#459: The Shamen - En-Tact (1990)

Zack: That’s three consecutive albums that I really, really enjoyed, a streak which will end right now. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I did not like an electro-rave dance album from 1990. (Or, at the very least, I didn’t like the US/1991 edition…which seems to be radically different from the original version but this is the one that’s been sold since 1991 so I’m sticking with it.) I found it annoying and dull, despite the attempts to seemingly overstimulate the listener. That said, I’ll focus on the few tracks that I did kind of like and point out the elements that drew me to them. First, Possible Worlds and Evil Is Even had these interesting ambient/soundtrack qualities to them. Like, if they were slipped into the background of a TV show, they might kind of work. In a weird way, they kind of reminded me of Nujabes, whose albums and soundtrack work I absolutely adore. These tracks didn’t have the same delicate and ethereal quality than Nujabes songs typically have, but at least there was something sort of compelling about them other than the bouncing and beeping. Second, on Progen 91 and (to a lesser extent) Move Any Mountain, The Shamen embrace a little bit of hip-hop. I mean that beyond just an awkward rap verse shoehorned in there (although they both have them and they are terrible and I’m actually docking points for those). There’s something to those beats that are reminiscent of Afrika Bambaataa, for example. I didn’t totally mind that element as well. On the rest of the album, though, The Shamen eschew these elements in favor of a plainer ravish sound, and I thought it was pretty shitty. But at least there were a few things I could like.

Favorite Tracks: Possible Words; Evil Is Even [edit]; Progen 91 (I.R.P. in the Land of Oz)

Emily: I started listening to this album a couple weeks ago, and I only just returned to it tonight. A combination of things got in the way, including a friend visiting, a busy few weeks of work, traveling for the holidays, and getting a new dog(!!!). Mostly, though, I didn't really want to return to an early-'90s British rave album. Without much going on this evening (and with some prodding from Zack), I returned to En-Tact before settling in to watch basketball and/or Black Mirror. And, big surprise, I still wasn't much of a fan. I mean, it's fine background noise, nothing too clangy or untz-untz or earth-shatteringly loud. But nothing really grabbed my attention, and I was mostly just bored. So bored that this is all I have to say about it.

Favorite Tracks: Omega Amigo; Progen 91 (I.R.P. in the Land of Oz); 666 Edit

#458: Neil Young - After the Gold Rush (1970)

Zack: Yaaaaaaaaaaas!! My feelings about Neil Young have been well documented at this point. We’ve listened to two solo Neil Young albums before now, both of which I absolutely adored (I believe Rust Never Sleeps made my top 5 for the first 100 and Harvest was my favorite album from albums 201-300). And we’ve encountered Neil Young in a couple of bands, where I usually found his contributions to be the most striking. Plus, since this endeavor introduced me to Neil Young, I’ve gone through some of his more popular – but not included on the list – albums, and generally found them to be quite good (I haven’t yet dived into all the albums from the 80s and 90s that people straight up hate, but maybe one day.) I was looking forward to listening to this album so bad that I plowed through many of the last dozen or so in an effort to get to it sooner. And while After the Gold Rush didn’t transfix me quite as much as Harvest or Rust Never Sleeps, I still thought it delivered up to my expectations. It wasn’t as consistently excellent, and there were songs I just did not like, but the highs were just as lofty as on those other two. After the Gold Rush is definitely a great album, and although I’ll need to give it a few more listens before I decide if it’ll be a contender for the 500 album awards, I’m definitely looking forward to doing so.

Favorite Tracks: Southern Man; After the Gold Rush; Don’t Let It Bring You Down

Emily: When I told Zack this morning that I was listening to Neil Young (he was in the other room and I had headphones in, so he had no idea), he bounced up and down and YAYed. That's how much he likes Neil Young. While I'm not quite as enthralled, I definitely appreciate the winding folk-country-rock road that Neil Young has taken and continues to take over the course of his 40+ year career. And I liked a lot about this album. The first song underwhelmed me, but then it was three songs straight that I absolutely loved. I went on to like the rest of it, but those three songs really got to me. There's something about the songwriting and the simplicity of the arrangements that make Neil Young's music really special. And what I think this means is that I have to revisit the albums we've listened to in the past, and perhaps expand my Neil Young horizons beyond this list.

Favorite Tracks: Only Love Can Break Your Heart; Southern Man; After the Gold Rush

#457: Ray Charles - The Genius of Ray Charles (1959)

Zack: How it has taken us almost 7 years to get to a Ray Charles album defies explanation, but here we are. Ray Charles is a titan of music, and it’s not hard to see…er…hear why. On this album, Ray Charles relies on a bigger sound than many of the singles he’s more well known for, utilizing big band and swing to create stronger horn and string sections underlying his always brilliant piano playing and singing. I thought they complimented him well, and I found something to like about every song on this album.

Favorite Tracks: It Had to Be You; Come Rain or Come Shine; Let the Good Times Roll

Emily: The other day I started watching the new Amazon show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I've watched four of the eight episodes in season one, and it is just delightful. It takes place in 1958 in New York City, where the titular Midge Maisel is starting out as a stand-up comedian after her husband leaves her for his secretary. The Genius of Ray Charles is of the same era, and listening to it I could just imagine Midge with her stand-up manager or a fellow comedian taking in a Ray Charles show at one of the smoky downtown jazz clubs that populate the show's imagination. Well, by that time I imagine Ray was playing much bigger (but still smoky) venues, but the classic-R&B-and-jazz sound that permeates this album would fit right in alongside Midge's quips and fabulous hats.

Favorite Tracks: It Had to Be You; Let the Good Times Roll; Just for a Thrill

#456: The Beach Boys - Surf's Up (1971)

Emily: For the uninitiated (i.e., me), one might think that Surf's Up is a classic Beach Boys album of the Surfin' Safari, going-to-the-beach-with-pretty-girls variety. The fact that the album is from 1971, though, should give you a heads-up that this isn't actually a frothy pop Americana album about surfing. It's nearly ten years after the group started, and a few years after they started to move into more complex and psychedelic sound. So, as the music and album art make abundantly clear, the title Surf's Up is an ironic nod to the band's surf-rock roots, while the music delves further into psychedelia while maintaining some pop roots. The result was the Beach Boys' strongest commercial success in several years, and it's easy to see why. The album combines lush harmonies and soundscapes with socially-conscious and inventive lyrics, creating a sound that is both innovative and approachable that leaves you wanting to know where the Beach Boys would take their sound next.
Favorite Tracks: Surf's Up; Long Promised Road; Student Demonstration Time

Zack: I would have liked to get nostalgic about the Beach Boys, but apparently I didn’t do a great job of remembering the time we listened to Pet Sounds. I thought it was summer 2011, but couldn’t remember if it was June or July. Turns out I was way off. We listened to Pet Sounds December of 2010, making it the 34^th album we reviewed (including the 9 to start). Whoops. My excuse is that Pet Sounds is such a perfect summer album that it temporarily transported me forward in time when I listened to it. I love Pet Sounds. It’s just such a great pop treat. And a result is that when I put it on again in the summer of 2012, I decided I wanted to broaden my Beach Boys horizons. So I totally legally went about totally legally obtaining the Beach Boys entire discography through totally legal means. I remember initiating this totally legal process and then going to get a sandwich from the Grilled Cheese truck on Norris St. in front of what I want to say was Boyer Hall. I made my way through a lot of that totally legal discography over the next few weeks, and I do remember doing that. I skipped over Surf’s Up and Today! because they were both on the list, but I was familiar with their positions in the discography and both of their legacies. So I knew that the title Surf’s Up is ironic, and I knew about the frankly awesome cover art. Still, Surf’s Up caught me a little off-guard. It’s just so far removed from the poppy sound of Pet Sounds. There are elements of psychedelic rock and prog rock and lots else blended in. And it’s all really good. I was, frankly, quite impressed that the same band that made Pet Sounds could make something equally good but so dramatically different. Surf’s Up is easily a classic album, and I’m glad I got to listen to it actually during the summer for a change (although this one will probably also get posted in December).

Favorite Tracks: Surf’s Up; Student Demonstration Time; A Day in the Life of a Tree

#455: Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!! (1977)

Zack: I have been nominating this album every time we have a punk album due for like a year and a half at this point. There are two reasons. One, the album title is great. Two, it’s one of the earliest albums in the punk section, which basically means it’s either a garage rock album (I merged those genres together some time ago since there were like 10 garage rock albums total) and I have loved like all of the garage rock albums we’ve listened to (shoutout The Sonics forevah) or an early punk album a la The Ramones, Sex Pistols, etc., which also have a history of being dope. All that had me really hyped to start listening to it…right until I hit play. The first 70% of this album was kind of slow and very British. I found Ian Dury’s voice to be pretty annoying and I was just not into it at all. The last 3 tracks are much more punkish, and they were easily my favorites. But they couldn’t quite make up for the 7 songs beforehand which frustrated me to no end.

Favorite Tracks: Blockheads; Blackmail Man; Plainstow Patricia

Emily: I do love the name of this album, as well as its cheeky origin story (that boots and underwear are the only articles of clothing that Ian Dury wouldn't buy secondhand). The music itself, though, was mostly just weird. Ian Dury is VERY British (from Essex specifically), and his accented voice snakes and snarls through his lyrics and the protopunk music that for some reason also sounds like funk and oompahs. There are glimmers of punk here and there (particularly in the last three tracks), but otherwise the sound is kind of disorienting and just not all that fun.

Favorite Tracks: Plainstow Patricia; Blackmail Man; Sweet Gene Vincent

#454: Dwight Yoakam - Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (1988)

Zack: While I have learned to appreciate some aspects of country music, others just rub me the wrong way. Dwight Yoakam was in that category. Musically, Buenas Noches wasn’t overly twangy, but I wouldn’t describe it as overly appealing. But what really ruined this album for me was the lyrics and singing. Recently, there was an episode of the Malcolm Gladwell podcast Revisionist History were he talks about his “theory” (to the extent you could call it that) that country musicians are better songwriters than rock musicians (those are the only two genres of music apparently) because they are more emotional and open to discussing it directly and in vivid detail rather than vague allusion. I think that’s mostly bullshit, but there might be something about the directness aspect. Dwight Yoakam is very direct, but I didn’t like a lot of what I heard. The song What I Don’t Know is predicated on him threatening a lover, saying that if he finds out that he is being cheated on then he will murder her. Am I supposed to be moved by the threat of domestic violence? Am I supposed to find that relatable? The titular track, Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room, was easily my favorite song on the album. And yet it too ends with him murdering a former lover (and the mother of his child) who ran away from him with another man. There are plenty of songs about heartbreak on here, and that’s fine of course, but it’s hard to rally behind many of the conclusions. Besides the murder fantasies, I noticed another theme going on: What we might refer to today as the rural-urban divide. On I Sang Dixie (my second favorite song, by the way, to show that I am trying to separate my more analytical thoughts from my evaluations of the songs) Yoakam tells a story of meeting a dying southern man in Los Angeles and trying to comfort him while everyone just goes on by. The man’s dying words are telling him to go back to the south and away from these California weirdos (my words, not his). Streets of Bakersfield was similar. There, it’s people in San Francisco though, and it’s mostly just about how he’s tired to being judged by a bunch of people who don’t know the first thing about where he’s from. The theme of these songs really rubbed me the wrong way. That is probably a specific temporal anomaly. I’m writing this a couple days out from the Charlottesville protests, where a bunch of white supremacists/Neo-Nazis were protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. I just watched a video of another Confederacy statue in North Carolina being torn down and kicked by anti-white supremacist protestors. There was a massive march in our adoptive city of D.C. last night protesting a statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general. I’m pretty revved up on this issue at the moment. And I’m pretty fucking tired of hearing a bunch of southern, “Oh we’re such victims why don’t other people understand us.” Boo fucking hoo. Southern culture is distinct and has lots of really awesome elements to it that denizens of the region should absolutely be allowed to celebrate. The food, the culture of sports and competition, (some of) the music. There’s a lot of great stuff, for sure. But I’m from New Jersey. You don’t think that when I introduce myself to someone and they ask where I’m from, I catch a ton of shit? I have a good friend from Kansas. Flyover country. You don’t think we bust his balls about that every chance we get. People make fun of where other people are from. That’s a thing they do. Hell, both of these songs are predicated on stereotypes of Californians. But I am supposed to weep for the poor, misjudged southerner. Fuck you. Grow the fuck up. Think about another goddamn person for one fucking second. And with that, I’ll rage-quit this post/screed.

Favorite Tracks: Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses); I Sang Dixie; Floyd County

Emily: Zack had a lot to say, so I'll keep this brief. Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room is a very old-school country album. It has some twang, a lot of Southern pride, and several Jesus references. I had to do a double-take when I was writing in the date, because it honestly sounds like some of the country music we've listened to from the '50s and '60s. But nope, this is from 1988. I guess there was still a market for old-school country for some old-school people, and that market probably still exists now. But all I can say is that it's definitely not for this decidedly un-Southern girl.

Favorite Tracks: Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses); I Got You; I Hear You Knockin'

#453: U2 - Achtung Baby (1991)

Zack: There are four U2 albums on the list, and this is the second one for us. I distinctly remembered listening to the first one on a train ride to see Emily, so I guessed summer of 2011. But I wasn’t super confident in that (it could just as easily have been 2012) and I couldn’t even remember which album it was. Turns out I was right about the time and it was The Joshua Tree. I know I didn’t like that album (and, after re-reading my review from back them, I’m not sure if I outright hated it that much or was just trying to be Edge-y and cool…see what I did there?), but that’s about it. Back then, I would take an hour-long train from rural NJ to Philly, wait for the next train, then take a 45-minute train from Philly to Emily’s hometown. I would normally try and knock out like three albums each way, and I’d inevitably be reading or playing Fire Emblem on my laptop while I did it. They’d all kind of blur together. Now, for Achtung Baby, I tried to give it a little more attention. I listened to it on a Saturday morning, other than the last few songs from Off the Wall that I had to finish up, it was the first thing I was doing that day, so I wasn’t super burned out when I got to it, and instead of playing video games I was just giving issue codes to speeches I’d already read before. I was in a little bit of a less divided headspace. And I think I appreciated the album more than I otherwise would as a result. I wouldn’t say that I had a “come to Jesus” moment or anything. In fact, my scores for this album were hyper polarized. I gave most songs either 5 stars (my equivalent of super good; if I’m just throwing on tracks and not listening to an album straight through, these are the ones I’ll play) or 3 stars (my equivalent of meh meh meh meh meh). But the songs that popped out, I really liked. They were alternative rock with a bit more complexity to it. I noticed traces of Bowie in the formula, which really perked me up. Overall, Achtung Baby showed me flashes of what real U2 fans adore, and those flashes were pretty impressive.

Favorite Tracks: One; Acrobat; Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

Emily: Based on the limited information I have (i.e. Phoebe Robinson from 2 Dope Queens and my friend's freshman year roommate), if you're a U2 person, then you are wholeheartedly a U2 person. I, however, am not a U2 person. I just don't get the appeal. I'm not opposed to alternative rock growing to stadium proportions as a general matter - the Foo Fighters are great! - but U2 always comes off more preachy and self-righteous than fun and freewheeling. To me, the result is just kinda boring. Achtung Baby fit right in to that impression. There were a few very good songs that made me take notice - the kind that you can definitely hear as a stadium sing-a-long, but otherwise I just found it dull. U2 just isn't my thing, and based on my impressions of this album I don't think it ever really will be.

Favorite Tracks: One; Ultraviolet (Light My Way); Until the End of the World

#452: Michael Jackson - Off the Wall (1979)

Zack: After a short, two-album detour, we are once again boarding the Nostalgia Express. This is the second Michael Jackson album we’ve listened to. The first was Thriller, which we listened to on vinyl in Emily’s parents’ basement, I want to say after a riveting game of Mario Kart (but don’t quote me on that last part.) That was super early on, and if we were at Emily’s parents’ house, it would probably be December 2010 or January 2011. So…I’m guessing like 6 and a half years ago. Thriller is unassailable, so of course Off the Wall doesn’t quite compare. But it’s still an excellent album filled with timeless goodies. Michael Jackson truly was a singular talent, and Off the Wall is just further proof of what we all already knew.

Favorite Tracks: Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough; I Can’t Help It; Rock With You

Emily: Off the Wall was Michael Jackson's first album post-Jackson 5 and post-Motown. It was the first time he had some modicum of creative freedom to develop his own sound, and he used that freedom to explore pop ballads, up-tempo funk and disco, and now-classic R&B and soul. The album succeeds across all of these genres, all of which are tied together by Michael's one-of-a-kind voice. Off the Wall has some classics in its own right, and even more importantly serves as a starting point for the even-greater pop excellence of Thriller and Bad.

Favorite Tracks: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough; Rock With You; She's Out of My Life

#451: Ice-T - O.G. Original Gangster (1991)

Zack: I had mixed feelings going into this album. On one hand, it’s pretty rare that we listen to a rap album I haven’t heard before, so there was an excited sense of discovery. On the other hand, I wouldn’t say I was particularly eager to dive into Ice-T. Everything I knew about Ice-T going in was very early West Coast rap, almost proto-horrorcore in how gratuitous and almost laughable the violence is, and he also had a metal band that he did crossover tracks with. None were particularly great selling points. But I was pleasantly surprised by just how solid this album is. It really has its moments. When Ice-T dives into those horrorcore vibes (namely on Midnight), I tended to roll my eyes, but there was plenty of other things going that were really interesting. Ice-T is a much more talented rapper than I had anticipated. There are moments where he just goes IN. And Ice-T is very, very smart and insightful. He speaks a lot about power and the prison industrial complex and closes the album with an early critique on the first Gulf War and I didn’t even make that last one up. He has a lot to say and is very good at saying it. The beats were…acceptable. They were a mix of those early West Coast styles before Dr. Dre wove more funk threads into the fabric (less jazz-y than the East Coast contemporaries, but the horn samples are just replaced with more repetitive drum machines) and proto-horrorcore beats with their creeeeeepy and spoooooky synth sounds. But he made it work. Even the one hardcore track (Body Count) wasn’t too bad, although that drum solo…woof. Overall, I did enjoy O.G. and can see how it is important for the development of the West Coast sound overall and several rap subgenres specifically. It was definitely worth listening to, and I’m glad it was included.

Favorite Tracks: Pulse of the Rhyme; Escape from the Killing Fields; O.G.: Original Gangster (but also check out Mic Contract, New Jack Hustler, Fly By, and Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous…it was a long album)

Emily: It seems like Ice-T is better known these days for his role on Law & Order: SVU, his appearance in Geico commercials hawking lemonade, and for his long-standing marriage to Coco Austin (and its accompanying E! reality show). He's still rapping today, but he definitely has a friendlier image now than he did 26 years ago when O.G. was first released. It's a raw and intense album, with graphic and sometimes violent lyrics. Ice-T also occasionally fuses this gangsta rap aesthetic with heavy metal, a combo that doesn't always work but is intriguing as a crossover between two genres that were much maligned by so-called "cultural" critics at the time. I wasn't a huge fan of this album overall, but I can understand its significance in the rap chronology and pantheon as gangsta rap evolved throughout the early 90s. And somehow, for all his talk of cop killing, Ice-T has played a cop on television for over 15 years. I'm sure no one would've guessed that in 1991.

Favorite Tracks: Mind Over Matter; O.G. Original Gangster; The Tower

#450: Eels - Beautiful Freak (1996)

Zack: We seem to have hit a run of really, really good albums lately, and Beautiful Freak is no exception. Seriously, I should say right up front that I absolutely adored this album after a single listen. I don’t really know why, precisely. But this album just seemed to have such…vision. Each song sounds like it is exactly as it was meant to, and it all comes together to form a project that feels exactly as intended. It doesn’t sound terribly different than a lot of alternative and indie albums from that era. But Beautiful Freak was pretty much a perfect example of everything those genres have to offer. Seriously, I loved this album. I immediately started playing it again from the top once it had finished, and only partially to drown out the episode of Below Deck that Emily was watching at the time. I am definitely going to be listening to this album a lot for the next week, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in my top 5 for albums 400-500 when we get to that point.

Favorite Tracks: Guest List; Mental; Novocaine for the Soul

Emily: Honestly, I only picked this album because I thought Eels was a funny name for a band. I had no idea how it would sound; frankly, I thought it would be one of those obscure albums that make me wonder how they made it on the list at all. Although Beautiful Freak is somewhat obscure, after a listen I definitely understand how it earned its place on the list. As Zack said, it's an excellent embodiment of the mid-'90s, post-grunge alternative-pop-rock sound. The music is deceptively catchy, and each song tells a story. It's also a remarkably consistent album, although I found the back half to be stronger. Overall, Eels exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations, and I hope to encounter more of them, or others like them, in the future.

Favorite Tracks: Mental; Your Lucky Day in Hell; Flower

#449: Bob Marley & The Wailers - Natty Dread (1974)

Emily: In September, Zack and I spent 10 days in Jamaica. It was supposed to be a week, but then Hurricane Irma happened and our flights got cancelled and we couldn't rebook until three days later. Definitely worse places in the world to get stuck than a beautiful beach resort right on a cove in Runaway Bay. Anyway, as soon as we arrived in the country, Bob Marley was everywhere. Our bus ride from the airport to the resort had a steady soundtrack of Bob Marley classics. The daily soundtrack on the beach or by the pool had tons of Bob Marley, interspersed with other reggae songs and American Top 40 music. The chef at the resort hibachi restaurant sang variations on Bob Marley tunes about fried rice. One of the resort's signature cocktails was called a Bob Marley (layers of strawberry daiquiri, mango daiquiri, and mango mixed with blue curacao - delicious). And then, at the airport heading home, there was an entire Bob Marley-themed store for all of your souvenir needs. Clearly, Bob Marley is very important to Jamaica, or at least to the version of Jamaica the country wants to present to millions of foreign tourists. While the constant repetition of the music did get a bit tiresome, I can't deny that the music is the perfect backdrop to the island. The lyrics embody the spirit of revolution throughout the cities, but the reggae vibes fit the laid-back beauty of the beaches, where you can watch the ocean all day and never get bored. After this vacation, I think I'm a bit Bob Marley-ed out, but though we have many more places to visit in the world, I won't be surprised if we end up back in Jamaica someday, listening to Natty Dread on the way there.
Favorite Tracks: No Woman, No Cry; So Jah Seh; Natty Dread

Zack: We’re back to nostalgia! I actually did look up when we listened to this one, mostly because I knew it was one of the first ones we did. Turns out it was number 13 that we listened to, and number 22 overall (when we started there were 9 albums that Emily and I had both already listened to so we just bulk-wrote those posts; I want to say those were 3 Nirvana albums, 2 Green Day albums, a Muse album, a RHCP album, a Killers album, and…one I’m missing….ah….Arctic Monkeys…why was that on this list at all….never mind…also we went with Flaming Lips for the first “new” listen and that’s a thing I didn’t remember but is pretty cool because I still love that album.) I vaguely remember that. I think I had just finished my personal project of breaking the list down by genre. I then printed out all these sheets and taped them to the corner of my dorm room wall. Emily would come over and we’d haggle over what type of music we wanted to listen to. It was a lot less formalized of a process then. We just hung out on my bed, listening to Catch a Fire and being lazy sophomores. Honestly, my feelings about Bob Marley have only slightly changed since then. I now know about the powerful political and social messages in his music, at least I’m much more aware of them than I was back then. But I still primarily listen to Bob Marley for the relaxing island vibes, not the social commentary. I do feel like I’m missing out on a huge part of the appeal. But the soothing reggae is just so overpowering and alluring. Natty Dread was exactly like that for me. I really enjoyed the album. It was a great listen on our couch while coding, and I imagine I’ll have to throw it on my iPhone and play it next time I’m on a beach. It just feels so good. I know I should be paying more attention to what he’s saying, but it’s hard when he’s saying it so well that the content of the words doesn’t even seem to matter.

Favorite Tracks: No Woman, No Cry; Rebel Music; Talkin’ Blues

#448: Aimee Mann - Whatever (1993)

Zack: I had this album classified as folk, but given the fact that it came out in the 90s and the album title is basically a disaffected and angst-y shrug, I kind of guessed I was off. Sure enough, this album has much more in common with Tori Amos or Jeff Buckley than Joni Mitchell or Cat Stevens. But what really stands out from Whatever isn’t anything about genre but the songwriting. It was sort of Costello-ish in that regard. Everything seemed direct and personal and wry. I didn’t really notice the lyrics until about halfway through the album, which was about when my interest perked up. I’m definitely going to have to block off time to go back and investigate how witty she is in the first half.

Favorite Tracks: Say Anything; Jacob Marley’s Chain; I Could’ve Hurt You Now

Emily: In the midst of a '90s nostalgia boom, where there's seriously a show on MTV called '90s House in which a bunch of clueless millennials complete cheesy challenges only with access to '90s-era technology (and outfits), Aimee Mann's debut album fits right in. Whatever really embodies that early-'90s alt-rock-pop sound that invaded albums and airwaves after Nevermind. The lyrics are where it really shines, though, with clever riffs and conversational confessions. I really enjoyed both the sound and the songwriting of this album, and as with most lyric-heavy albums, it will definitely be worth delving deeper into it in the future.

Favorite Tracks: Say Anything; 4th of July; Stupid Thing

#447: Japan - Quiet Life (1979)

Zack: I’ve been spending some time each morning teaching myself a different statistical software language than the one I have typically used. It is a continuously frustrating process. I have spent 5-10 minutes starting at lines of code, trying to figure out why they won’t work, with error messages talking about misplaced parentheses, only to find out that the sole problem was a missing comma. I could be using that time to listen to albums, but I’ve been worried that I need to pay a little too much attention to what I’m doing (I tried putting on the TV while I work and I either would pay 0 attention to whatever was on or I would pay too much attention and get nothing done) and that my frustration would unfairly bleed over to my impression of the music. But when I saw that the next album was some '80s new wave bullshit, I figured it was probably safe to give it a shot. The music typically doesn’t require too much attention, since it’s mostly dumb, and a lot of this genre is so cloyingly upbeat that maybe it would dull my simmering frustration. Quiet Life didn’t really do much on the latter point, but it did hit that sweet spot of attention that I frequently praise albums for accomplishing. It was there in the background, but it was subtle. Just what I needed for that particular task. I didn’t really like the album, but at least it didn’t get in the way.

Favorite Tracks: Despair; Alien; Quiet Life

Emily: I 100% picked this album because the band is called Japan, and I thought I'd get to talk about some Japanese influences and tie in my vacation to Tokyo from earlier this year. Alas, those ideas went out the window as soon as I started listening to the album. Turns out the band called itself Japan as a place filler before their first show, and they never got around to changing it. So there's really nothing Japanese about Japan. I did like their take on new wave/synth-pop, though. It's not quite as shiny and bouncy as many of their contemporaries, which works to their benefit. Quiet Life is more contemplative than your average new wave album, making it a pleasant companion for my late-afternoon internet browsing but not necessarily something I would return to again.

Favorite Tracks: Fall in Love with Me; Alien; Quiet Life

#446: Suede - Dog Man Star (1994)

Zack: I don’t really have much to say about this album, so I’m mostly just going to list facts and random thoughts. Suede are a 90s Britpop band. They were considered part of the “Big 4” Britpop bands, along with Oasis, Blur, and Pulp. Those four bands have 9 combined albums on the list, with Blur at 3 and everyone else with 2 each. We’ve now reviewed one albums by each, and none have really stood out. Of those four bands, Suede is the only one that I had never heard of before. So I think that makes Blur the Kevin Durant of this Big 4, Oasis the Steph Curry, Suede the Klay Thompson, and Pulp the Draymond Green. I just came up with that comparison on the fly and with very little thought, but I am not prepared to defend it with my life. Next time I see Emily’s friend Matt, I’m going to ask him his thoughts on the band Suede because I already am sure he has very strong opinions on this matter. Anyway, considering how often I have bemoaned the gross overrepresentation of Britpop on the list and considering I’d never even heard of the band, I found this album to be not terrible. It was kind of a fun listen, which is good enough to make it one of the least egregious Britpop album inclusions. So I guess I’m going to have to hammer Pulp whenever we get around back around to them to even things out a bit.

Favorite Tracks: The Asphalt World; The Wild Ones; This Hollywood Life

Emily: Once again, I don't understand why the creators of this list love mid-'90s Britpop so much. I had never heard of Suede before today, but apparently they were important enough to merit two albums on this list. Dog Man Star, the first Suede album we've tackled, was fine. A bit too long, but melodious and varied enough to hold my attention for the almost hour-long runtime. I sincerely doubt that this album will stick in mind, though, much past the time I hit "Publish" on this post. Perhaps I'll come back to this review when we encounter the next Suede album in a few hundred entries, but until then, Dog Man Star will be but a wisp in my memory.

Favorite Tracks: Still Life; The Wild Ones; New Generation

#445: Neu! - Neu! '75 (1975)

Zack: We’ve come across krautrock before: first by Holger Czukay and second by the band Faust, although you might want to include Kraftwerk in that list as well. With the half-exception of Kraftwerk which I remember thinking was okay, none of those times left a particularly positive memory. I went back and reread what I’d written about Faust and Czukay, and one thing I had noted was that krautrock’s main defining feature is that it pays almost no dues to the universal elements of US/UK music. Certain rules of the game were developed by the folk artists, delta blues players, and early jazz musicians that inform how just about every modern musician – from metalheads to hip-hop artists to country singers to indie bands – performs their craft. A lot of krautrock is built around different rules entirely, so it sounds kind of jarring and uncomfortable. But Neu! was the first band where it kind of made sense. The album is split, with the first half being dedicated to the more ambient-based elements of krautrock and the second half being more rock-oriented. Doing so highlights both the similarities and differences, while showing how the two styles really complement each other. Comparing and contrasting the two allows the listener to see how rock tends to prioritize repetition and attention-grabbing, while krautrock focuses more on building rich and evolving soundscapes. And while I preferred the rock half more, having them both there heightened my appreciation for both.

Favorite Tracks: Hero; Seeland; After Eight

Emily: Wikipedia describes Neu! '75 as "a split record, subtly melodic in the first half and boldly unconventional in the second." Respectfully, I must disagree with this internet-curated description. While the first three tracks of the album combines subtle melodies with hypnotic krautrock sensibilities, the latter three tracks are bold in their rhythms but rooted in rock music. I didn't find the result unconventional, but rather took the then-conventional sounds of rock & roll and psychedelic rock and infused them krautrock ambiance. Unconventional or not, these three songs take krautrock a few steps further than what we've encountered before, merging the German genre with familiar ideas to great, enjoyable effect.

Favorite Tracks: Hero; Seeland; After Eight

#444: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (1959)

Emily: There is a certain melancholy in Kind of Blue that's not quite as present in Birth of the Cool, the other Miles Davis album we've listened to for this list and one that I've listened to many times over. It got me thinking about my days listening to Miles Davis in the museum gift shop. I know I've written about that experience several times here, but today it's at the forefront of my mind. The reason we had the Birth of the Cool CD in the gift shop, along with John Coltrane, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and a few other jazz and instrumental staples, was because a coworker burned these CDs specifically for the shop so we could have something new to listen to while we spent hours organizing the toy section and dusting glass sculptures. I learned a few days ago that this coworker passed away last week, unexpectedly and far too soon. I hadn't spoken to him in a few years, since the last time I volunteered for a museum event before I moved away from Philadelphia. But seeing that news spurred several memories - waiting for tour groups outside on spring days, the time he insisted that we walked together to the El after a meeting in an unfamiliar neighborhood, and, of course, the music that he shared with all of us in the gift shop. The creativity and emotion of Miles Davis was a perfect fit to remember him by.
Favorite Tracks: So What; Flamenco Sketches; Freddie Freeloader

Zack: And the nostalgia tour continues! We last listened to Miles Davis winter break of sophomore year, so probably January 2011. And Birth of the Cool has remained my favorite jazz album this entire time (2^nd place: Kamasi Washington’s The Epic; 3^rd place; John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme). Being really forced to listen to jazz is one of the elements of this endeavor I’m most happy about. I think I always wanted to listen to more jazz. But it can be very intimidating. The Wikipedia page for Kind of Blue talks a lot about music theory and tonality and modality and I think if I had tried to discover it on my own I would have backed away in a panic. Now, I know that I don’t care about any of that stuff. I just know that Kind of Blue was really great to listen to. The songs were longer than Birth of the Cool, but I think they did a better job of conveying emotions and ideas. The songs on Kind of Blue carried a lot of weight. And I look forward to reexperiencing that weightiness every time I need something subtle in the background while I edit or code.

Favorite Tracks: Blue in Green; Flamenco Sketches; So What

#443: Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Imperial Bedroom (1982)

Zack: And now, our third stop on the nostalgia express. Which is, itself, kind of funny because the last time I listened to a Costello album for the blog was I believe the summer of 2013 when Emily and I were taking the train back from a mini-vacation in Atlantic City. That would have been only shortly before I left for Maryland and grad school life. And the first time, Emily and I listened to the album together, with it playing through the crappy speakers I had that plugged into my laptop while we just hung out on my bed in my sophomore-year dorm room. At this point, I have quite a history with Elvis Costello, an artist that I don’t think I’d ever even heard of before this started. And even with enough time passing since the last time I reviewed one of his albums that I’ve watched 30 Rock (and Costello’s cameos) twice, I still get floored by how good the songwriting is. Even on a first listen, the precise and vivid lyrics jump out. Musically, Imperial Bedroom was also impressive. It felt grander than My Aim Is True or This Year’s Model. And although it didn’t have quite the same wide-range of genres as My Aim Is True, it did feel like styles were being switched up constantly. Overall, Imperial Bedroom continues to show why Elvis Costello deserves to have so many classic albums recognized in his catalog.

Favorite Tracks: Almost Blue; Shabby Doll; Human Hands

Emily: Elvis Costello is the sort of artist that can remake himself with every album, but all of that reinvention seems like a continuation of his previous work. Imperial Bedroom, like My Aim is True and This Year's Model, spans genres and influences, picking up more of the new wave sounds of the early '80s rather than '50s nostalgia or late-'70s punk rock. Costello's lyrics continue to tell intricate, heartfelt stories that would be equally at home on the page or screen as on a record. Imperial Bedroom definitely deserves multiple listens, and continued my excitement to work our way through Elvis Costello's discography on this list.

Favorite Tracks: Man Out of Time; Shabby Doll; Almost Blue

#442: The Cure - Pornography (1982)

Zack: First off, a warning. In my last post, I got a bit nostalgic because we were listening to the second of Metallica’s four albums on the list, six-ish years after listening to the first. As I’ve mentioned before, we pick albums in batches of 20, and in addition to trying to space out the genres and eras, we try to pace ourselves in terms of going through certain artists’ catalogues. As bad as I want to burn through all the Neil Young, Johnny Cash, and Radiohead, if we did that then we would spend the remaining 300ish albums sifting through less commonly heralded acts, trying to find hidden gems among dregs. It’s better if we evenly disperse everything to the best of our abilities. But as we near album 500, that means that there are a bunch of artists with 3 or 4 albums on the list that we’re finally returning to. This includes like 10 albums in this batch that are probably going to trigger major nostalgia. And The Cure is one of them. Randomly, I really like The Cure. They’re one of the few '80s post punk/new wave bands that just really work for me. I don’t know why. I just know that I am always excited to listen to The Cure. This fascination predates the blog, actually. I remember hanging out in Emily’s freshman dorm room, with my (now) old, crappy laptop (that I still have!) on her dresser, playing The Cure. It was a scene that would have made total sense in 1990, but made a lot less sense in 2010. That said, when I need my The Cure fix, I go right to Disintegration. Several of their other albums are good (specifically their earlier, darker, more brooding stuff), but Disintegration is my favorite by a wide margin. So it’s been quite a long, long time since I’ve listened to Pornography. I don’t think I’ve played this particular album in 5 years. So it was great to revisit it after such a long layoff. I completely forgot how good songs like One Hundred Years and The Hanging Garden are. I’m really glad I got to revisit this album after all these years. And I’m glad to know that no matter how much my life changes, apparently I will continue to find brooding, ethereal gothic rock totally mesmerizing.

Favorite Tracks: One Hundred Years; The Hanging Garden; Pornography

Emily: NME (as cited by Wikipedia) said that Pornography is "arguably the album that invented goth." That's an interesting title to have. Nowadays, I think of goth more in terms of clothing style than music, and goth music seems to have been subsumed into either the metal or industrial genres. This album has its own feel, though. It's swirling and spooky and ambient (which is perfectly personified on the album cover in fact), creating a mood as much as a sound. I like some of the later, new wavier music by The Cure better than I liked this album, which probably says more about me than the music, but it is certainly worth a listen to hear where they came from and how Pornography's influence lives on.

Favorite Tracks: One Hundred Years; The Hanging Garden; A Strange Day

#441: Metallica - ...And Justice for All (1988)

Zack: I’m not going to look it up, but I think we last listened to Metallica in the summer of 2011, because I think I had just moved into my apartment on 8^th St. before junior year of college. So we’re just getting back to Metallica like 6 years later, which is crazy. But it does make me a bit nostalgic, and that gets me thinking about how far my musical tastes have developed since then and how big a role this blog has had in that. When we started this endeavor, I would have said that I hated metal and country music. And while neither are my favorite genres by any stretch, I now have a more nuanced view based on subgenres and eras. On the country front, I spent this past week obsessively listening to Jason Isbell’s newest album and trying to figure out how difficult it would be to go to Columbia, MD to see Sturgill Simpson. And on the metal front, there’s how much thought I put in to deciding when to listen to …And Justice for All. Occasionally, I get into certain moods where I crave Metallica (and one or two other similar bands). I’ll listen to Ride the Lightning and the Black Album two or three times in a row and it’ll just feel perfect. But if I’m not in one of those headspaces, the music just doesn’t do the same things for me. And I really wanted to like this album, so I put off listening to it for well over a week, just waiting for the right time. Well, on a lazy Saturday afternoon, the time was right. I hit play, and I’m so glad I waited. I liked …And Justice for All a lot. Not more than I like the two other Metallica albums I listed above, but more than enough. It was kind of rough sounding, but sometimes that is exactly what you need. The guitar work was frequently exquisite, flipping between rumbling and growling and more virtuoso segments. It was a very dynamic album. My main complaint is that a number of the songs go on for a minute or two too long. They’re not overly repetitive – Metallica are always changing things up throughout the course of each song – but they just feel like they’ve run their course, and then just keep trucking on. That point's minor, though, as overall …And Justice for All really stood out as a powerful piece of art…if the mood is right anyway.

Favorite Tracks: One; To Live Is to Die; Blackened

Emily: I took a quick look back at my previous Metallica review (Zack was right - it was from August 2011) to see what I thought about the band before. I basically described it as kinder, gentler metal music than some of what we had experienced before, which greatly improved my listening experience. I think the same holds true for ...And Justice for All. The songs are tightly constructed with intricate guitars, and the sound is powerful enough to fill a stadium without feeling like your head is getting screamed off. It's no wonder that Metallica is still going strong today, and that One - the standout track on this album - is a permanent fixture in their setlist.

Favorite Tracks: One; Blackened; Eye of the Beholder

#440: My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)

Zack: Fun fact: I don’t like shoegaze and straight up hate My Bloody Valentine. I have no idea why. The music just does not jive with my constitution. That was super true for the band’s 2013 reunion album mbv and it was super duper true of Loveless. I could not wait for this album to be over. I hated the screeching. I hated the mumbling. I hated everything about it. It just is not for me. That said, My Bloody Valentine are critical darlings and I wouldn’t say the album is bland, per se, like so many other critical darling bands from Ireland tend to sound (cough…U2…cough). So it is totally possible that others could listen to this album and have a religious experience or something. I don’t know who those people are, but I’m guessing they exist. Otherwise, My Bloody Valentine are just one incredible practical joke.

Favorite Tracks: Sometimes; When You Sleep, Loomer

Emily: I don't quite get shoegaze music. It's mumbly and noisy and distorted and muddled. Frankly, much of it sounds the same as everything else in the genre. There's nothing bright, striking, or unique about it. It's like gazing at your shoes but your shoes are covered in various shades of mud. Loveless exemplified these features of the genre, and probably for that reason I totally didn't get it. I thought it was repetitive and muddy and boring. Also, it took three years and several hundred thousand dollars to make, but I'm not exactly sure where that time and money went except to distortion equipment. I could see the influence Loveless and My Bloody Valentine has on some later grunge/post-grunge/alternative artists, like the Smashing Pumpkins, but to me that's all this was good for.

Favorite Tracks: Soon; Only Shallow; Come In Alone

#439: The Carpenters - Close to You (1970)

Zack: Close to You is a good, nondescript '70s pop album. Let’s get that out of the way first. It’s an enjoyable enough listen, I’m sure it was plenty influential, and although I didn’t love it by any stretch of the imagination I have absolutely no problem with its inclusion. Now that all that is covered, let’s talk about Mr. Guder. I didn’t really like the song, but even on a first listen I could tell it was a weird tonal shift. Up to that point, like 80% of the songs had been love songs and 90% had been covers. And then we get to Mr. Guder and I’m wondering if I just heard the word robot. Did I hear that right? Turns out I did, because The Carpenters apparently wrote a song mocking their old boss at Disneyland and named it directly after him. No fake name or anything like that. Basically, they pioneered the diss track. What a legendary “fuck you” moment! I wish I was musically talented because there are definitely like 2-3 former bosses in my life that need '70s-pop-based middle fingers.

Favorite Tracks: (They Long to Be) Close to You; Crescent Moon; We’ve Only Just Begun

Emily: The cover art on Close to You pretty much epitomizes what the album sounds like. You have a '70s-ish font and a picture of a young '70s couple looking like they're posing for the photo to accompany their engagement announcement in a local newspaper. She's wearing a flower-child flowy white dress with a middle part in her hair that looks like the same style my aunt had as a teenager, and the guy has a brown blazer, a shirt with a giant pointy collar, and a feathered Partridge Family 'do. They're sitting on some rocks with a river and a mountain in the background. The overall effect is wholesome, pleasant, and somewhat generic. And that's exactly what I thought of this album. It was an enjoyable listen and certainly a product of its time, but I know it's not going to stick with me.

Favorite Tracks: (They Long to Be) Close to You; Baby It's You; Love is Surrender

#438: Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)

Zack: Last year, 2016, was an incredible year for music. Heavyweights like Beyoncé, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Rihanna, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Radiohead all released albums. We got very strong hip-hop albums from Chance the Rapper, YG, Run the Jewels, and ScHoolboy Q. David Bowie released a surprise album two days before his death and A Tribe Called Quest released their first album in nearly two decades to memorialize the legendary Phife Dawg. We even got a Kendrick project that gave a bit of a look into his album-making process (and had some good songs of its own merits). And this long list doesn’t even include the slightly less prominent albums by acts like Anderson .Paak, Sturgill Simpson, Solange, Kaytranada, NxWorries, Bon Iver, Noname, and Denzel Curry that I also really, really enjoyed. And, among that entire long list, my favorite album from 2016 was You Want it Darker by Leonard Cohen. It’s pretty much perfect. Plenty of people have commented about how Blackstar is an album from a man coming to terms with his own mortality. You Want it Darker sounds like an album from a man who is just to weary to think about it much. It’s an album that occurs between the acceptance and the actual death. It can be emotionally exhausting to listen to, but the experience is so worth it that I frequently return to it. Because of how much I absolutely adore that album, I was very excited to give some of his other works a listen. Songs of Leonard Cohen is about as far removed from You Want it Darker as it’s possible to get. Instead of Cohen’s final album, it’s his first, released almost 50 years prior when Cohen was a spry young pup in his early 30s. The weariness is unsurprisingly removed, but the care and precision of the lyrics is not. It’s a very good debut album. I didn’t find the subject matter quite as engaging, since on that front it is mostly just a traditional folk album. But there is clearly so much thought put into every single word in every single line that it is immediately captivating. Songs of Leonard Cohen feels like a really good audiobook is being read to you with a backing guitar.
Favorite Tracks: Master Song; One of Us Cannot Be Wrong; Suzanne


Emily: Several months ago, around when Leonard Cohen passed away, it seemed like his song Hallelujah was everywhere. I listened to a podcast that dissected many cover versions of the song, there was that painfully earnest SNL performance (and this less earnest one a few months later), and the song played over any award show montage that featured Cohen's death. Pairing that song's ubiquity with the fact that I was going through a particularly melancholy time, Hallelujah was stuck in my head for what seemed like weeks on end. I do like the song, particularly the Jeff Buckley cover, but I definitely had too much of it. So I can't say I was exactly excited to listen to a Leonard Cohen album, even though Zack has raved about his final album released last year. Mercifully, Songs of Leonard Cohen is not the album with Hallelujah on it. Several of the songs infuse a similar sense of melancholy and yearning, with simple and plaintive folk melodies that allow the intricate and emotional lyrics to shine through. Even from this early album, it's obvious that Cohen was a master storyteller, which is perhaps enough for me to overcome my Hallelujah fatigue and delve more deeply into his catalogue.
Favorite Tracks: Suzanne; Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye; Master Song

#437: Bad Brains - I Against I (1986)

Emily: I first heard of Bad Brains a few years back while watching Sonic Highways, the Foo Fighters' documentary series. In each episode, Dave Grohl & Co. visited a different American city and explored their musical traditions, culminating in the recording of a song influenced by the city's history and music. One episode brought them to Washington, D.C., Dave Grohl's hometown (well, home metro area, as Grohl is from northern Virginia) and where Zack and I currently live. Bad Brains was one of the most influential bands coming out of the D.C. hardcore punk scene (interestingly labeled as harDCore), and Grohl interviewed a few of the band's members about the culture of basement shows and DIY aesthetics. The resulting track, The Feast and the Famine, incorporates one of Bad Brains' driving credos, P.M.A., meaning Positive Mental Attitude. Though I hadn't listened to Bad Brains until today, save for the few clips in Sonic Highways, P.M.A. seems to fit with how the band fits into hardcore punk as a whole. I Against I isn't just loud guitars and unintelligible scream-sung lyrics, as much of this genre tends to be. Instead, the music has clear influences from reggae and go-go, a jazz-funk genre that originated in the black community in D.C., both of which are more melodic, upbeat, and positive than Bad Brains' punk brethren. The combination of punk and reggae is unique and exciting, and it made me hope that Bad Brains will bring their P.M.A. to a hometown show sooner rather than later.
Favorite Tracks: House of Suffering; Sacred Love; Re-Ignition


Zack: The other day, I was at a bar with some friends for cocktails and the place was playing almost exclusively '80s punk music. Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, etc. One of the people in the crew, whom I do not know very well, is apparently a big punk fan since he not only recognized every song but also knew the lyrics, which I was pretty sure up to that moment were all indecipherable and random chanting. We got to talking about it and I mentioned, as I have several times on here, that hardcore punk is not my favorite. He admitted it’s not for everyone and then we moved on. I kind of wished me had given me some recommendations now, because I really enjoyed I Against I. It kept the overall loudness of many of the band’s contemporaries, but infused more rhythm. The songs just sounded…better. If there’s anything from this era that’s more like Bad Brains, I should really make it a priority to check it out.
Favorite Tracks: Re-Ignition; I Against I; Return to Heaven

#436: Jay-Z - The Blueprint (2001)

Zack: I consider Blueprint to be Jay-Z’s third best album, and fourth if we’re counting Watch the Throne. Hova himself has it second without WTT. But yeah, sure, let’s make this the only Jay-Z album on the list. The Blueprint is an incredible and classic album, but I’d rather take the ungodly, Kanye-infused polish of the Black Album or the lyrical mastery of Reasonable Doubt any day. With that bit said, I’m going to talk about Renegade for way too long, because holy shit is that song incredible. Renegade was the first time I actually understood the concept of riding a beat. I heard Eminem say “rude, ludicrous, lucrative lyrics” over that “bum-badum-badum-tsk” beat and just went OH! Em so effectively used long O’s and sharp S’s to match the beat that it is basically a perfect example of rapping as a technique. Also, Renegade is responsible for me bonding with my old North Philly neighbors. I was stoop chillin’ with my old roommate when a neighbor walked down the street with a bodega bag. Renegade started playing and he turned to us and asked if we knew what song it was. I have listened to Renegade so many times that I can tell it’s about to play from the static in the air beforehand, so I responded immediately. He nodded and handed me a beer from his bag, asked for a shot of whiskey from the bottle I had, and then left. Every time I left the apartment after that, if he was outside he would stop me and give me a full rundown of wherever there had been a shooting or seemed to be heavier-than-normal police activity. Renegade may very well have prevented me from getting mugged on an occasion or two. Anyway, Renegade is a perfect song, although it is mostly an Eminem song (to paraphrase Nas, Eminem bodies Jay on his own shit) and so I’m happy Blueprint is on the list just so Emily gets to listen to it.
Favorite Tracks: Renegade; Renegade again [actually Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)]; Renegade a third time [actually Takeover]


Emily: At some point a few years ago, probably at a party or other get-together, Zack told a friend of mine from law school that he knew all of the words to Renegade. I don't know the context in which that came up (and Zack probably doesn't remember), but I assume it was relevant to . . . something. Anyway, any time I mentioned Zack to this friend for several months thereafter, he would say that Zack must be awesome because he knows all of the words to Renegade. Again, I don't know why this was so impressive to my friend, but I'm sure if I asked him about it today he'd say the exact same thing. I'm sure I've heard Renegade before today, but now that it's fresh in my mind I can see why knowing all the words is quite a skill to have, and one that would be most impressive in a karaoke room. And, after reading Zack's review, I can see why he knows all the words to Renegade. Since The Blueprint was new to me (aside from the few singles I already knew), however, I'll focus on the album holistically. I've never really been into Jay-Z, even as I started listening to more rap and hip hop over the last several years. We went to the On the Run tour with Jay and Beyoncé a few years back (but had to leave halfway through for our friend's TMJ emergency), but the rationale behind that was 95% for seeing Beyoncé and about 5% for hearing 99 Problems and maybe Big Pimpin'. I like Watch the Throne, but mostly for the Kanye parts. And one of my dad's favorite songs is Empire State of Mind, which both he and I really only like for the Alicia Keys parts. So overall, Jay-Z has been incidental at most to my enjoyment of a lot of other music (and something has gotten in the way of it), but today was the first time I had focused on Jay-Z alone, and I enjoyed much of this album. The Kanye-produced beats are particularly strong, and the lyrics are still raw and biting (probably because Jay was facing 2 criminal trials and several rap beefs at the time, whereas now he's the CEO of Tidal and has three kids). And, yes, the rapping on Renegade is super impressive.
Favorite Tracks: Takeover; Renegade; Izzo (H.O.V.A.)

#435: Chic - Risqué (1979)

Zack: I don’t know what I was expecting, but groovy disco bangers wasn’t quite it. Somehow, I did not know that Chic was the band behind Good Times, which probably is what let to my expectations being off. For a disco album (a genre I am not particularly supportive of), this album was pretty damn good. It was lighthearted and fun without being annoying like, say, ABBA. I liked it enough to maybe listen to it again, but not enough to check out the new Chic album supposedly dropping later this year.
Favorite Tracks: Good Times; A Warm Summer Night; What About Me?


Emily: As someone who was a teenager in the '70s, my mom's two favorite genres of music are disco and funk. It's easy to understand why - although they have a reputation as cheesy, the best examples are fun, catchy, and great for dancing. While Chic is more often brought out at weddings and by cover bands than on mainstream radio or at dance clubs where my mom would've heard them back in the day, Risqué holds up as a standout of both the disco and funk genres. It combines signature disco guitar with funk horns and catchy hooks, creating a collection of songs that stand well on their own and are also ripe for sampling (which other artists have done many times over).
Favorite Tracks: Good Times; My Forbidden Lover; Can't Stand to Love You

#434: Hole - Live Through This (1994)

Zack: Courtney Love is such an enigmatic pop culture figure now, and sometimes a downright pariah, that I was unsure what to expect from a Hole album. I’ve heard singles like Doll Parts and Celebrity Skin and always thought they were kind of alright, but I wasn’t convinced that a full album would be consistently entertaining. Live Through This certainly delivers, though. There have been rumors circulating around it for years that Kurt Cobain ghostwrote the entire thing, and I can kind of see where those come from. There is, apparently, no actual evidence for such an accusation, but Live Through This has the kind of polished aggressiveness that Nevermind perfected. Which is not to say that Live Through This is anywhere near as good an album as Nevermind, but the aesthetic is similar (although the lyrics are actually decipherable here). Overall, Live Through This was loud and catchy and fun, and it makes a bit more sense why Courtney Love remains culturally relevant now.
Favorite Tracks: Violet; Doll Parts; She Walks on Me


Emily: Courtney Love has gotten a pretty bad rap over the years, particularly in the post-Cobain years where she tended to make a spectacle of herself on MTV while battling several personal demons. She's generally retreated from the limelight in the past few years, but it seems like her personal life is her longest-lasting legacy. That's really a shame, since Love has made some damn good music. Women weren't a huge part of the grunge scene, but Hole really breaks through that. Love and her bandmates take that signature grunge sound - the growling guitars, lo-fi production, and scream-howl vocals - but put a unique (and dare I say female?) spin on it with lyrics about motherhood and beauty standards and catchy hooks that are somehow both raw and made for radio. I really enjoyed this album, and I'll definitely return to it when I'm in a grunge kinda mood.
Favorite Tracks: Violet; Jennifer's Body; Doll Parts

#433: Leftfield - Leftism (1995)

Zack: Lately, I’ve been working on coding presidential campaign announcement speeches based on issue content. The endeavor has led me to a number of very interesting findings. For one, Herman Cain implies that we would be better off if the president were illiterate in his 2012 speech (something Rand Paul would vehemently disagree with, since he spends a good chunk of time talking about his proposed “Read the Bill” law that would require legislators to actually read legislation before they sign it) and that Ron Paul is strongly against the government regulating the pasteurization of milk. But besides for the occasional gems, the task is mostly incredibly boring. Most candidates say the same tired prose about American values over and over again. But the work still requires me too much of my attention. Other research I’ve done may have involved more rote data entry, and so I could listen to a podcast or an album or watch a basketball game while doing it. But here, any attempts at multitasking inevitably lead to me getting distracted. Except, that is, for this album apparently. Leftism is a house/dance album, so it perfectly blended into the background and didn’t distract me at all. There was enough change from track to track that I subconsciously could recognize when one song ended and another began, which let me subtly monitor that passage of time and give it a semi-informed review. And overall, I thought it was meh. But it was an unobtrusive meh, and I really appreciated it for that at least.
Favorite Tracks: Original; Open Up; Melt


Emily: Generally, my office is a headphone-free zone. There's no official rule, but there's only four of us, we're usually very busy with detail-oriented work, and my boss is decidedly old-school. Therefore, I'm usually working at my desk without any music, podcasts, or other audial ambiance. Today, though, is an exception. We're in a particularly slow time, and my boss is out all day, so I decided to get some album-listening in while doing a bit of research for my next case. Leftism turned out to be well-suited to desk listening. It's an electronic "dance" album, though I'm not sure how much actual dancing can be done to ambient melodies and house beats. However, it struck just the right balance between background ambiance and holding my attention, allowing for just enough focus on both the music and my research. Other albums wouldn't necessarily work quite as well for this task, but I'll keep my eye out for other desk-friendly music as the list goes forward. Perhaps people will even listen to more music at my next place of employment.
Favorite Tracks: Afro-Left; Space Shanty; Original

#432: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Zack: I think more than enough ink (digital and otherwise) had been spilled on this album, so I’m going to try and keep this semi-brief. I’m on record as thinking The Beatles are overrated, my case rests on the assertion that most of their catalogue is them making pretty good pop songs, and just because you were consistently good at something doesn’t, in itself, make it extraordinary. Sgt. Pepper’s, therefore, is not a piece of evidence I would call attention to. On this album (much as they do on Revolver as well) they try and experiment and push some boundaries. For me, they stand out here, and that answers my main criticism. That said, I still don’t particularly love this album. It’s good, and there are some songs I really like. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’d ever sat down and listened to it from start to finish, although every single song was familiar. Kind of in the same way that if you’ve ever listened to a classic rock station, you’ve heard the entirety of Dark Side of the Moon. But I didn’t think the album gained much from being a cohesive project rather than a collection of songs. Plus, many of the songs, while different enough to be interesting, I ultimately didn’t think were that exciting. Basically, this album made me pay attention more than I did when we listened to With the Beatles, but I wasn’t quite as captivated as I was for Revolver. That’s enough for me to say that it’s worth checking out, but not enough for me to endorse it as an all-time great album.

Favorite Tracks: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds; Good Morning Good Morning; With a Little Help from My Friends

Emily: The mythos and imagery surrounding Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band almost overshadows the music. The album cover, the band uniforms, the mustaches - all have been enshrined in the collective cultural memory as evidence of the world changing during the Summer of Love in 1967. By then, The Beatles had stopped performing live, abandoned the clean-cut image beloved by their teenage fans, and turned inward towards spirituality, experimentation, and (shortly thereafter) fighting amongst themselves. Sgt. Pepper is often regarded as a turning point in The Beatles' career, and the music reflects that just as well as everything else. Some of the music dips its toes into experimentation, while still remaining carefully crafted pop and rock songs. It's a moment of musical transition, but an iconic one. Nearly every song is recognizable to the most casual of music fans, and each one stands the test of time. Do I think Sgt. Pepper is the best Beatles album? Probably not. But it certainly lives up to the mythology that surrounds it.

Favorite Tracks: With a Little Help from My Friends; Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds; Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

#431: The Isley Brothers - 3 +3 (1973)

Emily: The early '70s were such a good time for soul and funk music, the kind of music that for decades now has made people get up dance the second it comes on. Cover bands fill stages and play these songs for audiences that may not remember the names of the artists but certainly remember the grooves, and many of the originals are still around and kickin' ass too. Surprisingly (at least to me), a version of The Isley Brothers is still out there performing. Potential declines in performance quality notwithstanding, that's definitely a good thing. I'm not familiar with most of The Isley Brothers' expansive discography, but 3 + 3 was an excellent example of classic funk and soul. Some of the songs are immediately recognizable as staples in commercials, movies, and samples. But they're definitely worth listening to on their own, and I'm sure they're even better live (particularly at an outdoor concert on a summer Friday night). And I know these songs will continue to get people out of their chairs to dance for years to come, no matter who is performing them.
Favorite Tracks: That Lady; Sunshine (Go Away Today); Summer Breeze

Zack: The Isley Brothers are a perennial favorite source of samples for the hip-hop community, and that was my main form of exposure to them before today. There was something super entertaining about hearing notes of I by Kendrick in That Lady, or the similarities between The Highways of My Life and Daily Routine by Joey Bada$$, or Summer Breeze and UGK’s Tell Me Something Good. (I’m sure there are a bunch that I’m missing, but those were the ones that jumped out to me.) I can see why they would be such an inspiration. 3 + 3 is an amazing album. I absolutely loved it, and I expect it will be in my top 5 for this batch of 100 when we get there 6 years from now. It was that good. There isn’t anything particularly profound about it as a standalone project, but it is just a collection of 9 absolutely phenomenal songs. What else could you ask for?

Favorite Tracks: That Lady (Part 1 & 2), Highways of My Life; Summer Breeze

#430: The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs (1999)

Zack: I have previously established my opinions on double albums, namely that an artist should never, ever make one. So I’m going to assume any readers can guess my thoughts on a triple album. Hint: This isn’t a situation where a negative multiplied by a negative makes a positive. It is pure subtraction. Over the course of this entire 3-hour behemoth, I gave 10 songs 5 stars. In terms of raw numbers, that’s incredible. But then you realize that that is 14.5% of the total album. 69 Love Songs leaps around stylistically, sometimes following up a country-esque love ballad with a synthy pop song. And I am totally fine with that. If you’re trying to create an album about love songs, you can’t ignore the fact that people have used different genres to perform such songs since basically music was invented. I liked songs from all sorts of genres on this record. The problem was that I had to sift through so much other stuff to get to the songs I liked. It was daunting. I broke the listening up between two sessions, and I left both feeling equally exhausted. Love songs shouldn’t be so tiring.

Favorite Tracks: How to Say Goodbye; Come Back from San Francisco; No One Will Ever Love You

Emily: Listening to this album was a marathon. I broke it up over three sessions over the course of two weekends (with several little breaks in the middle), and I still feel exhausted. 69 Love Songs feels like an entire discography, but it's just one overloaded album. There are certainly some lovely songs on here, but they get overshadowed by everything else.  At a certain point it's just self-indulgent to pack an album to the gills with minute-long novelty tracks to get to your requisite 69 songs. A better approach would have been to cut it down to 12 Really Good Love Songs, and leave the 69-based snickering in the studio.

Favorite Tracks: I Don't Want to Get Over You; No One Will Ever Love You; I Can't Touch You Anymore

#429: Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies (1992)

Zack: I noticed that I’ve been pretty ambivalent to the last handful of albums, mostly noting that they were fine at best. When I saw that the next album I had up to listen to was listed as psychedelic rock and was an hour long, I just assumed that this streak would continue. Luckily, I was wrong. I really liked Lazer Guided Melodies. It had this serene quality to it that made it perfect for the mood I was in when I listened to it (doing mindless busy work in the process of building a database for my dissertation, but early on in the day before my brain is fried from staring at a screen for like 14 straight hours). The music just seemed to float around me. It swaddled me like a warm blanket. I wonder if the album would have been as pleasant if I had listened to it while in a different mood or while doing something else. I probably wouldn’t have given it much thought then. But, fortunately, it was absolutely perfect for me in that moment and I’m very glad I got to enjoy it.

Favorite Tracks: You Know It’s True; Shine a Light; Run

Emily: An experimental album that misspells "laser" in its title didn't seem to bode well for my laid-back Saturday morning listening. I expected something along the lines of bombastic screeching - all the better to accompany a faux-spiritual laser light show. Luckily, Lazer Guided Melodies leans much more on the melodies than the lasers. The album had a peaceful, lullaby-like quality, which at its worst was a bit a boring but at its best was a lovely accompaniment to some cold brew coffee and the New York Times on a quiet weekend morning.

Favorite Tracks: You Know It's True; I Want You; Angel Sigh

#428: Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief (1969)

Zack: While I was listening to the album, I kept wondering why precisely it was being included. It seemed to me to be a perfectly fine representative of the folk rock genre, but beyond that I wasn’t really sure what made it so special. Folk isn’t really a genre known for innovation I guess, and the artists that succeed aren’t necessarily the ones who try bold new things like in other genres. But Liege and Lief really just sounded like a generic version of a couple of artists we’ve heard before, like The Byrds and Cat Stevens. And it didn’t seem to have much in the way of storytelling going on, which I’ve felt really can lift things up quite a bit. Overall, I was pretty underwhelmed by Liege and Lief. It was fine, but that was about it.

Favorite Tracks: Matty Groves; Tam Lin; The Deserter

Emily: This is yet another example of the British bias on this list. There is a plethora of influential late-'60s folk rock out there, but I don't really think Fairport Convention deserves top-tier recognition when the main action in the genre was going on in the U.S. I think it's really interesting that this album pulls from traditional British and Celtic folk songs (according to Wikipedia) and rearranges them for the then-modern audience. But I don't know enough about these traditional songs (or anything really) to really understand if and how they had been changed by Fairport Convention. Absent any real context, I think this album is best relegated to an afternoon set on a side stage at the folk festival - definitely not top billing.

Favorite Tracks: Matty Groves; The Deserter; Tam Lin