A bunch of these songs sound familiar to other bands/songs but they end up standing on their own. Impressive how much it feels like I've spent a ton of time with the music on a first listen. I don't have the words to speak to what exactly I'm trying to capture but there's something here.
First song impression - this is incredibly well mastered. The clarity on Spotify is like not much else I've heard on the platform. Good song too and agreed on comp. Interesting, dynamic, and still cohesive.
Woah, that title track. Wow.
Strong prince songs from song 3
Song 4 may grow on me as I slow down and listen. Showcases a LOT of the good so far.
Ballsy to cover Hallelujah on a debut album.
Less specific notes on the rest of the album as typical for me. May need to listen back to front next time. The second does grow tired and ask for more than Buckley's strong, haunting vocals, with the exception of 1-2 songs.
Adele's voice is truly one of a kind
This album is also so well paced. Great mixture of fast vs. slow, lots of production vs. Simple, happy/hopeful vs. somber/reminisce, etc.
Every pop album should strive to be 25. Obviously, few will match her singing ability but they should aspire to the mix of instrumentation and electronic elements, the path from a to b, and the overall package.
If there's one complaint, it's that all of their is little here pushing Adele out of her comfort zone.
Maybe I just don't get it. Feels like I'm not smart enough or something.
There's definitely some experimental stuff here that's at least different. Maybe historical or personal context would help. I definitely feel having the benefit of listening to her peers in comparison would benefit me and the album.
This in inspiring. I could listen to this concert 50 times and be moved by a different section. I love that the background grunts or hums from Jarrett alongside theater noise. It's a sudden reminder that this incredible work is live AND improvised.
The first 10 minutes or so just feels like Jarrett getting a sense of the instrument before settling into the first couple of riffs and from there he's a guide for a wonderful night.
I wish I had better music language and theory under my belt to truly appreciate all that's happening. As I said, the work becomes inspiring and forms a reason to find that information.
Strong Beatles vibes on Cosmic Dancer. That's pretty cool and one of the first times I've seen a real direct influence that would be relatively contemporary
Have definitely heard Get It On before. Not sure I would have guessed this was British rock. Bass line and rhythm riff feel like southern rock to an extent.
There's an undertone of Zeppelin here. I'd be interested to know if the prior Tyrannosaurs Rex albums were closer to Zeppelin. Wiki says they were more folky prior to this album.
Initial song is either terrible on Spotify or produced to intentionally be unsettling. Immediately understand what "texture and space" meant in the wiki entry. What great descriptive language.
Really unsure about the album until roughly halfway through. Then it absolutely becomes incredible. 100% see why Raznor gets the production credits he now has. This album is incredibly well produced even if material and style are dark and heavy for my personal taste. One of the few concept albums that delivers on its premise fully. It starts so disorientating and then morphs into this angry, dramatic rise and fall. 100% puts me in the headspace even if my personal depression has more sadness and melancholy vs. the anger here.
Awesome album though. Maybe only 1-2 songs that are close to meh and on a second listen those might stand out to me. The second half that becomes more jazz focused, in particular, is good.
This is a great example of what I'd hope Adele would try in terms of pushing her own boundaries and experimenting more.
It's a couple levels above coffee shop music though. Meant to be listened to in a jazz or blues style club. Deserves all the attention in the room.
Relatively Unremarkable. To my untrained ear, there's several half baked Revolver songs here. There are a couple of songs that might stand out on a different album but they end up held down by the rest of the entries. Most positive attribute overall is the instrumentation and arrangements on a couple tracks.
Underwhelming entry overall.
A little underwhelming but I'm typically not a the biggest synth fan. If easily turns into background noise for me. There are songs here that might be the best version of the music so that's saying something. Probably just not my style of music overall.
Start of the album:
"Hmm this has a super similar sound to that song but I can't recall what it's called. It has to be this artist or someone super similar."
Me upon the first bar of Cars:
"Ah there it is"
Really undecided if I love or hate her voice on the first track. Upon the second track, I think it's really just when she's singing at the low end of her register that I don't enjoy. Makes it seem like she's doing a voice.
Instrumentation is interesting and light; certainly unique to the album. The strings provide a lot of great melody and rhythm throughout the different songs.
Do we really need an 8 minute whatever "It Was a Pleasure Then"? Feels gratuitous.
The more this goes the less I understand why this is on the list. Not even necessarily because it's bad but it's just not notable and feels like someone taking the piss.
There's an underlying element that feels like this would have been transition music in movies from the 50's and 60's epic movies or potentially Disney classics with worse singing.
FWIW - This has elicited more reaction from me than the past couple of albums so it has that going for it.
The first half is okay but in hindsight sounds a lot like plenty of other post Dookie commercial punk bands.
The second half is quintessential Green Day though.
So difficult not to foot tap or nod to drum rhythms. The balance and dance between the drums and guitar is so consistently cohesive.
It's obviously much more radio friendly than the punk/grunge prior to their success but this is so clean it's undeniable.
Love the giggles in the background of All By Myself. Can't imagine how fun it would be to have amount of success with your brothers.
Very encouraged by the first song. The album has a strong cinematic file with a lot of space and rising/falling action. It's a little hard to engage with the album at the gym so my experience is probably not as good as it should be. Overall, it feels inspired/influenced by Coldplay of the time. Less commercial/radio leanings so maybe a little more grown up feeling.
This probably deserves another listen when I get the chance.
Somehow, Zeppelin is a band that I'm way less familiar with than other contemporaries despite listening to those other options quite a bit. My first reaction on listen is that there are several songs (Black Dog, Rock and Roll, Going to California) that I've always loved but never to connect to Led Zeppelin specifically. It's a credit to the album that these songs all feel like a Led Zeppelin song but are different enough to be diverse and interesting on the same album.
I enjoyed A lot of this album without it having a particular song really sticking out to me. It's really good running music due to its pace and beat and just general feel. There's a lot of Coldplay and it's interesting that this early 2000s UK Rock really does have a particular sound to it.
I love these Unplugged performances. Only thing close today are tiny desk concerts but those are much shorter and less produced.
Cobain's cynicism and self judgement is reflected here so plainly. It's a look both into the band having fun together but also what his demons might have been. Grohl playfully giving support in the background whenever Cobain falls into his self deprecation has a certain melancholy to it.
The music itself is also incredibly good. The concerns at the time around song selection were easily warranted but having a breadth of non singles and covers works so well from a longevity perspective.
Not my favorite Beatles album but this is still great. Come Together and the Harrison songs are my favorites. I also really love Oh Darling which doesn't feel like a typical Beatles song. I Want You has to be the watermark for metal pre -Sabbath if it's not Zeppelin; interesting experience listening to those back to back.
Maxwell's Silver Hammers has such a great melody and rhythm but the lyrics feel gratuitous and not explored.
Definitely did not give this one a fair listen but also didn't catch my attention.
I enjoyed the album but have never been over the moon for Van Halen. Obviously, Eddie is revered as a guitarist so I'm likely missing the boat on that portion. Van Halen, for me personally, may also suffer from the fact that they were the standard for their particular sound and therefore almost feels generic to me because I didn't experience it in real time.
I enjoy a lot of the instrumentation and general riffs but the singing doesn't do a lot for me. Overall a lot of meh.
Fun times but funk tends to blend together for me. Certainly groovy though.
This is great. Wikipedia uses the word percussive in one of the sections and that's a great descriptor. Definitely going into the rotation.
Jay Z has such bravado and machismo and its on full display here. It's also clear that he more than believes every word and he delivers on it in song after song.
Nothing particularly notable for me
Wow, I had no idea 'Changes' was Bowie.
There are several good songs but there's not a ton that grips me. It certainly has a distinct Bowie sound, however.
Really developed for a debut album. Lots of interesting things happening amongst the production, lyrics, and content. Only 3 singles but feels like there are 5-6 songs at least that super solid. I'll have to spend more time with the album over the coming weeks.
I knew a lot more of these songs than I would have guessed. There's a cohesiveness that made them blend together a touch but generally just works. Morissette's voice is so strong and distinct and it's used in a bunch of ways. She utilizes lyrical rhythm really well (typically throughout the verses). Production, mixing, etc. is also really strong. There's flashes of the Jeff Buckley album on a handful of songs. It's fun to see the content flash between immaturity and deeper thoughts. It captures that early 20s timeframe really well.
The Wikipedia entry gives good context for why this particular album is historically important and there are definitely good songs along the way. However, I'm not sure I need 50 minutes of sad songs that aren't particularly imaginative.
Sinatra can certainly sing though.
There's a lot of 80's vibes here that is just not my cup of tea. For the most part, the album didn't stand out in one way or another. With that said, there are a couple entries that are solid.
This album must have been mind blowing to audiences at the time. I knew the heavy hitters but the whole album is enjoyable front to back. I really appreciate how clear all of the sound comes through despite being a metal album. Ozzy's vocals are fantastic.
I'm torn between 3 or 4 stars for the album. There's significant use of pop-synths which is never my favorite but the album has such layered, eclectic sound it's able to overcome the sound of the time. There's a real improvisational element to the album, even on the big, singles tracks. Ultimately, think the four song run between "Life's What You Make It" and "Give it Up" pushes it to a 4 star.
Really interesting sound across the album with a of blend genres, instruments, and electronic sounds. Textured comes to mind as a descriptor and the vocals are varied across the songs as well.
There's a really great amount of variation of rock, folk, and country on this album. So many foundational portions of what I listen to today. I'm really surprised I hadn't heard this album previously. Ultimately, think it's missing 1 great truly gripping, ear worm.
There's some good and some bad here. Think the most popular songs are really fun and ear wormy but others are not particularly notable to me. It certainly has the Brit-Pop sound and delivers it consistently. It might have stood out more in the moment but I struggle to separate it from the genre now. There's a lot of sound that flows down into The Killers which is cool to see.
I'm sure if I had listened to this at a certain point in my life that it might have gripped me but today it's just mostly bleh.
The breadth of sound here is always surprising. The run between 'I'm In Love With My Car' and 'Seaside Rendezvous" is all over the place yet somehow are fully formed and Queen is able to deliver each song. Bohemian Rhapsody is the perfect button for this album conceptually on top of the pure supremacy of the song as a standalone item. Hard to capture how obviously great the album is in totality. I lack of musical language to express why.
I wasn't sure what to expect based on the other reviews but this feels pretty solid for a genre I'm not in love with. I'm not sure the album needs to be 90 minutes long but probably more related to house music. Decent variety/back-and-forth between melody focused songs and the longer house tracks. At a minimum, this has caused me to want to seek the "best" versions of the genre as this scratched something. Finally, there's a really fun 90's sound that comes through but couldn't articulate exactly where it lands.
What a combination of voice, lyrics, and instrumentation. The sound on the album is so interesting and varied even before being paired with Wonder's vocals. He sings with such emotion and joy that it's contagious. Impossible to have this album go unnoticed in the background.
Superstition absolutely struts and it's impossible not to be inspired to move.
