1001 Albums Journey

Two Dancers, Wild Beasts, 2009 -I'm ready for this atmospheric, plucky jam to crack this album open. Sounds very art-pop/experimental. Nothing wrong with a little playful off-key falsetto to keep you awake as the instrumentation competes to draw you into a trance. "This is a booty call", sure, how fun! -Hooting and Howling builds up and out beyond the first song, both instrumentation and vocals get a bit more serious and the overall composition of the song is soaked in emotion despite the repetitious and frivolous lyrics like the previous song. You really do get a sense of rolling toward the meat and cheese of the album in this song. -Love how playful the vocals continue to be in the third song, All the King's Men. I'll say frivolous again to describe the falsetto bits, which feel like a delightful frill against the grain of the somber and deep vocalist. This kind of juxtaposition is nothing new, but satisfying all the same. Who doesn't love a little contrast between two halves of a whole? -By song 4 I'm understanding that this is kind of their whole "thing", at least for this song. I think of 2009, and remember being smitten with MGMT, Empire of the Sun, Washed Out, Faust, Passion Pit, Blur, the Kooks, Of Montreal... and on, and on... admittedly this album was not a particularly original take when it was released - but I'll bet their songs were all over 8Tracks playlists. -We Still Got the Taste Dancing is so dreamy and easy to listen to. Nothing amazing but no complaints. If this album were a sandwich, we'd be at the cheese and it would be melty. -Two Dancers (i) and (ii) continue this vibe but more dark-mode in lyric and tone, which frankly, at this point, is necessary to hold my waning attention. -This is Our Lot is a nice come-down as the album wraps up - the vocals remain the main source of emotion in this tune as they did with prior songs, which is to say the instrumentation leaves something to be desired. I did get a kick out of the way the singer occasionally sounds like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. -Underbelly lifts us up and wakes us up and transitions smoothly into Empty Nest which cleanly wraps up the album. The instrumentation is consistent with the rest of the album and the vocals shift between melancholy and optimism, and not much else is going on. Nice little album. They secured 3 stars in my books early on for making great little tunes, but I struggle with giving them a 4th. I'll do it, but begrudgingly because I was not blown away.

...And Justice for All, Metallica, 1988 -Starts boring and very generic (i.e. - sounds like every Metallica song ever) but I mean hey: listen to those drums, nothing not to love there. -Metallica: incredibly skilled instrumentation paired with near-total inability to make their songs distinguishable from one another. They set the bar high with their preceding album, Master of Puppets, and I'm curious what they could pull off just 2 years later. -Really loved the opening for ...And Justice for All; the song doesn't evolve into anything to write home about though. 9 minutes in and I realize: this album is going to feel long as hell. Thanks Metallica... -Eye of the Beholder is a pretty decent song but forgettable -One has some absolutely delicious guitar licks and their shot a stylistic shift in the vocals really pays off - they communicate a sentiment both hopeful and devastated. We love this one of course and it does a good job hoisting the album out of snoozefest territory. -The Shortest Straw returns the album into snoozefest territory. Like so many of their songs, we build and build and build up to some self-indulgent drum and guitar ram-jams and fall back into some repetitive lyrics. Yawn. -Yawning continues through Harvester of Sorrow as the formulaic-metal intensifies -Did I just hear the WIZARD OF OZ flying monkey chant sample used in The Frayed Ends of Sanity, like what?????? LOL sure why not. It works. -Basically zoned out the rest of the album. Snooze snooze snooze. Great instrumentation but mastery of your instrument and your genre only counts for so much.