How about those Beatles huh folks? Pretty good band if you ask me, hopefully they keep making bangers like this one for a long time to come. George and Ringo cooked soooo hard. That long section in the second half makes me grin and also roll my eyes at the same time which I think is the only correct way to react to the Beatles. Whole album jangly af, one of our jangliest.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: "Octopus's Garden" (duh)
This one was in heavy rotation for me in college to the point that when I hear the opening to Whole Lotta Love my blood pressure spikes and my body is convinced I have a paper to write by 11:59 tonight. Unrepentantly horny and plaintive. I never fully got into Zeppelin but I respect this album, super innovative and what I always remember being most struck by was the relative sparsity, no contemporary popular music would have this much space in it. Suuuuuuper buzzy, one of our buzziest.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Thank You”
Dolly <3 This starts off SO strong, the first four tracks and especially “Coat of Many Colors” and “Traveling Man” back to back are all bangers. Starts to fall off a little after that, sorry I’m a cynical a-hole but closing out on “Here I Am” and “A Better Place to Live” had me sighing and rolling my eyes. Dolly is a better more sincere person than me, I’m sorry queen.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “The Way I See You”
This was the first one where I haven’t heard of the artist much less the album and I REALLY dug it? This might just get added to the regular rotation idk. I’m really enjoying how clearly you can hear the blues and rockabilly influence in this early 70s stuff. Very cool effects too with some of the loops and backwards audio.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Monolith”
Me and boygenius 🤝 loving Leonard Cohen
What the hell ever is this guy talking about, no one knows but it don’t matter because he says it all so beautifully and evocatively. I wish I could have a mind that sees the world in images the way Leonard Cohen did, I wonder what it was like in his brain. How can you listen to Master Song and not just smile and shake your head. Forever on the Mount Rushmore of Canadian songwriter poets, right next to Carly Rae Jepsen.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “So Long, Marianne”
Is this a safe space for me to say that I was a little meh on this album? (It’s not.) Okay I love Talking Heads, I love David Byrne, I love Brian Eno, of course I love Once in a Lifetime, but fundamentally it’s not music that I have a great time just sitting and listening to. Obviously very daring and innovative and funky and fusion-y and you can bop to it on the dance floor until you collapse. But also sometimes it just gets to be densely repetitive and Byrne is warbling his way through lyrics that don’t mean a darn thing to me and I get tired. Call me a simpleton if you have to.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Once in a Lifetime” (any excuse to play it tbh)
Not sure why I didn’t expect to really like this, I’ve never been a metal person, idk my older brother was a big Black Sabbath guy growing up so I heard a lot of it and it did Not hit for me at the time, I was the softest tenderest little daisy and startled easily. But yeah from the very first bells of the opening track I was totally on board, maybe I was just in the right mood. That eponymous opener shreds, Ozzy’s voice is so immediately iconic and arresting, the guitar licks grab you by the guts, the tempo changes get the whole circulatory system churning. It’s great stuff.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Wicked World”
Our first album released during my lifetime let’s goooooooo
And now for something completely different! Enjoyed this a lot, very pleasing listen. I think being freed from listening closely to the lyrics (since they were not in a language I speak) allowed me to just vibe with the music and jam. Dug the rhythms, dug the guitar riffs, dug the sound of his voice. Felt like I was at a backyard BBQ chillin and grillin.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Soukora”
Nonstop bangers this week I’m feasting. Was just wondering the day before when we might get some Steely Dan. From the first notes of the first song I was jamming. I think probably not their best album but that’s okay. Another one where who knows what the hell the song is about half the time but the vibes are so goated it’s nbd. Makes me feel like I’m cruising around in my grandpa’s gigantic oversized sedan downtown 25 years ago.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Pearl Of The Quarter”
Simply not my thing ultimately. I respect it and its attendant political movement but I don’t love listening to it, too heavy and thudding and yelly. I did enjoy a lot of the audio effects and mixing though.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Requiem”
Just in time for Friday here comes CHIC for you to bop to allllllllllll weekend long!!! (I will not be doing that, I will be crying to the new Phoebe Bridgers, but you could make better choices.)
Incredibly cheesy and impossible to take seriously but also very very fun. Nothing else quite rises to the level of Le Freak (then again very few songs on ANY album rise to the level of Le Freak). CHIC seems to realize this so they just follow it with five minutes of wordless instrumentals which made me giggle. Really enjoyed At Last I Am Free too! Disco sure was a singular moment huh.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Sometimes You Win”
Didn’t even realize I knew this artist or this album but I definitely do. Yeah this kind of thing is right up my alley, I could listen to it forever. Shocking to hear from a guy whose last review was about his plans to cry to Phoebe Bridgers all weekend! Nick Drake’s voice isn’t super strong but the overall effect is very mellowing. Made me feel like I was wrapped up in a blanket on the couch on a rainy November morning, which is one of my most preferred ways to feel. The lyrics are so raw that it almost feels intrusive to listen to some of the songs. This will for sure be going into the rotation.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Which Will”
Are they... are they allowed to do this? Look guys this is a really challenging one, you're asking a white boy born in the early 90s to objectively evaluate Britney Spears's debut album. In my personal estimation this album has swung wildly between one and five stars over those 27 years (Britney was "girly music" but she was also pretty so it was a conundrum). Haven't listened to the whole thing in over two decades and hearing it instantly transported me to the backseat of my parents' car in the shopping center parking lot, one headphone plugged into my older brother's portable CD player as we debated which female popstar a decade older than us we would most want to be our girlfriend. When I first heard those opening chords I felt it had to be five stars.
Unfortunately it's more complicated than that, the album starts out like a rocket with Baby One More Time and then starts to slide into generic pop cotton candy pretty quickly, a few standouts (E-Mail My Heart made me laugh out loud) but mostly forgettable. So clearly synthesized in a test tube to precisely calculated specifications to launch CDs off store shelves, I really really don't want to approach this project with snobbery and I try to take each record in its context as what it's trying to be but I don't know if I can in good conscience call it good music.
And then for me I simply can't block out what I know about how Britney Spears was treated and how her image was manufactured and all my queasiness about that, she was 15-16 years old while this was being recorded, idk man. Maybe all that stuff just foregrounds for me because I was growing up at the same time, but it colors my listening experience. How can a star rating encapsulate all that!
So yeah anyway 3 stars. Sorry for writing a novel about a Britney Spears album lol
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: "(You Drive Me) Crazy"
Neil Young! I love Neil Young, I could listen to him all day. I don’t think there’s anything crazy exciting happening on this record, some of the songs go on and on, but it’s a smooth easy listen. This is really more of a 3.5 rating but they won’t let me do that.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”
Saw this pop up this morning and I’ll be honest my first reaction was that I was just too tired and sad today to be up for more Talking Heads. But then I listened to it and it didn’t require any effort from me at all! It was just fun and silly and made me smile, David Byrne is being such a goofball on this one, adorable.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Cities”
It’s 5 stars, it’s no skips, it’s Led Zeppelin IV, it’s Zeppelin’s best album, it’s one of the best albums of all time. Any album would probably be 5 stars just for including Stairway to Heaven but then this one has half a dozen other absolute hits around it. It’s insane how good it is, I feel like I need to spin around in circles like the Tasmanian Devil when I listen to it. When it’s over I just immediately start playing it again. I love how much variety there is in the songs while still being so cohesive as a whole, I love all the little variations in tempo and time signatures, I love Robert Plant wailing and pleading and whining, I love all the medieval Lord of the Rings ass tomfoolery. I’d give it 6 stars if I could.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Rock and Roll” and “When the Levee Breaks” (this version has multiple montages like Rocky IV and I can’t pick just one from this album)
Debaser? I hardly know ‘er!
I enjoyed this! I only listened once and it probably isn’t something I’d go back to over and over but I love all the goofy stuff he’s doing with his voice, it’s so fun when singers do goofy voices.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Here Comes Your Man”
Can’t be objective about John Prine won’t even try. One of my closest friends’ dad was a longtime singer-songwriter so clearly in his mold that every time I hear John Prine I tear up and have to text her. You hear John Prine’s echoes EVERYWHERE in the last fifty years of songwriting. I just love how clearly he’s smiling mischievously to himself and winking through a lot of these songs, and then next thing he’ll hit you with some absolutely devastating mournful uppercut to the jaw. Hello in There one of the most beautiful and empathetic songs of all time. The keenness and specificity he sketches each one of his characters with, whole thing a masterpiece to me.
I know these albums are generated randomly but it’s so amusing to me how much we’ve been dancing around Bob Dylan early on without seeing him
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Far From Me”
Boygenius of 1980s country, imagine how it felt when this dropped
This album may not have been five stars on any other day, we’ll never know, but it’s definitely five stars today. It’s a little maudlin I guess and a little small-c conservative in most of its stylings and subjects but it’s so sweet and easy to listen to. Linda Ronstadt gets the best of this imo which is not a huge surprise but everyone gets some moments to shine and it’s so wonderful to hear Dolly’s voice. She’ll always love us and we’ll always love her.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Telling Me Lies”
Obviously a silly question but: Thom Yorke are you all right buddy?
Saw Radiohead pop up and got a little apprehensive, you just never know. But I enjoyed this a lot, it’s not super out there and I like the gloomy chill vibes to study to. Videotape is one hell of a track to close out on, sheesh.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “All I Need”
Great, prog rock for the whole weekend. Honestly as prog rock goes this wasn’t so bad, I enjoyed chunks of each song and the sound itself is good. But still, just too much repetitive jamming and endless noodling around for me to fully be on board. I did go ahead and listen a second time to be a good sport and there’s some cool stuff going on in the transitions but it still gets tiring in between.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Starship Trooper”
Surely I’m the first person to make this assessment: Radiohead really pushed the boundaries of what we think of as music!
Realizing more and more as we go through this how much you just have to be in the right mood sometimes for certain albums to hit. I was definitely in the right mood for this one. This is really a 4.5, I’ve been giving out too many 5s and I wasn’t so totally swept away by this that I had no other choice, but I really really enjoyed it. So moody, so so so moody.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “How to Disappear Completely”
I don’t feel super qualified to judge this album in multiple ways, a lot of friends my age and younger are very fluent in Kanye’s discography/hip-hop generally but I am not among them, this music was, let’s say, poorly regarded in my family and social circle as a young person. That said uuuuuuhhhhhhh this is extremely good in my amateur opinion lol. Made me laugh out loud multiple times, it really is a shame that Kanye the guy has so overshadowed Kanye the artist because he’s obviously absurdly smart and talented. What a debut! Constantly zigging when you expect it to zag, just a lot of fun to listen through. So much of hip-hop sounds like this now, what higher compliment can you pay?
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Spaceship”
As a fan of Modest Mouse I should like this more but… frankly too much of it is just noise. This is the kind of music that goes hard as FUCK in person rocking out in some tiny grimy venue or on the soundtrack of a movie during a crazy Edgar Wright type set piece. It does not go quite as hard listening to it at your desk or while making dinner unfortunately. Black Francis is going crazy and that always entertains me but Doolittle is definitely a big step above this. Where Is My Mind? remains elite though.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Break My Body”
Funky David Bowie, why not. I do like David Bowie of course but of all his albums I Must Hear Before I Die is this really one of them? I think it’s telling that the most I perked up was in the split second when Across the Universe started before I processed that yeah that’s a Beatles song and I’d rather just hear the Beatles do it. Fame is pretty great but nothing in the rest leaps out at me. Meh.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Young Americans”
ANOTHER prog rock Friday drop, am I being punked? I do like this better than the Yes album, the opening and closing tracks are both pretty sick. Look for all its well-enumerated flaws prog rock can definitely be very cool. It can also be very self-indulgent and pretentious and there’s absolutely some of that in here too (looking at you, Moonchild). This stuff must go totally nuts when you’re zooted off your ass and time has stopped moving and you’re fusing into the shag carpet.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “I Talk to the Wind”
Prince be like “I love FUCKING, I love filthy dirty premarital SEX, I love having an alter ego who’s a WOMAN and singing about being your LESBIAN GIRLFRIEND, while I have you here do you have a moment to hear about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and consider joining me in the Jehovah’s Witnesses?”
Just ridiculously excessively 80s (complimentary? derogatory? both?). They tell me it’s better than Purple Rain and I don’t see it, it is pretty damn good though. Definitely too long and you get lost a little in the middle section but the highs are very high. I love when he’s just kinda running his mouth at you in the middle of the songs. Fascinating guy.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man”
I love Arcade Fire and I don’t know why I always feel self-conscious and in a defensive crouch about that, maybe it’s because they are sort of the epitome of prime millennial indie sound and everyone hates us now. I can’t help it though I just get swept away in the driving anthemic quality of what they were doing in this period, it’s a bullseye for the style of music I spent all my time with in high school and college. Doesn’t match Funeral for me but I could still listen to it over and over. This is probably closer to 4.5 stars tbh.
I think it’s fair to roll your eyes at the self-seriousness of some of the lyrics but it was the Bush era and they weren’t and still aren’t wrong. You can absolutely hear the influence that spawned all kinds of lower tier imitators in the decade after and you know what? I like most of those too. I am cringe but I am free.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Windowsill” (extremely hard to pick, almost every Arcade Fire song was meant to be in a movie)
I’m sure I don’t get it and I can accept that, they’re definitely at least partially just fucking with us. I also don’t have to like it or want to listen to it though. I am giving it two stars because it’s also funny and interesting.
Random Martin Prince from The Simpsons feature on Blue Rosebuds?
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Birthday Boy”
Realizing I knew more Jefferson Airplane songs than I would have guessed the day before. Closed my eyes listening to this and immediately saw flower-decal Volkswagen buses and tie-dye. It’s crazy how good White Rabbit is for basically just being a recitation of Alice in Wonderland buzzwords. Ummmmmm yeah it was pretty good I don’t have that much else to say about that!
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “My Best Friend”
What a great album to spend a weekend with. My stepmom loooooooves this kind of music so I heard a lot of Al Green as a kid. Truthfully it doesn’t always hold my attention all the way through the song but I love the quality of his voice, I love the lushness and warmth of the sound and I love all the brass. I’m calling this a high 3.5 stars.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “I’ve Never Found a Girl”
Oh my god is this project finally going to make me a Rush fan… is this what it’s all been building toward? Three decades we’ve held it off but considering everything about me it does seem inevitable…
Yeah I really really dug this one. Kinda prog rock lite? Maybe that’s why it worked so much for me. The first track is obviously absurd and cheesy and eye roll worthy but I didn’t even care, I was completely in. The back half of the album is less interesting but still fun, I love listening to his voice. Surrendering to the siren call of yet another Canadian musical god. Strong 4.5!
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “2112” (specifically everything after “Presentation”)
I think this is good but it’s just too damn LONG man. Reign in the excess.
They got EVERYBODY on this album huh? A lot of stuff probably flies over my head but I enjoyed large parts of it. Some of the rhymes are a little tortured and inelegant. Also I try to take all these albums as they are but I do think you undercut your message of being the more intellectual socially conscious rapper by still tossing around homophobic and misogynistic language. Genre conventions and all that, it was the 90s, I get it, but even so. The production and sound on this is realllllllly good, absolutely a highlight. Did you guys know Common is Stonekeeper?
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “The Light”
Brian Eno you delightful kook, you! I'll admit I came into this holding my breath, I'm also mostly familiar with Brian Eno from the ambient stuff and Talking Heads and Bowie collaborations but I know he has a reputation for being more difficult to access in his solo stuff. But this was a blast! You've got a little bit of everything in here, sometimes it sounds like surf rock, sometimes it sounds like early poppy Beatles, sometimes it sounds like later tinkery Beatles, sometimes it sounds like Heads, sometimes it sounds like "Heroes," the breadth is really something. This might become a repeated re-listen for me. The more I absorbed it the more I was into it.
A really cool thing about this project is the way it's helping me understand and refine my own tastes. I don't think I would have said I was a big glam rock guy before we started this but the glammy portions of this album were some of my favorites and have consistently been among my favorites in a lot of what we've listened to so far. How fun to learn about yourself with your buddies!
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: "Needles In The Camel's Eye"
dude. DUDE. okay I’m trying to be more forgiving of my grouchy length complaints when it comes to live albums but come ON, man. just two hours of endless drum and guitar solos and “YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH”s that I’m sure kicked ass to watch onstage but i am not at the concert so the mileage does indeed vary. sometimes I really like live albums for the insight you get into the artists and the variations on how they perform as opposed to record and their interactions with the audience but this was just interminable.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Speed King”
Sometimes I try to pretend I’m a real intellectual who looks down on Billy Joel, the most middlebrow bland Americana artist of all time, beloved by all the most basic couples you went to college with who go to Disney every three years and dress their baby up like Loki for Halloween. But the facade never holds because I can’t help but rock out to Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, plus I went to school in North Jersey so it’s basically my heritage now. This is the perfect album to spend the weekend with, the hit rate is crazy, really only the last track is a dud. Billy Joel is at his best when he’s writing slice of life songs about normal working people. Life feels so much simpler and easier listening to this.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Movin’ Out”
Earth, wind, AND fire? In this economy???
What a delightful groovy sexy silky smooth way to spend a Monday, thank god. So lush and funky and joyous. Disco is only dead if you let it die in your heart 🫶
Sad when no ba-dee-ya on the 21st of September :/
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “All About Love (First Impression)”
Tried to listen closely to this multiple times and just could not stay focused on it. Idk if that’s about me or the music. It sounded good and I enjoyed it in the background but other than the opening track and the wacky German one and parts of Triptych nothing jumped out at me. It felt like I should have liked it a lot but maybe I was too tired and sad and preoccupied today. I’m sorry Mr. Eno I do generally like your music!
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “The Thrill Of It All”
Actually better than I expected it to be when it popped up, made me feel more empathy and connection with John Lennon than I’m accustomed to experiencing. Some of this is so raw and personal that it’s difficult to listen to, I’m torn on whether it’s healthy and artistic for him to express his trauma through music or if it’s just self-indulgent navel-gazing to force the audience to listen to it. Musically less interesting than I anticipated, pretty middle of the road as far as a listening experience. “God” made me roll my eyes but also chuckle and feel wistful, I’m an easy target frankly. 3.5 stars and I’m a little surprised I wound up that high on it!
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Isolation”
I don’t think this album belongs on this list, it strikes me as extremely derivative and cutesy and borderline cynical but I am extending grace and choosing to believe that these Irish lads were just that overwhelmed by California. I’ve from the west coast and have never understood the allure of the Golden State but if you’re from Ireland I guess I can see the appeal.
Anyway I don’t think it deserves 3.5 stars but I’m giving it 3.5 stars anyway because I am not a discerning music consumer and I REALLY enjoyed listening to it lol my neurons are activated by the jangly indie sound and Flaming Lips lite vocals like the monkey in that meme picture. Will presumably disappear completely from my memory by Monday but I played it in the background all day and it was super duper easy listening. And then I put on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots for the real fix.
Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “Plans” (cheeky cheeky to have a little hidden track in there)
