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"Fool's Hall of Fame" (one of my favorites from early Cash), "Walkin' the Blues," "Suppertime," "Don't Take Your Guns To Town" are absolute masterpieces of country music and elevate this album greatly despite a few inevitable, forgettable fillers.

Beautiful, masterpiece of Country.

Demme's masterpiece, one of the best thrillers of all time, has literally revolutionized the genre (along with Mann's progenitor "Manhunter"), rewriting its rules. Excellent direction, outstanding Foster, simply superb Hopkins, and Levin is great as well. In short, a stunning film, directed and acted magnificently, that rightfully occupies a place among the top 10 films of the '90s. 9

Second major gem from Jonathan Demme, a remarkable director who gave us two of the best films of the '90s. Philadelphia showcases the best performance of Tom Hanks (even better than in Forrest Gump) and a strong showing from Washington. A very delicate theme well addressed, with a hint of feel-goodism perhaps (which isn’t bothersome) but with so much class and intelligence. Heartbreaking ending to the notes of "Philadelphia" by Young.
8.5

Some of the greatest artists of all time have changed their style over the years, evolved, transformed, matured, perhaps enriching their arrangements, surrounding themselves with amazing musicians, and blending various influences into their songs. After many years since their debuts, they have not only managed to remain on par with their early masterpieces but have even surpassed themselves, creating even better ones... I would say that Joni Mitchell's "Hejira" is a perfect example of this. Immense, immense.

I’ve listened to it so much these weeks that it made me feel nauseous; however, in the "acoustic guitar-voice" folk albums, this is truly a sparkling gem. Here, Mitchell records in the studio other tracks already written and performed live between '66 and '67, songs that are among the best of her early period. The opening trio ("Chelsea Morning" and "I Don't Know Where I Stand" especially) and the final diptych bring it to a 5, but how can one forget "Roses Blue" and the chorus of "The Gallery"?

Great debut, of course almost solely for acoustic guitar and voice, never again in the future so crystal clear and pure, almost ancestral, arcane. "Marcie" is already an immortal song, perfect, and there are many other gems contained in this album, it's a pity for the exclusion of many other great songs that have already been written and performed live (and already recorded by others as covers). Overall, it’s an excellent debut, 4 because it must be acknowledged that many of the subsequent albums will be even more beautiful, huh.

The real beginning of that journey that would see Mitchell pushing year after year towards the world of Jazz, also confirming herself in those realms as an exceptionally talented composer and singer. I have heard some describe this Joni as colder compared to the "Folk" one, and I don’t understand how one can speak of coldness in a record like this... I can understand perhaps the remarkable electronic experimentation in "The Jungle Line" and "Shadows and Light," but here, in general, in these wonderfully jazzy songs, there is a beautiful atmosphere that envelops and warms, and moves you. The melodies of tracks like "Edith and the Kingpin," "Shades of Scarlett Conquering" (the most beautiful of all for me, sending chills every time), and "The Boho Dance," to name a few, warm the soul and exalt with their perfect beauty, no doubt about it. A masterpiece from a singer-songwriter who was at that time in a perpetual state of grace.

Well, the Judases that I like, the ones I really mean, ended with "British Steel." This stuff is no longer my cup of tea, definitely not, but unlike "Point of Entry," this is a pop-metal album with a couple of more aggressive peaks of actual "heavy" metal, like the title track which is cool in its genre and I actually like it, but also a couple of other peaks that are pure '80s pop with some rock riffs, undoubtedly. It’s perfect to listen to in the car, maybe to liven up a boring trip, especially with passengers whose musical taste doesn’t quite match yours. You put on Priest’s "Screaming for Vengeance" and they’re happy, I get a couple of laughs, I even find a few catchy and cheesy tunes, and everyone is pleased. A nice album, that I wouldn’t listen to more than once every, well, years. Horrible cover.

Great live show, very beautiful. Performances faithful to the studio versions, with no room for improvisations or various modifications, but with the great energetic drive of a live performance, and it’s something special. Some tracks shine incredibly ("Victim of Changes" "Genocide" "Hell Bent for Leather") and the live rendition of "The Green Manalishi" is really excellent, kept here in its vibrant rock/hard/blues song format, almost as if to respectfully distance itself from the live performances of Green’s Mac, where that piece, and others, became a river of bewitching and brilliant guitar improvisation, blazing with fire. Fire and flames are not lacking here either, anyway. With the version of "Beyond the Realms of Death," the album opens and closes with tracks from "Stained Class." Excellent live, an energetic drink.

Less beautiful than their previous albums, but still a hilarious and relentless wall of Heavy Metal/Hard Rock that's engaging and just the right amount of flashy. I still like them, there's not much to say. Here, the Judas are in a period where their seeds have started to bear fruit (in 1980, there’s the debut of the Maiden, the most dignified among their offspring and stepchildren, probably), but the stamp they put on British Steel is, rightly so, hard, granite-like, and with little room for refinements. In its genre, the album is excellent; among all, I must mention the absolutely irresistible riff of "Breaking the Law."

Stunning album, with the band making a significant leap in quality compared to their debut, which was not bad but still quite immature. As far as I'm concerned, it's among the best Hard Rock albums I've ever listened to, and even more so, I consider it one of those albums capable of surpassing the barriers of categorization and the boundaries of genres, an album appreciated beyond one's own "musical current" of belonging. Here, the Judas draw inspiration from this and that (a bit from the usual rock giants of the early '70s - Led/Purple and their ilk, a touch of the best Queen, the finest melodic refined pop/songwriting/electro-acoustic croonerism/a sprinkling of melodic ideas or musical concepts close to a certain "prog" taste of the more "romantic") but they have the merit of blending it into a concoction that is entirely their own, doing so with great inspiration in songwriting, eclecticism, and sophistication, as well as a masterful balance of aggression, melancholy, and dramatic flair. In doing so, they themselves throw collected (and often exaggeratedly misinterpreted) insights from a multitude of other bands from the following decade onward ("Tyrant," for example, is clearly a pre-cursor to Maiden, citing perhaps the most capable disciples, even in beautiful melodic, vocal, and guitar taste). "Victims of Changes" and "Epitaph" (written solely by Tipton - like the theatrical rock gem that is "The Ripper") are my favorites, but there's not a second wasted here.

Great album, along with the '78 twin Killing Machine, it completes the podium of my favorite Priest records, though it’s consistently a notch behind Sad Wings. Here, the stylistic variety of the previous two albums (especially the usual big record from '76) is abandoned, and the band solidifies into a hard/heavy rock-metal that, damn it, is practically a primer for all their students of the following decade, Maiden and the lovely NWO gang, etc., as well as the Dio-era Sabbath, in many aspects (and, as always, done better by Judas). The best songs for me are "Fire Burns Below" and the beautiful cover from the stunning second album of Spooky Tooth, "Better By You, Better Than Me," which I may prefer because it stays closer to 70s rock/hard rock territory, even though the beautiful closing track fully embraces the grandiose tones, which can also be perfectly traced in '70s hard rock, and everything connects. The only one that convinces me less is "Saints in Hell"; everything else excites me greatly, nice nice, from the opening duo "Exciter"-"White Heat-Red Hot" to the title track, passing through the third best song of this album, "Beyond the Realms of Death," with some great guitar solos, especially Tipton's.

I had always skipped this album, going directly to the two that followed. Then I thought, "Why not give it a listen, you never know..." I should have continued to skip it. Terrible album. Pure and hatefully “radio-friendly heavy metal”—the kind that is truly not very heavy and truly not very metal (I call it pop-metal)—but above all, tremendously tacky, sycophantic, and unnecessarily, overwhelmingly over-the-top, gaudy, "epic" (in the worst sense of the term this time). Unfortunately, it’s a genre that quickly goes from enjoyably garish to monstrously bad for me. This one is bad. It has a couple of delightfully tacky moments, but it's bad. Comparing this album to the attitude of a "Killing Machine," as well as to the songs themselves, this album self-destructs. A major misstep for the band, and also the only one I’ve ever listened to, since the next two aren’t my cup of tea, but they’re amusingly tacky-fun, and "Painkiller" is instead a colossal leap in luxury. I don’t know the two from '86-'88 and I don’t want to know them; twice the same nonsense, no thanks.

My favorite Judas album after Sad Wings. Beautiful because it returns to the bloodier and rawer territories of Rock/Hard Rock, while still containing some of the more "refined" and melodic aspects here and there, leaving the more airy and epic style of "classic metal" — let’s call it that — which they were progenitors of (and which is still present, see the lovely opening "Deliver the Goods"). There’s a greater urgency and visceral quality in this "Killing Machine," which makes me prefer it slightly over its "brother" released a few months earlier, which is almost equally valid, of course. Here, the only one that doesn't say much to me is "Evening Star"; the rest is explosive. The sequence of three songs from "Burnin' Up" to "Killing Machine" (irresistible) is unbeatable, and they are all among my favorites from the band. In the middle, of course, shines the excellent cover (not easy) of one of the masterpieces that the Green Wizard of English Blues-Rock wrote with Fleetwood Mac (the last one, to be precise), that perfect spellbinding anthem of rock-blues, "The Green Manalishi," which reveals their appreciation for the Green Mac and which will become a classic in their live set. The ballad "Before the Dawn" is also beautiful, confirming their melodic taste, and while it’s just a bit too romantic and sentimental, it’s still very lovely. And then there's the lighter and poppy part with "Take on the World," featuring a stadium anthem (Queen-esque without being as annoying) that sounds almost like a cleaned-up pub song from England.

A classic, immature debut album, still somewhat "undecided," but not a bad record for that. Simply put, it's mostly a hard rock album that feels a bit generic, enjoyable but somewhat flat, with very few moments or tracks that really elevate it from the crowd; it stays, rather, in the average realm of any standard hard rock album from those years (with a few nice songs, like "One for the Road"). Then there are the tracks where Judas seek different atmospheres and genres (as they would do on Sad Wings, but with very different results), but even the triptych "Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat," originally conceived as a single piece divided into three sections, or the final instrumental, the delicate "Caviar and Meths," don’t particularly stand out and leave me completely indifferent. However, there are two tracks on the album that manage to shine well beyond the average quality of the remaining pieces: "Dying to Meet You," distinctly divided into two parts and particularly beautiful in the first half, and the rock ballad "Run of the Mill," with its almost 9 minutes, which is in my opinion the first true great piece by Priest, a classic rock ballad, with a classic long guitar solo, but beautiful, inspired, very well-executed, a fantastic track. Two years later, what will come will come, and it will obviously be a whole different story.

I like it less than Sad Wings, without a doubt, but it's a good album nonetheless, marking the start of the band's '77-'80 period, which is characterized by "Not as beautiful as in Sad Wings, but damn, I really like these metalheads." Compared to its predecessor, it gives up on more fanciful theatricality, greater eclecticism, and a certain "elegance," settling into an alternating pattern of more classically Hard Rock tracks (with a bit of that over-the-top epicness here and there, thankfully not overly annoying) and very, very successful ballads. "Last Rose of Summer" is my favorite on the album; they are often talked about as the forefathers of the typical "heavy metal ballad," but this is an almost "singer-songwriter" song that confirms their remarkable melodic ability. A beautiful song. Just as beautiful is the Baez cover and the melancholic, twilight, warm, and dark melody of "Here Come the Tears," because in my opinion, Judas had the best typical British melodic taste. On the hard side, "Sinner" is a fantastic piece (and this album features Simon Phillips, the best drummer to ever come through their ranks, I mean...) but the others are great too ("Let Us Prey" and "Raw Deal" especially) with clear proto NWOBHM inspirations and nods to Hard Rock classics (Purple, Zeppelin, and the like), both musically and in Halford's vocals, with Bobby Pianta's guiding manuals popping up every so often, as it should be. A nice album.

Anyone who loves Kate Bush after listening to this live performance from 1979 will weep bitter tears over the absence of other live albums from the shy girl. Can you imagine a live show in 1986-87 featuring the repertoire of "Never For Ever," "The Dreaming," and "Hounds of Love"? Throwing in a "Don't Give Up" just to break the charts? What a pity. Because this live performance (and let's not even talk about the video version) is exceptional, featuring 2-3 bursts of energy that are quite significant, like the 9-minute long very "classic-rock-70's" section (strange for her, especially for the her that will come very soon) of "James and the Cold Gun" or the preview of "Violin" with the same crazy vocal virtuosity found in the subsequent studio version.

Meh... it really doesn’t convince me much. Compared to the just previous debut (fabulous), this is a big step back. Fortunately, a good ten steps forward will follow. Nice album, but nothing more for me.

There are so many things to say about this Masterpiece, and instead, I remain silent... Ecstasy.

"...And Rosabelle, believe"

And then there's the donkey's bray, the voice transforms, the voice, the composer and the singer-songwriter at the peak of their abilities. Immense record.

A stunning debut, a refined and never banal masterpiece, it practically divides between perfect pop songs when it goes well, and beautiful pop songs when it goes poorly. One of my favorite pop albums, how much I love it. "The Saxophone Song," "The Man With the Child in His Eyes," "Wuthering Heights," and the title track are the masterpieces within the masterpiece.

A beautiful record, of a fantasy and beauty that is superb, which opens up to the golden and more mature phase of her career, followed by two masterpieces like "The Dreaming" and "Hounds of Love." And nothing, she is unique, a complete artist and one of the best songwriters of all time for me; here there are splendid songs, some of the best she has ever written. And then there’s her Kate Bush - Breathing - Official Music Video perhaps her most beautiful song, which alone elevates this album to a higher level. To be honest, I would be more than satisfied with Giblin's fretless bass here to shout masterpiece...

The first album from the "legendary" band of "Walking on Sunshine" (which isn't even on this record) that I listen to in its entirety: wow, what a load of crap, the most bland and insubstantial 80s pop. Kimberley Rew and his collapse post Soft Boys. Katrina & The Waves, the donut without a hole of Cambridge music.

7.5

9

One of the fundamental albums by the King, and one I'm particularly fond of, was something I immersed myself in when I was 15-16 years old. I listened to "Elephant Talk" on repeat; I had never heard such a lively and passionate track, so engaging, and if you will, "pop" yet so bizarre, eccentric, and original. And Belew's pachyderm-guitar! What a joy to listen to it, what a brilliant song. Even today, it remains one of their strong pieces in my view, along with many others from this album: "Matte Kudasai" with those new sounds that transform the usual instruments to create music with ancient suggestions while pushing it into modernity, in "The Sheltering Sky" or the Frippian urban neurosis of the outbursts in "Indiscipline" or in "Thela Hun Ginjeet". A crazy album. The cerebral nature that can evoke emotions. Thank goodness Fripp and Belew met, after chasing each other with their almost parallel collaborations with Bowie first and Capocce Parlanti later.

8.5

8

9

10

8.5