band should have died with the 70s

this is an interesting one because generally among metal fans the later maiden stuff is more well regarded, they like Bruce Dickinson as singer a lot more than Paul Di'Anno. but I guess this album is still kind of notable as being part of the time period where heavy metal became more defined as a genre the guitar is all right, got some nice wah on it. very cool solo on the first song. di'anno's vocals have a rawness to them but he doesn't really come across as super memorable as a singer. the lyrics don't strike me as super memorable either. the part where the guitar gets quiet and he's supposed to be ballading on "Remember Tomorrow" just feels like he does not have the chops to carry that. he can't really carry a tune at all. I think if you take away the band name/imagery this really feels like kind of an average hard rock album, there isn't a lot that actually makes it overtly 'metal' in terms of subject matter or composition. maybe slightly faster than 70s albums with more guitar noodling but I'm not really blown away. there's no hooks, no strong choruses, no memorable riffs just kind of boring honestly. not the worst thing in the world but really inessential feels more like an in between evolutionary stage than a finished product. not melodic enough for rock, not heavy enough for metal

god that opening guitar riff sounds so cool do do do DO DO DOOOO album has a great vibe to it, like it's gloomy but rowdy and ready to kick ass at the same time. just fuzzy guitars and gothic muttering. not a lot to say really, album is mostly mood and texture but it's a great mood so i can't complain

it's funny how this is like a groundbreaking work in terms of being conceptual and more orchestrated than a typical rock album and very pretentious and then the premise is a blind kid who is good at pinball, just the stupidest shit anyone has ever thought of the instrumentation on the opener is good "it's a boy" is irritatingly precious even if it's short 1921 also irritates me, it feels a bit like trying to cram a narrative into a musical framework rather than just writing a good song really that's the whole thing, the who could write a good wrong song occasionally but too often they got lost up their own ass being silly and/or pretentious the whole sound of this album is a little too cutesy for me it's not the worst thing I ever heard but I don't really enjoy it. I write this as I am only on track 4 of 24. keith moon's drumming is still excellent when they really let him go off. but i am already incredibly sick of daltrey's falsetto. sparks is another kind of neat instrumental but it feels more like an intro to a song than a proper song eyesight to the blind is fine but basically forgettable and the intro to 'christmas' with the 'ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah' background vocals is teeth gratingly bad again just WRITE A REGULAR SONG OH MY GOD the "see me touch me feel me refrain is meant to be like, Conceptual or Something as a motif they use several times but it and the TOMMYCANYOUHEARME just get under my skin a ton honestly i was going to say this album has at least some decent bits but so much of it is so incredibly long and so much of it is so bad, i just cannot stand it as a whole do you think it's alright/fiddle about is just atrocious. godawful. who the fuck thought it was necessary to have 2 minutes on the album dedicated to songs about child molestation. i doubt i will hear a worse 2 minutes of music anywhere pinball wizard is okay i guess. i almost certainly prefer it as a single outside the album though. the back half of the album is sort of blandly unmemorable. still kind of irritatingly precocious but doesn't grind my gears as much. "we're not gonna take it" starts off not great but honestly i like the back half. still not an album i would be compelled to revisit much at all.

it's okay i guess the guitars sound a little too "surf rock"-ish for my liking - kind of okay in small doses but across a whole album it gets tiresome decent alt rock but not super catchy or memorable, i wouldn't switch off it but i wouldn't really go out of my way to seek it out actually by the end i got a little bored, not a lot of the later songs are memorable and they blend together. frank black is kind of annoying. i guess on reflection there are some decent songs I just probably wouldn't want to listen to the whole album

BACK WITH ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE BLOCK ROCKING _BEATS_ this album was already a favorite of mine, it kicks ass that bassline on the first track is so great, i am compelled to bob my head to it it's electronic music that's loud, maximalist and in your face, it's energetic and there's always something going on. it feels like it's meaningless to say it rocks, but that's still the best description to me. the sampled drumbeats feel propulsive. the one noise on "setting sun" that's like a siren rules. EEEEOOOOOO i zoned out and don't have a lot else to say. just really like having the tracks on in the background. hard to describe it really it's just a really good album

cumma cumma cumma cumma cumma cumeleon u cum and go. this is entertaining the first time and then it tries to enter your skull through blunt force repetition i haven't actually investigated this band at all aside from hearing a few singles, i don't think they're super highly regarded in most circles boy george actually isn't a very good singer? he just sounds kind of flat, his voice doesn't carry much my initial impression is that this is fine but thoroughly forgettable pop music. This in spite of most of the songs being painfully repetitive. it's trying so DESPERATELY to make a hook stick that I think it actually has the opposite effect. The instrumentation on "miss me blind" is a little funky which is cool but on most of the songs it feels like the instruments are pushed so far back they're barely noticeable. "mister man" on the other hand verges into being irritating they wrote a song called "man-shake" yet seemingly none of the lyrics are remotely sexual. wtf. boy george makes being gay boring as this wears on I really don't like it, it's not viscerally offputting but there's very little I actually enjoy here proof that the 80s weren't all amazing given these dudes were topping the charts everywhere

lol look at that stache on the guy on the left i like the horns on track 1? coming off another new wave album theres a bit of danger of overload on similarity but initial impression is this is better than culture club i like the horns on track 1 and the guitars make some nice chimey noises. the singer here is much better than boy george little bit harsh and abrasive on track 2 but that's a positive for me I'm very partial to the sound of this although I've heard a lot like it before and it doesn't especially stand out in any way. it's on the high side of fine. I like it and would re-listen to it occasionally but not very often. it's got a good sound but isn't especially hooky. "when i dream" is VERY irritating though, minus points for that being used as the closer i don't know if Reward "counts" as being part of the album when it was initially a non-album single but was included in the US version but i will consider it. I kind of get why this was popular, the horns and organs are pretty boisterious. it's okay.

this dude is trying too hard to seem suave and cool. but he's a fucking dork. "something for the weekend" tries the trick where it repeats the chorus 100x to try to make it catchy. sick of it! this really drags i don't like how it sounds at all. i hate the way he sings. he's TRYING to be a crooner but he comes across as completely obnoxious and full of himself. "charge" is like an experiment put together to try to create the most irritating combination of sounds possible folks, the real "comedy" here is that someone thinks this is good music! "I'd rather die than be deprived of wonderbras and thunder thighs" is hands down, the worst lyric i have ever heard oh my god THIS FUCKING SUCkS

i wasn't expecting the production to sound so dated i dunno it doesn't do it for me really "smooth criminal" is still pretty great tho

i wasn't expecting the production to sound so dated i dunno it doesn't do it for me really "smooth criminal" is still pretty great tho

cool guitars

band should have died with the 70s

wtf, where is "summer of 69"

this has a very nice sound to it but it being a christmas album limits its appeal to me. i'd listen to a regular album from any of the artists featured on this compilation. "sleigh ride" is iconic and definitely lifts this up.

sam cooke's voice is classic