Perhaps it is because I have heard "In Your Eyes" a million times but it is difficult to really say with confidence that (at least, as far as So goes,) Peter Gabriel succeeds in the realm of romantic ballads... That isn't to say that he is bad at gentle tunes because I do really enjoy "Mercy Street" and "Don't Give Up." Really great album :)
Listening to this with no prior knowledge about the Beastie Boys my knee jerk reaction is that this has to be satirical. Constant references to White Castle, beer, school lockers, "wasting" enemies, their intense desire to let everyone know they are from Manhattan... It is obnoxious, repetitive, and does not appeal to me. I can see how young audiences in 1986 would have enjoyed it, and unfortunately I cannot ignore that many of these songs are to this day incredibly popular. Still, I did not enjoy one second of it. Not for me ! I suspect their later works might be better and more refined
Very gentle very chill cannot complain much
Pretty fun :) Can't go wrong with good old punk. Cannot say I am too much a fan of highly repetitive albums but I always like music that makes me want to break objects so I enjoyed it
This was a very pleasant surprise! I've remained relatively ignorant to the music of RHCP besides the popular ones your dad always listened to in like 2006. So to me they were just west coast Pearl Jam with some rapping. By the second song of Blood Sugar Sex Magik it became very clear to me that they were (are?) highly influenced by acts like P-Funk and dare I say Prince... Which I can always get behind :) The un-funky songs were pretty unremarkable to me, but still a welcome change of pace in keeping the album fresh for its 70 minute duration. How did I never realize they do funk rock... its like right there on their wikipedia page...
I found that this listen made me realize I don't really have a strong opinion on ABBA one way or another. THOUGH I will admit that there are much better ABBA songs out there. I appreciate its brief runtime given the lack of substance.
It is so interesting that without looking at any of the album's credits it is immediately clear to me which songs have greater involvement by Brian Wilson versus those that do not, despite the fact that I'm not a big Beach Boy Head; obviously the stronger songs on this one are few and far between since he did not have the same creative input as with previous albums. Experimentation is fun either way. Oh... As I am writing this I just learned that Brian Wilson passed yesterday... Fly high angel :)
By June 25, 1984, Prince was no longer with Denise Matthews, a woman whose history and eyes would seemingly aid in shaping all of his creative output until his untimely passing. Before its release he had already moved on from Purple Rain by January of that very year, beginning Around the World In A Day long before his most mainstream work went platinum. It almost seems like everything to Prince-- the music, the fashion, the people-- was a project he needed to expunge from his system the moment it stuck around too long.
If you couldn't tell it almost feels impossible at times for me to listen to Purple Rain (or any Prince album for the matter) without thinking of the context within which it was fashioned, but I figured today was a good opportunity to take Purple Rain for what it was; no film plot, no drama, nothing but the music. It is far from my favorite Prince album. There are many songs (and iterations of those placed on this final track listing) created during this stretch of time that I would have preferred to see the (official) light of day while he was still with us. It makes me terribly sad that this album, reflective of such a singular and easily consumable period in Prince's life, is what most people think of when they hear his name.
For this reason Purple Rain is most often reserved for putting on the CD during a long car ride. This time around I put on my nice headphones, set the EQ to something neutral, closed my eyes, and rode the purple wave for its entire duration. Nothing exciting revealed itself in this ~100th listen, beyond some sneaky little giggles and finger snaps that give the impression that Prince indeed was a human being. But what it did impart upon me was this infectious positivity. You cannot listen to any song off of Purple Rain without feeling some level of whimsy tickling your soul, even if you don't particularly like this brand of cheesy pop music. Thank u P for all the love you poured into these perfectly imperfect albums
I've always found Quincy Jones' production to have a really great eerie quality that lends itself well to Michael Jackson's banshee voice.
The first track tricks you into thinking there may be proggy elements present on this record but it certainly lies... It is woefully mediocre glam rock. I am not the biggest fan of the genre post-70s, though this is not the worst album I've ever heard.
Fun! There is always a soft spot in my heart for dissonant indie garbage from the 90s.
I'm sorry but listening to this I got a massive headache and it almost prevented me from finishing because it just kept getting worse and worse as the album went on and I was suddenly so very acutely aware of how I need to brush my teeth and I am NOWHERE near a hater of 90s britpop but something about this is just so disturbing and unappealing I'm really not sure how people could have grown up listening to this and consider it massively important to their personality and identity when its just the same song about this skinny fucker committing adultery over and over like who gives a shit
But in all seriousness I cannot find one thing in this that I wouldn't find executed more successfully in a different English group.
I wasn't always the most keen on the album format up until the last several years thanks to the ease of streaming, so when I was 14 I would just cherry pick the best songs from side 1 and say yep this is my favorite Bowie album I like hunky dory best. Well in giving it the full attention it deserves I can say it is definitely very sweet and has several of my favorite songs by the guy. yep this is not my favorite Bowie album
I will always and forever adore this album. A wonderful little intimate, heartbreaking, mirror-like package wrapped in a dulcet voice that fell into my lap exactly when I needed it. <3
A very sweet balm 2 soothe the sensitive soul... first 5/5 I've never heard so far :) !
Just imagine all the other albums that could've been on this list instead of Hail to the Thief. This is not, and never will be, an album that requires repeated listening to fully appreciate. It is unfortunate that it tricks some people into believing it is anything more than ok and holds a deeper complexity simply because it is Radiohead
It is funny 2 me how many 80s goth (and adjacent) lead singers seemed to emulated his voice. I can appreciate this one, despite the skeevy lyrics, for the way it clearly informed many albums I like more. I GUESS.
IN MY MIIIIIIIIIND'S EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Strange and alien but at the same time so deeply human that its kind of painful and hurts my brian eno tulpa when anyone says this album is boring and uninteresting... This wasn't a record I came back to frequently for a very long time but when I downloaded it onto my phone and listened to only it for a whole month during the winter time it did grow on me I used to not really enjoy Ms. Eno's voice but he never has claimed to be a musician or vocalist so it is okay that he sounds like if u put a microphone directly against my lips while I hummed through my teeth in the shower
This seems like something I would have found at a goodwill and brought home simply because I liked the cover (+ they had no other albums worth any interest) and would only listen to because it was one of the 6 records I had
In the song "Take It From Here" there is a lyric that goes "I wanna be your mother" followed up by a derisive, joking, "...Wait." And I think that pretty much sums up the album for me. The lyricists, (I am going to assume timberlake did not work alone) in an attempt to portray this album as some modern r&b masterpiece by a young singer, makes a callback to Prince's "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and does away with it immediately by mocking the lyric it quotes... Effectively calling the level of intimacy and emotional connection that the original lyric alludes to, weird, ridiculous, not fitting in with the image of the sexually virile young man of 2002. There is not one ounce of originality or sincerity present in this entire album.
Very delightful! Gets a little too repetitive for me after awhile.
I am inclined to agree with those who deem this list to be rockist and thus would love to engage in the fun sport of hating on old, cheesy rock... But, against my hater brain's wishes, my gut actually really enjoyed this. It is quaint and I don't imagine I will keep any of the songs to listen to casually. But I liked it nonetheless. "Smoke On the Water" isn't even the best track on here
I actually really like the garbage noise guitar instrumental in this... everything else is mediocre
this is my brother's favorite album, so while listening I was placed into the mindset of an angsty 15 year old in the year 2009... Incredibly endearing and sweet album :) Although a few songs really aren't my style his storytelling is pretty irresistible.
This year I've become something of a Beckhead (Beckfreak? Becker?), and from the outset many of the albums of his I've entertained have taken several listens to really feel like I could fully appreciate them... However, any of his more somber, slow songs like "Ramshackle" or "Blackhole" immediately clicked with me.
Sooo its a no-brainer that I adore this album. Astute listeners will notice the beautiful production thanks to Nigel Godrich, a pretty prolific fella. Beck excels at writing total gobbledygook lyrics that somehow translate into musical profundity; that isn't too on display here, meaning we get some sappy realness from this alleged NOT Scientologist. Great stuff ! Another album great for a blistery morning walk in the dead of winter
Fantastic! It makes sense they call him the "Gentle Genius."
So I was driving home from dancing at the goth bar last night (it is about 40 miles away because I am a simple country bumpkin) and I'd already listened to yesterday's album on the way 2 work so I put this on, not knowing what it would be at all! I know I've heard of the name Minor Threat but I could not have told you just what genre they were, what decade they're from, etc etc.
As the music started playing I realized it was exactly what I needed in the moment... Trying desperately not to doze off on the highway and determine whether the two Chargers in front of me were cops, all while maintaining a normal speed of 5-10mph above the speed limit is not easy in the dead of night on these woefully banked turns. Thank heavens for these screaming little men! It felt like years had passed every time I looked at the runtime of the album, but car console would only read small increments like "2:30," "5:43," and "10:59." Genuine sorrow ran through me when the time ran out and there was no more Step to be out of.
I was never really a punk growing up but occasionally in I would latch onto random albums here and there depending on the level of angst I was feeling. This one seems like it would've been perfect just for that. Lyrically it is just as juvenile and self-reflexive as you might expect from a 21 year old who would one day go bald. Overall I think you can tell this one is definitely "Classic Hardcore" material... So many a local show (like 2) I've attended just seems derivative of this. Angry stuff is fun :)
Gazing off into the distance ahead of me, white and red taillights flickering in and out like we were all driving across a vast concrete ocean, I imagined I was a child, who had never even heard of punk, coming across this album pre-internet. How exciting that must have been for anyone who did experience that! THX Minor Threat XOXO
It is just okay, standard alternative rock from 2005. Doesn't really stand out much compared to other Becks. I find I enjoy his more rock oriented work when it isn't quite so polished... The song dedicated to Elliott Smith was nice
A very nice drink of cold, fresh water. The lyrics are very sensitive with the gentle voice of Paddy McAloon to match. It is very sappy in a way that seems to have only been achievable in the 80s. Some songs are much stronger than others but there is a little glimmer of gold in all of them. I am very surprised that I've never even heard of Prefab Sprout before!
Good for listening to while crocheting
Earlier in the year when I went dancing meine lieblingsDJ (travis if u are out there I miss u homie) was playing Das Model or something and I had 2 explain to my best friend who Kraftwerk is and that's kind of difficult to do when you are screaming over Kraftwerk and there's like a whole bar of people (NOT dancing to Das Model...) chattering away... How do you even begin to describe their significance...? But ANYWAY I love how this one sews the seeds for the glorious world of italo-disco and like. Works akin to Klaus Schulze's Kontinuum. Lovely stuff ^_^
42 minutes of pure ear-grating material and yet I still cannot bring myself to give it a 1/5 because I know there are worse... much worse... in the days to come. Still, not a fan!
Irresistibly fun and cute! The lack of variety between tracks brings it down a few notches for me.
There is some good stuff in here, but it is totally bogged down by terrible mixing and homogeneity between nearly every song. At least the cover art is nice? I've never explored early R.E.M. but at moments it does feel like I'm hearing an earlier, even less polished R.E.M. Which I do not mind.
Very cute and spooky!! I very much enjoyed the bluesy aspects of it. There is a certain rawness to Mr. Osbourne's voice here that seems to get obscured in the production choices of the (few) later tracks of theirs I have heard.
Nick Cave is great at writing vivid lyrics buuut that's about it. I find this album to be reminiscent of walking into a Spencer's with your older cousin in 2012
I would love to have a dialogue with a big Michael Jackson fan about the bizarre, manufactured innocence that is encapsulated in the lyrics on every track of this album. Was it intentional? Whose idea was it? Would the album have been less successful if Michael Jackson gave a singular detail about how he would have touched the women (girls) he sings about here, rather than resorting to totally insincere vagueness? >_>...
This record is endlessly danceable and very thoughtfully pieced together. I don't even mind the silly Paul Beatles duet. Billie Jean was always a favorite on my ipod shuffle. Before anything else I am a Barthesian, and so this must get my stamp of approval.
This was listened to while making the drive to my sister's at 5am. I was fine with the slower songs. Everything else gave the impression of those local ads you see playing before the movie previews... Especially if you were to take away the vocals. It is endlessly annoying to me to hear several songs of a 25 year old talking about when she was young... You are 25. Come on now.
If I was at this concert I would have been booored out of my mind. At least they made the song in 10 Things I Hate About You
My only exposure to this album (and pretty much Kendrick Lamar's music) until now were Vines in 2013 that took the most memetic 7 seconds of songs like Swimming Pools (Drank) and spun them into some eye catching joke. Very sad considering the fact that pretty much none of it is jokey... I love albums that depict very real pains and imperfections that are inescapable by many.
It was okay! you can tell from this debut that ms. Missy was destined for success. I really liked "Friendly Skies," it is verrrry reminiscent of "International Lover" <3
I am very bothered by the way he pronounces "reminisce" as "riminesce"
I really enjoy the layering and sampling going on here. Moody and silky and perfect for doing ur laundry to. But not when anyone else is home
A little bloated for me. I cannot see why this needed to be a double album that includes two covers. Neither of which are very compelling.
I don't really have any notes for this one either. Really, really bog-standard 60s folk rock. The guitar is nice at points but none of this really stands out to me.
I find it interesting that this is listed on wikipedia as being only "neo-psychedelia" and "shoegaze" when more than anything this reminds me of the output of Coil between the years from 1984-1990ish. Which isn't not neo-psychedelia but it is also so much more. At moments it can seem a little derivative of the droning guitar work you might typically hear on a Joy Division track, but I am a fan of recursive music soooo... I liked it :)
What strikes me about this album is that in opposition to what comes of most pop-rock with elements of soul and funk, Aja seems to not really feel derivative of anything in those particular genres. Like its follow up Gaucho it is its own thing. Perhaps that is a sign of like, the staleness people tag Steely Dan with at times, but I don't find it bothersome. It is groovy and beautifully produced. Wasn't too keen on the mixing at times but it wasn't so bad.
This one gets a 3 but it is a fun 3 not a meh 3. There is variety between individual tracks, but as a whole it blends together. Perfectly adequate britpop. Still it is probably is worth another listen to!
This is only the second reggae album I've listened to, and I would say I enjoyed this more than the Wailers one. The funky rhythms will always endear me to the genre a little, and this record one was no exception. Very summery, very outspoken, very fun synths sprinkled here and there.
It lacks any of the personality you might find in the songs that are covered here.
It is fine... The production is very solid obviously but each song drags on a bit too long considering the fact that there is little of substance to be extending by the time Ye is done pontificating on how people dislike him and how lowly he views women. I am not a fan of the lyrics either beyond the Monster Mash going on about 20 minutes in. That being said I did laugh out loud when the 21st Century Schizoid Man sampling began. Music For Assholes
A very finely woven tapestry... I loveee the inclusion of Mr. George Clinton. I think it was a great choice to lean into the experimental modality that you can hear peaking through in the previous album. Unfortunately I found that it kinda lost me towards the end. Perhaps it will need a reappraisal at a later date!
You can't really go wrong with this one
I guess you really had to have been there. It is pretty inoffensive.
This is really, really interesting. At points you get very early industrial looping à la SPK or TG, at others you get sweeping Vangelis-esque noises. It is not weighed down at all by the more experimental noises in the same way a more traditional industrial experience might be, but it still doesn't leave an overly sweet taste in your mouth at any given point. I think this is a very difficult balance to strike! The Mellotron is pulling a lot of weight here without leaning into the "dated" sound often associated with it now. I adore the ease of transition between eerie synths and pop beats. AND it does not overstay its welcome! A really strong New Wave piece :)
Really disappointing... Not because I was expecting a U2 album to wow me, but because typically any album involving Brian Eno is pretty solid. But the 90s were kind of weird for Mr. Eno so I give him a pass on the production end of this. This is my first U2 album listen ever and Achtung Baby comes off to me as trying to emulate Simple Minds if they turned down the energy by 55%. There is a lack of depth here (lyrically and musically) that is disguised by thoughtfully placed reverb. I could imagine hearing any of these songs playing at a christian charity shop.
Very floaty and relaxing. I enjoy the way it meanders along
I adore the moments where her voice is hit with a voice crack or when it falters doing an arpeggio. It gives a wonderfully human quality to the recording.
For some reason several years ago I noticed that a bunch of queer people I followed online were really into The Band and I was like oh should I be into The Band too? And I tried my best to be a butch conformist for a few months but I suppose it served as proof that I have never been nor will I ever be a butch because I do not care much for The Band or the album The Band. But I am not entirely opposed to folk rock and I get the feeling they would be much more enjoyable to me if I were to hear them in a live setting during broad daylight w/ a beer in my hand. I actually do not know if butches even like The Band.
I have a greater predilection for later Steely Dan albums, but I cannot deny how great this one is still. About half of the songs are outstanding, with the other half being just good. It is not as developed and unique as later Dan sounds to me, but I like it nonetheless.
(Also it has come to my attention that Gaucho is not on this list... No 500 word essay about how it makes me sob like a baby every time for you!)
I really enjoy the production on this, I think it is wonderfully sleazy and sluggish and any other adjective you've seen thrown at it for the last 30 years. Despite this I do not really care much for this album at all. Certainly it is worth listening to, but I don't feel like I've gained much by hearing it in its entirety for the first time. And I don't have the words to adequately explain why I don't like it, which adds to the mystique of the album I guess! I get the appeal
A perfectly adequate new wave album.
I really enjoyed the more experimental songs.
This was super fun! There is a lot of variety going on between songs. The vocals and weird sounds articulating the beat often reminded me of Here Come the Warm Jets. A little bit of worldbeat, a little bit of surf rock, a whole lot of not quite New Romantic but not quite post-punk but also not quite mainstream rock. I will be revisiting this!
Whenever I am alone in the house there is a high chance that I will sing the entirety of The Man Who Sold the World with a really exaggerated impression of Mr. Cobain so I think that says something about the cultural impact of this album
I feel like it would be impossible to follow up their previous two albums but I think they do well enough with this one. I love the breathing room that allows U to hear Kim Deal's beautiful work <3
It is amazing that they continue to sound just as monotone and boring when given 3 years to produce something that outdoes their prior, successful efforts
I've been reading a book about the ways that other species perceive sensory input in unique ways compared to our reliance on the visual and tactile senses. When a zebra finch sings, we get a pretty good idea of what is being sent out into the world, as there is a nice overlap between the hearing ranges of humans and songbirds. Still, there is something present in the sound that Ed Yong refers to in the book as a fine structure; these are very minute changes in pitch that we cannot hear. Their music is beautiful, and yet there are dimensions to it we cannot even comprehend.
I think that we can comprehend Björk's sounds and messages quite easily, because she is not a bird, but I like to imagine that the confusing complexity present here might be the closest human equivalent to what those secret bird noises are.
How can you not like it. I mean they even put it in Surf's Up (2007).
A really uniquely innocent sound.
Never been my fave queen album
Tremendously beautiful and gentle in every way. Normally I take every opportunity to make fun of Paul Simon, but it must be said that he has always been an important blueprint to emotionally driven teeny boppers... from the stomp clap hey-ers to midwest emo to whatever Billie Eilish is doing (I assume).
I would love to see a highly fictionalized Simon + Garfunkel biopic directed by Kelly Reichardt in which during the production of this album there is a montage of Art Garfunkel looking longingly at Simon.
