I knew this album already. Actually it’s one of my favorites and I own it on vinyl. Some of the greatest lyrics ever written (Masters of War, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall) with incredible cascading fingerpicking (Girl From North Country, Don’t Think Twice). His at times heartbreaking lyricism is juxtaposed with a young ingenue’s sense of absurd humor, which doesn’t get discussed enough when it comes to Dylan’s early work.
This is another favorite of mine. To me, more than Revolver, it represents the Beatles’ inflection point into psychedelia. But also the narrative throughline of heartbreak and nostalgia (Norwegian Wood, Michelle, I’m Looking Through You, Think for Yourself) makes it arguably the most cohesive Beatles record, maybe tied with Sgt Pepper or Abbey Road.
New Order is a major blind spot for me (I basically only know 1986’s Brotherhood) so it was really interesting to dig into these 8 lengthy and forward thinking tracks which I found to be very atmospheric. Will require repeat listening to really wrap my head around the song structures.
I love live albums but not this era of hard rock. I think “The Boys Are Back in Town” is about as cheesy as it gets. But the power of this album is undeniable and the live energy really helps me appreciate not only the technical skill but also how electrifying it must have been to hear this sort of ground-level working-class songwriting possess such operatic force. The lead singer’s riffing between songs is definitely hokey rock star stuff of a bygone era but I guess it’s a cliche for a reason and this album is a record of that time. At least he’s charmingly Irish (which I didn’t know before).
Love these performances of South Bound and Dancing in the Moonlight. I don’t know how anyone can hear these harmonized lead guitars or the saxophone on Dancing in the Moonlight and say the music here isn’t absolutely exceptional…
Production is super crisp. This is the first Chic-produced LP I’ve heard and it lives up to expectations. I think this is ideally enjoyed as dance music as the songs themselves don’t have a lot of variation inside their structure, but undeniably a pure pleasure to listen to and will stay in my rotation.
Early heavy metal is not a genre I enjoy generally but I think this album has a really balanced mix of driving rhythm and melodic flourishes which makes it a solid entry point.
The first one of these I couldn’t find on streaming. Luckily I own the 2018 fully analog reissue of this on vinyl - and hadn’t had an occasion to bust it out til now! I would say this is a lot more melodic and less scuzzy than I expected based on the reviews here. I need to spend more time with this but think I could grow to love it.
I feel like I’ve never wrapped my head around the Stones because I always assumed their prodigious output was as wooly and amorphous as Exile on Main Street. I hadn’t considered they were capable of a lean, mean blues rock record like this one, which is just banger after banger with none of the distracted devil-may-care maximalism that I associate with this band.
I don’t understand the reviewers here who say this album is just a few 10/10 singles with filler. Or the people who say this isn’t spacey or operatic enough. Are we listening to the same thing? Are you hearing the swelling strings in the outro of “Moonage Daydream”? The tortured “You’re not alone!” in “Rock n Roll Suicide”? This is the first I’ve listened to this album since I had the crappy early digital master (pre-remaster) from the 2000s and had remembered this as a mixed bag of hard rock cliches. Boy was I wrong. Any song on this album could have been a single. Additionally knowing this comes right on the heels of his 1971 album Hunky Dory really helps me understand more about what made this album so singular. Many rockists would have you believe that this album defined Bowie but Bowie rather defined glam for an entire generation through this era of postmodern experimentation. These songs hang together as a melancholy tapestry; Bowie envisioned rock as the soundtrack to the apocalypse just as it was exploding into tons of subgenres. This is so much more than the hard rock staple “classic rock” dudes like to pretend it is.
This is another classic I listened to a lot on a crappy burned CD-R back in the 2000s. Revisiting this one is less revelatory. Perhaps the sturdiest generic “classic rock” record outside of The Beatles’ oeuvre and yet it doesn’t appear to have an aesthetic project that makes it more than the sum of its excellent parts. However I haven’t really dug into The Who as a whole, I just have an oddly deep history with this one record.
I admire Rush more than I enjoy their albums. I'm a big fan of Moving Pictures, but I couldn't quite get myself to enjoy this at the same level. I'm sure it is ahead of its time and would be absolutely amazing if I were a stoner in 1976. I really like "The Twilight Zone" on side B.
This is very difficult. It’s like my 12th album on the generator and it’s the first one I can’t really feel the “vibe” of. I have a fairly high tolerance for long singer-songwriter type songs, especially downtempo and melancholy ones. But I feel like a lot of the downbeat songs here have a “redemptive” or empowering arc that feels so quintessentially nineties. Consider the minor key chorus of “Girl,” which is so good, until the bridge introduces a swing-inflected cheesy positivity that cheapens the lush backing strings in the rest of the song. This just has such a whiff of persona construction that feels somewhat inauthentically engineered. People compare the music to Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell in its intellectual complexity, and sure the music is very technically accomplished, but it is packaged under an off putting sort of brand, like Celine Dion for people who graduated from the Ivy League.
I love the Arctic Monkeys’ post-2013 music, less charmed by their early stuff, but in this side project you can hear Alex Turner’s penchant for cinematic hooks more clearly. I’m not sure what to make about whether this album is “essential” because even as someone who adores alt rock and likes the creatives involved in this project I’d never even heard of this band or album. The music is strong but I’m not sure it conveys a cohesive aesthetic vision.
Was nice to dig into this. Very Warholian project; plasticky, postmodern and packaged just so. I like how short and sweet each song is but I just didn’t find this album to have much emotional dynamism. As an exercise in style it has clearly stood the test of time.
The best you can say for this record is that it’s the closest solo Jack White album to the White Stripes, chronologically. It was mid in 2012 and it is mid in 2026. I actually have some of the first singles (one with the “Love is Blindness” B-side) from this record on 7 in vinyl, and they are pretty strong. At this point in his career there was still a good amount of mystery surrounding Jack White and this album could have been an indication of where his persona would go, but he spiraled out into arena dad-rock in a way that’s off putting compared to the more modest vibe of this album. It’s still not very good. I low key can’t believe THIS is my 15th album on the generator and I still haven’t been served a single rap album.
My first Sade album. Never realized “Smooth Operator” was her. Appreciate her distinctive husky voice and the general atmosphere of this transfixing album.
I’ve listened to Lana Del Rey albums throughout her career but missed this one. I actually do think this is the most enjoyable of the ones I’ve listened to though I’m not sure it should be here.
Marley is a natural storyteller and this is just a massively cinematic and atmospheric album. Really excited to keep digging into it.
I was really knocked off my socks by this. A lot of attitude and energy but also just really solid hooks and melody. Can’t wait to keep revisiting this.
I respect the talent but more so than other hard rock acts I just found this particular album to be especially masturbatory and posturing, like I couldn’t describe a worldview. I say this as someone who likes their later albums.
5 stars because it’s Bill. Real heads know APOCALYPSE is his best but he is an essential singer-songwriter for sure. People complaining about how slow this is are so weak and would quake in fear of his more recent albums.
The way the Wikipedia is written describes the process of forming this band is, like, 3 producer musician dudes in Wisconsin were noodling on some experiments before they were like, “You know what, we need a lead singer who’s a girl, like just about any girl will do, how about this one from Scotland we saw on TV once?” So if that’s the case, it’s pretty amazing they plucked Shirley Manson out of a hat and ended up with some really solid song structures to wrap all their insane instrumentation around. I love arguably over produced albums so I pretty much dug this and the highly noisy yet very refined approach to production here. Really feels like where grunge meets electro pop.
The most intimate and stripped back album I’ve listened to on the generator so far (#23). There’s a transportive and pure beauty to the minimalism that’s so characteristically Willie.
This should be something that I love, but taken as a whole I found it very same-sounding, like the whole thing is just one mid tempo hang. With its specific lyrical expressions and general laid back vibe it feels very specific to its place and time. I have a tolerance for corny ass cracker ass music (I love Ariel Pink and The 1975), but this really sounded like muzak after a bit. Maybe I can come to enjoy it more.
Quite liked this but not a love at first listen. Very taken with moody electronica so I’m sure I’ll revisit sooner rather than later.
The funky instrumentals really carry this one since there is no vocal melody happening. A really entertaining album.
Makes a terrible first impression but I’ll be honest, this won me over. The arrangements are really wonderful even if the overall aesthetic is goofy.
Really fun and refreshing.
I have struggled to get into MJ albums in the past (like THRILLER) but Quincy really delivers here. Pretty stunning from end to end.
My first encounter with PJ Harvey was 2011’s LET ENGLAND SHAKE. A year or so later I gave RID OF ME a shot but bounced off it. This one by comparison I think is a little more friendly as an introduction, really strong melodic hooks with an attitude.
It’s so interesting that this is the origin of that signature spooky Exorcist sound even though it’s really playful and quite compelling. One of the more genuinely left-field inclusions from the 1970s on this list.
Just wasn’t feeling this one. The noise was solid but the melodies and rhythm just weren’t enough to keep me interested.
I first listened to this last year actually. I really enjoyed how jammy this is on revisiting it. Neil is for sure my favorite Canadian.
I liked this less on 2nd listen than on the 1st. Fine line between crisp and sanitized. The cover of “Help” only serves to make the original songs (save the title track) seem weak by comparison.
I wish I could come on here and write “The album with the token Britpop song that everyone knows is actually a banger - they aren’t just a one hit wonder.” But unfortunately that’s not how I felt about this one.
I didn’t know Zappa was about these instrumental type grooves. Really enjoyable all the way through.
I’m intrigued by this artist though I don’t understand why this album specifically was included. After the first track it settles into a more ambient jazz mode that is relatively tolerable. But I just don’t see the bigger picture or project here
This one really grew on me over the course of the album. Very energetic and noisy and yet also possessing a polished, poppy quality.
It’s pleasurable to listen to in the moment but the whole thing has a samey tempo and just lacks friction and I found myself zoning out on first and repeat listens. It sort of gets exhausting hearing the lead singer sound like he’s yelling constantly.
My man said let’s get 🗣️Cool 🗣️in 🗣️the 🗣️Pool
Only familiar with Pet Sounds and Smile, so this was a treat and a banger. A rather raw edge for the Beach Boys.
Liked this better than when it first came out. Still can’t get over how affected and inauthentic her voice sounds.
Really atmospheric and moody. One of my favorite albums of its era.
Conventional wisdom has it that these are two solo albums hastily stapled together, but who cares because it really is a chocolate and peanut butter situation and cemented OutKast in Top 40 culture, even if it is far from their best “album.” Less conventional wisdom is that Speakerboxx is pound for pound the better album.
This one actually feels like a genuine discovery. The perfect balance of folk and country with tightly constructed songs and beautiful production. I’m a new fan.
Another one I own on vinyl. It’s a masterpiece but maybe the 1960s Dylan album I revisit the least because it just feels too long to be a light listen. Maybe similar to The Beatles White Album in that way, though I think that one is not as good as this. Side 2 (I Want You through Just Like a Woman) is one of my favorite runs in his discography.
Mfs used to walk into a prison and play 34 minutes of straight bangers
Initially comes across as a bit simplistic but when you listen long enough the melodic thruline of Booker T.’s organ gives it a surprising depth of atmosphere.
This felt less cohesive than other albums of theirs that I’ve heard. Something just wasn’t clicking for me though the songs were enjoyable on their own.
Well I THOUGHT I knew this album. It’s an automatic 5 star. I relistened to it once, and thought yeah it’s pretty good. I relistened to it a second time with noise canceling headphones and it was like hearing the album for the very first time. I literally couldn’t stop listening to it because each song is just filled with really amazing production decisions to discover.
Something about this feels slick and ersatz for ”country rock.” Doesn’t really convey a sense of authorial perspective, just generic vibes. It’s sort of like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young but with maybe 20% of the songwriting talent.
I've heard a lot of his songs but never listened to a full album. It is a surprisingly prescient entry in the sort of alt-country / neo folk space, similar to Bill Callahan or Mount Eerie. Not exactly easy listening but very impactful.
A major blindspot for me, as I was a massive Interpol fan as a teenager and the comparison was and is inescapable.
Another one I own on vinyl. Actually I own a couple of copies, because my grandfather played bass on this record. It’s a really incredible document of studio musicians at this pivotal time in the country music industry. Makes sense that it’s here because if I had to recommend a country album to any given normal person it would probably be this one, as it’s a cross section of generational talents that point to both the authenticity and showmanship of the genre, compared to what it is today.
Never listened to a Janet Jackson album before, this is sort of an instant 5. Really impactful song construction and super lush production. The lyrics are at times painfully 80s but taken as a whole it’s a towering achievement.
Before I found the generator, I was trying to get into bands that I felt I should know more about, and started with Smashing Pumpkins and REM, which is to say that this album predates my journey here. I definitely liked Document more at the time but this one definitely was more fun on revisiting. The downer melodies hit better this time. Might be a 5 but need to sit on it for a while.
A jazz album so famous even I have already listened to it. The polyrhythms are very fun, could probably listen to this over and over.
I’d never listened to this album but somehow I knew every song already from the singles, hearing them in video games / movies etc. It was sort of surreal.
It’s very goofy but I like the intentional sampling of international styles. Could see this growing on me.
A classic for a reason. The soundscape is just epic.
I grew up with this album, it was one of the first records I bought, so it’s a hard one to rate. Relistening to it, it struck me that it’s really more than the sum of its parts. I’d say 1/3 of the songs are great, and the other 2/3 are fine to good, but the songcraft is far less important than the aesthetic sensibility and Jack White’s youthful chip-on-his-shoulder attitude. In truth this album was a hugely original objet d’art that really had no place in the contemporary popular music scene (Linkin Park, Gorillaz, Daft Punk and Jay Z on one side; Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes on the other). It triggered a garage-rock mini-revival from lesser imitators who never captured the intensity and mystery of this particular act. It’s hard to imagine now but there was a really special time where Jack White was not a “famous rock musician” but rather an outsider folk artist and this album captures it beautifully.
I dug this but just wasn’t really drawn in even though I listened to it twice in a row.
I could see how the aesthetic here, especially the string arrangements, came to influence the sound of Wed Andersonian indie rock. The first two tracks are amazing. I just didn't find the overall thrust of the album very engaging.
I just threw this one without noticing it was just four songs and was just rocking with it the whole time.
It was good to learn about this guy. First 10 inch record I’ve come across on this list.
The parallels between this group, Blondie and Garbage (which I’ve also been served on the generator) are sort of interesting. The attitude and melodic approach here I sort of prefer to those acts.
A huge blindspot for me, I love the expansive sound and general propulsion of this album. Looking forward to revisiting.
I appreciate the different elements that comprise this album. The sense of melody and atmosphere. It sort of combines Bob Dylan’s folk sensibility, Leonard Cohen’s cosmopolitanism, and Paul Simon’s sampling of world sounds. But I listened to it twice and wasn’t especially compelled by the experience of listening to it.
I’ve listened to What’s Going On a few times, so it was interesting to “move on” to this album which is a much more traditional collection of (amazing) songs with a more upbeat sort of flair. It helped me understand more what makes What’s Going On a singular sort of work and adds a lot of depth to Gaye’s overall artistic project.
Really improves when you listen in higher quality than the pirated mp3s I listened to on my classic iPod in 2011. The production shines here though I don’t really feel carried along by the music itself. Could improve with more listens.
I tried with this but just could not vibe. Obviously the singles are good to great and the production is really crisp. Has all the hallmarks of something I’d like so maybe just have to keep engaging with other albums from The Police to appreciate where this (their last) ended up.
Not quite sure what to make of this band but I really vibed with this album. I enjoyed the textured and diverse production.
Listening to this after getting into Silver Jews really opens it up.
Sort of hilariously one-note but also pleasurable in its simplicity.
Never heard of this artist but the untrained baritone and sweeping cinematic scale are precisely the kinds of things I love. Looking forward to digging a little deeper.
Undeniably fun and foul in equal measure, its hateful language and edgelord persona is almost quaint in this day and age. No wonder Eminem has basically kept spinning his wheels for two decades, unable to escape his own shadow, and you can’t really add much more depth to an artistic project like this one.
Didn’t realize this was the origin of college radio rock!!
Was surprised to find this was something of a cohesive yet eclectic concept album.
Another one I realized partway through that I had already heard before. Back in college this was “just” a Kanye-adjacent rap fantasia. Didn’t realize how good we had it then.
Just my type of thing. Looking forward to coming back to this one.
Enjoyable and pushes its aesthetic so far that it becomes self-reflexive in an interesting way.
Didn’t speak to me as much as Heaven or Las Vegas but still a banger.
I have had a bias against Liars since seeing them open for Interpol in 2007 and finding them pretty miserable. This record though is really experimental and interesting, so I should probably give them another shot.
I remain not qualified to speak on jazz really but I liked this.
Weirdly got this back to back with In a Silent Way, and this is a much longer album with a more expansive sonic palette.
I have never heard of this group but listening to it got shades of Dirty Projectors, Solange, and The 1975 so I really enjoyed it and need to dig a little deeper.
I’m mostly familiar with Spiritualized from their later albums though I’d heard this one before. Revisiting it helps me appreciate how much of their vision has been present from the beginning. One of the most cinematic and atmospheric electronic rock acts ever I think.
This is actually one of the best albums of all time. If you don’t at least like this you should honestly probably give up on albums. They say there’s no accounting for taste but there’s a fundamentally Godlike songcraft on display here.
I feel like I have only absorbed the Run DMC style through parody and homage over the years, so it’s very interesting to listen to this album and find the overall effect more expansive and encompassing and overall less rudimentary than I imagined.
Listened to this a bunch in high school before I ever heard OK Computer. Looking back on it, is like if a butt rock group had been tasked with making a version of OK Computer. It’s an absurd premise but it’s really quite pleasurable to listen to, and found myself surprised at how much I actually liked it. I especially liked the drums.
I sort of get it but sort of don’t. It’s weird how little my perspective on this has changed since I first heard it 20 years ago.
Never seen the film but the tracks here are crisp and cinematic, very groovy and atmospheric.
This is Bob Dylan's best album. Really strikes a balance between Americana aesthetic and timeless poetic turns of phrase, every song has a myriad of devastating metaphors and ruminations on heartbreak. A real contender for best American record of all time.
Not an expert in this genre but this record was enjoyable end to end.
Listened to this while drinking a cold bottle of Asahi in a private bath at a Japanese ryokan. That is all.
Evocative and idiosyncratic in the best way. This guy seems like a real legend, and it’s crazy I’m well versed in “alternative” music but have never really encountered anyone in the wild discussing Pere Ubu’s apparently prolific and well-appraised discography. Is he an “endangered” legacy act?
A relisten for me, though I come back to this one quite frequently. It was the first Neil Young album I heard in its entirety and it’s a classic through and through. “Thrasher” is a true heartbreaker to me.
Amy has an undeniable voice and the music here goes down easy, perhaps too easy considering it’s a 54 minute album. The darkness of the Amy mythos and her tragic story doesn’t really add a lot of depth to this record for me, as it seems mostly to be a splashy debut and a demonstration of her considerable talent.
I gave this a shot in college because it was highly respected by my NYC alt music forebears but I wasn’t ready for it without learning more about Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Talking Heads etc. I think I could grow to love this album but mainly I just vibes with sprawling song structures and elegant guitars.
My 100th album here and also one of my favorites. I’ve seen LCD Soundsystem live 5 times and I think you could make a case for each of their LPs being their best, but I’m resigned to this one claiming the distinction, since it filled with a dense array of heaters that became synonymous with the band if not with NYC in the late 2000s and early 2010s. A true time capsule, I bought this at a used CD store in a strip mall in 2007, a fact I think James Murphy would appreciate.
Pleasant but not tremendously engaging or notably complex.
Fun to listen to with a surprising about of depth and grit based on what little I knew about Earth, Wind & Fire.
This was my first Arcade Fire album back when it came out. In retrospect it is something of the black sheep of their first 3 albums, and its reputation was sort of them just barely sidestepping a sophomore slump. Relistening to it, I find its dark aesthetic and relatively tight songs very refreshing. It honestly holds up better than I expected and feels a bit more personal than their other albums even if it lacks the obvious highs of their best work.
This is a crazy album for 1968. For a while I really thought this was like a sardonic 1980s parody of 1960s crooners. Some of the commentary here is quite similar to latter day Arctic Monkeys and Father John Misty. This has seriously screwed with my chronology of “baroque pop” and reminds me I should really give Jacques Brel a second look.
Instant 5 star. I already liked this album but comparing it to other albums from 1975-1985 on this list, it's honestly embarrassing how much this clears.
I have no point of reference really but I enjoyed this all the way through.
