Album Reviews

4/10 Not being much of an indie boy, I didn’t really know what to expect from this. They’re a band that are very highly regarded, and this album is frequently present on best of lists, but it’s not one I’d ever felt drawn to. They were also spoken of highly by David Bowie, which is typically a good sign. Unsurprisingly, then, here really is some decent stuff in here. There’s often a good blend of rich, harmonic content with promising melodies, quality sound design and production, and a very consistent tone of voice, with a clearly defined personality. Sure, there are bits that are a bit more ragged around the edges, with some slightly odd mixing choices, like lead vocals that were almost hidden in the mix, and sounded like they were recorded in corridors, but this is their debut album, and in general, they got the tonal elements of the songs into decent shape. Unfortunately, there were some elements of this record that I just couldn’t deal with. Rhythmically, it’s one of the flattest, dynamically limited releases I’ve ever heard. Given that they have not one, but two drummers, the lack of nuance and range within the rhythms is, frankly, baffling. And it’s not just the drummers either. Frequently there are parts that pound away in straight crotchet patterns for long sequences, and sometimes for full songs, relentlessly and invariably thudding on. It’s so soulless and frequently ruined my listening experience. The funny thing is, I love a lot of electronic and programmed music, so I have no real problem with repetitive rhythms, but there is absolutely no nuance here at all. I’m also not really a big fan of Win Butler’s voice, with him frequently sounding like he’s stretching it beyond its capabilities, but without any particular purpose. I get taking your voice to its breaking point when trying to evoke a particular high or low point in a songs narrative, but here, it just felt like a stylistic choice that didn’t gel with the motional beats of the music. Régine is a far better vocalist and the album would have been far better served had she been given the more prominent vocal role. So it’s a weird one. Is this any good? It has the potential to be, but to me there are too many things that negatively impact on the overall quality of the record, and make me never want to hear it again. So, I suppose its a case of unmet potential more than anything else. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - This isn’t bad. It’s uplifting, anthemic stuff. There’s some good stuff in there, and the vibe and atmosphere of the production is pretty good, but I also think a lot of the base rhythms are very persistent and lacking in dynamic. The piano, for example, just absolutely hammers at crotchet chords for most of the track, and there are sequences when the guitar does a similar thing. Melodically, there’s some nice stuff in the lead vocal, but I’m not 100% sold on his voice just yet either. It’s not a bad start, necessarily, but it’s not really caught fire yet. Neighborhood #2 (Laïka) - The use of polyrhythms in the verses here is really nice, and the instrumental blend is good. The juxtaposition of the clashing guitar against the cleaner acoustic instruments makes for good range. In the choruses, we again have that relentlessly chugging crotchet rhythm that’s dynamically uninteresting and detracts from the fun rhythmic approach to the other sections. And again, the seemingly artificially strained vocal style isn’t really doing it for me. Une Année Sans Lumière - This is much more consistent. The melody works nicely against the harmonic elements and the general blend of instruments works very nicely. It’s still fairly rhythmically unvaried, but there’s a bit more nuance and dynamic to things that helps that to slide by. It gets an injection of pace towards the end that adds an extra bit of range too. Not bad. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) - The mix broadens out here, with thinner, more stripped back sections and more full-bodied sections. There is a bit more rhythmic range across the parts, but at its core, it’s still rhythmically one-paced. The drummer must be so fucking bored. The orchestration is pretty broad and the string stuff is nice, including the section where they work in discordant pitch slides. The vocal is a bit too shouty without the intensity in the track not really matching it for me. Again, some of the component parts are good, but it’s just not an entirely satisfying package. Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) - This feels like a fairly bland sombre folksy indie track that they’ve inexplicably sampled the string section of an orchestra tuning up and laid it underneath, which just sounds bad. They’re obviously going for a floaty, ethereal sound here, but even on this, they seem remarkably beholden to very flat, relentless crotchet patterns that pound on in the background and make things sound too robotic for such an organic sound palette. When the strings actually play, it’s quite nice, but the rhythm just felt inescapable. Crown Of Love - 1, 2, 3, 4, dum, dum, dum, dum. It’s just relentless. It’s not really a bad song on top of that, and there are some nice moments of melody, with some equally good pieces of work from the strings. Again, I don’t really love his voice, particularly with the rest of the band, because so much of the tonal work is pretty clean and precise, but Win Butler’s vocal style jars against that, at least to my ears. It also sounds like the vocal was recorded from slightly too far away in a corridor. We do get a pick up in pace towards the end, which at least adds a bit of rhythmic variety, but even that is a change that just remains flat for the rest of the track. Wake Up - What’s this? rhythmic range? This is the big song that’s loved by montage makers, and film makers looking for something anthemic to end their middle-of-the-road tv drama with. It’s still fairly unvaried from a rhythmic point of view, but at least it’s more than just that relentless pounding on every beat of the bar. There’s good range harmonic range on this, with the strings and backing vocals adding excellent depth and quality to the piece. The melodic writing is excellent, and as part of the mix here, Win Butler’s vocal works much better. The later half throws in a switch-up of emphasis that’s pretty nice too. This was pretty good, to be fair. Haïti - This is actually a bit better too. It’s very whimsical indie and the slightly distant vocal recording technique is still weird, but I’s day Régine Chassagne is a better vocalist than her husband. The mix is a bit all over the place, with some of what you would expect to be atmospheric pad sounds being very forward in the mix and more melodic elements sitting further back. It’s still got a rhythmic lilt that’s established early and never varies, but it at least has a bit more swing and nuance to it than the flat four stuff from earlier. Rebellion (Lies) - The general musical content of this is pretty good. Some nice melodic moments, some good work from the guitars and backing vocals, and there’s a nice, rolling building sensation to the composition. But why are their rhythms so boring? There’s a lot to this, but it’s almost like they’ve just grabbed a one bar drum sample, looped it and just called it quits before focusing on everything else. It’s so distracting. In The Backseat - It sounds a bit like she’s doing a Björk impression now. It’s a slow burn with a lot of tension that builds and builds as it goes. There’s some nice sound design in there too. But yet again, what does the guitar do when it comes in? Hammer away on a flat four rhythm. It’s just very dynamically flat and rhythmically uninspiring. It’s fucking relentless, and they do it with the strings too. I actually really want to like this, because if they’d added more range to the rhythms, it could be very good, but I find it so oppressive to listen to.

View Author

nice enough

View Author

Terrible 60s music strikes again

View Author

given what i know of gorillaz discography, i was expecting a more upbeat morning. this was surprisingly slow and dare i say boring. first part of the album bored me to almost country extents, then when some rap finally showed up it left as soon as it was given to me. it felt like it was trying to do something artsy but at the same time i’m not sure? i do enjoy some funky and weird noises it must be said, but i found myself checking where i was through the album because i was bored of it. i’m mildly aware that gorillaz is meant to have lore of some kind which i am perhaps missing? it felt like an album full of filler songs, waiting for the next one with some meat that never came. i guess M1 A1 was okay but yeah. i would describe a lot of them as background music in a video game level, which in this context i don’t think is a compliment. in the end i need to decide on how i rate these, this is my first album. i think whether i would re-listen ought to be a factor, and since i can’t imagine having another pop at any of the song…

View Author

That’s a no from me dawg

View Author

Highest levels of brilliance in parts, and just incredibly average in others. Could have been one of the greatest albums ever, but for a couple of duds.

View Author

Came back to re-review and score this with a 5. This album is so damn good and has totally turned me on to The Kinks. I can't get enough of this album. It's just great. A true gem.

View Author

Как по мне, средний альбом. Нет каких-то мегахитов. Снупдога слышно чаще чем Дре. Обычный рэп про жизнь нигеров в Комптоне

View Author

Oh hell yes all D’Angelo records get five stars

View Author

I like North American Scum. It sounds like a 4 star album. I like watch the tapes.

View Author

Stupendous jazz

View Author

Im not sure what i was expecting here, but this isnt it. A strange cross between 1980s synth-y pop and club singer. For people that are not in the north of England. A club singer is an mature singer that will perform covers of songs on an irregular basis in working mens clubs as a sort of weekend treat. Marianne Faithfull's voice is undoubtedly gravelly and distinctive. But there are times when it feels like she is trying really hard to do what she is doing. It All feels a bit much and not quite my thing. I am sure this will be someone's idea of perfection. But it's just not for me. (

View Author

This is amazing. I've never listened to it before and now fool me. Recorded on 8-track and designed to capture raw garage/grunge noise. I love it. Straight into heavy rotation, head and shoulders above some of the peers of it's time.

View Author

Chill album

View Author

One of the best albums ever. Never get tired of it. One of my main go-to albums forever. Top 10 for sure.

View Author

Surprisingly good but Raw Power lacks the raw power to compel me to listen more than once. The second track was pretty skilful, whatever it was...

View Author

"Chore of Enchantment" by Giant Sand is a bad experience for me. It is not a worst album but not a good album also. The album production level is raw and experimental. I love few tracks like "Dusted" and "Punishing Song". Besides this all the other tracks are average to bad. The songwriting is narrative driven with vivid lyrics. But most of the tracks feel same and monotonous. The album dragged too much long for like an hour. There are too many tracks on this album some of them unnecessary like "Bottom Line Man"and many more. The vocalist try to make emotional depth with raw and gritty voice delivery which kind of makes me feel boring and not appreciating. The album feel disconnected within after few tracks. Overall bad album I have listened from the list and one of the undeserving album to be included.

View Author

I really want to like this because I know he’s supposed to be a cool and avant garde kinda guy, but it mostly feels kinda Neil Diamond-y. Definitely a great voice though. Very funny that the opening song is just him describing a movie he saw.

View Author

Everything here sounds like the anti piracy ad. And honestly it’s a fucking vibe… for 4 songs and then I feel like it needs a break up. This is one of those where all the songs on its own sound good, but together sounds samey.

View Author

Frank Sinatra always sounds like he's basically talk-singing. Like his singing is one-notch above talking. Frank Sinatra has that domestic abuse vibe. But I guess that's kinda hot to some people? He's definitely having one-too-many whiskeys and smacking around his wife when she says something smart. It's fun to listen to. If you were looking to put the moves on someone and you were both doting on each other, and say you invited them over to a meal that you were gonna cook, and you timed it where this was playing when they got there and during dinner (with proper lighting), and assuming the food was delicious, it could work really well and likely lead to a trip down to pound town. I do actually like this. It has a certain effect, an overall charm, albeit one that might leave you with a mark that you'll explain as an accident that occurred on account of your own clumsiness. Always so clumsy, falling and bruising all the time. Stupid in love, stuck in a cycle of abuse.

View Author

Great flow but the violence and misogyny hasn't aged well, if it was ever ok.

View Author

An incredibly powerful concept album. This was written decades ago but still speaking to truths still visible today. Truly a monument to progressive soul. Marvin Gaye brings his soulful voice into an enchanting accompaniment with orchestral motifs and a sprinkling of jazz inside. It's smooth, velvety and burning with passion.

View Author

The singles are great, I mean it’s ABBA. But it’s not filled out by other catchy earworm pop songs. Album wise not essential.

View Author

Your Nonna will sing these songs at you, hell, your mum and I will sing these songs at you. You may not like it at first, but I’m sure you’ll eventually find yourself singing them to yourself, and at others, and for good reason.

View Author

Noise! Sounds! Groove! Funk!

View Author

Fast-paced, honky tonkish, corny, and sad. What's not to like? Buck Owens is great.

View Author

Someone recommended this album to me claiming its the greatest album of all time. Well, he's wrong. Not a bad album by any means, but I feel so much of what makes the album "good" relied on shock value and 90s sensibilities.

View Author

Better than expected, slightly irritating after a while

View Author

I loved this album one first listen during my work out this morning. I live in an area of So Cal that has a lot of Arabic-speaking residents and it’s not unusual for a party nearby to be playing this style of music. I listened 1.5 more times throughout the day particularly while running errands in the car. These subsequent listens were not as enjoyable in fact some songs started feeling quite repetitive and annoying. I still would put this on. Downgrade from initial 4 to 3/5.

View Author

Nice album but didn’t pull me in far enough, similar style ( outside of being the same genre) Wouldn’t it be nice and god only knows are favourites

View Author

thought it was gonna be some ambient space shit damn brian

View Author

This was cool Perfect music for a sunny afternoon in the garden. Or anytime really, it's ace

View Author

A couple great songs, but not really into the rest of the album.

View Author

Sympa en fond pendant un repas ! Ou pendant que tu fais autre chose

View Author

I’m with the machine

View Author

Almost as repugnant as his mentor Trent Reznor.

View Author

I was so looking forward to the day the generator would throw this one at me and it's finally here I've been genuinely smiling throughout, this is so funny, tongue in cheek, clever and comes from a deep love of music - Booker Tease is just an example of how brilliant this is SEMOLINA! SEMOLINA!

View Author

Like your experience of listening to Doggystyle last week, I was embarrassed to have The Marshall Mathers LP on when Aislinn walked into the room. The ubiquity of its singles in 2000 should have dulled that embarrassment. It's not as though she hasn't heard these words before. I'd only known the censored radio edits as a teenager, but the missing blanks never concealed much; the internal rhymes usually made the omitted slurs obvious enough. She also knows about this project, so if she catches me listening to something objectionable she'll ask whether it's our album of the day. There is, in other words, an acceptable reason to find me deluged by a torrent of "sluts" and "faggots". Even so, I wanted the headphones back on. Like pornography, certain forms of art change when another person enters the room. The embarrassment is no longer private. The problem is that, unlike pornography, there was no escaping Eminem in 2000. His work was everywhere: buses, shopping centres, bedrooms, MTV. That ubiquity raises a question that has never really gone away. Challenging art often depends upon context. A line such as "You cheap, lousy faggot" in Fairytale of New York has an artistic function inside the song that disappears once it becomes something drunken strangers bellow every December. The song really is more of the order of a Eugene O'Neill play than a pop hit - the industry forces a category error. Elvis Costello recognised a similar problem with Oliver's Army, suggesting radio stations simply stop playing it rather than rewrite a lyric whose meaning depended on dramatic and historic context. Interestingly, the source of the problem is the appearance of the one offensive word that Eminem studiously avoids using. Art earns a certain licence because it asks us to enter a protected imaginative space. Pop music, however, is designed to escape that space. It leaks into supermarkets, taxis and children's bedrooms whether we invite it or not. The question, then, is whether The Marshall Mathers LP deserves that artistic licence. Its defenders generally argue two things. First, that the album is a satirical defence of free speech, saying outrageous things precisely to test tue boundaries and expose society's hypocrisies. Second, that the record stages a dialogue between Marshall Mathers, Eminem and Slim Shady, in the wake of his initial success, allowing one persona to critique another. If either argument holds, then the ugliness of the language becomes part of a larger artistic design rather than an end in itself. Neither argument holds. Genuinely transgressive artists usually risk something. Momus, for instance, was sued over songs by Wendy Carlos and the Michelin corporation. The physical albums containing the songs were destroyed and he lost substantial sums in the process. His targets were specific, identifiable and powerful enough to answer back. Eminem's provocations rarely work like that. The album attacks journalists, celebrities and campaigners often enough, but its deepest reserves of venom are directed towards women and gay men: groups broad enough to symbolise anything he wishes and too diffuse to answer collectively. If satire punches anywhere, it usually punches down. Chris Morris understood this better. His parody of Eminem, JLB8, is funnier than anything on The Marshall Mathers LP precisely because the self-appointed provocateur had himself become a worthy target. Satire gains force when directed at power, hypocrisy or certainty. It loses force when outrage becomes the point. The only person to sue Eminem was his own mother, a reminder that the work is soap opera rather than critique. The album's central contradiction arrives with Stan. It remains its masterpiece because it imagines, however briefly, the consequences of treating violent fantasy as emotional truth. Eminem responds to an obsessive fan not with mockery but with patience, urging him to seek help, cherish his pregnant girlfriend and recognise the difference between entertainment and life. His reply arrives too late. Stan has already driven off the bridge. If the whole record possessed the moral seriousness of that final verse, The Marshall Mathers LP might be a far richer work. Instead, the following song immediately retreats into incredulity. Who Knew acts as though the very suggestion that songs might influence people were absurd. No reasonable listener believes artists are directly responsible for crimes committed by their fans. That isn't the issue. The issue is that Stan itself demonstrates Eminem understands communication carries consequences. He writes an entire song about precisely that. Having recognised the problem, he immediately pretends not to. No serious person could write the concluding verse of Stan sincerely and then release the album as it is. That pattern runs throughout the record. Whenever responsibility approaches, somebody else is blamed. The record company wants him to be outrageous. Hip hop, his chosen genre, rewards violence. His childhood damaged him. Slim Shady said it. Eminem said it. Marshall Mathers merely watched. The album's defining characteristic isn't rage but evasion. It continually insists that nothing is really under its author's control. Sartre called this bad faith: the comforting fiction that we are merely the products of circumstance rather than agents capable of choosing differently. The Marshall Mathers LP is saturated with it. Eminem presents himself as both the most powerful voice in popular music and the least responsible person in the room. But he had a choice. That's what ultimately distinguishes him from performers like Jerry Sadowitz. Sadowitz understand that transgression works because it is contained. Audiences knowingly entered a room where normal rules are suspended before returning to ordinary life. Eminem wanted no such containment. His record company wanted these songs on heavy rotation. He wanted them there too. The point wasn't simply to offend but to offend millions and profit from the offense. It was not enough that he denied his own capacity to choose, he denied the public choice as well. No one could avoid his vomit and vitriol. We were all subject to the desires of a juvenile demographic and the companies that would exploit their worst impulses. That commercial ambition is crucial because the album repeatedly mistakes mass exposure for artistic courage. There is nothing inherently brave about saying offensive things when every mechanism of popular culture is amplifying them. He attacks journalists and celebrities and other rappers, never anyone with the power to shut him down, never anyone who is actually affected by his bile. Indeed, the existence of both explicit and clean editions demonstrates how comfortably outrage could coexist with market expansion. Where Momus had records destroyed, Eminem diversifies his portfolio - a version with inexorable Kim and one without. Where Momus loses out, Eminem and his company maximise profits. None of this would matter so much if the music justified it. Dr. Dre's production is fine, giving Eminem ample room for to display his technical ability. His internal rhymes still tumble over themselves with a certain precision, and his command of rhythm is impressive. Yet technical brilliance continually serves dramatically thin material. The album mistakes escalation for development. Louder, nastier and more offensive becomes a substitute for saying anything new. Even Stan, for all its power, reveals Eminem's limitations as a dramatist. He awkwardly overexplains, drawing attention to the contrivance of the dramatic device when Stan questions how he will send the tape to Slim. Eminem's final sign-off, recognising that "it was... it was... you," is pure melodrama, reminding us again that the whole Eminem performance is soap opera. The worst offence, however, is in the strawman of Stan himself, at every opportunity, Eminem paints his number one fan as a fucking idiot - no idea how he'll send a tape from a submerged car; carefully printing the address in block capitals because writing by hand is hard. The barely contained contempt for his audience makes a mockery of the whole enterprise. Actually, no, the greatest offence of Stan is the utter dreariness. One might try to pin this on Dido, whose Thank You provides the musical basis of the track, but her song has an actual chorus, there is harmonic movement and uplift, it goes somewhere. Stan is all mire with no release. By the end of the record, what lingers isn't outrage but exhaustion. Every attack is somebody else's fault. Every excess belongs to another persona. Every criticism proves his enemies don't understand satire. Everybody else is shit. The album demands complete artistic freedom while declining the corresponding burden of artistic responsibility. The Marshall Mathers LP is not a great work of transgressive art. It is a piece of commercial entertainment that appropriates the language of transgression while remaining remarkably safe within the structures that profit from it. Momus lost records. Costello withdrew his from radio. Genuine loss and genuine agency. Eminem sold millions of copies in two editions and became the biggest star on the planet. The album's legacy isn't simply that it made offensive language mainstream. It helped normalise the idea that outrage is, in itself, a form of courage, and that refusing responsibility is a defence of free speech. Twenty-five years later, that seems far more significant than any individual slur and the impact is felt. The worst people online are called Stans and the right to be offensive is everywhere online and elsewhere. The cock-headed belief that lashing out is a defense of 'free speech' is the norm. I wouldn't say that this was Eminem's fault - he'd have a tantrum if I did - but he and his fellow angry boys contaminated the discourse for shits and giggles - and money, lots of money. They polluted the air and the media with self-indulgent shit-taking and now everything is clogged up with shit. "I never knew... I never knew..." he yaps. Well, now you know. NB: I was walking the dog last night and there was a bunch of teens on the promenade, hurling stones, harassing old people, just destroying everything around them. One of them was wearing a Slim Shady t-shirt. So I'm knocking off another half star. -0.5 This album qualified as a cultural event no doubt - I remember the buzz about it among many of our peers in school. I expect there were young men who listened to almost nothing else that year. If that’s a sad thought it’s also perfectly understandable - here’s an album not only remote from the burden of substantive musical material (as most rap albums are) but which is also remote from the lyrical world of gangster rap. Eminem is excluded from offering any spin on the story of the black experience in America or the gang experience so all that’s left to him is the nihilism, the vulgarity and the self-aggrandisement. The Marshall Mathers LP proved ideal for young men with no real interest in music (two bars, round and round and round) and equally with no real interest in rap. Eminem’s facility for cartoonish provocation was gold in an era in which South Park was the coolest show on TV. South Park was very funny - exactly because it understood where public discourse (and popular art) had drawn the lines and when to cross them. Eminem had no such awareness, no such wit - just a limitless energy for the proliferation of images with which he could degrade himself and his audience. It was hard for young men to tell the difference in 2000, it is frightening to contemplate their struggle in 2026. That Will Smith line is funny though. 0.5/5

View Author

I would have been about 13 or 14 when a slightly older school mate mockingly suggested that Autobahn was the sort of thing that I would like. I remember him sarcastically singing "fun fun fun on the autobahn" (as he pronounced it) like it was the most ridiculous song ever. I didn't actually know anything about Kraftwerk at that stage but mentally filed it away for future reference on the assumption that, if an obnoxious prick like him hated it, there must something worth investigating. A year or so later I picked up a copy from the Ashfield Record Bar in Hercules St -- I assume it was cheap, I didn't have much money -- and it became a core part of my nascent record collection. Not owning many LPs, I listened to this a lot. The sound of this album has become such a part of the mainstream that it is hard to remember how fresh it once sounded. Minimal, repetitive synth pop is everywhere now, but it started here. While the 7" edit of the title track was a mere novelty for many, the album stretched to explore the possibilities of the synthesizer and suggested a whole new approach. I would argue that Autobahn is not as influential (or possibly even as good) as their following four albums, which set became unlikely influences on pop, electro and hip hop. It sounds a bit dated these days. But I have a nostalgic love of Autobahn because it was a special record for me in my teens. I think my school mate had this pegged as nerd music, played by nerds and only fit for nerds like me. And it is true that Kraftwerk (and I) were nerds. But it was rare in the early 80s for a nerdy kid like me to have musical heroes that I could relate to. Eventually the nerds would conquer the world, and Kraftwerk would be hailed as the innovators they were, despite the fact that they have essentially rested on their laurels for the past 40-odd years. Personally, I quite liked Electric Cafe, the last all-new album they released. I bought it on release, and I really dig the crisp, super-minimal, lock-step funkiness, especially on the first side. Most people consider it a flop, and it seems to have shattered Kraftwerk's creative operating model. Since then, it has been remixes, the odd "event" single, and increasingly elaborate live shows showcasing their classic catalogue. People say the shows are amazing, but I haven't felt the need to see them live -- the records are perfect.

View Author

Hot take I guess, but pop is way overrated, unless it's truly phenomenal in composition and execution. Forgot this the moment I listened to it, and before that it was mildly annoying. Really, just, like... Whatever. Give me dadrock or buttrock any day over this.

View Author

Poor Bono. The absence of a big famine nowadays is making him irrelevant.

View Author

It's an art pop wunderkammer, full of intricate, exquisite and beautiful crafted objects. I can admire it, but I wish the tunes were a bit catchier, you know? Great cover art, though. Interestingly, once this album finished playing, spotify kept playing similar female art pop artists, and many of those songs caught my attention much more than FKA Twigs. Bjork, Sophie, Weyes Blood, Sky Ferreira, Fever Ray, St Vincent, Santigold, Flume all came up in the list following. This album was OK, but there is clearly a LOT of interesting, dynamic work happening in this field in the past decade or two. Not sure why this album....

View Author

Shit stained cringe rapist

View Author

So... ...the debut album of a band that had been thrown together literally weeks beforehand, recorded in three days on a shoestring, the product of a college course for unemployed aspiring musicians. Sound promising eh? So how can something produced in those circumstances be so utterly, heartbreakingly beautiful? Warning: I'm a fan boy. This hasn't always been my favourite album. I probably heard it first in the early years of the 2000s. I don't think it was even my favourite Belle and Sebastian album (initially that would probably have been The Life Pursuit – I never was a lover of If You're Feeling Sinister, which, I appreciate, some would see as heresy.) But Tigermilk kept coming back, kept nagging away at me. It's the album I never have not downloaded. The only one that's always there. It's the one I turn to when I'm tired or stressed or feeling full of joy or just have a need for music. It is, I'm afraid, the best album on this list or any other list. The perfect Belle and Sebastian gig begins with The State I Am In – I've been at some of those shows (the set list changes each night) – as this album does. The perfect opening track for this album (I mean, maybe Thunder Road is up there as an opening track, but I'm less certain of that these days). That gig will end with Another Sunny Day from The Life Pursuit fwiw, and it will feature Electronic Renaissance. Ah, Electronic Renaissance. I love it. It might be my favourite Belle and Sebastian tune. It's so far out of the comfort zone of the rest of the album, a total experiment that provides the edge and the break that If You're Feeling Sinister lacks for me. The fact that it was mastered off of a cassette recording off the radio makes it even more perfect. If you like it then check out 2015s Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance. And, you know, they released If You're Feeling Sinister five and half months later. And then four full EPs and another album in the following two years. How is that even possible? What on earth was Murdoch on? It will come as no surprise that this is getting as many stars as I can give it. It came up on the day I happened to be booking a trip to Rotterdam to see them play this album in December as part of the 30th anniversary tour – a totally unnecessary extra gig involving 8 hours travel each way across three national borders and requiring two overnight stays. Unnecessary given that I saw them play it in April and I'm seeing them play Sinister 40 minutes away the following week. But it's Tigermilk. So I want to be there. Because it takes my breath away still. Every time.

View Author

In the early 90s I was in a short-lived band called 'Stuttgart Factory'. We had intended to play in the Sydney Uni band competition but never made it out of the rehearsal room. We had some old keyboards and a crappy drum machine and produced a few songs somewhere between homage and parody of The Man Machine-era Kraftwerk. The only songs I remember were 'Gimme Gimme Valium' and 'Deutsche Auto'. The lyrics were something like: "Ist das ein Deutsche Auto? Nein, das is ein Amerikanishe Auto. Ist _das_ ein Deutsche Auto? Nein, das ist ein Japanische Auto. Deutsche Auto (breathy whisper voice) Deutsch-aaahh." Heady stuff. I wish I had a tape somewhere... All synthpop is, in some way, a response to Kraftwerk; either embracing the cold "we are all robots" vibe (Gary Numan, for example) or reacting against with hyper-emotionalism (eg. Soft Cell or Depeche Mode). Kratfwerk's move from the ambient, musique concrete approach typical of synth bands of the 70s (Tangerine Dream, et al.) towards an embrace of pop forms was unexpected but genius. There are catchy tunes and jaunty beats and plenty of hooks here. You certainly couldn't accuse Tangerine Dream of those features. The influence was surprisingly widespread and deep. I mean, who would have predicted Kraftwerk would be so central to early 80s hip hop? You can find elements of Kraftwerk in almost all popular music these days. The Man Machine and Computer World are Kraftwerk at the height of their pop powers. Electric Cafe (an album I secretly quite like) "flopped", and they have basically rested on their well-deserved laurels ever since. But this is absolutely seminal, and a great listen.

View Author

I am a record fiend from way back and I spend a lot of time trawling for bargains in dusty record stores. I have a special place in my heart for classic records that you commonly see for $1. Willie Nelson's Stardust is one of those records. It sold a bazillion copies back in the day but has fallen a bit out of favour, so it is common to find vinyl copies languishing in the bargain bins. It is an under-appreciated gem. Willie Nelson might dress like a country outlaw, but secretly he is a jazzbo -- he always liked a clever chord, a surprisingly complex solo, and 'jazz' cigarettes. Especially the 'jazz' cigarettes. Willie obviously loves American popular song, and so do I. These are some of the greatest songs of all time. Willie knows and loves these songs and he deeply understands them. I love the modest and tasteful arrangements from Booker T. Jones, thankfully avoiding over-egging the pudding with strings or backing choirs. Willie's regular band plays with sympathetic and understated restraint. I like the road-weariness in Willie's voice -- it makes everything seem heartful and honest. It is a welcome opportunity to hear these classic songs with fresh ears. Many artists have copied this concept with a late-career tribute to the American songbook, but few attempts approach the sincere beauty and warmth of this album. This is an evergreen album I can happily listen to any day.

View Author

This is delightfully weird. There are things that genuinely surprised me when listening, like the lyrics "We talk about love, we talk about dishwasher tablets, illness, and we dream about heaven." It's surreal and quotidian and full of interesting juxtapositions. I really couldn't predict what would happen next, while remaining placed in a comprehensible framework. I think we can all agree that this album has absolutely no business being on the list, but I dig it. It reminds me a lot of Laurie Anderson; minimal electronics with pitch-shifted vocals and a slightly askew world view, which makes me wonder why her Big Science album isn't on this list? I mean, 'O Superman' is the bomb, right? 3.5 stars, rounding up because I enjoyed listening to it.

View Author

I was interested in what you said yesterday about Bitches Brew being treated and effected in the studio, making it more of a rock record than a jazz document. It did more than just capture the performance in the room. There is certainly a little of that going on here, but, still, I don't think that Kollaps is a record in that sense. Up until this point, Einstürzende Neubauten had been a notorious performance art group, banging sheet metal and miking up industrial tools. It was a ritual of extremity and, at one early London gig, they dangerously undermined the foundations of the venue. There is nothing in that musical approach that really belongs on a record and nothing much about it that needs to be recorded. Kollaps suggests that the estranging, shamanic nature of the performance cannot be replicated in a studio and that, while the group may add a few effects here and there, or bewilder the listener with a meandering tracklist, to simulate the psychodrama of the live experience, this is not the real deal. It is, in fact, quite a soft, spare, gentle record for the most part. Most of the tracks have a clear 4/4 pulse, so, unlike Bitches Brew, you can follow along and you could quite easily dance. It would be a primitive, animalistic form of dance, but that's appropriate. With the record, you can set the volume yourself, so it won't be overwhelming. It is genuinely the safer option than seeing the group live. But the recording is hardly the point. Making records is just what groups did back then. Like many great live acts (I use the work great advisedly, as I've never seen Neubauten live), the record is just a byproduct, another form of merc that supports the group in their actual goal. Who really listens to albums by Crass or Boredoms or Acid Mothers Temple? No one. Who went to see Crass and Boredoms or Acid Mothers Temples? Loads of people. Well, I've never seen Crass, but I've seen the other two and they were great experiences. Their records cannot replicate that greatness, but the records are a necessity of the business. They are a token by which listeners can demonstrate support of the band's artistic vision and mission. Ownership of a Crass record communicates your endorsement of the band's ethic. Ownership of Kollaps communicates your comfort with their live extremity, your hardiness, your wearwithal. No one expects you to listen to any of these things often. Indeed, the neutered, conservative quality of Kollaps might kill the whole thing for you. Without this context, it is unfair to present Kollaps for assessment by randomers. The one star and five star reviews are equally hyperbolic, barely grappling with the flickering ghost content of this partial field recording. This is a solid three star record, whether or not I'm listening to it, because it has to be. Good for Neubauten. Keep it up! 3 “All music after Mahler sounds exactly like that.” Captain Raymond Holt The most striking thing about this (almost) most-despised of albums on this list of over a thousand, is how conservative it is. 4/4 dominates. Beats repeat in loop. The singer sings the title of the songs with rhythmic regularity. Most of the tracks are 2-3 minutes long. ‘Found Instruments’? John Cage was doing this on television in the 1950s. Stockhausen is on the cover of Sgt Pepper’s. I don’t mean to put down Einstürzende Neubauten by any of those observations - I credit them for folding their interest in sound experiment into the pop format with as much discipline as they do. I don’t know that the results are all that worthy of celebration - although I did quite like some of this, particularly the title track. I am puzzled that listeners are so intolerant of it however. What do you people want? More Neil Young probably. So I’m giving a wee extra half mark to poor Einstürzende Neubauten in reparations. 2.5/5

View Author

Oh look, it's another serving of mid-90s world music gumbo forced through the Dinner-Music-O-Matic Synthulator. Mmm, that's tasteful! (I don't mean that in a good way)

View Author

TL;DR: This is "prog-hop"!! It's a Postmodern, Millennial-coded progressive hip hop album!! It's like a less focused "Tommy" for Millennials. ****** This is ambitious. I'll grant it that. There was a lot of care and thought put into the production that is clearly evident, as well. I knew nothing of Ms. Monae prior to an hour ago and she has surprised me with a rich, compelling voice that is highlighted throughout this endeavour. So, at first, this has all the right elements of a good -- possibly great -- album for me. Where this starts to derail is in its confusing scope. The ambition has taken over and made this a bit of a mess. It is **all over the place**. Every track swings WILDLY from one style and tone to another as you progress through the record. Add to my criticism it's length. It's an hour of this crazy back and forth and up and down all over the place. The hits/standout tracks are great, but I don't think this justifies much more than a (3/5) from me. It's just too sprawling and eclectic for my tastes. If she had narrowed in on the more soul or hip hop pieces of this, it likely would have ranked higher with me. It's inclusion here? Possibly. A concept album (loosely) based off of a movie from 1920's in the 2010's? That's unique and I'll concede the inclusion as well. For the first time in a while, DIMERY gives us something that was interesting and challenging.

View Author

Oxygene Part II features prominently in the climactic scene of Gallipoli, which is a 1981 film little known in the rest of the world, but an important and ubiquitous part of Australian culture in the 1980s. Do people still watch it? It felt like a cornerstone of our national identity at the time -- fuckin' Pommy bastards drank tea on the beach while the ANZACs died! Died for nothin', mate, for nothin'! I'm sure either Gallipoli or maybe hearing Part IV on the radio was my initial exposure to Jean-Michel Jarre as a child, and it would be fair to say that I became a fan. I own most of his 70s and 80s albums, usually purchased mail order from the World Record Club catalogue and then obsessively played. But my interest started waning in my mid-teens as I discovered more rock. I don't think I have spun this album -- or any Jarre record -- in over 35 years. They just collect dust in the backwaters of my collection. History seems to have relegated him to the "naff" bin. Tangerine Dream and Eno and Neu! are all cool, but Jean-Michel Jarre is not. I suspect that is because he was popular. He sold a lot of records and he played some very big concerts. He wasn't afraid of comprehensible harmonies (there is a strong classical influence in his work) and catchy melodies or exploiting the novel sounds of the synthesizer. Listening today, I kind of wish he hadn't leaned so heavily on the tweedily-deedily-deedily noises or the whooshing sounds or fake waves or birds or the LFO sweeps. But I found the listening experience holds up. Oxygene sounds of its time but still sounds great. It is a now quaint idea of what the future would sound like -- although, in fairness, people are still producing electronic music with cheesy drum machines, big washy synth pads and LFO sweeps. And it has some cracking tunes and it aims to please. It gave me a nostalgic buzz. Maybe it was too popular to be cool, much the way that Mike Oldfield isn't cool. It's an instrumental, ambient synthesizer album that lots of people liked -- improbable, but it happened. More power to him. 4.5 stars, rounding up.

View Author

I can’t believe the top review for this record (as of Dec 2023) is from someone trying to use their PhD in Mathematics as justification for not liking hip-hop. Weak.

Oh fuck yeah, now we're talking. Wait no, I swear I'm not being pretentious. This is the lowest rated album on this site because I guess mostly people aren't very fond of German people smashing metal plates together - who would have guessed. But halle-fucking-lujah, this is something this list needs more of. Albums that make you go "well, that was an experience and now I'm a changed man". Nobody is lying on their deathbed wishing they heard more crappy 80s post-punk or late 60s psychedelic rock. THIS is what we all deserve to be listening to as we embrace eternal oblivion. I'm giving this a high rating not only because I genuinely really love it, but also to help Kid Rock move to his rightful place as the actual worst album on this list. Together we can make a difference. Save the turtles.

Brings back vivid memories of when me and my mate Ray went on a trip to Dresden. We met this rotund goth in a bar, head to toe with tattoos and piercings, real filth and after a while took her into the disabled bogs for a spit roast. We were both pumping away in her with Napalm Death on in the background and her wailing "MEIN GOTT" at the top of her lungs. I remember spaffing all over her back just as Siege of Power kicked in. As i shoot over her, she takes Ray's cock out of her gob and says "do you want fries with that?" in a faux American accent. Anyway, we go outside and there's this gammy little geezer in a wheelchair sitting there furious, giving me daggers, because he's had to wait so long, so I lean into him and I go "I hope you have as much fun in there as we just did you little cunt".

Back when I was in college I used to go to a bar and listen to Neil tunes and do magic tricks for women. There was a bartender there, he was the best. I loved that guy. Some of the best years of my life.

Back when I was in college, there was this dude who would come into the bar I worked at on a Friday night and play fucking 10 Neil Young songs in a row. He would also hit on girls by doing magic tricks. I remember how angry I got every time he made me listen to an hour of Neil Young because I was just trying to have a good time, and he fucking made me listen to this sad, soppy fuck who writes nothing but songs that sound indistinguishable from each other and never seemed to enjoy a happy moment in his entire like. Fuck that guy, and fuck Neil Young. 2/5

I really don't get rap, and I am completely aware of why. I'm a STEM guy, specifically a Ph.D. student in mathematics. Although my verbal intelligence is quite high, it's still about a standard deviation below my quantitative intelligence. Therefore, it should not be too surprising that I prefer melodies to lyricism, and that a genre based on the latter doesn't wow me. I know I'm pretty far out of step with public opinion on this one, but that can easily be attributed to the fact that hipsters with humanities degrees (i.e. extremely verbal-dominant people) are considered the ultimate arbiters of taste for some reason. (Side note: this also explains why prog rock is seen as being for losers.) Best song: Be (Intro), which had a decent instrumental part at the beginning. Everything else just sort of ran together.

Shit like this on the list is both refreshing and infuriating. Refreshing because it is good, fun, interesting, and also not something I would regularly be exposed to! It's why I started this project and keeps me coming back. It's infuriating because the fact that it is included here means that Robert Dimery, the original author of the 1001 albums list is aware that music like this exists. He's clearly aware that there is an entire world of music out there. SO WHY HAVE I LISTENED TO 200 80s BRITISH NEW WAVE ALBUMS AND 200 SCOTTISH ROCK ALBUMS FROM THE 90S??!!?

Rap isn't my preferred genre of music. But I'm a shitty mathematician so I enjoyed this.

Rage In Favor Of The Machine.

Music for incels to wank furiously by

Sorry Boomers/Gen X, I was like 20 when this came out so it's one of the best things to ever happen to me. Sorry it's not King Crimson or whatever.

The beauty of music is that it is subjective. It’s typically great for a certain group of people, though it’s never right for everyone. Some for the masses, some more niche, but it all has its place. Meanwhile, with lists like this, there’s always artists or records that anyone would have put on in place of what actually made it. Personally, I would have included Queensryche’s Operation Mindcrime, Live’s Throwing Copper, Joe Satriani’s The Extremist, Sara Bareilles’ Little Voice, or John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow album on a list of must hear records. Others would put totally different albums on and that's awesome. What someone likes vs. dislikes is truly subjective. Again, that's the beauty. With that said, this album objectively sucks. I mean truly horrible. Something had to be the lowest rated album on the list, and this was a place well earned. There is nothing redeemable about this record. To quote my wife, “they should have stopped at 1,000.”

The only enjoyment I got from this was reading the review about the brothers in Dresden and their lovely and talented tattooed friend.

i ain’t listening to all that i’m happy for u tho or sorry that happened

I am definitely not the target demographic for this album, but I still thought it was very good. There's a lot of skill and artistry put into these tracks, so much so that it is almost invisible. 4 stars for me, plus an extra star just to spite the mathematics PHD guy.