Reviews by guggmo

I’m at another 10.

I’ve only ever known the cover of “Hurt” from this album – it’s immensely famous, and it’s a track that Johnny Cash basically stole, in brilliant fashion. I never knew it was only the second track here, though. I’ve always assumed it was the closer, because it feels so poignant and so… final. I’m so very, very glad that it’s not though, because this album is structured in such a way that it works perfectly in conjunction with “The Man Comes Around” as the opener, and arguably creates a narrative throughout where Johnny is trying to atone for those sins so present and so fruitfully captured on that cover of “Hurt”. From Simon & Garfunkel, to Sting, to Depeche Mode, & ironically enough, the Eagles, as well as scattering of rerecordings of covers he already did, it’s just a stellar 51 minutes. It leaves me with the same sense of “getting it” as I had after listening to Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged album. I truly do get what Johnny Cash meant to people now, and in particular, what he likely meant to my dad.

The thing that strikes me the most about this album, besides the excellent song choices to cover, most of which I’ve never actually heard the originals of, is in its intimacy. There’s no bombastic backing bands here & no intense instrumentation (save for the piano on “Hurt”) – just pure, stripped down music, left to the barebones machinations of a guitar, whatever else was lying around, and Johnny Cash’s voice. In this gravelly, withered state, it arguably sounds more impactful here than at any other point in his life. It’s the core instrument, and it’s on full, vulnerable display. It gives each and every track a gravitas that has only ever been matched, to my ears, by Leonard Cohen on “You Want It Darker”, and even then, Johnny’s vocals still have a musicality and a natural charisma to them that elevates them higher.

If there is a God, which Johnny Cash so desperately prays to throughout this album, then let him bless Rick Rubin for making sure Johnny Cash still had a voice throughout the final 7 to 8 years of his life, & bless Johnny Cash for just laying it all out on what he knew would likely be his final album in his lifetime. It’s a gift, a treasure, and a privilege to listen to this, truly. Easy, easy 10.

That’s a 10.

Going into this, I only had ever heard “Wish You Were Here”, and even then, I mainly knew it from, oddly enough, the Ninja Sex Party cover, which I’ve listened to more times than the original. It’s a great cover, sue me. However, listening to it on this first runthrough of the full album, with the context of everything that surrounds it… yeah, the original is miles ahead. The whole album is a masterpiece.

Grieving someone who is still alive is a curse afforded only to those with such empathy for the wellbeing of others that it affects them personally. (Yes, this includes Roger Waters, despite how much of a dickhead he is nowadays.) It is a curse that I have held a few more times than I’d care to admit, and it’s a curse that this album displays in a way that I haven’t necessarily heard captured in musical form. Granted, this is grief with a tinge of celebration, and perhaps some relief that Syd Barrett didn’t truly get caught up in the machinations of the machine & the executives that the rest of the band so artfully complain about on this album… but it’s still grief.

It’s grief that other people can & likely will put into better words than I ever could – I’ve been trying to write something for maybe 30 minutes now, in an effort to put my full thoughts into words, and I keep staring at this blinking text cursor rattle my brain. All I know is that Pink Floyd knew how the hell to put that grief into musicality that may never ever be touched or replicated. There’s not a missed note, beat, or lyric through the 44 minutes this album goes for, and it feels like a privilege that I get to listen to such a grand representation of a cruel, cruel curse.

It’s a fabulous album, and it certainly ranks within the top 5 of all the 401 albums we’ve now gotten, at least for me. It’s a 10 – just go listen to it. No words can do it justice.

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

Really, it’s only because the lyricism of “Brown Sugar” just gives me a bit of an ick, even though the energy on that track is fabulous instrumentally. That, and I think “Sway” was a little early in the album, and felt like a sort of artificial attempt to be bombastic so early on, and it just didn’t click for me. Should’ve been later in the album. Past that though, once this album really gets going on Wild Horses, it never stops – those last 8 tracks are a fantastic showcase of the Rolling Stones at what could arguably be their peak. This is only the second time we’ve gotten them on this list, and the first time in almost a year, so my experience with their repertoire is remarkably limited, but this is really good stuff.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards & the rest of the band have never sounded better to me, and perhaps it’s because so much of this album is secretly deeply rooted in country, even more so than Beggars Banquet was. Look no further than Dead Flowers, which might be my song of the album, though there’s genuinely really not a bad choice; Can’t You Hear Me Knocking has that super cool 4 minute samba-inspired instrumental with the sax rolling, Bitch is just pure classic rock, I Got The Blues has a really nice spiritual vibe only accentuated by the organ solo, Sister Morphine is a great example of how to make drug addiction sound reprehensible (with great imagery to boot), and Moonlight Mile is just a stellar closing track.

Ultimately, the highs of this album are really, really high, and that’s why I feel good about bumping this up to a 5, even if the first 2 tracks didn’t vibe for me super well. It’s a breezy 46 minutes (well, OK, more like 38 for me), and it just makes me want to get even more of the Stones – call me Thanos, perhaps. I enjoyed the hell out of that.

I’m at a 10.

I always assumed this would get high marks from me whenever it came up – my dirty little secret is that I’ve never listened to the full album. Everyone on the planet knows “Hotel California”, but past that, I’ve never listened to another Eagles song ever. I know about the talents of Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and the rest of the band, and I know that a compilation album of theirs is the best-selling album of all time in the U.S., so I figured the talent had to be potent, and the hype had to make sense. I always assumed this was going to be a 4 at bare minimum.

Boy, I wasn’t expecting this though – this is up there with Band on the Run for me as a seminal 70s album, and that’s on a first listen. Someone else has probably written words that could praise these compositions better than I ever could. Perhaps there’s an irony that I’ll end up writing more about Mariah Carey than I will about an album like this, but I just… ugh. The only real “eh” here is “Pretty Maids All in a Row”, and even then, I still liked that one a lot. Every other track hits like crack – there isn’t a miss among the other 8, and that includes the lovely orchestration of “Wasted Time (Reprise)”.

It’s about as good of a 70s rock album as I’ve ever heard with this sort of style – it’s got a nice country lean that just attunes me even more to it, and I truly think the mixing is perfect. Every single instrument sounds more crisp than I’ve heard on almost any other 70s album, and it just makes each track feel that much better to listen to. The lyrics are great too, and the emotion gets pulled out from the vocals in a way that makes them both feel even better. I’m serious when I say that there hasn’t been a 70s rock album that’s worked this well for me since Band on the Run, and in terms of an initial impact, I feel oddly close to how Rumours absolutely blew me away.

I can’t bottle up that feeling into words that can truly aptly describe my currently rattled brain, but just know that this is a high, high recommendation. I have been sleeping on the Eagles for far too long, and I need to listen to more of their stuff. They are far, far beyond just “Hotel California” as a single song, and even if most of the tracks here do qualify under “70s dad rock”, I can only hope the rest of their discography is just as good “70s dad rock”, because I’ll rock with it as long as it rocks. As far as this album goes, this is a 10, through and through – just a fantastic album.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump down to a 4, but I was definitely at a 5 for a while, and it could easily go back up someday.

A while back, I looked at the list – I imagine most people tend to, especially when they’re almost 400 albums in & pretty deeply entrenched & committed to finishing the list. I did a little CTRL+F, and I looked for Mariah Carey, because I kinda figured she’d have to have one, and I fully expected it to be Daydream. Instead, it was this album, and that’s stuck with me – Daydream is the one with Fantasy, One Sweet Day, Always Be My Baby, and some of the other massive hits, and it’s the one that I would think of when noting her presence as one of the biggest artists of the 1990s. Mariah herself has apparently called THIS album her magnum opus, which surprises me. The only track I knew off of this album was the title track, Butterfly, which is a seminal 90s ballad as far as I’m concerned. Past that, though… nobody really talks about the other singles (or tracks) on this album. They don’t really come up in “best of” conversations, and even now, after listening, I’m still a bit baffled about why Daydream wasn’t the pick here.

Granted, I’m only baffled because I’m a sucker for pure pop, and this is not quite pure pop – this is pop with far more of an R&B/hip-hop blend, and when it hits, it REALLY fucking hits. There are some great tracks on this album, and I can’t say I ever really disliked any of them. It hits 12 for 12 in terms of like, enjoyability & easy listening, which is what I would expect from a Mariah Carey album. On that count, this album was probably always bound to get at least a 4 from me. However, I do think this suffers from not feeling as timeless as it could be – this production is heavily stuck in 1997, and while it might work for something seminal like Jagged Little Pill, it doesn’t quite work as well here when Mariah just has other songs that actively ARE timeless.

That lack of “timelessness” links up to her vocals as well – besides Butterfly (which is again, all-timer as far as I’m concerned) and a few other tracks, I find her to be a bit… “breathy” on this album. Granted, who the fuck am I to critique Mariah Carey’s vocals, but I only say she’s “breathy” in the sense that so many of the choruses & bridges, which have great lyrics, tend to be buried by the production, instrumentals, and her own backing vocals – just enough to make her main vocals, normally a bit more potent & present in the mix on her biggest hits, feel a little lost in the shuffle, and it stops them from having the same impact that they could.

The other thing knocking this album down for me is in how many of the tracks here are indeed big bombastic 4 to 5 minute long Celine Dion-esque ballads – Walter Afanasieff, one of the producers of this album, may as well be the Jack Antonoff of the 80s & 90s. Just look at the guy’s work. He is immensely prolific for Mariah’s career, and some of my favorite songs ever by her are steeped in his production. However, I do think Walter sort of stumbles here – I think he let Mariah get a bit self-indulgent around the middle of the album, where so, so many of the songs settle into a “first or second minute is the whole track” sort of phase that slowly becomes a bit tiring to listen to, no matter how great Mariah’s vocals are on those tracks. The same thing rings true with the Prince cover – it’s a great cover, but it’s an absolute momentum stopper on the album for me, because it’s just so tonally different from what surrounds it, and at 7 minutes, it really sucks the air out of the room, and stops “Outside” from truly hitting as the great album closer that it is.

All of that said, it’s still Mariah Carey in the 90s, and I’m still a sucker for a lot of this album’s quirks, which is why I’m still at a 4.5 bumped down to a 4 – for as much as I ripped into this album hitting a “most of the tracks feel kinda similar” point, there’s something about them in the moment, where you’re just absolutely stuck in a zen state, mesmerized for a while about how someone can sound THIS goddamn good, with some pretty strong lyrics, where none of those complaints I had truly matter. It’s only when this album escapes that zen state (usually mid-track) where it starts to fall apart a bit, but I was in the zen state for most of the tracks for a long, long while there.

I can hear every other female pop star of the mid to late 90s throughout this album, but there’s a few obvious influences in particular – “Fourth of July” feels a lot like a Janet Jackson track, and “Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)” is remarkably similar to “Together Again”, even though Janet’s album came out after this one. There’s a bit of Celine Dion, obviously, but I’m surprised at how much of this album feels like Whitney Houston’s late 90s / early 2000s stuff; “Breakdown”, “Baby Doll” & “Close My Eyes” in particular struck me as very Whitney-esque, which makes it even more criminal she doesn’t have a damn album on this list. Truly insane to me.

Realistically, I’ve almost talked myself back up into a 5, but trust me; I can understand why people might give this a 3, a 2, or even a 1. It’s a bit self-indulgent at times, Mariah’s not as captivating as she could be, and its production, for as good as I think it is, feels remarkably dated 28 years later, which sticks out compared to her bigger hits. Honestly, though, there’s not a single bad individual track here as far as I’m concerned, just an album experience that collapses a bit under its own weight and ambition. It is a style & and a time period that I’m just an absolute sucker for – this is directly right at that 4.5 line for me, but this does have enough little flaws that build up over time to the point where I have to bump it down to a 4 on a first listen, but if it ever clicks better on another day, I’m shooting straight up to a 5. I totally recommend it regardless -- it is unabashedly my style, and I won't apologize for that.

It still probably should’ve been Daydream, though. (P.S., shoutout to the Mobb Deep sample on "The Roof". Sick, sick sample flip.)

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

It’s a good album – certainly a much better one than “Brutal Youth” was for me, and for a while, I was at a 5. However, I think the album does sort of stagnate to the point where even though the individual tracks are good, it does become… not “boring” per se, but there is an impatience & a desire for something that feels different, which slowly grew for me to the point where all the nitpicks started to add up, and the entire album suffered because of it.

I do like every single track here; there’s not a bad one at all, and for the most part, I think there’s a strong harmony between the lyrics, vocals, and instrumental, even if it’s occasionally skewed to be a bit cheesy in one of those 3 aspects. However, my ear became especially attentive towards the general structure of each track, and that’s where the impatience grew – Elvis Costello’s criminal sin on this album is that every single track, for the most part, has the exact same structure, down to the outro. Verse / Chorus / Verse / Chorus / Verse / Outro (with one repeating line for about 30-45 seconds). At some point, my attentive ears couldn’t ignore it, and it just became the thing I noticed on every track.

Does that mean it’s a bad structure? No, not at all – realistically, almost every modern pop / rock song has this sort of structure. It’s all about how you disguise it & make it sound entertaining, and for as good as the instrumental/vocals/lyrics are on this album, I don’t think it’s disguised enough, nor is it quite entertaining enough (i.e., full harmony of the 3) in a way that keeps each track as fresh as it could be, hence my slow, boiling impatience for something different, because I gave it a lot of leeway before it finally bit at me.

With that said, the album is still remarkably good, and honestly, I wish I could leave it at a 4.5, because I don’t think the repetitive structure is *that* big of a boon on the album. It is, however, enough to stop me from giving this a full 5. I’ll still give it a lot of praise – for 1977, this does feel like a great showcase of both the past and what was to come in the 80s & arguably the 90s; I hear a lot of Rob Thomas in Elvis Costello, and Matchbox 20’s general soundscape is something I’ve been waiting for throughout this entire stretch. This album did get remarkably close to that, in a 70s form, and I think it does a great job of making hybrids between rock / pop & everything inbetween, even though I do wish it leaned a bit more into the full blown rock side of it. I liked this a lot – if it weren’t for the structure thing, I’d be at a 5, but it’s just too prevalent an issue for me to ignore, hence the 4. A very very good 4, though.

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

I haven’t heard of Sonic Youth until today, so I had literally no expectations going into this one. I was just sort of hoping it would be good 90s indie rock, and I think it succeeds at that. However, I also think this album just doesn’t commit hard enough to the sound it’s trying to go for, and when it does fully commit, it overcommits to the point of near-parody (pointing directly at the wall of sound on “On the Strip” that would make Phil Spector rise from the depths of hell if it could). In a sense, this is pretty good indie rock, but it’s also trying to be grunge, punk, & straight rock all at once, and it cannot decide on a clear cut universal sound throughout the album.

It’s not bad at all though, & they’re pretty proficient at all the styles they try, and that’s mainly why I’m at a 4 – for as indecisive as these guys are about their style, the tracks, for the most part, still shine through to have at least one good moment, even on the flatter tracks. The only one I really, really hated was “Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit”, and even that has a pretty good guitar solo around the 2:31 mark in that track. This album shines at its best when the band does know what it wants to do, and keeps a consistent tone for a few tracks, probably best exemplified by the stretch of “Theresa’s Sound-World” to “Youth Against Fascism” (again, save for “Orange Rolls”). The album sort of falls down after that, save for the excellent “Chapel Hill”, but it never really got boring.

For a first impression of Sonic Youth, I’m left… not underwhelmed, but I feel like I’ve gotten a good appetizer that isn’t cooked as well as it usually is. I hear the potential these guys have, and I do want to check out another album from them. They’ve probably got better stuff, and even then, I thought this was still good. Not overwhelmingly great, but I enjoyed a lot of the instrumentation, vocals, and lyricism here to the point where I feel good bumping it up to a 4. You can’t hit on every track, but if you can hit on over half of your tracks, while still providing some good moments on those flatter tracks, then you’ve still made a pretty strong album.

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

From the album cover, I sort of assumed we’d get country music, and I was dead wrong – this is psychedelic rock, recorded seemingly live, and as such, I think there was a slight collective PTSD from that endlessly long and rather drab Grateful Dead album we got a while ago. Not a bad album, mind you, but a really fucking boring one. It did not help that the first 6 tracks of this are a 25 minute setpiece riffing on one track.

Thank the good lord above that these guys know how to make 25 minutes actually sound captivating – I actually really, really enjoyed the opening suite that starts this album. It is just one long extended riff on a track, and therefore, maybe the longest cover I’ve ever heard, but they do a great job of keeping it fresh. It certainly helps that each little changeup is its own track here, to keep those changes really obvious, and to stop it from *feeling* like a 25 minute slog. Each individual segment does have its own vibe, and I really, really enjoyed “When You Love” in particular, just for being totally eerie as hell, especially when the audience noises come in.

Mona is fine. It’s sort of Hendrix-y, but a bit too lowkey, without being fully in harmony, & it doesn’t really get its own conclusion, which threw me off. It is part of another 3-track set though, and Mona’s shortcomings are quickly resolved by both “Maiden of the Cancer Moon” & “Calvary”, which both really clicked for me. The former feels very Hendrix-y, even with how short it is – it finds the harmonization between everyone and the energy that “Mona” doesn’t. Calvary is a remarkably strong 13-minute track that has a really nice, building, swirling structure reminiscent of Western movies and militaristic soundscapes, before sort of settling into a more serene & ethereal tone for its final 5 minutes – a calm after the storm, if you will.

I would’ve ended the album there, mainly because the Happy Trails cover falls flat on its face as a final track after all that, but regardless… I dunno, I really enjoyed this. This is, at its very basic core, just 50 minutes of a jam session, but it does feel infinitely better than that Grateful Dead album that we all had a bit of an ick towards, and I’m just glad they’re flexing their technical chops in a more fulfilling way that doesn’t feel self-serving and pretentiously artsy. It’s probably no less than a 3 – I think the people giving this a 1 or a 2 on the site either have no patience for these sorts of albums, or they just really did not pay enough attention to care about the little details that I found captivating. Realistically, it’s definitely not a flat 5, since it does have a little bit too much empty air at times, but I feel no shame in giving it the bump; I liked it a lot, and for 1969, I think this is about as good as you can ask for in terms of “50 minute jam session” albums.

I’m at a 5.

It was well worth the 387-day break between “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and this album; these are the only two Elton John albums on the list, and I feel like I need to listen to the man’s whole discography after this one. This is not as fun (and thankfully not as long) as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t feel as impactful in some fashion.

Tiny Dancer is the obvious standout here, but I’ve never heard the rest of the songs on this album – I loved almost every single one of them, save for “Goodbye”, which, while haunting & a good track, feels TOO depressingly sad as the closer, even for an album that’s generally steeped in sad-ish songs. What strikes me the most about this album is how not poppy it is; I wrote this down while listening to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (though I didn’t include it on the website at the time), but whenever I think of Elton John, I’m expecting a bunch of songs similar to stuff like I’m Still Standing or Don’t Go Breaking My Heart; the big poppy hits that he’s kind of nestled into for the last decade, at least whenever he does collaborations. That diminishes what kind of artist Elton John is though, and I think this album proves that at a higher level than Goodbye Yellow Brick Road did, in terms of the general emotional impact relative to each song.

Granted, that’s a whole year of “only remembering the stuff I really, really liked off of that album” striking my brain, but GYBR (does anyone type this??) is a relatively upbeat album compared to this one; this is where Bernie Taupin & Elton John get to flex their storytelling ability, whether it’s in Taupin’s lyrics, or Elton’s vocals, or in the orchestration that gives each song a cinematic flourish that I’m just a sucker for. I’d be remiss to not acknowledge the problematic nature of “Indian Sunset”, which I find to honestly be the biggest & brightest example of that cinematic flair, arguably moreso than Tiny Dancer for me. Inherently, the biggest red flag in the song is the use of the term “red man” in referring to the Native Americans, but the other red flag is simply letting two white British men decide to write a song with historical inaccuracies & stereotypes about the Oklahoma Territory, the Trail of Tears, and that general time period. With that said, I can’t help but feel like the two truly had the best of intentions when writing the track, and I think the general feel of the imagery & the story they’re trying to tell via the vocals & orchestration creates the emotional impact they’re going for, and hopefully gets the point across of “hey, the colonization and everything really fucking sucked, actually”.

Ultimately, I think it’s just a fabulous album, and picking between this and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is a coin flip – they’re both doing different things, and I can’t truly compare them directly to each other. It should come as no surprise that this is a 5 – I’m really sad that there’s not more Elton John on the list, but hopefully he’ll have a surprise feature or two somewhere along the next… oh, 607 or so albums. Surely, there’s at least one? Either way, I owe it to myself to listen to the rest of his 70s stuff at the very least.

I’m at a 4 – more of a 3.5 that’s getting bumped up to a 4, but a 4 nonetheless.

Right from the opening percussion (which was 100% stolen by Jet when they did “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”), this album takes off and (for the most part) keeps stepping on the gas, except to ogle at some teenagers here and there. By far, those are the most awkward parts of the album, and stop it from approaching a 5 at all. When Iggy Pop (produced by David Bowie, who does an excellent job) isn’t drooling over sixteen year olds, the album usually hits a lot more than it misses, though the tank gets a little close to empty a few times. Warning lights, at least.

This is punk music, with a bit of a poppier lean, and it’s the type of punk music I think I prefer – this is an interesting case study to get this & the Ramones back to back. I bounced off of the Ramones with a perceived feeling of “isn’t this just Blitzkrieg Bop 14 times”, and less admiration because the lyrics felt like an afterthought. Granted, that’s incredibly oversimplifying it, but I stand by my thought that the album wasn’t a very exciting experience for my over attentive ears. This, on the other hand, won me over despite sharing a lot of similar structural qualities from a musical standpoint. It won me over a bit more just because I think the tracks have a much better variance in styles, and the lyricism (when it’s not pedophilic-ish) just paints bigger, bolder pictures for my brain that really make each track feel important. Even when it’s broad, there’s something that feels kind of captivating – for example, what IS the sin in “Some Weird Sin”? Why does “The Passenger” choose to stay under glass, and why does he feel like he can claim all of the things he sees without ever truly interacting with it? Who IS the “Neighborhood Threat”? It’s not actually building up to some big climax, sure, but it just gives my brain more to think about & digest & truly interact with, and I appreciate that style.

Granted, it’s far from perfect – I do think a few tracks go a bit long to the point of repetition (the last track in particular is beyond guilty of this, could’ve ended 2:34 in), and even I can only pull so much from my imagination to enhance some of these tracks. “Turn Blue” in particular didn’t earn that big bombastic ending it tried to give itself, even though I liked the track. It’s not a great album, hence the 3.5, but I enjoyed it enough (& I got really into the instrumentation on a few tracks) to the point where I think I’m justified in bumping it up to a 4. It could go down in the future, but this just clicked for me on a first listen.

P.S.: I couldn’t figure out where to slide this in, so I’ll just say that I think this album uses the intensity of the percussion in a way that reminds me a lot of Daft Punk, and it’s partially what stopped a lot of the tracks from feeling too stale over time – simple production trick, but extremely effective when done the right way. If it weren’t for that, and other little Bowie-adjacent touches that keep the tracks fresh, I’d probably just be at a 3. Still, I feel good with the 4.

I’m at a 3.

I didn’t hate the album, but… man, that felt disappointing compared to expectations. I like the lyrics, I like the instrumentals, I like the vocals, and I even appreciate what the album is going for with this whole “simplistic songs” thing to counteract the bloat of heavy ballads and bombastic songs at the time. In a way, it’s sort of a general rejection of the idea that music can or should feel so important, and for something that some people list as “the first punk rock record”, I can kinda hear it, and why it was appealing then. Hell, it’s arguably appealing now, but…

…it just didn’t click for me. I think that, even though this album is clearly polished to make their intentions clear, the intentions themselves aren’t as executed as well or as impactfully as they could be. While I was listening, I wrote down the thought “I wonder if you could mashup Blitzkrieg Bop to all the instrumentals on this album and get away with it”. If I can say that, it means you haven’t introduced enough variance or musicality to the project at all, and I know that for some people, this being a “every track is the same” album is appealing. The thing is, I’ve heard other “every track is the same” albums, and they know how to keep something fresh to make them still feel entertaining. Look at Highway to Hell – that’s probably the prime example of an “every track is the same” album, but it’s ridiculously entertaining throughout.

There are things that keep this close to a 4 – the lyricism, when they bother to try and not just give up after writing a chorus and a 2-line verse, tends to be pretty good. There are occasionally some really cool percussion / guitar shifts, and as a whole, at least it’s only 30 minutes of this, and the tempo keeps it up from ever being dreadfully boring. However, it's just enough to go past a 3 for me. It’s really not a bad album, and maybe I’m just bouncing off of it because I’m a little too attentive (or not in the mood for it), but ultimately, it’s just not any higher than a 3 for a first listen -- it could go up higher in the future.

I’m at a 10, and I think I’m learning that I’m actually really into metal.

I’ve heard of Judas Priest – I sort of knew their place in the heavy metal canon, but I’ve never *heard* Judas Priest. We’re 10 years after Black Sabbath dropped their debut, so heavy metal was already well established by this point. This is also 6 albums deep into their own discography, so while I was expecting this to be really refined and really good, I still wasn’t really prepared for just how much this feels like *the* precursor to 1980s heavy metal, and specifically, the sound Metallica would refine even further. This feels a lot like a Metallica album, but with just enough of the late 70s present to keep it sort of unique. Didn’t stop me from comparing it to a lot of 90s bands, though.

The album just kicks ass, dude. I don’t even want to be super flowery about it – from the opening riffs of the guitar, and the power in Rob Halford’s voice, the album immediately shoots out of a cannon and never looks back. Honestly, though, what struck me the most about the first track, and really set the tone for the rest of the album, is just how fucking good the percussion is. It’s deeply crucial to making each track work, and every single time a fill cuts through the power of the guitar and his vocals, it’s immediately striking & powerful. I could go on an aside about Dave Holland being convicted of sexual abuse in 2002, but that’s the sort of thing that doesn’t drag down the quality of the music, just my opinion on the asshole.

I’m just kinda stunned, really – I thought of several bands & artists while listening to this: Metallica, Crush 40, AC/DC, Chicago, Boston, Men Without Hats (somehow), Capcom’s sound team (You Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise is just Storm Eagle’s theme), the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police, Phil Collins (the percussion on Steeler has that same effect from In The Air Tonight), and more. All of it is there, and it’s baked right into 36 minutes of some of the slickest heavy metal I’ve heard yet. It just fucking ruled, and I was encapsulated into every second. Eventually, some of the allure will wear off, and I’ll pick apart some of the more repetitive parts of the album, or how the lyricism isn’t as tight as it could be on some of the songs… but right now, I could fucking care less. It’s a kick-ass album, and it just clicked perfectly for me. Definitely worth a 10.

Oh, oh, I do have one thing – I would’ve flipped “Steeler” & “The Rage”. “The Rage” is a way better closer; imagine if the ending of Steeler just kept going and transitioned. That shit would’ve been sick. That’s the only thing I got. Still a 10.

I’m at a 5.

The first time I ever heard the Beatles as a kid was from a little jukebox toy – you can look this up, just Google “Golden Oldies Jukebox Coin Bank” or something like that, it’ll pop up. One of the songs there was Can’t Buy Me Love – it only played the chorus, out of a really crappy speaker, and yet it was the song I always gravitated to. When it wasn’t that song, I’d just keep pushing the button until I heard Can’t Buy Me Love again.

I suppose it’s only right that the song is on this album, then. I already had it in my big playlist, but I just wanted to tell that story. How about the rest of it then? Obviously, “A Hard Day’s Night” might start with the single most memorable guitar hit ever, but the rest of the tracks here are… pretty good, for the most part. This is obviously not the Beatles at their peak; this feels more like say, some of the solo albums Michael Jackson released before Off the Wall sent him into the stratosphere & Thriller sent him into another plane of existence. It’s a little more raw, a little less defined, and still within the growing pains of it all, throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and what doesn’t. I do think the DNA of a lot of their future monstrous success is on this album, though, and it certainly helps that this was a gigantic hit in its own right. You don’t get the rest of Beatlemania without starting here, and you certainly don’t get it without the rest of the tracks living up to the weight of the two biggest ones on this album, and I really think they did, even if they’re not quite as good.

“I Should Have Known Better” has some solid harmonization & lyrics, and the harmonica feels super rare for a Beatles track. “If I Fell” has a really cool Bossa Nova vibe, even if the vocals do drown it out just a bit. “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You” has a really nice percussive pattern that evokes The Beach Boys. “And I Love Her” is an absolute standout – the Spanish guitar adds so much. “Tell Me Why” is the most 50s sounding track on the album, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing; I really liked the big band / nightclub feel of it all. “Any Time At All” has a really nice grit to John’s voice that makes it stand out, even though it feels pretty instrumentally close to say, The Byrds or other contemporaries. “I’ll Cry Instead” has a lot of obvious influence from Bob Dylan, but it’s got a really nice melody and a good tone in the vocals. “Things We Said Today” has great lyricism, even if it’s slightly repetitive, and it’s just a super catchy track. “When I Get Home” has a lot of the DNA that would later be present on Paul’s solo stuff with Wings, even though John’s got lead vocals on it. “You Can’t Do That” is a really bouncy track with some great harmonization & backing vocals. “I’ll Be Back”’s acoustically driven soundscape, as well as their harmonizing vocals blend really, really well, and I think it’s a really nice closer.

I’m not at a 10 like I was with Abbey Road & The White Album – it’s not as good as those albums, and I’m sure most people would agree with that. However, what’s here is still fun, and I can totally understand why The Beatles blew up before & especially so after this. It’s pretty damn good rock & roll, and it shifted the blueprint for everybody for the rest of the 60s. They became the bar for success, and they set the tone for what to strive for musically. I’m not saying everyone tried to be the Beatles, but everyone had to be a little more Beatle-y, across all genres. I’m just glad it’s a short one – I don’t know that I could handle another 90 minute masterclass from these guys, so I’ll take 30 minutes of “pretty damn good” as the alternative. It’s an easy 5 for me.

Still several more to go from these guys.

I’m at a 4.

Wikipedia lists this as “psychedelic folk,” and I can’t say I find that description too accurate. It doesn’t feel as psychedelic as other 60s acts we’ve gotten, and I hesitate to call it “folk”, because it doesn’t really feel that close to acts like Simon & Garfunkel, or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I can’t really place a specific genre on this either; I guess my best attempt would be “ambient pop”, and certainly with a sad bend.

It really does jump around between genres though – a bit of reggae influence, some straight jazz, some solid folk stylings with a bit of a rock lean, and oddly, some elevator music (that vibraphone’s really present throughout this thing). However, it never really strays away from the “ambient pop” feeling I described – a lot of these tracks are anchored in finding a rhythm, sticking to it, and expanding when necessary. It’s a formula that only works because the ambience is captured so well, and complemented further by his vocals. His voice has a strong power to it, and while his held notes do start to feel long and repetitive over time, when it works, it really worked for me.

The biggest knock I have on this album is that it’s too long for what it offers, and that the tracks don’t do enough evolving to justify some of the longer run times – Gypsy Woman is the key offender here. You wanna make that track 12 minutes long? Fine, as long as you can actively expand it in a better way than the sort of lackluster “give / take” approach, especially when it’s taking a lot more instrumentation away compared to what it’s giving back. Past that, I do think the album, for as much as it jumps around in terms of genres and influences, simply has a problem with pacing – Dream Letter is the third slower song in a row after the opening track, and even though I think its lyricism is stellar, it just hits less because it’s the last track of a 21 minute stretch of slower songs.

Those pacing issues, and the length of the album are why I’m at a 4 – it’s a great set of tracks, don’t get me wrong, but as a full front to back album, the progression isn’t as satisfying as it could be, and so it makes the 44 minutes feel slower than they should. If you listen to this and find it boring, I understand that too; maybe I was just in the mood for some slower and more relaxed stuff, so this hit really nicely for me. I do like this album, and I’m glad it’s on the list. I don’t think it should have a 2.78 average – it’s not that bad, but it doesn’t fully succeed at what it’s going for as a complete project. The moods are right, the lyricism is good, the instrumentals are fine; the ingredients are there, but the recipe feels incomplete. With a few tweaks, and a little more “fun’ sprinkled throughout (it’s a rather drab album, let’s be honest), I do think this could’ve gone up to a 5 for me. As it stands, though, it’s a 4; probably closer to a 3.5, but “Sing a Song for You” is an excellent closer that bumped me up to a flat 4.

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

Surprise, surprise – I like the 2000s indie rock band doing indie rock stuff, who would’ve thought? I’ve read the name “Yeah Yeah Yeahs” before, but I didn’t think I had heard them – obviously, “Maps” threw a big wrench into that one once it came up, but beyond that, I hadn’t heard the rest of the album. For 2003, this seems to be a bit of an innovator; to some degree, it feels like the birth of the indie rock style that would define the mid-2000s, specifically on the Arctic Monkeys side of the spectrum. It’s a sound I’m naturally drawn to, and so this album ended up being right down my alley, for the most part. Speaking of the production, apparently this was from one of the members of TV On The Radio – we got an album from them a while back, and I think this album does a really nice job of hitting the highs on the roller coaster than “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes” did, at least for me.

Karen O – what a voice. I wasn’t expecting a female vocalist going into this, but her energy & vocals are what elevates this album up for me. Don’t get me wrong, I fucking love the instrumentation on a lot of these tracks – there’s a variance in styles across the board, evoking everything from the White Stripes to the Arctic Monkeys to Linkin Park & Blink-182. It never ever gets boring, but the album does eventually get a little stale in terms of the “hey, listen to this sick-ass guitar solo & our kickass drummer” production. Her vocals are what keep the album floating well above water, and she’s got a stellar range – she can switch from softer to raspier & grittier on a dime, and she does a great job of pulling the most emotion out of both the lyrics & the instrumentation.

If I have any knocks, it’s that for as much as the instrumentation/vocals rock, the lyrics are a bit of an afterthought, and it’s sort of a shame that it never really comes together as one big coherent package (save for “Maps”), but they’re all still good enough to work in a strong enough harmony, and it never takes the album that far down for me. Granted, it’s enough to take it down to a 4.5, but that 4.5 is moreso driven by the fact that this does have a little bit of that early 2000s “PS2 sports game menu” stink to it. It’s not overwhelmingly there, like how I felt with Apocalypse Dudes (which I really feel like I should revisit, I dunno), but it’s got one.

However, it’s definitely good enough to overcome that – the album is just a really fun ball of energy that definitely felt ahead of schedule for 2003, and probably set a lot of subsequent indie rock (or just mainstream rock, even) into motion. I really liked it – it’s a super fast 37 minutes, and while it has its flaws, it’s super enjoyable, & it’s just easy to get lost in each track and headbang your heart out. I’m glad it’s on the list, and I’m glad I can finally put a name to that damn TikTok sound that I’ve heard for months on end. No shame in bumping it up to a 5 – certainly a 4 at worst (or a 3 if you got really bugged by the production).

I’m at a 4.5 – I’ll have to talk my brain one way or the other.

This is my first time listening to In Utero in full – much like Nevermind, I knew the bigger hits, but everything in between was a mystery to me. Granted, some of it was on the MTV Unplugged album we got around 350 days ago, but it’s been a while, you know? When I finished Nevermind, I thought I had a real sense of clarity about the hype behind Nirvana, and specifically, what Kurt Cobain really and truly meant to a rabid generation waiting for their sort of musical messiah that would inspire people and lead a counterculture revolution of sorts. Obviously, I’m exaggerating a bit, but from the way he’s still held up as this sort of mythical figure in the 27 Club and all that, it’s hard to not perceive him as something at least close to that.

In a way, I’m very glad that this album is all about trying to deconstruct that image as much as possible – this is not the radio friendly unit shifter that Nevermind was. This is Nirvana, as a group, led by Kurt Cobain (but not defined by him), openly rejecting the MTV-driven movement that made Nevermind a monster smash success. This is riding the wave of what grunge would soon become, and what would soon be picked up on by Alice in Chains, the Smashing Pumpkins, and others – fuck the refinement of it all & make something raw that speaks to the soul and comes from the heart. There’s not anything like Smells Like Teen Spirit or Something in The Way on here, and it’s honestly kind of welcome.

That’s not to say that the Nevermind style goes away; the tracks that do lean back into that style are fantastic, and the highlights of this album for me. However, this album still shines rather bright whenever it accepts its grungier, heavier, more gritty, and less polished sound. At its core, this is a raw album, and while Kurt Cobain’s lyrics tell the stories of each track, his presence feels less notable here than on Nevermind from a vocal perspective. Let me put it this way – imagine if Freddie Mercury just stopped belting, and just sort of… sang, without any of the showmanship that made him famous. It wouldn’t sound bad, but it would be noticed, and it would certainly feel different. That’s what Kurt does here – gone is the extreme polish, and in comes a man battered and wounded by the effects of global fame. Don’t get me wrong, his voice still has great standout moments, and his presence is unmistakably there, but it’s tinged with a combative tone, and that combative tone spread to the rest of the band, and arguably, to the rest of the genre following his suicide.

That’s all preamble about Kurt – what do I think of the actual attempt, musically, to shift away from Nevermind’s style and introduce a grittier, more “raw” Nirvana that would still sound fresh and innovative? Well, I’d say it worked – I really do like the unpolished feel of this album. Dave Grohl’s drumming is still fantastic, but the overall feel of each track is looser, more reminiscent of the garage punk bands that inspired Kurt in the 80s. “Serve the Servants” is a great opener, and the album doesn’t really slow down from there, though it falters a little – stuff like “Rape Me” and “Milk It” didn’t quite mesh well with my tastes but they’re still solid tracks. I bounced totally off of “Radio Friendly Unit Shifters” & “tourette’s”, though I didn’t hate them – just a little too out there for me, even for Nirvana.

Ultimately, while I don’t think it lends itself to the same knockout consistency of Nevermind, I also don’t think they wanted to achieve that at all. As far as how it translates into a full album, that’s where I’m stuck between a 4 and a 5, because I can’t really get a grasp on how much I liked the album for itself, and how much I liked it for the attempt to reclaim their own image. I don’t think it’s as good as Nevermind, but it’s still Nirvana, and some of my favorite songs from them (Heart-Shaped Box, Dumb, All Apologies) are on this album. I think, just based on the strength of those tracks (and most of the others), as well as the (mostly) successful attempt to disavow the idea of Kurt Cobain as a musical savior, that I’m gonna bump this up to a 5.

God bless Kurt, though, man. Gone too soon.

I’m at a 5.

My big confession is that I know the name LCD Soundsystem, but I’ve never heard them – I thought I had, but for years, I was confusing them with “009 Sound System”, aka the band (or guy?) with that one song that got overused to death on YouTube in 2009. Granted, I did think I had a sense of what LCD Soundsystem actually was, but, uh…

Boy, was I wrong. And, boy, was I glad to be wrong. I was expecting indie rock music, but I was sort of expecting the grungier side of it – it does eventually come into play on the last track for a bit, but for the most part, this is electronica indie rock, and it’s the type of electronica (and the type of rock) that I really fucking vibe with. Straight from “Get Innocuous!”, this album hit the ground running and never really slowed down for me. Granted, there are a few things I can point at – a few songs do settle into a rhythm when they could’ve kept building and expanding, and a few tracks got a little boring because of that. However, that “boredom” more so manifested itself into just falling out of the trance that most of the tracks put me into – James Murphy does a fantastic job of finding a rhythm, sticking to it, and pulling the most out of it that he can. Once he hits a wall, it’s a little easier to “wake up” from the trance, and that’s where the ‘boredom’ comes in, but it’s a boredom that’s still tinged with the anticipation of something new.

I’m sure someone will complain that this is 55 minutes, and that the soundscapes all blend together & meld together into one long, boring, plodding album, and if that’s the way your ears heard this, then I dunno, I guess I can’t blame you that much. It is an acquired taste to like this sort of thing, but for my money’s worth, I just can’t understand how this might be the electronica album that bounces off of someone. This isn’t Kraftwerk doing FL Studio loops for 10 minutes on Trans-Europe Express (and no shade to Kraftwerk, that’s just their most boring album to me – their influence on this album & electronica as a whole is felt here), this is blended really well with rock instrumentation that evokes everything from Talking Heads to DEVO to the Beastie Boys & Queen. As someone who went into this 1,001 albums thing turned off by really long tracks (and can still easily be turned off by them), I just think that even with most tracks on this album being over 6 minutes long, they’re all captivating in their own way, even if I bounced off of one or two.

Ultimately, I just thought this was great – far beyond what I was expecting it to be, but a very welcome surprise. I need to listen to the debut album whether it’s on the list or not, and that includes the ‘really should’ve been a major hint’ track of “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House,” which I’ve read the title of, but never made the connection for. As far as this album goes, it’s a 5, through and through – a really fast 55 minutes, and a really enjoyable listen.

I’m at a 10.

Going into this, I knew Highway to Hell (and who doesn’t, let’s be honest), but my knowledge of AC/DC, besides some of the obvious super hits (TNT, Back in Black, For Those About To Rock, You Shook Me All Night Long, Thunderstruck, Shoot to Thrill), is rather limited. I imagine that’s the case for most people, but I’ve always wanted to take a little bit of a deeper dive. I was definitely expecting that most songs were gonna be similar, but hopefully, they would kick ass.

They kicked ass, alright, and they blew me away in the process – normally, I might complain about repetition or whatever, but I’m willing to ignore it when the quality of every track is just that damn strong. It’s much easier to type about it when you’re in the flow state of listening to the album, but like… I dunno, I’ve never really felt more in sync with a band while listening to a rock album. I’ve hit similar states a handful of times (i.e. Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Bon Jovi, Led Zeppelin), but even then, this one felt different. Someone else may chalk that up to “well, it’s just Highway to Hell 10 times, of course you could predict it,” and maybe that’s true, to some degree. I just… it’s hard to put into words, but it felt sort of ethereal to me.

This is my first time listening to a lot of these tracks, and there’s some insane standouts here that are criminally underplayed on Spotify, even if every track on the album has 13 million plays – “Touch Too Much” is fantastic, as is “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)”, but I think the most underrated one here is “Beating Around the Bush”. It has the second lowest plays on the album, but I thought it fucking ruled, especially with the Ram Jam-style back & forth call/response structure. I’m just a sucker for that sort of thing. I’d love to keep waxing poetic, but I’d just be circling the bases with praise – it’s an unbelievable album, and while the appeal may wear off over time, I think a lot of these tracks are gonna hit like a truck when they come on in shuffle, and I’ll appreciate them all over again. For now, I’m at a 10, and I’ve got no shame in that.

I’m at a 5.

I normally harp on lyrics a bit – the lyrics on this album are pretty good, don’t get me wrong, but about halfway into this one, I kinda decided to just throw them out and let the soundscape and his vocals carry me the rest of the way. Thankfully, his voice is so clear that I got most of the lyrics anyway, but… man, this is a great sounding album, and the lyrics enhance it even further. For 1973, I’m struck by how modern this feels – obviously the mixing & the remasters help a bit, but in terms of structure & production, you could easily convince me this is an album from say, 2018, and I’d probably believe you if you gaslit me enough.

I dunno, I just really liked this – I’m reminded of everything from John Mayer (acoustic wise) to U2 (some of the production & structure) to Stevie Wonder (in terms of the backing synths to add a bit of flavor), and I’m sure there’s a world of other things I could point to, but I’m a little mesmerized by how much I enjoyed this to think of them all. This does, appropriately, feel like a more upbeat version of Nick Drake’s general style, and the first track being a tribute to him makes all the more sense. Past that, though, this is the sort of stuff I wish Nick Drake did do – take the songwriting talent and ability to pull the most of them with the vocals, and blend them with more contemporary instrumentation to create something that feels a bit beyond its years. I think this type of music fits right into my sensibilities, and I think it’s absolutely worth giving a 5.

I’m at a 4.

I mean, it’s definitely the best thing I’ve heard that has Morrissey singing lead vocals on it. Not the highest bar to clear, but not a particularly low one either. For a while, I was considering a 5, but I think “Barbarism Begins at Home” sort of rubbed me the wrong way with how much it leans into the “first minute is the whole song” syndrome without ever really getting that captivating. It wasn’t boring, at least. After that, “Meat is Murder” is like… it’s a good track, and its messaging makes sense & has a sort of gentle scolding approach I like, but it’s just a really heavy way to close out the album that I don’t think flows well with the general upbeat tempo on most of the tracks.

Don’t get me wrong, I know this album leans into a lot of cynical & nihilistic lyrics, but it covers and shadows them under some excellent production that stands up next to some of the greats of new wave / indie rock at the time. “Meat is Murder” is just really heavy overall, though I can’t blame them for making it the last track. Whoever’s gonna skip it because of the message would’ve skipped it no matter where it was in the track order, and it’s better to make the last one skippable than any of the others, I guess.

I really did like the rest of this album, though. “The Headmaster Ritual” is also kind of a heavy track lyrically, but the instrumental really, really makes it digestible with an R.E.M.-ish feel. I kind of bounced off of “Rusholme Ruffians”, but it’s a fun listen, at least. “I Want The One I Can’t Have” is REALLY good (or at the very least, the vocal structure is super catchy and appealed right to me).“What She Said” is fine & has a cool instrumental, but I don’t think Morrissey’s vocals are as strong as they could be. I loved the lyricism on “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”, but that long swirling section didn’t click for me as well as it could have – I do think it could’ve had a little more after the initial fake out ending from a lyrical standpoint. I listened to “How Soon Is Now?” even though it’s only on the US release, and… yeah, that’s just an awesome track. “Nowhere Fast” is fun, and a little goofy (the only time Morrissey has felt endearing to me in a while), but “Well I Wonder” might be the standout of the album – it perfectly captures a sort of innate human fear that’s usually hard to put into any kind of form, but they did it somehow.

So, yeah, there are a few too many flaws for my tastes to really go up to a 5, but it’s absolutely worth giving a 4. I liked it a lot, and I can only hope Morrissey’s slow descent into madness doesn’t get documented on the rest of The Smiths albums on the list. Fingers crossed.