⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Still good, really enjoyed the second half this time. Run For Your Life is kinda funny tbh.
A lot of it feels lightweight. I was surprised by how goofy it felt at times. Like the Monkees with more Davy. 'The Boxer' is still incredible. And I liked the Salesman one hearing it for the first time. But a lot of the lyrics aren’t as good as I feel their reputations would have indicated.
Haven't heard this all the way through before. Quick, easy to listen to, solid throughout. Great crafting of songs. I feel like it’s a strong four, four and a half, but being rooted in classic rock and roll, and not being really, well, weird, it might have a hard time standing out in my memory.
Bright, easy music. I’m not a big fan of jazzy, bluesy music, but I think he handles himself well lyrically and vocally. There are moments where the horns have an schmaltzy, almost variety show sort of quality. But it's also an interesting blend of old and modern music.
The best parts for me: the energy, the stompy chanty parts, and the medieval or classical-sounding lead guitar. 'Orion' stood out too me. However, this album feels LONG, and a lot of the songs sound the same, and the lyrics aren’t always memorable. The grunted, strained lead vocals also wear thin.
Obviously very talented musicians. The drums are a real treat. Storytelling is belabored but often unmemorable. When I’m in the middle of listening to a song I don’t mind it, but if I remember that it’s supposed to be a large cohesive work I feel like I’m suffocating.
A lot of this album sounds like it was made by a child. Occasionally some cool use of samples. '20 Dollar' was catchy. 'Paper Planes' was catchy. I hope I gave it a fair shot; I’m not sure I did. But even the catchy songs are self-important, image-obsessed, and arduously humorlessly political. This album came out a year after Kevin Federline’s similarly funk carioca influenced ‘PopoZão’.
I’ve been having some bad days lately but this was much needed. Life can be terrifying and miserable, but it’s so much cooler than being dead. ‘There She Goes’ is the standout from the first half. ‘Breathless’ was good on the second part.
I listened to it while doing a semi-tedious task at work and it was pleasant. Liked ‘Slashers Revenge’ (the dub one) the most. The spoken bits are pretty prominent. Important for the artistic context, and sets it apart from trip hop stuff like Portishead, but kinda dates it.
Good vocals. Lilac Wine was good, did not realize it was a much older song. I’ve heard so much about this album; I was surprised to find it rocked pretty hard. It sounds like the blueprint for a lot of other 90s and 2000s music.
There's a lot of sass and swagger in this album. Not normally my thing. 80s R&B is not normally my thing. But Prince makes it unique and original. ‘Starfish And Coffee’ was a good but strange track: it sounds like a novelty alternative hit from the late 90s. 'I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man' was an instant favorite, and sounds like everything I like in Prince's music, like a counterpoint to 'When You Were Mine'. ‘Forever In My Life’ and ‘The Cross’ were good too, heavy and dark. Songs like ‘Slow Love' and 'Gonna Be A Beautiful Night' simply aren’t the sort of music I like. But the best parts of the album are among the best songs of a truly gifted musician.
Amazing. Energetic, chaotic, creative. How have I not heard this before.
All over the place. The best part is probably the diversity of instruments and arrangements. Sometimes the joke bits feel a bit strained. Sometimes ('Somebody Else's Shoulder') they work. 'Wowie Zowie' and 'You're Probably Wondering' were pretty good too. I’m rating this a 4 because I like stupid things. I do want to make it clear that this is stupid and not genius.
Yeah it’s good, she sounds great, and the record is quick and pleasant to listen to. However I’ve been feeling really depressed lately. (I am writing this on November 7 2024.) Maybe this was a bad time to listen to this. But hearing ‘Respect’ and ‘Change Is Gonna Come’ kinda hurt right now.
Hadn’t heard this one before! Except for Stand and Orange Crush. Man, what a good band. Maybe my familiarity with some of their other work affects this. If I’m looking at just REM albums this might be a 3/5; if I’m considering all albums everywhere ever, probably a 5/5. For this project, I’m kinda feeing a 4.
Despite the band’s clarification that I was in the jungle, I’m not sure where I stand with this one. Rating it a three feels like a bit of a cop-out, since there were some truly delightful parts and some truly idiotic parts, and I want to settle on a two or a four. Ultimately, I must ask ‘where do we go now?’ and then screech a bunch.
Really enjoyed the messy instruments at the end of the first song. Sometimes this album doesn’t stand out since there’s so much good folk music out there. But the really long final song was my favorite. It felt weird and ambitious and over-dramatic and haunting!
I hadn’t heard any of these songs before, even the well-known ones. I don’t think I like this. It’s like a soap opera for hippies. ‘My Old Man’ and ‘California’ I particularly didn’t like. I think there’s something about her style of singing too. I guess I kinda liked ‘River’ but lyrically it still felt cloying.
The album starts off a bit weak, and doesn't really pick up til 'Keeper of Time', but from that point I liked all of it. I have no idea why the Wiki article or the reviews here compare the vocals to Dylan. I like when folk music combines the ordinary with something timeless, something mythical or historical. The best parts of the album accomplish that. 'Wolf of Velvet Fortune' managed to feel relatively large and epic, even though it's under five minutes and the entire album is about a half hour.
People have said they find this album dated, and it's true that the world it depicts has slowly been disappearing. To me, living in the Midwest, a lot of this still feels powerful and relevant. The most dated parts are silly but charming, like looking at a picture of your parents with their 1980s haircuts. This is the Album With All The Hits, and the spaces in between the hits don’t hold back either. It’s a good pop album, good rock album, good saxophone solo album. As a political piece it doesn't feel too heavy or didactic, nor does it feel fluffy and jingoistic. Favorites were Downbound Train, No Surrender, I'm Goin' Down, and the title track.
Fun, listened to it a couple times at work today and it helped me get through a busy day. I’ll definitely go back to it. Mansize Rooster and Strange Ones were really good. This is way more frenzied and off-the-wall than other Britpop stuff, and a good bridge between 70s punk and 2000s UK indie.
The ska/soul/rock influences are there, but it still manages to sound like nothing else before it. His singing is really messy and expressive, pathetic and theatrical, and I think it works well at times. I prefer this version of 'Seven Days Too Long' to Chuck Wood's. That style does start to wear thin by the end of the album. And there were more slow songs than I would have expected. But it was good. The more lively stuff felt outrageous.
Hadn't heard anything by these guys before. It's a well-produced album and I'm surprised that it came out in 1996. It's instrumentally more diverse and mellow than the grunge music my parents liked, and sounds a lot like what I was listening to in the 2000s. Really liked that little baroque bit in 'Sworn and Broken' and then how that song moves onto something harder with 'Witness'. Good vocals.