Air is possibly the most aptly named musical group ever. How they manage to arrange such wispy and carefree melodies that still feel vital is beyond me. Tracks like All I Need, Ce Matin-La, and New Star in the Sky are as moody and beautiful as you could hope for in this laid back electronica that feels somewhere between dreampop and Daft Punk. And yet...I can't quite love it completely. Something about it is too ephemeral to focus on entirely and I fear that dooms it to beautiful background music in my listening repertoire.
REM is widely hailed as one of the greatest alt rock acts of all time and it's hard for me to argue with that considering the sheer avalanche of classic, amazing songs they've put out from "The One I Love" to "Man on the Moon" to, of course, "Losing My Religion". But despite that, I've never really loved their albums. Even widely agreed masterpieces like Automatic for the People just don't do it for me. So, with that in mind, you'd think I'd be in a losing position here about to review a famously uneven album that bitterly divides fans of REM's scrappy college rock roots from the mainstream pop fans they would gain going forward.
But surprisingly, I found myself really gelling with this messy, experimental transitional album. There are obvious weak points here like the album's second biggest hit, "Stand," which perfectly presages later annoying, intentionally bubblegum REM songs like "Shiny Happy People." But there is an undeniable energy here that is infectious. Green strikes a delicate balance between scrappiness and pop sensibility that is catnip to me personally. The best song is obviously "Orange Crush," one of REM's hardest rocking songs that somehow makes its nonsense lyrics work but I'd be remiss if I didn't also single out "World Leader Pretend" as a strong step towards the moodier sound they would develop in future albums while maintaining an edge I like more with those soul-baring, self-flagellating lyrics.
I guess what I'm saying here is: I like this fine, I've got my Green crush.
What type of massive ego does it take to name yourself THE Band, as if you're the only musical group that matters? Turns out the answer is no ego whatsoever. They couldn't settle on a name and eventually it became a self-deprecating joke that they weren't important enough for a name. Which is especially funny considering how influential The Band has been to folk rock and how many major artists they've worked with (most notably as Bob Dylan's backing band during the recording of one of his best albums, Blonde on Blonde).
Here, in their self-titled album, they're just as loose and groovy as on their debut but with an even greater focus on Americana and even break out some interesting experimentation (is that honest to god funk I hear in "Up on Cripple Creek?"). This album doesn't quite hit the same highs as Music from Big Pink but you'd be hard pressed to call it a weaker album since its more thematically cohesive. Some critics have even argued its a concept album and I can see it. Outside of Clearance Clearwater Revival, few bands have ever thought as long and hard about Americana and then distilled those thoughts into 40 minutes of back to back classics.
MBDTF is a vapid masterpiece. What do I mean by that? Well sonically, production-wise, and musically it hits like a truck with some of Kanye's best compositional work ever. But lyrically and thematically, this album captures a man going through the motions of pretending to be introspective and going through the motions of reckoning with his soul but I frankly don't buy it. The album's centerpiece "Runaway" shows Kanye seemingly interrogate his own asshole nature but where many find it to be a raw and vulnerable song, I hear nothing but defensiveness and bitter sarcasm. The real low light of the album has to be the outro to "Blame Game" which, after a song which engages in a lengthy examination of a troubled relationship disintegrating, descends into a minute long sex joke about how Kanye West is the best lover ever which completely undercuts the the rest of the song.
And because a lot of the album plays at being emotionally deep while not meaning, my favorite songs on the album tend to be the ones that engage with Ye's personal life the least. "All of the Lights" and "Lost in the Woods" show just how good the music itself is without subjecting me to feigned vulnerability. That said, some tracks are so strong that even when they intersect with Kanye's self-aggrandizing disingenuousness, I still can't deny how good they are as songs. Such is the case with tracks like "POWER" and "Monster."
Overall, this is a frustrating album to revisit. I think it's still a 5 star album on a musical level but it's undeniable that West's descent into madness has laid bare that any seeming introspectiveness here was just a pose. I guess what I'm saying is that I can envision a world in the near future where I do find this to be a 4 star album.
Surfer Rosa: the Pixies second best album. I'm not even sure what I can meaningfully say here that hasn't been said before. The music is scrappy and energetic, the dynamics are superb, and its influence on indie and alt rock is impossible to deny. Plus, how could anyone dislike an album with tracks as great as "Where is my Mind?" or "Gigantic" on it? That said, it does have an obviously weaker back half than first half and somehow feels overly long for barely crossing the 30 minute threshold. It's not quite all killer, no filler but the killer is great enough to make up for quite a bit of the filler.
A strong contender for most middling debut album I've ever heard. Then it just casually drops one of the greatest rock songs of all time ("My Generation") midway through to prove this really is a Who album. Annnnnnnnnnd then it goes right back to mediocrity.
The musicianship is mostly good but I cannot stand the singer. Growing up with pop punk and emo, I developed a high tolerance for nasally whine-singing but not high enough for this.
This is some quality art punk. It's wild hearing ideas here that influence artists I never even would have expected. Like this time around, I realized how much influence this album had on Of Montreal.
The best and worst thing about music as an art form is that it is possibly the most closely tied to your emotions of any art form. And those emotional ties are so strong that it can overwhelm all other considerations. This is why if you had your first kiss during a slow dance to some terrible song, you're very likely to have lingering positive associations with that song forever even if you recognize on an intellectual level that it's not all that good later in life.
Or, on the flip side, if you had a terrible college roommate who blasted music at full volume at 3:30 in the morning every morning to help himself wake up, you'd likely develop a permanent hatred of whichever musician he happened to play even it happened to be a talented, inspiring, legendary artist who didn't deserve such an association.
I guess what I'm saying is thanks for ruining Bob Marley for me forever, Travis.
I've never heard a Courtney Love album before so coming to this after only knowing her reputation from feuds with other musicians (like Dave Grohl) was quite the surprise. This is some quality 90s alt rock which I am a sucker for.
It’s passable but I don’t get why this is on a list of 1001 albums one must hear. There are at least 11 other Neil Young albums that wildly outshine this.
Simply a masterpiece. If this is what it sounds like when they’re trying to break my heart, I can only imagine what it’d be like for them to try to win me over.
I was not expecting so much of this album to be about segregationist presidential candidate and Alabama Governor-for-life George Wallace specifically. It’s probably a better album than I’m giving it credit for with its intense reckoning with southern atrocities but this kind of alt country music has just never been my thing
Newsom’s voice won’t win many fans on its own but her unique style and great lyricism were enough to charm me
Pretty underwhelming for a Velvet Underground record. The whole thing felt a bit aimless and noisy for the sake of it, which I’m sure is the point and probably influenced countless bands I do like. Still, I much prefer their debut or Loaded to this.
I'm not normally a jazz guy but adding some funk to the mix definitely makes one of the more esoteric popular genres accessible to me. Still not quite my cup of tea, but undeniably groovy
Pleasantly surprised by this one. I don’t know much about jazz and less about samba so I was expecting to bounce off this. But it was quite nice to groove along to
I’d never heard of The Triffids before which is something of a rarity. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed them. The album is extremely cohesive and thoughtful in its subject matter. Due to Spotify only having the Deluxe version, I thought I had to listen to 105 minutes of album but during the last song on the original, I found myself thinking “wait, this is clearly the end, isn’t it?” and looked up the initial track list to confirm. The highest praise I can give to this album is that at no point was I ever worried about a potential nearly 2 hour version becoming boring or bland even if I did ultimately call it at the end of the original just for the experience.
Gilberto has a nice voice but the music is very boring to me. I guess my streak of being pleasantly surprised by the jazz albums on this list had to end eventually
Bjork’s voice is so unique and attention-grabbing that it’s the sort of thing you have to purposefully craft your entire album to accommodate. Just slotting her into otherwise conventional music is disastrous, really doing her dirty. All of this is to say that I love her solo work but hated this album.
Fun and well produced though I still prefer Violator
Sadly, I just don't really get the appeal of Prince. Sign o the Times is certainly one of his better albums that I've heard but it still doesn't rise above "sure, that was fine" territory for me. The only album of his I've ever actually liked is Purple Rain and yet I've never been able to explain why his music doesn't hit for me. He's certainly astonishingly talented as a musician and a prolific composer but his songs still rarely do it for me.
Billy Joel’s best album, which means it’s mostly listenable with some great songs, many okay songs, and a few annoying songs.
Elvis may be the king but I've found that his output can be very hit or miss for me. There are some true classics here but there are also plenty of songs of his I've never heard before and likely won't remember tomorrow.
This is labeled as experimental rock but that feels overly generous. Correct me if I’m wrong, but experimental music is supposed to challenge your understanding of what music can be, right? I don’t think singing Happy Birthday off key is going to scratch anyone’s itch for experimentalism.
One of the Beatles’ best albums. Love seeing George finally come into his own on this record
Seems fine. I didn’t really get the hype. Some solid horror esque music but Harvey’s voice gets absolutely buried in the production
I’m just not a Stones fan. I don’t get the appeal. Except for Gimme Shelter which is fantastic and, thankfully for me, is on this album. This dragged up my ranking by one whole star
Really solid pop punk. The groove is tight and Carlisle does a great job balancing her voice between snottiness and prettiness
I do not miss the glitchy folktronica of the early 2000s. Madonna’s Music is the biggest and arguably best of that genre with plenty of songs that you can tell are decently composed with promising subject matters but the whole production style is so dated and annoying that I still can’t appreciate it beyond a few tracks that rise above the trends they were chasing.
Better than expected but please, no more reggae
This is the first album where I worry I just didn't get enough time with it. On first listen, I thought "this is alright but I don't get the praise." But as I stuck with it, I did start to get the softer and more disquieted approach to psychedelia even if it didn't change my overall rating much. I think it's totally possible that in a few more months, I'll look back on this 3 star rating and be horrified at how low I've rated a masterpiece. But it just hasn't fully clicked yet.
Lupe Fiasco is one of the great underrated rappers of the 2000s and Food & Liquor is certainly one of his better albums.
I think Clapton is often very overrated and does not put out good work as consistently without his best collaborators. His watered down rendition of I Shot the Sheriff is awful and the rest of the album is rarely better than that lowlight. Shoutout to the people who skipped this album because they don’t like Clapton as a person. You were correct to not listen to this and I was a fool to give it a chance.
It’s not bad but I also don’t have much to say about it
I continue to not have enough musical knowledge to adequately judge how good jazz albums are
James Taylor is very talented but he doesn’t always put it to the best use. No offense, but I just don’t need to ever hear Oh Susanna ever again and wish some other filler tracks had been replaced with more interesting material
There’s plenty to admire in the music department but I cannot get past the endless, annoying, droning vocals
It may not be Talking Heads best album, but it’s pretty close. Their brand of anxious meets joyous funk is still hard to beat and, of course, Once in a Lifetime is a classic
Having only been familiar with his work through the supergroup CSNY, it was fascinating coming to a Crosby solo album and learning what elements he brought to that project that I know better. I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked him on his own though some songs were a bit too sentimental for me. But the melodic sensibilities were on point and it makes perfect sense that he would have great harmonies in his solo work too.
Simon and Garfunkel’s best album. I’m a sucker for those harmonies and you can see Simon growing towards the fascinating artist he would become when he went solo
Queen is a great band with plenty of amazing songs. Unfortunately, they weren't all that good at putting cohesive albums together and so their records are frequently littered with weird and annoying filler in between some of the greatest songs ever written. Sheer Heart Attack is definitely on the upper end of Queen albums but I'd still prefer their Greatest Hits collection over basically any album they've ever put out.
David Bowie's best album and possibly the greatest rock album of all time
I’d never heard of Lambchop before but I was blown away by their unique, almost jazzy alt-country sound
A part of me misses this era of the Arctic Monkeys even though the AM and later era is still great. This kind of danceable alt rock can be quite infectious thanks to how energetic the music is and the lyrics are quite literary too even if they sometimes get buried by the music.
Walker has a great voice and the arrangements he sings over are fascinating. I think I'll need more time with this album to really appreciate it though.
Totally fine. I liked the hits off of it but some of the other songs were a bit weak
One of Neil Young's best. There may be others I like better, but it's hard to deny that this is pretty close to his perfect acoustic guitar work
I was not prepared for this. The Lovefool band is actually surprisingly legitimate rockers with deep love for metal music in particular? I’m shocked but pleasantly surprised
I am not a big metalhead, but even I have to acknowledge the legacy and talent of Iron Maiden
Sorry, Zeppelin fans. I just don’t get the appeal. Lots of boring, endless repeating riffs here, most of which aren’t very good. I’m told Misty Mountain Hop is the worst song on here but most of the album sounds just like it to me. The only song that broke the mold and that I found actually interesting was When the Levee Breaks. I have no idea how Stairway to Heaven became the breakout hit when Levee is right there doing all the same stuff but better and with lyrics that have actual weight instead of just vague spiritual gesturing
I generally don’t really gel with Radiohead’s music and find their artsy experimentation to miss more than it hits for me. But In Rainbows is one of two of their records where the stars align and it all hits for me. 15 Step, Nude, Weird Fishes, Reckoner, these all carry a level of emotional weight and musical engagement that I just don’t feel in their more acclaimed works like Kid A
The only song I knew by the band going in to this record was Bittersweet Symphony which I’ve never cared for. It’s always felt insipid and bland with very little musical momentum. So imagine my delight to find out The Verve is a band with an actual edge to them that can put out actual rockers. Unfortunately the slower songs fall back into the the tedious soupiness that I dislike about BS but for the most part this is a far better album than I expected
It was a good album but just not really anything I’m into. That makes it a bit hard to rate and review
I'm not a country fan but Kacey Musgraves makes me wish I was. She has a stunning voice, heart-wrenching songs, and is an exceptional lyricist. If all country singers were this good, I would not have any trouble getting into the genre.
Thundercat's musicianship is undeniably impressive, but a problem I have with him (and most virtuosos for that matter) is that I'm not sure that skill is always put to the best use. It's easy for guys with this level of technical skill to put out subpar and middling songs because they care more about showing off their talent than in crafting good songs. That's the case here more often than I care for: great playing with underwhelming songwriting. Luckily, there are enough straightforwardly good songs to carry it but I would skip at least a third of the album if it showed up on a playlist.
The Byrds produced what is arguably the defining sound of the 60s. There were acts that were bigger, more experimental, more influential, or all of the above but when you imagine the sound of the hippie movement, it's almost impossible to not hear their signature jangly 12-string guitar somewhere in the mix. But by 1968, the band had lost basically every key member but that lead guitarist and were running on creative fumes. Needing help, they turned to an hungry up and comer by the name of Gram Parsons who just a year later would form The Flying Burrito Brothers and release one of the greatest country rock albums of all time. Parsons, understandably, was still working on that sound and convinced the band their future lay in country rock.
He was wrong. Catastrophically, horribly wrong. This album sunk the Byrds permanently and its songs were so poorly received that the band was booed out of the Grand Ole Opry mid debut performance. The Nashville old guard thought these insincere hippie assholes were mocking country music by releasing soulless, overly produced covers of classic songs that sounded like parodies. The album has been reevaluated since then and is widely beloved within country music now as a stepping stone in the evolution of country rock.
I hate to say it, but I think the original country haters had it right. These songs largely sound like bad parodies of country music to my ears right down to the overly maudlin lyrics and often weak melodic structures. These guys were just not ready to sell this hard of a pivot and needed it to cook for more than just a couple months of recording sessions. There are interesting musical arrangements here and there but the band largely cannot sell their country pivot when the only true believer was Gram Parsons and he'd be kicked out of the band soon. The only songs that work to my mind are, as you might expect from the band that made Mr. Tambourine Man a hit, Bob Dylan covers and even Parsons couple of original songs don't hold a candle to what he'd do in The Flying Burrito Brothers.
I don’t know much about salsa, but this was quite good! Definitely funky and danceable
Lovely but I couldn’t tell you what sets Vaughan apart from any other talented jazz singer
Better than expected. I liked Walk
I love the Temptations and there are some great songs on here but it's certainly not the most cohesive album I've ever heard and it feels a bit unfinished
One of the few pre-60s albums that does feel like a cohesive statement and not just a collection of songs. Also, Little Richard has energy and charisma for days
The music is nice but it's honestly a little hard for me to tell how much of a genius Ray Charles is when I can't really tell most big band music apart
I hate when avant-garde means "unlistenable" and not "predicted future musical trends". This isn't quite unlistenable, there are some good tracks, but it was mostly a rough slog
Nina Simone is incredible even if this doesn’t show of all of her best songs
Started off a bit weak but I was fully into it by the end. XTC’s off-beat approach to lyricism and humor can really hit quite hard from time to time
It's fine but I couldn't really see why this was a celebrated album. For me, it fell into "decent background noise" territory
I'm starting to dread all the album picks that are "influential country records by bands or artists that were not originally country musicians." It's not a bad record by any means but it certainly drags quite a bit and Ray Charles' great singing isn't always great at selling the emotion of the songs he's covering (I think his version of Bye Bye Love is pretty inferior to the Everly Brothers' version, for instance)
I think the worst thing an album on this list can be is "fine." The kind of thing where when you're finished, you didn't hate it but you also can't really remember any of it. And then you leave just absolutely mystified. This is an album someone *must* hear before they die? Are you sure? It's like being told one of the meals you have to have before you die is store-bought pancake mix. There's nothing wrong with store-bought pancake mix but I'm expecting a certain amount of wow factor and memorability here.
Sometimes it's nice to just have loudmouths shout about how bad everything is over catchy, quick songs.
It turns out that not all bands can convert massive amounts of LSD and cocaine into good music
After a string of bad albums that were all "avant garde" (unlistenable noise), it's nice to have an album that I can tell is actually good even if it's not my cup of tea
I've never really though of myself as a prog rock guy. It's not that I don't appreciate the talent it takes to make, it's just that I usually don't fully get it. But Yes surprised me an album that keeps the elements of prog that make it eclectic and impressive but manage to do so in a way that someone like me can still appreciate. They have some solid music fundamentals and aren't afraid to make their 9 minute experimental songs about the novel Starship Trooper catchy
In the grand tradition of singers who can't sing but whose terrible voices somehow make them even better artists, Tom Waits stands tall. I know he's not the most inventive in terms of actual composition but damn it, that gravelly voice, theatrical delivery, and unique carnivalesque production is hard to deny!
Never heard a full Sabbath album before and it was alright. The playing was a bit slower than I would have liked at times and the music wasn’t always hard-hitting enough for to make up for that slowness
After years of only really knowing Van Halen through their 80s, mega hit Jump and the recurring joke of how much Bill and Ted love them, finally hearing what they were like in their prime was quite a shock. I get it now, I really do.
*doodles the Van Halen logo on his school notebook*
More a great production showcase than a great album, The Chronic starts strong and delivers several great songs on the first half before sliding into directionlessness and forgetability in the back half. Also, the comedy skits on here may genuinely be some of the worst and least funny in rap history and that's saying something since I'm not sure I've ever heard one actually be funny. Frankly, I'd rather just listen to the big hits (Nuthin but a G Thang, Fuck Wit Dre) and one or two of the album deep cuts (The Day the N****z Took Over) and skip basically everything else on this album.
It's been at least a decade since I last listened to this album and it's just as great as I remember. Track after track of hard hitting, amazing songs (and also Oxford Town, which is passable). Dylan manages to fill his technically unimpressive singing with so much emotion and double meaning that he somehow remains an engaging singer despite the very obvious technical limitations of his voice. And damn, his lyrics really do hit like truck.
U2's stocks have certainly tanked ever since that album Apple forced onto every phone. Personally, I still think they're a fairly good band but most of that defense is centered on their classic 80s albums. Their 90s albums on the other hand, well, they're fine but I can't go to bat for them anywhere near as hard as I can for something like The Joshua Tree. I just find the bit hits off this one (Mysterious Ways, One) pretty boring but when things get more energetic with tracks like Even Better than the Real Thing or Until the World Ends, you can almost glimpse the great high-octane album this could have been.
Whoever went to bat to put so many Rolling Stones albums on this list is not doing the band any favors. The Rolling Stones were a great band but they were not album artists. Every year they would go snorkeling in a pool filled with cocaine and heroin only to emerge a few months later with 2 all time classic songs and 6-15 other songs of boring filler that were then all slapped together into a non-cohesive album. For Sticky Fingers, those 2 all time classics are Brown Sugar and Wild Horses. Pretty much everything else is painfully dull and not worth anyone's time.
Dusty Springfield has an incredible voice. I really don't know what more to put than that
Wow, I hated this. I can't even tell if it's bad but the music was really boring (naming it after Sleep was an inspired choice) and Wyatt constantly sounds like he's trying to do a funny voice whenever he sings. I simply couldn't get past it.
This was fine. Another one in the pile for "not bad but is this really one of the 1001 albums I *have* to hear before I die?" I think I may have a bit more muted of a reaction due to this album taking extra effort to find in the US and not being amazing enough to really justify the extra time spent hunting.
The praise for this album seems to largely come from what a striking evolution it is for Madness to go from a silly, fun-time ska band (I gather from reading up on them that they were something like an 80s version of the Aquabats) to more serious and mature arrangements with broader instrumentation. But not having any direct knowledge of that context (I've never heard this band before), the album doesn't seem particularly impressive or daring on its own. On its own, it just feels like a competent album with some slightly more ambitious instrumentation and semi-off-kilter energy.
I will say the lyrics are pretty witty though.
Hands down, one of the greatest albums of all time. Simon's songwriting with the eclectic and unique sound of South African music makes for such striking, memorable songs. And I'm a big Paul Simon fan so I already loved many of his songs before and after this. But Graceland really is just a magical album that transcends even Simon's already fantastic output. There is seriously not a single weak song here.
There are a couple great songs on here but every transitional album from a former boy band member has the same problem. You spent your early career doing nothing but safe love songs and so when you get the chance to spread your wings, you simply take that formula and run it through a "that's right, I can fuck now" filter to attempt to convey maturity. It creates a very limited range of emotional subject matter and gets very repetitive on this hour long album. Consequently, my favorite songs on the album are the ones that don't get bogged down in JT's constant need to assure you that he's good in bed. More "Cry Me a River" and less "Take Me Now," please.
I can tell from this album that Husker Du probably generally makes music that I would really like. But man, this album is bloated and it is very obvious that it was made at a time when the band was right on the verge of a breakup and pulling in separate directions.
Truly, an album. Were there songs? Yes. Were some of them good? Probably. Were they memorable? I liked South Side and uh...I guess that's it.
The music was pretty good but I struggle with mostly instrumental albums. The music has to be incredible or better for something without vocals to get more than "it was fine" from me.
Sorry, I just don't really get Rush. I'm sure it's all technically impressive but I can't get a foothold in.
Sorry, I just don't really get Krautrock. I'm sure it's all technically impressive but I can't get a foothold in.
In my rating of Sticky Fingers, I complained that every Rolling Stones album has 1 or 2 good songs and the rest were filler. But man, the filler is so much more filler-y here and Under My Thumb (the good song) is a step down from Wild Horses.
I was never a Deadhead despite the best efforts of my college roommate but I do think American Beauty is a very pretty album. Maybe not beautiful enough to drop out of high school and follow the band around, but definitely worth registering to from time to time
November 2025: Esquire Magazine asks "why does Gen Z love Rumours so much?"
To quote a viral tweet reply by an account named slate: "every generation loves Rumours. it’s fucking Rumours"
Really, what more needs to be said?
Music history is littered with self-titled albums and they mostly break down into one of two camps: debut or making point. In the making a point category, things can be further subdivided between artists who are self-titling because they think the album represents some culmination of their work (Saint Vincent by Saint Vincent) and artists who are being defensive (Van Halen III by Van Halen).
Beyonce by Beyonce clearly intends to be in the artistic culmination subcategory. And indeed, the album is largely a victory lap showing off Beyonce's skills, some of her most acclaimed collaborators, and generally celebrating her success. But at the same time, we know that Lemonade comes next which is both a better album and a much more vulnerable one. It unintentionally mutes some of the impact of this album by recontextualizing songs about how awesome Beyonce and Jay Z's marriage is as defensiveness in a marriage that has serious cracks.
That's not to say it's a bad album by any means. It's just harder to buy into celebratory tone on the more brag-based tracks with the benefit of hindsight.
God's gift to angsty middle-schoolers everywhere. Maybe nostalgia is winning out here, but I can't give the album a lower score when I know how much it meant to me when I was that age.
It’s fine but as an American, I resent this list forcing me to finally learn who Robbie Williams is.
