Reviews by thelofistorm

Creates a world, which is pleasant and important in making a great album (which this is). Sadly, a bit samey. Seldom is there a standout that I like for a reason other than its resemblance to other things I like more, and even more seldom does it genuinely impress me. The title track is nice, and “Reaching Out” is a phenomenon, but I will likely not return.
7.5/10

Dinosaur Jr. stuff I guess. Not really necessary. Also it’s kinda bad. Indulgent, annoying, noisy but not experimental, playful almost, but nowhere near actually fun. It would be cooler if Pavement hadn’t done this exact shtick a billion times better on Slanted and Enchanted, but when that album exists, as better, shorter, and more pivotal than this album ever will be, there’s no real reason to listen to this. Not much more to say.
4.9/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: NO
REASON: not relevant and not really that good

Though Mezzanine and even Protection are both sizeably better entries in Massive Attack’s repertoire than this album, it’s still more than listenable. Just annoying sometimes. More than any other album in the genre, this one really puts the "ip-hop" in "trip-hop." Lots of rapping, and a lot of it isn't that good, but it's not a big problem, at least not compared to some of the singing and more subpar beats. Really the only standout here is "Unfinished Symphony," something that is frankly unique about this album in Massive Attack's discography. Protection at least had "Karmacoma" and the title track, and Mezzanine... is Mezzanine. Every track is a standout. 100th Window... I haven't heard.

Everything else on this album disappointingly turns into a slog of alright-but-hardly-pleasant trip-hop, with some pretty wack rhyming and acceptable singing. Definitely a disappointing listen. Put Mezzanine on this list, dammit!
6.3/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: Breakout album for a pretty legendary group. Even if it's pretty boring.

As far as I’m concerned, the only great song Sheryl Crow has is “If It Makes You Happy.” It borders on alternative rock, which for someone whose entire career up to that point was pretty mediocre adult alternative, is a huge step up, and I really enjoy the song even in the context of more critically acclaimed stuff released that year. This album… is the mediocre adult alternative I was referring to.

For one, Crow is an abysmal lyricist. If she didn’t make that clear in “Strong Enough” or “Solidify,” her rhyming “Record Label” with “TABLE TABLE TABLE” on “The Na-Na Song,” (which somehow destroyed all my expectations of how bad it would be,) like a drunk fucking mom did.

And I don’t wanna be mean about this either, even though I just was. I just don’t know why this album is even on this list. At its best it’s alright but pretty boring, at its worst… it’s legitimately awful. The only almost-great track is “All I Wanna Do,” which is still pretty obviously flawed. Overall a very very VERY unimpressive album, with no real high points, and just a whole lot of bad.
1.2/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: NO
REASON: bad
WHAT WOULD I REPLACE IT WITH: Sheryl Crow

As positive as I am, I have a bit of a habit of giving albums pretty low scores despite being pretty forgiving in my track ratings. This is one of those cases, because I don't like this album very much, even if some of the songs are pretty alright. The vocals are just annoying, the soundscapes are kinda trash, and at 46 minutes it's still WAY too long. Maybe 6 songs off of this could make it onto an acceptable album, but it's so monotonous and I can't say I enjoy most of it.

Songs to latch on to? I enjoyed the opener. The vocals were pretty cool and the riffs were alright. The best song here is track 2, "Avon," just because of the tune and everything. Memorable and nice to listen to. From there it's kind of a stream of unlikeable boring stoner riffs. "Mexicola" is another memorable one, I just really can't stand the vocals a lot of the time.
4.6/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: NO
REASON: it sucks dawg

By all accounts not the best person, Dennis Wilson is still fairly important to me; having penned The Beach Boys’ best song in my opinion, that being the legendary “Forever,” famous for being butchered years after Wilson died as the closer off of the Boys’ de facto worst album. I was pretty excited to hear this one, is basically what I’m saying.

After listening? I wouldn’t say I was wrong to be excited for this album; it’s pretty alright, good even, though pretty properly rated on average. The atmosphere is mostly there, the songs are sometimes there, and the instrumentation and singing is frequently competent at worst, pretty great at best. You hear moments of the greatness that was achieved in the Beach Boys in songs like opener “River Song,” “Time,” and you get some similar excellence in the very fun “What’s Wrong,” the romantic and pretty “You and I,” and the psychedelic touches in “Thoughts of You.” The vibe here is at large very easygoing and pretty, with real good vocals and pretty songs. There's some energy here and there, and there's some moments that actually, genuinely stand out as great, but overall it doesn't do much in the way of pretty decent but nothing super special. An album of quality, to be sure.
7.3/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: NO
REASON: not relevant enough
WHAT WOULD I REPLACE IT WITH: Sunflower by the Beach Boys grrrr

An interesting and barely necessary album. “Don’t Panic” is an essential landmark of post-Britpop, and “Yellow” is nothing less than a line in the bible of modern pop music, but there are some disposable tracks here, people. It also stands that the existence of Coldplay’s much better sophomore effort, Radiohead as a whole, and Keane’s debut Hopes and Fears renders this album almost obsolete, save for the few moments where a combination of all 3 of those mentioned above can be heard.

“Spies” wants to be good, but obviously sucks. Plain and simple. It’s boring and badly written. That being said, “Sparks,” having recently become a breakthrough hit 20-odd years after its release, is pretty great. “Shiver” would be really good if it were about anything other than what it’s about, but instead it’s a nice guys finish last ballad. “Everything’s Not Lost” is plain and simply awful, awkward chord changes and bad writing, but the outro almost saves it.

At the end of the day, this is an acceptable album, warm and kind but anxious and lonely, a pretty good representation of feelings that can be felt when you’re coming of age in a world that sucks as much as this one does, but most of this is done better elsewhere, and the only reason to realistically listen in is for the sake of its relevance and influence in pop culture.
6.5/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: wide influence and relevance

The arc of 1970s David Bowie is interesting, scintillating even, and tragic at times. Hunky Dory, no matter how much it unimpresses me, is truly a heartwarming affair. Ecstatic, wholesome, and kinda shit at times, but come on, he was so happy! And then comes the age of Ziggy. Ziggy Stardust’s run was beautiful, one of the best albums and a pretty good victory lap. But after that you can kinda see how his substance abuse starts to destroy him. Diamond Dogs is a phenomenon, and one of his more underrated works, as opposed to Young Americans, which does suck. But after that, his persona is continuously killed, leading to the pretty awesome, though pretty overrated Station to Station, which he purportedly could not remember making at all, for all the cocaine he was on at the time.

So, now he’s being just pummeled by drugs. What happens now? Well, “A New Career In A New Town.” Low. He moves to Berlin and starts making krauty art-rock, and ambient music, produced and sponsored by Brian Eno. He produces one of his best albums ever, and begins to regain himself. This is the album where that actually takes effect.

Recorded in a mere one single month, “Heroes” is a series of songs, each one emotional and extravagant in a different way, with Bowie absorbing the strife present at the time across Berlin and Germany at large, combining it with his own personal struggle, and transferring it into one of the best albums ever made. Darker, shallower, technically more commercial than Low but still pretty out there, “Heroes” is a much more obviously art-rock affair than, hell, pretty much anything Bowie made previously. The ambient B-side starts off with a straight-up Krautrock song in “V2-Schneider,” only to pivot to a song that sounds straight out of an early surrealist horror film, which then gives way to a more conventional couple of ambient tracks, including the incredible number “Moss Garden,” which is an easy favorite off of the album for me. However, the closer is a complete pivot, a banging rock song in the form of “The Secret Life Of Arabia.” The album takes you to all these different places, only to drop you right back at something digestible, something easy to listen to. Of course, this album would be nothing without the ballads of the A-side, what with your “Sons of the Silent Age” and your “Joe The Lion,” and also the legendary, incredible, heartbreaking title track, and the weird and fucking awesome “Blackout.” It’s a really crazy set of tracks, that really takes what is often a clear line between experimental and conventional, and blurs and muddles it a whole lot. One of the most influential, interesting, and important rock albums ever made.
8.6/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: title track, influence, quality, musical experience

Adult contemporary country. And I don’t mean like adult contemporary the genre, I mean adult contemporary the billboard chart, because its presence in culture for the many years it’s existed, and its ever-present base, is the only reason this album is even remotely relevant. Which is it really? I don’t even know if this guy is distinguishable from Glenn Campbell, and I don’t say that as a dig against someone as great an artist as Campbell was, I say that as a dig against whoever this guy is.

Title track “The Grand Tour” is the only song on here that I believe I can accept as a truly good song, for it’s a genuinely melancholic little tune with some nice writing and obviously good instrumentation and vocals. Everything else on this thing? Pretty disposable. Dare I say this was better as a cast-off single. Would’ve been better off that way.
5.2/10

Simply beautiful. Plainly, obviously so. Vaughan’s voice is at times incomparable in pure beauty and smoothness. Her vocal indentations are incredible, as is her vibrato, and silky deeper register.

The songs themselves, well I could take them or leave them, but the way that they’re played, by the band, with those touches of cool jazz and bop, and the way that Vaughan sings them, which it should be obvious by now is practically unparalleled in the pantheon of vocal jazz songstresses, elevates them to a whole other level.

Also, it’s not at all too long. Only 35 minutes, it’s a really great length for an album like this. All of these things put together makes it an absolutely wonderful album.
9.2/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: Exposure to great live performances, by one of the best singers ever

I’m familiar with this album, or at least the concept of its existence. Good ol’ Celtic rock. One of my close friends is proudly Celtic, and I’m always down for some folksy rock vibes. Lots of 7-ish minute songs here, which is annoying, but I’ve heard longer songs, and longer albums. As I understand it, this was a pretty major pivot to folk stuff for this band, which is interesting. The title track is obviously incredible, and so is the second track, two of the better songs in that vein that I’ve heard, and there are a couple of other really nice tracks too, such as “And A Bang On The Ear,” a LONG, bittersweet ode to each of the singer’s past lovers, “When Will We Be Married?,” a cheeky yet actually really pretty and well-composed song, and “When Ye Go Away,” another really pretty song. Sadly though, there is soooooo much filler on this album it kind of hurts. “Strange Boat,” “World Party,” “Sweet Thing,” and “The Stolen Child” aren’t too bad by any means, but the time adds up, and it just isn’t needed. It doesn’t add enough to the album to have them there.

That being said, I think I’ll go back to this album plenty, what with its highs, and with its energy, and with its tunes. I like it a whole lot!!!
7.8/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
WHY: great example of a high-quality Celtic-influenced album.

Dolly Parton died yesterday afternoon, and I can't help but think that this is a spectacular coincidence. Anyway, her death is a profound tragedy, and I suppose I must grieve somehow, and this album is great.

I’d previously heard Jolene and parts of The Grass Is Blue, and I think anyone who’s so much as dipped their feet in the genre of country has heard this album’s excellent title track, but there’s other great songs too. A personal favorite is the deeply moving “If I Lose My Mind,” just one of many examples of Parton’s incredible depictions of marital strife, something she would become known for. I also like this album’s rendition of “Early Morning Breeze,” which was also a notable cut off of Jolene. I’m also very partial to the romantic, sweet “The Way I See You,” which is an incredibly pretty little love song.

Now, obviously this album is a bit short, but I can’t help but think of it in a similar way to how I think of Jolene, for its beautiful songs of nature and its sadder songs of relationships. I really really love this album, and I deeply grieve the loss of this legend. RIP Dolly.
8.7/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: landmark album in one of the best careers in music history. Rest in Power.

When I was 7, I picked up a guitar for the first time. I kinda just thought it was a neat little instrument, but at the time I didn’t even know what it could really do. I kinda just played it by strumming the first three strings and patting the body. When I was 9, my father, one of my biggest sources for music throughout my life, decided it was time I heard Radiohead, and played me this album.

I have not been the same since.

Whether this album is the best of all time or Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, I can’t say. But this is the album that made me pick up guitar for real. That made me pick up music for real. It inspires me to this day.

“Airbag” with its vocals, and guitar work, and its outro with the downtempo influence, is still one of the darkest and most dystopian-sounding songs I’ve ever heard. “Paranoid Android,” one of the best songs ever made and my favorite song for probably around 5 or 6 years straight before I heard underscores for the first time, I can still remember the way I was stumbling over my words trying to describe the song to myself and to my dad, and failing. It was the first time I had ever heard something so crazy, so undeniable. “Subterranean Homesick Alien” is another song that I’ve spent a lot of time with, with this idea of humanity’s obsession with artificiality being explored a lot in Radiohead’s canon, but none quite as heartwrenching as in this song, at least in my opinion. “Exit Music (For A Film),” a song I grew weary of from listening to it too much, has since blown me away again with its use of atmosphere and timbre. “Let Down,” one of the best songs about chronic depression there is, still astounds me to this day, such an absolutely beautiful, crushing song, and a standout on the album. “Karma Police” is a fan favorite, and it’s another one I initially grew weary of before coming back to it to it to appreciate the deeper impressiveness of this song, the vocals, the song’s apex. “Fitter Happier” is an interlude, but it’s the perfect atmosphere for this album: visions of a conformist surveillance state, and the way that modern society seems to lean toward that. It also perfectly transitions into the most overtly political song here, the jangly, rockabilly-ish “Electioneering,” which is a surprisingly radical song, considering how big of a band Radiohead would come to be. “Climbing Up The Walls” is one of the first songs I ever heard that was by definition “scary.” It’s still so cool to me to this day. I still know every lyric. Though I think I know every lyric to this whole album. Where “Let Down” was one of the best songs about chronic depression, “No Surprises” is one of the best songs about clinical depression. I’ve experienced both, and let me tell you: having heard a lot of songs longing for release, I’ve never heard a more despairing wail for death than the backing vocals of the last chorus of this song. It has every right to be as popular as it is, it is one of the saddest and most touching songs I’ve ever heard. “Lucky” is an obvious classic, an anthemic chorus, a memorable riff, and again, this imagery of disaster. “The Tourist” is where the album’s end becomes apparent: it is the album’s happiest song, telling you to “slow down,” meaning to just enjoy life, instead of being so wracked with anxiety. It’s the perfect way to end an album such as this one, with all its sadness and fear, to at the end of the day still enjoy life while you can. Beautiful.

I relistened to this when reading 1984 by Orwell, because a lot of it feels similar, and I still can’t believe this is a real album. I relistened again when I visited London for the first time, with this album and underscores’ third album U defining my time there. This album has guided me through my whole life, and is one of my biggest inspirations ever, in life, in creativity, in philosophy. It is perfect in every single way.
10/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: it’s literally perfect. This is like complete required listening. It’s the pinnacle of great music. It’s the masterpiece of all time. Come the fuck on.

1970s forays into prog are always so interesting. You can hear every bit of 80s balladry in the way this guy sings, plays, and arranges, but he’s just so damn insistent on these incredible, progressive arrangements. Well, actually, the guy singing isn’t the guy writing the songs. But it does feel like they’re the same person, I guess. Though it’s firmly grounded in pop sensibility (the anthemic choruses, the drum patterns, AOR and pop influences), it truly ascends in a way I haven’t heard many other works of art do.

This isn’t to say it necessarily ascends higher than your average great album, but it does ascend to a status of greatness. I would’ve really appreciated some drums in “Heaven Can Wait,” and there’s not as much of an overarching concept as I’d hoped for with the whole “rock opera” thing, but I can absolutely make do.

Overall this album does the whole “prog-pop-ballad” thing really well, and its influence and impact on culture is measurably large. I also enjoyed it plenty, and would recommend it freely and easily.
8.2/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: impact, quality, and relevance

Well, it’s official. This is more or less gibberish to me. In the past, I’ve understood things. I speak some Spanish. I’m almost fluent in Arabic. French? Never studied. I am helpless against this beautiful barrage of words. And it is beautiful. The beats are awesome, the flow is great, and the vibes are spectacular. I mean, the album is realistically 15 minutes too long at least, but almost every song is built out of mind blowing sample on mind-blowing sample. Every single song has an insane flow, and a near-limitless amount of coolness.

It’s also worth noting that this was the first big/noteworthy French rap album, surely the reason it exists on this list. I find that a great reason to place an album here, as France is a wonderful, vibrant place, or so I’m told. Either way, great album. Love it. Recommended, belongs on the list.
8.9/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: first majorly recognized French rap album, also it’s really good

Well well welly well. Really just hitting all my of my mom’s childhood faves. Now, this album is what I consider a return to form after the victory lap of One Hot Minute, which followed the triumph of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, one of the best alt-rock albums ever made, and one of my favorite albums of the 90s. And this album does something pretty interesting, it just has all these absolutely beautiful riffs and guitar sounds, and Anthony Kiedis is actually much less of an obvious idiot a lot of the time. Because everyone knows Kiedis is an idiot, that’s part of the point of RHCP. But everyone’s also heard him at his best, in “Scar Tissue,” “Under The Bridge,” “Can’t Stop,” songs that have actually incredibly pleasant presence. The thing about the Peppers that I can’t say I feel about any other band is I’ve never heard a song of theirs that I didn’t want to like. You know, sometimes you hear a good song but it has an attitude that makes you dislike, but never with these guys. Sometimes their songs just aren’t great. I never want them to be though, and strangely I never expect them to be either.

Anyway. This album is incredible for the first half, and then it’s like… not as incredible. Passable. I will say though, it’s much more consistent than BSSM, and much more obviously oriented toward a summery sound. I listened to this the second to last day of my summer break, and I felt every bit of it. Also, Rick Rubin did a crazy good job on this album. Maybe even the best produced Peppers album. There also aren’t really any songs that I really dislike here, even if some don’t really blow me away. Really really love this album, beautiful, energetic, and vaguely melancholic.
9.8/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: Quality, cultural relevance, influence

FINALLY! I’ve had this on CD for months and held off on listening to it because I knew it was on this stupid-ass list. Well NO MORE! Anyway this album is incredible. Obviously. I’m probably gonna listen to it later tonight. On my mom’s old CD. Still great quality by the way. When I talked to her about it she said it was one of the best albums ever made, and I don’t disagree completely. Like, no, but if you want.

The highs are incredible, and by the highs I mean the big songs. We all know them. “Even Flow,” “Alive,” “Black,” and “Jeremy.” There’s also a few others that I personally liked a lot, outside of those, “Once” is great, “Porch” and “Garden” really hold down the fort on the latter side, but what I really want to discuss is the deeper feeling of this album. Not the anthemic choruses, not the extended outros, but the bridge on “Alive,” the placement of “Oceans” after “Jeremy,” the menacing intro and outro. There’s a deeper sensitivity here, that after a while, after all the words are gone, the seeps out of the chords and into the spaces in which the songs are played. It seeps into the streets, and the houses, and the radio stations. It’s why I really appreciate albums like this, despite some of the actual lyrics perhaps not being as intact as the songs themselves, what they’ve come to mean. They’re cultural pillars, and that means more.
9.2/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: Cultural relevance and quality

Great album. Probably shoulda listened to it by now, but whatever. Anyway this album’s great. If it doesn’t blow your mind in some way, you’ve probably already become accustomed to how good music can be, or you’re not listening to it right. The rapping is great, don’t get me wrong, and each emcee has incredible presence and personality, as well as a lot of the songs being incredibly funny in a way I forget is possible in music. But the beats are where the album’s really at in my opinion. J-Sw!ft does some fucking wild work on some of these songs, with a common feature of the album being the beats constantly changing throughout the song’s structure. I mean, “Soul Flower (Remix)” just fucking killed me dude. Obviously the song people talk about a lot here is “Passin’ On Me,” but jeez, yall heard “Otha Fish?” That song might be the best one here. Not by a large margin mind you, if it even is the best song here, but come on.

I was really impressed by this joint. It’s shit like this that reminds me that there’s really nothing hip-hop can’t do, including still surprising me, like this album did.
9.3/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: fundamental building block in a journey of listening to hip hop.

Another foray into the Springsteen catelogue, one that I’ve found I tend to like much less than most. That being said, this album is still great. I mean, it’s his most artful, his most undeniable, his magnum opus if you will. His Rumours, his OK Computer, his Ziggy Stardust. And a lot of these songs deliver HARD. “Thunder Road?” EVERYTHING I was hesitant about in “Racing In The Street,” remedied completely. “Meeting Across The River?” A shorter song to be sure, but what a song!!! Suspenseful, atmospheric, and it does an excellent job building up the character it portrays. “Backstreets” is maybe the best song, in spite of the elephant in the room, with its building piano start, and passionate, gruff performance by Springsteen. And of course, “Born To Run,” the excellent title track, is unforgettable. Emotional. Visceral. I wasn’t too keen on “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” but I appreciate it, and even though closer “Jungleland” is a LITTLE indulgent, it’s still a great piece of music.

Not unlike Billy Joel’s The Stranger, this album feels like a compilation of a musician’s best chops, a man at the top of his game. Even as someone not taken by the persona of Bruce Springsteen, I’m enraptured by the gravitas, quality, and aforementioned undeniability of this album, and I feel forced to score it highly. Love.
9.6/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
REASON: Quality, significance in culture and also in a musical legend’s career

Under a 3 on both rateyourmusic and 1001? Produced in part by the Antichrist himself aka Divine Comedy? I don’t know man. She’s like a blonde Morticia Addams.

So, this artist is a German singer and actress, known for basically just being a really good actress in various musicals, and I guess that made it so she had connections with some of the more consequential artists of the 20th century, and The Divine Comedy, who doesn’t deserve the shit that comes out of him in the morning. Songs like “Little Water Song” are incredible, surely, and “Split” is a theatrical powerhouse of a song. However, songs like “Tango Ballad,” “You Were Meant For Me,” and the title track are all much harder to listen to in my opinion, for plenty different reasons. I don’t hate any songs here either, but Jesus, it’s almost an hour long and feels longer!

This album is definitely strange. I don’t dislike all of it, but it’s more often than not very annoying, and the artfulness of the intent is wasted on the pretentiousness and vapidness that ends up as the album’s primary characteristic.
6.0/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: NO
REASON: Lack of relevance and interesting musical ideas
WHAT ALBUM WOULD I REPLACE IT WITH: The Marble Index by Nico