I can hear the passion in the performance, but the songs just don’t do much for me other than take me back to a time I never existed in. There’s a nice innocence in it all.
Sound wise there’s too much reverb on his voice sometimes, kinda this plate with too much echo. The bass is a bit too clunky and loud. Some songs go on too long without doing much of anything. Sometimes Van’s voice is grating.
Super inventive melodies and beautiful singing. The mixing is a bit too hollow 80s sounding sometimes with everything feeling a bit separate from each other. But still an enjoyable album.
Some very interesting melodies and rhythms and ideas, but not as immediate or atmospheric as some other Bowie stuff stuff I've heard. Will definitely go back and listen again but I think I need to spend more time with it over the months and years etc. Was nice to be introduced to it because I've always skipped this album.
I mean, it's Metallica... I'm not in high school and I wasn't born yet in the '80s so they don't really do anything for me. It's fine, and I did like some of the songs back when I was in high school (Unforgiven, Sandman, etc.), but I'd never listen to it now. It gets a 3.
I know I gave Sade's Diamond Life a 5, but something about that album just pulled me in. It made my ears happy and I guess, caught in that little reverie, I gave it a 5. But Sister Sledge doesn't do that for me. It's just kinda boring. It's just "there." It's what you expect disco sounds like. It just keeps going and going and all the moving parts work together but there's no spark. Even "We Are Family" is kinda grating.
This is a good album. Some of the songs are actually really nice, like "Skeletons."
But it has too much of that 2010 indie sound. Big super compressed and distorted drums; lots of toms and a fat fuzzy kick. Has too much of that ballsy 'rawk' guitar ala Cage The Elephant, etc. Too much of that canned grandiosity. Like... a Target ad or something.
Again, I don't hate this. I don't even dislike it. I was 19 when this came out so I went to college with this sound. I can totally listen to it and have it on and understand who this was for.
It's definitely better than some of the other sound-alike indie of the time, but I still don't think I would listen to it again.
Also, I think I have to change my rating criteria. 1 is I hated it, 2 is boring/meh/fine/whatever, 3 is I liked it but still wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it, 4 is great I really liked it, and then 5 is mind-blowing changed-my-life material.
Honestly pretty boring. I think this one might get a 2, because it just does absolutely nothing for me. It fades squarely into the background. Not even squarely, because at least squares have edges.
Musically, it’s nice to listen to. It’s like hot cocoa on a snowy Sunday morning with the fire going, which I know is what Swift was going for here. But it’s a little too white-woman Instagram for me.
For some reason it’s hard for me to listen to what she’s saying, even though she sings clearly. The lyrics are like diary entries from someone who romanticizes the concept of a diary, not from an actual diary.
She also has a few “true crime” murder-mystery type Agatha Christie songs which also just sound like rich people at a dinner party thing. None of it is bad but just a bit bland.
Everything is also pretty much the same tempo and the same energy, so after a while it starts to blend together. It’s more like a collection of songs than an album I would choose to listen to in full. And/or it’s background music for a wine, cheese and board-game night with the girls.
That said, Willow has a great melody and guitar line. Closure also jumped out at me bc it’s in 5/4, which for Taylor Swift might as well be prog rock.
This is tough for me. I can appreciate that it’s historically an important album as a progenitor for “heavy metal,” but I don’t like metal and I can’t stand blues rock. So none of this does anything for me.
It might be more powerful if the recording were better, or if I were alive when it came out. But listening to it now… it’s pretty flabby, the drummer needs more practice, and it’s just freaking boring. Blooz lick after blooz lick, “Awwww yeah babyyy!!” Led Zeppelin type stuff. And yeah I don’t like Led Zeppelin either.
There are a couple of sections that leave blues behind, though, and almost get into 80s indie punk territory with how they repeat, and droning guitar, bass and drum line. Those kick it up from 1 to 2 stars.
I’d never listened to Thin Lizzy before, and at first I was like “alright, I get it. Hair metal.” But then I started really getting into it, and realized they’re not just hair metal. They’re definitely a bit Whitesnake/Kiss, etc., but they also have a Billy Joel-ish sound. More often than not they remind me of the stuff my dad listened to when I was growing up.
They’re also great at their instruments and play with emotion. “Still in Love With You” is beautiful, as is “Southbound.” Of course they’ve also got the fun bangers. Just a great band and I wouldn’t be surprised if I keep listening.
The Allman Brothers are my dad's favorite band, so I heard a lot of them growing up. He's said multiple times At Fillmore East is regarded as one of the "greatest live albums of all time." Don't tell my dad, but I never really liked them growing up. Still, I figured I'd give the album a fair shot here.
And after giving it a shot... I still don't like it.
I don't really like blues, or southern blues rock. It doesn't do anything to my brain. That said, I love The Mars Volta, and I feel like Duane Allman's solo-ing might do to my dad's brain what Omar Rodriguez' solo-ing does to my brain. It's the same idea, just different execution for different generations. Maybe one of the reasons I don't like it is because, to me, it's predictable. That could be because I listened to it growing up all the freaking time, so I've internalized these patterns. It's just so familiar and basic to me.
This could be why kids will never like the music they hear from their parents growing up as much as their parents do. It will never be "new" to them. They will never have "discovered" this music, because it was spoon fed to them just like their baby food was. It's too familiar to them in a way that becomes boring. We all want new-ness, to an extent, when we're teenagers and we're discovering music for the first time.
So, I don't think The Allman Brothers are bad by any means. But personally they don't do anything for me. I'll give this a 3 out of respect for my dad, and because Whipping Post is an actual jam. But the rest of it is not my bag.
Oh, and also there's a frequency on Duane's guitar that just GRATES in my ears. Like some kind of high mids piercing, shrill frequency I would cut so hard if I were mixing this thing now.
I love this album, Air is one of my favorites. Very chill music but still catchy and sonically deep. I personally prefer Talkie Walkie, maybe because it was the first I'd heard, but Moon Safari is more cohesive and meditative. Awesome album.
I'm an Elton John fan in passing, but I'd never sat down and listened to this whole thing. I liked it at first (who doesn't like Tiny Dancer?), and was feeling a strong 4, but when Madman Across the Water came on with that jazzy guitar and bass riff it launched this mofo into 5-star territory. I love repetitive, droning riffs like that when they're tight and catchy. It just locks into something they can really jam on with feeling, but never loses its structure. What a great song.
Rest of the album is great, too.
This album is part of my teenage identity. My friend Nayane gave me the CD when we were on foreign exchange back in 2006, and it's still one of my favorites today. "Someday" basically makes me tear up with nostalgia every time it comes on. Thanks Nayane!
6 out of 5 stars.
That said, the earlier version of The Modern Age is better than the album version (they slowed it down too much).
Not my thing. The songs are boring, mixing is too bass heavy. I don’t understand the point of those super mid-cut guitars. It’s supposed to sound heavy and “powerful,” but it just makes everything sound flabby. Drums sound like toys. It’s the irony of our time that heavy metal tends to be the lamest, doinkiest shit.
I like the instrumentation, specifically the bass. Sometimes it gives me a cozy wintery vibe for whatever reason. That said nothing super duper grabbed me.
