Cities have this ever present dull roar. After having always lived in the country or the suburbs, I remember my first few nights living in an apartment in the city. Getting used to that roar took some time. The city is a living thing. So many people and vehicles and things going on. And yet among it all its easy to feel isolated and alienated from it. People people everywhere, but no one to connect to. This album has an ever present bass and sub bass component. That dull roar*. On top of it, the mid range and high end are very sparsely populated. Anything that lives in that space is delicate and vulnerable. The vocalist isn't singing along to chords. There is no accompaniment. The vocals stand completely on their own. And it really sells the feeling of loneliness, the kind of loneliness borne of a desire to make new connections, and the creeping doubt as to whether that's even possible anymore. The sense conveyed is that I used to have relationships, and I used to understand my surroundings, and it used to be so easy to make friends. The nostalgic elements to the music sell this too. The dirty vinyl sounds, the cimbalom, the theramin, all evoke the past. While the delicate vocals represent the present. Why can't it be easy like it used to be? I'm surrounded by all these people. Is something wrong with me? Or is something wrong with everything else? How can it feel, this wrong From this moment How can it feel, this wrong 'Cause a child, roses light Tried to reveal, what I could feel I can't understand myself Anymore 'Cause, I'm still feelin' lonely Feelin' so unholy Who am I, what and why 'Cause all I have left is my memories of yesterday Oh these sour times 'Cause nobody loves me, it's true Not like you do I don't believe its sad or mournful. This isn't a funeral. It hasn't given up. Not yet. There's just this desire for something, and the question as to whether its even a valid desire anymore. "Did you really want?" On the path toward alienation, but not quite there yet. "Give me a reason to love you." Prove my desires are worth having. Please. Because I've about given up on them. * I just wanted to point out how much the bass of Wandering Star sounds just like distant air brakes from a truck, something you'd hear lying in your bed in the city, but I have no idea how to fit it in.

Skipping the first song on re-listens really added a star or two on this. I wonder how much impact the opening song on an album has on the ratings on this site. Sometimes it feels like a lot to listen to one new album every day, so first impressions really have to count. One More Chance is just so cheesy. The first 30 seconds sounds like an ad for babbys first sampler. Did that squeaky "ehh" sound really need to survive into the chorus? Past that song though, the album is great. Neil Tennant's vocals are always awesome. Distinctive and expressive without being showy. Pop songs are often in minor keys these days, but I feel like that was less common in the 80s (I might be wrong). The fairly sombre vocals combined with the accessible backdrops feel like a smiling friendly man waving you inside, only to regale you with sad tales of privatisation, religious repression, financially one-sided relationships, the impact of the focus on personal financial gain over personal relationships, and so on. But his voice is so nice that you stay and listen. This was a rollercoaster ride of "ohh I like the pet shop boys, let's have a listen... oh no this is cheesy and dated... actually this song aint bad, and this one, and this one, wait, is the only bad song the first one? yes actually. oh god thats the album name. Did they mean that? Surely not. Like the album giving you a weird cheesy pop song at the start and then saying... actually... and then giving you awesome song after awesome song. Like the way the chorus in Shopping makes you go, what the fuck is this about, then you read what its... actually... about... christ I'm overthinking this. Album good." Have I talked myself into five stars here? I think I have. Why not hey.

Listening to this album feels like someone enthusiastically re-gifting you something they forgot you gave them in the first place. The fact that they went to a lot of trouble to wrap it doesn't reduce the feelings of confusion and discomfort you experience when you've finished opening it. If anything it makes it worse. A gift card displays a lack of personalisation and original thought, but its often the best option. A gift of utility is never an insult. Being a cover band is good honest work. I know it's boring to criticise music for reusing common chord progressions, but come on... the entirety of the *opening track* of this *compilation album* is the one chord progression over and over, only changing it up in the most boring way possible in the chorus, (by alternating between one different chord, and the original progression), which stops at multiple points to highlight that chord progression, and adds nothing interesting at any other point. It's all about that chord progression. That you've heard done in more interesting ways in countless other songs. It does successfully set the tone for the rest of the album. If you've heard music before, there's no reason to bother with this album. You've heard it all before.

Have you been out drinking with friends and the conversation and laughs are flowing, but then something happens to snap you out of your mirth? You start questioning yourself. Have you had too much to drink? How many *have* you had? Are you going to hurl? What is your friend even saying to you at this point? Shit, he stopped talking and he's looking at you expectantly, you better laugh, he's always saying funny stuff, it was probably funny. You laugh and conversation and mirth continues. You're fine. But you switch to water instead of beer, just in case. Wasn't Born to Follow has this fairly standard country sounding sounding progression with some harmonies and jangly guitars and then... the breakdown. Totally non melodic noise. It makes you stop and question where you are. What am I doing? Is any of this even real? Then the country bass line starts back up again, and we're back in normalcy again... but it's coloured by the breakdown. It's like you've seen a monster out of the window of a speeding train. Normal doesn't feel quite as normal as it did before. And this is all in two minutes. This feels like real psychedelic folk rock. Not just a few wah pedals or phasers or tricks with tape, but psychedelia in the songwriting itself. Stuff to make you question your reality. Folk rock to set the baseline, and then all sorts of methods to pull the rug. Artificial Energy sets the tone, with a harsh edge on the bass and horns to match the lyrics that are about the harsh after affects of drugs. Natural Harmony starts with some lilting arpeggios, and then some expectant rhythmic chords, that appear to be telegraphing some upcoming rock pop chorus. But it never gets there. Instead it sorts of fades away, and ends in some fairly dissonant uneasy sounding feedback. Draft Morning starts with warm sounding music, and warm sounding lyrics, followed by a rug pull in the lyrics first, followed by a warning of horns and the sound of war. Sun warm on my face, I hear you Down below movin' slow And it's morning Take my time this morning, no hurry To learn to kill and take the will From unknown faces This album is just rug pull after rug pull. And it's all done inside such short songs. I don't like the word genius, so I won't use it, but if I liked the word, or was at least neutral about the word, I might apply it to this album I probably don't need to say it, but these five stars don't mean I would recommend it to anyone. None of my reviews are recommendations. Just how it hits me. And man, this hit me. I will listen to this a lot.

I'm glad this was our weekend album. There's just... so much. So many layers. Organ, hand drums, regular drums, distorted bass (and surely that's a whammy bar on the bass), spitting fuzz guitar, clean guitar with a wah (of course), any number of horns and strings, and... is that a fucking harp? Yes, yes it's a harp. And that's just the first minute of the first song. And it feels like they're all played by individual humans. All playing little bits and pieces, but also coming together in unison often enough that the songs feel like songs, not just jams. Somehow, even with all that instrumentation, it has a real live feel. There are mistakes here and there, and the vocals aren't the strongest, but I don't find they distract from the experience. They give it an energy. It feels alive. You're not listening to a product that has been painstakingly constructed and polished over months in a studio, you're in a room full of great musicians having a good time. The off the cuff feeling of the album comes with downsides. No Thing On Me feels cheesy, both lyrically and melodically. The wah in Give Me Your Love sounds like someone is strangling a duck. Both songs could have used more time in the oven, but I think more overall production time would have dulled some of the rawness that gives the rest of the album it's energy. So I'll take two (relative) duds if it gives me 7 songs that are brilliant, rich without being busy, dirty without being muddy, somehow simultaneously groovy and contemplative. I'll be listening to this for years to come.

A brilliantly crafted album that makes me feel things that I can't be bothered feeling anymore. It doesn't resonate emotionally like it did when I was younger, but I can't deny the artistry.

Fast chaotic motion. Riding on a machine, roaring through the wind, parts threatening to shake themselves loose, but everything holds together somehow. For 36 minutes at least. Never* tips over into nasty egotism like so many imitators, Motorhead is shouting who they are over the roar of the engine, and you can take them or leave them. Personally, I will take them. This is my first time listening to a full album of theirs, and it won't be the last. *ok just that one time

Listening to this album feels like someone enthusiastically re-gifting you something they forgot you gave them in the first place. The fact that they went to a lot of trouble to wrap it doesn't reduce the feelings of confusion and discomfort you experience when you've finished opening it. If anything it makes it worse. A gift card displays a lack of personalisation and original thought, but its often the best option. A gift of utility is never an insult. Being a cover band is good honest work. I know it's boring to criticise music for reusing common chord progressions, but come on... the entirety of the *opening track* of this *compilation album* is the one chord progression over and over, only changing it up in the most boring way possible in the chorus, (by alternating between one different chord, and the original progression), which stops at multiple points to highlight that chord progression, and adds nothing interesting at any other point. It's all about that chord progression. That you've heard done in more interesting ways in countless other songs. It does successfully set the tone for the rest of the album. If you've heard music before, there's no reason to bother with this album. You've heard it all before.

The bass makes me shake my butt in my office chair, and there are some sweet guitar bits too, but the songs just feel like sparse repetitive shells to show off the great bass and guitar playing. It's not the sort of thing I would normally listen to, but if I was going to disco, this would great music with which to disco to. +1 star for Savoir Faire. I'll come back to that one for sure

The confident anger of youth. Great dynamics, great guitar tones, occasional (brief) genre bending, lyrics that make me think "hmm I should probably scan through these before singing along too enthusiastically". I always avoided these guys because Chop Suey just seemed immature, but this was better than I expected. I still wouldn't listen to it again, because I no longer posses the moral certitude for confident expressions of anger to resonate with me. Give me grey and uncertainty. I'll recommend this to my son when he's in his teens and needs an outlet.

I'm glad this was our weekend album. There's just... so much. So many layers. Organ, hand drums, regular drums, distorted bass (and surely that's a whammy bar on the bass), spitting fuzz guitar, clean guitar with a wah (of course), any number of horns and strings, and... is that a fucking harp? Yes, yes it's a harp. And that's just the first minute of the first song. And it feels like they're all played by individual humans. All playing little bits and pieces, but also coming together in unison often enough that the songs feel like songs, not just jams. Somehow, even with all that instrumentation, it has a real live feel. There are mistakes here and there, and the vocals aren't the strongest, but I don't find they distract from the experience. They give it an energy. It feels alive. You're not listening to a product that has been painstakingly constructed and polished over months in a studio, you're in a room full of great musicians having a good time. The off the cuff feeling of the album comes with downsides. No Thing On Me feels cheesy, both lyrically and melodically. The wah in Give Me Your Love sounds like someone is strangling a duck. Both songs could have used more time in the oven, but I think more overall production time would have dulled some of the rawness that gives the rest of the album it's energy. So I'll take two (relative) duds if it gives me 7 songs that are brilliant, rich without being busy, dirty without being muddy, somehow simultaneously groovy and contemplative. I'll be listening to this for years to come.

I don't feel any glee in disliking something so revered. I don't think I'm a special snowflake whose opinions matter more than others. I don't like writing negative reviews. For the most part I just want to look at how an album made me feel, and try to reverse engineer that a bit. The best music goes straight to your hips and your heart, and examining why it succeeds, or describing how it succeeds, is fun. Examining why something didn't make me feel *anything* is not fun. I don't want to have to re-listen to an album of this length to justify my opinion. I also don't want to harsh anyone's buzz with strongly worded negative opinions, like I'm trying to convince you that I'm right. This album was boring to me, but if you loved it, you're more "right" than me. Love more things imo.

Cities have this ever present dull roar. After having always lived in the country or the suburbs, I remember my first few nights living in an apartment in the city. Getting used to that roar took some time. The city is a living thing. So many people and vehicles and things going on. And yet among it all its easy to feel isolated and alienated from it. People people everywhere, but no one to connect to. This album has an ever present bass and sub bass component. That dull roar*. On top of it, the mid range and high end are very sparsely populated. Anything that lives in that space is delicate and vulnerable. The vocalist isn't singing along to chords. There is no accompaniment. The vocals stand completely on their own. And it really sells the feeling of loneliness, the kind of loneliness borne of a desire to make new connections, and the creeping doubt as to whether that's even possible anymore. The sense conveyed is that I used to have relationships, and I used to understand my surroundings, and it used to be so easy to make friends. The nostalgic elements to the music sell this too. The dirty vinyl sounds, the cimbalom, the theramin, all evoke the past. While the delicate vocals represent the present. Why can't it be easy like it used to be? I'm surrounded by all these people. Is something wrong with me? Or is something wrong with everything else? How can it feel, this wrong From this moment How can it feel, this wrong 'Cause a child, roses light Tried to reveal, what I could feel I can't understand myself Anymore 'Cause, I'm still feelin' lonely Feelin' so unholy Who am I, what and why 'Cause all I have left is my memories of yesterday Oh these sour times 'Cause nobody loves me, it's true Not like you do I don't believe its sad or mournful. This isn't a funeral. It hasn't given up. Not yet. There's just this desire for something, and the question as to whether its even a valid desire anymore. "Did you really want?" On the path toward alienation, but not quite there yet. "Give me a reason to love you." Prove my desires are worth having. Please. Because I've about given up on them. * I just wanted to point out how much the bass of Wandering Star sounds just like distant air brakes from a truck, something you'd hear lying in your bed in the city, but I have no idea how to fit it in.

Find Somebody is cool... but did it really need that opening chord? Come on. It's not the exact one, but it's surely intended to evoke it. Which feels like the theme for the album really. Evoking music rather than creating it. Like darts aimed at the commercial dartboard. Lets make music that sounds like other hits so we can make some money. Maybe then we can afford to hire an album-cover artist who has seen humans before. It worked to a degree. Most of the songs are fine. A lot of this feels like movie soundtrack stuff. Want to evoke an era without using a song that is too well known? This album would be a gold mine for that. Not really worth listening to in it's own right though.

This music is more about taking your body on a journey than your mind. The beats make you shake your butt and the acoustic instruments keep your brain occupied just enough, allowing your butt to shake on it's own, without your dumb brain getting in the way. Literal dance music. But the kind for when you've had a glass or two of wine, rather than the kind for when you've had some pingers and you aint stopping.

Listening to this feels like someone trying a little too hard to convince you that everything's going to be ok. Maybe you've had a problem and a friend is consoling you, and you appreciate their company, but... they're overdoing it just a little. Verbally. And if anything it's making you feel slightly worse. A lot of these songs just try to pack too many words in for the length of the vocal phrases, and they do it with a very static rhythm. The effect is like 80s drum machine feel but for vocals. Too static, too on-the-beat-every-time. Like a drummer with no swing. And maybe that would be ok if the vocals weren't mixed like they're meant to be the center of attention. But they are, and it makes it feel like someone is trying to make a logical argument to me, rather than appeal to my emotion like good music should. Vocals aside, there are some great moments. Some of the outros and solos really made me sit up and pay attention. I just could not connect emotionally with any song as a whole.

Skipping the first song on re-listens really added a star or two on this. I wonder how much impact the opening song on an album has on the ratings on this site. Sometimes it feels like a lot to listen to one new album every day, so first impressions really have to count. One More Chance is just so cheesy. The first 30 seconds sounds like an ad for babbys first sampler. Did that squeaky "ehh" sound really need to survive into the chorus? Past that song though, the album is great. Neil Tennant's vocals are always awesome. Distinctive and expressive without being showy. Pop songs are often in minor keys these days, but I feel like that was less common in the 80s (I might be wrong). The fairly sombre vocals combined with the accessible backdrops feel like a smiling friendly man waving you inside, only to regale you with sad tales of privatisation, religious repression, financially one-sided relationships, the impact of the focus on personal financial gain over personal relationships, and so on. But his voice is so nice that you stay and listen. This was a rollercoaster ride of "ohh I like the pet shop boys, let's have a listen... oh no this is cheesy and dated... actually this song aint bad, and this one, and this one, wait, is the only bad song the first one? yes actually. oh god thats the album name. Did they mean that? Surely not. Like the album giving you a weird cheesy pop song at the start and then saying... actually... and then giving you awesome song after awesome song. Like the way the chorus in Shopping makes you go, what the fuck is this about, then you read what its... actually... about... christ I'm overthinking this. Album good." Have I talked myself into five stars here? I think I have. Why not hey.

It's all controlled imperfection. The 12 string guitar jangles like it does because its not perfectly in tune with itself. The harmonies aren't exactly perfect. The rhythm is laid back, the bass doesn't always hit the snare right on the money. It's not detrimental to the experience though. Your old shoes are a bit scuffed up and maybe there's a hole that you're trying to ignore because they're just so damn comfortable to put on. They feel right for you and often it's a relief to return to them.

Enough words have been spilled about the production on this, but... damn. Would be a 5 if I could handle the lyrics for more than half of the songs. I'd love Hell of a Life with different lyrics. Monster and Runaway are absolute bangers. I'll re-listen to most of this I think.

40 minutes worth of stuff as good as Save the Life of My Child, America, and Mrs Robinson and I'd be loading up the power washer with 5s and spraying them all over this thing. Even if it ended in a shitty zoo song. It's just so short that a few skippers makes this like when my wife trims the fat off the pork belly before she eats it. There's just not enough of a meal left behind to feel satisfied.

That distorted screaming at the end of Devil's Haircut isn't made in anger, and it's not felt in anger. It's an expression of the joy of expression itself, and it makes you want to smile and scream along too. It's the removal of the shackles of genre. Does anyone remember the "anything but rap or country" saying? Surely this album killed it. I'll take rock in my rap in my country in my samples in my hip hop if it makes me smile like this. If you start to wonder whether he's serious, the penultimate heartfelt Ramshackle is a highlight. Capped off by the fart of Computer Rock, as if to say, I'm serious, but not *that* serious.

I took your advice to do subjective reviews Jambo, but no one needs more exposition on the emotions that Elton John tries to evoke*. Everyone that has even glanced momentarily at pop culture has his affectations and melodies burnt into their brain. So I'll just say that the title track is great, as is Tiny Dancer. Holiday Inn isn't bad. That's two and a half stars. Rounding up because Elton John seems cool. * Ok just one. Levon has a nice idea for a lyrical theme, but really, overusing the word Levon just takes me out of the moment. Like when you repeat a word over and over and the raw sound of it just bounces around in your head, detached from all meaning.

I had no idea Cheap Trick were good. The guitar tone is the hero of this album. I'm not sure what I would think about the rest of it with that component missing, but I don't have to, because it's there, and it's spectacular.

It starts out with a blues riff, a drum fill, and then... bam... three percussionists. Then by the chorus we have five. And it's like that for most of the album. Under every song, a tapestry of rhythmic interplay. The guitar parts are fairly simple, but the urgent strumming often makes it act as part of the rhythm section (sometimes more so than the bass guitar, which seems more often to be serving to highlight the melody). I feel like we're so used to music that tries to make a small number of drums feel huge and fill the space, so this aspect really stands out. The wikipedia article for the album lists 15 musicians under personnel, 11 of whom play some sort of percussion instrument. Unfortunately one of those is the cuica. Maybe it's culturally ignorant of me of something, but the incessant monkey hoops of the cuica really just add way too much cheese to some otherwise great music. I don't mind when it comes to the forefront briefly, only to sink bank along with everything else, but frequently it's just too prominent in the mix. The production is treating the monkey like a vocalist, and the instrument (or how its played here at least) isn't melodically complex enough, or rhythmically accurate enough, to benefit the songs when it takes center stage the way that it frequently does. That aside, there are some great songs on this, especially in the second half. I love in both Taj Mahal and In Cavalerio Do Cavalo Imaculado, how the tempo is fast from the start, but the vocals start out relaxed, before matching the tempo and urging the song on. His vocals shake as he's strumming his guitar too. Your pampered modern fave is recording 20 different takes straight into a mic without a guitar in sight, old mate here is recording his guitar and vocal in the same take! (Is this recorded live? Surely not. That many percussion instruments would be a nightmare you'd think.) Xica Da Silva, the way the vocal contributes significantly to both the rhythm section and to the melody. The pacing of the lyrics in the chorus, the way the bass weaves in and out of it, and the rich backing vocals when they come in for the second line. I'm feeling emotional typing this. This song is so good. The closing track Africa Brasil (Zumbi) is a highlight for it's dirty dirty bass, and the growling vocals. It's an interestingly dark closer for something that frequently had a party feel for most of the album. I might not listen to the whole album again, but I've definitely added a few of these to some playlists. Really fun listening.

When you are ignorant of a genre, it feels silly to try to judge it's foundations subjectively. A lot of this album sounds so familiar, despite the fact that I've never listened to it in full before, because it has been copied and parodied and improved on so many times over. The rhymes are often cheesy and sexist, but the production is fun enough that it was interesting to listen to. It's not something I will revisit, but I can see how the boldness and clarity of vision made it so popular.

I haven't really listened to Stevie Wonder beyond the singles, so the amount of freedom and experimentation was surprising to me. I love how Ordinary Pain just completely sheds it's pop song opening about a third of the way for an aggressive driving battle of the synth solos. And the pop song "intro" just never comes back. That's the song now. Cool. Joy Inside My Tears could have been a bog standard anthem, but someone had license to add synth elements under it that just add so much interest. That synth bass on Black Man. The delay on the synth on Ngiculela. Maybe I should have known that all this cool shit existed, but I didn't. Thanks 1001 albums. I'm not a big fan of the saccharine and preachy songs, but there are so many songs on here that skipping those ones still leaves more than a regular album full of great tracks.

Have you been out drinking with friends and the conversation and laughs are flowing, but then something happens to snap you out of your mirth? You start questioning yourself. Have you had too much to drink? How many *have* you had? Are you going to hurl? What is your friend even saying to you at this point? Shit, he stopped talking and he's looking at you expectantly, you better laugh, he's always saying funny stuff, it was probably funny. You laugh and conversation and mirth continues. You're fine. But you switch to water instead of beer, just in case. Wasn't Born to Follow has this fairly standard country sounding sounding progression with some harmonies and jangly guitars and then... the breakdown. Totally non melodic noise. It makes you stop and question where you are. What am I doing? Is any of this even real? Then the country bass line starts back up again, and we're back in normalcy again... but it's coloured by the breakdown. It's like you've seen a monster out of the window of a speeding train. Normal doesn't feel quite as normal as it did before. And this is all in two minutes. This feels like real psychedelic folk rock. Not just a few wah pedals or phasers or tricks with tape, but psychedelia in the songwriting itself. Stuff to make you question your reality. Folk rock to set the baseline, and then all sorts of methods to pull the rug. Artificial Energy sets the tone, with a harsh edge on the bass and horns to match the lyrics that are about the harsh after affects of drugs. Natural Harmony starts with some lilting arpeggios, and then some expectant rhythmic chords, that appear to be telegraphing some upcoming rock pop chorus. But it never gets there. Instead it sorts of fades away, and ends in some fairly dissonant uneasy sounding feedback. Draft Morning starts with warm sounding music, and warm sounding lyrics, followed by a rug pull in the lyrics first, followed by a warning of horns and the sound of war. Sun warm on my face, I hear you Down below movin' slow And it's morning Take my time this morning, no hurry To learn to kill and take the will From unknown faces This album is just rug pull after rug pull. And it's all done inside such short songs. I don't like the word genius, so I won't use it, but if I liked the word, or was at least neutral about the word, I might apply it to this album I probably don't need to say it, but these five stars don't mean I would recommend it to anyone. None of my reviews are recommendations. Just how it hits me. And man, this hit me. I will listen to this a lot.

I love his feel. Rhythmically it's a lot of fun. I can't not groove along while it's playing. I wish there were a few more jams and solos like those in Got My Mojo Working 1, because outside of that, everything is a bit too familiar these days to enjoy.

I dunno, if you're going to go all in for power to the point where you completely forgo melody, you really oughta make sure your drums don't sound like *that*, and the bass guitar should do something other than be in complete lockstep with the rhythm guitar. Can you even tell it's there? What's left are chunky as hell guitars, some nice solos, some cool tempo and timing changes, and some very self-serious vocals. The songs are so long that I find myself liking parts of songs, but no individual song as a whole. I love the solo in the title track for example, but thats like 7 minutes into the song, and when it goes away, it's replaced by some sparse drums that, even if they sounded good, just don't do enough to take center stage, and are a pointless part of a song pushing 10 minutes. I reckon I could enjoy a Metallica album. The chunky riffs, the attempt at oppressive atmosphere, the unreasonable song lengths, and the self-seriousness that's constantly has you second guessing as to whether its parody or not. This album doesn't get there for me though.

"Standing in the wake of our pain." This album is about the journey down the slope beyond the peak of some past trauma. The acknowledgement that something painful has happened, and there's no point denying it, but we're going to make it through. Ride this out with me. Life is worth it. It approaches the pain of the past, not with denial, but with warmth. And hey, maybe we'll experience pain again, but we can learn from it, and take strength from it. "we won't get lost inside it all again" Cross the bridge To redefine your pain Then the answer is in your heart Wide awake I rearrange the way I listen in the dark Dreaming of starting up again Musically there isn't really anything in the way of hooks. You won't have any catchy choruses in your head after a couple of listens. I imagine this won't be a popular album on this project. Everything just flows into each other. If you're trying to listen to everything once in your lunch break or something, and you're not feeling it, this will just pass you by. If you are feeling it though, you can catch the mood that this album puts out any time you want, and it won't get old. These aren't songs with a verse sticky taped onto a chorus, and oh here comes that verse again, oh yep chorus now, oh gosh it's middle eight time! These songs grow and evolve over their life. You don't become too overly familiar with any one component after a handful of listens. There is texture and evolution. This gives this album a longevity that a lot of catchy pop albums won't have (and I love a catchy pop album, don't get me wrong). This is also why the song length doesn't matter too much. They're not trying to constantly repackage the same riff or vocal hook or change or whatever. The songs flow like a river. It's the same theme, but that water isn't coming back upstream, it's gone. It's about the journey and the motion. Elements are introduced and other elements fade away, not with dramatic changes, but with a kind of natural feeling imperceptibility. You notice the mood change more than you notice the elements that go into it. More than most of the albums we've had so far, this is best experienced "as an album". The songs flow into each other. If you're listening on something that doesn't add annoying gaps of silence between songs, the way that The Haunting Idle flows into Burning is amazing. Good album imo.

Lyrically pretty cringe, but musically a lot of fun. Gotta love some interweaving guitar solos, and I love that fuzzy solo tone.

This was a potentially great album, ruined by a number of ill-fitting solos. Freedom Rider could have been awesome, but then someone decided that it needed a multi-flute solo? The flute as an instrument really doesn't fill enough sonic space and convey enough power to take center stage in an up tempo song with only drums and bass guitar as backing. Someone must have noticed that too and decided to solve it by adding a second flute. The otherwise great song just falls away into a hole at this point. The flute solo actually works in the title track. That one gets a pass. It fits the tempo and the mood. Stranger to Himself has the guitar solo panned to the left, and it feels like the piano accompaniment is at the same or even higher level than the solo. So rather than adding some melodic interest, the section just feels repetitive, because those repeating piano chords are so prominent. The organ solo in Every Mother's Son is so sparse when it starts out, holding the notes on for too long. This has the affect of highlighting the repetitiveness of the backing. Then it does a few fast runs that don't really *say* anything because they're too fast. The solo is either too slow or too fast and never stops to speak to you. It should really be trying to draw attention to itself but completely fails at that task and makes the song lose energy as your attention is drawn to the backing. There were some really good ideas for songs on this album, but they just didn't turn them into songs that maintain a consistent energy or focus. I wouldn't listen to any of this again.

I wanted to love this, but most of the songs are too sparse and/or repetitive to live up to the song that everyone knows. I love the vibe, I love the vocalist, I love the style. Most of the songs need work though. Good Beat could have been a lot better by just being half as long. Who Was That? is repetitive at the start, but the back half is a lot of fun. Deep Ending is cool but the lyrics aren't great. An album full of bangers like Groove is in the Heart would be an easy 5. Oh well.

I wonder how often this album gets compared with Metallica? It has the opposite problem the And Justice For All album that we listened to a few days ago. The bass is too loud and usually doesn't do anything outside of country standards to justify that sort of sonic priority. To someone with a strongly anti-country bias from my youth, the prominence of the bass just makes every song sound like every other country song. I listened through it a second time with this in mind, trying intentionally to listen to all the non-bass parts, and it was pretty ok. Some good guitar, violin, harmonica, and so forth. The vocals are great, offset by the lyrics obviously intended to invoke a culture I know nothing about it. The last two songs are the best, possibly because they avoid the typical country bass tropes.

I find it hard to judge this album. A lot of the songs just do nothing for me emotionally, and just sound like talented artists playing boring songs. When I count out the songs I like though, there are at least five (Sara, Sisters of the Moon, The Ledge, Storms, That's all for everyone), which is a good number for a regular album. Sprinkling them in among 15 other boring songs makes for a bad album listening experience though.

Like a smirk on the face of an older relative telling you an entertaining story, there's a beautiful contrast between the warmth of the delivery and the subject matter being delivered. You know it's full of embellishments and they know you know, but it doesn't matter. The veracity of the facts aren't the point. The emotional connection to the storyteller is the point.

During this 1001 albums experience I've wanted to consider genres that might be outside my wheelhouse and just let myself react to the music emotionally. I don't think I can do it with this. I had to force myself through discomfort to finish it. To me the music feels like attempts at emotional manipulation more than it does actual emotional expression. Is that entirely on me? Probably. I'm not going to try to step outside myself and say that the vocalist is clearly amazingly talented, and that there are some cool bass parts here and there, because ultimately I found the experience painful. Really well executed safe commercial pap is still safe commercial pap.

Reminds me of a thousand generic support acts I saw at gigs in the 90s. Nothing particularly special but not bad either.

Clapton is such an emotionally expressive soloist, but often the songs that are bolted onto them just aren't entertaining or original enough all the way through. It was only during the course of listening to this album that I discovered he was a racist and an Enoch Powell supporter. So fuck this guy. I can't listen to a double album through twice without that in the back of my mind all the time.

Johnny Marr has said that he used to bring in songs on guitar for Morrisey to sing over, and Morrisey never ended up singing over over the parts Johhny thought he would. He would just put the vocal wherever he felt like putting it. It ends up meaning that Marr's cool riffs often get a little buried, but that's not a terrible thing. I think that captures what I love about The Smiths so much. For the fairly simple instrumentation, there's a depth of discoverability there. Bits you don't notice on the first few go-rounds. Because you were listening to the crooner croon. And for a total fucking wanker, he sure does croon. They also do that thing I love that REM does where the rhythm can be fast and strummy or whatever, but the vocals don't necessarily match the rhythm. He can still be slow and croony while the band is sweating it out behind him. On this listen through I'm really digging the bass. The feel and the tone. I love the separation in sonic space between the bass, the vocals, and the guitar, and it often means the bass is "carrying" the song the song, waiting for the guitars or (more often) the vocals to swoop and and do something enigmatic. Love The Smiths. 6 stars. Minus 1 star because Morrisey is a dick.

If listening to Motorhead was like driving a motorcycle down a highway, this is like riding a wild boar, among a herd of other riders on boars, with a skinny shirtless guy on the lead boar, screaming something incoherent and bouncing up and down. Leading us on to... oblivion. The oblivion of LA Blues. This style of music always feels like it's going so fast that it's going to end up falling apart. On this album it does fall apart on the final track. And when it does it's transcendental. What a ride.

Beautiful music and good lyrics, but there's not enough drama in the songwriting to keep me interested. Scenario aside, what choruses there are are usually the low points of the song. Buggin' Out has a cool bass line, but the chorus just seems pointless. The chorus from Versus from the Abstract sounds like someone reciting those sections of the bible where x begat y, a begat b, etc etc, over a cool beat. I love the overall vibe, but other than Scenario, I don't think I'd listen to it again.

Heavy, aggressive, artistic, textural, dance-able, consistent, varied. All at once, all the time, all the way through. Wow.

I really only like later Beatles stuff, but this was worth it for Don't Bother Me and Not A Second Time. You can hear the beginnings of the musical experimentation in those songs, among the covers and pop songs.

Musically amazing, but I can't stand Plants shrieky vocals. He sounds like he's in physical pain. I have to assume it's the pain of trying to keep up with amazing musicians.

Lovely jazzy bluesy tunes with some powerful vocals. I could do without the novelty songs, but I'll be coming back to The Retreat Song, Lakutshon ILanga, Mbube, Where Does It Lead, and others.

I know I've heard Walk on By before, but I've never paid attention to that cool angular guitar before. The way each instrument plays a part here and there in the build, and they all come together in the climax is great. Hyperbolic etc is a great jam with multiple interesting solos, a good underlying groove, and a cool tempo and rise and fall. One Woman is cringe though. The soulful crooning about his complete lack of self control, and blaming someone else for it, in a tone that sounds like we should feel for him? Urgh. Is he playing a character or something? Maybe, but it seems too sincere to sell that idea. If it was just a verse I could handle it I guess, but that chorus repeats like six times. I can't. It's a skip. The rest is good fun though.

Some really cool playing but it's just too emotionally aloof to make me feel anything. It's the kind of music I would appreciate if it happened to be playing live where I was, but I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it again.