I dug Crystal Ships. And realized I'm a fan of Jim Morrisons vocal style. Still an unwavering pretentiousness to it but I can look past that. I enjoyed the production as well. I may figure out the Doors yet.. . I'm returning a couple days later a few days later. This certainly kindled an interest in the doors. And I love the studio albums. In particularly Waiting For The Sun. All excited I watched The Doors Live At The Bowl. And I remembered what I disliked about them in the first place. Pretentious meandering masturbation. The studio albums are amazing. I imagine with a producer in place to reel in their arty pretentious ramblings. Live its like 2 out of 20 minutes is coheisive music. And Morrison is high as fuck. I saw this video at the RNR Hall of Fame and it turned me off. I see why. I might go as far as to say they suck live. Or they choose to suck live is prolly more accurate. Great studio band....with shimmers of greatness live but its ruined by drug fueled boring ass meanderings by Morrison.

So there's some ear candy here. Mostly rhythmic dj stuff which i can be a sucker for. The album feels overproduced and spliced together. At times it made me think of a dumb local band. I've always struggled with thecheart on the sleeve lyrics but in light of Chester's suicide maybe I should revisit. It's just too on the nose for me. I prefer a lil mystery. There are some things I like here when I pulled my snobby head out of my ass and gave it a listen. To he honest though I can't imagine it has any real staying power. It will always be a product of its time. And that's OK.

So my dad gave me Uptown when I was young because he thought I'd enjoy Louis Belson's drum solo on Skin Deep and boy did I. The rest of the music it took a bit of maturing to understand but I really enjoy this now. The soloist are amazing. Almost otherworldly sounds coming from the instruments. I actually said to myself "This band is cookin!" In 2025. They indeed cooked. It may be archaic now but I see why the term was used. It's great. And dare I say a lost art? At least on the young population of today. And thats a big ole shame.

So these dudes are badass. My only complaint would be to incorporate more instrumentation. Theyre very heavy on the rhodes/wurlitzer thing which normally I love but a lil variety would have given the music more variety and tecture. The songwriting and arranging is stellar. I enjoy the lyrics as as well. I feel like they get a bad wrap ala Styx. A soft rock joke. But I think they rule.

Well this was an easy one. The first 5 songs on this are etched into my brain from childhood. I hesitate to say any songs are better than the others cause I believe this album to be as close to a masterwork as human art can get. I dont know why my childhood interest failed me. Prolly the non rock and roll harp at the beginning. The indian vibes of within you without you also offended my younger ears. Now I'm on board from beginning to end. What an accomplishment this album. It should be more challenging than it is to common listeners. But it goes down like sugar. When people say they don't like The Beatles I'm 99% sure theyre lying. Just trying to be a contrary asshole. When you consider the musicians this band inspired they become indispensable. We would have a huge void in popular music without them. And we would be none the wiser.

I'm a sucker for this 1960s production. Nothing is over compressed and the panning choices are always fun. Noone puts the drum in one ear anymore! Dusty strikes me a bit as an older Taylor Swift. Awful lot of song about boys behaving poorly. It's great though. Breakfast in Bed is a favorite. where shes nailing a guy with a troublesome girl he wants to return to. Tragic but makes for a great song. The whole album is like that. Great arrangements and I love the purposeful bass playing. Just right.

Ive always loved this record. In my estimate Don't Give Up is the first song I remember crying to. Maybe Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens. One of the two. I cry to a bunch of songs so thats a big deal in my world. The multi cultural arrangements get to me as well. Cultures and worlds colliding is always cool. That Rhatamatata Selputura song makes me cry too. Ha! I have all weekend to give it a real listen and I intend to. I feel like theres songs on here I may have overlooked. I plan to remedy that.

Ive always had a hunch Id like Muse if I took time to listen and I was right. Proggy and at times unapologetically heavy. Lots of styles all done well. I should spend more time with them because they are sort of a modern proggy band with pop sensibilities. Makes it easier to digest all the lofty ideas happening. I'll retuen to this.