1001 Albums Summary

It was fun listening to "Wishing Well"; brings me back to when it was on the radio at the time. I thought as an album that it was all kind of samey, and since stuff like this isn't really my favorite genre I ended up skipping halfway through a number of the tracks. I give it a 3 - I'm not about to buy the record, but none of it would cause me to change to a different radio station.

Oh come on, do I really have to listen to this? I feel I have spent enough time listening to this record and seeing the video on MTV back in the day to be able to say I have heard it before I died. 2 stars - I recognize its technical quality and danceability, but I would get my coffee to go if I were someplace and they started playing this record.

Yay for this record - I've always loved "A Forest." Weirdly though, the only record I ever had by The Cure was that singles comp "Staring at the Sea," so much of this was new to me. Fun record - I love rhythmically compelling songs with obscure lyrics and music that sounds like the soundtrack to a creepy movie. Probably won't listen to the whole thing very often, but there are some top-notch tracks here.

I couldn't get into this; it just didn't make me enthusiastic about listening to the whole thing because these days this kind of American folk rock isn't very interesting to me. Admittedly I've never gotten into any Neil Young since I was super into "After the Gold Rush" when I was in 9th grade. So this is well done for what it is, I think, just not for me these days. If it were playing in a coffee shop I wouldn't leave to get away from it, but I'd probably complain about the place afterwards like "well yeah the espresso drinks are good but the last time I was there all they were playing was all this sleepy Neil Young stuff." Three stars

Hot Rats! Riotous funk-jazz weirdness; the only Frank Zappa record I still listen to regularly. "Peaches en Regalia" started running through my head the minute I saw this cover this morning. I love that the only vocals on this record are by Captain Beefheart. Best track: The Gumbo Variations, which should have been twice as long If I heard this in a coffee shop I'd stick around to hear the whole thing unless I'd just played it myself recently; there's a limited amount of Zappa that I can do these days. Five stars

Well, this was inevitable, might's well get it over with. Yep, "Sgt Peppers" is an incredibly important record that inspired countless important bands in later years. But do I ever want to listen to it again? No. (Aw come on, even "Day in the Life"? NO.) This record came out when I was nine years old and has been on constant rotation ever since - so yes, I have heard it, thank you.

I wasn't expecting to like this record this much! I've been hearing forever how great Wu-Tang was, but have never been into this kind of stuff enough to check it out. Not something I'd play in a car with open windows because of some of the lyrics and spoken word stuff, but otherwise I really enjoyed it. Four stars

When this record popped up yesterday morning I was like "oh yeah Sebadoh, I remember them" but my next thought was "have I ever actually heard any of this or do I just know about it from reading about it in Puncture or whatever at the time?" So ok - this is along the lines of things I like, indie rock. I'd give it more stars if it was a little more innovative. It didn't really speak to me for some reason. Three stars because it's competent, tuneful, but for me unexciting.

I somehow had managed to never hear of this band, so I was intrigued. I love the cover. The best tracks reminded me a little of Sparks, that over-the-top dramatic kind of stuff. I can see that one or two of them would be fun popping up in the right sort of radio set, and Neil Hannon has a great voice. I'll bet if you liked this at the time, you probably REALLY liked it. Most of it was just a little too goofy for me, but I can see why it was included in this list. 3 stars

This is fun stuff - songs that those of us around at the time will remember from the radio: "Time after Time," "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," etc. 3 stars because while it was never my favorite thing at the time, it evokes a fond reaction of "aww yeah, Cyndi Lauper"

The fast songs were annoying but ok if you like music like this, I guess. But the slow songs were intolerable, like I couldn't get more than 30 seconds in before having to skip to the next track.

Woo, Parliament! - this record is fun. I decided to listen to it while doing some weights and crunches and such but ended up mostly dancing instead. Lyrics to "Handcuffs" didn't age particularly well, but otherwise there's not a dull moment on this record.

Ha ha this is what I get for telling someone "I like The Mekons more than Bob Dylan" yesterday. What can I say, everything by him has always sounded kind of samey to me, and then he takes out the harmonica, etc etc. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the first couple tracks on this record, acoustic things that I wasn't very familiar with. But it stopped being fun around the halfway point, with a number of tracks like "Mr. Tambourine Man" that I've already heard enough times for an entire lifetime. There was also the issue that somebody in the Youtube comments brought up, that the mixing wasn't great on the electric songs so the singing was obscured by the music, fairly average blues-rock stuff. tldr: while the first half of the record had me thinking "this is more interesting than I thought it was going to be, I'm going to give it three stars," by the midpoint it started dragging and ends with a two. Not entirely Bob's fault, but he's got a Nobel so he probably won't mind this too much.

I've heard Elliot Smith tracks here and there on the freeform/college-type stations that I tend to listen to, but haven't ever listened to an entire record of his. So I appreciated the nudge today. I really like his voice, and there's something about the instrumentation that I also like - kind of subtle but interesting at the same time. I don't know if I'll buy this record, but I liked all of it - so, 4/5.

So I feel very strongly that what made The Smiths as good as they were was the music, not the vocals, and this record reinforces that opinion. Plus he's turned out to be kind of politically terrible, which I can't help but be influenced by. So yeah, obviously not a big fan here. However, despite all the negativity in the previous paragraph, this really wasn't as irritating as I feared it might be. So, 2/5.

This is the first record that I've gotten on this project that was a new, wonderful discovery. I had no idea who Coldcut was, but when I saw that this record had both Mark E. Smith and Queen Latifah on it, my first reaction was "wait, what?" and then I immediately put it on. Here we have some dance-y music incorporating lots of sampled speech and sounds, which was weirder and more interesting to me than a lot of the stuff in that genre that got airplay here in the US. (I somehow managed to miss getting into the whole techno thing, so I don't have many referents there.) So, this was very fun; while many of the records I've been fed so far in this project have taken a bit of an effort to get through, I was sorry when this one ended. If I ever find a copy, I'll buy it. Until then, at least I have Youtube -- 5/5

So of course I've heard individual tracks off this record, but it's mainly been in the context of those end-of-year "best 1,000 songs since 1960" type radio shows, sandwiched between Oasis and Janis Joplin or whatever. It's completely different to listen to the whole album and really pay attention to it. Lauryn Hill's voice is both strong and beautiful (I like this version of "Killing Me Softly" better than the original), and the way the three of them work together makes every track imaginative and forceful. 5/5 stars for this one. The generator is turning me into a hip-hop fan! (I have to add that I'm happy to have finally heard the track that was sampled on that song that then ended up being redone as The Gilla Band's "Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage")

There was a time when The Residents were my favorite thing in all the world. I've seen both them and Snakefinger live multiple times, was in the Residents Usenet group, used to tell my kid that his Christmas presents were from Santa Dog... I'm sure I could think of more examples of my complete Residents-induced derangement at the time. So I was wondering why I had to dig this record up on YouTube; I know I had a copy of it at some point. Then I listened to it, and realized that other than "Constantinople," the vocals are rather consistently irritating, aren't they. I don't know why the 1001 guy chose this particular record for the book, since there are better ones from that period like Meet the Residents, Fingerprince, and Intermission from the Mole Trilogy; any of those would have gotten 5 stars from me. Based on that I originally gave Duck Stab a 3, but on listening to it again today, I was overwhelmed with Residents nostalgia, and enjoyed it much more. I also compared it in my head with other records I've since given a 3 to, and realized that surely this is more enjoyable than Depeche Mode or The Who!! It's just a slightly less enjoyable fabulous mess than the rest of the Residents' albums that I have, which probably would get 7 stars. So I regret the error of my ways and have upgraded this album to a 5.

If you can believe it, I've never heard this whole record before, just tracks like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" on the radio. Most of this is fun loud garage/proto-punk stuff with great fuzzy guitar bits, which I love. I was mildly baffled at first by the 10-minute psychedelic track at the end of the first side that had with Iggy singing about his usual subject matter over sitar and Hindu chanting, but let's remember that this was recorded in 1969, not 1979. The second side is great - turn it up louder. Even louder. Thank you 1001 albums generator, it was lots of fun listening to this today. An excellent break from the standard Christmas Eve day playlist. 5/5

These singers are wonderful - this is a cool choice for a Christmas record. But.... I guess for some people, no matter how many times they hear "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" in a given season they're still always filled with warm nostalgia for childhood Christmas mornings, and can't wait to hear it again. Aw, and now here's Frosty! They love that song! But honestly, me? I really would be glad to never hear about Frosty again. And now it's the end of the season, when I'm looking forward to not hearing any of it for another 11 months. (Plus, Phil Spector, eew.) They should have given me this record on December 1; I might have given it a 3 then. 2/5

There are a few tracks on this record that I've always liked, especially "[I Don't Want to Go to] Chelsea." Catchy tunes, cleverly rhymed lyrics. There are a couple duds, though, and the subject matter is pretty repetitive. And I'm a little sick of "Radio, Radio." Despite those complaints, I seem to be tapping my foot anyway - the beat is pretty irresistible. I'm leaning around 3.5 for this one, but I think I'll bump it up to 4 because I really do like "[I Don't Want to Go to] Chelsea."

Much of this record is great - the intense music - the guitar, the bass!, and Morrissey's often heartbreaking lyrics. What I was most looking forward to on this record was "How Soon is Now," though, which I swear was on the US version of this record, but it isn't on the version linked here since it wasn't on the original UK release. Too bad, I really like that song. Despite my disappointment about not getting to hear "How Soon is Now," I've given this a 4/5, since it really is quite good.

First time hearing this record; The Flaming Lips is one of those bands that I've heard on the radio periodically but never grabbed my attention enough to get me to buy one of their records. The music on this album is interesting - unexpectedly symphonic. A couple tracks struck me as a little too sweet-sounding, but I can see how repeated listens could make them work in context with the rest of it. The singer has an interesting voice that sounds a lot like Neil Young to me - but it's like Neil Young did some kind of multi-year ecstatic retreat and then stumbled out into the light, inspired to have a completely different kind of sound. 4/5 that could convert to 5/5 after listening to it some more

This record is all about "Peace Frog" for me, since it's one of only a handful of Doors songs that I still really like. So that was fun to hear again: "bloody red sun of fantastic LA"! I used to go to LA a lot for work, and I'd think of that song. But sure, it's also good to hear "Roadhouse Blues" and "Waiting for the Sun" from time to time, and even the songs that don't grab me as much are redeemed by the guitar and keyboards. So: while I was much more inclined to listen to the Doors when I was 18 years old, today I ended up enjoying "Morrison Hotel" as a whole more than I thought I was going to. 3/5 though because for me it's mainly just about that one song

When I opened this up this morning I yelled "YES!" Confession: since I wasn't really into punk at the time, I've only recently been catching up on the stuff that came out in the 80s while I was listening to New Wave and my old prog records. So, I've only had a copy of this record for a couple of years, and have come to really like it. It's great for driving around - just an all-around propulsive record, consistently good. My favorite track is "Jesus and Tequila," but the whole thing is great, 5/5

I love qawwali music, so I was really pleased (and surprised) when this one came up. I knew a couple of tracks already from another Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan record that I've got that I think is a comp, not sure because it's been ages since I played it! Must do that more often. 4/5 because while I wouldn't play it all the time, it's really wonderful and mesmerizing music.

When this record came out I was very anti-Elastica. But I think I was in my Coil phase at the time, so you don't want to have to trust then-me's judgment about Elastica. So, my impression 30 years on? I still find it pretty annoying, like most of these songs felt like blander versions of other bands' similar music. Technically they did a fine job, but by the time I was 2/3 of the way through I started wishing it would end. But "Stutter"'s good, and a couple of the other tracks were ok too. So, 3/5

There are a couple of Elliott Smith songs that I hear now and then and really like, but sadly none of them are on this record. I can tell that this is good for the genre, but I feel like it's more calm and ballad-y than I usually like. If we could give half points I'd say 3.5, but I think based on this one listen that I'll give it a 3.

I like the background music on a lot of this - the opening doomy-sounding electronics made me think that maybe this'll be another nice hip-hop surprise. But the vocals were kind of an annoying distraction for me. I'd be interested in hearing a remix of this as a purely instrumental album. I know my opinion is affected by what Kanye is like these days, and it's certainly not uniformly terrible. But I can't get past a 2 on this one.

Yeah I'm sitting here singing along with "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For a Sunbeam." This record was on constant rotation in my household when it first came out. I never play my old Nirvana records anymore, I guess I got a little tired of them and what I like to listen to has changed a lot since then. But I really enjoyed hearing this one again today. I think it feels fresher than the others because of the mix of covers and less-played originals and of course the acoustic setting. 4/5

Led Zeppelin II: a solid group of blues rock/metal tracks. It's an important record because of the influence it had on later work. I don't really like Led Zeppelin the way I did once, so I found some of it (like the vocals) a little annoying. And at this point I really don't need to hear "Whole Lotta Love" again. But I did enjoy much of it, like "Ramble On." 3/5: objectively good but not really my thing these days

Huh, I've never heard of this band. The cover art made me wonder what was going on there and I didn't have high expectations for it. But it ended up being pretty interesting. Some of it is very jam band, kinda like Little Feat or the Dead. Other bits are more complex, with occasional hints of Tejano and Canterbury sounds dropped in here and there. So it looks like we have a new genre here, "Texan jam-prog." I don't see myself reaching for it again, but it was a fairly enjoyable surprise. 3/5

Ah yes, late-90s house music. It reminds me of being in LA in the 90s, and it's pretty fun. I might get a copy of this record, it would encourage me to go to the gym more often. I was dancing around while listening to it this morning. Sure, some of it is predictable, but there are no stupid lyrics, and the electronic effects are often interesting. I found it really fun and immersive. (I was particularly entertained by the videos.) 4/5

Listening to this today for the first time in 20-some years. The songs "Biko" and "Games Without Frontiers" are so strong and memorable that this is an important album just based on their inclusion, and the rest of it is pretty good too, with lots of interesting people like Robert Fripp contributing to the rest of the tracks. 4/5

Achievement: I no longer think Coldplay is probably boring because other people say Coldplay is boring - I now think Coldplay is boring because I've finally listened to a Coldplay record, and it was boring. It's like they took a bunch of songs and ran them through a filter to make them 50% less interesting. Maybe they don't want to upset anyone, which is nice? I prefer upsetting music. 2/5 since I'm saving 1 for something absolutely excruciating.

Oh hey, I remember this - "Big Muff" and "Smiling Stranger" got a lot of airplay on certain stations at the time. On this record he has some dub influences that add interest, but it's overall pretty mellow. The final track "Small Hours" is a nice 8+-minute guitar bit with swoopy effects that approaches new-ageyness but doesn't quite get there. Good piece to use as bed music to back-announce a radio set or play in the waiting room of an acupuncture studio or something. 3/5 because it's too sleepy for my current preferences, but well done for what it is.

The The is one of those 80s bands that I know existed but have no memory of listening to. Unfortunately it seems like this is something that would have potential if only it had been done in a completely different style by different people. It's like they wanted to make angry music that was also dance music, but couldn't quite figure out how to do them both at the same time. Even "Sweet Bird of Truth" didn't have much of a punch, which was disappointing because the wiki described it as a controversial track critiquing US imperialism. It sounded too much like Thomas Dolby or something and I couldn't take the lyrics seriously in that context. There are records from that period with political subject matter that still sound very urgent and contemporary, but this isn't one of them. 2/5

This stuff is really strong - the fluid way he raps is pretty amazing. I definitely can see why it's such a well-regarded album. Would I ever go back and listen to it again, though? No, I really struggled to continue with it - a lot of the lyrics were a bit much for me. I'd probably give it a 4 if I didn't speak English. 3/5

Why don't I have this record? It's great. This has lots of fun extended instrumental bits like in "Goodbye Toulouse," and of course I was delighted to hear "Get a Grip on Yourself" for the first time in quite a long time. Check out the keyboards on this record! Ha, it's nice hearing this stuff on something better than crappy 1970s car radio speakers. (ok yes, "Peaches" is stupid, but it's funny-stupid so that's ok) Five stars

Me: (screams in pain) Husband: Are you ok? Me: I HATE THIS FUCKING RECORD Husband: So turn it off! Me: BUT I HAVE TO LISTEN TO IT FOR THAT ALBUMS PROJECT THAT I'M DOING 1 star

Oh right, this record. I love "The Cutter"; hard to resist singing along. Let's see what the rest of it is like - I never did end up getting any of their records at the time, just enjoyed their hits when they came on the radio. So I think this is one of those records that grow on you with repeated listens as you start to process the lyrics. The band are doing some interesting stuff behind the vocals, like on "Heads Will Roll," "Gods Will Be Gods," and the 6-minute title track, and I'm bopping along with the consistent beat. I like this - well, I've always enjoyed the danceable but with miserable-sounding vocals kind of New Wave that came out in those days. So: 4 stars. 4/5

Let's say it's 1970 and you're 12 years old and you go with your saved-up allowance money to buy a Beatles album, and then you get home and are greeted with "Revolution 9." I don't have a clear memory of my initial reaction to this record, but I imagine that experience was fairly formative, considering the nonlinear stuff I like to listen to these days. This isn't a perfect record; there are goofy bits on here like "Bungalow Bill" and "Rocky Raccoon" that I could have lived without ever hearing again. And the apolitical theme of "Revolution 1" felt off to many people on the left at the time, and feels kinda problematic now too, considering everything going on at the moment. But hey, it's a double album, so there's a lot of good stuff left to hear if you skip those. So while my general position re the Beatles is that people need to quit playing them all the time already (and that Siouxsie and the Banshees covers of Beatles songs are better than the originals), still: 4/5 stars for the white album.

What was I doing with my life in 1990 that was more important than listening to this record? I only got this album a couple of years ago (along with Daydream Nation) because I was wondering why I didn't have any Sonic Youth records, since it seemed from what I'd heard so far that I would like them. And that was the right decision - I love bands with this kind of searing noise and beat. The Karen Carpenter song is heartbreaking, with equivalent intensity in the music. And "Mildred Pierce"? I wish this song would go on all day. This whole record is filled with cacophony and growling noise, which makes me happy - just the kind of thing I like to listen to when I'm the mood for noise, which seems to be most of the time these days. Love this, 5/5

The faster songs on here are the kind of music that are good to hear live in a pub with several pints of beer. Of course there are millions of bar bands like that, so it's not going to be a standout for me. And the slow songs required lots of patience on my part, but that's no surprise. It closes with their big hit "Come On Eileen," which is fun. (Of course that song always reminds me of this: https://xkcd.com/575/) So, I feel bad not rating it higher since Kevin on the cover there looks so sad, but: 3/5.

Woo, Black Sabbath! I know some of their other records, of course, but not this one for some reason. It was silly of me to listen to this first thing in the morning, since what this record needs is late night and a party. But it's a good listen, especially when they get into the longer instrumental bits. Turn it up! (Oh wait no don't, the neighbors are probably still asleep.) The final track, "Under the Sun," was my favorite; it had an interesting repeating guitar bit at the beginning, and some very nice stuff happening in the rhythm section. It felt more restrained than the rest of it, which made it more powerful for me. But I drop a star for "Changes," which - like we all love and miss you, Ozzy, but did we need to hear you singing a sad love song over drippy strings and piano? I mean maybe, but it didn't work for me. Biggest regret: that "FX" didn't go on a little longer (they thought of it as a joke piece, but I kinda liked it). 4/5 stars

"It's 1989! It's 4:00 in the morning! We're tripping!" is what I said as the first track started up. It's a good accompaniment to the video I'm watching where somebody put a gopro on their cat and let it out to run around in the snow. Aw look at that cat, it's having fun. OK I think I'm getting a contact high from the music. This is great stuff. A couple of the tracks had vocals that detracted a bit for me, but it's mostly lots of fun. 4/5 stars

I've only ever had the first Specials record and a couple Fun Boy Threes, so I'm happy to have the opportunity to check this one out too. And ah yes, I recognize a couple tracks, e.g., "Enjoy Yourself." This feels a little mellower than the first record - it's the usual ska with interesting lyrics, but a couple of tracks had some unexpected dancehall-y/soundtrack-y bits, which was fun. Only disappointment was that I'd hoped "Ghost Town" would be on this one, but I'm now reminded that that song didn't come out until 1981, so it looks like that must have been a single that came out after this album. I loved that song when it was on the radio but never tried to find a copy. But still, enjoyed it - 4/5

I've always been pretty much a nope for Depeche Mode, so I went into this with some trepidation. But hey, this record was more fun than I thought it was going to be. The best songs here have a tense contrast from the dancey bleep bloop and a dramatic edginess in the vocals, backing strings, and rhythm section and such, so I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of it. But then the 80s/90s dance music that I like best always has that tension. But a whole record full of it is a bit too much! And there were a couple tracks that I really Did Not Like, mainly the slower ones that had lyrics that I guess were supposed to be moody and deep but sounded whiny and uninteresting to me. Odd videos. Depressed-looking clowns being lectured by a Depeche Mode guy in an abandoned adobe hut? Sure, why not. 3/5

Here's a Smiths record that I like all of, from beginning to end. All I knew up til now were the singles, so this was fun. What I've always enjoyed about The Smiths was the contrast between the tuneful music and the lyrics, and this one feels more sad/funny, cynical, and cliché-busting than ever. There's a lighthearted feeling to all of it until you pay attention to the lyrics and then it's like hang on what did he just say? Like if you hear "nothing's changed, I still love you," you don't expect someone to follow that with "only slightly less than I used to." My biggest issue with English-language pop music is all the predictable lyrics, so when a lyricist does something that messes with that predictability, I am primed to like it. And of course Johnny Marr's choices for the music are always spot on, and provide that contrast that makes the lyrics work better in context. I think of Morrissey's solo material as something one is subjected to rather than enjoyed, so it's obvious to me that the music as much as the lyrics is what gives this record 5 stars for me. 5/5

So, I have finally heard an entire Van Halen album. The guitar playing is virtuosic for sure, but it doesn't feel all that original to me. And the lyrics don't really work for me either, it all seems to be "woo hot chicks" and such. I think if this had come out when I hadn't already heard a ton of other music, I probably would have liked it, with nothing else to compare it to. But it's too late; this isn't going to work for me now. But I can see why people like it. 3 stars

Suede is a band that I know existed; if a crossword puzzle had a clue "UK 90s band" and Oasis didn't work, I'd try Suede next. But I only remember one or two of these songs. This maybe sounds like what would happen if the Smiths had listened to a little more David Bowie? It's slightly overwrought; the singer got on my nerves occasionally. But a lot of the music I like teeters on the edge of irritating like that. This is the sort of thing that I like when I'm in the mood for it; I thought it was a good listen. I'll revisit it some other time, since it seems like one of those records that benefit from listening to it a couple of times. So, 4/5

This is the first time I've ever heard this entire album as an entire album, despite how often I've heard all of these songs over the past 40-some years! I like this more now than I did when it first came out - it's pop music, but with a slight punk edge. I still think Fun Boy Three's "Our Lips Are Sealed" is better than the one here, but this record is a lot of fun anyway. Favorite: "This Town" 4/5

This is a great record. I think Bragg's political sensibility made him a good match for Guthrie, and while most of these songs aren't political, still, it feels right. And though I don't really know Wilco much though I appreciate them, I like Billy Bragg, with his political British punk/folk work. Of course I'm sure part of what I'm enjoying about it this morning is nostalgia for listening to it all the time when it first came out. I was listening to less noisy music in the late 90s, lots of British and Scandinavian folk and world music kind of stuff. And "California Stars" is still one of my favorite songs; it makes me cry for some reason. 4/5

HARDCORE PUNK YEAH In 1980 I was still listening to lots of prog and such, so it took me a while to get a real appreciation of this kind of stuff. I didn't really get it at the time, but I love it now. So here we have 14 tracks, none of which is more than 2 minutes long - the perfect length for songs like this. This record makes me want to jump around. 5 stars because FUCK YEAH

I know Isaac Hayes best from "Theme from Shaft," which I've always loved since hearing it on the radio when it was a hit in the early 70s. Plus the wikipedia article says that this is one of Henry Rollins' favorite records. So hey, let's go. This is everything that I liked about "Shaft" but stretched out, sometimes with an almost improv kind of feeling. I did not expect these instrumental bits! The crazy long end of "Hyperbolicsyllablecsesquedalymistic" reminded me of Can. (Or maybe better to say that the bass on "Tago Mago" reminds me of "Hyperbolicsyllablecsesquedalymistic," since this came out 3 years earlier.) What interested me most when I first saw the tracklist was this 18-minute-long version of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." What? I didn't know what to expect with this, an 18-minute soul version of what I remember as a lightweight Glen Campbell song from when I was a kid. But damn, his long intro that created a story around why the guy in the song was doing what he was doing caused this version to be pretty heartbreaking. 4/5

Another record that I only know from the singles, since I never had a copy and wasn't ever really into Stevie Wonder at the time. It was great to hear "Boogie On Reggae Woman" again for the first time in a while. I love that funky bassline, it sounds kind of like an electronic tuba. And "You Haven't Done Nothin'" sadly still hits pretty hard today. A great funk track. Some of this was more mellow than what I usually like, but hey, if you have to have mellow music, it might as well be this, right? There's not an off note in any of it; the arrangements and harmonies all work well and are all varied enough for the record to be interesting as a whole. I have a friend who saw Stevie Wonder in England last year, and she said it was a great show. So good to see he's still at it.

Ray Charles! I liked the tracks like "It Makes No Difference Now" that were mainly him singing with a horn section, and the others with him on piano. As we all already know from other stuff he recorded, he was an incredibly gifted musician. However, I just couldn't deal with the strings and backup singers on a number of the songs. If I had a higher tolerance for the droopy music of the 50s and early 60s I'd give it 4 stars for the songs and its importance in the context of the period, but what can I say. So, 3 stars. Looking forward to other records by him.

Bought this record when it was new and have loved it ever since. Yeah this is a GREAT album. A great combination of ska and punk - the guitar, the horns, the vocals, the drums, all great stuff. The songs that were on the radio a lot here ("Message to you Rudy" and "Monkey Man") are the best, of course, but really the whole thing is fun. RIP Terry Hall. 5 stars

I've never been into Metallica, or metal in general with some exceptions, so here we go. I'm told that this is the proggiest Metallica album, so that probably makes it a good first attempt at this band for me. And yeah, several songs had moments that made me be like "wait, is this Genesis...? (lol no, it is NOT Genesis - commence headbanging) I really loved the music on this record, all the brutal bass lines, drum, and interesting guitar bits. There were great extended instrumental sections on quite a lot of the tracks; I especially liked the slower, heavy sludgey stuff, but the fast stuff of course was marvelous. Unfortunately, I found the vocals to be consistently annoying. But still, looking forward to more Metallica as I get deeper into this project. 4 stars

So sometimes I forget about tropicália and start thinking that Brazilian music is all just bossa nova, those records that my dad had in the 60s: slow, boring music for endless afternoons. But no, there's also stuff like this. There are keyboards, guitars, drums, even a sitar on this record! And Caetano Veloso has a great voice. This record has that nice warm sultry feeling that you get from bossa nova minus the part that puts me to sleep. The cover is interesting. Did they think there were dragons in Brazil in 1968? 4 stars

This is nice: horn and piano, drums: jazz but always with a solid beat lurking underneath. As always I like the faster bits the best, but even the slow parts work for me on this one. It feels like a soundtrack for a gritty, wistful movie about an imaginary city. I like it and will revisit this record when I'm in the mood for something calm and yet also lively like this. 4 stars

So this is a good record, but I'm rarely in the mood to listen to Simon and Garfunkel much. I do really like "America," though. Amusingly, I heard the Yes cover of it long before this original - the original is better, more deeply felt. However, on the subject of covers of songs on this record, I stand firm in my opinion that The Lemonheads' version of "Mrs. Robinson" is better than this original. Or at least I like it more; "better" is subjective, after all. 3 stars on this one for me because it's an old record that I've heard a whole lot of times

There was a time when I experienced this record as pleasant but slightly boring background music, so I'm grateful that I've become more attuned to jazz recently so that I was able to listen more carefully to this great record this morning. There's a reason "A Love Supreme" is considered to be one of those must-listen, classic jazz albums - Coltrane makes that sax go through and around and back and then on the other side of the rest of the melody. And the top-notch combo he's assembled here is amazing - the piano, the drumming, that long solo bass bit in Part III! Yep, I get this album now. It's sparse but deeply immersive at the same time. 5 stars

I suffered through most of this record. The first song was interesting, at least, since about a third of it was a pleasantly discordant orchestral break. I'll admit he's an interesting lyricist, but I just can't stand syrupy music like this. At least it's only 31 minutes long. 2 stars

Hey I recognized one of these songs, "Wood Beez," an innocuous dance track that I used to hear on the radio that obviously didn't really get my attention since I wouldn't have been able to tell you what band it was at the time. This stuff isn't terrible, just uninteresting to me, maybe a bland version of Michael Jackson. Meh, 2 stars

What I liked best about this record were the weird little 1-minute tracks in between the actual songs. I think I would enjoy a short collection of those; that would be fun. The rest of it? I didn't like it at the beginning, but it started growing on me with "Pyramids" and the rest of the second half. The imagery in the lyrics started to catch my attention and it all seemed to get a little more complex. I doubt I'll revisit this album anytime soon, but I'm glad I heard it. 3 stars

Nina Simone is one of the greatest vocalists of our time, and I've always admired her when I've heard individual songs. But I'll admit I was a little worried about how I'd respond to an entire record of this mid-60s material, largely voice and piano. But on hearing it: Wow her voice, and her sense of timing as she interprets these songs. "Four Women" stands out in this collection, an incredibly affecting song. 4 stars - the romantic songs aren't my favorite, but the rest was very powerful.

First track got my attention right off the bat with the bass & synth then shifting into kind of a 70s r&b sample weaving into it before he starts singing. This chill vibe continues on throughout, occasionally with gospel-y and political parts. I thought "Testify" was particularly good, the way the different parts of the story interweave in the song. And the other song with the bit "Go! go! go! go! go! and on the count of 3" is very catchy. I had heard of Common, but this is the first time I've heard any of his work. Probably won't listen to it much again, but I enjoyed the whole thing - 4 stars

Oh fun - I remember loving "Super Fly" and "Freddie's Dead" when they were on the radio back in the day. The intro to the title track is great, Mayfield has a wonderful voice, and this is solid music, all this soul stuff with little Latin touches like congas in the background. Some of the songs sound a little too much alike to me, so as an album I think this stuff is better as singles to hear on the radio from time to time. But the songs are great. 3 stars

This record started out slow for me. I've always been annoyed by "My My Hey Hey": I have a thing about songs that are self-referential about "rock and roll." And a couple of the other songs had me reacting to the lyrics with "WTF is this?!" So, I lopped off a couple points for those. But it improves in the second half with "Powderfinger," and then continues to get better: I could have mistaken "Sedan Delivery" for Television or something if I wasn't listening too closely. And the reprise of "My My Hey Hey" at the end was fun with the fuzzy noise (sure, the lyrics are still annoying, but here they're masked by lots of nice fuzzy noise, as annoying lyrics should be). The structure of this album feels to me like it's making a point about the evolution of rock music from the beginning of the 70s into the influence of punk by the end of the decade, though Neil might argue with that. Favorite: "Sedan Delivery," which was a BIG surprise. I ended up playing it a second time after the record was over, in fact. It is now the second song on my "Neil Young Songs That I Like" list. 3 stars

I love how this all starts off, with some great dissonance and interesting interweaving rhythms. There are occasional smoother jazz moments, but soon enough it gets weird and complicated again, coming apart with the saxes and other good stuff before coming back to the melody. I'm glad there are no vocals on this record, which would distract from the subtle, interesting stuff happening with all the instruments. This isn't background music, it rewards close listening, so I put on the headphones and dialed in. I've always known of Thelonious Monk and how important his work was, but I think I never paid close enough attention to it before. I was sorry when this record ended. 5 stars

I hoped that listening to an entire Oasis album would improve my opinion of them, I really did. I already knew (and disliked) "Wonderwall," of course, but I had to give the rest of the album a chance. But sadly, no, this just wasn't interesting enough to get my attention. It wasn't even engaging enough for me to be able to describe what it is that I don't like about it other than just "it was irritating." 2 stars

Hey, I had no idea this Beck album existed. A lot of this reminds me of his earlier material - indie with little hip-hop flavored sampled bits. Maybe a little more smoothed out. "Qué Onda Guero" is a little cheesy, but it feels right. This is making me want to listen to actual hip-hop-inflected Mexican music instead, though. "Missing" is atmospheric; I like it a lot. It might be my favorite track on the record? But I also like the song "Farewell Ride," with its interesting cowboyish guitar. The only thing on here that I didn't really take to was "Earthquake Weather," which sounded like some band from the 70s that I can't remember the name of. 4 stars - I'd listen to it again sometime.

So I'm not anti-Madonna in general, I know she had some fun songs back in the day. I appreciated the vaguely pro-trans language at the beginning of "What It Feels Like for a Girl," and one or two tracks had fun club music-y things going on that reminded me of Rozalla or whatever from the early 90s. So some of this was ok? But most of it was a chore, with autotune, stupid lyrics, and as a bonus some faux-chanteusey nonsense in one of the songs. 2 stars. It would have been 1 star if I'd had to listen to the cover of "American Pie" that's on the extended version - I already despise the original, so threatening me with a cover of that song by Madonna is the kind of thing that would get me to confess in an interrogation. "Anything but that, I swear I'll talk!"

XTC is one of those quirky bands that I usually can only take so much of. There's more variety than I expected here, though. But most importantly, this record has the great track "Dear God" on it, which I've always loved. If this whole album were as strong and angry as that song, I'd give it 5 stars. I've always loved that song.

A very large number of weird, catchy little songs that would sound like they're from 1965 except they're all obscured by a hail of fuzzy, discordant noise. And they're all just a minute or two long, so nothing drags on. 5 stars, I love this record.

Oh man this record was on CONSTANT rotation in my household when it first came out. A great collection of songs, with contributions from people like Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, and Youssou N'Dour. At this point I'm a little tired of "Sledgehammer," and I always thought "Big Time" was a little dumb. So 4 stars for this one

I love this record! Immediate five stars without even having to listen to it, but of course I will listen to it right now because I love this record. I have to confess that I only heard the classic "Music Has the Right to Children" for the first time 2 or 3 years ago. We were listening to one of our usual freeform radio shows and the dj played "Aquarius." That track immediately grabbed me: the guy saying "Orange" in a quirky voice, the sampled children laughing, the woman counting. And off to Bandcamp I went to get a copy of this record, and it's been on very frequent rotation ever since. It's a mesmerizing record that rewards close attention; headphones or a long highway drive. "Aquarius" stands out, of course, and also "Telephasic Workshop," with its stuttering sampled voices. But the whole thing is great, a nice blur of electronica with well-chosen, subtle samples, most with a constant beat. Sixty-ten stars

Didn't know what to expect from this "Festival Junction" starts out with a clarinet (?) that is a great tune and goes on for quite a while; then into a very swinging tune. This goes on for a good 10 minutes and is wonderful. There are a couple of slower pieces, but they're nice bluesy stuff that's a pleasure to listen to, still with a beat. And the end - Diminuendo and Crescendo - are frenetic and great This isn't the kind of music I usually listen to, but the whole thing was great - hey that's why people talk about Duke Ellington. Proud to be from DC, Ellington's city!

Oh. Yeah, I really don't like music like this, at all. She has a lovely voice, the music is competent, but I just really don't like vocal-forward contemporary jazz-pop-whatever love music. This whole album is like going to one of those high-end shopping malls in the 90s that had a piano and that's nice, it's fancy, there's music, but then someone starts singing and it's THIS, and you decide you really didn't need to buy a new jacket after all. I genuinely hate this record, but I think it's me, not Norah, so I'm not going to disgrace her with the lowest rating.

wtf, this incredibly tedious soft rock album was the fifth best-selling record in the UK in the 2000s? 1 star

I have definitely heard The Joshua Tree enough times to be able to declare that I heard it before I died. We listened to this record constantly when it first came out; it had some inspiring instrumentation and was fun to sing along with while driving around. But then I got sick of it and haven't listened to it since. So it was fun to hear it again today, but I doubt I'll go back to it anytime soon. Of course I have to mention that hearing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" immediately called to mind the hilarious Negativland track "U2" that sampled that song and made fun of U2 a bit. At the time we thought it was absurd for Island Records to sue little Negativland over that? But they may have had a point, seeing as that's always the first thing I think of when I hear the original song. 3 stars for U2, 5 for Negativland

Le Tigre! I've heard "Deceptacon" off this on the radio but never the whole thing, so let's get into it now. And: Hooray for women doing chaotic-sounding, fun-yet-angry pop music. These are great songs, with just enough thought behind the lyrics and discordant crunching in the music to keep me happy. Extra points for the fabulous intentionally crap album cover. 5 stars

Hmm, I know I've heard songs by this band, but have no memory of what they sounded like. That's usually a bad sign, but we'll see. So this is normal rock music, competently done. It sounds a lot like what Dire Straits would have sounded like if they were interesting; there are lots of blurry instrumental bits and pleasant, indistinct vocals. The wiki says these guys were influenced by the Spacemen 3, which I'm not really hearing, but maybe that's where the nice blurriness comes from. I'm looking at 3 stars for this; it's not something I'm going to run out and look for a copy of since I don't really listen to normal rock music much anymore. But it didn't make me want to turn it off.

Another record that I have heard a squillion times, having known a large number of people who like Dylan and The Band in my day. The slow songs on here drag a bit, but I like the faster tracks that sound a little honky-tonk or Cajun or whatever on here. And then there's "Chest Fever" with its memorable organ bits, and of course "Long Black Veil" - who can resist a folksong sung from beyond the grave. 3 stars - I enjoyed hearing most of this again today, but I feel like I've heard it enough times over the past decades to consider it done at this point.

I've gone around saying "The one U2 album I still like is 'Achtung Baby' - I even saw them on this tour. So let's see if I'm just making that up, since to be honest it's been 30 years since the last time I listened to it. Yeah, I still like it. "Zoo Station" opens with interesting electronic stuff, and "Until the End of the World" is a favorite since of course I loved that movie and saw it several times. And "Wild Horses" and "Acrobat" are bringing back some memories from the early 90s, hoo boy. So yeah that listen was memorable - there are some songs on here that are important to me. However, I was also reminded that I've always been annoyed by a couple of them, like "Even Better than the Real Thing." And Bono's voice gets tiresome by the end. But anyway, while I probably won't go back to listening to this a lot like i did in the early 90s, I'm glad I got to revisit it today.

I don't usually go for a singer with an acoustic guitar and some strings and such in the background, but Leonard Cohen is an exception. His lyrics are so strange and absorbing, and the tone of his voice and the guitar give it a an appealing edginess that I wouldn't expect from material like this. I already knew a number of these songs, of course, but some I hadn't heard before. (Though I swear I know a different version of "Sisters of Mercy.") I don't think I'll go out of my way to hear the whole album again, but I'm glad to have heard it this evening.

Hey look, a (relatively) contemporary album that we actually own and listen to from time to time! Named after a venue that I've been to a number of times! I even had lunch with a friend up near Merriweather Post Pavilion recently! Anyway, I think this is an interesting record, thick with electronics and harmonies. But I don't listen to it very often because it sounds a little too, I don't know, wholesome? There's a near-Beach Boys level of cheerfulness in many of the vocals, and it lacks the kind of dissonance that makes me really love an album. But I appreciate how imaginative it is. 4

So I could say this was enjoyable, but it was mainly in an "I'm listening to an annoying album that combines all the worst excesses of British music from the mid-1970s in a neat little package, and isn't that quirky and entertaining" kind of way. Annoying but bearable. 3 stars

This is a great record. Standout songs for me are the stories told on "Oh, You Pretty Things" and "Is There Life on Mars?," the proto-punk "Queen Bitch"; "Changes," of course; and the intriguing closer "The Bewley Brothers." And the gender ambiguity of the cover and "Pretty Things" is something I've always loved. Not all the songs are equal to the best ones, so I'd probably give this 4.5 stars if we could get more incremental. But since we can't, I'll go with a 5.

One of my all-time favorite albums, easy 5 stars. I actually only had time to listen to the first couple of these songs today, but I know this record so well that I'm confident that my rating will continue to be 5 stars after listening. So much of this record has things I like, like Fripp, Eno, shoutouts to Krautrock, and David Bowie, obviously; I saw him when he was touring on this album. And the title track always makes me cry.

Neil Young album #3 here. There are a couple tracks that I like better, like "Are You Ready for the Country," with the funky piano & arrangement and obscure lyrics; "Old Man," where the guitar & banjo are more interesting than on some of the the other tracks here and is interesting hearing it now as an older person, and "Needle and the Damage Done," which is very raw and intense. However, this one also contains one song that I actively dislike ("A Man Needs a Maid"), a song I've heard so many times that just seeing the title without listening to it now has it stuck in my head ("Heart of Gold"), and a bunch of other songs that are pleasant but not a standout. So, I probably wouldn't ever go back to it, and therefore, 3 stars.

I've somehow always ignored Big Star, despite it always being listed in those kinds of lists that bands get listed in like that. I did have an Alex Chilton record on cassette at one point, though. But anyway, here goes. So this is all right. It's power pop, I guess, which was never my favorite genre. This record definitely has its good points; some of the tracks are blurry and interesting. But the cover of "Femme Fatale" made me long for the VU to be playing it instead, and some of the other tracks were so sleepy that I had to skip to the next one after the first 30 seconds or so. I guess I'm not sophisticated enough to appreciate whatever it is about Big Star that the record reviewer lists think is important about this record, so I will continue ignoring them. 3 stars

I remember "That Lady" from the radio back in the day, and that was fun (though I kept thinking that the guy should just accept that the lady doesn't want to date him, and move on!) Lots of this is good; as always I really like the funk part of these songs, and of course these guys are great musicians. But I don't really enjoy slow soul songs, or covers of songs when I'm not a fan of the originals (e.g., Summer Breeze). And that makes up a lot of this album. So this is ok, but not something I'd return to. 3 stars

"Killing in the Name of" is beloved for a reason - the way it builds slowly and then explodes? Fantastic song. The rest of these songs mostly all sound and feel like that, but that's ok with me. Album is recommended for those days when you've made the mistake of reading the news, or when those helicopters that are always circling over your city start to get on your fucking nerves. 5 stars

Pleasant enough but mostly unoriginal alterna-stuff. At least it's in a genre that I usually like? The songs that verge on trip-hoppy have potential, at least, but still, nothing really grabbed me. I thought this was going to be a fun listen because they had a catchy emo-Portishead kinda song on the radio at the time ("#1 Crush"). But nope, not on this record: it was the B-side of one of these singles. So since the only Garbage song from that year that keeps my attention isn't on this record: 3 stars

I've never been into the White Stripes (either pro or con), so I have no way of comparing his solo material to that, and am going into this completely cold. So here's some blues rock - not super original, but well done for what it is. I hear this album as an updated take on the kinds of American rock music you'd hear in the 70s. Guitars sound good, some interesting vocals and keyboards, good production. But while I wouldn't turn any of this off if it was on the radio, I'm not clamoring to get a copy of it either. I do like the Black Vulture that Jack's got on his shoulder there. Is that his pet? 3 stars... it could aim closer to 4 on a second listen, but I'm sticking with 3 for now.

I wanted to take the time to listen to these stories carefully, so I marked this "did not listen" last night and picked it back up again today. And this is a great record. It's the emotional intensity of how much the inmates loved this concert, the sincerity and simplicity of the music itself, and how kind Johnny Cash sounds when addressing the audience. Absolutely marvelous. 5 stars

I've always kinda liked the single from this "Come Out and Play" - the cute little guitar lick, the way the other guy comes in with "gotta keep 'em separated." It was fun to hear on popular radio at the time, felt a little transgressive. Unfortunately, the rest of the record doesn't do it at all for me. It all seemed kind of insincere, like they wanted to be badass but weren't able to pull it off. I think my problem with pop punk is that I'm not 14 years old. 3 stars though, because I do like that one song. Too bad the rest of it is so vacuous.

More country! As always with stuff like this I like lively songs more than slow, sad ones, and songs with interesting stories over love songs. So I didn't love the whole thing, but a couple of them got me thinking. "Banks of the Pontchartrain" was one that stood out; I'm a sucker for a train-riding travel song. Her cousin Libby's going to be standing by the tracks when she arrives, so obviously we're in the country now, since doing that at Penn Station would be a little more complicated. "Love at the Five and Dime" reminds me of when I worked at a Woolworth's in the 70s and the attached luncheonette was going to be shut down by the health department, so everyone on the restaurant staff had to work overtime all night long cleaning it up. My heart goes out to those workers now, though at the time I just thanked the fates that I was in the music department and didn't have to deal with that. And "Looking for the Time (Workin' Girl) had a good attitude - yeah, you leave that working girl alone if you're just going to waste her time, ok? I can see why this is good and has been included in the book, though for me a whole record of it took a bit of patience. I wish there were a couple instrumental songs on here, since it sounded like the backing musicians were really good (Béla Fleck is on banjo!). But it's a vocal album, so I shouldn't complain that there are too many vocals. 3 stars

It's not often that my reaction to seeing what my album is first thing in the morning is "Yes! Let's listen to this RIGHT NOW!", but here we are, listening to Sly and the Family Stone and turning it up just a little too loud for early Monday morning. Last year when Sly Stone died, I heard a lot of these songs on the radio again. They all felt so motivating and forceful that while I remember most of them from when they first came out when I was a kid, they're making a huge impression on me now because of how contemporary they feel. And the music is wonderful too, of course. So many great singles on this record, like "Stand," "I Want to Take You Higher," and "Everyday People." And on top of all that, there's an absolutely brutal 13-minute funk instrumental. Just a fantastic record. 5 stars.

I've heard that Little Simz stood out from the general hip-hop genre, but I'd never listened to her before because i really don't ever listen to this kind of music. But hey this is pretty great, especially when I was able to step back a bit and concentrate on the music. This has an interesting Caribbean feeling to it sometimes that's different from the usual folks I hear from this country. And yes she certainly can rap. Dunno if I'm going to download a copy, but I'll give it a 4 because I think it's pretty great.

I know about Emmylou Harris, of course; she's from here in the DC suburbs. Part of this recording was done right here in my neighborhood, in fact. But I never went to the effort of checking her out when she was making records in the 70s because she was country and I was prog, and that was that. The faster songs on here have some really good toe-tapping guitar, fiddle, and mandolin and such, and her voice of course is great. I struggled to get through the slower material; I do like "Boulder to Birmingham," though, since I'm a sucker for a sad travel song, and of course Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors" has such touching lyrics. I think I'm a 3 on this one. She's still pretty country, and I'm still pretty prog, so while I think this is very good for what it is, it's still a little too calm and sweet for my liking.

Some of these song titles ("Fall in a River," "Cause a Rockslide," etc) sound like a series of events in a disastrous camping trip. Was this the source of the melancholy that pervades this record? It's ok sweetie, come inside and we'll get you some dry clothes and a cup of tea. Seriously though, I can't say that this is terrible - there are things in many of these songs that I like, interesting bits of guitar and strings here and there. But I couldn't get interested in the lyrics, so I got tired of it all around song #8 and there were still 10 songs to go. I think this is another one of those albums best heard one song at a time in a radio set. A whole album of it is just too monotonous. 3 stars

I love this record; had great fun on a long drive listening to it today. And singing along, of course, even though I still have no idea what he's saying 80% of the time. It's a band that's stuck with me - the jangly guitar, the fun stuff happening in the rhythm section, Stipe's incomprehensible vocals, all the songs that I've continue to love since first hearing it 40 or so years ago. I love the cover, too - it feels so much like home, vines covering everything in sight. It's not pretty, but you'll know what I mean if you've spent any time in the mid-Atlantic or southeast US. This is an important record in terms of influence, too. We've got a jangle pop comp CD around here somewhere and a full two-thirds of the songs sound like the Murmur track "Talk About the Passion." I guess if you don't like jangle pop then REM has a lot to answer for, but that's one kind of pop that I like. 5 stars, of course

Another sing-along record! So many songs I love on here: "North American Scum," "Someone Great," "All My Friends," "New York I Love You [etc.]"; I love this record. There are so many memorable lyrics on this album that I feel like listing them all would make this review go to 3 pages. "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" always make me cry because they feel so true. There are a couple songs that aren't all that compelling lyrically (e.g., Us v. Them), but they make up for it with something interesting in the drums or other instrumentation. (OK, "Watch the Tapes" is a bit of a dud that I often skip, but I think the rest of it makes up for it.) I still listen to this record a lot, and always enjoy it: 5 stars

Ah yes, this record. There's something about Joni Mitchell records that don't quite sit with me anymore - I think it's her swoopy her voice and that mellow 70s California jazz-rock vibe that makes me think these songs are best left in the past. But let's listen to it (again). These songs do have excellent lyrics, though, and she has a way of singing that accentuates the important parts. I've always liked "Free Man in Paris" - it describes so well that desire to quit your stupid job and go back someplace where you'd traveled in the past and weren't held to any expectations. And the goofy "Twisted" at the end is something we all thought was hilarious in 1974, and I guess it retains some hilarity now. 3 stars

Another record that I put on the instant it appeared in my queue despite it being 7:30 in the morning, because I love it so much. The lyrics, the weird humor, the occasional lapse into Spanish, the inchoate screaming, the buzzy noisy layers on everything, the odd comments, the guitar. Too many good songs to list my favorite; if pressed I might say "Vamos," but that's probably just because that's what's playing as I write this. 5 stars

Ah yes, Physical Graffiti. Back when this came out my favorite bands were Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and this was one of my favorite Led Zeppelin records. It was fun listening to this again after who knows how long. "Kashmir" and "In the Light" were my favorite songs off this album then, and hey I still like them now. I can see how those tracks and some of the other stuff on here prepared me for the 20-minute-long prog extravaganzas that I was going to discover a year or so later, and some of the newer stuff I like now. So except for Robert Plant's voice starting to grate after a bit, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Probably won't listen to it again anytime soon, but: 4

Here is where I confess that while I love immersive, percussive music with gloomy vocals, I never bought either Joy Division record back in the day. Which from my current perspective makes no sense; I suppose if I ever go back in a time machine, I will give 1980-me marching orders. This is especially dark considering Ian Curtis' sad demise shortly before its release. And of course as always the one song you'd want to hear most from this period is "Love Will Tear Us Apart," but it was a post-album single. But still, as I said above: music combined with vocals like this always works for me, so I really enjoyed this, especially the opening track "Atrocity Exhibition." I pondered 4 stars since this was my first listen, and I need to get into it more. However, I'm sure I'll want to listen to it again, so I'm giving it 5 stars, if nothing else than to encourage 1980-me to run out and buy a copy.

Woo hoo, I've listened to a Britney Spears record. The fast songs are catchy, but they're also kind of annoying. And the slow songs are boring and REALLY annoying. I've read that this is a revolutionary album for teen pop, but it doesn't sound very different from a lot of other things to me. But maybe that those other things came out after this? Why am I acting like I know what I'm talking about, I don't know anything about "teen pop" since I didn't even listen to it when I was a teen. I think this is a good record, for the genre at least, right? But unfortunately, it's a genre I really can't stand. 2 stars.

Oh right, Joan Armatrading! She has a really distinctive way of singing - I remember her on the radio, singing "down to the ground, down to the ground." And her guitar work also has some interesting bits, for example the opening part of "Like Fire." Backing music is well done too, with musicians like Fairport's Dave Mattacks on drums. But I was never really attracted to this record enough to buy a copy and honestly still probably won't look into it again. I'm more interested in music than vocals these days, and this is a little too straightforward for my current mood. But for what it is, it's very good. Very high 3, maybe 3.8?

In the early 80s i had a housemate who was obsessed with Peter Murphy and Bauhaus, so I never had to buy any of these records (and therefore I haven't heard any of them since then). The one track I remember is "Kick in the Eye" - "Kick in the eye! Kick, kick!" Some of this was a little dirgey, but I have no objection to a good gloomy dirge, so that's ok with me. I'm generally up for gloomy/dancey early 80s music, so this was an enjoyable listen, and I'll listen to it again. 4

Ok I had no idea what to expect from this. It's interesting stuff - lots of odd little tracks with really interesting chaotic jazz and funny lyrics. Some of the tracks put me off at first because they were a little too much like smooth contemporary r&b stuff, but while he's got this beautiful smooth contemporary r&b voice, what he's singing is stuff like how high he is or "oh my god where's Captain Planet" instead of the usual boring "oooooh baby" kinda stuff. So put all that together and I'll say this album is pretty great. 4

"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" is a great song; I enjoyed that one. But issues with the problematic musician aside, a whole record of this kind of music doesn't work for me. I guess there's a reason that all the "Pop" subgenres are down in the basement in my summary bar graph. 2 stars

"You have nothing to worry about, Mr. Adamson! I promise - I won't breathe a word - to anyone" I bought this CD when it first came out because "The Man With the Golden Arm" was getting a lot of airplay, and Barry Adamson had played with Magazine and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I listened to it ALL the time then, but I haven't heard it in quite a while because you know how it is, there's always something new to listen to; I have a short attention span. But at the time this was one of my favorite records. On listening again today? Ha, I forgot how much I love this record. Starts off creepy and orchestral, then into the great bouncing "Under Wraps," then into what sounds like it could be a mid-60s soundtrack except... not. Thank you 1001 Albums for reminding me of this marvelously unhinged album. (I'm laughing at the 1-star review that says "Who is this for? Who is sitting around listening to this? People who listen to this need to be on a registry." I guess that's me?)

This record was pretty good. The slow, sad ballads required some endurance, but the rest was fun: short little songs with toe-tapping music and old-timey lyrics. The cover is intriguing - the guys are all partying down but then there's that intense-looking hipster in the background. Dude's probably wishing these guys would finish it up so he can close up the studio and go home to bed. 3 stars

This is the only Blondie record I ever owned (bought it after hearing "Fade Away and Radiate" on the radio). I hadn't heard it in ages, and I enjoyed it. "Fade Away," "Hanging on the Telephone," "One Way or Another," and "Heart of Glass" are classics, and the rest of it is fun. 4 stars

Oh yeah, the Mamas and the Papas. So many songs on here that we've all heard over the years, with their lovely harmonies and memorable tunes. One thing I have to complain about is these apostrophes in the band's name on the album cover. I can't believe (my eyes and ears) that they would let that go through. 3 stars. I know this is objectively good, but this genre isn't for me.

Guitar: great Bass and drums: great Vocals: irritating Lyrics: annoying This is the kind of thing that convinced me that I don't like metal, even though you'd think I'd like it considering some of the other stuff that I like. I would give this record a 4 if it were all-instrumental, because it is headbanging-worthy. But then he starts singing again.

Another band that I know existed at some point in the past but have no memory of listening to. This is ok but not exciting. They have some interesting lyrics, and I like the orchestration and guitar on some of these tracks, but most of it isn't really grabbing me. To the point where I don't even really have anything to say about it. 3

I'm all in for francophone weirdness right now, so I was glad to see this. This album is very chill. I loved the one exception to that, "Sexy Boy"; I ended up playing that one twice and watching the amusing video twice, too. 4 stars

Mostly countryish soft rock music with spiritual lyrics and an occasional chorus of women singing in the background. There are some interesting arrangements on here, but the consistently mellow, yearning vibe made it unappealing to me, though not enough to send it to the 2-star basement. 3 stars

I have all the Mag Fields' records up to and including this one, and spent several years in the late 90s listening to them obsessively and seeing them live. This was the last one I bought, though; I think it was so long that I guess that was enough Mag Fields for me. But anyway. Some of these songs on here are still my favorites because of the cleverness of their lyrics: "Papa Was a Rodeo," "Washington, DC," "Strange Eyes." "Yeah, Oh Yeah" is particularly amusing, the way it turns the pop song convention of a verse with agreeing chorus of "yeah" to be much darker: - What a dark and dreary life! Are you reaching for a knife? Would you really kill your wife? - Yeah, oh yeah As a whole, the record is a bit much, though. I think if I were more into show tunes, I'd like some of the sillier (and/or more sincere) things on here better - Merritt originally conceived it as a theatrical revue, which isn't a thing I would tend to go for. But the songs I like on here are great.

This record came out when I was working in a record store, so I can assure you that I have heard it. Hey, I even had the 7-inch of "Just What I Needed" on red vinyl, though I think I got it for free as some kind of record store promo thing. This is a crossing point between power pop and early New Wave. The backing music sometimes sounds like a throwback to songs from the early 60s with the twangy guitar and simple choruses, and then on other tracks you get more electronic stuff, like what would be prominent in the early 80s. The standout track for me on here is "I'm in Touch With Your World" (the b-side of "Just What I Needed"), which is a little weirder and more restrained than the rest of it. This wasn't my favorite record at the time, but it's fun to listen to now. 4 stars

My parents gave me the US version of this album for my birthday shortly after it came out. I'd listen to it sitting on the floor with my crappy one-speaker/turntable combo kiddy record player. Ha ha that was probably a first-pressing copy; bet it would be worth a mint now if I hadn't destroyed it with my grubby little fingers. This original UK release is a little different from the US one, which made it more interesting to listen to today. There are some great covers of songs from that period on this version, like "You've Really Got a Hold On Me" and "Money." I appreciate that "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" isn't on this version; that's the one thing of theirs from that period that I've really heard enough of at this point. You know what? This is a pretty darn good record; these Beatle guys knew what they were doing. I probably haven't listened to any of this since the Johnson administration, and am enjoying it a lot. 4 stars

Here's another record from back in the day that I used to love but later put aside when I got into other stuff, and haven't heard in ages. So much of this is so good. “Somebody to Love" was a hit for a reason; these angry-sounding tracks are what I like best about the Airplane. The intro line "When the truth is found to be lies / and all the joy within you dies" has kind of a contemporary feel, doesn't it. The guitar instrumental "Embryonic Journey" is of course something I've heard here and there since then, which is a good thing. And who can resist "White Rabbit." Sure we've all heard it 40 million times, but hey, it's got both threatening-sounding Grace Slick vocals AND interesting acid flamenco instrumentation. Don't forget to feed your head, kids. Finally, "Plastic Fantastic Lover" is a great song - I either forgot or only just noticed the interesting stuff going on with the bass on this. “My Best Friend" was a skip track for me back when I listened to this all the time in the 70s. I'm still not a big fan of that song; it's the part of this record that sounds the most like normal mid-60s music, which isn't very interesting to me. But while I used to skip "Today," too, I'm noticing some things with it that I didn't appreciate at the time. 4 stars

Late-60s rock opera reminiscent of early Pink Floyd that I somehow managed to never have heard of. I was intrigued by the track list, as one would be with songs named "Bracelet of Fingers" and "Death." I'm more into this than I thought it was going to be when the generator served it to me this morning. The live performances of this at the time must have been quite... memorable, with the band pretending to be playing the music while tripping. I'm tempted to give this a 4, I really am. It's a bit of a mess, but it's an interesting mess.

This is one of those records that I could probably sing most of without listening to it beforehand. I never had a copy, but everybody else did. I'm not a big Americana person in general, but there are a lot of toe-tapping songs with engaging lyrics on here. Much of this is just fun; good songs for sitting on the porch and drinking beer on a hot summer night. But "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "King Harvest" stand out: both are stirring songs. "Dixie" always impressed they Yankee in me that it could make me sympathetic for somebody from the other side. And "King Harvest" is beautiful, with its evocative chorus talking about the sound of wind rippling across a flooded rice field.

Another record that I heard a lot of at the time but didn't have a copy of because I wasn't very interested in The Who. Blistering, relentless blues rock with lots of jamming noodling guitar stuff. The best part of it is the breakdown with great drumming at the end of the 15-minute track that begins with "My Generation." I still prefer other bands from the period, and am frankly tired of hearing about my generation. But if you're going to listen to The Who, I figure you should be listening to this. 3

Love's earlier "Little Red Book" is to me one of the best songs of the mid-60s, with its insistent beat and emotional vocals. So I was looking forward to more like that on here, but this one didn't quite hit like that. The first track with its mariachi-like trumpet got my attention, the vocals throughout are good, the rhythm section is compelling, and the occasional guitar solo works. My toes are tapping. So most of it was pretty enjoyable, but it was mostly much lighter, kinda Donovanesque, than what I'd hoped for. I'd say that "Bummer in the Summer" is the standout track on this one for me. 3 stars

This is a good record, though it kind of reminds me why I was never into The Byrds. We all know "Eight Miles High," of course, which is fine to hear once a year or so. It's a pleasant album; I didn't want to turn it off, but it didn't make me want to go out and find a copy either. The one song that got my attention was "2+2=4 Lear Jet," which was amusingly weird with the air traffic chatter, airplane noises, and noodly guitar. I liked that one, though I'm now going to be muttering "gonna ride a Learjet baby, gonna ride a Learjet" to myself for the rest of the afternoon. 3 stars

Another record that I can give a 5 to without even listening to it, but of course I'm going to listen to it. Right now! It starts off strong with "Janie Jones" and just continues strong. A fine antidote for our miserable current timeline, with "I'm So Bored With the USA," "Police and Thieves," "Career Opportunity," "Garageland," etc. (I'll admit "White Riot" makes me slightly uncomfortable these days since all the white riots lately have been coming from the right wing, but it's a great song when you think about what the context was for it at the time.) 5 stars

Whee another 5-star punk album. Every minute of this is great. Compelling, rhythmic punk rock. It's got Jello's vocals, and the humorous but also strongly political lyrics (still relevant, unfortunately). "Kill the Poor," "California Uber Alles," "Drug Me," "Holiday in Cambodia," "Viva Las Vegas" - What else do I need to say. 5 stars. 5 stars

This is a lovely record, that I haven't heard probably in decades. Stevie Wonder of course has a great voice, and these songs were already playing in my head before I even put the record on. A nice antidote to the noisy stuff I usually like to listen to.

"Immigrant Song" is the best part of this album, well, and to me the best thing Led Zeppelin wrote. But there are a lot of other interesting songs on here, especially the ones that veer to the acoustic like "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp." Some of this is a bit too much Robert Plant for me, but in general it's a reasonable album. "Immigrant Song" bumps it up to 4 stars.

Tom Tom Club was my favorite record for quite a while when it first came out. The best New Wave records were things like this - dancey but also musically and lyrically interesting. I've always preferred the oddly powerful side 2 of this record, with the ritual chant "As Above, So Below," the mesmerizing "Lorelei," "On, On, On, On," and the marvelously weird "Booming and Zooming" closing it out. Get out of there, F104. But of course side 1 is good too. "Wordy Rappinghood" is something I'm pretty tired of at this point, but I'll admit it's fun, especially with the conga breaks that pop up in the middle and fade at the end. And of course the ubiquitous hit "Genius of Love" is fun too, especially as it slides into the percussive instrumental bit "Tom Tom Club Theme." Great to listen to this record again this morning. 5 stars

So I don't really listen to music like this ever, but: if I were going to, I imagine this would be what it would be because I have to say that a lot of this is really good. I had to listen to it in parts over the course of a day since listening to the whole thing in one sitting wasn't keeping my attention, but when I was listening to it I enjoyed it. She's obviously a great singer, and the faster tracks especially were pretty intense and enjoyable.

I've heard occasional songs from Nick Drake on the radio over the past however many years, but this is the first time I've heard an entire album of his. I had to brace myself a bit for this, thinking it might be a dozy, calm acoustic album, but I was pleasantly surprised - it was a little dark, and had a good sense of rhythm to a lot of it. I think it's like how I like folk music from the UK and Scandinavia more than American folk, there's a darkness to a lot of it that I like. I don't know if I'd go back to this, but it was good to finally hear a whole Nick Drake album. I see why people think this is such an important album. 4 stars

I'll start this by saying that in general I can't stand The Eagles. But I've always liked the title track of this album, with its creepy theme and Spanish guitar. Still, while I like that song, I slogged through the rest of this album. OK, "Life in the Fast Lane" is fun, but I could easily have lived without hearing "New Kid in Town" or any of the rest of it again. I know I'll give the first Eagles album 2 stars, so I guess this one gets a 3 since I like a song or two on it.

"Common People" is one of my favorite songs. It actually affects me pretty strongly, a song that's both infectious pop music but also angry, in my opinion one of the best popular songs of the 90s. "Yeah? I don't see anyone else smiling here. Are you sure? you wanna live like common people..." But I have never listened to an entire Pulp album before. This is an example of why I'm doing this project, to force myself to listen to more Pulp than just "Common People." And hey, this is a pretty interesting album. I wasn't completely taken by everything, but most of it was about as forceful and memorable as its top hit track. I'd give this 4 stars now, but that could increase on future listens.

So here's where I admit that I only know of Scott Walker's existence from his being mentioned in a Black Country, New Road song. The songs I liked best on here were the Jacques Brel covers. They're great songs; I know one or two of them from my parents' copy of "Jacques Brel is Alive and Living in Paris." But these versions don't feel quite right; they're like an easy listening version of those songs. The rest of this continues along those lines: smooth and a little wink-wink decadent. Objectively good for the genre I guess but a slog for me - 2 stars

Another record that I wouldn't need to listen to in order to review it because when it first came out we played it constantly. The rhythms are infectious; the lyrics weird, interesting, and occasionally inspiring; and Brian Eno worked on it (he's why I started listening to the Talking Heads in the first place back then). I'll admit I had gotten a little tired of hearing "Once in a Lifetime" after the thousandth time I heard it on the radio, but listening to it closely again today reminds me of how those lyrics helped me adjust to a large, sudden life change at the time. One of those records that has stuck with me - 5 stars.

I would give this a 5 just for "Bigmouth Strikes Again," which I am singing along with as I type this. As I said about the other Smiths record I reviewed here, I love the contrast between the superb music and the clever, often sarcastic lyrics. I don't like all of their stuff equally, but this is another 5-star album.

Belle and Sebastian are another one of those bands that I know from the radio and other people's record collections. I'm always like "oh yeah, yay, Belle and Sebastian" - and I love "Lazy Line Painter Jane" - but never really spent time with an entire record of them. Anyway, I thought all of Tigermilk was great, from the beginning to the end - music that's indiepop but more interesting, somehow, and lyrics that also seem like a predictable sort of pop song but come off very differently when you listen to them closely. So, 5 stars for this one too.

Well I haven't heard anything by Culture Club in quite a while, and this morning I am reminded of why I haven't missed it. It's competent, and some of the vocals are excellent, but in the end it's all pretty bland. This is fine for an early-80s pop record, and I always appreciated Boy George's gender-nonconforming thing. But sadly, I think it's boring. 2 stars? 3 stars? will decide at the last minute

I honestly don't remember anything about The Zombies - all I could tell you beyond the fact of their existence was that the first person I knew to get covid got it at a The Zombies show in 2021. This is pleasant late-60s psych-pop with pretty harmonies and interesting melodies here and there. I remember "Time of the Season," of course, though I never knew what band it was because it didn't interest me much. So I didn't think I'd like this record as much as I did - there's some interesting stuff on here. So this is a reasonably listenable album, though It got a little monotonous around song #8, and the lack of zombie-related content is disappointing. But it was good for what it was. I was amused to learn that "Odyssey" is spelled wrong in the album title because the cover artist screwed it up, but the band wanted to be nice and made up a story to make it seem like they'd planned it that way. 3 stars

The beginning of this record was ok, but it seemed like a lot of other early-80s stuff - boppy synth, vague lyrics, dancey beat. However, things improved starting with "Promised You a Miracle" - at that point the album started to get my attention, with the songs getting a little longer and the instrumentation and vocals more intense and interesting. That material still has the underlying format of 80s radio synth music, but is a little more imaginative -- I can see why people think that this record stands out from the rest of the band's work. The bass is great, of course; I just wish they'd mic'd it louder. 4 stars

I put this record on the minute I saw it was today's assignment, since I love the music from west Africa with guitar that I've heard before like Ali Farka Touré and Tinariwen. I know who Baaba Maal is, of course, but when I opened this I didn't remember exactly what his music sounded like. This is a mesmerizing album. The songs build up slowly with interweaving vocals and a long stream of repeating notes with guitar and percussion, some of which reminds me of minimalist classical music. Marvelous album. 5 stars

I was pleasantly surprised by much of this record; it sounds a lot more messy and garage-y than what I expected from my experience with later Who albums, none of which I particularly like. It's got a couple of James Brown covers and some other noisy stuff. I think it sounds a lot like 90s garage rock, though I recognize the absurdity of saying that, since it's 90s garage rock that sounds like records like this. I thought I was going to be tempted to skip "My Generation" since it's been played to death in the intervening 60 (!) years, but it worked in context with the rest of the album. (Though now it's stuck in my head, which I kinda wish would just g- g- g- go away.) I think 3?

Another classic punk record! This record stands out for me because of the saxophone, and of course Poly Styrene's vocals and lyrics are great. Wonderful album. 10 stars

Ah yes, more Depeche Mode. Do the masses like whiny synth music? I guess they do, since this was a wildly popular album. "Violator" justified itself with "Personal Jesus," but this record doesn't have any standout tracks like that for me. The music is pretty consistently uninteresting to me, it just doesn't have any force behind it. It's not completely unpleasant, though. 3 stars

I've never heard this one before. I like it better than the earlier stuff of hers that I'm more familiar with, because she's got a lot of complex musical accompaniment, much of it not very traditionally country-sounding. Enjoyed listening to this today and probably will return to it in the future. 4 stars

I'd never heard the entire album at the time it came out, but of course I know "Without You" (a.k.a. "Ken Lee," for those of us who spend too much time on the internet), and "Coconut," both from Top 40 radio when this record first came out. "Without You" I can do without, but "Coconut" was fun. Early in the Morning, his cover of an Afro-Cuban song from the 1940s, had nice simple instrumentation. It got me to dig up the original on YouTube, which I'll admit I prefer, but Nilsson's version was a good take on the original. Favorite track: "Jump into the Fire," with its manic jam at the end. I hear this song way more often nowadays than I ever did in the 70s, which is fine with me. "We can make each other happy! We can make each other happy! We can make each other happy!"

Sometimes I wonder why music like this is called "psychedelic." I mean I've taken my share of psychedelic drugs, and this is absolutely not the kind of music I would have chosen at the time. Maybe it's because their heads are sprouting out of flowers on the record cover? I could see myself being into that (while listening to a different record). The band is competent, with some interesting bits, but the vocals were annoying. And while the lyrics had their strange moments, in the end they weren't strange enough to be interesting. 2 stars

Foo Fighters are a band that I somehow have never paid much attention to. I found this to be tuneful commercial alterna-punk, which of course owes a lot to Nirvana, but feels very watered down in comparison. I didn't need to turn it off at any point, but I also wasn't really into it. 3 stars

Oh hell yeah, it's the BEAST-IE-BOYS This is a ridiculously amusing album, I love this stupid comedy record. Only downside is I've had "You've gotta fight - for your right - to paaaaarty" stuck in my head for the past 24 hours

I had no preconceptions about this record - all I remembered about Quicksilver was that they were somehow connected to the Airplane. When I saw it, I thought “ok, another 60s album, I’ll probably give it a 3.” But instead…. Remember when I whined about The Beau Brummels being called “psychedelic”? THIS is what I mean by psychedelic music. Endless unfocused weird noodly jams that cause you to sit staring at the floral sofa upholstery for a half hour and whisper to yourself “Are those flowers alive?” Kind of a mushy live recording, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

It’s been so long since I’ve heard this record that my opinion of Rod Stewart was affected by how much I dislike his later song “Tonight’s the Night.” But I soldiered on despite. This is a nice record, with lots of bluesy guitar and folky fiddle and mandolin. I don’t love Rod Stewart’s voice, but it works here. “Maggie May” and “I’m Losing You” are well-regarded songs for a reason, but the thing that affected me most on this listen was “Mandolin Wind.” I think I never really listened closely to that song before - or maybe you need to be older to really be able relate to what it's saying. 4 stars

Is she weird? Is she white? Is she promised to the night? This record doesn’t really stand out for me the way Pixies’ earlier stuff does, but I’d rather listen to Pixies than a vast array of other rock bands, so it had that going for it at least. And hey, starting off with surf music is always a good idea. “Is She Weird” is fun, “Havalina” is a great closing song, and there’s sufficient sonic weirdness here and there to keep my attention. So yeah, that was fun. 4 stars

I have a vague memory of this band as something from the radio in the late 80s/early 90s, but don't know this album. I enjoyed this, it’s a pleasant soundtrack for the text on dragonfly habitat selection that I’m reading for a presentation I have to do next week. There’s some great repeating noise here and there - organ, or synths of some sort? Plus some bluesy guitar - the playing is good. Favorite track: ”I am the Resurrection,” which is a little 60s-ish, but much more interesting than actual 60s music. Well, especially once that track went off into that nice long riffy breakdown at the end. That track is the best thing on the record IMO. BUT OF COURSE the song I like best by this band ("Fools Gold"), with its funky bass and guitar and interesting muted vocals, was only on the US release. I'm listening to it now anyway, ha: take that, 1001 Albums. 4 stars

Usually I've at least heard of the popular UK bands of the late 90s, but I had no idea of the existence of Travis. So - I think if I were familiar with this record I might be enjoying a little, simply out of 90s nostalgia or something. I mean it's better than a lot of other things, right? But it's just not very interesting. I was particularly surprised when I read that Nigel Godrich produced it - I thought "yikes, what would this be like if he hadn't." 3 stars

My general rule is "all krautrock gets 5 stars!" but surely I can write a more objective review than that. Some of the music here is calm but toe-tapping, and some has a slightly doomier vibe. There’s also a serious piano piece accompanied by something that sounds like a ticking clock or a metronome, ocean waves, and whispering. The electronica is as mesmerizing as the more-familiar tracks from their first album like "Hallogallo,” except that there's also some great deranged singing that sounds a bit like strange bands from later in the 70s like Chrome. Woo incoherent dance party I have to add that I liked the wiki's mention of how Neu! used the German term Unterhaltungsmusik, or “entertainment music” to describe what one of the tracks was *not*. I'm now going to go around saying "ugh, Unterhaltungsmusik," if someone asks me my opinion of Sabrina Carpenter or whatever. This is a marvelous album; easy 5 stars since I love this record; it’s exactly the sort of thing that I like.

Where it's at? I got two turntables and a microphone Love “Devil’s Haircut,” "The New Pollution," and “Where It’s At” from the radio, of course. Car radio, mid-90s A very enjoyable genre-hopping mess. Hip-hop played at the wrong speed, noises popping off here and there, sampled bossa nova, all united by Beck's lyrics that veer between some kind of open road Americana and - what. It feels very much of its time, and/but a fun listen. This review is just as disjointed as the record, which is to mean that I'm enjoying it. Am I going to give this crazy record 5 stars. You just watch me, I just might.

JAMC were on the alterna-radio a lot back in the day, but never grabbed me enough to buy any of their records. Did I make the right choice at the time? We shall see. This stuff is tuneful, but not very exciting. I liked "Happy When it Rains," though, and some of it feels almost like some of the slower Velvets songs, which I appreciated. Maybe if I were following the lyrics more closely, it might be hitting me with some poignant feeling that the music seems to call for but doesn't quite evoke. But this sounds so much like other bands from this period. Their drum machine is making me tap my foot, but most of these songs aren't hitting for me. 3 stars

Well I didn't really expect to like this too much, but guess what. When I'm done with this project I'm going to say that the main thing I've learned from it is how much I like hip-hop. Hearing Missy Elliott's voice in the intro was so nice - she's from Tidewater Virginia and her voice reminds me so much of the voices of a lot of the folks here at home in DC. Every one of these tracks was great - both her fluid rapping and that of the guests like Ludacris. I was originally like "ok I'm just going to listen to one track now and finish it later,” but then I didn't want to turn it off. I don't know if I'll buy a copy of this and listen to it all the time, but I certainly enjoyed it today. 4 stars

Tell me where the party at! Where the party at! Where the party at! I liked the Missy Elliott record that I had yesterday, and I like this one too. There is some more tuneful r&b kinda stuff on it, but it doesn't slow it down. There's always a solid beat happening in the background; the repeating beat in "They Don't Wanna Fuck Wit Me," for example. I particularly enjoyed "Pass the Blunt" with its amusing quotes of "Pass the Dutchie" by Musical Youth. Again I don't know how often I'll go back to this record, but I'm really enjoying it now - 4 stars

Just like the San Quentin record I had a while back, this is another amazing record. I'm sitting here crying to "The Green, Green Grass of Home"; I'd never really paid attention to the lyrics before. I can only imagine how it felt to hear these songs to those guys in that prison. I love his amusing attitude about this being recorded by a record company that won’t let him cuss on the record, his sympathy for the folks in the audience, and how simple these songs are, either just him and the guitar or the accompaniment of June Carter and the band. I’m not really into country music at all, but these Johnny Cash prison records are a strong exception.

TV On The Radio is another one of these bands that I hear on the radio from time to time but have never listened to an entire album of, which is the sort of thing I’m doing this project for. I'm guessing I've never followed up with these guys because a lot of these tracks are smoother than what usually gets my attention. But it's a tuneful, enjoyable rock album with bits of funk, interesting vocals, solid percussion, and strings and horn sections adding to the sound here and there, so what's not to like. I might check them out for a repeat listen. Favorite tracks: "Red Dress," "Love Dog" 4 stars

I enjoyed these fourteen short toe-tapping tracks; it's a fun, bouncy, slightly chaotic record. All I knew from this album until this point was "Sunny Afternoon," and I enjoyed that, plus the rest with the harpsichord and guitar jingling away in the background and lyrics making fun of rich people and such. This was entertaining, I didn’t realize how much I liked The Kinks. 4 stars

This album is rather precious with all this British country nostalgia, isn't it. I recognize that it's a little tongue in cheek, but still. I guess "Big Sky" is a bit more interesting with its spoken word bit, and I've always liked "Animal Farm." And of course these songs all have the advantage of being very short. But on the whole I like the garage-y sound of the earlier Kinks record that I had yesterday better. I'll admit that I began counting how many songs were left after "Animal Farm." 3 stars

Ah ok, so this is what Hot Chip sounds like (and why I have no memory of it despite inevitably having heard them at some point). There are bits that are good here and there, and I like electronica as a genre quite a lot, so I have no problem with it from that angle. But this record isn't very surprising or interesting to me. Maybe I would prefer their earlier stuff? Wikipedia says they're influenced by Roxy Music and Royal Trux, which I'm kind of baffled by on the basis of this album alone. 2 stars

I have this record, but haven't listened to it in quite a while. Now I remember why I liked it so much at the time; I had recently come back from traveling in India and was obsessed with various kinds of South Asian music. And this record has all those great beats, except all interpreted through the lens of hip-hop. Great stuff.

Ah, now you can have your Beatles: the Velvets are the late-60s music that I like best. This whole thing is a beautiful, chaotic mess, a lot like my favorite tracks on the banana album (Black Angel's Death Song, etc). I'm sure people have said that "Sister Ray" goes on a bit long; well, ok it does go on a bit long. But I think it's an appropriate ending to this remarkable album. You gotta feel a little bad for Waldo, though. 5 stars

Woo, it's another band from the 2000s that I never got into; let's find out why. In the boppy tracks, I like the synths happening in the background. I also like the slower, more restrained track "Skeletons," with the insistent beat growing more intense in the background as the song continues. Good songs, though I don't think it's super original material; I'm getting that "I like the bands that they borrowed this stuff from" feeling from this. Which is ok! I don't have a huge urge to listen to this album again anytime soon, but I never felt like I wanted to turn it off either, so it has that going for it. Fave track probably "Skeletons" 4 stars

This record has "Family Affair," which of course I remember from the radio. But the rest of it was new to me, a great album of spaced-out funk. I'll definitely listen to this one again.

Welp I was hoping that a band named after gigantic murderous postapocalyptic plants would be my kind of thing, but ah ha ha ha no This is like U2 minus any of the things that are appealing to me about U2. Like if U2 decided that they wanted to expand to an even more mainstream audience and told the producer "please make us sound more like Neil Diamond." I liked the title track (a minute or so of creepy piano that ends with a phrase that reminds me of Bowie's "Moss Garden”), so I’ll give it 2 stars.

Singing along with the title track here! I am not a big soul music person, but of course I remember a lot of this record from back in the day. There's something about the how it all works together with his vocals that's appealing, especially the subtle guitar and the horn section. I could have done without the Bee Gees cover, but otherwise this was a fine example of early 70s soul music. 3 stars; high end of 3.

Grizzly Bear is yet another band that I remember hearing on the radio but never followed up on. This is an interesting album; some tracks spare but not boring, some multilayered & intense with hails of swelling melodic stuff. The vocals sometimes remind me of the guy in Dirty Projectors, but the music is much less experimental than that, of course. I think this could grow on me with a second listen; at the moment it just feels like interesting background music. But who knows what the future will bring.

"There is no devil, it's just god when he's drunk" Great stuff. It's a little silly to listen to this at 8:00 in the morning like I am right now - I should be sitting in a bar somewhere with a nice cocktail, but anyway, it's a wonderful record. His lyrics and vocals are so evocative, and that bar blues band is so tight. One or two of the slower songs on this have always gone on long enough to try my patience, but still, nobody's like Tom Waits. 4/5

Well I certainly remember the absurdity of "Buffalo Gals" from when it was on the radio at the time, but had no idea it had this whole-ass mess of an album attached to it. I've always had a slightly jaded attitude about McLaren, like he was fashion punk instead of real political punk, which isn't helping. And I'd feel a little more charitable if the samples from various musicians had been attributed; it feels a little tone-deaf right now. But when I pretend to have no idea about the context of this record? I have to say it's a pretty fun listen. 4/5

Of course I heard this record countless times when it first came out, but never bought a copy and therefore haven't heard much more than just "Get it On" and "Jeepster" in the interim. Oh, except for "Cosmic Dancer," which someone played on the radio the other day. This album is a solid example of the glam period. There are great people in the band here (Flo and Eddie! Rick Wakeman! Ian McDonald!), so that makes it a bit more interesting. But I'm reminded of why I never bought a copy - I don't really like it very much. I think a lot of that is about the vocals; I guess if you like the way Bolan sings then that's great, but if not then that's a whole lot of what you're hearing. Most interesting track: Planet Queen 3 stars

This was the first David Bowie album I ever bought, which I did despite not really being into Bowie, because Brian Eno was on it (I was one of those "Eno is God" people in 1977). I've gained far more appreciation for Bowie since then, but "Low" is still my favorite album by him. It was my introduction to krautrock, and to so much of the kind of music I like to listen to now. I have a copy of this record on my phone, so I played it in the car on the way to a waterfront park this morning, husband and me singing along together with "Sound and Vision" and enjoying the whole album once again. 5 stars

Early 70s singer-songwriter country rock with a guitar and harmonica just isn't a genre that I relate to easily. I'm sorry to say that my experience of this album was largely about hoping it would end soon. The guitar-playing here is nice, though too often eclipsed by the vocals. It's a good record for people who like records like this. 3 stars

I really liked most of this album, especially the first two tracks. There's an excellent blistering guitar and solid rhythm section. The only downside was that I thought that some of the lyrics, which I assume were supposed to sound badass, instead were kind of goofy, like I wanted to pat him on the head like "yeah you're a big badass guy, aren't you!" But I have other records with goofy lyrics, so that's ok. 4

Oh hey i remember this song, the title track. (One of the reviews reminds me that "Connected" was used in that fabulously ridiculous 90s film "Hackers," which I was subjected to earlier this year. And when that song came on I said "oh hey I remember this song.") If I'm going to listen to dumb lyrics, they should accompany fun electronic dance music like this. That's my rule and I'm sticking with it. Favorite track: All Night Long 4 stars

I had no idea that there was a late-80s John Lee Hooker album; that was a surprise. His voice and guitar were amazing, even this late in his life. I liked the collaborations with Santana and Los Lobos and such well enough, but I think what I liked best on here were the songs where it was just him, or him and a harmonica, at the end of the album. Those felt very intimate, like sitting on the porch of an evening and listening to him play. Makes me want to listen to one of his albums from the 50s or early 60s.

This is a great record - I especially love when songs have a sound-off of all the countries of the Americas like the first track. I suppose it's smoother than what I usually listen to, but the syncopation and way the vocals and music flow together and in opposition to each other make this incredibly enjoyable, especially when they start improvising at the end of each song. I wish there was more Spanish-language music on this project, since I love so many of those genres. 5 stars

OK then, wow. The drum and bass and rapping on this are absolutely relentless and irresistible on this album. The “bitches” stuff is a bit much and is why I bumped this back to 4 stars from the 5 I was considering after the first couple tracks. But then there are other moments that are incredibly funny, and a lot of anger that is real. I am amused that this m-f'ing record has been enshrined in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. I started off saying "ok we'll just listen to the first 3 tracks of this for now," but ha no I just played the whole thing through. A record quite deserving of its accolades. 4 stars

This dumb, relentless thing was my absolute favorite record when I was 14 years old; I listened to it so incessantly at the time that I can still sing along with it all these decades later. For a couple months in 1972, between that and the original soundtrack of "Jesus Christ Superstar" I probably heard Ian Gillan singing more than anyone else on the planet. Anyway sure, the lyrics are dumb, but the guitar and bass are pretty fun - I can see why then-me loved it. "Nobody's gonna take my head, I got speed inside my brain"? That's right sir, you do you.

This is one of my favorite albums. There's something about so much of Radiohead’s material that just hits it exactly for me - tense, complex, precise, rhythmic music with vague but interesting lyrics. They're my "comfort music," and for some reason I started listening to this particular record a lot more during the pandemic, working insane amounts of overtime at my little desk at home while wailing along with “Hail to the Thief.” I'm sure I've sustained hearing damage from "Sit Down, Stand Up." First I turn it up when the bass comes in. Then a bit louder when the drums come in. And then louder, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the raindrops, and the

I've always had an attitude about this record because I think the title is dumb. But let's do this anyway! Because I have to! So the problem for me with the Smashing Pumpkins is that Billy Corgan's voice is so distinctive and the music so consistent from track to track that at some point it all dissolves into an indistinguishable Smashing Pumpkin slurry. This record isn't terrible - while the music is samey, it's at least samey grungey rock jams with a compelling bassline, and there were some proggy bits here and there. But still, there is no reason in the world for an emo Smashing Pumpkins album to be 2 discs long. 3 stars

Like I said in my review of Seventeen Seconds last year, I always liked (most of) The Cure, but never owned any of their records except for one comp. So I'm looking forward to this one, especially since it was characterized as a return to their earlier, Goth-y sound. This record gets better and better as it goes along, becoming more intense and mesmerizing; the title track is great. I actually think that the least interesting songs on here are the two I’m most familiar with, Lovesong and Pictures of You. That’s probably partly novelty bias about the rest of it and also that those are both more conventional songs, and I tend to go for stranger things.

Ah yes, there was a time when I lived for this record and its contemporary, "Lumpy Gravy." It’s some of the usual Zappa silliness, with great music interspersed with it all. So much of this feels contemporary, or maybe it's just that I happen to listen to lots of records with random noises sprinkled here and there nowadays? A couple of the tracks, like "Concentration Moon," and "Mom and Dad,” which were written about young people being oppressed for not being “normal” at the time, made me think about what it’s like for young trans and queer folks now, and it was chilling. Yeah, 5 stars because while there are a couple of off moments here and there in it, it sure was important to me in the 70s and has some great music.

I'll start this off by saying that I LOVE South Asian music and am pretty familiar with it: traditional music from various regions, Bollywood soundtracks, you name it. Unfortunately, the first couple of tracks started this off badly for me. It's not the European/American influences that bothered me, since the 60's/70's Bollywood music that I like best mixes 60's rock stuff with classical Indian instrumentation all the time. The problem I guess is that the pop music that Shankar leans into here isn't the kind of pop music that I like. For me the first four songs were too much like Indian-flavored easy-listening music, and I didn't enjoy them at all. But ending the first side, "Metamorphosis" was nice, and then all of the second side was lovely. "Sagar" is a gorgeous, 13-minute-long piece that seems to have a quiet little bass line in the background at times. "Dance Indra" felt fusion-y and interesting, and "Raghupati" was toe-tapping. If I were just reviewing the second side of this album I'd give it 4 stars, but my attitude about the first side brings it down to a 3.

I didn't know this record existed since I never really paid attention to Beck after his two big 90s hits. I'm quite enjoying it. It is a lot of sad, but was made more interesting because of his choices for the instrumentation beyond his guitar, like the strings behind "Paper Tiger." I was occasionally reminded of some of the stuff on Radiohead's "A Moon-shaped Pool” (which was coincidentally also produced by Godrich, but of course came out 14 years after this album). On hearing the whole thing I can say it's consistently good, and varied enough to be more interesting than the standard sad-guy-with-a-guitar material by other artists. You wouldn't think while listening to "Loser" that he would eventually come out with music like this - I'll listen to it again. 4 stars

A band from 1978 that I've never heard of? Oh wait, this is the "Another Girl, Another Planet" record. I never knew what band did that song, just that it was that "Another Girl, Another Planet" song. Anyway - Wow, I had no idea this was going to be this good. The singer has a weird singing style that makes this much more interesting than most music categorized as "power pop." It reminds me a lot of Television, with other things from that period thrown in too. It's really more adjacent to punk or No Wave than what I usually think of as power pop, which is a good thing, since I think most power pop is boring. "Another Girl, Another Planet" is of course fun, but I kinda liked the rest of it more, especially "City of Fun" and "The Beast." This is the sort of music that I like; I'm definitely going to listen to it again and check out their other two albums. I predict that I will complain that one of these should be swapped for one of the many Elvis Costello records here.

Pink Flag! This is one of those essential albums that I'VE NEVER BOTHERED TO GET A COPY OF for some reason that I can't pinpoint at the moment, so anyway here we are. I love grindy, noisy, melodic punk like this. I guess I was waiting for a day when this album would be exactly like the exact kind of music that I like? And that's today! Time to finally buy a copy of this album! 5/5

I had some of his stuff in the 70s, but then I started listening to King Crimson or whatever so I never looked back. But while post-1980 Bruce never really penetrated into my little punk/prog bubble, I have new respect for him because of the song he released last year, "Streets of Minneapolis." So here goes. This is fun good-time rock music with some introspective, sometimes dark lyrics. Still not really the kind of thing that I like anymore, but I can see why it's popular. 3 stars

"There is no dark side of the moon - matter of fact, it's all dark" And here is what was once my favorite album in all the world, at least until they released "Wish You Were Here." I listened to it twice today, for the first time at all in quite a while, and had a great time with it. I tend to think of DSOTM as something I've heard SO many times and therefore am no longer really interested in anymore, but there is so much interesting stuff on here. The combination of the simple piano and the great vocals on "Great Gig in the Sky”; the cacophony of clocks at the beginning of "Time”; the synthy stuff on "Any Colour You Like”; the lyrics of (and singing along with) "Brain Damage.” Even "Money," which I figure everyone at some point has got sick of, has good stuff in it. Though I’m still more interested in “Wish You Were Here" and "Animals," I found this to all be good. I just need to take a break from it every couple of years in order to remember how to appreciate it again.

I’d had no idea who D’Angelo was until I heard that he’d died last year, though on hearing this now I realize that I have actually heard a lot of these songs here and there. This is pretty mellow soul stuff, which is not my usual choice of what to listen to, but in this case there’s a steady funky beat behind it all that makes it work. Some of it is pretty sleepy, though. I feel like I’m in one of those lush bars that sell $25 cocktails, slowly sliding down out of my chair Best song title: “Shit, Damn, Motherfucker”

Ooh I really like this: soaring vocals, interesting synthy beeping thrumming stuff, clicking beat. Way more experimental than I expected this to be. “Hours” was almost frightening - I pictured here as a glowing supernatural creature looming up over the horizon, approaching the city in her dazzing, terrifying beauty. Do we want her to kiss us for hours? Yes? Yes? No? Yes Yeah any record that messes with my mind this much, especially in the guise of “pop” music, gets a 5.

Well ok then: I thought I was going to be bored to death by this record based on what Adele I’d heard before, but this record at least has drums and a lot of energy. And she has a really good voice. I’m not going to go back to this anytime soon (ok, ever), but at this point I’m going to have to admit that I’m not a total Adele-hater anymore.

Oh good, it’s the one with “White Winter Hymnal” on it. This song always surprises me when I hear it around Christmas - I mean I’m happy to hear it, since it’s a great song and a useful antidote to all the forced holiday wholesomeness, but I sometimes wonder if I’m the only one who’s ever paid any attention to the lyrics. The rest of it is indie rock/folk, kind of like a less-nerdy early Decemberists. I think we have this CD here somewhere, but I’m ok with just hearing “White Winter Hymnal” on the radio once or twice during the holidays and leaving it at that. It’s a good album of music like this for those occasions when you want to hear music like this (which I don’t very often). I think it deserves a 4 because of “White Winter Hymnal”; it’s competent and not annoying in any way.

I grew up listening to this record - my parents had a copy, and my dad played it a lot. For me this record is all about the rhythmic complexity of “Blue “Rondo à la Turk” and “Take Five,” of course, but the rest of it works just fine around those two standouts. Hearing those two tracks all the time as a little kid is probably a lot of why I like the complicated and unpredictable music I do now.

I loved this record when it was first out, but hadn't listened to it in quite a while. I still liked it, there are some solid songs ("Nightswimming," e.g.), but on listening to all of R.E.M. in retrospect recently I have to say that I prefer their earlier jangly, incomprehensible stuff better. But this is nice.

This isn’t as unpleasant as I thought it was going to be. Oh wait, yes it is, it’s another one of those records where the music is a solid and fun but the vocals are irritating. Is there a karaoke version of Linkin Park that I could listen to? I might enjoy that. lol the end of this track where he’s going “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” is making me laugh. YES PLEASE DO THAT

Well yes, this is an Elvis Costello album, with songs that sound very much like Elvis Costello, because everything Elvis Costello does sounds vaguely alike to me because I was just never into Elvis Costello. (I laughed when a song called “This is Hell” popped up. Come on, it isn’t quite *hell* to have to listen to this, Elvis Costello is a good songwriter.) It’s a perfectly fine album, just another one of those instances where I’d prefer to hear the songs interwoven in a radio set with other stuff instead of having to sit through an indigestible brick of Elvis Costello.

I love trip-hop, it’s so rhythm-forward and yet stripped-down and chill at the same time, with all that good stuff from dub and reggae throughout. So of course I think this is a great record.

I loved this record in the 90s, played it all the time, and still love it. It’s so chill and beautiful, the record that got me into trip-hop. Of course we all recognize “Sour Times” from the first jingly chord at the beginning, but it’s a popular song that I’ll never get sick of.

You know, I think I’ve never actually heard this record its entirety before. It’s definitely U2, but several of the songs have a less polished sound than what I remember from their later albums, which I thought was good. Everyone knows “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “New Years Day,” and “Two Hearts Beat as One” because of constant airplay, and I was tempted to skip them on this listen. “Sunday,” at least, was a powerful song when it first appeared, and still is, with the drumming and fiddle beating a rhythm behind “I’ll wipe the tears away.” For the rest of it, I was surprised when “Seconds” came on just now because I’ve always liked that song and honestly had no idea it was U2! The other tracks were definitely U2.

I only know “Back in Black,” so this was an interesting new listen. It’s like she takes all the boring late-50s ballads and puts an edge on them. Not my favorite style of music, so I doubt I’ll listen to it again, but her singing style is very compelling, so I enjoyed this listen at least.

All I know from this record is the title track, which is a solid song that makes its point quite clearly. Yes, ok Marvin The rest of it is stuff that I’m glad to be introduced to - the way the backing singers, horn section, and percussion were integrated into the tunes makes this record more interesting than a lot of other material from this genre. Another record that I doubt I’ll listen to again. Could probably have lived without the slower songs, but otherwise I’m tapping my foot here and enjoying it.

The opening song is fun, with the strange whooping sound and drums overwhelming the vocals! I already like this album. And I like the next couple of tracks even more. Well, I am partial to incomprehensible lyrics overwhelmed by noisy guitars and drums, with fragmented symphonic bits thrown in here and there. Which hey, is a description of this record. I particularly like how it isn’t just perversely experimental, but instead manages to be both noisy and tuneful at the same time. Not sure why I say I like shoegaze and MBV but never picked up a copy of this album; am dealing with that oversight now.

The Bee Gees give me a headache. Next album please

Oh right, this is the record with “My Old School” on it, have fond memories of that song, and like it more than most of the rest of their output. (I have a general bad attitude about Steely Dan, probably due to overexposure to their later material - to me all sounds like Steely Dan, all the vaguely proggy jazz rock spiraling on and the very Steely Dan vocals.) But respect to them for telling interesting stories with their lyrics, and they’re very good musicians.

Oh yeah I have good memories of this record. My kid was in junior high and I’d drive him over there every morning and we’d listen to the grunge CDs of the moment. This reminds me of sitting in DC traffic at 7:00 in the morning, headbanging with my kid. Some of it is a bit much, but I always liked the bassline.

This is a drawling, stoned mess but I have to say I kind of liked it. It's maybe like if Spacemen 3 were slightly less interesting? Don't think I'll listen to it again, but it was ok, glad I heard it. 3 stars

Huh, so this is what Incubus sounds like. I guess nu-metal is just neo-grunge? It's reminding me of Temple of the Dog, or whatever that was. But then there are some other interesting things happening in the background here and there in the music; I found some of this enjoyable. But hoo boy this is one of those records where the vocals get on my nerves. It isn't quite as annoying as emo, but it gets whiny a little too often for me.

Records like this is what this project is all about, since there has never been a day when I would have said to myself "I think I'll listen to a Fats Domino record today." But this is a great record, with the jamming horn section and piano underlying his singing. Lots of fun for a hot summer afternoon.

The opening track is mesmerizing, and I like how a lot of the tracks have electronica in the background with interesting percussion that sounds Asian or something. It's a whole lot to listen to as the whole album, though. His fast rapping is pretty amazing, but for me it ended up as a bit of a blur after a couple of tracks; at least for me this kind of stuff is best as a spike in a radio set that's mostly calmer electronica. But while I'm not particularly enjoying this record, still I have to appreciate it. It feels so intense, the point he's trying to make of being a young person going through all that shit and the way it just hits hits hits.

I've heard of these guys, but had no idea they were Finnish. I like a lot of Finnish music, but the Finnish records I have are pretty much all folk/experimental. So here's some Finnish glam/new wave, or whatever this is. It's mildly annoying like most glam, but it has a New York Dolls crossed with The Jam or something vibe that I can appreciate. Reasonable album, glad I got to hear it. I loved reading that the guitarist ("Nasty Suicide") quit the band to go back to high school and then studied to become a pharmacist and is now working for a Finnish pharma corp. 3 stars

Confession: I skipped the three tracks on here that I've already heard 45 million times ("Sweet Baby James,” "Country Road,” and "Fire and Rain"). At some point there are songs from the early 70s where I just have to put my foot down and say no, I have heard this enough for a lifetime, thank you, next, move on. Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest: this is a collection of competent acoustic blues/folk songs, plus some of that strummy kind of guitar stuff that used to get used as TV theme music in the early 70s. "Lo and Behold" was my favorite track on this listen, just a straight-up acoustic blues song, beautifully done. (But "Steamroller Blues" is one of those jokey things that was cute in 1970 but gets an eyeroll from me at this point.) This is a fine album, just worn down from overexposure for me. I'm sure I'll hear "Fire and Rain" again at some point when I'm in a grocery store.

I know I'm a broken record on this topic, but while I love music like this, I prefer when it has lengthy instrumentals and less singing. Or all instrumentals! - that would be even better. The music on this record is marvelously intense, though. 3

My thoughts about metal can be summarized as "nah I don't really like it - well except for Motörhead of course." Maybe it's because this is closer to punk than to a lot of other metal? This is good relentless noisy fun. R.I.P. Lemmy. (Ignore the lyrics if possible.) 4 stars

I can't believe that anyone other than this album's producers and engineers would listen to this record in its entirety in one sitting, so I approached it like I would if I owned a copy, listening to it in digestible portions over the course of a couple of weeks. Ella Fitzgerald has a great voice, of course, as well as a great sense of timing; I always respect singers who can syncopate with the beat of the music like this. And of course Gershwin was a talented lyricist (“it’s just another rhumba - why did I have to succumbha?”). Of course as usual, I liked the speedier tracks better than the slow ballads and love songs. There were also a handful of instrumental Gershwin pieces that were nice to hear. Summary: this album is a wonderful historical resource, but not something I'd go out of my way to listen to again. One or two of these songs would be fun to hear if it popped up after a Magnetic Fields track on the radio.

One of my favorite memories of the title track is hearing it at a rather deranged Halloween party, probably the year after it came out. It’s amusing to think of how 1999 was The Future when this record came out, while now it seems like the deep dark past when the internet was young and we all lived in caves. Anyway, this is a fun record. I never listen to Prince anymore, and these days I think a whole record of Prince is maybe a little too much Prince, but it was fun to hear today. I had completely forgotten the existence of “All the Critics Love U (In New York),” so that was particularly entertaining.

“You gotta get in to get out!” Yeah, one of my favorite things about this project is when I get to be reminded of a record like this, something I used to love and listen to all the time 50-some (!) years ago but eventually moved on from. (And then realize that I can still sing along with “The Carpet Crawlers” all these years later.) I’ve come to think that double albums are a bit much, but the length of this one certainly made sense in context with all other endless quasi-symphonic prog albums that I was into at the time like Yes’s *Tales from Topographic Oceans* and Aphrodite’s Child’s *666*. This one seems a little angrier, weirder, and less noodly than what I remember about some of those other expansive projects, so it’s interesting to keep that in mind while remembering the radical shift in “rock” music that was about to take place in the late 70s. (OK, maybe it’s not weirder than *666*.) Of course, many of the lyrics seemed like a hot dumb mess even back in 1974. (I can see the rest of the band being like "So Peter, just so we’re on the right page, this track is about a raven absconding with someone's amputated penis, yeah?”) But hey, it was the 70s. 4 stars

I like short guitar-heavy songs that have a beat, so the La’s’s quasi-sixties thing from the 90s is fine. It isn’t my new favorite record, and is occasionally annoying, but I didn’t start wondering how many more of these songs I was going to have to listen to until about halfway through. I know “There She Goes” from the radio, of course. (Unfortunately I never really liked it. In fact “There She Goes” is kind of irritating.) So ok, “The La’s” is a perfectly fine record with occasional exceptions. As I’ve said about other comparable stuff, these are all competent tracks that would work well in a radio set with other music like this. But as a whole record, it really wasn’t interesting enough to sustain my attention.

An ok early 2000s rock band, with the postpunk sound that I usually like. Lots of bits of this seem borrowed from other bands, and they're good bands that were borrowed from, so that helped. Some of it feels like a toned-down version of The Bends. Like if Radiohead were less interesting, then they might have sounded like this. (Though the opening of The Jungle made me think they were going to go into Don't Fear the Reaper.) This is ok stuff, but not my new favorite band or anything. High 3 stars, hits a 4 occasionally.

The wikipedia article calls this Elton John's "progressive rock album"? I am confused, it sounds like early 70s commercial pop to me. I of course heard this record many many MANY times around when it first came out and therefore am qualified to say that I have heard “Madman Across the Water” before I died. Overall I'm pretty tired of Elton John at this point, but still, these are reasonable songs. 3 stars

OK I don’t usually complain about choices made for adding records to this book, but why were both this and “Machine Head” included, seeing as they're both from roughly the same time period, and a couple of the tracks on this one are originally from "Machine Head"? Given a choice between the two I’d vote for this record, since the extended live versions on here of those and other Deep Purple songs are lots of fun.

A number of decades ago I had a bunch of lovely friends who were Deadheads, and this record reminds me of them, and the interesting things we got up to back in those days. If you’ve read some other of my reviews here, you may be surprised by my fondness for this popular American album from the early 70s, but I still like a lot of stuff by the Dead, and this record in particular. It’s also an absolutely solid album, with music that ranges from roadhouse blues and bluegrass to quiet songs that sound like a hymn, and many of the lyrics are the kind that don’t make immediate sense and make you think a bit, which I always like. “Ripple” in particular is a great song; it makes me cry every time I hear it for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on. And while we all may have heard “Truckin’” a million times, it’s a great ending to the album. There are times when I get sick of hanging around and I’d like to travel, but then there are other times when I get tired of traveling and want to settle down. I appreciate the Dead writing a song reminding me that that’s ok.

234) Muddy Waters, Hard Again - 5 Opens with the very familiar “Mannish Boy,” with Johnny Winter on guitar (as well as the producer and “miscellaneous screams”). But then the intensity of that song - the guitar, piano, singing, and mesmerizing repetition of it - repeats throughout this whole album. The way he syncopates the vocals with the rest of the music is what makes this so exceptional. I don’t think of myself as a fan of the blues; in fact I think a lot of more recent blues albums are a little boring. But THIS album is a strong exception; will definitely listen to this one again. The whole thing is good.

I’ve heard individual tracks off this album on the radio, but never the whole thing before. This is excellent early punk rock - some of it’s like the Clash, some a bit like Pere Ubu, some just sui generis. I love stuff like this. It isn’t just a solid mass of speedy yelling - I mean it’s speedy, and he’s yelling, but is varied enough to keep my attention; makes me want to jump around and yell too. Yeah, I will always give records like this a 5 star review. While I love prog and some of the other things that this stuff was created somewhat as a reaction to, I’m grateful to punk for giving rock music a bit of a reset in the late 70s. Their big song “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” wasn’t on the original release, but I listened to it anyway, so there. It’s a great song. 5 stars

I like this - it's chill but very rhythm-forward electronica. Sometimes it sounds like 90s world music type stuff like Transglobal Underground, sometimes kinda trip-hop, sometimes like soundtrack music. The tracks I like best are the dark, almost industrial one with John Lydon on it, "Open Up" ("Burn, Hollywood, burn!"), and "Afro Left," which has someone speaking over the music in nonsense that sounds like an African language. A fun album.

One of those records that I know I’m going to give 5 stars to before listening to them. This was one of my favorite records when it came out. Hearing the whole thing again for the first time in a while, I’m catching things that I’d forgotten about recently by just hearing the big singles “Sheela-Na-Gig” and “Dress” on the radio. The tracks “Happy and Bleeding,” "Joe," and “Plants and Rags” particularly stood out today, both of which have some very interesting strings and guitars happening along with the intense vocals and lyrics. But the whole thing is great - heavy, truthful, angry, strong.

I like how she feels very sincere about what she’s singing. She has a good voice, too. But I really dislike records like this where all the songs are vocal-forward and the lyrics are all about relationships and the music is just serving to emphasize the vocals. None of it is interesting to me. But I tried, I swear.

Moby Grape, one of those 1960s San Francisco bands that I've always known existed but honestly have no memory of ever having listened to. To me this sounds like a lot of other bands from back then, sometimes a bit like the Airplane, sometimes a bit like the Dead. Songs are short and noisy with nice harmonies and guitar. Probably won't come back to it, but I enjoyed it. "Can I walk down the street naked if I want to," they asked, but I said sorry, no, put those pants back on please.

I was surprised by this album - it's another record from back in the day that I've never listened to other than a track here and there on the radio. I guess I’ve never chased it down because the Beatles have always felt like something innocuous from my childhood for me and therefore not very interesting. But this album was much angrier and intense than I thought it was going to be. It begins with the heartbreaking "Mother,” What an opening track - so restrained, with just piano and drums, and then he cries out at the end. "Working Class Hero" made an impression as well - again, strong lyrics with just a guitar. And finally, “Well Well Well,” which feels like it’s edging to protopunk with the simple noisy background and John screaming from time to time. Love that that's the longest song on the album. Some of the other songs sound like Lennon songs on Beatles albums, of course, but even they have an interesting edge to them.

On the whole, this is much more interesting than I thought it was going to be. It’s still not exactly my thing, but still greatly exceeds expectations, I think because of the band. He has a marvelous voice; the opening to “Corpus Christi Carol” is haunting. I know his covers of “Lilac Wine” and “Hallelujah” are good, but I'd rather have Nina Simone and Leonard Cohen singing them; there’s a restraint and an intensity to those two versions that somehow is missing here for me. I just put Nina Simone’s version on now, and there’s no comparison.

I probably listened to this record twice a day for months when I first got it. As a teen LOTR nerd I was occasionally annoyed by all the vague LOTR references in the lyrics that didn’t make any sense, but that didn't matter much to me compared with the music. At this point Robert Plant gets a bit on my nerves. Oooh-ooh yeah. Aaaaah-aaaaaaaaaah. But the rest of it is still pretty great: the bass, the drums, the guitar. “The Battle of Evermore” is the standout track for me, partly for the mandolin but mostly because Sandy Denny is singing on it. However, “Stairway to Heaven” is one of those songs that I have heard too many times at this point, so I hereby confess that I skipped it. Ask me in another 10 years if I've listened to it again yet.

The kind of blues music that you might hear coming from a strange little shack when you've ventured just a little too far into the swamp. I had forgotten that Ry Cooder was on this record! He was only 20 years old. Summary: a fantastic album. I have had this record on both vinyl and CD. The CD is nice because it’s got a bunch of delightful added instrumental weirdness at the end. I generally think that "extended versions" are a waste of time, what with all the remixes and demos and whatnot. But I feel like in this case those were a solid addition, and that's the version I listened to today.

I LOVED this record when it first came out. Looking back on that period of my life, I recognize that I was going through the sort of exceptionally memorable shit that would make one want to listen to "The Downward Spiral" on repeat all the time. So I went into this with a bit of trepidation 30 years on, as a person who still likes a lot of industrial music but doesn't require quite as much screaming and desecration anymore. But a lot of it is more subtle than I remembered. There's a lot of interesting stuff on here, mostly related to percussion, the insect noises that got mixed in here and there, and extended howling stretches of music like the end of "Ruiner." I probably would have rated this FIVE STARS FUCK YEAH BURN EVERYTHING in 1994, but I think I'll give it a slightly more restrained four today. The good songs are very good, but after a while it's all a bit much. I'm glad I was reminded of it again today, though. Favorite track: "The Downward Spiral"

So I've never been an ABBA person - that synthetic mid-70s pop sound has never worked for me. But this record is short, so that's good! I like their odd Scandi-accented English. And the keyboard bit going on in the background of "Money, Money, Money," "That's Me," and some of the rest of these songs is fun. They have an old-fashioned feel, like you're in a bar in the 1950s or something. I enjoyed "Tiger," though I'm disappointed on reading the wiki that it's metaphorical and not about an actual tiger. And if I meet you, then I will eat you, I am the tiger, tiger, TIGER. The rest is kinda dumb, but fun. Favorite track: "Arrival." This opens sounding like something by Väsen, or one of those other Swedish trad bands. I liked it better before they started singing, but it's nice.

I've never heard Jacques Brel in the original French before now! My parents had that English-language soundtrack "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” but despite hearing that endless times (including my dad singing "Amsterdam" as his audition song for musical theater, and then David Bowie covering it later on), I really don't know the originals at all. And wow. This is perfect timing because I've gotten kind of obsessed with current music from Francophone countries lately. This album is rough and angry and sad; he has such a marvelous, expressive voice, and the accompanying piano and accordion and such work perfectly with his singing. Unfortunately my French has only recently improved to the point where I can understand some of this; here’s another incentive to work on it. But it doesn’t really matter, I’m not someone who has to understand all the lyrics (in fact sometimes I’d prefer not to and just treat the singing as part of the music). So why did I have to spend the 60s listening to English-language covers of these songs, when Brel's original renditions were so much more interesting? I guess I should have thought to look for this, but I’ve never thought to do so. This is a fantastic record.

Mellow early 90s music from the “alternative rock” station archives; I remember "I Should've Known" from the radio at the time. Her singing is good, lyrics often interesting, and accompaniment well played. One or two of the tunes reminded me of things from Mary Timony’s most recent album, which I like a lot. But the arrangements here weren’t as interesting to me, which I suppose could be a function of this having come out in 1994 rather than 2024. There unfortunately weren't any surprises for me on this record, just lots of chill, nice 90s alternative radio songs; and I don’t think this unchallenging music showcased her lyrics well enough for me to keep my attention. It was a nice listen, though.

This hip-hop record is quite something. It’s incredibly compelling, with a relentless beat and his incredible rhymes. The autobiographical arc of it is much of what makes it so engaging, how he starts out doing crime, ends up in jail, then he finally becomes this famous rapper; so glad the "Juicy" video was there on YouTube because it was joyous. I'm not going to listen to this a lot (ever?), but I thought it was pretty great today.

"Typical girls - buy maaaaagazines!” This album made me smile when I saw it was what I had for today. “Cut” is one of those albums that absolutely belongs in the "1001" book, for its blending of punk and reggae, its wild subversive energy, and Ari Up's unrestrained German-accented vocals. It rewards multiple listens because the lyrics have many amusing surprises in them that are hard to catch the first time around. Their cover of “Heard it Thru the Grapevine” wasn't on the original album, but that’s ok. It gets more airplay these days than most of the rest of these songs, so I've heard it quite a lot. It’s a fun cover, but I prefer other tracks on here like “Newtown” or “Typical Girls,” with the band’s own quirky lyrics and instrumentation. I'll always prefer something imaginative where the performers "can't play their instruments" over something done by "professional musicians" that sounds like a thousand other records out there.

You know, I have this idea that I don't like Rod Stewart, but that must be affected by his later stuff. There's a bit of a British folky thing going on with some of these arrangements, which I'm enjoying; the title track is good, with the mandolin coming into the long instrumental break. I like this cover of "It's All Over Now" better than the Rolling Stones' version. The rest slowed down some and I started to lose interest, but I’m glad I gave it a listen.

I thought Been Caught Stealing was a lot of fun back when it was on the radio, with the dogs barking at the beginning and the whole manic energy of the song. The rest of the record was new to me, and I pretty much liked it all; it’s relentless, with its blend of punk/metal and Farrell’s weird vocals.

I'm one of those people who didn't really listen to Hole for the usual reasons, that it was considered by a lot of people as "less than" (plus at the time I was more into industrial kinds of stuff). Anyway, I know "Miss World" and "Doll Parts" from the radio, but none of the rest of this. And I liked it. I know that people who are Real Punks say that this isn't as good as their first album, but I appreciated its angry tunefulness. I like records that have vocal/guitar/thrashy thing going on like this. It was sad to watch the live footage in some of the videos, knowing that the bassist died from a heroin overdose shortly after the release of this album.

Standard early-70s country/blues rock. I appreciated the fact that I've managed to avoid being overexposed to this record over the past 50 plus years like I have with some other CSNY-adjacent stuff. The playing is good, though a couple tracks approached a little too closely to soft rock for my taste, and I listened to the bluesy tracks thinking "why listen to this when we have people like Muddy Waters to listen to." But still, it was largely a workable album, for folks who are in the mood for songs like this. "Fallen Eagle" was the most interesting song for me on here, since I was following the lyrics from the perspective of being here in the future where eagles have had federal protection for quite a while and therefore are pretty numerous in places like here near the Potomac River (in Manassas, even), and in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. But maybe it's a metaphor? Or maybe it’s a warning.

Here’s Neil Young album #4 - just two more to go. Sometimes this project feels like an endurance test. But that’s not fair - these guys are good musicians, and it’s enjoyable in that way that you’d enjoy a country rock band if you were several pints in at a noisy bar with some friends on a hot summer night. It does feel like a live band, with some buzziness and long instrumental jams. Sure, this is a great album. But I probably should be experiencing it with beer rather than coffee.

I probably hadn't heard this whole album since the 70s, and I don't know if I've ever paid close attention to it track-by-track rather than hearing it on the radio or in the background of some party. I thought I might give it a 4 because of its length, but on listening to it closely, I can’t see giving it anything less than 5 stars. Hendrix was such an amazing guitarist that even material that in other people's hands wouldn't be all that interesting, like “Little Miss Strange” and “ Let the Good Times Roll,” are set on fire here. I’ve always loved "Crosstown Traffic,” with its very consistent string of traffic metaphors. And Voodoo Chile of course is very solid electric blues. I love that it's 15 minutes long, with the drums, organ, and guitar interweaving in that mesmerizing way. 1983 (A Merman I Should Be) is another good tune with the spacey jingly percussion break. And whoa I didn't remember that "Still Raining, Still Dreaming" was on here too. Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower" to me is the definitive version. Wait, you say Bob Dylan wrote this song? Huh Finally, wikipedia reminds me of “as was common with multi-LP albums, sides A and D were pressed back to back on the same platter, likewise sides B and C.” That drove those of us who just had regular manual turntables nuts.

My prediction that this would be the kind of bland vocal pop music that I don’t usually like wasn’t completely off base. But some of it turned out to be less conventionally melodic and more interesting than usual for this genre, with some of the lyrics complex enough to make me want to look them up later on. I doubt I’ll return to this, but I’m glad to have improved my unfounded previous opinion of her work. Favorite track: White Dress, which was quite poignant while not being cloying, and had a great video.

257) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell - 4/5 These songs are short, and the music is fun and thrashy. I liked “Maps” like everybody else does, of course, with the more restrained vocals and the jingly repetitive guitar. But also “Pin,” with its video with the insects, and “No No No” with its dub percussion thing. Sometimes it all felt a little - forced? cheesy? But around the 4th track it started to grow on me, like oh right when they’re doing this cheesy rockstar thing it’s maybe on purpose, kind of like a The Cramps sort of thing; so then it was ok. I’m not running off to download this so I can listen to it all the time, but I liked several of these tracks much more than I thought I was going to. And I’d rather listen to screamy-thrashy than most other genres, so that alone brings it up to a 4.

I see - I see no - EVIL! Ahhhhhhh this record. It occurs to me that I haven’t listened to it since Tom Verlaine died, and we listened to it constantly and cried whenever the title track came on in 2023, though. This is a large part of what I mean when I say I'm grateful for what happened in rock music in 1977. The title track is magnificent - the way it goes along like a normal song but then has that break that starts with the guitar - and then the bass joins - and then the drum - and it builds - and builds - and then it dissolves into a delicate thing that sounds like the dawn. And then! it starts up again Oh, and there’s a second side too