Reviews by gingerninja155

Not really sure what to say about this one. After approaching 350 albums now, the ones that are just ok, like this one, are a bit tough to write in length about. I’ve never heard of The War On Drugs before, but I love that name for a band. It’s funny, and I bet they’re on the side of the drugs. I’ll start by saying this. I had 2 favorite songs on this album, both good enough to add to my usual rotation. Those songs, respectively, were “Red Eyes”, and “Suffering”. Indie albums are so incredibly hit and miss to me at this point and it’s difficult telling a lot of them apart or remembering the ones I’ve already rolled. This is a very relaxing album. I’ll give it that. If I was ever in the mood to just chill out, perhaps if I was also on drugs, I might just pop this one on. The biggest problem I have with it, is that I’m not always in that mood. With a playtime of over an hour of chill music, you get the point very quickly. I don’t think this album takes any interesting swings, or attempts to do anything differently song to song. It’s all just kind of one long, slow, chill song for both better and worse. Rock is such a massive spectrum. Albums like this make me wonder if there should be something in between Folk and Rock that doesn’t already exist. This would be that. There are elements of guitar playing here and there, but they’re all very light flourishes. The singer is so soft spoken, I’d almost even call it Singer Songwriter. None of this is a criticism. I rather like all of that, just kind of marveling at how much of a spectrum Rock music covers, and how wildly different it can sound from artist to artist. Let’s talk about some of the influences of this album real quick. It’s apparently supposed to sound like 1980’s Rock. Specifically, he’s trying to sound like Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young. Now, while I think he does a good job of sounding like Neil and Bruce, I can absolutely tell this came out in 2014. I don’t know exactly what gives it away, but it just sounds very similar to a lot of other indie albums from around the same time. This isn’t the first time I’ve said something like that about an album. I don’t even think this is the first time I’ve said that this week. Some decades are easy to spot, and this is one of them. Between my 2 favorites on this album, “Red Eyes” is full of life, spirit, and touches me on a personal level. Going to go ahead and reward that my favorite award for this album. Overall, it’s long, chill, a bit trippy, and I’m not likely to remember a lot of it, but I had fun with this album. Would return to it again. Fun weekend album. Excited to see what comes up next.

Some albums are truly remarkable. Spectacularly composed, unbelievably creative and clever, once in a lifetime masterpieces. These are works of art at such a high degree that they inevitably bring a tear to your eyes and make sweet love to your ears from the very first note, all the way to the end of the final song. Something you could always go back to and instantly be transported to somewhere special that only you can enjoy. An album that can either demand your full undivided attention, or be enjoyed in any specific moment at the same time, breaking all standard conventions and blowing your mind listen after listen. Just the best possible thing you’ve ever heard. You can forgive it for not being on Spotify, and you’re definitely not mad you had to download something like it off of YouTube. That can easily be forgiven if it’s as spectacular as you know it is. An album of such high magnificence should only be heard by those brave enough to seek it out in the first place, after all. Only then, can it be called the best thing you’ve ever heard. It might not even sound like music to the untrained ears. It might sound like the work of an angel. To others, it might sound deliciously devilish. It doesn’t matter, everyone is going to hear it differently. Music is an experience meant to be open to interpretation. But you specifically know it’s perfect, and want it all to yourself. To divulge the essence of pure perfection to just anyone may bring fake fans into the scene, and they might ruin the album for you and other real fans. Even worse, if brands started marketing the album as the “next big thing”, it wouldn’t be even remotely special anymore, and might propel the band into the spotlight and into the mainstream, thus irrevocably and inevitably changing their sound into generic corporate slop for the hungry masses. It happens more often than you think. How many artists can you think of that started out as underground classics and then quickly got swept up by some corrupting record label?? Probably a lot. Regardless, it’s very hard finding an artist that hasn’t happened to, but they are out there. It isn’t my place to lead you to them, part of the fun is finding them by yourself. This site actually does have a few of them. More niche selections that have surprised even me, some of which I have given 4 and 5 stars to and dove into more of the artists albums because of it. By the way, this album is absolutely dogshit. I wouldn’t make my greatest enemies listen to this, and it has 0 redeeming qualities to it whatsoever. Fuck this album. 1 star.

To be honest with you, whatever this sleep inducing, low tempo, chillaxing sub genre is of Electronica, it’s definitely one of my least favorite of them all. I get the appeal of listening to music like this. It puts you in a good mood. It’s fine to put this on when you need a good pick me up. It’s happy, non intrusive music that I would probably only listen to when I was trying to get some sleep. The singers are fine. Nothing special. Not amazing, but they get the jobs done. The tracks? They actually put me to sleep here, and they do a pretty good job at it. Memorable tracks? None of them. It’s pretty much the same all the way through. Of course, it’s also over an hour long. Albums like this always are. But yet, with all that harsh criticism, I still don’t mind it. It’s fine. I’m not going to really make this one stick with me, but it’s fine for what it is. If this is your kind of jam, I get it. But I want some more energy with my Electronica. I wouldn’t really dance to this. I like it well enough, it’s technically impressive and even when it’s putting me to sleep with the playtime, it still doesn’t really get boring. Samey? Absolutely. But not boring. In fact, it’s annoying that they actually try to introduce a bit of a darker tone aaaaaaalllll the way at the end of the album with “Broken Bones”. That song did stand out to me, and it quickly became my favorite on the album. I did opt to go with the Special Edition of this album this time, as it was the default on the site. It’s rare that I do that, so I don’t know if my pick for favorite was on the original album. Oh well, it was my favorite here by far. Dissonant, actually amazing singing, and a cool beat. That song might stick with me. Might have to add it to the usual rotation. So, there was nothing to dislike here, but nothing that stood out and truly pulled me in either, save for “Broken Bones”. It’s a low 3. Easy decision with this one. Sounds very similar to a lot of other artists who were all going for the same sound at the time, so I might be a bit biased. It hasn’t been enough years for me to want to start listening to this specific kind of music again. But it’s fine. I can enjoy it for what it is. I’ve also never heard of CHVRCHΞS before, but as a rule of thumb, I find anyone who stylizes their name like that a tad pretentious. Immediate strike 1. Anyway, yeah, it’s a 3.

This is the first of 3 Madonna albums I have rolled for this project. It’s the first of 3 chronologically as well, which is always something I enjoy happening by chance. Upon rolling this album today, a few things quickly, and surprisingly stood out to me before I even started listening to the album. The first thing is that I know Madonna is incredibly popular even today. The second, is that all 3 of her albums on the site are rated significantly below average. The third, is that I personally only know one Madonna song that I can name by heart, and ironically it’s the title track, “Like A Prayer”. The fourth and final thing I noticed is that I literally only know that song because it was used in the third Deadpool movie, 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine. To be fair, it was used in the funniest possible moment, as the titular characters are massacring an army of Deadpool’s in the street. The juxtaposition of Madonna and the visceral fight scene works very well. It’s a funny, memorable scene. Regardless, it’s the only reason I know a Madonna song. So now I have to dive into why she’s as popular as she is, but I don’t know any of her music, and the site doesn’t particularly like her for whatever reason. It’s all a tad strange, but I’ve got 3 albums to decide if I like her or not. What did I personally think of Like A Prayer?? Let’s just get the favorite out of the way first. It’s “Like A Prayer”. I can’t not associate that song with Deadpool. That’s just going to be in my head forever, permanently linked with that movie. This was my first time listening to it in full, and there’s a reason it was the opener as well as the title track. It’s the best, and unquestionably my favorite song on the album. Even after listening to the album in full, I’m quite confused why it’s rated below average. I’ll just come out and say it. It’s really good. Madonna is the Queen of Pop, and she paved the way for a metric ton of successful musicians, most of which have credited her directly. Is this a case of people thanking her for what she did, but preferring what came after?? I don’t know, and I’m confused. None of these songs blew me away necessarily, but they’re all easy to listen to, and I wouldn’t even really skip any. They’re all pretty good, save for some of the ballads like “Promise to Try”, which aren’t really my thing. Fantastic song for sure, just not quite my tempo or vibe. Not the biggest fan of softer songs in general, but I can still see how good they are in general. “Dear Jessie” is unrelentingly goofy. Maybe I’d skip that one actually. But it’s different and it stands out. She tries a lot of things on this album. Most of them work, and even the things that don’t are at least interesting enough to talk about. Madonna has a hypnotic, enticing voice, and the BPM of a lot of these songs is fast paced, and for a Pop album, it’s far from ever being boring, even on the pretty ballads. If anything, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It’s a mid to high 3. Call it a 3.75 out of 5. I’m very interested to hear the other 2 albums to see how some of her later stuff turned out. Will it be better, worse, or more of the same. If it’s the first or third option, I’ll likely enjoy it as much or more than this one. But as it stands, you have to respect and give major props to the Queen, and this was a very fun listen. Easy to write about, and I had a lot to say about it, which is generally the mark of a great album. Occasionally the reverse is true though. It’s a bell curve, really. But this one was really good and I had a good time with it. Pop albums need to be fun. You need to be able to dance to them. This was fun!! Great first impression by the Queen of Pop. Looking forward to hearing more. As for why it’s so low rated, maybe people just hate Pop music for some reason. If that’s the case, people need to lighten up and try dancing a little bit. This album was a good time from top to bottom. I get the hype.

First things first, for a debut album, this is very impressive on multiple different levels. The singer has a great voice, and it works well within the Folk Rock heavy album. I can recognize that it’s done very well. All that being said… eh. I don’t personally love this album. It’s more of a time capsule back to the 2000’s for me and sounds fairly dated in a way I don’t really care to return to. It’s great, but in a way that is more able to be appreciated than currently enjoyed, in my honest opinion. Folk music in general is often very hit or miss for me. It’s never going to blow me away, it’s always going to be pretty boring, and all of the songs are going to sound damn near identical. This album has all 3 of those things going for it, with the added flair of sounding like every single other album around that time. All THAT being said, it really grew on me. Somehow, I listened to this over and over again for most of the day trying to find a favorite song. Noted, it wasn’t easy. They’re all very similar, but I settled on “Blue Ridge Mountains”. The harmony at the beginning is stunning, harp included. I really just liked every aspect of that song. It stood out more than the others, as it’s constantly adding different aspects, like when the piano comes in about a minute into the song. It just does a nice job of continuing to escalate and evolve as the song goes on. Great song. Overall, I’m still at the end of the day very conflicted on this album. It’s pretty good, but it’s not my thing, and reminds me of a time where I thought music was in a very boring spot. But yet, I listened to it for quite some anyway. So maybe it actually is my thing. I don’t know. Regardless, it’s a 3 for me no matter what. I sussed that out from the first listen, and continued feeling that it was a 3 the entire day through. Somehow, the Fleet Foxes are a band that have completely gone under the radar for me. Perhaps because they were overshadowed by 10 plus other bands with the same sound, I don’t know. But I’d never heard of them before until today. Still though, once again, it’s pretty good. It won’t stick with me, but it’s nice and peaceful, and occasionally that’s exactly what I’m looking for.

Natty Dread is the second of 3 Bob Marley & The Wailers albums I have listened to for this project following Catch A Fire, released a year prior to Natty Dread. Bob Marley is an icon for a reason. He did so much for the community, and is still to this day as close to a living icon as you can get. Nowadays, he’s also the living embodiment of recreational weed use as well, something I think he would have appreciated. Obviously, there’s more to his character than just that, but to write about him in depth would be a completely different review. For the purpose of the review, I can confirm that this album would likely sound better if I was blazed out of my mind. The unique way that only he could truly sing, and the trippy instrumentation are unmistakably Bob Marley. Just listen to “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)”. That’s the most Jamaican song I’ve ever heard. None of these songs blow me away particularly, but I’m never going to say no to listening to them. I’m also a little surprised that this album isn’t higher rated, considering it’s got the classic “No Woman No Cry”. I was expecting that song to be in his Top 10 on Spotify, but just the fact that it isn’t tells me that Bob Marley has even more hits than I initially realized. I personally think the message and icon that is Bob Marley is more important than the sum of his music, but I also think his music is really good. A lot of these songs have some sneaky chords that end up making them sound better and much more complex than you may expect. Particularly, my favorite song on this album is “Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock)”. It’s still unmistakably a Bob Marley song, and it blends a perfect use of his voice, his backup singers, the guitars, piano and percussion. They all come together perfectly and make what I believe is the most memorable song on the album. At least, it’s the one that stuck with me the most. I love Bob Marley, and I love the freedom he represents. This was a great album in and of itself, and I’m excited to roll the third and final album on the list, as it happens to be the highest rated of his, so it must be pretty good.

Jeff Beck is one of the greatest guitarists of all time. Thank God he was on this album, because without him, it would probably have been a 2. There’s a very good reason why people look back fondly on this band for the sole reason of making Beck, Clapton and Page famous. It was always just a pipeline for them, and not anybody’s favorite part of their careers. Unfortunately, a big reason for that is that this album is just overwhelmingly boring and lifeless. The other reason is because Keith Relf wasn’t a great singer. He was always carried for the entirety of his Yardbirds career by the vastly superior talents of the aforementioned Beck, Clapton and Page, who all went on themselves to be some of the most well respected and talented musicians of all time. Each era of the Yardbirds is fun to listen to, if only to hear what they sounded like so early in each of their blossoming careers. What I don’t want to listen to, however, is the singer. If The Yardbirds ever had a legendary singer, I think people would view the band in an amazing light, rather than the stepping stone that it actually is today. Hell, ironically, I gave Jeff Beck’s solo album on this list a 4 due to the singer their, Rod Stewart, also taking some getting used to, being the weaker part of that album which was also being overwhelmingly carried by Beck and the bassist. The funniest part of all of that is that the best song on his solo album is his solo song. It seems as if a good bit of the site agrees that the best song on this album… is also a solo by Beck, appropriately titled “Jeff’s Boogie”. While it was a close second for me, I rather enjoyed the song that came after it the most, “He’s Always There”. The singing for the most part doesn’t bother me at all, I think he’s fine myself. Completely and deeply unrelated to the review, but did you know he was actually electrocuted in his basement at 33?? It’s a very weird story. Before he went though, he got to work with some immensely talented people. This album is way too long for what it is, it’s pretty boring, and it’s not going to stick with me. But the guitar playing is immaculate, and for that I’m going to give it a medium-low 3.

With the placement of this album here today, I am officially halfway finished with the madness that is the staggering 8 The Byrds albums on the list, including solo albums by members of the band. This marks the second and final Gene Clark solo album, and I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but it’s actually pretty great. I never thought I would see the day. 4 aggressively mediocre Byrds albums, and a multitude of terrible Country albums, and I feel like I’ve finally found something bearable. More than bearable, I’d actually return to this!! Now I just have to figure out what this specific style is, and maybe check out more of it to see if I’ve actually found Country I can truly say I enjoy. I’ve just spent the better part of 2 weeks dogging on Country music for sounding so bad, noting that not only is it my lowest rated genre on the site, but every album except for a sole Johnny Cash album has been a 3 or lower, with Cash getting a 4. Both of the solo Gene Clark albums on the site were monumental commercial failures, and apparently this one almost didn’t see the light of day at all. Let me seriously ask you something, because I’ve never been this confused in my life. Of all the shitty, terrible Country albums I have had to endure, the album that is UNQUESTIONABLY the best of all of them, was a failure???? How???? This one is incredible. I almost want to give it a 5. It’s trippy, has some unconventional guitar playing, a really cool singer (Unlike on his other solo album, imo), an immaculate group of backup singers, and is truly just something special. If you can actually call this album Country, then god damn. It took me a long time, but I really, really enjoyed this, practically from top to bottom. That being said, the top is quite a bit better than the ladder half of the album. I’d say you only really need to listen to the first half, the second half is nothing special. Mostly just filler, and closer to what I’d expect of a Country album, and yet still much better than I’m used to. The first 4 songs though, rather, songs 2-4 are maybe worthy of calling 5 star songs. This is the first Country album on the site in which I actually don’t know how to pick a favorite. “Silver Raven”, “No Other”, and “Strength of Strings” are all good enough to add to my regular rotation. I don’t know what Gene was smoking in the 3 years between his other album on the site White Light and this, but it helped make something truly special. Man, to hear a Country album this good after all the bad things I’ve said about the genre just truly and utterly has me baffled to near speechlessness. What baffles me the most though, is how the hell this album went unnoticed for so long. It might just be my favorite Country album I’ve ever listened to. That’s not saying a lot really, but I would return to this, and honestly probably will. Of all the albums to surprise me, this may be the one to surprise me the most. Another example of “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. The other Byrds albums have all largely been mediocre at best, and if I was a better man, I’m guessing that the next 4 I’ll have to listen to are all probably going to be fairly middling as well. This one though?? Shit. Good job Gene. I like it. I like it a lot actually. No Other by Gene Clark is going to get a 4/5 from me. Good Country does actually exist. Here it is. This is the proof. On an album that by all metrics was a complete failure. Make that make sense, because I’m unable to do so at all.

Learning a lot about myself while doing this project. Going to go partially off track here, so stay with me now. Most forms of Jazz are not my thing. I find them mostly boring, but still at the bare minimum they’re easy to listen to unless it’s a Freeform quartet, in which case it’s usually torturous. That being said, I usually give them a 3. There have been good Jazz albums that have surprised me. But Country music?? It’s all trash across the entire board. It’s not fun to listen to, it’s not easy to listen to, and I just certifiably do not enjoy it in any form that isn’t just Johnny Cash, the exception to the rule. From the second I hear that familiar guitar sound, and the hillbilly voice, I’m instantly in agony, longing for any other album. Honky Tonk may be one of the worst sub genres to exist. This just sounds like every single other Country album I’ve listened to on this site, which is to say it’s getting a 2 star review. The first song was not terrible, besides his voice. There were moments of enjoyment, notably when he wasn’t singing. The rest of this album though?? I’m glad it was only 27 minutes long, because man was it tough to get through. Just couldn’t get through it a second time. Got about 80% of the way through so I could see if it scrapes out a 3, but it’s just so terrible, I couldn’t manage it. “Honky Tonk Heroes” is my favorite, I guess. But I still don’t really even like that. Less than a week ago I rolled another Country album that I had to give a 1. I do not give many 1’s. This album wasn’t half as miserable as that one was, but I still personally believe this was more bad than good. Going to give it a 2.7 and call it a day. If there’s one thing I’m happy about it’s that the site is just knocking out all the terrible Honky Tonk early so I can get back to enjoying the actual music. Not much more I can stretch out this review with. At the moment, before I click vote, here’s a quick rundown of my Bottom 3 sub genres. If you think I’m not qualified to review this properly, I would agree. I openly hate Country music. In third place at the bottom is Jazz, at 2.86/5. In second place, we’ve got Foll, sitting at 2.83/5. Drumroll please, and keep in mind this is before I give this the 2 it rightfully deserves, Country is at the very bottom, at a staggering 2.33/5. Does good Country music exist?? Or is it just Johnny Cash, who I gave a 4. I’m truly starting to believe that it’s all just actual garbage. Only time will tell, but I’m dreading the day when I roll more. Not a fan. Ok, that’s enough of that. Boring album, not a fan of the voice, and the instrumentation was simple and boring as well. Moving on.

Neil Young really has a way of hooking you with his music. He does a great job of just slinking his way into your ears and finding a home. This is the fourth of seven Neil Young albums I have listened to for this project, following Harvest, On The Beach, and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. In order, I’ve given 2 3’s, a 5, and I would rate this album a 3 as well. Neil has such a charming voice, and I would never be upset listening to it, but much like the movie Titanic, the second half is when this album/movie starts getting really good. The first 5 songs on the album, while still thoroughly enjoyable, are more of the singer-songwriter kinda Folky sounding songs that I wouldn’t feel terrible about skipping over. While again, still great songs in their own right, aren’t really my cup of tea. Luckily for me, the album is split perfectly down the middle in tone. When you start entering “Powderfinger” territory on song 6, the electric guitar starts shining, and the album gets markedly better. There is no better way of noticing the stark difference between halves than hearing the last song blend into the first one when the album seamlessly replays itself. “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)” and “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”, naturally, are pretty heavily related to each other. The first opens up quite somberly, and Neil is noticeably contemplative about the state of the music industry of the late 70’s. References to Elvis and Johnny Rotten are made, as well as a solemn oath that Rock and Roll is never going to die. The last song on the album, in contrast, hits the ground running and opens up with a meaty, killer riff, and Neil is practically shouting. Instead of coming off as kinda sad, there’s genuine anger and heart in this one. In the first song, he was essentially lamenting Punk being mainstay and changing Rock and Roll forever, but by the last song, he’s acknowledging that music needs to change over time. That’s just the way it goes. It’s only natural. “Rust Never Sleeps”, after all. I might be over analyzing the song a bit too much, but the line “Is this the story of Johnny Rotten??” comes off as 2 distinct trains of thought to me. The first, is that Neil is saying the old style of Rock and Roll is going to take over again when people get bored of Punk, but I don’t buy that personally. What I think he’s saying, is that Rock is going to evolve AGAIN after Punk has its fun, and another genre/sub genre will emerge. The extreme irony of this duo of songs is that Punk music, at least in the form that Neil is discussing here, was only really truly popular for like, 5 years max, and was already on its way out when this song was released, quickly being replaced in the mainstream by Post-Punk, adding yet another layer of irony. I’ve never been one to personally do deep analysis on the songs I’m listening to for this project, I’ve mostly just been going on whether or not they sound good to me. Evidently, I’m not a music reviewer, I say with a big grain of irony. But this duo of songs were quite good, and fun to analyze. When Neil talks to me, I will listen. To take this review full circle, his friendly cadence just draws you in. He tells you stories that are fun to listen to, sometimes important, other times predictions of the future. I might not have been deeply moved by this album personally, but after listening to now 4 of his works, I deeply respect and appreciate Neil Young, and I’m always happy to check out his music. Naturally, my favorite song on this album was the closer, “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”. For making me think and contemplate myself so much, I want to give this a 4, but I’m going to call it a 3.9 out of 5 for now. Great album, amazing bookends.

Ok. Here it is. Album 331. It was only a matter of time, and still when I clicked “Save” on the previous review, the album art today hit me like a flash bang. There are a few artists I hold in EXTREME regard, and of all of them, Chris Cornell I hold the very highest. He was one of the most talented musicians of all time, and very well may have been my all time favorite. This book NEEDS Badmotorfinger, Audioslave’s self titled album, or any amount of solo Cornell stuff. Screw it, just give me anything else by him. Anything will do, they’re all good. The few examples and high reviews of a good majority of Grunge on the site are evidence enough that the people want more of it. Hi, it’s me. I’m the people. I don’t know how to realistically begin this review without just speaking about how important the artist is to me, but I guess I’ll try. Some albums just have a sentimental hit on me that make me want to speak more about my profound love for the artist more than the album itself. Regardless, this is a 5 star album from top to bottom. I might have said this maybe a few times before, but giving this a 5 was the easiest decision of my life, and this very well may be my favorite album in the entire book. This time, I actually mean that. It’s going to be really, REALLY hard to beat. I have a playlist on Spotify of my all time favorite 10 songs, and 2 of them prominently feature Cornell. One of them is “Cochise”, featured on Self Titled by Audioslave, and the other is “Spoonman”, from Superunknown. So, as much as I love this album, it’s at least easy enough to tell you that “Spoonman” is my favorite song on it. I could write a passionate individual review for each song on this album as if I were talking about freaking Abbey Road by The Beatles, but I’ll simply say that this album has 0 songs I would ever skip. It feels like fate that the song “4th Of July” would get rolled as my weekend album, playing through the 4th of July. This isn’t even my favorite Soundgarden album, but dude, seriously. The hits. It’s the most accessible and the album with the grand majority of their hits, and they’re all good. Again, saving some time, it would take up a ton of space just to write the songs I think are the best, because it’s all of them. The killer guitar playing, meaty drum hits, and of course, Chris Cornell come together to just kill every single song on the album. Again, I could go on and on talking about this one for days at a time. I was waiting for this album since the very beginning. I feel so sorry for whatever follows this album, it’s going to need to be perfect as well, or I might rate it a bit harsher than usual for simply not being Chris Cornell. Well, that’ll do it for my review on Superunknown. There is a HIGH possibility this wins top of the class for me personally. I love this freaking album, and I’m still sad about Cornell passing. Before he went though, he gave us a lot of good stuff, and I will always enjoy it deeply until it inevitably becomes my own time to shuffle off this mortal coil.

This has got to be the most Early 2000’s album in the history of Early 2000’s albums. What a fun little time capsule this was. It shows its age right from song 1, but it was everywhere upon release, so I get the inclusion in the book. It belongs here, love it or hate it. That being said, if a solo Justin Timberlake album ended up making the final cut, it’s surprising to me that the book has no inclusion for either *NSYNC or The Backstreet Boys. I’d have probably preferred either of them to just this. But sure, go ahead, include 6 Elvis Costello albums instead… Random stray, sorry about that, back to the actual review. Justified is fairly generic and by the books, but not entirely unpleasant. As to be expected for the time period. Every album kinda sounded like this at the time. Still good enough to get a 3 though, comfortably. The composition and overall production by Pharrell Williams is very much present on this album, which is cool. He’s great. To an extent, there’s some Timbaland as well that shines through, well before he became a complete and utter loser. Both of those are points in the albums favor. I do love Justin’s voice here, he really does have an impeccable singing voice that lends itself well to the cool beats here, and I’m a tad confused at the low rating this album has in general on the site. For the most part, I stay out of celebrity news for the sake of my mental health, so if he himself is in the spotlight for doing something bad, I’m not aware of it, but I hope he isn’t. Gonna do some research on that, as it’s the only reason I could see this album having the low rating it does. It’s really pretty good as a whole, even if it’s WAY too long and very of its time. Some traditional tropes about women that are very of the time probably wouldn’t slide today. That might be another reason for the low rating, I really don’t know. The inclusion of various samples, beats, tone shifts and other elements are shining elements of why Contemporary R&B can be so cool. While the album does a really good job of mixing it up song to song, it doesn’t need to be over an hour long. A ton of these songs are filler, most of which range from boring and forgettable all the way to absolute bangers. The ones that are bangers, notably “Rock Your Body”, are classics. I love that song. The only thing that could maybe make this album better would be the inclusion of “SexyBack”, which is probably his most successful song, and also his best in my opinion. “Rock Your Body” is a close second though, so I’m not complaining. Still love that song, it’s by far my favorite on this album. Overall, I was surprised by this one. It’s a great debut album and I was bopping pretty heavily to it. Would listen to it again.

Lord give me strength. For I have just endured another Country album, and this may have been the worst one yet. Guitar Town by Steve Earle is the kind of album you play to someone from Alabama who has strong feelings for their cousin. This album made me truly question whether or not this was supposed to be parody. I painstakingly looked at every album I have given a 2, and the few albums I have given a 1, in a vain attempt to find something I enjoyed about in this album. For the 2 star albums, I usually mention a song or an aspect of the album that was bearable, or rarely something that might have been pretty good. Alas, I was unable to for this album. Now, maybe it was because I only listened to it once, and it might have grown on me. That does happen with a lot of the albums on the site. However, in rare instances like this, when I hear the sound of a good old Country boy with a voice like that, it makes me regret my blood oath to this website and myself to listen to every single album from top to bottom all the way through at least once. This album has the certified makings of generic hick County music, which is the most unbearable, most unpleasant kind of noise to listen to. I made a prediction a few 1 star reviews ago that most of the albums I unfortunately have to bestow with a 1 would be Country, and also unfortunately I've been right on the money so far. I just don't like it. The instrumentation here is generic, the lyrics are a joke, the names of the songs make me regret not listening on private mode, and the singer makes me want to consume a gallon of bleach. I hate giving 1 star reviews, but for instances like this where I just can't pick out anything even resembling enjoyment, I've gotta do it. And yes, it's becoming a bad trend with the Country albums. It seems that I'm not alone in the assessment that this album just doesn't belong here either, as it has a very low rating on the site. I'm about to contribute to that. You know that when an album has me ranting like this, in which I could go another several lines just dogging on Country, that it's bad. This album did nothing but enrage me and I was happy when it ended. It's not even 40 minutes long but feels like it took 10 hours to get through. I wanted to be nice and give it a 2, but I simply can not do that. Good Country exists. It's few and far between, but it does exist. On the other end of that spectrum are the albums that sound exactly like this. Let this be the shining, and hopefully last example, of the kind of music I hate the most on this website. Yee Haw.

Love it or hate it, for better or for worse, I can’t listen to the song “Rock Lobster” without thinking of the show Family Guy. The song has permanently been ingrained into the deepest corners of my subconscious because of that stupid show. And yet, I’m pretty confident that this is the first time I’ve actually heard it in full. Man, this is another weird band. Like, Frank Zappa weird. This was made with every conceivable drug imaginable, I’m sure of it. It definitely has a charm, but it’s just extraordinarily weird as well. I only recognized the hit, “Rock Lobster”, and it’s probably for a good reason. There are the other songs on this album, and then there’s that one. It’s catchy, it’s appropriately weird, and the little extra bits of flare the song has with some of the riffs and background elements are just charming. Yeah, it’s the best song on the album, and it’s also my favorite. Nice, long, earwormy, and memed to hell and back because of Family Guy. Peak song. From start to finish, the song keeps changing and always manages to keep sounding awesome. The rest are pretty earwormy too, but don’t hold a candle in the wind to the stupid brilliance of “Rock Lobster”. Now, the website categorizes this album as Rock, but I kind of disagree with that categorization. I don’t know if it was considered Rock in 1979 when it released, but this is closer to Pop, or even Pop Punk in my opinion. Some of the songs, especially the ones sung by Cindy Wilson like “52 Girls” and “Dance This Mess Around” just come off like classic 70’s Pop, with a little Punk thrown in the mix, and a whole lot of weirdness with the vocals. There were a few moments in “Dance This Mess Around” where I thought the singers were attempting to charm a snake. And still, it’s all catchy. Not in an annoying way. In a truly charming way, and that’s very tough to pull off. The biggest compliment I can give this album is that despite having some classic 70’s vibes all around, it does sound pretty weirdly unique, in a good way. The best thing I can say about it is that every single song is an earworm because of the cool instrumentation and inherent weirdness of the band members. They’re all very funny, and it shows on every song. Quite charming really. It’s still a 3, but it’s a 3 I feel very happy to have spent my day with, and I would return to this album, maybe even check out some more B-52’s later. I personally like “Rock Lobster” more, but “Love Shack” is another really good song by them that everyone should check out if they haven’t already. It’s unfortunately not featured on this album, but that’s fine. We’re living in an age where every song imaginable is easily accessible at this point. To get back on track, I’ll end my review by saying this. This was an extremely lively, fun album, and I had a blast listening to it today. I’m a fan of this band now.

I was really looking forward to this one. This is the second and final Dusty Springfield album I have now heard for this project, following one of her later albums, Dusty In Memphis. I gave that album a 4, and I’d still give it a 4 today. It sounds timeless, and Dusty has a truly remarkable voice that I could always listen to. Unfortunately, by comparison, this album sounds tremendously dated and I’m not going to remember a lot of it, like I did for the previous album. It is her debut album, and it’s a hell of a debut, but this sounds like it could have honestly released in the 50’s and I wouldn’t have batted an eye. Which is especially funny when considering Dusty In Memphis was just a few years after this. Something amazing must have happened, because my God did she find her way to make that one excellent. What this album still has going for it is Dusty’s voice. It’s great in every song, and if you only care about the singing, you might as well give this a 5 now. She may have the coolest voice for a female singer I’ve heard so far on the bot. Not to say that the instrumentation is lacking. It’s also great, especially on my favorite song on the album, the closer “Summer Is Over”. What a fantastic song!! Good enough to add to my frequent rotation, my first add in what feels like over 2 weeks. That song really brings the singing and instruments together nicely, and closes the album on a very high note. However, as a whole, I just don’t think this album is as good as her other one in the book, if that wasn’t already made clear enough. Too dated. Just a bit too old fashioned and maybe even a bit too happy sounding for me, if that makes any amount of sense. That might be a positive for some, but I think adding more songs with the depth of “Summer Is Over” would have greatly suited the album. Now, I also want to point out that I am far from disappointed in this album. It’s her debut, it is a few years younger than the other one, but also further exemplifies just how much a person can grow in such a short amount of time vocally, and still sound fantastic while showing clear signs of improvement. For that reason, I’m very happy to have had the chance to listen to this album today. It’s a great foundation to build off of, and evidently she did just fine for herself after this. For a debut album, it’s great, even if it does sound a little dated. A very solid middle 3 out of 5, and even a new song for the frequent rotation. That’s always cool. Good job again Dusty, I wish I could experience more of your music on the site, but the selections are already good enough as they are. Two very solid albums.

Fantastic album with a lot of unmemorable songs and a few phenomenal jams that even out to a near 4 star album. It’s really good, but the songs that stand out, notably “One Way Or Another” and “Heart Of Glass” are so many miles above the rest of the album that it’s hard to say this is a low 4. I don’t know, it’s close. Blondie is a really fun singer, but none of these songs particularly blow me away. Now, don’t get me wrong, I freaking LOVE Debbie Harry, the lead singer. Some of her other songs that aren’t even on this album like “Rapture” and “Call Me” have been stuck in my head since the moment I heard them. However, much like Bowie, there’s a lot of filler to get to the good stuff. Noted, it’s pretty good filler, but it’s largely just set dressing for the better songs on the album. I really do feel guilty giving this 3 stars, and I may come back to it later to adjust it to a low 4. Upon further review, unfortunately I’m going to keep it as a 3. There’s just not enough bangers to warrant putting it any higher. Again, don’t get it mistaken, I still love Blondie, and this album didn’t even remotely disappoint me. It just isn’t really a banger from top to bottom, and it needs to be to have a higher rating. Still though, I wouldn’t really skip any of these songs. They’re all good, and from song to song the variety is also quite good and varied. There are a lot of different blended genres here, and for better and worse, they make the album very unique and fun. My personal favorite of the bunch is obviously going to have to be “One Way Or Another”. What a classic. Easily stuck in my head and will remain stuck in my head until I hear another certified banger classic at some point during this project. Could that be tomorrow?? We’ll see. For now, this is a really good, charming, fun album, and I wish I could give it a higher rating. If the site had more than just 1-5 stars, this would be a 3.9, and I’d feel a whole lot less guilty about only giving it a 3.

This album is delightfully stupid and you’d have to just genuinely not enjoy fun to hate on it. Not every album in this book has to be high art to be good. This certainly isn’t, and it’s by far the best album I’ve had in over a week. It’s dumb, it doesn’t take itself seriously, and it’s a seriously good time. I could listen to nothing but this album for a week and still have a good time with it. It’s front loaded for sure, but the entire first half of the album is banger after banger after banger. Love the singing, love the solos, and the vibes?? Oh man, the vibes are good on this one. The only mood I’d have to be in to not want to listen to this one would be “literally dead”. “You Give Love A Bad Name”, “Livin’ On A Prayer”, and “Wanted Dead or Alive” are bonafine classics, and the rest of the album isn’t bad either. But those songs alone are worthy of a 4 star review. I have personal anecdotes for why I like 2 of those songs as much as I do, but regardless of that, they’re just good songs. In fact, despite having never heard this album from front to back until now, you can be certain that I recognized most of the songs on this album. Plus, all of them are fun to sing, preferably when you’re alone. “Livin’ On A Prayer” is yet another certified Guitar Hero classic banger, and “Wanted Dead Or Alive” was the theme song to the show Deadliest Catch. Both of those songs have deep sentimental value for me, and I’m still going to say “You Give Love A Bad Name” is my favorite song on the album because it’s just THAT good. The clapping, the solo, the background vocals, it’s all pretty peak. It’s the most fun to sing as well, in my opinion, and of the 3 classics, it’s probably the one I think about the most. Anyway, this is a classic album, and all of the hits are incredible songs. This is almost a 5, going to give it a 4.9 simply because the second half of the album is mostly forgettable and isn’t as good as the top half. Hell of a good pick for Bon Jovi. Very happy this album is on here. What a great change of pace from the albums I’ve been rolling lately. Now to see what the weekend album is.

I enjoyed the comic more. Get it?? Like Batman. Alright, whatever. This was a pretty weird album. I understand the low rating, but I kind of thought it was weird in a refreshing way. The almost grungy, metallic guitar playing was very interesting. Every song feels very unpolished, gritty, and real. The singer on the other hand, eh, the singer kinda sucks. I’m not gonna lie to you. This is one of those albums I enjoyed the most when he wasn’t singing. For that reason, “Bloodsport” was, and I mean by far was, my favorite song on the album. Seriously though, it’s really cool how different these songs sound for being called Rock songs. They’re pretty unique in that regard. Futuristic almost. Song to song, the sound is pretty different from the last, but the songs themselves drag on a little too long, and are fairly one-note and not tremendously engaging. They’re fine, certainly, but nothing you’d think is amazing or necessarily in need of a listen. It’s not an amazing album, but for what it is I enjoyed it enough to say that I might return to it if I’m bored. It’s a mid to high 3.7 for me. Some funky, raw guitar playing throughout the album that I can’t really compare to anything else, but the singing just isn’t for me, and holds the album back heavily, unfortunately. Still though, I had fun with this one at least. Being unique is an accomplishment in and of itself. It’s another accomplishment to be unique and sound as interesting as this does, and not get a 1 or a 2. Unique in a cool, refreshing way. Cool little album. I liked it. I could see myself digging into this band who I’ve never heard of before until today’s discography and checking out their other stuff. The lead singer looks to me, in visual appearance only (I wish in vocal quality, but alas) like an exact replica of Ozzy, which doesn’t contribute a single thing to the album, I just think it’s really funny and I wanted to share that. But yeah, with a voice like that it’s no wonder this album is rated as low as it is. If the guitar playing wasn’t so god damn interesting, this would be an easy 2 from me. But I can mostly tune Temu Ozzy out and enjoy this album for what it is. So, despite all odds, it’s still a high 3 for me.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard “Under the Boardwalk” covered this month, I’d have 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s strange that it happened twice. For that reason, I honestly want to call it my favorite song on the album. It’s catchy, and I’m starting to love hearing the different interpretations of it from artist to artist. This was a nice little album. Short and sweet, very much to the point. It’s over before you even know it and starts from the top very quickly, which is a big point in its favor. 15 songs, 38 minutes that all feel short. However, they do all feel a tad repetitive and samey. Nothing that’s really very memorable or interesting here. This album isn’t winning any awards for being new, surprising, or breaking any pre-existing molds that need breaking. I’m probably going to forget about it by tomorrow, but it wasn’t bad, just forgettable and very, very generic. The lead singers voice was fine, as was the guitar playing. It’s very lively and energetic. A very traditional Punk/Rock album. Probably just a little more Punk than Rock. They yell at you for about 40 minutes, and then the album ends, but it feels like it only lasted for about half of that time. In other words, it serves its purpose nicely. I wouldn’t necessarily return to this, but I’m not upset for listening to it today. Decent little filler album, and definitely better than the actual trash I’ve been rolling lately. This was a very nice change of pace for what it is, and it came across my page at the perfect time. The best thing I can say about this album is that it’s catchy when you actually have it playing. The worst is that it’s forgettable when you don’t, and it’s probably going to be out of my mind by the next time I get a good album. But hey, isn’t that one of the points of Punk music technically?? They’re not going to care who it sticks with. They’re just here to jam. This is album 1 out of 2 The Undertones albums I have rolled for this project. This album was fine, not amazing, but it has me questioning why this very basic Punk warrants having 2 separate albums on here. I can’t imagine the other one is any different. Who knows, I could be wrong. This one’s a 3. Easy decision.

Radiohead but make it Icelandic. If I had a nickel for every Icelandic artist I’ve had to listen to for this project, I’d have 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice now. I gotta say, the album art is pretty appropriate for this album, but man does it creep me the hell out. This entire album is just orchestral vibes and low key riffs. Admittedly, it took me a while to get into it. I feel like the singer kind of demands your attention, and it was hard to zone out to this while I was working, which felt antithetical to the point of the album, which is to kind of fade into the background. In that regard, some songs like “Svefn-g-englar” have repetitive moments of singing that I really don’t enjoy, and go on for longer than I’m comfortable with. Luckily though, that’s not present in most songs. Some songs even have moments of true greatness, like the tail end of “Ný batterí”. I wish the entire album was like that song to be honest. The buildup is remarkable, and by the time you get to the end of the song and it ramps up in intensity, it just feels pretty awesome. The middle portion of the album is my favorite. I already talked about “Ný batterí”, and I feel similar about the next song, “Hjartaỗ hamast (bamm bamm bamm)”, which ramps up in intensity as the song goes, while still managing to be orchestral and pretty throughout, starting simple but getting progressively more complicated and interesting as the song goes on, then literally imploding at the end. It’s a weird song, but pretty great. My favorite song on the album though is the next one after that, “Viðrar vel til loftárása”. It’s long, it’s pretty, and for the third time in a row the pattern continues of the song getting really good at the end. I understand build up, but so many songs on this album are like that, where it’s pretty slow at the start and then gets better at the end. I just wish we had more moments throughout the album where the entire song was like the end of the one prior from the beginning. Other than that, this album was pretty good in small doses. I didn’t listen to it all day, but still enjoyed my time with it well enough. It’s just weird enough to still be interesting and not concerning, and it’s different musically enough to be refreshing while doing a great job of avoiding being off-putting. You know, besides the album art, which still freaks me out. I don’t like it. Ok Iceland, giving you a 3 for this one. It’s pretty good and experimental, but I wouldn’t really want to personally return to it. I am glad I tried it out though. It was nice, and nice on the ears, and that’s all that really matters 🙂.