My 1001 Albums Journey

Album	You	Global	Diff
The Holy Bible Manic Street Preachers	5	3.15	+1.85
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables Dead Kennedys	5	3.27	+1.73
Different Class Pulp	5	3.42	+1.58
Five Leaves Left Nick Drake	5	3.46	+1.54
Rust Never Sleeps Neil Young & Crazy Horse	5	3.51	+1.49
Definitely Maybe Oasis	5	3.54	+1.46
The Velvet Underground & Nico The Velvet Underground	5	3.61	+1.39
Highway 61 Revisited Bob Dylan	5	3.75	+1.25
All Things Must Pass George Harrison	5	3.81	+1.19
(What's The Story) Morning Glory Oasis	5	3.85	+1.15

Album	You	Global	Diff
Siamese Dream The Smashing Pumpkins	2	3.83	-1.83
Sex Packets Digital Underground	1	2.66	-1.66
Scott 2 Scott Walker	1	2.63	-1.63
Foo Fighters Foo Fighters	2	3.48	-1.48
Third Soft Machine	1	2.45	-1.45
Hot Buttered Soul Isaac Hayes	2	3.44	-1.44
Smash The Offspring	2	3.36	-1.36
Trout Mask Replica Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band	1	2.3	-1.3
Daydream Nation Sonic Youth	2	3.29	-1.29
Phrenology The Roots	2	3.24	-1.24

Artist	Albums	Average
Led Zeppelin	2	5
Oasis	2	5

Artist	Ratings
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band	4, 1

Santana

3/5

I’d only heard ‘Black Magic Woman’ and ‘Oye Como Va’ before, and having now heard the full album I still think they’re probably the best tracks. The fusion of Latin jazz with psychedelic blues rock is well-executed, though I wasn’t completely sold on some of the instrumental tracks, and overall I was slightly underwhelmed, despite the undeniable fact that Carlos Santana is a great guitarist. Sure enough, he dominates the album instrumentally, but Gregg Rolie deserves particular praise too; his organ playing and vocals are great and the two tracks he wrote are the best original songs on the album.

Debut

Björk

3/5

A mixed bag. I really enjoyed five of the six first songs, especially ‘Human Behaviour’ and ‘Big Time Sensuality’. The exception was the harp-based cover of ‘Like Someone in Love’, which seemed really out of place, and I didn’t think her vocals were that great on it either, which is a shame as on most of the other tracks she sounded great. The second half wasn’t as strong; I don’t think any track was as good as any from the first half, and I actively disliked ‘Aeroplane’ and the album closer. Still, there’s easily enough quality here for 3 stars.

The World is a Ghetto

War

3/5

Tough to rate as I much preferred side two. Side one started off with two songs which were all right but didn’t blow me away, before concluding with the instrumental ‘City, Country, City’. This was probably my least favourite track, which is unfortunate given that it was 13 minutes long and essentially consisted of one decent groove/idea extended far beyond its welcome. Side two was much better, with ‘Four Cornered Room’ and the title track both having brooding, moody atmospheres I rather enjoyed, plus a great closing track. Overall, a decent funk/soul album. Enough there for 3 stars.

Here's Little Richard

Little Richard

4/5

A foundational and incalculably influential record in the history of popular music, with a bit of historical imagination this album makes it easy to understand why rock and roll was seen as so exciting, even dangerous, when it first emerged. Today, nearly 70 years on, I'm still impressed by the power, feeling and conviction in Little Richard’s vocals (which are front and centre, dominating the mix), and it's this that allows an album of twelve more or less identical songs to nonetheless hold my attention right to the end. One star off for lack of stylistic variety, but wow!

Blue Lines

Massive Attack

3/5

I did like this album overall, and can see how in 1991 it might have been pretty groundbreaking, but it did wash over me somewhat after a while (several tracks seemed unnecessarily dragged out). There were some exceptions: ‘Safe from Harm’ was a great opener, ‘Be Thankful For What You’ve Got’ I liked a lot, and ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ is clearly the stand-out track. Funnily enough, the title track was probably my least favourite, along with ‘Five Man Army’ and ‘Daydreaming’. Basically, I didn’t enjoy Tricky’s rapping, and much preferred the Shara Nelson tracks. A textbook 3 star album for me.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West

3/5

Given the path Kanye has taken it’s difficult to assess this album in and of itself, but I’ll try... On the positive side, the instrumentals and ‘opulent’, ‘maximalist’ production (including the choices of samples) are excellent throughout. Some tracks in the second half are dragged out, however; the Chris Rock skit on ‘Blame Game’ is a particularly egregious example of this bloating. More problematic was that, common to lots of hip-hop, I also found many lyrics to be pretty off-putting. It’s so good musically, however, that I can’t give less than 3 stars. Won’t be listening to it again though.

To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar

3/5

An incredibly dense album musically and lyrically, I respect this more than I actually enjoy listening to it. I found it somewhat lacking in hooks/earworms, with some exceptions (e.g. ‘King Kunta’, ‘These Walls’, ‘The Blacker the Berry’, ‘I’). Like my previous album, Kanye’s MBDTF, musically it’s very strong, with influences from soul, funk and jazz, but vocally and lyrically it grates after a while and feels overlong; by the halfway point I was pretty fatigued. Given that it’s almost universally regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever made, perhaps this genre largely just isn’t for me.

Safe As Milk

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

4/5

This is at its core a really solid R&B/garage rock album, albeit with some pretty wacky lyrics and avant-garde influences, most notably on ‘Electricity’ and ‘Autumn’s Child’. However, most of its twelve songs are short, punchy, high-energy and riff-driven (and catchy!), especially the opening three tracks, ‘Yellow Brick Road’, and ‘Plastic Factory’. The notable exception, ‘I’m Glad’, is a genuinely beautiful, soulful ballad, and probably my pick of the bunch. Captain Beefheart’s voice was remarkable, and his gritty, bluesy vocals sound great throughout. I like this more with each listen. FYI, go for the mono mix over stereo.

Viva Hate

Morrissey

2/5

Given Morrissey’s political views it’s fitting that he chose this title for his debut solo album. The music (composed by producer-bassist Stephen Street) is pretty good, and when this album succeeds it does so largely because of him rather than Morrissey. More often, however, I was simply bored. ‘Bengali in Platforms’ is excruciating. To end on a positive note, ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’, ‘Suedehead’ and ‘I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me’ are all good songs. Overall though, this album has done nothing to disabuse me of my opinion that Johnny Marr was the main reason for the Smiths’ success.

Be

Common

3/5

Despite the 3 star rating, I did rather enjoy this. It’s just that rapping as a vocal style isn’t really my cup of tea. That said, the heavily soul-influenced production (by Common’s fellow Chicagoan Kanye West no less) is great, especially on the title track/intro, which is probably the highlight of the album musically. I enjoyed the album lyrically for the most part as well; it has a generally positive vibe despite not shying away from discussing real social problems/issues and different aspects of the black American experience. My rating could quite possibly go up with further listens.

Fulfillingness' First Finale

Stevie Wonder

3/5

This initially left me somewhat cold, but it won me over more after a second listen. Perhaps I was comparing it too much to ‘Songs in the Key of Life’, and honestly I do think it's quite a bit weaker. One reason for that is that this album is pretty ballad-heavy, and I’m generally more a fan of Stevie’s funkier numbers. The ballads and softer tracks weren’t bad though, just not as much to my taste. ‘Smile Please’, ‘Boogie On Reggae Woman’, ‘You Haven't Done Nothin’’ and ‘Please Don't Go’ were my highlights. Close to 4 stars but not quite.

Billion Dollar Babies

Alice Cooper

3/5

I'm a fan of the early-70s heavy rock sound, so I enjoyed this well enough musically. That said, with the exception of ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’ which I liked a lot, the songs are mostly just decent (no particular outliers either positive or negative). The title track, ‘Unfinished Sweet’ and ‘Generation Landslide’ were probably the best of the rest. The band’s tongue-in-cheek, horror-styled shock-rock lyrics might have been transgressive at the time, but today they seem very tame, even a bit quaint. Certainly they're schlocky and gimmicky, which does limit their appeal. Still, there’s enough to merit 3 stars.

Duck Stab/Buster & Glen

The Residents

1/5

Well, it’s certainly different. Just not in a good way. Why do people so often think that ‘experimental’ necessarily means grating and unlistenable? It is possible to be both ‘avant-garde’ and musical/melodic, and they should try it some time. Even so, I might have forgiven the group somewhat for inflicting this on my ears if they were at least making an interesting artistic statement, but unfortunately I don’t think they were saying anything. I confess, at one or two moments I almost found a ‘song’ catchy, but there were nowhere near enough of these to counter the general awfulness.

The Köln Concert

Keith Jarrett

4/5

Having never heard of Keith Jarrett, this was a really pleasant surprise, though the fact I had the Residents yesterday probably also helps, after which almost anything would seem transcendently beautiful… Joking aside, much of this album genuinely was beautiful, and I was amazed by Jarrett’s ability to improvise so brilliantly. Despite being classed as jazz, to my (albeit untrained) ear this seems overly simple; I hear lots of classical influences. This might also be an example of how knowing an album’s backstory can enhance my enjoyment of it (the Wikipedia article is a fun read). Definitely one I’ll revisit.

3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...

Arrested Development

2/5

I appreciate this group’s attempt to make a ‘positive’ hip-hop album, but unfortunately the concept is much better than the execution. Lyrically it feels clunky, and their attempts to contrast themselves with gangsta rap come across as rather sanctimonious. More importantly, I was underwhelmed by both the rapping and most of the beats, which were quite repetitive. Much of the production has also dated poorly and is pretty cheesy. It’s not terrible (some tracks were decent), just largely uninteresting. It made almost zero lasting impression on me. I’m not surprised it took them a while to get a record deal.

Oar

Alexander 'Skip' Spence

2/5

Another musician in the ‘depressing life story folk/acoustic singer-songwriter’ category, like Nick Drake or Jackson C. Frank, only weirder. Some strange albums successfully balance on the knife-edge between genius and garbage, but unfortunately for the most part this wasn’t one of them. There were small glimpses of quality at points; some tracks were decent, and I even found the odd song quite moving, for example. There just weren’t anywhere near enough such glimpses. Spence supposedly recorded these tracks as demos, and they sound like it, especially the vocals. There’s some potential in these songs, but sadly it’s mostly unrealised.

Songs In The Key Of Life

Stevie Wonder

5/5

What can I say? This is quite simply one of the greatest albums ever made. It's astonishing that he could maintain such quality not only across a sprawling main double album, but also a bonus EP for good measure. The twenty-one tracks cover a whole range of styles and subjects, and in all cases the songs are some of the best he ever wrote. Its power to move me remains undiminished after countless listens. This is truly Stevie Wonder at the absolute pinnacle of his powers, and to think that he almost quit the music business prior to recording it!

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Red Hot Chili Peppers

4/5

I like this album, but it’s certainly not perfect. On the positive side, the band sound fantastic (the drums, bass and guitars are killer), and there are lots of great tracks here: funky rap-rock bangers like ‘Give It Away’ and the title track, plus a few more distinctive songs like ‘Breaking the Girl’ and ‘Under the Bridge’. However, it’s too long given that many tracks sound very similar. Additionally, the lyrics on some songs are highly cringe-inducing (dishonourable mention ‘Sir Psycho Sexy’) and the vocals are merely okay. 3 feels harsh, and 4 feels generous, but I’ll be nice today.

Mothership Connection

Parliament

4/5

I had Funkadelic's ‘One Nation Under a Groove’ a few weeks ago, and it’s hard not to compare the two albums given the bands’ massively overlapping memberships. Overall, I do prefer ‘One Nation’, but this is still a classic piece of mid-70s funk. Also like that album, it’s pretty funny as well as funky; it's largely a concept album about extraterrestrial funk, and I enjoy that immensely. The three tracks on side one were my standouts, but it's all good. Would rate 3.5 if I could, but I'll round up to 4, for the album cover if nothing else.

The Age Of The Understatement

The Last Shadow Puppets

3/5

This album sounds like the result of crossing 2000s British indie with an Ennio Morricone or James Bond film score. It's an intriguing proposition, but unfortunately the album didn't meet its full potential for me. None of the songs were bad, but none of them stood out as particularly great either, just decent. ‘Standing Next to Me’, ‘Separate and Ever Deadly’ and ‘My Mistakes Were Made for You’ were some of the better tracks, but even these were only good rather than great. Overall, this album washed over me quite a bit, though it did start and end relatively strongly.

Pretzel Logic

Steely Dan

4/5

In which Steely Dan brilliantly marry their jazz-rock stylings to really catchy short songs with a great pop sensibility. I’d give this 4.5 if I could; it’s seriously good, but because I’m not as familiar with it as some definite 5 star albums I’d feel slightly uncomfortable giving it the maximum score. My other shortcoming is that there are some relatively weaker tracks (although still really good) in the back half, and the album ends rather abruptly, which was slightly jarring. Still, this is about as close to 5 without getting it as any album is likely to be.

Freak Out!

The Mothers Of Invention

3/5

AKA Zappa Begins. Sadly, I can’t give this album more than 3 stars, despite the fact I listen to much of it fairly often. Indeed, excepting ‘Who Are the Brain Police?’, I really like every song from sides one and two, plus ‘Trouble Every Day’. However, we then get into the long-form experimental/avant-garde stuff, and that’s where the album loses me. In fact, I’m not sure I’d ever heard the very end before. Had they taken the first twelve tracks and re-sequenced them to a single disc they’d have a really strong 4-star album. Crazy it’s from 1966 though!

Crossing the Red Sea With the Adverts

The Adverts

2/5

I imagine this album might’ve been more impactful when it was first released, especially played live. Listening now, however, I hear pretty generic 70s British punk, with little to mark it out from myriad other (better?) bands of the era. There was also little to distinguish the songs from each other, which meant they did largely blur into one for me, and the best song, ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’, wasn’t even on the original release. This sameness wasn’t helped by the washed-out, reverb-heavy production either. My overall impression is of a decent album that hasn’t really stood the test of time.

John Barleycorn Must Die

Traffic

3/5

No surprise this started off as Steve Winwood’s first solo album; his powerful vocals and keyboard/organ-playing dominate the album, and he played all the guitars too. There’s also a healthy dose of jazzy flute (à la Jethro Tull). This is a textbook 3-star album for me; every track was perfectly pleasant/listenable, but none were really mind-blowing. Side two was certainly the stronger half: ‘Stranger to Himself’ was a fun country/folk-inflected track, the title track was a good bit of straight-up British folk-rock, and the closer was a pretty decent rocker. Overall, a reasonably good early prog-rock album.

Hot Buttered Soul

Isaac Hayes

2/5

Isaac Hayes seems to have thought the way to make a great song even better is simply to make it longer. ‘Walk On By’ and ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix’ are both fantastic songs… in their original sub-three minute forms. I don’t think dragging them out to interminable lengths added anything, and I can definitely live without eight minute-long spoken intros. Unsurprisingly, the shortest song here, ‘One Woman’, was easily the best of the album for me. I can’t say Hayes’s vocals particularly impressed me either; the album’s saving grace was that the band and production were fantastic.

Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Aphex Twin

2/5

This kind of repetitive electronic music is one of those genres that I just don’t get. I can appreciate its significance as an early and therefore influential album, but sound-wise I simply can’t tell what distinguishes this as a great electronic album compared to anything else. I listened pretty attentively from start to finish, but only a few hours later I already can’t recall a single moment from it. It gets 2 stars because I’m assured of its significance, and because it was perfectly pleasant as background music, but I can’t see myself ever putting it on out of choice.

Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan

5/5

Having gone for an essentially even split of acoustic and electric on his previous album, Dylan here almost totally embraces the raucous rock sound, with the epic closer ‘Desolation Row’ the sole exception. Some of his best work is here (‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ being my two favourites) and the arrangements are brilliantly ragged and ramshackle. Dylan’s voice divides opinion, but for me he sounds fantastic delivering his cryptic and poetic lyrics. This isn’t my favourite Bob Dylan album, but I give it 5 stars without hesitation. It's an all-time classic for good reason.

Dookie

Green Day

4/5

This is a really strong pop-punk album. Apart from the final ‘hidden track’ I don’t think there are any real duds, and some songs are very good indeed. The performances and production are also great; the band has a really punchy sound. I have two reservations, though: it does get a little samey by the end, and I also have a personal dislike of ‘pop-punk voice’, although Billie Joe Armstrong is by no means the worst offender for that. I find this style/genre a bit of an acquired taste, but can absolutely see myself growing to really love this album.

Imperial Bedroom

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

3/5

A very difficult album to rate. On paper I should like it a lot; the songwriting is really strong and I mostly enjoy the elaborate instrumentation too. However, for some reason it leaves me a bit cold. In summary, it’s incredibly well-constructed but somewhat lacks emotional impact. Many tracks are excellent (‘Man Out of Time’ probably my favourite), but sometimes I find the arrangements are so lush/dense they almost smother the underlying song. This strikes me as one of those albums that might win me over in time, but right now I can (reluctantly) only give it 3 stars.

The Boatman's Call

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

4/5

How do you follow up an album like ‘Murder Ballads’? Why, with a set of twelve exceptionally downbeat, introspective and spiritual (and romantic) tracks, of course! Talk about tonal whiplash… This is Nick Cave’s most poignant and moving collection of songs (at least prior to ‘Skeleton Tree’ and ‘Ghosteen’) and there are some definite career highlights here, such as ‘Into My Arms’, ‘People Ain’t No Good’ and ‘(Are You) the One That I’ve Been Waiting For?’. The sound is almost minimalistic, with Cave’s vocals and piano the main focus. Not my favourite Bad Seeds album, but a very good one.

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Sinead O'Connor

3/5

I was curious to hear this, as the brilliant ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ was the only Sinéad O’Connor song I already knew. Unfortunately, I found it slightly frustrating; I felt this album had lots of potential it didn’t quite meet. I really liked the sound (the more symphonic tracks, as well as the folky and rocky numbers), and her voice was great, but a lot of songs seemed to stay on one idea for their duration. I kept expecting some variation to come in (e.g. a key change, B section, etc.), but it usually didn’t. A reluctant 3 stars.

Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd

5/5

I won’t go into all the trivia and the backstory/lore (Syd Barrett’s studio visit, etc.), but simply put this is probably my favourite Pink Floyd album. I’ve listened to it countless times, but ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ still gives me goosebumps. The build-up is incredible. It’s probably the single greatest thing they ever released, and they made the right call splitting it in two as well. ‘Welcome to the Machine’ gives me chills too, ‘Have a Cigar’ is a great rocker/guitar track, and ‘Wish You Were Here’ is just an all-time classic. Five perfect tracks, 5 stars.

Electric

The Cult

2/5

Why is this on the list? It obviously invites comparison with Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, etc., but doesn't do anything new or interesting that those bands didn’t do earlier, and better. They’re just reheating 70s heavy/bluesy rock, and do a perfectly decent job of it, but I’m not sure what the point is, when I could just listen to the original, superior bands within that genre. Worse, the lyrics are mostly cliche-ridden and frankly embarrassing. Still, I was going to be (very) generous and give 3 stars, but then I heard that diabolical cover of ‘Born to Be Wild’.

Sunshine Hit Me

The Bees

2/5

Another baffling inclusion on this list, being neither influential, innovative, interesting nor even particularly good. It’s perfectly fine lo-fi chill indie pop music as you might hear playing at any overpriced coffee shop or whilst on hold to a utility company. This makes sense as it’s serviceable as background/elevator music, but that’s all. It gets 2 stars because it wasn’t actually offensive to my ears, but Jesus was it boring. I listened to it twice today to write this review, and even so I still can’t remember a single moment from it. The cover really annoys me as well.

Green Onions

Booker T. & The MG's

3/5

Nice little instrumental R&B/soul album, dominated by Booker T. Jones’s Hammond organ, with Steve Cropper’s guitar in a very fine supporting role (wouldn’t have minded a bit more of it in fact). The standout track is obviously ‘Green Onions’ itself, but I also enjoyed their renditions of ‘I Got a Woman’, ‘Twist and Shout’ and ‘One Who Really Loves You’, among others. It did feel rather samey by the end, however; the sound is pretty much identical across all twelve tracks, and I had definitely had my maximum daily quota of Hammond organ. Lower end of 3 stars.

Close To You

Carpenters

2/5

Some of these songs are pretty good as compositions, especially ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ and the title track, but the arrangements/performances (in particular the vocals) are so syrupy, saccharine and cloyingly sentimental. It’s music with any hint of edge totally smoothed out. I'd certainly take the original/more famous versions over any of their covers. I don’t hate it, though; it’s so inoffensive I can’t imagine having any strong feelings about it either way (the epitome of ‘easy listening’). But would I ever listen to it of my own volition? No, and for that reason it gets 2 stars.

Scott 2

Scott Walker

1/5

This was such a chore to get through, mostly because I found Walker’s singing extremely grating; he clearly had a good voice, but the vibrato on EVERY held note was so irritating. The album wasn’t totally without redeeming features (I quite liked his cover of ‘Black Sheep Boy’, for example), but I strongly disliked the more cinematic/dramatic songs like the Jacques Brel covers and Walker’s own originals, despite all their lyrical intrigue. It’s clearly not on the same level of awfulness as some other albums from the list, but it’s totally not for me, so 1 star it is.

Golden Hour

Kacey Musgraves

3/5

This is a fairly decent country- and indie-influenced pop album rather reminiscent of Taylor Swift. Most songs were a nice enough listen, but none really stood out as exceptional to me. ‘High Horse' was probably the best track, being a bit more melodically interesting than the rest, but even that was just good rather than great. Other relative highlights included ‘Slow Burn’, ‘Love Is a Wild Thing’ and ‘Happy & Sad’. Overall, I thought it was a perfectly okay pop album that never quite took off; reasonably enjoyable in the moment but with little that will stick long in the memory.

Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division

4/5

This is an album where the phrase ‘ahead of its time’ is very much applicable; it sounds incredibly modern for something recorded in 1979, and you can hear its influence in so much subsequent indie/alternative rock, even up to the present day. I don’t think there was anything else quite like it at that time. Despite some of the band’s misgivings, for me the cold, sparse and echoey production, and the unusual effects, work perfectly with the material. A brilliant debut, and they would get even better with their second (and sadly final) album. A very strong 4 stars.

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Stereolab

2/5

A middling sort of electronic-influenced rock album. The opening track is too long and doesn’t do much for me, and while it does improve after that (if for no other reason than the rest of the songs are shorter), even then it’s all just okay rather than notably good. Another one for the ‘decent background music but not one I’d ever think to put on’ category. Actively listening to it, I found it pretty unengaging. A real standout track or two might just have tipped it into 3-star territory, but without that I can’t give it any more than 2.

Chicago Transit Authority

Chicago

3/5

Usually when a double album is described as ‘sprawling’, this refers to a long tracklist covering many different styles/genres. In this album’s case, however, the adjective could equally be applied to the individual tracks, which often meander all over the place through multiple sections, only sometimes seemingly connected to each other. When it’s good, it’s often really good, but when it’s bad (ahem, ‘Free Form Guitar’, ahem), it can be really bad, so it balances out to about 3 stars overall. I enjoy the brass-heavy jazzy/prog-rock sound, but it definitely would have benefited from some tidying/tightening up.

Live At The Regal

B.B. King

4/5

This is a very strong blues album, and definitely one where the live crowd (and King’s interactions with them) enhances its energy and atmosphere, which are immense. The vocals and guitar naturally have the starring roles, but the whole band sounds great, especially the drummer and the horn section. Some might say it gets a bit samey, but as I’m biased by my love for the blues, I disagree. Even beyond that there’s a lot of variation of rhythm, tempo, dynamics, etc. between the tracks. The side one run from ‘Sweet Little Angel’ to ‘Please Love Me’ is particularly brilliant.

Slippery When Wet

Bon Jovi

3/5

I’d love to be able to say that my taste is too cool and sophisticated to enjoy this incredibly cheesy generic 80s arena rock, but unfortunately that’s not true. What is true, though, is that the trio of monster hits on side one (‘You Give Love a Bad Name’, ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’, ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’) are easily the best songs on the album, and most of the rest are several notches down in quality. The lyrics are almost uniformly awful, the production dated, but it’s so catchy and infectious it’s hard to resist. Switch off brain and enjoy.

Solid Air

John Martyn

4/5

Appropriately enough, this is a really solid album, deftly combining folk, blues and jazzy elements, especially on the title track. It’s a very moody and atmospheric album much of the time, but with some moments of levity as well. As a fan of late-60s/early-70s British folkies (some of whom play on this album), this is a personal favourite of mine, and I rate every song here highly (‘May You Never’ is a gem), but it’s just lacking that something extra to tip it into 5-star territory. But for me this is at the very upper end of 4 stars.

Live At Leeds

The Who

4/5

NB: I’m reviewing the original 1970 release. I’ve always felt the Who’s 60s albums were poorly served by the production and have a thin, underpowered sound. This album certainly doesn’t suffer from that; it’s a brilliant testament to their famous power and energy as a live band. I get why they omitted ‘Tommy’ material, given that album was released only a year before, but the track listing is still slightly strange. The covers are incredible, but some great originals were dropped (e.g. ‘I Can’t Explain’ and ‘Tattoo’), and we get 15 minutes of ‘My Generation’ medley. Still great, though.

I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

Aretha Franklin

4/5

Gets off to an incredible start with ‘Respect’, which has to be a 5-star track and strong contender for the title of ‘best cover ever recorded’. Nothing else on the album quite matches up to that song, but Aretha Franklin was such a spectacular singer that she was able to make almost any material sound utterly compelling. The title track and ‘Dr Feelgood’ are among the best of the rest. While it’s not all great (the Sam Cooke covers certainly don’t improve on the originals), it is all at the very least good. On that basis it gets 4 stars.

Siamese Dream

The Smashing Pumpkins

2/5

I’ve listened to this album a fair few times now and at this point I’m happy to say it just doesn’t click with me the same way it seems to for most people, judging by its average rating (at the time of writing, only 10% of reviewers have given fewer than 3 stars). There is clearly some quality here, but it’s buried underneath an overbearing, abrasive and pretty unmelodic ‘wall of guitar overdubs’. More significantly, however, I just can’t get on with Billy Corgan’s voice, which by the end of the (in my opinion, too long) album is rather grating.

Five Leaves Left

Nick Drake

5/5

A hauntingly beautiful and melancholy debut album, with some of Nick Drake’s strongest compositions, arranged with great elegance and taste. ‘River Man’ is the clear standout for me, with ‘Time Has Told Me’, ‘Day Is Done’ and ‘Cello Song’ the other highlights. It’s all great, though. The only slight mistake was including ‘Man in a Shed’ over ‘Made to Love Magic’ and/or ‘Time of No Reply’, which are both far superior songs. Nonetheless, this is a brilliant album; it’s incredible to think he was only twenty when it was recorded and had barely been playing guitar for four years.

Ellington at Newport

Duke Ellington

4/5

NB: I’m reviewing the original 1956 release. This was a fantastic new discovery for me, and it was incredible to hear one of the founding fathers of jazz at work. Okay, so it’s only partly a ‘real’ live album, but I also listened to the complete version and that was just as good. And after all, what bands don’t polish up their live albums in the studio a bit? Regardless, all five tracks are really strong, especially ‘Festival Junction’ and ‘Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue’. A very strong 4 stars, quite possibly rising to 5 in future with greater familiarity.

Mask

Bauhaus

2/5

I was interested to hear this, as the only Bauhaus song I was already familiar with was ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, which I do like to an extent. My summary of this album: a worse version of Joy Division. It isn’t an awful album overall, but it’s definitely not for me. ‘Of Lilies and Remains’ really IS awful, though, and ‘In Fear of Fear’ and ‘Hollow Hills’ aren’t much better. Conversely, ‘Kick in the Eye’ with its almost funk/disco groove is probably the best track (it reminds me quite of Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’). Generally fine, but not really very memorable.

She's So Unusual

Cyndi Lauper

3/5

A fun slice of slightly quirky but still quintessentially 80s pop. ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ and ‘Time After Time’ are both all-time classics, of course, but the other two tracks on side one are really good as well, especially ‘Money Changes Everything’. Had the whole record been at that level it would have been a solidly 4-star album, but unfortunately nothing on side two reaches the heights of the earlier tracks (‘She Bop’ probably comes the closest). Cyndi Lauper’s distinctive voice might put some people off, but I think she sounds great. A strong 3 stars overall.

Iron Maiden

3/5

The NWOBHM is one of those things that I occasionally enjoy, but usually in smaller doses than a full album. Having not heard any pre-Bruce Dickinson Iron Maiden before, this album made me realise how key he is to their classic sound. But anyway… These guys can clearly play, but a lot of the tracks seem really structurally messy and incohesive to me; loads of disparate sections with little tying them together. ‘Phantom of the Opera’ is a prime example of this. Also, some tracks are lyrically cringeworthy, especially ‘Charlotte the Harlot’ which is frankly embarrassing. Overall not bad though.

Moving Pictures

Rush

3/5

Musically, I mostly dig it. ‘Tom Sawyer’, ‘Red Barchetta’ and ‘Limelight’ are great riff-driven rockers, and ‘YYZ’ is a fun, groovy instrumental. As is so often the case, however, side two is considerably weaker than side one. ‘The Camera Eye’ is definitely too long, and ‘Witch Hunt’ and ‘Vital Signs’ are decent but not mindblowing. As a collection of tracks, maybe a low 4 stars? However, there are a couple, more general negative points that knock off another star: first, I really don’t like Geddy Lee’s voice, which detracts significantly from my enjoyment; second, the lyrics are often pretty bad.

Pet Sounds

The Beach Boys

5/5

This is one of my absolute favourite albums, so naturally it gets 5 stars. I love everything about it: Brian Wilson’s intricate, gorgeous instrumentals and vocal harmonies unsurprisingly draw the most attention, but Tony Asher’s lyrics are fantastic too. The songs are introspective, addressing many coming of age themes: young love/relationships, personal failings and insecurities, feelings of alienation, searching for meaning and direction. It strikes a chord with me personally far more than most albums I’ve heard, and that married to some of the most beautiful pop music ever written results in what is, for me, a genuine masterpiece.

Vento De Maio

Elis Regina

3/5

A very mysterious inclusion, which doesn’t even feature in the discography listed on Regina’s Wikipedia article. It turns out that this is actually a reordered version of her 1980 album ‘Elis’, with some added bonus tracks, and released under this title in 1997. Sadly, being outside the Lusophone world, I have no idea what any of these songs are about, but in terms of pure sound it’s a rather enjoyable collection of Brazilian pop/bossa nova tracks, with great vocals. It did lose my interest a bit in the middle, but I’m very glad this type of music is represented.

Either Or

Elliott Smith

4/5

As a confirmed fan of sad boys mumbling over acoustic guitars, of course I think this is a really strong lo-fi/indie/folk album. Some tracks (‘Alameda’, ‘Ballad of Big Nothing’, ‘Between the Bars’, ‘Angeles’, ‘Say Yes’) are genuine greats, and most of the rest are pretty good too. Elliott Smith’s strengths were his lyrics and melodies, with the latter providing some counterweight to the former, turning what might have been an emotionally oppressive album into one that while still melancholy and bittersweet, isn’t overwhelmingly depressive. Not quite 5 stars for me, but certainly at the upper end of 4.

All Things Must Pass

George Harrison

5/5

Maybe it’s cheating, but I’m discounting ‘Apple Jam’ in this rating. George Harrison himself didn’t see it as part of the album proper, and the first two discs are definitely in the running for the title of best solo album by a Beatle. It’s absolutely mad that several tracks were rejected by the others for inclusion on a Beatles album, not least ‘Wah-Wah’, ‘Isn’t It a Pity’ and ‘All Things Must Pass’ itself, which are among the album’s many, many highlights. Yes, the production is sometimes overly dense, but come on, this is without doubt a 5-star collection of songs.

Basket of Light

Pentangle

3/5

I’m partial to a bit of late-60s British folky stuff, so I did largely enjoy this album, though I do have to be in the right mood for this more medieval (albeit with added sitar) end of the genre. ‘Light Flight’, ‘Once I Had a Sweetheart’, ‘Sally Go ‘Round the Roses’, and ‘House Carpenter’ were my highlights. Conversely, ‘Lyke-Wake Dirge’ rather lived up to its name, being the only real dud track on the album. Overall, I didn’t think this album was up to the standards of the likes of Fairport Convention, though there was some excellent guitar work throughout.

Figure 8

Elliott Smith

4/5

Elliott Smith’s untimely death is tragic not least because one gets the sense that he had barely started. This album definitely represents a sonic progression from his earlier work, though that’s not to say it’s necessarily better than his previous albums (I remain agnostic on that question). The sound is fuller, the arrangements more intricate/lush, with a palpable Beatles influence. Many tracks (‘Son of Sam’, ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’, ‘L.A.’, etc.) are brilliant, and several more are only slightly below that standard. Even the more ‘filler’ type tracks are pretty good. A very strong 4 stars.

One Nation Under A Groove

Funkadelic

4/5

Really enjoyable and also pretty funny lyrically. Highlights are the title track, 'Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?!' (which features some outstanding guitar work), and 'Cholly', but the whole album was great. Some tracks are maybe a little bit too long, however, especially ‘Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad’, which definitely didn't need a reprise either (great title though). Of course with a funk album the Rotofunkie Drum and Percussionatin' Thumpdans and Bass Thumpasaurians have starring roles, but I was really impressed with the Throbbasonic Funkgeetarists and Funkadelic Blamgusta Vocaloids too. Really strong 4 stars. Fried ice cream is a reality.

Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black

Public Enemy

4/5

I must confess I was expecting this album to compare poorly to ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions…’ but I actually enjoyed it a lot. It’s another great, politically-charged Public Enemy album. Highlights included ‘Can’t Truss It’, ‘By the Time I Get to Arizona’ and ‘Shut Em Down’, plus several more, but while the second half was maybe a bit less consistent quality-wise, there wasn’t really a dud track on it. I was genuinely surprised by how well the Anthrax version of ‘Bring Tha Noize’ worked, a nice way to end the album! A pretty decent 4 stars. Yeah, boyeeeeee!

The Idiot

Iggy Pop

3/5

A decent debut solo effort from Mr Pop, and a very different sound to his Stooges years, due largely to David Bowie’s enormous influence (he wrote the music and also produced it). Given this it’s unsurprising that it sounds a lot like Bowie’s mid-70s output, especially ‘Station to Station’ and ‘Low’, only not as good. That’s not to say it’s bad; it’s a textbook 3-star album, without any particularly low lows, or high highs. ‘Nightclubbing’ and ‘China Girl’ are probably the best songs, while the two longer tracks on side two drag on a bit too long for my liking.

Bad

Michael Jackson

4/5

A frustrating mix of the absolutely brilliant and the merely decent. The highlights (‘Bad’, ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, ‘Man in the Mirror’, ‘Smooth Criminal’) are possibly some of the best pop tracks ever recorded, with ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ and ‘Leave Me Alone’ only a notch below, but several more are fine-to-good but not exceptional: ‘Speed Demon’, ‘Just Good Friends’ (despite featuring Stevie Wonder), ‘Another Part of Me’ and ‘Dirty Diana’. Worse is the cringe-inducing ‘Liberian Girl’. As an album, it’s easily strong enough for 4 stars overall, but it’s a definite step down from ‘Thriller’.

Midnight Ride

Paul Revere & The Raiders

3/5

This is a fun collection of short, catchy garage-rock/R&B tracks, featuring some nice vocal harmonies and just an occasional hint of psychedelia. Though the songs are of mixed quality, it certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome; the eleven tracks add up to barely 29 minutes in total. ‘Kicks’ and ‘Steppin’ Stone’ are the best songs, and I doubt it’s a coincidence that these are the only tracks not written by the band. ‘Ballad of a Useless Man’, ‘There She Goes’, ‘Get It On’ and ‘Take a Look at Yourself’ are the best of the rest. A decent 3 stars.

Music in Exile

Songhoy Blues

3/5

What an incredible back-story this album has! The music on it isn’t quite as remarkable, but it’s still pretty decent. It’s essentially American-style blues-rock with a Malian twist, in a similar mould to Tinariwen and Ali Farka Touré, who I’m very slightly more familiar with. My inability to understand the lyrics does mean I’m unfortunately unable to appreciate all aspects of the music; no fault of the band, of course, but it does factor into my personal rating. There is a good level of energy throughout, and enough variety to keep my interest to the end. Enough for 3 stars.

Behaviour

Pet Shop Boys

2/5

This wasn’t a terrible album by any means, but I did find it pretty bland, which wasn’t helped by the fact that most of the tracks are very downtempo and lacking in energy. The production sounds quite dated nowadays as well (much of it sounds like the presets on a cheap school keyboard, lots of synthy orchestra hits and the like). I also find Neil Tennant’s voice quite grating after a while. Nonetheless, it was generally fine enough to have on as background music; I just doubt I’ll ever choose to listen to it again. Upper end of 2 stars.

Franz Ferdinand

3/5

This is a good early-to-mid 2000s British indie rock album, with some very catchy, danceable songs, but there’s not quite enough quality there to lift it into 4-star territory for me. Like so many albums, most of the best tracks are stacked towards the start (‘Jacqueline’, ‘Take Me Out’, ‘The Dark of the Matinée’), so it does run out of steam a bit by the end, though there are some later highlights too (‘This Fire’ and ‘Michael’). On the plus side even the weaker material has a great groove; it’s very hard not to tap your feet listening to this!

Traffic

3/5

As a fan of late-60s bluesy, folky rock stuff I enjoyed the sound of this album well enough, but overall it’s another of those albums that gets 3 stars for being generally okay, with no particular highs or lows to speak of. It’s the kind of thing that makes you appreciate more how good some other groups working in a similar idiom were. ‘Feelin’ Alright?’ is probably the best song, although even there I probably prefer Joe Cocker’s version. This one didn’t make much impact on me and I began to lose interest the longer it went on. Very mid.

Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin

5/5

That this collection of eight new tracks recorded when Robert Plant’s voice was absolutely shredded, and seven outtakes rejected from previous albums is, for me, Led Zeppelin’s best album (and their last truly great one), just goes to show how incredible they were. The old stuff is great, particularly ‘The Rover’ and ‘Houses of the Holy’, but the new material provides the real highlights: ‘In My Time of Dying’, ‘Trampled Under Foot’, ‘Kashmir’, ‘In the Light’, ‘Ten Years Gone’... all of these tracks are among the band’s greatest work, and the stylistic variety is one of the album’s best qualities.

Getz/Gilberto

Stan Getz

3/5

I can see why this is a jazz/bossa nova classic: it has a lovely sunny vibe from start to finish and is definitely a mood-lifter. However, while I wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as ‘elevator music’ (it deserves better than that), it is a bit too ‘easy listening’ and repetitive for me to really love it. I do also agree with some other reviewers that the tenor sax is often too loud. At the risk of being a philistine, I can’t in all honesty give it more than 3 stars in terms of my personal enjoyment.

Pearl

Janis Joplin

4/5

This is a fantastic, soulful, bluesy album, though of course a desperately sad one too, with a haunting sense of incompleteness. Janis Joplin had an utterly remarkable and incredibly powerful voice, though I do wonder how long she’d have been able to sustain it given her ragged vocal style. She’s undoubtedly (and deservedly) the star, but I’d also like to shout-out the Full Tilt Boogie Band, whose playing is fantastic throughout. Highlights are ‘Move Over’, ‘Cry Baby’, ‘A Woman Left Lonely’, and ‘Me and Bobby McGee’. I like this more and more with each listen. A possible future 5 stars.

Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

Small Faces

3/5

A tale of two sides. Side one is a pretty decent slice of late-60s British psychedelia, with some good tracks (particularly the title track, ‘Afterglow’, ‘Rene’ and ‘Lazy Sunday’). Side two takes a turn for the increasingly strange as we delve into the bizarre tale of ‘Happiness Stan’, featuring extensive narration. I found this pretty charming, though I can see why it would put some people off, and it’s certainly weaker musically. The whole album is very whimsical and silly, and I’m glad it exists, even if I doubt I’ll listen to side two very often. Enough for 3 stars.

Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Dead Kennedys

5/5

I was torn, but eventually went for the full 5 stars. This is a fantastic early hardcore punk album, with great, political but also pretty funny lyrics. There are lots of standout tracks: ‘Kill the Poor’, ‘Let’s Lynch the Landlord’, ‘Chemical Warfare’, ‘California Über Alles’, ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ and the deranged, lyrically-altered cover of ‘Viva Las Vegas’ being my favourites. But I don’t think there’s really a weak track on it (‘Ill in the Head’ might be the closest thing to one). Jello Biafra’s vocals seem to be quite divisive, but I think the whole band sound great, including him.

Black Holes and Revelations

Muse

3/5

Unfortunately, I am prejudiced against Muse from past associations. No fault of the band, of course, but it does colour my response to them. Sonically it’s pretty decent overall, although I do find Matt Bellamy’s vocals to be overwrought and histrionic a lot of the time, and they don’t fully escape the ‘poor man’s Radiohead’ label. That said, the opening trio of ‘Take a Bow’, ‘Starlight’ and ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ is very good indeed. The album does lose a bit of steam as it goes on, but finishes strongly with ‘Knights of Cydonia’. Not quite enough for 4 stars though.

Beggars Banquet

The Rolling Stones

4/5

In which the Stones abandon their brief flirtation with psychedelic to embrace their classic bluesy/country-inflected rock sound as the self-proclaimed ‘greatest rock and roll band in the world’. Two of their best and most famous songs are here (‘Sympathy for the Devil’ and ‘Street Fighting Man’), and lots of the other tracks are really great too, especially ‘No Expectations’, ‘Salt of the Earth’ and ‘Stray Cat Blues’, despite the VERY uncomfortable lyrics (definitely not one for karaoke night). I think they have better albums overall, though. This is the beginning of the Stones’ golden age, but not its zenith.

Definitely Maybe

Oasis

5/5

Probably my favourite Oasis album. It has so many absolutely brilliant bangers, from ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ through to ‘Slide Away’, with ‘Live Forever’, ‘Up in the Sky’, ‘Supersonic’, ‘Bring It On Down’ and ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ the pick of the rest, but really ‘Shakermaker’ is the closest it gets to a dud track. It has an almost punky aspect to it at times, and hints of psychedelia at others. You can tell this is a band who are hungry for success and really believe they’ll get it too. The energy, attitude and sense of conviction and self-belief are truly immense.

Strangeways, Here We Come

The Smiths

4/5

A strong final outing from the Smiths, though I definitely still prefer ‘The Queen Is Dead’ overall. The production/arrangements are lusher and more varied than on their previous albums, with keyboards, synths and strings making frequent appearances. ‘A Rush and a Push…’ is a solid opener, but ‘I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish’ and ‘Stop Me…’ are the clear standouts for me, along with ‘Last Night…’ and ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’. As this suggests, the first half is quite a bit stronger than the second, but there’s still enough quality over the course of the album for 4 stars.

Welcome to the Afterfuture

Mike Ladd

2/5

Mike Ladd for the most part does a just about passable job with this album’s electronic-infused hip hop sound and space-themed concept. It (mostly) wasn’t horrible, but I enjoyed it only sporadically. It was also much longer than necessary and rather tedious. ‘To the Moon’s Contractor’ certainly did not need to be over 10 minutes long, but other tracks were much worse, featuring a variety of irritating, awful falsetto vocals and electronic noises. ‘Bladerunners’ was probably the best track, thanks to Company Flow’s feature more than Mike Ladd, whose rapping is bang average. Just barely enough to escape 1-star ignominy.

Band On The Run

Paul McCartney and Wings

4/5

One of Macca’s strongest post-Beatles albums for both songwriting and performances. The title track and ‘Jet’ is a great one-two punch to open the album, ‘Mrs Vandebilt’ is good fun and ‘Let Me Roll It’ is a solid slow rocker with Paul giving his best John Lennon impression. On side two, ‘No Words’ is a nice little rock ballad, ‘Picasso’s Last Words’ is also good but maybe a little too long, and finally ‘Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five’ is a fantastic closer. The two tracks I haven’t yet mentioned, ‘Bluebird’ and ‘Mamunia’, I don’t like as much but they’re still decent.

The Visitors

ABBA

3/5

A decent album overall. The title track is really strong, with a slightly sombre, ominous atmosphere quite different from the familiar ABBA sound. The same is true of ‘Soldiers’, my other favourite track. Other songs sound a bit more typical, but this isn’t necessarily a criticism. I really liked the tango-inflected ‘Head Over Heels’, for example, and ‘One of Us’. However, ‘I Let the Music Speak’ and ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’ weren’t as much to my taste, sounding too much like songs from a musical for my liking. The remaining tracks were all fine, but nothing exceptional. Textbook 3 stars.

Blackstar

David Bowie

4/5

Even ten years later it’s difficult to not see this rather jazzy art-rock album as Bowie’s ‘auto-epitaph’, and a great job he did of it too. The three longer tracks (‘Blackstar’ itself, ‘Lazarus’ and ‘I Can’t Give Everything Away’) are the core of the album, and the best songs too, along with ‘‘Tis a Pity She Was a Whore’ and ‘Dollar Days’. There is a slight lull with ‘Sue’ and ‘Girl Loves Me’; they're still good songs but they do bring the overall quality down just short of 5 stars for me. Nonetheless, this is a brilliant final artistic statement.

Purple Rain

Prince

4/5

This is an exceptionally well-crafted album with some really good songs, but for whatever reason it leaves me slightly cold emotionally. I really like it, but I don’t love it, and that’s why it doesn’t get the full 5 stars. Like a lot of Prince’s stuff, it’s difficult to genre-type, combining elements of 80s pop, rock, funk and R&B. ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ is a great opener (what an intro that song has too), and ‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Purple Rain’ are obviously all-time classics, but most of the rest falls into the ‘very good but not quite great’ category.

Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth

2/5

After my first listen, I really wasn’t keen. After a second listen, I like it slightly more, but it’s still very much not for me. I can respect this album for being highly influential, but even the better tracks like ‘Teen Age Riot’ I thought were just okay. Though there are some more melodic tracks, overall it’s too noisy/abrasive for my taste (I found Kim Gordon’s vocals particularly annoying), and too long, especially given lots of the tracks are pretty samey. Noisier tracks can be effective in small doses, but over 70 minutes I just found it rather grating.

Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin

5/5

Probably (and unjustly) the least-appreciated of the first six Zeppelin records, this is an absolutely fantastic album that showcases the band broadening their sound. It’s Zeppelin’s most folky album, and most of this more acoustic material is brilliant, especially side two’s four-track run of ‘Gallows Pole’, ‘Tangerine’ and ‘That’s the Way’ (two of their most beautiful tracks), and ‘Bron-Y-Aur Stomp’. But there are still great rockers too, most famously the opening ‘Immigrant Song’, plus probably their greatest slow blues effort, ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’, which features some of the best performances (especially vocals and guitar) on any Zeppelin song.

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

4/5

I found this a difficult album to rate as I probably admire it more than I enjoy it. It’s certainly not as accessible as some of Coltrane’s work I’m more familiar with, such as ‘Blue Train’, ‘My Favo[u]rite Things’, ‘Giant Steps’ and the like. It’s more avant-garde, more influenced by free jazz than those earlier albums. That said, there are still strong hooks, especially on side one, and the playing is fantastic. However, while this album is almost universally regarded as a masterpiece, right now I can’t quite give it the maximum score. Perhaps in time I will do so.

Elephant Mountain

The Youngbloods

3/5

Because I generally really like this sort of 60s folky/country/psychedelic music I did enjoy this album. That said, it’s mostly perfectly pleasant but pretty lightweight stuff. The positives: ‘Darkness, Darkness’ was a cool, bluesy opener and probably the best track, ‘Beautiful’ was a refreshing change of pace for being a bit more lively, ‘Rain Song’ was a nice jazzy track (with slide whistle), and ‘Sham’ had some cool guitar work. However, ‘On Sir Francis Drake’ and ‘Ride the Wind’ weren’t interesting enough to justify their long durations, and ‘Trillium’ similarly felt a bit superfluous. Enough for 3 stars.

Nothing's Shocking

Jane's Addiction

3/5

This was generally fine but unremarkable and lacking in any real standout tracks, except for the wrong reasons. First, even overlooking the objectionable subject-matter, ‘Ted, Just Admit It…’ does little for me and is too long (as was ‘Summertime Rolls’). Second, ‘Jane Says’ might be the most popular song, but it was one of my least favourite as the vocals were especially irritating. Indeed, the vocals were my biggest problem with the whole album. For the positives, there was some nice guitar work/solos throughout, and a fair bit of stylistic variety. JUST good enough for a generous 3 stars.

Different Class

Pulp

5/5

I wavered for a bit, but eventually realised: this is surely one of the best British albums of the 90s. It’s great keyboard-powered pop-rock music with clever, insightful and often quite funny lyrics, which are one of the album’s strongest points. The songs examine social class/status, myriad aspects of sex and relationships, and the emptiness of drug-fuelled rave culture. ‘Common People’ and ‘Disco 2000’ are deservedly the best-known tracks, but ‘Mis-Shapes’, ‘I Spy’, ‘Live Bed Show’, ‘Something Changed’, ‘Feeling Called Love’ and ‘Underwear’ are also highlights. That said, there are really no dud tracks here. A really excellent record.

The Hour Of Bewilderbeast

Badly Drawn Boy

4/5

A lovely indie folk/rock album with orchestral/baroque touches. Comparisons to the likes of Nick Drake and Elliott Smith are apt, but it’s distinctive enough to have its own character. There are some really strong songs here, ‘The Shining’, ‘Another Pearl’ and ‘Once Around the Block’ being my biggest highlights. The quality is a bit inconsistent, however; the brief instrumental interludes felt superfluous, as did the odd track like ‘Fall in a River’, ‘Cause a Landslide’ and, ironically, ‘Bewilderbeast’ itself. The second half was definitely weaker than the first but it’s still just about good enough for 4 stars.

Morrison Hotel

The Doors

3/5

Not bad, and definitely better than ‘The Soft Parade’, but also not their strongest album either. Some of the bluesy and rockier tracks are really solid, particularly ‘Roadhouse Blues’, ‘You Make Me Real’, ‘Maggie M’Gill’ and ‘Peace Frog’, though the more psychedelic ‘Waiting for the Sun’ is a highlight too. As these picks suggest, I found side one to be quite a bit stronger than side two. I’ve also never really liked ‘Morrison-as-crooner’, so ‘Blue Sunday’ left me especially cold, and several other tracks (mostly on side two) are perfectly fine but nothing special. Just shy of 4 stars overall.

Frank

Amy Winehouse

4/5

For some reason I expected this to compare poorly with ‘Back to Black’, but I was actually very pleasantly surprised. This is a great jazz-influenced pop/soul album, with lots of stylistic variety which helps keep things interesting. It is a bit too long; after the excellent jazz standard covers around the halfway mark the quality takes a bit of a dip, but it’s still easily good enough for a very strong 4 stars. Some of the lyrics are… dated, but overall the songwriting, performances and production are all excellent. Incredible that she wasn’t yet 20 when this was recorded.

Fear and Whiskey

Mekons

2/5

A rare album that improved as it went on. The opener was bloody awful, and while the following few were better, there was far too much talking for my liking. ‘Hard to Be Human Again’ was probably the best of tracks 1-5, having a bit more energy, and for the same reason tracks 6-10 were much stronger. It was a frustrating album; the songs at their core were fairly decent and the punk-country sound/concept was interesting, but the vocals and production were often dreadful. Despite finishing strongly, the first half ensures it’s not quite good enough for 3 stars.

Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear

2/5

Had this very late-2000s indie folk album been about 30 minutes long rather than over 50, I'd have been inclined to give it 3 stars. However, given its duration I can only give it 2. It's very pretty background music, but it's quite simply not interesting enough to justify such a long runtime, especially when by far the best song, ‘Two Weeks’, is only track 2/12. I found myself increasingly bored as it floated along. Most songs are so lightweight they struggle to make any impact at all. It's quite similar to early Fleet Foxes, just not as good.

Let Love Rule

Lenny Kravitz

3/5

This psychedelic rock/soul album was considerably better than I was expecting given the scathing top comments and a 2.99 current average rating. The lyrics might not be great poetry, but they’re not THAT bad (they do their job as a vehicle for some solid vocal performances), and are secondary to the music anyway. This is mostly pretty good, and sometimes even great, albeit a bit derivative of the 60s/70s. However, as I love that stuff, this didn’t bother me too much. It’s a bit too long, but I’d give it a strong 3 stars, very nearly 4.

There's A Riot Goin' On

Sly & The Family Stone

4/5

A few years ago I really loved this album. Nowadays, I’m not as enamoured with it, but it’s certainly good enough for 4 stars. Marking a rather dramatic change from the band’s brighter 60s sound, this is funk for the dawn of the 70s: incredibly downbeat, dark and murky, with this atmosphere enhanced by the muddy audio quality (apparently caused by the tape wearing out from repeated overdubbing and erasing). Apart from the fantastic ‘Family Affair’ there’s little in the way of obvious hits, but this is absolutely one of those albums that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Suede

4/5

This is a really strong early Britpop record. The whole album has a somewhat psychedelic, dreamy, ethereal atmosphere, but thankfully it isn’t overly reverb-heavy (one of my pet peeves when it comes to music production). It contains a good mix of upbeat, rockier numbers and slower, calmer tracks, which helps keep things interesting. ‘Animal Nitrate’ and ‘Metal Mickey’ are among my favourite tracks in the former category, ‘Pantomime Horse’ and ‘Sleeping Pills’ among those of the latter. I did find the vocals slightly grating at times, but not enough to mar my enjoyment of the album seriously. Solid 4 stars.

Tusk

Fleetwood Mac

4/5

Wisely choosing to not try and recreate ‘Rumours’, this album is a quite different follow-up, not as consistent but still great, with some excellent contributions from all three songwriters. Lindsey Buckingham's more experimental tracks in particular have clearly taken some influence from (post)-punk, while Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, by contrast, have gone for a much softer, more melodic approach with many of theirs. They're not the flashiest rhythm section but I've also always liked John McVie and especially Mick Fleetwood too. ‘Tusk’ isn’t as good as ‘Rumours’, but it’s certainly still worthy of a very strong 4 stars.

I Should Coco

Supergrass

4/5

Having only previously heard the monster hit ‘Alright’ I was surprised to find that song is quite an outlier from most of this album, which largely has a strong garage rock/punky feel. This is established right from the great opening one-two punch of ‘I’d Like to Know’ and ‘Caught by the Fuzz’. But there’s stylistic variety here too. Apart from ‘Alright’ there’s also ‘Mansize Rooster’ which sounds a bit Kinks-inspired to me, the bluesy rock ballad ‘Time’, and the psychedelic jam ‘Sofa of My Lethargy’, among others. This album has an irresistible energy and positive vibe. Solid 4 stars.

The Holy Bible

Manic Street Preachers

5/5

I hesitated giving this the maximum score, having heard little from the Manics before, but few other albums this website has given me so far have made as big an immediate impression on me. The impressionistic, almost stream-of-consciousness lyrics are incredibly dark, of course, but musically-speaking while it can be noisy/abrasive, it’s also very strong for melodies and hooks. Every song is brilliant, perhaps excepting ‘The Intense Humming of Evil’, but if I had to pick some faves, I’d nominate the opening three tracks, plus ‘Archives of Pain’, ‘Revol’, ‘4st 7lb’, ‘Faster’ and ‘P.C.P’, the closing track.

Talking Book

Stevie Wonder

4/5

The big hits (‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’, ‘Superstition’ and ‘I Believe…’) are deservedly the best-known tracks here, but my other highlight is ‘Maybe Your Baby’, a fantastic extended funk jam with a great guitar part courtesy of Mr Ghostbusters. Common to lots of Stevie’s albums, however, though they're by no means bad, I'm nowhere near as keen on the ballads, and along with ‘You’ve Got It Bad Girl’ they were my least-favourite tracks. The funky numbers were considerably stronger. The big hits are great, but the album is just good enough overall for a low 4 stars.

More Songs About Buildings And Food

Talking Heads

4/5

A really good album, and a definite improvement from an already very solid debut. New producer Brian Eno does a great job, particularly in introducing a greater focus on the rhythm section. There are no bad songs here, but the opening track, ‘The Girls Want to Be with the Girls’, ‘Found a Job’, ‘The Big Country’, and a brilliant cover version of ‘Take Me to the River’ are my highlights. It’s lacking that bit of stardust to take it to the full 5-stars for me, but the good news is that the band would get even better on later albums.

Smash

The Offspring

2/5

Pretty underwhelming. It isn’t exactly a terrible album (the instrumentals and production are decent), but it is to my ears pretty generic punk as had been done many times before. Almost every song sounds the same, with a few exceptions. ‘Come Out and Play’ was a bit more interesting with its surf-rock guitar part and was the best track, while ‘Killboy Powerhead’ was a ska-punk cover, although in that case it was different but rubbish. Other songs really do sound like Nirvana rip-offs to me, especially ‘Gotta Get Away’ and ‘Self Esteem’. The whiny, irritating vocals cemented my 2-star rating.

Crime Of The Century

Supertramp

3/5

This is an extremely 70s album that attempts to ride the prog and pop horses simultaneously, and overall does a fairly decent job of it, with caveats: most tracks contain some cool ideas, but have so many different sections they end up feeling a bit messy and disjointed. The most successful songs avoid this issue. ‘Bloody Well Right’ is a stand-out, combining hard rock with jazzy elements and anti-authority and class-conscious lyrics. ‘Dreamer’ is another really solid track for being tighter structurally. I can imagine liking this more with further listens, but right now I can’t go beyond 3 stars.

461 Ocean Boulevard

Eric Clapton

2/5

In which famous Enoch Powell fanboy and ‘keep Britain white’ proponent Eric Clapton covers tracks by numerous black musicians, including Bob Marley and several American bluesmen such as Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson, and contributes his own bluesy originals (a genre that was created primarily by black Americans by the way). Even putting this extraordinary double-think aside, this is an album of perfectly competent but utterly unremarkable stuff. It’s a far cry from the blistering fire of Derek and the Dominos’ ‘Layla’, which I begrudgingly do love. And Bob Marley’s original version of ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ is much better.

The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground

5/5

An incredibly influential and also fantastic album with a lot of stylistic variety. There’s gorgeous dreamy pop (‘Sunday Morning’, ‘Femme Fatale’, ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’), grinding garage rock (‘I’m Waiting for the Man’, ‘Run Run Run’), and more avant-garde offerings like ‘Venus in Furs’, ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ and ‘Heroin’, three absolute album high-points. The ending is slightly underwhelming (‘The Black Angel’s Death Song’ is my least-favourite track, and ‘European Son’ starts off promisingly but then descends into a mad jam which is just fine); nonetheless the preceding tracks are sufficiently excellent to ensure the album holds onto a 5-star rating.

Phrenology

The Roots

2/5

A decent album, let down by being too long, with too many tracks that just stayed on one unvaried beat/rhythm for their entire (often overlong) durations. ‘The Seed (2.0)’ was probably my favourite song, being more rock/soul than hip-hop. Other relative highlights included ‘Thought @ Work’, ‘Pussy Galore’ and the bonus track ‘Rhymes and Ammo’, which I preferred to most of the main album. ‘Break You Off’ was also pretty decent, but was definitely too long, as was ‘Water’, especially the almost ambient instrumental section. Unfortunately, this album outstayed its welcome for me. Upper end of 2 stars.

Trout Mask Replica

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

1/5

It’s experimental, it’s avant-garde, it’s… atrocious. Captain Beefheart here almost totally failed to create anything listenable or even recognisable as a proper song. I say almost, because just occasionally a track did have some sense of structure, melody, rhythm, etc. and was even vaguely enjoyable, e.g. ‘Moonlight in Vermont’. Nonetheless, it’s got to be 1 star; if this isn’t, then what is? Perhaps it would grow on me (like mould?) if I heard it several times, but I’m not masochistic enough to inflict it on myself again. Some say it’s a ‘masterpiece’. I say the emperor has no clothes.

Brown Sugar

D'Angelo

2/5

Wow, what an incredibly boring album… The whole thing was so smooth and samey it left nigh on zero lasting impression on me. It’s ostensibly ‘sexy’ music, but I imagine it sends people to sleep more often than it gets them in the mood. ‘Cruisin’’ and ‘Lady’ were the closest it got to standout tracks, but really once you’ve heard one you’ve pretty much heard them all. I also found a lot of the lyrics rather cringe-inducing. For the positives, D’Angelo has a pretty good voice, and it’s not actively offensive to listen to, but it’s firmly in 2-star territory.

Electric Ladyland

Jimi Hendrix

5/5

Probably Hendrix’s magnum opus, and certainly one of the very best psychedelic rock albums of the genre’s 60s heyday, this is a fantastic double album that shows the full range of his talents, not just as a guitarist, but also as a songwriter. There’s tracks pointing towards genres including prog (‘1983’), funk (‘House Burning Down’), and metal (‘Voodoo Child’), but also poppier numbers like ‘Crosstown Traffic’, ‘Long Hot Summer Night’ and ‘Burning of the Midnight Lamp’. There’s also his fantastic reimagining of ‘All Along the Watchtower’, surely one of the best covers ever recorded. The whole band sounds phenomenal throughout.

Nixon

Lambchop

2/5

A strange album. Combining country, soul, and a chamber pop orchestral sheen, this should be a lot more interesting than it actually is. It starts off okay with ‘The Old Gold Shoe’ and ‘Grumpus’, but it quickly becomes apparent that most songs have a similar, lightweight feel; as a result, they largely washed over me. ‘Up with People’ was probably my favourite track, and I also liked ‘What Else Could It Be’ instrumentally, but vocally it was really grating (Kurt Wagner should be permanently banned from singing in falsetto ever again). Very pretty, but rather unengaging. Just under 3 stars.

Sex Packets

Digital Underground

1/5

A truly dreadful album. ‘The Humpty Dance’ is an okay opener but nothing special, daft but kind of funny. Amazingly, it’s probably the highlight of the album, as after that it goes into a series of seemingly never-ending songs that are either painfully boring, lyrically icky, or both. ‘Gutfest ‘89’ and ‘Freaks of the Industry’ are probably the worst of both worlds here, but almost every track is too long and massively outstays its welcome (there’s no justification for ‘Doowhutchyalike’ being nearly nine minutes long; the fake fade-out should have been real). Basic beats, basic rapping, and terrible, off-putting lyrics.

Paranoid

Black Sabbath

5/5

Utterly foundational to heavy metal, and still one of the genre’s best offerings, this is surely Black Sabbath’s finest album. It’s so stacked with bangers it’s almost a greatest hits album on its own. ‘War Pigs’, ‘Paranoid’, ‘Iron Man’, ‘Electric Funeral’, ‘Hand of Doom’, ‘Fairies Wear Boots’, all rank among the band’s best songs. They have range as well; the spacey/psychedelic folk-acoustic track ‘Planet Caravan’ is another standout. The only slight misstep is the drum solo vehicle ‘Rat Salad’, but it’s short and has a cool riff so I’ll allow it. Brilliant performances all round, undoubtedly worth 5 stars.

Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

Lucinda Williams

3/5

A really nice country-rock album, consistently solid from start to finish without ever quite reaching greatness. Lucinda Williams has a knack for a catchy melody and her drawling, languid vocals work perfectly with the lyrics. The production and arrangements are good too, lots of slide guitar, accordion, etc. No real standout but if I had to pick a few I’d go for ‘Right in Time’, the title track and ‘Can’t Let Go’. With a bit more variety and/or a truly great song or two I might give this a higher score, but it’s still a very strong 3 stars.

En-Tact

The Shamen

2/5

As with most electronic stuff, this wasn’t for me. It was fine as background music, but was too samey and repetitive to be engaging. They clearly realised that album opener ‘Move Any Mountain’ was the best track, as they essentially repeat it (albeit at greater length) for the closer. In general, however, I preferred the instrumental tracks as the vocals and lyrics were poor. I enjoyed the guitar parts on ‘Possible Worlds’ and ‘Make It Mine’. Apart from that, I’m really struggling to think of anything else that stood out at all. Nice to know they were against apartheid, though.

Rattlesnakes

Lloyd Cole And The Commotions

4/5

A really solid album combining the classic 80s jangle pop sound with folkier elements and strings on many tracks. Side one starts really strongly with ‘Perfect Skin’, the other highlights being the title track and ‘Forest Fire’. Side two is slightly stronger overall, and it’s folkier too; ‘Charlotte Street’, ‘2cv’, ‘Four Flights Up’, and ‘Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?’ (the vinyl version’s closing track) are all in this vein, and all great. The CD bonus tracks are all decent too. Nothing is extraordinarily brilliant, but there are no duds either. It’s consistently high-quality enough for a low 4 stars.

(What's The Story) Morning Glory

Oasis

5/5

The second of the two brilliant, classic Oasis albums, this is sonically very different from ‘Definitely Maybe’. It has a cleaner, more polished sound, with strings and keys featuring much more prominently. Noel Gallagher went more for ‘anthems’, with ‘Wonderwall’, ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, the title track, and ‘Champagne Supernova’ the best examples of this. Additionally, ‘Some Might Say’, ‘Cast No Shadow’ and ‘She’s Electric’ are personal favourites of mine, but really there are no dud tracks here (‘Hey Now!’ is probably the closest thing to one). I prefer the debut, but this is surely still worth 5 stars.

You Want It Darker

Leonard Cohen

4/5

A fantastic final offering from a great songwriter, definitely one of his strongest albums, with tracks reflecting on his impending mortality, disillusionment with religion, letting go, love and breaking up, and finding your path in life. Its only real flaw is that the brooding, haunting title track is so good, nothing else quite lives up to it. ‘Treaty’, ‘On the Level’, ‘If I Didn’t Have Your Love’ and ‘Steer Your Way’ come the closest, though every song here is really strong, with exquisite arrangements and production. A brilliant album, one that I could easily see as a future 5 stars.

Power In Numbers

Jurassic 5

3/5

A very nice, ‘positive’ hip-hop album from the six members of Jurassic 5. It starts off especially strongly as the opening trio of ‘Freedom’, ‘If You Only Knew’ and ‘Break’ are some of the best tracks, with great grooves. ‘A Day at the Races’ is another highlight, quite nostalgic for me due to its inclusion in Tony Hawk’s Underground, while ‘What’s Golden’ is a great bass-heavy banger. The quality tails off in the second half, and it’s a bit too long, but ‘Thin Line’ (featuring Nelly Furtado), ‘High Fidelity’ and ‘I Am Somebody’ are worth highlighting. A strong 3 stars.

Rumours

Fleetwood Mac

5/5

The greatest pop/soft-rock album of all time? It’s certainly got to be up there. Eleven tracks, all fantastic, it’s practically a greatest hits album on its own. ‘Dreams’, ‘Don’t Stop’, ‘Go Your Own Way’, ‘The Chain’, ‘You Make Loving Fun’ and ‘Gold Dust Woman’ are all among the greatest songs Fleetwood Mac ever made. ‘Oh Daddy’ is probably the weakest track, but even that is pretty good. The only way it could have been improved is if they hadn’t made the baffling decision to omit the brilliant ‘Silver Springs’, but even so this album is undoubtedly worth 5 stars.

Third

Soft Machine

1/5

I’m no prog or jazz-rock hater, but Jesus was this album hard work. It’s so meandering, shapeless and self-indulgent, painful and hideously dull. The pattern is set with ‘Facelift’, the opening track, as we get five minutes of ambient noise before anything vaguely musical comes in. It improves later on, but never becomes more than okay even in its best moments. This applies to the whole album really. I liked ‘Moon in June’, the only track with vocals, even less, due to the terrible singing and lyrics. The album also suffers from weird edits, and poor sound quality and production.

Graceland

Paul Simon

4/5

This is an excellent album, but I don’t think it quite reaches the 5-star level. Side one probably does, though: ‘Graceland’ and ‘Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’ are my two favourite tracks from the whole album, and the rest of the side is really strong as well. On side two, ‘You Can Call Me Al’ is of course an all-time classic pop song, and ‘Crazy Love, Vol. II’ is great too, but then the rest of them I really like rather than love. But the performances are fantastic throughout, especially the vocalists and the incredible fretless bass playing!

Liquid Swords

GZA

4/5

One of the relatively few hip-hop albums I know pretty well and have listened to quite a bit. The lyricism and production are excellent, both brilliantly working together to conjure an extremely dense, dark, menacing atmosphere. The samples from the martial arts film ‘Shogun Assassin’ are surprisingly effective as well. Difficult to pick out individual favourite tracks as the album works so well as a cohesive whole, but the title track, ‘Duel of the Iron Mic’, ‘Cold World’, ‘4th Chamber’ and ‘Shadowboxin’’ would have to be up there. A very immersive, almost cinematic experience, and a very strong 4 stars.

Foo Fighters

2/5

It's not terrible, but it's not very good either. It seems a bit unfair to judge it too harshly given that Dave Grohl was really just trying to find his feet again after Kurt Cobain's death, but it does have a pretty bland, generic 90s rock sound as far as I can tell. The better tracks are concentrated in the first half (‘This Is a Call’, ‘Big Me’ and ‘Good Grief’ were probably my three favourites) and by the second half I was rapidly losing interest. The Nirvana influence is unsurprisingly pretty clear, even in Grohl’s vocals on some tracks.

2112

Rush

3/5

Ah, Rush. A perfect example of a band I should really like on paper, but who end up leaving me a bit cold. The three members were clearly all highly proficient musicians, but the silly lyrics/themes and overly shrill vocals (albeit with impressive range) significantly detract from their appeal. No coincidence that ‘The Overture’ is my favourite section of ‘2112’. Nonetheless, the title track is my favourite thing about this album, working together well as a cohesive narrative even if it is a bit daft. The five tracks on side two are all decent, but none particularly stand out.

The Predator

Ice Cube

3/5

Sonically, this is a really strong album; the sampling is excellent and the beats are always varied and interesting. Judged on that basis, it’s one of the best hip-hop albums I’ve had so far. Unfortunately, the lyrics often detract significantly from my enjoyment, hence a slightly lowered score. The material about police brutality, racism, etc. is great (e.g. ‘We Had to Tear This Motherfucka Up’, though the real standout is ‘It Was a Good Day’, a fantastic and really quite tragic classic). However, there is far too much sexually aggressive, violent, homophobic and misogynistic stuff here for my liking.

Back In Black

AC/DC

4/5

This first album of the Brian Johnson era is definitely one of AC/DC’s strongest. What a great intro ‘Hells Bells’ has and is, easily one of the band’s best songs. ‘Shoot to Thrill’, the title track and ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ are the other best tracks, all also absolute bangers. The lyrical content of some songs, particularly the other three tracks on side one, can be somewhat dubious/uncomfortable, however. And given that Bon Scott had drunk himself to death only five months earlier, the lyrics of ‘Have a Drink On Me’ are certainly a little eyebrow-raising.

A Night At The Opera

Queen

5/5

Queen’s real strength was their singles, but this is probably their best and most consistent album. The stylistic variety is fantastic; we have great rockers (the best being ‘Death on Two Legs’), multi-part epics (‘The Prophet’s Song’ as well as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, of course), music hall ditties (‘Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon’, ‘Seaside Rendezvous’), and brilliant pop love songs (‘You’re My Best Friend’, ‘Love of My Life’), among others. People often slate ‘I’m in Love with My Car’, but I think it’s unfairly maligned! For me, ‘Sweet Lady’ is probably the most skippable track here. Just about worth 5 stars.

Water From An Ancient Well

Abdullah Ibrahim

3/5

This sounds like it’s from several decades before 1986, but not in a bad way! It’s a really solid, rather traditional jazz album, very strong on melodies and hooks. ‘Mandela’ and ‘Manenburg Revisited’ are two great up-tempo examples of this, but there are some beautiful ballads too, such as ‘Song for Sathima’, the title track, and ‘The Wedding’. Other tracks didn’t make as much impression on me, and I wasn’t particularly keen on the closer. Overall, I didn’t quite like it enough for 4 stars, but this is a strong 3. Great to have some more South African music too.

Make Yourself

Incubus

2/5

Given that it actually has a fair amount of sonic variety across its thirteen tracks, this is an almost impressively boring album. It washed over me so much that I’m struggling to think of *anything* to say about it at all, except that I really wasn’t a fan of the singer, who had an acute case of ‘whiny 90s American rock voice’. This genre isn’t to my taste at all, but I didn’t find it too offensive, so I guess it just about deserves 2 stars, even if this felt like one of the longest 48 minutes of my life.

Rust Never Sleeps

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

5/5

One of Neil Young’s finest albums. The two contrasting sides - melancholy and delicate acoustic material followed by highly distorted, almost grungy electric songs, and bookended by two very different versions of essentially the same great track - works brilliantly. Overall, I slightly prefer the acoustic tracks, especially ‘Thrasher’, but the electric side is fantastic too, and ‘Powderfinger’ is certainly one of his greatest ever songs. The lyrics throughout are impressionistic and dreamlike, but still emotionally highly resonant, as are the melodies. Some tracks are more personal, others reflect more on American history and contemporary issues, but all tell their stories powerfully.

Tracy Chapman

4/5

Starts really strongly with ‘Talkin’ ‘bout a Revolution’, the utterly brilliant classic ‘Fast Car’, and ‘Across the Lines’. But then, after the haunting, acapella ‘Behind the Wall’ there’s a run of tracks that are pretty good but that I didn’t love production-wise: ‘Baby Can I Hold You’, ‘Mountains o’ Things’ (although lyrically it’s excellent) and ‘She’s Got Her Ticket’. Most of the time Chapman’s social commentary and storytelling is really effective, but occasionally it comes across as a bit simplistic or naive, such as on ‘Why?’ The final three tracks end the album strongly, however. Just enough for 4 stars.

Before And After Science

Brian Eno

4/5

A quirky and very enjoyable album, occupying a space somewhere in the vicinity of late-70s Bowie and early Talking Heads (whom Eno had and would subsequently work with respectively) while still sounding highly distinctive. Side one has the rockier numbers, all of which are great fun, especially the opener ‘No One Receiving’ (which sounds vaguely like Joy Division to me), the jaunty ‘Backwater’, and the weird but extremely catchy ‘King’s Lead Hat’. Side two changes tack, mostly consisting of more ambient, and usually quite beautiful songs, of which my favourites were ‘By the River’, and the closer, ‘Spider and I’.

Rio

Duran Duran

4/5

This was one of the biggest (and most pleasant) surprises I’ve had with this website so far. I’d always assumed Duran Duran were an archetypal 80s insipid pop dross act, but this album was actually really rather good. It’s an extremely catchy synth-driven pop-rock album, with some genuinely brilliant bass playing in particular. While the lyrics were often pretty bad (occasionally to the point of being distracting), the melodies and hooks were very strong, and there was enough energy and stylistic variety to keep me engaged right through to the end. Good enough for 4 stars, despite the horrendous cover.

Fun House

The Stooges

4/5

A great album, and a significant step up in quality from their debut. For 1970, this is an extremely raw, heavy, gritty sound, a clear link between 60s garage rock and late-70s punk. But it’s also got experimental/avant-garde elements, not just the repetitive and almost minimalist nature of most of the songs, but also the hellish cacophony of screaming, guitar and saxophone that is the closer, ‘L.A. Blues’. I definitely wouldn’t let a kid go in any funhouse that sounds like that. Nice of them to make it the last track though. All the other songs are great.

Rapture

Anita Baker

2/5

The quintessential ‘quiet storm’ album with the 80s production sheen, all synths, saxes and electric pianos. There’s no denying that Anita Baker had a great voice, but the music is far too slushy and easy listening for my taste, and so samey too. ‘Sweet Love’ is the most famous track, and it is one of the better ones, but I can’t see any circumstances in which I’d choose to put even that song on. Like the rest of the album, it felt so artificial and anodyne. As the album went on I found it held my attention less and less.

Rating Distribution

Rating Timeline

Taste Profile

Breakdown

By Genre

Top Styles

By Decade

By Origin

Albums

You Love More Than Most

You Love Less Than Most

Artists

Favorites

Controversial

5-Star Albums (19)

Popular Reviews

1-Star Albums (5)

All Ratings

Wordsmith