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Sat Dec 30 2023
Station To Station
David Bowie
I’ve been exploring a bit of David Bowie’s catalog over the last year as I’ve been doing a deep dive into The Cure’s influences but hadn’t heard this album yet. From the first (title) track, it’s immediately clear how Bowie influenced them, from the guitar effects at the beginning (brings to mind “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”) to the experimental, atonal bit of the first few minutes (a la Seventeen Seconds and Faith), to the poppy dance track it ultimately becomes.
I can also hear other late 60s/70s sounds in the title track—at times it resembles The Beatles, Motown, surf rock, Hendrix, and Heart. The second track has a Blacksploitation (Shaft) meets Southern rock meets funk vibe. “Stay” has a similar soul/blues/disco sound and has shades of Bowie’s famous “Fame” in it. This was apparently the follow-up album to Young Americans, so that makes sense.
"Word on a Wing" has an almost Meatloaf vibe (but in a not annoying way).
"TVC15" feels like a Talking Heads song at some points, mostly in the vocal delivery. [As soon as the album finished, Tidal’s algorithm spat out a Talking Heads song, so I guess I was on to something.]
The closing track “Wild is the Wind” also reminds me of The Cure (“Three Imaginary Boys” and some of their instrumental tracks off Seventeen Seconds and Faith). There’s a subtle funk element in the guitar and bass that reminds me of Red Hot Chili Peppers too. Really like the drum breakdown toward the end. Bowie’s high notes on the last line are A+ too.
I’ll definitely have to revisit this album and focus more on the lyrics—I was more focused on the music on this first listen.
Overall, this is definitely one of Bowie’s more accessible albums. I’m really enjoying it. It might actually be my favorite Bowie album so far. It’s also quite short at 38 minutes and just 6 tracks (though each track is a bit longer).
4
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Sat Dec 30 2023
Figure 8
Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith has been on my list to check out for a while, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. I always imagined his music as mellow, "sad boy" music, but the opening track on this album goes much harder than I was expecting.
The second track is much closer to the folkier sound I was expecting (in a good way). It has a Beatles feel to it too (e.g., "Blackbird" or "Here Comes the Sun"). It almost feels like an acoustic Cure song too. It's a pretty short song, but has some enjoyable guitar work.
The third track "Junk Bond Trader" has a Beatles meets Tori Amos vibe. Again, it's a much fuller, rockier sound than I was expecting (but good).
The next two songs (the "Everything" songs) are more piano driven but still have a big sound. The whole album sounds very dynamic and huge, which is a bit surprising since it came out at the height of the loudness wars.
"L.A." sounds like a mix of a Beatles tune with some Led Zeppelin and Lenny Kravitz mixed in. The lyric "Last night I was about to throw it all away" is a little eerie considering this was his last album. The lyrical content has darkness to it throughout, but the album doesn't feel or sound bleak. It's a little reminiscent of Nick Drake that way—there's something sort of ominous under the surface (the last track is titled "Bye" and is an instrumental piano dirge) but most of the album sounds beautiful and bright.
A lot of this album reminds me of Abbey Road ("Pretty Mary Kay" especially), which makes sense given that it was partially recorded there. The Japanese release of the album includes a cover of "Because."
"Wouldn't Mama Be Proud" has a heartland rock vibe with its heavy organ and guitar work and reminds me of The Wallflowers. Very of its time when that sound was popular in the early '00s.
I really enjoyed this album. Because it's 16 tracks it does sometimes feel a bit long, especially toward the middle, but several of the songs are sub-3 minutes so it's not egregious. It seems to be a bit of an outlier from the rest of his catalog and, like Bowie's Station to Station, one of his most accessible releases. But it definitely makes me want to check out his other work with more urgency than I had before.
4
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Sun Dec 31 2023
Catch A Fire
Bob Marley & The Wailers
This is definitely an album that you can just vibe to, but paying close attention to the lyrics makes for a much richer experience. The message of songs like “Concrete Jungle,” which talks about alienation and the struggle to survive in the rat race of capitalism, and “Slave Driver” and “400 Years,” which talk about the inter-generational scars of slavery and racial violence, are just as relevant now as they were in 1973.
The music can get a bit repetitive at times, but there’s also a ton of great musicianship on the album (the guitar solo on “Stir It Up” has shades of Hendrix—though, controversially, it seems this was done by session musicians brought in by the label to do overdubs after initial recording). It’s also interesting to hear the very obvious influences reggae had on the British punk movement in the 70s, both in terms of music and political messaging.
I enjoyed this album and appreciate its historical importance and influence. I’m not sure it’s something I’d listen to all the time, though. I think it’s a good album for people just getting into Marley/reggae because the album is an interesting mix of politics, sex, drugs, and rock n roll and covers the breadth of his music.
3
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Mon Jan 01 2024
Graceland
Paul Simon
I've played this album before (and know the singles "Graceland," "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoe," and "You Can Call Me Al"), but more as background music—I haven't done a real active listen until now.
The opening track, "The Boy in the Bubble" is like a new wave song with tubas and accordions—very interesting sound. The lyrics still feel relevant today, addressing the ambivalence of living in an era where technology (and how humans utilize it) is both amazing and terrifying.
The third track "I Know What I Know" could be a Talking Heads song.
The fourth track "Gumboots," which features the South African mbaqanga (mix of jazz and traditional music) group The Boyoyo Boys almost feels like a vallenato song with the prominent accordion. I've often wondered about the cross influences between African music, American jazz, klezmer, and South American folk traditions, so this was a very interesting track to listen to.
Overall the album is a very enjoyable listen. The combination of 80s pop, South African sounds, and New Orleans music makes for a very upbeat album, though there's also plenty of introspection to be found with a close listen to the lyrics. The controversial history of the album in the context of South African apartheid, while important for listeners to read up on and take into account, shouldn't deter people from listening to the album (in my opinion). I think the album is a good example of how one can support marginalized populations and artists without supporting oppressive governments and is a good reminder of how nuance is always important when looking at history, and political movements more generally.
4
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Tue Jan 02 2024
Rock 'N Soul
Solomon Burke
This was an interesting album, but I'm not sure how much I'd regularly listen to it. He has a nice voice and an impressive range. A lot of the songs were catchy, but the album also felt like it dragged even though most of the songs are under 3-minutes long. I'd probably pick out a few songs for repeat listens but don't know if I'd play the whole album through.
3
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Wed Jan 03 2024
Oracular Spectacular
MGMT
I'm very meh about this album. At first I really didn't like it at all, but it grew on me a bit after I relistened to a couple songs. I was never into that indie rock sound of the late '00s (The Lumineers, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, etc.) and I think I'm still a little sick of the three singles being everywhere when it first came out. A lot of the songs feel like The Lumineers trying to do The Doors or Led Zeppelin ... or shoegaze. Something about all the really high-pitched synth notes in a wall of sound grates on me.
“4th Dimensional Transition” finally sounds like a successful attempt at the modern psychedelia they seem to be aiming for.
“Of Moons, Birds, and Monsters” is my favorite song on the album. It’s an interesting mix of synthpop/psychedelia/post-punk/post-rock and actually feels like a well-developed song and not just a wall of sound like the first few tracks.
Other than the two tracks mentioned, I don't really see myself listening to this album again. I'd maybe sit through it if it happened to come on, but I wouldn't go out of my way to hear it.
2
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Thu Jan 04 2024
From Elvis In Memphis
Elvis Presley
I had an Elvis phase in high school and even had a poster from the '68 special in my bedroom, but listening to this album made me realize that I've always been more of an Elvis compilation fan—a hits fan, really. I don't think I've listened to many (any?) of his studio albums from start to finish or in the context of his career's timeline. So listening to this album was a new and interesting experience for me.
A lot of this album feels like Elvis at a crossroads and trying to figure out where he fits in as music is going through a sea change. That the Beatles had already broken up and bands like Led Zeppelin were ruling the airwaves while he was recording this is pretty wild to think about—how quickly music was changing back then. That's why Elvis had to stage the "'68 Comeback Special" in the first place. While he'd been off making movies and putting out soundtrack songs, music had completely changed around him. He had to re-pitch himself to America.
The opening track's melody heavily resembles "Heartbreak Hotel" but with more of that southern-disco-soul sound that defined Elvis' later years. "I'm Movin On" is another example of this transitional sound, while "After Loving You" is classic early Elvis.
"Power of My Love" is an impressive song. It's much closer to true blues and where Elvis sounds best (in my opinion). I've never been a huge fan of Elvis' more country songs ("It Keeps Right on Hurtin'") or his gospel songs, and I have mixed feelings about his disco-soul era. The slide-guitar-heavy songs and even the orchestra-heavy songs ("Kentucky Rain") on here sound a little hackneyed and outdated to my ears, but again, I've never been a fan of that style. The following year's "All Things Must Pass" by George Harrison is one of my favorite albums of all time and feels a lot more timeless somehow (even though Harrison's later music also often suffered from that slide guitar old-timey feeling, at least to me). This album feels firmly rooted in a particular time, and I'm not sure if or how much modern audiences would connect with it.
The run of "Any Day Now" through "Suspicious Minds" on this album really cements that leather-leisure-suited-Elvis-in-Vegas sound that came to define him later on. I say that with mixed feelings, as I unironically love "In the Ghetto" despite its cringey rock-star-on-a-social-mission lyrics and "Suspicious Minds" will always be a banger, but I lean toward the earlier pop-rock-blues of Elvis in my fandom.
The song "Don't Cry Daddy" hits differently in the wake of Lisa Marie's death (whose music I was also a huge fan of), which just goes to show you how the context of how and when a song is listened to can affect its reception and meaning.
The closing track, with its Christmas bells, 50s orchestral sound, and spoken-word interlude is all a bit much for me. That to me is peak theatrical Elvis—not rock star Elvis, who I love.
Overall, this was an interesting album but a bit of a mixed bag for me. Vocally he sounds as great as ever. Personally, the wide variation of styles gives the album a bit of a pandering, common-denominator feel to me, like Elvis isn't quite sure who he is and isn't quite sure who his fans are anymore, so he's trying to be all things for everyone. At 16 tracks, the album also feels like it's dragging at points. I would have preferred a shorter album of stylistically similar tracks. But I suppose the good thing about an album like this, and about an artist with a discography as varied as that of Elvis, is that listeners do have that ability to pick and choose the era and style they prefer. And maybe that's part of Elvis' staying power—that he could be so many different things to so many different people.
3
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Fri Jan 05 2024
Let It Be
The Replacements
This was a fun album. I hadn’t made it to The Replacements yet in my punk/post-punk exploration, and it was interesting to hear their take on it.
I like that they have a mix of sounds and styles, from the farcical poppy punk of the Ramones and quirkiness of The Damned to the hardcore punk of Rancid to the 60s-pop-inspired sound of the Buzzcocks and The Cure to baroque pop/cabaret of the Dresden Dolls. Similarly, their lyrics range from crude and brash to sincere and introspective. The punk attitude is all over the album, but rather than angry in-your-face political screeds, the lyrics deal with the internal turmoil of trying to figure out where you belong in the world as a teenager and obliquely railing against the cold indifference of everything. I could’ve done without a couple of the more farcical songs, but even those had their charm. I can see why this album is so highly regarded and will likely keep it in regular rotation.
4
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Sat Jan 06 2024
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
I had “Number of the Beast” on heavy rotation in high school but never listened to much of Maiden’s other material or knew much about the band.
It’s definitely weird not hearing Bruce Dickinson’s voice, but the vocalist does an adequate job. This early album obviously has a lot of the typical metal flourishes and sound that the band would become famous for, but it’s interesting that the first few tracks have a hardcore punk and even a prog rock vibe at times (The second track sounds a lot like Rush in spots).
By the third track the metal sound seems to firmly take hold with the guitars shredding at lightning speed and the relentless march of the drums only being interrupted for impressive fills.
“Transylvania” is a cool instrumental piece and has a classic Maiden sound.
“Strange World” is a nice power ballad with shades of Zeppelin—even the lyrics wouldn’t be out of place on a Zeppelin album. The change of pace keeps the album from feeling repetitive, which can occasionally be an issue for me when listening to metal.
I could’ve done without the song “Charlotte the Harlot”—the track’s lyrics are … yikes (the opening track isn’t much better). Manly-man metal, amirite?
The closing/title track starts out with a bit of a punk drumbeat, but this song also has the classic Iron Maiden sound (though it has an interesting bass breakdown in the middle with a pretty funky vibe).
Overall I really enjoyed this album, but I greatly prefer the Dickinson version of the band.
3
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Sun Jan 07 2024
A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Coldplay
Not impressed. I’ve never been into Coldplay but liked a few of the early radio hits. I tried to give the album an honest shot and not just hate on it because it’s become fun to rag on Coldplay. It’s not bad, but it’s just not very exciting either. Almost all of the songs have the same formula of quiet-loud-quiet-build to crescendo-end. The drum parts have so.many.cymbals. It’s just high hats and cymbals all the time. The guitar parts all tend to feel droning, and there’s usually some synth or orchestra swell.
They’re like an adult-contemporary Radiohead. Bland and inoffensive. And I say this as a big Travis fan, so I’m not wholly against dour British ‘00s pop-rock. I just couldn’t connect with it. It’s nice enough background music, I guess.
2
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Mon Jan 08 2024
Risque
CHIC
I've never been a big disco fan, but I don't hate this. It's definitely on the funkier side of disco; the album is absolutely packed with fantastic bass and guitar lines. You can't help but bop your head and tap your toes. Lyrically, a few of the songs are a little cringey. It's like the unironic version of sendup bands like Scissor Sisters—"A Warm Summer Night" and "My Feet Keep Dancing" come to mind—but there's some good stuff there as well. The tap dance breakdown in "My Feet Keep Dancing" is fun.
I wasn't familiar with anyone in the band, but immediately recognized Nile Rodgers (guitarist) upon seeing his photo. Both he and Bernard Summers (bassist) have been hugely influential on popular music, and once you read a list of the artists they've worked with, you can't not hear it (B-52s, Diana Ross, David Bowie, INXS, Daft Punk, etc.)—not to mention the infamous Sugarhill Gang sample in "Rapper's Delight." You can hear their influence in everything from "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen to New Jack Swing to some of the biggest late 90s pop acts (NSYNC, Savage Garden, S Club 7) and into the 21st century disco revival (Robin Thicke, Dua Lipa, etc.).
My one big complaint about this album is that too many of the songs simply overstay their welcome. I get that they're made for dancing, but after 6:30, 7 minutes with nothing but the chorus repeating and no real instrumental changes, it gets grating. The second half of the album suffers less from this, but it also contains more of the slower, sadder songs. I'd be a lot more inclined to give the album regular listens if the majority of the songs could be cut in half.
Three stars for the music, plus an extra star for its influence and legacy.
4
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Tue Jan 09 2024
Electric Ladyland
Jimi Hendrix
I only started getting into Hendrix this year for some reason and hadn't made it to Electric Ladyland yet. I like how they continue to experiment with stereo panning on this album—there are a lot of cool effects and it's fun to listen to with headphones. Knowing how big of an influence Hendrix was on Robert Smith, the vocal delay/reverb effects on "1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" seem likely to be direct inspiration for songs like "A Short Term Effect" by The Cure.
The album is full of great jams and insane guitar parts. I wasn't expecting to hear a different vocalist on "Little Miss Strange"—as great as Jimi is, it was kind of a nice change of pace coming off of the 15-minute "Voodoo Chile."
If I have one complaint about this album, it's that it's super long. It has 16 tracks and the total runtime is 1:15; included in that are a 15-minute song and another almost 14-minute one. Because of that, I think a few other songs could have been cut. I'm not sure which, though. I'd have to listen to the album more to be able to pick out favorites.
4
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Wed Jan 10 2024
Reign In Blood
Slayer
I can appreciate that not all art is for everyone, and this album is just not for me. Listening to it felt like possibly the longest 28 minutes of my life.
The album starts off with a song about the horrors of Mengele’s human experiments at Auschwitz that really just feels like an exercise in torture porn—it’s the aural equivalent of an Eli Roth movie. And it doesn’t get much better from there. Every song is about death or damnation or persecution (or all three) in the bleakest, most brutal way possible. The music follows in lockstep, relentlessly bombarding you as the singer growls the lyrics so quickly that you can barely make out the words. The speed at which they play is impressive, but there’s not much in the way of melody or even variation. The songs seem to bleed together into one long wall of noise that might just have you begging for death by the end.
Again, I appreciate that art is subjective and not everything is for everyone. I can understand why some people are drawn to this type of music—I’m just not one of them. I can appreciate metal as a genre. I don’t mind Metallica, and I quite like a lot of symphonic metal. I’ve just never gotten into the thrash/scream-growl side of it. I’m also a fan of dark lyrics and goth music, so it’s not like I don’t understand the appeal of writing about depression and death and other dark subjects. I think The Cure’s Pornography is quite beautiful despite one music critic’s appraisal of it as “Phil Spector in hell.” But Pornography—and goth generally—has plenty of beauty in both the lyrics and melodies, even if it’s rooted in darkness. There’s none of that here. It’s just brutal and raw anger.
I suppose I’m glad this music exists, because I’d hate to think what might happen if someone with this much pent up anger had no artistic outlet for it. But also, maybe just go to therapy?
1
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Thu Jan 11 2024
Good Old Boys
Randy Newman
This was a weird album for me. I see what he was going for with the concept album idea, but I don’t think it ages super well forty years later. It’s like the musical equivalent of Archie Bunker, but without other characters to play off it falls kind of flat for me. I can’t tell if I’m supposed to be laughing at this guy or pitying him, and despite the dig about northern hypocrisy in the opening track it just feels kind of mean-spirited?
I learned some history from looking up the subjects covered in the album—Huey Long and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 to name a couple—so I guess it deserves some points for that. Beyond that, I think I’d prefer to listen to Ray Charles for the style of music and stick to soundtracks for Randy Newman.
2
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Fri Jan 12 2024
Felt Mountain
Goldfrapp
This album was ok. It’s kind of like a Bond soundtrack on an acid trip. It’s decent enough background music, but a lot of it starts to feel repetitive after a while. It’s nothing that bands like Cocteau Twins, Portishead, and Massive Attack haven’t been doing for years, so I’m not sure what’s so revolutionary about this album that it made the list.
3
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Sat Jan 13 2024
The Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd
The drama and mythology surrounding Pink Floyd can sometimes upstage the music, but there’s a reason this album is a classic.
Really great listening experience (especially with a good set of headphones—“On the Run” has some fun stereo panning). I like how all the songs flow into each other, but it doesn’t feel repetitive or boring because the songs are so well done. It’s a well-done concept album. Lyrically, the songs are thematically similar in exploring feelings of loss, alienation, and existential dread, but each song covers a different angle (the rat race, aging, war, insanity, etc.). Technologically, the use of synthesizers must have been mind-blowing when the album first came out, and they still sound great today.
Favorite songs include “Breathe,” “Time,” “The Great Gig in the Sky,” “Money” and “Brain Damage.” It’s worth singling out Clare Torry’s performance on the album, especially on “Great Gig.” What a phenomenal voice and performance on that song—you really feel like she’s fighting death.
5
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Sun Jan 14 2024
Dr. Octagonecologyst
Dr. Octagon
I'd never heard of this guy before. I guess he crawled so B.O.B. and Gorillaz could run. It reminded me of Cypress Hill at times too.
This album was ok. A lot of the songs are catchy and I like his rapping style, but some of the lyrics were just too ridiculous/not really my style. I appreciate what he was doing with the concept and the character, but it's just so over the top. It's also super long—it just seemed to keep going and going.
3
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Mon Jan 15 2024
Live Through This
Hole
I only really knew the singles from Celebrity Skin, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going into this album. I enjoyed it. Grunge always felt very male-centric, so the feminine perspective was refreshing.
The songs are hooky and melodic but still edgy and aggressive. Lyrically it’s a bit of a mixed bag. I think “Violet” might be my favorite track.
This is one of those situations where it’s difficult to separate the art from the artist just because of how infamous Courtney Love is. I personally knew her more for the train-wreck media moments than her time with the band, but it seems her behavior on stage is full of controversy and downright terrible stuff too.
So, a decent album from not great people.
3
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Tue Jan 16 2024
Who's Next
The Who
Love The Who, love Roger Daltrey's voice, love Townshend's lyrics and guitar work, love Moon's drumming (Entwistle's good too haha), love this album.
First of all, "Baba O'Riley" is one of the great bangers of all time. "Bargain" keeps the energy going before it slows down a bit toward the middle of the album, alternating between ballads and mid-tempo songs (still great). The harmonies at the beginning of "Behind Blue Eyes" are fantastic before the song kicks into high gear, and then the album ends on another high note with "Won't Get Fooled Again"—all 8:36 of it.
This album has possibly the most famous organ part of all time. It has killer guitar solos and vocals. It's got classic lines like "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"—come on!—what's not to love?
If there's one weak point on this album, I'd say it's "My Wife"—those lyrics are a little yikes. I'm siding with the wife here. And maybe leave the writing to Townshend, guys.
It's a shame so many of these songs are now associated with car commercials and network prime-time dramas (and Limp Bizkit ...). The Who deserves so much better than that.
4.5/5 ("My Wife" isn't unlistenable, but it's definitely skippable).
4
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Wed Jan 17 2024
Penance Soiree
The Icarus Line
I guess I'm just not punk rock enough for this album. I like my music to be hooky and catchy, and while there are a few songs on here that come close (and they kind of sound like pale imitations of bands like the Rolling Stones, Audioslave, and Smashing Pumpkins), it's a lot of noise and stream of consciousness about being drugged up and depressed. "Spit On It" attempts to take on the capitalistic corruption of art, but it just sounds like bad high school poetry. There's also a vein of misogyny that runs through the album and peaks on the last 3 songs, which are all pretty gross.
There are a couple ok moments. "Getting Bright at Night" has an interesting change up in the last 3 minutes of the 9-minute song and "Big Sleep" contains some interesting imagery in yet another song about drugs and depression. Overall, the album is repetitive and, to me at least, feels derivative. There's nothing original about sex, drugs, and rock n roll, and they don't seem to offer anything new. This album is kind of a one-trick pony.
2
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Thu Jan 18 2024
Heroes to Zeros
The Beta Band
I was prepared for some weird U2/Coldplay meets jam band album based off the opening track, but then a random horn section appeared and I didn't know what to expect. I didn't hate it, though.
I ended up being pleasantly surprised by this album. There's a ton of variety and experimentation, and it never gets boring. It's got a crazy mix of garage rock, folk, shoegaze, trip hop, and electronica all mixed up together. Some of the tracks reminded me of Peter Gabriel or Cosmo Sheldrake in the weird melding of genres and bizarre soundscapes (in a good way).
I often found myself wondering if they were sampling songs in several of the melodies—was that Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" or just a close imitation of the clav? ... was that the riff from "Paint it Black" I just heard?—or just heavily inspired by older work. "Liquid Bird" definitely samples Siouxsie and the Banshees, and it is fire.
The lyrics are at times trippy to the point of being nonsensical and at other times a bit cliche (there seem to be quite a few overt references to The Beatles as well). The words can seem like an afterthought on some songs compared to the music; but the music is so engaging that it doesn't matter that much.
I enjoyed this album a lot. I'll probably add it to my regular rotation and check out their other stuff.
4/5
4
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Fri Jan 19 2024
Rings Around The World
Super Furry Animals
My first thought was that the singer sounds a bit like Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), so hearing that paired with hard rock on some of the tracks was strange.
The first few songs are kind of interesting but derivative at the same time. It's like SFA doe Pink Floyd, SFA does the Beach Boys, SFA does the Beatles, etc. The vocalist's death metal impression at the end of track five was ... no thanks. The second half of the album gets too 70s disco and soft rock for my tastes (And a random country-western song? Why?)
My album right before this was Beta Band's "Heroes to Zeros" and at first I thought both albums have similar vibes but that Beta Band has better music and SFA has better lyrics. Then I got to the back half of the album and things get kind of ridiculous, so I think I retract that statement.
I didn't mind the first half of the album. The second half overstays its welcome with lyrics that are too clever by half and music that's a mix of their cover band work with electronic elements that are mostly just unpleasant to listen to.
Apparently the lead singer said, "We were trying to make utopian pop music that had pretensions of being progressive and exciting," and, well, I don't know about exciting or progressive, but it's definitely pretentious.
2
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Sat Jan 20 2024
Bayou Country
Creedence Clearwater Revival
I realized that even though I really like CCR and John Fogerty, I've never listened to a full CCR album before.
This was a pretty enjoyable listen. Some of the songs ran a bit long and got a little too close to jam band territory, but I was definitely vibing to the music. The lyrics of "Bootleg" were pretty gross, but the rest of the album was good. "Graveyard Train" was probably my favorite song, followed by "Born on the Bayou." Fogerty's great at constructing little stories with his lyrics. The Little Richard cover was decent, and of course "Proud Mary" is a classic. "Keep on Chooglin" will keep you dancing to the end.
4/5
4
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Sun Jan 21 2024
Blood And Chocolate
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
I wanted to love this album. But it was pretty meh for me. I usually like Elvis' voice, but he sounds especially nasal and whiny on this album. Just about every song being a cynical and bitter take on love with a heaping helping of "If I can't have you, I hope you die" gets old quickly. I thought it was kind of interesting that "I Want You" seems to borrow directly from the Beatles' song of the same name ... kind of like the sequel to the song in a way. "Tokyo Storm Warning" was interesting, once I looked at the lyrics and could actually figure out what the heck he was saying. Some of the other songs were kind of catchy musically, but I was happy for the album to end.
Giving it 3 stars, but it's really more of a 2.5
3
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Mon Jan 22 2024
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady
Charles Mingus
I liked this album. I can't say I'm one of those people who really "gets" fancy jazz—I enjoy listening to it, but I couldn't tell you what makes a piece of jazz genius. It tends to be more background music that I can vibe to.
I did find it cool when they made the horns (I forget which exact instrument it was) "talk" and the random Spanish guitar was great—I love me some Spanish guitar.
4/5 I guess? Why not?
4
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Tue Jan 23 2024
Gorillaz
Gorillaz
Everyone talked about this album when it first came out, and I never really got the hype. Overly long electronica/trip-hop with mostly inane lyrics. Would they have been nearly as big if they hadn't done the mysterious avatar schtick?
Good tracks: New Genius (Brother); 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)—the remix is the vastly superior version; Double Bass; Rock the House—great throwback to old school rap; Latin Simone (Que Pasa Contigo)
Incredibly annoying tracks: Man Research (Clapper); M1A1
The rest is ... fine to ok.
Like with most of the British electronica albums on this list so far, there are way too many songs and it goes on forever.
3/5 — and 19-2000 (remix) is doing a lot of the work.
3
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Wed Jan 24 2024
Planet Rock: The Album
Afrika Bambaataa
This album is fun. Good beats, good flow, good times. It's not trying to be anything else or make any big statements—it just wants you to get funky and dance.
If I had one (small) criticism about this album, it's that all the songs are pretty long, but unlike with Chic, where it felt stagnant, or with the Britpop groups like Gorillaz and Super Furry Animals, where it just felt pretentious,
I don't mind it too much here because the lyrics are always flowing and the music is always changing to keep you engaged.
This album has so many crazy good bass lines. It's got orchestra hits and drum machines and record scratches that remind me of cheesy 80s/90s dance music, but in the best way. It's just fun.
Favorite tracks:
"Renegades of Funk" The original that inspired Rage Against the Machine.
"Frantic Situation"—great song with a fun, almost new-wave break down toward the end.
"Who You Funkin With?"—whooo, that guitar riff at the beginning. That bass line!
4.5/5 for me
4
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Thu Jan 25 2024
Swordfishtrombones
Tom Waits
Well, I definitely didn't have punk vaudeville on my bingo card. This album is weird as hell ... but I like it.
This album is impossible to categorize. It has theatrical sketches, discordant carnival instrumentals, Randy Newman–esque ballads, outlaw epics, blues jams, and jazzy numbers. There are all sorts of weird instruments—bagpipes, African drums, xylophones, harmoniums, and stuff I don't recognize. Waits' gravelly voice at times sound like Oscar the Grouch (especially when he's wailing "the neighborhood"), a Louis Armstrong or Howlin' Wolf impersonator, or an earnest singer-songwriter. There are even some spoken-word lounge stories.
The storytelling in the lyrics is great. Almost every song has a full narrative. There are songs about homesick sailors, dead soldiers, towns falling into disrepair, brutal criminals, and more—there are 15 tracks, but the album clocks in at a relatively short 41 minutes and change.
Standout tracks: "16 Shells from a 30.6" (outlaw rock), "Down Down Down" (uptempo bluesy jam), "Soldier's Things" (beautifully sad piano ballad), and I'm definitely adding "Underground" to my Halloween playlist.
Waits' voice takes some getting used to, and it isn't always super pleasant to listen to, but he inhabits his characters so well that it works a huge percentage of the time. Though, the blues impersonations can feel a little like a minstrel show sometimes, even if they sound good.
Maybe not something I'd listen to that often, but it's an impressive work of art and never boring. Fans of artists like Nick Cave, Dresden Dolls, and Tori Amos would probably enjoy it.
4/5
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Fri Jan 26 2024
We Are Family
Sister Sledge
“We Are Family” is possibly the most overplayed song of all time—and does not need to be over 8 minutes long. So, I was not super excited going into this album.
It’s alright. It’s not the worst, but it’s not really my style. I instantly knew the opening track but hadn’t realized they sang it (and of course it’s famous for being sampled in “Gettin Jiggy Wit It”). It’s a pretty typical disco song.
The rest of the album is more of the same: disco and slow-tempo 70s ballads. The reggae vibe on “You’re a Friend to Me” was kind of interesting, and the guitar solo on the closing track was fun. Beyond that it was mostly fine but not really memorable.
A lot of the lyrics aren’t bad and the singers have beautiful voices. I’m just not a big fan of disco or schlocky 70s soft rock. I’m not rabidly anti-disco—I wouldn’t turn it off if it happened to come on, and I’d dance to it in a club, but I’m not specifically seeking out disco nights or anything.
3/5
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Sat Jan 27 2024
She's So Unusual
Cyndi Lauper
I've known Cyndi's singles basically my whole life, but I never got around to listening to the full albums. She's an iconic badass, so I'm excited to delve into her work more.
Cyndi's one of those artists whose voice is so unique that you probably either love her or hate her, with little in between. She's very talented vocally, but she can also kind of sound like a drunk toddler sometimes (If you remember the old Will Ferrell sketches, I like to imagine she's who Pearl the drunk landlord grows up to be).
The opening track sounds like it could be a Tom Petty song. So far so good.
"When You Were Mine" — I didn't realize Prince had written a song for her. It's got a cool Prince meets The Cure meets Devo vibe to it. I like how her voice is kind of subdued and deeper in the mix during the verses and then gets showcased in the chorus.
"She Bop" might be my favorite of the singles — partly because it's not as overplayed as the others, but also because of the guts it probably took to put this song out at the time as a female artist. It's also a banger (pun intended?).
I honestly thought Cyndi's voice would start to get on my nerves after a while, but that didn't really happen (the spoken parts in the background of closing track "Yeah Yeah" are a little annoying, but not enough to ruin the song).
This album has a lot of classic new wave sounds but there's enough funky variety that it doesn't get boring. It's something fans of bands like the B-52s and Oingo Boingo would like. Fans of No Doubt and Carly Rae Jepsen would probably enjoy it too.
4/5
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Sun Jan 28 2024
Meat Puppets II
Meat Puppets
I'd heard the name Meat Puppets but had never listened to them. My first thought going into this album was holy crap, why are there 19 tracks? Turns out Tidal just has terrible UX and doesn't always mark the extra tracks (or that the albums are rereleases, for that matter). It was originally 12 tracks, all pretty short. I ended up sticking around for the extras anyway.
"Split Myself in Two" — the lyrics are fun, but the music is basically "Blitzkrieg Bop."
"Magic Toy Missing" is a Primus meets Grateful Dead-goes-punk jam session? Kind of a bop (ha ^), though.
Third song — alright, so rockabilly punk is where we're going. I can dig it.
Fourth track — is this where Beck got his inspiration from? Fun post-punk instrumental break in the middle of this song.
Sonically, I like the more psychedelic songs like "Aurora Borealis" and "We're Here." But the more country songs like "Climbing" aren't bad.
"Lake of Fire" sounds like Neil Young on a bad trip (in a good way).
Heading into the extra tracks, you get a sense of their thrashier style on the intro of "Teenagers" before it mellows out into more of a psychedelic jam. I could take or leave the thrash stuff — kind of glad they decided to evolve into the latter sound.
I've never seen Nirvana's Unplugged show (aside from a few snippets), but knowing that Meat Puppets were guests and performed several of these songs with them makes sense to me. You can definitely hear the influence this band had on Cobain and grunge.
I liked this album way more than I was expecting to. I'm a big fan of The Living End, so rockabilly punk isn't unfamiliar to me. And I don't *love* jam bands, but I can do some Phish in moderation, and I enjoy a lot of The Cure's more psychedelic stuff, so this album was an interesting mix of all of that. Not perfect, but I'd listen to this again.
4/5 stars
4
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Mon Jan 29 2024
Your New Favourite Band
The Hives
This..this is satirical, right? This is some meta commentary about punk music? A cynical ploy to see how many idiots will buy this garbage? Because if not, holy shit.
Generic music, generic (bad) lyrics. The first track is a blatant rip-off of Blur. This is like rich kids doing a book report on what they think punk music is.
I stand corrected—Slayer was not the longest 28 minutes of my life. This was. At least Slayer puts effort into their lyrics. Good god.
I cannot begin to understand why this band is on this list, especially for a compilation album that seems to have been a blatant cash grab—they weren’t famous enough after releasing multiple albums, so they repackaged the best (!) songs off of them and released that.
I’d give this negative stars if I could.
1
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Tue Jan 30 2024
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
I can't believe I never listened to this album before. "Fast Car" is a classic, of course, but I only really knew her radio hits. It's up there with the greats of the singer songwriter genre. Hard to believe she was only 22-23 when this came out.
The first four tracks are a fantastic series of songs that sound timeless and (unfortunately) timely even today. The naive optimism of the opening track is almost heartbreaking given where we are today. The a capella delivery of track four (Behind the Wall) is incredible and a really effective way to set the atmosphere of the song's tragic story.
Starting around track five a few of the songs have a noticeably late 80s/early 90s sound to them. They're still great songs, but they don't have the same timeless feel to them.
Other standout tracks: "Mountain O' Things" "Why?" and "For My Lover"
4
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Wed Jan 31 2024
Young Americans
David Bowie
I'm a little conflicted about this album. It feels like soulless soul—which I think is what Bowie was going for—so, in that he was successful. But it's also not the most enjoyable thing to listen to because of that.
Most of the lyrics seem to reflect that emptiness—songs about excess drugs, excess sex (but longing for love), the loneliness of fame. It's an interesting juxtaposition to the mostly upbeat music. But the music gets a little repetitive over the course of the album. There's almost always a sax solo, there's usually a vamp section where the band jams out, etc. The songs all seem to go on and on, and after a while it's like listening to the SNL band.
The "Across the Universe" cover is very meh. It's like a David Bowie karaoke performance.
The best song is "Fame," mostly because it's the only song that really deviates from the formula in any noticeable way.
Not a terrible album, but probably not something I'd listen to much. Soft 3/5.
3
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Thu Feb 01 2024
Vauxhall And I
Morrissey
I wanted to hate this album, but it's actually pretty good. Damn it.
Catchy melodies and clever lyrics without leaning too much toward Morrissey's more obnoxious and pretentious tendencies.
"The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get" (which is apparently about his legal feud with former band mate Mike Joyce and not about a stalker) kind of sounds like an Oasis song. Some of the other songs sound like a less saccharine Robbie Williams.
"Hold On To Your Friends" sounds like something Morrissey sings to himself in the mirror—he should listen to that guy.
Other stand-out tracks: "I am Hated for Loving," "Lazy Sunbathers," "Speedway"
Mozz is an insufferable person, but sometimes he makes good music.
4/5 stars
4
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Fri Feb 02 2024
Nilsson Schmilsson
Harry Nilsson
I didn't realize how many of these songs I already knew going into this album as someone who vaguely knew the name but had never listened to Harry.
"Gotta Get Up" gained new fame from Netflix's "Russian Doll," which is where I knew it from. It's a great jam to kick off the album—it kind of sounds like what would happen if Billy Joel and the Beatles did a song together.
I definitely get why this guy was known as the American Beatle. His style is very eclectic and experimental in the same way the Beatles were in the late 60s, and a lot of the instrumentation sounds Beatles-esque. He even sort of sounds like Paul McCartney on "Driving Along" and "Down." At other times his voice and the music bare some resemblance to Aaron Neville, Hall and Oates, and the Beach Boys.
I had no idea he covered "Without You"—as a millennial, it's always been a Mariah Carey song to me, and that version remains my favorite. But I probably like the original Badfinger version second best; sorry, Harry.
I also didn't know this dude was responsible for "Coconut." What a weird (and cringe by today's standards) song ... and yet, inexplicably a jam. But it gets a little annoying after a while too. Conflicted feelings about that one. Putting it after "Without You" is kind of hilarious, though.
"Let the Good Times Roll" sounds like another weird hybrid of the Beatles ("When I'm Sixty-Four"), Billy Joel, and honky tonk. The harmonica solo is fun.
"Jump Into The Fire" sounds like a mashup of "I Fought the Law" and "Mony Mony." It's a good song, but it goes on too long. The drum solo is cool.
I wasn't a huge fan of "The Moonbeam Song" or "I'll Never Leave You," though I appreciate the different movements the latter goes through, almost like a classical piece.
I'd give it a 3.5 out of 4. It's pretty good, but it has a few clunkers for me.
3
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Sat Feb 03 2024
Nevermind
Nirvana
I've grown to appreciate Nirvana a bit more over the years, but I never really got into them. I was more of an Offspring and Soundgarden fan. The album's good, and I can't deny the impact the band had on music, but I've never understood the deification of Cobain. I wonder how they'd be received today if he hadn't died.
A bunch of the tracks in the middle sound similar and start to run together a bit. I like the tracks that break the mold—"Lithium" and "Something in the Way" for example. "Territorial Vibes" has cool lyrics, but the music sounds like a Foo Fighters song—I wonder how much input Dave had on this one. "Endless, Nameless" has a cool post-punk, almost goth vibe to it.
Speaking of post-punk, it will forever bother me how "Come As You Are" is bigger than the song it ripped off, Killing Joke's "Eighties" (who ripped off the also great song "Life Goes On" by the Damned).
Standout tracks: Lithium, Something in the Way
3.5/5
3
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Sun Feb 04 2024
Fishscale
Ghostface Killah
I have to admit I wasn't listening super closely to the first third of the album, but once I focused in it was decent. I'm not a big fan of gangsta rap, but this isn't exclusively that. There's a lot of variation and engaging content. The lyricism was well done and witty; the hooks, samples, and beats were catchy; and it was surprisingly feminist. The skits were absolutely dumb, though—"Heart Street Directions" should've been on the Dr. Octagon album, and I don't mean that in a complimentary way. It's also pretty long (even taking the skits out).
Probably closer to a 3.75, but I'll give it a 4/5.
4
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Mon Feb 05 2024
Live At The Star Club, Hamburg
Jerry Lee Lewis
Holy hell, this guy was a train wreck and a psychopath. It's really difficult to separate the art from the artist with this one.
This live album is entertaining, but I don't think it's the greatest live album ever. Is he passionate or just on lots of cocaine?
His versions of these songs are good, and he's got chops on the piano, but I'd rather listen to Little Richard. The only way I can really enjoy "Great Balls of Fire" is by picturing Goose playing it in "Top Gun."
3/5
3
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Tue Feb 06 2024
Off The Wall
Michael Jackson
Other than "Thriller," I'm more of a greatest hits person when it comes to MJ and haven't listened to many albums straight through. So, I wasn't familiar with most of the non-single songs on here.
I have to say, I'm starting to come around on disco when it leans toward the funkier side, which a lot of this album does. The songs on here are fun, but it does get repetitive lyrically with most songs essentially boiling down to "let's dance all night." That said, "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" is a banger to open with. The title track is also great—it sounds like an early draft of "Thriller" at points.
"She's Out of My Life" is a standout track on the album, both for being a ballad and for the quality of the lyrics. Stevie Wonder's clearly of a different caliber than young MJ. The electric piano does sound pretty dated, and it does sort of interrupt the party flow, but it's still a great song. "I Can't Help It" is another great contribution from Stevie.
The "Girlfriend" cover is the worst song on the album. Those lyrics, yikes—what the hell, Macca? "It's the Fallin in Love" is the next worst track on the album. It sounds like a weird Dirty Dancing throwaway even though it predates the movie by several years (I blame David Foster).
It's really the music that saves this album from being forgettable. There are some great horn sections. The bass line on "Get on the Floor" is ridiculous. And vocally, MJ is at the top of his game. It's a great party album.
4/5
4
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Wed Feb 07 2024
Casanova
The Divine Comedy
Richard Cheese, Morrissey, and Baz Luhrmann get together to make an album—seriously, what the hell did I just listen to?
I like camp. I like baroque pop. This is too much.
2/5
2
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Thu Feb 08 2024
Come Find Yourself
Fun Lovin' Criminals
Another album where I really don't understand why it's on the list. This reveals the British bias of the list too, since these guys are American but never really got famous except in Europe.
It's not the worst thing I've listened to. The music is actually pretty good, and the Bond cover song is good. But the lyrics are pretty bad. It's like LFO trying to be the Beastie Boys.
2/10
2
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Fri Feb 09 2024
Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Pavement
I hadn't really listened to much Pavement, though I knew "Cut Your Hair" off this album. I know this band is super revered, but it was just okay for me, at least on first listen. They're like a rougher Weezer—not bad, but not totally my style. They also sound a bit like Pixies, who I like more, so maybe the album will grow on me over time.
Some of the tracks were cool—"Cut Your Hair," "Unfair," and "Range Life" were highlights for me—but a lot of the lyrics are really esoteric and the music can get same-samey after a while.
Other things I noticed were that the opening track seems to rip off the melody from Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” (fitting since they remind me of Weezer and their song "Buddy Holly" also came out in 1994). There’s also a part in “5-4=Unity” that’s obviously take from “She’s So Heavy” by the Beatles. I just thought that was interesting since a lot of the songs are about the death of rock n roll.
3/5 for me right now, but I'll probably give it a few more listens and see if it grows on me.
3
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Sat Feb 10 2024
Cloud Nine
The Temptations
Pretty good album. The first few songs are pretty funky for a band I associate with doowop—I like it. The second half is a lot more of the more traditional stuff I was expecting, which is also pretty good.
I’m more familiar with the earlier Temptations songs with the other lead singer. But the new guy has a cool rasp to his voice. It’s got a James Brown feel to it. The bass singer’s voice is also cool.
I personally prefer the Marvin Gaye version of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” but their version isn’t bad.
A couple things I didn’t enjoy about the album—the falsetto guy’s voice gets very grating. Some of my favorite singers are famous for their falsetto, but this dude sounds like a whinier child Michael Jackson. The other issue I had is “Runaway Child, Running Wild” going for 9:30–completely unnecessary. I was crying for my mama by the end.
I’d probably pick a few tracks rather than listen to the full album again, but I wouldn’t turn it off if it came on.
3
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Sun Feb 11 2024
Machine Head
Deep Purple
This album blew me away. I really only knew them from “Smoke on the Water,” so I went into it expecting more psychedelic blues rock—and there is plenty of that.
But when the opening track kicks off and it’s symphonic metal?! Holy shit, I was not prepared. As much as I loved the bluesy tunes on this album, the metal tracks stole the show.
One of the best albums I’ve listened to from this list so far.
Favorite tracks: “Highway Star,” “Pictures of Home,” and “Space Truckin”
5/5
5
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Mon Feb 12 2024
Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park
I’m a bit conflicted about this album. Listening to it now, parts of it feel very dated—the turntable scratches, the scream singing—it’s very of its early ‘00s rap rock time.
On the other hand, I remember being in eighth grade when this album came out and screaming right along with Chester. Lyrics about alienation, failure, and feeling on the verge of losing it spoke directly to my angst-ridden tween self.
I think a lot of the songs still hold up pretty well. And I still think Linkin Park was unique among the other rap rock/nu metal bands of the day by having two leads, Mike the rapper and Chester the singer. Chester’s melodic hooks make the album an enjoyable listen. And given what we know now about the struggles eventually leading to his suicide, the lyrics hit harder.
Some of the songs are skippable and it’s a bit melodramatic, but it still takes me right back to those days.
4/5 (probably closer to a 3.5, but I’ll round up on this one).
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Tue Feb 13 2024
Tapestry
Carole King
One of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time. It’s crazy how many big songs are on this album.
It’s definitely very piano focused and there are a lot of slower songs, but there’s enough variation on the album—“I Feel the Earth Move,” “Smackwater Jack”— to keep it from feeling repetitive. Aretha’s version of “(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman” is probably the definitive performance, but King’s version is still good, and it’s a testament to her (and Gerry Goffin’s) songwriting that so many legends have performed it.
This is one of the few albums that everyone in my family can agree on despite very different tastes in music. There’s just something about King’s voice, vulnerability, and sheer talent that crosses divides.
5/5
5
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Wed Feb 14 2024
One Nation Under A Groove
Funkadelic
Really really enjoyed this album. It's got a lot of the funk you would expect from George Clinton, but there's also a ton of Hendrix-inspired psychedelic rock and even prog rock too ("Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?!"—not I!).
A lot of the songs are really long, but they kept my interest. You could also just vibe out to it as background music if you wanted.
"Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers)" is batshit crazy, in the best way possible. Ridiculous but kind of poignant at the same time. The guitar shredding on the last (live) song is something Hendrix and Prince would be proud of.
"I love jazz, I love rock, anything with a swing"—this line from "Cholly (Funk Getting Ready To Roll)" sums up the album pretty well.
5/5
5
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Thu Feb 15 2024
AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
Ice Cube
Eh, it was ok. I can see why this would be included on a list of influential albums. There's a lot of sociopolitical commentary on the album that's on point, and the fact that it's still relevant today proves the importance of the album.
On the other hand, the over the top machismo and misogyny really drags the album down and undermines the more important points being made. The meta commentary and self-deprecation happening on "It's a Man's World" starts to address this, but it never quite gets there. At the end of the song, Cube's still left holding the same gross opinions about women.
The hypocrisy of so much of the album trying to justify gang life as an inevitability for Black men held down by systemic racism while refusing to see how the same systems (and his own behavior as a womanizer) create the "bitches and hoes" he has so much contempt for is pretty bad. The repeating themes of every Black man Cube disagrees with being a sellout and all women (except for the "pick me" ones) being whores get old fast. "You Can't Fade Me" is especially horrific.
I'd probably give it a 3.5 without the sexism. With it, I can't give it more than a 2.5—I won't be listening to it again.
2
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Fri Feb 16 2024
The Fat Of The Land
The Prodigy
I'm not sure if I know any other songs from The Prodigy besides "Smack My Bitch Up"—at least not off this album.
The opener is iconic, in large part because of all the controversy surrounding the lyrics and music video. I won't comment on that, but the song is decent (though long).
"Breathe" is a cool song. That synth line is very EBM/dark wave, and the vocals and guitars are like a mix of punk (Sex Pistols) and Britpop (Blur). Then add the trip hop, and it's a great dance mix.
"Funky Shit" sounds like an inferior version of the Mortal Kombat song, sorry. I could have also done without the weird vacuum and siren sounds at the end.
"Fuel My Fire" is probably my favorite track on the album. It actually sounds like a real song and not just a collection of loops and sounds.
A lot of the songs seem to follow a formula of one part trip hop, one part Brit pop, one part industrial. Sometimes the result is cool, and other times it starts to get repetitive. The "Oriental" synth line of "Minefields" stands out, as do the bagpipes in "Climbatize," but then both songs devolve into more of the same. Most of the lyrics are simple and repetitive in the same way—just something to fill the space rather than trying to say anything.
My biggest complaint with this album is that the songs are too long. In the context of a rave that's fine, but it's not something I'd just listen to at home. There's not enough variation in the music to keep me interested that long.
The album is fine. Very repetitive and forgettable.
3
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Sat Feb 17 2024
Neon Bible
Arcade Fire
I knew the name Arcade Fire but couldn't name any of their songs going into this album. It wasn't until it started playing that I realized I knew the closing track "My Body is a Cage." I can't remember where I first heard it, but it might have been in the Netflix show "Dark."
And that's very fitting, because the songs on this album are very cinematic, both in their expansive sound and in the stories the lyrics tell. The album reminds me of The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen, both of whom the band have claimed as influences. They're also not out of place with contemporary bands like The Lumineers or Edward Sharpe and the Magnificent Zeros (the choral harmonies between a male and female singer and shouts of "Hey!"); but where those bands typically irritate me, Arcade Fire doesn't. Maybe it's because I haven't heard their songs played to death on the radio, but something about Arcade Fire feels more authentic and less trite than those other bands. Or maybe it's because I've been listening to so much post punk lately and my brain is primed for this kind of expansive, melodramatic, tribally rhythmic music.
I enjoyed this album from beginning to end and actually didn't expect it to be over so soon. I immediately went back to listen to some of the tracks again, and I expect that this album will enter my regular rotation.
Album Highlights:
"Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" is a really cool song that uses the two vocalists perfectly to tell the story as two halves from each narrator's point of view.
"No Cars Go" starts out as a post punk song that wouldn't be out of place on a Cure or Joy Division album and crescendos to a cinematic anthem reminiscent of U2 or Talking Heads.
"Ocean of Noise" starts out dark and ends on a hopeful note as it grows to a swell of mariachi-esque horns that wouldn't be out of place on a Mon Laferte album.
"My Body Is a Cage" is another dark anthemic song that works well as the album closer.
5/5
5
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Sun Feb 18 2024
Woodface
Crowded House
I know Crowded House was huge in Australia and New Zealand, but here in the US they're one hit wonders known for "Don't Dream It's Over." Despite an obsession with music from Oceania, I've never explored this band and only know a couple other Neil Finn songs from "The Hobbit" soundtrack and other artists' covers of his work.
This is very typical of early 90s pop rock with Beatles-esque harmonies, lots of jangly guitars, and that vaguely Southern Americana sound that was popular with artists like Tom Petty, Sister Hazel, Jude Cole, etc. I'm not complaining, because I like all that stuff. Lyrically, there are a lot of love songs that wouldn't be out of place on a Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams, or Richard Marx album.
Some of the synths and effects sound a bit dated. "Chocolate Cake" is a song critical of American excess and materialism/pop art that's a little cheesy in its preachiness. "All I Ask" is an odd foray into something that's part lounge song part Bond theme that doesn't work all that well.
On the other hand, the bluesy guitar work of "Tall Trees" is cool, as are the Finn brothers' harmonies throughout the album. The hand drums on "She Goes On" give an interesting twist to what is otherwise a pretty standard mid-tempo pop song (it also reminds me of "Everything I Own" by Bread).
Overall, the album isn't bad. It's got a lot of good melodies and guitar work. But it's also very of its time, and I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to listen to this brand of radio friendly soft rock again outside of a few of the singles.
3/5
3
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Mon Feb 19 2024
Remedy
Basement Jaxx
Why is there so much electronica on this list??? Please make it stop.
Most of this album becomes background noise. A few tracks actually attempt to be full songs with real vocals. The opening track "Rendez-Vu" isn't bad, though it sounds like it's trying to recreate Eiffel 65's "Blue."
"U Can't Stop Me" isn't bad either. It has kind of an Aaliyah vibe to it that's cool. And I didn't realize they did "Red Alert"—I think I thought that was Daft Punk or something (because, again, this is really not my genre)—it's not terrible.
Those are probably the only highlights on this album. Most of the tracks don't even have real lyrics, just bizarre vocalizations or noises. There are some cool samples, but you can only loop the same 4 seconds of music so many times before it gets annoying—when you do it for 5+ minutes straight, it starts to feel like torture. By track 6 I was ready for it to be over. Every now and then something would draw my attention, like the poor attempt at a whistle vocal on "Always Be There" that's more of a scream, but then it would fade back into electronic monotony. I ended up fast forwarding through "Same Old Show" because of the obnoxious moaning. From then on, that became the norm for me—listen to the first 30 seconds or so, then jump forward a few times to find that nothing much had changed and I wasn't missing anything by ending the song early.
Like all the other electronica albums I've been forced to listen to, I have no interest in listening to this stuff outside of a club context (and even then, this is definitely not the type of music I seek out at clubs).
2/10 It's not literally unlistenable, but I have no desire to sit through it again.
2
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Tue Feb 20 2024
Raising Hell
Run-D.M.C.
This album brought to you by Adidas and Mother Goose ...
I thought I'd like this album more, but it was just alright for me. The classics are still classic ("It's Tricky" and "Walk This Way") but a lot of the other songs are more of a novelty than something I'd want to listen to all the time. I never realized how into nursery rhymes these guys are. And "My Adidas" is just weird—it's basically product placement.
Run DMC songs are at their best when they use samples and incorporate rock (see the above classics). When left to create their own beats, they apparently just play around with all the Casio keyboard presets, to often annoying results.
Lyrically, most of the songs are just about how great they are at rapping. It gets old pretty quickly. And the "beatboxing" on "Hit It Run" is more like someone making fart sounds.
I don't know, I get how influential these guys were, and some of the songs are catchy. But a lot of it just feels cheesy now.
Best songs: "Tricky," "Walk This Way," "Raising Hell"
I'll give it a 4, but it's really more of a 3.5 at best.
4
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Wed Feb 21 2024
Queen II
Queen
Queen has always been more of a greatest hits band for me. I enjoy their music, but I haven't explored their discography much. The only song on this album I was already familiar with was "Seven Seas of Rhye."
That said, I enjoyed this album quite a bit. And I think it's because it's more diverse than a lot of their stuff (at least side A). Freddie was amazing, no argument there—but he sure could suck all the air out of a room. It's easy to forget just how great the other guys in the band were too. With all the overdubbing and vocal layering of Freddie's voice, you could be forgiven for not remembering how much the other guys added to the choral effects of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and other classics. You get to experience their individual contributions on this album, with Roger and Brian each taking lead vocal duties on a song and a more varied sound on the first half of the album.
The first instrumental song is a throwaway (sorry, Brian). Luckily, it's short. Then we're on to two great songs with Freddie at the helm that are very Queen, but also have shades of Led Zeppelin. The acoustic guitar solo on "White Queen" is fantastic. The fourth song wouldn't be out of place on one of Zeppelin's folkier albums, and it really showcases what a great voice Brian has. The closing track of side A is a bittersweet ode to mothers with Roger taking lead on vocals. The song is heavier, with echoes of both Zeppelin and The Who. Again, it's easy to forget that Roger has a great voice too, even with all the harmony work he did with Freddie.
The second half of the album is much more standard Queen—all the songs feature Freddie on lead vocals, and there's a lot more of the melodrama and theatrical flair the band is most known for. It's still an enjoyable listen, but, if I'm honest, it can get to be a lot after a while. Whereas the variety on the first half of the album was refreshing and gave me a chance to cleanse my palate, so to speak, the second half is like an unstoppable onslaught. Still fun, and it's interesting to hear Queen's take on some of the dark fantasy themes popularized by bands like Zeppelin. But after a while, the songs started to run together.
I'll give this album a 4. It's not perfect, but I'd enjoy repeat listens.
4
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Thu Feb 22 2024
Bitte Orca
Dirty Projectors
Why?
Why is this album here? Why was this album made? Why do critics like it so much? Why did I sit through it?
The first two songs are basically unlistenable. The next few tracks have areas of promise, but they inevitably devolve into noise and weirdness. At some point I kind of stopped paying attention and didn't even realize the album had ended and the streaming algorithm was playing related artists.
I can appreciate the idea of playing with sound and textures to create more of an art piece (a painting, if you will) than a song, but that's just not how or why I listen to music. I listen to it for the stories and the emotional connection, and there's just not a lot of that here.
There’s some interesting guitar work, I guess. Otherwise, unless you enjoy Tiny Tim trying to do Bjork and pretentious bloviating about nonsense, don’t waste your time or torture your ears.
2/5
2
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Fri Feb 23 2024
Now I Got Worry
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
There’s a handful of decent blues songs here—“Chicken Dog” and “Hot Shit”…maybe a few others that I can’t remember.
There’s also a lot of not great stuff. The album is all over the place, and long at 16 tracks. There’s a song that sounds like a bad Rolling Stones impression, several that sound like an Elvis impersonator in a Stooges tribute band, and a couple songs that sound like Jet before Jet existed (I hate Jet). There’s even some proggy/jammy/math rock stuff happening. There’s also a bunch of just whacked out nonsense, like the closing track, which is a dude making unhinged sounds to a horror movie soundtrack.
Maybe this band is worth seeing live, but a studio recording shouldn’t be a bunch of random shit thrown at the wall. Garage rock blues that dabbles in experimental art rock isn’t my thing.
2/5
2
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Sat Feb 24 2024
Live And Dangerous
Thin Lizzy
I'm not sure if I've been listening to the wrong Thin Lizzy songs, but I've never been able to get into them. Until now. This album was really good.
It's interesting that it's a live album—there've been a few live albums on the list so far, which I feel conflicted about. I'm not sure what makes this an especially amazing live album, though it's a really good show. But as someone with no real background knowledge of the band, I like that it's kind of a greatest hits. The only song I knew was "The Boys Are Back in Town"—which I shamefully thought was by KISS.
The musicianship is really good and Phil Lynott's vocals are great. The band is one part blues, one part Hendrix-esque psychedelic rock, one part KISS-esque hard rock, with some metal and Springsteen-esque lyrics thrown in. It makes for a good mix.
To the live aspect, Lynott's engagement with the crowd was really fun, and that drum solo on "Sha-la-la" was great.
The album was pretty long—just under an hour and a half—so I'm not sure how often I'd listen to it again, but I definitely gained an appreciation for the band and will check out more of their stuff.
4 out of 5 (but probably more of a 4.5).
4
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Sun Feb 25 2024
Post Orgasmic Chill
Skunk Anansie
I feel like this album deserves a star for most ironic album title—unless we’re talking about praying mantises. This band has zero chill.
Really liked this album and not sure how I missed this band when they were popular. I’m not totally sure what genre they are—nu metal? They’re part metal, part punk, part riotgrrl!, and part Garbage-style post grunge. The album opens with a cinematic “Kashmir”-esque banger and goes pretty hard for most of the tracklist, with the occasional quieter moment, though even those have intense moments. The music mostly reminds me of bands like Chevelle and Deftones, but also groups like Within Temptation, Kidney Thieves, and even 4 Non Blondes at times. The lyrics lean heavily sociopolitical, which was a nice change from a lot of the frivolous albums I’ve been getting lately.
I’m a big fan of female-fronted rock bands, and Skin’s one of the best vocalists I’ve heard. Her range in both style and literal vocal range are impressive. At times she sounds a bit like Tina Turner at her more rock moments. She’s also got the passion and emotion of Janis Joplin. The swagger of Grace Jones. The vocal maneuverability of an Annie Lennox or Sharon den Adel. And the anger of the best punk has to offer.
The album has a lot of tracks and starts to feel a little weighed down toward the end, but still a solid 4/5.
4
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Mon Feb 26 2024
xx
The xx
I love a good atmospheric post punk/dream pop vibe, so I knew I was going to like this from the first track.
It definitely leans more toward a synth/indie pop sound with the melodies and electronic aspects, but it’s got solid post punk guitar and bass lines and well done sparse arrangements. “Heart Skipped a Beat” could easily be a song from The Cure or New Order.
There’s a lot on here that fans of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, or even Feist and Lana Del Ray would find familiar and appealing.
As much as I love the genre, there’s a tendency for it to feel formulaic after a while, so the dual vocalists were a nice surprise to keep things fresh. I’m kind of meh on the male vocalist’s sound—it’s not *bad*, but he’s nothing special—but I really like the woman’s voice. The interplay between them is cool. Even so, the album follows the formula of maintaining the "chillwave" theme throughout, so I could forgive someone for finding the album boring.
Is this a revolutionary album that should be on an all-time, must-listen list? Ehh, not sure about that. It seems pretty typical of the genre to me. It's also not subtle about its influences. The song “Infinity” seems to be a direct interpolation of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” though they somehow got away with not giving him a writing credit. "Night Time" also borrows heavily from the soundscape of The Cure's "Seventeen Seconds" and "Faith" albums.
Then again, I came to post punk very late—in the last year or so—and a lot of the bands I listen to are from the last decade, so maybe I’m under-appreciating the influence The xx had on the revival scene? Based on the streaming radio selections that came on after the album finished, their sound seems to fall firmly within the general sound of that era, so I'm not sure about that either.
That said, is it a solid album that I’ll add to my regular rotation? Heck yes.
4/5
4
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Tue Feb 27 2024
Joan Armatrading
Joan Armatrading
I'll confess that my only knowledge of Joan Armatrading's music before this was "Drop the Pilot" and only because of a Mandy Moore cover.
I'd definitely put her up there with the other classic singer songwriters of the time—Carole King, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, etc. Her storytelling is top notch.
The musicianship is top notch as well, with some great guitar solos (like on the closing track). The sound oscillates between folky, almost country acoustic songs, funky blues numbers (with a bit of jazz), and harder bluesy rock. Fans of Joni Mitchell and Led Zeppelin (the album was produced by Glyn Johns) could both find songs to vibe to on this album.
There aren't many missteps here, though the random bass vocal guy on "Love and Affection" kind of ruins an otherwise good song. It comes out of nowhere and sounds so out of place.
Best tracks: "Down to Zero" "Save Me" "People" "Like Fire"
5/5
5
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Wed Feb 28 2024
1999
Prince
Remember when we all thought we were going to die in Y2k and "1999" was absolutely everywhere? The quaint old times (or maybe we did all die then, and this is the Bad Place?).
It's undeniable that Prince was a musical genius. Dude played like 17 instruments, wrote, produced, danced—he did it all. His performance of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the George Harrison tribute might just be the best live performance ever.
That said, Prince's music has always been an artist who, like the man himself, I prefer in small doses. I own Purple Rain but don't listen to it that often. Likewise, the first two tracks on this album are iconic (the aforementioned "1999" and "Little Red Corvette"). "Free" is also pretty good. The rest of the album was pretty meh for me. Musically, I bet it was mind blowing at the time with its use of synths and drum machines and experimentation. And there are some great funk grooves, and several amazing guitar solos. But most of the songs are overly long and start to become background music after awhile. And the lyrics—dude, we get it: you like sex. There's only so many times you can simulate sex noises on a record before it starts to feel like someone's twelve-year-old nephew hijacked the microphone trying to be funny. It's not even that I'm scandalized by it—it's just not very interesting after the third song, let alone the tenth.
3/5
3
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Metal Box
Public Image Ltd.
I hadn't heard this album before. I only knew a couple songs from PiL's more commercial 80s days. Holy crap was I missing out.
As soon as "Albatross" started playing, my immediate reaction was, "Oh, so that's where Siouxsie and the Banshees got their guitar sound from. And also where Ian Curtis of Joy Division got his singing style from, and where Joy Division/New Order got their electronic sound from."
The Sex Pistols changed music in a huge way with their 1976 Manchester show. Without that show, we might not have had the Banshees, Joy Division, the Smiths, The Cure, and so many other giants of post punk (and goth), let alone all the bands those groups inspired themselves. Likewise for The Clash's (PiL guitarist Keith Levene's former band) influence on music.
After SP disbanded, Johnny Lydon went on to form PiL. This is very different from the Sex Pistols or The Clash. In a great way. It's much more experimental, less one note than the punk that SP put out—don't get me wrong, I like SP, but if you've heard one of their songs you've pretty much heard them all.
The guitar on this album is crazy. The bass lines are nuts. The lyrics and the dark pre-goth, pre-industrial atmosphere on songs like "Careering" and "Bad Baby" sound way ahead of their head time (I realize both the Banshees and Joy Division had already released albums when this came out, but it's difficult to disentangle who inspired who at this point).
The digital-sounding effects on "Socialist" are mind blowing.
This album is basically everything I love about post punk. So so good.
5/5
5
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Fri Mar 01 2024
Strange Cargo III
William Orbit
Ugh, the only thing worse than electronica is faux new age electronica.
There were some cool guitar riffs in the first couple songs, and then I resigned myself to suffering through it as background music. But even that didn't lead to an enjoyable experience, because there was always some random sound or an odd voice to pull my focus back to it and interrupt what I was doing.
Is the "Deux Ex Machina" track an actual excerpt from a video game vignette? Like, what on Earth am I listening to?
No thank you. Do not want.
1 star
1
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Sat Mar 02 2024
Bookends
Simon & Garfunkel
It's weird to me that something is called a concept album when it's actually one part concept album and one part random leftovers and unreleased tracks. There's a vague cohesiveness to the album because of the duo's general guitar sound and the sort of carnival sound that opens the second half (similar to the theme on the first half), but I still kind of feel like they should be considered separate entities.
The first half—the concept half—was pretty interesting. It almost feels like the soundtrack to a short film that never got made ("Up: The Musical" given the theme?). The lyrics warrant a closer listen than I was able to give on the first go round, but musically it was enjoyable enough. I don't know if it's among S&G's best material, but for the most part it kept my interest. The "Sounds of Old People" track is at once arresting and jarring —fitting in with the theme of the album, but a little out of place as a non-musical interlude.
The second half of the album contains a seemingly random collection of re-released tracks, unreleased material, and songs from "The Graduate" soundtrack. Of course, "Mrs. Robinson" is a classic song from the movie. I'm vaguely familiar with "A Hazy Shade of Winter" in that I recognize the title and know I've heard it but wouldn't recognize the song (until the chorus). It heavily borrows from Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman." Similarly, "Old Friends" (on the first half of the album) reminds me a lot of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life," both in theme and some of the musical elements. Overall, the songs are a bit more upbeat, catchy, and energetic than the first half, but not necessarily as lyrically interesting.
Speaking of musical borrowing, that's one of the other things I noticed about this album—musically, there seems to be a lot of repetition of other S&G work (or, elements from songs on this album are reused in later songs). "Save a Child" shares part of the melody line with the chorus of "Me and Julio." "At the Zoo" is similar musically to "Mrs. Robinson," and "Fakin' It" shares the same drum pattern as "Celia." That's not necessarily bad, but it's something that very obviously stood out to me.
I enjoyed the album for the most part. The guitar work is interesting, and sometimes soothing, and the themes explored on the first half of the album work well as a cohesive set. And the catchier songs on the second half are fun to listen to. I'm not sure I'd listen to it a ton in the future, but it's a good album.
I'll give it a 4/5, but it's more of a 3.5 for me.
4
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Sun Mar 03 2024
Clube Da Esquina
Milton Nascimento
This was a pretty good album. I love Spanish/classical guitar, so I'm always down for that. And Portuguese is a nice language to listen to in songs. It was nice to break out of the overly British-centric nature of this list for a change and explore music from other parts of the world, particularly from non-English-language artists.
The album is really long—it definitely feels like 21 tracks. But most of the songs were interesting, catchy, vibey, or some combination of the three.
I'm not really sure what general pop/rock music was like in early 1970s Brazil/Latin America as a whole, but you can hear a ton of American/British/even South Asian influences in this album. There are songs that sound like The Beatles (a lot of those, including with the South Asian instrumentation on the more psychedelic tracks), Hendrix, The Doors, Carole King, Simon & Garfunkle, The Byrds, and I could go on. There's even a bit of whatever's happening in the theme for "The White Lotus" going on in "Lilia" haha.
It's an interesting mix of experimental psych rock and more traditional pop/rock sounds. Because of the language barrier, I'd probably listen to this more as background music, but I'd definitely listen again.
4/5
4
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Mon Mar 04 2024
Younger Than Yesterday
The Byrds
This was a fun album. It took a few listens for me, but it’s really grown on me. At first, I was half listening while doing other things and the tape distortions on the more experimental tracks were a bit grating. But it was a completely different experience when I sat down to actively listen and read the lyrics. This might actually be one of my favorite albums on this list so far. I may even try to find an old vinyl pressing for my collection.
I only really knew “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and their cover of “Mr. Tambourine Man” before hearing this album.
It had a lot of variety, ranging from the straight forward pop of early Beatles, the more whimsical and experimental side of Hendrix, the free love hippie music of Donovan and the Mamas and Papas, to the more psychedelic dirges of Jefferson Airplane and later Indian-influenced Beatles. “The Girl With No Name” could easily be a Tom Petty song.
As a big Cure fan, I can see a straight line from this band to them. Lots of jangly, 12-string guitar, heart on its sleeve vulnerable love songs, and psychedelic jamming. “Why” even has a very similar chord structure to “Boys Don’t Cry.”
Favorite tracks: C.T.A 102, Time Between, Everybody’s Been Burned, My Back Pages, Why
5/5
5
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Tue Mar 05 2024
Bossanova
Pixies
I've casually listened to this album once or twice before and liked it well enough. Listening to it again after getting more into post punk music makes me appreciate it a lot more. It's an interesting mix of post punk and surf rock. There are points where it even verges on goth (Is She Weird) and art rock (Hang Wire).
The addition of surf rock and more melodic elements to more traditional post punk elements sounds pretty innovative for a genre that can sometimes feel too formulaic. It's easy to see how bands like Pixies and Pavement paved (ha) the way for bands like Nirvana and the grunge movement.
Highlights:
"Celia Ann" is a banger of a song—it's like a cross between Sisters of Mercy and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme song.
"Velouria" sounds like it could be a Killing Joke song, really enjoyed it.
"Dig for Fire" has a bit of a Talking Heads meets Jimmy Eat World vibe, in a good way.
Not so great:
"Rock Music" is good musically, but the vocals are kind of annoying.
"Blown Away" kind of feels like a darker retread of "Here Comes Your Way"—I prefer HCYM.
Not a perfect album—there are a couple I was meh about. But a solid 4/5
4
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Wed Mar 06 2024
Born To Be With You
Dion
This was…not good. I’m not a big fan of Phil Spector’s production to begin with. Pair that with some trite lyrics and whiny singing, and yikes.
The first two songs made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. Why it was ever a thing to refer to someone’s love interest as “little girl” I will never understand. The second song is possibly the most melodramatic and cheesy way of describing unrequited love, and it’s also creepily paternalistic at the same time.
It doesn’t get much better after those. There are plenty more trite, sappy love songs and even an anti-drug song that could’ve been written by DARE.
The arrangements are typical Phil Spector—lots of wall of sound, overwrought string orchestration, and songs that should end at least two minutes earlier than they do. There’s also a weird country-lite bent to many of the songs (think John Denver) that doesn’t help with the cheese factor. Dion has a good voice, but he sounds shrill and whiny in a lot of these songs, and it’s not pleasant to listen to.
The only songs I actually enjoyed were “Only You Know” and “Good Lovin Man.” “New York City Song” isn’t terrible, but it’s also kind of cheesy.
2/5–even Dion hated this album apparently, so I’m not really sure why it’s on this list.
2
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Thu Mar 07 2024
Pornography
The Cure
Oh man, after the train wreck of the Dion album I had to listen to yesterday, I was so happy to see this in my queue (not that I don't listen to it monthly at a minimum anyway). I'm a Cure stan, so I can't really be objective about this album, but it's incredible.
This era of The Cure was part of an insanely prolific period in Robert Smith's life. In a span of 2-3 years he would make this album, become a Banshee, work on side project The Glove with Steve Severin, and release The Top, which is essentially a Smith solo album under The Cure name.
To be that prolific he was destroying himself. Too many drugs, nonstop work, no sleep. The end of the Pornography world tour would see the band break up as the powder keg finally exploded. Everyone thought The Cure was finished.
(Fun story: They actually tried to quit in the middle of the tour. After Robert and Simon got into a fist fight, they both bailed and went home. Robert's father told him people had paid money for tickets and ordered him to go back and finish the tour.)
So, to say that the band, and Robert especially, were not in a great mental space going into this album is an understatement. And it's clear from every aspect of the album. This album is dark and discordant and hopeless in all the best ways. The drums are relentless, as if marching toward death. The guitar and bass parts are dirgy and wailing. The lyrics are a horror show of depression, nihilism, self-hatred, and fear. Robert said he wrote the album to purge his mind of his darkest thoughts so he wouldn't kill himself.
And yet, there's still some beauty in it (I think). I know a lot of people find it noisy and unpleasant to listen to, but that's not the case for me. I think there are still great melodies here—The Hanging Garden, Siamese Twins, A Strange Day, Cold, to name a few. There's experimentation with sound and effects (Short Term Effect, Cold, Pornography). The album even ends on a defiantly optimistic note—"I must fight this sickness and find a cure." Sure, it's a little cheesy, but these dudes were barely 21-22 years old at the time and really going through it.
This is probably Lol Tolhurst's greatest contribution to The Cure as drummer. Simon Gallup is the coolest bass player there is. And Robert Smith is an iconoclast, a modern-day poet, and a way better guitarist than he gets credit for. Also, shoutout to Phil Thornalley for producing this album—you know, the guy most known for writing "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia!
It's tempting to want to downgrade my rating a bit knowing that their magnum opus was still to come (and that Disintegration is still out there lurking in this list somewhere)—but I won't. 5/5
Favorite songs: Siamese Twins, A Strange Day, The Figurehead
5
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Fri Mar 08 2024
Remain In Light
Talking Heads
I have mixed feelings about this album. I like some Talking Heads music, but some of their more artsy stuff can be an acquired taste. I appreciate the technological accomplishments of this album—it's essentially the first album to significantly incorporate loops, even though computer tech at the time couldn't actually handle creating them, so they had to learn to play the loops themselves. That's wild.
There are some really fun grooves throughout this album. It's difficult not to bop to it. The songs with sung vocals are generally catchy too. "Once in a Lifetime" is obviously a classic. "The Great Curve" is maybe my favorite track on the album.
On the other hand, the back half of the album starts to drag. The lyrics are mostly abstract nonsense (though they sometimes stumble on some cool ideas mostly by accident). The songs that are almost completely spoken word ("Houses in Motion" and "Seen and Not Seen") get a little annoying after a while. I know sing talking is what David Byrne is famous for, but this goes beyond that, and I felt like I was at some weird gallery show. Also the distorted trumpet solo in "Houses in Motion" sounds like a shofar haha.
And that's my biggest complaint with this album. It feels like an art project made by white students about the things they learned in school about African music—because that's basically what it is. They listened to Fela Kuti and read some academic articles about the cultural importance and function of music in African cultures and decided they wanted to make an Afrobeat record (with some dancehall and funk thrown in). There's just something derivative and a little appropriative about it that doesn't ruin the album, but rubs some of the shine off.
On that note, Jaqueline Kidjo (a singer from Benin) made a full cover album of "Remain in Light" in 2018 and it's incredible. It actually has the heart and vitality that Talking Heads attempted to imitate. Highly recommend everyone take a listen to it.
I'd give it a 3.5 if I could, but am rounding down to a 3. I appreciate the technological innovation and importance of this album, and I don't dislike it, but I also don't love it.
3
View Album
Sat Mar 09 2024
The Köln Concert
Keith Jarrett
The fact that this album was completely improvised on the spot is bonkers. As someone with zero music ability, the idea that someone can make something up that not only sounds good but also feels cohesive over that length of time is incredible to me.
So, from that perspective, I'm glad I listened to this album in my lifetime.
However, as impressive as it is and as nice as it sounds, an hour-long piano concerto isn't really something I'd seek out to listen to on my own. It inevitably becomes background music after a while. The things that make live music exciting to me are the energy and the interplay between the different musicians and instruments, especially in jazz. As someone who's been lucky enough to see Jon Batiste live, so much of the experience is watching the band interact with each other and feed off each other's energy. I've never been a huge fan of solo musicians, at least in an audio-only context. And while you can hear Jarrett's enthusiasm while he's playing, it still feels like it's missing something.
I'll give it a 4 because it is nice sounding and it's incredibly impressive. But I'd probably only listen to it again as background music as I was doing something else.
Addendum: Since I can't correct typos in my entries, I just wanted to make a note that in my review of Talking Heads' Remain in Light yesterday, I got the name of the singer from Benin wrong. It's Angelique Kidjo, not Jacqueline. That's what I get for trying to multitask.
4
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Sun Mar 10 2024
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age
“If Only” is okay. "Give the Mule What He Wants" has a fun groove to it that makes it stand out from the other tracks. "Spiders and Vinegaroons" (which wasn't on the original release) was kind of cool with the electronic drums and the Stevie Wonder-esque bass clavinet thingy.
Other than that, I wasn't really impressed with this album. With the extra tracks, the reissue version is a long hour of unending heavy power chords and deep drums (except on "Walkin on the Sidewalks" which has way too many cymbals—chill out) with the same droning vocal style and lyrics I could barely make out. It all runs together and gets tiring quickly.
Very post-grunge but nothing super interesting. Vocally, I'd much rather listen to Chris Cornell. Musically, I feel like this band is a mixture of Foo Fighters and a more commercial version of Tool—the dad rock version of Tool, if you will.
Speaking of Foo Fighters, I learned today that QOTSA was not Dave Grohl's baby, and that he actually only played with the band for a short time. It was during their most commercially successful period, so that's probably why I have that association. But even still, if you put a gun to my head and asked me whether half these songs were Foo Fighters or QOTSA, I'm not confident I'd get it right. And just as I've never been a big fan of Foo Fighters, QOTSA just doesn't really do it for me.
3/5 and I feel like that's generous.
3
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Mon Mar 11 2024
Tidal
Fiona Apple
I somehow never got into Fiona even though she should've been right up my alley. This was a really good album, especially when you realize that it was released when she was only 19. There's a maturity and polish to it that seems crazy when you compare it to the kind of stuff other artists put out at that age—unfortunately, a lot of that probably has to do with growing up too fast due to trauma.
The songs are all piano based and the lyrics are confessional and personal. There isn't much variation from the slow ballad. Criminal is probably the "rockiest" song on the album, and The First Taste is the most playful track. She has great voice control and sounds more mature than her years.
Highlights: Criminal, Slow Like Honey, The First Taste, Pale September
4
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Tue Mar 12 2024
Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
Derek & The Dominos
It's a shame Eric Clapton is such a terrible person because he makes good music. It's sad to see what he's become (or who he's revealed himself to really be) after making a career out of playing blues music and once counting Jimi Hendrix as one of his closest friends.
The fact that most of the original songs on this album were the result of the weirdest love triangle between him and George Harrison is also wild. Layla is one of the greatest songs in rock, but realizing it was written about another man's wife is yikes.
Anyway, to the actual album. It was good, often really good. The musicianship is fantastic, the songs are catchy, and Clapton and Bobby Whitlock sound great (even though I can't understand most of what they're actually saying). It's just really, really long. Between it being 14 tracks and several of the songs being covers, it feels very bloated. With so many of the songs also turning into long jam sessions, it starts to get tiring quickly. There's also not a ton of variation in the songs and, especially by the last half, they start to blur together.
I feel like the sole reason this album is on this list is because of Layla.
3/4
3
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Wed Mar 13 2024
Let's Get Killed
David Holmes
Oh, great, more electronica. The title of this album is apt because my first thought was, fucking kill me.
"Gritty Shaker" sounds like it should be a Tracy Morgan sketch.
Did the dude spitting bars on "Head Rush on Lafayette" get paid for it? Cause David Holmes being credited as the "lyricist" on all these tracks for recording random people is ridiculous.
The Bond song remix, Radio 7, started out with some promise, and then around 2:30 they had to ruin it with obnoxious feedback sounds. It also didn't need to be almost 6 minutes long.
Don't Die Just Yet was actually kind of cool. It was an actual song.
I couldn't really pay attention to the rest. Boring.
1/5
1
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Thu Mar 14 2024
Berlin
Lou Reed
This was an interesting album. It's got kind of a Rocky Horror meets Rent vibe to it. If you treat it as more of a musical/show than a straight album, it's not bad. It definitely gets melodramatic and can be a bit much in parts, but I didn't hate it. The campiness is definitely on par for a Lou Reed project. I don't know how much I'd listen to it again, though.
Best songs: Men of Good Fortune, How Do You Think It Feels, Oh Jim, Sad Song
4
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Fri Mar 15 2024
Rum Sodomy & The Lash
The Pogues
I'm conflicted about this one. I've never listened to much of The Pogues, though,"The Sunnyside of the Street" has been one of my favorite songs for ages. I love Irish music and I love post punk, so this should be a no brainer for me. But Shane MacGowan's (RIP) voice ranges from decent to unlistenable depending on the song.
Musically, this album is kind all over the place. The first two songs veer too far into polka territory for me. Then there are a few songs toward the middle that have an odd Wild West sound to them. The more traditional Irish songs and the more standard rock songs are pretty good, though.
"Wild Cats of Kilkenny" is a banger.
"I'm Not a Man You Meet Every Day" is great and Cait has a beautiful voice.
Shane sounds pretty good on "A Pair of Brown Eyes."
I appreciate the impact The Pogues had as a band, and there's some good stuff here, but it was a pretty mixed bag for me. I'm not sure I'd listen to the whole thing again.
3/5
3
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Sat Mar 16 2024
The Bends
Radiohead
I avoided Radiohead for the longest time, I think out of some contrarian streak to resist the hype, since I never really got why they were so beloved based off the singles I'd heard.
I finally started listening to them over the last year, and I can admit I was wrong. I still have most of their discography left to explore, including some of their most famous stuff. But I really enjoy earlier Radiohead, and I think The Bends might be my favorite of their albums (or at least of what I've heard so far).
There really isn't a bad song on this album. The melodies are great, and the sound is way more energetic than what I associated with them based off songs like Creep. Lyrically, this album is heavy, but it doesn't feel as heavy as it is because of the music (except for the last song). There's a lot about depression, loneliness, and trying to cope with the pressures of newfound fame. It's very personal but relatable at the same time.
Mea culpa. This band is good. Really good.
5/5
5
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Sun Mar 17 2024
Antichrist Superstar
Marilyn Manson
Manson kind of scared me as a kid, I'll admit. I don't know if I'm old now or if I don't get it, but...meh?
I know the handful of Manson hits and don't mind them, but a whole album of this is a lot.
There are some catchy songs on here, and I can appreciate the attempt at a concept album. But it just feels like the aural equivalent of an Eli Roth movie. It's just torture and disgust porn for the sake of shock value and trying to offend people.
It's not really that shocking, it's just not that interesting. Artists like Screaming Jay Hawkins and Alice Cooper had a sense of humor and genuine theatricality to them. Goth music explores the horrible and disgusting and tries to find the beauty in it. This is just...shock for shock value that takes itself way too seriously.
Reading about the making of this album just underscores what messed up, try-hard artists they are. You don't have to go so method for your art, dudes. It's cringey.
Add to that the accusations that have come out about Brian Warner over the last decade or so and, nah. No thanks. I'm good. Maybe I'll go read some Nietzsche and skip this sophomoric interpretation.
(Tangentially related—it's annoying how good "Redeemer" is from the Queen of the Damned soundtrack given what a garbage person he is).
2
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Mon Mar 18 2024
Rejoicing In The Hands
Devendra Banhart
I've been holding off rating this for a while because I wasn't fully paying attention the first time I listened to it and wanted to give it another shot when I could focus. The music seemed very typical of folk (which isn't necessarily bad, as I'm a fan of folk). All the tracks sounded very similar for the most part, which I think is at least somewhat intentional to give it a cohesive sound.
But there was also something kind of creepy about it, so I wanted to give a closer look to the lyrics and see if that was where the fuss about this album came from.
But with every passing day, I just can't seem to make myself put the album on again. There's a new assignment to listen to, and plenty of other good music to keep me occupied during the rest of the day. I just don't want to come back to this one.
So, I feel like I have my answer. If there's no pull to listen to this album again, how good can it really be (at least to me)?
2/5
2
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Tue Mar 19 2024
Live!
Fela Kuti
I'm glad this album came up so soon after Talking Heads' "Remain in Light" so the album was still kind of fresh in my head. Because it just confirms what I said in my review at the time—just listen to real afrobeat instead of listening to their sad facsimile of it.
Fela Kuti is legendary, but while I've listened to him in the past and seen some of his performances, I'm woefully unfamiliar with most of his catalog. This show was incredible and might be the first live album I've heard from this list where I actually understand why it's on here.
The music combines traditional African percussion and polyrhythms with Western funk and jazz, and it's a party from start to finish. The sound is vibrant and the mixing is great, and you really get the energy from the live performance.
That said, if I didn't know there was another Fele Kuti album on this list I'd actually be kind of pissed that this was here. He's such an influential musician, and he doesn't need some white guy from England (the drummer from Cream) to help translate his music for Western audiences. The king of afrobeat should be listened to simply because he makes great music, no matter where you come from.
5/5
5
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Wed Mar 20 2024
Californication
Red Hot Chili Peppers
I listened to this on my good speakers that I set up for my turntable, and the first song sounds like Flea is blowing out his amp. Yikes. And is Porcelain supposed to sound staticky?? The whole album is super compressed—peak loudness wars on display.
I vaguely remember having this album in high school (and by having, I mean burning it from someone, which is probably why I didn't realize how awful the mp3s sounded) but somehow I have zero memory of any of the non-single songs. I'm not upset about that. I also remember being so sick of Scar Tissue and Otherside being everywhere all the time—the radio, TRL, you name it, they were on.
The music isn't terrible. A lot of it is good. Flea's one of the best bassists there is, and Frusciante's guitar is usually great. I've always kind of liked how they incorporate funk into their sound. But over 15 tracks, you start to notice a lot of repetition, and it wears out its welcome.
The lyrics, though. I don't know if it's worse not being able to understand half of what Anthony says or being able to understand half of it. I don't hate his voice as much as a lot of people do (though it's not great by any means), but wow, most of these lyrics are dumb. The rap rock delivery is especially cringey. I somehow forgot about the bizarre Asian (?) impersonation on the opening track, but sheesh that's bad.
I definitely would not seek this album out, and I'd probably turn the singles off 3/5 times if they came on.
3/5 for the musicianship and a couple decent songs
3
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Thu Mar 21 2024
Fear Of A Black Planet
Public Enemy
It took me multiple days to get through this album. I wanted to give it a fair shake because Public Enemy is such an influential group, and I try to really do an active listen with hip hop albums because the lyrics are so central. It's just so long, with so many tracks.
I'll never understand the hip hop/R&B obsession with interludes and skits. A couple of them on here were funny/interesting, but for the most part I wish they just weren't a thing.
Lyrically, it's crazy how many of these songs are still relevant today. The more things change the more they stay the same, I guess. I liked how socially conscious the album was. A few of the tracks haven't aged super well, and the Ice Cube feature wasn't my favorite thing (though "Burn Hollywood Burn" is otherwise a great track, and still relevant). But for the most part it holds up. It's a little heavy on the DJing and sampling for my tastes, but overall I prefer that kind of hip hop to the more modern styles.
Chuck D and Flavor Flav are such an interesting combination haha. Chuck D raps like a preacher giving a sermon (if that's not obvious by the inclusion of the MLK Jr samples). He's powerful and convincing, and he's usually rapping about the bigger social/political themes on the album. Flavor Flav, who's already more of a meme to Millennials, just comes off sounding so much less serious next to Chuck D's gravitas — and sometimes that's needed to bring some levity to a fairly heavy album. But his lightweight, mumbly style often makes it seem (at least to me) that he's not in the same league as his partner. The major exception to that is on "911 is a Joke" — a song that, as someone from Philly, only gets truer with every passing year.
This wasn't a perfect album for me, mostly because of the length. I'd probably put it at more of a 3.5, but I'll give it a 4/5 for its influence.
4
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Fri Mar 22 2024
Shadowland
k.d. lang
This was an interesting album. I'm not super familiar with K.D. or the Indigo Girls outside of a few big songs ("Closer to Fine").
Country isn't usually my style, but the mix of genres on this album was pretty interesting. The album opens with a country-western song that mixes slide guitar and Spanish guitar (what?!) — but it sounds really cool.
A lot of the other songs seem like classic old school country-western songs, with songs like "Sugar Cane" and "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" mixing elements of doo wop, jazz, classical, and country. Though, "Sugar Cane" definitely sounds like a Christmas song to me with the mix of doo wop and slide guitar — I blame Elvis for that. "Waltz Me" has more or a ragtime feel (think Randy Newman's Toy Story songs). "Black Coffee" is a jazzy blues ballad with some slide guitar and a drop of Bond. The Spanish guitar returns on "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" and I'm here for it.
Speaking of Elvis, fans of his country albums would probably enjoy this album. It's very much in that vein.
K.D. has a great voice and delivers her vocals with a ton of power and passion. The fact that a queer artist put out a country album in 1988 is wild to me.
Not an album I likely would have found on my own, but I enjoyed it. It's probably not going to a hugely frequent listen, but I'd totally put this on again for a relaxing vibe.
4/5
4
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Sat Mar 23 2024
In Rainbows
Radiohead
I accidentally listened to Disk 2 first and, hoo boy, was I about to leave a scathing review. Then I realized my error and, mea culpa.
This album is another really good showing for Radiohead. More sad songs about depression and hating fame combined with anthemic-sounding rock and a few elements of electronica (but not the super annoying kind).
I'll have to give it another listen and pay closer attention to the lyrics, but I really enjoyed what I heard the first time. I think I like The Bends slightly better, but this was pretty great too.
4/5
4
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Sun Mar 24 2024
Dub Housing
Pere Ubu
Experimental post-punk with some jazz flair. Sort of crazy lyrics that actually read as decent absurdist poetry. *Sigh* This album should be my jam, and I really wanted to like it more than I did.
It's a little bit Public Image Ltd, a little bit Alex Harvey, a little bit Peter Gabriel. There are some funky grooves and a lot of weirdness. There are even some fun, catchy poppier songs (Caligari's Mirror).
*However* Holy hell, is this dude's voice annoying. He sounds like Alex Harvey on helium. Actually, it's like listening to Andy Serkis performing this album as Smeagol. It gets very grating unless he's buffered by the music and other vocals (again, Caligari's Mirror).
Thriller! is a weird "instrumental" pastiche of ambient sounds and excerpts of recordings that sounds like something you'd hear during the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World. It's sort of interesting at first, but it just goes on way too long.
I might give this one a few more listens to see if it grows on me more. It's not bad per se, I just can't get on board with the dude's voice. I'll probably stick with the Sensational Alex Harvey band if I'm looking for this style of album in the future.
3/5 — it would be a 4 if the dude's voice didn't make my ears bleed.
3
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Mon Mar 25 2024
Loveless
My Bloody Valentine
I have a hard time getting into a lot of shoegaze. There’s a lot about it that I like, but the droning and wall of sound can be hard to listen to sometimes.
MBV is legendary, but I’ve never really listened to them until this. At first I listened to it while in the car but felt like I couldn’t hear a lot of the music over the highway noise. Tried to listen to it again at home and turns out I really wasn’t missing all that much. A lot of it is just genuinely noise.
There’s some cool stuff here. The more dream pop tracks remind me of bands like Cocteau Twins, Smashing Pumpkins, and even The Cardigans. But man, some of the songs get super repetitive and those droning, distorted guitars start to sound like bagpipes and vacuum cleaners. To Here Knows When kind of sounds like the distortion that would happen just before your stereo or Walkman ate your cassette tape.
I’ll probably give this one another listen at some point to see if it grows on me, but for now it’s a low 3/5.
3
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Tue Mar 26 2024
More Songs About Buildings And Food
Talking Heads
Now, this is the version of the Talking Heads I like.
Did I have any idea what he was saying during half of the songs on the album? Nope. Did the lyrics make a ton of sense on the ones I did understand? Sometimes.
Was the whole album full of bangers? Absolutely. This is the sort of album that makes you want to dance the entire time. It's catchy, it's fun, it has some crazy bass lines. David Byrne's talk-singing can get a little irritating at time, but the music is fun enough for me to get over it.
Much more enjoyable than Remain in Light (sorry if that's blasphemous).
Favorite songs: Warning Sign, Found a Job, Artists Only, Take Me to the River
4/5
4
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Wed Mar 27 2024
Licensed To Ill
Beastie Boys
Help, I think I've died and I'm stuck in fraternity hell.
I wanted to like this more than I did. I get that a lot of what the Beastie Boys did was (allegedly) satirical and comedic, but if you don't have that historical context, a lot of this album has aged like milk. If by the time you get to the second track and hear the lines "If I played guitar I'd be Jimmy Page/The girlies I like are underage" and don't realize they're taking the piss about Page being a creepy predator, you're probably not going to have that great of a time.
As the philosopher Harvey Dent once said, "You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain," and I think that became true for the Beastie Boys. They started out lampooning frat culture and hair metal bravado. And while many of their fans were in on the joke, a whole lot more weren't, and this music became the soundtrack to their lives.
Aside from that, a lot of the songs are just really repetitive. How many songs on this album are about hooking up with lots of girls and carrying around a gun at a party? I lost count, but there are too many. Some of the wordplay is clever, but it's not enough to counteract the stuff that gets repeated over and over.
The music also isn't that interesting. "No Sleep till Brooklyn" and "Fight For Your Right" are pretty good, but most of the other tracks are pretty basic beats and loops played incessantly, with the occasional poorly done record scratch overlaid (again, I know this is kind of the point, but it's boring). I also forgot how incredibly annoying "Girls" and "Brass Monkey" can be — ear worms in the worst way.
I will say, I didn't realize how many of the songs from this album became hits. I think 95% of the songs I know by them are on this album. So, that's kind of impressive.
I think I just generally prefer my comedic music to be more along the lines of Tenacious D or tongue-in-cheek sendups like the Darkness. This crank yankers sketch set to crappy music stuff isn't really my thing.
I suspect if I went back and listened to the Marshall Mathers LP now I'd feel similarly. That kind of stuff can be funny at the time, but as you grow up and the culture changes, it just seems cringe.
Crap, I've become my parents haven't I?
3/5 from me. I recognize the historical impact and influence of this album, but that doesn't mean I want to listen to it again.
3
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Thu Mar 28 2024
Unknown Pleasures
Joy Division
I own this album. Hell, I own a couch pillow based on the design of the iconic album cover. I really enjoy this album and Joy Division as a band. The lyrics are intense, the music was completely innovative for its time and still sounds great today. They're a seminal band in post-punk and goth history. And I slightly prefer this album over Closer, which I know is a hot take.
As a songwriter, Ian Curtis was amazing. As a person, his story was incredibly tragic — a super young man slowly destroyed by depression largely brought on by struggling to live with the debilitating effects of epilepsy. His pain is everywhere in the lyrics.
However — and I know this is blasphemous — as a singer and performer (granted I never saw them live and haven't watched many performances, so going by albums only), Ian's voice kind of drags the band down a bit for me. I want to like him. I really do. And his voice has grown on me a bit over time. But Ian Curtis will forever sound to me like a bored history teacher reciting off a page in the majority of JD songs. It gets a bit better on Closer, but on this album, he just sounds really flat most of the time (and verging on off key a lot). There are exceptions — Disorder being one — where you can hear the emotion in his voice; but they are exceptions.
And yet, for some reason, so many post-punk and goth vocalists seem to emulate his voice, which just drives me nuts. I feel like Ian Curtis has been deified in much the same way as Kurt Cobain was after his suicide. And for everything they both did for their respective genres, I have to wonder if they'd be seen in the same light if they hadn't both died so young and so tragically.
Given that the surviving members of JD went on to form New Order, we do get some sense of what impact Ian had on the sound of the band. I really enjoy New Order, and I find a lot of their electronic/synth stuff more enjoyable for a *casual* listen than a lot of Joy Division songs. And while Bernard Sumner isn't winning any singing awards, I much prefer his voice to Ian's most of the time. But it's definitely true that Ian's lyrics elevated the group and that New Order has had much less of an impact on music (though that's not to say they're not also hugely influential).
I just really, really wish Ian had a better voice. That's what keeps this from being a 5 for me.
4/5
4
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Fri Mar 29 2024
Youth And Young Manhood
Kings of Leon
I don't get it. What makes this album so special that it deserves to be on a must-listen list? It's an early 2000s band trying to emulate older music styles, and not doing that great a job of it.
That said, musically, it's pretty fun to listen to in the background as you're doing something else. It starts off seeming like it's going to all sound the same with the first few tracks, but then it gets more varied. It's an interesting mix of garage rock, punk revival, and Southern/blues rock — a little Strokes, a little Ramones, and a little Steppenwolf.
Lyrically, most of the album is meh. Typical derivative and boring stuff about being a young rock star and partying for the most part. "Holy Roller Novocaine" was a cool song, though. Initially I found the lyrics kind of gross until I realized they were about drug addiction and not a creepy relationship. "Molly's Chamber" wasn't bad.
But the dude's voice. Holy smokes, do I hate his voice. I don't remember it being that annoying on the popular radio hits (Use Somebody and Sex on Fire). But on this album he sounds like Adam Sandler's character from The Water Boy trying to do a Bob Dylan impression. Or Eric Cartman when he attempts his weird ad-lib/scatting stuff.
At first I thought maybe this album being considered among the best of 2003 was more of a statement on the rock landscape that year — and I say that as someone who bought the Zwan album when it came out haha. But some pretty big artists put out some pretty big albums that year, so I'm back to being confused.
3/5 — decent music, meh lyrics, terrible vocals
3
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Sat Mar 30 2024
Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin
Ehh this is another album that took me multiple days to get through. If you're going to put out a double album, every song better be damn worth it, and I just didn't feel that was the case here.
I like Led Zeppelin, and I've owned IV since high school. Nothing on this album is objectionably bad.
Okay, that's not true. Black Country Woman is allegedly about Plant having an affair with his wife's sister — big yikes. And Sick Again is about trying to seduce an underage groupie. Vomit. Also, there's the whole stealing from other artists thing that the band is famous for.
Awful lyrical content and shitty behavior aside, the album just starts to run together after a while and really overstays its welcome with its 1:22 runtime.
There are some really good songs on here. Obviously, the famous ones like Kashmir, Houses of the Holy, Custard Pie, Trampled Under Foot. I also liked the instrumental Bron-Yr-Aur. The whole first half makes for a good to greatish album. But around Down by the Seaside I started to get bored. There were still good songs after that, but it started to get repetitive.
I'll give this one a 3/5
3
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Sun Mar 31 2024
Madman Across The Water
Elton John
I don't mind Broadway Elton John — Aida is a good show. I've never been a huge fan of Elton John the pop singer other than a few of the big hits. I don't know if it's because he's always seemed too melodramatic and overwrought for pop (i.e., too Broadway, perhaps?), if it's because I've never gotten his weird obsession with blues and Western tropes as a British dude (though maybe that's really Bernie Taupin's fault), or if it's unresolved childhood trauma from when I asked my mom to buy me the "Circle of Life" single from The Lion King when I was six, and she came home with the Elton John version — clearly, I still haven't forgiven her for that.
This album didn't do much for me. Other than the classic "Tony Danza" song, there's not much I really enjoyed. His singing style is just not my thing. He has a good voice, but he tries to do too much and it gets obnoxious. He ends up sounding pitchy, and he does a slightly less egregious version of the melisma theatrics that Christina Aguilera is infamous for (but without the vocal chops she has). It's also difficult to understand what he's saying because of the weird affected Southern twang. I generally much prefer covers of Elton's songs to his originals.
Some of the music is okay, but it starts to feel same-samey after a while. And again, it's all very theatrical, but not in a way I enjoy. The literal Broadway chorus that comes in on All the Nasties is like a nightmare orchestrated by Phil Spector (though the drums in that song are cool). The lyrics are mostly cheesy, but I prefer the lonely rock star songs over the weird attempts at epic storytelling. Indian Sunset is god awful and deserves a special shoutout — the definition of the racist "noble savage" trope.
2/5 for me
2
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Mon Apr 01 2024
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears
This album was a wild ride, and I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
I feel like this band doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s one part Burt Bacharach lounge music, one part Elvis in Vegas, one part James Brown, one part free jazz, one part psychedelic rock, and one part prog rock. There’s just a lot going on.
And then, for some reason, they made When I Die, a weird ragtime song that could’ve been an outtake from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas soundtrack.
I knew I recognized the name of this band but could not for the life of me remember why. And then Spinning Wheel came on, followed immediately by You Make Me Very Happy, and then it clicked. The former is a great song, the latter is ok…a cute, cheesy, late 60s love song. But I realized that as an older Millennial, this is sort of the definition of dad rock to me — this is the kind of stuff my Boomer dad jammed to when the Beatles got too experimental and scary for him.
I appreciate what they were going for, but I’m not sure it’s really for me. The lyrics are decent, the musicianship is good, the willingness to experiment is interesting (though feels more like imitation a lot of the time) … but it’s just too much at once. It feels like a Hollywood soundtrack created by committee.
3/5
3
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Tue Apr 02 2024
Ramones
Ramones
I own this album, though I don't listen to it that often. I like the Ramones. They're a fun band. And what Millennial doesn't have extreme nostalgia for Tony Hawk Pro Skater anytime "Blitzkrieg Bop" comes on?
Their influence on American punk is legendary, so I totally understand why this album is on this list. And I bet they would've been a blast to see live at CBGB.
But, as much as I like them, I don't know if I'll ever really *love* their studio work because the music gets really repetitive. Almost every song sounds like it's going to be "I Wanna Be Sedated" (which is a great song that's not on this album). And I can't for the life of me understand 95% of the lyrics, though I enjoy the sound of Joey's singing voice.
It's a fun listen, to a point. As short as it is, it starts to feel long because of the repetitive sound. And yes, I understand that's part of punk. But it doesn't have to be *this* repetitive. So it's getting a 3/5 from me (might give it a 3.5 if I could).
3
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Wed Apr 03 2024
Architecture And Morality
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
I had no idea what to expect going into this album, because my only exposure to OMD was "If You Leave" from Pretty in Pink.
The opening track starts off sounding like an early U2 song (e.g., Sunday Bloody Sunday). I didn't expect them to be so post-punk and dark. The next song is much closer to the light, ethereal new wave I'd expect from them. The third song sounds like the direction Joy Division was heading in when Ian Curtis died — dark and dreary, but with some incorporation of brighter synths to give it an otherworldly feel. The title track's experimentation with industrial sounds also reminds me of Joy Division. The two songs about Joan of Arc sound like a more polished version of something Siouxsie and the Banshees would do.
This album feels like the bridge between early post punk and what eventually became new wave. It has the darkness, the atonalities and sparse arrangements, and sometimes the dark lyrics of post punk, but it also has the bright synths, ethereal singing, and dance beats of new wave. I can definitely hear the religious music influence they were going for throughout the album, but it also reminds me of groups like Erasure and Yaz who did catchy pop songs that had a weird, ethereal twist. This album feels ahead of its time to have come out in 1981. In some ways, it still feels very modern now. The song Georgia sounds like a hyperpop song that Grimes would have made in the 2010s. That it was made before digital synths existed is impressive.
I listened to this album on a dreary day during a thunderstorm, and it's quite a vibe. It's a little kooky, and it flips back and forth between soothing and unsettling. Not all of the songs are great, and it runs a bit long because of it, but I enjoyed it a lot.
Highlights: The New Stone Age, She's Leaving, Architecture And Morality, Of All The Things We've Made
4/5
4
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Thu Apr 04 2024
Rocks
Aerosmith
Is it me or do a lot of Aerosmith’s most famous songs sound the same? Walk This Way, Get the Lead Out, Love in an Elevator…
Anyway, I like the introspective side of Aerosmith — Dream On, Living on the Edge, Nobody’s Fault. I can fuck with that.
I can’t deal with the gross, negging, sex pest Lothario version of the band — Sick as a Dog, Lick and a Promise. Blech.
The music on this album is pretty good. It rocks hard and it doesn’t really let up. On the other hand, a lot of it sounds derivative of other bands (Led Zeppelin, Funkadelic, etc.).
Lyrically, a lot of this hasn’t aged well. Vocally, Steven Tyler is one of those guys who gets grating after a while. There’s a reason I don’t really listen to entire Aerosmith albums in one go. His voice is especially irritating on the closing track here, Home Tonight.
For a must-listen album from such a famous band, I don’t think I knew any of these songs…maybe Get the Lead Out? But again, a lot of their songs sound the same, so I don’t know.
I don’t think I can give this more than a 3/5.
3
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Fri Apr 05 2024
Paranoid
Black Sabbath
This album was way better than I was expecting, and I already knew it would be good going in, considering it has three of the most famous Sabbath songs.
It starts off with a bang. There aren't many songs as epic as War Pigs. The slow build, the ominous siren, the almost chant-like singing before the "Oh, lord yeah!" and the song really takes off. Classic. One of the greatest anti-war songs ever.
Then, straight into another classic, Paranoid, before slowing down for the psychedelic prog of Planet Caravan, and then right into Iron Man. What a sequence of songs.
The first half of the album is hard to beat, but the back half is also amazingly strong. Hand of Doom was a particular standout for me among the songs I hadn't heard before.
There are so many great riffs and solos on this album, amazing drumming, and Ozzy's in top form. I love the mix of metal and psychedelia, and I never really paid attention to how almost proggy the band could get. Based on the albums I've already reviewed, you might think I'm not a big metal fan. But this is the kind of metal I love — hard-hitting, but melodic, with inspiration from jazz and blues (or symphonic) — not that tuneless thrash stuff.
It's also funny to me that Ozzy became such a lightning rod for the satanic panic backlash, because lyrically, this album is everything true Christians should be all for — anti-war, anti-drug, Revelation-like themes of satanic evil dooming the world to apocalyptic destruction. They obviously never listened to the music they so loudly decried.
Anyway, I digress. Fantastic album. 5/5 for me.
5
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Sat Apr 06 2024
Red Headed Stranger
Willie Nelson
I feel conflicted about this album in a few ways after listening to it about 3 times.
If you only listen to the music and don't pay attention to the lyrics, it's pretty soothing. It almost feels like an album of lullabies, and I could totally see myself drifting off to sleep with this playing in the background. On the other hand, because it is so mellow and because it has repeating motifs, my mind kept beginning to wander by the last few songs each time I listened, even though it's fairly short.
Lyrically, I'm also conflicted about this, because the story is a lot darker than the music lets on. It's kind of a classic Western story trope about a man getting revenge against people who have wronged him and then wanting to move on with his life. But I did get the ick at the fact that there's quite a lot of violence against women in this. Sure, they're not innocent of wrongdoing, and he also kills the man his wife cheated with, but the whole domestic violence/man who can't control his rage thing is pretty yikes. And the horse thief being another deceitful woman (when it could've just as easily been a guy) starts to set up an uncomfortable theme. And then the dude looks for redemption in the arms of another woman, who he swears he'll never hurt like the others — not the most reliable narrator, though, is he? Granted, Willie's not necessarily condoning the guy's actions, but still.
Out of context, "Blues Eyes Crying in the Rain" and "Can I Sleep in Your Arms" are beautiful ballads. But in the context of the wider story, they're kind of creepy.
Pros: The music is pretty (if a little boring) and Willie's voice sounds great. It's a nice, stripped-down album, and I think the record company was very wrong in thinking it needed more production to be viable.
Cons: The best songs on the album work better outside of the context of the album's full narrative, which is kind of creepy.
I'll give it a 4, but it's probably more of a 3.5
4
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Sun Apr 07 2024
Odessa
Bee Gees
I've never been a super big Bee Gees fan, but their disco stuff is orders of magnitude better than whatever this was.
I respect the ambition to make a concept album but...you take big swings and sometimes you miss. It's like Neil Diamond and Broadway but schmaltzier. And so long. And boring.
I maybe liked a song or two, but I can't even remember what they were.
2/5
2
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Mon Apr 08 2024
Garbage
Garbage
I somehow never listened to a full Garbage album even though I loved the singles growing up. Really enjoyed this one.
Good alt-rock but with pop hooks and some electronica elements. I like the darkness of the lyrics and the angst Shirley Manson brings. "Not My Idea" is like a darker cousin of No Doubt's "Just a Girl." It's also clear that they were influenced by bands like The Cure (I wonder if that's where Shirley's affinity for the do-do-dos comes from) and My Bloody Valentine — lots of swirly, distorted guitars, a ton of layered sounds, some droning, shoegaze-esque elements, and a willingness to experiment with sound and push the genre forward. The piano line at the end of "Stupid Girl" is straight out of Nine Inch Nails' playbook.
I'd probably give this closer to a 4.5 if I could, but I'm cool with rounding up to 5. Need to explore more of their discography (especially since Cherry Lips is a fantastic song from a different album).
4.5/5 but gets a 5 for rounding
5
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Tue Apr 09 2024
Power In Numbers
Jurassic 5
I've heard the name Jurassic 5 but probably couldn't name a song by them.
This album was a vibe. Loved the soul/funk influenced samples, loved the voices and flow of all the guys, loved most of the lyrics (a couple lines haven't aged super well). I didn't even really mind the interludes because they were done in an interesting way.
5/5 for me.
5
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Wed Apr 10 2024
The Wildest!
Louis Prima
This was alright. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. Parts of it were really fun, but parts of it were too far into the dull lounge sound for me. The humor wasn't the worst, but it was kind of cheesy. I do get the importance and influence of this album, but it's just not really my speed.
I did enjoy hearing the original "Jump, Jive, An' Wail," and the horns and the harmonies were pretty good.
3/5
3
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Thu Apr 11 2024
Green Onions
Booker T. & The MG's
Omg, that's what that song is called!
"Green Onions" is synonymous with Get Shorty for me — a movie I've seen way too many times for work purposes (long story). It's one of those songs that I'm guessing everyone knows but almost no one knows the name of.
"Twist and Shout" isn't the same without John Lennon's shredded vocals, and it's not as good as the Isley Brothers version either, but it's still good.
I enjoyed this, although it was a bit too heavy on the organ for me sometimes. But it had some cool organ solos and some really nice guitar solos. Since it's all instrumental, it's easy to get distracted doing something else and have it fade into the background a bit. But it's a solid album.
I'll give it a 4/5, but it's probably a 3.75.
4
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Fri Apr 12 2024
So Much For The City
The Thrills
I wouldn't necessarily call this a bad album — it was a decent enough listen — but I have no idea why it's on this list. It seems pretty typical of its time. Ben Folds, Phantom Planet, Something Corporate ... there were a million bands doing the singer songwriter/ acoustic/mid-tempo, vaguely surf rock thing. Basically any band that ended up featured in The O.C. or any other CW show.
It's very mid as the kids would say.
3/5
3
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Sat Apr 13 2024
Kid A
Radiohead
Eh, I think this is around where I get off the Radiohead ride. There are a few good songs on here (Idioteque being one), but this is where the band starts to get too weird for me. I appreciate that they were looking to try new things, but it's just not for me. A lot of this album sounds like some bizarre Enya/Brian Eno/indie film soundtrack mashup, and not in a good way. Thom's vocals get pretty grating on some of the tracks, and a lot of them don't really sound like songs so much as soundscapes. It comes off as pretentious. Not a fan.
3/5
3
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Sun Apr 14 2024
Public Image: First Issue
Public Image Ltd.
Meh. I liked Second Edition so much I bought the vinyl after hearing it on this challenge. This one, not so much.
There are glimpses of great stuff here, but the annoying outweighs the good. Religion kind of toes the line between deep and “I am very smart and you’re all sheep” teenage obnoxiousness. The two super long tracks feel like they last forever. Lyndon’s voice even annoys me here, and I generally have a high tolerance for him.
3/5 but probably more of a 2.5 if I could give half stars.
3
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Mon Apr 15 2024
Homework
Daft Punk
I know these guys are legendary, and they have some really good tracks. They're one of the few electronica groups I can tolerate. But this genre is just never going to be my preference.
There are quite a few good songs on here. I really enjoyed a lot of the more funk-based songs (I can't remember the names of any of them unfortunately). But there are also a lot of typical drum and bass songs that do absolutely nothing for me.
There are way too many tracks on here. And why does every song have to be like 7 minutes long? How does something so annoying and grating as Around the World become one of their greatest hits? It's a rare example of a song that gets worse when lyrics are added (not that there are more words than the title).
Like all electronica albums, I would only ever listen to this as background music while doing something else, and I don't really get the appeal of listening to this stuff outside the club.
3/5, would maybe round to a 3.5
3
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Tue Apr 16 2024
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
I listened to this twice — the first time I had it on in the background as I was doing other stuff, and it didn't really connect beyond the first couple songs.
Then I gave it another listen while giving it my full attention, and wow.
I've always meant to get into Neil Young but never got around to it. That was a mistake. This album is great. It's got a ton of vibey psychedelic jams, but it also has a lot of great slower songs with introspective lyrics (some more abstract than others). There's even a cool almost Balkin-style violin solo on Running Dry that's really different. Neil's voice is great at conveying emotion, and the harmonies with the Crazy Horse band members and guest vocalists (like Robin Lane on Round & Round) are nice.
Highlights: Cinnamon Girl, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Round & Round
Also, I feel like it needs to be said that RHCP totally ripped off Cowgirl in the Sand for Californiacation.
5/5
5
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Wed Apr 17 2024
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur Jr.
My only exposure to Dinosaur Jr. was their cover of The Cure's Just Like Heaven (which happens to close this album). So I knew it was going to be kind of punk and kind of weird, but I wasn't prepared for how weird.
This album started out okay and got progressively stranger and noisier. It started out sounding sort of like a mix between a punkier Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. The first few songs were pretty fun, then the middle of the album sort of blended together with several songs that sounded similar. It started getting weird around Tarpit. The second to last song was a bizarre art/noise piece, and then the album ended with the aforementioned Cure cover.
The worst part of this band is the singer. My God, is his voice irritating. He makes Eddie Vedder seem like Pavarotti. I'm also not sure if they intentionally played with meter on The Lung, or if the drummer is just that bad at keeping time.
Regarding the cover, I'm kind of conflicted about it. When I first heard it I hated it, but I have to admit that it's growing on me. I know it's Robert Smith's favorite cover, and I'm guessing it's because the screamo chorus is just so out of nowhere that it's kind of hilarious — that's definitely something Robert would get a kick out of (I'm also pretty sure he changed the way he sings the "Why are you so far away" line live because of this cover, which I'm kind of mad about).
I'll give it a 3 because it started out decent and the cover is kind of fun. But the singer and the back half ruin it.
3
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Thu Apr 18 2024
Head Hunters
Herbie Hancock
The opening track Chameleon is pretty fun. They sort of sound like a jazzier version of Funkadelic. The bass part that comes in about 1/3 of the way through the track is sick. I usually don’t like songs that go on for 15 minutes, but this is a vibe the whole way through.
Watermelon Man feels like the inspiration for the White Lotus theme song with the flute (which is apparently actually a beer bottle?! What??) and weird vocalizations. Maybe this is also where Andre 3000 drew his inspiration for his flute album? The sax is dope. This is another cool track that has a lot of different movements as it progresses.
The last two songs are also good, but I didn't take notes on specifics. Really enjoyed this album, though. The songs are long, but they never get boring. And because they're instrumental you can listen while doing other things (or just fully enjoy listening).
5/5
5
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Fri Apr 19 2024
Fever Ray
Fever Ray
Very atmospheric vibe. Cool mix of coldwave, post punk, and electronica/synth pop. It almost feels like a darker version of Lorde — kind of experimental and kooky, but with very poppy hooks.
This is a really good album and something I’ll likely add to my regular rotation. I’m just not sure what makes it worthy of this list — it doesn’t seem particularly revolutionary given the existence of artists like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Bjork, Depeche Mode, Imogen Heap, Sigur Ros, Gotye, and countless other electronic / experimental acts.
Highlights:
“When I Grow Up”
“Seven” - cool tribal sounding percussion, like a mix of Bjork and Talking Heads with a bit of Cyndi Lauper
“I’m Not Done Yet” has a cool Cure vibe with the guitars
“Keep the Streets Empty” sort of sounds like a mix of The Cure’s “Lullaby,” Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” and Bjork
4/5
4
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Sat Apr 20 2024
Hard Again
Muddy Waters
This was a pretty good album. Blues tropes and melodies definitely get formulaic, but the energy of these guys playing together and jamming keeps it fresh. The drums on Mannish Boy are great, as is the
piano on Bus Driver. Throughout, the live vibe is cool (e.g., hearing them celebrate getting the track right at the end of I Want to Be Loved — “That’s it!”).
My favorite song was probably Crosseyed Cat.
My least favorite song was Little Girl — once again, why was it ever a thing to refer to one's love interest that way? Especially when he also refers to himself as man in the same song. Gross gross gross.
Also, I have to point out that while Mannish Boy is a great protest song, and a banger, it's also kind of exactly what people mean when they talk about toxic masculinity — the idea that a Black man has to convince a white person to respect him and call him man instead of boy by playing into other stereotypes about how much sexual prowess he has is ... unfortunate.
4/5
4
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Sun Apr 21 2024
Cheap Thrills
Big Brother & The Holding Company
This album was fantastic. I of course knew Janis was legendary, but I only knew a couple of her songs — one of them being Piece of My Heart, which is on here. Hearing a whole album of her singing, and a lot of it live, was an experience.
The whole band is great — there are some crazy guitar solos on this album, amazing drumming, and some super funky bass lines. There's a fun mix of psychedelic rock, blues, soul, and the closing live track, (at least on the version of the album I listened to) Magic Love is practically a punk song. I personally prefer the psychedelic songs from the first half, but the whole thing is great.
Janis was an incredible performer. You can tell how committed she is to every single note she sings. And though she's famous for her soulful wailing, there are also some more restrained moments where you can really hear what a beautiful, rich timbre her voice had. At her wilder moments she kind of sounds like the love child of Robert Plant and Marge Simpson, but I promise I mean that in a good way haha.
This was a very enjoyable listen, and I might even try to pick it up on vinyl.
5/5
5
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Tue Apr 23 2024
Hot Buttered Soul
Isaac Hayes
I wanted to like this more than I did. The music's good (though the last two songs have too much of that flutey smooth jazz stuff for me). Hayes' voice is great. But the album is 4 songs and It just. goes. on. forever.
And wtf is the last track? Did Matt and Trey go back in time and write this script for Chef? I guess I truly understand where the character comes from now. Hayes just babbles on with some weird story set to an obnoxious triangle metronome for almost 9 minutes before anything that can be called music starts. And then it goes on for another 9+ minutes. I can't.
2/5
2
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Wed Apr 24 2024
Can't Buy A Thrill
Steely Dan
Apparently I know a lot more Steely Dan songs than I was aware of — "Do It Again," "Dirty Work," and "Reelin' in the Years" were all familiar. I guess I always assumed they were by some other band.
Look, I'm not a yacht rock fan. Never have been, never will be. And I'm from Philly, the home of Hall and Oates. It's just not my thing.
That said, I thought I would hate this a lot more than I did. I didn't particularly love it, but I can't deny the musicianship here. There are some crazy guitar solos, and it does have kind of a proggy/funky side to it. Lyrically, some of the songs are deeper than I would have expected from this kind of band.
But it also gets really weird, really smooth-jazzy, and boring. "Brooklyn Owes" lost me with the slide guitar. "Change of the Guard" sounds like it's trying to rip off "Dancing in the Street." And the closing track is just bizarre as hell. The singer kind of sounds like Kermit the Frog (and it has an odd Rainbow Connection vibe) but it also sounds like a song Patrick Bateman would play for a woman he was seducing/murdering.
3/5 — not terrible, not great. Probably wouldn't listen again.
3
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Thu Apr 25 2024
James Brown Live At The Apollo
James Brown
I thought I would like this more than I did. It's a good album, and the live aspect is really fun because of how he interacts with the fans. But I didn't really know any of the songs, and I felt like there were a few too many slower-tempo songs. I wanted party James Brown, and I didn't get enough of that here.
That said, the man sings his absolute face off, the backing band is great, and he goes full on gospel preacher on "Lost Someone" — all really fun. I enjoyed the album, but I'm not sure I'd listen to it on repeat all that much.
4/5 (but probably closer to a 3.5)
4
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Fri Apr 26 2024
People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A Tribe Called Quest
I feel a bit mixed about this. The samples and backing grooves were really cool — I like the jazz and soul samples. I like their voices and flow. A lot of the songs were pretty good lyrically. But there were definitely some tracks that haven't aged super well/were just kind of corny. My biggest complaint is that the album is just really long, and I started zoning out towards the end.
3/5 but I'd round to a 3.5
3
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Sat Apr 27 2024
Court And Spark
Joni Mitchell
This was a pretty good album. I thought it was a lot more accessible than Blue, which I'm still trying to get into. I sort of wish she would do more choruses, but I enjoy the stream of consciousness narrative style. Her voice is really beautiful and there's some good variety musically on this album — everything from simple folk to uptempo almost psychedelic rock to jazz.
Highlights: “Free Man in Paris”; “Raised on Robbery”; “Help Me”
A couple of the jazzier songs weren't really my cup of tea, though they weren't awful. "Twisted" reminds me of the theme song to The Nanny.
4/5
4
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Sun Apr 28 2024
Live / Dead
Grateful Dead
I'm not sure I understand the appeal of listening to a live album for a jam band in an audio-only format. On one hand, it's cool to hear what they sound like live, I guess. But half the appeal (for me, not that I'm a big jam band person to begin with) is *seeing* the band jam — watching their interactions with each other, watching them play their instruments, witnessing the audience react and hanging out with other fans, etc. Listening to it from my living room doesn't have the same feeling.
This album is also really, really long. The first track is 23 minutes, and you're not even 1/4 of the way through when that's over. I found it hard to keep my focus and was kind of wishing for the thing to end, even though the music itself isn't bad.
I respect this album for how groundbreaking it was — they invented special recording tech just to make it possible. And it is impressive that they can jam for that long and sound good. A lot of it is very heavily influenced by the blues, though, so it's not like it's the most innovative or unique music ever made.
After never really getting the fuss about the Grateful Dead, I can now say that their music can be pretty enjoyable — but I still don't really get the fuss. I'm never going to be the kind of person who follows them around the country.
3.5/5 rounded to 3. It's decent, but I'm probably not going to listen to it again, at least not in full.
3
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Mon Apr 29 2024
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin
I feel like the more Zeppelin I listen to the less I like them :-/ They're starting to feel like AC / DC to me — for the most part, if you've heard one of their songs you've heard them all.
Also, the lyrics are major yikes on some of the songs. The "Gallows Pole" is just gross — dude pimps out his sister to try to get the hangman to commute his sentence and the dude's like 'thanks for sending your sister to keep me warm ... still gonna kill you, though.' BARF. And what was that whole thing about front doors and back doors on "Since I've Been Lovin You"??
3/5 One star for the "Immigrant Song" and two stars because it's not literally unlistenable, but I wish I could go back in time to when I'd only ever heard the IV album.
3
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Tue Apr 30 2024
Reggatta De Blanc
The Police
The song "Reggatta De Blanc" confirmed what I've always suspected — I don't hate The Police, I just hate Sting's voice. And the creepy lyrics of some of their songs (Every Breath You Take and Don't Stand So Close to Me, neither of which are on here).
The musicianship on this album is pretty great - there are some great guitar riffs and bass lines. It's right up my post-punk alley. But Sting's voice drives me nuts, especially on "Bring on the Night." I much prefer early U2 if I'm going to listen to poppier post punk or The Clash if I'm going to listen to a bunch of white guys trying to do reggae.
The only songs I already knew on this album were"Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon" and neither are my favorites.
Highlights: "Reggatta De Blanc" and "Deathwish"
Low points: "On Any Other Day"
3/5 and that's being a bit generous.
3
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Wed May 01 2024
Bongo Rock
Incredible Bongo Band
Who asked Robert Dimery to put this on the list, Matthew McConaughey?
This album was ... fine. Kind of fun, even. Did I *need* to hear it in my lifetime? Eh. There are a ton of good cover/tribute bands out there. I'm not sure what makes this one stand out besides the fact that they're apparently a go-to source for hip-hop samples — so what?
3/5 — it's not bad, good for background music. But who really cares? I don't.
3
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Thu May 02 2024
Ocean Rain
Echo And The Bunnymen
C-c-c-cucumber
C-c-c-cabbage
C-c-c-cauliflower
Echo and the Bunnymen is one of my favorite post-punk bands and I don't think they get nearly as much recognition as they should. That said, I enjoy this album, but I don't think it's their best as everyone else seems to. I prefer Crocodiles, Porcupine, and Heaven Up Here over this one.
A lot of Ocean Rain is really good. Silver, The Killing Moon, Seven Seas, My Kingdom, and Ocean Rain are all great songs. It's not that there's a bad song on the album, but I do think it gets a little melodramatic — it veers a little too far into Neil Diamond territory for me at times. And some of the lyrics are just okay — Thorn of Crowns referenced in my opening, for example, is just bizarre (I know that's the point). Nocturnal Me is almost Shakespearean in its double entendres, and while it's a good song, it's not even a little bit subtle (again, nothing wrong with it, but they have better songs).
I'll give this one a 4 because I do still really enjoy this band, and the album is very good. It's not their best, though.
4/5
4
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Fri May 03 2024
Juju
Siouxsie And The Banshees
Well, this is perfect timing because I picked up a first pressing of this album on vinyl last weekend.
This album is so good. It's crazy to think this came out in 1981, because so much of it still sounds fresh. Monitor and Night Shift could have been on the radio in the 2000s (think Tool or System of a Down). And Spellbound should absolutely have a rebirth a la Kate Bush during the 80s nostalgia moment.
Everything about this iteration of the band is fantastic. Siouxsie's voice is incredible, Budgie's drums are relentless (along with Severin's bass). And as much as I love Robert Smith, there's no question that John McGeoch was the best guitarist the Banshees ever had. His guitar lines are iconic.
This band was so hugely influential — to post punk, to goth, to women in rock, to fashion, and to my favorite band, The Cure.
If I had to say one negative thing about this album it's that the lyrics to Arabian Knights are pretty racist through a modern lens (to be fair, so is the band's name). There's a way to criticize misogyny in the Middle East without equating all the men to baby rapists and goat fuckers. But, I imagine for a woman who wore a Nazi armband ironically, being abrasive is the point. And (to my knowledge), Siouxsie hasn't gone off the xenophobic deep end in recent years like her idol Johnny Lydon, so she's got that going for her, I guess.
5/5
5
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Sat May 04 2024
1984
Van Halen
Hair metal before hair metal technically existed — the godfathers of hair metal, I guess.
Musically, this album is really fun. Great guitar solos and drum fills — obviously, it's Van Halen. The whole album is high energy and catchy. The synthy intro at the beginning wasn't something I really expected from them — it's got kind of a Rush flavor to it — but it flows perfectly into the opening of "Jump."
Lyrically, this album is pretty corny. And David Lee Roth's voice ranges from great to kind of grating.
4/5 — just don't pay too much attention to the words and it's a good time.
Also, I like to imagine that the kid on the cover grows up to be Ace Merrill from "Stand By Me."
4
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Sun May 05 2024
m b v
My Bloody Valentine
I really want to like this band, but I just can't really get into them. It's fine as background music, but the vocals are so buried and there's so much droning that it kind of just hypnotizes me and puts me to sleep if I try to focus on it too hard.
Maybe I'll give it a few more listens and see if it grows on me, but as of now it's pretty meh. I'll say that the drums were kind of fun on "Nothing Is."
3/5
3