"How can I find something new to listen to?"

Every music fan says this eventually.

Music Nerds is where people who really love music meet to discuss the intricacies of their favorite music — details that most people just wouldn't understand — and take the chance to listen to something new.

Our album guides are written by contributors who offer information and separate reviews for each individual track on an album. No track, no matter how slight, is left out. That's how you discover the hidden gems. Maybe you'll find your new favorite song on here.

Recently added albums...

December's Children (And Everybody's)  1965

The Rolling Stones


December's Children continued the policy of releasing different Rolling Stones material in the US and Europe. This album included some new material recorded at RCA Studios but also some older stuff from earlier sessions in the UK. That makes the record a bit uneven. It also means that it is not a "real" album: rather than a collection of new (or newly recorded) songs, it's a compilation album, including some blues and R&B covers, some ballads, and some Jagger and Richards originals. At the time (1965) December's Children was released only in the US, where it reached number four. [continue...]

A Night at the Opera  1975

Queen


I know it ain't hip to like Queen (or at least admit to it), but what the hell! I'll stick my neck out for one of my favourite 'growing up' bands and rely on the fact that — love 'em or hate 'em — they were one of the most successful and influential bands of the 70s and 80s. The facts and figures speak for themselves. Review thirteen, "dedicated to..." Queen. A Night At the Opera was the LP that rocketed them to mega-status, though they'd been steadily honing their craft for [continue...]

The Man-Machine  1978

Kraftwerk


Kraftwerk, since 1974's Autobahn, has been widely hailed as the most influential band for any form of electronic music, but their influence doesn't stop there, not by any means. Listening to most artists who incorporated any kind of electronic equipment — which basically includes, um, nearly every artist that performed in the 1980s at the very least — you can detect some influence. The Man-Machine (or, as it's titled in Germany, Die Mensch-Maschine) was just as [continue...]

Pornography  1982

The Cure


Pornography is the fourth album released by the Cure. By this time, fans of the Cure had noticed their sound was becoming darker with each album, and this album pushed in that direction to its limit. Robert Smith admitted the album was intended to be virtually unlistenable, a sort of final scream before the members of the Cure went their separate ways. This certainly is evident to any listener as the album is filled with cold, mournful, epic songs that form a rather vividly disturbing narrative [continue...]

Déjà Vu  1970

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young


Chapter Two. Their eponymously titled debut album had been an enormous triumph for Crosby, Stills & Nash, spawning two top-thirty hits and thrusting them to the forefront of the sixties' tail-end scene. It also, however, presented them with a very practical problem: whilst Stephen Stills' multi-instrumentation on the LP had been (and remains) impeccable, he clearly wasn't going to be able to handle guitars, bass and various keyboards in a live context. Motown bassist Greg Reeves was bought [continue...]

Crosby, Stills & Nash  1969

Crosby, Stills & Nash


The formation of the band with the name like a law-firm was, to quote the song (albeit out of context), "a long time coming". Crosby and Stills had been hanging out and jamming long since before the Byrd was ousted from the nest. The Croz's inevitable dismissal towards the end of '67 had merely been accelerated by his collaboration with Buffalo Springfield at Monterey (subbing for Neil Young). The very fact that he had to stand in for the gig was also a sure indication that their days as a band [continue...]

Genesis  1983

Genesis


Genesis, the band's only eponymous album, is an interesting work to say the least. Most people would say that the "prog rock" parts of the group's work ended with Wind and Wuthering, and they're pretty nearly right. Not 100%, mind, but they've mostly stopped playing prog-rock here, with the exception of "Home by the Sea". On the whole, the album is something of a transitional piece, transitioning from the prog of Wind and Wuthering to the prog-pop of And Then There Were [continue...]

Sandinista!  1980

The Clash


Fresh on the heels of their third album, the critically acclaimed and commercially successful London Calling, Joe Strummer (rhythm guitar and vocals), Mick Jones (lead guitar and vocals) and Topper Headon (drums) ensconced themselves in the Iroquois Hotel near Times Square on 44th Street in New York City. They had no songs in hand, but were about to make an album that would mystify some people and electrify others, ultimately pointing the way toward the future of popular music. These three [continue...]

Houses of the Holy  1973

Led Zeppelin


(Produced by Jimmy Page and released on the Atlantic label in 1973. Executive producer Peter Grant and original sleeve artwork by Hypnosis.) This album has a kind of pagan/Celtic feel throughout, from the original artwork through to the tunes, especially "No Quarter", the seventh track. (The number seven in numerology is a mystical number representing other forces at work.) Although the album has a carefree element, it is also for the thinker, as can be seen by a quote from guitarist Jimmy [continue...]

The Dark Side of the Moon  1973

Pink Floyd


So, Dark Side of the Moon... The statistics speak for themselves: it's one of the biggest albums of all time. If you haven't heard at least some of it you must have been living in a cave for the last 35 years. It's the album that put Pink Floyd into the mega-star arena. The coming together of a new direction. Even though hints of the album's style could be heard on previous albums, this was a quantum leap into a new area. As you read this, you may know and love the album as much as [continue...]

Side Trips  1967

Kaleidoscope


The Kaleidoscope (from the US, not to be confused with the band of the same name from the UK) is an oddity in the history of psychedelic rock: pulling in ideas from everywhere imaginable, they fused trippy psychedelia, sunny pop, snaky Middle Eastern melodies, heavy rock, and more into a concoction they played with humor, conviction and an unerring technical aplomb that belied a seriousness and dedication behind the cartwheeling exterior. Led by vocalist Sol Feldthouse, whose piercing but versatile [continue...]

Presence  1976

Led Zeppelin


Presence, released on the Swan Song label in 1976, is the sixth Led Zeppelin album; it took them only two weeks to complete. It's a very passionate album and a rebellious stand for Led Zeppelin against all the things that were troubling them at this time. This can be seen from a quote by Robert Plant: "Presence was our stand against everything. Our stand against the elements, against chance." You can see that there was already an inner angst surfacing that would [continue...]

Greatest? Albums
Search Albums/Artists
Recent comments
Recently Favorited
Feedback

Want us to add an album or artist? Find an error? Have a comment or question?
Let us know here:

Email (optional):


Sign up

Register at Music Nerds to

  • Write album guides
  • Receive Song of the Day emails
  • Join discussions about any album or song
  • Generally obsess and argue over musical minutiae most people just wouldn't understand

Choose a screen name:

Choose a password:

Email address:
(Never shown publicly or shared)
Re-type email address:


Read our privacy policy

Most emailed
Song of the Day

"little america"
by R.E.M.

from the album
Reckoning

Written by yestermorrow

Careening through small-town America, passing by towns with names like Greenville and stores with names like Magic Mart, this is an impressionistic reflection of a band on tour, and as a bonus contains a particularly complicated and impressive Peter Buck riff.

One of the most interesting songs, musically, on the album, "little america" features a chorus somewhat reminiscent of the chorus on Murmur's "9-9", a relentless, manic monotone chant from Stipe layered over a dramatic two-chord dance. "The biggest wagon is the empty wagon is the noisiest..." begins the curious rant, and it is a harbinger of the most deranged song on the band's next album, Fables of the Reconstruction's "Auctioneer (Another Engine)".

After the song ends with the line "I think we're lost" (which could be scary, but comes across as merely bemused), there is a short loop of instrumental music, over which Stipe croons wordlessly. It is a weird, and fitting, end to an album that comes at you fast, washes away what gets in its way, and leaves without a trace — except maybe a few puddles and some dislodged memories.


» Download mp3
» Stream in browser


See also:
R.E.M. Live
Murmur
Fables of the Reconstruction
Lifes Rich Pageant
Document
Green
» All from R.E.M.

Get Song of the Day sent to your email inbox each day

See past Songs of the Day