Reviews by mitch058

Given how many artists have far too many albums in this collection (here's looking at you, PJ Harvey, Morrissey et al, and even Nick Cave, David Bowie, etc.) it's a bit shocking that there's only one Cat Stevens album, and that it would come in at #952, but I'm very glad we got at least one of his classic albums. I doubt I've ever listened to an entire Cat Stevens album, aside from a greatest-hits compilation, so it was fun to listen to more than half of this album for the first time. Aside from the from the timeless classics that I've heard a zillion times (willingly), I also enjoyed the new-to-me tracks "Hard headed woman", "Sad Lisa" and "Into white". I know it's a pretty sentimental response to him, but I feel like his voice and guitar work alone can make almost any song sound great; what a fantastic album.

It's perhaps not fair, but my first reaction to seeing that we got a solo Syd Barrett album was "where's any of Roger Waters' solo albums"? Sadly, things didn't get much better after that, mainly because I'm not a fan of Barrett's psychedelic music stylings (with or without Pink Floyd). I'm sure it didn't help his case either that this seemed largely a charity effort for everyone involved, given how much he'd spiraled down into his mental health issues (or whatever or however one could characterize his beyond-eccentric and challenging behavior). There are a few decent-to-good spots on the album, though, mainly the Donovan-/Rodriguez-esque "It's no good trying", "Dark globe" and "Long gone"; on the other hand, "If it's in you" is execrable. I'm also struck with how similar his voice (and lyrics) remind me of Leonard Cohen, which is a weird connection to make, I'll admit.

I'll admit too that I was kind of shocked to read that Barrett lived into the 21st century, dying in 2006 of pancreatic cancer after decades painting and gardening in a country house; I always assumed that when he got booted from Pink Floyd in 1968, and then made a solid impression of a disturbed homeless guy when he visited Pink Floyd at Abbey Road Studios while they were recording "Wish You Were Here" (5 years after this album was released), that he'd disappeared not long afterwards (either permanently institutionalized or dead). Apparently not, and his family claimed that he didn't seem to have significant mental health issues from the 80s onwards. Regardless, I would have much preferred to have Waters' "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking" in place of this mess, though.

I don't think I've ever heard anything by this duo, and I'm glad I can now finally say I have. There's shades of De La Soul and other members of the Native Toungues collective, but Guru's lyrics and delivery are often a cut above the others, while DJ Premier's old-school scratches and samples are equally impressive. It's also fun to have so much jazz interwoven in the smooth and laid-back tracks, although by the midpoint I was wishing there was a little more variety in the songs. My favorites were probably most of their singles, especially "Step in the arena" (with a fun video), "Who's gonna take the weight?", "Take a rest" and "Just to get a rep", as well as a few others like "Here today, gone tomorrow" and the final track "The meaning of the name". A very solid semi-debut for a relatively long-lasting duo (although sad to see that Guru died of a heart attack in 2010).

There are definitely far too many Metallica albums in this collection, but it would have been a shame not to have this one that not only launched them into the arenosphere, but also was the catalyst for transforming the (American?) metalscape into the unholy four horsemen of the apocalypse (Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeath). I've never really found a way to embrace Metallica the way I know I should--although I *will* say that "Fade to black" from "Ride the Lightning" is one of my favorite songs of all time--and I think it's in large part because they always sounded too precise and antiseptic and dispassionate, especially starting with this album. Despite that, they produced a number of classic (and somewhat interchangeable) songs with this album, especially "Battery", the title track, "Welcome home (sanitarium)" and "Damage, Inc.".

I enjoyed reading a few odd tidbits on the Wikipedia entry: (1) they really wanted to get Geddy Lee (from Rush) to produce the album, but the timing didn't work out; (2) apparently Cliff Burton (RIP) and Kirk Hammett were/are big Bowie fans, and even managed to pull a riff from Bowie's "Andy Warhol" into the title track; and (3) Stranger Things season 4 created a new legion of Spotify fans for "Master of puppets", placing them just behind Kate Bush and "Running up the hill" (also featured in Season 4). I never really expected to see Metallica and Kate Bush in the same sentence, I must admit, but kind of satisfying that they couldn't quite place *ahead* of her....

Although I've known their name for decades, I don't think I've actually heard much before this album by the hallowed Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, except of course the title track. I'm really impressed with how much funk they unleashed on several of the songs--especially "She's fresh", but also the electro-funk of "Scorpio" and the bonus track "The adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the wheels of steel"--which helps makes the *very* dated-sounding rap rhyming patterns a lot more palatable and entertaining, and also nice to get a non-George-Clinton-associated album with great bass lines. About half of the album are duds, mainly the non-rap-oriented ballads "It's a shame", the Stevie-Wonder tribute "Dreamin'", and "You are", but despite that it's an impressively fun and well-produced album.

It seems kind of weird, and unfortunate, that we get three Kanye West albums in this collection, and this seems like the second least interesting of the lot despite his constantly avowed self-proclaimed status as the GOAT artist. That's certainly been one of the best aspects of this project, though, as I can now confidently declare that while Kanye West has some good moments, he's not anywhere close to having produced an unquestionably great album, let alone the best of all time (at least for me). And I'll definitely say that this album is more interesting than "The College Dropout", so that's nice. The best of the lot for me were probably "Black Skinhead", "Hold my liquor" and "Send it up" (sort of), although West's determination to offend everyone with his lyrics makes it hard to enjoy much of this album. I was also disappointed that despite all the accolades that he had reinvented himself and hip-hop with this 2013 album, it sounded somehow more dated than his earlier "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", or perhaps just a bit/lot more monotonic, and it felt like his social commentary (such as it is) is pretty shallow and disingenuous overall. It's pretty funny to read that he felt inspired by minimalist design/architecture aesthetics (to the extent that he visited the same Louvre furniture exhibit five times and obsessed over a single Le Corbusier lamp as his inspiration), given that I just got OMD's "Architecture And Morality" album, which probably could have given him better direction than his warped muses. Impressive, though, that this avowedly anti-commercial album sold as well as it did.

Meh. I'm not sure either this album or "Murmur" really need to be in this collection, although there's nothing wrong with this one all told. Given how "Green" plays out, it's kind of ironic that they decided with this album to stop playing REM-sounding songs and apparently were trying for a more eclectic approach; it's hard to imagine (at this point at least) anything *less* REM-like than "Stand" or "Orange crush". A bit of a bummer too that they never seemed to figure out how to make a decent video across all the collection's albums.

I'd wondered if we'd get any OMD in this collection, and here we are. I never really enjoyed the whole synth-pop/new-wave sound back in the day, so I never really listened to anything by OMD outside of their radio-dominant singles, and there are a couple of those here that are *very* familiar ("Souvenir" and "Joan of Arc" (not sure which version, but maybe "Maid of Orleans" version?). The rest of the album is new to me, and an interesting enough mix of early 80s new wave, especially with the focus on religion.

I know it's an anachronistic metaphor, but OMD has often seemed to me to be the iPhone of synth-pop. They didn't really bring anything particularly original to the genre, but they figured out with this album and onward how to position themselves as somehow more interesting *and* popular than the likes of Pet Shop Boys, Softcell, Human League, even Tears For Fears or Duran Duran. That alone is impressive.

Even though I've heard of Gil Scott-Heron (or at least his name), I've never really known much of anything about him, nor knowingly heard any of his and Brian Jackson's songs. (Technically, I suppose I *have* heard something from Scott-Heron, namely the classic "The revolution will not be televised", plus all the samples from his works by later rap/hip-hop artists, but until now I didn't have a name for the voice.) This album is a *great* introduction to a very talented and thoughtful duo, to say the least. As I listened, I kept thinking that *this* kind of musical social commentary is what several other 70s albums in this collection tried to do but failed in various ways--Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On", Funkadelic's "One Nation Under A Groove", Sly & The Family Stone's "There's A Riot Goin' On", even Fela Kuti's "Zombie". Admittedly, it's a little uneven at times, but very few tracks seem at all dated (except perhaps the acidic "H2Ogate blues", but it's an entertaining relief valve), and all of them feel just as relevant in 2026 as they likely did in 1974. A shame that the title track didn't make it onto the album proper, as it's arguably even better than the rest, and sadly as prophetic today as it was in Nixon's America (what a sad but true line "democracy is ragtime on the corner / hoping for some rain"). Probably the biggest accolade I can give is that, after reading about the album and Scott-Heron's/Jackson's history, I went and listened to their earlier (1972) "Free Will", which was also impressive, and while it's not as accomplished as "Winter in America", I'm guessing it was even more of an inspiration for the likes of Public Enemy as this album.

I know of Joan Armatrading by name, but this is definitely the most I've ever heard by her, and I can definitely see why this album was included in the collection. Although I can sort of see why some critics compared her to Joni Mitchell, that seems unfair to both of them and especially Armatrading. I enjoy her style (at least on this album) much more than Mitchell's, and it feels like Armatrading is a much more accomplished composer--and guitarist--as well. My favorites are probably the great opening track "Down to zero", the impressive trio "Save me"/"Join the boys"/"People", and the Jeff-Beck-reminiscent "Tall in the saddle". (I know "Love and affection" is considered her best song on the album, but there was something a bit too Laurie-Anderson-like in it for my tastes.) And kudos to her for getting a great producer (Glyn Johns) and for recruiting great session musicians from Fairport Convention and The Faces.

It's fun--and surprisingly rare--to get two in a row new (to me) artists/bands and albums that I really enjoyed. And in retrospect, yesterday's Beth Orton album seems very mainstream compared to Wild Beast's "Two Dancers"; the Wikipedia entry claims that this album is their top-selling one (presumably because of the Mercury Prize nomination) and by 2018 had about 55K sales in the UK. They have a very distinctive sound, and I'll admit it takes a while to acclimate to Hayden Thorpe's very convincing falsetto as much as the band's eclectic style, but despite all of that I enjoyed everything (and also appreciated having equal weight for Tom Fleming's lead vocals on alternating tracks). There are aspects of Radiohead, TV On the Radio, LCD Soundsystem and even The War on Drugs at times, but not in a derivative way, and I enjoyed the oddball videos to "Hooting & howling", "All the king's men" (which totally reminded me of the video for "Stillness is the move" by Dirty Projectors) and "We still got the taste dancin' on our tongues". Best of all, there aren't really any duds, assuming you find your way into their groove; my only regret was that we didn't get their first single from the previous album, "Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants". Well done, Dirty Beasts!

An interesting choice for Beth Orton, since it's *not* her debut album, but I suppose it was her most successful album as of 2005, and it's all new to me, which is great. As I listened to the album I felt like the name and voice seemed vaguely familiar, and then read that she'd collaborated on various Chemical Brothers tracks in the 90s, and finally she clicked. I kind of wish we'd gotten her earlier "Trailer Park" album, which sounds like it might play more to her strengths of a great voice over electronica sounds. But aside from the too-slow Nora-Jones-esque tracks that kind of fall flat--like "Sweetest decline", "So much more" or even "Love like laughter" (despite Ben Harper's guitar)--it's a solid album overall and kept me going despite the too-long length. The best of the lot are the songs with great collaborators: "Stolen car" (Ben Harper), "Pass in time" (William Orbit), and "Stars all seem to weep" and the "The Then Again Version" of the title track (both with Ben Watt, of "Everything But the Girl"), as well as "Blood red river". I'm really torn about whether this is a 3- or 4-star album, since it's so much better than most three-stars. but perhaps not strong enough for four? Rounding up I guess.

Although I can definitely understand why this album, especially the UK version, was so well-received at the time, to me it's so much less interesting than their later "London Calling". It bleeds UK/London punk, and thankfully the songs have a lot more musical cohesion (and talent and even variety) than a lot of their contemporary ilk, so it's clearly a classic, but it doesn't speak to me all that much. I *did* appreciate it, though, that most of (if not all of) the album was largely new to me, although too bad that the UK version didn't include some of their early classic singles like "I fought the law". Admittedly, some of the tracks haven't aged well, especially "White riot" (either version), which even if it wasn't intended to be racist, it doesn't really have a great message (or title). I particularly enjoyed "Career opportunities" and their cover of "Police and thieves", and kept thinking as I listened to the album that *this* is the kind of hard-edged album UB40 wanted to make with their debut.

Another new-to-me artist and album, and particularly nice that it's sampling of early 21st-century hip-hop-esque from across the pond. I'm not entirely sure why nearly every hip-hop album (at least the ones we've gotten in this album) seems to require at least an hour playtime, especially because so few albums are strong enough to sustain themselves that long, but at least "A Little Deeper" avoids much if any filler/skits/demos. Her style(s) and sound didn't really resonate with me, and at times (like "Put him out") I was painfully reminded of some of the pop albums we've had (like Christina Aguilera's "Stripped"), but in general it seemed fine, although I do wish she didn't sound so much like Lauryn Hill. Highlights are few and far between, but "Dy-na-mi-tee" and "Danger" definitely stand out, with a couple of nods to her big hit "It takes more" and track "Krazy krush". (Funny too how "Gotta let U know" sounds a lot like Justin Bieber's much later "Love yourself", while "Ramp" sounds a lot like a MIA song (or probably vice versa).)

Nice to get a Frank black solo album, and one that's apparently considered his best solo effort. I happen to own a much later Frank Black album that I've enjoyed over the years, "Fast Man Raider Man", and I was kind of hoping this one would have a similar mellow vibe, but this is definitely more active and eclectic and retains a lot of his Pixies-era riffs and style. I'm not entirely sure it needs to be an hour long, but I enjoy his music much more than a number of other 60-minute-plus albums we've gotten in the collection, so it's definitely not a hardship. My favorites are probably the ones that evoke the Pixies--"Callistan", "The vanishing spies", his single "Headache" (with a great video)--as well as the mellow "Sir Rockaby" and "Fiddle Riddle". I also enjoyed the overall quirkiness of the album, down to the Jonah-Hill-impression photo on the album cover (and the album title apparently was a real award that 1970s Frank Black/Black Francis/Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV received in high school from the Westport (MA) Kiwanis Club). (Start with "Fiddle Riddle")

Wow--this may be 22 years after their previous album, which was itself nearly a half-decade after their debut album, but the opening tracks sound an awful like they--or really Kevin Shields--just hopped into a time machine to steal back their sounds from the later 80s and early 90s. Admittedly, they started recording large parts of this album in 1996, and then again in 2006, and then again in 2011-2012 but all the same, talk about arrested development.... I *did* appreciate it that the album's sound begins to morph ever so slightly with the blissfully guitar-free "is this and yes" onwards, and "nothing is" and "wonder 2" wrap things up with a mighty thunder of drum machines and sheer sound (even if it's all still very retro). If nothing else, this album is convincing proof that I'm just not a fan of this band. And pretty interesting to note that Shields was 28 when "Loveless" was released, and he turned 50 when this album came out. That's a lot of water under the bridge. And pooh sticks.

Meh. What I liked: a decent number of often-interesting guest artists (not just producer Eminem), a surprising number of decent-production-quality videos (except maybe "Back down" and the bonus-track videos), decent lyrics at times, no filler skits. Tired: too many tracks about the life and styles and travails of career gangster rappers (even if he *did* get shot 9 times and survived, the world really didn't need a 21st-century version of Tupac), not much in the way of musical variety beyond driving bass and drum machine beats and spoken lyrics over the occasional sampled strings ("P.I.M.P" a notable exception), too much of 50-Cent showing off his body. Highlights: "Patiently waiting", "In da club", "Poor lil' rich", "Don't push me". Amusing factoid: "In da club" and this album was the first to get Billboard's #1 spot on their single- and album-of-the-year charts (respectively) since Ace of Base's "The Sign" won both in 1994; probably not often you get those two names in the same sentence....

Odd (and a little annoying) that at album #935 this is only the first of two Todd Rundgren albums, and a massively long one at that. And while I respect his (fairly arrogant) decision to forego studio musicians and try out playing all the instruments himself, I think that contributes to the generic-sounding pop songs through at least the first three sides (apparently the fourth side was recorded in New York with session players chosen by his future Utopia bandmate Moogy Klingman); given the lackluster results, I doubt anyone is putting him up there with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Prince, Trent Reznor, etc. And his somewhat questionable decision to get amped up (and down) on Ritalin and THC undoubtedly contributed to far-too-numerous and generally boring/mediocre songs across the various thematic sides of this album. Aside from the higher energy side four, too many of the songs made me think of the opening credit songs for 70s/80s sitcoms, so there weren't a lot of highlights for me, sadly, but the most interesting seemed to be "Wolfman Jack" (despite the unfortunate falsetto), "I went to the mirror", "Black Maria" and his faster-paced version of Nazz's "Hello it's me". On the positive side, it seems that Rundgren really liked this self-produced, self-taught and self-played album. Apparently Axl Rose too, at least in 1989.

It's a shame that this debut album arrived in my playlist long after their followup album, as I suspect this would have been more interesting to have heard before the more eclectic "Dog Man Star". It's kind of interesting to hear the beginnings of Britpop in this offering, but by the same token it feels a lot more anemic and one-dimensional than Pulp's "Different Class" or Blur's "Parklife"; sadly, the videos for their various singles don't help fill out their image or sound or presence. And while I know this album's sound seems to be compared to The Smiths or David Bowie, I'll admit they remind me a lot more of harder-edged version of James from the early 90s ("Seven" and "Laid"), which probably wasn't what they were shooting for. A decent debut, I suppose, but nothing special, with only a few highlights, especially "Pantomime horse".

Given the wealth of Paul Weller-related albums in this collection, I feel like this one should have been the only Jam album included. I actually found "All Mod Cons" a more entertaining album than I'd expected, but I'll admit it doesn't seem all that different from "Sound Affects", and the latter includes their immortal hit "That's Entertainment" (although strange that "Start" was the lead (and only?) single when the album was released). The rest of the album has fairly classic Jam-sounding tunes (albeit a bit monochromatic aside from the first half of "Music for the last couple"), and the sort of Kinks'-style channeling of British everyman lyrics that seem to go down sad and dark paths far from a village green; the highlights for me were "Pretty green", "Start" (even with the borrowed Beatles lead-off bass line), "That's entertainment", and "Scrape away". I kind of wish the Style Council album isn't still ahead for me--this album seems like the pinnacle of Weller's musical career and would have been a nice ending point.