I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. It's a mix of Veruca Salt, Tracy Bonham, and a DIY feel. Really dug it.
I like how "Satellite Mind" had vocals that kinda felt all over the place, giving the idea of a satellite bouncing around. And "Gimme Sympathy," a song about choosing Stones or Beatles? I'm there.
In fact it made me look at other works by the band, which is always a plus in rating.
Top tracks: "Help I'm Alive," "Satellite Mind," "Twilight Galaxy," "Gold Guns Girls," "Gimme Sympathy"
Well.
That was... odd.
I liked his voice, and the simplicity here, very folk-singer-y. I can't tell how serious he's trying to be with the stuff, though. Songs like "Chubby Princess" and "Choke On A Cock"... right.
I think if he made the album much longer it would have felt draggy. As it is, the 30-some odd minutes fit with the briskness of the songs.
I didn't laugh, really. So I can't tell if that's a success or a failure.
Top tracks: "Over The SUnrise," "Crackhouse Blues," "Emily"
It's such a fun album to listen to.
Yes, there's the big BIG hit "Need You Tonight," but there are other fun songs on it too: "New Sensation" is definitely my favorite one.
"Listen Like Thieves" is probably my favorite album of theirs, it's straight up rock. But this has a lot more going for it: swing, funk, orchestral moments ("Never Tear Us Apart," man!)
Michael Hutchence oozed charisma. I know the band tried to recapture it with a reality show where they tied to find a new singer. But he was irreplacable.
Fun, fun album.
Top tracks: "Guns In The Sky," "Devil Inside," "New Sensation," "Kick," "Never Tear Us Apart"
I had seen a YouTube where basically every hit song by Weezer is interchangeable. Change the lyrics to Sweater to Beverly Hills, it sounds the same.
Pinkerton... all of the songs don't sound EXACTLY the same, but it does come close.
It is a pretty dark album, but I just got the sense of it's sound. It has a very garage-y sound to it to me, but at least it was short.
Probably the best track for me was "Butterfly," very haunting.
So I am still not a fan of Weezer, but I can say not every song is interchangeable.
Top tracks: "Getchoo," "El Scorcho," "Butterfly"
Well.
That was... odd.
I had accidentally hit a song in the middle, and I thought that this was the opening ( "Immaterial"), which I hold is a better to song to start the album with. "It's Okay To Cry" felt weak to start the album in comparison.
It wasn't techno per se, but it had a lot of original sounds to it. I laud the originality here, even though I was not a fan of the music as a whole.
The reason I didn't care for it was songs like "Immaterial," which was very much "hey let's make weird sounds" to me.
So it was original to me, but I wouldn't say I was a fan.
NEXT.
I've always liked the lead singer's voice, it's a different tone than a lot of other singers I have heard. that cutting baritone, I wish more singers were like that.
Let's get the big song out of the way. So many of these songs change in tone for me when I hear the Weird Al parody. This one is no exception ("He found little Mr. Happy was missing...").
The other songs at first sound a little morose, but that's really the tone of the vocalist, I think.
The lyrics are a little... yeah. ("How Does A Duck Know?")
Very Canadian, very strange. It wasn't bad, I liked the vocals, but... yeah.
Top tracks: "I Think I'll Disappear Now," "When I Go Out With Artists"
If you had said the three words "Rapper from Maine," there are easily 10-15 jokes you can make. "How many ways can you rhyme 'moose'?"
But all jokes aside, this was a lot better than I was expecting. Spose has great flow, the references are current (although in 10-20 years maybe not so much when you promise to watch "The Mandalorian" with your kid), and he has great backing behind him.
I was initially bothered that this was a double album of almost 100 minutes. But once I started listening, I realized I liked it more and more.
Top tracks: "Self-Destruct," "Self Help!", "Hey Big Guy," "Motherf***ers (Bring You Down)," "Metal Band," "You Don;t Get Me High"
It's an interesting sound, it sounds more like hair metal to me than pop punk, like wikipedia said.
I dug it some, I liked Wendy James vocals on this a good deal. It's definitely something I want to look into more, even with it feeling a little... dated.
And how did not "I Want Your Love" become a bigger hit?
Top tracks: "I Want Your Love," "Tell That Girl To Shut Up," "Andy Warhol's Dead"
I will say this is a lot better than McCartney's first solo album, _McCartney_. Perhaps it's because he used other musicians instead of just trying to do it all himself.
Still, I preferred some of the later McCartney, particularly his work with Elvis Costello. This is... okay, although it has the one hit "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey". McCartney seemed to be on a run of taking two or three ideas and stitching them together to make a song (i.e., "Band On the Run", where he really perfected it.
Besides the one song, the rest wasn't as memorable to me, but at least you had that.
Top tracks: "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey"
The performance hit really hard, and I appreciated that.
But hardcore is always so... tiring. Every song feels the same, and it's an adrenaline rush to the tenth power. Even after the first 25 minutes, I felt... tired.
Top songs: "It Was Fear of Myself That Made Me Odd", "Side Walk When She Walks", "No Transitory", "Sharks and Danger"
blink-182 makes me think of the lyrics to Zappa's "Tinseltown Rebellion":
But then they took some guy's advice
To get a record deal, he said
They would have to be more punk
Forget their chops and play real dumb
Or else they would be sunk
The songs just feel... dumb.
And I could go my whole life without hearing "All The Small Things."
NEXT.
Top songs: "Dumpweed," "What's My Age Again?"
I listened to this after a hardcore album, hoping for smooth jazz. I needed something... calming.
This was not that. Bebop is still good, though.
"Eventually" and "Lonely Woman" felt all over the place. It wasn't until "Peace" that things kinda settled down (for Bebop, at least).
Top tracks: "Focus On Sanity," "Peace," "Congeniality," "Chronology"
The music and even some of the vocals felt a LOT like Nirvana to me. That's not a bad thing, but it felt a little on the nose for me. I mean, it was on Sub Pop, just like Nirvana was. It didn't feel derivative of Nirvana, but you can hear there was an obvious connection there.
Top tracks: "The Blankets Were The Stairs," "Shadows"
I've listened to this a couple of times, and it just seems like two or three genres mashed up in a way that isn't cohesive.
Math rock and emo rock? It felt like apple pie flavored mac and cheese (yes, that's a thing).
I wanted to like this, really. The biggest thing for me was that the sound desperately needed low end. It just sounded like a wall of guitar distortion. Just... no.
NEXT.
It's taken me a while to get my head around this album, and I'm not sure why.
At first it sounded like a lot of random ideas thrown together. But I've listened to it a few times, and the more I listen to it, the more I have been digging it.
It's low-key electronica, which shouldn't work for me. But there is a distinct difference between the tracks, unlike some electronica I have heard through this site.
Top tracks: "Golden Arrow," "The Only Shrine I've Seen," "Freak Go Home"
I had thought the 1975 was more of a band like the Struts, more rock-y. Instead, this album made think more of 1985 than 1975.
It's definitely a pop-y feel, which was a pleasant surprise.
Step up from what I expected, but it did feel very 80s pop, but there wasn't a super catchy hit for me. "I'm In Love With You" did make me smile, though.
Top tracks: "I'm In Love With You," "All I need To Hear"
When my kid was in elementary school, I was driving him back from Boy Scouts, and he had a 3 Musketeers bar (full, not fun size). He talked nonstop on the ride home, probably the most he ever had, and then crashed on the couch.
I feel like BABYMETAL is the equivalent to a sugar overload like my son had, and by the time you are done you are just... crashing on the couch.
I know a number of metalheads don't equate the band to heavy metal. They say they can't shred, it's not metal blah blah blah.
I disagree, and would say it's a valid form. But it's not aggression like some headbanging bands. It's just superduper hyped UP! Them singing in Japanese adds to the sugar rush of the band (take "I Love Chocolate", for example).
I thought it was good, but halfway through the sugar high came down for me. Maybe it the album wasn't over an hour long, I would have enjoyed it more. As it is I feel the diabeetus coming on...
Top tracks: "I Love Chocolate," "Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!"
One of the terms listed for this in wikipedia is "Gonzo Rock," and quite frankly I think that hits it right on the head. It sounds like something Hunter Thompson would rave about.
The more I listened to it, the more I dug it. It did remind me a bit of Mr. Bungle, but not taken to the extreme that that is. I think Mike Patton would really enjoy these guys, maybe even sit in for a track or two. That'd be interesting to hear.
Would I like to hear some more of this? Sure. But it's not stuff you can put on in a party, I don't think:
Top tracks: "Damn Door," "Kiss The Cook"
Fun album. Oingo Boingo definitely knows how to make fun music. It was catchy and just... fun!
"Dead Man's Party," "Just Another Day," "Fool's Paradise," "Weird Science"
There's something charming about how lo-fi this album is. You can hear the tape grinding as he plays.
Charm and all, though, I still wish that some of the songs had more production to them. A number of the songs have such a demo vibe, it started to grate on me ("Blues In Dallas").
My other problem I had was a number of the songs' lyrics. I felt they were... trying to be smarter than the singer really is.
The song that I felt that was probably the most charming was "Riches & Wonders". After that one the others, I felt a little better about the others.
But one song does not make it one I can recommend. The lyrics and the demo feel make me think it could have taken another pass.
All I kept thinking when I heard this was: "FOUR guys were needed to make this?" I mean, sure, maybe live they need four. But I don't see how this could not have been easily done buy one person.
The worst was "Magnetic Language," which sounded like dogs playing with squeaky toys.
Nope, sorry I did not get this. NEXT.
Who was born in a house full of pain
Who was trained not to spit in the fan
Who was told what to do by the man
Who was broken by trained personnel
Who was fitted with collar and chain
Who was given a pat on the back
Who was breaking away from the pack
Who was only a stranger at home
Who was ground down in the end
Who was found dead on the phone
Who was dragged down by the stone...
While "Wish You Were Here" and "Dark Side Of The Moon" seem more hopeful as albums go, "Animals" completes the trilogy, and is a very dark album for me.
No radio hits off of it. Still, I play it all the time. Every track is sublime for me.
I would like to have (at some point) the 8-track version of "Pigs On The Wind," where they connected the two tracks together. One can hope.
Probably my favorite album of theirs. It felt like everyone was clicking together (even though in reality they were most assuredly NOT).
I have this album, but it's been a long time since I have listened to it in its entirety. It's a fun album, although a bit overlong.
It's sad that the band did not become big until tragedy because it would have been interesting to hear their next steps afterwards.
There was a time I got tired of hearing "Santeria," because it seemed on the radio ALL the frigging time.
This would be a perfect album of about 40 minutes long, you cut things like "Pawn Shop" and "Seed," maybe put them on the next album or something. It's not that they're bad, but they don't stand up to the top songs on the album
Top tracks: "Wrong Way," "Caress Me Down," "What I Got," The Ballad of Johnny Butt"
It definitely had that late 90s / early 2000 feel. I was hoping for a more angular feel since they are named after the Neil Young song.
It was... okay. A few of the songs hit me, but a lot of it just felt forgettable to me.
Top tracks: "Like A Dog," "We Should Be Together Now"
This band seemed to be channeling Paul Simon but through a punk lens. It's an interesting idea, really.
I listened to this through YouTube as opposed to Spotify, and I would recommend it. Only because you get to watch the videos for the "singles", which were fun to watch.
I was expecting the album to be more goth-y with a name like Vampire Weekend, but I was surprised how much fun it was.
The opener, Horchata was a bit weaker than some of the other tracks. I think I would have switched that with "Cousins" to really get the fun of the album.
Top tracks: "Holiday", "Cousins", "Giving Up the Gun", "Diplomat's Son"
I only knew this band through their "hit", "Float On."
And this album sounds NOTHING like that to me. It's punk-ish. but a number of the songs were just... too long.
NEXT.
There were a few songs that were very conversational Dada, in my mind. I dug those, like "Screenwriter's Blues".
But some of the songs that were closer to be "songs" just got repetitive and annoying ("Down To This", "Bus To Beelzebub").
I also felt the last two tracks could be a bit shorter.
I get why this was listed by users; it's quite different from some of the other stuff around at that time. But it shouldn't be a mix of annoying and interesting.
It was hard to distinguish the piano player on the hot 5 recordings. Furthermore, the drums were almost inaudible on the hot 7 recordings except for the cymbals.
The songs with the vocals are a little bit cringe-y. But the other stuff was really good, you can tell where a lot of later jazz was built off of this.
Top tracks: "Heebie Jeebies," "Muskrat Ramble," "Ory's Creole Trombone"
I'll be honest, Blade Runner is not my favorite sci fi film. It does have a lot of the stuff I enjoy: a noir feel, Harrison Ford, androids. But it's not my fave.
I feel the same about Vangelis, I feel like I should enjoy his work more, but I never thought of it as great. And at least one of the songs on this has that "out of tune piano" feel, which sounds really bad for 1983.
But it has some spoken dialogue, so that was cool, and Rutger Hauer's famous "Tears In Rain" speech, so I guess its not TERRIBLE. But I can't imagine coming back to it. I feel like I want to rewatch the movie, particularly at some point with my son.
As for the soundtrack: NEXT.
