This album inspired me to become a poli sci major. When I was 14 I made a choker made from an old white crew neck t-shirt collar on which I sharpied the words "economy is looking bad, time to start a war." It went well with my homemade iron-on "jail to the thief" anti-Bush patch.

Great riffs bogged down by by boring prog ideas. This is Black Sabbath if they thought they were smart.

There's a difference between "was very successful" and "good"

i love hanging out in this guy's basement

Cute beats, express yourself is fun, a lot of it is "cringe" (they're children trying to look like big boys!). I'm sure this would have been important to me if I was born 10 years earlier.

Can confirm that it's boring. Sounds like ELO without the cocaine. I became a casual fan after watching the documentary, and I like "How Can You Mend..." but otherwise it's unfortunately a snooze-fest.

"Pretty Suzanne" is a banger.

Really? I MUST listen to this?

I wasn't expecting this to vibe so thoroughly.

this is the worst stone temple pilots cover band i've ever heard

Loses a star for "Ooby Dooby"

Maybe the most irritating voice in recording history. And I like The Crucifucks. I want Perry’s “my dad owns the rehearsal studio and the drums, so I get to be singer” confidence.

Better than I thought it'd be (after only seeing Germs on Decline of Western Civilization )

I'm bringing a lot of baggage to this, because the guitar tone reminds me so much of early 2000s guitar center line 6 amp drop d shredding. The harmonies are good, but I find them a little grating (which is weird, because I love X's grating harmonies). Again, this negative review is a me-problem.

This absolute piece of shit is a very talented musician!

Only Dylan CD I've ever owned. The "Blowin' in the Wind" episode of the "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs" podcast helps contextualize Bob and the folkie scene a LOT.

It's fun when Freddy pops off. Good production, good guitar tone. But pretty boring.

This album inspired me to become a poli sci major. When I was 14 I made a choker made from an old white crew neck t-shirt collar on which I sharpied the words "economy is looking bad, time to start a war." It went well with my homemade iron-on "jail to the thief" anti-Bush patch.

Hell yeah. Sure, his voice is bad, but cut Lou some slack. He and David were inventing bisexuality!

I never realized how much is going on in this, production-wise. The guitar sounds great! And unfortunately if you take away the vocals this sounds like a lot of 80s sunset strip hair metal. Sure, they're manufactured, but they're manufactured pretty well.

Great riffs bogged down by by boring prog ideas. This is Black Sabbath if they thought they were smart.

Sounds like Roxy Music getting rimjobs. "Hungry Like The Wolf" is an all-timer.

The guitar tone is great. And Jonathan D gets a star for how endearing he was in the Woodstock 99 doc. I'm super surprised I didn't get into them when it came out (I was 12, the perfect age for "naughty" music). There's a song where Jonathan and Fred Durst take turns calling each other faggots, which accurately summarizes the state of rock music in 1998.

I always liked Trent more than I liked his music. Like, I don't know if I'd actually listen to NIN without having their wikipedia page to scroll through. The lyrics really come off like 14-year-old wrote them (sorry, Big T!). This is a lot funkier than I expected!

Something comforting about their "we're all still figuring this rap thing out" flow

Very pretty, and almost nauseatingly smooth? Sounds like it was recorded directly to laserdisc.

Cool songs, high school notebook lyrics (a good thing), but damn I sure got shred fatigue.

Powerful. But it's still elder abuse.

music freakin' rules

Loses a star for the harmonica work

lol dead queen

Every time I play this it's even better than I remember

Don't tell my friends, but I love Randy's N-word album!

this album is fun as hell

Why is she singing like that? Is she being electrocuted? For the love of god, people, stop recording her and GO HELP HER.

To everyone saying "uh, all the songs sound the same" are forgetting something. Yeah, it's the same song over and over, but it's a perfect song.

The sound is mostly there! Has a couple straight bangers (Phantom, Iron Maiden), but not ESSENTIAL like Piece of Mind or Number of the Beast.

Kinda like The Magnetic Fields doing Scott Walker. This SHOULD be up my alley!

found the worst accent

Some classic nuggets on here, baby

This album is NOT too long. You're just not long enough!

The weakest of his first four, but damn there's some beautiful stuff on here. And King's Lead Hat is officially a banger. I love bops and bangers. Gimme a bop? I'm happy. Hand me a banger? My day is officially MADE. Thanks for the grooves, Bry-Guy.

hell yeah

Big and loud and fun and accessible. I left the CD in my parents' minivan back in 2005 and my dad was not impressed.

very impressive, kinda forgettable. my prog friends back in high school ate this up and starting using greek/latin gibberish song titles

Give this review a thumbs up if you, as the lamb, would lie down on broadway

my favorite stunt guitarist

We are the Village Green Head Injury Society

I'm sure David is a nice guy.

The vibes won me over

I like his pop songs

There's some decent tunes buried under this disgusting 80s production

Incredible that the Beatles, the most popular band from the 1960s, got really good by the end of the 1960s.

A handful of their songs are classics, and Peter Hook is a great lead bassist, but damn, Bernard's voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Won me over!

I feel bad. They must have thought this was the future of music; turns out it was the future of PS1 character select menus.

Everything but Everything but the Girl

let the products sell themselves!

I had no clue this album would be so polarizing! It's great. Just challenging enough, just pop enough, just cringe enough. Side one is all bangers.

man i wish i liked pavement. and i tried REALLY hard in college.

Wait, the doors are... good? Was I put off by all the boomer baggage? Was an above-average band bogged down by the eye-rolling mythologizing of the keyboardist?

aside from rockafeller skank, this is one of the most irritating listens

The 80s: When people forgot how to record music

This is good noodlin'! And better than 90% of the 60s SF noodle bands (which is a pretty low bar, but still).

I would lose interest in rock music, too, if my friends produced my album to sound like this.

Pretty fun!

I just know that Frank would have called me a plastic person.

Ah, back when soul, country, R&B, and rock 'n roll were basically the same thing! Felt more like a collection of singles than an album, but still a blast. And man, those vocals! This guy probably destroyed some expensive studio microphones back in the day.

I'm glad this exists and I'm really impressed. But for some reason the way it sounds makes me nauseous? I can't explain.

Turn on "mono audio" in the playback settings on spotify for a MUCH better listening experience.

Great party!

The production is good. There must be more interesting dub/reggae music out there, right? Maybe something from... Jamaica?

I'm excited to click through and get mad at the bad reviews!

The oompah-Strokes found the "backwards reverb" button on their digi-pedals. I guess it's nice that they're playing instruments? Listen to Man Man instead!

This Mad Chester fella need to be locked up

3

Great party songs. Production aged like milk. This is what the most expensive synthesizers and drum machines in 1982 sounded like.

Horny boomer cringe. Play it loud!

Maybe it's because I listened to the definitive John Cale version of Hallelujah a million times, but I think Jeff took all the irony out of the song and he's responsible for the sappier versions throughout the years. The Cale version works because it's deliberately secular, the hallelujahs are reluctant, and he's stepping outside of the song to observe the torment/ecstasy. Or maybe I'm just a snob! Some interesting proggy stuff in here! A couple neat guitar tricks from the pretty boy. His playing/singing reminds me of when early-90s hair metal bands did a one-off acoustic number, like Mr. Big's "To Be With You" or Extreme's "More Than Words" or when Bon Jovi did... something. I'm sure Bon Jovi did an early 90s acoustic song.

Man, I freakin love to ROCK

I'm not 100% sure why this is on the list, but I like it! Reminds me of Byrds country era, and kinda a forerunner to Dwight Yoakam. I've been eBaying "Lot of 30 country tapes. $14!" for the past year or so, and this seems like one of the tapes I'd keep.

I couldn't make it through the off-key tribute to stevie wonder, but the rest is fun. Seem like some fun dudes. You can hear who's pulling their weight.

Pretty good! I've been hearing about this "genius" my whole life. I think we should retire that word. It's good!

Interesting. Cool beats. The female voices are great. The "toasting" guy is... off-key. Who's going to tell all the british men that they can't sing?

Nice!

Pretty good! But sounds a LOT like Steve Winwood.

Nice! They sound like Squeeze. Their personality starts to show several songs in

i see why this is important to people

Really nice album!

What is it about white guys in the 70s overusing the term "rock and roll"

Nice! I don't think the sitar really works, but it's very pleasant pop psychedelia

Coldplay is a little too hardcore for me. This is nice.

Pretty good! Apple should apologize to Lauryn for giving this album baggage and creating thousands of haters overnight.

It's nice. Good job, guys

This rocks!

This is chill! And the video for Caroline is beautiful. I only knew this guy from my 10th grade french textbook, so I assumed he was corny as hell. He might be. I barely learned any french besides "C'est super cool"

Has one of the best lyrics of all time in the first two minutes: "don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk" a lot of schmaltz, though. His 80s stuff got way, way better

The Who is a great band with some all-time great albums. This isn't... one you must listen to. I can hear Pete dipping his toe into narrative/theatrical rock, but this is kinda a half-measure. It feels like a dry run for Tommy. The radio skits are not a good use of anybody's time.

Won me over! I tend to go "ugh, another nothing british group" but... that's what this website is. a database of british groups that were important to the author in gradeschool. I like the twang in this album.

This is a lot of fun!

For years I only knew the Manhattan Transfer's horrifying version of "Birdland", and it turns out to actually be one of the coolest song! Weird!

Every thumbs-up on this post is a petition to outlaw the UK forever

Certified noodling! something uniquely lame about british blues

"Brian says he wants to overdub another guitar part. Should we let him?"

Classic. Great double feature with the Descendent's ALL (punk rockers discovered the metalhead guitar pedals). That said, I'm not crazy about the drum sound.

This guy keeps trying to steal my girl

They really found their (production) sound on the next album, but this is still a great time. Super tight!

Great music to fold laundry to

Oh, it's just nine inch nails

Nice! 3 or 4

Their country tracks are nice. But the schmaltzy tracks are dire

I hear a lot of Squeeze in this! I'm an Elvis Costello fan, but his voice is particularly annoying on this album. I would not recommend this album to folks who are not already in the trenches.

Why do I look at other people's reviews?

Really interesting!

It’s fun! I accidentally listened to the bonus tracks, which do wear out their welcome. Being white and having “blues” in the band name (especially for purity testers on this website who are also white) gives this some weird cultural baggage. Interesting that this came out during the 90s punk revival. And predated the 2000s distorted-vocal garage rock revival.

If they cut out the skits, 1/3rd the songs, and 1 minute out of each song, it would be a masterpiece.

There's a difference between "was very successful" and "good"

i used to be very annoyed by pavement, but now i think they're decent!

i like the last song

i love hanging out in this guy's basement

Some all-timers on this, but even Nico hated the flutes.

I appreciate 50 as a person, but his mumble-slurring makes me appreciate how much energy late-90s rappers like Mystikal, DMX, Busta Rhymes, and Twista put into their rap.

Hell yeah

Won me over!

Find this boring? Guess what? You're boring!