I usually only listen to Paul's Boutique when it comes to Beastie Boys, but it's nice to mix things up, I like the nods to their hardcore roots and frequent shifts into psychedelic jazz and experimental groove. Better than I was expecting, and more experimental in terms of production. Enjoyed Sabotage more than usual in the wider context of the record. Starts with a really great flow to the whole thing, though it lags a bit in the middle and could probably be tightened up. In general, a highly enjoyable listen.
Been playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption so feeling particularly partial to cowboy music. At the end of the day it's quite fun, though it also feels impossible to divorce from the last 65 years of its recontextualisation and memeification, and gets pretty samey pretty quickly
Just can't really get on borde with Lorde, the over-earnestness of the vocal is hard to get past, every word annunciated as if it's extremely important, but really never going that much deeper than the surface level in terms of content. Though I wonder if I might feel differently were I closer to the kind of age Lorde was when she wrote it, and whether there's just too much of a gap in perspective that makes this harder for me to engage with.
All time classic! Though it's a little bit dated perhaps, I still think this really holds up. The production is hyperactive and fun, the energy is really infectious, the songwriting is witty and sharp. I'll even let De La Orgee slide
I mean, this was catnip as a sad sad angsty 14 year old, I still know this album back to front. Re-listening as an adult, yeah some of it is way too twee for a 31-year-old palette, but you know what a lot of it holds up, particularly the more experimental synthy bits and when they kick up the energy a bit with the guitar
One of the things that’s surprised me the most is the creative sampling and appropriating, the weird use of Enya and various little danchell references. It’s kind of one of those classic albums that you know is a classic for a reason. I’ve obv heard all the big singles from it, but then you listen to the whole thing it’s obvious why. All the same, when records are this tightly crafted, I sometimes struggle to feel a personal connection.
Just a really solid soul album, such a wonderful voice that’s brimming with charisma. Feels pretty timeless
Jam bands just aren’t for me. I get that they’re all very talented but this is just way too much self indulgent noodling for my taste
Banger! One of those albums I’ve heard a million times so a little of the magic has worn off, and Bluebell Knoll is still their best, but you can’t deny this is great
There are like, one or two good tunes on here when Brian Jones gets to go a bit psychedelic, but then the rest are just pure mid-60s blues filler. Jagger’s voice has never honked quite so hard, it’s actually quite annoying. Then there's the lyrics - hashtagproblematic at best, rancid and rapey at worst. A real slog. ¡No bueno!
Is this the most 90s album of all? I think so. It's really uplifting, makes you feel like it's 1997 and Tony Blair's gonna be great and we've ended racism and everything's gonna be OK with no disappointments / war crimes on the horizon. Hot take but I actually like the Brimful of Asha version here more than the Fatboy Slim remix (although the Phoenix Nights version will always be my number one). It's not like, groundbreaking musically, and every now and then we verge a little bit into dreaded electro swing town, and there's quite a bit of filler, but it's got so much charm that I don't really mind.
It's drum & bass init? Kind of the platonic ideal of 90s drum & bass, really smooth and kind of flawless. But then I also feel it's lacking a bit of edge, a bit of roughness and weirdness which makes dance music appealing to me. This would be a very different review were I to have dropped a zesty pinger or two before listening of course.
I have a real soft spot for music like this. I think because I went through the original 1001 Albums book from the very start at first, I listened to a higher concentration of 50s and 60s soul than most teenagers in the 2000s English countryside, so in a weird way this feels quite nostalgic to me. Burke's got a really really great voice and so much charisma, I love how the passionate moments cause the janky old 60s recording equipment to fray at the edges, and I like the playful sort of springiness to the instrumentals that gives it all so much room to breathe. Like all of the really old stuff that's come up, it's naturally a little dated, but I still like it!
Sometimes I toy with the hot take that RHCP were good actually, like this is really well produced and there's some good stuff here. But then I hear the opening track on this record and it's just a horrible mess of aural dickswinging. 'Rompin and a stompin 'cause I'm in my prime'? Really? It's way too frat energy for this sensitive boy I'm sorry. Often it's a bit of a plod but THEN there are some legit good songs on here like Parallel Universe and even Californication, and he's got a nice voice on a chorus or two, but then he starts rapping and it makes me want to throw my headphones into a canal and then throw myself into a canal. Emmit Remmus is one of the worst songs of all time, from then onwards this was a reaaaaallll slog. Still just can't make my mind up on them but giving this a proper listen has made my opinion worse. Maybe they should just stick to ballads and go to sex therapy.
Strong 'we have David Bowie at home' vibes, kinda throws into relief how good he was compared to his contemporaries - this is fine, but just doesn't have that magic. Peak 70s TOTP energy, glittery streamers and feather boas and tight trousers and big hair, which is obviously no bad thing, and I can see why my mum liked it when she was a child. But yeah I can't say there's anything really that special going on here.
I like the super long title track, like if The Doors were fronted by an Elvis impersonator, but in a fun way. Even then it's pretty much just a fun psych wigout, but not that much more. The rest is pretty much 60s filler tbh. I just can't really think of a lot to say about this record I'm sorry Iron Butterfly. Good name tho!
Nice to mix things up a bit! And it's a real nice one to boot, you can see why her voice has always been talked about as one of the best. Soothing vibes then joyful dancy vibes, fun for the end of a long week! Shout out to the wacky song about a flea. Scratch, scratch me back! The weird duet about a dead husband is very odd but I like it.
This is one of my favourites of his, the way it's cut in half between the raw electric stuff and very lovely acoustic stuff. Bob Dylan's been mytholigised so much that he's basically a meme at this point, but I still think the best moments here like Maggie's Farm and Subterranean Homesick Blues and It's All Over Now hold up, and the lyrics are just really really great poetry (even though that's a very lukewarm and cringe take). Sorry I just can't be contrary about this one, I like it a lot.
Classic album for when you’re 16 and think you’re the only person to know about the band and you feel really cool but then you just realise that all the hipster gen x dads already love it. Pretty solid psychy trip hop, but maaaaybe a bit too soft and not edgy enough for my tastes now
I usually like my jazz a bit less smooth than this but you know what the more it went on the more I was wondering over, like it worked its way into my subconscious or something. Very enjoyable!
Definition of a stone cold classic tbh! Not my favourite Kate Bush (that's The Dreaming) but still a five star record which gives you an idea of just how incredible 80s Kate Bush was. Just such an insane amount going on here, massive prog conceptual suite about ghosts! esoteric references to machines that control the weather! incredible emotional range! crazy production! a cheeky Irish jig for the lads! and all the songs absolutely slap at the same time. Masterpiece!!
A banger! My fav Radiohead record, such an intense and specific vibe of psychedelic melancholy that runs through the whole thing with such a brilliant sense of momentum. I love the tectures on this record and the guitar lines especially. Thom Yorke is a walloper but because of records like this he can still stay
When I was at uni I went to one social for the band society where they put on a gig. They were all really nice people and very talented at their instruments but also extremely naff and annoying (which I admit was a me problem, not a them problem). This is the sort of music they were making, milky tea music. Pleasant to listen to, but lacking oomph.
Kinda the point where The Kinks - who are one of my favourite bands - start to go off the boil a bit and into wacky theatrical concept town. But there's still lots of charm here and some really good songwriting at the core and its such a unique little slice of post-Imperial decline in the late 60s that everyone else in pop was ignoring. I feel like this record is them at their most eccentric and you can either get on board the weird suburbia train or you can let it chug away over the horizon. I'm all aboard baby. Choo choo!
At it's best this is some of the greatest music ever, that incredible bassline on Safe From Harm, the way those massive horns come into One Love but just a tiny bit. Occasionally goes a bit generic trip hop and coasts a bit, but then that's kinda just cos they invented trip hop to begin with. More than enough bangers here to make this a classic!
Ol’ billy catamaran at his very finest, probably the peak of his mystic cowboy wandering the plains phase, some absolutely phenomenal lyrics here and voice like velvet soup. Love it!!
A really really solid post hardcore record, perfect to blow off the cobwebs first thing on a Monday. They're on really relentless form here, and while it gets a bit samey towards the end of an hour's runtime, there's this really intense energy at the core that I really like. One of those cult records I've never got around to listening to, and I'm glad I did! Well done greasy 90s bois.
Suffers a bit from the fact that the title track is now like the go-to comedy song about fucking, and that just when that's gone there's another song halfway through that's called 'Keep Gettin' It On' where it's the exact same beat and the message is 'no, let's all remember that song about fucking that they'd use for the bit in an Adam Sandler film when he gets an erection'. It makes it kinda hard to evaluate it on its own merit, but for what it's worth this is some nice soul music.
THAT SAID I procrastinated by reading up on the background to this record and Marvin Gaye writing about sex in general as a means to get over childhood trauma and it's very interesting, so I'm adding a star
Not a huge grunge head but you know what I enjoyed this more than I was expecting, big walls of angst that feel pretty all-consuming in quite a nice way. I think these guitar tones that would have felt really dated about five years ago have benefitted from the revival of this kind of aesthetic so it actually feels quite fresh. This is still just not the kind of music I'm that into, but I was pleasantly surprised by it. 3 stars but would give it an extra half if I could.
Music from the 50s now feels like it's kinda from another world, Billie Holliday has such a famous and perfect voice that it's a bit like trying to review a faberge egg or a Ming vase or something. Once again takes me back to the weird phase of my teenage years when I was a 16 year old heavily into vocal jazz. That big sense of all-consuming melancholy that drew me to it then is still there and is kinda irresistible.
Lots and lots of fun! Bangers galore and Tina Turner is just such a charismatic vocalist - a lil bit unhinged sometimes but in the best way. mid-80s pop is probably the best pop and that's proved here. A feeeew too many weird filler covers in here for it to be a true classic but a very enjoyable one nonetheless
Mr Brightside is basically the millenial Don't Stop Believing and I absolutely fucking hate it. If it was a new song without the cultural baggage of all the worst people at a wedding shouting it at me, would I hate it as much? Probably not, idk, but of all the songs impossible to detach from their social context this is the one. As for the rest of it, there a few others that I've heard so many times they kinda just become background noise, but you know what apart from got soul but i'm not a soldier it mainly holds up - looking back they sorta have more in common with Interpol musically (like a not quite as good Interpol) than a lot of the indie landfill they ended up chucked in with.
I kinda thought this was gonna be one of those albums where the whole world knows the songs so much that it’s hard to evaluate on its own merit, but then listening to it it’s just such solid feel good disco that I found all that melt away to leave just a really fun upbeat listen
Colossal banger!! One of the all time great indie rock albums, a tower of scouse achievement, like the liver building, paddy’s wigwam, the philharmonic toilets or the pilgrim smoking area. It’s a shame the dfs adverts have used there she goes for so long that it makes you think of sofas, but there’s just so much incredible songwriting here that I don’t care. If The LA’s had got as big as Oasis, the Iraq war would never have happened
More like albums to die before you hear. Dogshit, like Spinal Tap but not funny. The only good thing about this album is that it's short. Even the cover is heinous. I hate hate hate hate it. I'm fairly ambivalent about grunge, but when I think about how it killed off shit like this, I like it a little bit more.
First off, the most 2006 album cover of all time!
This is really ambitious hip hop and kudos for the amount of big ideas going on, the production values are really slick in a 2006 way, the flow is perfect. And yet it's just lacking that bit of weirdness and edge that I really enjoy in hip hop. A classic example of an objectively good album that just ain't for me, sorry Lupe! Like, say what you want about Kanye, but in this era he would take an album this slick and just push it into a much weirder and stranger space that would be way more engaging to listen to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Really nice jazz funk, playful and a little bit weird, and what an absolutely amazing album cover! This is really enjoyable and uplifting, really fun to just get lost in while I get on with my day, to add a bit of a funky sheen to it all. Very nice well done Herbie!
It's mad how fresh this felt as a teenager even though it was a good 15 years old, and how much I loved the message. Fuck you, private school, I won't do what you tell me! Fuck you semi-detached house in the home counties!! Yeahhh!!! Listening today it feels a bit like a relic - like, you're raging against the machine but politically this is like, as friendly as the machine's gonna be for a while, sorry guys. It's the 90s, might as well enjoy it, it's only gonna get way way worse!! The music seems pretty straightforward in its composition and energy, surprisingly dated really. But then there's this earnestness and power to it that I still think is really appealing today.
The ballads on this one are a liiiiiil bit boring (sacrilegious I know), but then when Stevie’s firing on all cylinders with the upbeat pop stuff there’s really no one better. I prefer other albums of his but this is solid
A bit meh, very nice sounding but kinda dull, not doing it for me
Only listened to a few songs but I get the gist, he loves to croon and he loves the ladies. Personally I am a connoisseur of depressed Sinatra but horny Sinatra I can take or leave
Undoubted 5-stars! Huge in scope both intellectually and musically, hyperbolic as it is I really see this as one of the towering achievments of the century so far. And it's still only my third favourite Kendrick album! Sorry I don't have anything deeper to say, but love him, love this, happy days :)
PS Nothing was proved
Sorry but I fucking hate it. Genuinely what is the point of music like this, particularly these utterly tedious on the nose lyrics. It's just absolutely artless, while the music sounds like you fed all the worst Beatles songs into ChatGPT. This album is one hour long but it felt like 6. BAD BAD BAD BAD.
Da doobee doobee dooo, I like this, it's fun. Another one of those weird ones where because it's at the start of the book I first listened to it as a teenager, so it's got that weird nostalgic pull. It's quite hard to rate some soul instrumentals that by now sound pretty primitive, but ya know what, it's a good time
OK, yes, Moz is now a big racist, but HEAR ME OUT, this is a classic and his second best solo album (other than Vauxhall and I, ofc), and is full of bangers, and on its own terms National Front Disco is a really intriguing exploration of the grey area between sympathising with disaffected youth and being appalled by what it leads them to. It's just a shame it, you know, led him to Britain First, and that that's probably just my overgenerous reading of it, perhaps in a bit of denial. The Smiths and Morrisey's music is so deeply rooted in my life that I just have to allow myself to still like this one so GO AHEAD AND CANCEL ME. You're the one for me, Mozzy.
Yaknowwhat I really enjoyed revisiting this, more than I thought I would actually, I think because it's got a rawness that feels way more real than a lot of the other 60s stuff that's been on this list. There's a genuine murky intensity to the guitars that the greats like Hendrix and the MC5 had but many many others couldn't muster, and Janis Joplin just had the charisma and vibes that so many of her contemporaries were just cosplaying. RIP Janis you would have loved the simpsons.
wooo just found out how to edit - so what I was gonna say was that when it comes to this really scuzzy end of 60s rock, you really need the right vocalist to make it work. Like with Janis Joplin, all the guitar freakouts and thudding rhythm don't land for me unless you've got the frontperson who's gonna sell it, which both Janis and Iggy do really really well
I really love live albums like this, where it's not just a knock off for extra sales, but an example of the artist really in their element, I really enjoy how you can hear the back and forth between the crowd and the band, the energy he whips up, and ofc all the tunes are pretty solid bangers. James Brown - another problematic fave!!
Genuinely about as accurate a portrait of English masculinity as you’re ever gonna hear, in all its bleakness and emptiness and stupidity and silliness. When you engage with this on those terms it’s kind of a masterpiece!
Dripping, nay, SWIMMING in angst, I enjoyed this a lot and it hit the spot for a sleepy commute. Naturally the Nirvana album that includes folk songs and spirituals is gonna be my fave, but I think Kurt’s voice genuinely works best over minimal backing
Huge! When that absolutely disgustingly filthy synth line in The Sound Of The Crowd kicked in I actually shouted YES involuntarily, which is always the sign of an enormous banger. Makes you wanna dream life the way you think it ought to be, see things you thought you'd never ever sea, take a cruise to China or a train to Spain, go around the world around again and again, meet a girl on a boat meet a boy on a train and fall in love without the pain. Lags a tiny bit around the middle, before the two big bangers at the end, but I can forgive that, because this is a masterpiece. When you think about this, Soft Cell and OMD all arriving at the same time, it feels like maybe the best little period of English pop music there ever was.
There’s some really really good stuff in here where Elvis is at his best with that insane charisma, but then there’s also a fair amount of bluesy filler - for me he’s never really had a big classic record and is a greatest hits kinda guy, so this is a mixed bag
The most intensely 2000 album there's ever been? There are some bangers in here for sure, a lot of filler (much like Madonna herself these days), and it's kinda samey after a while. a lot of it sounds like scissor sisters but not quite as good - but then Madonna was there first. I feel like there's a lot better Madonna records out there than this one, but this is a fun time nonetheless
A fine example of Coz-core, nice straightforward American hardcore punk that makes you wanna skateboard and drink out of a brown paper bag, I like it!
I don’t really know what to say about this other than that it’s very pleasant jazz. If and album elicits such a lukewarm response what do you even do with it. Fine I guess!
Ya know what, I actually enjoyed this way more than I thought I would! I’ve always found JT kinda weird and rancid, even before it all came out that he was a big ol creep, so the fact I actually enjoyed this on its own terms regardless is probably testament to how good it is as pop music! A very surprise 4 stars
Oooh one of my favourite albums ever! Fun fact, kids, this was grandpa patrick's second ever vinyl LP he bought with his own money, from a charity shop in Rye, back when charity shops still had good vinyl records going for cheap. I just love 80s REM, the perfect balance between emotive songwriting and indie edge, and this is them at their peak tbh! Still holds up compared to a lot I was listening to back at that time without me having to make insane logical leaps to justify it (looking at you, Morrissey, who was the first ever vinyl LP I bought)
Got a big ol' soft spot for Van Morrison, sometimes you've gotta give in to fannying about acting like a romantic poem as you wander around a heath or some such. This is a classic imo!
This is not the 80s I enjoy sorry. Money for Nothing is a fun song but then he also dropped a surprise homophobic bit in there so come on guys can't we have any fun? I blame Thatcher (genuinely). The rest is just naff pop and really icky sax ballads. No thanks tbh, this is lame. Two stars because I guess it's listenable and the country one was kind of ok.
Sort of felt the same about this one as the last Chic album on the list, it's a good time, really solid disco fun! Sorry I can't think of much more to say!
Who amongst us on the cusp of Gen Z and milennial didn't have a phase where they thought this was the peak of music? If you say you didn't then ur lying! Looking back it's kinda naff, but then that's only because things were only gonna get worse than George Bush later down the line. But then Billie Joe and co couldn't have known that. It's like, enjoyable upbeat pop punk rock, catchy and fun.
Gotta love Prince, the fun lil purple ponce, prancing around and pontificating in his lil outfit. This is one of those ones that's classic for a reason tbh, so many bangers here, such incredible flow to the whole thing. Great timez.
No thanks!! Why is this here!! Just basic 80s rock, a big dud!!
This is such a weird album to me, it's like, three or four of the lovelist proto-indie lo fi songs you've ever heard, surrounded on all sides by the most basic plodding 70s rock. I love it then I hate it, so idk three stars I s'pose!
The best Madonna album for me and it’s not really close, excellent Balearic late 90s vibe, amazing work from William Orbit, Madonna really selling it. Good stuff well done
