Painful 70s fusion. Pulled up from a 1 by a few songs, such as Parker's Band.
Slughtly hard to rate. The hits are catchy but so familiar, the album tracks are not very interesting.
A mixture of the excellent and the intriguingly weird. Mind-expanding when I first heard it.
The emotion of Syd Barrett's absence adds to this. I am not as violently opposed to prog as I was in younger days. But my old view that this is still the slow, noodly music that punk was sent to destroy still holds in part.
I had listened to very little Prince. I think primarily because I took him not to have been making music in my favourite genres, and I'd not enjoyed the famous singles enough to seek out the albums. This was therefore a first listen to a full Prince album. I won't say I'm a convert and probably wouldn't put this on very often, but I did enjoy it much more than expected, even if it lacks a stand-out track.
The first 5 songs are of course unbelievably catchy. Have I heard a single song played more at indie clubs and parties over 20 years than Mr Brightside? The second half of the album drops off and something about even the great pop tunes on this album never seemed like it was coming from a particularly interesting place. I didn't follow their later work at all and I think that sameness is one reason for that.
Embarrassingly, I quite liked even the guitar solo on Brighton Rock, and Killer Queen is very catchy. But this became less of a reassessment as it went on, the sound is not compelling when the melody isn't compelling enough, and the Leroy Brown song is very irritating. Still, 3 is higher than I would have thought.
At one point in my life, when I had such a thing as a favourite band, Pixies were it. I hadn't listened to this in full in many years, though Allison and Velouria pop into my head on a regular basis, not least when i meet someone called Allison. Heard in full, it is still great and it might not lose a star if it didn't come after Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, but it doesn't quite hit those heights.
Liked this more than I thought I might, but ultimately it was the bits that sounded like singles that I liked, which is not the spirit of prog.
First experience listening to a whole Neil Young album, possibly apart from Harvest. Had liked various songs without ever looking much deeper, partly because I do find his voice off-putting. But this was good and grew on repeated listens.
I have boundless affection for Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.
First album I've received through this by a group I'd never heard of. Mildly enjoyable in places, but I can't imagine seeking it out again.
Perhaps lyrically a tad silly in places, but it has a scattering of brilliant songs and the mix of orchestral pop and metal keeps it interesting.
Lots to like on this, not least Mitchell's voice and the inventiveness of many of the songs. But I don’t really like the laid-back jazz-pop vibe.
I can appreciate the craft of this and the vocals, but I just do not enjoy the lounge-y, smooth jazz-pop which is a big ingredient here.
Enjoyable, mostly bluesy rock, but not capturing my heart.
Enjoyable, nonsensical stuff, though the best song is the Eddie Cochran cover. It would never have occurred to me to think of this as the birth of metal, though I can kind of see it. Even claimed as the birth of punk, which I cannot.
I liked Love Removal Machine and none of it was bad. But this just sounded like generic rock.
I enjoyed the mood of this overall, particularly some of the movie dialogue sampling and the Iranian vocalist. The woozier parts work better for me than the more funky bits, and I think Czukay's own vocals on Cool in the Pool are not the best start to the album. Czukay's previous band Can are stronger in this regard. I think this is the sort of thing where you may end up giving points for its historic impact in helping to introduce electronic music and particular sampling into rock, which is now very familiar (and something I personally first encountered with The Avalanches c. 2001). Probably won't play regularly but glad that I was prompted to try it.
After 2 songs, I thought this album was brilliant. After more, when that quality had tailed off, less so. A shorter album might have been more focused. But I like the vocal style of Robert Smith, and this album has some very high highlights.
Every Breath You Take is a great tune, though not particularly representative of the album. Some arty spirit in Mother. But they will never be a band for me.
Quite fun, enjoyed lots of this. Feela a bit of a strange inclusion for a list without that much hip hop, and I can't imagine it is still making anyone's top 1000 20 years on.
Wonderful voice, relaxed style.
A classic, even if metal is a genre I cannot take at all seriously. I'm not sure I had attended to the lyrics of Run to the Hills before, certainly I had forgotten its anti-colonial lyrics.
Off-putting name, placed in an off-putting genre (funk-rock), but I thought this sounded great and was thr product of a fearless band.
