Kind of like a 5th Beatle? American Paul McCartney? A bit sillier and unserious, but here's some really fun songs here.
Sound bridges between eras. classic rock without the grandeur nor enough alternative sound to be interesting. Not much punch. Proto oasis/coldplay chud rock. Not my bag. At least there's a bit of scuzz.
Industrial drum and bass with 90s angst and attitude. Unapologetically repetitive and grating which makes the mixups surprising and exciting. I haven't listend to anything like this before. Guaranteed to make the lofi girl shit herself.
This is like a weird folk/post punk child. The instrumentation didn't really work for me. Going from sweet south african drumming to a drum machine was jarring.
This rules.
This is undeniably well made with a lot of interesting pieces, but all the best elements are pushed to the background. Instead, we get overbearing light pop about the most boring things: getting in a cold taxi, a girl who's dad doesn't let her stay out, or Maryanne with the shaky hands. (Stingy Mingy was funny).
Reading the album title, you would expect more anti-commercial themes. The few parts of the album that do use satirical commercial sounds play the best.
Overall, this album is afraid of the experimentation that makes it any good.
Manic, synthetic, dramatic with some real heart. The world is plastic, so let's have some fun.
Using the same drum machine beat for every song ironically adds to the effect.
The chuds try lounge jazz... The only thing significant about this album is that they are British. Time and time again the brits sing about the most mundane garbage.
Billy's got pipes! Vienna is an all timer.
Take jazz and blues music, sand off all the sharp edges, and plug a pretty white lady at the front.
This is safe music that like a Disney movie promises to not make you uncomfortable and hand you a happy ending. A warm boring hug that I guess people really resonated with after 9/11. The recordings sound great!
Solid 70s fusion record with the synthy keys and funky bass of the 80s.
I liked the range of style on this album. I really liked the long Papa Was A Rolling Stone.
80s synth punk. Sleazy and manic. The album leans so heavily into irony that it crosses into parody at some points. The Born to Run cover feels part wonder and part mockery. Punk is cool, albeit a bit exhausting.
An evergreen bottle of 90s angst and rage. Fuck you.
This is the side of REM I don't like. Smug and whiney. The End of the World as we Know it is the epitome of both. The B side is able to shine once they slow down and turn down the preachinga notch.
Summer of love psychedelic feel good rock with Janis Joplin's voice that pop music has been chasing ever since. Ahead of it's time and massively influential. Kick back and enjoy some dripping guitar solos with chilled out bass.
I prefer Black Sabbath.
Post-humous music really rubs me the wrong way. Taking Woody Guthrie's unreleased lyrics feels like peeling back a curtain we weren't supposed to see. I understand that his daughter asked for this, but it still feels like plundering incomplete ideas for the sake of money.
Orchestral rock, but no where near ELO. Some songs here are insufferable while others work well.
Sleazy alternative rock. Guitars and drums are bouncing. Hedonistic dive bar bangers.
DNA everywhere. One of those albums you can hear in tons of modern pop, indie, and rock. Interesting rhythms. Catchy melodies. Soulful singing. It's easy to see how this album is such a strong influence.
Masterful guitar playing with restrained supporting instrumentation. Top tier hifi recording. The track Brothers in Arms is an all time great electric guitar song. Very solid album.
Tom Waits is always cooking. Some parts hit. Other parts don't.
Musically, this album is a fantastic rendition of southern rock with twanging guitars, gravelly vocals, and rebellious spirit.
Conceptually, this album is re-litigating southern pride. These rockers who grew up in the racist south say "it's complicated" and "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater". They turn the mirror on the high-horse northerners. Unfortunately, it isn't up to some white rockers to decide the legacy of George Wallace and the Confederate flag. There is a nugget of truth in here though: I love America despite it being a fucked up place. Rebellious free spirit IS cool.
A couple nice songs on here. I could see this growing on me if I listened more. If you like this in 1999, indie music is about to get so much better.
One of the greatest to ever do it. I wish we got more. I love the distortion on here.
A less manic The Doors. Still has some great guitar.
Classic Nashville! This has interesting song writing, but it's like a musical dinosaur with how poorly that old twang has aged. Even modern country has moved on from this sound.
ELO transports you to another world with whimsical romantic orchestral rock. Rarely is pop music this interesting and catchy.
A full album of catchy licks mixed into a loop 10 times. Clearly influential in electronic music, but electronic music has gotten so much better.
CHVRCHES used the new wave heavy synths to make a great pop album. It stands on its own as a fun unique listen between modern dance music and earlier electronic. This album came out around the time that House EDM was growing into a global moment. No album really captures that sound due to the genre heavily existing in singles, mixes, and live sets, but this album does an alright job.
Fantastic song writing and production. I really want to listen to this on a hifi set-up.
Hell yeah.
Playing With Fire has a lot of dimensions to it. A bit of Velvet Underground, a bit of new wave, a bit of noise, all with well crafted distortion. For a distortion based album, this is minimal and patient. I found it interesting and relaxing. I do love long distorted guitar.
Solid classic country song writing with the most twangy vocals and instrumentation. Dinosaur!
This is fun, but not a whole lot to it.
This is the most on the nose Bjork at her most Bjork.
Almost cut my hair!
Grating, boring, and influential for all the wrong reasons.
The nerds are allowed to have rock too. Unfortunately, I found this one to be rather devoid of any emotion outside of a few tracks (or passages?).
Punk band doing an Elvis cosplay or an Elvis impersonator doing a punk cosplay. I can't tell and I'm not sure why I care either way. This is fine, but ultimately it doesn't hold the charismatic charm of Elvis or the edge of punk.
Good Queen is really good. Not good Queen is really bad.
Abrasive, but danceable. Sticky hooks and unique production. This is cool, but it is tough to connect to. There isn't much to grab onto besides the cool unique sound.
I hear the voice and the emotion, but I prefer albums that have more of a coherent idea tying them together. This one is a pile of singles stuck together.
Seedy, slinking, slicked post punk. Probably the coolest thing on Earth when this dropped.
Refined vanilla Beatles.
Dumb music... I mean this both complimentary and derogatorily. It scratches a primal rock out itch, but it isn't good enough to float for longer than 5 minutes. For every good song on here, there are two horrendous songs.
Chaotic as hell. It feels like this is being pulled in 4 directions creatively and is barely holding on by the seams. There's plenty of interesting pieces within, but no cohesiveness to lift up any common idea above the creative chaos.
I like Let it Grow.
Average punk with a SYNTHESIZER?? Woah no way!!! Is this post punk?? :O :O
It's not great punk, not great post punk, and painfully British. Not bad, but whatever.
Metal doesn't earn your appreciation with a single. It slowly knocks down your fortifications against the abrasive noise and plays directly to your fundamental emotions. Death metal in particular unlocks the animalistic part of you. This album delivers hate for the establishment, loss of faith in society, and war against unity. Despite the rage, there is also peace in giving up hope and love for the solidarity. The closing track Til We Die even left me with optimism.
Indie guys from Ireland making goofy music.
Speaks for itself. There just isn't enough Jimi Hendrix.
There's nice high distortion rock in here with satisfying layering. Unfortunately, there's also this guy wailing over all of it. I really wish he would be quiet.
Innovative for it's time with a few great tracks.
Many live albums end up feeling sterile and have worse sound quality. This album feels alive in the best way. It opens a window to an authentic night with James Brown. The crowd is electric and happy to be there, and James is giving the love back to them. I'll never know what it is like to be live at a James Brown show, but this album gives me a whiff of it, and for that reason, it is special.
Early Steve Winwood and you can already hear that he is a production nerd. This sounds incredibly clean for early 70s rock. It is also apparent that he loves jazz which makes for an interesting rock album. The result is a little bit cold, but overall this is interesting and inoffensive.
You can get lost in Bitches Brew. It is unapproachable and uncompromising in its vision, and there is nothing else like it.
Very funny album. Turn the dial all the way up to the max, why not? Is it good? No, not really. Is it cool that they made this? Hell yeah.
Took a minute for the vibe to get to me. A unique noir sound that I haven't heard before blending jazz, RnB, and blues.
Reign in Blood will make you run through a wall with your face, high speed, angry metal. The anger is tempered into fun where instead of bringing you down, it makes you want to move.
Smooth as butter and empathetic as a warm hug. It's all love baby.
Cheap empty plastic. Nothing here holds up after multiple listens. Take On Me is annoying.
Bad Brains is insanely cool. This album doesn't have the raw edge of self titled, but instead leans more into metal. A hugely influential band deserving to be listened to by everyone who gives a shit.
Sometimes you go back to a bands first album and find a raw edge that got sanded off. In this case, Talking Heads 77 has all the ingredients in the kitchen, but the cake hasn't been fully baked yet. David Byrne's punky singing is there, the hopping base lines are there, the catchy hooks are there, but it is all a bit dull. Psycho Killer closes the album with a glimpse into the greatness to come.
