Both better and worse than I expected. It rocks harder and the grooves are nastier than I remembered, but the skeeziness is less effective too.
It also gets repetitive. This is a long album and it feels like it. AK's flow and cadence get repetitive.
"Take It On the Other Side" still slaps. "Around the World" hasn't aged as well. "Californication" and "Scar Tissue" hold up reasonably well. First time hearing "This Velvet Glove" and "Paralell Universe," and both are pleasant surprises. Solid album cuts. Found myself grooving to "Right on Time"
I'm thinking strong 3 to a weak 4 for this one. Probably 3.5 as I'm not itching to hear it again.
Haven't actually listened to this since around 1997. All my favorites still kill "In Bloom," "Come As You Are," and "Lithium" are the stand outs from that group.
"Breed" is the one I really forgot about. That song felt like a locked away memory suddenly recovered. Of the faster songs, that's probably my favorite.
Obviously "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is great, but I'll never really feel it the way I do with some of the other songs.
E-Pro is another solid Beck album opener. That dude knows how to kick off an album, I'll tell you what
7 of 8 songs on this album are absolute winners.
"Vampire Blues"...... well....it sucks. It sucks. It's everything that kept me from liking Neil Young in the past.
Other than that, this is a fantastic, wistful album. "Sky About to Rain" has some gorgeous slide guitar work and the opener has some equally gorgeous harmonies.
"Revolution Blues" is another great political chaos song. This seems to be a specialty of his with hard marching drum beats and stream of consciousness lyrics that feel like the narrator is half concussed.
Young had a keen understanding of how country and roots music sunk up nicely with Laurel Canyon singer/songwriter culture. This feels like a story of a country boy stranded in California and burning out.
"Candy Says" leads off the record with an empathetic character sketch on that certain type of New York personality that Lou Reed specialized in.
"What Goes On" is my kind of track. Tightly written, tightly played and some of the best multi tracked guitar playing of the 60s. Did not know that the solo was Sterling Morrison, always thought that was Lou Reed. A reminder that Velvet Underground weren't just a conceptual project, but a rock band and a damned good one.
"Some Kind of Love" is fine
"Pale Blue Eyes" is another reminder that Lou Reed could work just as well in quiet, intimate spaces as he could in noisy chaotic sounds paces. This is right up there with Buddy Holly's "Everyday" or Roy Orbison's "Crying" for achingly tender songs.
And then they follow that up with "Jesus," which......I was not expecting that. It's gorgeous.
"Beginning to See the Night" is a silly Dylan-esque rocker. I like it. It's great. It's closer to "Obla Dee, Oh Bladah" than it is "Taxman" if that makes sense. I dunno, it's got some more great rhythm guitar and Lou Reed doing his Lou Reed thing but the best part is the "How does it feel to be loved" outdoors.
"I'm Set Free" builds nicely two that two part harmony. I also like the switch to the silkier guitar, as well as the subtle looping arpeggios under the vocal performance. This is a nicely layered track. Curious if the "Closet" mix reflected that. Very nice solo, like something off a Roy Orbison song. Very David Lynch.
"The Story of My Life" is strangely underwritten for someone who wrote so pointedly about other people. It's no bad but it's not particularly good either.
I'm pro "Murder Mystery." It doesn't fit as well on this album as "Lady Godiva's Operation" fits on "White Light, White Heat" but this is one of the VU songs that made me curious about the band when I was younger. This and "Venus in Furs" were kind of confusing siren songs coming from my sister's tape collection that marked Velvet Underground as a cycpher to be unlocked later in life. It's a reminder that this band, from its founding, wanted to break pop music in the same way Warhol wanted to break art. And I appreciated them for that. It does go on a bit.
"After Hours" is a perfect ending. A sort of "If we shadows have offended...." coda that wraps up the album almost as well as the last chord strike of "A Day in the Life." We've come to the end of our Magical Mystery Tour, and this closing little Diddy is the lights coming on. Love it.
This is a five star album. In terms of writing rock songs that balance tunefullness with experimentation and studio creativity, it's right up there with "Revolver." It's conceptual and tests the boundaries of a late 60s rock experience, but never sacrifices listenability.
It's a beautiful album and Burke's vocals are immaculate. He has a real gift for pushing the microphone to its limits with that begging, pleading soul voice.
The songs themselves are effective rock songs about love, breakups, wanting, needing, but nothing transcendent like a "Be My Baby," or a "Could it be I'm Falling in Love." These are meat and potatoes belters for Burke's vocal fireworks.
Overall, I'm having trouble evaluating this. It feels like an important album along the lines of a "Modern Sounds in Country and Western" but I found myself a little underwhelmed by the songs themselves. I'm interested in exploring more of Burke's work, but this album felt a little like homework.
This album has a well deserved legendary reputation. My two favorite Prince songs ("When Doves Cry" and title track) plus the dirty, dirty "Darling Nikki" and "Computer Blue" make this an easy 4, bordering on a five.
"Take Me With U" and "The Beautiful Ones" creep it even closer, but it falls juuuuuuuuuuust short. Call it a 4.75.
4 homeruns, the rest ate good, by kind of filler-y. Might bump it up upon subsequent registers. This is a high 3
Sparks is the real confirmation that Chris Martin has nothing of substance to say. I'm not so concerned if I don't know what an artist is singing about, but I have to know that THEY know what they're talking about.
Their titles are sparse and minimalist, but the lyrics themselves are just kind of boring. If you're going to make a minimal album, then your words better have some weight behind them.
Coldplay is insipid. Their abstract imagery lacks ambition and their concrete imagery lacks resonance. They're chord choices are not nearly creative enough for the type of music they're making and they don't play them with any sort of passion or insight, save for a few isolated spots.
They have some nice airy textures, but nothing comes of it. High Speed is the first song that offers any sort of developement or adventure and that's the third to last song. And even that repeats a line about being trapped in a bubble for several obnoxious bars.
It's pretty, it's competent, it's fine. It's just not worth further exploration.
I'm giving this 2 stars because I did not go into this album with an open mind. Everything I have heard from CSNY grates my teeth and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's simply because my frame of reference is mostly David Crosby being a water logged crank. Maybe it's because I have a particularly jaundiced view on super groups, suspecting them of being nothing more than ego stroking vanity projects.
Mostly I just don't think there's anything they do particularly well that other bands don't do better. Simon and Garfunkle have better harmonies, better songwriting, more range, and have more fun.
And such meager portions! 21 minutes is not an album. It's an LP. That's not necessarily a bad thing as 20 killer minutes is much better than 40-60 mediocre minutes. But for an album that regularly shows up north of #250 on best of lists, this feels under-developed. That goes doubly so when you consider the ambitious subject matter. They take on some bold subject matter such as loneliness, generational divide, carrying on but don't offer much in the way of insight. They talk of fortunes, fables, lovers and ladies all very lofty, but keep it firmly in the realm of LOVE.
Like I said, I'm never going to be fair to CSNY. It took me long enough to come around on the Y and I don't see the same happening for the C any time soon.
There's 3 songs off of here that have become legendary and they're not for me. They're nice sentiments, they're well delivered, but I could go the rest of my life never hearing them and be cool with it.
It's not really fair to give this a 1 star. It's probably closer to a weak 3, but I I just do not like this project
I don't get why a band that feels so loose can sound so stiff. Not like that Billy. The bad kind of stiff.
Seriously, I've heard "Tres Hombres," I know this is a fun band, but this record is no fun. I read the album summation and while I should be on board for pushing ZZ into Blondie territory, I can't help wishing for the zonked out weirdos that knew how to boogie.
Instead they've recast themselves as Nueve riche party crashers who drive their caddie into the pool or pour everclear into the punch bowl. Watch out folks, hide your monocles, the boys are hack in town.
Still gorgeous, personal songwriting; Still beautifully played with rich buttery tones; Still wonderfully honest vocal performances; Still one of the crowning achievements of the late 60s/70s folk/singer-songwriter boom
The only song that doesn't really do it for me is "Smackwater Jack." It's fine. Everything else is a gem.
The first three songs are as good of an open to an album as you're going to get. Three classics right in a row including possibly the greatest breakup song ever.
Post Jagger sludge punk. Sneers and vamps like Iggy Pop, and I dig that psychotic organ.
A bunch of great songs of questionable taste and morals. The opening song is particularly disturbing.
This is my favorite Beatles album and probably a top 5 all timer. Where as my opinion on "Sgt Pepper has kind of waxed and waned, "Revolver" has always been, to me, the perfect blend of the Beatles experimentation and their exquisite pop song writing.
Everybody brings their best. Paul's melodramatic vignettes of quiet desperation are among his best with "Elanor Rigby," and "For No One" ; George churns out a bop of a power popper with "Taxman," and even Ringo puts out his best child-at-heart moment with "Yellow Submarine."
The standouts are still "Tomorrow Never Knows," "Here There and Everywhere," and "And Your Bird Can Sing." Each song a wonderful collaborative effort and perfectly balanced. In those three songs we see the best of their studio technique, technical brilliance, and songcraft. "And Your Bird Can Sing" has the scintillating solo; "Tomorrow Never Knows" with its haunting effects; and "Here There and Everywher," with its gentle harmonies and vulnerability.
Lots of good fun, rocks hard, kicks ass etc etc
But yeah, not much difference song to song. It's a classic, but kind of how lots of westerns are classics
Sometimes the hype is real. Sometimes an album is everything they say it is and even more. "Songs In the Key of Life" is one of those times.
Just an overflowing of love, tenderness, sadness, tragedy, hope, despair, and humanity. Oh, the humanity!
The musicianship is of such high quality too. It's astounding as each bar will leave you shaking your head in Wonder that something this miraculous exists. It's a miracle.
4 outstanding songs with a lot of Granny Shit in between. It's a cool concept album, but the jaunty dancehall tracks detract
"Death On Two Legs" rocks hard, as does "I'm in Love With My Car." "Bohemian Rhapsody" is still a great song.
My Favorite Beach Boys album. It's not the flawless work that makes Pet Sounds a perennial top 5 album. In fact one can definitely call it a flawed work. Two songs can even be called bad. Mike Love trying to write a protest song is embarrassing. So I'm already in violation of the Fantano "no-skips" rule in awarding this a perfect score.
But this album functions on so many levels. It's a better look at what each member could contribute to the band, instead of functioning as Brian Wilson's backup band. It also presents a Beach Boys unit that is well aware of its mortality as this album was recorded during a period of disatisfaction and doubt as to the future and direction of the band. Times were changing and they were not on the forefront of that change.
And it's this dissatisfaction that makes me prefer "Surf's Up" and keep coming back to it whenever I have a long drive ahead of me. I love this album for all of its flaws and all of it's confusion.
Fuck it, 5 stars
You had me at "Roy Orbison sing for the lonely"
I'll never be a Bruce kind of guy. I'll never refer to him as "The Boss" (I mean I don't dispute it, I just won't use that term), and I'm not going to pay a fuck ton of money to see him live.
But this album is a Got Damn masterpiece, I'll tell you what
Aside from the meandering silliness of "Picasso's Last Words," This one is a winner. YMMV, but I'm very receptive to Paul's pastiche driven pop songwriting. The title track and "Jet" are evergreen McCartney classics, but "No Words" is an exquisite return to his chamber pop melodrama like "For No One." The album closes with one of his trademark, blues stoppers and then exits on the strains of the title track and I feel fine.
A visionary project. Combining some of the best bits and energy of early hip-hop with the gonzo genre hopping and anarchic silliness of Frank Zappa.
It's also a chore to listen to.
