1001 Albums Summary

Nilsson is sometimes known as the American Beatle and I can hear it in a few songs, or mixes of their individuals styles. The album was a little all over the place, with big swings from the druggie Coconut to the melancholic Without You (which is the most popular but definitely not my favorite). It does feel very 70s so I'll be a little nicer but I won't be returning to this as a whole.

Besides a few songs, the whole album is an agonizing crawl, in which R.E.M. is mourning youth and life and I was here for it. It explores the horrible realization of the passage of time and even without the lyrics, you can feel it in the tempo of the songs and the orchestra. Very good, I don't know anything else by R.E.M. but this was a good start and there was hard competition in the 90s.

I am not a fan of two things: live albums and unnecessarily long songs. Oh look, a 7 song album spanning almost 80 mins! It is to note that this is their first album and it still holds a special place in music history. I actually think the rambling solos come through better live with the hiss of the old technology but it's all just too long for my liking. The little god bless america riff at the end of You Don't Love Me made me chuckle.