Rated 4/10
It's a beautiful soul album, but it's not for casuals. The tracks seem to meander and stretch on longer than necessary, not really going anywhere, and the lyrics really have power to them that would work better as shorter songs. I get this is a musician's album. It's not really essential.
My Rating: 2/5
Rated 10/10
This is a masterpiece of electronica. So many banger tracks. It's not so much a dance album as a jazz album with electronic instruments. Everyone complaining about listening fatigue on this one is justified, because this album got the shit marketed out of it and sampled for every commercial on the planet. Get over it. That doesn't mean it's a bad album. I'd say it makes it a better album, because it was used for different purposes.
My Rating: 10/5
Rated 6/10
A very twee Britpop album. Even when they're dealing with something melacholy, the daintiness of the music blurs it all over, lulling you into this sense of security until you realize "Hey, that song was about death!" It’s good, sincere music, but just too delicate for my taste. Still, if you like your indie pop soft, shy, and pastel‑colored, this might be right up your alley.
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 8/10
While this was absolutely an excellent album, there were no surprises. It's Stevie Wonder, you know EXACTLY what you're getting: Masterful soul/funk, luscious vocals, excellent arrangements and melodies. What it didn't do was shock me or make me feel much of anything. Sorry Stevie. It's excellent music, just not for me.
My Rating: 4/5
Rated 6/10
While this is a powerful album, it's pretty one-dimensional. Anger. It's just exuding from every pore of the music. And for a groove-metal band, there's surprisingly little groove in the tracks that are the most well known. It's alright, but I don't think it's even the best album the band ever did. I think "Cowboys from Hell" is better and has more personality. This is an angry man screaming on the street corner, not a band.
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 10/10
This is probably the best Tom Waits album I've ever heard. The songs aren't so much an assault on your senses as they are the musical ramblings of a junkyard poet. I loved the imagery of "9th & Hennepin". I loved that "Downtown Train", which Rod Stewart covered, was originally a Tom Waits song and sounds so much better coming from Tom Waits. Just an amazing album, and we need more musicians willing to be brave and a little chaotic.
My Rating: 10/5
Rated 6/10
A perfectly pleasant britpop album, but definitely not essential. This one's a skipper for me. The songs are fine, but nothing is really sticky. I actually got annoyed at the ending of "Streets of Kenny". Who ends a song like that? Outside of that, it's not offensive, but not outstanding.
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 4/10
Umm, what exactly was this? This was the sleepiest blues rock album I've ever listened to. If I'd have had the fifth of whiskey this album requires, I would have been asleep by the time I got to "Highlands" and it would have put me right into REM sleep. Dear Lord. This is what happens when you smoke, kids. I've never been a big fan of Dylan's, mostly because I despise mythologizing and people jumping on the bandwagon just because someone else says they're good. This one is not pushing me to like him any more.
My Rating: 2/5
Rated 8/10
Solid 80's new wave. There's not a wasted note here, everything is tight and rich and minimal. The hits are here, and the rest of it feels like a proper vehicle to propel Annie Lennox into your head. No sleepers.
My Rating: 4/5
If you don't like this album, I get it. It's weird. There's no lyrics to speak of. What words there are in songs feel more like samples than something that goes with the music.
Try leaning into it. Let the weirdness of this one wash over you. It goes in good places, and doesn't leave you out to dry like other weird songs. This is trip-hop geneaology. Without this, we don't get Tricky or DJ Shadow. There are a few different flavors in here, but it's good. Like an ice-cream shop.
My Rating: 4/5
Rated 8/10
The Stones returning to blues-rock. The album starts out strong, and then settles into a long stretch of bluesy material. The songs are all good. Nothing drags, but aside from a couple of really big tracks, not much stands out. Jigsaw Puzzle breaks the pattern with some Dylanesque lyrical weirdness (“mentholated sandwich,” seriously?), which at least gives it a different flavor.
The blues tracks belong because the Stones are a blues-rock band, but here they feel more like scaffolding holding up the high points rather than highlights in their own right. I know not every song can be a hit, but I also know the Stones have a lot more swagger in them than what shows up across most of this record.
My Rating: 4/5
Rated 6/10
This one reminded me of Bob Dylan in styling, but this guy in understandable because he enunciates. I have no idea why Spotify delivered the version they did, because there's a song thrown in there that he didn't even perform on. The music is Americana folk, and on one track he works with Woody Guthrie, which was interesting. Bluesy, cowboy/hobo songs. Not my bag. I would not stick around if I walked into a room and this was playing.
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 6/10
An archetypal slice of 80s new-wave pop. It’s shimmery, glossy, and drenched in neon, gliding through your head as easily as it goes in. Most of the album is stylish but non-adhesive: pleasant in the moment, forgettable afterward. The lone exception is the closer, “Don’t You Want Me,” which radio programmers correctly identified as the only truly sticky track. It’s the one Human League song that survives on every Best-of-the-80s compilation for a reason. Overall: a perfectly fine listen, but not one that lingers.
Rating: 3/5
Rated 8/10
A wonderfully vapid example of bubblegum pop, devoid of any deep meaning. She's in love, or she's got a broken heart. Nothing complicated, completely trivial. BUT! A masterclass in the form, putting bubblegum pop back on the charts. Is it deep? No. It most absolutely is not. It does make bubblegum matter again, and puts a new spin on it. And major key changes! Come on, why did we throw those away?
I know this carries a lot of baggage, because Brittney was the girl we were all allowed to lust after, but also not. Way over-manufactured, but innocent and organic at the same time. And we wonder why she went off the rails. She went from the Mickey Mouse club to this to "wholesome trollop" in a very short amount of time. The industry built a paradox around her, and she paid the price for it.
My Rating: 4/5
Take Parliament, remove most of the funk. Replace that funk with equal parts jazz and rock, and you get CTA. If you've heard Chicago before, you know kinda what you're getting, but this is before they got tight with the radio friendly soft rock sound. Spotify streams the remaster, which you can safely stop at "I'm A Man". Although, in order to get the full jazz feeling of the album, listen to "Liberation".
"Free Form Guitar" was a choice. I enjoyed Einsturzende Neubaten more, at least it went somewhere. The whole thing felt a little too jazzy for me and way too noodly.
My Rating: 2/5
Rated 8/10
Man, Gary Numan. He's a weird dude. This is WEIRD music. Especially for its time. The music is all cold and mechanical, but if you pay attention to it, there's warmth hiding under all the circuitry and robotic twisting and turning. This one gets an additional point just for "Metal" and "Cars". And for sounding like a Flash Gordon soundtrack.
My Rating: 4/5
Rated 4/10
Licensing issues, only partially available for streaming. Had to listen to it through YouTube, definitely not optimal.
I hate live albums. Yeah, I get it, the critics felt the band came alive on stage. I hate listening to the crowd noise. It takes so much away. They could have mixed it out or isolated the mics to reduce it, and they chose not to.
My rating: 2/5
Rated 6/10
An alright album, but I don't think it holds the same swagger it did 50+ years ago. Sure, the hits are good, but they're propping up the rest of the songs. And the cover art winks at something a lot racier than what it actually delivers. You can almost tell what religion he is.
My rating: 3/5
Rated 6/10
They let the inmates out of the asylum and let them into studio. This is one fat sausage of anger, mental instability, drums and distorted guitars. "Scissors" comes on and is all minimal and quiet for 90 seconds, forcing the listener to brace for the explosion, and it opens up with a pop, not a bang. All in all, it's not a bad album, but it's too much angst and spleen venting. If there's something in there, it's so deep in there, you're going to have to break out the pickaxes and mine for it, and by that time you're part of the band. If you're on Spotify and listening to the 10th Anniversary Edition, stop after "Get This" and get an early release from the madhouse.
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 10/10
This is a non-stop party from stem to stern. They use just long enough samples to get the recognition of the source, and then shape it for their own purpose. Yeah, this is very early in their career, so some of it's juvenile, but not so much that it's annoying. Lots of fun, not really deep. Don't think too hard about this one and just roll with it.
My Rating: 10/5
