Whiny and loud, often kind of cacophonous and definitely overstimulating. Most of them blend together for me, though I recognize Wonderwall, of course. It's really obvious listening to them all in one go how incredibly nasal-y the lead singer's voice is, which is putting me off. However, I didn't hate She's Electric or Some Might Say!
I have a strong bent towards upbeat, "peppier" music, and can quickly grow bored by anything too languid and smooth, no matter how beautiful. So some of this is just a little too slow for me, even though Redding's voice is objectively gorgeous and rich and the band is excellent. But on the whole, I enjoyed it, and really loved the cover of "My Girl."
I would consider myself to have about average knowledge of The Beatles and I was pretty unfamiliar with this album. The only one I really recognized for sure was All My Loving, which I feel is the obvious standout of the album. But I also enjoyed Don't Bother Me, which I've definitely never heard before. The rest was very easy listening for me, even if not super memorable.
Very much not for me. I am just not interested in deliberately unpleasant sounding music (even if I theoretically understand how it might be cathartic and emotional) and I found this a struggle to listen to. Every so often, in one of these songs, there'd be a tiny snatch of something actually melodic and interesting, which would get my hopes up, and then they'd immediately go back to screaming. However, because of this, A Warm Place, which I'm sure is a beautiful reprieve for anyone listening to the album, was actually borderline transcendent and completely unexpected to me, so that was really lovely.
Not a genre of music that particularly speaks to me, but Joplin clearly had a phenomenal voice. The standout of the album for me was definitely Me and Bobby McGee, which is much more folky than the rest and therefore much more to my taste.
I honestly had only the vaguest idea of who Iggy Pop is and I had never heard any of the songs on this album. But I'm a fan! I found myself bouncing my foot along to the beat, always a good sign. On the whole, catchy and peppy in just the way I like. Standouts were Lust for Life and The Passenger and it seems that I am not unique in thinking so.
Honestly enjoyed this more than I thought I would, I've never really listened to Reggae before. So catchy and so soothing and pleasant at the same time. I especially liked Watcha Gonna Do and Igziabeher, but I'll admit that it was Legalize It that was stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
What an unexpected, fun album! I am not very familiar with hip hop, but I really enjoyed how upbeat and positive these songs are. It's not actually so much about the lyrics themselves (in fact, many of the lyrics lean a little too spiritual/Christian for my personal taste). It's more that you can just hear the lightness in their voices and I found it wonderfully contagious. I was especially fond of the beginning of the album, "Man's Final Frontier," "Mama's Always On Stage," and "Mr. Wendel," though I liked the last few songs as well.
I enjoyed listening to this album as background music, but practically nothing in it stuck out to me. I definitely appreciated the upbeat, catchy beats and I honestly rather like the goofy, whimsical ska elements. But still, it just sounded like background music to me. Maybe if I listened to more it would stick with me?
I really enjoyed Lust for Life last week, so I was hopeful for this one once I realized that it's also Iggy Pop. But I was unfortunately not a fan. I found a lot of this to be pretty grating and way too long and repetitive. This really deserves a 1.5 — I'm not repulsed by it, but I do find it generally unpleasant to listen to and not a single track made it onto my "would listen to again" list.
Loved this — my first 5 star album of the project! I only knew one Aimee Mann song (Labrador), but I'm not surprised at all that I'm into this. I'm such a sucker for upbeat melodies with sad lyrics and female harmonies. A few of these were a little two slow to be top favorites, but I loved "Fifty Years After the Fair," "Put Me On Top," and "Stupid Thing." Also hilarious that she's got a song about Jacob Marley, I love A Christmas Carol.
I don't know exactly what I thought I knew about Morrissey that made me think I wasn't going to like this. Whiny and depressing, maybe? Well, color me shocked, but apparently I'm a fan. There was nothing here I didn't like and several I loved: "Certain People I Know," "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful," "Tomorrow."
I like this indie rock sound, so this was easy listening for me. Nothing transcendent, but definitely enjoyable, with a few tracks that I saved: Rebellion (Lies) and Neighborhood #1. Every so often there'd be some of that grating instrumentation that I'm not a fan of, though.
This wasn't bad, but I don't have very strong feelings about it either. I will say that I actually kind of like the half speaking/half singing sound here, it reminds me of Jonathan Richman. My favorite was I Wish I Was Your Mother, which I actually really like, but it has a really different sound than the rest of the album.
I love folk music and so I expected to wholeheartedly love this and I didn't quite. There were a few I liked a lot (Ragged Wood, Sun It Rises), but I think this leaned a little more pop than I wanted it to. Folk music usually feels very emotionally and musically rich to me, and this didn't quite reach that. But I did enjoy listening to it as a whole.
I was open to this at the beginning, I like the soft rock sound even if the lyrics aren't the most inspired. But this album gets progressively more whiny and woe-is-me as it goes and it's really just too much. I saved The Fear and Driftwood.
The first album I've encountered so far that was already a favorite! I love REM and I've listened to this album many times, though it's actually been awhile since I've listened to it straight through. It surprised me how moody and slow it is as a whole, as I tend to prefer more upbeat stuff, but it still works so well for me. I already had about half these songs saved to my favorites (Sweetness Follows, Try Not to Breathe, Man On The Moon were top favorites), but I went ahead and added the rest as well.
I don't know enough about jazz to say if this is good jazz, but I can say that I really enjoyed bopping around to it while I cooked pasta, enough that I made myself a little cooking music playlist with this on it.
I secretly love synth music. I definitely prefer the more purely ambient stuff in this album, rather than the ones that include lyrics/talking, but nearly all of the songs made it on to my ambient-working-music playlist. A few drifted a little too far into discordance and eeriness for my taste, but on the whole, enjoyable. 3.5, let's say.
I have nothing against country as a genre, but if there is one simplified overarching theme of my music preferences, it's that I like peppy and I don't like languid. And a lot of this is very very languid. But not The Weatherman, which is the standout track of this album for me — an excellent peppy heartbreak song, my favorite subgenre.
Mixed for me. A couple of these pieces I LOVED and have listened to several times already — Do You Realize?, Are You a Hypnotist?, and It's Summertime are the exact kind of moody, dreamy thing that I like. But a lot of the others were too ballad-y for my taste, and some outrightly discordant and unpleasant to listen to. But I'm really pleased to have discovered the ones I do like, and I'll listen to The Soft Bulletin soon.
I loved this! Kind of reminded me of REM or XTC, love this kind of upbeat pop-y rock stuff. On a first listen, several of the songs stood out to me (especially Weather With You and Italian Plastic), but on the second listen I added basically all the rest as well.
I unexpectedly loved this! I expected it to be more country, but I would really call this a folk album and a really well done one, too. Emmylou Harris's voice is just gorgeous and perfectly suited to this kind of music.
Definitely the precursor to (or contemporary of) a ton of music that I love. And I like this too, until it gets a little too grating for me with the nasally sing-speaking and harmonica (On the Road Again was a clear turning point in this album on this front for me). Maybe I hate harmonica? But I do love folk music.
At it's worst, this is kind of Enya-like background music and at it's best, it's kind of Roches-like tight female harmonies and that's good enough for me.
Nope. Worse than Nine Inch Nails.
Not awful, but also not the kind of thing I love — too slow and bluesy for my taste. I did enjoy Stay With Me.
Go Where You Wanna Go was already a favorite, along with California Dreamin' and Monday, Monday (though the latter is a tiny bit too dreary for me). It was fun to discover a few more that I really enjoyed, especially Straight Shooter. The rest of the album did drift fully into dreariness, although the gorgeous harmonies make the full album listenable, even if not every song is a favorite.
I listened to this while I was working and it was very pleasant and enjoyable background music but not a single song caught my attention enough that I paid more attention to it than that.
This kind of smooth languidness is rarely my thing, even if I can appreciate the concept in theory. In this case, I will note that Marvin Gaye obviously has an incredible voice, which did boost my enjoyment considerably, +1. But I feel that the tone drifts firmly into whiny territory after awhile and many of the songs are so long, so about halfway through I started thinking "isn't this album almost over?" I love heartbreak songs, but this feels a little too much like wallowing for me. So, -2.
I can really see how this was a precursor to a lot of the music I like, but as it is, it doesn't really excite me.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would — the instrumentals on this album are SO gorgeous that they just kept pulling me back in. But Smith's voice is too dreary for me and the songs/album as a whole are too long for it to be 5 stars. I would listen to it again, though, and I'm especially glad to discover Plainsong, my favorite from the album.
This was not bad! Not really my thing, but perfectly fine to listen to while working.
Least favorite album from a top favorite band. This is too conceptual for my taste, especially listening to it straight through — there's nothing here that I actively dislike, but it doesn't flow well to me at all. However, Hazy Shade of Winter is one of my favorite songs of all time.
I did not have high expectations for this, but I quite liked it! I think I'll listen to it again tomorrow too. I liked the spacy-ness, I thought several of the songs were quite catchy, and overall really mellow, good driving music.
You know, I quite liked this. I would listen to it on a regular basis. I really thought, based on the description, that it was going to be too conceptual/experimental for my taste, but I think that its vocal strangeness is well balanced by how atmospheric and oftentimes (but not always) melodic it is.
