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.
What a great album. Great musicianship, a great voice, and great vibes throughout. Loved it.
Maybe you had to be there in the 89s to understand why people dislike this so much. Every damn song on the radio sounded like this shit. Smooth jazz/pop. Ugh.
Boring and prosaic tunes whose highest aspiration is to become background music in department stores.
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.
It would be fine for a dance club. I don't need to listen to it in my earbuds for an hour.
I enjoyed Sam Andrew's guitar playing. Janis I can take or leave. Sometimes her voice is really something special. Sometimes it just sounds forced and grating. The fake live sounds were cheesy, but overall I enjoyed listening to this album.
Concise, catchy, and at the cutting edge of the rock and roll revolution that was coming.
I had never heard anything from this album except Maybe I'm Amazed. I really enjoyed it. It's like a proto-Guided by Voices. McCartney never disappoints
Hard not to be impressed with these catchy tunes. It may not be my favorite genre but damn...
At first it annoyed me but it grew on me by the end. Still on the negative side of my enjoyment scale.
Slick production but it's just so cheesy and angsty. I know Nirvana was basically the same concept but this just feels so much more...manufactured. Some interesting metal/hip-hop mashups but I just can't connect with the energy behind the songs. I was five years too old for this to have hit me at the right time.
Just a flat out awesome performance by a true master. The way Johnny handles the crowd is a master class. The songs are classics, the singers include the founders of the country music genre, and the delivery is one of a kind. 5 stars.
Enjoyed this a lot. Awesome high energy performances from the dawn of rock.
It was okay. Definitely a breath of fresh air after the glam rock and synths of the 80s. But the music itself kind of bores me.
Not my thing.
An absolute classic by a true musical savant. The roots of so much of my favorite music are here.
80s synth music elevated by Prince's unique weirdness.
Out of the hip-hop/rap albums I have heard on this project so far, this was my favorite. Catchy beats, endless rhymes, and not every song is about women and money.
"Shit sandwich"
I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.
It contains one of the best singles ever, so that elevates it. But in general this type of music is not my thing.
It's a classic for a reason. It sounds great, the songs are memorable (and not too long), and it just has a ton of verve.
This was a perfect album to listen to while working in front of a computer for the day. Top-notch musicianship and really interesting Caribbean jazz fusion. It made my office cubicle a slightly happier place for an hour.
Eh. It was okay. Better than the vast majority of 80s pop.
Pretty decent old school punk. Would have been four stars from me if it wasn't 75 MINUTES LONG. 40 minutes should be the absolute maximum for any self-respecting punk record.
This was a fun album with great vocals. Some of the subject matter was cringe but that is how it goes with old timey music.
Is it okay that I just don't like the Talking Heads that much? Am I going to have my cool card revoked? David Byrne's wailing just grates on me. Sorry not sorry.
This was a fun listen. Cheesy, yes...but still pretty rockin' and didn't overstay its welcome.
This was fun for something different. I liked the energy and call/response dynamic. Some of the guitar playing was also great for 1957.
Pretty kick ass punk rock. Sex Pistols style with a woman's touch plus a sax. Yes, please!
American Girl and Breakdown are two all-time great tracks, but the rest of the album strays too far into bland Billy Joel/Van Morrison territory and I quickly lost interest.
New to me, interesting, and cool. Repetitive, yes, but I was feeling it.
Maybe I was just in a bad mood but this annoyed me a lot more than her first album.
IDK....I just don't think it's as great as everyone else I guess. That frickin' song with the woman wailing made my physically angry. A few great songs and a lot of experimental filler.
Ya know what? It was okay. Pri-tay good even. I was skeptical after the first song but there was some cool chit later on the record.
Yeah this was pretty damn cool. His voice is so silky.
It had a few interesting parts but the rest was bland and forgettable background music. I probably would have liked it more in my Wilco days but my tastes have evolved.
I know some of the songs are annoying but damn...1987? These guys were at the vanguard of a massive assault on 80s shit music and they kick ass. Butthole Surfers, Faith No More, Fugazi, Pixies...there are many others but there is no doubt that was change in the air in the waning years of the 1980s if you could look past your Whitesnake and see it. And don't even fucking start with me...I loved Whitesnake! But it was time to move on by 1987, and bands like The Butthole Surfers forced the issue. As for this particular album, it a lot like other Butthole Surfers albums: annoying, brilliant, poignant, loud, repetitive, punky, rocky, poppy, confusing, funny. I felt like I was listening to music at least, as opposed to a commercial endeavor. And for that, I say, "Thank you, Butthole Surfers."
It was okay. Some cool rhythmic heavy parts. Too much wailing and drama.
Pop music is boring in any language.
This type of Randy Newman cheese pop is just not my thing. I guess it's well written and performed, but I felt nothing while listening to it (other than mild annoyance).
One of the best albums ever made and a soundtrack of my life. I listened to this album in high school as I was learning to play guitar and finding my own style for songwriting. I listened In college while sitting on dorm room floors with people I had just met. I played the songs too loud live on stage and in beer soaked basements. I sang the songs quietly with friends around the campfire after our kids were put to bed. I contemplated the different meaning of the words as I sent my kid off to college and went through middle age. I will continue to listen as I head toward the autumn of my life.
Some okay late 70s sounds, but WAY TOO LONG!! The decent songs just drown in a sea of samey blandness.
It was okay. Tight bass playing. Some good jazz jams. Some utterly pretentious shite.
I enjoy pop punk but Offspring would not be my choice of bands to represent the genre. They are okay, but give me Bad Religion or NOFX any day.
I don't like much 80s music but at least Rush is something different. Cheesy as hell, for sure, but cool intricate music that doesn't sound like the other tripe of the era is worth at least three stars.
Maybe it blew peoples' minds at the time but most of this sounds like every Friday night down at the local bar and grill where a "Chicago Blues" band is playing and a bunch of Boomers are sitting around in their Harley-Davidson apparel sporting trimmed white goatees and drinking Budweiser. The psychedelic stuff was much better than the blues stuff. My favorite song was the last one.
The late 80s was a wild time. I enjoy observing the struggle of forward-looking bands to break away from norms of the previous decade. Sonic Youth definitely fits this mold. Although I can't say I love to listen to the music, it does at least hold my interest as something different and original.
What in the ? This was cool! The first tune made me think of Mr. Bungle and anything from the 70s that gives me that kind of crazy vibe is a-okay with me. It would have been four stars if not for "Waiting for the Big One". Why does every album from the 70s have to have a cheesy Randy Newman blues jam on it? Why?!? So out of place on this otherwise unique and interesting effort.
I appreciate bands trying to do something different. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It mostly doesn't on this album, but there are a few great songs and I was at least entertained the whole way through.
Yeah this was frickin' old school cool. I miss 80s Hip-Hop!
I just flat out dislike this band but this album was less annoying than the others.
Maybe you had to be there in the 89s to understand why people dislike this so much. Every damn song on the radio sounded like this shit. Smooth jazz/pop. Ugh.
I have heard enough 80s crap to last a lifetime.
A cup of Radiohead, a pinch of U2, and dash of Oasis. This is a good shoegaze rock album that was much better than I expected. Killer guitar sound.
Not a fan of this band.
This kicked ass.
Trippy, catchy and cool. I expected the songs to turn negative and whiny but they did not. A perfect album to have on while working at a computer. I love it when this project turns up music/artists I never would have heard otherwise!
I definitely did not need to hear this before I die.
What a great album. Great musicianship, a great voice, and great vibes throughout. Loved it.
It's Bowie so at least there is some interesting stuff going on, but the whole thing was too 70s sounding for my taste.
Sonically, I prefer the metal that came after to the metal that started it all. But there is no doubt that Black Sabbath gave us all permission to be spooky with this album and for that they are legendary.
Oh great...an hour and a half of pop music. Slickly produced but bland as hell. If Beyonce the diva icon was not in your mind when listening to this it would be completely unremarkable.
This was really damn cool and I never would have listened to it if not for this project.
After never hearing Brian Eno before I have now had back to back albums. I didn't like this one as much as the more experimental offering Another Green World. Still solid though.
Really solid rock music. So much better than the KISS three chord glam rock of the era. There is nothing really groundbreaking here, and I'm not sure I need to listen to much more Thin Lizzy, but I enjoyed it.
I shouldn't like this album. I'm luke warm on Pink Floyd overall, I generally hate long/double albums, and pretty much everything produced in the late 70s tends to annoy me. *But* this particular album for some reason clicked with 14 year old me as it was spinning on my 5-disk changer as a high schooler in the early 1990s. I was able to get into the headspace of the music and the journey it took me on was truly extraordinary. I loved it then and I still love it today.
Slightly annoying, but unique and creative at the same time.
More varied and musical than I expected, but I was not expecting much. A strange combination of Rolling Stones musical vibes and theatrical/joke lyrics.
This was...strange. Kind of cool, kind of annoying. At least it wasn't the same old boring 70s crap.
If I were playing WipEout I would dig it. But I am not. But maybe I should? Hm.
Dark and punky and cool. Maybe I'm just a hipster at heart.
It daftly executed what it was trying to do, but there just is not much there there with this kind of music
As far 80s synth albums go, this one is not terrible. At least it isn't shitty pop music about sex/women.
Strange but very musical and unique. I'm not sure I have heard anything like this before...and I like that.
A great album with some true bangers and a little filler. Page's guitar playing and JPJ's bass work is simply superb throughout. Since I've Been Loving You has to be one of the heaviest non-metal song ever. Zep sounds like they are having fun writing/recording music at this point.
It's hokey, it's sexist, it's dated....but it's awesome. Such tightly written songs with vivid lyrical imagery. The music is performed flawlessly too. I am a sucker for old timey music and this was no exception. A really fun listen.
A pretty decent record. The Stones can get a bit cheesy for me, but this one has a bit more sincerity that I think gives it more power. I love Drive-by Truckers and I never realized how much they were influenced by the Stones. Sway could straight up be a DBT song. They still lose me on some of the straightforward boring blues rock, but overall I enjoyed it.
I wanted to hate it but ended up respecting the effort and ambition. It definitely was something different. Some decent guitar work. That said, it felt a little like I was listening to Highlights from the Phantom of the Opera.
If it was in English I probably would have hated it, but since it was in French it only slightly annoyed me.
Yeah, no. This music does nothing for me. The only emotion I felt was annoyance that I had to sit through it.
Boring and prosaic tunes whose highest aspiration is to become background music in department stores.
It was fine as background music but didn't move me at all.
Not my jam. Very well done by talented artists, but I just can't handle screamy vocals of any genre.
Chaotic proto-punk that kind of rocks. A little exhausting to listen to, but that is kind of the point.
Way too repetitive but the songs stuck in my head and I didn't end up hating it.
It's always the same thing with me when I listen to Dylan. First three songs: This is the most unbelievable poetic songwriting have ever heard! Songs 4-12: Ugh...how can there be 7 minutes left in this song? He already sang 8 verses! *skip*
Great music to have on in ear buds while working at a computer on repetitive tasks. Enjoyed it from start to finish.
Good Lord the 80s sucked.
At first I wanted to dislike the ultra hipster feel but I can't deny that I was entertained by the varied instrumentation and clever lyrics. A few of the songs completely missed for me, but most of them had me listening intently. I hear the Violent Femmes, Wilco, and many other bands I enjoy lurking inside the muted arrangements. But most importantly, listening to this album brought forth strong emotions and imagery of my daughter coming of age and leaving our house for college. Any piece of music that can stir my soul like that (especially one that I have not heard before and has no nostalgia attached) is worth four stars.
The year is 1983 and I am six years old. I am sitting at the kitchen table in the house I grew up in, listening to Thriller (the song) on a cassette through a huge silver boom box. I keep rewinding the tape and playing that song over and over. My parents are in the living room yelling into the kitchen wondering what is so great about that song that I have to keep listening to it instead of coming in to watch Hee-Haw with them. This has to be one of my earliest music-related memories. Now that I think about it, this might have been the origin of my enjoyment of strange, dark & theatrical music. Did Thriller send me down a path that ended with heavy psych and metal? Maybe. Listening 41 years later, that song still kicks butt. The album has three of the best pop songs ever written right in the middle of the run. Even with the hindsight of what MJ became, it is impossible to deny his genius as an artist. However, since we DO have the benefit of knowing what he was and what he became, I'm taking two stars away because of the ridiculous obsession with objectification of women (not unique to MJ in the 80s) and for the overall cringe-worthiness of a few of the tunes (PYT, The Girl is Mine). As I say on almost every album that comes up from this era...the 80s were a strange time to be alive.
28 minutes was enough time of time to convey a lifetime of emotions. I loved the guitar playing, loved the vocals, loved the song structures. I had never heard Nick Drake before, but in listening to this album 52 years after it was made I felt an instant connection across the years and across the ocean.
Easily one of the best pop albums I have ever heard from the 1980s. The songs actually have depth and mystery as opposed to the artist finding the 1,000,001st way to describe the woman they are lusting after. The music is interesting and varied. It sounds like a mashup of Roger Waters and Ween to my ears, and that is a very good thing. A total surprise, and a positive reminder of why I am doing this project.
A second solid 80s album in a row. It's nice to be reminded that not everything being produced during this era was crap.
I didn't mind the sloppiness and I can definitely get down with some proto-stoner metal riffage. I am, however, pretty sick of hearing blues standards. I know it was fresh and new on the first day of 1968 when this was released, and I bet the live shows were fun...but I got bored with the twelve bar nature of it pretty quickly.
There are so many great songs on here that it is impossible for me not to give it 5 stars. I'm not even the biggest Credence fan, but damn...what an achievement of rock and roll songwriting and performance.
Rockin' good music and a solid performance. It was a little more Elvis-like than I was expecting. I'm not a huge fan of putting live albums on this list. Oh yeah, and JLL is a turd.
One of my favorite albums of all time. I love the way you can feel the state of mind Neil is in when he puts out an album. The disillusionment of the 70s lies heavy on these songs.
Of all the great albums of 1997, this one won album of the year? Really? Sure, it is well made but like every Dylan album except his early folk stuff it's WAY too long and just...boring. Some great urns of phrase of course, but you have to Wade through a sea of mediocre slow blues to rescue them. It sounds like Randy Newman and Eric Clapton...stale and derivative sad blues rock for aging Boomers. I ended up being genuinely annoyed by the end.
Not as bad as most 80s crap, but still...pretty bad. Cheesy, meaningless songs with jangly guitars, saxophones and synths. Like so much music in the 80s there is just very little depth.
It was okay. Some cool ideas and good musicianship but I barely cared enough about what they were singing about to notice.
The music kicked ass but I just can't deal with the screaming.
Well-produced and super tight thrash metal from the masters. Just an all-out frontal assault for 30 minutes and I'm totally here for it!
Boring, sappy and just downright claustrophobic. Going from Slayer yesterday to Carpenters today has to be one of the biggest energy swings possible within this project. You can probably tell by my rating which side of the pendulum I prefer.
This album is a good, solid country folk album by all accounts. Easy to listen to with enough storytelling in the songwriting to keep my attention. Plus, it has Nanci Griffith's beautiful voice. But more important than the chord progressions and melodies are the memories this music evokes in my mind. Riding around the city in my mom's red Camaro while she was blasting Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Judds, and Tanya Tucker. Her singing every word and 10-year old me reluctantly learning every melody. She knew her old life was coming apart at the seams and this music helped her process her grief and stress. Before too long I would be too cool for folk music and would be off on my own journey of musical discovery. But hearing these songs again after so long and thinking back, I can feel the personal struggles my mom was going through at the time and I understand now why this music spoke so strongly to her. This album popped up on my project the day after she received some not-so-great health news and she has been in my thoughts a lot. It is almost eerie how music can focus thoughts and memories and emotions in such a powerful way. Love you mom!
The music is catchy and good but I can't get past the omnipresent angry revenge sex vibe.
The thing I kept coming back to while listening to this is how much it reminds me of The Band. True Love Travels on a Gravel Road could be a single on The Band or any of their later releases. Maybe it was just the feeling in the air in late 1960s that permeates and connects so much of the music from that era. This album is well made and well performed by top not h musicians and Elvis near the top of his game. It's just that it's not as interesting as his grittier early material. The culture has caught up to him by this point and there were a lot of artists doing similar things.
A good, solid punk rock record. Upbeat enough to be fun, dark enough to have some weight behind it.
Pleasant listening and an interesting mashup of styles. I heard some Zeppelin, some Pink Floyd, and even some Nuno Bettencourt. Some interesting guitar licks. The Elvis mumble-singing got on my nerves a bit, but I appreciated this original effort.
Jeff Beck's brilliance is undeniable, and I really loved the strange arrangements and weird songs. The 12-bar blues stuff just sounds out of place on this album. Overall, an enjoyable listening experience.
It is well-made and smart punky poppy rock like all PJ Harvey's work. It just doesn't do much to move me in any way.
Pleasant listening that comes across as little more than background music to my ears.
Utterly shippable. Next!
Some of these lyrics are just downright cringe-inducing. All of the music is well-made but utterly bland. I just can't buy into the faux seriousness in every song.
What an unbelievable piece of music history this album is. Masters of their craft and originators of a music genre coming together to place a marker for future generations to follow backward when they begin their own exploration of country music history. The between-song conversations are reminiscent of the Elvis Sun Studio Sessions and really add a lot to the depth of this record. I just can't say enough about how great and rare this confluence of history and performance mastery is.
My mom's all-time favorite album and her favorite song. It's a chill record that retains just enough flair to avoid the Billy Joel cheese territory.
I don't know...I just don't get it. I play guitar, I know Mark Knopfler is a great player. I just... do not like Dire Straights. It is boring background music that does nothing for me.
70s glam rock just is not my bag. The fake seriousness just makes me cringe.
I did not get RATM when I was in high school. Now I do. Some of the most visceral music of the 90s, and still relevant today. Expertly played and produced, yet retains a raw edge that cannot be denied.
Not as tight as San Quentin but still a master class in working a crowd and connecting with an audience. Johnny Cash is a force of nature.
I can't help it, I just really dislike The Doors. They are so pretentious and the endless organ solos just grate on me.
I know I'm supposed to rave over Paul Simon's genius, and there is some very original material here but overall I just did not enjoy listening to it. A lot of it was a little cheesy and the spoken word lyrics were a turn off.
Sometimes I forget how musical Iron Maiden is. They have sophisticated, rockin' riffs that genuinely set them apart from the other cheesy proto-metal acts of the era. The lyrics, on the other hand, are inescapably bad.
Pleasant listening but ultimately forgettable.
There just are not a lot of artists in the history of music who could make an album like this. Soulful, rocking, beautiful, ugly, and unique. Neil wears his heart on his sleeve and I love him for it.
It's well made and interesting music but I can't help but think that Sting and the gang take themselves way too seriously.
Kick ass album that combines the best raw elements of punk and rock.
I really enjoyed this. Awesome percussion and really interesting melodies.
Well-made pop music with enough originality and variety to keep me interested.
Apparently being hardcore means writing needlessly long songs filled with half-whispered vapid lyrics about how hardcore you are. This dude needs us to think he has the depth of an ocean but it's obvious he is standing in the kiddie pool.
Heartfelt and emotional music by a one-of-a kind talent. The mid-tempo light rock feel gets old after a while, but that is probably more a product of 80s production than anything else.
It was okay. I liked the funkier parts. But overall it quickly turned into background music for me.
I wanted to give it a lower rating but those damn funky beats and 90s nostalgia won me over in the end.
I do love me some rhythmic heavy guitar jams. Maybe a bit overlong but it frickin' rocks.
Top-notch musicianship of course, and I usually dig prog rock, but....this one went *whoosh* right over my head and I just could not get into the headspace required to enjoy it. I know prog rock is all cheesy, but there is something especially so about Rush and this album in particular that makes me roll my eyes more than usual.
Catchy and interesting but way too repetitive.
It was okay but I did not enjoy it as much as their earlier releases. It's very New York City and pretentious.
White Denim has something for everyone...jam band noodling packaged into a pop song shell with top notch musicianship and interesting instrumentation.
I'm not sure how, but I completely missed Bad Brains. I really enjoyed this and will be listening to more.
I just can't with light jazz. Like how many saxophone solos do you need to hear on one album?
A couple fillers in the middle don't do much to diminish the brilliance of the opening three and ending three songs. Serious enough without being sappy, light -hearted enough without being goofy. An absolute classic.
Yeah this is some pretty great swing/jazz.
I honestly think Madonna should have recorded all of the lyrics in French. At least there would have been some mystery to the music. As it stands, this is shallow and forgettable pop.
There is obviously some great song craft here, but I still want to launch that damn harmonica straight into the sun. Like every single Dylan album, if it was 8 songs instead of 14 it would have been much more enjoyable.
Groove is in the Heart brought me back, but the rest of this was background music.
Bob Dylan meets Simon and Garfunkel. The whisper/monotone singing gets pretty old after a few songs.
This was weird and cool and original. I enjoyed it and I appreciate the effort to do something different.
Crash Test Dummies guy meets Sinatra to sing songs about shoveling horse crap. Hard pass.
A fun listen on a Wednesday morn.
Solid if uninspiring.
I know this is probably unfair as these people are great musicians, but I have a bias against piano jazz music. I think it's from listening to too much NPR over the years. It just grates on me.
This is the kind of "jazz" I can get into. Laid back and rhythmic enough to be relaxing, yet varied enough to not turn into elevator music. Plus, there is no piano...always worth an extra star in my book.