Very clear, well mixed, and warm recording. L’America is a slog, otherwise a lot of good tracks.
Great studio recording that emphasized the dark, fragile vibe of the tracks and Cash’s vocal performances.
Most of the album is a slog and it’s a fairly poor studio production, in my opinion. Cobain is terribly pitchy on the first track and why are the instruments buried under a blanket in another room? Heart shaped box is an artful, if depressing, track. The image of “eating cancer” is not my favorite though. All apologies is another good track. The rest is mostly a forgettable slog with some maybe embarrassingly bad tracks.
The organ synth sounds are classic. Decent studio recording, but not a favorite. I feel like most tracks could have used more dynamic range. Some tracks sound like they are slightly dampened like under a sheet. I find the vocals uninteresting, but I’ve heard this album so many times I’m probably just burnt out on it.
Great opening few tracks. Hooked from the start. Tight vocal and instrument performances. Warm, Balanced mix, with great dynamic range. Some of the tracks had very prevalent “white” noise, which was particularly noticeable during pauses. Not sure if that high noise to signal was result of the tube compression releasing or what. I kind of liked it for the nostalgic feel, though it was maybe a little overly distracting. Also the speed of the vibrato organ on “Tapestry” felt too fast to me. Otherwise a fantastic album though.
Meh, I had enough of this when I grew up with it. There’s talent and a few objectively decent songs here. Yet most hair band-like rock and/or metal has always been stale to my taste. Even as a long time guitar player and musician, I’ve never been much of a fan of the soulless 80’s to present guitar-gasms of the likes of Slash, Van Halen, Etc. The pitches are so often too shrill for too long and the tones are lifeless. Just never been my cup of tea I guess.
The opening three tracks are great. Most of the others I found boring. A lot of looping short measures over and over, which is maybe supposed to feel trancey, but I could never get into that. And what was up with the old time song near the end? Overall pretty good album though.
Overall I enjoyed the aesthetic, which is fairly dreamy and dim. The tracks were all well mixed and mastered. I’m not the biggest fan of droning on with repeating short bars, but at least the tracks are fairly short, which keeps it reasonably fresh. The entire album is also short at 36 minutes or so, which I felt was similarly appropriate.
I was surprised to learn that TS maybe isn’t completely terrible. If I ignore the juvenile subject matter of the songs and the fact that vocals sound kind of the same on every track, this album sounds pretty good.
Great tones and mix, which are distinctive to The Black Keys or whoever Auerbach has produced since. I do think a few of the tracks drone on a bit by repeating the same hook or short measure for a whole song. That they are mostly shorter tracks keeps it fresh for the most part. The album is very long, though, so I think a few of these could have been saved for another album to make this one less tiring. These are mild critiques, though, as I always really loved this album , on the whole.
A few interesting tracks such as “When All is Said and Done”, but I found this album be mostly sterile and boring. The overall tone was very thin and with almost zero energy aside from a few interesting tracks. Most of the tracks felt almost completely emotionally flat to me.
Fun record. So corny, it’s sort of good. Definitely found myself head bobbing at times. Some fun energetic tracks, but most are probably best enjoyed on elevators or in airport restrooms.
Amateurs. Some great high points, but also so many bad notes, bad timings, and pitchy harmonies. It’s a fun record all in all. Westerberg is a memorable vocalist, very good at conveying a catchy emotional sentiment.
Get ready to clap to the backbeat and head dodge. A fun album filled with great tracks, no duds, and professional musicianship.
