This album might more properly be called "Songs About My Own Violent Death" but you gotta give credit to Marty Robbins, he writes a hell of a tune. It's crazy that this album was recorded in 8 hours. His voice sounds great, and his ballads are all fun stories (that generally end in his violent death)
4/5
Look, I'm just not into Janis Joplin, and no amount of smutty cartoons on the album cover is going to change that for me. It's a fine album, and the music is enjoyable enough, but it's also just hard for me to understand why this album is a big deal
3/5
Rated 10/10
I could write all day about this band and my relationship with them. This is not the Butthole Surfers album I would have picked if I could put only one on the list, but it is still a fucking amazing album that showcases both how offputting and weird they can be, but also their alchemic ability to make something weird and upsetting be enjoyable to listen to. It starts off hot with Sweat Loaf, a song that occasionally explodes into noise and a guy yelling the word Satan over and over before sliding into gentle melodic guitar parts. That sums it up pretty well. You never know where this bus is going next, and you always have the feeling that it might drive straight off a cliff at any moment, and then every once in a while it opens up into a vista so beautiful that you see it in your bones, and then you look closer and see that said vista is actually just painted on the side of a dilapidated porno theater
5/5
Rated 6/10
I don't know. They keep giving me Arcade Fire albums, and I keep finding them competent, but not spectacular. Maybe it's me, maybe it's Arcade Fire, but I must ask as I enter the endgame with this list, to respect my wishes and not make me review any more Arcade Fire albums at this time
3/5
Rated 8/10
This was a cool album. It's pretty intense for the Cure, which I think of as being a more sort of lilting, sadboy band (though perhaps I'm mistaken about them). Really solid early goth album
4/5
Rated 6/10
Well, this really really sounds like an early synthpop album. It might be that I've heard too many of these on this list, but this one really didn't do it for me like some of the other early synthpop bands I've gotten on this list. Something about their energy and singing puts me off a bit
3/5
Rated 8/10
This album was really interesting, and had a really varied sound. I could have pinned individual songs as being from like 4 different decades. Everything is well-crafted. It's probably not an album that I'm going to come back to because its not particularly my genre, but it's really good for what it is
4/5
Rated 6/10
This album isn't particularly for me, but the vocals are really beautiful. The music is soothing, but a bit too 80s muzak for my taste
3/5
Rated 6/10
Listening to this album for the second time, it continues to make no impression on me. I think that might be because it sounds like a lot of things that came after it, so I want to give this album credit for being ahead of its time. It's also just not really my flavor of alternative rock.
3/5
Rated 6/10
It's pretty appropriate that I get The Vines confused with like 5 other bands from this early 2000s era, because this sounded like roughly 5 other bands from this same era. It's fine, and there are some songs that I liked on this album, but it made no impression on me whatsoever when it was over
3/5
Rated 6/10
Well, the second song on this album certainly made me sit up and listen, since it supplies the samples for a J Dilla song off Donuts. The rest of the album was fine. It didn't blow me away, but it was interesting enough
3/5
Rated 6/10
Lost my review, but this album is fine despite not being for me
3/5
Rated 10/10
Van Halen is so much better than I gave them credit for when I was younger. Part of that is certainly due to the fact that I became aware of them during the Sammy Hagar era. This album is so tight. It fits together perfectly, has a ton of great songs, and it never starts to fee samey. Fuck it, 5 stars
5/5
Rated 8/10
This is a fun album from a really shitty period for rock music. Glam rock seems to always deliver on this list
4/5
Rated 8/10
On thing this list has given me an appreciation for is how varied Joni Mitchell's sound was throughout her career. This album has much more of a jazz/experimental feel. It fits her voice really well, and I found this more interesting that some of the later Joni Mitchell albums that I've listened to
4/5
Rated 8/10
I don't have a lot to say about this album, since I don't have a lot of context for Senegalese music from the early 90s, but the music is all solid and he has a nice voice
4/5
Rated 8/10
This is another band that I've heard about for a long time, but never really listened to. This is a really solid and really early hardcore album. It is very short, but that's also in keeping with the hardcore spirit. Overall it sounds good, and the production could be a lot worse. It's a fun album that definitely made its mark quickly in the punk scene of the 80s
4/5
Rated 8/10
Peter Gabriel is one of those artists who turned out to be so much different than what I thought he was growing up. I just thought that he made fun pop music with cool videos. His work runs much deeper than that, which is on full display here. This isn't his funnest album, since it's very serious overall, but the music and vocals are excellent. Phil Collins always gets a great sound out of his drums, and it really fits the mood of the album
4/5
Don't have a lot to say about this because it's from an earlier era of jazz than I normally listen to, so it's harder for me to contextualize, but goddamn this cat could swing on the piano. Great music to put on and just go about your day
4/5
Rated 8/10
What is it with the Scottish and making beautiful pop music? The lead singer of Travis has a very similar voice to Thom Yorke of Radiohead, and fortunately that voice is not wasted here. The music is beautiful. Just a great album to start of your morning
4/5
