If I had to describe this album in one word, I'd say STUNNING. I'm not terribly well experienced in Pink Floyd or prog rock generally, but I was floored at how these songs patiently and steadily develop into such striking climaxes. It's definitely not an album of instant gratification, but if you're willing to be patient, the gradual builds of tension and anticipation are so worth it. I love the concept of the album, being largely dedicated to the band's troubled former member Syd Barrett. Shine on You Crazy diamond and Wish You Were Here are touching tributes to their friend that also happen to be the most gorgeous songs on the album.
This album is so incredibly deliberate. Nothing sounds easy. Unknown sounds that don't come from any identifiable instrument mix perfectly with a wide variety of instruments, from organ to saxophone to David Gilmour's masterful guitar work.
All in all, this album was a pleasure to listen to and I'll surely revisit it often. My only complaint is that due to my somewhat ADHD nature, I know there will be many times I'm too impatient to sit through the entirety of some of these tracks. 8/10 subjective enjoyment rating for me.
Well, I've never heard an album like this. Hot Rats is essentially a jazz album, but the bass is electric and the horns share the spotlight with searing electric guitars. Zappa demonstrates his remarkable guitar abilities all over the album's six long tracks, breaking into long solos over spastic drum lines. The instrumentation really is remarkable and full of variety.
My experience listening to this album felt like watching a really long talent show-- I could appreciate, even stand in awe of, the incredible display of musicality before me, but I couldn't imagine coming back again. There's only so many minutes of blues-rock-jazz improv I can listen to before I start to check my watch. Maybe the fault is with me.
I couldn't help but want to compare this album with Wish You Were Here, the last one we listened to for this club. While from totally different genres, I noticed some superficial similarities. Both feature long, sprawling tracks with extensive instrumental sections. However, while every song on WYWH seemed to grow, develop, and build, Hot Rats sounds like a jam session the length of a college lecture. It's like listening to a Tech N9ne song-- yeah, it's impressive, but when am I ever going to be in the mood for this?
From the first moments of its iconic intro track, xx seems to command your attention. This is remarkable in part due to just how little there actually is to pay attention to. These songs are soft, sparse, and quiet, but their intimacy pulls you in like a whisper until you tune out everything around you just focus on what you're hearing.
On the surface, this album shouldn't work. The melodic lines and lyrics sometimes sound underdeveloped, the guitar riffs are repetitive and minimal, and the band doesn't even have a drummer. And yet, it does work, to marvelous effect.
These songs are captivating. "Islands" sends chills down my spine, "Fantasy" makes me want to levitate out of my chair, and "Shelter" is undeniably sexy. "Infinity" might be the album's shining centerpiece, featuring a slow build to a gorgeous climax in the song's final minute.
The influence this album had is undeniable. Does LANY know that the xx did their thing a decade ago? Does Lana know that Romy Croft invented the indie girl voice years before Born to Die? Do the untold legions of bedroom pop stars getting famous on TikTok know how in debt they are to this album?
Overall, I definitely enjoyed this album. While I'm not the biggest fan of indie pop in general, I can appreciate the granddaddy of modern indie when I see it. This album is undeniably one of the most underrated records of the 2000s, and one that I think everyone should listen to.
The eccentric 80s pop icon Kate Bush delivers a smorgasbord of sounds and themes on this remarkable album. It's dense, lush, weird, and fantastic.
Where to begin? I suppose I'll start with the first half. This album does have two clearly delineated halves, and its first is a set of five watertight 80s pop songs with the signature Kate Bush flair. The standout is absolutely "Hounds of Love", one of my favorite long songs ever. Kate's impassioned cries of "Here I go!", "Help me!" and "throowwwwww them in the lake!" capture the almost terrifying thrill of falling in love. The driving violins and pounding drums fill the whole song with motion, as if you're being caught up in the whirlwind, or perhaps chased by the hounds.
"Cloudbusting" is another highlight, hearkening back to Kate's habit of adapting relatively obscure pieces of classic literature into pop songs (see: "Wuthering Heights"). It's a gorgeous, lyrically touching song about Peter Reich, the son of controversial German psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. If you had to consult Wikipedia to understand the lyrics of the song, don't worry-- so did everyone.
Themes of femininity run through these first few tracks-- "Running Up That Hill" sees Kate yearning to show a man her perspective by striking a deal with God to "get him to swap our places." "Mother Stands for Comfort" is a somewhat puzzling track that seems to almost sarcastically comment on how mothers are expected to be sources of comfort for their children even when their children are horrible. The whole song is kind of creepy and laced with disturbing sound effects, as if Kate is trying to cast doubt on this whole idea.
The album takes a thematic and sonic turn at track 6, "And Dream of Sheep." This particular song is gorgeous, featuring just Kate's voice and a clear, ringing piano. The track kicks off a "mini-album" within Hounds of Love entitled "The Ninth Wave" that encompasses the final seven tracks. While my years as a Lupe Fiasco fan have trained me to expect weird conceptual ideas like this, it was still a surprise to hear on a pop album.
The Ninth Wave almost deserves to be treated as entirely separate from the first five tracks, which I would call Hounds of Love. It introduces entirely new sonic ideas and follows a relatively straightforward narrative about a woman who nearly dies in a shipwreck and has a series of hallucinations or dreams. Some of these tracks are genuinely creepy, like "Under Ice" and "Waking the Witch", while others are just plain bizarre-- like the obviously SpongeBob-influenced "Jig of Life." The final two tracks are both gorgeous, with "Hello Earth" being particularly stunning, though certainly structurally unorthodox.
I feel like I need to treat these two halves separately in my rating. Hounds of Love is an essentially perfect 5-song EP that represents pretty much the pinnacle 80s pop. The Ninth Wave, on the other hand, is like reading an Allen Ginsberg poem-- long, weird, kind of creepy, sometimes stunningly beautiful, but not something you'd listen to often. I feel like I have to dock points from this second half to differentiate it from my favorite concept albums (TPAB, The Black Parade) that are both conceptually brilliant and sonically enjoyable.
First half: 9. Second half: 7. Average: 8.
I wish I had more time to really digest this album before I had to write this review. I could see myself absolutely loving this album after listening to it a few more times. It's a lot to take in-- there's a lot going on instrumentally and lyrically in each of these long songs. But I'll give what thoughts I do have now.
This album has moments of transcendent beauty and moments of crushing sadness. Those moments often overlap, like on the opening track "Plainsong." I don't know why, but this song sounds like it would roll during the end credits of the movie of humanity, like you'd hear it over a montage of cities being vaporized by nuclear warheads. It's stunning and magical, but filled with deep tragedy.
The most crushing moment is certainly "The Same Deep Water As You", a nine-minute epic that begins with the sound of a thunderstorm. It's dense, heavy, and filled with despair. The lyrics deal with themes of lost love and drowning, and singer Robert Smith's voice sounds like it's squeezing to get past the lump in his throat.
The sprawling title track is one of a few tracks that song like they're going to be more upbeat and happy until you hear the lyrics, and you're dragged back into despondence. "Oh I miss the kiss of treachery, the aching kiss before I feed, the stench of a love for a younger meat," Smith wails.
During my incredibly busy day today filled with Political Inquiry midterm reviews, Fundamentals of Rhetoric essays, and an Astronomy quiz, this album didn't get the chance to make a profound impact on me beyond a cursory listen or two. But I can see myself sitting alone in my room at 2 in the morning one of these days and this album hitting incredibly hard. It's just a matter of time.
She's So Unusual is a generous helping of sugar sweet pop music that gave me a bit of a tooth ache. While I really enjoyed a few songs, particularly the iconic hit singles, listening to this album all the way through felt like binging on Skittles. I don't want to knock Cyndi's chops as a singer or songwriter, but it just wasn't for me. I think she has a unique and compelling voice, but it can get a little grating. I don't think I'll revisit this album again.
This was my favorite front to back listening experience of this whole club so far. This album explodes from its very track and pulls you in with earnest, impassioned vocals, glistening, piercing guitars, and driving grooves. The opening track alone had me hooked. Listening to this album felt like the first time I listened to This Is It by the Strokes-- I kept thinking "there's no way the next song will be as good as this one", and I kept getting proved wrong.
This album has moments of solemn sadness and moments of anthemic triumph. It's remarkably sonically consistent without being samey. The lyrics are not the focus of the music, but are interesting and sometimes arresting. The guitar work is fantastic, up there with some of my favorite rock albums (examples such as This Is It, The Color and the Shape, Ten). My favorite tracks include "Animal Nitrate", "The Drowners", "The Next Life", and "Where the Pigs Don't Fly."
I couldn't believe I had never heard of this album before today. I honestly loved it and I'll revisit it often. 9/10 listening experience for me
Well this album was.... weird. Sonically diverse as they come, I'm initially inclined to give it some props for demonstrating such versatility. But I can pretty much guarantee I'm never coming back to this or nearly any of its tracks ever again.
This music sounds like it was made Bert from Mary Poppins, if he was ragingly horny nearly all the time. The lyrics are insufferable, almost to the point of being charming, but only almost. The low point is hard to pick. There's "Billericay Dickey", a song so cringey I almost believe it was intentional. But I think the most genuinely disturbing song is "If I Was a Woman", which has some really rapey and abusive lyrics, not to mention the skin-crawling outro of "lawghing, lawghing, lawghing"... yeah I can't get behind that one.
There are some cool instrumentals here, some compelling grooves, and some solid vocal lines. But I struggle to find anything here that I would return voluntarily, mostly due to the flat, ugly singing (which is often not even in tune) and the kind of gross, nursery-rhyme lyrics.
I can't lie... I was a little disappointed by this album. For the last several years, I've helped up "Life on Mars?" as one of the greatest songs of the 70s, and I still agree, but I was kind of expecting a whole album of similar tracks.
I realized that's not what I was going to get, and managed to still see the beauty in this album. I can see it really growing on me as I return to it, which I certainly will. Here's just a few thoughts.
This album is beautiful and largely understated. Closing track "The Bewlay Brothers" reminds me less of a typical Bowie track and more like something Dylan would sing over. Speaking of Dylan, "Song for Bob Dylan" is another highlight, this one a little more fun and upbeat. Opening track "Changes" is iconic and fun, though I do wish the instrumental developed more.
But let me end where I began. "Life on Mars?" is one of my favorite songs of all time. I love the lyrics, the vocal melody, the beautiful piano passages, and the amazing build-and-release tension leading up to the iconic chorus. This track sounds like the best Beatles song ever conceived of, recorded in Narnia. This song alone gives me a positive conception of the album. An absolute classic.
This album was genuinely a lot of fun to listen to. I was pleasantly surprised given how lame this gosh dang album art is, but that's not the point.
About half of the songs here were genuinely enthralling. I particularly loved the punishing distorted guitars and drum beats on the opening track, the glitzy riffs on the second track, the genuinely crushing emotional weight of the fourth track, and the huge, echoing piano hits that defined the sixth track.
But I can't lie. About half of these songs didn't exactly stick with me. The singing was a little inconsistent-- the singer's distinctive vocal style doesn't seem to fit every instrumental very well. A song like "Dancing Choose" just had too many weird instrumental ideas and this weird almost-rapped delivery that didn't do it for me.
I won't come back to this album much, but it wasn't a bad listening experience. Probably a 6/10
I'd never heard of Talk Talk or this album before today, but I'm so glad I now know who they are. This album is gorgeous! I wish I had more time to digest the lyrics, but this review will mostly focus on its sonic characteristics.
This album showcases a wide range of moods. "Chameleon Day" is almost startlingly heartbreaking, with the singer's voice changing abruptly from soft and melancholy to loud and splitting. The track is spacious and empty, accompanied only by occasional piano notes and a soft woodwind outro.
In contrast, a song like "Living In Another World" combines acoustic guitar, harmonica, driving drums, rock organ, piano, and funky bass to create a lush sonic landscape. Can I comment on that organ a bit? This album is full of it, giving it a grand, religious tone. The first and maybe second tracks are obviously religious in nature, though I don't know exactly what the singer is trying to comment on. But whatever it is, it sounds great.
The final song, a long, gorgeous ballad called "Time It's Time", is a fitting end to such a lush and varied album. I really never got bored over the course of these long tracks, and I'll definitely be coming back to see what more I can get from this thing. 7/10
