A perfect album, the last truly high height from Beck’s discography. Good stuff is still to follow, but this one is stunning.

Definitely free on me the further in I got. Probably need to revisit a couple of her albums. The stream went straight from this into Son of a Preacher Man, reminding me of how much I have loved her musi before.

Probably more like a 3.5, but at the moment it feels closer to a 3 than a 4. I’ve heard this album a lot, and its pretty good, but its fairly far down the list of releases from the Roots that I’d choose when listening to them.

A perfect album, the last truly high height from Beck’s discography. Good stuff is still to follow, but this one is stunning.

It might be the sort of thing where it could grow into a 4/5 with repeated listens, but the first listen left me fairly lukewarm on the album.

This is a 4 when I’m in the right mood, but it feels like the sort of thing where i forget that I l enjoyed it as much as I did, and each time I hear it again, I’ll remember “that’s right, this is a 4 star experience!”

Man, it was so much easier to swallow Kanye when his rabid ego-mania seemed charming rather than disruptive and slightly terrifying. But this album is fantastic. The production really holds up. Its aggressive nature makes it feel outside of time and trend for me.

I think this is the first time I’m hearing her music. Probably heard it in the background before, as popular as she is, but this is the first time I’ve paid any attention. Well produced, and I can see the appeal, but not really up my alley.

So hard for me to get into psych rock from this era. It essentially has to wear me down a bit before I can get past the dated sound. White Rabbit is an all time classic, though.

This is an album which I’ve listened to probably a dozen times s year or more for every year since it was released. Easily one of my desert island discs. It’s as emotional and moving of an experience now as it was back in 97. Rare are the truly perfect albums, but this is one of them.

There are moments here and there on this album where I can understand why people hold this band in high regard, but every time I’ve listened to them, I largely feel bored by the music.

I am so underwhelmed by this album, but I can only recall how I felt about other albums which redefined music during that era, such as the Stooges or Velvet Underground. Today, this is a 2. After a couple more listens, I could see that improving.

This has never been one of my favorite Zappa albums. It’s probably the one I’ve listened to the least over the years, but this listen was a bit of a surprise for me. I’ve warmed to it a bit. It’s still hard for me to imagine this finding it’s way onto my stereo more than a couple more times before I die, but it’s more of a possibility today than it would have been before the latest listen.

Sure, I get it. 5 stars for that?!?! Am I saying that out of some sense that this is the “correct” answer? Is this a case of the emperor’s new clothes? Am I on drugs? Am I mentally well? A 5 for an album that I wouldn’t want to listen to more often than not? It just doesn’t make sense. I promise you, it is sincere. Many years ago I heard Frank Zappa for the first time and my musical world grew quickly. I found that I was drawn to things that stood in stark contrast to the kinds of music that was familiar. I wouldn’t always enjoy it, but I didn’t need to. My fascination with its uniqueness was enough. Of course, the less I enjoyed it, the less likely I was to return for another listen. Zappa’s album Hot Rats was my introduction to Captain Beefheart, and I loved his vocals on that album. When I found out that Trout Mask Replica existed, I immediately sought it out, and was truly fascinated by what I found. It was awful, and a strange musical mess, but damned interesting. I walked away thinking it was something I never needed to hear again, and thought I was done. A short time later, I tried to describe the experience of listening to the album to a friend, and decided to short cut things by just playing some of it for him. Some time later I repeated this with another friend. Over and over again, I’d find myself coming back to the album and playing it again, and before long the curiosity had been replaced by appreciation. More and more of it had started to click, until one day I realized that I actually enjoyed the thing. It’s still not an album that I can throw on any old time. It’s an experience that can only happen under the uncommon ideal circumstances, But when those elements come together, it’s electric.