Low 4 stars
I really enjoyed listening to this album. It gave me something really interesting to immerse myself into during my late night drive to the airport. The first few tracks feel really muted, yet flowing? (average synth player trying to describe tones :P), and really reminded me of Stereolab or some early Aphex Twin. A lot of the songs had voice samples pop in and out: and I really appreciated when they did, it made those songs sound really full of life imo. The middle of the album started to get higher and higher in sharpness and energy (my words arent wording but hear me out), until we hit two of my favourite tracks, Kein Trink Wasser and Quality Seconds. Both of these sounded so cool omfg. The first one I thought was so cool with how they were able to bring in the piano and then the drums and then layer them both together, and the second one just sounded like a hardcore band but instead of guitars you gave them computers. The message behind the voice samples in Are We Here? also kinda made me think a little bit. However, especially towards the middle and the end of the album, it started to drag and get a little bit repetitive. Really not a fan of that closing track. But, anyway, I could definitely see myself coming back to the beginning few tracks of the album to either study to, or find inspiration for synth tones and whatnot.
Favs: Forever**, I Wish I Had Duck Feet, Crash and Carry, Kein Trink Wasser, Quality Seconds
Dislikes: Attached, Philosophy By Numbers
I feel like for me, this is the album that began what would later make Stevie Wonder a legendary artist. Although it may not be as legendary as Songs or Innervisions, it manages to stay very positive/groovy and really fun to listen to, while tackling themes of love, heartbreak, loneliness, and political unrest. No skips. I also really enjoy the use of keyboards throughout the whole album. There's a lot of really small details that completely make a lot of the songs for me.
"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" starts it off really well, with one of his most-well known ballads. The lyrics are really sweet, and the instruments, especially the really cool panned keyboards and the vocal harmonies, make it really interesting to listen to.
"Maybe Your Baby" is the absolute coolest sounding song on this whole album. I Wish (haha see what I did there) more of the album was like this. Despite being over 50 years old, this song sounds really futuristic while also sounding classic at the same time. (Also Thundercat, is that you???)
His vocals and lyrics on "You and I" are really, really good, but after already hearing a ballad at the beginning, and hearing Maybe your Baby right after, I was kinda expecting something a little more upbeat. Still sounds really soulful and touching, especially starting at 3:50 (wish more of the song was like this).
"Superstition" and "Big Brother" were both REALLY interesting for me, both (possibly) being politically charged. Besides being possibly his biggest hit and being f o n k y asf, I came up with this theory that the verses of Superstition paint a picture of someone doing something against authority, and it being labelled and criticized as "superstitious" by the second character in the chorus. The song then flows seamlessly into "Big Brother," where the identity of the second character is revealed as "Big Brother" - or otherwise: the government. I really think this interpretation speaks a lot to what is happening in the world both then and now. For example, climate change - it's a huge problem, but the government doesn't want us to care, so they drag attention away from it: labelling anyone who cares "superstitious."
"Lookin' for Another Pure Love" kinda sounds like the opening track (instrumentally), with the verse melody of "Ordinary Pain" (which is another one of my fav songs from Mr. Wonder). In terms of the instrumentals, Jeff Beck really cooked with this one. Those guitar lines really make the song for me too.
The closing track, "I Believe" was really good. I like how it builds over the course of the song, until it reaches the overlapping vocals, and how it kind of just shifts into a completely different gear at the end.
Fav: Superstition/Big Brother (im counting it as one song fight me)
Likes: YAtSoML, Maybe Your Baby, Superstition/Big Brother, I Believe
Least Favs: Tuesday Heartbreak
Low 4 Stars/High 3 Stars (3.5 of 5 stars)
When I first listened to this, I found the big band hits and shots in the first few tracks kind of abrasive and cheesy, but as I listened to them (and woke up a little more), I started not minding them too much. It's definitely part of the sound. But, whenever an instrument gets a solo (like the sax solo in the first track), the hits just seem to disrupt it imo. That being said, Ray Charles' voice on a lot of these are definitely great, especially on tracks like the closing track. Speaking of the last few tracks, I feel like I definitely enjoyed those a lot better. I guess I'm just a fan of more sparse instrumentation when it comes to jazz, blues, and soul. I really enjoyed the solos in "Let the Good Times Roll," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," and "When Your Lover Has Gone." However, I still prefer the slower and sparser tracks from the B-side of this album. I love how in a lot of them, the strings, voice, piano, and light horns all come together to create a really warm sensation. The best examples of this being "Am I Blue" and "Come Rain or Come Shine."
What holds this album back for me though, is the feeling of repetition that is evident across the full length of it. The album is split into two opposing sides, the Big Band A-side and the more mellow B-side. But, it feels like within these sides, the instruments, lyrical content, and overall ideas seem to be very similar, without much development across the tracks. In my opinion, you could get away with listening to both the intro and outro tracks, and get a pretty good idea of what the rest of the album sounds like. Nevertheless, it's a pretty good (and timeless!) sound, and Ray Charles is amazing, but if you're looking for more variety, this isn't really the album, and I'd point you more to his self-titled release.
Fav: Come Rain or Come Shine
Likes: Let the Good Times Roll, When Your Lover Has Gone, Am I Blue, Come Rain or Come Shine.
This album's cover art is absolutely gorgeous.
Even though I'm not the biggest fan of this style of music, I'd be lying if I said that the vocal harmonies and multiple layered guitars aren't anything but undoubtedly stunning.
The vocals on "White Winter Hymnal" are absolutely beautiful. Listening to it during Christmastime, it just seemed to fit the mood and weather and everything so well (shoulda covered it in our band lol :P). It gives this feeling of relief which feels like being at home, comfortable and warm, sipping hot chocolate (or EARL GREY!!), despite it being freezing outside.
I love the instruments (especially that 6/4 guitar part and the organ) near the end of "Ragged Wood"
"Tiger Mount Pleasant Song" and "Quiet Houses" both sound cool and really fun to play and learn on guitar. Big fan of the fingerpicking patterns on these and a few other songs.
The only things that dock this album down for me are the receptive nature of it and the fact that some of the songs (later on in the album) just sound like average stomp clap music that would probably be played in a millennial burger joint.
However, I really love the closer. I love how it calls back to a lot of the earlier songs in the album. How it ends with just vocals left me in awe when I first heard it.
Fav: White Winter Hymnal, Oliver James, Sun It Rises, Ragged Wood.
Dislikes: not any in particular, but after a while, a lot of songs just seemed to blend together.
Her voice is great. She influenced a whole bunch of artists to come. But, this album... it just felt like slow ballad after slow ballad packed with really, really obvious and uninspiring break-up lyrics.
If it changed up or switched rhythm or was just a little bit more energetic, maybe I would've enjoyed it a bit more. Despite being only 28 minutes, it felt like almost double that.
This is the type of album that I'd probably pass by at a yard sale or a thrift store and not think anything of it, probably thinking it's another unc classic, which it is. It just didn't do anything for me in particular.
Her vocals are still great though. Loved the somewhat more upbeat instrumentals of "Saint to a Sinner", "The Devil Gets His Due", and "I Got Caught", which really helped break up the monotony of the slow ballad after slow ballad, which took up most of the first half.
Favs: Saint to a Sinner, The Devil Gets His Due
Dislikes: Don't Come Home A Drinkin', I Really Don't Wanna Know, There Goes My Everything ...
No Stairway?!?! Denied!
This is one of THE classic rock albums, packed with a bunch of really raw and heavy-hitting songs that really defined that era of rock music. The combination of subdued folksy and Middle-Earth-inspired tracks ("Battle Of Evermore," "Stairway", "Going To California") with the more hard rock tracks ("Black Dog", "Rock and Roll", "Four Sticks") made for a very interesting listen, which eventually culminated in the albums final (and fantastic) statement: "When The Levee Breaks."
Also, it's such a small moment, but I've loved it since I first heard the song, when the refrain in Stairway to Heaven hits, with the smoothly-strummed guitar and electric piano, it just gives me really warm and comfortable feeling (almost like being covered in a blanket), which just gives that extra goodness to an incredible song about hope.
Also Black Dog, Rock and Roll, and When The Levee Breaks just break my brain. John Bonham is goated.
Fav: When The Levee Breaks, The Battle of Evermore, Stairway To Heaven, Black Dog.
Dislikes: Four Sticks
Sound of Silver... more like Sound of Gold 'cause this album is so freakin' good. The double meaning of the album title: Silver, meaning second best and Silver, meaning greys (aka becoming old) describes the themes of the album really well. Some tracks ("All My Friends", "Sound of Silver", "Someone Great") tackle nostalgia and wishing to go back to simpler times, while others ("Us v Them", "NYILYBYBMD") tackle the feeling of always being in competition and not feeling good enough.
The album starts off with "Get Innocuous!", which builds in such a lovely way, slowly adding instruments over time, until the piano enters in and the main groove settles in. Whilst being an incredible and really danceable electronic track, its lyrics also paint a picture of artist burnout, only having one chance to make it, and having to compromise your true self for the public eye.
"North American Scum" (to my ears) is a satire that pokes fun at extremely prideful North Americans who believe there's no better place, and are ignorant of what is happening in the rest of the world. I guess this rings true now more than ever because of you-know-who.
It's then followed up by "Someone Great," which shows a completely different mood. This is where the album takes a more nostalgic/reminiscent side, and James Murphy is caught wishing he could go back to better times, and be with his “someone great” once more. He tries to move forward, but no one else really compares. This song also sets the stage amazingly for the absolutely incredible track that follows it.
"All My Friends." I could literally write an entire review on this song alone. This is one of those songs (at least for me) that you'll listen to on a whim years and years further on into your life, and instantly get transported back to the time you first heard it. The way it builds throughout the entire song and captures that feeling of nostalgia and recounting memories is just perfect. I absolutely love the chorus lyrics, ("You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan / And the next five years trying to be with your friends again / Oh, you're talking forty-five turns just as fast as you can / Yeah, I know it gets tired, but it's better when we pretend"), which paint a picture of someone conflicted between feeling like they're "running out of time" in their journey through life (trying to "get with the plan" that society sets out for us in our lives), but also wanting to stay back and "be with their friends" just one more time. As someone going to college next year, and is uncertain as to what their life is going to be like, this rings true for me. Maybe I don't wanna grow up just yet.
"Us v Them" continues the feelings of competition heard in the first bits of the album. Constantly having to be in competition with everything over and over and over again, while trying to "make it big," I feel, can get quite exhausting. It can instil feelings of not being good enough that may drive someone into a state of pessimism ("Cloud, block out the sun / Over me, Over me"). The repetitive nature of the instrumental paint this picture of constantly being at arms: being in a war between Us... and Them... Over and Over again.
If "All My Friends" is a set of rose-tinted glasses, "Sound of Silver" rips them right off. It describes the dangers of nostalgia and suggests that one can glorify their past too much, only taking into consideration the good parts, while leaving out the bad parts entirely, which can lead to them to losing focus of their current life and the future they have ahead of them. Also, this song probably has my favourite instrumentals on the entire album.
Finally, we arrive at the closing track: "New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down." This track takes all the uncertainty, opposing views, and indecision present earlier in the album and releases it in a final wave of catharsis. My interpretation is this: one can be optimistic about their future life (represented by New York in the song), but the uncertainty and mess that is life can lead to them being dragged down, making them feel like they're not suitable for a life as glamorous and incredible as New York provides. The way this song builds and explodes too is absolutely incredible as well: it backs up the lyrics perfectly - if someone worries and gets caught up in their future and all the different possibilities their life could take, they could go from slightly pessimistic to being in a full-blown state of chaos. However, at the end, the piano and band comes back with a slightly optimistic melody, reminding us that things always have their way of working out in the end.
And maybe the real New York was the friends we made along the way.
Fav: All My Friends, NYILYBYBMD, Someone Great, Get Innocuous!
Dislikes: none :P
I’m actually addicted. This album sounds so cool, and I love the combination of guitars and extended horn solos and everything. It’s such a unique sound that I could genuinely listen to for hours. When the vocals come in too, they’re incredible. I love the call and response (and ORGAN!!) of “Observation is No Crime.”
Also learning about this album’s influence on Brian Eno and Talking Heads’ work was really interesting. It surprised me initially, but it makes so much sense.
And the deep message of the album being a critique of mindless soldiers, who can’t or won’t think for themselves (which can also be applied to the fears of AI in our modern world) really adds the icing on the cake to an already incredible-sounding album.
Favs: Zombie, Observation is No Crime, Mr. Follow Follow
Dislikes: none.
