1001 Albums Summary

We all thought Madonna was ancient when this came out, but she was younger than I am now. I liked this album in 1998. It was a cool departure from her earlier work and I enjoyed the nods to trip hop and other electronic genres that I hadn't been too familiar with. This was my first listen since around that time and I found the record to be really interesting musically, even though Madonna's vocals seem a little distant and disaffected. The album has a lot of strong songs, but could use a little bit of editing. I'd give 3.5 if they'd let me, but closer to a 3.

Not a big TVotR fan, but I did find many of the arrangements on here to be very interesting. Some of these songs are quite good, but also a handful of clunkers.

More of a Bryter Layter guy myself, but all three of Nick Drake's records are great.

Yeah I love The Specials, this is fucking great.

I admit some of this is fine for a passive listen, and it's easy music to plug into a movie soundtrack or whatever. But for real, this shit sucked 25 years ago and it sucks now. The worst songs are the ones where Moby does "vocals."

I like Nick Cave just fine, but this isn't among his best. Enjoyed listening to it, though. "Let the Bells Ring" is really a standout.

Four stars for "Waiting in Vain" alone.

It's great. Gotta save the five stars for the Cure records to come, though.

Knew some of this music going in but was kind of mid on it. Got completely turned around. These reinterpretations take the songs (many of which are very good) to a whole other level. Absolutely fantastic Sunday morning music. (Have no idea why the book double-dips these two records; five stars is for the first one, which I think is a lot stronger and is the one most people think of when they think of this project)

Had never heard of them apart from "Teenage Kicks," which isn't on this record. It's fine. Kind of grew on me the more I listened, but still found myself wishing I was listening to The Buzzcocks or something instead. The "Under the Boardwalk" cover is truly terribly, though.

The highs are really high here, obviously. It's fun and innovative, and there are cool sonic experiments. But there's also some kind of run-of-the-mill prog rock on this record that can be a little too much. On balance, a very good, not great album.

I thought Muse sucked shit going into this listen, and I came away still thinking that.

The only great Coldplay album. Probably the only good Coldplay album, too.

Want One is so good! So why doesn't this one work for me at all?

It's the fucking Rolling Stones, of course it's great. "Out of Time" and "I Am Waiting" are some of Mick and Keith's best songs.

This was great. I had no knowledge of anything Clark did outside of the Byrds, but this is right there with anything Crosby, McGuinn, or even Gram Parsons ever did. Loved it. Also, fuckin' great harmonica on this record.

Not for me. I know Jeff Beck is this guitar god but there's only one good riff on the whole album (that riff drags this up from one star to two).

Every pre-1985 Heads record is at least a 4. This one came out in 1978.

Is The Soft Bulletin on this list? Because that one's a five.

I recognize this is kinda good and represents something of a movement within indie rock of the time period, but it's just not for me. The songs the main guy sings are better written, but I like the other guy's voice better.

Obviously Spector's a huge piece of shit and the world would be better off if he never existed. But also this is exactly what Christmas is supposed to sound like, so what can you do.

Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards can write the hell out of a groove. "Lost in Music" is a certified banger and I want to listen to it every day.

Loved this when I was 14, then hated it for years, listened today and I think it's fine. Surprisingly well played, except for the drummer's extremely 90s habit of switching to the ride to "change things up" on every chorus.

Very pleasant listen. Nothing earth shattering here, but a cool record.

Felt like a philistine at first, because I couldn't connect with the first disc at all. The second half is full of guitar freakouts and cool electric piano stuff, and really hit. Especially loved "Spanish Key" and "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down."

Liked this more than I thought I would. Did not know this was the drummer that Vince Neil killed. He's very good on this record.

Dark as fuck, but I did listen to a podcast where chef David Chang said this album kept him alive. Let's call that a win. Good record.

One great song, a couple of other good ones.

Everything on this is fantastic. I love how the arrangements lay way back and just let her voice do all the work. It doesn't really feel like a coherent album because of the way it was cobbled together from old takes, but every song is perfect in its way.

I love a good jangle.

Everything about it is great (but especially the "Let Me Roll It" riff).

Can I go ahead and state the unpopular opinion that Ian Curtis was holding this band back? There are obviously some good (great) Joy Division songs here and there, but listening to this in its entirety is a slog.

I have nothing to say about this record that hasn't already been said. Very funny reading the dumbest fucking one-star reviews on this one though.

The first Pixies album I got into, so I have a fondness for it. A lot of really great songs, but a few things that I see more as filler these days. I love it, but not as good as Surfer Rosa.

Huge gap between the best RHCP songs and the worst. Huge. I'd really rather not deal with all the worst ones.

Ok, so I'm the biggest REM fan on earth but I do not understand why this is on the 1001 list. It's by far the worst record of the Bill Berry era of the band (and worse than a couple of the ones from after he left). Obviously it's still and REM record so there's a lot of redeemable material on here. "World Leader Pretend" is great, "Orange Crush" rips, but the tone is really off for the most part, like it's got one foot in Document and one foot jumping ahead to Out of Time, both of which are superior albums.

MJ has two five-star albums, and this isn't one.

Have always had kind of a love-hate relationship with this album (O.K. Computer is pretty much perfect, then this was the start of a big falloff). I liked listening to it today, though.

God I wish I could figure out how to replicate Mark Knopfler's guitar tone. Also, "Sultans of Swing" is an absolutely perfect song. But the rest of the album is solid, not great. I'm a Brothers in Arms guy anyway.

It's great. Lots of Devo classics on here.

Yeah it's fuckin' great. Was never totally won over by "This Woman's Work" as I was hearing it in this context. Favorite part of the album is the moment when "Rocket's Tail" opens up.

Had never once heard of this person, but it's good!

If I'm being objective, this is a 2. But I loved it when I was in high school, so I'm bumping it up.

It's solid, with a bunch of good tunes and really good production. I don't really know enough about grime as a genre to explain why it sounds good to me but it does. "It Ain't Safe" is the one that'll be stuck in my head.

Love it. Some stone cold classics on here, and I really appreciate all the instrumentals, too. Definitely from the peak CD era where artists were trying to fill up the whole disc. Could use some editing.

I liked it! So much familiar stuff on here. Not the kind of thing I'd listen to every day, but fun background for a dinner party or something.

There are some bits I like in here, but it's really confounding music in a lot of places. Even if I didn't know it was all performed by one guy, those cracks really show when there are some odd tempo changes, riffs that kind of don't feel full when the movement abruptly goes somewhere else. And the calling out of instruments and some of the other vocalizations are just odd and off-putting.

Very pleasant. I would like to samba on the beach. Really could've done without "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," though. Creepy.

This is a kick ass live record. The Platonic ideal of the rock guitar sound. Last note of "Cowboy Song" right into "Boys are Back in Town" fucking rules.

Continuing my established tradition of giving four stars to vibey early Cure records.

Eels were always somewhat of a mystery to me, so I kind of avoided them. I liked having to listen to a full record of theres. I really loved a lot of this, especially "Not Ready Yet." Some of it doesn't work as well, but I got really into the groove of it as a whole. The noise gate and kind of compressed sound they always use take a little getting used to, but feel very cool in the context of a full album. It can feel a little clinical but E's voice and some of the instrumentation have a really unique human quality that makes the whole thing work.

[Only listened to the self-titled 1996 album because that's the part that's on the list] I didn't really like this, and it's not really representative of what Throwing Muses did later in their career. Appreciated hearing a 40-year-old Tanya Donnelly song I never knew existed, though! (It's the best song on the record by a lot)

Nah, dude, this sucks shit. Thanks a bunch for making me listen to "Smack My Bitch Up." I don't get why this is here. I guess maybe they've influenced some modern EDM stuff? But honestly there's just nothing fun about it musically, and it just doesn't seem to have all that much to say. I knew the singles well enough because I was alive then, but could have gotten by just fine without hearing the whole album. (Also I hope this bad cameo isn't the only time Kool Keith makes an appearance on this list)

Enjoyed it. Crazy story about what happened to this guy.

[Was wondering why this sounded familiar. I rated it already before we started our group! Original Review:] I like Nick Cave just fine, but this isn't among his best. Enjoyed listening to it, though. "Let the Bells Ring" is really a standout.

I appreciate that XTC are a very clever band, but perhaps by 1999 they'd gotten a bit too clever? "Dictionary" is super cringe. Other than that, there's an awful lot to like here sonically (and lyrically, too, sometimes). Makes me want to dive into some of the classic XTC records, but I'd file this one as just ok.

They had "Clint Eastwood" and one other Del track, and then a whole bunch of boring shit. A lot of talent in here, and yet they don't know what they want this thing to be. Kind of explains what the cartoon characters were for. Thought this would be at least a 2 based on CE alone, but there's so many songs on here that are so, so bad.

It's good. Really like the vibe of the songs without percussion. A folk album that doesn't sound too folky.

I mean, this thing is just fucking perfect, right? I have a vinyl copy, but I streamed the remastered version this time around. It might be the most impeccably produced recording I've ever heard. It's almost 50 years old, but it feels like it could have been made in a modern studio, like, yesterday. The songs are great, the playing is great, the message is great, and it's just an absolute pleasure to hear. Six fucking stars out of five idgaf.

On an album full of fuck songs, "You Sure Love to Ball" is a fuuuuuuuck song. Glad I got to hear that one for the first time. It's a short album and there's no real need to have the title track on here basically twice. Overall, this is a really entertaining record, but definitely not Marvin at his peak. Still really good, though!

Surprised how many of these songs I knew already. Really liked the whole record.

I mean, not my thing. Trying not to trash albums just because they're not my thing. This is really quite solid at doing what it's trying to do. It's not nearly as hard to listen to as a lot of other albums of its type. The playing is really solid. Very good metal guitar and some solid melodies here and there (I can't connect with the rapid kick drum shit and never will). So, not my thing, but it had some surprises and it's good for what it is.

I generally like Bryan Ferry's music, but hadn't heard this record before. Was pretty surprised and disappointed by how little I vibed with it. Just kind of dull all around.

I could be snarky about how this is the fifth best Beatle album or whatever, but it's an automatic five stars. (Listened to the 2017 Giles Martin remix which I consider the definitive stereo version. It rips so much harder because the mix has actual nuance to it and also a real fucking bass sound you couldn't get in 1967.)

Really liked this back in high school, and it's still kinda fun but it hasn't aged that well (and I'm not just talking about "Kung Fu").

Good shit.

Only song I knew on here was "Dreamer," and I don't like it. Still don't like it, but I like all the other ones!

Not even my favorite B&S record but it was a joy to listen to this today.

Was very wary when I saw that this guy was in Public Image Ltd. but this is better than anything PiL ever put out. I was a bit higher on it in the beginning but the best songs are a bit front loaded. It's fine and it gets a mid score.

[Already rated. Original Review:] Very pleasant listen. Nothing earth shattering here, but a cool record.

Jeez, I forgot they sing the "snot" line twice. Some good riffs on here (like "Locomotive Breath," which rips), but I find most of the songwriting tedious.

First deep dive with Syd Barrett-era Floyd, and let's just say I admire it more than I actually enjoy it. Kind of amazing they went from this to writing a stone cold rock classic (that everyone on earth likes) within six years.

So I knew a few a few Style Council songs, and they all made me think "ok so Paul Weller broke up The Jam and then went blue eyed soul." Which is kind of a natural evolution, honestly. I was not prepared for how fucking all over the place this album was gonna be (like I'm sure the rapper you recruited was top of his trade as far as early-80s British white guys go, but what bar are we setting here?). Quite a bit disappointed with it. Still love "Your the Best Thing" and "My Ever Changing Moods," which are right up there with the best Jam tunes. But I have genre whiplash and I'm not ok.

So the song "After the Gold Rush" is maybe an all time top 10 favorite for me, but I always found myself skipping a lot of stuff on the album. In fact, I came into this thinking that I might not give five stars to ANY Neil Young album, despite how much a love a lot of his work. Now I'm thinking maybe all of the NY albums on here might be five stars? This was such a great listen. I'm kind of a dumbshit for thinking this shouldn't be on my 5-star wall.

So you show up at Woodstock on Friday afternoon. Richie Havens kicks it off. Nice. Joan Baez is headlining tonight. Fuck yeah. But the rest of the lineup is full of this absolute dogshit. I don't care enough to read up on these guys, but I do hope they had a nice little career on the ren faire circuit. Side note: After the album ended, the song "Painting Box" came on and it was worlds better than anything on here. Do more like that, you weirdos.

This album felt really familiar even though I'm pretty sure I've never listened to it before. It's almost really good, but (and this is probably not an original opinion) I just really don't care for dude's voice.

I think it goes without saying that JT is a shithead. I love Britney's anecdote about the time he embarrassed himself trying to buddy up to Ginuwine, he's very petty about that whole relationship on this record (and elsewhere), and of course it's complete bullshit the way he skated away from the whole Janet Jackson thing while she got vilified for it. As for the music, this is a pretty solid pop record. It's got a handful of bangers and a whole lot that CD-era filler. Just because you know you have 75 minutes to play with doesn't mean you have to use every idea the Neptunes come up with for you. With a little editing, I could maaaaybe see pushing this up to four stars, but it ain't there.

It's got a couple great songs and the guys sound good but they're not there yet. Get me to Damn the Torpedoes.

It's fucking great. Giving a bonus star to because it's protest music that's both meaningful and good (a rule I made up just now). RIP Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, who died because music has power.

I love this record a lot, and The Band's music always makes me feel good. They're one of the most purely talented ensembles in rock history for sure. I think that every album they put out before 1976 is a solid four stars (including this one, of course, which is maybe their best). But - and I feel bad about saying this - there's always something that doesn't quite cohere into the kind of perfection that some of the other artists on this list are able to achieve. tldr: one of my favorite bands, every record is great (high batting average!), I like every song, sorry it's "only" four stars.

Thanks to this project for getting me to dive into these Kate Bush albums. This one's got a lot of great songs on it, but I found parts a little too theatrical, especially compared to The Sensual World, which is pretty much perfect.

Very cool to learn about this singer who I've never heard of before. I generally like Brazilian music as a nice little background thing, and this fits that role nicely, though I probably won't revisit it a ton.

I love music that's so big it just wraps itself around you.

In 1997, my beloved FM station WDRE-FM went off the air, closing out their last night with a live concert headlined by Philly legends G. Love and Special Sauce, with support from Fun Lovin' Criminals. I taped this concert off the radio and would revisit it periodically until such time as I no longer owned a cassette player. Anyways, I don't like this band all that much and this album is, in most spots, incredibly corny. But here's the thing, these guys can actually play. I don't need to hear the "hits" from this record ever again, but I really liked the cool funk of "I Can't Get With That" (complete with a solo that pretty directly evokes Ernie Isley), as well as the cover of "We Have All the Time in the World." Most of this isn't really my thing, but I enjoyed learning that these guys have had a really long and prolific career. Good for them.

Dre's production is great. Snoop's hilarious. I'd drop "Bitches Ain't Shit," but this unsurprisingly remains a great album to consume cannabis to.

I liked "Octopus." That being said, I don't think I vibe at all with Syd Barrett music.

I enjoyed listening to this, but probably will never do so again.

Soul crooner is my favorite flavor of Bowie.

This is a delight.

"Strawberry Letter 23" is an unabashed classic, and I liked listening to all of this, but this record has a saggy middle.

Hadn't listed to this record before, but I like it a lot better than the s/t or Paranoid, which I had listened to. By this point, it feels like they've fattened up the production and the riffs really stand out. This shit rocks.

I hadn't listened to this since 2012 when it was a big part of The Discourse. I was shocked how much of it I remembered, like re-watching a movie you loved when you were a kid. I think I actually like it better now, unburdened from the discussion of what-it-all-means. The songs are great, and I think all the guest spots on here are really perfect. Five star album for sure.

Really like their sound, her phrasing and melodies are really interesting. I think I never connected fully because, like here, many of the songs are very same-y.

Some of the coolest guitar work in the business. Unimpeachable first four songs, including "Marquee Moon" which is epic. Side two is good but unmemorable.

It's good. Not as cool as No. 4 or Paranoid, but I like it.

Solid punk record.

Must have completely missed this project in 2007. Some very cool personnel on this album, but I'm finding that most of Damon Albarn's songwriting outside of Blur is boring as fuck.

I love Todd and this has his two best songs on it, but this shit's just too long.

I love Elvis and the songs are great, but this man needs The Attractions not the fucking News.

It's perfect. Looking forward to checking out the dumb one-star reviews on this one.

This was fine. "Buffalo Stance" is great but I didn't really dig most of the songs. I do wish someone, someday would refer to me as an Outre Risque Locomotive.

It's a musical theater pastiche of Born to Run, as if Born to Run wasn't already plenty theatrical. This record has been deep in my bones since I was a kid, but I haven't really spent any significant time with it as an adult. I respect the hell out of Jim Steinman (dude's track record on the charts is incredibly impressive). On this album, he takes a million big swings, and just keeps Socking. Fucking. Dingers. Every time. I am definitely not too cool to give this five stars.

Did I just listen to Bat Out of Hell and Repeater back to back and give them both five stars? Fuck yeah I did. I contain multitudes.

I love how you get a sense of each of their individual songwriting and performing styles as you traverse the album.

[Already rated. Original review:] Everything on this is fantastic. I love how the arrangements lay way back and just let her voice do all the work. It doesn't really feel like a coherent album because of the way it was cobbled together from old takes, but every song is perfect in its way.

A double album full of deep cuts from my fourth favorite Traveling Wilbury? Sign me up!

Hey, here are a bunch of Buddy Holly's best songs, and then here are a bunch of other ones we need to pad out (checks notes).... 25 minutes.

A really pretty record by Nick Cave. Who knew?

Kind of wild that almost all the classic Violent Femmes songs are on their debut album. It's good.

Tribe's sound is infectious. Not as good an album as The Low End Theory, but it has a few classics on it.

It's a lovely record ("River" might be the best song Joni ever wrote), but it doesn't emotionally connect with me as much as I always expect it to. Really close to a five but not quite there.

It sounds so much like a straight up Bowie album. The singles are great, the rest of it is solid.

Never heard of this band or this project, but this shit ruled.

I suppose I prefer this to an actual napalm death, but not by much. Track 12 made me honestly laugh out loud, though.

This was pretty cool.

I bought this on vinyl in high school mostly to be cool (it has one of the great album covers of all time). In 2026, it's a really good listen but hard to see what all the hype was about.

This was great. Gonna be my jumping off point whenever I want to hear some salsa in the future.

[Already rated. Original review:] Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards can write the hell out of a groove. "Lost in Music" is a certified banger and I want to listen to it every day.

The stage banter is a lot of fun, but the performances really aren't anything to write home about. Also, apologies to Shel Silverstein, but "A Boy Named Sue" is fucking stupid.

Bought this with the came out and usually stopped listening after the first two songs. And none of the rest of the album is actually as well crafted as those two... but it's a solid record, with some pretty creative stuff on side two that I never gave a chance before. Not Blur's best, but I like it.

Absolute classic. The Band would be the best American group of all time if 80% of them weren't Canadian.

She's undoubtedly a force. Some of the songs just aren't that great.

I love ya, Bob, but I'm gonna need to you plug it the fuck in. (This is a good record, and "Don't Think Twice" and "Hard Rain" are classics, but just not my preferred Dylan modality.)

They got weird on this record and I'm here for it.

Todd writes some good tunes, but he's also kind of a maniac? This album gives off weird vibes, especially on side one. I like a lot of the songs that have enough time to breathe, but could do without a lot of the little snippets. I'll gladly keep "International Feel," "Sometimes I Don't Know What to Feel," and the medley of soul covers in the rotation, but I could do without the rest.

Doing this project got me into finally digging Nick Cave, so it stands to reason the same would happen with PJ Harvey. This is a much more eclectic album than I expected, and all her different modes are really engaging.

Very enjoyable.

Nothing earth shattering here, but it's the Croz, so you know it's a groove.

I really like the hit songs I already knew, but I doubt I'll ever go back to this one.

This was fine, just not my preferred genre so I don't have much to say about it.

This is a decent record. I've always found Common to come off a great deal less profound than he wants to be. His beats were really novel for the time though.

I love The Byrds but they released so much music in such a short amount of time, and that means some of the full albums kinda miss me. Some not so great songs on here.

Really enjoyed this. Great guitar work.

Love that Hammond B-3!

I think this is the epitome of achieving exactly what the artist set out to do. I loved it. Fuck it, five stars.

Smells like cocaine. Fuckin' rocks.

I like Van (his music, not his bullshit), but I don't really get why this is THE Van Morrison album. It's kind of boring. Would rather play Moondance any day of the week.

Feels like a weird limbo point in hip hop history between Straight Outta Compton and The Chronic where it made sense for members of NWA and Public Enemy to work together. It's odd and I can't say I enjoyed much of it. Apologies to O'Shea. In three short years, the Lakers will beat the Supersonics and inspire a song that's a million times better than anything on here.

Really enjoyed listening to this even though there was absolutely no sex involved.

Peak Stones. Perfect rock n' roll sleaze. This record is so perfect that it's a miracle Liz Phair's response record is even better.

I didn't mind it. Can't tell if these guys are on here because they're in some way influential, but to my electronica-averse ears I didn't hear much of anything unique.

Couple of good tunes, interesting collaborators. Kinda boring.

Really solid disco record that kind of drags on side two. (Context: I've never heard of this artist and know nothing about his personal life.)

Some nutty shit on this album, but a lot of great songs too. I wore this thing out in high school.

It's really good. A lot of my favorites from her aren't on here but "Everything is Free" is, and that's enough.

There's a point on this record where motherfucker shouts out "How 'bout some rock n' roll?" Problem is that "Do You Feel Like We Do" is the only song that even seems to understand that live music can even approach the concept of kicking some ass (it barely does, and that's the only reason this snoozefest is getting two stars). By the way, this record is a perfect argument for editing out all crowd noise from live albums. It's like these folks watched some comedy bit about how white people always clap on the 1 and 3, so these morons decided to clap on the 1, 2, 3, AND 4. Your hands are gonna get sore, fam.

Their music is cool as hell and it's wild to me this came out almost 20 years ago.

Fred's working through some big feelings. I'll say this: some of the songs aren't as bad as some of the other ones.

I have absolutely no idea what this is but I like it.

I've always enjoyed this record, but I just remembered why I never really listened to the back half of it.

Goat.

Three of the best songs they've ever had, and a lot of other stuff.

Great songs and the production on this is kind of incredible. A lot of prescient songs, but a really timeless vibe.

Sounds a little dated today. It's fine, but every 90s album should be about 20% shorter.

Cool as shit. It fuckin' rules.

I thought some of this was interesting, thought it takes a while for most of the songs to get going. I continue to just not be a prog rock guy.

An unfair one-hit wonder label. It's quite a good album, and they've had a few more good ones since.

This is lovely and I'm glad to know there's a second one I'll get to check out.

The music seems to always be in a rush to get to the next thing, which makes it doubly surprising that it's all so boring.

This shit rocks but you lose points for that drum solo which is very long and very bad.

The first in a three record run of Heads at the peak of their powers. Nice job by ol' sourpuss Brian Eno on this one.

It's great, but Prince gives into a lot of his hokier instincts on some of these songs. Then again, his hokey instincts gave us "Starfish and Coffee," so you do you Mr. Nelson.

I once bought a Mark Eitzel CD that I discovered in one of those listening booths Tower Records used to have. I remember almost nothing about that album, but I did learn that he was from AMC, and made a mental note to check the band out. Now I have (I guess it just took me ~20 years to do so). I quite liked it. It came out pretty hot; "Firefly" is definitely my favorite song on here. Lots of different styles and very much in my wheelhouse. If their stuff was on Spotify it probably would have hit my algorithm a lot sooner. Let's call this a 3 1/2 that I'm rounding up.

Robert Smith at the peak of his powers. This is a great fucking album.

I like the idea of rockabilly punk in theory, but these songs don't do much for me.

Big melodies, big noise.

[Already rated. Original review:] One great song, a couple of other good ones.

This has a lot of the big tunes, but Deja Vu is better.

Lovely stuff, this.

My hot take is that I do not like "You Are the Sunshine of My Life." So how can this album be perfect if it has an imperfection on it? Don't ask me I don't make the rules here but this is another perfect 5 for Steveland.

Thanks to Studio 54 for not letting Nile Rogers in. It gave us this.

It's not total dog shit, but I will just never get this band.

Why yes, I do like to rock.

Knew "Cult of Personality," obviously, but I forgot "Glamour Boy" was also in pretty constant MTV rotation way back when. I thought this was a pretty good listen, and Vernon Reid is very talented. Was kind of blindsided by the Talking Heads cover, but it's good. Don't think this will hit my regular rotation, but I liked it.

It's good. Dre is good at producing. Some of the non-singles are more musically interesting than the hits.

I'd like this band if they had a different singer.

I dig it.

This is a great record with strong contributions by all six band members. Should have been a classic in it's day. Also a reminder of a time when MIke Love wasn't a total fucking dickhead.

I was once a hipster doofus who would have given this one star out of spite. I am not that doofus anymore; this is fine.

I've been converted to a big Joan Armatrading fan recently. Great stuff, this.

Formative album. I saw Elliott Smith in a tiny club right after his weird Oscars performance, and it's a cherished memory.

Played a morning round of Boggle whilst listening to this and it soundtracked perfectly.

Not his best, but still an exceptional record, especially given the circumstances surrounding its recording and release. Loved it.

The hits are known and loved. Was kind of hoping I'd find a deep cut that I could really get into, but they're not here (not even the one with Prince, which is kind of a dud).

I like it it's nice.

This has never been my kind of music but I tried to give it a shot. Some of the lyrical content is really good (some of it is very much not), but the textures of this genre are just kind of off-putting for me. Very solid on its own terms, just not for me.

I dig it. A little hokey in parts, but she has a great voice.

This record starts off dull but side two bangs.

It's good! The arrangements on some of the album cuts were a bit different than what I expected from his other hits (i.e. more acoustic guitars).

Really liked it. I pretty much always like free jazz or fusion stuff, but I find the genres pretty intimidating, just so much stuff out there that I don't know. Kind of like trying to get into soccer.

Eh, they get better.

I am not a fan of this. The exaltation of Janis Joplin has always felt like it was borne of "let's not speak ill of the dead" vibes. But the band is not really doing anything interesting, and I just don't find Janis to be a particularly interesting vocalist.

The Pharcyde was always a little outside my hip hop listening zone in the 90s, but this is a very fun record. Will come back to it.

Ok fine I guess we're giving all the Neil albums five stars. Fuck it, whatever, leave me alone.

I wore this album out in college. Still good.

It's the bloody fookin' Stones innit?

I really love Madonna but not nearly as much as the writers of this list do, apparently. She always has great hits but the album tracks are just... there. The "American Pie" cover is an abomination, which makes this the lowest rated Madge album so far.

I have always loved this album and still do but it's a little bit marred by Evan Dando being a creep.

I think I'm finished with the Sabbath albums on this list. They're all good, but this one is special.

It's great but I think it hasn't aged as well as some other music from its era. Again I wish I could go back to the 90s and tell every artist that you do not need to fill an entire CD.

Absolute classic.

This is tough. I haven't listened to this since it first came out, and obviously the circumstances were very different then. I still think "Lazarus" is genuinely moving, but it may be the only song on the album I actually like listening too (with the possible exception of "I Can't Give Everything Away," which has kind of an insane arrangement that I really dig). I think three (black) stars is an acknowledgement of what this album achieved, while I might go lower if just looking at the music by its own merits. (I fucking love Bowie but there's so much more to him than what's here)

I try to be understanding of Kanye and his mental health issues, but even if you give him grace it's still hard to ignore all the, erm... unpleasantness. There are some great songs on here (and the guy is a hell of a producer), but some stuff hasn't aged well and even the stuff that has is just hard to listen to the same way in 2026.

On the spectrum of 90s electronica between Fatboy Slim (good!) and Moby (fucking horrendous!), this falls somewhere in the middle. I especially liked the back half of the record, and the vocal contributions from Noel Gallagher (which I'd heard before because it was a single at the time) and Beth Orton (which I hadn't).

So I'm just about the biggest Wilco guy you're ever gonna meet, and up until a couple of weeks ago I'd have given this album like three stars. But that was before Billy and the band finally got together after 28 years to play this music live for the first time. I didn't go to Solid Sound this year, but I streamed the Mermaid Avenue set live, and it was an incredibly moving experience. So I'm hearing these songs with new ears now. And it's shocking how relevant almost all of Woody Guthrie's words are to this day. Gotta give a fresh listen to Volume II now as well. All you fascists bound to lose.

The Verve or sort of unfairly regarded in the U.S. They're more than a one hit wonder. I've never listened to this all the way through before, but Richard Ashcroft is a good songwriter and this is a good record. "The Drugs Don't Work" is a phenomenal track. Let's call this a 3.49.

I like it fine. Not one of my favorite punk bands from that era. Also today I learned that Jello Biafra is still alive. Who knew?

I've got a lot of respect for Pharrell, but none of this is memorable and some if it is outright bad.

This is an old favorite of mine. Why does this direct to the censored version of the album? I want to hear "Good Shit" not "Good Ships." Anyways, it's a really good album that I enjoyed revisiting.

This album has a ton of singles on it, and they're mostly very good (despite the 90s guitars not aging very well). Unfortunately it still has album tracks, some of which are just woof. "Perfect" is, lets say, less than perfect. "Right Through You?" Yikes. I'm not immune to the Alanissance, and maybe I'm just in a bad mood today, but this is mid.

My impression of this record (based on the lore) was that it was kind of a low effort. It's definitely not, but it is just as loaded with spite as I imagined. I think it's really solid and it has the entire Motown hit machine at its disposal. But I don't see myself going back to it when there are a million other great Marvin Gaye tunes out there.

The absolute prototype for what a rap album should be.

I really don't care much for straight blues, which I do understand is kind of heretical for a rock fan. But I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Hot take: Muddy Waters is a good bluesman.

Easy five stars. To me this album canonically contains "New York City Cops" because it was included on the copy shipped to my college radio station in (hmm) August 2001.

Ok so I'm not a prog rock guy, but I kind of thought this would be cool. It's not. Granted this is probably not the ideal way to hear ELP at length for the first time, but it's one of those things where they were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should (Insert Jeff Goldblum gif here).

Brian Ferry doesn't just make naughty album covers, he's good at music too.

What you think I'm a basic bitch for giving Pet Sounds five stars? Whatever, I'm not afraid of you, fight me.

So this is a guy I felt like I always slept on and would probably like. Well, he's no longer slept on, but I don't think I missed much.

The sound of my childhood (and teens and twenties and thirties and forties and...)

I've never really gravitated towards Aretha. I tend to prefer the Motown and Stax aesthetics over Atlantic. But it was really great to have a concentrated dose of the Queen here. Let's call this a 4.49.

Kind of hated this at first then I started to vibe with it a little. Needs more Bahamadia. Disclosure: I listened to the single disc "cassette version." It's an hour and goddamn twenty minutes already, I'm not doubling that.

This isn't the most unpleasant listening experience I've had, but there's absolutely zero creative spark in it. Why's it here?

I have an active dislike of Clapton and I was dreading yet another British white boy blues thing. But I did find this to be ok. I liked a couple of the covers. And the fact that its called The Beano Album made me laugh. I hope they all took care of their gas pain. (I know it's the name of a magazine, chill out)

I love Depeche Mode and was fully prepared to give this a five, but it just didn't hit that way for me. It's a really good record with some real classics ("Enjoy the Silence" is kind of the peak of of dark 80s synth), but definitely imperfect.

If they had cut "Brand New Cadillac" this would be a ten out of five.

Very raw and a little all over the place. The primal screaming shows up a lot. I like it.

Once they get "21st Century Schizoid Man" out of their system, I like this quite a bit.

I like Fiona, love the singles. The back half of this album gets really boring. I think she really matured as a songwriter (and, frankly, as an editor) after this, and I look forward to getting more into some of those records.

This is ok.

Totally fine, completely inessential Britpop.

The best Nirvana album. Heart Shaped Box is the best Nirvana single. The whole sound on this was pretty radical considering the glossy sheen Nevermind had. This one deserves more love.

The first Neil album that's not getting a five. Great songs on here, but I don't like the more theatrical stuff he indulges. "A Man Needs a Maid" doesn't really fit on a record that also has "Out on the Weekend" (maybe my favorite NY song of all. Love how he takes a huge shit all over Alabama though.

The first side of this album, holy fuck. Then you add "Once in a Lifetime" and "Houses in Motion" and you have one of the best five song runs on a record ever. Every tune here is a perfectly assembled groove from the core Heads, then you add Adrien Belew doing crazy guitar shit, Nona Hendrix adding vocal textures, etc., etc. Talking Heads at the peak of their powers.

There are gonna be a whole lot of Radiohead albums on this list, huh? I really like this one. My teenage self would give it a five, but I can't quite go that high. Curious to see how I'm gonna feel giving O.K. Computer a spin at some point.

One of my favorite rap records from this era. I still listen to "What's Golden" all the time.

A great record. "The Promised Land" is one of the greatest rock songs ever written. There are a lot of fives in Bruce's catalog but this one just misses.

I understand the process behind recording this, but I feel like the live in studio vibe unintentionally creates a lot of distance between the songs and the listener. I feel like if I'd seen CH rock these songs live I would be really into it, but I couldn't really connect here. This was a first full listen for me, similar to when I got On the Beach. On the Beach knocked my socks off; this one didn't.

Who doesn't like Willie? A lovely listen.

Honestly a little better than I expected. I still don't love it, and I think there's a lot of weird lyrical content on this record.

This was a good groove. I liked it.

[Already rated. Original review:] Loved this when I was 14, then hated it for years, listened today and I think it's fine. Surprisingly well played, except for the drummer's extremely 90s habit of switching to the ride to "change things up" on every chorus.

A real good one. Not perfect, but some of these tunes are stone cold killers.

Liked this more than I thought I would. The Tracey Thorn vocals are great. Since this list skews so British, I'd expect an Everything But the Girl record at some point and am looking forward to it.