Good, but doesn't grip me as much as her next few albums.
This album made me consider: were the Beatles the first Tumblr sexymen?
Listening to this again, it's honestly not bad blues rock. It's just that the lead singer tries way too hard to sound Black.
I don't know much about music theory but... it sounds like there's just not a lot going on here? Not in a stripped-back minimalist way, in a "this is constructed on a sparse and shallow foundation" way. Lyrically (which I'm more comfortable judging) every line I heard was a cliché. This is deeply boring music.
I've listened to very little R&B, but I enjoyed this quite a bit. I like that it varies up its song structures and borrows from a bunch of musical styles, from soul to funk to that bit in Pyramids where it turns into a buzzy electronic song.
It helps that Frank Ocean has a good voice and good lyrics. The bit on Crack Rock about drug addiction leading to your family not trusting you to hold a baby anymore is a good example. There's a level of detail and specificity that makes it come off as honest.
Some nice psych-tinged sounds on this. I can hear some of the roots of 90s britpop here.
This is hitting for me more than a lot of other alt-rock. It sounds to me like it's applying post-punk, new wave, and folk sounds to 60s and 70s rock songs structures, which is a cool combination. Its attitude compared to other alt-rock is less jagged fuzz and more blurry, if that makes sense.
I was pretty shocked when I saw this was 1) R.E.M.'s first album and 2) released in 1983. It's a strong debut and sounds so ahead of it's time!
I listened to this twice and liked my second listen way better than my first (helped I was able to pay more attention the second time). It's impressive that you can still pick out the different instruments when the playing is this fast and scuzzy. I liked the songs when they were more melodic, but when the band goes into full grindcore mode I quickly got bored.
Lotta cool synth sounds and African rhythms going on here. The handful of bangers all hit for me. Kate Bush's phrasing in her feature is inspired.
Holy shit, this is where Coconut came from!?
The pop and rock tracks are good. I think the opening song is the best. I'm not normally a fan of ballads, but Nilsson makes his stand out with some fun instrument choices (like the banjo on I'll Never Leave You).
Early in the Morning sucks though. I listened to the original recording by Louis Jordan and it's so much better. The scourge of white blues brings this album down.
This certainly is a guy with a guitar.
Completely fine pop punk. I like the lead singer's vibrato.
I'm just not very into grunge, and this seems to take a lot from grunge, so it was just alright to me. The male vocalist sounds whiny and annoying.
The Boxer was cool, the rest was fine.
Absolutely loved the first half of this. The second half is nice, but settles into its grooves more in a way that makes it less compelling.
Big let down from their first album. I found most of these songs repetitive and tedious. There are a few bright spots like Eurochild, but moving away from the hip hop aspect of their sound hurt this project IMO.
I think the first four tracks and She Never Met a Man are great, bursting with personality. The rest are just alright. The twist in Traveling Man made me laugh out loud.
This album is way too mid to be this long.
Still completely fine pop punk. I liked this one better than their debut. Opening your second album with a track about how you had way less time to write songs than you did with your first album is fun.
I liked this fine enough because I like Kate Bush, though I think Tori Amos' vocal delivery isn't as bold as Bush's is.
Goes harder for me now than when I first heard it in high school. Bomb Track/Killing in the Name/Take the Power Back are incredible opening tracks. Zack de la Rocha is a massively charismatic MC on this, and his screaming fits the heaviness of the music perfectly. Tom Morello's guitar work is so versatile, he'll just slip into a speed metal or prog or funky whammy bar style for a few seconds, or he'll make his guitar sound like a wailing siren or a turntable scratch. I can't believe some of the first rap metal released still sounds this good and relevant after 30 years.
After my first listen I went back a couple times to listen to specific tracks and just wound up listening to the whole album again. Has this element of infectious fun that makes it hard not to move.
Supernaut and Snowblind fuckin rip, and Under the Sun is real solid. The rest I can take or leave (ESPECIALLY Laguna Sunrise).
Didn't expect this to be so pop-oriented. It's alright. There are some sounds I like on here that remind me of post-punk bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees & Echo and the Bunnymen.
How the fuck did Stevie Wonder write and record this when he was 22??? The synths on this go nuts. Every song is at least good. It makes total sense why multiple songs from this album are considered classics.
Side A of this album is the most Divorced music I've heard in a while. The lead singer completely ruins anything going on instrumentally. He sounds like a restraint order became sentient and started braying into a mic at his local honky tonk. Side B is better, and I suspect it's because it's half cover songs.
This album is notable for being a pretty massive evolution in Iron Maiden's sound (and consequently the sound of heavy metal in general), and a lot of it holds up. The theatrics and extreme musical performances are impressive and engrossing, most notably the shredding guitar and Bruce Dickinson's operatic vocals. In terms of importance, this album is a 5.
However, I think the songwriting is more hit or miss compared to later Maiden releases like Powerslave. Some of the tracks like Invaders and Gangland are weak, especially in the shadow of monster hits Children of the Damned and Number of the Beast. Others like 22 Acacia Avenue overstay their welcome. I still like this album a lot, but I don't think it's the best Maiden has to offer.
This is just sad white man with guitar music. A lot of it is so bland, I have to concentrate hard so it doesn't just go in one ear and out the other. Some of these tracks are outright obnoxious, like the self-pitying and whiny Silver Platter Club or the "lol twee movie references" of Sigourney Weaver (not to mention the series of ethnic slurs on Jesus Hates F******). The B side tracks add some synths with nice tones I guess? At least The Sensational Alex Harvey Band was bad in an interesting way.
Me thinking about Rednecks: y'know, this is pretty good satire for 1974. Making fun of northerners stereotyping southerners as racist despite engaging in de facto segregation is a cool thing to do in your opening song.
Me listening to Rednecks: wow Randy Newman says the n-word a LOT and also says it in a way that seems like he's kinda savoring it.
Can't believe there was a time you could just get a bunch of session musicians to back you up while you croon about how you gunned down Lefty Simmons at Mustard Fart Station and get a hit record out of it. Country music needs to go back to this.
Not really into R&B, but I was able to appreciate the funk aspects of the songs. Of course the vocals are great. I support long songs, but Runaway Child is too long for what it is imo.
This reminded me a bit of A Tribe Called Quest, albeit darker and more eclectic. Most of the rappers have the same flow as Q-Tip and Phife (tho maybe that was just a common style of rap in the early 90s?). I like how it borrows from a bunch of different sounds and experiments with a variety of tempos. It's very well made chill out music, but it doesn't speak to me personally.
Not bad, but also nothing on here was really compelling to me. I looked up this group and was surprised to find it's three dudes playing instruments and not just producers making beats digitally.
I like a lot of the sounds on here, like the crisp drums and pretty much all the bass tones. It's good funk rock! Just a lot of the funk rock songs sound kinda samey after an hour of material.
The less funky songs (like Under the Bridge) I find pretty dull. Also Anthony Kiedis is pretty obnoxious, and like ZZ Top's vocalist he's trying way too hard to sound Black.
Nice classic American folk. Brings some slick country influences to Woody Guthrie's style and the result is smoooooooth. Also, has the most serene song about cocaine I've ever heard.
The cover of this album says, "A short film by Kendrick Lamar." In a lot of cases I think it's eye rolling to talk about music as cinematic, but here it's totally justified. It's remarkable how well this album paints a picture of a world, draws you into it, and gives the people in it meaning.
The use of skits to set up and flesh out narratives in the songs; the largely laid back and trap-influenced beats to evoke rough, clear-skied California neighborhoods; Kendrick's evocative lyrics and ability to convey emotion through his voice and flow. It feels like he approached this album as though he was directing (and writing and starring in) a non-linear film and pulled it off.
Really great funk album that deftly mixes in other styles. I particularly like when it incorporates country and western, like the guitar and harmonica playing at the beginning of Four Cornered Room and the subject matter of the otherwise funky Cisco Kid. I don't think the longer songs quite justify their length, and the last track is disappointing compared to the others, but I'm glad I listened to this and it made me want to check out more War.
This is so serene I can barely pay attention to this. It's not bad, but I don't think I could even enjoy it as background music.
Wasn't expecting how much more this leaned into blues rock compared to psych rock, but I was pleasantly surprised. Janis Joplin sounds great on this, powerful and fuzzy (except for on Summertime, where her constant singing in high register makes her sound like Marge Simpson). It's refreshing to hear a vocalist who is clearly inspired by Black singers, but doesn't sound like she's trying to do an impression of them. I'd love it if the album art was not racist, though.
From Father Figure to Hard Day I fucking hated this album. The synths sound cheap like stock sounds off a Casio, and the lyrics are sexually aggressive and infantilize their subjects in a way that make George Michael come off as a pedo.
The rest of the B side was much better, with Hand to Mouth in particular going pretty hard. There are some great bass tones here. It's unfortunate I had to slog through some miserable shit to get to it.
Shoegazy pop rock that's aged beautifully. These guitar tones are ripped straight from Siouxsie and the Banshees and I love them. I wish there was a bit more variation in the sounds on this album, but the mood it creates is heavenly.
It's cool that Johnny Cash got to end his career by absolutely styling on a bunch of younger musicians with incredible covers of their work. The originals are good too, particularly the opening track. Some of his covers of older material (like Danny Boy) are just okay, though Sam Hall rules.
I don't listen to much reggae. This was alright, the lyrics helped the music being pretty repetitive.
Damn, really wish I could understand what this guy is saying. His flow is great and the beats are good early 90s jazz rap. I'm def gonna listen to his next album.
I gave this album a 3, but it's a really solid 3. This is a band of punk journeymen who make totally competent, energetic, fun rock and roll. They even experiment with horns and a little accordion.
It's a good listen in the moment, but leaves no impression on me. I think the problem is that this kind of music is oversaturated. There are a ton of bands that sound like this and are able to write more compelling songs. Also, the lead singer is a weak link here. He has one mode of singing and boy does it sound rough sometimes. Even if he didn't improve his voice technically, just being able to convey a larger variety of emotions would help out a lot.
A totally unique album in the hardcore punk scene. Bad Brains infuse their music with reggae, heavy metal, and post-punk elements to create a sound that I find super satisfying (particularly their screeching guitar tone). H.R. in particular is incredible on here, with his vocals going from croon to weird falsetto to gnarly scream in the same line.
Not really my thing, but I can appreciate some of their ideas here.
Experiments with sounds and has some incredible singles (B.O.B. alone is one of the best hip hop songs of the 2000s), though it's a bit over packed and not every experience works.
