1001 Albums Summary

I intend on being overly cautious with these initial reviews since this in particular is the very first album I've listened to for this. I imagine I'll get better at articulating my thoughts on these over time. My first impressions were slightly mixed, since I haven't previously listened to much music of this genre nor from this era. I come from an Electronica/IDM background so I tend to have difficulty following and understanding vocals, however Tracy's excellent and clear vocal performances throughout the album made this pretty easy. Fast Cars was a familiar song, and I loved the percussion from Mountain O' Things. On a second listen, I also warmed up to Talkin' Bout a Revolution, which became one of my favorite songs of the album. After processing the LP some more and giving it another listen, I also warmed up to For My Lover. Overall, while I don't see myself returning to this album as I found my enjoyment of most of the tracks to be fairly neutral, it wasn't insulting enough to my ears to warrant a 2. It seems like a perfect introductory album, a very good example of a 3.

While this record wasn't insulting to my ears, it was difficult to get through, in part due to its inconsistent structure (feeling more like a jam session than an album), the length of the two tracks leading to a great sense of both tracks overstaying their welcome, and an apparent distaste for jazz music I didn't know I had. My thoughts should be taken with a grain of salt since I don't listen to much jazz music at all so I can't observe this album for its cultural and stylistic significance, but on a personal scale it left much to be desired.

This album aged like milk for me, it inexplicably got worse every listen. There are a few great songs scattered throughout the record but for the most part the entire album comes off as highly repetitive and simplistic. There isn't much depth to the tracks, which isn't inherently a problem but makes repeated listenings exhausting - I got almost everything I could out of the album just from the first listen. Standout tracks for me were You Give Love A Bad Name, obviously, and Raise Your Hands, but I actually don't particularly foresee myself returning to any other song from this LP, including the other two singles. This gets a lukewarm, but strong, 2/5. It was originally going to be a 3 but the sheer exhaustion I got from repeated listenings soured the taste too significantly.

Pretty good, this was an enjoyable listen. Simple and to the point, but at the same time fun, this band has a very distinct and recognizable style, evidenced by the multiple hit singles that came from this record. My most significant criticism is that the album almost blends together barring a few singles. It almost felt like a giant mesh of one big song making repeated listenings exhausting.

An very solid record all the way through. David Bowie's got a unique style that makes this album easy to listen to but surprisingly deep and complex while remaining varied.

I may reflect on this score with disdain in the future, I'm not experienced enough with Big Band music to accurately score this. I'm just basing it off my listening experience, which left me feeling as if the record was forgettable (barring Flight of the Foo Birds, which is the only thing saving this from 1 star).