2025 in 2025: Day 181

Up Your Alley - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

Joan goes full on 80s rock here - and she nails it, of course. It is good hard rocking fun!

Highlights: I Hate Myself For Loving You, Tulane, Just Like in the Movies, Ridin' With James Dean

7.5/10

Urban Hymns - The Verve

For as much as Oasis are THE band that defines Britpop in the 90s, this album may have been the last great album of the era. It is equal parts psycadelic swagger and big epic ballads. Like, some of these songs are just massive. And awesome.

Highlights: The Rolling People, Sonnet, Bitter Sweet Symphony, Weeping Willow

8/10

Ursa Major - Third Eye Blind

This is my reminder to finally get the uncensored version of this album. This is always such a tough album for me; Arion missing on bass is sad and my initial thoughts on Tony as a guitarist and overall fit for the group were not high. And it does happen to feature the absolute worst 3EB song in existence (One In Ten). In fact, the whole middle section is pretty mediocre. The start and the endings? Oh, those are some of the best gawdamn songs on the planet! The vocal layering in Sharp Knife is absolute perfection.

Highlights: Sharp Knife, Bonfire, Don't Believe a Word, Can You Take Me

7.5/10

Use Your Illusion I - Guns N' Roses

Despite the online nonsense I seem to read these days, this album actually serves as a solid follow up to Appetite for Destruction; it is still pretty much the same sort of vibe, just a little bloated, but it is the more "fun hard rock" Use Your Illusion album. Only a couple of big epics on this one, and they are absolutely brilliant.

Highlights: Coma, Don't Cry (Original), November Rain, Bad Obsession

8/10

Use Your Illusion II - Guns N' Roses

Look, I did not want this to be the case... but... I think this may be GnR's strongest album. It is a helluva vibe! Angry bordering on punk rockers and massive sprawling epics with the tastiest guitar solos like Slash is playing a hot fudge sundae. And I am going to give 60% of the credit to Duff. He is my new rock'n roll hero.

Highlights: Estranged, You Could Be Mine, Civil War, Don't Cry (Alternate Lyrics), Locomotive

9/10

V is for 

The Vacation - The Vacation

Another $1 CD find - classic mid-00s raw rock, channeling fun and mindless 70s & 80s hard rock like AC/DC. Why do I have no AC/DC in my library? Does anyone else find that kind of weird?

Highlights: Trash, Make Up Your Mind, No Hard Feelings, W.I.I.F.M.

6.5/10

Vampire Weekend Covers - Ryan Adams

A dude I have issues with, recorded on social media covering songs by a band I do not know. Cool...

Highlights: short

4/10

Vampires (Paxam Singles Series, Vol. 3) - Ryan Adams

This feels like more of an EP than a single. And EP of stupid bullshit bookended by actual songs?

Highlights: Vampires

5/10

The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale - Prince

Pretty sure these are basically unfinished songs... but are still pretty funky and a good time, for the most part. Definitely not a real Prince album, however.

Highlights: It's About That Walk, 5+ Women

6/10

Veni Vidi Vicious - The Hives

Even more raw and rebellious than Tyrannosaurus Hives. I do not believe any band personifies punk rock the way The Hives do.

Highlights: Die All Right!, Main Offender, The Hives-Introduce the Metric System In Time, Supply and Demand

7.5/10

Version - Mark Ronson

This is purely the jam with Amy Winehouse, Valerie. Bah gawd this is a jam.

10/10

Version 2.0 - Garbage

Much more of a polished pop album than their debut - a lot less darker, at least musically. A bit more of a focus on dancier beats and hooks. No idea what type of flying train Shirley Manson is riding from Tokyo to Los Angeles...

Highlights: Special, When I Grow Up, Push It, Temptation Waits

7.5/10

The Very Best of - Dolly Parton

I only have Jolene. I should have songs like 9 to 5, but we already know LOGMAN is lame...

8/10

The Very Best of - Hues Corporation

This is the only corporation you should be a part of. And the only song I have is Rock The Boat. Man, this song used to mess me up live. Too many random chords changes in the verses. But I sure did love going "Rock on with your badself!"

9/10

The Very Best of Bonnie Tyler - Bonnie Tyler

And by "Very Best of", I am specifically talking about Holding Out For a Hero and Total Eclipse of the Heart. The former always invokes images of Short Circuit 2. The latter is just an absolutely glorious power ballad of the highest extremes.

9/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 1785

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2025 in 2025: Day 167

Soul Assassins II - Various Artists

DJ Muggs making phat beats with various MCs and singers... and all LOGMAN has is Xzibit and King T telling my sorry ass You Better Believe It. Gawdam X to the Z back in 2000 was awesome.

8/10

Soul Deep - Jimmy Barnes

An Aussie pub-rock legend shows his roots by banging out some classic R&B. And absolutely killing it. The production is a bit dated now, but overall these are some VERY good renditions.

Highlights: (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher, When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, River Deep Mountain High, Signed Sealed Delivered (I'm Yours)

8/10

Soul Deeper - Jimmy Barnes

To celebrate the 10 years of Soul Deep probably being Barnesy's most popular album, he decided to do a follow-up. No super keyboard sounding strings, but also not entirely R&B this time and more just covers from the 60s. 

Highlights: Hold On I'm Coming, To Love Somebody, 634-5789, All the Young Dudes

7/10

Sound Loaded - Ricky Martin

This man and his Latin groove really jam. And this album influenced his work for 9/11, so extra points there! It is actually more fun than I recall.

Highlights: Loaded, Saint Tropez, She Bangs, The Touch, One Night Man

7/10

The Sound of Revenge - Chamillionaire

Of course this is only the hit song Ridin'. I think this might actually be the 'clean' version, which irritates me to no end. Which also tells me I do not listen to this song enough!

8/10

Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem

A proper collaborative 'band' album instead of just James Murphy being solo like the debut album, which leads to quite a different sound. Massive extended sprawling instrumentals like it is The Cure doing electronica and hitting all the hipsters right in the feels. Nancy Whang saying "Get innocuous!" makes my day!

Highlights: All My Friends, Someone Great, Get Innocuous!, New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down

9/10

Sound-G Sign - Brown Eyed Girl

Welcome back to random K-Pop songs of the day! Very atypical of 2009 - this could easily be 2NE1 or any other group of the time that is not as good as them.

Highlights: Sign, Drunk on Sleep

6/10

The Sounds of Science - Beastie Boys

Another compilation where I took out everything I have elsewhere, because I should have all Beastie Boys. However, I have never owned Licensed to Ill or Some Old Bullshit, so I need some songs from those albums and the other random songs that are on here. Mostly the hardcore stuff. I have Aglio e Olio on vinyl. Still sealed. Someone pay me a million dollars for it.

Highlights: Slow and Low, Fight For Your Right, Soba Violence, Alive, I Want Some

8/10

South - Heather Nova

My iTunes has this labelled as "Alternative & Punk". While the lyrics for Virus of the Mind do speak to anti-conformity, they may be off a bit there with that assessment. This is pretty solid, if lacking the outright emotion of Oyster and Siren, and instead is a more mature acoustic pop album. A little happier in some ways. Definitely more of a "love" vibe.

Highlights: Just Been Born, Tested, Virus of the Mind, It's Only Love, Like Lovers Do

7.5/10

Space Invader - Ace Frehley

This album has really grown on me since Kissathon II; I thought it was pretty average at the time of release, but the more I have listened to it the more I just enjoy how much Ace rocks on it. 

Highlights: Starship, Past the Milky Way, Space Invader, Reckless

8/10

The Space Madness Sessions - Ryan Adams

We go from the coolest man ever making fun rock, to the douchiest douche making crappy alt country rock and in poor demo form. What a world. Is someone else singing here? Because some of these feature the worst singing since me.

Highlights: You must be joking

3/10

Spaceman - Ace Frehley

Yes more Ace Frehley! Hard to believe there are 4 years between this and Space Invader - it all feels very similar. Soar high in outer space, Ace!

Highlights: Bronx Boy, Mission to Mars, Quantum Flux, Rockin' with the Boys

8/10

Spacewalk: A Salute to Ace Frehley - Various Artists

"Insult to Ace Frehley" would be more accurate. While not as terrible as I remembered, it is still rather terrible. It at least ends with a super awesome song by Ace, so it has that going for it...

Highlights: Take Me to the City - Ace Frehley

5/10

The Spaghetti Incident? - Guns N' Roses

GnR doing covers is fine and all, but Duff unleashing his punk was truly a revelation to teenage LOGMAN. So while the general public felt personally offended by such an obvious waste of time, LOGMAN decided this was cool and was probably the first Guns N' Roses CD I ever bought. 

Highlights: New Rose, Ain't It Fun, Down on the Farm, Hair of the Dog

8/10

Spawn: The Album - Various Artists

A expansion of the Judgement Night soundtrack concept, except this time it was teaming up alt bands with electronic artists. And not nearly as consistently good. A bit too focused on the electronic side, which featured artists that were not very good and results in stuff sounding VERY dated.

Highlights: One Man Army - The Prodigy & Tom Morello, (Can't You) Trip Like I Do, Kick the P.A. - Korn & The Dust Brothers, Torn Apart - Stabbing Westward & Wink

6/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 1580

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2025 in 2025: Day 115

Live EP - Sarah McLachlan
How do I have two live releases from Sarah McLachlan? This one is with a full band. And is from earlier in her career. It is quite good.
Highlights: Home, Lost
6.5/10

Live Era '87-'93 - Guns N' Roses
There is just not enough of the earlier era here to make this album worth spending two and a half hours listening to, for me. Like, it starts off very strong, but then the Use Your Illusion tour stuff is pretty obvious because Axl's singing is terrible and Slash's guitar solos are sloppy. Duff is, however, a total badass throughout. That man rocks. 
Highlights: Nightrain, Mr. Brownstone, Welcome to the Jungle, It's Alright, Rocket Queen
6/10

Live From Nowhere - Ryan Adams
This appears to be just a couple of random live acoustic numbers - namely Shine Through the Dark and Wasted Years. I actually dig what he did with that Iron Maiden song. How do I not have any Iron Maiden in my collection anymore?
7/10

Live From The River of Dreams Tour '93-'94 - Billy Joel
Just some quick highlights from the tour, I guess. Bonus disc in the River of Dreams album. Songs from that album and a couple of covers. In fact, I think I may even have a DVD from this tour? Joel's voice is pretty darn rockin' on this.
Highlights: No Man's Land, The River of Dreams
7/10

Live in Auckland, New Zealand 3/12/80 - Kiss
Album #1000! I have this recording for posterity; so I can say I have at least heard every Kiss concert in Auckland (I have attended every other one, because LOGMAN rules). And actually it is pretty decent; very much atypical of a Kiss concert on this tour. It is not a patch on something like Alive!, but that is because it is a proper live recording and not touched up in the studio. Which is fun. Spoiler alert: when Paul Stanley said they were "definitely coming back next year", he was lying.
Highlights: Shandi, Is That You?, Talk to Me, Calling Doctor Love
7/10

Live In Detroit 30/11/82 - Prince
This has got to be one of the earliest Prince concerts out there, right? And it is super awesome. I absolutely love the way he plays up the ending of How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore? I would ask his estate for more of this sort of thing, but I would be lucky if they could even release another... anything!
Highlights: How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?, 1999, Controversy, Do Me Baby
8/10

Live in Eindhoven 2011 - Heather Nova
This was like a free download for pre-ordering her album or something? I do not recall if I have ever really given it a solid listen, because I would have remembered that is very good. Much better than I expected. Which makes no sense, considering Heather Nova is great. I think maybe I thought this was mostly acoustic, but it is a full band show. And the guitarist does his best David Ayers impersonation. 
Highlights: Heart and Shoulder, Island, All I Need, Beautiful Ride
7/10

Live in Japan - George Harrison
Really, it is George Harrison and Eric Clapton. But it is nice that it was just released under Harrison's name, so I do not have to have 'official' Clapton in my library. It is a pretty solid recording, overall. No nonsense and just straight rock'n roll - pretty much what you would expect. A decent mix of solo and songs from his time in The Beatles. And Clapton is best served as a sideman like this.
Highlights: I Want to Tell You, Isn't It a Pity, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Cheer Down
7/10

Live in Japan - The Runaways
I think I have mentioned this album previously; I thought it was nothing special, but now I love it. Totally rocks hard. And Gettin' Hot is such a totally badass song I do not understand why this is the only version of it out there.
Highlights: Gettin' Hot, Queens of Noise, American Nights, C'mon
7.5/10

Live in New York City - John Lennon
Look, we all know how I feel about Yoko and John Ono Lennon. And even I would be ready to throw this album in the 'who cares?' pile. But seeing as they have finally remixed it and whatnot BUT are pretending Woman is the Nigger of the World does not exist, so this album is the only way to hear it live... well, I guess it become a lot more worthwhile having it in the collection. But the performances on Anthology are better.
Highlights: Well Well Well, Instant Karma!
6/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 1005

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2025 in 2025: Day 112

The Libertines - The Libertines

I fell in love with Up the Bracket almost instantly, so was very excited once I picked this album up. And it kicks off with one of the best songs by The Libertines. But the rest of the album after that is decidedly average, sans a few highlights here and there. And then they split up due to many MANY insane reasons. Honestly, I am surprised Peter Doherty managed to cobble together an album this coherent. And is still alive. 

Highlights: Can't Stand Me Now, What Became of the Likely Lads, What Katie Did, The Ha Ha Wall

7/10

Lick It Up - Kiss

I do not have the patience to write about this album again. One of my least favourite Kiss albums. The demo of Not For The Innocent on the Creatures of the Night box set is genuinely better than the studio version found here.

Highlights: Lick It Up, Gimme More, A Million to One

6/10

LiE LiE LiE - BiSH

Possibly the second best single from the BiSH is OVER series? Featuring a comically fun song that constantly just says "Fuck you!", and a b-side that is also upbeat and totally rips it up (and rips off Bulls on Parade). Good times!

Highlights: LiE LiE LiE, Why are you alive??

10/10

Lies - Guns 'N Roses

Oh man, the Live Like a Suicide EP part just rips! Rips hard!! Axl's voice on this is killer. And Duff's tone is so badass and punchy as hell. The acoustic side is also very good. Patience is iconic. And not in the way that kids these days use that word.

Highlights: Patience, Mama Kin, Used to Love Her, Nice Boys

8/10

Life After Death - The Notorious B.I.G.

At the risk of losing all of my hip-hop cred, I have never been all that big on Biggie. Just have not actually heard much of him, if I am being totally honest. Maybe one day I should correct that? This song, however, is just the funkiest slice of 90s super fly jams. And Mase is pretty cool.

10/10

Life Is Peachy - KoЯn

16 year-old LOGMAN thought this album was a total mess. Almost 30 years later, and it is still an absolute mess. But, you know what? I actually did not hate listening to this as much as I expected I would, considering how awfully all their other albums have aged. Now, I am not saying this is totally rad or that I will even be keeping it in my library - because I am looking forward to deleting the whole KoЯn section once this is over - but it is mostly listenable. Mostly. K@#0%! is one of the worst attempts for a song of this entire marathon so far. Absolute immature nonsense. Meanwhile, Wicked is just a barrel of fun and I will give all credit to Chino Moreno, because he is cool and his band is cool and KoЯn are definitely not. Hot damn, I did not expect to be saying Life is Peachy is the best KoЯn album, but here we are...

Highlights: Wicked, Chi, Good Go, Ass Itch

6/10

A Life Less Ordinary (Original Soundtrack) - Various Artists

Aah, back when Ewan McGregor could act... This album is almost like a time capsule of electro Britpop from the late 90s. Plus Beck. But he kind of subverts all ideas like that. I always found it interesting that the movie features two different versions of Leave by R.E.M. and then the soundtrack has the depressing minimalist version, while the full 'band' version is on their New Adventures in Hi-Fi album. Most of this is just kind of here...

Highlights: A Life Less Ordinary - Ash, Always on My Mind - Elvis Presley, Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin, Don't Leave - Faithless

7/10

A Life of Saturdays - Dexter Freebish

I know nothing of Dexter Freebish, other than the song Leaving Town. I met a guy in Melbourne who would always jam this song, so we would jam it together. Among other great songs. He was a great guy and I hope he is doing well in life.

10/10

Life on Other Planets - Supergrass

This album is so consistently fun and drivingly upbeat. It is exactly what you want from a Supergrass album in 2002.

Highlights: Grace, Funniest Thing, Can't Get Up, La Song

8/10

Life Won't Wait - Rancid

How is Bloodclot the only Rancid song in my collection? Like, I do not even have Roots Radicals in here? Take back my punk card and send me to the oldie station, I guess...

10/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 975

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2025 in 2025: Day 36

CHECK-IN - PASSPO☆
We've talked about this fantastic album before, so I'll spare you a minute of my gushing for PASSPO☆. And I'm busy, so don't have time to write about something I've already written about. Even if it is PASSPO☆. I'm sorry, PASSPO☆, for ignoring you! Needless to say, I am at least enjoying listening to PASSPO☆ in the morning.
Highlights: 少女飛行, キス=スキ, マテリアルGirl, ハカナ
8/10

CHECKMATE - ITZY
ITZY may well be the most consistent K-pop group since BTS. Somehow they have become my fav girls group, that is for sure.
Highlights: SNEAKERS, RACER, WHAT I WANT, DOMINO
7.5/10

CHESHIRE - ITZY
The bonus of all these fun pop songs is it is making my morning go quick and I can save my nonsense writing for more involved work. The down side is they go really quick before I can even think of what to say!
Highlights: Cheshire, Boys Like You
7/10

Chess (The Original Recording) - Various Artists
Quick rant; I bought some songs on iTunes a number of years ago, and then a couple of years it was re-released as an extended & remastered version. I used that version to complete the rest of the album, but iTunes would not let me purchase the songs I already had. So I'm left with a mix of songs from both versions - and ALL my favs are not remastered or anything. It is annoying, because the difference when listening to the album in full is quite noticeable. ANYWAYS this is possibly my favourite musical of all time, purely based on how amazing some of these songs are. What do you expect from ABBA's king songwriters? Sure, the whole thing is super 80s production and instrumentation, but that's part of what makes it so awesome. This album is also one of the reasons I fell in love with Elaine Page when I was like 5 years-old. Murray Head's performance is so spot on; his voice is clearly struggling with the range at times, but that adds to the character and passion in the songs. But the real show stealers on this are the musicians; Per Lindvall's fills in Nobody's Side add so much drama and tension, and Lasse Wellander's guitar solos are absolute perfection. Also, adding the bonus tracks helps - Press Conference should be before The Russian and Molokov, because it ties in to what they talk about in that track.
Highlights: Opening Ceremony, The American and Florence/Nobody's Side, The Deal (No Deal), Pity the Child
8/10

Chief Boot Knocka - Sir Mix-A-Lot
Haha good fun. Sir Mix-A-lot is not someone that pretends to be making anything other than big bass thumping booty shaking music to make your sub get a serious workout. I should know; my older brother and his friends would crank this while they cruised and you could hear their cars for streets away. 
Highlights: Sleepin' Wit My Fonk, Take My Stash, Put 'Em on the Glass
6/10

Chinese Democracy - Guns N' Roses
Was this the most expensive album ever made? Ten years and I think $14 million definitely put it up there in terms of anticipated albums. And bombs. But it isn't nearly as bad as people would have you believe. The problem was, it was never going to meet the hype and satisfy people - and make money. No matter what. Sure, it has its flaws (Buckethead on lead guitar, Axl's vocals being not so great), but there are some great jams on here. Certainly not a tough listen.
Highlights: Better, There Was a Time, Madagascar
6.5/10

Chisel: The Best Of Cold Chisel - Cold Chisel
This was a compilation that came out in the 90s and was my first real exposure to Cold Chisel; we grew up listening to Jimmy Barnes, but hadn't really heard much of Cold Chisel outside of the occasional hit. I've kept this in rotation for the live version of Bow River, because I'm too lazy to get the live album it is from. Though I should, because that is a great live album. Also, this version of Khe Sanh doesn't seem to be available anywhere else, and it is actually the version I prefer.
Highlights: Bow River (Live), Khe Sanh (US Remix)
8/10

The Chocolate Invasion - Prince
Prince released a lot of music in 2004. He released a lot of music all the time. And he recorded even more, apparently. This is a whole lot of funky sultry jams that he released only for his fan club or something. It's relatively fun, if not a little underwhelming. But hey, it's Prince.
Highlights: Judas Smile, Vavoom, High, U Make My Sun Shine
7/10

Chocolate Love - Girls' Generation
Appears to simply be the single - and a different version, at that. I might have to check out the original version, maybe?
7/10

Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water - Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit really are a guilty pleasure for me; I was a massive fan back in 2000, being an angry young white dude and all that, and then decided they were garbage - like most of the world did. Nowadays I can embrace that they are completely terrible, but it in a fun way. Like a bad movie or something, but not bad like Once Upon a Time in America, more bad like College Kickboxers. This album is particularly angry and heavy. And angry. Like, if you are into big loud guitars and drums and you just want to swear at everyone all the time, then this is the album for you! Bonus points for being advertised at WrestleMania. And thus my personal Chocolate trilogy is complete.
Highlights: Hot Dog, Full Nelson, My Way, Livin' It Up, Getcha Groove On, Boiler
6.5/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 297