Didn't realize that the first few tracks are a real great set of hits --- "Howlin' For You" is still great. Learning that this is a divorce album adds some color to it. Still, the middle gets a little same-y and I don't love the underwater sound on some of it. Great closer though.
Unremarkable rock music. I love rock music. This is rock music for people who have never heard any other rock music and just want the dumb-as-nails fundamentals. This album doesn't bother me, but there's nothing on it that I like.
Blue Suede shoes is a ridiculous song but actually some of this rules. The guitar solo on "Just Because" rips. "I got a woman" is solid. Yes he didn't write any of the songs and he's repackaging Black art for a white audience, but you don't get a record that sounds like this one accident. Dude could sing.
Some really strong tracks, but also got a little same-y. Second to last song kind of sounds like Smooth Operator but worse. So, a nice sounding record, great voice, but the arrangements didn't grab me.
This must be a really great record if you a) really care about these songs or b) really care about Willie Nelson. For me, neither is true.
My seventh album of the project, and the first time I've gotten one by an artist I've simply never heard of. This was very cool! I do see myself getting back into this one and turning it over in greater depth. Really cool songs. The first tune kind of turned me off, but I'm glad that I stuck with it.
I actively dislike this. Satire with no poetry. The instrumentation is mechanical and the vocals are uninteresting. Too many vocal melodies sound the same. Bad record, desperately wanted it to be over by song nine. Village Green is *so* much better.
Fuck yeah. I've recently identified "rowdy" as one of my favorite qualities in music, and this is rowdy as hell. Still, my favorite song is "Visions of Johanna," which is delightfully un-rowdy. That's how good this album is.
Good record with some exciting, energizing moments. Really creative arrangements, sometimes really fun.
Helped me put a lot of stuff in context. I'm interested in listening to more of his heavy-hitting stuff.
I actually don't know if I've ever been through this front-to-back. The first song was super fun, and I supposed I never realized how many ludicrously popular songs were on this record. This is the album that gave us "I sneezed on the beat, and the beat got sicker," which is enough to give it a high score. But I found it fun at times, very sad at others, and overall a very full portrait of a very interesting person. Cool!
Competently played and written, but doesn’t do much for me that a legion of other indie records do.
I was excited for this record because I knew "Stan," and thought that it was a beautiful and sad song -- ahead of its time -- about parasocial relationships. So, I wondered what else would be on this record, and how Eminem would depict other parts of his changing circumstances.
I was not impressed.
The violent misogyny is disgusting. It doesn't escape my notice that the "Stan" is the only moment of real empathy on this record, and it's reserved for a man. But "Stan" shows us that Eminem *is* capable of emotionally textured writing; he can go into this gear when he wants to. He just doesn't want to.
Other reviewers have made comments such as "Even though it's an offensive album, you can't deny its mastery."
Actually, you can.
Being an artist is not just about technical expertise. (I’d even argue that technical mastery is lacking here; if “suck my dick” is your best retort on multiple occasions, you’ve got some work to do.) Artistry is about saying something that other people need to hear, that they do not have a way to put into words themselves. Eminem knew that his work was inflammatory, that it would make the world a crueler place, that it would give young men a vocabulary and a license to embrace their worst impulses, and he did it anyway. His intention was to shock people, and part of being a good artist is to *check your intentions* and realize when they are wrong.
On the Wikipedia page, it's noted that Johnny Cash defended the record, saying that "Folsom Prison Blues," "Jesse James" and a host of other songs are also violent. (I myself appreciate "Down By The River" and Nick Cave's Murder Ballads record.) Due respect, but the difference between these songs and The Marshall Mathers LP is the sense of morality. In "FSB," the man in prison admits that he did something wrong. "Jesse James" is a Robin Hood story, a legend. The Marshall Mathers LP is simply cruel.
It was important to listen to this record as part of this tour of music history, but it is a despicable work.
An interesting, creative, dynamic album -- just not sure I'd listen to it again.
Fun, exuberant, little punk, little pop, cool record.
Awful. I can’t imagine being proud of something this boring.
Good songs but just not a complete work. I know I'm being unfair by comparing to later records, but for the high highs on this record, there are also generic songs that I've completely forgotten already.
Exuberant, yearning, masterful, idiosyncratic. One of the best.
I can't believe this record was recorded in twenty-four hours. But when you're that good, and you've been carrying this kind of music in your heart for so long, you can bang out a masterpiece like this.
Long live Otis.
Cool, groovy, upbeat hip hop record. Really liked the vibe, looseness, chill feeling. Want to get into it again and get deeper into the lyrics. Glad I heard this one!
First album out of 21 that I’d literally never heard of. But this was *awesome*. I love how they don’t feel a need to fill in the white space. Pensive, tight album. Very 2009. Loved it.
A record id heard once before and liked. In the beginning I was not quite as in it, but it really picked up for me at the end. Felt like it was getting more varied.
All bangers. Yes the second half is not as good, but it’s unfair to say that they only have three of the best rock songs of the decade on this record. An all-timer.
Incredible. A story, an odyssey, such a portrait of "fuck you, I'll do it my way." Biting, cosmic, joyful, so many things at once.
Some reviewers on this site have shat on the Apple Jam, but I love it. Harrison was in the Beatles as The Guitar Player. After a double album of amazing songs that weren't appreciated by John and Paul, he straps on the guitar and wails for a whole other LP, just because he can.
Very strong start with "Highway Star" but fell apart after that for me. It's not proggy enough to be prog and not rowdy enough to be rock, placing it in this shitty in-between space.
I liked this much more than I thought I would! Unmistakably Paul, a little silly, a little gnarly, a little theatrical. Really full, fun record. Glad I gave it a chance! : )
Fine. Really just not my thing but not bad.
One or two standout moments but honestly not enough to get me. I love music like this, but this one feels cold.
Some interesting tracks on their own. If this was just a rock/indian fusion record I’d be super down, but I think they got in their own way.
Seems competent but only one (1) guitar lick made me look up.
Didn't know this existed! Cool record, very fluid, still very Alex Turner. Nice, good fun.
Great record. Life on Mars is an all-timer. But the rest of it is so complete and vivid. I need to become a Bowie guy.
Good: well written and performed. Not my scene but I see how a lot of stuff I’ve heard comes from this.
Truly awesome record. I didn't know Gil Scott-Heron at all, but it's amazing how much of our current period is reflected in this album. H2OGate blues is the most obvious connection here, but there are a lot of our current musical tendencies (jazz rap, neo soul) embedded in this. I love this record because GSH is very much doing his own thing, but he's obviously tied to a larger tradition (soul, blues, jazz). The best music, to me, is individual and subversive while tied to something larger, and that's what this one does. Wow.
4.5 for me. The record is obviously a classic, the lyrics are great, musicality is unmatched. But I’ve never clicked with it for some reason. Hejira is still my Joni pick.
Just what I needed today. Stone cold classic, one of my favorites.
I'm seeing some people comment here that live albums don't belong on this list. I can't imagine having that perspective. Studio albums and live albums are doing fundamentally different things, but it is only through listening to both that we get everything we need from our music canon. Studio music often lacks the inspired, in-the-moment wonder of a live recording. The idea to stretch My Generation into 14 minutes would be preposterous on a studio album, but it's an amazing experience when we get to go through it! If we excluded live albums, we would be excluding these transcendent moments in time - which is sometimes the very best thing that music can do - from our canon.
Very solid! Never heard of this but I love the punk sound, the dynamics, the combination of some blues elements. Really fun, engaging, creative work. The only thing I wish it had was a little more of an arc across the whole album. Good songs but not quite a complete work. Still fun to listen to! 4/5
Good record, creative, nothing wrong with it, but I don’t see myself reaching for it in the future
Lives in the shadow of OKC, Kid A, and In Rainbows. A really well-played record, I like the songs, but to me it just sounds like Radiohead Doing Radiohead But Just Not As Good As Radiohead Has Done Radiohead before. Which feels unfair to HTTF, but it feels like there's untapped potential and creativity on this one.
Tough one. I'm reading NW by Zadie Smith right now and in some ways, this album is bringing that book to life. The polyvocality is doing an especially good job of that; my favorite moment was the Afrikan Boy feature. But mostly I was just waiting for this record to be over. Paper Planes still rules, but it was striking how different it felt from the rest of the record. A full work of art, but not one that I plan to return to ever again.
This is good. It definitely gets same-y, but the joy and sheer fun of it makes it worth coming back to in the future. Maybe when I'm cleaning my house.
