Wonderful songs by George and Ira Gershwin, with an equally wonderful performance by Ella Fitzgerald. At over 3 hours, it certainly is longer than a traditional LP, but its length is warranted by its being a songbook. Standout tracks on each disc, but I'd be lying if I said that there were no forgettable tunes. That being said, the variety here ensures there are no real periods of dullness. I love the artwork on the sleeve too; it reminds me of the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg. Fitzgerald? New York?
Of course, I've listened to this before. This is possibly the tightest, smoothest 35-minute album of all time. Packed with unforgettable tunes and powerful messages, this masterpiece of production is Gaye at his most memorable. Why is he so confused, though? What's going on?
Jimi Hendrix is an absolute beast here, not only as a guitarist but also as a producer. Each track offers something unique, and I can only imagine how mindblowing this must've been to listen to in 1968.
I imagine people cite the lyrics of this album as one of its main strengths. They're distinctly American and must really resonate with people over there. They don't do much for me though, neither do Springsteen's vocals, and the actual music itself is pretty plain. Not bad, nice enough, but it's not for me. Maybe it will grow on me?
An Era-Defining Album. Side A is undoubtedly better than Side B, but there are no duff tracks at all.
Very Soul. Very Funk. Very Bowie. And with John Lennon appearing on multiple tracks for backing vocals and backing guitar, what more could you ask for?
Nick Cave definitely had a very clear vision of how he wanted this album to sound and flow. I think he's executed it well with some great tracks and interesting lyrics. Does go on a fair bit, though.
I'd never heard of The Divine Comedy before, but I thought this was rather good. Very corny but lots of good tunes with a great sound. I immediately recognised Songs of Love from Father Ted, and turns out this guy wrote My Lovely Horse too! If that was on the album, I would've immediately given it a 5.
I'd never given this album the attention it deserves. Ian Curtis transformed his suffering into something hauntingly beautiful. It's a real shame we only got two albums from him.
I like ABBA; their hits are great, but I wouldn't think to put on a full-length album of theirs other than Voulez-Vous.
I think I've been pretty generous with my reviews up until now. But this was dreadful. I will not be listening to it again in a hurry.
I think the '80s production is doing a lot to carry songs without much of a tune. The vocals aren't impressing me too much either. Perhaps it's a little reductive to say, but if I want music like this but much better, I'm listening to Michael Jackson or Prince.
You can't go wrong with Queen. Great performances, great production, and great tunes.
Judging from the title and the cover, I was expecting something very metal. Instead, this was a full-on rock opera with lots of ballads. Not bad by any means but I feel similarly about this as I did with Bruce Springsteen's Darkness On The Edge Of Town - just not really my thing.
I have to confess that I had never listened to a full-length Prince album until now. But I think this demonstrates his being pop royalty - not only by name, but by nature too. Great tunes, great performances, great production.
I almost don’t think of this as a Christmas album. I listen to it all-year-round, it’s that good.
The White Stripes is one of those bands I hear talked about overwhelmingly positively, but I’m not really familiar with anything by them other than Seven Nation Army. I liked this album though - a great sound with some standout tracks. But overall, the songwriting didn’t impress me enough to be as positive about this band as everyone else seems to be.
What's a saxophone, and who's Johnny Hodges?
One of my absolute favourites. This just fills you with every emotion you’re capable of feeling—such beautiful music.
I had real fun listening to this. You can really feel the synergy between the MCs, who work amazingly well together to deliver some really comedic stuff. And with great backing tracks, coupled with what I imagine was really innovative sampling for the time, it's safe to say that my rump was shook.
I had never heard of this band before. Perhaps they aren't discussed so much simply because they aren't very good. I was unimpressed by the songwriting, the vocals, and I honestly thought the production sounded muddy and unbalanced throughout most of the album. That being said, it wasn't entirely detestable, and a couple of tracks were done fairly well.
I'm not an Eagles fan by any measure. In fact, I suppose I've been conditioned to dislike them through conversations I've had with friends and family. That being said, I tried to go into this with as open a mind as I possibly could have. I didn't like it. The Eagles just ooze easy listening without much actual substance. And although this album undoubtedly deserves a spot on this list simply because of its astonishing commercial success, it's not something I will ever put on the stereo myself.
This was my first experience listening to Leonard Cohen, and I must say, I've never encountered anything like it before. It feels more like poetry set to music. However, the prominent religious themes don't do too much for me, and while the music itself isn't bad, it's something I'd need to be in a very particular mood for to enjoy.
My first experience with Pixies was in 2022, thanks to an unexpected phone call. A mate of mine was standing outside a concert venue when someone ahead of him in the queue handed him a free ticket, saying they had to leave. He called me to see if I wanted to join him. It was a Pixies gig, and although I didn’t know much of their music, I’m never one to turn down the opportunity to go to a free show. I listened to Doolittle on the way there, thought it was great, and the gig itself was incredible. I’ll always have a soft spot for this album because of that night, but even setting sentiment aside, this is essential alt-rock listening. It's full of great tunes, and you can really hear its impact on bands like Nirvana, who went on to shape the sound of the '90s.
I've always preferred East Coast rap over West Coast, and this is an absolute classic demonstrating why East Coast rap is often so good. With great rhymes carrying heavy themes, excellent production, and some outstanding backing beats, this is truly essential hip-hop listening.
Biggie is a rap legend and many tracks on this album such as Juicy and Big Poppa demonstrate that fact. But like Biggie, this album struggles under its own weight. I thought it was too long and some of the skits were unpleasant. I will definitely return to many of the tracks from this album but it's unlikely I will listen to the whole thing in one sitting again anytime soon.
This is the second Bruce Springsteen album I’ve listened to, the first being Darkness On The Edge Of Town. This was much more stripped down than that - just Bruce, his guitar, and the occasional harmonica. I didn’t like Darkness very much, and I thought this was even worse. All the songs here just blended together into one big snooze fest. The lyrics were dreadful too, with the same lines being recycled across multiple songs, making them even more unbearable. This just made me wish I was listening to something by Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, or Bob Dylan. And one thing’s for sure - I’m never going to Nebraska.
A classic album with some amazing songs and an equally amazing vocal performance by Al Green. I just wish the sound was a little more crisp.
I’m a big ’90s electronica fan, but Fatboy Slim is one artist who's largely escaped me until now. Most of the tracks here were fine, but I wasn’t massively impressed. A fair few of the songs dragged on and didn’t strike me as the kind of big dancefloor hits this album seems to be aiming for. Overall - not bad by any stretch, but I’d rather listen to Slim’s contemporaries like The Prodigy, Aphex Twin, or Daft Punk.
Being such a massive Beatles fan, I often (unintentionally) dismiss other British groups of the ‘60s. The Who, however, is one such band that is impossible to ignore. This is a classic album with some fantastic tracks, and although some people complain about the rough sound quality, I think it adds to the proto-punk aesthetic.
New Order strikes a delicate balance between danceability and darkness with this album. All tracks are solid but brought down significantly by pretty poor vocals. Elegia steals the show as a beautiful tribute to Ian Curtis. With Curtis on my mind, I can't help but think that although New Order is good, Joy Division edges them out by a significant margin.
This was the first album generated for me on this site, and I had mixed emotions getting it again. On one hand, it’s a fabulous collection, with timeless songs by George and Ira Gershwin, beautifully sung by Ella Fitzgerald. On the other hand, I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about returning to a three-hour-long album, especially after hearing it in full just over a month ago. In the end, I only revisited the tracks I’d saved from my first listen, and even that amounted to over an hour of music! That alone speaks volumes about this album’s quality, even if I wasn’t quite ready for the full marathon this time around.
Rush is a remarkably uncool act, a fact even the band admitted in their documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. Their lyrics, heavily inspired by author Ayn Rand, are nerdy, cheesy, and often cringe-inducing. But the sheer musicianship here is staggering, and somehow it all comes together into something great. It definitely isn't for everyone, but there’s no denying that Rush achieved their goal of creating a prog-rock masterpiece with this, albeit one that I can't take too seriously.
The opening track, “A Message To You Rudy”, is fantastic, but I don’t think the rest of the tracks here manage to live up to that level of quality. Still, I like The Specials. They've got great style, great intent, but sadly only a few truly great songs to go along with all that.
I tend to find these kinds of songs musically uninteresting, and while Neil’s lyrics are strong, his vocal delivery felt whiny and timid—like he’s singing just outside his range. Some great tracks though. It’s not really my thing, but I totally understand the appeal.
This was my first time listening to Wu-Tang Clan, and I'm annoyed that I hadn't discovered them sooner. This was absolutely amazing, another fantastic example of East Coast Rap.
Undoubtedly, Pink Floyd's best work post-Syd Barrett. An album that begs to be listened to in its entirety.
I’m not a massive Elvis fan, but this is 29 minutes of excellent rock ’n’ roll, and its impact is undeniable. The only thing I could really criticise is that Elvis didn't write any of these songs.
A classic collection of dance beats from the masters of the French touch. Objectively, this album is pretty loose and far from the perfection of 2001’s Discovery. But since Discovery is inexplicably absent from this list, Homework gets a tentative 5 stars in its stead.
An amazing album in every aspect - great recording, incredible performances, and innovative songwriting, to name a few. Truly post-punk perfection. And, possibly the most Urban Outfitters T-Shirt of all time.
I thought this album was good, but I didn’t really connect with the material in any meaningful way. I’ll definitely revisit it in the future and maybe come to appreciate it more then, but for now, I think this sits closer to the mediocre end of good than the great end.
I know this is considered groundbreaking and revolutionary, particularly for its confrontational social commentary directed at the white establishment, and I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, I didn’t—at least not musically. Too many tracks are dominated by an abrasive, high-pitched sound that, to me, resembles a boiling kettle and makes for an unpleasant listen. More broadly, I often struggle with late ’80s rap, which can feel like an awkward transitional phase; the shift from old-school to the more refined ’90s sound is underway, but the growing pains are hard to ignore. Overall, the messages here weren’t lost on me, but musically, it didn’t land. I’ll definitely return to this at a later date in the hope of enjoying it more, though.
Personally, I really enjoyed this. It’s a great recording, and Muddy’s voice is fantastic. Creatively, though, I wasn't really impressed. It’s just a collection of variations on a 12-bar blues progression, good ones at that, but I can’t bring myself to give that 4 stars. Historically, though, I'm sure it’s very important.
I’ll admit I’m quite fond of Knights of Cydonia, mostly because it’s in Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. But Muse, legends of rock? I don’t think so. The album isn’t dreadful, but the songwriting is repetitive, recycling musical motifs far too often. The vocals are distinctive, but that doesn’t equate to good. The lyrics are weak, saying a lot without really saying anything. Overall, it’s middle-of-the-road anthemic rock for wannabe-cool 16-year-old boys and men like Marcus, the divorced letting agent from Stath Lets Flats.
I love a good Motown record, and this is exactly that. Apart from the opening track, which is strong musically but let down by its live recording quality, every song is great. I’ll definitely be coming back to this.
This is the second PJ Harvey album I’ve listened to on this site, and I can now confidently say I’m not a fan. Critics love her; listeners don’t — a fact reflected by her mountain of accolades and awards, in contrast to relatively lacklustre commercial success.
Here, she sings about war and patriotism with all the subtlety of a flying mallet, tackling subjects I can’t imagine she’s particularly qualified to comment on. And musically, it’s extremely forgettable, often feeling derivative of artists like Kate Bush, Björk, and Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries.
Overall, this comes across as something akin to African Child by Aldous Snow: an artist naively choosing a heavy subject because they saw it on the telly and thought, “this is bad.”
This is my second PJ Harvey album in a row, and my third overall. I thought yesterday’s Let England Shake was absolutely dreadful, but I went into this one with an open mind. This is undoubtedly the best so far, and I now appreciate that being versatile and reinventing your sound with each album is bound to bring some misses. This, however, is a definite hit, with some great tracks, a strong vocal performance, and Steve Albini’s production is always a treat to hear.
This didn’t do much for me. Middling, uninspired, radio-friendly rock with poor synth inflexions. There are some relatively catchy tunes, but it also feels like the prototype for the worst of ’80s MTV synth-rock, so it definitely loses a point for that.
I’m a huge Hank Williams fan, so hearing Honky Tonk Masquerade for the first time was an absolute delight. The development of Country & Western after Williams’ death has always disappointed me—his successors either settled for poor imitation or pushed the music so far off course that they lost what made it great. Joe Ely, however, gets it right, capturing the essence of Williams without lapsing into pastiche; injecting new life into the genre, lyrically, musically, and instrumentally. This feels like the progression country music should’ve largely taken, and it’s a shame this isn’t more widely celebrated.
Thin Lizzy has largely escaped me until now. I've come across interviews with Phil Lynott and always thought him an intelligent, proud Irishman, but I never quite connected him with Thin Lizzy. If anything, I imagined him as a folk-rock musician. This was a welcome correction: he and his bandmates get stadium rock right. I’ll gladly return to this when I’m in the mood for an hour of solid hard rock.
Only really familiar with “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison, which I really like, so I went into this eager to hear more of him. While the album was pleasant, it rarely rose above that. The chord progressions were largely predictable, and the lyrics often pretty corny—plenty of “la la la’s,” vague romantic longing, and radio-friendly filler. Overall, the songs blended together into a safe, unobjectionable listen, but one that ultimately felt samey and lacking anything truly great.
An absolute classic, and an easy score to give. Effortless songwriting, immaculate production, and a beautiful vocal performance from Mitchell.
I can imagine many of these songs as background music for a ’90s American high-school movie: four kids on the quad, tossing the pigskin around, talking about prom, summer break, and all the other usual clichés. In other words, this felt like mediocre ’90s pop-rock.
Not really familiar with The The beyond “This Is the Day” and “An Uncertain Smile,” but I enjoyed this. Very ’80s post-punk, but also lively and melodic. Some catchy songs, strong vocals, excellent instrumentation, and the production sounds good too.
It’s fitting to listen to Coldplay’s Parachutes just a week after Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations. Both bands emerged to fill the void left by Radiohead as they moved into new territory in the early 2000s, constantly experimenting and developing their sound—the mark of a truly good band! Muse took the heavier route, Coldplay the softer one, but both ultimately come across as astonishingly derivative. I’ve long said that Coldplay make music for people who don’t like music. Everything they do feels overtly commercial: anthemic, larger-than-life slop, completely devoid of meaningful content. Their enormous success doesn’t surprise me, though. They fit the mould of mass-appeal, lowest-common-denominator, cookie-cutter music built for massive stadium pop concerts. But their success does make me sad. There is so much incredible music out there, and people settle for this crap. Honestly, if someone tells me they like Coldplay, I instantly think less of them.
As for Parachutes itself, I’ve rarely been happier for an album to end. Every track is plagued by dreadful lyrics, an unbearably annoying vocal performance from Chris Martin, and instrumentation that sounds relentlessly derivative of Radiohead songs like “Bulletproof… I Wish I Was” or “High and Dry”, stripped of everything that made those tracks compelling, then regurgitated with zero passion or soul. I will never return to this album, and I’d advise anyone who genuinely loves music to steer well clear of this dud.
First time listening to Belle & Sebastian, and I absolutely loved it. They have a sound reminiscent of the softer bands of the '60s, like The Velvet Underground or The Mamas & the Papas, but they don’t get bogged down in nostalgia. Instead, they use that sound as a jumping-off point and develop it into something distinctly modern (for the ’90s). There’s lots to love about this album, not to mention that them being Scottish is a definite bonus.
Never heard of Hawkwind before or this quote on quote "epic journey across space and time". Turned out to be a very long and dull journey. One where I constantly found myself asking, "Are we there yet?"
This was pleasant, but not particularly memorable. Just felt a bit unfocused, trying its hand at too many genres—some hit, some didn't. Certainly much better than yesterday’s Hawkwind, though.
Arcade Fire is one of those bands that’s been recommended to me endlessly, and for whatever reason, I’d never really given them a proper shot. I can see why people would assume I'd like this, but honestly, it didn’t do much for me. I didn’t dislike it by any means, and there’s nothing here I can really fault: solid songwriting, strong vocals, and genuinely interesting lyrics. It just screams early-2000s indie pop-rock, though, with some tracks feeling like a softer, more melodic progression of Pixies, adding things like strings and brass. Overall, it's a sound I see the appeal of, but one I simply don’t care for all that much.
I had doubts about this immediately after seeing the title Sex Packets, and my doubts were confirmed after listening to just the first track, “The Humpty Dance.” Hearing an MC who unironically calls himself “Humpty” rapping lines like “I’m spunky” and “I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom” was simply dreadful. The rest of the album was similarly plagued by faux-macho, misogynistic rubbish. I’m refraining from giving this one star, though, because by the end of the album, I couldn’t help but think that the majority of the backing beats were actually rather good. If you were to shave about 25 minutes off this, completely redo the rhymes with a better flow, and shift the content toward themes you’d hear on a funk record, you might have something quite good. Another thought stayed with me, too — specifically the line “Does this record bother you? If so, you need to leave it alone.” I think I’ll follow that advice.
After a long run of underwhelming albums, I was starting to lose some faith in this site delivering good albums with any consistency. Hearing Stardust for the first time restored that faith, however. I’m an absolute sucker for anything Tin Pan Alley–related: American classics by legends like George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, and Stardust is a wonderful love letter to that tradition. Nelson covers these songs with clear affection, singing beautifully over modern arrangements of electric organ, harmonica, and, of course, acoustic guitar. At just 37 minutes, the album is short, sweet, and one I’ll certainly return to.
An absolute classic. Perfect Day and Walk On the Wild Side do steal the show, but that doesn’t diminish the rest of the album. Every track here is quality.
Very 70's rock, cowbell and all. And while this album does have a couple of classic tracks like 'Ready For Love' and 'Bad Company', it's largely forgettable. I prefer the grittier-sounding bands of the era, chiefly Led Zeppelin. The production here was just too clean, sounding like they washed everything in the studio with soapy water and forgot to dry things off. Just such a strangely damp sound.
I think Cave’s vocals and lyricism are widely considered to be two of his greatest strengths, but unfortunately, neither does anything for me. His voice is too guttural, and his lyrics strike me as pompous or pseudo-intellectual. That said, the musicianship here was solid enough—nothing outright bad, but nothing that truly stood out either. At this point, I’ve accepted that Nick Cave just isn’t for me. I understand why he’s so popular, though, and I will say this album was more enjoyable than the previous one of his I got on this site, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus.
I’d never heard of Giant Sand before, but I thought this was pretty good. I’m not a fan of the raspy, delicate vocals here, but I was able to get past that and enjoy the musical elements here. The album was a sort of mashup of sounds from genres like country, grunge, alt-rock, and folk, but it all came together into a cohesive, creatively ambitious, and admirable piece of work. Probably not something I will listen to all that often, though.
A '60s psychedelic-blues classic, the star track being Sunshine Of Your Love - easily a contender for most iconic guitar riff of all time. But because of that, I was worried it would completely overshadow the rest of the album. It definitely looms large, but most of the other tracks are strong. Clapton’s guitar work is sharp and inventive, Baker delivers world-class drumming, and Bruce’s lyrics and vocals are consistently engaging. Don't let Clapton near your wife, though...
Perhaps a 2 is a bit harsh, but I honestly thought this was on the poorer side of average. I don’t like Young’s vocals, and I’d even go as far as saying he has an objectively bad voice — I can’t even count the number of notes he missed here. Everything else about this felt very average, and it was certainly worse than After the Gold Rush.
Very weird, ’60s hippie revivalist psychedelic pop-rock with electronic and sci-fi influences. It’s an ambitious combination that shouldn’t work, and unsurprisingly, it doesn’t. The instrumentation is incohesive and disjointed, the songwriting overly complex and pompous, and the lyrics just dreadful. Reading the wiki, I was surprised to see Paul McCartney is credited on one track. For eating celery... Come on, McCartney, didn't you already do that in ’67 with Brian Wilson?
You could easily argue that this is a five-star album. It’s infectiously energetic, has nothing but bangers, and remains massively influential to this day. I’m just not as hot on classic West Coast hip-hop as others are. Fuck the police, though.
Blondie are absolute icons of new wave, and I'd honestly argue that Heart of Glass is one of the greatest singles of all time. There are plenty of other great singles here too: One Way Or Another, Hanging On The Telephone, and Sunday Girl. Ultimately, I see Blondie as a singles band, and that's where this album falters just slightly - a bit too much filler between the hits.
