Youssou N'Dour - The Lion: liked

:-)

NRBQ - At Yankee Stadium: neutral

Not generally a fan of the band, but I reviewed this because it is the users' favorite on AllMusic and Christgau gave it a B+. I could try Kick Me Hard, which he gave the same grade, but it rates much lower with AllMusic users, so I'll skip it for now. Maybe one day.

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher [honorable mention]

 :-)

David Byrne - Rei Momo

 :-|

John Chibadura - The Best of: 8 (A-)

 

Physical copies non-existent, probably even in 1986. There also don't seem to be any reasonable substitutes. Too bad.

Mac Miller - Circles [honorable mention]

 :-)

Chicago Farmer - Quarter Past Tonight: 8 (A-)

Would definitely get this in physical if it were even remotely available.

David Byrne - David Byrne [honorable mention]

 :-) [A few standout tracks make this seem better than it is.]

The Residents - Duck Stab/Buster & Glen: 7 (B+)

 

# [experimental]

Jens Lekman - I Know What Love Isn't [honorable mention]

 :-) [I guess I must have listened to this twice x3, because I have two entries. So I listened to it 6 times and upped from neutral to honorable mention at the end.]

Glasvegas - Glasvegas: neutral

A full A from Christgau??? At least by year end he had downgraded to A-. [De-shelved in 2020]

Cluster - Cluster [aka Cluster 71]: liked

:-)

Leyla McCalla - Capitalist Blues [honorable mention]

 :-)

City Girls - City on Lock: 4 stars

Digital/vinyl only.

Cabaret Voltaire - Red Mecca: liked

:-)

Masters of Reality - Sunrise on the Sufferbus: liked

I'm pretty sure I owned this when it came out, because Christgau gave it an A minus originally. But he later downgraded it to ***. I agree with his reassessment.

Masters of Reality - Masters of Reality: liked

Chris Goss' vocals are the deal-breaker for me. Also, it's a little derivative. Almost bought the Delicious Vinyl reissue anyway, because of the Matt Dike connection, but I just can't justify it.

Billy Nomates - Billy Nomates: liked

A couple outstanding tracks, but nothing anywhere near warranting the full A Christgau gives this. Trying to get his "A" count properly distributed, presumably.

Bjork - Debut

 :-(

Black Sabbath - Paranoid: 7.5 (high B+)

 

I also considered picking up the comp Sold Our Soul, but it has eight out of 17 tracks from this and the debut, both of which I have. Vol. 4 gets four tracks, Master of Reality gets two tracks, and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage each have only one track (and there's one non-album track rounding out the 17 tracks). There's a best of from 2000 on Sanctuary that might be a better option. Or maybe The Ultimate Collection (2016). They basically have the same track listing, minus 6 and 5 unique songs (out of 32 or 31), respectively. Because they have almost double the tracks of Sold our Soul, they put more from albums three through six on there. Here are the differences:

Ultimate 

"Changes" - Vol. 4

"Rat Salad" - Paranoid

"Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" - Technical Ecstasy

"Behind the Wall of Sleep" - Black Sabbath

"It's Alright" - Technical Ecstasy

Best of

"Planet Caravan" - Black Sabbath

"Supernaut" - Vol. 4

"Don't Start (Too Late)" - Sabotage

"Heaven and Hell" - Heaven and Hell

"Turn Up the Night" - Mob Rules

"The Dark/Zero the Hero" - Born Again

Note that Ultimate has only tracks from the Ozzy albums.

The Human Hearts - Day of the Tiles [EP] [honorable mention]

 

Digital only EP (6 tracks, ~22 minutes). Only half the songs were free on Bandcamp, and no other service has the other three, so I'm really reviewing only half the EP, but I can't imagine the other three songs are so good it would bump it above A minus, and it's digital only anyway.

Black Thought & Salaam Remi - Streams of Thought Vol. 2

 :-( [Digital only EP]

Black Thought - Streams of Thought Vol. 1

 :-| [Digital only EP]

The Fever - Pink on Pink: liked

De-shelved in 2020

No Age - Goons Be Gone: liked

I should probably restrict myself to this band's albums that are highest-rated on Pitchfork, but I've got a hodgepodge of them and will be keeping it that way for simplicity's sake. Not sure why Christgau rates them so highly.