One of the greatest tragedies in recent music history is that the dude capable of making this record turned into such a broken, confused, hateful person. Sucks. Anyway, this album is a monumental piece of art. Absolute game changer in hip-hop. Easy 5.
Wow. This is why I was so excited for this 1,001 project. 70+ albums in, this is the first one that has truly been a pleasant surprise. I've got a pretty wide and eclectic listening background, and have obviously heard Moby Grape, but never knew the story of this record. Fascinating and sad, and some really cool musical moments, many of which feel far ahead of their time. Glad this was included in the list!
The final two songs are fantastic. The rest suffers from a decided lack of Brian Wilson's influence.
One-sided triangle.
First two songs are great. Then it's a slow, long decline into too many notes filling up every bar of music.
Boring and basic.
I wanted to enjoy this so much more than I actually did! I owned this double CD as a teenager, and was hoping it was stand the test of time...but nope. Truly a bloated, 'we-need-an-editor' album. Just look at the listens for each track on streaming platforms. The singles on this one have over 25, 50, and 70 (!) times as many listens as the most of the deep cuts. Yikes. Long live Siamese Dream...
'Band on the Run' would be a great song if you only had to hear it once, instead of 6,347 times.
Funky, baby.
Thought this would be more fun. I get including London Calling, obviously, but the debut instead of Combat Rock or Sandanista seems like a mistake. Oh well...
Let's yawn together.
Sure, it's great, but they still hadn't reached their peak yet. They were knocking on the door of true genius, but Taxman, Good Day Sunshine, Doctor Robert, etc. are still stuck in their early mode of songwriting. For me it's Sgt. Pepper's when the five-star albums begin.
Perfect Day is a perfect song. The rest is just fine. Seems like a 'time and a place' record.
Absolute masterpiece.
This 5 comes with an asterisk. Yes, it's a little bloated, yes, the skits are lame, yes, we don't need Puffy as a hype-man... But Biggie's lyrical gift and his flow are just unreal. Absolute classic of an album.
I love rap, but I've just never enjoyed Chuck D. Sorry!
About as exciting as a bowl of cereal.
I would rather hit myself in the thumb with a hammer a couple hundred times than listen to this album.
Not a band I love, but they sure were a lot more fun & creative later in their career. Once again I'm surprised by the need to include an early, formative (but not actually very good...) album from a band on the 1,001 list.
Total surprise. Don't like the vocals at all, but the guitar riffs and the drums are great, and the sound production is perfect for what they're going for. Happy to give this a 3.
Excellent, creative, weird little slice of indie music. It's a shame he didn't do anything even remotely as interesting after this.
Watered down music for people who like going to church.
One of the greatest tragedies in recent music history is that the dude capable of making this record turned into such a broken, confused, hateful person. Sucks. Anyway, this album is a monumental piece of art. Absolute game changer in hip-hop. Easy 5.
Plenty of 'necessary' Bowie records. This isn't one of them, and the fact that he's already in here like eight other times makes the inclusion of Young Americans even more egregious.
I don't usually love this genre, but this album was pretty damn good. City, Country, City especially. Strong 3.
Putting the 'ack' in Womack since 1944.
Wow. This is why I was so excited for this 1,001 project. 70+ albums in, this is the first one that has truly been a pleasant surprise. I've got a pretty wide and eclectic listening background, and have obviously heard Moby Grape, but never knew the story of this record. Fascinating and sad, and some really cool musical moments, many of which feel far ahead of their time. Glad this was included in the list!
Loved the first song. The emotion and style of unguarded singing...very cool. Unfortunately, after that it pretty quickly lost its novelty for me. Glad it's on here, though. Refreshing to get something so different.
I think when I was younger I would have automatically given this a knee-jerk rating of 5. I mean, it's Rubber Soul, right? By the Beatles!?! But honestly, it's not that good. They just weren't there yet. Revolver was a big step forward, and by Sgt. Peppers they had finally truly broken free. Rubber Soul, to me, still has too many trappings of the early Beatles, and some of them sure haven't aged well. So (shrug) a 3 it is.
If this were really traffic, it would be the kind at 5:00 in the afternoon, when all you want to do is get home, but cars are backed up on the freeway, and everyone's angry, and someone keeps honking their horn, and it's too hot, and you're hungry, and there's nothing good on the radio, and a mosquito is buzzing around in your car, and you're almost out of gas, but you also have gas yourself...in other words, Traffic sucks.
Surprisingly not bad, especially the second half, where they put some of their more adventurous songs. Some cool Beach Boys style vocal harmonies. I expected to hate this, but I'll give it a generous 3 stars.
One more hater here, for the five-star system. Because this record is better than a 3, but it sure isn't a 4. Wish I could throw it that 7 out of 10. Or better yet, the 7.1 / 10 it deserves.
Title track is solid gold. The rest of it is pretty lackluster for me. I bet at the time it was pretty special, but I think it suffers, now, from 35 years of artists doing this type of music bigger and better.
Bad cheese doesn't age well.
Porridge is too hot, porridge is too cold.
Very much a hotel. From the carpets to the bedding to the little bars of soap...
Wet, microwaved, cardboard crust. Way too much red sauce. Chunky, high-moisture mozzarella. They might say, "Hey, at least it's still pizza." But is it? The culinary abomination you're putting in your mouth, because you have to eat something, right? Is it? Is it even pizza...?
Have you ever spent 39 minutes examining a carpet?
Interesting backstory doesn't make a boring album more listenable.
Another head-scratcher. OK Computer and Kid A are absolutely necessary in this collection. I get including Amnesiac (which is actually my personal favorite) and I even understand The Bends...I guess. But Hail to the Thief? Is it good? Yeah, even great at times. But it's not Radiohead at their best, and by this point in their career they already have four albums listed! Seems like a no-brainer for the editors to dump this one and In Rainbows, and include a couple records from under-represented genres, or just from a couple artists who didn't make it in. It's my same beef with Bowie, Morrissey, Dylan, Elvis Costello, The Byrds, etc... Anyway, HTTT is a fine album. Strong 4 from me.
Immigrant Song! Plus a bunch of other songs...
Awesome. I like to picture the guy spending years creating this, poring over every transition, every sample, every beat... Some very cool moments. Solid 4. Wish I could give it an 8.7 out of 10.
Yikes.
Thys rycord ys boryng.
Looooved this album when I was 11 years old. In 1992. Needless to say, it hasn't aged well. The funniest thing about listening to it now is how out of place most of Hammett's solos sound. It's like they decided to go for the less thrashy, more math-and-groove rock (which they would get right three years later on the black album), but he hadn't yet figured out how to tame the wild, noodly arpeggios to fit the new mood. The other unexpected aspect I found bothersome was Lars' drumming. I learned to play drums while listening to Metallica in the early 90s, and I always loved his metronomic work with hi-hat, kick and snare. So it was surprising just how masturbatory it all sounds now. Like, he just had to turn every...single...beat into a clinical exercise. Again, by the black album, he'd figured this out, and the economical but pounding (and masterfully recorded, as opposed to this hot auditory garbage) drums of that album make this style seem like a kid showing off. Which Lars always was, I guess. Anyway, I'll give it a strong 3 for nostalgia, and for Blackened, One, and To Live is To Die.
Yes!!!!!!! I'm 112 albums into this experience, and for the first time I'm listening to a truly great record that I've never heard before! I had a friend try to turn me on to Zappa years ago, but I must not have been ready for it. So glad I got this one yesterday. The mix of competent musicianship (ignore the bad reviews on this score; they don't have a clue) and broad, eclectic humor reminds me of Ween and NoFX. The sound collage stuff reminds me of Olivia Tremor Control and the Microphones. The scattershot, mini-movie feel to the sequencing feels like a precursor to the best moments in experimental rock to come, from Tom Waits to Radiohead to Black Midi. Happily giving this 5 stars, and looking forward to listening to it again and again!