It was not without its charms.
The soundtrack to every Scorsese movie.
Whoa, that was awesome. Drum solo on the last song kinda went on and on.
Love Dolly but the music's just not my taste. 4 stars because Dolly rules.
When I was in college I fucking hated Depeche Mode. I was dumb then.
Holy shit, this album rules. I'm 25 again - how did I miss this when it came out?
In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
Definitely in the "I appreciate this, but don't love it" category of Radiohead albums.
Partly unimpeachably incredible, partly weirdly overcome with ennui. Overall, excellent.
I think I'm getting old. This sounded exactly like a combination of Dirty Projectors and Real Estate (so much so that, when the album ended, it switched to a Real Estate song and I didn't notice), but I'm sure people my age in 1967 probably said the Kinks sounded exactly like a combination of the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Anyway, I'm giving it 3 stars, but it's very possible it's way better than that.
Anything involving Nile Rodgers gets a minimum 4 stars.
I had to give it 5 stars or Danny will beat me up.
Wow, I liked this way more than I thought I would. Really, this is the kind of experience that justifies this entire exercise -- there is a 0% chance I would have listened to this album otherwise, and I really liked it (this is the 4th or 5th time this has happened now, out of like 15 albums total).
The sensation of being slapped in the face by a freezing cold industrial hose converted to music.
I kinda liked it.
I feel the same way about this XTC album as I feel about every XTC song I've ever heard - ANTSA(XTC).
Incredible album - just great stuff. I guess Richard Wagner made some pretty good music too -- here, have this 1, Nazi.
Hotel California (the song) is great - 5/5, no notes. Hotel California (the album) is ass - almost incredibly bad other than Hotel California (the song). Dirk Diggler-Chest Rockwell songwriting level awful; just hideous.
2 stars, up from 1 attributable solely to (1) Hotel California (the song), and (2) the fact that I'm generally inclined to take it easy and, today in particular have a peaceful easy feeling.
One man enter, one man with a slight headache leave.
All time classic that makes me want to take up smoking again.
Really liked this - kinda like the Sex Pistols but if you replaced 50% of the anger with anxiety.
Probably a personal failing on my part that I just can't seem to manage to like anything by Leonard Cohen. Weird because I love Tom Waits and like Nick Cave. Oh well.
What a great and unexpected surprise inclusion on this list; I had never heard of this, but it was amazing.
Man, I really liked this and did not expect to - catchy, sad-dad music. Another experience that really justifies participating in this.
I love Beach House - just beautiful music. This isn't my favorite album of theirs (that would be Depression Cherry), but it's still awesome.
A stone cold classic - not much else to say, really.
One of my all time favorites. Really listening to it this time ... the lyrics of the title song in particular are just unreal -- "can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail"; devastating.
Bloody Well Right is fun. Everything else is awful - goopy, overly-dramatic, 70's Air Supply crap.
I get why people would like it, but not my thing.
5 is not enough stars. This might actually be the best 90's grunge album -- Obviously Nevermind is incredible, but this is so underplayed by comparison ...
Weird coincidence how nearly all my favorite albums happened to come out when I was in my 20's.
First of all, Season of the Witch rocks - comes close to redeeming the whole album.
Second, that sound ... that goddamn sound in Sunshine Superman is the most annoying sound in the history of popular music. Checking online, it sounds like it might be Jimmy Page doing ... something with his guitar -- Wikipedia refers to it as "employing an innovative use of the volume control on his guitar for the repeating figure". I guess that's one way to describe it - another would be "interminable" or "for the love of God make it stop".
Anyway, the rest of the album is inoffensive Hippie stuff, kinda meh. 3 stars for Season of the Witch.
This was wonderful. Janis Joplin has always kind of existed in the background for me -- a sad, tragic heroine of the hippie era whose music was ubiquitous but never really worth listening to; she was part of someone else's generational experience, certainly not mine.
Actually listening to her now ... not only is she incredible, but her backing band is awesome. I was expecting to be bored and I was ... not that.
I wish I was cool enough to love this. As it is, I'm only cool enough to like it.
Take on Me is one of the best songs of the 80's. The Sun Always Shines on TV is the good kind of indulgent, navel-gazing sappiness. Everything else could be in the soundtrack of any John Hughes movie.
Warning: May cause feathering of hair.
Dollar Store ripoff of Patsy Cline singing cutesy songs about spousal abuse and alcoholism. Hard pass.
Hey, it's Steely Dan! Actually thought I would like this way more than I did -- other than My Old School, it's just kinda ... eh?
Another album I would never have heard of, let alone listened to, and absolutely loved.
Without its charms it was not.
This was ... good? Did not expect that - do I now have to change my lifestyle, drink different beer, get new friends, etc.?
This was much better than I expected - I expected edgeless, soft hippy-dippy mush, and it really wasn't. Not something I'll likely seek out again, but was definitely worth a listen.
Not bad, not really good, just kinda there.
Yeah, this is the best Hendrix album. A complete mess of a masterpiece.
Complicated relationship with this one. Came out my freshman year of college, and I immediately dismissed it as U2’s sellout album. I grew to like it more and more over the years, and really listening to it again now … I’m right back to where I was in 1987. This was the album where the best band became the biggest band.
I'm aligned with the consensus on this one - 1 very good song (Breakdown), one all-time classic and the rest fine but forgettable. The line between 3 and 4 stars for me is whether you think American Girl is just a masterpiece vs. a generational anthem. I'm going generational anthem.
My favorite band from my 20's even though I only really love their first album (Gish) and half-like their second (Siamese Dream). I've probably heard 30% of this one before now ... really liked it. I sort of have to give it 5 stars but get why people would not.
Feels a lot more recent than 1973 - really liked it. In Every Dream House is one of a kind.
Had never heard of these guys, liked them a lot. Busy day so I had them on in the background a bit.
Frank Zappa seems more like a fictional character than an actual person who once actually existed at this point. Nice to listen to this to remember what the fuss was about.
Another guy I'd never heard of (I like some of his dad's stuff), and really loved. Very easy listening, but I'm of that age, I guess.
My great grandmother who came over in 1912 fleeing the Tsar gave me two bits of information before she died when I was 8: (1) always be a good boy and try hard in school, and (2) AmeriKKa's Most Wanted fuckin' rips.
Woof, this sucked. The stuff that may have once been good (or at least tolerable) is absurdly overplayed and the rest is nearly unlistenable - leaden, plodding, tedious crap.
It would be hard to find a more generic example of forgettable 80's music if you tried. No idea what this album is doing on this list -- The The has much better stuff.
Ok, I liked this way more than I thought I would, having heard other stuff by The Fall and just not really having gotten it. This was much more straightforward punk (I guess technically "post-punk" but I have no idea what that means) than the other albums, and I wonder now whether if I'd heard this first I would have liked those better. Probably.
I didn't like this much, so it's not getting a good review. Interesting that this predates Graceland, though.
Admired it more than loved it.
k.d. lang led the league in People I'd Heard of a Ton But Had Never Actually Heard until now. This was awesome - Patsy Cline brought to the modern era.
Suspicious Minds might be the best song of all time, and everything else is ... I mean it's Elvis.
I think it's kind of awesome that, in addition to all-time classic albums, indisputably important albums and just really interesting albums, every so often we get an album that they guy who did this list just happened to really like at some point. No snark - it's actually fun to get one of these.
Cool album - felt like being in a dance club in the 1990's ... or rather what I assume being in a dance club in the 1990's would have felt like.
Love me some Elliott Smith, but (limited "but") (a) I've never listened to a full album of his at one time and it's a bit much, and (b) not sure this is his best album. Easy Way Out is an all-time though - some of the meanest lyrics this side of Dylan at his nastiest.
Ugh, after loving "Blue", I really expected to at least really like this one. Instead, it's headache-inducing mushy goop - "Help Me" in particular is nails on blackboard. The second star is for Blue again.
Liked this a bit more than I was expecting to. I'm not sure it's an album I had to listen to before I died (especially 90 minutes worth of it), but it was fine, bordering on good-ish. I (embarrassingly) have a soft spot for the New York song - probably (definitely) something to do with when it was released.
This was really awesome and fun. I suspect I will never listen to it again, but it was a great, unique listening experience.
That absolutely ruled. Had never heard of this guy (these guys?), this album or any song on it before - complete blank heading in, and was not optimistic based on the last few of these along these lines. Absolutely blown away.
I started listening to this when It came out in 1972 and just finished.
Love, love, love this album.
Really liked it, but didn't love it. The obvious hits are incredible and fun to hear again despite having heard them roughly 1,000 times. The others are fun - much more 80's-ish than I was expecting, though I'm not sure why I wouldn't have been expecting that.
So I would probably give a 7-second recording of Talking Heads walking into a studio and accidentally knocking over a mic stand 5 stars, but this really merits it.
Lots of lists about the best first track or best first two or three tracks of an album -- you never really see any about the last song or two. Not sure you're ever going to find two better than Psycho Killer and Pulled Up.
Beautiful stuff - perfect for a Sunday morning, which is when I got this one.
I've tried. I've tried to like Oasis. I DO really like one Oasis song (Don't Look Back in Anger). It seems like I should like Oasis. People who like Oasis like the same music I like. People who don't like Oasis don't like the music I don't like.
I don't like Oasis.
Odd parallel to The Joshua Tree with this one - hated it in college, grew to like it more and more over the years and now ... sorta see what I was thinking in college. It's great but really, really whiny.
Everything sung by Neil Young gets a 5, everything sung by Stephen Stills gets a 2, rounding up because I really love "Broken Arrow" for reasons I find hard to explain.
I absolutely love this, and really everything by YYYs.
I had to give this 5 stars or Danny AND Andy would beat me up.
This album was not a good album. I'm clearly missing something with these guys - they seem to appear in lists like these and I've tried them before and ... I'm not even close to getting it.
This is the kind of album that feels like it was recorded personally for me. Just loved it.
Never have gotten this - just not my thing I guess. Actually liked the unfamiliar stuff a good deal more than the relatively well known ones.
I liked the part with the horns.
Reminded me of Leonard Cohen. I don't like him either.
Good background music for work.
Two jazz albums in a row - funny. I liked this one much more. Looks like I prefer the bolder variety. This reminded me of Whiplash.
Listened to it 3 straight times - could've listened to it 3 more. Banger top to bottom.
What if Spinal Tap was not funny.
I'm not sure what the term "This Is My Jam" is supposed to mean exactly, but I'm pretty sure this is that for me.
Pleasant background music. Kinda liked it.
Maybe not the best album on here, but likely the easiest 5-star review for me. Gut punch after gut punch. Weird but very apt coincidence that I get this 2 days after Live Through This.
I liked this! And no one is more surprised than me based on others' reviews and the fact that this is never going to be my favorite type of music. Catchy and fun.
The hits are unimpeachable, but I've heard them so many times ... and the non-hits were nothing special. 4 stars because the highs are so high.
I just want to be the only person who gives this album a 3.
Hard to separate this from the Whole Frank Sinatra Thing, but somehow managed. For better or worse, he really is the absolute best of this whole genre - 5 stars for the music.
TIL there are limits to how much Britpop I can take. Too Oasisy, not Blurry enough. I don't even much like that one damn song from Clueless.
Probably expected to like this a bit more ... I mean it's great and all, but was not blown away (Ziggy is way, way better).
Sort of parallel to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for me -- two great songs, one an all-time banger (Panic in Detroit / American Girl), the other lesser but also really, really good (Jean Genie / Breakdown), everything else very listenable but not at that level.
I guess I'm now a country fan ... or more likely, a fan of someone with pipes like these; man what a voice. Either way, I apparently need to purchase some fringe.
This was so much better than I remembered it being.
