The first track mentions Master Splinter who is a good rat.
It's solid.
This is fine but not really my thing and there was nothing in here that made me go "hell yeah this kicks ass" besides some really good guitar.
This is basically just Leonard Cohen saying cool shit over a beat, and it's fucking rad as all hell
I think this man was sad. It's a dramatic album for good reason.
Solid beats that were pretty cool to listen to.
A lot of really cool songs, but I'm so sick of hearing Alright, I'm going to be real with you.
I Wish I Had Duck Feet is a fucking banger.
Several really cool songs. Feels like it'd be music featured in the hit video game Cyberpunk 2077.
I think this is the album that makes me finally "get" Bruce Springsteen, which seems weird but nah actually he's really cool.
Easy to see why Lynyrd Skynyrd made it big. They have style right out the gate. Most of the songs kick ass, though I'll fully admit that I'm tired of hearing Simple Man and Free Bird. That said, Mississippi Kid is fucking awful. What was going on there, seriously?
This gets 1 star because Kanye West is fucking insane.
But like, damn, this album is still amazing and would get 5 if Kanye wasn't Kanye. Jesus Walks is an all timer, We Don't Care and School Spirit are great, and Last Call just being a 12 minute interview over a beat is a really fun thing to listen to.
Don't be a weirdo nazi shithead tho.
Defecting Grey and Baron Saturday are both pretty good, but overall this is just fine. I get it's like a rock opera sorta thing, but it's just fine.
Honestly? Outside of "Is She Weird" I have little to say about this. I liked what I've heard of Pixies before, but this album is almost entirely 100% forgettable. There's not a single track (again, besides Is She Weird) that I thought about for even a moment while it was actively playing. Background noise dad rock.
I like Bjork as a person, I like Bjork as an artist, I don't think I really get it. The music is beautiful, her singing is beautiful, her lyrics are crazy, and if you told me this was an album about an alien navigating human relationships, I'd believe you. I liked this quite a bit. I don't think I'll ever listen to it again.
Honest answer: outside of Layla, I just did not find anything I actually gave a shit about on this album. I'm sure it's good, and there's good stuff, but I was zoned out for almost out of it and nothing here brought me back in. This feels like an album my dad would make me listen to while staring at me to judge my reactions. Layla is an absolute classic, though.
Solid. I didn't care much for I've Been Waitin' For Tomorrow (All of My Life) so I went in worried, but the rest of this is solid. I particularly liked Giant. That said, why does the singer sound like LemonDemon?
This has several classics on it (Clocks, The Scientist, In My Place) so you already knew it was going to be good, but the rest of this album is also just good. What can I say, I had a good time here. Easy five stars.
Honestly, most of my enjoyment from this album came from the surprise that was Goon Squad, something that's genuinely hilarious now. Like, this is fine, but not anything I'll think about past Goon Squad being hilarious.
Deny Everything made me worried, because this started by sounding like that kind of Punk that people listen to in movies where they want you to think it's edgy nonsense. But then I Just Want Some Skank sold me on the album entirely. Hilarious way to end that song. Operation and Group Sex are funny, Back Against the Wall is great, and Paid Vacation was the song that made me decide this deserved a 5. Is it good? Debatable. Is it a group of people angry and yelling in a way only they can do? Absolutely.
With the exception of Burning, which was solid, this whole album floated by me without evoking a single emotion. It exists. It feels generic as all hell. I genuinely couldn't tell you what actually would make this "guitar while being sad" album stand out from any of the others.
This has... aged super poorly.
Run D.M.C. are fuckin' nerds, I don't know how else to put it. Their songs are like "I went to school and got good GRADES/My teacher said I get an A/Now that makes me really COOL/And if you do drugs you're a FOOL" like damn these guys need to get shoved into fucking lockers. Nerdcore was never cool.
I dunno man, every song on this album sounds exactly like the DK Rap. I get that's both the point of the DK Rap, which is supposed to sound like a Run D.M.C. song, and that music has just changed a ton, but this just aged so poorly.
Funky as all hell. Solid album. I know this isn't "the" version of Thank You, but it's really good. Family Affair and You Caught Me Smilin' are great. Well worth it. The five seconds of silence in the middle of the album that makes up the title track caught me off guard though.
Probably my first big surprise since starting this: someone I've never heard of and clicked with pretty quickly. This is a cool as all hell album, and one I may revisit. Marquee Moon is long but great, and Prove It ending with just the cool "This case is closed" is a 10/10. Enjoyed this a lot.
I'll be honest: I thought Intro / Go To The Floor was kind of embarrassing, but after that, I enjoyed the hell out of this. Fun lyrics, great beats, and Missy kicks ass. Gossip Folks, Work It, and Pussycat are all great, but Slide is probably my favorite on the album. Also, nearly every track on this album starts with the line "This is a Missy Elliott exclusive" like she's Geoff at the Game Awards.
Didn't care for Women so I figured this would just be generic 80s rock metal, but actually, the rest of this was a vibe. Rocket absolutely kicks ass and is the standout for me. Animal and Don't Shoot Shotgun are both fun as well, and Pour Some Sugar On Me continues to be an absolute classic. Hella fun.
This album had too much going against it for me. The biggest two being that it's in French and that it's a live recording. There was very little likely to get me past those two issues, and the fact that a lot of the songs sound the same certainly didn't help. Not for me at all, guy is an incredible singer though.
Maybe... Maybe Miles Davis was just the coolest dude to ever live? This is some really smooth jazz, and it's easy to see how Miles became the best to ever do it. Noticed how this also had a bunch of new "electric" sound, which seems like it was something Miles was really experimenting with at the time. It's really good.
This absolutely kicked ass. I'm not really a rock opera/prog rock person, but I can not believe how much I enjoyed this. The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging is going to end up as a regular on my music, which is a bit of a strange choice from this album, but I liked it a lot. So many of these songs are really cool though. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Counting Out Time, Lilywhite Lilith, and The Waiting Room are probably the ones that I enjoyed the most.
If You All Get To Heaven is such a banger and fantastic way to start this album. Other standouts for me include Wishing Well, Seven More Days, and Rain. Never heard of this one before, but absolutely loved it.
I don't know I didn't buy this one. There was very little here I gave a shit about, and it mostly just felt like pretty middle of the road "sad dude with a guitar" shit. He's fine, Down by the River is solid, but I just simply did not care for the most part.
Brian Eno is a name I always saw tossed around a ton, but if you asked me who he was I'd just sort of be like "I dunno, he makes airport music I think?" Now I know, and I vibe with it. I think the unexpected winner of this album for me is On Some Faraway Beach, but a lot of this is good. Baby's On Fire kicks ass, Dead Finks Don't Talk is fun weird, and the one-two of Some Of Them Are Old and Here Comes the Warm Jets to end the album unironically kicks ass. I ended up going back to several of these songs. Loved it.
Give Up the Funk is an absolute classic and entirely makes this album worth it, but outside of that I wasn't feeling most of these. P-Funk, Mothership Connection, Unfunky UFO, and Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication all sound like the exact same song, so the fact that they're four in a row is insane. The album ends with Night of the Thumpasorus People, which consists of a group of dudes going "goo goo ga ga" for three minutes straight. Give Up the Funk feels like the whole reason this is here. Maybe I am just not a funk dude.
I went into this with some hope because Intro had a neat beat and Fred Durst doesn't talk much over it. But then the 1-2-3-4 hit of Hot Dog, My Generation, Full Nelson, and My Way ruined that. So much of this album is just those guys in High School that you avoided because they sucked. The best part of these four songs are just taken from other songs (later in the album Take a Look Around would just straight up use the Mission Impossible theme, but at least it has the excuse of appearing in the movies first).
To try and stay positive: Rollin' is still pretty great, so great that there are two versions of it on the album (I prefer Urban Assault Vehicle to Air Raid Vehicle), and Boiler was solid. Outro being a four minute sketch of Ben Stiller making fun of Limp Biskit is funny, and then they repeat his stupid laugh for 3 minutes straight before playing some messages other people have left for Limp Biskit. It's a really dumb way to end the album that fits. But, you know, "Ben Stiller makes fun of you for four minutes" isn't really a great selling point for an album.
This is fine, but it feels like every song on this album sounds the exact same and after a while they all began to flow together. You Don't Own Me is cool, and Mockingbird is a classic, but outside of those two there wasn't much for me personally. It's still solid enough.
Yeah this did nothing for me. I think outside of No Body No Crime, I just did not care about a single song on this album. When I got to the bonus songs I went "no I'm done" and shut it off. It's not bad, I know it's fine, I even like quite a few of Taylor's songs, but none of them are on this album.
Creepy and dark in the correct way. Never Let Me Down Again is a great opener, and the album never really lets up from there. The Things You Said, Little 15, and Nothing are all solid tracks that mix that sort of dark synth and British new wave into something that works well. The album ends with Pimpf, which is just a five minute instrumental with a choir, and it's weird that the album just ends with a Castlevania theme honestly.
Everything about this album still fucking rules. Smack My Bitch Up and Firestarter are still all timers, while Breath and Fuel My Fire are a bunch of fun. Honestly, this is an all thriller no filler album. Also the cover is legendary. Crab.
I don't know about most of this, but when it hits it hits hard. I'll admit everything from Thinkin Bout You to Pilot Jones I wasn't vibing with this at all, but Crack Rock was solid and I really liked Pyramid. After that, Monks, Bad Religion, and Forrest Gump were all songs I really enjoyed. Don't know if this is one I'd listen to again, but it was at least worth listening to once.
This is the first album in this challenge I actually called it quits on halfway through. I thought You'll Never See My Face Again and Marley Purt Drive were fine, and that's the best thing I can say about this. Odessa is long and plodding, Edison is just fucking weird, and everything else is absolutely forgettable. Bee Gees would go on to have several hits, but there's a reason this weird concept album is mostly just forgotten.
Ayyy, two The Prodigy albums this week. Doesn't have the huge hits that The Fat of the Land would go on to have, but this is still pretty great. Break & Enter and Poison are probably my two standouts, but honestly you could put almost any track on here on and enjoy it. It's nearly 80 minutes of just kick-ass beats.
This is fine. Gimme All Your Lovin' and Sharp Dressed Man are classics, they kick ass. The rest of this is fine. There's nothing in here past those two songs that made me really care, but there was also nothing in here that was really bad. Legs is solid if I had to pick something else, but that's the most I have to say.
I've heard this album from start to finish before this challenge, and I did it again for this, but this is unironically one of my all-time favorites. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space still is the kind of song I want to die slowly in the snow to. Come Together is still a song I'll scream-sing to every time it comes on. Stay With Me, Cool Waves, and Electricity kicks so much ass. The 17 minutes that is Cop Shoots Cop is exactly how this album should end. This is my personal perfect album.
This is fine. I genuinely have no strong feelings on it. Nothing here is bad. Nothing here caught my attention. It's fine, and that's it really.
The first Elvis Costello album I got, I only really noted for two things: a white dude saying the N-word and how goofy Goon Squad was. So I'm happy that This Year's Model was noticeably better. The singles, Pump It Up and Radio Radio, were noticeably the best part of the album. But the rest is solid. The Beat was pretty good, Lip Service was neat, and something about (I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea was pretty funny. If the rest of Elvis Costello's stuff is like this, then it'll be much more enjoyable to go through.
Guero Canelo has been sitting around on one of my general music playlists for so long, and I genuinely don't remember how it got there, so it's really cool to see this album pop up. I was worried I was going to end up hating it, and Sunken Waltz is probably the worst song on this album for me, so it wasn't a great start, but after that, I just loved everything. Quattro (World Drifts In), Black Heart, Not Even Stevie Nicks..., and Attack El Robot! Attack! are the highlights for me (besides the aforementioned one-two hit of Dub Latina/Guero Canelo, which it turns out should absolutely be listened to back to back), but to be totally honest, I was just into this whole thing by the end. Super easy recommend.
Unfortunately, I think songs that aren't in English may just sort of not click with me, which makes me feel bad, but also means several tracks on this album didn't do it for me. None of them were bad, I just didn't find them super interesting. There's a handful of songs I liked here: Brimful of Asha, Funky Days Are Back Again, and Good Shit stood out, but I actually think I enjoyed the instrumentals even more than the other tracks, especially What Is Happening? and State Troopers, Pt. 1.
I thought Da Bichez and You Can't Stop The Prophet were both pretty funny, and I feel like that's the most I have to say about this album. Most rap albums I get why they're on this list, but I just didn't feel this one at all. I kinda saw what Ain't The Devil Happy was trying to do, but it felt like a weird morality message that someone said had to quickly be added in. Nothing else really stood out.
Look, this album contains three of Simon & Garfunkel's best songs: America, Mrs. Robinson, and A Hazy Shade of Winter. For that alone, it's an all-timer. However, there isn't really a single song here I think is bad (besides maybe Voices of Old People, which is literally just two minutes of someone recording some random people talking. Didn't get that one.) Save the Life of My Child is not something I ever really expected from Simon & Garfunkle, but it's so good. Old Friends is sad but beautiful. At the Zoo is a weird fun way to end the album. It all kicks ass. Easy up there as one of the best.
Starts off extremely strong with 15 Step, and then never quite lets up. Bodysnatchers, All I Need, and Reckoner also stand out on this album for me, but to be totally honest? I think every track was a banger. I know a few of Radiohead's songs, but this makes me feel like I've been missing out on a ton of good stuff that I need to play catch-up on.
This is fine. Some nice easy listening. I enjoyed The Girl From Ipanema the most. Overall, however, this isn't really my genre of choice and I don't have much to say about it beyond that.
There are some good songs in here, especially Tutti Frutti, but I think we've now improved on Rock and Roll so much that Little Richard has been left behind. That's not to say he isn't talented, he clearly is, nor that this shouldn't be on the list, it absolutely should be. It's just aged now. Still super worth it in the end.
This is one of the ones I've never heard of before going into this, but I absolutely loved this album. I'd probably say Nawa, Plenty Nonsense, No Shame, and Live For Today were my favorites, but you could put any of these on, and they're going to be an absolute banger. Maybe the only downside is that half the songs are 8+ minutes long, so it's not really a "pick up on a whim" sort of album. Also not sure why there's a 30 second song
First, it's funny that Peter Gabriel released four separate albums in a row all named Peter Gabriel. Besides that, this is pretty good. Solsbury Hill is the obvious standout, one of those songs I never think of until I hear its opening notes, and suddenly I know every single lyric to the song. Moribund the Burgermeister starts off really strong, but at some point just became weird, and I never really got into Excuse Me. On the other hand, Here Comes the Flood is fantastic and a great way to end this album.
This is one of those albums that I got through and just didn't feel anything. It exists, Here We Go Around the Mulberry Bush is fine but also apparently not even on the album normally I accidentally listened to an extended special 2000 re-release of the album, and there's like nothing else here that I really cared about, but also nothing else that I hated.
Somebody to Love and White Rabbit are both absolute all-timers, so no big surprise this album rocks, even if none of the other songs are quite as good as those two. That said, She Has Funny Cars, 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds, and Plastic Fantastic Lover are all really good songs that made this well worth it. An easy suggestion to anyone, basically.
A solid chunk of instrumentals made after a couple of the songs (Bongo Rock and Bongalia) were made for a cheesy b-film (The Thing with Two Heads). They were well liked enough that an album followed, with six original songs along with covers of Apache and In A Gadda Da Vida. This album is fine. Like, the music is pleasant, and I had a good time listening to it. But it's on this list because the number of samples that have come from this one album is insane, and most of the fun really comes from spotting those. Still worth it just as music, but really, you're here for the samples.
This is absolutely full of bangers. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is, Questions 67 and 68, I'm a Man, and Someday (August 29, 1968) are all basically all-timers. The rest of this is extremely good, with one exception. I honestly couldn't stand Free Form Guitar, which is ~7 minutes of trying to make a guitar sound like a race car. Is the technical work cool? Yeah. Is it annoying? Extremely. I ended up skipping that song after a couple of minutes. Rest is absolutely worth it.
I knew I'd like this and in the end I was right. Pretty great album. I think my standout was The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore, but really they're all solid songs. Maybe if I had one issue it's just missing that one big standout track that really makes me go "holy shit", but overall a good album.
I'm going to open with "this dude might have issues." I'm at least partially convinced this album is about a dude who loves a horse. That said, it's a great short album. In Pursuit of Happiness is a neat intro, Everybody Knows (Except You) is when I decided there was something wrong with this dude, and If... brings in the horses. If... may genuinely be up there as one of the more insane songs I've heard. After that, If I Were You (I'd Be Through With Me) is also a solid song. Also, the whole album is only 31 minutes so that's a nice quick wrap up.
This has the same problem that the one Run DMC album I got had, which is that it's so much of a product of its time that it's just absurdly dated now. It's not bad, but it's just... so so so late 80s. It doesn't help that every single track on this album is basically "I am Queen Latifah and I kick ass" which, like, she does but damn girl calm down a bit. I like The Pros' beat a lot, and I think Inside Out is the best song here. Mama Gave Birth To The Soul Children is probably worth listening to at least once just for how weird it is. But I wouldn't really give this a listen now otherwise.
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), the song, is an absolute banger, and this album could probably coast on that alone. Thankfully, it doesn't. There are several other neat songs here. I really enjoyed The Walk and Jennifer the most of the set, but they're all at least solid. Maybe a little too slow at times, if I had to give some critique.
Hotel California, the song, is an absolute banger, and this album could probably coast on that alone. It basically does. New Kid In Town is solid, and the rest of this is fine, but I don't really think there were any other songs here that I noticed or cared about in any real way. It got me through 43 minutes of my day without upsetting me, and that's more than I can say about some albums, but that's also about where my thoughts on this one ends.
This is solid. I think the best songs on this album are also the longest, specifically That's The Way Of The World and All About Love (First Impressions). I also enjoyed Happy Feelin'. This isn't entirely my style of music, but Earth, Wind & Fire have always done it well, and I will never really regret listening to one of their albums.
Banger all-timer album. Only Happy When It Rains is a beloved classic for a good reason. I actually think As Heaven Is Wide is my favorite coming out of this. However, besides those two, Queer, Not My Idea, Vow, and Stupid Girl are all bangers as well. Garbage is not garbage (not a surprise).
It's Duran Duran. Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf are two certified all time bangers, so this was always going to be good. It was. Besides those two, I really enjoyed Hold Back the Rain and Last Chance On the Stairway. Really can't go wrong with anything here, though.
Few albums are as straight up fun as Back in Black is. Hells Bells, Shoot to Thrill, Givin the Dog a Bone, Back in Black, and You Shook Me All Night Long are all just insane classics. Is there a deep meaning? A message? A moral? Not really. Is it just absurdly fun in every way? Hell yeah.
I have never heard of Michael Kiwanuka before, but I immediately came to love this album. Amazing. You Ain't The Problem is a fantastic opening that immediately got me invested, then I also came to love Piano Joint (This Kind of Love), Hero, and Final Days. Honestly, everything from Final Days to the end of the album flowed together nearly perfectly. What a genuine, fantastic, delightful discovery.
For the second time, I have bailed on an album part way through. Summertime Blues was fine, Rock Me Baby was kind of annoying but not terrible, but then halfway through Doctor Please I gave up. It's an 8 minute song that mostly just sounds like a disorganized mess. I moved on to Out Of Focus, got partway through, then called it. I get this is here because it's basically the first heavy metal album, but thank god we moved on from this ASAP.
Funny that the most annoying album I've pulled so far happened to be ALBUM SIX SEVEN AAAAAAAAAAAA SIX SEVENNNNNNNNNNNN
Caught myself checking the track list multiple times to see when this ends. Honestly did nothing for me. I can't really point to any specifics or songs that spoke to me in anyway. It's all fine, it's all competent, it's not terrible, but this just kind of exists and little else.
Third album I've bailed on since starting, dropped it during Ball Lighting. This did nothing for me, when it wasn't super annoying. Got a real bad feeling when I genuinely hated Middle, but thought I'd try to keep going. Nah. Not for me at all.
Album 69 was Not Nice.
