It's fine. Not my jam.
Good stuff. Non-radio Jimi is the best Jimi.
Good. Maybe not their best album.
Good album. Way better than I remembered.
Pretty good, but not my jam. Feels very much of its time.
Good stuff
Fun.
Interesting. "Concept" album but the concept is very muddy and wandering. Challenges points of view, but some points feel lost in thought and it feels like it's challenging thought without providing conclusions in some cases. Occassionally dives into the territory of venting frustration over one's own perception of other's perception of them which feels falsely provocative and lacking any real substance. Reviews largely praise the album for feminism-related traits and empowerment, and while that seems often true, there are also portions that present the use of sexual manipulation and monetary exploitations of partners as positive traits which really throws mud on that message. Perhaps those are meant to be tongue and cheek, but following a matching spoken word feature, it feels like it's intended at face value to a large extent. The portions where discussion felt like the motive seemed well structured though and, in the end, it's extremely rare that a musician can make good music while presenting a complete and nuanced discussion/case of a greater social issue. They're professional musicians, not professional philosophers.
Overall, R&B isn't my genre but this was far more enjoyable than I would have assumed. Occasionally questionable subject matter aside, honest statements are never perfect, good album.
Formative Pink Floyd is interesting, but hard to say anything past that. Ultimately, if you separate out who put this album out from the music itself, it's just not that good. It's interesting because it's Pink Floyd and a chunk of their history, but the music isn't anything anybody NEEDS to hear in their lifetime. This band has much better albums. This one is a lot of psychedelic wankery (and not even their best of that type) and some silly songs closing it out. If it wasn't Pink Floyd, it would be a long forgotten album.
I mean, this is fine, definitely good at times, but I don't get the hype. This is another where if this wasn't Johnny Cash, I don't think people would care in the least and it would either forgotten or a "never was."
The cover of Hurt especially. I don't get the appeal. I think it's the worst track. It lacks the feeling/grit and emotion of the original, and the first verse deeply needed another take. Cash sings it like someone trying to rush through, exceeding the tempo, timing, and struggling a touch with the notes. That portion reminds me of listening to St. Anger. There are strong tracks on this so it feels weird that people latched on to that one other than that it's just a really good song and this was probably a lot of Cash/country fans first exposure to it.
I struggle with how to rate this. In terms of "must listen" it's really low because I don't feel like there's anything people NEED to hear on this, nor even Cash fans other than The Man Comes Around. Treating it just for the music though, it feels like any band's cover album though. If you're a fan of the band, it's probably a fun listen. Outside of that, it isn't exactly doing much that is a NEED to hear experience. 3/5 I guess?
Derivative, tone-deaf, generally ignorant, and despite that somehow impossibly pretentious at the same time. The political and social opinions on this album were bad at the time and Morrissey's opinions age worse than milk in the sun as it is. When he's not giving out political and social opinions that nobody asked for on this album, the rest is typical self-loathing and pessimistically looking down on others, somehow bookended by a sense of self-importance that Morrissey always conveys. The music around the lyrics is sometimes fine I guess. However, there's a bit more than "inspiration" in some of it and lifted melodies as well.
I do not understand, for the life of me, why people build this guy up. He sucks and this album sucks.
Really not my type of music but there was some good stuff on here. The latter part of the album was more fun.
Bass player: 5/5
80s Sound Production: 0/5 (no bass in dance music?.....yay)
Energy: 3/5 (would be 5/5 but see the "80s sound production part)
Overall.....3/5. I want to love it, but the terrible production quality of the era rob the music of it's essence and ultimately it feels kinda forgettable. How in the hell did they kick this bass player out of the band? The guy was incredible on this album.
Good stuff. No notes. I feel like I'm cheating it by going 4/5 but, as much as I like it, 5/5 feels a bit much.
Good stuff. A number of classics. Doesn't hit hard enough for me to go higher than 3/5 though.
First one I couldn't make it through. It sounds like the demo track that came with the music editing software except less good. No restraint, tasteless, and deeply unmusical through stretches.
"Hey, I had this great new idea. I made a 5 minute song with only one word in it....'attitude'....... but it's said 300 times in a row.....don't worry I occasionally filter it and I'm always adjusting that fade knob."
Pre-dubstep. Crippling ADHD in music form. Feels childish in almost every way, but saying that feels insulting to children and not insulting enough to this album. 0/5 but it won't let me, so I guess 1/5.
It's Prince. Hard to go wrong.
Neat idea. Soundtrack to a non-existent movie. Fun listen, but probably won't ever revisit.
It's hard to separate this album from what time has done to it. Practically every hard rock and a lot of mainstream metal acts used this as a blueprint for 15-20 years after it came out. With that, it feels like the grit and the sound of how innovative it was at release have been rubbed off. The spikey edges are gone and it feels mainstream now.
I think this definitely belongs on a "must listen" list for a number of reasons. It changed heavy music for more than a decade to follow, sent oodles of kids to the guitar store, made heavy music in general accessible to a general population that was extremely hostile to it before, and probably did more to change music overall than many more heralded "influential" acts did in their entire careers. This album was so big it basically ruined a genre for 20 years.
Addressing the music itself, it's a weird album. Metallica didn't know who they were anymore, and to my memory (not a great one), I believe the reason this was such a departure was because they ran out of Mustaine songs to truck out as their own and had to kinda fully do their own thing for the first time. They basically invented the Metallica everyone thinks of today by doing so. In a lot of ways it's more simple and dumbed down. It's also more powerful and heavy because of that. There's also bass in the mix unlike their early work which is a welcome change from terrible 80s sound production. This album almost feels like a masterclass in being great in spite of one's own shortcomings. The songs don't flow in much of any way other than the next track starts after the previous. Some of it is a jumbling of trying to repeat their old sound, but those are some of the best songs.
Feels like it should be 5/5 simply because of how well it was received, how impressive and new it was at the time, and the massive ways it changed music. It was an absolute catalyst. Too many flaws in my mind for that though and with that impact came 15 years of pretenders beating this sound into the ground. Overall, I think the music itself deserves a 4/5.
Better than I remembered. Kind of like a poppy, disco infused Talking Heads album. Solid stuff 4/5
Classic stuff. Riff city. A+
Fun era of music and it puts a lot of the 90s ska wave into perspective. Good stuff, but I'm not sure I can throw 4* at it.
It's really hard to separate the art from the artist with Michael Jackson. Aside from his personal life, the overhyped superstardom really drove a lot of his later career music in my mind. A lot of the late career stuff wouldn't have ever had a single radio play if it wasn't him releasing and it made inordinate amounts of money despite that.
This album however, it's clear why people were into it. Parts are a bit dated now, but I 100% see why this hit at the time and a lot of it just holds up.
Am I the only one hearing "Part of Your World" in "She's Out of My Life?" Did The Little Mermaid take a little more than "inspiration" from that track?
Anyway, attempting to separate art from artist, this was an enjoyable listen. I see why it was so big in its time. 4/5
I loved some of this at the time it came out. Now, a lot of it seems......just fine. Another one where you need to do a bit of separating the art from the artist though. 3/5
"VH1-core"
"music for people that don't really care for music"
At it's most exciting I'd give it "The Business Casual Smashing Pumpkins."
In that this is a genre that a weirdly large amount of people enjoy, I think this belongs on a "must hear" list. However, I don't know what this does to expand anyone's interest or knowledge in music. There's nothing original happening. Everything about it is washed out and drained of personality. It feels like being told "calm down" in that attempting to force calmness just causes more anxiety. The music is so calm/boring that it makes me panic a bit in a way that I've rarely felt since childhood. The most infuriating part of that is tracks often open with or have brief clips of actually interesting music before it suddenly cuts out to generic 1-week of playing experience acoustic guitar riffs and a guy singing, whom you can tell actually wants to do spoken word, but that doesn't put food on the table so he's doing whatever this is. He has a nice voice, but similar to the music, it feels like a digitized hybrid of Bob Dylan and Billy Corgan that's been washed out and auto-tuned to the point that it feels inhuman and robotic. There's barely melody here. It's kind of background noise on background noise.
If this is your genre, this is probably phenomenal. Is it good music though? It feels like it's barely music to me. It went through the motions, but it didn't try anything whatsoever. It kept the beat, it hit those strings, and it made the mouth noises, but nothing else. There's nothing to grab onto. It is a polished, grey ("Gray" lol) stone lacking any interesting feature. A monotone painting that's just a canvas covered in one color simply because the artist liked that color, no deeper meaning. I'm trying to talk myself into giving this a 2/5, but there's literally nothing positive I can come up with to describe in it. Tried my best to be objective, but it was very difficult to make it through the whole album. This is in my short list of "music that kind of makes me hate music a little bit." 1/5
I wanted to like this more than I did. More familiar with his kid than him before going through this. A lot of interesting vocalizations. Some good ones on here. I really can't say I remember much of it after the listen though. Talented guy, but largely a pretty boring album for me. Glad I listened but won't be revisiting most likely. 2/5
Absolute gem. Incredibly endearing, which is weird for the genre and a lot of the subject matter. Absolutely belongs on this list in every way, shape, and form. 5/5
Time was deeply unkind here. Music that should have died with the 80s. Glassy synthesizer lounge jam sex music for my parent's generation. The music has a smell about it and I want to leave.
She's clearly very talented, but also, her voice has an uncanny resemblance to Michael McDonald. I didn't enjoy any of that, but I reserve 1/5 for far worse offenses. Time is the real criminal on this one. I'm sure this is still a lot of people's jam. 2/5
It's not horrible, but it's extremely repetitive and doesn't give you much to grab on to. It's background noise. Honestly, the stream for the album ended, youtube queued up another track from the album and I didn't realize it was replaying one of the earlier tracks because it kind of just washes over you like that.
This is extremely forgettable. I'm not sure why this would be on here when there are a number of other fantastic instrumental bands that make far more interesting and inspired music. Tera Melos, Pelican, Russian Circles, etc. I definitely didn't hate it, but in context of a "must listen to" list, I feel like I'm being generous giving it a 2/5.
I mean, it's fine. I get why it would be waaay up some people's alley, but it's not really doing it for me. The whole thing has the feel that it's supposed to be background music.
It's fun, but I don't see myself coming back to listen again. I really don't know here. I want to like it more than I actually do. 3/5 feels appropriate.
I loved this when it came out. It doesn't hold up as well to me now, but that's a bit to be expected. It is interesting how a lot of these songs could be retooled to be a modern doom song. Long and short, I liked this but every time I revisit them I remember how forgettable a lot of their music is.
Another I want to like more than I do. It's good but not my jam. I typically like everything that it's doing quite a bit but The Police just never quite land for me. No complaints, just not getting me too excited. 3/5
This was really bad. Maybe the most repetitive album I've ever listened to. Every song and almost every instrument would just repeat the same riff, if not the same single note and rhythm over and over and over for the entire duration of the song. There is no melody outside of the vocals whatsoever. That being said the vocals were difficult as well. I really didn't care for the male vocalist in any way. The one bright spot was the song with all female vocals. It carried melody and was slightly less repetitious.
Horrible experience and this album is almost unmusical. 1/5. I'd give it less if I could.
Fun album. I can never quite tell where I stand on Peter Gabriel. Some of the songs I absolutely love and others feel lost and wandering. This is album is definitely a unique experience and belongs on the list for that reason alone even if it's not mindblowing. 3/5
Interesting listen. Some good tunes, but more interesting in context of who it was and when/how it came to be. 3/5
Slept on this album for ages. It's really damn good. Not much more to say than that. Just really damn good.
Ignoring Cee Lo Green's issues and just addressing the music....Every time I listen to his music I get the same reaction "oh yeah......he's really talented......this is dynamic and interesting" and then I immediately forget it all. It's weirdly forgettable. There's a lot of breadth but none of it seems all that unique. It's almost really good and almost interesting. Production is great, but there really isn't much to dig into here. Most of my enjoyment came from realizing how similar he sounds to Colonel Stinkmeaner here. This feels harsh but 2/5.
I wish I knew the language but that was a very enjoyable listen. Something about the pacing of the lyrics was just really outstanding. Unconventional voice that just seems to work for this as well. I see why he was so influential. 4/5
Ton of fun. Not much else to say. It's a classic for a reason. 4/5
Another that I wanted to like more than I actually did. I like that the album is trying different things, but honestly, a lot of it kinda blends in with other 90s things and seems less unique as a result. I feel like this is what half of the "artsy" college indie bands are trying to imitate.
Nothing Compares 2 U is fantastic and a standout, but, well, Prince wrote it, so of course it is. Couldn't really find much to grab onto or even remember other than a melody in one of the songs that I'd heard in another song before. 2/5
A lot more interesting than I was expecting. A lot more genre hopping than I would have thought. One of those groups where you just kind of forget how good they were. 4/5
Wanted to like this way more than I did. It's just not my kind of music. It's good, she's incredibly talented, but this style ain't my jam. 3/5
Fun album. This is definitely a band I knew about but really hadn't listened to much of their music. Glad this popped up. 3/5
You gotta listen to it keeping in mind the time it was released, but I always forget how fun this album is. It's over the top, ridiculous, and complete nonsense. The whole thing feels a bit confused, but that somehow adds to it.
Not much to say. I love this one. 5/5
