Reviews by apollo

Led Zeppelin II was a fantastic album and probably my favorite Led Zeppelin album of them all. I was initally thinking of just giving this album my typical Led Zeppelin 4 stars as the first half had quite a few greats but nothing that was gonna push this album up to 5 stars but that all changed with the back half. Each and every song just had that fun hard blues rock vibe that this band is known for. The musicianship especially with the guitars was really great and the melodies were the cherry on top. I didn't even mind the drum solo that was here as it added enough to the song it was in (Moby Dick) without being annoying or boring. This was a really fantastic album and a great way to cap off my journey with Led Zeppelin
Best Song: Heartbreaker
Worst Song: The Lemon Song
Side note: Time to rank the Led Zeppelin albums:
1. Led Zeppelin II
2. Led Zeppelin
3. Led Zeppelin IV
4. Physical Graffiti
5. Led Zeppelin III

Just like the other Super Furry Animals album i listened to, Fuzzy Logic was a very good album. It has a very Tally Hall meets Gorillaz sort of sound (despite being released before either band released anything) much like it's successor but i don't think it goes all the way like it did. I still think that this album is a pretty fun listen with decent guitars, fun electronic elements, great melodies and some pretty good vocals. I think that there were a few songs that could sound very samey but thankfully the album did move at a rather fast pace meaning that it never got overly bad in that aspect. This album was still no doubt a fun listen.
Best Song: Something 4 the Weekend
Worst Song: Fuzzy Birds

Sound of Silver was a far more enjoyable album than i thought it was gonna be. I have been aware of one of the songs on this album prior to listening to it, that being Us V Them and it's appearance in the NBA Live 08 soundtrack. I do consider that song one of the weaker ones though as i don't like the vocals in the beginning but they do get better eventually. However, the rest of the songs are all very good as they all have that really fun groove to them. I also do like this one more than the other LCD Soundsystem album on the list as while that one is good too, it's just a little too weird for my liking. This album just managed to be a really nice surprise.
Best Song: Someone Great
Worst Song: Us V Them

Group Sex was certainly very different from the crowd of albums here in a fair few ways. The elephant in the room being it's length with it only being 15 minutes making it probably the shortest album on the list even somehow being shorter than the EPs here and this is an entire 14 song album. I will say though that the album did work well despite it being so short, the songs rarely felt rushed but that could be because punk music lends itself to really short songs better than a lot of other genres. Other than that, it's a fun hardcore punk album. Songs had a fast pace, lyrics have that punk craziness you would expect and vocals are also very aggressive. It might not be my favorite punk album on this list but for what it does, it does it very well.
Best Song: Operation
Worst Song: Deny Everything

Thriller is a very iconic album for a good reason and that's because it's really good. This isn't even my first time listening to this album as i reviewed it for a prior project i did and there is also the fact that i just know a lot of these songs really well. There are three main songs that are spearheading this album and those are basically the obvious suspects being the title track, Beat It and Billie Jean and those songs are all fantastic. There were some songs that i was not too thrilled (pun intended) over but i thought that there wasn't a single bad song though. This is still a great album and definitely shows off Michael Jackson's talent real well.
Best Song: Beat It
Worst Song: The Girl Is Mine
Side note: Last Michael Jackson album, meaning:
1. Thriller
2. Bad
3. Off The Wall

Scott 2, like his 4th album, was certainly interesting. It had a pretty decent mix of covers and some originals (though the covers did take center stage). The music here honestly feels like a mix of Frank Sinatra and Leonard Cohen in a lot of ways being the former in music and the latter in vocals. I will still say that the music is as solid as ever being a slightly less jazzy Frank Sinatra like i stated. I will still say that the lyrics are absolutely insane here especially in the song Next. And the funny thing is, it is partly Walker's fault and the fault of some of the other writers because a lot of the songs were written by very different people. Nevertheless, it's still a solid album but i definitely prefer Scott 4.
Best Song: Come Next Spring
Worst Song: Next

A Night At The Opera is the Queen album to me. Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack were very good albums too but this one tells you everything you need to know about Queen and that is why it is my favorite. Pretty much everything you could ever want from an album from these guys is all here and then some. You've got your fun melodies and hooks, a fast and fun pace, amazing musicianship with the piano and guitars being big show stealers, and super grandiose vocals from each singer which complement these songs perfectly. I still really enjoy the other two Queen albums on this site but it is still clear that when i think of Queen, I think of this album.
Best Song: Bohemian Rhapsody
Worst Song: The Prophets Song
Side note: Last Queen album so:
1. A Night At The Opera
2. Sheer Heart Attack
3. Queen II

Qui Seme Le Vent Recolte La Tempo was a very fun album. Just like with the title, everything about this album is very French from the rapper currently living there (and at the time too), the lyrics being in French and even a good majority of the comments being in French too. Of course, due to that second point, i can't judge this album's lyrics as i do not speak French but i can praise both the music and the flows as they are both really good. The music has this incredibly fun jazzy Public Enemy vibe to it and this album also has some incredibly smooth flows. I don't have too much else to say about it, it's just a really fun album.
Best Song: Qui Seme Le Vent Recolte La Tempo
Worst Song: Ragga Jam

What's That Noise is an album i did want to like but due to many issues it suffers from, i just can't really like it. This is probably one of the most 80s electronic albums to ever exist. A lot of it just sounds like it would come from an Amiga which makes sense considering this duo was involved in making a game called Top Banana (I don't recommend looking it up since it is one of the ugliest games of all time). This album just suffers from a lot of issues from feeling directionless at points, to having grating vocals, to sounding overly fuzzy. I can't completely fail it since when the album isn't having these issues, the songs can genuinely be super fun but more often than not, these issues will always be there.
Best Song: My Telephone
Worst Song: Not Paid Enough

Sound Affects was actually a very fun album and quite a bit better than i was expecting. I initially didn't get a very good first impression of it as i thought that it was just gonna be a very thin sounding album with not much going for it. But it actually ended up being a very fun punk record and definitely different sounding enough from all the other Paul Weller stuff and generally better sounding than both his solo work and his stuff with the Style Council, The guitars were easily the main show stealer as they were fast, frenetic, heavy enough and all that good stuff. This album was a super nice surprise and one i'm glad i got to hear before i died.
Best Song: Set The House Ablaze
Worst Song: Pretty Green

Technique is a fine album but i wouldn't say that it's on the same level as Low-Life. Hearing Low-Life really did raise my expectations for this band as initially i just thought of them as the Blue Monday band and nothing else but that album really opened my eyes to their sheer talent. This album though, is pretty much just like all the other new wave bands of the time. It just lacks a lot of the cool melodies the prior album had. That's not to say that the album is bad though. The vocals were solid, the music was also pretty good especially during the back half and i will say the album had a good pace. Still solid but well below their earlier effort.
Best Song: Mr. Disco
Worst Song: Fine Time

You know, for an album literally titled "This Is Hardcore", It sure didn't sound very hardcore to me but i don't care, i still think it's a great album. I guess if there is a hardcore aspect to this album, then it would be the guitars as they could be decently heavy at points. The album had some absolutely great melodies throughout all amplified with the great instrumentation. I also thought that Jarvis Cooker's vocals were great here too. The lyrics were also pretty funny at points too, especially the one where Cooker claims to have the same initials as Jesus Christ (which is true if you haven't noticed). Despite the blatant lying with the title, I enjoyed my time with this album quite a lot.
Best Song: Party Hard
Worst Song: TV Movie

Get Rich Or Die Tryin' is an album that falls into a very similar camp that Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle falls into being that the production is great but the lyrics, not so much. I have of course been aware of this album mainly because it is one of the best selling hip hop albums of all time (13th best selling to be exact) so i definitely expected a fair lot from it. However, while the production was absolutely fantastic with it being catchy and hard-hitting. The lyrics aren't all that great. They are a little better than the album mentioned above but seem to rely far to much on just dropping the n-bomb over and over. Real shame too because if the lyrics were better, it could have been a 4 or possibly even a 5 star album but that just refused to happen.
Best Song: In Da Club
Worst Song: Wanksta

Geez, poor Method Man First the song named after him was the worst song in the combined Wu-Tang Clan album then he has the worst album out of all the Wu-Tang Clan members on this list. Everything on offer is weaker than all of the other Wu-Tang Clan albums from the lyrics, to the vocals/rapping and even the production and backing tracks even if they still are pretty decent but the issue is the fact that they put so much on the tracks that just does not work at all. The flows are decently solid too and may be the best thing about the album but i do not think that they are enough to save it. This is easily the worst among the Wu-Tang Clan stuff and a disappointing end for my listening experience with them.
Best Song: I Get My Thang In Action
Worst Song: Sub Crazy

Mr. Tambourine Man is a pretty solid album and definitely a groundbreaking one for the time it was released. This album was one of the earliest American psychedelic rock albums that hoped to challenge the popularity of the Beatles which is probably why i got a very American Beatles vibe from this album. The music itself is certainly pleasant and solid enough for 1965, sure it lacks a lot of the more interesting elements that the Byrds would later use in albums like Fifth Dimension and Younger Than Yesterday. It's not an album i have too much to say about so all i can say is that it's a solid and very important album.
Best Song: It's No Use
Worst Song: The Bells Of Rhymney

The Poet was a really good album. I always enjoy those soul albums that give off a lot of the same vibes as Stevie Wonder mainly with the music as they use all the same instruments in their music and the vocals. While i don't think Womack ever really goes all the way in the same way Stevie does, I still thought that this album was a really good listen. This was one of those albums that shined the brightest during the back half. The music here was great and i really liked Womack's vocals and in general, these songs were just some incredibly beautiful listens. There were a few points where it felt like the album was dragging but overall, it was still a great listen.
Best Song: Where Do We Go From Here
Worst Song: So Many Sides Of You

Fuzzy honestly surprised me with how good it was. I have never really heard of this band, and honestly, I'm shocked to find out that it even is a band as i thought this was Grant Lee's real name and i thought it would be a solo career of sorts but nope, It turns out his real name is Grant Lee Phillips and this is just his band. Anyways, I really liked this album for the main reason i like a lot of these unexpected surprises, and that is that the album is super relaxing which works for me since i got home from an 8 hour shift before listening to this. The guitars are great, Grant Lee Phillips' vocals are fantastic and i quite liked the songwriting. All around, a really nice album that I'm glad i got to hear before i die.
Best Song: Wish You Well
Worst Song: You Just Have to Be Crazy

Palo Congo definitely wasn't my thing at all. When i was going into this album i was definitely expecting something like Kenya by Machito where it would be this big band sort of album with a small Cuban touch but what i ended up getting instead was this highly Cuban sounding album with a small touch of jazz. I can definitely see what these guys were going for and they definitely do seem like solid musicians but i just feel like it got way too repetitive as nothing really that noteworthy happened in any of these songs which kinda just makes them just all blend together and feel drawn out even at 40 minutes. I can't give this album a 1 star because it wasn't the worst thing ever but this isn't something i would recommend to anyone outside of the most diehard lovers of Cuban music.
Best Song: Rhapsodia Del Maravilloso
Worst Song: Billumba-Palo Congo

This Nation's Saving Grace is a pretty good album and definitely better than the other Fall album that i looked at. This one is definitely an album that has quite a lot of elements to it, some good and some not so good. I will say that the music is quite a lot better than The Infotainment Scan as it is generally better produced and mixed and they don't pick as many annoying things to use in the songs although some are still there. The vocals are better too but not by a whole lot and they still sound pretty weird, and i mean every vocal part that was used. That being said though, this album still had plenty of fun rhythms and was a good album despite it's drawbacks.
Best Song: Petty (Thief) Lout
Worst Song: Gut Of The Quantifier

The Atomic Mr Basie is the best big band jazz can possibly get. I have always heard this guy's name and always heard good things about him but i never remembered any of his songs that well. However, i'm glad i did though as these songs are so good. They have that fun jazz energy that i could want without ever feeling disorganized or messy and it is all done by some great musicians from Count Basie on the piano to Eddie Jones on bass and all the trumpet, trombone and reeds players all adding to one very fun experience. This is also one of those albums where while the regular tracks don't stand out on their own but as they come together, it makes for a great listening experience. Got nothing else to say, just the best jazz album here and the best album from the 50s here.
Best Song: Fantail
Worst Song: Duet