This album was difficult for me to rate, both because it’s the first album we got and because the reputation and impact of the Beatles is often better than their music itself. I love the exciting, rock tones in some of the songs but overall feel that other than the notoriety, many of the songs are a little… milquetoast.
Season: Late Spring
Favorite Song: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Lots of covers. Such a mature sound for his age. I cannot begin to imagine what kind of music he may have released had he been around longer.
Season: Late Winter
Favorite Song: Down in the Valley
Ok but I do like folk music. Maybe not my favorite genre but recently, I have been listening to a lot of folk. I just… can’t get past Neil Young’s voice in some of these songs. Unfortunately, that is a big sticking point for me. I will say that I like some of this other work, especially group recording that he’s done.
Season: Early Fall
Favorite Song: Only Love Can Break Your Heart
A great album, Sade’s voice is warm and comforting. I don’t feel like any of the songs are super stand out for me, but the overall tone of the album is captivating.
Season: True Winter
Favorite Song: Smooth Operator
This album is what late summer sounds like when you grew up upper middle class in the same town your mother grew up lower middle class. And nothing you do can actually be all that unique because her experiences overshadow yours. I cannot possibly expand on that thought. Also, I am physically incapable of being normal about Movin’ Out.
Season: Late Summer
Favorite Song: Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
‘What if I had a mental breakdown early in the album and then the rest of the songs were just my breathing exercises?’ One of these songs gave me actual motion sickness. Also I listen to music largely for the lyrics and I kept thinking I could almost hear words but I couldn’t which was deeply unsatisfying. If I had to rank it based on the individual songs, I think it overall would get a 2. But ranking it based on my experience with the album as a whole, I have to give it a 1. I could not fully recover from listening to Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors.
Season: Psychosis/Late Autumn
Favorite Song: Knives Out
I do not have any deep thoughts. It’s simply not for me.
Good album. Not sure I can imagine listening to this anywhere that *I* would go which does make replay-ability a little difficult. Also, I enjoy it when songs have words.
Season: Early Winter at Night
Favorite Song: Breathe
Fun, intense, a little vampire-y. Really answers the question, what if the Cold War happened but you were also goth? 100% on the high end of a 3 but still a 3.
Season: True Winter
Favorite Song: Flood I
Another album that I just think got me on the wrong day. If I heard this playing in a park, I would think this is super cool. But not something I would be able to put on for my own purposes. Also, I think I could use about 3 minutes less on each song (must be my iPad kid attention span) which might have moved me from a 2 to a 3.
Season: True Autumn
Favorite Song: Frustrations
Ok, so if you know me, you know that my sense of timelines is really bad. Like, time before the 2000’s doesn’t exist in a linear way in my mind. So I have no clue what the state of punk was in 1979. But I will say that this album really sounds like it influenced a lot of the 90’s punk music I listen to currently. That being said… this was a hard listen. Every song just had me hoping for like, 1 more thing to be added so it didn’t sound so… raw and open.
Season: Early Autumn
Favorite Song: Adventures Close To Home
I am a BIG Sly & The Family Stone guy and prior to this, the only War song I had heard was “Low Rider” so this was a pleasant listen! If you like the “Thank You for Talkin’ to Me, Africa” version of “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (or that general Sly Stone era messaging) this may be the album for you. “The Cisco Kid” may be one of my favorite songs from this project yet. Some of the other songs just weren’t wordy enough for me but this is a great hot, summer, concrete jungle type album.
Season: Late Summer
Favorite Song: The Cisco Kid
Paul Simon is a musical icon and as someone who grew up religious, middle class, and somewhat white, Paul Simon was a huge part of my childhood. That being said, most of Paul Simon’s portfolio from later in his life reeks of early midlife crisis. His solo career post Simon & Garfunkel had promise but Graceland was a difficult and confusing choice made by a man trying to find himself again in other people’s culture. And for what it’s worth, we all do it from time to time. Trying to reinvent ourselves in the shape of someone else? Much easier than finding internal creativity. I refuse to comment on the politics surrounding Paul Simon’s choices of making white people mbaqanga during apartheid simply because that would take me all day. Regardless, I find Graceland to be overall fine with a few hits and at least one big miss.
Season: Early Fall
Favorite Song: You Can Call Me Al
I was physically unable to continue to pay attention through this album. I assumed I had listened to all the songs not because I had sat there for what felt forever but struggled, personally, to find where one song ended and one began. This is entirely a me problem.
Season: True Autumn
The Band just… doesn’t hold up for me. Maybe it was because it was Women’s Day or maybe it was just the Canadian of it all. Also, I’ve heard some of these songs before but they somehow sound worse all together like this.
Season: Late Summer
Favorite Song: Rockin’ Chair
I’m into it! Indie punk rock is very much in my interests. Not all the songs were great, but there were some that I would listen to again. A high 3 in my book.
Season: Late Spring
Favorite Song: Date With The Night
Ok. I think that R.E.M. is difficult to rate because 1. the nostalgia 2. the amount that R.E.M. influenced a ton of the 90’s punk and pop punk that I enjoy. Here’s the deal… I just didn’t love it as an album. It wasn’t bad, there were songs I liked. But I’m not an album person and listening to Green reminded me why. Some of these songs would be awesome in a playlist but I just… wasn’t into the combination.
Season: Late Summer
Favorite Song: World Leader Pretend
This one may be on the lower end of 5 for me but still a 5. It started really hitting me that we’re listening to like… 1000+ albums and so if I find 150 albums to be 5s, that’s fine. So although this is not my most favorite Bowie album, it’s for sure a re-listen. It reminds me of when I first got my car and would play Bowie whenever my parents were in it because I didn’t have any other playlists that felt appropriate to play with them around. Which was mostly funny because they listened to tons of much more explicit music around me. Anyways, my older sister was a big fan of NASA stuff and Bowie always makes me think of being a kid and watching rocket launches. Nostalgia album.
Season: Start of School (Early Autumn)
Favorite Song: Across The Universe
Great album but not my favorite Pixies album. A high 3.
Season: Early Winter
Favorite Song: Allison
I go into this as someone who has not heard anything from Willie Nelson before but I know a good number of these songs by their original artist. I think covers are hard because it’s a direct comparison to the originator. That being said, I really liked this album. Enough that multiple songs could make regular rotation. I’m not much into country but I do have a healthy level of nostalgic response to summer camp style songs and I will say, a lot of these covers hit me in that spot. Multiple songs in the re-listen category, but a couple songs that were just too country for me.
Season: Early Winter
Favorite Song: Stardust
(Disclaimer: I’m the problem.) Here’s the deal. Queen is big and iconic. They mimic a lot of art rock sounds but make them new and fresh. And as a result they inspired many artists in different genres. And unfortunately, to me, they sound like a lot of current megachurch, christian music. Which is not their fault. But so off-putting to me that I can’t really stomach it.
Well it sure was 2007 huh. To me, there are a lot of bands that sound like this and frankly sound better. I didn’t know any of these songs going in and I do not feel the need to hear them again. It was fine.
Season: True Autumn
Favorite Song: Windowsill
It was good for reggae... I just don't have a regular place for reggae in my life.
I thought this was gonna be a higher ranking for me but honestly... other than the hits off the album, it was just ok.
Wow! I’ve only ever heard of one of these songs and it was the Lana Del Ray cover of “Season of the Witch” that gets popular every September/October lol. Overall, a big fan. There were a couple songs that were a bit too… religious christmas song sounding and I wasn’t so into that. But the rest of it was fun and great to listen to.
Season: Early Autumn
Favorite Song: Sunshine Superman
For an electronic album… not too bad. Really, I was going to give it like a 2.7 or something but “Quality Seconds” made me drop the score to a 2.4. I appreciate the minimalism and that’s about it. Better than silence I guess. The cat did not enjoy the noises.
Season: Early Spring
Favorite Song: Forever
Oooh newer music! Good lyrics and an awesome first song to get me engaged from the start. This is unique music that feels like the best of the time. Beautiful, soulful, and respectfully referential. What a great listen.
Season: Early Fall
Favorite Song: You Ain’t The Problem
On my currently short list of albums I have never heard before that I like more than average! There are some songs that I would have loved to hear a little more variation on, but I liked it and would listen again!
Season: True Summer
Favorite Song: Kerosene
This was painful, I have nothing redeeming to say. It was just… toothache inducing vocals with synths that I couldn’t care less about. Plus simply too long of an album.
Season: 2012
Favorite Song: Tether
There’s not much I enjoy more than old timey lover boy music. It can get a little same-y but I had a smile on my face the whole time. And I know a number of these are American standards but he sure does make them sound good. Maybe I’m irreparably Elf-pilled and brainwashed. For what it’s worth, this is my lowest 5 yet.
Season: True Summer Nights
Favorite Song: You Make Me Feel So Young
Yeah, I guess I would recommend this if my doctors office wanted much cooler hold music. That’s about it. Was this cooler in 1995? Unknown, I was not alive then.
Season: Early Summer
Favorite Song: Black Flute
I just can’t do live albums.
Season: True Fall
Favorite Song: Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Season: True Summer
Favorite Song: New Church
I guess I didn’t know what Red Hot Chili Peppers really sounded like? I’m not quite sure how that happened.
I can only imagine how cool it must have been to be a teenager when this came out. Unfortunately when I was a teenager everyone I knew was listening to Brendon Urie. Anyways, good album. Felt a little all over the place ranging from iconic to uncomfortable (for me). A solid 3.
Season: Early Summer
Favorite Song: Killer Queen
Definitely a different time… but I do love a draft dodging song. This album took me through a whole range of emotions in a nice, short package. There were some songs I liked the sound of and some that I liked the lyrics of. My Uncle is also joining regular rotation.
Season: Late Summer
Favorite Song: My Uncle
Runner Up: Dark End Of The Street
I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just can’t get behind long songs. Covid fried my brain is2g.
Ok I kind of think that I am much harder on albums/bands that are more recent and I never took the time to investigate but am now learning from this project that I don’t like.
Season: Early Fall
Favorite Song: Starlight
Season: Late Spring Nights
Favorite Song: Water
There’s something about The Kinks that makes me respect them a little more than the Beatles. I think it’s because I kind of think that they believe what they are saying more than the Beatles? Don’t crucify me though, I literally cannot care about either band less. Hence the down the middle score.
Season: True Fall
Favorite Song: Graveyard Train
Yeah it just feels weird ranking something that I remember coming out. Idk. There’s some great hits on here, I like thinking about how an album like this impacts later releases in her solo career. But on the other hand… eh.
I would rate it high for the genre. Love a short little album, was good to listen to for the time I was listening. Probably not going back to this one but wouldn’t hate to hear it out in public at a state fair or something.
Season: Late Summer
Favorite Song: Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing Through)
This album made me go and lower the rating I gave the other R.E.M. album. It’s just so much better to me. Almost almost a 4. Most every song was either a 3 or a 4 on it’s own.
Season: Late Spring
Favorite Song: Radio Free Europe
Wow, this album really took me through a whole range of emotions. But like, lowkey /neg. Some of these songs are already on my playlists. The rest of them did not exactly compel me to add to rotation.
Season: True Autumn
Favorite Song: Old Man
I just felt a little unimpressed. Picking a favorite song felt difficult but not because there were so many good options.
Season: True Spring
Favorite Song: I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better
Incredibly 2012 Tumblr feeling. Really shockingly bland. Felt like it belonged in a short Hulu series about young millennials.
Ok so, I think I owe Paul Simon a formal apology. In my review for Graceland, I wrote that “His solo career post Simon & Garfunkel had promise but Graceland was a difficult and confusing choice made by a man trying to find himself again in other people’s culture.” And you know what… when I wrote that I thought higher of Simon & Garfunkel. But now, after listening to this and Bookends, I want to say that maybe Simon & Garfunkel wasn’t as great as I thought. And maybe Paul Simon had to do what he could to regain relevance.
Onto this album though, there were exactly 2 songs I had heard from this album prior, Homeward Bound and 7 O’Clock News. And those are probably the only ones I will relisten to. Mostly Homeward Bound although 7 O’Clock News makes an interesting christmas playlist.
Season: Early Winter
Favorite Song: Homeward Bound
I prefer to hear the lyrics and unfortunately most of the lyrics were in cursive.
Season: Late Summer
Favorite Song: The Bucket
Mumble mumble a very solid 2.
You know, I really love Just What I Needed and expected to like the rest of the album but it was just… fine.
Season: Early Summer
Favorite Song: Just What I Needed
This album felt more like a concert than an album. And that’s not like, my favorite thing? It was a good album but I thought I was close to the end and then It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night just kept going forever. This is like, a very high 3 for me.
Season: True Summer
Favorite Song: Housequake
Good album, I really liked Orange Moon and Green Eyes. Just probably won’t be one that comes to mind as something I really need to listen to again.
Season: Late Autumn
Favorite Song: Orange Moon
Huh. I actually thought I liked this album more than I do. I think Bound 2 is one of the highlights of Kanye's career but the rest of this is kind of the worst. Not even looking to start in on Kanye himself.
Thought this album was good but not great. I just wish Van Morrison had made his voice a tiny bit more acoustic to match the tracks.
Season: Early Winter
Favorite Song: Slim Slow Slider
Wow. Uh, I knew I liked a good number of these songs but I didn’t think I liked them this much. Honestly, I was debating a 5 for this album but decided that I would be more likely to put on individual songs from this album rather than the whole thing. Regardless, I was happy to see a little alternative music in this generator.
Season: True Summer
Favorite Song: All These Things That I've Done or Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll
Maybe another case of listening to an album on the right day but I was in a ‘gotta lock in’ situation and this album really came through for me. I don’t know if I really think there’s a bad song on this album but since I’m basic, Enjoy the Silence always hits.
Season: True Autumn
Favorite Song: Enjoy the Silence
