amazing and inventive

What can be said that hasn’t been said a million times before? An album that really benefits from high-quality gear. I listen to this about once a year (since I was in high school), and I make a point of listening when I upgrade sound gear. Amazing early use of analog synths in a natural way with the guitars and voices. After all this time, still love the stirring vocal on Great Gig and the sax on Money.

I got into Genesis in the early 80s after listening to Gabriel’s 1st 4 solo albums, so I always liked the PG vocal sound on SEBTP but never cared much for the lyric content. The treat here is the sound of the drums and the keys. Super active bass parts are a mixed bag but it all deserves to be blasted at high volume. I’m a sucker for epic and (yes) melodramatic guitar solo on FOF.

snooze. always wondered why bittersweet symphony was so popular. emotionless vocals over drums and strings. wow.

Great voice and great songwriting but sounds like a demo album esp some of the percussion.

No waste no filler. Great band and bowie’s singing with so much feeling on every track. Golden Years has so much going on but holds it together rhythmically.

traditionally not a huge fan of electronica but this one had me engaged and entranced.

I was going to rate this a 2 but the quality of the backing band and a few of the lyrics (too few!) bumped it to a 3.

good power pop sound good songs and what’s with the jazzy breakdown on breaking down?

2/5 I didn't enjoy this and I love many FS performances on other records. Why bother with TGFI when the Getz/Jobim version is out there?

4/5

1/5 didn’t hear anything interesting or new here. chirpy/clipped sounds were more annoying than anything else.

5/5 for tina’s vocals throughout. good songs mostly especially the singles. I recalled just how good What’s love got to do with it is. great sound on that track. Private dancer also great song.

5/5 I know EC's albums through King of America but missed this one the first time around. I was surprised by how gritty and aggressive it was - a lot like This Years Model but with even better vocals. Great songwriting as always.

4/5 the loose feel fits some of the songs perfectly but gets tiring after a while. great vocals performances emerge on several tracks but lyrics are largely throwaway. tamalpais high is gorgeous - love that Phil bass!

4/5 the heavy stuff is amazing. like others i went back and listened to supernaut a few times. such a great tune! only rated this a 4 because of the lame and boring “lighter” numbers which are self-indulgent waste.

I really enjoyed this and i’m a little shocked by how much. Definitely an evocation of a time and place.

Fantastic record.

5/5 fantastic from start to finish

The best. I remember how quirky and strange this sounded when it came out, especially Satisfaction. Now it just sounds like a cool cover version.

2/5 some great riffs but they don’t sustain my interest. definitely a harbinger of what hard rock and metal would become.

5/5 exciting and amazing

amazing and inventive

interesting guitar work

2/5 surprisingly boring. probably enjoyable as a live bar band with a few beers in me. what became… is a good closer but not enough.

5/5

Did not enjoy this at all. Derivative and boring.

A lot of fun but very dated

Listened to this for the first time in a long time. I was ready for it to sound dated but it didn't. Nice simple production and great songs. A little preachy (maybe a lot) but the vocal delivery is spooky yet powerful.

I can't listen to this album casually. It's like when I stumble on the Godfather while channel surfing. I have to watch it, and I get totally involved in it all over again. Amazing.

Lots of great ideas and sounds. Consistently original while still calling back to traditional R&B, prog rock, Stevie Wonder, and more. Breathy vocal style gets tiring after a while. Some editing could easily have made this a 5.

5/5 i really appreciate the packed soundscape. strings come in then vanish. keyboards drive a song then yield to percussion. some really weird production choices baffle me to this day (eg the chorus on kid about it). the excellent songs demonstrate the depth of ec’s writing talent, shown again and again before and after this album.

5/5 like a greatest hits album. party from start to finish. guitars horns soaring vocals. what’s not to love?

2/5 although black rose is a great tune

YA and Fame great. the rest is just experimenting with the sound. bowie’s voice is rough but sort of interesting with the slick production.

3/5

originally thought this was going to be a buzzcocks/jam/beatles tribute experience but lots of originality in the songwriting and great twists and turns make this a great listen due for repeat visits.

3/5 smooth production. pleasant as background music. not much variation in tone/color and the melisma is really too much.

5/5 I'd give this 5/5 just for CTY and WOJB. Two of the most perfect songs ever recorded.

5/5 As a live performance and not a collection of original material, I was going to give this a max of 4, but her astonishing delivery makes every song an original. Corny but true.

3/5 i remember liking this album a lot more way back when. found myself skipping through songs. SJBE and WS are still great.

4/5 original sounds, influential and challenging

4/5 amazing that they recorded this in one 12-hour session

3/5

5/5

inventive

some good songs but needs editing

surprised by how interesting this album is. i was prepared to dislike it for its showtune aesthetic but the lyrics are great and the music sets the scene so perfectly. definitely heard some proto-springsteen and early elton john (bernie taupin produced). will definitely listen to the whole album again.

Some great moments but a little bloodless after so much exposure over the years. Still a very well-constructed album. Thank goodness they brought Joe Walsh on board.

Interesting but not my cup of tea

Hugely influential - even among other bands that themselves were influential (Modern Lovers among others). Yes - hard to get through sometimes but worth it.

Any questions?

Some good songs and he's got a great voice but not my style.

3/5 I’m not a metal fan but I found this entertaining - Even the clownish lyrics!

crap

Interesting psychedelia. They were definitely stoned while doing this one. I enjoyed listening to this, but it is dated.

2/5 a couple of ok tunes but boring overall

not for me

One of the best of all time

album doesn’t live up to the promise of the first track 2/5

monotonous 1/5

4/5 I like her vocal timbre and how emotive she is. Enjoyable listen.

just great. these two have unlimited ideas. they play characters and sing songs that seem like they’ve been around forever. probably cliche to say but the variety is like the white album.

Fun, crazy, varied, astounding debut album.

Can't deny the hits Bohemian Rhapsody and Best Friend, and I love the crazy compression in the production and the layered vocals. But the quirky dance hall and oldies numbers are grating.

I've listened to this album several times in the past - most recently before I saw them live last summer - and I find each song mysterious in its own way. The songs develop and pulse even as they sound very even and straightforward and almost conventional in other ways. The drumming (often reminiscent of Dancing in the Dark) isn't something I usually like, but there is so much kaleidoscoping sound on top that it keeps it surprising and interesting. Rewards repeated listening.

very original. veers away from basic nu-metal cliches to keep my interest. funny too!

Nina Simone is amazing and a couple of tracks here are moving/chilling but the mix of tracks is not great with some real clunkers.

Fun as a retro piece. Gave me an excuse to read about techniques for gated reverb on drums. Creatively mostly flat.

awesome! better lyrics than anything out there today. shows what a basic rock band is capable of.

strange that a record with a supposed theme seems so pointless. some good sounds but why??

couldn’t wait for this to end

Such an unusual presentation of the band. Highlights are: the power of KC voice, versatility of DG percussion and backing vocals, eclectic song choices.

The first song is great but that's about it.

5/5 I had trouble getting into other Echo albums but this one had more to offer in terms of sound experiments. Not a big fan of the vocals - very uniform style and sound - but the rhythm guitar and varied percussion kept drawing me into the songs. Others have noted the similarity to other bands, but I enjoyed experiencing the songs as "what if this was U2?" or "how would this fit into an MBV record?" Specifically Gods will be Gods as MBV or even the Doors.

5/5 great songwriting and a good change from the big fluffy pop hits. the songs develop and take interesting turns. the vocals are darkly emotive.

5/5 for Breakdown and American Girl alone.

3/5 enjoyable but not much power and bland lyrics match the vocal delivery

A fun record. I found the Comfortably Numb cover annoying the first time around but during the second listen of the whole album I softened on it. Made me think that the 1000 or so times I’ve heard the original tune had burned so deeply that I heard the remake as off tempo noise. No Tits on the Radio is great.

I had some emails to answer and this was the kind of uninteresting background music perfect for the task, Thanks! Good sounding but not many ideas in evidence. Made me wish I had some ecstasy so I could mindlessly give it a 3 or 4.

I love this. I can't imagine any current artist doing anything remotely like this. The openness and ability to treat the audience like human beings made me wonder would Johnny Cash be considered woke today? I doubt it, but an interesting question. I often hear older recordings as evidence of differences in technology or style or arrangement, but this one is a time capsule of culture and what was possible, even in 1968, not so long ago.

5/5 Listened to LC debut album just before this. It made the resignation and acceptance of the songs more palpable. He’s such a unique voice (!) and an artist that I feel is really speaking to me. I alternate between thinking that he’s the ultimate narcissist and that he’s the universal observer/narrator for us all. Hmm.

2/5

some interesting stuff but very dated

listened to the album late at night for the first time in a long time (prob 10 years or more) and enjoyed so much i listened again immediately upon waking up. mix of eerie backing and brittle but smooth vocals and sound textures keeps it all interesting.

not their best. shimmering production and weaker-than-usual songwriting make for a boring listen.

for me NY is the master of capturing my attention without my knowing exactly why. i love this “middle of the road” album even though my faves are the “ditch trilogy”. the layering of the rough guitar sounds with simple rhythm backing and soaring pedal steel is magical.

worth a listen. one. the noise didn’t sound integral to the music. it sounds tacked on. unlike MBV where the noise shimmers and i hear different things each time, TJAMC noise is a solid veil that i tried to hear through. some good tunes and i love simple pop tunes as much or more than the next guy but not enough to make me listen again.

Fantastic. I had never heard of this artist, but I listened to this three times in a row. Great sounds, great rhythms.

Photograph is one of those songs that I will stop and listen to if it comes on the radio (do people still do that?) but I have never owned this album and always felt it was mostly commercial product. I guess I still do but I can appreciate the sounds and the production, especially the "whoosh" of the drums and the backing vocals. The production is the real star here. Can't really comment on the actual lead vocals because they are so processed. And the songwriting seems pretty basic. Cheesy? perhaps. A cool sound? definitely.

Fantastic. A band that I have heard a lot about over the years but have not listened to.

Could not dislike this more.

Well produced and arranged music but not that interesting.

Walk this way and Sweet emotion are worth it but the rest is not.

some highlights but too self-indulgent

A great album with creative arrangements and killer vocals

One of my all-time favorites

5/5 the emotional delivery won me over. i can hear dulli going through life events as he sings. the fact that the best song My Curse isnt sung by him speaks to the quality of the songs themselves and the band performance. i can almost hear the producer yelling notes to the band as they play only to be ignored.

I can see why folks might enjoy puzzling through the bizarre lyrics here but the pop crooning is just not my thing.

5 just for the sound and the guitar playing. Songwriting tempted me to downgrade.

LP without a Pause, Tell em about yer Flaws - I was going to give this a 3 because I like the sound of the band, but the onslaught of moronic and unimaginative lyrics finally got to me. 2/5 I tip my hat to Kid Rock and his management team for making so much money on such vacuous baloney. I understand that his dad is/was into car sales. What was that about the apple and the tree?

4 for Bang a gong plus 0 for everything else

a couple of classics but not much else

smooth boring forgettable

sounds like oasis. no big deal.

really enjoyed this but just can’t pull the trigger on 5 bc of the grating vocals

Some enjoyable stuff but largely forgettable

Great sounding album. A couple of great tunes, even enjoyed Spinning Wheel that I've heard a million times on the radio. But a confusing listen esp the bookended Satie pieces.

A fun listen but not very remarkable in other ways.

good instrumental sounds, lots of interesting twists and turns in songs, just not my style

I was a big XTC fan in the 90s but am underwhelmed by their later stuff. Maybe its the vocals but I just can't see choosing to listen to this one again

One of my favorites, full of melody and bombast.

Really used to like this album, but I was underwhelmed by the recent listen. Vocals are weak but the guy was a heroin addict so no surprise there. ISTS was a disappointment after so many radio listens. Too bad the original couldn’t have been appreciated on its own merits - much better!