At first, I liked it. The musicality was interesting and the 60s English folk influences were enjoyable. But then it’s just essentially a continuous flow of the same thing over and over again for an hour.
The rock opera concept itself is imo just an exercise in masturbation.
Standout songs to me were The Acid Queen and Welcome. Both of those I listened to twice but on the whole I doubt this is an album I’d ever revisit.
Frenetic and unique production. Not something I’d sink into often but there’s some interesting textures going on. The songs that give me a more south Asian inspired vibe I like a lot (Jimmy).
Lyrical content is on the whole pretty stupid and I would say is one of the weaker parts of the album - Missy or Nicki she is not.
Why is Nick Cave so great?
Why is any artist who cut their teeth in the zero hour immediately after punk so great?
No.
Some of it’s cool but there’s just this air of tongue in cheek, pretentious heavy handedness that I find kind of boring.
Some of it’s fun and enjoyable, but a lot of it really drives home why this band is a one hit wonder (at least in the US).
No frills, no pretension, no overwrought production, no “clever” lyrical quips, no tryhard striving to create something “profound” - B.B. King didn’t need any of that.
Grade A badassery, one of the pinnacles of a music genre that’s in the genome of essentially every style of modern music in the United States and beyond.
Guy showed more genuine emotion in 34 minutes than some artists do in their entire career. And the fact that this was recorded in Chicago, a city whose Blues cred is second only to the Mississippi delta, only makes me love it more.
Really enjoyable low key folk, never really gave him a listen and I may explore a bit more.
This sounds like what some dude would blast at full volume in his Impala after he just gay bashed a kid outside a bar in the mid 90s.
Everything sounds vaguely familiar here. I can’t tell if he’s a “musicians’ musician” that has incredible influence etc or if it’s just the late 90s. It’s not at all bad, it’s not amazing, it just *is*. I don’t think I’d add any songs to my regular rotation but I somewhat enjoy most of it.
Overall really enjoyed this. I think I like it more than Born in the USA (a previous listen on this list). It’s possible that exposure is giving me a deeper appreciation for the artist.
Worlds apart is a song I really liked.
I’ll say that I didn’t completely hate it, but like the rest of Queen’s output, it really does not do anything for me. I just don’t like that 70s excess prog-ish sound. It’s so self-aggrandizing and artificially constructed.
So while it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve listened to on this list, it didn’t change my opinion of Queen at all. Not a fan.
Catchy if not inventive 00s indie.
So a lot of these songs were like “oh, this is dire straits? Yea I know this song” and then they went on wayyyyyy too long. Every single song on this album needs to be cut by 2-6 minutes.
Shoutout to “Brothers in Arms” being a pivotal moment in the West Wing. But that’s about the only shoutout I can give it. This is way too adult contemporary for me and way too cheesy and schmaltzy.
Fun and poppy. It’s very 90s but they did some interesting things on the album and I think they married straight electronica with classic pop pretty effectively. Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Stoned to Say the Least, and Like the Swallow are standouts for me. But an honorable mention to Wilson for being batshit.
Merry Christmas and stuff!
Merry Christmas and stuff!
In 2000, I was 12. This was so fucking cool to listen to and to have someone really speak to all that 12 year old suburban rage.
But now I’m 36, and by god are the lyrics childish and terrible, the music boring, and everything about it a joke. Fred Durst is and has always been a malignant twat and this is such a boring way to be “edgy.”
Everything about this is top tier for me.
I feel like people can’t actually take this stuff seriously, I don’t know.
Shelter from the Storm is a great song but overall this isn’t my favorite Bob record. I generally enjoy the earlier stuff. 3.8 stars, almost a four.
Some interesting and enjoyable stuff here but it’s a bit uneven for the length.
4.5~
I’m upset this exits and that I experienced it.
I’m about reaching my limit on 90s Brit pop. It was fine.
There’s nothing that tries so hard and yet does so little as 70s prog
There’s nothing that tries so hard and yet does so little as 70s prog
There’s nothing that tries so hard and yet does so little as 70s prog
Ah, there’s something about 90s rage and cynicism that’s way more appealing than today’s rage and cynicism.
I enjoy a bit of mournful country every so often but really… are the straights okay?
A bit self indulgent for sure but there’s some interesting things happening
Definitely a surprising like from me!
There’s some stuff I really like here and some stuff I’m not wild about. 3.5 or a 3.75
It was kind of a boring experience.
I feel like I am intimately acquainted with damn near every song on this album by virtue of just being a human being alive in the 90s.
I didn’t dislike this as much as I’d expected to. I think overall I am just not a fan of guitar driven ~*~rock~*~ music and gravelly mumbled lyrics. This is a 3 (opposed to the initial 2 I was going to give it) because 1) for better or worse, Jeremy has been stuck in my head since 8am and 2) I like Eddie Vedder’s politics.
Also, it was nice to finally learn after 30 years that it’s “Jeremy spoke in class today” and not “tether me spoken yeah yeaaaah yeah.” One should strive to learn at least one new thing every day.
For the most part, I enjoyed this. The random YouTube playlist I found had songs in both English and German und die Lieder auf deutsch sind natürlich viel besser.
Super interesting Wikipedia reads on both Dagmar Krause and Hanns Eisler as well.
Why am I listening to he’s got the whole world in his hands like I’m eight years old and back in Sunday school? Insipid.
I’m sure that with over 40 releases, there’s a chance of finding something I like but I’m surely not about to go digging.
I don’t think I’ve ever listened to anything they’ve done. But I will say I’m quite enjoying the sound. I like this blend of New Order/poppy Cure, Kraftwerk, and more “challenging” kosmische Musik.
I really, really, really am not vibing with either vocalist. With no vocals, I bet the rating would be a 3.5 or a 4 for the music.
This is the first time I’ve listened to this all the way through and I really liked it more than I expected to.
This review is without the Apple Jam. I don’t like the Apple Jam, I don’t vibe with the Apple Jam, and I’ll never listen to the Apple Jam again. It’s the third LP and can be safely set aside and ignored.
Eh…..
“I want your sex” is what a middle schooler would do when tasked with writing a song about “Sex teehee 🤭”
I’ll just listen to Duran Duran instead.
Peter Gabriel is so badass.
It should surprise no one that “desert blues” works so well as a genre when you consider the fact that west African musical traditions are essentially at the heart of pretty much all American popular music.
And in a country that has no shortage of incredible artists blending ancient tradition with ~modern~ sound, AFT was definitely a master.
Extended guitar solos might be my least favorite thing.
-1 star for the vocals throughout. With no vocals, it’d be a 4
Please, educate me on the burdens of the poor.
I echo reviewer sentiments about the production. To me, for being so overwrought it sounds kinda flat.
Tja… Unerwartet.
Ich finde die Platte nicht besonders gut aber sie ist geisteskrank und ganz anders als die langweile Menge von scheißdoofen Britpopplatten die normalerweise hier auftauchen.
Musically, I think this is relatively well constructed with a few interesting things going on.
However, I don’t see any evidence of the finesse other reviewers seem to find in either the lyricism or the vocal delivery. It’s just … not very good.
Maybe if I were 12 years old I’d think super lame songs about weed, violence, and saying fag would be the height of sophistication. Maybe.
So I can say that I’ve never actually sought out Stevie Wonder to listen to. But the fact that I knew so many of these songs (and was like OH this is Stevie Wonder) really speaks to how apparently embedded he is in our cultural DNA.
I wouldn’t say I loved everything here, and I’d revisit specific tracks opposed to the entire thing. But all in all a pretty solidly constructed album that, for being so damn long, didn’t wear out its welcome the way I thought it would.
Give me a break.
Dreamy and ethereal.
For the aggressively ignorant monolinguals, it’s called glossolalia.
True perfection.
It’s inoffensive and slightly uninspired Dad Rock but I can’t deny there are some catchy songs here. A 3 feels like the perfect score for Coldplay.
It’s interesting to note that if you check the other ratings of some of the more vitriolic one star reviews you see that if there’s an album made by black folks you can guarantee it’ll be in their “lowest rated albums” section. You can hide behind pearl clutching outrage and fake virtue all you want but I see through it.
That being said I do find the lyrics and delivery to be a bit dated but the beats are pretty solid.
This, at its core, is not something I’d normally like. Almost everything “psychedelic” from the “summer of love” is autofellating up its own ass schlock. This is a universal truth.
But Grace Slick is a badass and it’s more than clear she was able to corral those dweebs and with them create something great.
Effortlessly cool.
Jack White is kind of a twat and certainly isn’t the genius he thinks he is.
I really liked “In the Cold, Cold Night” and the more repetitive hypnotic songs were pretty good, as were the punky ones.
Easy to listen to if uninspiring.
45 years old and the angry, biting lyrics are just as relevant today as they were then.
From worsening income inequality to progressive purity tests to people shooting up schools to bombing children, there’s a song here for everyone in 2025.
Name something better than white dweebs from the Bay Area playing “the blues” - doesn’t exist.
Like any millennial, I am often nostalgic for the 00s and my formative years. But please, no more mid 00s frat bro rock.
I fully expected to go into this ready to write a scathing sarcastic review, but you know what, it was kinda neat!
Look I get it. In the 50s white folks weren’t listening to black artists so of course you needed a white southerner to be the King of Rock and Roll.
With that reductive statement aside, I have never vibed with Elvis and do not enjoy his music in almost any capacity.
Not bad, an enjoyable listen. I think I like the later stuff much better though.
This is such a wildly inconsistent album. This is my first time revisiting it since I was in high school, where the sort of mythic velvet underground chanteuse vibes afforded this album a bigger presence in our lives than it really deserved.
That said, These Days is a classic and Winter Song is way too English folk adjacent for me not to love. Everything else, eh.
Not sure I buy into the whole Jim Morrison mystique but The Doors have some solid songs.
I get that it’s “fun” and they don’t take themselves all that seriously, I just don’t enjoy this type of music at all and would never listen again.
This is like the Platonic Ideal of “music I actively do not like.” It transcends the mundane “eh, I could do without this” into something else.
It’s a 2 for music and a 1 for lyrics, rounded down.
I think this is proof that John was carried by Paul and George (and Ringo?) especially considering the general caliber of their solo output.
The Apple Music description of this album says these are “some of the most nakedly emotional songs ever recorded.” Someone tell me what I need to do to reach that level of delusion because I feel like it would make 2026 a lot more bearable.
With those obligatory hot takes out of the way, Working Class Hero is an incredible song. Far and away the highlight of this album for me. Look at Me has some great music and an intriguing melody if you can divorce that from the silly pseudo-existential lyrics.
This is such a 2000s sound and it takes me right back to 2003 and middle school where these songs were EVERYWHERE.
Good thing I can mostly look back on those troubled times these days and just feel a general ephemeral nostalgic vibe with few concrete memories.
Ahhh, the Banshees’ debut. I’m a huge, huge fan of Siouxsie and the Banshees. I do think they really hit their stride and had the best output with the addition of Budgie, but let’s not pretend their debut isn’t also great.
There are so many artists who really elevated punk in the late 70s and early 80s, but the Banshees take the cake. The almost mythical status of this album (and let’s be real, damn near all of their discography) is well deserved.
In general, I am not a fan of these overwrought, head-up-its-ass 60s psych rock “masterpieces” (and I’m sure if I go back I’ve used identical wording on another review). There were a few songs during this long journey where I was like “hmm I can get into this, maybe” but not enough to where I’d ever revisit this again.
This is one of my all time favorite albums and a desert island album. Whether it’s a classic breakup song where you’ve lost yourself in the other person, a myth about the formation of Ursa Major, or an ode to a dead friend, I love all these songs. I could get lost during the journey of Only Skin over and over again and never get tired.
I’d never listened to this album before or really even knew Carole King. Really enjoyed this.
I want to listen to this on a lazy Sunday morning on a 60 degree day with the windows thrown open and a cup of coffee.
While there might be something interesting here and there, this primarily just bored me.
It’s not like it’s bad. In fact, I’d say it’s a pretty meticulously “crafted” sound. It’s a relatively inoffensive, 00s nostalgia, dad rock sound. It’s just that I kind of think Coldplay is boring and lacking true emotion.
Great hypnotic 90s east coast sound
Honestly I think there are a lot of better Madonna efforts that could have been on this list. IMO this isn’t one of her best. After dominating the 80s and 90s, the 2000s was not Madonna’s best decade.
So, I can appreciate what they’re doing and the early use of synths. I just don't really enjoy the overall experience of listening to this.
Eh, it’s metally.
They don’t make em like this anymore. I love the analogue sounds, the textures, the ambience, and the overall vibe. “Tha” has been a top track for me for years. It works as something to have on in the background or something to listen to with a good pair of headphones. Take your pick.
Well it’s certainly unique and I’m not a hard no. I just don’t know when I’d be in a mood for this or want to reach for it.
I have no opinions on Rod Stewart. Seriously, his name conjures no feeling at all for me. I am true neutral, blank, no thoughts either way.
That being said, this sort of stuff really, really, really bores me.
