Love song with Prince was a stand out
Too many ballads
Pray for Spanish Eyes has a hilarious intro
Act of Contribution was punk as fuck
Pink Flag can stand on its own legs as a great album, but listening to this in a vacuum doesn't do the genre or moment in time justice. Post Punk, Hardcore, and Alt scenes all owe a lot to this record. Wire finished what the Ramones started. It's insane this album is from the friggin 70's
Reuters - Halfway through the first play of Reuters I restarted and doubled the volume - immediately gave the drudging guitars more atmosphere and weight for that build up.
Field Day for the Sundays - Did the Wire or Minutemen come first? I'm a sucker that farm boy punk banjo sound
Three Girl Rhumba - I actually know this from Elastica first (I love 90's girl alt rock - go watch that music video for connection right now), and while I like their take on that riff more I gotta knock em for stealing it from Wire
Ex Lion Tamer - Such an unreal tune! I love singing the back up vocals in a dumb deep voice, one of my favourite tunes on the album both instrumentally and lyrically. You cant not play air guitar to this one! Every time this tune shows up day to day Im good for a couple immediate replays.
Lowdown - Probably the only song on the album that I'd consider too long
Start to Move - Vintage Wire. I swear this dude goes an entire album without annunciating a single word
Brazil / It's So Obvious / Surgeon's Girl - Nice slew of 1 minute songs. Drumming stands out on all of them and love those tweaked vocals on Obvious but I don't love the Irish drunk boy vocals of Surgeons Girl
Pink Flag - This song could have came out today and depending on the producer it could have been Stoner Rock, Hardcore, Post Punk, or Pysch Rock. The bones of this track have been widely used since - you can feel the wire start to gear their music to a more solitary listening experience rather than the typical jams that were designed to be played live
Straight Line - This was made to be played live
106 Beats - Vocals are a bit mismatched but the progression makes up for it. That riff (progression?) at 42 seconds rules
Mr Suit - Classic punk tune down to the 1,2,3,4
Strange - Another favourite. You can feel this one borrowing from early DEVO as the vocals gets a bit more nerdy/tech while still being grounded by that drudge guitar sound. Love the experimentation in the studio too, the producer had fun with this one.
Fragile - That drum beat is surprisingly dance-able.
Mannequin - A CLASSIC. People have written essays about this song so I don't have to. Feels like a really early take on pop punk or emo . . . proto-emo?
Different to Me - Perfectly paced, love the roar of the opening vocals
Champs - Some interesting vocal experimentation going on here that separate it from the others. Champs bridges the gap between those explosive 1 min bangers and the 4 minute more considered tunes. Franz Ferdinand created an entire style after this song.
Feeling Called Love - Least favourite tune on the album. Sounds like he's doing a Bob Dylan impression lol.
1 2 X U - The opening dialogue feels gimmicky but this tune has a rich history of being expertly covered (Minor Threat <3)
Overall, Pink Flag is not an easy listen, the explosively short songs demand attention but its legacy can be heard in modern takes of rock keeping this album fresh. I bet this was the first time reviewers were using words like "minimalistic" or "atmospheric" to describe rock music. Wire deserves to be considered alongside Devo, Gang of Four, Joy Division, and the Talking Heads as the most important bands to mature punk.
Lively Up Yourself / Them Belly Full / Rebel Music / Natty Dread are all vintage Marley - 4 classics in a 10 track album is a seriously good batting average.
That said, the entire album feels a bit sterile compared to his other recordings. It was never just Marley and the two missing Wailers is felt here - especially on “No Woman No Cry”. The drums feel small and the instrumentation sounds empty while somehow still sounding over produced.
There are great songs here but I’ll take the live recordings any day
This album was a ton of fun. I knew she had a respected music career but I'd never heard any of Queen Latifah's music before today. Overall I loved the 90's east coast influence, her vocals landed well and the production was tight. Definitely going to add a few of these songs into the rotation
The Pros stopped me in my tracks. I love that dub intro and that rolling bass introduced 30 secs in filled me up. Super into Queen reggae inspired jams and that 808 cowbell sample is classic 90's hiphop.
Standout Tracks (stealing Webers format here)
Dance for Me, The Pros, Ladies First, Princess of the Posse
Had a really hard time not skipping Bridge Over Water, worst jam on the album
Love El Condor Pasa! Put me more in the headspace for the album, maybe shoulda lead with this. Then Cecilia took me right out of it, I think this is probably more of an overplay problem (looking at you highschool art class). The Only Living boy in New York feels like it shares some common ground with a lot of the fold I listen to these days.
Standout Tunes: El Condor Pasa, Living Boy in New York
I 100% thought this was a modern release - especially the title track. It's a jam so Im stoked to see it get more love recently.
As a whole I think this album aged really well. The production was modern and experimental, the tracks flowed into each-other giving making this album feel more like a mix. That said I do think the track sequencing was a bit off. Chill tracks were followed by aggressive ones with experimental timing, it took me out of my flow a few times.
Standout Tunes: Since I Left You, Two Hearts in 3/4 Time. Frontier Psychiatrist
Like every other person on the planet, I’ve heard most of the tunes on this album. Despite thinking I knew what to expect walking in I was still impressed by the quality of this record. Wanna Be Startin Something really set the tone and Baby Be Mine was an excellent follow up. I swear I’ve heard that beat sampled in a million other tunes and that little robotic synth is oh so good - this one got me dancing in the chair but there was a very noticeable BPM shift around 3:30 that should have been ironed out.
Thriller > Beat It > Billie Jean has to be one of the gnarliest triple threats out there! Of the three Beat It is my favorite, that intro is delicious.
The Girl is Mine is a groovy beat but the voice over and basically the entire subject of the song has aged horribly. This tune, Human Nature, and The Lady in my Life were a cut below everything else.
Standout Tunes: Wanna Be Startin Something, Baby Be Mine, Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean
Sigur Ros question for Sigur Ros fans - How do you identify the songs? Is there some kind of phonetic spelling out there or are ya’ll just saying “The second track sounded like outer space”. I guess it makes the most sense to think about Sigur Ros’s music in terms of albums rather than individual songs anyways, and thats the approach I took. After listening to Ágætis Byrjun on loop a few times there were identifiable moments but I couldn't distinguish between tracks.
I like the album, Im a sucker for grand post rock with big spacey atmospheric tones. Theres a lil Smashing Pumpkins and Spiritualized in there but Sigur Ros’s instrumental experimentation with the bow/guitar and make-believe vocals created a sound that's uniquely their own.
About those vocals though . . .
I appreciate that each listener is supposed to draw out their own shapes from this record - and Hopelandic is a way to remove language as a bias - but I cant help but feel like this is some serious nerd bait. Is there semantic meaning to the words coming out of this dude's mouth or not? I dunno
Good album. Wouldn't put it on, but wouldn't turn it off if I heard it either
Standout Tunes: Couldn't pick one out. Do us a solid and start cranking out ambient music.
Black Flag’s Damaged is like the pilot episode of your favourite TV show. The cast is missing a key member or two, the writers haven't found their stride and it was shot independently before being picked up so the whole thing feels raw - but there's a foundation for something great.
The proto slacker tunes like Six Pack and TV Party experiment with apathy to subvert the overly serious conventions of the east coast scene - laying a foundation for bands like Descendants to follow. More influentially Rise Above can be credited as being one of the first hardcore jams, a genre I still love today.
That's about where the good things end for me. This album was abrasive to the point of being unlistenable, especially the second half. Sometimes, playing as hard and as loud as you can works, but mostly it doest.
Hole kicks all kind of ass on this album
The title track stands out as a great riot sing a long song and Awful follows up with the perfect kind of 90's alt summer rock.
Malibu is such a classic. Courtneys vocalization really kicks ass as she dives into those deep lows, a nice fuck you to pop queen convention.
Love that wavy guitar work on Use Once & Destroy. Really killer instrumentation too - I have no idea where half those sounds are coming from.
Courtneys vocals are really strong throughout the entire ride and Im a sucker for this era / genre which made this a really enjoyable listen.
Standout Tracks: Celebrity Skin, Awful, Malibu, Use Once & Destroy
Gah I love 90s girl alt rock and Elastica has to be one of my all time favs. Despite them fully ripping off a bunch of these tunes - they do make them their own (half points I guess)
The bass guitar stands out throughout the album but I think the vocals are the unsung hero here. She's got a really effortless style thats loaded with personality.
This is an album I'll be coming back to frequently - almost 5 stars
Standout Tracks: Line Up, Connection, SOFT, See That Animal. Stutter
This is SICK! Its like legit old school bond music but not a joke - I love it.
Standout Tracks: You Don't Know What Love Is
Maybe more alt than punk, gets a little pop punk for me but love those layered guitars - solid instrumentation. I love the horns and back up vocals but those lead vocals are a little too unoriginal for me - this dude could have easily started smash mouth after this band (not a dis smash mouth rules), I really hate the line "you want some cheese with your wine" . . . the vocals are just sooooo whiney (get it)
Standout Tracks: Born in 69,
I have some fun memories with this album. Soft Cell was one of my Dads favourites so this got a lot of airtime for me growing up. This year in the dead of winter Kayla and I got snowed in a Montreal apartment so we spent the afternoon flipping through an 80's record collection and we had a ton of fun dancing to this record.
Tainted love is a timeless classic. For some reason I always wanna listen to Smalltown Boy by Bronski beat or Temptation by Heaven 17 immediately after. The electronic beat in Sex Dwarf is soooo amazing and I kinda love how its paired with some of the heaviest handed hilariously cringe lyrics of all time.
Overall the album feels like a really unsexy dude trying to be sexy OR its some kind of parody thats going Over my head. Either way theres a few bangers on this record and a few duds
Standout Tracks: Tainted Love, Sex Dwarf
Solid album, played like a really cool set without any distinguishing tracks. I thought it was really well produced and mastered - just nothing jumped out. Im sure this is an important record for the genre but I haven't done enough digging for context.
I would definitely return to this album.
Standout Tracks: The entire album
Minor Threat rules but Fugazi really kicks ass
Despite Ian being a super annoying straight edge punk that basically invited that "holier than thou" attitude the album is super solid. I prefer 13 songs but these vocals still have that aggressive / raw feel while somehow sounding super polished. . . a beautiful in-between black flag and wire!
I've really enjoyed rediscovering these punk albums I fell in love with in college. Fugazi is a top 3 punk band of all time for me.
Standout Tracks: Blueprint
I really love this album. Normally a winter play, especially a late night, great for working too. Two Weeks is a classic tune thats loaded with history and memories for me - definitely a song I'll carry with me forever.
That said, most of the other tracks (while good) feel unsubstantial. Two Weeks and Foreground are killer bookends to a good album overall.
Standout Tracks: Two Weeks, Foreground
I love this quintessential 90's rap. Im familiar with Jeru but Wrath of the Math has been my go to album. Sun Rises is definitely still really raw but the complexity and lyricism are still present - this sound is definitely way ahead of its time - you can hear a lot of this in Blackalicious, the Roots, and more modern high brow hip hop
Standout Tracks: D. Original, Come clean, Da Bichez
