A really solid first album, as classic as classic rock gets. Love the foaminess of the guitars, and most of the tracks have great momentum, as well as just good vocals. The writing isn’t necessarily poetic, but that’s not the point here I don’t think, and I liked it anyway.
I did feel that it started off really well and then kinda slowed down after about the halfway point, but that’s forgiveable.
Favorite track: Jamie’s Cryin’
Least Facorite Track: Atomic Punk
I’d heard of Count Basie before, but had never really been introduced to his work before this.
Typically it takes me a bit to really get into a jazz album, and this was no different, in that I couldn’t differentiate the songs in my mind super well at first, but by the third listen or so as I was trying to pick out my favorites I was seeing the vision and I began to love a good number of the songs.
Not a single song on here I would say is “bad”, although a couple are still a little forgettable. In general, atomic is an excellent description.
Favorite track: Li’l Darlin’, though it wasn’t easy to choose
I was surprised by how much I liked this album, once again. There are easily some 10/10ers on this set, and this could easily be a 9 for me except for the fact that there are just a couple of random tracks that being it down just a bit.
This guy’s piano is so good I sometimes forget it’s not someone singing background vocals. Like seriously, it feels like his piano is alive.
I also found that the songs on this album were very internally consistent, and I basically knew when I was going to love a song within the first 20 seconds, even though the whole thing is 6 minutes long.
I wasn’t familiar with this group, and I actually liked their sound a lot. Very groovy, blues-y when they wanted to be, and even quite dramatic at times.
This album had relatively few tracks for its listening time, and they definitely make you work for it as you listen, since there are lots of lulls and random rises back to volume. It felt very mysterious, and even after two and a half full listens I still felt like some songs were beyond my comprehension.
Thus guy had some absolutely CRAZY grooves, and when listening I felt like I was simultaneously a spy carrying out some kind of heist and like I was busting it down at some party. Once Jorge finds a momentum he likes he starts running with it and then all kinds of fun instruments and vocal backings join along to great effect. You don’t even need to understand what he’s saying to know exactly what this guy is about.
Nothing against this album, the guitar was good, there were some neat kinda space-y sections that I liked, the vocals were alright, though I’m not sure I’d go back and listen to any of these songs on a whim. 5/10
Liked the harmonica and banjo, and it was good jazz in general, but didn’t particularly stand out to me, and I was a little disappointed with the lyricism, though I know that’s not everything.
Also hilarious as a live album