Beauty and boredom, all rolled into one.
Wow... that was unlike any hip hop album I have ever heard. It almost felt conversational at times or as if three dudes were just sitting on a couch and experimenting with harmonising and chanting mantras at one another about the most random, weird shit. Strangely upbeat, full of sounds and samples not often aligned with hip hop in the modern era. Never boring, occasionally bemusing, but consistently entertaining.
This album was a huge moment in time in my formative years, and really rode a wave to be a huge part of pop culture at the time - further immortalised by Christopher Walken's dance moves. The three big tracks are great.
Listening to it today I was quite shocked at how boring the album felt outside of those three big singles. Some tracks felt like they were more closely resembling an emergency klaxon that repeats for 4 minutes rather than enjoyable music. Maybe I am just an old man yelling at clouds, but I feel like this album, as revolutionary as it was at the time, does not hold up all that well.
Seemed alright but didn't blow me away like so many people have told me it would. Kind of a neat storyteller vibe and it sounded clean and crisp, and I appreciate the piano and orchestral feel to a lot of it.
Fantastic album in its own right, but doesn't even crack a top 3 QOTSA album. That's not an indictment of this album so much as it's only a hint at the greatness the band was yet to produce. Was a hell of a way to announce their arrival, though.
Holy mother of distortion
What a voice. Great album by a legend.
I never listened to this album in my youth, but I was aware of its legendary status. RZA said that "The theme of the album is two guys that had enough of the negative life and was ready to move on, but had one more sting to pull off. They're tired of doing what they doing, but they're trying to make this last quarter million. That's a lot of money in the streets. We gonna retire and see our grandbabies and get our lives together." Great storytelling, almost cinematic.
Was pleasant to listen to while I worked. Can't say it blew me away, but it was fine.
I was surprised at how eclectic this album felt. A lot of impressive technical skill in the guitarwork.
Super high energy and they have a very distinctive style and sound. The album was fun and I really like I bet you look good on the dancefloor. I hope that some of their other albums are a bit more musically diverse because they did sound a little derivative at times.
This album was borderline unlistenable. Any song that sounded remotely interesting was ruined by the most jarring, inharmonic, flat vocals I have ever heard. Unless the other members of the band had their voice boxes tragically ripped out in a freak accident, there is no excuse for this guy being the lead singer. I have no choice but to believe that this album is on the 1001 list as a control group.
This album was incredibly easy to listen to - a very likeable album. Summer Breeze, Pts 1 & 2 was especially good!
This album surprised me. I don't usually enjoy super-repetitive electronica rock (with a few exceptions) but there were some really enjoyable tracks on this.
I found this album to be a really fun mix of Afrobeats and Brazilian music. Very funky and cool.
This was an interesting listen. One one hand it is completely unpolished and sounds akin to teenagers figuring it out with their first school band. Most of the tracks were 4-chord songs that were fairly uninteresting melodically.
BUT
There were a few tracks where you could tell they were really pushing to make a different sound, and those tracks were interesting! Not a huge fan of the mumble-lyrics but the whole album is a bit of a mood.
This album has so many huge hits that have stood the test of time. This is a band that knows exactly who it is, and is 100% it all the time.
A really nice classic with some huge hits on it.
Music was enjoyable and the poetry between tracks was interesting - a glimpse into what artists found inspiring in another time. Enjoyed the plucky hints of almost ska vibes.
This was a strange listen, it felt like a lullaby at times or what Led Zeppelin sounds like without the actual rock. Quite pleasant in the background!
I thought this album was solid and a couple of the tracks have had multiple plays in the rotation over here. Not something I would listen to repetitively but definitely an album that set a standard of art to come from Dre.
If I had a nickel for every time I listened to an album that had a track where the vocalist meowed at me in tune to the beat, I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
I found this album to be plucky but slow. Fairly soothing listening and it felt both crooning and bluesy. Wouldn't feel out of place in a western.
This album was a mixed bag of easy listening with a couple of not great tracks. Not usually my thing and not Billy Joel's strongest.
This album felt hugely varied from start to finish. Drifted into shades of rasta and hip hop, and felt like the kind of music you would enjoy in a big crowd. No one track blew me away, but no track was lacking.
I do appreciate the aggression of this album and I also enjoy a lot of the synth work. Quite a few songs bounce into 'annoying noises' at times but there are also some super chill tracks.
This album had some crisp sounds, however musically it was fairly uninteresting. A lot of the songs were extremely repetitive and no part of this album felt like it was adventurous, which is odd for a post-punk album.
Solid but not remarkable.
This album surprised me - it's clearly early days for them but you could hear so much talent in their music. A Forest and Three were two stand-outs but this entire album felt like I was walking through the halls of an abandoned Gothic estate. This album is good but does not even come close to the heights of Disintegration - an album I would listen to a hundred times before I gave this one a second listen.
This album is a rock opera masterpiece. This was a huge return-to-spotlight moment for Green Day who had consistently put out good-to-great catchy music for a lot of years and across a lot of albums. They have a very specific sound that they have always stuck with, and the American Idiot album was a huge, ambitious concept that they stuck the landing on so well that the judges were all holding 10s. A movement of youth angst targeted at questionable political decisions of the time was perfectly captured in this album and even almost 20 years later it stands tall as a cultural touchstone for the mid 00's.
This was easy to listen to and just had a nice funk and vibe to it. It had an extremely specific 70s sound to it that a lot of more modern artists try to emulate in 'nostalgia' music. Some tracks were extremely long, but that is the style of both the time and the genre, so no points deducted there. At times just felt like an unbridled jam session.
This album was very 'Bowie' - he's a wonderful storyteller through the medium of music. You believe everything he sings and you feel every bit of emotion he puts in to every track. The man just was too cool for this world, and this album was like a short love letter. Not his most brilliant but nothing was unenjoyable.
The tunes were catchy enough but there's a fatigue to the music that was hard to shake. The production had a real echoey effect that added to the dreariness. I don't know how this would have been received in its time of release, but I am struggling to hear anything remotely mindblowing.
This is a legendary record, and I love a well-executed concept album. That being said, I feel like David Bowie's music is from another plane of existence and he simply saw the world on a spectrum that the rest of us are unable to reach. Or maybe he just rocks.
This was a soothing album to listen to and made for some great background music. I appreciated the 'jamminess' of it.
This album has a lot of attitude and it feels like quintessential Jimi
This immediately made me think of Ben Folds. The album massively swings between 50's rock, to waltzes, to 70's guitar wails. The whole album felt both younger and older than it is. Super high energy that was just fine.
This album was 100% baby-making music.
Absolutely phenomenal album. Knopfler can really make a guitar wail in such a moving and distinct way.
The album was surprisingly repetitive and I wasn't across anything outside of the 3 singles. I feel like they try and emulate what AC/DC have perfected and end up being 'AC/DC at home'.
Side note, 'I Got The Six' is covered by Electric Six and I think the cover is better.
Country is normally not my vibe, and this album was no exception.
This album is unquestioningly beautiful and a love letter to many other artists whose tracks feature on the album. Cash has such a distinct style and sound, and even in these sparse renditions, that style drips from every word and chord.
This album was absolutely wild. It was like if Paul Simon and the Avalanches had a love child that grew up on 1950s Cowboy serials. That being said, it was absolutely captivating from start to finish; not a single track felt like it was too long or out of place. Just a barrage of noise that individually might have felt chaotic or annoying but somehow combined was greater than the sum of its parts. Some tracks genuinely stirred something in me that didn't want them to end. Just a bizarre and fun experience.
This album is... long. Almost two and a half hours. I don't think I was mentally prepared for it. There's a lot of very solid stuff on there, but it outstayed its welcome. Side note: The track 'Old Pervert' was eerily similar to the outro music in Trigun.
Good fucking lord. Unlistenable.
Seemed like a pleasant listen but unremarkable outside of Personal Jesus. Didn't blow me away like I thought it would.
