Reviews by gingerninja155

This is a difficult one to rate. It’s considered by many to be one of the greatest albums of all time. It’s pretty great, yes, but it’s far from the best Soul album I’ve heard so far. I don’t know, I can see why people love it. The most important thing I can do here at this point is at least recognize its greatness, which I do. The singing voice is the big draw here, in my opinion. If we’re talking about voice alone, it’s a 5. Damn, this man can sing beautifully, and does. Everything else is pretty good too, but after about 10 minutes you’ve really got the gist of the entire album already. It all starts sounding the exact same song to song and you don’t even know which song you’re on at parts. It’s great as a whole, and I can see why people consider this so good, but I can’t say I’d personally return to it, which is ok. My favorite song on this one is the titular opener, “What’s Going On”. This is the first of 3 Marvin Gaye albums I have rolled for this project, and I’m going to guess prematurely that if I gave this one a 3, they’re all likely to end up getting 3’s as well. I get the striking suspicion that the important messages this album provide are better than the music itself. Not a bad thing, just an observation. The themes are all moving and powerful, that much is true, but a lot of the music itself is forgettable and even a tad repetitive. It’s not really for me but I definitely respect it, and I would happily listen to it again if it came up naturally.

Hello 2026, hello album #200, and hello to the first 5 star of the year!! This is a VERY promising start to the new year. Another album that came out the year I was born and another one I’ve been dying to roll since the beginning of my journey on this website. Regardless of what anyone thinks of it, this is the album with “Wonderwall”, an absolutely iconic song which also happens to be a God Tier meme, something with unlimited staying power in the cultural zeitgeist that has managed to keep being great for a very long time now, regardless of whatever is considered popular at the time. And you know what?? It's not even my favorite song on the album!! That honor goes to the titular "Morning Glory". I'm so glad these guys got back together, the fact that they were feuding for so many years just made me sad. Both Gallagher's may be abrasive, generally angry cock nobs, but god damn do they know how to come together and jam. Every single song on this album is incredible. Not one song I would skip or consider filler. The guitar work? Superb. The vocals? Godly. Everything else? It's like you're listening to something you just know is special, from the first chord on the album. The creative use of vocal compression, subtle use of distortion, reverb, hella whammy bars, and just every aspect of this album makes it one of my faves I've heard so far. Favorite songs on the album are the previously mentioned "Morning Glory", "Wonderwall", and "Champagne Supernova". I listened to the 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition for this listen through. That's not something I generally do, but for this album it was a welcome addition with the Unplugged versions of almost half of the songs on the album. Very cool inclusion to have on the album. This is the first of 2 Oasis albums I've rolled so far. We'll see if the other one is just as good, or dare I say better than this one. That's asking a lot though, because I love this album. I don't listen to Oasis a lot, and I hadn't even heard most of the songs on this album before until today, which is blasphemy in it's own right. I've been missing out on something I already knew was great. Happy 2026, I greatly look forward to the next 100 albums I'll be rolling, especially if they're comparable to this. Is 2026 going to start with a streak of 5 star albums?? More on that tomorrow.

Well, 2025 is over. This is the last review for me going into 2026. I can’t say it was an amazing year for anyone really, but one thing it did give me specifically was this website. I started on March 30th with Self Titled by The Foo Fighters. That album came out the year I was born, and the fact I rolled it first just gave me an immediate special attachment to this website. With fate alone giving me that banger, I knew I was in for something special here. With the goal of writing a detailed review for every album in the book, I made it a self commitment to listen to every single album front to back at the bare minimum one time, usually always listening to the album for the entire day if it wasn’t ear torture. I gave the first album a 4, and I'm going to give this one a 4 as well. At the end of March, I’ll officially have an entire year of albums on the site, which I’ll provide an additional little blurb for as well. But so far I’ve come to find out that every genre can surprise me, even the ones I don’t generally like. Enough reminiscing, let’s get back on track. I’ve never heard of “The Dandy Warhols” before. This is very basic and by the books 90’s era angry, angsty and aggressive Rock with some nice funky Britpop elements mixed in, and it doesn’t do anything I haven’t heard before. By all accounts, I should forget about this one by tomorrow. After all, I’ve heard hundreds of Indie Rock albums that sound similar to this now. But wait, I don’t know what it is about this one specifically, but it just reached out and grabbed me differently than most other albums of a similar sound have before. Every song is energetic, it’s got some really good ambience, a catchy and addictive rhythm, and a charmingly upbeat singer that I really kind of love. Man, something about this album just made me absolutely fall in love with it. I think my favorite song on the album was “Boys Better”, but there’s a lot more to love here in general. It’s long too, at an hour and six minutes total. Despite the length, it’s easy to get through and never drags. No filler, all killer. Multiple songs added to my usual rotation, and I’m most definitely going to be returning to this one more often. It’s closer to a 5 than it is a 3. Awesome!! Here’s to a good 2026. Please, for the love of us all be better than 2025. I think we all need it. Cheers!!!!

The top reviews for this album, all of which have low ratings, include sentiments like "Street Life is a Jazz album for people who don't like Jazz" and "This is waiting room/elevator music". Damn bro, what elevators are you guys in?? I want to be in them as well. In response to the first review, I don't generally enjoy traditional Jazz, especially the stuff that just sounds disorganized and free form. This at least sounds like it was planned out and is much more enjoyable than most of the Jazz albums I have heard so far on this site. When I saw how low this album was rated, I was bracing for something pretty bad. I am beyond pleased to say I think I enjoyed this one as a whole more than a lot of other people on the site. Now, it's still just a 3 because of how repetitive and basic it is, but it was very easy to listen to and I honestly don't mind that it was so repetitive, because it accomplishes what it sets out to do. It's great to have on in the background in any situation and isn't ever annoying, unorganized or overbearing. And for that, it's enjoyable from top to bottom. For Jazz, this is awesome, but it still never blows me away. So, as far as Jazz goes, this is like a 5 for me, but a 3 overall. Maybe even a 4 if I'm being very generous. My favorite song is the opener, "Street Life", as it's a good mix of Jazz, Funk, and a great singing voice. This album is also short enough that it doesn't really overstay it's welcome. A pleasant and surprising experience, I enjoyed this one a lot more than I expected to. Call it a 3.9/5, approaching a 4. I may go back and change this one to a 4 later if I feel like it. Good stuff.

Something dawned on me while listening to this album. Something I should have realized a very long time ago. I know for sure I won’t be the first person to ask this question, but it must be asked. What on Earth was up with Jimi Hendrix and his complete obsession with towers and castles? Just building structures in general really. He didn’t make a lot of music in his very short time on this Earth, but a good deal of it happened to be about certain kinds of buildings. Yes, I know what metaphors and allusions are, I just find it funny is all. None of that had anything to do with this album. Anyway, this is the second of 3 Jimi Hendrix albums I've rolled, following Electric Ladyland. That albums length approaches over an hour and a half minutes long, and I criticized it a tad bit for being that needlessly long, and notably having a ton of (still pretty good in it's own right) filler. Meanwhile, Axis: Bold As Love is only 39 minutes long, and barring the extremely annoying intro bit, "Exp", I think it's actually better as a whole. There are a few filler tracks around the middle, but not nearly as many as there were in Electric Ladyland. What it lacks in Jimi's biggest hits, it makes up for in being so tight, and having, in my opinion, his most under appreciated but still very much appreciated song, "Little Wing", my favorite song on the album. Other songs I added to my favorites playlist included "Up From The Skies", "Spanish Castle Magic", and "One Rainy Wish". I'm also thankful I had the right headphones to appreciate this one with, a lot of these songs have funky spacial audio mixing on Spotify that just make listening all the more enjoyable. I think I was going to give this one a 4 for some reason just like the last one, but writing a review this lengthy and in depth helped me realize just how much I actually adore this album and can find very few things to legitimately criticize about it. It's so Funky, it rocks a whole hell of a lot, and leaves me actually wanting even more. I've still got Are You Experienced to get through so I can definitively rank all 3, but as a complete album, I actually enjoyed this one the most so far. So it's getting a 5. Will Jimi end up in the favorites category? I really hope he does. Screw it, I might even go back and give Electric Ladyland a 5 after all. I don't know. Point being is that this one was absolutely awesome!!!!

Very fun album. It's definitely Reggae, but it also surprised me every step of the way. I pretty comfortably enjoyed this even more than Bob Marley, which surprised me. I was under the incorrect assumption that every Reggae song kind of had to sound the same, exactly like Bob Marley, but this album proved me wrong. It's very catchy, and there are enough differences between the songs to keep it fresh. Some of the songs have little stretches of Rock which are quite enjoyable, a continuing trend with these Reggae albums that have been pleasant little surprises and further keep the albums interesting. That being said, I would not always want to listen to this, and there's definitely a lot of filler as well. Right out of the gate you've got a catchy banger with the classic "A Message to You Rudy", and the album is interspersed with some really good, catchy songs, my favorite for personal reasons being "Monkey Man". For being a very unique and catchy, but far from perfect album, this one is going to get a high 3. Probably around a 3.75/5. I actually recognized a lot of these songs, which is something that genuinely surprised me as well, so that was pretty neat and unexpected as well. What a super fun band. Would return to these guys for sure.

So, I have been informed that for the first time Christmas Day rolls around per project, the website has it set up so that this album comes up automatically. Pretty funny stuff. Makes sense, naturally. It’s been a very, very cool and rewarding first year on this website and I’m looking forward to finishing the fight to the very end. I know I still have a long way to go, but I’m going to keep going, and review every single album on here. Who’d have thought that my first album on the website put together by a convicted murderer would be a classic, upbeat Christmas album. For those unaware, that is unfortunately the legacy of Phil Spector. So just hearing his jovial voice in the last song on the album is honestly a bit haunting, obviously unintentionally so. What happened man… As far as the album goes, it’s 3 stars. It’s just a bunch of Christmas Songs and nothing more. If I was more of a Grinch I’d give it a 2 because Christmas songs are just boring and kind of annoying to me, but I can’t do it. You definitely know what you’re getting in to with this one, and even still I just can’t dislike it all that much because of how talented and happy everyone is performing these classic songs. “Sleigh Ride” is the best of the bunch for sure. That song is just way too happy and catchy to hate and I think the Ronettes sing it wonderfully here. There are a few songs on here I actually haven’t heard of at all before, so that’s a bit notable I guess. For instance, I’ve never heard of “A Marshmallow World” or “The Bells of St. Mary” before. Overall, this album was a very appropriate and fun time, and I’m thankful I got to check it out while opening up presents with the family. Merry Christmas everyone!! Don’t kill people. Murder is generally frowned upon.

Man. Music is weird sometimes. This album has pretty much no information about it on Wikipedia other than “The creators of the book apparently liked it enough to put it in.” It’s got an extremely low rating on the site, most notably due to being an obscure repetitive French Electronica album. And you know what… I kind of loved it. Like, a lot. Bonus points for the meme song “Music makes you lose control”, which is going to be stuck in my head again for another week at the bare minimum, if not longer. Anyway, yeah it’s repetitive and extremely goofy, but this is the kind of thing I could just have on in the background for hours and still jam the hell out. It accomplishes everything it sets out to do well, and for being made in the 90’s, it’s actually pretty ahead of its time. I think if this came out like 10 years later it would have been more popular. Doesn’t have any moments I want to skip. It’s just under an hour also, which is the perfect length for Electronica. I’ve said in just about every review of this genre that it’s pretty hard to mess up, and I think that Darkdancer does a great job here. Favorite song on this one has to be “Hey you what’s that sound?”. Every song on this album is catchy, but that’s by far the catchiest of all of them. There were also quite a few songs here that I recognized as background elements to other songs, or entire songs that have been remixed by other bands completely, again see “Music makes you lose control” for the best example of the ladder. Always cool to see the origins of other notable tracks. A few albums have been like that so far. To summarize and go back to the top of the review, music is weird. No way I’d be able to find this album on my own. I loved every second of it, and it’s going to join my personal Electronica rotation now. More of this please!! Link very much related. (https://youtu.be/z9aBlC-n94gsi=vy2xWBGUNOjKVBmL).

Oh boy, Frank Sinatra is back with another album on my journey, pretty much exactly 3 weeks after I last heard him on here. The last album was so miserably bad I almost ended up giving it a 2. It just sounded very rapey, and it came out more than 10 years after this album, so I kind of thought I was going to be in for more of that here. The album in question was Frank Albert Sinatra And Antonio Carlos Jobim, which absolutely does not roll off the tongue. With an album name like Songs For Swingin' Lovers!, I was really bracing myself for more of the same. Instead, I got a much better album, and substantially less rapey sounding. Noted, the context/subtext behind a few of the songs maybe isn't amazing, but whatever. "Makin' Whoopee" in particular makes me want to jump from the highest bridge I can find. I was substantially less creeped out listening to this one as a whole though. However, I was still bored out of my freaking mind. This music has a rightful place in history. Does it deserve to be on this list? Absolutely!! Songs like "You Make Me Feel So Young" and "I've Got You Under My Skin" are classics, the ladder being my favorite song on the album. Do I want to listen to them? No. No I do not. Do I want to listen to an entire album that consists of 44 minutes of what is essentially the exact same dated song? Also no. But hey, it was better than his later stuff apparently. It would not surprise me even a little bit if this is his absolute peak musically. If anything, this album really makes me want to go back and give the last one I heard a 2. This one is leagues better. I've got one more Frank Sinatra album to go, and it's the oldest album in the entire book. So yeah, I am fully expecting it to sound more or less the same as this, but even more dated and boring. Not the biggest fan of Frank Sinatra's music. I acknowledge it has a huge spot in music history, but don't enjoy actively listening to it all that much. Another pretty low 3 from me, but definitely not a 2. Call it a 3.35/5.

Give me Grace Slick or don’t even bother giving me anything at all. I’m not the first person to say that and I won’t be the last person to say it either for sure. If she was the lead vocalist on every song, I think this would be a 5 star album. It’s still a pretty solid album overall, but there are a ton of songs that I actively want to skip after the first listen just to get to the good stuff. The only song not sung by Grace that I really vibed with was “3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds”. Ok, so I’m being a bit harsh on Marty Balin, which I do sincerely apologize for, but he doesn’t hold a candle in the wind to Grace and her almost hypnotic voice. It’s no coincidence that the 2 best songs on the album also happen to be the hits, with her singing the lead vocals on both. That being said, picking a favorite between “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love” is a really tough challenge. I wish I could pick both. I hear them both so frequently, and admittedly didn’t realize they were by Jefferson Airplane. This is just one of those many bands along the way doing this project in which I was glad to connect with, because I wouldn’t have seeked them out on my own. Bonus, now I can say I’m familiar with them, and not just the hits. Expanding my musical scope and finding something new is, and will continue to be the most rewarding part of this entire project. That got off topic a bit. Whatever, anyway, this is a pretty long filler-laden album at 58 minutes long, and it frequently has me skipping songs to get back to Grace. For that reason, it’s a middle of the road 3 stars out of 5. Please tell me she’s got some solo stuff, or at the bare minimum something where she sings more. It’s such an infrequent tease on Surrealistic Pillow and I’m absolutely craving more Grace after listening to this. That’s my big positive takeaway from Jefferson Airplane. Goated female singer. Decent but not amazing male singers. Not to be confused with Jefferson Starship, which didn’t make the book’s shortlist, or Starship, which definitely, absolutely didn’t make the cut either. What was my favorite song on this one? I’m going to have to give it to “White Rabbit”, because every time it ends I’m consistently upset it didn’t go on longer. Thankful they gave us this album and not a lesser known one just for the sake of hearing something new, they do that entirely too often, and not getting to listen to this would have been a crime.

I kind of made the assumption blindly going into this one that I would be giving it a 5 star rating. Tragically, I didn’t expect to find it so boring. Prince is one of the most well respected artists out there, and of course “Purple Rain” is legendary in its own right. It’s not on this album but whatever. I thought Prince did more balls to the wall, killer solo riff laden Rock, which is 1000% on me, but this was far from that. Was it funky? Sure, it was funky, but I’ve heard much better Funk during this project already. I would also call this Pop much more than I would call it Rock, but regardless it was just very average the entire way through as both. Some songs, notably “Play In The Sunshine” and “It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night” were my favorites and stood out as the best to me, but even then, neither of them absolutely blew me away. Never once did I find myself saying “Wow, that was really good” while listening to this album. It pains me to say that I wouldn’t exactly call this album goated. I WOULD call it very bloated however. With a playtime of an hour and 19 minutes, this one was actually somewhat difficult to get through in a sitting, which is just really not something I expected to write about Prince. Well, he’s got 2 more albums left to impress me. I’m sure I’ll like those more. This one wasn’t bad, but it did disappoint me more than anything I’ve listened to so far while doing this project, so that’s pretty rough. When I expect to enjoy something a lot and then don’t end up enjoying it all that much, I’m much more critical of it as a whole and the review ends up sounding like I hated it entirely. I did not hate this, it’s still a 3. But it’s a low 3 at that…

Started off rocking harder than I expected from Bob Marley and then quickly devolved into a fairly repetitive, yet still enjoyable enough album. Had some sick guitar solos early on that I wish had more of a presence later in. This is my first of 3 Bob Marley & The Wailers albums on the list, and my second album featuring Peter Tosh. Did Bob Marley have a solo career, or was it always him and the Wailers?? For being such a notable name in Reggae/Music history, I’m admittedly only aware of his hits. Kind of want to watch a Bob Marley documentary after this. I have no doubt I would be more appreciative of the goat and his lasting legacy. I was largely unfamiliar with Bob Marley’s music before listening to this, but you really kind of get the gist of it after a song or 2. Keep in mind, Bob Marley is THE most notable figure in Reggae music history, like it’s not even remotely close, and this album was still enjoyable enough, but Reggae doesn’t really blow me away as a genre. After a while, there’s only so much I can take at a time. Now, I don’t think I’m going to be the first person to point this out, but I suspect this kind of music may be more enjoyable if one is smoking the devil’s lettuce. Bold statement, I know. I’m a true visionary. What was I saying?? Oh, right. Bob Marley. My favorite song on the album was “400 Years”. The messaging, keyboard, deep bass, and vocals were pretty awesome. The aforementioned guitar in “Concrete Jungle” was also pretty great. Overall, this album was good, and I would happily listen to it if it was playing on the radio, but I don’t think it convinced me to return to it on my own. For this musical journey I’m on, there are 2 more Bob Marley albums on the list. Let’s see if they have more of a staying power than Catch A Fire. This one was alright, but it’s not something I’m going to be thinking about much after today. Nonetheless, it’s a very comfortable 3.

Like James Bond music on Valium. It’s not easy making Electronica boring, but I believe this album unfortunately succeeds in doing just that. Coincidentally, “Deer Stop” is what I was yelling at my phone while listening to this album. From the moment the first song started, I kinda worried every song would be that boring, and I was mostly right, with one notable exception. The only exception is the penultimate song, “Utopia”, which is by far the best of the bunch. It wasn’t amazing enough to add to my usual rotation, but it was definitely the best on the album. Being all the way at the end of the album, I wasn’t expecting anything to stand out from the rest that deep in. It’s a long way to go for a single notable song. Ok, so the singer for sure has a beautiful voice, and I wasn’t in abject misery listening to this at any point. It’s boring for sure, but it’s not terrible. It’s going to get a 2 from me. Easiest 2 of my life. You’ve got a lot of EDM/Electronica artists on here that only get a single showing, but somehow this is the first of 2 Goldfrapp albums on the list that I have heard so far. If I end up ranking their other album anything higher than a 2, I would actually be pleasantly surprised, but I really just don’t see it happening with how boring this one was. Why they get 2 albums on here is beyond me, but I didn’t write the book so it’s whatever. I didn’t last the whole day listening to this one. Again, it wasn’t good, but it was never bad enough to make me want to shut it off completely. So, yeah. 2 stars.

Shoutout to the guy in the reviews who mentioned that Led Zeppelin absolutely ripped these guys off with the opening riff of “Stairway to Heaven”. That’s hilarious honestly. Go listen to “Taurus” if you don’t believe me. You’ll pick up on it pretty quickly. This has been a week of many surprises for me already, and this album is another one of those surprises. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this one from top to bottom. It’s weird. Very weird. Some of these songs are just all over the place genre wise. Anyone that knows me knows that I love variety, and this album has that in spades. I’m hearing everything from Psychedelic Rock to Funk to even a bit of Pop here. I can see why Led Zeppelin toured with these guys. They’re surprisingly comparable. My favorites this time around include “Animal Zoo”, “Mr. Skin”, and my personal favorite, “Street Worm”. That little riff is absolutely killer. Also worth mentioning are the catchy vocals and smooth brass in “Mr. Skin”. It was a close second for favorite. This is the type of album I really enjoy checking out. A band I’ve never heard of, a genre I already know I like, and a new collection of songs that I can easily enjoy. Hell yeah. Another unexpected great one here. I’ve been handing out a lot of 4’s lately. Let’s keep that 4 and 5 train rolling. They tend to come in waves. This band may very well mostly be known for suing the estate of Led Zeppelin, but their music is honestly pretty good. I was impressed with this one. It’s another 4 for me.

Damn, sure. Ok Pixies. My apologies, I was unfamiliar with your game. I don’t know where this came from, but I kind of loved it. I feel kind of bad saying the intro song “Cecilia Ann” is my favorite, but it is. I feel bad about it specifically because it doesn’t have any vocals, and I really did like this guys voice as well. I don’t know if you could call it a great representation of the band, but it’s getting added to my favorites playlist regardless. It was not only the perfect intro, but it had a classic surfing music vibe and reminded me of “Miserlou”, one of my favorite songs. Pixies are a band I’ve heard by name only, and can only pull their biggest hit out of my head “Where Is My Mind?”, which is not on this album, but I did also recognize “Is She Weird” from this album, so that was cool. I’m almost certain there are more songs I would recognize if I heard them by the Pixies. It’s one of those bands, you know the ones I mean. Can’t think of any songs you know, but end up recognizing more than you thought you would. This album was not your usual generic Indie Rock, it’s full of a bunch of different sub genres that jump from song to song and range from Surfer Rock, Hard Rock, Stoner Rock, Indie Rock, Punk Rock, and many more. All that is to say, it never gets boring. To me, this is a 4.0 on the dot. It JUST reaches into the territory of being outstanding, but still far from perfect. I found myself running into a good issue to have with this album a few times today. Every time the album would end and restart, I’d find myself saying “Damn, that was the entire album??”. At 39 minutes and 14 songs a pop, this one feels more like it lasts for 10 minutes. Like I said, it’s a good problem to have. This is the first of 3 Pixies albums I have rolled for this this project, and currently the lowest rated on the website. That absolutely shocks me. You’re telling me they get even better?? There’s a very high likelihood I give this band a 5 or 2 before this project is over if they keep kicking this much ass. Good stuff here. Will be returning to it for sure. I’m a big fan of this. Badass album art as well.

Is it a coincidence that all 3 of the top rated Country albums on the website are all performed by Johnny Cash?? Absolutely, emphatically, no. There is Country music, and then there is Johnny Cash. They’re 2 completely different things. Listen, as someone who openly doesn’t particularly like or enjoy Country music, even I have to give it up to the all time great here. No one else even stands on this man’s plane of existence in the Country space, before or after. One of the greatest musicians of all time. How great is he? Well, I was today years old when I found out that “Hurt” wasn’t a Johnny Cash original, and Nine Inch Nails did not cover it. Instead, it was the other way around. And this is coming from a huge Nine Inch Nails fan. I’ve been listening to both versions for a long time, and only just now realized that this was the cover. Admittedly, I didn’t even realize Johnny Cash made it to the 2000’s, so to hear this was his last album didn’t surprise me all that much. Man, he sounds so old here. Despite that, he still gives it his absolute all and knocks it out of the park. Not only is “Hurt” a cover, but the entire concept of this album appears to be Johnny Cash giving respect to some of the all time greatest artists and songs himself, putting his own unique blend of singing on every song on the album, a majority of which are covers. A few of them even feature some other prominent artists like Nick Cave and Fiona Apple. My favorites of the lot are “Hurt” (obviously), “I Hung My Head” and “Personal Jesus”. I haven’t really done a deep dive on the post production of this album yet, but having the intro start with a passage from the book of Revelations (The last book in the Bible), and having the closer be “We’ll Meet Again”, is actually so insane that it’s almost creepy and foreboding. This is the first of 3 Johnny Cash albums I’ve rolled for this project, and I’m obviously very excited to check the others out.

This is the Iron Maiden album Iron Maiden, featuring the song “Iron Maiden” by Iron Maiden, off of the album Iron Maiden. I’m easy. I see Metal, I enjoy Metal very much. Was already very familiar with this band previously, but hadn’t heard an album from front to back by them until now. For reasons that should be obvious, I always get Iron Maiden mixed up with Megadeth. While I absolutely LOVE Vic Rattlehead , I think Eddie the Head may just be the most iconic mascot in Metal history. I digress. Anyway, my favorite song on this album is “Phantom of the Opera”. The solo absolutely shreds on that one. This is an easy 5 for me. Whether it be the original singer or not, even being the debut album, this is still very much a core Iron Maiden album, and it turns out to be an incredible one at that. I just can’t help but love the vocals, killer riffs, fast pace, energy, vibes, it’s all outstanding here. Every time I roll an album like this, I dread whatever may come the next day, because I spent the entire day absolutely loving this album to death. This is the first of 2 Iron Maiden albums I have heard for the project so far, and you can probably have it as a safe bet that the other one is going to get 5 stars as well. We’ll see. This was 37 minutes and 8 songs of absolute bliss. My only concern, if you can call it one, is that I wish it was longer. That’s a pretty good concern to have in my opinion.

Oh man, it’s another quintessential middle of the road 3 star album. Going to have to pull something out of thin air to get a lengthier review for this one. Ok, let’s start with the basic things that I enjoyed. I love this singers voice. I’m also a sucker for a good brass section, so this album has that covered very well. The drummer works out great here, and you can really hear him banging the hell out of the drums. I did not dislike a single song on this album, but like many have said, they’re all tremendously similar and formulaic. However, I don’t take issue with the similarities here, because as a whole, I really like what this band has to offer. My favorite song on the album was the opener, “Dumb Waiters”. I loved the funky background elements of that one, they were very unique and hit my ears just right. That one was good enough to add to my frequent rotation. Humorously, I think the hit on this one, “Pretty In Pink”, while still good, isn’t one of the stronger songs on the album. I don’t quite understand why this one is rated as low as it is. Sure, it’s generic and doesn’t do anything particularly new or interesting, but I wouldn’t call this one boring or uninteresting because of that. Either way, I still enjoyed my day with this one and never thought of skipping anything here. Good stuff.

Shoutout to Guitar Hero for my knowledge of the Dead Kennedys. I’ve been rocking out to “Holiday in Cambodia” for years because of its inclusion in that game. I still remember my shock and horror hearing the original version for the first time with the profanity included, instead of the Guitar Hero cover. Good times. It’s the best song on the album. Gotta say, they picked the right album this time for the book with this one. Now, I don’t know if it makes me biased, but I generally dislike Punk music that sounds this fast, and has songs this short. However, I had a super long and stressful day at work today, and this absolutely got me all the way through it and left me in a better mood because of it. Pair that with the inclusion of “Holiday in Cambodia”, which I already loved, and you end up with an album that I just absolutely ate up. It’s worth being said that on top of being good songs, some of these song names are the funniest things I’ve ever heard. With song titles like “I Kill Children”, “Stealing People’s Mail”, “Kill the Poor”, and “Let’s Lynch the Landlord”, it almost makes me wonder if this is supposed to be satirical in nature, or if this is truly just what Punk is like. Either way, I loved this album, and I wish we had some more representation by this band. Absolutely killed it with this one and saved my stressful day. Big ups. Will be returning to the Dead Kennedys for sure.

This is the second Joni Mitchell album I’ve rolled, following Blue. I was very critical of Blue. Noting its accolades, I was expecting something very good and noteworthy. What I got instead was a voice I didn’t love, and a boring album I also didn’t really love. I was fully expecting more of the same going into this album. For some reason, and I have no idea why, I had a much different experience with Court And Spark than I did with Blue. Her voice here is calm yet confident and vibrant, and made every song sound great, the variety in a lot of the songs was good, and even if it kind of faded into the background after a little bit, I was more relaxed and entertained than bored. Joni has a very good voice for putting me at ease, and I promise that’s a big compliment. With 4 albums on here, I wonder if this is going to be what I can expect from her later albums. I’ve gone in order so far, we’ll see if that changes later on with the other 2. I really liked the big hit on this one the most, “Help Me”. The jazzy ending track, “Twisted”, and energetic, upbeat “Raised on Robbery” are also very good. Alright, good stuff Joni. I enjoyed this one a lot more than Blue. I found it much more accessible and easier to listen to on my ears. You’ve earned a 3 with this one.