Reviews by guggmo

I’m at a 5.

When an album just sounds THAT good, is there really that much to say? I’m a little strapped for time, so I won’t write a big soliloquy – this album just rocks. Incredible fidelity for 1968, even if the version on Spotify is probably a remaster of sorts; this is one of the first albums ever recorded on 16-track tape, so it really lends itself to some production tricks and layering that feel pretty damn ahead of the era (and showcasing that people were indeed just limited by the technology back then). They used those 16 tracks about as effectively as you could – the depth in the horns, the percussion (holy SHIT, the percussion), the flutes, the guitars, the harmonicas, the vocals, and pretty much everything here all fits snugly into the soundscape & it all sounds fantastic.

That sound quality wouldn’t necessarily mean jack if the songs themselves weren’t good, but thankfully, these are all REALLY good tracks, or at the very least, they’re so tightly performed that they have a natural charisma that overrides any kind of lyrical cheesiness & or anything else that might feel awkward. David Clayton-Thomas manages to channel the grit of a Bruce Springsteen, the passion of an Aretha Franklin, & the smooth charm of a Stevie Wonder throughout these tracks, and his voice is variable enough to fit all of the genres this goes through, whether it’s funkier, more of a gospel tone, jazzier, or just straight rock & roll. Hell, the album starts & ends with a take on a 19th century Erik Satie piece. The variety is really strong here, and it keeps everything on its toes.

I just enjoyed this a lot; it’s a breezy 45 minutes, and to my ears, I can vaguely hear the case for how this beat out Abbey Road for Album of the Year at the GRAMMYs. I still think Abbey Road is a better album, but this has a charm to it that just feels more casually appealing at times. At the very least, the instrumentals on this thing are a groovy, groovy killer. It’s a 5 for me, and probably a little higher. Very deserving to be on the list.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump down to a 3.

Not that much to say, honestly – since it’s not on streaming, it’s a little hard to give bigger analysis besides “it sounded good, but sometimes it didn’t”, which is especially true given that this is an electronic dance / house album, with a little bit of hip-hop infused. It came out swinging with an absolute banger in “People Hold On”, then held on pretty well until getting to the other major banger of “Stop This Crazy Thing”, and then gliding decently well through to “What’s That Noise?”, which is where I ended the album, since I have no idea if the remixes are part of the original track listing or not.

This is getting bumped down to a 3 because there’s just a lot of stuff here that’s not that compelling – there’s extended portions where percussive beats last for like 30 or 40 seconds without anything else going on, there’s a few tracks that just feel extra long and could’ve easily been shaved down, and there’s a few tracks that just settle into a certain groove and then coast on that groove afterward. Don’t get me wrong, I liked a lot of this (around 8 of the 11 tracks I listened to), and it does scratch a little bit of an electronica groove that hasn’t been present from the randomizer lately, but it just feels underbaked & a little too long for its own good.

I do wish I had more to say, but with albums like this, you’re either feeling the music or you’re not. I felt it, but not as consistently as I would’ve liked, and the moments where I wasn’t feeling it really stuck out at me. I’ll add whatever’s on Spotify that I liked, but as a whole album, it’s just a 3.

I guess I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5, though it’s not without an obvious level of bias.

I just have an unapologetic soft spot for this album – years ago, when I was trying to really get into rap for the first time, I went through a number of decently acclaimed 90s “mainstream” rap albums, and this was one of them, alongside stuff like 2pac’s “All Eyez on Me”, Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” & “2001”, both “Ready to Die” & “Life After Death” by Biggie, and overall, just a lot of other “basic” 90s rap albums. Nothing deeper than the “guys a white person might be able to name” level, really. I was probably just a little too young for it at the time, if we’re being honest, but it did give me a better appreciation for the genre, and it’s the spark that would eventually lead me to becoming a proper fan.

All of that aside, how does the music itself hold up? It’s definitely Eminem circa 1999, when Slim Shady could say whatever the hell he wanted and get away with it. Obviously, within a lot of modern contexts, so much of this album has aged poorly, and yet in some ways, that’s the entire point. Slim Shady is a psychopathic misogynistic bully, a pathological liar, and just a slimy little shitbag asshole who you’d never really want to give the time of day to. Eminem does not do anything that indicates that you should actively like Slim, nor does he ever really encourage him as a sort of “hero” figure. He’s the protagonist, yes, but you’re just trapped along the ride to watch him.

The line between Slim Shady & Marshall Mathers is pretty well drawn here, and I’m choosing to give grace for the period – this album is very dated to 1999, with references that almost nobody might get nowadays, save for the bigger stuff (like the OJ trial or the Lewinsky scandal), but that also means it comes with the sort of language that just doesn’t fly anymore. As far as how it’s used here, given that it’s played for ridiculous over the top comedy effect, ala a Wayans Brothers film like Scary Movie, or just the general South Park-ish / Jerry Springer culture of the time, I’m not as inclined to police this album’s tone like I might with other stuff. It is sort of a “you had to be alive at the time” thing. I’m not defending it, at least not in the sense of “we should normalize it again”, because we absolutely should not – it’s just one of those weird societal things of the late 90s / early 2000s that was later exploited (and are still currently being exploited, honestly) by the very, very worst actors to perpetuate true hate & bigotry when others weren’t trying to do so. It doesn't necessarily make it OK, but it does give it some level of leeway, at least for my brain. That said, I'm speaking for myself – I refuse to speak for the marginalized people that were affected by this, and if they didn't / don't like it, then they have every right to voice those concerns.

So, with my lack of policing, I’m basically at the point of “How entertaining is the album?”, and I think it’s still pretty entertaining. Eminem’s flows, rhyme schemes & structures are on full display, even for a debut (I know, I know, "Infinite", but shh), and it’s complemented by some great production. When this album succeeds at its over the top bullshit, it just glides, and I think it glides all the way up until “Cum On Everybody”. It kinda falls down a little bit afterward, but not that badly. There’s really only one track that felt like it went too far for me, which was “As the World Turns”, but beyond that, the only knock on the album I have is that it’s just a little bit long, with a few tracks that feel sort of unnecessary, or some outros that feel like they last forever. Obviously, I’m giving a lot of grace here, and if I’m being totally honest, it’s probably closer to a 4 than a 5… but I just have too many memories associated with this damn thing, so I feel good about giving it a 5. Forgive me, perhaps.

I’m at a 4.

This is hyper-socially conscious hip-hop for 1992, filled with a lot of harsh truths, some biting observations, & a lot of musing about society in a way that’s all fair, if a bit heavy-handed at times. This is sort of a mirror to the Arrested Development album we got a while ago, which felt preachy in a positive way, save for the 20% of it that gave me an ick. I don’t really have an ick with the content of this album though – much like the Arrested Development album, I liked around 80% of this, but the 20% that’s nagging at me consists of a few verses & tracks that aren’t “icky”, but more so outdated & pearl-clutchy, at least by the standards of 2025.

Let me be clear: when this album is matching its lyrical prowess with some good vocals, underlined by some production chops that feels very reminiscent of Public Enemy, then it’s absolutely rolling. “Vocals” in this case can mean both rap flow & authoritative tone – “Satanic Reverses” & “California über alles” are great examples of rap flow, but something like “The Winter of the Long Hot Summer” (fantastically prescient track, by the way, my favorite on the album) is a great example of how effective a rhythmic, authoritative tone can feel for a politically driven album like this. If you have a conviction for what you’re saying, people will be more inclined to listen, and I think a lot of this album is worth thinking about at a somewhat deeper level.

The 20% of this album that’s biting at me is still worth thinking about at that deeper level, but it’s undermined by a sort of “holier than thou” thought process that puts an overt emphasis on a lot of the negatives, while neglecting some of the positives present. Take for example, “Television, the Drug of the Nation” – great track through its first two verses, and then it sort of leans into an awkward “won’t we think of the kids!” angle, before rebounding nicely into the power of endorsement… and then totally losing me in the fourth verse. Granted, children’s TV improved tenfold by the early 2000s, so perhaps it’s just an “outdated” moment, but it’s still leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

There’s a few examples of this sort of thing throughout the album: “Everyday Life Has Become a Health Risk” feels fair, if a bit overblown nowadays with a more renewed focus on agricultural oversight & healthy living in the years since. “Socio-Genetic Experiment” feels a little tone-deaf in how it approaches tolerance to bigotry, and by modern standards, you just don’t really give an inch to racists, no matter how well-intentioned you want to be. The hook on “Financial Leprosy” feels like an unnecessary shot – perhaps the idea of modifying natural beauty felt taboo in 1992, but by modern standards, it feels very accepted to do whatever you want to feel comfortable in your own skin, & shaming that is one of the biggest missteps this album takes, undermining a pretty solid track about how people are constantly manipulated into feeling rich even if society is, at large, comprised of the poor.

Those pearl-clutchy, outdated missteps are part of the reason why this is going down to a 4, though I’d be remiss to not acknowledge that sometimes, this album just doesn’t work from a musical standpoint – for as good as the beats are, sometimes they’re a little scratchy or a little overblown. There’s also moments where the vocal flow just feels off, compensating for moments where the lyricism is trying just a little too hard. Overall, I did enjoy this. I totally understand why the critical acclaim is there without the sales to match it, given the heavier political/social elements, but it’s an album that would slide in really nicely into today’s rap/hip-hop landscape (with some tweaks, obviously). For me, it’s a 4, which in retrospect, is probably what I should’ve given “3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of…”, but c’est la vie.

I’m at a 10. It's probably higher, honestly.

Listen, I can understand why “Born in the U.S.A.” is the more heralded Bruce Springsteen record – he already had bigger name recognition, the songs were genuinely perfect for the time, and as a whole, that title & cover art just invokes an explosion of patriotic fervor brought on by the illusions of the Reagan years, even if the music itself was made for a crowd who recognized that not all was sunshine & rainbows in the land of the free. I get it.

For my money’s worth, though, this is the best Bruce Springsteen album we’ve gotten so far. Going in, I was hoping for something that carried the gravitas of the two other albums we’ve gotten from him, since I figured it wouldn’t be as polished. Obviously, I knew “Born to Run” would be here, but I’ve never heard anything else from the album, and even in terms of that title track, I had only heard the cover version on “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. It’s a great cover, but it’s incomparable to the original. Born to Run is very obviously the climax of this album, but the entire buildup to get there is unbelievable in its own right. This might have the most explosive 5-track start to an album I’ve heard in a while, and as an entire package, I can only really say it has a partial stumble on “She’s the One”, but that’s just because it has the unenviable task of following an all-timer. It is as close to a perfect 39 minutes as you can get.

“Thunder Road” is electric – just a perfectly written track, with a great vocal performance to boot, acting as a constantly layered 6-minute piece, building up the intensity of the instrumental, in a way that constantly keeps itself entertaining. It sets an incredibly high bar for the rest of the album to follow.

“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” has the sort of “throwback” production that Phil Collins would so effectively use on his cover of “You Can’t Hurry Love” – just a wonderfully done blend of 60s doo-wop sensibilities with 70s rock & roll, all done in a way that feels timeless to this day.

“Night” has great lyricism & vocals, but it’s also just a set piece for the band to go nuts on, and they knock it out of the park – it’s truly criminal that it only has 8 million plays on Spotify, because it sounds like a Red Bull.

“Backstreets” is a dazzling 6 minute piece, with great (& positively ambiguous) storytelling, arguably even better layering than “Thunder Road”, and an unbelievably captivating bridge, capped off by one of the grittiest vocal performances I’ve heard from Bruce Springsteen ever.

“Born to Run” is… well, it’s “Born to Run”. You just have to listen to it. It is exactly where this album hits its climax, and it really is worth all the acclaim. I knew I would like Bruce’s version, but I wasn’t expecting to feel THAT much more captivated by the grit in his voice, and the little tinges of folksy, Bob Dylan-esque production still present in the original like this.

“She’s the One” is that tiny, tiny misstep – still a good track, if a bit platitudinal (& a little overly descriptive) for the lovey dovey lyrics. The Phil Spector influence is the big one here – it’s just a little too strong on the wall of sound, and overall, it’s just a noticeable step down from the high of “Born to Run”. Honestly, the album might’ve been paced even better if you swapped it with “Meeting Across the River”.

“Meeting Across the River” is a really thematic noir track, with the sort of context-driven storytelling that I’m a sucker for on tracks like this. It helps that it’s got more of a lo-fi instrumental mood to it, underlining a calm sense of dread that’s present throughout the story of this poor guy who’s gonna absolutely get whacked in a job gone wrong (& knows it, too). It’s the most unique track on the album in terms of a departure from the rock / Americana stuff, and if it had come after “Born to Run”, I think the shift would’ve been just crazy enough to work.

“Jungleland” is unbelievably good – it’s the longest track on the album, but it’s arguably the most passionately performed, with Bruce using his penmanship to craft an incredibly vivid view of New Jersey at this time, underlined by a spectacular performance from the band, especially on that fucking 3-minute saxophone solo. It’s paced perfectly, and Bruce knows when to give the lyricism their gravitas, most prevalent on the spoken-word exasperation present in the final verse. Once that piano explodes afterward, it’s just a cinematic sort of bliss that feels like the perfect way to end the album on.

I’m out of adjectives, but I wouldn’t write a paragraph about every single track here if I didn’t enjoy this THAT much. It’s a stunner of an album, and one of the best of 1975, if not all time. It’s very obviously a 10, and certainly within the top 10 (if not higher) of all the albums we’ve gotten so far, at least for me.

P.S.: Frankly, it’s unbelievable to get this and “Horses” by Patti Smith back to back. Two 8-track rock & roll albums with captivating black & white cover art, both highly influential in their own right, with the critical acclaim to match it. Two sides of a very similar coin, yet existing in their own spaces & representing two different parts of the same scene. Just a treat to get properly introduced to both of them in a 48-hour span, and one of the highlights of this experience so far, even some 518 albums in.

I’m at a 5.

I feel like calling this a punk rock album is a little bit of a misnomer, because past the intensity of the opening track (which might be an all-timer, by the way), from a musical standpoint, this leans far more into the sort of style that Kate Bush would later refine & redefine in her own way. This is an album centered around liberation, in a lot of different ways: sexual liberation, feminine liberation, liberation via death, liberation via financial freedom, et cetera. It’s the underlying line that connects all the tracks, and some form of liberation & freedom is there, whether it’s a type of freedom you agree with or not. In many ways, it mirrors the sort of liberation that Patti Smith likely felt as a woman being herself in a space generally dominated by men at the time. Sure, you had your Joni Mitchells or your Janis Joplins, but in terms of fully letting loose & throwing it all out there without a real care in the world, this just feels different, in a way that’s hard to explain, but easy to feel, if you’re listening to the music.

It’s not a perfect album; I think there could be a little more clarity on some of the lyrics, though they’re brilliantly written for the most part. I think this album does have a few flatter instrumentals, mainly on “Redondo Beach” & the ending portion of “Kimberly”, but those aren’t a big deal, given that the overall intensity & lyricism of those tracks are still undeniably cool. Really, I’m nitpicking – when this album is rolling, it feels like it has unstoppable momentum, and that momentum has carried through to influence a ridiculous amount of artists. Everybody from Michael Stipe to Morrissey (boo) to Courtney Love to Siouxsie & beyond have cited this album as a sort of inspiration point, and I can hear it in a lot of different ways. It’s only 44 minutes, but it might be some of the most defining music of its time. No words I can type can really capture the feeling of listening to each track, so if you somehow haven’t heard it, go listen to it, right now.

Once again, though, is it punk rock? By the musical standards that would later be set, I don’t think so. The heavier guitars aren’t here, nor are the crazy percussive moments, at least not in the spades they would be by the mid-80s. However, in terms of unabashedly being yourself… that’s the most punk shit you can do. It’s not “punk rock”, it’s rock music made for the people who can identify as the punks of the world, and that’s a wider net than the term “punk rock” could capture by itself. It’s a kickass album that carries its own gravity field, pulling so many people into its sphere of influence that it probably affected music as we know it. It is absolutely an album one must listen to before they die. It’s a very easy 5. Arguably a 10. Good on you, Patti.

I’m at a 2.5 that I’ll bump down to a 2, though I wouldn’t blame a single person if they gave it a 1.

It’s got concepts of an album, that’s for sure. Honestly, I find myself just sort of flatly unimpressed, but unbothered all the same. That’s 58 minutes of… something. It’s music, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just indescribably bland. Lots of yapping, lots of flowery language that even I can barely translate into an intended meaning, and lots of circling the wheels on each track. Eventually, it gets to the point where it no longer feels like a cohesive album & instead, a set of Soundcloud EPs on shuffle with a vague soundscape & theme connecting them all together.

Genuinely, I don’t have the words to even insult it, because I just don’t understand the album. I don’t get how it possibly made the list, and I can barely hear an appeal that only lingers because each track is at least instrumentally competent in a way that’s not as bland as the album experience itself is. When this album SOUNDS good, it’s nice enough to not feel deathly bored, and it does at least consistently sound good, entirely from an instrumental standpoint. Vocally, though? It just never once feels believable. Going from a guy like John Prine where you can hear the emotions coming out of his voice, mirroring the passion that he put into his songwriting, to whatever the hell this is, genuinely shows the importance of a good vocal performance in crafting & recording an album.

I had to check for myself what the book says about this, and I’ll simply copy & paste it wholesale, because I think it may be the most bold-faced attempt at gaslighting that I’ve seen in the book so far.

“After a decade in Tucson, Howe Gelb emerged with the most successful incarnation of Giant Sand: a trio with drummer John Convertino and Joey Burns on bass. The band were a musical project as unpredictable as its central figure—a singer/songwriter forever changing his route, following the freedom lessons of Bob Dylan and Neil Young and emulating the idiosyncratic weirdness of his jazz idol Thelonious Monk.

Like a faulty radio transmission, mixing country sentiment with volcanic electricity, earthiness with weirdness, Giant Sand made some of the best records of the American underground in the 1980s (The Love Songs, 1988) and '90s (Center Of The Universe, 1992), but none worked like Chore Of Enchantment. Recorded in Tucson, Memphis, and New York with a variety of producers, the album has a cohesive feel, the musicians losing themselves but always finding their way back.

Slide-guitar instrumental "Shrine" is played by Rainer Ptacek, who died of cancer before the album's release, and a melancholy, elegiac atmosphere permeates the record, complemented by haunting Mellotron® and organ. Lyrics are both enigmatic and colloquial; arrangements move from ethereal to punkish distortion, from silence to exuberance, with the singer always distant, whispering in your ear.

Astonishing from beginning to end, full of strange songs about women (the voluptuous "Temptation Of Egg"), midlife experiences ("Shiver,"an underground hit of sorts), and the downright cryptic (the arousing guitars that fuel "Satellite"), Chore Of Enchantment lodges in the mind and refuses to leave.”

First of all, RIP to Rainer Ptacek, because that does give “Shrine” a bit more gravitas than just some plain guitar to end the album, but… “enigmatic & colloquial”? Did we listen to the same fucking album here? I’ll say this: Chore of Enchantment did not lodge in my mind, and it will likely leave very easily. It’s not SO awful as to give it a 1, given that I genuinely liked “Punishing Sun”, “Astonished (In Memphis)”, & “No Reply”. There’s also a handful of tracks that sounded good, but never really combined with the lyrics & vocals to make it a complete package, consistently falling short in a frustrating way. There is SOMETHING here, and with a lot of extra polish and a lot more traditional structure/production, I think there’s at least a chance to get to a wholly middling 3 that at least has a couple more solid tracks. As it stands, to my ears, it’s a 2.5 that I’ll bump down to a 2. I almost have the frame of mind to give it a 1, just because it’s not deserving to be on the list & that review in the book reads like propaganda, but I’m not that cruel. Someone else can be that cruel though, and I would not blame them one fucking bit.

That’s an easy 5.

Color me impressed; I’ve never heard of John Prine until today, but his songwriting chops evoked an immediate level of nostalgia that I didn’t really know I had in me. This is country music, and it’s the slice-of-life old school country I love to preach about whenever it comes up, but this has the added benefit of being beautifully & vividly written. When he’s trying to nail down some comedy, he certainly can, like on “Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore”, but he can just as easily switch it on a dime to evoke a deep sense of sobering reality, as on tracks like “Sam Stone”. This album tackles everything from the power of nostalgia, to the consequences of reminiscing, to the blind loyalty present in jingoism & patriotism, and perhaps most effectively, the fear of the mundane.

Of course, the songwriting wouldn’t mean anything if he didn’t have the vocals or instrumentals to back it up, but thankfully, he does – my brain immediately goes to the comparison of “Willie Nelson’s twang with a Bob Dylan rhythm”, and it’s a lovely blend that evokes both of them really nicely. Instrumentally, while this leans mostly into the acoustic side of things, there’s a lot of steel guitar, fiddle work, and even a great electric guitar solo on “Pretty Good”. Nothing ever overshadows each other, with the instrumentals and vocals giving themselves space to breathe, and the lyricism still shining through with the way the vocals are just slightly elevated in the mix. As far as listening to this album goes, even if you somehow manage to ignore the lyrics, it’s just 44 really smooth minutes that never find a dull spot. However, doing that would sell both this album & yourself incredibly short.

As an entire package, this just fits right in line with my sensibilities. It’s just an album that feels full of life, with a living, breathing soul to it that feels lost nowadays. Rolling Stone once called John Prine the “Mark Twain of American songwriting”, and I’m honestly inclined to believe them after just 13 tracks. If nothing else, as a debut album, this comes out swinging & never really slows down, and you can’t ask for a better beginning than that. I hope he’s got more on the list, but even if he doesn’t, I feel like I need to listen to more of him. For my tastes, it’s an easy, easy 5.

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

The second I saw this was yet another early 80s British post-punk / new wave album, I just felt kind of “meh” about it – I understand that new wave took over the world, but I feel like there are more genres & styles from the first half of the 1980s that are worth putting on the list over yet another post-punk / new wave band. I’m not a hater, it just feels oversaturated. That said, I knew going in that as long as it hit all of the right tropes, and had a banger or two, that I would still enjoy it regardless. Really, at the end of the day, I just really, really wanted an album that was worth writing about.

Thankfully, I do have an album worth writing about, one that certainly hits all the right tropes & more – classifying this as “post-punk” feels like an incorrect label to me, because it’s much closer to a bridging gap between the style R.E.M. would make famous & the folkier, guitar-driven sensibilities of what would become Britpop a decade later. Hell, it even dips into some of the more bombastic forms of Britpop that Oasis would bring in, via the really cool orchestral work throughout this album, giving each track a gravitas it may not have otherwise.

For 1984, this album’s general mood, soundscape, lyricism & overall vibe feels far, far ahead of the curve, more so than it has any right to be. There are certainly some complaints I have – I think the lyrics are broad at times, and for as good as the vocals are, I think they could be a little more “expressive” on some of the earlier tracks. There’s also “Thorn of Crowns”, which sticks out like a sore thumb, but is at least a bizarre enough track to be an interesting listen & not just boring.

When this album really clicks though, is whenever it finds its zen state (ala a Cocteau Twins album or Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks”). This album REALLY finds its zen state over the course of the last 4 tracks, with the entire stretch of “The Killing Moon” to “Ocean Rain” acting as some of the coolest post-punk / new-wave “vibes” stuff I’ve heard on the list so far. It helps that the lyricism / vocals hit a really high point on those 4 tracks, compared to some of the looser / broader stuff earlier on the album. It’s the main reason this is getting the bump up to a 5, because I got really entranced by them.

There’s some more scattered praise I have, like our lead vocalist channeling everyone from Bono to Michael Stipe to David Bowie to “accidental Elvis” on Thorn of Crowns, & the incredibly cool 2000s indie vibe feel of “My Kingdom” clicking as nicely as it did. It really is a surprise to me that this is 1984, because it just feels like a 90s album, through and through. It’s not gonna play well for everyone, especially if the earlier tracks don’t click like that, but for my tastes, I’m pleasantly surprised that this was as good as it was, and I’m certainly happy it’s on the list. It’s a 4.5 that I think is worth bumping up to a 5.

I’m at a 5.

Once again, there’s really only so much you can say about prog rock. It's my first time listening to (or even knowing about) ELP, but I liked this a lot. This isn’t quite at the level of a “Close to the Edge”, but for my money’s worth, this is about on par with “The Yes Album”. That just means this is really, really good prog rock, enhanced a bit further by the heavy emphasis on keyboard work, giving this more of a VGM-adjacent feel that appeals to all of my sensibilities. I can very specifically hear lots of inspiration for Zelda & Metroid stuff throughout the 20-minute masterclass that is “Tarkus”, though there’s also a little bit of Kirby, Final Fantasy & Galaga in there. The music speaks for itself, though the addition to make an entire plot about a mechanical armadillo fighting other mecha beasts in a vaguely biblical parallel is a cherry on top. It’s giving incredible Evangelion energy, and I’m all here for it.

So, how about the rest of the album? Well, outside of the vaguely transphobic panic / weirdness of “Jeremy Bender”, the rest of the album holds up fine. Obviously, it’s not at the same level as Tarkus, but it holds its ground rather well – “Bitches Crystal” is the standout track of the back half, acting as a ragtime piano-driven prog rock piece, and it just sounds cool as shit. “The Only Way” & “Infinite Space” are a good two-part piece, though I do think “Infinite Space” could’ve benefited from having some extra instrumentation to it. “A Time and a Place” needed some extra percussive energy at the top, but once it gets going, that shit rules – that ending is kind of a stunner. “Are You Ready Eddy?” is just a good goofy way to close out the album; it’s obviously not that “good”, but it’s just fun, especially with the pastiche of 50s style doowop production across the board, even down to the reverb-heavy vocal nonsense.

It’s a 5, what can I say? Give me some good prog rock, and I’ll be there for it every time. If you somehow manage to fuck up prog rock, you simply shouldn’t be making music, plain & simple. The only reason this has the average that it does on the website is because people despise video game music or anything that sounds like it here, & that’s just pretentious as hell. This was a lot of fun, and I suspect I need to go hunt down some more ELP to listen to.

P.S.: The line alluding to the Holocaust on "The Only Way" was crazy. I have no earthly idea how that stayed in, especially for 1971. It's not even a bad/offensive line, given that it's a halfway common sentiment to call out God for allowing tragedies to happen. It's just surprising that it stayed in given that it wasn't THAT long ago at the time.

I’m at a 4.5 & I’ll have to talk my way into either a 4 or a 5.

I dunno, I just found myself a little underwhelmed compared to the expectations I had – whenever an album pops up on the list that has both the critical acclaim & the sales to back it up, it feels like a sort of cultural zeitgeist, and the sort of album where once you hear it, you fully & totally understand why it has that place. The first 3 songs fit that bill really, really nicely, & the rest of the album coasts off of those 3 tracks, carrying itself rather well to a smooth 50 minutes. I’m not disappointed by the quality of the album, because it is a 4 at the very, very least. I just feel like I’m leaving this album without having fully gotten it, because it just doesn’t feel like a fully satisfying front to back album. There’s not a bad track, there’s not any noticeably awkward moments, and in terms of production / vocal work, I have genuinely no major complaints. I just think the pacing of the album doesn’t lend itself to that “all-timer” status.

I do have a nitpick, and it may be a big enough nitpick to qualify as a complaint, as it’s one that just permeates throughout the remainder of the album for me: I just don’t think the lyricism is that tight. A lot of the political statements that underline this album add heavily needed context to a number of these tracks, but without them, I think parts of this album don’t feel as satisfying, at least to my ears. A lot of the political statements being made are in reference to specific events, but painted with broader strokes, and as such, I think they’re left too open to interpretation on some of its more biting ones. I might just be reading them the “wrong” way, though.

As a whole though, even with the lyricism not feeling as tight & as timeless as it could be on its more politically driven tracks, when it gets closer to the personal level of “Achtung Baby”, it hits really, really nicely. It’s just not all-time songwriting, at least not to the level I was expecting based on the critical acclaim. Does that drag the album down enough to give it a 4 as opposed to a 5? Eh, not necessarily. Really, if there’s anything that’ll drag the album down to a 4, it would be that the album isn’t as “energetic” as I was expecting, with a lot more of these tracks feeling folksier, & the overall tone of the album coming across as more preachy than I anticipated. There’s a lot of biblical / spiritual overtones that permeate the album, and while it’s to be expected from U2, it feels especially heavy-handed on this one. “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For” may as well be a church hymn.

At a base level, each of my complaints about pacing, lyricism, or overall tone aren’t enough to drag them down to a 4 by themselves, but when you pile them on top of each other, for my own personal tastes, I think they just compound in a way where I can’t personally give this a 5, at least on a first pass – hell, I listened to the album twice, just to be absolutely sure with myself, and I’m pretty comfortable with where I’m at – hence, the bump down to a 4. Still like a 9/10, though.

Make no mistake: I really did enjoy this album, and I can see it easily going up to a 5 if it just clicks better on a different day. If this is someone’s favorite U2 album, I wouldn’t question that one bit. It’s certainly my second favorite one, from what I’ve heard. For my tastes, based on what we’ve gotten from the list, my favorite goes to “Achtung Baby”. Hell, since this is the last U2 album on the list, I guess it’s up to me to see if the rest of “The Unforgettable Fire” lives up to “Pride (In The Name of Love)”. As far as Bono & friends go, it’s a solid 16/20, but batting an average of 4 is pretty damn good regardless. Hell, it would be 13/15 if “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” wasn’t here. C’est la vie, though.

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

Miriam Makeba has a deeply fascinating life – just go read her Wikipedia page for a few minutes, because the circumstances that lead up to the release of this album feel like they would make for an incredible biopic. I don’t need to see Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan, I want to see someone play Miriam Makeba, and do it justice too.

As far as the music itself goes, that sure feels like South African music, and a lovely showcase of it too. Peter Gabriel sort of gave a taste of this style a while back, but that has a much “bigger” feel by comparison (and several years of recording advancements, perhaps). This is trimmed down, and really hones in on her vocals as the basis, save for the intensity of the first track, which is a banger of an opener. Her vocals are fantastic throughout this whole thing, gliding on every track whilst having some stunningly strong moments. They do live up to the blurb on the cover art, though I do think this album does focus a little too much on her at times, instead of showcasing a bigger richness to the South African soundscape they’re going for. Instrumentally, I think this album does eventually stagnate into primarily a guitar/bass showcase, but when it’s showcasing a bigger range of instruments, it’s just a great, great listen. As a whole album, I think if you’re not vibing with this style within the first 5 tracks, it’s just not an album you’re gonna enjoy, because this album basically reveals all of its production tricks in those first 5.

I will say this – because it reveals all of its tricks so early, even at just 35 minutes, this album does start to feel a little longer than that by around track 10 or 11. I’m not saying this should’ve been trimmed down at all, but I do think a bigger variety (or really, just a greater instrumental showcase past the first few tracks) would’ve helped the songs go by a bit faster. That’s basically why I’m at a 4.5, but I enjoyed this far too much to not bump it up. I’m really impressed by the overall clarity of these tracks; even if the version on Spotify is likely a remaster, to get that much out of these old recordings & give a proper space to let each instrument & vocalist shine (or laugh their ass off, in a weirdly psychotically charming way), then you’ve done something right. It’s a super fun album, and a well-needed dose of international flair that’s been missing from the list for a while now. Hence, the 4.5 bumped up to a 5. Good stuff, Miriam. Rest in peace.

I’m at a 10.

I’m just speechless, really. I know Yes is good, because they’ve gotten 5’s from me for each of their last two albums, and I know this album in particular has high acclaim, but fucking hell, I still wasn’t ready for that to be as stunningly intoxicating as it was. It lived up to the expectations & more – that is 38 minutes of electric prog rock, without a single dull moment at any point, or even a single wasted beat or measure.

I don’t want to make whoever’s reading this waste any time; if you’re somehow reading this without having listened to it, go listen to it, right now, and if you’re reading this after you’ve listened to it, go listen to it again, right now. Get your headphones in, turn them up to max volume, and just let the sweet, sweet sounds of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman & Bill Bruford wash over your ears and bask in it. It is a 10, through and through. I hesitate to say “perfect album”, but it’s about as sinless as Jesus was. All-timer stuff.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5 because I just had a lot of fun with this.

I’ll preface any of my praise by saying this: Eric Clapton’s an asshole. Granted, he seems like the sort of sensible asshole that has empathy & some level of remorse, or at least the ability to fake it well enough that he’s not inspiring any real, additional damage past his initial waves of stupidity. In that sense, the line between art & artist is a little easier to separate here, but forgive me if I’m giving him too much leeway or credit.

Anyway, enough about Eric: how about the actual music itself here? Well, it sure is some 1967 psychedelic rock. Mileage will vary about the enjoyability of this, and in a way, it really does boil down to whether or not you think it sounds good, because this feels like a quintessential example of what 1967 psychedelic rock is like. If you were to feed a prompt asking for this type of soundscape into an AI, and burn an entire fish family alive in the process, you’d probably get something like this.

I really, really enjoyed this – there are a handful of moments where the album repeats verses & riffs and enters a bit of a stagnant state, but those moments don’t ruin the album that badly for me. That’s mainly why I’m at a 4.5, because they’re prevalent enough to be noticeable, but not obnoxious enough to bother me. When this album isn’t in a stagnant phase, it’s firing on all cylinders; the guitar work here is as good as advertised, the percussion is an incredible anchor that feels just a bit ahead of schedule for 1967, and the vocals are honestly pretty good; little bit of a subdued David Bowie vibe to them that feels like the perfect compliment to the occasionally chaotic soundscapes that surround it.

I really don’t have that much to say – when this album is firing on all cylinders like that, it’s easy to get caught up in the energy & hit a total zen state, so I never had any deeper thoughts on the tracks like that. Is it a little silly to bump this up to a 5 on account of just having fun with it? Maybe, but I enjoyed it enough that I think it’s earned the bump. Huge shoutouts to “Dance the Night Away”, “Tales of Brave Ulysses” & “SWLABR”, by the way. Those 3 are my standouts for sure.

I’m at a 4.

When we got Rumours roughly 221 days ago, I finished that review by asking “How the hell do you follow this up?”, and I think the answer is… you just can’t. It’s in its own bracket, ala Thriller or Nevermind. With that said, if you look at Bad or In Utero, those albums still stand up on their own legs – in Bad’s case, by successfully expanding on Thriller’s sensibilities & mixing them with the new production tricks/styles that had emerged in the long gap, and with In Utero’s case, by deconstructing the tropes that made Nevermind such a success, but without fully sacrificing or shunning them, using them as a tool to enhance the storytelling of the album.

This album tries to do both, and it just doesn’t work. It’s only been 2 years since Rumours, so the amount of “new tricks” to pull from isn’t very much; that didn’t stop Lindsey Buckingham from trying really, really hard to integrate new wave / post-punk trends into Fleetwood Mac’s style, though. Do his tracks work? Honestly, kinda. They’re just not as compelling, not for a lack of trying. I just don’t think Lindsey Buckingham is the guy to thread that needle, and the tracks he took control over, for as fun and experimental as they are, don’t have the polish that other artists would truly apply once the 80s really started to roll.

As far as “deconstructing” Rumours, this album sort of tries to do it, but that attempt comes at the sacrifice of the writing. There’s never a dull vocal moment here, but so many of these tracks lack even the most minor bit of worldbuilding to give a proper “life” to each track. They come across as the sort of leftover lines scattered throughout the production of Rumours, with platitudes and one-liners abound, but without the same heart, honesty & intensity. That just leaves a vague impostor syndrome that hangs over a lot of the album for me – I’m not trying to invalidate their feelings, because there are some really well written tracks on this album, but as a whole, it just doesn’t carry the same weight & believability.

So, between the lesser writing & the avant-garde stuff (for Fleetwood Mac anyway) blending into a 20-track album, while it’s a fine enough listen, it just doesn’t work in a coherent sense. That lack of cohesion isn’t what makes this album sit at a 4, though – if anything, I admire the approach to try to make something that isn’t just Rumours again. Hell, I even liked 15 of the 20 tracks here, even with a lot of my perceived flaws of the album. The main reason I’m at a 4 is because the album is just too damn cyclical, and it leads to the album feeling bloated. Rumours is one of the tightest 39 minutes ever put to tape, and that’s not even including “Silver Springs”. This album is 74 minutes, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s just not a fully compelling 74 minutes. It steps on its toes with a lot of the subject matters at hand, & while it’s never dull at any point, it is very easy to lose interest in a track the longer the album goes because of the repetitive theming of the album.

All of those complaints / thoughts aside, when this album hits, it hits really nicely, and as a whole package, I do think I like this album. While there’s not any mega-hits ala “Go Your Own Way” or “The Chain”, there’s some great, great tracks here like “Sara”, “Sisters of the Moon”, “Brown Eyes” & “Tusk”. It’s just too big for its own good, and as a successor to “Rumours”, it collapses under its shadow. I do recommend it, because at the end of the day, it’s still Fleetwood Mac in the ‘70s. It’s a pretty strong 4, and other bands of the era would still kill to have an album like this. That said, if it had just been tightened up a bit more, I think it just would’ve clicked better across the board. C’est la vie, though.

I’m at a 4.5 that I will bump down to a 4, but I’ll be damned if I’m not struggling with giving it a 5 just for the hell of it.

Welcome back to Mudhoney; we got Superfuzz Bigmuff as the 45th album of the whole thing, and I gave it a 4, mainly for “a hint of repetition in the styles of each song that does become a bit apparent once that initial wave of energy washes away”. 462 days later, my brain is a bit more forgiving of grunge-adjacent “repetition”. It is, however, not totally forgiving, hence the struggle between bumping it down or bumping it up. This is, at bare minimum, a 4 to my ears – it’s just some kick-ass grunge, and another example of Seattle in 1991 being the closest equivalent to the Garden of Eden there’s ever been in the world of music.

So, why the struggle then? Honestly, if I had to guess, I think the album just feels long. At 42 minutes, it’s a little under double the runtime of “Superfuzz Bigmuff”, so I think some of the luster just slowly erodes away over the course of the album. There’s never a decline in quality, because every track here is pretty good, but there’s just a decline in a listener’s tolerance. I don’t think this album fully does enough to keep the listener’s attention for its entire runtime, & while I know you can’t go full-throttle for the ENTIRE album, I had phases throughout listening to it where I entered less of a “zen state” and more of a fugue state. That’s not me calling the album boring, but I think there are portions in a number of tracks that coast for a bit, followed by extremely subtle transitions into the next segment of the song, in a way that sort of just sneaks up on the listener… but without the sort of “wow” factor that’s more typical of grunge of this era. That’s the “fugue” state I’m talking about, because I had to rewind every time it happened just so my brain could fully catch it.

So, is that my fault as a listener, or their fault as composers? Is it anyone’s fault, really? The answer is no, no, and definitely not. It’s their style, and I think it works well enough. Even if I don’t fully vibe with it, it’s not anything egregious enough to ruin the album, but it does bump it down to a 4 for me. It also doesn’t quite stand next to its contemporaries – I do feel like if I gave this a 5, it would be within the same space as Nevermind or Ten, and I just don’t think it’s there. That said, I do recommend this a lot; I don’t think it’s deserving of the 2.83 average on the site. Maybe with a few more listens, I’ll go back up to a 5 anyway. For now, it’s a bump down to a 4, but it’s still a pretty enjoyable 42 minutes, and a pretty good album.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump down to a 3.

It’s definitely got elements of heavy metal, that’s for sure. I just don’t think it’s very polished metal, and while that roughness might appeal to others, I think it just sort of bounced off of me this time. Part of it is 1960s production jank, and hard panning to the left/right channels that sort of messes with the mixing, but a lot of it just boils down to the guitar solos being that unpolished to the point where a harmony between the vocals & drums disappears for a lot of them. I respect this album’s “fuck it, let’s jam” mentality, but in terms of actually listening to it, there’s a lot of times where a super cool vibe and a nice rhythm get totally washed away by the harshness of two guitars clashing against each other like they’re both playing separately in different rooms.

With that said, I enjoyed 4 of the 6 tracks here a lot, and I admire the proto-metal elements of this for sounding relatively close to the stuff that would later be polished to a much higher & much more culturally significant degree. This is more of a prelude to what Led Zeppelin would do, at least to my ears, but it’s a pretty nice prelude. There’s really not THAT much to say as far as the quality goes, because it really is a “you like it or you don’t” sort of album. Clearly, based on the average on the site, it seems like a number of people don’t, but I do think this is worth listening to. It’s no worse than a 3, and maybe with time, this could go up to a 4 if some of the more discordant solos click a little nicer. For now, though, I’m fine with the bump down. Wouldn't blame anyone at all for giving this as high as a 5, though.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a 4.

We’ve gotten stuff like this before, mainly in “The Fat of The Land” by The Prodigy & Fatboy Slim’s “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby”. As the direct comparisons, I don’t think this album gets to the same level as those two. The energy isn’t as high, the “danceability” isn’t really there for a lot of these tracks, & as a whole, there’s a number of baffling production decisions that just drag this thing down throughout the already long 63 minute runtime.

There’s a bunch of smaller ones, like a few sections of each track taking a bit long to transition from point A to point B, and really harping on a repetition in a way that left me unsatisfied until the drops/transitions occurred. The big one, however, is just in how often this album puts a heavy emphasis on one instrument that absolutely monopolizes the soundscape & sort of burns the ears up. It’s especially egregious on the endings of “Setting Sun” & “It Doesn’t Matter”. If your brain is as attentive as mine is, those moments happen way more than they should, and it lends itself to a sort of negative simmering feeling that doesn’t fully go away until something else distracts the ears away.

With that said, it’s not THAT bad, otherwise I would be giving it much lower than a 4. I’m tearing into it a bit, but that’s because this album’s “flaws” are so potent that it’s easier to point them out. It’s harder to pinpoint the parts of this album that work really well, because the soundscapes are always encapsulating the ears in some fashion. There are nuances throughout this thing that I almost certainly didn’t catch, but as I said, that “simmering feeling” sort of distracts the ears from catching it in the first place. When this album does find a zen state, it clicks really nicely, and I honestly did enjoy 7 of the 11 tracks here in a “yeah, I’d listen to this again” sense.

So, it’s getting a rather generous bump up to a 4 – I’ve nearly talked myself back down into a 3, given that even the tracks I liked have a number of stagnant moments within each one, but I think the energy level and the overall production here is still fine enough to warrant it. It’s nowhere near the level of the other big beat / plunderphonics-y albums we’ve gotten, but it’s a wholly competent 63 minutes that is, at the very least, interesting to listen to as a progenitor of the more polished & more energetic albums that would emerge in the wake of its popularity. I liked it, flaws & all, hence the bump up to a 4. No more than a 7.5 out of 10 though, if we were going that route.

That’s a slightly uncomfortable 4.

It’s an intriguing album, that’s for sure. Lyrically, I don’t think I caught most of the references or metaphors involved in it, but I’m not sure this is really an album meant in that sense, at least not by the second half. This feels much more like a documentation of a singer trying to desperately cling on. There’s flaws present in the instrumentation and vocals, there’s the producers chiming in, and there’s just a very, very raw feeling to this album that I don’t think any album we’ve gotten so far has had. There’s no polish for a lot of the second half. It’s a lot of glorified demos that are being documented and put to tape for the sake of putting out something adjacent to an album.

I think I kind of love that, though. It feels vaguely exploitative, but I have to imagine Syd Barrett was still in control of enough of his mental faculties that he approved of this releasing in the way that it did. It’s uncomfortable for sure, but it also feels like being this open & honest about the flaws & mistakes present in the album is something more reflective of Syd’s general nature. It is, in some strange way, a proper mirror of the man, or at least that’s how I’m choosing to see it. There’s a chance that this is just entirely exploitative and Syd simply said “fuck it, I don’t care” while wanting to put out something more. I don’t necessarily want to dive any deeper into the making of this album though, so I’ll leave that to my curious brain on another day.

I know I’ve harped on the second half quite a bit, but I found the first half to be rather musically enjoyable, and for all the flaws in the second half, it’s just such a compelling listen that I don’t think anything really gets knocked down that badly. I understand why this has the average it does on the site, but I do think this really needs the context of knowing Syd Barrett’s general story to this point to understand how fascinating of a release this is. I think it’s worth being on the list for that reason. Hence, the slightly uncomfortable 4.

Yeah, that’s a 5.

That’s my first time listening to a Linkin Park album in full, and I think I finally, finally understand just why nu-metal struck such a chord in 2000: it just sounds cool as hell. Even when we got the Limp Bizkit album on the list 275 days ago, I very consistently gave a lot of love to the instrumental side of that album, because I’m a sucker for nu-metal production tricks & soundscapes. The only thing that dragged that album down is Fred Durst’s goofy-ass voice, which I called a “gift from God” in the comedic sense.

Chester Bennington, rest his soul, has a genuine gift from God on this one. The amount of power he’s able to belt with on this album is crazy It might not be everyone’s tea, and I’m sure a younger version of me would’ve dismissed it as some form of “melodic yelling” that couldn’t possibly stand up to "real vocalists". I’d tell that version of me to shut the fuck up nowadays – Chester gives an insanely captivating vocal performance that drags out every inch of emotion it can possibly muster, on some lyrics that are incredibly effective. It’s not super flowery language, nor does it evoke the sort of imagery that Stevie Wonder waxing poetic about the morning rain might, but it’s perfect in the way that it captures a specific feeling & a specific frame of mind, enhanced further by how well the instrumentation plays into it. Everything is in a harmony here that’s hard to describe, but easy to feel. All the credit in the world to Mike Shinoda, by the way; his rap verses & flows slide in perfectly to compliment Chester's vocals, and they absolutely glide on the instrumentals.

Trust me, I’m someone who’s generally huge on lyrics, but I didn’t feel like they were deeply necessary to capture the mood of each track. That said, I need to go back and check them further, because I’m sure there are some moments that feel a bit more “poetic” than I’m giving this credit for. Regardless, I equate the overall performance to something more like slam poetry, where body language and intent matter just as much as the lines themselves do. These are brilliantly performed, and they never really overstay their welcome. A few tracks didn’t quite hit the same as others, but that’s to be expected with an album where the criticism of “all the tracks kinda sound the same” is somewhat valid (if a bit stretchy). With that said, much like AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, I’m willing to ignore it when the quality of every track is just that damn strong, and if you’re not willing to ignore it, you’re never, ever, EVER gonna like this album.

Is it possible that I’m getting a little swept up in a first-time listen? I dunno, maybe. I don’t think I really care if I am or not – I mostly just feel like I’m beyond late to a party that I should’ve gotten into years ago. Hell, I don’t know that I would’ve appreciated this album as much without some of the metal-oriented stuff we’ve gotten on this list to this point. This is the nexus point of nu-metal in a lot of ways, because I do think everyone in the genre tried to chase the sound of this album after seeing just how damn successful it became. I’ve seen people say Meteora is better, and I may just have to listen to that one for myself. As far as this one goes… yeah, it’s a super easy 5. At the end of the day, it just kicks ass. Not one complaint from me.