Not as good as my nostalgia would suggest. Some decent tracks. Generally good head banging energy but guitar riffs are self indulgent.
One of the greatest albums of all time. I wore this record out in my youth. Listening to it now it more than holds up. From the first shucka shucka opening percussion it explodes with a mix of joy, sorrow and wistfulness. Janis’ voice is extraordinary moving from sweet high notes to gravely punctuation seemingly effortlessly.
The album just manages to pass the “no skips” rule. Oh Sweet Mary doesn’t really need to be there. It feels like a 1960’s “everyone is important” moment where they allow the rest of the band to take center stage while Janis sings backup. It’s fine but every other track is great.
The Spotify version has bonus tracks. They are not included in this review because they were not on the album. They are nice to listen to but would bring the overall quality of the album down if included.
We wore this record out when it dropped. Frank Sinatra once said that Amy was the one (then) current artist “singing jazz the right way.”
Tremendous album I only wish there was more.
I don’t love Bruce but I appreciate him. I find this album to be a bit boring. The story telling is good and Prive It All Night is Bruce at his best. I can take or leave the rest of the album
6.5/10
Possibly the worst thing I have ever forced myself to listen to. It’s like a bunch of music school students said “I have an idea. What if we took the trippy instrumental part of a Pink Floyd song and made it the whole song?” And someone else said “we could make it the whole album!” And then someone asked “what about lyrics?” And the answer came back “we can repeat these 4 words over and over “for effect”” and they all said “genius!” And then they did this.
Ugh. Just no.
Great album. I can get most of the songs on it stuck in my head just by reading the track list.
It’s a bit on the quiet side for my taste but definitely great.
A great album that leans heavily into the trad roots. Fairytale of New York is a classic but lots of great tracks and no skips. Shane was one of the great song writers of his time.
A good album. Not PE’s best but one of their most overtly political. A couple of classic tracks round it out.
This is way outside my comfort zone as well as my knowledge zone. When it started I thought it might be a little too quiet for me- maybe good background music for work - but then it grabbed my attention.
It is really lovely and something I will go back to.
Amazing find for me.
One of my favorite records of all time. Janis’ vocals are front and center throughout. It is a soulful album featuring a few of my favorite Janis tracks including Cry Baby and Bobby McGee.
This is a legendarily good record. However, it does not truly hit any of my sweet spots and it has a tendency to be overly religious.
Back in the day I was aware of Simply Ref but not really familiar with them. The song I knew was Holding Back The Years which is fine but I don’t love it. This may explain why I never got into this album. That was a mistake. The other tracks aim this record are fun, jazzy and interesting. Will add to the rotation.
It’s the Smiths and I like the Smiths. I like Girlfriend In A Coma. Overall a successful record.
Stevie made a lot of albums. They weren’t all great but his best albums are legendary. This is a top 5 Stevie Wonder album. Upbeat and soulful, this is a classic.
This is a great album. It doesn’t really have singles and Sister Ray is 17 1/12 minutes long. It sounds almost like proto prog rock but with more grit and structure. It a wholly unique thing.
You can hear the influence of this record on a lot of the music that has come since.
I wasn’t familiar with her and a little outside my wheelhouse but a beautiful record with great historical significance. Her voice is absolutely incredible.
Not my genre of expertise. I found it to be an enjoyable enough listen but it left me a little flat. Nice groove but I prefer hip hop with more grit and edge. To me this feels like the smooth jazz of hip hop. The lyrics are generally positive which is great but they felt a bit pedantic. The artist should show rather than tell and this feels more like just telling.
For me it was fine but I wouldn’t necessarily listen to it again.
Very good. Not Pet Sounds good but very good. Bluesy in good ways. Like everything the Beach Boys did, it is tight and well produced. Bonus points for great cover art.
This is a hard one. I want to give it a 3.5. I
Am less familiar with this record than I am with Stiff their second album. I like a lot of the tracks and it hands well with “Keys” but it gets a bit wifty in parts. The musicianship is there but overall too meandering for my taste.
Am I supposed to review this? It’s Emmylou Harrison. I started listening and immediately thought “right it’s Emmylou Harris she is incredible.” I finished it and started it again. 10 out of 10. No notes.
Not my cuppa. It’s pretty but I couldn’t engage with it. It slipped into the background.
I don’t love or hate the Doors. I am struck by how relevant a lot of these tracks feel which is impressive for a debut album that came out almost 60 years ago.
The End is what makes this album controversial IMO. I find it overly long, self indulgent, and a bit boring. At the same time, it did push the boundaries of what was acceptable to release on an album.
6/10
Haven’t finished it. May not bother.
Back in the day, Lady Laplaya and I would have heated arguments about which was the best Chili Peppers album Mother’s Milk (her) or Blood Sugar Sex Magic (me). The argument went (her) “I think the best couple of songs are on Mother’s Milk” (me) “I like the nonstop energy of Blood Sugar.” As I said- very heated.
One thing that was never in doubt was, whatever the best RHCP record was, it wasn’t this one.
This may be their most successful record. It has some mainstream hits on it. But the whole thing is just that, mainstream and uninteresting. The squares liked it.
It maintains one fairly consistent rhythm throughout with mi or changes in tempo. Anthony’s “rapping” is fairly cringe but again, the sort of thing that middle class white people would find to be the perfect balance of fake edgy and accessible.
Pablum
By all rights I should hate this. Strangely I mostly don’t. I certainly wouldn’t choose to listen to it, and it has inspired a lot of music that I do hate but this was fine. I prefer the second half. I like Model, it has lyrics and everything!
First few tracks tend towards the repetitive and the whole thing is just way to electronic for my tastes but it is definitely good.
6/10
This is a parody right? Juvenile lyrics, ridiculous similes, boring melodies, earnest singing, and piano?
Definitely a parody. Or red hot flaming garbage. You decide.
It was interesting to revisit this album after all these years. I’m not sure I ever listened to it all the way through back in the day. I never owned it.
Hits like Little Red Corvette. Delirious, and Let’s Pretend We’re Married hold up well but feel very of the moment.
Some of the deeper tracks are really interesting D.M.S.R has a great 70’s funk feel and the couple of slow jams at the end are really good. Automatic has a Kraftwork feel and it’s good but not my style, but toward the end of the middle Prince breaks out with a really nice blues guitar riff which was great.
The whole thing is a little too electronic for my taste- especially the drums- but this did not affect my enjoyment of it as much as I thought it would.
I can appreciate the musicality but not really my preferred genre of hip hop. Listened to about half of it. Lyrically there was a lot of Black consciousness and religiosity to start. I am generally good with the first and less enamored of the second. In this case, the combination along with the Kanye centered Kanyeness of it felt like a precursor to the dark web of conspiracy theories and antisemitism that he later descended into.
Somewhere around The New Workout Plan it takes a hard turn toward body shaming and misogyny dressed up as self aggrandizing sexuality. Hard pass.
So this gets a nah from me.
I’m not a Beatles super fan but I do believe that they are the greatest band of all time. My favorite era is’65/66 my favorite album is Rubber Soul but this is a close second. This record is 60 years old and we can all sing along to half the songs on it.
This is an all time classic.
Such a beautiful record. This one is in regular rotation at our house
I didn’t hate this. Listened to it on a rainy bike ride home from work which felt appropriate. I like the drummer. Guitar work reminds me a bit of early Sabbath. It’s tight and doesn’t wander about the place like Metallica does.
Lead vocals are not my thing but I kind of get it? The other singer is pretty good. Reminds me just a little of Bob Mould who I really like. Dead Memories is probably my favorite vocal track.
Got about halfway through. It’s a long ass record. Didn’t finish. Won’t go back to it.
This is a great record. Booty is an all time great song. It’s a little slow for me in places but that’s a me problem.
25 years old and still an amazing listen.
8.5/10
Symphonic synth pop? I like this album a lot more than I thought I would. The hit tracks are big and boisterous and poppy. A lot of the deeper tracks are super interesting. Her voice is obviously amazing.
Jig of Life is a truly a traditional jig and it is lovely.
7.5/10
I have always been a bit ambivalent about ZZ Top and this record encapsulates that experience. I really like the heavy blues inspired guitar work, but the vocals and pop hooks are more Robert Palmer ecsque. I kind of want them to pick a field and plow it.
Some good tracks though!
I can do without the extended collectors edition. Overall a good record. We Will Not Be Lovers is a great song. Fisherman’s Blues is a very good song. The incorporation of trad music is interesting. When Will We Be Married is a hornpipe which is fun. Still, as trad playing goes it is only moderately good.
I have mixed feelings about the Stooges. I really like some of their stuff while some of it leaves me flat. Not sure if I have ever listened to any of their albums straight through.
This one is fine. I was surprised by how much it sounds like the Doors minus gratuitous use of synthesizer.
This is terrible. What are we even doing here? Imagine Slip Knot except with less interesting guitar playing and no second vocalist who can do something other than scream (I think the other thing is called “singing”). Also Slip Knot was successful at creating driving energy that your body can connect to. It’s the kind of energy that makes you want to jump in the pit and hit someone. This tries to do that and fails.
The third track Ratamahatta is decidedly less terrible than tracks 1,2, &4 (that’s as far as I got) but a single 2 star track does not make a 2 star record. I award this no points and we are all slightly dumber for having listened to it.
If I were to find myself locked in a bunker and there was only one CD in it for me to listen to forever, I wouldn’t be mad if it was this one.
There are so many absolutely classic Marley tracks on this record and Stir It Up is an all time great. No skips
I live and respect Debbie Harry. Her embrace of and support for hip hop culture in particular is legendary. I have also come to appreciate her more as I have gotten older.
I didn’t purchase Blondie albums back in the day, so my knowledge of their catalogue is somewhat limited. I really enjoyed this record. Hanging On the Telephone, One Way or Another, and Heart of Glass are all hits. Sunday Girl and I’m Gonna Love You Too were surprise sleepers for me.
Legendary.
If there was a Mount Rushmore of jazz singers, Sarah Vaughn would have to be on it.
This live recording starts with an announcement that it is being recorded and that Sarah Vaughn will be using lyric sheets. But then on Willow Weep for Me she sings that she has just messed up the song but is still singing because the audience expects her to. And on How High The Moon she sings about the fact that she doesn’t know the song but is going to try to sing it the way Ella sings it - so meta - so charming- so unbelievably good.
11/10
I was unfamiliar with Finley Quaye. I really enjoyed this. I especially like the bass playing.
Very good record that will be added to my summertime reggae playlist.
I had not heard of Ms.Dynamite before but she sounds very much of that time period. I enjoyed it and listened to it twice.
Not groundbreaking or exceptional but very good.
There is an old corny expression that a high school friend of mine liked to quote “the blues and country had a child and named it rock and roll.” This is the sound the Stones were going for.
I like this record quite a bit. Brown Sugar has always felt lyrically problematic, but it’s a great song. Wild Horses is a great song, Bitch is a great song and really hits that particular Stones vibe. Dead Flowers is very country and very good.
The algorithm really wants me to like Lust for Life but I just don’t. However, I do like a lot of the other things on this record. Some Weird Sin and The Passenger are both really good. The album feels a little better than the sum of its parts.
I guess it’s well done? I found it boring and a little pretentious.
I don’t hate this but it’s not my thing. Very singer songwriter vibe. Rich smooth overproduced sound with self consciously clever lyrics.
I want to give this 2.5 but I will round up.
This started out sounding like Bruce Springsteen with all the soul and interesting bits removed but it quickly evolved into heart on your sleeve horseshit.
This what a pretentious singer/songwriter imagines a 14 year old girl imagines her overly sensitive crush writes in his diary?
🤮
The only thing counting in its favor was that it was mercifully short.
I like Green Day a lot. High energy, happy, angry head banging sound. Remind me of the Dead Kennedys gone mainstream.
Pleasant enough. I found it unremarkable.
I’m not overly familiar with Paul McCartney’s work before Wings but this is a solid effort 😂
Seriously, I enjoyed it and unsurprisingly the bass line is spot on but overall it left me a little flat. McCartney is an all time great but this album is only good not great IMO
I was fully prepared to hate this record as electronic music is not my jam. But this was pretty good. The beats were interesting and the vocals were strong.
This is obviously great - just to get that out of the way. Big band is not my favorite jazz genre but Basie is widely considered one of the best to ever do it.
I really enjoyed Whirly-Bird. That one will go into the rotation.
I like the Smiths but have never dug deep into their catalog. I am less familiar with this record and enjoyed giving it a full listen.
I was struck by how much the instrumentation sounds like Johnny Cash - simple but good. Wildly different vocal approaches give this an amazingly different sound. I think that’s cool.
It’s very poetic - a hallmark of the Smiths - which I dig.
I did not finish this. It feels formulaic and derivative. A decent singer and a good guitar player making late 70’s guitar hero rock. Self indulgent guitar riffs and boring rhythm section is boring to me.
They sound like an above average cover band. I will give it 6/10 for the above average part of that.
I was never a big Hole fan. Celebrity Skin was a hit and it’s fine. It’s basic grunge. This was my first time listening to the whole album.
It’s fine. It vacillates between standard grunge tracks and more mainstream rock/pop offerings. I found myself thinking “this sounds a little like (band I like better.) there was a track or two that sounded a bit like the Bangles a couple that sounded like Concrete Blonde.
6.5/10
Legendary! What can I say? It’s Mikes Davis and it is absolutely amazing. I don’t love Darn That Dream just because I don’t love that style of vocal jazz but that’s a quibble.
9.5/10
I had never actually listened to this record before and I like it a lot. Amazing that it came out in 1970.
The members of Black Sabbath grew up in post war Birmingham- a very industrial city. Tony Iommi lost the tips of two of his fingers in an industrial accident which affected his guitar playing sound.
The music they made was dark, angry, and industrial sounding in a way that hadn’t been done before.
The bass playing by Geezer Butler on the other hand sounds a lot like Jack Bruce in Cream. The back and forth between Iommi and Butler gives Sabbath a unique sound.
Super important album even if a lot of what it inspired turned out to be shite. A lot of fun to listen to.
Great album. Snoops blend of funk and rap creates a unique sound. His delivery and his beats are super smooth. This record takes you straight to the club.
Minus one for the sexism.
I love this album. I challenge anyone to listen to it and not feel happy. It’s funky happy nerdy joy. Also, Chris and Tina are apparently super nice people.
Lovely
I love this record! It’s loud and fast and sounds chaotic but isn’t. It feels like what you might get if Bob Mould was a jazz composer.
Who doesn’t love Dolly? I find the title track to be a bit on the nose and sentimental- Dolly can be that way). Traveling Man, Here I Am, She Never Met A Man (She Didn’t Like) are really good. Dolly is a treasure and truly one of the great American songwriters.
I love this record! The opening with Sure Shot is gold. Sabotage takes me right back to loading moving trucks at Dan’s Van in Somerville.
It may be a couple songs too long but almost all the tracks are bangers.
I wanted to like this more than I did. The vocals are excellent and it is lyrically interesting, but the music just didn’t do it for me
Great album! I like REM a lot and this record has a few of my favorite tracks. World Leader Pretend is great. I love Orange Crush and Stand and all the other tracks are really good.
I love this record! Every once in a while a young artist comes along and just bursts onto the scene in a way that is nothing short of delightful. Janelle Monae’s style and performance, the joy she radiates, the artful combination of old jazz styles with elements of James Brown and Michael Jackson mixed together in a modern Afro futuristic performance that is pure joy.
The album a bit long and the last couple tracks go in a slower jazz style direction that I don’t love as much but are still good.
A good record with a couple great songs.
Such a great album. Freddie’s Dead and Super Fly are absolute classics.
I listened to most of this on my headphones and really didn’t like it. But I didn’t rate it at the time so I felt I had to listen again before commenting. This time I had it on my speakers in my office while I did other things. Listening much less closely I liked it a little better. I don’t know what that means. Not really bad just not my thing?🤷♂️
A beautiful record. Girl From Ipanema is a true classic. The rest of the album is lovely.
Great album! I’m a big Dylan fan and this is one of my favorite albums. Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again is a standout favorite.
I didn’t love this record when it came out. I like it less now. The Girls Is Mine is terrible. Thriller starts pretty strong but gets silly and goes on too long. Billie Jean has some decent guitar work. PYT was surprisingly good- a bit of a throwback to Jackson 5 sound.
Also Michael Jackson was a creep and a pedophile
Wow I really liked this. Great discovery thanks to the list. It is super interesting- sort of world music with an underlying blues sound. I was interested in how much a couple of the tracks, while sung in African languages, sound like Irish Seanos style singing.
There are 2 songs on this album that I always liked Roundabout and Long Distance Runaround. The rest is standard prog rock fare that is not really my thing. It sounds to me like these are talented musicians who are having fun making overly complicated music. I am happy for them but it doesn’t do much for me.
Mostly better than I expected but the title track is so much longer than it needs to be that it mostly ruins the experience.
An absolute desert island album.
My god what have I done? Halfway through this record I was thinking “this isn’t bad it’s just boring AF maybe 3 stars. Not my cuppa.”
Then I got to Green Eyes which is awful and the whole rest of the album is an unmitigated disaster. Yuck our pablum.
This is lovely. Not a genre I am super familiar with but has a lot in common with Afro Caribbean music that I quite enjoy.
I like this and am recommending it to a friend who I think would like it as well.
Probably Sabbath’s second best album after Masters of Reality. War Pigs and Iron Man are classics that take me right back to high school track practice. Fairies Wear Boots is the surprise goof sleeper track. Electric Funeral is terrible definitely hits and misses here. I’m torn between a nostalgic 4 and a realistic 3. It’s a 7 so I’m giving it the nostalgic 4 because I do like a lot of it.
This was fine. I didn’t mind it.
Great album! No skips. It’s The Who so it’s a bit overdone at times but I like The Who and dint mind that. I think this is their best record.
I am willing stipulate that the Beatles are the best band In rock and history but I have always stopped short of considering myself a fan. This album is Exhibit A for why that is true. Notably this is one of their early releases and I am more interested in their Revolver/Rubber Soul period.
Starts off strong with A Hard Days Night and I Should Have Known - 2 great tracks. And then If I Fell? That song is terrible I think it may be the worst Beatles song ever. It’s sappy and borderline maudlin.
A lot of the rest of the album follows in a less terrible but still not for me sappy sentimentality sounds a bit like Buddy Holly but leaves wishing it was actually Buddy Holly
Along the way we get Can’t Buy Me Love which is a banger.
I’m giving this 4 because it’s the Beatles and there are a couple 5 star tracks but most of the album is a 3.
7.5 out of 10
It’s a little hard to review a record like this. This is a moment in time piece that wasn’t recorded for me. But I do like it. Gil Scott-Herron is a great writer and his spoken word stuff is really cool. H2Ogate Blues is great - it’s not The Revolution Will Not Be Televised great, but it’s still great.
Shout out to the hometown girl! I saw Aimee Mann in 1990 at the Rat right after Til Tuesday had broken up. She pulled out an accordion that she said she had been learning to play. It was a super fun and wholesome show all around.
I enjoyed this record. Her song writing is great and she is a lovely singer.
AKA “The other Traffic album”. I don’t particularly like it. I am reminded of going through a similar realization in high school. I do like Low Spark (the song) and the band is unquestionably talented. Stevie Winwood is a great singer etc. The problem for me is that it has an ethereal no bass line prog rock thing going on and that just doesn’t do it for me.
This record is not bad. AC/DC really took the heavy out of heavy metal. It’s big noisy somewhat juvenile arena rock. The guitar playing is good. I think I might actually like it with different vocals. As it is, it’s just okay.
I love Bowie and Heroes is a great song but I don’t love this album. Kudos to Bowie for always doing different things even when I don’t love those things.
I have enjoyed other things that Cee-Lo has done but did not particularly care for this. I found it a bit tedious. Not bad- just kind of boring.
I have always like K D Lang and I love a honky tonk waltz. This record is a bit reminiscent of the great Patsy Cline. I love it.
I did not finish this. It’s fine but not my thing. Of the material I did listen to, Knowledge stood out for me.
Musically this album is excellent. I’m never quite sure what to think about west coast hip hop lyrics from this time period. They are certainly violent, sexist, and self aggrandizing which doesn’t do it for me. OTOH it m not the target audience. I’m grading this one mostly on the music which is killer.
This record has 2 great songs- all time classics- in Young Americans and Fame. The rest of the album is a mix of good and pretty good. I like how Bowie plays around with and shows appreciation for the funk and soul sounds from that period.
Why? If I knew nothing about this band and paid a $20 cover to see them and some other random bands at the Middle East, I would be pretty happy. It’s rock and roll. It’s decently executed. I would not buy the album.
The first couple tracks sound like The Who dumbed down with “edgy” vocals. The next track sounds like the Beatles. And then there is a Janis cover. Note - if you do an overly faithful cover of an iconic singer, the only thing anyone will hear is the ways in which it falls short of the original.
After that we get some more Beatles sounding tracks and then about 4 Zeppelin sounding tracks before finishing off with another Beatles sounding track and some flaming hot garbage of a covers medley/interview mashup.
This last bit is what dooms this record. I was going along thinking “this is just a collection of derivative sounding mediocre music that is fine as far as that goes but absolutely does not belong on any list of albums. I don’t hate it. It’s a grudging 3.”
And then that last bit. F that. The 2 I’m giving it suddenly feels generous.
I have always been a Van fan - maybe less now than in my youth but still a fan. Live albums are always an interesting choice for a list like this. The question for me is “is there something special about this album (Allman Brothers Live at the Filmore East) or is it just a greatest hits album?” I think this falls somewhere in between.
This has lots of good versions of classic Van songs. The real question is “does it need to be 90 minutes long?” I think the answer to that is a resounding “no.”
IMO this is Living Colour’s second best album but it opens with their best song and one of the great rock and roll songs of all time. There are a few other favorites on it as well including Open Letter to a Landlord, Glamour Boys, and Which Way To Your America. Memories Can’t Wait is an excellent cover.
Vernon Reid is an all time great guitar player and doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves. Revisiting this album was an absolute joy.
I have never felt less qualified to “review” an album. This is David Bowie’s farewell album. It’s doing a lot and I’m not sure I understand it all. I think it is a beautiful sounding record. I really like the last few tracks Dollar Days and Can’t Give Everything Away those are a nice blend of classic Bowie vocals, the best bits of prog rock and classic jazz.
RIP to one of the all time greats.
I enjoyed this more than I anticipated. Piano jazz is not my forte and this started out super mellow. But it is obviously well done and it picked up pace and energy moving into Part II. I enjoyed the bass drum thumps that occasionally accompanied the music. Not something I would seek out but it is very good.
Another entry in the “why” category. This was fine. There is nothing remotely special or interesting about it. It oozes mediocrity with just the right amount of pretension to make it insufferable.
