I really don't even know what I'm supposed to get out of this album, and Wikipedia didn't make it much clearer. I feel like this is the type of thing that wouldn't be for me even if I could understand the words. It's not bad, but it's also just hard for me to appreciate without a lot more context
3/5
Rated 8/10
I like 80s synth pop, and this album beat my expectations. Annie Lennox's voice is heaven over a synthesizer. The songs are very well-crafted, and the album is consistently good
4/5
Rated 8/10
Another really cool album from Bowie's Berlin period. I don't like this album as much as Low, which I think is my favorite Bowie album, but many of the features that make that album great are still here
4/5
Rated 8/10
I really don't know what to say about this album. It's an REM album that sounds like an REM album, but isn't one of their albums that I find really spectacular, but at the same time it's REM is it's still good and I can't fault REM for sounding like REM
4/5? fuckidunno
This is one of those albums that I've listened to multiple times, but I never remember what it's like. It's like it lives in a black hole in my mind. It's good, though. Downtempo and ambient, but still groovy and engaging. All the little samples of children and people talking add a surprising amount of life to the album, despite the music being spare in a lot of places
4/5
Rated 8/10
Well, there are few things that I tend to feel less excited about than getting a Morrissey album on this list. However, much like how I felt about Your Arsenal, I found myself enjoying this quite a bit. He has a nice voice, the music is great. As long as he doesn't get too maudlin with the lyrics, I can actually kick back and enjoy a Morrissey album. Who knew?
4/5
Rated 8/10
I think this is my favorite Sonic Youth album that I've heard so far. I have seen them live twice and thought they were amazing both times, but their albums always leave me a little cold. I'm not sure why this one hit me different, but I really enjoyed it. The songs are melodic in the weirdest goddamn ways
4/5
Rated 6/10
This album feels pretty uneven to me. There are a couple of really awesome songs, but I find most of them a bit dull. It's hard for the songs I enjoy like Sunshine Superman and Season of the Witch to overcome the sag I experience during Guinevere. The dumb face that he made on the cover of this album is the same dumb face I was making while listening to much of this album
3/5
Rated 8/10
After listening to a lot of this album, I still have a hard time knowing what to think about it. The music is all fun and very charming. He has a great voice. However, the production on the album always feels a bit thin, like it hasn't been properly mixed. This could be an issue with the version that I'm listening to, though. Either way, this is a fun, breezy album that it's easy to be in the mood for
4/5
Rated 8/10
Whatever I was expecting when I got this album today, it was not the music that is actually on this album. It opens with an electric guitar. The sitar is ever present in the album, but it's often complimented by Moog synthesizers, which is an incredible combination. I wish that the album featured more original music, or at least less popular songs to cover, but the execution is tremendous
4/5
Rated 8/10
It's always nice when I get to review an album I already know and love. I never really understood that I liked industrial music before hearing this album, but it serves as an excellent entry point into the genre. The songs range from the political to the personal, but the music is always distorted and overwhelming and screaming three inches from your face. A very consistent album in terms of its overall sonic quality, but it never gets dull
4/5
Sly and the Family Stone just has a consistently great sound. This album is deeply funky, and the lyrics float effortlessly between socially conscious material and slice of life material. Sly's bass glues it all together
4/5
Rated 8/10
Just an overall cool album that some folks hold up as the first alt-country album. Much different from the 90s version of alt country, but it's easy to see how this album serves as a bridge between post punk and country. The songs are really fun, and they vary a lot from song to song
4/5
Rated 6/10
I was not particularly expecting an ABBA album on this list, and I certainly wasn't expecting one that I didn't know any of the songs from. This album is okay. It was a change of direction for ABBA, but I really enjoy their pop stuff.
3/5
Rated 8/10
Some great late 80s alternative rock action here. I like the music more than the vocals with Dinosaur Jr, but the album is really good overall. Very heavy, but with well-written songs
4/5
Rated 6/10
The music for this album is pretty cool. The focus on the South is a bit hard for me to grab onto as a concept, which makes the song Three Great Alabama Icons a bit of a slog, since I don't give a shit about any of those people. Having so many songs about Lynard Skynard (or however you spell it) doesn't really work in their favor. This being a double album also really makes you feel the length as you listen to it. Overall, it's fun Southern rock, but I was hoping for a more focused album, or at least a differently focused album
3/5
Rated 6/10
This was some good Depeche Mode action, but I greatly preferred Violator to this album. There weren't any songs here that really grabbed me, but it was consistently good overall
3/5
This album was really cool, though I enjoyed the other Ali Farka Toure album on this list more. This has more of a cool jam band-type sound, whereas the other album felt more straight-ahead bluesy. This is still good, just not the peak of the music that Toure made
4/5
Rated 8/10
This was a cool album from a musical tradition that I get very little exposure to. Her voice is great, the music is fun, and there's a lot of life in the songs
4/5
Rated 8/10
I got Something/Anything? previously on this list, and thought it was fine, but relatively uninspiring. This album I found much more interesting, because he was obviously using a lot more drugs when he made this album. It's much more experimental, but still features his voice and folky songwriting. Really cool early 70s rock album that is still pushing the psychedelic envelope
4/5
