Vocals worth the listen General Notes: Gorgeous. Vocals. Yes. Please. Pleasantly surprised by this first listen on my 1001 journey. However, most of the album was too repetitive and lyrically simplistic (laughable even, in a few spots) for my taste. Apparently classified as neo-soul, this album worked best for me in the moments of obvious blues, doo-wop, and gospel influence. Songs of Note: Seven More Days The first song on the album that really worked for me. Moving and bluesy with a lyrical subtlety that the previous tracks lacked. The repetitiveness works here, as it would in a blues song. Let’s Go Forward The high, airy sustained note around minute 4:00 is just so, so pretty. But the song as a whole feels like a missed opportunity, as the length (too long), disjointed and immature lyrics, and general repetitiveness diminish the impact. Sign Your Name Being unfamiliar with Maitreya, if I had been asked to guess the artist on this song, I would have guessed Prince. The influence is apparent. Still, this song is beautifully performed; and while I feel that Maitreya’s vocal mix of angelic airiness with forceful growls, whoops, and hollers does not work for every song on the album, the mix is subtle and affecting here - nothing jarring or out-of-place. Nice song - smooth and cool and perfect for an 80s playlist. Who’s Loving You This is a favorite song of mine, and I listen to MJ’s version in my car all the time. Maitreya’s cover is superb. His voice offers a perfect narrator for this song - one who is growling and bird-singing his confession, vulnerability, regret. Believable from the very second it starts. I will listen to this one again, I’m sure. Gorgeously performed. Those vocal runs: yes, please. Probably the best cover I’ve heard to rival MJ. A nice surprise ending to the album as a whole.

This album is full of twisty transitions and loads of great percussion, guitar riffs and runs. The transitions, unfortunately, quickly become shallow and meaningless. The majority of the album irritates with lyrics that are at times so juvenile and corny (e.g. Of Wolf and Man) that it’s hard to believe this band wrote The Unforgiven. The outstanding guitar solos are welcome moments of reprieve. Songs of Note: Enter Sandman When I was in jr. high and high school, boys wore solid black t-shirts with Metallica printed along the left side, just as on this album cover. And, this song about masculinity, adolescence, and fear of the self, still feels to me like it belongs back there in jr. high. Gripping lyrics and a gothic setting make the listen enjoyable, “something that bites.” The Unforgiven Beautiful and devastating with subtle, meaningful lyrics. The only mature offering here, imo. Transcends its time.

A Fairytale of an Album Atmospheric in both the figural and the literal senses, this album transports the listener to 1961 NYC, whispering like the handsomest gentleman you’ve ever seen, “Allow me.” This is nothing short of elf-song: piano keys that sparkle and a bass line full of frolic. Sweet and cool chord progressions with just enough dissonance to delight. Yummy. Melodies that never demand: they turn and ask, “May I?” When the variations come back around, you’ll be settled in, no worries, not a care. The background chatter makes you smile at times, adds to the cool, the easiness of it all. A most enchanting gentleman: you’ll let this one take you out again and again. My Man’s Gone Now (Live) Dark and enticing. Hinting. Surprising. The bass speaks the truth, and the piano nods. All of You (Take 2) (Live) Bright and exhilarating and just in time. (The songs are placed brilliantly on this album.) Each instrument shows off its individuality in this casual and quirky setting. Delightful. The drums’ll make you tingle. Alice in Wonderland (Take 1) (Live) A landscape painting of a song. Fantastic and frenetic without any frenzy. Too smooth to lose its cool. If it hadn’t already, the trio just won your trust. Absolutely in control. Enjoy the view. Jade Visions (Take 1) (Live) Restfulness defined. Be at peace with delicate cymbals, lullaby bass, trickling treble keys. The prettiest place you’ve ever been? Step aboard. We’re going there. What a way to end an album. More than 5 stars. Too good to be rated. Highly recommend.

Ocean Stepping Forward As a whole, this album resembles a resume, rather than a meaningfully cohesive work of art; asking (sometimes desperately) for attention, needy as the narrator of Pyramids. Super Rich Kids By the time the listener lands on this, the 7th track, the catchiness of the refrain is like a drop of water in a disjointed, pathless desert. The lyrics, unfortunately, are too simplistic to be taken as real social commentary - except the rapped verse (Earl Sweatshirt) with its poetically dull-drum under-beat and word play. Ocean’s melodic choices and vocal performance are too sugary to lift the song out of a glorification of the “on the roof” adolescent hell-life presented here. Pyramids Impressively musically cohesive for its length, Pyramids opens beautifully and continually surprises, as the listener is led through a variety of settings, like musical chambers in the metaphoric tomb. Unfortunately, the lyrical metaphors, which the listener has high hopes for, disappoint entirely with surface-level symbolism and sad clique. The song concludes as just another lazy depiction of masculine insecurity and its counterparts - the predation upon and objectification of women. Attempting to deal with a serious, though provocative subject, the lyrical feet here are stuck in the mud of eroticism, diminishing any hope of literary irony. If the point is to disgust, the ending certainly does, but not enough to provide the kind of literary uncomfortableness that would keep this off of a frat boy’s Friday night play list. The narrator’s existence is pastorally depicted with hints at the irony of dichotomy. Even so, there is too much glorification here (again) for the song to be taken as serious social commentary. Lost The only song on the album that doesn’t fail from an over-flex. Allows itself to be as simple as it is. The only song that knows itself to be a bop. White Lovely one-minute interlude featuring the easy-on-the-ears guitar work of John Mayer - but what is it doing on this album? The listener might expect it to act as a scene change, but unfortunately, it does not. End By the time we get here, we’ve had to wade through a swamp of second-half lyrics that continue to lack courage, containing just enough creativity to fool the uninitiated into imagining more exists here than a rehashing of tired themes. Hopefully, Ocean’s lyrical work has matured since ORANGE to match his showcased musical cleverness and promising knack for collaboration.

Playful, Painful, Authentic Beautiful folk songs whose melodies move with Brahms-like complexity. The lyrics, as tender and devastating as Celtic ballads, somehow never lose their light. This is authentic storytelling in a pastoral setting that romanticizes nature and one’s inner life from a place of admittedly answerless wisdom. Where Do the Children Play? A strong opening to the album that showcases Yusef’s lyrical subtlety and vocal power. Deceptively simple melodic turns display a musical intelligence that for the rest of the album will not disappoint. The themes may be worldly here, but this songwriting is personal. Hard Headed Woman Wonderful chord progressions, along with shifts done just right, accent the depth of these courageously simple lyrics about seeking, companionship, betterment, and blessing. Wild World The only song on the album that I was already aware of. More tender and forgiving in its album setting than its pop culture references make it seem. Father and Son Moving and relatable portrayal of the parent-child relationship. A tender song about loss, loneliness, and mutual desperation. Honest and empathetic, this narrator knows both sides. Tea for the Tillerman A short and joyful conclusion, almost like a nursery rhyme. Rectifying, as if Yusef refuses his listener the chance to walk away with any pessimism. If we take tillerman to mean farmer, this concluding song is at once a pastoral call for respite from toil, as well as an encouragement in the face of life’s continuation: the summation of the album’s main themes. For my taste, I would have preferred the overall production to have been more acoustic, paired down. The album suffers from its post-electric place in folk history.

Disappointing This album irritates with distortion so overused as to be pointless, percussion so repetitive and persistent that it annoys. I love the blues, but the majority of these lyrics are too trite (like the tritest songs on a Tarantino soundtrack) to be believable or felt. She’s Long Gone The first song of lyrical interest. A welcome shift from the plain and emotionless lyrical offerings of the first four songs on the album. Black Mud An instrumental interlude offering a nice break from the distorted vocals of the album’s opening. Works as a transition piece into the mellowness of The Only One. The Go Getter This one works: nice movement and a unique setting that the band’s sound accentuates meaningfully. Fresh California narrator in a song that knows its bluesy roots. Worth a listen. Never Gonna Give You Up Stands out too much, as it’s far more melodically interesting than the rest of the album. Doesn’t work in this setting, and it’s an unnecessary cover of the outstanding, heartfelt, and vocally masterful original by Jerry Butler. The Days If this kind of song is what The Black Keys are capable of, I’m interested in giving more of their albums a listen. Nice and devastating with moving, genuine lyrics that speak of lived experience. This conclusion showcases the vocalists’s ability to craft blues emotion in a felt and mature performance; also offers balanced instrumental production. I had higher hopes for this one.