3.5 Stars, rounded up.
California mentioned on tracks 1, 2, 6 and 9
Californian places mentioned on 13 (Hollywood) and 15 (Big Sur)
Around the World: Really interesting guitar riff that sounds kinda off. Not sure Syncopation is the correct term. The lyrics are pretty eh.
Parallel Universe: Decent. The heavier guitar is not like what we're used in a RHCP record. Good stuff.
♡ Scar Tissue: This one has this deep nostalgia to it. Almost like it's reminiscent of a sad time. Appropriately named song. A nice slow jam to balance things out. The solo is good.
♡ Otherside: The first Misheard song I head. It's really good. The intro is a classic Guitar Beginner Tune :tm:. When the rest of the instruments enter it get really full. Good Stuff!
Get on Top feels like an LLM generating a RHCP song and forgetting to add the word California.
♡ Californication: I really like the way the lyrics flow on the title track. It's a really good song.
Easily: I could probably play it with the lyrics of Parallel Universe and someone not paying 100% of attention would not realize.
Porcelain: Pretty cool Bassline, it also sounds very different from everything else in the album. I kinda liked it.
Emit Remmus: Some nice high pitched guitar + a bass riff holding the harmony. The guitar is almost a drone and it causes a funny feeling.
♡ I Like Dirt: Really funky guitar and a groovy bassline. The Repeated I like dirts in the chorus are really cool. Damn, I really like this song.
This Velvet Glove: The lyrics are good, the song itself didn't hit it off for me.
Savior: Whatever until the counterpoint enters. Then it got my attention, but still not enough to make me like it.
Purple Stain: Start really funky, I like it. He does mention Hollywood, so technically a California mention? I decided not to count, though
Right on Time: Starts at 100%, which is pretty funny, specially after the slow ending of the previous song. Flea is peak in this song.
♡ Road Trippin': This one is an absolute classic.
2.5 Stars, rounded up because of Papa Was a Rollin' Stone.
Pretty underwhelming. No bad songs, but only one song that is really remarkable.
Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On: Never been a fan of this particular type of self-referential music (Tower of Power's Soul with a Capital S being the exception). This one is not it.
Run Charlie Run: Love the lyrics!
♡ Papa Was a Rollin' Stone: Holy fucking shit, this song is amazing. Every second of the 4 minute intro is delicious.
Love Woke Me Up This Morning: Lovely harmonies, but not my thing
I Ain't Got Nothin': If cachorro triste miseravel fodido was a song. The bass goes hard on this one.
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face: Really didn't dig this one.
Mother Nature: Whatever
Do Your Thing: Nasty groove, Really liked it.
2 stars. Not a bad album, but it doesn't work for me. The three songs I enjoyed aren't enough to make me sit through all of it. Also the fact that Kurt keeps saying "I'm gonna butcher this song" is so fucking annoying. Like, brother, just play the damn song and let us decide (he butchered most of them).
About a Girl: A song that works better when you're a teen with a guitar trying to bang that one chick that wears way too much mascara.
Come As You Are: The opening riff for this one is the first thing I learned to play on Guitar to impress that one chick that wears way too much mascara.
Jesus Doesn't Want Me For a Sunbean: I always skipped this one and now I remember why
♡ The Man Who Sold The World: Amazing Rendition of a Great Song. Wish Seu Jorge had recorded it for Life Aquatic sessions.
Pennyroyal Tea: Not a big fan of the rendition, but a good song nonetheless
Dumb: 🤷🏽
♡ Polly: This song is so fucking good. His voice lends itself perfectly for the tone of the song.
On a Plain: Every Nirvana song sounds like you're 12 and this is deep. "The finest day I've ever had is when I learned to smile on command" Bottom Text
♡ Something in the Way: Although I disagree with the morals of consuming sea creatures, I must admit this song is a banger.
Plateau: Ranking high on "First songs I learned as a Teenager". His voice is not really suited for this song.
Oh Me: Pretty forgettable track.
Lake of Fire: Yee Haw.
All Apologies: I really can't vibe with songs that are so "omg i'm not like the others". It's like they lack self awareness, idk. Not my thing
Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Nirvana is just Falcão for people who know what depression is.
4 Stars, solid album. Vocals are really the highlight of every song. No real bad songs, but not enough songs that are A Sides to justify 5 stars.
Second Hand News - The droning palm muted acoustic guitar is so good!! Also the final solo didn't even need to go that hard.
♡ Dreams - Everytime this song plays I gaslight people saying it played in San Junipero even though it never did. People always believe me, this song was meant to be played in Cyber Lesbian Heaven.
Never Going Back Again - Very tasteful guitar arrangement, great song.
Don't Stop - This sounds like a Beatles song that is trying too hard. I can see it working as a nice Arena anthem, but not really my thing.
Go Your Own Way - Seems like every song in this album is created with the purpose of making you wanna know the lyrics to sing them from the top of your lungs. I like it. The bass fill on the chorus is TASTY and the minimalist guitar solo is exactly what the song needs. Good stuff.
Songbird - I enjoyed the piano much more than I did the vocal arrangement. I was anticipating something more Elton John-y and got disappointed. If there's a version without the guitar it's probably better than the original. (Matter of fact the first thing I did was finding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQFpkEFbVrA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ6EzJ9xTUc. Once they sync you get a better song lmao)
♡ The Chain - Not a single bad sound in this song. The Vocal harmonies are so fucking good.
You Make Loving Fun - Good enough radio song. Not my thing.
I Don't Want to Know - The vocal harmonies are really good. A bit too yee-haw for my taste.
Oh Daddy - The part with the guitar harmonics and the bass groove is really good. The fragility of the lyrics is conveyed really well by the vocal performance. Nice Song.
♡ Gold Dust Woman - Another amazing vocal performance. Though this time the guitars (both acoustic and the electric ones at the end) are also amazing. Added another song to my liked list. Great way to end a great album.
1.5 Stars, rounded down because there were no songs I genuinely enjoyed. Really would not sit down to listen to it again. It feels raw, but not in a look-how-anarchist-and-anti-stabilishment-we-are kind of way. It's like they're too polished to be punk but not polished enough to be technical, so they live in this weird place that I don't like. I felt like the ideas weren't landing. I can see how its ideas went on to influence other bands, but this album is not for me.
See No Evil - I don't fuck with the vocalist's voice. Also the fact there are no embellishments and it's just the same riff playing over and over in all instruments makes the thing feel stiff and not raw. Lyrics are alright.
Venus - Guitar work is better (the solo is underwhelming) but... this man's voice is just eh. Also, Americans pronounce Venus de Milo funny.
Friction - The intro riff sounds like a beginner guitarist being told to improvise something but he's not very confident.
Marquee Moon - The intro feels like a weirdly overlaid loop. Maybe repetition doesn't always legitimize lmao. There's something off about the whole song, I can't quite put a finger on why. I can't believe the whole song is ten minutes of the same 2 or 3 ideas. The solo felt underwhelming too.
Elevation - Probably the best guitar work so far in the Album.
Guiding Light - Good bassline. Probably the best song in the album thus far. Seems
Prove it - The bass is so repetitive and mechanical. Really did not like any of it.
Torn Curtain - The intro is so good! Really didn't feel like the rest of the album. The song feels fuller. The lyrics are good. I still dislike the vocalist's delivery and overall tone, but this is a song I'd enjoy as a cover by another band.
First 5! This album is not without flaws, but I think the sum of its parts is greater than the individual components. The songs I did like I liked A LOT and the ones I didn't were mostly not my taste and not bad songs. Great album, I should just buy it in Vinyl already.
15 Step - Love the drum machine! The reverb when they say "15 steps, then a sheer drop" is so powerful. I love how the bass feels like it's tying it all together. Amazing song.
♡ Bodysnatchers - What is this guitar tone!! When the additional guitars kick in it's just so goooood. Also the lyrics!
Nude - I'm a sucker for instruments played backwards. The ambientation is really good and matches the lyrics. Not my type of song, though. If the whole song was more like the ending my opinion would be different.
♡ Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi - The intro alone is enough to make me love it. The constant guitars giving the feeling of being afloat/mesmerized are amazing. I love music that
All I Need - Interesting song, even if I don't particularly enjoyed it. The ambient intro is pretty cool.
♡ Faust Harp - So many interesting ideas in such a simple guitar harmony! The odd metrics when he sings something thrice, the strings at the end, the entire sense of disconnection from the lyrics. Amazing new find!
Reckoner - Good arrangement, specially with how the subtle string section fills in the empty spaces in the mix. Not a big fan of the falsetto here, though.
House Of Cards - Feels like an entire new genre. The lyrics are kinda weird and the song feels a bit too pop for my taste. There are many cool embellishments in the mix, but I dislike the amount of Reverb in York's voice.
♡ Jigsaw Falling Into Place - Best song in the album. Makes you wanna pick up your guitar and play it. The crescendo until the song finally reaches its climax is so perfectly paced. It feels raw in its energy yet extremely polished in execution. Masterpiece.
Videotape - A more minimalist piece, it feels like saying goodbye to the album. A nice way to wrap up. The syncopated percussion jump scare at the halfway mark was interesting.
2 stars. Some really good ideas, some good flows and some great vocal performances, but nothing really landed for me. In this case, I think it's just a matter of me being unfamiliar with the genre and the overall language. Maybe I should revisit this album sometime in the future.
Safe From Harm - I like the bassline and the disc scratches. The singer's voice is also really cool. The structure is cool, albeit a tad too repetitive for my taste.
One Love - I can only imagine this playing during the closing time of the saddest fucking club somewhere in rural England.
Blue Lines - It started really good, but the vocals threw me out of it a little bit. The song (as it seems like most of these are) are very repetitive.
Be Thankful For What You've Got - The Lyrics are quite shallow which makes the song draaaag
Five Man Army - Pretty good flow! First song I genuinely enjoyed in the album. The Outro could be significantly shorter though.
Unfinished Sympathy - Trip Hop really isn't for me. The vocals are sending me towards a dancing vibe and the harmony is super ambient. It just makes me confused.
Daydreaming - Good case where the vocal contents and the beat are on par (until Shara, which has a great voice BTW) comes on. Quite honestly, at this point I start thinking I'm the problem. The Beatles reference was dope.
Lately - Same issue as with the previous tracks. I'm not particularly fond of this track's bass.
Hymn Of The Big Wheel - Intro's Drum machine is really good. Really enjoyed the strings as well, but the vocals are nothing particularly interesting.
5/5, holy fucking shit, what a journey. I had never heard a single song by The Cure other than Boys Don't Cry and Friday I'm in love, and I think I found this album (or has it found me?) at exactly the right moment. It's like every single song is translating something about how I feel. It really brings out this intangible property of art which is making us feel; I love it. The couple of tracks that I didn't particularly enjoy aren't enough to bring the overall score down.
♡ Plainsong - The intro is so good! It feels like longing, but also like hopelessness. Then the voice comes in and wow, holy fucking shit, what is this song, damn it, love it. The fact that the lyrics are sandwiched between a long intro and outro makes the whole story feel like a short whisper in a much bigger picture. I really liked it.
♡ Pictures Of You - This song sucks you in, completely. The way the vocals deliver the message of love in a way that is impossible to move away from. Mesmerizing. It's funny how this album makes me feel so much that I ignore the actual music theory and focus on how the music is making me feel; this band is great.
♡ Closedown - Everything about this song resonates lovelessness. What a powerful song. The constant drums adding pressure. The lower range, the guitar solo, everything is so tight. I'm so happy to have found this band now.
♡ Lovesong - Really liked the song, even if it feels a bit cheesy at times lol. This is like the credits song of a couple that started dating in the 80s
Last Dance - This one didn't really capture me. Can't tell why. I really like the vocals, but the song feels a tad repetitive.
♡ Lullaby - Amazing arrangement. The higher pitch guitar just before the vocals enter are so good! All modulation is applied so consciously and tastefully that it really enhances the whole thing. Robert Smith's voice is also so versatile; I feel like he's doing something completely different every song. The song being called lullaby is the cherry on top. What a great song!
♡ Fascination Street - The opening bass riff on its own is enough to give this song a heart; I'm a sucker for long intros and this album is an all you can eat buffet of those. As mentioned in the previous song, I feel like the vocals are doing something completely different on every song. This is the first song in the album that makes me wanna sing along at the top of my lungs!
Prayers For Rain - The layers being slowly added during the intro are done so masterfully! When you think the strings are the Apex, that's when the vocals come in and wow! I'm constantly expecting the vocals to destroy the whole ambientation, but they never do.
The Same Deep Water As You - What a sad song, damn. I feel like it could be a tad shorter though. It feels a bit dragged, specially with how surgically precise every other song on the album feels.
Disintegration - Another song that feels a bit repetitive because of how long it is; not a bad song per se, just that the beginning of the album prepared me for something else altogether. Funny that the title piece doesn't feel like the epitome of the album to me.
♡ Homesick - Love the more stripped down vibe of the beginning and the fact that it builds up into something else entirely over time with the drums and the guitar joining at just the right time is amazing. The lyrics are amazing. The fact that the piano takes the stage back during the vocal part is the cherry on top. What an amazing piece of music.
Untitled - I didn't particularly enjoyed this one. The guitar part, while interesting, felt too repetitive. The long outro does something pretty cool with changing the riffs and adding some texture to the end of the song and serves to wrap up the song and the album as a whole.
