Reviews by guggmo

I’m at a 5, but I think "I Dream A Highway" has basically singlehandedly bumped me up to a 10.

I really have been sitting here for 10 minutes trying to figure out what exactly to type out, and… I just don’t know. I know exactly what this album is about, and Gillian Welch (who I hadn’t heard of before today) portrays it perfectly in her writing: this is an album about grieving the passage of time itself, and how it relates to the fading memory of everything from first loves to past regrets to historic events to marks on clothing, & to artistry itself, all blending into distant thoughts as the world moves on. I know exactly what this album is doing, and it succeeds in a way that I just can’t put into words because of how stunning the last track is. Nothing I write would be able to do it justice.

Here’s the one paragraph I think I can get out. Time is indeed the ultimate revelator, and I think time has done this album well. 24 years after it came out, and the fading sense of artistry she talks about, specifically as it relates to piracy/streaming on “Everything is Free”, feels more prescient now than ever. It’s a 1-2 punch capped off by the absolute tour de force of “I Dream A Highway”, which lays out that grieving of time present throughout the album with some wonderfully poetic lyricism. It’s the song that kept me stunned, and I’m still not even entirely sure if I can give it due justice. It feels almost spiritual in nature.

I can only type something about the last 2 tracks because that’s what’s lingering in my mind. The rest of the album before that feels like a fruitfully strong buildup to get there, and it's brilliant in its own right with a classic country lean, but I really can’t keep going. I think you just have to listen to it. It is an album bred so deeply in a sense of earnest intimacy through its guitar-driven minimalism that you need to just sit down, headphones in, and really just *listen*. The lyrics enhance this album so, SO much, almost to the point of necessity, but even if you can’t grab the lyrics, you can grab the emotion. There is nothing that could have prepared me for how I’m feeling in the aftermath of it, and if nothing else, it’s an unbelievable testament to what one can do with nothing but a guitar, some words, and their voice. I can only hope other people feel it as deeply as I did, and if they can’t, then I won’t fault them for it; I can only shrug. I think it’s a 10.

I’m at a 3.5 and I’ve got to talk myself one way or the other.

This album is… interesting. From the first track, I thought it would be a Cocteau Twins / My Bloody Valentine-esque shoegaze-y album with an indie rock lean, and I was pretty sold on it. Once the track abruptly ended though, and I got thrown into something similar yet different, and that pattern repeated for the next few tracks, I couldn’t really grasp the concept of the album. This is my first Deerhunter album (& possibly my only one, since it’s the only one on the list), so I just didn’t have anything to go off of. I googled stuff while listening, sure, but nothing about this album became more clear to me as a result of it. The lyrics felt weird, the instrumentation felt a bit repetitive, the vocals unclear at times, and overall, the thing just felt… blurry.

All of that is intentional, and it’s why I’m nearly tempted to go up to a 4 solely on account of the guts it takes to release an album that’s so… forcefully cryptic, yet still so open. On a first listen, there’s not really an overarching theme here, nor is there a sense of continuity. A few tracks flow into each other, but usually, these cut off abruptly. It took googling the album title to reveal much more; “Halcyon” means happiness, so we’re digesting happiness throughout the album here, as the album is hopping from piece to piece, a series of memories, capped off by “He Would Have Laughed”. If you check the song titles, it all seems to add up. In a way, this album is telling you exactly what it is, if you choose to engage deeper with it: a long tribute to a life well lived, abruptly cutting off at possibly its happiest moment right before death.

Normally, that sort of narrative revealing itself to my brain would be able to convince me to bump an album up, as it explains far more, giving everything a bit of depth, and expanding the soundscape. The issue, however, is that for as cool as the concept is, I don’t think the album itself really does a great job of actively telling that story. In the abstract & on paper, the idea of floating from memory to memory works, but in execution, I don’t think this album sells it well enough from a musical standpoint. The abrupt cuts feel too abrupt, the lyricism feels a bit too abstract, the instrumentation feels a bit stale at times, a few tracks go too long, and vocally, it never feels as engaged as it could be. I know some of that is intentional, but there are ways to do it that blend into the music in a way that keeps the listener engaged without the need to figure out the narrative. For a 46 minute album, these are genuine criticisms that I can’t fully ignore. Going into this album with nothing to work off of, it’s up to the music to be able to create & set the tone to its most fulfilling potential, and I just don’t think it gets there.

So, what the hell do I rate this? I’m not really sure. I’ll compromise. I think, just for the sake of the site, I’m going to give it a 4 solely to keep the average steady & as a vote of confidence for what the album is trying to achieve (and what it arguably does achieve). For my musical tastes, I think it’s at a 3.5 that I’ll bump down to a 3, but it’s far from a bad album. It’s a recommended one that I just think doesn’t meet its full potential for my tastes, as there are other albums on the list that nail this sort of dreamy, floating, stream of consciousness vibe just a little more effectively to my ears. It’s still a good album, and for the site, I’ll give it a 4.

I’m at a 5, though not without one minor complaint about the track order.

We haven’t gotten too much 70s glam rock; the last one I can distinctly remember was “Electric Warrior” by T. Rex, but while that album struggled to maintain a harmony between the vocals, lyrics & instrumentals, I’d say this album maintains it for the vast majority of its runtime. There’s a lot of Bowie-esque DNA in here, but it’s mixed with the sort of eclectic instrumentation of a Bachman Turner-Overdrive, a Thin Lizzy, or a Chicago. It blends really nicely, and it’s enhanced by how many styles this album takes. It’s a little one-note at times, but having something like “Hymn for the Dudes” as an earnest, slightly cheesy pro-Christianity anthem with swirling choral work, followed by something as upbeat, energetic & goofy as “Honaloochie Boogie”, is a good 1-2 punch that showcases the variety very well. Same with “Violence” & “Drivin’ Sister”.

So, what’s the track order issue? I just think “Ballad of Mott the Hoople” should’ve ended the album, that’s all. Move it down to the very end, and its sort of self-indulgent nature works really nicely, especially as it would work hand-in-hand with “I Wish I Was Your Mother” as a juxtaposition on found families & the desire to keep a relationship going as long as possible, no matter how diminishing the returns may be the longer it goes. Both of them are lamenting the inevitable loss of a relationship, but the latter relates to how a more stable upbringing would be able to save this current one, and the former relates to the fatigue of maintaining the band & ultimately, that it’s just too addictive to actually stop for now. “Ballad of Mott the Hoople” not being the last track here sort of undermines that, and I think the album ends in a far less effective way because of it. It’s not enough to bump it down, but it is noteworthy to me.

Overall though, it’s a strong 43 minutes; perhaps a little more generic than I’m making it sound, and if that sense of “these guys aren’t that original” is permeating that badly, then I could easily see this as low as a 3. For my tastes, I’m at a 5 because I just had a lot of fun with it. It’s not anything super special, but it’s consistently catchy & the instrumentation is energetic throughout. The vocals are a little nasally at times, and while I wish he was more melodic at points, it never ruined a track for me. Good lyrics throughout this whole thing too. All in all, I just liked it a lot, and sometimes it’s that simple. Hence, a 5.

I’m at a 4.5 that I will bump up to a 5, though not without some level of mild criticism.

I suppose I should’ve realized “Gotan” is just “Tango” with its syllables reversed from the second the groove settled on “Queremos Paz”, but regardless, I found myself very pleasantly surprised here. I will say, I’m not sure this is “tango” in the groove & sense I know it as, but perhaps I’m conflating tango music with samba music. Either way, I think the sort of Italian trip-hop vibe this album portrays works really nicely. The accordion is the star of the show here, by far. The melodies it brings & how it perfectly combines with a lot of the instruments (especially the guitar) is a real treat, and having it as the anchor for all of these beats that a rapper could easily flow on provides a unique vibe. I had to check; outside of quoting the original book one time in a review, I’ve never typed the word “accordion” as part of any of the 618 albums we’ve gotten so far. Isn’t that crazy?

It’s a solid 58 minutes, but realistically, that’s part of the reason why I’m nearly tempted to bump this down to a 4 – this could’ve easily been trimmed down just a bit. The tracks that need their runtime are obvious, and make the most of their entire time to keep constantly evolving & flow in a way that justifies going 6 or 7 minutes. “Triptico” is a perfect example of a track that earns its 8 minute runtime; possibly my favorite one on the album, or at least tied with “Last Tango in Paris”, which also earns its 6 minutes. A handful of these tracks could’ve been trimmed by at least a minute or two, or at least reworked in a way that keeps them interesting for their full runtimes. A track like “Epoca” is an example; it’s apparently rather famous commercial music, so going from that approach helps the imagination open up in a suave way, but without that context, it’s just a 4:30 loop that falls flat after the energy “Queremos Paz” brings.

Some of these are just a bit long or a bit repetitive; “Santa Maria” is catchy, yes, but the percussion loop gives no sense of progression, so the track comes across a little stale unless you’re actively moving around to it. The same applies to the closing track, “Vuelvo al Sur”. “El Capitalismo Foraneo” could’ve been cut around the 4:30 mark, since it captures the sort of “Italian James Bond” mood effectively by that point, and the rest feels like padding. The same “flatness” that might be perceived from “Epoca” applies handily to “La del Ruso”, probably my least favorite track here, though not an outright bad one. Following the groove & the energy of “Last Tango in Paris”, it just feels like a bland 6 minutes. If it were my call, I would’ve closed out on “Last Tango”.

Is all of that enough to bump it down to a 4? I’d say no. Since I never really felt THAT affected by this stuff while actually listening & getting into the groove, and since the majority of the tracks caught my ear in a way that hasn’t quite been captured over the past 618 albums, I think I’m fine with keeping this bumped up. The floor is definitely a 3 here; these are far too catchy to not at least get intrigued & entranced by a couple of these. I’m avoiding my video game references as much as possible here, but trust me; the comparisons ARE there. For 2001, even with trip-hop far less in vogue at the time, this manages to kind of reinvent its wheel by adding the tango elements, simultaneously giving both genres a fresh air that meshes far better than I would’ve expected. I like the album, and at worst, it’s great fucking background noise to read or study to. It’s an earned bump to a 5 for my tastes, and a welcome surprise from the list. Did I need to hear it before I die? Maybe not, but I’m glad I did.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ve got to talk myself into one way or the other, but I’m leaning towards a 5.

First things first: it’s a *good* album. My knowledge of Sheryl Crow comes in her poppier stuff, ala “All I Wanna Do”, and not in the more rock-heavy tone this album generally takes. Color me impressed by the variety on display here; there’s everything from a noir-driven track in “We Do What We Can” to a sort of Peter Gabriel-esque cut in “Solidify”, the rap flow present on “The Na-Na Song”, the Tom Petty-esque “Leaving Las Vegas”, & the grunge energy that starts the whole thing on “Run Baby Run”. Sheryl Crow’s vocals are pretty damn good throughout, the lyricism is super strong, and instrumentally, I think this is a really nice slight update to the mid/late 80s sound that people like Suzanne Vega kicked into gear, with just a bit of 90s flair and production behind it. For 1993, some of these do feel a little ahead of pace. As a whole, I really can’t say there’s a bad track here, and for my tastes, I dug the entire album.

So, what the hell is the issue stopping me from giving this a definitive bump up to a 5? It’s just the pacing, really. This album’s one plague is repetitive outros & occasionally fully repetitive rhythms that extend the runtime, in such a way that even though it’s a decently brisk 49 minutes, it feels longer than it should. There’s plenty of things that could’ve been cut down in each track to avoid that sense of repetition, and while I don’t think it’s going to actually be enough to bump it down to a 4 by itself, it’s something that pulls the album down for me.

There is something else biting at me, but I also don’t think it’s going to warrant bumping this down to a 4 – I think “We Do What We Can” is really, really confusingly written. I just can’t follow the “he” of the track, given the shifting perspectives, and while it doesn’t undermine the noir instrumental of the track, having a muddy story to something as smooth & perfectly captured as that does kind of undermine the noir *theming* of the track. Combine that with its 5:37 runtime, and the fact that it comes right after “All I Wanna Do”, it’s probably the track that needed the most work, or at least another pass to see if it cohesively fit at that point in the album. I’m not sure it does, but it definitely has a place on the album.

So, between the pacing of the album making it a little longer than necessary, the repetition in the outros & one awkward track placement, is that enough combined to bump it down to a 4? Perhaps on another day, but for a first impression, I’m still just too impressed by the variety tackled on this album and how effectively Sheryl Crow bounces from song to song here without really feeling like she’s out of place on anything. The floor for this album is a 3, especially if the stuff I mentioned is an amplified issue. It’s got issues, sure, but at the end of the day, I still liked it a lot. I’m gonna bump it to a 5, and I think it’s earned that. A thumbs up from me. I need to add a little more Sheryl Crow to my big playlist.

That’s a 5.

It's a little hard to place this album in a box, but I’ll try to give some sort of genre descriptor here: what would happen if you got the Beach Boys to collaborate with the White Stripes & Daft Punk? Even with something as intriguing as that, I don’t think I’ve really covered the extent of genres that this album blends so effectively & so mesmerizingly well. A little bit of psychedelic rock, a lot of electronica, & certainly some pop, but all tinged with rhythms that feel outside of their genres, never staying content to ride within any singular mood. There are tracks that feel like Kraftwerk, some that feel like they’re building towards a Western-y vibe, and others that would fit into modern sports anthems, ala “Seven Nation Army”. I can’t state enough how much variety this album has, and more importantly, I’m not sure I can really convey how good it does at making at all feel so coherent.

I’ll give my praise to the vocals; that Beach Boys comparison might feel slightly extreme, but the way they harmonize is definitely trying to evoke “Pet Sounds”, and it’s highly effective. Instrumentally, I think every track finds a really strong rhythm as a base & builds upon it in a way that gives a super strong sense of progression, save for “Zumm Zumm” (just a little long), & “Love’s Dart”, but that’s fine because of the storytelling nature of that track. Oh, right, lyrics; pretty good lyrics across the board here, but if you want to just go with the flow on this album, the vocal rhythms & structures are so easy to pick up on that I’m not sure you need the lyrics to enjoy this. It enhances the tracks a bit, especially on some of the story-driven ones, but they’re not too necessary.

Overall, while it might be just a little bloated at 48 minutes (there’s no bad tracks at all, just a bit of fatigue from the constant sense of energy this album brings & a slight overlap in subject matter), it still flew by, & I think it’s a great fucking album. I’m glad this is on the list, because I would’ve never found it otherwise, and I think I might need to listen to some more Django Django, since this is their only album here. This style is appealing as hell to me, and I really hope there’s more stuff like this on the list. It’s an easy 5 for me, and another win for a Mercury Prize nominee; they’re REALLY good at their jobs.

I’m at a 4.

It took a bit for this album to get going, but once the modus operandi of the album becomes clear as a soundtrack album of sorts, the intent of these songs & the imagery they evoke becomes a lot more clear in the brain. This is intentional background music, in a way that’s extremely compelling in its finest moments & just sort of really drab at its worst, though I might need to relisten to it to see if that truly holds up.

Granted, the only reason I was able to eventually make that connection for “soundtrack album” is from a sense of curiosity that popped in during “Rodney Yates”. I’m listening to it again right now as I’m writing this. To my ears, it felt sort of flat, without a sense of progression, and a general surprise that it had gone 6 minutes. It had 8 million plays on Spotify, and I just couldn’t figure out why, so I dug a little deeper into David Holmes, and discovered he did a lot of the incidental music for the Ocean’s Eleven series in the 2000s. To that point, I had already gotten a sort of Metal Gear Solid vibe that I fucked with out of “Let’s Get Killed”, but the album hadn’t really given me a reason to evoke any imagery past that point.

With that framing in mind, the rest of the album after Rodney Yates clicked really nicely. I do think they’re all better tracks than the first 6, since they do a much better job at establishing an atmosphere for the brain to vividly work itself around. Obviously, it’s hard to fuck up the Bond theme, so “Radio 7” is an easy success, but both “Slasher’s Revenge” & “Freaknik” subsequently felt like songs that could fit into the Brosnan-era James Bond movies as background music. “Caddell Returns”, with its shifting energy, jumping from point to point gave the sort of Ocean’s Eleven heist vibe that I’m aware of in pop culture, but have never actually watched. I guess I owe it to myself to see the movies. “Don’t Die Just Yet” does a great job with the swirling orchestral work, and it ends up feeling like a credits theme throughout its outro.

This is far from a 1 or a 2, and I think framing it as an electronica album undermines what it’s trying to do. It’s an atmospheric album with electronica elements, and to my mind, it does a much better job of evoking a movie mood than “Oedipus Schmoedipus” did last year, and I think it uses its electronica elements to a more fulfilling degree than Moby did on “Play”. Perhaps with a full relisten under the framing of “this is a soundtrack that you’re meant to do things to”, I’d be more inclined to bump it all the way up to a 5, given the sort of spy / heist-y nature of the album (underlined really nicely by the eavesdropped NYC conversations sampled throughout the album) but for now, off of a first impression, I feel pretty safe with a 4.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5 because I liked it enough, but… damn, this thing has some identity issues to me.

Our second & final Bee Gees album on this list, meaning we won’t get to any of their disco stuff. The jury is out on whether that’s a bad thing or not. We got Trafalgar back in December 2024, and while I thought it was fine, it felt like an album less suited to the Bee Gees’ strengths. Part of that, of course, is the perception of the Bee Gees as those guys who sang “Stayin’ Alive” & “How Deep is Your Love”, so I just don’t think I was able to really give them the benefit of the doubt as a rock band. Going into this one with that perception helped a bit, as did the acknowledgement that this is part of the post-Sgt. Pepper’s trend of conceptual artsy albums trying to succeed in the wake of the Beatles.

This isn’t really a concept album; it’s loosely based around the Odessa theming & the sort of loneliness and search for love that comes after drifting asea, but I would say this is as much of a “concept” album as, ironically, Sgt. Pepper’s – it’s just a framing device that allows the Bee Gees to experiment a little more. They take the experimentation to another level though; the orchestrally driven, almost pompous tone to this album feels heavier in scope & scale than one would expect, and while it kind of collapses under its own weight, the foundation of these tracks (their mildly cheesy songwriting & their vocals) is sturdy enough to stop this from feeling like it’s ever too much, save for a few tracks.

I admire the scale of the album, honestly, but it’s part of the identity issues I alluded to; if this album was originally conceived as a full concept album, then the parts of it that remain feel really disconnected from some of the other tracks. For example, why the hell is “Edison” here? Lyrically, it feels about as weird as that Stevie Wonder tribute track from Grandmaster Flash a while back, and both vocally & orchestrally, it’s in such a weird box of trying to fit into the near regal tone of the first 3 tracks of the album. You could try to apply the same thing to “Marley Purt Drive” and its country-rock vibe, but it at least aligns with the sense of trying to rediscover love that was established in the title track. This general disconnect pops up a few times in the album (especially between the vocal & instrumental tracks on Side 3), but “Edison” really sticks out as the least necessary track here.

Since most of the tracks here can still fall under the vague linking concept of the album (the rediscovery of love), it begs the question: did this need to be 17 tracks, or is part of it just padding? I would say no; this could definitely be trimmed down to a more essential tracklist, but since I did honestly enjoy the vast majority of this album, I’m not sure the album benefits from actually being trimmed down. While there’s not a super duper highlight standout track to me, there’s never a truly bad one here, and since I vibe a lot with the instrumental approach this album takes, I didn’t find myself with a sense of repetition. Granted, I did listen to the first half of this album & then took a break before listening to the second half, but still.

There is one other part to this identity crisis; it’s a smaller one, and one I can’t really fault, but it’s definitely there for me. Some of these tracks are *really* Beatles-y. When I was listening to “Melody Fair”, for example, I couldn’t shake off the perception of “a weirder Eleanor Rigby”. “Lamplight” has an outro that feels a lot like “Hey Jude” to me, and “Give Your Best” feels like a little bit of a riff on “With A Little Help From My Friends”, at least lyrically. I understand you can’t escape their influence fully, but I feel like they were chasing The Beatles just a little too harshly here. There’s other examples of it on the album, but those are the ones that stick out most distinctly to me.

There’s also a “chase” that applies in the sense of trying to make something timeless, not just from the album perspective, but from a worldly perspective. I admire the scope, but the most prevalent example of the Bee Gees overstepping their boundaries in a nearly flagrant way here is the bold audacity of “With All Nations (International Anthem)”. I can’t possibly imagine where the idea of making an international anthem would’ve possibly fit into the original concept, let alone on a side that has a square dance only two tracks before it, but even past that; the *Bee Gees* thought they could make a fucking international anthem? I mean, it sounds good, don’t get me wrong, but who let them delegate themselves for the job?

It sounds like I’m ragging on this album, and in many ways, I am, but I’m only ragging on it because despite all of these things that might take down any other album as a piling series of mistakes, the Bee Gees somehow honestly make it work. The mixed-match conceptual tracks with the other stuff isn’t a big deal to my ears, since they’re all under the same general orchestral base for the most part, leaving each track less disconnected than they feel. It helps that Robin, Barry & Maurice all contribute some great vocals to the tracks that keeps the energy up throughout. The 17 tracks here is certainly long, but I don’t think the album necessarily benefits from trimming them down. The scope & scale of the album is almost pompously large, but taking that audacious of a swing and creating something that doesn’t totally collapse under it counts as a win in my book.

It’s an enjoyable 63 minutes if you lean into it, and while I understand the 2.72 average it has on the site, I think it’s a bit unjustified. While I’m half tempted to bump it down to a 4, I think I admire this enough to bump it up to a 5, despite the sort of “identity crisis” I think it has. At the very worst, I think the floor for this album is a 3. A TL;DR of sorts: I liked it, sue me.

It’s a 5. Arguably a 10.

I knew Van Halen had to be good, but before listening to this, the extent of my Van Halen experience is the cover of “You Really Got Me” that’s on this album, and “Jump” from their other album on the list, “1984”. Eddie Van Halen’s talents have been apparent to my ears for a long time, given that he absolutely fucking rips it on the guitar solo on “Beat It”, and I knew David Lee Roth’s vocals have always been praised, even if I really only knew them from the far more poppier tone of “Jump”. Needless to say, there were decently strong expectations here.

This knocked it out of the fucking park from Track 1 and never once looked back; I don’t even have to say that much about the album itself, because this fucking rips. If you have ears, you will enjoy this, and if your ears don’t enjoy this, you need to calibrate your brain. Eddie Van Halen’s guitar feels like a weapon used to maximum efficiency, especially on the absolute madness that is “Eruption”, and David Lee Roth’s vocals are incredibly strong throughout the album, with a mix of grit you can’t teach & an energy that feels sort of like an American Ozzy Osbourne. Past that though, I’m beyond stunned that I never hear more about the percussion & bass from these guys. All the credit in the world to Alex Van Halen & Michael Anthony, who just as easily kill it in their roles; this album would feel incomplete without them, and I think they deserve some billing.

I don’t want to go track by track or anything; I think the music speaks for itself. It’s a super tight 35 minutes that never lets off the gas pedal, and I love the variety it still explores while existing in a hard rock / heavy metal space; “I’m The One” & “Feel Your Love Tonight” are the two most surprising tracks here, just in terms of the swingier 50s/60s vibe they evoke while still being so distinct to this era of rock. For 1978, this does feel a little ahead of schedule, and I have to imagine a lot of the heavier glam rock of the 80s can trace some inspiration back to this album. I wish I had more to say, but I’ve just found myself in one of those in-sync grooves where the music washed over me like a magical sound shower; my ears are drying off, and the only thing I can tell you is that I feel musically cleansed. It’s a super easy 5, and arguably a 10.

I mean, it’s obviously a 5.

For as much as I wish the rest of the tracks here had a vocal presence after the excellent “Street Life” (which I’m amazed I’ve never heard before), I think this album’s groove works fine enough without them. Go ahead and look at all the musicians that played on this album on Wikipedia, and do a deep dive into alllll of the albums they’ve had a hand in. It's unbelievably prolific. This feels like listening to the “We Are The World” of session jazz musicians.

I really don’t have anything else to say; the music speaks for itself. Even if you want to treat this as nothing more than call music or the stuff you hear when you’re watching a forecast on the Weather Channel, it’s the fucking best call music I’ve ever heard & the smoothest jazz to watch a weather radar to. 40 minutes of absolutely groovy bliss, and one of the best jazz fusion albums this list has given us; one hell of a feat given that we’re 613 days into this. A spectacular album.

It’s a 5. Maybe just a little higher.

The only thing I knew of Carole King before listening to this is that she originally wrote “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” for Aretha Franklin. That was already enough trust to make me believe she’s a great songwriter, but color me more surprised to find she also wrote “You’ve Got a Friend”. I knew James Taylor’s version was a cover, but I never bothered to check who wrote it, and his version is one of my favorite songs of all time. I suppose Carole King’s songwriting has been a bit more prolific than I’ve realized.

This album has some monstrous, monstrous acclaim, and while I can’t say I hear it to the extent of “top 25 album of all time”, I hear it to the extent that it might be the most digestible, easy-listening album I’ve ever heard. Yes, something like a “Thriller” or a “Nevermind” is a better album, but in terms of simplicity & being able to distill songs down to a pure form, Carole King approaches these tracks like a surgeon to a knife. There’s not a piano or vocal note misplaced, not a stray bass hit, nor a lingering percussive moment. These are crafted, both in their words & their instruments, like a piece of marble that’s been chiseled to the finest detail. Much like a sculpture, it’s very easy to take it all in without realizing just how intimately the connection is between the artist & the art, and how much time it really took to make.

Even now, when I’m writing all this, I’m not sure I’ve really grasped just how intimate that connection truly is, but it does seem like a lot of these tracks are based around her own life. Channeling all of that into these songs is an achievement, especially with just how poppy this album comes across. For as sad as the subject matter tends to be, and how intimate the piano-driven instrumentation is, a lot of these tracks still find a super easy rhythm to get into, evoking a sort of Elton John meets Fleetwood Mac vibe (with much more of a late 60s Motown lean) that really makes the album work.

Carole King’s voice certainly helps it a lot; she’s got a good power in her voice when she wants to belt out (“Home Again” is certainly proof of that), it’s very jazzy when she’s riding on a track with a good groove (just listen to “It’s Too Late” or “Smackwater Jack”), and she knows when to hold it back to let the mood sort of linger in the air a bit longer. Take a track like “So Far Away”, where she’s able to portray frustration through a somber tone really nicely, but the flute at the end of the track really sells the mood.

I think her best vocal performance, surprisingly, is on her version of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”; Carole King’s not trying to be Aretha Franklin here, and I think her take on the song she wrote matches the sort of personal frustrations portrayed throughout the album to that point, but with more of an emotional release. Her vocals are slightly shakier compared to other tracks, as if she’s scared to admit a freedom she hasn’t felt in a long time. There’s a more focused intimacy to this version that makes it work really nicely. When Aretha belts out that title line, and the instrumentation is swirling around her, it’s such a grandiose ball of energy that you forget it’s meant to be a song praising the performance of her partner for making her feel so comfortable. Carole’s approach here focuses far more on the “you” as opposed to the “natural woman”, and that shift really frames the song in a way that makes it fit on this album, especially as a closing track.

In all, I’m just glad this was as good as I hoped it would be, given the acclaim. I think with a few more listens, a lot of this album will come even more naturally to me, and it’s certainly worth a few more plays. If you’re not as inclined to care, then I guess it’s possible to find this as a boring piano odyssey of some lady who felt sad once & then got happier again, but if you treat it that way, I just don’t know what to say. I liked it a lot, and while it’s not an all-time super duper 10 to me, it’s a very easy 5 that aligns to a lot of my sensibilities, and I can easily hear how this would’ve influenced so many of the 70s singer-songwriters we’ve heard on the list. It’s worth listening to before you die, for sure. Good stuff, Carole.

I’m at a 4.5 that I will easily bump up to a 5.

The top review for this album on the site says that the “lyrics are incoherent, the instrumentation is a disconnected mess, and the song structure is completely nonexistent”. I think this would only be true if you’re looking at it from a traditional 80s British pop lens, ala a Peter Gabriel or a Kate Bush. This is not a traditional album, but it’s far from an incoherent, disconnected mess. (I would also like to point out that the same person who wrote this review has the top review for Bjork’s “Vespertine”, an album rooted much in the same general “vibes first” atmosphere, where they also complained about song structure. There’s a pattern here.)

I’ll say this right off the top though; the title track is a BAD tonesetter for this album. I would argue it doesn’t need to be on the album, honestly, but maybe it’s just because I can’t quite catch the same visions that the other tracks were able to evoke so easily. “A Walk Across the Treetops” as an opening track just doesn’t work for me. It does the least effective job of telling a story through its soundscape, and the lyrics are far, far, far too broad to truly evoke the imagery it wants to. The other tracks are far more concise, and far more melodically pleasing. It’s not a bad song, but it’s a bad start to the album, and it’s honestly SUCH a bad tonesetter that it wouldn’t surprise me if it soured / sours people on the album immediately.

If it wasn’t obvious, this is an album where the instrumentation sets most of the tone, with the vocals used as texture work to capture more of the emotional tone, with the lyricism acting as something that can add optional depth. That optional depth added a lot for me, so boo/hiss to that person who called them incoherent. They’re just more novel-y in tone, and not quite as easy to digest. That said, I think I’ve cracked the meaning on a lot of the tracks, and that understanding of the meaning evokes bigger & broader imagery, even past the initial tone the album gives from just the vibes alone.

“Tinseltown in the Rain” is a track where I think the vibes alone carry it pretty well; I couldn’t really crack the lyrics on this one, outside of just a Hollywood air surrounding a relationship on the brink of collapse. The funk of the instrumentation though & the sort of Peter Gabriel-esque rhythm to it? By itself, that carries the track really nicely, and I think it should’ve opened the album.

“From Rags to Riches” is a little shaky – I think it’s mostly an interpretation on Joseph’s story in the Bible, given the coat of many colors reference, but framed as freedom from parental pressures with the grass not being as green on the other side. That said, it’s a little long & I don’t think the sound design throughout the outro is compelling enough to warrant the runtime. It does have a sort of Aphex Twin vibe to it that I find appealing, so ultimately, I think the track works.

“Stay” reads to me as a track about navigating the perils of growing up, mostly from a mental aspect. I specifically get that vibe from the lines “Candy girls want candy boxes / She loves the music box forever”. If it is from the perspective of a parent helping a daughter to navigate their older years, then it’s incredibly sweet. It can also read like a pair of teenagers promising to be there for each other through the tougher times to come, which is still heartwarming. Once again, just the energy of the instrumental makes this one work, and the vocals capture that sort of desire to help really nicely.

“Easter Parade” is a tricky one, but I think it’s a snapshot of a truly perfect moment in time, whilst mourning the fact that there may never be another snapshot like this ever again. There’s confetti everywhere, hats thrown in the air, and a truly happy crowd all running forward with a passion & excitement they may never collectively have again. It explains the somber tone to the instrumentation, and I think that dichotomy of mourning what may never be again through the lens of achieved perfection is kind of beautiful.

“Heatwave” feels kind of straightforward to me; it’s about a generational gap. The older people’s air, their star (the sun); it’s all different to the youth, who are feeling the weight of the elderly’s decisions bearing down upon them. That’s the heatwave. That’s a heatwave we’re still in, arguably more literally than ever. I couldn’t tell if he was singing from the perspective of the old people or the punished youth though, and I think that’s intentionally ambiguous. Regardless of that, I think the vibes from the instrumentation alone are just effortlessly fruitful, and the whole track is a highlight to me.

“Automobile Noise” is an interesting closer. I think it’s about a guy who’s fed up with the hustle & bustle of the city and just wants to wind down in a place that’s a little more quiet. The titular “automobile noise” is a honk. He says the line at moments when people will just honk at him. Listen to his vocals again. Just really pay attention to them. He’s weary & he’s worn down. The noises he’s talking about in the tracks aren’t evoked for fondness; they’re evoked as just repetitive nuisances in his way. He’s walking in the rain, getting honked at, and it’s just the same damn thing every day. He would rather be anywhere else in the world. It’s sort of a downer ending to the album, but I’m just fascinated at how effectively sound design & lyricism can be used hand-in-hand to such an effective degree like this, especially for 1984.

Once again, notice how I didn’t gush for anything about the title track? That’s the only reason I’m not at a flat 5 here. To call this album an incoherent, disconnected mess after all of that tells me your imagination isn’t as rich as it could be, and while I might let it slide for the title track, the rest of this is undeniably a delight. I don’t know if my soliloquy of interpretations will change anyone’s mindset towards this album, but hopefully it evokes a greater sense of understanding what the album is trying to do, and appreciating it in that sense. To my ears, it’d be foolish to let one track bump this all the way down to a 4; it’s an easy bump up to a 5.

P.S.: I’m very glad that The Blue Nile lived up to the expectations I set upon them from “The Downtown Lights”, which is the only track I knew from them before now; it’s on their followup “Hats”, and I’m sad that it’s not here on the list. I gotta check the whole thing out.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump down to a 3, though I did honestly enjoy a solid chunk of this.

If you like nu-metal, you’re gonna fuck with the production on this a lot. All the general tropes of the genre are here, and in terms of the energy it all brings, it will evoke a sort of 1998 mosh pit of overblown guitar, wacky bass & percussion booming in your ear. From solely an instrumental standpoint, I don’t think I have anything really major to complain about for the album.

Lyrically, I think the only obvious super duper miss here is “All in the Family” – Fred Durst has not honed his songwriting at all (and frankly, I’m not sure he ever really did), nor has he trained his voice to go into its goofier tone that made “Chocolate Starfish” a fun listen regardless of how mediocre most of the tracks are on that album. It’s a juvenile back & forth that’s too edgy even by the Springer-y standards of 1998, it’s aged terribly, and it’s not even a witty rap battle by the standards of fucking Supa Hot Fire. “Boom Bam Bop Badabap Boom Pow” is probably a better line than anything Fred Durst or Jonathan Davis wrote here.

Speaking of “boom bam bop badabap boom pow”, it’s time to talk about the vocals, which are ultimately fine – Jonathan’s voice doesn’t lend itself to a very musical tone, so he relies a lot more on grittier, heavier, moodier stuff to try and enhance the instrumentation. Generally, it works well enough, but there are moments where he sticks out in a bad way, specifically on the multitude of times he does his weird scatting bit throughout the album. It’s jarring as hell, it never really works, and it sounds more like the Tasmanian Devil thrown into a spin cycle in a recording booth.

I want to quickly touch on the torture porn of “My Gift to You”, which is far more digestible if you treat it like he’s playing a character consumed by his demons. Honestly, the mood of that track sets it apart in a cool way for me, as the eerie atmosphere the instrumentation builds around the track is kind of incredible. It’s totally fucked up to a sickening degree, but they at least know it. They’re not making it into any kind of pleasure except his own sick twisted fantasy. I would deeply advise against following any of Jonathan’s deeper, darker, cruel, rape-y fantasies in that track, but if you can accept it as a character of sorts, its perverse nature is fascinating, and his vocals feel almost primally sub-human.

Overall, I liked about 9 of the tracks here (10 if you include Cheech Marin’s very goofy bonus gift), but I didn’t like the entire album experience that much. It’s a bit bloated due to CD length, it rounds the bases on its tracks a number of times, and the overall nu metal style feels a bit repetitive even after 45 minutes, let alone 67. Since this album takes itself far more seriously than “Chocolate Starfish” did, and doesn’t really have the same charisma behind it as “Hybrid Theory” does, it just ends up as sort of an average metal album draped in nu metal production. It’s totally fine, and an enjoyable listen if you love the production, but as a whole experience, I think it’s a 3.5 that I just can’t bump up to a 4, hence a 3. Always skip “All in the Family”, at the very least.

I’m at a 5.

Just a pure ball of energy, once again. I wish I could type more, but that’s an album you’re meant to feel as opposed to just sitting down and listening to it. Pop headphones in, move your head around, stomp your feet, do the whole song & dance and let Dave Mustaine and friends pull you into their demonic little world full of guitar songs & percussion that would make a pilgrim proclaim witchcraft off their skills alone, not even considering the lyrics.

Seriously, I got nothing. We’ve done this song & dance with heavy metal enough times now. If you can’t feel those tracks, it’s gonna be a 3 at most. If you can feel them, it’s an easy 5, without question. I enjoyed the hell out of that, and I’m ready for the other Megadeth album on the list.

I’m at a 10, even with one mild flaw to the album in my mind.

Much like Janelle Monae back in March, Erykah Badu is one of those R&B artists that’s just escaped me, for almost no reason at all. I’ve definitely heard her before, since she’s done a number of features over the years, but this is my first full Erykah Badu album. It’s the only one on the list, and it’s one hell of a pick – I fucking loved this.

It’s hard not to point to “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” at some point while listening to this, but I think that does both albums a disservice. Erykah Badu is not Lauryn Hill, and while their musical sensibilities & production styles might be similar, these albums aren’t going for the same thing. “Miseducation” is a hip-hop / rap album first & foremost, with Lauryn’s singing abilities constantly used to enhance the hip-hop base each track is built on to elevate it to a higher level. This album leans far more into the 70s Stevie Wonder-esque style of R&B and soul music, with Erykah’s rapping abilities occasionally used to enhance the R&B base of each track. This is a *soul* album first & foremost, and that’s a big enough distinction that it places each album distinctly separately from each other, no matter how intertwined they might feel.

So, with all that preamble, how effective is Erykah Badu as a soul singer? Words can’t describe it; you simply have to hear her voice. Yes, sometimes she leans into a sort of Lenny Kravitz-y nasally tone, but it never once brings a track down. When she’s at her finest on this album, she’s evoking the past brilliantly, especially so on “Orange Moon”, which might be one of the most beautiful tracks I’ve ever heard in my life. Her voice blends so well into the instrumentals on this album, working hand-in-hand in a way where it all melts together into a harmony that’s hard to describe but impossible not to feel in the moment. Instrumentally, I adore the production here all the same; this does lean heavily into a “modernized” version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘70s work, combined with some of the overproduction flair that had come to pass in the “quiet storm” era of R&B throughout the 90s. That flair is simplified though, taking the best of its emotional pull while giving it a jazzier & funkier tone to create the grooves that make this album glide.

There’s no better example of this than the 5 tracks that start the album; “Penitentiary Philosophy” is an incredible opener, down to the melodic interpolation of “Ordinary Pain”, the swirling instrumental & the much-needed cooldown of the final minute. “Didn’t Cha Know” has a beat that’s smooth as silk, and J. Dilla’s production work does wonders. The back-to-back-to-back punch of “My Life”, “...& On”, and “Cleva”, all flowing into each other, with one long lingering theme of living your life with a self-confidence that’s too undeniable for people to bring you down, is a highlight of the album for me. Those first 5 tracks set the tone, and they act as such a strong start to the whole album that I fully bought in the rest of the way.

This album’s tracks get longer and longer, so mileage will certainly vary about how willing you are to buy into what this album is selling. Since I’m already accustomed to the sort of Stevie Wonder-esque “bloat” this album has, it was never that big of a deal for me. It is crazy to acknowledge that the final 3 tracks here are longer than the first 5 though; it’s something I felt vaguely aware of while listening, but since I was already DEEP into the groove, it’s not something that affected my experience with the album. However, those final 3 tracks are where my one flaw with this album lies. It’s the track order; very specifically, I think “Green Eyes” & “Time’s a Wastin’” should’ve been flipped.

Within the normal context of the album, “Time’s a Wastin’” feels unnecessary; I think the lyricism is just a little broad to really send a message like she wants to, singing in broader platitudes as opposed to a more focused message like Stevie or others would’ve given. Because the lyrics are so broad, I don’t think they justify the 6 minute runtime; it’s a smooth instrumental, and her vocals glide when they do, but for what it’s actually saying, it’s not saying that much. Overall, I think it’s a bit of a momentum stopper right before the big finish. However, if it had come directly after “Green Eyes”, which is all about a sort of “relapsing” journey based around truly getting over an ex (maybe Andre 3000?), I think its broader messaging would be fine given the specificity of “Green Eyes” as an example of how to stop drifting along in life, and it would feel far more digestible.

There’s lot more I didn’t touch on, like the fun dichotomy of “Booty” & “Kiss Me on My Neck” in terms of subject matter, the backstory behind “A.D. 2000” and my own personal frustration that we’ve moved nowhere in terms of police brutality & racial profiling, the deeper beauty of “Orange Moon” and how I think it’s a ballad to her son (genuinely an all-timer), the slightly long (but fun!) minimalist reggae vibes of “In Love with You”, or the absolute groove of “Bag Lady”, but those are all things that need to be heard once you’re in a full flow state with this album.

If you can’t hit that flow state, you won’t be able to digest this as fully as I did, but I think it’s very achievable. Lyrically, these are about as simple as you can get, hitting you over the head with their meaning. Even if you can’t get into the lyrics, the grooves & her voice are so damn smooth that you can feel each track without a second thought. As a whole, even with my one flaw, I think this stands up as a pinnacle of the neo-soul genre, and I’m once again blown away both by my own stupidity at ignoring someone, and at just how damn good they ended up being for my tastes. It’s a 10. A great, great album.

I gotta listen to Megadeth after this? Talk about a tone shift, jeez.

I’m at a 5.

Well, that didn’t sound like 1976 at all to me. That sounded like at least 1986, if not a little further. Immediately, as with a lot of other people, the mind goes to Tracy Chapman, but these aren’t really Tracy Chapman tracks. Yes, vocally, they’re pretty similar, but Joan Armatrading blends the sort of spoken, conscious style of Tracy Chapman’s scattered & scatty vocals with the flair and twang of an Elton John. Lyrically, these are “conscious” tracks, sure, but conscious in the frame of love as opposed to societal stuff. I don’t think there are many tracks here that portray that kind of idealized love that other singers might croon about (“Love and Affection” & “Like Fire” come to mind), but instead, a lot of mildly flawed (yet fair / fun) scenarios for it.

I mean, hell, the album starts on “Down to Zero”, which is basically about a guy who’s utterly humbled after getting broken up with, and having to crawl back to the person that he already had it best with beforehand. “Water with the Wine” is just a good night after a very drunken bar trip, with a lesson to not go too crazy out there. “Save Me” is an interesting twist on the first track, with someone basically drowning in her own sorrow & needing someone to save her… but he just won’t do it. “Somebody Who Loves You” is basically begging someone to admit to cheating so she can come up with an excuse to forgive him & take the heat, but he just won’t do it.

I’m harping on the lyrics a bit because I think they add to the album, but the big secret is that they are ENTIRELY unnecessary. Joan Armatrading’s vocal style is lovely, and her passion comes through on a lot of these tracks. The other star of the show is the instrumentation, and it’s where this album shined brightest for me. Everything from the guitar, percussion, keyboard, piano, the steel guitar, the sax, and so on just fits perfectly. Beyond that, the way this album is mixed & composed evokes a sense of being far beyond its years. I can’t recall a track where I could specifically say “yeah, this one sounds like 1976 to me.” Honestly, I think Hootie & The Blowfish is my closest comparison in terms of an overall groove, but as a whole, it just feels like a ‘90s album that came to fruition very early. It’s hard to describe without listening to the album, and if you’re somehow reading this without having listened to it, just go fucking do it.

I really think the music speaks for itself far more than I can here; it’s a 41 minute delight. A few tracks go a little long & spin the wheels in a way that feels like padding, but the grooves & her voice are both so infectious that you’ll never care about it in the moment. I’m very glad this is on the list – when I saw she was a singer-songwriter with a folk & pop lean, I simply hoped it would be interesting enough to warrant being on the list, and it was in spades. This is an excellent find, and a very strong 5 to my ears.

P.S.: The final 2 minutes of “Tall in the Saddle” are fucking awesome.

I’m at a 4.

There’s an immediately striking line on the Wikipedia page for this album: “On its completion in 1974, Dion effectively disowned the record, stating that the production made it sound like ‘funeral music’.” I think he’s got a point, although I do think it’s a little bit hyperbolic & carries a far more negative connotation that I got out of listening to this. Yes, this is a Phil Spector disasterclass at times, but I only found 3 of the tracks here to truly suffer from the wall of sound effect: the opener, “Born to Be with You”, “(He's Got) The Whole World in His Hands” & the closer, “Good Lovin' Man”. Even with the wall of sound bearing itself down on these tracks in a way that feels far too noticeable, they each have their own little issues.

“Born to Be With You” has all the potential in the world, but it just comes across as utterly plain. For as much as it tries to do, the production really holds it back. To my ears, it’s too long for what it is, spinning the wheels to a 7 minute runtime that doesn’t feel as satisfying as it could be. Past that, the instrumentation isn’t consistently rich enough to evoke the vibe it’s going for, even though Dion’s vocals meet the mark. It’s not his fault at all. It’s never really his fault at any point on this album; his vocals are STRONG, and often overcome some of the bad production choices to still make a good chunk of these tracks really nice.

“(He's Got) The Whole World in His Hands” is simply caked in reverb, to a point where it’s obnoxious. I like the vibe of the track, but I see exactly where Dion would call this thing “funeral music” – it’s got a weirdly ethereal vibe due to the reverb, but not in a wholly spiritual way like I’m sure Phil Spector may have intended. It just comes across as nearly culty. With a better producer in tow here, I think this track has just as much potential, but there’s just too much meddling involved.

“Good Lovin' Man” is honestly a fun track, and I like the 50s throwback style a lot here, but it’s just so overblown with the wall of sound that everything feels muddled, down to the backing choirs & instrumentation & even a good chunk of Dion’s higher registers. Under the hands of a better producer, this could be a super fun way to end the album, but with Phil’s hands on this thing, it just feels off.

As far as the other 5 tracks go (“Make the Woman Love Me”, “Your Own Back Yard”, “Only You Know”, “New York City Song”, & “In and Out of the Shadows”), I like them all a lot. Phil Spector takes a playbook out of how Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” uses a more subtle wall of sound (just go listen to the pre-chorus, you’ll hear what I mean), and it’s used to really strong effect. Honestly, a lot of those tracks feel very Elton-y, which is probably why I liked them. Granted, “In and Out of the Shadows” is HEAVY on the wall of sound, but since it blends much more with Dion’s more powerful vocals, the whole thing has a bombastic feel that makes it all work. “Only You Know” is probably my favorite one here; great lyricism about encouraging a friend, the instrumentation & vocals come through really nicely due to the more subtle wall of sound, and the percussion has some great highlights.

As a whole then, even if batting 5 out of 8 would only be a 62.5% on the grading scale, I do think the 3 tracks that got hit by the wall of sound in a bad way are still honestly not THAT bad, and they have their moments. They’re just ruined by Phil Spector – not the only thing he’d murder in the next 30 years. It’s a shame this is the only Dion album on the list, because I LOVE the tone of his voice, and he seems like someone I’d really enjoy. I’ll have to hunt down some more of his stuff. As far as this album goes, I feel fine with a 4. The best tracks here are REALLY strong to my ears, and since it’s only 35 minutes, none of the affected tracks bring down the album that badly. I do think the 2.62 average is far too low, and it may be just an overreaction to the first track plodding along the way it does. Did it need to be on the list? I dunno, maybe. I enjoyed it though, so that works for me.

I’m at a 5.

My initial reaction upon seeing this pop up was just some surprise that this album was here – I figured “Back to Black” would cover the bases pretty well in terms of Amy Winehouse & her style, and going back to her debut might just retread the bases a bit. After all, she IS just a jazzy singer evoking the 50s & 60s with more modernized production, right?

Go ahead and slap me across the face for that one – we’ve got a fucking R&B album here clearly inspired by the Lauryn Hills & Erykah Badus of the world. This thing could not be farther from old Frank Sinatra, cited often as the inspiration for the album title. Amy Winehouse is NOT just a jazzy singer evoking the 50s & 60s like that; she’s inspired that way vocally, sure, and that inspiration comes through a number of times on the album, but production-wise? This is just a slightly updated take on 1996 through 1998 in the black R&B / girl group scene, with some of that 50s/60s flair, though used more so as an additive to enhance the 90s production, in a way that probably felt fresh (if slightly dated) for 2003 and feels oddly modern in 2025.

Lyrically, I really like this album; there’s a full spectrum of ideas on display here in terms of how to portray femininity, and while some of it hasn’t aged as well (specifically the gender dynamics at play on “Stronger Than Me”), I think a lot of this album is fully fair to Amy’s experiences up to this point in her 19 (19!!) year-old life. Some of this album is flirtier, especially on stuff like “You Sent Me Flying” or “Amy Amy Amy”, some of this is sadder, like “Take the Box” or “October Song”, but I find most of this album to just be confident, in a way that’s not really revolutionary, but just openly welcomed for 2003.

Take a track like “Fuck Me Pumps”, celebrating *those* types of people who show up at the clubs, framing it in a way that’s not necessarily shaming anybody, and instead just putting their style to power, even admitting it wouldn’t be as fun without them. The flipside is sort of true on “I Heard Love is Blind”, which is a track that takes flimsy excuses for cheating to a comical level, yet still portraying it with a sort of klutzy confidence that you can’t help but admire the audacity of, especially since the track is played for laughs. This album runs through a spectrum of confidence, both in its flirtier & defiant ways, and Amy Winehouse portrays the confidence through her vocals incredibly well. Obviously, her vocals are the star of the show here; even at 19, she’s belting these out, and her voice would only get even stronger by Back to Black. I can’t complement them enough.

Really, I’m just immensely surprised that this album feels so evocative of something like “Miseducation”, without all of the spiritual elements behind it. “Back to Black” only painted a corner of a picture of Amy Winehouse for me that I simply boxed her into, and that’s entirely my fault. This is an album that aligns with my musical sensibilities so, so much, and to hear Amy Winehouse doing it THIS well is a welcome surprise, and an awesome find for me. I think it’s a breezy 53 minutes (45 if you choose not to listen to the bonus tracks, which are both really good), and I’m just kicking myself for questioning this thing’s presence on the list to begin with. It isn’t as good as “Back to Black”, but that’s designed to be a timeless record due to its style. I think it’s just as enjoyable at its best points, and overall, you can’t go wrong here. This is a 5, and an easy one at that. At worst, a 3 if you really fucking hate R&B.

P.S.: "In My Bed" is insanely good. Standout of the album for me.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’m going to just bump up to a 5 on account of just how fascinating “Poledo” is as an album closer.

The Wikipedia page for this album made it pretty apparent this would cover a whole slew of subgenres of rock & grunge (especially shoegaze), and for 1987, this thing feels like an incredibly strong preview of the trends that would make up the early 90s. When people talk about “80s songs that sound like 90s songs”, they need to point to this album immediately. I love the way this whole thing sounds, although there is the pretty obvious elephant in the room to address, and it’s why I’m at a 4.5 that I very nearly bumped down to a 4.

This thing does way too much on two specific tracks: the opening/closing guitar of “Little Fury Things”, which is a great opener otherwise, and the ending of “Tarpit”, which feels like a fucking tornado hit the studio and they just happened to be recording. Tarpit is a good track too; it feels the most like a mid-90s grunge track for almost all of its runtime, and then the last minute just decides to make your ears feel some kind of torture. It’s harsh, it’s abrasive, and it rivals that one part from the final 2 minutes of “Seasick” off of “Penance Soiree” in terms of absolutely dreadful noise to fill your ears with. However, because it’s shorter and fades itself in, almost working hand-in-hand with the melting vocals, I think it’s not as bad. It’s just a bit overtweaked.

When this thing isn’t too loud for my tastes, it’s REALLY good, especially once the album hits a peak by the 1-2 punch of “The Lung” & “Raisans”, which I think have infectious energy that you can only really feel while listening to it. So much of this album fits within the DNA of R.E.M.’s style, but with the extra kick & edge that would make grunge more prevalent by the early 90s. I’m not saying our lead vocalist here is Michael Stipe or anything; he’s very shaky at points, occasionally a little off-beat, and not as confident as he could be, but he gets the job done, and usually sounds pretty solid all the same. Since the instrumentation is the star here, his vocals are just texture work, and it’s a fine texture at worst, and a pretty damn good one at best.

So, what’s the hype about “Poledo” that bumps this up to a 5 for me? It’s just a fascinating track for 1987 in terms of the overall sound design. The sudden static & harsher tones that interrupt the track evoke a genuine sense of unsettling eeriness. I’ve never been jumpscared by an album like that before, I think. It feels totally cinematic in a way that hasn’t been captured by any of the previous 603 albums we’ve gotten so far, and it’s just so thematically different from the rest of the album that I can’t help but admire it. It feels like a fucking creepypasta, in the best way, down to the abrupt cutoff at the end.

It’s enough to bump the whole album up to a 5 for me; just *barely*, mind you, but there’s truly no bad tracks here to my ears, just some overly harsh parts that drag the experience down a bit. I think it’s a hell of a preview for 1987, and when I was really in the groove with the album, I felt the same sort of “in sync zen state” feeling I had with bands like Nirvana, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and more, though not as potently throughout the whole thing. Regardless, I think it’s worth the bump up, and even if I didn’t bump it, I’d still highly recommend it as a progenitor to all the rock trends of the 90s, and just a fun time once you get past its harshest moments. I’m glad it’s on the list, and I enjoyed it a lot. A thumbs up from me, and a 4.5 bumped up to a 5.

I’m at a 5.

It’s not the timeless record “21” was & still is, but I don’t think it was trying to be. This is a much safer affair that leans into a lot of the pop production tricks that had emerged since “21”, relying on an all-star cast of producers that include everyone from Max Martin to Danger Mouse to Bruno Mars, as well as a good chunk of the cast that helped her out on “21”. Does that mean this is Adele’s “sell-out” album or anything? Absolutely not; I found this to be a super enjoyable listen, retaining a lot of the DNA from “21”, just without the same timeless ballad-y tone.

That lack of a “timeless” tone led me to think that I knew next to nothing about this album, save for “Hello”, and in many ways, I really didn’t. That said, I had a couple of moments where I hit my “oh, this is that song” epiphany – “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” got me immediately, especially so by the chorus. I’ve genuinely always thought that was a Lorde track, and I don’t think I can be blamed for that; the entire instrumental structure feels super similar to “Royals”. The same thing hit me later in the album with “Water Under the Bridge”, but only by the chorus.

So, how about the rest of the album? I enjoyed the whole thing, honestly. It definitely plays itself safer & a bit more sterile, but mileage will vary based on how much you appreciate the slightly overproduced style of the mid-2010s, and for better or worse, I’m a total sucker for it. “I Miss You” feels like an Imagine Dragons track, in a good way. When I was listening, I wrote down that “this is far ‘sexier’ than I’m used to from Adele”, and I think that added sense of confidence permeates throughout the album nicely. “When We Were Young” is just an Elton John track & it’s impossible to not hear it; “you look like a movie, you sound like a song” is a line that feels like it’s ripped straight from his songbook.

“Remedy” is pretty good as a ballad to her son, but I think it reveals one of my softer issues with this album; a few of these tracks feel like Adele singing songs that could be covered by other artists without missing too much of a beat. That’s what splits a timeless record from a very good one; “21”’s strength comes in the fact that it’s nigh-impossible to hear anyone but Adele singing a lot of those tracks, a la Aretha Franklin with the albums we’ve gotten from her so far. “Remedy” is a track that sounds like Kelly Clarkson or Rihanna could sing it, and it would keep a lot of the same emotional impact. That’s a mark of really great songwriting, so it’s not too much of an issue, but it does make this album stand out less.

“River Lea” goes back to the sort of Imagine Dragons-core with its instrumental, but Danger Mouse makes it work. The lyricism is super strong & it feels like the sort of track where you can’t hear anyone but Adele singing it due to the lyrics. The same applies to “Love in the Dark”, which feels the most like a track from “21”, and it shows. The orchestral overtones give it some great gravitas, and her vocals flow on that thing. I really like the intimacy of “Million Years Ago”; her vocals channel Mariah Carey a little bit, it’s very well-written, and the guitar-driven approach worked for me a lot.

“All I Ask” & “Sweetest Devotion” are a hell of a 1-2 punch to close the album out on; Bruno Mars is one of my favorite artists ever, and his fingerprints are all over the former. Granted, it does sound like Adele’s doing her best to just match Bruno’s likely demo recording of it, but the man can write a damn good ballad, and the key change at the end of that track really pulls it all together. I wish it had been a duet, honestly. “Sweetest Devotion” just rules; the percussion & electric guitar really make the track pop as a closer, and Adele’s vocals carry a lot of strength that makes the lyricism (devoted to her son) hit even harder. It’s kind of structured like a Coldplay track, which is a net positive for me.

So, yes, I still *really* enjoyed this. I have no idea how a number of these tracks missed me a decade ago, especially given that this is the second-best selling album of the 2010s (behind, you guessed it, “21”) & the fourth-best selling album of the century so far. In particular, I have no idea how I missed “All I Ask”, since I was huge on Bruno at the time, & “When We Were Young”, which is probably my favorite one here. Even though I’m late to the party, it’s better late than never. I do think this will bounce off of people more easily than “21”, since it’s far more poppy & a little more sterile by comparison; even if that’s the case, I think the floor here is a 3, since there aren’t any bad tracks & Adele’s voice is still magical on a lot of these. It’s not a 10 to my ears, but it’s certainly an easy 5.