Very trippy! I didn’t quite ever know what was going on, but there were some recurring themes that are interesting. I probably won’t listen again but that’s not on Yes.
Favorite song: “America”
Wow, I thought I knew what Parliament Funkadelic was about, but this was FUNKY, man! I love the futuristic sound, and I love how it's like nothing you've heard before. Big fan, and now I'm going through the whole discography!
Obviously, Off the Wall is a classic, and I've heard a bunch of songs from it already, but I don't know if I've ever listened to the entire thing before. There's Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, Working Day and Night, Rock with You, Off the Wall, She's Out of My Life, it's literally FULL of hits. It's disco, it's funk, it's pop, it's great. MJ could certainly put a record together.
Favorite Song: Girlfriend is one song that I'm not sure I've heard before, but I really loved. She's Out of My Life was a close second because honestly, it's such a tearjerking ballad. And the way his voice cracks at the end, like his heart is totally broken... Ngl, it got to me! 5/5
Good stuff though Father Figure is my least liked song of all time.
This one was...different, lol. I'm not entirely sure if I liked it or not, but it was an interesting trip to be sure. The vibe was like, Tim Burton releases an album that sounds like the 70's, but was made in the 90's. Maybe that's your cup of tea, but I was left a little wanting. I can't think of one song that really stood out (I'm re-listening to some songs to write this review), they all had a very similar sound which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Very ethereal and dreamy, and I don't know if I ever figured out exactly what the album was trying to say. There were also a few lyric-less musical interludes that I rather enjoyed. It kind of had a few songs with early White Stripes vibes, which I can definitely get down with. This is especially prevalent in the lead singer's sound which reminded me of Jack White especially on Goddess on a Hiway. I could see several songs appearing in the slow moving, climactic final scene in a Tarantino film, so it feels like a product of its time.
Favorite track: Goddess on a Hiway
I haven't listened to a lot of Bobby Womack, but his sound and vocals are unmistakable. I liked a lot of songs on this album with their mix of disco, funk, soul, and more than a little reggae. "Lay Your Lovin' On Me" is a smooth and swinging love song with piano and a driving disco groove, a stirring background vocals. 'Stand Up' starts with a funky organ backing and fun hand claps. It really makes you want to get up and dance! Then comes the 'covers'. I put 'covers' in quotes because I had no idea that Bobby Womack wrote 'If You Think You're Lonely Now'. It's a perfect example of a great R&B love song. He's probably one of the better vocalists that I've heard so far with a great gruff sound and powerful at a big range. I have no doubt I'll listen to this one again.
Favorite Track: If You Think You're Lonely Now
This was a sexy album, believe it or not! But also a very practical one. I'd never heard of Pulp before, but they apparently ended up on quite a few "Best of 90's Rock' compilations. Very lyric heavy with a lead singer who clearly has a lot of feelings about the songs he's singing, and has a very distinctive voice. 'Help the Aged' and 'The Fear' sound the most unique to me, while still being distinctly 90's, but the whole album was pretty solid. Simple straightforward guitar riffs, pared down sound, and story focused lyrics make this a solid win for me.
Favorite track: Sylvia
Absolutely phenomenal. one part country, one party blues, one part rock, one part honky tonk, this was pretty much one of my favorite albums so far. Like most folks I thought I knew Lynyrd Skynyrd. I thought I knew Sweet Home Alabama, and Free Bird, but this album was so epic and so iconic, and so fricking good! I listened to the whole thing twice and Free Bird at least four or five times. Can't recommend this album enough.
This was a pretty standard late 90's British rock album. Kind of poppy, kind of manic, hardly intelligible, but fun and not too long. Reminded me of Harvey Danger or REM in its way, this was also kind of dreamy. I did listen twice just because I needed some music to have one while working, and this was a fine diversion. It didn't really have too many memorable songs, but again, nice to listen to once or twice.
Favorite track: Gathering Moss
So, I don't know what I expected with Steely Dan. For some reason I thought they were like a ZZ Top vibe, maybe a little rocky, but these fellas are smooth as butter. The songs are pure fluff, with the notable exception of 'Showbiz Kids' which is asking questions that we're still asking today (why are rich people so terrible? how do you make the world a better place and provide for everybody?). Just smooth (barely) rock with fun riffs, and impressive musicality.
Favorite Track: Bodhisattva
Grungy and rough, this album was fun and free, with very little regard of how an album is 'supposed' to sound. It was like early White Stripes with samples and spoken word slid in between the verses. Jon Spencer himself has a penchant to song writing, but is not much of a vocalist, though he does have a unique style. This was a fun album all around and the kind of rock and roll that I truly enjoy listening to.
Favorite Track: 2Kindsa Love
I really liked this album! It felt like something influenced by Coldplay (or maybe they influenced Coldplay?) with a dreamy like sound, but some moments of orchestral greatness. Add in a touch of lovely harmonies, and I would put this as one of my fave albums listened to so far. Doves is a British indie rock band, and you can tell they spent a lot of time crafting their sound and especially lyrically, wanting to make consistently good music.
Favorite Track: There Goes the Fear
So yeah! I've never listened to Wu Tang (before a week or so again), but this was such a change from the Wu Tang sound (imho) even though all of the Wu Tang Clan showed up on this album. I liked it, it was such a snippet of every day life in that time. I mean, maybe not everybody's life, but there was a definite poetry to it. Like, GFK was like, I'm sitting here, thinking about my childhood, or a lady I have a crush on, or running in to the cops, and here is my first hand account. I can't exactly relate to a very city dwelling existence, but it was like seeing it through his eyes, and that gave me a much better appreciation what that life might have been like at that time. More, I feel like it truly is what poetry and art is supposed to evoke. Here is GFK's story, slinging drugs, getting spanked as a kid, being obsessed with comics, all that stuff, and in that way (some of it) feels like stuff I've experienced before.
About the production, this one felt more produced in a way that I'm used to vs. the earlier Wu Tang album. There were samples, for sure, but there were also R&B singers singing hooks and choruses which is more like the hip hop I grew up with. MF Doom also produced 9 Milli Bros, Clipse of Doom, and Jellyfish, and it was cool seeing his fingerprints all over the album. Solid record, and my fave of Wu Tang so far.
Favorite tracks: Momma, Kilo
Okay, so this was a pretty short one so I knocked it out early. It was hard to call this an 'album' per se. It's melodic and dreamy, and as a person who's never actually seen the Virgin Suicides, I don't know if I have all of the context necessary to really appreciate it. Air is a French electronic music duo that uses synthesizers and actual dialogue from the movie to create a distinct atmosphere that permeates the film (no spoilers, but TW: suicide). I dunno. This wasn't one of my favorites, but I like the marriage of the two artistic mediums of music and cinema. Maybe I would have appreciated this more if I had seen the film. NPR said, "Listening to the Virgin Suicides score on loop hasn't been so much an exercise in nostalgia, or even a means of escape. Reliving it is more of a prescient reminder-- one I needed to hear as a teenager, and that I could use again today-- that now is not forever." My teenage years were nothing like the ones depicted in that movie, so I'm reminded of the quote from Kimmy Schmidt "Your experiences are not universal!"
Favorite Track: Suicide Underground
Okay, so yeah, didn't really like this album, I didn't like it when I was 14, and I still don't, so no surprises there. It's interestingly a very 'regular' hip hop album of the 90's complete with skits and 'radio announcements'. It's easy to forget how young Marshall is on this album. He is immature, violent, says shocking things just to be shocking and then backtracks it a couple songs later. Then backtracks the backtracking. The slurs and the misogyny are flying, in a more obvious way than in most of the hip hop albums I've listened to as a part of this project, and his rage is palpable. He's angry at the world, his ex wife, his bosses, the establishment, women (especially), and himself (it seems). He exists in a capitalist hellscape and that's a part of it, but I'm sure another part of it is the fact that as a cis white male who also grew up poor, he was promised an American dream that he wasn't able to grasp, which in turn, made him bitter. Anyway, anyway, it's what it says on the tin, an Eminem album.
'Favorite' track: My Name Is
Since 'Come On, Eileen' wasn't on here, I was disappointed, but the album is actually pretty fun. I read the Wikipedia article, and they talk a little bit about the influence of soul music on this album, and listening to it, it's so clear. There's like an Otis Redding/Isley Brothers/Bobby Womack vibe there. Maybe Blues Brothers if you think about it. It's just really clear that they love the music that they're lifting from, and they want to sound like those soul musicians of yore. I've always felt that blue eyed soul is a little annoying except when it's done by Brits. They just get it. They're not trying to talk over people, they're not trying to pretend to be something they're not, they just love the music and can name 100 musicians who inspired them, and they're all Black/brown people who are the GOATs of their genre. It's terrific. I would say this album is definitely worth a listen if you're interested in what folks in GB and England were doing with their interpretations of soul meets ska (which is a Jamaican music form!), this is a great one to check out. The melodies are fun, the horns are jumping and the soul is there!
Favorite Track: Seven Days Too Long
Mid, tbh
