1001 Albums Summary

Straight off the bat I found the hyper-sweet, daggy 80s-ness of this album offputting, but as it settled itself in, it revealed some incredibly clever and almost subversive songwriting. The pop sensibilities of Green Gartside can't be overstated, he's pushed every single pop trope to its logical conclusion so cynically that it's past cliche and actually quite novel. The pop-tropeyness of it is dialled up so high that if it came out today I'd assume it was written by AI, but I don't necessarily mean that in the derogatory sense. I appreciated the intelligence of it as an art form and allowed myself to have some fun with it, but by 5-6 songs in started to find it cloying and kinda banal. I'm really not sure if this is gonna be something I'll later decide I have a taste for and come back to or never come back to again, like the first time you try Dr Pepper. Highlight was Wood Beez. "Each night I go to bed I pray like Aretha Franklin"