Richard Thompson - Rumor and Sigh [honorable mention]

:-)

Jethro Tull - Thick As a Brick

:-|

Richard Thompson - Amnesia [honorable mention]

:-)

Richard Thompson - Hand of Kindness

:-( [His vocals are insufferable, the guitar is irritating, and the Celtic elements are jarring. A tuneless, embarrassing mess.]

Lakou Mizik - HaitiaNola [honorable mention]

:-)

Michael Rother - Flammende Herzen [honorable mention]

:-)

They Might Be Giants - Apollo 18: 8.5 (high A-)

Various Artists - Rebel Music: 7.5 (high B+)

I don't buy multi-artist compilations at this level, plus it's just not available at reasonable prices (or on remastered CD) and it’s a relatively obscure compilation. It's also spotty. Literally all of the 8 or so keepers except maybe Gregory Isaacs’ “Rock Away" are on the re-issue, or I have them on other albums. So I listened once to the re-issue, but it’s also spotty except for the overlap. So I’m skipping this (and volume 2 which seems obscure and is not on Napster). I read about this in the Rough Guide book on reggae, where it was a "starred" review.

Duke Ellington - Money Jungle: X stars

I'm not qualified to rate jazz. Liked this though - sounded kind of like Monk, rather than Duke.

Various Artists - Steppin' Out: Disco's Greatest Hits: 7.5 (high B+)

I don't buy multi-artists compilations at this level.

Onetwothree - Onetwothree: 7.5 (high B+)

# [Swiss post-punk]

Big Thief - Two Hands: 7.5 (high B+)

Luna - The Days of Our Nights [honorable mention]

:-) [I'm a Luna completist, so I would want this on the shelves. It's their only studio album that's currently not. Thinking I hadn't bought it when it came out, I listened to it on Napster. Didn't recognize any of the songs, which is a bad sign for an album. Then I saw in my Amazon purchase history that I had bought it. Now I vaguely remember selling it back. Or maybe it's in the house somewhere. If I find it, I'll put it on the shelves. But I'm not re-buying it.] [Shortly later, I rebought it.]

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - Live Bullet [honorable mention]

:-) [On many "best live album" lists]

Various - Zetrospective: Dancing in the Face of Adversity: 7.5 (high B+)

# [multi-artist comps]

French Frith Kaiser Thompson - Live, Love, Larf & Loaf [honorable mention]

:-)

Various Artists - New Jack City [honorable mention]

:-) [I thought it was rap, but it's R&B]

Dixie Chicks - Home [honorable mention]

:-)

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective: 8.5 (high A-)

Should have been a single disc.

Illuminati Hotties - Let Me Do One More [honorable mention]

:-)

Uncle Tupelo: 89/93: An Anthology: 8 (A-)

 

Tom Ze - Tropicalia Lixo Logico [honorable mention]

:-)

Amon Duul - Yeti [honorable mention]

:-)

Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet [honorable mention]

:-)

M.I.A. - Vicki Leekx Mixtape [honorable mention]

:-)

Stacy Dean Campbell - Lonesome Wins Again [honorable mention]

:-)

The Highwomen - The Highwomen: 7 (B+)

 

# [country] Bought because of Amanda Shires.

They Might Be Giants - Lincoln: 7 (B+)

# [college pop]

Pusha T - Fear of God II -- Let Us Pray: 7 (B+)

The Soul Syndicate - Harvest Uptown / Famine Downtown [honorable mention]

:-)

Lee Ranaldo - In Virus Times [honorable mention]

:-)

Jeffrey Lewis - Works By Tuli Kupferberg (1923-2010) [honorable mention]

:-)

Firehose - If'n [honorable mention]

:-)

Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson [honorable mention]

:-)

Various Artists - Send I A Lion: A Nighthawk Reggae Joint: 7 (B+)

Don't buy multi-artists comps at B+, generally.

The Comet Is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery: 7 (B+)

# [jazz-ish]

Mexstep - Estere-​Ere​-​O: 7 (B+)

Digital only.

Mexstep - Occupied State [honorable mention]

:-)

Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy [honorable mention]

:-)

Nathan Bell - Red, White And American Blues: 7 (B+)

# [folk]

James Blood Ulmer - Black Rock: 7 (B+)

[jazz]

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Will the Circle Be Unbroken: 7.5 (high B+)

# [country/bluegrass]

Trouble Funk - Drop the Bomb: 7.5 (high B+)

# [go-go] See review of comp Go Go Crankin'. [Confusingly, there is also a later, perhaps unofficial, compilation from 2008 with the same name.]

The Leaving Trains - Kill Tunes: 7.5 (high B+)

Definitely in the market for this, but not at $20-25. And there's something nice about having nothing by this band other than Loser Illusion Pt. 0. But I'll probably cave one day and get it.

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Source Tags & Codes [honorable mention]

:-)

I.K. Dairo M.B.E. and His Blue Spots - I Remember [honorable mention]

:-)

Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal Tendencies [honorable mention]

:-)

Atmosphere - Word? [honorable mention]

:-)

Elton John - Caribou [honorable mention]

:-)

Joy Division - Closer: 9.5 (high A)

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures: 9 (A)

Little Simz - Sometimes I Might Be Introvert [honorable mention]

:-) [Annoying title; even more annoying delivery] [five listens]

The Go-Go's - Beauty and the Beat [honorable mention]

:-)

They Might Be Giants - Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants: 8.5 (high A-)

In retrospect, I probably would have been better off with the single disc distillation of this called User's Guide. This goes on for a little long for me. But I have this, the single disc is OOP, and I'll give them the shelf space. Plus it got 5 stars in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (from J.D. Considine, okay, but still, and he clearly is not a rabid fan).

They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants: 7.5 (high B+)

# [college pop] [Christgau and Hull both gave this a full A, so I guess I'm the one with no taste, plus I already own it, so I'm keeping it.]

They Might Be Giants - Flood: 7 (B+)

# [college pop]

They Might Be Giants - A User's Guide to They Might Be Giants [placeholder]

:-) [Hull thinks this is better than Dial-A-Song. Maybe it is, but I have the latter, and it has everything on this, other than "John Lee Supertaster" and "Clap Your Hands." Listened to each three times. I'm keeping Dial-A-Song, the first album, and Apollo 18 for this band, and nothing else.]