Imagine being miserable enough to not like this song.

Weird pop-infused Eno > Pure ambient Eno

There is a perfectly good reason why "The Wall" is viewed as both an overrated, wishy-washy mess of an album and as one of the greatest, most profound artistic creations of all time - most people watched the movie. Not only did the film provide horrific, arrestingly beautiful and detailed imagery to offset the unintended side-effects of the album's wry, cynical sense of humor (which is to say, that you can't really take any of it that seriously), but also cut down on just how much ... read more

From their earliest days, The Cure's greatest strength was in their ability to take you inside Robert Smith's tortured psyche and paint nightmarish emotional landscapes. Pornography sounds like the manifesto of either a serial murderer on the fringes of society or a traumatized war veteran gone postal, not like an angsty, cute boy from Sussex. However, the storm would let up two years later on The Top, and by 1985, "A Head on the Door" would usher the sun back into Robert Smith's ... read more

If Manic Street Preachers sounded like their lyrics, they still would've been miles behind Xiu Xiu in the field of portraying human misery.

A collection of some outstanding alternative 80's tracks, many of which are much better than the albums they originate from.

That's the beautiful thing about Neutral Milk Hotel - I can't describe to you what it means to be a "Little Boy in Spain" nor why he'd be playing a "piano filled with flames", but I can kind of venture a guess, based on the context of the album and the impassioned, bittersweet vocals and accompanying instrumental. And that guess will be more meaningful to me than if Jeff Mangum had simply said "We're all going to die and be reincarnated", because now that guess has ... read more

On the right day, this album is a 100 in my eyes. When you get right down to it, this is still one of the weirdest, most surreal turns in pop music history. While Sgt. Pepper did an admirable job selling mainstream music audiences on the newer, more mature Beatles sound, Revolver performed the equally necessary and much harder job of isolating and charting a path forward for both the Beatles and music as a whole. Every song seems to be deliberately trying to alienate anyone deemed "not ... read more

I don't believe my ears.

As an EP or work of music, it's pretty much perfect. It maneuvers smoothly and swiftly through each part of its lengthy composition while continually introducing compelling, interesting elements. That said, I'm undecided if I should give this a 100 or 99-90 based solely on how depressing it is. It isn't the poetic, romantic depression of later Cure or Radiohead either, but a gaping, empty wound of nothingness; ten minutes of genuine, unrelenting pain, agony, despair, starvation, and death. ... read more

hOLY SHIT

One of those albums I'm just constitutionally incapable of giving less than a perfect score. What this album represents is nothing less than a totally transcendent experience, a fulfillment of the psychedelic enlightenment promised as early as The Doors "The End." Its lyrical, sonic obscurity allows to function as one of the few true musical Rorschach Tests left in the Internet Age: Listening to Soundtracks For The Blind is a truly illuminating experience, one that forces its ... read more

If I had heard this in 2011, I would've probably believed in the Mayan Apocalypse.

I feel sorry for people who can't appreciate this.

It's nice to see that Charli went all in on what made last year's "Charli" so interesting in the first place, with lyrics that are far more confessional and less "fun" than the other album's lyrics. Still, I would still call this the "Yeezus" of her career. It's interesting and for the most part sounds great, but is bogged down by the presence of ephemeral filler tracks that deserved to be fleshed out into something more substantial. Still, I think this is a sign ... read more

Thanks to Potter Puppet Pals, I was convinced for years that Weird Al's version of this song was the original.

Really, really damn interesting but way too long for its own good. Still worth the occasional revisit if I want an album to savagely beat me to death. I have no doubt that Stabscotch could use this album to start a doomsday cult.

I think Cardi B very effectively demonstrated the power of her "wet-ass pussy" when she used it to coerce men into bed only to drug them, rape them, and then rob them.

You know what, screw it, this is a 100 for me. The immense, rich emotional world of this album is unparalleled in rap. It's the perfect blend of Kanye West and Kid Cudi's songwriting excesses without one overcrowding the either. (Okay, mayyybe Kid Cudi takes the edge somewhat.) Kanye's bars are actually pretty good, in comparison to most of his recent output. This album just doesn't have any low points or lulls and never feels like it's wasted any time. But besides all that, this a deeply ... read more

The more I listen to this album, the more I get out of it. It's easily his most sonically/thematically diverse album to date, and yet, it somehow never betrays cohesion. Plus, maybe it's just me, but the production sounds a lot more lavish and shimmering than The College Dropout. The bars are Kanye at his absolute prime - arrogant, tongue-in-cheek, and thoroughly lacking in any wack corniness.

Furthermore, this is album holds a very personal place in my heart. It was one of a few albums that ... read more