"The Old Gold Shoe" -- sounds like low-volume YLT ("Our Way to Fall" maybe?). Syrupy in a not-too-bad way Production, engineering sounds great. This dude's voice is not my bag (which is why I avoided listening to it when it came out). Strangely felt a little like David Bowie's Blackstar at points -- maybe it's the clean production. But without jazz influence.
I mean. It’s Kid A
Title track sounds closer to Pink Floyd than any PFunk album I’ve heard before. The other songs are a sprawling eclectic mix of soul / funk / rock and experimental music that is infectious. A great listen!
A really unpleasant listen. I bought this album in high school when it came out and remember being impressed with the cleverness of some of his rhymes. But even those lyrics are elementary compared to the subsequent albums. So many of the songs fall back on pure shock value. “Just Don’t Give A Fuck” is probably a favorite because it seems to have the closest thing to a genuine message. If I could give half stars this would get a 1.5 just for the humongous impact this album had and for its impressive use of repeated multi-syllable internal rhyme spurts.
The feat of achieving the level of atmosphere at such an early time in electronic music is astounding. Some of the songs sound a little cheesy or cliche now, but probably just because they were so influential.
A few good ones (Paint it Boack, I am Waiting, High and Dry), otherwise pretty mediocre. The second half is better than the first. Note: I listened to the American version.
Couldn’t finish. REALLY not my cup of tea
Some good instrumentation and lyrics. Hard R n-word loses a star.
The recording preserves the rawness of the songs while also feeling immaculate. The image in my mind of this era of Nirvana is the Unplugged performance and to hear these songs again in their album form brings back that they weren’t that far removed from many of the other grunge /alt rocks acts of the time. I think without the unplugged performance Nirvana wouldn’t have reached the legend status that they have attained in the past 30 years. But, I think this is their best studio release.
“New York, New York” being hyped up in the wake of 9/11 is what turned me off of Ryan Adams. And then him skipping NC on tour for subsequent 5(? 10?) years. But listening to that song now reminds me of the Jason Isbell song “Relatively Easy”, except unlike Isbell’s heartfelt and gut wrenching lyrics, Adams’ song makes me feel nothing. Just dreck. Makes me want to listen to the superior artists he’s imitating (current candidate Van Morrison on “Answering Bell”, later, The Faces on “The Rescue Blues”) The fact that David Rawlings and Gillian Welch’s genius get smeared by the association with this is too bad.
A couple of really good ones. Interesting to hear what I know as a Bangles riff in its original (acoustic!) form. Not all the songs were great. 3.5/5
Joplin’s voice is occasionally great, but the band never is. The band either sounds like a really bad jam band or a mediocre blues band.
Lays a foundation for southern rock and alt country. But a lot of it is schlocky and lame. A couple of bangers though
Pretty, pretty good. Complete blindspot for me.
Somewhere in the nexus of punk and the emerging alternative /grunge wave.
This was a Bjork album. Homogenic was a favorite in high school and I still put it on every once in while and it feels raw and fresh nearly 30 years on. On one listen (maybe not enough), Vulnicura feels like a retread. Lush and beautiful, but no real new territory explored sonically. Postscript: Joanna Newsom's "Baby Birch" auto-played after this album. And with Bjork and Newsom sharing a similar space (unique voice with lush orchestration), I'm struck with how incredible "Baby Birch", compared to anything on the Bjork album I just listened to. My rating: 3/5
There was a kid on my bus in middle school who I didn't particularly like. Did I hang out with him sometimes? Yeah. But something about him rubbed me the wrong way. I think he was going through some shit and I guess I wasn't very empathetic at the time. Anyway, he loved Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath and that kinda put me off of both for years and years. I've come around on both here and there since. I already basically knew that I was missing out on great stuff with Black Sabbath. War Pigs into Paranoid: What a 1-2 punch! Many classics here and the sound is a little more varied than I was anticipating. Not all the songs hit like the classics, but most are great. Not exactly my normal cup of tea, but will definitely be listening again. My rating: 4.5/5