There's hardly any music that reaches for God like Miles Davis
Obviously great, the singles are the definite highlights but there's still a lot to love in the other songs. The production tickles my ears, so many sticky melodies, even the slow parts are great.
Really do not care for this at all. Always hated Sixteen Saltines. Jack White solo never compelled me until Boarding House Reach, and I think only recently with No Name has he found his footing as a blues rocker. Blunderbuss just feels completely unimportant.
I've always felt Depeche Mode were better at creating a mood than songs. A lot of songs I'd love to hear on the radio, and then a lot of songs that would work well as background music in a Blade Runner spinoff, and that's it.
Far and away my favourite album by The Doors, and even though I think it's great, there's a lot of the grating elements that keep me at arm's length. I don't care about what Jim is saying, and I think he's always been overrated as a poet and lyricist. I love when they descend into a "jam" mode, moreso than I like them at their standard, barring Break On Through. I like when they subvert the common songwriting tropes, like on "The End", and when they sound almost gothic, like the chorus on "Alabama Song". This is an album carried by its highs, but those highs are high.
Another album carried by its highs. I love Speed King and Child in Time, and the rest is fine. Love the extended melodic jams and soloing, love the high intensity drumming, and organs. Rock needs more organs!
I'll never understand The Rolling Stones going country. You're from London! The fact that one of the most popular rock bands of all time known explicitly for Rocking has so many country songs will never not shock me. And mostly, they're just fine. The best Stones songs usually are the singles, the ones you know, and the ones you expect to be the best. This, to me, is certainly the weakest of the four records it's sandwiched between.
I just love the way Randy writes here. One of the best and most underappreciated American lyricists. Quintessentially American, too. It's dark, but always a bit tongue in cheek. Sour topics cut with a classic sound. It's more of a whiskey album than anything that isn't Tom Waits.
Joni with a band just works. Blue is a fantastic album that has never been a favourite, so the lushness of her later works really click with me. Beautiful lyrics, and stunning vocals, and just straight up one of the best sounding albums ever. Ends a little lower than it began, but this might be my favourite album of hers.
A band that to me, is lesser than the sum of its parts. Stewart Copeland is one of the most singular drummers around, and has made some of the best video game soundtracks of all time. Andy Summers is an underappreciated great, with a distinctive tone, who's also done some great work with Robert Fripp. Sting is, well Sting. I don't care for his solo stuff, but his rhythmic basslines really fill out the sound well here. But a lot of the time, the songs just aren't interesting here! Besides Walking on the Moon, the B-side is just completely filler, some outright bad. But the album can't be bad if it's got Message in a Bottle, the title track, and Walking on the Moon. The Police are certainly a band I care more for the singles of.
Pleasant but boring. I like Deja Vu, and everyone here's solo work quite a bit more generally.
Wow, was really not excited for this one. I haven't heard it in full for probably a decade, and I remember thinking it was fine back then. But over the decade since, the Taylor Swift overexposure has done a number on my opinions on her catalogue, even the parts that I thought were, well "fine". I used to like Blank Space! I used to like Shake it Off, Style, Wildest Dreams, Clean! Like not just in a "yeah, they're not bad" way!
The production has dated nastily, the throwback synthpop parts have been done WAY better by other artists since. And her lyrics have always been bad. There's far worse Pop out there, especially by Taylor. But it doesn't feel like the standout it once did.
This is the first album I've received thus far that I haven't actually heard. I'm not huge on his voice, I'm not big on the gravel that comes with his high sustains, but I can't deny the technicality. I enjoy the dated 'plinkyness' to the sounds generally, the 808s and fun synths have a pleasant vibe to them. But once that wears off, I just can't help but feel there's a lot more interesting R&B and Soul from this era that adventures more.
Since Arcade Fire destroyed their legacy, I haven't listened to them. They were a big part of my formative high school years, and The Suburbs in particular was one of the first album releases that felt like an Event for me. I'd hear the title track on the radio on the way to school and fight to turn up the volume before my mom would change the station. "Sprawl II" was mindblowing to someone who'd never consciously listened to "Heart of Glass" yet. "Empty Room" felt like a connection between the pop punk I grew up with, and this new twitchy and anxious indie scene I was getting into. Yet in 2026, I looked at this album with dread. With all of the baggage, all of the in-jokes about the songs we didn't like, all of the self-importance, all of the ambiguous "us vs them" posturing, I just thought I'd moved past this record.
I listened today for the first time in a long time, and I remembered most of the words. I remembered why I loved "Half Light II" and "Ready to Start". I remembered that Regine Chassagne is one of the best singers this genre had to offer, whenever she graced us with a lead performance. I remembered why I hated Rococo, and the vague and pretentious takedowns of "the kids" that stain the record. I remembered the lush orchestration clashing with the muddy guitars. It's all there!
This is a perfect record for a beginner music adventurer, jaded teenager, or the nostalgic millennial looking back. If you can look past, well, everything, it's all there.
