I really don't care for Morrissey's voice. Other than that the music is decent - no huge complaints, no huge loves. I get why people like it for sure.
Not bad! It was overly long but I enjoyed it. Not a genre of music I often listen to and wouldn’t be upset to hear it again.
It was really fun - I knew a lot of the songs already. Some of the middle dragged a little.
It’s a cool album for sure - Jack White knows how to handle a guitar. Blues isn’t turned up all the way but is still definitely present.
I can see why people dig this but it doesn’t do it for me. I am ambivalent about Riot Grrrl music in general and this encapsulates that sound.
Found it delightful. Lots of songs we already know that were performed by others and his versions were fun and fantastic.
Again, Morrissey. Not quite my jam though better than the Queen is Dead by the Smiths - bit less monotone.
I didn’t care for this at all to be honest. Felt repetitive even for electronic music and the vocals weren’t my jam.
Great album. The band is much more than Goodbye Stranger. Is actually rather prog-like with some pretty cool sections.
It’s…really quiet and subdued. Maybe just the recording I was listening to but I had a hard time parsing things out at times. It’s pleasant but I’d rather listen to something like Nick Drake.
I really didn’t care for this album at all. Obviously well crafted, lots of talent went into it. That being said it was almost pseudo musical theater, which I do like, but for some reason the combination of sounds didn’t gel with me at all.
It was certainly fine. I don’t have much experience with drum and bass so to speak but it had some really cool beats; that being said it overstays its welcome and overall I can’t see myself choosing it over most other albums.
Probably my second favorite REM album. Great mix of melodic and that underground college radio rock.
This is not it. Jazz is a hurdle for me to get into and avant garde is where I get lost. I lost interest 10 minutes into the 1 hour and 45 minute behemoth. I stuck it out, and while I can say yeah there is talent, I also can say it is not something I will ever listen to again and I’m not pleased I heard it the first time.
It’s pleasant overall. I like what I’m hearing, but I will say I don’t think they do it better than anyone else so to speak. I’d rather listen to Pet Sounds or Pink Moon or something. It’s also overlong and wore out its welcome.
Better than anticipated to be honest. I’ve only been familiar with the massive single; I can’t say these tracks have a ton of substance but they certainly have more depth than I would have thought.
So I mean it’s pretty much quarter note bass and drums, with discordant screeching guitars overtop and a dude yelling into a tin can 50 feet away from the mic. I like punk, but I like good production, and this is really just rather unpleasant.
It is what it is. They have a very unique sound, which if you enjoy you’re going to love. It has the same problem I have with most RHCP albums in the sense of I start and think “yeah this is cool” and it gets to the singles and I’m like “yeah this is really cool” and then it keeps going for another 40 minutes afterwards.
They certainly are an 80s hip hop group with everything that entails. Beats are fairly basic, which isn’t bad, and the lyrics are clear with the half shouts supported by the other periodically. Yo be upfront I’ve never been a huge Run DMC fan, though they aren’t bad by any stretch. Overall I enjoy a track or two at a time but when I hear a full album it blurs together. Potentially with more familiarity I might be more engaged track to track but honestly they haven’t given me a whole lot of reason to want to dive in repeatedly.
The only reason I listened to this whole thing is that I'm not a quitter. I can't really express how much this made me uncomfortable. The fact that the thing is 20 tracks long makes it not only conceptually awful but also just arduous.
Musically, it's not terrible. I'm not super into hip hop but this is the style I gravitate toward more than others.
Artistically I find zero value in this album. The idea of a concept album on an alien gynecologist sexually assaulting women is not in any way of interest to me and I hated that I had to listen to the whole thing. Fairly explicit songs about sexual content with audio samples that sound directly from x rated films means I'm not upset I haven't heard of it before, and I'm glad I'll never have to listen to it again.
It's groovy for sure. I like the smooth guitar. Every time I listen to a Miles Davis album I always hope for more trumpet - it's fine there isn't but for some reason my brain always wants more. In any case, it feels like you're sneaking through the house after dark trying to take the last piece of cake. It's slick and I don't dislike it at all. For jazz it's pretty legit.
Overall it’s not bad. Not a whole lot is grabbing me - it’s kind of like riot grrrl music mixed with punk and indie pop. The songs can be fairly monotonous, but they jam pretty good. With some highlights I could see myself adding a couple tracks to specific playlists but overall it’s fairly forgettable.
I’ve never really loved Korn even though I really was the target age, etc. I remember when everyone got super into them. Overall I’ve generally just found them a bit too weird in an unpleasant way and a lot of their tracks felt too monotonous.
Anyway. For this album I can’t say my mind has really been changed. Songs like Children of the Korn or Dead Bodies everywhere sound like something a parody metal band would write and are almost laughable to me. I like a good amount of metal and definitely understand that all metal has a measure of theatrics to it but they seem to me like a group that takes themselves very seriously. Some tracks aren’t bad at all (It’s On!, Freak on a Leash) but overall I’d just really rather listen to most other bands.
I can’t really say anything about this album that hasn’t already been said. Sabbath is a classic for a reason. Dark, brooding, heavy, it really has it all. It doesn’t aim to be thrash or speed metal but takes its time and really delves into creating an atmosphere for the listener. No notes, great songs, great album.
To be honest it blurred together quite a bit. Most of the tracks were rather repetitive - which isn’t to say they’re bad. I liked the beats and it sounded cool but nothing really stood out in particular so it isn’t really grabbing me to want to put it in my rotation.
Such a fantastic album. Starting off huge with Gimme All Your Loving and continues track after track showcasing a new slick production it blends with their previous blues rock. A little less dirty so to speak on most tracks and a lot more gloss, but the roots are still strong and it really has that feeling throughout. Even the “stupid” song TV Dinners has just an undeniable groove that you can feel with the driving low end. Surprisingly technical guitar work. Out of all the leaps to MTV, ZZ Top really made the transition a lot better than most bands and kept up with the musical landscape.
I loved this album the first listen through. Almost seemed a mix between late career Beatles, some Beach Boys, with some Sufjan Stevens thrown in. It is a really interesting sound and I really enjoyed it. On second listen I still like it though not as much as the first - the album feels heavily front loaded on the best songs. That being said, some very interesting sounds throughout and I think it's a cool one - I've been familiar with the name XTC but never taken a dive and I'm glad I did.
This was a really cool album! Loved it front to back. The covers on here were fantastic along with the originals. Nothing really to say about it - I had a great time and thought it was fantastic.
If I were in a better mood I could probably describe this album as ponderous or freeflowing. That being said I found it dull and would often forget what I was listening to. I didn't really find anything of interest or use in this album at all. It wasn't offensive but I wouldn't have much desire to listen to it again.
It’s certainly better than the Korn album. Obviously talented musicians, even with it not quite being my genre. Surprised at how smooth the singer’s vocals can be - he’s a legitimately good vocalist overall. This is an album I can certainly appreciate, and don’t hold any ill will toward, but over an hour of this was trying and it often got just lost in the noise so to speak. The random emo-esque song was rather surprising as well.
15 minutes into this album it already started feeling tedious, which did not bode well for the following half hour. 80s metal struggled with recording quality, and Venom decided "you know what's better than generally poor recording? What if we just hung a single mic from a warehouse ceiling and played on the ground floor" and I mean here we go with the results. It's tedious to listen to, the bass is generally thin and muddy at the same time, and the vocals are shouted to the point of being out of breath every few words. It generally sounds more like punk than metal, which I'm not really opposed to punk, but there isn't a whole lot of musicality to what is put forth here.
As another mark against it, it definitely feels very "I'm a teenage edgelord" with seemingly constant satanic references. I know the landscape was different in the early 80s but today it's more tired than shocking. Overall I recognize this is influential (to a genre I find no real positives in, but still) and I'm sure a lot of kids latched onto it back then, but it has aged very poorly and I don't find any value listening to it today, much less it being one of the albums I "have" to listen to before I die. I would have been perfectly fine without.
Surprisingly cool. I’m not familiar enough with the genre to know if it’s any good or not - from the outside it sounds very similar to a lot of the other Latin musical experiences I’ve had. That being said it didn’t wear out its welcome and I enjoyed my time with it.
It's a cool album for sure. Makes you want to groove, get up and dance, and helps you feel uplifted.
It was a pleasant album. I didn’t feel a whole lot from it - overall it felt more akin to like a chill Sunday morning kind of listen. Obviously talented and was nice to hear.
It's solid. It's an album that feels like it's deeper than I can really see from just a listen or two - obviously there are the hits that are pretty straightforward, however lots of the tracks are north of six minutes. Almost a prog pop album so to speak. I enjoyed my time, though the tracks weren't generally memorable; I'm going to have it be in my rotation a bit to see if I come away with more coherent thoughts over time.
The most I can really say about this is it is inoffensive. I don’t mind crooners; while I don’t often listen to them they can be great to listen to at times. That being said Scott just didn’t quite seem to land. His voice is very good, but the songs themselves didn’t really hold my interest. I don’t see a reason to listen to him over someone like Bing Crosby or Bobby Darin.
The production value is better than those so there is that.
It’s a cool album! This is right up my alley. Not every track is a winner so it won’t get five stars but I enjoyed my time with it and it passed quickly.
It was fine but didn’t really have a whole lot that grabbed me unfortunately.
Radiohead is an arduous band to listen to for me. I recognize the talent but I don’t find it pleasant and the sound just grates for me. This is probably my favorite of their albums but still not something I would ever choose to listen to.
As a prog rock fan, I am no stranger to long songs. I'm not feeling the need for a track to get in and get out so to speak. As a fan of instrumental and electronic music I'm no stranger to repeating motifs, and find them really cool and helpful sometimes.
There is nothing interesting enough in this album for each song to be clocking in at 5-6 minutes. The same 15 second loop with minor variations repeating a dozen times holds very little interest for me. A couple tracks were better than the others, but ultimately nothing here really begs me to listen to it again, and I'm sure I'll have already forgotten what it sounds like in a couple days.
Honestly it’s a pretty cool album! Folk punk with a very British vocalist. Not the strongest vocalist, but with punk music it doesn’t bother me too much. Politically and socially charged, he has something to say and is going to say it. It’s obvious it’s one guy; rather than a full band that is just all played by the same person often it’s just him and an instrument. Can’t imagine he wasn’t an influence for Frank Turner.
Talking Heads is a band I’ve never loved. This album was okay. Standard “some tracks are better than others” and overall while I didn’t have any issues with it I also wasn’t enamored with anything I was hearing.
David Bowie is an odd one. I liked this better my first listen, but on the second while there were a few standouts it seems very steady and consistent. Nothing I dislike about the album at all, but it doesn’t give me a whole lot of reasons to listen again. The back half of the album does almost remind me of the back half of Abbey Road in the sense that it is very different and not full “songs” so to speak. They don’t blend together but they are discrete instrumental pieces. That’s interesting but again not super compelling.
It’s generally interesting listening to a band’s earlier albums. Sometimes you’ll catch nuggets of their evolution and some real hidden gems that are overlooked later on. This album is a big fan favorite.
That being said I didn’t love it all that much. Tracks like March of the Black Queen and Seven Seas are really cool, but overall the album was a bit forgettable. You do see where they’re going, and see a lot of the theatrics combined with that 70s heavier sound. Where they lose is any real sense of crafting catchy and overall enjoyable sounds. It’s fine; I have listened to it a few times; don’t think I’ll keep it in rotation.
I've been a fan of their Sweet Oblivion album for some time, but haven't heard this one. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not quite as catchy or solid as Sweet Oblivion, it's still full of great musicianship and fantastic songwriting.
So the music isn't bad. I was leaning towards a 2, maybe a 3. That being said, I can't in good conscience praise in any way a work that sensationalizes statutory rape, so into the ones it goes. Even without the subject matter I'd find it a hard sell to put into the 1001 albums I would need to hear before I die; it's more beat poetry than anything else and I'd honestly rather listen to Mike Myer's Whoah, Man from So I Married an Axe Murderer.
It's a great 60s album. I'd put it about on par with Beatles' Please Please me - fantastic harmonies, some great songwriting, overall just a pleasant album overall from what appears to be an underrated band.
It was alright. Honestly rather repetitive and not as musically interesting as I prefer so not something I have much interest in revisiting, but I haven’t ever been a Massive Attack fan.
Fan of punk rock and all. Offspring hasn’t been my favorite but they’re solid; I’m more of an Americana but it’s great and not a whole lot more to say about it.
It was just fine - nothing really to say because nothing really stood out in a positive or negative way to me.
It’s a cool album really. Mid tempo most of the time, has that dirt in it that some great rock is supposed to have. It’s tough to keep some songs with only a couple chords interesting but they do it for sure. It isn’t their best album for sure but also isn’t their worst. Overall an album I enjoy and come back to!
I mean what can be said about it that hasn’t already been said? Kurt has done great pop sensibilities that they turned into a grunge album. They’re the most punk of the big four and it shows - the songs aren’t complicated and that lends to their popularity. It isn’t my favorite Nirvana album (In Utero) and it is a very front loaded album but it’s a classic and helped change the musical landscape in the 90s.
I haven’t given the Monkees too much thought; I know the controversy around if they’re a real band, etc. overall the album was solid. I was impressed by some of the percussion parts in particular.
It’s a great album. Smooth and feels like you’re hanging out in a wooded grove or a field somewhere. I had a great time with it.
It was okay - I liked it had some different instruments which added to some interesting sounds. Seemed it also played with dynamics as well. That being said I just didn’t like the actual songs and so struggled with it.
So I mean it’s intentionally shocking, misogynistic and juvenile. I don’t have an issue with profanity but by golly he was really working to put that to the test. He’s undeniably talented and his rhyme schemes are very good, incorporating entire lines rather than just the end of a phrase. He’s smooth.
That being said I didn’t enjoy any part of this. While his lyricism and wordplay are good I don’t find his beats engaging so I wasn’t super interested sonically. I’m not the biggest hip hop fan in general but even then this doesn’t rank anywhere on my list of enjoyments. That convinced with the massive length of the thing I was just overall fatigued most of the time listening to it. I feel conflicted on a score because there is legitimate great talent but overall I am sticking with purely my enjoyment of it.
Interesting album - very smooth and all. Not a sound I typically go for as it feels like the songs blend together a bit much for me. Overall pleasant.
This is a fantastic album. The vocals aren’t for everyone, but it does a great job at blending prog with more accessible rock, and has big hooks and choruses. Interesting enough to maintain engagement without being too weird to non prog fans.
It’s alright - a band and album I’ve never heard of but fits with the kind of indie pop wave of the mid aughts. A little more introspective than like Matt and Kim or Passion Pit, with more songs a bit more toned down so almost a mix with something like The National. I’m not sure if the album is front loaded or if I just lost interest the further it went on. A fine album.
It’s slick and smooth as you’d expect from George Michael. It’s a bit more introspective than I anticipated. Rather good and while a lot of songs are rather Faith-esque there’s a lot more that’s more akin to the Tears for Fears route at times. Good solid stuff.
My favorite Led Zeppelin album. Zero skips, kicking off with Black Dog with that odd meter and just carrying through the end. A masterclass in songwriting, you have the nice almost pop sounds from Misty Mountain Hop to the staggering Stairway to Heaven with one of the most iconic guitar solos ever written. Superb.
It was fine. This is the kind of jazz I actually like a decent amount, however even then I felt the album was a bit overlong. Not any structure to the tracks; it was ultimately just freestyle solos over shifting chord structures. Not something I’d love to listen to again but not terrible. The audible talking in the background was the worst part.
I found the album a waste of time overall. Beats AB’s samples weren’t very interesting and apart from a couple tracks the lyrical content didn’t help my impression.
Honky tonk indeed. Country in every sense of the word. Definitely wasn’t bad but it couldn’t hold my interest for long and likely won’t involve many repeated plays.
One of my favorite albums. Run to the Hills, Hallowed be thy Name are top tier Maiden tracks, and overall not a skip on the album. Fantastic guitar and bass work. Crazy thing is this isn’t even their best album.
I've generally struggled with this album every time I've tried to listen, and this was no different. I hear how transcendent the album is, how it changed people's lives, etc. and for me it has never hit hard at all. He's undeniably talented and uses dynamics well, but it feels overwrought and a bit melodramatic which for me kills much of the interest musically. The style for me fits neatly into the "this is fine" category, but I never really want to listen to anything he had to put out.
Not a bad album. Almost REM like. Several of the tracks blended together unfortunately so I got lost especially about the 2/3 mark. Interesting to hear an album by a band I hadn’t heard of before but I generally liked it less than aforementioned REM.
Not a bad album at all. Sound quality is obviously of its time, but the music stands the test of time and is worth a listen.
The most egregious thing I can say about this album is it just isn't very interesting. It's overlong, the songs kind of just meander around, and they flow into each other which makes for a really loose ability to tell tracks apart. I dig the two other Marvin Gaye albums I've heard, but this one felt more self-indulgent than anything else and I found myself disinterested very quickly, which didn't lift throughout. "You Can Leave But It's Going to Cost You" is especially a wild idea of a song, extolling how much better his lawyers were in the divorce.
Overall I'm just fine not listening to this again.
It's good! Exactly as I anticipated with a folk singer. I haven't listened to a full Joni Mitchell album prior to this but I enjoyed my time with it. Introspective while not being boring or dull, some tracks that went beyond a typical 3:05, it was well worth the listen and I enjoyed my time.
As a whole, post punk is a genre I typically struggle with. This is a groundbreaking album in the genre and my main takeaway is “these guys sound really bored.” The monotonous vocals, the meandering songs, and the music that ultimately doesn’t have a whole lot of movement beyond the lead guitars slurred tracking just makes for a fairly uninteresting listen to me. I’ve tried Joy Division and the genre as a whole multiple times and it just really isn’t for me.
The compositional pieces and additional instrumentation elevate the music beyond what a lot of other albums were doing at the time. Unfortunately the tracks themselves just aren't super interesting so it was very middling.
It’s clever! A mix between country western and folk music, not shying away from critical topics. Some great lyrical lines and a voice reminiscent of Dylan, this album grew on me as it went on. At times it was a little too country so to speak but I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed that a lot of the tracks had interesting musical tidbits - a little tension carrying a phrase into the next part of the song, or a song structure that doesn’t match your traditional pop track. It was fun.
Some of these tracks are weirdly long.
This was a pleasant album. Great to finally get to another woman on this list; I enjoyed my listen though I can't say it left a lasting mark. There were a couple tracks that were a bit odd compositionally and several were over the six minute mark, which I mean I listen to prog so isn't a bad thing but just felt like an odd choice. Overall I liked it.
Fairly repetitive but not a bad listen. High energy and blazes through the 2-3 minute tracks.
The album is perfectly fine and serviceable music and that’s about what I can say about it. Always happy to have more women on the list but I found it fairly indistinguishable from other like Riot Grrrl and grunge bands. Certainly isn’t bad at all and I didn’t dislike it but I found myself wandering quite a bit and it became background music very easily for me.
I really like a lot of their singles. I have never wanted to listen to a full album of theirs, and this experience confirmed a lot of those feelings. Hugely influential? Yup. Great samples and witty lyrics? Absolutely. Quickly wearing out its welcome? You bet and that’s the unfortunate problem.
I can’t express how much I did not care for this. Like I think musically it’s interesting and well done. I think lyrically there is probably a lot going for it. That being said combined it just made for an unpleasant listening experience.
It’s not as good as Paranoid but it’s still a solid album. Changed the music landscape, etc etc. that being said it just isn’t as enjoyable, they haven’t quite got the hooks yet. I enjoy it but wouldn’t ever listen to this over Paranoid.
This is a pretty uninteresting album. I didn't feel anything from it, musically it didn't grab me, and I didn't notice anything thematically engaging. It very easily fell into background music even when I tried to hold attention. Even as someone who listens to ambient music at times I found this to be something that bored me.
To be honest I thought this would be worse than it wound up being. It was fine. Vocals are unique and take some getting used to, but musically it’s moderately interesting in the late 2000s indie way. No idea what the dude was saying half the time so can’t comment on any of the lyrical content but overall it was fairly pleasant if not groundbreaking.
I did get this album immediately after the latest XX album which was a bit of a drag.
These songs were moderately interesting for the first 2-3 minutes each. The problem is they went on for another 5-20 minutes.
It's alright. It's longer than anticipated and so it starts to blur together - I do generally like this artist but it's never been something that's grabbed me intently. Clearly talented, there are lots of different instruments that aren't typically utilized in bog standard indie, however it doesn't stand out in the way that say Sufjan does. Vocals are nothing to write home about, musically it's fairly mid-tempo throughout, and while it's something I certainly wouldn't mind having on I can't say I"ll seek it out much.
It’s chaotic, loud, aggressive, and obnoxious. People do like this for sure - I’m not one of them. I’m sure it’s influential, I’m sure it is the inspiration for some bands I really like. I do not like any of this at all.
These guys really like Oasis.
Is it pleasant to listen to? No. Is that on purpose? I mean yeah. It’s a fine album; there are some decent pop sensibilities drowned out by fuzz and distortion. I’m not a big shoegaze fan (does this fit there? No clue specifically) and it does fell like it nestles as a precursor to Sonic Youth or something. Not my jam.
So I mean, on the one hand the beats are pretty slick and some of the topics are very real and serious. He’s skilled at what he does. That being said, his lyrics also have him perpetrating the cycle of violence at least as much as being a victim of it, so he doesn’t lend himself to being sympathetic.
I’m no stranger to profanity, but the sheer amount is wearing (typically why I’m not huge on hip hop in general) and I grew less interested as it wore on, especially as the album clocks in at over an hour. I don’t care to listen to it again. Tupac has some cool songs, I like some of the messages he has, but overall I have no interest in listening to most of his work, especially this album.
It’s okay. Very artsy naturally; some songs hit pretty well while there were a few that just felt like they dragged.
Never been a huge Adele fan - I find her music style just a bit overwrought and overdramatic. This album does have some very solid songs but overall it hasn’t changed my viewpoint. She’s obviously very talented.
This album was perfectly adequate. Nothing too stunning, tracks blurred together quite a bit, but it was enjoyable to listen to.
It’s good! Lyrically tense and tough, hitting some heavy subjects. Musically it can blend at times but overall I enjoyed my time with it.
In general this isn’t my jam. If the country albums they’ve had this is probably my least favorite - too slow, too little bite, overall it isn’t one I find interesting.
I love Van Halen. This album is fantastic and one of my favorite debuts of all time.
Like a lot of hip hop I found it really interesting and cool at first, but after a whole album of it I was struggling. This is better than most, I enjoy the beats, the fact that it’s several people with their own unique voices and styles is great.
Imagine the Flaming Lips got together with Radiohead and recorded a sci fi horror monster movie soundtrack.
It was alright - I think this has been the second album by them on the list. Better than their other, but some tracks are rather repetitive and would lose interest.
Chameleon alone is enough to love this album. It’s synths, jazz, groove, all rolled into one.
First half of the album was much better than the second half. Overall fairly interesting.
It’s Bob Dylan - what more can you say? Melodic, targeted, even with the voice like Bob’s it still a great album to listen to.
It’s cool to hate on U2 but man there’s a reason these guys are popular and this album is fantastic.
