Reviews by guggmo

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

Well, it feels like a natural followup to “Lost Souls”, as it retains a lot of the same cinematic feel to its instrumental structures. “Lost Souls”, however, thrived on the strength of its soundscapes to carry the overall tones of the album, all meant to capture different emotions in potent ways (even if most overlapped in subject matter). This album thrives a bit more on its overall energy, trading in somber ambient sound design for more traditional rock. This album slowly shifts from the shoegaze-adjacent tones of “Lost Souls” to something closer to Coldplay by the end, and while it’s a direction I don’t mind at all, it does occasionally feel like it’s losing something unique.

There’s something about the first 6 tracks that clicked a bit more than the last 6 for me (though I liked everything except for “Last Broadcast”), and I’m not exactly sure what it is. With headphones in, there was some extra wall of sound in the first half that kept things more unique in my brain, and some good heavy drops that I was able to ride the percussive wave with. It’s likely I just found more to nitpick about once “Satellites” was the most overly Coldplay-sounding track to that point, before becoming an unshakable comparison point by “Pounding”. I like both tracks, especially “Pounding”, but it’s impossible to ignore.

As far as why I’m at a 4.5 that’s bumping up to a 5 as opposed to something lower, I think this album retains something in its lyrics that just kinda clicked for me. A lot of these are more drab in their lyrics; insecure, paranoid, and all linked by a fear of losing something. It’s contrasted with the energy in the instrumentation, and something about the mixture of drab lyrics & fearful undertones with indie rock soundscapes that reminded me way more of the late 2000s (think a slightly more analog MGMT) just really worked for me.

I do think it’s an album that requires a healthy dose of attention to both; a lot of these are more broadly written than “Lost Souls” & a bit heavier on metaphors that are harder to catch, so comprehension of these tracks isn’t as digestible. Instrumentally, this has the same thing going for it that a lot of early 2000s albums did, which is hiding a lot of intricacies in the soundscape that would only be heard with great speakers or with headphones in. These aren’t mixed specifically for headphones, but they help. As a result, if you zone out a little too much, some tracks might just feel too same-y to the ears, and that applies to a lot of the album.

However, if you can get both, I’d say it’s a pretty rewarding album. Even if you don’t, or you don’t care enough to put the headphones in & give it some extra focus, it’s got enough of a natural flow that the floor is probably a 3 as a competent yet safe album. I do think “Lost Souls” is probably the better album, but if you’re looking for something a little more traditional branching off of it, this is the Doves album to go to. At its finest, it’s got some rather high highs (my favorites are “There Goes the Fear” & “Caught by the River”), and overall, with only one track I didn’t totally click with, I feel good about giving this a 4.5 bumped up to a 5.

It’s obviously a 10.

I mean, look, American Idiot is the more polished & more bombastic album. Their songwriting improved tenfold by then & their storytelling quite genuinely got made into a Broadway musical. If you want a pure injection of Green Day though, you gotta go right to this album. Hell, you only really need to go to “Basket Case” & “When I Come Around” if you want a minor hit, and until now, those were the only 2 songs I’d heard off of this album. Going in, I knew it would be good, and I was hoping it would be great. It ended up being fantastic. This is 38 minutes of angsty punk-pop that’s screaming out to the moody slackers & underachievers of the world that they’re seen, they’re heard, and they’re honestly just fine.

These are all so straightforward that the lyrics barely matter; yes, they help to set tones for each track, but you can pick up on what Billie’s singing. The thing that drives this album, by far, is the guitar work & the masterful drum work from Tre Cool. The bass is underrated as hell, for the record, and REALLY enhances all of these tracks (thank you Mike Dirnt), but… man, Tre Cool’s drumming is incredible here. He manages to control the pace of every single track & the push & pull of every line, and his ability to break out into a full fill on a whim gives this album the edge that made it so appealing to the Nirvana generation. Billie’s guitar work is great, obviously. The opening riff of “When I Come Around” gets me amped up every single time, and he’s got moments like that in spades throughout this album. It all comes together to make punk-pop perfection.

That’s really about it. If you get it, you get it. If you don’t, F.O.D. It’s one of the easiest 10’s I could possibly give here. Genuinely, a seminal album of the 1990s & one that’s more than deserving to be on the list. Thank goodness I finally heard it in full.

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

It took a little bit for this album to find its footing for me. I think “Assessment” is a solid track that shouldn’t have opened the album, as its first half just doesn’t feel like a good tonesetter for the entire thing, and its back half feels a bit jarringly energetic as a result. I think it should’ve gone after ““Space” feels a bit too abstract as a second track, and something about it just didn’t click for me, even with a solid atmosphere. As someone that liked “Hot Shots II”, I had a bit of fear that the lower rating here would be justified, as nothing in the first two tracks had really pulled me in quite the same way. However, much like “Hot Shots II”, this overcomes an awkward tonesetter & really comes into its own.

“Lion Thief” should’ve been the opener, as it showcases a lot of the genre-mixing versatility that defines this album. It starts with a normal guitar melody, before dropping into a bit of an ‘80s new wave tone (ala the Human League) blended with a baroque ‘60s guitar & a slight breakbeat. That combination manages to naturally fit together, and it’s complemented with the same sort of hypnotic psychedelic vocals that made “Hot Shots II” a compelling listen.

This album subsequently leads into a wider variety of genres that arguably makes it even better than “Hot Shots II”. “Easy” is practically just a Beck track. “Wonderful” captures the mood of a guy stuck in eternal longing with a really solid atmospheric loop. “Troubles” is very Beatles-y in its optimism. “Out-Side” feels like that one Elvis remix in the early 2000s with a slight Britpop lean. “Space Beatle” brings back the repetition of “Hot Shots II”, though with some extra melting involved in the soundscape (& a bassline that’s oddly reminiscent of “Sweet Child O’ Mine”). “Rhododendron” is practically a short ‘70s Eno track.

“Liquid Brain” is… jarring as hell with the vibe shift, but once you settle into its wall of sound & movie trailer energy, I think it’s just sonically interesting enough to work. It’s definitely the most out there track though. “Simple” is the most traditionally structured song on the album, with a very slight Oasis meets Sting vibe underneath it; it clicked for me well on account of some straightforward lyrics & well-paced percussion. “Pure For” is a really chill closer, mixing some trip-hop energy with an Elliott Smith-esque delivery about being grateful for love, no matter how briefly it was found.

Overall, I think it’s an album that you have to be in a specific mood for; the genre-blending here is done to emphasize a more relaxed vibe that’s meant to contrast with slightly more worried lyrics. The thematic link here is a desire to not lose what he’s gained; in other words, to not go from a hero to a zero. I think for this album to be at its most effective, you do have to have a bit of yearning in the brain. Even then, it’s an album that’ll manage to evoke that yearning if you give it just enough respect to do so. Those first two tracks are probably the reason that this is at a 2.9, as they just don’t set the right tone. However, if you get past them & really hear this out, I think it ends up being pretty good. Hence, for me, it’s a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5. I’m glad it’s on the list.

I’m at a 5.

The top review on the site makes a really hamfisted comparison; one that I loosely agree with, but feels diminishing all the same. In essence, I agree with the core: the heart behind this album comes in the honesty that underlines it & appealing to a community of people who have gone through these same ups & downs. If you can feel that communal sense in the lyrics or in the softness of the vocals & the overall instrumentation, you’ll probably find this to be a really well done album. However, I reject the idea that it has to be hard rock vs. this in an “available vs. artisanal” sense. Hard rock can speak as much to the soul as this does, they just attract different crowds. One shouldn’t negate the other.

The more apt comparison is comparing this album’s more genuine sense of self as being akin to a local coffee shop vs. a Starbucks. There are albums that try to appeal to these sensibilities, but without the same strong songwriting & the instrumental credibility that this album manages to maintain. You can trust your local coffee shop because you chose it, and it subconsciously speaks to who you are. It’s harder to trust a Starbucks in the same way. This album is the local coffee shop. I’m not sure what Starbucks is in this comparison, but it’s definitely not the Eagles.

A billion stupid metaphors aside, the actual music making up this album is really well done. Unlike “If You're Feeling Sinister”, which relied a bit more on its lyrics to carry the mood under the ‘lo-fi ska’ / shoegaze-y vibes of its instrumentals, this album feels significantly more traditional, with a wider variety of rock-influenced soundscapes (& a brief but cool detour to faux-80s synthpop in “Electronic Renaissance”). It’s still indie rock & pop at its core, but you can hear stuff that feels way closer to the contemporaries of the time, mixed with a lot of 60s/70s influence underneath. This album evokes everyone from the Beatles to Van Morrison to Hootie & The Blowfish, yet it still feels distinct all the same. Something about Stuart Murdoch’s calm delivery gives these tracks a sense of intimacy that strips back the bombast present in all of its influences & makes it feel more real. It helps that a lot of these tracks have named characters & smaller details in their lyrics, giving just enough for the imagination to fill out further. Combine that vividness & intimacy with soft yet energetic instrumentation throughout, and it all creates a super specific vibe that I can’t really capture in words. It’s just there. It’s that damn coffee shop that you keep going back to.

It’s an album made for the misfits of the world that don’t want to conform to expectations, for better or for worse, and it’s speaking to them with the same sense of weight as say, the Beatles talking about Eleanor Rigby. “Mary Jo” is pretty obviously inspired by it, to some degree, but there’s elements of that same weight throughout the album. I don’t want to get into the weeds of the lyricism, but the connecting thread that underlines these tracks is an overwhelming sense of disconnection. It’s disconnection from parents, from love, from classmates, from bandmates, from friends, from the future, from the past, & so much more. Every track has someone disconnected to something, & that applies to the lyrical/instrumental connection all the same, with a lot of sadder lines underlined by peppier guitar, bass & brass sections. It’s a strong enough thread that once you get the point of the album, it’s easy enough for the instrumentation to carry it, even if you get lost on what the lyrics are intending.

Overall, it’s just an album that really appeals to me, for both tangible & intangible reasons. It’s one that you just kinda have to ‘get’. At face value, it is a twee piece of lo-fi chamber pop with a ‘woe is me’ vibe, and if you can only see it that way, then it is what it is. If you can connect to it in that intangible way that appeals to your senses, you’ll end up enjoying it. I’ve enjoyed it to the point of a 5, and for my money’s worth, it’s a richer album than “If You’re Feeling Sinister”. There might be moments where tracks go slightly long or the lyrics get a bit open-ended, but as an entire package, it just pulled me in really nicely. I’m glad it’s on the list.

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

It’s just a fun album, really. Yeah, I wish some of these tracks had a bit more lyrical depth to them (especially in the back half of the album where they practically wrote half a track & then just doubled the runtime), but I can mostly forgive it due to the musicianship at hand here. Sting’s vocals are good, and his delivery manages to carry some relatively basic lyrics to a slightly elevated point. His bass work is really good too, and it occasionally steals the show on a few tracks. Andy Summers nails it on guitar, with a lot of his solos & lead melodies being easy to rock out to. Stewart Copeland’s drumming is fantastic throughout & it’s probably the special sauce to the entire album; every time he sets a tempo or does a quick fill, there’s just a natural lifting energy to it. It’s an album where musical style wins out a bit over lyrical substance, and while mileage will vary on just how strongly executed that musical style is (especially with Sting occasionally breaking out a rather awkward faux-Jamaican voice), I think it’s executed pretty well.

I have some minor complaints towards the album. “Deathwish” doesn’t lean enough into the sinister vibe of the lyrics, “Walking on the Moon” gets really repetitive in its back half, “The Bed’s Too Big Without You” loops its instrumental a bit much (somewhat befitting for an insomnia-based track), & “Contact” just doesn’t feel super satisfying once it hits its own point of repetition. Overall, they could’ve all done a little bit more to sell those tracks, but they’re still good, & enjoyable to listen to if you don’t mind it. I don't have anything for the rest of the album, with “Bring on the Night” & “It’s Alright for You” probably tied as my favorite ones here. The former just has a good pleading tone to it & the latter is goofy in a fun way & reminds me a little bit of Spyro at the end.

As a whole, I’d say it’s good. If you can let go & just take this album as the well-produced fun it’s trying to be, you’ll probably enjoy a good chunk of this. Is it better than “Synchronicity”? Honestly, probably. “Synchronicity” has the biggest hit in “Every Breath You Take”, but the rest of that album doesn’t carry the same consistency outside of its other big singles. This album, for whatever reason, just does (at least to my ears). Its minor complaints are enough to pull it down to a 4.5 for me, but I just had enough fun with this that I feel good bumping it up to a 5. I’m glad it’s on the list.

P.S.: Whenever we finish up, I’m considering adding Sting’s solo album, “Ten Summoner's Tales” to the user list. It’s got two of my favorite tracks in “Fields of Gold” & “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You”, it has a well-known track in “Shape of My Heart” (which Juice WRLD sampled years later), and to appeal directly to Mr. Dimery & his love for the Mercury Prize, it was nominated for the award in 1993. I genuinely think it’s a good album, and one of the best of Sting’s solo career, which isn’t represented at all here. It feels like one that could've made the original list. I’m vacillating between it & several other picks ("Face Value" by Phil Collins, "Yourself or Someone Like You" by Matchbox 20, the Jet Set Radio OST, "Songs About Jane" by Maroon 5, "Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded" by Rihanna, "Yours Truly" by Ariana Grande, "Horizons" by Surfaces, "An Evening with Silk Sonic", etc), but it's one of the frontrunners in my mind.

I’m above a 5. Not quite a 10, but that’s a damn good album regardless.

Going in, my hope was simply that the rest of the tracks would live up to the expectation set by “Black Hole Sun”, and outside of a few filler-y tracks, they all basically do. Honestly, there’s not that much to say as a result, at least in terms of insights that the rest of the world hasn’t already acknowledged a thousand times over. Chris Cornell’s voice feels like the epitome of pain here, channeling something that feels like an inflection point between Jeff Buckley & Eddie Vedder, letting his passion ride the waves of some fantastically heavy instrumentation. The guitar & drum work here is off the charts, managing to reach high peaks throughout this album. The drums are perhaps more subtle as the seasoning for the guitar, but when they want to go off, they fucking go off.

This is an album where lyrics play a huge part in fully comprehending the tracks, but they barely matter in terms of *feeling* these songs. The energy pouring out of everything here is what matters. With Chris’s varied delivery & some extra enunciation on the lines that matter most, it’s a perfect storm that keeps your attention on everything at the same time. When you feel this album out, it’s impossible to not get some sense of the struggle & tension that underlines this album. At the same time, it’s almost like a catharsis for whatever mirrored tension has been built up in your brain. If it’s in there, Chris is the messenger to try and get it out, and he does one hell of a job at it. Yes, this is dark, drearier, and a bit heavy, but it’s delivered with a desire to lighten that load for whoever’s listening. Take “Superunknown”; it’s a track about fighting back against the most negative aspects of self-doubt, with Chris’s longer held notes lifting out some of that tension. It’s positive reinforcement coated in a darker soundscape, and that ethos applies to a lot of the album. “Black Hole Sun” is the same thing, though with more of a defeatist attitude towards eliminating everything as a whole to start over & create a better world to live in. I suppose that’s his way of washing the rain away.

Overall, I think the only thing you could really knock on this album is that it’s a little bit long at 70 minutes. There’s a few overlapping tracks in terms of the subject matter, a few that go a bit long, and a few filler-y ones that don’t quite fit the tone of the rest of the album (looking specifically at “Spoonman”, which is good & “Half”, which is... there). That’s why I’m not at a full 10 here, but the highest highs of this album stand up with the Seattle-based grunge greats of the first half of the 1990s. It’s that damn good. It’s somewhere above a 5 for me, and I’m so very glad to have finally heard it. Rest in peace to Chris Cornell.

I’m at a 3.

I mean, I get why this has a 2.38 on the site. It’s a little undeserved, but I get it. It’s way too similar throughout because they only really have one set of drums to work with, & while they try to dress it up in compelling ways, they just don’t go far enough with dressing them up in more appealing ways. A lot of these tracks loosely feel like a set of demo tracks for SEGA games from this era, specifically, in the same range as Jet Set Radio or Persona. That’s my biggest compliment & my biggest complaint, because while they’re in the same range, they’re not at the same level of overall polish & memorability. This album was in DESPERATE need of more filled out soundscapes in the back, especially on its earliest tracks where the repetition has absolutely nothing covering it up. If you listen to a Jet Set Radio track (literally, any of them), there’s constant progression going on, due to a myriad of samples & brass hits & back beats to keep the snappy pacing going. This album hits some of that mark, but it doesn’t go far enough at all. It’s frustrating on a track like “Slum King”, where it’s just got NOTHING to avoid noticing the repetition, and where you can feel the potential had it just filled itself out with *something*.

That said, a lot of these tracks are totally, utterly fine, even if they just meet 50% of their potential for the most part. I’d say some of them even border on good, including “Crazy Love”, “You’re Mine” (though the pacing on both is absolutely fucked), “Strung Out”, “Rough Out Here”, “Hold on to Me”, & “Free My Mind”. Those 6 tracks all fill out the soundscapes a bit more, and with some compelling vocals helping them out, they’re pretty pleasing to my VGM-coded brain, as a lot of them would fit as solid backing tracks for fighting games or racing games in the early PS2 era. Granted, part of that is nostalgia speaking, but I really do think a lot of these tracks are fine at worst. They’re not very compelling as a result, but they would be a little more compelling if this album wasn’t a fucking eternity long. 72-ish minutes for 16 tracks isn’t too bad on paper, but far too many of them stagnant halfway in, or even earlier than that. Outside of the 6 I mentioned, I think this album could’ve easily been trimmed down much, much further. This album is nowhere near as snappy as it could be from section to section of each track, lingering way too long in the ears & becoming totally homogenous as a result.

Hence, a 3, but one that isn’t quite as godawful as the 2.38 would suggest on the site. If you don’t have the tolerance for it, that’s fair. If you don’t think it deserves to be on the list, I’d totally agree with you – there’s nothing that really stands out to me in that sense that makes it an essential listen before you die. I don’t know if THAT warrants the 2.38 on the site, but again, I get it. For me, it’s just too half-baked, and I’m frustrated that this has so much potential underneath it that it just won’t ever reach. My VGM brain has the tolerance for it, but as a full album, it’s just not there. It was probably better than “Smokers Delight”, at least. Same rating though; just a 3.

P.S.: To Mr. Dimery, even though you’ll likely never ever read this, I might’ve suggested putting in “In Person” by Sweet Female Attitude if you really wanted some representation of 2000 UK garage music. You’d have gotten some more ladies on the list, gotten some cred with the kids in the future for picking an album Pinkpantheress sampled & it would’ve been way shorter too. “Flowers” is at least a banger, which is more than this album had.

I’m at a 5.

I think I get Joy Division now, or at the very least, I get this album a bit more than I did “Unknown Pleasures”. This feels darker, but it also feels remarkably innovative for 1980. The musicianship involved in crafting soundscapes that compliment the repetition in the drums is hard to describe, but easy to feel throughout, especially with headphones in. It’s apparent from “Atrocity Exhibition”, which uses a literal drill or chainsaw or something to comprise the unsettling backing soundscape. The drums stay consistent, but they melt into that eeriness, acting as more of a heartbeat or pulse that defines the tension underlying the track. If you train your ears to focus too much on the drums throughout this album, you’ll probably find them too bothersome. Just don’t do it. Let everything else surrounding the drums guide the way, including the bass, the guitars, the synths, & surprisingly, Ian Curtis’s monotone vocals.

I felt like Ian’s voice didn’t play well against the musicianship on “Unknown Pleasures”, solely because he was practically fighting against some rich & captivating soundscapes. He wasn’t complementing much there, and it just made the album suffer a bit for it, with his voice taking too much attention away from everything else. With this album, his monotony acts as a strong foil to tempos that seem to be defined by external panic, striking me as someone moving too fast to fully cope with & internalize the struggles present in the lyrics. Yes, his suicide before this album’s release paints a lot of this album’s lyrics in a far darker tone in hindsight, but I think it’s still possible to feel some of their weight without knowing about it. Overall, with the drearier tones of this album’s lyrics & vocals contrasting with a slightly higher & slightly brighter energy in the soundscapes, Ian feels like a natural positive here.

That higher & brighter energy comes from instrumentally leaning a bit more into the new wave tones that would define New Order. You can hear it throughout, but it’s especially apparent on “Isolation”, “Twenty Four Hours” & “The Eternal”. “Twenty Four Hours” sticks out as a highlight to me, if only because the 2002-ish garage rock tones being met with Ian’s drab vocals really leans into that “fast life vs. panic & internalization” that made this album work for me. “The Eternal” is another highlight, if only because the synthwork there feels way ahead of pace for 1980, in a proto trip-hop kind of way.

Ultimately, I liked everything here. I totally get it if the repetition is too much to handle or if Ian’s vocals are still far too abrasively monotone to get something out of this, as I do think this album relies a little heavily on its lyrics. If you don’t want to hear the dreary cynicism present throughout, you probably just won’t like this at all. The ceiling is a 3 under those circumstances. If you can handle everything I mentioned though, I think there’s something here for you. To me, it feels like something unique bridging post-punk & new wave, and it’s a bridge that makes me feel like I get Joy Division a lot more now. I probably need to relisten to “Unknown Pleasures”, honestly. As it stands, this is a strong 45 minutes, a pretty easy 5 for me, and I’m glad it’s on the list.

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

I mean, yeah, it’s probably the “worst” Radiohead album we’ve gotten on the list, in terms of track-to-track coherence & flow. I need to desperately relisten to “OK Computer” with a more refined ear to give it the 5 or higher it probably deserves in retrospect, but it probably had a better flow than this does. The thing is though, even the “worst” Radiohead album is still a damn Radiohead album. You know it’s going to be good, at the very least. This doesn’t reach the same exceedingly high highs as “Kid A” or “In Rainbows”, but I think it’s still good. It’s an album that honestly feels just as relevant in the throes of the current Trump administration as it did during the onset of the Iraq War in 2003. Yes, Thom Yorke & friends have hypocritically gone a bit too silent on a certain ongoing genocide as of late (especially ironic given “Sit Down. Stand Up.” was written based on the 1994 Rwandan genocide), but their stupidity on one issue does not diminish their strength towards the issues they tackle on this album, at least for me. However, I totally get it if this album’s statements have become diminished, & if this feels like a retrospective pile of fully hypocritical trite to anyone else.

Musically, we’re somewhere between “Kid A” & “In Rainbows”, as it should be – lots of minimalist synth work contrasted with somewhat maximalist real instrumentation, with a welcome return to guitars, drums, piano & more. The mixture sounds good, and there’s some real standout moments in the production throughout. Vocally… yeah, it’s Thom Yorke. You know what to expect, and he nails it, especially with the depth on some of his more forceful lines & some of his higher falsettos. Lyrically, this is pretty sharply written, touching on a lot of the issues people had in 2003 with shattering faith over what constitutes ‘good’, the warmongering of George W. Bush's administration & a generalized perspective on the military industrial complex as a whole. However, I just think it’s a bit more abstract than it should’ve been for an attempt at a politically biting album. It’s easy to cut through the subtext here, especially with that title, but sometimes, you just gotta call a spade a spade.

“Sail to the Moon”, for example, is a track about drinking the hope-filled Kool-Aid after the collective spirit spurred on by the moon landing & subsequently losing all faith, yet pleading to someone (apparently his son) to be the leader who can restore it. I think it’s a really nice track, but a lot of the album doesn’t really play as straightforward as that one. They take a little more to comprehend (especially on something like “Myxomatosis”), and while I think I got most of them, I shouldn’t have to be thinking this much to get the lyrics for an album trying to make a statement. That said, getting these tracks did elevate them for me.

The biggest issue, of course, is the slight bloat & flow of the album; Radiohead themselves have said they’d cut some tracks here & that it’s one of their weaker albums, and I would agree with the former, at the very least. I’m not sure exactly what to cut, since I did like practically all of these tracks, but something about the flow here just doesn’t have the same cohesion I’ve come to expect from a Radiohead album. If anything, it’d probably be the ones where Thom goes a bit more ‘woe is me’, like “I Will” & “A Punchup at a Wedding”, as well as some of the longer / plainer ones, like “Backdrifts”, “We Suck Young Blood”, or “Scatterbrain”. Once again though, I just kinda like all of those tracks, for one reason or another.

Overall, it’s a little pile of issues that don’t directly affect the actual quality of the tracks themselves, but the album in its totality that’s putting this at a 4.5 for me, but it’s still a pretty easy bump up to a 5 regardless. I think a lot of these tracks apply too potently to today’s current climate to not get something out of them, & while they’re written in far broader strokes than an actual politically-driven album would be for 2026, the underlying frustration is still there & still pretty easy to feel. As always, if you don’t like Radiohead at all, you probably just won’t like this. If you do, you’ll probably enjoy it, but like I’ve said, it’s the “worst” one we’ve gotten so far. It’s still a 4.5 bumped up to a 5, and I’m still glad it’s on the list. I'm looking forward to whenever we get "The Bends".

I’m at a 5, albeit one that could someday go down to a 4.5 or a 4 if the allure of this album’s slick production ever wears off.

I mean, it really does boil down to how much you can groove to the slick jazz fusion production of this album. If you can’t, you may find this a bit of a blander exercise in style over substance, with the instrumentation covering up what’s admittedly some of Steely Dan’s least biting tracks (Peg!), at least from a lyrical standpoint. This is an album that thrives more in the abstract, & while I prefer Steely Dan when they have a bit more bite, I don’t think I mind it too much when the grooves are just this strong to my ears. I absolutely love the way this album sounds. There’s a cavalcade of session musicians helping to spice up this album, and when it’s all placed as perfectly as it is in the ears here (a very special note to the drums on “Aja”, my goodness), it feels impossible to ignore.

Going track by track here feels a bit futile, if only because I don’t want to get into the technical weeds of great drum, bass & guitar solos, or the piano & keyboard noodling that underlines each of those solos to enhance them further. Donald Fagen’s vocals are still smooth as hell, and Michael McDonald can barely hide his backing presence on “I Got The News”. Overall, I think it’s a pretty good album. It’s not as constantly electrifying as “Can’t Buy A Thrill” or “Pretzel Logic” or as varied as “Countdown to Ecstasy”, but it’s not really trying to be those albums. It’s a bit more experimental, and while mileage will vary on how much trading in their wit for a richer & jazzier soundscape worked here, I think the results are still undeniably great to listen to, even if you don’t think it’s as engaging. If the allure of this album ever falls down for me (and it might), it won’t fall down any lower than a 4. For now, it’s a 5, and one that I hope stays as strong to listen to as it did on this first pass. I’m glad it’s on the list.

P.S.: I am sad that we won’t get anymore Steely Dan albums on the list, but they all got a 5 from me, including “The Nightfly”. Overall, I get the abrasion – carefully crafted bits of happy-go-lucky yacht rock without the same gritted edge that most of the 1970s was known for makes them stand out like Bob Barker in a mosh pit. It’s not for everyone. However, their style is right down my alley, and they’ve been a hell of a highlight for me on this list as someone who always wanted to hear more of their stuff. I like Steely Dan. Sorry.

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

I generally liked this one. I primarily listened to Iggy Pop’s mix instead of David Bowie’s, save for a few tracks that felt slightly emptier just to see if David’s was better, but I think Iggy’s is done well. I should listen to the Bowie mix in full someday, to be fair, but I’m running a bit low on time for this one. Of the ones I sampled from Bowie’s mix, I think I prefer “Raw Power” over Iggy’s version; something about the additional depth in the backing bass really fills out the soundscape & adds a bit more of an explosion to the guitar lift at the end. That energy is what makes or breaks the album, and I’d say for 7 of the 8 tracks here, the energy is present throughout. The only one that misses the mark is “Penetration”, which just feels a bit too same-y in both mixes. That energy, while present, isn’t always at full blast & occasionally stagnates after going a bit too long; that’s the main reason I’m at a 4.5 here. Even with a mostly breezy 34 minute runtime, with headphones in, you can feel this album stretching its tracks slightly past an expiration date. It somehow feels a little long as a result, but it’s one of those things you’d only feel near the ends of each track; the core to each track here is too rocking to really care whilst in the moment.

Overall, it’s one you just gotta feel out. The lyrics matter, to a point, but in the larger scheme of things, they’re just means to an instrumental end. I do hear the grunge/punk influence this must’ve had throughout, and I think I can partially hear why Kurt Cobain wrote this at the very top of his 50 favorite albums list. Iggy Pop’s voice is full of energy, and the instrumentation generally meets it. If you can let the brain rock out instead of thinking too critically, you’ll probably enjoy it. I think it’s good; maybe not THAT good as far as “one of the very best albums of the ‘70s” goes, but a pretty enjoyable one nonetheless. Hence, a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

It’s a 5.

Yes, this is basically George Michael doing a Prince album, and while it’s not at the same level of musical mastery as a Prince album, it’s still pretty good. George’s sensuality throughout this album is very potent, and it is fascinating to point out just how non-gendered the lyrics truly are for every track outside of “Look at Your Hands” (which he didn’t write). I know this is well before he was outed as gay, but the signs were there, in a good way.

Frankly, it’s a positive towards the entire album; sure, George Michael was a heartthrob to a multitude of people back then, but this album at its core is about freely searching for the ability to express one’s sexual desires with someone willing to accept it. That kind of carnal desire exists for most men, women & nonbinary people, and not tying these tracks implicitly to “George Michael is so fucking cool for having sex with women” really increases the audience here. Granted, if he was trying to be Prince, maybe he could’ve just done that (lord knows it worked on “1999”), but I think there’s a different tone to George’s delivery on a lot of these tracks that wouldn’t make it work in the same way. Yes, even on “I Want Your Sex”, which he later denounced as “bad Prince” by 1989.

For 1987, it’s obviously dated to the era, and while that’s a breaking point for people, I just happen to have a real soft spot for this sound. “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1” has probably aged more gracefully, both in subject matter & soundscape, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the overly digital programming present on a lot of these tracks. I do think the tracks with actual guitar & brass are the best ones here (“Monkey” might be the most underrated George Michael track ever), but I just kinda like the early ‘80s Prince meets early Depeche Mode vibes this album tends to give off. It helps that George arranged most of these tracks, so there’s never a sense that we’re being robbed of a greater vision.

Really, the only complaint I have about this album is that “Look at Your Hands” has some rather poorly aged lyrics by modern standards (a track about slightly lording over your ex leaving you for an abuser is… not great), which is frustrating since I think there’s a hell of a groove underlining that track. It’s an infectious one, and the energy it has flows really nicely into “Monkey” as well. It’s a perfectly placed spot for such a morally iffy track. I do think the end result is, annoyingly, just that good.

Hence, a 5. “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1” is the better album to me, but I think this earns its acclaim. While it doesn’t quite have the same timeless staying power & bombast as some of the contemporaries he was chasing, it certainly had the commercial power he was looking for. There’s not a bad track here (yes, I’m including “Look at Your Hands”), and as a whole 47 minute package, it’s impossible to deny what George Michael is selling here. I can’t give him my sex, but I can absolutely give him a 5. Rest in peace, George.

I’m somewhere above a 5. This could get to a 10 someday.

It’s just really fucking good rock & roll, man. Sure, you could call it new wave power pop & apply a bunch of other labels to it, but at its core, this is just a rock album that feels way ahead of pace for 1978. Paul Weller’s vocals are great, the instrumentation has an infectious energy to it that’s genuinely impossible to not at least mimic in the air at least once (try air drumming to the end of “In the Crowd” & you’ll see his point about just letting go & having fun), and the lyrics here all generally carry good socially aware messaging about class disparity & right-wing violence. I’m pretty damn sure the “A” in ‘A’ Bomb in Wardour Street might mean “aryan”, in the sense of Nazi ideology respreading throughout Europe, & it’s impossible to not see the story of “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight” as anything but literal violence. When it’s not tackling social issues, Paul’s passion for love comes through really nicely, especially on “English Rose” & “Fly”.

I don’t think I need to go any deeper or track by track here; these are just that infectious & well-performed that it’s better served to listen to this, especially with headphones in. There’s early elements of grunge throughout, a natural lift to a lot of these tracks, some fun drum patterns & a whole lot of great bass work. It all comes together really strongly, and while this might seem a bit plain to some people, I just think it’s the type of pure rock album that appeals to me. I think it’s impossible to not like at least half of this album, even if you’re only listening to the instrumentation. It’s a marked improvement over “Sound Affects” for me (though I may need to relisten to it), and probably my favorite thing Paul Weller’s been involved with on the list. No, being a guest guitarist on “Champagne Supernova” doesn’t count. The floor is certainly a 3 if it really is that plain to someone else’s ears, but for me, I’m well above a 5. Given time, it could go all the way up to a 10.

It’s a 10.

I don’t think it’s the best album of all time, but I can see exactly why some people will preach by it. It’s because it’s damn near impossible to structure an album more perfectly than this. With the tone set from the title track, and Marvin’s clear discomfort at everyone else’s nonchalance towards the state of the world, he sets out to tell us what’s going on, what to be aware of, and tells us exactly what he thinks we need to do to fix it, while lamenting the pain in his own life & showcasing sympathy for other people going through similar struggles. That’s the concept of the album, and Marvin Gaye executes it as perfectly as you can possibly execute it. In the most technical sense, it might be the ‘best’ album ever made.

With the transitions between tracks adding a smooth flow, interweaving themes throughout (“Flyin’ High”, for example, is that Vietnam veteran on the prior using drugs to escape PTSD), & ending on a slight reprise of the opening track, it just creates a seamless energy for Marvin to preach to. He really does preach; so much of this album is centered around his own spiritual beliefs & the strength of his faith in God to plead to people that inclusivity, kindness, love & sympathy are the ultimate saving graces to lift us out of the issues he’s talking about. It has been 55 years since this dropped. I fear that pleading may not have worked, and unfortunately, this is all still going on, in increasingly worse ways than I think he could’ve imagined. Marvin Gaye is probably still rolling in his grave.

He’s also rolling on every single one of these tracks; his vocals are so good that it’s easy to hear them as just another instrument. He’s more sparse here than I would've imagined, lacking some of the slightly hammier & more present energy he’d showcase on “Let’s Get It On”, and instead just chiming in when the flow of the music itself calls for it. It’s not an instrumental album by any means, as he strikes with a precision on each line that makes his voice carry greater weight. It’s just not quite as lyric heavy as I assumed it would be, and frankly, that’s a good thing. This album thrives on the unspoken as much as it does the actual lyrics; Marvin’s pictures are ripe with scenery, and it’s up to the brain to fill out the actual people suffering through these struggles. It’s impossible to not imagine those people.

Overall, I loved it. It definitely lives up to being a landmark of soul music, the pinnacle of Marvin’s career, and as a 55-year-old monument that makes up one of the core pillars defining popular music in the late 20th & 21st century. Without this album & Marvin’s specific push for full creative control, Stevie Wonder wouldn’t have pushed for the same control that led to his stretch of classic albums, including “Talking Book”, “Innervisions”, “Fulfillingness’ First Finale”, & “Songs in the Key of Life”. Without those albums carrying the torch that Marvin Gaye lit as brightly as possible here, it’s impossible to know where the entire art form would be right now. We have Marvin Gaye to thank for it. This could very well be one of the most impactful records ever made, even beyond the scale of soul music. Combine that impact with a musical bliss to it that’s impossible to deny & execution that you can’t possibly improve on, and you end up with a masterclass in how to make an album. It’s a 10.

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

It’s the fifth time we’ve gotten Leonard Cohen, and also our last. At this point, it’s pretty clear what to expect from the guy: a bit of flowery purple prose musing about morality, the military, religion, romance, and more with a penmanship that has the ability to zoom in & out like a pair of high-powered binoculars. There’s a little more of an instrumental lift here than on his debut album, but it largely reverts back to some of its more minimal guitar tones by the back half of the album, which is most of the reason I’m at a 4.5.

However, his songwriting really is just that good here, & thankfully, a bit more straightforward throughout. Yes, a few tracks are still harder to parse (namely “Lady Midnight”), but stuff like “Story of Isaac”, “A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes”, “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy” & “Tonight Will Be Fine” are probably among the most digestible tracks he’s put to tape on the list. Occasionally, his lyrics meet the moment at times when his vocal delivery & instrumentation don’t (namely on “The Old Revolution”), but for the most part, I’d say Leonard Cohen genuinely does meet the moment here. He doesn’t have a big lift to his voice, but he knows when to push it for the moments that call for it, and his held notes do carry well.

Overall, it’s practically more of the same when it comes to Leonard Cohen. If you like him, you’ll like this. If you don’t, you probably won’t. There’s a nuance in there about how much the instrumentation needs to have a presence to really pull listeners to be more interested past just the allure of his storytelling, and I do think this slacks on it enough to be at a 4.5. For other people, that slack will lead much lower. However, I just happen to think his songwriting is that damn good & I’m not as bothered by the muted tones of this album, hence a bump up to a 5.

As far as Leonard Cohen himself goes, it’s 4.5 or 5’s across the board for me on all 5 of his albums here. “You Want It Darker” is still probably my favorite / most impactful here, but I think ranking his albums in any capacity is a bit of a fool’s errand, as they’re just not meant to be digested in that way. These are poetry books, chronicling life through the eyes of Mr. Cohen. Volume to volume, they’re all different, yet they share a worldview expressed in different ways, occasionally evolving the backing track that underlines the writing. You can rank the poems, yes, but the books themselves are just individual chapters of a man’s perspective all the way through his death. Yes, even that slightly weird ‘80s chapter where he got a bit horny. I don’t think you can rank them like that, but you can measure the impact of their totality. I think it’s a hell of a body of work to leave behind, and I certainly think I’ll be looking back at a lot of these tracks with an appreciation for his penmanship. Rest in peace, Leonard.

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

I’m really not sure how to describe that. It feels almost like a collection of dreams put to tape, combining abstract thoughts with somewhat vivid imagery to create a bit of a jarring effect. The production work here feels way ahead of pace for 2000, somehow doing way too much for what these tracks might lyrically entail, yet feel wrought in overthinking & stress in a way that justifies the extent of that production work. It’s an album that constantly feels like it’s fighting itself, unable to decide if it hates the concepts each track is talking about or falling in love with them, and somehow, the result of that is 40 minutes that hits more often than not. There’s only two tracks that really didn’t click with me on a first pass: “Paper Bag” & “Deer Stop”, both of which just feels like they’re too disconnected in their lyrical / musical balance. Interesting listens, yes, but just not as compelling past their concepts. The rest of the album, however, clicked pretty well for me. “Horse Tears” took a second listen for me to really soak in the dichotomy of a somewhat passionate set of lyrics combined with an utterly defeated & monotonous approach (outside of the strings), but everything else worked on a first pass.

“Human” & “Utopia” are tied for my favorite tracks here, with the former’s glitchhop samba approach being the most unique soundscape on the album (and a rather chilling line of “you’re not human too”) & the latter’s relevance for 2026 (a fascist-created robot that only serves to agreeably deliver pleasure to people all too willing to eat it up feels a bit on the nose) giving it an extra kick to my ears. “Pilots” is serene as hell, feeling like a Sinatra track with a bit of an electronic baroque lean, & “Oompah Radar” won me over for having a lot of the same instruments as the GameCube-era Zelda games baked into its weird circus soundscape. “Felt Mountain” & “Lovely Head” are ones where mileage may vary, but the former evoked something with the whip sounds that felt like an attempt to crack someone’s psyche, and the latter just had a primal undertone to it that felt like cold, calculated, scientifically efficient love. It contrasts well with a more organic desire present on the rest of the album, and I think it’s a good opening track because of that.

Overall, it’s an album that thrives entirely on how willing you are to buy into it. If you can’t hear this as anything but weird & experimental, it probably just won’t work for you. If you can find that intrinsic intangible that draws your brain into this, you’ll probably find something out of it. Yes, I bounced off of two tracks here, but I suspect I focused a little too much on the lyrics for both of them. When I listened to “Horse Tears” the second time, it was entirely off of just listening, and that made it click. I think it might happen with those two tracks as well. Besides that, I just admire the swings this is taking for 2000 & the totality of its eccentricities is appealing to my weird brain. I do think the floor here is understandably a 3, but I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5. Once again, a Mercury Prize nomination has come through for me.

I’m at a 5.

I’ve loosely heard of 10cc before this, with a pair of songs from two of their other albums in my big playlist. I think I added them just because they sounded nice, honestly. This album has shown me that my past self was justified in doing so. This is a rather silly album with a lot of technically extravagant execution behind it. It feels like a mixture of both Queen & ELO; if you take Freddie Mercury’s ability to make a bicycle seem like the centerpiece of a troubled world & combine it with the loose electric bombast of something like Mr. Blue Sky, you end up with whatever it is 10cc has done here. There’s a flippant energy underlining the whole thing, managing to take the piss out of these subjects that they’ve also got a healthy respect & a mild disdain for.

“The Wall Street Shuffle” feels like the right tonesetter in that sense; there’s clearly some amount of respect towards a businessman’s hustle for the dollar while portraying them as an asshole, yet making the whole thing seem a bit goofy by effectively saying they’re dancing for paper. That ethos applies to most of the tracks here. They’re making fun of stereotypical sounds while acknowledging it’s a path to success on “The Worst Band in the World”. There’s a bit of sadness over old rock stars continuing to perform while acknowledging they deserve their respect on “Old Wild Men”. There’s an implicit acknowledgement of sexism being rampant in golden age Hollywood while acknowledging the silliness of a dog being treated with more respect on “Somewhere in Hollywood”. They’re clearly knowledgeable about what they’re tackling here, and their tracks read to me as loving pastiches, for the most part (“Hotel” feels a bit too racially stereotyped, I can’t lie).

The biggest knock I can see against this album is that it’s sort of a “jack of all trades, master of none” situation, with the mishmash of musical ideas feeling all over the place & nowhere near as potent in totality as a result. I can hear that, to a degree, but I just don’t think it matters too much as long as the tracks end up being fun to listen to. It’d be one thing if this were stuffed with too many styles for its own good within each track, but I think they all stay within their lane once they set their tone. There’s lots of variety, sure, but you’re not gonna hear “Baron Samedi” turn into smooth jazz halfway through, you know what I mean? The peaks & valleys of this album aren’t as jarring as they’re made out to be, and I think it generally flows well. My only real complaint past the poorly aged stereotyping of “Hotel” is that “Oh Effendi” feels a bit out of place as a closing track. The abrupt ending feels unbefitting for an album that tries to have so much flair behind it, & I think this probably should’ve ended on “Silly Love” (or “Clockwork Creep” with an actual explosion).

Regardless, I thought it was just a fun album to listen to. I understand the complaints, but I’m also the type of person who thinks Todd Rundgren’s similar-ish approach with a bit of acid behind it on “A Wizard, A True Star” made for one of the most compelling albums I’ve ever heard in my life. If you can accept the genremorphing & innate silly creativity behind this album, you’ll probably like it. If you can’t & you need a bit more rigidity in your musical diet, you probably won’t. I happened to enjoy it a lot, and I think it’s a 5 that’s definitely earned a spot on the list. I need to listen to more of 10cc.

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

Most of the top reviews on the site describe this album as boring, or some of the other million synonyms for the word. It’s a description probably borne out of both the older skew on the site & a certain disdain for 2017 production. The former may just be a generation gap, but the latter is one that’s loosely understandable almost a decade later (we were really hanging onto the ‘boom’ part of ‘boom/clap’ for a while). I wouldn’t characterize this as boring, but I think I see why it’s easy to call it that; this album isn’t doing anything remarkably unique in the totality of the 2017 indie space. It is, however, unique to The xx, who normally specialize in letting the emptiness of a minimalist soundscape set the tone. That emptiness is replaced by a bit more than usual; sort of a lo-fi version of ‘90s house with some of the trends of mainstream pop at the time. It’s slightly jarring at first, but once you settle into it, it’s generally nice, and every production choice works hand in hand with the lyrics & vocals (most apparent on something like “A Violent Noise”).

This album’s biggest strength is in that production, but it’s accentuated by the songwriting. I think the mistake here is confusing ‘simple’ for ‘boring’; a lot of these tracks are expressly straightforward & laying themselves out without much additional room for interpretation. It’s mostly centered around finding connection & trying to overcome the tension that comes with it, whether it’s a lack of comfort, self-prophesizing cynicism, chasing highs or coping with lows. I think these are very simple concepts, but the execution behind them is what makes the tracks work. It’s consistently strong execution that pulls the most out of everything it can. If you’re not inclined towards the actual soundscapes in the production here, you probably won’t like this, but if it’s not as big of a deal, it should be easy to recognize the intentionality behind every choice. All of the little backing synths & microbeats swirl & melt in ways that drive the pulse of each track.

The weak spot here is that even with how much I like the execution, a few of the earliest tracks do still feel like they’re not doing anything past the basics. I still won’t classify them as boring, because I liked them, but I think “Dangerous” feels a little plain (though inoffensively fun) & “Lips” just isn’t super compelling past a regular sense of love. The album hits a good stretch from “A Violent Noise” onwards, but I’m not super sold on “Test Me” as the closing track. I just don’t know if you should end an album about connections & a desire for acknowledgement on one with such unanswered undertones. I honestly think it could’ve been the opening track.

Regardless, I think this is a pretty good album. I don’t think it’s as good as “xx” was, but that’s a hard album to top. My biggest comparison here is in how much this feels like an Everything but the Girl album, with Romy sounding distinctly like Tracey Thorn throughout most of her verses. It feels like a naturally carried torch from Idlewild’s controlled tones & the baseline electronica of Walking Wounded, and I just can’t help but enjoy it for that reason. Mileage will vary, as always, but I think this does enough to warrant bumping it up to a 5, at least for my tastes. I’m glad it’s on the list.

I’m slightly above a 5.

It’s honestly just that good, or at the very least, it’s right down my alley for slightly bombastic ‘70s rock. This is Roxy Music’s second album without Brian Eno in the mix, and surprisingly enough, his absence isn’t really felt here. I really liked the instrumentals here. These are all constantly pushing & evolving to big climaxes in the soundscape, with a bit of chaos involved to get there, yet the excellent mixing leaves these all still pretty easy & engaging to listen to.

These tracks are written well too, if a little bit somber & horny at points, & Bryan Ferry’s search for a dopamine hit is a good underline for most of these tracks. It creates a sort of omnipresent tension that helps give weight to his vocals & helps justify the instrumentation going as nutty as it sometimes does. It’s a tension that releases itself by the end of “A Really Good Time” & lets everything come to a pretty pleasing ending in “Prairie Rose”, which just feels like a jam session about Texas. The pace & flow of this album is pretty strong – I did think “The Thrill of It All” was a little long/bold for an opener, but it doesn’t feel that way after having listened to the whole thing.

Overall, I’m just impressed by what’s here. Mileage will obviously vary on how the bombast plays to other people’s ears, or if that cover is too distracting to take the music quite as seriously as it may (or may not) deserve. I sort of get why it’s only got a 3.1 on the site, but I think it should be a little higher. How can you listen to “Out of the Blue”’s instrumental section & not feel some of that energy? It’s an energy that carries throughout the album & it has me slightly above a 5 here. I think it’s a really strong 41 minutes, and for my tastes, one that’s deserving to be on the list. Super fun stuff.

I’m at a 5.

It’s a good day. It’s a good album too; definitely a significant improvement on “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” in terms of album flow & being able to more concisely deliver the points he wants to make here. It also helps that he’s not portraying himself as a hyper-sexist here; yeah, he’s still calling them hoes & bitches & everything in between, but he’s not being a direct hater outside of “Don’t Trust ‘Em”, and even then, that’s a track about a lady seductress successfully being able to pull off a heist on a cocky rich man (pun intended) with the help of her own crew. If that isn’t some kind of weird twisted respect, I don’t know what is.

The main issue that underlines this album is, of course, the Rodney King incident, and Cube’s love for his native L.A. shines through here, taking lead on the torch that plenty of other West Coast albums would carry on a number of tracks released after the riots. Ice Cube is shooting nothing but truth-filled bullets here, and the hate in his heart for those 4 dirty pigs who beat Rodney down is the justified pulse that drives this album. He really does feel like The Predator here, in the sense of a sort of omnipresent stalking / hating on those cops on a number of tracks, even when they seem unrelated. There’s always a verse around the corner that’s laced with lingering frustration & venom from their Not Guilty verdict, and it hits every time. It’s a bit ironic, of course, that the track that’s endured the longest from this album is the one that lacks a single ounce of that frustration & has somehow managed to hit a universal pulse with everyone. To be fair, it did sound like a pretty damn good day.

I liked all 12 of the main core tracks here, and while some of the interludes did feel a little odd, most of them provided a good flow – I especially liked “Integration”. Not because of Louis Farrakhan, mind you, who I find to be abrasive as hell at best & just straight up anti-semitic at worst. However, I like its presence near the end of the album, if only because it feels like something that wouldn’t have reasonably found a place on “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”. It speaks to an actual responsibility that he carries well on this album, & the weight of that responsibility has led to a significantly more focused overall project. One that, thankfully, got rewarded with being his best selling album (and getting a #1 on the Billboard charts after dissing them several times here). It’s definitely deserving of being on the list – great lyrics, GREAT production that fully fits Ice Cube, a super varied flow that gives each track its own identity, and a real standout for the first half of ‘90s rap. It’s an easy 5.