One the truly great voices. Marvin Gaye is really at the height of his powers here
Loved this since I was a teen. Every track is great. Really varied and interesting. Alison, Less Than Zero, Watching the Detectives all absolute classics. His lyrics and wordplay are top notch
Seminal rock record. So influential on guitarists and singers.
The greatest female soul by a country mile
Not listened to them before. Quite like it, though I am currently less in the mood for this style. Some vibes of Echo and the Bunnymen/Waterboys
Obviously some iconic tracks like the title and Love is a Stranger
No one alive can avoid the need to dance when Chic plays
Somehow don’t go to Dylan much but whenever I do it’s obvious how incredible he is
Some unusual stuff among well known classics and standard beautiful s&g
So iconic. They make so much from so little. Full of energy and passion
Punk energy with more sophistication than their debut album. Lots of guitar solos which arent very punk! But great.
Was a very big album of its moment. Certainly full of beauty and warmth.
Chris Martin’s voice is just so awful. Everything I don’t want from a singer. The whole thing is just painful and bland and dire.
Interesting but ultimately not my thing
So so seminal. Raw Power indeed
What a gorgeous voice. Huge influence on so many singers to come. Great blend of folk with lots of other styles
His voice is so much more than the sum of it’s parts. Beautiful stuff from a complex, difficult guy.
One of the absolute all time great funk albums. What an amazing band on the top of their game. Some stone cold kick ass bangers
Would have been incredible to see these guys live back in 1965
Old hands and voices that just know what is what. Soul, rhythm, life, love, joy. And Ry Cooder to boot
Such a soulful voice and amazing arrangements
LC is such a powerful poet and has a huge emotional depth.
Challenging and endlessly stimulating. Certainly feel that there is plenty going on that is beyond my ken but also very intriguing. Lots of amazing musicianship
One of my all time favourite albums. Just immense. Brian Eno brings so many layers and textures. So funky but complex. David Byrne’s lyrics are fascinating and intense. His delivery as always is brilliant
Title track is of course iconic. One amazing Blue Thumb record. What a line up of stellar musicians
Weller doing another change of direction. Leaning even further into his soulful side
Played this so so much at the time. Funky and energetic and passionate and exciting. Under the Bridge is so painfully beautiful
Some people just have a presence. Something others don’t have. John Prine isn’t doing anything many others aren’t doing but he does it in such a unique way
Beautiful close harmonies are one of the most pleasing things to hear
Mustaine is certainly a one if a kind guy. Voice, style, guitar. This is near to peak Megadeth
That sound. Students and angsty teens everywhere loved it. Ian McCulloch’s voice, like Lloyd Cole and the Waterboys, was what all creative arty people were into. The jangly guitar sound. The sophisticated lyrics. We felt clever because of it. And it just sounded so great
Classic big beat dance tracks. Wasn’t a thing I was huge into at the time but it can’t be denied that it’s great dance music
Back when U2 was still on the rise. Still cool. It’s all very earnest and heartfelt. That made it exciting and powerful to listen to as a teenager. The band are really tight and propulsive. The Edge hasn’t fully got into his effects heavy period yet. It’s still great guitar work and full on early 80s post punk flavour. Similarly the bass is strong and sounds to me like Eno worked on the sound
Pure intense energy. The first outing for SOAD is just brilliant. What a band
Full of core Stones material it sounds like the expectation of a Stones record, even with tracks like Country Honk. The session players fill it out and take it up a notch. With Mick Taylor and Ry Cooder adding serious quality. The classic blues tracks keep the connection to the roots but they are more developed. Then stone classics. Gimme Shelter, Midnight Rambler, You Cam’t Always Get..
Marc Bolan is one of those people you recognise immediately. So unique sounding. Got all the key tracks on this one but they’re all great. Mambo Sun opener sets the mood and it grooves from there
Kraftwerk are such a key seminal group. Their work in the 70s laid so much groundwork for so much music. No just the synth pop of the 80s but hip-hop, dance music and all music that now just had the understanding that electronic devices can make art.
This album is much more pop oriented and allowed the accessibilty to synth pop. But earlier records are much more powerful now
Love this band. So many amazing grooves.
BB is amazing whenever you listen to him but this shows him at his most powerful. Stunning
Although it may now seem hackneyed, then the use of South African music was so fresh and exciting. Paul Simon’s music dovetailed so well with it and his voice also. So many beautiful and fun songs
Funky. Jazzy. Great musicianship. Love Watermelon Man
Second EC album that’s come through. Another great one with big hits and generally excellent eclectic stuff all through with all his usual lyrical fun
Totally classic 90s r’n’b with some absolute stone cold hits. All the big name producers in evidence and the sound just takes you right there.
Great singles that I remember fondly. The Power of Love in particular is beautiful.
How could this be less than 5 stars. Up there with the best he did. I came late-ish to Bowie and later still to the Berlin period but it’s so high end. Probably good I wasn’t trying to get a teenage brain around it. Got into this and Eno generally at the same time. So otherworldly and timeless yet still connects
One of my all time fav male soul voices along with Sam Cooke and Al Green. He sings sime Sam Cooke here along with other covers which he owns totally and brings so much of himself to. No one will ever sound like Otis. And with the Stax band behind him, it’s all stellar
Hard to give anything less than 5 stars to any album of this period by Prince. Be was just about to peak with this going into Purple Rain which continued for many albums. Still feels early 80s in its sound
There’s almost nothing that doesn’t get 5 stars for Bowie until well into the 80s. This is certainly an easy 5. Even though there’s probably only one massive track, it’s all immensely good
This album was so huge to me when it came out. I couldn’t get enough of it. Still so amazing and exciting. And led me onto the whole Native Tongues gang. It’s an incredible debut. So inventive and different
It’s so hard to understand how important Sinatra was now. It can easily sound dated and cheesy. And so much of it is received as part of the cultural landscape
My favourite Beatles album, particularly for the medley on side two. It has actually grown more on me as years go by. The proto metal of I want You is huge. The mad variety of content is great, musically, lyrically, subject matter. It’s ridiculously clear how massively influential they were and still are
5 big singles. We were all in love with Debbie Harry at the time, with her sneering beauty
Not really my thing but perfectly alright
Interesting one. Lots of people hate the slickness of Steely Dan. I do really like them and the level of musicianship. This album was played in my house growing up and so there is an amount of sentimentality to it. There are some great cuts on it. But it is super slick and therefore not doing it for me now particularly as that’s not what ticks boxes for me
Riffs on riffs on riffs. Josh Homme effortlessly chugs out the rhythmic goodness that massages the soul
Listening to this will depend on the day. The art rock navel gazing can be dull sometimes and interesting others
Southern rock starts here. I have come to realise that this music hits me somewhere deep and the more I listen to this the more I feel it. In the 90s US classic rock radio would routinely have Freebird as the greatest rock song of all time. Alternating with Stairway to Heaven and Bohemian Rhapsody. Every track is killer though
Interesting. Different. Proto-Rammstein. The covers are fun and worthwhile. Overall not sure it’s something to listen to over and over
Hard to give anything less than 5 surely? It’s a strange window back in time to listen to this, knowing all that is to come. All that incredible creativity and invention sitting latent within them. The talent is all in show but still channeled through standard formats. Would be amazing to feel the excitement of hearing it for the first time
It’s always been easy to criticise Led Zep for their plagiarism, for riding on the blues inspirations, for the questionable subject matter (even the name). However the musicianship is incredible and is just so key in the development of heavy music. Whether you are educated enough to know where it all came from is irrelevant. It just rocks
