"Angel" starts this killer album off right, setting up that oh-so-enticing menancing ambience. "Dissolved Girl" is my favorite song. All in all this is a very solid album with no weak points.
Highlights: Angel, Risingson, Teardrop, Dissolved Girl, Black Milk
>Fuck you, Bush.
>It’s time to get out of Iraq, Bush.
>What were you even doing there in the first place, Bush?
>You didn’t even get properly elected, Bush.
>Are you happy now, Bush?
>Fuck you, Bush.
Perfectly encapsulates the ennui of the mid-2000s. Tight performance from start to finish, with surprisingly few cringe moments 20 years later. This is surprising, considering that the frontman is a grade-A dork.
Highlights: American Idiot, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Give Me Novacaine, Wake Me Up When September Ends
If ever an album could brag about possessing unity of effect, it's Kid A. The effect? To place you in a post-apocalyptic hellscape. Thom Yorke's voice services this end by being quite sexless, hardly male or female. The drums on the Kid A track are divine.
Highlights: Everything In Its Right Place, Kid A, The National Anthem, Idioteque, Morning Bell, Motion Picture Soundtrack
Highlights: A Life of Possibilities, What Do You Want Me To Say?, Spider in the Snow, You Are Invited
A work of creative genius, Endtroducing takes samples from pop music, movies, and TV shows of the latter half of the 20th century and blends them into something entirely new. Almost as though you surveyed all of pop culture from the 70s, 80s, and 90s in an afternoon, then had a vivid dream where your brain tried to process that information. I would put this album higher on the list except for the fact that, because DJ Shadow was constrained to merely using samples and scratching, the production quality does suffer at times in a way that, for example, Mezzanine doesn't.
Highlights: Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt, Changeling, Midnight in a Perfect World, Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain, What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1 - Blue Sky Revisit)
Not much to say about this that hasn't been said. Kurt Cobain did a good job at writing lyrics that were just vague enough that almost anyone could relate to them, while still having enough substance to deliver emotional impact in conjunction with the music. Very Gen X.
Highlights: Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom, Come as You Are, Lithium, Drain You, On a Plain
It's definitely punk rock, but it's heavily influenced by a number of other styles. Of course, it's The Clash, so it's not like they master any of said styles. They act more like seasoning to an epicly-scoped punk double-album. A few of the tracks have not aged well, but it mostly holds up and I listened to this album countless times in high school.
Highlights: London Calling, Hateful, Rudie Can't Fail, Spanish Bombs, Lost in the Supermarket, Death or Glory, Koka Kila, Lover's Rock, Four Horsemen, Train in Vain