My 1001 Albums Journey

So I have mentioned this before, but I thoroughly enjoy hard/heavy music - so Zeppelin, Sabbath, Nazareth, UFO, Iron Maiden, Tool, Metallica, Dio, Scorpions, Priest etc. - as are all in my wheelhouse, but for some reason, speed and thrash metal, have never really appealed to me - and this album was NO different... Once again, we have a band that is trying to play as fast as possible, along with almost NON-EXISTIENT vocals - which did absolutely nothing for me... BTW - just because a drummer has mastered the double bass pedal from a speed perspective, doesn't mean that you should use it ALL the freakin' time... And vocally, there is no melody of any sort, no singing of any kind - just screaming, and the lyrics are just dreadful... I'm beginning to think that my issue with this genre, is that there is absolutely NO room for the music to breathe... Good music is a nice balance between the notes, and the empty spaces - with some arguing that the empty spaces - and the contrast that they create with the actual notes, is what creates musical magic... This band is trying to play as many notes as the possibly can, and trying to play them as fast as they possibly can, that there is absolutely no space for the music to breathe - like AT ALL... Not a decent song on the album in my opinion, and in fact, I was running through what some of the reviewers thought were the best songs on the album a 2nd time through... So I was listening to "Alter Of Sacrifice" and was about 35 seconds into it, when I REALLY began to regret my decision... Fortunately, right about then, a good friend called - which stopped my music app so I could take the call... I answered by saying "...Thank God you called, I really appreciate you saving me..." : ) Would truly give this a "0" (ZERO) if I could, and I think there may have been only 1 other album to date that I thought that about - so 1-star for this dreadful, dismal, awful-excuse-for-an-album...

Dull, repetitive, unimaginative, and muddled is pretty much this album… “Experimental Pop” my ass – what the hell is that??? If mindless whining of less-than-pedestrian and sterile lyrics, to repeating uninventive keyboard chords is your idea of “brilliant” – than this is your album… Saw a comment that this album only works IF you’re on ‘shrooms, and I call BS… I was on ½ gm of psilocybin yesterday while power-washing my deck – while unfortunately listening to this swill, and “Merriwether Post Pavilion” actually ruined my time out in nature to be honest… This is just shockingly bad on every level, and have no idea how this got on the list… Is the “1,001 Album” guy the brother of one of the dudes in this band??? Does that band have some compromising photos of the “1,001 Guy”??? Did somebody pay the “1,001 Guy” to please put this album on the list??? Who knows, but this is horrifically dreadful on an epic scale – and almost an hour long on top of that… Brutal – just brutal… Would give it a 0 in a heartbeat – and again, I really wonder what truly deserving and awesome album did NOT make this list due to this sludge, but I’ll have to settle for the lowest I can rate it… Man, the 2000’s have had some shitty music if this passes as decent…

So I had listened to this album a few times in the past, due to my deep prog roots – combined with how much buzz the album had gotten over the years, and I have to say that after today’s listen – my thoughts haven’t changed… #1 – It is an impressive work for a 19-year old who played all of the instruments at the time of its release… Most albums where the artist plays every instrument typically suffer from lack of diversity, but that was not a problem on this album – so that was good… #2 – There are sections of the music that I truly enjoyed, as there is no denying that… #3 – Why in the world he felt the need to “introduce” each of the instruments in “Part I” is beyond me, as that TOTALLY ruined whatever vibe he had going with me on that track… #4 – Same kinda thing on “Part II”, as I was sorta beginning to dig a section, and then he starts grunting for lack of a better word – and AGAIN, totally ruined whatever vibe he had going – I mean like WTF??? #5 – The “Single” track – which is what I’m guessing was the short-version released back in the day for radio, was fairly well-done – and again as I was enjoying the track, I half-expected something odd to jump out at me, but turns out that was the only unflawed track… Nothing amazing mind you, but certainly pleasant… #6 – The last song is a complete throwaway, and have no idea why he included it on this album, or what its purpose was… “Tubular Bells” still doesn’t do much for me overall, and saddened by the fact that A LOT of outstanding prog-rock albums that SHOULD be on this list – probably aren’t due to albums like this… Nothing but a 2 from me…

So just spitballin’ here, but an album about things from the state of Illinois does NOT sound like a recipe for musical goodness… I was also fascinated by the fact that this was voted the best album of 2005… No offense to Mr. Stevens, as a multi-instrumentalist – he is certainly very talented, but I would argue that “Illinois” being the best album of 2005, says more about the lack of quality music in 2005, as opposed to how exceptional this album is… If this came out in 1977, it’s not even in the Top 500 of that year… I would argue that 70%+ of the albums on the 1,001 list SHOULD be coming from the 60’s & 70’s… Artists created music for the love of their art and craft back then, as there really wasn’t a lot of money in music at the time… Once that changed in the late 70’s and early 80’s – everyone subsequently got in it for the money, and the corporate formulas took over… I’ve listened to a handful of self-made albums (i.e. where the artist plays every instrument for the most part…), and this was probably the best… Most of them just have a weird sound, like there wasn’t enough diversity in the playing, but this one sort of escaped that… Mr. Stevens is very talented, and definitely has a unique and original sound – so points for that, and for what he was trying to accomplish, the album is fairly well-done… My main complaint, is that after a while, all of the songs sorta just sound the same… Enjoyed the piano-based songs better than the banjo ones – but that’s just me, and never thought I’d hear a song about “John Wayne Gacy”, but that’s “Illinois” for you…

Well – that was unfortunate… Sex-Funk huh??? So this was my 2nd Tim Buckley album and I’m only about 40 albums in, so not sure what I did to deserve this… I will say that his 1967 “Hello & Goodbye” effort was the first album on the 1,001 that I would have given a “0” to, as it had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and was pretentious as hell… 1972’s “Greetings From LA” is definitely different from that previous album – so at least there’s that, and for the most part – some of the musical jams weren’t all that awful, and certainly better than “Hello & Goodbye”, but the lyrics were simply abysmal… It sounds like this departure from his early folk work really pissed off his initial fan base, and not quite sure what other fan base he was looking to appeal to with this record… While some of the vocal sections were interesting at times – as a whole however, it was simply a hot mess… Lyrically, it’s as if he didn’t bother to write any – and just sang, moaned, or screamed whatever came to mind while in some drug-induced state… "Move With Me", "Get On Top", "Devil Eyes" - just a frickin' nightmare,,, Actually surprised that he didn’t have someone give him a blow-job like Jim Morrison did, while recording the song “LA Woman” in order to pull out some degree of authenticity… Anyways, not as dreadful as the “Hello & Goodbye” – so not the "Animal House" Belushi grade point average, but maybe tad higher like a 0.25 if I could go there… Was really puzzled why “Hello & Goodbye” was on this list, and now even more puzzled that this one is on here as well… Begrudgingly giving it a 1 since I’m not allowed to go any lower, as this was simply a train wreck…