1001 Albums Summary

Good tunes, and a solid brit pop foundation. Over all it was an easy record to listen to, and it ended up bleeding over in to their other work. I wouldn't say that this stands out especially significantly against other tracks from the same band.

It's obvious from the first track that so many bands that followed them were influenced heavily by the Stooges. This album is raw and visceral. The feeling of this whole album is one of an amazing live show, where the power and emotion is front and center.

So. Very. 80's. The fact that this came out in 82 and is so full of the sounds that defined the decade suggests a sense of prescience. The saxophone alone locks this record in time. The jazzy vocals and drums, aligned with the pop rock rhythms scream "easy listening" and "background music" in 2021. Nothing here really feels especially interesting in a modern context. I.G.Y. may be the only song that has had a broader appeal in a way that I've heard it out in the wild. However, the sound has become cliche enough for the decade that I don't know that this is a record of extreme importance. The Nightfly is where it feels like this album actually opens up. The rest of the songs are soft, subtle, and easy to hear. While The Nightly is certainly all that as well, it takes a rounder dimension and seems to fill out a bit more.

Good album.

I mean, each track is a 5 star track, so what more can really be said about this album? Musically, The Cars nails The mix on Moving in Stereo is fun and meta as they play with the left and right channels. There's a high toned keyboard melody in All Mixed Up that punches out of the left speaker in such a delightful way.

The production was excellent across the album. The delivery and flow of the rhymes weren't to my liking.

This is Leonard Cohen at his gravelliest. The sense of pathos in every song bears the weight of a long, full life.

This is some fantastic brit-punk. 'Alright' fits in easily with the later sounds of the early 2000's pop-punk / indie-pop from the likes of Fun! and MGMT. Lenny is a song that plays harder, heavier. Strange Ones fluctuates through different tempo changes, not really sitting still in a completely different way than Sitting up Straight, which blasts through its run time at a breakneck pace. By the time Sofa (Of My Lethargy) comes around, we've entered a grand psychedelic sprawl. Overall, a tight record, with excellent production, instrumentation, and track layout.