Bob Dylan’s ‘Highway 61 Revisited’: Genius, Madness, and the Occasional Whiff of Cat Litter Look, let’s just get this out of the way right off the bat – Bob Dylan is a lyrical genius. When it comes to twisting the English language into kaleidoscopic new shapes, the man is second to none. He’s the kind…
Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’: Genius With a Side of Self-Indulgence Look, I’m just going to come right out and say it – Kendrick Lamar is a goddamn lyrical virtuoso. The way he weaves together complex rhyme schemes, social commentary, and raw emotion is the stuff that keeps English professors up at night, frantically…
Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’: When Pretension Becomes a Musical Genre Look, I get it – Radiohead are a “critically acclaimed” band, the kind that have entire think pieces written about their album artwork. They’re the musical equivalent of that guy at the party who insists that the true meaning of life can only be found in…
Born to Run: When the Boss Became the King of the Jersey Turnpike Look, I’ll admit right off the bat that I’m a little biased here. Being a Jersey boy myself, I’ve got Springsteen’s working-class anthems practically encoded into my DNA. So when he dropped “Born to Run” in 1975, it was less of an…
The Velvet Underground & Nico: When Pretension Collides With Brilliance Look, let’s not beat around the thorny, feedback-drenched bush here – The Velvet Underground & Nico is the kind of album that makes you want to punch a hole in your beret. It’s the sonic equivalent of that friend who insists on only drinking absinthe…
The Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die: When a Hungry Young Hustler Dragged Hip-Hop Into the Promised Land Look, let’s be real – when Biggie crashed into the scene in 1994, hip-hop was in a bit of a rut. We had the G-funk era spreading like a skunk-scented fog over the West Coast, while the…
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: When Four Liverpudlians Decided to Drop Acid and Reinvent the Wheel Let’s address the elephant in the technicolor room: Sgt. Pepper’s is simultaneously the most overrated and underrated album in history – a paradox that could only exist in the same universe where Ringo was actually a great drummer…
Carole King’s “Tapestry”: When Perfection Sits Down at the Piano and Makes Everyone Else Look Like They’re Just Banging on Pots Look, I’ve spent years dissecting albums where artists try to convince us that their emotional pain sounds like a timpani being thrown down a stairwell, but sometimes you need to bow down to straight-up…
Patti Smith’s “Horses”: When Poetry Slams Into Rock and Both Lose the Fight Look, I get it. It’s 1975, and you’re at some Greenwich Village café where everyone’s wearing black turtlenecks and debating whether a urinal in a museum is the pinnacle of artistic achievement. Someone puts on Patti Smith’s “Horses,” and suddenly everyone’s nodding…
Alright, Beatlemaniacs and disciples of the Fab Four, it’s time to unpack the enigma wrapped in a white sleeve that is The Beatles’ self-titled album, affectionately known as “The White Album.” This isn’t just a double album; it’s a musical Rorschach test, a sprawling canvas of sonic experimentation that’s as brilliant as it is baffling.…