Reviews by meemesker

This album starts fairly strong but loses momentum about halfway through and peters outs.

I used to think I liked Britpop. Then I started 1001...

This anachronistic covers album has no place on the list.

Bowie had several iconic singles before this, but Ziggy Stardust is his first truly iconic album as a whole.

The apex of his rock trilogy and the second classic album he recorded and released in 1965. I absolutely love the way he uses Highway 61 as a conceptual link to tie his inspirations together. 5 stars for "Like a Rolling Stone" alone, but 5 stars for all of it.

There was a time, before Kid A came out, that I would've given this 5 stars. But like the Beatles, Stones, etc., the heights they went on to reach ended up making their quite excellent initial output almost pale in comparison. These are good songs, but the thing that I really love about Radiohead is the texture. There are glimmers of that here, but it doesn't create a completely immersive atmosphere. Also, a fair amount of these tracks are emotional songs about interpersonal relationships, etc. When this came out that worked for me, since that was still an important aspect of my life. But as I get older, I simply prefer wallowing in the existential dread they went on to perfect in subsequent albums.

They sound like they're trying to be deliberately annoying. Like they're making a Britpop album, but they feel slightly guilty and self conscious about it, so they do it all tongue in cheek and sarcastic. Also has a weird sort of showtune undercurrent to it - like it could be the soundtrack to some pretentious musical.

Though the sentiment may be sincere, the performance seems a bit affected.

A fun ride.

Every time I listen to Aretha Franklin I am reminded of this quote from Billy Preston: "I don’t care what they say about Aretha. She can be hiding out in her house in Detroit for years. She can go decades without taking a plane or flying off to Europe. She can cancel half her gigs and infuriate every producer and promoter in the country. She can sing all kinds of jive-ass songs that are beneath her. She can go into her diva act and turn off the world. But on any given night, when that lady sits down at the piano and gets her body and soul all over some righteous song, she’ll scare the shit out of you. And you’ll know—you’ll swear—that she’s still the best fuckin’ singer this fucked-up country has ever produced."

An artist trying to maintain relevance by chasing current musical trends and modifying their image. Not a total embarrassment, but not really a cohesive statement either. This vacillated between 3 and 2 for me, but I will go with 2 since there were several tracks I really had the urge to skip.

Big fan of Bad Brains. Had this one on vinyl back in the day. HR's vocals are so memorable and infectious. But I'm kinda confused as to why this album is on the list vs their self titled debut from '82, which I think is much more potent. This album has them leaning more into metal, and I suppose it might be more innovative, even influential, in that way, but I guess I prefer them more strictly hardcore. I'm with Adam Yauch in that I think the "yellow album" is the best hardcore punk album of all time. "I against I" shows they were at least as versatile as they were ferocious. This 5 stars is for all of Bad Brains since this is, unfortunately, their only showing on the list.

Sounds like it came from the mid 90s (and not in a good way).

Certainly is a cartoonish postmodern hodgepodge. Never really got the "virtual band" thing - found it kind of gimmicky - but there are some cool tunes buried within the excessive CD era runtime.

They stumble on their own cleverness.

Certainly aren't the only ones to make this kind of forgettable rock.

This walks a fine line between the synth pop sound of its time and real experimentation. So many odd details throughout, but nothing that's off-putting or alienating. Just makes you feel a bit woozy. The tales of their decadence and playful insanity while recording the album are as entertaining as the resulting work itself.

There are 2 Christina albums on this list?! "Stripped" at least seemed authentic. This one seems a bit forced.

The Sex Pistols were a publicity stunt. The Clash were the real deal.

I feel like calling this shoegaze is a misnomer. It's more like third eye complete dissociation staring into the void. They hit a nearly perfectly balanced hypnotic minimalism here that I love to crawl inside, lay down, and just let it wash over me. This is their best album, and I actually prefer it to what came later with Spiritualized - perhaps due to it being slightly more raw and stripped down. Sounds equally good on headphones as I imagine it would live. I would have loved to have seen them perform this in its day, but alas, I was only 9 years old, and was more into Batman than drugs.