Let me start with the premise that I have never been a HUGE fan of goth rock from the 80s. I usually prefer a clearer and crispier production rather than a gloomy and "reverberated" one, so take this entire review with a grain of salt.
This album feels like if Joy Division and Talking Heads made a joint record without actually cooperating on the songs. Some songs like Hollow Hills feel like Joy Division, while others like Kick in the Eye straight up sound like a Talking Heads song, from the way of singing to the rythmic section. Speaking of singing, I feel like Peter Murphy's voice is at its best when he's doing his best Bowie impression like in Hollow Hills or Kick in the Eye, but I'm a massive Bowie simp so I'm biased.
As far as instrumentation goes, the bass is very catchy in pretty much all of the songs and the droning guitar can add nice atmosphere like it does in Hair of the Dog and in Dancing, but it does gets stale after a while since my pet peeve with this record is that all the Talking Head-ish songs follow the same structure and get boring after you hear the same "beginning of the bass line followed by the drums coming in at full force" for the 5th time in a row.
One thing I don't get is why some songs have a much clearer production than others (Muscle in Plastic or In Fear of Dub for instance). It's so odd when you compare to how much clearer other songs like Of Lillies and Remains (which is straight up just The Gift by The Velvet Underground), I just don't get it.
Speaking of songs, some highlights are for sure Hollow Hills where the atmosphere is peak "cemetery at night" with the drums accompanying relentlessy the whole song with just the kick. Kick in the Eye is also a great song that makes you just want to get up and dance with its groovy bassline, but the best song is undoubtably Mask: begins like something that could easily be a soundtrack to a hord of zombies slowly but surely marching towards something or someone in the most cinematic way possible and then in the second half you get hit with this absolutely beautiful guitar that makes you feel like you've been freed from a dark tomb, after being forcefully confined in it for years. This alone bumps up the rating a little bit, genuinely one of the Greatest things I've heard in music.
Worst song is probably Harry. What was that even? Is it their attempt at a reggae song? Too goofy and in contrast with the rest of the record.
Either way, this is just my opinion. So try not to pay too much attention to it.
Rating: 3 stars/7-
I'll start the review by saying I'm not the biggest fan of Hip Hop so you'll have to take everything with a grain of salt.
A few positive things I could find on this album are the following:
The lyrics can be funny at times although I felt like it lacked actual themes because most of the album's themes can be summarized with: "I'm better than you and I'm gonna hurt you fuck you", which I totally get it can be someone's vibe, just not mine.
The vibe is pretty much constant throughout the album and the MCs are most definitely charismatic and they differentiate from each other very much, great performance at the very least.
Now I'll go with what I didn't like:
The skits (but I generally don't like skits, so that's just me)
The beats. I don't get how people are saying they are beautifully produced and all of that when it's always the generic 4/4 drum beat accompanied by a bass line and a minimalistic piano. In every song. Like, who are we kidding? Illmatic came out half a year later and the beats aren't as lazy or boring as these ones are, it's not even a "it was good for its time" thing.
Review is relatively short, but since, as I already said, I'm not much into hip hop, there's nothing else really I'd be able to say.
Perhaps I'm just too white and european to fully get this.
Either way, this is just my opinion. So try not to pay too much attention to it.
Here we go, the "why is he so clueless?" album...
Jokes aside, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On is a (still) brutally modern album in its themes. To think that in 1971 he was preaching for the end of atrocities such as war, environmental destruction and financial struggle and none of these themes got even remotely better in 2025 makes me sad. This album is a love letter to love (no pun intended) and should be a manifesto for a better world.
Marvin has one of the purest and most angelic voices I have ever heard, capable of soothing you even if he's really singing about horrible things.
The arrangements are relatively simple yet so lush. The bells (or I at least think these are bells) that accompany almost every song create a Christmas-like vibe which makes you develope hope in humanity while listening to the album, all of this while adding nice texture to the songs while never really being out of context.
This album also has an incredible pacing, for sure it is short (35) minutes, but in such a short time (time that absolutely flies by the way) he manages to pack SO much thematically and does so while having the songs flow into each other seamlessly, adding to the the album a nice consistency and, again, a great pacing.
My only "problems" with this album are the "aaahhhhh" choirs being slightly overused and the entirety of "Wholy Moly": a slow tempo song that doesn't add anything to the album, musically, vocally or even thematically (we already had God is Love about religion), but other than that, this is really a flawless album.
One last thing I noticed is that the album feels recursive to me, let me explain: the ending of Inner City Blues mimics the sound and the lyrics of What's Going On. To me this is Marvin Gaye's way of saying that all of the problems he talks about seem to have no end and, like history, the evil in the world is cyclical. It's like he knew the world was not gonna change for the better, but he decided to bless our ears and try to purify everyone's hearts nonetheless.
Either way, this is just my opinion. So try not to pay too much attention to it.
This is my first Stevie Wonder album, shocker that I've never heard Songs in the Key of Life, but the sheer length of an album whose genre is relatively unknown to me always scared me. But that's why I'm doing this project and starting to dive into Stevie Wonder's discography was long overdue at this point.
As per usual, I'll start with the positives:
-The drumming. Drums and percussions are incredibly creative, rich and diverse throughout the whole record.
-The bass is warm and groovy and his experimenting with the synths (I've read he started using synths during the recordings of Talking Book) are used very effectively to fill the empty spaces, ensuring the LP never feels devoid of sound
-The arrangements and details add flavour to the (already) infectious songs (at least up to Superstition) and I appreciate that a lot.
-Superstition is obviously the highlight of this release, that song is SO catchy and captivating through its funk and bombastic arrangement you feel like your ears could blow from joy.
-Last but not least, Stevie has a great, "sugary" voice and the fact that he recorded everything by himself is absolutely mental. I wish I could have half of his talents.
Now the negatives:
-Thematically this album is very stale. Besides Superstition and the heavily political Big Brother, almost every song is about love. From an album called "Talking Book" I would've expected a wider range of the human spectrum of emotions to be analyzed.
-Some songs have what I like to call the "Oasis syndrome" where they overstay their welcome because the chorus keeps getting repeated over and over for like 2 minutes, others don't really have anything cool going like Big Brother or You've got it Bad Girl
Overall, this album's highs (Superstition, Maybe Your Baby, You and I and I believe) are VERY high, but its inconsistency combined with the fact that after Superstition the record's momentum seem to drop off, ruining the pace of the album. Despite its inconsistencies, the highs show why Stevie Wonder is regarded as a genius and I'll definitely dive into other albums of his in the future.
Either way, this is just my opinion. So try not to pay too much attention to it.
"I have an audience with the Pope and I'm saving the world at eight / But if she says she needs me, she says she needs me / Everybody's going to have to wait"
I went into this album without having great expectations. I don't know why. Maybe because I had never heard of Elbow, not even being mentioned, but I'll say I'm glad this album popped out in the 1001 albums generator project.
This record is most definitely grandiose, using strings and brass to expand on the somewhat basic, classic instrument lineup of drums, bass, guitar and piano, and it does so very well. The orchestral parts add to the tone of "mellow epicness" the group went for.
All of the songs have a great cinematic atmosphere, making you feel like you're the protagonist of a movie, and not just any movie, but a colossal one. Some examples of this are The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver or The Fix.
There are moments in this record that are gonna give you an eargasm: the instrumental jam halfway through The Bones of You, the pre-chorus guitar on The Fix, the blow up around the 4th minute of The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver but there is a problem. Those moments don't last long enough. Moments like these need room to breathe and work their way through the songs, even at the cost of making the LP longer… because if you're going for a rock opera like sound, you shouldn't be afraid of length.
Another thing I didn't really enjoy was the voice. It's not bad by any means but at times it feels like a more "airy" version of The Smiths' frontman Morrissey. Perhaps it has to do with the fact they're both from Manchester and I'm getting tricked by the accent, but I don't think so.
Last but not least. Ground for Divorce. I have mixed feelings about this song. It's a blues rock Black Key-ish song that has a super cool guitar tone, the kind you'd listen to while walking down the street and feeling like you own the world. The chorus doesn't match the energy of the song and drags it down. Plus, it also feels completely out of place compared to the rest of the album. Like other songs, again, the instrumental jam feels like it gets cut out as soon as you can sense a switch rendering it better is about to come.
Either way, this is just my opinion. So try not to pay too much attention to it.
1001albumsgenerator project: Album 6 - Violent Femmes by Violent Femmes
"Day after day / I get angry"
I won't ever forget the first day I heard a song from this album, excluding Blister in the Sun, I was watching The 100 and Add it Up started playing, perfectly used in context, and all I could think of was "Man this guy is really angry he can't fuck, huh?"... little did I know this was gonna become one of my favourite albums ever… I also realized he's also sad because he can't fuck.
Jokes aside, this record is SO ahead of its time, Violent Femmes here sound like The Pixies but roughly 5 years earlier and with a folk/acoustic twist, but don't let that fool you, despite this release being mostly acoustic, the songs are as fast, loud and powerful as punk music usually is.
Many people like to point out the lyrics can be corny but I believe they're missing the point. We're hearing a 20 or so years old Gordon Gano sing about his frustration, his weaknesses and his romantic failures with a little sprinkle of sarcasm here and there, and you can't help but feel those lyrics actually mean a lot to him, the way he sings them. The vocals are so raw and visceral and at points genuinely scary, making him sound like a guy who could snap at any time due to accumulated resentment.
The highlights of the LP to me are obviously Blister in the Sun, absolutely incredible song that would've gone "viral" even if it was released in the 90. Again, so ahead of its time.
Gone Daddy Gone is also a high point of this record: I don't know what the creative process was behind the idea of adding a xylophone in a folk punk, but it makes the song very enjoyable and catchy. The Xylophone solo as well is absolutely incredible and unique.
Good Feeling is a beautiful song to end on. It was probably meant to show that all of his anger and inner turmoil were directed at no one but him, rather than at failed romantic interests.
Generally speaking though, the tracklist is very tight and it's just a banger after banger after banger.
The quintessential teenage angst album that won't ever get old.
Either way, this is just my opinion. So try not to pay too much attention to it.
1001albumsgenerator project: Album 8 - Vulnicura by Bjork
