While it doesn't reach the consistent smash-hit-rate excellence of Thriller nor the sheer fun factor of Off The Wall, Bad's heights on tracks like "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Smooth Criminal" are notable.
Led Zeppelin continues to be an act I "get", but am unenthused by. It's a good record and I understand why they're looked upon with such reverence as a pillar of classic hard rock. The playing is good, the production is good, the composition is fine, and it's only too damn long by a small amount.
In the context of greater musical culture and how I, personallt, interface with it, Led Zeppelin continues to be "Hard Rock Beatles" - a band I "get" but don't care for. This album won't be the album that convinces me to rave over Zepp as an all-time great. That album doesn't exist.
But it is good.
Legendary and with good reason. It's interesting how some of the rawness you get from their punk contemporaries is missing, but they more than make up for it with a genuine ear for excellent music.
I mean, it's fucking Maggot Brain. A drug induced whirlwind of absurdly tight playing and some of the most absorbing soundscapes you'll ever hear. The way this group uses the inherent fun and groove of funk to underscore the cutting, biting anger present in this record is both unnerving and cathartic.
Soundgarden's impact on Grunge and greater alt rock in the 90s is often understated in the towering shadow of Nirvana's cultural powerhouse. Truth is, the sounds you hear in Superunknown are stylistic cornerstones that may not have changed the greater culture outside of music, but are still present in the rock music coming out today.
They gave him the wrong fucking piano.
Fun P-Funk influenced classic hip-hop that's somewhat soured by many of its tracks running a tad long. 3 stars feels too low, but 4 would feel too high. Pretend this is a 3.5
U2 is a band obsessed with scale and scope. The first half of Joshua Tree shows us that this isn't always a bad thing, with the massive production and sweeping delay guitars in cuts like "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "With or Without You" giving this really effective towering presence. The huge feel does start to wear down on you towards the later half, though, and many of the interesting ideas and unique sounds that U2 prove they're capable of get swallowed in its oppressive production.
SitKoL is essentially as close to a perfect album as you can get, which is even more impressive a statement when you realize it's a massive double album containing almost an hour and a half of material. When you have the runtime of a feature film and all of it is some of the most gorgeously arranged, incredibly written music you've ever heard, you've got something special.
This album is special. Possibly the greatest piece of modern music ever made.
It's pretty decent rock. It's no Reggatta De Blanc, but it'll do. As usual, Copeland's drumming is the star, but Sting's way with words is commendable as well.
Not his best, but that's a legendarily hard bar to clear, even with such an excellent record.
