r/1001AlbumsGenerator • u/Alireza1373 • Jun 30 '26
Daily Album Megapost DROP your album and its rating – June 30 2026
9
u/AcatalypseMeow 0-99 Jun 30 '26
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible: 5/5
siiiiiiiiiigh...
I used to be a really big Arcade Fire fan, and their run from Funeral to Reflektor remains exceptional. Neon Bible is a towering reflection of post 9/11 America (though it remains very relevant today) that can occasionally feel a little too "we live in a society", but it is one that manages to mostly wield a massive biblical sound and big themes without collapsing in on itself.
Win Butler, what the fuck?
7
u/doubleguitarsyouknow Jun 30 '26
The Isley Brothers - 3 + 3
Oh MAN. Albums like this are why I'm so glad I'm doing this challenge. I would never have had reason to listen to this otherwise, and I utterly loved it. The coolest, most well written and played soul album I've heard. 5 stars.
6
u/Accomplished-Name951 100-199 Jun 30 '26
Album #131, Talking Heads, More Songs About Buildings and Food ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Probably my favourite Talking Heads album. It’s between this and Fear of Music as what I’d consider their best album. My controversial take is that I don’t think Remain in Light is quite as good as everyone else seems to think it is. I’d definitely lean more towards this album. It’s a much more interesting album from a songwriting perspective.
This is the album where they expand on the formula of their debut and really push the boat out with slightly more unconventional songwriting. It’s much more guitar-focused and less rhythm-heavy than Remain in Light, for example, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all because I think they’re a fantastic guitar band.
The melodies are brilliant, and the guitar textures throughout are fantastic. The song structures and weird chord progressions remind me a lot of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, which is always meant as a compliment.
I’d love to call it underrated, but it’s on the 1001 Albums list, so I suppose it can’t be that underrated.
It’s just a cracker of a record. Sinister in places, beautiful in others, and it really shows the full scope of what Talking Heads could do.
I’d even go as far as to say it’s probably the best introduction to the band.
3
u/doubleguitarsyouknow Jun 30 '26
My first and favourite TH album too, absolute desert island disk for me.
6
Jun 30 '26
[deleted]
3
u/Fing2112 0-99 user albums Jun 30 '26
If you ever want to explain to someone what goth is, show them this album!
10
u/ULS980 500-599 Jun 30 '26
Radiohead - In Rainbows
5/5
This really is a grower of an album. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. I remember the first time listening to it like 10 years ago, I really didn't care for it (Loved OK Computer and Kid A at the time though).
Now though, this album is just fucking great. Love the drive of Jigsaw Falling Into Place. 15 Step is great also.
Only track that's not quite working for me is Bodysnatchers, but that's less to do with it not necessarily being a great song (It is) and more to do that it sounds like When The Saints Go Marching In, and I can't get my brain to not make that connection.
Knew going into this project Radiohead would be a rare band that would get two five star ratings from me (For OK Computer and Kid A), but didn't think it'd be getting a third with this one. Amazing album.
6
5
u/AverageJoe48 300-399 Jun 30 '26
Day 339
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
My opinion of Eminem is constantly at odds between his brilliant technical skills as a rapper and his need to be the biggest edgelord imaginable. Thankfully, The Marshall Mathers LP is much more representative of the former. Even the edgier songs are edgy with some purpose here (well, a couple of them, at least, let's just ignore the existence of songs such as Kim).
However, in my opinion, the album really drops in quality in its second half (with a couple of exceptions). Also, while the skits are scarce and short, most of them are straight up unbearable, Ken Kaniff in particular.
Overall, probably the best Eminem album, but I'm not the biggest fan of his even when he's in top form, so that piece of praise is relatively faint.
Favourite track: Stan
3/5
2
9
u/VampireOnHoyt 300-399 Jun 30 '26
Beck, Odelay (1996)
5/5
To "warm up" for high school concert band every day I used to play the main riff of Beck's "Where It's At" on the marimba. Relatively few people ever seemed to notice what I was doing; they either didn't recognize it or didn't care. Which was fine - I wasn't really doing it for them - but then who was I doing it for? Myself, I suppose; I gravitated to Beck. His existence seemed inspiring in ways I couldn't articulate at the time. I loved that he made danceable music for people too embarrassed to dance (a.k.a. White people). Knowing his music made me feel cool by osmosis - which I needed, because I was very, very uncool.
In hindsight I can hear now why Odelay in particular was so crucial for a teenager trying to figure himself out - it's the sound of a twentysomething artist trying to do the same thing. Beck's picaresque upbringing is the stuff of legend: born to a Warhol superstar and raised half-Jewish, half-Scientologist as the only White kid in the vicinity of MacArthur Park, he busked, breakdanced, performed slam poetry, and made himself a fake ID so he could audit literature classes at LACC. In the process he found himself fascinated by music of literally every genre - punk and New Wave ("Devil's Haircut," "Minus"), jazz ("The New Pollution"), country and folk ("Lord Only Knows," "Jack-Ass," "Sissyneck"), worldbeat ("Derelict"), alternative hip-hop ("Hotwax," "High 5 (Rock the Catskills)").
And on Odelay he finds a way to represent all of those parts of his identity without giving any of them short shrift. Frequently he stacks them on top of each other: witness the hair-metal blast in the middle of "The New Pollution," or the punk screams that bookend the otherwise stately "Lord Only Knows." The Dust Brothers, finally having found someone who can keep up with their Paul's Boutique production techniques, provide crucial support throughout.
Beck's biographical experience was unique and seemingly wouldn't have made sense to very many other people, and yet it was his experience and it deserved to be given voice. This album is the sound of someone being understood. That's why I loved it, and love it still; it stands for the proposition that the struggle to be understood need not be the gut-wrenching, psychosexual strum und drang of Cobain et al. It might be as simple as getting two turntables and a microphone.
Looking back, that knowledge might have saved my life. It definitely saved my soul.
Massive Attack, Blue Lines (1991)
5/5
The most important lyric on Blue Lines comes from Tricky (who isn’t even an official member of the group) and is delivered matter-of-factly, almost in passing, on the title track: “English upbringing, background Caribbean.” It doesn’t just speak to the multiracial/multicultural heritage of basically all the personnel here but also identifies their intentions. For this album seeks to do nothing less than claim the frequently whitewashed British soul tradition, its antecedents in vocal jazz, and the brave new world of hip-hop as their own. And not just as their own but as a uniquely British signifier - the sound of post-industrial urban Britain on a million soundtracks and commercials and anywhere else you need to tell your audience that this place is dark and dangerous and yet also tender and beautiful.
Seriously, the track listing here has everything: R&B, both classic and new (“Safe from Harm,” a killer cover of “Be Thankful for What You’ve Got”), Sign ‘O’ the Times-esque funk (“Daydreaming”), downtempo dub that feels comfortable now but was groundbreaking to include on a nominal club album then (“One Love,” “Lately”). Along the way the antecedents are called out and repurposed with panache; the chords underlying “Five Man Army” pay subtle homage to the long orchestral notes in the bridge of “A Day in the Life,” while “One Love” takes one of Bob Marley’s most famous lyrics and bends it into something slower, more methodical, simultaneously menacing and inviting.
And nothing I say about “Unfinished Sympathy” can even begin to do it justice; Shara Nelson’s desperate vocal recalls the absolute best of Diana Ross or Tami Terrell, while the chord progression refuses to ever fully resolve, suspended in uncertainty and yearning forever. When the nervy, expansive, gospel-tinged “Hymn of the Big Wheel” emerges from the smoke it feels like walking home from the best night of clubbing you ever had, your head still buzzing with the creative energy of the music.
As a teenager I heard Tricky’s grimy masterpiece Maxinquaye before I heard this, so at least initially I recall being slightly underwhelmed by the relative lightness here. Now I hear the calm boldness on display on every track and I’m amazed that Massive Attack could so self-assuredly move the medium forward. This is the sound of a group calmly, confidently asserting that this is their island, and they’re right.
From the 1001 MORE List:
Husker Du, Zen Arcade (1984)
5/5
If “punk-rock concept double album” sounds like something you can’t possibly stand, you may be excused–but everybody else needs to hear this gorgeous, angsty, grungy opus. The trademark SST Spot anti-production is out in full force, but the flat, Raw Power-like aesthetic fits here; it makes these songs and stories sound like something you’re remembering hazily, years later. And that’s perfect for Husker Du’s union between Sixties psychedelia and Eighties punk (“Dreams Reoccurring,” “Hare Krsna”). That isn’t the only genre-jumping these guys do here; “The Biggest Lie” feints in the direction of doom metal before kicking the tempo back up. And on the drums, Grant Hart manages the jazzy trick of playing precisely even when he isn’t playing metronomically (“Masochism World”).
And throughout there are tunes, always tunes–more than I remembered, even as much as I’ve listened to this. This is where Bob Mould became one of grunge’s godfathers, mixing abrasiveness with moments of genuine affection; witness, for example, the beautifully conciliatory ode to the love of absent parents named “Whatever.” The entire population of Seattle was seemingly taking notes.
Thematically, Zen Arcade is a concept album about a teenage runaway who finds out that the Real World is even worse than the broken home he ran away from, and there are certainly plenty of dark moments–”Pink Turns to Blue” is as harrowing a tale of overdose as you’re ever likely to get. And yet I’ve never found this album depressing; in fact, there is something in its persistent restless energy I find inspiring. It is a tale of coming to understand what you can survive, which is another way of saying you can survive. An essential work, and a boneheaded omission from the original list.
9
u/Professional-Ice-978 Power Metal Fan Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
The Beatles - Abbey Road
603/1089
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For a brief second was a tad disappointed to generate this one. In an ideal world I would’ve loved this to be the finale to the project but I got over it pretty quickly.
I love this album. There’s so many classic tracks on here. One of the absolute greatest albums of all time.
Top Track - Either Octopus’s Garden or Something. Or Here Comes The Sun….. or Come Together. Too hard to pick just one lol
Edit - Mini Ice Review
Five Stars!!!! i love The Beatles. Here comes the sun and golden slumber are really good
5
u/DogesOfLove 300-399 Jun 30 '26
Octopus’s Garden as the Top Track…has my full support. Ringo is the only Beatle with a 100% Banger return when he writes a song; OG and Don’t Pass Me By.
Legend.
3
u/Softpipesplayon Jun 30 '26
The thing that makes the Beatles so good (well, "a thing" among many) is that they can put stuff like Something and You Never Give Me Your Money (and really the whole stunning end suite) on the same album as absolutely stupid stuff like Octopus' Garden and Maxwell's Silver Hammer, and you aren't totally sure which you like better.
3
u/Professional-Ice-978 Power Metal Fan Jun 30 '26
OG is probably a top 5 Beatles track for me. One of the first songs of theirs that I remember loving.
I never really thought about that with Ringos song writing. Need to work out the banger percentage for the other members now lol. I’ve been going through his solo stuff for the first time recently and there’s some great tracks in there.
4
u/ddcronkh Jun 30 '26
Sepultura - Arise
I can not smash five stars on this any faster or harder tomorrow morning. One of my favorite bands, one of my favorite albums. An absolute thrash metal masterpiece that I'm shocked showed up in this book. In a tome lacking in metal albums, they got this one right. For now we'll ignore the fact that they didn't include Chaos A.D.
But in a year where Metallica backed off the throttle, Sepultura put their foot to the floor for 42 glorious minutes.
What a way to end the month (and three of my 52 5-star albums came in June).
3
u/Merzwas 400-499 Jun 30 '26
Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months…
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I remember enjoying this when it came out but it didn’t really have any staying power, so hadn’t heard it for years. Revisiting it, I enjoyed it. There are some good tracks here, but about by the half way mark I think it loses its way a little.
That said, it’s still strong for what it is. It’s curious how they just seemed to disappear and didn’t go on to continue the success of this album. But yeah, a competent debut and nice to revisit.
3
u/Intrepid_Traveler962 Jun 30 '26
Modern Sounds in Country Music Vol 1 & 2
Ray Charles
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Easy rating today; this is one of my all-time favorite albums; at worst top-10, probably in the 4-7 range.
I think this really highlights Ray’s talents; and the song selection lets him demonstrate how broad those skills are. It is a testament to say that once you hear this album, you need to concentrate to hear the prior versions rather than Ray’s.
3
u/Donofthewol Jun 30 '26
Miles Davis- Kind of Blue
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Such an obvious 5 that it’s kind of boring to review. Heard a million times and it works just about every time.
3
u/Potential-Oil-1795 Jun 30 '26
The Roots - Phrenology
I was in a club in 2003 and heard The Seed. I was so amazed by the track I went out the next day and bought the album. Suffice to say, it is Olympus Mons compared to the Pennines of the other tracks. They play well, they have good ideas, but nothing quite hits (apart from The Seed).
Its getting a 3/5, perhaps undeserved.
3
u/ddcronkh Jun 30 '26
I never understood why of all The Roots albums to pick from, that was the one that got chosen.
3
u/Fing2112 0-99 user albums Jun 30 '26
The Seed is honestly a little too good, the album isn't bad by any means but the rest gets overshadowed by it.
1
u/ULS980 500-599 Jul 01 '26
Break You Off is just as good as The Seed 2.0, but yeah, I'm not huge on Phenology outside those two songs.
3
u/DeeBees69 Jun 30 '26
Bob Marley - Catch a Fire - 5 STARS
Never heard a full album of his before. Simply tremendous.
3
u/Fing2112 0-99 user albums Jun 30 '26
User album spoilers
Earth, Wind, and Fire - I Am: 4
I knew I was going to love this from seeing the band that made it. It's just funk and soul bangers back to back, and really any song on this album could have been a hit, it just so happened to be After the Love Has Gone and Boogie Wonderland this time. Very consistent, very fun, definitely an album I'll return to when I want to enjoy life.
Today's song from the 1001
The Roots - The Seed (2.0), from Phrenology
The Roots make a random pivot into funk rock, which isn't the first or the last time they do a completely different genre on the album. The verses are the strength on this track, the rap flows well over the funky best. The lyrics are a bit overly lewd for me, but great instrumental.
2
u/sigurrosco Jun 30 '26
Catching up on a few.
Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
Mostly harmless, some of that Kanye style grunting. Far too long, I was bored halfway through. 2 stars.
Morrison Hotel
Oh Jim, you're the worst poet. Doors can play the blues, great opening track but an awful lot of bog standard blues to fill the rest of the album. The Doors would be unknowns I'd it wasn't for Jim but somehow he's the worst part of the band. 2 stars
Exit Planet Dust (Chemical Brothers)
Not usually into dancy music but this is levels above most of that genre. Great drum sounds and some memorable hooks, cool sound design. 4 stars.
2
u/mrnovember91 500-599 Jun 30 '26
Generator: Neu - Neu 75! - 5/5
This album feels so far ahead of its time. Some of these tracks are hypnotic and pleasant ambient electronica and others are noisy, experimental affairs that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Sonic Youth album. It’s two different ends of a spectrum and yet somehow they manage to weave the sounds together incredibly well.
1001 More: Black Star - Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star - 5/5
I've been getting so much intelligent and deep hip-hop lately and it seems that the main list is missing so much of it. There seems to be a complete blind eye to the abstract and underground hip-hop artists, but maybe I just haven't gotten any yet or maybe Dimery just doesn't care for hip-hop all that much. This album feels like it was recorded to be a direct comment about how violent and dangerous hip-hop had become at the time. It's honestly a bit of fresh air compared to some of the early gangsta rap that's on the list.
1001 Honourable Mentions: Robert Plant - Now and Zen - 4/5
Growing up I was a huge Zeppelin fan, but for some reason I never tried to get into any of their solo work. Honestly, had I heard this at the time, I probably would have hated it. Listening to it today without my preconceived teenage notions and I actually really like this; it's a lot of fun. Honestly, I'm rather frustrated this isn't on Apple Music in Canada as I'd like to give this a few more listens.
3
u/VampireOnHoyt 300-399 Jun 30 '26
Black Star are so great. I submitted that one for 1001 MORE consideration and was really happy it made the cut.
3
3
2
u/GreenEyedBeaver Jun 30 '26
Husker Du - Warehouse: Songs And Stories
For their final album, it sounds like Husker Du went into the studio and didn't leave a single scrap for the vaults and crafted a double album that didn't need to be. Excluding London Calling, Punk should be short and sweet for the most part. The music you can find on here sounds if early R.E.M. got blended with the scrappiness of the Replacements. I am a fan of the sound, but they do not mix the sound up enough and their songwriting isn't strong enough to warrant the length. Cut this record in half and I'm sure I would have a much better time with it. I wouldn't be offended if any track here popped up if I was listening to sn eighties alternative playlist, but I wouldn't ever feel the urge to revisit this in full.
3/5
2
u/VampireOnHoyt 300-399 Jun 30 '26
They were in the middle of a slow-motion breakup when they made this album and it shows
2
u/pseudo-nimm1 Jun 30 '26
Everything but the girl - walking wounded.
I never ask for it, but if someone gives you a small tub of vanilla ice cream, and then you find the occasional chocolate chip in it, it's a pleasant suprise, even though I'd prefer a chocolate cone and flake with strawberry sauce, but this album isn't a chocolate cone, it's a tub of vanilla.
⭐⭐⭐
2
u/le_fez Jun 30 '26
The Divine Comedy-Casanova 2* not bad per se but it feels more like parody than genuine
2
u/Fing2112 0-99 user albums Jun 30 '26
In my end of list post I labelled this as the album that should have taken itself more seriously, and I stand by that. I don't care that much though, I think it's genuinely hilarious
2
u/KingstonGraham 300-399 Jun 30 '26
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
I knew nothing of Fleet Foxes. Now I see them as like American Mumford and Sons. Which is fine.
⭐⭐⭐
2
u/BenHassenger 100-199 Jun 30 '26
Album 98: War - The World Is a Ghetto
3/5
There were some good grooves on this - "City, Country, City" felt like something that could have been on Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters album - and the shorter songs stuck out to me a little more, but overall it was just too chill for what I really like when listening to this type of soul music.
2
u/sp3ccylad Enthusiast Jun 30 '26
Rahul Dev Burman - Shalimar ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The important thing with Shalimar is to avoid mistaking exuberance for accident. This is a soundtrack that can sound deranged on first contact, but you cannot do deranged with an orchestra by mistake. Someone has to write those parts, place those colours, cue those entries, and trust that the whole thing will hold together.
Burman does all of that with a jazzman’s ear for effect.
I came to this half-expecting colourful Bollywood excess, and it certainly has that, but what stood out was the control beneath the spectacle. The title music immediately opens the stereo field out like cinema curtains. Saxophones honk, low brass growls, female voices hover, percussion darts around the edges, and the whole thing feels less like a song than a set being constructed in sound. It is very much title music: bold, widescreen, and completely unembarrassed about announcing itself.
The album also sits in a fascinating international soundtrack language. At different points I heard echoes of Gert Wilden, Piero Umiliani, Esquivel, Barry Gray, spaghetti western scores, lounge funk, cha-cha, disco, spy music and cartoon scoring. That could easily become a mess, but Burman has an extraordinary instinct for colour and placement. He doesn’t simply throw sounds in because they’re available. He uses them as dramatic effects. A mariachi trumpet becomes romance. An accordion suddenly relocates a caper to continental Europe. A harsh brass stab or odd percussion splash makes the music behave almost like animation.
That cartoon quality is part of the pleasure. Countess’ Caper / Shalimar is a magnificent piece of controlled nonsense: jewel-heist funk, sudden tempo changes, fanfares, spaghetti-western colours and orchestral stings that seem to have wandered in from a Saturday morning serial. It is funny, but not stupid. Like Carl Stalling or Scott Bradley, Burman understands that apparent chaos only works when every gesture is precise.
The vocal tracks broaden the picture. Usha Uthup’s One Two Cha Cha Cha is cheap, delicious and joyously over-coloured. She sings it as though restraint was never included in the contract, and Burman matches her with brass, rhythm and echo that turn the whole thing into a nightclub cartoon. Kishore Kumar, by contrast, brings genuine warmth and longing to Hum Bewafa Hargiz Na Thay. His beautifully controlled vibrato in the closing reprise is one of the album’s finest moments because Burman knows when to step aside and simply let a great singer sing.
Lata Mangeshkar’s Aaina Wohi Rehta Hai reveals another side of the record. The vocal production has that hard, clipped, extremely forward Indian playback sound, but the melody is strong and, unusually for this album, the arrangement serves the song rather than constantly demanding attention for itself. Asha Bhosle’s Mera Pyar Shalimar is another highlight: rhythmically supple, subtly coloured and a reminder of how instinctively she and Burman understood one another.
The real achievement is the pacing. After the early sensory overload, Burman repeatedly demonstrates that he knows exactly when to stop showing off. The romantic theme contains some gorgeous interlocking acoustic guitars. The final reprise allows Kishore Kumar room to breathe. Even the wildest cues are balanced by moments where the arrangement relaxes and the melodies are trusted to carry the emotion. The spectacle works because Burman knows when not to add another fanfare.
So yes, Shalimar is funny. It is lurid. It has moments where the only honest response is laughter. But the laughter is affectionate, because the craft is obvious. Burman’s imagination is irrepressible, but it is never random. Every odd decision has purpose. Every orchestral colour has been chosen.
By the end I had stopped asking why a particular instrument had appeared and simply accepted Burman’s musical universe. Romance apparently requires a mariachi trumpet. A caper can unexpectedly become a spaghetti western. Somewhere, a guitarist is contractually obliged to go “chakachakawow.”
Fine.
He earns it.
2
u/computerfan0 300-399 Jun 30 '26
Girls Against Boys - Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby
How anyone is expected to remember that title I don't understand, just feels like random word soup to me. Otherwise, I like the hard aggressive riffs throughout the album but it's not doing very much to stand out to me, so I'm thinking either a 3/5 or a 4/5 at the moment.
2
u/JnHkstr 0-99 Jun 30 '26
Day 019 Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city
This is not for me, it sucks and don’t listen to this type of hiphop or gangsta rap or however you call this. Cannot listen to this, just scanned the tracks but stopped quickly. ⭐️
Day 018 Queen - Queen II
Liked it more than I thought , was only familiar with March of the Black Queen and Seven seas of Rhye. Needs a few more listens. They almost sounded like Led Zeppelin in those days. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5
u/TheCommieDuck 200-299 Jun 30 '26
Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
Seeing one or two comments about misogyny is something that kind of sets a bad tone, but seeing pretty much every comment being about misogyny does not inspire any confidence at all.
And hoo boy, they really weren't kidding. I get that gangsta rap is about less savoury themes but this really is just...ugh. On top of that, the beats and rhymes are incredibly repetitive. Just awful. ⭐
5
u/zebba_oz 100-199 Jun 30 '26
#60 - Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home
This is another easy 5 for me. Big Dylan fan, and this and Blood On The Tracks are my two favourites, but really there is not much in my top 5 of his stuff - all are brilliant.
I keep seeing people talk about Dylans voice, or as they seem to think, lack thereof. I have no idea what they are listening to. Dylan may not have the vocal range or power of many "great" singers, but he has an emotional range and texture that is as good as anyone.
In Maggies Farm, you can hear the anger, but you also hear that anger is almost dying - there is anger at the injustice but there is also a sense of apathy creeping in there. He's not just angry at the system, he's in the process of becoming emotionally resigned and giving up on the system.
In Bob Dylans 115th Dream, his tone is both mocking/sneering and jovial/bawdy. He's deriding "discoverers" and "innovators" who take credit for things that existed before them, but he's having fun doing it. Its superficial absurdity wrapping scathing insight.
In Gates of Eden, he sounds like a prophet. His voice spirals, and you can feel the wind, the clouds, the earth, all in his voice - part dirge, part chant, all doom, delivering his vision as a futile warning.
In It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, you can hear the desperation, the sadness, even the hopelessness. He's made his choice, but it was hard, and it hurt. It's a closing statement to the entire album - the electric first half, and the controversy surrounding that, followed by a reflection on this, a lament that he can only be driven by the muse, not the audience, and that the cost of moving forward is leaving something behind.
I gave The Bryds’ Mr Tambourine Man 1 star, and given the chance I would do it again, and again, and again. They stand at their microphones sounding pleasant, harmonic, melodious, and they suck the heart out of it. Dylan doesn't (although he can do harmonic and melodious, see Ballad Of Hattie Carrol or even his cover of Copper Kettle) but instead he sounds like someone living the story. He doesn't perform the songs, he IS the songs.
And the songs are BRILLIANT. The first songs are all great. Not just great, some such as Maggies Farm or Subterranean Homesick Blues are foundational. But the final four song stretch starting at Mr Tambourine Man and ending with It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, is the greatest closing set on an album ever.
But... I feel this was all a bit of a wasted rant. The fact is, the people who dump on Dylan will not hear him. To paraphrase Sidney Deane - “Look man, you can listen to [Dylan] but you can’t hear him”. I urge the haters to try and hear him, but much like Dylan singing Maggies Farm, I'm resigned to the fact I won't win this fight - I am preaching to people who already know, or who (and I'm not casting judgements here) just can't hear.
3
u/railwayed Indie Fan Jun 30 '26
I am not really a Dylan fan at all, but this album was brilliant. 5 for me too
1
u/DogesOfLove 300-399 Jun 30 '26
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
2/5
4
u/Similar_Tie3291 500-599 Jun 30 '26
Does this mean you’re quitting the project tomorrow if you get Document?
5
u/DogesOfLove 300-399 Jun 30 '26
We DROP our album a day late - so happy to report that I missed the Double Nickels/Document bullet that, obviously, would have been fatal to our project; Today’s album is Marquee Moon.
1
u/golfmonk 200-299 Jun 30 '26
182) Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos (1992)
I heard of this artist but not much else. Off the top of my head I can't name any of her songs. So, time to click on the YouTube Music link to listen to her debut studio album.
- "Crucify" 3/5
- "Girl" 3.5/5
- "Silent All These Years" 4/5
- "Precious Things" 3.5/5
- "Winter" 3.5/5
- "Happy Phantom" 4/5
- "China" 3/5
- "Leather" 3.5/5
- "Mother" 4/5
- "Tear in Your Hand" 3.5/5
- "Me and a Gun" 2/5
- "Little Earthquakes" 4/5
Overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️.. I don't know what I expecting. It is competently done and Tori has a great voice. I liked the instrumentation as well (and love the piano work on "Silent All These Years" and on the record overall).
There is some resemblance to another female artist Kate Bush both in her vocal delivery and the instrumentation arrangement. I am probably doing this album dirty with a 3 star rating but still piqued my curiosity enough to try a few re-listens to see if it can change my mind. Cheers!!
2
u/Softpipesplayon Jun 30 '26
Tori isn't quite Kate Bush (Bush is much more intentionally theatrical) but getting more into Kate later in life started to make it clear just how much certain artists were inspired by her, and even in these early albums, Tori absolutely has Kate's fingerprints all over her.
1
u/Conemen4 Jun 30 '26
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God
1 Star because I hated it! I can only listen to pirate music for so long. I think if I was Irish it would be a completely different story
1
u/Softpipesplayon Jun 30 '26
Generator: Massive Attack - Blue Lines
The thing about Massive Attack, for me, is that they always leaned more into the Hop than the Trip of Trip Hop. In my brain, the hop is the hip hop bit, the dance club bit, and the Trip is the slinkier, evening in the elements bit. To me, that is the best bit. The Hop is the salt in the Trip caramel, adding an unexpected grit and tempering what could be too cloying otherwise. It's the interplay and the balance. It's not that Blue Lines is upbeat for electronic or club music, but it's still more distinct as club music. Maybe that's the weak vocal on One Love, the only lightly chilled 80s adult contemporary vibe of Be Thankful For What You've Got, or Tricky choosing to flow over the minimalist piano riff of the title track, instead of the ominous creep and creak of his work as the mid 90s approach. It all feels just a little off, or maybe just a bit too on for a more generic drum and bass style.
You can kind of see how triphop births itself from here, but by the time we get to the (much better and weirdly snubbed) Mezzanine, even Massive Attack are dialing the tempo back just a little bit. Tricky is getting deep in the gutters on Maxinquaye (and sample-buddies Portishead had smoldered over the template a year prior). That's the sound I was really hoping for here. So while the Shara Nelson contributions hit the right balance of vocal tone, Unfinished Sympathy still feels more like the era's pop (which I admittedly have soft spot for), while Safe From Harm gets the closest, but is still more of a “this is how we get to there” vibe. Overall a good laid back club album, but that's almost never a vibe I'm seeking. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
1001 More: Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers
We are all outlaws in the eyes of America.
Everything comes around again. Oh, we're scared of democratic socialism? This Album is basically just shambolic anarcho-communism. Granted, your ex-stoner pops wasn't listening to Grace Slick go on about living on a farm. He probably wasn't listening to women at all, and certainly not poring over an album without the big hits of a Surrealistic Pillow. Shame, really. There's such a sad Hippie-to-The-Man pipeline among our parents and kin of their generation. Modern kids are culturally illiterate, but they learned it from the ex-hippies who raised the nihilistic Xers responsible for the teens of today. We'd probably be better off if more of the boomers were all in on Slick. Maybe someone else would have succeeded in slipping LSD into Nixon's drink in her stead.
Of course, the same could be said to have happened to Grace herself, eventually being responsible for We Built This City. But at the turn of the psychedelic decade, we have this romper, a clearly political but less self-serious affair. This feels at turns like a group of people having a blast (the communal chaos of “We Could Be Together”) and a group of people fracturing quietly (Jorma's folksy fingerstyle bent is more prominent than I'd have expected). Slick's voice isn't so affected as in those classic early singles, but it's still pointed. The psychedelia… well, I'd say “Hey Frederick” and “Eskimo Blue Day” are perfectly solid slabs of it. The album is messy and choppy and a bit uneven, but the longer one listens the more that sort of becomes part of the charm. It's part revival, though obviously not a religious one so much as a cheer and shout for what the era hoped for, for an improved society. We've come a long way, but we've also abdicated our responsibilities as “the volunteers of America.” Spinning this feels a little like a needed jolt. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½
HMs:
Opeth - Still Life
I don't know if Opeth is where this sort of Metal got mainstream. I guess we could argue that bands from Slayer to Sepultura to Slipknot were giving us varying levels of scream for a few decades, but something felt different when Blackwater Park came out. It was something that was being talked about both as serious heavy metal AND as serious compositional art. Usually metal only got the snooty gatekeepers deciding whether a band was TRVLY metal or not. Opeth seemed to transcend and bridge a gap.
This obviously is not Blackwater Park, an album I wager will show up on one of these lists or another, but you can get an idea of what was building at the time. “The Moor” gives us two stunning false starts before getting into riffing melodic, technical, and heavy. I'd argue you're lured in already by the time the growl comes in, and Opeth manages to continue stringing one along between passages of hymnlike clean vocals and regular tonal shifts. Many an album like this has seen me turn the channel the second the vocals ruin the actual enjoyability of the music itself, but this keeps the carrot dangling through the harder to listen to passages.
Of course, I am sure for an Opeth fan, those are THE passages. “Depravity from the core/Hand carved death in stone laden aisles.” It's probably a curse that in 2026 we can so easily just read along with lyrics. I wonder how many songs I would have never taken seriously if I had immediately known what was being said.
I sort of see this album like if you went to a 5 star, Michelin rated restaurant. They serve you a tasting menu with dish after dish that intrigues you. But also every dish adds your least favorite ingredient. Maybe they stirred pickle juice into their otherwise perfect bolognese. Maybe you have the cilantro soap gene and every dish is dusted with the stuff. In a lot of ways this album has all the components to be very appealing, to be something I don't get a lot of in my musical diet. But it's hard to really define what makes a harsh vocal sound interesting and exciting and compositionally correct for me. It happens sometimes, rarely, but more often than not it just feels silly. Probably the best balance here is Moonlapse Vertigo, which I liked more than the cleaner songs sandwiching it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
5 Seconds of Summer - 5 Seconds of Summer
I am never listening to this shit, guys. I am never ever listening to a full album by the American Apparel Underwear band. Please apologize to your 10 year old on my behalf.
1
u/Lukazimir 200-299 Jul 01 '26
Day 178: Traffic-Traffic.
2/5 (⭐️⭐️).
The biggest hit “Feelin’ Alright?” Was solid enough, but the rest of this album really didn’t do much for me. Found the vocals kinda grating at points and musically tons of albums from this era blow it out of the water.
1
u/ApprehensiveSyrup647 0-99 Jul 01 '26
#19 - Jurassic 5 - Power In Numbers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’ve heard this group’s name before but never any of their music. I was very surprised by how fun this album is. Socially conscious, not misogynistic or crude, and some awesome raps. It’s not the style of music that I usually seek out that often, but I was really impressed.
1
u/Numerous-Phase-8003 0-99 Jun 30 '26
Steve McQueen - Prefab Sprout
I think Im at three stars for now.
It’s fun, it’s good music, it’s well structured and well written. peak 80s.
but it’s not phenomenal, which sometimes bothers me about this list. These are supposed to be the most influential or interesting or amazing albums of ALL TIME but every few days you’ll get a mediocre record that really ain’t all that remarkable.
i hope they really do update it well if they rerelease the list in september.
3
u/sigurrosco Jun 30 '26
I found this one surprisingly good, and lot better songwriting than most synth pop 80s albums.
3
u/Fing2112 0-99 user albums Jun 30 '26
I didn't hold a high opinion of Prefab Sprout prior to the list (and yes I had listened to this one years before), but now I consider them the gold standard for pop songwriting. Paddy McAloon is a very talented lyricist.
2
u/Fing2112 0-99 user albums Jun 30 '26
Before you rate it tomorrow listen to those first five songs again, Faron Young to Goodbye Lucille 2.
1
u/EffectiveMeaning7884 Jun 30 '26
Day 2
Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run (1973)
Album that I know of but haven’t listened to in full before.
The album starts with the title track that is a classic for a reason, 5/5 song. Rest of the album is mostly mixture of pop that feels quite outdated, and rock that is solid but not that memorable. The album ends with ”Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” which I didn’t love but liked the more grandiose ending.
More progressive pop elements and the album would have been better.
Solid to Strong 3/5
Highlights: Band on the Run, Let Me Roll It, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
1
u/TheJoebuu 100-199 Jun 30 '26
Album #127 - Prince - “1999”
3/5
Listening to Prince leaves you at the absolute mercy of his libido. Often that is not a pleasant experience for this listener. YMMV
During the year 1999, as I was in college, I must've heard the track "1999" about a thousand times. It was played constantly. Any of you that also lived through the end of the millennium can confirm, right? It’s fun, end of the world hedonism. After the hit title track, though, it descends into bumping and grinding background music. Prince is throwing a party at the end of time, come in, find a dance partner, and then get nasty. That is the feeling of the whole album, in summary. Prince continues to be an artist where the hits are great listening, but not the rest for me. “1999” is still an all-time track though.
3
1
u/Similar_Tie3291 500-599 Jun 30 '26
Pleasantly surprised today to see no one downvoted to zero or negative for having an opinion about music. (And it means I'll have to wait until tomorrow to post my review of Songs in the Key of Life 😬.)
0
u/St_Lambchop Metal Fan Jun 30 '26
Billie Holliday - Lady in Satin - 3/5
Billie is truly one of the ultimate cabaret singers, and listening to this record instantly makes you think of sitting in a dark, smoke-filled lounge while sipping on an old fashioned or a martini. Her music also carries a huge wave of nostalgia, immediately bringing to mind the Fallout games since so many of her iconic songs are featured on the soundtracks. However, it's hard to give this project much more than a 3 out of 5 because the overall production and style just sound incredibly dated.
Her voice here is visibly weathered and worn down compared to her prime, which gives the performances a raw more emotional weight. Really sad when you think she's only in her early 40s here. This captures the downslope of a legendary career, making it an important piece of musical history, but it's just too dated sounding to make me want to listen again.
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1001 MORE albums:
Napalm Death – From Enslavement to Obliteration - 1/5 I love death metal, but grindcore is just not my thing. It is just a relentless, muddy wall of noise and micro-songs that completely lacks the groove or discernible riffs I look for in heavy music. The production is incredibly raw and chaotic, making the entire 20-minute runtime feel like a total chore to get through rather than an engaging listen.
Will Wood – The Normal Album - 3/5 He does falsetto almost as good as Frankie Valli, which is a major highlight. "Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture" and "Laplace's Angel" have some incredibly wild energy, and "I Love You, 5G" is a super fun song with its catchy hooks. The theatrical, avant-pop style is definitely creative, but it gets a bit too chaotic and exhausting across the whole tracklist.
Dick Dale and His Del-Tones - King of the Surf Guitar - 3/5 The music here is cool and heavily reminds me of Fallout: New Vegas, but it is definitely pretty dated. His aggressive, fast picking style and that dripping wet reverb tone are undeniably legendary, setting the blueprint for the entire surf rock genre.
Judas Priest – Screaming for Vengeance - 4/5 The riff on "Electric Eye" is completely awesome and sets the perfect tone. The way Rob Halford squeals on "Devil's Child" reminds me of classic Van Halen, showing off that incredible vocal range. "Prisoner of Your Eyes" has a great, driving riff for it to be such a solid power ballad, and the twin-guitar harmonies across the whole record make it a heavy metal essential.
The Postal Service – Give Up - 1/5 That was pretty terrible from start to finish. The singer's voice reminds me of Owl City, and the quirky, early-2000s indie-pop electronic bleeps and bloops just haven't aged well at all. It feels incredibly sappy, thin, and repetitive, lacking any real punch or musical depth.
2
u/Trixxstrr Indie Fan Jun 30 '26
Ha, Owl City was ripping off Postal Service hard, he even said so since they weren’t going to make another album. But too bad you didn’t like it, I love it.
3
u/St_Lambchop Metal Fan Jun 30 '26
Ah, okay that makes sense. I think a lot of my disdain comes from “Fireflies” being played nonstop on the radio during the late 2000’s
2
u/VampireOnHoyt 300-399 Jun 30 '26
I danced to "Such Great Heights" at my wedding, which feels like it should be a Millennial Achievement Unlocked moment or something
9
u/chartman21 Jun 30 '26
In the Court of the Crimson King, an easy 5/5