Blitzkrieg Bop. Hall of fame track.
It’s historic, it’s influential. I don’t see myself listening to the full album again though. Most tracks really blend together.
I like this.
I don’t listen to much Bob Dylan but I swear I’ve heard much better from him. It was a bit repetitive.
I went into this one with some excitement as I’ve been meaning to try out his music because I’ve heard songs from him that I really enjoyed. Nothing really stuck out here but it wasn’t terrible.
Edit: You know what I KNOW Bob Dylan can do better than this and now I’m just pissed off with this album. Stupid.
I Zimbra: Really unique in a great way. Loved this one. Strong instrumentals.
Mind: Funky; loved driving to work with this on the stereo. Biased because I was already excited to hear Byrne’s iconic voice which didn’t really get spotlighted in “I Zimbra” but he sounds as good as ever.
Paper: Okay; weakest so far but it’s only ~2:30. Instrumentals were solid.
Cities: Catchy: added to library. Really energetic and looking forward to driving home to this.
Life During Wartime: Much like cities. Great stuff from Byrne here + “Pittsburgh, PA”
Memories Can’t Wait + Air: Okay
Heaven: Something a little more somber than the rest of the album; very charming.
Drugs: Eh. It’s something different I guess.
Yeah this was really really good. Each song did it for me. Wanted to give it a five because it was so impressive instrumentally but it didn’t feel like a five to me personally. In terms of raw musical talent and historical value it’s an easy five but I’m trying to rank based on my own taste in music.
Money For Nothing is such a good song man its unreal how they make 8.5 minutes sound so insanely fantastic (I'm a real sucker for that first minute of buildup in particular). Also, So Far Away kinda ruined my day lyrically but it's real good too. Walk of Life is timeless as well (look up the "Walk Of Life Project" it's a riot).
Everything is at minimum fairly good, with my personal weakest being That Man's Too Strong (which is luckily one of the shorter tracks and also offers a unique western twang that at the very least keeps me interested in the track even if I'm not loving it). Some tracks are lengthy but none of them overstay their welcome and they offer something distinct. I'd prefer fewer, longer songs that are all unique over albums with more tracks that are shorter in length but eventually blend together (looking at you Ramones!).
A couple amazing tracks, a couple really good tracks that are going in the library, and only one or two I'm not insane about. This may be my first 5; we'll see how I feel tomorrow morning.
It’s fine. It’s like a 3. I really don’t have much to say about it. There are a few strong tracks and I read about the influence of classical music on this album and did notice some parts with classical instrumentals that I did enjoy, but the album just felt fine as a whole. I don’t see myself listening to more than like two tracks from this ever again.
It’s okay. Yours Is No Disgrace and I’ve Seen All Good People were definite highlights. Lengthy tracks but I was never counting the seconds for it to be over. Didn’t feel uninspired or unoriginal but I kept feeling like I was listening to something Queen would put out (which I’m not a fan of). Doesn’t feel like a 3 as I enjoyed it significantly more than Boston but it definitely wasn’t a 4 for me. If I could give this 3.5 I would. Trying to see the vision that’s making Scritters give this a 5 but I just can’t do it. Maybe just not my thing. Really never heard of Yes before this so it’s kind of cool having them on my radar now.
Some highlights here for sure. Enjoyed this one and got to give it praise for making an 11 minute track not feel tedious. Idk I liked it for more than just Tom Sawyer; at least 3 of the tracks were very good and memorable. I’m usually not too impressed by 80s rock and synth sound but Moving Pictures was a pleasant surprise. Love the album art too.
I'm not particularly fond of Flava Flav's voice.
Really wanted to like this one because we've been going through non-stop prog rock the last few days (which I'm not big on) so I owed Public Enemy for giving me a break. Chuck D was a highlight for almost every track!
It's a shame because Cold Lampin' With Flavor was really good instrumentally. Probably would've been my favorite track (aside from She Watch Channel Zero?! which was awesomesauce) if not for Flav (he says flavor 28 times).
Mind Terrorist may be the worst thing I've ever heard. Impressive being under a minute-and-a-half.
Some really good stuff here, but not enough for me to not want this album to be over ASAP. 2/5.
A live album you say? 👀
This was solid. Vocal works was good but relatively brief. I was immensely impressed by the drum work which particularly shined in the final track. All the more impressive that this was a live album. Very very high 3.
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number got me out of bed.
Going into this I knew nothing about Steely Dan or their music but I was pleasantly surprised. I got to listen to this album driving on a rare sunny day and it just made me feel good. I just felt good listening to these instrumentals and they often put a smile on my face. I added several tracks to my library and would like to listen to this again.
I like it.
Was not familiar with Lou Reed before this and tried to kept it that way for the initial listen. This might be one of my favorite voices that I've heard. He really shines in Perfect Day, which was easily my favorite track and probably one of my favorites from every album we've gone through so far.
Unfortunately kind of an okay album altogether. The b-side was not good (I don’t know what New York Telephone Conversation was trying to do but I don’t care I didn’t like it at all). I’m So Free was probably the strongest track here but it didn’t stop the second-half of my listen from feeling like a slog.
EDIT: Actually never mind this was some trash dude.
Good albums probably don’t make people laugh at the second track while driving to work.
I enjoyed this slightly more than Blonde on Blonde, so it had to be a 2. It was something new and it never felt same-y throughout the time I spent listening. The “do that song again” thing that Green Onions did is here, but it’s nowhere near as effective. Cool sound and a one-of-a-kind voice leading the album but it kind of peaked with the first track for me and I kept waiting for it to sound that good again.
Album art’s cool as hell though.
Yeah this was really good. Added several of these to my library. So much variety and each track came with so much talent. I was stuck at an airport gate for two hours and it breezed by while I listened to Ella Fitzgerald. So many fun, charming lyrics too. Just all-around fantastic.
Really wanted to 5 this one man.
I just don’t like synth keyboard and I don’t like this falsetto voice that just feels like a worse Prince. There were like two songs that were solid (and one that fit the mold I described above but just seemed to “work” for me). Just not great but I gave Lou Reed a 2 and I enjoyed this considerably more than that.
https://youtu.be/AzF3j0wQ6EU&t=6s
Obligatory “Them Bones” + “Rooster library add”. “Would?” was like really good too :)
I usually don’t feel “I’m gonna listen to this again” on my 3/5 ratings but every song was at least good. No low points here really.
Okay. I admit it. I only listened to Disc 1. Forgive me.
But I will likely listen to Disc 2 because this was fantastic. Very diverse tracks on this album; I was more into their country-sounding melancholy tracks (Strange Boat was fantastic). It felt very country which I’m usually not too fond of but there was something immensely unique to the sound. Very impressed.
IT’S YOU!!! AND SO SOON!!!
I actually have listened to very little of Nick Cave’s earlier works (generally a wild god/boatman’s call guy) so it’s nice to finally have a chance to hear his earlier more intense rock phase that he had with Birthday Party. His voice has always been so intense and expressive but it’s usually not pushed very far in his newer albums which are more typically more somber and reflective.
With that said, I really wanted to give this a 5 based on my immense admiration for Cave, his life and his career, but there’s a reason The Birthday Party wasn’t a hit for its brief run.
It just isn’t great. Nick Cave has better works so I don’t know why this made the list. It’s an intense, expressive, violent album (which was Birthday Party’s whole M.O.) so it did feel like a worthwhile listen, but that doesn’t mean I loved it. The instrumentals are so discordant and the sound mixing is so off-putting (TF was that “Dead Joe” thing) that I’m driven by subconscious forces to beg myself to stop listening. Somehow, I enjoyed it a decent amount all the same.
A connecting thread for my 1 ratings is that they come from albums that are just plain boring. I’ve thought about moving Ramones down with Blonde on Blonde (which I think is my least favorite album so far) because it fits that mold of “doing what you’re okay at as safely as possible” that frustrated me so much. Junkyard does not bore me, and I did find myself glad that I listened to it, even if it may have been some masochistic amusement.
This is bad, and though it probably was meant to be bad it doesn’t mean it should be rewarded for being bad. A few good/great tracks kept this from being a 1 though (love you “Blast Off”!)
I want this album cover on a shirt ASAP.
Just a 3. Good voice, good instrumentals. Just didn’t do anything to impress me past that.
I like how the album cover makes my eyeballs feel.
That's about it though. Best bit of music I heard from this was the bit playing in the American Airlines ad that came up between tracks while I listened on YouTube.
Why do the vocals so mismatched with the instrumentals? I already just don't like synth but I especially don't like it with the moody voice leading the album. Maybe I'm just getting sick of the synth shit we get every other album but I feel like I've heard a better version of this album maybe 3 or 4 times this month. When they try to do something different (e.g. Nude Spoons) it just feels grating and I was just begging for it to be over. They can't do the overdone stuff well and they can't put a unique twist on it.
Skipping and Club Country was okay. Still not happy with the screeching voice but the instrumentals were pretty cool. In fact I may try to find a fully instrumental version of this album and see how much more I like it when there isn't a jarring, dime-a-dozen, britpop banshee shrieking in my ear every 15 seconds. If so, this could be the most tragic waste of a guitarist/keyboardist I've ever heard.
Really. Keep listening to Party Fears Two until you can make it through the whole thing without feeling a little sick at the end. I dare you.
This sucked.
Oh. Oh that’s gas. Thats just…just so gas.
The mall Sephora-type beats. “Homelands” and a few others had some cool instrumentals (“Tides” and “Immigrant” were actually pretty good).
WHAT THE FUCK WAS “The Conference”?!?!?!
https://youtu.be/p69XxYjfx-k&t=5s
SIOUXSIE SIOUX I LOVE YOU
I mean come on how good is that voice
She has had better stuff in other albums but I’ve been meaning to listen to JuJu. Spellbound and Monitor were gas. B side was okay (Voodoo Dolly was a nice little treat)
Fine.
I fucking LOVE maps so I was psyched to finally listen to the full album that it originated from.
Not great. Karen O has an awesome voice but I wish it was used on something more organized. I get this is punk but I’ve heard the band’s later albums and they can be quite good. Oh well!
It’s not really doing it for me too much
Hey this was good!
Haven’t heard of these guys before but there were some really great tracks here. One of the stronger B-sides I’ve heard but it did have some low points I’d avoid listening to again. Not the most consistent album but I really liked Here and Summer Babe, amongst others.
So boring. Do I just hate folk?
Wait that’s like 3 songs I’ve loved for as long as I can remember plus some other gems. Just awesome. Something told me this was gonna be a good one as soon as I saw it was yesterday’s album.
Okay. Jawbone was the best track but listening to this in one sitting felt way too difficult. Don’t love the vocals.
https://youtube.com/shorts/SjJxi_E0hEA?si=GRpdQziR3KW2lwY-
Yes Frank, the Beatles and hippies suck, but you are annoying and should shut up.
40 minutes that would’ve gone by easier staring at a wall clock. Now Tie Daddy was a favorite but it ended up being 30 seconds so that sucks. Thank God Absolutely Free was an actually great song or I would’ve had a meltdown.
I’ve got four hours of driving to go. I did not need this today.
Worse than Beyond Skin award 🏅
https://tenor.com/iirIUBJEdVI.gif
Fine. Really great vocalist here and a charming live album but I’m just not that into it :/
I don't know about this one man; it made me kinda sleepy. Pull Together and Cornish Town were really good but everything else was a bit dull. Kept checking to see how many tracks were left until this album was over. Might be worth re-listening to outside of work/driving (I can imagine Daniella is good for relaxing) as it was fairly good music.
Bored. Stop boring me. I liked Plateau the most I guess.
I’ll lead off by saying I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed Armstrong’s voice so not feeling great about this one (and I really don’t like Basket Case sooooo…).
Amazing instrumental work, as expected. Surprisingly, I even liked Armstrong’s vocals from time-to-time. Pulling Teeth was a highlight and probably my favorite song from the album. Unfortunately, most of it was still that middling Green Day sound I’ve been tired of since I first heard it.
Interesting!
Very interesting inclusion. I definitely enjoyed it but I don’t have much to say. Some good sounds but I don’t feel like I’ll ever be listening to this again.
Hey! It’s been a while since I got an album where I already have a track saved. This’ll be a treat!
I love California Dreamin’. Great song. I heard it at a baseball game recently; might have been someone’s walk up song or something.
I Call Your Name was so good. Who knew a Beatles song could sound so good. Thank you Cass Elliott for blessing my ears.
Christ, this was a great one. Just a really talented, harmonious group of people. Their version of Spanish Harlem was just mesmerizing and I’m willing to bet it’s gonna be one of my most listened-to songs for the month.
5.
Kerry King is a fucking moron but this was a solid album. Really haven’t ventured into metal much over the years so this was a nice experience regardless. I don’t see myself listening to this regularly but I was impressed by the musicianship here, particularly the guitar work.
Thought this was gonna be a 4 but it just kinda started to drag for whatever reason? I don’t know. It’s a solid album, especially instrumentally.
WE LOVE THE NATIONAL.
This is my bread and butter. Added like 3 songs from this album to the library and have listened to it quite a bit since. What a treat.
This got…better as it went on? I really enjoyed the B-side but nothing stood out enough to the point where I wanted to add it to my library. Besides that, Aqualung is a classic track, as expected.
It’s like a worse Slayer, I guess? I don’t know man all metal sounds the same to me.
This was pretty good! Couple rough ones but I was pleasantly surprised by how many tracks I added to my library. Usually for albums that I add 3-5 tracks from I like to give a four but there were some songs that got a bit too experimental for me. Not too shabby regardless.
GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE
So timeless. It all just sounds so good. I already had four songs from this album in my library.
I could gush about this one for hours. So emotional. So consistent. Chris sounds spectacular throughout. That last minute of Politik is spectacular. I’ve heard these songs a hundred different times each and it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized that they were all in the same album—just spectacular. I added every song but Green Eyes (which was still a charming, emotional song, I just don’t have the ears for it). I don’t know how it manages to sound so perfect instrumentally throughout the entire album.
What a treat. Easiest five I’ve ever given.
Just felt like nothing. I got to the end of it and I can’t recall a single sound.
No. Gross.
Good! Added a few of these. Just Out Of Reach was a gem.
Forgettable schlock
Heard this while walking on the beach early one morning. No better way to do it.
I enjoyed this too much to just call it “fine” but I can’t really speak on why I liked it. Added two or three songs. I’ve enjoyed Fatboy Slim’s stuff before but I didn’t think an hour+ of him would work for me. It did!
Really charming stuff. I don’t think I enjoyed it thoroughly enough to give it a 5 but it was very strong. Charming instrumentals matched by MacGowan’s voice that feels like it’s absolutely perfect pairing.
I’m not fond of live albums as a concept but I’ll admit they sounded fantastic here. Added a few of the songs from the lineup (their studio versions). This does make me wish I saw them live during their farewell tour when I had the chance. Oh well.
Really good. Some of these really fucked me up though. So much fun to listen to anyways.
Really good. I’ve listened to a pinch of Arcade Fire before so I was pretty excited about this one, it’s defensively an artist I’m not surprised I like. To my surprise I didn’t like the big track of the album Wake Up all that much — it felt too mall music-y. I’ve heard Rebellion (Lies) quite a few times and it is as good as ever.
https://youtu.be/0prkl3t5IdI?is=74edUMVMm81eE17k
At one point my ears tuned this out and I forgot I was listening to anything. There’s no saving an album after that.
I wasn’t in a soundtrack mood and I haven’t seen the movie so I’m probably underselling this with a four. Some of these tracks were fantastic by themselves (lookin’ at you, Dead Bodies!) and I can’t imagine how well they back the film. Definitely worth including a soundtrack like this.
We cannot replace him. We cannot.
Lot of good stuff here actually. This was my first real venture into the Björk library and I enjoyed the vocals more than I thought I would from what I heard online. An experimental sound but unlike a lot of the more avant garde albums on this list Vespertine is actually really good at what it’s trying to do. Mystical and energetic sounds that often mash up very well with Björk’s falsetto vocals. Very happy with this
Her falsetto is such a joy to listen to, honestly one of the best voices I’ve heard. Just perfectly fits that classic R&B sound and I wish it was a bigger part of this album. The rap segments work fairly well sometimes but it just didn’t impress me as much. Pretty good though I didn’t feel like any song in particular stood out, in fact some of these were pretty grating (Izzy Izzy Ahh). High 3.
If you could ask ChatGPT to generate you a 60s rock album you’d get Blue Cheer
A bold choice to commit your career to being The Beatles but worse. Same dull hippy-dippy sound I’d hear off their albums but with grating vocals on top of it. Yuck.
Just sacrificed an hour of the time I’ve got with good hearing in this life for the sake of abstract slam-poetry The Message™️ schlock. Not cool.
Just such mediocre Britpop. It hasn’t aged well at all. It didn’t help that I listened to the entirety of this while parked in halted highway traffic. I just feel like I’ve heard this exact sound a hundred times before in a hundred better albums. Meh.
I hate the Beatles. I hate how good this was. Lots of unique, excellent songs that I will unfortunately be choosing to listen to in the future (I added about half of them to my library). There were a couple of uninspiring songs that were just fine. I really only disliked one or two (Girl was the worst). I’m a sucker for their melancholy tracks like In My Life (Norwegian Wood not included as it sucks). Irritatingly high at a 4 and I know for a fact this isn’t their best album so I’m sure a 5 is coming.
There are a lot of reasons I don’t like live albums. This one invoked all of them. Thank God James Brown just has a really good sound. Anything lesssr and this would’ve been a one.
It's fine and consistently so. Nothing really bad here but whenever I enjoyed a song I could tell I wasn't ever going to listen to it again. Little tidbit but I really like the album cover despite it being pretty simple conceptually. I don't know this is probably the best two I've heard so far.
Some good stuff here but that hour and a half runtime is brutal. I had a lot of driving to keep me occupied while I listened to this but it really wasn’t enough and I was getting SICK of the spoken word schlock. Thank God there wasn’t more of it.
I rolled out of bed today with more energy than I usually do and left for my morning commute way ahead of schedule, giving me an exceptionally stress-free morning. There was a soft, brief rain that morning that thinned the grey skies enough to let the sun’s rays beam through the light diaphanous clouds in a way that almost felt divine.
I pulled up Talking Book excited by the idea of a drive with the music of Stevie Wonder. The whole drive felt warmer, the forests looked lusher, and I realized that I had a light, satisfied smile on my face for my entire—oftentimes irritatingly dreary—commute.
I didn’t like Maybe Your Baby though.
So much good music all packed into their debut album of all things. What legends.
Stupid, stupid, STUPID psychedelia drivel. Music that—besides the minuscule value created by being “interesting”—is completely worthless. Waste of a day.
Not quite what I was hoping it would be after loving their debut so much but it was good enough. Immigrant Song is overrated.
3/5 minimum for Take On Me. Good thing every other track on here rocks. Maybe my favorite album to drive to ever. Sweet find!
It’s the Smoke On The Water album. That’s really all it has to offer.
Already not fond of punk and even less so of hardcore punk but this was just so unimaginative. It came out earlier than I expected so maybe it was one of the first to put out that wonderbread dime-a-dozen sound but I still don’t enjoy it much. Good instrumental work though and it has the courtesy to only be about 20 minutes, so it could’ve been worse!
All Latin music sounds the same to me. If I listened to 10 Latin albums 100 times each I still wouldn’t be able to tell you which songs belong to which. This has the same problem. It’s very well-crafted music but it feels like nothing to me.
Amazing instrumental work on most tracks here, particularly Teen Age Riot and Cross The Breeze. Really talented guitarist at work. I’m considering finding the album’s instrumentals on YouTube and listening to that. I usually don’t like this style of rock (and it still has some familiar flaws) but this was better than I expected it to be.
The vocals left a lot to be desired most of the time but I had some tracks that felt like the whole package. Eric’s Trip sounded great and the lyrics were fun and vivid. Daydream Nation had some weak points but ll-in-all I’m pretty impressed.
M.I.A is talented. I still hear Paper Planes in my head about a decade later and I was hoping it was on this album. Her voice is great but the instrumentals need to be toned down. Way too much synth & electronica noise for me.
Such an addictive voice though. No lower than a 2.
Tonight was really good. I feel compelled to listen to this again but I can’t really name any stand-outs besides Tonight. I think it was all just consistently very good.
Really beautiful, melancholy stuff but it does get a bit boring. Interesting in that I really enjoyed it as an album but I have zero interest in listening to any song individually. Just seems like something to listen to when the mood calls for it.
Solid rock album and consistently enjoyable but nothing really wowed me here.
It’s nice to find a folk album that I actually like (though admittedly I knew about this one already). Good music, if a bit monotonous. More passionate vocally than most folk music I’ve listened to so far. I’m happy with it
I like Radiohead. I’ve enjoyed other albums. This one didn’t do it for me. I don’t know if it was too somber or experimental but this one was a bit of a slog. Glad I listened to it but I kept waiting for one great song to excite me and it just didn’t happen. Life in a Glasshouse was a highlight I guess?
I gotta say most of this was pretty enjoyable. They’re definitely talented musicians if a bit too experimental at times. The vocals can be jarring (it took me out of the titular track right away) but I enjoyed a lot of what Pere Ubu was going for. I may listen to their other works sometime.
Favorite Track: Caligari’s Mirror
Least Favorite Track: Thriller!
Really thought this was gonna be a 5 but the B-side was a little lackluster. I love Peter Gabriel and Sledgehammer is one of my favorite songs in general so I went in with high expectations. It’s all very good, but I expected a little better.
It has two good songs I guess (you can probably guess which ones). Unremarkable otherwise.
Okay I guess I like disco. Good Times was iconic as usual but I was shocked at how impressive the rest of the album was. Great vocals and great bass-work. Over too soon at 36 minutes.
First half is pretty great and I enjoyed Be overall. I don’t know if I was losing steam towards the end but it all started to blur together. Definitely one of the strongest rap albums I’ve heard on this list so far.
I’m not a fan of the “big-band” stuff and I think Charles’ voice is iffy at times but some stuff was pretty good. Am I Blue and other more melancholy songs were pretty good and I added one or two to my library.
Really expected to dislike this much more than I did. I really don’t like the Kinks or psych rock but this just seemed much more bearable than their other work. Almost popped a blood vessel hearing “A scooby-dooby-doo” though and the B-side was pretty crummy. I do have to highlight Last of the Steam-Powered Trains as it was pretty great.
A lot of garbage to wade through but I really enjoyed some of this. It’s not a particularly long album either so the lows don’t last very long. Sweat Loaf and Human Cannonball were very good in my opinion.
