This is my first full-length exposure to The White Stripes, and dare I say, the first time I've ever paid attention to "Seven Nation Army". That song is absolutely incredible, and while the rest is consistently great, it never reaches the heights of that song again. The two acoustic numbers disrupt the flow for me and "Little Acorns" is jarring too (but once that song kicks in, it's killer).
Already very familiar with this album.
Peak.
One of the best early alternative US albums; "Blister In The Sun", "Add It Up" and "Good Feeling" are songs for life. Perfect for this list as I believe this is deeply essential.
Heard before challenge.
This is where, for some, Neil really finds his stride. For me, it's another entry in an already stellar career up to this point that is affirmed by some really incredible songs. I'll always die on the hill of "A Man Needs A Maid", and I don't need to say anything else about "The Needle And The Damage Done"; plenty has already been said.
This album's hits have probably reached overplayed status for a lot of people but I gotta say, hearing them in the context of a record on nice headphones really brings out their character. Solid listen for the rest of it, too.
Heard before challenge.
For years, this was one of my favorite Radiohead albums. I've fallen slightly out of love with it recently but this is still one of their best works. "Videotape" might just be their best song.
Finally getting some proper exposure to Joan after knowing her connections to Dylan for the longest time. Hearing this with some of that work in retrospect and my other exposures to artists who seem to have lifted from her technique (I'm shocked that Happy Rhodes seemingly doesn't list Baez as a vocal influence, their styles especially with vibrato sound very very similar, and I love that) makes for an interestingly aware listen. Cool album.
Wow, finally getting into Sly, too little too late I suppose. I'm pretty unfamiliar with funk as a whole outside of some song-based examples but finally hearing a whole record in the style like this is great.
One of my favorite albums of all time and a bit of a life-changer at 15. The perfect prelude to the noise pop and shoegaze developments of the late 80s and early 90s, sickly-sweet hooks and melodies buried beneath a net of static, with vocal deliveries both apathetic and earnest all at once. An album for the ages and one that absolutely deserves to be here, in my opinion.
While I have always been more of a fan of Oldham's with the Palace Music project, this album spoke to me just as much as something like Days In The Wake or Viva Last Blues when I first heard it many years ago; it just didn't have the staying power or the obsessive replay factor that those two records had for me. To revisit it for this challenge was a beautiful, brilliant experience. Hearing this as an adult, for the first time in literal years, gives it some new depth. Will Oldham remains one of my favorite songwriters of his generation.
Not my favorite Steely Dan record but certainly an amazing way for them to open their career. I tend to give this one some flack because of the numerous vocalists (I've always been a believer that Fagen is the best vocalist for the group and should've been the only one from the start), but all of the Fagen-led songs here except "Dirty Work" tend to be my favorite. Special mention to "Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)" though.
I went into this expecting to require context from the film - which I've wanted to see for a long time and just haven't gotten around to yet - but I was pleasantly surprised. This album flows wonderfully; light, airy (ha), not-so-secretly sad and very mysterious. Obscured. A bit of a Badalamenti vibe here at times. Some Mike Oldfield and Pink Floyd in there too, for good measure. Moon Safari this is not, and at this current moment, I feel that this is better.
I mean, seriously, what can I say about this that hasn't already been said? This album has been a key part of my life since I was 13 years old and even though it's no longer my favorite Floyd record, it's as essential as it comes. When I think of "art rock", this immediately comes to mind. Majestic.
My favorite PJ record of the two I've heard so far. "Dry" might be the perfect descriptor of the sound of this record. Definitely a raw record, one that doesn't compromise and favors authenticity and natural occurrence.
Musically, this is decent. I can't follow along with the vocals unfortunately but reading about this album, the story and passion behind it is fascinating. Not really sure if I'd put this in the book though.
I won't hide it here: this is one of my favorite albums of all time. A genuinely formative listening experience that has been the soundtrack to my journey in the last couple of years. The best thing to arise from the Steely Dan canon and that's saying something. Essential in every aspect, a must listen and one of the most brilliantly human albums ever recorded. Not to mention its incredible ability to test a sound system. A genuine dream production.
Maybe my favorite Big Beat album I've heard so far, a really engaging and energetic listen that rarely overstays its welcome. A powerhouse, but at the same time it also comes across very much like a product of 1997. Not that that's a bad thing.
This one's been on my list for quite some time now, glad to finally check it out. I personally believe that albums like Tommy perfected (or as close as you can get to it, I suppose) the early rock opera form, but this is nothing to sneeze at either. Side A in particular feels weirdly influential on the Elephant 6 music collective, which it very well may be. There is a gigantic bombast to this that I didn't expect from the Kinks, only really having heard their biggest hits from 64-66 and then "Lola". Exciting stuff.
ELP often holds the reputation of being one of prog's campiest, most ridiculous bands...and in the case of this, they'd be right. But it's impressive and theatrical and so grand and dramatic that I can't bring myself to hate this.
Although I will ask why this is in here and not Brain Salad Surgery or Welcome Back My Friends. There's two ELP records in here and neither one has "Karn Evil 9". What the hell man.
Finally, FINALLY hearing this one. I've been almost afraid to listen to it, as any record with a song like "Fast Car" is prone to failing to stack up to the power of its singular smash hit masterpiece. Thankfully the rest is quite great, but man, there is a REASON that song is still brought up and listened to today. Incredibly powerful songwriting here throughout, highly impressed.
Feels like a cross between early Queen and T. Rex with a markedly worse vocalist. Thanks but no thanks.
Regardless of any musical content, THAT is one of the worst album covers I've ever seen in my life. I don't know who approved dude on the right's ability to walk around shirtless and with that haircut, but they should be questioned. I don't want to think it's affecting my interpretation of the music, but it's a sensory nightmare. I can smell this picture and it's not pleasant.
I cannot tell you how long it's been since I last heard this album in its entirety. It's been at least 10 years. Revisiting it for this challenge has left me with complicated feelings. At 13, this was one of the best albums I've ever heard. At 23, it's just another Chili Peppers album. I've always been more of a Blood Sugar Sex Magik guy but when this album has its moments, they're incredible moments. When it doesn't...it's the Chili Peppers for every reason I dislike them. I'll save the gripes about the mix because everyone and their mother has mentioned them but it really only affects my opinion of a few songs. Eventually I'll hear the unmastered edition.
It's not quite Pink Floyd as we know them now, but it's an incredible record nonetheless. Barrett's contributions put them perfectly at home in the psych boom of 1967, and despite how quickly the Floyd would abandon the softer, childlike nature of Syd's work, they leave an impression and an impact here. Thus begins the output of one of the greatest bands to ever walk the earth.
Conceptually, this is wonderful, I love the use of the NYC street recording samples that Holmes acquired during his time there. There's a gritty cinematic vibe to this and I dig it. The only problem is I think every track goes on far too long and this is yet another dance album that approaches an hour long runtime.
And this was where I wrapped up the core Simon & Garfunkel discography with an album sometimes considered their best by the more folk-adjacent people. I gotta say, it's probably my 3rd favorite, only behind Sounds of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water. Still an absolutely great record though; undeniable songs like "Scarborough Fair", "Homeward Bound", and I truly adore that "Silent Night" sound collage thing at the end.
A lot more synth-driven than I expected. Growling bass throughout too. Pretty cool. Saw some people refer to this as "The Doors on speed" and that seems pretty accurate at times.
One of my favorite albums for over a decade now. Oldfield recorded this pretty much by himself at 19 which really makes me want to practice every instrument I've ever played for even a moment and become proficient at every single one. The ending of Part One always gives me chills. A brilliant masterful record. Its use in The Exorcist (as small yet iconic as it is) helps as well.
The intense vocal stylings of Neubauten meet the surreal disorienting dark-circus vibes of Foetus, but it's all in French. Maddening in a cool way but not really essential. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for the darker end of the industrial rock spectrum but not to many other people.
Beck's ability to fuse multiple genres that don't seem to go together into a single track needs to be studied. A pretty insane rise from Mellow Gold and One Foot In The Grave, which are respectable great records, but Odelay is a completely different beast. Hip hop, alt dance, alt-country, electronica, jazz...I know "alternative rock" can be a bit of a blanket name but this is truly alternative. And for a record like this to be a true mainstream breakthrough? Not really sure if you see stuff like this anymore.
While Rush have done the side-long suite thing on other albums, it's arguable that none of them were as great as 2112. Hemispheres might be my favorite full album from the group, but this was a formative record for me when I was younger and getting into prog. "A Passage to Bangkok" and "Tears" are my big takeaways from side B, don't shut the album off before giving those a chance. Lord knows I did plenty of times as a kid before I realized their greatness.
Wasn't sure what to expect but this sorta sounds like a British Hole at times, which I'm perfectly cool with. Also the Wire comparisons are maybe a little on the nose but not inaccurate. My only real gripe comes with the fact that a lot of these songs seem like they need some extra time to flesh themselves out and they just...stop. That isn't always a problem for me, but here it feels a little sudden.
I only wonder what would've happened if Justine had stayed in Suede.
The distillation of what seems to be every dominant rock/pop style from the UK over the course of about 30 years into a 40 minute listen (you can hear Kinks, Queen, the glam side of Bowie). Pretty admirable effort, but after getting another Britpop album yesterday, I might be just a bit tired of the genre already. If you're gonna send this stuff my way, give me Suede at least.
Okay maybe I missed something somewhere, but where the hell did this almost-psychedelic not-quite-shoegaze side of Morrissey come from? I know the jangle pop angles and the occasional slide towards Moz's love of glam, but wow, the few times here that it approaches those territories is worth noting. The Smiths have been one of my favorite bands for nearly a decade and I've loved the first two Morrissey records for nearly as long but this is unlike any of those albums. This is like the non-Smiths side of my taste finding the rest of my favorite genres all in one go. Jawdropping. And of course it's typical Morrissey with all of the lovable douchey-ness that comes with that. Brilliant.
Everything about this album's presentation is ballsy and deserves some acknowledgement for that alone, but the music doesn't really hold me. Very repetitive and not that engaging in most cases ("Burial" really wowed me in particular however). I think I'm more aligned with dub at the moment than pure reggae but we'll see once I dive into the other essentials that are on this list and beyond.
I wonder if my opinion would change if I smoked pot. Probably.
Fascinating lyrics and refreshing beautiful instrumentation, offputting vocal style. Also I noticed a lot of these songs started to blur into one another. Reminds me of the exact situation I had with Pescado Rabioso's Artaud (exactly the same setup except Spinetta's voice is gorgeous) but less worthwhile. An interesting effort and obviously put together with a lot of passion, but not for me.
Sufjan's very grandiose, slightly-too-lengthy "opus" (by general standards, not mine) has never been one of my favorite albums, much to my own disappointment. There are serious moments of greatness found here that I think prove Sufjan's ability not only as a singer and songwriter, but as a worldbuilder and an arranger. My problem with this album is its incredibly jumpy sequencing, obnoxious runtime (Sufjan imo is best consumed in 40-45 minute doses, not 75) and the unfortunate reality of being surrounded by overhype in the music-fan-sphere doesn't help much either.
I will say that revisiting it for this challenge caused it to grow on me slightly (probably influenced by my recent love of Carrie & Lowell), but I still struggle to see the deep impact that a lot of people feel from this, and I'm glad that others can get that experience out of this album.
What a bizarrely dreadful listen. This does not need to be an hour long in any universe. Why are half of the songs 5-6 minutes long? Why is one almost NINE minutes? Why do I have love for other really dated, arguably corny hip-hop albums from this time period but this one is like the aural equivalent of spoiled milk?
Annoying beats, annoying vocals (the last minute of "Underwater Rimes", good lord), songs that establish their finishing point upwards of halfway through the actual song ("Doowutchyalike" thinks it's so funny to fade out halfway through only to come back in, if it actually ended during that fade-out I might've been more favorable), and perhaps worst of all this is a concept album...with no tangible concept. 15 minutes of your hour-long album being a conceptual suite a concept album does not make. If the concept is that every song has over-the-top (albeit funny) references to sex and women, then sure it's a concept album. I guess that makes 2 Live Crew's As Nasty As They Wanna Be a concept album too. I don't even have a problem with overtly sexual lyrics, but I am not a fan of this presentation. For something that's supposed to be funky and dance-y, this is so lethargic. Finishing this felt like pulling teeth. I feel like i need to cleanse my palette with Eric B & Rakim or ATCQ after this.
Fiona's first album is one I haven't heard in many years, but "Criminal" is still a favorite after all this time. Revisiting it for this was a little more enlightening; I have more of an appreciation for the sort of atmosphere she cultivates. Dark, sultry, lonely and striking.
Bowie's jump towards soul is sometimes met with derision or muted disinterest, but I find it fascinating and refreshing. Maybe it's my hometown love of Philly soul, but the title track that kicks this thing off is so vibrant, smoky and smooth that I can't help but love it to death.
And so my first Dylan in the challenge is one of his earliest, and the first in the book. It's been some time since I heard this, almost 5 years actually. I've become acquainted with "Blowin' In The Wind" thanks to the 1967 Greatest Hits, but this is one I admittedly never really go back to in any capacity. It's a defiant statement, one that sets Dylan's legacy as a folk spokesman in motion, and it contains some of his biting, aggressive commentary ever. "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is an easy contender for the greatest (not my favorite, but the most "essential") Dylan song, of which there's probably a dozen that I'm not thinking of at the moment.
Also worth noting are the brilliant outtakes from this album, especially "Let Me Die In My Footsteps", which should've made the album in place of "Talking World War III Blues" which is one of the most meandering recordings I've ever heard out of Dylan. Oh well.
What a lovely record to revisit. While some give this album flack for leaning into that 80s sound even more than Hounds of Love, I think this is a charming, passionate record at its core, regardless of any production choices. Her voice is as strong and evocative as ever, so full of grit, yet delicate and insanely dynamic, and some of the tracks even remind me of some of her contemporaries that I have deep, obsessive loves of (The Blue Nile and Peter Gabriel come to mind a couple times here). I continue to believe that "This Woman's Work" could go down as her greatest song, for my money. What a way to end the album.
I'll be honest: my chances of ever going back to this are pretty low unless I have a reggae breakthrough, but this is pretty cool. More immediately accessible too.
Maybe I just don't know swing well enough but this is pretty engaging and energetic in a way that seems predictive of/aligned with the development of rock. Kinda nuts for 1956.
This is one you have to turn up loud to appreciate. Urge Overkill meets Fugazi meets Dinosaur Jr; vulnerable, aggressive, raw, passionate and regretful. If I heard this at 15 it might have changed my life.
Notable for its ability to be inoffensive and yet completely unengaging in almost every regard. I get the intent and the narrative but I actually have to be interested in the music to follow along with it, and frankly I'm not.
A foundational record to my musical upbringing. One of my first exposures to alternative rock and especially that of the 90s US alternative scene. A masterpiece in pretty much every regard, even if I rarely go back to it these days. "Silverfuck" is my pick for the Pumpkins' best song and it's not even close. What a monstrous record.
A sampling masterclass. Without this I'm not sure we have Donuts or even the foundations of vaporwave (i.e. Eccojams). While it's not one of my all-time favorite hip-hop records, I'd definitely call it an essential and I'm glad to see it here in the book.
I find it really funny that this is my first full length Pet Shop Boys record. Feels like the boys' answer to New Order's Technique, which I think is not only that band's best record but is one of the few house-adjacent records I can really dig. Pretty fucking good introduction.
Is it my favorite form of Smile? Not quite.
Is it the closest we'll ever get to a finished version of it? Yes.
The story of Smile is one of my favorite triumphs in popular music history, where Brian Wilson's most ambitious project eventually consumed him and caused (exacerbated?) a paranoid, anxious retreat into obscurity and which probably began to spell the end of the Beach Boys as a collective studio unit (Sunflower and Surf's Up notwithstanding). For Brian to go back to the record nearly 40 years after its original conception and finally present a completed version of it, one that is brimming with life and love and passion and a sense of complete catharsis...it's a big event. You can feel the collective enthusiasm and joy to bring this project to life from everyone involved, especially if you watch the brilliant concert film that came out with this album. I wish I wasn't a toddler when this came out and was actually an adult because just reading about the reception, the magnitude and weight of the concerts that Brian put on to play the album in its entirety live brings more than a tear to my eye.
A feat of human creation. A feat of the ability to make music that itself feels genuine emotion. We love you, Brian. Thank you.
A year ago, I would've said this record is just "alright". It peaks with "Yellow" and everything else surrounding it is passable at best. Now I realize it's a masterpiece and we were robbed of Coldplay veering towards post-rock and shoegaze after A Rush Of Blood To The Head and instead we got retail radio bullshit. What a shame.
This album still peaks with "Yellow" though. That song is crafted by the gods.
When I was a kid, Deep Purple were gods to me. Forget Zeppelin, these were the hard rockers I found a home in. I went years without hearing this album though, and even still the last time I heard it before today was in 2020. It's been a while man. And I'm glad to report it still holds up.
I see a lot of people consider this the best Can album and as much I respect its influence and its honestly-highly-ahead-of-its-time nature, I have never been able to fully gel with this one like Tago Mago or Ege Bamyasi. I think I even prefer Monster Movie to this one. But still, if you want something incredibly hazy, surreal and atmospheric with enough rhythmic variety and controlled chaos to go around, this is your band and especially your album. This sounds like early morning fog during a misty rain.
If I had to take a moment and think to myself of options for "best punk album" (not considering post-hardcore or any other subgenre, just pure punk), this is on the shortlist. A complete smorgasbord of musical directions and influence - think of just the first 3 songs on the album, we go from punk to rockabilly to lounge and it flows seamlessly - which manages to come across more like admiration than desecration which seems like an attitude that was missing in a lot of this music around this time. Understandably beloved.
I couldn't tell you the last time I actually went out of my way to listen to Arcade Fire, but I can tell you that Funeral left a pretty deep-yet-shortlived impression on me when I first heard it at 17. Hearing this for the first time, several years later, feels like I'm going through the same experience. Took some time to warm up to, but once this thing kicks in it pretty much stays there. Would probably be a 9/10 if "Rococo" didn't exist. Sorry.
Forever immortalized in other people's recordings as a reference point for samples (Nine Inch Nails and Death Grips come to mind) but for me this is a "classic" of my childhood music journey that didn't even open itself up to me until I was already approaching my 20s. I don't care what people say, this album RIPS from the opening seconds. Sure, Perry Farrell's voice is the definition of an acquired taste, but tell me "Jane Says" doesn't sound like one of the most desperately sad vocal performances ever. Now THAT is a perfect song.
As background noise during gaming, this album is incredible. Perfectly engaging and yet spacey enough to warrant it falling behind my focus. As a general focused listen, it's frustrating. Dance and electronic music, in most cases for me, needs to be related to something physical; working out, actually dancing, going for a run, just SOMETHING. But when I'm listening to these records either on my phone in bed, or at my computer, or in my car due to a lack of ability to currently do otherwise, their purpose is ultimately thrown out the window.
Also for the record I listened to the full 105-minute version of this album. It does not need to be that long.
Atmospheric, soft, sad and when it needs to be, incredibly vibrant. I've never been big on Lorde outside of a handful of tracks but I understand why this one gets a lot of praise. For some reason it makes me wonder if Olivia Rodrigo is going to make it into the next revision of the book.
At 13, Alice Cooper was one of my gateway artists into the proper world of rock music. He introduced, to me, shocking concepts in a song, the idea of being provocative and "edgy", which to an impressionable young man like myself, was alluring for both the right and the wrong reasons. Billion Dollar Babies was one of the records I latched onto for a period of time, and yet it's been nearly 10 years since I last heard a single track off this record.
I've always been more of a "solo Alice" fan - Welcome to My Nightmare and Goes To Hell come to mind - but this is a record that shines and sparks in the wake of the post-Ziggy glam explosion. It's a fine line between cringe and confident in this genre but this one steers towards the confident. I will say that it's lost all of the shock for me a decade later, but as a document of time in my life where songs like "I Love The Dead" sent a genuine chill down my spine, I look back on it somewhat fondly. If only that level of innocence were still so common.
Going into this with only a vague understanding of his father Fela's music is a little hilarious to me but I'm going to try my best here. This album is just...a ton of fun. My only real problem with it is that, again like a few other albums I've been given lately, a lot of these songs take way too long to wrap up. Several songs approach 10 minutes and while it's nice that they use that time to cultivate a pretty free, celebratory musical atmosphere, I feel like they could be halved. The length would be more justified in a live setting where there is a dynamic between the performer and the listener(s) in regard to energy and response.
In maybe the most confusing case of similarly named albums I've ever run into, I hope I'm doing the right one by picking the 1956 release with this exact name. Pretty samey by a certain point, but really lovely otherwise.
Mr. Simon has really become one of my favorite songwriters in the last couple of years as I become more and more attached to the work of S&G as well as his self-titled record. It's honestly refreshing to see another of his records, outside of the 1972 s/t and Graceland, get some attention, although I hadn't heard anything off this album up to today. Well, I heard the Central Park live version of "Late Great Johnny Ace", but that's it. The softer sophisti-pop angle this takes on some tracks really speaks to my current musical fixation, and I think this is a pretty interesting direction for Simon to take right before he'd plunge pretty deeply into world music; sort of an Eno-in-1981 thing, minus the genre-defining experimentation that came before it. A really nice record. The title track and "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After The War" are among his best.
Dark, grimy, filled with rage. Sometimes makes you feel like you're on speed, or so I imagine. "Their Law" and "Voodoo People" are among the Prodigy's finest, the former being my favorite track by them for years.
I just got Femi Kuti's debut literally 4 days ago, where I observed that I hadn't listened to Fela yet. What a hilarious turn of events. For how aggressive and passionate this is, this is also incredibly danceable and inspires a kind of human joy. Reading about the context surrounding this record (both before and after it was made, especially in Fela's personal life) definitely sharpens the topical edge a little more, but even without it, I think this is pretty enjoyable.
Van Halen and I have an interesting relationship. I'm absolutely so fucking tired of hearing their music over the radio from every classic rock station in a 50 mile radius, especially the same 5 songs (the worst offender being "Beautiful Girls" which has one of the most annoying hooks I've heard in a song). I've mostly moved past my need for flashy, glammy MTV-era hard rock (with some exceptions) and VH was one of the ones left in the dust when I mostly pivoted away from this kind of music. But at 13, some of these tracks were my life. "Jump" and "Panama" still resonate.
It's also worth noting that I didn't hear this album in its entirety until today. That might be part of the problem. This is actually pretty fucking great. Either my bias has slipped away or this is an exception.
This is a fun one to revisit. It's not for everyone but Sheryl's brand of very-timely (and subsequently dated) singer/songwriter/rock hybrid is exactly what I need today at the beginning of spring, on a sunny day in the mid-50s: it's brisk, bright and uplifting in a weird way. The first four songs and "All I Wanna Do" are enough of a qualifier for this record's greatness.
Trance-inducing, relaxing and beautiful. I have always loved the use of drones in Indian music, especially when I was first exposed to the concept as a kid through George Harrison's own examinations of the sitar (thanks in no small part to Shankar himself), but to hear it performed and explained by one of the masters is a real treat too.
Maybe it's because I'm really in a 70s folk/folk rock mood right now but this goes down ultra smooth in just the way I like it. Simultaneously catchy and heartfelt with Joan's beautiful voice to boot. The A-side is pretty much perfect. On top of that, Glyn Johns manufactures a brilliant recording job once again.
Well here's one that I've spent way too long waiting to hear. "Ready or Not" using an Enya sample to create an atmospheric, ambient pad for its beat to rest proves my personal taste in those kinds of beats. Love a good amount of the lines here too, amazing flows and performances. I'm still sick of mid-90s hip-hop records filling a CD just because they can though. I know the main album ends at 60 minutes but man I still think my preference for most hip-hop is 45 minutes or less (The Infamous and 36 Chambers not included).
A very strong 4-stars, since it handles the length pretty well and my enthusiasm for the album grew as it went on. Looks like I'll be coming back to this one, especially once I hear Miseducation.
Once again finding myself in a situation where I genuinely wonder if an album on this list is actually "essential". Is it because this is basically a supergroup? What about this is "cutting edge" or "essential" for the genre? It sounds so middle of the road and the only song here I genuinely enjoy deeply is the title track, which I've already heard more than I ever planned to thanks to its repetition on classic rock radio (and being a retail employee, that gets old real quick).
Ah, Dennis. What a sad story. I think the early 70s Beach Boys records (especially Sunflower) and this record might be the last bastion of beauty and hope in the story of the Beach Boys, even if things went pretty sour not too long after this. A really great record.
