Ten Day Album Challenge

Laila Brustin ‘25 reviews all of these albums and more as part of their Ten Day Album Challenge (image courtesy albumoftheyear.org)

by Laila Brustin ‘25

Since January 2021 I have been listening to, rating, and reviewing albums. This has been a fun experience that I do on my own time and record through Album Of The Year. Every once in a while, however, I put a lot of focus into listening and learning about others' tastes through “album challenges.” I am now over a year and a half into this project and this past month completed my sixth personal challenge.

So what exactly am I doing? An album challenge is when you team up with someone to select however many albums you want, and then listen to and review one each day. This past August my boyfriend Joseph and I chose five albums each. Below are my thoughts and final scores. To see more of Joseph’s reviews, you can visit this link. If you find an album intriguing, jot it down. If you want to learn more about a friend’s musical interests, I’d recommend trying an album challenge yourself.

image courtesy Nintendo

Joseph’s pick - Metroid: Zero Mission by Nintendo (2004)

While the synths and occasional trumpets are engaging and can build some great energy or anticipation, it just wasn't my favorite. I did about three listen throughs, but each time I couldn't tell when the album ended or a song changed because of all of the similar 8-bit tones for each track. I think that musical cohesion for a game is nice, but I wasn't getting the variety of Undertale. It was more of a Luigi's Haunted Mansion vibe.

Laila’s rating: 7/10

Joseph’s rating: 9/10

image courtesy EMI

Laila’s pick- The Dreaming by Kate Bush (1982)

The Dreaming has much darker musical tones and is more experimental than I remember. There were even donkey noises in the closing track, “Get Out of My House.” While "Suspended in Gaffa" is always a hit for me, the rest wasn't quite there. A new standout for me is "Houdini." It's softer than the majority of the music. Unfortunately I did lower my original score of 81 down to a 75. I think that Kate Bush always has a song on one of her albums that absolutely kills and the rest is simply intriguing. Not my favorite, but you can't say it wasn't well made or artistic.

Laila’s rating: 7.5/10

Joseph’s rating: 7/10

Image courtesy EMI

Laila’s pick- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles (1967)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is trying something new and unfamiliar in just about every song. I alway feel the need to listen to the entirety of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band because rather than single tracks it feels like it's meant to be a concert. I will say that "Fixing a Hole" through "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" are all fun, but none of them I particularly love. My favorite track is a pretty obvious one, "A Day in the Life." It gives me this feeling that I can't pinpoint but feels right. It's by no means a happy song, but the way it shakes up mid-way through and closes out is just fun.

Laila’s Score: 8.7/10

Joseph’s Score: 10/10

image courtesy Cash Money Records

Joseph’s pick- ​​If You're Reading This It's Too Late by Drake (2015)

I have not listened to a Drake album before and I was pretty happy that Joseph put one down to listen to. The entire first half of the album was chill and toned down. I'm going to guess this was purposeful based on the dreary and fairly concerning album title. When I hit "Used To" and "6 Man" I started feeling some more energy. The highest point in the album to me was definitely the closer, "6pm In New York." The beat just killed it and felt cathartic after 16 tracks. I suppose that I felt let down because Drake is a big-name artist. However, since toned-down, personal, pop rap was the goal for Drake I'd say he hit the nail on the head.

Laila’s Rating: 7/10

Joseph’s Rating: 6/10

Image courtesy Merge Records

Laila’s pick- Goths by The Mountain Goats (2017)

The dark and chorus-like opening of "Rain in Soho" brings you into the energy of frontman John Darnielle's teenage-year bands like The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Joy Division. It's the perfect intro to this detail-filled record, where if you're in the know you can really crack open some cool stories. My personal favorite tracks include "Andrew Eldritch is Moving Back to Leeds" and "We Do It Different on the West Coast." Maybe this speaks to my enjoyment of lighter sounding tracks, but these two just spring out at you. My mom listened with me and said her favorites were "Stench of the Unburied" and "Paid in Cocaine." 

While it's missing the particular acoustic sounds that I love about The Mountain Goats (and is the reason I was put off from Goths during high school). I have to say that this band's albums continue to have incredible stand-outs that I fall in love with. Goths is no exception.

Laila’s Rating: 7.8/10

Joseph’s Rating: 7/10

Image courtesy Warner Records

Laila’s pick - GO:OD AM by Mac Miller (2015)

I appreciate Miller's openness and vulnerability. This was my second listen and there were two new stand-outs for me. The first of these is "100 Grand-Kids" which first of all has the most fun instrumental opening. The song is catchy and better yet, the word play and themes are fun to look through. I spent a good 10 mins after listening just reading through the lyrics. "When in Rome” bursts out at you—strange little keyboard sounds open it and then boom it's a trap beat that belongs on a Spotify Hype mix.

Like my first listen, "ROS" stands as my favorite track. It's so lovely as it describes the story of a relationship which ends in pain. It’s bittersweet and captures my attention.

Laila’s Rating: 8/10

Joseph’s Rating: 8/10

Image courtesy Universal Records

Joseph’s pick - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

This is a fantastic album that has only continued to grow on me. Nico and The Velvet Underground compliment each other so nicely, and it's quite fun to get these engaging, beautiful, and interesting songs. The moment "Sunday Morning" comes on, I'm swooning. This song is like when I wake up in the morning next to a window nice and warm with the sunlight streaming in. It makes you ready to approach a clear day.

The album goes into some difficult places with tracks like "I'm Waiting for the Man," "Venus in Furs," "Run Run Run," and "Heroin,". Talking about drugs and different forms of abuse is never easy, but the sheen of lighter music makes it of course more palatable. All it takes is a bit more focus and you start uncovering details which are slightly more off-putting. 

I think my new favorite song in this album is "I'll Be Your Mirror." At some point my Spotify finished playing the album and began to shuffle it, so I heard it about 3 times. Just awe for it. How lovely and kind. Nico sings from the point of view of someone who loves so deeply and unconditionally it's just touching. I think it's perfect.

My other top 3 songs include: "Sunday Morning," "Femme Fatale," and "Heroine." I will say that "European Son" is probably my least favorite due to how straining the sound is. Overall just fantastic and very much worth listening to, especially when you’re paying  close attention.

Laila’s Rating: 9/10

Joseph’s Rating: 10/10

Image courtesy Scotty Brothers Records

Joseph’s pick- Alapalooza by Weird Al Yankovic (1993)

As far as Weird Al goes, I've listened to Poodle Hat and Running with Scissors. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure this is my least favorite of the bunch. It was goofy and fun as usual so nothing too unexpected. As an opener "Jurassic Park" was pretty dramatic. I guess it's hard doing parody music since some of the lyrics can get a little rough (looking at "Bedrock Anthem" here). The only track that got stuck in my head was "Frank's 2000" TV" since it was pretty good (it was definitely no "Hardware Store” though). The rest were listenable but not things I'd put on during my own time. I think my least favorites "Young Dumb & Ugly" but even more than that "Achy Breaky Song.” Some things get annoying very quickly. Anyways, the final three tracks take the album out with a bang and leave no bad sound in my ears.

Laila’s Rating: 6/10

Joseph’s Rating: 8/10

Image courtesy Elektra Entertainment

Laila’s pick - The Doors by The Doors (1967)

The Doors really did a number on me during my first listen since the rock and psychedelic music just intertwined so nicely. This album also came out the same year as Velvet Underground & Nico and at points feels like a variation of it.

During my first listen I only had "Soul Kitchen" liked on Spotify, but "The Crystal Ship" is now another track I have saved. "The End" is maybe the most dramatic and wrenching song to me. I love the poetic lyrics throughout this album as well. They can feel cryptic and would probably be so fun to sift apart.

I think that the difference between my first and second listen is focus. My first listen felt much more dreamy and of course in the background. This time Jim Morrison's voice feels just a bit harder to listen to continuously. Luckily the instruments are always keeping things interesting. So much time is allotted to them that they of course shine. Personally, I think that this album is something that I should just keep as background.

Laila’s Rating: 7.8/10

Joseph’s Rating: 9/10

Image courtesy Baby Keem / Columbia Records

Joseph’s pick - The Melodic Blue by Baby Keem (2021)

I'm surprised by the average rating for this album being so low because I really enjoyed most of it. While the album isn't some cohesive masterpiece, it's pretty fun. It has great highlights, Baby Keem's voice just sticks in my head, I'm down for it. "Family Ties" and "Range Brothers" are my favorites because they are destined to be memorized and blasted.  Even if I'm not going around dissecting every track, I've gotta say, this album got me into Baby Keem even when I didn't have much interest before.

Laila’s Rating: 7.4/10

Joseph’s Rating: 8/10