A sound of its time indeed. Not entirely sure if 80s rap is for me. This has a real juvenile quality (which, contrary to my poor review, I do not mean in a degrading sense) that I wasn't expecting. Quite repetitive and lacking substance. After finding out Latifah was only 19 years old at the time, I do admire the brazen energy in the self-asserting lyricism, but it wasn’t anything memorable.
Cohen’s lyricism is undeniable, he is a poet at best and a man at worst. Likewise, this album is enchanting for better and for worse. The songs start to drone into one another about halfway through with similar pacing and sound, which contributed to a seamless album listening experience, yet leaves no distinction track to track. “Suzanne” as an opening track had me hooked because it reminds me of my partner and I sitting in the back of his mom’s car, driving to his sister’s housewarming party through a ravine-esque area with large trees and dancing leaves. We held hands, gazing out the window, humming and feeling.
Favourite song(s): Suzanne
Least favourite(s): Master Song
This album has such a gripping introduction that loses itself to, yes, the melancholy dramatics that amalgamates itself into self loathing. There is some phenomenal, heart-pounding production on this album that reminds me of small town adolescence and experiencing intimacy for the first time in a claustrophobic environment both inside and outside of yourself. “Melodrama” steps past “Pure Heroine” into a specific experience surrounding a breakup which I find more or less predictable and less special than “Pure Heroine” at the time of its release. I have respect for the expression of this heartbreak but I unfortunately find Lorde all too pretentious these days which makes a handful of the content here feel disingenuous. Nonetheless I appreciate her ability to translate palpable youthful searches for greater things into something aural.
Favourite song(s): Green Light, Sober, Homemade Dynamite
Least favourite(s): The Louvre, Liability
This wanted to be great but did nothing expansiveness enough to truly achieve that.
I turned this on while cooking and it offered a cinematic backtracking to my actions. That being said, if I wasn’t using this as an enhancement to another activity, I’d be unable to focus. This did inspire some curiosity in me and I want to listen to more jazz, so I’m hoping another jazz album pops up along this journey soon.
Trying to listen to this after watching a Futurama episode making a caricature of Beck only days prior was complicated, to say the least. The attempt at a nonchalant sound with just enough exploration to make it seem like effortless genius did not succeed for me. I find this to be pretentious
I love the theatrics of this, concept albums are always acknowledgeable in their artistic merit alone. I didn’t know that Janelle Monáe has an entire alter ego which makes her 10x cooler… unfortunately the genre-bouncing simply isn’t for me. It was all too pop oriented and ultimately held that consumerist centred staleness despite the the creativity.
Favourite song(s): Tightrope
Least favourite(s): most of the others…
At first I thought wow this will be an incredibly imaginative, instrumental exploration of what could have been a visual tale… but I couldn’t get through this and I’ll never try to listen to it again. Maybe having two concept albums back to back wasn’t helping my listening experience here, but this also 1000% felt self indulgent. Comes off like a strange drug trip narrative that a brain-fried friend tries to recount to you and no one could possibly know what he’s talking about except for himself.
Favourite song(s):
Least favourite(s):
^quite honestly I have no distinct choices it was all so bleh
I refuse to sit through an entire Mariah Carey album
She’s got a gorgeous voice but every song felt and sounded the same. This was similar to my experience listening to Leonard Cohen; at first the lyricism stood out, as did the uniqueness of her voice, but every song blended into one another for the worst.
I genuinely could not listen to this… the monotonous vocals drove me batty.
I find the vocals grating and each song contains such a similar energy that I skipped through them all. Not the vibe for me despite liking grunge-derived bands and genres. Where is the emotion to make me care?
Favourite song(s): Blackhole Sun and Spoonman are the standout classics, of course
Least favourite(s): everything else, I suppose… none of it was memorable at all… oops!
