2025 in 2025: Day 168

Speak - Lindsay Lohan

Compared to A Little More Personal (Raw), this is much more of a teen pop album. Which is not a bad thing. Fun, mostly upbeat, basic lyrics and all easily singalongable.

Highlights: Disconnected, Over, First, Symptoms of You

7/10

Speak for Yourself - Imogen Heap

There was this six month period of 2005 where it seemed like everyone was on the Imogen Heap hype train. Which is crazy, because this album is just nothing!

Highlights: Hide and Seek, The Walk

6.5/10

Speakerboxxx - Outkast

Holy cow, this is so much better than I remember. Or at least much better than The Love Below. They really should have just made one great album instead, because this just straight-up hip-hop coolness. Big Boi is severely underrated and all the features here are rad, as well.

Highlights: Flip-Flop Rock, Last Call, The Way You Move, War

7.5/10

Spellbound - Split Enz

These dudes were the greatest musical act in New Zealand history and this marathon is only convincing me it is not close.

Highlights: Message to My Girl, History Never Repeats, Six Months in a Leaky Boat, I See Red

8/10

Spend the Night - The Donnas

Modern rock bands could learn a thing or two from The Donnas. This album, specifically, where every song is either 'this dude sucks' or 'this dude has a big dong so he should let me ride it'. Lessons learned!

Highlights: I Don't Care (So There), 5 O'Clock in the Morning, Too Bad About Your Girl, Take It Off

9/10

SPICE - SCANDAL

When my girls rock, they rock hard. This is almost the most typically Japanese rock song they have done in years.

8/10

Spice - Spice Girls

Is there a more perfect pop album? Sure, maybe. But these women will forever have my heart. I never really noticed before that there is some heavy UK funk influence in here - which explains why it registered so well with me? And god help the mister that comes between me and my sisters!

Highlights: Say You'll Be There, Who Do You Think You Are?, Love Thing, Wannabe

9/10

Spice: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition - Spice Girls

I have already complained about this and there certainly is a lot missing, but what is here is actually decent and it is great to have this much in one place.

Highlights: One of These Girls, Spice Chat 2, Say You'll Be There [7" Radio Edit], If You Can't Dance [Demo Version]

7/10

Spiceworld - Spice Girls

Definitely less funk influence and more of a throwback to 60s pop and soul, in my opinion. But still very awesome. Melvins B and C were the coolest.

Highlights: Do It, Move Over, Stop, Saturday Night Divas

9/10

Spiceworld: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition - Spice Girls

Similar to the Spice: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, there is a lot missing here, and instead time is devoted to remixes and live versions. At least we got the other Pepsi song!

Highlights: Step to Me [7" Mix], Outer Space Girls, Spice Girls Party Mix

7/10

Spiceworld Tour Live At Wembley Stadium 20-09-1998 - Spice World

I had this on VHS, but missed out on getting the DVD - which now sells for more than the price of a locomotive. But I also did not watch my VHS all that much, back in the day. It is good, but Geri is missing and it is noticeable. Although they did play a recording of her singing in Spanish during If You Can't Dance. They also announce they are staying together and then broke up two years later...

Highlights: Who Do You Think You Are?, Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves, Say You'll Be There, We Are Family

7/10

Spike - Elvis Costello

This is only the single Veronica. I actually do not know much of Elvis Costello's works. I keep telling myself to one day do a bit of listen, but then forget and just listen to The Shit...

7.5/10

Spirit - Leona Lewis

I think I enjoyed her second album more? Like, the ballads are impressive... well, a couple are, but the rest is very forgettable.

Highlights: Whatever It Takes, I Will Be, The Best You Never Had, Bleeding Love

6.5/10

The Spirit Room - Michelle Branch

Why do I not have full albums by Michelle Branch? The songs I have by her are pop perfection, yet I have not heard anything else? I make no sense. Oh yeah, this is All You Wanted.

9/10

Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimerron - Bryan Adams & Hans Zimmer

Bryan Adams makes a lot songs for movies and has done since the 90s. This is the rare occasion he made a full album's worth. Well, almost; Hans Zimmer does provide a few songs of pure score. BA is pretty good at evoking emotion, so it makes sense.

Highlights: Here I Am (End Title), Sound the Bugle, Don't Let Go, This is Where I Belong

7/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 1595

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2025 in 2025: Day 131

A N D - Tricot

Look, iTunes, I see what you were doing here... but it is weird. Just like Tricot can be, some times. Bah gawd, these songs have so much attack - they sound like they are just straight-up beating these songs out of their instruments. I think the kids call this math rock? All the crazy time signatures and whatnot are fun and all, but I kind of prefer when the songs are a bit more straight indie rock. Either way, this is all pretty badassery.

Highlights: Noradrenaline, い～ん (A N D ver.), 食卓, Break

7/10

Nameless Fiction - Hello Sleepwalkers

More Japanese indie math-rock style? This time with a bit more of a RADWIMPS flavour. Having both male and female vocals gives a nice mix.

Highlights: 天地創造, Mr.Dの手記

6.5/10

Native (Deluxe Edition) - OneRepublic

This album often feels like reworkings of other songs. Honestly, I think they should have at least given Kanye and Florence + the Machine songwriting credits. Some of their stuff is pretty average, but certainly when they are copying other people is when they are at their best.

Highlights: Burning Bridges, Life in Color, Counting Stars, If I Lose Myself

6/10

Nature's Best - Various Artists

How do I have YET ANOTHER compilation of New Zealand music? And more than half the songs here are duplicates from the other New Zealand music compilations I have. I do not need ANY Dave Dobbyn in my life. BUT I will take this as a fun excuse to listen to Jesus I Was Evil again...

Highlights: Six Months in a Leaky Boat - Split Enz, Jesus I Was Evil - Darcy Clay, I See Red - Split Enz

7/10

Naveed - Our Lady Peace

Fun story time: I got this album for free when I bought Clumsy on CD, but later decided I did not think much of it and traded it in. A few years later, I realised I was stupid and had to buy it again. Early OLP had so much passion and energy in their songs. The result of having an awesome drummer and a singer that goes hard. Denied is just unhinged!

Highlights: Denied, Naveed, Starseed, Julia

7.5/10

Need You Now - Lady Antebellum

Fairly predictable American country-pop. They sure love their Americana and... drinking alcohol, apparently. I am not saying this is bad, I am just saying this is an hour I could have spent listening to more Our Lady Peace, because Canadian alt. rock is clearly a better option, and after that album I really need a dose of Happiness...

Highlights: Perfect Day, Our Kind of Love

6/10

Neighborhoods - blink-182

The first 'reunion' album... I have not bothered with the second reunion, yet. Mostly because I thought Skiba was an improvement. Especially after this album; there are some great songs that follow on nicely from the self-titled album, but Tom's voice is pretty bad and the recordings do not hide the fact they were not really enjoying this. The fact they recorded their stuff separately is quite apparent. 

Highlights: After Midnight, Snake Charmer, Mh 4.18.2011, Even If She Falls

6.5/10

Nellyville - Nelly

Dissing KRS-One is not cool. The rest of this album, however, is. Which is bizarre, because it is just the epitome of early 00s hip-hop; super slick production, rapping about yachts, blues guitar, The Neptunes and even a cameo Justin Timberlake (before the NSYNC split). But Nelly just has a swagger that works, for me. But, like, the real hip-hop is over there...

Highlights: Hot in Herre, On the Grind, Work It, Say Now, #1

7/10

Nena - Nena

This is only the song 99 Red Balloons. Because I am from the 80s where it is law to enjoy this song. I think I need the Goldfinger cover as well, because that was pretty rad. It was Goldfinger, right? Apparently pop punk covers of 80s pop songs works.

8/10

Neon Ballroom - Silverchair

This album was the first steps in changing my mind about Silverchair; until this, I saw them as purely some stupid kids trying to sound like Nirvana and they sucked. This is very far from that. Big epic songs with manic piano pieces and orchestral arrangements, angry screams about animal liberation, heartfelt ballads and straight decent radio rock numbers. Their follow-up album was even better musically, but for some reason I have never picked it up. I am a weird person to try and understand... And some of this album still sounds like Nirvana wannabes.

Highlights: Anthem for the Year 2000, Miss You Love, Ana's Song (Open Fire), Point of View

7/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 1155

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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 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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