I knew "One Way or Another" and "Heart of Glass" of course, but "Sunday Girl" was new to me and a great discovery. Three songs added to my liked playlist!
This is a good time, but I don't even know that it's my favorite Led Zeppelin album (that would be "IV"). Great bluesy sound with a hint of what they'd grow into. Favorite tracks: "You Shook Me" and "Dazed and Confused"
Maybe it's the long jams, maybe it's listening to this right after the more obvious musicianship of Led Zeppelin, but I found myself impatiently waiting for the end of this so I could move on to the next one.
Not my favorite Bruce album, but there's a lot to love here. I love the propulsion in songs like "Adam Raised A Cain" or the arena-filling chorus of "Badlands," but my favorite is "The Promised Land" which has that classic Springsteen storytelling.
I try to avoid looking up historical context for these albums to keep the review to just my experience listening. I say that because this feels like an influential album that inspired a lot of others (I hear Jet's "Are you gonna be my girl" in "Lust for Life", I hear Franz Ferdinand in "Fall in Love with Me") but I just didn't resonate with this at all. Lots of sung-spoken lyrics over familiar changes. Sorry Iggy!
Great lyricism and flow. I enjoyed "Check the Rhime," "Jazz," and "Scenario" the best
One of my all time favorites. Between the propulsive guitar of "The Chain" or the "bow bow bow" chorus of "Second Hand News", this is an album to sing along to with the windows down.
I tried to come at this with an open mind, but the Pearl Jam sound just doesn't connect with me. I didn't love the lyrics, and the melodies just sound like everything else I heard on the radio in the 90s.
This was an interesting listen and a really unique sound, but I don't know how much I enjoyed it. I doubt I would return to any track in the future and say, "I want to listen to that one again!"
"Enter Sandman" is fun, but I spent the rest of the album waiting for another song I enjoyed half as much, and never found one.
Maybe I'm not listening carefully enough to the lyrics, but I let my focus on the vocal performance here effect my enjoyment of the album. The backing choruses are great when they're there. There are some songs here I liked, including "Get Ready for Love", "Spell" and "O Children" and I feel like this is the sort of album that could grow on me.
This was cool! It's fun to hear this in light of how ubiquitous this genre has become in 2025. I feel like any of these songs could be in one of those popular Youtube studying playlists. I especially liked Sour Times and Wandering Star. My only complaint is the slowness of so many of these songs. I wanted just a bit more propulsive percussion, but maybe that's the sound they were going for.
This doesn't really work as a double album. Despite what Big Boi says "
OutKast, Cell Therapy to cell division/We done split it down the middle so you can see both the visions/Been spitting it damn near 10 years, why the fuck would we be quitting?" These two visions don't really match up at all.
Even still, both of these albums are excellent on their own, and either one would be deserving of this ranking on its own.
This was fine. It's telling that my favorite part of the album was El-P's verse on "Bladerunners." I don't think I'll be listening to this again.
Fun and funky, it's impossible to not grove along to this. And at a tight 44 minutes, it's a quick listen. I knew "He's the Greatest Dancer" and "We Are Family," but "Thinking of You" was new to me and I loved the slap bass.
This was a fun listen! I liked "Natalie's Party" and "Beautiful" best
I gave this one my best shot, but I failed to connect with it. Sonically, it's all over the place and doesn't sound like anything else I've ever heard. There are some cool songs here, like "Ville Notre," but I just don't know when I'd want to revisit this in the future.
There's so much tenderness in Young's tenor, it sucks you right in. I'm a long time CSNY fan, but I've barely branched into the individual band members' discographies. I knew "After the Gold Rush" but none of the others. "Only Love will Break Your Heart" was my standout, followed closely by "Southern Man," where the melodic strumming gives way to some hard guitar that would fit right in to an early Wilco album
An unexpected joy. So much of this album feels like a heartfelt confession. In some ways, this reminds me of the Nick Cave album, but here I found the stories of the songs to be compelling. Added to the rotation: "Gloria: In Excelsis Deo" and "Kimberly"
Fun psychedelic rock. I hear a bit of Hot Chip and Tame Impala in their sound. Those are bands I'm a big fan of, so I connected with this right away. But the songs didn't ultimately land. Maybe I'll revisit this in the future, but right now I feel like I'd sooner listen to this other bands before returning to Hookworms.
I found this incomprehensible. It's funny because a few albums ago was an album entirely in French, but the unfamiliar slang in Drury's songwriting meant that even words I know mean something entirely different in this context. I don't know if the characters Drury embodies are a charade, but I found them all pretty unlikeable except for the grieving son in "My Old Man"
I'm a fan of Gorillaz, but mostly their later stuff (Plastic Beach and onwards), so other than "Clint Eastwood" this was all new to me. I mostly enjoyed this, but it's a more subdued, down-tempo sound than I expected. New song added to my liked playlist: "Double Bass"
Gorgeous. I love the lush orchestration when it's there (bongos in "Cello Song", occasional string accompaniment, a whole chamber ensemble in "Thoughts of Mary Jane" and "Fruit Tree") and the soft finger style guitar and breathy vocals from Drake. This album feels timeless, I could hardly believe this was written nearly 60 years ago. I've added the whole album to my rotation.
"Tommy" was one of the first CDs I ever purchased, but despite that, I haven't listened to much of The Who. They sound fantastic live, and you can really see their musicianship in all the covers and the variety of genres their own music spans.
I can't believe how many mega-hits there are in 48 short minutes. "Bad", "The Way you Make Me Feel" "Man in the Mirror" and "Smooth Criminal" on one album?! He really was the King of Pop of his era. This is a 4/5 threshold for me.
I liked this well enough but I haven't revisited it since.
Confident, sexy, and occasionally pretty funny, there's some really excellent lyricism here.
This was an album where I was reminded of the songs I like "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" but it didn't move the needle on the other tracks on the album.
Fun, danceable, and with a sound that feels a decades ahead of its time
Comparing this to The Man Machine, I just didn't enjoy it nearly as much. It felt more slow and repetitive, and I don't see myself returning to this album.
I already loved "I've Seen All Good People." New to me was the virtuosic fingerpicking on "Clap" and the great guitar solo that closes out "Starship Trooper." That being said, I think this got a bit too prog-y for me at times, and found parts of the album repetitive or aimless (particularly "Perpetual Change")
