Reviews by brndnnll

I am not familiar with Billy Bragg outside of the Mermaid Avenue records he did with Wilco. I have always been curious about listening to his country punk protest records. This seems like a great start, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The vibe, the urgency, beautiful songs.

I think this is my first time listening to Faust--which is surprising. I understand that this is likely their most accessible record. It's good for sure, but I'd be more interested in listening to some of their records that are less accessible. Cool band it seems like.

An interesting experimental pop record. More of this stuff please.

I assumed I would be somewhat familiar with this, but wasn't at all, so it seems like I never actually listened to this record at all. It's a lot better than I was expecting and different than I was expecting. There is more ambient/noisy sounding tracks on it which is a good thing. Liked this way more than OK Computer for sure.

Fela is always great. Zombie is a classic track and I have always enjoyed this record. Listened to the extended version with the bonus tracks on streaming. Great record.

My second Sunday in a row with an Echo and the Bunnymen record--I'm not complaining. Not as great as their other records on this list, but still pretty excellent and an enjoyable listen.

I listened to this record a ton after it came out. It's as close to a personal classic as you can get. Love it forever.

Never listened to Jungle Brothers before (afaik). Not a bad record at all, golden age hip hop, it grooves for sure, fun listen.

Fourth R.E.M. album that's come up on this thing, which seems like too many. Regardless, this was good, a lot less rocking and more of a crawling deliberate record with some great standout songs.

A really great collection of timeless songs recorded by an incredible singer. Just a wonderful album to listen to at any point. Classics all around.

Maybe the last great Metallica record?

Tough to get much better than Kraftwerk. Pretty much everything they put out is flawless, particularly the few picked as essential for this list. 5 stars.

Echo And The Bunnymen continue to be one of the bands that my appreciation for has increased with this exercise. This is a great album with a lot of catchy songs. Really enjoyed it.

Another Elvis Costello record... I think at this point I can safely say I don't think I'll ever understand the love for this guy. He is just pretty meh. I definitely thought this album art was an AI generated image when I saw it.

I had never heard of Skepta and was unfamiliar with the Grime genre. I had read it's EDM, but this seems more like dirty hip-hop to me. I really enjoyed this record, great energy, flow, and had definitely heard a couple tracks before. This record was a pleasant surprise, very much enjoyed it.

Kind of surprised to see this band on this list, but if they were going to be included, this is certainly the obvious album. I remember when this was released and never got in to it as a whole, though I thought Calexico had a great sound and I loved the first track "Sunken Waltz" a ton. It was cool to revisit this, because they do have a great sound and it's a lot more varied and interesting than I was expecting. Some great instrumentation. Really enjoyed this, who would have thought?

An all time classic reggae record. Always fun.

This isn't my favorite style of music, but this was fun nonetheless.

I could listen to only records like this and be perfectly happy. Truly excellent through and through.

I had low expectations just based on the name of this band, but this was wonderful. Beautiful and discordant and melodic and organic. A lovely record that honestly sounds great. Psychedelic for sure. Absolutely loved this.