It’s good music, but it’s sad boi music for sure. I enjoyed it but thank goodness I didn’t listen to this as a teenager or I would’ve been INSUFFERABLE.
Fascinating album—you can hear a lot of new wave influence on here. There are parts that sound as if someone lifted The Talking Heads and dropped them in the UK. Is it the best album? No, but if you go into it with a curious mind you’ll get a good bit out of it.
This is one of the first major albums I can recall hearing where The Beatles had a noticeable impact on the generation of music makers who came up after them in Britain. The group shines here on their second album—all their most notable hits are here, along with a few songs that come in and surround you like a warm hug. Honestly, this album is like greeting an old friend at times. Hello there, “She’s Electric!” Ah yes, “Morning Glory,” how could I forget about you? And here’s good old “Wonderwall”, whose signature guitar progression carries us through the album. There’s a reason this album is noteworthy—and a reason it reinvigorated Brit Pop for the decade following its release. Absolute gem of a listen.
Really fun start with Evenflow as the second song. By the end of this album, I too was begging for someone to release me. All the songs (aside from the ones that became big hits, like Evenflow and Jeremy) all sound the same.
This is a beautiful album, one that overcame me with emotion listening to it. It felt perfect for the end of summer, that melancholy departure of warm days on the beach in favor of an approaching autumn chill. Honestly makes me wish I had a convertible, so I could play this while driving with the top down along a coastal highway. I think I’ll have to listen to this one again soon.
This album felt very ahead of its time, and yet very influenced by the twenty years that came before it. A lot of fun, even if Costello has some weird views about women in some of these lyrics.
This was the wrong album to put on before going to bed. Sweet Loaf is pretty decent, if a little chaotic. Never heard of an album where I was dreading each song as it started, but if I have nightmares tonight I’m gonna blame the Butthole Surfers.
This must have sounded so alien to listeners in 1978! I knew a little about the history of Kraftwerk going into this album (it’s hard to manage a radio show that plays 80s music and NOT know Kraftwerk), but this was my first listening experience—and a pretty good one overall! Yes, it’s a little repetitive, but given that this was a brand new medium for music-making, I’m not too surprised. Definitely a fun listen!
A soulful, funky album through and through. Loved the orchestral arrangements on the opener!
One, two three to the fo’, This album isn’t with the times any mo’, All the homophobia and misogyny, Just undercuts the music’s philosophy, The beats are electric with those West Coast vibes, But the lyrics give me trouble with the gangsta lives, This album I guess isn’t made for me, So I hope you don’t mind if I give it a three!
Phenomenal rhymes here—at times hilarious, but always powerful and ready to spread a deeper message. The mixing is lovely all around and really helps to elevate the rhythm and flow. I particularly liked the shout-outs to and samples of other songs! Enya on “Ready or Not” was a pleasant surprise, but hearing the opening to “Nights in White Satin” at the end of “The Mask” floored me. There’s a reason the Fugees are regarded as a legendary group in hip-hop, and that reason is clear as day with this album.
I feel like Deep Purple gave the game away when they wrote a song called “Space Trucking”, as that’s EXACTLY what their music sounds like to me! Definitely sounds like something you’d hear on a galactic FM station as you’re drifting through the asteroid belt. This live album gets off to a roaring start with Highway Star—it must have been amazing to see that guitar solo live. We slow to enjoy a short rest stop on Child of Time, to take in the sights before picking back up on the road with some sick drumwork. Smoke on the Water chugs along merrily to deliver us to an exceptional drum solo on The Mule! I think I blacked out during Strange Kind of Woman because I don’t remember anything there. Lazy sounds like I’m trying to talk to Gaster. But the band brings it all home on Space Trucking, closing off an enjoyable (if long) journey!
I’m a sucker for instrumental works like this, so this album was right up my alley! Loved the samples and lo-fi beats, and how they changed from track to track. I can see why this album is so influential!!
When I was a freshman in university, I once went to a mixer for incoming English majors early into the semester. One of the professors decided to bring their mandolin and play Scarborough Fair for the assembled students (truly the most English Lit professor action I’ve ever seen). Up to that point, I knew the name Scarborough Fair but had never heard the song—to hear it now brings me back to that night, and actually makes me a little misty. The mixing, the dual and layered verses...it’s wonderful again. That professor, with his quiet voice and beautiful mandolin, passed away unexpectedly last year. To hear this album, with its warmth and gentleness, brings me back to that night again when we all stood and listened to him play, and the joy we felt at our new camaraderie. And for this one moment, the professor lives again. “So I’ll continue to continue to pretend My life will never end And flowers never bend with the rainfall”
This is an artist whose biography surprised me greatly—I hadn’t heard of Baaba Maal before now, but he’s played an influential role in several things I am familiar with! I enjoy how the music becomes a backing, rhythmic track for Maal’s voice, while still having these little elements that stand out. They all have little moments of peeking through, whether it’s the electric burble of a guitar or a drum beat shift for a bar or two. A great discovery all around!
Somebody needs to put Prince in solitary confinement in horny jail. Man is a little freak but he makes good beats on the electronic drum machine so I can’t be too mad. The album has its fun moments but I felt like I had to take a cold shower after some of these tracks.
This album was fun, but looking back I can’t remember a single song off of it aside from Connection, which I already knew going in. An overall alright post punk album, and a decent intro to the genre, but not one I’d seek out again.
What an unexpected treat of an album! I was familiar with the titular track, but after that the whole thing opened up to waltz through different genres. This one is going to get played again for sure!
Look, you don’t get the nickname “The Queen of Soul” without good reason! These are great tracks that really show off Franklin’s vocal skills and range, especially on the classic opener “Respect”. The closer of “A Change is Gonna Come” is so lush and gorgeous too, capping off an incredible album.
“Gimme Shelter” is one of not just my favorite Stones songs, but one of my favorite songs in general…so to say I was primed for this album is an understatement. After that phenomenal opening comes Love in Vain, which produced such a negative physical response that I had to check and make sure that I was still listening to the correct album. Things improved from there.
I was pleasantly surprise to find that this album clicked for me! I might be a bigger New Wave fan than I originally thought…or much like The The, I also despise Thatcher.
It’s good music, but it’s sad boi music for sure. I enjoyed it but thank goodness I didn’t listen to this as a teenager or I would’ve been INSUFFERABLE.
Phenomenal album, with messages that have continued to resonate thirty years later.
A lush album of timeless covers. Lang’s voice lends themselves well to these songs, especially “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes”. While country isn’t my favorite genre, this was still a good listen!
Ohhhhh yes it’s time for my British Rubicks Cube album. I used to listen to this one all the time in high school, and it still holds up marvelously. “Grounds for Divorce” is a classic, but man, The Bones of You is a gorgeous song. I was on a plane for the first bit of this album, and “Weather to Fly” actually picked up right as we approached the runway. Couldn’t have timed that better if I’d tried.
In 2011, Adele burst onto the scene with this album and some absolutely killer tracks—many of which would go on to be her most notable songs. My mom at the time was of the mind that if you liked one song, you had to buy the CD it came from (despite iTunes very much being a thing at that point, but I digress). So as a teenager, anytime my mom and I would go anywhere in her car, she’d have this CD ready to go. Now, don’t get me wrong, Adele is a great singer. I wish I could have the musical success she found at 21–heck, I’d settle for 25 at this point! And some of these tracks were big for a reason (Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You, Set Fire to the Rain), that reason being they’re phenomenal. THAT BEING SAID, I dreaded this CD coming on when I was a teenager, because aside from those songs + Rumor Has It, I HATED this CD. I found the other tracks to be boring, ESPECIALLY Turning Tables—Someone Like You coming at the end is a great closer, but you have to slog through the most forgettable sad songs in your life to get there. Eventually my mom learned to stop buying full CDs when she picked up a Ce-Lo Green album and we all learned the hard way that the song Forget You was NOT what that song was called on the album…