Mostly forgettable outside of a couple of standout songs in Suffering and Eyes To The Wind, I was not impressed by this album. Oftentimes, it felt as though the structures of the songs simply weren’t enough to warrant the typical 5 minute plus runtimes. The instrumentals would trudge along using the same beat with little to no dynamics for measure upon measure. It appears to take strong influences from Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, but despite their unenthusiastic efforts, this band isn’t nearly as interesting as either. I will say, for background or road trip music, you could do worse. However, on the whole, it’s just not worth the time for critical listening. Meh. 3.5/10
This album was nothing special. I don’t know why this is in the 1001 albums to listen to list. I don’t feel any more cultured and my musical horizons certainly haven’t been broadened. So much of this record felt uninspired and unmemorable. It’s just generic 80s radio music. Nothing off the wall or boundary pushing, just some music. I’ve always heard of Peter Gabriel in music forums and whatnot but I had never listened to him. After listening to “So” I will continue to do just that.
Though this isn’t what I would typically listen to, I enjoyed this album. I wouldn’t say it’s worthy of too much praise because, after all, most of the songs sound like you could’ve thrown Taylor Swift or Lana Del Rey on it and it would’ve sounded just as good, but it’s certainly inoffensive. I didn’t feel like it took effort to listen to like some of the 1001 albums ie The war on drugs. There are some solid pop beats and catchy vocal rhythms to keep this from being as bland and soulless as radio pop has the tendency of being. 5/10 Best Track: Sober II (Melodrama)
What you get when you mix, Brit pop, Americana, good vibes and ultra singable choruses is “Definitely Maybe”, one of the greatest road trip albums of all time. Honestly, this is such a great debut album. It made me realize how essential Oasis is when looking at music of the 90s. It’s pretty apparent where they drew their inspiration from in their sound, but in the years after their high point, you could start hearing the influence they brought to the scene from The Killers to now Greta Van Fleet. From start to finish, this album is just very good. I wouldn’t be unhappy listening to any of these songs again. The instrumentals certainly aren’t reinventing the wheel, but they don’t need to. It’s catchy and undemanding to listen to. The only qualm I can find is that Liam Gallagher’s voice could get old after a while, but it doesn’t get obnoxious for me here. 8.5/10 Best Track: Supersonic
There were very few moments on this album that felt like they were made by one of the pioneers of metal. Their characteristic stoner sound is present, but it just doesn’t feel as polished as some of their other albums. Obviously, if it were too polished it would lose its charm, but maybe something more sonically appealing would be nice. Outside of “Changes” it really isn’t very memorable either. Overall, it’s not bad, but if I saw it in a record store, I’d pass. Best track: Changes
I don’t have a lot to talk about for this one, mainly because there’s not much to talk about. It’s kind of just empty. It’s just an audio loop, typically of some sort of revivalist preacher or old folk song with a light techno beat on top of it. Occasionally Moby will come in to do his best, if underwhelming, impression of Leonard Coen. He’s always talking about the weather though. lol No, this isn’t close to the best on this list, but it’s fantastic background noise. All music has a purpose one way or another. 4.5/10 Best Track: Southside
What an absolute waste of my time. I could have baked a pan of brownies, read multiple chapters of a book, or watched a full episode of the sopranos instead of listening to this. There was only one moment in the album that was actually enjoyable, the rest was artsy nothingness. I hate her voice and I hate the instrumentals. Spare me any more of this, please. I’m supposed to be getting culture, not wasting an hour of my day listening to an indie girls voice cracking when she tries to sing high notes. I’m going to score this very low mainly because it put me in a bad mood. Best track: The ending of “Undo”
Now that’s more like it. This album came to me directly after I did a review of a bjork album and oh my is it just night and day. Where bjork was straining hard to be weird and artsy, King instead blesses us with earnest piano ballads and simple but thoroughly relatable lyrics of love and loss. I would consider King to be the female counterpart to Jim Croce actually. She just has a certain genuine warmth to her that makes her actually come off as a friend. I love it and I love this era of stripped down songwriting. Best Track: It’s Too Late
One of the best I’ve heard so far this year. Jazz and folk influences were found throughout, but what was most impressive is how modern it still felt. There’s not many albums that have stood the test of time quite like this one. Musicianship was on point as well. I enjoyed how he danced around from one sound to the next. Hopefully there are more albums of his in my future.
What to say about this record that hasn’t already been said. It’s simply the best most genre defining grunge albums of all time and one of the best front to back albums in general that I’ve heard in a while. I’m not even the biggest grunge fans and I loved it, but most of all I respect how focused it is. The only thing I didn’t care for was the ending could have been stronger, but overall I’m gonna have a lot of these songs in my rotation for a long time. ps Don’t listen to Sickman while running unless you want to be nauseous.
What a fun little album. Kind of a shame I’d never heard of ABC until now.
This may be the actual most essential album that’s been suggested so far. Both emblematic of its time and timeless in its simple songs of love and loss, this is fantastic. I’ll miss this kind of humanity driven music when A.I takes over the industry.
While I appreciate the artistic effort Kendrick exhibits, this album is partially unlistenable and mostly unenjoyable for me. It’s feels incredibly bizarre for me to even think that with how much I love Kendrick as a musician. It’s like I’m in an alternate reality where I’m listening to a different album from everyone who believes this to be his masterpiece. I may just not be getting the point, but most of this record feels like throwaway music that’s a novelty the first time, but too off kilter and unpleasant to go back to except for memes. When he gets a song well put together, it fantastic ie Alright and King Kunta but they’re so few and far between. The large swath of tracks on this record have great production but either have awful hooks or obnoxious vocal inflections from Kendrick that normally work, but work to his detriment here. I’m just confused. This album is so beloved by so many people, but Imma have to pass.
Idk if this is supposed to be parody or not but I got a chuckle here and there. That doesn’t mean the lyrics aren’t supremely childish though. Like ‘good head’? Is this middle school? I was going to give it three stars, cause there’s still some fun riffs here, but then I found out they’re flat earthers. That’s stupid.
This was a great example of late 60s folk/pop. Loved every second and with it was longer actually.
