Good as heavy rock goes, but it’s not really my kind of music. Power ballad “Changes” seems totally out of place and the lyrics don’t buoy it at all. “St. Vitus Dance” is like an inverse Neil Young song, where the intro is way preferable to the groove it settles into. A few good moments, but otherwise a long 42 minutes.
Here’s going to be the meaning of the stars for me:
5: Perfection, would hold up for me across decades and dozens of listens.
4: Great, would listen again and again, but a couple songs either don’t hold the same standard, or the high points don’t reach high enough.
3: Solid, would listen again in a certain mood, but probably won’t revisit it again much.
2: Either just bad with a couple highlights, or not my style and does not make a convert of me at all.
1: Sucks.
Oh man, this is great. Never really listened to Otis much, even though I had a cat named after him as a child. According to Land family legend, when we moved down to Florida, Otis was on a nighttime stroll and became a victim of the alligators in the marsh across the street.
Anyway, this album is as close to a 5 as can be without getting a 5. Hit after hit after hit, an all-time voice with all-time accompaniment. However, as much as I hate to bring something as dirty as Logic into the discussion of great music, if I have heard “better” versions of at least three of these songs, can I call it perfection?
There’s going to be a new feature of my reviews. I’ve started a playlist with my favorite songs on each album, and I’ll list them here. To catch up on previous albums:
Catch a Fire:
-Stir It Up
-High Tide or Low Tide
Vol. 4:
N/A
Otis Blue:
-Respect
-Change Gonna Come
-My Girl
-Wonderful World
-Satisfaction (I Can’t Get No)
Gotta say I wasn’t impressed by this one. The stature that this album has is actually a bit baffling.
Tracks added to playlist:
Don’t Stop
You Make Loving Fun
What can I say? I love Neil. The guitar, the voice, the melodies all hit me right in the chest.
Added to the playlist:
Walk On
See the Sky About To Rain
On The Beach
Motion Pictures (For Carrie)
Ambulance Blues
Oh wow. This has to be the biggest comeback from a dire impression I’ve ever experienced over the course of an album. I was ready to hate-listen after the first song, but found myself almost completely won over by the end.
There’s a lot of humor in here that will reward re-listens. This is like the hip-hop equivalent of Jonathan Richman or Jens Lekman. There’s a self-aware naïveté or earnestness that I just find really funny and endearing.
Songs added to the playlist:
None
A good album, but marred by some serious cultural appropriation. My Appalachian culture is not your costume, Mick!
Just kidding, but I will now consider every fake British accent heard in American rock (looking at you Billie Joe Armstrong) to be payback for the fake Southern accents unleashed on the world by Beggars Banquet.
This is another album that I’ve heard about since I became conscious of all-time album rankings. It’s undeniably good, but outside of the songs listed below, especially the hits “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Street Fighting Man,” one that I won’t return to regularly.
Songs added to the playlist:
Sympathy for the Devil
No Expectations
Jigsaw Puzzle
Street Fighting Man
Sounds nice, but like Black Sabbath, not my type of music and not going to be revisiting this one again.
Songs added to playlist:
Fast Car, obviously
Ethereal, layered perfectly, never a flat moment. A perfect front-to-back dream-pop album.
Beach House can make a legitimate claim for best run of albums of the 2010s, and this kicked it off.
Songs added to the playlist:
Zebra
Norway
Walk In the Park
Used to Be
Better Times
10 Mile Stereo
Real Love
Take Care
If your favorite Beck album is Sea Change, this is the album for you.
I really liked the first song and the title song. The rest sounds fine, but I don’t see myself going back to this one.
Songs added to the playlist:
When I Get to the Border
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
It’s a perfect Christmas album. What else is there to say?
Songs added to the playlist:
Nine, but this album will be played every holiday season.
Great album. Love the sounds and the moods and the vibes.
Songs added to the playlist:
Shining Star
That’s the Way of the World
All About Love (First Inpression)
Africano
Groovy beats. Too much Aerosmith. Seems dated. Obviously a bunch of moments that were alluded to by rappers afterward. Probably won’t go back to this one much.
Songs added:
It’s Tricky
I mean, what is there to say about this album? The Beatles are the best. This is their consensus, what, 5th best album, and it’s got hit after hit after hit.
Songs added to the playlist:
Drive My Car
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
You Won’t See Me
Nowhere Man
Michelle
What Goes On
I’m Looking Through You
In My Life
Wait
If I Needed Someone
Run For Your Life
Songs added to the playlist:
I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing
Liberation
$1000 Wedding is a song for the ages, but the rest didn’t really stand out to me.
Song added to the playlist:
$1000 Wedding
It’s been a while since I listened to this one all the way through. I could write a dissertation on this album I feel, but I want to get my next album so I’ll keep it short.
Is Kanye West, and rap generally, the foremost propagandist for the prosperity gospel? Is the whole thing a psy-op keeping young people from class consciousness?
Those are the questions my thesis would answer.
Anyway, to the music. There are so many hits, and it’s really funny to me that the ones he does with his conscious-rap “heroes” are by far the most forgettable of the bunch. I have listened to this album plenty of times and I could not tell you one line from “Get Em High” or “Two Words,” or even what they sound like. The rest of the album just outshines them so much.
Kanye would make this sprawling track number work much better on Late Registration, then wisely dial that back for his absolute best albums, MBDTF and Yeezus, before bringing it for his last great album, The Life of Pablo.
Also, it’s just really sad listening to this now as someone who still loves this music. In the words of MC Ride: Fuck a Nazi.
Songs added to the playlist:
We Don’t Care
All Falls Down
Jesus Walks
The New Workout Plan
Slow Jamz
School Spirit
Family Business
Last Call
I never listened to Van Halen growing up, just wasn’t in the house. I got pretty excited when Jump came on, what a banger. The rest of the album was pretty forgettable though.
Song added to the playlist:
Jump
What a delightfully weird little album.
Songs added to the playlist:
Sidewalk Serfer Girl
This is an interesting one. I like Kendrick, I thought this was a perfect album the first time I listened to it in 2015, and then I never listened to it in full again until today. The instrumentals are incredible, no doubt, and obviously Kendrick’s a talented lyricist and a great rapper. But this is a very political album, and the substance of the politics is just like, very basic? Did y'all know racism exists and has alienating, deleterious effects on the target community?
Maybe (definitely) I could listen a bit more closely, but damn if I didn’t spend an hour and a half listening to this and got little more insight than that. Like, compare it to good kid, m.A.A.d city, which has far greater re-listenability and something fresh to say about masculinity in gang culture.
Also, didn’t Kendrick get mad at Drake for bringing out AI Tupac? But this album ends with Kendrick interviewing an old recording of Tupac?
After listening to College Dropout a few days ago for this project, I was looking at this album again through the lens of how much rap music actually inhibits class consciousness, and indeed, the prosperity gospel is strong yet again (especially on that Tupac outro).
My instinct says 5. It's so consistently engaging. L.A. Woman and Riders On The Storm are all-timers.
Songs added to the playlist:
The Changeling
Love Her Madly
Been Down So Long
L.A. Woman
L'America
Hyacinth House
Crawling King Snake
The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)
Riders On The Storm
I love “Disorder,” but the rest of this album is just kinda boring… then I put it on loud on my headphones and it totally changed. It’s growing on me, may update to 5 with more time.
Song added to the playlist:
Disorder
