Journey in Progress
Discovering music one album at a time
313
Albums Rated
3.02
Avg Rating
33
5-Star Albums
29%
Complete
Rating Speed
6.9
Per Week
316
Days Active
Reviews
27
Written
9%
Review Rate
vs Global
-0.27
Avg Diff
3.02
Avg Rating
Rating Distribution
How you rate albums
Rating Timeline
Average rating over time
Ratings by Decade
Which era do you prefer?
Activity by Day
When do you listen?
Taste Profile
1980s
Favorite Decade
Post-punk
Favorite Genre
UK
Top Origin
Balanced
Rater Style
29
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
Genre Preferences
Ratings by genre
Origin Preferences
Ratings by country
Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scum | 5 | 2.07 | +2.93 |
| Damaged | 5 | 2.87 | +2.13 |
| Out of Step | 5 | 2.92 | +2.08 |
| Safe As Milk | 5 | 3.01 | +1.99 |
| Autobahn | 5 | 3.09 | +1.91 |
| Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo | 5 | 3.12 | +1.88 |
| Little Earthquakes | 5 | 3.22 | +1.78 |
| Fun House | 5 | 3.28 | +1.72 |
| Bitches Brew | 5 | 3.3 | +1.7 |
| Pornography | 5 | 3.31 | +1.69 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blood Sugar Sex Magik | 1 | 3.5 | -2.5 |
| The Marshall Mathers LP | 1 | 3.49 | -2.49 |
| The Slim Shady LP | 1 | 3.29 | -2.29 |
| Django Django | 1 | 3.21 | -2.21 |
| Permission to Land | 1 | 3.15 | -2.15 |
| 461 Ocean Boulevard | 1 | 3.12 | -2.12 |
| Close To You | 1 | 3.11 | -2.11 |
| Pump | 1 | 3.11 | -2.11 |
| Golden Hour | 1 | 3.09 | -2.09 |
| Make Yourself | 1 | 3.07 | -2.07 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums and high weighted score
| Artist | Albums | Avg | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Cure | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| Nirvana | 2 | 5 | 3.8 |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 4.33 | 3.67 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums and low weighted score
| Artist | Albums | Avg | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eminem | 2 | 1 | 2.2 |
| U2 | 3 | 2 | 2.5 |
5-Star Albums (33)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
Incubus
“When I was a boy I was coming up through the 60’s and thought my adulthood was going to be the most radical years of my life, but when I got there it’s Pete Frampton in a kimono and I’m like cmon man.”
- Mike Watt, Minutemen. American Hardcore documentary.
I feel I can relate as someone coming up through the 90’s and when you get to that age you start exploring music and alternative culture this is what was happening.
What a weird time. Incubus is one of those bands fondly remembered by those of us coming around in the turn to the 21st century as the thing to move forward rock music. Kurt Cobain died 5 years ago and all these alternative hard rock bands were coming up. You had the post grunge bands of Foo Fighters, Bush, and the whole lollapalooza thing going on. You had the nu metal and rap rock bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, coal chamber, deftones. You had the funky rock bands like faith no more, Red Hot Chili Peppers, or sublime. This album is 1999 so Metallica’s already been stripped down to a shell of their former selves, cutting their hair, battling drug addictions and suffering the success of being the biggest hard rock band on the planet after still making #1 on billboard with the likes of Load and Reload. Creed’s first couple albums came out and we had Human Clay and the song Higher all over the place, so butt rock wasn’t too far off.
Incubus didn’t fall comfortably into any of these and fell by the wayside. I feel like by 2003 or 2004 the band was pretty much forgotten as a relic of that period in the 90’s when gen x was of age, and the oldest millennials weee following along ready to take over their spot in the generational limelight just as quickly with their weird middle children of modern history and pop culture. Before y2k and the world was turned on its hinges. A time of peace and possible stability as humanity marches forward into the new climax of the species.
But come on guys, this album didn’t age well in that regard and is one of the things that will go on to be a footnote once gen x and elder millennials let go of their nostalgia, and I get it. I heard Stellar and Drive on the radio a ton back then, my reminiscence of youth when my first girlfriend played the ballad “I miss you” when we weren’t hanging out and told me about it on our landlines. The nostalgia is ripe to be there but overall this album is a snooze fest and the songs aren’t particularly notable to me any more. This whole era of music was just a sterile facility of friendly enough rock bands that didn’t need to take a risk to sell albums and incorporate the most banal and mundane pieces of the grunge wave of the earliest part of the decade or creative works of Mike Patton. It’s the equivalent of Godsmack to me who took such a legendary band like Alice In Chains (who managed to escape a lifestyle as a washed up glam cover band and made a distinct style for themselves incorporating Black Sabbath’s riffs, harmonized vocals into the Seattle grunge scene to make it a bit heavier) and found the worst parts of their music to form their own career off of (honestly, even the song god smack off dirt is the one song I like to skip when I play that record).
Linkin park was hot on their heels and would eventually out do Incubus with their debut album Hybrid Theory in sales and just being a more consistent vision, but you can hear the parallels. Some of the ballads, the rapping sections in a few middle the album tracks and even the DJ turntable instrumental that was basically copied by LP on their first album with Mr Hahn’s Cure for the Itch. Still, that’s not enough to save Incubus and this album while commercially successful wasn’t enough for this band to survive modern relevance and I think younger people won’t really find the appeal they had.
Also the band name is probably one of the greatest missed shots in band name history. Incubus would be perfect for one of their 80’s goth rock, dark wave, industrial kind of bands, even taking note of the hit song from Xmal deutschland’s incubus succubus song, but alas it became the band that was a foot note in alternative rock and never really fit into any of the scenes burgeoning around them at the time, even lamented by the members who weren’t punk enough for warped and not metal enough for Ozzfest. One and done.
1 likes
The Doors
[One afternoon at a record store. A customer walks in.]
Customer: "Excuse me."
Clerk: "Yeah?"
"Do you have the new Depeche Mode record?"
"Yeah it's over there, but it sucks."
"Well, do you have the latest Pixies album?"
"Yeah, but it sucks. All that new stuff sucks, but it's over there." *points, the customer reconsiders*
"You know, actually, I was thinking of getting into something more vintage anyway, like I don't know, maybe The Doors?"
"Really? I never had you figured for a Doors fan."
*Shrugs* "I'm not really a Doors fan, but sure, I'd like to get into them."
"No, no, no my friend. Doors fans aren't made. They're born. I think right now there's some guy in Africa madly beating on a drum. He's a Doors fan. Or an old lady on the bus sucking humbugs. She's a Rider on the Storm, but she ain't never heard the sounds. So, what about you?" *Snaps fingers*
"Well I heard a record of theirs last night at a party-" "uh huh" "-and i've always liked 'Love Her Madly.'"
"Well if you become a Doors fan, 'Love Her Madly' is the only song you WON'T LIKE."
"Oh right. I guess I should start with their greatest hits."
"Hey! Greatest hits albums are for house wives and little girls! You're not serious! You don't wanna be a Doors fan! Get out of my store! We're closed! Get out of here!"
"No, nonono! I want you to show me the way!"
*The clerk hesitates* "Was that a Frampton reference in my store?"
*New doors fan is horrified at his mistake* "No. Nono. No lyrics, just words. Just words. Words."
*Clerk moves toward the album racks, directing the new doors fan* "All right. If you want to be a Doors fan you can't just go buy any album. It's scientific."
"Sure."
"You gotta buy this," *flips through vinyl record stack* "'Waiting for the Sun'. It's the departure point." *kisses cover* "Listen to it every night around dusk for about a month."
"Sounds good, then what?"
"Who's playing bass?"
*new doors fan flips over record jacket and reads liner notes* "Uh...no one."
"No bass."
"No bass?"
"The gypsy's had no homes, The Doors had no bass, but don't let that scare you, my friend, let that liberate you. Because when you're free flying with the doors man, what do you need a safety net for?"
*the new doors fan raises fist* "VIVA LA DOORS!"
"VIVA LA DOORS! All right! But listen, there's a burden that every real Doors fan has gotta live with. It's a fact that the greatest Rock n Roll band of all time is never gonna play live again." *tears up* "Can't live in the past."
"No wait, there's hope. I heard once that Iggy Pop is gonna front them, and the Doors will tour again."
"Where did you hear that?"
"Oh, I heard it somewhere"
"Yeah? Read it in your precious Creem magazine, maybe? Well it's not gonna happen!"
"Well, how do ya know that?"
"Because somebody told me."
"Well, who told you?"
"Do you wanna know who told me?"
"Oh yeah."
"JIM F---ING MORRISON TOLD ME! THAT'S WHO!"
*Customer runs through the door* "Do you guys have the latest Depeche Mode album?"
[New doors fan]: "SUUUUUUCKS!"
[Customer runs back out, the shop clerk returns to the new doors fan]
"I forgive you, here." *goes behind the counter, searching, and pulls out an 8 track cassette.* "Take this, it's an 8 track tape. One of the last in existence. I want you to steal a car-"
"I have a car."
"-Steal a car-"
"Steal a car."
"-get it in and drive west. Play the tape full blast. When the tape ends, get out, get into a fight. Then get back into the car, come to town, and meet me at the Cargas club."
"And what will you do?"
"I will let you in to the most prestigious hotel of all time."
"Which is?"
*Looks down and taps the 8 track tape in the new doors fan's hands."
"Morrison Hotel."
"Then what?"
"Then...you're gonna be a Doors fan, man!"
1 likes
4-Star Albums (50)
1-Star Albums (29)
