Hitting #8 on the charts after 33 weeks, Tuesday Night Music Club is Sheryl Crow's debut album. According to last.fm, I've listened to 12 Sheryl Crow tracks in the last 18 years, the majority off this album for this blog post. Clearly she is not one of my favorite artists. I don't think her music is bad, but I just don't choose to listen to it. I suspect the few random plays in the past were because of some algorithmic mix I was listening to.

The album does have two big hits: Strong Enough and All I Wanna Do, which I have heard before. I'm not entirely confident that I've heard any of the other songs on this album before.

Long story short, TL;DR, yadda yadda, my opinion of Sheryl Crow hasn't changed. I'll probably never listen to this album again. Finally, I'd rather go to Tuesday Night Racing than listen to this album.

I've listened to a fair amount of Smashing Pumpkins over the last 18 years, but before now I had never listened to this album. This album is actually a compilation which might be why I never checked it out until now. Perhaps another reason is that this album is not one of their most popular. This week it hit #4 but in the coming weeks it plunges down the order pretty quickly.

The only song off the album that was released as a single was a cover of Landslide originally by Fleetwood Mac. That cover did quite well and I remember hearing it on the radio 30 years ago, and I'm pretty sure I've heard it on the radio since then fairly consistently.

According to Wikipedia, this is one of the better reviewed Smashing Pumpkins albums. I think that the songs in isolation are all pretty good, but being a compilation the cohesion between songs isn't the best. I don't think I'll listen to this album all that much going forward mostly because other Pumpkins albums are better.

In the summer of 2001 I spent a couple months participating in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in the Physics Department at the University of Georgia (UGA). UGA is in Athens, Georgia, which is a wonderful little college town about two hours away from Atlanta. There are many things I remember about my time there. Having grown up in the Bay Area and it's notoriously cold summers, that was the first summer I spent in a genuinely hot place. I brought a bike and I spent a fair amount of time exploring the countryside around Athens — and this was before smartphones with GPS! The group of REU students I was in and a few faculty members took a trip to see a Space Shuttle launch, which was amazing.

As part of my preparation for spending a summer in Athens, I made a bunch of MiniDisc recordings (I had a Sharp MD-MS722), including the R.E.M. catalog. R.E.M. were students at UGA and got their start in Athens. I wanted to listen to their music while spending time in Athens.

Included in my MiniDisc library was Monster which shot to #1 in its first week on the charts. Monster doesn't have as many hits as Out of Time or Automatic for the People, really only the first track, What's the Frequency Kenneth got big radio airplay.

This is one of those albums that makes the 30 Years On project fun. Listening to this album brings me back to being in Athens, being in a new place, doing new things. It's a great album and I recommend it.

Debuting at #1, From the Cradle by Eric Clapton is 100% blues. This album was released on the heels of "Tears in Heaven" which likely contributed to the popularity of this album. According to this fan ranking site it's one of his best albums. While other people may find it great, it doesn't make a big impression on me. For me, Slowhand and Unplugged are much more interesting. Certainly, From the Cradle is well done, but it just doesn't make me feel the things some of his other work does.

My recommendation is to check it out, you may like it, or not.

It was over 20 years ago, but if my memory is correct, I've seen The Offspring in concert twice. Needless to say, Smash is one of my favorite albums. On my streaming service (which is Tidal at the moment) it was already added to my list of favorite albums long before I wrote this review. According to last.fm, I've listened to this album almost 350 times.

This album is their breakthrough album into worldwide popularity. The song Come Out and Play reached #1 on the charts and received extensive radio airplay. It's likely, therefore, that I heard that song and the other big hit off the album, Self Esteem, on the radio when this album came out. However, I admit that I didn't really get into the band until I was in college.

I recommend this album very highly, especially if you're in the mood for some high energy punk rock. I recommend memorizing the string of curses in the bridge of Bad Habit; it's useful when you want to let off some steam.

Hitting #9, Sleeps with Angels by Neil Young and Crazy Horse is mostly unremarkable. I am pretty sure I had never heard any of the songs on this album before listening to it for this project. I like some of Neil Young's earlier albums and some of them are legitimately all time greats. This album is not, and surely hit #9 only on the strength of Neil Young's past work.

The one track I will remark upon is the 11th song on the album, Piece of Crap. This song is Neil Young complaining about things he purchased that broke almost immediately. What is it with middle-aged male rock stars writing songs like this? We've previously seen this with Jimmy Buffet. No one cares about your opinion!

In summary, if you want some Neil Young, try some of his better albums and ignore this one.

Last week's chart had no new albums in the top 10, so I did not review anything new.

Despite being released for six months, Dookie by Green Day took a while to reach the top ten in the charts. My memory is a bit hazy, but I feel like I became aware of Green Day and this album roughly around this time 30 years ago when I was a beginning 9th grader in high school. At the time it was incredibly cool that this album was made by a band from my home town of Berkeley. It was recorded in Berkeley and the cover art (click here for a high resolution version) had many Berkeley and East Bay landmarks:

• A BART train
• The Chevron Richmond refinery and oil tank farm
• UC Berkeley's Sather Tower (a.k.a. The Campanile)
• The ASUC Student Union building
• A few London Plane trees
• The East Bay hills behind campus

Dookie is probably one of my favorite albums. At the time of writing I've listened to tracks off the album over 500 times. This album definitely has the ability to transport me back to my youth when feelings were bigger and responsibilities were fewer. This album should be in your collection to listen to whenever you need a bit of punk in your day.

Squeaking in at #10 is Candlebox by Candlebox. They were formed in Seattle around the same time as much bigger groups, such as Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam. This album did quite well, but they never reached the same heights on subsequent albums.

I was never that much into Candlebox. I suppose I heard a few of the songs off this album on the radio, but it never made a big impression on me. 30 years later listening to them again my opinion hasn't changed. It's still not that exciting to me. I'll probably never listen to this album again.

Rising to the #3 position, the Forrest Gump Soundtrack is made up of, except for the Forrest Gump Suite, entirely non-original songs. The movie covers 30 years of Forrest Gump's life, from 1951 to 1981, and the songs were chosen to evoke different periods of American history that compliment the on-screen action.

If you click on any of the various online music providers linked at the top of this post, you'll find that none of the links go to full and complete albums. For likely dumb licensing reasons the streaming albums are missing songs. It's dumb because most, if not all, the songs are already available on the streaming platforms, but just in other albums. For example, here is a playlist a user on Tidal made that looks to have all the songs in the movie (although the order looks to be a bit off). Furthermore, you can still buy the soundtrack on physical media (*) which indicates that the licensing agreements are still active.

I have seen the movie and I find it entertaining, and in particular, I think the music helps frame the different periods in American history Forrest Gump experiences quite well.

The album itself is a good collection of American music spanning the 30 year time frame of the movie. Most are genuine hits and there's no filler or pointless covers unlike other soundtracks I've reviewed before. Of all the soundtracks I've reviewed so far, this is by far the best. The only proviso to the album is that on its own, e.g. if the movie never existed, because the songs cover such a wide range of Americana, they are a bit scattered thematically. But as a way to recall the movie, if you want to do that, it works well.

(*) At the time of this writing, you can buy a cassette tape version for nearly $90! Compared to the $14.48 CD version, which is better in nearly every respect, that's quite a premium.

Last week there was no un-reviewed album in the top 10. This week we jump to the #2 album, which is new to the list this week: Voodoo Lounge by the Rolling Stones. I don't think I need to introduce the Rolling Stones at all. They are one of the most successful and popular rock bands of the last sixty years. If you don't know who the Stones are, I don't know what you're doing on the internet and reading my website. How? Just, how?

By count, the Stones are in the top ten of my listening history over the last 18 years. Below is a histogram of my listens broken down by year. It looks like the last few years I've somewhat reduced my rates, but I think this has more to do with my focus on trying to find new music I like rather than disliking older music. I definitely still like the Stones and I will still continue to listen to them.

Voodoo Lounge is not the best Stones album, but it's not bad. The first two songs, Love Is Strong and You Got Me Rocking each get a fair amount of radio airplay. Both are on the compilation Forty Licks, which I'm pretty sure I purchased in CD form around the time of release in 2002. Voodoo Lounge itself is just fine, and it's worth a listen. The Stones have many truly great albums that you should definitely check out.

Debuting and peaking at #5, Fruitcakes by Jimmy Buffett is not my usual fare.

The title song, Fruitcakes, is basically a middle aged man ranting about his opinions. I'm now a middle aged man and I realize how valuable my opinions are (not very), and I don't need to hear Jimmy's opinions, either. There are a few covers on this album that don't try anything very different from the originals, which I dislike and find pointless. About the nicest thing to say about the songs on his album is that they are definitely by Jimmy Buffett.

Looking at the various streaming music services, only one song from this album (Fruitcakes) cracks Jimmy Buffett's top 40 most-played songs. This album peaked at #5 due to the strength of his past catalog and then quickly fell out of the top ten. This is not a great album and deserves to stay mostly forgotten.

Coming in at #6 is the soundtrack for the 1994 Film The Crow. The movie is infamous because the star of the film, Brandon Lee (the son of the famous martial artist and actor Bruce Lee), was killed during filming of the movie due to an improperly-prepared prop gun. The movie came out on May 13, 1994, but this album went on sale a few weeks before the movie came out. The release of the film propelled the album to the top of the charts one week from "now."

Combined with the notoriety of the movie, the album likely did well considering the strong suite of artists and songs on the album: The Cure, Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, Violent Femmes, and Pantera. Looking a few streaming services, a fair number of the songs by these popular artists included in the album are among the top 10 songs played for each.

There are a few weaker songs on this album by less-well known artists, but that's okay, the good songs on this album are very good. I'm not sure I'd play this album as a whole much going forward, but the great songs are definitely worth playing again.

I don't think I've actually seen the movie before, and having done this review I think I will remedy that soon!

Finding this album at #1 is both surprising and unsurprising. Pink Floyd was (is?) the greatest Prog Rock band of all time. Prog Rock reached peak popularity in the 70s, but by 1994 it was being supplanted by newer forms of Rock like Metal (Pantera) or Grunge (Soundgarden). The fact that The Division Bell was able to reach #1 is a testament to the greatness and popularity of Pink Floyd.

Among the Pink Floyd albums, this one definitely ranks behind their best, like Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and their double album The Wall. The track Comfortably Numb off of The Wall has two of the greatest guitar solos of all time in the same song. I've listened to this album two or three times and I can't think of any guitar solo that caught my attention. There are guitar solos, yes, but they don't have the same emotion.

I think that's the main problem with this album, it feels a bit too procedural. Pink Floyd had been popular for a couple decades by the mid-90s, and frankly, they were no longer starving musicians. Being a bit desperate and unloved can help a musician make great music. It is not bad music. Pink Floyd didn't suddenly forget how to make music, but there's nothing in this album that sparks emotion.

Not all albums an artist or group makes are going to be great. I'll still listen to Pink Floyd's great albums, but this one will probably get very few spins from me going forward.

One nice aspect of my 30 Years On project restart has been the balance of gender of musicians on the #1 list. It's been pretty well even between men and women, which is a good thing. This week Bonnie Raitt claims #1 outright with Longing in Their Hearts. According to the Wikipedia page, this album was released during the height of Bonnie Raitt's commercial popularity. Bonnie Raitt is most purely a Blues artist, and this album is definitely Pop-facing Blues.

None of the songs really challenge the listener, which is one of the definitions of Pop music. This is the kind of music that can be played to any audience and that's fine. Bonnie Raitt is a very good musician and this is a well made album. Indeed, in 1995 this album was nominated for the Album of the Year (which it didn't win against fairly weak competition) but it did win the award for "Best Pop Vocal Album."

My feelings towards this album are "meh." I'm fine with it existing, it doesn't offend me, nor does it excite me. It's nice. Nice is good. I'll probably never listen to this album again, not because it's bad, it most definitely is not, but because it does nothing for me, really.

Far Beyond Driven by Pantera is a kind of surprising album to reach #1. Pantera was a Groove Metal band, which despite the name, isn't very groovy in any way you might imagine. As per the Wikipedia, Groove Metal has a slower beat than Speed or Thrash Metal, which makes it groovy. It still features heavy guitar, raspy or screaming singing, and dark themes.

I find it surprising that the album made #1 because this isn't exactly mainstream music, now or 30 years ago. For better or worse I understand Mariah Carey being #1, but Pantera? Perhaps it was just luck and no big albums were released at the same time because next week this album dropped to #9, and then #19, #22, #25, etc. The #1 ranking was just a blip.

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.