Reviews by nirutam2

In the dreaded category of “I like it but it as much as I am supposed to I think.” Like the Royal Albert Hall album from Dylan I think it matters more as history than as music. But then again how many people know about Leadbelly because of this? I’m not attached enough to give it a 5 but I understand how many do.

I enjoy Annie Lennox but had only ever heard the hits. Wow. So much more going on here than I thought. I’d had expected a New Wave nostalgia trip but was unexpectedly moved at so many moments. It may be up there with Songs from the Big Chair for me now.

Another one of those missing links in the punk evolutionary chain. Not sure I will return to it but glad I heard it.

All my friends got into Nick Drake in high school and I’m sure jr was because of the dang “Pink Moon” commercial. We all had a compilation album called “Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake.” I eventually got sick of both… he just seemed like any other singer-songwriter… and didn’t fall back in love when encountering the Pink Moon album in this list. But THIS moved me. I can see how it all fits together as a statement lyrically and musically and how it set a template for so much that followed. I’d put this on any time.

My assumption was that with the exception of Young, any CSNY-verse album that was was than CSN would be inderioe. So this one snuck up on me both in its gnarlier moments and more harmonious moments. I will have to return to explore it more.

Can’t say I really get the point of this one.

Everything you would want from an album in 1994. Undoubtedly alternative but with the punk and riot grrrl influences plain to see. A fresh and feminist point of view that is still more art than politics. Unforgettable singles and deep tracks that sound like they were meant to only be comprehended after a dozen listens. I’m lucky to have grown up in a time where I can could take an album this good for granted… I don’t anymore.

There were certain bands my friends and I listened to in high school because it felt like we could write the same songs. This feels like it belongs to this category but i have no attachment to it. Not terrible but can’t hear anything memorable either.

The Stooges are kind of like The Kinks for me in that sometimes they seem like the essential ingredient to punk and other times they seem sort of dull. I usually load up all the albums and listen to them when I’m doing something in the garage and just let the whole Iggy vibe wash over me indiscriminately.

Giving a four to get another classic of American music. I don’t ever really wake up, thinking I want to listen to Fats Domino specifically, but I do think everyone should go to New Orleans and walk around and get a sense of where all this music came from.

Now “who’s that lady” will be stuck in my head for another year. I love the slightly manic quality of some of the vocals, which I feel like ended up as part of OutKast’s sound.

Solid jukebox hits not an album. I’m likely to return to, but it gets a four because I am a sucker for Bacharach.

Didn't move me. Not my kind of jazz, whatever that means.

Normally I can't think of anything more boring than contemporary blues rock, but these guys have always been cooler than the form. And weird enough to keep my interest. But mostly I just have "La Grange" stuck in my head all day.

Should win an award for album that looks most like how it sounds. I've been in a slow burn infatuation with Duran Duran for a while. I had always thought of them as kind of a corny 80s band but then I had this week where all I wanted to do was listen to "Come Undone" over and over again. "Rio" I could still take or leave; "Hungry Like the Wolf" is essential. In the other tracks, I heard all the things I want from New Wave and many elements of other music I like today, so it's a solid 4 for me.

Not what I expected from UB40, but also not enough to make me a fan.

Love Christine and the Queens. Glad they’re on the list. This is one that has wandered into my algorithm many times and that I eventually sought out on my own. Not sure if I had listened to this particular album all the way through. Not in my top albums of all time but one I’d happily put on any day.

Oh yeah this one. I think of it as quirky, folky S&G, “Old Friends” and “At the Zoo.” I forget that it contains this sorta half baked concept album (not worth thinking about except it yielded a great photo for the album cover). But I also forget that mixed in there are also America, Mrs. Robinson, and A Hazy Shade of Winter. It might be a 3 for me if not for those hits… I think I’d give jr a 4 if it only had America and the rest or it was mediocre.

k.d. lang's voice and artistry are so consistently choice... when I hear her, I wonder why I don't listen to her every day. At the same time, at least with this album, I get kind of lost in the country music jukebox feeling. That's not entirely bad... as Xander Harris said, "I'm gonna go home and listen to country music, the music of pain." k.d. makes it just the right kind of bittersweet.

This one has been with me most of my life. I grew up in a house where folk-country and alt-country were sacred music, and this is one of the canonical texts. As a result there is a lot of it that I don't really care to hear most days... I only heard the hokiness and the schmaltz in the first few tracks anymore. Yet I'll never not love "Hickory Wind." In fact revisiting it for the project I realize how much I truly love the less prominent songs, which pushes it up to a four for me.