This album finds its way onto my rotation every few years. It's loud, dissonant, with some great melodies sprinkled in. It's like the band Television stopped practicing and playing long solos and the outcome was a rougher and cooler album.
It sounds like a live album. Like you are watching them play on stage. No polish just raw music. It scratches a nostalgic itch really well and is fun, but I can't honestly say it holds up in today's world in any serious way. If it came out today I would not be sold.
That being said it did come out in 1989 and was a real shake up, so for that reason it's an essential listen.
It is a great album. I have listened to it on just about every road trip I've been on for the last 15 or so years and I loved listening to it twice today. It is very easy to like. It is one of the highest rated records of all time for a reason.
I'll get this out of the way. I think the Beatles greatness is overstated (I'm more of the mind of Frank Zappa who said The Shaggs were better than the Beatles lol), but this album comes closer to their perceived reputation than any of their other records. Culturally it's one of the most significant records. They elevated pop music and low brow art to the high art which I'm all for, but they certainly weren't the only ones or first ones to have done that.
Parts of it are kinda lame and dated. "Benifit of Mr Kite" and "Lovely Rita" come mind. "When I'm 64" is out of place and is a Lennon song from even before they were big and that song should have stayed in the early 60s, not '67.
That being said there are only 7 or 8 other albums from '67 that are as good or better. And this was such a huge step for the Beatles and pop culture that I can always appreciate. The far out tracks are the best tracks. It is an album you can comfortably sit and do nothing else but listen to like we used to do.
Favorite tracks: Within Without You, Day in a Life
I was in high school at the turn of the century when celtic punk made its resurgence with bands like Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. In fact I saw the Pogues in their reformed state in the early 2000s but went mainly for dropkick murphys or something equally lame because we all had that phase.
The tunes and shantys on this record are catchy as hell. They are currently stuck in my head! Against my will, I've been humming and whistling then all day. The instruments are different, and Elvis Costello's production is top notch. The ensemble is tight. The songs are poetry. I've just never had a drop off alcohol in my life, so I think there's a HUGE piece of the puzzle missing for me.
I know these guys are kind of the OG and I was not born or a baby when this band was in their original form, but for me this album just reminds me too much of that dark time when celtic punk made its resurgance in the late 90s/early aughts and it's a time I am not all that eager to relive for 45 minutes or 1 hour depending on which album version you listen to. That's not their fault, it's just my own past getting in the way and haunting my perception.
Stiff Little Fingers were always better imo anyway.
Take a ride on the T.E.E. Express. It is retro, but also futuristic. It is idealistic but also kind of unsettling.
It is a 10/10 but still not even my personal favorite Kraftwerk record.
R.I.P. Florian Schneider
He's a piece of shit who, to this day, claims there was "no real rock and roll before him." what horse shit. Did you know he married his 13 year old cousin? He refused to shake hands with black people. Other musicians could play rockabilly loud and fast and werent racist pices of shit one trick ponies like this perverted loser. I'll just listen to them instead.
I heard this in 2010 and loved it and i still listen to it every once in a while and love it. Seen them play live 4 or 5 times and loved it.
Its beautiful, its crushing, it is cute, it's rough it is almost perfect.
Fav tracks: helicopter, he would have laughed
Better than I thought it would be! I dig the pop direction. Production is great. I love how cohesive the album is. Made me realize that nothing has changed in California. Nothing earth shattering by any means.
I can see why people like it. It's just a little cheesy and self indulgent for me.
Good r&b and phenominal production. Im not an expert in this type of music, but been exposing myself more over the last few years and this is just so good.
It is a classic. Great lyrical content. Vocals are some of the best there have been. Features are great.
It is perfect. The orchestration is heavenly and robust, but the singing is so intricate. The OG lady crooner singing standards and making them classics.
I loved belle and sebastian in high school and college. I saw them live and stuff. Now as a relatively boring man approaching middle age, it doesnt speak to me in the same way
So many hits. Lyrics are loony. Production is groundbreaking. At one time this was my favorite record. It's still fun for nostalgia but a little dated.
Not my fav echo and bunnymen record. This is their poor mans joy division phase.
80's opulence, manufactured image, coccaine, cockinesss, and all the obsolute worst aspects of western society in the 80's rolled into one terrible record.
I just love how he is able to just mash everything together and play it off like it is his life and how he always was and always will be.
Could only find terrible stereo mix and it is just lazy production in general. I kinda like some of the far out bits but for the most part it was just lazy take on blues.
Good beats. Nice grooves. Cool flows. Might have been more impressive in the early 90s uk.
One of the most culturally significant albums. He's a poet and a storyteller. By most accounts the guy can't sing, but it really doesn't matter. His music and this album illuminates in such a deep inexplicable way that surpasses judgement of conventional skill.
Its one of the coolest albums ever and needed to be twice as long
First and last track are awesome kinda meaders in the middle with american blues from a decade prior and adds nothing.
Mostly forgettable but plenty to like. Their influences are pretty obvious but this album was also pretty influential. the syth pop/new romantic style definetly took shape in the next couple years after this record.
It is so badass and thats that
One of the best records of 67. Better than sgt pepper imo. Arthur Lee was so cool. RIP man.
A wonderful record with great messages, made even more amazing by the fact that he truly believed and lived by it.
Not my first time hearing it and I freaking love this record
Its pretty but it drags. Michael Gira from swans produced it. Vashti Bunyan featured on it. He stood on the shoulders of giants and its aight.
Great instrumentals classic samples. One of the best solo records from this first wu tang hiatus era.
Great fusion going from bossaniva to jazz and funk and not the other way around like most other bossanova sounding records on the list
Love indian classical instruments.
Oh man i love this weird lo fi r & b funky record so much. Where has this been my whole life? He used to roll with zappa. Of course.
Annoyingly catchy 80's pop. No thanks.
Least fav beastie boys record. Kinda childish.
Straight forward rock record. In typical Elvis Costello fashion the songs are sarcastic, bitter, vitriolic, and with just a little bit of regret thrown in. Costello once said something like he only knew two emotions, anger and embarrassment. His songs can be so specific but relatable.
Lovely album. I was a fan before this record and bought it shortly after it came out. Still love it!
Meh, 90s manchester sound. Pretty generic. They didnt deserve the stupid lawsuit and Im glad the rollimg stones came to their senses and gave credit and money back to Ashcroft.
Wish there was more like this on the list
Best beastie boys record. The sampling and production are insane
Okay take my 5 stars meme album
I didnt like it on the radio back in the day. The other tracks are better but it is just passable.
I dont even like it a little.
Its okay britpop. Better than soe of the other random.britpop bands on here. Very british endevor this book...
Politically and socially charged lyrics describing a reality that needed and still needs to be understood.
Love sample based music. Great vibes.
Sounds like a david bowie rock opera. Great pop music. Some lyrics worthy of eye rolls though. I fuckin hate that cover, it's trash. Great britpop. This book was clearly a British undertaking all these kinda okay britpop are too heavily represented.
So good. Great singing. Great arrangements. Great songs. Feel it in my bones mannnn
There are parts I like, but in general i just don't care for this band.
Love Randy newman. Love this record
Its sounds like david bowie but a little grittier
Great album. A more modern Folsom Prison.
I loved this record about 20 years ago. I was 14 and at that time older always meant better in my mind. Now after having spent a lot of time obsessing over music, I find the record rather dull now. It's just British white boys of the late 60's in typical fashion playing black American music of previous decades.
I actually do appreciate a little bit of humor on the record, and Ginger Baker is otherwise an interesting drummer with background in jazz, though all the footage I've seen of him, he holds is sticks caveman style, lol. I'm not a drummer but I know a jazz drummer holding sticks like that is like a skateboarder pushing mongo.
On the best tracks, Jake Bruce's bass lines are really catchy and the drumming get's in the pocket and it all snaps well into the somewhat unimaginative guitar parts.
For 1967 this is way too bland to be considered great for me. In the same year that Zappa, The Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, and even the Beatles were doing a lot more interesting things this year.
Vaccines are not harmful.
It's fine. Kinda dull. Prefer Kurt vial and the evaporators.
If the beach boys stopped practicing and they showed up to the studio and the velvet underground left their equipment.
I mean it's only one of the nost culturally significant works of art in modern western civilization.
Wow this is very good. Everyone in America should listen to this record. It's as poignant now as it was then. You don't have to be blue haired liberal to or Marx worshiper to just say, "Wow, yeah, you do have a point there."
Musically I love the hooks, the little soulful moments, really digs into your brain. got a few hooks stuck in my head now, lol.
An album that is a mix I would never ask for but only because I wouldn't think it possible.
It was a rushed cash grab album. Nothing really outstanding.
This collection clearly leans towards a preference for 90's britpop. It's fine. Doesn't exactly move me in any way. I like Damon Albarn's career as a whole. This just ain't memorable to me.
This isn't a situation where, "I wish it could be rated less than one star." No I think this is actually a deserved 1 star. This is not a zero star record. That's the nicest thing I could say about it.
