This week we drop down to the #7 album Cocktails by Too $hort. Before listening to this album I had exactly zero Too $hort plays recorded on last.fm. I recall him being somewhat popular thirty-ish years ago, but clearly I haven't thought about him much since then.

Thirty years later, I can't say that his music has grown on me. It's quite misogynistic and explicit about how he treats women. Don't get me wrong, I don't subscribe to moral panics and music. I don't think that just because I don't like this music it should be banned, censored, or otherwise. A lot of music tells stories, which includes boasting, and there are different ways to do that in different musical genres. I just don't dig his way of telling stories, and his stories don't interest me.

My recommendation is to skip listening to this album. Instead, why don't you spin up Wildflowers by Tom Petty? It peaked at #8 in December 1994, and dropped down since then. I didn't review it because other un-reviewed albums were higher during the holidays, which was a shame. Wildflowers is a far, far better album than Cocktails, and it deserves your attention. Links to various streaming services are below 👇🏻.

Debuting at #1, Balance by Van Halen displaced the un-reviewed Garth Brooks album from the top spot (fret not Garth fans, it returns to #1 next week).

I like much of Van Halen, but this album isn't as good as their earlier work. Albums like Van Halen, 1984, and 5150 all have what made Van Halen great, and this album lacks. Van Halen was about big, energetic songs, and Balance doesn't have those. Eddie's guitar playing is, of course, excellent, but the songs don't grab you like, say, Runnin' with the Devil does.

My recommendation is to listen to the album, but don't expect what you would get out of their earlier albums.

Rising to #6 this week, No Need to Argue by The Cranberries was the band's second album after Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? and is their top selling album. It features the international hit song Zombie that according to the Wikipedia page, "wasn't grunge, but the timing was good," but definitely has grunge elements in my opinion. I think the only other single off the album I remember hearing on the radio was Dde to My Family.

The lead singer Dolores O'Riordan had a highly distinctive voice that's instantly recognizable. They surely would not have achieved success without her.

The Cranberries have long-lasting appeal. My 12 year old daughter loves Zombie. This album is definitely worth checking out.

Garth Brooks remains at #1, so we'll drop down to #7 and listen to My Life by Mary J. Blige. Looking through my listening history, it appears that I've listened to this album once before in 2012. I do not remember it at all and none of the songs seemed familiar 13 years later. Other than the listens to this album, I've barely listened to Mary J. Blige. Her music is fine, and this album feels extremely 90s to me, but clearly she's not my favorite.

I do want to highlight that she has successfully pivoted her career in music to other fields. On her official website she is promoting/selling:

• A new album from November, 2024
• A 2025 tour. For a measly $740 I can get a VIP ticket when she comes to Denver. If I'm reading the seating map correctly, for the concert in one month she's sold 10 of 68 VIP seats. I don't know the economics and velocity of ticket sales but that doesn't seem good
• $1,500 high-heeled, thigh-high boots
• A new music video
• A TV show she's in called Power Book II: Ghost that streams on "Starz"
• Jewelry that, in my opinion, is quite gaudy. The men's jewelry section is titled "MAJESTY FOR MEN," and I'm sorry, the only majesty I'm interested in is Trogdor's.
• More new music

All the above is good for her, but I am not interested. I have no ill will; I hope she sells all of her concert tickets, boots, and gaudy jewelry. The album itself is, again, fine, but clearly not memorable to me. I'll probably never listen to it again.

This week CrazySexyCool by TLC hit #9. I didn't pay much attention to this all-female trio at the time, so only now I learned that TLC is an initialism of the band member's nicknames, not of "Tender Loving Care." The "L" in the name died in 2002 in a car collision in Honduras, but the band didn't change their name and have been active in the last few years. I'm struggling to think of a band name that used the member's real names (or initials) and didn't change or stop using the band name when a member died or left. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are no more after Tom died. Some bands even change their name entirely even when the original name wasn't a member's name. New Order came after Joy Division following Ian Curtis' death. On the opposite side, Crosby, Stills & Nash added "Young" to their name when Neil joined.

I have definitely heard a few of the songs off this album, Waterfalls, in particular. According to the wikipedia page, this album is highly regarded and I can see why. It was innovative R&B for an all-female group that previously was more in the rap genre in 1994. I can't say that TLC is my favorite, nor is the album, but I don't dislike it. My suggestion is to check it out, I think it's worth your time.

It's been two weeks since my last album review because there were no un-reviewed albums in the top 10 last week. This week Big Ones by Aerosmith hit #8 on the charts. Big Ones is compilation/greatest hits album covering their prior three studio albums.

I remember when this album came out; a friend had a copy and I borrowed it for a short time. Aerosmith was experiencing a resurgence of popularity and the songs on this album seemed really cool. I didn't have MTV at home, but I was aware that their music videos featured attractive young women, something I was, ahem, interested in. Hilariously, the video for Amazing reminds me of Celery Man.

Ultimately, I can't say I've been the biggest Aerosmith fan. I don't dislike them, but they're not often the thing I go to. Looking through their music library I think I should spend some time (re)visiting it. There are albums I know I like, e.g. Toys in the Attic, so there are probably more. I would therefore say that this edition of 30 Years On is a win. It reminded me of an album I enjoyed, and to also explore the Aerosmith library more fully than I have done. It's too early for me to suggest Big Ones over the three albums the songs are drawn from, but it's not a bad compilation album and it's likely you'd enjoy it.

The top-selling un-reviewed album this week is not Live at the BBC by The Beatles, it's The Hits by Garth Brooks. The reason I am not reviewing Garth Brooks is that he has chosen to prevent his entire catalog from being on any music streaming service except Amazon Music, and I don't have access to Amazon Music.

According to that article linked above, his stance seems mostly reasonable: most/all streaming services probably underpay artists for the music they serve to customers. The whole world of music for $15-20 a month is an incredible deal and as a consumer it's amazing. What's not reasonable is his choice of Amazon. Amazon is a notoriously bad company to work for as an employee (every word is a link to a different article about unsavory Amazon business practices). The article says that Brooks chose Amazon because they're also a retailer. I guess that as long as a consumer can choose to buy a physical album from a retailer it's okay if the same retailer streams his music? But that physical album would be shipped by underpaid, overworked, and exploited employees largely for the benefit of one of the richest people on earth. Are underpaid warehouse and delivery drivers better than underpaid artists? Brooks' choice of Amazon seems to ignore all the bad things about Amazon and suggests that it really is only about money: the money Amazon gives to Brooks.

My household used to pay for Amazon Prime, but we cancelled it and don't miss it. I admit to occasionally still buying things from Amazon, but only when I absolutely cannot find it anywhere else. I try to buy things online from specific retailers: bicycle stuff from bicycle retailers, electronics from electronics retailers, etc. I do see my own hypocrisy: I listen to music at very low cost (that pays low royalties) but also am trying to not support very low cost shopping (that pays low wages). I think the bottom line is I have basically zero market power; my choices are imperceptible to these affected groups. I don't matter. However, a big star like Garth Brooks has power, and he's chosen to use his power in what appears to be a mostly self-serving way with morals at least as flexible as mine.

I could pirate the album, but I don't care enough about Garth Brooks to do that. It's not available at my local library, either. Instead I'll drop down to #7 and listen to some Beatles, an outcome I don't dislike.

This album is mostly covers performed by the Beatles for various BBC radio programs. On the one hand, I generally disfavor covers unless they do something the original didn't. In this case, what's been added is that these covers are performed by the freakin' Beatles. The Beatles got their start (including going back to The Quarrymen days) playing covers in clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany. By the time of these BBC recordings they were surely more polished than those early days, but I'd like to think that these songs have some of the quality and energy of the Beatles before they got world famous.

You should definitely check out this album. The only asterisk is that it's over two hours long with 56 songs and a few spoken tracks. Perhaps take smaller bites of the album with breaks so you may listen without becoming overwhelmed.

After two weeks of Christmas music, the decidedly non-holiday Vitalogy by Pearl Jam hit #1 after three weeks on the chart.

I listen to Pearl Jam relatively frequently, but not that often to Vitalogy. It has a few good songs, like Better Man and Corduroy, but overall it's nowhere near as good as Ten. Of course, that's not exactly fair because Ten is one of the best rock albums ever, and one of a few that defined grunge rock.

Overall, I'd recommend checking it out, but if you don't like it as much as Ten, that's fine.

Following last week's Christmas album, this week we get the album with songs everyone hears (perhaps too much of) this time of year, Merry Christmas by Mariah Carey. Hitting #3 thirty years ago, this album has sold over 18 million copies since then. To mark the importance of 30 years, Mariah Carey released a 30th Anniversary Edition which I've linked to above.

My feelings about this album largely mirror how I feel about the Kenny G album last week. At the right time and in the right way, I'm completely fine with Christmas music. Christmas music can help to set a mood and that's great. I would never pick this nor any other Christmas music to actively listen to, but in the background, it can be just the right thing.

I have no doubt that this album will continue to get plays for decades to come. The songs on this album have a permanent place on many Christmas song playlists. Between Thanksgiving and New Years, you have my permission to play it, but not necessarily listen to it.

Released in late November 1994, Miracles: The Holiday Album by Kenny G hit #1 as the post-Thanksgiving holiday season set in. Other than for this album, I do not purposely listen to Kenny G. According to last.fm, I listened to a Kenny G track 12 times before I listened to this album for this blog post. I'm fairly certain that those earlier plays were part of some algorithmic mix.

Luckily for Kenny G, the album buying public does not like the same things I like and he has been very successful. This album alone has sold millions of copies. Likely because this one was so successful, Kenny G has recorded three more holiday albums since this one.

As far as this album goes, I don't really have a problem with it when it's played at the right time (after Thanksgiving and before New Years), and for the right reasons (as background music). If you were to listen to this album any other time of the year, or listen to it actively, you're crazy. It's holiday mood music, and that's fine, and that's all it will ever be. Include these songs in a holiday mix and hit shuffle/play. That's as much mental energy you should give this album (which is fine!).

Please note that I'm not a grinch! I'm getting into the holiday mood! I recently purchased a copy of Festivitas and it now decorates my dock. And it will continue to decorate my dock until no later than New Years, at which point it will be turned off.

Hitting #4 on debut (which is as high as it will rise), Tical by Method Man is a bit of mid-90s hip hop that I never really paid attention to. Method Man is a member of Wu-Tang Clan which has been very influential for the last 30 years. I never really paid attention to Wu-Tang clan, either.

Before listening to this album, I had eight plays of Method Man on last.fm. It's up to 17 plays now, and I think it will stay there unless he gets thrown into some auto-generated mix I listen to. I like some hip hop, but even thirty years later, Method Man doesn't do much for me.

For the third time in four weeks, an album debuts at #1. Hell Freezes Over by the Eagles marked their return to recording and performing together after a fourteen-year break up/hiatus. The album is in two parts. The first four songs are new material recorded in a studio. The remaining eleven songs are all live versions of older songs. This is the second Eagles album I've reviewed; I did Eagles Live almost 14 years ago.

Unlike The Dude, I do not hate the f-in Eagles, man (*). According to last.fm, I have listened to the Eagles over 1800 times. I haven't listened to Hell Freezes Over very much, around 40 times as of this writing. I think that's because there's only four new songs and the rest are live versions, and in general I prefer studio versions of songs. The new songs are pretty good, both Get Over It and Love Will Keep Us Alive charted well on the radio. The live versions are interesting, with different instrumentation and arrangements than the studio versions.

Overall my recommendation is to listen to the Eagles, and listen often. Hell Freezes Over isn't bad, and perhaps worth a listen, but their other albums are much better.

(*) I made a Big Lebowski reference in my previous Eagles review, too!

Recorded 31 years ago (to the day), MTV Unplugged in New York by Nirvana hit #1 on its first week on the charts. This was the first Nirvana album released after Kurt Cobain's death in April, 1994.

According to last.fm I have listened to this album over 160 times, so I know it quite well. In one sense, since I know this album so well, and have heard it for 30 years, listening to it now gives me no surprises. In another sense, this is the kind of album I truly look forward to during this project, the albums that bring me back to being a teenager. Obviously when I listen to albums from 30 years ago that are mostly new, it's more interesting, but a good fraction of the more interesting albums I don't like, and they're more work for me.

Nirvana is one of the most important bands of the last 35 years. If you haven't already heard Unplugged, I'm surprised, and you should go about fixing that right away. Listen on headphones or in a quiet room so you can pick up Cobain's mutterings between songs. Too many albums I review belong in the dustheap of history, Unplugged is the exact opposite, and will remain relevant for decades to come.

Released the day I turned 15, Bedtime Stories by Madonna is in my opinion not one of her stronger albums. It's not a bad album per se, but compared to her other efforts, it's nothing special. Prior to listening to the full album, I think I had only heard two songs off of Bedtime Stores, Secret and Take a Bow. I'm pretty certain that it's been years since I heard either song on the radio. Looking at the most played Madonna songs played on Tidal and Spotify, the highest ranked song off this album is in the 30s, which shows that most of the public agrees with my opinion.

I actually do like Madonna, and I encourage listening to her music. This album can be ignored unless you really want to explore the full catalog of Madonna.

Debuting at #1, we have another movie soundtrack. I've reviewed soundtracks before and in a few ways it's different.

As far as I can tell, all of the big songs on the album (Murder Was The Case, What Would U Do?) appeared on other albums released before this album. Previous chart-topping soundtracks featured songs only available on the album.

Another difference is the album is longer than the movie for which it's named. The movie is only 18 minutes long, while the album is over an hour long.

As I looked through the track listing, I took a double take at the artist on the 6th and 11th tracks, Jewell. I had to check it wasn't Jewel. Both Wiki pages have "Not to be confused with Jewel(l) (singer)." at the top for obvious reasons.

Overall, I find this album fairly boring. Like the Above The Rim Soundtrack I previously reviewed, most of this is typical mid-90s rap. I think this album can be left to history.