This album has some hits I recognize, but the album is all over the place. The short songs and varied styles demanded constant attention in a way that seemed to fight with the individual songs. Better than the other albums I've given a 3 so far. Maybe this is the bottom of 4.
Now that I've heard this album, I can die in peace. First half of the album was the most generic music I could imagine. Worth a 2, I guess. The second half is rough. What's with this list and too-long albums? Definitely some mistaking of quantity for quality. Since I wanted this to be over 45 minutes ago, it gets a 1.
First song reminds me of Django Django but... created by aliens that haven't quite learned what music is. This album is so strange. It's like the singer, instrumentalists, and producer are all making different songs. Song structures are weird, the instrumentation gets verses and choruses and bridges mixed up, chord progressions are completely random, the lyrics don't match the rhythm, and the lead vocalist gives an oddly subdued performance. It's a collage of unrelated songs put together to make a new song if you squint, but the details are all wrong. Making something that's so perfectly the uncanny valley of music might deserve an award, but as an album, this is a 1.
I feel bad for the audio engineer. His poor mics never stood a chance. Particularly the front end of the album is unpleasantly shouty. Aretha Franklin obviously has a great voice, but it's the only thing going on here. Everything else is as placid as could be. None of the instrumentation or melodies or lyrics impress except in Respect. One hit song, bad engineering but probably the best they could do at the time, and the album doesn't overstay its welcome. That's a high 2, low 3.
Both the songs and the album are only bearable because of their short runtime. Nothing stands out in a good way. Every song is the same. You could listen to 30 seconds of the album and know the whole thing. Oh, the mix on and after Let's Dance is way better than the earlier portion of the album. I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You has Cut Copy in the background? xD Okay, the last three songs convince me this might actually be a pleasant enough listen if the mix for the whole album were better. Alas, we have what we have (and this is a 2017 remaster, I guess it was even worse before that), and what we have gets a... 1.5*.
Not sure how objective I can be about an album I already love. Quintessential synth pop. If I have to pick things to nitpick, they would be the overreliance on fade outs and the album's short runtime. It's not the most cohesive album out there. And You Tell Me is the weakest link on the album. Still, an album I'm happy to listen to all the way through. 5*
This album suffers from being live. Crowd noise, self indulgent "thank yous", generally not great mixing, unintelligible lyrics. Really hard to pull anything symphonic out of the mix other than the violins and a few horn blats. Probably a lot more interesting for someone who already knows the music in its original context. Is Metallica always this cringe? 30 minutes in and already fatigued. This is just relentlessly unpleasant on the ears. Gets more listenable starting at Hero Of The Day. Okay, yeah, that was painful. I'm sure there will be worse stuff to come, but this gets a 1 just for putting me through 133 minutes of that.
Interesting how long it takes this album to get going. Contusion is where it really starts going. Wonder if the gospel start was a strategic choice. Most of the songs here would benefit from radio edits. I appreciate the funky jams, but they get a lot of airtime. Ordinary Pain and on definitely started to feel repetitive within the songs and as a whole. Good music, might add a few songs to my playlist to listen to on shuffle, but not an album I'll listen through again. 4*
Halfway through, and my man hasn't bested 90 bpm. What a slow album. Surprised to hear Blue Skies. Didn't realize that it's a standard. Oh gosh, September Song. Nelson obviously considers himself a crooner, but this album belongs 30 years in the past. Released in 78, it feels self indulgent. Oh, it's an album entirely of standards. I guess that's why it feels so idiosyncratic and slow. Hey, On the Sunny Side of the Street is 120 bpm. We did it. In summary, an inoffensive background album. No fun to actively listen to, though. A 2. Not terrible, but forgettable and not something I'd seek out.
Had to go into my EQ and make sure I hadn't accidentally shelved everything off at 5khz. There's a weird master choice for the the first four songs of the album. I can hear this band's influence in other stuff from the next decade. The guitar stuff going on is fine. Vocals aren't my jam. At least they made sure it's not as annoying as it could be by sitting it so far back in the mix and rolling off everything that's not 1-3khz. Can't decide if this is a 2 or a 3. Everything but the vocals and mix is fine, probably 4 quality. The master gets better partway through the album. The vocals stay awful the whole time. No song sticks out as the hit here, my chosen marker for a 3, but there's enough consistent good across the album, if you ignore the vocals, that I guess it combines to a good song. A 3.
That 60s fascination with stereo separation. Album suffers from the recording capabilities of the time. Shouty vocals, bad reverbs that lead to unpleasant buildup on certain vocal parts, excessive stereo separation, a master entirely devoid of low end. Not going to listen to this in mono, but I bet that stereo field is covering for an otherwise completely undecipherable mid range. Engineering issues aside, a good album musically. Great harmonies, good musicians, varied musical structures, some obvious hits. 4*.
Not my type of music, but surprisingly pleasantly mixed. Normally bounce off of heavy metal because it's harsh, but this is fine. Has an almost live feel, which would normally be a bad thing, but I think helps in this genre so it's not just a wall of sound. Lyrics are just plain silly. Nothing awesome here, but it's not the worst. 2.
Thank you for not overpowering your mic, Miss Holiday! A hard feat for this age, but the success really sets this album a bar above. This album is engineered so well for the time. Those trumpet solos! Songs are too slow and I'm not a fan of her vibrato, which sounds a bit too much like choking to me xD I keep expecting Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire after each string intro. The ending of But Beautiful is great. Liked this a lot more by the end than I expected. 4*.
Oh hey, I listened to this yesterday. Can say from the experience of trying to replicate it that the synthesizer and effects work here is great, or at least hard to recreate. Trying to listen objectively, the songs are obviously repetitive. There are some places that are recorded poorly (Spacelab is kind of all lowpassed, the big sweeps of Metropolis clip a lot, some of Neon Lights should have been transposed an octave down). But this is a 5, 5 being "I'd listen to this album all the way through of my own volition." I did that just yesterday.
Rock'n'Roll Star is making me wonder how this album has such high accolades. Yeah, not sure what people see in this. Nostalgia, perhaps? Wow, the mix is so much better on Supersonic. Still not a fan, especially of the dude's voice, but that's one less thing to hate. And we're back to the muffled mix. That's a low 2.
A good album. And this was 1970! Only mixing complaint I have is that vocals are back and not very intelligible. What is that last song? Album definitely has some hits, and it's a pleasant listen except for that. 4.
Oh hey, that sample used by Enigma! Music is quite simple. A lot of unison play in here where the vocal/guitar/bass are all doing the same thing. Decent mix. Good guitar solos. Nothing really going on in the last 15 minutes of the album. A 4 before that, a 3 including it.
Haha, listening to the clean version of this album is hilarious from the very start. She sure does mention Timbaland a lot. Lyrics are straight up goofy. Hip hop isn't really my jam. Interesting beats texturally, but nothing else going on musically. A 2.
If it weren't for this guy's voice, I'd really like this album. Nice prog with whiny vocals. Boo. A 3.
Oh no, I'm a fan of disco. This album's pretty generic as disco goes, but nothing really turned me off, so a 4.
They cover a lot of styles here. Punk, rock, blues, reggae! And the instrumentalists are doing a good job. Has enough sonic variance for a double album. But that voice! I couldn't handle that for a normal album, much less a double! That's a 2.
Leading with Second Hand News is certainly a choice. An album of hits with a couple head scratchers that bring it down. Without those, it would be 5*, but as is, 4.
This was an interesting one. Never heard Wilco before. Was put off by the first song of the album, but the rest is full of moments of brilliance that make me really want to come back and listen to this a second time. No big hits jumped out at me, but this is the first double album from the list that hasn't made me wish it were at least 20 minutes shorter. So it gets a 4.
Bowie isn't my style. This album is very Bowie. Rock and roll with eccentricism thrown on top. In this case, Bowie's divergence from the rock-and-roll formula isn't making things any better. Worth a 3.
Wow, this first song is... the worst. 2006 musta been a dry year for the alternative category if this garbage won a Grammy. I feel like this is a joke that I'm not in on. It's just terrible. A 1, for sure.