It's a little up and down. Lyrically, Fay seems interested in being Bob Dylan. But then it's paired with Ray Russell's blue guitar. So at times it's really striking and memorable and easy to see how it influenced punk and folk singers that followed.

I like when people who weren't alive in 1989 come in and review an album with "oh, this is underwhelming." Like, cool...go enjoy your Magdalena Bay album or whatever. You can't possibly add context or understand the impact this album had on indie rock when you've spent your whole life consuming the watered down version. You think I'm dead, but I'll just sail away.

I might listen to Blur or Pulp more, but I still like Suede's vibe the best. And this album has two perfect songs.

A ridiculously solid album that combines a few genres and probably lands somewhere between power pop and pop punk, but with a 90s indie rock influence and even a hint of alt country. Reminiscent of the early albums by Katie Crutchfield, both as Waxahachie or in PS Eliot.

A rich white guy complaining about his problems became a template for so many white rock artists who would follow in Cuomo's footsteps...and Drake. There are zero bad tracks on this album and the I prefer this production over anything else they put out.

Do you like when a band starts off doing their own thing but then slowly gravitates toward the middle?

If so, this may be your favorite album by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. At this point, they really should have dropped a few words from their title. West Coast Pop Band seems apt for this album.

They're still capable of the occasional great song, like the opener. But, really, this is pretty generic folk pop that's not as interesting as their earlier work, although ... read more

Mostly a really good album with a couple of WTF? miscalculations. "Suppose They Give a War and No One Comes" is as dumb as anything put to record and reminds me of when Mike and Al tried to get serious on a Beach Boys album. "Smell of Incense" is as good as any song they recorded.

I would never expect a Plant album to resemble the Zeppelin albums penned by Jimmy Page. But I wish they sounded more like In Through the Out Door, the Zeppelin album where Plant had the most creative control. This album doesn't sound like that, either. Instead, it's more like what the rest of the aging British rockers were putting out in the early 80s. Not quite as pop-oriented as Steve Winwood, but definitely in the same vein.

A ridiculously underrated album. It doesn't sound like anything Led Zeppelin released beforehand, which makes sense since Page was busy doing heroin while Plant and Jones wrote this album. Also, it's all original material, as opposed to the earlier albums that borrowed heavily from other artists without giving them credit or royalties until they were sued.

Five of the seven songs are great. All of My Love and Fool in the Rain are essentials that became staples of classic rock radio ... read more

Maybe it's not a classic, but it's way better than its reputation. Compared to their earlier albums, maybe it falls short. Compared to the music their contemporaries were making at this point (Sabbath, the Stones, the Who, Skynyrd), this holds it's own. Maybe their mistake is that it isn't long enough. If they'd made it a double album with the hard rock on the first album and the blues/rockabilly/etc on the second, it might be as revered as Physical Graffiti.

Unimpeachable in its greatness. One could argue that the earlier albums are more essential and influential. But this album benefits from being looser and more diverse, especially the underrated second half that's filled with great songs that didn't end up getting overplayed on classic rock radio like their earlier work.

I liked Facelift and loved Dirt. This album really disappointed me when it was released. It was one of those CDs that traveled in a binder in my car for years, but I never listened to it. Like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, success made Alice in Chains generic. Or maybe it was the drugs. Listening again almost 30 years later, my opinion is unchanged. It has a few good songs. It has a few that sound like generic mid-90s alt rock radio (Heaven Beside You, Again). Nothing approaches the best ... read more

Mainstream alternative rock is always a little too slick for my personal taste. Cobain famously hated Vig's production of Nirvana. But this is still a really good album, even if it's dated by the way its production sounds. The music is great and Shirley Manson is engaging and exceptional.

Starts strong. Gets a little to slow in the middle. But then Talk to Me Devil, Again comes along and it's insanely good.

Someone wake up 1993 Billy Corgan and tell him there's a young woman in the future ripping off his entire aesthetic.

I know most people are going to think this is a shoegaze or dreampop artist. Or, more precisely, someone obsessed with the genre and copying it. But, really, it's Siamese Dream. It's an alt rock album. The breathy vocals? The distortion? It even has a song called Luna, just like Siamese Dream. It's genre emulation, just like Corgan was doing. And there's nothing wrong ... read more

An album with zero filler. There are no bad tracks. Arguably, their greatest song is on this album: There Is a Light That Never Goes Out. And it's got that amazing double dose of loathing in the first half (I Know It's Over + Never Had No One Ever) that's immediately followed by the comparatively fun Cemetry Gates.

Can you quibble with the sequencing? Maybe. Some Girls...is a strange way to end things. But that's a pretty minor quibble.

It's an EP with early, raw versions of two song that would end up on Boat Songs, plus 3 more tracks that are great. Knockin' is better on his life album, so TV Dinners is the real stand out.

I actually prefer this version of TLC Cage Match, but the the Boat Songs version of Tastes Just Like It Costs with a full band is superior.

It's not their best material, but it's really solid with no stinkers.

It starts out great but then gets somewhat generic in the second half, like many other bands who had an REM sound but were not REM. I could do without the instrumentals and no version of Kum Ba Yah is every going to be interesting to me, even as a curiosity.

Two phenomenal songs produced by Isaac Brock as a SubPop promo for the forthcoming album, which was transcendent. And two other songs that are fine, but won't be anyone's favorites.