1001 Albums Summary

Folk/Country Rock. Favorite Songs: Harvest, Are You Ready for the Country, Old Man, There’s a World, The Needle and the Damage Done Least Favorite: A Man Needs a Maid Notes: Started out slow, then picks it up again. There’s twang on the guitars with songs like Heart of Gold. While there’s a good selection of songs here, and while I did decide to grab the full album for my personal collection, there’s a few that I might be skipping depending on my mood. 7/10

Soul Favorite Tracks: You Don’t Own Me, Wishin’ and Hoppin’ Least Favorite Tracks: Mockingbird, Will You Love Me Tomorrow This album is a list of covers, and honestly, I’d prefer the originals for most of the time (the only exception being Wishin’ and Hopin’). That isn’t to say that I don’t hate her voice, but it definitely felt off-putting. 5/10.

Punk/Rock Favorite Tracks: Gloria, Redondo Beach, Birdland, Free Money, Kimberly, Break it Up, Land Least Favorite Track: Elegie This album was a slow grower on me, but I throughly love the album. Some of the tracks starts off slow, but they get progressively faster as time goes on, hitting you with the energy that you would expect from an album like this. 9/10

Soul/Funk Favorite Tracks: Billy Jack, So In Love, Hard Times Least Favorite Track: Jesus In a way, this album has the slow-soul/funk album where it’s a bunch of protest songs about current events back in the day, such as Billy Jack with gun control (and in fact, it’s actually clear as day with the album cover). While the lyrics and the vocals of Curtis is good, I can’t help but to feel bored about the entirety of the album, and it doesn’t help that the instrumental felt a bit out of place for me. While it’ll be in my music collection and be in my usual rotation, I don’t think that I truly have the urge on wanting to listen to them over some of the other collection that I have; mainly just to use it for when it’s on shuffle. 6/10

Pop Rock Favorite Tracks: Drive My Car, Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), Nowhere Man, Think For Yourself, I’m Looking Through You, In My Life, Wait, If I Need Someone. Least Favorite Track: Run For Your Life I throughly enjoyed this album. I did enjoy more on the A Side than the B Side of this album. They’ve now fine tuned from their earlier stuff and made it a bit more mature than their earlier works. That being said, some of their other stuff like Girl and Run For Your Life is where I either thought that I didn’t like certain elements of the track or just flat out hate. Other than that, great album. 8/10

Dream Pop Favorite Tracks: All Least Favorite Tracks: None What a pleasant surprise for this site to recommend me such a luscious album, though looking at both the reviews on this site and Rate Your Music (where it’s ranked #29 on the site of the best albums of all time currently), there’s two different extremes. You’re either on the camp where it’s such a perfect album, or you’re at the camp where the album is terrible, with the main issue where you don’t understand what the lyrics are. To that, I’d say try to imagine that this is a Shoegaze album, where guitars are the main vocal point while the actual vocals are in the back-burner, being blend in with the rest of the band. I’m on the one end of extreme that I really love this album. 10/10

Folk Rock Favorite Tracks: Talkin’ Bout a Revolution, Fast Car, Across the Lines, Behind the Wall, Baby Can I Hold You, Why? Least Favorite Track: She Got Her Ticket This is one of those albums where the A side is better than the B side. The A side is more jam-packed with amazing songs whereas the B side is okay, but it could’ve been better. The A side is more unified and tight with its slow and medium tempo songs that doesn’t have too much energy but just about right, whereas with the exception of ‘Why?’, there’s certain elements that I think could’ve been different. That being said, this is a great album to listen to and own. 8/10

Pop Rock/Worldbeat Favorite Songs: The Boy in the Bubble, Graceland, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, You Can Call Me Al, Crazy Love, Vol. II Least Favorite Song: I Know What I Know Another pleasant surprise from this website. I was going in without really any expectations, and here I am blown away from this album. The inclusion of using African Music in this album works for the most part as it’s used as a celebration of African Music. Even with some of the Pop Rock stuff like ‘You Can Call Me Al’ is a really nice touch that doesn’t break any of the flow at all. Overall, I like this album to where I would recommend it to other people. 8/10

Hip Hop Favorite Songs: Around the Way Girl, Mama Said Knock You Out, Illegal Search Least Favorite Song: Mr. Goodbar The album feels a lot braggadocious in terms of how LL Cool J is the best rapper in the world, and in some aspects, I kinda get why he would do that. From what someone else said online, this is in response to his previous album “Walking With a Panther” was criticized for being a bit too poppy. If true, then I can see why LL Cool J wanted to showcase that he still has it in this album. That said, what’s drawing me back from liking this album is with most of the songs that mentions about him with another woman/women. For example, 6 Minutes of Pleasure showcases LL Cool J and a woman wanting to sleep together, even though the woman already has a different boyfriend and is being tempted by wanting to cheat on LL Cool J. I feel like he should just convince her that she should just dump him, even though in the lyrics, she doesn’t love the rapper. Like, why do you wanna cheat, and why is he going along with it? And then we get to Mr. Goodbar, where LL Cool J is convincing the woman to leave her man and be with him. It’s the same issue as the last example, but this song I got a bit creeped out on when he mentioned, “I’m not gonna rape you.” Like, this isn’t the best wording to use as, if I were to be in this woman’s shoes, I would’ve find that as a red flag. It didn’t help that not only did she have champagne, meaning that she might’ve gotten drunk to the point where she might not legally give out consent, but that I’m a guy. But I think the biggest issue for me is when he uses the fact that he bangs with more women than any other MC does, such as when he raps at one point how the other MC just lost his virginity while LL Cool J was already banging multiple women left and right and is still doing it. Honestly, even with me being an atheist, I’m still the type of guy who wants to treat sex as more of a sacred thing, and when someone brags about how many women they slept with, I felt like they’re a bit too immature for my liking (and a bit perverted, not gonna lie). Like, if I were a rapper, and while I’m not saying that having a good time in bed is not something that I don’t care about when finding a partner, I would just roll my eyes when someone say that, because to me, they’re just treating another human being like an object. Overall, the album’s okay when he doesn’t talk about women most of the time. I’m contempt that I’ve listened to the album, but I also wouldn’t want to have most of the songs in my rotation. 6/10

Hip Hop Soul/R&B Favorite Songs: Creep, Diggin’ On You, Waterfalls, If I Was Your Girlfriend Least Favorite Song: I feel like I would be cheating if I choose Sexy (Interlude), so I’ll go with Take Our Time While I don’t have an outright non-interlude song that I hate, and there’s a few good gems in this album (with Waterfalls being my personal favorite due to this song charting the billboard charts on the week of my birth), I wouldn’t say that I crave on wanting to relisten to the entire album again. That’s not to say that it’s terrible or that it’s boring, but it’s more so that I’m not sure if this album is made for me. It’s a good album, but I don’t think that I want most of it in my personal music collection. 7/10

Chamber Folk Favorite Songs: All but three Least Favorite Song: Hazy Jane I (And even then, it’s still a great song, but out of any of the other songs, I preferred this the least) Another pleasant surprise from this site. While I will fully admit that, for me, I have to re-listen to the album again because I had to get used to Nick’s voice, I did generally really love the lyrics of each of the songs. It’s a really relaxing album that you can unwind. 9/10

Hard Rock Favorite Songs: Highway to Hell, Girl’s Got Rhythm Least Favorite Song: Honestly, they all sound the same, so let’s go with…Night Prowler, I guess? While the album sounds so professionally and the lyrics are fine in my opinion, I don’t think that I would want to sit down and listen to the entire album all the way through. While I can handle the band’s same kind of discography in small doses via if I put the songs on shuffle, I will get bored very easily if I ever decide to listen to the full album. This is due to hearing about the fans saying that they use the same three chord progressions at different keys, and while it’s fine that the song structure can sound a bit samey or basic, it’s more so that I don’t want to physically own the album and pop it in a CD or vinyl player. 6/10

Pop Rock Favorite Songs: Do You Remember Walter?, Johnny Thunder, Last of the Steam-Powered Train, Big Sky, Animal Farm, Village Green, Starstruck, All My Friends Were There Least Favorite Song: Phenomenal Cat I’ve heard a few decent The Kniks’ songs before starting this project, but after hearing this album, it was a completely different take of the band than from what I would normally expected from them. That being said though, I’m actually not complaining. Their more calmer elements of the album than what’s usually expected sounded mostly pleasant. There were a few things that I’d wished that they could’ve done differently, but if anything, this album is a welcoming experience. Definitely going into my personal collection. 8/10.

Experimental Rock Favorite Songs: *Not recorded* Least Favorite Songs: *Not recorded* So this is a very interesting choice from this site. Heard from this guy from the Shrek 2 soundtrack…unironically. So, while this album is currently rated 2.94 at the time of me writing this small review, over on Rate Your Music, it’s got a 3.94. Similarly, it has a 95 critic score and an 83 user score over at Album of the Year. While others would find this album as a neat little gem, I’m not sure if this is something that’s for me. To me, I think it’s fine as this album might not be for everyone, but for me, the biggest issue that I have would have to go to the singer’s voice. It definitely comes across as something that seems a little too goofy for my tastes. Essentially, while this might be a neat little gem for some, I’m not sure if this is a gem worth keeping for me. (And to see the reviews that there might be more of this guy’s catalog from this site, I’m already sure that this might not be an artist for me.) 5/10

Piano Rock/Pop Rock Favorite Songs: Tiny Dancer, Levon, Madman Across the Water, Indian Sunset Least Favorite Song: Rotten Peaches Well, I can now confidently say that I’ve listened to a full Elton John album. This isn’t to say that his songs are bad, but before I’ve listened to this album, it’s really the hits that are more memorable to me, ie. Tiny Dancer. However, while I did like the A side more rather than the B side, and while the songs on the B side are just okay at the very worst, this isn’t to say that with the exception of Indian Sunset that I would wish towards wanting to choose the songs on that B side. It’s more so that I’ll just keep it playing when it’s on shuffle. That being said, don’t get me wrong, this is still a great album by Elton John. I don’t know if this album is any better or worse than his other albums, and more than likely, this site might recommending me more Elton John in the future, but I’d say that I like it. It really shows as to how Elton John is a very talented singer and pianist. 8/10.

Alternative Rock/Jangle Pop Favorite Tracks: Finest Worksong, It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), The One I Love Least Favorite Song: King of Birds While there are a few standout songs for me, I did felt like most of the songs on this list are really just good, but not great. I think part of that has to do with how some of the songs felt a bit samey in tone, and it’s just alright. I have the album in my personal collection, and we shall see later in the future if this changes for me, but for now, I just think the album’s fine as it was. 7/10.

Roots Rock/Folk Rock/Country Rock Favorite Songs: Across the Great Divide, Rag Mama Rag, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Jemima Surrender, The Unfaithful Servant Least Favorite Songs: I’m gonna go with Rockin’ Chair When I told to my mom that I was doing this project, she really wanted me to talk to me about some of the artists that appeared on the lists (Except for rap/hip hop. That’s not her specialty.). So when I told her about The Band, she was extremely excited to see how I would think about this album. Thankfully for her, I did like this album. Honestly, not the biggest fan of the country sound as I don’t like how country sounds for my ears, but I did really like the album. It has some of the energy that goes with it, and The Band has some really great songs. The only thing that I’ll complain about is some of the songs on the album, I didn’t necessarily like how the singer sounded. But yeah, definitely give this album a listen. 8/10

Singer-Songwriter/Piano Rock Favorite Songs: Technically all of them, but I especially like Sleep to Dream, Shadowboxer, Criminal, The First Taste, Pale September, and Carrion Least Favorite Track: If I have to guess, it’ll probably be The child is Gone? I’m honestly really shocked about some of the reviews on the site here, and some of them, I can see but will just respectfully disagree. The one criticism about her voice, while I would be a hypocrite if I would say that you guys should’ve been a lot nicer about her voice…when I wasn’t a fan of Tom Waits voice, I think it’s really more so about personal tastes, and I honestly find her voice to be really great. However, some of the other reviews aren’t really all that great. For starters, here’s a quote from one of the reviews: “Singer has the feel of "oh I'm so hot, I get all the boys and I know it and I'm so bad" shut the fuck up honestly.” Okay, first of all, I cringed when this person said to ‘shut the fuck up honestly’, I really hope that they don’t actually say that to another person like that. It’s rude. Secondly, and most importantly, this is not about how she has all of the hot guys around, but rather a journey through a breakup. While she has this voice where she’s sounds sexy, I could also get the hint of either sadness, angst, or angry about her experience and how the guy in the song was feeling, too. Then there’s the whole thing about it feeling samey, to which I highly disagree. While the entire time, it’s piano rock, there’s also hints of jazz elements in the album as well as various tempo changes. There’s plenty of variety of each of the songs on here. Then I saw another review about someone giving out too much ‘[redacted]’ like if they’re too scared to even fucking swear and say that no one should’ve been eating this other than one star. Um…if this is how you’re going to react when someone else if giving out a personal opinion like this, then I don’t see how I would even want to talk to that person. Frankly, part of me felt like some of this might be due to sexism, and after seeing one review stating that ‘I’m not a fan of female vocalists’, at least one of you would admit to it. Overall, while I wouldn’t say that this album is near perfect, it’s an excellent album, and the reviews on this site does not do it any justice. There’s some albums that I can get why it has a score like that, but this isn’t one of them (unless if it’s the issue with the voice…to which I can somewhat understand but still disagree). 9/10, but I’m rating this as 5 stars because some of you are really harsh about this album. :/

Deep & Southern Soul Favorite Songs: Respect, Drown In My Own Tears, Baby, Baby, Baby, Save Me Least Favorite Song: Good Times The major positive that I can give this album is with her soulful voice. Even with some of the songs that I wasn’t a fond of either by style or by lyricism, she does have the talent to sing her heart and guts out. However, there are certain tracks that I felt like they’re just slogging for me, and even though the runtime for this album is 33 minutes, it felt like at certain times, I was feeling a bit bored. 7/10.

New Wave/Pop Rock Favorite Songs: *Not recorded* Least Favorite Songs: *Not Recorded* While the band in itself seemed pleasant, I couldn’t help but to think that my main issue is in relation to the lead singer’s voice. While it’s not very off-putting of Tom Waite’s voice, I honestly couldn’t take the singer’s voice as seriously than I could wish. It felt like his voice doesn’t match the genre of the songs being played. Overall, this album, and by extension this band, is probably not for me, but I’ll rate my number score a little bit higher than I would. 6/10.

Art Rock/Alternative Rock Favorite Tracks: 2+2=5, Backdrifts, Where I End and You Begin, There There, A Wolf at the Door Least Favorite Song: We Suck Young Blood So this was my second full listened to album from Radiohead, the first one being Amnesiac (to which I gave a 7/10 on). While this album is a tad better than Amnesiac, I feel like it still has the same quality of it being good, but not something that’s more standout. There’s a couple of favorite songs on here that I would really love, others are only just good or okay. While the full album is going into my personal collection, I’ll more than likely just revisit to some of the songs on the album than others. Maybe it’s because some say that it felt like a collection of both styles that should’ve been placed in their previous albums, but idk if that’s the case. Again, I’ve only listened to two of them, this included. 7/10.

Alternative Rock Favorite Songs: Tonight, Tonight, Jellybelly, Zero, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, To Forgive, An Ode to No One, Cupid de Locke, Porcelina of the Vast Oceans, Thirty-Three, 1979, We Only Come Out at Night, Farewell and Goodnight Least Favorite Song: Where Boys Fear to Sleep So, confession time: I didn’t really like The Smashing Pumpkins after listening to a few tracks before this album of theirs. I felt like Billy Corgan’s vocals wasn’t my overall thing when I first heard him. He had that whisper-y voice at certain songs, and it felt like he didn’t had enough energy to pack a meaningful punch. And then I was randomly chosen to listen to this album. And my mind had mostly changed. I actually think the album’s great, from the first legitimate song Tonight, Tonight, to Zero, to 1979. There’s a lot to like about this album, and I definitely felt like I was judging the band way too harshly. Now, the only issue for me is how the album is bloated with songs that I didn’t necessarily cared about, but were just either just okay or decent. I felt like we didn’t really need to have two CDs at once and would’ve been fine if it were two separate projects. I did enjoy the first CD over the second, and part of me thinks that I was feeling a little fatigued of listening to two straight hours of the album. Still, this album is going into my personal collection. 8/10.

Britpop/Neo-Psychedelia Favorite Song: Bitter Sweet Symphony Least Favorite Song: Come On I’m gonna keep this review short: while it sounded pleasant enough, and while Bitter Sweet Symphony is a really good song, I find the album to be kinda boring. That’s how much investment that I have. 6/10.

2 Tone Favorite Songs: Do the Dog is a keeper for me, but I also kinda liked It’s Up to You, Nite Klub, and Concrete Jungle Least Favorite Song: *Not recorded* So, here’s the thing: I’m not sure if I want to keep the album with all but one song; Do the Dog is a really good song for me personally that I just have to have it. It’s really more so that I’m not hugely interested with Ska, as I think it’s really more so an acquired taste. That being said, I do plan on wanting to rate this a little higher due to the overall messaging of the album, as it’s really a reflection towards the racial tensions that went down in the UK in this time period. Especially if you take It’s Up to You, and to quote a user from rate your music carpinchoagresivo, “They deliver a clear message: do whatever you want, but stand up against oppression and try to help others. It´s clear in songs such as "It´s up to you", in which they quite literally tell you to do whatever you want, hate their music, like them, but still fight against the people actively trying to ruin everything (in this case, the National Front, a bunch of fascistic anti-immigration folks in the UK).” And frankly, while this genre of music isn’t my style, that’s enough for me to at least give a recommendation to those who are interested in wanting to start listening to some ska. 7/10.

Blues Rock/Hard Rock Favorite Songs: Shapes of Things, Let Me Love You, Morning Dew, Beck’s Bolero Least Favorite Song: I Ain’t Superstitious (For implying that a black cat is bad luck…signed an owner of a black cat) Blues Rock is something that’s a bit of a hit or miss for me. My mother told me that he was considered as a great guitar player, and I’ll fully admit when I say that he does great work on the guitar. That being said, while the songs on my favs list are going on my personal library, there are other songs that are just okay or are just boring in my personal opinion. 7/10

Political Hip Hop/Conscious Hip Hop Favorite Song: Brothers Gonna Work It Out, 911 Is A Joke, Welcome to the Terrordome, Burn Hollywood Burn, War at 33 1/3, Fight The Power Least Favorite Song: Pollywannacraka Yet another album added to my collection. While most of the songs are good, there’s at least a few more standouts on the album than duds. I haven’t listened to their debut album, but this was a good introduction album for me. 8/10

Hard Rock/Glam Rock Favorite Songs: The Loser In the End, Orge Battle, The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, Nevermore, The March of the Black Queen, Funny How Love Is, Seven Seas of Rhye Least Favorite Song: Father To Son I’ve heard of Queen before by a few selected songs, but never in a full album. So when this album landed on my lap, I was really excited for listening to this, and boy was I not disappointed. In a surprise turn of events when I preferred the first half in an album, I actually preferred the second half this time around as it sounded more whimsical (while at the same time having more darker themes) in lyrics and instrumentally. Will definitely add this album to my collection, and I’m excited to hear another Queens album when this site recommends me another. 9/10

Reggae Favorite Songs: *Not recorded* Least Favorite Song: Red Rolled and Seen Oh dear. After getting a bunch of bangers from this site, here we have an album that I actually do not like. Doesn’t help that I’m not the biggest fan of Reggae as I felt like the songs in the genre have the same style, thus making it so samey for me, but this one I’ve noticed that there were a bunch of technical stuff that I wasn’t a fan of, such as I Need a Lover where he sings on an instrumental track that sounded like it was backwards…and it doesn’t mesh well. Overall, not a fan, and this is probably my first pretty low score on this site. 4/10

Celtic Rock/Celtic Punk Favorite Songs: If I Should Fall from Grace with God, Fairytale of New York, Thousands are Sailing Least Favorite Song: Worms While some of the songs I’ll be keeping in my personal playlist, I do felt like instrumentally it just felt a bit samey. I get that it’s Celtic Rock/Punk, and I’m not saying that this album doesn’t have variety within them, but it does feel like some of the songs have the same key, tempo, and note structure such as Fairytale of New York and another song in the album. 7/10

Singer-Songwriter/Contemporary Folk/Americana Favorite Songs: *All but one* Least Favorite Song: Used Cars (And even then, it’s not the worst song out there.) So I have this CD, and I was planning on putting it into my personal digital music library anyways, but wow, this was a good album for me. Bruce Springsteen usually does his songs from being proud of being an American, but this one is more about when there’s no American Dream left to have. It really shows his overall strengths of his songwriting as a whole. (Though, looking at the reviews on this site, while I really wish that people would pay attention to the lyrics, I can see why this might be a dud for some people.) 9/10

Afrobeat Favorite Songs: Technically all three as all three of these songs are excellent in their own accord, but Zombie has to be my #1 favorite song of the bunch. Least Favorite Song: If I have to pick, it might be Observation Is No Crime, but again, it’s still an excellent song. This was a fantastic album that protests the government within his home country; specifically the Nigerian military. While it has a strong message and protest behind it, it’s accompanied with some funky African style of beats that doesn’t alienate the audience and draws people in. Definitely worth the time to listen to this record. 9/10

Blues Rock/Acid Rock/Psychedelic Rock Favorite Songs: Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland), Crosstown Traffic, Voodoo Chile, Come On (Let the Good Times Roll), Burning the Midnight Lamp, 1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Bee), House Burning Down, All Along the Watchtower, Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) Least Favorite Song: Still Raining, Still Dreaming So I’ve heard about Jimi Hendrix from various songs such as Purple Haze, but I’ve never really sat down and listen to a full length album of his and his band, but as I’m writing this, that ended…admittedly yesterday since this site gave me an album at around 9 PM yesterday. And let me tell you: this was a really good listening experience. It shows how Jimi was having fun at certain points in this album just grooving on the guitar and signing the songs. Of course, there were certain songs that were just okay for me, but overall, I’ve enjoyed the experience. 8/10

Art Rock/Experimental Rock Favorite Songs: *All* Least Favorite Song: *None* Picture this: You stumbled upon a YouTube video made by a user named Karsten Kroening called “100 Albums You NEED to Hear”, and you’ve decided to listen to every single album that appeared in this playlist. You ended up judging the albums that you listened to and pick which albums are indeed something that you needed to listen to. You then get to his top 20 favorite section where at number 13, this album appeared. So you listened to it, thinking that the album is fantastic. It had that element of nostalgia of listening to those songs that you’ve heard from an oldies radio in your elementary school years due to the bus driver preferring that radio station, but there’s an element of something new. You noticed that the lyrics have a more mature side to it rather than what you normally expect to hear from a song in the 60’s. And you told your loved one that you would love to have this album as a CD for your birthday. And then up next, you check your loved one’s Amazon account to see if there’s any packages arriving. You ended up seeing that this album is coming in the mail, and you can’t wait until your birthday until you get to listen to it on a portable CD player on the night of your birthday. Your birthday is less than a month away, but you still can’t wait to open it’s plastic packaging and pop the CD out of it’s case. And then this website decided to test fate and give you this album…just a few days before your birthday. If you were in my shoes, you would’ve laughed your butt off like I did. The funniest part was about how you were thinking of this album an hour before this site randomized this pick for you. No, but in all honestly, there’s a reason why I wanted to have this CD for my birthday, and that’s because this album is considered to be one of my favorites now. I’m thinking that this album is actually going somewhere in my top 10 all time favorite albums, it’s that good. It had that variety with its instrumentations and song structures that not once did I felt either bored or annoyed. I especially wanna highlight the final song of the album for that guitar solo. Overall, definitely a keeper. 10/10

Singer-Songwriter:Americana/Alt-Country/Chamber Folk Favorite Songs: Jim Cain, Eid Ma Clack Shaw, All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast Least Favorite Song: My Friend So I was going to come into this album expecting to hate it given that this site labeled it as Country, and while there’s some country aspects here and there, I wouldn’t say that it’s full on country, more so that it’s really folk. Nevertheless, while I don’t hate this album as I thought I would, I didn’t necessarily think it’s a great album either. It felt like there were moments where the album was slogging a bit with a couple of tracks that I did grew bored overtime. There’s my three favorites that’s going into my personal music library, but as for the rest, I just didn’t care all about it. 7/10, but I felt like it should’ve been more like a 6/10, hence why the three stars on this album.

Outlaw Country/Country Rock/Honky Tonk Favorite Song: Honestly, I didn’t really paid too much attention to the album all that much due to my feelings about Country overall, but if I have to say, I thought that Fingernails was at least tolerable. Least Favorite Track: 1 in 9, you can take your pick. Ooooooh dear. 1001 Albums site gave me a country album. That’s…not gonna be pleasant. And here I thought I’d dodged a bullet with the last album I’ve listened to. Yeah, Country isn’t really my thing. The main reason why has to do with the twang on the guitar that just made me feel all icky inside. I don’t really like country all that much due to it feeling like I’m listening to the same song over and over again, and the worst part is that I know that I’m a hypocrite/wrong because I listen to electronic stuff all the time and would prefer listening to that instead of this. Overall, this is not an album for me. 4/10.

Singer-Songwriter/Indie Pop Favorite Songs: Son of Sam, Junk Bond Trailer, L.A., Stupidity Tries, Wouldn’t Mama Be Proud Least Favorite Song: *Didn’t Record* So, this wasn’t the first Elliott Snith album that I’ve listened to, and that’s due to how I’ve first listened to Either/Or. Truth be told, I didn’t get that record. I might have to make a bunch of relistens in order to fully get behind the tracks on the album, but I don’t really see the appeal of it all just yet. So when I got to this album, while this might be more of me feeling like I might not fully understand the artist so far, this album seems a bit more appealing to me, and the worst part is I can’t articulate what it is that makes me draw more onto this album instead of Either/Or. Items something where I have to probably do a bit more research on in order to fully understand the artist in this case. 7/10, but I’m rating it 3 stars instead of the usual 4 that I do.

Psychedelic Rock Favorite Songs: Break on Through (To the Other Side), Soul Kitchen, The Crystal Ship, Twentieth Century Fox, Light My Fire, End of the Night, Take It as It Comes Least Favorite Songs: Back Door Man And now it’s time for another classic. The Door’s debut album was one that, while there are some misses in either the delivery or lyrics like Back Door Man, it’s a really great album. The Doors manages to make some really memorable rifts and melodies, especially on the first half of the tracklist. Definitely a keeper. 8/10.

Progressive Rock/Hard Rock Favorite Song: Lessons Least Favorite Song: A Passage To Bangkok As someone who’s slowly listening to more and more progressive rock tracks, I was a little bit disappointed with the main track of 2112. It didn’t really felt like it had that nice transition towards the next part of the song. Really felt like they’ve could’ve been separated into different tracks instead and just called it a day. As for the B-side, they’re fine, but I wouldn’t say that the tracks in the album are what I would want in my personal library with the exception of one. 7/10

Electronic/Experimental Rock Favorite Songs: The Rip, We Carry On, Deep Water, Machine Gun, Small, Magic Doors Least Favorite Song: Silence (But that’s only because the song was intentionally cut off at the end, to which I wasn’t a fan of) I was planning on listening to Portishead’s first album before listening to this one, and if this is generally the style that they’re going for with this album, then I should be even more excited when I listened to the first one. I really loved the synths that had that 60’s vibe to it, as it adds a layer of what I might best describe as dread into the tracks. This album’s a keeper for me. 8/10

Synthpop Favorite Songs: *All* Least Favorite Songs: *None* Jokes on you, site! I’ve already liked the album before I was randomly selected by it! Yeah, another banger of an album for me. This album is something that I very much enjoyed. Was recommended by Anthony Fantano with his 10/10 albums, and it’s something where I would recommend everyone to listen to. Got nothing else to say other than it’s a perfect album. 10/10

Conscious Hip Hop Favorite Songs: Be (Intro), Go!, Faithful, Love Is…, Real People, They Say, It’s Your World (Part 1 & 2) Least Favorite Track: Chi-City Yet another surprise by the site itself. I haven’t heard about this artist in particular, but hearing that Kanye West was the main executive producer for the album is going to be familiar territory for me. I’ve heard of Kanye’s stuff before, and uh…let’s just say that I’m not a fan of Kanye, even before when his mental health was going in a downward spiral. But after listening to this album, while it’s not something that immediately jumps out of me instrumentally (with the exception of the first track), what I really liked more was with the lyrics. It shows how vulnerable Common is with in terms of his faith, his romantic and sexual side, etc. Overall, definitely listen to this album. 9/10

Contemporary Folk Favorite Songs: Blowin’ in the Wind, Girl From the North Country, Masters of War, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, Bob Dylan’s Dream, Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance, I Shall Be Free Least Favorite Song: Talking World War III Blues While his voice might be something that I might have to get used to, I will acknowledge his lyric talent within this album. His overall lyrics showcases not only of political protest, but also of love and hardship, and in a very calm way, too. This album’s going into my library. 8/10

Big Band/Swing Favorite Songs: The Kid from Red Bank, Double-O, Whitley-Bird, Splanky, Fantail Least Favorite Song: *Did not record* When I showed this album to my mom, she was very excited on showing me the history and her favorite song (which actually appeared on this album, that being Splanky). So she wanted to know how I felt about this album. So, there’s a reason why with certain albums, there’s songs that I want in my personal music library (that are digital) that I can own, and then there’s songs where I really don’t care about listening to but would rather not own. Part of it is due to me not wanting a lot of junk in my external hard drive, even if the song’s like a 6/10 or even a 7/10. Another case would be about whether or not if I would see myself wanting to listen to the songs in the future. For half of the album, while I don’t dislike them and wouldn’t care less if someone were to play them, I don’t really want them on my personal music library. For this album specifically, there are certain songs where the songs are slower than the more faster pace songs like the first track where it sounds pleasant, but I personally wasn’t the major fan of. I think with jazz, I preferred a more faster pace tempo than slower tracks, and I felt like this is just my own personal music taste that I have to grapple with. I say all of this because I should mention that my mom said how this band’s revolutionary. The history goes that Count Basie was revolutionary at the time due to how the band would bring both white people and black people to get together and dance when they couldn’t due to segregation. This album was back in the 1950’s afterall. And even with me saying that I do want some of the songs in my library and not others, she said that it was due to a different time period. Like, I get it, but at the same time, I just don’t want to further clutter my personal library when I don’t really need it all that much. Anyways, while the album’s good, I think I’m okay with not getting every song on the album into my library. 7/10

Mbalax Favorite Song: Immigrés/Bitim Rew Least Favorite Song: I guess Pitche Mi? Idk if I truly want to keep this album? While the album is produced nicely, it’s really more of I don’t think that I would see myself listen to them again. It’s okay. 6/10

Synth Punk/Minimal Synth Favorite Song: Ghost Rider (although, I’m probably not gonna put this in my personal music library) Least Favorite Track: Frankie Teardrop So, I see that this album is very divided amongst those from this site in comparison to Rate Your Music. At the time of writing this review, this site has a 2.46/5 in comparison to a 3.72/5 on Rate Your Music. Decided to also look at Album of the Year, and it has an 87/100 critic score and a 74/100 for user ratings. And with me…I feel like I can see both sides of the argument here, but I’m more than likely in the middle of the camp. The album is considered to be very influential due to how it incorporates electronic elements with the rock elements, and while the sound is minimalistic, on the surface, the album’s sounds definitely feels revolutionary in how new this sound is back in the day. However, while it might be due to its technical limitations, I did find the songs instrumentally to be very repetitive for my tastes (and I’m usually the guy who likes repetitive stuff within electronic music like house or trance). But it’s where the lyrics tells the full story, and there’s certain elements in these lyrics that are also very minimalistic, but with a few exceptions, they aren’t too repetitive. They’re also very progressive in the sense that you would understand the messaging. Take Rocket USA for example where it talks about driving in a car, being described as a very dangerous vehicle that can kill someone, and the driver’s carelessness of safety on the highway speeding at around 100 mph. The messaging seems clear enough about trying to teach the listener about the country’s car culture. But then we also have stuff such as Girl, where it sounded like the singer in bed with a girl, and I think it might be about a critique about men’s obsession of sex, but frankly, I feel like this song’s too dirty for my tastes (and I listened to Satisfaction by Benny Benassi, a really dirty song). And we have my least favorite song Frankie Teardrop, where at the start of the song, it describes the main character, Frankie, dealing with a lot of stress of his job and not being paid enough money for his wife and kid. And his solution is to…kill both the child and wife…and then himself. And this is where the track lost me. Now, people complain about the shouting in the track, and while I did find it off putting, I can understand why he did it, because it’s to show off the characters’ shocked, pain, and tortured state within the song. Probably would have done without it, but it’s whatever. For me, the song doesn’t have a clear messaging, and I think it went too minimalistic that the message got lost in the weeds. Is the message that work sucks, or that we need to have a strong union force, or that people are so desperate to leave the kind of struggle they have to the point where they’ll be in hell (something that I should note that I’m an atheist, and that I don’t believe in hell to begin with)? I’m just…so lost and confused by the track in itself. Overall, while I can very much understand what the album is in its lyrics, or that the album’s revolutionary by incorporating electronic elements, I don’t think I can get behind the record personally due to how minimalistic and repetitive the whole thing sounds. 5/10, but I’m giving this a 2/5 stars.

Son cubano/Bolero Favorite Songs: De Camino à la Vereda, El Cuarto de Tula, El Carretero, Candela Least Favorite Song: Pueblo Nuevo To whoever said in their five star review, and gonna quote this person, “If you left a 1 star review with the reason stating why being it's not in English, get the fuck off this website,” preach. This was a good album that showcases their roots and wanted to show this to the public, and while I’m not going to get every single track off of this album, I did enjoyed the album for what it was. While I’m not going to give it a better score as again I don’t see myself wanting every track, this is an album that I would recommend to those who wanted to listen outside of their English comfort zone. 7/10.

Pop Rock/Psychedelic Pop Favorite Tracks: *All but one* Least Favorite Track: Love You To Gonna keep this review short: such a disappointment that I can’t rate this as a 10/10 album, because with the exception to Love You To, every song is like either a 9/10 or a 10/10. 9/10, but I’m rating this album 5/5 stars because it’s nearly perfect.

Post-Punk/Art Punk/Post-Hardcore Favorite Songs: …too many to list off, so instead, my top three are Viet Nam, Corona, and West Germany. Least Favorite Song: Don’t Look Now (don’t have an issue with live songs, but man, this was not mixed good.) I was first frightened by the fact that there were 45 songs on this album, 43 if you listened to it on Apple Music, but thankfully, all of these tracks are very short on time, I believe none of them even go past the three minute mark. In comparison to the other punk album that I received from the site Suicide’s self titled album, this punk album was an absolute of a breathe of fresh air. The songs on the album have a lot of short messages in the tracks, and while they can become samey instrumentally, it’s the songs’ lyrics that would leave an overall lasting impact about the at the time current climate of the world. Overall, wasn’t a massive punk fan before, but this might be the album that could convince me otherwise. 8/10.

Acid Rock/Psychedelic Rock Favorite Songs: while not going into my personal music library, I wouldn’t complain if Porpoise Mouth or Super Bird were playing. Least Favorite Song: Bass Strings, just not in the mood for it. Either that, or Section 43. Once again, this is yet another album that the users on this site differ from the users over at Rate Your Music and Album of the Year, with this site being a lot more critical. RYM has a 3.55, AOTY has a less respectable score of a 69. As for me, I’m probably more in the camp of being an AOTY user, but a little less. While people on this site do have a point about how this album doesn’t revolutionize the Psychedelic Rock genre, I thought that the album was…okay. There were probably equal amount of good sounding songs and some duds. If someone were to put this album on, I wouldn’t complain, but at the same time, I would probably not want this album in my personal music library as I’m not wanting any of the tracks. Maybe it had to do with the very small amount of recording time, only lasting about a week. At the same time, part of me thinks that I’m not being too critical about this album. Just because that the album sounds decent enough, does that necessarily mean that it’s something that I would recommend, or something that’s good enough? Probably not. However, another part of me felt like I’m at war with this site and the users on it due to them being mainly overly critical at certain things. I guess for now, I’ll just rate it as I see fit. 6/10, though if I were a bit more critical, I would’ve given this a 5/10. Maybe ask me on a bad day. *Shrugs.*

Alt-Country/Americana/Singer-Songwriter/Country Folk Favorite Song: …well, I mean J’ai fait tout is at least the most pleasant song on the album Least Favorite Song: *Didn’t Record* I do not think I’m the target demographic for this album. Country to me is like water and oil. What I don’t like about country is the twang of it all, and part of me thinks this has to do with me not growing up in the southern culture. It’s due to this that I don’t think I can truly appreciate country as a whole. Now in defense for this album, it’s at least a pleasant sounding type of country than the typical ones that you would hear in today’s country charts. I would definitely recommend this to those who are genuine country fans. However, this album is not for me, and unfortunately the score is going to reflect that. 4/10

Alternative Rock/Pop Rock Favorite Songs: One, Until the End of the World, Mysterious Ways Least Favorite Song: Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World While maybe not the best album, it’s regarded as one of the great albums by the band. That being said, there’s this sound of theirs that I can’t really get into with this album. Maybe this is due to them going for a more poppy sound, idk. There’s some good songs on the album, let’s not forget that, but idk if I wanna take all of the songs of the album. It’s just…alright. 7/10

Afrobeat Favorite Songs: *All* Least Favorite Song: *None* This is the second project that I’ve heard from this artist, more specifically, this time being a live album. And compared to the first album Zombie, I actually prefer this album over the other one. It’s a really funkier list of tracks, part of it having drummer Ginger Baker in the mix. I’m not usually someone who wants to listen to live albums, but I think I’ll make one exception to this one because it’s *that* good. 10/10.

Ambient Favorite Song: 2/2, although 1/1 sounds pleasant. Least Favorite Song: 2/1 So this is the album that 100% pioneered ambient. …admittedly, I’ve heard better ambient tracks/albums. A great recommendation goes to Autumn of Communion 2 by Autumn of Communion. Although, glad that I got to experience a piece of history. That being said, I do have two issues about this album. The first being that I can’t fathom this kind of music being equated to being played at an airport. 1/1 especially doesn’t sound like it should be played at an airport (even though I did like the calming piano notes throughout the track). I get that this is inspired about Brian Eno waiting at an airport for a few hours, and I get that this is the first of a four part series, but the title feels misleading. I feel like this should’ve been called, “Music for the Meditated” (although for me, I think I had the best experience listening to this album while being outside in the night. Kinda gives you that vibe that you’re alone in the universe, but it doesn’t mean that everything’s going to be bad. Idk, maybe a better title should’ve been, “Music for Wonderers”). Secondly, I did felt like the choices for how it sounds felt a bit dated. I do get that it’s the 70’s and that the technology hasn’t advanced yet, but I did not like 2/1 and bits of 1/2 due to the vocal loops. For an album that wants to sound calming, it definitely gives me a bit of ghostly dread instead. That being said, I did thought that, for an album of its time, it’s rather good. I don’t think that I would want this album (again, there’s better ambient tracks/albums out there for me), but as someone who listens to electronic stuff, I’m glad that I’ve heard it and learned a bit of history behind it. 7/10