View Album
Thu May 06 2021
You've Come a Long Way Baby
Fatboy Slim
1
View Album
Fri May 07 2021
(What's The Story) Morning Glory
Oasis
3
View Album
Mon May 10 2021
Fifth Dimension
The Byrds
2
View Album
Tue Sep 06 2022
Nixon
Lambchop
Pleasant but kind of dull
2
View Album
Wed Sep 07 2022
Thriller
Michael Jackson
4
View Album
Thu Sep 08 2022
Illinois
Sufjan Stevens
I hated this album in high school, though it was too twee. Either I matured or the album got way better. Super-lush, impeccably produced, surprisingly fun.
4
View Album
Fri Sep 09 2022
Tea for the Tillerman
Cat Stevens
Pleasant, a little dull. Has most of the Cat's hits on it though, that's nice.
3
View Album
Mon Sep 12 2022
The Queen Is Dead
The Smiths
Kind of cute recommending it the day the queen died. But mediocre album, just not that exciting.
2
View Album
Tue Sep 13 2022
A Girl Called Dusty
Dusty Springfield
She's clearly got a really nice voice. After listening to the album I listened to her top couple hits, those are better songs and none of them's on this album.
3
View Album
Wed Sep 14 2022
New Wave
The Auteurs
This is the first one of these I’d never heard before. They’re kind of fun, basically Blur but a little slower paced. Think I like Blur better though.
3
View Album
Thu Sep 15 2022
3 Feet High and Rising
De La Soul
Really fun and really creative. Kind of quirky. Sort of a hip-hop version of Joe's Garage, complete with the weird framing device. I don't usually like hip hop but enjoyed this one. Note it's not on Spotify.
3
View Album
Fri Sep 16 2022
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A Tribe Called Quest
Another solid hip hop album. I like that they really have three distinct quality voices on the record, none of whom (ahem NWA) actually suck.
3
View Album
Sat Sep 17 2022
461 Ocean Boulevard
Eric Clapton
The biggest problem with this record is Clapton’s voice. It’s thin and reedy, and generally weak. The 2nd biggest problem is it’s aged horribly. Several of the filler 12 bar blues tracks sound like exercises for children first learning to play guitar. It’s dull and dated. And Clapton’s supposed to be a guitar guy, but he doesn’t do anything interesting on guitar either. Plus the best song is a cover of a song that had JUST come out, and the original is way better anyway.
1
View Album
Sun Sep 18 2022
Moondance
Van Morrison
Van’s voice is amazing and carries this. It’s otherwise a pretty straightforward soul album. It’s a little light for my taste, and the 2nd half isn’t as strong, but an enjoyable listen.
3
View Album
Mon Sep 19 2022
Frampton Comes Alive
Peter Frampton
With rare exceptions I think live albums combine the sound quality of a rock concert with the excitement of listening to a CD alone in your bedroom. This isn’t one of those exceptions. The star here is Framptons guitar, and he is good- not flashy, but with nice melodic touch. Problem is he’s not really featured, and then also there’s a laundry list of his contemporaries I think are better. Contrast this with Europe 72- Jerry’s a better guitar player, their whole performance caters to letting him carry, and they translate that better to the live album format.
I’m being a little harsh because this always appears on a bunch of best-of lists. It’s a fine album, I listened to and liked the whole thing. Just wouldn’t have picked it out of a crowd (on a list of say 101).
3
View Album
Tue Sep 20 2022
Lost In The Dream
The War On Drugs
They have a wonderful sound. The combination of ultra-precise machine-like backbeat and canyon-sized echo on all the treble instruments really works. First half is extremely strong, but they’re kinda lacking in variety, so drags a little on the back half.
3
View Album
Wed Sep 21 2022
Rocks
Aerosmith
I nearly gave this a 4. As advertised, it rocks. Has a very modern sound, and immediately recognizable as distinctively Aerosmith. Tyler's vocals are on-point throughout, and they do a great job getting mileage out of their 2-guitar attack without bashing you over the head with it (similar to Mick Taylor-era Stones). Just lacking a little on the songwriting, only a couple are really catchy.
3
View Album
Thu Sep 22 2022
Bummed
Happy Mondays
This album has very little going for it. It's pretty simple stuff, the singer has a grating voice (and isn't a great singer), the songs are weird for the sake of being weird without doing anything interesting musically, and none of them are all that catchy. And it's slow to boot. "Lazyitis" is the closer and one of the singles, but it's the same damn 2 chords repeated over and over in a sleepy trance for 3 minutes. None of the others are much better ("Wrote for Luck" is a little catchy, but no less simple). I could see how this might be considered the seminal influence for the 90s Britpop wave, but the most important fact is that all those other guys made way better music.
1
View Album
Fri Sep 23 2022
Surfer Rosa
Pixies
Joyous, fun, and chaotic, but a little rough. My sense is these guys have the reputation they do because all the good grunge bands liked them so much, but they actually sound kind of nothing like the grunge bands, and I also don't think they're as good.
3
View Album
Sat Sep 24 2022
Morrison Hotel
The Doors
It's a fine blues record, and the front half is very strong. The back half is a little dull, and overall they're not doing anything all that innovative. Beyond the first four songs it's pretty slow and also very treble-y. Morrison has a pleasant voice but doesn't show a lot of range or, after the first track, a lot of excitement.
3
View Album
Sun Sep 25 2022
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
Very, very rough, and outside of the lead track surprisingly un-fun and low energy. Their singer is horrible. The usual punk rock playbook is to cover up for lack of ability with manic energy and winking mockery (self + otherwise). They really don't have either - it's just slow, sad, and low-quality. Contrast this with "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables", which came out around the same time and is also not going to make anyone forget Ludwig van Beethoven. There's barely a track on there clocking over 3 minutes or under 180 bpm, and Jello is at times downright funny. Violent Femmes fall way wide of that mark.
1
View Album
Mon Sep 26 2022
Let's Get Killed
David Holmes
I did like this one better than the Fatboy Slim record. The best track is the James Bond remix. That song works because (a) it adds drums to James Bond, and drums almost always make things without them better (b) anyone who knows the song already knows what it's building up to, so there's the pleasure of anticipation. Mr. Holmes just deserves very little of the credit for that track relative to the composer of the Bond theme.
1
View Album
Tue Sep 27 2022
Sea Change
Beck
This has a very pleasant sound. And the sonic palette is distinctive relative to most of what else was coming out at this time. But it's not new, it's not that exciting (in fact it's downright soporific), and while it has a more "adult" sound, it's not really that sophisticated. Beck has a really limited vocal range too - a pleasant voice, but very limited. Serious question - if I'm in the market for adult alternative soft rock, is this really better than Five For Fighting?
2
View Album
Wed Sep 28 2022
Marcus Garvey
Burning Spear
Perfectly pleasant to listen to, but very slow, nothing exciting going on.
2
View Album
Thu Sep 29 2022
Fear Of A Black Planet
Public Enemy
The generator just gave me albums from Tribe and De La Soul that came out around the same time. And those are way better. Those guys are more creative with their beats, more natural with their flow, generally more playful, and more upbeat and positive. A fair amount of the solos on Fear of a Black Planet are kind of stilted, and it just really beats you down to listen to a whole hour-long record that is so overwhelmingly negative. When they're not on - and most of the record aside from really the last half of the last song is not - they're really off.
1
View Album
Fri Sep 30 2022
Water From An Ancient Well
Abdullah Ibrahim
This is a perfectly serviceable jazz album. I'm not sure what else to say about it. It's fine background music, not that exciting. Even among jazz I would not have picked it out of a lineup. There wasn't one solo that made me catch my breath.
2
View Album
Sat Oct 01 2022
Exile On Main Street
The Rolling Stones
This is great record to listen to, in part because it's pretty consistent quality from top to bottom, there's no real weak points. I'm aware of the reputation as the best Stones album and one of the supposed best records of all time. But I like "Sticky Fingers" better, and other than being a fun record I don't think it's all that remarkable. "Tumbling Dice" is magic, but aside from that, no individual song measures up to the three singles off "Sticky Fingers". And it doesn't really do anything innovative - it's just a pretty by-the-books roots rock record, albeit one with no obvious flaws. There's about a dozen others from this same time period I could name that I think are equally good, and plenty that are better (off the top of my head, both of the first two Band records, Harvest, and Europe 72 come to mind). It's also fairly long, and because all the songs are in a similar style and kind of consistent throughout, it tends to run together a little. Enjoyable with no clear flaws gets you a four - to get a five, you need either transcendent peaks or to change the game, and this doesn't cut it.
4
View Album
Sun Oct 02 2022
Infected
The The
I have a hard time getting over the cheesy 80s sound. This just has not aged well. None of the songs is really that catchy, and they're not really doing anything interesting. The woman they have singing on some songs has a nice voice, but the man alternates between abrasive and breathy, neither that compelling. Their songs are extremely repetitive - "Slow Train to Dawn" is the same riff over and over again for the entire song, and "Heartland" is awfully close. And it's just low on excitement generally. Fine easy listening, but not much going on.
2
View Album
Mon Oct 03 2022
Reign In Blood
Slayer
This starts out very rough and gets better and better as the album goes on. It peaks at the very end with the transition from the strong "Postmortem" into the excellent "Raining Blood". But overall that means something like 20% of the album is of good quality. I think it's helpful on this one to compare it to Metallica, because they're sonically very similar. Metallica got better and better with their composition, sound quality and production value on each of their first four albums, and with the sound quality and production value on Black Album as well. Relative to that trajectory, I'd locate "Reign in Blood" somewhere between "Kill 'Em All" and "Ride the Lightning", and closer to the former than the latter. It's played largely like punk rock - they basically get into a super-fast thrash groove in 5th gear and stay there. There's nothing with either the depth of composition or change-of-pace that e.g. "Fade to Black" provides. Until the last two tracks, they don't really play around too much with even multiple grooves per song, let alone varying the sound. And their production quality is low - the singer is just OK, the sound quality is DIY-level poor, and they don't do hardly anything with the instrumentation. It sounds like they got in the studio and just banged it out - which is an aesthetic, but not one I like. The last two tracks were a strong finish though.
2
View Album
Tue Oct 04 2022
Stardust
Willie Nelson
This is not what I expected. The album really doesn’t sound like country music at all. It has kind a dreamy, jazzy quality, enhanced by the use of orchestral instruments, drum brushes, and jazz changes. The sound is also much fuller than I had expected. Nelson’s voice is pleasant even if his range is a little limited, and for the songs he performs it works well. I came in expecting Waylon Jennings but this honestly has more in common with Elton John. The album overall is a little light and a little slow but an enjoyable listen.
3
View Album
Wed Oct 05 2022
Elvis Is Back
Elvis Presley
Elvis' voice is so amazing that he can basically carry anything. And this is a nice easy listen. But it's not terribly interesting, and it doesn't have any of The King's strongest material on it.
3
View Album
Thu Oct 06 2022
Club Classics Vol. One
Soul II Soul
Just based on the name I was bracing myself for the worst. But this CD is awesome. I'm not sure the singers they get on are officially part of the band or not (there's several of them, always listed with separate names) but they're all very good, like A-level talent. This CD is a testament to how far you can get with just a stable of incredible vocal talent and not much in the way of good material. The songs are basically just open-ended templates for the singers to solo over - little more than drum beats with a little bit of light harmony (typically hanging on one chord for the entire song). "Back to Life" is the highlight, and while it eventually does add in drums, the first few minutes are straight a capella and it works perfectly well that way. "Feel Free" and "Holdin' On" are other high points. I'm probably not putting this in my regular CD rotation - for one thing, the songs without vocals like "Feelin' Free" and the two "Dance" songs are in my opinion just total duds - but I liked listening to it.
3
View Album
Fri Oct 07 2022
Basket of Light
Pentangle
This was a fine album but I wouldn't have picked it out for myself.
3
View Album
Sat Oct 08 2022
Siembra
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
I actually really like the sound of salsa music. It has a very full sound - dense percussion, active harmonic lines from the keys, nice color from the horn section, strongly featured vocals, and nice backing chorus. And I'm the last person to insist that I understand what the singer is talking about - generally I don't care about lyrics at all, and some of my favorite bands I have no idea what they're saying most of the time. So salsa is kind of a natural fit. The main issue for me is that like any very-strongly-genre'd style, all the songs basically sound the same to me. Which is fine - it's a nice sound - but the lack of diversity and small-c conservatism (not really pushing the envelope) keep any strict genre-work like this from getting top marks.
I did enjoy listening to it, and would like to learn more salsa. But I wouldn't put it on for myself, except for my only Dominican friend (who prefers bachata anyway).
3
View Album
Sun Oct 09 2022
Chemtrails Over The Country Club
Lana Del Rey
I assume this is something of a diversity pick - the curator wanted something from 2021, so they picked something. Now, the obvious solution is - if there aren't any good CDs from 2021, then don't pick any. My personal opinion is that no strong rock CDs have been released since 2019 (I'm writing this in 2022) but I'm not monitoring every genre.
Let's start with Lana's voice. It's extremely weak. If you're an apologist you could say breathy, thin, range-bound and timid is the aesthetic she's going for. I'm not - compare her vocals with Grace Potter or (even closer) Emily Haines from Metric. Haines can do Lana's style better than she can but then can also open up and just belt it, and I think she probably has more range on the high end too (low end is a foregone conclusion). I don't know if Lana can't really sing, but the fact of the matter is that on this CD, she doesn't. She starts to open it up a bit on "Let Me Love You Like a Woman" and "Wild at Heart" but doesn't keep it up.
Then there's the pace. This CD is extremely slow and down-beat, and never gets above about a 3-out-of-10 on the excitement scale. The easiest way to put together a good pop CD is to have a great lead singer. Failing that, be fast, fun, and loud. If you don't do either of those things, you're in a really tough position - the last recourse is to have genius composition and production.
This CD ain't it. It's pretty basic singer-songwriter stuff. Half the songs sound like demos. Easily the most sophisticated composition is the Joni Mitchell cover (also probably the best song overall), and that adds basically nothing on the production side relative to Mitchell's version, it's pretty much a by-the-books cover.
1
View Album
Mon Oct 10 2022
Vol. 4
Black Sabbath
This album takes a little while to get rolling. "Supernaut" is a crushing track, and from there they kind of get their feet under them. I like the experimentation on the 2nd half, "Laguna Sunrise" in particular is a nice change of pace. And boy this one is heavy.
3
View Album
Tue Oct 11 2022
Risque
CHIC
Fun and funky. I'd heard a couple of these before, including the lead track. An enjoyable easy listen.
3
View Album
Wed Oct 12 2022
I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
Richard Thompson
The title track is great- catchy, lush sound and production, nice harmonies. But the rest of the album is just ok. Generally the woman who sings is much better than the man- the man (Richard Thompson) has fine range but his voice is kind of whiny. I didn’t especially like any of the songs he sang. And outside of the title track, the rest of the album is heavy on slow and sad songs or very spare, simple production. There’s some nice stuff in there but it’s not as gripping as the title track.
3
View Album
Thu Oct 13 2022
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
The Kinks
Their sound works on the kind of twee Britpop songs, especially Victoria and Driving. But most of the album is really like lo-fi blues rock, and they just don’t do that that well. In particular, relative to their competition they’re really lacking in instrumental and vocal talent- their singer straight-up sucks, he’s constantly flat- but they still heavily feature vocals and mediocre guitar solos. Even the twee stuff, which they do much better (the more developed instrumentation covering for their shortcomings elsewhere), and which better suits their harmonic style (heavy on somewhat abrupt key changes) is not as good as their contemporaries (eg Zombies).
2
View Album
Fri Oct 14 2022
Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
This has an amazing and totally distinctive sound. I'm not sure I'm even totally qualified to appreciate what they're doing. This isn't what I reach for in most circumstances, but I would play this again. The thing is though, it's not easy-listening background music - it's dark, intense, and strongly dissonant - you really have to be paying attention to enjoy it, it's not the sort of thing you can just leave on and bop along to. But it's also kind of meandering - the songs are consistently moody, but other than that rough guide they don't have a ton of obvious structure. So it doesn't really fit as a focused listening experience either. Generally it's just tough to find a spot for. It's also very, very long - when I'm in the mood for jazz, I'm usually in the mood for 30-40 minutes of jazz, and it's just so much easier to reach for "Birth of the Cool" or "Kind of Blue" in those moments. So this might not be the fairest review in the world, nor the one that most appreciates this record on the level it's supposed to be appreciated, but for me this is just average.
3
View Album
Sat Oct 15 2022
Bookends
Simon & Garfunkel
This is a lovely album. S&G of course have terrific vocal harmonies, that's their calling card. But the songs on Bookends just have a super-lush sound overall. The orchestral additions on e.g. "America" and "Old Friends" just give them real depth. And this CD is also really short and finishes super-strong with "Mrs. Robinson" and "Hazy Shade of Winter", both of which are tremendously catchy (although I think I prefer the Bangles version of the latter). Catchy, short, pretty fast-paced, interesting sound- this isn't generally my style musically, but that's a four.
4
View Album
Sun Oct 16 2022
Here Come The Warm Jets
Brian Eno
The sound of this record is immediately unenjoyable. About halfway through "Cindy Loves Me" I was finally thinking to myself, for the first time (on the 4th track), that this was actually kind of a pleasant song. Then that swarm-of-cicadas sound came in and just completely took over. That proved to be the high point of the album.
Being weird for the sake of being weird is at least interesting, but there's a very high bar to make it work. This falls well short. Most of it is unlistenable noise. That which is not is largely pretty by-the-numbers New Wave garage rock.
1
View Album
Mon Oct 17 2022
Before And After Science
Brian Eno
This is certainly way better than “Here Come the Warm Jets.” A fair number of these tunes are catchy and fun- my wife was dancing along to “Kings Lead Hat”, which could easily be a Talking Heads song. Overall though I think this is a pretty mediocre CD. Most of the songs stay in a single groove the whole time, which gets stale. There’s some funny noises employed, but overall it lacks depth and complexity throughout. It’s also pretty slow, especially the 2nd half, which for dance music is really very slow and sad. I also don’t love Eno’s voice- although it sounds like he might be joking half the time, I’m never sure when he’s being serious.
2
View Album
Tue Oct 18 2022
Eagles
Eagles
This CD is ok, but it’s aged incredibly poorly. “Take It Easy” is a fantastic song and a fantastic way to start an album. But it goes off the rails almost immediately- “Witchy Woman” and “Chug All Night” have an extremely dated, very 70s, very by-the-books working-class-blues sound, with some awfully misogynistic undertones in the lyrics. That theme mostly continues uninterrupted for basically the rest of the CD- every song is either a dull ballad (and it really does have too many of those) or a genre I call “mediocre 70s rock”- that basic, self-satisfied style that assumed that 12-bar blues, backbeat, riffs based on suspended 4ths and a twangy voice singing about girls would be enough to make it to the top. The only thing that really distinguishes the Eagles is their vocal talent, and they really do have a lot of it- they have at least two distinct strong lead singers on this CD, maybe more, and strong (and reasonably interesting) vocal harmonies throughout. It’s just the rest of it is so weak, that alone can’t carry. They do kind of regain their footing at the end- “Peaceful Easy Feeling” is a great song, and the two “Easy” songs (which are quite similar and sung by the same guy, which makes me think he must’ve written one, realized it was a hit, then immediately tried as best as possible to rewrite it to churn out another hit) would’ve made a stellar double-A-side. But the whole thing makes just a mediocre album.
3
View Album
Wed Oct 19 2022
Come Find Yourself
Fun Lovin' Criminals
I'm not sure I can really appreciate this kind of stuff on the level it's supposed to be appreciated, but relative to a lot of the other hip hop this list has given me, I liked this one a lot. Thinking thematically about this + "Three Feet High and Rising" + "People's Travels..." vs. "Fear of a Black Planet" + NWA, I seem to like stuff that emphasizes the instruments over the rappers. This CD has, in relative terms, great instrumentals. It starts kind of slow - the first song is a bit of an intro, and didn't immediately grab me - it's fun, but one of the more rap-driven tracks. But each of "Passive/Aggressive", "Scooby Snacks" and "Bombin' the L" I liked immediately, and a few of the slower, funkier tracks were really nice too. They generally keep everything pretty upbeat, do a good job of featuring a few different instrumental moods, and seem to not take themselves super-seriously. I would play this again.
3
View Album
Thu Oct 20 2022
Bert Jansch
Bert Jansch
This is almost the complete opposite of what I’m looking for in a CD, but it’s not outright bad. I like virtuosic, ambitious, exciting, and rich sound. Jansch has kind of a weak, thin voice, with limited range, and while he’s a fine guitar player, he doesn’t do anything that noteworthy there either. Those are the only two instruments. The songs are pretty standard blues-folk, and I’d say he was influential on that style except that it’s crazy old, way older than any other part of rock music. It’s not the least bit exciting- most of the songs are played at a reasonably fast clip, but with no big moments, no real surprises- it’s at a slapped-out 4/10 the entire time, he never really turns it on. And the CD has no instrumental variety, no depth of sound. There’s a reason bass and drums are on damn near every rock CD- they work, every time, and removing them comes at a massive cost.
2
View Album
Fri Oct 21 2022
A Grand Don't Come For Free
The Streets
I wasn’t entirely sure if this was supposed to be a joke or not. It’s like the very dumbest kind of hip hop. Some of the rhymes are so corny and stupid that I think maybe it is supposed to be a joke, but it would only be funny if he dropped the act halfway through. He never does. There’s nothing to recommend any aspect of this CD.
1
View Album
Sat Oct 22 2022
The Band
The Band
This is one of my very favorites. The Band have such an incredibly full and diverse sound. The opener, "Across the Great Divide", is a romp based almost entirely on the brass section. The very next song, "Rag Mama Rag", is driven by the interplay between the ragtime piano and fiddle. Also, by the way, with lead vocals sung by an entirely different person. And the next song, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", is an all-time classic ballad based around a descending-scale minor-key piano chord sequence, plus barbershop backing vocals on the choruses. I mean by this that every song is a new experience, distinct from the one before, and it's like that throughout the CD. I believe that every band member except the organ player (who quietly is the lubricant that makes the whole machine go) sings a song on this CD, and they're all pretty good. They harmonize well with all that vocal talent too - the one that really stands out as being anchored by it is "Jemima Surrender", but it's omnipresent throughout the CD. This record just has everything - it's fast, fun, diverse, smart, super-creative, and just a joy to listen to. I do just that cover-to-cover about once a year. Easy 5.
5
View Album
Sun Oct 23 2022
More Songs About Buildings And Food
Talking Heads
Talking Heads is truly a genre. Any song of theirs, whenever it comes on, is immediately identifiable as them, even if you’ve never heard it before- and if it ends up being someone else, you can always say, “wow, they sound exactly like Talking Heads” and everyone will nod in agreement. Which is a polite way of saying all their songs sound the same.
That lets-call-it-consistency is on full display on this CD. Until the last track it basically sounds like one long song. Typically I find that kind of dull and I did not consider myself much of a Talking Heads fan. But this CD is just so infectiously fun that I can’t help really enjoying it.
Their singer is not very good, but their drummer really is, and this CD is very tight rhythmically and much more rhythm- vs melody-driven. That’s not my style but they absolutely make it work. And the big thing is just that this is so fun and joyous.
4
View Album
Mon Oct 24 2022
Raw Like Sushi
Neneh Cherry
- [ ] This really isn’t my style, but it’s fine pop music. I do think the novel 80s pop trends (drum machines, synth, sampling) have aged incredibly poorly. And this CD is super-long on them. But like peak MJ, there’s enough of classic R&B here to make it worthwhile. Nehneh herself has a nice voice, although I don’t care for her rapping, and there’s too much of that. The opener is the strongest song, a nice upbeat pop hit, with fairly effective use of sampling (although instantly dateable in a not-totally-good way). The rest is similar, barring a couple just totally-garbage all-rap songs like “Next Generation”- it’s just not as catchy, which is the only goal here. On a list of 1001, this almost certainly gets a boost for early influential female rap-pop plus Latin crossover, which I don’t care about at all (wrong kind of influential). And I’d never pick it for myself, but I actually thought it was a nice listen, or most of the songs at least- just a few too many duds, and not at the next level like some other comparably 80s pop (eg Whitney).
2
View Album
Tue Oct 25 2022
Time Out Of Mind
Bob Dylan
This is a totally arrogant CD, in the worst possible way. First of all, let's get this out of the way - Bob Dylan has a horrible singing voice. Like a 1 out of 10. He has a fairly large backing band around him - anyone with an ounce of humility would've included, as one of those band members, a competent singer. Far from it, Dylan downright features his vocals, which are the single-worst aspect of the sound. More broadly, this CD nearly defines white male privilege - it's the same super-basic, neither-particularly-good-nor-novel 70s blues, sung really slow because he's an old man on this recording, and about 30 years too late. And why do we care? Because he has a famous name? Oh, and it's 70 minutes long, because obviously we want more of anything Mr. Dylan has to offer. Far from there not even being one good song on this CD, there aren't really even any fun songs. Pass.
1
View Album
Wed Oct 26 2022
The Nightfly
Donald Fagen
I absolutely love Steely Dan, and would be game for a Steely-Dan-like product containing 25% less Dan and 50% more binders and fillers. But this is actually really good. It of course has all the SD tricks - smooth sound, consistently moderate pace with a strong syncopated backbeat, every extension known to man (check where the harmonies end up on that "W-J-A-Z"!). And some of the changes are generally positive - I like adding more female backing vocals, it just makes their already strong backing voice even stronger. It's a little more piano- and synth-heavy vs. Steely Dan, which I guess makes sense if this guy is the keys player. But otherwise very comparable.
Apart from the fact that it's super-smooth, two of the things that make this so easy to listen to and enjoy are that (a) it's really short, at under 40 minutes and (b) it's stronger on the back half, with the two strongest tracks ("New Frontier" and "The Nightfly") on the back half. Not game-changing, but I liked it so much I listened to it 2-3 times.
4
View Album
Thu Oct 27 2022
Madman Across The Water
Elton John
Elton John has a lovely sound on this CD. His compositional skills are great, with some lovely harmonic flourishes, and he has a serviceable singing voice, but the real star here is his production. The opener, “Tiny Dancer”, is a clinic in how to introduce varied sound (in rough order, slide guitar, drums, electric guitar, female backing vocals, beat-you-down orchestral strings, and then chorus backing vocals). He nails the other half too, which other guys with a similar build-up technique often leave wanting- that is, he motivates the draw back to a more sparse arrangement on the verses just as well.
The main knock I have on this CD is it’s a little slow. It’s very ballad-heavy, and generally operates in the double-digits bpm. That’s not a flaw, but it’s not my style, and it does make it a little less fun and a little more of a chore to get through the whole thing. John’s voice is a little thin for how big the arrangements are too, and he has the funny affectation of trying to sound like Southern country, which comes off as very forced. If he just used about the same dose of backing vocals on every song as on “Tiny Dancer” it wouldn’t be a problem- but on the climax moments of e.g. “Levon” and the title track (which is also probably his worst abuse of the cowboy voice) he just hasn’t got enough power and projection on his own to carry it over the top, so those moments fall a little flat. The song structures are a little monotonous as well- he’s got a style, and that’s fine- but even guys with a style typically don’t have every song built the same way (starting slow with a single harmonic instrument, then vocals, then building to a monster chorus). He’s obviously capable of composing in a different style- he doesn’t do it much on this CD, but e.g. “Crocodile Rock” is quite different structurally (faster-paced rock, launches right into it).
Apart from the opener, I think I liked “Holiday Inn” the best, precisely because it avoids some of these pitfalls- it used a more varied sonic palette (heavy on mandolin), it’s faster-paced, and it has big backing vocals on the chorus. If about half the songs were like that, I’d give it a 4, but it’s almost the only one like that. Enjoyed listening to it though.
3
View Album
Sun Nov 06 2022
Young Americans
David Bowie
This feels like Bowie trying to do a soul album, and it kinda doesn’t work, in part because it doesn’t have the things that make the early Bowie albums work. Too many songs are just kind of aimless, noisy grooves- tracks like “Right” and “Somebody Up There Likes Me” just get locked into a pretty simple groove and then muddle through with scattered vocals and directionless sax. It’s not clear what you’re supposed to get out of them. At its best, like on the title track and “Fascination”, this can be a joyous, fun, chaotic, mess- which works perfectly well. But too much of it lacks even enough structure and intent to do that. The sound is also pretty monotonous- by limiting himself solely to the sonic palette of soul (sax, funky treble guitar, female backing vocals, wah wah) he creates a cohesive sound, but it gets old- especially relative to the incredible diversity on “Ziggy Stardust”.
This is an unfair comparison, but compare the songwriting on this CD with “Life on Mars”. The latter is so focused on building up and motivating the punch of that first chorus- that’s what everything is working towards harmonically and in the arrangement. And that moment where it lands is magical. This CD doesn’t have that, or anything close- there are no peaks to motivate.
Let us leave aside the cover of “Across the Universe”.
2
View Album
Mon Nov 07 2022
The New Tango
Astor Piazzolla
Fine, but very light. The feature instrument is something like vibes and just has a very smooth, flat sound with little attack. It’s an odd choice of instrument to feature on an all-instrumental album, because it leads to an extremely low-energy, slapped-out vibe that, there’s no way around it, sounds like elevator music / being put on hold. Nothing wrong with what they’re doing, just anything that’s this close to 0/10 on excitement factor isn’t for me.
1
View Album
Tue Nov 08 2022
Close To The Edge
Yes
This CD really dials up the prog relative to some of their earlier work. I love Yes and enjoyed this one too (if not quite as much as Fragile, Yes Album, and Time and a Word), but this is getting close to the limit of what I can do prog-wise. The first song is 19 minutes long, and it does a lot of the stuff Yes does so well (lovely backing vocals, lush instrumentation, motifs quoted and requoted in many different contexts) but also does a fair number of things they don’t do as well. In particular, not all of the dissonance works well, although it runs the gamut. The dissonant opening passage is a slog, the color on the “I get up…” piano section is nice, and then the dissonant instrumental interlude at roughly the 15-minute mark is somewhere in between.
The title track is both literally and figuratively the majority of the CD- but since there’s only 3 tracks, I’ll mention them all. “And You And I” is actually more like classic Yes and is of a piece with their earlier work in terms of quality. The contrast in tone between the super-bass-heavy and acoustic-and-vocals sections is really nice. And “Siberian Khatru” is the rocker on the CD (they all have rock sections, this one just more consistently), and also very much in the style of classic Yes.
Consistent with a lot of similar prog, I liked this more on repeat lessons. It’s well put-together, ambitious, diverse, and at times very beautiful. I gave Yes Album a 4 on my other list I think- that was probably too low. This is a 4, their earlier CDs 5s.
4
View Album
Wed Nov 09 2022
GREY Area
Little Simz
I wish I could appreciate this on its own terms. But I cannot. Maybe this is good in some way. Whatever. I’m too old for this shit.
1
View Album
Thu Nov 10 2022
Cross
Justice
I liked some of these songs in college. But I really did not like it on repeat listen, and overall as a CD it’s not very good. They’re just way too long on truly unpleasant sounds- songs like “Let There be Light and “Party” are so tremendously unpleasant to listen to. “Dance” is still fun and catchy, but hardly anything else is.
There’s two main reasons why I didn’t like it this time. One is the distortion- now I’m a fan of a little distortion. But every track has these massively over-saturated lead lines on it- it sounds like a guitar novice who doesn’t know how to use the amp, and it’s a thoroughly ugly sound. That sound pollutes the entire album- I guess they liked it, but not for me, and like I say, distorted guitar never bothered me. The other is how repetitive it is- it’s dance music, so I guess that goes with the turf, but every song is basically one idea run into the ground, and I like a little more variety.
2
View Album
Fri Nov 11 2022
Hounds Of Love
Kate Bush
Kate Bush has a nice voice, but this is a little slow, light, and basic for my taste. Only the first song is a real standout, and it's even kind of slow. There's too many songs that are just total start-to-finish duds, like "Mother Stands for Comfort" and "Under Ice", neither of which really does anything. There's not a lot of diversity, and even some of the stronger tracks, like "Cloudbusting" and "Running Up That Hill" sound exactly the same throughout, they just don't develop their main idea at all. This CD seems like it's supposed to function as a vocal showcase for Bush, but she's not quite a good enough singer to make that work well, and on some of the songs most devoted to that concept, like "And Dream of Sheep", she never really takes over and fully opens her voice up, she's content to be just another background instrument. That leaves the overall sounds kind of rudderless and drifting - so fine background music, but not something I'd put on again.
2
View Album
Sat Nov 12 2022
Everything Must Go
Manic Street Preachers
I'd listened to the first few Manic Street Preachers CDs and like them quite a bit, especially Holy Bible, but had never heard this one. Originally I liked it quite a bit, but it didn't hold up as well on repeat listen, certainly not as well as Holy Bible. The big change vs. their earlier work is that it's much less punk - slower, less aggressive guitar and drums, less aggressive vocals, and more orchestral instrumentation. That's normally OK by me, but the shift just doesn't suit their style as well, and in particular the lyrics are still fairly dark and the tone pretty nasty, so I think a more stripped-down punk treatment would've worked better. The biggest issue I have with the composition is that the translation from lyrics to melody lines is really clunky, the singer ends up delivering a fair number of lines in a very forced style that doesn't sound at all conversational. I don't know if that's related to the fact that this is their first CD without their original lyricist, but it makes the sound overall a lot less smooth. Then they also use a fair number of poorly-motivated harmonic sequences - a great example is on the lead track, where they change keys for a couple bars mid-verse (possibly into two different keys) and then suddenly back again with little in the way of motivation either in the bass or in the extension. That's colorful at least, but it's a little sloppy, and I just think it would've worked better for a punk-rock treatment.
This CD is certainly far from all bad though. I liked it quite a bit on the first listen. The more upbeat tracks, especially "Kevin Carter" and the title track, are great, very catchy, and you can hear the influence on later British garage rock. And their singer doesn't have the greatest voice but he does have the courage to really go for it, which works to his advantage. Solid but nothing special.
3
View Album
Wed Nov 23 2022
Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
This CD is not my style but it's immediately likeable. Cuban music is just a formula that works - lots of instrumental diversity, fun polyrhythms (and a bunch of unique-sounding percussive instruments), decent pace and tight composition, and interesting harmonies. I think it'd turn a lot of people off because they don't understand the lyrics, but I truly don't care. This isn't really doing anything unique or innovative, but I'd listen to it again.
3
View Album
Thu Nov 24 2022
Surrealistic Pillow
Jefferson Airplane
This is a nice CD, but they have made some obvious blunders in it's recording. Their female singer is a total powerhouse, she destroys every song she's on. And for some reason, they only have her sing lead vocals two songs, which not coincidentally are easily the two best tracks on the CD. What were they thinking? They were handed a gift and threw it in the trash. Their other singers aren't awful, but they're just nowhere near the same kind of class.
They're also quite strong on rockers - each of "Somebody To Love", "3/5 of a Mile" and "White Rabbit" is a wonderful, fun, up-tempo rocker. But the CD is loaded up with dudly slow numbers - especially "Today" and "Comin' Back To Me". If they'd just focused on what they did well, this would be a much better CD.
That said, it's still actually pretty good. Jefferson Airplane have a nice but very, very sixties sound, with a mix of very trebly guitar, lots of echo/reverb (on "White Rabbit" it sounds like the whole band fell down a well), lovely backing vocals, and thumping but very simple four-on-the-floor drumming (often subbing tambourine for a full kit). I happen to like that sound a lot - and while this is as good an illustration of the style as anything else, it's not actually as good music as the high-water-marks of that era. Overall, very strong singles, but the rest of it is mediocre.
2
View Album
Fri Nov 25 2022
Mr. Tambourine Man
The Byrds
I really like this sound overall, generally a sucker for super-trebly 60s psychedelic power pop. And it seems like this CD predates guys like Love (who I think are better), not to mention the follow-ons like Big Star that I really like. So some credit is due there as the innovators. This CD though is a little slapped-out - the singer just seems like he must be on mood stabilizers or something, he just has no excitement in his voice. That plus the overall slow tempo is kind of a dealbreaker for me - it's perfectly nice music to listen to, I just cannot get excited about it.
Then there's the question of how much credit The Byrds deserve for an album that is 1/2 or more covers, including all the hits. On "Mr. Tambourine Man" itself, The Byrds have picked the ideal song to cover - one where the composition is nice but the initial performance and production are god-awful - and really do a very nice job cleaning the song up and bringing it to life. But overall I can't give them as much credit as I would a composer.
3
View Album
Sat Nov 26 2022
Songs In The Key Of Life
Stevie Wonder
I really struggled with this one, partly because there’s so much to say about it and I’d never heard it all the way through before. But also partly because I’m aware of it’s stellar reputation but didn’t think it lived up to it. It’s not that it’s bad- in fact in many ways it’s brilliant- but it’s not my style, and in my opinion has some flaws. Had to listen to it a few times, and I do t have a coherent review but here’s a few thoughts.
Wonder himself is a brilliant singer- he has a wonderful timbre and powerful projection in the middle of his tenor range. And he can extend that pretty well into the upper registers. This CD mostly features strong backing vocals throughout, and they complement Stevie well- I especially like the rich backing parts on “Have a Talk with God” and “Pastime Paradise”. Curiously, though, on some places where he could really use it- like the chorus of “Sir Duke”, which stretches his range to the max and lacks the deep instrumental color of the verses- the backing vocals are totally absent. They’re also absent on some of the other singles (“My Wish” and “Isn’t She Lovely”, the latter of which Wonder carries just fine by himself), which is just an odd pattern- rich chorus on the deep cuts, none on the hits.
There’s also some really superb composition and production throughout. Starting with the production, the album has a deep, crisp sound with a very diverse sonic palette. Every song seems to feature a different instrument - from the electric guitar on "Contusion" to the (I think it's a) kazoo (??) on "Isn't She Lovely." And Stevie just has a wonderful way with musical color - "Sir Duke" is a clinic on it, he even manages to successfully (one might even say "brilliantly") employ a slide whistle about halfway through. "Sir Duke" is probably the strongest track in terms of harmony and composition, but virtually track has some interesting turns - lots of jazzy extensions, lots of transpositions into minor (e.g. on "As").
So what's not to like about it? The main thing is the pacing - it's way too slow and way too long. It opens with three straight slow ballads followed by an instrumental (granted it's a banging instrumental). That's way too much lead-in, we need to get to the action faster. And it really has a ton of ballads - I get that Stevie is a piano-based singer, and piano-based singers love slow ballads, but this is way too many. On a 17-track, hour-and-a-half CD, there's really only three rockers totaling about 10 minutes ("Sir Duke", "I Wish", and "I Am Singing"). I'm sorry Stevie, but 80 minutes of slow ballad just cannot hold my attention that well. Even some of the hits like "Isn't She Lovely" are simply way too long - that song just drags on and on long after it's made it's final point, and both "As" and "Another Star" are longer still and have fewer interesting musical points to make. "Sir Duke" it totally brilliant, a 10/10, and "I Wish" and a few others are good as singles as well, but when you get right down to it, even for a double-album (which have inherent problems) it has a pretty low hit rate. Wonder should've probably cut half the songs on here. I liked listening to it and reviewing it, and I can see the qualities, but for me it can't get a perfect score.
4
View Album
Sun Nov 27 2022
Devil Without A Cause
Kid Rock
Just- no. I did actually listen to some (not all) of this. It doesn’t merit a response.
1
View Album
Mon Nov 28 2022
The La's
The La's
This CD is kind of legendary among power-pop fans- a lone genius comes along, records one amazing album, then vanishes. And it’s fine, but I don’t think it lives up to the hype. For starters, relative to a lot of the best power pop, it’s very rough and poorly produced. The instrumental sound is kind of poor- echo-y drums, clipping bass, frazzled guitar. And the Las don’t use hardly any instruments outside of the core garage band kit- I can’t swear there’s any at all on here. The composition is also nothing to write home about, generally fairly simple stuff. And Mavers voice is fine but very nasally and lacking power (part of which is likely how he’s recorded). That’s a perfect use case for constant backing vocals, which for some reason are rare on here. Really the only this that elevates it above a mediocre garage band CD is “There She Goes”- that song is beautiful, and it corrects all the flaws I listed above. It has tremendous backing vocals, less nasally lead, great treble sound out of both the lead and rhythm guitar, and crystal-clear sound quality. I’m not totally sure how to average a 5 on “There She Goes” with a 1-2 on the remainder of the CD- but the simple fact of the matter is that as a full CD, it’s just Ok. They kind of catch their feet on side 2 with “Feelin” and “Doledrum”, but it’s kind of average overall.
3
View Album
Tue Nov 29 2022
That's The Way Of The World
Earth, Wind & Fire
EW&F have about as much vocal talent as anyone else, and I especially like Phillip Bailey's voice, think he's one of the best singers ever, the projection he gets in that super-high register is just absurd. And I basically like all the up-tempo tracks on this CD ("Shining Star", "Happy Feelin'" and "Yearnin' Learnin'"), plus the ballads that allow Bailey to take over (that's really just the title track - he's lead on "Reasons" but doesn't turn in such a great performance). But the other ballads don't grab me, and it's really a pretty ballad-heavy CD. The 2nd half in particular is pretty light. Fine listen though, would put it on again.
3
View Album
Wed Dec 07 2022
Back In Black
AC/DC
It is only a modest exaggeration to say that this CD formed me as a musician and my musical taste. I remember precisely where I was when I heard it for the first time- in my friends car, literally still wearing a suit, directly after junior high graduation, driving up to the Bronx for a graduation party. It was like nothing I’d ever heard before, and every subsequent 70s/80s hard rock/metal album I’ve ever listened to I assess in comparison to this one (which should but doesn’t stop me from liking more of them).
The best single word I can think of to describe this CD is “flawless”, as in literally without flaws. Starting with the sound quality, this CD is truly the gold standard- the recording and mix is perfect and simple, with few superfluous bits and nothing misplaced- so much so that many modern sound engineers use it to test the sound quality in a new studio. Everything about this CD is precise and machine-like- not that they’re tame, they’re not (although neither funky nor particularly adventurous)- just that they’re right in the fucking pocket on every beat of every track.
Their production has a very precise formula and they do not deviate from it- bone-crushing rhythm guitar, fat-and-lazy thumping backbeat, screaming lead vocals and lead guitar as far up the register and as loud as the damn thing will go, basically no other instruments or backing vocals, and bass mixed so low you begin to wonder if it’s just some secondary resonance from all the guitar and drums. Mids and trebles is where all the action is, why screw around with the rest of it? Each composition has two focal points- a chorus, typically not a lyrically complex one, and a massive guitar solo. I don’t think either Johnson or Angus is an especially virtuosic player at their respective positions (although I absolutely love Angus’ solos on the title track, “Shake A Leg” and most of all “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution”, and his work throughout is standout), but they fit the role perfectly. Johnson has a very distinctive voice and performs throughout with an energy that is difficult to match and simply propels the CD.
AC/DC is not exactly progressive rock, and they don’t push the envelope much in terms of harmonic or lyrical sophistication. These are 3- or 4-chords rockers, and in fact it’s mostly the same 3 or 4- they only very rarely play something that’s not one of the canonical sharp-key cowboy chords except as a special treat (e.g. the sharp 9 in “Shoot to Thrill”). And best not to go looking for metaphor and hidden meaning in the lyrics of “Let Me Put My Love Into You”. But they do what they do extremely well, and seem to be having a very fun time doing it. The times where they do mix it up (e.g. the funky breakdown on the title track) they just absolutely crush, giving the impression that they save those moments for when they actually need them.
Part of what makes this such a great listening experience is that they never fuck up- again, machine-like precision. And part of it is that aforementioned energy- this isn’t the fastest-paced CD ever, it kind of hovers in the moderate-rock zone- but it’s short, it never slows down, and the intensity never slips, like Johnson is basically screaming on the entire CD. And many of the hits are just insanely catchy, especially “Shook me All Night Long” and the title track. I now, 20 years later, don’t primarily listen to music like this anymore- and I’ve heard every song on here dozens of times, possibly hundreds for the ones that are played at every football and basketball game in America. But they just never get old, in contrast with some of the many bands who attempted to ape this formula. This CD is just the gold standard for this style, and as Johnson said, rock n roll is just rock n roll.
5
View Album
Fri Dec 23 2022
The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
Badly Drawn Boy
I had never heard of this album or this band before, but this is quite good. A good comp would be "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", and it stacks up reasonably well against that, although not quite as strong (high bar). But as creepy, dark, sad, somewhat folky indie rock goes it's up there with the best of them. I'm a sucker for albums with instrumental interludes too. It's a little low-energy relative to some others in the style, and the 2nd half starts to drag a bit, and it doesn't have the same caliber of hits as a YHF / 13 Tales / Yoshimi, but still very enjoyable.
3