Jan 11 2024
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Hard Again
Muddy Waters
4
Jan 12 2024
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Rock 'N Soul
Solomon Burke
Great, achingly cool. Wish I was as cool as Solomon Burke (please be aware that I retract that last statement in the event of Solomon Burke or associates being cancelled in any way at any time due to circumstances that I do not support or in any way wish to be associated with. For a full list of these circumstances please refer to my "Manifesto on Reprehensible Acts" First Published 2017, revised monthly since then. Such acts include but are not limited to - Chicken Marriage, Laughing at swans, Accidentally writing things when young and foolish that people will continue to hold you accountable for even though you have changed, even though those sentiments were previously commonly held, even though you are arguably not the same person you once were; and enjoying Polka).
4
Jan 15 2024
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Tidal
Fiona Apple
3
Jan 16 2024
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Blue Lines
Massive Attack
5
Jan 17 2024
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Pink Moon
Nick Drake
3
Jan 18 2024
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Imagine
John Lennon
3
Jan 19 2024
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Marcus Garvey
Burning Spear
5
Jan 22 2024
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The Wall
Pink Floyd
The not goodest Pink Floyd album. I'm still not sure which one is Pink?
2
Jan 23 2024
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Joan Armatrading
Joan Armatrading
Great song writing, great musicianship. Couldn't wait for it to be over. Literally counting the songs that I was subjecting myself to. I would have torn my hair out if I had heard any more. A lot of songs where she sang about giving all her power away to men. That was weird. One song where she sings about calmly accepting date rape. "I got no strength to make him stop" "I guess it's too late, but I'll know next time"
2
Jan 24 2024
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Paranoid
Black Sabbath
All Hail the Ozzman
5
Jan 25 2024
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Heartbreaker
Ryan Adams
Better than I thought actually
3
Jan 26 2024
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Don't Stand Me Down
Dexys Midnight Runners
Recordings of scripted dialogue. Pretentious and tedious. I have no issue with prententious behaviour, but please make it interesting. Have a cat play the keyboard, record a song underwater. Don't be dull.
Stand Down Rowland
2
Jan 29 2024
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Nevermind
Nirvana
Not the best of the Albums, but a great gateway for 12yr olds experiencing angst and self-loathing as it has been for the last couple of decades. Still a great album. Once you 12yr olds are done being sad and angry to this, check out Bleach for the destructive abandon, check out In Utero for the maturation of the sound, then check out every other great grunge band from the 90's which defined my generation of nihilistic under-acheivers.
Then remember that these are only feelings and they will change, take small steps every day. Sadness is romantic and easy, being happy is a lot of work, but eventually, and fundamentally worth it.
4
Jan 30 2024
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People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A Tribe Called Quest
Classic. Hip Hop about rhymes vibes and culture, not about Money and Violence. Blah blah, life was better in the old days etc.
It's all about the Yeet! Yakno-I'msayin SKRT SKRT. Yeet!
5
Jan 31 2024
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Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin
It's a classic for a reason!
4
Feb 01 2024
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Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
The Kinks
I was underwhelmed. It was clever, but didn't light my fire.
3
Feb 02 2024
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Future Days
Can
This was great. Usually on this website I get albums everyone's heard of a million times, but this one was unexpected. Never heard of them, the music was weird, but awesome. It was a journey, an experience, not always enjoyable, but at least it left an impression, which a lot doesn't. Sounds like it could be from a contemporary band. Confusing, sometimes uplifting, sometimes oddly sinister, like a version of utopia from 1984.
Good stuff - I'll probably never listen to it again.
4
Feb 05 2024
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I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Aretha Franklin
Brilliant, should be on everyone's list.
4
Feb 06 2024
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Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Dull as dishwater. Although I would imagine dishwater to, actually, be quite interesting. All those Microbes and bacteria and so forth, happily living in your sink, just trying to get through the day. Perhaps they wonder "What if I had been born somewhere else, or something else?"
Do microbes have existential crises?
If they do, they would probably listen to this album.
They would think "Man, I am glad I was born without ears"
2
Feb 07 2024
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You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur Jr.
Fantastic. Heavy, but fun pop noise rock. Still limp wristed and ineffectual as was a lot of music from this age, but really great. I think I appreciate it more now as a middle aged human than I did back then
4
Feb 08 2024
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The White Room
The KLF
One of a few albums that changed Pop music in the UK. Brought dance music into the main stream. This album is great, a couple of hits that everyone knows, which aren't their best tracks.
In truth this album was so much 'Of it's time" that it sometimes sounds a bit dated and a little contrived nowadays. It's a great piece of musical history, with some awesome tracks.
The KLF's crown jewel is, in my opinion, their "Chill Out" album. It's a masterpiece. There are not many circumstances where the chill out album is what you want to hear, but if you are in a certain headspace, it is absolutely sublime and beautiful. Listen to this, then go listen to that.
4
Feb 09 2024
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(What's The Story) Morning Glory
Oasis
An album absolutely full of bangers.
The 90's UK music scene had me in neither camp Blur nor Oasis, but looking back now, as my taste and my waist have softened somewhat, I appreciate the songwriting and exuberance of this recording.
Not everyone loves this band, but everyone has at some point sung these songs, badly, at the top of their voice, getting all the words wrong, with their arms round their mates shoulders, telling everyone - I fffing love you man.
It's science.
4
Feb 12 2024
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Channel Orange
Frank Ocean
Underwhelming. It was clever, I guess that's something.
3
Feb 13 2024
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Rage Against The Machine
Rage Against The Machine
Unbelievable album. Full of classics. Fuelling teenage rebellion throughout the 90's. Full of anti-racist, anti-capitalist anthems. Especially beloved of white, right wing American's who don't trust their liberal government. Not sure that was the target demographic.
Also odd, for a staunchly anti-capitalist band; lots of great merch.
Everyone has heard of this album.
Take some time out from screaming "F**** you I won't do what you tell me" and enjoy Tom Morello's brilliantly innovative guitar sounds, and weirdly out of place jazz solo's.
Fantastic stuff.
5
Feb 14 2024
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Slayed?
Slade
If I stumbled upon this band in a country pub on a Friday night, I would feel okay about it. If I heard they were playing again next week in a pub 5 miles away, I would not make the trip. Noddy Holder seems like a safe geezer though. I hope he earns a fat paycheck for many Christmases to come.
2
Feb 15 2024
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Vol. 4
Black Sabbath
Pretty good. It's no Paranoid that's for sure.
3
Feb 16 2024
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Central Reservation
Beth Orton
Great album. Orton feels like a fragile bird.
I mean, her singing brings that to mind. I would like to state for the record that
1. I have never felt Beth Orton in any way, shape or form.
2. My experience of handling fragile birds is limited to picking them up off my deck when they careen into my windows.
Perhaps this album should have been called "My my, those tree reflections look tempting, let's rush headlong towards them."
Great songwriting; listen if you are feeling melancholy; listen for Andrew Weatherall's masterful production, bringing electronica into folk with seemless fluidity; Ben Harper's awesome guitar solo.
4
Feb 19 2024
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Gorillaz
Gorillaz
There are a few great great tracks on here. Those are the ones you already know. Stick to those.
I get the feeling that this is the album Damon Albarn always wanted to make as a bourgeois art school student back in the day. His fame and fortune allowed him the free reign to produce this. A few good bits, a lot of pretentious twaddle.
Maybe that's harsh, it's obviously a lot better than I could do.
Oh well, in a few years computers will design all of our music, custom made just for our personal preferences, so this will be a moot point anyway. We will only hear things we are guaranteed to enjoy, and we will all live in a state of somatic boredom, constantly entertained, never fulfilled.
Lean into the twaddle, it may be doomed forever and we'll miss it when it's gone.
3
Feb 20 2024
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Doolittle
Pixies
Anarchic, chaotic, joyful, anguished, loud and rebellious. It's a fantastic album. Makes no apologies for what it is, doesn't need to. Stay loud forever.
4
Feb 21 2024
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Red Headed Stranger
Willie Nelson
If you thought you knew Willie Nelson, then this album will have you saying
"Yep, I did know Willie Nelson"
Awesome. Most of the songs are under 2 minutes, so if you don't like one, another will be along real soon.
Just a great album, if you like Willie. Who wouldn't?
4
Feb 22 2024
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Want One
Rufus Wainwright
Couldn't make it very far into this one. I have been trying really hard to get through all these album-of-the-day's, as a means to expanding my tastes and building some new synaptic pathways.
This melodic self-absorbtion had me reaching for the off button. It kind of ruined music for me for a few hours, and I had to listen to nothing for a while.
The first few tracks reminded me of something like a 70's soap opera theme if written by a lovesick 14 year old girl.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Speak your truth buddy, those who need to hear it will love it I'm sure.
The instrumentation and arrangements were really good.
In fact I'm sure it's all really good, it just wasn't written for me.
I had a dream last night where I was a tourist in a foreign land, the preferred mode of travel was via suitcases, which floated and propelled you through the waterways. That was way more fun.
3
Feb 23 2024
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Shadowland
k.d. lang
This was great! A whole mix of Showtunes, Blues, Country, bluescountry and Honytonk. It was fun, polished entertaining.
Worth a listen, doesn't disappoint. Maybe I'm just in a good mood today. You're alright Lang...alright.
4
Feb 26 2024
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S&M
Metallica
I really wanted to Scoff at this. I had comments already in the bag about how it was Metallica doing a Metallica covers album, about how Portishead did it much better, about Metallica trying desperately to land the next Bond theme tune.
Then I listened to it. It's over the top, theatrical, sometimes ridiculous, but eventually and fundamentally brilliant.
As the album progressed, it gets more over the top. James Hetfield is like a super charged version of himself, every sentence ending with the familiar "ah" sound. As the album comes to a close, the classics come out. It's fun, caricaturish, riotous. I couldn't help but get swept along with the madness.
Not sure this is a life changing album, or an album that changed music in anyway, but a great listen, Metallica being Metallica to the Nth degree.
4
Feb 27 2024
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Birth Of The Cool
Miles Davis
It's just a fantastic, beautiful album. Full of gentle surprises. It may actually be the very birth of cool.
I love it, and I hate Jazz.
Wait, do I like Jazz now?
Damn.
5
Feb 28 2024
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Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Stereolab
This was great. Something a bit different. I was all primed up for some easy to listen to Welsh pop rock but got this instead.
Crazy 60's French vocals with repetitive rhythms and staccato beats. It's fun and it's interesting. Definitely not like anything else from the 90's that I've heard. Definitely worth a go. I can't imagine too many times that I'd want to put this on to listen to. If I was going out on my vespa to buy oranges in the middle of summer, in a small French village I'd reach for this every time.
4
Feb 29 2024
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Green Onions
Booker T. & The MG's
I don't know about this one. Seems suspect.
2
Mar 04 2024
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3 + 3
The Isley Brothers
Awesome stuff. Not much more to say. Don't know much about the band, or it's impact on the wider musical scene. Enjoyed listening to it!
4
Mar 05 2024
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Band On The Run
Paul McCartney and Wings
Great. I always thought that Wings were a kind of naff 80's Beatles lite.
That may be true, but there's a lot of interesting stuff going on here, some good songwriting, interesting ideas. It seems every Beatles album is on this list. Not sure we need Beatles adjacent albums too, whatever, it was cool.
4
Mar 06 2024
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Cross
Justice
Maybe on a different day this won't feel like fingers down a blackboard
2
Mar 07 2024
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Low
David Bowie
All music sounds like cats bashing around on dustbin lids to me. It's like, I can hear music like I usually do, it sounds the same as it ever did, but instead of harmony, I hear discord, instead of beauty I hear ugliness that makes me want to exist in one of those silent rooms where people go mad. That seems nice. I might be having some kind of crisis.
As a musician, this is troubling. I might hate music.
Anyway, don't listen to me, I'm sure this is excellent to someone not having an existential crisis. At least it's not another damned Beatles album.
Really, All the Beatles albums are the most influential music ever produced? All of them!??! What about Mozart? That guy had some pretty big hits. Who's representing that chief? I guess he didn't release too many albums, while alive, but he sure has a lot out nowadays.
2
Mar 11 2024
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Melodrama
Lorde
This is brilliant! I was expecting to hate this based on how much I hate hearing that one song which got played in every shop and by every radio station for years. Great songs though, a mix of saccharin pop but with inventive production and fun twists. It has depth and nuance while still being catchy and approachable. It's hard not to like this, and is way better than that one stupid fucking song (which isn't on this album).
edit: the song isn't that bad really, it's just if you are forced to hear something over and over wherever you go for a couple of years, you are obliged to hate it.
4
Mar 12 2024
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After The Gold Rush
Neil Young
Not available on Spotify Canada, Neil Young is Canadian, so maybe it's assumed that if you don't already own it, then you don't deserve it.
Canadians are very proud of one-of-their-own who does good.
Some things are sacred in Canada: Hockey, The Camp fires at the lake, that we can no longer have due to forest fire risk, Neil Young and The Tragically Hip.
Dust off those CD's baby - Spotify no bueno
4
Mar 13 2024
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Coles Corner
Richard Hawley
This was cool. Melancholy, orchestral, a bit different.
Nice
3
Mar 14 2024
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Dig Your Own Hole
The Chemical Brothers
It's alright.
Personally I think Exit Planet Dust is the better album.
This is more of an overblown, overproduced, cacophony. Too much stuff, too many samples, just too much.
If you have taken far too many "caffeine pills" you might like this, or if you are the sort of person who looks at a sunset and thinks "this would be much better with flashing lights and space lasers" then this album might be for you.
If you are looking for an album that stands alone, a masterpiece in a sea of mediocrity, and still sounds as fresh today as it did in the late 90's. Go listen to In Sides by Orbital. If that album isn't on the list - then there is no justice in this world.
3
Mar 15 2024
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The Sun Rises In The East
Jeru The Damaja
Cool album. Not very woke, but then not many rap albums are I guess.
I liked it, and if you are looking for advice on rap music, always go to a white, middle class, middle aged, Englishman, I always say. We down wit dat shit Playa.
With the Hippin and a hoppin etc....
4
Mar 18 2024
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Reggatta De Blanc
The Police
Forgettable - if you want to listen to this, go look in your aunts cd collection. It's between, Shania Twain and Take That.
Probably.
I mean, she's your aunt, you figure it out.
If you want to listen to white, anglicized reggae with the corners smoothed out, listen to UB40.
If you want to listen to punky pop music with the corners smoothed out, listen to The Clash
I'm not sure who this album is for, I've heard it's very popular, you should probably check it out. I mean Enya is nice too, as are Coldplay. Super.
2
Mar 19 2024
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A Love Supreme
John Coltrane
Finally! An album that you should definitely actually listen to before you die.
Listen to it, but don't die yet, the world needs you.
bleeblahblooobedydoobeebedoobybe HONK scoobedydoo dee dum diddly
JAZZ....nice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsQYzpOHpik
I'm not really a fan of Jazz, but after listening to this, I am fully ready to accept that it may be music's sublimest expressive form.
5
Mar 20 2024
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Dear Science
TV On The Radio
This is a good album, probably a great album.
Sadly It's cool... too cool.
Like, if you walk into a hipster bar by mistake and everyone has moustaches they can barely grow, thick rimmed spectacles and vintage cycling caps.
You like it, but you don't belong.
They are wearing New Balance because of Dadcore, you wear them because you are a Dad... and your knees hurt.
Your Bumbag is for practical purposes.
They're jeans are skinny because they wear ladies jeans, yours are skinny because they are normal jeans and you are wearing a size 32. You tell everyone that you have always been a size 32 since your 20's.
You can't breathe if you sit down. In restaurants, you pre-unbutton your top button.
They and you both wear socks with sandals; them because it became cool, you because you gave up trying.
It's really a great album, full of innovation and influence from many different styles and times.
I just felt a little awkward listening to it.
If you are too old to dress ironically, then maybe you'll feel the same.
If I had actually heard this back in 2008 then I might have been okay.
Sort of like with Radiohead, I started off with them back in the Pablo Honey days, they progressed until they eventually got too cool for me, but luckily I got grandfathered in, so I can listen to them still.
4
Mar 21 2024
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Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod Stewart
On the title track. The drums and the guitar seem to be doing something different to each other. They really should have played the same song. Most inconvenient, really hurt my brain.
I get annoyed with every old album on Spotify being a "Re-mastered edition" I mean what's wrong with the original master? Did the engineers of yesteryear not have talent? Maybe the equipment was different, or it was engineered for tinny wireless AM radios?
anyway, this one could do with a re-master. Freshen it up Roddy, you renew your wife every few years, renew your tunes too.
Includes a Barn-Storming Cover of - That's alright Mama by Arthur Crudup
And a folky "Amazing Grace"
Great album, it's always a shame when English performers try their hardest to be "American" but still a great album.
I'm still waiting for Astral Weeks to come up on this list. It must be on here somewhere.
3
Mar 22 2024
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Out Of The Blue
Electric Light Orchestra
What?
I think I accidentally clicked on "1001 albums that'll make you wish you were dead".
-Take this tepid claptrap and leave, please.
This fills me with rage, so I guess in that sense it is doing a good job, as art should evoke a strong reaction.
My strong reaction is to stuff bananas in my ears.
It's so messy and such a waste of bananas.
I know...........
I could just turn it off,
but where would be the bananas in that?
2
Mar 25 2024
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The Wildest!
Louis Prima
4
Mar 26 2024
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3 Feet High and Rising
De La Soul
Pretty sure this already came up for me.
First rap album I ever owned, on cassette.
I think at the time I just listened to The Magic Number and not much else. Pretty sure I'm not alone in that.
I liked them, but they weren't no Vanilla Ice or MC Hammer, now that's some legit rapping right there.
3
Mar 27 2024
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Beautiful Freak
Eels
I found this by turns, Dull, irritating and condescending (he saw a 17 yr old pushing a pram and thought it must be her sister, Really? That great poignant sadness moved you deeply? Come visit a UK council estate sometime bud, or really anywhere else in the world). Still, I guess that is his experience and he's entitled to voice his feelings. Just because there are worse things under the sun, doesn't mean that I need to invalidate his experience I guess. Shame on me for shame shaming.
Also strangely depressing, the music wasn't particularly sad or evocative of deep emotion, it's just, I felt kind of down listening to it.
Would not recommend, although, it's all well and good.
For someone else this was obviously a world changing album, I hope it is for you, fine reader.
If not, you can just listen to that one song that got all the radio play for years on end and call it good.
2
Mar 28 2024
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Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Aphex Twin
4
Apr 02 2024
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Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
PJ Harvey
Classic.
Full of paradoxes, Loud / Gentle - Fragile / Strong - Defeated / Defiant.
So many things that shouldn't exist together, but do.
The sweetness of a lullaby with the guttural snarl of a wounded animal.
It's everything laid bare.
It's beautiful.
4
Apr 08 2024
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Neon Bible
Arcade Fire
I thought this was okay. Some catchy songs. Even though the songs were all different, they all kind of sounded the same and nothing really stood out.
I wouldn't say this is an album you have to listen to before you die.
It's more the kind of album you should listen to if:
You just left home for university for the first time and you want to find something that's different to your Dad's Cd collection or the Pop hits of the day. Now you can put this album on in your dorm room and people won't laugh at your quaint childish music taste. Your other fresh faced Uni friends will all think this is cool and alternative. Some day, you may feel like you want something more, something deeper, more challenging something that makes you grow as your synapses have to to rewire a little.
Good luck to you, it's the start of a wild journey.
Best for people who have mustaches but can't quite grow them properly yet. It's like a reverse combover. We each cling to our hair identity in different ways. I'm not judging.
3
Apr 09 2024
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Marquee Moon
Television
The album generator didn't save my review, so all my lovely readers have been deprived of the genius flow of words that could have so enriched their lives.
Who am I kidding? We are all just tiny ants shouting into the void - hear me! I matter! I have value to add!
Who am I kidding? Ants all work together as part of an interconnected whole, a community, a society where no one is more important than anyone else, everyone is valuable to the whole and everyone gets on with life without complaining.
It's a great album, birthing that New York sound that all your indie kid modern bands love so much.
It's not for ants though.
They are better than us in so many ways.
4
Apr 10 2024
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John Barleycorn Must Die
Traffic
Nope
3
Apr 11 2024
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The Modern Lovers
The Modern Lovers
Spiritual successors to The Doors and Velvet Underground, Spiritual predecessors of Punk and New York Art Rock.
I'm sure many people love this band, and fair play to them.
To me it sounds like a decent college band.
In parts it almost sounds like a parody of the style it helped spawn.
They are in the old world. Goodbye old world, here comes the new world. We have iphones now and Netflix, not sure we need Blockbuster video. It was great at the time, but now life is easier, perhaps blander, but being lazy is a valid way of coping.
3
Apr 19 2024
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Manassas
Stephen Stills
3
Apr 24 2024
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Lost Souls
Doves
1001 albums - One a day - 2.75 years
This was an experiment in discovery and broadening my horizons.
It begins to feel like a prison sentence.
I started this full of optimism, like "I'm going to find my new favourite band / album" "It'll change me for the better"
Now I increasingly feel like my ears are being assaulted. Like on a flight with a screaming baby, or noisy neighbours - I have to listen to your noise, your agenda, your life is rubbing against me in a place I don't appreciate (the brain).
Like being on vacation, but you're tired and feel like you just need to stay in the hotel and not go out into the strange city again where every statue/mosque/giraffe starts to look the same.
"I know I have come a long way to experience new cuisine and culture, but I just want to sit by the pool and drink Stella and eat a burger today."
Anyway, it's a pretty good album it's not challenging in any way, which makes the above rant even more preposterous and entitled.
Enjoy it but keep that beach towel on your lounger just in case.
3