Not entirely sure it needed all ofthe 13 minute song, and this is from a Godspeed fan. Opening song was good - actually it’s amazing, but the next few didn’t really grab me until the singles. I’m glad I listened to it, but I didn’t love most of it.
Interesting to hear some blues from before Hendrix (and the original I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man), but I think I just prefer Jimi Hendrix. I realise that if this is the first blues live album, it’s fairly important, so for that reason I’m glad I listened - I might try some other Muddy Waters, but I don’t think I’ll listen to this again.
Not as much of a fan as I used to be (they’re a great band when you’re a teenager) but I still enjoyed most of this album. The bonus disc is largely a waste of time, you could lose half the songs because they’re either earlier versions of the album tracks, worse versions of songs that are already on Pisces Iscariot (the main reason the bonus tracks are a bit thin - could have been a really good three disc package), or worth the listen but just buried under everything else.
I don’t think this is really an album people “should” listen to, although with the themes of most of the lyrics, it does still fit “before you die”. But if you’re into rock, grunge or shoegaze (I can definitely appreciate the shoegaze influences more now than when I was listening to it 20 years ago), it’s a fun listen. He’s not the best singer, but who is?
Just not really enough variety to want to listen to it again. Give me The White Stripes or QOTSA any day. I realise that this band influenced a lot of bands and albums that I like, but that’s because they did it better, with more variation on even one song than this has over the whole album. When there’s not much progression in the songs, it just makes it boring to listen to.
Just a really good album that rocks hard
Other than Wild Horses, none of the songs really grabbed me. Might revisit.
Much more than just the American indie influences, think it still holds up
Expected to give this a 2 or lower, but it’s a 3. Had only heard the singles back in the day - didn’t even realise Holiday was from American Idiot. Managed to miss Greenday completely in my punk phase, I guess because the narrative was they’d already gone commercial? It’s an ok album, never really boring.
I'd never say that Hot Fuss didn’t have great singles, although I preferred the darker 80s music that Interpol pulled from
It really is mainly the first two songs, rest of the album isn’t bad but it does fall off a bit. Think it also suffers a bit from those songs being so well-known, that it was an album of songs I was either tired of or just wasn’t that into. First album that I’m not really sure why it’s on this list, if Drukqs or Selected Ambient Works II isn’t on there, or The Knife. No-one needs to hear this, it’s not good enough or challenging enough, and it’s already been on adverts. Don’t hate it, but I could have happily missed it completely.
A Forest is just a fucking banger. Rest of the album kind of fades away in comparison, but having such a strong song more than makes up for that, especially when it’s such a short album. (On a re-listen, I changed this from 4 to a 5)
Liked it more than I thought I would, still don’t really think it’s for me.
Had a lot of fun, although someone should definitely clear the rights up so it can be properly released on streaming.
I don’t think anyone else has made a song as good as Isi. Doesn’t feel as disjointed as it should do, with both sides of the album having almost completely different creative direction. I think this is slightly better than Neu! 72, because it doesn’t have any bad songs on it, although Negativland is another all-time song for me.
A few dud songs, but when it's good, it's very good, especially the singles. It's a Fall album, if you're expecting perfection you're listening to the wrong band
Just a phenomenal album. First Neil
Young album I'd seriously listened to, even though Heart Of Gold was inescapable.
I just can’t really get into A Sailor’s Life, which hangs over the whole album. Just don’t quite get this, although Percy's Song is compelling
Best song (Strawberry Fields) isn’t even on the album - although A Day In The Life is also fine. Probably won’t listen to it again, but it’s alright.
A defining 90s classic
Fuck ‘em, and their law
Relisten to the first two Prodigy albums every few years, and think they’re still very good, especially Jilted Generation - in hindsight, a clear stepping stone on the way to Boards Of Canada (you could easily hide 3 Kilos in MHTRTC), the best to ever do it.
Not really for me, but can’t deny that there’s some iconic covers here
One of the best to ever do it. Just a phenomenal album, might be in my top 10. There’s not really a bad song on this, and even if there was it’s over in 2 minutes and on to the next one. A few bands have tried to rip them off, and you can’t really blame them.
Just about worth tracking down, if it’s good enough for Mark E. Smith then it’s good enough for me. I don’t think there’s enough there for me, but I don’t regret listening.
Maybe there was a lot of hype, but I still like this album. Another of the few times that NME didn’t lie to us.
No way near as good as Five Leaves Left, to me - all the songs just sound the same. Maybe worth a relisten?
Another all-time classic, if you don’t like it then you should just get better taste.
More or less invented modern rock music and guitar playing (or was at least the best to do it at the time), and still holds up today. Can only have more admiration to Jimi Hendrix cos I’ve tried to play some of it, man was cooking.
Just such a strong album, both in terms of themes and musically. If this is a modern protest album then the last 15 years shows the limit of what that can achieve, although when she sings “I’m gonna take my problem to the United Nations”, even at the time the singer and the audience both knew what that would achieve, so it’s probably an unfair way to judge the album when the only realistic outcome is raising some kind of awareness of Western atrocities and war crimes.
And it slaps.
Don’t really know how to rate this, because by design it’s pleasant while not really giving much to engage with. It’s fine, but not really what I’d choose to listen to.
Probably the best Sonic Youth album, if you don’t like this then you’re probably not going to like anything by them, or most of 90s US indie rock. It’s like if Trout Mask Replica was actually good (I don’t know, haven’t listened yet)
Just a classic album really, 40 minutes and 11 great songs. Not sure what it's really about, other than rock stars and drugs
A bit more to it than the grunge throwback the first few singles seemed to be. Alright, but I did fine without listening to it for so long - another one that maybe represents the era (and NME), but probably doesn’t belong in the list.
When they called this Raw Power, they weren't joking. Not sure which mix was on the original release, but I think I go with Iggy.
