5/10 - I am not a huge jazz person, but even amongst the jazz I have listened to, this album does not stand out. Nothing on this album made me say, “I can get into this” or “maybe jazz is for me”.
7.5/10 - A good album and one of The Stones better albums. A few great songs and a good amount of good songs. Good mix of fun songs and songs that require deeper attention and reflection.
7.5/10 - There is something inherent to humanity that loves a good story. It’s the reason why men like Homer are remembered millennia later. The story telling on songs like Utah Carol, They’re Hanging Me Tonight, The Master Call and Big Iron make this an album worth coming back to again.
6/10 - I get it. I can see and hear the influence of future bands that I like, I just never find myself wanting to relisten to anything other than Debaser.
8/10 - Really incredible first album with a lesser second album. In its totality it’s a 8/10 but the first album was a 10/10. A few good songs on the back half of the project, but with this many songs, there wasn’t a way for this album to be all hits and no misses. My 3rd or 4th favorite Beatles album, but in most other bands catalog this would be their pinnacle. The Beatles were just that good.
6/10 - I was honestly let down by this album. Many Stones fans cite this as their favorite album, but to me it falls a bit flat. This album suffers what most double albums suffers in that there is too many meh songs for every great song. This could have been more with less.
5/10 - I would like to re listen to this on a weekend where I have more time to examine the lyrics. On first listen, there isn’t much to bring me back.
5.5/10 - A few good songs but not an album I would find myself wanting to listen to again. A lot of the songs on the album bleed into each other in a monotonous kind of way.
5.5/10 - The album has passion and energy in spades. Louis brings a lot of energy, but it’s too much energy for a full album. The instrumentation is good, but it’s very similar sounds for the entirety of the album and that sound is not something I find myself wanting to go back to regularly.
8/10 - Somehow reminds me of Portishead meets Tribe. Cool sound with some great songs. Feels like it was ahead of its time or at the beginning of the chill hop/Lo Fi scene.
5/10 - This reminded me of a British Hall & Oates meets Prog Rock length songs. This was not for me.
6.75/10- There were a handful of interesting songs that I really liked, but also a handful of very flat songs. The album ended with more of a lull that probably could have been cut. I think this is a 4/5 if we trimmed it down to 40 minutes or so.
5/10 - this is a hard album to rate since I haven’t seen Shaft. I imagine this album is on the low for the cultural significance of being the first black composed movie album to win an Oscar.
5/10 - Gorillaz seems to be one of those bands where I find a few songs on each album that I like, but never enough to want to own the album.
5/10 - Definitely an 80s album. Sounds a bit dated but not necessarily a bad thing if you really like he 80s. Feels like a Sting album meets a Michael Bolton ballad album. Not a huge fan but nothing egregious. Just very middling.
3/10 - I remember hearing Aerosmith for the first time in Middle School and thinking “these guys kind of suck”. My music taste has evolved over the years but it’s nice to know my gut reaction to these guys was correct. They do kinda suck personally and professionally, respectfully.
7/10- This is the 5th Bowie album I have listened to extensively and I could either place it at 3 or 4. Blackstar is in a league of its own, closely followed by Ziggy. Low is solidly entrenched at 5. Depending on the day and the mood, I could put this slightly ahead of or slightly behind Station to Station.
5/10 - A Christmas album that’s probably as good as a Christmas album can be.
9/10 - This is a Top 30 album for me. Love the songwriting, the music, the vocals. One skip in my opinion.
5.5/10 - The Who is one of those bands that I always expect more from. I feel like The Who are talked about as if they are in this top echelon of musicians, but I always feel a bit let down. This album was longer than necessary but did have some good songs.
5/10 - A few good songs but overall not an album I see myself going back to. I felt very neutral about this album.
7/10 - Good garage rock album. Consistent throughout.
7.5/10 - I found myself really liking this album. It’s not entirely cohesive in sound, and there are a few bad/off/weird songs, but it was an interesting and unexpected album. Solsbury Hill is the obvious standout but elsewhere there are good songs too. I would be happy to receive this album on vinyl.
4/10 - This album sounds like wood paneled basements, tucked in T-Shirts, light wash jeans, and songs people try and play around a campfire.
9.5/10 - A masterpiece that is definitely an album you should listen to before you die.
3.5/10 - I thought Rod Stewart was a crooner/lady rock/ballad musician but that was not quite the vibe I got from this album. It felt to me like a Family Dollar Rolling Stones in a lot of places. The album started on what might be my least favorite song on the album.
7.5/10 - It was nice to be able to understand what Bob was saying since he is such a great songwriter. I think some versions of these songs were better here, but some were better on the originals. A cool take on some classics.
7.5/10 - I really like this album and while I can see why people might not prefer this style, I think it’s something different that is done really well. I also love the irony that lifted trucks will blast CCR even though the political leanings of the group I certainly not lifted trucks.
6.5/10 - Jazz is still hard for me to enjoy, but I thought this was on the more enjoyable end of the spectrum.
6.5/10 - I enjoyed this album more than I expected. There are a few really great songs, a few misses, and a few overplayed songs. Overall a much better album than their later stuff.
5.5/10 - This is the album I have had to listen to the most times to come up with a ranking. The start is so strong that it left me with a sense of doubt about my feelings on the rest of the album. After multiple multiple reviews I feel assured that this album starts really high and drops quite quickly afterwards.
7.5/10- Great Album. These are the types of albums I was hoping for throughout this program. This is an album I never would have found otherwise, but am excited to have in the arsenal.
4/10 - There isn’t anything bad on the album, but there isn’t anything to come back to. I feel like there were a multitude of similar albums from that time period that would have been much more important to put on this list.
7/10- I assume I, II, IV, and maybe Physical Graffiti will appear throughout this journey, but it feels odd getting III before all the others. Overall it’s a good album and this album has some great songs. I don’t love Plant and I feel like this album is heavy on it.
5/10 - I liked the overall garage sound and imagine it was influential for other bands at the time, but a majority of the songs were covers that didn’t really need a garage version.
5/10- The influence and the Adidas aura are not enough to make me come back to any of the songs. Salute on laying the foundation and making hip hop relevant and mainstream.
10/10 - I try to avoid giving ratings that are too highly inflated by “influence” or “creating a genre” if the album doesn’t hold up years later. This album holds up 50 years later. This album has one of the best album openings of all time and immediately creates an atmosphere for the rest of the album. This is a no skip album that is a 5 star album. Bonus stars for influence and creating a genre.
