Reviews by gingerninja155

I rolled Iggy Pop a few days ago, and now Lou Reed today. Is there a single album Bowie touched in his lifetime that wasn’t instantly made better?? It’s crazy how many albums on here he had some kind of involvement with, either major or minor. This album is no exception in that it’s better than the other Lou Reed albums I’ve rolled so far. I don’t love it, but it’s definitely better than The Velvet Underground, which I found pretty disappointing as a whole. This is the first solo album of 2 on the project I’ve rolled for Lou Reed, and the 3rd of 5 albums he’s directly associated with if you count The Velvet Underground. Now, I’ll be honest here. I don’t see why this one is so highly rated. It’s very average. I only really wanted to listen to it once before I got bored and moved on to something else. It’s just a little too light overall, and the singing and guitar playing is merely passable at best. Nothing really grabbed me, but I’m going to have to give my favorite song award to the only one I recognized going in, “Perfect Day”. That one’s a classic. I think Duran Duran did it better, but still have to give it up to the original for existing in the first place. Not only does his singing and the overwhelmingly mid guitar playing kind of put me to sleep, and not in the good way, but I just find some of his lyrics off-puttingly sexual in kind of a weird way. And this is coming from someone who likes Glam. I don’t know man, this whole album is just a little creepy. I’d really like someone to explain why they think this and The Velvet Underground are so good. This music isn’t terrible, but I’ve forgotten the whole album after the first go around and I just don’t really care enough to listen to it again, it’s not going to hook me the second time. Giving it a 3 because I don’t dislike it, it’s more good than bad, but it’s dreadfully boring and just a tad creepy. I don’t think I’m a very big fan of Lou Reed, which is a shame. I know how legendary he is. Nothing against him personally, still giving this a 3. Oh well. 2 albums left, 1 solo and 1 The Velvet Underground. Let’s see if those impress me. This is one of those examples where I just don’t hear the same thing as the consensus is hearing, because I don’t understand it at all. Moving on, it’s a 3. I’ll forget about this one entirely in the next few minutes. Boring out of 5.

2 days ago I was making fun of British rappers when I rolled my last underwhelming rapper trying to sound hard but just coming off as overtly goofy. Today, I get Kendrick Lamar. This is not a Rap album, this is art. It’s actually kind of insane just how many hits are on this one. I’ve heard of a ton of these songs and had no idea he was the one that made them. My knowledge of Kendrick is very surface level. I knew he had the beef (and convincingly won) with Drake (Who also appears on the worst song on this album, lmao), but didn’t know much else about him. “Not Like Us” has been on repeat for me since it dropped. Obviously I knew how big he is, I’ve just never seeked him out personally. When I saw he had 2 albums on here, I was very excited to roll either of them. This is the first of 2 I’ve rolled for this project, and it’s very good. Surprisingly light, but there are still plenty of heavy hitters along the way. Very light on skits and interruptions, but they are the low point of the album, as is tradition for every Rap album in general. Let’s just say there’s a reason why Kendrick gets 2 albums on here and Drake didn’t get any. Kendrick is obscenely more talented and deserving. The 3 song stretch from “good kid” to “Swimming Pools (Drank)”, featuring “m.A.A.d city” in the middle is one of the most legendary 3 songs in a consecutive order that I’ve ever heard, and picking a favorite was excruciatingly difficult. Ultimately, I eliminated 2 of them for either being too long or for having a skit at the end. My favorite ended up being “good kid”, the only song of the 3 I had not heard previously going in to the album blind. The beat is just incredible, and the rhyme scheme is also really solid. That being said, I have to discuss “m.A.A.d city”. The “YAWK! YAWK! YAWK! YAWK!” lives rent free in my head and likely always will. That is an all time stim that I’ll remember forever. It’s the same for “Swimming Pools (Drank)”, I’ve bee listening to the “drank” portion for a long time, and it’s still catchy. Recency bias may have something to do with my favorite pick, and I haven’t even mentioned the other great songs I loved on the album. “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” has also coincidentally been living in my head rent free since it dropped. And I hadn’t heard “Backseat Freestyle” before but I love that it’s just unapologetically an Eminem song. Pretty funny how just deliberately Eminem the whole thing is. Damn, this is such a good album. Seriously, what a rare W of an inclusion from the author. Excited to check out the other Kendrick album as well. I might even come back and give this one a 5. That is a distinct possibility. For now, I’m giving it a well deserved 4.

Bafflingly strange album that’s also surprisingly ahead of its time. While I admit that the first song is truly terrible for an intro, the album itself is very interesting conceptually. It’s very trippy, it’s got some ideas on Electronica that are clearly ahead of its time, and the guitar riffs work in sparse places. It’s very Pre-Prog adjacent, and I love it just as much as I hate it. If I were to discuss this album, it would be in equal terms with praise and criticism. So I’ll just speak whatever comes to my mind first about it. First, it’s too long. After 8 songs I’m already done with it and just want it to end. The singers don’t do much for me either. They’re a little basic and boring. Unrelated to the album itself but it’s shocking and upsetting to me that a better band didn’t take the name of The United States Of America. That could have been legendary. Why is this album on here?? Of all the US albums the Brit writing the book could have selected, I’m unsure why this one is here. I’m interested by this album, and I am glad I listened to it, but I don’t believe I absolutely had to listen to it. When it’s good, it’s just alright. Some trippy chords, some solid guitar, a lot of Prog aesthetics that I do like. But songs like “The American Metaphysical Circus” starting the album?? Just why, who would enjoy that. This is something that would probably work better in the background to listen to without focusing on it too hard. I might have to flip a coin on whether or not it’s a 2 or a 3. All that being said, I appreciate it for being so weird and different. Yes, it tried a LOT here, and yes, a LOOOOT of it did not work, but what did was very new and interesting. For that reason, my gut is telling me to give it a 3, surprisingly. No, I’m unlikely to return to it, but for what it is, sure, it’s interesting enough. It’s not as terrible as the other 2 star albums, besides the god damn circus music. That was unbearable. My favorite song this time was “The Garden Of Earthly Delights”. That was a fun song with legitimately great singing and a sick bass line. Ok, yeah. It’s a 3. I’m not going to overthink it too much and just go with my gut. Next album.

British rapping more often than not is generally always shit from butt, and even worse, the more recent albums are somehow even more insufferable than ever before. Why do they all sound the exact same?? It’s maddening. I love Rap, but when a Brit is doing it, it’s just so ungodly silly and I simply can not take it seriously. Listening to this guy trying to sound hard and talking about being in a gang on “Man” is just not good. He swears a lot and I’m sure the Brit fans think that’s really cool, but it just further exemplifies the cringe. His cadence is fine, the rhyming scheme itself is also fine, but the way he sounds and the lyrics are just cheeeeeeeeeesy. “Ring Ring pussy it’s shut down” is an actual lyric said multiple times on the same song. Dude, calm down. It’s not that serious bro. “Numbers” is also one of the cringiest fucking songs I’ve ever heard in my entire life. I’ve never heard of Skepta before, but this was a one time listen and I’m done with it already. I’m so done with the Brit rapping in general. It’s simply bad. And this is coming from someone who loves Rap. And I hate to say that a big part of it has to do with the unflattering accent, but it does. Something positive I can say about this album is that it’s got some great beats. If you can just drown out the nerd rapping about whatever, there’s some good things to be enjoyed. I especially like some of the retro sounding effects used in songs like “Lyrics” and “That’s Not Me”. And with so few positive things to say about this album, that’s probably good enough to say that “That’s Not Me” is my favorite song on the album. I’m not exactly hyper analyzing this one. It’s just not that good. It’s not a 1, but I did not enjoy listening to this. For that reason, it’s a 2/5. God, even the features are annoying. If I never have to hear BBK on “Detox” again, it will be too soon. And the worst part of all of this is that of course, there are skits. I don’t think that “Crime Riddim” is a terrible song, and if it didn’t have the skit at the end, it would be my favorite. But god, there’s a literal skit of him just playing some video game against someone crashing out at the end of the song, and it slows the album to a literal crawl. This may just be the worst Hip-Hop album on the site. I very rarely give them something worse than a 4, but this one is special for all the wrong reasons.

As this is my first Blur album on the list, I have been waiting to type a little blurb about my impressions of the band before I actually listen to a single song. “Song 2”. That’s it. That’s my entire knowledge of the band going in. I’ve heard it from just about every hockey game I’ve ever watched. I actually thought they were a one hit wonder band, and didn’t realize just how massive they are in the UK. And this is coming from someone who can easily and proudly tell you that one of my favorite bands of all time is the Gorillaz. This is my third Damon Albarn album on the site if I’m keeping track correctly, and the third different Albarn band in general. The dude has so many albums on here under different names, so it’s hard to keep track of them all. Of the Blur albums though, this is my first of 3. I had been patiently waiting to roll one, due in part to being a big Albarn fan. With how much I love the Gorillaz, I’m kind of ashamed in myself that I’m only listening to Blur for the first time now. Unless it’s not great, in which case I’ve been dodging a massive bullet this entire time. This first part of the review was made before I’ve even listened to the album yet, but I’m expecting to enjoy this, and I hope I’m right. Albarn very rarely lets me down, so we’ll see. I also love the album art, mini bonus. Now on to the actual review, post listen. After listening to it a few times, I’m not sure what to think. It’s still got Albarn singing, which I like. In fact, unlike the Gorillaz, he sings on just about every song on the album here. It’s much more of a traditional English band, and for that reason I kind of find it less interesting in general. It’s still very good, but it just doesn’t hit the same. If you’re British, I’m sure you’ll love it, but it just kind of sounds like a million of the other Brit Pop albums I’ve heard for this project so far. It’s not bad, but I would rather opt for a Gorillaz album if I was listening to Albarn. Some things can be too British. This is one of those things. You can listen to an album, not relate to it at all, and still enjoy it, but this is just too British for me. I feel as if it’s a great album with very good production value, phenomenal singing, and plenty of song variety, it just doesn’t really do anything for me personally. “The Debt Collector” for instance, is just circus music. If it’s supposed to sound like something you’d hear at a Park, I just can not relate. It’s skippable. I don’t know, none of these songs really grab me, even though I can hear how good they are. Not sure why this one isn’t really hitting me today. I was expecting to love it. Instead I just kinda like it. Don’t get me wrong, some of these songs are alright. “London Loves” stands out with all the funky synthy goodness I actually expect to hear from Albarn. That song is pretty good. It’s a great blend of both of the bands unique sounds, combining the Electronica of the Gorillaz mixed with the more traditional Rock guitar playing of Blur. My favorite song was the penultimate “This Is a Low”. It perfectly displays Albarn as a singer, and it’s beautiful. More beautiful than I expected. It’s also just got a killer guitar riff in the middle of the song that brings the song together perfectly. A really good song. Ok, so my first experience with Blur wasn’t as amazing as I was hoping for. But it wasn’t bad either, so that’s fine. I could grow to love this band. I’m not counting this album out just yet. I could see myself revisiting this one and giving it a 4. But for now, I’ll keep it as a 3 and move on to something else. 2 more albums to come from Blur.

Iggy Pop. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. It’s one of those names that I just hear about on and off and don’t really know anything about. I don’t know who he is really, I just know he’s a legendary singer, and I can’t name any of his songs off of the top of my head. This is the first of 5 albums featuring Iggy Pop on the list, and his highest rated album as well on the site. He has 2 solo albums, and 3 albums with The Stooges. After listening to this album for the first time, I can see why it’s the highest rated. It’s got David Bowie’s handiwork plastered all over it. It’s also got Iggy’s entire discography of hits. “Lust For Life”, “Tonight”, and my favorite song on the album, “The Passenger”. I’m not entirely sure if you can call this album Iggy’s usual performance, but that doesn’t exactly matter when I’m just rating individual albums rather than how someone sounds as a whole. And as an album, this one is really, really good. 9 songs and 40 minutes long is such a perfect length for an album, as even the songs that overstay their welcome, like the titular “Lust For Life” don’t bog down the album by lasting for 10+ minutes. The only songs I like that last that long are Prog songs who’s entire gimmick is being long and great. Back to “Lust For Life”, it’s a great song, my third favorite on the album, but after a few minutes of hearing it sung over and over and over again, it just goes on a little longer than I would like it to. This album is a 4 because all of these songs are very good. Good performances by both Iggy and Bowie, Bowie who sings and plays piano on some of these songs as well, which is just really a great duo. Off topic, but it also reminds me of the show The Venture Bros, in which both of them are characters, depicted as themselves. So now I have a greater understanding of why they both show up. Bowie simply shows up on an album and makes it better with his mere presence. A true mark of his excellence is that I’ve mentioned Bowie’s name more than the actual artist I’m covering, but with the artist’s merits alone, I’m still going to give it a 4, because it deserves it. My favorite song on the album is easily “The Passenger”. It reminds me of a song The Doors would write, and it’s different from the rest of the album in that it just easily stands out and sounds like it belongs somewhere else. That’s actually a compliment, as I love when albums have songs that sound different than the one before. The vocals are just really cool, as is the guitar playing, backing vocals, and it’s just really catchy. It’s a song that resonates aura. And yes, it’s also got Bowie on it. And that’s what I’m going to end this review discussing. Again, I’m curious what his other songs sound like. I don’t know if I’ll have heard of any of them. I was surprised I’d heard of anything on this album previously in general. Everything here is great, but maybe it’s just a one off. He’s got 4 more, lower rated albums I’ve got to get through, so we’ll see if this one is a fluke, or if he really does deserve to have so many on here. But yeah, for what this album is, I very much enjoyed it from top to bottom, with no skips.

Peter Gabriel is one of those artists where when I’m asked, I’ll tell you that the only song I know off rip of his is “Sledgehammer”. It’s his finest work, as well as being the greatest music video of all time. Unfortunately, I already got to listen to that album, “So”, and I gave it a 3. Imagine my surprise when I listened to this album a few times today and actually think it’s better than So overall. My biggest complaint with that album was that every song was just so slow and light besides “Sledgehammer”. Now, I’m fine with slow songs. They’re not my favorite, but I also don’t want to actively listen to albums like that on repeat. So, again, imagine my surprise when this album felt very similar, and yet I’m going to give it a 4 star review. I really just think that the sounds and background elements make this one interesting throughout the album, even with the slow pace. This album also does have a goated first 4 songs though. I already had “Intruder” saved to my Spotify, which I had forgotten about. That song is extremely weird, as weird as it is ear pleasing. Peter has an amazing voice, that much is obvious. Mix his great vocals with the unique sound effects of “Intruder”, and you’ve got my favorite song on the album. It’s just such a weird album, maybe even a little creepy, but it all works surprisingly well. It’s well done for sure. The album art is also very interesting, if not also very minimalistic. After “Intruder” is “No Self Control”, which recency bias really had me wanting to pick as my favorite, as I’d never heard it or the rest of the album before today. And for the second time in a row, I’m introduced to a very unusual instrument being used, which I’ve discovered is a marimba. And you know what?? That’s something I kind truly captivating about Peter Gabriel in general on this album. The production is great, his vocals are great, and he’s so creative and inventive with his sound, both vocally and instrumentation/sound-effect-wise. “No Self Control” also features a frequent collaborator of Peter’s, one Kate Bush on backing vocals, and when she’s not putting us through a solo album, I think she does a fantastic job. This song was no exception. “Start” is a beautiful little sax filled intermission. Not a lot to say about it, but it helps keep the album interesting, considering how high energy the next song is, “I Don’t Remember”, which starts out with Peter wailing. It’s such a different energy from the previous song, and keeps the album from sounding too samey, which I felt So fell victim to a bit. The rest of the album is also great, but I just wanted to talk about that fantastic opening couple of songs. The whole album is just so different and delightfully weird. I’m really starting to become a big fan of Peter Gabriel’s. This is the second of 3 albums of his I’ll have the pleasure of listening to for this project, following the previously mentioned So. And yeah, unpopular opinion, as a whole, I like this one better. It doesn’t have “Sledgehammer”, but it’s got a better setlist overall I feel. Excited to check the third album on here out. As always, time and the random nature of this website will tell when I’m able to listen to it. Until then, stay weird.

This is so shockingly generic and average across the board that if it released today, I’d wonder if it was actually AI generated. The singer sounds like he’s purposely trying to imitate a number of better singers, and the guitar is so understated on all of these songs, I barely register it’s even there occasionally. Ask AI to generate something that sounds like a less charismatic AC/DC and this is what you’re left with. Side note: Please don’t actually use AI for anything that should be used for creativity, the world will rightfully think less of you for it. This album isn’t terrible, but god damn. Why is it here?? What even is this generic album, and what is this band?? Is this “British flash in the pan band #500” that the author included simply because he remembered them existing out of the blue?? Not a terrible album, but it’s not good either. For certain, I’m giving it a 3. This was one of those albums where I finished it, and my only thought was that “Yeah, that sure was an album, and I sure did listen to it for an hour”. What the hell is going on in “I'm Mee, I'm Now, An' That's Orl”?? I’m so confused at what I’m listening to. It’s just a bunch of songs mashed together with the band thanking the public for supporting them. It’s not even a real song. Was this on the original release of the album?? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a band doing something like that before, but it was really weird and offputting, especially considering it even included songs that had been played on the actual album itself. Seriously, what the hell was that???? Update: Spotify put the interview from the end of the album over the actual correct song, surprisingly. So the same interview is mislabeled and plays twice. It was done in error clearly, and now everything makes sense. I’ll still leave in the rambling to pad out this review, but I’ve never seen Spotify mess something up like that before. Weird. The actual song is still just very average and generic as a whole, but now I see why I was confused initially. My favorite song on this album, if I had to pick, would be “Move Over”, as it did some fun things with the guitar. This is going to be out of my head by tomorrow. It’s just painfully average and kind of annoying. I don’t particularly love the singers voice. You’re not AC/DC little bro. A 3/5.

The best way I can describe this album is if you took everything interesting about multiple other rappers of the time, NWA, Jurassic 5, Biggie, etc, and you made them more tame, more boring, and just not as exciting or interesting all around. That’s Done By The Forces Of Nature by the Jungle Brothers. I hold Hip-Hop to a very high standard. It’s one of my favorite genres, and 9/10 times it’s really good. This is alright, but nothing particularly sticks out. I found myself looking at the timer to find out when the album was over more often than not, and even worse, I really don’t have a lot to say about this album in general, which always makes writing a lengthy and in-depth review virtually impossible. In addition to that, why is this album not on Spotify?? I’m not going to be petty and dock it an entire point for that, but man do I want to do so. I have an entire public playlist of my favorite single songs from the albums I listen to, so I’ll just go to their artist profile and use something from a different album, I guess. I hate having to do that, but whatever. The album was easy enough to find on YouTube. Just use a Brave browser on phone or computer and you can listen without ads, which helped as well. Man, that’s a whole lot of off topic discussion. Uuuuhhhh, right, this album had competent vocals, the rapping was good enough, and the songs were fine. “"U" Make Me Sweat” was probably my favorite song on the album, as I found it the catchiest. It doesn’t take much for Hip-Hop to grab me and easily make me listen to it all day, but this album just didn’t do anything for me, unfortunately. It’s just not very interesting. It still sounds fine, but I’m not going to return to or remember it after today. I’m sure these guys are some legendary group that helped inspire others who came after them, but listening to it today is just a little boring. There are better albums that aged significantly better than this one. It just doesn’t have any bangers, and I think there’s a reason it’s got such a low score on here. Probably awe inspiring when it came out, but shockingly average today and doesn’t hold up particularly well in my opinion. A 3 out of 5.

I’m going be disappointingly honest here. If I gave this a 4 or a 5 star review, I would simply be acting performative. Objectively, I do think this is a 5 star album. If I was an actual music critic judging the album on merit and quality, it would get a glowing review with a ton of praise for the most legendary Country artist in human history. All that being said, I find the context of this album infinitely more interesting than the actual music accompanying it. I likely won’t say anything here that hasn’t been said before, but playing in front of prisoners while each and every song is about them specifically is the most Metal thing to quite possibly ever exist on an album. At one point, he sings about murdering someone simply because he felt like it, and the audience actually erupts with cheering and laughter. That’s actually kind of incredible. The way that he mentions actual prisoner numbers being wanted at reception between some of these songs, and the prisoners booing figures of authority throughout this album is actually incredible. There are times when live albums bother me because of the audience being annoying, or the sound quality not being great, or a number of other reasons. But here, the audience truly makes the entire performance that much better. Every cheer, boo, laughter, and especially the way Cash reacts to it all, is amazing. Genuinely amazing. Even if I don’t like Country music and I find the songs themselves boring and repetitive, it was worth hearing this album from front to back, as it really does make you feel like you are presently in the moment, watching the whole thing go down. Now, when I first heard it, I was unsure if he was taking the piss or not. A lot of his performance here could be interpreted as braggadocios in nature, as again, he’s singing about killing people and doing drugs in front of legitimate prisoners. But, not only do the prisoners themselves love him, Cash was also a huge proponent in prison reform, and helping them out in general. Johnny Cash played to multiple prisons, and would continue to do so. So no, he definitely was not taking the piss here. It’s as genuine as it could be. Talking about some individual songs here for a second, the fact that he is unable to swear, as mentioned in “Dark as the Dungeon”, but singing “Cocaine Blues” in full is fine has one of the funniest things in the world to me. Saying hell or shit?? Absolutely not. Get it off the album. Singing about murdering some bitch because you feel like it and being high on cocaine?? Yes please, that belongs on the album for sure. Cash is one funny guy. He’s a legend, THE legend, for a reason. He could work a room and have everyone in it eating out of the palm of his hand effortlessly. What a freaking guy. This is the second of 3 Johnny Cash albums I’ve rolled for this project, following “American IV: The Man Comes Around”, which I did actually find more interesting than this album. The third and final album is also him playing Live to another prison, and released a year later after this album. Go figure. My gold metal for favorite song is going to go to “Green, Green Grass of Home” simply because I really like how hopeful it is, at the very end of the album. You can really hear how it hits the prisoners souls and resonates with them. It’s quite powerful, as opposed to the hauntingly chaotic “25 Minutes to Go”, which is just an insane thing to sing in front of prisoners to begin with. This is a great album, and I truly believe the context and background surrounding it is both more interesting and more important than the actual music accompanying it. Cash is the best, man. Always will be. And this just proves it.

I have to listen to this album at work today, and that second song sure is something. I need to use every fiber I have in my entire being to focus on not going on auto pilot mode while working and risk singing it on accident. It may be the catchiest song on the album, but I’m in legitimate fear listening to it at all. If it ends up in my Top 5, I just won’t be able to post it anywhere out of shame. I mean, I get the message, it’s shockingly unifying, but they couldn’t possibly play that song on the radio when it released. I don’t know, it’s pretty funny that it’s on the album at all. Gonna give it the silver medal for favorite. My gold metal is “Sing a Simple Song”, which I definitely can actually say out loud. Dude, I don’t even want to TYPE the name of the second song on the album. I don’t care if that word isn’t banned on the site, I don’t want to use it at all. Ok, back to the actual review. This is the first of 2 Sly & The Family Stone albums I’ve rolled for this project, and my first impressions, second song included, are quite good. It’s got Funk. It’s got Rock. And by Jesus, it’s got a whole bunch of Soul in spades. Every song is just auditory candy, and both the male and female singers are phenomenal. My only complaint is with “Sex Machine”, at almost 14 entire minutes long, it just dominates the album. You feel its inclusion every time it’s on. It’s not a bad song, I just wish it wasn’t as long so I could go back to some of the other songs on the album. Also, the best reason I have to give this a 4 instead of a 5 is because I didn’t personally add any of these songs to my Spotify favorite playlist, other than “Sing a Simple Song”, which went in the playlist where every album in the book gets an inclusion. What I’m saying is that this album is very good, but not perfect. I’ve heard “Everyday People” so much in shitty commercials that I can’t reasonably even say I like the song very much at this point. That is their most played song and it’s not even close, so I had to mention it. Very, very good album. Not exactly close to perfect, it’s got faults, but I would return to this one again in a heartbeat.

Ok. Here’s the thing with this album. Unfortunately, I grew up with this, and it’s going to get the childhood buff accordingly, which in this instance is going to add an additional 2 stars. Objectively, indisputably, this is a 1 star album. It’s just terrible in every way, from the singing to the guitar playing. Korn played on our local radio station 24/7, and I subjected my poor parents to this every day on the car rides to school. My poor parents. I bet they remember this too. The worst part of all of this is that it’s not even the best Korn album. If we’re being real here, my favorite Korn album, See You On the Other Side, probably isn’t much better than this, and it’s been a good couple of decades since I’ve listened to it at all, so take that with a monstrous grain of salt. It could be just as terrible top to bottom. I’ve said this a lot this week, but of course this album is also over an hour long. I’m wearing that sentence out, as well as this follow up sentence. The worst albums always insist on being over an hour long. Now, the hits on this album, notably “Freak On a Leash” and “Got the Life”… I don’t even really actually hate them. I think they’re ok songs at best. Not great, but not outright terrible. Giving the edge to “Freak On a Leash” for my favorite song on the album, as it’s the one from Follow The Leader that I heard the most growing up. Let’s talk about these 2 cameo songs for a second though. Oh my God, Fred Durst on “All In the Family” is one of the most unintentionally funny combos you could have put on this album. What a song that could only possibly exist in the late 90’s. To think there was a time when anyone took these guys seriously is unthinkable. It’s an entire song about both singers trash talking each other bragging about how they have a better band. Complete with all the 90’s edge you’d expect, such as threatening to kill each other, discussing shlong sizes, and insinuating that the other is gay. What a novel concept. And then, you’ve got “Children of the Korn (feat. Ice Cube)” which is equally as hilarious. I don’t know how Korn pulled Ice Cube for one of these songs, put he’s not terrible on them, it’s just very funny hearing him in any capacity on this album. Trying to rap with eldritch screeching going on is, well, it’s something unique for certain. So yeah, this album is downright dreadful. It’s a 1 star, but I loved this awful shit growing up, and I just can’t hate it now unfortunately. I acknowledge how bad it is, and still give it a 3 out of personal enjoyment, because it got a hell of a laugh out of me today, and that’s all I was expecting from it.

I’ll be a little generous on this album today. Dolly Parton and Tim Curry have both sadly passed away today, and while I don’t enjoy her particularly much as a singer, she seemed like a sweetheart of a human being in real life. I’ll be giving this one a 3 today, but in reality if she was still with us, in all honesty it would be given a 1. Again, I’ll make an exception today though because knowing she just passed made this a bit easier to enjoy. Coat Of Many Colors is the first of 2 Dolly Parton albums I’ve rolled for this project, and “Coat Of Many Colors” is also my favorite song on the album of the same name. Do I love any of these songs?? No, no I do not. Would I return to this album?? Also no. But it was very cool of the site owner to have this on my feed today, as I knew he would. Unless I’m missing someone, he’s know done this for The Beach Boys and Black Sabbath as well during my time on the website. And all of them earned the day of remembrance for sure. The biggest compliment I can give this album is that it’s only 27 minutes long. Even though I’m not in love with it, it’s over very quickly and suddenly I’m back at the top of the album. I love how short and sweet this album was. It knew exactly when to end before overstaying its welcome, and I listened to this more times than I realistically expected to. Yeah, it’s Country. Not a fan of Country, but today I’m going to make an exception for the late, great Dolly Parton. This album didn’t have the same generic and annoying Honky Tonk theming and irritating drawl that most of the others seem to have. Yes, she sure as hell sounded like a Country Singer, but it genuinely doesn’t bother me as much as the rest of the bunch. Is Dolly Parton the female Johnny Cash?? Not sure, I know nothing about Country, but I can actually tolerate listening to this. As far as Country albums go, it’s a 5. As far as personal enjoyment, it’s a very high 2, rounded up to a 3 today. RIP Dolly Parton, you seemed like a really really cool individual that anyone would want to hang out with.

Not the Daft Punk album I would have chosen to be in the book. Another L by the author. Too common. They should have went with Discovery. I’d have even been happy with Random Access Memories as well. This album isn’t bad, but it’s not what a majority of people would have selected, nor the album I believe should have been selected personally. Daft Punk deserves to be on here in some capacity for sure. They’re an influential duo who absolutely dominated the popular music scene for a very long time. The book writer loves using debut albums for bands that have infinitely better albums, and this is a prime example of why that just doesn’t work a majority of the time. Yes, it’s important in that it was Daft Punk’s first album, but compared to their later stuff, a lot of this album does just come off as Homework, rather than something you need to actually listen to before you die. But no, they wanted to give you some deeper cuts, so we got this instead of something much better and more deserving of actually making the list. I’ll admit that I’ve always found Daft Punk to be a little overrated to begin with as a whole, but I’m still kind of a fan regardless, I guess. Maybe not, I did listen to them growing up a lot, but I wouldn’t call it very impactful on my life. Daft Punk makes Electronica for people who don’t normally listen to the genre. They’re the Call of Duty of bands in that sense. There are thousands of artists that are objectively better in every single meaningful way, Daft Punk is just the band who happened to become insanely popular instead, so people latched on to them. And that’s not a bad thing. It is what it is. They just aren’t as important to me as most other Electronica bands I listened to growing up, and especially now. Ironically enough, if you want a couple 5 star French Electronica albums specifically, play me some Justice. Now that’s a band who know how to make some real bangers. This music is just so dated, and while that’s not always a bad thing, it kinda is here. This is just kind of repetitive and boring, especially for an album that’s over an hour long. The boring albums always just insist on being over an hour long, because of course they do. Even for club music it’s repetitive and doesn’t do much to change up the complexity of the beats on virtually every song on the album. I don’t honestly love this album, but I also don’t outright hate, or even dislike it. It’s just kinda meh. Not bad. Just meh. Keep in mind, this is just my review of THIS Daft Punk album. They have albums that are infinitely better than this one. It’s just not a good selection outright, I’ll say it. Bad choice. Not my favorite album. Not a particularly good album. I spent the day listening to it hoping it was going to get better, and it just never did. I don’t even love “Around the World”. You want to talk about repetitive?? That song is maddening. My favorite song on this one is “Da Funk”, as it was one of the few I recognized, and was able to tolerate. I was really hoping to find a reason to give this one a 3, but man, I would never return to this. It’s just bad and boring unfortunately. Sorry guys, this one absolutely did not do it for me and for that reason, it’s getting a 2.

You’ve actually got to be shitting me. Yesterday I rolled one of my favorite albums of all time, but mentioned how at 33% of the way through this project, I was worried about being front loaded on good albums. Now, the very next day, you’re giving me Nirvana again???? You’re asking me if the last Nirvana album is a 5?? It’s a 5. It’s obviously a 5. I was born listening to Grunge and I’m going to die listening to Grunge. This is the second of 3 Nirvana albums I’ll have the pleasure of giving a 5 star rating to, following MTV Unplugged In New York a little earlier on in the project. Now, this album isn’t MTV Unplugged, and it certainly isn’t Nevermind. While I’ve heard those front to back many times, I actually think this one has most of the deeper cuts in Nirvana’s discography, second only to Nirvana’s debut album Bleach. What this album lacks in talked about hits, it certainly makes up for in how quality the album is as a whole. But even after all that’s been said, it still does have a bunch of hits to begin with. Pretty much half of the album are Nirvana classics. That’s just how indicative of a goated band Nirvana was, that the 12 song “deep cut” album still has half of the album composed of all time classics like “All Apologies”, “Dumb”, “Rape Me”, and “Heart-Shaped Box”. The ladder of which is my favorite song on the album, but I also want to give an honorable mention to the anti-rape song “Rape Me”, which is apparently a creative take on what fame does to someone. I doubt I’m the first person to bring this up, I’m probably not even the ten thousandth, but it’s quite ironic that song would be on this album, and then less than half a year later Kurt would be dead. For that reason, “Rape Me”, for all intents and purposes, might be the most important song that he ever made. It’s also just a really freaking good banger of a song without even diving into the symbolism it holds. For that reason it’s my silver medal. But Heart-Shaped Box was in Guitar Hero. It gets the nostalgia buff, which is extraordinarily hard to beat. The simple but powerful chord progression is iconic. It’s just an immediately recognizable song, and I’m never going to skip it when it’s on. I love that song. The little change up half way into the song is also very memorable, and the creative way the chord gets cut off at the end of the riff is spine tingling every time. It’s a perfect song on a great album of songs that not all of which get the love I believe they deserve. But come on man, it’s Nirvana. Enough people have listened to it. They’re not exactly underground songs to begin with, just under appreciated. More people need to listen to “Very Ape” and “Pennyroyal Tea”. Those songs are also great. I’ve also got a very fun story about “Very Ape”. I’ve been a fan of the band The Prodigy for a majority of my life, and either never knew or had completely forgotten that the entire song “Voodoo People” was a direct reference to “Very Ape”. Listen to the first couple of seconds of both songs and you’ll see what I mean. It’s pretty damn cool. So when I heard “Very Ape” again today for the first time in a while, it hit me like a flash bang in a pretty fun way. I mean, the whole album is great. It’s getting a 5 for a reason. Even as a postmortem it’s fascinating. You can tell that he was in a dark place when making it, and unfortunately never got out of that place. I already talked about the symbolism of “Rape Me”, but it goes SO much deeper than that. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” isn’t trying to hide that. It’s lyrics are riddled with lines about anxiety, fear, sadness and depression. Do I even need to explain “Dumb”?? I don’t think I do. This is an overwhelmingly sad album across the board, man. But it’s also powerful, well written, and a phenomenal Grunge classic, up there with every other album Nirvana put out. It’s the musical equivalent of when an NFL player with CTE donates their brain to science. It’s a cry for help, for change that just can’t possibly happen. This is a very important album for mental health. Being famous is fucking crazy man. Couldn’t be me. Great album. 5/5.

What’s your favorite song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers that mentions California in the title?? “Dani California” or “Californication”?? I’ll be honest, I love both, but I like the former more. Stadium Arcadium is my favorite album by the Peppers, followed very closely by Californication. Overall, this is the second and final album by the Peppers that I’ll have the pleasure of listening to on my journey through the list, following Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which I also gave a 5, obviously. Rolling so many good albums that are genuinely important to me when I’m only about 1/3rd through the list is a big monkey’s paw moment. I wanted to start hearing some better albums than I’ve been getting recently, but I feel like they’re front loading all the good stuff right now, and there won’t be anything left to look forward to soon. I don’t know, just a bit of a fear I have with this project. Back to the review, I also won’t lie, I really do wish Stadium Arcadium made the list. Both this and that album are important to me, but I just think Stadium Arcadium is better. All that being said, this album has bangers like the titular “Californication”, “Around the World”, “Scar Tissue”, “Get on Top”, “Right on Time”, and my favorite song on the album, “Otherside”. That’s still 6 bangers I can pull directly from the dome, and it’s still going to get a 5 easily. This band is extraordinarily important to me growing up, and still is now. Pearl Jam and Metallica were instilled in me as a baby, I’ve been listening to them since the day I was born and are my favorite bands of all time. The Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Gorillaz are also my favorite bands of all time, and round out the Top 4, as I found them all by myself as a kid, and have never stopped loving them since. Through all my various phases spanning through the edgy Early 2000’s Alternative Rock, the Dubstep craze of the mid 2010’s, and whatever the hell type of Progressive Rock I’m listening to on loop these days, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are a band I’m always going to have on loop as well, no matter what. Some bands faded out of my rotation over time, but not them. And this album is a large part of it. Easily my second favorite album of theirs, and still a 5. It’s one of those bands that’s got an unmistakably unique sounding tone, where you’ll know it’s a RHCP song by the very first note. They’re not always the most complicated or unique, they may be a tad or even extremely goofy, but every single one of these songs goes hard as hell, and I’ve been stimming multiple lines from a handful of these songs all weekend, as I was also blessed to have this as my weekend album. The more stims on an album, the likelier I am to give it a 5, and this album is a stim factory!! Specifically, I’ve been saying “Get on top” and various other lyrics from that same song all weekend long. “How long, how looooong” is another good one from my favorite song on the album, as is the titular lyric in “I Like Dirt”. All of these songs either rock, are very pretty, are very goofy, or are a mix of all of those things. It’s an album I’ve specifically been waiting to hear, and now that I’m done with the RHCP, I’m pretty sad. I love this album, and I’m glad I got to jam out to it this weekend. An iconic band with a unique and iconic sound that I love wholeheartedly with every fiber of my being enough to rank them in my Top 5. Californication gets an easy 5 out of 5.

Pre Listen: Before I even listen to this album, I really need to say that Chansons are bad, and that this is likely about to be really bad. I don’t enjoy judging books by their covers, but the album art and low site rating to this one really puts the writing on the walls. I actually really do like what little Nick Cave I’ve heard, coincidentally only from this project, but to advertise that there are songs by Elvis Costello, Tom Waits and Scott Walker on this album front and center on the cover art is just stabbing me in the gut and leaving me to bleed out off rip. It sets a terrible precedent, and that’s before I’ve even started the album. This album was made by an entire team of artists that I’ve already given a majority of 1 and 2 star reviews for, and I mention all the time that I don’t like giving 1 and 2 star reviews, but some of these albums really force my hand. Elvis Costello in particular is over represented enough, and makes music for people without ears. Let’s see if this one is special somehow. I doubt it but whatever, we’ll see I guess.
Post Listen: No. Yeah, it’s bad. Ute can not sing and the lyrics are bafflingly cheesy. This came out in the year 2000 and should have been left on the draft stage. The instrumentation isn’t terrible. Some of these songs have a pretty interesting and pretty tone to them. But dude. Ute Lemper might actually be the worst singer on this entire list. What the fuck is she talking about?? Is this parody?? Talking about big red balloons and brothels and stuff, I don’t know what this is, but it’s not good. Also, of course it’s an hour long. All of the bad albums are an hour long. Now, it’s not 1 star bad like I thought it might be. The instruments and pretty production somehow save it. But this is rejected film music for a movie just blatantly ripping off James Bond to make a quick buck, or perhaps lose one. Call it “008 Jim Band” and ship it out to one of those cheap video on demand channels that no one in the current year watches and you’ve got yourself a film!! With a terrible soundtrack to boot. Ok, I’ve gotta call out the author of the book again. I know you like terrible music, but what the fuck is this, and why did you think I had to spend my Thursday listening to this before I died?? What is special about this album, what is worth listening to here?? Seriously. It’s pissing me off. If she could sing it would be a 4. God dammit, it’s making me angry. I could be listening to 1000 better albums than this, but the fact that it’s not even in the Bottom 20 as of this moment is telling. On top of that, I have heard worse. Despite its best attempts, this one does have redeeming qualities, just not with the singing. I’m struggling to find what those qualities are, but I was only in misery most of the time with this album, instead of the entire damn. Damn, no, the more I write about it and compare it to the other reviews, this might actually be a 1 star. I’m undecided. I have to painstakingly find a favorite song in this mound of heaping garbage made by people I have negative feelings towards. Going to go with “Split” because Ute is only singing half of the time and the sound was kinda different in an interesting way compared to the rest of the album. Oh well. It’s the only Ute Lemper album on the list, at least I don’t have to worry about another one of those showing up, unlike the 10 thousand other Tom Waits and Elvis Costello albums on the list. You want to know why this album is on here?? The guy who made this book saw both of their names associated with this album, and put it on the list without listening to it. That must be it for sure. It’s the only way it would make sense. If you have ears, this is unbearable water torture with occasionally pretty instruments. Throw it away. Punishing Kiss?? More like Punishing Album. God damn.

In the history of music, few bands are still currently discussed and cherished as much as Led Zeppelin. There is genuine discussion to be made that they had the best singer, best guitarist, best bassist, and even the best drummer on the planet. This is compared to every band before and after them. On Top 10 lists, you’re always going to see Led Zeppelin. No one is going to call you out for listening to them unlike some people do with The Beatles, it’s just understood that the music kicks ass and deserves your respect. Hell, there is legitimate evidence that this may be the most important debut album in history. And it makes sense that it would also be the penultimate Led Zeppelin album that I would roll on the site. I’m barely 33% into my journey, and already I’ve rolled Led Zeppelin 1, Led Zeppelin 2, Led Zeppelin 3, and Physical Graffiti, not in that order. Some criticisms I’ve given the band on their later albums was that they really do love putting filler all throughout the album, especially on Physical Graffiti. That being said, it’s still the best filler on the damn site, but that’s besides the point. Led Zeppelin 1 has “Black Mountain Side”. As much as songs that I’d consider filler are concerned, on the full 44 minute and 9 song album, I’d consider that to be the only one. And it’s a very pretty song at that. It’s probably my least favorite song on the album, but it’s very pretty and has its place. You know what’s also very pretty and is also my favorite song on the album? “Dazed and Confused”. Most big bands take a few cracks at albums to really show their best stuff. Not Led Zeppelin though, no no no. This album STARTS with “Good Times Bad Times”, which is a catchy banger, and to think that they made a hit with the very first song on the album is as amazing as it is special. Got it in 1, boys. Every single song on this album is a different vibe, and the tone shift can usually be summarized as “Are they going to play fast or slow?” Sometimes they do just one, sometimes they do both. It really leaves you guessing. You could be listening to a slower song like “Babe I'm Gonna Leave You”, and then out of nowhere, the tempo picks up. Plant starts shrieking his lungs out, and the rest of the band follows suite to match the tempo. I’ll be honest, I hear a lot of “Stairway to Heaven” in this song. I don’t normally return to this one in particular, but I should. Let’s talk about “Dazed and Confused” a little bit. Now, I like to bring this up casually in conversations about the band, but there’s a bit of an elephant in the room that no one talks about. They allegedly, and allegedly is doing some heavy lifting here, allegedly stole a whole lotta their music, and “Dazed and Confused” is maybe the first example of such. I hadn’t mentioned that yet in the other reviews, and even though I really don’t care, it was something that had to get brought up. And let me tell you something. Dude, they could sing the ABC’s and it would still be a 5. It is funny though. No band is without fair criticism, and the shadow over Led Zeppelin has always been their alleged plagiarism. My silver medal on this album is “Communication Breakdown”, and it was almost my gold metal. Was hard not putting that at number 1, but it’s just so short. The fastest, jammiest song on the album by a good margin. It needs no introduction. Just flawless, fast guitar playing and more of the iconic vocal performance that only they can pull off. There is only 1 Led Zeppelin. Many newer bands have tried to copy (ironic) the success of this band to varying degrees of success. Some fizzle out quickly, others go on to become notorious for even attempting to try, and some actually manage to be pretty close to the real thing. But there is only 1, and will only ever be 1 Led Zeppelin. It’s a unique genre of music that they are the only band who fits the category of. And god damn is it some good stuff. A 5, out of 5.

I think this is going to be one of those reviews that’s a haphazard mix of things people have already said about this album, and things I’ve already said about other albums that sound like it. Let’s get the first thing out of the way right now. This dude is not Paul McCartney. This high key sounds like a mix of The Beatles attempting to make a Pink Floyd album, with a touch of Gentle Giant in the mix. That last band is pretty underrated, check them out if you like Prog. I know this isn’t Prog but it’s certainly got aspects of a billion different genres wrapped up into 1 very disjointed, very interesting album that I am extremely split on as a whole. On first listen I determined I’m not a huge fan of the singers voice. That didn’t change on my last listen several hours later, but the album seriously grew on me as a whole. Some songs did at least. Some songs, primarily “Greenman” and the closer, “The Last Balloon”, sound really good. Others, like “Your Dictionary”, are actually just god awful and I rather dislike them. I’m split on the opener, “River of Orchids”, for the same reason. Having cheesy lyrics like this in the 90’s is a deliberate choice by the band, and it’s one that makes a lot of these songs just really annoying to listen to. That’s unfortunate, because if the lyrics were good, this could be a 4. The production and instruments sound really good. They even do the funny “We just went to India” parody song that every Beatles cover band does with “Greenman”, and it’s actually my favorite song on the album even with the cheesy, terrible lyrics included. Now, I’m not familiar with XTC at all, so I didn’t know what to expect with this album. Coincidentally, this is the second album in a row where I have a song from the band saved on my Spotify already. In this case it’s “Dear God” from 1986. And wow, it’s so staggeringly different from every single song on this album that I was starting to wonder if I was playing another album by mistake. It is the closer though, so I don’t know if it’s a bad representation of the rest of the album, but the fact that it’s not even that much older than Apple Venus Volume 1 is nothing short of very surprising to me. And hey, you know what?? This is the first of 2 albums by XTC (I wonder what that stands for), I have rolled for this project. The other album is Skylarking, from 1986. The very same album I was talking about before. It’s got a higher rating than this one, but still pretty low as a whole compared to the site average. Now, I won’t lie to you, this album did grow on me a lot. Yes, it’s got a very annoying singer, that did not change. But a lot of the songs somehow end up sounding unique from themselves, and the closer, “The Last Balloon” is very well done. It’s beautiful and was difficult not having it as my gold metal. It for sure takes silver though. I truly believe that if they weren’t just copying The Beatles this might be a 4 star album. When I don’t like a singer, the album starts at a rough 2. A few albums break out of that rough start and manage to be good enough to rise to a 3, and I do believe this is one of those albums. It’s a low 3, but it’s a 3 nonetheless. I don’t like giving 1’s and 2’s. I see a lot of good things in this album, even if it is yet ANOTHER example of British bias and might not be something I had to listen to before I die. It’s alright. Not great. But I am actually curious to check out Skylarking now. I’ll wait for the bot to present that to me before hearing it as a whole for the first time, it’s more fun that way.

Yooooo, the “Nobody Speaks” guy made the cut?? No way!!!! I love that song. Noted, it’s the only song from this guy I’ve heard up until now, but I absolutely love that song. That song came out in 2016, so it’s cool to see he’s been producing heat for so long. Endtroducing….. came out all the way back in 1996 and was the debut album for DJ Shadow. So, what do I think of his debut compared to the only other song of his I already know?? Well, it’s pretty dated. That much should be obvious after the first few minutes. It’s also over an hour long, so picking out a specific song in the crowd is a little difficult. I kinda had to just go off of vibes for my favorite here. Immediately I can see how much he evolved as an artist over 30 years, and it’s really neat getting to hear the fledgling efforts of someone who still puts out music today, even if his first album is just alright. Now, I say it’s alright, but it’s very passable overall. This is the kind of album you can have on in the background and just vibe the hell out with without focusing too hard on the music itself. Despite that, it’s still pretty good on its own. But as a workout or just regular work album, it’s great. Sure, nothing blew me away here. It’s far from an amazing album, but it accomplishes what it needs to and sneaks into your mind while you listen to it, invoking a massive sense of peace and puts you at ease. Yeah, it gets a little repetitive here and there and the songs are maybe a tad too basic and dated 90’s sounds, but for an introductory album from the 90’s, it’s still pretty damn good. Not necessarily something I’d return to often, but far from a 2. I can bop to it, and that’s all that really matters. The sound effects are all pretty fun, and the album doesn’t demand you pay attention to it, even if I wish it tried to once or twice. It’s a little boring, just a bit, but situationally when I need a good brain turn off album, I could see myself returning to it. The thing I want to do the most though is check out his newest stuff to hear a before and after. That sounds like it would be pretty cool, and I’m hoping “Nobody Speaks” isn’t just a one off, I’m hopeful his newer music sounds more like that. I dunno, I’ll check it out later, it’s irrelevant to the review. What is relevant is my aforementioned favorite song. I found that “Organ Donor” was short and sweet. It offered a nice change of pace on an album that has some very long songs like “Changeling” that, while great, just go on and on. On the flip side, “Organ Donor” has a neat, ever changing premise built around the sound of an organ, it’s very short, unique, and probably the most different sounding song on the album. For those reasons, it’s my favorite. This album is alright. I can dig it. If anything, it takes me back to the 90’s, which does add some bias points. It’s also going to make me go through more of his discography, so that’s a double win for you, DJ Shadow.