Aug 29 2022
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Definitely Maybe
Oasis
Some solid tracks where the whine was dialed down. Overall, their best moments were overshadowed by their worst.
3
Aug 30 2022
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Joan Armatrading
Joan Armatrading
This is the kind of album I want out of the project. I wasn't aware of the artist or this record. Overall sounds of the era. Well done.
4
Aug 31 2022
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At Mister Kelly's
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan By Popular Demand. Everyone with performance anxiety should listen to this. It’s the imperfections that make art loveable.
4
Sep 01 2022
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Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
Both spacious and focused. I own this which says a lot considering I am not a Floyd fan.
4
Sep 02 2022
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Arrival
ABBA
I've heard many of the singles, but never experienced "ALBUM ABBA". It's ok, I guess. The teacher song hasn't aged so well. Cringe. Otherwise decent record for this kind of music, which is not my thing.™
3
Sep 05 2022
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Elephant
The White Stripes
After three thrilling records, Elephant always felt flat to me. Senior Slump? I don't know but there are still enough stand out tracks that they pass. Listening to it again mostly confirms this for me. The good songs are really good and the ones that didn't grab me before haven't really appreciated over time.
4
Sep 06 2022
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Songs Of Love And Hate
Leonard Cohen
The album gets off to a great start. Moody, dramatic and perfect for a drizzly September day. A couple of clunkers on the back half, but Joan of Arc is a good closer.
4
Sep 07 2022
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Siembra
Willie Colón & Rubén Blades
Initial hit of disco had me wondering, but this turned out to be an excellent salsa album—a genre I know next to nothing about. Great way to be introduced to this classic album.
4
Sep 08 2022
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The Infotainment Scan
The Fall
An excellent record by the Fall. It's not the era I usually listen to of theirs (1980–1985) and so along with some of the usual Fall conceits it contained some surprises for me. Still, after a compelling start it ultimately suffers from the same illness as other records of theirs...just a song or two too long for me. This is a band whom I really enjoy but only about half a record at a time.
4
Sep 09 2022
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Phaedra
Tangerine Dream
This is the first album I needed to listen to elsewhere which is a shame because this is exactly the kind of record I'd like to be able to fit into a streaming rotation while working. Blissed-out space-pulses. Definitely a mood though.
4
Sep 12 2022
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The Queen Is Dead
The Smiths
This has always been one of my favorite records by The Smiths. Shame about Morrissey's descent into the sewer of far-right fascism — it's more like Viva Johnny Marr at this point, eh.
5
Sep 13 2022
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Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod Stewart
I don't connect with the lyrics of the songs in all cases with Rod Stewart, but these records from the 70s have a nice sound. Perhaps, if the storytelling were different I'd be drawn to them more but alas that's not the case.
3
Sep 14 2022
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Darkdancer
Les Rythmes Digitales
First record that's just not my thing at all. Woof. Very rare!
1
Sep 15 2022
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If I Could Only Remember My Name
David Crosby
Aware of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young — but not of this solo record. So good.
4
Sep 16 2022
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Sail Away
Randy Newman
Hard to listen to Randy Newman's voice since his Pixar-related hit: You've got a Friend in Me...
2
Sep 19 2022
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Loveless
My Bloody Valentine
One of my favorite records of all time. It was a great joy to see it show up for a Friday listen.
5
Sep 20 2022
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Band On The Run
Paul McCartney and Wings
I was only really familiar with the first song. Overall not bad for Paul. :)
4
Sep 21 2022
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Skylarking
XTC
Great XTC songs are true gems to be admired, but there is a quality to most of their music that is best described as "circus-like" which I cannot stand. Both are present in this record.
3
Sep 22 2022
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Can't Buy A Thrill
Steely Dan
Love the Dan.
4
Sep 23 2022
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Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age
Terrible album cover, great music. Second best Qotsa record?
4
Sep 26 2022
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Nilsson Schmilsson
Harry Nilsson
Better than expected from the guy who cursed the world with the coconut song.
3
Sep 27 2022
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Berlin
Lou Reed
Ok for Lou Reed. Not too cringe.
3
Sep 28 2022
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Sheet Music
10cc
The best moment on the album for me was when I heard "Worst Band in the World" for the first time. I immediately recognized it as the core of J. Dilla's classic "Workinonit" track from Donuts. I love that Dilla record, 10cc's album I like a lot less so.
2
Sep 29 2022
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Mothership Connection
Parliament
Mothership Connection, indeed. Classic Parliament.
4
Sep 30 2022
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Arise
Sepultura
Sepultura ARISE!
4
Oct 03 2022
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From Elvis In Memphis
Elvis Presley
It was a different time. Whenever I hear most Elvis songs I'm shocked at how popular I hear he was and that he caused so much outrage 50+ years of popular music and culture later he's just a crooner. Not a bad record, though.
3
Oct 04 2022
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A Hard Day's Night
Beatles
Early Beatles…I can’t quite hear how they’ll become their more out there selves on this record and yet some of the White album is not too far away from this. A short, sweet pop record.
4
Oct 05 2022
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You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur Jr.
The blueprint for so much 90s rock.
4
Oct 06 2022
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Locust Abortion Technician
Butthole Surfers
I remember listening to this a long time ago and feeling like (the first track aside) it was mostly a waste of my time and attention...in that way, I guess this record endures? If I were able to revise history, I'd release this as a vinyl single with Sweat Loaf as the side A "hit" and back it on B with both the tracks Pittsburgh To Lebanon and The O-Men. Finally, if that were the case I'd be able to give the single version 4 out of 5 stars.
2
Oct 07 2022
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Talking Book
Stevie Wonder
Not my favorite Stevie Wonder album, but it’s up there.
4
Oct 10 2022
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Rattus Norvegicus
The Stranglers
I’m familiar with a different record of theirs but only that. This was a good listen but removed from its context it felt unremarkable.
3
Oct 11 2022
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Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black
Public Enemy
There’s maybe 2-3 tracks that I’d relegate to B-Sides for an otherwise brilliant record.
4
Oct 12 2022
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Scott 4
Scott Walker
Having a couple of Scott Walker's late career efforts (which are perfectly fine) I thought I knew how I'd feel about this album before listening to it. Personally, I found this record more charming and enjoyable than those I own.
3
Oct 13 2022
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Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
Chan Chan immediately feels like home after a long absence. I'd forgotten how much I love this music.
5
Oct 14 2022
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Life's Too Good
The Sugarcubes
I bought this record ON CASSETTE as a young teen after reading a review in Thrasher magazine. At the time, I would never have predicted Björk would become a world-wide sensation. Instead, it was just a great college radio record from an obscure Icelandic band I read about in a magazine. None of their other records quite hit like this one for me and it still sounds fresh, sweet and a little creepy.
5
Oct 17 2022
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There's A Riot Goin' On
Sly & The Family Stone
Familiar with a few of their well-known singles and such this record took a few extra listens to appreciate. I like funk, I like soul, but this flavor of funky soul wasn't quite my bag. Better than other stuff tho.
3
Oct 18 2022
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Aja
Steely Dan
My second favorite Steely Dan album...although it's technically a better overall album experience than my first favorite which is purely about what Dan record I came to all on my own and not through anyone else's influence. This also has the better cover. I catch myself quoting snippets of these lyrics in daily life. All of this is to say that for a band I actively *hated* as a younger person, I ultimately fell for them and that's in no small part to this record.
4
Oct 19 2022
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Power In Numbers
Jurassic 5
Great beats, excellent flow on a lot of tracks, and distinct voices that work together as well as separately. Not all the lyrics speak to me directly, but I'm not the intended audience either. Solid entry. I'll return to it.
4
Oct 20 2022
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Greetings From L.A.
Tim Buckley
First notes with honkey tonk vibes. This record came out about 6 months after my sister was born. And, it feels old. Like maybe she felt at times before dying. Postcard on a yellow backdrop makes the cover: Greetings from L.A. An impossible dream — was that L.A. back then? It appears to already be a desert sprawl that fades into the horizon in 1972. All I know about Tim Buckley is that he's the father of Jeff Buckley who lasted maybe five years more on this earth. How to even listen to this record without all this baggage? Some guy goes to a tavern and talks up a healthy girl with an invitation to move with him. He's so charismatic he's got backup singers, except I'm not buying. This record is for someone else stuck in a different time.
2
Oct 21 2022
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Live At The Witch Trials
The Fall
The Fall is off to a good start with their first studio album: Live at the Witch Trials. It feels fully formed and yet this record doesn't overstay its welcome like some later albums by the Fall. I wish they had made a habit of the brevity on display here.
3
Oct 24 2022
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Blue
Joni Mitchell
This is the first Joni Mitchell album I ever heard in full. My partner introduced me to her and I might've made some fun of the voice in the beginning. (Hey, just like I'd do almost 10 years later but with Joanna Newsom.) But that move has always just been a cover-up — a kind of vestigial macho pose that's nearly inexplicable upon even a surface reflection. "You're a mean old Daddy but I like you..." And, California will make me cry on the right day. Despite Hejira being a thing, this is my forever Joni album now.
5
Oct 25 2022
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Eliminator
ZZ Top
My dad had this record. I don't think he had any of their earlier albums until much later, but this one pierced his Led Zeppelin shield. At the time all of the lyrics on this record were basically over my head as a single digits earthling but the guitars sounded boss and the car was cool. Later I'll come to ZZ Top's Rio Grande Mud through a brilliant cover of Just Got Paid by some noise rockers who really should've named themselves better. The casual Texas objectification aside, Eliminator is a solid album and I can see why, along with the beards, these guys were a big enough deal that my POP! (as he prefers it stylized) would've picked it up.
3
Oct 26 2022
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Either Or
Elliott Smith
A college friend of mine used to work in a pizza shop in downtown Portland back in the early 1990s. He told me that Elliott often came in with just barely enough change for a slice — and that some times he didn't even have enough. About five years after this, Elliott is in a white suit playing Miss Misery at the Oscars. And, maybe five years after that he's dead. The news struck us hard given all the obvious and incidental connections that come with some shared community. And yet, despite living in Olympia, WA in the 90s I missed the initial release of Roman Candle and the self-titled record but Either/Or was anticipated and it stuck. This record is my most listened to Smith album. If you're paying attention and know any of Smith's biography it's a painful record to listen to at times but even if you don't know those details it's a beautiful, flawed statement with enduring resonance. Many songs will bring me to tears and yet some of them I've sung to those I love.
5
Oct 27 2022
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The Who Sell Out
The Who
In general I have mixed feelings about The Who. I think Live at Leeds is brilliant. And, John Entwistle and Keith Moon were one of the most compelling rhythm sections of their era. But there's also some facets of this band that I find frustrating and for whatever reason it feels like those things are fully manifest on The Who Sell Out despite my love of some of those songs when found elsewhere. My most thrilling moment of this daily listen was out of the gate recognizing that the beginning was sampled elsewhere. I've also never been a fan of little fiddly interludes and such. I just couldn't Buy In to this record.
3
Oct 28 2022
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Happy Trails
Quicksilver Messenger Service
My dad has this record, I heard it a few times in high school because it was one of his favorites so even though it's the 1990s this is blasting out of the speakers in our home. It's a good record to my ears still. I like the psych. And I probably got that from my POP. But also, you see, there's this Boris record Rainbow with guest guitarist Michio Kurihara who likened inspiration for his tone to the tone of the lead guitar on this record. And, all I have to say is that as good as Happy Trails is that Rainbow record slays it. So it's hard to not rate this one relatively and in that context.
4
Oct 31 2022
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System Of A Down
System Of A Down
Like many people I was introduced to this band through their second album, so it's a bit of discovery for me to hear this. And yet, this album has all of the things that I like about System of a Down on it as well as all the things I'm less fond of.
3
Nov 01 2022
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Van Halen
Van Halen
I was too young for this to be my first Van Halen album, but over time it has supplanted my introduction. When I listen to this record and understand it as a product of its time and place I'm impressed with how fresh the music sounds and how dated many of David Lee Roth's themes and lyrics are. With that out of the way, this is a ripper, it slaps, etc. All the performances on this record are tight and energetic. The tone is quintessential Van Halen and therefore much of 80s hard rock. Is it any coincidence that Running with the Devil kicks off this record? —I think not (and it's my daily drop on Oct 31, no less).
5
Nov 02 2022
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Butterfly
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey's music is not my thing, but this record is mostly listenable at low volume. I don't find it compelling but the production and vocals are smooth. That said, in listening to this I've found that it's best if I turn it down to the level of background music. Furthermore, if given any kind of choice, even from the same genre, I'd choose something else.
2
Nov 03 2022
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Black Monk Time
The Monks
Decent proto-punk, but unremarkable other than how early it appeared? Sometimes it's hard to hear the significance of a thing on first listen when the gulf of time is so wide between then and now. For me, this record is one of those times.
3
Nov 04 2022
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Automatic For The People
R.E.M.
Anything after Green I associate with my Mom. I know people want to talk about Dad rock, but I'm here to lobby for Mom rock. I find this record as well as Out of Time to be among the best examples of this genre that she's founded through her casual and not too critical listening habits. Thanks Mom.
4
Nov 07 2022
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Different Class
Pulp
I don't know anything about Pulp and I refuse to look at the Wikipedia entry before writing this review. This records sounds like some kind of 90s Brit-Pop band. Not as snotty-forward as Oasis and maybe a little less obvious than Blur, but definitely more mainstream sounding than bands from the shoegaze scene. But this record also feels like it's pointing ahead — showing the way for bands from elsewhere (geographically) and elsewhen (the future). Like reverse resonances or pre-echos of The Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, The National, and that one that neither of us can think of the name of right now but is on the tip of our tongues...you know, they were big in the aughts.
4
Nov 08 2022
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Dummy
Portishead
Unexpectedly, this album holds a special place in my heart after all these years. They effectively came out of nowhere for me. I didn't have a lot of influencer friends or radio hyping them up before this dropped. I never saw Portishead live. I don't think I even bought this record until 10 years after hearing it. And yet, this album was such a soundtrack to our college lives at the time. Even for someone like myself who, then, identified as a quasi straight-edged punk and post-punk enthusiast drenched in Northwest Grunge and Washington DC DIY. DUMMY takes me places now that are more than the sum of its parts and greater than what's on wax, and yet this recording is cognitively sticky and resilient. Instant feels from within the source as well as all this external evocation.
4
Nov 09 2022
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Fromohio
fIREHOSE
My, my, my Mike Watt listening runs more Minutemen than fIREHOSE though I did Fly the Flannel back in the day. Still you can see how this particular record fROMOHIO is a wonderful bridge between eras for Watt but also for maybe some college radio heads in the late 80s and early 90s. You can just hear a kid from Arkansas or anywhere shift effortlessly from praising R.E.M's Green to this album.
3
Nov 10 2022
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Teenager Of The Year
Frank Black
Old enough to remember the Pixies breaking up, and yet, despite my love of Come on Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa, and Doolittle I didn't track Frank Black after the breakup. Fast-Forward five years to a friend forcing this album on me saying Frank Black deserves my attention. Looking back I'm surprised Mr. Black didn't track right after the breakup. The first 2/3 of this record is right up my alley. Really, it's only at song #21 that I start to think this thing has gone on a little too long. And then BOOM! it's over at the end of song #22. So there you go. Maybe if he had released four fewer songs in 94, I would've been converted. As it stands, I still saw Frank Black and the Catholics in 1999 after that same friend had put the CD in my hand as a hook to get me to buy a ticket to the show. Lots of these songs were played and played well. The record still holds up here on an abstract plain at the end of 2022.
4
Nov 11 2022
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Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan
Harmonica hurts at high volume. Caution for Queen Jane Approximately and a few other tracks. How do I know? Because I was otherwise enjoying this old Bob Dylan record at near max levels. Then that eardrum piercing shrill hit hard. There isn't much else I'm going to say about this record that'll convince you one way or the next about Bob Dylan. For me, listening to this guy came with so much baggage that I couldn't really hear the merits for such a long time, but now I can truly revisit Highway 61 Revisited and enjoy some of the trip.
3
Nov 14 2022
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NEU! 75
Neu!
I think this was the first NEU! album I ever heard and it was one that I bought outright on a whim without hearing first. Just pre-internet faith in a record being good based on the reputation of the person making the recommendation. A certain mood, good for a rainy fall day but also with enough pulse to work or study too. Sometimes I get a little distracted during the ocean waves and wander off but the album closes strong. Not ground-breaking by the time I heard it, but good enough to return to frequently.
4
Nov 15 2022
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Microshift
Hookworms
I can't remember the first Hookworms track I heard but it was streaming era randomness—which is to say either partly or wholly governed by the algorithm. It felt like just a song on a playlist somewhere in the Spotify Sea. Off the coast of Wherever, it was enough to make me look into them. I've been a casual fan since. It must be hard for bands with casual fans. I never bought any merch, never bought an album, never supported them by going to a show or sending a few dollars their way. Essentially, I streamed a song or two with some regularity, probably threw one of them onto a playlist mix that I listened to for a month before forgetting it, maybe listened to a few albums at the outset during the discovery phase. And what's that amount to in terms of financial viability? A few pennies here and there from me. I understand platform math and the long tail and how things can add up. But they don't always. I also understand the money isn't what drives most music, but they got to eat too. Anyway, I hope these guys who were around from 2010 to 1028 understand. I liked them then and now. And I really like this record. It's definitely in that sweet spot for me of psychedelic, fuzzy, synthy rock. Some tracks step into the pop realm more than I might prefer but it feels holistic to the band. It doesn't feel like a coincidence that it's Neu! 75 for me one day, and Hookworm's Microshift for me the next. They, along with Maserati/Turing Machine, sound like kin to my ears. And, the kind of family you want to hang with. Not some annoying cousin who you wish would stay home.
--
Note: Of course, this is one of the dangers of casual fandom: You might not ever know about if or when someone has been a creep. And, that just might come to light after hearing their record on 1001albumsgenerator.com and writing a positive (unedited) review only to check out the wikipedia after the record closes but before your new album is up.
4
Nov 16 2022
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Stardust
Willie Nelson
Some beautiful tracks on this record, but (and not knowing its history) it really feels like a cashout album. By this I mean, at the height of someone's popularity they put a record out that is more about them performing some songs to sell records. A quick win. Less substantive than an album whose total experience is some kind of artistic accomplishment. Willie Nelson has had those in his long career, I'm sure. But Stardust is not one of them. It's a good listen. Easy on the ears and charming. On occasion it delivers real feels, but it also feels forgettable as an album even if some of the tracks are quite memorable e.g. Stardust and Georgia on My Mind.
3
Nov 17 2022
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Ghosteen
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
A heartbreaking Five-star album from the legendary Nick Cave. And yet, I won't listen to it again anytime soon. I'll rarely put it on even if I want to hear Nick sing. Instant feels but the feels ain't good. This is not a record I enjoy but it's a record whose fragile beauty I recognize.
5
Nov 18 2022
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Penthouse And Pavement
Heaven 17
When your mind merges Heavens to Betsy and Excuse 17 into Heaven 17 you are abruptly shocked by this record more than you deserve to be. It says something about how expectations shapes our response to what we perceive. Now to get down to my experience of this record after the initial shock. It reminds me of a cross between Depeche Mode and Gang of Four. Quite possibly this record is the average of those two bands. That's another way of saying when I hear this, it reminds me to listen to records I like better.
2
Nov 21 2022
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Rock 'N Soul
Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke's Rock 'N Soul did not surprise or shatter any expectations but it's a solid entry in his catalogue.
3
Nov 22 2022
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Roger the Engineer
The Yardbirds
With apologies to Jeff Beck's legacy, this isn't my vibe.
2
Nov 23 2022
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Timeless
Goldie
After listening to (a low rated) album of the day yesterday I mentioned that sometimes you just need a different concept of the song. It doesn't necessarily need to stray too far outside of the bounds of tradition, but it also shouldn't cloyingly cling to it either. This record is almost an expression of something else, but still hews a bit too close. At least it was a welcome relief of sorts. Today's rating might be some kind of relative recency bias based off of reacting to yesterday. But what does that tell anyone about what this even sounds like? The album is a mix of soundscapes colored in an industrial palette all cut with drum and bass beats. The record is a little overlong with some tracks feeling aimless at times, but more enjoyable than I would've thought at first glance.
3
Nov 24 2022
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When I Was Born For The 7th Time
Cornershop
Some times there’s not enough time to write a review that says, “This album was alright.”
3
Nov 25 2022
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Technique
New Order
I never liked this New Order record compared to nearly all that came before. For me this was album that firmly signaled the end. All the pathos that made their brand of pop more interesting was finally fully drained. Being a New Order record that’s still 3 out of 5 stars.
3
Nov 28 2022
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Fulfillingness' First Finale
Stevie Wonder
Do you ever feel like this album is the B-Sides to Stevie's Seventies hit records? As in Talking Book, Innervisions, and Songs in the Key of Life are all the stronger albums? A feeling that Fulfillingness' First Finale is the weakest of them all? I sometimes get that feeling. Of course, a Stevie B-side of an album is still strong. Lots to love here. I bet someone could flip this analysis on its head and say that this is a stronger record overall despite it not having some of the same "standout" singles as the others. And you know, I'd entertain that theory. I'd listen to that person. They just might have a point. So much so, that I'd look hard into the mirror myself and ask if that person could be me on a different day.
4
Nov 29 2022
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Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Dead Kennedys
Hearing Dead Kennedys for the first time as a pre-teen Skate kid is one thing. Revisiting in middle-age is another. This band was my template for punk for some time to come—more than than the Ramones or the Sex Pistols. This wasn't the record I first heard (that was Frankenchrist) but it was a fast-follow. Some classic tracks here that have undeniable potency still. But it also lacks a depth I would soon crave in my music back then and still do to this day. In that way, I find this record lacking.
4
Nov 30 2022
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Off The Wall
Michael Jackson
Thriller was the killer app for Michael Jackson for my generation, but this record is the one I reach for now when I want to revisit his music. This record still sounds fresh. I can hear this album in the likes of Louis Cole's music now which is to say its impact is felt over a span of more than 40 years. That's reach.
5
Dec 01 2022
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Smash
The Offspring
So yeah the Nineties and Epitaph Records equals Bad Religion to me. I was into Bad Religion in particular and punk in general enough to buy other releases from Epitaph around this time, but I never got into OFFSPRING. The track Come Out and Play meant you couldn't really escape them at the time. It just wasn't for me then. A little too pop and a little too slick but this was a time (teenage years) when you'd cut a band from your listen list for even a sliver of deviation from your personal aesthetics and ideals. Saying OFFSPRING wasn't for me then just means they were one of many bands who had some serviceable songs and reasonable records that I just rejected outright. Listening again, the vocals are overstrained and mixed a little too high for my taste but at least I can acknowledge it's not a terrible record. (Let's not overstate the case for this being a good album though, there are some clunkers on here.)
Honestly, I wouldn't have gone in for a project like 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die back then. I couldn't suffer it. What does it say about me now that I can? Expanded my appreciation of music or gone soft?
2
Dec 02 2022
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Trout Mask Replica
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
An important Record. Certainly Revolutionary for some. Captain Beefheart is the Lewis Carroll of rock. But for me at this time in my life it's a bit extra in a way that I'm less interested in now than I was in my more avant garde hungry days.
The rest of this review will now be written in how the music feels:
Skronkly and woggly time and word a disheveled stumble bumble of nonsense no sense make sense fake sense in this wild life — needle notes and conscripted toots. Stop. Go! Time to be brave! Hit record. Drive a ford across a fjord. Clever boi.
2
Dec 05 2022
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Like A Prayer
Madonna
Some backward guitar and a BOOM. Life is a mystery. Everyone must stand alone. I hear you call my name. And, it feels like...home. This isn't Madonna the outrageous or Madonna the classy vogue icon. This is middle Madonna to me. And, while some of the tracks are middling at best there are one or two standout pop songs. Unfortunately, the song with Prince on it is a disappointment and the album closes terribly as well. This wasn't the soundtrack to my youth, but I can get a little hit of nostalgia from some of it. It sounds way more 80s than a record coming out in 1989 should.
2
Dec 06 2022
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The Boatman's Call
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
This album opens like an edgy, yet glum 90s movie. Small wonder that Into My Arms has made its way onto actual soundtracks. While I prefer my Nick Cave to be in The Birthday Party, this is a solid listen. It's more down and less out than other things of his, but it's good for a mood.
4
Dec 07 2022
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In The Wee Small Hours
Frank Sinatra
Moods. Blue. Indigo. Amber. Twinkling city lights in the distance. Smoky mist reflecting in a slick city puddle. Frank crooning in the background. It's practically a cliche both in image and in sound at this point. I guess for someone else, for another listener, what is cliche to me is classic to them.
2
Dec 08 2022
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The Colour Of Spring
Talk Talk
Crisp production that nods slightly to earlier work but sheds so much of the 80s baggage it's almost a new band. I was surprised by this record. An album I would've never given any thought to listen if it wasn't for this project. The opening track sets the mood and my expectations. The rest of the album delivers on that. This simple thing is really quite indicative of whether or not I'll continue to enjoy a record, regardless of genre, that's been put on for the first time. The song April 5th downshifts the record too much in its current sequence. I'd be inclined to sequence it differently. If the last song wasn't slightly over 8 minutes, I think it could've been last. But then where do you put Time It's Time. So hard to make a perfect record unless you delete a song or two sometimes. Perhaps that's what this record needed to rate a little higher.
4
Dec 09 2022
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Protection
Massive Attack
I was so happy to hear Tracey Thorn from Everything but the Girl on the first song. She has a voice that gets me every time. This opener is so good, and yet the second song Karmacoma is not my thing. I could barely make it through the track.
This is the opposite of what yesterday's record did so well: Announce itself, set expectations and then proceed to deliver on them organically. The trick is to both show difference in each song on the one hand and yet to have enough of a through line, on the other, that the listener experiences a cohesive statement when taking things in as a whole.
Massive Attack's Protection does not do this. It has a few good songs scattered about or intermingled with some duds. And then, to top it off, there is that terrible Light My Fire cover at the end. Is this the worst Massive Attack record out there? I don't know because I've never been a major fan. Mezzanine is fantastic though. A true classic. And, it's the record that follows this one.
2
Dec 12 2022
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Lust For Life
Iggy Pop
Lust for Life is a great opening track and this record has The Passenger on it as well. Lesser artists would be lucky to land these two tracks alone. Furthermore, there are other solid tracks here: Sixteen, Some Weird Sin, Success, Neighborhood Threat are among my other favorites.
All strung together with enough of the Stooges vibe to remind you of his proto-punk roots and that also keep some of the Bowie influences in check. You might say, when would that ever be a good thing? Bowie is a genius. And yet, I'd argue for Iggy Pop leaning a little more Stooges only makes the Bowie bits shine more. To me, it feels more integrated and balanced as an Iggy Pop record than The Idiot for instance.
The closing track Fall in Love with me runs a little long and I start to lose my patience with the album when that happens. I'm always slightly unnerved by the photo of Iggy grinning at me like some bad year book picture, but I've also figured that was the point.
4
Dec 13 2022
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Doolittle
Pixies
Hey! I have heard this record so many times I cannot hear it new again. These are now the songs a grandma brought back from the shore. But The Pixies hit me at an impressionable time. I can remember seeing the video for Here Comes Your Man on MTV at 15. Not too long after that I had both Surfer Rosa and Doolittle. I remember hearing that they might break up and being shook when it happened after Trompe le Monde despite thinking that album was already weak by comparison. I moved on pretty quickly what with it being my teenage years but those first few records stayed in rotation and really never fell out of it. From Debaser to Gouge Away you'll get no complaints. Rock me, Joe.
5
Dec 14 2022
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Sticky Fingers
The Rolling Stones
Historically I have struggled to find The Rolling Stones to be worth my time when it comes to listening to one of their records. As a younger person who was influenced by my POP's record collection in the beginning, I appreciated the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and many others from the jump. The Stones were the band from that era I trashed consistently. Over time I've been able to appreciate more of the music and a few of Mick Jagger's best performances. This record has a couple of tracks that I enjoyed; they were: Brown Sugar and Wild Horses. And so I give this record one star for posterity and a star for each song I could dig.
3
Dec 15 2022
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Bongo Rock
Incredible Bongo Band
What can I say? But I have no cred. I liked this much more than yesterday's offering by the Rolling Stones. Am I a tired of it by the appearance of Wipeout? Yes, I am. Did most of it serve a groove and fulfill the promise of the opening track? Indeed. Does it rate higher than the aforementioned Rolling Stones record? Probably not, but only because we don't do half stars here. If we did, this would beat Sticky Fingers by half a star.
3
Dec 16 2022
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Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Raekwon
First reaction. Aw yeah! But then I forget that there's like 1:44 before anything of substance kicks in. I've never been a fan of skits on albums in anything but the comedy genre and the first track cuts a little close to that experience. There's a critique to be made of the lyrical content of this record, etc. but I'm not the audience Raekwon is speaking to, nor am I the content police today. When I focus on the delivery, the flow and beats I enjoy the album. I think I own it, even. But therein lies an ambivalence. It's not a record I return to with any kind of frequency anymore. It was never "a favorite" either, it's always been a Wu-Tang-along for me.
3
Dec 19 2022
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American IV: The Man Comes Around
Johnny Cash
Rebirth of the CASH. How many times has Johnny Cash been brought low and Risen again? Enough to never count him out and yet, when this record hit I was in a place where I really had counted him out. This album was a Revelation at the time. I return to it from time to time. It'll give your shivers if you take the time to listen close.
4
Dec 20 2022
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Elvis Is Back
Elvis Presley
My mother loved Elvis. You could go so far as to say that for a time she was obsessed with him. Evidence being a life-sized cardboard cutout of Elvis standing in our kitchen among many other representations of him in memorabilia, e.g. Elvis clock, wallpaper, plates, etc. As you might imagine, I've heard a few Elvis songs and seen some Elvis movies in my time.
This record has some okay songs, but nothing that really stands out as an amazing Elvis track. Too be honest, for me the best thing about this record is the typography on the cover and even that isn't the best of its era.
1
Dec 21 2022
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Toys In The Attic
Aerosmith
A couple of tracks you'd probably know as growing up somewhere in North American and sometime between the record's release and whenever they became so unfashionable that not even the dads want to hear it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The record struck me as heavier than expected although it's not really heavy once you venture outside of pop music. Sexual politics are a bit cringe, of course. Overall, not my thing but I've heard worse.
2
Dec 22 2022
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The Real Thing
Faith No More
This band seemed to come From Out of Nowhere for me when this album hit. I wasn't familiar with the Chuck stuff that came before this record until well after it. Probably like a lot of other kids who were in different, or even in my case, adjacent music scenes it was the Epic single and accompanying "goldfish" video that was our introduction.
Overall, I like this record well enough — there are a few undeniably great tracks — and I thought Angel Dust was an improvement but I could never get into the band 100%. I always wanted them to be heavier, darker, more aggressive, and less "jokey". Another way to say it in the context of this album is that I enjoy it when it's heavier, darker, more aggressive, and less "jokey" than it sometimes is. It's another record that makes me wish I had half-stars to hand out. In this case, I'm inclined to rate it higher on the whole stars...
4
Dec 23 2022
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We Are Family
Sister Sledge
I'd never listened to the whole record from Sister Sledge but, like most, was familiar with the album's title track We Are Family through all kinds of media. Taken as a whole this is a solid entry into the disco funk genre. I enjoyed it a good deal for what it was. And, this record makes no bones about what it thinks are its best songs, from titling the album after one of them to other clues. For example, I listened to the 1995 remaster which adds as bonus tracks 2 additional remixes of We Are Family and 2 more Lost in Music remixes as well. Some unevenness is forgiven and, in all honesty, I think this record is also responsible for the band Deee-lite like a decade later.
3
Dec 26 2022
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A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector
Various Artists
A Christmas Gift For You From Convicted Murderer Phil Spector is an anthology of Christmas songs. As is evidenced in the title it is produced by Phil Spector who is not to be celebrated. And yet, this record was made before the murders and performed by artists who also very likely find Phil's later life to be a tragedy all the way around. If Christmas is your thing, it's a great collection of holiday songs—many of which have become classics.
So, 5 Stars for the music minus 4 stars for Phil Spector spoiling this album's legacy.
1
Dec 27 2022
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A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse
Faces
Sure. Okay it’s ok. Boogie Wookiee is a phrase that combines some old form of Rock n Roll with spellcheck.
2
Dec 28 2022
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Sea Change
Beck
Thank you Beck. Sorry about your breakup with your longtime girlfriend, but this is a wonderful, and sometimes sad, album.
4
Dec 29 2022
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m b v
My Bloody Valentine
A return—did it somehow feel like less than we'd hoped for? Maybe that would always have been the case given they went out on a perfect album. To me it seemed like the band hadn't changed much with this record but the world certainly had.
4
Dec 30 2022
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B-52's
The B-52's
Boys in bikinis! Girls on surfboards! Some things last a long time. To be honest, Fred Schneider‘s actual vocals are my least favorite thing about the band’s music. His lyrics are fun, the camp vibes alongside surfy, rock and roll vamps make for a joyful listen. Fred’s nasal delivery is just a little grating at times. I’ll take the bad with the good when it comes to the B-52s. Instant alien beach party.
4
Jan 02 2023
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Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Pavement
Heaven is a truck that got stuck on the freeway…
5
Jan 03 2023
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That's The Way Of The World
Earth, Wind & Fire
Not bad, but I enjoy other records of theirs more.
3
Jan 04 2023
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Raising Hell
Run-D.M.C.
A couple of duds but overall this record slaps.
4
Jan 05 2023
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I Am a Bird Now
Antony and the Johnsons
Got the feels.
4
Jan 06 2023
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School's Out
Alice Cooper
Letter grade: C-
3
Jan 09 2023
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Pink Moon
Nick Drake
While Pink Moon is likely to be the most popular track, the album overall is a vibe.
4
Jan 10 2023
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Dry
PJ Harvey
Check out the olds here: I first heard Sheela-Na-Gig on the local college radio station KGRG 89.9 FM broadcast from Green River Community College in Auburn, WA before I graduated high school. The DJ introduced PJ Harvey as something like a "female fronted Fugazi" which after hearing the song felt both accurate and totally off. That aside, I was completely floored by the song and picked up DRY as soon as possible. And now I'm just another long-time fan of PJ Harvey whose amazing voice, artful song craft, and impassioned bravado has never fell out of fashion with me.
4
Jan 11 2023
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The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
The 13th Floor Elevators
Hippies in the Garage! Not bad as a whole, but I suspect I'd appreciate this album more if I had listened to it in 4-5 song sessions over time. It's just a little over long for me today.
3
Jan 12 2023
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Vanishing Point
Primal Scream
Notes of this and that...overall too diverse sonically for my ear to get a hold of it in any kind of satisfying way. I took to the more shoegaze and aggressive elements, but other parts less so. For an album named Vanishing Point there's a surprising lack of focus.
3
Jan 13 2023
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Bat Out Of Hell
Meat Loaf
This album sits on the border between a two-star hell and a three-star hell. Today is Meat Loaf's lucky day with me.
3
Jan 16 2023
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Surfer Rosa
Pixies
My favorite Pixies album. Start to finish this album delivers. I don't even mind the interstitial skits that much.
5
Jan 17 2023
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Bayou Country
Creedence Clearwater Revival
I don't tire of CCR in the way that I often do with other music from this generation. The standout classics Born on the Bayou and Proud Mary appear on this record and most of the other songs are only one whole or half-step in quality from that. I'm not saying the record is without a clunker or two...
3
Jan 18 2023
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Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
Eurythmics
My Dad had the Touch tape in his truck so I'd say we were primed for this record as a house when it dropped. And yet, only the single Sweet Dreams made its way in. Hearing this record now, most of the songs are unfamiliar to me. Of course, the sound and vibe are all familiar through hearing the Eurythmics as well as many other bands who were trying to catch that 80s synth-wave lightning in a bottle. I'm not particularly captivated by it here but it's totally listenable.
An extra star added to this review for the song Sweet Dreams alone.
4
Jan 19 2023
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Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
An almost 5 star record, but surely each of these 4 stars are drawn upside-down and in a circle.
Through cultural osmosis I had an opinion about Black Sabbath well before I heard a song from them, let alone a full album. I would eventually get into Sabbath through the Paranoid record (a route I still recommend to others). I honestly can't imagine the impact of Black Sabbath the album when it came out in 1970, but if I have my Led Zepplin, Cream and Coven dates correct I feel like it was both revolutionary and totally expected. So, I try to set aside all the baggage and just listen to this record.
Opening the record with some church bells and rain lets you know things are supposed to be ominous. Black Sabbath and the Wizard are the standout tracks for me personally. They're the two I'd always put on a Sabbath mix. Let's not let it pass by unremarked upon that Black Sabbath open Black Sabbath with Black Sabbath. There is a statement there.
It is when things become mostly medium-paced rock with the occasional psychedelic, blues jam vibes that seem de rigueur for the day, that the album no longer feels special as the debut of such an influential band. But there's enough heaviness that the album isn't something you'd feel a need to renounce artistically, either. All in all, it starts impressively strong—making a case that this is a band to pay attention to—and settles into heavy jam-blandness at the end. Had things finished with a metal wallop as strong as it opened this would be a 5 star release.
--
I listened to the 2014 remaster which is not what was linked above for Spotify (the 2009 remaster). It's worth making the adjustment for.
4
Jan 20 2023
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Bummed
Happy Mondays
Listened to this twice today. But I never got into it. Maybe because I listened on a Thursday? It's not bad. Just not for me. Not even enough to write a real review. Bummer.
2
Jan 23 2023
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GREY Area
Little Simz
This GREY Area is comprised of ten tracks. Half the area is middling and the other half is stellar. It's like you take two opposing colors and mix them together with the result being kind of gray. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3
Jan 24 2023
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Sign 'O' The Times
Prince
What to say about this genre-hopping, somewhat sprawling 16 songs from one of the greatest songwriters of the era? There's easily an 8 to 10-song mix to be made for each kind of Prince fan out there that would perhaps serve them better than just taking this whole album in. Sexy Pop, Social Commentary, Party-Funk, low-key traditional singer-songwriter, you can have all this and more if you take it all in at once. This record feels made for a different attention span, a different media landscape, for people who are effectively trained to listen in a different way. What even is a "Two Disc Set", he asks rhetorically... In the end, it is Prince penning a few more classics in an album that was a Sign 'O' the Times and in many ways hasn't aged as well as some of his other work due to that fact.
And finally, let's be real, Prince needed to be Prince lyrically for greatness to be achieved, for the gold to be struck. You take the good with the cornball writing that sometimes makes its way to tape when listening to him. You forgive the completely goofy lines because they created the space for him to tell the truth and cut to the core elsewhere in the song or maybe on another track entirely. This is one of the Prices of Prince we pay along the way. On a record like this it is even more apparent to me than others.
4
Jan 25 2023
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Night Life
Ray Price
Time-warp to an era where you'd care to have an album spend two minutes introducing itself each and every time you put it on. Or, just skip that Intro and Theme track to get to that reverb-soaked crooning, brushes drumming, soft tinkling piano, and gentle guitar playing.
Night Life's vibe is sedate honky-tonk, sad songs sung earnestly but with little urgency. It's a slow dance best reserved to be uncorked long after sundown.
3
Jan 26 2023
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Horses
Patti Smith
I love this record. In particular I love the version of it that I have which includes the live recording of My Generation with John Cale. I've listened to this album numerous times and the thing that struck me this time around is that, while I truly enjoy this record I never went beyond it with Patti Smith. Sure, I've heard a few other tracks of her's here and there—things that would just be in the culture by her. But while this album is compelling, it did not elicit a curiosity or desire to hear more, different records from her. Was it complete enough in its own right? Does one just need a single Patti Smith record for life and this was mine? Did she draw me into her world in such a satisfying way I needed no more or did she not draw me into her world enough? It seems that I have more questions than answers with Horses.
4
Jan 27 2023
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Born To Be With You
Dion
More like DI-OFF, amirite? I know nothing about this album and wish that it could still be so after today. Sorry.
1
Jan 30 2023
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Fever To Tell
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Wait, they don't love you like I love you. This wasn't my first YYY's record; I was lucky enough to be living in Brooklyn to get in on the first ep early. It was a real treat to see some of the shows and watch this band ascend. To watch them move beyond the Post-Punk Brooklyn thing was no surprise and, for me, it was this record that truly set them on this course.
4
Jan 31 2023
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1989
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift knows her way around a pop song. There are some real gems on this album and even her missteps land in the territory of okay. That said, there are some who might immediately dismiss this album based on genre alone. I can understand.
4
Feb 01 2023
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Murmur
R.E.M.
Murmur through Green — peak R.E.M. They put out like an album a year and it all started here with this one. It's not my all-time favorite of theirs but it holds up very well. It's a fine start from Radio Free Europe to West of the Fields. An amazing debut. I want to give it five stars because it sets the table for their career. I want to give it five stars because Mike Mills melodic bass playing and backing vocals are infectious. I want to give it five stars because Michael Stipe's lyrics and delivery are both equally expressive. I want to give it five stars because Bill Berry knows how to construct a beat that's effective in its economy. I want to give it five stars because Peter Buck's ringing tones and articulate arpeggios from this record haunt me to this day. Ok, I'll give it five stars.
5
Feb 02 2023
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Fire Of Love
The Gun Club
Overall this record is pretty good. Not every song is a classic, but even the worst are not bad at all. There are a couple of things that occur here that are about and not about the record itself but they trace a thing so...
That moment when you are listening to the album of the day and you recognize a song but know it best through the cover version. I hadn't heard this record by The Gun Club before despite some interest in overlapping contemporaries and the genre. So when For the Love of Ivy came on I recognized it immediately through the Japandroid's Celebration Rock record (which is five-stars fantastic).
And, anyone who has listened to OFF! has probably heard the name "Jeffrey Lee Pierce" yelled by Keith Morris.
All these resonances speak to the importance of the band in ways that maybe this album doesn't always deliver despite being a solid punk rock outing.
4
Feb 03 2023
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The Bends
Radiohead
Being too young to be open minded, I wrote off Radiohead when Creep arrived. So I missed the Bends album when it dropped. I barely gave OK Computer a glance when it first came out also. It took some cajoling from family and friends to get me to re-appraise Radiohead. I'm glad they cared enough to call me out on my bias. The bends is worth your time. 5 Stars.
5
Feb 06 2023
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The Man Machine
Kraftwerk
Six Tracks Krafted in 1978 with German precision, humor and (what was at the time) modern synthesizers. Programmed Sonic Experiments in Popular Music — Robot Propulsion Laboratory Sequences Engineered for Aural Inspection whether it be in the Spacelab or Metropolis of your choice.
4
Feb 07 2023
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Risque
CHIC
It's a vibe. Not my typical one but it's hard to deny that this CHIC record draws you right in with the Good Times and mostly delivers on that manifesto.
4
Feb 08 2023
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21
Adele
The first song was much better than expected. I am pleasantly surprised so far (1:17 into the album). But can Adele keep it rolling? She kind of did for the first three songs, but when Don't Your Remember hit I wanted the ejector seat button.
2
Feb 09 2023
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Superfly
Curtis Mayfield
Superfly was an album I took in long before a more sustained engagement with Jazz and Funk from the era. It circulates in the culture in ways that transcend the genre. One aspect of this record I'm familiar with is that the musical director for Mayfield was the bassist on this record. I know this because for me the bass and Mayfield's voice elevate the music here. There's a well-kept pulse throughout that moves us through the material. I appreciate other facets of the record as well (string arrangements, content and concept). Solid record that keeps things moving.
4
Feb 10 2023
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Crime Of The Century
Supertramp
I am not a fan of the harmonica. It grates on my ears, so this record does not start out well for me. The opening School is a bit pedestrian despite my fondness for 70s critiques of formal education as a means of socialization. The lyrics would've benefited from dropping some Paulo Freire or early Michel Foucault references. I'm not a fan of that keyboard / piano in the track either. Centering on the piano helps me understand what one of my main issues with this record seems to be. I'm not into the instrumentation in a lot of the songs. The keys and horns here distract me. Bloody Well Right. Sure. Okay. By the end of this record I was thinking this is much more Pink Floyd influenced than I had known Supertramp to be. TIL, I guess.
2
Feb 13 2023
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The Suburbs
Arcade Fire
I avoided Arcade Fire at first and while this album is not their debut it provides excellent evidence as to why they blew up to begin with on the one hand and polishes it up with the other. It is maybe a little overlong to be a five star record but it is quite good.
4
Feb 14 2023
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Exit Planet Dust
The Chemical Brothers
The brother's gonna work it out...I may be wrong but in the 90s it felt like everyone's collection benefited from a having some of The Chemical Brothers in it somewhere, somehow. They were a cross-over event. This was my first, and not my last. Strong beats, great sounds, deep cuts. In Dust We Trust.
4
Feb 15 2023
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Tres Hombres
ZZ Top
Honest Texas Blues-based Rock n Roll with growling bass, snarling guitar and cracking drums. This era of the band is what I prefer over their souped up Eliminator and onward output. It's ironic for me to say that because I have a tendency to tire of rock that gets too obviously bluesy. I say "Gimme Blues." And I say, "Gimme Rock." But I raise this eyebrow at most Blues Rock. And yet the ZZ Top of Tres Hombres walks that line perfectly. Have Mercy.
4
Feb 16 2023
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I Against I
Bad Brains
My conflicted feelings about Bad Brains aside (detailed below), this is an excellent rock record. I've deliberately called it rock because I Against I shifts the overall focus from punk to rock. There's no denying that the threads of rock, metal, funk, punk and reggae are intertwined and interlocked in their sound. But both this album and With a Quickness are free of the genre constraints of typical punk. Despite my love of their S/T and Rock for Light records, I Against I and Quickness are sonically more interesting for leaving the punk cliches behind.
Shame about the casual homophobia and other lyrical missteps typically brushed aside with "HR was a product of his time and place" not only because it mars the legacy of a great band overall but also because it makes certain songs irritating. It's worth asking though if Bad Brains are given the same amount of latitude when it comes to this kind of thing as other bands of their era. It seems to me that folks like to come at Bad Brains a little extra for it. The conflicted feelings remain.
3
Feb 17 2023
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Beauty And The Beat
The Go-Go's
I never listened to this record but I know most of the singles. I was surprised by the sequencing (I really expected We Got the Beat as the opener). Overall this record is a good mix of pop and punk. It still sounds contemporary in its own way — certainly not the sound of mainstream radio, but it's easy to imagine a group of young California kids pulling something along these lines off in their garage today.
4
Feb 20 2023
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The Low End Theory
A Tribe Called Quest
From Excursions to Scenario there's not a bum song in the bunch except maybe Butter's content. I love the sound, energy and overall vibe of this record. Lyrics that are singable and worthy of study. It is peak Tribe.
4
Feb 21 2023
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Femi Kuti
Femi Kuti
Solid Afrobeat. Announces itself and delivers on its promise.
4
Feb 22 2023
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Oracular Spectacular
MGMT
I remember when MGMT hit the scene (and you couldn't escape Kids in public) but I was in a much different listening place at the time. I was deep into the heavy stuff and eschewed anything too danceable or commercial that was coming at me from the world-at-large. Ironically, it is music I might've enjoyed if I had heard it coming from a friend, an artist or a band that I had already accepted into my inner circle of approved inputs. In other words, there's a tremendous resonance with stuff I had already allowed through: Wolf Parade, Animal Collective, etc. This closing off or setting up arbitrary musical boundaries is a recurring theme or phase I find myself going through. I felt it most acutely in Jr. High and High School. I had a brief period of open ears for part of College and afterwards. But there was some steady tightening up of the reins in the late-to-mid aughts that lasted maybe a decade or more. So, what does this have to do with MGMT's Oracular Spectacular? It's very good for music of that era but I wasn't willing to hear that then. So now I'm coming to it late and a little stupidly. Don't be like past me. Be like present me — actively fight against the desire to close up into whatever genre I'm deep into at the moment. Resist the myopia of whatever scene you're in. I'm glad I could open my ears to Oracular Spectacular today.
4
Feb 23 2023
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In It For The Money
Supergrass
I'm already a little daunted seeing it's 21 songs by a band I'm not Super familiar with. The use of the typeface Cooper Black on this cover where they're busking with acoustic instruments combined with a name that reminds me of Supertramp and weed is cause for concern. Maybe if I knew their music I'd find the humor or irony in this. At least while I've been typing the music has proven that there is some intended distance between what we see in the cover image before us and the sounds being made. I'm starting to get some Britpop vibes cut with more athletic guitars. If this record can keep the tempo and pace then I might be handing out stars like they're candy. We'll have to wait and see.
As suspected when things slow down they feel a little more generic. Perhaps a slower tempo exposes more of their songwriting flaws? Or rather, and probably more accurate, if I hold the mirror up — the tempo shows me what my own preferences are. My edit for the record would've been to do 9 rippers and then run. Then they can put out a different album shortly after. I don't need the sprawling two disc treatment. But maybe a short album of bangers would've been received by the public as one dimensional. It's a hard balance to strike. In this particular case Supergrass didn't quite achieve it for me.
3
Feb 24 2023
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New Boots And Panties
Ian Dury
I don't connect with this at all, but not all of the music itself terrible. I'm clearly separated from whatever the cultural referents are that make this relevant. I'm struggling between giving 1 or 2 stars. Let's see where we land...
1
Feb 27 2023
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Parallel Lines
Blondie
One way or another you've got to like this album by Blondie—whether you have a heart of glass or are just a Sunday girl. I mean, I know but I don't know...you know? Yeah, all kinds of telephone themes on Parallel Lines just like those old wires. Classic.
4
Feb 28 2023
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Channel Orange
Frank Ocean
I'm a little conflicted about the 4 stars but I also continue to be intrigued by this album after the first couple of listens and want to give it more time. In other words, only time will tell if I was too generous. I know it's not a five star record for me all things considered.
4
Mar 01 2023
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Dig Your Own Hole
The Chemical Brothers
This record can still get me hype despite its age.
4
Mar 02 2023
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Histoire De Melody Nelson
Serge Gainsbourg
I'd seen the name Gainsbourg thrown around before and maybe heard a song or two but I never listened to a full album of his before. Not bad at all. Definite 70s vibes. I took a crash course in French to prep for a trip there but I'm certainly listening without picking up on the spoken content. I can only go by feel in that respect.
4
Mar 03 2023
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All Directions
The Temptations
Off to a Funky start with a live feel we're brought into the good times vibes. But Run Charlie Run sure lets students of history know when this album was written. That song hasn't aged well even if it fully captures the sentiment of its time (and maybe has another reading I've yet to uncover). This record has Papa Was a Rollin' Stone rolling in as the third track. With that song on lock this was always going to be a classic record despite a few missteps here and there.
3
Mar 06 2023
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Slippery When Wet
Bon Jovi
You Give Love A Bad Name, Livin' On A Prayer, and Wanted Dead Or Alive — two good songs and one great one. If you only heard those three songs, you wouldn’t know how terrible this album is. They saved it from a one star rating. There's some variety to their failures: D-grade Van Halen impressions and bad Journey vibes top my own list. Apologies should've been issued to their influences for this mostly terrible record.
2
Mar 07 2023
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To Pimp A Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar
In demographic terms, I'm the kind of listener that heard hype about Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly well before I got my ears around it in any kind of substantial way. This means I didn't have a friend turn it on for me. No one in my circles passed this my way, but plenty media to tell me how insanely profound this record was. I've listened a number of times prior to getting this as my daily assignment. It's good. His flow is sublime and I agree he's like a drummer in some ways—percussive delivery. That said, I think I got too much hype from all the press because I was also left with a sense of "Is this it?". Expectations can be a double-edged sword sometimes and so I'm here to tell you it's a solid four stars to these ears.
4
Mar 08 2023
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Scream, Dracula, Scream
Rocket From The Crypt
Swami John Reis hear my prayer: "Please send me a daily listen that continues to rock despite its years." Raise your hand if you're a Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes or Night Marchers fan. John Reis has blessed us with many great records through a variety of groups. Rocket From the Crypt has always been the "most fun" of them. Loud guitar, upbeat tempos, and cheeky lyrics — this album delivers on that most of the time. It's not 5 stars good. I've got to save those stars for Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu records.
4
Mar 09 2023
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Peace Sells...But Who's Buying
Megadeth
I've never been a Dave Mustaine fan but I've managed to be friends with folks who are. This means that while I have a track record of loving metal, I'm not a Megadeth aficionado. My impressions:
- I can't stand the vocals some of the time on Wake Up Dead and I think that will continue to be true over the course of the record.
- A little too much room in the mix means that even their most punishing riffs don't feel monumental to me.
- There are some fine breakdowns and a few choice riffs though.
- You can see why Peace Sells But Who's Buying is famous: it's a riff with a groove, a classic 80s first-person cynical, anti-establishment subject matter, catchy repeated chorus/refrain, soaring guitar solo and a double-time outro. It's a vibe. I don't think that single represents the totality of the album very well.
- Best stretch of songs is from Peace Sells to Bad Omen. That's 4 songs for about 20 mins of music.
- I Ain't Superstitious should be struck from the record.
- My Last Words gives me some Maiden vibes and that is not a bad thing, just a little surprising that the closer reminds me of another band so strongly.
Overall, 3.5 stars. It's a weak four, but better than most threes.
4
Mar 10 2023
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Jagged Little Pill
Alanis Morissette
This feels like a version of the 90s that has cemented itself as cultural memory and stereotype. I don't know anything about Alanis Morissette's trajectory or how she sees herself as an artist. And yet, I can't help but think she's the more commercially palatable and uncomplicated answer to the rise of artists like Liz Phair, Ani DiFranco and a bevy of fantastic riot grrrl bands. For many, this record was a real moment even if it was one I was distant from.
The first couple of songs are okay, but Perfect is hard to listen to. The vocals actively grate. It's like a 12 song album, they could've cut that one and my impression of the first part of the record would've been much better. Okay, maybe also you'd need to cut the track Forgiven as well. I don't know why people reach for the harmonica, ever, but you can keep Head Over Feet. For these ten songs only, I give this record three stars. If I have to take it all, it's going to be two.
2
Mar 13 2023
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The Idiot
Iggy Pop
IGGY POP. Probably an Idiot. Maybe a Genius. David Bowie was certainly a genius and with David's help so is this record? Let's listen and find out. Eh, it's no Passenger.
3
Mar 14 2023
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Marcus Garvey
Burning Spear
Burning Spear is a big deal in the roots reggae pantheon. This record is just one of several that give evidence to this assessment.
3
Mar 15 2023
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Tago Mago
Can
Can fan here. Biased vote incoming, feel free to dock me a star, but can I say this isn't my favorite Can album and yet also tell you it's utterly fantastic and maybe their most influential? Groovy, spacey, squawky and skronky—you can't put a lid on Tago Mago. The music spills out in all the right ways.
5
Mar 16 2023
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Vincebus Eruptum
Blue Cheer
Blue Cheer working that psychedelic blues rock formula. All the trappings of early hazy, slightly heavy jams are here. The best song on the record is the first and it is a cover of Summertime Blues. If you enjoy blissed out fuzz tones over blues scales, Blue Cheer are for you.
3
Mar 17 2023
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The Blueprint
JAY Z
"Whoo! I am back. I want to thank everybody out there for their purchase." // "just my thoughts, right or wrong." // "vibe with me ... just vibe with me."
I wish I had Jay-Z level of confidence and bravado. On some level, don't we all? Isn't this one of the reasons to listen to him?
Best Tracks: The Ruler's Back, Takeover — ouch that takedown of Nas, Izzo (H.O.V.A.), Jigga, U Don't Know, Hola Hovito, Heart of the City, Never Change, Renegade.
Tracks that are still good, but a step down: All I Need, Blueprint (Momma Loves Me), Lyrical Exercise.
Boring tracks: Song Cry.
Tracks that have me shaking my head: Girls, Girls, Girls (both) — it seems like songs along these lines never age well.
In conclusion, Jay-Z is a study in contrasts. Four Stars.
4
Mar 20 2023
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In Our Heads
Hot Chip
From the band name on down, it's all annoying. But you can (mostly) dance to it. HOT CHIP In Our Heads earns two stars.
2
Mar 21 2023
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The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
This review should open with some articulate words on Velvet Underground's importance in the history of late 20th century Western popular music, here they are: blah, blah, blah. Chances are just too good that if you've followed Western music culture in the last 50 years you've been exposed to some description of their importance so I'll leave it at that.
What about this, their third, record? This album is really very nice, it's mostly mellow and even the uptempo tracks demonstrate restraint. It's a mostly quiet and small affair. Though not without the occasional rambunctious moment i.e. Murder Mystery is a bit crowded sonically and yet is a blueprint used by Hüsker Dü, Pavement, and more. You could almost use the adjective quaint to describe the album overall.
4
Mar 22 2023
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Fifth Dimension
The Byrds
Jangly Dylan-influenced, vaguely Hippie folk pop. I can hear why some people really "dig it." Eight Miles High is a stand-out track. In short, the album is fine for what it is, but it's not my bag. It's my bag adjacent at best.
3
Mar 23 2023
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Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Bill Evans Trio
I loved this record the first time I heard it (when I didn't know much about Bill Evans or this trio). This record is so good you won't even mind that they "play the same song twice" four different times. To review, that's 8 tracks on a 10 track album.
A considerable part of the success of this live recording in my opinion is the playing of bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. They more than hold their own with Bill Evans. When Scott or Paul take the spotlight it's as equally rewarding as when Bill does.
4
Mar 24 2023
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My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West
Former US President Barack Obama correctly identified Kanye West as a jackass and if you can separate Ye's antics and outbursts from his music you might be able to enjoy this record for what it's worth. There are at least 4 great tracks on this record that are good enough to stand on their own outside of his complicated legacy. However, the remainder of the tracks are of uneven quality. Bracketing all the negative Kanye stuff would only put this record in three star territory reaching for that unattainable fourth star. Unfortunately for me, as the owner of four of his albums, I find it increasingly difficult to hold all that extra stuff at bay. Two stars.
2
Mar 27 2023
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Here Are the Sonics
The Sonics
The Sonics are local legends in the Pacific Northwest. There are a few tracks on this record that transcend their early American garage rock context like The Witch, Psycho, Boss Hoss, and Strychnine. Unfortunately this record is also littered with rock 'n' roll standards like Do You Love Me, Roll Over Beethoven, Money, and Good Golly Miss Molly. For every stellar standout song, there's some generic cover whose rendition sounds too timid today. This is a record best received by someone into early rock 'n' roll or garage rock. While I have listening interests adjacent to all this, it's not enough to save the rating despite the fact that if it were an EP with just the four stellar tracks I'd rate it four stars. Taken as a whole, it's hard to enjoy.
2
Mar 28 2023
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Blood On The Tracks
Bob Dylan
Despite my well-established hatred of the harmonica, I'm a casual Dylan fan. I like most of the songs from Freewheelin' Bob Dylan through the Blonde on Blonde record. From that era onward it's maybe just a song or two here and there but without exploring his catalogue at all. What does this mean? Why do we care? It means that I've never heard this record as a record. I haven't paid it that kind of attention and I don't know what I'll have to say about it after I give it a listen.
The first three songs: Tangled up in Blue, Simple Twist of Fate, & You're a Big Girl Now make me wonder "Is this the sound of easy listening Bob Dylan?" At least, Idiot Wind sounds like Dylan woke up for it. He might not be as angry as he was elsewhere, but it has some grit. Truth be told, I lost interest around the song Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts — song number 7 of 10. Actively started to dislike If You See Her, Say Hello on repeat listen. But Shelter from the Storm is alright.
I am friends with a Bob Dylan scholar, please don't tell him about my rating here: two stars.
2
Mar 29 2023
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Manassas
Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills serves you up a pleasant rock album that's slightly Southern fried on the one hand — a dash of Lynyrd Skynyrd, a sprinkle of the Allman Brothers — and a little meat 'n' potatoes country-folk on the other — a pinch of John Denver, etc. As a meal, there are a few great tracks but also a few bites too many (like so many double albums of the time). I was ready to excuse myself from the table before it was done.
3
Mar 30 2023
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Deja Vu
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Stephen Stills' Manassas yesterday and now I get this today? This gives me a sense of...Déjà vu. Only this record is better.
3
Mar 31 2023
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Live At Leeds
The Who
The one true Who record I love. My POP introduced me to this record when I was a young man (didn't have nothin' in the world these days). I enjoyed it so much I went searching high and low for studio recordings of these songs that matched the energy and power of LIVE AT LEEDS. I never found them. This record documents the true maximum rock 'n' roll of The Who. In my opinion it's their best album. And, it is among the best live recordings of its era. Too Much, Magic Bus. Five Stars.
5
Apr 03 2023
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The Wildest!
Louis Prima
Gramp's own Pa's easy listening. Put the record on in the ol' folks home and watch them stare far away into the distant past remembering a different time back when they were young and spry and their parents who controlled the radio had Louis Prima on it. So far away and yet, I can connect with the music today. The Wildest! endures.
4
Apr 04 2023
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Brothers
The Black Keys
This may or may not be true history, but it cuts to the heart of the album in review: The Black Keys heard the White Stripes update to the blues rock formula and started a band. What they lack in originality (to be docked from the final rating) they make up for in execution. The name of this album is Brothers. The rating is four stars minus one.
3
Apr 05 2023
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Connected
Stereo MC's
The grooves aren't bad if you turn it down low enough to be able to ignore the mostly dumb lyrics. I didn't bother to throw this on the headphones to truly test if the MCs were in Stereo. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2
Apr 06 2023
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A Walk Across The Rooftops
The Blue Nile
Who is this vaguely new wave / new romantics band that I've never heard of before? Their slightly The The, Aztec Camera, Style Council, Fine Young Cannibals, Yaz fronted by Scott Walker meets the mellowest side of Comsat Angels spooning the Pogues vibes has me intrigued. My enthusiasm for the album slowed around the Easter Parade (though quite a timely listen here in April).
4
Apr 07 2023
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Hejira
Joni Mitchell
Why you gotta be like that Spotify/Joni? As of today, I can only stream Coyote there. Good thing my partner owns this album and I'm familiar with it through numerous listens. In my opinion, this is the most pleasant recording of Jaco Pastorius we have. His furious fusion finger work being awesome in a very different way. The restrained but virtuoso fretless is a wonderful, graceful compliment to Joni Mitchell's vocals. This isn't my favorite Joni record but it's up there.
4
Apr 10 2023
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Maxinquaye
Tricky
Tricky tries too hard to be sexy sometimes.
2
Apr 11 2023
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Deloused in the Comatorium
The Mars Volta
Did The Mars Volta single-handedly revive Prog Rock? No one can ever say definitively yes, but if they didn't do it, no one did. And, if this full-length release didn't kick it off, then I don't know what did. This album continues to thrill.
5
Apr 12 2023
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Urban Hymns
The Verve
Bitter Sweet Symphony was inescapable for a time. It's a fine song as are many on this record, but I don't find many of them particularly compelling. The songs here seem like they're great for slacking around in your loafers, comfy pants and bucket hat. Just like the guys on the record cover, you are looking elsewhere for something of interest.
2
Apr 13 2023
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White Blood Cells
The White Stripes
There was a time when I was committed to the White Stripes. This album was in heavy rotation during that stretch, but it wasn't my favorite either. It's a four star White Stripes record. Depending on how you feel about their whole sound bump that up or down on your personal rock-o-meter.
4
Apr 14 2023
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Group Sex
Circle Jerks
Growing up a punk rock skate kid the Circle Jerks were always in Thrasher and other zines. They were seemingly required listening. Someone always had this record at hand. This record is especially great for its time and is significant to me by virtue of having the music attached to good memories. Listening many years later I find it sometimes lacks power compared to music made by the kids it inspired. It also suffers from an unfortunate trick that time plays on us all where pioneers of a formula can over time sound more formulaic than they did when they first made their statement. Don't get me wrong, it's still good. But even Keith Morris himself in OFF! is more consistently punchier than what is present here.
3
Apr 17 2023
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Stankonia
OutKast
Never a fan of skits in albums I will take an entire star for the mar they make on what is otherwise a superlative record from Outkast. These interludes in particular aren't palette cleansers, they're straight up stupid. It's a shame because otherwise this is a five star record. Gasoline Dreams indeed.
4
Apr 18 2023
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Strangeways, Here We Come
The Smiths
The Smiths — it's even more complicated now. I'm likely to stan for Johnny Marr forever whereas Morrissey can stay in the toilet of his regrettable right wing nationalism. With that out of the way, this is among their best despite it being the end of The Smiths. It's not my favorite of which I rated five stars despite Morrissey's politics. I will again bracket Morrissey out of respect for Johnny Marr and the rest of the band. But this record only gets four stars.
4
Apr 19 2023
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Dirt
Alice In Chains
Ah! A chance to reappraise DIRT by Alice in Chains. A band that I disliked on principle alone at the time they arrived on the scene. Early 90s I'm in punk mode in the Northwest and certainly grungy bands start getting some attention but the ones that appealed to me were the least commercial, the weirder more indie and punker of the cohort. Even Nirvana for a brief moment wasn't the international sensation that shook the music industry. So when Alice in Chains and a few others started to also rise in popularity I (and I wasn't alone) saw this as a land grab for cash and record industry attention that was uncool. They seemed like a glammy hard rock/metal band trying to change their sound for fame and fortune and AS A PUNK I WAS AGAINST IT. Full stop.
There certainly are some stylistic tells or trappings of their hard rock heritage on this record: slower beats, tremolo dives, wah effects, bombastic solos with deep bends and impressive runs, ballads with oohs, chorus effects, etc. And, this record is also long, too long for me personally. By now I guess they knew what their fans wanted and felt a confidence delivering it over and over and over again.
If you are still reading this you might expect me to rate this at two stars, but I'll say there are also some songs on this record that are recognizably great. They seem to have integrated some of their influences and aspirations into a better version of themselves. Is it necessarily my thing that I'll go back to? Nope. But is it better than I initially gave it credit for? Yes.
3
Apr 20 2023
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Station To Station
David Bowie
STATIONTOSTATIONDAVIDBOWIEFIVESTARS
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Many professional reviewers have crafted sharp, searching prose trying to cut the Stylistic Gordian Knot of this record. Is it Funk? Is it Disco? Is it Soul? Is it Pop? Is it all of these things but ... is it still also Krautrock? It's moody, it's heavy, it's celebratory...but it's a dark celebration. It's cerebral but moves your booty. Maybe the mind is not yet free but is being led by the ass?
5
Apr 21 2023
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Sound of Silver
LCD Soundsystem
Lyrics you can smirk to. Grooves you can dance to. Real feels for this ex-NYC resident while listening to "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down." My 11 years there overlaps heavily with LCD Soundsystem which might be why it rings so true. Signed, another North American Scum.
5
Apr 24 2023
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American Idiot
Green Day
Green Day has spent their career disproving my hypothesis that I can totally hate them. And, while I can't totally, easily hate them...this record comes close with every overproduced, over-instrumented slow number meant to be "meaningful" from the band that brought us the album titled "Dookie" and named themselves after a big weed session.
And here we are with this record. I'm not a fan of Green Day's Grease by way of the Clash mixed with their own selves from a decade ago and a dropout version of Professor Greg Graffin's course on Bad Religion. Quadrophenia this is not. And yet, I'll give it an entire star for existing at all as a signpost to punk that existed in the mainstream during some rough years for radio rock and a second star for the opening track.
2
Apr 25 2023
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Highway to Hell
AC/DC
Just a sure as a Gibson SG's tone is dirty and sweet, if you liked rock of any kind in the 80s you had to acknowledge AC/DC. Like a button or patch on your jean jacket you knew Highway to Hell at least. Coming out in '79, it wasn't my soundtrack and that wasn't my look but all them older kids made sure I heard it. Maybe you are like me and you find that it's hard to truck with an album oozing objectification out of nearly every pore but casual, mid-tempo eighties rocking rarely sounds as good as AC/DC's output here and on Back In Black.
4
Apr 26 2023
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Doggystyle
Snoop Dogg
Not my thing, but even I can acknowledge that there are about 3 songs that transcend the album itself.
1
Apr 27 2023
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C'est Chic
CHIC
41m 42s of CHIC is just about enough CHIC for any day.
3
Apr 28 2023
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World Clique
Deee-Lite
Groove is in the heart and oftentimes in this record.
4
May 01 2023
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Are You Experienced
Jimi Hendrix
POP was a Hendrix fan. I first EXPERIENCED Jimi's record, the original US release, on vinyl and loud as that Hi-Fi could go. In his younger years, POP liked to play records so loud that the house was a speaker for listening in the backyard. It's hard to imagine how many minds were blown, just like speakers, from the opening RIFF alone. It's crazy to me that a record from 1967 still sounds generally excellent in 2023. Some of the inventiveness is now standard blues rock, of course. All the standout tracks still SHINE, but the thing that I appreciate on listening to the record today are the tracks that aren't the popular hits with the big streaming numbers; songs like "I Don't Live Today" and "Love or Confusion". They're definitely a bit more psychedelic and less radio friendly, but the quality is super HIGH.
4
May 02 2023
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MTV Unplugged In New York
Nirvana
For me, this record is definitively the Nineties but not in its production or sound. It doesn't sound like the Nineties. Instead it represents the era by virtue of being an MTV Unplugged session by Nirvana who broke things open for all that college radio stuff way back when it was marketed as "alternative." More insightful people than me will say more insightful things about the lyrics and the performance, but it's still a decent listen though Kurt is as tiresome as he is probably tired. By no means my favorite Nirvana record, but it remains an occasional listen especially for the Meat Puppets and Bowie covers.
4
May 03 2023
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Nighthawks At The Diner
Tom Waits
I really like Tom Waits and many of the songs here, but not this album as a whole experience. As one of the greatest storytellers in song Tom's not worried though, and you shouldn't be either. Hang onto that dime!
4
May 04 2023
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Tellin’ Stories
The Charlatans
This is okay in a mid-nineties generic Brit rock kind of way. Required listening it is not.
2
May 05 2023
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Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz
This album mostly recovers from her walk into the sea (looks straight ahead, not at he). That song, the first here, is such a high water mark. And yet, the album is filled with solid Stan Getz playing and holds its vibe. It's a pleasure to put on when you have the time and space to listen with intent because if you have it on as just background music it will only ever be "pleasantly same-y" aside from the Girl from Ipanema.
4
May 08 2023
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The La's
The La's
Interesting transitional band from British 80s sounds to the 90s Brit Rock that blew up alongside US Grunge. Feels a bit more rooted in the 80s vibe but strikes me as a proto-90s Brit Rock band.
3
May 09 2023
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Ready To Die
The Notorious B.I.G.
I like a good Biggie Smalls single like the next person who came of age when he was making music, but I can't take a whole album of it. Gotta be a solid album experience to rise above 3 stars.
3
May 10 2023
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Live Through This
Hole
Some good tracks, but as a (w)hole it's not a great record. Close to L7, Babes in Toyland, and Dickless to my ear but with pop aspirations which makes them a little bit more listenable when Courtney Love is in control of her vocals. It's a shame that the semi-dis track/complaint song "Rock Star" closes the record given Hole can't seem to muster the kind of enthusiasm of a Sleater-Kinney or Bikini Kill in me. Overall, it's not my favorite 90s rock record, but it's not the worst of the era either.
3
May 11 2023
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Time Out
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
I have this album. It feels like every budding jazz lover is instructed to check this record out at some point in their initial journey. Blue Rondo à la Turk is seared into my brain. The album announces itself well through this track and even though it has its peaks and valleys it doesn't fail to deliver on its promise throughout. All that said, it also feels at times like the musical conversation has moved on so much that this record now feels staid.
3
May 12 2023
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Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Stereolab
I listened to this album like four or five times today and while I cannot remember a single track distinctly each time was a good listen. I got Komeda meets St. Etienne vibes all day long. Success?
3
May 15 2023
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Rum Sodomy & The Lash
The Pogues
I had Peace and Love on cassette back in the day, but overall I never took to the Pogues. This record is fine, there are some good songs on here, but it's not a revelation.
2
May 16 2023
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Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Mercifully short record from The Memphis Flash. Blue Suede Shoes still has some punch and there are a couple of other tracks that I don't mind. His renditions of I Got a Woman and Tutti Fruitti however *pale* in comparison to other performances of these songs. Sorry King, it ain't my thing.
2
May 17 2023
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Mama's Gun
Erykah Badu
This is a good record although it's not my favorite Erykah Badu ever (that would be her Live album which I place above Baduizm even). A mid-level Badu is still solid. I suspect the algorithm will serve up at least one more of her records before I'm done with this project.
4
May 18 2023
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The Libertines
The Libertines
Hard-pressed to see how this record is significant in any way at all. Like why before I die do I need to hear this? The answer is unclear.
It's not weird enough. It's not good enough. It's not exciting enough. Heck, it's not even boring enough or terrible enough. It's middling indie rock with a slightly punky vibe. Okay. But why?
2
May 19 2023
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Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Sorry Anthony Kiedis, I don't want to Break the Girl or Suck your Kiss nor do I care what happened Under the Bridge or when you were Naked in the Rain. The lyrics and vocals are the death of my enjoyment here. What I want is to listen to Flea, Frusciante, and Chad freakin' jam. The music on the record is tops, one of the best for the Peppers, I think. The rest (Kiedis) is flops. All the stars to the players.
2
May 22 2023
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Paul's Boutique
Beastie Boys
Hear the Beasties tryin' to bust out of their Licensed to Ill cage with every beat, sample and rhyme. Not running from themselves, but running to where they wanted to be. Despite some cringe lyrics that haven't aged too well, this album still makes my top three for them, even if their try-hard striving is apparent.
4
May 23 2023
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This Is Fats Domino
Fats Domino
This is Fine.
2
May 24 2023
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Frank
Amy Winehouse
I missed the Amy Winehouse bus when it was originally leaving the station. I'm okay to have let it pass me by despite her amazing voice. While I recognize that talent, I'm not particularly into the lyrical content or the music and arrangements.
2
May 25 2023
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British Steel
Judas Priest
Killer cover though you have to wonder just how those fingers aren't totally cut up and bleeding over all that British Steel. Jokes aside, other than some minor quibbles around the sonic qualities of the mix, I'm into this record more than I would've thought based on prior impressions of Judas Priest. Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight are the two pillars under which some lesser songs do find cover. And yet, better than expected.
3
May 26 2023
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John Barleycorn Must Die
Traffic
Not my jam but not objectively terrible. Definitely more piano and organ on these songs than I would prefer. The flute was unexpected, though I guess I shouldn't really have been that surprised.
2
May 29 2023
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The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
I Wanna Be Adored is a great song that should've piqued my interest as a listener enough to check the album out right away. And yet, I never did. Maybe that was a good thing because there are also some duds on the record. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2
May 30 2023
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Songs Of Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Divisive genius performs the occasional pearl. Suzanne is a five star song, but Stories of the Street is not.
3
May 31 2023
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Hearts And Bones
Paul Simon
Some people contend that there are no bad Paul Simon albums. That may be true in a strict sense, but this is a tedious Paul Simon album.
2
Jun 01 2023
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Live!
Fela Kuti
I've heard Ginger Baker was a bit of a grump. But it's hard to believe it's true when Fela Kuti says his name with such emphasis: GINGER BAKER!!!
4
Jun 02 2023
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Arc Of A Diver
Steve Winwood
The arc of this album is only so so. It starts off with its strongest track and then kind of nosedives from there.
2
Jun 05 2023
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Graceland
Paul Simon
Good and Great: The Boy in the Bubble, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, Homeless, Graceland, and You Can Call Me Al. Bad: That Was Your Mother. The Rest is typical middling Paul Simon despite slightly more adventurous instrumentation.
3
Jun 06 2023
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Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
OutKast
A double album often means double the dread. The fear of how much time I'm going to need to invest in a single day to unpack all the tracks and form some kind of an opinion on it. Throw on top of that we're talking about a group that's unafraid of skits and other interludes a person can become quite daunted quickly. Good thing for me that I own this record already. ;)
Someone else with greater powers of pithy summarization will come along and say something succinct. They'll impart a bunch of wisdom while displaying their impressive wit. Me? I'm here to say: it's uneven at best. The best songs totally slap and all that but you have to put up with a lot of other tracks where you can tell that OutKast was at a point in their career and popularity that they lacked a person between them or in their inner circle who could successfully wield the editing pen.
It's always a bit of a let down when you hear a ~40 track double album that feels like it drags in places and you know it could've made a classic, all-time great record with 12 tracks.
2
Jun 07 2023
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Fuzzy
Grant Lee Buffalo
I never really paid them attention at the time. In fact, I had always had an imagined history for Grant Lee Buffalo: He was an uncredited member of Buffalo Springfield. He was a player on some Grant Hart solo records. He was in Buffalo Tom. Of course, I was wrong. He was, in fact, a whole band. And yet, how wrong was I? Basically, Grant Lee Buffalo music feels like a cross between some Neil Young and Buffalo Tom. If you ear-squint real hard, maybe you can even hear the softer side of late Husker Du somewhere in there. Anyway, this record is the reason I'm engaged in this project. Let me hear some things I completely missed and let me re-appraise some things I let pass me by in my high snobbery days. This is a solid record from a band that totally fell by the wayside for me.
4
Jun 08 2023
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Heaven Or Las Vegas
Cocteau Twins
I *always* had the same complaint when it came to the Cocteau Twins. I wanted more urgency in the music. I wanted harder hits and higher bpms. I wanted occasional crunch and intermittent grit — deliver a line with a throaty yowl once in a while. In other words, I wanted them to be a band that was not who they were. I wanted, craved, yearned for a version of the Cocteau Twins that was more punk than they ever wanted to be. I went so far down this road that a punk band I was in covered Wax and Wane. But, I've only begun to ask myself: Why?
It may be as simple as this. The Cocteau Twins make truly great music that I'm drawn to; but as with many things we love, I sought to impose my vision on them, my own will, I could not step back and give them the space to be who they were. I loved them partially for what they were, but I loved them more (and was always hurt by it) for what I wanted them to be. Robin and Elizabeth, I've finally grown up. I'm sorry. I'm only now mature enough to fully love you for what you really had to offer. I no longer want you to be something that you're not. I'm grateful these records are still here for me to come to that understanding. Younger me would've foolishly rated this three stars, but not anymore...full five.
5
Jun 09 2023
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Fragile
Yes
Hard Yes to Roundabout, South Side of the Sky, Long Distance Runaround, Heart of the Sunrise, America. No thanks to the occasional over-indulgent prog-wankery that appears here and there marring an otherwise incredible record.
4
Jun 12 2023
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Hotel California
Eagles
Yet more evidence that the only way to listen to the Eagles is with a greatest hits collection because one amazing song and two okay ones doesn't make for a good record when the rest are audio abominations.
1
Jun 13 2023
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Ellington at Newport
Duke Ellington
A whole lot of Duke Ellington live. You need to be in the mood for this, I think, rather than just having it served to you one morning. If you've never heard it before, it can be hard to listen to all the introductions and asides while waiting to decide if something is going to be worth the 2 hours, 7 minute investment. Jump right into Black and Tan Fantasy to get a sense and maybe even to help you get into the requisite mental space. An album best served with a drink late at night, I suppose.
3
Jun 14 2023
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Forever Changes
Love
1967: imagine starting a band so early you can snag the name Love. Even though they were a favorite of my own POP, as he prefers it stylized, I can't picture what it would've been like to put this record on a turntable...to hear a little ambient hiss and pop come through before those naturally mic'd acoustic guitar strings come through with that first arpeggio and soft lead line. Alone Again Or fills its sound out with strings and horns, but arranged with an attention to the dynamics of each section it's a journey in miniature that leads you home where A House Is Not a Motel. The songs here have a subdued or gentle urgency granted by a drummer showing more restraint over bombast and a singer who matches this approach. This feeling is aided by their preference for the acoustic guitar to communicate the chords. Love brings the electric in when they need a fevered pitch but it's not the dominant feel. They rely more on strings when they need something to cut through. It's a gentler vibe for sure. The Red Telephone didn't quite work for me as well as some of the other strong songs on the record, but I bet at the time it was a song that connected with its audience. Certainly some of the songs suffer here and there from Love being in one or two modes only. Maybe trimming the album by a couple of tracks or just accepting that time hasn't treated each song the same as they've aged. Overall, a solid record that I can now appreciate the appeal of more than I did yesterday.
4
Jun 15 2023
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New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)
Simple Minds
I think this album may have got off on the wrong foot in terms of my initial reception of it. I had my streaming service on shuffle the first run through. Second time around, I corrected that and kicked up the volume only to realize that some of my early feelings were about the vocal mix (sitting a little low in places). Also I realized that Somebody Up There Likes You is a real momentum killer on the records. Speaking of the album overall: it's more about atmosphere than I would've expected from Simple Minds. I think you have to look at how the album is thought of in reverse rather than how it was heard when it first came out, the number of "viable singles" on it also seems low for what I expect of this band. As you can see, I have some baggage and expectation of what I'm going to get from Simple Minds and this album also confronts that bias. Maybe on a third listen I'll finally be able to "hear it". Though I admit some impatience while I listen.
2
Jun 16 2023
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Trafalgar
Bee Gees
I will try to listen to this record all the way through.
I will try to listen to this record all the way through.
I will try to listen to this record all the way through.
Please, I'd take the Disco BEE GEES over this. Truly one of the worst albums I've had to endure through this project. Zero stars.
1
Jun 19 2023
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Dire Straits
Dire Straits
I appreciate how this record opens. A sense of quiet for the first 30 seconds and a melancholy openness follows — just a bit of guitar and a soft splashy cymbal before the track really kicks in with the full band. More contemporary music bets that the listener's attention will be lost in that silence. In other words, we rarely hear an opening like this anymore. It's not like I need to put the needle on the record and walk back to my chair before sitting down and "readying" myself to listen. Most things are singles in the stream these days. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.
It's not my personal jam but this is a decent record with a pleasing pace. I've never fully been down with Dire Straits despite being able to recognize the obvious greatness of songs like Sultans of Swing (which graces this album).
3
Jun 20 2023
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Document
R.E.M.
My first introduction to R.E.M. was the album after this one: Green. But over time I've gotten to know most of their catalogue. Document is one of their records I've now spent a substantial amount of my R.E.M. time with. It's not my favorite or their best, but it's very good. It's just deep enough, catchy enough, rocking enough, and something surprising enough to keep me coming back. It has a few too many tracks like Exhuming McCarthy and Lightning Hopkins that don't hold up quite as well as you'd want on the one hand, and yet it has all-time greats like It's the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine), The One I Love, and Finest Worksong on the other hand. Solid record from a band who had even better things in store for us. Four stars.
4
Jun 21 2023
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Signing Off
UB40
The fear and dread I felt when reading the band name for the album today was off the charts. So imagine my surprise that it wasn't immediately terrible. I listened to the entire record without a hard cringe. But I might've had the volume down low initially, so I listened to it again! UB40 you were just a British reggae band who laughed their way to the bank with a terrible but popular song. I've maligned you ever since without listening to your other work. A surprisingly solid record.
4
Jun 22 2023
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High Violet
The National
I've enjoyed most every album by The National but this one I'm particularly fond of. It might be that Bloodbuzz Ohio is also one of my favorite songs of the era. That said, there are a few moments where if you are not engaged with the record and soaking up the mood it will begin to drag. A casual, whole album listen to this record is never without that danger. But if you're in the spirit of the record and present, it will reward you.
4
Jun 23 2023
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Picture Book
Simply Red
Simply some pipes on the vocalist. Not particularly my jam, but it's also not terrible by most measures. I appreciate that the best or at least most well known songs are in the middle of the record from a "How am I ever going to make it through this?" perspective because I was starting to lose patience.
2
Jun 26 2023
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good kid, m.A.A.d city
Kendrick Lamar
Much respect to Kendrick. This album only cements how I feel about him. Great artist, some things I dig, but ultimately not for me.
3
Jun 27 2023
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Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
PJ Harvey
Yet another great PJ Harvey record. The duets with Yorke are good but she shines when center stage.
4
Jun 28 2023
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Hot Fuss
The Killers
I never really got into The Killers despite one of my friends really being into them at their peak. This record doesn't move me much. They're just more of that early aughts nicked from the past vibe. It's hard to see what the fuss is about.
3
Jun 29 2023
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Make Yourself
Incubus
Nice try Incubus. It's going to take more than heavy guitars for me to like this. Too polished and trying too hard to appeal. No thanks.
2
Jun 30 2023
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Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
There's other Maiden I much prefer, but this is not an objectively terrible entry in their canon. The thing that's striking for me, however, is that it's hard for me to hear in this debut the juggernaut they'd become. Maybe at the time this album appeared more impressive.
2
Jul 10 2023
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The Atomic Mr Basie
Count Basie & His Orchestra
I won't blame you if this is your thing, but Basie has never been mine even as a bit of a Jazz lover.
2
Jul 11 2023
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Grace
Jeff Buckley
Some of these songs I've heard so many times and yet I've never listened to this record the whole way through before. I was allergic to the idea of Jeff Buckley for the longest time. Of course, this is dumb. The notion of "Taste" is a funny thing, just ask Plato, Kant and Bourdieu or in this context maybe Peel, Christgau, and Fantano but as anyone who reads my reviews probably already knows I'm a recovering music snob who came up with some strong DIY views. Anyway, good record. A little too long. Obviously a shame he passed on early.
3
Jul 12 2023
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90
808 State
Is this record great for studying, working, or having on in the background when you need a good bpm pulse but don't want to be dragged down by detailed audio? Sure, it is. Is there more going on in the record? Probably! But after a couple of listens, I can't help but think that it only matters to the headphone crowd now. What now sounds tame was once fire.
3
Jul 13 2023
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Tapestry
Carole King
Great record. Cat photobomb cover. Would Carole King again.
-//-
This record deserves a lengthy review detailing all of Carole King's genius from the lyrics to the performances and more but I'm unlikely to write it today. While it's not a record I listened to as a kid, this is an album I've come to know quite well over my life. It's welcomes me back whenever I return to it. It's like the cozy sweater. Tapestry has never let me down.
4
Jul 14 2023
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The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails
Ditching the synth-pop flavors of their excellent first album for an even darker and grittier sound, I find the second record by NIN to be much stronger. It's got some real bangers on it as the kids might say. To my ear, this second album is more of an evolution from the first record than what you might say about Ministry's own change from an extremely synth-pop style to an industrial-metal sound. This second record cemented NIN in 90s music in a way that I don't think would've happened if they had just continued the direction of or repeated their first record.
Funny thing is...(and by funny I mean, I'm dumb): I didn't really listen to this record so much when it first came out because, of course, I had dismissed them based on how I felt about their rising popularity off the first record. At that time, I was too anti-fame, anti-mass appeal to want to have much to do with them even if I liked the music.
4
Jul 17 2023
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Endtroducing.....
DJ Shadow
Endtroducing.....a classic album of sampling-turntablist hip-hop.
4
Jul 18 2023
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Maggot Brain
Funkadelic
If you listen to Parliament or Parliament-Funkadelic you might, on occasion, forget that Funkadelic itself can be kind of restrained. This is a totally enjoyable, sometimes mellow funky record.
4
Jul 19 2023
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Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash
It's good enough to have as an album for the day. But it lacks a certain Youngish quality that I've come to prefer over time. I don't know if I'd say it's truly an album I need to hear before I die since I'm also fairly certain there's some Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on this list somewhere.
3
Jul 20 2023
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Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo
MC Solaar
MC Solaar's flow transcends any linguistic barriers between the delivery in French and these ears of mine. Mostly smooth beats and laid back delivery on the tracks with a few moments of urgency (parts of some songs or songs like Ragga Jam themselves). By and large, this is an album you can chill to.
3
Jul 21 2023
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Ritual De Lo Habitual
Jane's Addiction
Although the opening song "Stop" might initially lead the listener to believe this record was going to be a strong follow-up to the revelatory (at the time it came out) Nothing's Shocking, Ritual De Lo Habitual is ultimately a disappointment. The album lacks focus and urgency in far too many songs. Sections meant to be hypnotic are just boring. Different parts feel phoned in by different players at different times. Is "Been Caught Stealing" a classic 90s song? Yeah, it is. But two or three good songs out of nine total doesn't make for an album we need to hear before we die. The smartest thing Jane's Addiction ever did was keep their sample size low after Nothing's Shocking because it turns out that the more records they made the more evidence of their mediocrity we had.
2
Jul 24 2023
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Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul
Otis Redding
Otis Redding always delivers but this record didn't wow me as some of his have.
3
Jul 25 2023
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Red Headed Stranger
Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson is a national treasure in the United States for good reason. This record is a major contributor to his legacy. It's a favorite of mine.
4
Jul 26 2023
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They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Liars
I was living in Brooklyn during the 00s and had fallen in love with the Liars from the start with "They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top". Honestly when "They Were Wrong, So We Drowned" came out I was befuddled and felt a little betrayed and yet...after some time passed...was intrigued. It's easier for me now to see how they got from there to here and through on to other musical territory.
4
Jul 27 2023
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Street Life
The Crusaders
Sometimes you just need six smooth songs. I enjoyed this despite the prominence of the saxophone on a few tracks. It is, though, totally unclear to me why I'd need to listen to this album before I died. There must be some historical reason I'm not yet aware of. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2
Jul 28 2023
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After The Gold Rush
Neil Young
Thanks for pulling all your music from Spotify, Neil. I get it. I support it. But, also, I miss having it on hand. "After the Gold Rush" isn't my favorite Neil Young record but it's among them and is worthy of 5 stars.
5
Jul 31 2023
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Chirping Crickets
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
I've mostly always appreciated Buddy Holly's music. This record is a vibe that I'm not feeling so much today but I can't deny the quality of the music for its era.
3
Aug 01 2023
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Juju
Siouxsie And The Banshees
SPELLBOUND!
4
Aug 02 2023
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Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
Derek & The Dominos
Layla is still a great song despite being overplayed. This was probably a good listening exercise to sit with the rest of the record for the first time. It starts out inconspicuous enough with a mild, mid-tempo blues. Unremarkable noodles and gentle singing did not invoke a Clapton is God response initially but the record shows occasional flashes of brilliance (if not always as urgent or intense as I think they should be). Clapton has a clarity of tone that is notable. I can understand him having some disciples and while he may be among the top players he is not the best of his generation to my ear. He's too tasteful, too restrained, and ultimately too backward-facing to be innovative and exciting. His playing is a supremely pleasant listen seemingly executed by a soulless technician.
3
Aug 03 2023
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Oxygène
Jean-Michel Jarre
Question: Will this mark the first 5 star review I've given to an artist I hadn't heard of before?
I don't know the history of this album that came out in 1976 but I bet at the time it was groundbreaking. After the album was over, Spotify transitioned into other pieces from this genre and it was a seamless blend of old and new. This must mean that this record is a classic for being both of its time and timeless — in its own now but also from the future looking back at us and beckoning our ears forward.
Answer: Nope, but so close! (4.5 stars, rounded down)
4
Aug 04 2023
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I Should Coco
Supergrass
I don't "la la la" like this band. The second Supergrass album to cross my path through this practice of listening each weekday to one of the 1001 albums I must hear before I die. It's the second time I wondered to myself, I'd Like to Know: why this band? Send some of their influences my way, please. That is at least what's interesting here. On paper, I ought to like them and yet, I can't get into it. At least this record was shorter than the other I was served. It also seemed peppier overall. Better than the last, I guess. Ok, review over. Time to Go.
2
Aug 07 2023
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Music for the Masses
Depeche Mode
Not my favorite by Depeche Mode, but it's still good. A few songs are more cringe now than they were upon my very first listen to them and some remain the classics that they immediately were. This is a band whose singles I could listen to a lot, but their albums have always been a hard listen for me. I often lose interest somewhere along the way and this one is no exception to that.
4
Aug 08 2023
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Darkness on the Edge of Town
Bruce Springsteen
This isn't my favorite Springsteen album. I feel like the record starts with a zig and a zag: Badlands is a little too happy with its piano romp and sax solo. While the throaty yowl of Adam Raised a Cain plants its pathos more firmly in the Darkness one might find on the Edge of Town. The record takes awhile to find itself and once it does it *can* be satisfying. Still, it's no Nebraska.
3
Aug 09 2023
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Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago
My POP had this record on vinyl and I'm not going to lie to you, I used to rock out to some of these jams. The playing is still outstanding but now when I try to take the whole album in as a statement I'm just not as impressed as I was when I was 7 or 8.
2
Aug 10 2023
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Very
Pet Shop Boys
I'm not feeling this album. Sorry Boys!
2
Aug 11 2023
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Five Leaves Left
Nick Drake
Big fan of Pink Moon but I never really gave Five Leaves Left a shot. This album is also excellent. However, I'm not a fan of the kerning between the capital A and the capital V in the cover. Ouch!
4
Aug 14 2023
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Hot Buttered Soul
Isaac Hayes
By the time I get through this 18 minute long song I can expect to listen to the single version of it 5 minutes later. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of this album but it sure is heavy on a trip to Phoenix.
3
Aug 15 2023
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What's Going On
Marvin Gaye
A classic for a reason. Listen to find out What's Going On.
5
Aug 16 2023
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Born In The U.S.A.
Bruce Springsteen
In order to listen to this I had to get myself in the correct headspace. First, to remind myself that this record is largely misunderstood. It is not intended as some rah-rah nationalistic celebration but an album by the songwriter who's preceding album, Nebraska, was essentially written at the same time as Born in the USA and is openly critical of big business and the situations that working people find themselves in. Second, to shed some of the personal associations with this album in terms of who in my life has championed it (and that I largely disagreed with). Third, prepare myself for some saxophone (which I am so often troubled by in "rock and roll"). Fourth, just forget every Springsteen video associated with the album while I listen. Fifth, that red cap in the back pocket isn't the same as what a red baseball hat means today. Sixth, ignore that letter spacing on the cover... I think you can get it that this album has a lot of baggage. And yet, and yet, right from the opener if you're paying attention you're going to understand that the music is going to play with opposites sometimes and you'll need to keep an open mind — upbeat music and cynical lyrics:
Born down in a dead man's town / The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much / 'Til you spend half your life just covering up, now
And, I think this is the fundamental misunderstanding of this record, the arrangements and instrumentation are intended to produce radio hits (and they certainly did!) but the sentiments behind the lyrics are local, labor, tired and a bit jaded.
3
Aug 17 2023
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Headquarters
The Monkees
Hey Hey I've always misjudged this band despite having a friend who was way into all their stuff and swore to me there was pop brilliance behind all the bubblegum shenanigans. I already have music I prefer that fills this particular niche for me, however, having listened to this record I can hear that my friend was not entirely wrong. I would've had to have had to encounter them with an open mind when I was much younger for them to have stuck.
3
Aug 18 2023
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Ctrl
SZA
It's okay.
2
Aug 21 2023
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The Stooges
The Stooges
1969 doesn't start off as revolutionarily as you might expect but you know that you're into something else by the end of the title track. It is further confirmed once I Wanna Be Your Dog comes on. The record might suffer some from the sequencing that puts the next track on deck at 10 minutes. The song also reminds us that we shouldn't reimagine the Stooges as an only a proto-punk band forging some template of bravado and brevity but rather a band from another era who helped usher in punk rock with some of its songwriting and attitude.
3
Aug 22 2023
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Parachutes
Coldplay
This album is just radio and mom friendly almost indie. I feel like it's a "nothing to see here, move along" kind of an album but I guess it's something we all need to hear before we die to understand an important lesson about mass appeal. Sand off the edges for smooth sailing!
2
Aug 23 2023
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Sunshine Superman
Donovan
Plenty of Sunshine Superman and Season of the Witch awareness but I've never listened to this album all the way through. It is what you might expect from hearing both of these songs except with the hippy dial turned up even more. The album sounds cliché now but I'm sure minds were absolutely blown at the time.
3
Aug 24 2023
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Cross
Justice
This † still sounds fresh and new to me. It's an excellent listen if you're looking for something to both engage with *and* zone out to at a BPM that can move you.
4
Aug 25 2023
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The Fat Of The Land
The Prodigy
Yes, you can dance to it, but I hope someone smacks The Prodigy all up for glamorizing abuse.
2
Aug 28 2023
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Green
R.E.M.
Should we talk about the weather? Should we talk about the government?
No, I think we should talk about this album by R.E.M.
Green was my introduction to this band so I'm not going to lie, I'm flat out biased. Over time it doesn't always hold the number one spot in my heart when it comes to their records, but it does occasionally claim the throne. As an aside, we are all, always, allowed to change our minds when it comes to matters of taste; and music is certainly within the domain of taste-based conversation.
Mike Mills, the not-so-secret weapon of the band, is a revelation on this record. When I hear him sing his backing lines like "Get up, Get up" or "Freedom" the hair on the back of my neck and arms stands up as I get the feels. His contributions always bring an additional emotional layer as well as rounding out the sound.
Songs like You Are Everything are necessary precursors to later hits a la Losing My Religion, and yet they are themselves affecting touchstones of a time in our lives when we held someone as absolutely essential to our being and being in the world.
Let's not forget that this album moves effortlessly between such emotional songs and uptempo pop. We get a dose of the pop as the opener does what it says on the tin. Later we shift into it with Stand, which, pardon the pun, Stands out in that category. Hey, just another aside, as we're free-associating on this record: It was R.E.M.'s Stand and the Pixies Here Comes Your Man that were in serious rotation on MTV together and both secretly sneaking in more twangy guitar than I would've otherwise consented to. In retrospect it makes sense that we'd see a rise in indie-country sounds in the wake of that much play.
World Leader Pretend, Orange Crush, Turn You Inside Out, I Remember California...I mean c'mon, every song deserves its own exegesis uncovering the influences, drawing connections and otherwise celebrating the craft of songwriting. But I only have a few minutes to write this review and I'd rather be listening to this great record than typing.
5
Aug 29 2023
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My Generation
The Who
Not my favorite album by The Who, but I think that's true for most fans of the band. To be fair, I'm not a rabid fan of the band. I have a bit of their material on records and playlists, but it's pretty casual stuff around here. I think this record makes the list because it's their debut and has a certain raw and raucous sound that blew a few speaker cabinets at the time and inspired some listeners. It's going to get 3.5 stars rounded up because it's not just an average record and yet, it's close!
4
Aug 30 2023
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Rejoicing In The Hands
Devendra Banhart
It turns out that I have mixed feelings about Devendra Banhart's oeuvre as I imagine it to be more than as it actually is. I've always associated him with Joanna Newsom and that SF freak-folk thing which I both like and dislike. Of course, I've learned over time that there's a lot more to his music than just that. Taking his records one at a time has been instructive, and this particular album I find thoroughly enjoyable and affecting. A surprise 5 stars today.
5
Aug 31 2023
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The Age Of The Understatement
The Last Shadow Puppets
I broke my own rule of listening to the album with only the knowledge of the band I already have. But I felt justified because after hearing the first couple of songs I needed to better understand the choice behind what felt like a bad American Apparel inspired cover. Who is this person on the cover? Are they a band member? What's the design decision being made here — is it just more of the same lame male gaze or is there something else being hinted at? From what I can tell, it's just a repetition of the former and no trace of the latter. That's a shame. The music was okay.
2
Sep 01 2023
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There's No Place Like America Today
Curtis Mayfield
While I'm always down for some Curtis Mayfield, I hadn't heard this record in its entirety before today. It's good, though some songs blended together for me in the mid-to-back half.
3
Sep 04 2023
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The Band
The Band
This sounds too much like Randy Newman's part-time country funk band. No thanks.
2
Sep 05 2023
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Cloud Nine
The Temptations
I didn't need another Heard it through the Grapevine rendition, but otherwise a solid offering from The Temptations. I'm, uh, tempted to round up from 3.5 to 4 stars but I'll resist.
3
Sep 06 2023
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Remain In Light
Talking Heads
My experience of Talking Heads as a young person was filtered through my POP's copy of Sand in the Vaseline. That box is in its essence a greatest hits+ collection. But listening to Talking Heads albums is wholly different than listening to a greatest hits collection or even one of their excellent live (The Name of this Band is Talking Heads) or popular concert records (Stop Making Sense). Collections and live records deliver all peak and no real significant valley. More often then not, they erase the quality of experience that was present in a given album and color into the collection something more commercial and appealing as the experience.
Remain In Light continues some of the Fear of Music menace and paranoia but with a broader palette. It's one of my favorite Talking Heads records to pick up and listen to as a whole. I picked up a copy on vinyl though today I'm streaming it and thinking I know I should mention the rhythms in this review, but instead I'll offer that what we should be thinking about and talking about when listening to this record is INTENSITIES. Complex interplay of drum and percussion rhythm underneath layered vocals sliding, doing call and response, stabbing guitars, solos and other instrumentation flown in hot and high in the mix, bass punctuating is one kind of intensity the record offers, but it's not the only one. We also get music that's both claustrophobic and atmospheric leaving space to experience a different kind of intensity altogether. I'm not talking about dynamics purely, even though that is part of it, but about presence and pulse paired with dynamics — how much sonic matter matters in a moment, in other words music, and for me that's what makes the album title so apt, and this run on sentence so long, REMAIN IN LIGHT, as in, I to the E keep in intensity.
5
Sep 07 2023
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Heroes
David Bowie
I love David Bowie, but not this record. That said, even lesser Bowie is still better than most.
3
Sep 08 2023
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Paul Simon
Paul Simon
A couple of absolute classic songs everyone should know. You might even say they should hear them before they die. Even in his "lesser" songs, Paul Simon knows how to speak plain but also turn a phrase. He manages give rise to and coax an emotional response from me more than I'd like him to. It's a gift that keeps on giving. That said, I feel like there wasn't a lot of reining Paul in when he thought something was a good idea which is how we also get "Hobo's Blues" on this record only to be followed up with some questionable instrumentation on "Paranoia Blues" which borders on self-parody. The album just doesn't close as strong as it opens, I'm sorry to report. Even Congratulations which isn't as bad as his "blues" tracks doesn't have the gravitas of the starting block (first half of the first side).
4
Sep 11 2023
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Aftermath
The Rolling Stones
I've always found The Rolling Stones to be kind of boring and definitely not the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band of their era or any era. I appreciate their perseverance, however. This is a two-star record.
2
Sep 12 2023
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Aladdin Sane
David Bowie
Bowie's genius is on uneven ground with this record. Here we have ALADDIN SANE and a lad insane all rolled into one as Ziggy Stardust goes to America. For me there's something exhausted, lashing out and unresolved about a number of these tracks but held in a certain light or listened to on the right day it delivers another dose of Spidery sounds.
4
Sep 13 2023
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Sound Affects
The Jam
All we have in the house are like The Jam collected this and collection that. I have criticized collections for what they tend to do about the musical output of an artist — provide a different impression of an oeuvre than what their albums feel like. But I've also praised them as the only way I can stand to listen to some bands, e.g. The Eagles. This record by The Jam is a revelation, there's greater depth to the band than a collection might give you a sense of. There are a few tracks that are weaker than those only found on a greatest hits, but the album experience as a whole is greater.
4
Sep 14 2023
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Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Bill Callahan
This record is great. It doesn't prevent me from frequently mixing up Bill Callahan with Will Oldham, but it helps. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
4
Sep 15 2023
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One World
John Martyn
I have no knowledge of this artist or record, but in looking at the cover I am expecting some songs about fantasy fishing. I hope it delivers.
*Starts Record*
Well, it's not van art metal or prog fishing songs, but it's surprisingly good! I prefer the uptempo, funkier numbers over the slower, jazzier jams but overall it's a decent listen.
3
Sep 18 2023
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The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
Charles Mingus
I fell in love with Mingus through Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus even though I'd get tired after my third mention of Mingus and skip the final two. The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady came later for me despite both records being cut in '63. That's just the way it used to go when you'd pick up an album or two of an artist with an immense back catalogue and you had no mentor in the genre or media to point out the discography. Yeah, this was a while back. Prehistoric times, a stone age daydream. Mingus has always tickled my ear though and this record didn't disappoint when I finally heard it. It's treat to hear it again today.
3
Sep 19 2023
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Is This It
The Strokes
The international cover is here to clear up any ambiguity around the name of this band. Step aside life altering medical events, this is band is focused on the phallus. The US cover, given our puritanical roots, leaves things more open to interpretation. You might even say that the US cover is semantically flexible enough that the listener is invited into the lyrics and music of the album in order to make their own interpretation as to what this band is about. It doesn't take long, of course, to come to understand the themes of the band, but in that brief moment between the one and the other a listener can experience the levity and light of a record that holds the promise of more. And yet, at a brisk 36 minutes running time, the listener might finish and ask "Is this it?"
3
Sep 20 2023
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Oedipus Schmoedipus
Barry Adamson
This album has a lot of quality tracks, and yet it lost me or rather I lost the thread, more than once. Maybe it just hit on the wrong day, but it's hard to even give it a three.
2
Sep 21 2023
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Heartbreaker
Ryan Adams
You want to talk about a broken heart? Hearing what a jerk this guy is. I used to really like this record and now his behavior has made it hard to listen to. I acknowledge the contradiction, etc, here. I am somehow able to separate Morrissey's distasteful politics of late from The Smiths music and still mostly enjoy those songs and yet somehow Ryan Adam's actions have tainted the music in a way that I can no longer enjoy it. It's through this lens that I rate the record so low. And, I guess that does make it and him a Heartbreaker. :(
1
Sep 22 2023
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Straight Outta Compton
N.W.A.
You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.
Despite all the legitimate critiques you can make against the often deplorable content, and lesser music made in its wake by imitators, this record still slaps when it comes to the sound and delivery. It's a sonic masterpiece.
If I could replace nearly all the lyrics with those more in a PE or BDP vein and keep every flow intact I'd be listening to this record to this day rather than treating it like a historical artifact to appreciate. But then again, I was never the audience either and I can respect that.
4
Sep 25 2023
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The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd
I can't imagine what it was like to have this drop in 1973. For me when i first heard it I thought it was over-hyped and boring aside from Money. Now that I'm no longer a 14 year old skate punk I can appreciate it for its merits even if I still find The Great Gig In The Sky to be a bit silly. It's not my favorite Pink Floyd but it's better than I used to give it credit for.
4
Sep 26 2023
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Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
The Kinks
No thanks. For me, this was the least enjoyable Kinks record I've heard. Borderline unlistenable.
1
Sep 27 2023
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Moby Grape
Moby Grape
Spotify doesn't let you listen to much of this record but I dug a little deeper and caught up with it at the end of the day. It's better than yesterday's offering. The catchier numbers were among my favorites despite some goofy sixties sentiments.
3
Sep 28 2023
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Dog Man Star
Suede
Just give me shoegaze or actual rock, so much brit-pop is lukewarm, middling, meh to my ears. This record is a fine example of the wet noodle sounds of many British bands in the 90s.
2
Sep 29 2023
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#1 Record
Big Star
Nearly every indie rock hipster and fan of The Posies or The Replacements knows what is expected of them when it comes to Big Star. And yet, as someone who has been tagged with at least two if not all three of those labels at times, I've always thought Big Star was just okay. Decent records with some great singles, but they never floored me. The review of "the band" overall matches #1 Record.
3
Oct 02 2023
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Disintegration
The Cure
One of several peaks in The Cure's long history as a band. There is always something in their discography for me whatever the mood or time I find myself in. Disintegration is among my favorites. Although I will say I was initially suspicious of it at the time it came out since I had moved on to other genres of music. I eventually bought a used copy of the CD and am grateful that I did.
5
Oct 03 2023
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Pretenders
Pretenders
Brass in Pocket is my top track with Stop your Sobbing a distant second. After those songs, the rest of the record kind of leaves me cold. I feel the same way about some of their other records as well: a great single or two and the rest are just kind of meh. Essentially this is a band with all the right ingredients for good music but insofar as the cooking is concerned I'm not floored by a lot of the results. There's a lack of consistent creativity. When there's a spark it's pretty awesome though.
3
Oct 04 2023
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New Wave
The Auteurs
The Auteurs New Wave wasn't anything I rode at the time. They weren't on my radar to like or dislike but this is a good record. Listened to it through more than once and I enjoyed it so much I played their After Murder Park today as well. To be honest, I appreciate the darker, heavier After Murder Park more than New Wave. But I can see New Wave having a greater appeal to most listeners. It is cleaner, more contained and polished. In essence, it is more "pleasing" — which tends to draw in more listeners.
4
Oct 05 2023
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The Man Who
Travis
The best songs here sound like watered down Radiohead to my ear.
2
Oct 06 2023
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Rock Bottom
Robert Wyatt
Strange vibes. Intriguing. Beguiling. Genre defying?
+//+
Of course, "very British Art-Rock from the 1970s" is its own micro-genre but to point that out is to be crankypantsman.
3
Oct 09 2023
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The College Dropout
Kanye West
Back in the late aughts I had a coworker who was super smart and funny. He was a very likable guy. He got me into Kanye through this album and Graduation. My Beautiful Dark Twisted fantasy wasn't out yet, but if it had been I bet he would've pushed that one along with these two. Despite being a hater of skit interludes, I've enjoyed all these records.
Obviously things haven't turned out so well for Kanye and it is difficult to listen to some of this music now. I can't abide some of his statements. I also worry about his mental health and stability. That all said, this record still has some bops that hold up.
4
Oct 10 2023
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The Wall
Pink Floyd
You probably have an opinion on this record that I'm not going to sway you from. For me, it is not my favorite Pink Floyd album but it is up there.
4
Oct 11 2023
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McCartney
Paul McCartney
Despite him only being my second favorite Beatle, I've always enjoyed Paul's bass playing and much of his songwriting too. There are some solid tracks here but a few that are marred by way-too-goofy lyrics.
3
Oct 12 2023
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Imagine
John Lennon
Yesterday I had the 1970 McCartney solo album and today I have John's 1971 Imagine record. It's a head-to-head battle with a foregone conclusion. I already submitted my review in which I call Paul my second favorite Beatle. If you know me you know that Ringo and George aren't number one. I understand John may have been a terrible person in life sometimes, but I've always been drawn to his songs more and I thought of all the Beatles his solo work was the most compelling. Honestly, it's hard for me to listen to this record without some serious feels.
4
Oct 13 2023
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Out of Step
Minor Threat
In my home town everyone had the Complete Discography by the time we were up-and-coming punks. Minor Threat had been broken up for well over a decade and we already had Fugazi. But that never stopped me from feeling the impact of this band like a punch in the face. I loved them. I was straight-edge for some time due to this band. I hung out with anti-nazi skins and generally thought the D.C. scene was worth revisiting for inspiration. Hearing these songs in their "release" format is a treat. Did I just say "a treat"? Jeeze, I'm getting old. Well, that's the way it goes, isn't it? Yeah!
5
Oct 16 2023
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Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand
I wasn't an immediate fan when this came out but it really grew on me over time. I think my initial reaction was to hearing it too often at every restaurant, bar and hip store while living in Brooklyn when it dropped. I think it holds up better than some other records of the era now.
4
Oct 17 2023
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Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters
I was a Nirvana fan as a teen. When the Foo Fighters became I thing, I hated them on principle. I avoided listening to them for quite some time — it was everlong you might say (although you're probably better off not making that pun). This record was okay. Honestly, I don't think I missed much by avoiding them early. I've heard some other material that's better than this. Humble beginnings I guess.
2
Oct 18 2023
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Amnesiac
Radiohead
Not my favorite Radiohead record, but it is still a Radiohead record.
4
Oct 19 2023
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The Slider
T. Rex
While I came to Telegram Sam through Bauhuas, I enjoyed this record with the hindsight and distance that history can afford. Therefore, my listening was also without any sentimental connection or nostalgia. Three stars despite some five star songs.
3
Oct 20 2023
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Slayed?
Slade
Was not Slayed by Slade. Minor wound, maybe.
3
Oct 23 2023
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Live At The Star Club, Hamburg
Jerry Lee Lewis
First track: "High School Confidential" — I'm immediately uncomfortable. Music was fine, some bops.
2
Oct 24 2023
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Purple Rain
Prince
There isn't anything I'm going to write that will match the greatness of this record. Prince's achievement in 1984 still amazes me. A 10 star cultural impact, and yet, only a 4.5 stars music album for me.
4
Oct 25 2023
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Back In Black
AC/DC
This was the first AC/DC that I heard. My sister's friend had a dance party and I was friends with that person's younger sister who was allowed to invite a couple of people. I remember this coming on. It felt alive and dangerous in a way that I hadn't experienced before in music.
Is it my favorite AC/DC album of all time? I don't know, it depends on the day. But it's always 5 stars and welcome to my ears.
5
Oct 26 2023
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Underwater Moonlight
The Soft Boys
Proto-College Rock vibes. I think it's interesting to hear that psych-thread being pulled through some other musical context. In this case, it's within the swell of what would become new wave.
4
Oct 27 2023
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Dusty In Memphis
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield. Dusty In Memphis. I have a cousin named Dusty. I never thought that she might possibly have been named after this Dusty. I'll have to ask, though she never married the Son of a Preacher Man.
Solid vibes. This is a good record to put on to invoke a certain mood. Four stars.
4
Oct 30 2023
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Songs From The Big Chair
Tears For Fears
When you've sung some of these songs as indie lullabies to your child, you're likely to rate the album highly. I promise to listen with the least amount of bias possible before I give this record its flowers. Not every track is perfect, but a good number of them are.
4
Oct 31 2023
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Bad
Michael Jackson
It's not BAD but it's no Thriller.
3
Nov 01 2023
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Made In Japan
Deep Purple
I appreciate the higher octane versions of some of their classic songs.
3
Nov 02 2023
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Queen II
Queen
Not my favorite from them, but it's still alright.
3
Nov 03 2023
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Music For The Jilted Generation
The Prodigy
Am I too jilted for this music? Possibly. This music does very little for me. I'm beginning to suspect that The Prodigy was a band someone on the project came of age hearing. I get the sense that only someone who was into The Prodigy early in life would love them enough to include them twice especially given how little difference there is among the tracks and thus the albums.
2
Nov 06 2023
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Songs In The Key Of Life
Stevie Wonder
A superlative Steve Wonder album. Coming in at 21 songs not every track will be for everyone. But Sir Duke is on this as are several other bops. I'm a major fan of this era of Stevie Wonder, and even though this isn't my favorite of those records, I'll take it.
4
Nov 07 2023
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Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Coming through The Birthday Party front door into my Nick Cave fandom, I've always appreciated the more abrasive and uptempo songs from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. The opener Abattoir Blues delivers in this regard as do a few other tracks on this double album. To be fair, there are tracks that are more subdued and introspective which are also good. Solid.
4
Nov 08 2023
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Tuesday Night Music Club
Sheryl Crow
I've been on record as a Sheryl Crow hater...after I listen to this will I have to, gasp, eat crow? I hope not. Let's listen and find out.
Not every track grates on my nerves as much as "All I Wanna Do" nor do any of them engender worse feelings but neither have any won me over as a listener. In sum, not as terrible as I expected but definitely not my thing. This record is a test of how bad something needs to be to warrant a single star rating which I have reserved for things I found truly hard to listen to. Despite some tracks being firmly in that range my eyes did not become redder with rage at each subsequent song. I want to give it one star, but I must admit it's two.
*wanders off to purge his listening history now*
2
Nov 09 2023
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Unknown Pleasures
Joy Division
I appreciate hearing Unknown Pleasures end-to-end to remind me that some of the most iconic artists of an era could deliver an uneven record. This album is excellent, but not without some warts and wobbly moments that tend to get erased with collections and greatest hits. Sometimes you only get some of the substance with those things and I understand why. This record is near perfect Joy Division.
4
Nov 10 2023
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Tea for the Tillerman
Cat Stevens
Oh, looks like I'll have a good cry today. Important people in my life have this record and they've all put it on at one critical point in time or another. I get all the feels when I hear it.
4
Nov 13 2023
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The Predator
Ice Cube
It Was A Good Day and Check Yo Self bolster an album that I've always found difficult to vibe with even thought I've always appreciated Ice Cube.
3
Nov 14 2023
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At Folsom Prison
Johnny Cash
"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." Sincere, deep and low — Cash has a proven appeal to criminals and citizens alike. Which one are you?
5
Nov 15 2023
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Odelay
Beck
Beck's slack pop vibe has aged well. Devils Haircut is a solid opener and I find myself enjoying the rest even where its a bit uneven. The things that can make a Beck song uneven can be distilled down to simply saying when he goes too far i.e. the parts where he's too country, the parts where he's too rap, the parts where he's too cute or too funny. As you can see, it's all a judgement call. I acknowledge it's all totally subjective but what I'm trying to highlight here is that, in my mind when it comes to Beck, the unevenness is less about the craft of songwriting and more about excesses in presentation or style.
3
Nov 16 2023
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Beyond Skin
Nitin Sawhney
A record like this is why I enjoy this project. I've never heard it nor is it of a genre that I often browse. But I enjoyed listening to it and will likely give it a spin again.
3
Nov 17 2023
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Gentlemen
The Afghan Whigs
I remember being disappointed in this record initially because it wasn't as tough as Congregation which itself wasn't as gritty as Up in It. I had so desperately wanted a "return to form" and did not get it. All the biases of youth and wanting a band or recording artist to regularly deliver the thing I first picked them up for. I didn't want growth back then, I didn't want experimentation. Just give me the loud and the fast and never take our foot of the gas. It didn't take too long for this album to grow on me just like Congregation had. It's not my favorite AW but it turns out this is a pretty good record.
4
Nov 20 2023
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The Soft Bulletin
The Flaming Lips
It was a revelation at the time and, after all these years, I still think this is their masterpiece.
5
Nov 21 2023
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The Gershwin Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald
She's great. It's a mood. Can't put this record on at any old time.
4
Nov 22 2023
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Hail To the Thief
Radiohead
A perfectly fine Radiohead record, but it is less amazing than others.
4
Nov 23 2023
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Meat Puppets II
Meat Puppets
Living just outside of the second largest city in my home state, while growing up, we were always catching shade for being behind the times. With that context in mind, my friends and I were allergic to anything remotely country and so this "cow punk" album was mostly avoided. Anyone who has dug through the crates, and maybe listened to some Nirvana, could guess this reaction to this album was prior to 1994 and the airing of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance that spawned a Meat Puppets revival of sorts. Not every song on this record is my thing but I enjoy more of it than I would've ever known if not for Nirvana (and I guess this 1001 Records project...).
3
Nov 24 2023
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Innervisions
Stevie Wonder
This is a classic Stevie album. Eminently listenable, it easily demonstrates that pop music when it’s done well can be musically interesting. Unfortunately, the “kid from the countryside” skit hasn’t aged as well as the rest of the material so I can’t rate the album a perfect 5 stars, but it’s still good enough for an imperfect 5.
5
Nov 27 2023
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Appetite For Destruction
Guns N' Roses
This album tells you everything you need to know about itself, the band and where their career would go within the first two songs. Welcome to the Jungle is ripe to spill out of the open doors of every Trans Am, I-ROC and Mustang in the parking lot. You can hear how many thought they were the United States heirs to AC/DC: sex and indulgence obsessed. A dash of Aerosmith but harder as they put another button on their jean jacket and saved up cash from their part time job for tickets to the coliseum-arena show. And yet by the conclusion of It's So Easy any attentive listener is aware that Axl has enough casual misogyny and lyrical carelessness to go around that many of these songs will not age well. The more prescient among them might even be able to see that if given enough leash this dog is going to tie itself up and make a mess out of everything. And, while It's So Easy isn't as musically lazy as You're Crazy or Anything Goes it gives the listener an idea of where the floor of this album might be. I will try to not hold the diminishing returns of GN'R Lies, Use Your Illusion I, Use Your Illusion II, The Spaghetti Incident?, and Chinese Democracy against this record i.e. over the course of their career Guns N' Roses has proven itself to be nothing more than a one or two-star band. There is enough evidence on Appetite For Destruction alone to warrant the assignment of 2 stars despite a handful of era defining singles and the record being 18x platinum. There will be plenty out there who think that I'm wrong, but I write this review after listening to the record twice in a row today to give it my honest re-assessment and I admitting that when I first heard it coming out of the open door of my older sister's friend's Camaro at an impressionable and tender age I was absolutely thrilled.
2
Nov 28 2023
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Reggatta De Blanc
The Police
I have a love-hate relationship with The Police. A more clever writer would insert a joke here playing off of the name of the band The Police and the institution of the police. Today I am not that writer, instead I can only offer that while I enjoy the blend of punk, reggae and pop music I always felt like The Police never quite fully delivered on the potential of their best material on the one hand while simultaneously being one of the greatest pop bands of their time on the other. Reggatta De Blanc is indicative of that tension. Message In A Bottle, Walking on the Moon, Bring on the Night, and The Bed's Too Big Without You are all memorable songs that merge different styles into something wholly their own. Meanwhile, Does Everyone Stare, On Any Other Day, No Time This Time, Deathwish, Contact, and the titular track Reggatta De Blanc are largely unforgettable filler. For me, The Police are far superior to The Eagles but they suffer similarly in that both bands are frankly better when only viewed through the "best of" lens and yet that is not what we are here to do. The best songs from this record absolutely carry the others.
4
Nov 29 2023
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69 Love Songs
The Magnetic Fields
I own this set. After many listens to all 69 Love Songs — and again today — I can confidently run the numbers:
I Love 21 Love Songs
I Like 13 Love Songs
I Meh 27 Love Songs
I Dislike 8 Love Songs
3
Nov 30 2023
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Revolver
Beatles
Revolver was one of my first album encounters when it comes to the Beatles. It remains among my favorites.
5
Dec 01 2023
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Quiet Life
Japan
I never knew Japan was the missing link between glam and Duran Duran but when I first put this on that was my first impression. Over tracks 1 & 2 this feeling was hard to shake, but not a bad thing. Despair dips into slower territory. Frankly, it is a momentum killer in the number three song slot (even if it's an okay song). It breaks the Duran Duran association for me and Japan moves into a different place in my musical map.
In this Quiet Life songs 1, 2, and 4 are Top Quality while the All Tomorrow's Parties cover is a terrible mistake and everything else is just okay.
2
Dec 04 2023
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Zombie
Fela Kuti
Unlike no others, but many like him. Feels right. This record is a good representation of that.
4
Dec 05 2023
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You've Come a Long Way Baby
Fatboy Slim
Meh. Right here, Right now—I don't think this has aged that well—funk soul brother.
2
Dec 06 2023
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Country Life
Roxy Music
I never got into Roxy Music despite the ease with which that happened for so many of the bands they influenced and some of their contemporaries that shared some of their aesthetics. This record was good, but also it didn't grab me. Maybe it was the listening day? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3
Dec 07 2023
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Live And Dangerous
Thin Lizzy
4 of 17 available to stream...so I had a look around and was able to give the entire thing a listen after the four that were available. It was worth it for being a live record and over an hour of listening time. I don't know if I could get into the image and all the other trappings but I appreciate loud, heavy music that has some hooks to it just as much as I love loud, heavy music that puts noise and anti-hooks front and center. Thin Lizzy obviously is the former and not the latter. I don't know where the record sits in their canon, but it's fun on its own.
3
Dec 08 2023
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Ogden's Nut Gone Flake
Small Faces
Sometimes this list is very English and this pick feels that way to me today. It was difficult to focus on this record during multiple attempts. There were a few flashes of brilliance of the course of the album that would pull me in but then there were a number of elements (in the music and the skit like voiceovers) that simply didn't resonate with me.
One way to rate the music when you are tied between a one star or a two star review is to honestly answer the question of whether or not you were relieved once it was over.
1
Dec 11 2023
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It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Public Enemy
Bring The Noise, Don't Believe The Hype, Rebel Without a Pause are all classic tracks that even a casual rap or hip-hop is going to know and appreciate, but this record has more to offer on some of the so-called lesser cuts: She Watch Channel Zero?!, Louder Than A Bomb, Night Of The Living Baseheads, and Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos which are absolute bangers. And yet, since the whole thing comes in at about an hour in length for 16 tracks I think the impact of the work suffers.
It can be hard to hear that cutting things out can make more of an impact. I think it's the case here, so I'd cut Countdown To Armageddon, Mind Terrorist, Show 'Em Whatcha Got, Security of the First World entirely. I'm on the fence about, Cold Lampin' With Flavor — if I didn't cut it I'd at least move it to the back half of the album.
For me this is an important, but ultimately flawed record, despite liking it a lot and recognizing its greatness.
4
Dec 12 2023
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Moon Safari
Air
This has got to be up there in terms of a smooth start to an album. The first few minutes of the opening track are entrancing. The second song makes for a good follow up as well. I find that somewhere in the middle I lose my sense of place and my mind has surely wandered. But maybe that's okay on a Moon Safari — it doesn't detract from my impression of the record too much given that it always pulls me back in again on its own. It's both timeless and of its time.
4
Dec 13 2023
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Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water
Limp Bizkit
I'm having trouble processing my first impressions. This is so awful and weirdly so. Hot Dog is squarely a dis track against NIN which is charming in concept despite the actual music and lyrics being completely stupid. There is very little here that appeals to me. Limp Bizkit exist as the exception to the rule I often cite for myself: "If it's fast, loud and heavy then chances are good I'm going to like it."
pee-YOO...Don't go near the Chocolate Starfish...This record is a stinker.
1
Dec 14 2023
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Gasoline Alley
Rod Stewart
The whiplash from Limp Bizkit to Rod Stewart is severe. At least this album is mostly pleasant if not to my liking. My report is similar to the last Rod Stewart record I heard through 1001 albums; if the lyrics had been better I would've rated it higher overall. That critique aside, it's fine. I'll put it on for my elders, grandma will love it.
2
Dec 15 2023
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Moondance
Van Morrison
Will Moondance have a chance with the way I feel about Van Morrison?
Eh, it's okay! Not as bad as I expected from previous exposure.
3
Dec 18 2023
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Metallica
Metallica
We know all the hits around here, but it has been a long time since I listened to the whole thing start to finish. It's a good record but it doesn't rank among my favorites for them. It hurts to say it's 3.5 stars rounded down, but I'm having a hard time giving it 4 stars today.
3
Dec 19 2023
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Ramones
Ramones
I Don't Wanna Give This Rekkid A Bad Review. Not every song of the 14 is going to be as top shelf as Blitzkrieg Bop, Beat on the Brat, Judy Is a Punk, but it's all good catchy punk rock all the way through to the end: Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World. An excellent rallying cry!
4
Dec 20 2023
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Garbage
Garbage
This Garbage is slick. I have mixed feelings about their overall vibe and approach, but I appreciate that they know what they're doing with their brand of radio-ready "indie/not indie" music.
3
Dec 21 2023
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KE*A*H** (Psalm 69)
Ministry
This is not my favorite Ministry record, but it's the more popular and arguably better one. Psalm 69 as I've always called it, starts off strong with N.W.O and Just One Fix, and while maybe it takes a dip in energy and quality it has the crowd pleaser Jesus Built My Hotrod right at the center of the record. They manage to hold on to some of that momentum with but my attention starts to wane at a certain point. Psalm 69 integrates its influences more successfully than its predecessors (even if I'll always be prefer The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste). In short, while it might be a five star Ministry record, it is neither my favorite nor a five star album among all other albums.
4
Dec 22 2023
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Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
Soft Cell
Before listening: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret does not sound like my idea of a good time. And, the length of this album is looking already to be too long.
After listening: I'm not going to knock Tainted Love which is genius, but there's a lot on this record that is just not for me. Tainted Love and Where Did Our Love Go? bump this album up from a harsh one star rating to a two star listen I'll never spin again. I like the idea that through the popularity of that Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go?, this record found its way into someone's hands and it spoke to them deeply giving them comfort in difficult times.
2
Dec 25 2023
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In The Court Of The Crimson King
King Crimson
POP! had this record in his collection. He was very much a Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull guy so you can see why given King Crimson in this era is like a blend of the two on the one hand and wholly of itself on the other. You could make those kinds of connections and not get totally smacked down. If you were a fan of one of these three bands, it was quite likely you'd like at least one of the other two remaining if not both.
That is all to say, I saw this record cover looking out with its frightened stare for many years growing up.
POP! likes his music loud — as in shake the house loud. My dad didn't believe it outdoor speakers, he believed in making the house a speaker in and of itself. Your home was a SONOS you lived inside of.
This album has some absolute bangers, especially when cranked up to shutter shaking volumens. 21st Century Schizoid Man is the blueprint for heavy prog that many bands would follow. It has some of the best horns in a rock context as well (and I say this as someone who usually doesn't go in for that sort of thing).
I'm all in on this record until we slow down for Moonchild. It's a good song, but the tonal shift doesn't fit my modern attention span. Typically, I'd put on something like Moonchild for a particular mood or vibe and have something like 21st Century Schizoid Man on for another. I don't think this is a better way of listening, mind you, but I do think it is indicative of how many folks receive and process an album if they're going to even listen to an album at all. So, this review is now a reflection upon the nature of listening to music in (checks calendar) the 21st Century. Are we more or less Schizoid having a lower tolerance to variables within an album? Does the Schizoid man want things flattened so he can bounce between two extremes or is the Schizoid man truly the one that wants the extremes to be contained within one world? I am going to say that Schizoid Man wants two worlds in extremis. If we want to get historical about this we should also take into account that an album has *two-sides* and Moonchild kicks off side two so there is a break, perhaps a schizoid one, in the experience as originally conceived by King Crimson. Whether or not partial or whole, broken or complete, schizoid or fully-realized an experience this album rules as only a King Crimson can.
5
Dec 26 2023
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One Nation Under A Groove
Funkadelic
I was only able to give this a bit of a listen due to it not being streamable right now on Spotify and most of my Youtube results were track by track. Oh, and dropping by the day on a busy holiday none-the-less. Is this to somehow be the story of this record? Once popular now obscure? I hope not, because what I heard was a nice slice of funk.
3
Dec 27 2023
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Winter In America
Gil Scott-Heron
Oh hey, second day of a no-show in Spotify stream. It is probably not a coincidence, however, that this is also my second CHARLY label album in a row as well. It's a shame that this record isn't streamable because I would definitely give it multiple spins if I could. As a whole it's a very solid entry in the Gil Scott-Heron canon. It also has some stand-out tracks as well. I love the range here from the downbeat and affecting Rivers of My Fathers to the uptempo work on The Bottle — propulsive bass and adventurous flute paired with socially conscious lyrics to let you know you are in some 1970s funk. I'll be keeping my eye out for this one to pick up in a listenable format in the future.
4
Dec 28 2023
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Porcupine
Echo And The Bunnymen
My second-favorite Echo & The Bunnymen record (with Crocodiles being first). This is a solid album that has a lot of what I enjoy from this band present throughout. And yet, I also don't have a lot to say about it today. I'm not sure where that is coming from exactly but if the record doesn't really register for you or you can't relate, maybe this review is a symptom of something deeper going on in the music that you are also affected by?
3
Dec 29 2023
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Blonde On Blonde
Bob Dylan
With a voice like sand and glue...and a blurry cover of the album too. Yeah, I know Blonde On Blonde is a must listen. And yet the Bob Dylan of this album has never been my vibe and I don't (solely) blame the harmonica. I have friends who stan for Bob Dylan in ways inconceivable to me who would rush to the defense of him and this record. And yet, I say give me the Dylan of Masters of War and the Dylan of Hurricane you can leave this record at home.
2
Jan 01 2024
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25
Adele
It seems like I've heard this record already — a thousand times over by a legion of solo artists. I'm hard-pressed to tell you why this one is different, but taken on its own terms it is well produced and performed. Her performances present the appropriate emotional tenor for the lyrics and Adele can clearly sing well. It's not my taste, but it's tastefully done.
2
Jan 02 2024
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Play
Moby
No matter how many times I tried today to stay focused on the music, inevitably this album receded into the background. Beyond the first few tracks, which I liked okay, all I can say is it's fine but not memorable.
2
Jan 03 2024
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Bert Jansch
Bert Jansch
It's subdued but it doesn't all just melt away into the background, there's enough of Jansch in the music now and again that I often found myself captivated in the quiet. These songs, scattered through the album, draw me into it: Needle of Death, Strolling Down the Highway, Running from Home, and Angie.
2
Jan 04 2024
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Freak Out!
The Mothers Of Invention
I tried hard to love Frank Zappa unconditionally at one point in my young music listening life, but it never fully took. I can appreciate a few songs here and there. It's also true, no lie!, that his work with The Mothers of Invention was the music I found myself returning to more often than his other adventures. In particular, Roxy & Elsewhere was the record I gravitated to. Why bother to give you all this background and context? Well, I'm afraid I'm not going to rate this album very highly and I just want you to know it's not out of some misplaced Zappa antipathy but rather an honest reckoning that this music only moves me partially. Also know that I've added an entire star just for "Trouble Every Day" which, sadly, is still as socially relevant as when it was written (and if you've read any of my Dylan reviews you know I usually can't stand the harmonica). You should also know that "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" is the kind of song that knocks stars off for me.
2
Jan 05 2024
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For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music
This band has always been hard for me to fully parse and I think that is to their credit even if it means I find their output to be uneven. There are some highs on this record for me in terms of affecting, well-crafted music and then there are some songs that I barely register. In conclusion, "For Your Pleasure" is a land of contrasts — and a metonymy of their whole output.
2
Jan 08 2024
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Songs For Swingin' Lovers!
Frank Sinatra
My first reaction was simply: No thanks. But after giving "Songs for Swingin' Lovers!" a spin my studied reaction is: Okay, but only in very small doses.
2
Jan 09 2024
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The Slim Shady LP
Eminem
I can't stand a skit and I've always had my issues with Eminem. His misogyny, juvenile humor, and the themes he explores in general are usually not my thing. On this album he also seems to lean more into the whiny voice that he sometimes adopts. It's hard to assess the record on its own terms when I find them to be so disagreeable. I don't think I'll be able to give this record more than one star.
1
Jan 10 2024
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Modern Kosmology
Jane Weaver
Hey, released in 2017 nice to see you. I sometimes wonder which version of the book this list is operating from when I hear a record and can't find a single redeeming quality about it. I then think, How has this album survived? Why hasn't a revision or new edition of this book pushed it out in favor of something new? We only have 1001 slots to fit records into that I must hear before I die. I don't know anything about Jane Weaver but I already feel positively towards the album. Let's have a listen.
Holy Smokes, this is up my alley or at least down one of my streets in the neighborhood of my tastes to twist up the metaphor. At the very minimum it integrates genres that I have an affinity for. So, why is it not in my orbit already? How different is Modern Kosmology from the rest of her output? Have I not heard of her because she is some obscure British State Secret? The answer is likely more mundane; my guess would be that I have been out of the loop on this kind of music during her most productive years. This record came out during peak metal. Obviously, this is not metal. It's some psych, indie electronica and a little bit of folk with a pop gloss. Lyrically interesting and well performed. I'm into it.
4
Jan 11 2024
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Eli And The Thirteenth Confession
Laura Nyro
The fourteenth confession: I'm not feeling it.
1
Jan 12 2024
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Haut de gamme / Koweït, rive gauche
Koffi Olomide
He may be a legend and this album may be representative, but it's also a strong vibe that wasn't my wavelength today despite giving it an honest effort more than once.
2
Jan 15 2024
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In A Silent Way
Miles Davis
One of the first Miles Davis albums I bought for myself. I came home with this and Kind of Blue the same day. And while I found myself more immediately drawn to Kind of Blue, I appreciate this record on its own terms as it offers its own kind of reward. The extended jazz jams over a simple vamp or groove is a mood. All of the electric piano and organ layered in Shhh / Peaceful means that it's always kind of new to me with every listen even as it's familiar. I really dig the section ""It's About That Time" wrapped up in the to slices of In a Silent Way. It's one of my favorite parts of the record.
4
Jan 16 2024
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Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin
I like Led Zeppelin as much as the next music fan raised by rockers, but with this record it's more like Meh Zeppelin.
2
Jan 17 2024
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Homework
Daft Punk
You can dance to it. It's not music for airports; this is music to invoke a certain physical response — to raise your heart rate and encourage your body to move. Outside of this intent I don't have much use for it, but within that scope it's good enough for the job.
2
Jan 18 2024
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Tubular Bells
Mike Oldfield
Oddly interesting, weirdly charming at times, and it feels like I imagine the 1970s to have been. But also it's not something I'll return to.
2
Jan 19 2024
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Pump
Aerosmith
So Aerosmith was one of those bands that I never supported or got into even in my most hair metal of moments. I dabbled in some Quiet Riot, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Ratt, etc., on my way to the harder stuff. But there was something about Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and the rest of the "Led Zep-But American" gang, that despite their ubiquity in the culture at the time (radio saturation, e-news! installments and a collab with Run DMC), my ears just said NO.
If I could pick a song off this record that I think exemplifies what I think is so terrible about this band it's F.I.N.E. a song like this is a blues-rock abomination in my opinion. If I were able to somehow scrub out all the dumb lyrics full of childish innuendo from their catalogue I don't know what would be left for Steven Tyler to sing — and that's probably a good thing as long as he can also keep away from the yappy dog scat-like vocalizations.
All this said, I tried to keep an open mind on this record and I do have a few positive observations: Tom Hamilton is an outstanding bass player, the remix on Spotify sounds great, and finally, whenever the band allows themselves to be more serious in content as well as less stereotypical in their song craft the record shines. I find these things to mostly coalesce for me on their more aggressive tunes. It's this saving grace that earns them all the stars I give above the first.
2
Jan 22 2024
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People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A Tribe Called Quest
My second favorite A Tribe Called Quest record. It's a classic.
4
Jan 23 2024
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Illmatic
Nas
I have this record. While I've always appreciated NY State of Mind and a few other tracks, it never made its way into heavy rotation for me. Likely because I picked it up 15 years after the moment and never quite connected with this facet of hip-hop to begin with. What does this boil down to in listening? Respect to Nas as I enjoy a couple of tracks today but come tomorrow I won't be reaching to replay the whole record.
3
Jan 24 2024
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2112
Rush
Ramblings on Rush's 2112...I'm going to do what the album does here which is have a super long start without a strong enough through-line as to why the initial elements are strung together rather than made distinct. I had a cousin who was a huge Rush fan, later he became a massive Radiohead fan. Are the two connected? Possibly! But I don't feel like this is the album to stake that claim on. What a swerve, but then we're called back again maybe with a hint of a motif but not strong enough. So now I ask: What if 2112 was broken down into its constituent parts on a streaming service? Would we see The Temples of Syrinx vastly outstrip the other movements in this piece? If they weren't intertwined would this record feel less like a prog album? Would Rush have had to edit down some of the weaker aspects in writing these "movements" to make stronger songs out of them? Do people really dig all of 2112? I think A passage to Bangkok and Something for Nothing along with (but to a lesser extent) The Twilight Zone are solid enough that if paired with some better version of the piece 2112 I suspect this record would be even more well received (by me at least, lol). And now like 2112 does I'll end with some shorter statements, or at least one (which you can probably guess).
2112 meanders too much for my tastes, and despite some very strong elements a 20 minute opus as opener was not a successful gambit by RUSH despite my love of Geddy Lee and Neil Pert's playing.
3
Jan 25 2024
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At Fillmore East
The Allman Brothers Band
In order for this to be your jam you need to like blues rock. Unfortunately for The Allman Brothers Band that is a genre I have a fraught and complicated relationship with. So I can recognize the quality of playing here and appreciate some of the tracks or parts of songs within. But overall, it's not compelling to me.
2
Jan 26 2024
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Hot Shots II
The Beta Band
The Beta Band is forever linked in my mind with the scene in High Fidelity, "I will now sell 5 copies of The Three EPs by the Beta Band" and the record store just grooves. I get that same head nod on the needle drop feeling with the opening track of Hot Shots II: Squares. This is not a band who I listen to frequently or whose music I've bought despite the convincing nature of the scene in the movie. And yet, every time I listen to them I am nodding along and enjoying the music. They have a pleasing quality that's hard to dislike. There's a smooth groove and likable space-folk quality that is perfect for picking up every now and again. In terms of the album's music, whether a song be more spacey or folky matters less in my enjoyment, ultimately I appreciate the songs most when they privilege the pulse.
4
Jan 29 2024
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Marquee Moon
Television
Marquee Moon is a minor masterpiece both powerful and restrained. It is deceptively simple until the twin guitars become intricately intertwined. Any complexity that emerges doesn't lose the ear of the listener nor does the song lose its edge. Some tracks show more grit and punk attitude than others but these aspects never overshadow the songwriting and musicality. A sardonic wit and incredible song craft are on display track after track with the energy carefully modulated such that repeat listens over many years are rewarded.
5
Jan 30 2024
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The Chronic
Dr. Dre
It's hard to listen to The Chronic even when I know it's not for me. I'll give it credit for announcing itself and its intentions from the jump and basically delivering on that promise repeatedly. I "enjoy" maybe three tracks on the record but not enough that I'd find myself putting them on a mix or sharing with friends. And, there are tracks that obviously even the fans don't think have held up as well as others.
2
Jan 31 2024
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16 Lovers Lane
The Go-Betweens
If you're not paying attention on college radio you might just think the outlook is fine with these mostly gentle indie jams, but when you lean in a little more you can hear the darkness creep in through the lyrics. If I had heard this album at the right age, I'm certain it would be an all-time favorite, someone is going to love it, but my sensibilities are different now.
3
Feb 01 2024
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Bryter Layter
Nick Drake
I enjoy this album every time I hear it. The songs have a forward motion to them even when melancholy. The arrangements with the backing musicians suggests a greater scope — I find myself mostly swept up in it. I could do without the title track, actually. It is almost the only thing holding back a solid four-star review. I don't mind the instrumental song Sunday as an album closer as much. With this record I get the feels at all the right times but without being overwhelmed like I sometimes am with Pink Moon.
3
Feb 02 2024
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Steve McQueen
Prefab Sprout
Is that banjo going on in the first track? And, maybe a little harmonica? I was expecting a bit more of a hidden gem of the new wave vibe with this very pretty in pink meets some kind of wonderful album cover but instead it initially feels more traditional than I expected despite some chiming guitars and sonic noodling. Overall not bad but it also doesn't quite hit the way I prefer. Despite being able to recognize and appreciate some of its quality. This is just way too pop for me and when it does get weird it's just genre mixing and off beat lyrics. I'm almost always looking for more aggression, grit and grime.
2
Feb 05 2024
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Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
A classic handed down through the generations. I don't need to listen to this record to rate it because it has indelibly imprinted itself upon me. Let me be clear. I am absolutely listening to this record today but the five star rating is a foregone conclusion.
5
Feb 06 2024
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At Newport 1960
Muddy Waters
I have found that I more prefer musics that have grown out of the blues than the blues itself. So much so that often when material from these other genres "get too bluesy" I am uninterested. That all said, I think this is an okay Muddy Waters album but I much prefer his Electric Mud.
3
Feb 07 2024
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Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
And now for an album celebrated by our forebears. From the first few chord hits of Good Times Bad Times to that final bombastic blues of How Many More Times, this flat piece of vinyl has absolutely ROCKED the HOUSE of my POP! (as he prefers it stylized). Countless times I've had my bones rattled before even putting a hand on the door as I came home from school. The structure of our house was absolutely a means of broadcast to the neighbors. This may not be my favorite Led Zeppelin album but it was clearly a blueprint for them as well as plenty of favorites from artists of my era. Given I've always been a bit punkish from the jump, my favorite track was Communication Breakdown and it still manages to provide a jolt of adrenaline to this day. Four stars! (Haha, sorry dad).
4
Feb 08 2024
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Pacific Ocean Blue
Dennis Wilson
I love the way they still felt they had to include "DENNIS" in the cover and the art director or designer was like let's just use the gap between the L and the S in WILSON. Oh, this was a surprisingly good record too. Not every song works — some are let down by the lyrics and others by song writing choices that just don't hold up — but enough of them find a sweet spot in vibe, arrangement, and passable pop lyrics for the era to enjoy the album overall.
3
Feb 09 2024
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Dust
Screaming Trees
This Screaming Trees album feels to me to be one of their more inward-facing and most accepting of themselves. This album often sounds to me like a band confronting the truth of their unpopular influences and choosing to honor them anyway as they indulge in heaps of folky, wah-wah psychedelia around the gravity of Mark Lanegan's vocal performances. There is something I respect about this album more than Sweet Oblivion (which feels more externally directed and caught up in the times). DUST is a very Screaming Trees record it to my ears. By that I mean you can play it next to Uncle Anesthesia, Sweet Oblivion, Invisible Lantern, Buzz Factory, Even If and Especially When, or Clairvoyance and see just how the band got here.
4
Feb 12 2024
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3 + 3
The Isley Brothers
3 + 3 = 3 stars!
***
I do not expect to be the first to make this joke or the last. Record was fine, plenty funky.
3
Feb 13 2024
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Let's Stay Together
Al Green
A couple of legendary songs (How Can You Mend a Broken Heart and Let's Stay Together) with a solid vibe throughout. 4.5 stars.
4
Feb 14 2024
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Here's Little Richard
Little Richard
Wop-Bop-a-Loo-Mop, alop-bom-bom! It's hard to have any old-time rock 'n' roll heroes with all that we know, but I'll take Little Richard over many others most days of the week. I'd rank it higher if I liked this genre more.
2
Feb 15 2024
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Tonight's The Night
Neil Young
I love this record and miss it on Spotify often.
4
Feb 16 2024
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Meat Is Murder
The Smiths
I love Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce's playing here. It's a solid record (a star for each of them). It's a shame about Morrissey's politics recently — it makes it hard to enjoy The Smiths these days. Minus one star for that guy.
3
Feb 19 2024
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Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Wu-Tang Clan
An amazing debut with at least three indisputable all-time hip hop classic tracks on it (more if you're a fan). I remember some friends going bonkers over this record when it initially came out (and I wasn't into it). Later, I warmed to it, but I've always sort of held Wu-Tang Clan at arms length.
3
Feb 20 2024
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The Köln Concert
Keith Jarrett
I've got some Keith Jarrett concert records over here (5 including this album). My guess is that's more than your average dwelling. And yet, he probably doesn't get enough air time. I know why this album is on the list and support its inclusion; and yet, if I'm already not in the mood for piano it's not music that can "get me in the mood for piano" if you know what I mean (no euphemism). But if I feel like hearing it...well, then as Keith might say, "woah! oh! woop! yeah, hee!".
3
Feb 21 2024
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Red Dirt Girl
Emmylou Harris
In short, this is good for someone else.
I've always respected Emmylou Harris, but her music is typically polar opposite my jam. Super listenable as background music. Very pleasant. Going to end up rated as high as some records I own and put on with some frequency. And yet, it's a sign of the quality more than my own enjoyment.
3
Feb 22 2024
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Countdown To Ecstasy
Steely Dan
I rank this early Steely Dan album somewhere in the upper-mids of their entire catalogue.
3
Feb 23 2024
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Aha Shake Heartbreak
Kings of Leon
Always underwhelmed by Kings of Leon as much as I try to like them and understand that they ought to appeal to me by basis of some overlapping interests. In addition to being kings of the lukewarm song, this record has songs that actively put me off. Primarily it's the lyrics and their delivery that do it (sack the singer!), but some of the music too. Rating it 1.5 stars though I'm going to round up for a couple of the guitar solos.
2
Feb 26 2024
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Harvest
Neil Young
Yet another album I love from Neil that I'll just have to put on at home outside of any streaming context. Highlights: Heart of Gold, Are You Ready for the Country, Old Man, Alabama, The Needle and the Damage Done.
5
Feb 27 2024
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Hot Rats
Frank Zappa
I respect Zappa but I'm not always interested in listening to what feels like hippy circus music and slick guitar instrumental jams. But when I do I prefer the skronkiest moments Frank can deliver.
3
Feb 28 2024
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Sweet Baby James
James Taylor
OK boomer blues and folksy pop.
2
Feb 29 2024
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Colour By Numbers
Culture Club
Love this album cover except for the first distorted C in Culture Club — red, green and gold are all represented and tie into the lyrics from their hit Karma Chameleon all while proudly announcing the band's style. I don't find the music particularly interesting or exciting but Boy George is as listenable as ever. A solid, heartfelt 2 stars wishing there was enough substance to the album to accompany all this style to give it 3 or more.
2
Mar 01 2024
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American Pie
Don McLean
American Pie + Vincent makes it hard for me to deny McLean 5 stars and yet I'm going to hold the line at 4 because the album as a whole experience doesn't appeal to me; in part because "Everybody Loves Me, Baby" hasn't aged well or was never that good to begin with.
4
Mar 04 2024
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xx
The xx
Good but unremarkable. This came and went through the stream without comment. I only noticed it had ended after a couple of tracks had gone by. I played it louder a second time and it got better in that the cool/aloof delivery of the vocals was more clear but my overall assessment hasn't changed. XX is nice background sounds; basic space indeed.
3
Mar 05 2024
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Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Flaming Lips
No, I didn't quite realize that Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots was as good as it was when it came out. I was still in the thrall of the Soft Bulletin at the time — please forgive me. But now with some distance between those two records and me I can hear just how great it is all on its own. And yes, Do You Realize? still brings a tear to my eye.
5
Mar 06 2024
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Hypnotised
The Undertones
Having never heard The Undertones I only had this album cover to go off of. Not gonna lie, it pre-disposed me towards them. And yet, on my second time around the record, I continue to be unimpressed overall. It is perfectly fine pub rock with some hints of a punkier approach to songwriting underneath. But it's also kind of unremarkable listening with over 40 years of history between it and me. I does not strike me as a necessary or vital record when trying to craft a list of 1001 albums one must hear before they die.
2
Mar 07 2024
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Os Mutantes
Os Mutantes
If I were rating album covers alone I would give this five stars. There is so much to love here. Obviously if I start talking about the album art right away, it's very likely that I do not know much about the band. That is the case here. I can see this came out in 1968 so I'm expecting some psych weirdness but I have no idea what is in store for me.
I gave this record a few spins. It's under 40 mins and, for the most part, easy on the ears. Definite tinges of psych across folk, rock and other genres. Multiple vocalists singing in English, Portuguese and maybe even some Spanish too? I'm no polyglot so I can't be sure. The music is wacky and broadly appealing if a little bit too much like a drunken circus party at times for my own tastes. Os Mutantes can easily sit next to Frank Zappa from similar times for better or worse.
2
Mar 08 2024
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Shadowland
k.d. lang
Not my usual fare. This record has more country vibes than I would pick up on my own, but k.d. lang has a great voice and delivery. The music is easy on the ears. Each song takes its own sweet time. Honestly, the album feels longer than 36 mins for it. Given how old this record is it is obviously not as dialed into the cultural moment as Orville Peck but its arrangements and production also have a timeless quality that I can appreciate. A solid 3 stars.
3
Mar 11 2024
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Exodus
Bob Marley & The Wailers
My impressions of Marley were shaped by seeing a bunch of white college kids listening to reggae all the time. For me then, I just couldn't get into the long, repetitive nature of the music. And, I was definitely reacting against this idea of Bob Marley amongst the stoned college crowd.
I gave Exodus a listen a couple of times today, turned it up as often and as loud as possible. I can appreciate it more than I could then. If someone had put Natural Mystic or Punky Reggae Party on for me first I might've had a different impression of Marley overall.
3
Mar 12 2024
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Cosmo's Factory
Creedence Clearwater Revival
I have such mixed feelings about CCR in general. They wrote some absolute bangers that mix cuttingly clear lyrics and basic rock elegantly into songs that have lasted generations. Unfortunately for this record most of those songs are not here. That said, Cosmo's Factory is not a total loss: Who Will Stop the Rain is one of them and both Lookin' Out My Backdoor and Up Around the Bend are awfully close. But this record also has some duds and a cover that I do not need to hear no matter how much they rock out on it. A two star record from a four star band: 3 stars overall?
3
Mar 13 2024
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Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Another classic Neil Young album I was forced to play through physical media. I respect the choice. Some of my favorite songs on this album are some of my favorite Neil Young songs...Cinnamon Girl, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Down by the River, Cowgirl in the Sand.
5
Mar 14 2024
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Boy In Da Corner
Dizzee Rascal
Nobody puts Dizzee Rascal in the corner...oh, wait.
2
Mar 15 2024
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Exile In Guyville
Liz Phair
I never knew enough about the Rolling Stones to appreciate the intertextual conversation between Exile in Guyville and Exile on Main Street, but that absence has never meant that Exile in Guyville is somehow lacking or that my enjoyment was any less. This is a record that was excellent upon arrival and has stood the test of time for me. Incredible songwriting that is still affecting from humor to heartbreak and a lot of other vibes along the way.
5
Mar 18 2024
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A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Coldplay
Outside of my 2-star review of Parachutes (album #252 for me on this site), I have never deliberately listened to Coldplay but I am alive in this culture. So, I know there are plenty of reasons to hate on Coldplay. But I'm going to set aside all the bias I can and put this record on loud to see how it goes. Politik has some nice atmosphere and is reasonably well-crafted and yet I can already tell that the vocal delivery and lyrics already leaning pedestrian will become recurring annoyances as the album progresses. By the time I get to Warning Sign I'm just exhausted by the basic, flatness of it all. Lackluster writing, music absent of inspiration, zero inventiveness, a cultivated blandness, the most broad appeals to "feeling" that have less pull than the most trite of Hallmark cards. This is well-produced elevator music for an aging "indie rock" audience. I will suffer through the last three songs hoping for a surprise but so far I could've just listened to Politik and let them end on their least offensive "high note". And being the least offensive on air experience seems to be what this band is all about.
1
Mar 19 2024
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Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Enjoyed this today. Not every song was as exciting as the text on the album cover (from 1960) made it out to be, but it was good overall.
3
Mar 20 2024
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It's Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I immediately loved the EP and the first record by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I also really enjoyed the second full length. I used to see Brian Chase on the B62 bus in the early aughts when I was living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. But by 2009 I had already mostly moved on from the YYY and so this record didn't hit the same way the earlier stuff had. Slowly, over time I absorbed parts of it here and there so today it is a rare thing (fifth or sixth time in 15 years?) to listen to it all the way through with attention.
I can really hear the Dave "TV on the Radio" Sitek production in the first few tracks maybe more than in his previous production work with them. I don't know what to make of the merging but I'm mostly here for it. Karen O has always had some lyrics that don't quite land for me all the time, but I appreciate the chances that she takes in that when they do land they're more powerful than if she had played it safe all along. This album is no different in that regard. Musically satisfying, lyrically punchy with the occasional line that while a dud still has a charm.
It's not getting 5 stars, but I have very few complaints about the record overall. I wonder if maybe it would've benefitted from cutting it by a track for an even more focused listening experience. I'd likely pull a slower number even though they are quite solid; it's just because I like my YYY at their most uptempo and angsty. I don't know if I need the ballady-lullaby-like Karen O in her feelings as much as I need the angry, snarling critical Karen in my ears.
4
Mar 21 2024
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Nothing's Shocking
Jane's Addiction
This album had a major, some might say Ocean Sized, impact on me when I first heard it. The opening bass notes on Up The Beach are so nicely complimented by Navarro's full chords and descending lines that sets a mood that is almost contemplative. Whereas Ocean Sized is tidal and crashing initially and then shifts like waves between the bombastic and the gentle. I was immediately hooked.
The release timing was fortuitous. It hit me right around the time I was shifting from totally entrenched goth/new wave tastes and branching out to more punk and metal listening habits. It was a perfect transition album at a transitional time. And, I also encountered it when it came out. In other words, I had only it and the live album to understand Jane's Addiction as a band. I could not look across their body of work and judge them holistically. (An important note since, for me, this is a band that has had a significant and rapid decline in the quality of their music). I was also young enough that what I would judge as a lyric misfire now did not rankle me at all. Back then I might've even thought they were cool.
For a year or two, this was a perfect record for me. Even in the most cliche ways: snowboarding to Mountain Song, seeing them play as my first stadium concert, defending them from their detractors. I was a Jane's Addiction fan. Let's be real, it's those memories and a bit of nostalgia that has me wanting to push this rating up to 5 stars. Listening today, I would only give it 3.5 stars with all the dumb lyrics presenting an edginess that just sounds a little silly over 35 years later.
4
Mar 22 2024
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Blur
Blur
Woo-hoo, blur is perfect for 2 minutes and 1 second.
3
Mar 25 2024
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Melodrama
Lorde
On paper I shouldn't like Lorde and yet I find the brand of pop she's concocted on Melodrama to be a compelling listen. It's not going into heavy rotation but I will play it again and be happy to hear any of the songs when they come on.
4
Mar 26 2024
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Ace of Spades
Motörhead
I can't deny Motörhead's influence and Lemmy's eternal cool. But I'm not hyped to listen to the linked deluxe version of this record; if there's one thing I've always felt about Motörhead it's that their particular brand of song sameness wasn't enough to convert me from Ace of Spades admirer to full on fan.
Don't get me wrong, this record is much better than many others on the list. Ace of Spades is a classic that rises above the rest of the record and the rest of the record is good overall. We are the Road Crew, Shoot You in the Back, Love Me like a Reptile, and, sexual politics aside, The Chase is Better than the Catch are all strong songs. Even the lesser material e.g. Fire Fire and Live to Win are decent. The only regrettable listen on the record is Jailbait's lyrics.
And, yet, for this exercise I don't need to hear alternate or BBC versions of these songs. I like to get into the headspace of the original album release where possible. Give me as close to what someone first hearing this album when it came out got. I want that experience. I bet this record absolutely floored people in 1980.
4
Mar 27 2024
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Basket of Light
Pentangle
It turns out I have an allergic reaction to holy jazz folk.
2
Mar 28 2024
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Electric Ladyland
Jimi Hendrix
🎸 Hendrix, still fire after all these years. 🔥
4
Mar 29 2024
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Hysteria
Def Leppard
Wild album cover. It's a vibe and I'm into it more than I would've expected to be. "It" here being the album art. Sorry Def Leppard, the music and lyrics just seem so mid, to me.
2
Apr 01 2024
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Junkyard
The Birthday Party
On certain days I'll take The Birthday Party over Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, today wasn't one of them but this record still (mostly) slaps.
3
Apr 02 2024
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Fever Ray
Fever Ray
I put this on and listened through three times and I still don't know how I feel about it. There is something that feels intentionally elusive here. Today is a new day and I need to move to the next album; all I can really say about this record is that I am still intrigued.
3
Apr 03 2024
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Done By The Forces Of Nature
Jungle Brothers
Keeps the pulse throughout, inventive instrumentation and overall positive messages of empowerment and institutional critique. Occasionally the flow falls prey to the eighties propensity to rhyme in cadence with an obvious word choice. Honestly if it wasn't for this happening a little too often, I think we'd have a timeless classic on our hands. Instead, we have a classic of its time — which is no small achievement.
4
Apr 04 2024
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Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is not for me. I will have to form a new circle with some other music.
2
Apr 05 2024
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The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
David Bowie
Ziggy played guitarrrrr....
5
Apr 08 2024
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Isn't Anything
My Bloody Valentine
While being innovative and inspiring, this album is a band still in a chrysalis of its own creation. Historians might say my bloody valentine isn't anything...yet. But in the moment of its release, I can only imagine how revelatory this sounded and felt. It must've felt like they were something already.
4
Apr 09 2024
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Warehouse: Songs And Stories
Hüsker Dü
Eight out of ten reviews that are familiar with Hüsker Dü are going to say they prefer the overtly punk era of the band. It's hard to deny the potency and swagger of those early records. That they were soaked in speed and volume meant that the more subtle, songwriterly songs (i.e. indie before indie) were like these gems that you'd find amidst cutting rocks. So, when Warehouse shows up for the day, I'm a little bit deflated. I haven't had any Hüsker records to rate thus far and this sprawling (not their first to earn this adjective), flawed (also not their first time there) final studio album rates disappointingly overall. But wait, listen, you've come this far and the record like this review just takes awhile to reveal itself and that patience does pay off. The short version of the review would be like a short version of the record: edited down to the essentials it rocks. But on its own and taken all together it's a bit too much mid to make the mark it deserves.
3
Apr 10 2024
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The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Tsch. Dylan. You can't shake that guy! Oh, but this is one of my favorites of his and I'm not alone in that assessment. That said, I have some bad news for the real Dylan heads out there when they see the stars.
3
Apr 11 2024
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3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...
Arrested Development
It turns out 90s afrocentric hip hop is one of my vibes.
4
Apr 12 2024
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Imperial Bedroom
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Being a major My Aim is True, Armed Forces, This Year's Model era fan of Elvis Costello when I picked up Imperial Bedroom for the first time I was disappointed in its overall mellowness. I felt it lacked the same obvious energy. I wasn't yet a fan of the more subtle, pop genius elements of Elvis Costello's songwriting, but as I matured I gained a new appreciation for his craft and the quality of this record. I certainly score it higher now than the punk me would then. And yet, I think there's still an undeniable comparative intuition at play in situating this record overall.
3
Apr 15 2024
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Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs
Marty Robbins
This is okay but I have heard many other versions of these songs that I prefer over the ones performed by Marty Robbins here. But as a collection of ballads and trail songs it's not bad, just kind of mid and melodically monotonous.
2
Apr 16 2024
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Live At The Harlem Square Club
Sam Cooke
A noisy live party album, full of energy it almost feels like I'm there.
3
Apr 17 2024
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Olympia 64
Jacques Brel
I don't think Jacques Brel is for me, but he's certainly for someone's great grandfather.
2
Apr 18 2024
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Pictures At An Exhibition
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
I like a live prog album as much as the next ex-punk rocker who shifted metal, but I have never liked the keyboard driven noodling. Give me the heavy prog of 21st Century Schizoid Man and the driving intention of something like Roundabout (shout out to Chris Squire's bass tone) over the best ELP track any time. Sorry if this feels like a diss on Keith Emerson, I recognize this is just a difference in taste. They can play. But it's not to my liking.
2
Apr 19 2024
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Achtung Baby
U2
I love U2 but this record sounds like they forgot the fire. That One can give me instant chills does not make up for the rest of the album.
2
Apr 22 2024
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Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel
Four unqualified classics and the rest of the record ain't bad either.
4
Apr 23 2024
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Mama Said Knock You Out
LL Cool J
I'm not interested in LL's approach to sexy times, but otherwise his lyrics are fine and the flow is decent for an mc of his vintage.
3
Apr 24 2024
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Another Green World
Brian Eno
I enjoyed this Eno record, listened to it multiple times and yet I can only just barely remember half of the songs. Most of the tracks don't standout quite as much as Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) which is one of my personal favorites of the non-ambient Eno albums. The sound of the instruments is, frankly, quite pleasing. I could throw something like this on just about any time and be glad I did.
4
Apr 25 2024
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Here Come The Warm Jets
Brian Eno
Two days of Eno in a row through this site. The only thing I wish I could do now is revise yesterday's review. As it stands, this is one of my other favorite non-ambient Eno records so I'm stoked for the day.
4
Apr 26 2024
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evermore
Taylor Swift
Everokay.
3
Apr 29 2024
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Groovin'
The Young Rascals
They sound so innocent for being Young Rascals.
2
Apr 30 2024
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Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Uh, yeah, I don't know who came first but this has such strong Chicago vibes that I feel like there was a wave that both of these groups had to be simultaneously riding at some point. That said, I actually have a Chicago album and even that is enough for me. I don't think my heart has enough room for a lot of this horns-rock from decades past. It's just not my thing and so if Blood, Sweat & Tears was actually the forerunner of this movement I'm sorry. That all said, what they are intending to do is done well so they're going to get more stars than something whose quality I can't even discern.
2
May 01 2024
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Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
Sometimes the opening notes of a record will deceive you such that you are in for a complete surprise along the way. This is not that album. Scissor Sisters by Scissor Sisters is the other case; where the sonic qualities of the instruments from the start and the melody announced from the opening notes sets the stage for what is to come. When this happens, when an artist fully realizes a vision and is devoted to it consistently you may be in for a satisfying listening experience if the vision matches a vibe you desire.
This is not that album for me. Scissor Sisters by Scissor Sisters is the other case; the one where what you’re hearing is a match for what is maddening about certain musics. Where the distance between the group or artist’s vision is so far removed from your desired vibe that you actively dislike the record even when there is nothing objectively wrong with it.
This is the best one star album I’ve heard yet and I am confident it is someone’s five star record somewhere. I wouldn’t blame them. But I also wouldn’t give them control over the music in the car either.
1
May 02 2024
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Rust Never Sleeps
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Welcome back to the stream Neil Young. Rust Never Sleeps.
5
May 03 2024
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If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears
The Mamas & The Papas
Here's the deal with me and pop music from the 1960s: most of the time it is just not my jam. I'm not talking about any of the psych-freakout music — whether it be folk or rock. I'm not talking about R&B or Rock 'n' Roll. I am talking about the pure pop with its attention to vocal harmonies and excellent studio musicians backing the song all dressed up in a mostly US West Coast package.
I'm not down with 60s sunshine and good vibes most of the time, but when I want to surf that wave this is one of the records that satisfies every time.
4
May 06 2024
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Black Metal
Venom
Foundational? Yes! Enjoyable 42 years later? Not particularly as a whole. This record is one in which I would occasionally grab a track from to throw into a metal mix but not one that I would throw on in its entirety. While it may have sounded revolutionary at the time, in a genre that consistently pushes the "extreme" button it sounds tame today.
2
May 07 2024
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Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
Speaking of what once sounded revolutionary now sounding tame, Never Mind the Bullocks Here's the Sex Pistols is my album of the day today. Frankly, one of the most surprising elements of this band is how basic all the music is. If it wasn't for the fashion and the antics while around it would be hard to find a reason, there's no real reason?, for their outsized share of in punk history. Oi, there is one thing. I had ya there for a minute! I wore out my cassette when I was 12 for a reason. Johnny Rotten's lyrics and delivery make this record what it is: one of the greatest punk statements of its time. Listening today, this is some plain-old rock and roll fronted by fire.
4
May 08 2024
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A Love Supreme
John Coltrane
I was not "in the mood" for a Jazz album today. And, I will level with you where some may not: this lack of "feeling a certain genre or quality of music" on any given day can wreak havoc with ratings and reviews. Acknowledging this bias is an important step in listening to and providing capsule ratings/reviews in good faith on 1001 albums before you die. I had this album on earlier and it didn't particularly register well, but it's a record I own and one that I know delivers something special with a little bit of devotion to it. Second time around, having settle in to listening to it louder and with more focus, Acknowledgement sets the stage sneakily, but nicely with a payoff that I am able to appreciate even on an off day.
4
May 09 2024
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Dare!
The Human League
Clever putting that one song at the end.
2
May 10 2024
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Myths Of The Near Future
Klaxons
In 2007 I was living in Brooklyn feasting on all the loud, fast, and out of control music I could get my hands on at the exclusion of all but the most ubiquitous indie-mall / every restaurant's playlist songs and thus Klaxons wasn't very likely to make it through my most metal shield and into my awareness. And yet, listening to Myths Of The Near Future today I can hear overlap with many bands who for one reason or another (mostly location) I was aware of. Turn your head the right way and you can hear early Liars as well as The Blood Brothers in a blender with the party-ready !!! and record store nerd bands like Animal Collective or Wolf Parade. Not trying to sound sassy or smug, I like all those bands. So, this is what a reckoning is like. I was immediately hooked on the record and, while not every song slaps (as you might expect from me as the reviewer I'm least drawn to the most danceable, club ready tracks), I am still into it after a few spins today though it's hard to say if Myths Of The Near Future would sustain a day 2 or 3 of heavy rotation.
3
May 13 2024
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Smile
Brian Wilson
Not *everyone* wants to listen to *everything* by Brian Wilson. It's that simple.
I love Pet Sounds as much as the next music nerd and I am sympathetic to Wilson's personal struggles, but the circus-sounding music grates on me. Even the best songs on this record are tough to enjoy.
1
May 14 2024
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Nevermind
Nirvana
The vast majority of good music is "of its time" and inside of a certain temporal bubble we perceive it as great. A subset of that music is both of its time and, somehow, also timeless — only as we move outside of that initial temporal bubble we are able to truly make the assessment as to where someone's artistic output belongs.
At the time, I knew Nirvana was making great music, but I didn't know that they were destined to become a classic band. While I still prefer Bleach, I recognize Nevermind the timeless album it is; something truly great that spawned from the muck and grunge of the 90s.
5
May 15 2024
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I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Aretha Franklin
I've Never Loved An Aretha Record The Way I Love This One.
4
May 16 2024
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Guero
Beck
While my favorite Beck is the moody Beck that showed up in full for Sea Change and still drops by on occasion (see: Broken Drum this record) to provide quality music I can to mope to, I can also appreciate the uptempo fuzzy-dance and yet somehow lazy-rap Beck. That punning, surrealist pop star version of Beck dominates this enjoyable album. And yet, some of the weirder corners of the Beck Mind (see: Midnight Vultures record) have also been tamed. In other words Guero is far out, but not too far out. I guess this is what a balanced Beck sounds like.
4
May 17 2024
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Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
The Byrds
This record is somebody's sweetheart somewhere but it ain't here.
1
May 20 2024
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Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Elton John
That it's a double album opening with an eleven minute proggy song is a sign of when the album was made, but it was likely still a gutsy choice for Elton John. The song takes time to develop and is not bad per se but it is also not the reason this record is a classic. I wonder how many people just put the needle on the record starting with track 2 back then because the following 2-3 tracks are absolute smash hits. In fact after these, the rest of the album is good but in an uneven, meandering pastiche kind of way. Kind of like the 70s itself? Maybe the first song is both the decade and the record in miniature in its own way. Honestly, I think once he committed to a double album it led to some bloat that would've otherwise been avoided in a different era. For me, I would prefer to cut out songs like "Your Sister Can't Twist", "Social Disease" for release in some other format. I'd wrap up with "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" immediately followed by "Harmony" as the mellow closer.
3
May 21 2024
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Da Capo
Love
One of my POP's favorite albums. I've heard this hippie music many times at top volume. The old man shaking the entire house with the speakers pushing air so violently the neighbors were running for cover. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, C'mon, Yeah, alright!
2
May 22 2024
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Green River
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Green River, Bad Moon Rising, Lodi are all classics and even the filler songs here are decent quality electrified country-folk-rock. I get why decades later some kid somewhere adopts CCR as a listen to this day even though they're not always for me.
2
May 23 2024
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Debut
Björk
Björk on the road to Björkdom. A solid Debut.
3
May 24 2024
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Smokers Delight
Nightmares On Wax
This was likely heralded, at least in some circles, as something bordering on the revolutionary when it was released but for me listening today it was just an okay mellow soundtrack. When it ended the algorithm picked up a bunch of other funky yet smooth stuff that I didn't notice the handover. I don't think the technology is that slick, rather the sound has become generic now.
2
May 27 2024
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Club Classics Vol. One
Soul II Soul
Steady, are you ready? If you haven't heard Back To Life at least randomly once in life you might not be getting out enough. That track haunts a person like a ghost in a supermarket, mini-mall, dance hall, wedding and high school dance. Listening to this record took me places, but not all of them are destinations I'm looking to stay in.
3
May 28 2024
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She's So Unusual
Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper of the She's So Unusual era and Annie Potts in Pretty in Pink were some of the first dwellers in the swoon city of my mind. Cyndi was some kind of sculptor shaping our young psyches. I could live in the illusion of that record cover art and the lyrics of the album. Cyndi knows about gender and class politics and also just wants to have fun. She bop time after time and all through the night — for good or bad this record is a template that made an impression on millions.
4
May 29 2024
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Cafe Bleu
The Style Council
Mostly tepid middling music, I recognized a song I'd heard before but for a record that spans this many genres its surprisingly bland.
2
May 30 2024
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Vento De Maio
Elis Regina
My reception of this record may have been marred by the day it dropped. It was good, but too long and I was distracted. Since I don't speak Brazilian Portuguese it was doubly difficult to be drawn into its world. That all said, Elis Regina has a wonderful voice and I'm generally into late 70s popular music. The record probably deserves more than 3 stars, but I rate based on how it was received.
3
May 31 2024
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OK
Talvin Singh
Computer. This record should've been released under a different title. There should've been enough time to update it after Radiohead's album came out in the same country about a year before. But it was the nineties, speaking of which I find the whole cover of the album off-putting as well. It's a shame, because I think that the album is a rewarding listen — it's both timeless and modern. It would've been well-served to have a design that was less 1990s and a better name. The music isn't its packaging, of course, but some music deserves better and this is the case.
4
Jun 03 2024
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A Short Album About Love
The Divine Comedy
Glad it was short. It wasn't my jam. It's funny how close it is to, and yet also how far away from, The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs that this short album about love really is. Same topic, proximate vocals, some dry-ish humor and yet one has all the charm, wit, and magic mix of sparkle and darkness I could ask for while the other just feels dumb. If you haven't figured it out by now, you'll be able to tell which this album is in my opinion by the rating.
1
Jun 04 2024
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Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby
Girls Against Boys
Back in the day I often wished Girls Against Boys would stop being coy and just non-stop deliver the rock they were so clearly capable of crafting. They'd have these songs that would pull you in close and hit you hard with some crushing riff and cool vocal delivery. Those songs were just so good. But then they'd turn around and have a song that would lose itself in a mid-tempo, tryin' to sleaze meander. I think I have like 3 albums and I was frustrated in this way by all of them.
Today giving this record a listen after not listening to them in ages, I still have the same reaction though it is tempered with a greater latitude for the slower tracks. I still get impatient during some of the breathy-cool, faux-sultry, slow jams, but overall I think I'm more able to accept that the vibe that was their goal often just wasn't my preference. They were a band that could make the kind of music I preferred but chose to pursue some other ways of making music and that's okay. Now I may have not reached the level of chill to fully appreciate GVSB but at least I'm cool with their pursuit of cool.
3
Jun 05 2024
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Be
Common
Common's kinda mid, sort of average.
3
Jun 06 2024
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Second Toughest In The Infants
Underworld
Second Toughest In The Infants is a brilliant title for a band that delivers crushing riffs and face melting guitar solos. It's also pretty good for an outfit that crafts nifty electronic music. I am not in a position to declare how remarkable this release is for the genre and its development at the time it was released but I like the vibe. Most of the music has good lift and flow, I'm certain it was a hit in the warehouse.
3
Jun 07 2024
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The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Pink Floyd
The cover makes me more uncomfortable than some of the psych jams. It was likely more monumental a release at the time, but I don't get the feeling like it has grown in stature over the course of the years. Although the myth of Syd Barrett has. As I listened, some of it was cool but I did look at the track listing / run time on occasion just waiting for things to end.
2
Jun 10 2024
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Justified
Justin Timberlake
One of the more difficult listens to get through on this list. Take It From Here was sickening. 🤢🤮 This is some kind of cruel joke. This album is meant to be on the other list: 1001 Records to Listen to That Will Make You Die.
1
Jun 11 2024
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The Only Ones
The Only Ones
This band does themselves no favors by kicking things off with The Whole of the Law which bears both of the serious marks against the songs on the album. Some songs are marred by annoyingly poor vocal delivery (think a more nasal, often flat, less pleasant Gordon Gano) and others lack anything significantly compelling in the music itself to be memorable. Thankfully it is a rare few that suffer from both, but the opener is certainly one of them — at least it is mercifully short.
And yet the second song is a certifiable classic. Like many other listeners of a certain cultural niche I've heard and enjoyed: "Another Girl, Another Planet" before. It is a great song that has a bar band gone post-punk vibe going for it that elevates the music paired with a catchy and oft repeated lyric.
The rest of the album oscillates between the good and the mediocre summing up to a just below average experience.
2
Jun 12 2024
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Rid Of Me
PJ Harvey
Dry pulled me in but Rid of Me set the hook. One of my favorites.
PJ Harvey lays it all out for us on the title track. It's a world of conflict and desire. We're commanded to travel along with PJ, to tie ourselves to her. We'll suffer and serve. We'll regret but only after pleasure and pain.
Listening advice: Turn the album up so the quiet parts are solidly audible and let the loud parts hit you as they are meant to.
5
Jun 13 2024
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Music From The Penguin Cafe
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
I was initially dubious about this one. But it's much better than many other albums on the list. A very solid 3 stars!
3
Jun 14 2024
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Treasure
Cocteau Twins
Treasure may just be my favorite Cocteau Twins album.
I've commented on the tension I've often felt in listening to Cocteau Twins with respect to wanting them to unleash some aggressive riff or sonically crushing chord...to momentarily drop the ethereal charade and crush us with a burst of musical muscularity that they're hiding behind masses of restraint and reverb. Often some listeners with whom I've shared this feeling will cock their head to one side and look at me quizzically in a way that suggests there is little evidence in their opinion that Cocteau Twins posses this capacity. For them there is no aggression that is held at bay, but for me Treasure is a wonderful example of an album that when I turn up I can hear all the aspects of their sound that are absolutely massively muscular. The thing that I have learned over time is that with Cocteau Twins this aggression I apprehend will always be a subtext in the songwriting. And, in many ways that "threat" that I feel is a different, possibly more powerful feeling to elicit in a listener — all the better that with Cocteau Twins it is beautifully wrapped in their unique sound. Treasure indeed.
5
Jun 17 2024
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Destroyer
KISS
KISS: Kinda Insipid, (But) Some (Good) Songs // KISS: Kinda Inspired, (And yet) Some (Bad) Songs.
3
Jun 18 2024
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Beach Samba
Astrud Gilberto
Astrud Gilberto always sounds great but the music she is singing over does not always hold up (e.g. Parade). Overall, the album is not seriously bad but I was disappointed.
2
Jun 19 2024
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Talking With the Taxman About Poetry
Billy Bragg
Talking With the Taxman About Poetry is one of the most Billy Bragg album titles ever. While "Don't Try this at Home" may be my favorite of this era, Bragg's in his bag on this record too.
3
Jun 20 2024
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Songs The Lord Taught Us
The Cramps
I've always thought of The Cramps as a fun band with their whole trashy-goth rock-a-billy thing, but I've never been able to enjoy a whole record start to finish. This is true of Songs The Lord Taught Us though it comes the close to delivering that experience.
3
Jun 21 2024
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The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
Badly Drawn Boy
Badly Drawn Boy was a name floating around in the ether in the 00s but I never heard them to my knowledge. I always thought it was some popular emo band that stood next to Fall Out Boy at parties and looked a little more mopey and not quite well-rendered. All to say that this was a pleasant surprise of a record though about 15-20 minutes too long for my introduction to them. I can hear a little bit of Elliott Smith, Iron & Wine, and The Shins in the music which to me means that he caught some piece of the zeitgeist that they were all also tangled up in. It also reveals the US Pacific Northwest bias in my listening habits. I'm not likely to throw this record on again as a whole but I'd welcome hearing more when it shows up in the stream.
4
Jun 24 2024
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Guitar Town
Steve Earle
You can thank Steve Earl, Johnny Cash and the like for propping up my Country stats when it comes to rating records from the 1001 list.
4
Jun 25 2024
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Boston
Boston
This is a quintessential 1970s popular rock record. I have heard so many of these tracks in movies and television set in or that are about the era. And yet, it isn't representative of all of the 70s music and culture it's just symbolic of the mainstream expression of that era. And, I love it for that. It's not my favorite music from that decade. It's not what I believe would've actually been cool. I probably would've found actual Boston fans obnoxious at the time. And despite a Summer vibe, it's not something that I'm going to throw on tomorrow when it is not my album of the day. All that said, whenever I hear a track off this Boston album I nod along. Boston endures for that reason.
4
Jun 26 2024
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...And Justice For All
Metallica
A great Metallica album marred by a terrible mix.
As a bass player, I loved Cliff Burton era Metallica. That guy was the creative spark and joy of the band. A truly gifted player who tragically passed away too soon. And along comes Jason Newsted who filled in admirably and got burned by the mix of this record. One of the greatest middle fingers of one band member to another. The biggest losers are the fans though who were secondarily robbed of a great sounding record. The mix is awful in a few ways but having heard some Justice for Jason type remixes and "reclamations" it certainly would've been better with some audible bass rather than some muddy-sounding "barely felt" bass. I expect my review so far to be fairly standard and repeated here. I don't mind being a basic Metallica fan in that regard.
4
Jun 27 2024
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Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
Lupe Fiasco
Daily Mantra: Kick, push, kick, push, coast. I always liked this Lupe Fiasco despite him having a few too many mannerisms of the era it was written in. I don't think all of them have aged well, but overall I still get down with it.
4
Jun 28 2024
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Morrison Hotel
The Doors
There was a brief time where I listened to the Doors trying to get into the music — and failing. I read the Jim Morrison biography and would throw my POP's records on the turntable, turn it up loud and wait for something compelling to happen. But it never really took. Usually it just seemed like wallowing and noodling music. This particular record is too bluesy in parts but also has a surprising heaviness to it at times that redeems the moments when they tread into the boring blues cliches. A decent Doors record but it can't compete with more interesting music made by others.
2
Jul 01 2024
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Moving Pictures
Rush
I had an older cousin who was deep into Rush and I didn't understand the appeal. I was just emerging as a new wave, goth kid at the time and I hadn't even really discovered punk yet. This is a long, long time before buying Moving Pictures used from a dingy record store in New York. I bought it on vinyl so that I, too, could drop the needle on the record and hear the opening notes of Tom Sawyer on the loudest sound machine in the house. Of course, truly cranking it to epic volumes would need to wait for a move from an apartment to a house. With album highlights like Tom Sawyer, YYZ, and Limelight, with solid tracks like Red Barchetta and Vital Signs this is among my favorite Rush albums to revisit.
4
Jul 22 2024
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The Poet
Bobby Womack
Funky 70s R&B that while good was a little bit forgettable. I had to hunt down the album to hear all of it, but honestly the song Secrets wasn't really worth the effort. Overall, I am a fan of the sound of the music so this is probably a 2 star record getting a generous "genre and era" bump. A rare cheat but I'm feeling generous towards this record for some reason.
3
Jul 23 2024
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Tragic Songs of Life
The Louvin Brothers
Sometimes you just want some old time music — despite this record's occasional charms, today wasn't one of those days.
2
Jul 24 2024
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Pink Flag
Wire
Going all in with Pink Flag as my favorite album by Wire. Direct songwriting with acerbic wit, propulsive rhythms and impactful guitar will win me over every time. This record consistently delivers it all at a high level.
5
Jul 25 2024
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Cut
The Slits
Cut is one of those records that I've heard a lot of times. Frankly, it still sounds great. The production quality and realization of the style of delivery is complete in a way that I feel intention in all the spaces, gaps, and awkward moments (even if that is not historically the case). Everything is relevant, personal, and poetic. While it was the initial speed bump on my road to enjoyment, the vocals grew on me over time. And, if I'm honest, this is true of a good deal of bands that I enjoy.
4
Jul 26 2024
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Larks' Tongues In Aspic
King Crimson
Larks' Tongues In Aspic has a tough opener for the modern attention span. I'm sure back in the day when you put the needle on the record you were ready to soak in the chimes and slow burn into the song in ways that are difficult now to even imagine.
The track, and the album, reward a patient listener. Just a shame that they are more difficult to find. I include myself in this, I'm no longer as patient as I once was when it comes to my listening. Let's say if we faded in at the 3m mark I'd still have been looking around for 30 more seconds wondering when we were going to get to the jams. And this test of patience and attention span is everywhere: a little violin break here, some kind of pause or quiet moment there. This is the downside of progressive rock / music in some regards. And yet, of course, it is also its immense upside. If you take the time and make the space for it this music can be very rewarding to listen to including, and especially because of, the more challenging moments.
And yet, and yet, this isn't my favorite King Crimson record for a reason.
3
Jul 29 2024
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Electric
The Cult
There are some stinkers on this record and it marks a departure from some of the darker more overt goth vibes of their previous work... But, hear me out, if a cool older brother passes the CD along to his younger brother and you all spend a Summer with this as your soundtrack street skating the best curbs and other little bits of your suburban American town then this album is going to become an irrational, emotional favorite that you will still want to throw on 35 years later. Nothing beats the feeling of a Summer breeze on your face with your friends cheering an impossibly landed sick skate trick while Love Removal Machine is blasting out a cheap speaker. Sometimes music is made better by the moment and method of introduction. Five Stars for the feels on a Three Star record.
5
Jul 30 2024
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Strange Cargo III
William Orbit
Enjoyable electronic music from 1993 which I can only imagine was totally mind blowing at the time it came out. In 2024, some of it is borderline unremarkable even if other tracks are solidly timeless so far as electronic music goes. Overall, I looped it a few times and enjoyed it on each listen even if I checked out of the occasional song.
3
Jul 31 2024
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Grievous Angel
Gram Parsons
I'm working hard to not give this album a one-star review because I know that it is well-crafted and delivered sincerely by talented people, but it is absolutely not to my taste either. I'm no fan of the electrified heartland, honky tonk vaguely "mom and apple pie" Americana through the lens of some fool who idealizes a past that never was. So, two-stars then.
2
Aug 01 2024
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Immigrés
Youssou N'Dour
It's difficult for me to know the subject matter of the songs without doing research but from the standpoint of just the music and delivery itself, it's a compelling album.
3
Aug 02 2024
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Idlewild
Everything But The Girl
It wasn't Idlewild that introduced me to Everything But The Girl but seeing their name immediately makes me wistful. Tracey Thorn's voice reaches into your chest. Heart wrapped in sound and pulled forward, exposed. While I prefer the more electronic stylings of Amplified Heart, this album gives me the EBTG feels I expect.
3
Aug 05 2024
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Everything Must Go
Manic Street Preachers
I'm only familiar with Manic Street Preachers through this project. If I'm honest, I didn't get into them from the last listen (The Holy Bible album) and was disappointed to see them again. But the more I listen to Everything Must Go the more I can appreciate them.
I had written a ramshackle review of this record and have erased it all since the above is the better summary of the experience — and all that needs to be known of "my take" on it.
For the truly curious, it ultimately boiled down to two things: First, while all of the songs are tunefully delivered, I prefer the ones that are louder and more bombastic in general (no surprise) and I noted that those don't necessarily correlate to what appear to be the more popular tracks on the record. Second, I made a Ted Leo comparison, speculated if he was a fan, and playfully asked if he should he be paying royalties on Further Away? Nothing novel and very little added but there you go.
3
Aug 06 2024
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Arular
M.I.A.
Arular thrills. 🔥 I do not tire of M.I.A.
5
Aug 07 2024
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Elephant Mountain
The Youngbloods
The Youngbloods were voted the band least likely to stand out while still being good for their year. Not bad for some laid back, late Sixties vibes — the music is not too psychedelic, nor is it too bluesy. It's kind of a "just right" blend of the sounds of the era but where that also means it's a bit mid. I can hear why I had never heard of them on the one hand, but was pleasantly surprised on the other.
3
Aug 08 2024
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Our Aim Is To Satisfy
Red Snapper
Here is a band I know nothing about other than what I can see: the name, the album's title, and the cover, so I'm intrigued to listen (although also a little bit apprehensive since the name and title sound dumb).
I put it on and at first I think it's some okay study / work music: a funky blend of electronic and traditional instrumentation, mostly instrumental with either samples or MCs over sections of the music.
And yet, as we progress, I can tell it's no home run. The suspicions I had based on the name seem to be playing out in decisions made within the music itself. The thinking around this record seems to be on the juvenile side of its era in ways that reveal a goofy decision-making that lacks restraint when it comes to so-called humor.
The cute / funny stuff just doesn't land with me. I think part of that is because I too am prone to this kind of thing "a pun" as part of the artistic output. Let's have a little joke here or something I thought was clever over there. Over time it is precisely these asides or jokey bits that I thought made the work something special I can see are actually weighing it down and have held it back.
Really just feels like: A less clever Soul Coughing and 311 blend jamming on joke tunes with DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin, and the Chemical Brothers playing in the background of their practice space.
2
Aug 09 2024
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Brutal Youth
Elvis Costello
Early Elvis Costello has always been my jam, but somewhere around Imperial Bedroom I found my interest wanes. Brutal Youth is an excellent reminder that his ability to thrill in a song still remained strong.
4
Aug 12 2024
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Your New Favourite Band
The Hives
Woo-hoo! No wait. While song 1 from my new favorite band might be legally distinct from...it does have a certain overlap in chord structure and pace as a certain Blur track, and yet it is only attitudinally adjacent and positioned within The Hives overall garage-land that I can almost forgive the trespass.
Speaking of garage rock as a genre more generally for a hot minute or take, it is a small 'c' conservative genre that tends to look back more than forward and where derivative is not necessarily derogative. In fact, some ears might call it one of the greatest advantages and gifts of the genre overall. It's a promise of the genre that I will hear something that is both new and familiar with the latest release of Garage Rock X band.
And so, here I am with this album from the Hives, a group I largely missed while listening to many artists that are in their cohort or that at minimum a streaming algorithm is going to feed me as similar / like content. Overall, this is a tight record that doesn't waste my time. If you like light-weight, fast-break punk but don't want to ride on that emo or pop-punk side then you probably want it in that Hives garage-style. And, if that's the case then they might just be Your New Favorite Band.
4
Aug 13 2024
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Entertainment
Gang Of Four
Gang of Four have always been one of my favorite post-punk bands. I don't need to write about the politics expressed in excellent lyrics, angular guitar or jarring but funky rhythms of their initial output. Plenty of ink, both in digital and on paper, has been spilled on all of that. Rather, I want to note that my first and longest engagement with Gang of Four was through the collection "A Brief History of the Twentieth Century". I've written about the way that collections tend to paper over the valleys and missteps of a band such that you can have a very different frame to hang on the picture of them. I mix my metaphors daily as well you might notice. But the real thing to notice is just how much of that collection comes from entertainment! This album's dips in quality are minor at best and better seen as ramps from which they launch into incredible songs that achieve great heights. I am all in on this record, of course.
5
Aug 14 2024
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Daydream Nation
Sonic Youth
The most timeless Sonic Youth. The most listenable without feeling the respective weight of its era. With one other exception, the rest of their albums sound rooted in their respective time whether it be the 80s, 90s, or 00s. That's not always a bad thing, some of these other records are also among my favorite Sonic Youth albums. But Daydream Nation is special in how it glides in and across all times. It exists as daydream itself.
5
Aug 15 2024
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Kings Of The Wild Frontier
Adam & The Ants
"Kings of the Wild Frontier" — proving once again that you can love a genre and still not like an album as much as you'd expect.
2
Aug 16 2024
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Liege And Lief
Fairport Convention
This must've been a big deal for someone's grampa. There are some prog hippie church music vibes. To be clear, none of those descriptors are a bad thing in isolation and their combination is intriguing.
This music is at its best to my ear when the rock is forward and they get more intricate with it. Unfortunately, the weirder prog moments are relatively few compared to some generally plodding applications of folk conventions which dilutes the impact. And yet, those moments do give opportunity for the vocalist to shine. This band is a conundrum and it got me thinking:
To get into the headspace of just how this whole endeavor could've felt in 1969 in terms of excitement, maybe we should think of what the "problem space" or "surface area" of exploration would be if updated with more contemporary examples, maybe we should ask how would we wrap our minds around a Joanna Newsom x Mars Volta collab? To travel back in time, maybe then the music of Fairport Convention was that exciting, curious, and potentially dangerous.
2
Aug 19 2024
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Frampton Comes Alive
Peter Frampton
Yep. That sounds like one of the flavors of the 70s there. Single-handedly made the talkbox popular and overblown in one album. Sadly, it's a live album that's a better display of musicianship than of an overall amazing music experience.
2
Aug 20 2024
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Beautiful Freak
Eels
Those eyes on the cover say early Photoshop and the music says mid-to-late 1990s which all aligns. The singing has a little Cracker throatiness to it that I can appreciate. Some of the tracks are more of their time than others but overall the album is a solid slice of "alternative" pop / rock.
3
Aug 21 2024
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Follow The Leader
Korn
The music is like uninteresting Deftones at its best and a trash blend of rock-rap with a circus swagger at its worst. The rap feels like an adopted posture, the style but a pose. While the lyrics seal the deal that it's an empty gesture towards the rap form more than meaningful cultural expression or engagement. There's also a cough syrup derivative of NIN somewhere in here, too. It's as if Filter were filtered down to add as a flavor to this swill. The further I get into this record's track list the less impressed I am and the more certain I become in my assessment. A definite reaction to this despite me being the ideal audience: I love hip hop and I love metal. And yet, the 90s did themselves few favors spawning the likes of metal-rap bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn. What went wrong?
1
Aug 22 2024
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Younger Than Yesterday
The Byrds
I've had The Byrds before and when I did I gave that record a 1 star review. And, yet, I find Younger Than Yesterday to easily be 2 stars better than Sweetheart of the Rodeo which was released a year later. Younger Than Yesterday is not a masterpiece but it's a solid 3 star outing. I think the "pre-country" rock, pop, and psych sensibilities on display here speak more to me than when they had more firmly shifted their sound in that countrified direction. Sometimes its the small things that make a difference.
3
Aug 23 2024
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No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith (Live)
Motörhead
501st album. I'm halfway there. No sleep 'Til Hammersmith seems appropriate. And yet in hearing to it, I'm reminded that while Motörhead's influence and Lemmy's cool are undeniable and eternal their consistency is a barrier to my listening pleasure. Too many tunes from the same blueprint. So many songs sounding similar. The great Ace of Spades album only got 4 stars from me; the live album reflecting more tracks back my concern only gets 2.
2
Aug 26 2024
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Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
It just so happened that I put this album on today at 5:00 AM when I was at my desk to do some writing. I had the lights on super low (just the glow of the screen and a very small second light — adjustable on its lowest setting). I often do this: check out what I've been served for the day to see if I want to listen early or if I want to wait until later in the morning. Bitches Brew is an incredible album for the bookends of the day (either early morning or late at night). Many of the songs, do what I'm doing now, they start out scattered or diffused. Sounds punctuating space. A jumbled moment...searching. They often take their time developing the theme. These songs are thoughts and the process of thinking. They'll settle into a groove to mine it, they play within, along, and above it but return to their anchor. And, later, they'll move on to the next thing to explore and iterate upon. This is an amazing album with inspired playing but it's also not an everyday driver or carry that I would pick up and throw on all the time. It's a record that, if you have the time for, will build a mood with you and take you places you hadn't expected (even after listening to it for decades). It's the result of the genius of Miles Davis and the rest of the musicians as well as the insightful editing of Teo Macero.
It's not going to be for everyone — and that's okay — no art truly is.
5
Aug 27 2024
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Dear Science
TV On The Radio
Dear Science, I was a rabid Return To Cookie Mountain fan and I didn't give you the credit you deserved when you arrived on the scene. Sometimes it takes a while for us to open our ears and minds to the music that even our favorite artists make. While you're not my first or second favorite TVOTR record, you're still great.
5
Aug 28 2024
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Hounds Of Love
Kate Bush
It's a good record, but it doesn't stick with me outside of the singles. Running up that Hill is an amazing track while Cloudbusting and Hounds of Love are also solid they don't quite reach the same heights. The rest of the album just disappears on me after listening. 2.5 stars rounding up.
3
Aug 29 2024
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Suede
Suede
I suffered through the singing. 1.5 Stars. Sorry, Suede.
2
Aug 30 2024
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White Light
Gene Clark
This is the third Byrds-related record in my review rotation. White Light leans too far into country tropes and folk genre cliches for my taste. It's not poorly executed, some of the songs are pleasant, it's just terribly boring. Maybe in 1971 you could grab a guitar and sing a song nicely on record and fans of your earlier work would be happy. And, that's just it, this record feels more like an appeal to existing fans than an artistic achievement. The cover of Stand By Me is a good example of how pedestrian the whole album sounds now. It's hard to hear how this record justifies itself as one of the 1001 albums you must hear before you die.
2
Sep 02 2024
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The Cars
The Cars
This came out in 1978 and giving it the 5-stars it deserves is going to mess up my "Favorite Decade" stat even more by pushing the 1970s ahead in the rankings. This record was ahead of its time. Astute listeners across the decades will tell you that often the records near the end of a calendar decade go on to define the *coming* decade. This album has many of the hallmarks of a classic 80s sound. And, it delivers them all with such confidence and song craft that I can listen to it in 2024 and it still sounds solid. Nothing lasts forever, but The Cars legacy is going strong thanks to this record.
5
Sep 03 2024
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Jack Takes the Floor
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' folksy Jack Elliott takin' the floor. One of its virtues is that this music isn't trying too hard while it's here so I'm not going to knock it even though it's not my thing.
2
Sep 04 2024
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Birth Of The Cool
Miles Davis
I know this is an important document in the history of Jazz, but today it's just another jazz record that I appreciate every once and again. It's not my favorite Miles album, I don't reach for it like I do Kind of Blue or Bitches Brew. It's not even in my top 5, if I'm being honest.
3
Sep 05 2024
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The Last Of The True Believers
Nanci Griffith
I believe this album is not for me.
2
Sep 06 2024
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The Undertones
The Undertones
I can almost always get behind some music that's played fast and loud even if, as the case is here, it's only a little bit fast and a little bit loud. While it's not as immediately catchy as the Buzzcocks you could hear them sharing the same bill. This is pop-punk before the genre was redefined and packaged for broad consumption in the 90s and 00s. That said, if we're being honest, this record is also a bit more pedestrian. You take the Buzzcocks and a tiny dash of the Clash mix it with a British take on the Ramones...you water that all down, throw in a hint of vocal warble and you kind of have The Undertones. 2.5 stars.
2
Sep 09 2024
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Eagles
Eagles
Clocking in at 37 minutes this is a mercifully brief record from the Eagles. Sounds like 9 minutes of 4-star music over the course of 2-star tedium.
2
Sep 10 2024
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Gorillaz
Gorillaz
I wasn't down with the gimmick at the time and dismissed Gorillaz out of hand from the jump. Going back and listening to the album, I don't feel a main through line to it although there are a few standout tracks. Try as I might, I don't find the album very compelling. It's definitely too long and wanders into early 00 musical territory I'm not particularly interested in spending my time in having heard it explored better elsewhere. I feel like this record in particular should also be judged by its cover. I think Tank Girl is rad, but this record cover is bland.
3
Sep 11 2024
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Pelican West
Haircut 100
I didn't think I knew this band until "Love Plus One" came on. I've definitely heard it somewhere before. Too bad there's all this other music on this record. Okay, it's not that bad. But it's not my thing. There isn't any kind of shared aesthetic concern here and there's way too much sax and steel drums (?) for some British boys. What don't I like: the lyrics, the instrumentation, the overall too-happy vibe. Unless it's jazz or a brass band, I'm a certified saxophone hater so... And that this streaming link isn't the original track listing but is "plus" I'm really not vibing with having more to listen to than the original tracks. It's very 80s. I'm not giving this band any extra time by editing my listening notes into a coherent review; they took the extra time all up with those bonus tracks.
2
Sep 12 2024
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Being There
Wilco
At first it seemed like Tweedy was a little too concerned with rhyming in an almost couplet style. Especially with that pattern being so strongly felt on the opening track, I couldn't help but hear it throughout the double album. Wow. A double. Is this really the Wilco album I must hear before I die? Will there be others? Asking because this is a good record, but it's a picture of the band before they became the Wilco that broke through their own initial constraints. The expanded Wilco, the Wilco++, the Wilco that integrates the disparate pulls of their interests rather than just shifting entirely to different places / sounds / genres / intentions. I didn't hear this until after *that* Wilco was firmly established.
It's hard to listen and enjoy this knowing the amazing work that comes next, and to not compare them against each other. Wilco vs Wilco. In short, this is a good record. A bit long and uneven. A bit clumsy in places. A bit alt rock. A bit country. A bit alt-country. But promising. The amazing thing is that the promise is fulfilled in ways that you can't quite see coming from this record. I mean, they're probably there, but they aren't yet fully known to the band themselves at the time either (at least by how this record sounds and presents itself).
I probably wouldn't have liked this that much if I had heard it when it came out either. Past me likely would've found it frustrating in its lack of focus or found it wanting for a crisp integrated aesthetic. But "now me" does enjoy the meander more (well, at least I can tolerate it) and so here we go...this review is a meandering too. It's a double album of a review. It's on point at times and other times you're left wondering why certain decisions were made. Was that really the best choice there? I don't know. Only time will tell.
4
Sep 13 2024
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Maverick A Strike
Finley Quaye
Maverick A Strike: Finley Quaye: 1997. Absolutely never heard this or of the artist. I was definitely wondering why this was on the list and had to force myself to have an open mind despite the album cover. It took until the third listen yesterday for it to grow on me. Ultimately I enjoyed enough of it to assign 3 stars but I'll probably forget about it in a month as well.
3
Sep 16 2024
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Ill Communication
Beastie Boys
Ill Communication. Cause you can't, you won't and you don't stop. This was the record that had me reassessing my opinion of the Beastie Boys entirely. The first three records were good, caught all of our attention at the time they came out and were definitely in the air no matter what crew or clique you ran with. But it was Ill Communication that cemented their reputation and had many of us going back to re-listen to records we had put down. It's still one of my favorites of theirs. If it were a little more focused it'd be 5 stars.
4
Sep 17 2024
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The Notorious Byrd Brothers
The Byrds
I think this is the 3rd The Byrds album I've been hit with in my time here. It's not helping my opinion of them.
2
Sep 18 2024
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New York Dolls
New York Dolls
I've always admired the Dolls for their attitude and ability to bust out a rock 'n' roll song with swagger and gusto. Clearly they're a precursor and progenitor of some bands that had a serious impact on my musical life. But I've also never been able to fully endorse their records. 3 stars reaching for another.
3
Sep 19 2024
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We're Only In It For The Money
The Mothers Of Invention
Listening to this Zappa led The Mothers Of Invention record I'm struck by a thought I can't shake right around the time that "Who Needs the Peace Corps" is winding down. This sounds so solidly and ready to be on Sebadoh's early albums. Frankly, yes I said FRANKLY, despite the attention span zig and zag this is one of the most enjoyable Zappa led recordings I've heard. It has better sound quality and songcraft than a track off of Weed Forestin' or The Freed Man but you can hear how and where they fit together in a way that I find delightful. This comparison is a complement in both directions to be clear.
3
Sep 20 2024
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Before And After Science
Brian Eno
Before and After Science, "No One Receiving" is straight up before and after LCD Soundsystem. Give me that 70s Eno who looked into the future and brought back songs that stand the test of time. Not every Eno track shines on this album like some of his others but there are plenty of delights to be had; e.g. "By This River" is a gem.
4
Sep 23 2024
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Africa Brasil
Jorge Ben Jor
This album is one that demonstrates how good the 4 star tier is from this list. I enjoyed it greatly. There are some absolute bops on it. It's an album that really has me reconsidering if music from the 1970s in just about any genre or type of music is just to my taste no matter how much I want to shake that image and understanding. When I give this albums 4 stars, it is only because after a few listens today there are a couple of tracks that pull this from a 4.5 to something just slightly lower and have me rounding down rather than up. I try to keep that 5 star assignment to stuff that I find truly sublime for one reason or another. This record is close, but not quite at that level.
4
Sep 24 2024
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Ragged Glory
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Ragged Glory is a ragged record with a few ramshackle tracks just wandering too much or Neil's trademark voice harshing things up in a way that almost sounds affected. Not that he's one to be charged with artifice and have it stick. Overall, a Neil Young album tends to rate highly with me, but this one isn't among my top favs of all time for him. Still it's a solid 4 stars.
4
Sep 25 2024
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Shaka Zulu
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Why does this record need to be so hard to get the full stream of? Paul Simon are you messing with Ladysmith Black Mambazo after all these years?
A cappella music can be compelling when done well. This record (cobbled together from Spotify and Youtube) sounds convincing. There's also a 30 years revisiting of the record on Spotify which might not have the same spark but gives you a good outline of it too. Not my usual music of choice. I'm not reaching for an a cappella record in ninety-nine out of a hundred listens, but on that one where I'm feeling like something out of my usual habits I might pull this or something like it out.
4
Sep 26 2024
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Selling England By The Pound
Genesis
Nearly a 5 star rating from me for this British Prog Classic. For the era and genre, it's very listenable even to a more modern ear. It's one of my favorite Genesis albums, and if I'm being honest with myself, I think I return to it more than The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
4
Sep 27 2024
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Phrenology
The Roots
I feel the structure of this album when I listen to it in its entirety. The sequencing is deliberate, there's the pre-flight of Phrentrow leading to the solid and true kickoff of Rock You. But where I really sense the intention is how this record is built around the core of Thought @ Work, The Seed(2.0), and Break You Off. Both leading in and exiting the beating heart of the record takes you different places tonally and emotionally before the record ends solidly with Rhymes and Ammo. And, gives us a little rising/falling action by trailing that end with the fun Thirsty!
4
Sep 30 2024
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Paranoid
Black Sabbath
Do you like heavy music? Same here. ~217 days after their debut album Black Sabbath drops Paranoid. It's like the question was asked and answered in 1970 and forever. 🤘🏻
5
Oct 01 2024
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All Things Must Pass
George Harrison
There is an album's worth of stellar material here and another record's worth of very good songs, too. I would've left out the "Apple Jam" tracks from the initial release myself given they are slightly lesser songs. That George Harrison gifted all of them to us at the same time is an act of artistic confidence and righteous subtweeting of former bandmates. For me, at the tail end of 2024, it's a 4.5 star listening experience when taken all together. I don't yet know if I'm rounding up or down. Rounding down, it's just too long now.
4
Oct 02 2024
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O.G. Original Gangster
Ice T
Respect to Ice-T for pursuing his rock/metal hip-hop and acting dreams. Here's a kid from New Jersey that moves to LA at around 12 years old and makes a name for himself in music and more. That said, this OG record is too long and some of the songs have not aged well (mostly in the lyrics, but sometimes in the sound of the music itself). Not enough forward momentum or hooks — usually you can let go of one or the other but things are rough for listeners when you let both slip once you've established the genre you're working in. Combine that with some production choices that make this at times a sonically unpleasant album to hear definitely drags the final score down to a middling 3 despite a good effort on a number of tracks.
3
Oct 03 2024
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Double Nickels On The Dime
Minutemen
This is Bob Dylan to me. We listened to a lot of the Minutemen as young skate punks even though they'd already disbanded long ago with the passing of d boon. You could catch Watt and Hurley in fIREHOSE for a hint of the magic that the minutemen were live — kind of projecting yourself backward in time mapping that imagery onto this album and others. It was before Youtube after all. The whole album is a hearty stew fit for skaters, indie kids, punks, surfers and truckers alike. Anyone with ears and a heart, really. Double Nickels on the Dime is an easy 5. It's right there in the title if you think about it. Fifty-five, five out of five.
5
Oct 04 2024
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Rings Around The World
Super Furry Animals
I've always wanted to like this band, who wants to be accused of not being a friend to animals?, but their music never clicked with me. Rings Around The World did not improve their case. Listening to this album was a painful experience at times. Not every song was bad, but not enough of them were good.
2
Oct 07 2024
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Southern Rock Opera
Drive-By Truckers
It's mid. Just some plain country rock with a sprinkle of the era's alt-rock vibes. I prefer Steve Earle, Uncle Tupelo/early Wilco, and the Old 97s of which the Drive-by Truckers seem to be the more generic mix of.
2