Rated 8/10
HL: “Junk”, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, “Every Night”, “Man We Was Lonely”,
Maybe some of the critical roasting of this 1st draft of an album is justified, but I love it still <3
Favourite song is “Junk”, an off-cut from the Beatles days (I’ll even forgive that they played it twice!)
November 15, 2023
Rated 6/10
Good but I still don’t fully get why he has 7 records on this list (aside from The Queen is Dead, admittedly a gem). Maybe it’s because I was exposed to the Smiths/Morrissey relatively late in my life
I do like Morrissey’s vocal performance throughout, however. Sounds more assured of the musical direction than in Your Arsenal, but also less musically diverse as a result. Ya win some you lose some
HL: “Irish Blood English Heart”, “You Know I Couldn’t Last”, “…Crashing Bores”
November 19th, 2023
Rated 8/10
Very good, expected more odes to the great briny sea ⚓️
But H.M.S Fable won me over nonetheless
Oasis 🤝 Elvis Costello 🤝 The La’s
HL: “Captain’s Table”, “Comedy”, “Natalie’s Party”, “Cornish Town”
November 18th, 2023
Rated 6/10
HL: “Lamplight”, title track, “Melody Fair”, “The British Opera”
A pleasant album. An hour of pleasantries
November 15, 2023 (later)
HL: “Amsterdam”, “Les vieux”, “Le plat pays”, “Jef”, “En suivant”
C’est bon
3.5
November 17th, 2023
Rated 2/10
The best country rap album I have heard, 10/10
HL: “Bawitdaba”, “Cowboy”, “Welcome 2 the Party”
November 10th, 2023
But honestly, I can’t let this review slide without mentioning Kid Rock has a pretty great band behind him; the choir in “Wasting Time” and the funk in the title track are almost something, I almost forgot at times that they were being used to back up Kid Rock rapping about how he loves meth and hates women (paraphrasing)
“I Am the Bullgod” is bottom-shelf cock rock, so imagine my delight when it showed up twice in the tracklist
While I can argue that it’s not a good representation of hip-hop, country, classic rock or nu metal, the delight Kid Rock seems to take in tossing them together is the one reason I’m not going to decry the inclusion of the album on this list. At least not on this post
Rated 8/10
In a quick flipthrough of the book, one can find a certain critic, Chris Bryans, that champions a lot of British artists I never heard of before starting this challenge. Yesterday’s Wild Beasts. Today’s Jane Weaver. Since there are barely any albums post-2010 in the book, I’d say he’s part of the reason those selections feel refreshingly unconventional.
Beyoncé. Taylor Swift. And HOOKWORMS
Enter Modern Kosmology: the reason why I went down the Chris Bryans rabbit hole. Very little about this- the vocals, the synths, the guitars- suggests it was recorded in 2017; rather, it sounds like an alternate-dimension 1972. What’s more, it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia article 🤯
Yet despite (or in spite of) all that, this album is a gem. It’s serene but danceable, dated yet futuristic. It ends on the same synth bass where it begins, meaning it’s an almost perfect loop. (It fades at the end)
Thanks for the rec, Chris
HL: title track, “The Lightning Back”, “Valley”, “Ravenspoint”, “The Architect”
November 9, 2023
Rated 6/10
HL: “All the King’s Men”, “We Still Got the Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues”, title track, “The Fun Powder Plot”
At first I was annoyed that this seemed to be built from the ashes of removed albums by Muse, Arcade Fire, and Antony & the Johnsons.
I see now that it’s a different beast (lol) entirely. The difference between the dreamy instrumental soundscapes and the frontman’s voice is a bit oil-and-water for me, but that’s also what makes it stand out
And it wouldn’t be the first album to be a 3 today, 5 tomorrow
November 8th, 2023
Rated 8/10
HL: "Fast Car", "Talkin' Bout a Revolution", "Mountains O' Things", "If Not Now...", "Behind the Wall"
Rated 10/10
HL: "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe", "Money Trees", "Poetic Justice", "m.A.A.d city", "Swimming Pools", "I'm Dying of Thirst"
not 1st listen, which is good. I definitely misunderstood it the first listen (in 2022), since Kendrick's detachment as the narrator meant I didn't realize how autobiographical GKMC really is.
I always did appreciate the cinematic structure though, and the build-up to the title tracks (especially "m.A.A.d city") is as chilling as ever.
Both this and TPAB have a song that sounded awful to me the first listen, but they have only continued to rise in stature. Those would be "For Free?" and "Backseat Freestyle"
On that note, GKMC is a 5 star that probably wouldn’t have been, had I been introduced to it today
November 6th, 2023
Rated 6/10
I feel like this The The has less musical personality than the last The The (Soul Mining), though The The continues to be an idiosyncratic diversion in 80's synth-art-pop.
Unexpected Neneh Cherry in "Slow Train to Dawn"
HL: "Heartland", "Angels of Deception", "Slow Train"
November 5, 2023
Rated 10/10
Alright, going from one of the worst-rated to one of the highest-rated should be a cinch
yeh it's a classic
Rated 6/10
November 3rd, 2023
Now this is a Halloween record
Straight from the 1001 Albums Generator Hall of Shame, it's the Birthday Party!
And I honestly can't tell at this point if I liked it.
I didn't NOT like it, if that's any consolation. Though it has some common ground with my personal least favourite albums, in particular the abrasiveness (Public Image Ltd.), the wailing (Now We Got Worry) and the grisly lyrics (Antichrist Superstar), I just can't hate it.
Maybe it's because I know Junkyard already gets its fair share of hate, and I must try harder to appreciate it!
Or the simpler answer, is that the scuzzy blues and intense, theatrical performance from Cave strikes an uneasy balance that's oddly fun.
Probably won't go around recommending it, but I bought it on Bandcamp
HL: “6" Gold Blade”, “She’s Hit”, “Big-Jesus-Trash-Can”
Finally, shout out to the biggest statistical anomalies of this website. The Who & Nick Cave have some of the most albums of any artist on this list, yet it took me almost 600 albums to see either one of them. Guess I needed to complete all the Sonic Youths and Leonard Cohens to “unlock” them 🔓
HL: "I Love You", "Junkie", "Good Morning", "Hard On For Jesus"
Fine & dandy
Rated 8/10
Highlights: titular, “Good’s Gone”, “It’s Not True”, “The Ox”, “The Kids Are Alright”, “I Can’t Explain” (bonus), “Shout” (bonus)
Harmonies in songs like “Much too Much” hint at their future heights, but I’m having much fun diving deeper into their “garage” phase.
I’ve known for a long time this is considered the progenitor of hard rock/metal to come, and I’ve heard the title track often enough to become desensitized to its cultural impact.*
Still, the detuned guitars in “The Ox” at the end of “It’s Not True” still sound pretty far removed from their British Invasion contemporaries
“The Kids Are Alright” is a great Byrds song. & the weak stabs at American blues and r&b are also there, but EVERYONE was doing it
*I prefer the version catchily described as (Monaural Version With Guitar Overdubs), the dirtier sound really suits the song
** Nov. 1 / 23 **
Rated 8/10
October 31, 2023
Not first listen, but I recall the spookiness may be more than enough for today
Wow my first Radiohead phase was longer ago than I thought, I don’t remember any of these songs! (Pun not intended) ‘Cept “Pyramid Song” and “Pulk / Pull Revolving Doors” :)
Also, who knew I’d get my trombone fix with the closing track?
It’s transitory, like an elevator going to a strange new planet, but still pretty fun and inventive. To think there’s a whole song that’s 100% a backwards recording, and my first thought is just yep- that’s Radiohead being Radiohead.
HL: “Like Spinning Plates”, “Life in a Glasshouse”, “Pyramid Song”, “Morning Bell/Amnesiac”
Rated 4/10
HL: “East Easy Rider”, “Safesurfer”, “Beautiful Love”, “Las Vegas Basement”
The sound collage in ”Western Front”, the Beatles energy in “Beautiful Love”, the furious sax in “You”, and the marimba of “Drowning” all imply an album I should be interested in.
SHOULD.
But it’s not doing it for me today (or yesterday either, since I kinda broke it into two halves). “Leperskin” and “Pristeen” are some examples of songs I was bored with on the 1st listen.
Maybe I goofed by playing a Teardrop Explodes song before the album to prime myself on this unknown-to-me chapter of British post-punk. The difference in enjoyment between that single and the first couple tracks of Peggy Suicide was stark
November 2nd, 2023
HL: “Compares”, “I Am Stretched On Your Grave”, “Three Babies”, title track
Glad this is on the list, it’s a jamboree of different genres and influences, but it’s also quite emotional and bleak (especially now).
I won’t say that we should be hearing The Lion and the Cobra instead of this one here, but I personally got more enjoyment out of that (even more) uneven debut.
Maybe it’s because of its rougher edges that get somewhat sanded over here, musically if not lyrically.
“Three Babies” is incredibly sad
Also, nothing quite like some Irish trad on a hip-hop beat
3.5
Rated 10/10
HL: "Maaaaaaps", "Rich", "Pin", "Y Control"
This is YYY #3 for me, after It's Blitz (2009) and Cool it Down (2022). Thus, I strongly suspected I'd enjoy their debut as well, and was proven right today.
Every album has had a song I enjoy head-and-shoulders above the rest ("Maps" here); I don't know if that's a criticism, however, because there's still plenty more to like:
"Pin", part bubblegum, part chewing tobacco,
the melodic noise in "Y Control" & "Rich"
the dance-punk party of "Black Tongue" & "Date with the Night",
& the gentle wind down of the last 2 songs
Hell I’ll even take the weird breakdown in the hilariously named “No No No”
October 28, 2023
Rated 10/10
HL: "About a Girl", "The Man Who Sold the World", "Pennyroyal Tea", "On a Plain", "Lake of Fire", "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"
Now I'm not a big fan of Nirvana or anything
But it has accordion! And cello!
5*
Biggest surprise was how good the Meat Puppets covers were (esp. "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire"). I've heard most of the rest of this album already, in high school
October 28, 2023
