one of my favorite albums of all time!! and such a perfect way to start this challenge since it was my first album given to me.
everyone who says this is a perfect pop album is right. the harmonies and melodies are gorgeous, and there's so many little details in the production as well that's really fun to listen to. it can also get pretty emotional at points, too, especially with songs like "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Caroline No"...
this album also has two instrumental tracks, and they stand out just as much as the ones with lyrics do in my opinion.
RIP Brian Wilson, he was such a genius
when this album popped up, i got excited because i've always loved Mr. Blue Sky and i've been meaning to listen to the full album for a while to see if there's any songs on this that could maybe match in quality to that pop masterpiece!
and unfortunately, as it turns out, listening to this full album made Mr. Blue Sky sound worse to me somehow. damn.
besides Turn to Stone i guess, the rest of this album is just filled with dated 70s overblown pop-rock. to my ears. i especially started to get bored around the 2nd half of the album, where Mr. Blue Sky served as a reprieve from all of the other super boring tunes. i also think that this album is wayyy too long and has some filler.
mannn im disappointed. i guess i'm not much of an ELO fan...
Nice soul album, the tracks on this one were on the longer side, and i liked how they progressed throughout their runtime, the grooves felt really great to settle into.
The last track also was a standout, with how he told an entire story before the song to add context to it, really interesting I liked it.
low 3 stars. when i first listened to it, the first few tracks stuck out to me the most, but then when i listened to them again they seemed more average then i thought.
there was also the big hit on here "Every Breath You Take" but when i listened to it right now i didn't seem to care for it that much.
favorite tracks: "Synchronicity I", "O My God", and "Synchronicity II"
---🎧listened before 1001---
it's in rainbooooooowssss!!!!!!! my favorite radiohead album!!!!! wow.
i'll always remember that when i first listened to "All I Need"'s climax, it was the first time i ever felt that floaty feeling i get when the music is transcendent.
and right now i was trying to be quiet in the morning listening to "Bodysnatchers" but i think it's literally impossible to stay still and calm listening to that. it always makes me go crazy!!! that track is probably in my top 5 Radiohead ever. the fuzzzzz
and overall, i think what makes this my favorite Radiohead album is the warm, spacey atmosphere it has. Radiohead is always amazing at building little worlds for the listener to fall into with each album, so of course the atmosphere here is amazing, but i think i just like the world of In Rainbows the most. i'm always drawn towards dreamy sounding music and this album has some of their dreamiest songs, such as "Nude", etc... so yeah easy 5 stars for me.
ive been wanting to get more into drum and bass music so i'm glad the website gave me this one :) this was just really solid all around, i love those ethereal synth pads they used to use and the drums of course are awesome. there was also a female vocalist on this as well and her voice was really nice. added to my library
a low 2 stars.
i feel like this is the exact opposite thing to what i usually look for in music... macho, aggressive, yeah... nope.
but for some reason i can't really say that i HATE it. it just kinda exists for me. as the album went on it just became a sound that i was hearing with no emotions attached to it. so that's kinda the only reason i'm rating it a 2 instead of a 1. it's not like it grinds my gears or anything it was more just boring and not my thing.
and you have to admit the guitar playing on this was good, i can see why people like this. and somehow, i don't have any vitriol against the singer, either. i was just laughing at him because i thought he sounded like a high pitched mouse, lol. after a while he just melded into the sound too and i was like eh whatever i guess this exists.
the only time i actually felt like i was hating on it a little bit was when "Back to Black" started playing and i immediately felt myself get thrown into a truck commercial because of how overplayed that one is. ugh. but other than that it's just eh.
the lyrics are shit though. fuck that macho attitude. (yeah ik the lyrics probably aren't the focus of this at all but it just makes me want to listen to this less than i already did.)
and btw, i was talking to my dad about this album, and he said it changed his life back in the day when it came out. so damn.
this was pretty good ig, what really surprised me was the big orchestral sections on this album... i'm not really sure if this album needed that.
the last song on the album reminded me of the song Rocky Raccoon by the Beatles
okay maybe when i said that i didn't like aggressive music on my AC/DC review i was lying a bit. because this was really cool. i guess it depends on what kinda aggressiveness it is.
and i usually really dislike screaming in music but there was something about how these guys mixed it into their sound which made it more palatable to me. i liked how they mixed it lower so it wasn't too overpowering. maybe i'm starting to understand something idk.
i think my favorite moments on this album were the insanely interesting riffs at the beginning of "Do You Compute", and the long ending of "Luau". i heard lots of sliding on the guitar which gave a really cool effect, i loved that.
adding this one to the library!
yknow i respect Willie Nelson and all, but i don't think i would've ever gone out of my way to listen to an album like this if it wasn't for this challenge. his other album of covers i got (Stardust) was pretty cozy and sweet but this one... yeah idk. it was pretty hard to follow along with the story without my mind wandering off someplace else and by the middle of the album i was just completely zoned out
listening to this was my first time really listening to The Who, and i wish i could've gotten a studio album first because i don't really care about live albums...
i don't really have much to say about this. i think i was trying to figure out the whole time whether i was liking it or not. the drumming was really good. would i listen to this again? idk. but i can recognize the talent.
---🎧re-listen---
old score: 3.5*
new score: 2.5* (very high 2)
i had a little Gorillaz moment around March of this year, so around that time i also listened to this album. and by the looks of my ratings, it seems my opinion on it has gone down a bit.
of course on this album you have the major hit Clint Eastwood, which i like a lot, the chorus on that is really iconic, and the rapper is pretty good too. and then you have the other hit, 19-2000. i remember my friend showed me this one before i listened to the whole album, it's a silly vibey song, i like that one too. i just listened to the Souldchild remix today and that was also great as well, might even be better than the original!
but besides that, this album doesn't really have too much to offer for me. i could live without it. i think i liked the first two songs, but other than i was very middling on it. the tracks after 19-2000 were also pretty boring and definitely the worst, which makes me lower my score to 2 since i wouldn't want to listen to those again.
i feel like Demon Days should be the Gorillaz album on this list, and not this one
---🎧re-listen---
old score: 4*
new score: unchanged (strong 4)
going into this one again after first listening to it about 2 years ago, i was maybe expecting my score to drop a bit for some reason, but nah, this is still an amazing album! i did have to listen to it a few times right now to get into it again but once i did it was great.
i can clearly see that this album is not gonna be for everyone, though. Kate's vocals on here could be very polarizing, and there's also a ton of crazy theatrical things happening on each song. but personally, i like it :) it's crazy and fun!
i remember my mental images on my first listen being so clear, my imagination was running wild the first time i heard this.
my favorite song on this is definitely the "Night of the Swallow" song. "Suspended in Gaffa" is great, too. upon relisten i also liked the first track, "Sat In Your Lap" a lot as well.
i don't think i'm really that big of a Bowie fan. maybe listening to some more of his albums later will change that, but this album didn't convince me otherwise.
i think the instrumentation on this was pretty great, though, it was pretty funky and layered, especially with songs like "Stay", and i really liked the watery acoustic guitar textures on the last song "Wild Is the Wind".
however i just didn't really care his singing or any of the vocal melodies... nothing really stuck with me from this. and i gave it two listens today too, and even on the second listen i still didn't change my mind. rip Station to Station
too normal :(
i think this might be my favorite Country album that i've gotten so far. this guy has a really nice voice and it was pretty relaxing, even though the subject matter is anything but. it's not anything too crazy, but for it is, it's good :)
there was a point in time before i remembered that people have personal preferences where i was like, “how could anyone NOT think this is the best radiohead album?”… so yeah 5 stars.
my favorite moments on here are probably the terrifying scream at the end of Climbing Up the Walls, the rambunctiousness of Electioneering and how it transitions into it from Fitter Happier, and all of the cool guitar effects they used that gives this album its signature atmosphere. i especially like the atmosphere on the song Subterranean Homesick Alien and how they lift the song off the ground for the chorus.
an iconic album for sure. it feels like radiohead’s big blockbuster film
--re-listen--
original score: 4
new score: 3.5
i feel like i might not have been in the mood for this one today and that's why the score dropped a bit. i might re-listen to this again later and i'll probably put it back up at a 4 hopefully we'll see.
a very manic funky album from the Talking Heads, with production from Brian Eno. my favorite song is the Cities one. "find a city!!! find myself a city to live in!!!"
high 3 stars
a new wave album from the 80s, this one was pretty neat, though when i was listening to some of the songs i couldn't help but feel like there was something missing, but i couldn't put my finger on exactly what. so i guess the songs felt a little empty on first impressions idk. i especially felt this listening to the first track. the 3rd track "That Sinking Feeling" was also pretty weird, i feel like half the ideas on that song actually worked but the ones that did were pretty cool.
my favorites were "This Is The Day" and "Uncertain Smile"
very 2010s hipster music. most of the album was just pretty boring to me.
its funny though because i listened to Funeral in 2024 and i thought that album was really really good, so i might have to re-listen to that now lol...
lol this was a fun album, i really liked it. perfect for spooky month too with all the witchy themes 🧹
glad to have finally gotten a noisy album on this list, as someone who likes that kinda stuff. i think one of my favorite parts was that super messed up noisy riff on the 3rd track i think? awesome.
i also liked the atmospheric parts too, they felt really cozy.
man. i was in such a calm, peaceful mood before i went to listen to this.
but then i remembered that this album was given to me today :(
if i had to say anything positive about this album, well... i guess the drumming was good maybe??? and one of the songs had a drum and bass thing mixed into it which surprised me a bit.
but other than that me listening to this was painful :( this album didn't do anything to convince me of liking screaming in music. it was so stressful. towards the second half of the album i felt myself actually getting a little distressed from this. even writing this thing i still feel a little tense-ness inside me. and i know the point of this music is to be mean and aggressive but like, i would never purposefully seek out that feeling from music i listen to on my own. so this kinda stuff just isn't for me and i don't see the appeal of it.
as the album went on the way the vocalist alternated between the screaming and all the other voices started to get really repetitive and annoying as well. the little breathing thing he did to show how MAD and ANGRY he was was just terrible. and at other points he reminded me of Chino Moreno with how he tried to do the moaning thing but it was just baaaad. dude is NOT chino at all. and at other points he kinda rapped like Eminem????? and i don't like that guy so that was just idk not for me either.
the fact that there's another Slipknot album in the book... sigh.
2nd David Bowie album so far. and i still have not been convinced to become a fan :( better luck next time i guess. this album was fine idk
very very very 80s music. of course i already knew the big hit "Girls just want to have fun" but everything else was unfamiliar to me. the first half of the album was alright, but by the second half i found myself getting really bored with the whole thing. rip cyndi lauper
very high 2 stars.
i told myself that one day i want to find a metal band that i can actually enjoy. but today was not that day unfortunately.
i really liked the guitar tones on this album though, very heavy and crunchy. but besides that idk. still isn't really for me.
i think my favorites were "Spiders" and the last track "P.L.U.C.K."
i probably would have to listen to this again to get a better opinion. i think a moment that stood out to me this first listen was the end of the "starship trooper" song. the use of synths(?) surprised me. i listened to 2 other Yes albums a bit ago though (close to the edge, fragile) so maybe i just forgot that they use synth in their songs.
i'm starting to gather through this challenge that maybe i'm not the biggest Soul fan...
i do really love Songs In the Key of Life though, but to be honest, who doesn't? this album on the other hand idk it was fine to me but i didn't really feel like it was anything too crazy.
my favorite track on first listen was probably "Bird of Beauty"? "They Won't Go When I Go" also felt a little emotional and was probably the saddest song
whenever i say the name of this album i always have to say it like BAT OUTTA HELLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!! like a metal singer or something. this isnt metal at all though its just like very theatrical pop rock i guess... the first 2 tracks were fun and i liked them but by the end it was just too cheesy
while listening i said to myself that i think i have found Jack Black's favorite band :0
i've been giving out so many low scores lately... but seriously... when this album started i wanted to give it a 3. it was just some chill, alt-country kinda stuff, not really my thing but i could probably just leave it on and not mind it at all. but... then it kept going. and going. and going. and by the end of the album i was sick of it. way too long. so unfortunately i have to drop it down to a 2.
and the lyrics to "Somebody Else's Song" just reminded me why I would rather be listening to anything else...
"I keep on singin'
Your eyes, they just roll
It sounds like someone else's song
From a long time ago".
p.s: i listened to their other album Sky Blue Sky and i liked that one a lot more than this one. so i don't think i necessarily dislike Wilco, but this album didn't do anything for me.
this album was better than i thought it was gonna be! i liked the experimentation happening here. only song i really knew beforehand was the first one (immigrant song, with the massive yells) but my favorite track upon really listening to this rn was "Since I've Been Loving You".
the last track was also very strange, and i also heard some reversed sounds in one of the songs towards the end that was awesome, felt a little trippy
--re-listen--
original score: 3.5 stars
new score: 3.5 stars (unchanged, but maybe viewed a little higher)
this was a very fun energetic album. i've loved the song "Here Comes Your Man" since the last listen i did for this like 2 years ago, i think it's a perfect song through and through. and upon relisten i was also reminded that i like the songs "Wave of Mutilation" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven" as well...
i would really want to give this album a 4 but the consistency isn't there for that according to my ears... there's a lot of songs here that i think are just fine. but the highlights are really really strong.
added to the library (idk why it wasn't in there before)
3.5 stars
this was a very beautiful, chill, smokey album. the vocals were also very good, she kinda reminded me of Sade somehow.
my favorite track was "Miss Chatelaine"
3 stars
another talking heads produced by Brian Eno!!!!!! this one i liked less than the Fear of Music album i think...
my favorite song from this was "Take Me to the River". there were some cool sounds on that one
