Lush, engaging, and innovative. The first true modern jazz album, setting the scene for the rhythmic exploration of the following decade. Joe Morello's drumming is among the best in recorded jazz history, while Paul Desmond delivers some of the most intoxicating saxophone tones and timbres ever. An incredible record to play in the background, but so deep and nuanced and thoughtful when given a concentrated listen.
Really fun, energetic album, haven't explored this type of music at all before. Some slower moments of the record but not slow in a way that killed the album's momentum. I definitely prefer the A-side over the B-side, but the continuous blend of electronic and acoustic elements, matched with fantastic production, makes this album stand out.
Favorite track: Zero
It's an okay album that would be a really good album if it was fully instrumental. My favorite moments of this record were the ones where David Lee Roth isn't singing. EVH and AVH lean into the prog/proto-metal influences set forth by Rush and King Crimson in the early 1980s and though I respect the re-packaging of those sonic aesthetics with a more pop-friendly delivery, it feels like their musicianship is held back by DLR's singing. AVH's drumming is electric, though, and EVH is of course a monster with the axe.
Favorite song: Hot For Teacher
Really fun album, love the forwardness of the drum mixing. Dynamic sonically and rhythmically. Hard to have a perfect instrumental hip hop album in my opinion, but this sure comes close.
Favorite track: What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1 – Blue Sky Revisit)
I love this album so so much. More focused than White Light / White Heat but warmer than Nico. Such an easy album to listen to with a beautiful array of moods and textures. To me, The Velvet Underground are singular in their approach to songwriting and recording, it's hard to be a rock band that is so cognizant of space and atmosphere, but this album captures a time in place so beautifully. No skips, damn near perfect album in my opinion.
Favorite track: so hard to pick, but as of today it's probably Pale Blue Eyes. Some days it's Candy Says, others it's What Goes On, others it's After Hours.
Really phenomenal album. Soundgarden's ability to toe the line between all out grunge and prog is wildly impressive. And Chris Cornell is, of course, an absolute beast. One of those albums that kind of entraps you and before you know it, it's been over an hour and you could keep listening forever. So many great tracks and no real weak spots.
Favorite track: Spoonman
Dope album, fun to listen to and a great blend of punk and hip hop aesthetics.
Favorite track: Ricky’s Theme
Didn’t give this album a super close listen but reads as a classically solid early 70s Beatlesque record, nothing too crazy or standout but far from disappointing, too.
Favorite track: School
Fine album, no real notes I guess. I wish the guy didn't sing I do not like his voice very much.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds has been on my list to get in to for a while and I feel embarrassed that it took this long. This album beautifully balances the idyllic with the desperate, space with overwhelm, and pure depravity with love. Nick Cave's arrangements are stunning. His voice is so unique but a true instrument. Huge fan of this album, and cannot wait to dive into more of this discography.
Favorite track: There She Goes, My Beautiful World
Simply one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever, and certainly among the best produced. An incredibly fun and easy listening hour of music, and the type of album that makes you want to listen to similar records for the rest of the day. No skips, the pinnacle of G-funk, and several classics.
Favorite track: Gin and Juice
Very mediocre album. Bluesy in some ways, new wave in others, hard at moments but there is little cohesion between these three streams of influence. It's a pop music approach to this type of music which I can appreciate but like lots of '80s pop-oriented rock music, it's chock full of corny lyrics and a perpetual fear of committing too much to one genre. Very disappointing album and the first one I would call bad from this exercise. I do not enjoy it much at all.
Favorite track: none, but if I had to pick it would be I Need You Tonight
Another band I’ve been meaning to get into and an album I wish I had given a closer listen to. Nevertheless, I can certainly see why Sonic Youth is painted as progenitors of the noise rock movement, which is a sub-genre of rock I’ve been getting more into. It’s certainly an album whose total is greater than the sum of its parts, but it’s damn good.
Favorite track: Total Trash
Really phenomenal album and somehow one that I haven't listened to until now. Layne Staley, man. What a voice. This band rules, this album rules, and if I hadn't already listened to Superunknown as a part of this project, I'd probably call this the best grunge album ever. I'm so conflicted as whether to give this a 4 or 5 stars, but know that it's somewhere in the middle.
Favorite track: Them Bones
I wish I liked this album more but I just don't. I am not a big fan of Morrissey's corny, self-deprecating, and yearning lyrics and I find the pacing here to be jolted and slow. This album reads much better as a collection of singles as opposed to a coherent piece, which sucks because I actually really like the performances turned in by Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke. For every lane this record tries to occupy, I can think of several other albums I would rather spend my time listening to. If a relatively short album loses my attention by the end of track 7, I can't faithfully say that I like it. I find this album to be boring and uninspired, but it is more so just not up my alley than it is a bad record.
Favorite track: I Know It's Over
Phenomenal album. Easily Paul McCartney's most focused stream of creative output of his post-Beatles career. No skips on this album, though the B-side is, in my opinion, slightly less invigorating as the A-side. But so many amazing tracks that conjoin to tell a beautiful story of longing, love, and freedom! And the legend only grows when you learn that Paul recorded the vast majority of the parts on the record. Amazing album front to back.
Favorite track: Let Me Roll It
Like this album. Don't love it though. Fun sound, I am a big fan of the drumming performance, but it definitely becomes a bit repetitive towards the end. No major criticism, but nothing that blows me away either.
Favorite track: God's Cop
Classic album. Not much else to it.
Favorite track: Riders on the Storm
I’ve heard of this band but hadn’t heard any songs. Pretty fun record though! The harmonies are beautiful and the arrangements are well constructed. Nothing about this stands out as an all time great album, but nothing makes it disappointing by any stretch, either.
Favorite track: My Uncle
I try to approach each album in a rather conservative manner. I often try to think critically about why an album shouldn't be rated 5 stars, as I'm worried that I am too liberal in my rankings. What happens, though, when an album presents as a five star record so clearly?
This is perhaps the best album I've reviewed to this point. I can't recall many albums that so clearly convey the emotional input of the band that made the record. This album starts at 100 and never lets off the gas. I want to specifically highlight Tim Commerford's performance here. His bass tone is unreal and drives the music so damn well. This album just rules, man.
Favorite track: Freedom
I wanted to like this album but it’s kinda meh. Pretty unfocused in its delivery but I appreciate the innovation nonetheless. A really good example of an album one should listen to before they die but not necessarily a great album in it of itself.
Favorite track: nothing stands out, but Hard Coming Love I suppose
Really cool album, very ahead of its time. It’s always a blast discovering San Francisco psychedelic acts from this period of time, each one has clear streams of influence but all have their own take on that movement. Definitely an album that is better consumed as a collective piece and not by each individual track, but this shouldn’t be shocking given the through composition on the A side. I like this album and will definitely be exploring more of their work.
Favorite track: Who Do You Love - Pt. 1
Certainly an interesting album. It lost my attention at times and sometime felt like the shtick had been used all the way up. But a cool record nonetheless, and I love the approach to sampling in a decisively non-hip hop context.
Favorite track: Frontier Psychiatrist
I love Neil Young, this album rules. His voice is so distinct in the folk/rock canon.
Favorite track: Powderfinger
Very very dope album. I love the proto-industrial sound and am particularly fond of the electronic motorik feel throughout the whole album. Steve Albini is a genius.
Favorite track: Big Money
Fuck everyone this album rules. If you can't understand the intention behind it, your brain probably can't compute music more complicated than ZZ Top. John Zorn is a fucking beast, Ornette Coleman was an insanely gifted composer, and this album is one of the greatest tributes of all time.
Favorite track: Zig Zag
First true experience with Gorillaz and damn, I've been missing out. Will definitely be checking more of their work out. Each track has its own flair and both stand out as individual pieces but works in great cohesion, too.
Favorite track: Latin Simone (Que Pasa Contigo)
This is far from Talking Heads' best record, but it's still Talking Heads so it cannot possible be rated poorly. It doesn't have quite the same edge and zing as their other work, but there are some really great tracks here. The Take Me to the River cover was an unexpectedly great surprise. And, if nothing else, this album made me want to listen to Talking Heads for the rest of the day, and that's gotta count for something.
Favorite track: Take Me to the River
Great, classic funk sound. Haven’t given EWF a deep listen like this before, but their arrangements are surprisingly intricate. Long live 70s funk.
Favorite track: Africano
A fine album that gets bogged down by trying to be too much of something that becomes quite repetitive after an hour. I often got bored listening to this record, but Madonna has a killer voice. I find it to be musically uninteresting but far from a truly bad album. I do not think this style of electronic music is for me, and that is okay.
Favorite track: Drowned World / Substitute for Love
Bad, bad album. Creepy lyrics, boring instrumentals, and a half-assed attempt at being Bowie and The Smiths, the latter of which is also quite bad. Nothing I enjoyed about this album whatsoever.
Favorite track: none
What a band, what an album.
Favorite track: Murder By Numbers
This album rules a the only reason I’m giving it a 3 instead of a 4 is because I know how good Yes can be and this is just scratching the surface. But the bass performance on this album is ridiculous and this is genuinely beautiful rock music. I love prog so much. I’ve changed my mind fuck it this is my project and if I want to give an album a 4 I’m gonna give it a 4 damnit. Long live prog long live Yes.
Favorite track: Yours Is No Disgrace
Very okay album. I often felt bored. Didn't do much to really grab my attention and the same DnB beat can only be reused so much. Certainly important for later groups like death grips but not my favorite by any means.
Favorite track: Serial Thrilla
Dope ass album. Damon Albarn rules. I wish more artists made cool music.
Favorite track: Parklife
Another banger album. Oasis rips. Such a skill to make groovy, fun, and catchy music without it getting boring. Nothing here will musically blow you away but damn does it work together. If it sounds great, it is great, and this is great.
Favorite track: Supersonic or Married With Children
Album rips. Super ahead of its time, certainly feels like it influenced most of the rock aesthetics that would emerge in the 90s. Nothing critical to say about this album.
Favorite track: Is She Weird
Unbelievably gorgeous album. This is the type of record that makes me want to stop whatever I am doing and absorb the music. Mind blowing that this was written and recorded in 1966! So ahead of its time. Brian Wilson is a mad genius of a songwriter. Even with a gun to my head, I could not make a single criticism of this album. The easiest five I have given out yet, and unquestionably one of the 2 or 3 greatest pop albums ever. Music like this simply exists on a different plane than most other pieces. Art in an album.
Favorite track: I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
This album absolutely rips. Like so many records on this list, it feels so ahead of its time. So clear the ways in which JA influenced RATM, Beastie Boys, Nirvana, QOTSA, etc. Funky, groovy, off-the-beaten-path, and unique -- everything you could ask for and more from a rock album. Only slow moments occurred towards the very tail end of the record, and the album's A-side more than covers all of its bases. And Flea plays trumpet on it!
Favorite track: Idiots Rule
Is this the greatest album ever? No. Is it the finest guitar playing or singing in music history, hell even in Johnny Cash's career? Also no. Is this an album that beautifully ties together the legacy and sound of an American music icon? 100% yes, and that is why this record gets a five from me.
The arrangements are elegantly simple. The track selection is gorgeous, and its ordering tells a masterfully woven story. The duets seamlessly connect past to present. Overall, this album creates an atmosphere that properly celebrates one of this country's most important musical figures.
Johnny knew he was towards the end of his life, and this is his parting gift. What a reflective, celebratory, and ingeniously straight-forward gift it is.
Fun album, don’t have much to particularly uplift or criticize. Great bass playing and certainly culturally significant to emerging punk aesthetics. The Clash are a cool band.
Favorite track: I’m so Bored with the U.S.A.
This album is so awesome. It feels like if Tom Waits possessed Randy Newman, smoked a joint with Michael Jackson, then listened to the Talking Heads and then made an album.
Favorite track: Sad Old Red
Oooh look at us we're Judas Priest we use religious imagery and put razor blades on our album covers. Ooh look at us we're Judas Priest we use a double kick drum, of course we're metal.
I am so incredibly bored by this glam rock-ified approach to heavy rock music. It dictionaries included sonic entries as definitions, this album would be the use case for "sell out". This album is lazy, uninspired, and has aged horribly. Not only could you go your whole life without listening to it, you could probably go 10,000 lives without listening to it. Hell, Spinal Tap makes better music than this album, and they are a parody of this very music. One star.
Favorite track: none
Dope album can’t go wrong with DMC. Maybe the epitome of an album that was ahead of its time.
Favorite track: Peter Piper
This band is perfectly named; they play the bongos and they are incredible! Really fun album and beautifully mixed. Always a blast hearing drums and percussion at the forefront of a record.
Favorite track: In A Gadda Da Vida
An insanely ambitious creative project that sometimes really hits and sometimes doesn’t. Really intricate arrangement and songwriting, sometimes is too much though.
Favorite track: Birmingham Blues
Really incredible album. Makes me wanna watch the movie real bad.
Favorite track: Dead Bodies
Favorite track: Lost in the Supermarket
Already listened to as part of this project.
Favorite track: Rock Lobster
This has gotta be the most late 80s album ever and I love it. I firmly believe that Janet Jackson would have been just as big, if not bigger, than MJ if she had received the same level of investment.
Favorite track: Rhythm Nation
Favorite track: So In Love
Favorite track: E Luxo So
When I was young, maybe 8 years old, I was on vacation with my family in Hawai'i. I was tossing a baseball with my beloved dad on the warm, soft sand of Maui when, as if he were Poseidon himself, I witnessed Steven Tyler in all of his androgynous glory emerge from the sea draped by two gorgeous women on either side of him. My dad, a proud Bostonian and lover of classic rock, noticed him immediately, for how could he not. I recognized him as the guy with long hair who sang the national anthem at Patriots games. Mr. Tyler looked at me and said "hey kid! throw me the ball!", so of course I did.
To this day, my love of Steven Tyler is a byproduct of this admittedly awesome experience. My love of Steven Tyler is not, though, a byproduct of his band making genuinely incredible music.
Rocks is an easy listen and undoubtedly ahead of its time. That said, the time for which this album is ahead of is not a particularly remarkable one. One would think that this album came out in the '80s, as the meandering laziness of ZZ Top, nails-on-a-chalkboard screeches of David Lee Roth, and glam-metal bullshit of Judas Priest dominated rock airwaves. I have been forced -- against my wishes, to be sure -- to listen to those three "artists" for this project. Their drab performances have been reacted to with appropriate ratings: two stars for Van Halen and one star for ZZ Top and Judas Priest.
Sonically, Rocks features many similarities to these other artists. However, it came out in 1976. For its time, it was heavy and probably perceived to be alternative to the pop-oriented, orchestral, and sophisticated psychedelia sounds that emerged after The Beatles called it quits. For that reason, this album is good. Not great, but good. For 1976, it was ahead of its time. And though the time that this album paved a path for was uninspiring and dull, I cannot, in good faith, fault Aerosmith for that. Plus, Dusty Hill nor David Lee Roth played catch with me on a beach in Hawai'i in my childhood. Mr. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith did.
Favorite track: Back In the Saddle
Bad album. Boring album. Mid as fuck. Dull lyrics. Dull instrumentals. Uninspiring.
Favorite track: Mrs. O'Leary's Cow
Favorite track: No More Trouble
Ginger Baker and Fela Kuti. What else could you ask for?
Favorite track: Ye Ye De Smell
The greatest band ever. No question. Sonically, narratively, emotionally, and musically, this album is simply stunning. The Beatles' ability to create music with such depth is a gift that no other artist or band has come even remotely close to approaching. To tinker with the blues, hard rock, avant-garde, acoustic, and folk -- all underpinned by the genius of George Martin's tasteful additions via orchestral arrangement -- is just unreal.
No album has ever been made that sounds like this. And no album will. No notes.
Favorite track: literally impossible to pick so I'm just going to rank them all in tiers
Tier 1 (all could be my favorite depending in the day): Back In The U.S.S.R.; Dear Prudence; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; While My Guitar Gently Weeps; Happiness is a Warm Gun; Martha My Dear; Blackbird; Yer Blues; Helter Skelter; Honey Pie; Mother Nature's Son
Tier 2: Glass Onion; Rocky Raccoon; I Will; Birthday; Revolution 1; Savoy Truffle; Don't Pass Me By
Tier 3: The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill; I'm So Tired; Piggies; Julia; Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey; Sexy Sadie; Long, Long, Long; Why Don't We Do It In The Road; Good Night
Tier 4: Wild Honey Pie; Cry Baby Cry, Revolution 9
Mitchell. Drake. Simon. Dylan. Young. Stevens. Chapin.
A legacy of storytellers and poets with a six-string in their hands. Yet, in my estimation, Mr. Leonard Cohen stands above them all. A true giant of his craft. There are simply not enough adjectives to describe the works of Leonard Cohen.
This album is aptly titled, as it provides the listener with Mr. Cohen at his most human -- longing, desperate, woeful, lonely, and doubtful; yet filled with conviction, faith, and hope. This album, like Leonard's collective body of work, taps into an emotional well that few of his contemporaries can so easily do. The second that resounding E chord hits my ears on "Suzanne", I am presented with no choice but to pause whatever it is I am doing and sit in reverence of this man's songwriting. This is an album that I cannot wait to introduce to my future children.
Favorite track: Suzanne, which I would argue is one of the best songs of all time
