I bet this really freaked out the squares, man.
I was expecting to know more of these songs for some reason. More covers than I was expecting to be honest, but I guess it makes sense for 1963.
Smooth Operator is a great song. The rest of the album can’t quite match that level, but it’s very chill. Tons of sax.
Just a good time
I feel like I’m supposed to like the pixies more than I do. Outside of a couple of songs, I’ve just never really gotten into them. Where is my mind is great.
I only know one song of theirs and it’s not on this album. Pretty good at times.
I feel like Lou Reed is an artist I’m supposed to like because it’s cool. Initially, I wasn’t into this album but it did kinda grow on me as I listened.
Initial reaction - this kinda rules
4 songs later - this is lame
Next song - wait, is this cool?
Very next song - no, this is not cool
Title is very accurate. I get it, I just hate it. Stressed me out way more than ambient music probably should.
Last year, I listened to this album all the way through for the first time in probably 30 years. I forgot how good it was. I have no idea why I essentially stopped listening to Pearl Jam after 1998.
I know every band is somebody’s favorite band ever, but I don’t know how I would respond if someone told me the flying burrito brothers was their favorite band. I don’t love this type of country music (or most country music for that matter)
I forget how skit-heavy 90’s hip-hop was. Genius move by RZA to negotiate individual deals for the member of Wu-Tang. How many other members are on this list?
During my senior year of college I took a music history class that focused on jazz. I guess I needed some sort of arts credit or something? But we just listened to and talked about jazz for the entire semester. It was an awesome class even though I knew nothing about jazz. I never just listen to jazz, but I did distinctly remember walking around campus with an old iPod loaded with jazz I downloaded from Kazaa. We probably talked about Charles Mingus, the name sounds familiar.
My college roommate and I would drive around blasting this album in his maroon Chevy Corsica. It felt like it was everywhere that semester, with the In Da Club video constantly on in the cafeteria.
Never really listened to this band before, but remember Maps from Rock Band. Back in college we were at a party and this girl was obsessed with that song. She’s dead now, and that’s the first thing that comes to mind every time I hear Maps.
This is just a phenomenal live album. I don’t usually like live albums but this one is exceptional. I didn’t realize deep purple was a jam band.
There are a couple of songs on here I liked, but the lesser known Hendrix stuff never really resonates with me.
3.75. I always told myself (and anyone who would listen) that I hated country music. Turns out, I only hate bad pop-country music.
ZZ Top is corny as hell. Some good riffs but the songs and the shtick are not. I do think it’s funny that Billy Gibbons would randomly show up on the show Bones as a minor character who would just show up looking cool as hell with his beard, shades and weird du-rag hats and play guitar for absolutely no reason.
3.5. Thinking of making a hard pivot at 42 to be a jazz guy.
I aggressively do not like this.
2.75. Inoffensive but a little bland for me.
3.75. The drums are just so propulsive on the title track (and really most of the album).
I didn’t expect to like this more than London Calling, but I did.
3.75. Maybe the best opening/closing tracks on an album. They go so well together and are iconic. The rest of the album is fine.
If nothing else, this list has confirmed that I do not care for electronic music.
R.E.M. was one of those bands I am aware of and know more songs than I realize, but never actually listened to outside of their videos being on MTV when I was a kid.
3.75. Made for a fun grocery trip. I listened to later Cypress Hill but for some reason not this album. I dig it.
1.5. I have already forgotten everything I heard.
2.25. It isn’t as repetitive as some of the other synt/electronica on this list so far but it also doesn’t really feel like anything at all
3.25. Solid
3.5. Some good jamming on here.
3.25. If you’d have told me a few years ago that I would be listening to an ABBA album and having a good time I would not have believed it.
Despite never actively choosing to listen to AC/DC, I knew the words to 80% of these songs.
More recognizable and better than the other Neil Young album on this list so far. I still don’t care for his voice.
For some reason, I thought The Cult was a goth band like The Cure? Wildly off on that one. Decent 80s hard rock.
My 14 year old’s new favorite singer apparently? She got really into it when i had it on in the car
Not what I was expecting. Still good though.
I kinda dig this
1.75. Not what I was expecting from The Bee Gees. I don’t love it but it was different.
At one point, I had Queen’s entire discography loaded onto an iPod and somehow I’ve only heard one of these songs before.
It’s fun, but a little too weird at times to be really enjoyable. Genius of Love has an infectious groove.
Solid
Just a lot of fun grooves. I love when bands cover songs from different genres.
3.25. I thought I liked Dire Straits more than this, but it just might be the guitar riff for Money for Nothing that I like.
I really like a lot of this.
This is a lot of fun. Gonna need to watch the movie now.
The songs are too long and repetitive. Praise You sure did have a moment, didn’t it?
I don’t really like David Lee Roth (or Van Halen), but he’s obviously the better frontman for the band. This album is undeniable.
Maybe my brain is broken, but I found some of this to be oddly soothing. Some of it made me want to not have ears and I will never listen to this again, but I didn’t hate it.
It’s got You’re My Best Friend and Bohemian Rhapsody on it. It also has a song about being in love with a car. Very Queen.
2.75. I just don’t think I like Lou Reed that much. Perfect Day is good
Running Up That Hill is a great song. The rest of the album doesn’t quite reach that same level, but it’s a fun listen.
I think I stopped listening to Radiohead around this time. Up til then, my musical taste was dictated by my older brother, and this album didn’t sound enough like Creep, so I wasn’t interested. 13 year old me was wrong.
2.75. In retrospect, some of these songs are corny as hell. I was caught off guard the couple of times they dropped an F-bomb in a song. I guess I didn’t realize Run D.M.C. cursed in their songs?
3.75. A band I am aware of but never actually listened to. I kinda dig it.
Kinda made my grocery shopping trip feel like a heist montage in a late 90s movie until it gave me a migraine
There are some cool guitar riffs on this but the rest sounds like cheesy “oldies” pop to me
I’ve always thought people could be divided by whether they like the Stones or the Beatles more. I’ve always said Beatles. This doesn’t change that.
Beck is such a quirky weirdo and the music absolutely reflects that.
I have never heard of this person before. It’s reggae? Scottish reggae? And this record sold 600,000 copies?
The biggest thing going against this album is it’s not Rumors.
3 or 4 of these songs are classic rock staples. They carry a lot of the weight here. I don’t think we talk enough about how crazy is it that the drummer lost his arm like 2 years after this album came out and just continued to drum for the next 40 years
You know…that song “Bad Company” from the album Bad Company by the band Bad Company.
I like the faster/punkier songs more than the slower ones.
For some reason, this is my least listened to QOTSA album. I didn’t start listening to them until Rated R came out in 2000, but never really went back to their first album.
I kinda like the music but the vocals and lyrics are not good.
I have been culturally aware of Jethro Tull as the 70s rock band with a flute, but outside of the occasional song on the radio I never gave it much thought. There is some really great stuff on here, but not all of it works the same.
5/5 no skips, even the songs they cut out of the version that aired.
This is some white funk nonsense with like 2.5 good songs. I like the music, hate the lyrics and the singing.
This would be (at least) 50% better with a different singer. Or no singer.
Every few years I try and find new music to listen to. Sometime in the 2010s, that led me to MGMT, probably from a list like this. It wasn’t for me then and it still isn’t now.
I like that they were from Kentucky. Unfortunately I was 6 when this album came out and they had been broken up for at least 20 years before I finally heard about them as an adult.
Not something I’m going to work into the regular rotation, but I dig it.
We had been married for over 10 years when I discovered my wife LOVES Fleetwood Mac. It just never came up before that.
I knew more of these songs than I realized. As a kid, I remember watching the video for Hard to Handle on MTV all the time. I think I was just mesmerized by the nonsense of the lyrics.
I know way more about TLC than I ever planned thanks to MTV and VH1. It’s not really my vibe, but I can appreciate it.
The beach boys are weird as hell.
Not for me.
Not sure why the default version on Apple Music was censored, but it was oddly jarring to not hear cursing. Thought I was on my kids profile for a minute.
Not really my style but I can appreciate the concept of it.
I couldn’t really get into it. I don’t know how to explain it, but it feels unfinished?
Sometimes I wonder if my parents listened to these albums from the 50s and 60s when they were kids. I guess I could just ask them, but it’s more fun trying to imagine either sets of my grandparents putting a Fats Domino record on.
I think he’s a better rapper than lyricist. I like the way he sounds more than what he says.
3.75. I dig this one more than Surfer Rosa.
There are a couple of really great songs on here. The rest all kinda sound the same to me, which is how I’ve always felt about The Clash.
2.75 If I were hosting a classy grown up dinner party with cocktails and cheese, I would definitely put this on as background music.
A little goes a long way with reggae. This is better than some of the others I’ve heard. Still not for me though.
2.75. This live album sounds less like a planned setlist and more like BB King just followed where the music led him.
2.75. Prior to seeing The Last Waltz a few years ago, I’d only ever heard The Weight, which is fine as a song. That concert film was good but did not make me want to listen to anymore of The Band. I do like it when drummers sing.
Electronica is just not for me
4.25. This was really good. Pretty sure my uncle (or someone equally as nerdy about this type of thing) told me he used to use Yes albums to calibrate and configure his home stereo.
4.25. Just a solid classic rock album. Didn’t realize all of these classic rock radio staples were on the same album.
3.25. I think I like Wu-Tang as a collective a little more than any of the individual parts, even though many of them appear on multiple tracks of their individual albums.
2.5. The keyboard playing is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here.
3.75. Some solid songs on here. I don’t regularly listen to Billy Joel, but I’m usually not disappointed if one comes on.
1.75. Maybe the outside sounds were too loud on my walk, but the music was so down low in the mix that it just sounded like Sarah Vaughn was talk-singing in my brain and it wasn’t very pleasant.
2.75. Kinda sounds like generic late 60’s blues rock to me. Nothing bad but nothing stands out either.
3.75. I’ve got to be in the right mood to listen to Iron Maiden normally, and even then it’s one of two or three songs I want to listen to. None are on this album, but that didn’t matter.
2.75. I’m normally all for sad and depressing music, but this might be too depressing even for me.
This is exactly why I started this project: to discover something new that I really like.
2.25. There are some cool or interesting musical moments, but the language barrier makes it hard for me to really appreciate the songs.
The musicianship is off the charts here. Three dudes just absolutely crushing it.
This sounds sonically overwhelming at times, which I think is kind of the point. It’s both funny and cool that Trent Reznor has two Academy Awards, especially because one of them is for a Pixar movie
2.75. Musically, I kind of like this. Vocally, I don’t.
Congrats to Beyoncé and Jay-Z for all the sex they were apparently having circa 2013. This is a very horny album with maybe two catchy songs (that aren’t actually very good). I think Beyoncé is overrated.
3.25. It’s hard to be in a bad mood while listening to funk, the groove is infectious. And I also love a funk pun, but a little goes a long way.
For some reason, I thought this was going to be more electronica than synth-pop. I kinda dig it.
2.75. Weird in a way that I can appreciate, just not enough to listen again.
Electronica seems to be overly represented in this list. Maybe I need to read the book to see what the parameters were for selecting these albums, but I have a hard time believing that this is amongst the best, most important or most influential albums of all time.
3.75. Kinda catchy. I guess that Paul McCartney can write some songs.
3.75. Honestly way more mentions and references to balls than I remember.
3.75. This rocks way harder than I was expecting. It’s mostly covers, but they’re pretty fun.
3.75. The actual songs are good, the skits and bits, not so much. Did streaming kill skits on hip hop albums or are they still doing them?
I feel like Pavement is another band I was supposed to get into when I was younger and I just missed it.
Very German and electronic.
2.5. Very 80’s. Sledgehammer is the only song I recognized. No idea what it’s about but it’s pretty good.
As a kid, I always thought of Simon & Garfunkel as corny music for grown-ups. It’s still that, but also way weirder than I was expecting.
I’m thinking I don’t care for Brian Eno…luckily there are only…3 more of his albums to get through on this list…
Take Me Out is good, the rest is kinda bland.
Really dig the interplay between the guitar and the horn on this. I guess I’m a jazz guy now?
Solid.
Some really fun bass lines in this. Not something I’ll likely revisit too often but I kinda enjoyed it.
In the 90s, my brother was an amateur DJ (graduation parties not turntables) and car stereo guy and would listen to a lot of this type of stuff all the time to “test his system”. There would be a cool beat or something interesting and then the song would continue for 6 more minutes of that. This reminded me of being trapped in the car with him on the way to school.
Not for me
I used to be ok with Aerosmith, but now I really don’t like them? Not sure what changed but I think most of their songs are corny and awful.
Video game menu music
I tried to find a reason to knock a star off and I couldn’t.
Decent 70s rock. Was today’s years old when I learned “Cum on feel the noize” by Quiet Riot was a cover song. It’s not on this album, but I did not know that
For some reason I thought Joni Mitchell was more folksy than this
More interesting than good.
Chill listen for a walk. Couple of really good songs I’ve heard before and others I hadn’t but sounded decent
Doesn’t sound 55 years old, but not my style
I knew this was going to be weird based on the only things I know about Dr John, which is that he looks and sounds like that, which I first learned from a podcast where somebody played him as a character and then confirmed when I watched The Last Waltz.
4.25. There was no greater joy as a preteen than silently scream-singing along to Bad Habit on my Walkman so my parents couldn’t hear the swearing.
More fascinating than enjoyable to listen to. I don’t understand her voice and how she sings that way.
3 good songs and the rest are generic and sound the same, except the one where she talk-raps stream of consciousness culture nonsense. That song sucks.
2.75. Still don’t love this as much as other people do.
I don’t care for the police.
Some really fun grooves and guitar in this. Pleasantly surprised.
3.75. I haven’t loved most of the 80’s hip-hop on this list so far but this was enjoyable.
Couple of great songs on this one. Never really been big into Dylan.
I mean…
Sonic Youth, like the pixies and Radiohead, is a band I feel like I’m supposed to like more than I actually do. I blame my older brother who was way more into all three. I enjoyed this for the most part. Only the second band covered so far in this that I have seen live (Queens of the Stone Age was the other, and both in the summer 2003).
Iconic debut album. Nightrain and Mr. Brownstone might be my favorite GnR tracks
2.5. I like this substantially less than the other Yes album covered in this list.
Bizarre. 2.5
After 3 albums so far, my general opinion of Neil Young remains: fine?
Somehow simultaneously exactly and nothing like what I thought Tom Waits would sound like.
2.5. Decent mid 2000s noise rock.
Chore of Enchantment? More like chore to listen to!
But seriously, I am not a fan of this kind of talk singing.
I guess I never realized that the album version of We Are Family was 8 minutes long.
Nothing remarkable.
3.5. Still think I like iggy pop more as a concept than as a singer, but I liked this.
Honestly liked this better than most of the other Neil Young albums so far. Heavier than I was expecting.
Listened to some of it with my 14 year old, her reaction: I like it but I have no idea what he’s singing about
My wife loves The Doors. I do not. It has less to do with the band and their sound than it does with Jim Morrison, which I suspect is true for both of us.
3.5. It’s weird that like 30 years after this album, Isaac Hayes was probably more known as the guy who voiced Chef on South Park than he was a singer.
I think we need to get back to 4 track, 50 minute albums.
I’ve never been but I imagine this is what a Ren Faire sounds like.
But every so often, maybe once every couple of songs, there will be a section of the song where the band just goes off and rips way harder than 60’s British folk should.
Saw Springsteen live in 2003 with my parents at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. We were in a club box, possibly the furthest I have ever been away from the stage at a concert. A drunk lady hit on my dad while my mom and I were sitting right there. Ate a hotdog as big as my forearm. Good show.
Listened to this album for the first time a few months ago. Solid. 4.5
Very chill. Not really fitting the 80 degree summer Sunday morning walk vibe
Still relevant 50 years later.
Really liked the vibe of it, but after 10 plus minutes or so for each song it got a little stale
3.5. I liked this more than the other Stones album.
When I was in middle school, my older brother had a Ministry CD. I don’t think It was this one, but even during the height of my interest in industrial metal (8th and 9th grade exclusively), I never really listened to it. Maybe I did once but I probably had the same reaction as I did this time:
Maybe 30 seconds in - ok this is kinda cool
Everything after that - ok that’s enough Ministry for me. It’s monotonous.
I really love the combo of Metallica with a symphony orchestra. It really elevates these songs for me.
I did not mind this. Maybe the only electronic music so far.
Ice Cube was never really my thing.
I think Pharrell is a better producer than singer/rapper. This would be more enjoyable with no vocals or maybe with someone else.
The Mr. Brightside-Smile Like You Mean It-Somebody Told Me run is one of the better 3 song runs of the 2000s.
I think I liked the sitar versions of Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Light My Fire more than the original versions.
This is like the 3rd or 4th album by a band I’ve never heard of on this list that I think I’d enjoy more if there were no words.
Nothing really stood out but it was fine background noise while driving I guess.
For some reason, I had mixed up Cocteau Twins with Aphex Twin in my head this morning and put this off because I didn’t want to listen to Aphex Twin. This is not that.
More psychedelic than I was expecting from the byrds, but that might be on me for just not knowing much about them.
I liked this less than the David Bowie album from two days ago.
2.75. Was expecting more stomp-clap-hey folk rock for some reason. Its not that so it’s fine.
2.5. As eclectic and weird as Janelle Monae has always seemed to me from the outside. Some of it I like and some of it I do not.
Not sure I’ve ever hated anything faster than in the first 5 seconds of the first song on this album.
Worse than Captain Beefheart.
4.25. I need to listen to Radiohead more often.
Just kinda nice to have on.
I can appreciate some of the grooves, but this is not really for me.
Pleasant listen while walking the dog. Randomly heard one of the songs hours later in the airport
