Why do they repeat the choruses like fifty times? Seems like they're padding out the runtime, and not very well at that...the album's only 34 minutes even with all that repetition. It's weird feeling nostalgic for an album ive never heard, but this is the prototype for a lot of the big, dumb rock albums my teenage self loved in the late 90s/early 2000s. I loved "Detroit Rock City" and "Shout it out Loud" going in, so points for those, though I'm not huge on the extra sound affects/setup on DRC. "Beth" kind of sucks? But if I'd been born twenty years earlier I would probably love this album. But I wasn't and I don't.
I liked "Into the Drink" well enough but probably only in comparison to the rest of it. I can't imagine ever listening to this again.
I feel like a dork giving this one a five after just giving Mudhoney a one but I gotta be me. I've known and loved this album for a while and it was a treat to hear it again.
Got this one right after "The Man Machine." Kindof cool to see the progression of the same sort of music a decade and a half later. 90s heist music. Doesn't transport me like other similar albums but great driving music.
Generic-sounding 60's rock. Luckily I sort of like 60s rock so extra star for that.
Its ok, some catchy parts (I like "Jump Boys") but there are other albums like this that are better.
I might be turning into my dad but this is good stuff. I feel like part of music appreciation is knowing that there are different "uses" for different music. This isn't pump-up music or political music (unless the politics lie in something subtle like "oh he played a D7 here instead of a straight up D how inflammatory" which I acknowledge could very well be the case). Its "everything's cool" music, with a smattering of weird time signatures to keep things interesting. The problem is I have the feeling that all the "everything's cool" records are going to get five out of five from me no matter what because I don't really know what separates a good "everything's cool" record from a great one.
I found it funny that the biggest hit from this has a prolonged drum solo in it.
But yeah Mr. Rogers learning how crayons are made vibes and I'm 100% in.
Amazing this is their first album. Yes there are some filler tracks but the rest is so transcendant, so genuinely sleazy and killer and fun, that I can't in good conscience give it anything but five out of five.
Edit: ok five months later and I keep thinking about how I gave this a five and shouldn't have. So I'm revising my score. Still a killer album, but not quite a 5. See my review of Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" for more details.
Marvin Gaye seems like he has one foot in the sixties and one in the seventies in this one. I was expecting some straight 70s R&B and got that, but, like, sort of psychedelic too, which was a cool surprise. Great album for a slow Sunday around the house. I loved it.
Want to hear something blasphemous? I think some of the records inspired by The Boss do blue-collar earnestness better than Bruce himself (namely The Killers' "Sam's Town" and The Hold Steady's "Boys and Girls in America"). But I guess Bruce had to walk so these bands could run. Should've been called "Born to Walk." The singles are so, so good. When the sax dropped on "Thunder Road" I was like "oh yeah, five stars, baby". "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" is probably my favorite song by Springsteen. The title track is amazing. Jungleland is pretty cool too. But, you know, that's what greatest hits albums are for. Sorry, Bruce. Hope "Nebraska" is on this album list, that one's better.
Some gorgeous songs and production here and some pretty good. One eye opening aspect of this project is seeing how much my favorite artist were influenced by records from days of yore, in this case Beck (on "Morning Phase" particularly) and Fleet Foxes (the whole darn discography). 3.5 rounding up cause that's how we did it in math class.
I connect with this album but I don't connect connect like some people do, and I'm almost envious about it. I think part of it is the "you had to be there"-ness of it all, and I was a shade too young. But some monster tracks on here that I would give my right pinky to hear for the first time. Or maybe the pinky finger-nail. If there was anesthesia involved. But still. Good-to great record.
This was a slippery one for me. I've heard it before but had rejected it. On re-listeni g, there were parts that were genuinely thrilling ("The Great Curve" is like my internal monologue when I've had too much coffee and am running errands...in the best way possible) but other parts I was sort of bored (most of the second half, honestly).
There's something here that draws me back. I've listened to it twice more since the first obligatory listen, and liked it no more and no less. So it's 3.4, rounding down to 3.
Some nice ear candy here, but sort of seemed surface level/not cohesive when compared to other records in the genre. I had fun in parts though, and that's worth something.
Some pretty sounding parts but mostly I don't really want to listen to this again.
I'm a fan of some of Alex Turner's stuff with the Arctic monkeys. This was alright but a bit forgettable by comparison.
It's 1994, but also it's sort of the future, 3am. I'm in an anonymous bar in an anonymous metropolis. I'm investigating a murder, possibly committed by a cyborg. My contact hasn't shown up, so I wait, a drink of stale whiskey in my hand. I keep one eye on the door and the other on the stage, where, through the cigarette smoke, this band is playing. Portis-something. Kids these days. Man, the world these days. The crime I'm investigating - I've been at it too long. Awful stuff. I can't get my head straight. The whiskey makes my head swim, almost psychedelic, like those old hippies were talking about down in Badgertown. But I realize with a start that it isn't the drink affecting me, but the music. What is this? Some new drug the Lab-men have cooked up? I look around. Others are similarly entranced. Staring, their eyes all-but swirling like some cartoon character.
Portishead, I remember. All one word, a word with no meaning as far as I know. I'll check the archives, if I remember. I glance up. My contact has arrived. I'm almost disappointed as I tear my attention away from this band, this beguiling singer. But I'm on the clock. I nod and he sits and we get down to business.
Alright. I love this album, but full disclosure: if this was my first listen i would have given it a 3, tops. This was a cd I bought because of the glowing reviews...back when cds were $20. So, having invested all this money, what was I going to do? Not listen to it? I remember when it finally clicked. I was on a Greyhound bus, half asleep, listening on my discman. And then suddenly I was awake, thinking "oh, I like Kid A now." This is a somewhat common experience for me. Somehow, half-asleep me is more receptive to music.
Are there other albums I'd rather listen to? Yes, of course. This record is depressive as hell. It's not even my favorite Radiohead record. But it's also really really good, and fives don't cost anything baby. I gave "Appetite for Destruction" a five, and I listen to "Kid A" more than I listen to that one. "Kid A" is the exact opposite album of "Appetite for Destruction," so much so that I'm pretty sure I'm the first person in history to mention the two records in the same sentence. But one cannot exist without the other. Yin and yang, etc. Five stars!
Edit: please note that months after this review I downgraded my "Appetite for Destruction " score to a four. "Kid A" remains safely a five. Please see my "Jagged Little Pill" review for (slightly) more details.
Brass is a funny thing. I love when it shows up unexpected in music. Like the saxophone on "Thunder Road" (as mentioned in my "Born to Run" review). A well placed trumpet or sax can just elevate a song, like a dash of cinnamon in a nice mulligatawny soup. You didnt know it'd be good until you tried it.
That said, I don't want a mouthful of cinnamon. Too many people all playing brass at once sort of kills it for me. That said, I didn't hate this. It just mostly seemed like nice wallpaper.
It's a bit of a relief, because after "Time Out" I'd just assumed I'd love all the jazz albums on this without understanding why. Well, I still don't understand why...this one, like "Time Out" would be good to put on while cooking that aforementioned mulligatawny. But I just didnt like this one so much.
Kd Lang has always been on the periphery of my awareness, though I'm familiar with "Constant Craving" which was everywhere for a while. That song, I think, is more suited to her voice. She sounds ageless, like the ghost that haunts my attic. Why is the ghost that haunts my attic having a hoedown?
OK I know live albums would be hard to record in the 50s but this is not the greatest quality. Musicianship top notch but not really my thing. Like "Water from an Ancient Well" a little too brassy which is not my thing. I feel like if I was there instead of listening to a fuzzy recording I would have been blown away. But if I was there there would have been a time machine involved and I would probably be too stressed trying to remember/prevent future events from happening to fully enjoy myself. So either way, two stars.
Snoop Dogg seems, more than his peers, to be playing a part. Nobody is this cool in the face of hard drugs and extreme violence. It's a refresher from the neurotic, overcaffenated reality of my own self, melting down because I'm five minutes late for work.
The record's a sort of phantasmigorical mess. We're at a house party, but also we're listening to the radio? Then we're in the afterlife for a bit, then back at the party? But it works. I have a working theory that the west coast rappers of the 90s were the prototype of the MCU (though sticklers could argue the Marvel comics were that). Hearing some of the older albums like this and Dr. Dre's first, I can see how cross referential they are with the later ones, which adds a bit of Easter-egg spotting.
I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, I want music and artists like this to exist. I want weirdness in the world. I realize David Byrne is a thoughtful guy and a true artist (check out his book "How Music Works" if you haven't, its great). I just...don't want to listen to this. The best song by far is "Take me to the River" and that's a cover.
I liked "Remain in Light" a bit better so I think maybe Talking Heads were just a bit undercooked at this point in their career.
It's funny, I've just spent the week obsessing over the new Gorillaz (Damon Albarn's other project that's arguably now more successful than Blur) album ("The Mountain"). It's so good. Unlike this album which I didn't like very much at all. It just goes to show...something.
OK I had Blur yesterday (the "lesser" of a who's better rivalry between them and Oasis) and now Offspring who (at least in my circles) were compared to Green Day. I'm expecting a Megadeth album any day now. For the curious, I'm team Oasis (barely), Green Day (though I like a lot of Offspring singles) and Metallica. I guess I'm just basic that way.
Anyway this is a 2.5 bumped up to a three because 2 seemed too low. So a 2.55 really. Again, I like the singles, and the other parts were palatable enough but made me sort of wish I was listening to Insomniac or something.
"Your call is important to us"
Some of this sounds like what I imagine people who don't like jazz think all jazz is - that is four or five people playing stuff that's unrelated all at the same time. At times it sounds like a panic attack. The wildness is weighed by other moments of focus that show that everything here is deliberate. I was going between 3 and 4 and landed on three because, while I enjoyed it enough, I doubt I'll be coming back to this one when Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way" is right there.
Paul McCartney is my favorite Beatle. That said, like Ethan Hawke said in that video, The Beatles work best as a whole, greater than the sum and all that. I love some of the songs here but by the end (around when they started bringing in the melodies from the previous tracks) it dawned on my that McCartney sometimes skews a little too cute on his own. Did the other Beatles temper these impulses only for them to come out stronger when he was surrounded by yes-men? Or did it happen as he aged? We may never know. Still, pretty darn enjoyable.
I had a few false starts on this one where I got busy and had to stop listening. I think this helped my perception of it, because I became somewhat familiar with the first half. The record seems a little "we have grizzly bear at home" with a dash of the Strokes? All throughout I was going between 3 and a 4 but the saxophone on Coronado pushed it to a 4. Musicians take note - throw on some sloppy saxophone and I am helpless to resist.
"Halcyon Digest" seems a bit impenetrable on the surface (I had to look up "halcyon;" that cover art) but really the whole record pretty listener-friendly. It is surprisingly hooky, with some hypnotic jam passages that I dig. I'll revisit this one for sure.
I'm a pretty relaxed guy. If we're in the car and you put on something I don't care for, whatever, that's fine. It doesn't hurt me to listen to music I dislike. I will make no comment. Usually. I think if someone put this one on, I'd politely ask them to change it to anything else. Maybe the Village People version of "Go West." That song slaps.
54 albums in and have had two Leonard Cohen albums already - the last one and now the first. On "You Want it Darker" Cohen's voice sounded weather-worn and life-worn. Here he just sounds like some guy. Sometimes it feels like the music is incidental, like Cohen had the poems and wanted a way to make people actually sit and listen to them. Though there are a few moments to perk up the ears ("So Long, Marianne," for example) they are few and far between.
Note: when the album was done Spotify autoplayed Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" and I thought it was still Cohen and was like, "oh I should rethink this." Nope.
My biggest gripe about rock radio, repeated to my wife as often as they repeat "Loser" by Beck is, how come they repeat "Loser" by Beck so much when there are so many other amazing Beck songs? Nothing against "Loser," which is great, but I feel like Beck is underappreciated for this reason.
This album is tied with "Odelay" and "Midnite Vultures" for first place in the Beck pantheon, though "Sea Change", "Morning Phase" and even "The Information" are worthy contenders. Wish he would do another album with The Dust Brothers. I've heard "Guero" so much it's imprinted on my DNA, but I listened to it again today and it's perfect. No skips. Easiest 5 yet.
Huge disappointment. Im a big fan of "Every Morning" and "Fly" off of their record 14:59, but this couldn't be a huger departure from--wait, I'm just getting a message, one moment...uh huh...uh huh...ohhhhh. OK that makes sense.
Still...not really my thing, though the fact that I listened to this on the first beautiful day of spring instead of the bleakest part of winter might have to do with my rating.
Admittedly I thought this one was a 2 for the first couple tracks...interesting enough but sort of boring. But from "The Click Song" onwards I was surprised and delighted again and again. "The Naughty Little Flea" sounds like something a mother would sing to her kid if she was an awesome mom."Mbube" was clearly the inspiration for "In the Jungle" (as I'm sure a million others will note, but I make a point not to look at the other reviews until I've done mine). By the time I heard the guy cracking up on "One More Dance" I was smiling. This records a charmer, and while I can't see having it in heavy rotation, I will be revisiting it again here and there.
Ok I don't know why but my review was deleted. Basically, this is just a bunch of guys playing at once. I once said I'd give any jazz album a 5 even though I don't know anything about anything but come one. You gotta be able to hang your hat on something. I do not believe there is a person on this planet that could identify which song a random ten second snippet of this record is from. This is what people who hate jazz think of when they think of jazz. Even the audience seemed uninterested, as you can hear them chatting throughout.
This one was...fine. I'm a fan of a couple other S&G records but hadn't heard this one (save "Mrs. Robinson" which slaps). The part with the voices of old people seemed like it could have been omitted. It brought to mind skits on rap albums for some reason, but not quite as fun. Clearly a lot of effort put into the songs and a pleasant enough listen. So 2.5 rounded to 3.
Your favorite band's favorite band, as they say. Never really gave them a proper listen until now, but I can see where this reputation comes from. This record sounds like it was recorded in 1994 instead of 1989, and a million bands from the 90s and beyond sound like them. Obviously Kurt Cobain was a fan. I also hear some Mother Mother here and there?
Unfortunately I'm not rating on the influence a record had, but how much I enjoyed it personally. I liked it, but didn’t love it.
I was hesitant on this one going in, mainly because Frank Zappa always kind of struck me as a novelty act, weird for the sake of being weird. Or, as a pidcaster I enjoy put it, seeming like a guy who's never done drugs making music for drug users.
I did have a lingering confusion about all the guitar guys claiming Zappa was some next-level musical genius.
Well, this album is it. I get it now. Turns out I'm just not a fan of Zappa singing or speaking on his songs, and there's blessedly little of that on this record. "Hot Rats" has more in common with that version of Zappa as it does with the numeroys jazz albums this list has me listening to. Except on those albums I knew what I was getting pretty much right off the bat, for better or worse, whereas this one continually surprised me, and, importantly, continually entertained me.
Kind of generic mid oughts hip hop. Great production amd fun to listen to, but I can't ever see having a hankering for this one.
I've heard of this artist but never listened. Sometimes I think, what if another artist had done this record? I'm a huge Jeff Tweedy fan, and will give any mid-period Wilco album five stars, but I'm not huge on his solo stuff. There's too much of it and it's sort of...samey. But if Jeff Tweedy came out with this record instead of Badly Drawn Boy, this would be an all-timer for sure. Part of that would be the unexpectedness of it. Maybe this is par for the course for Badly Drawn Boy (but there's some range here, so great range is par for the Badly Drawn Boy course). I don't know, I've never heard another Badly Drawn Boy record.
All this is me trying to figure why I'm giving this a four when, if it were Jeff Tweedy I would give it a five. I don't have a satisfactory answer. Maybe I don't like English accents (I'm neutral to English accents). Maybe I'll come back and change this to a five (I won't). Maybe....maybe....maybeeeee
Haven't heard this one before but Paul's always a chill hang. I like "The Late Great Johnny Ace."
Music that captures the feeling of being drunk (not to be confused with music that captures the reality of being drunk...Sex Pistols or something). I wasn't day drinking on the Tuesday morning I heard this one, so that might be part of the problem.
What do you score it when you like each individual song on something very much, but only when there is lime a month between tracks? I was leaning towards 2, but "Anything Goes" reminded me of how much I like "Temple of Doom" so I'll make it a 3.
I'm a huge Prodigy fan, but when I say that I really mean I'm a huge "Fat of the Land" fan. Everything that comes before (this and "Experience") has always struck me as unformed, though this one has a few glimpses of what would later make FOTL so great. Later releases, by contrast, also have moments of brilliance but never quite capture the cohesive vibe that is FOTL.
If I had to pick a second favorite Prodigy album, this is it. But it's far behind. "Break and Enter," "Their Law," "Voodoo People," "Poison," and "3 Kilos" are great. Love love love when the bass drops on "Poison." The rest I could take or leave.
Every so often I revisit this album. It has a special place in my heart. Just not that special.
I do like the intro track. Yesterday I had a Sinatra record, and I think I would have liked it better if it had had "So, I've decided to take my work back underground. To stop it from falling into the wrong hands." Smash cut to "You Make me Feel so Young."
This rating thing is messing with my mind. Like, I gave Deerhunter a 4 and I'm gonna give Little fucking Richard a 2??
Let me just say, if I had been alive when this came out, I would have worn out the record. I would have eaten this like candy. But I have a lot more stuff - admittedly stuff that wouldn't exist without the likes of Little Richard - to choose from. Stuff that improved on this formula.
Like a recent Sinatra record I got, if I heard this record over the course of days, with many hours in between, I might have liked it more. But every song was...and I hate this word but...samey? Like Little Richard just repeating some line and then going "woooo" over a blues lick. And, don't get me wrong, it's a winning combo, but not over and over again. Also each song made me feel like I was watching a Stephen King movie set in the 50s, like "ah yeah, here's me and my pals, hula hooping or some shit, things were never quite the same after Steve got turned into a vampire" etc...
So 2 it is. My consolation is I know for a fact that there exists Little Richard music that I enjoy more than this, and I hope it turns up on this list sometime.
I think I prefer ADT Madonna to BDT (After/Before Dick Tracy). I like the singles ok, and "Dear Jessie" and "Spanish Eyes" were interesting. It was also cool to hear Prince - I didn't know they'd collaborated. But for the most part this was a slog.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER" almost saved it for me.
As I said about another album, lots of this sounds like what people who don't like jazz think jazz sounds like, but this time in a good way? (Mainly the track "Sly") The album I was referring to then was "Sunday at the Village Vanguard" by Bill Evans Trio. This, like that album often sounds like people are just playing whatever without an ear for what anyone else is doing. But here it seems...controlled somehow. A genuine display of music madness that comes apart and together again on a pin.
The 70s-ness of it all doesn't hurt either
Love the spacey keyboard and the wakawaka guitars. You know what I'm talking about. Also "Vein Melter" as a title is metal as fuck. I was surprised at how chill it was.
Even 30 seconds in this was a fuck yeah for me. A rare 5 that I've never had to let grow on me beforehand.
Huh. Thought I would love this one but only kinda liked it. "Up on Cripple Creek" is a banger though.
Nice, chill, feel-good music. Didn't blow my mind or anything, similar to a thousand other records. But cool, nonetheless.
"Good news! Today we're going to be listening to a duo from the 80s. There's synths!"
Aww hell yeah! Are they mysterious? And British? Do they have a cool sounding name? Is there a drum machine?"
"You know it!"
Sweet. It's gonna be a good Friday!
"Just one other thing..."
What?
"They suck"
Huh?
"They really suck. Just like, wall to wall sucky, boring music."
....oh.
"Yeah."
And who are you?
"Me? I'm an entity you created. For the purpose of this review."
Just for this? That's sort of sad. That means you'll cease to exist when this review is done?
"That's right. Everything I am. All my hopes and dreams. Gone."
What did you hope and dream? Besides telling me in a mildly amusing way that "Idlewild" by Everything But The Girl sucks?
"I...well..."
What?
"It's dumb but...I always wanted to see Spain."
See Spain?!? But you don't even have eyes! You're not even...corporeal!
"Don't you think I know that? DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT!?"
I'm sorry.
"Yeah, well. It's sensitive."
Well. This is it.
"Yeah. It's been nice knowing you."
You too. Hey...do you have a name?
"..."
Hello? Hello?
England is the capital of music that you have to be from there to understand why it's good (see also: Blur, Oasis). That said, if this is on the list there better damn well be a Tragically Hip album or two. I'm starting to understand what that reviewer who had done the whole thing was talking about when he mentioned the overabundance of mediocre British albums on here (though those weren't his exact words). Like...this is fine, I guess. But sheesh.
I'm a huge Bowie fan, but this statement comes with an asterisk that I suspect many Bowie fans have in their (not so) secret hearts. That is, that Bowie's fearless tendency to take risks and constantly reinvent himself is a double-edged sword. He is an artist in the truest sense of the word.
I suspect I am more of a minority when it comes to which Bowie albums I'm not a huge fan of, amd which I gravitate towards. I've always been ambivalent towards his so-called Berlin trilogy of which this was the first, and sort of dismissed them.
Upon relisten to "Low" with mature-er ears I sort of agree with my initial reaction, but for different reasons. I remember intensely disliking side B, for instance. Isn't it basically just an Eno record at this point? But now side B is my favorite part. Many of the songs on Side A seem...half-baked? I put the question mark there as a sort of flinch, anticipating the waves of psychic hate rippling from all ends of the earth towards me.
"Sound and Vision" is great, but feels underwritten to this know-nothing listener. Anyway, not the worst thing I could be listening to. So a 3 it is.
Another surprise. Had it pegged as a 2 or 3 in the first half, and then it got way more weird and interesting and fun. There was a random Of Montreal song somewhere in there? Cool record.
Me, at the start of this record: ah fuck yeah!
Me, at the end of this record: I never want to listen to that again.
Average it out you get a 3, baby. That's just math.
Oh, there are movie soundtracks on this list? If this is on here there better damn well be the soundtrack to Heavy Metal...just sayin'.
Short and sweet. "World up my Ass" spoke to me in particular. While this kind of punk gets a bad rap for being music that people not good enough at their instruments for anything else gravitate towards, I don't think that applies here. Probably won't listen again, but fun nonetheless.
Y'know, I think this might be my least favorite of the first four. I'm not steeped in the fandom enough to know if this is a popular or unpopular opinion. Here I was ready to rock, and then discovering there's a bunch of only ok stuff on here I'd forgotten about. Still, pretty good.
Some great themes here, and interesting voice. Can't really see revisiting it though.
Really dig the production/singles on this one. Sounded more Devo than I had expected (which is a good thing).
From all accounts, Jerry Lee Lewis was a bit of a maniac. I would have liked to see that reflected here. I am assuming this is a bit of a legendary concert as it appears on this list, but through much of it it seems JLL is phoning in his performance, vocally at least. There are glimmers here and there of that fabled maniac, but only rarely. I dunno. Love the songs, and the rockabilly of it all, but all in all falls short.
Edit: ok reading other people's reviews he was more than just a run of the mill maniac. Wild stuff. Jeez.
The first time I heard the term "krautrock" it was in reference to the Wilco song "Spiders." Every time I've since heard something described as such I've expected something like that song and have been severely disappointed. This album is...well, I felt like someone in a museum looking at one of those bullshit paintings with like two lines and saying "my kid could do that!" ""Halleluhwah" saves this from being a 1 star album, and just barely.
I wonder if anyone ever told Flavor Flav to cool it on the "yeah boyyys". Imagine they did, and this is the result. Like, how many yeah boyyys were there before?!?
This is one of those records you gotta respect because of everything that it inspired. But I don't really love it. Or like it. Gotta give it a 2.
Compare the Rolling Stones to Sonic the Hedgehog. In the 90s, Sonic was the epitome of cool. He was spikey, was super rad, had 'tude (of the atti variety). Thing is, that specific brand of cool wore off. By 2005, nobody wanted to be Sonic except a weird, underground-dwelling subset if the internet.
The Rolling Stones brand of cool is still just as cool today. They're the kind of cool that is sort of cringe (as the non-sonic loving kids say) to dissect. They will never not be cool, because although they are indeed trying very hard, they do not appear to be trying hard. Sonic is a total try-hard. Beneath that spiked exterior lies a soul rife with insecurity. Not so the Stones. What you see is what you get. And what you see is dang cool.
Anyway this record does go a little long, being a double album and all, and is a bit samey in parts. But it's good samey so you can't complain too much.
Perfect. No notes. I am afraid to look at the other reviews because I suspect the average will be somewhere below 5.
Oy lads, it's another album I'm not near British enough to appreciate, innit. Didn't love this one, despite a few fun parts. Seemed a bit samey. Nothing against rowdy chanting for a song or two but this is a bit much.
Ok. I am ostensibly a Wilco fan, but my fandom starts at Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I swear I've listened to at least a good chunk of this album before. Here's what happened. I got used to the version of "Misunderstood " on "Kicking Television" and when I heard the version on this I got mad. Because it's, pretty much objectively, not as good. Sorry. And I wasn't huge on "AM" or "Summerteeth" either. But maybe that was because of "Misunderstood" too. I don't know. I'm really questioning things right now. Like, I'm going through a lot. "Being There" is really good. Like, it rivals YHF. Why didn't I know this? And, perhaps more importantly, what else don't I know?
My life is a lie.
I say this as someone who knows nothing about how this album was made, but this seems like the "Jurassic Park" of records. It sounds great in the way that movie looked (and sounded) great. And so much of it seems like "practical effects" (again, I know nothing about anything). It seems like Trent Reznor's goal was to make an industrial album in a very DIY, actual instruments and samples sort of way (as opposed wholly using computers) The effect is something very mechanistic but human, abrasive and apocalyptic but surprisingly hooky. He was clearly a maniac going through some shit in this time. Just a masterpiece that, admittedly, already lived in my DNA before starting this albums generator. You better believe I didn't pass up the chance to listen to it again though.
A fine album...love the longer cuts especially, and Neil is a cool dude. It's no "Harvest" or "Rust Never Sleeps" but still a solid listen. 3.5 rounded up for Canadian-ness.
Love Zeppelin but also, sometimes, don't like Zeppelin very much at all. It's complicated. I've always considered the first fifteen seconds of this album my favorite fifteen seconds of Led Zeppelin. I reserve the right to change this opinion. This album is fine to listen to but I never find myself eager to return. There's so much music out there, man, some of it directly ripping this off. But, still, I'd rather listen to many other things. I have to be in a very specific mood for this, and as I age that mood comes less and less. Rambling today, in honor of "Ramble On" which does not appear on this record.
Ok 92 albums in and 3 or them have been LC now. Again, seems like with Cohen the poetry of it all comes first, and the musicality is an afterthought. Not offensive to the ears. Probably a 2.5 rounded up because Canada.
I enjoy some Belle & Sebastian albums. "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" and "Girls in Peacetime want to Dance" are standouts for me. This one fell a little short, but is still pretty darn charming.
File this one under "some interesting, enjoyable stuff but can't see myself returning to this too often." Opening and closing tracks were the standouts for me.
Did you know that's Paul Reubens singing backup on "Time After Time?" He did it in thanks for Cyndi singing the theme song to "Peewee's Playhouse."
Not to get all old man yells at cloud but I feel like if this record came out today it would have been a bit different. Like, some Disney subsidiary would have released it and erased all the idiosyncrasies for fear of alienating even one listener. And, yeah I know, this isn't exactly "Metal Machine Music," but you know what I mean, right? Cyndi Lauper's the real deal, and it shines through here. So kudos to her, and whoever produced this I guess too.
I made that up about Paul Reubens on "Time After Time" by the way.
You know the Mandela effect? I have a super dumb Mandela effect where I remember Alanis saying "I've got one hand in my pocket, and the other's winning the lottery." I can hear her singing this clearly, like, her cadence and everything. It doesn't even make sense as a line. How can one hand win the lottery? Like, a scratch ticket?
This album is packed with hits, a few of which weren't even singles. "All I Really Want" could have been another radio hit.
Ok I just googled it and "All I Really Want" was the sixth and final single for this record. So I guess it couldn't have been a hit, cause I feel like I never heard it outside this album.
Dumb things I thought about this record #2. I thought "it feels so good swimming in your stomach" was a new thought in the song instead of how a jagged little pill feels. Like, Alanis herself likes to swim in your stomach. And to be honest, I kinda like that interpretation better. So I'm keeping it that way, dumb or not.
This record slays, but there a few forgettable songs. Sort of like "Appetite for Destruction" which I (older and wiser) am gonna go back and edit down to a 4 from a 5, because, oddly enough, I feel the exact same way about that record. Like I like it, I'll listen to it over and over, but it doesn't quite reach 5.
Another treat in that it fills in some missing music links I had. This is the precursor to so many bands I enjoy a ton, including Black Sabbath who plainly listened the shit out of this. Problem is, hearing this only makes me want to go listen to those Sabbath albums instead. But they kept it short if not punchy (punchiness is never an adjective used on these solo-heavy bands), so I'll give em that.
At times rises to the level of mildly pleasing background music (during the instrumental stretches). Otherwise did not dig.
Stevie Wonder's secret power is sharps and flats, and the creative and unexpected use of them. A properly placed sharp or flat where you aren't expecting it can flood the brain with enough dopamine to kill a small rodent. Don't play Stevie Wonder records around your pet mouse, unless you also have a pet snake if you know what I mean.
I am oversimplifying, of course. If Stevie Wonder's only power was his ability to utilize sharps and flats in interesting ways, there would be a million Stevie Wonders using this same formula. Tell your AI model to do the same, I'm sure you'll get something neat, but it sure as shit won't be Stevie Wonder.
That said, this is no "Music in the Key of Life" where the sharps and flats are off the map. And the ineffable Stevie Wonder-ness. Wonder-ful-ness? Probably won't revisit this one, but was pleasant enough when I was listening to it.
I wore out this cd when I was a young fella. It's a tough hang at times. Parts of it haven't aged well. But I'll be damned if some other parts aren't a ton of fun. That said, I it's a bit bloated. A few of these tracks didn't need to be on here. So I'm gonna be probably the only person who gives this a plain old, middle of the road 3.
