Having never listened to them before despite hearing the name over the years, once the album starts I'm immediately struck by the influence on Weezer this must have had.
And Your Bird Can Sing is a beautiful song. Always liked Eleanor Rigby.
Nothing prepared me for how schmaltzy this gets. Terrible lyrics, jarring and dissonant passages that come out of nowhere. Their harmonies never really did anything for me but I wasn't expecting to loathe this as much as I did.
Cross-Eyed Mary and Hymn 43 are bangers. Locomotive Breath is pretty good too. I can do without the forest sprite ballyhoo.
Nothing is really sticking to me but I don't exactly hate it. Just sort of washed off of me. 2.5/5
Side A is perfect. Side B has its moments but it's noticeably weaker. Still a great record. I get goofy to this.
The hits still hit. The rest not so much, although Exit was a cool little surprise. Driving, propulsive, claustrophobic. Trip Through Your Wires sounds like The Frames (who I love) took some influence from them. A 2.5/5.
sure why not Killer bass tone. They've got some good ideas here and interesting parts even if I'm not completely sold. Knew none of these songs prior to this listen (there's gotta be at least one other R.E.M. album on this list, I imagine.)
Would this be the first Sinatra album I reach for when I'm in the mood to hear him? No, but it's enjoyable enough.
A two-hour, three-LP album sounds like a daunting task but this is such a rambunctious and at-times heart-tugging body of work that the length just doesn't matter to me. Sure, just start a bunch of songs chatting or plotting out what you're about to record. Take your time! Their interpretations of these Hank Williams tunes and various other traditionals feature incredible finger-picking and fiddling. The songs with Roy Acuff are real standouts. I make it a point to listen to these albums the way they were initially released (no additional songs added on later reissues) but got some faulty information and wound up listening to a few songs more that were not on the original. Oh well. I had a blast. Highlights: The Precious Jewel, Wreck on the Highway, I Saw the Light, My Walkin' Shoes, Foggy Mountain Breakdown (later reissue)
What can be said? The king.
Get. Your. Groove. On.
Was wondering why so many people were complaining about the UK bias of this list when encountering truly outstanding works. Well, I get it now. This is aggressively fine. Sounds more akin to American country music than folk music from a Scot, to be very honest. I'm being charitable with the 3.
Almost becomes tolerable when he stops rapping...ALMOST.
Hey man we need you to soundtrack this 90s teen comedy/hacker movie from the late 90s/early 2000s. You got anything for us?
I've seen this described as Elvis going more of a "sophisticated pop" route but it's uneven. Recorded and released after his return from the army, it's clear that they just wanted to pump as much material out of this guy as quickly as possible. His record label even kept releasing old unreleased tracks during his military service. Side A is so sleepy outside of Dirty, Dirty Feeling which is a scrapped King Creole track but it's a nice jolt. Such a Night is a great vocal performance and arrangement. The three bluesy songs out of the last four tracks are serviceable. All told, if you're not sold on Elvis, I don't think this will sway you, but it's got some juice.
This was a nice surprise. Really solid folk with an absolute heater tucked away in the middle, Cajun Woman, that sticks out like a sore thumb but is a rollicking good time, sporting some cool lap steel (I think?) 3.5/5