1001(+) Albums I Had to Hear Before I Die, Apparently (#51-#100)

#51: Bill Evans Trio - Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961)

December 17th, 2024: the art of the piano trio doesn't get much higher than this, y'all. this one was formed by Bill Evans shortly after his brief (but legendary) stint with Miles Davis' band which produced 1959's Kind of Blue, perhaps the most popular album in the history of jazz. Scott LaFaro is on bass and Paul Motian is on drums and cymbals.

I'm certainly not the first person to gripe about the fact that Bill Evans is often an unsung hero of this music! as far as I'm aware, it was Evans who introduced Davis to George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, a theoretical text from which a whole host of jazz musicians developed new means of melodic and harmonic expression, leading to the advent of modal jazz as the 50s became the 60s. despite Evans' indisputable importance to the acoustic jazz universe around this time—he worked in bands organized by Russell as early demonstrations of Russell's theories—there's hardly a word to be said about him in Ken Burns' Jazz, or many other jazz documentaries for that matter. thankfully, his legacy is very much intact among jazz cognoscenti, and he's worked his way into plenty of people's record collections in the same fashion that Johnny Cash or Beethoven find their way into mine. country music and Classical-period classical music (bad sentence) don't usually do much for me, but sometimes an artist cuts through all of your preconceived notions about genre or style and manages to hit you in a deep place all the same.

Evans' interest in unique ways of structuring music, evidenced by his interest in the Lydian Chromatic Concept, is the keystone of his body of work. with the LaFaro-Motian trio, the emphasis is less on the chord-scale relationship (as it was on Kind of Blue) and more on using bebop as a vehicle for counterpoint. LaFaro is, by all accounts, the star of the show in this trio. you're unlikely to hear the double bass played this adventurously in a jazz context outside of the small number of recording dates this trio made. in most straight-ahead jazz settings, the bass grounds both the harmonic progression and rhythmic pulse; LaFaro often excels in both departments, but the most interesting moments are when, during Evans' piano solos, he uses his instrument less as the band's anchor and more as an independent melodic voice, one which is truly in conversation with Evans and Motian rather than simply acting as their guide. it's incredibly rare to hear him "walk the dog", which I usually love to hear whenever I'm listening to jazz, and especially when I'm playing it, but I honestly think it would kill the vibe of this band if LaFaro laid down too many consecutive quarter notes!

all three members of this trio operated with such extreme finesse and precision as a unit, and it's evident on every second of these performances. Evans has a delicate touch on the keyboard that's become sort of a trademark for him over the years, and his improvisational faculties are heightened by LaFaro's presence. you can really hear them motivating each other! Motian's introspective, sensitive drumming is the glue holding everything together; he mostly plays with brushes here, and he manages to drive the bus and keep the energy of the band up while not overpowering the group dynamic.

unfortunately, the Village Vanguard date that produced this album was the last time Evans and LaFaro would ever perform together. LaFaro died (at the tragically young age of 25) in a car accident just ten days later, sending Evans down a dark path which would define the rest of his performance career and parts of his personal life. what was to be a single "Live at the Vanguard" album became two, with the first—Sunday at the Village Vanguard—being rushed to market by Riverside just about three months after LaFaro's death. although the circumstances surrounding this release, which specifically highlights tracks featuring LaFaro's soloing and appends his name to the front cover, are certainly somewhat dodgy in retrospect, it's still nice to have this as a historical document. Waltz for Debby, the second of the two, might have a slightly more well-rounded choice of tracks, but it's hard to turn down the set of performances on offer here either! although, if I really want that experience of feeling like I'm at the Vanguard in 1961, I'll usually just throw on one of the sets from the full compilation of recordings that these two albums were selected from, which came out in 2003 and is now widely available on streaming platforms. you can't go wrong with anything this trio put to tape. 9/10

#52: Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso (1968)

December 18th, 2024: I've returned to the music of Brazil for the second time in this list, and I've found myself very interested in the sounds of Brazilian rock and pop being opened up in front of me, like an ornate jewelry box full of untold fortunes. the Anglosphere certainly brought the guitar a level of international recognition, but the way other countries ran with the possibilities it created, combining it with their own local flair, is what makes listening to an album like this first self-titled record from Caetano Veloso so interesting.

I recognize a lot of the sounds offered up by these songs; both on the acoustic and electric end, the influence of British and American psych (USian, while clunkier as a term, is probably more appropriate) is undeniable, but there's obviously a ton of traditional samba and bossa nova elements underneath it all. there's actually not a ton to say about this on a musical front, because the charm of this music speaks for itself, even if you don't understand a word of the language being spoken.

that being said, learning about the political context in which this music existed was pretty fascinating! lyrically and compositionally, it's fairly benign on the surface, but it turns out that that's by design; a lot of these songs were written in a way that allowed Veloso to express some legitimately radical beliefs on unity and community solidarity without Brazil's military government being able to notice. I wouldn't have been able to guess that the style and scene of Tropicália had such a strong sentiment behind it just from the sound of these songs, but it certainly deepened my appreciation of the material.

in the grand scheme of the little bits of Brazilian music I've been exposed to, this might not be the thing I return to most often, but I give Veloso a ton of props for creating a form of protest music that sounds uplifting and optimistic, rather than navel-gazing and futilist. 7/10

#53: Magazine - Real Life (1978)

December 19th, 2024: I appreciate how sincerely geeky this record is! it definitely gives the appearance of a typical late-70s post-punk album, but there's a level of pop finesse in the songwriting department that gives these songs a lot of strength and endurance. acerbic basslines, countermelodies galore (especially from the keys), surprising cadences and other harmonic motion.

some of this material comes off as borderline progressive, especially songs like "Burst" and "Motorcade", which owe a significant debt to, of all the bands in the world for a punk band to send up, Pink Floyd! "Burst" is spacey and flanged-out, but still retains the energy of punk from end to end; "Motorcade" is more obviously a punk song, but opens with a descending chord motif very similar to Floyd's "Echoes", plus some drum fills with huge Nick Mason energy, before picking up the pace multiple times over.

elsewhere, songs take on a more straightforward approach in the vein of new wave ("Shot by Both Sides" is probably this album's overall highlight), but many of the best moments of Real Life aim in between these progressive and pop extremes, leading to songs like "My Tulpa" or "The Light Pours Out of Me" which are unlike much else from this era of British punk rock. 8/10

#54: The Doors - Morrison Hotel (1970)

December 20th, 2024: The Doors were practitioners of a hard-rocking, surrealist approach to the blues which this, their fifth album, offers plenty of excellent examples of. Jim Morrison in particular writes some of his strangest stanzas and delivers some of his most primal performances on songs like the rollicking "Roadhouse Blues" and "You Make Me Real", the enigmatic "Waiting for the Sun" (which finally shows up two albums after the LP of the same name), and especially "Peace Frog", with its scintillating Bo Diddley-esque funk beat.

unfortunately, Morrison Hotel is a bit front-loaded. it's hardly the worst problem an album can have, but when the first four tracks come out guns blazing the way they do, you can't help but feel a little let down when the next seven are more hit-or-miss. there's "Indian Summer", one of the band's more cerebral tunes, and "Queen of the Highway" gives Ray Manzarek a chance to shine on keys, but I think the "Hard Rock Cafe" side wins out overall. 7/10

#55: Mike Ladd - Welcome to the Afterfuture (2000)

December 21st, 2024: what other rap record sounds like this? Welcome to the Afterlife, Mike Ladd's second solo album, frequently veers away from hip hop and into instrumental electronic exploration, with the 10-minute "To the Moon's Contractor" standing as a foreboding, surreal centerpiece with an orchestral sensibility, both in the sounds at use as well as the general progression from front to back. a lot of the tracks in that vein hold my attention just as easily as the more straightforward rap songs like "Bladerunners" or "The Animist".

Mike Ladd is right in line, stylistically and philosophically, with a ton of his contemporaries in the East Coast underground. he delivers his words with gusto, and seems to take delight in making you listen really hard to catch everything he says. unfortunately, there's not many places to find accurate or complete lyrics for these songs, although it's pretty easy to catch onto the references to futurism, science fiction and police brutality strewn throughout (the closing track, dedicated to "All Those Killed by Cops", speaks for itself). what sets Ladd apart is some truly futuristic production to match the futurism of his words.

this is hip hop that feels pretty ahead of the curve for being released in Y2K! think Deltron 3030 or Vaudeville Villain but even further left-field. Endtroducing once again comes to mind, and it's a much closer comparison here than it was for The Avalanches a few days ago. tracks like "Red Eye to Jupiter" and "I Feel Like $100" really illuminate Ladd's affection for jazz, with the former being a true embrace of the avant-garde, complete with direct lyrical and sonic references to Sun Ra. there's a few cuts, like the title track, that are led purely by singing rather than all-out rhyming, and it's a nice addition. I also appreciate the recurring presence of strings, which add a touch of warmth to this album's otherwise cold, austere presentation.

it's no coincidence that billy woods tapped Ladd for a feature on Aethiopes. if not for Mike Ladd, I don't know if we get billy woods, or many of the artists who have been part of the recent wave of experimental rap that's been taking Online music geeks like me for a wild ride the past few years, in the form we know and love it them today. 8/10

#56: N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton (1989)

December 22nd, 2024: this is the album that pretty much put the West Coast on the national stage of hip hop, and it has more or less earned that reputation. these beats are relatively barebones, but they often hit deeply hard. side A of the original tracklist contains some of mid-school hip hop's most iconic songs, with Ice Cube leading the charge as N.W.A's clear stand-out on the mic. of course, we know now that these guys weren't nearly as "gangsta" as they put on in their music, but it still succeeds on the strength of their audible enthusiasm. when Cube or MC Ren say they'll bust your ass, you almost believe them. when Eazy-E tries the same, it's played more for humor, and yet he feels at home in the group regardless.

the anger and calls to violence in these songs, the rhetoric which once shocked a nation, feels pretty toothless this many decades later, with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre being household names, but the misogyny present in a lot of these songs does genuinely make me bristle a little bit. I like Dre's counterbalance to the chaos which he offers listeners on his solo track, "Express Yourself". it's pretty funny to hear him talk about how he doesn't smoke cannabis considering that he'd drop The Chronic three years after this.

despite the pretty severe drop in quality on the last four songs (the beats in particular get a lot worse out of nowhere), there's enough highly classic material on Straight Outta Compton that every hip hop enthusiast should make it a priority to experience at least a couple times. the title track, "Fuck tha Police" and "Express Yourself" are some of the first songs I think of when it comes to the West Coast. 7/10

#57: Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power (1973)

December 23rd, 2024: Raw Power is the culmination of years of blues bands slowly pushing the limits of how loud and hard they could play. this music demands to be listened to as loudly as you can withstand, with Iggy Pop's shout-along hooks and downright feral vocal antics fighting for space alongside some of the most blown-out guitar tones I've ever heard on a rock album, in any generation. what you see in the title is what you get!

the release of this album in 1973 places it in a strange transitionary period for rock music, with its place as a founding pillar of the punk style placing it neatly between the blues rock of the sixties and the explosion of countercultural, often avant-garde rock and pop music that was to follow in the seventies and eighties. you can detect pieces of the DNA of early punk rock here, of course, but there's even bits that point towards new wave and hardcore too. it's not often you get to hear a record that exhibits those timeless sorts of qualities, where it feels like you're listening to music history play out in real time. 9/10

#58: Siouxsie and The Banshees - The Scream (1978)

December 24th, 2024: a menacing set of songs which, as far as I can tell, sort of set the template for the first wave of post-punk and gothic rock! Siouxsie's voice isn't the most in-tune, but it's among the most evocative and intriguing voices I've heard in front of rock instrumentation. the guitar work definitely earns them the "Banshees" moniker; it's jagged, often noisy, and almost always angular. all of this is grounded by some excellent basslines and some pounding drums with a ton of delay and reverb. you can tell how many eighties bands had checked this album out, along with Joy Division's work from around the same time. pretty great Beatles cover, too! 8/10

#59: Various Artists - A Christmas Gift for You From Philles Records (1963)

December 25th, 2024: many of the tracks on this LP remain in the Christmas & holiday music consciousness to this very day. if you're in the United States, listen to your local adult contemporary radio station during the holiday season and you're bound to hear these versions of "Sleigh Ride" and "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" show up. of course, the immediate impact of these songs is Huge, but they're mostly pretty pristine. I've heard some pretty awful Phil Spector production on this list, but this is definitely the era and style in which I think his "Wall of Sound" thing is most effective. I can't imagine how revolutionary it was to hear production like this in 1963! was personally glad to hear a lot of saxophone solos, and specifically glad to hear that they're played on baritone saxophone, perhaps the most underrepresented saxophone size in pop music! 7/10

#60: Weather Report - Heavy Weather (1977)

December 26th, 2024: in the jazz world, there's often a negative vibe associated with the idea of achieving a certain level of commercial success, especially if your music leans electric. Weather Report, perhaps one of the most electrified groups in jazz history, proved with their first run of albums that an interest in amplification and synthesizers didn't necessarily mean you had to suddenly start writing pop songs. with Heavy Weather, though, Jaco Pastorius joins the battle. his signature fretless bass sound definitely swung the band's focus a little towards the mainstream (you could call this album a progenitor of smooth jazz), but in a way that feels less like a cash grab and more like a group of high-level jazz performers earnestly trying their hand at instrumental pop music.

the opener, "Birdland", is one of the most iconic songs of the fusion era for good reason. hearing the melodies in the keys, horns and bass trading back and forth is a joy, and the whole thing builds to a tremendous climax. then you get hit with "A Remark You Made", a gorgeous ballad that puts Wayne Shorter's tenor saxophone in the center of some incredible harmony. these first two songs were written by Joe Zawinul, Weather Report's de facto leader, and are a fantastic display of how this band went about walking the line between jazz virtuosity and pop accessibility. the run of three tracks that closes the LP out are also stupendous, especially "Havona" with its epic introductory bass/synth chorale which comes back at the end to tie everything up. these three tracks also give Alex Acuña lots of opportunities for some tremendous drumming. 9/10

#61: Booker T. & the M.G.'s - Green Onions (1962)

December 27th, 2024: these guys really like the key of F. some pretty decent instrumental R&B jams, but the harmonic homogeneity seeps in very quickly. worth a listen for the title track. my shortest review thus far. 6/10

#62: Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

December 28th, 2024: seems like everyone tried their hand at a double LP at some point; they just keep coming! Goodbye Yellow Brick Road distinguishes itself from most other double albums from this period by actually being relatively consistent across the entire duration of the experience. that's not to say it's flawless, as there's still the ungodly annoying "Jamaica Jerk-Off" and the very creepy "Dirty Little Girl" to contend with (I'm really not sure where Bernie Taupin's head was at with those). but talk about a strong start! the first four songs are some John's best: two captivating ballads, and two infectious rockers. my other highlights are the dizzying "Grey Seal" and my favorite song here, "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting". at its best, this album's symphonic ambitions and blood-pumping performances create some of the most magical rock music I've ever heard. props to Elton John and co. for creating 76 minutes of steadily high-quality material! for the most part, anyway. 8/10

#63: Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet (1986)

December 29th, 2024: here I am, thinking about Bowie and the gallery all over again. in a deliberate attempt to sell as many units as possible, Bon Jovi's third album is devoid of anything that could be called unique or interesting, either topically or instrumentally. I've discussed my frustration at the ubiquity and assumed supremacy of the classic rock canon, and glam metal albums like this represent the nadir of that entire group of recordings. the title must refer to the synths, which are barely audible and only serve to coat the guitars in a layer of gross slime. I'll give Jon Bon Jovi slight props for being a pretty capable singer, but the timbre of his singing voice just makes my skin crawl.

the blurb on Slippery When Wet in the 1001 Albums book talks a lot about how universal the themes of these songs are, and that's all well and good; but, again, Bon Jovi's approach to these themes reveals nothing about who they are as people. one of the reasons Bruce Springsteen, whose influence is all over this music, is so revered is the distinct quality of his lyricism; even when he's telling fictional stories akin to the ones on "Living on a Prayer" or "You Give Love a Bad Name", he places them in a very believable, vivid universe with his writing, both of music and words. a recurring theme with these reviews has been that I really want to hear someone's unique perspective from either of those angles, and I don't feel like I came away from this understanding anything about the members of Bon Jovi as artists or human beings.

the band's take on a pop rock sound akin to that of Springsteen or Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers falls more in line with heavy metal, but it's so sanitized that it barely registers as metal. there's guitar solos and power chord riffs, but it never feels blood-pumping, exciting, haunting, or any of the other qualities that great metal can have. so I guess this record simply doesn't work for me at any level. the worst thing an album can do for me is nothing. 2/10

#64: Sly & The Family Stone - Stand! (1969)

December 30th, 2024: in comparison with There's a Riot Goin' On, the Sly album I got assigned for this list about three weeks ago, Stand! is much more exuberant. Riot was borne out of isolation and drug-addled pessimism, whereas this record feels much more like a clear-headed plea for empathy and understanding. the band is insanely tight, and it's great to actually get to hear them together more! Sly's solo experimentations reap their own rewards, but this feels much more like a "Family Affair". personal note as someone who regularly plays in horn sections like the Family Stone's: I really started to sweat as I heard that horn line get so, so high on track 2 (the one I'm not going to type the name of)! half the fun here for me is listening to Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini work.

from the jammier cuts to the more carefully constructed numbers, there's not a weak link across any of the eight songs presented in this tracklist, and some of them (especially "I Want to Take You Higher", "Everyday People" and the title track) rank among the best Black American music ever made. the pop, prog, and psych contingents of the soul and funk music movements all win here, and in pretty big ways. 9/10

#65: Songhoy Blues - Music in Exile (2015)

December 31st, 2024: Songhoy Blues have a pretty interesting story that's well-encapsulated by the title of their debut album, Music in Exile. members of this band were artistic refugees, pushed out of the north of Mali by the armed conflict that began there in 2012. a jihadist group had taken over much of the region and banned music, resulting in scores of musicians fleeing to cities in the south of the country to continue practicing their craft. one such musician was Garba Touré, who took a bus down to Bamako with his guitar, forming Songhoy Blues with other northern refugee musicians in an effort to invoke the musical spirit of northern Mali, and lift the spirits of other northerners in their predicament.

adding to the "exile" component, this album was recorded in London as a result of the band's interactions with artists in the Anglosphere such as Damon Albarn (who landed them a placement on an Africa Express compilation), Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (the album's producer) and Julian Casablancas (whose label partnered with Atlantic to release this album in North America).

the band's hypnotic blend of American and British blues and psych rock with traditional West African music is highly evocative of the desert landscapes its members originate from. it bears something of a resemblance to África Brasil, which was Jorge Ben's attempt at a similar fusion of styles, although his take is, of course, much more on the Afro-Brazilian side of things. plus, Songhoy Blues have a much longer history of rock music to draw from than Ben did! there's a lot of really intricate riffing across all these tracks, and plenty of deep pocket and exciting rhythms that you just don't hear that much in "Western" rock music.

this is music which, even if I don't understand the words being said, I can still feel a lot of vitality in. it was created out of the circumstances of an ongoing crisis in Mali, one of the main aims of which seems to be to erase the freedom of artists to properly express themselves. talk about using music as a means of creating opportunities to feel empathy! 8/10

#66: ABBA - The Visitors (1981)

January 1st, 2025: I was born in the late 90s, so the way I was first exposed to the ABBA catalog was through the excruciating musical Mamma Mia! and its even worse film adaptation. thankfully, ABBA's actual studio output is nowhere near as dismal of an experience. although I'm now more familiar with their music via radio play and that one compilation that sold a bajillion copies, The Visitors was my first proper ABBA studio album experience, and one which pleasantly surprised me!

I typically don't care much for ABBA's disco sound, which dominates most of their biggest songs. thankfully, this, the final album of the band's initial run, leans more into the future, with its synth-laden digital sound feeling a bit less dated and tacky than I'm used to. not only that, but these songs also deal with far more serious themes than most ABBA fare! political protest songs, songs about falling out of love, songs about watching your kids get older. something about bands made up of ex-married couples just gets the creative juices going, I guess: first Rumours and now The Visitors! 7/10

#67: Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002)

January 2nd, 2025: even if you don't like country music all that much, the appeal of Johnny Cash is pretty undeniable. this, the final album of his lifetime, is part of the American series, which was mainly focused on cover songs and re-recordings of his earlier repertoire. this series was undertaken alongside producer (and American Recordings founder) Rick Rubin, and it consumed most of Cash's creative energy for the last decade of his life. American IV actually opens with one of the series' only brand-new songs, the title track, one of the last songs Cash ever wrote. it's replete with Biblical references, particularly in regards to death and Judgement Day, and these dark themes carry into many of the cover selections too.

we all know that Cash's version of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" is the definitive one, with Trent Reznor's lyrics taking on an even more twisted emotional dimension in Cash's gravely, borderline-decrepit singing voice. it's a true tear-jerker, although it seems like its legacy often overshadows the rest of the material on this record, which is a shame! Simon & Garfunkel's classic ballad "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (featuring Fiona Apple on backing vocals), Sting's cowboy song "I Hung My Head", Depeche Mode's rollicking "Personal Jesus", The Beatles' reflective "In My Life", and Vera Lynn's wartime standard "We'll Meet Again" all take on new meanings when an end-of-life Cash is singing them. Cash and his fellow musicians approach these songs, and plenty more, with an unadorned, acoustic simplicity that brings out all of their best features. not every track is a total slam dunk. but the vast majority of them are! 8/10

#68: Johnny Cash - At San Quentin (1969)

January 3rd, 2025: what are the odds of getting two albums by the same artist in two consecutive days? I should go play the lottery.

I, like many music listeners, was first exposed to classic country music through the more well-known live recording At Folsom Prison, which Cash released the year prior to At San Quentin. Cash was famous for his regular performances in prisons for crowds of inmates, a gesture of goodwill which was just one small part of the many ways he stood up for the downtrodden in his music and his life. an earlier (1958) concert by Cash at San Quentin State Prison actually had a young Merle Haggard in the audience, and it partially inspired Haggard to pursue a career in music! it's amazing to think that Cash was able to give experiences like that to a population that often goes unspoken about in polite society.

not only are these some great performances of some deeply witty and excellent songs, but Cash's command of his audience is impeccable. his ability to communicate so directly to the experience of his audience, and show his empathy for their plight, is tremendous to hear on record. not only is he hilarious, but he has a rebellious nature about him which the inmates listening are highly responsive to! I loved when Cash asked them what they wanted to hear his band play, rather than being worried about what his production crew might have wanted him to play. but the highlight of the whole thing is when they play his anti-prison anthem "San Quentin" twice in a row; after the first go, during which his audience uproariously received his commentary on how hellish the place is, he asks, "if any of the guards are still speaking to me, can I get a glass of water?" 9/10

#69: The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out! (1966)

January 4th, 2025: Frank Zappa for album #69 just feels right for some reason. nice.

in my senior year of undergrad, in between all my classes and other obligations, I did a marathon listening session to most of Zappa's work with the Mothers and as a solo artist until about the early 80s. my favorite era is probably 1973-75, but 1967-69 is also pretty compelling. unfortunately, I've never gotten a whole lot out of this, the Mothers' debut. like, yes, there's some brilliant songs here, and the satirical angle is pretty well-preserved across both LPs, but I'm really not all that into all of the sonic experiments that take place. Zappa's fondness for doo-wop music is not one that I share, and I think the musique concrète endeavors here aren't quite as strong as they would be on subsequent albums like Uncle Meat. still, though, bands have to start somewhere, and Freak Out! is far from the worst place to start! "Hungry Freaks, Daddy", "Who Are the Brain Police?" and "Trouble Every Day" remain some of Zappa's most iconic songs for good reason! I think I'm good on "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet (Unfinished Ballet in Two Tableaux)", though. my favorite Zappa material is the stuff where he rocks harder, and thankfully he gets there pretty quickly after this. 7/10

#70: The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury (1992)

January 5th, 2025: I don't know if hip hop gets much more prophetic than this. in 1992, on the song "Satanic Reverses", Michael Franti successfully predicted Hong Kong being returned to China in 1997, as well as Panama achieving fully independent control over its Canal in 1999! it's indicative of how ahead of the curve Franti's perspective was, in ways that are often kind of depressing considering how little progress it seems we've made on some of his key issues in the 30+ years since the release of this album. his views on U.S. mass media indoctrination, and the way it creates support (you might say "manufactures consent") for imperialism are still as relevant as ever, and that's not even mentioning his pro-liberation stance regarding Palestine, which I can imagine was even more unpopular in 1992 than it would be today. plus, there's "Language of Violence", one of the earliest anti-homophobia songs in hip hop that I'm aware of!

the most immediate comparison I made with this record was to Public Enemy. especially on songs like the title track, The Disposable Heroes clearly owe a massive debt to Chuck D's rapping style and The Bomb Squad's maximalist production techniques. despite the obvious connection between the two groups, the Disposable Heroes manage to put their own experimental spin on things, with a much looser, jammier approach in which Franti often doesn't say much at all, and just lets his samples do the talking. some of these songs maybe go a little too long, but the sharpness of the commentary offered in one song after another makes the experience pretty worthwhile in the end. 7/10

#71: The Kinks - The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)

January 6th, 2025: it's kind of amazing how well this late-60s satire of English nostalgia maps so strongly onto the wave of conservative nostalgia we're experiencing here in the States at the moment. the cultural references are obviously not the same (I'll confess I don't recognize a good majority of them), but for as much as this album evokes a peaceful, sunshine-y English countryside, it's clear that the nostalgia being evoked here is for an England which never existed.

in an effort to write "English" rock music, at a time where American and European musical influences were beginning to shape the sound of contemporary British music, Ray Davies made a concerted effort to isolate himself from the sounds of burgeoning movements like psychedelic and progressive rock, which were highly in vogue at the time. instead, he and the rest of the Kinks doubled down on ornately constructed pop tunes with bright melodies and neoclassical quirks. compositionally, it's sometimes almost a little too on-the-nose in its portrayal of this imagined English pastoral countryside!

the unfortunately uncredited orchestral musicians add a lot of flair and humor to the B-side of the LP. what's with this recurring trend of not crediting orchestral musicians on rock records? 8/10

#72: The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle (1968)

January 7th, 2025: two English pop albums from 1968 in a row? I should play the lottery again!

if the Kinks were operating largely apart from pop trends of their time while they were recording Village Green Preservation Society, the Zombies were much more in line with those trends. it may have even been to their detriment; despite the excellence on display here in the songwriting department (and the pristine production!), Odessey and Oracle didn't make much of an impression upon release. it was only after the album flopped on the charts and the Zombies broke up that "Time of the Season" suddenly took off as a hit in America, and people finally began to take notice of the band's craftsmanship! they've got a bit of a reputation for being a one-hit wonder as a result, but there's a reason this entire album has a legion of superfans willing to sing its praises to high heaven. the songs are impeccably constructed, with the psychedelic quality of the instrumentation and production serving to elevate the compositions, rather than paper over a lack of them.

if you have the stereo mix, this is definitely not a headphone listen. I was incredibly disoriented by the hard-right panning of the lead vocals on the opener, "Care of Cell 44", but once I switched to speakers, I felt like I was better able to appreciate it, and the rest of these songs too. you can tell they were mixing for speakers back in the day. 8/10

#73: Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)

January 8th, 2025: I have pretty much nothing to add, no unique angle to take. Enter the Wu-Tang is one of the most discussed albums of all time, and it's not hard to see why. this Clan really did signal a new era of New York hip hop! the RZA's use of not just jazz samples, but soul samples, was a landmark innovation which created a seismic shift in the sound of the genre which we can still feel to this day. I'm honestly surprised this album became such a major success given its incredibly lo-fi production quality, but it was the starting point in a long line of grimy hip hop acts from the East Coast and, eventually, all over the country.

that's not to even mention the larger-than-life personas created by the half-dozen rappers that handle the bulk of this record's material; Method Man, GZA (A.K.A. The Genius), Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, and especially Ol' Dirty Bastard. (I don't want to take anything away from U-God and Masta Killa; they're just hardly featured here!) what would otherwise be your average violent, sexual rap braggadocio gets elevated to an almost cartoonish extent by the veneer of martial arts references applied to the whole thing. you get a really full spectrum of rapping styles that combine to create a powerful sense of momentum. I do wish the skits were their own separate tracks, though, so they could be skipped easier. 9/10

#74: Parliament - Mothership Connection (1975)

January 9th, 2025: the amount of high-quality music George Clinton released in the 1970s across several bands, side projects and solo acts as a singer, songwriter and producer is staggering, and it's no surprise that he's one of the most revered artists in the history of The Funk. whereas Funkadelic leans more heavily on the rock side of things, Parliament were a little bit more on the soul and synth end.

having recently gotten very into Dr. Dre's The Chronic, it's clear how much of a lasting impact Mothership Connection had on Black American musical culture. the drum pockets, the squelchy basslines (courtesy of the one-and-only Bootsy Collins), the murderer's row of horn players, and especially Bernie Worrell's work on keys and synths all give this music so much color and, more importantly, a ton of groove, while also pointing towards the future, both sonically and philosophically. the science fiction streak running through the lyrics here imagines a future where Black astronauts interact with aliens throughout the galaxy and bring The Funk with them. sitting inside of tracks like "P. Funk" or "Give Up the Funk" is a sheer delight. how Parliament manages to sound so tight and loose all at the same time is one of music's great mysteries. 9/10

#75: Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners (1957)

January 10th, 2025: in many ways, pianist Thelonious Monk was far ahead of his time. although there's no denying that he was a major figure in the creation of bebop, his compositions (which have been recorded more times than those by any other jazz composer) evoke not just the then-modern bop sound, but also hark back to the fundamentals of swing and the blues. through all the idiosyncratic rhythmic schemes, odd phrase lengths, moments of dissonance and unexpected modulations, some of the most iconic melodies ever conceived shine as clear as bells, or perhaps the celeste Monk plays on this album's version of "Pannonica".

although it's most well-known for its incredibly thorny title track, which alternates between choruses at full speed and half-time (and which Monk's quintet had to record in sections due to the difficulty of such a challenge for musicians in 1957), Brilliant Corners is full of more subtle surprises. "Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are" is a lengthy, extended jam on a modified B flat blues where saxophonists Sonny Rollins and Ernie Henry get a lot of space to stretch out; the aforementioned "Pannonica", one of Monk's quirkiest ballads, is enhanced by the presence of the also-aforementioned celeste; the solo rendition of Harry Barris' "I Surrender, Dear" features Monk's iconic stride stylings complete with some incredible dissonances thrown in for style; and "Bemsha Swing", one of my favorite Monk compositions, gets a brilliant reading to close everything out with an especially bombastic drumming performance by Max Roach incorporating some huge timpani hits. as far as 50s bop goes, this is textbook and should be required listening for any jazz musician or aficionado. 9/10

#76: Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul (1968)

January 11th, 2025: Aretha Franklin's singing voice is something powerful. I definitely shivered at more than a few points while listening to this. she's often imitated but never duplicated, as they say. "Chain of Fools" and "A Natural Woman" have been butchered by many a cover artist, but the genuine article reminds you just how brilliant they truly are. most of my favorite soul music leans heavily on influences from classic jazz and, eventually, fusion; this earlier, Southern example of the style leans more heavily on the blues, with a little bit of rock n' roll in there for good measure. there's even a spooky Eric Clapton jumpscare on side B!

lots of these sixties albums have been just under half an hour in length, which is a really interesting amount of time. it's a duration that, nowadays, a lot of pop artists think of as being too short to make fully cohesive as an LP-length project or, if they're cynical, game the streaming algorithms in their favor. but, for whatever reason, I really think it works for albums like Lady Soul. things really started to increase in size and scope as the seventies rolled on, which had its positives, but it's nice to be able to squeeze a whole album into a standard lunch break. 7/10

#77: The Doors - The Doors (1967)

January 12th, 2025: on their debut album, the Doors claimed their little plot of land in the domain of psych. heavily distorted, a little sloppy, always cryptic, occasionally vulgar (especially for 1967!). when they really get going, like on the side-closing tracks "Light My Fire" and "The End", they remind me of future bands like The Tony Williams Lifetime; lots of chaos, but also a ton of great interplay. Ray Manzarek's organ often takes a more prominent role in said chaos than Robby Krieger's guitar! John Densmore just lays it the hell down, and Jim Morrison does his Jim Morrison thing. what's not to like? 9/10

#78: Alanis Morrisette - Jagged Little Pill (1995)

January 13th, 2025: this is one that my parents had in the house on CD. I think her MTV Unplugged album is also in the collection, but this is the first time I really sat down and went through Jagged Little Pill from top to bottom. I like the production, which feels like that same mix of electronica and rock that Garbage were doing, but Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard are leaning way more on the rock end of things. these are often pretty loud songs, and they sound pretty great all-around. I just don't love how Morissette enunciates, and I occasionally find her lyricism pretty eye-roll-worthy. I already play "You Oughta Know" at least once a month in one of the cover bands I work with, and that's all the connection I really feel the need to have with this record. "You Learn" is pretty good, too. 5/10

#79: Method Man - Tical (1994)

January 14th, 2025: if I had to rank the original 9 members of Wu-Tang, I feel like Method Man would come in around the middle. I don't think he's quite as unique of a voice compared to other members of that group, but he consistently holds his own on 36 Chambers, and this debut solo album goes down pretty well, too. I think this could've done with a few more features to bring a bit more variety to things; the RZA's production is solid as ever but, coming off of an album as vibrant as the debut Wu-Tang record, you definitely miss hearing Method Man in a group dynamic. 7/10

#80: Wire - Pink Flag (1977)

January 15th, 2025: not only are these songs wildly energetic and irresistibly groovy; they're also incredibly smart. some great moments of counterpoint from the bass to the guitars, the guitars to the voices, everything with the drums. suddenly stopping, starting again. sometimes glacially slow, other times blindingly quick. whether an individual song is 30 seconds or 4 minutes, it still feels like an important piece of the overall puzzle of Pink Flag. 21 of them in 35 minutes. economy of time, yet an abundance of intrigue. theoretically infinite replay value.

"Ex Lion Tamer" is the best Car Seat Headrest song Will Toledo never wrote. 9/10

#81: Joy Division - Closer (1980)

January 20th, 2025: Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division's more well-known debut LP, is legendary for the coldness of its production and the bleakness of its songs. Closer doubles down on all of that, and introduces synthesizers far more prominently into the band's palette of sounds. the gothic undertones of Unknown Pleasures become overtones this time around. frigid guitar layers, thumping, nervous basslines, haunting, distant drums. Ian Curtis' lyrics are absolutely not for the faint of heart; if you've listened to the Danny Brown album which he named after this record's opening track, you'll notice the parallels very quickly. in a lot of ways, Curtis is crying, begging for help. these songs also stretch out for much longer than they did on Unknown Pleasures, which really makes them feel like the best kind of trudge.

I like Closer a smidge more than Unknown Pleasures, but I can't listen to it very often. it has the potential to really screw up my whole day, given how downright depressing it is. there's not many other albums that haunt me the way this does. 9/10

#82: Scott Walker - Scott 2 (1968)

January 21st, 2025: being a cursory fan of a couple of Scott Walker's later albums, Scott 2 offered me more of a look at his origins, in a very different sort of musical lane. compared to the terrifying experimental music he would make in the latter stage of his career, this is a total cakewalk. that being said, it's not without its quirks. the lyrics, especially on the Jacques Brel covers, are often overtly sexual and a bit maudlin. the songs come across as something akin to show tunes, especially because of the grandiose orchestrations that are an omnipresent feature of the music. this is tagged as Baroque pop, but the inspiration seems to be less Baroque and more Classical, or even Romantic at times. my highlight, apart from the minor hit "Jackie", is the sensational arrangement of Henry Mancini's "Wait Until Dark". 7/10

#83: The Divine Comedy - A Short Album About Love (1997)

January 22nd, 2025: most of my reviews for this series are my first impressions upon completing a full listen of the album in question, but this one beckoned me to listen to it twice. I'm extremely glad I did.

across just 7 songs and 32 minutes, Neil Hannon and The Divine Comedy manage to capture romance from every conceivable angle and emotion. lovesick euphoria, desperate loneliness, deeply toxic codependency, melancholy self-reflection on one's wrongdoings in a relationship. if you've ever been in love with somebody, especially if it didn't end well due to your own shortcomings as a partner, some of this stuff will wreck you. the one-two punch of "If..." and "If I Were You (I'd Be Through With Me)" almost brought me to tears.

Joby Talbot's orchestral arrangements are stupendous, oozing with just the right amount of melodrama and cheese, and a few genuinely shocking moments, particularly the screeching cluster chords at the end of "If...". I love the live feel this recording captures. a lot of orchestral pop can feel like the orchestra and the pop are in two separate rooms, and that's very much not the case here. I was reminded a lot of Scott 2 from yesterday multiple times, though I think I'd much sooner return to the songs offered up here. there's some fantastic compositional and orchestrational moments strewn across all these tracks, and they range from bombastic symphonic rock to tender chamber music. again, it's a lot of stylistic and emotional range squeezed into a pretty small package.

I love moments in this challenge where an album I'd never heard of before just completely captures me. 9/10

#84: Pere Ubu - Dub Housing (1978)

January 23nd, 2025: from a purely instrumental standpoint, the things Pere Ubu pulls off are pretty intriguing and, without question, highly varied. we're firmly in the leftmost part of the post-punk field, with some of these songs coming off less as rock songs and more as avant-garde sound collages. but when the band gets groovy, I start to understand how they were a major influence on indie bands in the 2000s, particularly the dance-punk movement. I'm just glad those bands had better frontmen, though, because I don't think David Thomas' signature yelp fits these songs whatsoever. it kind of kills the whole thing for me, to be honest. 5/10

#85: Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left (1969)

January 24th, 2025: in all of singer-songwriterdom, there's no shortage of tragic figures who died both far too young and far too unappreciated, but whose work managed to eventually find a large, adoring audience all the same. Nick Drake's spellbinding debut album Five Leaves Left was met with a muted response upon its release in 1969, owing to a lack of marketing support from his label and a mixed reception in critical circles. as is often the case, musicians first led the charge in reappraising Drake's work; many popular artists in the eighties cited him as an influence, eventually leading the music press to change their tune on the three studio albums he managed to complete before his untimely death at the age of 26, which are now thought of as three of the greatest folk records ever made.

and for good reason! this is some truly mesmerizing acoustic music. Drake's introverted, contemplative, and often sad lyrics are delivered in a hushed bass register, sitting right inside the range of his guitar to the point where the two instruments start to seamlessly blend together. there's also some tasteful use of session musicians to add some subtle colors to these songs. most of them have a bass accompanying Drake, and there's a couple songs with a piano or some percussion, but most intriguing for me is the haunting string arrangements on "River Man", "Day Is Done" and "Fruit Tree", my three favorite songs on this LP. strings also figure pretty heavily into my fourth favorite track, "'Cello Song".

there's not quite as many orchestrational bells and whistles here as there are on Bryter Layter, but it's also not nearly as stripped back as Pink Moon. it strikes a pretty good balance. 9/10

#86: The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

January 25th, 2025: much like the album I got yesterday, this is a tremendous debut album that wasn't appreciated in its own time. although, to be fair to the Velvet Underground, they were much further ahead of the curve than Nick Drake! Lou Reed's songwriting is in a direct lineage with some truly archetypal rock and folk artists (Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Lennon/McCartney), but his focus on the seedy underbelly of New York City's arts culture steers the material into a much darker, often shocking direction. in between seemingly innocent songs like "Sunday Morning" and "I'll Be Your Mirror" and all the rest, there are odes to drug use, drug dealers, sadomasochism and sex workers. 1967! and, of course, the presence of multi-instrumentalist John Cale on these first two VU albums throws things even further into left field. a lot of these songs incorporate some chilling drone elements, others devolve into puddles of cacophony; I am consistently shocked by how low the recording fidelity is!

The Velvet Underground & Nico* shaped so many future movements in rock and experimental music, it would probably be easier to count the ones they didn't have an impact on. at their best, they had such a wide variety of ways to create new paths forward for rock songs, compositionally and sonically, across a huge spectrum of dynamics, tempos, moods and subjects. I find myself returning to White Light / White Heat a little more often than this—they go all-in on their experimental side there—but there's no denying that this is one of rock music's finest debut albums, and certainly one of its most influential. 9/10

*I do find it a bit weird that this is credited as a collaborative album given that Nico only shows up on lead vocals for three songs. but I guess it's as good a title as any other; it's pretty unassuming, and it lets you just sort of take in each song on its own merits.

#87: UB40 - Signing Off (1980)

January 26th, 2025: I'm not sure if I don't like dub/reggae or if I just haven't found the right stuff yet. I like Fishmans as much as any other RYMer worth their salt, but I think their dub stuff is just alright. I can only take so much of the same mid-tempo upbeat guitar strokes with the same drum grooves and, in UB40's case, this deeply goofy saxophone playing. and that's not even touching the fact that this is an LP plus an EP, running well over an hour!

Signing Off has the same issue that I've had with a lot of other reggae I've tried out, namely that there's just not enough excitement in this music for me to feel all that engaged for that long. it feels a little bit like new wave, with the synths and some subtle sonic manipulations strewn throughout the band, but does every song need to be a chill-out session? can't we crank up the tempo a little every now and again? I mean, hey, it does open with a pretty righteous condemnation of our American racist criminal justice system ("Tyler"), so it's not morally objectionable or anything. 5/10

#88: De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising (1989)

February 1st, 2025: 3 Feet High and Rising has a sound that speaks straight to my childhood. De La Soul is from Amityville, New York, about an hour from where I grew up on Long Island. the group's suburban surroundings had a tremendous impact on their subject matter, sense of humor and overall musical dynamic. Prince Paul's groundbreaking production focuses heavily on samples from psych rock and funk, and the general theme of being true to yourself comes through in the trio's carefree flows (dated though they may sound today). that being said, this album invented (or at least pioneered) the skit and the sex skit, a sin for which it can never be forgiven. 8/10

#89: Beck - Guero (2005)

February 2nd, 2025: this is the Beck I'm more used to hearing on the radio, although I didn't know any of these songs prior to pressing play. that's probably due to the presence of the Dust Brothers on production, who had previously worked with Beck on Odelay, his most commercially successful album. Beck's eclecticism is back on full display here, especially in comparison with his previous album, Sea Change, which was a lot more singular from a musical and conceptual perspective. there's positives and negatives associated with either approach. I like hearing such a diverse array of instruments from song to song, especially how they get chopped up and reorganized. I just don't think the songwriting is quite as impactful or consistent as I've heard from Beck before. if (or when) I get some more Beck albums out of this list, I'd like to come back to Guero and see if I feel any differently about it. 6/10

#90: Judas Priest - British Steel (1980)

February 3rd, 2025: badass. the name of the game with British Steel is mid-tempo, meaty riffs with some tremendous hooks delivered by Rob Halford, one of metal's greatest melodic vocalists. in general, I like my metal a little speedier than what Judas Priest offers here, but the performances are just so great I didn't really mind. you can tell they were aiming for radio play with this one, but the things that make them a great band are still very much intact. this is the only Priest album in the book, so I'll have to revisit their other classics (and late-career masterstrokes) on my own time. 7/10

#91: Stevie Wonder - Talking Book (1972)

February 4th, 2025: Stevie Wonder's run from 1972-76 is the stuff of legends. five classic soul albums in as many years! thank you to Motown for giving him the artistic freedom to create some of the greatest music of all time! Songs in the Key of Life has achieved the highest status of these five, but since I don't always have an hour and a half to listen to an album, I find myself more drawn to some of the single-LP releases, especially Talking Book (and Innervisions, but that's a story for a different review).

Wonder writes songs that just leave you in awe of the sheer power of songs as an art form. he might just be my favorite writer of love songs of all time. lovesick cuts like "You Are the Sunshine of My Life", "You and I" or "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)" capture the absolute rush of what it's like to be so deeply in love with someone through some hair-raising chord progressions and modulations, as well as (of course) Wonder's tremendous voice. others, such as "Maybe Your Baby", "Superstition" and "Big Brother" are more about the groove. Wonder's skills as a multi-instrumentalist are well-known, but his drumming in particular is something that needs to be talked about more often!

I've got so much more to say about Stevie Wonder, especially this era of his output, but I'll save it for when he reappears on this list. no matter what kind of music you like, I think the appeal of his work is undeniable. 9/10

#92: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)

February 5th, 2025: it's easy to dunk on the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but the truth is I think there's a lot of elements to how they function as a band which could (big "could" there) result in some great songs. when John Frusciante, Flea and Chad Smith hit a successful pocket, I damn near start head-bobbing. but, in a band, you're only as good as your weakest member; RHCP's is, unfortunately, frontman Anthony Kiedis.

Kiedis is the butt of the wide majority of jokes made at the expense of this band. a lot of it comes down to his lyricism, which flip-flops between free-associative rambling, gibberish, and sexual innuendo. again, this isn't a problem in a vacuum; a band like the Melvins (existent for about as long as the Chili Peppers) gets a lot of mileage out of lyrics that are pretty meaningless. that might sound like a strange comparison, but I think they've got at least one thing in common: their lyrics communicate a focus on the music being played, rather than the message being communicated by the words being said over that music.

that would be all well and good, and Blood Sugar Sex Magik would be a pretty great funk rock album... but Kiedis kills the vibe whenever he touches the mic! his rapping just sounds silly, and his singing is pretty out-of-tune even at the best of times. songs like "Suck My Kiss" and "The Power of Equality" aren't too rough, but even then, they're heavily carried by the work of the three instrumentalists backing Kiedis up. I'm also not sure the inclusion of the ballad tracks like "Breaking the Girl" or "Under the Bridge" is doing the flow of this 17-track, 75-minute album any justice. I mean, those are two of this band's most successful songs, so what do I know? the more they lean into funk rock jamming, the more tolerable the material gets, with the exception of the excruciating 8-minute closer, "Sir Psycho Sexy". 4/10

#93: The Roots - Phrenology (2002)

February 6th, 2025: Phrenology was the Roots' most experimental release at the time it first came out, and it's not usually a fan favorite, but it's right in my wheelhouse. especially towards the back end, the songs veer away from hip hop and into electronic jazz fusion territory. the ending of "Break You Off" is incredible, with all the new chord changes and the new drum groove. Black Thought verses are literally never bad. there's an amazing version of Cody ChesnuTT's "The Seed" which is a straight-out funk jam. I totally get why people prefer other Roots albums over this one, but there's some days where I'd call this my favorite of theirs.

unthinkable that this is their only album in the whole book. 9/10

#94: Iggy Pop - Lust for Life (1977)

February 7th, 2025: Iggy Pop's debut solo album, The Idiot, is one of the most haunting albums in the history of rock music. it's chilly, mechanical and paranoid, reflecting a long period of stagnation in Iggy Pop's career after the Stooges broke up. I can't think of many other rock albums that sound like it, so it's a bit of a shame that Lust for Life retreats back towards a more typical rock sound. thankfully, David Bowie is in charge of most of the songwriting duties here, so this is still a pretty fun listen. Bowie had a tremendous instinct for setting Pop's voice in musical contexts that suited him; "The Passenger" is one of the best songs of the 1970s, bar none. on the other hand, "Sixteen" is one of those creepy, creepy songs I could never hear again and I'd never miss it. 7/10

#95: Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)

February 8th, 2025: like with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the music is serviceable, but then the frontman opens his mouth and wrecks the vibe. unlike with RHCP, I'm much more actively annoyed by GnR's frontman. rock 'n' roll boomers will complain about how unlistenable they think hip hop is, but somehow Axl Rose's caterwauling is acceptable.

a couple of these songs have a somewhat interesting structure, particularly opening track "Welcome to the Jungle", but beyond the singles, there's really not much to write home about here. it's the same group of stock hard rock riffs I've been hearing dozens of bands use over and over again, across decades of music history. the band portray themselves as being far more controversial than their music would actually suggest. 2/10

#96: Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill (1986)

February 9th, 2025: while this is one of the most iconic albums in 80s hip hop, I don't know if it's aged all that well. with their debut, the Beastie Boys introduced themselves as a trio of rowdy, party-loving miscreants. it's an energy that works for them, and it certainly helped propel them and the Def Jam label to mainstream success. but as hip hop, it feels pretty dated. I'm tempted to grade my feelings on a curve just because the genre had a long way to go in general, and because the big hit singles are undeniably a lot of fun. but then you get songs like "Girls," which demonstrate an attitude towards women which they would apologize for several albums later. the growth that the Beasties demonstrated over the course of their career, both as musicians and as thinkers, is pretty tremendous. their discography truly gets interesting for me with Paul's Boutique. 6/10

#97: Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (2005)

February 10th, 2025: one of my main gripes with 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is that classical recordings were prohibited from inclusion. excluding an album like Music for 18 Musicians from a list of the most essential albums of all time makes that list feel like a jigsaw puzzle that's missing a few pieces. 18 Musicians has had an influence which can be felt through so much modern rock and pop music, from Low all the way to Illinois and into the future.

calling Sufjan Stevens a singer-songwriter feels like selling him short. he's truly a master of composition and orchestration (he plays so many instruments here!), and he can write a set of stanzas that will bring you to your knees. he manages to capture so many different moods and make them all cohere together: uplifting rhythmic propulsion, downtrodden acoustic numbers to soothe the soul, and multiple mesmerizing passages of chamber music which, again, feel very Steve Reich-esque.

I got to see the stage musical version of this album on Broadway last year. don't worry, they didn't turn everything into crappy show tunes; it was really more of a ballet with a live band playing the album behind it. transcendent experience. in some ways, it feels like this album was made for the stage. 10/10

#98: Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory (2000)

February 17th, 2025: when you compare Linkin Park and their debut album to many of their nu metal contemporaries, it's clear that they had a unique approach to combining metal and hip hop. founding member Mike Shinoda's study of the rap game as an MC, producer and scratcher is on full display across all 12 tracks of the aptly-titled Hybrid Theory; the more electronic flourishes and glitches strewn across the tracklist add a lot to the presentation. Rob Bourdon's drumming is suitably funky, but with an unmistakably metallic attack. and, of course, Chester Bennington is the full package as far as a metal frontman goes; he can sing like an angel, but his screams communicate a ton of intensity. (all the old reviews from metal uncs about how this album is supposedly "fake" or "immature" are very confusing to me.) Shinoda's presence as a vocalist is somewhat underwhelming; his rapping is easily the weakest link of the band, but I don't think it ever flat-out ruins any of these songs. it's probably not fair to compare him with Bennington, but it's hard not to when they share so much space.

occasionally, I find that the songs themselves are structured in ways that kneecap their potential. I think the chorus of "Crawling" would hit a lot harder if the song didn't start with it; "By Myself" opens with one of Brad Delson's heaviest riffs, then immediately goes into a quiet Shinoda bit; "A Place for My Head" appends a Shinoda rap to the final breakdown where Bennington's screams by themselves were more than enough to carry the song to the finish line. my friend (and LP superfan) Cas pointed out that, while the band were undeniably their own creative force (and an intriguing one at that!), they were also businessmen working for Warner, one of the most major of all major labels. so, from time to time, a decision gets made that I get the feeling was not the band's own. I'd love to hear a more uninhibited version of this sound. 7/10

#99: Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)

February 18th, 2025: I've listened to this so many times I could probably review it in my sleep. like many young music fans, Radiohead was my entry point into a whole host of different musical movements, styles and scenes; and In Rainbows was their newest album at the time I first became a fan. over the years, it's more than earned a reputation for being one of the band's finest albums, if not their best. OK Computer is still RYM's favorite, but In Rainbows has it beat in terms of the raw ratings (it's 0.03 points higher than OK Computer as of the day I'm writing this)! I'll ride or die for Kid A supremacy, but on some days, my favorite is In Rainbows too.

not only does this have my favorite production and mixing of any Radiohead album (such a luscious, warm sound, even in the electronics), but this may be the band's most consistently entertaining and well-crafted batch of songs to date. it's definitely an easier casual listen than any of their previous four albums were. even the interlude-ish track "Faust Arp" does a lot in just two minutes, with the strings coming in on the back end serving to elevate the track to a transcendent conclusion. the five tracks with strings are all tremendous, especially "All I Need", which may be my favorite ballad Radiohead has ever made.

whether the band is plowing straight ahead in a rock idiom or taking a detour for something more introspective, they absolutely nail it every time. 10/10

#100: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next... (1973)

February 19th, 2025: I can't even lie, this was pretty underwhelming for the first major milestone of the challenge: rolling over into triple digits. we'll hit quadruples in no time!

this is a Scottish glam rock album in the vein of David Bowie's material from around the same time, with a bit of Stooges in there, too. if you're a die-hard UK glam aficionado, I can't recommend this highly enough. but, alas, I find that I'd much rather just listen to Bowie. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band is a pretty tight unit (as demonstrated by the artsy 3-part closer), but these lyrics are just too silly. the sex songs (most of these songs, in some way) sound like they were written by a guy who's never had sex, but who's still trying to brag as if he has. maybe it's supposed to be more tongue-in-cheek than it comes off? or maybe pillow talk is way different in Scotland. 5/10