tend not to use "slop" as a suffix very often but this is peak 60s slop. Chasing after the tides of the Beatles for people who think the Beatles became too adventurous in 1967. Is it bad? No. Groovin' has nice instruments, the singing on If you Knew is pretty good. The mixing isn't great but neither is it terrible. Its just an incredibly run of the mill 60s album that's not really trying anything and I think there are other 60s pop bands. It's like a 3 in how good it is and a 1 in terms of how much this needs to be on the list.

Well I don't like either of the two mixes on here, and I am predisposed to hate Iggy on political grounds, so take my opinion hear with a grain of salt. It's 'ight. I can definitely hear its influentialness but do I rate the album on influence or enjoyment? Because if so it gets knocked down a little. The lyrics are kind of inane when you can make them out, Iggys singing can actually work really well on some tracks though which balances it out. Honestly I think the crux of the problem for me is its not a consistent album, largely due to the production. I really enjoyed some songs: Gimme Danger, I need somebody and maybe Raw Power. On the other hand Search and Destroy sounds washed out to me in both versions, Death Trip feels the same but its even worse and I just generally don't like penetration as a song. Edit: Did give it a light 4, but I forgot about the Sexual abuse against minors that have come to light and whilst I try to let albums speak for themselves, that gives it just enough ick for me to knock it down on principle.

It's definitely not as good as her solo work, but that's not to say its not good at all. Bjork on a less experimental album sounds downright odd, but it works. That's not to say this album is devoid of interesting sounds or being out there, "sick for Toys" for instance sounds pretty unique to me. The lyrics are... mostly weak, but beautifully sung as expected. The B-52s comparison everyone mentions in the reviews is very apt, but I do feel like there's a slightly harsher tone from the post-punk inspiration that differentiates them. I really liked the opening song "Traitor" as well as "birthday", but a lot of this album kinda just washed over me. Especially because I am not really a fan of the second singer and think they detract from a few songs.

Ooo, I'm suprised I haven't heard this before. I really enjoy this! Sure the lyrics can repeat a little bit too much, some of the choruses are 3 words repeated four or five times, but if you can overlook that this is a gem. I can hear how influential this album is for ska, and yet at the same time I feel this is quite a unique album. Whilst I like some of the more "fun" songs (even though even the songs that sound fun to me still have pretty social-oriented lyrics like Freddy's Dead or Mighty Long Way), I really liked songs like Pouring Rain. There's a crazy amount of range in these songs and I think they mostly all hit. Going from Pouring Rain to Deep Inside (a song which I wish was longer) gives a whiplash that left me suprised at how well it all worked. It's almost let down a star by a weaker second half, but I really enjoyed the high points enough I gotta give it a 5

Okay I gotta admit when listening to an album a day, an album that is an hour and 20 minutes long is hard to swallow. I don't exactly get the love, but neither do I dislike it all that much. I'm not really a huge fan of the singing, but everything else around it makes it work on some songs. Like look at the song O Children: It sounds pretty great, I like the backing vocals, but there's something about it that just doesn't hit for me. That's not to say this album is bad by any means, I really enjoyed songs like "breathless" and on the other end of the spectrum tonally enjoyed "There she goes, my beautiful world". I think my constonation comes from the back half being a fair bit slower and more subdued in a way I didn't really enjoy just as I was coming around to the first half. I think I'll have to come back to this album on my own time and listen to it in sections because I could see that improving my opinion, double albums are a bit too much to digest in one day.

If Katie can have bad Reggae and Ska takes I'm allowed bad heavy metal takes. This was by no means terrible, and I can see why people would like it but I just don't that much. This was awash for me and, except for a few bright spots, was totally forgettable. 22 Acacia Avenue made my eyes roll with the way it talked about prostitution, but on the other hand I wasn't really expecting a song with anti-colonial messaging like Run to the Hills. Probably was my favorite. I dunno I don't have a lot to say I don't like this genre very much.

I knew a few songs off this album, but never listened to it in full. So yeah, this was great! For exploring so many different sounds within rap from the more Aggressive (in a great way) songs like Boss to the more laidback selfish, they're all very consistent. The features all land for me and once again represents the bredth of these songs as they swap between Reggae, singer-songwriters to Electronic. Even the god damn song from Venom was good! I can get why Kendrick and Lauryn Hill both have co-signed and stated they're fans of her music, because I can hear both in here. I don't really love the obligatory mentions to other past rappers that are in this album. Like, its not uncommon in the genre and I do understand giving your flowers to other artists but hearing about how much Kanye and Jay Z kinda makes my eyes roll. That said its such a tiny complaint I didn't know whether it was worth mentioning at all. Also well done to Kiwanuka for being the first artist who is in two albums I give a 5 on this list!

Nothing here is on the level of Bela Lugosi's dead, but I guess that should be expected because that song is incredible. I already knew I enjoyed Bauhaus (both band and architectural style) so this more or less just reinforced that then suprised me. Of Lilies and Remains reminded me oddly of Blur's Parklife in its spoken word style. The entire thing is very deeply Bowie inspired which is interesting because there's sort of a reciprocal nature of inspiration here with Bowie's final album, Blackstar. It's interesting how the album flickers between harsher songs like Hair of the Dog, and more pop-friendly songs. Also this album taught me how to make fish cakes. I do think unfortunately the songs from Bauhaus I've already heard are significantly better then the songs I hadn't, which made me almost want to give this a 3, but I think it just breaks through to a 4. I get the feeling katie will hate this album.

Well I grew up around this album and Artic Monkeys in general being from South Yorkshire, so I'm going to be biased towards it. Unfortunately my favorite Artic Monkeys song, Flourescent Adolescent, is not actually on this album but the next one. I bet you look good on the dancefloor is undeniably the highlight of this album, but on a relisten, I really do like this whole thing. The first three tracks are all extremely strong and "From the Ritz to Rubble" but the rest aren't quite as good. Still a fun listen. It carries a lot of energy, and I can see how complaints could abound about how it represents a watering down of post-punk into the British Rock sound but I think the end result still comes out well. It's not quite a 5, it sounds pretty samey which would be fine if it kept up the content of the first few tracks but it can't quite reach that and so the result is definitely a feeling of having enough of it by the end.

Tina really weirds me out as a person with all the anti-autism comments she's made in the past so I am predisposed to not give her too much of a chance. I haven't actually listened to this yet just wanted to put the disclamer out there before I do. This feels like what happens if you take sandpaper to the Talking Heads and smooth it out, and I don't really mean in a good way. It ended up feeling suprisingly samey for something so zaney, and as a result came across to me as more novelty then anything else. Genius of Love is great for its sample, but I actually think in context of the album it becomes less interesting due to the sheer amount of the same beep boop synthesizerrs throughout the whole thing. I do really love the cover of Under the Boardwalk on here, I prefer the original but it does add a unique sound to what is a pretty legendary song. Once again, take my opinion with a grain of salt because the well was somewhat poisoned before I started listening, but considering people always tell me that Tina and Chris are the "real geniuses" behind Talking heads I was expecting more here. It's definitely better then the worst Talking Heads albums, but nowhere near the average Talking Heads albums.

There's half of a pretty good album in here. The reviews on this website are REALLY harsh against this so I was expecting something absolutely dogshit but its not quite that. It's a retro-rock revival album from the early 2000s and is highly competent at that and not much more then that. It's inherently going to be the musical equivalent of finding tobasco spicy. I liked "shadows falls" and "Dreaming of You" but the second half falls into a straight up nose dive with songs like "Goodbye" sounding like generic brit rock and songs like "Skeleton Key" straight up sucking imo. It's like they were dipping into too many different forms of rock and ended up inadequately exploring all of them. Breadth of an Ocean, depth of a swimming pool. Honestly this album might have the largest second half drop off we've seen yet. It's half a 4 and half a 1, so I guess it's a 2?

First entry for Noise rock on the list and this is not the best start. The rock itself is very standard stuff. Like the middling parts of a soundtrack from the Burnout franchise. Except there's an added layer of noise on the top that really does help it in any regard really. It's not the worst thing in the world its just very repetitive and confusingly mediocre to be here. I really don't have much to say about this album it didn't offend me nor interest me. Ultimately made me feel "meh" and not much else.

I will say its a bit unfortunate when an album peaks at its first song, that said I really liked this album. This album is a calming vibe though, I really liked it for the most part. Electronic music is something I always thought I rarely liked but the more I go into this list the more I realize that's not the case. The issue with the genre is simply I find it quite inconsistent from album to album. I will say, the slow pace and dreaminess of this album may make for good background music, but sitting through and listening to the whole thing did feel a bit tiring towards the end. But I can hardly fault it for that, I just don't think that's the way this type of album is meant to be listened to.

two Nick Cave albums in two weeks is not what I call fun. This album sounds like Tom Waits from Wish mixed with Leonard Cohen from Kijiji. The discount Cohen is so strong on songs like "Into my Arms", this is more then inspiration, its practically parody without self awareness. But most importantly holy shit is this a boring album. It's like Cohen without the smart writing, dull ranting set to sparse instrumentation. I rated down the last Nick Cave album for the slower late section, but gave it a 3 based on there still being sections I liked. I actually hated this album. Even the songs that pick up the pace like "There is a Kingdom" sound like shitty church music in the worst way. I seldom call things pretentious, but this album thinks it is so much smarter then it is that it gets actively annoying. Struggle to Finish. 1 star.

I like some beastie boys songs, but by god there's a difference between listening to the songs and sitting through a straight album. I feel like in an album format all their weaknesses show. The very similar flow from song to song undercuts the actually pretty interesting sampling and as a result I feel like you can listen to a few of their best songs and get a complete picture. I've always felt a bit bewildered as someone who is generally a fan of most rap music and styles that Beastie Boys is one I only get in small doses when they're so acclaimed, and I can see spots where they shine with their lyricism and their attitude carries things nicely. It just doesn't quite cohere together in an album to me in the way I like.

Music originating from outside English-speaking cultures (even if they were largely from the United States like in this case) get a big boost from me for actually sounding different then most of this list, and that goes here too. From the, sorta scat-adjacent singing on Buscando Guayaba, to the stripped back start of Pedro Navaja, to the excellent Trombone work throughout this was a joy to listen to. Perhaps some of the songs were a little too long, but they're just dynamic enough that it works well and the album is short enough it doesn't get tiring.

This is good but also I imagine this is what having aphasia is like. Words are being said but they are not translating to meaning and its weirdly distracting to me! That said this sounds really ahead of its time with maybe some exceptions for specific sounds (that drum on persephone is very 80s). That said I think it comes together pretty well, and my only issues with it are that it sort of all blurs together after a while and that I generally am not a huge fan of this type of music. I really like the singing here, and wish only that I could understand it a bit more. The instrumentation on songs like Pandora, Aloysius and Lorelai are great but I found the last few tracks didn't hold up very well. That drum and Bass machine on Cicely is so distracting to me. This is a light 4 for me, but I could see a 5 from someone who likes this style of music a bit more then me.

It's okay. If I said "alt rock with a touch of country in the 90s" you'd probably be able to imagine what this entire album sounds like and whether it's for you. America Snoring is terrifyingly prescient though. Generally the political bent on this album is extremely strong and does elevate things somewhat. I actually came around to the vocals toward the end of the album, but they can be somewhat grating in places. The worst parts of this album are merely generic, wherein the the insturmentation feels like something you've heard many times before and don't elevate the singing. The best part of this album have a suprisingly unique vibe being a post-punk almost gothic take on country that I've heard before in the later works of Johnny cash, but never really explored as a genre in itself. Unfortunately I think the album has a dose more of the former, generic sounds than the latter.

Person who's only heard of David bowie: "hey this sounds a bit like David Bowie" I listened to this album twice and enjoyed it a lot more on the second run through. The instrumentation is excellent throughout and I love the art-punk style on display here. Songs like Friction and Elevation are uniformly great. The main sticking point for me is that I just don't think the singing works as well on some tracks or others. On songs like "prove it" I really love the singing, but then on "Marquee Moon" I think its just too much. I think with time I would find it less distracting, I found that I already enjoyed the singing aspect more on the second listen, but the nature of these reviews don't really afford it. That said I simply cannot get over how good the instrumentals are here, and their highlights are high enough to just push it into a 4 for me.

There's an interesting dichotomy here between an incredible voice, and for the most part pretty good songs and the fact that this has the problem 60s pop albums suffer from being just a collection of good singles mixed with B-sides with little care for the album listening experience. As a result you get a bunch of truly pretty great songs that get very tiring when put next to each other in an album format. Solomon Burke's voice is incredible, I love "cry to me", a song I associate heavily with Dirty Dancing and songs like "goodbye baby" show off incredible musical talent. However, I feel like this album is a great display of why rating individual songs and averaging them out doesn't neccessarily give you an idea of how good an album will be. By the end of this I was tired and kinda over it, which is sad when the potential is so high and it is fulfilled on some of the songs here.

I've never hated Coldplay, at least y'know, the first half of their catalogue. I stick by Viva La Vida or Death and all his friends actually being a great album (even if its not on this list). I find the fact that the highest rated reviews on this website are significantly lower then the average sums up Coldplay. In a word, this album is safe. If it was a color it would be Panotone's colour of the year, Cloud Dancer, and if it got any awards for the best of something today it would rightfully be met with similar outrage. That's not because this album sucks, but rather its because it is the most "okay" album to perhaps have ever existed. Coldplay's first foray is the pinnacle of easily digestible, radio friendly, alt-rock. None of this is an insult, it is doing precisely what it was made to do and it is doing it well. For songs I like from this album, I'll go with trouble, which I heard in countless adverts growing up but I still somewhat like. Songs like High Speed and Sparks are fine too, even if they sound like Radiohead without the parts that make radiohead special

Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf is an insane one two punch to be an album, god damn this album sounds so good. The maximal production here works so well with the verses of "My Own Way" being a crazy soundscape that all works to drive the intense danceability of this album. So distinctly 1980s it almost is able to transport you to a time where the main English worry was working out where the hell Falklands is and you could actually afford a house. The High Tempo is almost exhausting, with that New Romantics era slight edge that balances everything out perfectly. I am a sucker for good synth pop and this is some GOOD synth pop. Highlight to the crazy good bass line throughout this.

Not even the best album to use this album text style. Elvis was really good at taking great songs by mostly black singers and making them more palatable for a white audience and I just hate everything about that. I'd be almost able to overlook it if I felt like Elvis' prescence added to the songs, but I don't think it does. Listening to the neutered version of Little Richard's great Tutti Frutti actively annoyed me. Ray Charles' I got a Woman is watered down harder then a homeopathic medicine. Even the standards in here are done better elsewhere: this rendition of Blue Moon is so less interesting then either The Marcels or Sinatra. I think the only song that holds up to an original version (at least from the songs I know of) is Blue Suede Shoes, which is largely good because it sticks very closely to the Carl Perkins version. The sound quality here is god awful too, its a debut so I tend to give some leeway there afterall, maybe the budget just didn't afford much better? As an exercise in enjoyment though, its so noticeable and grating. It can be historically significant as it wants, but it cannot be more then straight ass.

This book contains no less then 7 Bob Dylan albums, making me wonder whether the book should have a hard limit on how many times the same band can be chosen. I don't love Bob Dylan on a good day so listening to the like, maybe 5th best Bob Dylan album is not something I'm going to enjoy. I feel I could end the review there, I just don't really have much to say and I didn't enjoy it. It was extremely boring, largely about his ex, and felt like it went on forever. Shout out to Highlands though, a song that manages to feel longer then a fucking feature length film and drags on to the point of actually looping around to being somehow impressive in its monotony. Apparantly Bob Dylan didn't like the production on this so we at least agree on one thing. Very low 2, largely because I just heard Elvis so I KNOW what a 1 sounds like right now to me.

Its okay! It's perhaps the most 80s thing imagineable but honestly there's something about the 80s that make its very dated music have a charm to it that allows it to endure well past where it probably should. Its definitely Goth Rock, but there's a goofy playfulness to it all that means the atmosphere isn't really all that oppressive even as they're singing about empire destroying wars and shit. Lucretia My Reflection is a great song imo, but on the other hand 1959's overuse of a sequencer has simply not aged well. The corrosion is also a fun song even if it tinges of butthurt bitterness at a band split which made a lot of sense when I looked up the song. Overall, its not incredible or anything but I enjoyed myself!

Hey do you wanna listen to 70s pop for an hour and a half? 25 whole tracks of it? Listen I hate to rate down an album solely for being a double album, but when sitting down and taking it in as an album listening experience its hard to ignore when the album wears out its welcome so long before the end of the runtime. None of the songs here are all that bad, in fact I do like most of them. But as the album goes on I can't help but feel that the album carries the vibe of listening to a crappy sirius FM "70s radio" at 3am in the morning. It's just all very uniform and samey with the every now and again "huh this ones quite good". Breathless sounds very ahead of the times for a 70s album, I saw the light is pretty fun, I like the sound of Black maria a lot. As the album goes on though, it feels increasingly like its playing into the "lame 70s" trope with songs like Marlene, Torch Song, The night the Carousel Burned down and Hello It's me. Overall the bad overtakes the good and by the end it becomes an exhausting slog to get through.

I'm surprised to see this on here but no Breakfast in America. I'd say that's definitely the highlight of Supertramps career, more consistent and with the bigger songs. This is like prog rock watered down to the point that it can be hardly called "progressive" at all, but it still does come out mostly good in my opinion. I feel the singing is going to be very hit or miss, but for me it definitely hit. The album goes through just enough different styles and sounds to keep things interesting with the highlight having to be the outro of the final song. Overall it's pretty good, just enough to be a 4 for me but a very weak 4 at that.

Lou Reeds singing takes some getting used to, but once you do I think this album is great. The two biggest songs on this album, Walk on the Wildside and Perfect day are truly incredible songs. Perfect day always reminds me of my best days when I was severely depressed. Having fleeting good moments with an overwhelming cloud of dread just on the horizon. Meanwhile Walk on the Wildside is, of course, a hugely important countercultural anthem. It's a messy and perhaps imperfect look at the queer community of the time, but in that I think it resonated even harder at the time and still today. It also has probably the most number of trans people individually mentioned in a song that I know of, which is pretty laudable for 1972. On the otherhand the term "little girl" to refer to a woman has not exactly aged and sometimes the Bowie production gets to the point where I'm wondering whether I'm listening to a lite-bowie album because Lou Reed is clearly channelling him on some of these songs. I do really like Hangin' 'Round though! Gnerally I thought the songs I hadn't heard before on here were somewhere between pretty good and just okay.

God Damn! I love this album so much. There's very little to say about the title track that hasn't been said already, and its staring-in-the-face-of-the-apocalypse sound that works so well. I also have to highlight the Guns of Brixton, probably my favorite song on here. The Reggae influence is as clear as the rage against police violence, and I think the incredibly dark sound works perfectly. I reaaaally enjoyed this throughout, with maybe one or two hiccups here and there that didn't land for me. Overall though, the genre blending on here really scratched an itch for me so it gets a light 5 stars.

You know an albums good when you pretty much decide on the score within the first 15 seconds of the music starting. God damn! Afrobeats Jazz-funk mix is so up my alley that it is unreal. I was working out to this album and I was getting so into it. Its definitely got some Jam Band energy but it is also quite structured and always moving so it ignores a lot of the noodling criticism that can go on there. It also has the longest drum solo I've heard like, ever. My god he must've been so tired after all that. I listened through to this album twice and the only spot that got kinda old to me was the last track, but I know I'm definitely gonna add "let's start" to my personal playlist. Oh, also I read this guys wikipedia page and I've never been more conflicted in my life.

Y'all didn't need to make 1001 albums into a list if you didn't have 1001 albums to fill it with. This is kinda mediocre filler. I like a LOT of post-punk, but this is like what I imagine someone who doesn't like post-punk hears when they hear good post-punk. It drags on whilst sounding very much like every-other 80s post-punk bands B-side tracks. Except that's the whole album here. It's not terrible by any means, there's definitely been far worse on this list so far, I just felt like there were no standouts and looking through wikipedia and other reviews I can't really find anything noteable about the album to justify its inclusion.

This was quite pleasant, but I think its accessibility is also the albums weakness. John Cale has such a storied history between Velvet Underground and producing Patti Smith that I was expecting something a bit more out there. What I got instead was just good 70s art pop with the emphasis more on the "pop" then the "art" part. I did enjoy the more Baroque elements quite a bit on songs like the titular Paris 1919 but I would prefered it to have more presence throughout the entire album. It's a very odd miss mismatch, everything this album has going for it paints it as something that I would like and would excite me, but inbetween the singing and the structure everything just falls into the same "its okay". I'd enjoy it in the background, but I can't imagine listening to it again.

There's one Billie Holiday album on this list and it probably should've been a compilation album, because a lot of the best of Billie Holiday predates the album era and so were only released on singles. Gloomy Sunday or the haunting Strange Fruit, I'll be seeing you and Easy living are all great, there's absolutely enough Billie Holiday songs to compile together a great album on this list. Those were all only released as singles that were only later added into compilation albums. All this preamble is to say, despite really liking Billie Holiday, I don't like this album much. It simply doesn't hit the incredible highs of the best of Billie Holiday. There are good highlights on here, The end of a love Affair or I'm a fool to Want you, but overall this is very samey and monotonous. Songs quickly started to blend together in a way that honestly nearly put me to sleep. The singing on here is excellent, the orchestra is great but stripped back- the issue is that every song structure and tune sounds the same as the last. I hate to give this a 2, but its honestly just not her best work.

The beatles is often proclaimed as some kind of pinnacle of pop music. Their music is so highly rated that for it to NOT be overrated would require so much effort that it would almost be unbelie- okay that's enough pretending this album is not peak. Yeah this is basically as good as everyone says and knows it is. I used to not be huge into th3e beatles growing up, but I have always loved Come Together. The remarkable thing however is in the sheer consistency in quality here. What George Martin accomplishes here is incredible. The layered louder sections do so without losing any fidelity, the stripped back parts make every note and instrument feel like it has its place. You might expect that for a band at the zenith of pop they'd fall upon tropes or become so defined in the genre the music is mundane. Hell the beatles is often given as a prime example of a band that often sounds less special today due to how influential they were to music, but I can't disagree more. Abbey Road has such a suprising range. Maxwell's Silver Hammer does not sound like it came from the same album as Here comes the sun, which does not sound like it came from the album that gave us Come Together. Yet as an album listening experience, it just all works. Sorry, no hot takes here, this is great.

...I hope the drummer is just wearing that iron cross because they're really into Prussian History. If not for the weirdly discount Billy Idol singing here this would sound like the musical equivalent of those compositions of everyones faces in a country. It's almost impressively generic. You know its bad when I'm 4 sentences into a review and I'm scowering wikipedia for something ntoeworthy to talk about here. Apparantly they cite a wide range of influences from "the doors to Led Zeppelin" and I wish they were more influenced by the doors because maybe then they'd be interesting. One of their songs is in GTA: Vice City so that's something I suppose. Fuck, I dunno, these guys give me bad vibes 2 stars I guess.

I have a real soft spot for honky-tonk music, its fun. It's almost a parody of itself, but it works. the titular "I've got a Tiger By the Tail" matches that energy perfectly. Unfortunately it doesn't really keep it up throughout the album and is a little uneven as a result. Songs like Fallin' for you are great, but I've never been a fan of slower Honky-tonk songs or when they're taking themselves a bit too seriously. Most of this sounds like the filler songs you'd put in a Fallout game, but specifically the newer ones like Fallout 4 or 76. That's not bad by any means, but it's hardly a standout. I was going to rate this a 3 but its more of a very strong 2.

I feel Queens heights exist in their singles and listening to their albums can be a... odd experience. Like most of the music has so much grandeur and pomp that I'd expect to like it more than I do. Unfortunately, to be perhaps a bit harsh on Queen for a moment, this sounds like Styx (derogatively). Very ordinary but bloated pop rock with a weird amount of pretense of depth. It's not terrible by any means, but none of the songs on here are what I think of when I think of Queen. I know for a fact I really like the following two albums so I think this specific era of Queen just doesn't do it for me. I mean despite that all it's still a 3, I just sound more negative then usual because I expect a bit more then just "pretty okay" from Queen.

Robert Dimery is stuck. After having decided that 0 Japanese or Korean albums deserve to be listened to before he dies, he's now 950 songs deep into his reference book. At his fingertips lies a machine capable of searching up almost every album ever recorded. A wealth of interesting and obscure genres to explore, but Robert is interested in none of it. An album from the 80s catches his eye but no, he's already used up his 300 allotted electronic albums Universe Publishing would allow him to include (after his first draft consistented of 900 such albums). Overlooking the legendary likes of Chuck Berry and Neil Diamond, both who have no entries in the book, he instead turns to his second favorite genre- indie music from the British Isles. Seeking to change things up a bit from all the Britpop and English Folk already weighing down the list he googles "Irish Indie music" and chooses randomly from the top 20 albums that appear in the results. "Just 50 more albums to go" he says to himself with a rye smile. This is an absolutely nothing generic 2000s indie album that wasn't even rated well at the time, was not very popular anywhere and influenced nothing. Why is it here.

I love a good concept album that tells a fairly clear narrative with a poignent message. Sure the "war is pointless" messaging isn't exactly revolutionary, but I think for an English band it has a critique about the nonesense pride over the concept of having an "empire" when that same empire is just an arm of repression over the world still hits today. I still here the addage "The sun used to never set over the empire" as if the fall of the British Empire was some great loss for the common public of England. There are elements that have aged, the critique of the rush of immigration by English people to Australia as a false kind of promised-land was very astute then, with the Ten Pound Pom scheme reaching its height the year the album came out, now its a kinda funny antiquated criticism. I'm not the biggest on the singing on a fair amount of this track, but everything else here is great. It's less similar to Tommy and more of a proto-The Wall in terms of the way it goes about its concept. Shangri-la is the very clear standout song of this album, its great. If all of the album reached that height it would be a high 5 and one of the best albums of the 60s, but I just don't think its quite there.

80s Madonna is my favorite Madonna so this isn't exactly my scene. It's definitely a different direction from what I expected from Madonna but it does have the annoying foe depth that would pervade Madonna's worst albums (like American life). Lines like "Children Killing Children while the students rape their teachers" feel out of place coming out of "material girl" Madonna. It's coming off the back of her similarly hollow portrayal in Evita. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, like the White winemum from the gated suburb telling you about how bad the shit she's watched on the news is. That's my issue with this whole album really, it feels like Madonna is deeply uncomfortable with her identity and style and is desperately looking at a way to shake it up. But she seems so lost. Madonna has a great singing voice but its lost here, and the mixing is definitely going to be hit or miss for people. To me this late 90s sound is just incredibly dated and the writing sucks too. It's not offensively bad but I can't say I enjoyed any of it either.