It was one those albums I picked up entirely based on reviews, since there was really no way to sample the music at the time. I wasn't prepared for the jazzier sections, or how sound-collage-y things got. And I didn't fully understand just how much time, effort, and virtuosity went into creating the music. Parts of it…

I had forgotten about that. Their new record deal was for what, like $80 million? Both Warner and the band were pretty much stuck once that deal was signed. It's not that the post-Berry albums don't have good songs (I'll even go to bat for a few from 'Around the Sun') but a lot of the material felt perfunctory.

I didn't really get into Pulp until 1997, but I had seen and loved the 'Common People' video on 120 Minutes a lot, so I was ready by the time I bought 'Different Class.' It's pretty much a perfect album.

I like 'Raising Arizona' a lot, and it has some amazing stuff in it (the opening, pre-credits montage; H.I.'s big chase scene) but all the stuff with Randall "Tex" Cobb as the supernatural bounty hunter just feels a little tacked on, to me.

A bunch of kids from my high school went on a school-sponsored trip to the UK in 1996 and came back raving about 'Trainspotting' and basically shitting all over the rest of us who had to wait 4 months to see it. They were insufferable about it, but it lived up to the hype.

Yeah, 'Boys for Pele' was a glorious mess of an album. Highs, lows, creamy middles. It had everything. Not to mention 'Hey Jupiter,' a song my high school "girlfriend" and I could listen to in the car and silently wonder about the lack of sexual heat in our relationship.

I see that now. I guess I'm so accustomed to debating the issue that I skipped what you actually wrote.

Yeah, 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi' would have been a fitting coda for the band. Everything post-Bill Berry doesn't feel like 100% true R.E.M.. And yeah, 'Electrolite' is absolutely beautiful.

I remember seeing the video for 'Ocean' on 120 Minutes when it came out, and being befuddled and strangely aroused. They don't make 'em like they used to.

For some reason I took the long way round to Odelay, only getting into it in college. Actually, even though I definitely like what Beck does, and own most of his studio albums, my tepid appreciation has never converted into actual fandom.

I'll second Endtroducing… because, even though I don't listen to it very much now, it really opened me up to electronic music, hip-hop, and trip-hop, the briefly awesome co-mingling of the two. Plus, listening to it led me backwards to Massive Attack, which, for me, was the even greater discovery. I was a pretty…

Even though the song isn't autobiographical, it still drives me crazy the way the guy goes out of his way to ask the dad for his blessing, then gets all bent out of shape when he doesn't get the answer he wants, says "I'm going to marry her anyway!" and then calls the dad 'rude' for not realizing what a kickass…

I can see how fans that came onboard with Limbo, Panto or Two Dancers might feel a bit alienated by this album, but for me, who started a little later, Boy King feels like a distillation of the electronic textures and beats they've been incorporating into their sound since Smother. I dig it.

I don't think I've ever listened to an album as much as I've listened to Blackstar over the past 7 months. Which surprises me, because it should be a hard listen. For an album so suffused with death, it's incredibly life-affirming.

Sadly, you don't get delightful comedy Michael Keaton, you get glacial, eyebrow acting, Michael Keaton.

The HJDB?

Checks IMDB content advisory section. Yup.

I only remember the time in the movie theater with anonymous but grateful dude. Am I forgetting something?

The hand job is an underrepresented sex act in most movies. Pretty much every story about a young man's sexual awakening skips over all the crazy frustrating non-penetrative sex stuff that precedes actual intercourse. I say more hand jobs for all.

Oh yeah, Pacific Heights. No sexual politics at play, but total rich white person paranoia. I mean, all Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith want is to renovate their enormous San Francisco townhouse in peace! And here comes Michael Keaton, moving in without paying, being all threatening, starting a downward sprial of…