Funky jams. Kind of makes me sad that "music" isn't actual instruments being played anymore. Apart from groovin' and playin', not a lot else going on here. Fine as background music.
I was doing ok on this album until "Sylvia plath" which I thought "oh this song is awful it must be the album closer" but nope! Still 40 minutes of music to go... Entire back half was a slog. Album seems devoid of originality and I can't really imagine why it's on a list of stuff that we "must" listen to before we die
Excellent front half, more like "Very good" back half. Though all the experimental songs there do eventually get goin'. Can hear echoes of later Bowie in the catchiness of the musings.
This album rocks HARD. Love the screaming and the progressive nature of Child In Time. Perfect for headbangin' to. Can hear some glimpses of "Smoke on the Water" through the latter half of the album. Wife hated it.
Not good. Meandering and devoid of melody. "Jean Genie" is ok.
A lot of experimental sounds that are purposefully off-putting. Good tunes lurking underneath it all though, dragged down by "joe the lion" and similar silliness
Ok. Some muddled "freakazoid" and "anti-religion" lyrical messages, accompanied by progressive but tuneless prog-rock meandering. The flute isn't as bad as it could be. Steven Wilson's remaster is really good.
"Talkin World War III Blues" is awful. Same with "I Shall Be Free", this song sucks. A couple of good songs here ("Don't think twice, it's alright" and "Blowin in the wind"), but the rest is just a guy with a terrible singing voice bangin out some chords on an acoustic guitar and rambling.
Happy and jangly, like a Muppets album from the late 70s. Good tunes here, need to give it some repeated plays to let it sink in. Love the optimism and her crystal-clear voice, and Bela Fleck and co sound great as always.
Excruciating to listen to in places, this is a record I had to grit my teeth to get through. I kind of agree with the other reviewers who say it's completely devoid of melody - certainly nothing here will be stuck in my head. Still though, there's something a bit endearing about it... the sheer power and downwards-facing depressed outsiderness of a musician trying to figure it all out, it's at least honest.
Background music cratedigger sample splicing hiphop ish with some random noises thrown in. Not particularly interesting or memorable in any way
So awful I had to pause it to come up for air several times. For someone who poses on the cover as if he dislikes fame, he's certainly trying to court it with these "songs". Heinous lyricism abounds "These are strange days we are living in today Am I straight or am I gay? I hope I'm old before I die I hope I live to see the pope get high" barf "Clean?" made me wonder if this is all tongue in cheek, awful on purpose. There's an imitation Elton John song. The constant overly-dramatic but inauthentic references to death. The obviously self-centered worldview... not for me, I hope I never have to hear this one again
EEEEEEEEE-EH DEEE UHT WIIIIND What is with this guy's pronunciation? Is it a cover for his horrendous singing voice? Every time I think "hmm I might be making some headway with this guy" he then BLASTS off a screechy awful harmonica solo... There's a song that the guitar isn't even tuned right in. Is he trying to offend us? Awful forced rhymes... nah
At least this one was actually sonically interesting. Probably more of a 2.5 but the latter half songs were disconnected between the lyrics and the musical presentation, like they were doing different albums in different rooms and then just got slapped on top of each other.
Straight up jammin'. Comes really close to 'jazz' while staying pretty solidly in 'rock' groove. Varied instrumentation and interesting sounds and production techniques. The harshness of the violin in The Gumbo Variations (and the ridiculousness of the vocals in "Willie the Pimp") holds this back from a 4.
This is nice.
Refreshingly honest. Very punk, but with surprising tenderness at certain points. Brash and noisy, without being grating sonically. The lead singer is electric, as are the other two instrumentalists, and each pull the band in the direction they want, and the others move to catch up, in a super tight fashion.
Front-loaded with a bunch of great songs thrown together on an album that's simply way too long and unfocused to be great itself. High points: "Porcelain", "Why does my heart feel so bad", "Natural Blues" Low points: "Body rock", "South side", entire back half, terrible poetry
Proof that just because things make musical-sounding noise and play in the same key, it doesn't necessarily add up to "music" Some lyrics are way too dark and serious for the stupidly poppy and upbeat instrumentation, like a guy who wasn't part of the band is reading from a lyric sheet for someone else's music and making up the tuneless "melody" as he goes
The hyperbolic praise and mystique around this album is downright silly. Billy Joe set out to write "his own bohemian rhapsody" and then we ended up with two songs in a row about "omg gurls!!!" ? Musically the album is just wall to wall full of power chords, bass following the exact same pattern as the guitar, and lots of crash cymbals. Sonically it's only interesting in a couple of places (hello, middle of "Homecoming"). Features a couple of good, catchy songs ("Holiday", "Wake me up when september ends"). Overall though it just feels really inauthentic and "edgy" for the sake of it. Let's throw in 1 f bomb into our radio hits so that we still can make tons of money from them! While also criticizing the radio / media / whatever lowhanging fruit we can get our hands on! Blegh
Racist, misogynistic violence pornography set to sick beats Dr Dre is a genius with his beat production. Some great flow on display here too. Unexpected nuggets of wisdom and humour abound - Their seeming hypocrisy ("Don't listen to me" on Parental Guidance, "Don't do drugs" on Dope Man, "Don't do women or materialism" on I Ain't Tha 1) seems tongue-in-cheek and self-aware. Too dang much violence and profanity and bravado and machismo for that 5 though.
Boring, repetitive. Preachy Beats aren't that good so it falls flat when they rap about "rhythm making the body move" "Dawn of the dreads" is awful. Album ran out of steam and overran its creative output long before it ran out of play time. Could not wait for it to be over.
Funky jams. Kind of makes me sad that "music" isn't actual instruments being played anymore. Apart from groovin' and playin', not a lot else going on here. Fine as background music.
What a stupid closing track. Help Me Rhonda has the worst "faux fadeout fakeout" ever The rest of it is fine
Kind of gothic-y, sparse. Though I like the sound, there's not a lot going on here, no real reason to return to it.
The supporting shout outs from Hill every few words actually make their words have *less* impact. The skits are tedious. Still, they have talent and can write some earworms.
Clearly she's a talented singer. I struggle with the "women's sexuality female empowerment" vibe while also clearly posing for the male gaze and singing songs written and produced by men... also quite embarrassing album artwork to have on your monitor at work, ha. Album kind of lacks cohesiveness and might be a little too long. The song about her father beating her mom is clearly out of place, and the Spanish elements sprinkled throughout are cool but inconsistent. The rapper popping on for 30 seconds of "Dirrty" felt disrespectful to that genre as a whole.
Every member of the band working hard and working together to create a cohesive sound. Bravo!
Horrible and disconnected, lacking in cohesiveness. Like a guy came up with some beats after hearing that DnB was a thing and then sent it to the singer who was forced to just kind of make up some lyrics and make them fit in tunelessly.
Boring. They're a band, I guess...
Too many random noises sprinkled throughout and silence / nothing musical happening in Moonchild to be Great for me. "In the Court of the Crimson King" is a great track though. I can see peoples' minds being absolutely blown by this when it came out, seeing as they're contemporaries with the likes of the Beatles and the Carpenters. Too experimental and abstract in many sections for my liking though.
"Scorpio" sucks. "The Message" is ok. "The adventures of..." is someone who's just discovered how a dj turntable works. A lot of this is really dated though, and the album leans on good-natured silliness.
Silly and noisy in parts, this album is best when the band is all driving together towards their musical goals. They seemed to run out of inspiration halfway through though and the back half of the album was a slog.
Band isn't entirely playing together in some places in the album, like they just heard the singer come in with a great idea and they all just tried to wing it and play along. Is "Jemima Surrender" about rape? Couldn't wait for it to be over.
Great and groovin. Rhythm sections sounds perfectly in sync. I preferred the "jamacian version" frmo the 2001 "Deluxe edition" bc the bass seems over-emphasized to the point of distortion in the original. This may turn into a 5 with repeated listens.
What terrible mastering, all the loud parts are distorted and over-modulated. Makes you understand how people could listen on super rolled-off speakers or phono cartridges and still think they sound good... Songs are good, rockin and rollin and reelin, good musicianship, will never listen again :)
A Simple Desultory Philippic is both a hit track and apt impression of Bob Dylan? Lol. Either way, it's completely out of place on a bunch of nice songs that go together well by two musicians clearly at their artistic prime.
I was doing ok on this album until "Sylvia plath" which I thought "oh this song is awful it must be the album closer" but nope! Still 40 minutes of music to go... Entire back half was a slog. Album seems devoid of originality and I can't really imagine why it's on a list of stuff that we "must" listen to before we die
Sounds nice, but devoid of creativity or melody or interesting musical ideas. 80s overproduction over meandering instrumentals. This band is like... some guy wrote a bunch of poems, his neighbor happened to run a music studio and said "oh I've got a crack team of musicians who can make this into music for SURE!" then kinda produced this smash of weird lyrics and musical sounding noise with no direction or passion or cohesiveness
Pleasant to listen to , easy on the ears except for some shrill recording segments of her voice, that woman has some serious pipes and range tho.
Straightforward, take no prisoners unrelenting driving rhythms and melodies. Doesn't overstay its welcome (much) at 29 minutes. I guess it could be more varied in its sonics but they know what they're about. I can see a generation of kids picking up a guitar after listening to this and then learning to play along. Is that Cut Copy's Dan Whitford singing the woo-oohs in "I don't wanna walk around with you"? Sounds just like him.
Album has one dated misstep on "And you tell me" but apart from that it's fresh, creative, high-energy, nuanced, complex, and highly catchy.
WAY too much going on with this album.
If you look up "masterpiece" in the dictionary I'm pretty sure it just has this album cover