Oh God, Neil Young.
(Hangs head in shame.)
j
I finally listened to all of Beyoncé’s first solo album Dangerously In Love.I loved the first four songs, the next few had some good high points, but I couldn’t get into the last few ballads. She has a beautiful voice, but those aren’t really my kind of music.
It was a good place to start, but I think I’m going to jump to the main course next: Lemonade followed by Rennaissance.
OK, done with Lemonade (Beyoncé). Holy shit, what an album. I was blown away. I reached the end and immediately started it over and listened to the entire thing a second time.
It was cool to listen to this immediately after her debut to see how much she had matured in her voice, styles, and particularly the themes. It’s a rage and heartbreak album against infidelity, racism, sexism, and probably other stuff I didn’t catch.
It’s all over the place with musical styles, yet everything fits together perfectly. It opens with the devastating “Pray You Catch Me” about Jay-Z’s infidelity and lyrically it never lets up. There’s the reggae-ish “Hold Up”, the blues/rock of “Don’t Hurt Yourself” with Jack White’s signature guitar sound and Bey even sounding like Jack on the vocals, funk, hip hop, soul, even country.
It’s one of those albums that is greater than the sum of its parts. I already knew “Formation” and liked it fine, but it hit differently coming as the penultimate song on the album, and I had to stop and just listen. I really understand now the outrage that she didn’t win album of the year for this.
I think I’ll wait a little bit before moving on to Rennaissance. I know it’s good, but I think it will pale in comparison to what I just listened to.
An update. Three major projects (unheard series of albums.)
The Killers: Begins with a bang – apparently Mr Brightside was the first song they wrote – and you pretty much know what you’re going to get. The albums are all bright, poppy and enjoyable…and then there’s the most recent album, Pressure Machine. Before I listen to it for a second time, I must go back and listen to Nebraska by Springsteen again (which is freely acknowledged as an inspiration). This is an update, as it were, snapshots of a broken Middle America, abandoned by its God and ravaged by the opioid epidemic. It’s beautiful and brutal, a really difficult listen. Hard to say, having heard it just once, but if it isn’t a masterpiece, it’ll do until one comes along. (Note: the album comes in two versions. The original has what appear to be snippets of interviews as introductions to the song (anyone know the origins of these?). Pressure Machine (Abridged) omits these, I believe.)
Gorillaz: Kinda exasperating. The first two albums are delightful – strange, quirky, fun, compelling. The third is pretty good, then… The Fall is - uhh – a diary of a US tour recorded in song on Damon’s i-Pad. You don’t say. Didn’t manage half way through it. Likewise the next, Humanz – so many featured artists that it’s like a compilation album of songs by people you’ve never heard of and have no interest in (in truth, the third album was tending that way). I was on the verge of giving up on Gorillaz and moving on – and then there was The Now Now and the tunes are back, with almost no featured artists. For musicality, might be their best album, I think. Next, Song Machine has even more featured artists than Humanz (feelings of foreboding…) But it’s good – almost as if Humanz identified problems with using guest artists and thereby allowed them to be (mostly) solved. The last (Cracker Island) is poppy, tuneful and enjoyable and sounds nothing like the original concept of Gorillaz.
As a rule of thumb, for the earlier albums, at least, if the title of a Gorillaz song includes “(Feat. Xxxxxx)”, you might want to consider skipping it.
REM: There’s a lot of albums. I’m up to Document and, well, nothing to report, really. They’re all fine, all pretty much what you would expect. So: in progress
And then there’s the Rolling Stone Best Albums list, from which:
What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye. Yeah, it’s OK. It’s fine. I was expecting more. Next.
Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. I was expecting less, but this is very good. I mean, it’s not really my sort of thing – stadium pop-rock – but still very well crafted and enjoyable. Felt like listening to Abba, actually.
Purple Rain by Prince: There was a time when it felt like every good new song you heard was written by Prince. Let’s just say, he’s very talented, a fine songwriter, and his songs are better when someone else does them – the soundscape here is over-busy, if you know what I mean. Still, an enjoyable listen.
Nevermind by Nirvana: Setting aside the quiet-then-loud structure that seemingly every song has, I liked this more than I expected. Another one that’s not really my thing, but good enough to make you like it.
j
You know, it feels like albums are being added to my list faster than I’m getting through them.
j
Over the years, The Killers have tried very hard to be “Vegas Bruce Springsteen”
I’ve become a fan of St Vincent in the last couple of years. I’ve heard her compared to David Bowie and I can see it. And having released her first work in 2003, she fits right in with your twenty-year standard. I’d recommend Masseduction (from 2017) as an introduction to her work.
Another recent album I’ve enjoyed is The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte by Sparks. This was released in May 2023. But the band has been around forever; they recorded their first work in 1967.
I can’t say that I know her discography very well, but every song of hers that I’ve heard was reaaally good. A rare balance of quirky and catchy, with great musical chops to boot.
I was a Sparks fan for about two minutes in the early 1980s and hadn’t thought about them at all until a documentary came out a few years ago called The Sparks Brothers. Not only have they endured but their whole style seems to change every five years or so. That’s something most fans won’t appreciate, but every artist should admire.
On the sleeve notes for the remastered ‘Goodbye Cruel World’, EC writes - ‘Congratulations! You’ve bought my worst record!’
Personally I like the Daryll Hall duet on ‘Not The Only Flame in Town’ and I love ‘I Wanna Be Loved’.
MiM
Here you go:
Oof, that hurts my R.E.M.-loving heart. I find their first few albums variable and a bit too mumbly overall, but Life’s Rich Pageant is IMO the quintessential 80s alt-rock album - just an absolute stunner. On the plus side, you’ve still got Out of Time and Automatic for the People to come.
Yeah. By happy coincidence I finished the last album yesterday. They have all been pretty much what I expected - enjoyable throughout with some standout tracks. In general - up to a certain point - I would say they get better and better, plateauing from New Adventures In Hi-Fi through to Reveal. The next - Around The Sun - gets pretty poor reviews, but I thought it was OK, and Leaving New York is, I think, one of their very finest songs. The last two albums, which were kinda lauded as a return to form - well, they’re fine, but to me it sounds like they’re trying a little to hard.
I listened to an interview where Peter Buck (IIRC) opined that REM broke up at the right time. I agree.
Of all the listening I’ve been doing, REM was one of the less surprising and more enjoyable episodes.
j
My very short take on R.E.M.: all their albums leading up to 1992 were excellent, with “Life’s Rich Pageant” and maybe “Document” as the highlights, but not even those great albums prepared me for their flawless masterpiece “Automatic For The People”. I was stunned when I first listened to it, and I still rank it in my top ten, maybe even top five albums of all time. “Monster” and “New Adventures In Hifi” (my second favorite on-the-road album after “Running On Empty”) were still very good, but after Bill Berry left, it all collapsed somehow. The albums became boring, with only one or two worthwhile songs on every album after 1996.
OK, granted, we need to move the leading edge of that plateau forwards to include Automatic For The People.
In other news, I also worked my way through the first few Arctic Monkeys albums, and they were, yeah, fine. But on first listening, beyond the songs we all know and love, I remain to be fully convinced.
I really think Lady Gaga should probably come next.
j
Hi, i’m unsure as to the etiquette around reviving old discussions, so please pardon the intrusion.
Is this thread officially retired, or did y’all return to the same old stuff you like listening to? 
i admire OP’s openness to challenge oneself the way they have (i don’t agree with of a lot of it, but that’s likely why i have succeeded minimally in my music industry job, i suppose…), and i am curious about what anyone here has heard in 2025, that has moved them? And OP - any discoveries to report since Lady Gaga?
i found this thread because i was thinking of listening to a full (HAA autocorrected to “dull”) Steely Dan album for the first time. Most of Aja’s songs have been on the radio and i love those songs (prob because they were radio edits?). Then, i saw a documentary on the making of the record and now i gotta fill my Steely Dan gaps.
Postscript re: the video series about classical chick monetising her pop music virginity - where’s the one about a person who grew up listening to crap i mean mediocre pop music, being turned on to classical for rhe first time??! 
Hey, there’s no particular etiquette, feel free to post here and report in on Steely Dan or anything else that takes your fancy.
The thread really originates in (a) me being annoyed with my level of ignorance about so many artists - never heard a Rolling Stones album, as I confessed in the OP; and (b) spending drab, dull winter days doing something about it. I also listened to a stack of classic and new albums over the winter of 24/25, but for some reason I didn’t come back to this thread.
I wasn’t keeping records (no pun intended) but here are two
Prelude to Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party. Joyous, unrestrained fun.
Sail Away by Randy Newman. I was stunned from the first second of this album. Extraordinary.
As a taster, here’s The Last Dinner Party doing their thing, with a song you may possibly know:
j
@Treppenwitz are you interested in music other than Classic Rock, or Top 40 through the Generations?
I’m a bit puzzled by the question. I wouldn’t describe what I like as Classic Rock - the two exampes a couple of posts up are not what I think of as Classic Rock at all. Was there any particular example that you had in mind?
Top 40? I’m very picky, but there’s always a place in the world for the perfect pop song.
j
Ha cool, thanks! i actually read back, above and around the Steely Dan section, to get a feel for what you’re after… i used to love doing this for friends but i haven’t done it at all for the past few years.
i feel that finding “albums i missed” is so much more satisfying than trying a bunch of mediocre current releases. i admire your willingness to consider so many different genres.
i’m going to check out TLDP and Randy Newman just because i like to hear new (to me) stuff. And to see if i can rid myself of my Randy Newman hatred. LOL (i’ve lived in Southern CA my entire life thus toletated the requisite LA song for decades, plus the one radio song when i was young was ‘Short People’, which i still hate. )
Thanks!
v