I'm no hip hop expert and gansta isn't my favourite sub-genre. Scans as more east coast than west, but that makes sense in context. I find he gets stuck/comfortable in a particular cadence, but the departures from that are the standouts. Body Count is amazing.
The intros to almost every song in the first half sound like things that came before, but that familiarity probably isn't viewed as a bad thing. On the other hand, it's definitely RAWK MUSIC, but different than what came before it. Ah, dichotomies. Fun listen mostly.
Even if it weren't compositionally important, they're tight as hell and the recording generally sounds great. One of those albums that I like every time I listen to it, but that I don't choose to listen to very often.
Made my buttocks want to move of their own volition. That's always at least a 3.
I enjoyed this more than I expected to after generally trying to avoid prog rock for most of my life. Musicianship is obviously top notch, some of the melodies are exquisite, and the lyrics and vocals are nowhere near as bad as I feared. Definitely completely lost me a few times though.
This was fun music, fun performances. Lyrics were less "fun" but I think that's a big part of the point. Am I exactly the target audience or am I exactly not the target audience? Probably both, depending on the tune and the take.
I'm a bit of a sucker for plenty of piano holding down the bottom end, but that really only took me so far. Utterly inoffensive.
Okay, I get what the fuss was about. Holds up, too.
FWIW, this is the first time I've ever listened to a Kanye album. May be the last, too.
Pleasant to have on in the background, but pretty repetitive for active listening.
This is fine, and largely fun, but there were a couple of times when I thought to myself, "y'know, I could just listen to Tricky or Bob Marley." That may say more about me than the music, but I think it still says something about the music.
One of the best to ever do it doing it loud.
I get that this is probably The Smiths' best album, but it's not my favourite. Also, Morrissey, ugh. But also Johnny Marr, yay. Sounds like it was recorded in a broom closet, but at least those killer basslines are mixed up where they should be.
I am of an age where I grew up with the shadow of Elvis. I wasn't old enough to have any strong feelings because none of his stuff was played much anymore, but he was absolutely a mythical icon and clips of him would appear in lots of places. I'm most familiar with the 50s stuff and the later Vegas stuff. This album is interesting to me because it's neither of those. There's no old school Rock 'n Roll here, nor does it seem like the caricature that was the Vegas era.
The band is killer and the tunes put me in mind of folks like Tom Jones, Georgie Fame, George Jones, and the Righteous Brothers, which all make sense in context. The gospel-style backing vocals on some of the tracks bring a bit of the 50s forward. And whether you like him or not, that voice is iconic and he absolutely knew how to use it.
Definitely an album that had me in a contemplative state, and I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
Daddy Don't Cry is a fucking trip though, innit?
Man that’s some slinky guitar and vocals. Some of this is decent, some of it delightful.
It aint' Loveless, but it helps explain how they got to Loveless.
Who knew there was an entire album around There She Goes?
The name "Armatrading" rings a faint bell, but I was not at all familiar. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and I bet that band would have been tonnes of fun to see live even if it almost certainly wasn't a touring band. I hear echoes of this in some of Yola's work, and that's a compliment in both directions.
I know this album is huge for a (sub-)generation of folks that came after me; I was aware of it when it came out, and know the singles fairly well. Someone who resonates or resonated with the emotions of it probably rates it higher, but I certainly enjoyed a fair amount of it. It does leave me somewhat dreading what else from that era may be on this list though...
A less frantic, but no less intense Iggy than I'm used to.
So much fun. Kinda can't believe this came out in '81.
I'm a latecomer to Nick Cave. Been making up for it.
Didn't offend my ears, but didn't particularly excite them either. There was some fun instrumentation on a couple of them. That last track though, did someone lose a bet?
Probably my least favourite Zeppelin album. Might be JPJ's best bass album though.
That is some heavy music, and yet danceable. Would love to have been in the room to feel this band move air.
For no reason that I can explain, I never explored Slade. I was aware of them thanks to the Quiet Riot covers and the two hits from their 80s resurgence, but I'd never checked out an album. They write and play way better than they spell. Killer guitar tones, tough riffs, and some great rock piano as well. I'll listen to this again.
Although I am not a learned man when it comes to hip hop, West Coast Alternative is in the wheelhouse. Some fun samples and turntablism.
Love me some Elvis. Years of listening to the Greatest Hits has made me forget there's lots of worthy cuts I don't know even if they're not "hits."
This is one of those albums I'm sure has cultural significance that I'm not aware of. Catchy punk rawk, with some fun additions and divergences. What's not to like?
Honestly a little surprised at how dated this one sounds. Considering it's damn near thirty years old, it shouldn't be a surprise, but it is.
Ian MacKaye telling the world who he was and not giving a fuck what the world thought. Bonus: a lot of it is pretty catchy too.
The band smokes; some sweet ass guitar tones and Hamilton and Kramer are locked in.Steven Tyler has always been my stumbling block with this band, and this does nothing to change that.
I remember as a kid always pausing on this record when flipping through my Dad's collection. Never listened to it, but always found the cover striking. Didn't realize I probably already knew half the songs even then.
A reminder that there's such a thing as "proto hair metal." Some decent riffage (e.g., Beating Gets Faster) and the Mott guys producing is probably responsible for the solid use of keyboards. I might rate this higher if I'd seen them live in a club in 1984, but I'm also sort of glad I didn't?
I was big into Gish, Siamese Dream, and Pisces Iscariot, but I had moved on by the time this one came out. I was wondering whether I might find a new appreciation, but this was really a lot of listening to confirm that 1979 is still an all time great tune. Sure, there's a some other fine songs, fun guitar tones, strong playing, but like most double albums, what this needed was to be an LP.
I remember this one hitting like a bomb when it dropped. Crazy that it was so completely outdone six months later. I think time has been kinder to this one.
I remember seeing them on SNL in '88 and wondering WTF I had just watched/heard. I consistently forget how great the bass is on Birthday.
Reminds me in good ways of Tool and Mr. Bungle. A very fun ride.
Starts and ends well, but pretty lean around the middle. And I never need to hear that version of Across the Universe again.
This is the one where they sold out right?
Delightful 80s synth pop. I suspect spending time with it I'd find a whole lot more going on lyrically.
I’m not exactly a U2 fan, but if I’m going to listen to them this is probably the one I’m going to listen to.
Great pairing of performer and producer.
I'd never heard of this band let alone this album. Thoroughly enjoyed and will listen again.
Pleasant and upbeat with great production.
This album might well be the turning point for hard rock as we knew it in the 80s, the "peak" that marked the beginning of the decline. Richie Sambora was a way better player than I ever gave him credit for and the keyboardist reasonably decent. The rhythm section was dire (and got no help from the production). Jon Bon Jovi's vocals? Did the job that needed to be done to get his face on MTV, I guess. Now I'll hopefully go another thirty or forty years before I have to listen to it again.
Missing the Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go mashup, but I've always enjoyed the synths and snark combo.
Hold me closer Tony Danza
Haven't heard these guys since high school when I bought a compilation on spec. Fun then, fun now.
Did I enjoy that more than the other King Crimson album? I think I did. A whole point more? No.
Doesn't have my favourite Furs songs, but is probably their most even album (although even "remastered" it still sounds pretty terrible.) I dig Richard Butler like I dig Jarvis Cocker: I wouldn't want either of them writing a song about me, but I very much enjoy hearing what they've written about other people, including themselves.
There's probably another timeline where I was a huge Elliott Smith fan. This is not that timeline.
A reminder that many bands are way better than that one hit everybody knows.
Less dance-y, more poppy, like it all the same.
This is better than I remember it being when it was released.
What a pleasant surprise that was.
Everybody in this band was a gun player, but Elliot Easton may be one of the most underrated guitarists in rock.
I can't believe an all-timer tune like "This Woman's Work" was written for a Kevin Bacon movie. (Also a John Hughes movie, but not one of his better ones.)
There was some fun stuff in there, but Christ there was a lot of there there.
Better than I expected by a fair amount. Kids is a classic track.
I know this is an important album and obviously, it's Frank Sinatra, but my appreciation for bossa nova does not extend to this much bossa nova in one place, and certainly not this much Girl From Ipanema in one place.
One of the few 90s bands that cited punk as an influence and actually sounded like it, at least on this record. Caught by the Fuzz / Mansize Rooster / Alright is a great run of tunes.
Love Tracey Thorn's voice. Shades of 10,000 Maniacs and Cowboy Junkies. This is one of those albums that I suspect if I'd heard at just the right time in my life would have been a favourite.
Weird not to hear "American Music" because the cassette my friend made for me when we were teens had that on there, along with Ugly and Gimme the Car. Brian Ritchie's bass looms monstrous over the proceedings. There have been times in my life where I'd have rated this a five and others when it'd have been a three. Averaging that out...
I guess now I've listened to more than just Smoke on the Water and Highway Star. Legitimately heavy shit.
I don't know that this was groundbreaking or anything, but I listened to it twice in a row.
I think the polite term for this is, "They wear their influences on their sleeves?" Their influences are interesting and varied. Actually, I think I might go listen to some of those influences now.
As in love with his own voice as anyone I've ever heard; it's a great voice though. There are better covers of Hallelujah (and the original is pretty fuckin' good too). Nobody's touching Nina Simone's Lilac Wine. Corpus Christi Carol? Shrug.
Lover, You Should've Come Over is easily the best thing here, but overall I very much prefer the rock tracks to the non. Other than that I still see this as a strong debut album that punches way over its weight on influence. Betcha he was pretty great live, and I suspect given the chance he would have put out albums much better than this.
The songs are a little uneven, but it sounds amazing and the best of them are all-timers.
Had to settle for a YouTube rip, which was the Voiceprint release that includes 10 tracks from the German version. Krause reminds me of a less theatrical Ute Lemper. I'm not familiar with Eisler as much as Weill, but this record may lead me to redressing that; there is definitely something I like about German Cabaret.
Played the hell out of this one in the mid 2010s, but it's been a long time since I put it on. Still amazing. Layers and layers of stuff going on, but thoroughly enjoyable on its surface too.
I'd heard tell of this albums many times, but never sought it out. Mistake on my part.
So much going on here; challenging in all kinds of ways, and yet, at some level it's still "pop music." I feel like I can hear the influence this had on a lot of other music I like.
Tastefully restrained across performances and arrangements. The horns are especially nice. Let's Stay Together is head, shoulders, and probably torso, above the rest of it though.
I didn't know this album when it came out, but it certainly sounds of its time now. I was thinking to myself that there was a definite Radiohead vibe when Thom Yorke's voice appeared as if by magic. That's not a complaint.
Didn't need to listen to this to rate it, but listened to it twice anyway.
Not one of the albums I know best, but every time I listen to it I'm reminded I very much enjoy it.
Not what I would have expected from a band called "Primal Scream" or and album called "Screamadelica." But here we are. I hear some LCD Soundsystem in this, although I'm not sure what direction that influence goes. Kinda dance-y in a not-to-intense way.
This was a delightful surprise.
Malcolm Young had the best right hand in rhythm guitar history. Mutt Lange sure loves him a dry-as-dust rhythm tone though. It's leering, it's louche, it does what it says on the tin.
I was in junior high when Groove Is In the Heart hit. Interesting to know there was a very solid album around it that I never thought to check out. Sample quality and selection is amazing for 1990.
Certainly interesting, but not sure I ever see myself revisiting it again.
Christ. I love ego death on a Thursday morning. That it's only thirty-six minutes is insane.
Certainly some quality playing, especially the guitar. Weren't many songs that stuck with me, although there were a few riffs that sounded really familiar and I checked to see if they'd been sampled and that's how I remembered these guy wrote Taurus and I laughed and laughed.
Too long? Probably. But the right kind of too long.
Been a long time since I've listened to this. Maybe doesn't blow my mind the same way anymore, but I still love it. Mitch Mitchell was a madman.
I knew enough to expect the hot guitar playing, but not the well-crafted song or the harmonies. Dig it.
It's a lot, but the peaks are pretty high.
Seems to me I know someone who was really into this when it came out. Pleasant and fun. Sounds great too.
I'm a Neil Young fan and this is one of my favourites. Some great lyrics and some ham-handed lyrics. That one lyric everybody's been talking about for damn near 50 years. A guitar tone on the last song that informed grunge (and probably other genres). And a couple of glorious moments on side two when The Horse leaves the barn.
Comes across as one part Scritti Polliti, one part Squeeze, one part Depeche Mode. There's probably more parts I'm not cultured enough to recognize. I'm good with that.
I did my best, and even listened to it twice, but this doesn't speak to me. It clearly does to a lot of other people, and maybe if I'd caught it at a different time in my life I'd feel differently. There's nothing wrong with it, but it was work to get through and I didn't feel a reward.
I mainlined Cat Stevens the summer after 10th grade, cramming (most of?) this, Teazer and the Firecat, and Catch Bull at Four onto one 90 minute Maxell (or maybe TDK) cassette. Probably haven't heard more than a couple of these since, but was able to sing along with an awful lot of it. The songwriting and arrangements and performances definitely stand up. The lyrics maybe not so much? His sense of rhythm and phrasing really stands out, although maybe overdone by times.
I did appreciate the economy.
Pink Floyd, especially the earlier Barrett stuff, is a bit of a blind spot for me, so other than Astronomy Domine (which I know the Voivod version of better), most of this was new. Also, I've done some acid in my day, so it resonated pretty well.
Nothing as memorable as the next album, but you can see the genesis.
I'd never actually listened to this; I know I saw the movie once, but not in an environment that allowed me to appreciate the music. I think it did prove that they were more than a singles rock band.
Was completely unfamiliar with this and assumed at first that it was much more recent. Very much of its time, and reminiscent of Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, maybe a little Moby, and some of the French EDM that came later.
I'm probably never listening to this again, but it's a well-conceived, constructed, and performed pop album with some real depth. I admit I didn't realize what a vocal powerhouse she is.
“Play like your momma just died.”
And he did.
Eddie Hazel acid-drenched guitar heroism aside, this is all kids of fun and yet also plenty more than fun.
Didn't think I'd ever heard of Tortoise or heard the music, but tracks two and three were definitely familiar. An interesting trip in post rock and I'm sure I hear echoes of it in things that came later.
Another band I inexplicably slept on in their heyday. I always love an album where you can hear the sneer, but there are plenty of other things going on, including some delightful noise.
Hard to believe this band eventually had a couple of chart hits. Independent Worm Saloon was always more my jam, but I can see how this is the more relevant record.
Can't imaging hearing this in 1977. I think their later stuff is better, but this is quite an opening statement.
Once upon a time I would have made a case for this album being groundbreaking, and I guess some have. Dave Navarro is a fine guitarist, but not when he's trying to be. Perry Farrell can be an excellent lyricist, but probably not as consistently good as he thinks he is. The rhythm section is incredible and holds the rest of the bullshit together. When it works it's amazing (Jane Says, Mountain Song). But I don't think it works as much as it doesn't.
Pretty much everything from their first six records is instantly recognizable as Van Halen. Whether that leads you to turn off the radio or get up and dance is up to you.
They aren't responsible for the formulaic shit that was spawned to replace them, nor how badly everyone misunderstood what the formula was.
For a long time I considered them, and especially this album, for some reason, a guilty pleasure, but I jettisoned the guilt quite a few years ago now. Lots of people don't like it, and for lots of reasons; I know the reasons that I do like it.
I just don't feel like audio recordings, live or otherwise, can do justice to what James Brown (and that backing band!) was as a performer.
I don't remember a time when Merle Haggard looked or sounded less than old and, well, haggard, so hearing a much younger version of his voice is pretty novel. Ironically I think these songs probably sound more authentic with his later voice even though he'd lived them already at this point.
I definitely knew I was listening to U2.
This has so many components of so many other bands and albums. It's an effective pastiche, but I don't know that there's anything there that sets it apart or stands on its own. I mean, I enjoyed it, but it mostly made me want to listen to the other bands it reminded me of.
Gosh this listens a lot darker than it did when it came out.
Is this the most challenging listen amongst Kate Bush albums?
The highs are pretty epic, but the lows are almost comically bad, even accounting for the quality of the playing.
One of those albums I never owned but still manage to know fairly well. While there's all kinds of context people might want to put around it, in the end it's still an extremely good album.
A reminder that there's some excellent hip hop in the UK that I've never taken the time to explore. And I should address that.
This one is interesting to me. Why is it here on this list? Up until now even the stuff I completely haven't heard of before has had some kind of instant, "oh, that's why that's here," to it. But this? This is mostly cover tunes of early Rock'n'Roll and R&B, very credibly and energetically played. The originals hang pretty well with the covers, even. And I get that in the mid-sixties plenty of bands released albums like this one. But those ones aren't on this list and this one is. Is it because we're not getting the tunes that are covered? It ain't because this band "made it."
After doing the requisite reading, it's because this was an influential album to a lot of people who did later make it. Which is fine. But you probably had to be in the right place at the right time for it to have that effect.
Would have been way more fun to find out that this was the band that inspired The Commitments. I could absolutely see that lead singer being as problematic as he is talented. And the band as tenuous as they are tight. I'd probably put this on again in the right circumstances.
