Reviews by guggmo

I’m at a 2.5 that I will bump up to a 3.

When we last got Kings of Leon, for “Only By The Night”, I really enjoyed the first 6 tracks on that album. Only 2 of the last 5 clicked for me, and that was enough to buoy it at a 4.5 that I bumped up to a 5, because the soundscapes were still good, and the tracks felt competently safe. Plus, it was a great casual listen – I even listened to it again after I was done with this one, and yeah, that one still holds up really nicely.

For this, though? This is significantly worse to my ears, and while the instrumentals are totally fine, I don’t-uh real-a-lay like-ah his voice-uh add-ing an extra sylla-bul-uh on alm-ost ever-ay line here-uh. He really can’t decide what vocal tone he wants to take, and while I absolutely love his energy & more deliberate performance on “Only By The Night”, on here, it feels like a parody, or at the very least, it feels consistently inconsistent in a way that is frustrating as all hell to listen to.

Lyrically, this album takes a deep step down too – I’ve been praising a few albums as of late for going for the more local approach instead of taking broad strokes, but these are a little too local, and sort of creepy – I really didn’t need to know that you “accidentally” had sex with a 17-year-old, or you were too soft, or whatever the hell is going on on “Rememo”. It never really finds a foothold, save for maybe 2 or 3 tracks.

I don’t wanna rip into this that much, but I just didn’t like this one that much. This album is what happens when an entire project is comprised of the mediocre parts of “Only By The Night”, from a less sharp, less mature, less confident, less commercially driven version of Kings of Leon, and while it’s probably more true to their authentic selves, I don’t think it makes for a very good album. Competent enough, sure, but everything about the lyrics & vocals on this one strike a nerve in a way that feels significantly more grating than anything on that last album. I understand why the other people in my group gave that album a 3, but after hearing this one, I wouldn’t be surprised if they dip down to a 2 or even a 1 here.

For me, I’m at a 2.5 that gets bumped up to a 3. I truly don’t think it’s THAT awful; individually, these are fine enough tracks, but as an album, it just sort of shoots itself in the foot as an incohesive project. I vaguely hear the appeal for this album over “Only By The Night”, and why people could rate this higher, but it’s just not my thing, I think. For my tastes, this really, really didn’t need to be on the list. Not in a Haut de Gamme way, but in a “this is really fucking mid” type of way.

I’m at a 5.

Christina Aguilera is one of those artists where she had undeniably big hits, and yet I can’t really think of anything past the major ones, like Genie in a Bottle, What a Girl Wants, or Moves Like Jagger. Going into this, I expected her vocals to be great, and the pop sensibilities to click really nicely, but I wasn’t really sure how compelling of a package the whole thing would be – based on the bigger hits I knew, she had a really specific vibe that might’ve felt a little jarring over the course of a full album, especially in this case, where it’s 78 minutes long.

Thankfully, she shut down my expectations rather quickly – this is the sort of pop album that I’ve been waiting for on the list, even more so than Britney’s debut album. It fits the right sort of sassy, overproduced, hip-hop influenced, confident mid-2000s vibe that I adore, since Disney & Nickelodeon bit on this style hard as hell when they were trying to make pop stars (and kinda succeeded, for the most part). That's the stuff I grew up on, so this clicked super well for me. This feels like it’s around the peak of that style, and I think it really shows; this is hard-coded to 2006, even with the 60s vibe she tries to set at the start of the album. In some weird way though, with this style coming back in fashion for the mid-2020s, mixed with the more simplified & streamlined pop stylings of the 2010s, this feels oddly modern, now? Either that, or I’m just hitting the nostalgia pill hard with this style of production, which feels sort of lost nowadays.

Either way, I really liked this – talk about a vocal showcase, my goodness. I knew she was good, but I didn’t know she was THIS good. Occasionally, she oversteps the boundaries of each track with an overdone vocal flourish that borders on parody, but for the most part, she’s right within the vocal range she should be to keep her presence really strong, projecting a sort of operatic power that feels like only Adele or a few others really have nowadays. She dips into everyone else’s bag though; there are points here where she sounds like Whitney, or Celine, or Mariah, or Janet, and there’s more than a few times where she just absolutely bites “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce, most blatantly and egregiously on “Here to Stay”. Still, though, what a fucking voice – “Mercy on Me” in particular seems undeniably powerful, even as someone who’s sort of lost his faith.

As far as the production goes, I already touched on it, but I thought it was really good throughout – a few moments where the instrumentation feels like a bit much for the subject matter, sure, but the energy was great throughout, and usually fit the tone of each track really well. Whether it’s gospel, 60s pop, 70s funk, a Mary J. Blige-esque rap cut, or glittery 90s ballads, the variety of styles here still feels cohesive, despite the amount of producers from track to track, and it keeps the full 78 minutes feeling pretty fresh. It certainly helps that the lyrics on this album are pretty good; Christina (or her team of writers) know how to write some catchy fucking hooks & bridges, and the vocal structure on the verses feels great. When she has to go into full storytelling mode, it’s usually compelling (see: "Oh Mother").

In case it wasn’t obvious, I REALLY fucking liked this. A few overproduced moments, and a few awkward tracks (see: “Nasty Naughty Boy”, which still has great production regardless), but this is right down my alley for 2000s diva pop. I see that 2.74 average on the website, and I call a little bit of bullshit on it – if this were anyone but “Christina Aguilera” as the artist, or some random singer they’ve never heard of, this would be at a higher average on the website. It’s a protest vote against this style of music, same as Britney’s album, and I think it’s petty as hell. Granted, I’m the type of petty to want to drag Kid Rock down to the worst album on the site, or at least right next to Haut de Gamme, but I digress. I think it’s impossible not to have fun with this; even if you barely pay attention to the lyrics, her voice and this production is just super fun, and really easy to vibe to. I could keep gushing about this album, and how effectively it uses its two discs a la Outkast’s Speakerboxx / The Love Below, but I’ve already typed 788 words, and I think the music would say more than I could.

So, yeah, it’s a 5 for me. One of the easiest I’ll personally give – I am a total unabashed sucker for this style, though, so I can understand someone else being cold on this. Probably shouldn’t be any less than a 3, though. Maybe a 2 if it really is THAT grating.

I’m at a 5.

Once again, a Mercury Prize winning album has come through for me – I really liked this. We haven’t had an album that the site defines as Britpop in a bit, and this did scratch a sort of itch that’s been missing for a bit. If the last time we got an actual Britpop album was indeed in November, then that’s a long time without one, and this is a nice return to form.

Granted, I don’t think this is fully entrenched in the Oasis / Blur style of Britpop, with more bombastic instrumentation & a grander vision to fill out stadiums with heavier rock. This album really succeeds when it hits on its more local points, sorta like the Tom Waits album we just got. It does a really nice job of blending those local points with R.E.M.-esque instrumentation, a vaguely Bowie-esque vocal tone, and synth work that feels sorta like Depeche Mode. It’s a form of Britpop that harkens back to the late 70s & mid-80s, mixed with more of the contemporary issues of the mid-90s, and it’s a really cool blend to hear that carves its own unique niche in the wider space of Britpop. Granted, a good chunk of those contemporary issues are really awkwardly horny in a way that feels strange to listen to in 2025, but hey, 30 years ago, what can you do?

I really don’t think there’s a bad track here – a few awkward listens, and the occasionally over-produced track that lasts a little long, but nothing ever so egregious as to feel out of place or boring. This is a really cohesive 52 minutes that does feel like it stands up with the best of its era, even if it’s not in the same musical space as its peers. I love the more local approach, and I think it adds an air of authenticity & relatability to each track that something like, say, “Champagne Supernova” could never really provide, even though I love that track. So, yeah, I’m at a 5 – realistically, maybe more of a 4.5 bumped up to a 5, but I thought it was a fun album, & I highly recommend listening to it. If nothing else, “Common People” lives up to those 235 million plays on Spotify.

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

I’ve heard of Queens of the Stone Age, but I haven’t *heard* them (or in this case, him) until now. This is, much like the first Foo Fighters album, secretly a solo project, although the drums are by someone else. Unlike the first Foo Fighters album, I think this one just sort of flounders in a vague kind of mediocrity – nothing’s ever technically “wrong” on this album, and it sounds really nice when you’re not paying attention.

Unfortunately, I am the exact type of person to pay attention, and that attention applies to everything. I think the lyricism isn’t as precise and measured as many of its other 90s grunge contemporaries that we’ve got (i.e., Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Nirvana), and the broader strokes don’t really paint any kind of consistent picture for most of the tracks. I think the instrumentals are good, but suffer from the occasional really long repetitive pattern in the drums & guitar that doesn’t get covered up by the often safe vocals – his voice, when he’s really experimenting with the range it can take on these instrumentals, can sound super good, but he plays it really safe on a lot of these, and as such, it sort of inconsistently shifts between engaged & disinterested. Sort of like the Britney Spears album we got, there are points where his conviction feels a little half-baked & it just feels off.

However, all of those criticisms are partially from my listening style – there were points on this album where I did just sort of toss the lyrics aside, tried to sort of zone out & just let the music come to me, and those moments, while hit & miss, did click pretty well when a zen state kinda came to me. That said, it was just as easy to snap out of that zen state when something more abrasive or audibly awkward came in; the out of key guitar on “You Can't Quit Me Baby” & the harsh electronica/synth work that ends the album are the two biggest examples here.

As a whole, I did enjoy this, but it’s clearly not at the same level as its contemporaries, at least on a first pass – it’s not as refined, it feels a little too garage-y at points, and it doesn’t do a great job of filling its emptier vocal space. I’ve read reviews that say their later work, when an actual full band comes in, is significantly better & arguably landmark worthy, and I’m willing to believe that. This isn’t a bad album, it just didn’t click well for me. I can hear the potential for sure, and there are some good tracks on this. It’s just not a great experience, at least for me, hence the 3.5 bumped down to a 3.

You know what? I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

It took a little bit to get rolling, but after the sort of weird 3-track start (though Underground is fine), I think this album finally finds its voice by “Johnsburg, Illinois” and just kind of glides from there. This is not the same type of album as Rain Dogs, and I think it’s all the better for it – he’s not trying to mold his vocals to the heavier rock-influenced, vaguely Springsteen-ish instrumentals present on that album, but has instead made every track here work with his vocals to lean into his grittier strengths in a more cohesive way. Granted, my entire premise is a bit undermined by the fact that this album came BEFORE Rain Dogs, but I stand by it – this album feels more complete to me because it finds a better harmony between his vocals and the instrumentals, and that was my biggest thing holding me back before.

It also helps that I think the lyricism is just better on these tracks – even when they make no goddamn sense at all (see: “16 Shells From a 30.6”), they’re still sort of captivating in their delivery & natural flow. However, when they do make sense (and they make sense plenty of times), I think some of the lyrics on these tracks feel like a sort of contemporary, mildly buzzed Bob Dylan for the 1980s – a little nonsensical at times, but when they need to lock in and truly tell a story, Tom Waits knocks it out of the park. Look no further than “Soldier’s Things”, which I think is a real highlight from any of the 438 albums we’ve gotten so far – that is a masterclass in lyricism, and it hit a little close to home for me.

So, yeah, I’m at a 5 – once this thing gets rolling, it finds a sort of voice that speaks more for the “common” man, and going for a mostly local tone on a lot of these tracks lets their personality, humor, or sincerity shine through in a more authentic way than they did on Rain Dogs. That’s not to say Rain Dogs is a bad album, but this feels way more like the “real” Tom Waits to me. It’s a lovely album, and its abrasions work to Tom’s strengths to create a really cohesive 41 minutes (well, OK, 33 or so if you don’t count the first 3 tracks not clicking as well, but shh) that really worked for me. I can hear why this is at a 2.97 on the site, but I just don’t think they’re engaging with the album in the right way. I really, really enjoyed this, and I’m really glad this was on the list. Good job, Tom.

I’m at a 4, but if it weren't for a handful of mediocre tracks, I'd be at a 5.

Sorry to Elvis Costello – third time we’ve gotten him, and he just hasn’t cracked a 5 for me. This one was at a 5 for a while, though, so that’s a good positive, and I did enjoy a lot of this album. Hell, I think it solves a lot of the reasons I gave for not giving “My Aim Is True” a 5 – the album doesn’t really stagnate until about 10 tracks in, the song structures aren’t as concrete & inflexible as they were, & as far as the variety in the soundscape goes, this has a really nice showcase of styles that feels like they have more depth to them.

So, if everything feels solved, and the tracks sound good, what gives? Well, the reason I’m at a 4 is because the bad tracks are actually just… kinda bad this time. "My Aim Is True" never had a truly bad track, but the ones that are "bad" here just... ugh, man. When this album hits that stagnant point on Tracks 10, 11 & 12, it really kills the vibe & the momentum the whole thing had going for it. 7 of the first 9 tracks clicked really well for me, but that is a 3-track stretch that is mediocrely drab at best. They did not click at all for me. The album really pulls it back in for “Pidgin English” & “You Little Fool”, but I’ll be damned if “Town Cryer” isn’t a flat ending.

I did like 9 of the 15 tracks here, but if 40% of the album isn’t quite clicking like that, then you’ve bloated it a little too much. However, that 60% is really fucking good, and has some of the best tracks I’ve heard from Elvis Costello yet. The Attractions, as a band, seemingly add a lot of nice depth to his soundscape, evolving to a really nice point that feels even more pleasing than what I heard on “My Aim Is True” – if that 60% were all that’s here, I’d be at a 5 without a question. That other 40% is what drags this down to a 4, but it’s still a 4 I’d highly recommend – the tracks that didn’t click well for me could click well for someone else (although, given that this has an average of 3 on the site, they probably didn’t). I feel bad that I haven’t given Elvis a 5 yet, but I feel like it’s gonna click at some point. He’s gotten real close twice, so maybe the 4th time’s the charm.

P.S.: If nothing else, “Man Out of Time” fucking rules. That’s a great, great track.

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

Perhaps a bit of hypocrisy from me to dock Faith No More for being a little too close to the Peppers, and for me to bump this up when this “Jack White” guy is clearly ripping off the White Stripes, but when you’ve got it, you’ve got it, and this album, despite how closely it toes the line to being a vaguely misogynistic set of tracks, manages to tightrope its way into having it.

In all seriousness, it is at a 4.5 for that very reason – the instrumentation, vocal work, and general production would put this at a flat 5 for me, because it really is enough of a departure from the more “glamorous” rock stylings of the White Stripes (probably partially Meg’s finishing touch to Jack’s sensibilities) to a more cutdown, vaguely country / ragtime-y feel that takes a bit more inspiration from the 60s & 70s to create a more distinct, yet familiar sound. Similar enough that you could just call this a White Stripes album, but with enough of Jack’s own voice to really make this feel like a solo album.

The issue with not giving this a flat 5 then, is of course Jack’s own voice – the lyricism on these tracks really do tow a fine line for me; never into full blown pre-19th Amendment sexism or anything, but just right on that edge of subtle, vague gaslighting & blame with a hint of reasonable doubt. It does feel like Jack is blaming a lot of the seemingly biographical incidents on this album on women in general; even if Meg is never mentioned, this being his first solo album after the disbandment of the White Stripes leaves a bit of room to point in that direction. It doesn’t help that he got divorced the year after this dropped.

However, I might just be projecting my own interpretation onto these tracks, and I can’t imagine Jack White is actually like that at all – at worst, this album just hasn’t aged very well lyrically in an era where women’s empowerment is more encouraged & vague swipes like this come across as petty with a lack of real self-reflection. Musically, the album is a delight to listen to, and its quality is kind of undeniable (ESPECIALLY the piano work). It is a damn good record, and I do think it’s worth bumping it up to a 5 – there really isn’t a bad track here, and the wide variety of styles plus the energy he brings to each track makes it a really enjoyable 42 minutes. I had a lot of fun with it at least, & it's probably no less than a 4.

I think I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump down to a 4.

It’s not because it doesn’t do enough to get up to a 5 – I liked the album a lot. I just because I don’t think it did anything outstanding enough to feel like a 5. Every single track here is technically sound, pretty catchy, and great to listen to. It’s an album I’d definitely recommend. It just doesn’t feel like it has the big knockout shot that stands on its own merits as opposed to feeling like another band, or sort of leaving me truly wowed like some other metal or rock albums I’ve given 5’s to.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I can’t fully shake the whole “this sounds a lot like the Red Hot Chili Peppers” thing. Yes, I know, 1989, and therefore, this is before Blood Sugar Sex Magik, so it’s more of a chicken/egg deal. It’s not even like it’s a negative – I love the instrumental style on this album, and it leans a bit more into the metal side of things, so I can’t definitely say “hey, this is just RHCP”. However, given that Blood Sugar Sex Magik (and Californication, by the way) sort of refine this style and really knock it out of the park with multiple tracks that really feel like timeless hits, as opposed to this one, where “Epic” sort of qualifies, as does “The Real Thing”, but not in the same impactful way. It just feels like this album falls a little short of the potential it tries to reach.

It’s still a good album, though – like an 8.75/10, give or take a quarter of a point. I really did enjoy a lot of this – I listened to the main 9 tracks and the great cover of “War Pigs”, and that’s a pretty satisfying 51 minutes. I do wish the album started off on a better note than “From Out of Nowhere”, which feels like a Phil Spector masterclass in how to ruin a song, but everything past that is pretty damn good. It’s *right there* as far as being a 5, and hell, maybe it’ll bump up someday if another one of these tracks clicks way better for me. For now, it’s a 4.5 that I’ll bump down to a 4, but it’s a highly recommended 4 regardless – super unique for 1989, and probably a strong harbinger of the metal rock-rap fusion to come throughout the late 90s and early 2000s.

I am unbelievably at a 5.

You have to fully accept what this album is going for to appreciate it – that means you have to fully buy in, you have to fully commit, and you have to fully accept that this is music clinging onto a thread of sanity that will unravel over the course of 73 minutes, taking you on a ride that, for better or for worse, will sort of discomfort & challenge the very notion of what “music” is.

For my money’s worth, this is a masterclass in sound design, atmosphere & feel – for 1971 in particular, this is far, far beyond anything I’ve ever heard from the decade, and it may genuinely be revolutionary. It’s certainly one of the most experimental & avant-garde albums we’ve gotten so far, and while I’m no stranger to “experimental”, it’s very rare for the quality of the album to match the sort of audacity and boldness of what it’s trying to do – Kollaps got a 3 from me, Trout Mask Replica got a 3, & Locust Abortion Technician got a 3 – all solid enough albums, if only for how bold they are & well they execute their vision, but this album executes it in a way that leaves space to fully appreciate just how wild everything is. It’s a trip, yes, but it’s a trip that has just enough space between listener & artist to allow the vision to become clear as you’re listening, and sort of have a better aha moment than could ever have happened on those other three albums.

As far as the “music” itself goes, it’s harsh, it’s gritty, it’s certainly a bit throat-y at times, but it’s always anchored by the saving grace of consistent percussion – a tiny little lifeline to hold onto that resembles the normalcy of music, and perhaps the only sane normal thread of this protagonist’s ongoing anxiety-induced mental breakdown, performed and executed brilliantly by production work that feels years before its time – there are elements of 90s grunge rock, some weird electronica, vaguely jazzy tones, and oddly, sort of an anti “Kid-A” vibe, where the total non-ambience sort of loops around into a cacophony of sound that feels coherent despite itself. Yes, the vocal work & lyrical content make barely any sense, but at some point, they really don’t need to – the transition from good 70s rock to “I have no idea what the fuck is going on” happens rather fast, but still kind of slowly naturally comes out of nowhere.

Trust me, I understand why this has an average of 2.79 (still, hilariously, higher than Britney Spears’ album) – it is NOT easy to enjoy this if you don’t fully buy into it, and even if you do buy into it, there will be moments where repetition & a sort of fatigue comes in, especially because this is a 73 minute album. It is, however, meant for one continuous experience, and it’s certainly a nighttime-y sort of album, to allow for its harsher and more horror-adjacent elements to really shine. I had a few moments where I just went into a pitch black room for 2 or 3 minutes just to really let a few tracks fully encapsulate my ears (looking specifically at “Aumgn” though), and it worked like a motherfucker. Insanely harsh percussion that feels like a sort of sacrificial ceremony happening, before dogs eventually come in and bark at you out of nowhere in a pitch black room? That’ll get the anxiety rolling.

So, yeah, it’s a 5 for me. Again, you HAVE to buy into what the album is going for, and it is a one-shot, no skip experience, but it’s a journey worth taking – if you let yourself settle in and go along with the ride, the soundscape alone will conjure up images that tap into the creative spirit in a way that not many of these “experimental” albums have done before. It is harsh, and occasionally annoyingly loud, but I think those are compromises that had to be made to really sell the experience of the album. It could very well be revolutionary, or I could just be gassing up an overblown pretentious mediocre album that could be perceived as art if you squint at it for long enough. That’ll be for any subsequent listens to decide, but I really think this is gonna hold up well for me. I fully bought in, and I really enjoyed it, hence the 5.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a 4, but it was REALLY close to a 3 for a bit.

Perhaps reading Wikipedia for this album set a wrong expectation – “Revolver meets Off The Wall” feels like a hell of a claim to make, and… I don’t really know if I hear it. Granted, I haven’t heard Revolver, so I can’t say how distinctly different it is from any of the 3 other Beatles albums we’ve gotten so far, but I’ve heard Off the Wall many many times. This is nowhere near anything from Off the Wall, at least from what I can distinctly remember about the album. Even if you boil it down to just the percussion as the drummer claimed, I only hear it a handful of times – if anything, the drum work here is way closer to Stewart Copeland’s work with the Police on Synchronicity, at least to my ears.

Of course, inspiration isn’t the same thing as “exact style”, so I won’t knock that too harshly – besides, I think the percussion on this album fucking rocks. Hell, I really liked a lot of this album – really solid lyrics, good vocals, super strong instrumentation (bassline particularly deserves a mention), and there’s not really a bad track here. The only reason I’m wavering between a 3 and 4 is just in the full album experience as a 35 minute thing – this doesn’t really have the greatest set of cohesive tracks, and I do think a lot of these soundscapes and subject matters step on each other’s toes from track to track. Even at just 35 minutes, a sort of homogeneity comes up that’s, as usual, hard to describe but kind of easy to feel in the moment.

Ultimately though, this did win me over – there’s a really nice stretch from Tracks 5-9 that kind of solidifies this as just good enough to get bumped up to a 4. It certainly helps that there’s not a “bad” track here, as even the most avant garde & weird one in “Music for the Last Couple” struck me as fun. If it is a little bit of a Revolver-inspired soundscape, it just makes me want to hear what The Beatles did on that album, since it feels mostly refined here. It sounds like if I've heard “Start!”, then I’ve probably already heard “Taxman” though. Oh, well. If the percussion on Off The Wall is way more prominent than I remember, past the obvious first hits of Rock With You, then I can’t wait for it to show up too. For this album, it stands as a nice little punk rock / new wave sort of hybrid that’s closer to the late 70s than the 80s, but still finds a really solid niche that clicked well enough for me to give it a 4.

I’m at a 3.5 that I will bump up to a 4, partially to spite the people that gave this a 2.66 average, and partially because I just had fun with it.

I am a full blown sucker for this style of pop… if it’s done consistently well. This album comes out swinging on its first 6 tracks, and absolutely falls down on its final 5 tracks, though not for a lack of trying – simply a lack of perceived conviction. Britney Spears’ vocals are great throughout this album, and when she’s on fire, she’s in total sync with the music; even if it’s written for her, she’s got the conviction to make it her own and add her own flourishes throughout. That conviction goes away from Track 7 onward; the production is still fine, as are her vocals, but the lyricism feels like it was pulled out of a generic pop star songbook – it’s hard to describe the “lack of conviction”, but it’s easy enough to feel, especially with the difference in quality of the first 6 and last 5 tracks.

Here’s the thing – I’m still a sucker for this style of pop. Yes, this album falls down a bit, but it’s still a really solid listen even at its most bland points. When it’s riding high, it feels really good & really fun – even cheesy tracks like “Soda Pop” or “Born To Make You Happy” just sort of keep punching until they win you over, or at least they did for me. I sort of understand why this only has a 2.66 – yes, it’s not Metallica or Black Sabbath or anything like that, but there’s room for this type of bubbly hyperpop with a Y2K feel & overblown Swedish production on the list. If nothing else, the cultural impact of Britney Spears & the boy bands & pop stars surrounding this general wave of the late 90s (i.e. NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, etc) makes this album worth being on the list, if only for a sense of historical context.

So, yeah, I’m at a 3.5 bumped up to a 4 – really strong first 6 tracks, really flat final 5, but as a whole package, a nice, easy, commercially safe & bubbly 42 minutes that feels good to listen to, and occasionally has some really standout moments. I liked it.

P.S.: "Deep in My Heart" is actually a fucking banger, but it's not on the original track list, which is criminal. Also, “Email My Heart” is an incredibly silly track, even for 1999.

I’m at a 5.

It’s only been about 10 days since we got “Walking Wounded” by Everything but the Girl, and my main thing with that album was that it didn’t really commit enough to the sort of electronica / drum & bass feel it was going for, at least for my tastes. It’s my closest analog to this album, since we’re dealing with artists doing a radically different sound from an 80s album in the 90s. Well, OK, maybe not AS “radically” for the Pet Shop Boys, but we’ve thrown out 80s synthesizers & drum machines for the 90s UK house brand of booming orchestra hits, advanced spacier electronica, & more upbeat dance numbers.

In this case, since they went full throttle in committing to this soundscape throughout the whole thing, it pays off way better for me here than it did on “Walking Wounded”. I’m not saying that to be harsh on the album, but the difference in commitment is night and day to me – obviously, 1996 drum & bass is different from 1993 UK house-driven synthpop, but the Pet Shop Boys lean fully into it. It’s a natural evolution for the sound on “Actually”, and it’s played in an overly catchy & commercially safe way, but it really clicked for me, just because it’s a super fun listen.

It also helps that the songwriting chops present on “Actually” are refined and arguably even better on here – so much of this album is written with the context of the gay experience, from both a closeted and open experience, and it creates a sort of intimate & personal vibe that both contrasts and works really well with the wide open dancing soundscape of the album. Occasionally, that lyricism / vocals are a little buried in the mix, or overshadowed by the synth work, but when it comes to the forefront (ESPECIALLY so on “The Theatre”), it feels really, really nice.

Ultimately, it’s a 5 for me, but the reason I enjoyed this is a two-sided coin; since they did fully lean into this style, if it’s something you’re predisposed to hate, then this is gonna be a repetitive “video game-y” 2 for you, but if it’s something you love (like me!), then it’s a perfect blend of early 90s SEGA-esque Roland synth work that calls back to stuff like Sonic CD or Daytona USA, while blending the songwriting chops and production sensibilities of the Pet Shop Boys, which were already on great display on “Actually”. It really, REALLY worked for me, and I think it’s a great album – hence, a pretty easy 5.

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

I know, perhaps it's heresy to not give this a flat 5, but it’s just because there’s a few too many “woe is me” sad tracks on the album, sue me. Besides that, Fats Domino did live up to what little I knew of him – “Blueberry Hill” is a trivia staple and a pretty strong song in the musical canon, but I’ve never heard it until now. Hell, I’ve never really heard Fats’ voice until now, and while I was expecting more of a Ray Charles-y tone, I’m surprised that he has a slight country twang on him. I’m not surprised that these were all pretty good tracks; classic blues structure to a lot of them, and his voice really glides on some of the heavier percussion / piano / sax present throughout this thing.

Not too much to say besides that, really. I have a decent reverence for 50s music like this, and it’s just because it’s all stood the test of time, and they’re simple & easy tracks. These fit the bill, and I had a good time listening to them – pretty breezy 27-ish minutes, even if it took a bit longer to find them all on streaming like that. I can hear why Elvis called him “the real king of rock & roll”, and how influential his music must have been to his contemporaries. It’s a good album, and I’d be a moron to not give it the bump up – it’s certainly no less than a 4.

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

It’s really not THAT bad, it just feels significantly “worse” than some of its other new wave contemporaries – I know Wikipedia will classify this as “post-punk neo-psychedelia”, but that doesn’t feel fair. I hesitate to say “dollar store Duran Duran demos”, but it feels that way at times.

When this album tries to feel bigger and introspective in its lyricism, it kinda falls flat on its face, whether it’s in the lyrics making no goddamn sense, the vocal performance not having the conviction to match what it’s going for, or the instrumentation just barely meshing with the lyrics. This album feels a lot better when it’s focused on the energy of the instrumentation, and once they really hone in on that during the back half of the album, it clicks a lot more. Granted, they kind of ruin all goodwill they built up with the absolutely mediocre closer of “When I Dream”, which feels like the biggest offender of “first minute” syndrome that there’s been in quite some time… but they don’t ruin it THAT badly – enough for me to lean fully downward on the 3.5 side of things, but it was already leaning that way regardless.

I understand why the average rating for this is like, a 2.89 – it’s repetitive, it takes a while to really get going, and a lot of the tracks are inconsistent in the execution in a way that drags down the experience. From a purely competent musical standpoint though, I love the sound of the synth work & percussion here, and sometimes the vocals really do mesh nicely. When it all comes together, it sounds good. Granted, it’s still never as good as say, Duran Duran or R.E.M. or Talking Heads, but it creeps into “fun cheesy 80s new wave” territory enough times that it kind of won me over, regardless of how it compares to its contemporaries.

So, yeah, it’s a 3.5 that I’ll bump down to a 3, but it’s got a good, earnest energy throughout, and you can tell they really are trying. Other bands and artists would perfect this further, but for 1980, it’s really not THAT bad. Maybe with enough time, a few of these tracks will click more to the point where I’d feel safer with a 4, but it would take a LOT of time, I think. Regardless, it’s a solid listen, and a solid 3.

It’s a very easy 5.

This is the third (and final) time we’ve pulled Jim Morrison and friends, and they’re gonna go 3 for 3 on getting 5’s. For a debut album, talk about knocking it out of the fucking park – that is 44 electric minutes of music. Not a single miss here, although perhaps my experience with “End of the Night” was enhanced a bit more by sitting in a pitch black room while listening to it.

I haven’t been able to write more than 2 or 3 paragraphs about any of the Doors albums we’ve gotten because they usually put me into such a zone while listening that I just melt into the music and appreciate the experience. That might still be true here, because I don’t know what to type about this that someone else hasn’t typed – it’s got great blues influence throughout, it’s a landmark piece of psychedelic rock, the gritty tone in Jim Morrison’s vocals glide on each track, and Smash Mouth totally ripped “Walkin on the Sun” from “Soul Kitchen” (ok, maybe nobody’s typed that last one).

I’ll say this – my main experience with “Light My Fire” before listening to the full 7 minute version on this album, was with… Stevie Wonder’s excellent, excellent cover, from his 1969 album “My Cherie Amour”. It’s an album that’s not on the list, but I think it’s worth listening to regardless. That cover of “Light My Fire” gave me a very different expectation from the version featured here, and honestly, they both stand up really well next to each other. I think Stevie Wonder somehow turning that into a big band swinger track with a jazzy vibe & room for a harmonica solo, when it originated with Jim Morrison’s sort of duller (but good!) vocals, and the craziest organ/guitar solo ever, is simply a testament to how radically music can be interpreted.

Anyway, this is a fantastic album – it's a great debut, an incredibly strong package from front to back, and for the last time we’re getting The Doors in this 1001 album experience, it’s a hell of a way to go out. It's a very, VERY easy 5.

I’m at a 5.

I don’t know if it’s a 5 necessarily because of the music itself being a big bombastic knockout set of tracks – there are certainly standouts like “Thank God It's Not Christmas”, “Hasta Mañana, Monsieur” & “Equator”, but all in all, at a pure musical level, I wouldn’t classify this into the big top tier of any particular genre it’s going for. This is at a 5 because it’s a consistently great set of tracks, that does a fantastic job of blending a lot of musical genres (i.e. pop, glam rock, prog rock, blues, etc) & artists (i.e., Queen, Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, The Beatles, Green Day somehow, Genesis, etc) into a coherent sound that feels unlike anything else in 1974 that I’ve heard, one that vaguely transcends genres to be its own, totally unique thing, full of elements easy to pick out, but hard to put together. It fully succeeds even though it could totally have crumbled under the pressure to make it all fit together.

If I have any knocks, it’s oddly in the mixing – I could be wrong about this, but I think there’s a really subtle wall of sound effect in the mix that stopped the clarity of everything from feeling as clean as it could, and it rubbed me the wrong way throughout. It added a bit of depth, and gave the percussion a really cool feel, but it comes at the expense of… something. My best guess is that the extra “space” in the mix feels emptier, and adds a slightly cavernous feel that’s present, but never acknowledged. I can’t exactly place it, but it just bit at me that nothing felt quite as clean as it could. Perhaps that’s an intentional choice? It would certainly add to the avant-garde feel of it all – this album constantly feels like it’s one bad note away from having a track fall apart, but it balances itself throughout, and acts as a sort of triumph for complete experimentation.

So, yeah, I’m at a 5. It’s a really fun album, and perhaps with enough time, I can really appreciate these tracks more for just how technically sound they all are – this has to be a complex album to write sheet music for, and performing it is a different story, especially if they did any of these live. They all have good stories, they keep the band on their toes with all the tempo changes and pauses, and as a listener, I think the layering tricks in the mix, even with that “cavernous space”, is still pretty unique for the time. It’s a divisive album – I can totally hear how this might be a 3 for “average, weird rock that doesn’t know what genre it wants to be & nasally annoying vocals” or something, but I’m at a 5 because I admire how big of a swing it took and how well it stuck the landing. May joy and whimsy live on, I guess.

It’s a 5.

I got up, I hopped around, and I just felt the music once it became clear this was gonna be another sample heavy “plunderphonics” album, ala DJ Shadow, but with a much more electronica/synth/club bend, as opposed to the more hip-hop/trip-hop vibe of “Endtroducing…”.

Since I was literally just vibing that hard, I can’t really give any major critiques on the music or the samples – a few tracks were certainly less energetic than others, and a few of the shorter transitional tracks felt awkward, but… that’s a pretty damn fast 60 minutes. Super easy to get up and groove to, and when it nails a good beat drop / switch / whatever the hell, it feels kinda electric. The length of the album does bite at the experience a little, since a few tracks do feel like they peak after the first minute, and the overall energy isn’t quite as strong as a Fatboy Slim / Prodigy album, but it’s still pretty strong regardless.

I wish I could provide a more critical analysis, but when you’re in the groove, I don’t think critiques necessarily matter – someone else can break down the complexities of the 4/4 (or 3/4) beats here, but I think my foot feels the complexities of tapping just a bit too hard on the ground. I really, really enjoyed this – it’s worth the acclaim it gets, and it’s a highly recommended 5 from me.

It’s a 10. It's probably higher, honestly.

Janelle Monae, Kansas City, Kansas native & featured artist on “We Are Young” by fun – also one of the pop artists of the 2010s that’s eluded me. Before listening to this, the only other track I really knew her for was “Make Me Feel”, but I always told myself I’d listen to her someday. Today is that day, and today is the day that truly proves that procrastination is a sin sent by the Devil, or whatever another religious equivalent is, or just whatever bad forces exist in the world. I was absolutely blown away by this album – this jumps right into the top 5 of all the albums we’ve gotten so far, in terms of ones that are new to me. I haven’t been ranking them like that, but an album like this makes me wish I were.

Right from the concert hall intro, letting you know you’re in for a play and a massive concept album, especially with the orchestration, it sets a tone that immediately goes into overdrive – those first 4 tracks are an electric experience that I cannot begin to describe, especially once “Locked Inside” drops the sample of the Rock With You drums. From there, it’s all about the worldbuilding, complemented by a myriad of genres and styles that are too immense to count, yet so perfectly executed. There’s some fabulous lyricism throughout this album, and while the story is hard to follow without really devoting energy to it, the broad strokes that get painted of this world shine through and make the narrative between Sir Greendown & Cindi (aka 57821) become obvious through just the music alone. I have always been a firm believer that lyricism matters, but I love an album where the music alone can tell a story like this. The lyrics simply enhance the experience, and I think they work in harmony in a way that very few albums with this intent & of this caliber have been able to match.

Janelle Monae is unbelievable, truly. Her vocals on this album are a gift, and she showcases them often enough that, by the end, it’s easy to take them for granted when she hits the final notes to close the album. I truly cannot praise them enough, nor can I praise this album enough – this is the type of shit that is right down my alley, and my procrastination towards her feels like a 15-year-stretch of wasted time. This is an unbelievable debut studio album, on par with (and probably surpassing, for my tastes) “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”, and just as impactful.

Or so you’d think, anyway. The GRAMMYs rewarded Lauryn Hill in spades in 1999, and for this… they fucking let Usher’s Raymond v. Raymond beat this out for “Best Contemporary R&B Album”. Criminal on a level only matched by Macklemore somehow winning over good kid, m.A.A.d city, and arguably even worse. Past that, this album feels… underrated, somehow? Not many plays on Spotify, at least relative to what it feels like it should have given the quality here. For my money’s worth, I think this album will get the recognition it someday deserves, and Janelle Monae, by extension, who’s still chasing a damn GRAMMY. Just on a first listen alone, this gets a retroactive bump to one of the top 5 albums of the 2010s for me. Absolutely unbelievable – a 10/10, maybe a 15, maybe a 20, who really knows? It’s off the number scale for me, and it’s by far one of my favorite albums to discover on this list. An absolute delight, a long overdue introduction for me, and what will certainly be my catalyst to dive deeper into her discography. I’m out of adjectives – just listen to it. It’s beyond worth it. It’s a masterpiece, and I don’t use that word lightly.

I’m at a 2.5 that will get the bump to a 3, because it’s not so bad as to warrant a 2.

I admire that this is on the list – it’s a good showcase of some Indian flair, especially in terms of 90s pop-ish stuff. It’s not an outright bad album, but… goddamn, it’s just kinda boring. Not even boring in the “this has no potential” way, but boring in the “each track just goes way too long” way. They met their potential early on a lot of these tracks, and kept dragging it out to the point where it just got less enjoyable the longer it went. That’s the biggest issue here; this did not need to be 54 minutes. The instrumental tracks that permeate this album are fine, but they go on and on, and it’s just… ugh.

Let me put it this way: it’s been a while since I sort of zoned out of an album. I love entering a zen state, where my attention is fully on the instrumentation, and I can feel in harmony with the tracks. I heavily dislike entering a zoned out state, where I’ve partially given up on the album and it turns into background noise after the first 30 seconds of a track. That’s where I ended up for most of the first half of the album, save for “Brimful of Asha” & “We’re in Yr Corner”. The back half is a little better – “Good Shit”, “Good to be on the Road Back Home”, and that cover of “Norwegian Wood” are nice, but the instrumental tracks on that back half are really, really bland (save for "It's Indian Tobacco My Friend", due to the loudness factor), compared to the vague experimentation present on the instrumentals in the first half.

This album just needed to be condensed – cut down the instrumentals, put focus on your best tracks (and hell, shorten some of them down too), and make this a really concise 30-35 minutes, as opposed to the slogfest of a 54 that it becomes. Hell, even the best tracks feel like they could’ve done a bit more; I didn’t listen to the Fatboy Slim remix of Brimful of Asha, but I have to imagine it does that “bit more” that was really missing for me. As it stands now, it’s just a flat album experience, with a few moments that sound really nice, but they’re few and far between, stuck in the crevasses of longer instrumental tracks that kill the mood. It’s a 2.5 that earns a 3 for its competency, but that’s as high as it goes.

I’m at a 5.

I truly don’t know what went wrong with Rust Never Sleeps – did I just not have the tolerance for it? Was the folk half THAT bad for a guy who’s shown to have great songwriting chops in the several albums we’ve gotten since? It’s the only Neil Young album I haven’t given a 5, and I feel like I need to revisit it, given that it was the 7th album we got.

Regardless of all that, this is a stellar album; the only “meh” here is “The Losing End (When You're On)”, and I still thought it was a pretty solid track that just didn’t click for me. The rest of this is a great rock album, and Crazy Horse’s contributions that shined on the back half of Rust Never Sleeps are in full force here, arguably better, more fleshed out, and more grand, in a way that really enhances the album experience. Even with the two longer tracks on this album, both of which are excellent, this thing flew by. Neil Young’s vocals are great, though his lyricism is a bit flatter here than on Harvest or After The Gold Rush. The instrumentation is what sells this album by a mile – the extended guitar solos, the grunge-y feel (for 1969!), & the twangy hint of folk & country scattered into this really makes it work.

I don’t wanna go on a longer diatribe, because I think the music truly speaks for itself here; I just really, really liked this. I think it’s easily deserving of a 5, and it’s absolutely worth being on the list. Neil Young is really, REALLY good at this.