| AC/DC Highway To Hell | 3.0 |
| AC/DC Back In Black | 3.0 |
| Proudly displayed at the top of my ratings. Consider the freak flag flown. AC/DC never really wrote songs for anyone but themselves anyways. No explanation of this album is necessary in light of the following: you have heard AC/DC already. |
| AC/DC For Those About To Rock We Salute You | 3.0 |
| AC/DC Powerage | 3.5 |
| AC/DC Live | 3.5 |
| Aesop Rock Labor Days | 4.5 |
| Aesop Rock Float | 4.5 |
| AFI Decemberunderground | 3.5 |
| AFI All Hallow's E.P. | 4.0 |
| AFI Sing the Sorrow | 4.5 |
| A polished effort from a band that has demonstrated superlative abilities. AFI is definitely the cream of whatever crop they are currently in. This LP represents a break from their previous efforts in that they are less hardcore/punk and more rock oriented. AFI is continually growing in new and different directions as they progress as a band and as individuals. Very happy to have had the privilege of listening to this band over the years. |
| AFI The Art of Drowning | 5.0 |
| One of the better hardcore punk LPs of all time. Punk with feeling. If I said everything there is to say about this album, then you would miss the fun of listening! :,-* |
| Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose | 3.0 |
| Against Me! New Wave | 5.0 |
| Against Me!'s New Wave is a little bit like Dylan going electric. You lost a lot of the BS rhetoric, smoke and mirrors etc. to be replaced only with conventional rock wisdoms (and instruments). Rock on! |
| Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill | 4.0 |
| Huge nostalgia factor... everyone from the 90s had this album. I just wish every generation each had their Jagged Little Pill in which people with different tastes can coalesce around a single piece of humanity. |
| Anti-Flag A New Kind of Army | 3.5 |
| Anti-Flag Die For the Government | 3.5 |
| Arcade Fire Funeral | 3.0 |
| Arcade Fire The Arcade Fire | 3.0 |
| Arcade Fire Neon Bible | 3.0 |
| Arcade Fire The Suburbs | 3.0 |
| At the Drive-In El Gran Orgo | 3.5 |
| At the Drive-In Relationship of Command | 4.0 |
| At the Drive-In, we hardly knew ye! No one knows what this band was all about, same goes for the Mars Volta. A punk-infused vehicle for Cedric Bixler-Zavala's bouts of sporadic insanity as well as his twisted genius. A truly great live band and a solid studio band, Relationship of Command is At the Drive-In's most polished effort. Less punk, yes. More electric piano, yes. Yes yes yes! Shades of the Mars Volta's science fiction streak-to-come are present here, with the most notable example being the haunting, melodious, and (frankly) most memorable "Quarantined." |
| At the Drive-In Acrobatic Tenement | 4.0 |
| At the Drive-In In/Casino/Out | 4.0 |
| Atmosphere When Life Gives You Lemons... | 4.0 |
| Atmosphere God Loves Ugly | 5.0 |
| Audioslave Revelations | 3.0 |
| Audioslave Out of Exile | 3.5 |
| Audioslave Live in Cuba | 3.5 |
| Audioslave Audioslave | 5.0 |
| I was 12 and it changed the way I perceived the guitar. Morello integrates the best of electronic and rock music to create quite a guitar confection. Cornell's lyrics are outstanding as he deals with various themes. |
| Bad Company Bad Company | 3.5 |
| Battles Gloss Drop | 4.0 |
| Beirut Gulag Orkestar | 4.0 |
| Beirut The Flying Club Cup | 4.5 |
| Billy Bragg and Wilco Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 2 | 3.0 |
| Black Flag The First Four Years | 3.5 |
| Black Sabbath Vol. 4 | 2.5 |
| Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell | 3.0 |
| Black Sabbath Born Again | 3.0 |
| Black Sabbath Symptom of the Universe | 3.0 |
| Black Sabbath Master of Reality | 3.5 |
| Black Sabbath Black Sabbath | 3.5 |
| Start of the metal. Sabbath was listening to other bands, but they were in a league of their own. |
| Black Sabbath Sabotage | 4.0 |
| Black Sabbath Mob Rules | 4.0 |
| Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabbath | 4.5 |
| Black Sabbath Paranoid | 5.0 |
| A very important album for metal. After their original LP, Black Sabbath was able to demonstrate the viability of the spawn which was created with Sabbath's original LP. Iron Man is as compelling to the 14 year old on guitar hero as War Pigs / Luke's Wall is to the wise radio disc jockey and/or the student of the electric guitar. The metal song was more versatile than it originally appeared... it could be simple and direct, but it should always be powerful. Sabbath speaks and many listened! So many metal fans... they can't all be wrong, can they? |
| Blackalicious The Craft | 3.5 |
| Blank Page Empire Sinners, Thieves, And Beggars | 3.0 |
| blink-182 Enema Of The State | 2.0 |
| A crude exhibition of pre-teen life values. Music for yesteryear |
| Blues Traveler Save His Soul | 4.0 |
| Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde | 2.0 |
| The sound is there. The style is there. The sexiness is there. The song-writer went missing. |
| Bob Dylan John Wesley Harding | 2.0 |
| Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited | 2.5 |
| Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks | 3.0 |
| Bob Dylan Together Through Life | 3.0 |
| Bob Dylan The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan | 4.5 |
| Bob Dylan The Times They Are A-Changin' | 4.5 |
| A man and a guitar against the world. Dylan's melodies on The Times They Are A-Changin' were the great equalizer. Haunting, in that they are difficult to escape once you have heard them. Dylan's American nightmare is meant is ominous, truly haunting... |
| Bob Dylan Desire | 5.0 |
| Bob Dylan, the full palette of human emotions, and a complete acoustic ensemble? Robert, you betcha! |
| Bob Marley and The Wailers Legend | 3.5 |
| Bob Seger Greatest Hits, Volume 2 | 3.0 |
| Bob Seger Greatest Hits | 3.5 |
| Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago | 5.0 |
| Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet | 4.0 |
| Boston Don't Look Back | 3.0 |
| Boston Boston | 4.0 |
| Boston does hard-rock like it has never been done before, with their smashing debut... at times, the message surpasses the superb delivery, as "Peace of Mind" showcases. Unfortunately, the band's stellar musical performance was not matched by the song-writing ability of the band, but then again, people listen to hard-rock to enjoy the music, not the message. |
| Brand New Daisy | 4.0 |
| Broken Social Scene You Forgot It in People | 4.5 |
| Probably the weirdest album I have ever listened to. A way of looking through the wrong end of the looking glass... probably the last recommendation you take from me on accounts of the strangeness of this group. Granted, they're from Canadia |
| Bruce Springsteen Born to Run | 4.0 |
| Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A. | 4.0 |
| Burial Untrue | 1.0 |
| Carole King Tapestry | 3.0 |
| Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps Backyard Tent Set | 3.5 |
| Charles Mingus Cornell 1964 with Eric Dolphy | 3.5 |
| Chevelle Wonder What's Next | 2.0 |
| Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo | 5.0 |
The As the Roots Undo motif saves this album. Lose that, and it's nothing save mediocre. The
deliberate use of ambiance greatly enhances the extended screams. |
| Citizen Cope Citzen Cope | 3.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria No World for Tomorrow | 1.5 |
| More of the same from a very worthy band... No World for Tomorrow sounds more like a video-game inspired comic book fantasy in a time when video games are becoming more and more plausible and agreeable. Video games on the radio. |
| Cold War Kids Loyalty to Loyalty | 3.5 |
| Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | 4.0 |
| Converge Caring and Killing | 1.5 |
| Converge Jane Doe | 2.0 |
| Converge's Jane Doe is a masterpiece in the metal/hardcore genre. From its brutal outset ("Concubine") to its towering finish ("Jane Doe"), Converge's precise instrumentation is an excellent example of how changes in tempo and tonality can be used to create both intense and emotional songs. Vocalist Jacob Bannon's variegated delivery ranges from a superbly chaotic "scream" to a choice disharmonious groan, bringing the music to life. Jane Doe might as well not have any lyrics (it does), because Converge is one seething mass of sound on this, the band's magnum opus. |
| Converge Petitioning the Empty Sky | 3.0 |
| Creed Human Clay | 3.0 |
| Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Deja Vu | 3.5 |
| Cursive Domestica | 3.0 |
| Difficult to rate this highly, given its angularity and brashness. Domestica is home-grown hardcore. Certainly, it is a bold statement of punk angst from a typically very docile indie rock band. The production is impressive, but the lyrical direction is conceptual, similar to Converge's Jane Doe. |
| Cursive I Am Gemini | 3.0 |
| Cursive The Ugly Organ | 3.5 |
| Daft Punk Human After All | 3.0 |
| David Crowder Band Illuminate | 4.0 |
| David Crowder Band Give Us Rest | 4.0 |
| David Crowder Band Oh for Joy | 4.0 |
| David Crowder Band Remedy | 4.5 |
| Deftones White Pony | 3.5 |
| Delicate Steve Positive Force | 3.0 |
| Deltron 3030 Deltron 3030 | 3.5 |
| DJ Shadow Endtroducing..... | 5.0 |
| There are very few albums deemed "essential" that truly deserve the hyperbolic praise that they receive. That's the little pulseczar in me that is speaking right there. Unfortunately, this is one of those that does. This album is a cut above many of the albums that I have listed as 5. A clear alternative to most music that is out there no matter what the year is... |
| Dr. Dre The Chronic | 3.0 |
| Dr. Dre 2001 | 4.0 |
| Dungen Ta Det Lugnt | 2.5 |
| Eagles Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) | 4.0 |
| Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road | 4.0 |
| Elvis Costello The Delivery Man | 3.0 |
| Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP | 1.5 |
| Eminem The Eminem Show | 1.5 |
| Esperanza Spalding Radio Music Society | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone | 3.0 |
| Explosions in the Sky How Strange, Innocence | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place | 4.0 |
| Feist The Reminder | 4.0 |
| Firewind Forged by Fire | 3.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Sun Giant | 4.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues | 4.0 |
| Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes | 5.0 |
| Fleetwood Mac Rumours | 5.0 |
| Foo Fighters In Your Honor | 3.0 |
| Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape | 3.5 |
| Foo Fighters One by One | 3.5 |
| Frank Zappa Hot Rats | 2.5 |
| Frank Zappa Strictly Commercial | 3.0 |
| Frank Zappa Apostrophe | 4.0 |
| Friends Better Off Alone | 3.0 |
| Fugazi In on the Kill Taker | 3.0 |
| Fugazi Repeater | 4.0 |
| Fugazi Red Medicine | 4.0 |
| Fugazi The Argument | 4.5 |
| In an effort to save their genre from the clutches of meeker bands, fugazi released The Argument -- a polished composition entailing topical songs, complex time signatures, and production that finally matched the post-hardcore band's superlative abilities. Call it fugazi's first studio album. Previously, fugazi was a live band. The Argument is the torch that fugazi has passed to the next great post-hardcore band, lest the meek inherit punk rock. |
| Fugazi 13 Songs | 4.5 |
| fun. Aim and Ignite | 3.0 |
| fun. Some Nights | 3.0 |
| Gentle Giant Gentle Giant | 3.0 |
| Gift of Gab The Next Logical Progression | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada | 3.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞ | 3.5 |
| A friend asked me once, "what is post-rock?" My reply, "post-rock is the soundtrack to the end of the world." If the end of the world is anything like F#A#?, then my friend and I will have so much to look forward to. |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven | 4.0 |
| Gorillaz Demon Days | 1.0 |
| A major disappointment, give me any songs off of their original over this drivel. It sounds like this is merely the songs that didn't make it onto their first LP. Gone is the bold eclecticism and creativity in song writing (I wish my brother George was here, alas no searing Del tha funkee homosapien part), replaced with generic pop. Little in the way of hip hop, punk and other genres that sounded so good from their first LP. |
| Gorillaz G-Sides | 3.0 |
| Gorillaz D-Sides | 3.0 |
| Gorillaz Gorillaz | 5.0 |
| I will always remember Gorillaz self-titled as being a great amalgamation of popular music. |
| Grace Potter and The Nocturnals Grace Potter and The Nocturnals | 3.5 |
| Grand Funk Railroad Closer To Home | 3.5 |
| Green Day Nimrod | 2.0 |
| Green Day Dookie | 4.0 |
| Green Day American Idiot | 4.0 |
| Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction | 3.0 |
| Hot Cross Cryonics | 4.0 |
| Just a perversity of the sound of wayward youths reading Vonnegut in a coffee shop near Portland... nothing is beautiful and everything hurt. A very dark album that warrants numerous careful listens. |
| Hot Cross Risk Revival | 4.5 |
| Hot Cross is like the cigarette after a love affair with CTTS. |
| Howie Day Australia | 3.5 |
| Husker Du New Day Rising | 2.0 |
| Husker Du Zen Arcade | 3.0 |
| Iron And Wine The Shepherd's Dog | 2.0 |
| Flashes of musical brilliance ("Carousel" "House by the Sea" and "The Devil Never Sleeps") punctuate a poor lyrically written folk album. |
| Iron Maiden Iron Maiden | 4.5 |
| Israel Vibration Ras Portraits | 5.0 |
| Jason Aldean My Kinda Party | 3.5 |
| Jet Get Born | 3.5 |
| Hard-dicked rock and roll... if this album is lost on you, then I apologize. Such a fun album |
| Jimi Hendrix Experience Hendrix: The Best of Hendrix | 2.5 |
| John Coltrane A Love Supreme | 4.0 |
| John Coltrane Blue Train | 4.5 |
| John Coltrane The Very Best Of John Coltrane | 4.5 |
| Combining many different elements of traditional Jazz as well as a few of his own, John Coltrane's instrumental performance and band leadership ensured him a place among the genre's elites -- Coleman, Rollins and Davis, to name three. Like Rollins, Coltrane played the saxophone, but unlike Rollins, Coltrane's style incorporated avant-garde "atonal" elements as well as tradition tonal flourishes. Coltrane was an avant-garde innovator alongside Coleman during the period in which these recordings are taken. A consummate virtuoso throughout his career, Coltrane was at his best when he and his band were melodious in addition to virtuous. Like Davis, Coltrane had a way with melody. The Very Best of John Coltrane is Coltrane at this best, melodious and virtuous. The influence of Rollins and Davis are felt, but this compilation is classic Coltrane. Classic. Duh. |
| John Coltrane My Favorite Things | 5.0 |
| Johnny Cash American IV: The Man Comes Around | 4.0 |
| Johnny Cash The Legend of Johnny Cash | 4.0 |
| Johnny Cash American VI: Ain't No Grave | 4.5 |
| Josh Garrels Love and War and The Sea In Between | 4.0 |
| Justice † | 4.0 |
| Show me another debut album with no lyrics, no conventional artistic direction, and no commercial target audience that was as successful as Justice's debut, and I will show you a classic album. |
| Kid Rock The History of Rock | 1.5 |
| Kid Rock Devil Without a Cause | 3.0 |
| Kidcrash I Haven't Had A Date In 4 Years EP | 3.0 |
| Kidcrash Jokes | 4.0 |
| The type of album that makes you believe that genuine artistic expression is possible through commercial enterprise. blah listen to this, idiotz |
| Kidcrash New Ruins | 4.0 |
| Kidcrash Snacks | 4.0 |
| King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King | 2.0 |
| King Crimson The ConstruKction of Light | 3.0 |
| King Crimson Red | 4.0 |
| Knife Party 100% No Modern Talking | 4.0 |
| Kyuss Blues for the Red Sun | 2.5 |
| Kyuss Wretch | 3.0 |
| Kyuss Sons of Kyuss | 3.0 |
| Kyuss Welcome to Sky Valley | 3.5 |
| Kyuss Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss | 3.5 |
| Kyuss ...And the Circus Leaves Town | 4.0 |
| Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk Over Land and Sea | 4.5 |
| LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem | 1.5 |
| Led Zeppelin In Through the Out Door | 2.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Presence | 2.5 |
| Led Zeppelin's mediocre was still better than everyone else's best. Jimmy Page said it best. That was the 70s. Now we know about Page's plagiarism. For those who loved Led Zeppelin, it was the ultimate betrayal. For many, their love turned into hate, respite for one of the greatest hard rock bands of all time. In 2011, the song remains the same, but the memory of Led Zeppelin is tarnished. |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin III | 3.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II | 3.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV | 3.5 |
| This album deserves a full length review, but for me, it comes down to this album's most famous inhabitant. "Stairway to Heaven" epitomizes a rock song for me. Simple, sweet instrumentation transitioning into still simple yet heavy blue-zy instrumentation. Lyrically, SOH is elusive, and its true meaning will forever escape me, though it is more than mildly suggestive of larger themes, and it is frequently taken as an simple yet direct allusion to mysticism. (Personally, I don't subscribe to this interpretation, although I acknowledge these elements in the music.) "Stairway to Heaven" makes this a classic album in-and-of-itself, but there are numerous timeless songs, the ones that stick in your craw. Led Zeppelin IV or Zoso is essential. |
| Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy | 3.5 |
| Led Zeppelin Coda | 4.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin | 4.0 |
| Led Zeppelin Early Days/Latter Days | 4.0 |
| Liam the Younger Revel Hidden Worlds | 3.0 |
| Lifehouse No Name Face | 3.5 |
| Limp Bizkit Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water | 1.0 |
| Linkin Park Hybrid Theory | 3.0 |
| Loma Prieta Last City | 3.0 |
| Lost In The Trees A Church That Fits Our Needs | 4.0 |
| Lucinda Williams Happy Woman Blues | 3.0 |
| Lute West1996 | 4.5 |
| Charlotte, NC emcee Lute fondly recalls the hip-hop of the 90s. His Westside1996 is an rattempt to recapture that golden era of hip-hop. Classic hip-hop included artists as diverse ras Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., A Tribe Called Qwest, and Nasir Jones himself. Despite rthe immense potential of that era, many of the promises of 90s hip-hop were unrealized. NAS rfaded away after Illmatic, while 2pac and Biggie burnt out. Q-tip and his crew consistently rput out great albums, but to little fanfare. Lute captures the best of each of these artists rwith Westside1996. Lute defines himself in terms of his own personal success (see r"Success"), but it remains to be seen if he is able to capture the glory that has eluded his rpredecessors. |
| Lynyrd Skynyrd Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd | 4.0 |
| Lynyrd Skynyrd become an icon after releasing this LP, featuring "Simple Man" "Freebird" and "Tuesday's Gone." |
| M. Ward A Wasteland Companion | 3.5 |
| M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming | 3.0 |
| Madvillain Madvillainy | 3.5 |
| Manic Street Preachers Journal For Plague Lovers | 4.0 |
| Massive Attack Mezzanine | 2.0 |
| A very deep album that urges careful consideration and pulls the listener in, if it is given time |
| Massive Attack Blue Lines | 4.5 |
| Matt Nathanson Some Mad Hope | 3.0 |
| Metallica Metallica | 2.0 |
| Metallica St. Anger | 2.5 |
| Metallica Master of Puppets | 3.0 |
| Metallica Some Kind of Monster | 3.0 |
| Metallica Load | 3.0 |
| Metallica Kill 'Em All | 3.5 |
| The songs that were written and recorded with the least production value have come to be my favorite Metallica songs. Thrash didn't live up to what many thought it could be, and many will hold Kill 'Em All up as the example of this... what's good here is too numerous to list. Basically, the thematic elements here are intrinsic, and I see many of Metallica's later attempts, e.g. Master of Puppets, as trying to recapture what was present here on their first LP. It's true that we probably wouldn't remember this album without the Black Album or even ...And Justice for All, but I revere this all the same. Ride the Lightning is essentially a polished Kill 'Em All, and Master of Puppets is Metallica's shadow of itself, a memory of itself. Metallica was meant to have a metal militia to march to their defense (fanboys mostly) it seems. |
| Metallica Ride the Lightning | 3.5 |
| Metallica ...And Justice for All | 3.5 |
| mewithoutYou Blood Enough For Us All | 1.0 |
| mewithoutYou sounds more like Slayer than the Christian mewithoutYou we have come to love and respect. |
| mewithoutYou A to B: Life | 3.0 |
| mewithoutYou Brother, Sister | 4.5 |
| Miles Davis Bitches Brew | 2.0 |
| Miles Davis Sketches of Spain | 3.5 |
| Miles Davis Birth of the Cool | 3.5 |
| Miles Davis Kind of Blue | 4.5 |
| Milla Jovovich The Divine Comedy | 3.0 |
| Minor Threat Complete Discography | 3.5 |
| Minus the Bear Menos El Oso | 2.0 |
| Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West | 4.5 |
| Mogwai Come On Die Young | 3.5 |
| More Than Life Love Let Me Go | 3.0 |
| My Morning Jacket The Tennessee Fire | 2.0 |
| Nas Illmatic | 4.0 |
| Hardened thug or just Nas? The beauty of art is that we can present what we want to the rest of the world. Nas presents the former face instead of the face of Nasir Jones, who is pictured on the front of this album. |
| Neil Young Freedom | 3.0 |
| Neil Young After the Gold Rush | 4.0 |
| Neil Young Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere | 4.0 |
| Neil Young Harvest | 5.0 |
| Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea | 5.0 |
| An existential meditation if I ever heard one. The persona behind these sordid melodies quietly exited the stage after experiencing somewhat of a personal meltdown. Musically, this is just the same old (same old) pop song that has always been written for broad audiences. That partly explains this album's far-ranging appeal. What's different about In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the honesty with which the music here has been constructed... a man honest with himself and with others through his music, many have taken a strange delight in the candidness, the sorrow, the joy, etc. that is present in what is surely one of the biggest surprise successes of recent times. |
| Nine Inch Nails Year Zero | 1.5 |
| Nine Inch Nails The Fragile | 2.0 |
| Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral | 3.5 |
| Nine Inch Nails With Teeth | 4.5 |
| Nirvana Nevermind | 3.0 |
| Nirvana Bleach | 3.5 |
| Nirvana Nirvana | 4.0 |
| No Doubt Tragic Kingdom | 3.0 |
| Of Monsters and Men My Head is an Animal | 4.5 |
| Off Minor The Heat Death of the Universe | 3.0 |
| Old Man Markley Guts N' Teeth | 3.0 |
| Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo | 2.5 |
| Owl City Ocean Eyes | 3.0 |
| Ozzy Osbourne No More Tears | 3.0 |
| Ozzy Osbourne Ozzmosis | 3.5 |
| Ozzy Osbourne The Essential Ozzy Osbourne | 4.0 |
| P.O.D. Satellite | 3.0 |
| Paul Simon So Beautiful or So What | 3.0 |
| Pearl Jam Ten | 3.5 |
| Peter Frampton Frampton Comes Alive! | 3.5 |
| Phil Collins Face Value | 3.0 |
| Pink Floyd Echoes | 4.0 |
| Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here | 4.5 |
| Progressive rock albums are really hit or miss... this is a hit, but it's not the sensational sort of hit that really gets a progressive rock fan like me excited. But it does resemble other progressive rock albums, and yet it's far more accessible than those, not just because it's Pink Floyd, but because this band, more than other bands, has a way of meeting you where you are, wherever that may be. |
| Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon | 5.0 |
| Choice is the word that comes to mind. Every note has been carefully placed, every drum fill, so on and so forth. Emotive yet elegant, emotions are important element of its appeal. One of the better produced albums ever, credit to Alan Parsons. Many of the songs on here are simple. Its simplicity is a testament to its genius. Dark Side of the Moon is simultaneously insanity and genius. |
| Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet | 3.0 |
| Portraits Of Past 01010101 | 3.0 |
| Portugal. The Man American Ghetto | 3.0 |
| Prince The Very Best of Prince | 2.0 |
| Probot Probot | 2.5 |
| Puddle of Mudd Come Clean | 3.5 |
| In a sense, Come Clean is a portrait of Wesley Scantlin's learning the hard lessons in life, the ones encountered in the transition from a boy to a man. Three singles "Control" "Blurry" and "She Hates Me" in addition to numerous likely singles. I bought this record over 10 years ago. Still a 5-star rock record. Radio rock done properly. |
| Queens of the Stone Age Lullabies to Paralyze | 3.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf | 3.5 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Rated R | 4.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Over the Years and Through the Woods | 4.0 |
| Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age | 4.5 |
| R.E.M. Automatic for the People | 2.0 |
| Radiohead Pablo Honey | 1.5 |
| Radiohead Kid A | 3.0 |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 3.5 |
| Radiohead Hail to the Thief | 3.5 |
| Radiohead In Rainbows | 4.0 |
| Radiohead's fourth attempt at electronica. Its first attempt at a would-be business model revolving around free music for everybody. In Rainbows is proof positive that Thom Yorke deserves the lion share of this band's success. Yorke is effervescent. Thom Yorke is to Radiohead as Chris Martin is to Coldplay. Radiohead has the sounds of the 31st century to Coldplay's infectious piano melodies. Radiohead or Coldplay is just a matter of preference. That last statement is a veiled compliment to Coldplay and a most ringing endorsement of In Rainbows. |
| Rage Against the Machine The Battle of Los Angeles | 2.0 |
| Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine | 3.0 |
| Rage Against the Machine Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium | 3.0 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik | 2.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Greatest Hits | 3.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium | 4.0 |
| Regina Spektor 11:11 | 3.0 |
| Regina Spektor Begin To Hope | 3.5 |
| Regina Spektor Songs | 4.0 |
| Regina Spektor Far | 4.5 |
| Spektor offers the latest in the Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul series... |
| Regina Spektor Soviet Kitsch | 5.0 |
| Regina Spektor is one of the few artists that truly inspires -- whether it be inspiration for hope (as in "Chemo Limo") or love (as in "Us"). Spektor is beyond pale in the tracks listed, but she stumbles elsewhere on this album, which may adversely affect some listener's interpretations of this album. Spektor plays music on the piano, but she writes her music for the soul. For me this record is excellent but it is without a legitimate comparison. |
| Rush Moving Pictures | 3.5 |
| Rush Fly by Night | 3.5 |
| Rush Rush | 4.0 |
| Rush Permanent Waves | 4.5 |
| Saetia A Retrospective | 4.0 |
| Say Anything In Defense of the Genre | 2.5 |
| Say Anything ...Is a Real Boy | 4.5 |
| I think Blink-182 wrote this album sometime before Say Anything, but Say Anything didn't nearly sell as many records or garnish as much in the way of pre-teen accolades. Well, there are a lot of post-teens who latched onto this one, and surely haven't let go since... ...Is A Real Boy is a real five. |
| Seven Mary Three The Economy Of Sound | 3.0 |
| Silver Jews American Water | 3.5 |
| Silversun Pickups Carnavas | 4.0 |
| Silversun Pickups reveals the power of the Smashing Pumpkins, sans the angst. Carnavas is more of a renovation of Smashing Pumpkins than a remake, if that makes any sense. If it doesn't make sense to you, then you should give this one a spin or two. |
| Simon and Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water | 3.5 |
| Simon and Garfunkel Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme | 3.5 |
| Sir Richard Bishop While My Guitar Violently Bleeds | 3.5 |
| Slayer Reign in Blood | 3.5 |
| Slayer South of Heaven | 3.5 |
| Smash Mouth Astro Lounge | 3.0 |
| Sonic Youth Daydream Nation | 2.0 |
| Soundgarden Superunknown | 3.0 |
| Soundgarden A-Sides | 3.5 |
| Soundtrack (Film) Silent Hill The Movie Soundtrack | 2.5 |
| State Radio Us Against the Crown | 3.5 |
| Stoked Beyond Boredom Two Dudes and A Chick | 3.0 |
| Styx The Grand Illusion | 3.5 |
| Switchfoot The Beautiful Letdown | 3.5 |
| Talking Heads Remain in Light | 4.0 |
| Tanlines Mixed Emotions | 3.0 |
| Tego Calderon El Abarllade | 3.5 |
| Television Marquee Moon | 4.0 |
| Tenacious D The Pick of Destiny | 3.5 |
| Tenacious D Tenacious D | 4.0 |
| The Allman Brothers Band Shades of Two Worlds | 3.0 |
| The Avett Brothers I and Love and You | 3.0 |
| The Avett Brothers The Second Gleam | 3.5 |
| The Bambi Molesters Sonic Bullets: 13 from the Hip | 3.0 |
| The Beatles Revolver | 2.5 |
| The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | 3.5 |
| The Beatles Abbey Road | 4.0 |
| The Beatles The Beatles | 4.5 |
| The White Album is the gold standard for classic albums. |
| The Cars Move Like This | 3.0 |
| The Cure Disintegration | 3.0 |
| The Decemberists The Crane Wife | 3.5 |
| The Decemberists Castaways and Cutouts | 4.0 |
| The Fall of Troy Manipulator | 2.0 |
| The Fall of Troy Doppelganger | 4.0 |
| The Flaming Lips At War with the Mystics | 3.0 |
| An improvement over Yoshimi four years in the making... |
| The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots | 4.0 |
| Wait, chicken noodle soup can be condensed? The Flaming Lips are song writers, and here they are writing more concise songs. A good thing to listen to. |
| The Fray How to Save a Life | 4.0 |
| The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound | 4.5 |
| The Guess Who These Eyes: The Ultimate Collection | 3.5 |
| The Jayhawks Tomorrow the Green Grass | 3.0 |
| The Joy Formidable The Big Roar | 3.5 |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium | 3.5 |
| At the Drive-In/The Mars Volta were joined by this and Relationship of Command... the two are continuous. ROC contains the science fiction aspects necessary for the creation of the Mars Volta, but it lacks the changes that characterize the Mars Volta and progressive rock in general. The changes that were added to the music of At the Drive-In resulted in the Mars Volta, a progressive rock outfit. Chief among the changes that were added are quiet/loud, time signature switches, and the addition of instruments plus effects. The volta |
| The Mars Volta Amputechture | 3.5 |
| The Mars Volta expanded their musical repertoire. How did this happen? With continued experimentation, but more precisely, I think, by admonishing artistic direction to the sessions musicians. Amputechture represents a significant epoche for the Mars Volta as the band moves out of the musical wilderness, away from kitsch of At the Drive-In and earlier TMV, into the territory of other progressive rock outfits, even surpassing progressive rock giants, like Rush, in creativity and popularity. Is the Mars Volta this generation's Pink Floyd? |
| The Mars Volta Tremulant | 4.5 |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute | 5.0 |
| Challenging, intriguing, thematic, breathtaking, limitless. Few will remember it, far fewer will revere it as I do. A glimpse of an The Mars Volta that is both progressive and conceptual. |
| The Moody Blues Anthology | 4.0 |
| The Mountain Goats All Eternals Deck | 1.0 |
| The National Trouble Will Find Me | 2.5 |
| The National The National | 3.0 |
| The National Cherry Tree | 3.0 |
| The National High Violet | 3.5 |
| The National Alligator | 4.0 |
| The National Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers | 4.0 |
| The National The Virginia EP | 4.0 |
| The National Boxer | 5.0 |
| The New Pornographers Challengers | 3.5 |
| The Number Twelve Looks Like You Nuclear. Sad. Nuclear. | 3.0 |
| The Offspring The Offspring | 3.0 |
| The Smiths Louder Than Bombs | 3.5 |
| The Smiths Hatful of Hollow | 4.5 |
| The Soviettes LP III | 3.5 |
| The Unicorns Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? | 3.5 |
| The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico | 3.5 |
| The Who Tommy | 2.5 |
| The Wreckers Stand Still, Look Pretty | 3.0 |
| The xx xx | 3.0 |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Horses in the Sky | 3.0 |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Born Into Trouble As the Sparks Fly Upward | 4.0 |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons | 4.0 |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our | 5.0 |
| He Has Left Us... is an album without time signatures. What does that sound like? Well, He Has Left Us... ebbs and flows as if time didn't exist; twenty minutes passes as if they were two. A Godspeed You! Black Emperor derivative, A Silver Mt. Zion plays post-rock whereas the later Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra is more noise rock/folk. The spirit of destructive beauty that characterizes Godspeed You! Black Emperor is still alive in the earlier works of A Silver Mt. Zion. |
| THEESatisfaction awE naturalE | 3.5 |
| thenewno2 thefearofmissingout | 3.0 |
| Third Eye Blind Third Eye Blind | 4.0 |
| This Will Destroy You Young Mountain | 1.5 |
| Thrice The Illusion of Safety | 4.0 |
| Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance | 4.0 |
| Titus Andronicus The Monitor | 3.5 |
| Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Greatest Hits | 3.0 |
| Tom Waits Rain Dogs | 2.0 |
| Tom Waits Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards | 3.0 |
| Tom Waits Blood Money | 3.0 |
| Tom Waits Bone Machine | 3.5 |
| Imagine an adolescent Tom Waits sitting in the basement recording songs with a handful of instruments late at night while his parents argue loudly upstairs and you have Bone Machine, a stripped-down collection of disparate musical ideas. Just the bones please. |
| Tom Waits Foreign Affairs | 3.5 |
| Tom Waits Alice | 4.0 |
| Tom Waits Small Change | 4.0 |
| Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones | 4.5 |
| Tom Waits Mule Variations | 4.5 |
| Tom Waits Real Gone | 4.5 |
| Tom Waits One From The Heart | 4.5 |
| Tori Amos Little Earthquakes | 1.5 |
| Tortoise TNT | 2.0 |
| Trampled By Turtles Trouble | 5.0 |
| "Salvation" "Who's Calling?" "Rich/Poor" and "Trouble" showcase Dave Simonett's excellent abilities as a song-writer and front-man for a contemporary blugrass band from Duluth, MN. The band features a mandolin, guitar, bass, fiddle, and banjo. What sets Trampled by Turtles from a lot of other bluegrass acts is the way in which the fiddle/violin creates an atmosphere around the music at the slower tempos that also characterize Trampled by Turtles' music. Dave Simonett's melodies run well with the blugrass format, even though a lot of his songs are good enough to stand alone without the backing of additional stringed instruments. |
| Trip Lee Good Life | 4.0 |
| TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain | 1.5 |
| A handful of gems isn't enough to save TV On the Radio from themselves. The band seemingly struggles with constructing the most melodies, etc. Songs lack any sorts of real catchiness. There's a BIG difference between being indie and sucking, and the band has confused the two, once again. Dear Science is preferable to this one, as it stands as a nice course correction. |
| TV on the Radio Dear Science | 2.0 |
| Underoath Define the Great Line | 4.0 |
| Van Morrison Astral Weeks | 3.0 |
| Van Morrison A Night in San Francisco | 3.0 |
| Velvet Revolver Contraband | 4.0 |
| Warren Zevon Excitable Boy | 3.5 |
| Ween GodWeenSatan: The Oneness | 1.0 |
| For better or worse, in success and failures, Ween will never be able to live this one down... |
| Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot | 4.5 |
| Wolfmother Wolfmother | 1.0 |
| Woody Guthrie Bob Dylan's Woody Guthrie Selection | 3.0 |
| Wu-Tang Clan Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) | 4.5 |
| Yes Fragile | 2.0 |
| Yo La Tengo I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass | 2.5 |
| Yo La Tengo Summer Sun | 3.0 |
Yo La Tengo will be remembered for their successes -- their bold song-writing, alternative
eclecticism, and superb melodies -- in addition to their obvious failures. Summer Sun with
its incredible atmospheres and failed experimentation not to mention a lack of commercial
success, certainly, fits this narrative. Summer Sun shines like the New Jersey summer sun
shines. It is atmospheric and elegant but fleeting. |
| Yo La Tengo The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science | 3.5 |
| Yo La Tengo Fakebook | 4.0 |
| Yo La Tengo I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One | 4.5 |
