Rated 8/10
American Pie is a classic, I always thought it was such a neat song to encapsulate so much of the 60s.
It's singer-songwriter week for me apparently. I do like his voice though, and it works well with the minimal instrumentation. Really enjoyable, but not sure any other track tops american pie. 4*
Highlights: american pie, babylon (I'm a sucker for a good canon)
Rated 4/10
I'm not huge on singer-songwriters. She has a nice voice and these songs felt varied enough to be interesting, but also kind of vanilla at the same time. I got bored. Annoyed at me and a gun.
Don't need to listen to this again. 2*
Rated 4/10
wow there's a lot of nick cave on here. I still don't enjoy this, but it's not bad.
I see a lot of leonard cohen comparisons -- at least this guy tries to sing in pitch; I can't stand most of cohen's stuff. 2*
Rated 4/10
I'm always sus of live albums, they are rarely worth it over the studio versions of the same songs.
Update: he puts on a good show, but does this live album in particular deserve to be here? Prob not, nothing blew my mind. 2*
Did not know baby I love your way was from this guy.
Rated 4/10
A lot sounded whiny, kind of the same. Doesn't reach the excitement and variety of other singer-songwriters. Michael Buble but make it more broadway. 2*
Not at all what I expected based on my exposure so far to brazilian music.
The string instrumentals in um gosto de sol reminded me of the Beatles/George Martin. A good vibes listen, 4*
Rated 2/10
A shitty hip hop album. 1*
Rated 4/10
It's giving 70s pop, but also 90s pop rock.
Lovefool is from them? I always thought it was Gwen Stefani singing.
Kinda meh. 2*
Highlights: lovefool
Rated 4/10
Ugh, people talking in songs, tunic got on my nerves.
The guitar stuff made me migraine worse.
Mildred Pierce was trash.
2*
Highlights: kool thing
Rated 10/10
This is a vibe, and a fun discovery.
Western vibes, indie, very enjoyable and entirely new to me (both the band and album). What a solid addition, very atmospheric. Feels like the best album you've never heard of. 5*
Highlights: pepita, the book and the canal (lovely instrumentals), across the wire (the mariachi influence)
Rated 4/10
Piano in lady grinning soul was cool, but in general did not really enjoy this Bowie album. Still feels like someone I'm supposed to like, but I just like a handful of his songs.
This sounded average and mediocre and not worthy of this list.
Rated 4/10
This was not a bossanova album
Joking aside, kind of what I expect from the pixies. Don't super enjoy this sound or this album of theirs, 2*
Rated 6/10
Nice album, you can hear the elements that would make REM great, but not as good as later albums. 3*
Rated 6/10
Idk how representative this is of Senegalese music, but sounded more Asian/south Asian than I expected. I appreciate when non-anglo albums are on here, so it hurts to give this a low score, but it just didn't click with me. Some fun moments. 3*
Rated 4/10
I'm not a good judge of hip hop/rap. I know this is one of the iconic albums, but maybe I just didn't get it. 2*
Rated 4/10
More like bland company
2*
Rated 6/10
Someone else described meat loaf as heterosexual elton john, and that completely blew my mind. Meat loaf is sappy af, not what I expected.
Rated 6/10
Incubus is metal?! I guess it goes harder than rock? I was only familiar with their hits like drive, which is a much softer vibe. The rest of the album was ok. 3*
Highlights: drive
Rated 10/10
Easy 5*, and looking forward to going on this journey again today.
Highlights: airbag, paranoid android, subterranean homesick alien (the space-y guitars), karma police, exit music, no surprises
