Reviews by guggmo

It’s a 10. It’s probably much higher.

I haven’t had an album leave me stuck with that much silence in my brain for such a long time. I simply could not find the words to tackle this one, because it’s impossible to describe perfection without it sounding like hyperbole. I did not think it was possible for my brain to ever challenge the thought that “Songs in the Key of Life” was the greatest album ever made. Whenever my brain fully clears itself up, given time, it will likely return to that thought. However, in this current moment, this feels like the most potent contender to that throne I’ve ever heard. As I said with “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”, if “Songs in the Key of Life” represents the breadth of a blessed existence, this album represents the breadth of an anguished one. However, where “Mellon Collie” tackled its songs with a sense of unfixable despair & that titular infinite sadness, this album tackles that anguish with… well, grace. He could be bitter. He’s not. He uses the pain he displays on this album to further himself, to learn from it and to grow from it. Instead of letting his soul die in the flames that could wither so many men, he lets those burns define him in a way that’s musically explored here, to stop other people from making the same mistakes that led to those burns. It is done behind some of the most incredible songwriting I’ve ever heard in my life, along with a power in his voice that feels like it can carry a mountain with ease. Combine that with fantastic instrumentation, and you get a recipe for a masterpiece.

It is one of the most musically fulfilling projects I’ve ever heard in my life. I think it’s one of the top 5 albums we’ve gotten so far, and we are 922 albums deep. If it continues to impact me as deeply on any future relistens as it did on a first one, it may very well take that top spot of the greatest album ever made, though it will still take a LOT of time to get there. At the very least, I can confidently say on a first pass that I think this is the greatest studio album of 1994. Emphasis on studio; some people will probably say Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged album is better, and I won’t dispute anyone who does. Both albums are forged in the mythos of death, with that being Kurt Cobain’s last recorded project & this album being Jeff Buckley’s one & only studio album. It’s annoying when death plays such a major factor in an album’s impact, but the perception of losing people that could’ve potentially made culture-defining art will always elevate something, for better or worse. In this case, I think Jeff Buckley still managed to make culture-defining art, given the tree of influence that this album spawned. It’s a 10. It’s probably much, much higher.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to listen to “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” about 100 more times to get all my tears out. That is one of the greatest tracks ever written.

I’m at a 4.

It’s nice. I think it’s a little more than the sum of its parts in terms of just being enjoyable overall; there’s not too many super standout tracks that lifted my brain past “that was cool” or “I liked that”, but this album just exists as its own little world, written under Frank Black’s rules. It’s occasionally manic, often rather weird, a bit unpolished, generally reliant on its choruses, and if we were going entirely from those standpoints, I’d probably only be at a 3. The thing that pushes this album up to a 4 is just in its instrumental charm & how earnestly it plays itself. This is a “fuck it” album, both in creation & in practice. You wanna make that track? Sure, fuck it, go ahead. You wanna listen to this album? Yeah, ok, fuck it, it’s probably alright. It sounds like I’m saying this was made without care, but the intentionality put into making these sound good while being as nonchalantly made as possible & giving an overall air of slight musical defiance is a talent.

It’s a talent I don’t think I appreciated when we got either “Surfer Rosa” or “Doolittle”, both of which I need to critically revisit. It’s a talent I’d like to appreciate here, but the reason I’m trapped at a 4 instead of going up any higher is because occasionally, that “fuck it” attitude does rear its head in much less engaging ways. Specifically, I think the album loses some of its potency by “The Happening”. The previous 9 tracks leading up to that point feel more purposeful, & the vibe around them is weird, but it’s the good kind of weird that’s appealing because it’s weird. When you lean into that a bit too much & push the boundaries of ‘weird’, it can make or break a track. I think it breaks a lot of the final 5 tracks, with “The Happening” having an unappealing wall of sound, with “Hang Wire” not feeling super engaging, & with “Stormy Weather” not bringing enough energy to cover up its repetition. Both “Blown Away” & “Havalina” are nice, though.

Combine those 3 tracks with just a bit of lingering iffiness from that manic, unpolished, energy that underlines a lot of this album, along with the lack of really standout stuff, and I’m stuck at a 4. A fun 4 if you can allow yourself to accept Frank’s weird world, but a 4 nonetheless. It’s a weird world, but it’s one I wouldn’t mind sitting in a few more times. I’m a little hesitant to say this had to be on the list, if only because “Surfer Rosa” & “Doolittle” feel like a more proper representation of why the Pixies got as big as they did, but I do think it’s important to understanding who they are as a band. I definitely think I needed this, at least in terms of making me want to critically revisit those prior 2 albums, which I only gave a 3 & 4 respectively. I gave Frank Black’s album a 5, but shh. If nothing else, “Surfer Rosa” as a 3 feels wrong as hell, because I probably just didn’t get the appeal of it back then at a technical level. It was the 91st album we’ve got, and this is our 921st, so 830 albums later… yeah, I gotta hear that one again.

I’m at a 10.

I mean, look, it’s Metallica. This felt inevitable with this album. Admittedly, I wasn’t quite hearing the super duper acclaim through the first 3 tracks (all still great fucking tracks, mind you), but once this album hit “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” and started to tackle issues outside of the usual metal canon, this thing shot into another stratosphere for me. James Hetfield embodies these assholes who have monopolistic grapples on people with a kind of visceral fury that makes you uncomfortable, pissed off, mortified at the cruelty at hand, & deeply impressed all at the same time. There’s not the same grit in his voice as there is on “And Justice for All” or the self-titled album, but he more than makes up for it by just going all in on bringing these monsters to life. His vocals find an intensity that the instrumentals have to match, and they more than meet the challenge – when this album wants to turn up a solo on a whim, everyone goes fucking nutty. Lars Ulrich’s percussion finds a fever pitch that feels like it might go 200 miles an hour (or at the very least, beats per minute), the bass work is impeccable throughout (rest in peace to Cliff Burton), and both Kirk Hammett & James feel like they’re controlling lightning with their guitars.

“Disposable Heroes” is probably my favorite here, just because it feels like it’s channeling every frustration I’ve ever had with the military, but you cannot go wrong with any of the 8 tracks here as a potential favorite. “Orion”, in particular, feels so outside of what I’m used to from Metallica, and yet it’s still as vivid in its own way as the other 7 tracks here, solely from the sound design alone. “Leper Messiah” is probably my third favorite, just because those money-grubbing motherfuckers that speak such blasphemy have suckered too many people in the 40 years since this came out, and James put all of that frustration into words I could only ever hope to dream of.

It’s just 55 minutes of kickass metal that never slows down & barely lets you breathe, while feeling unstoppable throughout. I haven’t been this in sync with a metal album in quite a while, and it is SO GOOD to feel that feeling again. It is an easy, easy 10, a quintessential album of the 1980s, and possibly the best album from the “big 4” of thrash metal. My jury is still slightly out on if the self-titled is better, but at worst, it’s a tie. What an unbelievably fucking awesome album.

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

Rahim Redcar, formerly known by “Christine and the Queens” when recording this album, is our main man here. He’s mostly displaying a more aggressively masculine side to his work here; one that, at the time, I imagine felt pretty liberating, at least from a gender-driven perspective. Given that Rahim now treats his old pseudonym as sort of a deadname (he has released some current projects as “Christine and the Queens”) & a different persona from who he is now, I think it’s a little fair to say this album might’ve jumped the gun with being put on the list, at least in terms of gender identity / comfortability.

However, I think it earned its place on the list, as listening to the actual album itself reveals a pretty solidly textured project – this is an ‘80s throwback style akin to The Weeknd, and Rahim’s voice reminded me a LOT of The Weeknd throughout most of these tracks, especially on some layered / higher notes. That ‘80s throwback style is generally good, though there are points here where some of the more creative soundscapes give way to somewhat repetitive pulses that leave a track in a slight limbo. It’s not too often, but it’s often enough that the entire album does sort of blend together as a result – there’s very few definitively memorable riffs, choruses or hooks here from a pop standpoint.

That said, the album generally picks up that slack in its storytelling. Since Rahim’s first language isn’t English, there are some clunkier songs here that don’t quite grasp the storytelling with the precision he’s looking for, but I think the intent of exploring gender dynamics in a more neutrally-driven way & coping with the events in his past that have led him to this exploration of “Chris” as an identity are done well. I think the most affirming tracks here are tied between “The walker” & “5 dollars”. The former is a message saying that fighting through your pain to validate yourself is a lot more fruitful than backing away from it. The latter, to me, feels like a statement of empowerment. The money is material & the sex work is a means to an end; the part that feels empowering entirely comes in being seen & recognized without prejudice that lies behind it. The track that got me the hardest was probably “What’s-her-face”, if only because the idea of being so forgettable that your name (or some botched form of it) becomes a shorthand slur for being that forgettable is utterly brutal. This album’s modus operandi is finding the balance between that affirmation & that brutality, and yet finding ways to use both as a strength.

So, why a 4.5 bumped down to a 4 then? Admittedly, it’s just a pile of little things that build up; some tracks feel a bit harder to parse (namely “Goya Soda”), some tracks linger a bit long, and a few of them feel like slight retreads (namely “Feel so good”). Past that, I found “Make some sense” to be a little lacking in execution, & I’m not super sold on “The stranger” as a closing track. It’s got a great message, don’t get me wrong, but I think it doesn’t end the album with quite the right bombast for someone trying to make a statement about needing to continue the fight so that complacency doesn’t let the sludge of the world end a movement. It could’ve been punchier, basically. That lack of an extra punch just applies to a lot of the album for me.

Make no mistake though; I did like this one a lot. I think it’s a very welcome addition to the list, and if nothing else, I might just need to add a bit of pansexual pop into my musical diet to begin with, as I can only assume Rahim’s stuff has evolved more since this album came out & as he’s evolved in terms of exploring his own identity. I do wish it had a little more conviction overall behind it, and a catchier kick to cling onto, but it’s a pretty well envisioned 44 minutes. It’s a 4.5 that I’ll bump down to a 4, but one I’d recommend regardless.

It’s a 10.

I’m just glowing after listening to this. Yes, Jay Kay sounds like Stevie Wonder. Yes, Jay Kay is a white man doing so, as are most of Jamiroquai. I will let other people succinctly describe how much cultural appropriation is present here & how to balance that with paying tribute to & being inspired by black artists. It’s not something I feel smart enough to tackle, nor something I necessarily want to mentally cope with. You know why? Because this album fucking rules, that’s why, & so does Jamiroquai. Stuff like “Virtual Insanity”, “Canned Heat”, “Love Foolosophy”, “Seven Days in Sunny June” and a whole lot more have been in my rotation for years. Despite that, I’ve never heard a full Jamiroquai album, and that’s a mistake that I feel like a fucking moron for never addressing until now.

This is excellent stuff from top to bottom here. The instrumental work is a slick update of the ‘70s soul/jazz sound with a bit of ‘90s flair, and for 1993 in particular, these guys feel well ahead of that updated curve that would become a bit more prominent by the early 2000s & especially so once Bruno Mars came into his own in the 2010s. Yes, it’s all derivative of that era to a degree, but what makes Jamiroquai’s sound work is the electronica elements thrown in & integrated almost seamlessly. Moog synths as far as the ear can hear underline a good chunk of these tracks, working almost like a pseudo wall of sound for the strings, guitars, drums, and ESPECIALLY the bass work, which feels underrated in relationship to the rest of the groove here. Obviously, Jay Kay’s voice is the anchor that puts it all together, but his voice wouldn’t be as compelling as it is without the strength of the lyrics here. Yeah, being anti-war & pro-environment isn’t new ground for anybody, especially by 1993, but tapping into those frustrations in a way that’s pointed as class warfare worth fighting against to ensure both personal freedom & economic / environmental change happen… that’s slightly newer ground. Stevie Wonder said that love was in need of love in 1976. Jay Kay, in 1993, was actively calling for revolution. It’s different forms of tact, and while I’m personally more inclined towards Stevie’s choice to seek peaceful solutions & appealing to the human spirit, I can’t say Jay Kay’s approach is unappealing. It’s just more forceful, really.

That force applies to the instrumentals here in spades – when this album is bumping a bassline & pulsing its synths & percussion, it’s just insanely infectious. Combine that with Jay’s voice & the overall push for change that’s so present through this album, it’s just one that has you locked in to every second of it for practically its whole runtime. The only track that might feel a little filler-y is “Blow Your Mind”, but that’s just because the back half goes a touch long. I don’t think there’s a skip here at all, and every moment is filled with something to keep the listener engaged. This is a tightly designed album from front to back, flowing with a purpose from track to track, including bookending the album with that didgeridoo, and it do be didgering, to be clear. A bit silly, sure, but given that there’s not a harmonica here, perhaps the didgeridoo is just Jamiroquai’s own harmonica.

Ultimately, I just think it’s a fantastic album. I could keep typing about every track here, but I think that once the string stabs at the start of “Too Young to Die” hit, this album needs no further description. It’s just an audio journey worth listening to before you die, and I feel like a moron for not having done so until now. I gotta find more album cuts from these guys. This is an easy, easy 10 for me.

I’m at a 4.

I couldn’t quite grab the vibe through 3 of the first 4 tracks. “The Things I Used To Do” felt a little too broad lyrically as an opener with his looser vocals throwing me off, “Blues Music” had some slightly plain instrumentation that took away from his flow, & “Eyes Have Miles” felt just a bit too stream of consciousness for my tastes. The first track that really clicked for me was “Garbage Man”, just because it found a consistent theme to talk about & the Beck-esque qualities within felt good to listen to. Once this album hits “Baby’s Got Sauce”, it finally finds itself, or at least for me, it found a more relaxed vibe that was much easier to bounce with. This album’s mistake early on is an inability to properly marry the energy of both blues & hiphop, with some tracks leaning more towards one than the other. I think it finds that balance on “Baby’s Got Sauce”, but it also clicked with me because it just has sort of a Sugar Ray vibe to it that I like.

The stretch of this album that really won me over, however, was “Rhyme for the Summertime” through “Shooting Hoops” – the ‘Mac Miller freestyling his way through a Tiny Desk concert’ energy this album gives off is at its most potent through this stretch. “Rhyme for the Summertime” is just a stream of consciousness about a nice summer day, “Cold Beverage” is a goofy yet catchy love letter to iced drinks that I appreciate in the middle of this heatwave, & “Fatman” is… a touch shame-y, but the storytelling of this guy being more obsessed with finishing his food than finishing a car sale is just kinda funny to me. “This Ain’t Living” has a lot of cool perspective shifts while advocating for a better quality of living for all, “Walk to Slide” is about a man with so much swagger that he can brighten up a rainy day just by his presence alone, & “Shooting Hoops” is just a fun track about basketball in a way that’s tailor-made to my interests.

The album does sort of stumble to its early woes after that with “Some People Like That” not being quite as compelling (although chill), & with “Town to Town” being far too narratively loose to craft the picture he’s trying to paint of the moon being his only constant in a lonelier time. “I Love You” is a good raw closer though, with all the little flaws giving it an intimacy that just kinda fits. As a whole, I’d say this album took a bit to win me over, but once it found its groove, it flows much better than its earliest efforts. As always, first impressions are the most potent, and that’s likely why this has a 2.72 on the site, as this album just doesn’t quite make a great first impression. Combine that with the runtime, some tracks that do feel a bit pointless compared to traditional rap (if it weren’t for my enjoyment of early Mac Miller, I’d also be complaining about ‘Cold Beverage’ as a nothing track, believe me), and a soundscape that doesn’t really shift that much throughout, it would be easy to paint this in a much worse light.

However, for my tastes, I’m just a sucker for good useless conversation in music when it’s done to a catchy enough beat, and since G. Love & friends found a way to make the things we take for granted sound compelling, I found myself enjoying this. It’s not consistently strong enough to get up to a 5 (although some of those earlier tracks are clicking a little more now), but I’d say it’s solid enough to earn a 4. There’s not really a bad track here. Do I think I HAD to hear this before I died? Jury’s out. I’d prefer if Mac were here, especially with “The Divine Feminine” or “Swimming”, but given that he was a fan of these guys, I’m glad to have heard a band that inspired him.

It’s a 10.

I mean… sometimes, you just feel like a fucking moron for not listening to an album sooner. It’s happened to me countless times over the past 916 days, and yet that same feeling of awe still takes a while to wash off of me. I knew this one had monstrous acclaim, but the only Meat Loaf song I knew going in was the ever-pastiched “I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)”. I like that song, but its overuse in a number of movies & TV shows & commercials over the years, along with my childhood brain thinking people named after food were weird & annoying (see: Carrot Top), simply made me not want to listen to anything else Meat Loaf had done.

I think my younger self needs to be shot into hell so I can come back out of it like a damn bat, because this was fucking awesome. That title track might be Todd Rundgren’s magnum opus in terms of a generalized production style, & while I know he set out to slightly mock Springsteen by taking his style & turning up the bombast to 11, he accidentally reaffirmed his style & took it into a stratosphere that I would argue not even Bruce himself would’ve wanted to match or top. It might even be why none of the other Springsteen albums here carry that same energy. When someone else does it this good, why bother to retread it? All of the harder rock-driven songs here carry the same general soundscape, but since they’re all structured differently & flow together rather cohesively, it never struck me as a big deal at all. I think they all range from great to fantastic.

The power ballads here will make or break the album for some people. I loved them, but even I will tell you I felt a little burned out of them by the end of “For Crying Out Loud”, if only because the backing instrumentation & bombast could only hold together the slight repetition for so long – it’s a really good closer, don’t get me wrong, but you can only hear the same California metaphors & the words “for crying out loud” so many times. They are a bit melodramatic & a touch cheesy, but if you’re willing to buy into them, they’re just as good as any other track on the album & any other power ballad of the 1970s, really. I especially liked “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”, just because the sense of showmanship throughout the album is at its most prevalent point on that one, and it just fully captivated me. If you don’t like them, they’ll probably knock the album down a bit, but they’ve more than earned their place in the tracklist to keep a natural flow going.

Overall, it’s just one you need to hear. Words will not do a sick guitar riff justice, or let Meat Loaf’s vocals enter your ears. It is a quintessential ‘70s album, and one that holds up highly nearly 50 years later. It’s a 10 in my book, it’s worth all the acclaim, and if you’ll excuse me, I need to see just how fucking washed Carrot Top is so I can justify my younger self’s stupidity. I should’ve heard this years ago, man. Fuck you, Carrot Top.

I’m at a 5.

Well, I wasn’t expecting to have that much fun with a Dexys album; this is the last time we’ll get them, & I knew this was the one with “Come On Eileen”, but the past track record of these guys has suggested at least one general flaw to an album experience that would’ve sunk this down a bit. In this case, I can find almost none; Kevin’s vocal work is clear as day here, avoiding the incomprehensible woes of “Searching for the Young Soul Rebels”, along with that album’s tendencies to let its tracks hang on a bit too long. For as much as I appreciated the take on a more beige soundscape on “Don't Stand Me Down”, coming back to a fully realized & fleshed out version of the ska-leaning tones on their first album felt extremely refreshing, especially with the addiction of further Celtic elements & a proper big band brass section that REALLY accentuate the energy in each track.

Put all of those together, and you get a really strong 40 minutes that, while it does occasionally meander or feel a bit one-note, survives off of more than just the infectious vibes of their first album. This is an album that can ride just as strongly on its lyrics as well; some decently simple concepts, but sung in a way that feels like a search for validation, whether it’s professionally, from the bandmates who left after this album’s recording, from the people in his past he wants to prove wrong, or validation in his relationships. Each track here feels like it’s expressing a desire & looking for someone to ensure that he reaches that desire, and that definitely includes “Come On Eileen”, given what the track is about. He’s able to take that base desire & lift it up in ways that go hand-in-hand with the band’s instrumental energy, creating a sort of feverish swirl on most of the tracks that just keeps everything about this album a bit more captivating than the other 2 on the list.

The only one that didn’t fully click for me was “Plan B”, if only because it just feels a bit too cryptic compared to everything else. Besides that, there’s really not a miss here, and even with “Plan B” not clicking too well, I’d still argue this is a no-skip album on account of the seamless transition to the more focused “I’ll Show You”, making those tracks fit together in a solid way. Outside of the obvious big hit, I think my favorite one here is probably “Liars A to E” – something about the Beatles-y tone to it & the underlying theme of crumbling leadership just struck me well from a storytelling standpoint. As a whole though, it’s a really cohesive album, and one that I do think everyone should listen to before they die. It’s a pretty easy 5 for me, and I’m glad it got saved for last among the three Dexys albums here.

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

It’s just groovy. I don’t need to say much more. A few tracks are a little long (especially “At Last I Am Free”), and I do think “(Funny) Bone” is a rather weak closer after everything else (though “Chic Cheer” is admittedly rather plain), but when this album is riding its highest highs, CHIC just seem like the grooviest motherfuckers on the planet, and the infectious energy here must’ve spread like a pandemic, given that this album’s lead single “Le Freak” sold over 7 million copies alone. It’s a much more free flowing album than “Risque” was, with overall better variety, structure & progression throughout, and it’s just 42 minutes of joy-inducing funk that’ll make almost anyone dance at least once. It’s a very easy bump up to a 5.

It’s a 10. It’s probably higher.

I genuinely don’t know what to say. I’m just exhausted & stunned, and I don’t want to force myself to type anything for too long. I just want to sit in this album’s conscience for as long as possible. It feels like a living, breathing personification of perseverance through a sea of roadblocks & struggles. If “Songs in the Key of Life” represents the breadth of a blessed existence, this album represents the breadth of an anguished one, with just as strong a variety & just as human a pulse to it all. I don’t know how Billy Corgan & friends brought it to life as potently as possible & with some of the most technically sound instrumental precision I’ve heard in my life (the drum work in particular is unbelievable), but… it exists. I heard it. I comprehended every single word of it, and I’m still stunned.

It’s a 10, if not higher. Go listen to all 28 tracks. Somehow, it’ll leave you wanting more. That is a masterpiece.

It’s a 10.

I knew it was great going in. I was hoping it would be fantastic, and I would say it’s exactly that. I’m a total sucker for Chris Martin’s brand of regret-tinged optimism & his vivacious attitude towards love & hope. Yes, it might feel corny to some people, and I won’t dispute that Coldplay, in recent years, has gotten a bit hokier as a band, especially with that regret-tinged optimism being replaced by a sort of bubbly adventurous spirit that feels like a false mask that doesn’t confront the pain that Chris is able to so beautifully croon about on this album.

I will not, however, let the perception of Coldplay in 2026 shape my opinion of this album from 2000, as this feels like one of the best debut albums ever put to tape. I already gave a lot of praise to “A Rush of Blood to the Head”, and that did feel like an instant classic when I heard it in full for the first time 901 albums ago. I can’t tell you which one is better, at least not without hearing that one again, but on a first pass here… hoo. The showmanship of that album with its more vivid & layered storytelling, along with its more consistent theming may make for a more potent album experience, but as far as “Parachutes” goes, I find myself impressed by the humanity of it all. There’s a rawness to this album that feels more innately relatable to my ears. Yes, a track like “The Scientist” is beautiful, but it’s designed to be anthemic in nature. These tracks feel like they were born out of lived experience.

“We Never Change”, in particular, really struck me as the best track here from the ones I wasn’t already familiar with. At its core, it’s just a man plainly expressing his desires for life & the rules he wants to live by, with a despondence behind it that underlines the track in a defeated, yet hopeful way. I think at the end of the day, we all want what that track asks for. That same ethos applies to something as monstrously huge as “Yellow” – look at the lyrics and how they shine in their own way, but everything they do is done with purpose. It’s just plainly stating his devotion. The difference between both tracks is in the instrumentation – “Yellow” is constantly pushing & driving & bringing the force of his love out, yet “We Never Change” is sort of static by comparison with its acoustic approach. This album is made off of the back of its instrumentals pairing to the energy of each track, and while that should be the ethos for every band to follow, Coldplay just manages to do it in a way that elevates things for me.

At the end of the day, you either feel these tracks or you don’t. If you don’t, then you just don’t, and that’s totally fine. Believe me, I get it. I’m just an optimistic fool who can’t help but buy into this stuff. I think Chris Martin's vocals are great, I think the instrumentation is fantastic, and there's not a single skip here. It’s an easy 10 for me, and I'm very glad to have finally heard it in full.

I’m at a 5.

It took me until the final track to realize what this album is trying to be (at least in my mind) – this is a slightly psychotic twist on the beach rock albums of the 1960s. Yes, the soundscape here is sort of a poppier psych-rock / punk hybrid that feels well ahead of pace at points, & it is the key reason why this album is as good as it is, but something about the mildly perverse & off-kilter lyrics really help to sell the vibe. “I Wanna Destroy You” is the perfect type of poppy threatening track to kick things off, and “Kingdom of Love” has weird analogies throughout that just leave a kind of sliminess to everything. “Positive Vibrations” drops the pretense of peace through unity pretty quickly & goes right into peace via military strength. "I Got The Hots” feels like an anti-love love track, both “Insanely Jealous” & “Tonight” come across as stalker-y in a compelling way, & “Underwater Moonlight” feels like a direct riff on the idea of beaches as fun safe spots for people to hang out in. That moonlight is not as freeing as it sounds, at least to me. Just look at that cover art again; those are the statues that replaced the two lovers on the title track. They’re weird. This whole album is weird, in a good way.

The lyricism enhances the soundscape, and since both are played totally straight, it takes a bit to gather the ‘deconstruction of the 60s’ vibe this album is trying to give off, since it plays as homage for most of the album. We love to think of the ‘60s, at least musically, as a love-friendly utopia of sorts, and yet this album takes those values and tries to retain them musically while still expressing the more complex realities of the era. I’m glad it’s played straight, as the instrumentals here really are the highlight. The bass, acoustics, percussion – hell, even the sitar on “Positive Vibrations” – all of it works well together, and each instrumental feels befitting of their titles & the lyrics. Yes, this includes “Old Pervert”, which is just so out there instrumentally to the point of feeling like it could fall apart at any second, that it just kind of makes the track & the freaky character under the bridge work with how hard they sell it. The commitment to playing it musically straight is what makes the album work; it’s the equivalent of watching a great parody movie to the point where you don’t realize it’s a parody.

For me, it’s a 5 – there’s just something appealing to it in both ways that really worked for me, and while a few tracks do have a bit of repetition to them, it’s a mostly breezy 36 minutes that feel worthwhile to listen to. I think the floor is a 3 if the lyricism just doesn’t click / appeal, but I think this album more than holds its own otherwise. I’m glad it’s on the list.

P.S.: If nothing else, I’m glad I can tell people the person who wrote “Walking on Sunshine” also wrote a song called “Old Pervert” years prior. That’s a real fact.

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

There’s a good sense of atmosphere here, but I just don’t think it ever gets married with a consistent enough vision. This album can’t decide if it wants to be moodier like The Cure or electronic like Depeche Mode, while dealing with its own crisis of the sole writer here taking potshots at his old bandmates instead of writing more fruitful lyrics, leading to a consistent yet dry soundscape & an inconsistent tonality to the album. I do think it generally sounds good despite the dryness of the soundscape, but there’s never a proper lift in any of these tracks that elevate them past being decently enjoyable. The tonality of this album is what hurts it the most; a few tracks carry a general analogy towards the Soviet Union & U.S. relations of the era as it relates to the band’s breakup & their own ‘cold war’ of sorts, but the introspection that comes with it initially is quickly replaced by a pettiness that just feels kinda childish.

“This Corrosion” is the prime suspect here, and it might be one of the most useless 9 minute tracks throughout all the tracks we’ve gotten across 910 albums so far. There is a line between making an intentionally bad track & a bad track. “This Corrosion” tries to be the former, but the problem with writing an unappealing song is that you just end up creating something unappealing. Frank Zappa knew how to make an unappealing vibe the blatant joke of a song, due in part to at least a healthy respect for the styles he was doing pastiches of. Andrew Eldritch, on the other hand, is a man who released a single under a different band name just to stop his former bandmates from being able to use said name. Do you think that warrants any kind of healthy respect? What results from it is just 9 minutes of utterly trite music that goes nowhere, especially due to a lack of instrumental progression. It is a waste of 9 minutes on the album that perhaps could’ve gone to making sure “Never Land” was a bit more than just the 3 minute fragment it ends up being.

Hence, a 3. A competent album, for sure, and when it finds its best grooves, it’s fun to listen to – “Lucretia My Reflection” is probably the highlight here, followed by “Flood II” & “Driven Like the Snow”. However, the album just sort of meanders without a top to bottom vision behind it, & with it being 45 minutes that largely don’t feel like they have something more meaningful to say, I just can’t find the throughline here to go any higher. I hear the appeal, but I don’t personally find it appealing. That said, I think it’s got a place on the list for those who do. For me, it’s just a 3.

I’m at a 5.

Just some good pained rage, really. Henry Rollins doesn’t have the most musical voice (and at times, he could definitely use a lozenge), but what he lacks in melody, he makes up for in spades with frustrated delivery. A lot of these tracks cover the woes of pained people & a desire to have that pain be seen, heard & perceived past the platitudes of the time. Whether it’s alcohol abuse, drug abuse, societal power dynamics & perception, or just the struggle of coping with constant suffering, this album lays it all out bluntly in a way that’s kind of impossible to ignore. Musically, while it’s a little bit reliant on walls of sound to create the backing atmosphere, when this album wants to turn up the guitar / drum work, it usually hits well, & I found myself enjoying most of the 35 minutes here. My biggest nitpick is that tracks do just abruptly end, though that might be a consequence of the streaming era not allowing the same flow as a vinyl might’ve had back then. I’m assuming the hard cuts on a record player would just go right into the next track in a slightly more satisfying way.

The only track that didn't really hit for me on a first pass was “Room 13”, if only because it’s rather repetitive & it just isn’t as effective as portraying pain as the tracks surrounding it. Other than that track, I’d say everything else worked for me. It’s not a great album from a purely musical standpoint, as the lack of a more traditional structure throughout does leave a slightly homogenized effect on the album. However, if you can find the empathy to actually hear what Henry is saying & see this album as the reflecting mirror of people’s struggles that it intends to be, what comes out of it is engaging & really entertaining. I think the 2.86 on the site is frustrating, because it just shows people are judging this on the sound & not the content inside. Yeah, I’d probably give this a 3 too if I were just going off of how it sounds, but the entire package hinges on feeling these tracks & truly listening. I think they did a great job of doing that while balancing a decent sense of musicality to everything, and for my tastes, it’s a pretty easy 5.

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

Great grooves across the board here, & some rather high highs among the 4 tracks present. Without any translated lyrics in front of me, I was forced to go off of a vibe for most of these, and thankfully, these all have great vibes for being recorded in 1984. Seriously, some of the layering in the production feels ahead of schedule by a few years. Since most of these tracks are a bit longer, there is a staleness that inevitably comes with them, especially since the percussion doesn’t move much. It’s not really an issue until “Badou”, which is just sort of a flat closing track to my ears, at least compared to the first 3. Other than that, the rest of this is really nice, and I found myself especially grooving to the music around the midway points of both “Pitche Mi” & “Taaw”.

There’s not too much else to say; I’m bumping it down to 4 just because of the slight staleness & “Badou” falling just a bit flat, but if anything hits just a bit more on a future relisten, this could easily go up to a 5. I think it’s a great representation of Senegalese music, a great pick for the list, and a really breezy 34 minutes that can’t hurt to listen to. I enjoyed it.

I’m practically at a 10. I’d be directly at a 10 if “Tiger” weren’t the last vocal track on the album.

Yeah, that’s my singular gripe here. I’ve never heard an ABBA album in full before today, and for the most part, I’m a little blind on their big hits outside of “Dancing Queen”, but… fuck me, they know how to do great pop music. For 1976, this feels like it’s at least 5 years ahead of schedule – the swirling instrumentals here combined with their harmonies just creates an easy listening bliss. You could listen to all 33 minutes here without paying a lick of attention to the lyrics & you’d probably still fall in love with this album. The most minor nitpick I have is that a few tracks get a touch repetitive, but it doesn’t matter for 90% of the album; this thing feels like hit after nuclear bomb after hit after hit after hit after mega hit after hit after hit & then Tiger, & then hit again.

Look, it’s not even a bad track. I liked it; great vocals, good pulse to the percussion, nice chord progression, et cetera. However, every other track paints a great story with its lyrics, even if those lyrics tend to feel simple. “Tiger” does not. I don’t know who or what the tiger is, & while there’s a sense of fear from the threats involved, it just doesn’t feel as potent as it’s trying to be. Compositionally, it’s overly reliant on its chorus (3 times in 90 seconds!) & bridge (can’t do that beat change twice, I fear). Without sharing the same conceptual legs as the 8 tracks behind it, it just feels a bit flat for it to be the final vocal track on the album. Hell, if it were earlier in the album, it’d be totally fine! Sure, you can remedy this in the streaming era by listening to “Fernando” after “Arrival”, but that’s not how the album was released in 1976. “Fernando” is great, by the way. “Tiger” is the singular minor blemish here, if only because it just sticks out compared to the rest. That said, the other 9 tracks here are so goddamn good that one pop track slightly below a super high bar cannot possibly bring this down.

Ultimately, it’s just 30 minutes of pop bliss (& 3 extra minutes of slightly lesser city-based bliss) that deserves all the acclaim it gets. I frankly need to listen to way more ABBA if it’s all this good. I understand if people might be annoyed by such tightly crafted discopop, especially since it’s all a bit bubbly & happy compared to some people’s musical diets, but you can’t deny the musicality at hand here. For my pop loving brain, it’s a 10.

I’m at a 5. Maybe a little higher, even.

I was skeptical as hell going into this, especially with the 2.97 on the site. I know Ice-T’s career has been boiled down to “the Law & Order guy” these days, and I’m as guilty of falling into that as anyone. I knew he was a rapper, but I assumed the reason he transitioned into acting was just because he wasn’t quite at the same level as his peers. My assumption going into this was that it would be a totally fine 72 minutes that only had a handful of good tracks & the rest would all prove me right.

I am so glad to have been so fucking ignorant – Ice-T can fucking rap. This is as good as any early ‘90s rap project we’ve gotten so far, and as a bit of a swan song to the late ‘80s style of the genre blended with just a touch of the West Coast style to come, I think it knocks everything out of the park. It does start a little slowly with the trio of skits (with “Home of the Bodybag” as an especially strange starting point for the album), but once everything truly kicks off with “Mic Contract”, this thing shoots into overdrive. Given that there’s 24 tracks here, leaving notes on each one would feel bloated, but make no mistake – practically all of the main tracks have merit to them. I think my very favorites are “New Jack Hustler”, the title track, “Midnight”, & everything from “Lifestyles of the Rich & Infamous” onward, but they’ve all got something cool behind them, whether it’s in Ice-T’s fast flow, a great atmosphere from some of the best early ‘90s beats I’ve heard, a surprise shift to a metal rap vibe on “Body Count”, or some really strong storytelling that sits just behind Public Enemy’s style as some of the best rap of the era. Really, I’m stunned.

I think for my tastes, Ice-T’s album has easily beaten out Ice Cube’s “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”, which is a genuine surprise that I wouldn’t have predicted. There’s way less misogyny (yes, even on “Bitches 2”), there’s way more concise messaging with a stronger intent behind it (especially near the end of the album), there’s an outright rejection of homophobia on a few tracks (genuinely progressive for gangster rap of the era), and I think the beats, flows & storytelling are all better. This is one of the best early ‘90s rap albums we’ve gotten so far, and to say that 907 albums deep is a real surprise to me. With time, this could genuinely get up to a 10. It’s that damn good. Even the skits & shorter tracks fly by in a way that makes them feel less like filler & more like appropriate interludes to pace out the album well. I’ve never been happier to be wrong about someone’s talent & acclaim – Ice-T really might be the original gangster. I think this is a 5, if not a bit higher. Great pick for the list.

I’m at a 2.

Look, I can see why people enjoyed this one. It’s got a fun enough soundscape to it, it’s got some good bouncy melodies, the lyricism is fine enough, and the vocals are so buried in the mix that they only feel like a guide to push towards enhancing the instrumental atmosphere. If you can turn your brain off enough to enjoy this, more power to you. I can’t turn my brain off enough, at least for this one.

It’s just so aggressively average compared to its contemporaries. My best compliment that I can give here is that, with the heavier use of synths / soundbank-heavy instruments, the production work here feels like a natural precursor to what Pharrell & The Neptunes would later integrate with actual instrumentation (or at least, far better MIDI soundscapes) by their production run in the early 2000s. Something like “A Little Knowledge” feels like a track The Neptunes could clean up and try to let Justin Timberlake salvage with a good featured partner to riff off of. A lot of these tracks share that sense of potential. There’s only two of them that really met it to my ears, being “Perfect Way” & “Lover to Fall”. 2 tracks out of 9, however, do not make an album. The other 7 tracks here are totally, utterly fine, so much so that I’m willing to say I’m closer to a 2.5 than a flat 2.

However, I’d still be going down regardless, as the flaws of this album just overwhelm most of the light positives that do exist. The production work here is fine enough as a loose hybrid of 80s synthpop & shades of the New Jack Swing era to come, but it’s so utterly drenched in big brass, gated drums & reverb that it makes the vocals nigh impossible to break through. When they do break through, Green Gartside’s vocals are somehow enunciating every word & stumbling through them at the same time, leading to a mismatched effect where I can’t understand a fucking word he’s saying unless I have the lyrics in front of me. Even then, I’m just not very moved by the lyricism, as I have no idea what the fuck most of these tracks are even trying to say at a deeper level. There’s concepts here, certainly, but nothing feels lived in or legitimate. Even with something like “Perfect Way”, you just can’t convince me he’s actually got the charisma to pull this girl & or any girl in the way that he’s bragging about. I can believe it when MJ is singing “Baby Be Mine” at the top of his lungs with passion. I can’t believe it when Green Gartside has “a perfect way to make a justification”.

Hence, a 2. More of a 2.5 bumped down to a 2, but still. It’s just an uninspiring 39 minutes that barely go anywhere as an album to my ears, and while I respect the opinions of reviewers at the time, I think the Spin review that says “no disco was ever this sublime” is one of the most batshit insane sentences I could possibly imagine in response to an album like this. Disco was already dead. You didn’t need to lift this up to piss on a grave buried 100 feet deep, and even then, if you were calling THIS better than Earth, Wind & Fire or Kool & The Gang, I might just straight up call you racist. It’s a 2. I don’t think it needed to be on the list.

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

This is SO close to being a great album from start to finish, but it just falls short on a handful of tracks for me. Their sense of atmosphere here, while not as polished & immersive as it is on “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space”, is certainly already a marked improvement over what was on “Playing With Fire” from the Spaceman 3 days. When this album is at its best, it gets kinda close to that floating vibe; not in space, but at least a few feet off the ground, and most potently on “Shine a Light”, which might be the best track here. This album’s slow drift from a rock-driven soundscape to a more atmospheric & spiritually driven one by the end is done relatively well, & as a total package, I think the entire hour is used pretty effectively.

It’s the snags along the way that are dropping this from a 4.5 that had the potential to bump up to a 4.5 that will go down to a 4, though I still think it’s an album worth one’s time. The first snag is, ironically, the opener – I think “You Know It’s True” just isn’t very striking as a tonesetter for the entire project, at least from a listener’s perspective. It fits thematically with the rest of the album, but it doesn’t do a great job of actually showcasing what the album at large is going to sound like. There’s no real evolution in the track until it’s nearly done, and even then, it just feels like instrumentation for the sake of it.

The second snag, though not as big of a snag, is “Symphony Space” – I’m all for a great atmospheric track when it’s done well, and while I think this is a really good listen & a fascinating soundscape to sit in, it never hooked me in with a broader sense of an actual musical narrative. I know that’s weird to say, but my imagination didn’t hit the same potent points as it did on the tracks leading up to it. It’s a good soundscape, but the lack of an actual evolution / shift in the soundscape at all never gave me the outstretched hand to feel something deeper from it. It’s certainly a track that could hit differently on another day, but on a first pass here, it just felt like 6 minutes of a car ride with nothing but grass to see out the windows.

The third snag is the last track, “200 Bars” – it’s just a little flat as a closing track, & one that doesn’t feel like it properly wraps up the album. The concept is cool, & using the length of the track itself is a novel idea, but the first 100 bars don’t do a great job of selling the sense of inevitability that’s meant to be portrayed here. The soundscape is a bit stagnant & the counting feels a bit trite. After that, the final 100 bars feel a bit too folksy in a way that just doesn’t mesh with the first 100. It’s a track with missed potential, and as the final track to a portion of the album that seemed to have a much more spiritual lean, it doesn’t really thematically fit either.

I know focusing on the negatives doesn’t feel too great, so here’s a bit of scattered praise for the rest of the tracks: “If I Were with Her Now” does a good job of earning its big layered outro, “I Want You” has a really good soundscape behind its lyrics, “Run” has a nice Beatles-y vibe, “Smiles” is short but effective, “Step into the Breeze” feels like sex mixed with spirituality, “Take Your Time” (while monotonous) does a good job of expressing its frustrations with the ignorant, “Shine a Light” has an incredible sense of progression with its plea to God, “Angel Sigh” does a great job with its explosive guitar work, & “Sway” (while awkwardly structured) is an interesting take on bearing one’s sins.

Those other 9 tracks here range from good to great, and the entire album is generally enjoyable. However, those three snags, especially the last one, are why I feel inclined to bump this down to a 4, though it is an album with the potential to bump itself back up someday. If nothing else, I was hoping for an album that had at least 70% of what made “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space” feel so good to listen to, and I think I got that. The basis of that album is here, and their overall style feels well established for a debut album. I just wish it had a little bit more behind it, to really immerse the listener more in the well-intentioned tones of each track. Regardless, it’s a 4.5 that could go back up someday, but for now, it’s a recommended 4. I’m glad it’s on the list.

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

I mean, you can’t say the album doesn’t fucking rip from an instrumental standpoint. The fury from the guitars & percussion feels absurdly potent on each track, and with the shorter runtime here compared to the 72 minutes of “Roots”, the overall energy just feels a lot stronger & more focused. It’s incredible to listen to, and when they’re at their best, it feels like an unstoppable force that’s up there with some of the best thrash metal of the era.

The problem with this album, however, is the complete lack of bigger variety – practically every track here starts with a diatribe about how it sucks to be born, how the human race is doomed, & how existing is torture, & how Earth needs to be purged of its sickness as a planet to have a chance at existing, or some other relatively defeatist line of thinking. Coming off of something as positive & optimistic as “Definitely Maybe”, it’s just highly jarring. It wouldn’t be a big issue if it weren’t the same thing on every single fucking track, creating a homogenization that underlines the whole thing in a bad way.

If their instruments are an unstoppable force, then both Cavalera’s & Kisser’s lyrics are the immovable object, with a persistence towards cynicism that just drags the whole thing down a bit. Honestly, if there was just a bit more variety & a bigger sense of atmosphere (ala Megadeth or Metallica) as opposed to just going full throttle on every track, I’d feel pretty inclined to be near a 5. As it stands, the entire album experience feels longer than the 42 minute runtime on account of each track feeling way too similar, no matter how technically talented they are here. It’s a good set of tracks, but not a super cohesive album.

I’m just not too surprised at the 2.73 here – it’s great to listen to, but it just doesn’t feel as engaging as it could be. I think it definitely deserves to be on the list for its country’s representation, & since someone else won’t care as much about the lyrics & just fucking rock out to the instrumentals (deservedly so). For me, it's a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a 4, though just barely.