I drove for two hours and listened while driving which was good for time, but bad because hearing Led Zeppelin while driving is so ubiquitous I kept habituating to it. Spotify was showing the words and though I only glanced occasionally, it was the first time I ever knew any of the words to their songs, and they surprisingly more creative and poetic than I expected. Page's ability to riff is unmatched but I found his solos surprisingly unimpressive. I never realized how often the motion and drive of the songs comes from how John Paul Jones played bass. Bonham's drums were good and a nicer and more creative and varied change from the Beatles, but almost always seemed at the same dyanamic level and felt overplayed. Overall, totally agree with what Thomas said. Good background album with some variation. That said, I've owned it since my teens and rarely listened to the whole album all the way through. It's not quite varied enough for me.
Fun. I had listened to any of it before aside of Sweet Dreams. My favorite tracks reminded me of the Talking Heads at times.
The first track
I thought I'd write more notes about John Martyn as it was the only one I hadn't heard of and I really wanted to know why it made the list. And, I wanted to avoid accidentally listening again in the future needlessly.
1. Title track Solid Air
I read to listen to the album with headphones. I think that's a great call. The atmospheric qualities of the song just aren't going to mesh with today's background atmosphere well. This seems like it would have been an amazing song for hippies in their 30s to early 40s to get a little high too and have sex in the mid 1970s, perhaps after a party with some aging hippy friends who are trying to find a more permanent home in the folk jazz rock ambient scene as the hippie scene begins to age.
2. Tracks 2,5, 7 sound like background music for a reasonably enjoyable but completely forgettable Indy movie.
3. Tracks 3, 4, 8 and 9 sound like a very mediocre college Doors cover band.
4. Track 6 Dreams by the Sea has Bob Dylan potential in the sense that others who cover it would likely make a good song even if the original was ok. I could see a lot of groove forward bands (Soulive, Phish, MMW, String Cheese Incident, etc) turn it into a respectable jam.
5. Track 10 is just on there to remind you that many bands, like many sports, are more fun in person than listening at home.
Thoroughly enjoyable. Certainly the yearning for the old South was disturbing but the joyful songs about sad things, honesty, equality of instrumentation, Americana made just really pleasurable listening. I had never listened to the Band but I actually liked them more than a lot of classic rock I've heard. It sounds like jamming with friends gone right. I didn't save any tracks from the album but I might listen to more in the future when in the right kind of mood.
It was exactly as I expected. Very familiar yet slightly irritating... all the classic rock songs I know will come on the radio and I know I will skip and change the station. It feels like sitting in an auto shop waiting room.
Turbonegro was a stand out album for me for me. I had never heard of them and don't listen to punk or metal much but their brand of deathpunk I found ridiculously engaging and made me want to jump around and drive fast.
In fairness, i listened to most of it while on the highway. But then reading about them, socially, so peculiar. First the bad, definitely racist. I know they say they are anti racist but I've always found the "we're sarcastically racist" argument as convincing as punching someone in the face and saying you were just being sarcastic to point out how dumb violence is - it's just not helpful. But the super homoerotic faux gay thing was fascinating. On the one hand, faux gay by presumably heterosexual people is in itself homophobic and appropriating. On the other hand, bringing loud and proud gay themes, lyrics and behaviors, even in a caricature way, into a super homophobic music scene worked at getting men in that scene to explore the idea that maybe gayness is cool and fine and acceptable. So, unlike the racism thing, it does seem they managed to use homophobia to counter homophobia and make several arguments against homophobia . So, it seem the net effect might actually be less homophobia in a homophobic sphere? Who knows. Anyway, super catchy, energetic, and original music. Not sure I'll listen again, still not my style, and the second half of the album lost steam, but I'll still give a 4 for the boldness, technique, and execution. And one of them actually owns a pizza shop they sing about. That helps too.
The ballads were good. The big band stuff was not the best.
Good composition. This album was similar to flaming lips with some composition through in
Great sound. Fun to listen to. The lyrics feels sincere, but unfortunately like written sincerely by a 17-year-old.
