suuuuuuuch a child of its time, it feels so much like something that you'd find in my mother's old car cds or that you'd hear in some mid 2000s coming of age tv series à la one tree hill.
it's really nothing more than a sweet collection of harmless jazzy folky pop tunes. it works really well in specific contexts but i'd hardly see myself coming back to the whole record since it falls a bit flat and often fails to mantain my attention. that said, i don't think it's a bad project at all, it has lots of pretty intuitions scattered all around and some of the tunes feel really cute and comfy. the problem i find with it is that many of them feel quite empty and lifeless, expecially when there is little to no variations in the instruments used or the technique of norah's vocals. on the long run it starts to get quite monotonous and repetitive but never to the point of feeling like a waste of time.
i think that the opener, don't know why, is a perfect description of what can be found throughout the record and works reeeeally well as a pop single. i can also see how it was influential on the mainstream market at the time while at the same time managing to do it better than most of its successors, or at least from what i can remember. so yeah, as a start it could've been way worse
i don't even know what to say it's just so good holy shit i'm bewitched i've got no words to describe it. also knowing he thought about this and played almost all of the instruments on the record while being EIGHTEEN through 21 makes me feel like a complete failure so fuck you shuggie otis for fueling my insecurities.
do i really need to say anything?
it feels so much like a sweet and soft caress, i love the the way in which every instrument has its own life and adds something to the songs while always feeling elegant and not out of place. i also love the general uplifting feeling that permeates the whole record, it managed to keep me thrilled up until the end, even if i'll admit that i felt some moments in which some of the tunes dragged on for just a bit too long.
pornography by the cure but with more synths and less depression. it's a pretty good goth/dark effort but it often falls a bit short and feels shallow. still a really nice listen tho!
i mean, it's fun, it's short, it has some nice riffs and it didn't age as poorly as i originally thought so yeah it's alright
it made me feel like an heartbroken 20y/o in the 50s and, being an heartbroken 19y/o myself, i fell in love with this record as soon as i hit play
all of the instruments are extremely well recorded and sound gorgeous and it really succeeds in what it wants to be but it's not really something i'm too keen on, so it quite lost me on first listen except for a few cool tracks (bargain is just a great hard rock tune and behind blue eyes has a really satisfying payoff)
i'd say it's between a 3 and a 4 but it has potential to grow
also bonus point for how it took me 4 minutes to realize that the last song is the csi opening (that YEEEEAH!! is iconic and will always sound great)
still remember pretty well my first listen, it says a lot about how much i love this record
grew up with this so i could probably still remember it note by note, don't like it as much as i once did but still iconic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoMI_Cx6YU
the record that created music
