Listen. If you are going to give me a heavy metal harmonica track about a badass mute sorcerer, I'm going to LIKE it ok?
The title track is moody as hell (no pun intended) and N.I.B. slaps hard enough to maybe convince me Lucifer is just a misunderstood romantic (that ending guitar solo tho!). We get some killer jazz drums and guitar on Wicked World, plus the anti-capitalist vibes are evergreen here. Did I mention they wrote a whole song about wizard who just spreads good vibes???
Is it a perfect album? No, but it's one hell of a debut, and can you imagine how awesome it would have been to listen to this thing in the early 70s while you discover D&D 1E with your friends?
There is an awful lot to love here. Pretty much across the board the songwriting is just excellent. Songs are catchy, and surprisingly varied given the duo's limited instrumental breadth. We've got a lot of love songs here, but also songs about childhood, Citizen Kane, breakups, and maybe Edgar Allen Poe? Fell in Love with a Girl is, for my money, one of the best songs ever written. Dead Leaves is a banger, Friends is an absolute classic, and the whole album flows really well from rock anthem to country bop and back again.
Is it as good as Elephant? I don't think so, but I like it more!
It may not be my favorite genre, but this is still one hell of an album. The chiller, downtempo tracks like "You and I" are killer (that theramin!!) and beautifully performed. Sunshine and Superstition are certified classics, but there's nothing here that's really bad at all. There is some more "experimental" type work like in You've Got it Bad Girl, but I'm just getting Bill Wurtz vibes from that and I love it.
I don't know if I would come back to specific songs on this album, but I would absolutely spin the whole album when I was in the right mood.
Some great songwriting and some really classic, heartfelt, powerful tracks like Forgiven and Oughta Know. Some songs are quieter and just as good like You Learn and Head Over Feet.
What holds the album back though is a rather weak last quarter and the couple corny tracks that make you question what they were thinking (Ironic and Hand in My Pocket). Replace these two tracks and this is probably nearly a 5-star album.
What a melancholy album. Songs about guilt and suffering, loss and hope. This is probably the loneliest album I've ever heard. I think the songwriting here is really beautiful at times, and some of these tracks almost verge on hymn-like. That said, I don't think the performance and writing can make up for the uninspired song structure and repetitive tone.
I had to listen to this album twice, it really struck me! Another melancholy album, but dang it's fantastic. I can't believe I'd never heard it before. It's not perfect, some of the musical arrangement can get a little bit repetitive, but overall this is an amazing album. So happy to be exposed to this.
Everything here is a BOP. Orchestration and instrumentation is great across the board (listen to Reasons and tell me I'm wrong!) and the singing is soulful and more than competent. I love the weird jazzy experimental synths on All About Love. Africano goes hard as the album's instrumental banger, and the title track is a funky jam.
Great album, would spin again no question. May need to add this one to my collection.
This is a weird album. It feels at times really modern, and at others almost haphazard. I'm sure all of this is intentional, but I find it only works for me on some of the tracks. I won't spend much time on this review, but I think I'll likely return to this album in the future for another round.
Not my favorite genre but I can't deny the earworms this album is filled with. I feel like the album ends on a really strong note with the last few tracks. I especially like Psycho Killer
I'm not traditionally a singer-songwriter stan, but I can absolutely understand why this album is on the list. The writing across all of these tracks is phenomenal and there are so many catchy hooks and lines.
The album starts out great with both All I Want and My Old Man (we don't need a piece of paper from the city... hall). It's a melancholy album and I think it's easy to dismiss the album because it's such a mood but that would be a mistake. The album also end amazingly with my favorite track A Case of You, and the wonderful Last Time...
This is definitely the best album on the list so far.
There is some really interesting production on many of these tracks. The wailing vocals really serve some of the more despondent and dark tracks, but 60 minutes of that is a LOT. It's clearly experimental, it has some odd instrumentals, tracks with odd talk-vocals, and weird production. I can imagine this being really interesting and affecting as a punk fan in '79 but in my opinion not all of this ages that well. I'll also readily acknowledge that I might just not like post-punk very much, idk.
Sarah Vaughan is clearly an immensely talented vocalist. This live recording is just an astonishing showcase that obviously sounds incredible but is also full of little hiccups, gaffs, and improvisations that make it so so charming to listen to.
Honeysuckle Rose is absolutely killer, but that's just a favorite on a record of highlights. How High the Moon with some nice scatting (and love for Ella!) is also just great.
I accidentally listened to the 2003 album (it was good) before listing to the debut intended here, oops.
This debut album sounds significantly different, and has a better written, more memorable track list. I found it surprisingly approachable and easy to listen to. Definitely a pared-down sound especially on the drums, but it by no means sounds bad or lazy. Good album, not mind blowing, but I will listen again.
What a weird album. I got as far Steamroller, and was like "What the hell is this garbage?". I'm glad I looked it up and found out that the track is supposed to be a parody of other shitty blues bands full of white people. This dude is not a blues singer (or is purposefully being shit) and I get that song is supposed to be a statement, but it's unlistenable so I don't really know how I feel about it being on the album. Luckily much of the rest of the album isn't bad at all. Fire and Rain especially is a killer track that I'll be putting in my larger rotation. Overall this is a good country album, but nothing totally mind blowing to me.
I think maybe I do not have the proper introduction into post-punk to appreciate this genre yet. I want to appreciate what's happening here but I feel I do not have the musical context to understand. Maybe something I need to revisit in the future.
This is an album I grew up with and have loved for a long time. Listening to it more critically it's a little bit corny at times, and damn is it short! That said, so much of this has aged fantastically. I think it's inarguable that the first half of the album is just fire, and whole things slow in the latter half it still ends strong.
If I wanted to be hyper critical here, I might say some of the tracks can at times feel repetitive or feel like they are a bit too long. That said this album is basically perfect, and while it may not hold the same place in my heart as Discovery, it's still an easy 5-star for me. This album fundamentally changed modern EDM. For most people this album IS house music: you put this on some speakers, crank the volume, and you can't help but bop. Favorite tracks (all of them?!) Da Funk, Phoenix, Around the World, Burnin, Indo Silver, I mean this is just too fun.
I don't have the history with this album that a know a lot of people my age do. I never listened to the offspring growing up, and while I have of course heard many of these songs, I have no nostalgia for this. There are definitely really fun tracks here with good writing that still slay and stay relevant. However it's not a super consistent album imo. For every Self Esteem and Gotta Get Away there's a Killboy Powerhead or So Alone that brings things down a bit. Don't get me wrong, overall this is still a fantastic album and that's coming from someone who doesn't give a shit about most punk music.
