The most reluctant four star score imaginable. There are so many stone classics on here, and Sir Duke into I Wish is one of the all-time one-two combos. But there's just too much bloat on the double album for me, and a bit too much in the way of pitch-wheel fusion stylings for me to put this up with the best. Still, so much great here. Legitimately great.
Joyous hiphop that feels almost naive considering what came later. Fantastic production, and refreshing to hear lyrics that combine humour and vulnerability. Not a genre that I listen to often, but a classic in time.
Very carefully produced pop, but did little for me then, and even less now. Leaves me ice cold. Maybe because I can't separate the complete pillock that Bono turned out to be, maybe because this brand of pop rock just doesn't turn my crank. I have good friends whose taste I respect who dearly love this iteration of U2, but it's just not for me.
A Britpop classic, with one of the greatest pop songs of all time. Otherwise a bit samey, though, and very of it's time.
Unbearable listen for me, but got an extra star because the production is slick and some of the studio players are good. Feels like a very professional but deeply insincere attempt to take a somewhat unique voice and grave-rob some Motown and Phil Spector. Dusty she ain't. Even Adele she ain't.
Another technically amazing record that just doesn't tickle my fancy. Prince's joyous future-funk is all just a bit camp for my taste, and the sounds just haven't aged well to my ears. I always like his songs better when done by someone else...
Alright, I guess. Better than Oasis, at least. Don't really get the hype, much prefer Parklife, this just comes across as a bit harsh, and the production is thin. Not for me.
Not as wild as expected, but still, a unique voice. Really good record, but not quite four stars for me. 3.5?
Not as bad as some reviews would lead you to believe, but felt simultaneously overlong and inconsequential. Maybe important from an Aussie perspective, but otherwise struggling to see why this is on the list.
A stone cold classic. Underestimated this one most of my life as just a typical '80s synth pop confection, but it turns out this is one of the defining records of the decade. It's near perfect, every song adds a piece to the puzzle, from the big singles to the more subtle bits. Head Over Heels is the absolute peak for me, such genius. No longer underestimated, true greats
Mad genius. So much crazy that coalesces into a wild whole. The ultimate example of how LSD in the late '60s and early '70s made for better records than cocaine in the late '70s and '80s. The live version of Maggot Brain to cap it might be lifted from that (slightly better) record, but it's one of the greatest bits of guitar wankery ever put to tape, so I can't complain about it appearing twice. This record is a thrill to listen to, vibrantly alive.
Solid straight-ahead post-punk and proto-indie, with a surprising ear for melody. Feels very teen angst, though, and so an odd one to come to in my 40s. Still, a great record, and one I'll be coming back to.
Solid straight-ahead post-punk and proto-indie, with a surprising ear for melody. Feels very teen angst, though, and so an odd one to come to in my 40s. Still, a great record, and one I'll be coming back to.
Hard to be objective on this one. Just not my taste at all, listening all the way through was a struggle.
An unexpected joy, and exactly the reason I'm doing this list. Such a fascinating blend of Americana, covering gospel, country, blues, folk, funk, R&B, soul, among others. All transported by a magnificent voice and incredible session players.
Not flattered by following the brilliant No Other by Gene Clark, a much less well known harmoniser who also went solo. The overlong album length only serves to reduce the impact further. Has some moments, but all sort of fades into a wash of harmonies and slide guitar.
A record that makes me feel very old. I mean, it's perfectly serviceable pop, but it's just not for me. Granted, most of this list is skewed heavy to the middle-aged white guy, so I'm hardly underrepresented, but I can only like what I like...
Really dig the band and the production, but can't help feel this is a voice of the era, and the brassiness or falsetto elements just don't work as well now as they maybe once did. Appreciation for this one will definitely come down to how you feel about her voice, and in my case, the feelings veered between acceptance and intense irritation.
Well. A real pleasant surprise after a series of slightly disappointing alt-rock and Britpop staples. One I didn't expect to like so much, but offered real depth and variety. Who knew?
Just not for me. Can appreciate the reasons this stands out in the genre and the artistry, but I will likely never listen to this record again.
So proggy, but like so much in the genre, leaves me dead cold. Just feels like technical execution minus a lot of feeling. I like a good concept album, but the ratio of bad to good has to be easily 20:1...
Excellent straight-ahead thrash, with a more punk twist than expected. Still, probably not the best of the genre, and can start to feel a bit samey after a while.
Wanted to love this so much, as soul is right up my street. But the story of the last song drags and drags, even if it does eventually get somewhere worth going. Otherwise, there's some irrepressible grooves here that hit perfectly, but there's just not enough to elevate it as an album.
A pleasant surprise. I know the singles, but this record really holds up, despite the horny '80s cheese with Hot for Teacher. Jump into Panama is a heck of a one-two, and the rest is solid. Great record.
Most songs felt like they grabbed a decent loop, but then rode it without change. Maybe not listening closely enough for the subtleties, but the laconic stylings of Beck just don't make me want to put in the work.
Quite a surprise. Expected derivative turn-of-the-millennium rock, but this has surprising depth and some great songs. One I'll be coming back to.
Not quite the masterpiece of Dusty in Memphis, but still, an incredible record. She may not have written much herself, but she makes so many of them her own, and the definitive version. The production is heavily influenced by Motown and Phil Spector, and it works. John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin played on a bunch of these, too.
The ultimate Dad Rock album, chock full of sweet Knopfler guitar goodness. The production is 80s cold but with a dream-like quality that lifts the songs with a peculiar airiness that leaves a surprising amount of space. Money for Nothing has that crunchy super-riff, but is an outlier on the record, with so much of the rest in more familiar Dire Straits twangy chill.
Familiar enough to groove with, but different enough to sound unique, especially that voice. Very brief, more of an EP than an LP...
Just far too long. Maybe others will see subtleties that I'm missing, but this record just didn't offer enough variety to just the length. What is there is very good, but eventually too much of a good thing. Would be a four-star record if it was half the length.
Urgent, angry and righteous, and not diminished one iota with age. Hip hop isn't my normal choice, but this is a record that transcends genre. The sample and scratch production is more interesting than most of what I hear lately, too. A stone killer of a record.
A couple catchy classics, but otherwise not much special. Least interesting of the classic rock survivors, despite their long tail into the '90s as a pop band.
Some real disco classics, but funk loses something for me with the four-on-the-floor, so doesn't quite have the longevity of the best in that genre.
A late-90s classic, really captures the loungy zeitgeist of the time. But it's also filled with great tracks that have aged surprisingly well, at least to my ears that were contemporary to the original release.
Tries hard to not be an Arctic Monkeys record, but that voice is so distinctive that it still sounds like an Arctic Monkeys record. A decent set of songs, but probably not unique enough to justify a place here.
Nope.
Had only heard the singles, especially Lust for Life off the Trainspotting soundtrack. Great record, oozing with Iggy's trademark salacious sneer, somehow making punk dirty sexy instead of just dirty.
For a guy who spent so much time complaining about being popular, he sure wrote a lot of very poppy songs with serious hooks. Hated everything about Nirvana in their time, hate them less now, but still...
Alright, I guess. Solid record, but feels a bit samey after a while. Feel like this wouldn't be on the list if it wasn't a new record in an era with a shortage of great records that see big audiences.
Maybe groundbreaking and influential when new, but just sounds old and well worn now.
Who knew the Beach Boys got this trippy? Some duds, but some incredible pieces, especially the last three songs, that clearly flow from the same genius behind Pet Sounds.
It's alright, I guess. Smooth R'n'B isn't really my jam, much prefer the sweatier soul of the '70s.
The yin to Fear of a Black Planet's yang. Hated this top to bottom, and it gets more and more ridiculous as the tracks go on. Turns out concept records can suck in every genre!
Loved this. Sets such a moody scene, with classic soundtrack styles often overlaid with sharp and glassy synths to create a feeling of tension.
Wow. I'm not someone who gets the feels from most jazz, I prefer my grooves in the pocket rather than swinging. But this is an exception, an obvious masterwork even to the unrefined like me. Mingus brings a manic fury to these pieces, and it's hypnotic.
Not just the Queen of Soul, but the Queen, full stop. Possibly the greatest voice ever recorded, plus some absolutely incredible songs, equals an all-time great record.
Wondrous and weird and unmistakable. Flipped back and forth between a 4 and a 5, so listened again, and then again, and settled on 5. Just an absolutely seminal album, one that has aged with grace.
A pleasant surprise. Possibly the first 'recent' records that has tickled my fancy, maybe because it is so backwards looking in its vibe. Great voice, some very good songs, and great production. Really dug this one and will define coming back to it.
I know Shaun Ryder and Bez more from their drug-addled pensioner personas on Celebrity Gogglebox than their music. Wanted to like this record for that, but.. couldn't really. Feels very 'you had to be there' for when it came out, but has lost impact with time.
All just a bit too wacky and quirky for me to appreciate much. Can't settle on anything for more than a passing moment, and isn't the better for it...
Some beautiful word crafting, but a young Cohen doesn't have the gravitas of an elder Cohen.
Listening again really brought home how this was an evolution of punk, keeping the raw and ragged qualities but exchanging the anger and boisterousness for melancholy and navel gazing. Not really my bag, but can see how it would be for some.
One classic after another, songs that have been so part of the fabric of our lives that they are just part of our collective subconscious at this point.
Have had a run of stuff from the late-70s and early-80s lately: punk, new wave, post-punk, and whatever this is. They all have this sneering swagger in common, even if some are angry, some melancholy, and in this case, absurdist and silly. Some indelible songs, but the pony veers dangerously close to only having one trick...
A reluctant four. I know they were assembled as a simultaneous art project and sales pitch by Malcolm McLaren (sp?), and some of the sneering and exaggerated working class posing is far over the top. But this is one of the most influential albums of all time, a time before all that stuff would have been immediately outed as inauthentic in the modern online hall of mirrors. Not many knew or cared then, they just reacted to the energy, the attitude, and the surprisingly catchy songs. They're still not in the same league as The Clash, and Jonny Rotten turned out to be an even bigger tw*t than anyone thought possible, but so much came in the wake of this record that I can't give it less than a four. Still reluctant...
Some very hooky riffs and moments, but I just can't get past the archness of it all. Feels so self-consciously louche, like Johnny Depp in a perfume ad. Also, if ever a band showed why all other bands have bassists, this is it. The songs would have so much more punch if they had some bottom, instead of sounding like they're being played on a gramophone.
A very good album, but feels a bit lost to me in terms of importance considering the flood of country-inflected rock and folk that was all over in the 70s. Hard to rate too highly in that regard, even if it is a beautiful sounding record full of incredible players.
I think someone needs to make the snare even louder, more grating, and completely quantised so there's even less groove. It only felt like someone was driving a railroad spike into my skull on the 2 and 4, but maybe they could have amped that up to, I dunno, like an I beam or something?
It was a revelation to me that James Brown and a version of his band go back to 1962. Laid the groundwork for so much of what was to come.
I wanted to like this, it tickles some of the same itches as Public Enemy, but just doesn't have the force. The lyrics are sometimes more concerned with making a point than with musicality, and that's to the detriment of the record. Spearhead was a better expression of righteous anger.
I want to rate this higher because I really like it, but it just doesn't feel 'important' enough, more of an interesting curio along the way.
The best of Floyd was a group effort, balanced by Gilmour's soaring instincts and Waters' abrasive but incisive self-obsession. The Wall is what happened when Waters won control and minimised the other band members, and it's not better for it. It's no coincidence that the best songs on the record are the few co-written by Gilmour. In the end, this all feels a bit like something Waters came up with after a bit too much therapy, and it's a long ride. If it were half as long, it would have been a lot better, but it's nowhere near the beauty and universality of Dark Side and Wish You Were Here, while being a lot less musically adventurous than earlier work. Time to put on Live at Pompeii, I think...
12-bar blues has been so co-opted by dad bands playing the blooze that it is hard to separate. Can see why this would blow folks' minds in the early 60s, there's a raw urgency that was novel and exciting. But between the English blues reinterpretations of the 60s and 70s, and then then weight of later and poorer copycats, it's hard to listen to this with fresh ears.
Surprisingly African in its vibe and loose energy, though I could guess that's part of a Cuban sound, not being familiar with the history and connections of this kind of music. A wild ride of mostly percussion, polyrhythms and chanted vocals, it has a freneticism that is contagious. Despite not being the kind of genre I'll come back to regularly, I'm really glad to have heard it and had my horizons expanded.
Verging on saccharine at times, but dials it back enough to be a compelling listen. Lovefool was everywhere back in the day, MuchMusic had it on heavy rotation. Had only heard much more recent stuff. The regular Sabbath homages were surprising, to say the least, and added a lot of fun to the record.ucj more depth than I expected from a band often called a one hot wonder.
Maybe it's being forced to listen to Graceland on repeat as a kid (my Dad loved that record), but there's something about Paul Simon that just sets my teeth on edge. He somehow manages to be simultaneously New York and twee, and neither works for me. The only exception is Me and Julio because I used to work with a Julio and we'd sing that song to him on the job site. Silliness aside, I will grant there is some incredible songwriting here, but it's just not for me.
I really love this record. A fine example of the American/Canadian rock of the 70's that came with different influences from the British blues obsession. Not quite a 5 star, but close.
All a bit slick and smooth for my taste, but impressive nonetheless. Like a distilled version of the 70s, for better and worse.
One of the greatest records ever made. A personal top 5, maybe even top 3. Such a perfect mix of the soul explosion of the time with influences of the rock word. A soul concept record with plenty to say and some of the best playing you'll ever hear. Such a perfect record.
An absolute ripper. Riff heaven. Some of the classics here suffer a bit from Zeppelin IV/Dark Side-style overexposure, but the one that feels fresh and wild and as relevant as the day it was born is War Pigs, which somehow makes rhyming 'masses' with 'masses' sound like poetry. Probably not my favourite Sabbath record to listen to now because I've heard some tracks literally thousands of times in my life, but easily the one that has the catchiest riffs and is most recognisable. An all-time great.
The obvious and swaggering rawness of the proto-punk hides the sneakily catchy quality of many of the songs. It can't be ignored that this was released in 1973 and inspired a stack of later greats with their brand of sneering attitude. This must've blown the minds of those ready at the time. Many of the groundbreaking records on this list suffer from the lost impact caused by the million imitators in their wake, and that's va factor here for sure, but it's still got an energy and songcraft that keeps it vital.
I'm generally put off by the earnest nature of folk and find Paul Simon's solo stuff verging in unbearable, so expected little from this record. But the combo of the relentless pace of a record that refuses to overstay its welcome and the harmonies of the two leads makes for an enjoyable listen. Will never be in my regular rotation, but definitely one I'll check out again,
Fantastic Krautrock, gets in a groove and rides. The whole album works as a piece, raising intensity as it goes in it's trance state. Great stuff.
Have rediscovered a bunch of pop from the '80s, which I have largely avoided most of my life. Was excited to jump into this one, anticipating a similar bit of fun. But beyond the big Karma Chameleon single, I really didn't connect with this record. It felt all very brassy and lacking the inventiveness of compatriots.
Possibly the ultimate psychedelic blues freakout of the era among many, especially later imitators. What's often missed in the obsession over Jimy's guitar work is how solid the rest of the band is. Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding both provide an incredible foundation for Hendrix's legendary noodling.
