Aug 23 2024
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People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A Tribe Called Quest
a teenager's guide to jazz rap -- and that isn't a bad thing! i feel like a lot of people stack this thing up against its follow-up, and to me, that just isn't fair. why should we devalue this album's accomplishments just because it's stacked up against The Low End Theory? pit most albums against TLET and you don't really have to guess which one comes out on top.
anyhow, i think what makes People's Instinctive Travels stick out to me is its willingness to delve into being relatively lighthearted. sure, there's a few moments where it gets a little too silly for comfort (and Ham N Eggs is NOT one of them), but for the most part, i feel as if what PIT lacks in maturity it makes up in creativity. q-tip's an incredible MC -- as the main rapper on the album, he better be -- but what mostly carries the album is his and mohammed's production. i can count the number of times i smiled and said "oh my god are they really doing this one" on both hands whenever a sample came up, and yet every single track makes it work. maybe the tribe had yet to mature, but now and then i think we all need to savor when we were a hungry, horny little bastard. you don't stop having fun until the record ends, and then you gotta move on.
4
Aug 24 2024
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Natty Dread
Bob Marley & The Wailers
i don't really have much experience with reggae (especially roots reggae) but i'm still somewhat familiar with bob marley through cultural osmosis/cheesy references in 2000's comedy films. for some reason he'd always struck me as an overly positive figure with the post-mortem brand reverence of an act like the beatles -- i honestly should have guessed there's actual substance behind the hype when you actually sit down and give him a listen.
yeah, it's positive, but its not ignorantly positive. there's obvious trouble in the world, and especially for the african diaspora of which marley was a part of. it's a good attitude in a world that will not stop causing you and your community pain. some of the more spiritual tracks like So Jah Seh don't engage me as much (i am broadly unfamiliar with most Rastafarian practices) but i don't ever feel like i was being annoyed or preached to. i even kind of like the traditional pop cover on side B! the production is really well done as well, all the instruments feel at the right place in the mix -- that creamy 70's studio goodness. the performances are great and much more unique than i would have thought from the general idea i was given of reggae being a slow, languid genre. sure, maybe there's a couple slow moments, especially on side b, but the only reason this is an 8 instead of a 9 is because i feel like i don't have the context that a more astute reggae/ska/dub fan would have on a record like this. if i revisit this after having heard more jamaican music, i might increase it. who knows?
i feel like i've learned something. i might check out more of marley's records later. maybe i don't buy the hype fully, but i at least know that he's immensely talented and MUCH more introspective than i was led to believe.
4
Aug 25 2024
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Dire Straits
Dire Straits
went into this expecting to hate it and... i surprisingly don't? don't get me wrong, i still think a good amount of this album is a bit generic, but i don't really think i could muster up any vitriol for it. it's definitely one of those albums that're carried by the first track on either side, but it's very well crafted and played rock music. i never found myself zoning out or rolling my eyes at an "ooh baby do i love ya" lyric. it's nothing to write home about, but i mean that as positively as possible. it's like finding a quarter on the street and putting it in your pocket -- all you can really say is "neat" and move on. i'd come back for the singles and most of the B-side for sure.
and man, can Knopfler play.
3
Aug 26 2024
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Wild Is The Wind
Nina Simone
one of those intrinsically perfect things. maybe you could make the argument that there's too many slow solo piano songs in a row or the soul songs are a weird contrast to the jazzier and more serious songs, but it'd be a bad argument and a wrong one too -- i'm disgusted that i even had to make up an argument against Wild is the Wind. "too many slow piano songs" you mean "Lilac Wine"? or "Four Women"? get out. it's an indisputable classic. nina simone was a god among her fellow man and i don't trust anyone who doesn't like her. sorry.
actually, no i'm not sorry. if you don't like nina simone, take some time out of your personal life and try to figure out why. pin down a reason or get a doctor's note or something.
5
Aug 27 2024
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From Elvis In Memphis
Elvis Presley
an odd middle period in Elvis's career -- between the heartthrob movie star sell-out and the gun-toting Vegas gospel singer with Coke cups on his piano, there was a period that felt... oddly classy? Young Elvis, Movie Elvis, Classy Elvis, Fat Elvis? sure.
im somewhat surprised how enjoyable this LP is given Elvis's reputation as a jukebox king rather than a beast of the album era, but barring a throwback or two, it feels coherent and progressive. i dunno, maybe it's a dirty trick to use the back-up singers on so many songs but it's a damn good trick. there's a couple duds, like "After Loving You" or "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'", but i can really only call them duds insofar as they remind me more of Movie Elvis than the tracks surrounding them do.
who knows what would have happened if Elvis kept making album albums instead of "compilation of studio recordings" albums? did the King have a Sgt. Pepper's in him? we'll probably never know, but if it was true in another world i doubt i'd be surprised.
4
Aug 28 2024
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Head Hunters
Herbie Hancock
the template for everything that came after. it's not perfect, but it really doesn't need to be. i mean, you don't have to like drinking water to know it's important to everything alive on the planet. i'll put it this way: 100% of all funk owes its existence to James Brown, that is indisputable. in that same vein, 80% of all jazz-funk owes its existence to Head Hunters (with a remaining 20% of consideration for Miles Davis's works in the 70's). what more can i say? Chameleon is everything.
5
Aug 29 2024
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Teenager Of The Year
Frank Black
the soundtrack to a 30-something homeless guy rider mowing his way across america for quarters and soda-pop.
not conceptually of course -- the record lacks concept (and a lot of cohesion) but it does have the feeling of trying to recapture a forever lost youth. the songs kinda melt together into a big hunk of pop, like leaving a box of Mike n Ikes in your car overnight. yeah, i like Mike n Ikes, and i don't think i'd feel sick or whatever, but eating the whole block kinda gives you (heh) a headache. maybe it hits harder on a long drive, but i honestly think this is one of the few cases of "too much good music brings the whole experience down". (this is why im not much of a fan of "the best of" albums. it can't ALL be pop chart darlings all the time.) i like it, but i don't like THAT much of it. despite this glut of hook and fuzz, i still don't think i hated a single song on the record.
except "fiddle riddle". what the fuck was that, frank
4
Aug 30 2024
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London Calling
The Clash
i've always viewed The Clash as the aging punk's Led Zeppelin: a collection of white guys taking cues from traditionally black music being revered as the only band that really matters -- the last bastion of Reel Rawk before it was pussified, removed of its bite, London Calling being a shining example of said Rawk. which is strange, because London Calling isn't a particularly rock-y album! it's mostly a pop album! if The Clash lacked the hype they had, if it was ANY other band, this would be seen as a bit of a betrayal. if you were so inclined, you could make a case for this being an overlong sell-out album. why isn't that the case?
well, there's a lot of good songs on it, stupid.
maybe the first few songs of the project is a bit off-putting: following the title track with a kind of generic rock song doesn't set high expectations, and i cannot get down with "Jimmy Jazz", but "Hateful" and "Rudie Can't Lose" make up for it. London Calling wins you over, and i think that's why it's been so well loved over the years. it's got hooks for days and great production, and for a double album, it's definitely got a good pace and a lot of variation to make the time feel a lot shorter than it actually is. "revolutionary pub rock" isn't a genre, but if it was, it'd be this album and a bunch of cheap imitators. hell, i think most of the ska songs are essential. i don't think there's a single non-ska artist with multiple ska songs you can say that about other than the Clash.
London Calling is good. controversial, i know.
4
Aug 31 2024
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Garbage
Garbage
a sound coming together so strongly it honestly makes me a little mad. so many bands spend albums finding out who they really are. Garbage were sure -- and right -- on their first album. bubblegrunge guitars and Hacienda beats go together like cheddar and grapes; maybe it's not your first inclination, but when you do it for the first time you just can't stop. i guess you could call it a "grebo" album, but the reason people prefer "Stupid Girl" over "Unbelievable" by EMF or "Right Here, Right Now" by Jesus Jones (now there was a band) is because "Stupid Girl" has butch vig and those other songs have some asshole from Britain in a pre-war town, blissfully deceiving themselves that the Teen Spirit Bomb will never drop and destroy their little lives.
Garbage are post-apocalyptic warriors, dressed in the clothes of the burnt past and the chains of the new world, ready to take on the ruins.
5
Sep 01 2024
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Kind Of Blue
Miles Davis
i've already heard Kind of Blue before taking the wacky 1001 albums challenge and upon relistening my take is unfortunately somewhat similar: i like jazz, and i like cool jazz, but Kind of Blue is so subtle in its progression of the genre that i can't really take as much from it as someone with actual musical education would. i feel like a moron saying this, but avant garde jazz is a bit easier for me to listen to because i know there's something wrong -- there's a loud horn, discordant notes, hour long pieces. when an album is so perfectly normal, it makes it harder to pick out parts of it that i like without treating its artistic expression as simple background noise, and it frustrates me.
two years after my first listen, i can appreciate how it sounds a bit more (i still have a woeful lack of jazz education but am familiar with a larger breadth of your straight ahead bop and modal) so i'd say its closer to a 9 than an 8 nowadays. it sounds nice! i just wish i could speak its language!
4
Sep 02 2024
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Stripped
Christina Aguilera
first complaint: i dunno if it was just the spotify version or if it's just how the album is produced, but this whole thing has such high, piercing treble that it's hard to enjoy this thing on headphones. that's probably my biggest complaint.
second complaint: i don't really like her weird attempts at merging flamenco with r&b. put the guitar down.
third complaint: i am not a fan of Christina's inspirational ballads. i think "Beautiful" is the chintziest song of all time and other songs like "Soar" don't do a much better job of winning me over.
still, when the album jams, it jams. Aguilera's voice is impressive and she can really do great things to a melody. im kind of a sucker for dated 2000's neo-soul/r&b beats, and the first half of the album does have a lot of them. maybe in a world where this thing wasn't 77 minutes long, it'd be a really great album, but the CD urge to give people their money's worth kind of makes the whole thing feel a bit more tedious than it should be. 7 not 6, but a very shaky 7. my ears might need a little time to recover.
3
Sep 03 2024
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The Stranger
Billy Joel
i like Billy Joel. i have no defense for this, nothing to restore the hipster cred lost from this statement. i like his newsboy pop, i like his stupid kids movie voice, i like his weird Peter Lorre stare, i like when his songs come on the radio, i even like the ACK ACK ACK ACK -- have since i was a kid. hell, i even kinda like "Piano Man", and nobody with taste has liked "Piano Man" since 1983. i think The Stranger is a great record and barring "Only The Good Die Young" (even i have limits), i don't think there's a bad song on it. in our confusion, we've forsaken Billy Joel for the world's stupidest crime: making nice music that your mom and dad like.
it's not kitsch, it's art.
5
Sep 04 2024
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Bookends
Simon & Garfunkel
i think bookends suffers from not having enough ideas to go around -- and there are good ideas. the first half of the album clearly is meant to be about going from youth to adulthood to middle to old age, but unfortunately, the b-side, which feels a bit more like a space saving afterthought, has more musical ideas, and that really shouldn't be the case. still, i like the brief moments of experimentation, and it is nice to have such a short album for the day.
why does rym hate old people so much? who knows.
4
Sep 05 2024
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Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Everyone Knows This is Nowhere's brand of sloppy, loud country rock still blows as many socks off as it did in 1969. people (falsely) claim it invented grunge, but i think it did something even better: it invented neil young. there's something meat-and-potatoes simple about the songs, the most beloved ("Cinnamon Girl", "Down By The River") having been written in a 103 F fever. maybe it shows. but it doesnt matter. you can tell what EKTiN is about from the cover art alone: a grainy picture of a man, but just enough detail so there's no mistaking who it is. plus there's a cute puppy.
5
Sep 06 2024
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Music From Big Pink
The Band
surprisingly, "chest fever" is the only non-starter for me on the whole album. i dunno how it's possible for an album to feel like a warm hug, especially with such simple instrumentation, but somehow the Band do it. it makes you wanna take to the guitar and write a few things. plus, don't lie to yourself -- it's fun to sing like Robbie Robertson on "The Weight". we've all done it once or twice.
4
Sep 07 2024
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Ill Communication
Beastie Boys
i was pleasantly surprised to learn that the short tracks people tend to ignore and rate lower over the vocal ones have a chance of being one of two things:
1. an incredibly accurate 70's funk pastiche that doesn't feel porn groovy in the slightest, or;
2. a sorta funny punk song that is over in like a minute. maybe i won't be coming back to heart attack man, but i don't think it was a track meant to be returned to. a stumble, but in no way a fall or penalty.
of course, hip hop is the main focus of the album, and songs like "Sure Shot" and "Get It Together" are proof positive it was the right choice. production's incredible, the tradeoffs and lyrics are great (maybe they're not the most serious, but they're very fun turns of phrase), and of course "Sabotage" exists and its presence on the record guarantees i can't hate it. this whole thing feels like the group flexing what they can do, in regards to both their talent and eclecticism. maybe that doesn't work for everyone, but it sure works for me -- they got weird with it and survived! and had a charting rock song from it! boundless respect.
5
Sep 08 2024
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Locust Abortion Technician
Butthole Surfers
yknow in like, cartoons or teenybopper sitcoms when the characters knock over a vase, and they gotta glue and duct tape it back together and comedically hope that the owner of said vase don't notice that it's been shattered into a million pieces?
the Butthole Surfers knocked over rock music on purpose, tried to tape it back together on Locust Abortion Technician, and it is now your duty to see how long you can humor them and pretend it's still rock and not a pile of shattered debris on a pedestal.
4
Sep 09 2024
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Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
first song: ...we want the funk. give up the funk. we want the funk, gotta have the funk...
i haven't exactly been fair to heartland rock. in all fairness, the indie rock/public radio scene has been inundated with insufferable imitators. the war on drugs, my morning jacket, the gaslight anthem -- these people have made their trade off of hazy, ignorable music infused with "authenticity", like smoke flavor in a cocktail served in a gentrified "gastropub". there's exposed brick. the wings cost way too much for how middle-of-the-road they are. you've been there (if you live in colorado these places clutter the cities like cholesterol). it's low energy dross that isn't worth the tape it's recorded on.
if there's anything you can fault Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for, it's definitely not lack of energy. there's a driving force behind each song that you never feel lulled into a trance. maybe it's his voice, maybe it's the tempo of the songs, but barring the droll-bordering-dull country balladry of "Mystery Man" and the brief cliche of "Hometown Blues", the record is a packed gunpowder cap that won't stop exploding. there's some odd things i didn't expect from Petty -- "Strangered In The Night" features lyrics about blowing someone's head off and is apparently autobiographical -- but you can see the origins of what was to come from the later hits in the deeper cuts. it's not perfect, but in half an hour of fluorescent midnight, Petty and co. prove themselves.
and of course "American Girl". the anthem, the legend, the song of the hour. its the song all these throwback motherfuckers try and fail to write. if some madman made it so "American Girl" played in full was the US anthem, i might actually start standing up at hockey games. patriotism! from me! that's the power of "American Girl", baby.
4
Sep 10 2024
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Live!
Fela Kuti
i will pay you $100 dollars on Paypal if you can find me one bad Fela Kuti song. i'm not kidding. not a weak one, not a "oh it's alright" one, one that is actually bad in a way that is clearly identifiable. Fela and Afrika 70 are the most consistent artists to ever live and the fact that Ginger Baker could slot in with them so perfectly on side b is a miracle. seriously, how do you go from drumming on this to ending up on Band on the Run? you must feel as if you got a peek at the Grail before being struck blind.
the Grail, in this case, is Tony Allen.
5
Sep 11 2024
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Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod Stewart
a classic album -- in the sense that it's structured like a 1950's collection of session cover songs with two or three songs that Rod wrote that you actually wanna hear. "Maggie May" and "Mandolin Wind" are fine, even good, but there is no reason on earth for a cover of "That's All Right" to last that long, even discounting the vocal cover of "Amazing Grace" tacked onto the end. call it anti-rockist poisoning but as nice as the guitars and drums can sound, there just isn't enough to bring me back.
is this the first album i've been recommended that i don't really like? i think so
3
Sep 12 2024
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Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Stereolab
the absolute middle between noisy krautpop Stereolab and future alien pinko lounge Stereolab, and by all accounts the best starting point. i don't think it could ever live up to the pure sonic joy of something like Dots and Loops or Cobra and Phases Group, but in terms of something rough, something analog and retro and yet as futuristic as you could muster, there's not many selections better than Emperor Tomato Ketchup.
...don't look up where the name comes from, though.
5
Sep 13 2024
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Slipknot
Slipknot
i do wish it was shorter (we're having Teenager of the Year problems in short) but you almost have to respect the audacity, the sheer BALLS to sell America and her youth what could be best described as "music to kill your grandma" and then make shit tons of money by doing that. $8's a very impressive vocalist and guitar performances, though somewhat similar, still leave a lasting impression on you when the album ends. my only complaint other than length/slurry is that the songs don't really have anything to do with the characters constructed by the band. what's the point of dressing up in silly proggy costumes if you're not even gonna go all out and make up a stupid musician's plot for them that you explore through music?
4
Sep 14 2024
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Songs For Swingin' Lovers!
Frank Sinatra
the prospect of buying a Frank Sinatra album must be like deciding to buy a loaf of bread or a hammer and nails from king soopers. you always know what you're going to get: a collection of Frank Sinatra standards that more or less are sung the same, backed the same, and presented the same.
i have the sneaking suspicion that 1001 Albums doesn't have Watertown or Trilogy on the list, so I don't think I'll be proven wrong. enjoy your bread, enjoy your hammer 'n nails, and enjoy your Frankie.
3
Sep 15 2024
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Document
R.E.M.
something about the tracks that aren't the stuff of legend strangely hook me a little bit more than "classic R.E.M." deep cuts. i love that period of R.E.M., they're like that cousin who's cooler and more down to earth than you, but that cousin now has a good job and a house and he's somehow cooler? and that's saying nothing of the two beasts right in the middle of the record. there's no cutting them out. "a serve", as the kids say.
is it sacrilege to say i like seminal jangle pop band R.E.M. more after they "sold out"? am i stupid? am i gonna die?
4
Sep 16 2024
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Live Through This
Hole
probably the most emotionally direct record of the 90's grunge scene -- Nirvana at least attempted a couple hard to parse metaphors for all their fury. i know exactly what Courtney Love is thinking upon hearing the song's main conceit. this isn't in any way a put down, of course. there's something almost Hemingway-like about the lyrics on "Doll Parts" or "Asking For It" -- you don't have to do a lot of work to get what she's talking about, but it just makes it all the more impactful. in this way, i think the Young Marble Giants cover is fitting. both they and Hole are bands that embrace simplicity, like the pure elegant design of a chunk of metal that we call a crowbar.
also my pet conspiracy theory is that Kurt doesn't even sing on the two tracks he's credited on, like how he didn't even really produce anything on Houdini. listen to those songs and tell me if you can pick him out in the mix, cause i sure fuckin' can't.
5
Sep 17 2024
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Kid A
Radiohead
gushing fanfic of Warp giants from a person who doesn't know what a "mode" or "envelope filter" is ends up accidentally transforming into a mind-blowing post-rock trip, a Polaroid of an abstract never-was present. there exists a world where Kid A never comes out because the band breaks up right before it releases and the tracks get eaten by a hard drive or something. maybe in that world, Radiohead are still widely respected and their big rock statement of OK Computer is still wavering at #2. that world doesn't make me happy. i like the world i'm in where a band with an okay discography suddenly discovers Autechre and in an attempt to emulate them ends up striking gold.
it isn't stillbirth on IMAX. it isn't a Pink Floyd ripoff. it's some other third thing. i think that should be its main genre. "Some Other Third Thing". it fits.
5
Sep 18 2024
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Illmatic
Nas
it is really odd how a debut album by a 19 year old feels like the full summation of someone's entire "deal". in a lot of ways, that's gotta be both a blessing and a curse; people have both the highest regard for your short body of work and equally high expectations for whatever art you put out after it. in a way i wish i'd listened to a Nas album that wasn't Illmatic before hearing this so i wasn't just stacking the gems of his discography up against... well, Illmatic.
overall, it's just a tight record that feels like a document of whatever situation Nas was in when he was writing and performing it, like the best art of young men. you can find little bits of lyricism that pioneer what you hear on hip-hop tracks both later in the decade and to this day. maybe that makes a lot of what it does "old hat", but there's value in studying the blueprint of what makes everything that came after tick. plus, if you don't care for Nas, there's always the all-star beats behind him that make the thing worthwhile.
i hope Nas has a lifetime supply of Moet from how much he reps it on this record.
5
Sep 19 2024
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The Nightfly
Donald Fagen
Steely Dan without the irony isn't half bad, but it's still not the same. i think The Nightfly is alright, it works as a jazzy exercise of nostalgia and lost dreams for Fagen himself. there's a lot of good things about it ("I.G.Y." and the title track rival the best Steely Dan songs) but i think what keeps it from being on the level of a Gaucho or even a Katy Lied is that cautious optimism. instead of a man selling me moonshine wrapped in studio candy, i'm just getting a nice bowl of candy. i like candy, and some of it tastes like the moonshine, but i can't help but feel a bit let down that i'm JUST getting this.
also, "The Goodbye Look" has got to be the snazziest song about a Mafia casino runner getting executed by Castro this side of the trade embargo. if you're in Cuba and using RYM:
1. how
2. why
3. do they have better songs about similar topics on your end? message me if so.
3
Sep 20 2024
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The Age Of The Understatement
The Last Shadow Puppets
call me a cornball, i don't care: spaghetti western kicks ass. i think a twangy guitar makes all the difference in western movie and i am glad i am not alone in realizing this. going into this, i felt a bit apprehensive. the hype around the Arctic Monkeys and Alex Turner's body of work has been the most omnipresent and bafflingly large of its kind; AM fans are the Swifties of indie rock. consider me pleasantly surprised when i find that Turner's voice broadly suits the tracks here and assists an incredibly unique Morricone-meets-Bacharach atmosphere for the project. i'm a bit sad he didn't stick with this band more, but i can understand this being a "when we have time on our schedules" project -- we all love spaghetti western, but we don't love it THAT much. or at least, most of us don't. don't speak for me, i won't speak for you.
4
Sep 21 2024
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Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
i... really like this? i dunno, maybe its because i have recently been getting over my "rock the fuck out" aversion, but i really enjoy it when a band that is good at rocking the fuck out does precisely that for 37 minutes. the solos are fun and colorful and holy shit is Steve Harris good at playing the bass. for years i wondered why the hell this silly band with a weird zombie guy for a mascot has this "bigger than the beatles" status and it literally only took me one album for me to understand.
if Di'Anno's the second best singer in Iron Maiden, what the hell is Bruce Dickinson gonna sound like?
4
Sep 22 2024
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#1 Record
Big Star
i have a pet theory that #1 Record invented the 70's. not the decade itself, but the sound, the feel of the thing. i thought i would be able to look back at this and go "oh well there's some Stones here and some Beatles there" but to the extent that those bands are there, they're obscured, dressed up in colorful clothing and leather jackets. chalk it up to 50's nostalgia but by combining that with the psychedelic tendencies of the 60's, Big Star made something wholly unlike what came before it.
in the past i think i judged this album a bit harshly due to its tendencies towards folk over the power pop we typically associate Big Star with. "where's my album of El Goodos? my Feels?" now that it's been a few years, you grow to appreciate the trick 1# Record plays. you're invited in by loud, raucous rock before the guitars settle down on the other side. the album grows up; eventually, so do you. watch the sunrise.
5
Sep 23 2024
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Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Simon & Garfunkel
"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" is too pretty. i get the intent of pairing a fairy tale song with an anti-war countermelody, but the former is just too delicate and flowery (no pun intended) for me to even really notice the latter. it feels embarrassing to listen to, and not in an "i like this and i'm flustered" way, in a "this is kinda for babies" way. sorry to "Scarborough Fair" fans, but despite my enjoyment of over-medieval bullshit ("Ys", "Peasant", "Pull The Right Rope") it's just a bit too twee for me. i'm a "Girl of the North Country" feller.
that aside, i feel like a sub-30 minute would necessitate a good ratio of songs to strongly impress themselves on you, something that i don't think this LP has the juice to do. there's nice deep cuts on the B-Side, with "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall" being one of the duo's best songs, but generally i'd say a lot of the leaps taken here don't land as well as they do on the next two albums. ending your album by doing a cover of "Silent Night" over news reports of violence and government oppression might have been searing and thoughtfully ironic in the 60's, but nowadays it's no more daring than the man writing "FUCK" on the subway wall in the previous song.
and why is "Feelin' Groovy" so big, anyhow? it's clearly an interlude. maybe i've just heard too much Muzak.
3
Sep 24 2024
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Superunknown
Soundgarden
[Artist42165], a band led by [Artist4953]'s guitarist in the 90's, are allegedly named after the tendency of heavy metal musicians who don't scream or growl to go "whuaaaough" really high like Robert Plant. i call it "whoa momma imma love you" voice, but the following fact doesn't change: i gave up on [Album3800] because of Chris Cornell's tendency to do this.
why is it so well used here, then? you could probably attribute it to real life psychopath and occasional producer Michael Bienhorn's slick, anal retentive production essentially swallowing Chris. on any given track, he's more often fighting than singing. it makes the wails excusable -- of course he's gotta hoot n' holler, have you [i]heard[/i] the guitars? poor guy's drowning.
special mention goes to how the songs are constructed as complex as you could get them by complete mistake. how do you accidentally write a song in 15/8? you've gotta be either naturally talented or just extremely lucky to do that. something tells me Soundgarden are both.
one concession: Tom Scharpling is right. "Spoonman" is really dumb. good, but dumb. i think a lot of grunge could be understood by this criteria.
4
Sep 25 2024
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Brilliant Corners
Thelonious Monk
a charming, elegant album. strangely enough, i was much more charmed by Henry and Rollins' saxwork than i was with Thelonious Monk on his own album. one of these people would die the same year this came out, the other would go on to continue a long and illustrious career in jazz and is still alive. it makes you wonder how different things could have been. two people going down wildly different paths in life working together to do beautiful things and then one of you dies. does that person become a part of you, or is that just a section of your mind closed off, meant to be callused over?
an aside: its always sweet when i hear Monk humming under the keys as he plays it. you can feel the love in his art.
4
Sep 26 2024
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Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
announcing your pop turn by writing an odd burble of a song about St. Vitus' Dance is a choice i think only Peter Gabriel would make -- as is following that with your biggest pop hit that is inexplicably in 7/4. the Car album probably isn't his best solo effort, but it sets up the general rule that you shouldn't really expect one thing or another from Peter Gabriel; he does what he wants when he wants. folk pop? somewhat tedious blues? tender ballads? stupid Little Orphan Annie bullshit as conducted by bass virtuoso Tony Levin? there is no one direction that Car is headed, and this spreads the project thin, but nevertheless takes it to some beautiful places.
4
Sep 27 2024
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Pet Sounds
The Beach Boys
never heard of these guys before. really promising album though, im sure they've got a masterpiece on their hands after this!
what, what do you want me to say? "erm, i have something new to say about the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds'!" i do not. nobody does. it's like trying to say something new and exciting about Citizen Kane or Moby-Dick. it invented the Great American Pop Album. what more could be said about it that couldn't be said about the Big Bang?
thanks, i guess.
5
Sep 28 2024
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Axis: Bold As Love
Jimi Hendrix
the Jimi Hendrix Experience are probably one of the most endlessly charismatic rock groups to come out of the 60's, or probably anywhere. i'd say about 50% of it is Jimi -- generally he's what you think of when you hear the term "rockstar" -- but Mitch and Noel split the remaining half. they're good at both keeping up with him and providing a lot of memorable additions to songs that the guitar just can't muster. most heavy psych/hard rock of the 70's basically copies its homework from how they play, and i think they deserve their due credit.
still -- it's the JIMI HENDRIX Experience. you're here for him. sorry "She's So Fine".
i could gush over the complexity and energy of the guitar playing, but everyone does that. for good reason, but guitar is guitar. i'm instead gonna make a very risky assumption. i think the reason people come back to Jimi's songs and his records is because of his personality. he's good at writing and playing music, sure, but there's such a draw to his presence; there is a world of tumult and chaos in the guitar and there is a man holding it down and controlling it as true showman would. the Jimi Hendrix Experience is a snake in the hands and a charmer or three to tame it.
4
Sep 29 2024
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Let's Stay Together
Al Green
incredibly consistent in sound and feel, but a lot of the time on the A-side, i feel as if the deeper cuts have a hard time distinguishing themselves from the other. by virtue of having "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" on side B, Let's Stay Together sort of prevents this trend from continuing throughout, but it can still be hard to pick each track apart. it's a bit suiting that an album that's generally associated with having sex with someone feels like it was recorded in a hot, kind of sticky room.
4
Sep 30 2024
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Sound Affects
The Jam
it's actually kinda sad. every song tries so very hard to be the best song ever and in isolation, it succeeds. Paul Weller is a pop genius who probably creates his choruses directly by taking part of his life energy and spinning it into something musical. hell, even the "everyone writes on this one :)" song is actually pretty good! it would be stiff competition were it not for one inalienable fact:
"That's Entertainment" is the best song ever. not my favorite song of all time, just the best song ever. you can't fight facts.
5
Oct 01 2024
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Fragile
Yes
i was mostly expecting "Roundabout" to be the most fun track on here, but as it turns out, almost every track on the album is fun or bright in a way that i wasn't really expecting from how people regard the band Yes. you expect a big, stodgy, self-important piece of rock (and of course there are important, abstract themes of nature and emotion tackled on here) but on each track there's always a joyful little vocal harmony or a funky little bass part hidden in every corner of this ecosystem. i think there's really only one misstep and it's the weird moogy cover of Symphony in E that took 15 hours to record somehow? outside of that, it's kind of no surprise that Yes turned into 80's Trevor Horn pop the next decade. Yes could do whatever they wanted, but they do melody the best.
5
Oct 02 2024
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Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
i was familiar with Suzanne Vega's work through my mom and her CD of "99 Degrees F", so her poetry and folkisms aren't terra incognito. what WAS a bit of a surprise is how much Windham Hill style production is on her first album -- charming, free flowing, often dated but always clear. even if the actual WH regulars are only on a few tracks, you can't shake the sense that this is a session musician's record; everyone one here is incredibly talented at what they do but would probably never become a superstar beyond the minds of the nerds in the recording booth.
i think this also applies to Vega. she's a session singer-songwriter. your favorite bard's favorite bard. a relative unknown despite her care. that is, until a freak accident puts her in the last place you think she'd ever be -- the dance floor.
4
Oct 03 2024
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The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
ive been listening to The Stone Roses' self-titled for years, and every single time i listen to it, the exact same thing happens: its got me hooked for the first couple tracks, then gradually fades me out until i snap back in for the last two songs. pleasant, but not a core part of my personality. i get that it's influential, and despite sounding nothing like its contemporaries basically put "baggy" as a genre on the map, but really it's more useful as a touchstone of british music of the era than it is an undeniable classic that cracks 4.00 on RateYourMusic dot com. there are two types of museums -- art and history. the stone roses sought to build the former, but 35 years on, they've ended up with the latter. there's nothing wrong with history, but i know what i'll pick if ever given the choice between the two.
4
Oct 04 2024
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The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
the first "real" Bob Dylan album, and let me tell you, it's just fine. yeah, it's impressive that someone could write something like "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice" so early in his career, but for any of those greatly poetic tracks you get another that's slavishly devoted to all the folk that came before him -- weedy Guthrie worship and blues picking that just isn't filled with as interesting sentiments as the "Hits". i have some affection for a few of the deep cuts ("Bob Dylan's Dream" and "I Shall Be Free", which makes its point in 2/3rds the time that "Talking World War III Blues" does) but i couldn't see myself coming back to it for more than those few glimmers of what is to come.
and i'm gonna say it. "Blowin' in the Wind" does nothing for me. i actually think it's too sappy for me to enjoy. to each their own.
3
Oct 05 2024
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Pink Moon
Nick Drake
i would say that this record is a bit anachronistic, something that seems like it should have been released in the 2000's than the 1970's, but given the corporate use of it in the VW Golf ad boosting US sales from 6,000 to 74,000, it might as well have come out in that time. maybe from that event, selling cars with the songs of a dead man, it primes one to be cynical about Pink Moon; i cannot muster it. it's one of those things where the simplicity and tenderness of the thing makes it feel impactful. Pink Moon is a well crafted quilt with very few flourishes sown upon it, but it's warm and reliable nonetheless. no matter the purpose, it's a good thing someone dug it out of the attic.
4
Oct 06 2024
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Myths Of The Near Future
Klaxons
a collage of every garish, beautiful melody someone could think of, glued together and put on the road. for my money, the closest possible thing a new rave record has come to the deranged eclecticism of Fantasy Black Channel. when i first heard it, i thought i wouldn't be thinking about the songs past first exposure. upon revisiting, it becomes apparent that every single song was just waiting to be rediscovered, each bassline or siren a loud, brash sound dispelling the ideas of it being any sort of relic. barring "isle of her" (which, like. cmon) i don't even think i could tell you what track is my favorite.
it's gonna become (or has become, if you consider Brat Summer to have been an extension of bloghouse chic) cool to like this type of music again very soon. im more prepared than all of you.
5
Oct 07 2024
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Dub Housing
Pere Ubu
i haven't heard a single second of Pere Ubu before now, so i was surprised to find out they were an electric cockroach jugband playing blues from your bathroom floor. they're celebrating -- the radio is on, the shower is running, and you are dead. sometimes i dread running into foundational post-punk classics, but sometimes you find something really fun and crazy. Pere Ubu, despite recording from miserable conditions (Cleveland), bring as much fun as they do crazy.
4
Oct 08 2024
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Siamese Dream
The Smashing Pumpkins
the ultimate high school masterpiece: an album meant to be grown out of but still treasured. i never heard the entirety of Siamese Dream as a teenager, but the songs i did hear appealed to me immensely. they were loud, angsty, romantic, and everything you really wanted to hear when you yourself were loud, angsty, and painfully infatuated with everyone who was ever nice to you. Billy Corgan gets you for all five and three-quarter minutes of "Mayonaise" -- and his and James Iha's guitars get you more.
i can understand why someone would hate the Smashing Pumpkins, of course. they were hyped up to no end, they were this big Americanized arena rock take on a distinctly indie British scene/fad, and let's face it -- Billy Corgan is a C-tier lyricist at best. you can deny Siamese Dream its "masterpiece" status through these criteria, sure. but try denying the wave of guitars that slams into you on "Today". you can't, cause it killed you. cause it went so hard. silly.
4
Oct 09 2024
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New York Dolls
New York Dolls
i don't get it. you're one of the founders of "punk". you're dressed as women and absolutely serving on the cover. todd rundgren produced your first album. you're foundational to independent music and have that coveted "favorite artist's favorite artist's" reputation.
how are the New York Dolls this boring?
it's not all bad. "lookin for a kiss", "trash", and "jet boy" are pretty good for what they are (garage band Rolling Stones worship). but what could i get from the whole album that The Stones or Alice Cooper don't already have? i'll take Raw Power over this any day. yes, even the Bowie mix.
3
Oct 10 2024
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Loveless
My Bloody Valentine
yknow, for all the words you could spill about "Loveless", all the anecdotes, all the hypotheticals, all the lovesick poetry written around its faerie forests of noise and pink washed sex-syrup-opium-vomit-oil wheel projector feel, i truly don't believe there has been a better description of the record than "it sounds like a mermaid falling into a black hole". like, yeah. that's pretty much dead on. no notes, Mr. John Doran.
your mileage may vary. then again, if you're listening to mbv regularly, you probably don't have a car. or a driver's license. so i guess it might really vary.
5
Oct 11 2024
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Whatever
Aimee Mann
i've yet to hear a bad Aimee Mann song. whether that's through luck or simply her sheer consistency, in every track from her that i've heard, she's generating this peculiar warmth in each song thick as a rainforest. Jon Brion's no slouch either -- if this is a test run for Aimee Mann's skills as a singer-songwriter, it's his test run for his 70's studio nerd production style. i get that '93 was a stacked year, but what the hell was wrong with people that they weren't buying this? were they stupid? deaf? both? is this also why Spilt Milk didn't sell well?
when i die, don't bury me. wrap me in an Aimee Mann song then throw me in the ocean. i'll stay warm forever.
5
Oct 12 2024
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Get Behind Me Satan
The White Stripes
the difference between "disastrous change to the formula that carried the band through four albums" and "needed shakeup to the sound that shows a band evolving" is usually a pretty fine line, but for some reason, on Get Behind Me Satan, that line is blurred. i think part of that is simply because there isn't really a HUGE shakeup -- the songs are still the same bluesy, dramatic guitar work + steady rhythms, but with a few extra elements added in in the production studio. a piano hit here, a folk number there, but it's still the same old group with just a few constraints let up. it doesn't feel like a radical left turn; rather, i feel like it's the first album of a somewhat promising band that will become great if they simply turn up their amp and ditch the piano songs. that band would probably be on the level of the White Stripes' first few albums if they did that.
one aside: Little Ghost is a cute song and arguably the best on the album. contact me directly to duel me for saying so.
3
Oct 13 2024
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Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
probably not for everyone, but i live in Colorado where there is just... so much bluegrass stuff. like, an inordinately large amount of people who love bluegrass, to the point where the only music festival in the state is a bluegrass festival. i'm used to hillbilly bullshit; hell, i welcome it.
i think, personally, Will The Circle Be Unbroken is most useful as two things:
1. background music for cleaning the house/cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and
2. a historical document of a bunch of hippies fanboying out over legends in Appalachian folk music.
did i feel an emotional journey by listening to 110 minutes of bluegrass classics? not really. instead, i felt this weird, sort of patchwork comfort from the affair. it reminds me of reading about the Great Depression for fun as a kid, or imagining myself as a cowboy wandering the plains with his gun and his horse, living off a diet of stogies and beans. maybe this feeling is anachronistic and built on ignored histories, but for a brief moment, this storybook fantasy would be nice to put myself in.
hearing Randy Scruggs play Both Sides Now at the end does make me cry a bit, though. he's passing the torch.
4
Oct 14 2024
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Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
"the violent femmes are the band people pretend weezer is but in real life. so of course they were very important to me as a teenager" - unpublished joke review i wrote in January
i should note three things that are true about the Violent Femmes (more considerably their heathenistic debut):
1. it is incredibly impressive Gordon Gano wrote all these songs when he was still in High School,
2. he could not have written them any other time,
3. the album is better for it.
really, any complaints i have with the lyrics of this thing pertain exclusively to the incredibly cringy lyrics of the bonus tracks stapled to the end of every US CD. everything else is pretty tame, including "Add It Up". maybe you could make the link between Gano's sexual frustration and misogyny, but really, it doesn't seem like he's angry at anyone except himself. he knows that it could he could be much worse off than simply unloved.
of course, it also goes without saying that even if the lyrics were "better" (an impossible concept to me), they'd still pale in comparison to the sound of the tracks. everyone who's ever walked into a Guitar Center and seen one of those big ass acoustic basses have sat down and played
G———4———5—4———4———5—4———4———5—4———| 2x
D—5———5—————5———5—————5———5—————5—|
A—————————————————————————————————|
E—————————————————————————————————|
at least once. Violent Femmes strikes the right balance of something to play in your room alone while moping and for your family while driving on a nice summer's day. yes, even the tracks where he says fuck.
the bonus tracks, however, are not car friendly. they're barely ear friendly. in my endless crusade against bonus tracks, "Ugly" and "Gimme The Car" (which is five FUCKING minutes, Gordon, cripes) are Evidence No. 1. just take the CD out of the player after "Good Feeling" -- it's better as a closer anyway.
4
Oct 15 2024
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Amnesiac
Radiohead
despite not being as good as Kid A, despite basically being a B-sides compilation for an album with no singles, and despite the clear dip in quality in the back half, i am still glad i live in a world where these songs were released than one where they weren't.
my mom gave birth to me to this album. it creeped out a lot of the nurses. i dunno if that nets me cred here or not.
4
Oct 16 2024
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Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
Lupe Fiasco
as a result of being a starstudded event, with appearances from Jay-Z, the Neptunes, Kanye West, and Linkin Park when they were hot, the album unfortunately forgets about someone pretty important: Lupe fucking Fiasco. on a lot of the beats, he sounds very at home ("American Terrorist", "Hurt Me Soul", the inimitable "Kick, Push"), but on others he's trying his hand at a hook, which isn't really his forte, or making way for a singer to do it, which makes him feel like a guest on his own song (see "Daydreamin'"). the poppy beats are good, and his verses are good, but what's the point if they don't go together? this pop jumble also messes with the supposed thematic concept -- wasn't this supposed to be a treatise on good and evil? these just sound like songs about the same few things again and again. where are your characters? God forgive me, WHERE ARE YOUR SKITS?!?
i don't hate "Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor". but it's fitting that the outro track where he thanks everyone who worked on/inspired the record is 12 goddamn minutes long. there are superhero movies with shorter credits.
3
Oct 17 2024
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Fuzzy
Grant Lee Buffalo
are Grant Lee Buffalo glam rock?
like, maybe i'm overthinking it, but this album borrows all of Bowie's or Bolan's anthemic, post-psych traits (dramatic lyrics, theatrical performances, blazing guitar solos, acoustic guitar on a lot of the songs) and puts it in the context of a Uncle Tupelo era Americana scene, leading people to tag it as the latter without connecting to the dots to the former. i dunno if songs like "Moonage Daydream" and "Jupiter and Teardrop" or "Life's A Gas" and "You Just Have to Be Crazy" share DNA, but dammit, they sound related. Phillips is literally making the same face Bowie is making on "Aladdin Sane".
still, maybe it's less a matter of genre and more talent. maybe i hear so many of these influences because the band is just so talented at writing driving, engaging songs. i've known the title track all my life, but somehow, i feel like the rest of the songs -- which i've just heard -- have been there the whole time too. the music has the quality of good, fresh leather, or warm rain on a sunny day. Fuzzy is the album every pick 'n stomp band wants to make; Grant Lee Buffalo are the only band that made it.
5
Oct 18 2024
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This Nation’s Saving Grace
The Fall
in my opinion, Mark E. Smith and Frank Zappa aren't alike in any meaningful way at all, except for a few key ways that matter to me:
1. they both have a constantly cycling roster of musical prisoner monkeys who play what he tells them to play when he wants them to play and for however many gigs they are useful for. this might seem a bit tyrannical, and it is, but offers the benefit of having a constantly evolving sound and incredibly tight instrumentals across your discography. if you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, these artists are professional velociraptors.
2. they have fanbases (really, more like weird monks bitching over canon) who are always fighting over what the best album to get into Zappa or the Fall is, and the answer is never the same, but the correct answer is also definitely "the one that doesn't feel like the biggest time sink". this was probably a good place to start, seeing as Hex Enduction Hour is 60 minutes long and i didn't really know what to expect.
3. god they're both so fucking obnoxious. i cannot stand Frank Zappa's lyrics about how women's rights are gay or whatever, and i can't stand Mark E. Smith repeating the same few vaguely politically evocative words again and again. it gets old fast. i don't care if it's taking direct inspiration from krautrock -- most krautrock at least knows when to shut the fuck up and let the instruments speak instead.
it's not my thing. it was fun for like the first couple of songs, but i think there's only two songs on here i'd actually consider returning to. this album's rating would probably be much lower if i was listening to the extended hour long version. there's three the Fall albums on the "1001 Albums You Need to Hear Before You Die" list and let me tell you right now: i don't need to. i get it. i get why you dweebs like this. but i don't want any more of it.
3
Oct 19 2024
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Africa Brasil
Jorge Ben Jor
don't tell him this cause he's Christian and might find it offensive, but every day i wake up and thank God for Jorge Ben. his song are on point, his guitar is on point, the energy and overall vibes are on point. whenever he sings a vocal line and the backup singers respond in turn, my brain does flips like a trained dog. high effort, high energy, high point. no skips. essential.
5
Oct 20 2024
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3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of...
Arrested Development
"they represented unity, they represented peace, they represented this. *mildly clenches fist and raises it* whatever this is, they represented 100% of that." - Usher
this is your stepdad's favorite rap album. he says it's because it tackles real issues and doesn't delve into glorifying the life of a "thug" and that Speech wants real change. you listen to it and you understand the real reason this is your stepdad's favorite album: it is 56 minutes of the record agreeing with him. i can nearly picture him stroking his goatee and nodding whenever a particularly "conscious" bar comes up. "yes... yes... that's so true..."
every time i have to hear Speech rap about how the best thing a Black revolution can be kickstarted by is getting a woman pregnant and loving God and not being a gangsta stereotype over those corny fucking Casio beats, it's like biting into a Spicy McChicken and getting a particularly wilted piece lettuce or a sickening amount of mayo in your mouth. it also feels like you're eating it right outside of a Music City Hot Chicken. like, i had other options -- better options. why would i choose this?
2
Oct 21 2024
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Definitely Maybe
Oasis
Rian Johnson's Columbo homage Poker Face has a murder happen to an ambitious, rowdy drummer in what Rian Johnson thinks is a glam metal band, killed over a single that would rocket him to stardom and not the rest of the band. while hanging with the murder victim, Charlie Cale (played by Natasha Lyonne in all the scrappy charm she can muster) notices that he basically writes his songs by stitching together whatever he sees, leading to a hilarious scene where she picks through his trash and finds out the lyrics to his song are lifted wholesale from whatever bullshit he had crumpled in his pocket. it's not a bad song, he just wrote it by stealing bits and pieces of whatever he sees. he's a magpie.
i would say Oasis function as a group of Magpies. they take a little bit of Ride, a few bits and baubles from the Beatles, an intro from "Bang a Gong (Get It On), and an entire verse from a Coke commercial to make their nest, and it's a perfectly fine nest. maybe a few of the bits woven into it prick you when you sit down, but it's quite roomy and thick and there's plenty of room for you to lean back and watch Liam and Noel peck each other's eyes out. overall, i am entertained. this is probably a masterpiece if you're a little wasted and know the words.
however, there's something real hard to stomach about Definitely Maybe it is something i like to call "oops, it's shoegaze", and i don't really mean this as a compliment. aside from the subtle Ride influence, any DNA this shares with the aforementioned genre appears to be completely accidental. the guitar seems to be that loud because the band thought it was a good volume to put it at, and i respect their decision, but it does make sitting through this record a bit of an endurance test. these are probably pretty good songs they duct taped together, but the sheer sound of them makes me want to drop a few so my ears aren't being burnt alive for as long.
spoiler for the Poker Face episode btw: the band gets busted not because they murdered their magpie, but because his hit had its melody wholly lifted from the theme to Benson, thus scoring them a class-action lawsuit instead of a record deal. unfortunately, they lack the half a million Oasis paid Coca-Cola with over "Shakermaker". whoops!
4
Oct 22 2024
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Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin
feel crazy. despite my relatively anti-rockist tastes and inexorable state of zoomerism, i love Led Zeppelin's hits. "Immigrant Song" is iconic. "Out on the Tiles" rocks. "Tangerine" is surprisingly effective. "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is ok enough to put on a playlist.
then every single one of their deep cuts sounds the exact same. it's either a kinda meh flowerchild folk song, an even more meh blues jam, or weird genre attempts like "The Crunge" or "D'yer Maker"* on later albums. people hold enough stock in these deep cuts to rate them relatively high on RYM and put it near 3.96 (as of 10/21/24) on the evil known as 1001 Albums, but i just don't get it. "Immigrant Song" is incredible, but surely it's not enough to turn this album into a classic?
i am glad that nobody is excusing "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper", though. awful, awful song.
3
Oct 23 2024
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Parachutes
Coldplay
i remember my best friend showed me The Blue Room E.P. and it felt like peering into another universe. in this world, Coldplay is considered a second rate Radiohead ripoff and never crossed over, never shed their influences, and never quite sounded distinct. maybe "Bigger Stronger" ends up played during a radio segment displaying OK Computer's influence on the British music scene. they have a few bangers, but they at most have 1,000 ratings on their first album. they become a curiosity at best -- a Panchiko with a label deal that puts them in debt for the next decade.
however, instead of doing that, Coldplay became Coldplay. this has made a lot of people angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
i, for one, am Coldplay neutral. i know that it's easy to turn them into a punchline, to say their brand of rock is bland or non-descript, and to compare their work as a sinister lead-in to the Chainsmokers-collaborating pop monster they would become in the 2010s. however, personally, there's some significant charm for me in the post-Britpop sound in general, and Coldplay are a prime slice of that sound. it harkens back to the 70's studio rock record -- not to say that it's exactly like a Fleetwood Mac or a Carole King record, but that its elements are recorded in such a way that the songs feel as if they've always existed (i'm inexplicably reminded of Jon Brion on a few of the instrumental touches - a glockenspiel on "Sparks", or how the lead guitar bends around on "Trouble"). maybe the lyrics are too vaguely psychedelic to sink one's teeth into, but a lot of the time, it's not about the words you write, it's how you sing them.
Coldplay always had the sense about them that they got remarkably lucky and seized upon it. you could call them sell-outs or softies; i doubt you could call them derivative in good faith. we all know what Coldplay is supposed to sound like -- they sound like "Yellow", or "Trouble". they sure as hell don't sound like "Bigger Stronger".
4
Oct 24 2024
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Pictures At An Exhibition
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
why is it that the first thing we tried to do with the Moog synthesizer was make it play classical music? instead of creating a space age future, for a good 10 years we were just doing nothing but redoing classical works. no disrespect to ELP (or Wendy Carlos, or Tomita, or all the people who did this), who are definitely talented and respect the classical works to a fault, but every time i hear one of these pieces, i think of some concert pianist doubled over in his study, head in his hands as the techno-farts play what he's spent his whole life training to do. it's the most beautiful and forward-thinking thing he, a man living in 1972, has ever heard
listen, i'm a dork -- a cornball. i plan to learn to code at some point so i can make a video game. i have considered buying a red DEVO cone at one point in my life. i semi-regularly used Cohost before it got shut down for being designed specifically to not make any money. when they find the lost pilot episode for the shortlived 80's Japanese virtual band Pink Crows, i'll be right there on the Lost Media Wiki to gawk at it. i've attended multiple furry conventions.
when i say that covering Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" with your keyboard-based prog band is too dorky for me to enjoy, understand what your modern median human person's reaction to this would be if you played it for them.
i am shocked that many people cheered after Nutrocker.
3