The classic 50s-to-60 doowop hits most people think of when they think of oldies.
Everyone loves Little Richard's "WOOOO!"
Fantastic Nigerian afrobeat from mid 70s - crazy history of the album and how it's release impacted fela's personal life
Drum machine and synths distract from poorly mixed / uninspired vocals. There are some interesting poly rhythm/overlay attempts in some of songs but it ends up just sounding clumsy and distracted. The success of sweet dreams on this album feels almost accidental when combined with the rest of the songs. Perhaps the other songs could have ended up being better if they had mixed in less sound and left the soundscape more open like in the case of sweet dreams. Though, Jennifer takes that notion of an uncomplicated soundscape and still doesn't impress with its extreme repetition and lazy synth - the best parts of Jennifer are when there are no lyrics and they let someone jam on a noisy guitar with some human percussion. Someone take their drum machine away from them, limit their singing and remind them that real instruments are good, because they shine when they're playing them or working with other artists that do. This Is The House actually might be the best song on the album. Album suffers from 80s-itis. Ok, This Is The House feels like the only song that they had fun making on the album.
After listening to this album I now understand why I can't stop mistaking REM songs for They Might Be Giants songs. Some solid late 80s Indie Rock with well-known songs like It's The End Of The World As We Know It (go listen to the Malcom In The Middle theme...), flanked by tracks with some surprisingly recognizable sounds. Think Butthole Surfers (Pepper), Beck (Loser), and maybe even some Barebacked Ladies - had no idea that this REM album proceeded all of those bands and their hits.
All hail the Hammond organ!
While the blues/soul infusions to pop songs are satisfying, I ended up splitting this album up into pop and non/pop in my own library to keep it a little more consistent.
The "Love Is Strange" cover being named Rinky Dink meets the character of the song after their green onion treatment and exemplifies why I split the album.
The fadeout in "Behave Yourself" left me wishing the song was twice as long. :(
Nitpicks:
The modulation on the guitar in "Stranger on the Shore" is a little much.
I think my favorite part of this album is how weird it is while being so technically well executed. It's like a steely dan rock opera where Fagen talks through streams of consciousness at different times in his life, which are sometimes dark and haunting (nuclear war).
"The Nightfly", "I.G.Y." and "The New Frontier" are the standouts for me. "Maxine" is an exemplar of the cerebral / complex nature of the songs in Fagen's album which feel like they'll give you more with each subsequent listen.
Great engineering leaves all of the tracks sharp / well mixed.
While "Gentlemen" doesn't tap into my personal brand of angst, it does capture familiar emotions and interpersonal struggles. As an album the songs feel less like a few singles taped together with some b-sides and more like a deliberately written tribute to waning relationships, and what's left in their wake.
I would have preferred to hear more female vocals in the album. The choice of a female lead in "My Curse" and supporting female backup vocals in "Now You Know" were a welcome / needed change to the onslaught of Greg Dulli.
Even after channeling my (thankfully) distant disappointment and pain vis-a-vis romance, I still only find myself sympathizing for the imagined subjects of the songs, never quite reaching the point of empathy.
Finishing this album left me with a nagging desire to go listen to some blown-out Mitsky songs.
Dripping with braggadocious swagger, a classic NYC rap album that I'll always appreciate -- THAT SAID -- of the two 2001 albums I'd bring to my desert island it would be the 1999 "2001" from Dre (and company) instead, sorry, Jay-Z.
I had a hard time finding the original "The Blueprint" release on my streaming service of choice and was presented with "The Blueprint Collector's Edition" which is a disservice to Jay-Z IMO, again, sorry to Jay Z that I'm not on Tidal.
Standouts:
- All of the beats!
- "Heart Of The City (Ain't No Love)"
- "Hola Hovito"
The moustache tattoo that I got lasered off of my finger came back after listening to this album.
Love the folksy vocals, wailing steel guitar, and how varied the instrumental accompaniments are, ranging from raw guitar and drums to a full orchestra.
"The Needle", "Old Man", "Harvest", and "Heart of Gold" are all standouts.
Punky psychedelic, schizo noise. ...I think they might be on drugs! Another Zappa production in disguise. It's ART!!! It's far out, man.
In this vein I would prefer Zappa's zany energy and vocals to Beefheart's constricted ravings and crappy beat poetry.
The most cohesive aspect of this album is in its percussion. The play jumps between tight, complex music, and chaos.
Shout out to "Hair Pie: Bake 1" for capturing the sound of a group of 6th graders honking on clarinets for the first time with wild abandon.
I really don't understand why people laud this album as a stroke of genius, though it is certainly creative. Beefheart takes the kind of unbridled creativity that novices not yet boxed in by canon and method have, and reintroduces it to listeners via talented musicians who do actually know how to play "real" music - but don't.
Other standouts?
- Moonlight On Vermont (Live)
- Sweet Sweet Bulbs
- China Pig
Prefer Pat Benetar - Tired / repetitive guitar work detracts from the songs IMO. Decent album overall, just not a standout to me among the flood of early 00's alt rock.
Not much music can pull me away from my worries like Al's can. His authentic voice captures the true essence of loving in a language both alone and universally understood.
While Al's most popular "Let's Stay Together" leads the album, it could stand without the song and I'd find the album just as moving.
If you don't want to smooch someone you love and hold them tight after listening to this album, you're without soul.
For every one thing cool about each song there are 50 things which are extremely annoying.
Ok, Brian, David... If you want to have a playdate with one another and funk around on some new early 80s mixing/sampling tech, that's fine - but as an album it comes off as lazy. While saharan beats not often heard in 80s western music underpin many of the tracks, they are muddied to the point of being imperceptible.
The moments where I start to groove with polyrhythm are almost immediately ruined over and over :(
I can't help but feel like one 12 minute song with less noise, perhaps building off of Very Very Hungry, would have been a better application of effort.
Favorite track:
"Very, Very Hungry"
Favorite track to get abducted to (by aliens):
"Come with Us"
I appreciate this album as a set of deep cuts from Missy that show where her signature style took root. The b-side of this does not get enough love IMO.
Busta's intro / outro, and Timba's weak bars strewn about detract from Missy - though the context of this album (fresh talent / female rapper in the 90s) helps me appreciate them coming out to support and produce her debut album.
It's important to remember that this album is of a time and genre where the production extended far beyond sound and into the realm of video! If you haven't watched the music videos for this album, you're missing out on a lot of (very 90s) creativity that starts to pull in that millennium hyperfutursim hype.
Dreamy soulful modern R&B with a mix of simple and tastefully layered instrumentals over spoken-word vocals which dip in and out of falsetto. I appreciate the way the background sways between simple chilled-out vibes and big brass with vocal accompaniments.
Interspersed throughout the album are small interludes, ranging from the sound of the PlayStation 1 booting up to distant sounds of conversations in a car - the soundtrack to core memories you can't quite place, but are familiar nonetheless.
This was my first experience with a Frank Ocean album, and I overall enjoyed it. Sounds modern and bold without also being hard to listen to. While I don't love the Drake-adjacent nonchalant vocals over simple 808-like machine backings generally, this album doesn't dwell on those moments for long.
Scratches my Oingo Boingo itch without being as irritating. My go-to New Wave exemplar that delivers a mix of both classic and experimental sounds.
For the platinum bangers we all know off this album, there is a lot of low-key but respectable guitar work, tastefully complex vocal arrangements with some anthemic bars for the bar crowd to sing along to. For the b-sides I'm less familiar, with I hear surrealist shapes that other New Wave titans like Trio's "Da da da" built a foundation off of.
I want to give this a 3.5, so I'll round up.
Didn't get enough time to give this my full attention, though I did listen to it. I'm not versed in enough punk music to understand what they did which was avant-garde or influential, though many of the sounds seemed familiar to me via more contemporary punky bands.
Da funk back to the punk, come on
Da funk back to the punk, come on
Da funk back to the punk, come on
Da funk back to the punk, come on
Da funk back to the punk, come on
Da funk back to the punk, come on
Da funk back to the punk, come on
Da funk back to the punk, come on
This album of deep cuts from DP help me to appreciate them as true 90s deep house / French house artists. While the lower BPM compared to true house works well with the hypnotic DP style, many find the repetitive nature of many of their songs a bit hard to stomach for 5-7 minutes.
DP may be one of the absolute worst perpetrators of the 3 minute house song drop lead-up - as someone mixing songs live I might appreciate that, but as someone not on MDMA with strobes blasting into my eyes, I don't. Further, after the drop they don't quite hit the requisite dark house evil serrated sound that you need for a vampire disco with blood sprinklers. When DP sticks to the funk, they shine.
I often find it very difficult to place DP songs into playlists, and believe that it could be due to... huh... w-what's ha... Around the world, around world
Around the world, around world
Around the world, around world
Around the world, around world
Around the world, around world
Around the world, around world
Around the world, around world
Around the world, around world
Around the world, around world
Hardcore Flight of the conchords featuring a real life vampire from What We Do in the Shadows. Rough, passionate vocals in a rock opera style.
Haunted, raw, and dense - (post-punk meets rockabilly)
Boisterous and fun - found myself smiling despite how grim it is.
I would absolutely love to see this album as a live show.
A signature languid Beck album - Beck does everything done in this album better in his subsequent album Morning Phase. I give this 3.5 and round down to 3 given Morning Phase would be a solid 4.
Did not get around to fully listening to it.
we got the who, the the, and who the f-?!
A wild and varied album that teeters between a 3 and 4 for me.
Folk rock with a palatable amount of psychedelic energy. I often bookend Crosby, Sills & Nash with Crosby, Stills, Nash & (Neil) Young for maximum folk power.
Fantastic hip-hop/rap album that has the rare quality of being (mostly) suitable for my kids and likely faces no threat of needing to be viewed through the lens of history to be appreciated. Hold on to this feelin'!
One of those albums that pulls me back in time to good moments, so it's hard to be critical of it.
To put it in their terms, "a bunch of wankers."
Most likely an album that folks will administer 3 stars to, I elevate it to 4 stars due to the proclivity of these songs to randomly jump to the forefront of my mind for the past two decades. An iconic album of the genre.
Who gave the Vikings LSD and tickets to burning man?
