Beautifully recorded and mixed. A little too consistently downtempo for me.
Not yet a caricature, but on the way. Good band buried in a so-so mix with too many pop overdubs.
All time great. No filler, and at least 2 unassailable classics.
Clean, punchy production perfection. Tough, tight songwriting. Crisp, restrained performances. Hard to admit, I have only known the hits from this record, and there are plenty of them. Pretty hard to be both timeless and absolutely of it's time, but this record is both. 5 stars is not grade inflation.
Not as mind bending as I was expecting, but then I am not listening in 1957. More alike than different from track to track, and while obviously stacked with talent, Miles doesn't stand out as much as he blends in. I would say his soundtrack to Ascenseur pour l'echafaud is a more immediate and personal record from the same period.
Can't stand the production. Too washy and verby for me. It is very of it's time.
I hate Billy Joel. This album is all too well known to me, and I probably would have given a much higher rating before these songs were ground to dust in the last 40 years. One Star.
Production is very dated. Hyper clean, and the guitar sounds are thin and brittle. I know there are great players on this, but they seem to be holding back. Seems to be trying to hearken back to an earlier style of country music, but is let down by the stilted tempos and the crystalline sonic palette.
Self-indulgent contrarian racket. I love that Zappa exists/existed, but really glad I don't have to hear it often. Not as clever as he thought it was? Or too clever to actually work? Dunno.
Solid production that sounds immediate, not trendy. Good rock songs sung by a singular voice. Nothing groundbreaking, but earns it's place.
World changing. I used to think this album was a glimpse of what Black Sabbath would become, but it is a powerhouse record that is among the best first releases ever. Not only introduced the band, but created a new genre. Great sequencing. First 3 tracks come out swinging.
Unassailable perfection. A master at her apex. Surrounded by the best of the best.
Undeniable excellence, with restraint and confidence. If Superstition was the only good track it would still be an all time classic.
The apex of their pop mastery. A comfortable looseness, like George's guitar parts on What Goes On, and great swing. Just hinting at the experimental era to come. Not a weak track on the album. I have heard this record 1001 times, and this is my first time listening to the mono mixes, which are the only mixes the Beatles supervised. It takes away a lot of the gimmicky panning, and makes it more immediate, and curiously, less dated.
Dynamics in the early aughts was a rarity. Good stuff, but mostly well trod by them by the time this was released.
Solid tracks all the way through. Can I Kick it is an all time classic
Pristine engineering, but sounds very like an homage to the Beatles to me. 10 years too early, or 10 years too late?
I was big into this record and Frank Black's follow ups when it came out. Also Breeders. I liked the style of recording. I believe they were mostly cut live. They had a 2 track running at rehearsals, and dialed in, so could just run the set over and over, and the best take became the track. Or so I have heard.
A little ramshackle and insecure. But in a good way. I am an avowed Neil fan, but I had never heard much from this album. I'm not surprised by its obscurity.
Was never my thing, but ya gotta respect the dark tinged pop.
Clean, clear vision from Bernard and Nile. Disco was once maligned, (guilty) but it has its place, and Nile is a master. That being said, it is a bit one note, and was pretty well trod territory by this time.
Overblown angst. Badly recorded. The more he screams, the less I care.
Well done, but not my thing. A bit one note.
Not their finest hour. Guitars and organs are fuzzed out and a little meandering. More psychedelic than much of their catalog, but they are at their best when swinging the metal hammer.
Game changing. I slept on this for years because I hated License to Ill so much. I could not fathom that those Jabronis could make a genre defining monster of a record. The Dust brothers were so good at the sample game that they ended up breaking the whole system.
Great songs, middling production that does not translate the potential energy of a killer band. Many of these songs are found on the album "Live at the Whiskey A-gogo on the Fabulous Sunst Strip, where they come alive.
I used to be reflexively anti- British goth pop or whatever you would call this. I hated the concept of music that was almost entirely synth and drum machine. Lately, I have been listening to more with an open mind, and while I am still not an fan of the production, I can recognize the pop songwriting chops at play.
I came to this record late. I absolutely should have found it when I was 14. It may have changed the direction of my life. It still managed to, even though I didn't hear it til I was in my mid 20's. It is an obvious 5 star record. Genre defining powerhouse. A true band effort. There are no laggards here. The sound of post-war optimism being melted down to make new weapons. Heavy metal in it's prototypical form. The next 50 years would find bands galloping faster, drums pounding harder, singers flailing ever farther from melody, to gutteral howls. Guitars with ever more distortion and fingers flying across fretboards. Tony Iommi didn't even need all of his fingers to make this crush into our skulls. But for all of the bands that went farther and faster. None were darker. This is still the blackest.
Great voice let down by some curious choices in the arrangements and production. A lot of really thin 123 string acoustic and backing vocals that come from more of a pop background than the gospel/soul vibe that would seem to propel the songs.
Somewhat disjointed and immature. Only hints of the sharpness of the first record, and none of the Raw Power they would show soon.
Proof that hip-hop can be more than mumbling boasts. Powerful words and killer beats, without outright theft of others music.
Kurt Cobain hated being a rock star so much that he made this record as consciously unlistenable and unlikable as he could. He was a rock star as a result of having spent a year and $350k making Nevermind as good as it was. I was around and listening to the same music he was in that era. When a record company spends that kind of money making your first (real) record, they are gonna do they're damndest to make you a rock star. I wish he had not allowed the stardom to make him miserable, even if it meant he never became a star.
Drum machines are the autotune of the 80's. It must have have been soul crushing to be a talented drummer in the era of the Linn Drum. Can't get past it to hear the songs.
A surprising ly mild entry from Stevie's Imperial Period. Solid songs and production, but outshined by his other period work
This is a great record, and one of the first that allowed me (a devoted ROCKER) to enjoy pop without feeling guilty. Mostly solid songs, with too much credit given to Frank Black. The Breeders showed how much Kim Deal was bringing to the party.
A perfect record. No notes. Evocative and powerful. Relaxed and confident. It does not show the incredible strife and hard work that went into it.
This is probably near the peak of Muddy Waters' power. Killer band, and the undisputed heavyweight of Chicago postwar blues... But... I can't help but wonder how much more juice would be evident if this was recorded in a smoke-filled club on the wrong side of town. I have been a touring sound engineer, and have worked with hundreds of acts of all types of music, and it is absolutely true that the performance is elevated by a sympathetic and enthusiastic audience. While the (white) crowd at the Newport Jazz festival is polite and appreciative, they are not dancing, shouting, drinking, and exhorting the band to new levels. What if?
This is a tough one to rate. There was a moment, (late college, but as a non-partaker of herbal sacrament) when I thought Bob Marley was revolutionary and dangerous. But this record seems like it is tailor made for white kids in college. It's not nearly as confrontational and aggressive as Catch A Fire. I personally recommend a listen to Talking Blues, an in studio example of just how good the Wailers were live and in real time. The Wailers had transformed into a professional music making machine. And while it is impossible to overstate Bob's influence on world and popular music, or his position as the most recognizable Jamaican in the world, I have become more of a fan of less heralded reggae artists, and find Bob overplayed and kinda mid anymore. Find some Toots and the Maytals, Abyssinians, or Augustus Pablo. Dig deeper into Dub and Rocksteady with King Tubby, Ernest Ranglin, The Aggrovators.
