1001 Albums Summary

I Want You to Love Me - 4.5/5 Shameika - 3.5/5 Fetch the Bolt Cutters - 3/5 Under the Table - 4/5 Relay - 4/5 Rack of His - 3/5 Newspaper - 4/5 Ladies - 2.5/5 Heavy Balloon - 4.5/5 Cosmonauts - 3.5/5 For Her - 3/5 Drumset - 3.5/5 On I Go - 3/5 The whole album sounds like someone on the verge of and/or currently experiencing a mental breakdown. Totally makes sense when this came out. Apple creates a sense of confinement and every song veers towards trying to escape or escalates to a point of wanting to escape. Unfortunately has a stronger start than end. Overall: 4/5 Favorite(s): I Want You to Love Me, Under the Table, Relay, Newspaper, Heavy Balloon

Ramble Tamble - 4.5/5 Before You Accuse Me - 4.5/5 Travelin' Band - 4/5 Ooby Dooby - 3/5 Lookin' Out My Back Door - 4/5 Run Through the Jungle - 4.5/5 Up Around the Bend - 4.5/5 My Baby Left Me - 3.5/5 Who'll Stop the Rain - 4/5 I Heard It Through the Grapevine - 4.5/5 Long as I Can See the Light - 4/5 Quintessential swamp rock. A great mixture of genres all around, from blues to rock n' roll to even a bit of prog rock. This sounds like a greatest hits album as there was not a single dud on the entire album. Overall: 4/5 Favorite(s): Ramble Tamble, Before You Accuse Me, Travelin' Band, Up Around the Bend, I Heard It Through the Grapevine

I don't believe this album was meant to heard from front to back, so I chose to listen to the first few disks to get a summation of the whole album Sam and Delilah - 3.5/5 But Not For Me - 3.5/5 My One And Only - 3/5 Let's Call the Whole Thing Off - 3/5 (I've Got) Beginner's Luck - 3/5 Oh, Lady Be Good - 2.5/5 Nice Work If You Can Get It - 3/5 Things are Looking Up - 3/5 Just Another Rumba - 3/5 How Long Has This Been Going On? - 3/5 'S Wonderful - 3/5 The Man I Love - 3/5 That Certain Feeling - 3/5 By Strauss - 3/5 Someone to Watch Over Me - 3/5 The Real American Folk Song - 3/5 Yeah I definitely would not be able to go through this whole thing in one sitting, as most of the songs sort of blend into one another and it all feels like a blur. That doesn't take away that Ella Fitzgerald is an amazing vocalist and the instrumentation behind her is also quite good. My only problem is that (understandably) the whole book is made up of show tunes which isn't exactly my style. Probably a very high 3 but a 3 regardless. Favorites: Sam and Delilah, But Not For Me Overall: 3/5

Burnout - 4/5 Having a Blast - 3.5/5 Chump - 3/5 Longview - 5/5 Welcome to Paradise - 4.5 Pulling Teeth - 3.5/5 Basket Case - 5/5 She - 4.5/5 Sassafras Roots - 3.5/5 When I Come Around - 5/5 Coming Clean - 3.5/5 Emenius Sleepus - 3.5/5 In the End - 3.5/5 F.O.D. - 3.5/5 (All by Myself) - 3 If nostalgia had its way then this would be a 5/5. However, actually listening through the whole thing made realize why I stuck with the singles from this album- everything else kind of just blends in together. The first half there's less of this, but to the untrained ear there really isn't anything distinct musically between songs like Sassafras Roots or Enemius Sleepus or Coming Clean. Granted I'm not that deep into the punk scene so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. Despite that I still love the whole thing and would listen to it again back to front. Overall - 4/5 Favorites: Longview, Welcome to Paradise, Basket Case, She, When I Come Around

Gimme Shelter - 5/5 Love In Vain - 3.5/5 Country Honk - 2.5/5 Live With Me - 3.5/5 Let It Bleed - 3/5 Midnight Rambler - 3.5/5 You Got the Silver - 3.5/5 Monkey Man - 3.5/5 You Can't Always Get What You Want - 4/5 This album is carried by its opening and closing tracks. Gimme Shelter is a phenomenal opener, which is kind of a let down as the rest of the album is kinda just meh. Sure, there is a decent variety of musical styles but none of them really stand out against one another. 2 stars for Gimme Shelter and You Can't... alone. Overall: 3.5/5 Favorites: Gimme Shelter, You Can't Always Get What You Want

Let's Get it On - 5/5 Please Don't Stay (Once You Go Away) - 4.5/5 If I Should Die Tonight - 4/5 Keep Gettin' It On - 4/5 Come Get To This - 4.5/5 Distant Lover - 4/5 You Sure Love To Ball - 4/5 Just To Keep You Satisfied - 4/5 It's incredible how Gaye could transition from the social commentary in What's Going On to what is effectively Sex: The Album here. Everything is so silky smooth on here. The intro to "Let's Get It On" somehow gave me a flight-or-fight response based on how many times it's been used in pop culture, and for good reason. Incredible production and the whole album makes you want to lie down in a bed of roses next to your significant other (or others if you're into that). Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Let's Get It On, Please Don't Stay, Come Get to This

Carry On - 4.5/5 Teach Your Children - 3/5 Almost Cut My Hair - 4.5/5 Helpless - 4/5 Woodstock - 4/5 Déjà Vu - 4/5 Our House - 4/5 4 + 20 - 3/5 Country Girl - 4/5 Everybody I Love You - 3.5 Quite the interesting album juxtaposed between the happy-happy-joy-joy from counterculture of the 60's and the cynicism brought on in the 70's, and the music reflects it well. There are a few times where the music feels a bit hokey (notably on Teach Your Children) but their harmonization on several of the songs stops me from knocking it down further. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Carry On, Almost Cut My Hair, Woodstock

War Pigs - 5/5 Paranoid - 5/5 Planet Caravan - 4.5/5 Iron Man - 5/5 Electric Funeral - 4/5 Hand of Doom - 4.5/5 Rat Salad - 4.5/5 Fairies Wear Boots - 4.5/5 So this is what the original first heavy metal album sounds like. I had already known about some of the more popular tracks (War Pigs and Paranoid specifically) but had never given the album a whole listen. Easiest 5 stars I'll probably ever give. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Literally the Entire Album

I'd normally do track rankings but I just could not get through the entire album. The song content is the epitome of cromulent. There wasn't really anything special that made this album stand out against its fellow peers in the jangle pop world. It seems more like a Eurovision entry that you know for certain will not qualify, fine enough on its own but there's no wow factor. My main question is why is this part of the 1001+ albums? Was it because it was a critical darling? It didn't do too hot in the charts in their home country of Australia and this is literally the first time I've ever heard of the Triffids, so whatever international appeal clearly didn't stay around. The only good thing I can say about what I listened to was that it seemed well produced, but besides that I don't think I'd ever return back for future listens. Overall: 2/5 Favorite: A Trick of the Light

This sounds like the music that will make me go "wut n tarnation" when a rabble-rouser gets on my proper so I have to tell my horse to "go on an git". I'd rather not listen to over two hours of bluegrass but taken in bits and pieces it's pretty decent. I like the occasional banter in between songs for an all-star cast of blues, country, and bluegrass. I don't know much about this type of music but it's good enough and hopefully it doesn't ruin my Spotify recommendations. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Grand Ole Opry Song, Nashville Blues, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Way Downtown

Liquid Swords - 5/5 Duel Of The Iron Mic - 5/5 Living In The World Today - 4.5/5 Gold - 5/5 Cold World - 4.5/5 Labels - 4/5 4th Chamber - 5/5 Shadowboxin' - 4.5/5 Hell's Wind Staff/Killah Hills 10304 - 4.5/5 Investigative Reports - 4.5/5 Swordsman - 4.5/5 I Gotcha Back - 4/5 B.I.B.L.E - 5/5 There was a time where I used to despite the rap genre. I had only been exposed to whatever was popular during the mid-2010's and mostly wrote it off as not for me. It turns out I just did not like modern rap and turned to the past, finding A Tribe Called Quest and Wu-Tang in the of running what I actually liked the sound of. The production and lyrical flow are top notch as every song transitions from one another almost seamlessly. I certainly found a style that I like, and it just so happens to be one of the best hip-hop albums ever created. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Liquid Swords, Duel Of The Iron Mic, Gold, 4th Chamber, B.I.B.L.E

Suite II Overture - 4/5 Dance or Die - 4/5 Faster - 4/5 Locked Inside - 5/5 Sir Greendown - 4/5 Cold War - 5/5 Tightrope - 5/5 Neon Gumbo - 3/5 Oh, Maker - 4/5 Come Alive - 5/5 Mushrooms & Roses - 4/5 Suite III Overture - 3.5/5 Neon Valley Street - 4.5/5 Make the Bus - 3.5/5 Wondaland - 4/5 57821 - 4.5/5 Say You'll Go - 5/5 BabopbyeYa - 4/5 A nearly effortless blend of genres for an incredible debut album. This would be a 5 except it kind of loses me towards the end but the ending two tracks pull me back into what I loved about it. The run-up to that middle stretch managed to blend together soul, funk, R&B, and more that loosely fits into her whole sci-fi concept the album is trying to portray, but I feel its a bit too loose of a concept that I may not have fully got. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Locked Inside, Cold War, Tightrope, Come Alive, Neon Valley Street, Say You'll Go

Candy Says - 4/5 What Goes On - 4.5/5 Some Kinda Love - 3.5/5 Pale Blue Eyes - 4.5/5 Jesus - 3.5/5 Beginning to See the Light - 4/5 I'm Set Free - 4/5 That's The Story Of My Life - 3.5/5 The Murder Mystery - 4/5 After Hours - 4/5 A surprisingly intimate album. I had never listened to anything by the Velvet Underground (closest I guess is Lou Reed's sample on ATCQ) so I was going into this completely blind. Good through-line from beginning to end. A very mellow and intimate album that sounds like the sober realization of the morning after. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Candy Says, What Goes On, Pale Blue Eyes

Mambo Sun - 3.5/5 Cosmic Dancer - 3.5/5 Jeepster - 3.5/5 Monolith - 3/5 Lean Woman Blues - 3.5/5 Bang a Gong (Get it On) - 4.5/5 Planet Queen - 3.5/5 Girl - 3.5/5 The Motivator - 3.5/5 Life's a Gas - 3/5 Rip Off - 3.5/5 A very tightly produced album that ushered in the wave of British glam rock. The main problem I have with this record is that most of the songs feel like they're building up to something and then the song abruptly ends without the sound resolving. Outside of Bang a Gong/Get it On I didn't really get any of the other songs of the album. They didn't so much as blend all together as mush, it's that there really wasn't anything that made them stand out compared to one another

Luv N' Haight - 4.5/5 Just Like A Baby - 4/5 Poet - 4.5/5 Family Affair - 4.5/5 Africa Talks to You ("The Asphalt Jungle") - There's a Riot Goin' On - N/A Brave & Strong - 4/5 (You Caught Me) Smilin' - 4/5 Time - 4/5 Spaced Cowboy - 4.5/5 Runnin' Away - 4/5 Thank You for Talkin to Me, Africa - 4/5 A very good selection of darker funk from this group. Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" definitely had an influence changed from the psychedelic era of the 60's to the more politically charged early 70's. That mixture of eras really makes this work as a whole. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Luv N' Haight, Poet, Family Affair, (You Caught Me) Smilin', Spaced Cowboy

It's an album full of Christmas songs. What do you expect. Also fuck you Phil Spector hope you rot in hell.

Honey - 4/5 Find My Baby - 4/5 Porcelain - 4.5/5 Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? - 4/5 South Side - 3.5/5 Rushing - 3/5 Bodyrock - 3.5/5 Natural Blues - 4.5/5 Machete - 3/5 7 - 3/5 Run On - 3.5/5 Down Slow - 3/5 If Things Were Perfect - 2.5/5 Everloving - 3/5 Inside - 3/5 Guitar Flute & String - 3/5 The Sky is Broken - 2/5 My Weakness - 3/5 The first few tracks of this album carries the rest of it. The blues samples in the front half could definitely made a better concept but after Machete it trails off to be a bit more of ambient. There really isn’t a genre through line so the genre flip didn’t catch me completely off guard. Great sampling and production but due to the overuse of some of these songs it feels a bit too corporate and too muzak-y. Overall: 3.5/5 Favorites: Porcelain, Natural Blues

The Golden Age - 4/5 Paper Tiger - 4/5 Guess I'm Doing Fine - 4.5/5 Lonesome Tears - 4.5/5 Lost Cause - 4.5/5 End of the Day - 3.5/5 It's All in Your Mind - 3.5/5 Round the Bend - 3.5/5 Already Dead - 3.5/5 Sunday Sun - 4/5 Little One - 4/5 Side of the Road - 3.5/5 A very melancholic album fitting for a breakup. I doubt that I'll come back to this album given how somber the mood was, but it was still a good listen nonetheless. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Guess I'm Doing Fine, Lonesome Tears, Lost Cause

Darkness, Darkness - 4/5 Smug - 2.5/5 On Sir Francis Drake - 3/5 Sunlight - 3.5/5 Beautiful - 2/5 Rain Song - 2/5 Trillium - 2/5 Quicksand - 2.5/5 Sham - 2.5/5 Ride the Wind - 2/5 I can see how this bridged the gap between the psychedelia and folk rock between the 60's and 70's, but at this point it sounds more like background music than anything else. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Darkness Darkness, Sunlight

If I found someone who despises Sinatra then they'll have to go in the dumpster. Nice of him to make an easy listenable able but every song sounds the same.

Going Up - 4/5 Stars Are Stars - 4/5 Pride - 4/5 Monkeys - 4.5/5 Crocodiles - 4.5/5 Rescue - 4.5/5 Villiers Terrace - 4/5 Pictures on My Wall - 3.5/5 All That Jazz - 4/5 I had never heard of this band before, but it scratches that itch I needed from listen to Joy Division and the like. A perfect mix of punk and new wave that somehow isn't as nihilistic as other contemporary records. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Monkeys, Crocodiles, Rescue

Enter Sandman - 5/5 Sad But True - 5/5 Holier Than Thou - 3.5/5 The Unforgiven - 4/5 Wherever I May Roam - 4/5 Don't Tread on Me - 3/5 Through the Never - 4/5 Nothing Else Matters - 5/5 Of Wolf and Man - 4/5 The God That Failed - 3.5/5 My Friend of Misery - 4/5 The Struggle Within - 3.5/5 Normally I wouldn't think of an album that somehow sounds more mainstream while being a shift towards heavy metal would work out, but this album somehow does. A perfect gateway album into anything metal. Overall - 4/5 Favorites: Enter Sandman, Sad But True, Nothing Else Matters

Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box - 4/5 Pyramid Song - 4/5 Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors - 2.5/5 You And Whose Army? - 4/5 I Might Be Wrong - 5/5 Knives Out - 4.5/5 Morning Bell/Amnesiac - 3.5/5 Dollars and Cents - 3.5/5 Hunting Bears - 3/5 Like Spinning Plates - 3.5/5 Life In a Glasshouse - 4/5 A very dark and melancholic album that feels like its the rejects leftover from Kid A, but in a good way. Thematically the album's more of a collage than having a cohesive throughline, but it still manages to make it work. Definitely not one of Radiohead's strongest albums but still a good album nonetheless Overall: 4/5 Favorites: I Might Be Wrong, Knives Out

Rhythm Nation - 4.5/5 State of the World - 4/5 The Knowledge - 3.5/5 Miss You Much - 3.5/5 Love Will Never Do (Without You) - 4/5 Livin' in a World (They Didn't Make) - 3.5/5 Alright - 4/5 Escapade - 4/5 Black Cat - 4.5/5 Lonely - 3.5/5 Come Back to Me - 3/5 Someday is Tonight - 3/5 I went into this not really sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised with what I listened to. I guess new jack swing is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. It feels a bit overproduced at times and I feel like some songs could have been slightly trimmed down for time. I feel it could have been a 5 if the message wasn't dropped halfway through the album, but a really solid production saves it from any lower. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Rhythm Nation, Love Will Never Do, Alright, Escapade, Black Cat

Hazey Jane II - 4.5/5 At The Chime Of A City Clock - 4/5 One Of These Things First - 4/5 Hazey Jane I - 4/5 Bryter Layter - 3.5/5 Fly - 3.5/5 Poor Boy - 3.5/5 Northern Sky - 4/5 Sunday - 3.5/5 I had never heard of this guy before today, but I came out loving this album. The instrumentation is soft and smooth and the first side of the album captured me in. Overall: 4.5/5 Favorites: Hazey Jane I & II, At The Chime Of A City Clock, One Of These Things First, Northern Sky

Slow Burn - 3/5 Lonely Weekend - 3/5 Butterflies - 3/5 Oh, What a World - 2.5/5 Mother - 2/5 Love is a Wild Thing - 2.5/5 Space Cowboy - 2.5/5 Happy & Sad - 2.5/5 Velvet Elvis - 2/5 Wonder Woman - 2.5/5 High Horse - 3.5/5 Golden Hour - 3.5/5 Rainbow - 2/5 This album isn't bad per se, it's just incredibly generic. Too pop-y of a pop country album. There were very few actual country tracks, and the ones that I liked steered clear of that genre. She's a good singer, but the lyrical composition and production just aren't there for me. Not my cup of tea Overall: 2.5/5 Favorites: High Horse, Golden Hour

Cherry-Colored Funk - 5/5 Pitch the Baby - 5/5 Iceblink Luck - 5/5 Fifty-Fifty Clown - 4.5/5 Heaven or Las Vegas - 5/5 I Wear Your Ring - 4.5/5 Fotzepolitic - 5/5 Wolf in the Breast - 5/5 Road, River and Rail - 4.5/5 Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires - 5/5 I don't think I've ever been entranced by an album. The ethereal vibe this whole thing gave off made me forget that I could not understand what the lyrics were. Didn't matter, still found out how to levitate because of this. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Cherry-Colored Funk, Pitch the Baby, Iceblink Luck, Heaven or Las Vegas, Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires

The View from the Afternoon - 4/5 I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor - 5/5 Fake Tales of San Francisco - 4/5 Dancing Shoes - 4/5 You Probably Couldn't...- 4/5 Still Take You Home - 4/5 Riot Van - 3.5/5 Red Light..- 4/5 Mardy Bum - 3/5 Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But...- 4/5 When the Sun Goes Down - 4.5/5 From the Ritz to the Rubble - 4/5 A Certain Romance - 4.5/5 Yeah this definitely sounds like the adolescence of a British clubber. Sounds intentionally unpolished. Overall good debut album but everything does feel a bit same-y to its detriment and the slower songs don't really come up to snuff as the other indie-dance songs on the majority of the album. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, When the Sun Goes Down, A Certain Romance

21st Century Schizoid Man - 5/5 I Talk To the Wind - 4.5/5 Epitaph - 5/5 Moonchild - 4.5/5 The Court of the Crimson King - 5/5 What is must have been like in 1969 to turn this on and hear something completely radical to whatever was considered rock or pop at the time. Funnily enough I got into KC through their 80's trio of albums, so going back in time to see how they evolved is interesting. Easy 5/5. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Yes

Schizophrenia - 4.5/5 Catholic Block - 5/5 Beauty Lies in the Eye - 3/5 Stereo Sanity - 4/5 Pipeline/Kill Time - 3/5 Tuff Gnarl - 4/5 Pacific Coast Highway - 3/5 Hot Wire My Heart - 3.5/5 Cotton Crown - 4/5 White Cross - 4/5 An interesting blend of punk and post-punk and noise rock that comes together quite nicely. I wouldn't say I was a fan of noisy rock before this, the rawness of the whole thing made me appreciate it a bit more. It does sound a bit compressed at times but otherwise it is quite a fine album. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Schizophrenia, Catholic Block, Tuff Gnarl, Cotton Crown

All the Way from Memphis - 3.5/5 Whizz Kid - 3/5 Hymn for the Dudes - 2.5/5 Honaloochie Boogie - 3/5 Violence - 3/5 Drivin' Sister - 3/5 Ballad of Mott the Hoople - 2.5/5 I'm a Cadillac/El Camino Dolo Roso - 3.5/5 I Wish I Was Your Mother - 3/5 A fairly decent album that sounds a bit too much like a David Bowie knockoff. Granted I know he was responsible for their biggest hit in the album before but in retrospective it's kind of just "eh" overall. Nothing spectacular but nothing here to make it it awful. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: All the Way from Memphis, I'm a Cadillac/El Camino Dolo Roso

Them Bones - 5/5 Dam That River - 5/5 Rain When I Die - 4/5 Sickman - 3.5/5 Rooster - 5/5 Junkhead - 4/5 Dirt - 4.5/5 God Smack - 4/5 Iron Gland [Untitled] - 3/5 Hate to Feel - 4/5 Angry Chair - 4.5/5 Down in a Hole - 5/5 Would? - 5/5 One of the defining albums from the grunge era, and one the grimiest at that (though not Alice in Chain's grimiest sounding album, that's their self-titled). A deep and dark look despair, depression, and addiction, which are tragically how Layne Staley died years later. Both the opener of Them Bones and the album ender of Would? both are in my regular rotation. A must listen for the grunge genre. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Them Bones, Dam That River, Rooster, Down in a Hole, Would?

Wouldn't It Be Nice - 5/5 You Still Believe in Me - 4/5 That's Not Me - 3.5/5 Don't Talk - 3.5/5 I'm Waiting for the Day - 4/5 Let's Go Away for Awhile - 4/5 Sloop John B - 4.5/5 God Only Knows - 5/5 I Know There's An Answer - 4.5/5 Here Today - 4/5 I Just Wasn't Made for These Times - 3.5/5 Pet Sounds - 4/5 Caroline, No - 3.5/5 A monumental album for pop music that still (mostly) holds up today. One of the first concept albums (though I didn't exactly get the concept until I looked it up), it blends the 50s pop sensabilities with more orchestral instrumentation to form something that people still look back upon all these years later. I would give it 5 stars, but some questionable production cues hold it back for me from being a masterpiece in my eyes. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B, God Only Knows, I Know There's An Answer

Facelift - 3/5 Slightly All the Time - 4/5 Moon in June - 2.5/5 Out-Bloody-Rageous - 4/5 It's decent enough jazz rock, but it's certainly a slog to get through. The ambient bit in the first track nearly turned me off, but I stuck around to the end and it was a decent listen. Not my preferred flavor of jazz fusion but good nonetheless. Overall: 3.5/5 Favorites: Slightly All the Time

Rehab - 4.5/5 You Know I'm No Good - 4/5 Me & Mr. Jones - 4/5 Just Friends - 3/5 Back to Black - 4.5/5 Love is a Losing Game - 3/5 Tears Dry on Their Own - 4/5 Wake Up Alone - 3.5/5 Some Unholy War - 3/5 He Can Only Hold Her - 3.5/5 Addicted - 3.5/5 A tragic and melancholic piece hidden behind a devil-may-care and soulful attitude. Winehouse has a unique voice that sets this album apart from its contemporaries and will keep it being listenable in the future. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Rehab, Back to Black, Tears Dry on their Own

A Reflection - 3.5/5 Play for Today - 4.5/5 Secrets - 4/5 In Your House - 4/5 Three - 3/5 The Final Sound - 3/5 A Forest - 5/5 M - 4.5/5 At Night - 4/5 Seventeen Seconds - 4/5 Sets up a great gothic and moody atmosphere with the instrumentation and Robert Smith's excellent vocals. A fun and easy listen. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Play for Today, A Forest, M

Ace of Spades - 5/5 Stay Clean - 4/5 Metropolis - 3.5/5 The Hammer - 3.5/5 Iron Horse - 3.5/5 No Class - 4/5 Overkill - 3.5/5 (We Are) The Road Crew - 3.5/5 Capricorn - 3/5 Bomber - 3.5/5 Motorhead - 3.5/5 Motörhead is the definitive example of being really good at one thing and one thing only: making songs that sound like Ace of Spades. Overall: 3.5/5 Favorites: Ace of Spades

Make Me Know It - 3.5/5 Fever - 2/5 The Girl of My Best Friend - 2/5 I Will Be Home Again - 2.5/5 Dirty, Dirty Feeling - 2.5/5 Thrill of Your Love - 2.5/5 Soldier Boy - 2.5/5 Such a Night - 3/5 It Feels So Right - 3/5 The Girl Next Door - 3/5 Like a Baby - 2.5/5 Reconsider Baby - 2.5/5 Elvis is back and they really should have reconsidered what came out on this album. He shifts away from the rock n' roll and has more blue-eyed soul type songs, but all of them unfortunately feel a lot like B sides more than anything. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Make Me Know It

In the Flesh? - 4.5/5 The Thin Ice - 4/5 Another Brick in the Wall Part 1 - 4.5/5 The Happiest Days of Our Lives - 4/5 Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 - 5/5 Mother - 4.5/5 Goodbye Blue Sky - 4.5/5 Empty Spaces - 4/5 Young Lust - 4.5/5 One of My Turns - 4/5 Don't Leave Me Now - 3.5/5 Another Brick in the Wall Part 3 - 4.5/5 Goodbye Cruel World - 3.5/5 Hey You - 5/5 Is There Anybody Out There? - 4.5/5 Nobody Home - 4.5/5 Vera - 4/5 Bring the Boys Back Home - 3/5 Comfortably Numb - 5/5 The Show Must Go On - 4/5 In the Flesh - 4.5/5 Run Like Hell - 5/5 Waiting for the Worms - 5/5 Stop - 3/5 The Trial - 4.5/5 Outside the Wall - 4/5 Probably one of, if not the, greatest rock opera concert albums there are. I really don't have many more words to describe it as it's just that good. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Too many to list

An incredibly dull and boring album that drones on for far too long. The songs feel like they would fit in better in a modern church environment but that might just be me. Unfortunately my first 1*

Summertime Blues - 3.5/5 Rock Me Baby - 2.5/5 Doctor Please - 2.5/5 Out of Focus - 2.5/5 Parchment Farm - 2.5/5 Second Time Around - 2/5 I guess by technicality this is one of the first "heavy metal" albums. It has some promise at the beginning but falls off quickly due to feeling like the remaining songs are finishers that just keep going. These guys were probably good live but put into a studio their sounds gets too muddied. Overall: 2.5/5 Favorite(s): Summertime Blues

Thank You for Sending Me an Angel - 4/5 With Our Love - 3/5 The Good Thing - 3.5/5 Warning Sign - 4/5 The Girls Want to Be With the Girls - 4/5 Found a Job - 4.5/5 Artists Only - 4/5 I'm Not in Love - 4.5/5 Stay Hungry - 3.5/5 Take Me to the River - 4.5/5 The Big Country - 3.5/5 The first half nearly lost me but it rebounded once the sides turned over and it became a pretty good listen-through. Not my favorite bit of the Heads but that B-side is a killer. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Found a Job, I'm Not in Love, Take Me to the River

Cinnamon Girl - 4/5 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - 4/5 Round & Round (It Won't Be Long) - 3/5 Down by the River - 5/5 The Losing End (When You’re On) - 3.5/5 Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets) - 3/5 Cowgirl in the Sand - 4.5/5 As an introduction to Neil Young as a solo artist, this is a pretty good album for a first-time listener. It struggles a bit with the more slower songs but interestingly excels in the longer-form songs. Down by the River and Cowgirl in the Sand are the best examples of this and are probably the best two tracks to come off this album. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Cinnamon Girl, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Down by the River

The Fear - 4/5 Dishes - 3/5 Party Hard - 3.5/5 Help the Aged - 3.5/5 This Is Hardcore - 4/5 TV Movie - 3/5 A Little Soul - 3/5 I'm a Man - 3.5/5 Seductive Barry - 3/5 Sylvia - 3/5 Glory Days - 3.5/5 The Day After the Revolution - 3/5 I knew this wouldn't get any higher than a three because of the singer saying he has the same initials as Jesus. My first foray into Britpop for this list was properly whelming. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: The Fear, This is Hardcore

Sweet Baby James - 3.5/5 Lo and Behold - 2/5 Sunny Skies - 2/5 Steamroller - 1.5/5 Country Road - 3/5 Oh Susannah - 2.5/5 Fire and Rain - 3.5/5 Blossom - 3/5 Anywhere Like Heaven - 3/5 Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip on Me - 2.5/5 Suite for 20 G - 3/5 I can't rate an album highly if you compare boinking your significant other as if you were a steamroller. This could definitely placate anyone born before the 1960's. For me it's just perfectly cromulent. Overall: 2.5/5 Favorites: Sweet Baby James, Fire and Rain

Young Man Blues - 3.5/5 Substitute - 3/5 Summertime Blues - 3/5 Shakin' All Over - 3/5 My Generation - 4/5 The Magic Bus - 4/5 I thankfully saved myself some time by just listening to the vinyl release tracks because these were a bunch of "eh" songs propped up by a great performance by the band themselves. Mid score because of that. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: My Generation, The Magic Bus

Love Goes On - 4.5/5 Quiet Heart - 3.5/5 Love is a Sign - 2.5/5 You Can't Say No Forever - 2.5/5 The Devil's Eye - 2/5 Streets of Your Town - 3.5/5 Clouds - 3/5 Was There Anything I Could Do? - 4/5 I'm All Right - 3.5/5 Dive for Your Memory - 3/5 I was fearing another bad listen when I saw the combination of Australian jangle pop band, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was a fairly decent listen. Like listening to the Smiths without Morrissey but also somehow blander. It's not offensive or anything, just that I think that there could have been slightly more for me to bump it up another star but the slow songs after the opener nearly killed it for me. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Love Goes On, Was There Anything I Could Do?

Music - 3/5 Impresive Instant - 0/5 Runaway Lover - 2.5/5 I Deserve It - 1/5 Amazing - 2.5/5 Nobody's Perfect - 0/5 Don't Tell Me - 2.5/5 What It Feels Like for a Girl - 3.5/5 Paradise (Not for Me) - 1/5 Gone - 2/5 American Pie - 0/5 That was some bland and overproduced pop BS. I don't know how I listened to the whole thing, but there were some bright spots (Music is a guilty pleasure type of song, What It Feels... is an actually half-decent song). The autotuned and robotic voices really kill this thing. How was this critically acclaimed. All I'm realizing is that the early aughts were not a good time for music. Overall: 1/5 Favorites: Music, What It Feels Like for a Girl

I Zimbra - 5/5 Mind - 4/5 Paper - 4/5 Cities - 4.5/5 Life During Wartime - 5/5 Memories Can't Wait - 4.5/5 Air - 4/5 Heaven - 4.5/5 Animals - 4/5 Electric Guitar - 3.5/5 Drugs - 4/5 I'd first like to thank the generator for somehow giving me a Talking Heads album in back-to-back weeks, with last week's being More Songs About Buildings and Food. I wasn't exactly sure what was missing from their second album, and then I started listening to this one and it hit me. Talking Heads works way better if they mixed influences from disco, funk, world music, and the like, and that shows on this album. The way they mixed these elements all comes together to form something experimental and "higher-brow" that just works, and will continue to evolve with the band. Two of my favorites (Life During Wartime and Heaven) I think were done way better in Stop Making Sense but that's more nitpicking than anything. I hope next week I get Remain in Light with this pace. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: I Zimbra, Cities, Life During Wartime, Memories Can't Wait, Heaven

Call Me - 4/5 Green - 3.5/5 Hate My Way - 4/5 Vicky's Box - 4/5 Rabbits Dying - 4/5 America (She Can't Say No) - 3.5/5 Fear - 4/5 Stand Up - 4/5 Soul Soldier - 4/5 Delicate Cutters - 3.5/5 This might have been the hardest album to find so far, because 1) the album is not on any major streaming service except some scant YouTube playlists 2) the album cover on here is technically wrong (since it's from a compilation of their early albums that also includes this album in its entirety) and 3) they have another album also called "Throwing Muses" that's completely different. Luckily I found a YouTube video of the whole album (https://youtu.be/E1Xd2jY3zWQ?si=dxhSZ3oEdj5K2rFA) and it's a tight and easy listen. Maybe besides the constant bleating which may have turned some people off immediately I kept with it and thankfully I did. It's an interesting mix of eras between the 80's and 90's with a surprising additional of country to what at first appears to be an interesting post-punk/indie/whatever you want to call it album. Pretty decent listen despite the difficulty finding the whole album. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Call Me, Hate My Way, Vicky's Box, Rabbits Dying

Jackie - 3.5/5 Best of Both Worlds - 2.5/5 Black Sheep Day - 2.5/5 The Amorous Humphrey Plugg - 3/5 Next - 3/5 The Girls From the Streets - 2.5/5 Plastic Palace People - 3/5 Wait Until Dark - 2.5/5 The Girls and the Dogs - 2.5/5 Windows of the World - 2.5/5 The Bridge - 2.5/5 Come Next Spring - 2.5/5 An interesting crooner album that also blends theatrical elements that are the main reason that kept me listening. Crooners aren't really for me but there were several moments of the more vulgar lyrics that slapped me out of boredom and into reality. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Jackie

I've Got a Tiger By The Tail - 3/5 Trouble and Me - 2.5/5 Let the Sad Times Roll On - 2/5 Wham Bam - 2.5/5 If You Fall Out of Love With Me - 2.5/5 Fallin' For You - 3/5 We're Gonna Let the Good Times Roll - 2.5/5 The Band Keeps Playin' On - 2.5/5 Streets of Laredo - 3/5 Cryin' Time - 2/5 A Maiden's Prayer - 2.5/5 Memphis - 3/5 Pretty standard rockabilly country. Nothing really special but it's a decent album regardless. Production is very muddy at points where the vocals are drowned out by the music. Apparently this way a fairly influential album but I didn't really see it that way. Guess I'm not deep into the country scene or whatever. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: I've Got a Tiger By The Tail, Streets of Laredo, Memphis

Solo Dancer - 4.5/5 Duete Solo Dancers - 5/5 Group Dancers - 4.5/5 Trio and Group Dancers/Single Solos and Group Dance/Group and Solo Dance - 5/5 Man that was some good jazz. Felt like things were hopping all over the place but somehow it also felt like everything was right where it was supposed to be. And that got me hooked. Well the flamenco guitar hooked me in but still. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Duete Solo Dancers, Trio and Group Dancers/Single Solos and Group Dance/Group and Solo Dance

Pretty Hurts - 3.5/5 Haunted - 3.5/5 Drunk in Love - 3/5 Blow - 3/5 No Angel - 3/5 Partition - 3.5/5 Jealous - 3/5 Rocket - 1.5/5 Mine - 2/5 XO - 4/5 ***Flawless - 3/5 Superpower - 2.5/5 Heaven - 2.5/5 Blue - 3.5/5 Imagine having nearly 30 or more people work on an album and it comes out... only slightly above meh? R&B is not my specialty and I honestly prefer the singles than the albums for Beyonce. After listening I don't really understand the hype behind the music itself as I know she's a pretty good performer. Guess she's not for me then. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Pretty Hurts, Haunted, Partition, XO, Blue

TC and Honeybear - 4/5 Marz - 3/5 Where Dreams Go to Die - 3/5 Sigourney Weaver - 4/5 Chicken Bones - 2.5/5 Silver Platter Club - 2.5/5 It's Easier - 3/5 Outer Space - 3.5/5 Jesus Hates F****** - 3.5/5 Caramel - 3/5 Leopard & Lamb - 3/5 Queen of Denmark - 3/5 It's a pretty good listen until you gaze into the lyrics and realize they're more shallow than a dried up pool. I'm not degrading what he's writing but I think he needs to go back to English class and learn what metaphors are. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: TC and Honeybear, Sigourney Weaver

Re-Hash - 4/5 5/4 - 4/5 Tomorrow Comes Today - 4/5 New Genius (Brother) - 3/5 Clint Eastwood - 5/5 Man Research (Clapper) - 3/5 Punk - 3/5 Sound Check (Gravity) - 3.5/5 Double Bass - 4/5 Rock the House - 4.5/5 19-2000 - 5/5 Latin Simone (¿Qué Pasa Contigo?) - 3.5/5 Starshine - 3/5 Slow Country - 3.5/5 M1 A1 - 3.5/5 There are parts in here where they absolutely smashed it out of the park. Clint Eastwood is iconic for a reason, and this album's inclusion on the list could be solely due to that. And there are also parts where I feel the creativity kind of peters out, especially towards the end. But ultimately it's a good first start for what was essentially a side project that ended up becoming Damon Albarn's main project. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Clint Eastwood, Rock the House, 19-2000

Sister Midnight - 4.5/5 Nightclubbing - 5/5 Funtime - 4.5/5 Baby - 3.5/5 China Girl - 5/5 Dum Dum Boys - 4.5/5 Tiny Girls - 3.5/5 Mass Production - 4/5 An dark, brooding, and raw post-punk album that has an immaculate sound design and engineering team? Thanks Bowie! You can hear his influence on the album, but Iggy Pop makes it his own with the more moody lyrics and more punk-forward energy. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Nightclubbing, China Girl

Devils Haircut - 4/5 Hotwax - 3/5 Lord Only Knows - 3.5/5 The New Pollution - 3.5/5 Derelict - 3/5 Novacane - 3/5 Jack-Ass - 3.5/5 Where It's At - 3.5/5 Minus - 3.5/5 Sissyneck - 3/5 Readymade - 2.5/5 High 5 (Rock the Catskills) - 2/5 Ramshackle - 4/5 There's a lot here to take in with how varied the production is, but I never feel like it hits in any of those areas. Feels a bit weird to have what feels like a polished-up demo reel as your fifth album but to each their own. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Devils Haircut, Ramshackle

To All the Girls - 3.5/5 Shake Your Rump - 4/5 Johnny Ryall - 4/5 Egg Man - 4/5 High Plains Drifter - 3.5/5 The Sounds of Science - 4/5 3-Minute Rule - 4/5 Hey Ladies - 4.5/5 5-Piece Chicken Dinner - 3.5/5 Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun - 4.5/5 Car Thief - 4/5 What Comes Around - 3.5/5 Shadrach - 4.5/5 Ask for Janice - 3.5/5 B-Boy Bouillabaisse - 5/5 It's a surprisingly fun time when a group of the whitest boys you know (no not the comedy group) casually drop rhymes that include NPB legend Sadaharu Oh. The sampling is also incredible, laying the groundwork for future albums to mix and match sounds like they have. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Hey Ladies, Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun, Shadrach, B-Boy Bouillabaisse

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart - 4/5 Kamera - 3.5/5 Radio Cure - 3.5/5 War on War - 3/5 Jesus, etc. - 3.5/5 Ashes of American Flags - 4/5 Heavy Metal Drummer - 4/5 I'm the Man Who Loves You - 3.5/5 Pot Kettle Black - 4.5/5 Poor Places - 3.5/5 Reservations - 3/5 It's a fairly simple sad guy album that has a a slight lack of polish that makes it more endearing. There were points like on Pot Kettle Black where I could feel like they were doing something great, and then there were times when it sunk back down into generic folk rock or Americana. This is more of a 3.5 but I'm willing to give it a 4 just because. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, Ashes of American Flags, Pot Kettle Black

Big Iron - 4.5/5 Cool Water - 3.5/5 Billy the Kid - 3.5/5 A Hundred and Sixty Acres - 3.5/5 They're Hanging Me Tonight - 4/5 The Strawberry Roan - 4/5 El Paso - 4/5 In the Valley - 3/5 The Master's Call - 3/5 Running Gun - 3.5/5 Down in the Little Green Valley - 3.5/5 Utah Carol - 3.5/5 An excellent exhibit in how storytelling can elevate an album to be greater than it already is. I haven't particularly enjoyed the country albums so far, but this one is different in a good way. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Big Iron, They're Hanging Me Tonight, The Strawberry Roan

Gimme All Your Lovin - 4/5 Got Me Under Pressure - 4/5 Sharp Dressed Man - 4.5/5 I Need You Tonight - 3/5 I Got the Six - 3/5 Legs - 4/5 Thug - 3/5 TV Dinners - 3/5 Dirt Dog - 3/5 If I Could Only Flag Her Down - 3/5 Bad Girl - 3/5 This album is hard carried by the first 3 tracks and then the rest peter out to somehow all blend together into one blues rocky-poppy mush. Favorites: Gimme All Your Lovin, Got Me Under Pressure, Sharp Dressed Man

Mysterons - 4.5/5 Sour Times - 5/5 Strangers - 4.5/5 It Could Be Sweet - 4/5 Wandering Star - 4.5/5 Numb - 4/5 Roads - 4/5 Pedestal - 4/5 Biscuit - 4/5 Glory Box - 4.5/5 I've never really been exposed to trip hop outside of that one Massive Attack song as the opener to House, but this is a complete package very ahead of its time. The whole structure loopy guitar riffs, mellow samples, and the singer's intimate voice make this the quintessential trip hop album (although Mezzanine should also be on this list as it is the other quintessential trip hop album). Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Sour Times, Wandering Star, Glory Box

Introduction and Theme - 3.5/5 I'll Go Crazy - 4/5 Try Me - 3.5/5 Think - 4/5 I Don’t Mind - 4/5 Lost Someone - 4/5 Medley - 4/5 Night Train - 4/5 A funky, action-packed half hour that you can feel the sweat dripping off of James Brown's head. Him riling up the crowd definitely adds to the experience. He leans a bit more into the crooner side of his work, which I think is interesting since at this time he hadn't even come out with his most popular work yet. Great live performance. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Lost Someone, Medley

Motherless Children - 3/5 Give Me Strength - 2.5/5 Willie and the Hand Jive - 2.5/5 Get Ready - 2/5 I Shot the Sheriff - 3/5 I Can't Hold Out - 2.5/5 Please Be With Me - 2.5/5 Let it Grow - 2/5 Steady Rollin' Man - 3/5 Mainline Florida - 3/5 I'll echo what the top review of this album said in that this is probably a 3 but because Clapton is the way he is this is realistically a 2. He somehow managed to whitewash blues and make it boring. I knew he was a dick before listening to this, but now I just think he's overrated as a guitarist. IT was a easy listening but it's just music to have on in the background while you do other things, not worthy of one of the best albums of all time. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Motherless Children, I Shot the Sheriff, Steady Rollin' Man

No Action - 3.5/5 This Year's Girl - 3/5 The Beat - 4/5 Pump It Up - 4/5 Little Triggers - 3/5 You Belong to Me - 3.5/5 Hand in Hand - 3.5/5 (I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea - 4/5 Lip Service - 3.5/5 Living in Paradise - 3/5 Lipstick Vogue - 3.5/5 Night Rally - 3.5/5 I understand the hate for Elvis Costello for having a whopping 6 (!) albums on the list. It seems this is one of his best, and I can understand why this one in particular made it. I can definitely hear the influences it made for other albums and was generally a good listen. The best song from this was "Radio, Radio" even though it wasn't included in the primary release. Realistically a 3.5* for me but I'll bump it up to a 4 just because this will probably be the last time I like EC. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Beat, Pump It Up, (I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea

She Has Funny Cars - 3/5 Somebody to Love - 4.5/5 My Best Friend - 2.5/5 Today - 3/5 Comin' Back to Me - 3/5 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds - 3.5/5 D.C.B.A.-25 - 3/5 How Do You Feel - 3/5 Embryonic Journey - 3.5/5 White Rabbit - 4.5/5 Plastic Fantastic Lover - 3/5 It's a fairly middling album where the highs were way high above the rest. I understand its placement in the list as one of landmark psychedelic rock albums but it's just kind of meh to me outside of Somebody to Love and White Rabbit. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Somebody to Love, White Rabbit

I Might Have Been Queen (Soul Survivor) - 3.5/5 What's Love Got to Do With It - 4/5 Show Some Respect - 2.5/5 I Can't Stand the Rain - 2/5 Better Be Good to Me - 2/5 Let's Stay Together - 2.5/5 1984 - 2.5/5 Steel Claw - 2.5/5 Private Dancer - 2.5/5 Tina Turner has an incredible voice. Unfortunately, that's not the only instrument on this album, since the rest of the production feels stuck in the 80's and in a bad way. This probably could have been a bit more well-received when it came out, but 40 years later it's really dated. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: What's Love Got to Do With It

Reuters - 4/5 Field Day for the Sundays - 3/5 Three Girl Rhumba - 3.5/5 Ex Lion Tamer - 4/5 Lowdown - 3.5/5 Start to Move - 3/5 Brazil - 3.5/5 It's So Obvious - 3/5 Surgeon's Girl - 3.5/5 Pink Flag - 4/5 The Commercial - 3.5/5 Straight Line - 3.5/5 106 Beats That - 3.5/5 Mr. Suit - 3.5/5 Strange - 4/5 Fragile - 3.5/5 Mannequin - 4/5 Different to Me - 3/5 Champs - 3.5/5 Feeling Called Love - 3/5 1 2 X U - 3/5 You can definitely hear the shift going on from punk to post-punk here. I can't understand anything the guy is saying but the instrumentals are driving. Definitely more of a 3.5/5 but I'm rounding down because punk really isn't my thing, Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Reuters, Ex Lion Tamer, Mannequin, Strange

Never Let Me Down Again - 4.5/5 The Things You Said - 3.5/5 Strangelove - 4.5/5 Sacred - 3/5 Little 15 - 3/5 Behind the Wheel - 4/5 I Want You Now - 4/5 To Have and to Hold - 3.5/5 Nothing - 4.5/5 Pimpf - 3.5/5 The transitional period between the poppy synthpop of "I Just Can't Get Enough" to the more darker tones of what Violator would become. There were a couple of duds but was really solid throughout. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Never Let You Down Again, Strangelove, Nothing

Being Boring - 4.5/5 This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave - 4/5 To Face the Truth - 3.5/5 How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously? - 3.5/5 Only the Wind - 3.5/5 My October Symphony - 3.5/5 So Hard - 4/5 Nervously - 3/5 The End of the World - 4/5 Jealousy - 3.5/5 A more chilled-out and mature version of the Pet Shop Boys that I really did not expect. I really only knew them through West End Girls, so hearing this version of them was pleasantly surprising. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Being Boring, This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave, So Hard, The End of the World

The Changeling - 4/5 Love Her Madly - 4/5 Been Down So Long - 3.5/5 Cars Hiss by My Window - 3/5 L.A. Woman - 5/5 L'America - 3.5/5 Hyacinth House - 4/5 Crawling King Snake - 3.5/5 The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) - 3.5/5 Riders on the Storm - 5/5 Some really good blues rock tunes mixed in within a couple of middling blues rock tunes. I would love to be there when this stuff came out but the middle tracks seem a bit derivative. The highs, however, are incredibly high and pretty much carry this album to its good score. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: L.A. Woman, Riders on the Storm

Sittin' on Top of the World - 2.5/5 Let Love Rule - 3/5 Freedom Train - 2/5 My Precious Love - 2/5 I Built This Garden for Us - 2/5 Fear - 2.5/5 Does Anybody Out There Even Care - 2.5/5 Mr. Cab Driver - 2.5/5 Rosemary - 3/5 Be - 2.5/5 Lenny Kravitz in this version is just a diet version of Prince. I would like this album more if it wasn't so long. Does every song really need to be 5 minutes and be the same throughout? No. It doesn't. It's not an horrid listen, just a gating one where I wanted it to be over and then realized there's still 2 minutes left in the song. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Let Love Rule, Rosemary

Out in the Street - 3/5 I Don't Mind - 3/5 The Good's Gone - 3/5 La-La-La Lies - 3/5 Much Too Much - 3/5 My Generation - 4.5/5 The Kids Are Alright - 3/5 Please, Please, Please - 2.5/5 It's Not True - 3/5 I'm a Man - 2.5/5 A Legal Matter - 3/5 The Ox - 4/5 Is it right be just properly whelmed by "generational" album, so to say? Of course My Generation is a hit for a reason and The Ox is a killer instrumental track, but the rest of the songs are either filler or pretty meh covers of already known blues or soul songs. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: My Generation, The Ox

Hotel California - 4/5 New Kid in Town - 2.5/5 Life in the Fast Lane - 3/5 Wasted Time - 2/5 Wasted Time (Reprise) - 2.5/5 Victim of Love - 2.5/5 Pretty Maids All in a Row - 2/5 Try and Love Again - 2.5/5 The Last Resort - 2/5 When I had watched The Big Lebowski for the first time, the joke where he tells the cab driver to turn off the Eagles and gets kicked out went right over my head because I had only known the Eagles from their song "Hotel California" and thought "surely they can't be that bad, right?" Reader, they were in fact that bad. Hotel California raises this by a star alone but the rest of the songs were just so incredibly boring Overall: 2/5 Favorite: Hotel California

Tears of Rage - 3.5/5 To Kingdom Come - 3.5/5 In a Station - 3.5/5 Caledonia Mission - 3.5/5 The Weight - 4.5/5 We Can Talk - 3.5/5 Long Black Veil - 3.5/5 Chest Fever - 4/5 Lonesome Suzie - 3/5 This Wheel's On Fire - 3.5/5 I Shall Be Released - 3/5 The backing band for Bob Dylan trying to break on their on made a fairly solid debut. For what was essentially recorded in the basement it certainly sounds a like they were in a studio. As for the music, it's all kind of the same-y folkish stuff that was popular around the time, but because The Weight was pretty good that bumps it up a star. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Weight, Chest Fever

Sunday Bloody Sunday - 5/5 Seconds - 4/5 New Year's Day - 5/5 Like a Song… - 4/5 Drowning Man - 3.5/5 The Refugree - 3.5/5 Two Hearts Beat as One - 4/5 Red Light - 3.5/5 Surrender - 3.5/5 "40" - 3/5 Probably due to overexposure from my parents I thought of U2 as a kind of "eh" band that was maybe a tad bit overrated. I had no idea that they were actually a bit punk-ish with this album, which I guess is a given related to the subject matter. I guess I had written them off but this was actually a relatively solid album that was a bit more front-heavy than I would have liked. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Year's Eve, Like a Song...

Oh Shit - 4/5 4 Better or 4 Worse - 4/5 I'm That Type of * - 4.5/5 Soul Flower (Remix) - 4.5/5 On the DL - 4/5 Officer - 4/5 Ya Mama - 4/5 Passin' Me By - 4.5/5 Otha Fish - 3.5/5 Pack the Pipe - 4/5 Return of the B-Boy - 4.5/5 A real departure from what was commonplace at the time, The Pharcyde decides to turn up the fun dial and see how much banter they can get away with smooth jazzy beats on top of it. I think they overdo it a tad with the amount of innuendo, putting them just a tier down from the contemporaries in the jazz rap genre. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Soul Flower (Remix), Return of the B-Boy

You Are the Sunshine of My Life - 4.5/5 Maybe Your Baby - 3.5/5 You and I - 4/5 Tuesday Heartbreak - 4/5 You've Got It Bad Girl - 4/5 Superstition - 5/5 Big Brother - 4.5/5 Blame It on the Sun - 4.5/5 Lookin' for Another Pure Love - 4.5/5 I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) - 4.5/5 I hadn't listened to Stevie Wonder outside of the occasional hits, but digging into this first album (which isn't even the best one he put out!) made me appreciate him all the more. Superstition is an all-timer for sure, but the whole B side essentially roped me in to giving this a 5. Looking forward to his other albums if this one is this good. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Superstition, Blame It on the Sun, Lookin' for Another Pure Love, I Believe

Southern Point - 4/5 Two Weeks - 4/5 All We Ask - 3.5/5 Fine for Now - 3.5/5 Cheerleader - 3/5 Dory - 3/5 Ready, Able - 4.5/5 About Face - 3/5 Hold Still - 3.5/5 While You Wait for the Others - 3/5 I Live With You - 3/5 Foreground - 3/5 Highs were really high but the rest of the album felt like it was trying to speak to the hipster part of myself that I want to leave behind. In other words, just kind of meh all-around besides a few points. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Southern Point, Two Weeks, Ready,Able

Sleep to Dream - 4.5/5 Sullen Girl - 3.5/5 Shadowboxer - 4/5 Criminal - 4.5/5 Slow Like Honey - 3/5 The First Taste - 4.5/5 Never Is a Promise - 3.5/5 The Child is Gone - 3/5 Pale September - 3/5 Carrion - 4/5 I came in expecting this to be another 3-ish star review after my first foray with Fiona Apple being Fetch the Bolt Cutters. I was surprised to hear that this was not at all like that album and in fact I think I like it better than her newest album on here. A wide range of emotions on display and feels a lot less neurotic. I can now see why people enjoy her as I was mostly on the fence with her. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Sleep to Dream, Criminal, The First Taste

Your New Cuckoo - 3.5/5 Been It - 3.5/5 Heartbreaker - 3/5 Happy Meal II - 3/5 Never Recover - 4/5 Step on Me - 3.5/5 Lovefool - 4.5/5 Losers - 3.5/5 Iron Man - 4/5 Great Divide - 3/5 Choke - 3.5/5 I'm probably too young since I think of these guys as just one-hit wonders with Lovefool. I was definitely surprised when the rest of the album was sort of the same vibe as Lovefool, including a really interesting cover of Black Sabbath's Iron Man (in a good way!). Probably more of a 3.5 to me but I'll round it up for the vibes. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Never Recover, Lovefool, Iron Man

Where is My Lovely Horse

Combination of the Two - 4/5 I Need a Man to Love - 4/5 Summertime - 3.5/5 Piece of My Heart - 4.5/5 Turtle Blues - 3.5/5 Oh, Sweet Mary - 3.5/5 Ball and Chain - 3.5/5 Man Janis Joplin has such a distinct voice. The faux-live production of the album helps bring the low fidelity and rawer aesthetic to life and really makes it stand out. Like with all blues rock to me it starts to sound the same after awhile but this doesn't overstay its welcome too long. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Piece of My Heart

Pure - 3/5 Jigsaw Feeling - 4/5 Overground - 3.5/5 Carcass - 3.5/5 Helter Skelter - 3.5/5 Mirage - 4/5 Metal Postcard (Mittageissen) - 3.5/5 Nicotine Stain - 4/5 Suburban Relapse - 4/5 Switch - 4/5 This is one of those albums where even though I don't vibe with it 100% of the time, I can totally see how this was an influence to the genre. Without this, post-punk wouldn't have been the way it was and likely not have gotten stuff like Joy Division/New Order, The Cure, or any of those bands influence by post-punk. It's normally a 3.5 for me but it gets rounded up due to its stature. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Jigsaw Feeling, Switch

My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) - 5/5 Thrasher - 4.5/5 Ride My Llama - 4/5 Pocahontas - 4/5 Sail Away - 4/5 Powderfinger - 4.5/5 Welfare Mothers - 4/5 Sedan Delivery - 4/5 Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) - 5/5 Neil Young decided that he wanted his own version of the Electric Dylan and decided that he would influence grunge in the process. What that results in is a gradual build-up from the acoustic remembrance to the dingy want for all of that to burn away. After all, it is better to burn out than fade away. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue), Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)

Where Do the Children Play? - 3.5/5 Hard Headed Woman - 3.5/5 Wild World - 4.5/5 Sad Lisa - 3.5/5 Miles From Nowhere - 4/5 But I Might Die Tonight - 3.5/5 Longer Boats - 3.5/5 Into White - 3.5/5 On the Road to Find Out - 4/5 Father and Son - 5/5 Tea for the Tillerman - 3.5/5 Father and Son is the best way an artist can do a duet with themselves, they either have to play both parts or wait 40 years so they can do a duet with their younger self. An earnest and simplistic album where the artist manages to bring it all together to turn what some might see as corny into an earnest attempt of old charm. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Wild World, Father and Son

Get Ready for Love - 4/5 Cannibal's Hymn - 4/5 Hiding All Away - 3.5/5 Messiah Ward - 4/5 There She Goes, My Beautiful World - 4.5/5 Nature Boy - 4/5 Abattoir Blues - 4/5 Let the Bells Ring - 4/5 Fable of the Brown Ape - 3.5/5 The Lyre of Orpheus - 3.5/5 Breathless - 4/5 Babe, You Turn Me On - 4/5 Easy Money - 4/5 Supernaturally - 4/5 Spell - 3.5/5 Carry Me - 3.5/5 O Children - 4/5 I was loathing this because A) I had never listened to a Nick Cave album before so I had no idea what I was going into and B) this was a double album so I was worried it would be a slog. I was fortunate to find out that Nick Cave is actually pretty good and this wasn't that much of a slog, although some of the later tracks on the second side seemed to blend in more than others. Pretty good introduction to this artist then. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: There She Goes, My Beautiful World

Why does the lead singer sound like he's recording his lyrics from another room half the time? The other half is just noise.

Back in the U.S.S.R. - 5/5 Dear Prudence - 4.5/5 Glass Onion - 4.5/5 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - 5/5 Wild Honey Pie - 3/5 The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill - 4/5 While My Guitar Gently Weeps - 5/5 Happiness is a Warm Gun - 4.5/5 Martha My Dear - 4/5 I'm So Tired - 5/5 Blackbird - 5/5 Piggies - 3.5/5 Rocky Raccoon - 4/5 Don’t Pass Me By - 4.5/5 Why Don’t We Do it in the Road? - 4/5 I Will - 4/5 Julia - 4/5 Birthday - 4/5 Yer Blues - 4.5/5 Mother Nature's Song - 4/5 Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey - 4/5 Sexy Sadie - 4/5 Helter Skelter - 5/5 Long, Long, Long - 4/5 Revolution 1 - 5/5 Honey Pie - 3.5/5 Savoy Truffle - 4.5/5 Cry Baby Cry - 4.5/5 Revolution 9 - 3/5 Good Night - 4/5 I fully understand why this is on here. While it might be a perfect selection of songs (of course a 31 track double album cannot be fully perfect) but the highs completely outweigh everything else and make this something worth sitting down for an hour and a half. And maybe awarding people a trophy for not skipping all the way through Revolution 9. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Blackbird, Helter Skelter

Scarborough Fair / Canticle - 4/5 Patterns - 3.5/5 Cloudy - 3/5 Homeward Bound - 4/5 The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine - 3/5 The 59th Street Bridge Song - 3/5 The Danging Conversation - 3.5/5 Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall - 3.5/5 A Simple Desultory Philippic - 3/5 For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her - 4/5 A Poem on the Underground Wall - 3.5/5 7 O'Clock News / Silent Night - 3.5/5 A bunch of classics that I unfortunately just can't really get behind enough. Like it's good music but I'm learning that folk isn't really my forte. They have some good stuff on here and thankfully it was less than a half an hour but I really struggle to give this anything more than a 3.5. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Scarborough Fair, Homeward Bound, For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her

The Thrill of It All - 4.5/5 Three and Nine - 3.5/5 All I Want Is You - 3.5/5 Out of the Blue - 4/5 If it Takes All Night - 3.5/5 Bitter Sweet - 3/5 Triptych - 3.5/5 Casanova - 4/5 A Really Good Time - 3.5/5 Prairie Rose - 4/5 A good mix of eras between prog rock and the glam rock and/or art rock genres yet to come. It’s nice that they had a good amount of variety and they managed to hit on most of it. Good listen, probably more of a 3.5 but I’m feeling generous. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Thrill of It All, Out of the Blue, Casanova, Prairie Rose

Take a Bow - 4/5 Starlight - 5/5 Supermassive Black Hole - 5/5 Map of the Problematique - 5/5 Soldier's Poem - 3/5 Invincible - 3.5/5 Assassin - 4/5 Exo-Politics - 4/5 City of Delusion - 4.5/5 Hoodoo - 3.5/5 Knights of Cydonia - 5/5 A grandiose space-influenced album that tends to be a bigger than it actually it. These songs sound like they are meant to be played in a stadium, leaning into the arena-rock aesthetic maybe a bit too much. Didn't detract too much from my enjoyment, with the first 4 tracks and the closing track being the far and away best parts. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, Map of the Problematique, City of Delusion, Knights of Cydonia

Definitive Gaze - 4.5/5 My Tulpa - 4/5 Shot by Both Sides - 5/5 Recoil - 3.5/5 Burst - 3.5/5 Motorcade - 4/5 The Great Beautician in the Sky - 4/5 The Light Pours Out of Me - 4.5/5 Parade - 4/5 This came out less than a year after the Sex Pistols? It sounds like it doesn't belong in this era, which tracks since it ushered in the era of post-punk. Which is mildly weird since I never realized how short the punk era was in the 70's. It still has the backbone of a punk record but with ahead-of-its-time instrumentation to pull it up from its peers. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Definitive Gaze, Shot by Both Sides, The Lights Pours Out of Me

Money Changes Everything - 4/5 Girls Just Want to Have Fun - 5/5 When You Were Mine - 4/5 Time After Time - 5/5 She Bop - 4/5 All Though the Night - 4/5 Witness - 3/5 I'll Kiss You - 3/5 He's So Unusual - 2.5/5 Yeah Yeah - 3.5/5 A tale of two sides here. The first side is phenomenal and practically solidified her as one of the biggest pop stars of the 80's. The second side really dips in quality after the first two songs and doesn't really recover to where the album started. Very fun listen with more depth than I expected for an 80's pop album. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Time After Time

Anxious Mo-Fo - 4/5 Theatre is the Life of You - 4/5 Viet Nam - 5/5 Cohesion - 3.5/5 It's Expected I'm Gone - 4/5 #1 Hit Song - 4/5 Two Beads at the End - 4/5 Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth - 4/5 Don't Look Now - 3/5 Shit From an Old Notebook - 4.5/5 Nature Without Man - 4.5/5 One Reporter's Opinion - 4/5 Political Song for Micheal Jackson to Sing - 4/5 Maybe Partying Will Help - 4.5/5 Toadies - 3.5/5 Retreat - 4/5 The Big Foist - 4/5 God Bows to Math - 4/5 Corona - 4.5/5 The Glory of Man - 5/5 Take 5, D. - 3.5/5 My Heart and the Real World - 4/5 History Lesson - Part II - 4.5/5 You Need the Glory - 4/5 The Roar of the Masses Could Be Farts - 4.5/5 Mr. Robot's Holy Orders - 4.5/5 West Germany - 5/5 The Politics of Time - 4.5/5 Themselves - 4/5 Please Don't Be Gentle With Me - 4/5 Nothing Indeed - 4/5 No Exchange - 4.5/5 There Ain't Shit on T.V. Tonight - 4/5 This Ain't No Picnic - 4.5/5 Spillage - 4/5 Untitled Song for Latin America - 4/5 Jesus and Tequila - 4/5 June 16th - 4/5 Storm in My House - 4/5 Martin's Story - 4/5 Doctor Wu - 4/5 The World According to Nouns - 4/5 Love Dance - 4/5 A wire array of influences for an incredibly varied punk album. Surprisingly not a slog with most of the songs being only about a minute or two. Also didn't realize this is where the Jackass theme came from but that makes it even cooler. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Viet Nam, The Glory of Man

Paint It Black - 5/5 Stupid Girl - 2.5/5 Lady Jane - 2.5/5 Under My Thumb - 3/5 Doncha Bother Me - 3/5 Think - 3/5 Flight 505 - 2.5/5 High and Dry - 2/5 It's Not Easy - 3/5 I Am Waiting - 3/5 Goin' Home - 3/5 I ultimately decided to listen to the US version of this album just because it had Paint It Black. I had liked Under My Thumb until I actually listened to it and it turned me off. The first track really carries this album as the rest of it. They're a lot more misogynistic than I realized. A 5 for the first track and a meh for the rest averages out to a 3 so I guess that's what I'm going with. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Paint It Black

Take It Easy - 3/5 Witchy Woman - 2.5/5 Chug All Night - 2.5/5 Most of Us Are Sad - 2/5 Nightingale - 2.5/5 Train Leaves Here This Morning - 2/5 Take the Devil - 2.5/5 Earlybird - 2/5 Peaceful Easy Feeling - 2/5 Tryin' - 2.5/5 When I imagine what the most vanilla, conservative sounding album could be like, it would certainly be coming from the Eagles. They sound so stale and are really only propped up by the people who swear they are good. They are wrong. The Dude was right. I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Take It Easy

Planet Rock - 3/5 Looking for the Perfect Beat - 3/5 Renegades of Funk - 3/5 Frantic Situation - 2.5/5 Who You Funkin' With - 3.5/5 Go Go Pop - 3/5 They Made a Mistake - 2.5/5 I have a problem rating this. It no doubt deserves to be on here, influencing the hip hop and rap genres with its mixing of funk and early electronic music. I have to hold back the rating because #1 it sounds incredibly of its time (in a bad way) and #2 this guy liked to diddle kids. Can't rate it any higher than a 3. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Who You Funkin' With

Green River - 4.5/5 Commotion - 3.5/5 Tombstone Shadow - 3.5/5 Wrote a Song for Everyone - 3/5 Bad Moon Rising - 5/5 Lodi - 4/5 Cross-Tie Walker - 3.5/5 Sinister Purpose - 3.5/5 The Night Time is the Right Time - 3.5/5 Very high quality rock from these guys. I'd say It's not their best album out of the short time the band was together but it's another really good effort. Also helps that it's somehow less than 30 minutes and packs a great punch. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Green River, Bad Moon Rising

Promenade, Part 1 - 3.5/5 The Gnome - 4/5 Promenade, Part 2 - 3.5/5 The Sage - 3.5/5 The Old Castle - 4.5/5 Blues Variation - 4.5/5 Promenade, Part 3 - 3.5/5 The Hut of Baba Yaga, Part 1 - 4/5 The Curse of Baba Yaga - 5/5 The Hut of Baba Yaga, Part 2 - 5/5 The Great Gates of Kiev - 4.5/5 Nutrocker - 4.5/5 A great re-imagining of classical musical that I feel gets better as the album goes on. The second half is killer, and their reworking of the Nutcracker suite as a "bonus" is also excellent. I'd rather listen to other prog stuff but this is still pretty good overall. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Hut of Baba Yaga, the Curse of Baba Yaga, Nutrocker

Monday, Monday - 3.5/5 Straight Shooter - 3.5/5 Got a Feelin' - 3/5 I Call Your Name - 3/5 Do You Wanna Dance - 3/5 Go Where You Wanna Go - 3/5 California Dreamin' - 5/5 Spanish Harlem - 3/5 Somebody Groovy - 3/5 Hey Girl - 3/5 You Baby - 3/5 In Crowd - 3/5 California Dreamin' alone makes this album worth it. However, the rest of the album is just mush so that's 2 stars for one song along and 1 for the rest of it. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: California Dreamin'

Every Picture Tells A Story - 3/5 Seems Like a Long Time - 2/5 That's All Right - 2.5/5 Tomorrow is Such a Long Time - 2.5/5 Maggie May - 3.5/5 Mandolin Wind - 2/5 (I Know) I'm Losing You - 2.5/5 Reason to Believe - 2/5 I had only known Rod Stewart as the guy who had a unique voice and sang "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy". The first part is surely true, but he writes his music in the way that I've perceived him: extremely dated with a hint of misogyny. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Maggie May

Penguin Café Single - 4/5 Zopf: From the Colonies - 4/5 Zopf: In a Sydney Motel - 3.5/5 Zopf: Surface Tension - 3.5/5 Zopf: Milk - 3/5 Zopf: Coronation - 3.5/5 Zopf: Giles Farnaby's Dream - 4/5 Zopf: Pigtail - 3/5 The Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away and It Doesn’t Matter - 4.5/5 Hugebaby - 4/5 Chartered Flight - 4/5 An interesting mostly-instrumental album that cradles between soothing sounds and wanting to break down in tears because of those sounds. I had never heard this before, but Brian Eno being a producer makes me like it. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Sound of Someone..., Penguin Cafe Single

Good Times Bad Times - 4/5 Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - 4/5 You Shook Me - 3/5 Dazed and Confused - 4/5 Your Time is Gonna Come - 3.5/5 Black Mountain Slide - 3.5/5 Communication Breakdown - 4.5/5 I Can't Quit You Baby - 3.5/5 How Many More Times - 3.5/5 I didn't grow up around LZ a lot, so I think I've removed myself from any bias from anyone around me that would claim that they are one of the best bands there is. After seeing that 2/3's of this album are covers and half of those weren't given proper credit, I think I need to bump down the score. There's only so much Plant's "aaaAAAaaAAaaAA" I can manage in a single sitting and the solos rarely add anything besides the first few bars. It's not a perfect debut as some would claim but it's still a solid foundation. It's a 4 for me but a really low 4 teetering on a 3.5. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Communication Breakdown

Heartattack and Vine - 3.5/5 In Shades - 3/5 Saving All My Love for You - 3/5 Downtown - 3.5/5 Jersey Girl - 4/5 'Til the Money Runs Out - 3.5/5 On the Nickel - 3.5/5 Mr. Siegal - 3.5/5 Ruby's Arms - 3/5 I can just imagine this voice being projected across the room in a seedy jazz bar. It takes some time getting used to but I think it eventually works out in the end. Not my style of music but I can see the influence on some artists. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Jersey Girl

Bonde - 4.5/5 Soukora - 3.5/5 Gomni - 4/5 Sega - 3.5/5 Amandrai - 3/5 Lasidan - 3/5 Keito - 3/5 Banga - 3/5 Ai Du - 3.5/5 Diaraby - 3.5/5 Albums like these are why I wanted to start this journey. It's great as background music, almost as if this was meant to be used in a strategy game. Or maybe that's just my many hours in Civ games talking to me. There are some pretty good tracks on here but most of them kinda sound the same after a while. It's not bad at all, just a bit repetitive. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Bonde, Gomni

Mis-Shapes - 4.5/5 Pencil Skirt - 4/5 Common People - 5/5 I Spy - 4/5 Disco 2000 - 4.5/5 Live Bed Show - 4/5 Something Changed - 4/5 Sorted for E's and Wizz - 4/5 F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E - 4/5 Underwear - 4/5 Monday Morning - 4/5 Bar Italia - 4/5 I think the generator may have screwed me over with Pulp since I got the album most associated with the so-called "hangover" period of Britpop in "This is Hardcore". I was a bit more receptive to see what this era of music was like at its peak, and this album surely delivered. Common People is an anthemic track that seems like its better than every other run-of-the-mill Britpop song of the time. Unfortunately I got the best early so this will mean the rest of the genre will be worse. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Mis-Shapes, Common People, Disco 2000

Holidays in the Sun - 5/5 Bodies - 4/5 No Feelings - 4/5 Liar - 4/5 God Save the Queen - 5/5 Problems - 4.5/5 Seventeen - 3.5/5 Anarchy in the UK - 5/5 Submission - 4/5 Pretty Vacant - 4/5 New York - 4/5 E.M.I - 4/5 For an album that was labeled "controversial", it both started and essentially ended the punk movement with how influential the album was and the chaos and tragedy behind the scenes. It seems like a parody of itself at times because of how many other bands played on tropes here. An essential listen to the punk genre. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Holidays in the Sun, God Save the Queen, Anarchy in the UK

Black Cow - 4.5/5 Aja - 5/5 Deacon Blues - 4.5/5 Peg - 5/5 Home at Last - 4/5 I Got the News - 4/5 Josie - 4/5 Some may call this "overproduced" but I think this is a mastercraft work in how to utilize the studio effectively as an instrument itself. The genre here is beyond classification: a fusion of pop, jazz, rock, and all of the above come together create a no-filler, all-killer piece. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Aja, Peg

Astral Weeks - 4.5/5 Beside You - 3/5 Sweet Thing - 4/5 Cyprus Avenue - 3.5/5 Young Lovers Do - 4/5 Madame George - 3.5/5 Ballerina - 3/5 Slim Slow Slider - 3/5 The music is as good as a butterfly fluttering on a spring day, but does Van Morrison realize he doesn't have to stretch songs out that far? It would have been a four if he trimmed the fat but unfortunately for him it's a three because he can't stop adding filler Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Astral Weeks

You Want It Darker - 4/5 Treaty - 3.5/5 On the Level - 3.5/5 Leaving the Table - 3.5/5 If I Didn't Have Your Love - 3/5 Traveling Light - 3.5/5 It Seemed the Better Way - 3.5/5 Steer Your Way - 3.5/5 String Reprise/Treaty - 4/5 The sound of a man staring death in the face ready to take him away sooner or later. I don't see myself coming back to this anytime soon but it was an interesting interpretation of someone contemplating their final days. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: You Want It Darker, String Reprise/Treaty

Purple Haze - 5/5 Manic Depression - 4.5/5 Hey Joe - 4.5/5 Love or Confusion - 4/5 May This Be Love - 4/5 I Don't Live Today - 4/5 The Wind Cries Mary - 4/5 Fire - 4.5/5 Third Stone From the Sun - 4/5 Foxey Lady - 5/5 Are You Experienced? - 4.5/5 A bombastic debut from arguable one of the best guitar players of all time. There really isn't much I have to say that hasn't already been said about Hendrix. Instant 5 stars. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Purple Haze, Foxey Lady

Born on the Bayou - 4.5/5 Bootleg - 4/5 Graveyard Train - 3.5/5 Good Golly Miss Molly - 4/5 Penthouse Pauper - 3.5/5 Proud Mary - 4.5/5 Keep on Chooglin' - 3.5/5 By no means their best album, but does have two pretty good tracks in Born on the Bayou and Proud Mary. The rest of it is pretty meh unfortunately. The one thing I do like about CCR is that they get in and get out with most of their albums, coming in at a nice 33 minutes so I didn't get tired of my second similar-ish CCR album within the past two weeks. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Born on the Bayou, Proud Mary

Just Like Honey - 4/5 The Living End - 3.5/5 Taste the Floor - 3/5 The Hardest Walk - 3/5 Cut Dead - 3/5 In a Hole - 3/5 Taste of Cindy - 3/5 Never Understand - 3/5 Inside Me - 3/5 Sowing Seeds - 3.5/5 My Little Underground - 3/5 You Trip Me Up - 3/5 Something's Wrong - 3.5/5 It's So Hard - 3/5 This is an album that is way ahead of its time. Heavy amounts of reverb and guitar distortion make this stand out compared to any other rock band of the time. Despite it being out of place (in a good way, eventually influencing the shoegaze genre), it's not the king of thing for me. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Just Like Honey

Where the Streets Have No Name - 5/5 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - 4.5/5 With or Without You - 4.5/5 Bullet the Blue Sky - 4.5/5 Running to Stand Still - 3.5/5 Red Hill Mining Town - 4/5 In God's Country - 3.5/5 Trip Through Your Wires - 3/5 One Tree Hill - 3.5/5 Exit - 4/5 Mothers of the Disappeared - 4/5 If the whole album was like the first 4 tracks, then it would somehow be an easy 5 stars. But the rest of album peters out and doesn't go back to those highs, staying at a pretty solid but not outstanding level or arena-oriented rock for the remaining 40 minutes or so. For an attempt to go "harder", they really only went hard for the first few tracks and only a few tracks (Bullet to Blue Sky, Exit) could be seen as hard rock-adjacent. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, With or Without You, Bullet to Blue Sky

Happiness Is Easy - 4/5 I Don't Believe in You - 4/5 Life's What You Make It - 4.5/5 April 5th - 3/5 Living in Another World - 5/5 Give It Up - 4/5 Chameleon Day - 3/5 Time It's Time - 4/5 What many people say is a transitional period between the synthpop and post-rock eras, this is an exceptionally produced album, ditching the synths for the pit but still having some synthpop sensibilities. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Life's What You Make It, Living in Another World

Alternate Route to Vulcan Street - 3.5/5 Sidewalk Serfer Girl - 4/5 (Drawing) Rings Around the World - 4/5 It's Not the End of the World? - 3.5/5 Receptacle for the Respectable - 3.5/5 (A) Touch Sensitive - 3.5/5 Shoot Doris Day - 3.5/5 Miniature - 3/5 No Sympathy - 3.5/5 Juxtaposed With U - 3.5/5 Presidential Suite - 3.5/5 Run! Christian, Run! - 3.5/5 Fragile Happiness - 3.5/5 A modern interpretation of psychedelia evolved from Pet Sounds and the Beatles, but it really overstayed its welcome. It sounded a lot like that era but really didn't have anything new to bring to the table outside of some synths. It's good, but not something I would ever listen to a second time. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Sidewalk Serfer Girl, (Drawing) Rings Around the World

Imagine - 3.5/5 Crippled Inside - 3/5 Jealous Guy - 3.5/5 It's So Hard - 3/5 I Don't Want to Be a Soldier Mama - 3/5 Give Me Some Truth - 3/5 Oh My Love - 2.5/5 How Do You Sleep? - 4/5 How? - 3/5 Oh Yoko! - 3.5/5 What do you get when you separate the Beatles and just put in the guy with the unchecked ego in charge of an album? Well a whole load of meh that's what. A whole lot of filler and not much killer is what John is left with after the Beatles. Imagine has been tainted by whatever happened during COVID, and scores lower as a result. Pretty "eh" all-around. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: How Do You Sleep?

Lonesome Day - 4/5 Into the Fire - 3.5/5 Waitin' on a Sunny Day - 3.5/5 Nothing Man - 3/5 Countin' on a Miracle - 3.5/5 Empty Sky - 3.5/5 Worlds Apart - 3.5/5 Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin) - 3/5 Further On (Up the Road) - 3/5 The Fuse - 3/5 Mary's Place - 3/5 You're Missing - 3.5/5 The Rising - 4/5 Paradise - 3/5 My City of Ruins - 3.5/5 This definitely sounds like it came out post-9/11. Unfortunately it also sounds like The Boss may have sold out a little and as a result the albums sounds pretty middle of the road. The length certainly doesn't help either. It could have been better maybe in a contemporary sense but I was not sentient enough to relate to that. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Lonesome Day, The Rising

Once - 4/5 Even Flow - 5/5 Alive - 5/5 Why Go - 4.5/5 Black - 5/5 Jeremy - 5/5 Oceans - 4/5 Porch - 4.5/5 Garden - 4.5/5 Deep - 4.5/5 Release - 4/5 One of the atypical grunge bands whose first outing definitely leans more into the Led Zeppelin-type of rock rather than the punk or metal of their Seattle counterparts. Arguably one of the best grunge albums with no filler songs whatsoever and all the singles rip. The Even Flow-Jeremy sequence is one of my favorites and solidifies this as an easy 5*. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Even Flow, Alive, Jeremy, Black

We've Only Just Begun - 3.5/5 Love is Surrender - 3/5 Maybe It's You - 3/5 Reason to Believe - 2.5/5 Help - 3.5/5 (They Long to Be) Close to You - 4/5 Baby It's You - 3/5 I'll Never Fall in Love Again - 3/5 Crescent Noon - 3/5 Mr. Guder - 2.5/5 I Kept On Loving You - 3/5 Another Song - 3/5 The instrumentation and production of this album is phenomenal. My only problem is that it is leaning way too much towards a Muzak aesthetic (or that I just don't really like adult contemporary/easy listening). Perfectly fine but not for me. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: (They Long to Be) Close to You

Invaders - 4/5 Children of the Damned - 4/5 The Prisoner - 4/5 22, Acacia Avenue - 3/5 The Number of the Beast - 4/5 Run to the Hills - 5/5 Gangland - 3.5/5 Hallowed Be Thy Name - 4/5 Some pretty good heavy metal stuff. I had only known them through "Run to the Hills" so it's nice to know that their sound really doesn't change from song to song. Good music to turn your brain off and listen to because surely the lyrics are amazing, right? Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Run to the Hills

Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside) - 3.5/5 Lose My Breath - 4/5 Cupid Come - 4/5 (When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream - 4.5/5 No More Sorry - 3/5 All I Need - 3/5 Feed Me With Your Kiss - 4/5 Sueisfine - 4/5 Several Girls Galore - 3.5/5 You Should Never - 4/5 Nothing Much to Lose - 4/5 I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It) - 4/5 It took me a few tracks but I finally caught on to what shoegaze is. It's a surprising mix of new wave and grunge with maybe a little more noise rock-ish sounds than I'm used to. Whatever. I got the gist of it. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: You're Still in a Dream

Down to the Waterline - 4/5 Water of Love - 3/5 Setting Me Up - 3.5/5 Six Blade Knife - 3/5 Southbound Again - 3.5/5 Sultans of Swing - 5/5 In the Gallery - 3.5/5 Wild West End - 3.5/5 Lions - 3.5/5 I used to be really obsessed with Sultans of Swing, so I had high hopes for this album. Turns out that's all this albums has going for it as the remainder of the album is pretty much just British Blues mush. Realistically a 3.5 but I'll be nice and give it 4 just because of Sultans of Swing Favorites: Sultans of Swing

Black Sabbath - 4.5/5 The Wizard - 4/5 Behind the Wall of Sleep - 4/5 N.I.B. - 4.5/5 Evil Woman - 4/5 Sleeping Village - 4/5 Warning - 4/5 So that's what early heavy metal sounded like. It's a really good start for them and the genre, but I really feel they perfected their craft with their next album that somehow came out less than a year later. Overall: 4/5 Favorites; Black Sabbath, N.I.B.

The Headmaster Ritual - 4.5/5 Rusholme Ruffians - 3/5 I Want the One I Can't Have - 3.5/5 What She Said - 4/5 That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore - 4.5/5 Nowhere Fast - 3.5/5 Well I Wonder - 4/5 Barbarism Begins at Home - 4.5/5 Meat is Murder - 3.5/5 Actually listening to the Smiths that does not include any of their big singles made me realize something. Morrissey really isn't the guy leading the charge. His bandmates are the ones really carrying the weight, and he's just there to wobble over the lyrics and make the soundscape complete. Still doesn't mean he's a compete ass though. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Headmaster Ritual, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore, Barbarism Begins at Home

Chain of Fools - 4.5/5 Money Won't Change You - 4/5 People Get Ready - 4/5 Niki Hoeky - 4/5 (You Make Me Fee Like) A Natural Woman - 4.5/5 Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby) - 4.5/5 Good to Me as I Am to You - 4/5 Come Back Baby - 4/5 Groovin' - 4/5 Ain't No Way - 4/5 No wonder they call her the queen of soul. Good quality music but nothing really standing out from the mix to elevate it to a 5. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Chain of Fools, (You Make Me Fee Like) A Natural Woman, Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby)

Waitin' for the Bus - 3.5/5 Jesus Just Left Chicago - 3/5 Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers - 3.5/5 Master of Sparks - 3/5 Hot, Blue and Righteous - 3/5 Move Me On Down the Line - 3/5 Precious and Grace - 3.5/5 La Grange - 5/5 Shiek - 3.5/5 Have You Heard? - 3/5 Finding out that ZZ Top doesn't have any good songs outside of La Grange is like finding out that the only person in the band who doesn't have facial hair is named Beard. Like come on man what are we doing here. You had the sauce but instead decided to be a bland blues rock band for most of the way. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: La Grange

Lively Up Yourself - 4/5 No Woman, No Cry - 4/5 Them Belly Full (But We Hungry) - 3.5/5 Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Road Block) - 3.5/5 So Jah S'eh - 3.5/5 Natty Dread - 3/5 Bend Down Low - 3.5/5 Talkin' Blues - 3.5/5 Revolution - 3.5/5 A very laid back album. Reggae usually isn't my go to but it's nice for when you want to kick back and do nothing. Or smoke a joint or two. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Lively Up Yourself, No Woman No Cry

Frontline - 4.5/5 Waitin - 3.5/5 Take Me Apart - 4/5 Enough - 3.5/5 Jupiter - 3/5 Better - 3.5/5 LMK - 4/5 Truth or Dare - 4/5 S.O.S. - 3.5/5 Blue Light - 3.5/5 Onanon - 4.5/5 Turn to Dust - 3.5/5 Bluff - 3/5 Altadena - 4/5 A great combination of contemporary R&B, electronica, and ambient music to create something unexpectedly good. Sure it sort of blends together but I think that it adds to the ambience. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Frontline, Onanon

Things Done Changed - 4/5 Gimme the Loot - 4.5/5 Machine Gun Funk - 4/5 Warning - 4/5 Ready to Die - 4/5 One More Chance - 4/5 The What - 4/5 Juicy - 5/5 Everyday Struggle - 4/5 Me & My Bitch - 4/5 Big Poppa - 4.5/5 Respect - 3.5/5 Friend of Mine - 3.5/5 Unbelievable - 4/5 Suicidal Thoughts - 4.5/5 A literal certified hood classic. Biggie is a great storyteller and has great flow, telling his story of his struggles growing up and dealing before he (may or may not have) risen out of the life he was born into. However, some of the skits make you cringe because of how awkward they can be. Do I really need to be third-wheeling this get sucked off? Or listening to him having sex? I'm not a prude but this is really making me turn into one. The one where they noticed red dots on their head was fine, but maybe less pornographic skits would probably do this better. Also Diddy produced this so those two combined together that's an automatic star off. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Juicy, Gimme the Loot, Big Poppa, Suicidal Thoughts

Part of a Whole - 4/5 Minawa - 4/5 The Big Apple - 4/5 Unhome - 3/5 Maseru - 4/5 Inner Crisis - 4/5 Blues for Huey - 3.5/5 Nomali - 3.5/5 Maesha - 3.5/5 Ingoo Pow-Pow - 3.5/5 A more structured form of jazz, even though he lets some of it go free in a few tracks to his detriment. Good as lounge or background music but doesn't give enough of that "oomph" to boost it up to the top. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Part of a Whole, Maseru

Tom Sawyer - 5/5 Red Barchetta - 4.5/5 YYZ - 5/5 Limelight - 5/5 The Camera Eye - 5/5 Witch Hunt - 4.5/5 Vital Signs - 4.5/5 Rush released this at the perfect time when prog rock was dying out and arena oriented rock was starting to take over, and they made one killer album as a result of the crossing of genres. The A side is a perfect mix of their older prog sensibilities that is digestible enough for radio, while the B side is a bit more experimental from the actual prog track of "The Camera Eye" to new wave with "Vital Signs". It somehow starts strong, stays strong, and ends strong, becoming the main reason why it stands as one of the best prog albums ever. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Tom Sawyer, YYZ, Limelight, The Camera Eye

Aqualung - 4.5/5 Cross-Eyed Mary - 4/5 Cheap Day Return - 4/5 Mother Goose - 4/5 Wond'ring Aloud - 4/5 Up to Me - 3.5/5 My God - 4/5 Hymn 43 - 4/5 Slipstream - 3.5/5 Locomotive Breath - 4.5/5 Wind-Up - 4/5 This album has a little bit of everything that was coming out of the English rock scene in the 70's. Prog rock, hard rock, and folk rock come together here to create a fairly complete package. And they also have a guy that can give a killer flute solo. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Aqualung, Locomotive Breath

Thinking Bout You - 4.5/5 Sierra Leone - 4/5 Sweet Life - 5/5 Super Rich Kids - 4.5/5 Pilot Jones - 3.5/5 Crack Rock - 4/5 Pyramids - 5/5 Lost - 4.5/5 White - 3.5/5 Monks - 4/5 Bad Religion - 4/5 Pink Matter - 4.5/5 Forrest Gump - 4/5 To the guy who said that this album spawned on SoundCloud rap? I think he got lost in the genres. I had heard of Frank Ocean before, but I, like the narrow-minded reviewer, thought he was more rap. This album is definitely more on the R&B side, and there are so many good songs on here. I think I'm more upset about the number of narrow-minded people who think sparked the downfall of civilization. Go defenestrate yourself if you think that. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Thinkin Bout You, Sweet Life, Super Rich Kids, Pyramids, Lost, Pink Matter

1999 - 5/5 Little Red Corvette - 5/5 Delirious - 4/5 Let's Pretend We're Married - 4/5 D.M.S.R. - 4/5 Automatic - 4/5 Something in the Water - 4/5 Free - 3.5/5 Lady Cab Driver - 4/5 All the Critics Love U in New York - 4/5 International Lover - 4/5 Outside of the first two tracks, this album is a lot more synthpop-focused than I would have imagined for a person who I always thought as a rock star. That style doesn't hold it back, as this combination of electronic, rock, and funk really make this work well. My main concern is its length - this feels like a normal-length album that was stretched into a double album for no reason I can think of. If it was shortened this would probably lean more towards a 5* but it still gets 4* because of how overall good the whole thing was. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: 1999, Little Red Corvette

Beyond Belief - 3.5/5 Tears Before Bedtime - 4/5 Shabby Doll - 3/5 The Long Honeymoon - 3/5 Man Out of Time - 4/5 Almost Blue - 3.5/5 …And in Every Home - 3.5/5 The Loved Ones - 3.5/5 Human Hands - 3/5 Kid About It - 3/5 Little Savage - 3/5 Boy With a Problem - 3/5 Pidgin English - 3/5 You Little Fool - 3.5/5 Town Cryer - 3/5 This album is supposed to be Elvis Costello "growing out" of his spunky punk days and become more of a mature artist. What we get instead is some fairly bland art rock that doesn't really have any character to it. It's like you took punk and put suits on it and told it to not do anything out of line. And somehow it complied. It's not bad, it's just lacking any sort of character. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Tears Before Bedtime, Man Out of Time

Underground - 3/5 Shore Leave - 3.5/5 Dave the Butcher - 3/5 Johnsburg, Illinois - 3.5/5 Sixteen Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six - 4/5 Town With No Cheer - 3.5/5 In the Neighborhood - 4/5 Just Another Sucker on the Vine - 3/5 Frank's Wild Years - 3/5 Swordfishtrombone - 4/5 Down, Down, Down - 4/5 Soldier's Things - 3.5/5 Gin Soaked Boy - 3.5/5 Trouble's Braids - 3/5 Rainbirds - 3.5/5 I guess I'm that my first experience with Tom Waits was more cabaret-focused because this is a completely different take on what he did that first time around. It's a lot more experimental, probably because his wife introduced him to Captain Beefheart and that sound definitely shows. I think I prefer this slightly more to Heartattack and Vine but it's still around a 3.5 for me. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Sixteen Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six, In the Neighborhood, Swordfishtrombone, Down, Down, Down

Green Onions - 5/5 Rinky-Dink - 3/5 I Got a Woman - 3.5/5 Mo' Onions - 3.5/5 Twist and Shout - 3.5/5 Behave Yourself - 3/5 Stranger on the Shore - 3/5 Lonely Avenue - 3/5 One Who Really Loves You - 3/5 I Can't Sit Down - 3/5 A Woman, a Lover, a Friend - 3/5 Comin' Home Baby - 3/5 Unfortunately, this is 1001 *albums* you need to hear before you die and not 1001 *songs*, because this album is basically the banger known as Green Onions and 11 other songs they had to tack on to make an album. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Green Onions

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - 4/5 Tonight, Tonight - 5/5 Jellybelly - 4/5 Zero - 4.5/5 Here is No Why - 4/5 Bullet With Butterfly Wings - 5/5 To Forgive - 4/5 An Ode to No One - 4/5 Love - 4/5 Cupid de Locke - 4/5 Galapogos - 4.5/5 Muzzle - 4.5/5 Porcelina of the Vast Oceans - 4/5 Take Me Down - 4/5 Where Boys Fear to Tread - 4/5 Bodies - 4.5/5 Thirty-Three - 4.5/5 In the Arms of Sleep - 4/5 1979 - 5/5 Tales of a Scorched Earth - 3/5 Thru the Eyes of Ruby - 3.5/5 Stumbleine - 3.5/5 X.Y.U. - 4/5 We Only Come Out at Night - 3.5/5 Beautiful - 3.5/5 Lily (My One and Only) - 3.5/5 By Starlight - 3.5/5 Farewell and Goodnight - 4/5 I understand this they wanted to do a double album with the amount of leftover material they had on their prior album, but they left a lot of filler on the second disk that really should not be on here. A 2 hour double album is a lot and drags on when the first disk is pretty good and then most of the songs after 1979 were middling at best. The jumps between alternative/grunge to metal-inspired to dream pop songs were a bit jarring at first, but the songs are mostly all good enough to not be immediately put off. OK maybe the jump between 1979 and Tales of a Scorched Earth was extremely jarring but that's besides the point. Maybe a bit too long of an album but the highs are high enough to prop up the filler that should have been left on the cutting room floor. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Tonight, Tonight, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, 1979

Love Song - 4/5 Machine Gun Etiquette - 4/5 I Just Can't Be Happy Today - 4/5 Melody Lee - 4/5 Anti Pope - 4/5 These Hands - 3.5/5 Plan 9 Channel 7 - 5/5 Noise, Noise, Noise - 4/5 Looking at You - 4.5/5 Liar - 4/5 Smash It Up (Part 1) - 4.5/5 Smash It Up (Part 2) - 5/5 A pretty good punk outing that stems out into hardcore, gothic rock, and some new wave. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Plan 9 Channel 7, Smash It Up (Parts 1&2)

I Wanna Be Adored - 4.5/5 She Bangs the Drums - 5/5 Waterfall - 4.5/5 Don’t Stop - 3.5/5 Bye Bye Badman - 4/5 Elizabeth My Dear - 3.5/5 (Song for My) Sugar Spun Sister - 4/5 Made of Stone - 5/5 Shoot You Down - 4/5 This Is the One - 4.5/5 I Am the Resurrection - 5/5 Put this one in the "pleasantly surprised" category for me. I had never heard of the Stone Roses, so going in with no expectations and hearing a mixture of jangle pop and funk that bordered on the ethereal at times. Unfortunately it seems that the band members turned out to be a bunch of twats so that might hamper my view in the future. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: I Wanna Be Adored, She Bangs the Drums, Waterfall, Made of Stone, This is the One, I Am the Resurrection

This Is a Call - 4/5 I'll Stick Around - 4.5/5 Big Me - 4.5/5 Alone + Easy Target - 4/5 Good Grief - 4.5/5 Floaty - 4/5 Weenie Beenie - 3.5/5 Oh, George - 3.5/5 For All the Cows - 4/5 X-Static - 4/5 Wattershed - 4/5 Exhausted - 4/5 As everyone else has pointed out, despite this being a pretty good album it should not have been the representative for Foo Fighters as a whole, as it should have gone to The Colour and the Shape for the sole "one album" By these guys. There aren't any of "these guys" on this album, as Dave Grohl solely played nearly every instrument on this more raw and unpolished form of Foo Fighters, with most of the creative processes coming from him coping with the loss of Kurt Cobain, even coming close to never playing music again. Thankfully he decided to continue playing, resulting in this fairly raw and unpolished FF album that would be a launching point for the rest of the band's career. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: I'll Stick Around, Big Me, Good Grief

While You See a Chance - 4/5 Arc of a Diver - 3.5/5 Second-Hand Woman - 3/5 Slowdown Sundown - 3/5 Spanish Dancer - 3/5 Night Train - 3.5/5 Dust - 3/5 I'm young enough where my first exposure to Steve Winwood was through Eric Prydz and his interpolation of the song "Valerie" into "Call on Me". I had listened to that and his other big hit "Higher Love", and I was expecting to find something similar to those two songs. While I did get a fairly synth-heavy sophisto-pop album, it unfortunately peaked at the very beginning with his most popular single at the time and then immediately petered off into a snore by the end. It wasn't horrible, but I probably won't be remembering anything outside of the lead track Overall: 3/5 Favorites: While You See a Chance

Bye Bye, Love - 4/5 You Don't Know Me - 3/5 Half as Much - 3.5/5 I Love You So Much It Hurts - 3/5 Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way) - 3.5/5 Born to Lose - 3/5 Worried Mind - 3/5 It Makes No Difference Now - 3/5 You Win Again - 3/5 Careless Love - 3/5 I Can't Stop Loving You - 3.5/5 Hey, Good Lookin' - 3.5/5 In what I'd like to call "Now That's What I Call Reverse Cultural Appropriation!", Ray Charles puts his own spin on music popular at the time. That "at the time" is really making this seem more dated than it really should be, historical context notwithstanding. It very much drags on in the middle, and I can't justify giving this more than a 3 because of the slog known as the middle of the album. I know that he wanted to go for more of a "middle-of-the-road" type of sound, but that is very much not my thing, making what should have been an exciting album a dated slog. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Bye Bye Love, I Can't Stop Loving You, Hey Good Lookin'

Pt.1 - Festival Junction - 4/5 Pt. 2 - Blues to Be There - 4/5 Pt. 3 - Newport Up - 4/5 Jeep's Blues - 4/5 Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue - 5/5 Half of this is a studio album masquerading as a live album because Ellington was a perfectionist and didn't like how the first suite sounded live and wanted another go at it, adding in canned applause and other sounds to make it sound live. That part doesn't detract from the part that lifts it up, the nearly 7 minute sax solo on Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue. That alone is worth 5 stars, but I'll have to take a star off for faking the live recording. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue

Country Song - 3.5/5 Moving in With - 3/5 Mad Cyril - 4/5 Fat Lady Wrestlers - 3/5 Performance - 3/5 Brain Dead - 3.5/5 Wrote for Luck - 4/5 Bring a Friend - 3/5 Do it Better - 3/5 Lazyitis - 3/5 This seems more like a product of its time, and the first two tracks really did not do me any favors to liking it. I saw that it was baggy-related, and I liked the Stone Roses record that is of a similar genre, but this is a bit too cliched musically for me to like it on the same level as that. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Mad Cyril, Wrote for Luck

Lam Tooro - 4/5 Loodo - 3.5/5 Muudo Hormo - 4/5 Salminanam - 3.5/5 Maacina Tooro - 3.5/5 Djam Leelii - 3/5 Bibbe Leydy - 3/5 Sehilam - 3.5/5 Kettodee - 3/5 The list sometimes surprises me in that I always forget about world music until it shows up as the album of the day. It's good music as a background but at least to me not really engaging. Would be great as background music for a 4X game though Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Lam Tooro, Muudo Hormo

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Pelvis - 3.5/5 Something Wicked This Way Comes - 4/5 The Vibes Ain't Nothin' But the Vibes - 3.5/5 It's Business as Usual - 2.5/5 Miles - 3.5/5 Dirt Barry - 2.5/5 In a Moment of Clarity - 3/5 Achieved in the Valley of Dolls - 3.5/5 Vermillion Kisses - 2.5/5 The Big Bamboozle - 3.5/5 State of Contraction - 3/5 The Sweetest Embrace - 3.5/5 Set the Controls Again - 3.5/5 A very Lynchian-styled album, which makes sense as my favorite off of this album was from one of his movies. It definitely sounds like a soundtrack album, as it was a rollercoaster ride of different genres from jazzy to a Miles Davis impersonation to whatever experimental stuff that was on here. The latter of that list can really turn people off of the album, and their length really doesn't make me like them as much as the rest of the album. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Something Wicked Comes This Way

Strange Brew - 3.5/5 Sunshine of Your Love - 5/5 World of Pain - 3.5/5 Dance the Night Away - 3.5/5 Blue Condition - 3/5 Tales of Brave Ulysses - 3/5 SWLABR - 3/5 We're Going Wrong - 3.5/5 Outside Woman Blues - 3/5 Take it Back - 3.5/5 Mother's Lament - 2.5/5 So I had high hopes going into this album because Sunshine of Your Love is an amazing song and I though that the rest of the album would be as great as it. Unfortunately, I remembered that Eric Clapton is a part of this so naturally all the other tracks blended together into a bluesy-rock mush. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Sunshine of Your Love

Misunderstood - 4/5 Far, Far Away - 3.5/5 Monday - 4/5 Outtasite (Outta Mind) - 4/5 Forget the Flowers - 3.5/5 Red-Eyed and Blue - 3.5/5 I Got You (At the End of the Century) - 4/5 What's the World Got in Store - 3.5/5 Hotel Arizona - 4.5/5 Say You Miss Me - 4/5 Sunken Treasure - 4/5 Someday Soon - 3.5/5 Outta Mind (Outta Sight) - 3.5/5 Someone Else's Song - 3.5/5 Kingpin - 3.5/5 (Was I) In Your Dreams - 3.5/5 Why Would You Wanna Live - 3.5/5 The Lonely 1 - 3.5/5 Dreamer in My Dreams - 4/5 After listening to their more popular album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and feeling a bit underwhelmed by its hype, I was a bit apprehensive seeing this. But it's more Springsteen-rock inspired with the country style I expected from them. It's not that this is a bad album, I think that it might be just a tad too long, but I wouldn't say that any song on here is skippable. I might need to revisit YHF if I somehow like this one a lot better. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Hotel Arizona

Subterranean Homesick Blues - 5/5 She Belongs to Me - 3.5/5 Maggie's Farm - 4/5 Love Minus Zero / No Limit - 4.5/5 Outlaw Blues - 4/5 On the Road Again - 4/5 Bob Dylan's 115th Dream - 4.5/5 Mr. Tambourine Man - 5/5 Gates of Eden - 4/5 It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - 4.5/5 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue - 4.5/5 Dylan decided to leave the protest songs behind and struck into new territory, which many people did unfortunately protest. Folk going electric? Preposterous! Sadly for them, Dylan still found a way to make amazing music, with the sides swapping whether he's "electric" or not. At first I though Bob Dylan was overrated, but now hearing what may be him at his peak makes me question that belief. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Subterranean Homesick Blues, Mr. Tambourine Man

Chic Cheer - 3.5/5 Le Freak - 5/5 Savoir Faire - 3.5/5 Happy Man - 3.5/5 I Want Your Love - 4/5 At Last I Am Free - 3/5 Sometimes You Win - 3.5/5 (Funny) Bone - 3.5/5 I was only familiar with Chic due to Nile Rodgers' involvement with other songs, "Le Freak", and the number of samples their songs were used in. Listening to this, it's a pretty good disco album with a few non-disco songs to spice things up a bit. I think the songs tend to drag on a bit longer than they really should, but these are dance tracks so I can excuse that for now. Leaning on a 3.5 but I can bump this up to a 4 just from Le Freak alone. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Le Freak, I Want Your Love

Chan Chan - 4.5/5 De Camino a la Vereda - 4/5 El Cuarto de Tula - 4.5/5 Pueblo Nuevo - 3.5/5 Dos Gardenias - 3.5/5 ¿Y Tú Qué Has Hecho? - 3.5/5 Veinte Años - 3.5/5 El Carretero - 4/5 Candela - 4/5 Amor de Loca Juventud - 3.5/5 Orgullecida - 3/5 Murmulio - 3/5 Buena Vista Social Club - 3.5/5 La Bayamesa - 3.5/5 Another surprise from the generator! I had no idea about what Cuban music was like, and it's nice to hear that it has a distinct flair to it while being stylistically similar to other genres from the Caribbean. I can understand the criticism of this being a "white knight" coming in to culturally appropriate local music, but from what it seems this was more of the other Cuban musicians getting their one chance to show off their musical heritage off to the world where they otherwise could not. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Chan Chan, El Cuarto de Tula

Dreamin' - 3.5/5 Music Makes You Lose Control - 3.5/5 Soft Machine - 3/5 Hypotise - 3/5 (Hey You) What's That Sound? - 3/5 Take a Little Time - 3.5/5 From: Disco to: Disco - 3/5 Brothers - 3/5 Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat) - 4/5 About Funk - 3/5 Sometimes - 3/5 Damaged People - 3/5 I did not have high expectations for this, but it turned out to be a decent listen. It sounded a bit dated at times and the vocal mixing on some tracks could have been better, but I was grooving along so it wasn't that bad. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)

Bamboo Banga - 3/5 Bird Flu - 3/5 Boyz - 3/5 Jimmy - 3.5/5 Hussel - 3/5 Mango Pickle Down River - 2.5/5 20 Dollar - 3.5/5 World Town - 3.5/5 The Turn - 3/5 XR2 - 3/5 Paper Planes - 5/5 Come Around - 3/5 This may be a bit too experimental for its own good. Don't get me wrong Paper Planes may be one of the best songs of the 2000's, but outside of the highs there really isn't anything else here. The production is alright, but there are a few tracks that are a bit too experimental. They're not awful per se, but just interesting enough to remain interesting. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Paper Planes

Planet Telex - 4.5/5 The Bends - 4/5 High and Dry - 5/5 Fake Plastic Trees - 5/5 Bones - 4/5 (Nice Dream) - 4/5 Just - 4.5/5 My Iron Lung - 4.5/5 Bullet Proof … I Wish I Was - 4/5 Black Star - 4.5/5 Sulk - 4/5 Street Spirit (Fade Out) - 4.5/5 The generator cursed me by handing me my first Radiohead album as what was essentially the B-sides of another album and now gives me an album where not a single song is skip-worthy. Incredible work. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: High and Dry, Fake Plastic Trees, My Iron Lung, Black Star

Requiem - 4.5/5 Wardance - 3.5/5 Tomorrow's World - 3/5 Bloodsport - 3.5/5 The Wait - 4.5/5 Complications - 4/5 $.O.3.6. - 3/5 Primitive - 4/5 A pretty decent post-punk album that also was a pioneering album in the industrial rock sound. Some of the more experimental tracks lost me a bit on the A-side, but once The Wait kicked in it hooked me right back. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Requiem, The Wait

Airbag - 4.5/5 Paranoid Android - 5/5 Subterranean Homesick Alien - 4.5/5 Exit Music (For a Film) - 4.5/5 Let Down - 5/5 Karma Police - 5/5 Filter Happier - 3.5/5 Electioneering - 4.5/5 Climbing Up the Walls - 4/5 No Surprises - 5/5 Lucky - 4.5/5 The Tourist - 4.5/5 I'd like to thank the generator for giving me OK Computer literally 2 days after I got their prior album The Bends. And thanks to that I see how they evolved from a run-of-the-mill grunge band with 1 alright song to a band that breaks out of the grunge and Britpop labels that had defined their past two albums. I wouldn't say this is close to being perfect but it's about as close as you can get. Outside of the weird transition track there really isn't a single skip on here. Phenomenal album. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Paranoid Android, Let Down, Karma Police, No Surprises

Smells Like Teen Spirit - 5/5 In Bloom - 5/5 Come as You Are - 5/5 Breed - 5/5 Lithium - 4.5/5 Polly - 4.5/5 Territorial Pissings - 4/5 Drain You - 4/5 Lounge Act - 4.5/5 Stay Away - 4.5/5 On a Plain - 4.5/5 Something in the Way - 5/5 I can't really think of any other albums that shaped my taste in music more than this one. When I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time, I knew I had to find more music like it. The first half of this is a blitz of all killer no filter, while the second half slows down a bit before speeding up and slowing down once again. Thanks Nirvana for making record companies search for the next big thing in music, and for making my music taste what it is now. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom, Come as You Are, Breed, Something in the Way

Highway Star - 5/5 Maybe I'm a Leo - 3.5/5 Pictures of Home - 4/5 Never Before - 3.5/5 Smoke on the Water - 5/5 Lazy - 4/5 Space Truckin' - 4.5/5 Despite only knowing them as the one band who makes the one song where everyone learns how to play guitar, these guys in a full album can in fact rock. It still suffers from that early heavy metal gig where they can't decide between heavy metal and blues rock so split the album, and the blues-influenced tracks lack behind the hard rock and metal influenced songs. But the highs are high enough to make me forgive that minor flaw. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Highway Star, Smoke on the Water, Space Truckin'

2112 - 4.5/5 A Passage to Bangkok - 4/5 The Twilight Zone - 4/5 Lessons - 4/5 Tears - 3.5/5 Something for Nothing - 4/5 Who else opens their album with a 20 minute epic about future wizards worshiping computers and a rebel trying to take down the system with the power of music? Not many I should say. That epic is well, epic, but maybe strays a little too close to the readings of Ayn Rand for my liking. Thank God they disassociated from that and their music got better later on because this album I feel is slightly overrated outside of the title epic. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: 2112

Regular John - 4.5/5 Avon - 4/5 If Only - 4.5/5 Walkin on the Sidewalks - 4/5 You Would Know - 3.5/5 How to Handle a Rope - 4/5 Mexicola - 4/5 Hispanic Impressions - 3.5/5 You Can't Quit Me Baby - 4/5 Give the Mule What He Wants - 4/5 I Was a Teenage Hand Model - 3.5/5 A very sludgy experience that feels like you're tripping through the desert. The original author also once again comes up with the wrong album for QoTSA, but they have too many good albums after this to determine which one should be the one. Is it Songs of the Deaf? Like Clockwork? Or another option not mentioned? Any of those would be good options, but this is a good start for them. Not their best work, but later albums build upon the foundation that this sets up. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Regular John, Only If

The Magic Number - 5/5 Change in Speak - 4.5/5 Can U Keep a Secret - 4/5 Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge) - 4.5/5 Ghetto Thang - 4.5/5 Transmitting Live From Mars - 3.5/5 Eye Know - 5/5 Take It Off - 3.5/5 A Little Bit of Soap - 3.5/5 Tread Water - 4.5/5 Potholes in My Lawn - 4.5/5 Say No Go - 4.5/5 Do as De La Does - 3.5/5 Plug Tunin' (Last Change to Comprehend) - 4.5/5 De La Orgee - 2.5/5 Buddy - 4.5/5 Description - 3.5/5 Me Myself and I - 5/5 This is a Recording 4 Living in a Full Time Era (L.I.F.E) - 4/5 I Can Do Anything (Delacratic) - 3.5/5 D.A.I.S.Y. Age - 4/5 These guys were really having fun making this and you can tell by listening to this. The main singles were all killer and the sampling/production was also top notch. I can blame this album now for introducing the skit thing that a lot of other hip-hop albums also did, even though it was as simple as a "game show" that really didn't go anywhere. Highs were high, rest was alright. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Magic Number, Eye Know, Me Myself and I

Moribund the Burgermeister - 4/5 Solsbury Hill - 5/5 Modern Love - 4.5/5 Excuse Me - 3/5 Humdrum - 4/5 Slowburn - 4/5 Waiting for the Big One - 3/5 Down the Dolce Vita - 4.5/5 Here Comes the Flood - 4/5 Sometimes it feels like Gabriel really found his groove after breaking out from Genesis and setting off alone. Sometimes it also feels like he's just throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. There are a few songs that stick the landing and Gabriel will develop on in future albums, such as the standout Solsbury Hill and him stuffing a whole orchestra into Down the Dolce Vita. And then there's just a random barbershop song (which, if I had a nickel for every time I heard a barbershop song that featured Robert Fripp and Tony Levin, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice) and a sub-par bluesy song in the middle of this otherwise great debut. If he had cut those songs this would be closer to a 4.5 but a 4 is a good rating nonetheless Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Solsbury Hill, Modern Love, Down the Dolce Vita

Samba da Bênção - 3.5/5 August Day Song - 3.5/5 Tanto Tempo - 3.5/5 Sem Contenção - 3/5 Mais Feliz - 3.5/5 Alguém - 3.5/5 So Nice (Summer Samba) - 3/5 Lonely - 3/5 Bananeira - 3.5/5 Samba e Amor - 3.5/5 Close Your Eyes - 3.5/5 So this was billed as a "bossa nova meets electronica" but this sounds a lot like bossa nova to me. It's more of a jazz-lite experience, as the actual electronic stuff was pushed to the background. It was fine but nothing I'd even return to. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Unfortunately they all kind of sounded the same so I guess the whole album?

Blitzkrieg Bop - 5/5 Beat on the Brat - 4/5 Judy Is a Punk - 4/5 I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend - 3.5/5 Chain Saw - 3.5/5 Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue - 4/5 I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement - 4/5 Loudmouth - 3.5/5 Havana Affair - 3.5/5 Listen to My Heart - 3.5/5 53rd & 3rd - 3.5/5 Let's Dance - 4/5 I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You - 4/5 Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World - 4/5 A classic. It gets repetitive after a bit but that's punk and thankfully they're in and out in terms of listening time so it doesn't get old fast. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Blitzkrieg Bop

Tell Me Why - 4.5/5 After the Goldrush - 4/5 Only Love Can Break Your Heart - 4/5 Southern Man - 5/5 Till the Morning Comes - 3.5/5 Oh, Lonesome Me - 4/5 Don't Let It Bring You Down - 4/5 Birds - 4/5 When You Dance I Can Really Love - 4/5 I Believe in You - 4/5 Cripple Creek Ferry - 4/5 Compared to the more bombastic Neil Young albums I've listened to, this one is a lot more restrained and melancholic. There's really only two "rock"-like songs on here, being the great Southern Man (a song so good some Confederate meatriders had to defend themselves) and the good-but-not-as-great When You Dance I Can Really Love. It's probably the most consistent out of his early few albums but outside of Southern Man I really don't think I'll come back to listening the whole thing again. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Southern Man, Tell Me Why

Valley of the Dolls - 3.5/5 Sunworshipper - 3.5/5 Muscle Cars - 3.5/5 Drop the Pressure - 3/5 In My Arms - 3.5/5 Guilty of Love - 3/5 Paris Four Hundred - 3/5 Destroy Rock & Roll - 3/5 Rikki - 3/5 Ottos Journey - 3.5/5 Musclecar Reform Reprise - 3.5/5 Zenophile - 3/5 Need You Tonite - 3.5/5 Emotion 98.6 - 3/5 A relatively fun listen that, in my opinion, really didn't challenge the boundaries of house/downtempo genres. Granted it was good, but I've heard better electronic music. Was it a good listen? Yes. Did it deserve to be a part of the 1001 albums I *needed* to hear before I died? Possibly not. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: In My Arms

Theme From Shaft - 4.5/5 Bumpy's Lament - 3.5/5 Walk From Regio's - 3.5/5 Ellie's Love Theme - 3.5/5 Shaft's Cab Ride - 3.5/5 Café Regio's - 4/5 Early Sunday Morning - 3.5/5 Be Yourself - 3.5/5 A Friend's Place - 3/5 Soulsville - 3.5/5 No Name Bar - 4/5 Bumpy's Blues - 3.5/5 Shaft Strikes Again - 3/5 Do Your Thing - 5/5 The End Theme - 4/5 So this is what the chef from South Park was up to before he got hired. An ultra-groovy and funkalicious soundtrack that rightfully got its contemporary praise. I think as just an album it suffers from not having a visual companion but it's still a good listen without the movie attached to it. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Theme from Shaft, Do Your Thing

Natural Mystic - 4/5 So Much Things to Say - 3.5/5 Guiltiness - 3.5/5 The Heathen - 3.5/5 Exodus - 4.5/5 Jamming - 4/5 Waiting in Vain - 4/5 Turn Your Lights Down Low - 3.5/5 Three Little Birds - 5/5 One Love / People Get Ready - 4/5 This definitely feels more like a greatest hits album than anything, which is fitting because a majority of Marley's "greatest hits" come from this album in particular. I'm not a guy for reggae but this was a decent and chill listen all the way through. I didn't realize Three Little Birds was on here and that song is nostalgic for me for some reason. Definitely did not get a contact high by listening to this. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Three Little Birds, Exodus

Synchronicity I - 5/5 Walking in Your Footsteps - 4/5 O My God - 3.5/5 Mother - 3/5 Miss Gradenko - 3.5/5 Synchronicity II - 5/5 Every Breath You Take - 5/5 King of Pain - 5/5 Wrapped Around Your Finger - 4/5 Tea in the Sahara - 4/5 If only this album skipped right from Synchronicity I to Synchronicity II and then it would be an instant 5 out of 5 stars. But the A side after Walking in Your Footsteps doesn't feel exactly right. Many people would point to Mother, as yes it doesn't exactly fit with the rest of the album but I wouldn't say it's awful. It's a fine song, but the two other songs that surround it are fine at best and drag it down a bit. The run to end the album was phenomenal though, from Synchronicity II onward it's nothing but bangers. A very high 4* from me, would be a 5* if they cut out the fluff from the A side. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Synchronicity I & II, Every Breath You Take, King of Pain

Karma Chameleon - 3.5/5 It's a Miracle - 3/5 Black Money - 2/5 Changing Every Day - 2.5/5 That's the Way (I'm Only Trying to Help You) - 2/5 Church of the Poison Mind - 3/5 Miss Me Blind - 3.5/5 Mister Man - 2.5/5 Stormkeeper - 2.5/5 Victims - 2.5/5 One decent hit song followed by a bunch of filler. No really worth sitting through the other 35 minutes after listening to their only hit. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Karma Chameleon, Miss Me Blind

Debaser - 4.5/5 Tame - 4/5 Wave of Mutilation - 4.5/5 I Bleed - 4/5 Here Comes Your Man - 5/5 Dead - 4/5 Monkey Gone to Heaven - 4.5/5 Mr. Grieves - 4/5 Crackity Jones - 4/5 La La Love You - 4/5 No. 13 Baby - 4/5 There Goes My Gun - 4/5 Hey - 5/5 Silver - 4/5 Gouge Away - 4.5/5 The Pixies walked so indie rock could run. They somehow managed to take a wide collage of genres and make them all flow so well together that you don't really realize the genre change until you listen long enough. Here Comes Your Man and Hey already got plenty of plays in my playlists, so it was a no-brainer that the rest of the album would be as excellent as those two were. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Here Comes Your Man, Hey, Debaser, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Gouge Away

Plástico - 4.5/5 Buscando Guayaba - 4/5 Pedro Navaja - 4.5/5 María Lionza - 4/5 Ojos - 4/5 Dime - 4/5 Siembra - 4.5/5 I'm not usually a guy who has salsa as a go-to genre but when it's I can't help but dance along to it. Great musicianship from both artists, and you know it's going to be good if the first song crosses disco with salsa for a song you can't not dance to. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Plástico, Pedro Navaja, Siembra

International Feel - 4.5/5 Never Never Land - 3.5/5 Tic Tic Tic It Wears Off - 4/5 You Need Your Head - 4/5 Rock and Roll Pussy - 3.5/5 Dogfight Giggle - 3/5 You Don't Have to Camp Around - 4/5 Flamingo - 4/5 Zen Archer - 4.5/5 Just Another Onionhead/Da Da Dali - 4/5 When the Shit Hits the Fan/Sunset Blvd - 4.5/5 Le Feel Internacionale - 4.5/5 Sometimes I Don't Know What to Feel - 4/5 Does Anybody Love You? - 4/5 Medley: I'm So Proud/Ooh Baby Baby/La La Means I Love You/Cool Jerk - 4/5 Hungry For Love - 3.5/5 I Don't Want to Tie You Down - 4/5 Is It My Name? - 4/5 Just One Victory - 4/5 I feel like this would have been a 5* album if I had taken acid beforehand. It's a fairly eclectic selection of songs and genres that flow well together, and the overall sounds seems like this was destined to either have been written on or listen to on some sort of psychedelic substance. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: International Feel, Zen Archer, When the Shit Hits the Fan/Sunset Blvd, Le Feel Internacionale

Lust for Life - 5/5 Sixteen - 3.5/5 Some Weird Sin - 4.5/5 The Passenger - 5/5 Tonight - 4/5 Success - 4.5/5 Turn Blue - 3/5 Neighborhood Threat - 4.5/5 Fall in Love With Me - 4.5/5 In a contrast to his first solo outing which was trying to identify as anything but rock, Iggy Pop and David Bowie decided that they wanted to embrace the rock n' roll aesthetic to a great effect on two songs in particular: the title track and The Passenger, which have both become songs that everyone associates Iggy Pop with. Those highs are phenomenal, but two songs on here drag it down slightly compared to his debut. I have no idea if Sixteen is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek in terms of its content, because if it isn't then it comes off as creepy. I know Turn Blue is supposed to be a heroin-induced rant but he comes off with a bad Lou Reed impression before wailing a bit too long for my taste. Despite those two duds, the rest of the album significantly makes up for those mistakes for having two songs etched in rock n' roll canon. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Lust for Life, The Passenger, Success, Neighborhood Threat

The Robots - 4/5 Spacelab - 4/5 Metropolis - 4/5 The Model - 4.5/5 Neon Lights - 4.5/5 The Man Machine - 4/5 Imagine hearing this kind of the music in the 70's and hearing nothing else like it. This makes me feel like I'm talking a walk through EPCOT on opening day with their multitudes of bleeps and bloops. Amazing that nearing all big synthpop and electronic music can be traced back to these guys. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Model, Neon Lights

El Cumbanchero - 3.5/5 Billumba - Palo Congo - 2.5/5 Choferito - Plena - 3/5 Asabache - 3/5 Simba - 3/5 Rhapsodia del Maravilloso - 3.5/5 Aggo Elegua - 2.5/5 Tribilín Cantore - 3/5 A decent palate-cleanser from all the other albums. I think the songs with just the congas are the least interesting, and unfortunately they are given some of the most time. I would have probably liked it better if they limited those percussion-only stuff to like 1 or 2 songs but it's a decent offering of Cuban music from the 50's. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: El Cumbanchero, Rhapsodia del Maravilloso

Mansion - 3.5/5 Bombast - 4/5 Barmy - 4.5/5 What You Need - 4/5 Spoilt Victorian Child - 4/5 L.A. - 4/5 Gut of the Quantifier - 4/5 My New House - 4/5 Paint Work - 4/5 I Am Damo Suzuki - 3.5/5 To Nkroachment: Yarbles - 4/5 I am slowly realizing that I might be a sucker for post-punk. This has unpolished and somewhat experiment sound, which definitely helps this by playing into the punk aesthetic. Very groovy, though a bit repetitive at times. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Barmy

Pink Moon - 5/5 Place to Be - 5/5 Road - 4.5/5 Which Will - 4.5/5 Horn - 4/5 Things Behind the Sun - 4.5/5 Know - 4/5 Parasite - 5/5 Free Ride - 4.5/5 Harvest Breed - 4/5 From the Morning - 4.5/5 A beautiful, stripped-back acoustic album that makes its short run time last. Although people claim the albums' contents had absolute nothing to due with the tragic demise of Drake, I think otherwise. The songs are haunting in a somber and melancholic way, while also simultaneously lulling to sleep with nothing but his voice and a guitar. I was anticipating listening to whatever Nick Drake album came up next after listening to Bryter Layter, and it seems the generator gave me both his last and his best. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Pink Moon, Place to Be

White Light / White Heat - 4.5/5 The Gift - 3.5/5 Lady Godiva's Operation - 4.5/5 There She Comes Now - 4/5 I Heard Her Call My Name - 4/5 Sister Ray - 4.5/5 The quote rings true that although the Velvet Underground sold poorly, almost everyone who bought one of their albums started a band. This album is highly experimental for its time and probably scandalous for how Lou Reed talks about getting his "ding-dong" sucked. Incredibly ahead of its time and deserves equal praise for the VU albums surrounding by it. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: White Light/White Heat, Lady Godiva's Operation, Sister Ray

This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us - 4.5/5 Amateur Hour - 4.5/5 Falling in Love With Myself Again - 4/5 Here in Heaven - 4/5 Thank God It's Not Christmas - 4/5 Hasta Mañana, Monsieur - 4/5 Talent is an Asset - 3.5/5 Complaints - 4/5 In My Family - 3.5/5 Equator - 3/5 Some over-the-top glam rock never hurt anyone, right? The first two tracks hook you in and prepare your for the manic and interesting rest of the album. It gets a bit weaker towards the end but it still remains its same quirky self throughout. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us, Amateur Hour

Suite-Pee - 4.5/5 Know - 4.5/5 Sugar - 5/5 Suggestions - 4/5 Spiders - 5/5 Ddevil - 4/5 Soil - 4.5/5 War? - 4.5/5 Mind - 4/5 Peephole - 4/5 CUBErt - 4/5 Darts - 4/5 P.L.U.C.K. - 4/5 Oh hey, once again they have chosen the right artist but the wrong album, with their follow-up Toxicity being much more commercially successful. But that album's blueprints came directly from here, with a bit more thrashiness for a wild rollercoaster ride you can't and don't want to get off of. I had largely ignored SOAD outside of their more popular singles, but I can confirm that this album does in fact rip. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Sugar, Spiders, Suite-Pee, Know, War?

Red Rain - 4.5/5 Sledgehammer - 5/5 Don't Give Up - 4/5 That Voice Again - 4/5 In Your Eyes - 5/5 Mercy Street - 4/5 Big Time - 4/5 We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37) - 3.5/5 So launched Gabriel from a cult artist into the mainstream with his most accessible work that still contains his distinct style from his prior work with Genesis and his first 4 solo albums. It still has the sophisto-pop flavor that he had been developing that also blends worldbeat rhythms to create what could be called the defining sound of the 80's. It also helps that he managed to get nearly every artist under the sun to work with him. Stuart Copeland on the drums? A duet with Kate Bush? Tony Frickin' Levin? Sign me up! Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Sledgehammer, In Your Eyes, Red Rain

Don’t Go Near the Water - 3.5/5 Long Promised Road - 4.5/5 Take a Load Off Your Feet - 3.5/5 Disney Girls (1957) - 4/5 Student Demonstration Time - 3/5 Feel Flows - 3.5/5 Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song) - 3.5/5 A Day in the Life of a Tree - 3.5/5 'Til I Die - 4.5/5 Surf's Up - 4.5/5 This was vastly different from their earlier albums, being a lot more introspective and less goofy than their prior stuff. The main thing with this album is that the highs on here were very high and the lows were not good. I'm looking at you Student Demonstration Song. The rest is fairly splotchy but still decent enough. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Long Promised Road, 'Til I Die, Surf's Up

Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) - 4/5 Love Plus One - 3/5 Lemon Firebrigade - 3.5/5 Marine Boy - 3.5/5 Milk Film - 3/5 Kingsize (You're My Little Steam Whistle) - 3.5/5 Fantastic Day - 3/5 Baked Bean - 3.5/5 Snow Girl - 3/5 Love's Got Me in Triangles - 3/5 Surprise Me Again - 3/5 Calling Captain Autumn - 3/5 Sounds like Duran Duran and yacht rock had a baby. It was certainly a fun listen, but this is something that I will definitely forget after a day or two of listening. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)

Speed Trials - 4/5 Alameda - 4/5 Ballad of Big Nothing - 4.5/5 Between the Bars - 4/5 Pictures of Me - 4/5 No Name No. 5 - 4/5 Rose Parade - 4/5 Punch and Judy - 3.5/5 Angeles - 4.5/5 Cupid's Trick - 4/5 2:45 AM - 4/5 Say Yes - 4/5 A surprisingly intimate listen from an artist that I had never heard from. It's a fairly gentle and melancholic sound that he manages to pull off, but there really isn't something here that makes me want to really like it. It's a good album, but most of the songs sort of feel a bit of the same at times. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Ballad of Big Nothing, Angeles

Sat in Your Lap - 4.5/5 There Goes a Tenner - 4/5 Pull Out the Pin - 4/5 Suspended in Gaffa - 4/5 Leave it Open - 4/5 The Dreaming - 4/5 Night of the Swallow - 4.5/5 All the Love - 4/5 Houdini - 3.5/5 Get Out of My House - 4.5/5 I had only been tangentially aware of Kate Bush mostly through her resurgence in popularity in the past few years, so getting her album deemed the most "commercially inaccessible" was definitely a challenge from the start. It's all over the place in a good way, doing whatever she wants without really caring about if it will sell well. There is that mix of baroque-ness and theatricality all throughout that makes this weird, eclectic mix somehow work. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Sat in Your Lap, Get Out of My House

Don't Panic - 4/5 Shiver - 4/5 Spies - 3.5/5 Sparks - 4/5 Yellow - 5/5 Trouble - 4/5 Parachutes - 4/5 High Speed - 4/5 We Never Change - 3.5/5 Everything's Not Lost - 4/5 You could tell that these guys had something on their hands when this came out. However it's just been relegated as "the one with Yellow" as Coldplay commercialized themselves and lost what they had originally. This first foray has traces of what was left of Britpop, with mostly stripped down instrumentals outside of Yellow which added in some more for texture. I can see why this is just Yellow and 9 other songs, but those other songs are good enough to not let Coldplay be a one hit wonder. Unfortunate. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Yellow

Disorder - 5/5 Day of the Lords - 4/5 Candidate - 4/5 Insight - 4/5 New Dawn Fades - 4.5/5 She's Lost Control - 5/5 Shadowplay - 5/5 Wilderness - 4/5 Interzone - 4.5/5 I Remember Nothing - 4/5 Once I saw Ian Curtis dance erratically in one of the band's few live performances on both Transmission and She's Lost Control, I knew this band was something special and was equally tragic. This album drapes you in a blanket of gloom and despair as it takes you on a ride. This album will make you feel worse, but you'll be better for listening to this in its entirety. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Disorder, She's Lost Control, Shadowplay, New Dawn Fades, Interzone

Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma) - 4/5 Hermes Trismegisto Escreveu - 3.5/5 O Filósofo - 3/5 Meus Filhos, Meu Tesouro - 4/5 O Plebeu - 3/5 Taj Mahal - 4/5 Xica da Silva - 4/5 A História de Jorge - 3.5/5 Camisa 10 da Gávea - 3/5 Cavaleiro do Cavalo Imaculado - 4/5 África Brasil (Zumbi) - 4/5 Not my cup of usual tea but it's a fun jaunt. A good mix of Brazilian popular music and African theme to create some latin-funk-worldbeat fusion that fun to listen to throughout. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Ponta de Lança Africano, Taj Mahal, Xica da Silva

.Execute. - 2.5/5 Gematria (The Killing Name) - 3.5/5 Sulfur - 4/5 Psychosocial - 4.5/5 Dead Memories - 4/5 Vendetta - 3/5 Butcher's Hook - 2.5/5 Gehenna - 3/5 This Cold Black - 3/5 Wherein Lies Continue - 3/5 Snuff - 3.5/5 All Hope Is Gone - 3.5/5 For someone who has no idea what metal is all about, this might be a decent introductory album. But it's pretty meh all around besides a few tracks. And to boot, it's not even part of what their fans say their best albums are. The book got the self-titled right, but this should have been Iowa over what many of the band members said was their least favorite album. Either that or just replace it for an album more worthy. Do we really need a nu metal album from 2008? Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Psychosocial, Sulfur, Dead Memories

Terrapin - 3.5/5 No Good Trying - 4/5 Love You - 2.5/5 No Man's Land - 3.5/5 Dark Globe - 3.5/5 Here I Go - 2.5/5 Octopus - 4/5 Golden Hair - 2.5/5 Long Gone - 3/5 She Took a Long Cold Look - 3/5 Feel - 3/5 If It's In You - 2.5/5 Late Night - 3/5 Is it weird to be listening to what is the musical equivalent of someone having a mental break. Or who thought it was a wise idea to give the guy who was booted out of Pink Floyd for mental issues a solo album so we get to hear his mental breakdown? There are some interesting things in here, some proto-punk hidden within the end-of-an-era British folk, but it definitely feels like both the genre and Barrett at the ends of their respective ropes. Some highs, some equal lows, so a score right in the middle makes sense. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: No Good Trying, Octopus

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding - 5/5 Candle in the Wind - 4.5/5 Bennie and the Jets - 5/5 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - 5/5 This Song Has No Title - 4/5 Grey Seal - 4/5 Jamaica Jerk-Off - 3/5 I've Seen That Movie Too - 4/5 Sweet Painted Lady - 4/5 The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34) - 4/5 Dirty Little Girl - 3.5/5 All the Girls Love Alice - 4.5/5 Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n' Roll) - 4/5 Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting - 5/5 Roy Rogers - 3.5/5 Social Disease - 3.5/5 Harmony - 4/5 I really want to like this more. I mean, most of it reads like a greatest hits album for him. You've got Bennie and the Jets, Candle in the Wind (before it blew up again 2 decades later), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and Saturday Night's on here to elevate it up. I feel like this should be 5*, but a fairly weak second side doesn't do it any favors. It trails off after Jamaica Jerk-Off and doesn't really recover besides Saturday Night. So unfortunately that bumps it down a star to make this a really solid 4*. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, Bennie and the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

I Love Your Lovin' Ways - 3.5/5 Four Women - 4.5/5 What More Can I Say - 4/5 Lilac Wine - 4/5 That's All I Ask - 4/5 Break Down and Let It All Out - 4/5 Why Keep On Breaking My Heart - 3.5/5 Wild is the Wind - 4/5 Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair - 4/5 If I Should Lose You - 3.5/5 Either Way I Lose - 3.5/5 Nina Simone sits you down and makes you listen to the struggles of black women in the 60s, and you will end up enjoying the intimate performance. Four Women is the standout track of both this album's theme and from the album in general, though the rest of the album is soulful thanks to Simone's powerful voice. While cabaret-style musical isn't usually for me, she makes me stick around for the more middle-of-the-road songs enough for me to enjoy the whole piece. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Four Women

If I Had a Heart - 3/5 When I Grow Up - 3/5 Dry and Dusty - 3/5 Seven - 3/5 Triangle Walks - 3.5/5 Concrete Walls - 3.5/5 Now's the Only Time I Know - 3/5 I'm Not Done - 3.5/5 Keep the Streets Empty for Me - 3/5 Coconut - 3/5 A fairly dark and cold album that sounds like Bjork entered the scene about 15 years late. The sound though also sounds like it came straight for the SNES, which helps with the overall theme at points but for me it just makes everything sound the same. Everything sounding the same is the real detriment for me, though with some more variation this could be better. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Triangle Walks, Concrete Walls, I'm Not Done

Intro - 2/5 Hot Dog - 1/5 My Generation - 2/5 Full Nelson - 2/5 My Way - 3/5 Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle) - 3.5/5 Livin' It Up - 2.5/5 The One - 2.5/5 Getcha Groove On - 2/5 Take a Look Around - 3/5 It'll Be OK - 2.5/5 Boiler - 2/5 Hold On - 2/5 Rollin (Urban Assault Vehicle) - 1.5/5 Outro - 2/5 I can finally feel validated for why I always disliked Limp Bizkit for some reason. The riffs on the some of the songs are actually somewhat decent. Then Fred Durst opens his mouth and it instantly becomes worse. It just sounds like a bratty teenager who's upset that his mom took away his Xbox privileges for the week because he foulmouthed her. I knew I was in a rough spot when they essentially ripped off Nine Inch Nails in the first track, and Trent Reznor reasonably hated it. Some of this is like junk food, you know it's bad for you but still consume it anyway. Rollin' fits in with this criteria, being just good enough for something on this be decent. This would be so much better if Durst just shut up and they made this way shorter than 75 minutes. No one deserves to suffer for that long. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)

The Girl From Ipanema - 4.5/5 Doralice - 4/5 Para Machucar Meu Coração - 4/5 Desafinado - 4/5 Corcovado - 4/5 Só Danço Samba - 4/5 O Grande Amor - 4/5 Vivo Sonhando - 4/5 This falls a bit too much into the "easy listening" category of music at times but this is still really well produced. I wish there was a bit more "oomph" added to this, but this is perfect to put on and just relax. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Girl From Ipanema

Phrentow - 3/5 Rock You - 4/5 !!!!!!! - 3/5 Sacrifice - 4/5 Rolling With Heat - 4/5 WAOK (AY) Rollcall - 3/5 Thought @ Work - 4/5 The Seed (2.0) - 4.5/5 Break You Off - 4/5 Water - 4.5/5 Quills - 4/5 Pussy Galore - 3.5/5 Complexity - 3.5/5 Something in the Way of Things (In Town) - 3.5/5 Rhymes & Ammo - 4/5 Thirsty! - 4/5 The Roots? You mean the Tonight with Jimmy Fallon house band? This album takes a different direction than other, similar albums about blackness, which I think is to its benefit. They are a really good band that can really play anything, but I think the disjointedness does not work to their benefit. Good stuff overall but from what it seems it should have been the album before this one that should have been included. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Seed (2.0), Water

Can't Get Enough - 3.5/5 Rock Steady - 3.5/5 Ready for Love - 3/5 Don't Let Me Down - 3/5 Bad Company - 4/5 The Way I Choose - 3/5 Movin' On - 3.5/5 Seagull - 3.5/5 A fairly standard hard/blues rock album that doesn't really push the boundary but isn't infuriating enough to completely turn if off. A perfectly cromulent outing. Also adding this to the list of song titles with the same name thrice (Bad Company by Bad Company off of the album Bad Company). Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Bad Company

Precious - 4/5 The Phone Call - 3.5/5 Up the Neck - 3.5/5 Tattooed Love Boys - 4/5 Space Invader - 3.5/5 The Wait - 4/5 Stop Your Sobbing - 4/5 Kid - 4/5 Private Life - 3.5/5 Brass in Pocket - 4/5 Lovers of Today - 3.5/5 Mystery Achievement - 4/5 A perfect example of the crossroads of punk and new wave with an excellent lead. You can hear some jangliness with the guitars, so it's no surprise when I found out that some of the songs inspired Johnny Marr and the Smiths. Good introduction to the band and potentially to both genres for someone who doesn't know about either. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Precious, Tattooed Love Boys, Brass in Pocket, Mystery Achievement

Jumpin' Jack Flash - 4/5 Snow Flower - 3/5 Light My Fire - 3.5/5 Mamata (Affection) - 3/5 Metamorphosis - 3.5/5 Sagar (The Ocean) - 3/5 Dance Indra - 3/5 Raghupati - 3/5 Seeing how this was seemingly a trend-chasing type of album, it was a bit better in parts than I expected. The Stones cover to open the album was probably the best on the album, and it really trails off towards the end to lean towards "meh". It's inspired enough to not be seen as a rip-off of the raga rock genre but doesn't have enough staying power for me to remember it well. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Jumpin' Jack Flash

Lazy Days - 2.5/5 Life Thru a Lens - 2/5 Ego a Go Go - 1/5 Angels - 3.5/5 South of the Border - 2.5/5 Old Before I Die - 2.5/5 One of God's Better People - 2.5/5 Let Me Entertain You - 3.5/5 Killing Me - 2/5 Clean - 2/5 Baby Girl Window - 2/5 Oh so this is where that one movie with the monkey guy was from. No wonder he didn't break into the States, he's very derivative of other Britpop sounds that came before him. He's trying to attach himself to the more popular bands at the time while shedding his boy band label. To be fair, some artists have been able to shake off the latter, but Williams just comes off as trying to copy what's popular. It's funny that the best songs on here is when he isn't trying to imitate anyone! Angels and Let Me Entertain You aren't bad songs but at least he's trying something that isn't being Oasis! Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Angels, Let Me Entertain You

Bad - 4.5/5 The Way You Make Me Feel - 4/5 Speed Demon - 3/5 Liberian Girl - 3/5 Just Good Friends - 3.5/5 Another Part of Me - 3.5/5 Man in the Mirror - 4/5 I Just Can't Stop Loving You - 3.5/5 Dirty Diana - 4/5 Smooth Criminal - 5/5 How do you follow-up on the impossible task of making the next album after the literal greatest-selling album of all time in Thriller? Easy, make another quality album where 6 out of the 10 tracks become long-lasting singles. Even if some of those songs sound incredibly of that era. Having that stretch of tracks 3-6 really damper the mood with the production leading the way over any sort of talent by Jackson. Ending with Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal saves the album a bit from the mediocre middle but realistically this is a downgrade over Thriller. Era-specific production heavily dates the album that it really detracts from what should have been a great follow-up for the biggest pop star and alleged pedophile. I did this whole review as a bit just so the first words of each sentence spell out "hee hee". Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Bad, Smooth Criminal

1984 - 3/5 Jump - 4/5 Panama - 4.5/5 Top Jimmy - 3.5/5 Drop Dead Legs - 3.5/5 Hot for Teacher - 4.5/5 I'll Wait - 3.5/5 Girl Gone Bad - 4/5 House of Pain - 3.5/5 A "dudes rock" album that is carried by its hits with the rest of the album being pretty middle of the road. Thankfully all the singles are good enough to put this as a pretty good album, though the other songs sort of feel like filler outside of maybe 1. Thankfully it's short enough to not notice that much. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Panama, Hot for Teacher

Flying High - 3/5 Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine - 3/5 Death Sound Blues - 3/5 Happiness Is a Porpoise Mouth - 3/5 Section 43 - 3.5/5 Super Bird - 2.5/5 Sad and Lonely Times - 3/5 Love - 3/5 Bass Strings - 3/5 The Masked Marauder - 3/5 Grace - 3.5/5 I feel like I need to be on whatever they smoked making this to enjoy this. Most of the songs feel the same, even though this is one of the more landmark albums of the psychedelic rock explosion of the late 60's. That dig at LBJ in Super Bird was also really stupid. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Section 43, Grace

Frightened - 4/5 Crap Rap 2 / Like to Blow - 3.5/5 Rebellious Jukebox - 3.5/5 No Xmas for John Quays - 3/5 Mother-Sister! - 3/5 Industrial Estate - 3.5/5 Underground Medecin - 3.5/5 Two Steps Back - 3.5/5 Live at the Witch Trials - 3/5 Futures and Pasts - 3.5/5 Music Scene - 3.5/5 This is a bit more raw and disorderly (as weird as that can seem) to their later attempts, and I think some of it sticks the landing while the rest of it just falls into meh territory. It's by no means the worse thing in the world it's just I know that there is better offerings by both this band and the genre at large. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Frightened

Jacqueline - 4/5 Tell Her Tonight - 3.5/5 Take Me Out - 5/5 The Dark of the Matineé - 4/5 Auf Achse - 4.5/5 Cheating on You - 4/5 This Fire - 4.5/5 Darts of Pleasure - 4/5 Michael - 4.5/5 Come On Home - 4/5 40' - 4/5 The prime suspect of "indie band puts out their debut and it's unfortunately their best" of the 2000's and later. They put out a fairly fun album, with Take Me Out as the obvious standout song, though some of other songs are good enough to stand out on their own (though I do prefer the re-release version of This Fire over the album version). They spawned a million other indie bands trying to do the same thing, but like every other indie album the first one is the best. This was teetering between a 4 and a 5 but I think it's more of a 4 due to most of the songs being relatively same-y. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Take Me Out, Auf Asche, This Fire, Michael

Victoria - 4.5/5 Yes Sir, No Sir - 4/5 Some Mother's Son - 4/5 Drivin' - 3.5/5 Brainwashed - 4/5 Australia - 4/5 Shangri-La - 4.5/5 Mr. Churchill Says - 4/5 She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina - 3.5/5 Young and Innocent Days - 4/5 Nothing to Say - 4/5 Arthur - 4/5 I had only known the Kinks from one song, so seeing them pull off a pretty good concept album is both surprising and reassuring that they were still as good as they were on debut. An entire album criticizing the British way of life after WWII is a brilliant concept, and they execute the sort of monochromatic, dull way society functioned with the longing and horrors of the past behind our main character. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Victoria, Shangri-La

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - 4/5 Pledging My Time - 4/5 Visions of Johanna - 4.5/5 One of Us Must Know - 5/5 I Want You - 5/5 Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again - 4.5/5 Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat - 4/5 Just Like a Woman - 4.5/5 Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) - 4.5/5 Temporary Like Achilles - 4/5 Absolutely Sweet Marie - 4.5/5 4th Time Around - 4.5/5 Obviously Five Believers - 4/5 Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands - 5/5 I was a bit apprehensive about this being a double album, but somehow it all just flew by. I can totally understand why he won a Nobel Literature Prize, the songwriting is immaculate and immediately makes this arguably his best album with 72 minutes of no filler. I would kill to have that kind of production on an album. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: One Of Us Must Know, I Want You, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

Little Fury Things - 4.5/5 Kracked - 4.5/5 Sludgefeast - 4/5 The Lung - 4.5/5 Raisans - 5/5 Tarpit - 4/5 In a Jar - 4/5 Lose - 4/5 Poledo - 3.5/5 You can hear a lot of influences going into and inspired from this album. There's some shoegaze, some grunge, some indie rock, some noise, and it's raw and unfiltered for you to hear. I thought this came out later but I was surprised this came out in 1987 before a lot of albums that I would have associated with said genres. Unfortunately I think the album can get a bit same-y at points which bumps it down a star, but this is still a "favorite band's favorite band" type of deal. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Raisans, Little Fury Things, Kracked, The Lung

The Man Comes Around - 4.5/5 Hurt - 5/5 Give My Love to Rose - 4/5 Bridge Over Troubled Water - 4/5 I Hung My Head - 4/5 First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - 3.5/5 Personal Jesus - 4/5 In My Life - 4/5 Sam Hall - 4/5 Danny Boy - 3.5/5 Desperado - 4/5 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - 4/5 Tear Stained Letter - 4/5 Streets of Laredo - 4/5 We'll Meet Again - 4/5 It's surprising that an album consisting of mostly covers outside of 2 songs can still be so thematically relevant. Cash is contemplating his own mortality and his impending death, and the haunting and impending doom a lot of the songs have really make that theme work. He even covered Hurt so well Trent Reznor said Cash owns that song now. A good collection of covers that bookends a legendary career for Cash. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: The Man Comes Around, Hurt

See No Evil - 5/5 Venus - 4.5/5 Friction - 4.5/5 Marquee Moon - 5/5 Elevation - 4.5/5 Guiding Light - 4.5/5 Prove It - 4.5/5 Torn Curtain - 4.5/5 An album that was deemed post-punk before punk was really over. You can hear the influences that led to Talking Heads, the Cure, Joy Division, and more bands that I can't name at the moment, but those moments are laden throughout here. I love the interplay between the guitars on a lot of the tracks, with a lot of the solos feeling like jam sessions rather than feeling like it was made for a studio. Phenomenal work. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: See No Evil, Marquee Moon

The Genesis - 3.5/5 N.Y. State of Mind - 5/5 Life's a Bitch - 4.5/5 The World is Yours - 5/5 Halftime - 4.5/5 Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park) - 4.5/5 One Love - 4.5/5 One Time 4 Your Mind - 4/5 Represent - 4.5/5 It Ain't Hard to Tell - 5/5 Probably one of the best rap albums there is out there. Nas tells you the reality of what living in New York in the 90s was really like, away from the glitz and glamor that everyone else tries to portray it as. It's just 40 straight minutes of excellent beats and lyricism, and it's hard to miss a beat when none of the songs really make you want to skip them. You know when he starts out by saying this came "straight from the fuckin' dungeons of rap" that you're in for an amazing ride. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: N.Y. State of Mind, The World is Yours, It Ain't Hard to Tell

Big Exit - 4/5 Good Fortune - 4/5 A Place Called Home - 3.5/5 One Line - 4/5 Beautiful Feeling - 4/5 The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore - 4/5 This Mess We're In - 4.5/5 You Said Something - 3.5/5 Kamikaze - 4/5 This Is Love - 3.5/5 Horses in My Dreams - 3.5/5 We Float - 4/5 I wouldn't say there's anything that really stands out about this album, but it all definitely feels cohesive with its execution. It almost feels like a bit more raw and indie version of Radiohead, mainly due to Thom Yorke appearing on here once or twice. I wouldn't say this is one of my favorites but I definitely enjoyed enough. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: This Mess We're In

Cornbread Moon - 3.5/5 Because of the Wind - 3.5/5 Boxcars - 3.5/5 Jericho (Your Walls Must Come Tumbling Down) - 3/5 Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown - 3/5 Honky Tonk Masquerade - 3/5 I'll Be Your Fool - 3/5 Fingernails - 3/5 West Texas Waltz - 3/5 Honky Tonkin' - 3/5 Never heard of this guy before, but it turns out he worked with the Clash and Bruce Springsteen so he had some cred. For me, this is similar to whatever was coming out of the Texas country scene with a few things sprinkled in to make it more unique. The first three songs are definitely the best, as unfortunately the rest of the album feels like filler. Not bad but didn't exactly blow me away. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Cornbread Moon, Boxcars

Countdown to Armageddon - 3.5/5 Bring the Noise - 4.5/5 Don't Believe the Hype - 4.5/5 Cold Lampin With Flavor - 4/5 Terminator X to the Edge of Panic - 4/5 Mind Terrorist - 3.5/5 Louder Than a Bomb - 4/5 Caught, Can We Get a Witness? - 4/5 Show Em Whatcha Got - 4/5 She Watch Channel Zero?! - 4.5/5 Night of the Living Baseheads - 4/5 Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos - 4.5/5 Security of the First World - 3.5/5 Rebel Without a Pause - 4.5/5 Prophets of Rage - 4.5/5 Party for Your Right to Fight - 4/5 YEAAAHHH BOOOOOYIIIEEEE!!!!!!! This album straddles the line between being a breakthrough for hip-hop and also sounding very old-school. The latter part means that this sounds a bit dated today, sounding more basic compared to today. But that doesn't mean this was at the cutting edge of the genre, and a lot of the songs on here are experimenting with what this kind of rap should sound like. A lot of the non-single tracks suffer from feeling like filler, but these guys certainly brought the hype. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Bring the Noise, Don't Believe the Hype, She Watch Channel Zero?!, Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos, Rebel Without a Pause, Prophets of Rage

Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake - 3.5/5 After Glow - 4/5 Long Agos and Worlds Apart - 3.5/5 Rene - 3.5/5 Song of a Baker - 3.5/5 Lazy Sunday - 3.5/5 Happiness Stan - 3.5/5 Rollin' Over - 3.5/5 The Hungry Intruder - 3.5/5 The Journey - 3/5 Mad John - 3/5 Happy Days Toy Town - 3/5 This certainly is a tale of two sides. The first sounds a lot like the britpop movement to come nearly 30 years later, which is surprising for how similar some of those songs sound to Oasis, as an example. The second side is more of a whimsical tale of something I'm not really sure what happens. It's a bit all over the place and definitely seems worse than the first side. There are some things here to appreciate, but I didn't really like the concept on the B side. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: After Glow

Prowler - 4.5/5 Remember Tomorrow - 4/5 Running Free - 4/5 Phantom of the Opera - 4.5/5 Transylvania - 4/5 Strange World - 4/5 Charlotte the Harlot - 4/5 Iron Maiden - 4.5/5 I didn't know that Iron Maiden had another lead singer not named Bruce Dickinson and that they didn't always sound like they always had. You can hear that later sounds in here, as a few songs stood out moreso than the others but the others almost felt like they were here just to be here. Still a solid debut. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Prowler, Phantom of the Opera, Iron Maiden

Blue Rondo a la Turk - 4.5/5 Strange Meadow Lark - 3.5/5 Take Five - 5/5 Three to Get Ready - 4/5 Kathy's Waltz - 4/5 Everybody's Jumpin' - 4/5 Pick Up Sticks - 4/5 A gateway into what jazz can be and how songs outside of the standard 4/4 can still be great. Take Five is arguably one of the most famous modern jazz standards, but Blue Rondo a la Turk is almost equally as great. Unfortunately some of the other tracks really tread into that "background noise" aesthetic for me so that bumps it down a bit for me. Good, cool jazz though. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Blue Rondo a la Turk, Take Five

Cecilia Ann - 4/5 Rock Music - 3.5/5 Velouria - 4.5/5 Allison - 4/5 Is She Weird - 3.5/5 Ana - 3.5/5 All Over the World - 4/5 Dig for Fire - 4/5 Down to the Well - 4/5 The Happening - 4/5 Blown Away - 3.5/5 Hang Wire - 4/5 Stormy Weather - 3.5/5 Havalina - 3.5/5 On its own, this album is a pretty solid one for the early 90s indie rock scene. But seeing how this is coming off of two of the "better" albums from the Pixies, this can be seen as a bit of a let down. This has that mix of 80s and 90s weirdness that haven't yet fully meshed together, resulting in something that ultimately while still good is definitely below their earlier works. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Velouria

Peaches en Regalia - 5/5 Willie the Pimp - 5/5 Son of Mr. Green Genes - 4.5/5 Little Umbrellas - 4/5 The Gumbo Variations - 5/5 It Must Be a Camel - 4/5 I had known that Frank Zappa was a weird dude when I found out what he named his kids, but at least his music was funky enough to back him up on that decision. I love how most of this was essentially just one big jam session with some excellent solos to boot. Some people have described this as a prog rock album, but it seems to be more of a jazz rock album with some of those elements in here. That's not a detriment to me, it was still a great time to listen through. Overall: 5/5 Favorites: Peaches en Regalia, Willie the Pimp, The Gumbo Variations

A Message to You Rudy - 3.5/5 Do the Dog - 3.5/5 It's Up to You - 3/5 Nite Klub - 3.5/5 Doesn't Make It Alright - 3/5 Concrete Jungle - 4/5 Too Hot - 3/5 Monkey Man - 4/5 (Dawning of A) New Era - 3.5/5 Blank Expression - 3/5 Stupid Marriage - 3/5 Too Much Too Young - 3/5 Little Bitch - 3.5/5 You're Wondering Now - 3/5 The only ska I was familiar with was the apparent resurgence of popularity it got in the 90s, so it's interesting to a youngin' like me to see that ska got its roots way before then. Probably my bias but I much prefer ska to have that punk edge to it, and way too many of these songs lean into the reggae aspect of ska. Only two or three have that ska-punk flavor to them that I like, so this is more of a middle-of-the-road type of album than I would have wanted. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Concrete Jungle, Monkey Man

Dance for Me - 3.5/5 Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children - 3.5/5 Come Into My House - 3/5 Latifah's Law - 4/5 Wrath of My Madness - 3.5/5 The Pros - 3/5 Ladies First - 4/5 A King and Queen Creation - 3.5/5 Queen of Royal Badness - 3.5/5 Evil That Men Do - 3.5/5 Princess of the Posse - 3/5 Inside Out - 3.5/5 A fairly good debut but man is this album stuck in 1989. It has the same vibe as other Zulu Nation-related albums from this time period, but some songs overstay their welcome just a bit too long. Each song could have easily been like 3-3.5 minutes, but they get repetitive once stretched out to the 4-5 minute range. I like how there's a bit of everything here, but that doesn't really save it from it sounding dated and repetitive. Ladies First is the standout here, and that and Latifah's Law really save this from being any worse. It's realistically a 3.5* for me but gets knocked down to a 3* for the aforementioned issues. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Latifah's Law, Ladies First

5000 Miles West of the Future - 3/5 Airwave Hysteria - 2.5/5 Planet 10 - 2/5 Takes More Than 41 - 2/5 Bladerunners - 3/5 No. 1 St. - 3/5 To the Moon's Contractor - 2.5/5 I Feel Like $100 - 3/5 The Animist - 2.5/5 Red Eye to Jupiter - 2.5/5 Welcome to the Afterfuture - 2.5/5 Wipe Out on the Wave of Armageddon - 3/5 Feb. 4 '99 (For All Those Killed By Cops) - 3/5 Part of me wants to like this, but I really can't catch where he is trying to go with this. It seems like he wants to do some rapping over jazz or whatever, but most of the time it just comes off as noise. Overall: 2/5 Favorites: Feb. 4 '99

Bone Machine - 4.5/5 Break My Body - 4/5 Something Against You - 4/5 Broken Face - 4/5 Gigantic - 5/5 River Euphrates - 4/5 Where Is My Mind? - 5/5 Cactus - 4/5 Tony's Theme - 4/5 Oh My Golly! - 3.5/5 Vamos - 4/5 I'm Amazed - 3.5/5 Brick is Red - 4/5 A great debut for what can be seen as the impetus of the indie rock and alt rock genres. There are two outstanding tracks on here in Gigantic and Where Is My Mind?, but the rest of them seen rather hit-or-miss and somewhat same-y. They definitely improved on their second album, but this is still a pretty good offering and a prelude to what they could do in Doolittle. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Bone Machine, Gigantic, Where Is My Mind?

Genesis Hall - 4/5 Si Tu Dois Partir - 3.5/5 Autopsy - 4/5 A Sailor's Life - 4/5 Cajun Woman - 3.5/5 Who Knows Where the Time Goes - 4/5 Percy's Song - 4/5 Million Dollar Bash - 4/5 Even though this album is from the late 60s it certainly sounds newer than that. A very surprising listen, since I normally dislike British folk but these guys knew how to do it right. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Genesis Hall, A Sailor's Life, Who Knows Where the Time Goes

Oh What a World - 3.5/5 I Don't Know What It Is - 4/5 Vicious World - 3.5/5 Movies of Myself - 3.5/5 Pretty Things - 3/5 Go or Go Ahead - 3/5 Vibrate - 3/5 14th Street - 3.5/5 Natasha - 3/5 Harvester of Hearts - 3/5 Beautiful Child - 3.5/5 Want - 3/5 11:11 - 3.5/5 Dinner at Eight - 3/5 Sounds like Radiohead got a lot less depressing and at the same time got a whole lot less interesting. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: I Don't Know What It Is

Wearin' That Loved On Look - 3.5/5 Only the Strong Survive - 3/5 I'll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) - 3/5 Long Black Limousine - 3/5 It Keeps Right on A-Hurtin' - 3/5 I'm Movin' On - 3/5 Power of My Love - 3/5 Gentle on My Mind - 3.5/5 After Loving You - 2.5/5 True Love Travels on a Gravel Road - 3/5 Any Day Now - 3/5 In the Ghetto - 3.5/5 So my suspicions were confirmed that Elvis is most definitely a singles guy rather than an album-oriented artist. The best song (Suspicious Minds) was left off of here due to my arbitrary rules! The rest of this is fairly middling. It's fine but not really showing off why Elvis was the most popular artist around this time. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Wearin' That Loved On Look, Gentle on My Mind, In the Ghetto

Amsterdam - 3.5/5 Les Vieux - 3/5 Tango funébre - 3/5 Le Plat Pays - 3/5 Les Timides - 3/5 Les Jardins du Casino - 3/5 Le Dernier Repas - 3/5 Les Toros - 3/5 You know, it's really hard to appreciate chanson and a lyrics-based artist if you really don't have a grasp on French. I know a few things for certain, this is very French (yes I know he's Belgian), and he appears to be a good lyricist from what I can parse. I can tell about his song "Le Moribond" which was translated into Seasons in the Sun and it's much funnier than the English translation: The whole song is about a dying man on his deathbed talking to the people surrounding him in his dying moments The first verse is about him reminiscing with his friend Emile over the good times they had The second verse is him talking with his priest, and although they did not see eye-to-eye they are still on good terms The third verse is him telling a man named Antoine he knows he's cheating bastard The last verse is him telling his wife that he knew she was cheating on him with Antoine Anyway, chanson is cool, I guess. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Amsterdam

Welcome to New York - 3/5 Blank Space - 3.5/5 Style - 4/5 Out of the Woods - 3.5/5 All You Had to Do Was Stay - 3/5 Shake It Off - 3/5 I Wish You Would - 3/5 Bad Blood - 2.5/5 Wildest Dreams - 3.5/5 How You Get the Girl - 3/5 This Love - 3/5 I Know Places - 3/5 Clean - 3/5 I forgot how everywhere this album was when it came out: 3 top 100 singles and pretty much every single off of here charted in same way or another. And then I realized when listening to it that Taylor Swift is writing these lyrics and immediately realize why I would rather listen to other, more interesting pop acts. I don't really hate any of the songs off of here (except for Bad Blood, which definitely led into the even worse "Look What You Made Me Do" an album or two later) but most of them are pretty vanilla. Style is a good retro-ish throwback that this album was trying to go for while there are a couple that feel like they should have some staying power. The others can be forgotten. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Style, Wildest Dreams