The Bends
RadioheadAnother one that's a perfectly nice vibe and not much else.
Another one that's a perfectly nice vibe and not much else.
Not bad for a live album, but it has all that chitchat and whatnot that attempts to capture the feeling of being there in person, and only serves to reinforce that you're not there in person. "Thou Swell" is a nice track, though, in its mixing of elevated vocabulary with playfully childish syntax. Otherwise, this is perfectly fine, but unexceptional.
I'm sure it's a good album if you like metal. It all just kind of went in one ear and out the other for me.
Usually melodically catchy, often nice rhyme schemes and such. Substantively, I could take it or leave it, probably thinks it's more meaningful than it is. And even musically, there are some duds. Though all of that speaks to it being a pretty varied album.
I mean it's Queen, their sound is always fun, if often nonsense. "Killer Queen" is particularly fun nonsense, lyrically, almost patter-song-y. "Flick of the Wrist" is another good one. And at least the album is pretty varied, so even if it blends into the background, you notice the start of each new song.
A lot of this is just easy-listening soothing sound to put on in the background. A lot of it feels like Beatles outtakes. "Mrs. Vandebilt" is a fun bouncy tune though.
Another one that's fine, but not as deep as it thinks it is. "Strange" has a fun Mountain Goats vibe to the vocals, but lyrically is the same kinda meh as the rest. "It's the End of the World as we Know It and I Feel Fine" is the standout, very patter-song. And "Fireplace" is oddly compelling.
Kind of fades into the background, though it's a nice texture. I like the jazzy vibe of "Leather," especially the piano. But do we really need a sultry piano-and-vocal cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"? Kinda gimmicky.
Welp, I don't speak the language, so I can't evaluate the lyrics (except for the final track, "Hamady Bogle," which is so-so and kind of silly). But musically, it's not bad. Another album that just fades into the background.
Perfectly okay. Lightly epic 70s rock, easy to listen to, energizing. "Foreplay / Long Time" has nice instrumental stuff at the beginning (I guess that's the foreplay). "Hitch a Ride" also starts strong, but becomes more samey as it goes. But then it ends with something as vapid as "Let Me Take You Home Tonight"...
Like this one a lot. Can't even tell if the lyrics are in a language I know. But the ambience of it is great.
Aggressively weird, almost to Oingo Boingo levels. Decided to be generous and rate this 4 instead of 3 stars. It does get a little repetitive, but it's so much itself that even that repetition of itself deserves some recognition.
You know? It's fine. I like the sound better than the older stuff, but it's mostly just a different flavor of fades-into-the-background.
I recently got "My December" and it was perfect for the playlist I wanted it for (though apparently that's not on this album? At least not the version I found on YouTube). But their sound is silly, with that over-the-top emoting and the squeaky turntable sound effects and whatnot. Yet another one that blends into itself.
Musically nice enough. Vocally, generally annoyingly vocal. Lyrically, hard to make out. Kind of fun in their over-the-top-ness. "Stumbleine" is a nice track, though.
A good album! That Brian Eno period where he actually had lyrics. Works both as background music and something to really listen to.
Nice sound, some nice lyrics that jumped out, solid enough.
Kinda blah all around, musically and lyrically. "Grey/Afro" has a nice sound, at least. "Keep Everything Under Your Hat," I think -- one of those around there -- has some silly-sex energy.
Perfectly okay rocky vibe, but nothing stands out.
Nice vibe here. "Cosmic Dancer" is lyrically fun. And it has that Lou Reed 50s-but-make-it-punk energy.
Perfectly okay, though feels especially generic. Everything -- music, vocal style lyrical content -- is kinda meh. The cutesy funetik song titles really helped push this into my first 2-star rating.
Too much yelling. Just a lot of angry self-righteousness and simplistic political commentary. Like a lazy combination of rap and punk. That one crescendo part at the end of "Bullet in the Head" is cool, at least, but there isn't just enough anywhere else to make this worth it.
Lyrically delightful. Not quite the Tom Waits sound I know from "Blood Money" and other later stuff, but good enough that I'll give it 5 stars. He's done stuff that I like even better, but on the scale of this listening project? Definitely one of the best.
Fun energy, and lyrically inventive. And probably the most melodically interesting stuff I've encountered in this project so far.
Fun, upbeat, punky energy. Not super inventive, but nice to have in the background.
Perfectly fine. Nice electronic background sounds. The tracks are almost all too long. "Stagger" is nice.
Good stuff. Perfectly serviceable musically; lyrics range from "perfectly okay" to "hey, that's pretty good"; but goddamn can that woman sing.
Lyrically inventive, when I'm able to focus on the words. "Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head" and "I Want You" particularly caught my attention. But musically so-so, and his voice really makes me tune out.
Nice enough. "Spies" is a good track. Ditto "We Never Change." It is kind of samey in general, another one that blends into the background. "Everything's Not Lost" is a nice bit of variety, especially the earlier piano-and-vocal parts.
Heck yeah, it has "Ghost Rider" from my Halloween playlists! And "Girl" is pretty good. Wins 4 stars because I'm in a generous mood; if I gave 4 to Kate Bush for being emphatically herself, even if all the tracks sounded pretty similar, I can do that here.
This was fine.
You know, these are actually pretty catchy. The general metal-narrative-song thing is a bit of a cliche now, but these still feel relatively fresh, not a parody of themselves. But to be honest, I'm mostly rating it 4 instead of 3 because "The Prisoner" has the opening narration from the show.
I don't understand the lyrics, and musically, it just ain't my bag. Perfectly okay, but a bit bland.
Another perfectly okay one that blends into the background.
Musically nice enough. Lyrics often pretty clever. Some lines are probably unintentionally funny. What with everything Kanye West has done since, one worries that he actually may mean some of the silly things unironically.
Ah, so that's the Metallica song that Brooklyn Duo combined with the Moonlight Sonata in "Beethoven Goes Metal"! Other than that insight, this was just a perfectly okay album. Very backgroundy.
Nice punky vibe.
This one really melted into the background. Aside from one lyric that I heard as far more explicit than it actually was, nothing interesting about this one.
You know, it's fine. I'm not a big Marley person. It all just sounds samey.
Another one that thinks it's saying deep and insightful things about politics and society. Would've rated it lower, but some interesting stuff with the musicality of it all was enough to bring it back up to average.
"Lonely Women" is good, but otherwise this ranges from "nice enough" to "meh."
Love the musicality of this. Very James-Bond-theme. Can't really understand the lyrics in many of the songs. But those I could, I liked.
Yeah, sure, perfectly fine.
This was fine.
Nick Cave and Bertolt Brecht do this shtick better. But some of these are fun. The lyrics are often fun, and it's nice to have this vibe in an fairly straightforward vocal style with an acoustic band instead of overpowering electronic atmosphere. Honestly, it grew on me as it went. A Sondheim feel to it, as well.
Perfectly okay. The title track is particularly nice.
This just feels like 70s renditions of English folk songs. Overly earnest and generally uninteresting.
Nice enough blues stuff.
Some of these are wonderfully moody, others just background rhythms.
Good stuff. Classic feel. Just pleasant to listen to.
This was a nice one, but not outstanding.
Great cover, mediocre album.
A classic. Self-conscious melodrama; fundamentally silly, bouncy, fun.
Musically so much fun. Lyrically, hit-or-miss. The first time the lyrics kick in, on the title track, it's unpleasantly jarring; later in the same track, though, they're entertainingly weird.
Not bad, but it all blended together after a bit, like so many of these albums. Good background vibe. I'd probably like the songs more if I heard them individually on playlists with other, more contrasting songs.
Some of this is nice and jazzy; other bits kind of rote English-folky.
Nice enough. "Old Friends" is the kind of sentimentality that I can get behind (and is part of a nice segment of songs blending one into the other). "Hazy Shade of Winter" is nicely energetic, even if the lyrics are silly. "At the Zoo" is Beatles-level silliness. And even the more run-of-the-mill tracks have a certain amount of lyrical inventiveness.
I like this energy and these lyrics. "The Fear" is a strong start to this album. "Dishes" follows up by somehow being both silly and serious. Love the title track too! Surprised by how much I liked this album.
Just another perfectly okay album. A lot of probably unintentional humor in the young macho puffery, and a lot of political commentary that induces little but eye-rolls. Rhythmically kind of simplistic, but some good rhymes once in a while.
You know what? Another nice album that receded into the background as I listened. When I happened to pay attention to the lyrics, though, I generally liked them.
Not my favorite Nick Cave. "Abbatoir Blues" is little too classic-rock, not the murder-ballad darkness I know and love. But the lyrics are fun and inventive. "The Lyre of Orpheus" is a bit tooo much the Nick Cave I know, but is a lot of fun. So altogether it gets 4 stars.
Mostly just blah metal noise. That one track had a fun stop-motion music video. And "Jasco" is actually some nice intense rhythmic acoustic stuff, so that was a good discovery. Really, the three or so acoustic tracks here are good, the rest is just blah.
It's fine, it's very good at being Prince; I'm just not a big Prince fan. Though "Darling Nikki" is surprisingly filthy. Didn't know that side of him.
Perfectly okay. Some of these are fun. But it's mostly just a bunch of American folk singing and blues. Not my jam.
Perfectly good. Honestly hadn't actually listened to much any Alice Cooper before. More of a classic-rock vibe than I'd expected.
Perfectly okay.
Childish.
Yeah it was fine.
Yeah, it's okay.
Not bad. Not spectacular, but not bad.
Easy-listening country. The music video for "Oh What a World" is great until it's a mutant Lisa Frank terrifying uncanny valley. The one for "Rainbow" is very nice though.
Okay. I like her voice, but mostly this is just rocky/punky noise.
"SS 396" is fun 50s car-head silliness. Some of the other stuff is just too earnest. This is a style of music that really can only be silly.
You know what? This one is fun. Just got a fun feel to it. "Dancing" is goofy. The vibe is silly and enjoyable pretend-darkness.
Yeah, it's fine.
Look, she's a good singer. The songs are catchy. One or two struck a chord, maybe. But it's overall not my style.
It might be hard to listen to this earnestly, since this kind of silly rock has been parodied so much. Like most of these albums, it's... perfectly okay.
Somehow underwhelming.
Yeah, it's fine.
Nice enough, good background music. The lyrics occasionally caught my attention. I thought this would stand out, from the intro to the first track, but ultimately it just didn't.
Yeah, you know what? This is a pretty good album. But I'm not listening to it again for this project, because it has unfortunate personal connotations.
Oh god, they think this is clever, don't they? I mean, in terms of lyrical wordplay, it's not bad. But substantively, it's just so juvenile.
It's fine. I mean look, I'm just not a big Dylan fan. He was very much of a time.
Just blends into the background. Forgettable.
Yeah it's perfectly fine. I was familiar with one or two of these, just through pop-cultural osmosis. The rest are novel to me, but still just, you know, okay. "E-Mail My Heart" is hilariously dated, at least.
A lot of fun. Bouncy jazz. What's not to love?
Same old familiar stuff. The opening title track is so familiar, overexposed. "Night Prowler" is a decent creepy song.
I do appreciate the rather broad range of tones. The feel changes quite a bit from track to track.
What can I say? I like Tom Waits. The title track is particularly delightful.
Yeah, this was pretty good.
Yeah, it's pretty good.
Honestly, this one blended into the background even more than most.
Nothing deep, but I am a sucker for a fun pop-punk sound. Oh, and "Shoplifter" is a silly parody of a crime ballad.
Kinda fun rhythmic instrumental stuff. More offbeat than a lot of the albums on here. But at the end of the day, still just a silly little thing to put on in the background. The title track is a delight, though.
Gotta love Siouxsie!
Nice vibe.
Juvenile but amusing. Oh hey, that's the song that the term "Stan" comes from.
Kinda silly and meandering. Not bad, but really not great.
Kind of a fun vibe. A little more interesting than most.
A little cheesy, but basically perfectly nice.
Most of these things, I've heard, even if I didn't know they were his. Honestly, most interesting part was seeing this with music videos on YouTube; seeing when Jackson still had that youthful charisma.
Perfectly okay, but very much a put-it-on-in-the-background thing.
This is just kind of drab folky nonsense. It's pretty nice until the lyrics kick in.
You know what? Some of this is pretty nice. I like "Little Umbrellas," which seems to echo Chopin's funeral march.
You know? It's fine. Feels a little punky-grungey, nothing earth-shattering, but a nice feel to have on in the background.
Another one that's a perfectly nice vibe and not much else.
Nice vibe, some fun lyrics (I'm looking at you, "Into White"), and a delightfully whimsical cover image. What's not to love?
Not bad, but uneven. It really feels like she decided to write a dozen love songs that could match whatever relationship and mood you happen to be in.
Overall a bit unmemorable. But "Sally" stood out. Old-school dramatic jazzy thing, very noir vibe.