Licensed to Ill - The Beastie Boys

How three white Jews managed to bring rap further into the mainstream has always somewhat amazed me, but having listened to the Beastie Boys' iconic album, Licensed to Ill has put it into perspective. Going in, I knew it was the first hip hop album to top the Billboard charts in 1986, but I never thought it would be this good.

I have listened to the Boys before, but never an album in its entirety. I'm very glad I did. While each track sound very similar, it is a formula that works. Each track has the ability to make you say "Damn that is some flow" in between fits of laughter.

Other than your standards like Brass Monkey, No Sleep Til Brooklyn, and Fight for Your Right, I loved Paul Revere, a funny and hopefully entirely fictitious account of the bandmates committing a robbery.

Overall, I give it a 7/0. Every track is immensely enjoyable and the whole thing had a lot of replay value since its difficult to get all the lyrics the first time. But every track sounding the same can get a tad boring.

Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective

I'm really concerned about how I'm going to handle reviewing a bad album here on One Day One Album. I freaking LOVED Merriweather Post Pavilion. The first time I listened through it, I wasn't sure exactly what the hell I was listening to. It seemed to he a strange mix of Polyphonic Spree and MGMT vocally, sung over a weird version of Radiohead.

On my second listen, I realized this odd combination was amazing. Some of the tracks are super catchy and caused uncontrollable foot tapping. Other tracks just had me in awe, making me feel overwhelmed. Not like about to cry, but just completely incapable of comprehending fully what I was hearing, an experience I only get when listening to Sigur Ros.

My favorite track is definitely My Girls. I'm not really sure why, it's just a ton of fun. It was that song that really made me appreciate how good this album was. It also happened to be the song that stopped me from having Kanye's Runaway on repeat.

Overall, I give it an 8/10. There were times where I thought it was a bit boring, but they were few and far between. Definitely going to be a gateway into more Animal Collective and will definitely make me struggle to find motivation to listen to tomorrow's album, like what My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy did today.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West

So I figured for my first album of this process, I'd review something new and very talked about. I just started getting into Kanye and remembered that his new album was just dropping. Enter My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Now I'm normally not a big fan of hip hop or vastly bloated egos, but holy crap this album is amazing. It is the perfect blend of some great lyrics and imagery with just enough samples from other genres.

Pitchfork gave this album a 10/10 and while it doesn't have a single track I didn't love, I can't say it's perfect for one reason: Nicki Minaj. Her part of Monster, one of the album's best tracks, almost completely ruins the whole song, which speaks to how incredible the rest of it is. While she matches the semi-creepy feel of the track, her voice was just obnoxious and made me want to rip my ears off.

My favorite track is definitely Runaway. The lyrics seem to really be a look into Kanye's thoughts on himself, bit more importantly it just sounds awesome, a haunting simple piano piano riff that is guaranteed to be stuck in your head mixing in with the beat really well.

Overall, I give it an 9/10. It's an amazing album, I just really don't like Nicki.

Track One - An Intro

Why am I doing this? No clue. Expanding my musical horizons? I'd like to think they're big, but that may be it. Sheer boredom? Much more likely. Regardless of why, I am doing it. Every day I will listen to an album I haven't listened to before, write up a brief review, and post it here.

Feel free to make your recommendations too, since I will soon probably run out of ideas!