It's not a bad album by any means, it just didn't hook me. I wouldn't feel the need to skip past any of the songs but I also wouldn't pick one of them to play on purpose. I personally found the quiet moments stronger, the end of Hummer stands out, and overall that's probably my favorite song from the album. I do agree with some of the other reviews that said they found the guitar to be strong and the vocals kind of held it back, I definitely appreciated the melodies more than any of the singing.
I wish I could give this a 4.5, without a doubt it's an exceptional album with no misses so a 4 is insufficient, but subjectively I don't think I'll be putting this on too often so a 5 feels like a step too far. That being said, the energy is undeniable, and the talent impossible to miss. This is the kind of album you put on and I find it hard to imagine someone telling you to turn it off, it brings good vibes and upbeat percussion you have to love.
The percussion in this album stands out to me, it's fast paced and complements at times, taking the lead elsewhere, El Nicoya is where they really get to shine on their own and I'm glad, I wish they were prominent through other songs as well. Overall it's a great album, if a little self similar at times, you can definitely find yourself listening to 3 songs without realizing you'd crossed over from one to another at first if you're not paying close attention.
Brice Springsteen I suspect just isn’t my thing, I can recognize it’s probably a strong album and when it came out it would’ve been a different experience, but today and with my taste it just didn’t work.
I like Elton John, some of the songs in this album are exceptional, and none of them are bad, but most of them didn’t do much for me. He’s great in this album if not very consistent.
I appreciate being introduced to this album because part of why I want to do the 1001 albums is to get to listen to novel things, that being said, this was definitely a miss. It wasn't unlistenable or anything, there was just no upside. My favorite track was Viðrar vel til loftárása, it was a fairly orchestral track that was, in all honesty, probably the most boring one for me to like, but the album wasn't for me unfortunately. I can definitely imagine a state of mind where this would sweep you off your feet, I'm just not there.
Easy 5, I already enjoyed the Fugees, but I'd never listened to the album in its entirety and I'm so glad I have. Old school rap absolutely does it for me, Miss Lauryn Hill is one of my favorites of all time, and I got a lot more appreciation for Wyclef in general in giving this a more thorough look. It comes down to the lyricism for me, they bring an energy to it that's unmatched.
Not bad, one song I can genuinely say I liked (how do you sleep?), but it just overall didn't do it for me.
I'm torn between a 2 and 3 for this. I might just have a boring taste in music, I don't know, but for the most part this album did nothing for me, at times less than nothing. I did like "Like Someone In Love," and I do like Björk's voice, but I think the purposeful discordance and electronica vibes in many of the tracks just doesn't work for me. I was also bordering on liking "There Is More To Life Than This," for the lyrics primarily, and one of the other reviews talks about how this album sounds like Björk guiding you around and is a better image of her than you'd get from an album about her, and this one exemplifies that for me, but I still just never managed to step over to just liking the song.
I've loved Pusherman for a while but never listened to the whole album so getting this one was exciting. Easy 5, every song on the album brings as much funk as it can through the vocals and the brass with ease. Then getting to Think and just having an instrumental song to chill out with (Junkie Chase comes first of course but it's hardly chill), it's an exceptional journey. Pusherman is still definitely my favorite song, I think it would be even if this was my first listen, Little Child Runnin' Wild and Freddie's Dead are highlights as well.
Everyone knows There She Goes, besides that I thought Liberty Ship was a standout track. I'm struggling to place a lot of these because they'll have one or two songs I like and the rest are mediocre (to my taste) and just don't do much for me, so even though I wouldn't turn the album off and I enjoyed listening to it I struggle to say I actively liked it. This feels more like a 3.5 if I could, I thought it was better than average, even relative to the albums from here so far, it's good old fashioned British rock and that's not a bad genre, but it's not enough to be exciting, so a 3 is what it gets.
Roundabout is understandably popular, even outside of meme status, although Heart of the Sunrise is my favorite from the album (mainly the instrumental first half, maybe the singing is what I don't enjoy in this album?). Unfortunately much of the rest of the album comes across as a little generic though. It's by no means bad but I think I'd skip most of these tracks if I'd discovered them outside of this challenge.
Honestly not a single song stood out. It was an inoffensive and beige album for me, I almost liked some of the songs initially and then they wouldn't go anywhere with it, or the singing would start and mess up what the guitar was doing for me.
This was an album with good loops that didn't develop into anything and had questionable at best vocals on top. Honestly Frankie Teardrop wasn't as bad as I was expecting from the other reviews, it was long, but it was mostly the same as the other songs with a few screams added, not a positive, but not quite the unlistenable wtf material other people described it as. I will say this is an album that if I heard someone put it on I'd probably request a skip, and question their taste.
It's fine, I think it's another album where I'd be significantly more into it if there wasn't singing. If you were feeling down and were into country vibes this might be the ticket, but outside of that I can't imagine liking this much. I will say, I enjoyed Transylvania Blues, but when it came on at first I thought the album had finished and Spotify had just started playing something else, because it didn't sound like something that belonged on the album. When the good song instantly makes you think you've left the album, I think that tells you something about its quality.
I genuinely don’t get the complaints about the flute. Maybe I’m just tired of generic rock albums from this challenge already but it’s an objectively interesting twist, even if it’s not to your taste. I personally thought it was done really well, and it’s definitely not classic rock and roll but they fit in way better than I would’ve expected. If anyone ever asked me if you could shred on a flute I’d point to the My God solo and say absolutely. I came into this one after having read the reviews not expecting much, and I ended up really liking it. I’ll admit some of the lyrics are a little over the top, but the singing itself is well done, and it’s just hard not to like every song in this album.
Probably one of the most well known albums ever, and for good reason. There’s a few that are impossible not to have heard, but I appreciated listening to it in its entirety for once, for no one and love you to stood out as one’s I’d never heard before but really enjoyed. I don’t have much to comment on, the songs are just good, for the most part they’re verging on simple, but they’re well done, it’s a tight clean act with good musicianship all round.
I liked it initially but it didn’t really mix it up much, and started to sort of blend together to me. Obviously song 2 is a classic, and I really liked Essex dogs, but most of the 50ish minutes I felt like I was listening to well done but sort of samey music.
The famous tracks from this album are so chill that I was pleasantly surprised by listening to the rest of it. Don't get me wrong, Black Hole Sun has been a song I love since the first listen, and I appreciate Starlight, but it was just a nice change of pace. Overall I enjoyed it, the highs were high, and the mids were still solid, with no real lows to speak of. I'd say somewhere between 3 and 4 if I could, it definitely leans closer to 4 though.
It's not awful, but the lyrics went from feeling sort of whimsical satirical just winging it towards just overdoing it so instead of a potentially interesting message it's just bashing you over the head with...whatever this is. My planned rating for it dropped over time, from 4 down to where we are now. I'd like to call it inoffensive but at times it seems to purposefully strive for the opposite. The song I liked the most was Queen of Denmark, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy it in a vacuum or if I just got worn out on floaty synths over the course of the album and was just into the big guitar punches.
It wasn't bad, but none of it caught my attention. I feel a little bad because this is becoming a very common review for me but I guess with 1001 albums it's inevitable to get a lot of samey stuff that doesn't do it for me.
It was kind of interesting at first but it lost me over time. I ended up just not really liking it without being able to put my finger on why.
I enjoyed it, I think I might give it a better rating if it wasn’t a part of this challenge and I had more time to relisten. The standout is definitely in the lyrics and the emotions they convey, my personal favorite was under ice.
My favorite song from the album was Shabby Doll, I didn't like it enough to add it to any playlists, but there was something catchy enough about it to hit the right spots. I'm definitely in agreement with the people who found his voice unpleasant, I typically found myself interested in where a song might go and then he'd start and I'd be less excited for it.
I think a lot of the songs would be great if they were half as long, New Forms is a great example of this, it's a good beat and the vocals are solid but I think it just goes on a little past its welcome. Some would be fine if they were half as long, and instead are almost just bad, like Let's Get It On which follows right after New Forms. And then there's some I don't think I could get behind at any length, like Digital which follows right after those two and is even longer than either. That being said, this is the listening experience sitting and listening to it relatively focused in an office, I highly suspect that wasn't the intended place to listen to it. In a club it seems like (the ones that are at least fine, definitely not Digital) great music to shout over, something to keep up the energy in the background while you step away for a drink. Overall, I appreciate the beats they lay down for the most part, the actual physical stringed bass on it is great pretty much everywhere it's used, I would never listen to it in its entirety for fun but I can appreciate a few of the songs.
It’s not bad necessarily, there’s some good songs in it, the problem is that so many of the songs on the album are nearly the same song. If you’d only ever heard the highlights of it (which I had) you’d probably be surprised that it’s not a more well loved album but after listening to it in its entirety it does come across as uninspired. It’s the first album I’ve rated where I think the average song quality is pretty high but the album quality I’d say is fairly low, I’d be tempted to give it a 2 honestly, sad, but true.
