Started off strong. First few tracks were very groovy, layered, emotive. The back half of the album kind of killed the momentum that the first half had. The spacey soundscape tracks weren't bad in their own right, but they just went on for way too long. Definitely would be a 4 if the balance between conventional and instrumental tracks was a little better.
No strong opinions here, kind of sounds like a lot of other acts from the late 60s and early 70s but with more edgy vocals. The title track definitely stands out, but it is a bit weird to start with the one ballad and have the rest of the album be much more tame.
Overall a pretty bland listening experience. The songs just kind of chug along with nothing really happening, and many of them feel indistinguishable from one another. Nothing offensively bad, just feels very unengaging to listen to.
The guitar really carries this album. I wasn't a fan of the vocals at all, but the rest of the instruments were complementary enough. The best parts of the album were the droning guitar solos, but unfortunately a lot of time was spent on more reserved indie rock type tunes that just weren't very interesting.
This is a great example of music that is very eccentric but completely coherent. They really love their trumpets and violins, and know how to write simple yet effective hooks. The vocals can be a bit hit or miss, and the slower, softer songs didn't quite hit the same for me. Overall a fun listening experience.
Chuck had some memorable bars and the overall message of the album was great. I also liked the incorporation of the live sound bits. But oh my god, so many of these beats have the most obnoxious sounds I've ever heard. I also find Flav very annoying, so while I enjoyed parts of the album, other parts were almost unlistenable for me.
I'm sure I would've listened to these guys if I was alive in 1966, but today I simply get nothing from this album. A few decent tracks and a lot of below average ones. It's all just a little too dated for my liking.
This was way more of a trip than I was expecting. The progressive, jazzy flow of this album was new and refreshing for me. The track and album lengths were nice too, nothing was dragged out and some songs were so full of ideas that they felt much longer. I'm not crazy about the vocals, they worked well for some songs but others missed the mark by a lot. Overall, this was my favorite so far and I hope more Joni comes up on this list.
The rapping on this album sounded so unenthused it was actually putting me to sleep, and the excessive disc scratching noises were dumb as hell. I also hate when people rap about how good they are at rapping. I honestly kind of checked out half way through this one.
Whatever they were going for here did not resonate with me at all. The whole album was just noisy as hell, and any tracks that were more tolerable just ended up being repetitive. Noisy rock or pop that isn't done right is just straight up annoying.
Pretty enjoyable album and one of the better 60s rock groups I've heard. However this general era of rock just isn't my thing, especially with how far rock has come since then it just doesn't hold up quite as well.
It was fun to hear something from a completely different era and part of the world than I'm used to. That ended up being its biggest downfall for me however, because I simply couldn't find much of anything to connect to as I listened. It's difficult to rate something like this, but my lasting impression is that I'm glad I heard it but I'm in no hurry to listen to it again.
I enjoyed this album and the story it told. The first 20 minutes or so were excellent, and the variety and creativity were well appreciated. It gets kind of distracted in the middle and I had mixed feelings about some of those tracks. I think some of these tracks maybe bloated the album's length just a bit.
I can sense the artistic ideas that went into this and the range of emotions conveyed. But it didn't totally translate musically, it felt like 80% of the album was just chunky, distorted guitar and crash cymbals, and there's only so much you can do with that. Didn't hate it, but was underwhelmed.
Every song on this album feels unique but consistent at the same time. The vocals always match the tone of the song perfectly. There's so many good build ups and the release is always well executed. My only complaint is that a few tracks just go a little longer than they need to.
I don't like Cheryl Crow's voice. Some of the softer tracks didn't sound horrible but were just boring, and if she tried to add any edge to it using her voice it sounded like shit. I don't think a single track hit for me.
If you've heard one song off this album, you've heard them all. The tone is very melancholy, and if you're not in the right mood for it it becomes a chore to listen through. There's nothing terrible going on with the music itself but the songs feel ambient at best.
The range of this album is really impressive. It got off to a really hot start and even the less interesting tracks were carried by Stevie's voice. But man this album could've easily been 30 minutes shorter. So many songs in the second half had a good idea going and then ended by doing nothing for an extra four minutes. Would've been five stars without that
A very calming and pleasant listen. I think the foreign vocals made me disengage a bit for better or worse. Everything was consistent track to track and I was neither thrilled nor bored.
This album has some good hooks and interesting ideas, which is what I've come to expect from them. I think the use of horns on this one was pretty excessive, and the vocals were very hit or miss. Not as memorable as some of their other albums
I was ready to rock out at the start of this one, and by the end I was just bored. Very stereotypical 80s metal and every song sounded the same.
I enjoyed the quicker pace and conciseness of this one. There was a nice little groove to most of the songs and while nothing blew me away I was at least entertained. Had to dock points for Robert Smith's overly British vocals though.
Overall this one was a mixed bag. The best songs were really catchy and had memorable choruses, but there were a handful of songs that were very boring in comparison and felt like filler. Would've enjoyed the whole album much more if they trimmed some of that down. Also there were a couple of songs where it almost seemed like the vocals were being drowned out by everything else, which is weird considering they should be the focal point of the album