Good singles here and the groove is great but I did get bored. I also made a mistake of listening to the 1995 version which had three remixses of We Are Family (the song rather than the album). Did not enjoy this one as much as Earth Wind and Fire so giving this a lower rating. Do not feel I have much to say about this one, promise I am not a disco hater just felt eh about this.
I remember finding this album in the attic in our country house when I was six. The cover always facinated me, it had the depth of a Bosch painting the many shapes and colors drawing me in. I listened to it much later but that first meeting always stayed with me. This time around I really loved the drums at work here, Michael Shrieve has such a luschious expansive sound here. Santanas guitar of corse gets well deserved credit but I do not think the rich jazz fusion would work without the rest of the band. Black Magic Woman and Oye Cómo Va might be the most famous songs here but Hope Your Feeling Better and Incident at Neshabur are my personal favorites. Overall a great album my only complaint is that it is almost too easy to listen. It is so smooth that it does not hold onto me as strongly as other albums. Still the skill here is very obvious.
Of the Eminem albums this is one of the better ones metareflections on his own fame and the oroboros of identities that are hard to disentangle. Its over the top anger and violence speaking to a very spesfic machismo cruelty that he is very entangled with. With all that said I do not really like Eminem as a rapper. His flow even here is very weak, the special thing about him and why he became popular has much more to do with his whitness than it does with his strength as an artist. Dre's production often is good but it does not take front seat putting the MCs more in focus. A mixed album for me. Stand out tracks Stan and The Way I Am.
For all my love for disco Earth, Wind & Fire has never done too much for me. I like their instrumentation and danceyness but the way that songs come together often leave me feeling decidedly neutral. Maurice White is a good vocalist he just does not grab me often. The title track feels quite bloated as does See the Light neither feeling like they earn the six minutes. Standout tracks Happy Feeling and Yearnin Learnin.
I had never heard of John Martyn before I listened to this album. His type of jazz infused funky folk I have alwalys either felt hot or cold on. This one from the title track onward really grabbed me however. The tamber of his voice is something else, there is an element of Nick Drake softness here but also some Frank Zappa weirdness. The guitar work throughout is spare but in that is a beuty I really enjoyed. The way it moved modes was also really satisfying to my musical brain. I think I will return to this one a lot or maybe I am just very high on it in the moment. Standout tracks to me Solid Air, I'd Rather Be the Devil and Dreams by the Sea (excellent drums in that track).
Really did not enjoy this one. Did not like the vocalist nor the psychadelic sound scapes which really annoyed me. Clearly an important album with how it uses production and eletronic effects all the way back in 1968 but that does not mean I enjoyed it. No stand out tracks.to me.
This used to be in my top 20 albums back when I had something as firm as that. It took me a bit to settle into it this time, at one point I was not sure I even still liked this album aside from the singles. As things continued on though something about Billies famous whiny voice won me back. There is something tgis album captures of the feelings of late teen angst and early twenties confidence that makes it still a very intresting art object for me. I think overall I prefer the less heavier dreamy altrock version of the Pumkins but I still appreciated the heavier angry songs on this record. It is overlong as a record and there are songs I think could have been cut but so few double LPs truly earn their length so I do not hold it against him too much. Standout tracks are the obvious ones this time: Tonight Tonight, Bullet with Butterfly Wings and 1979.
This is not my favorite Cure album but even the most avrage Cure album is very strong. This is where they really start for me as a band, the first album does not really feel like the Cure for me but here the echoey vocals and new wave guitar is what goth rock is all about. The operatic sadness of it all feels like it is reaching out to you in spsesfic. I hope there are at least one or two more Cure albums that will show up here but it was so good to return to 17 Seconds again after such a long time. Standout tracks: A Forest, At Night and Secrets.