Review - lovely calm guitar jazz. the only bossa nova album I know.
Rating - 8/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - The songs I already know are good but the rest are terrible.
Also these guys are racist.
Rating - 3/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - Not a bad album but not as good as his best stuff. Also why have two 18 minute songs rather than a bunch of shorter songs? Not taking into account how I listen to stuff in playlists, how dare he
Rating - 5.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - Some decent tracks, can see the progression to their later, better work. This album is very specifically of it's time/place, in a nice, quaint way.
Rating - 6.5/10
Need to hear? KINDA
Review - Stone cold classic, can't complain with this rec. His career was already long by this point but he still has a great voice and his songwriting hadn't faded at all.
A completely different style to his early work but still very him.
Rating - 9/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - A decent alternative album of the era. Predates him figuring out his formula so still a bit more variety than later work, but without some of the confidence and risks of their later early works
Rating - 6/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - On first listen I thought this was pretty terrible, but on repeat listen it was much more tolerable.
Not his greatest work - wish I liked it more having read about the production, but this is as high a rating as I can give.
Rating - 7/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - "Did you like the album?"
"No, but I agreed the fuck out of it."
Rating - 5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - The songwriting is objectively pretty good but it's slicker than I like Americana and poppier than I like country.
Rating - 3.5/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - Not bad.
Synths are really good, some v good songs, also some filler.
Rating - 6.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - This was a good album - not listened to salsa before and it's got me interested, although research tells me this is a very unorthodox salsa album so idk if liking this means anything
Good songs though and some v fun slap bass parts.
Rating - 7.5
Need to hear? YES
Review - Had it's moments. Definitely ahead of it's time, protopunky, but not sure it's an album that needs hearing before you die.
Also it was a pain to find on streaming services.
Rating - 5/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - So many classic songs, often covers that have become the best known version.
And at barely over 30 minutes long you can listen to it a few times in a row and not get bored.
Rating - 9.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - A better album than I would've expected. While the lyrics and vocals are just as good as his earlier work with The Smiths, it definitely has moments where you can feel that the instrumentation is much less interesting then The Smiths work
Rating - 7/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - The big singles are pretty good but the rest of ihe album is a bit filler-y.
I didn't know Axl Rose sings in a deeper voice sometimes, interesting that all the singles are his Bon Scott but falsetto-y style.
Rating - 5.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - Now this is an interesting album I never would've listened to without this list.
I like her voice, I like the vibe of the instrumentation and the history of looking into the composer.
It's not an album I'd reach for on a regular basis though, and it's annoying I had to listen on YouTube
Rating - 7/10
Need to hear? KINDA
Review - Love this album. The band's moving into trying out more experimental songs, taking influence from psychedelic and world music. This doesn't always make for the best songs, but it's interesting to see their expanding influences and changing songwriting.
Meanwhile, even the less experimental songs are expanding beyond their earlier , more formulaic rock and roll style.
Some of their best songs are in this album.
Rating 9.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - A good hardcore album. I'd only listened to their earlier stuff before, fun to hear the influence of more reggae music, and how their style became closer to what I think of as NYHC as their career progressed.
Rating - 8/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - God I hate sitar
Rating - 1.5/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - Never really listened to his albums, but must admit this is actually very good.
I can imagine how different this must have seemed when it dropped in an era of Eminem and 50 Cent.
Rating - 7/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - I've never listened to this band, and always thought all their albums were big psychedelic jams recorded live.
Instead I was pleased to hear some good country rock songs with normal running times. I feel inspired to look into more of their work.
Rating - 7.5/10
Need to hear? KINDA
Review - This is a really good album - even though I'd only heard a song or two before, so many songs had hooks I knew either because they'd been sampled or they'd been ripped off by later bands.
Rating - 7/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - Bit of a weird album. Songs like Synchronicty II are great, and there's a few other good songs on there but honestly I prefer their earlier work.
And it's crazy to know that this album was #1 both US and UK, it feels a bit too weird for the level of mainstream acceptance it got.
The world music influenced are less popped up than on an album like Graceland, and songs like Mother are so off-putting and abrasive, it's funny to think of a mainstream audience buying and enjoying an album with these songs on it.
Rating - 6/10
Need to hear? - YES
Review - God damn this is still such a good album. You can see it prefiguring later hip-hop which was more sample based but it's still got a lot of turntablism and a lot of sections with nothing but programmed drums. Jam Master Jay was just ahead of his time.
And Run and DMC were moving past the early hip hop sound that seems too hokey to a modern listener.
Not to mention predating rap metal by a solid decade with songs like Raising Hell and Walk This Way.
Still a very good listen today
Rating - 8.5/10
Need to hear? - YES
Review - A great industrial noise rock album. Abrasive in all the right ways but still incredibly listenable. It's a shame drum machines didn't catch on more in mainstream rock following bands like this.
Interesting to hear how little of what went on to be Steve Albini's signature production style is present on this album. He had a long career and clearly took a while to develop his technique.
Rating - 8.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - A decent glam album of it's era. Brian Ferry's voice is distinctive enough to make them stand out, and the good tracks are worth a listen. Too many tracks with a twee rock n roll pastiche sound to them for my liking though.
Rating - 6.5/10
Need to hear? KINDA
Review - I've never liked this band but this album has made me re-evaluate my opinion on them. The first 3 tracks are all classics that I know well, and they're better than I remember them being.
While a few tracks are too brazenly country/Americana inspired and they don't really have the chops for it, mostly they pull it off.
There are also a few songs (Red Hill Mining Town, Bullet the Blue Sky) which are a lot rockier than I realised this band ever were? And The Edge has a non -twinkly guitar tone - I didn't know he did that sometimes.
Rating - 7.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - Definitely worth a listen, the combo of blues rock + synthesisers was cutting edge for it's time.
That said, a lot of the songs are very samey.
Rating - 6.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - First solo album of his I've ever heard. Not bad exactly but very bland, no tracks stood out to me. Definitely not one you need to hear before you die.
Rating - 3/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - a banging debut, although no where near as good as they'd end up 3-4 albums later. The most conventional TH album? Probably a safe assessment. Not bad. But not as interesting as they'd go on to be.
Byrne's lyrics are still just as out there and his voice is expressive but he's not quite figured it out as well as he later would.
Rating - 7.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - undeniably a very talented singer. I think the music on this album is more interesting and varied than people give it credit for, probably in part because they don't like the majority of people who like this album.
Like, the backing vocals on the chorus of Rolling in the Deep are so weird! Not a harmony I've heard in music much before, never mind pop music.
Still not really my sort of thing but have to admit I liked it more than I expected.
Rating - 7/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - way better than I expected. The singles are generally great, and the entire first half is really good. A cover of Comfortably Numb? Incredible
A bit of a drop in quality towards the end of the album but still a very good listen.
Rating - 7.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - a difficult album to find on streaming services. Not a good listen. A Mish mash of pop rock, various Latin styles, and hip hop, but not particularly good version of any of those styles. A jack of all trades album. Music for no one.
Rating - 2.5/10
Need to listen? NO
Review - what a classic classic album. A lot of his best known early songs all here (Life On Mars?, Changes, Oh! You Pretty Things), but a lot of the deep cuts are gold too (Queen Bitch, Quicksand).
One of the better ones on the list I imagine.
Rating - 8.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - I'd heard of but never listened to this band. I think I'd confused them with the (very different) Arab Strap.
This album is ok. Some of it's better moments are quite good, it's worse moments are straight bad, most of it is sort of fine.
I don't think the singer has a very good voice, and not in a "this isn't a generally accepted good singer but there's something about their style that just works with the music", but rather he just isn't very good.
Overall this is mid. Not as good as the better indie/alt rock of it's era. Probably not the worst that was made. It's a shame I can't give 2.5 stars. I have to err on the side of 3 because I've given some clearly worse albums a 2.
Rating - 5/10
Need to listen? NO
Review - This album has grown on me over time. At first I liked it more for it's influence on later, greater bands I liked. But every time I revisit it (including now) I find I like it more and get more out of it.
While the beginning of the first track can sound a bit generic 70s rock, it gets so much better and is such a fun listen.
I can see why it maybe didn't catch on so much when it came out, but has grown in influence over time.
Rating - 7.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - a fun listen, such a unique idea for a live album. Probably not as good as his San Quentin album but still a good collection of songs.
Rating - 7/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - an ok album that has some of their memorable songs on it, but probably not the CCR album you need to listen to
Rating - 6.5/10
Need to listen? NO
Review - not bad for a modern country album. The more Americana-y tracks are good but the poppier tracks aren't for me.
There's a cover of Slow Burn by Keller Williams which is really good, go listen to that album instead.
Rating - 5/10
Need to listen? NO
Review - classic modern pop
Rating - 7/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - a decent R&B/Soul album. Not very long and about a third of the album is Papa Was a Rolling Stone, meaning most of the tracks are barely over 2 minutes.
A good listen but maybe not an all time classic
Rating - 7/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - not sure why I'd never listened to this. I remember watching her perform some of these songs on Jools Holland and thinking this was great, but then had never sought the album out. It's a modern classic - big mix of styles throughout the album with guitars, pianos, and an autoharp taking the lead at various points. And an album where paying attention to the lyrics is really worth your time.
Rating - 9/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - an interesting hip hop album from an artist I'd never heard. A bit high concept. Not a huge fan of the early naughties futuristic hip-hop vibe but it was ok generally, some funny lyricism. Not in a rush to delve further into the discography.
Rating - 5.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - this album was ok. Not his best work. But at least now I know where the sample in Ghetto Gospel comes from
Rating - 6/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - listened to the deluxe version by accident. Good live performance and an ok life recording (I'm sure it was impressive for the time).
Maybe the original is more immediate, deluxe edition is twice as long.
Fun bit of history and a decent listen.
Rating - 6/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - great underrated soul/R&B album. Strawberry Letter 23 is an all time classic
Rating - 8.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - why had I always avoided this band? This album was such a good listen, so different than anything else today, nevermind when it came out. A longer listen but not hard to get through.
Rating - 9/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - what an album. Lot of hits and not many misses. Very of it's era. Great insight into what the UK was like back then. Terrible singing but works so well. So many bangers on here, covers and originals.
Rating - 9/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - a much stranger album than I would've expected. So many of the songs are incredibly good that you can forgive the occasional miss. Incredible that this was as popular as it was at the time. Also amazed to find that this came before Hounds of Love. A cracking album.
Rating - 8.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - pretty standard blues/southern rock. I can see why it was popular when it was, and this band are quite unfortunate that Nirvana hit the mainstream just a year later.
It's a bit surprising that they came after Guns n Roses as they're a bit of a softer version of that type of sound. They're a bit better though as they're not so self-consciously "hard rock".
The covers and the ballads are the better songs here, but I can see how they could've been derided as "GnR for your mum".
Not in a rush to listen again but it wasn't offensively bad.
Rating: 5.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - if I were a little American boy obsessed with Westerns in the late '50s this would be the best thing I'd ever heard.
But I'm not, so it's not.
Rating: 5.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - I've never delved into her albums beyond Blue. This was a really good listen, but nothing in particular stood out about it. Probably worth a couple of repeat listens, but can't rate it too highly based on first impressions.
Rating: 7/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - Good at it's rockiest but We Will Fall is a real drag on the album.
Rating: 5.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - this is a real classic. Almost every song is poppy, rocky, experimental in a perfect balance.
The only downside to me is Gigantic, which just isn't at the same level as most songs on this record. Incredible blunder in hindsight that it was the only single from this album.
Rating - 9/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - a very solid album. I feel like she should be a lot more popular today than she is, her music was very ahead of it's time. Maybe she's more quietly influential than comparable male rockstars of her era. Maybe she's due for a popular revival.
Rating - 8/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - there are some good songs here. It's not a bad record. But to me, every The Rolling Stones song just sounds like a The Rolling Stones song.
Some are a little better than others and occasionally there's a great song, but a whole double album is just too much of the same.
Rating - 5.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - I had high hopes after hearing the bass tone on the first track - a punky mid-00s band I'd never heard of?
But after listening to the whole album I can see why I'd never heard of it. Maybe an interesting mix of styles for the time, but the mix of almost interesting rocked up 90s indie with the vocals and swagger of late 80s hair metal is absolutely not for me.
Rating - 3.5/10
Need to listen? NO
Review - I've tried listening to Anthrax so many times and never liked them. The riffs are good but the singing is like a mix of the worst aspects of classic arena rock/NWOBHM vocals and hardcore punk vocals.
And the first track here was terrible.
But then, being forced to persevere with a whole album... it gets so good. This album is great. Eventually, when you listen to enough of this stuff, it all makes sense.
Thank you, 1001 Albums Generator, for finally making me understand Anthrax.
Rating - 8.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - a classic hip-hop album. Political while still managing to havea fun, partyable sound to it. Modern conscious hip-hop could learn a lot about being instructive without being avant garde.
Rating - 7.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - not my sort of thing but has some decent tracks. Fairly standard 60s blues rock fair, but the tracks sang by Winwood are a lot more interesting. He almost sounds like Nina Simone sometimes, which immediately elevates this band above their contemporaries.
Rating - 7/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - an interesting power pop album. A lot of my reading about it talks about how psychedelic it is - maybe more psychedelic than most of their contemporaries but I was pleased to hear only a small amount of sitar gratuitously strewn throughout the tracks.
Rating - 7.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - wow why have I never listened to a full Deep Purple album? This whole record is great, basically no flubs. It was cool back when hard rock included a guy going ham on an electric organ, and the bass parts were still both audible and interesting.
Review - 9/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - much better album than I expected. Only really remember enjoying Bound 2 when it came out but there's a lot more to it. Industrial, abrasive, surprising at times. Black Skinhead has a glam rock vibe to it.
Disappointingly good album given the way he's gone since.
Review - 8.5/10
Need to listen? YES
Review - I just don't like the singer. No matter how many tracks I listened to he never grew on me. I know it's a choice but I just don't like it.
The music's just ok. I really can't see anything special about this album or band.
Review - 4.5/10
Need to listen? NO
Review - great baselines and some great songs. They were trying to do something different than everything that has come before and sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't.
For angular guitars and propulsive baselines there's better albums of the day, like Gang Of Four.
Still a decent album.
Review - 7.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - well this is a very good album. Coming off the back of 5 years of post grunge and nu metal, having multiple distinct guitar parts with minimal distortion and a bass line you could hear was probably hugely refreshing to audiences at the time.
I like the way they build a song - can't put my finger on what's interesting about a lot of their songs structures but I find often the best bit will pop up several minutes in. It's less verse/chorus/verse than the other genres I mentioned.
Rating - 8.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - it all sounds good, it's Marvin Gaye. But no songs stood out at all, I remember no high nor low points, and I have no interest in listening again. A perfect 5/10
Rating - 5/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - not a terrible album, and interesting how it was recorded, but the good tracks aren't good enough and there are a few duds.
Second album I've had that was recorded in an Anglican church though. That's weird. Catholics needs to raise their game.
Rating - 4/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - much better than I expected! I thought they were just a 60s revival britpop also-ran, but the music's much more eclectic and punky than I expected.
Had also never noticed how similar Ty Segalls's vocal delivery is to this band but now I can't unhear it. I think they're both trying to do an impression of Ray Davies.
Rating - 8/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - a classic disco album, for all that's worth. Reasonably fun, self-consciously chic and carefree music.
First track spends a verse just name dropping clothing brands. Cutting edge for it's time I imagine.
Guitar parts are good. Some fun basslines. Generally a fine album but not really my thing and I disagree with the ethos of disco so never really going to be my thing
Rating - 6/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - further evidence that I prefer the idea of Siouxsie and the Banshees to the actual Siouxsie and the Banshees.
It's not a bad album and it's nice that they were trying something that was very different in its era and is still different than other rock bands today. But it's just not that enjoyable to listen to.
Some good tracks here and there and the guitar parts are always interesting but not in a rush to listen again
Rating - 6.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - now here's a true classic. One of the best albums that came from that small era where hardcore bands were moving in weird directions, taking influences from all over the place, even making double albums.
Another band that has fallen into two common problems: tragically ending too soon, and being an eclectic band that have had one song taken and used as the theme tune to a TV show, making people assume all their music sounds like that (see also: They Might Be Giants).
Every song on this has something worth hearing in it. Mike Watt's bass playing is some of the most fun and inventive ever recorded. The guitar and drums hold down the rhythm in a way that still sounds fresh. Lyrics from both Boon and Watt are off the wall.
On closer listen, I realise the album starts quite slowly with a few dud tracks in the mix. But it gets so good, and at 44 tracks in 74 minutes, even if a song starts and you hate it you're never more than 2 minutes away from the next track.
Rating - 9.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - despite everything about me, demographically speaking, suggesting I should be the world's biggest Radiohead fan, I'd actually not really listened to them much before now.
I'm ashamed to say that this album is unironically one of the best albums ever made. Ashamed to be so boringly in lock step with my demographic. I guess white guys of a certain age just have to like Radiohead - there is no fighting it.
It's not at all a rock album which is probably part of why I never delved into it when younger. It's also not really much like other electronic music of the era - despite being influenced by Warp Records artists, the similarities feel superficial. It's something different, even today it's something different, and that's what's so great about it.
This challenge has made me realise how unusual popular rock music has been for a long, long time. Just like some of the odder albums from the '80s this challenge has thrown at me, this album went to #1 at both sides of the Atlantic. I'd clearly never given mainstream audiences enough credit. It also reframes for me the current (at time of writing) success of Geese, as just being the latest in a long tradition of artsy rock being what the masses secretly want.
And again, at least part of this album was recorded in an Anglican church - we're at at least 3 albums now by my count.
Rating - 9.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - never given this band the time of day, in part because they've got so many albums I didn't know where to start, so this really helped.
This is a good post punk album. A fun gothic vibe to a lot of the songs. You either get along with his voice or you don't, but it didn't bother me. Wouldn't go far as saying I like it, but it doesn't bother me. Think this is probably where the LCD Soundsystem guy got the idea to really enunciate the last letter of every line from.
Rating - 7.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - love the simple arrangements, love the very occasional addition of something other than voice+guitar, love the lyricism. Great album
Rating - 9/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - not an album of theirs I'd really listened to before, although I was familiar with Snowblind through a (very different) SOAD cover.
A great heavy album and interesting to hear them branching out through songs like Changes.
Maybe not their best work but still very good.
Rating - 7/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - never delved into grime or UK hip hop at all so this was fun to give a go.
Quite liked the album tbh, some of the songs were pretty good and the songs I was less into weren't too bad. Most of the songs were pretty short too which kept it varied.
Rating - 7/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - surprised this album's on the list. Second album definitely a classic but the debut is (while definitely a good album) much less good.
They hadn't figured out how to pick perfect samples to build a song around yet, and relied less on samples with vocals for hooks, and used less vocoder vocals themselves. Which makes this more of a "pure" techno/house album than their later crossover pop work.
It's still a very good album, and you can see through songs like Around The World the beginning of their later style and success. And I'm sure when it was released it blew most of the popular Euro house music out of the water.
But I wish I'd been listening to Discovery instead.
Rating - 7/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - this was such a fun era of garage rock. It feels like it was just as slick home recordings were becoming possible with laptops and DAWs that there was a (maybe inadvertent?) backlash to the high fidelity sounds taking over rock music.
I don't know that White Stripes were really the best band of the bunch back then, but they had some great songs and a great aesthetic. Always loved Meg White's drumming, and while not all the songs are bangers the songs that hit are great. Much dirtier guitar sounds than I'd expected at times, love it
Rating - 8/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - this made me realise I've never really listened to The Offspring, I've just tlietneee to Americana 1,000 times. I'd say that was a smart move.
This album was ok. Some decent riffs, a few decent songs, but it's no Americana. And Offspring of the era weren't the best pop punk going, but I can see why they're the band that caught on with mainstream audiences.
This album sounds a bit like Bad Religion for people who don't do politics.
Rating - 6/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - great production fromTimbaland, Missy Elliott's voice is good, but the songs are quite hit or miss and the lyricism is a bit lacking.
Also there's way too many songs where she talks for minutes at a time.
Rating - 5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - actually a really good listen. More discordant and Avant Garde than I would've expected (at times).
Having looked into his career a bit I'm not sure why this album specifically was picked, but enjoyed it regardless.
Rating - 6.510
Need to hear? YES
Review - this album is ok. It's not great. A Forest is great. But this album isn't.
If the band that did this album didn't go on to be The Cure, this album would not be on this list. Those other, later Cure albums should be on this list, but this shouldn't.
Rating - 4.5/10
Need to hear? NO
Review - never really listened to The Byrds and didn't know Gene Clarke by name, but this album is great. Lovely acoustic folk/country rock singer songwriter album that's actually from a little earlier than most similar albums I know of.
Assume he was an influence on later, more successful artists.
This album was really good, not many duds. Even the bonus tracks were good.
Rating - 8.5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - my second PJ Harvey album. No where near as good as Let England Shake.
The guitars are sort of droney in the first few songs particularly, a bit like Stereolab but less interesting. There are some songs where she goes for repeated high notes and her voice just isn't quite there.
That said, she's obviously a good songwriter and some of the songs here are really good and well performed; more are really good and midly performed.
An ok album.
Rating - 5/10
Need to hear? YES
Review - first time really listening to a Tori Amos album.
I really wanted to like this, but it was just ok. I'm not a big piano-rock guy, and her singing feels self-consciously Kate Bush like.
Sorry
Rating - 5.5/10
Need to hear? YES
