Some absolute classics on this album in the form of Shout, EWTRTW, and Head Over Heels. The rest of the album is a good listen and flows together nicely in a way that somewhat reminds me of Disintegration. Every time I hear Tears For Fears it takes me back to my childhood when I caddied as my regular would only listen to them. Overall really great album, one or two okay songs but the rest are fantastic.
Overall enjoyed it, there were a couple songs that I would probably skip during a re-listen and a couple that sounded a bit repetitive to other songs on the album but overall would definitely listen to the album again and enjoy it. A little short for 11 songs. An album that feels like your early 20’s… says the guy in his early 20s.
While Woody Harrelson helped prove that white men can in fact jump. The beastie boys only prove that white men from Brooklyn can maybe rap.
One of a kind (repetitive) sound combining hip-hop with creative yet sometimes corny lyrics and a whiny sound that works but starts to sound identical throughout a full album. Head bopped for most of the album start to finish but that has more to do with the beats than the lyrics themselves. The ironic country riff on 5-piece chicken dinner is a hilarious way to start the B-side of this record and sums up with how this group treated music.
Heard Before: none (probably a few but no clue)
Favorite: Egg Man and Johnny Ryall
Least Favorite: To all the girls
Sleeper: BBoy: A year and a day
Hell yeah brother. This album has too much rock for one hand 🤘🏻🤘🏻
Guitar has awesome tone, voice is classic classic rock, great riffs. Haven’t listened to a full album from VH before but this kicked some ass… except for ice cream man wtf was that?
Heard Before: Runnin with the Devil, You Really Got Me and Jamie’s Crying
Favorite: Little Dreams
Least Favorite: Ice cream man 💩
Sleeper: atomic punk
This album was not at all what I expected when I saw The Who as I was expecting something closer to the sounds from the Who’s Next album.
This felt like I listened to an hour long album of cultural appropriation. Knowing what their later sound is, this was a ROUGH listen. I just could not enjoy the songs as it either felt sounded like someone else’s song (or literally was another song, I’m talking about you Shout and Shiver…).
Would not listen to again.
Anytime you want me and (maybe) my generation are the only two I kind of enjoyed.
Had to go grab my sunglasses to listen to this indoors. I was not expecting to like this as much as I did but the combination of funky beats along with horns from guys that played with James Brown, the pure sound on this album had me dancing around my apartment. As someone who appreciates an album listened to from top to bottom, I appreciate the “story” aspect to the album itself. While the lyrics seem like supplement to the musicians, it was the music itself that held my attention and enjoyment.
Heard before: Give Up The Funk
Favorite: Give Up The Funk
Least: supergroovalistic (etc.)
Sleeper: Mothership Connection
As the person in our group who probably listens to the most music in this genre, I can say I genuinely enjoyed this. It’s definitely different from some of the dance/EDM music of more modern day but has a lot of the same ideas of using samples and edits to make ridiculous beats at a constant BPM that still flow like a song while also sounding entirely different.
One of the problems with this genre is that it can come off as repetitive and while newer artists (Daft Punk among others in the more “EDM” space) have done a better job limiting the repetitiveness of it all while still maintaining the electronic dance beat throughout, I felt Mylo had some songs that were entirely repetitive (Destroy Rock & Roll and Muscle Car) and reminded me of something like Ready, Steady, Go by Paul Oakenfold (a great song but also insanely repetitive).
That being said, for what this album is and what it does, I enjoyed it. Zenophile and Need You Tonite were fantastic and have added them both to my electronic playlists to listen to them again. In My Arms was pretty good too and is the most popular song from the album, but it sounds like something that would be on a video game loading screen so it loses a few point with me there. All in all a solid album for a genre that can be VERY hit or miss.
From my years of watching on TV/playing the WWE video games, I LOVE Cult of Personality (CM Punk’s intro music lol). While the lyrics are a little lame, the guitar is fucking awesome throughout. Kickass way to start off the album.
Unfortunately there is a common theme to this album, while they can shred on guitar, the lyrics are lackluster. I can usually excuse ridiculous lyrics when the music makes up for it (I’m talking about you Dire Straits) but the whole album’s lyrics just did not do it for me. I did enjoy the solos throughout and they had a good 80’s rock sound to them.
Would give it a 3.5 if I could but because a get the nostalgia from Cult of Personality and that song does rip, I’ll round up instead of down.
-_-
Bob Dylan can use a song to tell a story as good as anyone. I tend to like that style of music as well with the likes of Jim Croce and (kind of) John Denver but while I enjoy that style of music, Dylan voice has never done it for me.
Just personal preference, but I enjoyed the songs and the music, just sort of wish they were sung by someone else. That might be a hot take but we’re keeping it real out here.
Great live album. Crisp vocals, great blues and soul elements throughout, Van Morrison has always been great and nothing like a 1:30 live performance to show it.
Incredible album with a somewhat relevant theme again. Love the pissed off undertones towards a government controlled by propaganda (regardless of what side you align with). The music is incredible, the lyrics are incredible, just a perfect punk rock album. I saw that this was their sixth album which was a big surprise to me and I’m not sure much of their earlier stuff was popular but this broke through and is rightfully regarded as one of the best rock albums from the 2000s.
Favorite songs were AI, Jesus of Suburbia, and When September Ends, but there is no skips on this album.
She has a really unique voice that is really pleasing to listen to. I just never was able to get invested in the songs themselves as it’s really not my kind of music. While I can appreciate the voice, the songs itself weren’t for me and I wouldn’t listen to them again.
I enjoyed this, I found myself comparing it to Tribe and I definitely like Tribe more. Good sound, might listen to a few of them again such as good news comin, tribe vibes, and doin our own dang.
Pretty cool album, I’ve never really listened to Stevie before. He’s got good sound and I enjoyed most of the album. Couple songs weren’t my favorite but added a few to my playlists.
I enjoy Daft Punk and understand that they paved the way for house and electronic music starting back in the 90’s, that being said, this is their first album and it doesn’t have the catchiness that their next album has (I’m about 99% sure that will come up during this challenge). So while I do enjoy the genre as a whole and enjoy Daft, this album didn’t hit for me as much as I would’ve liked.
The first artist I have seen in person on this list, how fun! Anyways, this album is borderline perfect, the lyrics, the piano, Billy’s voice, everything just works together beautifully. An album jam packed with some of his best known songs and no skips.
Only 3 songs is… interesting…
Primrose is not very memorable, some cool riffs but for the most part just sounds like any British band.
Our house has always been meh to me. It’s catchy but not in a good way.
House of Fun is aptly named as the horns at the beginning made me think of a circus. And then it turns into a song that is very deliberately doing just that, again just not great. Kind of annoying.
Glad this only took 9 minutes to get through.
This was interesting. An album serving as the voice of probably a lot of people from this time frustrated with politics, war, media, you name it. This serves as an almost manifesto in the form of music basically saying fuck all of the shit going on in today’s society. You gotta respect it.
While I respect it, it just wasn’t for me. The lyrics while probably powerful just didn’t do it for me. His voice was kind of like sandpaper for my ears. Would not listen to again, can understand and appreciate what it was trying to do. 2 stars.
I’m not a huge Bowie fan. Ironically enough, my favorite part of this album was the second half with the experimental instrumentals. That part of the album was a neat listen and pretty relaxing.
The rest of the album except maybe heroes was a bit much for me. To much going on at once, I felt like the layering between the vocals and the techno was just overwhelming and not in a good way.
Nothing really jumped out at me as something I would want to listen to again. Not sure where other people stand on Bowie but this album was a 2 for me.
Alright I get the hype. Outside of the last few songs on this album, it was reallllly good. His voice is phenomenal, the music transitioning between rock styles and the use of more classical instruments worked really well together. Only the strong survive, long black limousine, in the ghetto, and suspicious minds were my favorites. Haven’t really listened to anything in his discography before but clearly I’m been missing out!
I enjoyed this. The sitar is one of the coolest instruments and the ability to layer and create resonance with it is unlike anything in western music. I can totally turn this on in the background while I’m working. Ananda is technically a nepo baby as his uncle Ravi is the famous sitarist who George Harrison learned from but we’ll let that slide when you create incredible music like this.
What an experience of an album. For being electronic this still had a little bit of everything. There were few songs on this album that I didn’t enjoy, I’ve already downloaded it for listening to on flights.
The first two songs in Honey and Find My Body were both great and Find My Body reminded me of Hozier at times. While it was electronic/house, there were times throughout this album such as rushing (great piano), everloving, and guitar flute that all bring in acoustic styles to the electronic space that was a great blend. Also, if I didn’t know, Everloving could literally have been a Chris Calhoun recording and I never would have questioned a thing.
I was not surprised when I discovered that Moby helped out on the Jason Bourne soundtracks as I recently watched those and Machete reminded me of those movies.
The second half of the album has great almost mellow, electronic songs in summer, flying foxes and sunspot that all shine in unique ways and while they’re the same genre, none of the songs felt repetitive and each new song brought a new listening experience.
It was at this time during the listen that I went on a walk and as the sun was setting in my day, The Sun Never Stops Setting came on and that was an otherworldly experience for me. I stopped my walk for a second to look around and take in nature and the sunset as I listened to the song. (Unfortunately it was followed up by the significantly worse Micronesia but they can’t all be winners.
This was a 2 and a half hour journey that I loved almost the entire part of. Whether I am working and need something in the background, on a drive with my windows down, on a plane going to some event or destination, this has been added to my repertoire and I will be listening to this again.
Good album, no real standouts other than killer queen but just an all-around good album with great harmonies and riffs in true Queen fashion. Nothing that I didn’t like, but nothing that had me in awe.
Such an incredible artist and album here. He has such a distinct sound and a way of layering his voice in with the instruments. Such unique chord progressions that make simple songs so much more complex. Can listen to his music for hours.
It didn’t save my notes and I don’t want to rewrite them all. 4 stars
This was interesting, had some cool rhythms to it. Not something I would pick off the shelf and listen to again but can appreciate the style, I just prefer to listen to either instrumentals or something that I can understand.
Maggot Brain is such a cool sound, like Floyd meets Prince, such a good jam. Also, I never realized where can you get to that came from, which I realize is ironic as it’s probably the most popular song by Funkadelic. I have heard it on a Mt. Joy live album (on “Julia” I believe) and never put together it was Funkadelic but that was an awesome learning.
Really good psychedelic/funk/rock album. I grew up listening to “Maggot Brain” in the car with my dad since he loves any and all instrumental guitar riffs no matter how long but never listened to the rest of album so glad I got the chance to do it.
I was not a fan of this one. I knew of Cohen because of Hallelujah but this was more like a crooner and not a great one in my opinion. Didn’t really enjoy his voice on these songs and then also didn’t enjoy the songs that much.
Started off sounding like I was playing Luigi’s Mansion, cool eerie rock sound. But after that I struggled, I think I’m finding I do not enjoy British punk from this time period, it all sounds the same with the same guitar tone and similar blues riff throughout each song (I like my new house’s riff but don’t enjoy the lyrics along with it).
This was a cool album. Song #2 is a CLASSIC hockey song that I have known forever but they had a unique rock sound to the rest of their stuff that had a good blend of harder and softer rock elements to it. They don’t have the obnoxious voice sound some of the British artists have so that was a big bonus too.
White boy British reggae, let’s get into it. As I listened to this it sort of gave me vibes of if The Beach Boys decided to go reggae so I was unsurprised when I saw that they were British and not from the Caribbean. The album was solid, nothing bad, nothing amazing, just good. Made me feel a little more tropical as the snow was falling outside but not music I would seek out. Good harmonies and beats, nothing memorable though. Average album for me.
Hell yes, Flavor Flav and Terminator X let’s do it…
Right off the bat, Chuck D is fucking awesome. He has such a good voice for rap/hip-hop that flows well with their beats and blends well with Flav’s higher voice for his raps and ad libs. Lyrically solid, enjoyed all of the songs, laughed at A Letter to NY Post since a diss track to a newspaper is pretty funny but it was a good diss track!
Overall enjoyed the album, I find myself comparing most of the hip hop to this time to how I like Tribe and this is close but not enough for me to give a five.
Uhhh, this kind of album makes me wonder who the hell the critics are that decided this makes the cut. This was weird. I feel like the genre was experimental and in my opinion the experiment failed. I have never said “what the fuck and i listening to” more than in the 39 minutes of the album. The one good song was the first 4 minutes of Alafib and then Wyatt opens his mouth and ruined it.
This album was nails on a chalkboard turned into music, between his voice and the instruments that sounded like birds dying, this was just not for me and I don’t know how it’s for anyone else. Would give 0 stars if I could.
I didn’t realize Eric Clapton was in bands but figured it out when I saw Layla. I enjoyed this! His guitar is soo good and Layla has like a top 5 guitar riff of all time.
There have been so many British rock albums on this and I feel like so many of them just sound the same. This is one those. Kind of fun and reminds me of Tears for Fears or REM but there’s just no real separation.
This was much better than the previous David Bowie album and I enjoyed some of the songs on this one. Starman was definitely my favorite and also the only one I heard before. I like albums that tell a story throughout and this was one of them, but outside of starman, there just wasn’t a lot of memorable songs for me.
I’ve listened to Me and Bobby McGee before (thank you Kris Kristoffersson for that gem) and really enjoyed Janis’s voice on that one. That feeling can be shared to the rest of the songs on this album, she has such a powerful and raw voice with great lyrics and rock elements on all of the songs.
Cry Baby is so raw and you can feel the emotion pouring out in her voice, Trust Me as well. What a sad story that this had to be released post humorously. It makes sense that this exalted her even further as this was one of the most complete albums I’ve listened to in this challenge with the vocals, lyrics, rock and blues elements, passion and raw talent. Truly a tragedy we didn’t get more music from her.
Nothing that stood out on this one in either direction. Good music, just nothing memorable for me.
This was actually pretty good. I know she was friends with Tribe so it makes sense that her style and flow are somewhat similar. Not sure how many female hip hop artists were around at the time but she had to have been one of the best.
Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. Very middle of the road for me. I feel like sometimes there was some screaming just for the sake of screaming which I didn’t love but average rock album
