1001 Albums Summary

Wasn't huge on this to be honest, I see the influence and significance but it felt a little repetitive. Some good bass parts but could've been better at times.

Well, I'm not going to lie when this came up as day two as something I hadn't heard much about and saw the genres, I was not excited, but, as I'm writing this part three tracks in, I'm actually quite intrigued. The production is really nice and it sounds great, and the songwriting is really fun and cool. It's not something I thought I'd ever rush to listen to, but honestly I really might have to check out more of his albums. That's the point of this challenge I guess, so I'm already glad I impulsively started it, even if the app seems to be glitching around a bit. The vocals are really nice, some of the harmonies on songs like For The Turnstiles are great, being an element that I didn't think I'd be as interested in as I was. The solos are all really nice too, and they feel well placed within the somewhat repetitive but atmospheric song structures that don't overstay their welcome. It does feel a little bit weird to say all this when the Led Zeppelin album yesterday felt similar in context of how I feel about that kind of music in general, and it could've been listening condition bias, but honestly this just hit way better than yesterday.

Really think this album is quite overrated. It's got really repetitive song structures, with most the songs being built off the same boring straight quaver chords. All the drum parts are very similar. The main thing I appreciate about this is the production and its influence in general, but even the production leads to a muddying of the already minimal melodies, which just leads to it feeling even less catchy and less danceable. It just doesn't really have anything that hooks me in, other than maybe Julian's more distorted voice being pretty cool. Overall, though, I'd much rather listen to one of the albums that this inspired, like Twin Fantasy or maybe even Geese, if you agree they seem to show some Strokes influence. But yeah, lack of melodies, lack of interesting structures, lack of striking lyrics, even the guitar tones aren't that cool, it's mainly the idea of it and the vocals that feeling influential. Not a fan. For the sake of this challenge, I'm giving this 2 stars, because I really don't enjoy it, but on my AOTY page it's a 66 due to the influence on stuff I do like.

Only one disc in as of writing this bit , but WOW: this challenge is already immensely worth it. This album is so amazing. It is full of passionate vocals that feel like you're drowning in Wonder's soulful voice, whilst being accompanied by a very surprisingly proggy accompaniment, with some amazing bass guitar that is honestly super inspiring - I'll be checking out more of Nathan Watts' Stuff. The lyrics are also all really interesting, I love how Wonder pays homage to music as an art form in Sir Duke. Honestly, this could be considered a life changing listen for me, really really enjoyed this, and I've needed more joyful music in my rotation.

I quite enjoyed this as background music, but some of the songs were less interesting than others. Notably, I really enjoyed the first track and Unfinished Sympathies, but songs like One Love had interesting cores but ones that weren't built to be used for the songs' entire durations. My favourite will always be the bass in Safe from Harm though.

So I've finally come back to the first artist I ever loved! I remember listening to Smooth Criminal from the age of like, 3! Weirdly though, it took until this challenge to finally come to approaching a full album, and to be completely honest... I don't know if I just wasn't in the mood, but I'm not too impressed to be honest. There are definitely great cores to each song, with Michael's voice being amazing throughout, but to be honest I found several songs, even Beat It (until the guitar solo) to get quite repetitive to the point I started feeling like the loop was almost missing something. The song with Paul McCartney was quite corny in my opinion, but it was an interesting idea. My favourites though were Billie Jean and PYT by far, which are both amazing songs. I don't know, maybe I'll have to come back to this, but I definitely think it was a bit overrated when looking at AOTY.

Pretty cool, but nothing too good. I'm glad I've been forced to try more hip-hop as I do need to get into the genre more but some of these lyrics are better than others. Favourites were by far the ones on Hurt Me Soul, but songs like Sunshine featured some real stinkers. What do you mean this guy said "Working like a... hmm... reverse archaeologist, except his buried treasure was sunshine"??? The beats are pretty good and some of the features are great, I'm just not huge into hip-hop yet and this album doesn't have as layered production as there was on GKMC and TPAB, as well as lacking as much interesting stories to tell as Kendrick in my opinion.

First song was really good, not sure I'd come back to a lot of the rest. Definitely a certain vibe but that vibe is rare and a bit corny to me.

Look, I know I complained about the Led Zeppelin album being too long, but this is just too short.The first song actually intrigued me, but then it built up to nothing. Then, about 3 songs in, I just started getting extremely sick of his voice and accent, it's super annoying. The guitars do moderately interesting stuff occasionally but overall if that's what you're looking for, go to another band... His voice is so annoying it makes it impossible for any of the songs to be catchy, and there's nothing else interesting about it. Even the strokes are better than this.

Nice and chill, with some pretty cool songs, but overall a bit boring and I found it dragged even though it was only background music.

Pretty nice album, really like the first 5 songs but it felt like it fell off a bit from there. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, and it's very nice and groovy, I really like the bass work on here.

It was fine. Could be more interesting, but the instrumentation is cool. Not worth anything more than background music though.

I enjoyed the idea and vibe of this more than the music. The bass was by far my favourite bit and it was very groovy, and whilst I did like the vocals too, I found the overall song structures too boring and repetitive, with most of the songs being rather indistinct.

Some really interesting music, I found the bass parts super groovy and loved a lot of the samlles. Those first tracks were particularly great, but then I read about this album and Mclaren's controversy and I was extremely disappointed. In my opinion if you're going to sample this much whilst claiming it as you own because you added some racist and boring verses, it should've just been labelled a compilation that compensated the other artists... But evidently Mclaren's doesn't care about that...

A really cool and important album. I love the guitar work, and the vocals suit the style really well. However, the best songs were by far the first two, the title track, and of course, Riders on the Storm, whilst some of the others felt a bit weaker and less innovative. A great experience all around though, and I'm excited to dive into the band's earlier work.

I think this is a little too pretentious for me to be honest. I really like the drumming and I was aware of the band before because of it, but the guitar and other solos are really not that interesting or cool, and most of the guitar work in general does bore me a little. The songs as a whole are quite nice and smooth, but lacking in anything that really makes me feel anything, and other than the drumming at certain points there isn't enough impressive musicianship to make up for that. It just feels like people act like the melodies and harmony throughout is innovative because it uses jazz stuff, but in reality a lot of it is just going up and down those scales and not doing too much with it, although a lot of the bass lines are pretty cool. I'm also pretty conflicted on the vocals: I don't really like the lead singers voice, but sometimes the production and use of other backing vocals does make up for it.

I really hated the production on the first track. It was extremely unpleasant and overblown, with everything feeling like an unwarranted assault of the ears. I mean, that snare sound alone was horrid. Anyway, I'm still willing to hear out the rest of the album, somehow. Okay, back two songs later and the production got a bit better, but whilst I like the lyrics, I'm really not a fan of the vocals, whether that's in terms of his voice or the melodies. So far, the main interest to me has been the bass, but even that could be a bit better. The tracklist is a bit inconsistent and there are definite ups and downs but I'm just finding that none of the songs really do much for me, when I wish they felt more full and pleasantly produced. The snare tone doesn't really get any better throughout, and some of the synths, whilst stylistically typical of the time, are a bit crap in my opinion. The layering of the songs just doesn't feel nice, it all feels crudely slapped on top of itself. Then, the vocals aren't even that catchy and I find the voice obnoxious, so basically, there's nothing here I'd really like return to at all, but I respect the ideas.

It was pretty solid, but overall I'm not sure it's for me and the soft rock vibe seemed to cage it a bit too much in my opinion. I probably wouldn't listen again, but it's not bad by any means.

Honestly I've not got a whole lot of time today due to responsibilities so this was kinda more background music than I'd have liked considering I do find the band pretty entertaining even of they're not the greatest, but to be honest I still got bored of it a bit, a lot of the songs just feel pointless and I'd never really return to maybe around half the tracklist. The bass is pretty cool but the tone does get a little less interesting every song, and the song structures aren't that interesting. Not really a fan of any of the features or raps so that was a shame, but the first 4 songs were pretty good. Also, what the hell is the hidden/last track???

When I saw this was my album for today, not to set my own expectations too high, but I jumped for joy. I've been meaning to listen to this for a while and felt it would probably interest me after enjoying Songs In The Key Of Life so much. So anyway, were my high expectations met? Absolutely. This album is so beautiful. The lyrics are amazing, and whilst it took me a few tracks to get into the vocals, both the singing and the rapping are extremely passionate and emotive. I also really love the beats and production, it's a pretty damn perfect album. I don't really know what else to say other than stuff I said about Stevie Wonder, but I do really need more music like this in my life. Sure, some insane Bull of Heaven drone shit or Brian Eno at 1am will never not be a transcendental experience, but this is actually so uplifting and inspiring, whilst shedding light on the lives of a marginalised group I'm not associated with often at all. I like what I like sure, but in life I really strive to experience as much as possible and as a often atheistic white AMAB non-binary bisexual person, the experience of black Christian women is something far from my own, and something I loved learning about through this album. It's a testament to Hill's immense talents in all aspects of music, and I'm going to go back and do some Fugees soon too since I used to play Ready or Not in my drumming lessons.

A pretty good vibe with some excellent stand out tracks, but the rest got a bit boring. I can't seem to find the version with the 2001 remaster bonus tracks anywhere but Spotify, but those are a pretty nice addition but I wish they were a replacement for some of the original tracks as it made the album a bit too long for me.

I'll probably get shot for putting this on AOTY... I don't get the hype. I like rap, but this just isn't for me I don't think. I get he's trying to do a concept but I got to the last song and it was just like. Oh, he kills himself, but I just never even felt invested. The beats are pretty solid yeah, and I like a lot of the flows, so I'll definitely come back to it, but I'm 50/50 on the lyrics. A lot of them just feel like they're saying the same thing in a way that doesn't do much for me, and some of the songs feel like they go on too long and become overly repetitive as a result. Sorry guys...

Ended up accidentally falling sleep whilst first listening to this as it was too hot and I didn't sleep well the night before... And it was a pretty cool experience. I didn't even really feel that tired before listening, but something about the hypnotic atmosphere of the first two tracks made it feel like the consciousness was almost ripped from my body. I still took a lot of it in in this time, as it felt very familiar when I went back and tried it again, especially with the second half which was playing as I kept waking up. I do think it is a bit repetitive in a way that is intentional but not necessarily interesting to me in the way that drone can be, but I do like this. Another observation I had was that I've been meaning to try more krautrock for a while since it has influenced a lot of bands I like, but I actually found this surprisingly fresh and different to those. The fact that this was made when it was is also really cool, especially considering the simultaneous proto- and post-punk elements.

Chapman's vocals are absolutely the focus here, and they're amazing. They work really well with the instrumentation too, which makes for some amazing and emotional songs, like Fast Car of course. However, I did find quite a few of the songs just a bit too sparse and repetitive to really grab me in. It just became a bit boring, but in isolation I think all of the songs are pretty amazingly written and performed.

A very emotionally charged album I feel, but one that feels not aimed at me at all, besides maybe the second song. I can see why this would be better for others, but it was just a bit boring to me, like something a lot of pople could pull off. Definitely want to try more Spingsteen though.

Honestly I don't think I'm the biggest fan of early punk stuff. I just found this all very same-y, like the kind of indie rock that is so oversaturated nowadays, but with often more annoying vocals. Most of the lyrics just felt silly and not even that rebellious or "punk". It's fine, just really quite boring. There was one bit that went a bit more glitchy and experimenta, but it wasn't really the point of the album.

Listened to this on a 14hr plane journey to Singapore at 11pm. One minute in - the bass is going to be my favourite bit here, isn't it? I mean, the tone and production on Good Times so far is so crisp and the playing is very clean. It is a little repetitive, but I'll adjust I'm sure. It didn't improve from there really. The bass is cool but stays relatively similar for most of every song, and the bass lines themselves got less interesting and often quieter in the mix. Cool first song, although only for the first 5 mins in my opinion, but then the rest is pretty samey but a pretty good, groovy vibe at least.

A mixed bag of quirky, interesting, and pretty fun songs after the fallout of Blur. There are several absolute classics on here as well as some really underrated picks like Punk, M1A1, and 5/4. It's also a really good vibe, and whilst I'd listened to this a while ago and didn't have time to do this whole album tonight without some skips, I am definitely going to come back to this more often now, although I'm not a fan at all of a lot of the vocals by Albarn.

A really cool vibe, but I didn't really find the individual songs very interesting, and don't really have much more to say about this for now, which is annoying because I was expecting to love this.

Honestly after the Chic album and now this, I think I'm just not really a huge disco fan. Bernard Edwards is on this, who was the same bass player as the one on the Chic album funnily enough, and whilst his tone and playing style is cool, I again have the same sort of feelings with the Chic albums that it doesn't really go anyway. Sure, the vocals and harmonies throughout are pretty good, but it all feels like it repeats itself too much and each track lacks personality in my opinion, but then again I'm a Swans fan.

The first half of this is really good, but I did find the second half, namely the last 4 songs, got a bit boring as it went quite slow. The overall vibe though is really nice, and Season of the Witch is an amazing song. Other than that, I can only really see myself coming back to that ans the first 3 songs. Definitely glad to have heard this though, it's useful in my broader contextual understanding of this era of music and another step towards me getting folk-ier stuff more.

Sorry Hole, I've already had my Riot Grrrl fix today... Since my dad was sad about Jennifer Finch dying today, I checked out the album with his favourite of their songs on it earlier, and it was cool but breezed past me a bit, it didn't really grab my attention but had some decent songs and riffs. I'm pretty sure from my memory and other bands I've heard and seen, this tends to be the pattern with my opinion on the genre/scene. Sure, I love and agree with the lyrica, but the music itself isn't really my thing. This seems to continue that pattern unfortunately. The first two tracks are pretty good and I like the energy a lot, but then most of the songs after feel so similar at times I genuinely thought my Spotify glitched and returned to the first songs again and I didn't notice. There are also some other pretty cool bits where it suddenly kicks in and Courtney's vocals suddenly increase in intensity, but even those lose their impact for me throughout, leaving me entertained but a little bored by the end of the albums. None of the songs really had any notable parts for individual instruments or the whole thing other than this though, so that's about it.

I tried not to judge it by what I'd read... But this literally just feels like music for people who go on holiday just to aurafarm and act nonchalant. Seriously, every song feels like the musicians are trying to convince me they don't care about the music it all, it's only the female vocalist that keeps me from viewing this as music literally made for corporations. The album feels like a nothingburger with the only benefit I gained being appreciation for other albums with any modicum of feeling in it more than this. I'd rather listen to octanecore slop, at least that builds to something

I struggle with this album by no fault of it's own. I love some of the songs here and think the whole album is really solid, but I have one friend online (sorry Gooolixx) who loves this album to bits, and it just makes me perpetually feel like I'm missing something here. I do not at all see how this is influential either, sorry. Before I continue though, this doesn't really impact the album's qualify or rating at all, but it is important to me that I write down how I feel about the album. I know I wasn't around then and I absolutely could research it more, but I can't think of anything that's here really that wasn't already thought of or considered - like, I feel like if this band never existed, the things they did pioneer that I like (because I'm not the hugest fan of the more unconvential instrumentation with the specific instruments and sounds Wilson chose) would still have been developed around the time anyway. I do however think I should now shut up before I get shot. I'm really tired though now and don't have much more to say other than that Wouldn't It Be Nice and God Only Knows are absolute masterpieces and I do really love them.

I feel the same with this as I did my first LZ album on here. It's solid but I'm not really a huge fan of the vocals for most of it, he's only one step above Axl Rose. Stairway to Heaven is obviously an undeniable classic, but when the song is that famous it's kind of hard to not be a bit overrated - the start is good and the end is amazing but the rest is just solid. I don't really have much more to say here other than, again, I did find this a bit repetitive and found myself wanting to skip by the time I got to the outros.

It's a nice, groovy album, but it didn't really hook me in very much as the 80s prpduction and the vocals got quite boring to me. Sorry, I'm busy at the moment and really don't have much more to say about this.

Honestly, I really enjoyed this, despite having read about there being conflicting opinions on it. My guess is that that's down to the very weird style and how it feels so hypnoticslly repetitive and sprawling. Or rather, others would just view it as lacking vision and being boring, I just made it sound good because I like it. But yeah, I like how it uses noisy sounding transitions to move around from song to song, and as much as I'm not a fan of all the vocals, it was a really fun experience on this overnight coach I'm on at the moment. I'd also like to come back to this band again soon, as the lead singer of The Orchestra (For Now) Joe really likes one of their albums too.

The first two songs were a pleasant surprise as I wasn't expecting to be a huge fan of this but the almost psychedelic feel was really nice. However, they show off the clean production that ends up being the redeeming quality of this album as it progresses and becomes more and more repetitive, and less and less interesting. I mean, the samples in Guilty of Love got me really excited until I realised they were samples, and they are way better than anything on this album. I ended up wanting to skip through a lot of these songs when it got to the half way point of each of them. I even fell asleep at the end of it for a little bit...

Another installment in my "albums I really should've listened to ages ago" series I guess! So, of course I knew some of the hits on here, and Bohemian Rhapsody is a song I've always loved since being a little kid (I believe there is even a (very bad) recording of me singing it with a group I used to be in as a kid), and since then it's a song I've always loved. However, despite studying Killer Queen for one of my music qualifications, I never really bothered to do a full album by the band. So when I saw this, to be honest, I was excited but a little nervous it wouldn't live up to my expectations based on the hits, but actually, only one song in I knew I should've listened to an album ages ago! I honestly didn't expect it to show so many elements of prog rock! Sure, there a lot of less interesting songs that aren't quite as good, but this was a decent match to my expectations and I enjoyed a lot of the album. Overall, whilst this is definitely carried by Bohemian Rhapsody, I think Freddie's voice and personality throughout is exciting enough to keep me hooked, and I also really love the guitar and bass work a lot. I find the bass parts particularly funny as some of the songs it even sounds like more complicated jazz bass parts, and this is the same guy that wrote Another One Bites The Dust. I don't need to explain how legendary and amazing Bohemian Rhapsody is. You can't not sing at least one line, and I'll never stop recreating the Wayne's World scene in the guitar solo. If you don't like the guitar solos on it I genuinely just think you're a lost cause and a miserable music fan, sorry 😔

Before I start, no I do not know why I have written so much for this when it's not even one of my favourite albums - I guess the words were just coming to me as I wrote whilst listening along. Also, okay, I'm not going to lie to you I came in at this extremely biased. I used to love the song Paradise as a kid, but other than that I've kind of grown to hate this band passively as their songs seem really boring and I don't see why anyone would really want to see this band live, especially considering how expensive tickets seem. So, this album came up and I genuinely groaned. However, the first song is actually pretty good! I liked it! I'm going into the second song now and the instrumental is pretty cool again, but I'm not a fan of Martin's vocals or lyrics so far really. The lyrics on Shiver feel way too derivative and blunt rather than expressive, and oh god, those higher pitched vocals he tries are not great. It feels like he's trying to copy other male rock singers who do higher vocals like Thom Yorke, but he can't pull it off as well. Spies has another pretty good instrumental! Definitely sounds a bit like Radiohead, but that's not really a complaint as it's unique enough, but then the lyrics kind of bug me. Why does the chorus repeat "spies" twice? It just makes it lose its interesting qualities as a metaphor if you repeat it like that. It feels like he was looking for another more interesting word but couldn't think of one: "Okay Chris, so there's "spies" on every corner, but you can't touch them? That's interesting! Why?" "Oh, you see, well it's because they're... uh..... ummm... well because they're just spies!! Obviously!" Obviously by the end the progression in the lyrics changes this to they can't touch *you*, which makes more sense, but then it makes the earlier lyrics feel even more dumb and like they're only written like that to set up a progression, even if it means they don't make sense. Okay, rant over, sorry. Those lyrics just annoyed me. Sparks is another pretty nice song actually, I wasn't paying as much attention to the lyrics but the vocals were nice because he wasn't trying to hit the top of his vocal range constantly, and it was a nice vibe. Yellow is a weird song for me. I like it and it's pretty good, but I feel like its popularity is why the rest of Martin's vocals don't work. It has a lot of emotion in it and it makes the vocals feel more expressive and warranted for him to be reaching those high notes and doing that kind of voice, whereas the rest of the songs I've heard by them feel like they're just trying to imitate his own vocals whilst not really fitting or making sense in the song. Overall though, the song itself is really solid if a little overrated, especially considering that drawn out outro that is clearly just trying to get people singing or whatever. Trouble has a really nice intro and I love that piano, but I don't like the vocals for the rest of the song, but again, another nice atmosphere and instrumental, but it repeats itself a little too much for me, especially that outro again. Parachutes is just an irrelevant interlude to me. High Speed is beginning to highlight the formula of this album for me unfortunately. As usual, it's not bad on its own and I quite like the vocals in the verses so far, but it feels like a more basic Radiohead song and in album context, it's just another one of these songs with pretty boring progression and lyrics, with yer another drawn out outro. We never change is another one of these even slower songs with the acoustic guitar and "emotional" vocals that are just fine. Also, the lyrics here between the verses and choruses feel irrelevant. What has how he wants to live his life got to do with the observation that "we never change"? I don't see the connection in the writing here. Everything's Not Lost is nice, but the same criticisms overall apply. Overall, I think this album is pretty solid actually, but from what I know of the rest of the band's career I'm not at all interested in pursuing any more of their music. On top of this, the album itself just feels overrated as the various albums and artists that inspired it are much better overall and more interesting, as they had more individual and personal inspiration, other than just basic love type stuff, that drove them to want to create something like this. TL,DR: a solid album on its own, but in context and comparison it could be a lot better. I'd much rather listen to something else.

It's fine but most of the songs are pretty boring. Not much more to say again sorry. The rating is lower than perhaps usual because it was completely forgettable and I'm too generous.

Really cool, the kind of stuff I started the challenge for. I love the jazzy elements and it's so interesting to hear about how historically important this was, although sad.

It's passable, but a bit generic and boring and I dislike the random country guitar bits in the background that add nothing. Not an important album deserving of critical acclaim whatsoever, as with many albums on this challenge, which is getting a little boring.

It's a really nice vibe, and I really like how groovy some of it is, like the piano in Super Rich Kids and the bass in Sierra Leone, but I'm not a huge fan of the vocals at some occasional times. He's really good, but the lyrics are a bit boring (and I don't really like the personality/themes that come through) and I'd just rather listen to Stevie Wonder for something like this, it's just more consistently what the peaks of this album are like. Ocean is obviously pretty talented, but in music like this I can't help but feel a little bothered it's just listened under "Frank Ocean" when I can hear so many other talented musicians that should be more overtly credited (like drummer and keyboard players on Crack Rock), and yes I feel the same with Kendrick who I glaze, but with albums like TPAB and GKMC, Kendrick feels more uniquely talented in a way that couldn't really have been done by anyone else. Sorry, dumb rant over. The album is genuinely really solid and there's not really a single bad song, although Piramids is a little overrated in my opinion, but I would come back to most the songs here, just not as much as other stuff.

Hate to say it, but as much as I used to love this album when I was getting into music, it really hasn't aged well for my taste. For starters, I've been forced to play the title track live far too many times (one time) with a terrible band and an even worse singer. That also meant rinsing it over and over in practice for about 4 months... So not a fan of that one. It also made me get really sick of Albarn's voice, which is tolerable with Gorillaz as they're actually doing something vaguely interesting there, but even then, as stated in my review of their debut album, it's probably the worst part. A lot of this album, not that I remembered it that well, is also trying desperately to be more weird and unique, but in ways that just make it sound downright childish and silly in a bad way. Why does To The End start using random chromatic scales in the background that sound like actual circus music?? Why does Girls & Boys have such stupid, annoyingly repetitve structures? And, god, after seeing that Coachella performance a few years ago, it really showcased how unbearable that chorus is, particularly in terms of vocals. Then, there's the more "normal" songs like the aforementioned despised title track, which I find fine but overall boring and pretty uninspired (I mean, the whole Britpop movement was just indie rock bands trying to go back to the popularity and energy of 60s pop-rock but failing miserably, especially when other cats like Neutral Milk Hotel had similar inspiration but are a lot better overall, in my opinion.) In general, if you couldn't tell from that really long parenthesis, I'm really not a big fan of Britpop these days (sorry Ellis - I do still like Charmless Man and Country House******* though, my nostalgia for those is less corrupted by You Know Who). Overall, sure, there are some less overplayed songs on here that are more enjoyable, like Trouble in the Message Centre, Clover over Dover, and to a lesser degree, End of a Century, I don't really find them that good in comparison to literally anything else I could listen to now or even back then. I don't really think I've gone off anything from my early music taste like I have this.

A solid album, but definitely too long. I'm not really a huge fan of stuff that is mostly shoegaze stuff as I think the genre works better as an influence or combined with something else as the major genre, which can end up being really good. However, this doesn't really highlight to me why the genre exists with these allegedlyinteresting uses of pedals leading to the guitarists staring at their shoes/pedal boards the whole show. Sure, the guitar tones overall are quite different to standard indie rock ones, but that doesn't mean they stay interesting for over an hour. On top of this, the songs are too long for me when they lack enough progression to warrant the duration. I'm also not a huge fan of the vocal style, but I should stop complaining and admit that this was a mostly interesting listen, although one that I wouldn't sit through the entirety of in mostly one sitting again.

To be honest, I kinda struggle with this vein of punk. Not because I don't like it, it's good and entertaining, but when albums like this are so highly rated I often feel like I'm missing something. To an extent, I'd rather not rate this, but the 1001 Albums website forces you to unless you put "Did not listen", so I'll rate it there but not on AOTY. But anyway, the album is actually really groovy and I think I can sort of hear how the guitar work inspired other stuff and it does sound quite fresh for the time, especially when I consider my wider knowledge of the period. Other than that though, something about the sound feels a little lacking in the energy I'd expect from the genre that also creates hardcore punk, something I find often with a lot of punk, especially the highly rated stuff, although this made up for that with the interesting riffs which created some more energy than I find in those other punk albums. Other than that, I quite like how the songs develop but some of them do run on a bit longer than they need to in my opinion, but I'll try to come back to this soon, I just don't know when I'll have the time/energy for it. One last thing - I do wonder if one day I'll suddenly click with this kind of punk like I have with post-rock and that whole ecosystem this year. I hope I do.

Whoever wrote that review I read somewhere comparing this to A Tribe Called Quest, I'm offended. The difference is that Tribe have so much more energy in their beats, whereas the beats here are generic, and so are the themes and messages. Songs like Dawn Of The Dreads have genuinely pretty awful beats, especially considering the bass line is called "funky" by the rapper, even though it sounds like a Bandlab virtual instrument with no effects, and it's just boring. Some of the songs are better, sure, like Tennessee or People Everyday, but overall I'd much rather listen to another hip hop album rather than this. All the songs are also quite repetitive unfortunately.

Well produced, very groovy, but annoying vocals and a lack of identity or themes. That pretty much sums up my opinion on this, but other than I noted the drumming and bass being really good, both fitting really well into their pockets whilst adding some really interesting fills and extras. On the vocals though, I don't know if I've just listened to too much instrumental music, but I just feel like they don't really add much to the music especially when his voice is a bit boring and the lyrics don't really do anything interesting. It was also pretty same-y but it's alright because the musicians were good.

I enjoyed the instrumentals here a lot better than I thought I would. They have a nice vibe and they build up quite well in a lot of the songs, but about half way in the progressions got a bit same-y and tiring, especially considering how little I enjoyed the vocals. They felt like she was spending the whole album trying to sound as airy as she could, but as a result feeling like it made her lose energy and it felt too much like she was trying to imitate others. The lyrics too, didn't help this. I didn't read them all and I'm unaware if this is a concept album, but either way, from what I've read she came from a pretty well off family and lived pretty urban, and yet loads of the songs seem to be trying to convince me she's just a small town girl, one who is "wild at heart", despite the fact this is one of the least energetic pop-y albums I've ever heard. This really took away from the experience, but when she did let loose a little more and sing more (what felt like) naturally, I did actually find that more enjoyable, like in the second halves of the last two songs. Other than that, it was a pretty okay album but not much more for me, especially in comparison to how people talk about Lana's music, although I feel this is likely not a good starting point, but thatcs just the nature of this challenge.

Honestly, I'm really starting to question if these are really albums I must hear before I die... Not that this is egregiously bad or anything, but I'm just getting a little annoyed by this streak of less interesting albums. This also annoyed me because half way through group's other stuff because I'd vaguely heard of them and I found out they made the album that coined the genre name of chillout, and it's way better rated. Anyway, this album itself. Very annoyingly repetitive, often pretty irritating vocals/vocal samples, and a lack of much energy, at least to me. It especially annoys me with all the vocals saying things like "To the bridge now!", or "Bring the beat back!" (before not bringing the beat back and just adding one short temporary noise), which just feels like a very cheesy and unnecessary 4th wall break. It's just boring. I was excited because I've never listened to anything like this but I probably won't be listening to any more acid house soon after how disappointing it was, especially considering the name of the genre (this doesn't sound anything like other "acid" music)

Another queen album! Okay, maybe we can end the boring streak! First of all, last time I didn't really acknowledge the whole "Queen is overrated" debate, but in my opinion they are kinda inevitably overrated in a way because the guitar work is pretty basic classic rock style, but it's done in a dramatic way that makes you go "wow", so people end up talking about Brian May like a god, and Mercury's dramatic persona and falsetto vocals can be a bit over the top, even for me at times. Then, add in the widespread popularity, and it's impossible for some people not to begin finding it a bit overrated. However, there are absolutely other things that make this band worthy of their praise, like the bringing of the creative use of panning and overdubbing further into the mainstream. I also think people that can't enjoy a bit of Queen to be very miserable people. Sorry. You'll find them below in my actual album review. Weirdly, I'd never listened to Brighton Rock in full before, but as with the opener to A Night At The Opera's opener, Death On Two Legs, the progressive rock influencenis strong here and it really impressed me, even if the solo writing had been done beforem I'm not a fan of Mercury's falsettos on here, they felt a little unnecessary, but ultimately no worse than modt classic rock vocals. The rest of the song is just amazing and I really love how it progresses. The layering of guitar parts here is emmaculate, it really brings the whole song's production together, something seen done well on the album as a whole. Then, there is probably the only jarring transition on the album, moving to the band's "breakout hit", Killer Queen, which I do not want to talk about it because I studied it for 2 years in school. I do have to admit though, I've gained a lot more appreciation for it in the time I've not listened to it, and I can really notice how all those silly little music theory things we analysed contribute to making a cool and catchy song. For example, the opening chords are really nice and I love how the piano slowly progresses into theatrically unveiling more of the song. Another fun thing here is the very silly use of flanger on the words "laser beam", an example of the many instances of word painting here that really work for the theatrical and rock opera style ideas of the album. I also really like the vocals from Mercury here, they're probably the best use of his voice on the whole album, and I love how he adds to completing the full sound of the song by vocalising at times. And now I've spent half the album on a rant about the first two songs... I assure you though, I was listening to the other songs and I was really getting into it. Thwre aren't any of the bands hits from that point in the album onwards per se, but there aren't really any bqd songs. There are a few songs that I would see do feel a little short and pointless overall, but not unenjoyable: even songs like Bring Back Leroy Brown that has verses that are a bit odd aren't egregiously bad and it actually has some more really stunning bits using the overdubbing again, and a really nicely mixed piano around the middle section after the fun guitar solo. I'd also like to add that if She Makes Me had lower vocals and less bright drum production, a lot of it would sound like an early 90s Swans song in my opinion, mainly at the beginning and ending. Other than that, I really liked Flick Of The Wrist and its transition into Lily Of The Valley and then again into Now I'm Here, it just feels like this sprawling album around this part. I also quite like how the album comes back to In The Lap Of The Gods at the end, it feels like a really nice ending to the album. Overall... The streak is over!!! I think I even liked this a bit more than A Night At The Opera! It's just so fun!

I feel the same about this as I did with the previous Byrds album, although this was a bit better due to being shorter and having more interesting experimentation going on. As with Fifth Dimension, the psychedelic bits are my favourites as they are weirdest, but that's about all I have to say about it. Pretty forgettable overall.

Weirdly, I was listening to this right before I went to bed last night. Anyway, I've actually already listened to this back when I randomly decided to get into jazz in January, and it was the first album I tried. Whilst the guide that recommended it described it as an album that everyone can enjoy and lots can love but few actually have it as one of their favourites and I did generally agree with that at first, finding myself to enjoy it but not be won over on jazz immediately, it has grown on me a lot and I have a lot of respect for the really nice playing on here. It's just kind of perfect at what it does: as the review from AllMusic's excerpt on AOTY says, "It can be played as background music, yet it amply rewards close listening.", a sentiment I very much so agree with. It's just a great jazz album, and one that's very rewarding to come back to.