1001 Albums Summary

About what I expected. Nothing on here I would ever want to hear again, but not absolutely horrible. Just not my cup of tea.

I liked the songs I already knew on here, and a couple more. The problem for me was I didn't really like the band much, and any time anyone other than Janis started singing the whole thing became kind of unpleasant.

Enjoyed this a lot. Not just the hits.

Close to a five. Can't think of a song on hear I disliked. But something stopped me from going all out with five.

For me the first half of this album was much stronger than the second. Even though I don't usually love instrumentals I was really enjoying the first few songs. But the back half didn't hold my interest nearly as much. Still, this was a pleasant surprise considering I'd never heard of the band before now.

Oh R.E.M. How do I love thee, let me count the ways.

I thought I had a soft spot for the Pogues but re-listening to this so many years later I wasn't quite as enchanted.

I had this album back in the day, but didn't listen to it as much as other PE records. I remembered why while I took this in. For me it started really strong but declines as it goes on. "Letter to the NY Post" troubled me at the time and has aged very poorly, making the 4th "side" of the record unlistenable. It's too bad because the good stuff on here is REALLY good.

Sadly this is just not for me. I can appreciate the ability but I would just never choose to listen to this album again.

Ok. This was the first album in this project that was close to a revelation. Why did I never listen to this all the way through? So much better than what she did with Big Brother etc. I really enjoyed this record and will listen to it again. Definitely deepens the sorrow that she did not live long enough to have the career she should have had.

No thank you.

Enjoyed listening to this again after so many years. Mostly it aged well, for me, aside from my not having the patience for the skits anymore.

Would I listen to this whole album again? No. Would I mind if someone else put it on? No. Am I shocked it was so popular when it was released? Yes. Not as bad as I feared, but not really for me.

100% no.

I know rationally this is not a particularly great U2 album. There are some real earworms on here of course, but some songs are garbage (New York??), while many seem like filler. Nonetheless, listening to Bono on a day that turned out to be very emotional and sad--it's hard for me to critique this record rationally. I don't really care for the production style of this album, and by the time it was released I was not very interested in U2 anymore so aside from the hits I am not familiar with most of these songs. Yet it's hard to resist their pull on a tough day. And I guess Bono's earnestness which used to be so irritating now strikes me as more valuable when compared to the way stars behave currently. I don't really know what I'm saying, I guess it's an apology of sorts for giving it three stars when my younger self would have treated this record as a joke.

I have friends who looooove this band. And they're not even 55 year old men! But it's just not for me. I am not interested in the guitar solos and most of the lyrics are misogynistic at worst, stupid at best. Yes they can all play and sing but it just doesn't add up to anything appealing to me.

Sigh. Yes, I can understand why people would like this album. I can see what someone might appreciate about it. But I'm just not in that group. I was pretty excited about the first two songs but for me it all went downhill from there.

If I had heard this album in my teens I probably would have liked it. These days I just don't have the patience. Every time I would start to enjoy a song, something would happen musically, vocally, or lyrically that would make me think--nah this isn't working.

Many of the songs on this album are great songs. Their presentation here is less than ideal. I would say that most, in fact probably all, of the enjoyable songs on this record are far more enjoyable in cover versions and/or live versions recorded years later. It surprised me how much I disliked the production on this LP. And also how grating I found Art Garfunkel's presence. Listening to the album I just kept thinking how much better Paul sounds on his own. The bonus track "At the Zoo" was my favorite, maybe because I wasn't familiar with it so it felt fresh.

The day this record was assigned, I happened to see the friend who had recommended I participate in this enterprise (she's been doing it for a while now). When I mentioned this was the album for today, she laughed and said when she had gotten it, it was the first time she had written "why is this on the list?" as her review. I have to concur. Can Mick whatever his name is sing? Absolutely. But the material and 80s production doom this collection. The cover of the Talking Heads "Heaven" is a perfect illustration of how an excellent voice does not necessarily elevate a piece of music.

This is the first time I ever listened to an entire Duran Duran album. Many of my friends adored them but at the time I was still firmly entrenched in my phase of disdaining anything overly popular, so they had no chance with me. Of course some of their songs are just undeniably perfect pop tunes, and I'll happily sing along to them. Listening to this record I could see why so many people, even those more serious about music, respect the band. They do seem quite a big step above many other bands of the time. Still, I don't feel any real connection except to the hits. There were no hidden gems on here for me.

Somehow, this was the Smiths album I listened to the most, although it came kind of at the end of their popularity in my circle. It's unfortunate that Morrissey turned out to be such a shit, because I hate to give him any of my money nowadays, even the 1/12 of a cent or whatever he would get from my streaming a song of his. Back in the day he was also a shit, but a snide funny shit with a knack for acidic yet delicious phrasing. "Nothing's changed, I still love you, only slightly, only slightly less than I used to, my love." Woof. I haven't listened to this record in 30 years, I would guess. When listening to the first cut yesterday, I found the words a bit chilling. Now that Morrissey is out bitterly ripping on immigrants, Muslims, Chinese people, etc., should I really sing along to this song, even if I somehow remember all the lyrics quite clearly?

This was a nice first--first time I ever listened to an entire album by the Kinks. My connection with this band was mostly just hearing the songs AOR would play (Lola, You Really Got Me, etc) and knowing a kid in junior high who was OBSESSED with them. Later when reading about the British Invasion I would always hear Ray Davies lamented as a massively underappreciated songwriter. Listening to this record, it kind of makes sense. I enjoyed it and can appreciate the songwriting. But I can also see why they are a little more of an acquired taste. I don't know if it was the production, the mix, or just the band's style, but many of these songs seemed well-written but performed with very low energy. Also, Ray Davies just is not a great singer.

I had very mixed feelings about this. Initially felt positive listening to it, as it was way more interesting than I had anticipated. I can definitely see why they were so influential, they sounded way ahead of their time. On the other hand, there was not one song on here I thought, "I'd really like to listen to that again." At no point did I feel intrigued enough to look up the lyrics of any of the songs like I usually do.

I didn't like this album as much as her later release. I liked the songs and the singing but didn't care much for the production. I don't know. It didn't really grab me.

This seems like the perfect album for a subset of 14-year-old boys who will ever after try to argue how meaningful and awesome it is. I'm glad I don't know any of those people.

I was hoping to enjoy this more since I have positive feelings about this band but it turned out this album just went in one ear and out the other. Nothing unpleasant, but aside from one or two tracks, nothing memorable for me. I feel bad admitting that.

I actually enjoyed this more than I had expected. A few songs were familiar, but I haven't been a big consumer of Frank Black's solo work. This record confirmed that choice. It's nowhere near as great as the Pixies' stuff. But given how much I liked the Pixies, even being in the neighborhood is a good sign. I do feel like he really misses the other singers because Frank's voice on his own is not the greatest.

No. What? Is this a joke?

Nothing unexpected here. A pile of songs that set my teeth on edge, and "self esteem" which didn't.

This record represents so much that I detested about popular music in 70s and why it bums me out how much it has endured. How was this one of the best selling debut albums of all times, as Wikipedia tells us? Sold 20+ million copies worldwide? WHY??? Sure, there are earworms, and people who know what they're doing with their instruments and behind their mics. But every song is bloated, wayyyyy too long, and dismayingly self-indulgent. Yes, there are songs on here I would sing along to at karaoke night. But they would need to play the abbreviated version. However, if I never heard another song off here for the rest of my life, that would be fine too.

This was a hard one. I really expected to adore it but I just didn't, somehow. This was released during Stevie's "Imperial" phase and maybe it reflects that era a little too well. Maybe some of the songs could have been edited a bit, although perhaps that would be contrary to the spirit of the times.

Apparently this was the Led Zeppelin album I was waiting for. I really enjoyed this. Even though there was nothing new here for me, having heard all of these songs on WBCN during my younger years, I had never listened to the full album. Definitely enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected. This makes me happy because now I can tell my friend who is a rabid LZ fan that I agree, she's not completely bonkers.

Well, now I know why so many people say they can't stand the Velvet Underground. I've always thought of myself as a big fan but after listening to this album all the way through I realized, no, I'm a big fan of two of their albums, but this isn't one of them. Reading a bit about the production of the record, it was interesting that members of the band disliked its sound intensely. Me too. The fact that it gets put on all-time great album lists is just preposterous.

I wanted to like this more than I actually did. Another one where I'd heard Makeba but never listened to a full album. I can't say there was anything on here I didn't like, but I have to confess at times I got a little bored and caught myself checking how much was left in certain songs. It feels a little embarrassing to admit.

Having only five stars to utilize makes rating these 1001 records difficult. This album is another entry into the three-star rating which is turning out to be the broadest category for me. Three means, "I don't love this but I don't hate it," or "I don't love this but there are enough good songs on here that I can't trash it," or "I like this but probably wouldn't listen to it again," or "I like this and might listen to it a few times a year," and on and on. As it happens there are a lot of records I don't dislike, so they can't get shunted into the two-star category, but I don't really love so they can't be up in four- or five-star territory. This record falls into this three-star category: "I don't love this but if I had heard it when it came out I probably would have." I like the jazziness of it in particular. Not a fan of hearing Kanye's voice, and I probably wouldn't listen to this again, but listening to it this time was really enjoyable.

What an eye-opener. Ever since I got a live Beach Boys album as a gift in elementary school I considered myself a fan. I still consider Sloop John B a delight. I listened to a whole multi-episode podcast about Brian Wilson and Pet Sounds and Charles Manson! Come on! Then this project happened and I saw Surf's Up arrive and realized I knew nothing. I started the record with some trepidation based on others' reviews, but I actually liked this a lot. Yes, many of the lyrics are, as the kids would say, cringe--it felt almost physically painful to hear them try to be topical and relevant. But this was a solid 3-star album for me. I enjoyed it and will listen to it again.

This album reinforces my previous screed. A perfect three-star record. Nothing on here i disliked, but nothing that stood out in my mind. I would listen to it again, but also might not recognize it if I did.

I enjoyed being reminded of this album, which I owned back in the day. I have a long history with Emmylou which didn't get off to a great start, but I eventually became a huge fan--mostly of her back catalog, however. This record reminded me I should listen to her newer work too.

This sounds like someone tried to make an album perfectly encapsulating a particular moment in time (early 90s) without giving you anything specific to focus on. I kept thinking so many songs on here would be great to use in a movie or show trying to situate itself in that era without playing a Jane's Addiction or Smashing Pumpkins song everyone's heard a million times. I've never heard of this band. I enjoyed the record more or less, but it seems like an album that had to have been appreciated at the time. Maybe that's a long-winded way of saying I found this record boring.

Not sure what happened here. I almost didn't even bother listening to this record. I felt like I'd heard enough Jim Morrison for this lifetime. Not only were the Doors played in heavy rotation on the radio stations I listened to as a child (looking back I have to wonder WHY), but my college roommate was a massive Doors fan, to the point where every year on Jim Morrison's birthday we had to listen to all their songs in alphabetical order (she had made some cassettes that accomplished this). I figured I already knew how much I didn't like this band so why punish myself further by listening to it? However that seemed contrary to the assignment, so I sat through this, and I was pleasantly suprrised. Were there songs I had to terminate early? You bet. Not only is The End unbearable, but the execrable organ solo in Light My Fire makes me want to turn off all FM radio, forever, just to make sure I never accidentally hear it again. And yet--I enjoyed listening to this. Yeah, Jim Morrison is annoying, and his lyrics are easily mocked and filled with rampant sexism. And yet--I have to put this into the ever-widening three-star category.

Halfway through this record and it's already a struggle. The word that keeps coming up is "tiresome." Each song seems too long, and few of them are interesting. And there are too many of them. Years ago I observed two facebook friends get in a massive fight about this band in the comment section on someone's post. I cannot imagine caring that much about this group. I know this album was very well-received and is generally admired, but I prefer the older RHCP. Whatever this genre is (Bro Rock?), it's not for me. It's not offensive, but there's not a single song on here I would ever deliberately choose to listen to again.

Yes, innovative, influential, genre-changing. But to me, very boring. The wikipedia write-up cites a Pitchfork critic who described this album as having "No emotions, no philosophies, no performances, and virtually no humor. It is pure technology." I suppose that might have been said in an admiring fashion, but it's not what I want out of my music.

I found this record irritating, confounding, at times endearing and even pleasurable. Listening to the first three tracks I thought, I'm not going to make it through this album. I can only take so much lugubrious free verse. But somewhere around the middle of the track listing I started to think--am I enjoying this? At the very least, I am intrigued. The Jesus song sealed the deal--now I'm definitely glad I listened to this album. Also, Sineàd's cover of Queen of Denmark is terrific, I think, although hard to find on streaming services. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLc-JE4oRLM&list=RDTLc-JE4oRLM&start_radio=1

I mean, it's a Prince album from the 80s. Do I love every song on it? No. Do I love it? Yes.

A lot of hate for this album in my group. I'm a bit delayed in my rating of it. Are most of the songs on here sexist, misogynist, childish, silly? Sure. Is Kanye's production/flow everyone's favorite? No. Did I skip many songs on here? Yup. Am I writing everything as a question bc I'm too tired/lazy to write out all my feelings about Kanye? Absolutely. Some songs on here are bops, it's impossible to ignore. And this production style is one I like. Unfortunately it's really hard separating this artist from his "art."

Every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving I attend a live performance of Beatles covers. It's fantastic hearing their songs live, carefully done but not overly fussy. That's the primary way I've been taking in Beatles music for the past couple of decades, and despite how much I already liked their catalog, this event has actually increased my enjoyment of their work. I've even started to like the McCartney contributions more, although as an adult I have been more of a Lennon fan. I's incredible to me how well this album holds up. (So much better than the Simon & Garfunkel record from a couple years later.) Every song on here is enjoyable and it includes some of my all time favorites from their catalog including Tomorrow Never Knows.

Another blast from the past. Listened to this so much when it came out, in another lifetime. I still enjoyed it today although I guess my attention span like so many of my compatriots' has withered a bit because the album and some of the tracks felt a bit long.

Honestly, I did try. But this is just intolerable. And from what I've gathered, even fans of this genre don't like this record. Another mysterious inclusion. Instead of listening to all of it, after I gave up I went to the back up list of the extra albums NOT included in the original list and chose one at random. I ended up with Stone Roses' 1994 Album, which I don't even recall the name of anymore. It was deeply unmemorable and would have earned a 2. So it goes.

Went into this one with high hopes. I thought maybe this will be some kind of undiscovered gem. I read about Questlove's involvement and it all sounded great. But no--this isn't for me. Mostly I was just bored. Nothing here I objected to, exactly, but nothing I felt I could really grab on to. No lyrics, melodies, riffs, rhythms that stayed in my mind after hearing them. Disappointing.

This was a delightful experience. I can't say that I would listen to the back half of this album many more times, but it was really enjoyable to hear a "concept" album after all these years. What a pleasure to hear a serious artist put together a whole linked set of songs with such seriousness and talent. Nonetheless, the first side was my favorite. After being caught up in the reprise of "Running Up That Hill" along with everyone else watching Stranger Things, I realized I had forgotten how amazing "Hounds of Love" is.

This was a grave disappointment. Like everyone of my generation I was overly familiar with the hits from this record and thought the whole album would have that fun feeling of stupid 80s trash music. But no. The rest of this record was lazy filler with a nasty misogynist edge. I perused the 1001 reviews and all the 1- and 2-star write-ups were so spot on. The one that stuck with me the most was the person who noted that the author of these songs has the emotional range of a toddler eating sherbert. I'm not totally sure what that means, but it feels right. This album made me feel icky, and like all of us needed a nap.

The first few songs had me so happy. I forgot about the Waterboys! I like the Waterboys. Then I started to feel like, enough already, Waterboys. Please branch out a bit, Waterboys. I can't say I would turn this off, but I'm not sure I would make a deliberate choice to put it on. True confession: I like World Party's hit more than I like The Waterboys' hit "World Party."

The theme for me the past week or so was initial delight often followed by grave disappointment, or (maybe worse?) total apathy and inability to recall what I just listened to. The first song was a real surprise and woke me right up. Moving along I was content, but then the third song being 10+ minutes long, taking up one-third of the entire record, and I was kind of checking out. Eventually I fell asleep (I was listening to this on a plane) and when I woke up a bit later a song was playing that I really liked, but I then realized it was not by the Stooges, as my streaming service had moved briskly onto the Kinks. Anyway, I did relisten to this while awake again, and it was pretty enjoyable, but that 10 minute song really blows.

Gave it a try, but they still suck.

There's not much to say here. Very familiar with everything on here, even if I'm not sure I ever listened to this exact record. I wouldn't say I love every song on here, but it's still just so good.

Another album that seems to date from a time when record producers were saying, you have a couple amazing singles, let's just go ahead and put out a whole album! I mean to kick off with "Hanging on the Telephone" and "One Way or Another" is amazing and it's understandably difficult to maintain that level of pop nirvana. By the third song we're rhyming "wallet" with "solid" and "December" with "weather" and I'm starting to feel that disappointment kick in. The hits are terrific. The rest of this is just rushed nonsense that should never have been committed to vinyl.

Gorgeous singing. I don't know enough to understand if the live albums are better than the studio ones. Vaughan is not my favorite singer but I can appreciate how good she is.

Once again I was sucked in a bit to start, thinking, maybe this is a stupid fun album to play while hanging out. Then I started to feel like every song was incredibly long, and I realized it's because they are all super repetitive and annoying.

I mean... I didn't hate this. I feel like I should have, but I just didn't. Not sure I would ever listen to this again, but I'm not sad I sat through it.

I never knew "Brown Sugar" was a creepy song with racist overtones until I read a comic book given to me in Harvard Square by one of those Spartacist League people who was always handing stuff out. So much ambivalence about the Stones. I understand they are great, and despite never owning any of their albums, I certainly know and like many, many of their songs. And yet sometimes I wish I could pinch Mick Jagger really hard to get him to stop sounding so douchey. You can hear the smirk in his singing, somehow. I don't really know how to rate this record. I don't have a strong emotional resonance with any of these songs, and I think if I did, I would rate it higher. It feels wrong to give it a 3, and yet that's where I'm ending up. I don't think I would listen to this again, so I guess that says it all.

Very very difficult assessment. Some great songs on here but "Turn Blue" made me so incredibly unhappy, and that turned to anger at how a large chunk of this album is terrible and maybe even objectionable. Really hard one to rate as I would certainly never listen to this whole record ever again, but on the whole I finished it feeling like Iggy was maybe about as talented as I had thought he was. Not terrible, but not some secret genius either.

I kept thinking I should hate this, but I didn't. Not sure I really liked it. I certainly wouldn't listen to it again. But it wasn't awful. Definitely started to drag and feel repetitive toward the end, but it wasn't terrible. In light of some other albums we've had to listen to, I guess I can be grateful for that. Although maybe being terrible might have made it more interesting? Overall the impression here is just of monotony, which is probably not what Gray was going for.

I was a fan of Lloyd back in the day, although always with the understanding that maybe we weren't all that serious about him. Revisiting his work, I don't love the production style of the record of his I owned (the follow-up to Rattlesnakes). I found this album has aged a lot better than the one I had. I enjoyed this album, maybe for sentimental reasons. I still think Perfect Skin is a pretty great track. The rest of it was enjoyable, for the most part. A solid 3.

The first track made me wonder if this was going to be a great undiscovered find. Sadly but not surprisingly, this feeling left me quickly. The guy can't sing, and also the lyrics were really, really awful at times. Maybe it's because I have been reading up about Lloyd Cole, but I have Bob Dylan on the brain (apparently Cole was somewhat obsessed with Dylan for a time). Some of the lyrics on this record felt like the writers were trying to add random details to their tales of woe, because that's something that good songwriters do. A well-placed highly specific detail can give a song broader appeal than generic sentiments. Effective songwriters use this tactic a lot, and Dylan in his heyday was a master of it. AMC is not. As I found the music uninteresting for the most part, i was forced to focus on the lyrics, and couplets like "She finally gets on the bus and sinks next to a very nice lady Who just got out of the hospital, she had a major operation," are just trying SO HARD to do the thing that only works if you make it look effortless. Also,the singer's voice reminds me a lot of Evan Dando's and eventually that started to disturb me. Dando seems like a lazy sack of crap from everything I've heard but at his best he's pretty good at adding details to his songs too. So that just made it worse. Why am I spending my Friday night listening to Temu Lemonheads??

Another record where I vacillated a lot. At times I caught myself thinking, this is a surprisingly enjoyable song. Then I would think, well that surprisingly long song had an enjoyable section. I thought I would like this a lot more than I did, considering I have generally positive feelings about Green Day. But those feelings don't appear to be based on this particular album. Overall I felt there was something here, but more judicious editing would have helped a lot.

This album is fine or technically okay or whatever, but the reason for its inclusion here is unclear. This album had little commercial success. It was not particularly well-reviewed at the time of its release fifty-some years ago. It has not been rediscovered and cherished since, nor grown in popularity in later years. It is not considered a major influence on a genre or group of musicians. It is not an underappreciated release from a group with other massive smash records. It's just an album of its time that is mildly enjoyable. It's not objectionable. It could be used in a soundtrack to great effect. A few songs are distinctive, most are very derivative. Elephant Mountain could have stayed in the record bin for the rest of eternity and we could have been listening to something else.

The intimate, unpolished feel of this record caught me off-guard. We had this album in my house when I was a child, and I remember the beautiful album artwork so vividly, but I have absolutely no recollection of anyone actually playing it on the stereo. The only song on here I was familiar with was Maybe I'm Amazed. Even after watching the McCartney documentary this winter I still could not dredge up any associations with it when I went to listen to it. Some of the songs on here, especially some of the instrumentals, seemed like they were going to irritate me, but then eventually I would get caught by one of his hooks. Damn the man but he is crafty that way. This record doesn't really feel finished to me but maybe that's part of its charm. I will definitely listen to this album again, but I might skip a couple tracks.

If we were applying some version of "The Rule" right now, I would probably use it for this album. I'm trying to be respectful and give each record a chance. Trying to learn something and be open-minded. But whatever this is, it's not for me. Some of the more positive reviews online are about how fantastic this album was for the reviewers while they were tripping their heads off in the late 90s. Sounds great, but it didn't do much for me in my current non-tripping, non-90s situation. If more of the songs sounded like Inspection, I would have liked it a lot more. As it went, I just could not listen to the whole thing, or even close to it. Sorry Leftfield.

Reading bad reviews of this record makes me a little angry. I get that this is all subjective blah blah but I mean even if you don't like this type of music how do you not like this record? I don't understand. Anyway aside from getting upset while reading the general reviews of this album, listening to this made me very happy to be doing this project. I don't think I would ever have listened to this on my own and I really enjoyed it. I'm always more of a lyrics person which has usually made instrumental jazz harder for me to connect with, but this album made me happy. I could definitely see putting it on as a mood-lifting background album.

What I learned from listening to this album all the way through is that maybe I don't like the Smiths as much as I thought I did. I did not enjoy this record. I found myself getting unhappy as I went through the songs, not really liking most of them. There of course were several that I really did like, but overall, I don't think I would listen to this again. Weird revelation. Morrissey's voice really can grate after a while. (After reading the group reviews, I wish to add: 1. I listened to the original UK version, without How Soon Is Now. Including HSIN would bring this to 3 stars. 2) Marty is right and this is not a good way to be introduced to the Smiths.)

I don't think I have a lot to add to the other two-star discourse out there about this record. Having Thin Lizzy's only representation on here be a double "live" album (apparently remastered post-performance) is an objectionable choice. Double live albums would really be for the serious Thin Lizzy fans, and I can promise you I am not one of them. I might have liked to hear one of their studio records to get a sense of them beyond "Boys are Back in Town" but alas, after listening to this record I think I'm all set. Right now I just really don't want to listen to any more 70s rock dudes, for a while at least. I would say this album is boring because it's so one-note, but it's actually sort of motivating, because I just wanted it to end ASAP. There just seems absolutely nothing distinctive or interesting about this record or group. Everything about it (melodies, singing, solos) seems very mediocre.

If only the second half of this record had been like the first, I would have been able to move this out of ever-growing cluster of three-star reviews. I had never heard this album as it came out after I stopped listening to Hole but of course I was familiar with the opening track, which I've always liked. I was pleasantly surprised by the next few songs as they were stronger than I had expected. I'm not sure what I thought about this record but for some reason i thought it was going to be very slick. I didn't find it that way at all and had high hopes but the second half of the album became less and less interesting. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Absolutely unsure how to rate this. Obviously these are masters at work on so many levels. But I don't really know how to assess their work. I feel like lumping this in with all the other threes is wrong on some grand scale of musical excellence, but on a personal level that's where it belongs for me. I enjoyed this and would not turn it off if it were playing. But I didn't connect with it much at all. Maybe I'm more of a hot jazz person after all.

The music didn't offend me as much as other records we've been subjected to. Still, I didn't enjoy it I, and the lyircs are so painfully stupid I couldn't bear listening to them. Today I learned that I don't hate Black Sabbath as much as I hate Iron Maiden. I guess that was worth 30 minutes of my life. (No I did not listen to the whole thing.) On the plus side, I treated myself to the Bill Withers album as a reward for catching up on my listening and that made it all worth it!!

Maybe I would have liked this album if I had been 21 when it came out, and I was still in a forgiving mood. Listening to it now, I mostly felt tired. The kind of tired you feel when you realize many of your compatriots think Kevin James is a good actor. Decades ago I was watching the men's NCAA basketball tournament and I caught an interview with the coach of the losing team of whatever game I had just watched. When asked how he felt about the loss, instead of gushing about how hard his kids had played etc, in a grouchy old man voice he talked about how he was so tired of seeing his players keep making the same mistakes despite his constant attempts to teach them better, and that maybe his whole career was pointless. That's how I feel about this record. Tired of waiting for people--and specifically famous rappers--to do better. The skits on this record--without even starting on the lyrics--make it exhausting. If I could remove the skits, take out the misogyny, and disregard the sexual references seemingly devised by and for pubescent boys, then I suppose this record could be fun.