An album I hadn't heard before. Neil's vocals are sublime, and Crazy Horse all do their job well. While this isn't my preferred style of music, I can appreciate why it has been considered for this list. It's an interesting mix of easy 3 minute songs such as "Cinnamon Girl" and the drawn out progressive styled stories like "Down on the River".
Neil's distinctive vocals are the best element here. An interesting album, perhaps to my ears not interesting enough to bring me back often.
So I can’t say that electronic music is my favourite genre, not anything that could be found playing in night clubs. But Daft Punk have always had this catchy beat about them, somehow able to make the head bob or foot tap in any situation.
Again I probably couldn’t think of any time when I would actually listen to this album, and ata well over an hour it is far too long. But it isn’t terrible. It’s not something I’d be adverse to having in again. I just can’t imagine that I would.
Computers. Synths. Keyboards. Drum machines. Who could ever have imagined that music would have come to this. Or that it would be listenable?
Kraftwerk always managed to do something amazing. But listening to this album makes me feel as though I am in an elevator in a science fiction movie. It’s how I imagine the elevator music would sound. It also predates the 80s sound by several years, making it ground breaking and influential in the same breath.
I don’t know how anyone could listen to this over and over again though. It’s very interesting listening to it for this project, but honestly I could t do it on a daily basis. It would send me insane. Maybe that is just what it was intended for…
Another Neil Young album, that sounds like Neil Young. While the lyrics might be foreboding and desolate and despairing, the music itself is easy to listen to in his inimitable style. Again though, it isn't enough to really have me coming back for me. When it came to rating this as an album you must hear before you die, I feel as though this one is more one to listen to in order to make you feel depressed. It's fine, but not one I'd have been disappointed with if I had never heard it either.
This was quite a ride, because I had heard a lot of the songs in different arenas over the years, but never all on the one album and in a setting where I 'had' to listen to it as a result of this journey. "Mama Said", "All Cried Out", "He's Got Something"... all are songs I've heard. the you have the ones that have appeared in movies, like "Wishin' and Hopin'" and "You Don't Own Me" and of course the wonderful version by Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in 'Dumb and Dumber' of "Mockingbird".
In no way is this an album I would have listened to without this project. And it just isn't me, and the music and songs are not for me. But it was an interesting hour all the same.
Isaac Hayes. Shaft. Chef from South Park. Chocolate Salty Balls.
All of these things occurred before I actually listened to an Isaac Hayes album, which is this one.
There's little doubt about his distinctive voice, but soul and r&b are again two genres of music that don't really float my boat. And then you have the fact that there are only four songs on this album, stretched out to the edge of the universe. A 12 minute cover of the pop song "Walk on By" which is... interesting, at least for the first five minutes. And my word, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" goes for over 18 minutes, and I can tell you the Glen Campbell version certainly does not do that. Is there an actual reason this is the way it is? If you are looking for freeform extended mix get-up-on-stage-and-just-keep-playing-until-you-drop kind of stuff... then I guess this could be for you.
This is absolutely nothing like what I was expecting to hear when I put this on. I'm sure there is a reason I "MUST" hear this before I die. I don't know what that reason is though. Boring as batshite.
I read up on this album while I was listening to it. I mean, it's piano for over an hour, sometimes have to do something else while an album is playing in the background. The story behind this night, and how it all got stuffed up from pillar to post, is quite amazing. the fact that this went ahead in the first place, and was recorded, is a minor miracle.
As to the album itself. Well, given that it is an improvised performance, it is very clever. And the guy can obviously play, and the show was sold out, so there were plenty of people at the time who knew him. And it became the biggest selling album of its kind ever at the time of its release.
But... did anyone else feel like they were in an elevator for an hour? Or, more accurately, that you were on hold on the phone for an hour? Because that is what I ended up getting out of it. Sure, it's clever, it's smart, and I couldn't do it. But in the long run, I felt like I was just waiting for it to end to get to where I was going, or get the answer to the question I had asked. Enchanting, but not for a repeat performance.
I know a lot of Rod Stewart songs, but I can't say I had ever listened to an actual Rod Stewart album before this one. And his voice is so distinctive that you can't help but be drawn in by it.
Some interesting tracks on here, with the opening title track being one of the best, the right tempo and guitar drum drive. "Maggie May" is one of his most famous, though not one I've ever really thought a lot of. There is a divergent mix between rock guitar and then country and folk, especially on the Bob Dylan track "Tomorrow is a Long Time".
As it turns out, I would love to have heard more made of these songs in pushing them with a rockier instrumentation, because Rod's voice to me always operates better when the music is that way. This album is still good enough in my opinion to take a listen to without setting the world in fire.
This album continues to be well out of my comfort zone. I'm not a lover of rap or hip-hop, but have over the years listened to some.
So a mild combination of rap, hip-hop, r&b and pop is pretty much how we come up with this compilation. I remember when Missy Elliott became popular and was all over the radio, though with some censorship in the middle of songs at time. At the time this album came out, it highlighted for me the dreadful dullness that had occurred with popular music at the time. No doubt the fans think this is amazing. And of course it has been placed on this list, which to me is maybe just because it was trying to do something different with this combination of genres at a time when it needed something different?
I've listened to this today. It has bored me for the entire almost hour it has been playing. It doesn't draw your attention, nor hold your attention. It could be the same beat for each song, but I can't discern it. No thanks. Next please.
There are several things I think of as I get through my second listening of this album.
Firstly, I've never been a fan of Frank Zappa. That hasn't changed here, and also doesn't help when it comes to unpacking this album as a whole.
Secondly, the fact that it comes as a parody, utilises a parody of The Beatles album cover, and was recorded in 1968 leads me to believe that to truly appreciate its quirkiness, I need to be stoned or on LSD or both.
Thirdly, I'm certain the lyrics are clever and cutting, but given it was recorded over 50 years ago leads me to believe it has... dated somewhat in that arena.
In the long run, it is the first point that I think weighs so heavily on my own rating of this album. It's hard to get past an artist that you don't really have a connection with to try and get the most out of an album. "Absolutely Free" appears the closest to a song that I could accept. The rest is rather average in my opinion.
In the days when I was forced to still listen to the radio at work, this album, and in particular the singles, were plastered across it. For me at the time, it all just melded into one big current pop music sound that ran through my work hours. Some of it grated at the time, other songs just floated on down the stream.
Listening to the whole album today - the for first time and most likely the last - I found it to be inoffensive pop. The songs all have a similar programmed song line underneath, to which Christina then sings over the top. "Make Over" was actually the best of them because she actually had a go at putting on the rock chick voice and getting away from pop for a second. More of that and I could probably have gotten more into the album.
Without a doubt an album that deserves to be in this book and list. It is an album that everyone must experience, even if by the end of it you may not rate it as high as you would others on the list?
Why? Well, in the long run because it has many songs that have become all time classics of Elton's career, and others that for want of a better description are just filler.
The great is brilliant. Songs like "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding", "Candle in the Wind", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Bennie and the Jets" and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" all stand the test of time, and still draw out foot tapping or crooning along to the vocals.
Of the remainder of the album has some better than average songs like "This Song Has No Title" and "Grey Seal" and "I've Seen That Movie Too", and also some stuff that maybe doesn't quite make the grade. Being a double album, this is probably always going to happen. But that doesn't detract from its essence and purpose, and it still ranks as one of the best there has been, even all these years later.
I'm just bored. And yes, this is one of the world's iconic artists, but honestly, it's 1997, and it is a long way from the days when he was ground breaking and had people eating out of his hand.
I played this today, and I found nothing. No doubt the lyrics are important, but if you can't get drawn in by the music, then meaningful lyrics are not going to be much use.
This did nothing for me.
I have to say that this was completely unlike what I expected when I heard it. I expected the energy and craziness that I'd seen of Iggy, especially with The Stooges, on old clips from TV shows. But this album is a much more tame, calmer, almost mature selection of songs than I guessed it would have been.
Of course I then had to investigate, and it became much clearer when you understand the influence David Bowie had on this album, because then you can understand why it is the way it is. Does that make it better or worse? I don't know. But I know that on my first listen I grew more intrigued with what had been produced, and then on my second listen through I found myself enjoying it much more. The third time convinced me that there was indeed something here.
So while this isn't punk nor anything like The Stooges had produced, it does have a nice resolution about the music. And Iggy sounds great, it has to be said. I enjoyed this thoroughly, wish I'd heard it earlier in my life.
So... the is art-rock. Or art-pop. Or something like that. So this is what kids were listening to in 2012, eh?
Is it a modern mix on 1960's psychedelic pop? That's what it sounds like to me, a modern revivalist of that era. And I'm not a big fan of that genre of music in the first place, so it was probably never likely that I was going to like this. Perhaps I'm just too old. But more likely there just isn't anything that attracts me here.
OK. So somehow this is considered essential? This is considered to be outstanding to the point that it is considered an album that everyone should listen to prior to their eternal passing?
You know, there are albums already that I have listened to on this project that I've thought... well, you know, it isn't my style at all, but I can see why there is merits in it, that it contains something that could be considered as ground breaking or ahead of its time or even passable.
What I hear when I listened to this album was... boredom. I heard a style of alt rock that was prolific in the era, I heard some vocals that really only made themselves known to me because they seemed less than average, and I was far from enamored. In fact, when the album finished, a song from the Jesus and Mary Chain came on that was far superior to anything I heard on this album.
No thanks.
Still a brilliant album after all of these years. I bought it on the strength of the single "Come Out and Play", and then not only found such a wonderful selection of tracks on this album but a new band to follow and love.
