Wild Gift

Punk, not my cup of tea but it has potential

it's a punk rock album.

The only noteworthy part of this album is the riff from White Girl. Other than that it drags through samey mediocre melodies and riffs, but not in an overtly offensive way.

Ray Manzarek avait un peu disparu de la circulation, mais reviens aujourd'hui prouver qu'il est l'ennemi numéro 1 du générateur.

Punky

Cover art 3/5

It’s fine, but nothing that hasn’t been done better or less juvenilely.

Didn’t mind this but also don’t remember much about it. Middle of the road punk with no standout songs or melodies.

The singing right off the bat completely threw off my interpretation and mood toward the rest of the album because it was so bad. The music was alright but it wasn’t redeeming.

Not a fan of "punk" really at all, but I have fleeting memories of seeing this band late at night on MTV as a kid and thinking they were more than punk - I'd definitely stand by that.... although if anything the vocals are the "punk" aspect which are ... not good... So the positive: I really dig the music on almost all of this. But.... yeesh. The dry dual out-of-tune vocals bring it all down for me. e.g. "Universal Corner" would have been better simply as an instrumental - gave me a little very early Pretenders vibe just from the guitar. The opening/main riff on "It's Who You Know" almost has a raw Iron Maiden feel. Love these. Eh it's kinda frustrating. Yeah - the music is cool but it sounds like a decent university band - I'm trying to justify a lot of parts but overall it rarely lifts itself above a fairly-well-polished demo; not just in terms of sound but performance - I wouldn't want anything modern/Pro Tools/perfectly aligned/on the beat but even slightly better musicianship would have taken this a lot further for me. 5/10 2 stars.

Ok some punk fine… The album opens with the once over twice it’s a good song, I can’t deny the instrumentation being great. Her vocals are unique but not really my kinda thing to be fair. We’re desperate is again very good but both of them some of the worst singing vocals ever. But it’s fun and punk music usually has sloppy singers. Adult books actually surprised me it’s a slower song but really well made everything fits perfectly here. The backing vocals from the female singer are dreadful but the rest of Universal corner is very good. I’m coming over is nasty brutish and short rubbish vocals though. Ending side one is it’s who you know a good song but I don’t get how this was a good song to end the first half of the album. Starting side 2 is in this house that I call come it’s okay I don’t find it all to special (as side 2 track one should be) but still a song I guess. I guess some other time has her best singing but still poor singing great instrumentation and lyrics. Like white girl it has this awesome bass line but i’am stuck thinking about how she can’t sing too much to really care. Beyond and back sounds like a 50’s rock song, nice to see them stray away from full on punk for once. Then we end on 3 songs all being just over a minute ( Back 2 the base, When our love passed on the couch and Year 1) the first two sound exactly the same then year 1 is some clapping stadium mini song. If they replaced the female vocalist I would’ve actually really dug this shit but no just no.

early punk is right.

This album didn't really do too much for me. It had some moments where I found the music and lyrics to be fun, but I felt like so many of the songs being on the shorter end didn't allow me to sit into their melodies and chord progressions enough.

Not memorable punk

Not bad. 2/5

3/2/22 I’m torn because I like the composition and the sound of the album as a whole, but I hate their lyrics. I think the songs are stupid and a bit too repetitive. Feels like the B-52s but more chaotic. Overall not bad, but won’t listen to this again. Based off the lyrics I’m leaving towards a 2, but it would probably be 2.5 if I could. Favorite song: When our love passed out…

I loved the awesome guitar sound (and playing) plus the driving up-tempo arrangements made some great music but I hated some of the singing, the female was particularly grating. Score is in the middle somewhere but I feel can't rate it 3 because I have enjoyed other 3/5 albums so much more than this.

Pretty pants.

Rockabilly. Sigh.

I get it, it's classic post-punk or pre-snark retro-rock. Just not highly enthused about it. I've started a lot of my reviews with, "I get it...," then offering that it's just not my bag. I think this makes me a poor music critic since my commentary tends to be related to my mood at the time rather than the broader space-time continuum of these records. This one just pales in comparison to the harder punk-rockabilly of The Raveonettes "Aly Walk With Me." That one never fails to get me to going.

I don't think I've heard of X before and all of the tracks on Wild Gift were new to me. Based on the music I'm guessing this album falls into the punk category and feels well rooted in the 80s. (Another sign that this is punk is that there are only 3 of 16 tracks that are longer than 3 minutes.) I got through this album, but I did not enjoy listening. None of the tracks sparked my curiosity.

Yay more (post)punk! Couple decent tracks.

I’d like to hear more John Doe and less Exene Cervenka. 2.75.

I was a big fan of "Los Angeles" when it came out, but "Wild Gift" never made an impression on me...it feels somewhat lifeless in comparison. It's like "Los Angeles" but toned down and cleaned up for the non-punk masses. "Last night everything broke" is a great line, though!

Alright. A little edgy and all of the songs sound the same

No… this hasn’t got anger to be punk, nor does it have the tunes to be anything else. Sorry X

Primera noticia. Ser influyente pero desconocidos. Rock muy garajero, cercano al punk. Empieza bien pero poco más. Si estás escuchando todos los discos de esta lista hay que darle una oída pero poco más. Me gustó "It's who you know".

Their vocals are horable to listen to, the instrumental sections are pretty good, saves it from being a 1. Punk was a mistake

Yes, this is marginally better than Germ Free Adolescents. Sadly, that isn't a huge compliment. Heard it described as punkabilly, pretty accurate. Not so much for me. The only uses I could potentially see are: -I have half an hour to get ready for a fancy dinner after waking up, blast this in the loudspeakers while preparing and stressing out about what to wear. -Having to wake up the lazy, potentially hung-over participants at a summer camp.

Some nice vocal harmonies, some of the chord progressions were a bit interesting. I can't stand the blues rock elements on the album. It feels plastic and tiresome. During the two last songs I was just looking forward to this album ending

Meh. Didn’t make an impression

Kind of generic and nothing special.

Me gusta que sea una mezcla de punk con rockabilly, no me gusta, no me copa que se escuche como temas que sobraban de los 70.

I mean... punk... 2/5

i dunno it's fine

Generic punky rock album. Three minute songs, not a lot to them to be honest. Won’t be missed that I’ll never listen to it again.

their name being X is not the best for name recognition but it does look really cool under every song title on the tracklist. kind of weird seeing a regular picture for the album art but its okay. 32 min long, nice and short lets go. aw i dont think i'll be into this. i was so ready but i'm bothered by how low energy it is. they sound so over it lol. how many women are they gonna call out lol we've got jackie susan and magdalene so far. back 2 the base was really something lol. not into thisss

Ordinary is an understatement

Okay, but not really my type of music. 0RS

Niet heel verkeerd maar ik kan er niet van genieten

Just OK for me. I liked the rhythm section, but nothing else really stood out for me.

There were a couple songs I enjoyed here, like Adult Books, but it was overall a bit too whiny-grungy to be a good listen.

Punkowanie po raz enty, tym razem zachodnie wybrzeze hameryki, na pierwszy rzut oka nie moglem bandy polaczyc z zadnym albumem, czy nawet kawalkiem, dopiero po analizie plejki wyszlo, ze cos wczesniej od nich slyszalem, ale byl to pojedyczny trak musze nie myslec negatywnych mysli, ale rownie dobrze moglbym przesluchac calego albumu i o tym nie wiedziec, bo nic z tej plyty nie zostaje w glowie, nie wiem czy to sprawa tego wokalnego duetu, gdzie glowna role odgrywa pani cervenka, do bolu juz ogrywanymi gitarkowymi brzmieniami, ktore gdzies juz wczesniej slyszales, o ile w niektorych momentach lirycznie by sie kawalek bronill, to znowu wokal mieszano nijaki nie pomaga w odbiorze, nie wiem z ktora brytyjska wokalistka punkowa mi sie kojarzy maniera baby Xowej, ale doslownie deja vu, juz to slyszalem u kogos innego, na plejaka wrzuce we are desperate, co dobrze okresla styl w jakim jest utrzymany material, desperacja sukcesu, ciekawy random fakt, ze na produkcji siedzial, wtedy juz byly, czlonek doorsow, czyli pan manzarek, czego bym sie nie spodziewal, a wyprodukowal im jeszcze debiutanckiego krazka

Solide. Könnte auch aus den 90ern sein. Eingängige Songs, nette Mann/Frau call/response vocals, Drums wie Bela B. sie liebt. Für ein Evergreen Album zu wenig / eine charmante Vorband. Anerkennende 2.2

Hat mich nicht so berührt. Klang wie Punkrock von der Stange; für Kontext war diesmal keine Zeit.

This album would have benefitted from the following: 1. A competent producer. 2. A vocal coach to teach the two singers how to harmonize in more than one interval 3. A new lead vocalist The first four songs on this album were really terrible. It got better towards the end, which is the only reason this gets 2 stars instead of 1.

Meh

inb4 2005

Something you'd hear playing a little too loud in a bar out in the hipster part of the city. Pretty middling.

Enjoyable punk rock, but nothing that seemed particularly special or unique to it, making me question why it was on the list.

I like the energy but the tunes are a bit dull

Not a fan of this. If we’re looking at an evolutionary tree for punk rock, this is a different branch that went extinct

Most of it was generic punk. A few standout tracks, but not enough to make me want to listen again. Best track: It's Who You Know

Nah this one is just all over the place and has that classic white noise rock feel

503/1089 - Horrid pitchy vocals for both of them. Way too clean and clear sounding for punk leaving it quite limp. Boring and repetitive instrumentals. It's like if Elvis and Sonic Youth combined. Terrible.

Not really for me. Some good moments, but not my scene overall

I can hear later stuff that must've been included by this when I listen to this album but ultimately, I find this kind of punk rock really boring. Several songs had catchy elements but the instrumentation and production choices are really a style I don't get a lot out of.

More heavy rock... Yawn

Not for me. Only 32 mins but felt like it dragged

realmente no entiendo porq hay tantos álbumes under de rock/punk en este top 1001. Es increíble. No tolero el género. Sin embargo no está mal, pero ya estoy quemado de este tipo de música. De principio a fin parece la misma canción.

4/25 Sounds just as generic as any other punk album. Nothing special

Well, I made it through, but it's not anything that I really needed to hear.

Overall the instrumental music is decent enough but the vocals are horrendous, repetitive, off-pitch, and completely unenjoyable.

- Pretty tough to listen to - Just noisy, screechy, not my cup of tea

Wikipedia writes: "Wild Gift showcases the band's unique punk rock style, which infuses roots rock, country, blues, R&B, and rockabilly." Which translates to: It's a huge pile of crap. On top of that, it also sounds like crap. For an album desperately trying to be "punk", the complete lack of punch and abrasiveness is DISGUSTING. Seriously, the drums sound like someone is beating on cardboard ... with chopsticks.

Sorry, but her voice felt like finger nails down a chalkboard. At its worst when trying to harmonise with his vocal. That spoilt by everything else about it.

One of the best Punk albums ever made? Not in my book.

B grade rubbish. Don't waste your time.

Strange. Weird music. Not impressed.

annoying

Die Sänger sind wie so ein nerviges poly Discord Couple was man in der Karaokebar trifft.

Het klinkt nergens naar, ze doen hun best niet, zingen vals, elk lied bestaat uit het systematisch opdreunen van dezelfde zin. Ook de hoes is huisvlijt, het lijkt alsof daar de meeste creativiteit in is gestoken. Zelfs de Granny's Lovers uit Meerkerk klonken beter, dat wil wat zeggen!

Punt hitter

not for me

Just don't like punk anymore. My 30's killed any punk I might have liked at some point which was never a lot. Ha! Love the album cover though.

The instrumentals are bland, and the vocals even more so. Exene has the worse singing voice of the two singers. In general, the vocals are too quiet.

27th album with group. This is some real ass, and it isn’t even punk. Good Songs - The Once Over Twice, We’re Desperate, and Year 1. Bad Songs - Adult Books, Universal Corner, I’m Coming Over, It’s Who You Know, In this House that I Call Home, Some Other Time, White Girl, Beyond and Back, Back 2 the Base, and When Our Love Passed Out On the Couch.

Naur

nope

No

- :/ - 0 nummers toegevoegd aan MMMM - 0 nummer al toegevoegd aan MMMM

Shouting

At least it's short! Got on my nerves by the end. Pretty basic

Not for me 1/5

Rockabilly punk not for me.

The antithesis of what I enjoy. Shouty singing, noisy guitars, no particular themes... and so on. Screaming, "In this place that I call home" over and over doesn't really get me going. I didn't enjoy the harmonies, I didn't enjoy the guitars. Sorry X, just not for me. I don't think I'm alternative enough. Give me some Barry Manilow, please. When will he be on the list?

no thanks.

Shit

This sounded incredibly bad, like it was recorded on a toaster or something. The composition was extremely uninspiring as well. Maybe a bit harsh but didn't like this one bit.

Nope…

Not for me.

I found this one unbelievably dull. It wasn’t bad but absolutely nothing stood out to me.

p478. 1981. 1 star. Average garage band with average songs. There are zero reasons why this should be considered essential listening. On the plus side, it's short.

⭐️.5/5 Just not really a 80s/90s pop punk fan. Don’t like the whiny voices and all the beats sound the same to me. Not my genre.

ok I guess for 1981

Blends into the rest of the 80s punk music.

Did not enjoy, it is not my vibe

no

Shite

Its ok

Not my cup of tea.

Not a fan! Can't even sing...

US punk is not for me. My view is that the best punk bands originated in its birthplace the UK. The one exception is The Ramones but not sure if you could label that punk. More like good short melodic tunes played fast and loud. Never heard of the X before and I could have done with being blissfully unaware of them as this album is one of the worst to pop up on this list. Just shouting over simple guitar chords. I read that the female vocalist is now suffering from MS which I sympathise with but I found her voice so annoying and put me off listening to the album in full. 1/5 8/12/24

Another 100% yelling album. Horrid. No warms. 1/5

Mmm no thanks. I want to like punk more than I do, but when I hear these bands that have the trifecta of: the same fast-tempo beat backing every song, super repetitive themes / melodies, and off-key talk singing... I just can't do it. I'm Coming Over was my least favourite track.

Feels like I've heard this before. But it's not really memorable; it's kind of generic 80s punk. Kind of forgettable Romones wannabe.

Meh

insufrible insoportable inaguantable

The Good: the musicians know what they are doing The Bad: only 6 songs last less than 2 minutes... The Ugly: the singing Honestly, why is this album on the list? It influenced west coast bands in the '80s? The female singer tries to sing like Blondie, and fails miserably. Maybe they were a wonderful to see live? Maybe... 2** because musically it would be unfair to dish out only 1... but I am writing this upon my first listening, which means I can still change my mind. You guessed it... changed my nind

Mucho estruendo, por lo general no me ha llamado nada. No encuentro nada especial a destacar de este álbum. No he encontrado melodías chulas, entiendo que la fuerza radique más en el mensaje. Aun así no me ha dicho nada en especial. Es corto, lo cuál se agradece.

Wouldn't listen to again

1981 alternative rock

Tal vez sea un disco que marcó gran influencia a otras bandas americanas, de Punk, Noise o Grunge, pero que a este lado del atlántico no tuvo apenas influencia (ya tenían otros referentes). Su estilo combina el Punk de finales de los 70 con las melodías folkies ácidas de finales de los 60 (suenan muy a Jefferson Airplane). Pero no busquen un "Somebody to Love" ni "White Rabbit" ni "Volunteers" o "Wooden Ships" en este disco, porque no la encontrarán. Otros discos de 1981: SIUOXSIE AND THE BANSHEES- Juju, ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN - Heaven up here, THE SOUND - From the lions mouth, MINK DEVILLE - Coup de grace, THE CRAMPS - Psychedelic jungle, JOY DIVISION - Still, THE CURE - Faith, THE ROLLING STONES - Tattoo you, THE HUMAN LEAGUE- Dare, ORCHESTRAL MANIOEUVRES IN THE DARK-Architecture & Morality, ENO & BYRNE-My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía- Friday Night in San Francisco, PRINCE- Controversy, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts- I Love Rock 'n' Roll, Franco Battiato- La voce del padrone... incluso: Face Value de Phil Collins o ABACAB de Genesis. Debuts de Stary Cats, Fleshtones, Barracudas, The Church, The Gun Club, Soft Cell, New Order, Duran Duran, Heaven 17, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Tom Tom Club...

Stupid.

Not a fan, very boring and outdated. I've never heard of the band, and apparently for a good reason. Now I have to live in a shame that I listened to 15 minutes of this album. Unforgiveable.

Fuck off punks

Öhm. Nö. Das war nicht für mich.

I’m reading all these 5-star reviews and I’m just not hearing it. Sounds like they are trying, and failing, to be the B52s. Her voice gets on every one of my nerves. I couldn’t get through the album.

I love punk but never got X. The sound of the two voices together makes me hate music.

Not my thing. Had some fun beats at times but I didn't enjoy it. It did feel refreshing to have a female vocalist though

This is noise, trash and annoying. I hope your album selection gets better quickly or I'm out. If there was a zero stars, that would be my vote.

Nope. Not for me. Don’t like the voices. Don’t care for the music.

These album is straight cheeks, man.

Blah punk

Boring songs and vocals, not very musical

Maschine: Focal Clear Mische: gar nicht sooo scheisse Musik: Nix besonderes (für mich). Da höre ich lieber B52s oder Pixies... Meine Wertung: 1/5

Downright boring

Yuck

This was a pretty poor album. It felt like it was made in a garage with good equipment. The lyrics seemed like they were written by a teenager, but not one with artistic ability. I could not find much if anything about this album that I’d revisit. Usually I can tolerate most albums with a normal structure but this was pushing it. 2.9/10

Starts off as punk-rock, but then morphs into some sort of country-rock. Not impressed.

I like the raw energy, but the recording is so bad it's hard to hear anything and what I was able to hear wasn't anything novel.

Land

Wimpy backing to annoying vocals. This is about as punk as Celine Dion but her voice is marginally better. I'm starting to hit skip. Just not in the mood for weeny punk pretenders. Just because you said "Fuck" doesn't make you punk. I've heard this compared with the debuts from Siouxsee or Clash. Fair cop. Their debut albums sucked but they got much better. This is the third album from X. They obviously weren't improving.

The real challenge is to find 1001 ways to call a music album boring

unremarkable in every aspect

Moeilijk plaatje, ik wil 't begrijpen, maar het is gewoon niet vol te houden.

Nogmaals, ik heb een hekel aan punk. En die zanglijnen zijn echt niet om aan te horen

I can't take this

Was never a big fan of X in my punk days, maybe its the way the guy sings

Kind of happy that this album was only 33 minutes. Maybe if I was more into punk I would have found this exciting but apart from a few moments where I thought that the riff wasn't bad it was as dull as dish water.

Honestly couldn't stand both of the vocalists which made the experience frustrating as there is decent guitar and bass going on here. White Girl was probably the best song on here. At least it was short I guess.

12/07/2021 Today's Album: "Wild Gift" by X - The Once over Twice is very strange and I honestly don't really like it. It drags on and repeats this sorta off sounding chorus. There's a cool solo in this song but it doesn't really redeem the shitty rest of the song. The next song is even more annoying and droning. The instrumentals in Adult Books are less annoying but they still don't really sound good or pay off in any way. Im going to stop reviewing this track by track and just suffice to say, this album sounds awful. It's very droney and samey throughout each song and the vocalists always sound off pitch and stuttery. Actual garbage 80s art rock Score: 1/10 painful to listen to Highlights: N/A

woman vocal is making this album bad

A million years ago (1994) I was in Seattle for 9 days at the same time Bumbershoot was on. It was $9 per day although if you wanted to see X and Sunny Day Real Estate, neither of who I knew, it was a separate $10 ticket. So obviously I didn't go to see them and instead saw Penn & Teller be amazing doing loads of slight of hand in a small theatre and Richard Thompson (with Danny Thompson on double bass) basically playing on the pavement for $9. And some random stuff I've long since forgotten about although I do have a t-shirt in a bin bag in my parent's attic in the UK. Anyway, I moved to Australia and there's a completely different band called X who I'd never heard of either. I've seen the Australian X and they were pretty good. The US band are a bit punk-by-numbers years after this type of punk was in fashion everywhere else. It doesn't even really have memorable songs/hooks/melodies etc and is all a bit plodding 4/4. It feels a lot longer than its 32 minutes, never a good sign when about half the songs are less than 2 minutes.

Niet mijn ding. Ik ken de band niet en dat wil ik graag zo houden.

1

The longest 32 minute album I've ever heard. Mediocre punk/indie pop lacking in tunes or interesting songs. I like the dueting of the two singers and that's what saves it from 1 star.

ok i hate this fuck you for being right

Not so bad- easier to relate to than I thought

Nothing to see here, just some more really bad, old punk. I guess I'm simply not angry enough.

shite

I cannot stand the vocals of any X song

Ruk

Lidt alternativ 80’er rock,