Man, I struggle with Bob more than I’d like to. His lyrics feel so hyper-specific to his time and place that it’s hard for me to get a foot in the door. And the music is just so brutally amateurish. I’m charmed and fascinated but just never all that excited.
The older I get the more I understand this band. Being weird can be really hard to do, and artists who try often do so with an air of bitter defiance; David Byrne does it with pure love and joy. All that being said, this is a very light 4; they have far better albums.
Ok someone needs to explain this one to me.
Lyrically inane and musically obvious. And it’s not even a “oh but you have to listen to it with 1987 ears” situation because AC/DC was doing this 10 years prior!
“Fun” I could see. But “important”? “Classic”?? Why???
2 stars cuz Sweet Child O’ Mine kinda goes.
This album went down incredibly smooth for me. It has the skeleton of psych and glam rock but boiled down to its bare essentials. Rich and fun yet somehow also minimalist and intimate?
Called one of the best solo Beatles album for a reason. George flexes such an incredible ear for melody and Phil Spector brings his wall of sound style to its logical conclusion. So dynamic, so heartfelt, so lucious. I’d give it a 4.5 if I could. The only thing that’s holding it back are the static instrumental sessions at the end and the every-now-and-then silly and simplistic lyrics that defined some of the Beatles’ later music.
Edit: ok I just re-listened to this and I was being so annoying not giving it a 5. What a collection of music.
Arguably the Beatliest Beatles album, the one I’d give an alien if they asked about this band. They had mastered the simple charm and harmonies of 50’s rock, which you can hear on songs like Drive My Car and You Won’t See Me, but they also started getting into the psychedelia that would help define their later career (Norwegian Wood, etc). The result is an endearingly disjointed, very winking and extremely confident album.
In My Life remains one of the most romantic songs I ever heard.
I feel about this album the way I feel about penicillin which is that I don’t have anything interesting to say about it but I’m very glad it exists.
Never thought to listen to this album front to back but I’m glad I did. Cyndi Lauper has the kind of voice that tricks you into thinking she has no idea what she’s doing as a singer until she hits a note in a way that knocks you down.
Thematically it’s delightfully brash. Love me an album with a killer masturbation anthem. Is it weird to say this album feels proto-“Brat”?…
Anyway, this probably wont stick with me but it was a super fun listen regardless.
This is an album for people who love a Singer with a capital S: Someone who knows how to use their instrument and interpret a lyric and phrase a melody and belt and holler and also be lilting and tender and seductive and fun. She really was one of them ones.
Hmm idk I think this one just isn’t for me. It’s definitely not bad - I really liked Down to Zero and Save Me - but it reminded me of the worst singer-songwriter music I grew up hearing from the 90’s. I suppose she’s the inspiration for all that music which is genuinely cool. I think if something had been a click more engaging - either the arrangements or the lyrics or the vocal presentation - I might have liked it, but as it was it felt anodyne. It might bear a re-listen or understanding more of the context.
Edit: OK the two songs I mentioned ended up sticking with me so much that I decided to give this album another listen and am bumping this up from a 2 to a 3. Touché Joan.
I knew nothing about Tom Waits’ music going in to this and was completely sucked in by the album.
The world he built here is so complete. The storytelling, the sound engineering, the clanging drums, his vocal stylings - it all took me to post-apocalyptic New Orleans.
It’s so deeply strange and macabre but was made with too much intentionality to ever verge into childish trauma porn. Then, between all the doom and gloom, he sneaks in moments of tenderness and vulnerability like in Who Are You, A Little Rain and That Feel.
I can confidently say I’ve never heard anything like this before.
Dave Grohl loves to be like “I never even took music lessons” yeah buddy we can tell.
Not to be the friend who’s too woke but with all the white rock bands that are already suffocating this list did we rly need a B-tier Pixies album? Did I really need to listen to this before I died?
Not for me but I totally get it. Some amazing guitar playing and even through all the chaos and noise Corgan has an obvious ear for songwriting
You just know he would have had dreads if he could grow out his hair
Racist southerners and black people should just agree to shake hands and beat the crap out of Randy Newman.
lol this was trash but people need to understand that this walked so Jai Paul could run.
Regular, straight ahead rock. I just feel like this band has much better music and even that music isn’t really for me.
She didn’t just sing the words in italics, she laid them flat on their side and made sweet love to them while Sarah Vaughan played in the background.
One time, a friend of mine who played the tuba told me he loved metal because it was the closest a popular genre came to classical music - the fast-paced figurations, the development of theme, the emphasis on instrumental virtuosity…
Metal and the harder rock genres have never been the music I gravitate towards, but I appreciate them so much more ever since that conversation.
I don’t know how often I’ll return to this album, but I’ll remember how it made my head positively vibrate, and I’ll remember thinking that Vivaldi would be proud.
It’s funny, as someone who never gravitated towards rock music, I was super into this album when it came out. I think their sound made me nostalgic for something I never really experienced or understood in the first place.
Now that I understand more of their reference points and context (thanks in part to this challenge) I can adequately describe this band as: competent.
Everything is totally in its place. Everything sounds exactly as it should (shout out Danger Mouse). But they never dare push against the boundaries they set for themselves in becoming a down-the-center blues rock band, and the result is something impressively listenable but incapable of reflecting anything personal, interesting or unique about them as a band or as people.
FWIW, El Camino is better.
#MichelleBranchForever
Waitwaitwait I got one: … “So-Soasis”
Ok in all seriousness I was tempted to give this a 3 because after a week of down the middle dad rock I was so happy to get something new that I wanna reward it with more than it deserves.
It’s interesting listening to this in a world where Harry Styles exists: a former member of a pop group who went solo and made reductive soft rock music. Maybe this is a tale as old as time.
There’s not much to love about this album but there’s also not too much to hate. “Angels” is of course a stand out but also I thought “Let Me Entertain You” was such a deliciously fun track. The rest is forgettable and sometimes embarrassing, but I eventually found myself endeared to the fact someone like him made something like this, even if it doesn’t really work.
Also, how long has Charlie Sheen been a punchline in the cultural zeitgeist??
If you take away the vocals, you’d swear it’s an uplifting funk album; if you isolate the vocals, you’d swear it’s the saddest blues music ever made. That’s the magic of Curtis Mayfield.
This doesn’t rank among the best of his music for me, but even at his most middling he’s so evocative. His voice sounds like he’s slowly wringing out a decade’s worth of pain and passion from his throat. Fitting given the subject matter.
Also this is lowkey a GOATed album cover.
Cinematic Icelandic post-rock, or, as I like to call it, Reydjöhed. A pretty beautiful collection of music that’s just warm and inviting enough to then unsettle and challenge in all the right ways.
Sinatra had a voice like a French horn: declarative and full-bodied. On this album you can hear him trying to emulate the deep softness that made Jobim and Bossa Nova such a phenomenon. He does an admirable job for the most part. And in the few moments where he doesn’t quite succeed, Jobim taps in and breathes new life into the music.
All the negative reviews for this album are complaining about how it’s their 9th British punk album they’ve had to listen to but for me it’s my first so I’m riding high baby!
Some albums are a 3 because they’re just mid all the way through. Others are 3 because they flip-flop between genius and idiotic. This is the latter.
I never listened to a Police album before and came in with middling expectations. I was shocked when the opening track of this album positively blew my hair back. I then immediately crashed back down to earth when I had to listen to a PBS Kids song about respecting the dinosaurs. This essentially sums up my experience with the album as a whole.
P.S. everyone on here saying “Mother” shouldn’t have been on the album is insane, that song is an obvious highlight.
Ok in B-52’s defense, it’s genuinely not their fault that I was deeply sleep deprived when this album got assigned to me.
I don’t have kids but I imagine the experience of listening to this album sleep-deprived is similar to being woken up by your 4yo twins because they needed to tell you about their new imaginary friend:
“What’s that? It wasn’t a rock? Oh it was a rock lobster. Thats great sweetie I— what’s that about the moon ? It’s called the moon? That’s so true — listen honey daddy needs to close his eyes for a few more minutes…”
All that being said, if I was a quirked-up white boy living in a beach town in the 70’s I totally could see myself bumping this all summer long, half as a way to troll my friends and half out of unironic enjoyment.
Never listened to much Brian Eno despite understanding how influential he is. I was astounded by how well this held up. It could have easily come out 30 years later than it did. All the clunky use of sampling I hear today and to think that someone had it this dialed in back in the ‘80’s…
Never listened to much early punk before this challenge. Really enjoyed hearing a version that feels a little more musically intentional: interesting chords and scales, amazing riffs, thoughtful production. Can easily draw the line between this band and the alt rock of the ‘00s I grew up listening to.
[Seemingly obligatory reference to the fact he’s not a good person]
What can I say? It’s truly astonishing this was his debut. So fully realized, so-well written and produced. Can’t help but love this album.
I see the vision. It’s ambitious and bold and individual. I think if I knew the language well enough to follow the stories they were trying to tell I might have appreciated it more.
Any album that has “Life on Mars?” has to be at least a 4.
This is a fascinating album that, to my ears, is an attempt to capture the musical zeitgeist of the 70’s like a time capsule. I hear everyone from Neil Young to Paul McCartney to the Velvet Underground to Cat Stevens.
The only thing that holds it back from being a 5 is that so many of these homages feel like him doing his best imitation of that artist rather than building on their ideas to make something new. The highlights of this album are the songs that feel like they could have only come from David Bowie. But dear god are those songs highlights.
Edit: ok after getting Ziggy Stardust, I went back to this album and am bumping it up to a 5. I think I actually might like it better than Ziggy Stardust? It’s just so tightly written!
I’m trying to think of another band that’s this good and makes music this bad. They’ll sound so unbelievably locked in and then Anthony will come humping in like an 11yo who just drank too much juice.
A witch who puts dirty martinis and cigar smoke in her cauldron
Paul McCartney has always been my favorite Beatle, and yet I’m incapable of getting excited about his solo/Wings work.
“Maybe I’m Amazed” is maybe his best post-Beatles song but it feels so out of place on this album. The rest of the songs are at best fine and at worst just him lazily leaning into his most immediate impulses.
I am so not opposed to albums that feel like demos or sketches. But maybe the reason some of these ideas weren’t fleshed out is because there's just no “there” there.
Dear god the back half of this album is just non-stop heat. This band has no weak link and no MVP (although Verdine White comes close), everyone is just firing on all cylinders for 39 minutes straight.
God you people are so BORING. It’s gotten to the point that when I see an album has an average rating below 3 I assume it’s gonna blow me away.
I’m fascinated by the fact that this psych rock musician stopped being able to drum and basically invented post-rock. Is post-rock just psych rock with fewer drums?
The back half of this album devolved a bit too much into nonsense for me but the first half really gripped me.
If my girlfriend asks, I gave this a five.
She asked me to imagine it was still the Obama era while I listened and that honestly did help. But besides “Wake Up” there weren’t enough moments on this album to excite me beyond the nostalgia for when twee was cool.
[Sitar intro]
Jagger: You’re so dumb and ugly ☹️
[basic boogie woogie beat]
[funky guitar riff]
Jagger: But I’m gonna have sex with you anyway 😏
[harmonica]
Jagger: Whether you want me to or not 😎
[guitar solo that’s just the riff from before repeated over and over again]
Jagger: SHOO BEE DOO BEE TA LA LA [10x times until fade out]
Terrible news: The Abercrombie and Fitch at the local mall became sentient after being exposed to too many Bath and Body Works samples and has morphed into a godless 2-hour long techno mixtape. We must offer our Build-A-Bears as a sacrifice to Lord Auntie Anne so that it stops wreaking havoc on the townspeople.
Idk if this makes sense but I need someone to do to me what Quincy Jones did to these drums.
Listen, no judgement to anyone who enjoys getting high to this album but I truly pray that as you make your way through this challenge you find far better albums to light up to than this one.
My aunt was raised in California in the 70’s and she told me that when this album came out she spent a weekend at the Colorado River with her friend’s family and “listened to that album the whole weekend, soaking up the sun, learning to water ski and cranking up the tunes.” Doesn’t that sound so lovely you could throw up?
Anyway, 5 stars.
There were a lot of songs here that went in one ear and out the other, but the ones that stood out stopped me dead in my tracks. “Try Not to Breathe”, “Sweetness Follows” and “Night Swimming” touched me in particular.
I’ve never gotten into grunge music and have been slow to dive into Nirvana. It was nice to experience this album without all the mythology that fans clearly have projected onto it.
Like with lots of Unplugged sets, there’s an intimacy here that really touched me, and it provided satisfying contrast with the brusqueness of Kurt’s voice and lyrics. The covers made it feel all the more like I was getting to know him.
Boy, these guys really do like snow, huh? Me personally I prefer the warmer seasons but hey to each their own!
I can’t explain this but this album made me want to dance badly. Like, it made me want to dance, but when I did it was bad. So like, I guess that’s better than not wanting to dance, but I wish it had inspired good dancing. Does this make sense?
Solid background music that highlights the innovative work done in a genre I respect but don’t get too excited about.
Catchier than I expected. “Awful” and “Northern Star” are knockout songs.
Thriller for corny white boys
Credit where it’s due, the transition from “I Love You Because” to “Just Because” is genuinely hilarious.
One of those albums where you have to keep reminding yourself it came out in the 70’s because it could have easily come out 30 years later.
Man are they good at towing the line between creepy and sexy
After getting Volume 4 I decided that maybe I don’t like Black Sabbath very much, but this was actually a pleasant surprise. Still not a ‘fan’ but I’m much closer to getting it.
Two stars: one for each Supergrass album that somehow made it on this list
I bet this goes so crazy on a long and contemplative late night drive
Finally, an album that answers the question: What if Kid Rock was a theater kid?
An album that urges you to hold entire emotional universes for every little destination, monument, plaque, resting place and person you come across as you make your way through the world
Some really thrilling ideas every now and then but it rarely came together how I wanted it to.
Fun album that’s hard to hear as something other than a prototype of the amazing stuff to come. The riff on Protex Blue is nasty work for a song about safe sex.
It’s not often a flute makes me stank face
There are as many songs on this list that repeat the name “Tina Turner” over and over again as there are actual Tina Turner albums.
A surprising amount of songs here feel like throat clearing until the show stopper at the 11th hour
A pleasant breath of fresh air! The title track in particular was a vibe.
Annoyed at the sky for being blue when I got this album.
Edit: ok it’s raining now, bumping from a 4 to a 5
A great album for people whose idea of “self-care” is smoking weed and abandoning their friends.
A strong 3. Bono and Spector are both artists who could have been told “no” more, and there are a lot of ideas here that just didn’t quite seem worth fleshing out. That being said a lot of these songs really grew on me the more I spent time with them.
Things I love: Jim Morrison’s voice, light psychedelia, the organ
Things I don’t love: when white rock bands insist on ruining their otherwise great albums by playing half-assed blues 101 music
Y’all mind if a white boy speaks a little Jamaican?
I really really REALLY hate giving this the same score I gave Police’s “white reggae” bs, but I just know in my heart that reggae has better music to offer than this.
…… Reasonable Doubt isn’t on this list.
It’s genuinely so inspiring to listen to someone fully commit to their concept. The vision here is so complete and in the process he makes some absolute bangers.
I’ll be honest I’m a bit confounded by this one. A self-professed “impresario” decides he can make his own album? But it’s a mix of hip hop, South African and Latin American music? But he’s a British white guy? But some of the stuff kinda slaps? But it’s performed by uncredited POC’s? But it’s supposedly credited with introducing hip-hop to the UK? But it’s so deeply sonically incohesive and unfocused? But Eminem referenced it on “Without Me”? Idk I feel like that kombucha meme girl. Giving it a two for now but might demote or promote later I’m so confused.
What a fascinating forgotten artifact of the ‘60s. Such beautiful arrangements. And I love that the lyrics were clearly poems Arthur Lee had written and just set to music. I can’t think of any other album from its time that I could compare it to, which is cool!
I kept thinking of the word “bracing”. Every song feels like the most emotionally thrilling night you could have in New York City. This is why I started this challenge, so that I could have an excuse to finally listen to albums like this.
If I had a nickel for every middling turn-of-the-century electronica album I’ve gotten that fuses underground western dance music with traditional Indian samples and melodies, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice!
A formative and important album that I’ll probably never listen to again. The last track was nice though.
Always get excited when I get a solid, capital P Pop album from this list
If Michael Jackson had Quincy Jones, then Frank Sinatra had Nelson Riddle. His arrangements here are so rich and playful and surprising without ever taking away from the main event which is of course Sinatra’s voice. Together they make something that’s so masterful yet made to sound so so easy.
It obviously doesn’t deserve to be on this list but I’m not gonna pretend I didn’t have fun listening to it.
Fine but I echo everyone else’s confusion as to why this is here but no Guthrie or Seeger
The first and last few songs on this album are so beautiful. Candy Says is a perfect opener and Murder Mystery was so captivating. I just wish the middle third didn’t drone on as much.
4 stars instead of 5 because this is emotional manipulation. Beloved dying music icon sings about death, life, and love with the help of the friends and mentees he’s made throughout his life?? Like yeah it’s amazing and I’m crying but also how dare you.
The 3-song run of “Flag Decal”, “Far From Me” and “Angel from Montgomery” is really good. The rest was solid but didn’t capture me as much as I wanted
On the Mt. Rushmore of people who did NOT need to go this hard
Light 4. I rly wanted to not like this because I think of it as an album for people who “miss *real* music” 🙄. But unfortunately I found this pretty fun.
You should hear how stupid you guys sound whenever you call any instrumental album “elevator music”. Seriously, what freaky ass elevators are you guys riding on?
Propulsive, slinky, confident, elegant, playful and just so much fun
An hour and 4 minutes of straight dilettantism.
A strong 3. Definitely see the Television comparison. Loved the first few songs and then the rest started to drag a bit.
I’m realizing by doing this challenge that most of these metal/hair metal/prog bands were actually just theater kids. And that’s beautiful! I just would rather they did theater.
Much like the song that everyone knows from this album, the rest of this music is a little dated, super catchy, beautifully sung, and has surprisingly evocative lyrics
Oscillated between too challenging and too boring and only rarely found a middle ground
I use the word “confident” a lot in these reviews but you can just tell these guys are so in control of their vision and craft and are having so much fun because they know that what they’re doing works
This was an especially hard album to review. You could feel the labor that went into it, and not always in a good way. It often
felt like it was being painfully pushed into existence, but all in the name of a vision you could tell was absolutely worth seeing through. And my GOD Max Roach is the GOAT. Anyway definitely an album worth being challenged by and returning to so you can find little gems you missed the first time
See my Rocket from the Crypt review
Sometimes music just sounds good, you know?
So much vitality in here even after all these years. Some of these verses make me wanna run through walls. It’s still FTP btw.
3 stars but I’m learning I’m a sucker for expanded editions where you can hear the band rehearsing their songs
The music isn’t as mind-blowing as the story behind it but it was still a good listen.
I liked guessing what was happening in the movie when they played each song
I mean it’s right there in the title
This challenge is really showing my bias against hard rock and metal. Just really doesn’t get me that excited. The hits were hitting on this one though.
A solid - if a little one-note - prototype of all the things psych rock eventually became. “Strange Brew”, “World of Pain” and “We’re Going Wrong” were standouts.
The musical equivalent of the worst DIPA you’ve ever had.
Live jazz albums >>>
How can you not be charmed by her fucking up “How High the Moon” and then vamping by doing a spot on Ella impersonation before giving an astonishing scat solo?
THAT’S a professional; not someone who nails it every time, but someone who rolls with punches when she doesn’t while still showing off her skill and showmanship. What an icon.
Aretha Franklin’s one of those artists where you’re like “yeah yeah GOAT singer, I know” and then you actually listen to one of her albums and you’re like “oh genuinely no one has ever sang this good and no one ever will.”
Natural Woman is one of the greatest pieces of recorded music ever. People Get Ready always makes me wanna cry. Ain’t No Way took my breath away.
Down To You is a masterpiece but I couldn’t get Liz Lemon’s impression out of my head.
Not the kind of music I’m likely to give more than a 3 to but damn if there aren’t some killer grooves here
Genuinely happy for all the white dudes who were going through their Japan phase when this came out
Something about this album just gets my shoulders to relax. Like as soon as I hear those opening horn stabs I know that I can just chill for the next half hour.
So many staggering musical moments in here but there were a lot of songs I wanted to like more than I did. Maybe I don’t have enough whimsy in my heart?
Love Neil Young’s solo work but never listened to his Crazy Horse projects. I wish I had liked this more. The songwriting isn’t quite as sharp and the band doesn’t add much and in fact often takes away. I did like Round & Round and Running Dry, though
Had the intrusive thought that Paul Simon is just Jason Mraz for boomers and now I can’t get into this album
Simple, witty tunes sung by someone who knows how to deliver the hell out of them
***PSA: If you use Spotify and you’re annoyed at the length and all the interludes and introductions, go to the “Original” version, not the “Complete” version!***
I did not think I was gonna give this a 5 but I feel like I could run a fucking marathon right now. It’s not often you can *hear* the audience on their feet. Like, you can’t see them but you just know they’re getting launched out of their chairs by this shit.
Virtuosity is sexy
Why does a band called The Verve have such lifeless music?
