Aldous Harding - Designer

:-|

Prince Far I ‎– Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Part 2 [honorable mention]

:-)

Kurtis Blow - Party Time?

:-|

Biz Markie - Goin' Off [honorable mention]

:-)

Various Artists - Duke Reid's Treasure Chest: 7.5 (high B+)

 

# [rock steady/multi-artist]

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

:-|

Erykah Badu - Baduizm: 7 (B+)

# [R&B] [six listens]

Blondie - Autoamerican [honorable mention]

:-)

Los Lobos - Native Sons [honorable mention]

:-)

Run-D.M.C. - Greatest Hits: 9 (A)

 

Shit-canned the Together Forever comp in favor of this.

Run-D.M.C. - Back from Hell [honorable mention]

:-)

Run-D.M.C. - Tougher Than Leather [honorable mention]

:-)

Kool Moe Dee - Kool Moe Dee

:-|

Kool Moe Dee - How Ya Like Me Now

:-|

Earth Wind & Fire - The Best of Vol. I: 8.5 (high A-)

 

Can - Monster Movie [honorable mention]

:-)

Cluster - Cluster II [honorable mention]

:-)

Tall Dwarfs - The Short and the Sick of It

:-| [Combines the album That's the Short and Long of It with the EP called Throw a Sickie.]

Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching for the Young Soul Rebels

:-|

Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper - Root Hog or Die

:-( [I found this so irritating that I ended up not trying his popular favorite Bo-Day-Shus!!, which both Christgau and Hull liked less than this.]

Iris Dement - Infamous Angel [honorable mention]

:-)

The Grateful Dead - From the Mars Hotel [honorable mention]

:-)

Lil' Kim - The Naked Truth [honorable mention]

:-) [Five mics from The Source?!?]

Tom Ze - Danc-Eh-Sa

:-|

Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime [honorable mention]

:-) [four listens]

Los Lobos - The Neighborhood [honorable mention]

:-)

Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever [honorable mention]

:-) [Four listens]

The Grateful Dead - In the Dark: 8 (A-)

 

Not sure why the critics piled on this one. It's a very good album. I guess Allmusic likes it: after their classic 2 albums, it's one of 6 studio albums they give 4 stars. On second thought, that's 8/13 studio albums get 4 stars or more. Still, not a bad grade. Allmusic users give it 4 stars aggregate, but the lowest number of reviews at that level. Built to Last, Shakedown Street and Go to Heaven are the only worse graded by users. Anyway, the people like it: this and American Beauty went double platinum (along with Europe '72), and Workingman's Dead went single platinum. If you ask me, all four of those belong in the collection, and then there's Cornell, a towering, 5 star masterpiece in my view.