Frank Ocean - Channel ORANGE

Beyoncé – Beyoncé

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

ABBA - Gold

Adele - 21

Spice Girls - Spice

 

I'm really looking forward to you reviewing these ones. ^^ :cheer:

Looking forward to what you say about Thriller and Abba Gold. Would rather you'd picked an Abba studio album actually, say Arrival or Super Trouper.

It's not my choice, I'm following the list on the poster and they've listed Gold (I do agree it's a little weird putting a Greatest Hits when it's predominantly studio albums that feature here though).

 

It may not be until October/November I get to Adele and the Spice Girls but stay tuned :lol:

 

-x-

 

 

Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers!

 

The tenth studio album by Frank Sinatra was a more upbeat change in direction to the more sombre, In The Wee Small Hours and combined the swing and love song sound that was present on his earlier albums to make...well, the title says it all. Released in 1956, it's our oldest album so far and was the first ever album to top the UK albums chart and is still seen today as one of his best albums (he released 59!!) and one that would define his style going forward as he took more control of his career and stand out from the 'brat pack' he was seen as part of.

 

Up until now, I've been quite open to (non-Sheeran at least) most types of music, unfortunately this album exposes that as hard as I might try, I just don't really find 1950s mainstream, big band music that interesting. This is of course entirely a fault of me being raised and growing up on a huge diversity of music and increased availability in the 2000s so it doesn't seem fair to compare, but even trying my best, it all just sounds a bit too basic these days. Now I do like Ol' Blue Eyes, he's definitely one of the better 1950s loverboys and he would go on to record some music where he really put his own stamp on it and make them eternal classics (My Way and New York, New York), but on here, while his voice and the composition are very good and I'm sure was very interesting and standout at the time, and for something recorded in the 1950s, it sounds very clear and professional to this day considering it wasn't remastered so I guess you can call it timeless, but the songs are just all the same kind of thing and not enough vocal or instrumental variation to keep me interested, not considering not a lot of the songs are actually original, as most weren't at the time, so there isn't really much of his own stamp on any of them. There is one exception, I've Got You Under My Skin, has a great building orchestra and his confident voice does really sell it, but unfortunately, I can't name that many other highlights, they were just standard love songs that all go along the same tune. Although shoutout to Makin' Whoopee which did make me laugh for just how ridiculous that phrase sounds, It's a good thing that word doesn't mean what it meant then these days!

 

Ultimately, while this album I'm sure was a great achievement and really established Frank Sinatra to become a much bigger name and paved the way for more experimentations later, I don't think there was a lot here that really showed him at his best. I'd have preferred In The Wee Small Hours as at least that was a conceptual collection of music that showed artistic control. I'm trying to be as fair as I can when rating albums well before my time and not what I'm used to musically, but I can't say I got a lot of enjoyment out of this at all sooo

 

5.5

 

John Lennon - Imagine

 

Technically the only artist who is the lead artist for two albums on this list. Released two years after the break-up of the Beatles, Imagine is John Lennon's second studio album and had a much more lush and clear sound in comparison to his first studio album with the Plastic Ono Band. It was his most successful album that he released in his lifetime and is still regarded as his masterpiece, not the least helped by the timeless and omnipresent title track which is seen as one of the best songs of all time. With lyrics reflecting politics, love and peace, it was very much Lennon in his prime and it has been re-released numerous times, not the least after his death nearly ten years later where two of the songs from it went to number 1.

 

This was a rather nice album that threw up a few surprises. Obviously the title track stands above all the rest, and while it does get differing views, I've always been a fan. Seeing such a radical, anti-capitalist, anti-religious song be freely loved by all is quite novel, even if it wrapped in a very simple melody. There's no shortage of political protesting throughout with the rather striking double of the repetitive but thought provoking I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier, I Don't Wanna Die and the brilliantly accurate Gimme Some Truth with it's pointed lyrics towards politicians, though it isn't all angry and a lot of these songs show the sensitive soul beneath the bravado, I confess the love songs generally weren't the best, with the exception of Jealous Guy with its full orchestral backing and regretful, morose lyrics make for a beautiful ode to his lost love. How? is also an extremely profound, stripped down song which asks existential questions. I wish this had been a single as I'd never heard of it before and it needs to be heard by many. His angriest point on the record is definitely How Do You Sleep?, a scathing song famously aimed at former bandmate, Paul McCartney when the two were going through a few disputes and he'd called him out on a song on his latest album, it's pretty brutal seeing all the references aimed at him, I miss when diss tracks were interesting like this. The contrast in sensitive sweetness and out and out fury is definitely an interesting one to behold on this record.

 

There are quite a few strange directions which he goes in which don't quite work, Crippled Inside and It's So Hard seem to be Lennon's take on rockabilly and country music and I think it showcases that these aren't his strengths, both are lacking a bit in tune. But overall, this is a pretty varied and eclectic work that showcased his main statements as an artist and the many strings to his bow that he had. It's not a patch on his work with the Beatles of course, but if any of them came closest to reaching those heights solo, this album is a good case for Lennon being that one.

 

7.5

'Imagine' is definitely the solo Beatle album that I'm most familiar with! I think my top 3 would probably be 'Imagine' (obvious but a classic), 'Jealous Guy' and 'How Do You Sleep?' (despite preferring when the group got along :kink:) - so I'm glad that you mentioned all in a positive light!

 

So many of these classic albums that I haven't heard before :drama:

^Have you heard Blue Lines or Screamadelica? I think you'd really like them, the former in particular as I know you're a fan of Massive Attack!

 

 

Eagles - Hotel California

 

While Eagles were always a popular band in the 1970s, they truly reached their peak with Hotel California. It was the first album to feature new guitarist, Joe Walsh and he really made his mark on the album. Built around themes of contemporary America and the darker side to the American Dream, it was nominated for an album of the year award at the Grammys and would cement them as superstars. They would after this gradually go on to dissolve at the end of the 1970s, but would reunite in the 90s and release new material twenty eight years later and remain together to this day albeit not with all the original members intact.

 

I, like many people, know the title track pretty well and it's fantastic. The guitar work and catchy chorus is exemplary enough, but the cryptic, allegorical lyrics and story told add a new layer to the song and it's deservedly right up there with Bohemian Rhapsody with songs people are just constantly finding new meanings in the lyrics for. It's a great start to the album, unfortunately the rest of it doesn't quite stand up to that. There are positives here though - there's some excellent guitar work here, you can tell the new guitarist was fresh as the hooks just keep coming and they all still sound very crisp to this day. It's a shame that there isn't as much sonic variety in the songs that all do tend to blend into each other after a while. I will say the lyrics are interesting to analyse throughout, there is many references to American life present throughout and the darker undertones and social critique is interesting and still holds up today, Life in the Fast Lane seems particularly aimed at typical Hollywood hedonism and the final song, The Last Resort, is a real epic that deals with environmental damage and capitalism with pretty chilling delivery and great instrumentals. Otherwise, Wasted Time is a really nice ballad that has an additional reprise that adds some strings, choir and piano to the mix.

 

I can't say a lot negative about this, it's easy to see how it was so popular as these songs are all very accessible and well composed and written, but for whatever reason, it never properly impacted me. I guess there just wasn't enough variation to interest me as much as it could've and the sort of raw almost Country-esque rock sound is one I can only take in small doses (Try and Love Again in particular is a bit chalkboard scraping to me). But either way, It did grow on me a bit more on second listen, I doubt there's any I'll come back to outside the title track, but overall, a solid piece of work~

 

7.0

I have heard Hotel California and it always baffles me that it's one of the biggest selling albums worldwide, I think it's #3 or something and their best of is #1?!!!

 

With Thriller I totally get why it was so well received by everyone, even if I don't like every track on it, but with this I was a bit disappointed as I was expecting something far more memorable.

I have heard Hotel California and it always baffles me that it's one of the biggest selling albums worldwide, I think it's #3 or something and their best of is #1?!!!

With Thriller I totally get why it was so well received by everyone, even if I don't like every track on it, but with this I was a bit disappointed as I was expecting something far more memorable.

 

 

I'm baffled too as the title track and other singles are by far the best tracks on the album. The rest is Thriller.

Wow, I didn't actually know it was third of all time :mellow: I guess it was just the in sound at the time, it certainly sounds like it would have universal appeal even if it wasn't the most inventive.

 

-x-

 

 

Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

 

Another 70s album now, albeit one that's a little different in sound. Songs in the Key of Life was the eighteenth (!) album Stevie released and was seen by critics as a culmination of the many different sounds that he was trying throughout the decade, there are many different styles present on the album, varying from gospel, R'n'B, Funk, avant-pop and jazz. At the time, Stevie had returned from a lengthy hiatus from recording despite being a big star at the time and was dissatisfied with the current state of his label and wanted more creative control. Fortunately, he was big enough to be able to have a say here and a new deal was negotiated which allowed him to release his magnum opus and a result of two years of experimenting. It was widely acclaimed and is still seen as his best work.

 

This was a LONG album, after reading the context I understood why a bit more, but still I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd only heard a handful of Stevie Wonder songs in my life and apparently a lot of them were after his golden period and when he became a bit more commercial (makes sense as I Just Called to Say I Loved You, as nice as it is, doesn't strike me as an artist in his prime), but this golden period definitely was thankfully very different. I was really worried after the seven minute slow gospel number Love's In Need of Love Today that this would be a slog as this isn't my cup of tea, but I'm pleased to say I was wrong. It's no joke to say there is a huge amount of diversity present on this album, for every sound that doesn't quite work, there's bound to be another one that really hits the spot. I certainly found that to be the case. There's so many songs, it's hard to summarise it in a mere paragraph but some highlights for me include Village Ghetto Land which has a minimalist, avant-garde sound which still sounds quite revolutionary to this day and a super funky instrumental Contusion, throwing plonking piano, flashy guitars, synths and backing vocals into something truly brilliant. There were a couple that I already knew on here that I never knew was him originally - As, I got a bit sick of the George Michael cover on the radio all the time, but this one is much more fleshed out and more expansive and it's worldly lyrics make you appreciate the epic scale of hos love. Pastime Paradise is the origin of a real favourite of mine, Gangsta's Paradise, but this version maintains that urgency and social commentary and I can see why Coolio thought it apt to sample this. Isn't She Lovely I am familiar with and...I could do without it in all honesty! It's cute to write a song devoted to your daughter don't get me wrong, but I could do without her sound effects on the song. But thankfully, Stevie has some excellent lyrics elsewhere, covering many political and social cultural grounds that still maintain their relevance as well as anthems to unite us all. The best of these are Ngiculela-Es Una Historia - I Am Singing, containing both Zulu and Spanish fluently as an ode to the major unity tool that is music and the eight minute epic Black Man is a funky history lesson that reminds us all of Black people's achievements, going so far as to literally list them through gospel at the end. It's quite the sight, I do hope school teachers make use of this song when teaching Black History.

 

There's so many distinctive sounds on this album and such a huge quantity of work that I can't imagine how long this would've taken at a time when the world wasn't as well-equipped with technology, but all the effort paid off as this still sounds fantastic to this day. It goes through many different genres and styles yet never loses that authentic energy and vision of love in his lyrics that makes it an inspiring and important work to listen to. A real triumph even today, I highly recommend this if you don't know it, you may be surprised~

 

9.0

 

The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

 

One of the key albums of the very short-lived 'Madchester' scene that was blossoming at the end of the 1980s in a pretty downtrodden and depressing Britain at the end of Thatcher's reign. A subculture of the Northern working-class alternative rock band began to form and merge with other genres such as acid house and hardcore in a way that wasn't seem before and was reminiscent of the psychedelic movement in the 1960s but the with the benefit of increasing technology since then. We've already seen one of the key albums of the sound with Primal Scream, but if there was an album that came to influence both the sound and look and feel of the movement, it was the Stone Roses' debut, with it still being very highly acclaimed to this day and with many saying it cleared the way for the similar Britpop movement to dominate in the 1990s.

 

So actually my favourite Stone Roses song prior to this would probably have been Love Spreads from their second album, which was apparently panned quite a bit. I still maintain it had quite an epic structure and composition, I can't speak for how the album sounded, but I will say this album did sound quite different to that, but certainly not in a bad way. There's an impressive array of instruments, a confident vocal by Ian Brown in his prime and a real energy behind this album and while I feel the merging with acid house was a bit more apparent on Screamadelica, there's an impressive depth to the soundscape here that you can easily see appeal to any indie or dance fan and having more than a few nods to Oasis in style so it's no surprise that I'm quite the fan. I already knew Fools Gold, but I'd only heard it in edit form and it sounds so much better in its nine minute version where a relatively restrained opening and soft yet memorable bassline grows into a huge electronic and electric atmosphere, it closing off the album is a great way in which to showcase the movement that was to come. The intros to songs and breakdowns are often very long and open to a lot of experimentation but that doesn't dull them. Some other highlights include the very melodic and timeless Waterfall, the epic, defiant statement of the eight minute, defiant, ever-switching up epic that is I Am The Resurrection (I hadn't heard this before now!) and vocal effects powerhouse that is Don't Stop. There's a nice little dig at the establishment as you'd expect in Elizabeth My Dear in the middle that keeps your attention too.

 

Like I said, I did feel of the albums from that time, that Screamadelica was a bit better in mixing up the genres, but I can see how that took big influence from this one and this is very much up my street too. It sounds so confident and unique for a debut that you'd wonder how they weren't already masters of their craft by this point (indeed, it seems they went the other way into losing their sound after this debut if what I read about them is true!). It works as a throwback to a classic sound and establishing a new direction that would inspire many British sounds over the next genre. A pretty important record and a really good one.

 

8.5

I am the Resurrection! *.* That and Made Of Stone are my favourites from that album. It's definitely one of the better albums released from that time and I think it's aged quite well too, plus I love the album cover

 

Frank Ocean - Channel ORANGE

 

Now this one I imagine quite a few of you would know. This was the debut album for Frank Ocean after building up quite a following from his previous mixtape. The buzz around the album only intensified for Ocean coming out as bisexual which would foreshadow some of the songs relating to unrequited love on the album, however, he did a lot more with this album than that, experimenting a lot with electro-funk, psychedelic, jazz and pop and combining ambient sounds and film soundtracks with high-concept lyrics and imagery to form a highly unconventional release. It worked out for him though, it received acclaim from many critics and catapulted him to stardom and is still seen as one of the best albums of the last decade.

 

I do obviously recall this at the time (my sister was a huge fan of it for one), me not listening to it mainly comes around to the fact I was still kind of in my top 40 phase where I wouldn't really search for music outside of the charts (which I still listened to weekly at that point) so it flew under my radar. I deeply regret this upon listening to this as this was something else. While I'm not an expert on the genre, I don't recall any R'n'B/hip hop sounding this sophisticated and interesting. It's such an intricate, introspective and well thought out piece of work where there's so much to explore both lyrically and musically. I particularly love the studies of contrast he does lyrically - Sierra Leone comparing lust for girls as a teenager to the country's relationship with diamonds and Civil War, and the album's centrepiece and main highlight - Pyramids is a particularly excellent historical odyssey comparing Cleopatra's ultimate sacrifice to the cheetahs with Cleopatra working at a strip club to keep the bills coming in. From glaring synths for the urgency of the first half, halfway through, it completely switches to a mellow downbeat R'n'B, deceptively more conventional but not so after coming after what we just heard. There are many other more abstract and intelligent lyrics on the album - Super Rich Kids and Sweet Life parody the upper 1% pretty excellently, there are ofc. many mentions of unrequited love, but it's to his credit that he doesn't make the whole album about it and tells tales of unrequited love fitting for both genders that feel personal and genuine and also comparisons to pop culture moments such as films like Forrest Gump, such as Thinking About You and the melancholy and dramatic high point of the album, Bad Religion, mimicking a church organ in a deep confession to his taxi driver. It's as interesting sonically as it is lyrically, the album has many different experiments with structure, instruments and genres, sometimes within the same song like Pyramids, the first half is perhaps the more 'conventional' soul/R'n'B sound, but the second half, there's many more delving into funk-rock and new wave like Lost & Monks, indeed, it's one of those albums you never really know what's coming next. Another thing it gets very right is the use of ambience and real world samples as effective additions to the narrative. I'm coming across so many of those albums on this list use 'skits' and they are painfully unfunny, this actually makes use of the soundbites to make it sound effective. The very last one End is a particularly effective episode between Ocean and a woman that adds to the overall theme. It just adds to make the album more cinematic.

 

There's so much to admire here from the soundscape, lyrics, experimentation, narrative and sheer craftsmanship that went into the creation of this that really tried to push the genre to its limits. Unlike bloody Sheeran, I think this is a modern classic that definitely deserves its place on the list. It's really a journey to listen to and I'm so glad it launched him into the spotlight. Despite the big fame this bought him, he has only releasing one other album (which I should definitely check out) and continuing to be rather under-the-radar since, especially in comparison to other big names in the genre like Kanye West or Beyonce, but maybe that's for the best that he still is solely focused on letting the music speak for itself and taking the necessary time to make the best music rather than letting an insufferable celebrity voice cloud the music (hi Kanye x). Certainly going by this album, he's surely a star worth keeping an eye for.

 

9.5

Amazing review Chez. I was looking forward to this one in particular.

 

Channel Orange is perhaps my favourite album of the 10's - I played the hell out of it in its entirety between 2012 and 2014 to the point I rarely play it these days but my appreciation for it hasn't wavered. 'Pyramids' is how you deliver a 10-minute epic of a song without the quality dying out halfway! A song that definitely deserves to be applauded and remembered far more than it is. Other personal favourites from the album include 'Monks' (the bop of the album), 'Bad Religion', 'Pink Matter' and 'Super Rich Kids'.

 

I hope Frank can deliver an album of CO's calibre whenever he returns (it seems to be every leap year so fingers crossed :kink:).

9.5 *.* happy to see such a glowing review for 'Pyramids' especially as that's one of my all-time favourite songs :wub:

I did already know Pyramids, but hearing it in the context of the album made it make a lot more sense and sound even better <3

 

 

Beyonce - Beyonce

 

This is the most recent album on the whole list now and one I imagine a lot of you would be familiar with. Beyonce's self-titled album would've been fairly big news whenever it was released, but it did in this case, truly take the world by surprise. Somehow in this surveillance drenched world, Beyonce managed to keep the production of her fifth album which featured a video for every single track secret from everyone and it was released on iTunes and digital platforms entirely without warning at the end of 2013, sure enough, coming as a 'visual album' where every video was on YouTube as well. It truly melted the internet and had them bowing at her feet (and indeed you can still see various lyrical memes from the album circulate - 'SurfBorT, I woke up like thissss etc.), but the music itself did turn out to be quite a step up from her past sound as she experimented more with an electronic sound and sexual exploration. It was one of her best received albums critically, as well as being a huge hit, ending up the tenth best selling album globally after being out for just two weeks. If there was a true watershed moment in album releases recently, you'd be hard pressed to find a more significant example than this, especially as it was imitated so many times afterwards (some ways more successful than others, remember that whole U2 album going on all our iTunes, mess x).

 

I'm kind of up and down with Beyonce, recently I think her music has been of a really good standard lately and the constant reinventions and artistic explorations of herself do indeed make her justified as one of the 21st Century's key artists (THE one? I honestly can't name many more on quite her level or cultural influence), it's just, well, she can be a bit up herself x, that and she can release some truly hideously tuneless songs (hi 7/11 and Run the World (Girls)). She is definitely at her best on something like Lemonade, which was a great, diverse visual concept album, but I would say this album is another very good example of that that's almost as good. This feels like a big change of direction from her radio-friendly R'n'B/Pop songs from the 2000s, and is a lot more diverse and experimental in style, with many elements of electronic and dance music blending quite seamlessly with her brand of pop, with a hell of a lot of sexual themes thrown in for good measure. Yeah, this album isn't exactly subtle when it comes to themes, it's a pretty out and out, raunchy examination of sexuality, and while the videos do keep mainly SFW, the lyrics don't hold back as much. Blow and Rocket are ladled with innuendos as you'd expect from the titles and Drunk in Love, the big hit from the album, is a pretty good example of what to expect both musically and lyrically. There are other themes though, mainly as you would expect there is a feminist approach most commonly seen in *Flawless with it's three part structure that can easily be summarised as: Bow down, Bitches / the speech from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / the 'I woke up like this' part, but it's a hell of a ride to get there, with a brazing beat that could be from a rap battle and an energetic production it earns its place. Superpower is a pretty great, part doo wop number featuring Frank Ocean with a video centred around protests that really holds a lot of relevancy to the current state of affairs. The end of the album is also devoted to odes to her baby (Blue) and her own faith and background (Heaven), nice and all, but not the most interesting end if I'm being honest oop.

 

Indeed, with seventeen tracks, there is certainly some filler, Rocket goes ON AND ON FOREVER, XO feels a bit basic in comparison and Mine doesn't seem to know where it wants to go BUT the main attraction here is how diverse and electronic the album sounds, it makes her familiar sounding work sound rejuvenated and unique, often with differing structures as shown by Flawless and also Haunted, the latter is a really dream-like ethereal sounding track and seamlessly blends into the hidden rap of Ghost, along with it's psycho-sexual video, it's one of the most intriguing moments and Drunk in Love is still one of the best produced songs here and it's a great, sultry, gradually intensifying journey. She hadn't really sounded like this before and it really works for the most part, and all the more fascinating coming a fair amount of time into her career, and she clearly has a lot more to give. It's a strong, confident piece of work overall that deserves its place as a modern classic and a good example of the power she has when she is at her best.

 

8.0

I think you've caught up to where I was, I'd better get back to listening to this list so I can comment more.

 

Frank Ocean was an interesting album to go through and though I've never thought him much my style was good to get into my collection, loved discovering The Stone Roses though, groundbreaking album all around.

 

Some excellent tracks on Beyoncé, because of its release circumstances it's the Beyoncé album I'm most familiar with in full, but it has some of her best songs on it and I can be very critical of her at times, not here though.

^31-40 has some great albums in there!

 

 

Michael Jackson - Thriller

 

I'm quite surprised this made the list tbh, it's such a little known artist with an album I can't say I'd ever heard before, I guess the purpose of this list was to raise awareness of those little known artists that made a quiet impact that wasn't realised by the mainstream and I salute that, it shows the diversity of the list. Anyway, what a great album this was, I feel like these songs have great scope for videos as well if he gets a bit bigger, hopefully this review is the start of big things for this Michael Jackson person!

 

:basil:

 

Here it is then, the big one, still the world's biggest selling album with 66 million copies sold to this date and breaking many racial and musical barriers with it's back catalogue of hits. It was the album truly turned him into a superstar and one every MJ fan should own. While I hadn't heard this album in full, it turns out I had for the most part as seven out of the nine tracks here were released as singles, and naturally almost all have held up to this day becoming radio staples. There were only two that were left as album tracks - Baby Be Mine and The Lady in My Life. The latter is a slower paced and nicely produced ballad that is unremarkable but passable, though the former could've been a cut from his earlier disco phase that still sounds cool and probably would've been a hit. I'd say I prefer them at least to The Girl is Mine, which despite being the lead single (yeah really, guess down to the Paul McCartney feature but still), is easily one of the weakest cuts here. Thankfully though, the album has much more to it than that, pretty much all the greatest defining artistic moments in Jackson's career. The opener Wanna Be Startin' Something is a great indicator of the non-stop, fast-paced groove throughout the album with various instruments and samples and the ever slick vocal delivery making for something pretty irresistible, as well as the fairly open lyrics addressing his controversies that would persist throughout the album and indeed his life. All these songs sound so massive and timeless even now and would easily be big hits today as well, yet they feel very diverse and distinctive as well. Billie Jean is the definitive song for him, it's lyrics, video and iconic choreography that come with it are completely iconic and I'm not surprised it's come to be seen as his signature song. Thriller shows a darker and fun side of him (and as great as the video is, it is much better hearing it in audio form as I don't like how the video breaks the song up) and Beat It an energetic, funk-rock angle which shows a willingness to experiment. Those three are all in a row on the album and I challenge you to find an album that has a better trio of songs in a row. The rest isn't QUITE as good, but still gets by as it is all classic Jackson, Human Nature is a nice ballad that breaks up the relentless funk a bit (with an instrumental used to perfection in SWV's Right Here <3) and P.Y.T is good in an album track kind of way, the fact it was also a single shows how powerful this album was!

 

It's a bit weird listening to this as it doesn't feel like a studio album, it's like a Greatest Hits, and I suppose you can never really feel the novelty of these all being new songs as so many are radio staples (I really wonder how people listening to this at the time felt). Pretty much all of Michael's crowning moments are here and while before and after this, he had some classics too, they just cannot compare. Then again, I suppose you can't expect anything less from what is seen as one of the definitive albums in music history, there's simply no other album that shows Michael Jackson at his very best than this one. To address the elephant in the room, I fully know that he as a person was probably pretty terrible and while innocent until proven guilty, you could easily believe that he did those awful things that have come out, but albums like this are worth separating art from artist so I hope he isn't "cancelled" just for the sake of preserving this. Thriller certainly didn't have the novelty of me discovering them as an artist for the first time, but for a studio album to have 90% of its songs completely ubiquitous as this (that aren't actual Greatest Hits albums) really speaks for the quality of it.

 

9.0

 

Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

 

The debut studio album from ex-Fugees member made use of neo-soul, reggae and R&B and the lyrical themes were heavily inspired on the negative by her experiences with turmoil in her old group, the Fugees with many of the lyrics making particularly direct references to Wyclef and her former bandmates, but also has positive reflections on her pregnancy, devotion to love and God. It was an extremely personal album and was highly praised critically and broke the record for first week sales for a female solo artist in the US as well as well as her breaking ground in the Grammies by winning five out of ten of the awards she was up for. It propelled her to superstardom and is still acclaimed to this day, so it's surprising to know that due to the huge pressures of fame and other issues, Hill, to this date, has never released another studio album. Barring a live album which was critically panned and flopped oops.

 

This is definitely an album I appreciate more than I actively enjoy. It certainly is very personal and has some very mature themes for someone so young at the time. Given hip hop was largely very separated from this sort of thing (and even harder to break into for female stars), it's a big achievement, and there are some really good songs of the album from all tempos. Lost Ones is a fiery and defiant track that perhaps is her most pointed attack at Wyclef Jean and the Fugees (I never actually realised how much she struggled there), Ex-Factor takes a while to get going but by the end, it really comes to life with a guitar solo and that sampled part from Nice for What, indeed you can hear a lot of these album's samples and themes in today's songs which reflect how influential it was. To Zion is also a great ballad that shows her devotion to family and while she is very honest on the album, sometimes to a brutal extent, there is always that really positive undertone that she is thankful for her life. Honestly, going off the start of the album, I was all ready to praise this....and then it kept on going and going and going until I started to lose interest. Now I fully understand that she had no filter here and was being open about her life, I completely appreciate that but it doesn't stop the songs all going back to the same themes and blending into each other. This is partly a matter of personal taste as this genre isn't what I'm massively into (though I have come across some really good hip hop albums in this list so far) as again, there just isn't enough sonic deviation in sound. An interesting quirk is every song features a spoken word section from a teacher speaking to a class of students about various topics related to the songs just gone. It's a little cheesy, but it does signify the shared values that the community is improving and adds a nice touch to the album (even if it elongates the songs).

 

I never actually knew she never released another studio album after this, and it is a bit surprising and sad as this album really showed she had a lot to say and from what I gather, she never quite got used to the massive fame, but then it's a bit hard to imagine how you can top something like this so maybe it's for the best. I highly respect this album and it's a highly personal and clearly very influential piece of work and important for forwarding females in the genre, if you like soul or hip hop, it'll certainly be up for your street. As it is with me, I found it just a little bit too long and not that sonically diverse enough to connect, but don't let that put you off, we can't all like everything x

 

7.0

That Lauryn Hill album is amazing. It’s one of my favourite soul albums I’ve ever heard, her vocals are sublime!

interesting rundown and project! Have to say I could never afford albums as well as singles, and singles took my priority purchases, except for the "for sale" cheapos that tended not to include the big, ongoing popular albums - and I've currently got a backlog of CD albums of about 300 I can start working through now Ive got a working DC player at last! :yahoo:

 

So most of these on the list I don't own and just know the singles. I'm moved to try and listen to them from your reviews :)

 

Ones I do have:

 

Rumours. This was hugely popular at uni, so I got to hear it a lot, and eventually bought it when finances permitted. Total classic, and always will be.

 

Saturday Night Fever. It's all about the Bee Gees tracks, as artists and as writers, the rest is incidental. Didn't like the film, but I adored the singles. It came out as economies were troubling, punk had arrived, and more importantly the affordable new multi-player units for vinyl, cassette and radio with speakers were taking off big and sales of records and tapes started going through the roof as people could party to forget the grimness - that's why the film was so important for recognising that. Soundtrack to many a home party at the time along with Boney M.

 

Sex Pistols: just put in on when you're feeling angry and play very loud, singalong. Get it all out of your system! Works for me!

 

What's Going On. One of the greatest albums of all-time, a huge fave of mine.

 

Purple rain - epic. Just so good!

 

Thriller - yup. Quite popular. As you say, it's a Greatest Hits and Jacko ruled the world in his prime. Videos became vital.

 

Lauryn Hill - enjoyed this but never rated it as an all-time great, still don't.

 

The rest I still have to buy. Yes, really, Floyd, Lennon, Bowie etc :o :o :o :o