…Baby One More Time, Britney Spears

It's hard to miss on an album that starts with a song as catchy and iconic as the title track "...Baby One More Time." Britney's debut album presents as the words of a teenager writing about her heartache and crushes on with a feathery gel pen wearing a Juicy Couture velour tracksuit. Every song is delightfully boppy-- almost to the point that I started having trouble telling one song from another.

Stand out track: "...Baby One More Time"

My favorites: "(You Drive Me) Crazy" "Deep In My Heart"

If you're not a fan of having songs stuck in your head, this isn't the album for you. I swear I have a Britney medley on repeat in my brain because pretty much every track is stuck in my head. "Born to Make You Happy" and "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" are teen heartbreak anthems at their finest, while "(You Drive Me) Crazy" and "Deep in My Heart" are dance-around-your-room, classic bubblegum pop. There are some definite fluff songs on this album, most notably "Soda Pop" and "The Beat Goes On" and Britney is far from a lyrical queen, but she sure knows how to romanticize the heck out of surface-level teenage romance, (see "I Will Be There", "Thinkin' About You" and "I'll Never Stop Loving You"). Ending this album with "Autumn Goodbye" is the exact tone Britney needed to leave listeners with to hit play again on their CD players.

...Baby One More Time isn't the best of the best from Britney Spears, but it does its job of being a debut album that would leave listeners wanting to come back for more 90s pop goodness from a pop princess.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING:

OBSESSED WITH SOME TRACKS

Rare, Selena Gomez

With the documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me releasing tomorrow, I felt drawn to re-listen to one of my favorite albums of 2020 (which is saying something considering pretty much every single one of my favorite artists released an album in 2020).

I may be biased in my opinion of this album considering I was one of the people who pre-ordered the first Selena Gomez & The Scene album before it even had a title all the way back in 2008 (aaaand I also have a signed copy of Rare). But my longtime fan status may also make me a more informed critic-- following up 2015's Revival and its multiple huge hits was going to be a challenge; I would call Rare right on par with, but not better than, Revival.

Rare has a lot of really great things going for it: it's incredibly sonically cohesive, it beautifully showcases the best of Selena Gomez's voice, it goes deeper emotionally than any other Selena Gomez album has ever gone, and it's just plain fun to listen to.

Stand-out tracks: "Lose You To Love Me" "A Sweeter Place"

My favorites: "Vulnerable" "Dance Again" "People You Know"

Rare tells a story across its tracklist of the freeing feeling of coming into your own self-worth and leaving behind the things that don't serve you. Whether it's losing a longtime partner ("Lose You to Love Me") or fake friends ("People You Know"), dancing in front of the mirror in your bedroom feeling yourself ("Rare" "Dance Again"), dipping your toes in the waters of a new relationship ("Vulnerable" "Crowded Room"), or beginning to wonder what life will bring you next ("A Sweeter Place"), this album is like a wrapping a cozy blanket around yourself while wearing a glittery dress.

The soft pop journey of Rare feels like the most authentic music Selena Gomez has put out in her music career. And I plan on coming back to this album again and again.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING:

FULLY OBSESSED

Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

When I was making the list of classic, iconic albums that I knew had to be part of this project, Rumours was one of the first albums that came to mind. Between seeing my mom's reaction to Stevie Nicks' dress from the album cover at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland over the summer and the number of times I've seen this album referenced in pop culture, it felt like a no-brainer.

To put it plainly, Rumours wasn't what I expected.

I don't plan on doing this for this whole 500-album project, but I actually listened to Rumours twice. I know this album is considered iconic, but I was honestly so caught off guard by this album considering it was so different from what I expected it to be. After the first listen, I felt like I had missed something, especially knowing that Daisy Jones & The Six is thought to be loosely based on Fleetwood Mac during this era. There are some really really well-written and performed songs on this album, but the whole thing wasn't quite as cohesive and powerful as I thought it would be.

I feel like the power of this album lingers in the sound of its best tracks ("Dreams," "Go Your Own Way," "Songbird," "The Chain," "Oh Daddy") and the sheer performance quality that you can hear on every single song. These songs made me feel like I had been plopped on stage with the band based on the vibrancy of each instrument and vocal track.

But, I wanted so badly for this album to tell a compelling story, maybe one of the darkness and mystery and intimacy and power of rumors. But instead, I felt like Rumours told those stories in each individual song rather than across the whole album. That's not a bad thing, it just wasn't what I expected from a collection of songs that, together, made up the third-best-selling album of an entire decade.

Stand out track: "The Chain"

My favorites: "Dreams" " Go Your Own Way" "Gold Dust Woman"

Coming off the album opener "Second Hand News," "Dreams" is a unique, moody breath of fresh air that truly sets the tone for the rest of the album. Honestly, I wish "Dreams" had been the album opener-- it illustrates the tone of the album well and has a beautiful opening instrumental. Speaking of instrumentals, the instrumental section of "Go Your Own Way" is enough to convince me of why Rumours is the classic rock album that it is. "Songbird" is the epitome of what I expected from this album-- beautiful, haunting, with sleek instrumentals. "The Chain" is "Songbird"'s edgier, more jaded sister; it's darker, more intense, and lyrically and instrumentally charged. "Oh Daddy" was the only track that felt produced beyond live instruments and vocals, which I liked leading into the confident, instrumentally-pared finale of "Gold Dust Woman."

I have respect for the cultural impact of this album, the incredible performance quality of Fleetwood Mac as a band, and I definitely have songs that will be landing on my playlists in the future, but I can't honestly say I would be enthusiastic about listening to Rumours as a cohesive album again.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING:

OBSESSED WITH SOME TRACKS