#321: Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic (1996)

Zack: The first time I listened to this album was on my final night in my old apartment, sometime between the hours of “shit there’s no way I’m going to finish packing tonight” and “fuck, fuck, fuck.” With all the running around I was doing at the time, I didn’t really have a chance to formulate a good opinion on this album, so I put off writing my review for another day. That day just so happened to be on my first day of class for the spring semester. More specifically, it was on my walk to school, in the snow, at 8 a.m., while barely awake, and I think uphill both ways on this one-way journey. One thing I picked up on was that the album felt very psychedelic and sunshine-y as I initially left, which was right in tune with my naïve optimism about the start of the semester. As I neared my office, and I began to get colder and colder, the music seemed to take a more morose turn. I may be doing a bit of projecting, though. In general, after two – perhaps unfair – listens, I came away with the distinct impression that this is another one of those British albums that is just fine I guess but doesn’t really make sense for inclusion on this list. Fuzzy Logic is a good album. If I was hanging out with some people and someone played this, I would certainly not be upset. And it’s certainly worth checking out if you’re particularly into Britpop. But being unoffensive and vaguely cool isn’t the same as being one of the (1001) best albums, and I’m straining to see the logic of including it here. Hopefully their other album on this list changes my mind.
Favorite Tracks: Something for the Weekend; Hangin’ With Howard Marks; If You Don’t Want Me to Destroy You

Emily: Although I didn't listen to this album in the cold or while packing but rather while working on an edit from the warm comfort of the law review office, I tend to agree with Zack about this album. It is a bright and fun pop-psychedelic album, but wasn't anything special much beyond that. It sounded like an opening-act band, or an early-afternoon-on-a-secondary-stage festival band. You listen to it because it's there, and you tap your toes and wiggle your hips a little, but you're not about to buy a CD or a ticket to see them headline a too-small club show. Fuzzy Logic is a fun diversion, well-suited to the band's cuddly moniker, but not something I'll remember all that well.

Favorite Tracks: God! Show Me Magic; Bad Behaviour; Long Gone

#320: Otis Redding - Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965)

Zack: I – like many Millenials – know Otis Redding best from Kanye West beats. Gone and Otis were my introductions, but not even those amazing tracks could brace me for the awesomeness that is a full Otis Redding album. Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul was awesome from start to finish and included a smattering of songs that rock bands would cover in the subsequent decades. It’s incredible to think how much artists from all different genres have drawn on one man, but it just goes to show how Redding earned his place in the history of popular music.
Favorite Tracks: Satisfaction; Shake; A Change is Gonna Come

Emily: Zack didn't have access to internet when he wrote his review, so I'm going to correct a statement he made. Rather than these songs being covered in later decades by various other artists, in fact most of these album consists of covers themselves. I think that makes it even more interesting. The fact that one singer can take rock from the Rolling Stones (Satisfaction), Motown from the Temptations (My Girl), and blues from B.B. King (Rock Me Baby) and turn them all into soul-tinged ballads and rhythms really says something about Otis Redding as an artist. Even though these songs weren't new, he breathed new and unique light into them all and makes his versions classics in their own right. And one of the songs written by Redding himself (Respect) became one of the best-known soul songs of all time - by another artist, Aretha Franklin. It just goes to show that a great musician can both take something good and make it better as well as create something great and pass it on to someone who makes it amazing.
Favorite Tracks: Satisfaction; Wonderful World; A Change is Gonna Come

#319: Everything but the Girl - Idlewild (1988)

Zack: Apparently someone besides OutKast decided to make an album called Idlewild, although I remain in the dark about whether this one too is a soundtrack to a movie. I will say this: this Idlewild is much better than the OutKast version, which remains the only disappointment in their otherwise stellar discography. I’m currently packing up to move, and the last time I binged through albums while doing that was when I ran into Harvest by Neil Young. That album pretty much stopped me in my tracks because it was so amazing. Everything but the Girl wasn’t quite as powerful, but it definitely had a similar effect. I was blown away by its sheer beauty. All of the songs are heartfelt and lovingly crafted. There’s a certain delicacy in it that is hard to explain. Every song just rings with this angelic quality. This Idlewild, unlike the other, is one that I intend to relisten to many, many times.

Favorite Tracks: Oxford Street; Love Is Here Where I Live; Apron Strings

Emily: When I first saw that this band's name was Everything but the Girl, I anticipated some kind of mid-'90s British alternative band that competed with the likes of Oasis and Blur. Maybe there is a band or a song or an album with a similar name, but it's not this duo. Then I saw the album cover, which could represent a twee indie pop number from this decade. Nope, not that either. Everything but the Girl actually comes out of the '80s, and while their sound could be classified under the indie umbrella it doesn't really capture the spirit of Idlewild. It actually has a smooth-jazz and adult-contemporary vibe, and while those genres tend to get a bad rep they actually work splendidly here. The soothing ethereal voice of Tracey Thorn blends beautifully with jazz-pop melodies, creating an album that was pleasantly unexpected.

Favorite Tracks: Oxford Street; The Night I Heard Caruso Sing; These Early Days

#318: The Mamas and the Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966)

Zack: This is the type of album where I would normally really rely on Wikipedia to fill in my review. Sadly, I do not have internet at the time of this writing, so I’m winging it. All I really know about The Mamas and the Papas is from documentaries I’ve seen about 60s festivals that I watched out of my oft-expressed love of Jimi Hendrix. From that, I gathered that The Mamas and the Papas were sort of the old guard of the counterculture, which the Janis Joplins, Hendrixes, and Whos of the world came and took over for. That’s a lot of what I heard on If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears. Besides or a love of really long titles for things, M&P love to make folk-rocky songs that are really pleasant and upbeat in a no-good dirty hippy sort of way. Sorry. Been watching a lot of 30 Rock lately (see my review for Big Brother and the Holding Company for more proof) and Jack is starting to get to me. It’s a poppy listen that is really breezy to get through. And it shows you just what sort of foundation all of those bands that are more commonly associated with the 60s counterculture built off of. Also, if everything I just wrote is completely wrong for some reason, know that I don’t apologize.
Favorite Tracks: Do You Wanna Dance; Straight Shooter; You Baby

Emily: Since I do have internet right now, I can confirm and correct Zack's assumptions about The Mamas and the Papas. Based on my Wikipedia research, I wouldn't exactly call them the "old guard" of counterculture. They only formed the band in 1965, a few years before all of those other artists took off as well. What does place them in a different category from their peers that emerged later is that the members of the band had roots in the folk scene of the '50s and the early '60s. When they came together to form The Mamas and the Papas and record this album, they decided to stray away from these roots and move towards a sound based more in pop and rock. The folk influence remains evident throughout If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, however, creating a breezy folk-rock sound that epitomizes the optimistic mood at the time and clearly lays the groundwork for the harder-edged late-60s rock to come.
Favorite Tracks: California Dreamin'; Got a Feelin'; The In Crowd

#317: Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)

Zack: We’ve explained the selection process for albums before, but as a quick recap I pick three albums that Emily then chooses one for based on genre, with some consideration of era as well. For the particular hip-hop album, I nominated Phrenology by the Roots (which I would estimate there is an 85% chance Emily will like), Blueprint by Jay-Z (70%), and Marshall Mathers LP (20%). I gave Em a perfect pass into the low post, and she darted right out to attempt the three. But, since we’re here, let me right a long-short essay (trademark pending) on this album. I’ll save my reflections on Eminem more broadly for 500 albums from now when we review Slim Shady LP and I’m 54. I first started to like Eminem when I was in the 3rd grade, which is certainly not uncommon among gents my age. I would stay up past my bedtime to listen to 98.5’s top 10 songs of the day because I knew Real Slim Shady would slaughter everything in the sea of Britney and *NSYNC. It was just so different from everything else I was hearing. It was my first real exposure to rap music, and I was mesmerized. And my dad used to say I had carte blanche to do whatever I wanted since I was a pretty responsible 10 year old, so I made my request for the Marshall Mathers LP. That was rebuffed not because I was too young and impressionable to hear it (although that probably was and still is true), but because I had a younger brother and sister who did not have caret blanche and my parents were afraid they would be disturbed. So I retreated and came up with a new strategy. I asked for a portable CD player, since then they wouldn’t be able to hear it. I got my own stereo that Christmas, and in what I now recognize is a horrible moment of both stupidity and first world-ness, I was pissed. Yeah, I know that stereos have headphone jacks too. At least now I do. So it wasn’t until The Eminem Show that I officially owned an Eminem album. And while I have a particular sentimental attachment to that album, I think Marshall Mathers LP is my favorite. I mean, it has Stan on it for fuck’s sake. And it just has a great balance between Eminem-tearing-his-heart-out songs about dealing with sudden fame in a less-than-ideal fashion and those patented ridiculous and inappropriate tracks. Sure, Kim just seems to get worse to listen to with each passing year at an exponential rate (whereas ‘97 Bonnie and Clyde only moves at a linear pace). But the rest is just so solid. Besides for the balance of the tracks, Eminem is just really on point here, as he was on all three of those first major albums (I also think he’s pretty on point on Infinite, but I understand why others don’t like it). He’s always been technically skilled at a level that few can approach. He doesn’t have the wide range of tools that someone like Jay-Z has, but the ones he does have are employed so deftly that it borders on unbelievable. And the lyrics are pretty tight too. He’s caught a lot of flak for just being vulgar, and I could understand that if he was just making crude jokes. But he incorporates the vulgarity and immaturity in punch lines that are actually pretty funny if you’re not trying to be offended. Roll all that up, and you get an album that had a major impact on pop culture unlike almost any other rap album.
Favorite Tracks: Stan; Amityville; The Real Slim Shady

Emily: Around when The Real Slim Shady was big on the radio, a group of girls in my bunk at camp proposed that we do our lip sync to that song. The counselors almost immediately rejected that idea, mostly because we'd only be able to repeat the chorus over and over since the verses had so many curse words that they wouldn't even be able to censor it to make it appropriate for the camp show. Also, we were 9. They went on to choose a more appropriate pop song for the lip sync - pretty sure it was Britney Spears that year. So Eminem was definitely inappropriate when I was 9, and I haven't really listened to much since aside from his most popular singles. Now that I've listened to a whole Eminem album, it's still inappropriate at age 23, and just as in 2000 I would much rather listen to Britney Spears. A lot of the songs and skits just made me uncomfortable. Either Eminem was yelling at me (as I texted to Zack halfway through listening), joking about murdering his girlfriend, or making squeamish-sounding innuendos - nothing that I wanted to spend over an hour listening to. The one highlight of the album, though, was Stan. That song, contained in the world of an obsessive superfan and mixed over a soft Dido track, tells a vivid, wrenching story without the blatant vulgarity of the rest of the album. If The Marshall Mathers LP was more like that and less like Kim and the others, I would've enjoyed it much more. But that's not Eminem's style, and I'm just not cut out to be a fan.

Favorite Tracks: Stan; The Real Slim Shady; Marshall Mathers

#316: Eagles - Hotel California (1976)

Emily: As with any album we listen to on here, I do a little research by perusing the album's Wikipedia page. Some have a long diatribe about the making of the album and its influence on future music, while others have nothing more than a title and a track listing. The page for Hotel California leaned toward the former, so I was able to actually learn a bit about the album. It sold millions upon millions of copies and won two Grammys for the songs Hotel California and New Kid in Town. However, it lost the Album of the Year prize to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. I had that in mind as I was listening, wondering whether the loss was warranted. At least in my opinion, it was. Hotel California is a solid classic rock album with a few great songs, but it didn't really do anything new. Rumours, on the other hand, is a classic not because of its era, but because of how its musicians came together to create something uniquely emotional and powerful. While Hotel California was certainly a pleasant respite for 45 minutes, I think I'd rather relisten to Rumours again instead.
Favorite Tracks: Hotel California; Victim of Love; Wasted Time

Zack: I don’t know much about the Eagles. In fact, I know so little that it took me an uncomfortably long amount of time to realize I hadn’t accidentally started playing American Wedding by Frank Ocean when I started listening to the title track that leads off the album. The little I do know comes from this Bill Simmons article. So I know there was a lot of bickering and animosity, which honestly just sounds like I’m describing any rock band ever. It’s probably good that I know so little, since I do have at least enough presence of mind to know that a lot of people dislike the Eagles for some reason. I went in without any real bias against them, but I didn’t really come out on one side or the other. Hotel California was okay. It definitely had its moments, and I didn’t really notice any completely shitty tracks. I thought a majority of the album was made up of solid rock songs, with a few really awesome ones sprinkled in here or there. It wasn’t as completely mesmerizing as other classic rock albums we’ve come across. But it had a very distinct “classic” feel to it. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I wasn’t really blown away on a first listen, but I enjoyed it enough that I would be willing to give it subsequent listens to see if I’m missing anything. I will also say that I’ve listened to American Wedding by Frank Ocean twice while writing this review, so you could maybe just spend your time listening to that song a few dozen times instead.

Favorite Tracks: Hotel California; The Last Resort; Wasted Time

#315: Adam and the Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier (1980)

Zack: Adam and the Ants would seem to provide a dilemma for me. It’s like the Arnold Palmer of 80s music – half-New Wave, half-post punk – which means I should need to decide which of my prerecorded rants against the genre I should go with. Do I do the “ugh, this is so campy and annoying” spiel I’ve perfected through all the synthy shit we’re listened to that this damned decade produced, or the “ugh, this is so boring and repetitive” tirade I’ve so finely crafted through a parade of nearly identical post punk bullshit. Apparently, the answer here was neither. Somehow, the camp of New Wave blended with the repetitive guitar riffs of post punk remarkably well. In some places, the ratio was off and those songs plunged me into a stupor of rage. But, by and large, this album is built around a strong foundation of well-balanced songs that all sound like 80s anthems. It just…works. It’s just a really well-crafted cocktail. Too bad the decade got it right so early on and then just kept trying to reinvent it.

Favorite Tracks: Ants Invasion; Kings of the Wild Frontier; Dog Eat Dog

Emily: Especially when it comes to New Wave and post-punk, two early-80s genres that were more popular in England than they were stateside, this list throws up some anomalies. There have been multiple times where an album is featured on this list that barely registered a blip on the US music scene - maybe a one-hit-wonder single, but frequently nothing at all - but was wildly popular and influential across the pond. Maybe the list-writers were British children of the early '80s, accounting for the overinclusion of such bands, or maybe these bands really did have that much notoriety that their selection is warranted over other American-grown gems. After listening to Adam and the Ants, though, I still think the list-writers had it wrong. Not that there was anything bad about Kings of the Wild Frontier; I just found it bland and uninspired. It did generate multiple top-10 hits in the UK, so that's something, but it just doesn't seem like the kind of significant, inspirational album that merits inclusion over thousands and thousands of others.

Favorite Tracks: Antmusic; The Magnificent Five; Dog Eat Dog

#314: Alice Cooper - School's Out (1972)

Zack: I’ll be completely honest here: I had absolutely 0 positive expectations about this album. I thought it would be some really corny, over-the-top early metal, like a slightly better KISS. Which sucks because that’s not what this was and I don’t like being wrong. School’s Out wasn’t an amazing album, but it was solid and a lot broader in terms of style than I expected. After getting the song School’s Out out of the way in the very beginning (a song I seriously would belt on bus on the last day of school every year from 3^rd-7^th grade, mind you), the album goes a few different directions. Some are hits, some are misses. But I really appreciated the ambition. School’s Out, overall, was an okay album. But I have to give credit for what it is, and it’s certainly more ambitious than I thought it would be.

Favorite Tracks: Public Animal No. 9; Blue Turk; School’s Out

Emily: Do you have a celebrity run-in story? Not a time when you actually met a celebrity, but a time that you randomly saw a celebrity in a public place, didn't say anything to them, and then laughed about it/told people later. Mine is seeing Dustin Diamond (Screech from Saved by the Bell and bringer of a knife to a bar fight) walk by my friends and I in New York City while he was on the phone yelling about what we believed was his starring role in a pornographic film. My parents have a celebrity run-in story too - they saw Alice Cooper, minus his makeup and stage gear, at a mall in LA in the '80s. While their story is less amusing than mine, it's still a tidbit worth sharing, especially when reviewing one of Cooper's best-known albums. School's Out (the song) is definitely the one Alice Cooper song everybody knows; I mean, it was even on Guitar Hero! And when my mom watched us play said song on Guitar Hero, she made sure to mention her mall run-in with him. The rest of School's Out (the album) doesn't sound much like the title track, but that's okay. It takes a little bit of glam rock with a little bit of hard rock and produces radio-ready results that keep Cooper famous to this day. The casual listener may not know much beyond School's Out, but they'll definitely recognize him at the mall.

Favorite Tracks: School's Out; Blue Turk; Alma Mater

#313: Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club (1993)

Emily: Sheryl Crow's All I Wanna Do is a great song. It's not a song you go out of your way to listen to, but when it comes up when you're scanning radio stations in the car you always stop on it. It's upbeat, poppy and sunny and singalong-able, and it tells a clever story. Parts of the lyrics are apparently drawn from a poem that Crow's producer found in an anthology while working on the album, which were then properly attributed to the poet and brought him newfound recognition and success. Good job, pop music! Unfortunately, for all the praise I can heap onto All I Wanna Do, the rest of Sheryl Crow's debut doesn't live up to its most famous single. It's a perfectly pleasant collection of country-twinged, adult-contemporary pop songs, but nothing really stood out beyond All I Wanna Do. For a debut, though, it shows songwriting promise and prowess, which Crow uses even today for her continued success.
Favorite Tracks: All I Wanna Do; Solidify; Can't Cry Anymore

Zack: I’m fairly certain my mom owns this album, not because I’ve seen her listen to it but because this is a total Mom album. Sixty percent of this album’s sales were to women with at least two kids who just want to cut loose and pretend to think about taking a vacation for 50 minutes. Musically, it is seriously that bland. It’s just sort of vaguely pleasant in a way that makes the album generally unassuming. Which is actually fine. I don’t want to come off like I’m bullying this album too much. It was fine for a poppy break, and the lyrics that I picked up on were pretty clever bits of writing. I can’t say that I plan on relistening to it at any point, but I wouldn’t say it was a waste of my time. Take that however you wish.

Favorite Tracks: All I Wanna Do; We Do What We Can; Leaving Las Vegas

#312: Big Brother and the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills (1968)

Zack: We haven’t listened to anything with Janet Jopler in so long that I wasn’t even aware to make that reference the last time. But I still remember Pearl very clearly, especially how haunting Jackie Jormp-Jomp’s voice was. Cheap Thrills is another flawless example of this remarkable skill. It’s concise, but each song really carries a long way. Combine that with some really excellent musicianship, and you have an album that really does sound completely modern. Soon, I will be embarking on my new annual tradition of going through a bunch of the top-reviewed albums of the past year in a marathon binge-listening session. I know there were several neo-psychedelic albums that came out, and Cheap Thrills – while not as psychedelic as some other contemporaries – will definitely be a good measuring stick to use.

Favorite Tracks: Summertime; I Need a Man to Love; Piece of My Heart

Emily: Janis Joplin simply has one of the most iconic voices of all time. Pearl is an album I've listened to many times over since we first reviewed it here over 4 years ago, and every time I'm still blown away. That's why I chose Big Brother and the Holding Company for this batch, almost 300 albums after our initial introduction to Joplin. This time we're moving back a couple years to her second and final album with this band, recorded and released shortly after their iconic performance at the Monterey Pop festival. Cheap Thrills takes the, well, thrills of their live performance by using some live tracks intermixed with studio recordings. The resulting 37 minutes showcases Joplin's amazing talent, producing some of her best songs that boom out of speakers with heart-wrenching delivery. Listening to Pearl in 2010 introduced me to Janis Joplin, and today Cheap Thrills definitely cemented my fandom.

Favorite Tracks: Piece of My Heart; Ball and Chain; Turtle Blues

#311: Alice in Chains - Dirt (1992)

Zack: The last time we listened to a real grunge album, we were less than a week into this endeavor. Seriously. Go back more than 4 years ago in our archives and you’ll see reviews for Nevermind, In Utero, and Unplugged by Nirvana among our first 10 reviews. The reason was that both of us had already listened to all three of those, so we reviewed them right out of the gate. Then, since there are so few grunge albums on this list (about 10, depending on where one draws the line between alternative and grunge), we just ignored them until now. Which is a bit of a shame, since grunge is such a remarkably unique genre. I once heard someone describe grunge as a combination of REM and Metallica (I believe on a Vh1 show, if I can channel my inner Emily). Both of those components are clearly displayed by Alice in Chains, but I think it draws heavier on the Metallica side than other grunge albums I’ve listened to. Whereas Nirvana always seemed sort of mopey with a tendency to growl, Alice in Chains seems perfectly capable of biting. There’s a ferocity here that I don’t really get from, say, early Pearl Jam. And I really liked the edge. Overall, I don’t put Nevermind or Ten on as much as I used to back when I myself was an angst-ridden teenager, but when I do, you can be sure that Dirt will be right there in the rotation as well.

Favorite Tracks: The Rooster; Them Bones; Would?

Emily: I've been a fan of grunge and its descendants for a long time now, especially Nirvana. Alice in Chains was another band to come out of the Seattle grunge scene in the wave of releases that came out post-Nevermind. Each one has a somewhat different sound, but all pull from the same punk, alternative, and metal influences. Dirt is definitely on the more metal end of things, which I didn't really care for. All of the songs used the same plodding, weighed-down metal sound that apparently influenced a subgenre called "sludge metal." That's aptly named, because the songs sounded like they were moving through sludge. Some of the songs, particularly the singles, had a bit more going on, but overall I thought it was slow, loud, and boring. I'll stick to Nevermind any day.

Favorite Tracks: Would?; The Rooster; Godsmack