1001 Albums Summary

Sort of the classic Reggae album, I was surprised to realize that no, I don't think I've listened to this all the way through before. The singles here sort of scream a White Boy Reggae vibe, which isn't really their fault but definitely probably steered me away from this. All in all tho, it's classic for a reason.

Transitional Polly. This feels like the obvious fork in the road that brings Dry along to Let England Shake There are parts of this that sound more like Chrissie Hynde than the wild yearning of PJ's earlier work. Never a bad thing, but it means the echoes of the past make you perk up a bit. There songs right in the middle help bolster the whole of the effort as far as im concerned. Probably 3.5, definitely worth a second spin. Top track? Probably The whores hustle and the Hustlers Whore, but that could change with familiarity

Classic era Stevie. A good mix of funky grooves and soulful slow jams, it's not his most indispensable, but it's still a gem. Superstition is the top track, but all of them have a feeling of completion and care about them to me. 4.5 stars

I've tried to get into Nick Drake a number of times in my life since first seeing folks hype him as a forgotten genius. It hasn't really taken, but i tried to come into it with fresh, unbiased ears. Drake's music feels sleepy, sort of like an early autumn day, light drizzle, cup of coffee slowly going cold as you sit alone with your guitar. Which isn't a bad vibe, just one that doesnt really inspire me personally. I can see why it might be nice and meditative for others. Top track is probably Road, which i really liked the guitar on. 3* all together.

Was meaning to re-listen to this one with the focus it deserves. Elizabeth Frasier's work is something I have had to come around to, but also something I have largely enjoyed in guest spots. HoLV is way more accessible than the band's reputation... it Bridges the 80s and 90s, goth and shoegaze and dream pop, the real world and the green world. It's a link between Kate Bush and Tori Amos, a linguistic progenitor to Sigur Ros... there's a lot here. And it is plaintive and exultant at turns, sparkling and brooding, often all in the same moment. And God, all that beautiful fuzz... I'll probably need to buy this, much to the chagrin of my partner, an avowed Cocteau hater. Somewhere between a 4* and 4.5* ... top track: i can't deny Cherry-Coloured Funk, but Road River and Rail was the second standout.

I once saw Krist Novoselic of Nirvana on a book tour, probably around 2004. I mostly recall that he said he wanted to start a band called Gavrillo Princip. This album is why. Despite finding "Take Me Out" to be the definition of rich white millennium privilege rock, I did come into this willing to be surprised, and I almost was when "Jacqueline" opened as an introspective, soft number. But honestly I find this sort of thing banal. Don't get me wrong, I love my share of big dumb albums, but the self-seriousness is too much for this sort of thing. It's like someone formed a band out of "and now's the time on Sprockets when we dance," without understanding that it was a send up, or even understanding the art snobbery that was being sent up. Nothing feels earnest or honest, but it sure feels like they want us to think it is. 2* mostly because I feel 1* should mean something, but i really didnt enjoy thos experience. "Take Me Out" is the best track here.

"Sensational" is doing a lot of unjustified heavy lifting here. I mean, I like a good sleazy rock album as much as the next guy, and sure, a gang bang might just wash the Blues away, but this just doesn't do anything for me. I feel like I can get this same thing from a dozen better bands that don't have similar vocal affectations to Adam Sandler. 2* Gang Bang was my top track simply for the scuzz of it, but i dont know that i'd actively go about relistening to it.

Another "how did I not get to this yet" album (though the conscientious objector period from Spotify didn't help, I'm sure). The middle of this album has a lot to live up to, being sandwiched between Hey Hey My My/My My Hey Hey, and it just... do you ever listen to an album that is considered iconic and just think "wow, a Million people have regularly listened to "welfare mothers"? Really?" Like, you expect an obscure album to maybe have some weird stuff on it, but you don't really expect something like "ride my llama" on an album as well known as this. But I liked Thrasher, powderfinger was fine, and of course, Hey Hey My My is the essential track here. 3*

So I guess it's worth a mental note that I am probably getting two more YYY albums, eh? No way It's Blitz is a must hear and not the two much more critically noteworthy albums that came prior. Maybe even a spin of Mosquito, owner of one of the worst album covers ever? Anyway, I digress. This isn't really an album that has anything to do with Karen O (presumably) crushing an egg with her bare hand, but it's serviceable electropop that would probably call itself punk but it is wrong. Karen's voice remains unique and feels more flexible here than in other work i've heard her do. You do get the feeling that this is why Elle King happened, and that shouldn't be praised, but this would feel right in place at a hipster dance party or basement party, and it would set the mood decently. Most of it is pretty energetic, not really full of earworms, but definitely infectious in a way. Low 3*.Top Track: Zero. The song, not me being snarky

It"s gotta sting to have an album explode because of a throwaway joke song, but that's what Blur's eponymous will always carry with it. At the time, I wrote this off because Beetlebum didn't grab me at all (so much so that on relisten, I didn't even remember its chorus, which is to be fair more lush than expected). So the proof is in the pudding for the post Song 2 tracks, I suppose. I appreciate that the album has a lot of diversity and experimentation on it. Blur is sort of like the more avant garde side of Oasis and the less faffy side of Radiohead in that regard. They don't really reach the highs of either in my experience, but I'm glad someone is in that middle ground. I'd say this album was a victim of a lot of things, but a lot of albums like this in the 90s were really hurt by being overly long. Not that 56 minutes is unthinkably long, but if you want to put 14 songs on an album they need to be largely super strong stuff, so even as we get to the crunch of Look Inside America or the twang of Country Sad Ballad Man, there's a lot of movement that isn't ending in a clutch of really successful tracks. But it's not that this is bad, just disjointed. "Strange News..." has big Bowie vibes, which I like (so does Movin On, but that doesn't hit as well for me). 3ish stars? Top track was Death of a Party

Zero real expectations on this. Solid early aughties rock. Definite influences of early psychedelia. Strong work, but i don't know if it's memorable? Probably the album ive had the least to say about so far. I'm not sad to hear it, but I feel like, even if I was to compile 2002 albums, this wouldnt make the top. There's a lot of music out there. A pretty square 3*. Top track? Liquid Bird really caught me more than anything.

Look, I am dreading the next few inevitable Coldplays on this list as much as anyone, but their debut? This is reasonable. It's slow, like so much of Coldplay is... in fact, I recall my critique of Yellow being just that... a little slow, a little boring. By comparison, it's a masterpiece, but that's always been a vibe they brought. But here there is still an earnestness. "Don't Panic" feels trite at this point, but it still delivers as an opener. "Trouble" crawls, but it's got a sluggish beauty. Like, these things are just facts here, not criticisms. Chris Martin feels tired in a way that you feel in your bones on songs like "Spies"... it's an ominous quiet. It feels stylistic in a way that it doesn't in future albums. Probably a light 4*, but worth having in the collection. I am so biased toward Shiver as the top track. It's got a great riff, a great melody, and an urgency that is rarely heard in Coldplay.

An hour of solo piano? I'm in. This is compelling enough for being about an hour of long form improvisation, but even more so for moving so smoothly over that period. The pieces don't feel boring (to me at least) or stagnant, even boiled down to one instrument for 25-30 minutes at a time. Hard to give a top track, but it's definitely a 4*

It's weird to call the Beasties game-changing, because hip-hop was already gaining major steam, but one cannot deny how big this was. There's such a distinctive Beastie Boys flow, the backbeats are as influenced as much by hard rock and punk as by hiphop of the age. It's immature as hell, as one can barely blame for a bunch of college age bros, chasing girls, creating tough guy mythologies (while simultaneously being the goofiest guys in the room). That can make it tough in places to listen to as someone about twice their age at the time, but there's also the feeling that they were tongue and cheek and knew there was an aspect of parody in a lot of this (even as a kid, "Girls" was way more of a clear winking joke than a serious statement on what women were like). Anyway, "fight for your right" still captures a certain childish anarchy that makes it continue to be appealing, "Slow Ride" makes excellent use of a "Lowrider" sample, "Paul Revere" was absolutely the first primarily hip-hop coded track that my stereotypical white self really rated, and the album in general just makes me want to get a sack of white castles. Nostalgia makes this a light 4*. Top Track remains No Sleep Till Brooklyn

Coming into this, I hated Gorillaz. They seemed to represent the worst bits of Blur, the most soulless bits of modern pop music, all wrapped up in a white guy's hip hop and anime obsession with a veneer of a fake band. But if i'm going to do this, I need listen as objectively as I can. I was surprised at the first few tracks. They aren't quite blur, but they're much closer than to the sound I have heard. I didn't like the first two, but they put the conception that I would hate this out of my head. There was hope. And honestly, some of this album is OK. Latin Simone benefits from sounding more like an Ibrahim Ferrer project than the rest of the album. But then we get to the singles, and I sincerely do not know what people fell in love with. "Clint Eastwood" bores me to tears, which is in part, I am sure, because Damon sounds like he is struggling to stay awake. It plods in a very different, more ploddy way than the other tracks. On the other hand, 19-2000 is an asinine nightmare despite contributions from absolute legends Miho Hatori and Tina Weymouth. It's at least not the acid chipmunk fever dream of the single. I couldn't do 15 tracks of that. But it somehow is even more uncool as a clunky slow word salad. The stuff between those songs aren't great either. There's a lot of Albarn's more yowling bits. There's the tin flute that sounds like it was just learned yesterday on Rock the House, giving the same vibes as albarn's singing. Overall not good, but for very different reasons than expected. 2*, top track Tomorrow Comes Today

First of all, I steadfastly believe this is too young an album to be here. I said what I said. And Lana immediately proves me right with "white dress," which is overflowing with the worst broken whispersinging. It says nothing and says it poorly. But then, what can you expect from an album whose title references both "chemtrails" and country clubs? Nightmare blunt rotation. That falsetto comes up elsewhere on thr album, and it is always bad, but never worse than the first song. There's a lot of trash here, but one thing that immediately rubbed me the wrong way was that there were two songs where "I only mention it because" is a major lyrical motif. This is a woman who has released books of poetry, which is either very bold of her or this is a major fall-off from that moment. It's not the only thing that bores me here (like Damon yesterday, she feels asleep or drugged... same Lana). It's the deeply childish idea of depth. It's the now-stale affectation without the semblance of edge that one could claim on Born to Die. Music to tradwife a redneck alligator farmer to. For the "not like other girls" girls for whom the thing that is not like other girls is their meth habit. My first 1*, I think, richly deserved. If I had to listen to another song again, i'd pick Dark but Just a Game.

Ive tried Marquee Moon a few times in the past so i'm trying to hear it with fresh ears. It's gotta be the voice, right? That's the hang up, right? It must be. Because objectively this is a strong clutch of songs. See No Evil is a great song altogether. The guitar work in Friction is compelling and addicting. The title track? Musically perfect. But vocals can be such a big piece when songs are being sung, and it's not always obvious when a voice will or won't be grating (I like Smashing Pumpkins, after all). So on my nth listen, i'm trying to read this like many people hear Dylan, as a template for the songs and not necessarily the definitive recording. Doing that opened the album up more. Though on the other hand, this album cover is one of the most haunted pictures ever taken. Maybe it requires the unsettled vocals brought to the tracks? Music is weird and wonderful. 3*, but stronger than ever before. Maybe some day itll make 4. Maybe it has a ceiling for me. Marquee Moon is the sort of special song that doesn't feel like it's 10 minutes, so that's my pick.

Another album I've gone to a few times and am happy to finally give the time it deserves. I had wanted to go through all of Lanegan's work when he passed, but there is a lot of it, after all, and it is prone to a dirge-y vibe. Hard to process en masse Getting back into this one feels like I never heard it. Halo of Ashes immediately hooks in with its driving beat and eastern tinged leads. Look at You is sad and stunning. There's a certain swirling feeling, not really a wall of sound but something very full and entrancing behind a lot of this that is hard to explain. Put another way, it's amazing hearing an album for the first time despite listening to it before. I think this could have been a 5 if side B was as strong as side A. But it"s definitely a 4 and I'm glad to properly discover it. I'm a sucker for All I Know, and have been for nigh 30 years, but on this listen it's Make My Mind that is stuck in my head

I knew nothing about this one. Going through? It's high energy indie pop. absolutely fine, absolutely unsure why this is on here. 3*, but minimal impression. Isle of Her was the only thing I was curious about, so let's call that the top track

Not many albums are this absolutely stacked at the beginning. Like honestly, this is just big, not just in fame and sales and exposure and all that, but it is just... big big quality. It fades in and builds perfectly and that first side just doesn't let up with great songs. I don't think these guys could write something like Bullet the Blue Sky again for love or money. With or Without You's only flaw is familiarity, but I haven't listened to this for years, and it opens itself up on its own terms after that. And it's not like the quality really meaningfully dips off. I have spent much less time with side B, but most other bands would kill for a side that strong, and U2 just murdered it with the first side. There's still a youthful passion here, the Edge still sounds like he's chopping away at the guitar like no one else, and the worst song here (Exit) is still a perfectly fine track. Everything else is a 4 at minimum, and it reminds one that there was a reason U2 got so huge. I think this is my first very well deserved 5? And it starts with probably one of my fave songs ever in Where The Streets Have No Name

Know what actually IS shocking? Realizing I know less of this album than I thought. Understanding how good Dave Navarro was pre-Carmen Electra (and how good Perry was, at that). Another album with a killer build in that first song. A lot more music that feels like an extended stream of vibes than I expected, though also that makes sense for Perry. As such, it is Mountain Song, not the world conquering Jane Says, that feels like the key track here. Some real stunning stuff, some less tethered ideas, definitely a 4* worth another listen

I suppose any album from Public Enemy is technically worth a spin, though this is an interesting third choice above and beyond the two albums i'm sure are in here already. Even here, these guys always sound a bit like a link. This is conscious rap with a "gangsta" feel. It is, as Flav notes early on, a bunch of very big beats. The tracks are like audio collages, sample heavy without being JUST sample. I am not a historian of the genre, but it feels like something new and old at the same time. I think it would be hard to not appreciate how this is being put together, though i definitely think there are a lot of folks who would find Chuck D's confrontational history lessons more dangerous than all the more "colorful" rap lyrics that the moral busybodies were constantly whining over in the 80s and 90s. High 3*, top track: Can't Truss It. Definitely getting a replay at some point

A friend made me borrow this in my 20s. I listened to it two or three times to make sure I gave it a fair shot. I am dreading the third or fourth, and probably final, listen today. I once saw Sonic Youth open for Pearl Jam and they were sincerely a top 5 worst band I've ever seen. A lot of this is Kim Gordon's fault. I hate her voice and her delivery and her lyrics, though i guess part of the latter could be Thurston's fault. He certainly isn't blameless. Catholic Block isn't "better" than Beauty Lies in the Eye, just differently bad. Some of this could be OK. Like, I like lots of the music this directly influenced. I'm not angry at the dischord of the music, though certainly there are moments that are just noise to me. It's not even dumb song names like Tuff Gnarl and Master-Dik, either of which could have been a Pavement or Pixies title. It's that Pacific Coast Highway is indelible in my head from those first listens as sounding like the definition of drug addiction, with Gordon moaning less angry than bored, atonal at best, tranqed animal at worst. Thurston tends to just bark meaningless words over his squonking. Kim is intentional in her unlistenability. If I had to hear one of these songs again, and I'd prefer not to, i'd probably go for Pipeline/Kill Time. 2*, but make no mistake, we are rounding up to get to 2.

Landmark album, classic blues, solid 3

Femi Kuti - Femi Kuti Sort of like a bag of fun sized Fela Kuti bars for folks who can't eat a full king-size at once. Let's get this out of the way first: I do not prefer the very early 90s pop flash production here. But i do like that this blends more jazz elements into the Kuti style. I guess that is the nature of the younger generation, eh? There is something to be said for being able to open the gateway for folks who might be uncertain otherwise. I like this a lot, though. 4*, will relisten.

I am hopeful that in this exercise, I will find a 5* that I wasn't already familiar with. This is not that time. Honestly, this album makes as good a case as there is for heavy metal. It is regularly both melodic and heavy. Just that intro to Battery… stunning, layered, and perfect as a lead in to the onslaught of riffs and drums that immediately follows. It touches on all the normal points: violence and mania, abuses of power and the inhumanity of war, dark entities and light heresy. All the things you might want in a metal record. But this is also composed. That breakdown in Master of Puppets is proof enough… it goes from riff heaven to this beautiful dual guitar lead up to an emotional solo, and then builds back up to the heaviness. But then, so is Orion, a song that fits in like a heavy classical opus. These guys were serious about showing off what they could do, not just in speed or technicality, not just in brutality, but as songwriters.This is an album that is impossible to not headbang to, but it's also an album you can sing along with, you can go into a reverie with. It is Music that can mask the occasional metal cornyness in the lyrics (“kill” is such a friendly word? Dying time is here? Oh you scamps). It's hard to overstate how mindblowing this was to hear at 13 or so. It's hard to overstate how nice it is that it still holds up as an adult. This album may as well be heavy metal's Abbey Road. 5* well deserved, and a shout to Disposable Heroes, which I have always had a soft spot for and I think sometimes gets lost among all the other classics here.

Well, they can't all be Master of Puppets The thing about Arcade Fire isn't even that they're bad. They're aggressively fine. The thing is that they are never as good as the critics and fans try to say. There isn't really an analogue... there are lots of overrated bands that are at least unique. There are lots of very popular bands that are critically hated, because they are terrible. There aren't many bands who get the ass kissed deeper for less. And that makes rating hard, because it kinda always comes up against that bias. To be fair, though, this album isn't one I've heard and it is better than the ones i have. The best stuff here is the female fronted stuff. The majority of this is not that. It feels like an album that wants to be something without knowing exactly what. I think i would like it more if it succeeded in finding out. It also feels like it would be a breakout album from another band. For some reason, from the arcade fire, it feels more like a reinvention to fit into the modern scene, not one to shed a skin of youth into maturity. Certainly win butler cannot be said to have blossomed into maturity at all. There's just always something that feels not quite right. Probably a light 3* in total fairness, though Sprawl II is a hidden gem (compare to Sprawl I for my point about the female vocal songs being better than win's)

Is this the first rock opera? I really do not know, but i can confirm that it is probably the best known one. This is a big, ambitious album for a young band, and it rewards at least one repeat listen. The music has so many foreshadowed themes and callback themes... the overture does the classic Musical feat of cycling through a bunch of important themes (giving us some Entwistle trumpet in the process). The Underture is a really solid propelling piece of music. And then, we get to the lyrics. See, many a rock opera fails to stick the landing when it comes to telling the story. Tommy is little different. We get some character sketches here... obviously Tommy himself, the three major abusive figures in Tommy's life, a girl who devotes herself to Tommy. But the actual thread is jumbled. The whole backstory to the "deaf dumb and blind" Tommy featured in 1921 is only really clear when you've read about the intended story. The messianic final act is just bizarre. The Pinball thing is left field. The abuse feels gratuitous. The brief interstitial tracks are all faff. This wouldnt be a classic if we were rating the story, is the point. But there is some serious music in here, too. We can start with probably the most famous song here... when that electric guitar slide comes in over the speed angle of Pinball Wizard, it always feels a little exciting. It's a weird subject and weird plot point, but it's a pretty solid piece of music. But we also have those drums on Eyesight to the Blind. The uncomfortable trio of kevin/queen/ernie all have musically interesting songs, even as they all have their own cringe factor lyrically. Go To the Mirror gives us a lot of great Who. Tommy Can You Hear Me is possibly one of the most iconic simple minutes and a half in music. Heck, even the goofy stupidity of Tommy's Holiday Camp brings me a little joy. The good bits are very good, but they also kinda make you wish they weren't just a theme here and there. It's rarely a whole song, is the thing. 3.5* I think, against all odds, Christmas is the best song here. That chorus melody is one of the strongest things on the album, and it features the classic, frantic "Tommy can you hear me" refrain as well as the first "see me, feel me" theme. It is arguably as coherent a track on the album when it comes to actually telling a piece of the story.

Its funny to get this after Tommy, because Ryan is absolutely trying to do the Pinball Wizard intro vibe as the album starts. This album from Phoebe Bridgers' ex is prime Frat Boy With A Guitar rock. Highlights are Nobody Girl, which is about 10 minutes long and does not require it, an occasional Neil Young warble, a lot of mediocre white boy "blues", a second attempt at that Pinball wizard vibe... all couched in too many songs that just... are. I was surprised by how much this has clearly influenced dozens of equally uninspired singer songwriters. I don't think it is for the better. Ultimately any one of these songs on its own would be forgettable but fine (though some are definitely memorable for dragging on and on). As a bloated album of temu Black Crowes, it's about a 2*. "La Cienega Just Smiled" was the song I recall making the rounds at the time, and i guess thats as good a representation as anything

Honestly, I think is more of a showcase for Rod Stewart than for Jeff Beck. It's easy to forget that Rod used to be a rock star before he went adult contemporary and then swung to lounge singer. It takes a second to realize, hey... hey, I know this voice. Beck-as-guitarist doesn't get as many chances to shine alone. Sure, it's a solid blues album, but the big shining moment is Beck's Bolero, taking a classical vibe into 3 minutes of stunning electric blues. That's worth hearing, for sure... it feels like the genesis of all of the satrianis and vais of the future. But the rest of the album feels sorta indistinguishable from dozens of other solid releases like this. Ill give it a 3*. Besides Bolero, I think "Shapes of Things" finally contextualizes the Yardbirds in a way that I can more easily grasp. These sorts of lists tend to get REAL Yardbirds heavy. This update makes me appreciate them more than a dozen Roger the Engineers.

I have avoided this for 25 years but I guess it is time? Why did I avoid it? Because I hated every one of these “the” bands that blew up at the same time. Fell In Love With a Girl felt substance free and ragged in a slapdash way instead of a raw and passionate way. I realize I am very much in the minority here. I also found Seven Nation Army to be monotonous later on. Sue me. Getting into the album, the problem comes down to a few things, the first being that Jack's voice is about as good as Meg's drumming. Like, there's a definite difference between Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground and Hotel Yorba and We're Going to Be Friends, but there's something that feels… not quite inauthentic, I believe Jack White believes in this stuff… maybe style over substance? Either way, this mostly bores me and makes me think of the bands who did this first and better. I want to at least understand White's “guitar hero” status, and at least on this album, i can't pick that out at all. 2*, top track “the same boy you've always known

This starts out feeling like a pretty generic snide late 70s punk album, but thankfully it gets a bit more melodic past the first track. Pretty driving standard glam-adjacence. 3*, would probably shout out Lost and Found.

This is something I've never given a fair listen. It always felt like a joke, that's how weirdly ubiquitous it is. But as much as I sometimes grumble about the newer stuff on here, this is what i'm here for. Let's get into it. There is a delicate balance of total corniness and solid rock here. Take "Show Me The Way," which is both a total sapfest and an iconic showcase of talkbox distortion. "Baby I Love Your Way" is pretty much pure cheese, but I will hear no slander on it. It's hard to tell if the "live" aspect detracts from these songs, because this sounds like a particularly good crowd recording more than a soundboard one, or if that rawness saves the songs from being overly slick. It is the mid 70s after all... this could be classic rock revival or proto-Journey if you tipped the scales just a little bit. It's pretty clear here that Frampton knows what he is doing on the guitar. It's standard arena rock, but it's good at it. It has, far as I can tell, the three most important Frampton Compositions. It's definitely interesting that this is arguably THE album that blew this guy up when it is a double live album. It is impossible to understand that explosion 50 years later. This is fine work, a score in a record bin, but not really world breaking. The finale, the big long jam of Do You Feel Like We Do, suggests maybe people were wigged out over the talk box. Fair, but also, that's maybe an overreaction. But there's some good stuff here. I dig "i wanna go to the sun," some lovely solo work there. "Penny for Your Thoughts" is a stunning little interlude, and leads wonderfully into Ill Give You Money (which sounds real good but, kinda silly on the lyric front). Weirdly I think my early fave is Doobie Wah, a stupid name but a solid guitar rocker. On the light end of a 3.5

It is never a bad day when you get to listen to Dummy. This is, I imagine for many, what Trip Hop sounds like. It's really a meeting of the minds… the two hardest bits of this to get right is the right mood on the loops and the right voice. Some go a bit too electro or dance, some vocals are too smooth or emotionless. But every groove here is downbeat and sultry, and Beth Gibbons’ voice wraps around every word, aching, vulnerable, but also chameleonic. That isnt a word, is it? You get it tho. So while those backbeats are necessary, it's Beth who carries this. Think about Glory Box, with its guitar and its vintage crackle and its cinematic swells… a lot of this feels cinematic, not the least of which because Gibbons is a master at the pregnant pause. She lets words just hang (the hook from Sour Times is probably as indicative of this as anything). It's intentional in a way that a lot of similar genres and bands aren't… not just made to get a club moving but to make a piece of art. And while it probably does not hold up as well as it could, i cannot imagine giving it less than 5*. If you aren't feeling something on Roads, do you feel?

From one side of electronic inspiration to the next. Kraftwerk is interesting in that every time I listen to them, they become more human. The first time it just sounds like soulless automation. But Autobahn, overlong and repetitive though it is, opens up a bit more, a bit more, a bit more... this is the first time I found myself feeling a little let down each time it started to end, as opposed to relieved. Eventually you want more. Side B is still a bit more difficult. It is much more mood than composition... Lazer bleeps, drippy caves and jungles... Kraftwerk are showing off what electronic instrumentation can do. If the title track is them throwing all of the Compositional flourishes into one track, side B is exploring soundtracking. I'll always like something a bit more organic more, but it's exciting to start to "get" it. This'll probably keep growing but im surprised to be giving it 4*

First impression gets me somewhere at the intersection of Love and Rockets, Big Audio Dynamite, and basically anything on the Pure Moods of. Give me more of this sort of thing, honestly. Something hard to define but ostensibly listenable. It's got that eastern exoticism fascination, which rings a bit uncomfortable now but gives this a more interesting flavor than just having a nasal brit singing across 10 songs. I'd want to listen more attentively but I think this hovers around a 3.5* with Erzulie at the top

Hopefully the penny of profit from my hearing this isn't going to scientology. This theme is so iconic and goofy all at once. It is shorthand for an entire era of cinematic music and part of my favorite Xfiles episode. And it is only a few minutes of this whole soundtrack. That's sorta the tough thing with soundtracks: there are at least two more in this era and genre that i'd expect to be on this list, and both of them load up with stone cold bangers. With the exception of Soulsville, this is all soundtrack, all perfectly nice and of a piece and as good a representation of a moment in cinematic soundtracking as there is, but it rarely elevates from there. The highlight other than the classic theme is the extended vamp of Do Your Thing, which means if there's a record changer version of this with sides 1 and 4 on one platter, hey, serious bang for the buck. But as largely soundtrack divorced from its context, it's a 3* for me.

Look, i'll put scallions on anything.... Green Onions is one of those classic instrumentals you don't realize you know but you absolutely know. Maybe it's just the organ, but everything on here has that similar warm familiarity. Sometimes that's because the song is being covered, sometimes just because this is comfort food. The slower songs feel like a hazy summer boardwalk from a past none of us really lived. The faster or groovier ones, like the idealized childhoods of just before we were born (whenever that was). It's a light album, but i'd give it a light 4* for that

Korn basically birthed nu metal and they will never properly pay for that. This is something I have not listened through for well over 25 years, which was the proper time to have heard it. This probably isn't Korn's best or most important, but it's definitely the game changer for the band and genre. It's more polished in some ways than their previous stuff, and if you can get over the vocals, there probably is not a more pristine encapsulation of the best of the genre than the first few songs. The vocal thing, BTW, is less about the Boom Dat Da Oom of Freak on a Leash, but more the times that Davis goes whimpering dog vox. This was effective on some of the more emotional bits of their earlier albums, but feels much more forced by this point. Anyway: Got the Life probably is the key track here. It encapsulates a lot of what could be good about the genre: that floppy slap bass, the creeping guitar in the verses and soaring main chorus riff, the ways that hiphop influenced the genre, the abuse and rage and disillusionment that inspired so many of the progenitors of the genre. And sure, the lyrics are way less cool now that i'm older than 20, but i can still remember the way this felt revolutionary. The primal vocal actions of Freak on a Leash or the creepy music box intro of Dead Bodies Everywhere... this was all absolute candy to white suburban kids who didn't have a lot of real problems but were just starting to recognize something uncomfortable around the edges of society, were just starting to realize that all of us, as we grow up, start losing the joy and start hurting in new ways that we do not yet have words to express. Track 5 is where the album starts going off-piste, because while the rap influences make this interesting, the highlights are not great. Ice Cube brings the best he can to what is otherwise a muddy mess. Cameltosis is at least musically effective despite a stupid chorus, but also has almost nothing to do with the rest of the album. And of course, All in the Family aged like raw milk in the sun, and Fred Durst is the Brucellosis. It's cringe even if it wasn't so peppered with casual homophobia. Oh the 90s. Most of the rest? Pretty forgettable, as confirmed by my not remembering most of it despite spinning it heavily in the day. The highlight of the back half is My Gift to You, which brings out the bagpipes, and of course once-hidden track Earache My Eye. The former is a big long plodding emotional ending, something Korn were kind of known for by this point, and it is effective here in ways that even the popular songs dont always reach. The latter is a goofy cheech and chong cover, and works surprisingly well in this idiom. All told, i'd probably give this a light 3* though I think nostalgia is doing a lot of lifting.

Very little sounds more early aughties than this. It's multi-genre, fusion, whatever you want to call it: music that wants to be a lot of things. Sometimes that means a lot of upbeat Latin rhythms or Arab influenced strings or whatever. Sometimes it means cringe-rap. Embracing culture can be a beautiful fusion or it can be a misunderstanding of someone else's reality. This does a little of both. Honestly, musically a lot of this is very good, and it was very promising from the start. I think where it loses me is that it has a very After School Special vibe to it. A lot of the lyrics feel like a song shown on a high-school news broadcast, adults trying to talk about world problems in a hip cool way but managing to just sound corny. The best of this, then, is where they stick to Spanish, which I understand minimally and ergo cannot tell if the lyrics are similar vibes in another language. I think i was most taken by Dona Isabelle. A strong 3* but ultimately that"s where it lands

There is a pantheon of songs that have been abused as background music for the worst movie trailer of the summer. Send Me On My Way. Solsbury Hill. And probably at the top sits Sister Sledge's “We Are Family.” which, ok, kinda cheesy, but unfairly pigeonholed. It's proper anthemic, it's proper funky, and those harmonies that suddenly burst up the scale (“get up everybody and SING”)... it's also 8 minutes long. This is the era of that sort of vamp, I suppose. And it's not like it is alone here… there's a similar conceptual vibe in You're a Friend To Me, so it all fits together. The album proper? Well, it starts with a groove so good that Will Smith stole it. It has Nile Rodgers’ fingers all over it. It straddles 70s soul and tolerable disco with just a thin coating of funk. It's dated in a fun way. The remaster desperately wants me to listen to a half hour of remixes for We Are Family and Lost in Music, and no, no thank you, but I do think this is surprising enough to slip into 4* territory

Ah yes, the first of the much debated Too Many Dexys. I think it's probably easy to not understand the context of this album, as largely non-Brits listening to an album that does not contain the huge international hit single. The vocals are distinctive but maybe less suited to white boy soul than the sort of highland jamboree vibe of Come On Eileen. But this did have a #1 single in the UK with Geno. I find this interesting because it is confusing: Geno is a perfectly fine song, but a #1 hit it is not, to my mind. But also I have never been British and was still a few years from my own debut in 1980. So again, the context of this album was probably very different for its immediate audience. With the title, and the intro to the first track, it feels like there may be an undercurrent of both rebirthing and reforming a classic sound from a post-punk mindset. So yeah, it hits me largely with general transitional sound vibes, nothing too mindbending, but some fun tracks. Seven Days Too Long is a genuinely fun little romp, and the back half is also weirdly stronger than the A side, to me, which is interesting since so many albums run out of steam instead of picking it up. At it's best there are light hints of Bowie and Queen here, though admittedly minor bits. The first song to hit me was The Teams that Meet in Caffs, so that'll probably be the one I add to my year's record of listening, but generally i'd say this is a fun but ultimately inessential 3* with possible growth potential.

There are little glimmers of classic Floyd here, though I'd argue that the Barrett years have even more glimmers of Robyn Hitchcock. I guess that is important enough for this one. But the soft focus epics of latter day Floyd are traded for more conventional psychedelics. I'm definitely more for the later school, but I appreciate the absurdity of a lot of this. The lunatic is on the grass, indeed. 3*

I am a big believer in art being political, but cannot possibly get excited about 80 minutes of The Boss singing about the twin towers. I tend to loathe Bruce at the best of times. His best songs are basically 3 stars for me, so this is daunting. The first thing is, at least the mealymouth is toned down. Also, god bless low expectations. This feels like a generic album of its ilk, which is a step up at least from a Springsteen album. Let's be Friends has notes of Rob Thomas in it, no less. But the only really notable bit is the inspiration, and it's sort of proof that even an emotional, earnest motivation doesn't mean the music will be great. This is a tepid 3*

When I said yesterday about music being political? This is more what i'm talking about. You've got the light and easy but pointed power of Stand and Everyday People. Stand is a pretty classic “keep your head up” song, and Everyday People does a lot with basically two single chords, the banality of our own prejudices and that big iconic “Aaaaaayyy”. On the other hand, you have “Don't Call Me…” which… well, if Everyday People puts a finger on the Humans are Humans idea, the latter really puts bluntly the vicious cycle of how hatred leads to more hatred. I think it's obvious where it all starts (as a white guy i cannot imagine being offended by being called “whitey" compared to the contempt of “whitey's” epithet), but Sly seems to be digging a bit under the skin of the cycle, not just the bigotry that started it. That's not the only place Sly Stone feels like he is on the edge of something. It's easy to listen back to this and hear proto-funk, but really thinking about it in context… this was early on, this was just a bit before P-Funk even, and it feels like a bridge to get to that from the psychedelic era. That descending riff in “i want to take you higher” is iconic enough to feel like it was born into collective knowledge. “Sex Machine” takes the familiar James Brown funk standard title and births something funky and what may have sounded futuristic at the time. What would early 70s funk be without the extended guitar vamp? Sly doesn't want us to find out. Let's call this a 4*

Unexpectedly cohesive for a soundtrack. This is certainly cinematic like you'd want it to be, but it also works well as a collection of compositions and a full album, which is rare to me. Usually at best you get a soundtrack with lots of great songs with a similar sound. More often you get a score that sounds great but doesn't necessarily pop without the movie. And even more often you get every bit of interstitial music regardless of how it holds up. This seems to walk the line of all of those things. “Dirty Trip” feels like the standout, but i also really liked the change in mood of The Word Hurricane. This is starting from a strong 4*... can imagine this growing to be a new unexpected obsession tho.

I don't actually need to listen to this. I will. But I do not need to. I was just young enough that I "found" Nirvana not long after they ended, so they weren't as formations for me as for many others. But goddamn do I know pretty much every note here by heart. From the opening chords of Smells Like Teen Spirit to the ending cello swells of Something in the Way. It's easy to get tired of an album that is frontloaded with unavoidable hits... you couldnt listen to rock radio that whole decade and avoid it, which is why Breed is probably my favorite track on side 1. But those tracks are still so good. Teen Spirit is inimitable... it's one of those songs that everyone wants to cover, everyone technically can play, but it never, never sounds right, from the tone of those first few chords right on down. And then you get things like On a Plain toward the end, probably my fave track on the album. Kurt had a supreme sense of both pop melody and sonic chaos and brooding darkness. I guess it might not be for everyone... my grandmother basically tapped out of music by the time those hooligans the Beatles came out... but this is an all time classic and immediate 5*

Oh my fuck. We're three for three. That's nice. This excels on a number of levels. It's a little bluesy, a little funky, some really lovely more folky and quiet songs (“love and affection” is the sort of song that could be schmaltzy and a slog, but is just done so so well), and largely soulful. I guess I shouldn't be surprised? Ive known of Joan long enough to know her calibre. But this era of music doesn't always scratch that itch for a whole album. Here, my ears perked up at Down to Zero, and everything else went down easy. Maybe it's the way her acoustic guitar plays with a more electric band. Maybe it's the fact that she made a song with a stupid title like “Join the Boys” (or “People” for that matter) still be good. Anyway, I'm gonna be bold and call this the first 5* that I didnt already know from this project. Sort of only fair if someone makes an album with no misses.

If Led Zeppelin set the stage for metal, and Black Sabbath birthed it, this feels like the zygote. I imagine that's why this shows up here… it represents an under-appreciated genre link, a forgotten ancestor, and also represents the pinnacle of the great Deep Purple tradition of stupid album covers. It's honestly not super memorable taken out of context, but I think it deserves a relisten despite being pretty firmly 3*

Michael Jackson - Thriller I don't really consider Thriller a 5-star album for a few reasons, though I probably wouldnt argue with anyone who thought it was. It's inarguably huge and influential and the quality is top notch. But there are a few things that make it impossible to get to the top. The biggest is: The Girl is Mine. How two of the biggest artists in the world could write such an unequivocally terrible song is confounding, especially since Say Say Say is perfectly fine. And yet… and yet. Then there are the two (yes, only two) non-hits. Both are absolutely fine, neither would feel like filler on an album that wasn't Thriller, but they still chip away a bit. And then there are the hits proper… PYT is fun, but it feels rushed. Human Nature is lovely but a little heavy handed. And the title track? Well, this is blasphemy maybe, but it works best with the video. The video is what made that song huge, and rightly so. But if that video never existed, it would not be the mega hit it is. And the video is not on the album. That all said, I also don't know that I would trust someone giving this less than a four. It's probably closer to a 4.5. It lives up to its hype most of the time. Again, the non-singles are still fine songs, and there aren't many of them. Thriller is a silly conceit but does have an absolutely killer groove behind it. Billie Jean is timeless, Beat It rips, Wanna Be Starting Something is the platonic ideal of a dancefloor packer. This album is the reason later Jackson albums have no curation… no one is gonna tell the man who created Thriller that maybe he's wrong about his musical direction

This is so cheesy it could've been called Buttrock Parmesan. I mean, it's not the worst thing in the world, but between this and Springsteen I almost feel bad for New Jersey. The first mistake on this album is putting “Let it Rock” first and not “Livin’ on a Prayer”. This is a mistake that Cross Road, the only Bon Jovi album you need, if you feel you need a Bon Jovi album, does not make. You start with that classic of big, dumb, hairspray-laden pop metal, and a multitude of sins can be forgiven. It's anthemic, it's everyman… it's got a talk box on the main riff. It's basically the foie gras of the Monster Ballads era. It's everything that, say, following track Social Disease is not. The A-side is the Hits Side, tho, and the three here have some classic riffs, even as JBJ yowls about blood red nails and fayngertips. And if Wanted: Dead or Alive is a foreshadowing of the band's eventual descent into schlock-Country pablum, you'd at least be forgiven for thinking they could have pulled it off. It even has one of the greatest worst lines ever, seeing a Million faces yadda yadda. But then side B starts, with a stupid “we're a rock band rock with us” song that makes the one beginning side A sound forgivable. And on this side, there are no singles to save it. Not even the Born to Run wannabe Wild in the Streets. Most of this album is a big helping of How Dare You, so even with the hits, this is a high 2*

More hiphop should sample frogs. I recall first coming across ATCQ and groking them as some sort of hardcore gangsta rap group. I was a child, so I knew literal nothing. It wouldn't have been something my family would have said. Who knows. I was pretty surprised when I actually heard them years later. Quest have always been pretty synonymous with groove, and this is true even in this, their first foray. Not a surprise that Ali would be instrumental in the recent Jazz Is Dead series, reintroducing the world to forgotten greats. It's what makes a silly song like “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” still fun to listen to. That's something the guys got from the very beginning. These guys were so good at this that they literally found the riff that made the Fugees “Killing Me Softly” relevant. Lyrically? This feels a bit like Licensed to Ill, inasmuch as this was made by literal teenagers. It's a good flow, it's relaxed and conversational, which carries over later on. It is intentionally aware of its inspiration and calls out the music it is pulling that inspiration from. But it's also a diamond in the rough still, in need of a little maturation. It's like drinking grape juice instead of wine. This was probably pioneering at the time, but the seams are easier to distinguish now, looking back. Sure, we have Can I Kick It, which is as iconic a song as there was in the genre at this point, and there's a lot of good stuff here, but it needs a little time and polish. 3* but a respectable 3.

AI will probably eventually destroy all art, but this came out over 35 years ago and is just as creative. I guess it set the stage for people becoming ok with soulless music that sounds like it was made by a robot. I don't know if this broke new ground. Maybe this was the first dance album to use a certain synth patch. Maybe it was the first one to start the trend of meaningless new-agey repetitions lyrics in club music. But this is basically the Dick and Jane primer of electronic music. It is trite, it is uninteresting, it is wildly dated, nothing happens, and I presume it was created for belabored learners. There's a lot of bad music out there, but this is just so unforgivably boring. 1*

This feels like the most 80s punk ever, bridging that power-chord chug with the reverb and synth of the era. Honestly, I'm liking this, and not just for “The Wait,” which I forgot all about being in Metallica's covers library. Whatever this is (I'm going with proto-industrial the longer it goes on), I'm on board. That simple. Light 4*

This isn't even the best album CCR put out in its year. It's arguably not even the second best released within a year of itself. Which sort of speaks to what CCR was about… it is really impressive how iconic they ended up in so brief a time. Arguably rock's greatest appropriation act, Creedence all but defines swamp blues despite being California boys. Some of that is Fogerty's voice. Some of that is that distinctive guitar tone. The title track is a stomper. Lodi is a classic plea to escape a dead end town. Bad Moon Rising feels superstitious in a way that feels distinctly bayou. It's kinda amazing how well they create a sound that feels so at home in a setting they don't know. I didn't realize how comforting this sound would be. It's brief, but tight. It delivers exactly what you would want from it, and if tracks like Sinister Purpose and Wrote a Song For Everyone don't shine like the hits, they still remain more than filler, part of a clutch of songs that don't really have any gristle on them, that are all at least good (and let's be real, some of these songs are just as solid as the hits: Cross-Tie Walker came to mind immediately). Light 4* territory again.

This isn't the earliest of jazzes, but it's far more big-band than the experimentalism we normally imagine for the genre. Back when jazz was dance music as much as anything. It's part of why I hate “dance music”. You can dance fine to pretty much any music that's got the proper beat. And this does. You can picture a dancehall full of people. Because this is so associated stylistically with a thousand mediocre Sinatra wannabes, Big Band sometimes just feels perfunctory. Trite even. Just Big horn blasts, Vegas veneer, a vague feeling of mob toadies hanging around. But the best stuff is still about expression. Basie has always been able to walk that line, where the music feels well composed and flexible instead of just being a boring backdrop… it seems Basie is part of the reason music like this started having the ability to improvise and experiment, so right there, his influence cannot be ignored. But Basie was so many things: here, he is largely conductor and pianist, but he's also an arranger, a writer, someone who brought any number of names into the spotlight. It's not an everyday listen sort of album, but I'm glad it's out there and it's fun to spin such a solid example of what this COULD be freed from the rigidity of the standards set. 4*

I was looking to see if this was really an hour plus, and thankfully it is not, but i got a lot of background info while I did. Haunted and shambolic? That's certainly something that could be great or awful! I sort of lean toward the former? It's all very sparse, very rough, but it's ultimately kinda nice mostly? Spence's voice can be a very rich deep instrument, or a very stressed airy higher register. It's not really psychedelic, but it isn't -not-. It has some early western vibes in places, but is definitely not a classic western album. It's not as obviously the product of a mental breakdown as many reviews suggest, but that knowledge certainly informs how disconnected the album often feels. There are a lot of nice gems throughout… with a little polish, Diana would be iconic, and War in Peace feels like it should be anyway. I think the droning Grey/Afro feels like the definer here. It's intriguing and propulsive but also give the hint that there might be something more going on here than meets the ear. I'm leaning to a light 3.5*, with the expectation i'll relisten to this to get deeper in. I don't know if this is something i will love, but i am surprisingly happy to have experienced it. And Whatever the case, i'll certainly sign off on this being the better song about Cripple Creek. You know the other one.

Well, it does what it promises. This just kinda… is. It's maybe overtheatrical, definitely a little lounge-acty. It's the EP version of 69 love songs in some ways, though I think there's more genuine brilliance on 69LS. There's nothing BAD about it per se. But it doesn't hold me. I like the reinterpolation of “when i fall in love” on Timewatching, and I'm All You Need is more what i expected (and males me a bit hopefully for the other Divine Comedy stuff), but this just sort of passed by. This is also where I wish the star system was more descriptive. Something like 45% of my ratings lean to a 3-star, and this, I think, would too. But there's such a wider range of meanings on a 3 star. There are the “this is good” threes, the “this is fine” threes, the “this is generic but not bad” threes. There are lots of sorts of threes out there, and it's not really fair to say this is the same as Tommy (or on the other hand, the same as The Rising). It's just 3.

There's always something battered and tender in Cave's work, I've noticed. It's usually hiding just under the skin of the foreboding. Nick Cave, especially pre-Skeleton Tree, and Especially Especially pre-Boatman's Call, has cultivated an artistic persona that feels guaranteed to have killed a man and more women. At its worst it comes across overly tryhard. More often it just plays with levels of discomfort, the barely constrained maniac character conducting some beautiful and damned choir. The reality is that that means for me, most of his work has been a couple listens to sink in. With technically two different albums of content, this will probably not be different. But I like it. Even songs where I was skeptical come into some sort of new movement that changes the whole thing. And then there is O Children... i'm not entirely sure why this is seen as one of the 1001, but it could be due to O Children alone. Right now it's on the cusp between a 3 and 4. Im gonna give it the benefit of the doubt.

I'll be honest, I am not a true believer on the “Hurt” discourse. I think Cash does an interesting cover. I think it frames the song in a vastly different way, as a recording by a man a year from death. I don't think it's better. To me, the biggest intrigue is simply the idea that a man so separate from the culture and distant in age would connect. It is a big thumbed nose to the yuppies and boomers freaking out about youth culture in decline. That's a huge bit of Cash. Imagine a modern country boy confronted with What is Truth for the first time. They'd be ripping shit over the audacity. Cash was never really an outlaw for the sake of it, but he was always in opposition to the worst bits of “western” culture. It's another small protest at the very end. Damn their eyes. But Cash is at his best when he is at his more Cash. The opening track (and album namesake) is a perfect storm of this. Cash as dark preacher, Cash as divine arbiter of justice, Cash as exuberant strummer and inveterate storyteller. His energy here, even in his speaksinging, is just as interesting a contrast as the tiredness of “Hurt”. While Cash's choices in covering the extended terrain of an American songbook (and the British, i guess, given the Depeche Mode song), he feels more tentative in most of these than when that aging but robust voice reverberates on his own compositions. Not in a bad way, just a different one. Something like “We'll Meet Again,” of course, feels right in that wheelhouse. Is this really the first recordings of him doing it? And having Fiona Apple rippling through what is already a strong Bridge Over Troubled Water is a nice touch. But the real standout of those songs is I Hung My Head, to me. Probably the big surprise on the album, and double surprise that it was written not by Johnny, but by Sting. All in all tho, this is probably the genesis of the Critically Acclaimed Twilight Album. It's a few years before Genius Loves Company, the Ray Charles album that really ushered in dozens of Old Dudes With Modern Duets albums. It is long long before the mindful and nearly prophetic Blackstar and You Want it Darker. And if I think it is a little overblown in praise, and if I think that there is no ethical reason to subject someone to Desperado, it doesn't make this any less than 4* and an eventual addition to the collection

There are too many Smiles, but thankfully our intrepid list maker specified we're to listen to the 2004 release. Not Smiley Smile, not the Smile Sessions. Brian Wilson's version. I don't think this is marred by that, if for no other reason than Mike Love isn't associated with it. But I've never really -gotten- the Beach Boys. I don't love their harmonies. I find their music always feels a bit too stuck in a high school era that never really existed. This isn't really resolved by the album being recorded by a more mature, older Wilson. But the bigger statement is how weirdly structured these songs are. Harmonies that don't really resolve morphing into new keys, multiple movements in one song, songs that blend together… this is Wilson's White Album, in that, while I will stand for no argument against the White Album, this similarly feels like throwing every idea at a wall and seeing what sticks. And also, because Heroes and Villains’ instrumental is basically “I Want to Tell You” with a carnie organ solo (not that that was a white album track). The problem is, these don't feel like wholly baked ideas. They also often feel thinly composed, which is a weird thing to say about a man who never met a note he didn't want to harmonize thrice. And lots of this is goofy in ways that don't feel intentional. And as a concept? I mean, I don't know what he's going for, unless the concept is a man who just keeps starting new songs in his head as he looks at things. Maybe this is why there is a song about looking at wind chimes. Maybe that explains Child is Father of the Man's chanted chorus. Maybe this man sings Vega-Tables to himself every night at dinner. I like weird things and all. I like unconventional music choices. But I'm just so beyond what makes this genius. Even the most interesting bits of this never gel, or shift into a completely different idea too soon. And with that reliance on chaste 50s nostalgia that hampers so much Beach Boys music, it never really feels like experimentation so much as a very distractable former Beach bum. 2*

Among the greatest double albums of the 70s (and id say ever). Which comes with pros and cons. The pros? Well, that first side for starters. We can certainly go on about the full on camp of Bennie and the Jets (with that stomping piano and glitchy, sizzly outro guitar), or the weirdly earnest idol worship balladry of Candle in the Wind, neither of which should have truly worked but do beautifully in the hands of Peak Reg. But then there is Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, the sort of bold, big, sprawling affair that you would expect from anyone but Elton, and yet he slays it. And that's all before Jerry Lee Lewising through Saturday Night or the wistful haze of the title track. Throw on any two other songs to the end and almost any combination would make this a 5 star album. But it is a double LP. And if Elton was known for anything in this era, it was flamboyance and doing too much. I mean, I remember seeing a video for Candle in the Wind regularly as a kid, and Elton was sitting there, singing this serious tribute elegy in a full old-time wig and faux veruca. He couldn't really help himself. But therein lies the downfall… for every brilliant pop song there is something bloated. Like, as good as the best of this album is, that's how bad Jamaica Jerk Off is. JJO might be the biggest best-to-worst gap on any album. It's audio cancer. And while it's singular in its suck, it's not alone. Dirty Little Girl is similarly overlong, similarly cringe, but at least brings a vibe of failed Bowie and/or Stones. Your Sister cant twist is absolute Fodder. And while the music for All the Girls Love Alice is actually real great, the lyrics are… let's say conflicting. But overall, this hits a lot of stylistic notes, mostly successfully. It's, once again, gloriously camp. The sort of Vieux Carré vibe of so much of the filler, airy and pleasant and a little seedy. The proto-disco shimmer of Grey Seal, which purports to suggest that there is some entity to beseech for answers that goes by the name Grey Seal. The ability to make a song called This Song Has No Title not be absolutely pointless. The less remembered but also solid film idol nostalgia of Roy Rogers. You don't -need- to trim that much off to get to a 5 star album. But the fat that isn't trimmed keeps it at a 4*

I listened to this when it came out and remember none of it. I guess that is worth noting. I guess that'll happen when you put out an album that starts on track 3. Like, I -want- to be for this. That's why I listened to begin with. Women in rap deserve support. Women owning their own sexual agency deserve support. This is all shit I'm for. Conceptually. But in execution? This is B-grade generic hip-pop with C-grade Vagina Monologuing. It doesn't make an impression as music, except inasmuch as it walks a line between overproduction and untuned. But it doesn't even really live up to the salaciousness it suggests. And while sure, songs about money turning her on certainly check out regarding “heauxing”, the only real pushing of the envelope is “On It,” which falls into the common trap: trying too hard to be overt in sexuality and actually sounding like you've never actually had sex. Nothing hits the boldness of a WAP, the tunefulness of a Kiss Me More, not even the single minded mania of a Nicki Minaj rapping about her ass for four minutes. The best bits? The backtrack on Lost One, which could have been something, and the beginning statement of Antoinette's Tale, which isn't very heauxy (only Ari's tale feels remotely confessional) but is at least a political statement. The rest of this sounds like something anyone could write after getting disappointed after a month on tinder. 2*, and proof that you really need to let an album age more than 5 years before declaring it special.

Ive been doing this for just about 2 months and I have gotten stuck with two Sonic Youth albums already. This one's title, Evol, is the opposite of “love,” and I deeply opposite of love Sonic Youth. As I've said before, Kim is the biggest issue here. At least here she is more whispery, which is preferable to the novocaine howl. Thurston just leans toward pretention and noise too often (see In The Kingdom #19). Kim, though… take “Secret Girl,” reciting weak poetry in vocal bursts that sound like she had to run down the street to get to the studio in time to gasp then out. That said, this isn't as bad as Sister. This feels more gothic, more 80s, more drawn from Joy Division… listen to those opening chords on Madonna, Sean, and Me, which feels like the rough draft of something ive actually enjoyed by someone else. That vibe starts on Tom Violence, and carries throughout. But the best bits of this album are of another piece altogether. Between about half of Green Light until Kim starts up in Secret Girl, there is cleansing discord, not too pointlessly painfully loud, but clearly a palate cleanser after the rest of this. That's what makes Madonna so relatively good… it sounds like something filled with potential going over the edge into simpleton yearnings. But that is the end of it. More 2* than Sister was, but that is nitpicking, because Sister is pretty bad.

Peace Sells is Dave Mustaine at his Mustainiest. A bit less polished than his former brothers in Metallica, a bit less practiced at song craft, a chip on his shoulder and something to prove about his own chops. Also, starting with a song about getting plastered and sleeping with another woman and having to not wake up his partner. Again, Peak Mustaine. But then, has Metallica ever been so puckish as to even write a song title like “wake up dead” or “peace sells… but who's buying?” The closest would be titling a song about a sanitarium “Welcome Home.” Dave leans into the less serious side of thrash and metal, despite being probably as big an asshole as the genre has. That title track walks that line. We know Dave is exactly the person who would give a line “I go to court when I have to” and be both sarcastic and sneeringly honest. But that petulance is framed by the anthemic shout along outro and an intro that will forever just be the MTV news theme to me. Maybe cruel that the most memorable riff on this album isn't from Dave's guitar. It's trite to view Megadeth in Metallica terms, but it's not like Dave doesn't invite it. How can we not hear Good Mourning/Black Friday and not hear an intro that is trying to outshine Fade To Black's? That's probably the defining aspect here… Dave's single-mindedness to out-thrash his peers, albeit a little later. Countdown to Extinction comes just after the Black Album. Cryptic Writings comes in the wake of Load. So it's interesting that Peace Sells includes something totally unique: a blues cover. I Ain't Superstitious is pretty intriguing here… not only does it pre-date Metallica covering non-punk and metal songs by a decent clip, it ends up being both an earnest take as well as arguing that the blues structure could accommodate metal shred. Thrash isn't really my metal, and metal isn't often my jam, but you can see a lot of what people see in it. Especially in songs like My Last Words, which might be my fave here, or Devil's Island, which i liked the guitar work on. 3*

Imagine, if you will, that a major musician decides to play a concert at your place of work, in some area of the world where concert tours don't exactly come by. Imagine, further, that they get on stage, introduce themselves, and immediately launch into a song about how the place you work for is absolutely miserable. I imagine that must be how the crowd at Folsom prison felt here. I don't believe there are all that many truly iconic live albums. Most live shows are fun in the moment, an experience, but lightning in a a bottle… it never really translates even when it's great. The difference here? First off, the recording sounds solid. You get a bit of that live reverberating, but it also still sounds good. But I think there's also the fact that this is tailored to the crowd. Lots of songs about hard luck, crime and punishment, general outlawing. Cash also feels at home. He's making jokes here and there, connecting with the inmates, snarking shit at the prison industrial complex. The atmosphere is a part of the album. There is a ceiling on even classic western for me, but Cash can command a light 4*, even having been fed him twice this month.