I must apologize and admit that this review is a week late. However, unless and until I get paid for these reviews (and, honestly, I shouldn't be paid), I am not all that sorry. This (last) week's album is New Adventures in Hi-Fi by R.E.M. which sat at #3 on the charts thirty years ago (and one week). This is my second R.E.M. review. In my review of Monster I remembered my summer in Athens, Georgia, which is where R.E.M. got their start.

During my time there me and the other students in the REU program would go to downtown Athens and have a couple drinks and hang out in the evenings. I am not a late-night person, so I would typically excuse myself and walk back to the on-campus dorm before my friends were done hanging out. On more than one occasion they would tell me the next day that I just missed seeing Michael Stipe (the lead singer of R.E.M.) show up to the bar. I never did see him. Oh well.

Despite the accolades for the album, this has never been one of my favorite R.E.M. albums. But don't let me dissuade you from checking it out. Even the worst R.E.M. album is better that most of the stuff I review. Give it a spin!

In a sense, I'm late on this review of Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt. It reached #10 last week after 29 weeks on the chart. Luckily for me, this week's chart has the same ten albums, so I'm not delaying a review of any other album by being late, so it all works out.

Tragic Kingdom was No Doubt's big breakout album. It was so popular that they were pulling singles out of the album for three years through 1998. You can still hear these singles played on the radio today.

Because it was (and remains) so popular, I never felt the need to actively seek out songs off this album. They have simply been around, ever-present. I like a fair number of songs off this album, and they do transport me back to the mid-90s. However, because the songs are everywhere, I don't think I need to specifically listen to the album on its own, and you don't either.

Like many albums by (I'll say diplomatically) "experienced artists" I review, Banana Wind is a shooting star in the top 10 rankings. Last week it was at #4, this week it's #6, and it never appears in the top 10 again.

That's about right for this Jimmy Buffett album, the second I've reviewed. It's not a great album. The most interesting thing on the album is the song Desdemona's Building a Rocket Ship which has the lines

A woman on a mission, quite familiar with quasars Her heart is in the kitchen, but her soul is in the stars

When I heard this song I laughed because it's such a ridiculous rhyme.

That's the beginning and the end of what's interesting about this album. Like the other Buffett album, this one should be forgotten.

I find that the less I am moved by an album, the slower I am to post a review of it here. My emotion about the album can be positive or negative, but when it's strongly "meh," I struggle to work up the energy to review it. This review could be considered late in less than four hours!

This weeks album, Load by Metallica, is one of those albums. On Last.fm, there are only two songs from this album in the top 40 Metallica singles. It appears I've listened to the album once before in 2011, but I don't recall doing that and this most recent listen didn't trigger any memories.

This is not Metallica's best effort, and I'll be surprised if I listen to this again in another 15 years, or ever. You can skip it.

Hitting #4 in its first week on the charts, The Great Southern Trendkill is the second Pantera album I've reviewed. I closed that review by writing "I could only take one listen to this album. I didn't like it at all. I like various kinds of metal, but not this kind." I feel the same about this album. You can skip it.

Debuting at #2, the album Crash by Dave Matthews Band, has their biggest ever single, Crash Into Me. Thirty years later it continues to have decent airplay and on Spotify, Crash Into Me has 130% more plays than their second most popular song, Ants Marching. The ratio is similar on last.fm.

I have always been pretty neutral about Dave Matthews Band. I find the music inoffensive but not all that moving. It's almost never something I choose to listen to, but I don't skip it when it comes on. Crash is very 90s, and certainly if I wanted some 90s nostalgia, it would be a solid choice. I suggest that if you want to try to capture the 90s for a few songs, you can put it on.

Finally, whatever your opinion is of Dave Matthews Band, they don't rock.

Hitting #1 in its first week, this is the second Hootie & the Blowfish album I've reviewed. I can't recall ever hearing any of the songs off this album before, and according to last.fm, it's entirely likely I'm correct.

My feelings on this album mostly mirror that of Cracked Rear View. It's fine. Extremely 90s. Listen to it, or don't. Whatevs.

I've always preferred Rage Against the Machine's eponymous first album over Evil Empire. That being said, this weeks #1 album is wholly worthy of that position.

Thirty years later, the machine is still very much active. Look at who is in the White House, has control of Congress, and the Supreme Court. We have a wannabe fascist president, a congress that has abdicated their constitutional powers, and a SCOTUS that rules based on desired political outcomes. AI is coming to take our jobs away, only the very rich are getting ahead in this economy, and the US is steadily ruining our democracy via gerrymandering and media that spreads lies and misinformation. Rage Against the Machine is no longer making music, but they remain as relevant as ever. I always enjoy reading stories about idiots (AKA conservatives) who don't understand they're the machine being raged against.

My recommendation is to listen to this album whenever you need to get angry about things you should get angry about. This is unfortunately all the time at the moment.

According to this web page I found, despite breaking up in 1969/1970, Beatles albums continued to be released fairly regularly in the years since. I've already reviewed two of them, Live at the BBC and Anthology 1. Any new Beatles album has a good chance of reaching the top ten of the charts. Indeed I'll review Anthology 3 in November of this year, and if I'm still doing this in four years, 1 in December of 2030.

This review of Anthology 2 (sitting at #1 on the charts) is basically the same as my earlier ones. This is an album of outtakes, rarities, and live performances that clocks in at over two hours. This is not the way to be introduced to the Beatles. But if you're already familiar with their body of work (and if you're not, how? why? what? where? who? how?), an occasional listen to this is a good idea.

January continues to be a slow month — this is only my second and last review of the month. Indeed, this week's album wasn't even released in January, 1996. (What's the Story) Morning Glory, was released in October 1995, and took over three months to break into the top ten, and only barely at #9. Oasis is the best known member of the Britpop genre.

Thinking back, I am sure I was aware of Oasis, and the songs on Morning Glory in late 1995 and 1996, but it wasn't my favorite. I didn't dislike it, but I don't think I chose to listen to it, and only heard the songs on the radio. Thinking back even more, I didn't listen to that much Oasis until I spent time in college with someone who was a huge fan (hi Olivia, I'm sure you're not reading this, but I hope you're well!). Since then I've come to like Oasis more, including, and in particular, Morning Glory. It's a very good album and deserves to be listened to. I suggest you do.

If you're not from England, I'll bet you didn't know that 16 stone is equal to 224 lbs.

Early 1996 must have been an exceptionally slow time for new music because this week's album, Sixteen Stone by the English rock band Bush, took roughly a year to reach #10 on the sales chart. This album featured several singles I remember hearing contemporaneously including Comedown, Glycerine, and Everything Zen.

I have listened to Bush a decent amount, but interestingly I have listened to a different (and less popular) Bush album The Science of Things more than Sixteen Stone. My guess is that most of these The Science of Things listens are from before I subscribed to a music streaming service and I listened to that album because it's what was in my collection. Having listened to both albums a fair amount, I agree with the consensus that Sixteen Stone is the better album. I do recommend giving it a spin.

The most remarkable thing about this week's #1 album is that it featured the first new Beatles song in 25 years, Free as a Bird. The rest of the album are outtakes, live versions, and short spoken interview quotes by people in and associated with the band.

Like the last Beatles album I reviewed this is not for casual listening and clocks in at over two hours long. You would not want this to be your introduction to The Beatles. In fact, I would urge anyone to listen to the entirety of their catalog before listening to any of the Anthology albums. It's important to have the context of what these songs ultimately sounded like when The Beatles perfected them.

This is not an album that needs to be listened to often and repeatedly. There's a reason why The Beatles worked as hard as they did to perfect their songs, and the polished versions are the what you'll want to hear again and again. In the end, because it's the freakin' Beatles, it is worth checking out when you're in the right mood and have the time.

This week (thirty years ago) one of the all time great albums hit #1 on the charts in its first week of sales. It would go on to sell over 10 million copies, making it one of the best selling albums of all time. And deservedly so. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins is one of my favorite albums. According to last.fm, I have played a song off the album over 600 times.

I remember when the lead single off the album, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, hit the radio. Of course it's a banger, but what I remember thirty years later is mishearing the line "despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage." I could make out the "despite all my rage" part, but I couldn't quite figure out the second half. I think I had some nonsense words there, but it's been so long since I learned the correct words that I've forgotten what I thought the words were!

Another single off the album, 1979, was cool because that's the year I was born. The song is about entering adolescence, and in 1995 I was in the throes of adolescence myself. A great coincidence!

All of the big singles off this album still get plenty of radio plays, but the whole album deserves to be listened to in its entirety. I did not find listening to this album another time for this project a chore or unpleasant. Indeed, it was a pleasure, and I look forward to listening to the album again and again for years to come. You should listen to the album today, and again and again.

After last week's album, some Green Day is very welcomed. Coming off their smash hit Dookie, Insomniac was return to harder, less poppy punk music. Debuting at #2, it never reached #1 and didn't sell anywhere near as well as Dookie (although few albums do).

I don't know why but I haven't listened to Insomniac that much over the years. I do like punk music, and listening to it now it's in my wheelhouse of musical taste. I think I'll add it to my rotation and I'll try to revisit it more often. This is a win and why I do this project. I suggest that you check out Insomniac, too!

Ballbreaker by AC/DC debuted at #4 on the album sales chart.

There's nothing particularly special about this album. None of the songs are amazing, the lead track Hard as a Rock was the best performing single and only hit #33 in the US. That being said, none of the songs are terrible, which across a whole album is somewhat unusual. That's probably because the band had over 20 years of experience.

As far as it goes, the market agrees with me. Next week the album drops to #9, then #12, and so on. This is a common pattern with older, established acts on the charts. They sell well to start but there's no long tail of people discovering them keeping the album sales high.

If you're into AC/DC, check it out, but don't expect much.