Motörhead - Ace Of Spades (1980)

In honor of the recent death of Lemmy Kilmister I've decided to jump ahead on my list  and review an album by Lemmy's band Motörhead, namely Ace Of Spades. I know a few people who are huge Motörhead fans, but I'm not sure I can name a single song by the band. All I'm hoping for is this to be either seriously good heavy metal music in the vein of Led Zeppelin or Iron Maiden, and hopefully not ridiculous trash a la Megadeth.

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)

The Flaming Lips sounds like the name an 80s band should have come up with. I shouldn't judge a band by its name, or an album by its cover. In some cases it's really hard not to.

The Cure - Disintegration (1989)

NEU! - NEU! 75

Let's go huskies! (clap clap clapclapclap) Let's go huskies! (clap clap clapclapclap) Oh wait, that's NU. Sorry.

The Louvin Brothers - Tragic Songs Of Life (1956)

Do you like country music? Are you over the age of 60? If you answer no to either of those questions then you'll probably hate Tragic Songs Of Life. Well, maybe that's a bit strong. I answer no to both of those questions and I don't hate this album. Then again I recognize this music is just a product of its time- a more wholesome time when country music wasn't about dudebros drinking beer and driving pickup trucks with their girl.

Adele - 25 (2015)

So now I come to the album that got me going on this mini-tangent, the recently released 25. I think for the most part I could have ignored the excitement of Adele's first release in nearly 4 years even though everyone was talking about it if it weren't for one thing... Adele's stupid face.

Adele - 21 (2011)

I'll note up front Adele's 21 appears in the most recent edition of 1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Adele - 19 (2008)

Since everyone is talking about Adele, and I'm getting tired of seeing her face everywhere without knowing what the big deal is, I've decided I need to look into Adele.

Beastie Boys - License To Ill (1986)

Not looking forward to listening to more Beastie Boys music, although I suppose it's possible in 1984 they hadn't yet developed into the sample monster they were on Paul's Boutique.

Khaled - Kenza (1999)

It's an amazing cosmic coincidence that I wind up listening to Kenza immediately after listening to Shalimar. To my biased white boy ears the music is superficially similar. The tones and styles are what I would stereotypically label "middle eastern music." But relying on my own limited musical sense is really unfair in this case.

Shalimar film soundtrack - Music by Rahul Dev Burman (1978)

I might be a little out of my league with this one. I'm never sure how to rate music that is so far outside of my culture, and Bollywood is about as far from my culture as I can imagine. Even genres like rap or country that I didn't grow up with at least tend to be in my native language. Music like afrobeat or samba are typically in other languages but usually follow similar musical structures I'm used to. But music from eastern cultures like India or China are much different beasts, and I just might not have the ear to really understand the difference between the good and the bad.

Bobby Womack - The Poet (1981)

Joni Mitchell - Blue (1971)

Stevie Wonder - Talking Book (1972)

I'm getting overwhelmed with the idea that I have to write long spiels for every album, so for this one, which I expect to be a relative breeze, I'm gonna let it play and keep my comments as brief as I can, like I did in the old days.

Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove (1978)

Thus far this has been the hardest album for me to locate. It's not available on any streaming service. Amazon has no new or used CDs for me to buy. Even my new best friend Murfie, which has thankfully helped be find other people who are willing to sell me their copies of obscure or hard-to-obtain used versions, lets me down when it comes to this album. Why doesn't Funkadelic want me to listen to One Nation Under A Groove? Are they being lazy about reissuing their back catalog? Are they trying to drum up the legendary status of their most popular work? Or do they think this album is so atrocious they're essentially trying to delete it?

The Bees (A Band Of Bees) - Sunshine Hit Me

This album was listed in my queue as being by The Bees, but the album I downloaded through Murfie identifies them as A Band Of Bees. Supposedly the former is their real name and the latter is their American name. I hope that doesn't mean the albums are different in some way. The cover art is the same, hopefully the track listing and mixes are the same too.

Alice In Chains - Dirt (1992)

Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner (2003)

The Coral - The Coral (2002)

Prince - Purple Rain (1984)

I've had this one stuck in the queue for a while. It's really hard to obtain Prince's music over the internet. I finally broke down and paid for a copy through Murfie.com, which is a great service. You buy CDs through them and they send you high-res downloadable copies for backup. Not that I couldn't rip my own FLACs off the disc they're sending me, but that disc won't get here for a little while and in the meantime I have my own FLACs to listen to :)

Sebadoh - Bubble And Scrape (1993)

I know nothing about Sebadoh, except what I accidentally read just now pulling up their album on Rdio.com. The review on top reads, "This mainstay of '90s indie rock didn't manage a consistently listenable record until their fourth try in 1993, two years after Nevermind, so the youth were going gaga over grunge." There's a few things in here that bother me, mainly that despite being a mainstay during my time as a youth I've never head of them. More than that is the idea that Sebadoh is called an "indie rock" band, which I haven't ranted about how much I hate that term in quite some time. Perhaps worst of all is how a band can make it 4 albums before making one people are willing to call "consistently listenable." Is that meant to be a compliment of some kind? Can you imagine eating at a restaurant that made food best described as "consistently edible?"

Jeff Beck - Truth (1968)

Emmylou Harris - Pieces Of The Sky (1975)

I'm slipping. Partly because work has been busy. Partly because I completed my Led Zeppelin deluxe catalog and have spent weeks pouring over every nook and cranny I can. But mostly because I'm freakin' bored as hell with all this new music. This is becoming too common a theme whenever I'm told, "Seriously, YOU'VE GOT TO HEAR THIS! IT'S AMAZING!!!" and I listen to it and I'm like, "Eh..." or, "Meh...", or even worse, "Feh..." and for like 2 weeks now the next album on my list has been an hour-long country album. Granted Emmylou Harris has a lovely voice. But country music just sucks sooooooo hard.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (2008)

Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (1968)

I respect Johnny Cash. I really do. I don't know much about Johnny Cash except for that really weird performance by Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line, which some people have suggested isn't quite accurate. In any case a huge turning point in that movie is when Johnny Cash decided to make his big comeback by performing a concert in a prison. I have no idea what possessed him to do that, but in any case that performance and this album have achieved legendary status.

Donald Fagen - The Nightfly (1982)

Dwight Yoakam - Buenos Noches From A Lonely Room (1988)

The 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators (1966)

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream (1992)

I have no desire to return to the world of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. The last time I went there I felt Nick Cave really wanted me to kill myself, since all he talked about was death, and he sounded really corny doing so. Henry's Dream was made a few years before Murder Ballads, so hopefully at this point the band wasn't so obsessed with death. I'm still dreading this.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - (pronounced 'leh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd) (1973)

Good ol' southern-fried rock... I'm assuming. It is a Lynyrd Skynyrd album, although it is their first, so who knows. Maybe they were a different band in 1973? Ah, who am I kiddin'?

Lou Reed - Berlin (1973)

I'm of two minds on what I want to do next. On the one hand I've developed a pretty strong opinion of Lou Reed, mostly informed by others and partly based on having heard one of "his" albums. With that in mind I almost feel as though I should give Lou Reed and his ardent followers the best chance at proving this music is as good as they all claim it is. That would lead me to review the albums in chronological order, which would give me a chance to settle in and evolve along Lou Reed's musical path. That would mean the next album I should hear is The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat.

Hugh Masekela - Home Is Where The Music Is (1972)

Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session (1988)

The Trinity Session opens with a lovely rendition of the traditional folk tune "Mining For Gold" sung a capella by lead vocalist Margo Timmins. All I can ask for is more of the same. Ms. Timmins has a beautiful soft and full alto voice, perfect for a soothing lullaby, a powerful epic, or anything in between.

Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible (1994)

Manic Street Preachers: The Holy Shit What A Pretentious Album Title. There better be a good reason for that.

Leftfield - Leftism (1995)

Sigh... this is going to be a dance album, isn't it? I'm guessing that based on the year the album was released, the really neat cover art, which dance albums are known for 'round these parts, and the album being 70 minutes long and only 11 songs. Dance albums almost always work out to be obscenely long, because it's an easy trick for the "artist" to simply cut and paste and double the length of the "song". I'm used to being quickly outraged by these albums, usually in the first 10 seconds of pressing play. Here goes nothing...

Steve Winwood - Arc Of A Diver (1980)

I like Steve Winwood, at least the Steve Winwood from Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind Faith. I only know of one definite Steve Winwood song from the 1980s, "Back In The High Life," and that has me concerned. I previously liked Paul Simon from the 70s, then I heard Paul Simon from the 80s. If Steve Winwood had a similar evolution Arc Of A Diver could be a tough listen, though hopefully a short one.

Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World (2001)

No upfront information on this band, I'm going in completely cold. It's hard not to read that name and not think of furries. If you don't know what I mean, remain ignorant. You'll lead a much happier life.

Mylo - Destroy Rock & Roll (2004)

So who is Mylo? I'm not sure I've ever heard of him/her/them. But the idea that anyone in 2004 thought they could destroy rock and roll, despite decades of failure by others, is quite audacious of Mylo. Just please don't be rap or dance. I'll even take country if it means I don't have to listen to rap or dance.

Stan Getz & João Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto [featuring Antônio Carlos Jobim] (1964)

I recently reviewed an album featuring Stan Getz and... it was 'aight. Probably my favorite part of the album is how it was kept short and sweet, therefore I didn't get bored. Boredom is a pretty large problem with most jazz, so if this new Stan Getz feature can keep it short and sweet maybe I'll like this one too, and can sorta call myself a Stan Getz fan.

Adam And The Ants - Kings Of The Wild Frontier (1980)

This is not promising. An album that looks like that and was released in 1980? Sigh. Without addressing the kind of music I'm sure to hear going forward, what the hell is up with this album cover? It looks like a still from a music video shown on a tube TV, paused by a cheap VCR, and taken on a Polaroid. They probably could have achieved the same effect by snapping a live picture of Adam (I'm guessing it's Adam) with Vaseline smeared on the camera lens.

The Divine Comedy - Casanova (1996)

Given the name of this band, the title of the album, and the cover photo, I get the feeling I'm in for some pretentious Warhol-esque bullshit on the level of The Velvet Underground. The only saving grace is the year the album was released. 1996 wasn't exactly the height of pretentiousness unless you were a grunge band writing songs about teen suicide. So I'm hoping Casanova leans more in the direction of say Rufus Wainwright when it comes to high art. That's assuming The Divine Comedy is a high-art type of act and not just some crappy grunge band. I honestly have no clue what this is going to be.

Solomon Burke - Rock N' Soul (1964)

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Winter In America (1974)

This album appears to be largely out-of-print and as such I've pieced it together from various sources. Hopefully I have found the official album versions of this material and not crappy live versions, bootlegs of outtakes, or the dreaded cover posing as the real thing.

Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue (1977)

ELO, or the Electric Light Orchestra as they honestly thought anyone would write out, has two songs everyone knows- an instrumental called "Fire On High" and that song where they really don't want Bruce to upset them. Apparently they wrote entire albums of music that might be worth listening to. Or maybe just one in the case of my Big List. Or maybe none, depending on how I feel about it.

KISS - Destroyer (1976)

I'm not expecting this to be actually good, but it's still going to be a welcome listen. It's been too long since I've heard legitimate cheesy 70s rock. In my opinion KISS is a band that has a reputation that far exceeds its worth. Well, that's a mean thing to say, as any band has some worth if people like their music. It's just that KISS appears to have a huge following and image in pop culture without really making as huge of an impact with their music.

The Auteurs - New Wave (1993)

Thanks to Roni Size I am not at all looking forward to this album. I'm being totally unfair to The Auteurs here, but holy shit, New Forms was a horrible waste of time, and I'm afraid New Wave might just be more of the same crap just based on the name. It's completely unreasonable but I can't ignore my feelings.

U2 - The Joshua Tree (1987)

I got a comment from my sister on my recent review of Californication saying The Red Hot Chili Peppers were her least favorite band. In her own words, "I'd rather listen to U2 (and that's saying a lot)." Now I don't really know a lot about U2, other than I generally don't like them or their music. But I don't really have a good reason why. I know I didn't really like the one album of their's I've heard so far. I also know they have a massive air of pretentiousness surrounding them, whether it's an applied attribute given them by a presupposing media, or their own fault by taking themselves uber-serious and using album names such as How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (1999)

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are mostly known for jumping around on stage in their underwear on The Simpsons and for brazenly performing the 2014 Superbowl show with unplugged instruments. To me they're a band that rich executives hire when they want to seem edgy but not be too offensive, which explains why they were randomly at the Superbowl in 2014. It's not that Red Hot Chili Peppers aren't a bit edgy, it's that their heyday is well since passed and most people are bored with their shtick.

The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole (1997)

I know I've heard "Block Rockin' Beats" before, or at least a lick from it, in a commercial or a radio spot or something. But until now I've never associated it with The Chemical Brothers, probably because I've never heard of them. It's a cool lick. Granted I've only heard 30 seconds of the "song". My snap judgement? Holy shit, I'm about to really hate The Chemical Brothers.

Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983)

Argh! Parentheses! This time in the album title! And more 80s music!