LP1
FKA twigsIrritating.
Irritating.
Janie Jones & Police & Thieves are 2 of my favorite songs of all time.
Funky good times. Might have earned an extra star from me but for the slow jams, which I'm just not that into.
If somebody asked me 30 years ago do I have I say anything nice about Jethro Tull, a snarky look of disdain probably would have ensued. I had no patience for fusions of math rock, jazz flute and/or elven gamboling. Fast-forward however through years of exposure to traditional folk, multicultural genres & a steep decline in the quality of pop music, & this comes as a breath of fresh air. Really enjoyed (most of) it.
Hmm. Well, my two favorite U2 songs are on this album. But honestly I didn’t much enjoy the rest of it at all. Gotta go with my gut.
Really great stuff and brand new to me! Only the limited # of tracks due to length and inherent repetitiveness keep this from earning 5 stars.
Not unlistenable as far as d&b goes, but not my thing either. Some interesting elements here & there. I much prefer a trip-hop or dub vibe to these frenetic beats though. Bottom line: my rating is based on personal enjoyment over talent or innovation, which in this case I don't dispute.
This is more like it. I'll admit that long jams are usually more of a commitment than I'm eager to make, but Fela just doesn't seem to get tiresome.
Never did like Spandau Ballet, OMD, or Thompson Twins...& now not a fan of The Triffids either! The Church and Nick Cave do the Aussie new wave thing much better.
Hugely influential to me as a young aspiring rocker. So many years later & it's still pretty unique, especially considering twas 1977. But in terms of revolutionizing the music scene, these guys did it more with fashion & posturing than with songwriting. Still love it though.
I can appreciate what he was trying to do given the state of pop music in 1986. But personally I would go straight to Ladysmith Black Mambazo for this style. Make a new plan, Stan...
Ahh takes me back to NYC. It's a bit hard to be objective about albums you've heard ~a million times. Not my favorite Sonic Youth album but still pretty good I'd say. An acquired taste for many to be sure.
Seminal & as a soundtrack of the time it set the stage. Some great stuff on there, especially lyrically. But honestly, a whole album's worth of PE just stresses me out now. I'm old.
Yeah, no.
Ha...it's on the list. Doesn't hold up super well & I find LeBon's vocals hard to listen to anymore. That said, once upon a time I loved their vibe & it was actually pretty innovative. Gonna be merciful for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. IMHO the oft maligned "Lonely in Your Nightmare" might very well be the most progressive track on the album.
Some decent beats & interesting samples (albeit not always deftly applied) going on for '98 but now to me it's like listening to a string of TV or video game commercials.
Just not my thing.
Enjoyable enough. Not my favorite style of blues but a decent range of tempos. Liked "Help The Poor" a lot in particular.
Interesting experimentation but I can't say I'd want to listen to it again. I like some of the poetry but didn't care for the vocals. None of the songs really stood out. Two-and-a-half to be precise
I like this album. Again, hard to be objective about stuff you know like the back of your hand & consequently might be perfectly happy never to hear again, but it's an achievement regardless, especially so early into a solo career.
It took me at least someone's lifetime to come around to this guy. Didn't care for his stuff at all when I was younger. Then, don't know what happened or when, but at some point it just clicked. Maybe I grew a soul. Anyway, dig it now. Liner note: Did the ~10 min songs *really* need to be ~10 mins tho?
Good stuff. Love tracks 1, 2, & 6. The rest was mainly soulful vamping, which was fine.
Surf's Up is an interesting record. Sometimes it feels like a continuation of Brian Wilson's expanding songwriting odyssey. Then other times it sounds like the boys are entirely out of their element. Ultimately, for me, it's aging men trying to adapt but unsure of what they're supposed to d anymore. With flashes of brilliance. Tracks 8 & 10.
Stills has never really done it for me but at least for a double album this was fairly diverse. A couple songs stood out, albeit not by much. I'm feeling generous so I'll go the full 3 stars.
Enjoyed it. Generally I much prefer a smaller jazz combo to a big band, particularly from the 50s & 60s, but refreshing to step away from the country-rock for a minute.
One of my favorite bands as a kid. I still think Bad Music For Bad People is superior overall, but then it's essentially a greatest "hits" album so wouldn't make it onto this list. The debut is still fun, maybe a bit repetitive. 3.5.
With the exception of The Waiting Room, which I've always liked (& isn't on this album), Fugazi mostly sounds to me like what I'd describe as "frat punk", paving the way for bands like The Offspring, Limp Bizkit, etc. Maybe liked 1 or 2 tracks ok. But nah.
Mostly harmless. 2½.
I'll admit this has some nostalgic value for me, even if I can't say I enjoy a full album of metal. I do prefer the early Di'Anno sound at least.
Old school, very dated & often super fun. Genuinely cracked me up a few times. Like the early synths.
Just the other day saw a very special appearance by Mudhoney in the classic 1996 masterpiece "Black Sheep." Some fine acting there. Man, this one really does take me back; fresh outta high school & ready to slack. We coined the term "Unk Runk" right around this time, which I still think is more befitting than "Grunge." Will always like my Stooges-inspired rock with a little less metal, but I can still bug out to it.
Gangsta Rap! A lot of people think that's pretty cool, but I could never get behind the "message" even ironically like many of my peers back in the day. I'll take artists like PE, Blackalicious, J5 & Tribe for my hip-hops.
Been a while since I listened to it all the way through. Still like every song.
Guess I never realized how minimalist Joy Division were, kinda like if Wire & Sabbath got together. Very new & dark for 1979. And genuinely sad in comparison to a lot of EMO-to-follow, particularly given Ian Curtis's tragic history. Affective.
Like spending 40 minutes hovering over the Tyrell Corporation or hanging with the Droogs at the milk bar. Dig it.
A little maudlin at times but I do like several of the songs.
Irritating.
Definitely more into the later straight-up funk but I still like the early soul as well, a rare talent JB.
Tracks 3 & 5 alone earn this album 4 stars from me! But 6, 8, & 9 are cool too.
I have a recording of his that I like better; I think it's more traditional Qawwali, a lot of call and response, but I'm no expert. Enjoyed much of this too tho, more diverse.
Can't believe I never listened to this one until now. Already very familiar with Reggae Woman & Haven't Done Nothin and those are arguably still the best songs on the album, but there's good stuff going on throughout.
If I liked nu metal, I guess I could give props to this band. At times the nose included hints of Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedys & even Focus, a vintage I can savor, but there are other notes of utter bullshit. Bitter finish.
The B3 ties it all together. Solid bueno.
Respect for her musicianship and songwriting, still I never could quite connect with her music. A 3 from me for general pleasantness but I don't think I'd spin the whole album again.
Pure pop. It has the itch of my least favorite music that will soon take over the Top 40 for decades to come, but at least B&B use more than 4 chords.
I liked it ok, none of my favorite tracks (bloody or not) on this album but still some decent ones. Interesting that there's always a one-eyed carny or a gambling dwarf or the like somewhere in Dylan's lyrics; I guess Tom Waits must've picked that up from him.
This book might've better been titled "1001 Albums That Influenced Great Britain." Here's yet another string of vanilla jangle pop songs that are wholly unremarkable. Didn't hate it, but *must* I hear it before I die?
I like the olde English ballades. However, Joan's voice was never my cup of tea in the genre. Too much head-voice & embellishment, though spot-on pitch. Hard to judge. I'm going with 3.
Liked the diversity & there are ingredients throughout that I thought were pretty cool, just no particular song quite came together as a whole for me.
My trouble with the White Stripes is I really like what they did musically a lot the time but Jack White's vocal affectations just get on my nerves.
I'd hear it again: 3.5.
There's some decent songwriting going on but all these years later & I still don't like his voice.
It kind of went in one ear & out the other. Didn't dislike it. Prefer the Beta Band. Admittedly tired of posting 2 & 3 star reviews.
I enjoyed this, especially the call-&-response & the horn arrangements. It did start to become a bit of a wash due to the repetitiveness for over an hour tho, which is affecting my rating.
Not really my thing, although I like the instrumentation & beats quite a bit. Hill has a great voice but there's often way too much ornamentation going on for me. Also a little preachy. I really liked the classroom snippets. And track 11.
I don't know if there's more John Lee Hooker on this list, but there better be. I find it it difficult to accept that a late 80's compilation of redone material featuring a bunch of white wannabe blues artists is considered an example of his greatest work. Sorry but this is not where you go to hear what the man contributed to the world.
Ah the cheese that is Boston. I have more than a feeling this gets no more than 2 stars from me.
I'm familiar with the album before this one, and definitely find it more engaging. Not to say I didn't like most of it but it didn't do much for me either. 2.75
Like a lot of bands (Wolfmother, The Strokes) these guys didn't bring anything all that new to the table. Still, if you like AC/DC & Zeppelin (or at least their most simple hard rockers) this shouldn't be too much of a slog.
There was a time when I really enjoyed his first album; never heard this one before but I really can't cope with his singing style anymore.
Never did understand the appeal of Morrissey. I can get into the jangly guitar rhythms & then suddenly Kermit the frog starts singing the same 3 notes over everything for 4 mins.