Reviews by gingerninja155

Charming little album here by Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel fame. This is the first solo album for him of 3 I’ve rolled for this project, following the duo’s famous Bridge over Troubled Water. While both are great Folk albums in their own right, I thought that Self Titled by Paul Simon is more adventurous, has a lot more variety than the very calm Bridge, and actually enjoyed it slightly more. They’re still comparable of course, but I liked how many different places this album attempted to go, and found it to mostly be a good call with every song. My favorites of the bunch this time were “Mother and Child Reunion” and “Armistice Day”. Nothing absolutely wowed me on this one, but every song being so happy and full of joy is really felt, and the multiple different vibes from song to song are really felt. From what I believe is a flute on “Duncan”, to the very Jazzy, mostly violin laden “Hobo’s Blues”, Paul was not afraid to take some risks with this one, and as previously mentioned, it makes every song feel fresh and memorable. Also worth mentioning is that it’s just pretty surprisingly funny at times, and the lyrics, as well as some of the song names and concepts, caught me off guard a bit. The very first lyrics to “Duncan” being “Couple in the next room, bound to win a prize”, sung in Paul’s down to Earth and calm voice, are so comically out of place with what’s actually being said, and it’s fantastic. I like some humor in my Folk albums, and this one has it in spades. So, while it’s still not exactly the type of music I listen to very often, this one is still going to stick with me for a little while longer. Cool album art too. Bro just kind of looks like a bit of a badass in that outfit, not going to lie to you. Good stuff, very excited for the other 2 Paul Simon albums.

This is the one with “Psycho Killer”!!!! Let’s freaking go. Finally, some good food this week. This is the second Talking Heads album I have rolled so far out of 4, following Remain in Light. Talking Heads is one of those bands where I’ve never bothered playing an album from top to bottom, but whenever I hear something new, I end up adding it to my frequent rotation. I’ve used that line a bunch already, and I’m going continue using it whenever applicable. Lucky for me, by the end of this journey, I’ll have heard at least 4 complete albums from these guys. As if to prove my point, the only song from Talking Heads 77 I’d heard of up until now is their magnum opus itself, “Psycho Killer”. Of course that one is going to have to be my favorite, I’m not insane. It’s peak music, and I even love some of the covers, especially the one by Cage The Elephant. But I’m not going to let my love for a single song sway how I rank the album as a whole. So, how is Talking Heads 77?? Let’s talk about it. Spoiler alert: It's great!! Comparable to Remain in Light, and the Deluxe Edition actually adds some of my favorite songs on the album, on top of still not even being over an hour long, which is just perfect. Any album with a Deluxe Edition that only adds a few songs is perfectly fine by me to listen to for this project. This is absolutely a Talking Heads album, complete with David Byrne's absolutely iconic vocal stims. He really does have to have one of the most recognizable voices in music, and I love him for that. Besides "Psycho Killer", my favorite songs on this album are the last 2 songs on the album, "I Feel It in My Heart" and "Sugar on My Tongue". I'm always going to be in the mood for some Talking Heads. They're the perfect example of a band that consistently put out 4 star albums. I'm always going to want to listen to it, it doesn't blow me away, but it's consistent in the fact that it's always almost perfect. That's just what I need it to be at the end of the day. Been having a rough last couple of days on the site, so this was exactly what I needed today as well. Side Note: Every time David unleashes a "YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA", an angel gets its wings. Peak.
Psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?
Fa-fa-fa-fa, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa, fa, better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run away
Oh-oh-oh-oh, aye-ya-ya-ya-ya

The monkeys paw really and truly unfurled with this one. I wanted a unique album that wasn’t just mediocre British Punk or American Rock, and in a sense I got it with this album. On the other hand, I didn’t really care for this album all that much. Listen, I had to give an album a 1 star review yesterday for the first time in 108 albums. I ended that review writing that “All I can do at this point is hope I get a better album tomorrow.” When I checked out the reviews on this one, I was not the happiest camper. However, it’s completely understandable why the rating is so low. I don’t speak French, and neither do a majority of the people rating these. I don’t really love the way Jacques sings here. I didn’t get much entertainment out of this one. But, it’s getting somewhat of a pass this time. Yesterday’s album was in English and I outright detested it. This one was at least fun, gracefully short, and has the built in excuse of being in a foreign language. It’s not what I’m looking for, but it’s fun. Would that be a reason that a majority of reviewers are going to rate this one pretty low?? Yeah, for sure, obviously. But, you can tell without speaking French that Mr. Brel is a talented singer, even though this isn’t really my thing at all. I think my favorite song was “Les jardins du casino”. Why?? Don’t know. Doesn’t matter. The instruments were fun enough throughout the album, and the obvious passion put into this man’s craft elevates it to at least a 2 for me. Not nearly enough for a 3, but I can at least see the reason someone from France in the 60’s would go crazy for something like this. It’s not bad, but it’s not for me, and it’s probably not for most people in general honestly. But, I can see why it’s here, even if I’d have liked another Pearl Jam album or 2 instead. This is my first experience with a “Chanson” on the site. Humorously, of the 6 listed on the site, every single one of them has a 2 star rating, which will likely end up matching my own takes on all of them if they end up sounding anything like this one. One of them is even in the bottom 20 rated albums on the website. Knowing my luck this week, I’m going to end up rolling it pretty soon, or just another Chanson in general. I can’t say I’m the most excited about any of them. The French make outstanding Electronica, but I’m not so fond of the Chanson from what little I’ve heard so far, and it would seem I’m not in the minority when it comes to that take either. We’ll see when the site decides to spring Chanson 2/6 on me so I can verify whether or not they all kind of sound like this or not. Until then, this one is a very comfortable 2 stars out of 5.

There’s a point at the end of the second disk of this album where the singer, Billy, outcries that he doesn’t know if he can go on. I think that line really spoke to me on a sort of spiritual level. It was a direct allusion of what I had to go through making it that far into the album. This album was fucking miserable tosh, and I resent the entire country of England for producing it. I was going to give this a 2, but it went on and on and on and on and on and by the time I got to the ending, I couldn’t turn it off fast enough. I really hope the original pressing only had 1 disc, because Spotify has a second disk which is even worse and makes the experience last for well over an hour, which is another point against this album. I rather enjoyed the cool violin on “Train Train”, but dude, the vocals on this album are terrible. If I never have to hear a grown man sing about being a big boy again, it will be too soon. God, I was hoping for something good this morning. Instead, I got this. Bad. Bad album. He’s got a second one on here as well. Please help me. The worst part is that I’m actually in a great mood today, this blokes god forsaken singing just makes me want to vent and get it all out. So, for the free therapy, I thank this album for being as bad as it is. I’m going to go through the other 1 stars again real quick to see if something is finally going to join them. This one might be worthy. It makes an excellent case for being overwhelming shit. I’m upset that the other aspects of the album like the guitar playing, violin and brass are pretty cool so I can’t outright detest it entirely. I do not relate to this album in any way, and with this whiny, annoying singer, I absolutely do not care to either. “Train Train” was bearable, so that’s my pick for best one on this album. Now let’s never speak of this album again so I can get on with the rest of my life. Please. All I can do at this point is hope I get a better album tomorrow.

Well, this is it. Another milestone on my journey to the end of the list. I’ve finally listened to at least 1 solo album for all 3 of the Beatles on here (Sorry Ringo, I’m sure your solo career is great), as well as an actual Beatles album with Revolver. I have enjoyed every one of them so far, and ranking them would maybe be a bit unfair to John, as he didn’t get to evolve his music past 1980 like everyone else did. However, I think that out of what I have heard so far, Paul is my favorite without a shadow of a doubt, George surprised the hell out of me with how much I enjoyed his music, and John of course is legendary in his own right. However, I don’t think this album starts getting truly great until the middle, and there are a few songs I’d skip here on my way to the gold on another listen. This is going to be one of many acts of musical blasphemy I’ve committed so far, but I’ll say it anyway. I don’t love “Imagine”. I respect the HELL out of it, I love the message, I admire it for how great it is. It’s a beautiful song, and a great song at that, an absolute classic. That’s the important thing. But, and this is a big but, I’m so tired of listening to it. I’ve heard that song constantly throughout the highs and lows of my life, and I’d never call it bad or overrated, but man am I tired of it. Additionally, hearing that song with its jovial messaging and positive attitude on the same album as “How Do You Sleep?”, a very old fashioned diss track against Paul, is actually hilarious. One big thing I’ll give this album is that it’s not all just soft rock classics. A slight one up on Harrison’s album, this has an incredible mix of softer and harder songs, adding some much appreciated variety to John’s usual sound. “I Don’t Wanna Be A Soldier Mama”, and “How Do You Sleep?” add some great, edgier bangers to the mix, the ladder being my favorite song on the album. And again, the fact that it’s a diss track against Paul is just crazy to me. A fascinating song all around. These are songs that were, in my opinion, clear signs at an attempt to branch out from his usual Beatley music into a darker, more raw sound that really, REALLY worked out great. I wasn’t even aware he could make songs that cool admittedly. All of the Beatles have songs and albums like this that surprise me every single time I hear them and just absolutely rock. I have a rather warped sense of what I expected the Beatles to sound like. At least, I did before this project. Now I seriously love them. There’s a valid reason they’re generally considered to be the best. Overall, this was a pretty solid album. Some skips, some total bangers, and one all time classic, it’s pretty good!!

I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I checked out the Expanded Version of this album. Google said it was best listened to in full, and that the regular version was very toned down and incomplete. I don't know why I listened to Google. This was not a very good album. Generally I try to listen to an album more than once throughout the day to really let it sink its teeth into me and let me appreciate it more. Often times, that works. On rare occasions like this, even listening to it once was tough enough that I didn't want to give it another go. Wasn't a big fan of the vocals, wasn't a big fan of the Jazz itself, just straight up was not a fan of this one in general. Not going to dock it for being a Live album, but when I hear things like "Haha, oops, not very comfortable singing this one, I'll try to do it justice though", I want to rip my hair out. I really kind of just picked a song at random for my "Best of" playlist. I don't remember what it was, and this album isn't worth the time of day to open Spotify and find out. It's just more boring Jazz that I didn't have to listen to before I died. All that being said, it's still better than some albums, and STILL didn't make me miserable enough to give it a 1. That should really tell you everything you need to know about the kind of albums I give a 1, but I digress. This was my weekend album, and I'm writing this one on the Sunday night before my next album drops in a bit, so by this point I largely don't even remember this album all that much in general, and probably for good reason. It was over an hour long of dated, overwhelmingly average Jazz music. I already don't love most Jazz music anyway, but exceptions have been made more than a few times. When this one doesn't even have a particularly high rating on the site, with people who like Jazz substantially more than I ever will, you end up with At Mister Kelly's by Sarah Vaughan. Sorry Sarah, did not enjoy this one very much. It had it's moments though, I remember the piano being kinda cool at moments, so I still won't give it a 1.

Do you ever just listen to an album for the first time from an artist you’re not familiar with, and then suddenly out of nowhere a song comes on that you are instantly familiar with?? You start obsessing over it and wonder where you initially heard it. You take this obsession a step further and start looking up what it sampled, or what it’s been sampled by. When that doesn’t work, you look up what shows and movies it’s been in. Your final resort?? Video games. Jackpot. Going to age myself yet again, but when I was a kid I played the Smackdown vs. Raw series almost religiously, so to be reunited with “The Champ” again after all these years (It was on the 2007 version btw), makes me very happy. God damn is that song catchy. For that reason, it’s got to be my favorite on the album, which is a good a reason as any. Every song on this album slaps. They’re catchy, they’ve got some great features, and here’s the amazing thing. The skits?? Actually funny and non intrusive. I generally always dock points for skits, but for the first time, one of them made me audibly laugh out loud. That was “Heart Street Directions”. See, men are easy to please. You’ve got someone giving directions like “Get off at Dick, make a left on Dick”, and I just instantly start laughing. Juvenile?? Absolutely. Hilarious?? The funniest shit I’ve ever heard personally. The songs at the end, presumably bonus tracks, featuring vocals from people like Biggie and Ice Cube are also just brilliant. Both versions of “Be Easy” in particular are so catchy. Apparently I rate Hip-Hop albums higher than the average listener on the site, and I’m going to be consistent with this one. It was partially produced by MF DOOM, who’s name I don’t get to mention nearly enough. The fact that he doesn’t have any albums on here is legitimately sickening. They call him “Your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper” for a reason. He is my all time favorite, and his hands were clearly all over this album. I’m curious if any other Wu-Tang Clan members have solo albums on here. This is the first one I’ve rolled so far, including getting to listen to this before the actual Wu-Tang Clan itself, something I’m much more familiar with as a whole. Am I seriously going to go against the consensus again and give another Rap album a 5?? Yeah. Yeah, I think I am. I can’t help if it’s catchy. I guess I just love this kind of stuff, who knew, I’m thankful for this site for turning me on to so many absolute bangers like this!!

God awful rapping. Who let the British make Hip-Hop?? They should stop doing that. This was an album where right from the start, with that whiny "It was supposed to be so eeeaaassssyyyyyy" I let out an audible "Oh no" and figured I would be giving this a 1 for the first time in well over 150 albums. I managed to listen to this a few times, and while I still really do want to give it a 1, I was able to get some enjoyment from the story this tells. For being a Rap Opera, it's at least unique enough to warrant having a spot in this book, but man is it not for me. It's basically just about some British blokes terrible day and him trying to find his grand. What makes it interesting is the amount of times he hints at where the money is. Spoiler alert: It was behind his broken TV the entire time, as he'd been complaining about his TV not working for multiple songs. My favorite song here, if you can call it that, was "Not Addicted", simply because I thought the beat was alright. I also kind of liked the back and forth he has with his girl in "Get Out of My House". When this is on in the background, it's not as intrusive as I thought it was the first time I listened through it in shock and terror. I still don't like it, I mean REALLY don't like it, but the 1 star rating is reserved for albums that actively made me miserable, and there's even enough positives to talk about with this one that even though I'm hesitant, I'll give this one a 2.0 on the dot out of 5 and call it a day. I was specifically asking for a more memorable album for better or worse yesterday, so I guess I got what I wanted. This was certainly very memorable, and love it or hate it, I'm going to remember it down the line. So, it's got that going for it. Not in a good way, but it's something going for it at least.

This album is 1 in 1 billion. No really, I feel like I've heard this same album 1 billion times. Vaguely Beatles sounding, but came out after they'd already broken up. This is Rock music that was already dated when it came out. I've never heard of Big Star, as unsurprisingly they weren't big in the USA, but instead were very popular in the UK. I promise I won't rail the album this entire review. It was fine. I liked more than I disliked, but man was this by the books. The only song I would consistently skip was "The India Song", which I found a tad obnoxious. I can compliment the lead singers voice, but I can't say it was unique or impressive. The guitar playing was fine, but only just fine. Nothing stood out here. That's what this album is missing. It wasn't unique in any way, and everything it attempts has already been done 1000000x before it. My favorite song, AKA the one with a bit of a cool solo in it, was "Don't Lie To Me". I've heard more Rock than any other genre, so I'm a bit of a stickler for it when it's just this aggressively average. It makes it really hard to write a review for it that's not just "Yeah, it was fine I guess. There sure were guitars, drums and a singer". But that's about the extent of what I got with this one. Again, didn't hate it. I didn't even dislike it, in fact, but I'm going to forget I even heard it in approximately 1 day when I hopefully roll something more memorable. Whether that be good or bad, we'll see. I've still got 1 more album left to go by Big Star, and it's got a pretty low rating on the site. Oh boy, more of this. Goodie. I'm sure it will be even more memorable than this one was. Sarcasm over. Album was fine, I guess. Next.

The Good: This is the first Radiohead album out of 6 I have rolled for this project. Radiohead kicks ass.
The Bad: This is the lowest rated Radiohead album on the site, and may not be the best starting point for the band.
The Other: It’s still a 5 star album. I loved it anyway.
Ok, so here’s the thing. I’m not the most familiar with this band. My younger brother is a huge fan, and I love what little I’ve heard, but I’ve never actually seeked out Radiohead before. Rolling this one first is a bit odd, because apparently it’s just outtakes from Kid A, an album I haven’t heard yet. Saw some people calling it Kid B for that reason. It’s also weird, because, and I can’t stress this enough, I fucking L O V E this. Radiohead is one of those bands with a near cult like following. Every album they put out people treat like the second coming of Jesus. I’ve rolled some other artists with the same kind of cult like following as Radiohead, but none quite to this extent. And you know what?? I immediately get it. I might join that cult. Thom Yorke is a brilliant singer, a brilliant guitarist, and the rest of the band is great too. I don’t know if the other albums have the same somber vibe as this one, but I love this. It’s got a very Gorillaz feel to it, one of my top 5 favorite bands of all time. I picked the Gorillaz path as a kid, not the Radiohead path, lol. They’re immensely similar, but I would say this is more symphonic and almost astral, focusing on vibes and the art itself more than the vocals and beats. Wouldn’t you know it, this came out the same year as the self titled Gorillaz album. What a killer year for music 2001 was, holy hell. Shit, I’m still coming to grips with this being the lowest rated Radiohead album on the site. Not only would I return to this any day of the week, but picking a favorite song is also borderline impossible. Any album where your favorite song is going to change by the minute is really really good. I don’t know man, it’s a double edged sword giving this one a 5, should I rate it as a high 4 and wait to listen to the other 5 albums to see if this is truly the worst of them, or do I let it ride and potentially have 6 Radiohead albums rated 5 stars. Decisions, decisions. I don’t know man. I loved this from the very first listen, so either it’s an outlier that I’ll end up liking more than the other 5, or I genuinely may have 6 5 star albums lined up whenever I roll Radiohead. Either way, I’m fucking pumped for more of this. I’m jonesing for it. I’m not going to give this one a 4. I get the hype. This is one of the better albums I’ve rolled for this project. While most albums have been enjoyable, this was true art. Peak.

2 weekend albums in a row from The Boss. I can get down with that. This is the 2nd out of 5 Bruce Springsteen albums I have rolled, following Darkness on the Edge of Town last Friday. I opened that review stating that Bruce was an artist I knew nothing about, and couldn't name any of his songs, despite hearing about him a lot growing up and knowing how popular he is. Now that one week has passed, I'm substantially more familiar with him now, and I can confidently tell you that I enjoy his music. I can see why he's got 5 albums on here. Nothing has absolutely wowed me yet, but it’s good. I don’t think any of these albums are going to get a 4 or 5 from me personally, but I’ve appreciated both this and Darkness about the same, with Darkness taking a slight edge over Born to Run. While Born to Run is slightly tighter, I thought that per capita, Darkness has the better songs, and a better variety of softer and harder Rock that Born to Run is lacking. I still liked Born to Run, but it was just a little too light for my personal enjoyment. I don’t know if I’m going to make it a tradition to start ranking artists with multiple albums like I’ve done for Zep, but so far while I’ve enjoyed both Springsteen albums, I liked Darkness more. My favorite songs on Born to Run include the title track, “Born To Run”, the Jazz filled closer “Jungleland”, and my personal favorite song on the album “Backstreets”. Based on Spotify listens, I would guess that song is pretty underrated. It’s got a great piano to open with, starts off very light and gets progressively heavier, and ends with Bruce belting one out. It tells a pretty neat story as well. All that being said, it’s got a similar tone to the rest of the songs on the album, while Darkness has more variety. As a whole, I wasn’t crazy about 3/8 of the songs on this album, which is almost half. For that reason, as well as the previously mentioned reasons, it’s going to get a solid 3 stars. Did I enjoy it?? Yes. Would I return to it?? Maybe if it was already on, but at least I’m for sure going to be able to instantly recognize a Bruce Springsteen song out in the wild because of this project. So that’s a bonus. 3 more Springsteen albums to go, let’s see what else you’ve got, Boss.

Finding it very hard not to rate this a 1 and move on, but I enjoyed it enough that it wasn't as miserable as the other 1 star albums, so it's a 2.1/5. I have a very consistent history at this point with The Velvet Underground. I just can not stand this band unfortunately. I tried, but I could only listen to this one completely once and then I just had to have a pallet cleanser and listen to anything else. The worst part is that I really do love Lou Reed. I just kind of hate his early stuff like this. This is the second album I've rolled by them, following the banana album, which I had heard good things about and I was at least able to listen to throughout the entire day, but bound rather boring, unmemorable and just unremarkable. My issues with this one stem a lot deeper. What the hell is up with the sound quality here?? I feel like it's on purpose, but this entire album sounds like it was produced from the perspective of a bit crushed blender. It's choppy, hard to understand, repetitive, art for arts sake and sadly it just kind of sucks. I think anyone who really enjoys this album might just be either an ENORMOUS fan of this band, or are simply pretending to sound like they're better than everyone else. God damn, this one was rough. Begrudgingly, I'm going to give my favorite song to "I Heard Her Call My Name". This album narrowly avoided getting one star, and I'm just super not interested in listening to the third and final album by The Velvet Underground whenever the bot decided to spring that on me. At this point, I'm fine with it being sooner rather than later just so I can get it over with. If it's my weekend album I'm going to be upset though. We'll see, I'm rambling again because it's difficult for me to praise a single thing in this album. The guitar playing is fine sometimes, that's all I got. Ciao for now, more tomorrow.

Now, it might sound super obvious, but a good rule of thumb for an album is to have both the first and last song stand out. They say that when you’re watching a movie, reading a book, listening to an album, etc, the things that sticks with you the most are the beginning and end. Over the course of my time with this project, I’ve noticed that for my playlist consisting of my single favorite song from each album, I heavily tend to enjoy the opener or the closer the most. Unsurprisingly, this album is no different. According to Spotify, the big hits of Dig Me Out are the first three songs on the album. However, my personal favorite was the closer, “Jenny”. What a great way to end an album. That song just totally rocked. Now, this is the only Sleater-Kinney album on the list, and I can’t say I know much about them as a whole. Song wise I don’t know any of them. The only fun little factoid about this band that I know is that they opened for and have played with Pearl Jam more than a few times over the years. Any friend of Pearl Jam is a friend of mine. Listening to this album for more than a few minutes and you can definitely see why they’re so close. The prime definition of Riot Grrrl playing with the often politically charged lyrics of Eddie Vedder make for a good 1 2 combo. Albums like this are an important inclusion on the list, as they paved the way and influenced women everywhere to rock out, motivating them to take up a fight against important causes and inspiring change. It might not be my absolute favorite sound, but it’s still good enough as it is and succeeds in what it’s trying to do. An important inclusion on the list that I’m happy got chosen. I can’t say I’d really return to this one very often personally, but I’m happy that I got to spend the day listening to it. I find the lead singers voice to be a little much at times, but the instrumentation is fantastic, and some songs, notably the intro to “One More Hour” actually really remind me of Pearl Jam in places, which is pretty cool. I’m comfortably going to give this one a 3/5. It was pretty enjoyable throughout. Nothing new or breathtaking, but good.

Led Zeppelin is back. Much to my surprise, the only song I was familiar with was the opener, which in my humble opinion carries this album heavily. Without it, I would actually rate this album a solid 3. As it stands though, much like Jimi Hendrix, even Led Zeppelin songs that I don’t recognize are still great. While my favorite song is undoubtedly “Immigrant Song”, which is a timeless classic, I did also thoroughly enjoy “Since I’ve Been Loving You” and “Tangerine”. I’m actually kind of baffled to not have heard of literally any of these songs before. I’ve been listening to Led Zeppelin my entire life, so to find this many deep cuts was actually a bit surprising to me, especially for one of their numbered albums. On the site, this is the second lowest rated of the Led Zeppelin albums, and yet still one of the highest rated albums on the site in general. For me, so far, I have rolled 3/5 Led Zeppelin albums. My rankings so far would have to be this as my least favorite, followed by Physical Graffiti, and then Led Zeppelin 2. Still to go are 1 and 4, the ladder of which is undoubtedly going to be my favorite. I don’t know man, I just found this one kind of whelming as a whole. Like, I see why 3 isn’t talked about as much as the more praised albums like 4. It definitely paved the way, but it’s not nearly as good. It’s Led Zeppelin, so it is still better than most of the albums I’ve heard so far on the site, but admittedly I’m largely going to forget this one compared to their other albums. I would DEFINITELY not call it disappointing, but it was kind of fillery. As previously stated though, Led Zeppelin filler is still totally killer, even though I don’t think a lot of these songs rank up their with the all time greats. Plus, it gave me a few to add to the frequent rotation. Always a bonus. This one is going to get a 4.2/5 for me. Still outstanding by the standard definition, but a little underwhelming by Led Zeppelin standards.

Welcome back to the generator, The Kinks. When I last rolled this band, I was given Village Green and admittedly found it rather underwhelming. Too much like a worse Beatles. Still nowhere near bad, but nothing was very memorable. Clearly, later down the road, The Kinks evolved into whatever this is here. This might not make sense but the singer, Ray Davies, has such a voice where even though I’m confident I’ve never heard any of these songs before, they just feel very welcoming and familiar. I was going to give this album a 4 half way in. The first couple of songs are pretty good but don’t quite blow me away. Cutting political and social commentary, especially with “Some Mother’s Son”. The deep and depressing song is almost sung with a level of fake joviality that I can only describe as odd, yet unique. Once we get to the 4 song streak of “Brainwashed”, “Australia”, “Shangri-La”, and “Mr. Churchill Says” is when I started strongly considering giving this a 4 or 5, and you know what. I added all 4 of them. I must have played “Australia”, my favorite song on the album, close to 100 times today. That song hooked me immediately. This is an insanely good album, and I’ve got 2 more The Kinks albums to go!! The fist one got a 3, and this one is getting a 5. I believe that’s the first time a disparity this big has happened with a band I’ve listened to during this project. I expect it to happen again, but I’m pretty sure this is the first. Unrelated to my review, but the top review for this album mentioning some blokes kinks may also be the funniest review I’ve read on the site so far, up there with the math expert on Common’s Be. Extremely good album here. Every song hooked me and I’m absolutely going to remember them later on, unlike Village Green. This album evolves so much past just sounding like The Beatles, and forms its own unique identity that I can only describe as freaking great, mostly upbeat, and catchy as all hell. A 5 out of 5.

Guys, I’m going to be extremely honest with you right now. I can’t name a Bruce Springsteen song. He has 5 albums on here, and this is the first one I’ve rolled so far. It was inevitable that I would get to one eventually. Obviously, I’ve heard of him before. I’ve heard the name here and there throughout my entire life and I know how much people love him. I just have never listened to his music before, and I can’t say I’ve ever had anyone recommend it to me either. Looking at his Top 10 on Spotify, I think I only recognize “Born in the U.S.A.”, which is not on this album. On this album specifically I don’t recognize a single song. That’s not a problem, since all that matters is what I thought of it as a whole. So, with that introduction out of the way, what did I think of Darkness on the Edge of Town exactly?? I liked it. I didn't absolutely love it, but as a whole it was pretty good. I think that I'll probably forget about it shortly, but it was still very decent Rock, even if it didn't really do anything new or unique. Just solid guitar playing and a voice that is, at times ok, and other times not the best. The riffs were the best parts of this one. Occasionally he'll just absolutely shred a wicked solo, seemingly out of nowhere. When he's shredding, it's pretty damn good. They call him "The Boss" apparently. Great nickname. That's a nickname that you for sure have to earn. My favorite song on this album is overwhelmingly going to have to be "Adam Raised a Cain". The vocals are super catchy, the riffs are juicy, and I was excited to have that song pop up every time I replayed the album very consistently. Well, Mr. The Boss, good first album. We'll see if this is another David Bowie situation in due time where I like all of the albums well enough to give them a 3, but most don't quite breach into the 4 territory.

This was a surprisingly good album. The only Jeff Beck song I was familiar with going in to this album is "Cause We've Ended as Lovers", so I was vaguely familiar with Beck and his incredible guitar playing. Besides some strange mixing choices where some of the guitar playing is quieter than it should be, this album is absolutely carried by Jeff Beck on guitar and Ronnie Wood on bass. While I still enjoyed Rod Stewart and his vocals, they took a little getting used to, and I wouldn't say they blew me away. What did blow me away were the solos. Every time Jeff got to shine, that was instantly the best part of every song with a solo. For that reason, the song "Beck's Bolero" was my second favorite song on the album, because it explicitly lets him shine. It was a tad repetitive though, so my favorite song on the album is going to go to "You Shook Me", which actually has the PERFECT blend of Blues, Rock, killer guitar riffs, an aggressive piano, and the best vocals on the album. I love albums like this because Blues Rock is just so cool and different. Yet another album that I enjoyed because of the unique blend of genres. I do really wish the mixing was better though, I don't know if it's just because this album is old or if that was a creative decision, but it's rather strange to make the literal lead guitarist and front man of the band the quietest of the group. I don't often comment on the mixing of albums, but it's notably strange here. Other than that, this is a very solid, consistently good album with a perfect playtime. Having a cover of "Ol' Man River" is also pretty funny. While I think it's the low point of the album, I still enjoyed it for what it was. Going to give this one a 4.2/5. Legendary set of artists on this one. A lot of people call it Proto Led Zeppelin, some people even call it Metal, but at the end of the day, all that matters is that it's extremely enjoyable, and I thank them for that.

Didn't enjoy this one sadly, as much as I tried to. I'm sure that this is a pretty foundational accomplishment in the field of Electronica, but good lord was it perhaps the most boring thing I've ever heard in my entire life. I love Electronica in general and I almost want to give this 1 star. I just could not for the life of me get in to this. I went into it with high hopes seeing the very unique blend of genres, but for once I agree with the common consensus here. This is just background noise, and not even particularly good background noise at that. I guess my favorite song is the opener, the titular "Phaedra", but I didn't last the day listening to this one before having to turn it off. I don't enjoy that I had to play the Deluxe Version either. Couldn't be bothered giving the various bonus songs a shot, it was just outtakes and more of the same boring noise as the regular songs on the album. I wish that I had the option of just listening to the original album only, but that's a dig at Spotify itself and not the album. I don't know, it's tough for me to compliment or find anything I enjoyed about this. It wasn't offensively bad so I'll still give it a 2, but man I am going to forget about this one almost immediately upon clicking the Vote button. Not a great album here, but that's fine and to be expected, it just opens up more room for another certified banger. Oh well, they can't all be winners. Moving on now. Again, I'm sure this is a very important album for the evolution of this genre, especially for when it came out in the 70's. Unfortunately, I kind of wish it would stay there.

Songs to go out on a quest to. Songs to play for your fellow hobbits. Songs for the Kings Gathering. Songs to joust to. Songs for wooing a fair maiden. Songs to drink, be gay and merry to at the town square. You get the point. This is straight up Medieval music and sounds like something you’d hear in the background of an episode of Game of Thrones. Does it blow me away? Not really. But I got used to it fairly quickly, and the fun blend of Folk and more traditional Rock, mixed with both singers, who equally hold their own and entertain, make this a surprisingly good album when you get used to just how goofy the entire thing is. My favorite songs on the album are “I Saw an Angel” and “Train Song”. Both do a great job of still being fantastical and a bit goofy, but “I Saw an Angel” takes a step into the more straight forward Rock territory and ends the album on an extremely strong note. This album doesn’t do anything absolutely amazingly or new, but it’s pretty unique, and I can appreciate that. Especially for being from the 60’s. I easily managed to listen to it on repeat for the day. I think my biggest criticism is with the fact that, at least on Spotify, the song “Sally Go Round the Roses” makes three separate appearances. In fact, that song plays, and then after 2 songs later it’s back, followed immediately by an extended version of the exact same song. It’s probably my least favorite song on the album partly because of that. Makes me wonder if the original album cuts off at “House Carpenter”. If so, that wouldn’t be a problem if the original cut was on Spotify in the first place, which it isn’t. Also makes me wonder if the last song, the previously mentioned “I Saw an Angel” was added in later. Would explain why it sounds so different if true, but you really have to be patient if you want to get to it. I’m glad it was included at all, and it is my favorite song on the album, but the vibes really are much different with that song than the others. So much so that I really want to hear more of Pentangle and see how they evolved over the years. This is the only album they have on here, but they made music for a very long time, with a discography ranging from the 60’s all the way to the 90’s. Even if this album isn’t perfect, I’m thankful for this site for letting me check it out. This is the kind of thing I really enjoy using this bot for. The fact that I want to actively seek out more of this music, even if I only gave it a 3, means the authors of the book occasionally do a good job of making me want to listen to more of their oddball suggestions like this one.

Oh hell yeah. The Beastie Boys are back again with another certified banger of an album. Ok, there are quite a few interesting things about this album that I want to bring up, and I want to mention them all real quick. First, this is an album made mostly hand in hand with The Dust Brothers, an artist that I’ve already rolled once for this project and thoroughly enjoyed listening to. They mostly work within the bounds of the Electronica genre, so seeing them collab with the Beastie Boys was quite surprising to me. The album is mostly comprised of an overwhelming amount of samples. This gets to be so ridiculous on some tracks that looking up a list of samples on some songs like “Egg Man” shows an entire list that contains a mix of The Beatles, and songs simply including the word egg in them. That’s extremely funny and clever to me, because they still manage to make it work out fairly well. Next, I’m very familiar with the Beastie Boys. Licensed to Ill, which I’ve already rolled for this project, and Ill Communication, which I’m really excited to roll, I am very familiar with from top to bottom. I’ve never heard of a single one of these songs up until today, and I can’t fathom why. Is this album as good as the previously mentioned albums?? In my opinion, no, it’s a little too bloated and the songs aren’t all that memorable, but it’s still the Beastie Boys, and it’s still a high 4. The songs might not all stick with me, but I love a good album of just deep cuts. It’s not a bad thing. This is still better than a grand majority of albums I’ve heard on the project so far, but it’s not without flaws either. My favorites on this one are “Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun” and my winner for best on the album goes to “Car Thief”. I’m not entirely sure what they were going for with the last 9 “B-Boy Bouillabaisse” tracks, they sound just like the other regular songs on the album. I don’t know exactly why they gave them a unique moniker, but they’re all pretty good. Again, not the most memorable, but good. Going to give this one a high 4.8, and I want to give it a 5 just because I love the Beastie Boys, but I just can’t do it. Don’t get it twisted though, this album still kicks a whole lot of ass.