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Mon Jan 08 2024
Transformer
Lou Reed
I really enjoyed this one quite a bit as a first album. It had a lot of tracks that I really liked, and it would definitely be something that I will listen to again just on my own. I don’t think I know a lot about music, yet I think I could have placed this one as being mid 70s rock and roll. The lyrics and the way that Reed sings it make the composition feel very casual for most of the album, as if he was simply jamming and wrote the songs as he was going. I liked too when more brass was being added to the tracks, especially the saxophone (wind) during ‘Walk on the Wild Side’. I have heard this song once before, somewhat recently because I didn’t know that ‘Can I kick It?’ was a sample. I hope that I will remember this track and album going forward. My favorite track was 'Goodnight Ladies'; It felt like waking up hungover in New Orleans. Close second was ‘Andy’s Chest’ particularly when Reed said, “Now, when people say her feet smell, they mean her nose.”
As it is the first album, I want to add a quick goal for this project, and then hopefully not talk about it much more. I am hoping to expand my musical taste and enjoyment. I want to learn to like albums as a format and so, unless instructed otherwise, I will try to listen to the album in the order recoreded and in one sitting. I also am hoping that I can get more granular with my musical appreciation, and hear more when I listen, as well as discuss music better. I will try the best that I can to write a review for each album, but there will be no requirement for it to be clever. I don’t want to pretend, just listen to good music.
4
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Tue Jan 09 2024
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin
I'm not a huge fan of classic hard rock, so that influences my rating of this album. I'll give the genre some time to work on me. That being said, I thought it was insightful to the band. I only have a surface level knowledge of the band, and really have only heard their greatest hits. I always thought their codas had a hard blues echo to them, but listening to this album made it clear to me how they think about the genre. Like anyone else, I like "Immigrant Song", because it's hard and goes aaaaaaaaa, but my favorite track to listen to was "Since I've Been Loving You". It was straight up blues, and I thought sounded great how aggressive the band were, and Plant's shrill sounded desperate compared to the desensitized vibes I get from most blues artist, even those I like.
Maybe "Friends" wasn't a bad song—there are plenty songs that I enjoyed a lot more after a first impression—but on my first play through, I did not like listening to this song very much. I could hear "Kashmir" being dreamed up within it, but Friends sucked so that Kashmir could slap.
2
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Wed Jan 10 2024
Ágætis Byrjun
Sigur Rós
Even though I don't speak Icelandic and had to look up all the lyrics, I thought this was a very moving concept album. The band did a really good job of making me feel isolation during all of the tracks at the same time as hope and disappointment. Sonically, it is beautiful and complex.
The reason I'm not giving it four stars is because it was an hour and a half. I have that's really hard to listen to as a full album. I still think it was best to listen to altogether, but I probably can't do that again many times. Individual tracks will definitely be revisited.
3
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Thu Jan 11 2024
Innervisions
Stevie Wonder
Good album. I had a funk phase in high school and listen to this album before, but not as one work. It's cohesive and feels like it has a good structure overall.
3
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Fri Jan 12 2024
The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails
I'm trying to keep an open mind throughout this project, so here's the most charitable version of my take: "The Downward Spiral" is not for me. Trent Reznor poured his hatred and his cruelty for capitalism, religion, and any living being with ears into this album. The nails in the band's name might as well be the ones on a chalkboard, which featured prominently during the 65 misanthropic minutes of its runtime.
This album was mixed with utter contempt for audio normalization, forcing me to look up the lyrics later. None of those words are in the Bible. I can't imagine reaching a life state where these lyrics resonate with me, but—who knows—poetically, maybe there's something there. Sonically, it was akin to the Human Centipede being dragged into an industrial lathe at one of those dystopian cyberpunk raves from sci-fi movies. This album could have been a fitting OST for the gory shock websites of the 2000s.
“A Warm Place” felt like a calming oasis of actual music in the desert of edgy screeching, and I’m not sure if the final track, "Hurt," really fit in the mix. The angst was there, but instrumentally, it felt like an afterthought. and props to Johnny Cash and Neil Cicierega for creating something enjoyable from this heap. "I Do Not Want This" was a standout track for summarizing my thoughts on the album in its entirety. I'm relieved that at least the author of this book liked the album.
Nine Inch Nails, consider going to church. A wholly despicable and malicious piece of work.
1
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Tue Jan 16 2024
Come Away With Me
Norah Jones
This is the first album on this site that I already own. I love this album, though. Any song on it can calm me down and improve my mood. I am biased towards enjoying songs with prominent bass. Norah has the perfect voice for this style of music. It makes me want to put on a sweater and drink coffee in the rain. In summation, 'Come Away with Me' is a big mood.
5
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Wed Jan 17 2024
Time Out Of Mind
Bob Dylan
Not too strong an opinion on this album. When I first heard his singing voice, I thought I would care more, but 30 seconds and I was already completely used to it. If anything, I thought it helped with the mood. I enjoyed the long drawn out track about him ordering eggs and then failing to draw a waitress. Decent album. Not looking into the history of this one.
3
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Thu Jan 18 2024
Come Find Yourself
Fun Lovin' Criminals
Fun loving criminals did a really good job of layering many different sounds into their album. And no point did I think it sounded overwhelming, rather they weave in and out so many different instruments and samples that it always was kept interesting. The band came off as pretty Charismatic to the extent that they were criminals who rob banks. They did a good job of balancing between sympathetic in songs like "Bombin' the L" , charming outlaws in "Scooby Snacks", and still spending the block on "Bearhug". This might just be me personally, but they did include a lot allusions in the raps and many to celebrities that I do not know very well. There would be about a dozen in each song, and some of them were just lost on me. I did have the thought that this sounded like G-Love with a gun at sometimes, and I think they even hinted at that and one of the earlier songs.
Standouts: "Running around robbing banks
all whacked off of Scooby Snacks."
Passive/Aggressive had a cool gimmick with the relaxed and then fast.
"See I got more gumbas than Bobby De Niro and if I was you I'd. Act like Nixon and Spiro."
4
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Fri Jan 19 2024
Let's Get Killed
David Holmes
It was obvious he's a disc jockey from the first track. It was different to have exclusively instrumental album. I don't know what to call the genre but it was but it was like hip-hop rock house. Haters will say that it got repetitive, but I had no difficulty grooving the entire length of each song. I like the speech samples book ending each song as well. This whole album could've been the soundtrack for an open world video game about skateboarding on the PlayStation One.
3
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Mon Jan 22 2024
Blue Lines
Massive Attack
The only thing I knew about massive attack before listening to this album was that they wrote the song "Teardrop", which was used as the theme for the television medical drama, House.
The Gravity drums and modulated droning present throughout most of the tracks on this album sounded like it could've been inspired by listening to someone's ticker through a stethoscope. It's not something I would throw on to listen to consciously, but I thought they had quite an impressive range of genres on the album while still maintaining that same new age/hip-hop sound. From what I've read about this album, it was supposedly foundational for a lot of different artists after it, and I could definitely imagine a line from Massive Attack to the sort of unconscious Lofi hip-hop of the 2010s.
3
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Tue Jan 23 2024
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Simon & Garfunkel
Simon and Garfunkel were a duo scientifically engineer to write hopeful songs about melancholy people. Their first meeting might've gone something like this: "So, you into playing classical guitar and harpsichord?" "You bet." "Dig the meek aesthetic of an abjectly poor 1920s American immigrant?" "100%." "Which of us will be taking the lead vocals?" "Absolutely." That beautiful harmony resonates through their music. Each song is a bardic homage to some, perhaps theoretical, person of poverty, whether in spirit or circumstance. I particularly enjoyed the ballad to an uncultured man, and the delightful chaos when Paul started rambling during the chorus, interrupting his own harmonica solo.
4
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Wed Jan 24 2024
GI
Germs
This album may have turned me into a hypochondriac, because now I'm a germaphobe. For fans of this album, it might be one of those cases that you get your enjoyment not so much from the musicality, but rather you enjoy that the album makes you feel something. I say that because I felt angry that I was listening to the album, and I didn't enjoy it. Punk music? Yeah, I certainly do feel punked. It was cool hearing the first studio album with a Looney Toon as the lead vocalist. Taz really knocked it out of the park on this one. They really had something they wanted to say, but I truly have no idea what it was.
All joking aside, I didn't actually hate the vocals, but my main criticism is that most of the album just felt repetitive, adynamic, and boring in an obnoxious way. That could be baked into the punk genre, or it could be more related to this band. I'll only know by listening to more punk, I guess. "Dragon Lady" and "Shutdown Man" were good and interesting to me, but the rest felt like noise when taken as a whole. A song here or there? Maybe I could rock with, but not for 38 minutes straight.
2
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Thu Jan 25 2024
Frampton Comes Alive
Peter Frampton
Frampton is a good musician. That being said, I found most of the album to be monotonous. I think I would enjoy these songs more one at a time, but as an album there wasn't enough change up. I assume that we got the live version for the 16 minute outro where Frampton jams with the talk box. Aside from knowing a few of his songs before this listen, I already associated him with the talk box, and the final song of the album is the one I think of. I quite enjoyed that. It's an utterly bizzare sound, that is just so unique.
Either that is why we ended up with the live album on this list or it was because Peter apparently survived an assasin's gunfire during "Wind of Change". Assuming that's where the name of the album comes from.
2
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Fri Jan 26 2024
Illmatic
Nas
Life’s a bitch and then you die. I have a hard time trying to evaluate rap music. On a simple note: I liked the record. I liked that I could make out everything that was being said the entire time. The backing beats were not difficult to comprehend: interesting to listen to, but certainly they didn’t distract from the lyrics. The hooks were simple and catchy, the jockey scratched good, and the bars were real / emphatic / Illmatic.
4
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Tue Jan 30 2024
Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz
The absolute premier bossa nova album. A fun fact that I found out after looking this up, bossa nova is Portuguese for "music that sounds like that one Getz and Gilberto song". I know they didn't write Girl from Ipanema (sorry Jobim, Moreas, Gimbel), but they may have been the second people to record it, and they one hundred percent are the reason that hundreds of people have recorded it now. "Desifinado" is probably my favorite bossa nova track of all time. Incredible how this whole album had such a similar sound throughout, and yet I never tired of it. Good stuff.
5
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Wed Jan 31 2024
I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail
Buck Owens
Prime dust bowl honky-tonk. I love this kind of music, but I haven't listened to a lot of albums, so this was a cool experience. Already listen to "Act Naturally" a lot and now I'll probably throw "Let the Sad Times Roll On" and "The Band Keeps Playin' On" into the mix. Thanks, Buck.
4
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Thu Feb 01 2024
Marcus Garvey
Burning Spear
I am not knowledgable about Reggae, but I do know of Burning Spear and have enjoyed what I heard before, particularly "Columbus" which is a good listen any Columbus Day. Marcus Garvey is peak roots reggae. I think the genre had only been named a few years prior to this release. His political messages are crystal clear, and I appreciate his dedication to singing about the people and stories of Jamaica's rich history. My top tracks were "Old Marcus Garvey" and I really liked the unique vocalizations on "Tradition". Even better than the Fiddler on the Roof version.
4
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Fri Feb 02 2024
...The Dandy Warhols Come Down
The Dandy Warhols
I enjoyed the more powerpop/shoegaze half of the album quite well. The songs that got a bit grungier just didn't stand out to me. The final two, instrumental tracks were interesting. I got lost in "Pete International Airport" but was ready for "The Creep Out" to be over by the time it ended.
3
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Wed Feb 07 2024
Felt Mountain
Goldfrapp
This album went places. We started with the sort of jazz you'd expect from a pulp spy movie. Wasn't sure but I vibed with it. just as it was it was starting to get to the end of its welcome, we get to "Human" and "Deer Stop", and I'm like okay that's a bit of wild distortion. It's almost like whale song. We're not just noir any more, we're melancholy. Then the next one, the titular song, "Felt Mountain" put me right up there on the mountain with the band. I really liked the entrancing theme. I wish we got more of that throughout the album, but immediately we made a hard dive into a big top circus tent with that deep brass. I didn't look at the name of the track until the song was over, but "Oompa Radar" is perfectly fitting. I liked this album overall and am curious to give it another listen or check out more of what Goldfrapp have put out. I also was reminded a lot of the band Cortex during this listen the way they both favor the high register female vocals that come off as a whistle.
4
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Fri Feb 09 2024
From Elvis In Memphis
Elvis Presley
This is a solid rock and roll album. Somewhere between the solidness of this album and my enjoyment of this album, I think it lands on a 3/5. I liked the thematic thing they were doing in “Only the Strong Survive” where they would switch into a cut time to musically match the sad nature of hi explaining his grief and then licking up whenever he remembers his mother’s inspirational words. I also just want to say I liked the first track “Wearin’ That Loved On Look”. I also like whenever rock artists regress backwards into blues like there is something in their rock DNA that still remembers its genre ancestor “Power of My Love”.
3
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Mon Feb 12 2024
That's The Way Of The World
Earth, Wind & Fire
I don't have too much to say about this album. This is another example of me not realizing how many songs by an artist I already know. Call it ignorance, or call it me taking this band and their music for granted. This band so well encapsulates the 70's funk, and some hot disco too.
5
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Tue Feb 13 2024
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel
Solid album. I love these guys. The standouts that I hadn't heard before were "Keep the Customer Satisfied" and "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright."
4
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Mon Feb 19 2024
Five Leaves Left
Nick Drake
Utterly soothing acoutstic instrumentation. All the musicians put together for these compositions were on the same page. Drake's voice was solid but did not go too crazy either, which kept the tone calm. I was a big fan of the ' Cello Song and Fruit Tree.
4
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Wed Feb 21 2024
Swordfishtrombones
Tom Waits
That was some good shit. Beatnik Bullshit. Tom Waits might be actually insane for writing this. Somehow it all seemed to flow well together in my head even though there was absolutely no clear sign of what instrument anyone was supposed to be playing. “Town with No Cheer” had bagpipes, accordion, electric piano, and I think even and then the next track starts immediately with a marching snare and brass band. As music I want to just listen to in the car, this album fails, but as a audible art, I think it is beautiful. I was very into that little vignettes that Waits was painting and I love the wild choices for different instrumentation on each track. To me it shows talent to write pieces for such a variety of ensembles. I also just enjoy hearing music in those more uncommon instruments. I also just thought that “Johnsburg, Illinois”, “Just Another Sucker on the Vine”, and “Rainbirds”were simply beautiful jazz pieces. It reminds me of the same enjoyment I get out of Frank Zappa, but like much a much rougher, and cigarette-addicted Frank Zappa. Frank Crappa, perhaps. Good bass too.
5
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Thu Feb 29 2024
Ritual De Lo Habitual
Jane's Addiction
Most of this was alright. It's probably not something I would want to listen to again. I didn't think it was bad, just mostly unremarkable. I like the lead vocalist's voice, and I thought that the instrumentation and mixing was kept clean. I've always liked "Been Caught Stealing," and I also enjoyed "Of Course," it's as simple as that. Nice violin on that one. It's just a simple fact.
2
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Mon Mar 04 2024
A Night At The Opera
Queen
I was impressed by the amount of different sounds that they were able to get out of a guitar. There was something about "Seaside Rendezvous and Good Company". Also, there is “You’re My Best Friend” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” in here so this has to, on some level, be a great album.
4
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Tue Mar 05 2024
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Flaming Lips
I appreciate the mixing with orchestra accompaniment and electronic music. They overlapped in a way that was very satisfying. I have heard a lot of individual Flaming Lips songs, and they have a pretty unique sound. I wonder if OK GO would cite them as an inspiration.
This album does a good job of exemplifying what an album can be when you consider each song as a part OF an album and the whole becomes better than the sum of its parts. The transition from "All We Have Is Now” to the outro was very dynamic and, although it’s hard to explain why, is the perfect example of what I mean. Each song was a funky little beat on its own though. I also am a sucker for songs that have uncommon themes. Paul McCartney might want to fill the world with silly love songs, but sometimes I just want to hear a ballad about some dude’s waifu who fights evil, man-eating, pink robots.
4
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Thu Mar 07 2024
Penthouse And Pavement
Heaven 17
Honestly, I don't know how to feel about this album. It's only five songs, which I can't imagine is going to happen that many times again, so I'm just gonna rate it based on how many songs out of the five that I would gladly listen to again. "Penthouse and Pavement" went on for a long time, which would've been cool if I could hear the jamming, but I felt like the vocals were too distracting and overpowered whatever they were doing instrumentally. The vocals were way too repetitive on that track. Whatever else you would call what they were doing the rest of the time (ad libs?): I was digging. "Play to Win" I actually really liked, and then throughout the album the bass was fun to listen to as well as the rest of the solos. This whole album gave the impression of some kind of early 80s movie montage played at 1.5x speed. Came just in time too because I was really beginning to think I might actually need this fascist groove thing. Nipped that in the bud.
2
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Fri Mar 08 2024
21
Adele
I’m a big fanatic of big orchestration and big band. My first kudos go to the entire orchestra that made the full score tracks shine. Still, even the simpler songs were captivating. There is a broader range of intensity on this album than I remember. The lighter songs were fun, the loud songs were exciting, and the melancholy songs were moving. Whatever the intensity of vocals, Adele brings a sincere passion to these songs that is so raw. I remember when "Someone Like You" was on the radio, my friend’s mom was driving us both to school and she turned around and almost scolded him, “Son, don’t you ever hurt a woman to make her feel this way. If you do…” Then she turned back to the front apparently too emotional to continue. Both of us looked at each other a little shocked by the melodrama, but clearly the emotional impact was there.
5
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Wed Mar 13 2024
Hotel California
Eagles
This band has great harmonies. I listened to this one driving to St. Louis, and I realized it makes a really good road trip album. Each song is just a little bit different enough to keep me interested, and they're all hits. I don't think I heard "New Kid on the Block" before, but I really liked it. I tried humming what I thought the melody would be before it came in, and it had some prettier chords than what I had in mind. I also like the "Wasted Time" interlude. I always wonder who writes those. Is it the same songwriters who do the orchestrations? Very pretty. "Last Resort" was an interesting song. I had to go back and read the lyrics for it.
4
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Wed Mar 20 2024
Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)
Loretta Lynn
Loretta ate with this one. If the other country oldies men like Hank Williams and Bob Wills are in the doghouse, some country old gal had to put them there. Her voice is lovey and the band all swangin. Solid folk music, although I can't believe that she broke my heart at the end and cheated too.
4
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Tue Apr 02 2024
Doolittle
Pixies
I don't think this was the best Pixies could have done. not that there was anything wrong with their technique, but I feel like they could do better. A lot of these songs just sounded uncoordinated or clumsy in composition, as if they were still practicing their songwriting. Especially the first two songs and a couple of the later songs where they had some lackluster verses, simple strum patterns on basic chords, and then would just screamed the title of the song over and over again. They were still screaming "Tame" by the time we got to the track "Hey". "Gouge Away" felt like the most competent performance while still maintaining the harsh sound they were going for on the rest of the album. I also enjoyed "Monkey Gone to Heaven" and the times they focused on narrative such as in "I Bleed". My favorite track was "Here Comes Your Man" for just being more musical.
2
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Mon Apr 08 2024
I Should Coco
Supergrass
I had a blast from start to finish. No two songs were alike, and they never dwell on one story for too long. Any of these songs Could've been someone's favorite song in the album. They covered a lot of different sounds, and really filled out the dynamics. I only wish that it was easier to understand the lyrics. Probably between the mixing and the accent that made it difficult. There was something really interesting going on in "She's So Loose". The way they played around with the tempo was very interesting.
5
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Wed Apr 17 2024
Haut de gamme / Koweït, rive gauche
Koffi Olomide
I enjoyed it. I don't speak French or Congolese or whatever, but the music was it enough to get me bopping a little bit. I don't have too much to say, because it was easy to space out during most of the songs withoutknowing words. That might be repetitive to some, but maybe it's a strength if you just needto work to something. At any rate, it was satisying. Reminded me a lot of the Nigerian highlife music my roommate Wood listen to. That probably means the lyrics were tragic even if the tempo was upbeat. I'm probably better off somehow having listened to Ndombolo. Thanks, Koffi, although it sounds like he could be a scumbag and kinda majorly "soukous". Final note, that second song started off like it was about to drop some heavily soulful R&B. Luther Vandross was featured for the first 30 seconds.
3
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Thu Apr 18 2024
So Much For The City
The Thrills
I rather liked this album. I thought it was pretty unremarkable at first, but I really got into it by the end and will add it to my rotation at work probably. It has a early 200s feel at times or maybe like 70s britpop. I liked the harmonica and bah-bah-bahs. Kind of sounds like Ben Folds Five led by the singer from Cloud Cult.
4
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Mon Apr 22 2024
Let It Bleed
The Rolling Stones
"Gimme Shelter" is an all time hit and the same goes for "You Can't Always Get What You Want". I don't even love classic rock all that much. The middle of the record was a mid honky tonk blend, and also a bit too horny for me.
2
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Wed Apr 24 2024
Bad Company
Bad Company
I don't have anything really to remark on this album. I thought it was all right. I still don't think I understand quite how to enjoy classic rock. The only stand out now that I've listened to the album was "Bad Company", and that's probably just because I've heard it before. I actually loved the finale, "Seagull": beautiful chord progressions, simple, and sweet.
3