2025 in 2025: Day 169

Spiritual Minded - KRS-One

I only have the song South Bronx 2002. I will never defend the lack of KRS-One in my library.

8/10

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Various Artists

What a wonderful movie. The soundtrack is a mixed bag; I really only got it for Wilco's Just a Kid - which sounds a lot like Urge Overkill. I have not heard any other Wilco. Is that standard for them?

Highlights: Just a Kid - Wilco, You Better Swim - Motorhead, Goofy Goober Rock - Tom Rothrock with Jim Wise, Bikini Bottom - Electrocute

6/10

Stabbing Westward - Stabbing Westward

While a very contrasting style to their earlier industrial metal, it is still their mostly miserable dark selves, just in a more polished radio-friendly package. Which suits my sensibilities even more! Pretty sure 2001 LOGMAN thought this album was 100% his jam. It does not hold up quite as well, but there are still some killer moments.

Highlights: Angel, Last Time, Perfect, High

8/10

Stakes Is High - De La Soul

Talk about no nonsense Golden Era hip-hop. This is the type of album you can appreciate the beats and the grooves, because it is just solid all the way through. But when you focus on the lyrical content as well, it just lifts it to the next level. 

Highlights: Stakes is High, The Bizness, Wonce Again Long Island, Brakes, Big Brother Beat

7.5/10

Stand Still, Look Pretty - The Wreckers

Oh hey, yesterday I was all 'I should have a Michelle Branch album' and here is one! Except it is her doing country music with some other young girl. Probably not so young now. 

Highlights: I am starting to be able to really hear when John Shanks is in charge...

5.5/10

STANDARD - SCANDAL

My girls doing their usual rockin' pop styles, before they got adventurous and even more awesome. At least when they were just doing this style, it is all pretty fun, if not all that amazing. Certainly could do with a bit more Mami...

Highlights: 打ち上げ花火, キミと未来と完全同期, OVER DRIVE, 涙よ光れ

7/10

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants - Oasis

I will not pretend this is the greatest Oasis album or anything, but I do see this album as being growth and a little more creative - clearly Noel was keen to experiment a little on the production side of things. And it gives it more of a psychadelic 60s vibe for the most part. I wish they had continued to explore that and just gone full 68 Beatles.

Highlights: Fuckin' In The Bushes, Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is, Gas Panic!, Roll It Over

8/10

Star Fleet - Brian May & Friends

This is the first disc of the mighty Star Fleet box set, which means I finally have the mighty Star Fleet in my CD collection! Because I had been living with the original 12" for many years and was always sad to not have it in my iTunes library to crank up. EVH murdering his string on Let Me Out will never not be funny.

Highlights: Star Fleet [Complete Version / 2023 Mix], Let Me Out, We Will Rock You (Fast) [Live At The Palace Theater, LA / 1993]

7.5/10

Star Fleet Sessions - Brian May & Friends

Things kick off with EVH pulling out the opening riff for the future Van Halen classic Top of the World, and from there it is just an hour of these dudes demoing the same two songs. Which is kind of interesting to see/hear how things progressed in the studio.

Highlights: Star Fleet (Take 1), Jam, Funky Jam

6/10

Star Time - James Brown

Now, LOGMAN is not one to praise a compilation or anthology set for being a necessary own - usually you can achieve everything on those by simply collecting many albums. And we have seen how that actually works for me... Anyway, Star Time by James Brown is five hours of the most essential soul and funk cuts and is absolutely worth owning and listening to again and again. Being compiled chronologically, the first disc is my least favourite. But once we hit that second disc and the mid-60s, there is not a bad moment. Just stone cold funk grooves. Soft funk, hard funk, dirty funk, funky jams. And the fun part is a lot of the songs are the full unedited versions; not the "Part 1" and "Part 2" found on the original singles or albums. And Catfish's solo on Ain't It Funky Now is about the funkiest guitar solo on the planet that you just have to do the chickenhead bop to.

Highlights: Get Up Get Into It and Get Involved, I'm a Greedy Man, Funky Drummer, There Was a Time, Bring It Up (Hipster's Avenue), It's Too Funky In Here, Get Up Offa That Thing (Release the Pressure)

9/10

Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk - Meco

The best thing to come out of Star Wars. The Other Galactic Funk is pretty solid as well!

Highlights: Star Wars, Other Galactic Funk, Star Wars/Cantina Band [7" Edit]

9/10

Star Wars and Other Hits - Stars on 45

This is some type of disco megamix that starts with the theme for Star Wars and then quickly moves on to other awesome songs, like Layla, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?, Ma Baker, Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, Bette Davis Eyes, and many more. I stumbled upon this when first trying to find the Meco Star Wars stuff. It is fun.

8/10

Starfish - The Church

This is purely the song Under the Milky Way. It is a solid 80s goth synthwave pop track.

8/10

start over [Single] - BAND-MAID

One of the most pop songs from everyone's favourite band of hard-rocking maids. And probably one of their strongest songs ever. Ending with a bold "I don't give a fuck" is just pure *chef's kiss*.

10/10

State of Mind - Holly Valance

This is only the title track. I recall how much this song was trashed on release, however LOGMAN was like 'That disco beat and the super processed vocals go hard!' Like, it is still kind of terrible, but I still think those parts are fantastic. Temu Kylie Minogue never did anything else of worth.

9/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 1610

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2025 in 2025: Day 162

Sign O' The Times - Prince

Mostly minimalist, mostly just Prince. Somewhat psychedelic pop. And mostly funky. Probably as brilliant as it is funky.

Highlights: I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, U Got the Look, Sign O' the Times, It

8/10

Sign O' The Times (Super Deluxe) - Prince

Three discs and four hours of outtakes, demos, rehearsals and whatnot from The Vault. And most of it is absolutely essential listening. Some seriously exceptional songs here and some epic big funky jams. This is what happens when you plan to make three albums and then try and whittle those down to one. Those Camille songs sure are fire. I also love that one of these demos still has the click track in there. 

Highlights: Soul Psychodelicide, In a Large Room with No Light, Love and Sex, Crucial, Emotional Pump

7.5/10

Sign O' The Times: Promo Mixes and B-Sides - Prince

The b-sides are all sorts of funky good times. And it never hurts to get a good extended mix of an already awesome Prince song. Someone talk to his estate about getting us more of these Super Deluxe Editions.

Highlights: Shockadelica, U Got the Look (Long Look, Shockadelica (12" Long Version), La La La He He Hee

8/10

Significant Other - Limp Bizkit

Between this and Eminem, 1999/2000 sure was the time to be a young angry white boy. And as much as we all like to make fun of Fred Durst, this album has a lot of fun moments. The downer stuff is just a downer, but when songs are less serious and mostly just Durst yelling about Ken Shamrock and being tough and broke (which also applies to Ken Shamrock?), that right there is my jam. Also, Method Man is pretty great.

Highlights: Just Like This, I'm Broke, Nobody Like You, Break Stuff

7.5/10

Silk Cuts - Various Artists

Another one of these big long remix albums. This time featuring a lot of classic UK garage tracks and a little bit of US hip-hop & R&B. 

Highlights: All Good - De La Soul & Chaka Khan, Do You Really Like It? - DJ Pied Piper & The Masters of Ceremonies, Flowers - Sweet Female Attitude, Course Bruv - Genius Crew, Gotta Get Thru This - Daniel Bedingfield

7/10

silver lining - LAMP IN TERREN

This dude has moments with his voice that legit give me chills. This is all just really strong driving emo-tinted indie rock. And I dig it.

Highlights: L-R, 緑閃光, send me, ゴールド・ルーズ, balloon

7.5/10

The Simpson Sing the Blues - Various Artists

Is this the most hilariously dated album in my entire library? It is even cheesier and sillier than I remembered; this is possibly the least rockin' version of School Days I have ever heard, Homer singing a blues rock song just makes it sound like a comedy moment on the show, Deep Deep Trouble may be the funniest 'rapping' of the 90s, and Lisa almost sounds like my girl YUKI when she sings. Marge and Homer singing a duet is absolutely funnier than any episode of The Simpsons in the last 25 years! As usual, Mr. Burns wins the song wars of Springfield!

Highlights: Look At All Those Idiots - Mr. Burns & Smithers, Do The Bartman - Bart Simpson, Sibling Rivalry - Bart & Lisa Simpson

6/10

Sing When You're Winning - Robbie Williams

I only have the one song here - Let Love Be Your Energy - because I never had much interest in the other songs from this album. His first two seemed pretty cool. This song is awesome.

9/10

SINGALONG - 緑黄色社会

While nowhere near as amazing as their debut album, this still has its share of highs and is pretty solid. Less indie pop and more radio friendly. This is what happens when you get signed to a major label.

Highlights: Shout Baby, あのころ見た光, Mela!, スカーレット

7.5/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 1509

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2025 in 2025: Day 51

Daydream - Mariah Carey

Wasn't this, like, the peak of Mariah's popularity? Or was that earlier in life? I know that, at the time, I thought One Sweet Day was the worst possible musical combo in the universe. I think I was just trying to be edgy, because there is no way I thought this was the worst song ever even back then. And we all know Boyz II Men can sing awesome as hell. Oh, now we get Mariah singing a Journey ballad? That's a nice surprise. 

Highlights: One Sweet Day, Fantasy, Open Arms, Always Be My Baby

8/10

Daydreaming/Choose Me [Single] - BAND-MAID

Choose Me is awesome and I am super happy to get some more BAND-MAID.

10/10

Daylight - Needtobreathe

Christian pop-rock time! These guys were pretty popular when I was at church and stuff, but even then I waited until I found the CD for $1 before buying. And honestly, it is pretty decent. Lyrics are a bit preachy and self-important, but musically these songs are solid.

Highlights: Don't Wait for Daylight, Shine On, Haley, You Are Here, Lost

7/10

Dazed and Confused (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Various Artists

Oooh yeah, one of the most important albums of my high school growth. Funnily enough, for all the killer songs in that movie, this soundtrack actually could have been even more awesome? But it still rocks. Hard. My CD is actually scratched badly, and so there are some skips and whatnot during some of the songs, so I am on a bit of a mission to replace the whole album with the original albums these all appeared on. I really should finish that off. Also, this version of Rock and Roll All Nite is just odd and I have to assume it was a re-record by the 80s lineup?

Highlights: Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer, School's Out - Alice Cooper, Tuesday's Gone - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Fox on the Run - Sweet, but yeah the whole album rocks my socks

9/10

De La Soul is Dead - De La Soul

Possibly their weirdest album. A whole bunch of songs that are barely songs and random skits about people being not good - which are generally fun. Who Do You Worship? is super hilarious. Then the last half of the album features a lot more solid old school hip-hop grooves and I go home happy. Pretty sure I've been singing the hook to Ring Ring Ring for 35 years now...

Highlights: Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey), Keepin' the Faith, A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturday", Let Let Me In

6.5/10

Dear Impossible Foggy Demo - Ryan Adams

I would ask what was going on and what I was thinking with this, but at this stage I think my Ryan Adams collection has more bad than good. Especially annoying when you realise half of these could have been if recorded properly.

Highlights: Sunflowers and Rain

4/10

The Death of WCW - Bryan Alvarez

This is an audio book. It is long. It is Bryan Alvarez reading me through the history and rise and fall of WCW. This is a nice timely recap, since I have been taking a break from WCW viewing these past few months and will be returning to it soon. Also, Alvarez is such a great person to listen to; his voice always accurately portrays his complete frustration and dissatisfaction with what he has had to watch.

Highlights: Lessons Not Learned

8/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 399

2025 in 2025: Day 31

Brothers Gonna Work it Out - The Chemical Brothers

Massive DJ mix from The Chemical Brothers. It's mostly pretty funky. Mostly. I just did a google on this and my tracklisting does not match wiki. Nor do the times. Weird, because mine is a direct rip of the CD. And it is impossible to properly rate or anything, because it's just one massive DJ mix, really.

7/10

Bryan Adams - Bryan Adams

When I was about 13 or 14, I bought Gold Signature Tour Editions of Bryan Adams' albums, from You Want It, You Got It to Waking Up the Neighbours. I foolishly passed on this album and Live! Live! Live! and have never been able to find said versions of them again, so almost 20 years later I had to settle for just a normal edition of this album. As an album, it is quite different to everything he released after; more light-hearted and poppy. And no Keith Scott.

Highlights: Hidin' From Love, Win Some Lose Some, Remember

6.5/10

Buddah Mix - Cypress Hill

This was a bonus disc that came with Temple of Boom; it's just one track - a 20 minute DJ mix of songs from the first two Cypress Hill albums. They're all great songs, so there are worse ways to spend 20 minutes. Obviously a morning for DJ mixes!

7/10

The Buddha of Suburbia - David Bowie

I can appreciate this album for being both adventurous and having some wonderful songs buried within the weirdness. The instrumentals are really more like soundscapes or interludes; they certainly aren't musical or something you would put on to jam to. But the songs are generally pretty darn great and fit somewhat with some of the songs from Black Tie White Noise, which was only released a few months beforehand.

Highlights: Buddha of Suburbia, Strangers When We Meet, Untitled No. 1

6/10

Buhloone Mindstate - De La Soul

De La Soul with James Brown's old horns section and sampling some Run-DMC? And Michael Jackson? And an appearance from a legit Japanese hip-hop trio? As you might imagine, all this adds up to make a genuinely fantastic groove.

Highlights: En Focus, Long Island Wildin', Area, Breakadawn

7/10

Burlesque: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Christina Aguilera and Cher

This journey through Christina's catalogue has forced me to accept that I just don't like her doing big band songs. In fact, I may have to face the reality that... I actually... don't really like much of what she has put out in general. She has been a totally mixed bag since Stripped. Her vocals sound super processed on this album, and I can not imagine why. I really liked this movie, but there are two standout songs on this album - and only one is by Aguilera.

Highlights: Express - Christina Aguilera, You Haven't Seen the Last of Me - Cher

6/10

Burn in the Night [Single] - Ryan Adams

Another one of his singles from 2015. These are actually good; very 90s garage rock.

Highlights: Burn in the Night, Cop City

6/10

Bury the Hatchet - The Cranberries

Hmmm... I find this woman to be one of the absolute worst singers I have ever heard in my life. And their guitarist produces some of the worst guitar solos I have ever heard in my life. At some point, I actually found I had about four of their albums in my iTunes library. And they were all deluxe editions. Thankfully, I saw sense and deleted all of them bar this; I kept it because Promises is a very good song. Starting this album, I am not sure that song is worth 70 minutes of The Cranberries. Halfway through, I was ready to eat my words, because things didn't start off too badly - and there was even another song I thought was very good! But then it slowly trailed off and got to Copycat, which is not only utterly terrible, but hilariously ironic in that the lyrics are complaining about bands copying other bands - yet there is ZERO originality found in The Cranberries. Heck, most of their songs they are trying desperately to sound like The Cure. At least a really terrible version. The singer seemed to really hate women; most of her songs are complaining about bad Mothers and the like.  If I could skip the rest of this dreck and delete now, I wouldn't even hesitate. 

Highlights: Promises, Shattered

3.5/10

Business as Usual - Men at Work

This is purely Who Can It Be Now? and I think I needed some fun 80s to try and recover from that. I could go for more Men at Work - I don't have this whole album, but an entire album from The Cranberries? Make it make sense...

7/10

Butterfly - Mariah Carey

I remember all the hullabaloo around this album when it was released; Carey had been strictly R&B/pop and this album was supposed to be more of her getting a sexier image and trying to get in the hip-hop scene or something. Sure, that influence is definitely there on a few songs like Honey and Breakdown, which hilariously samples Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, but it is still mostly the middle of the road Mariah Carey of old with the songs about love and singing insanely high. Great background music.

Highlights: Butterfly, The Roof

6/10

BYE-BYE [Single] - Ayumi Hamasaki

I think this was Ayu's most recent single? It's... okay? My wife certainly wishes Ayu would say "Bye-bye" for a while...

7/10

Bye-Bye Show [Single] - BiSH

This was the culmination of a year-long BiSH is OVER campaign, where they released a single (2 songs) each month and would then disband. Of course, WACK realised the money they were making from this so milked it for an extra month... and then decided they would keep touring until their final concert in June - six months later. And of course, this would not be the final single...  Which is a shame, because ending things with a song called SPARK when their first song was called スパーク (Spark) seemed like a great full circle kind of idea. And also it is an awesome song.

8/10

The Byte is in My Blood - Robot Goes Here

This is some random punk dude that is also a scientist and makes solo electronic punk music. It's kind of fun; I'd almost be interested to hear how they could have ended up if not completely programmed, but I still admire his execution. This was one of those wonderful $1 CDs I bought back in the day. I miss getting fun surprises like this. Bahaha I forgot about his full electronic version of Back in Black - complete with computer generated vocals. I actually recall on his MySpace he had an EP that was just him covering other heavy metal classics, like Iron Maiden's The Trooper. Hilarious stuff.

Highlights: Back in Black

5/10

Finally finished with B albums!

"Albums" listened to so far: 262

2025 in 2025: Day 8

Anthology [Disc 1 Ascot] - John Lennon
Oh, I wanted more rough songs from The Beatles? Close enough! This first disc from the John Lennon Anthology collection covers the recording of The Plastic Ono Band and Imagine albums; it is all demos and alternate takes. And, quite honestly, some of them are very good. I can't stress enough just how amazing this demo of I Found Out is - the final release was like a simple shuffle groove, whereas this is some hard-hitting acoustic number. Imagine with the organ is such a weird take. Overall, well worth another listen.
Highlights: I Found Out [Home Recording], Baby Please Don't Go, Jealous Guy [From 8 Track Imagine Sessions]
6.5/10

Anthology [Disc 2 New York City] - John Lennon
This disc covers the Some Time in New York City and Mind Games periods. I'm likely in the minority, but I absolutely love STNYC - angry political Lennon is my security blanket. Well, actually, my blanket is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles saying "Cowabunga", but it isn't quite the right size. Anyways, we don't get much in the way of demos from that album, but a lot of live stuff from political rallies and whatnot. Then demos/outtakes for Mind Games, and some random demos for I'm the Greatest and Real Love. I enjoy Lennon doing his scat in the studio - reminds me of Elvis doing fun stuff live. If you ever need a reminder of how society evolves, just listen to Geraldo Rivera boldly brag about raising money "for the mentally retarded", before Lennon screams out the n word multiple times in his song. Wild times. 
Highlights: All the live songs, Real Love [Home Recording]
6.5/10

Anthology [Disc 3 The Lost Weekend]
This covers the Walls and Bridges and Rock 'n' Roll recording sessions. Lennon should have done more rock'n roll, because he was awesome at it and his medley of Rip It Up/Ready Teddy is super fantastic. The banter between Lennon and Psycho Phil is kind of hilarious; Lennon is clearly in a state, and Spector is a lunatic, and some of the stuff they say is... sad, considering how they ended up.
Highlights: Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out) [Alt Version], Pretty much all the Rock 'n' Roll sessions - particularly Slippin' and Slidin'
6/10

Anthology [Disc 4 Dakota]
And now we get demos and alternate takes from 1979/80. This version of I'm Losing You is much more aggressive than the Double Fantasy version. And Nobody Told Me has a lot more life to it compared to the version on Milk and Honey. Actually, most of the outtakes from that album are like that. Dang, now I want someone to just redo that whole album so it's more like this. And less like what George Martin did to Grow Old With Me here. The home recordings are all very odd choices; we get Lennon mocking Bob Dylan and then his interpretation of an Indian guru or something. Great idea - let's just end the collection with him getting cancelled...
Highlights: the Milk and Honey outtakes
5/10

Anti Anti Generation - RADWIMPS
I was not enjoying this. At all. Not even Taka from ONE OK ROCK and the usually great IKIBIJIKI was not doing anything for me. It got about halfway through the album and I was just questioning why RADWIMPS do not make good music anymore... but then I managed to correct my mood a bit, and the rest of the album hasn't offended me so greatly. In fact, this album might not actually be as bad as I remembered. Still a far cry from what I know RADWIMPS are capable of. I'm tired.
Highlights: IKIJIBIKI feat.Taka, サイハテアイニ
5/10

AOI Bionix - De La Soul
This is actually somewhat of an understandable progression. Somewhat, given RADWIMPS do a bit of rapping in their songs. Except De La Soul are very good hip-hop. And that is exactly what this album is. Very good. I bought a box of all of De La Soul's CDs many years ago, because I needed the classic grooves of 3 Feet High and Rising and De La Soul is Dead in my life. The later albums just didn't get the same attention; not because they aren't good, I just got caught up in the early stuff that I knew. This album is a reminder that I need to give the other albums some serious attention. And also my box set is now out of date.
Highlights: Simply, Peer Pressure [Feat. B-Real], Trying People
7/10

Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Back - Public Enemy
This is just Bring tha Noize with Anthrax. The original rap/metal hybrid. Almost 35 years later this song still goes hard. 
9/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 66

Music Talk: Real Questions

Does listening to a specific artist make you feel the need to do something in particular?

Like, when I listen to De la Soul, I find myself wanting to don my Bret Hart basketball-style singlet and go shoot some hoops. Despite never actually playing basketball. Or being athletic. Or having anyone to play b-ball against.

Today I'm listening to Run-D.M.C. because they are the kings. I don't make the rules. Anyways, Rock Box is still the awesomest... and totally makes me want to find a nice cold glass bottle of Pepsi. Must be glass. Not sure where I would find such a thing, but if you have one, please send it my way.

I kind of liken to this when I listen to Kiss; that always results in me wanting to play guitar, and then inevitably getting bored because my guitar playing is so poor now. And listening to Ramones makes me want to just give my boss the finger or something. My boss is me... so... yeah.

Real talk.

Also, can we get some deluxe Run-D.M.C. reissues? Someone wanna do an atmos remix of their albums? Don't tell me wouldn't enjoy having a multi-channel version of It's Tricky to crank up. And why is Tougher Than Leather not available on blu-ray? I'm pretty sure I could make my wife watch that and make her fall asleep.

These classic jams are just to hold me over until I can finally order the Diamonds and Pearls box set. I started getting hyped for it and was listening to Purple Rain a lot, which led to me falling in love with the full-length version of Computer Blue, which then led to me starting some post about it or Prince or something. I might revisit that once I get the Diamonds and Pearls box set. Or continue to listen to the Kings of Rock.