Out Of The Blue
Electric Light OrchestraSomehow this is bland mashup of McCartney, Queen, and Pink Floyd. Massively overproduced and twice as long as it needed to be. A couple memorable songs but mostly I just wanted it to end.
Somehow this is bland mashup of McCartney, Queen, and Pink Floyd. Massively overproduced and twice as long as it needed to be. A couple memorable songs but mostly I just wanted it to end.
This album was released just as we bought our house and I have memories of the hits being played as we renovated the place. The production is immaculate as a platform for Adele's voice. So many vocalists have copied her style since then that it is hard to remember how fresh it sounded when it was first released. The first two songs and the last two are my favorites.
NIN just has never been my thing. Some interesting industrial sounds but everything is too drawn out and overly dramatic for my taste. Too much screaming. The sexual lyrics are just flat-out cringey and did not age well. The only song that seems introspective as opposed to masturbatory is Hurt.
I prefer the chaotic messy Dylan to the 70s light rock version, but his poetic genius shines in any format.
I enjoyed this one. Punk feeling with pop sensibility is my jam. I had heard many of the songs of course but I don't think I had ever listened to the whole album. I would give it a 3.75, so I'm rounding up to four. Memorable, my type of music, and will listen to it again.
A lttle poppy, a little punky. Top end musicianship. I dig it. My only complaint is that the production sounds very "late 70s".
This fits right in with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and OK Computer as albums that are describing the strange feeling that we were living at the high point of human civilization in the late 1990s yet something was missing. I like the other two albums better, but I very much enjoyed this one as well.
You have to be some kind of America-hating commie to dislike CCR. That said, 1/4 of the album length is a one note masturbatory guitar wank fest (Keep on Chooglin'). Would have been four stars without that song.
Sweet guitar sounds and tight songwriting, but also too over-produced for my liking with some truly cringe-worthy lyrics. This is becoming a theme in my reviews.
This was pretty cool. I moved awkwardly to the beat while sitting in my office chair and I remember several of the songs hours after listening to them. A solid three stars even if hip-hop is not my preferred genre.
Punky new wave with rockin' guitars. Count me in.
This album came out slightly too late for me to notice it. I was into grunge and metal in high school but by the time I went to college I had moved on and completely disregarded the nu metal/Korn/Limp Bizkit era, which I lumped Sepultura into. I was wrong. Although I still get annoyed by screamy growly singing, this album is frickin' cool. I love the indigenous instruments and chants. With the benefit of 28 years of hindsight, I can hear the influence of this sound on modern bands that I love like Gojira.
I would not call myself a Queen fan but this album is a monument to creativity and musicianship. The remastered version sounds incredible.
It is a soundtrack to my high school years. 4 stars because I like early REM slightly better, but a great album nevertheless.
Kanye seems like a real fun guy to hang around with. Misogyny, personal grievance, and a complete lack of levity. I dislike this album for the same reason I dislike The Downward Spiral by NIN: it's all just too self-involved. Me, me, me.
A punk rock classic. While I prefer the more fully-formed punk that followed soon after, it is tough to dislike these gleeful rockers. I miss some of the hits on the US release.
I guess I was entertained, but it was too long and I would not listen again.
I enjoyed this album. I wanted more Latin beats and less guitar hero stuff. Still, an enjoyable listen that makes me want to spin up more Latin music.
Not much to say that hasn't been said. Simply one of the best rock albums ever made. I get sick of every song from the 70s and 80s being about sex/love/women so I appreciate the broader thematic scope of the early 1970s Zep albums (LZIII - Physical Graffiti). When my daughter's high school orchestra is playing Kashmir at their concerts almost 50 years later it's pretty clear this album has transcended genres and reached all time great status.
Nothing here that I enjoy and a lot that I dislike.
I like this type of music but the vocals are just too jarring for me. Some clever turns of phrase and some that fall flat. I think it would be four stars if I could get around the disinterested and out of tune vocal style.
A well-produced and well-played Brit rock album, but there is nothing that is truly noteworthy for me here.
Paul Simon is a genius songwriter and Art Garfunkel is a genius singer. This is a great album that is much better when heard through high quality headphones/earbuds. It's cheesy and beautiful and pretentious and fun.
Enjoyed the first two songs but it tailed off after that and ended up being yet another well produced/played Brit rock album. Solid but not that memorable.
I don't think I had heard any of these songs before. It was a solid album for sure, just not really my style.
It was interesting learning about his life and influence in Brazil. The music didn't do much for me.
Two Brazilian artists in a row. I like this one better. Solid pop music that sounds good in any language.
Simply one of my favorite albums of all time. The end of high school / beginning of college. The 1990s at high tide. Hearing Planet Telex start brings me right back to that hopeful time. I love where Radiohead came from and where they went, but The Bends and OK Computer will always be my favorite albums of theirs. Awesome rock music with something a little scary lurking underneath. "I wish it was the 60s / I we we could be happy / I wish I wish I wish that something would happen."
I enjoyed the arrangements/Motown of it all, and of course Aretha's voice is awesome. But I struggle to stay interested for more than a song or two when the main draw is being wowed by the talents of the vocalist.
Had never heard any of it before. I was bored at first but it grew on me. It's a solid album but nothing overly memorable.
Some great songs on here but not as strong overall as The Bends and OK Computer. Bands change...it's the only way endeavors like Radiohead can stay relevant/sane. In this case they just moved away from what I liked most about Radiohead. And it's just so depressing!
Loved the bookend songs, the stuff in between ranged from kind of cool to annoying. I can hear the beginning of so many of my favorite bands in here.
So hippie Boomer it hurts. But I mean that in the best possible way. Joni is ultra talented and there is some unique songwriting here that is not easily copied. Brandi Carlile probably comes closest. Maybe Tori Amos. Cool shit that just happens to not be my favorite style.
As far as 80s synth pop goes, this is high quality stuff. Shout is a genuinely cool song. But like so much else from the 80s, the cheesiness of the whole experiment ruins it for me.
The colors they chose for the album art are nice I guess...
Somehow this is bland mashup of McCartney, Queen, and Pink Floyd. Massively overproduced and twice as long as it needed to be. A couple memorable songs but mostly I just wanted it to end.
Another high school graduation year classic that I have listened to so many times on a spinning disc. Hearing it again now for the first time in many years, I fully expected to write that it is too long because I have come to dislike bloat and prefer shorter songs. But somehow there really is not much filler in this gigantic undertaking. A collection a varied, perfectly executed alt-rock tunes elevated by a few timeless classics like 1979. The one sort-of negative I can find is that the album doesn't innovate, it just perfects the medium of the grunge era. I am one that believes Corgan's voice is part of what made the band interesting, but then again I'm a Neil Young fan so I guess I have a soft spot for unconventional singers. Some of the lyrics are pretty 90s angst/cringe, but that is a product of the time. Siamese Dream is an absolute 5-star album for me...this is 4.5.
Yes it's too long and yes the older songs are way better than the post-Justice ones, but any metalhead should get at least some enjoyment out of a huge crowd screaming MASTER and James Hetfield gleefully letting them sing half the verses. For how complicated this live production is, everything sounds near perfect....from Hetfield's vocals to the orchestra to the mixing. Truly impressive. I will save the high rankings for the studio albums, but I enjoyed this.
I had never heard it before, and I like it. This list is Brit rock heavy, but this is the best kind IMO. The best iteration of the rhythmic danceable rock of the early 2000s. I can't do it all the time, but when I'm in the right mood, it hits.
What in the actual hell? This was...well...I didn't hate it. Did I like it? Yeah...I think I actually kind of liked it. I am a fan of Big Thief and Adrianne Lenker, and it's obvious she was influenced by this album. It is so weird, cool, and poetic. A true work of art among so many calculated over-produced efforts. This is a perfect example of why I enjoy this 1001 albums project. There is no way I ever would have heard this otherwise.
Love Neil and love this album even though the purists would say it was a sellout. Some classic rockers, and two of the best introspective acoustic songs in Neil's gigantic catalog makes this an easy five star album for me. It sounds so frickin' good...like you are sitting in the room with the musicians.
Her voice is beautiful and some of the guitar playing is actually very good. I really like the darker songs. But as with so many albums it's way too long.
Yes it's a great album and an all time classic. The stereo mixing is weird when listening through earbuds. Some of the songs are great, most are okay, some are silly and some are boring. There are other Beatles albums I like more. Early/mid-career Beatles were innovators and way ahead of their time. But by 1969, the rest of the music world had caught and surpassed them. There are 10+ albums released that year that I would rather listen to than this one.
This actually made me angry listening to it. I don't care that it was influential. I hate the way it sounds.
I liked Beck back in the day, and saw him put on an awesome live show in the late 1990s. But I have to say, this album didn't do much for me nearly three decades later. Some cool beats and catchy sounds, but the nonsensical lyrics and themes lost me in middle age.
Some interesting arrangements but it's all just so cheesy.
I had never of these guys, and I enjoyed the album. Glam rock is not really my jam but this is well-executed and memorable.
I don't know much about jazz so I'll refrain from writing like I do. I really enjoyed listening to this so I'm giving it 4 stars.
The Doors have never clicked with me. This type of repetitive blues rock bores me, and Morrison's voice is not my thing. Too much noodling on the organ.
This had a cool late 80s vibe somewhere between the B-52s and the Pixies. You can feel the stale 80s music fading and the creative explosion if the 90s coming when you listen to this. Weird and memorable but I'm not sure I could listen to it regularly.
This was strange. I didn't hate it as much as I thought I was going to. It was kind of original in a creepy lounge act meets Broadway kind of way.
Dylan is a master wordsmith and this album is great. The first two songs are awesome. After that it meanders a bit until the title track and Desolation Row bring it back home. For an all-time great album, I should not have to skip any tracks but I simply cannot listen to Queen Jane Approximately. Rage builds in my heart and all I can think about is how satisfying it would be to launch that damn harmonica straight into the sun.
Obligatory "too long", but still really damn cool and unique. Interesting guitar parts and dense instrumentation. Nich Cave's vocals can get old, but he is one of a kind and I was with him for most of this marathon.
The light jazz/folk combo is a solid "nope" for me. I don't like the Elton John vibe either. I'm starting to the resent all of these albums that sound so mid-70s. They are so stuffy and pretentious. I'm just waiting for punk emerge and put us out of our misery.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. Very good songwriting and clever turns of phrase delivered in a compact structure that doesn't drag on. The style isn't my favorite but no songs were long enough for me to get annoyed by them.
When it started I thought I was going to hate it but by the end I couldn't deny the cohesive vision behind the album. It also sounds really good for a mid-70s record and doesn't suffer from that stuffy studio treatment that so many albums from this period do.