Great mix of jazz along with the blues.
"Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs" are bangers, for sure, but the rest of the album really starts to feel the same.
I should like this album. I love the wall of sound concept, and this definitely has it. But in execution here, it's just annoying. And in now way did this album need to be 22 tracks. He ran out of ideas after about 10 and then just kept going.
Fine and forgettable.
Funky and groovy for a lot of it, but disappointingly languid for too much of the album.
I think I really need to have heard this album when it came out to fully appreciate it. It's good enough music, but isn't blowing me away at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j2Pb0YwVH8
You can definitely hear how this impacted quite a lot of electronic music: building a little these/snippet and repeating it with some variation over time. But other than there I couldn't find a whole lot to like about the album. Not bad, just kind of boring.
Like with other albums (and I suspect more and more that we'll listen to), it's hard to fully appreciate this when you started with the music that this inspired, which has also been refined, enhanced and expanded. It's kind of like watching dead-ball baseball when you started watching in the modern era.
Phenomenal sound quality. The experience is ruined a little bit by all the breaks for introductions, crowd control, etc. I would have preferred more music and less of what was happening at the actual performance.
Really good album. Roundabout is an all-timer. Lots of really interesting ideas. I really liked Cans & Brahms. About a 3.5 rounded up.
Good album. I really liked the first track and wish the rest of the album could have been that good. Would have been an easy 4+. Also, what a dumb album title & cover.
Fine, just not my cup of tea.
I hate Leonard Cohen as a vocalist. Let me repeat that, I hate Leonard Cohen as a vocalist. Only Bob Dylan might be worse. Every song sounds exactly the same. He takes his voice, which is pretty good in and of itself, and does absolutely nothing with it. Like any sort of inventiveness, dynamism or variety is morally wrong to him. The music itself occasionally has a bit of life, but mostly that is pretty monotonous (except, Diamonds in the Mine, that was a nice change of pace).
I now know I'll never need to listen to one of his songs again. The album title is two words too long.
Being generous and rounding up 1.5 stars entirely because of Diamonds in the Mine (though the more songs I listen to the harder this becomes).
Nothing special.
There's a couple of really high highs. "Sweetness Follows" is one of my favorite songs (not just on the album), and "Man On the Moon" is excellent. However, they aren't enough to raise the entire album to anything more than average for me.
Very innovative music with lots going on. But I'd have to be in the right mood to want to listen to this album too much.
Kudos to Bjork for naming her debut solo album "Debut".
Song length really hurt this album. Easily 4+ stars if each song was just shorter. Fantastic music with an incredible rhythm section. This is exactly the kind of album I was hoping to hear from this site. Giving it 4 stars because of that.
I say this with all sincerity, I'm not sophisticated enough to fully appreciate this album. I liked it, but I believe I need to be more of a musician or jazz aficionado to get the most out of it.
Yup
Fine, and I've already completely forgotten it. I would like to hear the justification of why I needed to hear this album.
Brilliant album top to bottom. Incredible and inventive beats perfectly matching Q-Tip and Phife Dawg.
The singer's voice really grated on me. The music wasn't any better.
If you're going to copy someone, may as well be The Boss.
I really should have liked this more, but it just didn't click. Still good, though.
Not quite Talking Book or Songs..., but prime Stevie Wonder is a treasure. Every song is just a pleasure to listen to.
Better than the other ZZ Top album we had.
A very 90s interpretation of reggae. The problem is that I don't like reggae. This album didn't change that.
Art rock sucks.
Not at all what I expected. Lots of different sounds and instruments. I didn't like it, but I'm glad I listened to it. I suppose that's the point of this whole thing.
I'm rating this 3 stars. But that is because 3 is the average of all possible ratings. This album is the one of the most mood and song-to-song dependent albums I've ever heard. If I'm in the right mood and listening to the right songs, this is an easy 5. Wrong mood and wrong songs? 1 star is being generous.
How is it I'm only listening to this now?!? It's phenomenal. So much ear candy in every track. And the covers? Blew my mind. I had no idea you could do that to "Summer Breeze".
I am completely indifferent to this album.
Perfectly ok.
Good album. Chrissie is a great front-woman. At this point, I've heard "Brass In Pocket" too many times, which is sad.
I really wish I could have seen them live when this came out. I bet those shows were killer.
I've been dreading this day. I hate Bob Dylan. Leonard Cohen gave strong competition, but Dylan remains the worst vocalist of all time. His voice grates on me like no one else's. The music is alright but can't overcome his obnoxious vocals. And while I normally don't care about lyrics, Dylan's are so dumb that I can't ignore them. DNF'd the album.
Love this album.
Is there some rule that says protest music must be sung by people with the worst voices possible? Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and now Billy Bragg. All have bad voices. Does it somehow make the music more important if the singer sounds like crap? If they played the guitar like they sang, they'd be laughed off the stage. So why is a bad voice acceptable?
Anyway, the music is kind of interesting, but Bragg himself was painful to listen to.
I would like to simultaneously give this a 2, 3 and 4. Some songs are a perfect combination of Antony's vocals and the music. And for some songs all I could think of was Tiny Tim without the falsetto. When they're on, this band has some pretty high highs, however that's sadly too rare.
But, another album I'm glad I listened to and wouldn't have otherwise - even if I didn't totally like it.
This is one of those "I'm not mad, just disappointed" situations. This album isn't bad, it's just dumb. There isn't any reason for it to exist, nor is there any reason for it to be on this list. It serves no purpose and therefore I can't really hate it. The exception being "AB/7A", that was actually alright. It's like Throbbing Gristle screwed up and put an actual musical song on the album.
A little too muzak to be really enjoyable.
One of the more overrated bands of all time. Not bad, just not as great as most people think.
Every bit as dumb as Throbbing Gristle, but lacking the accidental single good song Throbbing Gristle managed. Complete waste of time.
The music is fine. Not overly memorable outside of the Exorcist bits and a few other things. I was expecting a lot more bells in the album, given the name.
What happens when you try to be The Beatles but forget you aren't The Beatles.
The album gets better in the second half when the Boys get closer to what they excel at.
Endlessly irritating. There is nothing redeeming to repeating the same stupid little snippet a million times in an 8 minute song. The vocals usually make things worse. I don't have the patience to listen to this album today. Other days I might suffer through it.
Update: I gave this another attempt a day later. It still sucks.
I quite liked it. Mamunia and 1985 were really enjoyable.
Too abstract for me. I didn't truly dislike any of the songs, nor did I really enjoy any of them either. 2.5 rounded up to 3.
I don't hate this album, and I'm surprised by that. Dylan's rasp really suits the music well (when it's overpowering his usual nasally sound) and is kind of enjoyable. The straight ahead blues is pretty enjoyable. But oh my God is this album too long. Most songs are 5 minutes or longer, and for some reason they feel about twice as long as that.
GET IN THE PIT, MOTHERFUCKERS!
I had a really hard time deciding if this album rated a 3 or 4. There are some songs on here I really like, specifically the first two tracks. And the others are all good. The musicianship is 2nd to none. But at times the album is just too easy listening. I listened to the album about 5-6 times trying to decide. Then I remembered that I was generous to the god-awful Leonard Cohen album. So why shouldn't I be generous for an actual good album?
Good album. I'd happily listen to it again, but not too often.
You can hear why this is such an influential album and why it holds up 35 years later. The album still sounds fresh and vibrant today. But the downside to Max has always been that his songs get real same-y real fast.
Not blown away as much as I think I was supposed to be. Good album, and the variety is pretty cool. I wasn't expecting Greensleeves or whatever that take on Bolero was.
This is straddling the line between 2 and 3. It's mostly based on Neil's voice. When it gets slurred and/or nasally I really don't like it. Otherwise, he's got quite a nice voice that really works well with the music. The music itself is just fine.
TIL "Everybody's Talkin" was not written by Nilsson.
Still incredible after 26 years. He sounds every bit as fresh as when the album was released. And his talent is still incredible. But. The subject matter was bad in 2000 and has not gotten less objectionable over time. The album is also a little long.
Turns out I'm not the biggest Stones fan. Don't get me wrong, the album is good, and a few songs stand out. It's just not that special to me. I think it's an album where I needed to hear it a lot closer to when it was release to fully appreciate it. Nothing on the record blew me away. And about 4-5 songs in I realized that 90% of Mick's lyrics are just repeating the same one to two lines for the entire song. Maybe their other albums will be better.
Gloriously weird. Such an innovative sound and every song is unique.
Zzzzzzzzzzzz
Zzzzzzzzzzzz
Zzzzzzzzzzzz
...uhhh...huh....what...it's over?
Good album, but Tom's done better work.
It just kept going. And going. And going. I think there is an alright album in there is you strip out about 30 minutes. I actually like "Pinball Wizard" less after having listened to the whole album.
There's nothing I dislike about this album, but not much really makes me want to listen to it again. "Heroes" is pretty good. Moss Garden and Neukoln are unexpected and also pretty good.
No worries about this album being too long. But nothing really stands out, either. It's funny how quaint some early punk sounds after 50 years.
Good for background music, but not a whole lot more. Very little difference between the songs. The songs themselves don't have much variety, but I suppose that's kind of the point.
DNF'd this because it was just too long and every song sounded the same.
Super cool album. Definitely feels like the early 2000s. This music can so easily become boring and repetitive, but Red Snapper almost totally avoid it here. Such a good album to turn on for a chill groove.
Just fine.
The singles from this album are great, but the rest of the album doesn't really grab me.
I'd have given this 5 stars for "Sir Duke" alone. But the rest of the album is terrific. I've loved this album for a long time. Stevie at the height of his powers was something else.
Really good stuff. The heavier songs are killer, and the change-of-pace songs fit in quite well.
I should like this more, but I just don't. I found it annoying; the mix of styles felt forced. The mix of the album also threw me off. Lots of things were so much louder than others, like on Skeleton Key. The vocals and lead guitar drowned everything else out.
It had some moments, but overall, too long, too slow, too dull.
Good album. Very high energy. But it didn't really blow me away, either. I think Colour might have gotten a higher rating.
Jesus Christ what a violent album. But thankfully there's no swearing, that would make it unlistenable.
The stories are OK, but fairly slight and start to feel a little repetitive. And the music is fairly nondescript.
Pretty unique early hip-hop here. Very inventive beats. Glad I listened to it, but I didn't really enjoy it all that much. I'm just not much of a fan of the style/flow of early rap.
If this list has taught me anything, it's that I don't give a shit about The Who. And, surprisingly, I really don't like Keith Moon's drumming style.
The sound quality is incredible. If you didn't hear the crowd, you'd be hard pressed to convince me this wasn't recorded in a studio.
So many hits on one album. And a debut album to boot. Upbeat, catchy, easy to sing along to. This album is just a lot of fun.
I'd probably give this a higher rating if we hadn't had a Femi Kuti album earlier. They're the exact same music. And I can't get past that. This album feels...redundant? Even though I know it was released first. So this rating is a little unfair to dad. Still really good music.
The album got old really fast. Every song was the same minuscule motif repeated for 2-3 minutes. The lead singers voice scraped over the top of it. Garage rock never did anything for me. The Monks haven't changed that.
Nice slab of prog rock with a surprising left turn at the end because why not?
That's a damn good album. Makes me think I need to get into a bar fight.
Angus and Brian do so much heavy lifting on this album. The rhythm section is pretty uninspiring. But the guitar and that voice (and delivery) raise everything else.
And you may find yourself sick to death of the endlessly looped motifs.
And you may find yourself ready to punch David Byrne for his annoying vocals.
And you may find yourself wondering how this crap every became marginally popular.
And you may find yourself not finishing this album.
Pretty sure we didn't need two Kraftwerk albums on this list. One would have been entirely sufficient. This one neither improved, nor lowered, my opinions of the band.
Well, I get it now. I really hadn't understood what the big deal was about Jay-Z. Better late to the party than never, right?
What a tremendous album. The lyrics are great ("Takeover" is vicious), the delivery is top notch. And the production is second to none. Brilliant to use soul samples so heavily. The album is a touch long, but that's a minor thing. Brilliant.
The music was a bit better than I had expected. But overall, I'm pretty indifferent to this album.
We played Pictures in band in high school. I've had an affinity for it ever since. I like this version of it. ELP kept the spirit of it and much of the music, but added their own twists to it. Some of those worked better than others. Overall an enjoyable listen.
Really enjoyable album. The songs between the two book-ends wer the best part - tight, uptemp funk. Some of the more experimental things they do just don't work for me. Maggot Brain is kind of listless, and the random sounds in Wars of Armegeddon really distract (that might be the point, I don't know). If it were just that, I'd give it a solid 3. Then comes Super Stupid. That song is such a banger. Just incredible. Bumps it to a 4, almost a 5.
Brilliant album. Spanish Castle Magic is easily my favorite Hendrix song (and one of my all-time favorites).
I question the assertion that I "must hear" this before I die. It's pretty generic Top 40 adult contemporary rock. That said, there's nothing really bad about this, either. It's the musical equivalent of lukewarm water or plain oatmeal.
Mike Patton's awful, awful singing voice ruins what is otherwise a pretty good album.
You know what's a good word? Tedious. That's a good word. I say this for no reason, none whatsoever.
Enjoyable album. I really enjoyed the lush sound.
A very inoffensive album. If Moondance wasn't so ubiquitous it wouldn't be very memorable for me.
A surprising album. I ended up enjoying it. The vocals combined with the irreverent lyrics play well with the music.
Anemic. Like the entire album was recorded while on a couch.
We're on a really crappy streak of 2000s indie rock albums. And I'm sick to death of them. Same boring stuff over and over. DNF'd this. (I would still have rated this the same if it hadn't come up during the streak. The streak caused the DNF.)
One Smiths album was sufficient for this list. A second adds nothing. That said, the album is fine. Nothing I'd actively seek out to listen to again.
I was expecting more from this album. Though I'm not entirely sure why. I've heard Black Hole Sun about a million times, and it an exemplar what this album delivers. The longs are generally longer than necessary and pretty repetitive.
The album art always makes me think of Bat Boy from Weekly World News.
Another album where I didn't really like it, but I'm glad I heard it. Or more accurately, glad I learned about it. Wild back story.
A wispy, nebulous album, and it kind of worked for me. It had a nice chill groove feel to it, though it works better as background music (or something to code to) than an album for more involved listening. This album would pair nicely with Sigur Ros for an easy, low key afternoon.
You can hear why Elvis is the King. Such a good singer. Great voice and uses it to perfection. The music itself was good, not great.
Good album, but a little too long for me. I've also never been the biggest fan of 70s jazz. He's somewhat similar to Chuck Mangione. Both are fine in small doses. Maseru was an exception. Great, lively song. Loved the piano and drum work.
Another artist I hadn't heard of before.
I really need to be in the right mood for a full Dire Straits album. They're good, but you have to know that you're not going to get a lot of energy out of them.
Not the biggest fan of Reed's half-spoken, half-sung lyrics. The music is certainly different and many times pretty good. Another album I'm glad I heard, but don't really like.
Not doing it.
A little too mellow and a little too long. Otherwise I liked this. Very cool blend of R&B and electronic music.
Good beats, good rhymes.
It has moments that are quite good, but overall it's just ok.
Pretty standard 80s pop. Not bad, but nothing really stands out. I won't remember this tomorrow.
Not my thing at all.
Feels like they recorded the same song 16 times. It just got tiresome. Nor did it help that all the songs were intentionally melancholic and slow.
I've never understood why people think the White Stripes are so good. They're fine, but nothing special. This album is exactly that. I do appreciate some of the more experimental parts of the songs. And the variety between the songs is also appreciated after having to listen to so many albums that identical start to finish.
Nirvana works really well as an acoustic band. I think it helps to have the context of the original album recordings, though. The contrast between the two really hits. Terrific sound quality.
I really enjoyed this album. Q-Tip is a favorite of mine. I was expecting a solo album of Tribe songs, which was stupid of me. There are some broad similarities, but this is wholly Tip. There's a ton of great variety between songs.
Again, I need to question the inclusion of this album on the list. Tip wasn't a prolific or influential (as far as I know) solo artist. So why did I need to hear this album (aside from the fact it's really good)? Adding this album means something else needed to get dropped.
For the most part, good top-40 style rock. I liked it more when they moved away from that: the use of horns or the more punk-leaning tracks. Orstralia in particular stood out.
