So a while ago, I heard Queen's 1975 album, 'A Night At The Opera' and left kind of underwhelmed by it considering how so many considered it to be their best album. For a while, I kind of assumed that they had better individual songs instead of full on albums, so I was having some mixed feelings on this going into it, and to my surprise it's pretty fantastic. 'Killer Queen' may be my favorite Queen song, 'Stone Cold Crazy' is a shockingly effective metal song, and the rest of the album is just varied and good enough to still be very enjoyable. My favorite Queen album (with a sample size of 2).
...so yesterday, on my very first day of this project, I got Queen's 'Sheer Heart Attack', a pretty great slice of classic rock that I really enjoyed. At the start of that review, I mentioned how I heard this album a while ago and left it feeling kind of disappointed, and that 'Sheer Heart Attack' was, to me, a pretty big improvement on that album.
And now saying that I was wrong actually and that 'A Night At The Opera' is Great Actually a literal day after posting that review feels more than a little embarrassing but here we are. Yeah, 'A Night At The Opera' is Queen's best album (n = 2 still withstanding). It's eclectic, colorful, and genuinely such a blast that I'm kind of left wondering why I didn't really love it when I first heard it. Obviously, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' is one of the greatest rock songs ever written, but 'I'm In Love With My Car', 'You're My Best Friend', 'Death On Two Legs', '39', and 'The Prophet's Song' are all still absolutely fantastic songs (especially that last one - might be the weirdest song I've heard from the band and I mean that in the best way possible).
It's my first 5/5 of the challenge (realistically closer to a strong 9/10 for me but close enough), and it's my favorite Queen album.
Just a really fantastic country album. Compelling narrative, doesn't overstay its welcome, and 'Can I Sleep In Your Arms' is one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful songs I've heard in a long while.
It's 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd. The best album by one of the greatest rock bands to ever do it. The first half of 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' is a contender for the best album opener of all time, and the second half is also stellar. 'Have A Cigar' and 'Welcome To The Machine' are definitely lesser tracks, but they still are some of my favorite prog rock songs of the 70s. And the title track is one of the best songs Pink Floyd has ever made - an ode to Syd Barrett that's raw, personal, and heartbreaking in all of the best ways. It's a 10/10, no question.
To be honest, I really didn't want to have this be the first Beck album I got from this list. Beck's been one of those artists who, despite their popularity and acclaim, I never actually made the time to listen to their work. And so, I didn't really want my first Beck album to be one from the 2000's that isn't really considered to be one of his top-tier albums, but it's what I got anyway. With that being said, I actually really enjoyed this! It's very much a mish-mash of a lot of different styles - alternative rock, hip hop, psychedelia are the main ones that come to mind - but it all coalesces to make a really fun experience that sounds like nothing else.
'Sign 'O' The Times' is an artist at his commercial peak making the most overblown, ambitious, and varied album of his entire career. It almost feels like a culmination of his work until then: it has some of his best ever pop singles, it has multiple swerves into different strands of psychedelia, all of which work really well, it's probably his funkiest album to date, and of course, it still has a ton of experimentation to keep it interesting. And I haven't even gotten to how genuinely fantastic a lot of these individual tracks are! The title track is a fantastic minimalistic funk tune and a great bit of social commentary, 'Play In The Sunshine' is one of his poppiest and best ever songs, 'It' has one of my favorite vocal performances by him, and the entirety of the second disc is near flawless. 'The Cross' might be his best ever deep cut. This isn't my favorite Prince album...but it is closer than you'd think.
Doolittle is a really great album! I like it a lot! I do think it's a tad bit overrated, though. Its influence is undeniable - so many grunge artists would likely not exist if not for the Pixies paving the way for thim, and 'Doolittle' is probably my favorite of theirs I've heard, but I'm generally not a fan of pretty short albums which are primarily a bunch of shorter songs, and 'Doolittle' is kind of exactly that. Still, the best songs do elevate this to being excellent - 'Debaser' is an all-timer when it comes to album openers, the riff on 'Here Comes Your Man' is one of my all-time favorites, and 'Monkey Gone To Heaven' is one of the best rock songs of the 90s. In terms of the non-singles... 'Tame' is a super fun swerve into noise rock, 'No.13 Baby' has a great hook to it, 'Gouge Away' is pretty excellent, but the rest is just kind of really solid without standing out too much for me.
One of the greatest A-sides in pop history followed with a B-side that's pretty solid (with 'All Through The Night' being the main stand out). It all balances out to a pretty great pop album, unsurprisingly.
Sadly, my least favorite of the "classic" Radiohead albums. It still is very solid, but it is kind of overrated compared to their other albums. 'There, There' and especially '2 + 2 = 5' are two of their all-time best songs, but I don't love the rest that much. It feels like a weird zone where it's not as interesting as their previous electronic experiments in the early 2000s, but it also doesn't have as much great tunes as their more traditional rock material, and it leaves it as a pretty unique Radiohead experience, while also not really being one I wan't to go back to that much. Good, but I wish I liked it more.
Some of the reviews on this site are actually insane. What do you mean one of this album's top reviews is them thinking they could make this album if they had a trumpet? Did we listen to the same album? "On Hold Music" being the top review????? Are you guys okay?????
Anyway, this is his best album out of the ones I've heard. Might be my favorite jazz album of all time. It's an extremely propulsive album: despite how comparatively mellow it is compared to some of his other works, it has a psychedelic, almost jam rock feel to it that's really fun and keeps me coming back to this. It's excellent.
Talking about Kanye in the year 2026 is weird. As someone who was a pretty big fan before 2022, I haven't really been able to listen to his music since. There are still some songs I listen to; some of his work in the 2000s and early 2010s is some of the greatest music ever made, but I pretty much have a hard cutoff after 2013. With that being said, TCD is probably the album that I feel least hung up about - There's still some sadness in who he became, but I'm able to listen to this and still hear the young up-and-comer who had immense talent and skill, and the stellar debut album he made.
Because yeah, TCD is basically a perfect album. I don't love some of the skits, but the production is so good that you kind of can't deny it - 'Two Words', 'All Falls Down', 'Jesus Walks', and 'Spaceship' all have some of the greatest beats in hip-hop history, 'Through The Wire' is genuinely inspiring for its backstory and lyricism, 'Slow Jamz' and 'The New Workout Plan' are dumb in all of the best ways (and in the formers case, has a fantastic verse from Twista), and it pretty much never loses its energy throughout its nearly 80 minute runtime. It took awhile for me to admit it, but this is probably Kanye's best album. It's easily the one that I feel most comfortable listening to nowadays.
I swear I'm not trying to give out as many 5s as humanly possible but not only have I heard 3/4 of the albums I've gotten so far, but I've also loved most of them for years. And yeah, this album is fantastic. Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf were a match made in heaven, and this is probably the best thing that either of them have ever done. It's big, it's larger than life, it's melodramatic, but it's so much fun. One of my favorite 70s albums ever.
Post-Punk is a very hit or miss genre for me and honestly I thought this would be kind of a miss because I don’t typically love this brand of the genre, but it was pretty great! It’s one of the most acclaimed albums in the genre so I’m not that surprised, but this is such a blast, with such an infectious energy for the entire run time. Aside from ‘Damaged Goods’, no real high points for me, but every song was good so it cancels out.
The best Beatles solo album. A fantastic collection of folk/pop/rock songs on the main album, plus an extra 25 minutes of some fun, excellent jam band material. It's one of the best albums ever made.
Not my favorite Massive Attack album by any means, but it's still solid enough for what it is. I didn't love it, but I did have a fun time with it, and the title track is among their best. Pretty good, but I don't think I'll return to it much.
A solid enough country rock album with some solid highlights, but nothing too outstanding. I like a lot of their jam band stuff, so this was kind of dissapointing.
A part of me was kind of hoping not to get this album so soon because of everything surrounding Inflo and Little Simz, but I was fine with giving Kanye a 5/5, so I may as well go into this with an open mind, and to my surprise I actually really, really enjoyed this. This was released less than a month after the murder of George Floyd, and you can absolutely feel the pain and sorrow of the aftermath of it throughout this album, but there also is a hope for the future. It also just sounds fantastic. Some of the best neo-soul I've heard this decade, and 'Wildfires' is one of the best songs I've heard in awhile. Really fantastic album, I probably should check out some of SAULT's other stuff after this.
A soul classic that deserves pretty much all of the acclaim it gets. Some stellar vocals, a pretty unique production style that gives it a really cool vibe, and a bunch of really great tunes to go with it. The title track and 'How Can You Mend A Broken Heart' are unreal.
A really solid British Mod/New Wave album that I liked a lot! It's just kind of very solid music - groovy with some really fantastic melodies that never made it a chore even if I do think it is kind of samey-sounding - and the fact that it's only 35 minutes means it doesn't overstay its welcome. And 'That's Entertainment' is incredible.
Pretty solid a capella album. It's a really warm and pretty album, with some fantastic harmonies and melodies. With that being said, I don't love it, mainly because it did feel kind of samey and it went on for a bit longer than I'd like, but considering that there's not really anything else like it on this list (from what I've seen, at least), I'll teeter on the side of positive here.
There are some days where I would say this is my favorite Michael Jackson album. It's not as consistently excellent as 'Off The Wall', and it doesn't have as many pure pop classics as 'Thriller', but there's a kind of scrappy edge to this album that really, really works for me. Out of his 3 indisputable classics, this is the most messy and inconsistent, but this is the one I have the most fun with, and it's my favorite one. Also I think 'Dirty Diana' is his best song.
I think I mostly get it. I’ve given many, many listens to ‘Unknown Pleasures’, since first hearing it 6 years ago I want to say I’ve listened to it around a dozen times, and aside from some excellent moments, it never really clicked with me. Obviously, I thought it deserved to be on here; there’s a reason why it’s so acclaimed and its influence cannot be overstated, but I was kind of dreading it. And I think it mostly clicked this time! There are moments I don’t love, and I think the album is somehow front-loaded on both its A and B side, but there’s nothing really bad here, and it has a fantastic atmosphere to it. ‘Disorder’ is obviously an all-time great opener, and I’ve always loved ‘She’s Lost Control’ for its great bassline and hook, but I also think that ‘Day of the Lords’ and ‘Interzone’ are pretty great too. Kind of on the cusp of a 3 and a 4 for me, but I think its highs and influence just push it over the edge for me.
A really cool downtempo/jazz album with Brazilian influences that was pretty unique! It's not stellar, but it was really nice and I had a very solid time with it. Enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Did go on for a bit long, but still pretty solid.
It’s fine. It’s been steadily growing on me for the past 6 years or so but I still don’t think I’d call it particularly fantastic or anything. I think Johnny Marr is one of the best guitarists to ever do it and there are some phenomenal guitar melodies here, but I don’t really enjoy much else about a lot of these songs. With that being said, ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ is a contender for the best 80s song. It’s probably in my top 20 songs of all time. Single-handedly bumps this album up a point.
