Lou Reed - Live: Take No Prisoners [liked]

:-) [This would have made a 7 (B+) one disc album, if they had left off the long, sneering, unfunny monologues and "I Want to Be Black," and even one or two others. Christgau's C+ reads to me like phony outrage for being negatively name-checked.]

Eric Clapton - Backless [honorable mention]

:-) [Possibly a B plus, but the traditional blues songs and some of the dreckier material holds me back. Plus # [blues]. I was tempted to have Glyn Johns' back-to-back productions with Clapton (including Slowhand), but with Christgau's B minus and its placement on Allmusic, I'm grading it honorable mention and moving on. It really might be a B plus though.]

Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending

:-|

Bauhaus - 1979-1983 - Volume 1 [liked]

:-)

Soulja Boy Tell 'Em - Souljaboytellem.com

:-(

Neil Young - Unplugged [honorable mention]

:-) [Not much of a live album person, especially of the "unplugged" variety. Also see review of Are You Passionate?.]

Robert Calvert - Lucky Lief and the Longships

:-| [Eno produced and played. A couple goods songs, and some really terrible ones. The good ones, not surprisingly, sound like Eno.]

Neil Young - Are You Passionate?

:-| [I'm on the fence with Christgau's "***" for Neil, mostly off at this point. I went for Greendale because I saw it live and liked it, and also Harvest Moon because it's so loved. But this, Unplugged and Peace Trail are a pass. This is consistent with Allmusic users and critics alike (although less so for Unplugged, which I also am biased against because it's live, especially acoustic), although not all the way with Tom Hull, because he gives this one an A minus, inexplicably.]

John Prine - Aimless Love: 7 (B+)

# [folk]

Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters

:-( [Lyrics are the same line repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over.... What do people hear in this crap? One of the worst albums I have ever heard. At least 6 listens.]

Kassa Overall - I Think I'm Good [honorable mention]

:-)

Serengeti and Kenny Segal - Ajai: 7.5 (high B+)

Digital only. Later: Well, then limited edition vinyl and CD were put out. And then a further limited edition, with a couple EPs appended to make it a double, was put out. I don't like limited editions of anything, although the vinyl is still available. So ultimately, I will continue to pass on this. [Actually bought digital and paid Kunaki to turn it into a CD. They did a great job. I'm sure I'll be using that service again in the future. Also upped from 7 (B+) upon listening to the custom CD. And my cover looks like this:

]

Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty: 7 (B+)

Not sure what some people hear in this. Not on a par with their 2-4 classic trilogy.

The Grateful Dead - Aoxomoxoa: 3.5 stars

# [blues rock] The great songs on here, like all Dead songs, are more definitive live; and Dead albums are currently available on CD only stuffed with a bunch of additional crappy bonus tracks. I'll stick with AB, WD, and several live albums and bootlegs. [ps, and In the Dark]

Shabazz Palaces - The Don of Diamond Dreams [honorable mention]

:-)

Morrissey - I Am Not a Dog on a Chain [honorable mention]

:-)

The Strokes - The New Abnormal [honorable mention]

;-)

Eno, Moebius, Roedelius, Plank ‎– Begegnungen: 3.5 stars

# [ambient/krautrock] Try finding this at anything approaching a reasonable price. If I could find a box set of all the early Sky records (After the Heat etc.), I'd buy it.

The Grateful Dead - Reckoning: 3.5 stars

Not paying the asking prices for a live, acoustic set at B plus.

The Grateful Dead - Blues for Allah: 3.5 stars

Very spotty album. First few songs are amazing, and then it descends into jazz-rock schmaltz. I would give side one an A minus at best (even that side deteriorates a little as it goes on) and side two a B at best, averaging out to B plus at best. One reason I gave it the benefit of the doubt at B plus was so I could post the cover, which is one of the best I know. As for buying it, the choices are bad: first generation CD transfer, ridiculously overpriced used vinyl, or a remastered CD loaded with bonus tracks which I'm sure are crappy. Ultimately with this band, I think I'm going to end up with just American Beauty and Workingman's Dead on the studio albums. [ps, and In the Dark]

Theoretical Girls - "U.S. Millie" b/w "You Got Me" [single] [honorable mention]

:-)

Kitaro - Oasis [honorable mention]

I think this is the Kitaro album I played fairly often in the late 1980's, but I can't be sure. I'm pretty sure it was orange anyway, and this seems to be the only orange record of his from around that time. But it doesn't look or even sound familiar. Posting a cover for this one so I know which one I ended up settling on.

Glenn Branca - The Ascension: 3.5 stars

I'd probably buy this just as a Sonic Youth precurse, or at least for the picture of a young Lee Ranaldo on the back cover, but it's ridiculously expensive, so I'll pass.

The Grateful Dead - Dozin' at the Knick: 4 stars

If I didn't fear I was biased, I would call this my favorite Dead recording after Cornell. I only saw them live once, at this same arena two years after this was recorded. It was a great show, and 3 years later Garcia was dead.

Robert Sarazin Blake with Jefferson Hamer and the Powderkegs - Put It All Down in a Letter: 8 (A-)

This one grows on you.

Anna Domino - Anna Domino [honorable mention]

:-) [A little cocktail-jazzy, and doesn't really stick to you. Could be a B plus, but only available on expensive imports or used, so I'll skip this. Beside, I want this on Crepuscule for some reason, and with only the original tracks.]

Saint Etienne - Tiger Bay [honorable mention]

:-)

Spoon - Gimme Fiction: 4 stars

Geto Boys - The Geto Boys: 3.5 stars

Never realized that this was a remix album. Mainly of  Grip It! On That Other Level (10 out of that albums 12 tracks). I dutifully listened to that once. I think I like this better, but either way, it's the one I've got.

Geto Boys - We Can't Be Stopped [honorable mention]

:-) [Very spotty album. Several of the songs are terrible, a few are good, and one is great. You know which one. Might be a B plus, in which case I would buy it, but it's totally and completely unavailable for reasonable prices, maybe because of the cover, and I'm not spending three figures for it.]

Talking Heads - True Stories [honorable mention]

:-) [Even at honorable mention (a stretch for that grade), I would probably buy this for this band, whom I love, and have all their other studio albums, but since this is a quasi-soundtrack rather than a regular-issue album, and it's not really that great, I will skip it.]

The Strokes - Comedown Machine: 4 stars

The Mekons - "This Sporting Life" b/w "Frustration"

[Just a placeholder to note that both of these songs are on The Mekons Story.]

Glenn Branca - Lesson No. 1: 7 (B+)

# [experimental] I would probably still buy it given the historical importance and Sonic Youth connection, if the original were available used for a reasonable price. Later reissues have an extra, long track, not on the original. I listened to the extra track ("Bad Smells") three times on its own since it has Ranaldo and Moore on it.

Sun City Girls - Torch of the Mystics [honorable mention]

:-)

Super Mama Djombo - Super Mama Djombo: 4.5 stars

Apparently, they recorded only once - six hours of material at the same time in Lisbon. This compilation includes three from Na Cambanca (one with a different title that I can't quite match up with Na Cambanca, "Seiango," and their big hit "Pamparira 79," here titled "Pamparida"), one from Festival, one from Mandjuana, and two from A Memoria De N'Famara Mane. The album is rounded out with six previously unreleased tracks, plus a live introduction. The six hours of recordings appear to have been put out in part on five original albums from Cobiana, four mentioned above. The other, Sol Maior Para Comandante, appears to be one long track, split into two ~18 minute sides. I will listen to all of these Cobiana releases.

Incidentally, other than the five Super Mama albums, Cobiana only appears to have put out one other album, by Ze Manel & 2M G-B, which I will also evaluate.

Geto Boys - Uncut Dope: 3.5 stars

The Beatles - Let It Be [honorable mention] [plus batch review]

:-) [My Beatles collection consists of Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the white album, and Abbey Road. I also have some early albums on vinyl. Not a big fan obviously. My brother, however, was a giant fan, so I know almost all of their albums by heart. I seriously considered adding this one, but it's such a hodgepodge, and almost not an official album, given its weird history, different versions etc., that I ultimately decided not to.]

Bill Withers - Live at Carnegie Hall: 4 stars

The Mekons - Deserted: 3.5 stars

Grrrl Gang - Here to Stay! [honorable mention]

:-) [Indonesian girl group pop-punk. "Night Terrors" is a great track.]

801 - 801 Live: 3.5 stars

Maybe a remastered version would sound better, but those are only available as Japanese imports. Otherwise it's first generation CD transfers, or original vinyl, for a bootleg quality live recording at B plus level. I'm not going to do that. Always nice to hear Eno though.

David Byrne - The Complete Score from the Broadway Production of "The Catherine Wheel": 9 (A)

I wonder if Christgau/Hull would have given this a full A if they had reviewed the "Complete" version, with 23 tracks, instead of the "Songs from" version, with 11. This is the one I played over and over in the 1980s.

Lil Wayne - Tha Carter [honorable mention]

:-) [Docked a notch for going on forever]

The Mekons - Journey to the End of the Night

:-|  [Owned this at one point and sold it back, after at least three listens. After just now listening again, I think I made the right choice.]

Tony Wilson - I Like Your Style

:-|

Fountains of Wayne - batch review

I originally gave each of these 4 stars. I think, like all of this band's albums, they are really more of honorable mentions. I just let Christgau influence me too much. They sound okay when I put them on, but I could not want to put them on less.

Traffic and Weather

Welcome Interstate Managers

Sky Full of Holes

It may be the singing, but more likely it's just the relentless poppish-ness. A friend of mine once pegged them as all their songs sounding like '80s sitcom theme songs. I have to agree. In going through my collection trying to cull the herd, and eliminate albums that I either have zero emotional connection to, or actively have a bad one, these jumped out at me in the latter category. De-shelved in 2020.

Catalog scrubs complete [original]

Beck

Lil Wayne

Emperor X/Chad Matheny

The Jesus and Mary Chain

Max Romeo

Jon Hassell

Thelonious Monk

Black Flag

ABC

The Lounge Lizards/John Lurie/Evan Lurie

Flying Lotus

Eek-a-Mouse

Macy Gray

The Bongos

Tavares

Todd Snider

Michael Prophet

Brother Ali

EPMD

Barry White/Love Unlimited

No Doubt

Aztec Camera/Roddy Frame

Hound Dog Taylor and The HouseRockers

Roches/Maggie/Terre/Suzzy

Television/Tom Verlaine/Richard Lloyd

LCD Soundsystem

Dennis Alcapone

ZZ Top

Spiritualized

Buck 65 [skipped Game Tight and Year Zero]

Marshall Chapman

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Butch Hancock

Jimmie Dale Gilmore

The Flatlanders

Joe Ely

Oumou Sangare

Creedence Clearwater Revival/John Fogerty

Lloyd Cole

Dumptruck

Unrest

Superchunk

Wild Nothing

Marianne Faithfull

MC Paul Barman

Joni Mitchell

Van Morrison

Beach House

Marvin Gaye

Bhundu Boys

Boston

The Residents

Built to Spill/Doug Martsch

Eugene Chadbourne

Cake

Paul Butterfield

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Negativland

Danny & Dusty

Dead Kennedys

Spinners

Janet Jackson

Jeff Beck

Prince

Sleaford Mods [except odds-n-sods Chubbed Up which is n/a]

Billy Joel

Jenny Lewis

Rilo Kiley

Garbage

Alice in Chains

Slint / Squirrel Bait

Chrome

Wu-Tang Clan

Cocteau Twins

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Blondie/Debbie Harry

Old 97's/Rhett Miller

The Mekons
Fountains of Wayne
Bill Withers
Hot Chocolate
The B-52's [only album I didn't listen to was Good Stuff]

U2

Youssou N'Dour

Girls Against Boys

MF Doom

Spoon

Augustus Pablo

Dr. John

Mott the Hoople

Tall Dwarfs/Chris Knox

Digital Underground

Sly & Robbie [double scrub!]

Todd Rundgren

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Tom Petty

Pamelo Mounk'a

Jay-Z

Jimi Hendrix

Scientist

The Plastic People of the Universe/Pulnoc

Sonny Boy Williamson [II]

Blake Babies/Juliana Hatfield

Sugar Minott

Eric Clapton

Rod Stewart/Faces

Fine Young Cannibals

Horace Andy

Redman

Royal Trux

Cluster

Amon Duul II

Mojo Nixon (and Skid Roper)

Iris Dement

Kip Hanrahan/Conjure

Pussy Galore

King Crimson

Ian Dury

Elton John

They Might Be Giants

Roxy Music

Uncle Tupelo

Wilco

Son Volt

Dixie Chicks

Luna/Dean Wareham/Dean & Britta

Aerosmith

Jethro Tull

Richard [and Linda] Thompson

The Cramps

The Scene Is Now

Social Distortion

Bjork

The Specials

Afghan Whigs

Serengeti

Bad Religion

Neil Young

Run-D.M.C.

Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst/Desaparecidos

Iggy Azalea

Britney Spears

Idles

Jedi Mind Tricks

Mighty Diamonds

Camper Van Beethoven

Bonnie Raitt

Tom Waits

Tom Ze

Korn

The Cure

Stevie Wonder

Dillinger

Michael Hurley

Holy Modal Rounders

Peter Stampfel

Stampfel & Weber

Jeffrey Frederick & the Clamtones

Bang on a Can

Terry Riley

Moby

The Orb

Juluka

Mazzy Star

Pink Floyd

Felt

Surfer Blood

My Bloody Valentine

Dire Straits

Homeboy Sandman

Bad Brains

Jonathan Richman/Modern Lovers

Iggy Pop/Stooges

Caetano Veloso

Mountain Goats

Santigold

Elliott Smith

Pearl Jam

Mutabaruka

The Smiths

Kendrick Lamar

Papa Wemba

Eric Church

The Feelies

Khaled

The Mekons - "Never Been in a Riot" b/w "32 Weeks"/"Heart and Soul": 7 (B+)

If this were an EP, instead of a single, I would buy it for historical importance. Or if it weren't selling for around $50 used in merely good condition. I would also print it out if the first thing were true. 3 songs at 6 minutes is lesser than 4 songs at 10 minutes (eg, Spiral Scratch, which I did print). I also looked into purchasing this on the various artists compilation Fast Product - The First Year Plan, which has both the Mekons' first two singles on Fast, but it was way too expensive, plus the non-Mekons songs (other than the Gang of Four) are mediocre at best. An album called Mutant Pop 78/79 has everything other than the second Mekons single, but it's also way too expensive. On that note, I'd give the Mekons' second Fast single ("Where Were You" b/w "I'll Have To Dance Then (On My Own)") a 7 (B+) also.

There appears to be a third single, ostensibly on Fast too, "Work All Week" b/w "Unknown Wrecks." I will evaluate that as part of the Quality of Mercy album, which appends both sides of that single as well as all four tracks from the Teeth EP, which was on Virgin. Because the third single is not really on Fast, the EP is on Virgin, and all these tracks are on the Quality of Mercy album, I think what I will do is create a CD single of the first two Fast singles only (five songs).

Bill Withers - Still Bill: 4 stars

It's albums like this that make me think I should use quarter stars. I think Pitchfork's tenth of a point is ridiculously over-precise, but quarter stars seems like maybe the way to go. 4.25 stars for this one.

The Mekons - I Love Mekons: 3.5 stars

Sidi Toure - Alafia [honorable mention]

:-)

Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels: 4 stars

The Mekons - So Good It Hurts: 4 stars

Fountains of Wayne - Fountains of Wayne [honorable mention]

:-) [Christgau gave this and the second one A minuses, but neither appeared in his year-end lists, or, more tellingly, in his 1990s book. Anyway, I take this as a sign that he doesn't really think they're better than B plus, and I obviously think they're a notch below that.]

Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway [honorable mention]

:-) [See my review of the self-titled first album.]

Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues: 9 (A)

Brian Eno/David Byrne: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts: 9 (A)

I now have the CD version with "Very, Very Hungry" instead of "Qu'ran." But I'm pretty sure I fell for this with the version with the latter track, in the 1980s, not that this one song makes or breaks the album. Christgau got this one very, very wrong, in my view, at C+.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [honorable mention]

:-)

Ramnad Krishnan - Vidwan: Music of South India: Songs of the Carnatic Tradition [honorable mention]

:-)

Blind Faith - Blind Faith: 8 (A-)

Yes, this has Jimmy Miller in the middle of his string of producing the four greatest albums in rock and roll.

Dwight Twilley Band - Sincerely: 7 (B+)

Original vinyl used, and remastered CDs, not available at reasonable prices. Arguably # [blues rock] anyway.

Various Artists - Congo Revolution: 7 (B+)

# [folkloric]