It's Only Rock-n-Roll

As promised, my first foray into reviewing artists and bands of every genre in pop music. After spending the bulk of the last ten years writing about politics, I thought it'd be a nice change of pace to get back to my first love. I haven't given up on politics, mind you, but let's just say I'm looking for a more constructive release of my energies. Now before I go any further, it's worth noting that these are going to be critical reviews of each artist and band. If you're looking for non-critical reviews, I suggest you try Wikipedia. The opinions expressed here are my strictly my own and you are more than free to do with them as you will. As one of my Facebook friends pointed out when he called me Peter Christgau, I've definitely been influenced by Robert Christgau. And with good reason. The former Village Voice critic practically wrote the book on rock criticism, so why reinvent the wheel? Still, since Christgau has never actually reviewed artists and bands...

With the close of the second decade of the 21st century, I thought I'd put together a list of the best albums of all time. Unlike past lists, I decided to break it up by genre and cap each at ten. There's a limit of one album per artist or band; hence no double dipping. Obviously when you're dealing with a self-imposed limit, some tough choices have to be made. As a result there were a few notable exclusions in each genre. Like the perfectionist that I am, I kept tweaking it right up till the end. A few explanations, I feel, are in order. First, concerning the Beatles, I opted for Abbey Road over Sgt. Pepper's or Rubber Soul because I believe it was the better album. It was for that reason that I chose Michael Jackson's Off the Wall over Thriller . It was simply a better album. Then there was my decision to include two reggae albums in the World Music genre. I felt is was warranted based on the fact that they belong there. And as I'm sure you've...