Interesting instrumentals.
Interesting view into early Winehouse before Back to Black album blew up.
English indie pop. Excellent post-house music electronic pop.
Favorite Tracks:
Intro
VCR
Islands
Shelter
I listened to the Deluxe edition on Spotify with B sides and live tracks.
The Polly Smart Studio session was a cool find.
Memories of buying this album at the Buckingham Square mall in Denver. Musicland CD store. Probably the same place that I bought Guns n Roses Use Your Illusion. An era.
Need to go back and relisten to this one!!
GnR were such a part of my early teen years
Fantastic. Enjoyed learning more about English ska history.
Great to drop some blues in the middle of Appetite for Destruction and Costello brit pop. I wanted to jump in the car and drive to Memphis.
A blast of guitar that's instantly recognizable. "With a little Help" morphs into "Lucy in the Sky.". The plane ride to post colonial India with the first biggest Rock band in the World that resulted in "Within You Without You."
Sgt Peppers is more than an album. It's a postcard from The Beatles to give future generations an insight into what the end of the road felt like for George, Paul, John, and Ringo.
This album broke my streak of knowing (and liking) the artists and the music selections.
If I liked the music more I might spend time researching more of the "why?" Behind what is going here. But I gave it about half an hour of time and I was still more like "why the f--k??"
Were they trying to be English cottage Frank Zappa?
Verve has always felt like Third Eye Blind, Semisonic, Goo Goo Dolls, Friends theme song, yadda yadda. Pseudo alternative music that came after Nirvana, Pumpkins, Oasis.
It's for people too chickenshit to listen to music that pisses off their parents.
I'm listening to it now picturing Liam Gallagher beating the lead singer with an amp.
Enjoyed getting to hear this album as a whole for the first time. And then starting to unpeel the stories of each of the group members.
Interesting bridge between the Beatles and solo and Wings work. Love the album art.
An album overshadowed by Tommy. Thankful to listen to this rediscovery.
I didn't like the misogyny of gangster rap then and definitely not now.
It turns out that 70s rock opera is way more my speed than I even expected.
Gave me a new appreciation for the music born out of New Orleans.
I'll say this, we had to drive home late after a long day. Aja by Steely Dan kept my thirteen year old happily asleep for most of the ride.
This album is how I imagine much of the late 70s radio music scene must have felt.
It was fun to learn about Fogerty and CCR. Crazy to think about the amount and quality of songs that he created in the 1975-1969 span.
Great.
This is what an album experience should be. Each song is unique, but adds together to build into a whole.
Original albums are such a better experience than Greatest Hits.
Loved this first-time listen. Opening "Billy Jack" and the sincere "Jesus". Favorite was "Blue Monday People".
The cover art is brilliant.
As classic album as classic albums get.
Another classic album in the timeline of guitar evolution.
Looking forward to this one! I know Welch's name, but not her music very well. Let's see where this goes...
Brings back so many memories. I understand better now how Ozzy, Geezer, and Iommi would have grown up in the shadow of the Beatles, Stones, Who, and American rock. To feel so close in age, yet still an outsider.
You hear both the severance for electric guitar, but also the anger of wanting to create a new type of music of their own.
Yeah. Okay. This is a solid album full of hits. The story behind its recording also fits in the legends of rock and roll. As much as I believe the music of Boston is indistinguishable from REO Speedwagon, Chicago, Cheap Trick, and numerous other mid 70s bands, it is very true that this is an impressive debut album with zero filler.
Wow, I always thought Spinal Tap was making fun of American rock bands. But every song on this album was an unintended parody skit.
Not really my favorite music, but I remember how DM gave 80s music a dark edge that would influence the rise of grunge and then Nine inch Nails.
This review was unearthed from 2010-11 when the album first came out. West had recently lost his mother in 2007. She died of complications after a series of cosmetic surgeries. That seems to be one of a series of traumatic events, many self-inflicted, that West experienced on his quixotic quest for fame and wealth.
It's not a great album and he is definitely not a great person. His antihero journey is symbolic of the dark, twisted American Dream that has become all of our existence. So four stars for the failure we are all trying to live through at the moment. Kanye, you achieved your dream of creating your nightmare. What a blueprint.
This was a first discovery of an Australian early punk pioneer that experimented with a horn section. I'm in.
Powerman by the Kinks is still my favorite album. But I always love a new Kinks discovery.
Another English version of American music who I never got into when I was younger.
The dream of the 90s is still alive in the Underworld. Although many tracks captured the repeitition of electronic music of that era, others flashed the promise of a post-Trainspotting world of music.
Kind of like listening to Dylan's most recent albums. You hear the whole career in each song. Not sure any of these rose to the classic status of earlier work. But I love to remember the moments I discovered Cohen along the way.
Had a feeling this one would make an appearance.
I listened to Highway Patrolman again and again last night. It was probably on when I finally fell asleep.
The legends around the recording of this album will probably go on to live next to the music itself.
"Man turns his back on his family, well he just ain't no good."
Springsteen became something else with this album. Before he was another rock singer trying to rise above a saturated east coast scene. Two years after Nebraska he would rise with Born in the USA. I wonder how much he listened to Nebraska during that time to keep himself grounded.
I wish I would have had this album then, too.
Five stars. It just is.
Even the filler songs on a Who album are joyous to listen to. "The Song is Over" and "Getting in Tune" were surprising rediscoveries.
This is a great album full of all the beats that became classics.
I wish I could go back and be more of A Tribe Called Quest fan when I was also at the height of being a Beastie Boys fan.
Actually, I'd like to be in a room with both groups making music together.
This was another album where I've heard some of the songs before, but never knew who made them. Or why.
I can respect Les Paul's contribution to the history of music by innovating the electric guitar, but I don't really look forward to listening to Les Paul's music.
I feel the same about Brian Eno and electronic music.
Okay, I see the appeal of Kendrick now.
Some songs reminded me of Michael Hedges exploring guitar combinations.
Probably an artist I would have liked more if I had listened to more albums beyond the singles that got radio.
Decent flashback to the late 80s.
It's a Joni Mitchell album of 70s experimental synthesizers. I kept hearing the Tom Petty lyric, imagining the record company saying, "I don't hear a single." But you're Joni Mitchell -- she gets to make whatever she wants.
I haven't heard this many hits on a 70s debut album since Boston!
I hope that Steely Dan will continue to have evolving layers of relevance in our shared pop culture tissue.
Zeppelin is an instant 5.
This was one of the first albums that E and I agreed on for road trips.
Soundgarden was never on the same level for me as Pearl Jam or Nirvana. Returning to this album thirty years later didn't changey mind
Sure, some parts are pure decadence. But isn't that what made Prince great?
Every White Tripes album was a moment of music history where was Rock was reclaimed and updated for the 21st century.
Not as much fun as the other album on the list.
"A Christmas Gift from Phil Spector" would be an awesome postmodern horror movie. Keep this album as the soundtrack. It would be bananas.
A relaxing break today. I felt underdressed for listening to this music. I needed to be in a New York apartment in the early 60s.
Fun discovery. Easy to see how this influenced Red Hot Chili Peppers, REM, and U2.
It's Bruce. Classic, 1975 Bruce. Bruce and the E Street Shuffle making music together - with their backs against the wall trying to find the magic after their first two albums didn't quite reach the expected level of success. Musicians in the band were changed out. Struggles with the label. And then Born to Run is created and starts to take off.
My first listen left me feeling like this must have been an overblown exercise in excess by Fleetwood Mac when they were at the height of their seventies popularity. All of the opening songs felt like over-the-top parodies of their hit songs.
Then I read about the making of the album and realized that the excess was the message of this double album recorded after the success of Rumours. They were sending a message to their label and their fanbase -- and trying to keep in touch with what gave them their music in the first place.
I read the fun article in The Independent: “Lindsey Buckingham on the wild story of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk: ‘Everything got somewhat decadent’”. If you were wondering if they trucked in champagne and lobster to the studio while recording Tusk, then the answer is yes.
My listening took a turn at the song “Sisters of the Moon.” This felt like an extension of Nicks’ and Buckingham’s earlier hits – but also different. Then I listened to “Too Funny” to see if there was really a White Stripes vibe and the college marching band-fueled title track.
“Sometimes, the most beautiful things
The most innocent things
And many of those dreams, pass us by
Keep passing me by.”
– opening lyrics to “Angel”
I’m grateful that I gave this album a second listen. I understand the timeline of Fleetwood Mac much more.
Oh good, more 70's space rock
I wasn't a big Mudhoney fan. I skipped right to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Mudhoney sounds like they were trying to make post-punk before they dove full into Grunge.
But go listen to "Good Enough" on their Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge album. Do you hear echoes of the Kinks and Rolling Stones before the song makes a full dive into Seattle sound at 2:40?
Cool to see the early days of psychedlic rock. I only knew their hit on classic rock radio in the 80s.
An album that has aged surprisingly well. The title track's lyrics are even more appropriate today than in the Bush era. Definitely is channeling The Who's Tommy vibe into a modern punk rock opera.
Could have used a solid LBJ shout-out, though.
Favorite track: Grand Finale - A swooning, orchestral finish to an album filled with juvenile lyrics that will be forever immortalized by the giant middle finger of the title track. Imagine Alice Cooper conducting this beautiful song. His face must have been so happy to know he was capable of such beauty amidst the snakes and leather bravado of his stage persona.
When you need just the right cocktail music for your end-of-democracy themed 80s party.
This one was like listening to the Stones inside a time machine. Could they see their future as they were cranking out the tracks? Did they believe in the ones that sounded straight out of a studio exec's wishlist? Were they bristling to writer more verses to Mother's Little Helper?