2025 in 2025: Day 89

The Grey Album - Danger Mouse

I genuinely consider this to be a very clever concept, and the execution is pretty much brilliant. What More Can I Say mixed with While My Guitar Gently Weeps becomes a completely different beast. 

Highlights: What More Can I Say, 99 Problems, Change Clothes, Allure

7.5/10

Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) - Spiller

The song that introduced the world to Sophie Ellis-Bextor. And this sounds a lot like the music she would do on her own - just a bit more of a house dance kind of thing. Still a perfect Summer song.

10/10

Guero - Beck

This dude is such hit or miss sometimes. And I feel like I have to be in the right mood to really appreciate his silliness. But it is good working music, due to the rhythm and grooves.

Highlights: E-Pro, Que Onda Guero, Hell Yes, Send a Message to Her

6.5/10

Gureolito - Beck

And now for the remix version of Guero. Which is just pretty much the same? Maybe a little less good?

Highlights: Shake Shake Tambourine (Black Tambourine) - Adrock Remix, Ghettochip Malfunction (Hell Yes) - 8bit Remix, Scarecrow - El-P Remix

6/10

THE GUERRiLLA BiSH - BiSH

This is my kind of album. BiSH were my kind of band! Bah gawd SHARR is just pure madness and screaming. The album certainly trails off about halfway through, but that is only because the start of the album is so awesome. And then it gets almost as awesome at the end. And in-between is a big barrel of fun and crazy and crazy fun!

Highlights: My landscape, SHARR, Smack Baby Smack, プロミスザスター, パール, FOR HiM

9/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 732

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2025 in 2025: Day 88

Greatest Hits - Ice Cube

This is purely You Can Do It, because this song is one helluva a badass track. I should have the full album, or at least more Ice Cube, probably.

9/10

Greatest Hits - Falco

You know the drill; this is just Rock Me Amadeus and... Putting on the Ritz? That's not even a Falco song. This version of Rock Me Amadeus seems to be some sort of remix. Clearly I need to sort this out...

8/10

Greatest Hits - Bob Seger

An actual full album - though I do hesitate to call a greatest hits compilation an album. Bob Seger is highly underrated. I am not saying that he is the greatest rocker ever or anything like that, but he has some seriously fantastic songs that should be played on classic rock radio stations a lot more. For those weirdos that still listen to radio stations.

Highlights: Hollywood Nights, Still the Same, Night Moves, Against the Wind

7/10

Greatest Hits - Aretha Franklin

Bah gawd this woman could sing. This contains a whole lot of cover songs, but also a nice range of her soul classics and 80s jams. I think I may actually prefer the Blues Brothers version of Think.

Highlights: I Knew You Were Waiting, Respect, Like a Natural Woman, Rock Steady

7/10

Greatest Hits - Diana Ross

This is purely I'm Coming Out, which is a glorious display of funk and pop and dance.

10/10

Greatest Hits - 2Pac

Surprisingly, I have never really been much of a 2Pac fan. However, I have Changes and All About U, because they are killer. Changes is definitely better than that Van Morrison song.

10/10

Greatest Hits - Joe Tex

This is just Ain't Gonna Bump No More - which may well be the funnest funky song on the planet. How have I never heard more Joe Tex?

10/10

Greatest Hits III - Queen+

This is basically the Queen+ portion of the album, since I have all the rest elsewhere. But why has No One But You not been released elsewhere?

Highlights: The Show Must Go On (Live w/Elton John), Somebody to Love (Live w/George Michael), No One But You

9/10

Greatest Hits Live - Ace Frehley

When I did Kissathon II, these songs had been split across a couple of older Ace Frehley compilations. It has since been released as its own album, so it is nice to have them all in once place - even if it is clearly two different concerts. The two bonus studio tracks are the absolute best songs.

Highlights: One Plus One, Give it to Me Anyway, Shock Me (Live), Stranger in a Strange Land (Live)

8/10

Greatest Hits Live - Split Enz

Not sure how I ended up with this, but it is purely Six Months in a Leaky Boat. I would be interested to hear the rest of the album. And my library certainly needs more Split Enz.

9/10

Greatest Hits Vol. 1 - KoЯn

Thank Prime this is just their cover of Word Up! Which is vastly inferior to both the original and the Gun cover. That version rocks the cocks!

7/10

Greatest Kiss - Kiss

I have said it before and I will say it again, but this is the best Kiss compilation. And while I have all these songs on their respective albums, I will never remove this from my library, because sometimes you just need an awesome Kiss compilation to get you in the groove.

Highlights: The Whole Kit and Caboodle

10/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 727

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2025 in 2025: Day 87

Greatest Hits - Smokie
I genuinely had no idea Needles and Pins was not an original song by the Ramones! It is not an original song by Smokie, either, but I have no recollection of hearing their version until now. And it is awesome. I grew up listening to some sort of Smokie compilation on all road trips, but half of these songs I do not remember at all. In fact, it does not feature half of the songs I remember from that tape! Regardless, these are good songs.
Highlights: Needles and Pins, Don't Play Your Rock'n Roll to Me, Oh Carol, Wild Wild Angels
7/10

Greatest Hits - Will Smith

How do I not have the full album of this? I mean, Will Smith is all sorts of awesome and his Fresh Prince days were all pretty killer. Shame on my name and my game!

Highlights: Nod Your Head (Black Suit's Comin'), Summertime, Boom! Shake the Room

9/10

Greatest Hits - MC Hammer

This is purely Addams Groove. Because I have every other song from this album on their original albums. LOGMAN does not play when it comes to his Hammer collection. This song is as cool now as it was almost 35 years ago.

9/10

Greatest Hits - INXS

Genuinely one of the best Australian bands ever. And this is just a killer compilation.

Highlights: Taste It, The Strangest Party (These are the Times), Need You Tonight, New Sensation

9/10

Greatest Hits - Al Green

This is purely Let's Stay Together. It is a beautiful soul jam. It is weird that I do not really know more Al Green...

10/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 715

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2025 in 2025: Day 86

G is for Get ready for the GREATEST week!

Greatest - Duran Duran

This is such a good reminder of just how great Duran Duran were. That chorus in Rio is sooo fantastic. And boy howdy do these songs have such groovy basslines. I admit, as a child it was confusing that there were so many guys in this band with the surname Taylor and they were not related and one of them was even Roger but not in Queen.

Highlights: Ordinary World, New Moon on Monday, Notorious, Planet Earth

8/10

Greatest Hats - Men Without Hats

This is purely Safety Dance. It feels not so safe, especially if you have Bone-itus.

8/10

Greatest Hits - Village People

Trump may have kind of ruined Y.M.C.A., but these guys will never stop being enjoyable. Ray Simpson will forever be the better singer, though. Singing stuff like "Don't go in the bushes" always makes me laugh. And this dude wants us to stop saying there is absolutely zero gay subtext going on here? Ray Simpson would never. I should watch Can't Stop the Music again.

Highlights: Y.M.C.A., Go West, Macho Man, Do You Wanna Spend the Night

8/10

Greatest Hits - Sublime

These guys never really did anything for me. I do not really dig reggae at the best of times, and this is full on stoner reggae with added cheesy early 00s whiteboy rapping and record scratches. Like Sugar Ray on weed. Also, every pub band I grew up around plays half of these songs.

Highlights: What I Got, Santeria

6/10

Greatest Hits - The Cure

I should probably do a clean up of this, because there are really only a handful of songs that are not available on other albums. But I'll damned if this is not just a fun collection of The Cure singles. Like, this is pretty much The Cure at their most fun all the way.

Highlights: Mint Car, Wrong Number, In Between Days, Close to Me, Just Like Heaven

9/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 710

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2025 in 2025: Day 85

Gravity - Our Lady Peace

The irony of a band firing their long-time guitarist because they claimed he was not good enough, and then replacing him with a guy that does less than nothing and move their sound further towards generic radio rock is not lost on me. Also hilarious that the absolute best songs on the album were all co-written by and/or still feature their original guitarist. Make of that what you will. Innocent is the anthem of the century.

Highlights: Somewhere Out There, Innocent, Sorry, A Story About a Girl

8/10

The Great Christmas Album - The Christmas Angels

A mix of Xmas carols and Xmas classics, sung by a group of singers that range from acceptable to laughable, backed by simple midi sounds straight out of Logic. Since when is Amazing Grace a christmas song??

Highlights: The hilarity of the Rod Stewart imitator singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

4/10

The Great Christmas Album - Various Artists

Wow, how original. This is a collection of Xmas songs - not just carols, thank Prime - and at least they are actually sung by proper singers, like Bing Crosby, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. Somewhat more of an acceptable listen at Xmas time... which is 6 months from now...

Highlights: Jingle Bells - Big Crosby & The Andrews Sisters, Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Frank Sinatra, The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - Vaughan Monroe

6/10

The Great New Zealand Songbook (Souvenir Edition) - Various Artists

This is a massive collection of NZ songs. I will be honest; I have already whittled this down a bit, because it was originally almost six hours long and there was no way I could survive having to deal with that with all the terrible stuff that was included. And this listen will hopefully get rid of some more. While I will contend that the selection process for this must have been very flawed, because there are some genuinely great NZ songs that are missing (e.g. Escaping by Margaret Urlich immediately comes to mind), there are a number of very good songs in here. In fact, this was not nearly as torturous as I was expecting!

Highlights: Heavenly Pop Hit - The Chills, Dominion Road - The Mutton Birds, For Today - Netherworld Dancing Toys, Give it a Whirl - Split Enz, Be Mine Tonight - The' Dudes

7/10

The Great Twenty-Eight - Chuck Berry

I am not going to say all twenty-eight are "great", as some of them are just "okay", I guess. But the ones that are "great" are so great, we probably would not have rock'n roll without them!

Highlights: Maybellene, Thirty Days, You Can't Catch Me, Too Much Monkey Business, Johnny B. Goode, No Particular Place to Go

8/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 705

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2025 in 2025: Day 84

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John

Fun fact: back when I studied video production, I made it a point to include a song from this album on every video project I made - even if it was just a snippet. It felt like the right thing to do at the time. Bah gawd that opening run of four songs is legendary. There are actually a whole bunch of killer guitar riffs throughout this whole thing.

Highlights: Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, Bennie and the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

8/10

Goodies - Ciara

This is simply the song 1,2 Step and I have that because of Missy Elliot. Because when Missy is writing and producing your song, LOGMAN has got to have it.

7/10

Graduation - Kanye West

With all the nonsense going on in the world, it gets harder and harder to not just overlook how much of complete clown Kanye West is, but not have that completely infect his previous music. Like, I have not listened to anything he has released in probably 10 years now. Because he is a piece of shit. Having him still in my library while doing this is not only a chore, but just feels like going against principles in a way. I could have replaced these albums with music by someone better. I have never heard Kneecap, but they are all over the social media these days because of their outspoken Free Palestine activism. They would deserve a listen far more than this clownshoes. Fuck Kanye West.

Highlights: Stronger, Good Life, Can't Tell Me Nothing, Barry Bonds, Big Brother

8.5/10

Graffiti Bridge - Prince

Oh my this is funky! The movie is fine, but the musical performances in it are all very enjoyable. So it makes sense that the soundtrack is great. It never stops being funny hearing We Can Funk after hearing the original version (it is twice as long and he used a very different F word).

Highlights: New Power Generation, We Can Funk, Joy In Repetition, Thieves in the Temple, Graffiti Bridge

8/10

Grand World - Cool For August

This is album #700! My biggest opinion of this album is that the singer has a strange voice, but if you can get past it, he expresses quite a lot of passion and the songs themselves are very good, in a late 90s alt-style radio rock kind of way. That may not make sense... Anyways, this was probably one of my favourite albums around 1999-2002 and listening now I had almost forgotten how outstanding this actually is.

Highlights: Don't Wanna Be Here, Walk Away, Denial, Sylmar, Spinning

9/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 700

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2025 in 2025: Day 83

GOiNG TO DESTRUCTiON - BiSH

Bah gawd this album rules the schools. Very little idol nonsense and a whole lot of punk attitude, wrapped up in some pop stylings. The whole thing is full of great hooks and big beats and screaming vocals and just awesomeness. So good I had to buy it three different times...

Highlights: in case..., STACKiNG, I have no idea., WiTH YOU, 狂う狂う, BROKEN

9/10

Gold - Cher

While I do appreciate her 60s and 70s music - it is mostly good light-hearted pop, some of it strangely racially-charged - I feel like Cher really came into her own once she hooked up with Richie Sambora. The 80s style pop-rock thing really suited her voice. Especially the power ballads. I also enjoy her late 90s/early 00s resurgence doing disco. Because LOGMAN loves disco. And Cher. Only song missing from this is her cover of Walking in Memphis - her live cut of that is fantastic.

Highlights: We All Sleep Alone, After All, If I Could Turn Back Time, Just Like Jessie James, Song for the Lonely

7.5/10

Gold - Ryan Adams

It is crazy to think DRA wanted this as a double-album; the cut tracks are mostly average (but mostly not great) and half of the remaining tracks are also kinda there. But boy howdy that first half of the album is brilliant. It tries to get back to that level around Harder Now That It's Over, and it certainly gets close. 

Highlights: New York New York, Firecracker, Answering Bell, La Cienaga Just Smiled, The Rescue Blues

8/10

Gold: Greatest Hits - The Everly Brothers

The title does not lie; this is pure rock'n roll gold. These dudes had beautiful harmonies.

Highlights: Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie, Rip It Up, Should We Tell Him, Poor Jenny

7/10

Gold Against the Soul - Manic Street Preachers

I forget how kickass this album is. Compared to their first album, there is nothing on the level of Stay Beautiful or Motorcycle Emptiness (I mean, that is a crazy high bar to set), but overall I enjoy this album more. Shorter, punchier, all great songs and a much better mix. James Dean Bradfield sounds very angry!

Highlights: From Despair to Where, Sleepflower, Yourself, Roses in the Hospital

8/10

Gold Cobra - Limp Bizkit

Ten years after their peak and ten years before they embraced being just a fun joke of a band. And Fred Durst was still "rapping" about bagging hawt women and fighting people. "So much ass in Los Angeles/It's definitely scandalous". Thought-provoking def jam poetry slam, to be sure.

Highlights: Gold Cobra, Shark Attack, Shotgun, 90.2.10

6/10

The Gold Experience - Prince

I mean, sure, he was actually the symbol at this point. But I just credit everything to Prince. And this album is one of his best. Or at least one of my favourites. Funk, rock, soul, ballads and awesomeness all wrapped in a nice gold bow. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World is just phemonenal and Endorphinmachine is the most fun rockin' Prince song on the planet. I am even willing to overlook the overt religious lyrics on songs like Dolphin and Gold. That is just how this all this.

Highlights: Endorphinmachine, Shhh, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, Gold

9/10

Gold Medal - The Donnas

I don't want to say this album is boring, because it is not quite that bad. But compared to the stellar Spend The Night, this is... 

Highlights: Don't Break Me Down, Fall Behind Me, It Takes One to Know One

6.5/10

The Golden Age of Wireless - Thomas Dolby

This is purely the song She Blinded Me with Science. It is classic 80s synth pop stuff.

7/10

Gone Troppo - George Harrison

Speaking of 80s synth pop stuff - George and his Moog are back having some summer fun.

Highlights: Dream Away, Wake Up My Love, Gone Troppo, That's the Way it Goes

7/10

Gonna Make You Sweat - C+C Music Factory

This is both super fun pop-rap dance stuff, and hard hitting 90s dancefloor jams. 90s dance stuff could super funky. This dude's raps are hilariously cringe at times. And surprisingly misogynistic!

Highlights: Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now), Here We Go Let's Rock & Roll, Things That Make You Go Hmmmm...., Bang That Beat

8/10

Good Bye - M to M

K-Pop ballad. Idol group? Handsome actor? A combo of both??

7.5/10

Goodbye [Single] - Spice Girls

Saying goodbye to Geri, but not really. Smart marketing. I was actually unpacking a box the other day and found my poster book from their split with Geri. What a time to be a Spice Girls fan. A sad time. Anyways, this song is beautiful and the tracks from Live at Wembley are also very, very good. The Mels completely nail Sisters (Are Doing It For Themselves) . Smashing stuff!

Highlights: Goodbye, Sisters (Are Doing It For Themselves), We Are Family [Live]

10/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 695

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