201 - Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

The texture of the music is what stands out more than anything else. Trent's debut, Pretty Hate Machine was so spare compared to other industrial music. At the time, I felt that The Downward Spiral was Trent's attempt to address those calling him an industrial poser. Since he didn't abandon his use of pop song structure, I have the feeling that Trent felt a need to go full-blast with creating a grating, fierce, and raw sonic assault...that also has soft periods that help to keep the perspective on how loud the songs get instead of deadening the listener's ears with constant white noise music. In that pursuit, he distorts and alters much of the sound that guitars sound like keyboards, synths sound like guitars; it is all melodic noise.

The Downward Spiral was better than I remember. That said, I am very glad to be moving on from this album. The aggression, tension, grating noises, and angst was effectively conveyed in the music and really put me in a foul mood.

Songs I Knew I Liked: "Mr. Self Destruct," "Piggy," "March of the Pigs," "Closer," and "Hurt"

Songs I Now Like: I had forgotten how I liked "Heresy," "Ruiner," "A Warm Place," and "Reptile"

Songs I Can Go the Rest of My Life Never Hearing Again: If I'm going to listen to the album, there aren't any tracks I would skip.

200 - AC/DC - Highway to Hell

Highway to Hell turned out to be Bon Scott's swan song (album?) when he died just a few months after its release. So, how much of the love for this album is because of that I'm not certain. I have listened to bits of Bon-era AC/DC, but not enough of the full albums to say how much better this is from previous releases. I thought the first half of the album was a bit inconsistent but read online about how others think this album is one of the most consistent for the band (up to that point, at least).

What Highway to Hell captures is a hard rocking band with bone crunching riffs and rhythm and a wildman of a vocalist singing about the utter joy in badness, nastiness, and debauchery. The rhythm is pounded out and Angus crushes your ears with his guitar. Testosterone in audio form.

Songs I Knew I Liked: "Highway to Hell"

Songs I Now Like: "Walk All Over You" and "Night Prowler"

Songs I Can Go the Rest of My Life Never Hearing Again: None

199 - The Strokes - Is This It

Already reviewed when the album was ranked #367. After giving the album another listening, I think...

I've listened to several of Velvet Underground's albums since I listened to Is This It in September 2011. That definitely helped me better appreciate this album, but I get any more hooked on the songs this time as I had previously. I don't see why it would jump all of the way from 367 to 199. Had I not encountered it previously and just came to it now at 199, I would suspect it was the recipient of undue praise for their presence in a cultural moment and not so much the music on the album.

198 - Little Walter - The Best of Little Walter

The album in the list was released by Chess and is out-of-print. I compiled songs from a Little Walter collection that Chess released for my session.

Here is the template for harmonica-based Chicago blues, the gold standard. There were numerous harp solos that sounded as if they were altered audio of Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page guitar solos.

But it all boils down to this - the album cemented a style of instrument playing in a genre. Who am I to put it down or be critical of it. I hear it for what it is: a collection of a man who has expressed himself with a harmonica in a way others hadn't quite matched previously (or, at least, saved those performances for future generations). On a personal level, I applaud the musicians for the music they made, but blues is a casual interest at best. Despite complete agreement from me that each song has interesting aspects, much of the album slipped by me without me stopping to make note of a particular song name for the bottom portion of my review.


Songs I Knew I Liked: None

Songs I Now Like: "My Babe," "You're So Fine," and "Juke"

Songs I Can Go the Rest of My Life Never Hearing Again: None I wanted to skip