Must Hears: #46

Edit: I've warmed up to Be My Husband it's a 10 now

I sometimes wonder how does someone make two great albums in a year, I mean dropping one good album is hard enough, let alone two of them. When it comes to Nina Simone, I think everyone agrees that her classics are top notch and that they pass the classic test with flying colours. I think this one is marginally better than all of her albums I've previously reviewed, those being Little Girl Blue and I Put A ... read more

Must Hears: #45

Otis Redding, someone who is recognised around the world as an icon of the music industry, made a great soul project which is in my opinion his best album for sure. What makes this his best album for me is his singing (his best quality), which is great all throughout the project, he's very passionate, the instrumentals behind the vocals are awesome as well, the production is great too. My problems are that the lows are clearly lower quality tracks than the others, Shake ... read more

Must Hears: #44

Bob Dylan's 6th studio album is considered by many to be his best, where he upped his previous records, and took the quality of his music a step further. Well, the first track is definitely one of his best ever, being very rich in musicality and in great lyrics, also the mystery of who is he aiming the lyrics at adds to the already iconic track. In my opinion, the instrumental all throughout is his best so far, he's more creative with the musical styles (bringing the ... read more

Beatles: #5

We're almost at the classics, this is their last album before Rubber Soul, which most people would consider their first classic. Before this album, they dropped a good album, than a bad one, than another good one, than another bad one, almost like a pattern, which they continue, this is a good album. The first three tracks are incredible, the title track is a classic, The Night Before and You've Got to Hide Your Love Away are tracks that are negative but manage to be ... read more

Must Hears: #43

Back to Nina Simone, who's a pioneer with her not only singing, but playing the piano, which makes the instrumental tracks on her albums way more interesting. I've reviewed her debut album, Little Girl Blue, and I really liked it, and what captivated me on that album is present here as well: the genre's beauty itself and how Nina puts her creativity into her music to sound exactly how she wants it to. Take the title track, which is one of my favourite tracks of ... read more

Must Hears: #42

This album sounds like most of the Jazz albums on this must hear list, which is obviously not a bad thing, I like the genre a lot and must hears are must hears for a reason, my issue with the album is that it doesn't really bring anything new to the table, it sounds like great albums that were made 5-10 years ago (which still makes the album great). For that reason, I can't really say anything that I haven't said about previous albums, the pacing is good, the ... read more

Must Hears: #41

This is a transformational album for Bob Dylan, as he switches from folk to folk rock, and his lyrics aren't about pointing fingers and calling out everybody from this point, his pen focuses on more about his personal stuff, sometimes in a chaotic way that somewhat still makes sense, as he said on his previous album: "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now". What's great about this switch-up is that his music got interesting, I like the ... read more

Must Hears: #40

The GOAT is back with his best ever work, A Love Supreme. This album is one of the best produced albums of all time, the tracks sound really smooth thanks to the engineering. For some reason, while listening to this album, it didn't sound to me like it's played by a quartet, rather like a big band. Every musician is playing at their A-Game, the piano and the saxophone takes on the melody very well, and the bass and the drums give a very solid base to the songs. The ... read more

Oh he's up

Beatles: #4

As always, the album starts off very well, but that's about it, after the first three tracks, there's barely any salvageable songs on the album. I think that all of the weaker tracks fail because the instrumentals aren't well pieced together, and they sometimes come with nothingburger lyrics that make you question how they made the cut. Also, this rock and roll stuff doesn't fit them well, I think their contemporaries made way better in this style. At least the ... read more

Must Hears: #39

I kind of started missing Jazz music after most of the must hears were of different genres, luckily it's back in its nichest form, Avant-Garde Jazz. At first, I didn't know how to rate this album, because at a few points it sounds like hold music (not in a bad way), at other points it sounds like kitchen pots being thrown on the floor (again, not in a bad way), but it mostly sounds like Jazz that was inspired by Classical music. Ultimately, this album is a big ... read more

Beatles: #3

They've done it this time, a huge jump in quality after With The Beatles. The album starts off really good, just like every Beatles album does, with songs like the title track, I Should Have Known Better and And I Love Her. The song topics are great too, I like how they talk about just love in general, prioritizing love over riches, and... being petty and a danger to society because you broke up with someone? Oops, wrong song, but I guess this albums has its duds as well. This ... read more

Must Hears: #38

This album is Brazilian music being marketed to the US audience, that's definitely worth some bonus points. I like the mix of Jazz and Bossa Nova on the album, it's basically mixing together the most dominating genres of that time. Stan Getz is someone whose work I've not heard before, but he made a great first impression for me, his sax speaks to the soul. I've said my thoughts about Gilberto in my review of his album called Chega De Saudade, this is a ... read more

Must Hears: #37

Bob Dylan continues on writing lyrics that stand the test of time even after all these years. I only heard a few of his albums, but I think that I will be most excited about the lyrics for most of the time. The truthfulness and actuality of his lyrics combined with the ability to write ballads like a legendary poet makes Bob Dylan as great as he is. I also like his consistency, it feels like there are no misses on his best albums. One of my favourite songs from this album is ... read more

Must Hears Hears Hears Hears Hears: #36

This is one of Mingus's last albums before he went on a 6 year long break, so sadly, he won't appear on the list for a very long time. Even though that's not great, at least this album is full of bangers. On this album, every track is rerecorded, because they have been put on previous albums of Mingus, but they have been scored for a larger ensemble of musicians. I don't think it's possible in any other genre to recycle and reuse ... read more

Beatles: #2

On this album, sadly, the highs aren't that high and the lows, compared to their other works, are worse. On the first half of the album, the songs are consistently at least good, besides Little Child, that track is awful, not just the lyrics, because either they referred to an adult as a "little child", or the subject of that track is a little child, so that's even worse. All My Loving is a classic though, and Don't Bother Me and Till There Was You are ... read more

Must Hears: #35

Next up, it's Brazilian music again, with that instantly recognisable sample on the first track, reminds me of a FIFA song that I can't quite name, and I can't find it either, I'll find it at some point though. Also, why did I not know that the electronics company had a record label with over 1000 releases? It's a bit weird, but at least they platformed lot of great MPB and Soul music. One more thing, the album cover is crazy, is he actually standing ... read more

Must Hears: #34

Back with Vocal Jazz and John Coltrane, two of my favourite Jazz related terms, what could go wrong? Well, nothing, this album is amazing. Coltrane's majestic saxophone sounds mixed with beautiful love songs are something I didn't know existed, but I definitely needed this. Shoutout to the background musicians as well, they are perfect additions to the vibe of this album. This is the type of music to play when someone says they don't believe in love anymore ... read more

Must Hears: #33

This album hasn't clicked for me for such a long time. I don't know why, maybe it's because it's Avant-Garde Jazz, or that I haven't listened to a lot of Jazz before I heard this album, but I think I get it know, and maybe with even more listens, I'll get it even more. Something that helped me with that is paying attention to the tracks titles, the songs make way more sense with them and they help the album's worldbuilding. These tracks have a ... read more

Must Hears: #32

The shift starts from Jazz and Standards to Singer-Songwriter, and the first album is from one of the greats in music history, Bob Dylan. Bob had a very lengthy and productive career, and the cornerstone of that was this album. One of the things that make this album so great is his writing; at just 22, he speaks so appealing about his life, like he does on Girl from the North Country, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right and Bob Dylan's Dream, and at other times, ... read more