And if a double-decker bus crashes into us

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

#115 : good kid, m.A.A.d city - Kendrick Lamar (2012) 

Kendrick Lamar’s hip-hop autobiography came as a shock in 2012: musically downbeat, with a film director’s eye for narrative but the voice of a poet. Good kid is his story of growing up in Compton, surrounded by gunfire, gang warfare, police brutality, drugs, liquor, dead friends — billed on the cover as “A Short FIlm by Kendrick Lamar,” like a West Coast answer to Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets. K-Dot goes for emotional detail instead of gangsta bravado, whether cruising the streets in “Backseat Freestyle” or pondering addiction in “Swimming Pool (Drank).” As he told Rolling Stone, “The best entertainers have to have the most wickedest sense of humor, to be able to take pain and change it into laughter.”

Our second visit with Kendrick on this list and last time I expressed bemusement at it all - and this is the album where it all started for me.  I've listened to it a couple of times before and appreciate he's put a lot of work into it, but I'm left thinking "why did he bother?".  I can believe it might reward a million listens and a deep-dive into the lyrics, but there's not enough of an initial hook to make that happen for me, I'm afraid.  I know Wikipedia is going to scoff at my ignorance though...

...actually, it doesn't go too overboard for a change, but does describe it as "thematic", which suggests that it would reveal more on further listens - but it's still feeling unlikely that's going to happen.  It also tells me that "m.A.A.d is an acronym with two meanings: "My Angry Adolescence Divided" and "My Angels on Angel Dust"" - admit it, you wouldn't have guessed that now, would you?  There are a LOT of well-known people involved in this album - some of whom are so well-known that even I've heard of them.  Apparently EVERYONE in the hip-hop community loved the album - except for Shyne, who thought it was rubbish and this was so unusual it warrants a mention on Wikipedia.  And Kendrick's considered response to this was basically "he's entitled to his opinion" which makes the whole thing such a non-story I've got no idea why it's included (although possibly it's because a proportionate response to criticism is so unusual in the hip-hop community)

His Wikipedia entry is very long and I struggled with it, but I promise to come back to it when we next meet him on this list to consider his widely regarded masterpiece (which I've listened to and still don't get the point, but I promise to try harder next time).  "Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of - and Kanye.  But whilst I'm kinda impressed at all the work he and many others put into this album, I just don't get it - sorry Kenny.

#114 : Is This It? - The Strokes (2001) 

Before Is This It even came out, New York’s mod ragamuffins were overnight sensations, jumping from Avenue A to press hysteria and the inevitable backlash, all inside a year. The objective of Is This It, said singer Julian Casablancas, “was to be really cool and non-mainstream, and be really popular.” Recorded literally under the streets of New York, this blast of guitar-combo racket passionately reconciled those seemingly contradictory aspirations, and accomplished both, updating the propulsion of the Velvet Underground and the jangle of Seventies punk with Casablancas’ acidic dispatches mixed to the fore and ringed with distortion like he was singing from a pay phone.

I listened to this album a few times back in the day and it wasn't that I didn't like it, but I REALLY struggled to understand the waves of adulation that greeted everything they did (see also Razorlight, The Gossip and countless others).  So the fact that they called the album "Is This It?" somewhat broke my irony meter, I'm afraid.  I was happy to revisit for research purposes, but expectations were not high.  And, if anything, they weren't even reached - I thought it sounded very same-y and dated now (although that's possibly because of the countless imitators it spawned). I liked "Last Nite" and several other tracks, but only because they sounded almost exactly the same as "Last Nite".  It's all perfectly listenable, but I just didn't (and still don't) get what seemed to elevate it beyond that for so many people, so I find myself just being perplexed by the whole thing.  At least I believe Kendrick put a lot of thought into his album - whereas to me this just sounds like they knocked it out in an afternoon.  But, once again, Wikipedia will no doubt tell me I'm a fool...

....jeez - and then some.  Although, to be fair, all Wikipedia is doing is quoting some of the stuff that others came out with at the time - "world-changing moment", "the template for rock'n'roll in the modern day", "caused a sea change in modern music", "you only capture this kind of lightning in a bottle once", "the stuff of which legends are made".  Well, that tells me, eh?  It's interesting that it sold 600,000 in the UK and 1 million in the US which suggests we went relatively madder for it than they did - although that could have been because we had a ladies bottom on the cover whereas they had subatomic particle tracks in a bubble chamber, because the sight of a naked arse would have caused half of the US to explode.  Or something.  

I've not read the band's Wikipedia entry yet, but I'm guessing fame went to their heads and it all went a bit wrong when the critics turned on them.  Having read it, it's worse than that, I'm afraid - they're still going.  To be fair to them, they're more successful than I was aware of - but I think we've established I'm not their biggest fan.  "Customers also listened to" a particularly bizarre mix - some of which is obvious (MGMT, Franz Ferdinand, Killers) and some of which is very much not (MIA, Muse - seriously?).  But, I'm afraid I just don't understand the fuss.

#113 : The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths (1986) 

Morrissey’s maudlin moanings have never been more acidic or self-aware than on the Smiths’ third studio album: “A dreaded sunny day, so let’s go where we’re happy/And I meet you at the cemetery gates,” indeed. Johnny Marr is the sugar to Morrissey’s rock salt, and his layered webs of guitar riffs and arpeggios, often in unconventional tunings, build a shifting but stable platform for Morrissey to croon about the drudgery of employment or being cruelly, cruelly shunned by the world. It’s mope rock with its eye on grandeur: With “Bigmouth Strikes Again,” Marr said, “I was trying to write my ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash.’”

I quite like a spot of Morrissey, Marr et all but I must admit to not being familiar with this album except for the singles.  But I was expecting to enjoy it, and enjoy it I did.  It's widely regarded as the finest Smiths album - I can't say that jumped out at me on first listen, but it's certainly a fine Smiths album.  Maybe if I listen to it a few more times all will become clear - but whilst I've got no problems going back to it, I can't say it'll drag me back (unlike Disintegration from the last round, that I've already revisited).  Having said that, the second side is particularly strong, including the snappily titled "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side",  "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" and "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" - all very fine tracks.  But the fact of the matter is that if you like The Smiths, you'll already like this album - and if you don't like them, it's not going to convert you.

Wikipedia basically says it's great - but triggers me by pointing out it got to #2 in the UK album charts, which means I have to find out what kept it off the top spot - Invisible Touch by Genesis.  Morrissey would not have been happy about that - but let's face it, Morrissey has never been happy about anything.  Interestingly, a lot of critics viewed The Queen Is Dead as hilarious - I thought there was some mordant wit involved, but I'd struggle to say I giggled all that often whilst listening to it.  The band's entry is lengthy and an interesting read, if a somewhat depressing one - let's just say it doesn't end well and then just got worse as far as Morrissey is concerned - Van Morrison's complaints about lockdown pale into insignificance in comparison.  

"Customers also listened to" Morrissey, Joy Division, The Cure, New Order, Pixies - for once, the random 80s cross-genre listenership doesn't come into play.  I liked this album but I don't currently see what makes it stand out from the other Smiths albums - personally, I particularly like their debut ("Reel Around The Fountain" is probably my favourite Smiths track - either that or "How Soon Is Now?" from Meat Is Murder) so I'd probably go for that but (and I apologise if this comes as a surprise to you) the whole thing is subjective, isn't it?  

So, we've got two albums I don't see the point to and one I like - would anyone like to guess which one might win the round?  Not the trickiest choice ever - well done to them Smiths.

#118-116 - Were you missing Kanye?
#112-110 - Three solo artists