Kinda cool; evokes kids in a garage playing their favorite black sabbath, nirvana riffs. You can hear the country influence. Stripped down minimalist cool, but albums too long for me. Love ‘we are going to be friends’
Oh my goodness. Tedious, bland, sophomoric. Sometimes it sounded like boring Nirvana. Terrible guitar work. Almost gave up during ‘Exhausted’ and I thought it was finally getting good… but it was just Spotify auto-playing Blink-182.
Love the delta blues influence and surf rock guitar styling
Too boomer. Guitars are cool tho.
It’s ok. Very nice production; solid bops. Vocals are an unremarkable, though. Would prefer to listen to their older boogie influencers or contemporaries like Allman Bros or Skynyrd.
I’m sure there is a time and a place for this music but it is not here with me in the 21st century. Weird and corny. Whimsical medieval psychedelic folk - I can appreciate that it is an influence on British rock n roll, but that’s not enough to make this album good (for me).
Is k. I realized that this stuff is the precursor to the hoot holler stomp nonsense of the 2010’s and it kinda took me out.
Beautiful vocals.
RIP Prince of Darkness
This album rules.
Bit bland. Needs some seasoning.
Too long. C’mon guys.
Millennial canon. Great pacing in song sequence. Love the acoustic tracks. Stripped down blues rock n roll. Bops straight through.
There are some bops to be sure but the best tracks are essentially americana, blues & rock n’ roll studies. Bit long innit.
Boppy saxy
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It’s ok. Definitely a product of its time. A bit corny with the slide guitar and record scratches. Beck makes very safe, hard to dislike music. It’s also hard to love.
Absolute classic. No skips. Chock full of iconic riffs. Drums are tight, vocals are raw. Energetic and subversive response to the flowery folk of the time.
What more can be said about this legendary masterpiece? Devastatingly good.
There isn’t a hard rockin band post 1988 that doesn’t have surfer rosa in its dna.
It’s the early 80’s, I’m drunk and wandering downtown looking to bum a cigarette from a corner Gypsy palm reader.
There’s a ‘you had to be there’ element that is difficult to overcome as first time listener in this our year of the lord 2025. It feels soaked in nostalgia for a benighted period in which a bunch of white British guys could pretend to be Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry and be taken seriously. As a modern listener, it’s just corny and almost a caricature of its influences. A poor copy. That being said, Pete Townsend’s guitar work here is nice to listen to and Keith Moon’s drumming is just a perfect harmony to the vibe. Vocals and melodies are mid, friends.
When I was in college in the early 00’s, I took an introductory music class to satisfy an arts requirement. We were taught how to analyze music and understand some basic elements of a song. For one assignment, were to bring in a piece of music we liked and analyze it for the class: is it 4/4 time, are those half notes or quarter notes, etc. After a few reggaeton presentations, I went up and played The Earth Died Screaming. Lemme tell you I might as well have gone up there and ripped a huge fart - just a wave of revulsion, confusion. My classmates were incredulous. I gave my analysis and turned to my professor. “Tom Waits… I’m impressed!” Sweet vindication. Anyway, reader, there’s no accounting for taste but this album rules and if you want to impress smart people and appear super cool, you will play them some Tom Waits.
This is my first time listening to the Chronic. The word is smooth. Great use of funk samples and creative lyricism. A really enjoyable listen all the way through. I appreciate the cohesiveness of the album’s elements around the theme of chilling out and the importance of being laid back, knowing how to seize pleasure in a violent, unjust and chaotic world.
Fuzz pedals and tabloid press. The crown jewel of alt rock. Gen X’s Smile: a groundbreaking gorgeous collection of songs from a mentally ill auteur.
I listened to as much of this as I could muster. Maybe seven songs? The word pretentious gets thrown around a lot and tends to be conflated with elitism. This album is pretentious in that it takes itself super seriously and it just doesn’t have the depth. The melodies are mediocre, the topics are so painfully boorish - it betrays the Who’s desire to appear as some kind of working class response to their contemporaries. I respect they were trying to do something; it’s just that they aren’t as smart as they think they are.
In their early days, my understanding is the Beatles were playing multiple gigs a night for years before breaking out. This is how I imagine one of those performances may have sounded. Solid collection of covers and easy pop numbers… for the time. Beyond its time capsule value, I don’t understand why someone might prefer to listen to this over say, the Marvelettes or Smokey Robinson. Particularly mediocre, especially when compared to their other albums.
What I hear when I listen to this album is what must have been an affable and charismatic young woman’s access to tremendous artistic resources. Beautiful production, tight band, sweet harmonies, and Robben Ford’s guitar work is wonderful - all to prop up painfully vapid lyrics, indulgent interludes, and a lead vocalist with no range. Joni Mitchell reminds me of that rich kid who wanted to be an artist and lined everything up just right… except the authenticity.
A nice listen. If I saw this in a record store, I would pick it up. I can see this being an album I come back to and grow to love. Just feels like home
Very nice harmonies. Just good ole country melancholy. Not as sweet as their second installment, but worth a listen.
I feel like if your opening track reminds me of my morning subway commute (in a bad way), you’re not even trying. I suppose I am of a somewhat conservative mindset when it comes to assessing music - it is art but it is also entertainment. You have to balance these two things to capture a listener.
I like this. Vivek and chill, cool bass lines.
Van Halen kind of reminds me of Red Hot Chili Peppers in that VH was a successful rock act with an amazingly talented guitarist and a bad vocalist. Without some context, this album doesn’t hit as hard. Eddie, as far as I know, revolutionized the electric guitar. He reengineered his instrument and opened an entirely new world of possibilities for generations to come. There’s a good reason that replicas of EVH’s “frankenstrat” are still widely available today. Eddie’s lead lines are iconic, electrifying, timeless. But I find myself cringing at the vocals and the chord progressions, in general. But I will always, always crank up ‘Eruption’ til the day I die.
I enjoyed the instrumental tracks and vibes nature of the album overall.
This came out during my high school years. Everyone around me was obsessed but I didn’t get it back then. After a few listens, I can see it. I enjoy the vocal styling, especially on “Everything Will be Alright”. This feels like an emo security blanket. Hopeful melancholy.
I enjoyed this a lot. Found it mellow and soothing. Vibey.
Not bad, I feel like I can see the band’s originality begin to unfold here where the songs are sounding less like covers and more like the Beatles. I don’t know what possessed them with “Run for your Life” but it’s an otherwise solid album with serious bops.
Oh man, I thought i generally liked the Velvet Underground. But I guess I never gave this as close a listen as I should have. Comes off pretentious, melodramatic, and kinda lazy. There are some nice melodies and smooth vocals, but there’s a sense of desperation that comes off as… immature.
