My dad used to play this album on our annual family road trip to Florida during the first week of February as we retreated from the cold to escape somewhere warmer. No matter how often I return to listen to it on my own I find it to be straight forward and comforting. However, I will refuse to acknowledge that my preference for it is completely skewed by nostalgic bliss, but instead as I listen to it now as the summer heat relentlessly blasts 100°F temperatures I will unabashedly rave about this album and the sounds of Van Morrison as being about the joys of life during summer.

I too often unfairly dismissed Franz Ferdinand as a one hit wonder due to the degree Take Me Out overshadows their entire discography, but the album as a whole does stand up on it's own and features a few other songs that can match it.

Not impressed by this classic rock album. For some of the slower songs I did enjoy the sounds of folk rock allowing for the lyrics to shine through and to create moments of thoughtful reflection. Sad Memory was a standout. But I just could not find myself interested in this as a whole. Buffalo Springfield remains a one hit wonder to me for For What It's Worth with only a few other songs I would want to revisit.

each song is too long and unnecessarily drags on just for Jimi to make every second a vanity project for him to show off how amazing he is at playing guitar

💯

At the beginning of this album I thought about how it is a quintessential example of a punk album that on a modern day relisten comes off as no longer being relevant when comparing it to the genre as a whole after it's release, even if it was transgressive for the period it was released in and for the genre it pioneered it has an undeniably impactful legacy. But in 2025 listening to God Save the Queen and Johnny Rotten yelling about England's fascist regime it continues to feel pointedly sharp in it's continued relevance.

One of my favorite atmospheric albums ever, it perfectly captures a sullen melancholy mood in a setting that feels like a dimly-lit smoke-filled cocktail lounge.