It’s exactly what its reputation has come to reflect: a good representation of 90’s teenage angst. Most of the tracks are great both on their own and as compliments to the album as a whole. The back half of the album does have a few songs that dip a bit but still maintain that great grunge sound. There’s a reason it’s still listened to and loved so widely over 30 years later.
While I consider myself a big fan of The White Stripes, this album seems like a bit of an off beat for them. Half of the album is great singles, the other half is sort of filler, and yet the vibe is constantly changing from song to song rather than keeping some sort of consistency. It’s still got their iconic sound, but one that doesn’t feel as finely tuned as their prior ventures leading up to this.
As my first time intentionally dipping into Alice Cooper, I was surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed their sound. This album feels very much like an eerie, twisted rock opera with a healthy balance of lighter and harder sounds. It took a couple of tracks to settle into something I thought to be a fairly good listen. At times, I found that it fell somewhere between that glam rock sound akin to Poison with some darker tones thrown in and a harder sound that reminded me a bit of Mötley Crüe. Overall, a very interesting listen with a good mix, consistent, if strange, sound, and occasionally whimsical tones, but one dragged down by the more sinister and bizarre tracks.
Imagine is a good listen, albeit fairly uninspired. John Lennon seems to fall flat compared to the highs that The Beatles hit when writing together, and this project is no exception. It’s bookended by what I’d consider to be the best tracks with a few hits interspersed among the other bland or samey-sounding tracks. It’s very nice for background music but not something I’d actively sit down to fully invest my attention into.
Previous to me listening to this album, I had only heard Smooth Operator and thought it was a good if overplayed recent trend song. However, this album has so much great stuff to offer besides the most popular song. The smooth jazz/soul vibes are beautiful and Sade’s voice is incredible in tone and flow. I’m stunned by how much I found myself enjoying the sound of this album, and I can see myself playing this over dimmed lights and cocktails any night.
Considering this is Van Halen’s debut album that kicked off their whole monumental career, the importance of this album can hardly be overlooked. It’s some great first steps that started the band on their way to superstar status. That being said, I feel that there’s only a few standout songs with the rest having that iconic Van Halen sound but lacking that pedal-to-the-metal energy to make them truly special. Outstanding debut, but unrealized compared to some of their other material.
This is the first album in quite some time to really surprise me with a sound I haven’t heard before. Moody, atmospheric, and occasionally hopeful with looming dread, it comes off as a mood setter and something deeper than your average album. My closest frame of reference is a southwestern version of Low Roar’s flavor of folk. Something oddly ethereal and emotional but with a bit more roughage around the edges. The instrumentals make me want to go to the southwest and take a road trip through the middle of nowhere. If a handful of these songs haven’t already been used for soundtracks in television or film, those studios are missing out on some great stuff.
Between the scratchy voice, uninteresting sound, and soul rock with little soul to be found, everything here comes off as too bland to make it worth a listen. There’s still some musicality to it and an audience for it, but anything worthwhile comes later in his career. The biggest credit this album gets is starting the career for an overall mediocre musician.
I should give the caveat that I’m not a huge jazz enthusiast. I do really like certain forms of jazz (typically Latin styles or in big band formats), but I don’t often find myself choosing to listen to it over other genres. This album is no exception. It’s got a great jazz/funk fusion feel with some sounds that were very different and new for the time when it was released. However, it’s a bit out there in style for better or worse. For as revolutionary as it is, it now comes off to me as something to play on the side, vibe out to, and let fade into the background while working on something.
Getting bogged down by dull lyrics and poor mixing seems like just the surface for this one. It’s full of mostly boring, generic 70s rock besides the last couple of tracks which seemingly save it a bit. Regardless of which came first, this feels like it walked so Bread and the likes could run. There’s so many other albums of this era with a similar sound that do it better.
I will always pull through for Billie Holiday. Her beautiful, enchanting vocals have a way of enhancing any song that she is a part of. However, it has to be said that all of the songs here maintain a very similar sound and blend together. There’s nothing standout or particularly enticing, but it all makes for good, easy listening on a nostalgic Sunday morning or at a jazz bar on a rainy evening.
This album stands as the epitome of 90s hip-hop, and I’m here for it. The production and transitions between songs goes a long to making it feel like a completely thought-out package. It’s ridiculous, over the top, and at times a bit too much on the expletives, sex references, and misogyny. Despite all of that, it’s got such good cohesion, beat, and flow that it makes sense Snoop sits as a king of hip-hop.
It’s rare that such a bizarrely absurd mix of songs comes together as such a beautifully complete package. Some of the lyrics are so nonsensical yet flow together so well, and serious topics like homophobia and other societal issues are addressed in playful or even whimsical ways. Why this hasn’t come across my radar sooner is a mystery to me. It really is a piece of art.
It’s easy to see why this is the best selling album of all time. Given over half of them are phenomenal singles and the other bit are melodic love songs with MJ’s vocals, there’s a little bit of everything great here. Thriller really does live up to the title.
Dookie has great punk rock vibes and is more or less the starting point of Green Day’s music for the average fan. There’s quite a lot of timeless hits on this album that are still played frequently 30 years later. I love the Green Day style, but admittedly the non-hits do eventually run together a bit more than I’d care for.
Not much to say about this one besides that it’s pretty good, but standard by today’s standards, punk rock. Iggy Pop is legendary and an icon of music; however, he broke through into something more different through his solo career rather than with The Stooges. Overall, good punk sound that doesn’t make for anything standout.
I’ve never listened to Tim Buckley before, and I doubt I’ll want to again after hearing this one. The songs range from decent enough foot tappers to painfully drawn out, and there’s some odd vocal sounds in there akin to Yoko Ono for *bad* measure. The folk/psychedelic rock music has potential if put towards something a bit more fun, but this isn’t it.
Although I respect Metallica as musicians and the great stuff they’ve put out, I’m neither a fan of live recordings or hour-plus long albums, both of which this is. The moment to moment music is great, but it’s so long that it ruins how listenable it is as a whole package.
Besides the intro, this is Led Zeppelin, the band known for their hard rock songs, without the hard rock. It’s good, but not much compared to their other material. I’d call it a successful venture into a more acoustic sound but one I’m not too crazy about.
Funky, energetic, and offbeat, it’s fun if maybe a bit too eccentric. The front half of the album carries quite a lot of the weight while the back half kind of drags on. I think the following quote from another reviewer sums it up well: “Innovative? Yes. Influential? Eh, maybe. Throw it on the heap of albums that are notable, but not necessarily a great listen.”
To put it politely, it’s different. At times, it’s unrelenting and borderline obnoxious due to the electric jug sound. I’m sure fans of psychedelic rock will find some hits in here, but I cannot. The one thing I will give it is that it’s got hints of something great that never breach the surface of its strangeness.
I feel that I should be more critical on this, but I happened to like it a good bit. Very simple vocals, guitar, and rhythm that did enough to get me tapping my foot. Not every record has to be groundbreaking when they can just simply have a good time.
With such a strong (if long) intro, it’s a shame the middle is so mellow and frankly boring. What’s there is beautiful and well done, but so much time elapses and suddenly you’re hit with another flashy song for the outro. The musicality is good when there; unfortunately, the length kills this one.
