Fascinating dive into the separation of God from religion, painting portraits of various characters and their intersections with morality, spirituality, and organized religion. The acoustic ballads gave a nice contrast to the heavier riff-heavy rock. Gotta love the flute too!
Crazy vocals, post-punk guitar with a little thrashy cymbals. Definitely a classic album, but probably not one I'll be coming back too any time soon.
Definitely a poet, less of a writer of melodies. I generally like Leonard Cohen but this isn't necessarily his best album. My favourite from the album is probably Bird on the Wire. I also like jaw harp, but it usually shines as a unique texture used sparingly. Not as enjoyable when it's just constantly going on in the background.
Little bit of psychedelia added into Cream's blues-heavy rock sound on this album. Sunshine Of Your Love is a classic and probably my favourite track on the album. There are some other good ones too, but also a couple duds in my opinion. Not a huge fan of how the drums are mixed on this album either, but overall I will likely listen again.
<span style="color:blue"> Beautiful textures and layers of harmony. I enjoyed the changes in tempo and style throughout the first track. The album is made even more enjoyable and impressive knowing the backstory of this concert. There is admittedly a lot of repetition and heavy use of ostenato, but I personally really enjoy repetitive musical ideas that morph over time so this album really did it for me. I knew of Keith Jarrett, but I'm surprised I hadn't heard this album before. Also just psyched to have some jazz on here. Bonus: the phrase that starts at 3:30 into the first track ends with The Lick™ </span>
Lots of great songs on this album, although it kind of drops off after The Boxer. I've never been a huge fan of the song Bridge Over Troubled Water, but the album as a whole is quite enjoyable. Something I particularly enjoyed about this album was the variety and breadth of the instrumentation. Strings, bass harmonica, and all kinds of different auxiliary sounds provide different textures throughout, keeping things fresh and interesting. Contrast that to the recent Leonard Cohen album that abused jaw harp in the same way on every track. That was cool, but this album did it better in my opinion.
Listening to this kind of felt like watching a Baz Luhrmann film. Nice Bolero reference in the first track, Oh What A World, fitting of it's rather orchestral arrangement. Not too often you hear oboe and bassoon in a "pop" song. Very cute that his mom played the banjo part on the 8th track, 14th Street.
Listened to this one in the car, and I liked it! The title track sounded familiar to me but I couldn't place it. As their first album, this was a strong start for Television.
GOBBLESS AMERICA At first I couldn't tell if some of this album was satirical or if Randy Newman was just delusional. Political Science made me laugh out loud, and wasn't just because of Newman's voice. Definitely getting gospel and jazz vibes from this album, but some tracks also have an orchestral or cinematic feel to them as well. Hidden gem of the album for me is Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong.
Overall enjoyed this album, it seems like a classic from its time. Definitely some uncomfortably creepy themes surrounding consent or lack thereof throughout the album that I didn't love. Musically enjoyable, and some of the songs were pretty fun lyrically too. Some highlight tracks for me were Common People, Disco 2000, and Bar Italia.
Really interesting to hear the different takes right after each other. For example, Take 3 of Gloria's Step sounds much more lively rihht off the top than Take 2 does. Didn't listen too deeply to this one, but I would probably listen again.
Very atmospheric, evoking late summer nights and hazy afternoons. Reminds me a bit of a darker, more atmospheric and moodier Oasis. Lots of phasers, tremolo, delay, and other effects on guitars and vocals especially. The title track, Lost Souls, was giving me a "rock show at the haunted carnival" kind of vibe. Definitely getting some Foo Fighters influence in the sound of Catch The Sun too. As an enjoyer of instrumental music, I appreciated the tracks that were fully or mostly instrumental. A lot of the sounds I hear on this album really sound like they are either from 90s grunge or the more psychedelic indie rock of the 2010s. The producer, Steve Osborne, also worked with groups like New Order and U2, which makes the post production effects and layering make a lot of sense to me as well. Overall really enjoyed this album! Fave tracks for me are probably Catch The Sun, A House, and The Man Who Told Everything.
I recognized one song, "Where Is My Mind?" Other than that, this album didn't leave much if an impression on me. I struggle to really enjoy music like this, which seems to be much more about the "energy" and delivery of lyrics than making musical decisions to get the point across. Also wondering how they got Mickey Mouse as the guest vocalist for Broken Face. My picks are Gigantic, Where Is My Mind? and Vamos.
Glam rock party time. Not overly inspiring. I did end up enjoying some of this album, but I don't know if I will be coming back to listen soon.
It makes sense that I enioyed this because I grew up listening to U2, Genesis and Coldplay which, in some way or another, have all been Touched By The Hand Of Eno. It was just weird enough and complex enough for me to really appreciate the different sounds. I imagine it must be challenging to write music that has many odd sounds but still is catchy and has a groove to it. I really like the wackiness and energy of Kurt's Rejoinder and King's Lead Hat. By The River is absolutely beautiful and even makes use of word painting in the phrase "underneath a sky that's ever falling down, down, down, ever falling down." As Eno repeats the word "down," the melody mirrors the lyrics, descending towards the last repetition of "down" which happens to be the lowest note Eno sings on this track. Before and After Science gets my first 5 star review!
Certainly a classic! Before listening to this album, I didn't realize how sad and horny Muddy Waters was.
Atmospheric, moody, and pretty bare overall. Portishead appears to have the somewhat unique ability to use heavy sounds in their music without the overall tone of the music being heavy. Interesting use of instruments and musical choices that remind the listener of R&B and surf rock at times. There is something unsettling yet comforting about this album, both instilling a sense of anguish and discomfort, yet reminding us that we are not alone in these feelings. The depth of space created by reverb and delay effects on the beat in "Magic Doors" was truly impressive, and the added piano hits to punctuate the sax line really make the track shine. It was fun to hear a sample of Link Wray's "Rumble" at the end of this album's 9th track, "Small". That track also has a really enjoyable 'drop' with a slow build up throughput the song. My track picks are "The Rip" for it's haunting melody and meaningful lyrics, "Plastic" simply because I liked the quintuplets, and "Machine Gun" for how the bit-crushed beat deepens and becomes more complex throughout the song.
There is something rather Medieval about the tonality of this album. I like me some good 13th c. rock and roll. The sitar and clawhammer banjo on House Carpenter!!
Of course I have to mention the fretless bass first – Bakithi Kumalo killed it on this album. It's very cool that Simon brought together various South African and American artists for this album, and it really does sound like it. I also never knew until this listen through that the inspiration for the title track was a visit to Elvis's home in Memphis after Simon's marriage to Carrie Fisher fell apart.
holy grunge whiny vocals that occasionally turn into tortured screams more distortion than there is guitar at points but the tone is still rich and fuzzy Song picks: No Bones, They Always Come, Budge, and The Post.
Honestly truly disliked this. So hard to listen to for me. Felt like if Stevie Nicks decided to try cabaret jazz.