I know R.E.M., but mostly just the hits, so this album was a fresh listen for me. "It's the End of the World as We Know It" is a masterpiece of a song that feels really fitting for the world we are living in at the moment. Even though it was one of the tracks I already knew, it still deserves the number one spot in this review.
The other big hit from the album is "The One I Love," but to me, it sounds a bit more like "typical" R.E.M. It’s okay, but it doesn't quite hit the threshold for a song I’d want to put on my playlists. On the other hand, one great and upbeat find from the album was "Exhuming McCarthy." After reading about the background for this song, also it seems really fitting to today's time and place. Sound-wise, the record has nice 80s drum sounds and some great drum and guitar moments.
Folk is not really something I listen to but I enjoyed this one! It certainly has 60s vibe and it reminds of something that would be background music in old movies. I used to listen to KISS quite a lot when I was younger and actually songs like Pre-Road Downs could easily be a KISS song if it would be produced differently!
This is the second album I am rating so my rating is not developed yet but the only reason I am giving only 2 stars is that (5=Album I would want to buy as a Vinyl and I would regularly listen to, 4=I would not necessarily want to buy but has mostly great songs, 3=Has some great songs I would (be happy to) add to my playlists, 2= I enjoyed but did not meet the criteria of the higher ratings, 1= I did not enjoy.)
This album is legendary, but I have to admit I had never fully listened to it. When I signed up for the 1001 Albums Generator, this was exactly what I was hoping for from it. I think there are a bunch of these albums and artists that I know but, for some reason, have never gotten into.
Sound-wise, the album has great guitar playing and great drum sounds. It has a raw rock sound but with some "modern" production choices. It sounds like the '90s in a good way! Alanis's attitude shines throughout the album, and some lyrics are really cleverly funny.
ZZ Top is again one of these artists that I never deeply looked into. I know the hits and all but I would have not known their albums etc. It is wild that this is their 8th album and the most successful since normally the success comes way earlier. I have not carefully listened to their earlier albums but I think it is safe to say that they stuck to their own sound and eventually that lead to this success that this album had. ZZ Top is kinda like AC/DC, you know what you get!
This album is the first one of these that I have heard or I have watched the videos but it has been a while. This album has a legendary status and I think some have said it is the best acoustic album of all time. To me Nevermind is 5/5 album but because of my somewhat hard rating criteria this no only gets 3.
This may be an influential album but on my ranking scale this type of an instrumental album only gets one star.
I normally enjoy high-tempo rock and punk music, which in a sense could be seen as the opposite of this. I have also tried to listen to jazz before, but it has never stuck. I know that Miles Davis is a legend, and the thing with this album is that the high tempo actually fits my taste a lot better than the slower ones I may have been listening to earlier.
In contrast to popular internet opinion, I quite enjoy ska. My ska taste goes towards the ska punk and it is shame to say but I had not really heard about Madness before. From this album I knew the song Our House but I would not have known who is it by. Album is quite cool and definitely sounds like a concept album (mentioned in the wikipedia). Based on my harsh criteria, only two stars but I did enjoy this one.
This is a legendary album. I have considered buying this on vinyl, which already means it's on the 4-to-5-star scale for me. I think 4.5 stars would be optimal, since the one thing the album is possibly missing is a truly strong single. While 4 stars might feel a bit low for this, I really want to highlight that it is a solid album from front to back.
This is hard to rate. It has some parts that have a "The Killers" vibe, which I do enjoy, but as a cohesive album, it just isn't quite there for me. I know loops are the basis of electronic music, but some of the songs are just a bit too repetitive for my taste.
This album must have been incredibly fresh when it came out. The scale of the project is massive, which makes sense given that it’s a double album. Speakerboxxx is just a fun listen—a true, driving rap and hip-hop record—while The Love Below feels much more experimental and conceptual.
I think I owned this album on CD when I was younger, which would make it a first of its kind on this list for me. This is classic AC/DC—nothing more, nothing less. There is this joke that AC/DC has basically made the same song over and over again for the last 50 years, but in small quantities it just works! There is no denying they are one of the biggest rock bands of all time. Many sound engineers actually use this album to do sound checks for festivals, so production-wise, it hit a level that became a reference point for the future.
This is the second UK ska band on my list in a short time, following The Madness' Rise & Fall. As I mentioned in that review, I do like ska. This album may be even better, even though it doesn't have a massive hit on it. From a similar realm, I already enjoy the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and I do think that there is something shared with these artists. Possibly it is growing up in the "concrete jungle" that The Specials are singing about.
Arctic Monkeys is one of those bands that I definitely know, and they have been one of the biggest acts from the last 20 years. Coincidentally, this album is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. There are many things that rise up from this record, from the UK's social influences to the fact that AM was, in some sense, the last of the big British rock bands to have a global impact. The period right after this was mostly dominated by Americans and other genres. The sounds also on this album are also still something that people are chasing today. For me, though, it may be a bit overhyped. I want to like it more, but it just does not hit the way I want it to. I am mostly a melody-listener, so what I am really after is probably more "chorusy" choruses—like a resolve from the dance beat into something a bit more typical.
Just too experimental for my taste. However, I do acknowledge that this may have been ahead of its time, and while nowadays these sounds would be easy to make, back in the day this may have been among the first ones of these kinds of albums.
I don't fully get why this is on the list. Maybe at the time it was created, it felt like this album did something specific, like bringing an older rock sound into the 21st century. However, to me, this sounds very generic. If I hadn't read that this was an Australian artist, I would have thought it was an American band. Rock is my main genre but not this rock.
I am not a fan of folk music, and this album coming straight after Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds probably didn't do it any favors. I can listen to this in the background, but honestly, it just does nothing for me.
This album sounds like the '90s, but a specific corner of the '90s that I don't normally listen to. I had never heard of this artist before, and not even the top single sounded familiar. Honestly, it's just not for me.
I don't normally enjoy instrumentals, and having just a piano can be a difficult thing to make interesting to me. This is, however, not as jazzy as some jazz which is a good thing. Album is actually a quite cool background listen.
The vibes are great! It almost has a '60s sunny sound at times, and then other parts give off a '70s melancholy. After some boring folk/gospel albums, this was a much more enjoyable listen!
That's more like it, first fast(er) paced album of the week. I used to listen a little bit of Bowie but I have never fully got into his music. This album did not have the songs that I know but very much has distinguished Bowie sound.
This album is so popular and highly regarded that whatever I say here might be taken the wrong way. It really is a beautiful album, but it is just not my taste. Also, some of the songs have become almost too popular over the years. Even just the "I hurt myself" intro has reached a meme-like status at this point.
This is not an Alice Cooper album that I was familiar with; I had only ever heard "No More Mr. Nice Guy" before. When I was listening to '80s hair metal, I listened to his music a bit, but apparently that was his older material. Looking at his catalog now, it is massive. The dude is a legend for sure, but the sheer number of albums also dilutes the hits, so this album really only had that one standout track. In my case, this affects my rating because the album just isn't as strong as it could be. But I also think the requirement for albums to have multiple hits is a more recent thing anyway, since this one came out back in the early '70s.
This has a bit of the "Ruma" sound. I may be a bit tipsy but this has some solid jams.
I had never listened to this before so this was cool! I was listening to this at the cottage which brought a certain vibe to this experience. I know this album is a legend and there is a reason for it.
I have gotten a lot of '70s stuff lately, which is cool. I of course know The Who, but this album seems to have been released just before they put out the record that became their biggest and featured the largest hits still played today. This album has a raw, live sound, but it is well-balanced and the playing is tight. In some weird way this is The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show but in England and 30 years earlier; the bass sound on the album is great (and played with a pick!), the drummer is fantastic and they have these in-between song bits where they are cracking (bit more polite) jokes.
Sounds like jazz, enjoyable but does nothing for me.
To me, sounds like a GTA radio music. Soundgarden works in that kind of scenarios but I would never really reach for them when searching for what to play.
Some legendary stuff in this! However a bit repetitive.
This definitely has the Dire Straits sounds even though it is not as popular album as the Brothers in Arms. I liked it but the sound is quite repetitive and it does not have as many hits as the previously mentioned album.
I of course have heard of Stevie Wonder but I wouln't have necessarily be able to list (m)any of his songs. The album has Isn't she lovely and Pastime Paradise that are songs that I definitely had heard before. The album was made in 76 but it sounds like this could have easily been 80s or even 90s album. I enjoyed it but a) it is very long and b) it is not really my style. I like some R&B but this this me is "oversinging". For somebody else Stevie's vocals most likely are top tier.
The album does not have their biggest hits and is one of the Rolling Stones' earlier works. I know many of the big songs and "Paint It Black" is great, but I've had a hard time fully enjoying the Stones. For some reason, it has never clicked. Some of the lyrics from this era also may not have aged well, and Jagger has had some allegations that affect the listening experience a bit.
U2 works in small quantities. The drummer is great and the guitar stuff is inspiring, which you can clearly hear in Angels & Airwaves from when Tom DeLonge was listening to a lot of U2. I don't necessarily like Bono or his voice, and that forced album on my iTunes still frustrates me.
I had never heard of Dennis Wilson, but I had a hunch he belonged to a bigger group, and a quick Wikipedia search confirmed he was part of The Beach Boys. I put this album on during a four-hour drive, and honestly, it just felt way too long—it took up almost half the trip to get through. I’m not really a big fan of the slower rock from this era, so it was a bit of a slog for me. I’m waiting for proper Beach Boys albums to pop up on this list to see if their main catalog is more my style, because as much as I want to like them and this record, it just didn't click.
This was great. I’ve liked CCR ever since we sang "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" for an elementary school spring play. The guitar work throughout is great, Fogerty’s voice is so distinctly his own, and the drums have that classic ’70s tone done right. It also brought back memories of Hanoi Rocks’ cover of "Up Around the Bend," which used to be on constant rotation in my house back in the day.
Psycho Killer is definitely a known song from this album and I know that for example Haley Williams enjoys Talking Heads. Not my thing though.
This is the first album that I have owned in some format that is on the list! I used to have this as a CD but it has been a long time since I have listened to this. This is a great album that showcases the musicianship of the band. Interestingly now after learning about music recording there is distortion on the drums and background his on the quieter songs. I never used to focus on any of that stuff. Soundwise this is very influential and still chased.
This is going to be the first 5/5 star album on my list. I just ordered this on vinyl, and on my scale, that makes it an instant 5/5. Legendary album from front to back. The record label disses on this album are the cherry on top!
I used to listen to a bit of Judas Priest when I was fully into '80s rock. This has the big hits and I like the album. To me, however, Priest is not something that I would find myself searching for on Spotify. The pushed vocals work, but only in small amounts. I was happy to hear that Halford's clean vocals are actually really good—it's a shame they did not use those more. The chorus of United is a great example of that clean sound.
