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!
