Very Niel Young. The only song which really caught my attention was the Llama one.
I think I'm not german enough to completely and immersively enjoy an album like this. I'm not sure where the german obsession with 80s music comes from, but it's a strikingly intergenerational phenomenon. Its prevalence on radio could be explained away by taking a look at the demographics of radio consumption, which I suspect would reveal a 40+ trend. Nostalgia is a strong driving force in enjoying and consuming music. None of this can explain why the youth also celebrate 80s music and 80s revivalism to the extent that they do. It feels like every second night at a studenty bar/club is an 80s/90s night. Living here I've come into contact with more music from the decade than I would ever willingly subject myself to. Suffice to say, it hasn't rubbed off on me.
There must be plenty of qualities in this album that made it important at the time, but I struggle to identify them. The only song I really found myself invested in was Pimpf, but i'm unsure if this was because of the qualities of the song itself, or if it simply relief at the brief respite from the deluge of 80s synth sounds that is Music for the Masses.
I drank too much this Weekend to remember enough of this album to write a propper review. My overconsumption of alcohol wasn't a deliberate attempt to forget, but maybe there is a subconcious causal relationship between the two.
The title song/s is at least lyrically interesting. Beginning with a biblical quote, before going into some world-building, describing a dystopian society run by priests where guitars are ancient artefacts. For the fact that electric guitars are merely ancient artefacts, there's plenty of guitar noodling as you'd expect from 70s prog rock.
The fact that the world presented in the first track of the album is inspired by Ayn Rand somehow ties the whole thing together for me. Tepid Canadian prog rock inspired by an author who's work would in the next decades develop the most intimate associations with conservative and neo-liberal dickheadery. This album gets 3/5 from me, merely because my last review was MGMT and in comparison I find this tolerable.
(The Temple of Syrinx and Something for Nothing are alright)
Much more explicit than I remembered or expected...
Surprised me, a couple of excellent tracks, sorry tom.
Extremely bland. This album was so middle of the road in terms of sound and lyricism that I'm going to cut my review short in before I bore myself more by remembering details about garbage.
This was more of a rock album than many of Bowies other releases. So not as much up my alley than other albums. But, it's still Bowie before his 90s phase so it's still fantastic.
I like the inclusion of a bunch of piano, particularly the solo on Aladin Sane. There are also some entertaining lyrics; "Time (falls) wanking to the floor" made me chuckle.
I'm struggling to decide between a 1 and a 2 rating. I hope that my decision to give it 1 star doesn't stem from an intrinsic snobbishness, but I think I can still ground this rating in at least a superficial logic. Namely, that while this album wasn't offensive or unlistenabley bad, it was extremely bland. This blandness is coupled with the fact that the album is less than a year old, and hasn't had to withstand the test of time yet. I can't find anything in it that I could imagine is particularly new or has "redefined the genre." Therefore, although i'd rather listen to this kind of mediocrity than another 80s synth pop album, it still only gets 1 from me.
Very funny, some real interesting Instrumentation
Not my cup of tea
I had to read some reviews to understand why this album might be included in a list of 1001 historically important albums. It seems that this is debatably a precursor to punk, a proposition that nonetheless seems to be disputed.
Without this historical association I struggle to find any reason to elevate this album above the rest of the beatlesesque sounds of the mid 60s. If anything the shitty audio quality (which normally doesn't at all affect my judgement of an album) renders this album not only uninspiring, but almost unlistenable.
2/10
Refreshing change from a run of mediocre albums
Enough variety for a 3.5
singer sounds like he's doing a bad bowie impression
Siiiiiiiick
Good apart from telling me lies (extremely 80s)
Sorry, deffo deserves to be here, but I just find listening to a full Dylan album a pretty tiresome experience
