Hard to listen to this with fresh ears and hear beyond the beach party soundtrack that this has become. Waiting in Vain and Three Little Birds are the highlights for me. Christgau calls it "solid and enjoyable," and that about sums it up.
Of the many white men in the sixties who are seen as visionaries because they had access to high fidelity recording equipment and intellectual property lawyers, Bob Dylan is Lebron.
It's Woody Guthrie with most of the rough edges sanded down. Folk music with a stylist. And it's nice to listen to, serious but with a sense of humor, well paced and dynamic.
I'm on day 3 of this project, and I'm having to change my expectations. So far I'm listening to nearly ubiquitous music -- Bobs Marley & Dylan, now Paul Simon. Music I've heard nearly my entire life without ever needing to seek it out. Taking the time now to purposely listen to full albums by these artists who've always existed in the atmosphere, is this a useful experiment? I don't know, probably. Is it worth whatever this is going to do to my Spotify algorithm? I'm not sure.
I see the genius in Graceland. There's good music here, but I have to shake off a lot of context to get to that point, and I think I have to work too hard at that to really enjoy it.
I realize I have given this record a chance before.
I'm not sure I have any desire to listen to it again.
It feels like 1986, and surely so perfectly capturing an era is meritorious (honestly, you can learn everything you need to know about the mid-80s by starting at the Graceland Wikipedia page and reading all the linked articles), but it's capturing a particularly slick essence of the time to which I have a bit of an aversion.
There are some songs I might revisit, but, if I'm looking for African vibes, I'll probably listen to some African music. I guess if I'm ever in the mood for mid-80s cocaine vibes, I might reach for this, but I'd rather listen to Talking Heads.
My sister, when we were in high school, was really into this for a while. I think this is my first time as an adult listening to it front to back.
I can hear the roots of so much music that I love in this album. It's the ur-album for so many subgenres of pop and rock music.
I can do without Run for Your Life, but otherwise pretty perfect.
Hard to deny how fun this is.
Big riffs, big drums, high-pitched screeching. It's generic and formulaic, and it's pretty fun.
I love this, especially the experience of listening to it as album. I love the feeling of relief in Franz Schubert after Abuzug ends. I love the way Endless Endless ties everything back together at the end. It feels like reading a novel; there's narrative movement, and it's obvious a lot of thought went into the sequence of songs.
I was surprised by this. Some interesting stuff happening here, definitely sounds like it was made in 1990. I think Sinead O'Connor is one of those people who existed in a slightly different plane of reality than the rest of us.
This isn't my favorite Elvis era, but it's still pretty great. The mix of country and Stax-style soul is wonderful.
This is so much more of a Soul record than I remembered. Though he set the standard for loud guitar rock, I think the best moments on this record are the slow grooves where his guitar playing is just as masterful, but more subtle and nuanced than say Purple Haze.
There's a moment in my life, when I was 11, when I checked out this CD from the public library, and so many new doors opened for me. I can't imagine my life now without that moment.
Nice and pleasant, easy listening. Would the world be any different if this album never existed, probably not. But I'll listen to it again.
I would guess even the members of CSNY only like a handful of songs off of this album. This is the epitome of boomer music. This album told me to knock on doors until I found a job. This album texted me on the 2nd day of the month to ask why my rent is late. This album specifies the race of every non-white person in the story it's telling. This album campaigned for McGovern but voted for Trump.
Really enjoyed this. So much that I played it twice.
Big band is not the flavor of jazz I tend towards, but this gets a little gritty in a way that's missing from most big band. And the drums! Lots of nice rhythms. But the longer I listen, the less I care; it all sort of blends together into the background the way big band jazz can.
I'm having mixed feelings listening to this now. The violent nihilism doesn't have the same impact, feels tired and entitled.
I was only really familiar with the song "We Are Family," which is not a favorite of mine, but this is good.
Listening to these canonized classic albums, I've often been struck by how even if an album doesn't particularly resonate with me, I can hear the roots of other things I love. This is the opposite. This is the Pandora's box of shitty boomer rock.
I love it. A classic. Oozing, humming, swirling; a dirty lovely mess.
Perfectly ok. I like the Neil Young songs.
This isn't rock and roll, it's musical theater. I find myself enjoying lots of it, but multiple times I've had the experience of being like "wait, this is the same fucking song?" and it is the same fucking song. They're all so long. Even the "short" songs feel like they just keep going on.
As a teenager, the moments where the Doors intersect with the Stooges where the only Doors songs I was interested in. Now, I can find interesting things in the slower moments. I still find myself drawn to the wilder, raw-power rock, and I still feel like there's a lot self-indulgent navelgaze and boring White Blues. But there's stuff here I want to hear more of.
What a nice surprise. I've never spent any time with this record or band before, and I'm so glad this project pushed me to listen to this.
I know where Syd Barrett lives
This shouldn't even appear on the list of 1,001 Beta Band albums to listen to before you die.
ugh.
music for dudes who stuff their crotch with socks to impress 13 year old girls.
Albums like this really put me in a position of having to consider what this project is and why I've chosen to take part. Albums you must hear before you die. I think that "must" shadows a lot of my listening; I want to approach with an open mind, but that imperative throws me off, closes my mind to an extent. A person who endeavors to listen to this entire list will have a pretty good understanding of the musical culture of the later half of the 20th century but is it all essential? I now have almost the entirety of recorded music history available to me, do I really NEED to hear most of this stuff before I die?
It really complicates assigning a rating, and I think I've vacillated wildly on my motivations for certain ratings. Do I rate an album for it's merit as an essential, needs must album? Do I rate on my personal satisfaction? On perceived artist achievement?
As for Fat Boy Slim, this is music for dancing, and its very successful at being that. This is 5/5 for dance-ability. Is it something I ever care to seek out again? No, 0 stars for that. Is it something essential that everyone should listen to before they die? Hardly, but good luck finding someone who hasn't heard it. If you're interested in the history of advertising, you should probably dive into Fatboy Slim.
Such a talented singer, such a boring album.
This is a desert island disc for me.
This doesn't get enough credit as being one of the best post-punk albums.
Okay, unremarkable, a few interesting moments, but there were other people doing more interesting things with the same equipment in this era.
I think this still sounds like it's from the future.
Also, there's more Big Audio Dynamite influence than I realized 20 years ago.
It's weird, I've never listened to this before, but it's making me feel nostalgic for the late 90s. This falls somewhere on the spectrum between Spiritualized and Flaming Lips, closer to FL both in spirit and sound. Sort of forgettable.
Individual songs are alright, but, arranged as an album, everything gets boring and samey.
I think this guy wants to fuck a car? Mama Mia! Mama Mia!
As a weird, Southern, arty kid in the 80s, REM was lifeblood. This isn't my favorite REM, the back half slumps a little, but there's still some great music here.
I don't hate this, but it's not doing much for me, either.
When arty, white people make world music, there's a really thin line between innovative/interesting and cheesy/embarrassing, and this thing really fucking straddles it. I wish the drum machines sounded more like drum machines. I wish Wobble's punky dub roots showed a little more. Sometimes they're too good at just making world music, to the point where I can see myself in a coffee shop in 1995, drinking a cappuccino for the first time from an oversized mug, the 6-disc CD player behind the counter shuffling between this and Peruvian pan flutes and nonglottal, tribal chanting, watching the town's first sushi restaurant get ready to open in the strip mall across the street, wondering who would ever eat raw fish, then I put on my headphones and listen to Silverchair on my new Sony Discman.
Back in the day, when some new musical technology debuted, like a new synthesizer or something, the company would make a demo record showing all the sounds you could get from their new toy. That's what this sounds like. Very talented musicians finding some really interesting new sounds in the most boring songs. It reminds of the issues I had with Beta Band - this sounds like music I should like but it's so boring and soulless. There are like 3 songs in Rougher Road, and I really like 2 of them. There's moments I like, things that remind me of Soft Machine or even Orange Juice, which is weird. Reading about their friendship with Neil Young, I find myself wondering what they'd sound like as his backing band.
I really like Donovan. I really like Donovan when he's doing fuzzy, psych-pop songs, a few of which show up here. But he so embodied the sound of the flower power hippy thing, that a lot of this sounds like Maynard G Krebs bongo pastiche. I listened to a lot more Donovan after I listened to this to remind me how much I like him when I like him.
Anything becomes psychedelic if you just jam long enough.
If Oasis and Radiohead are the Beatles & Stones of millennial Britpop, these guys are The Hullaballoos.
This is fucking boring.
Lately the connections between house music and jazz have been revealing themselves to me in a way I'd never considered before. Bjork obviously has understood this much longer than I have. In response to critical praise her debut, Bjork basically said, "Yeah it's alright but I can do better," and I think she's absolutely correct. This has charm but it's definitely an experiment, stretching out and discovering space that she'd more successfully explore in the next few years.
I'd barely heard of the Boo Radleys before this, and I'm shocked at how much I like this. I'm not usually into this period of British alternative music, but this is different. It's like SF noise pop/indie pop or Elephant 6.
I know if I spent more time with this it would grow on me, but I'm not feeling compelled to do so. There's something sinister about this music, something cynical and dark under all the goofiness. It makes me a little uncomfortable.
I just have a hard time caring about this.
I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Green Day, but there's a reason the best punk songs are under 3 minutes (honestly, the BEST punk songs are under a minute thirty, but I'm being inclusive). Like my ex-wife, Green Day and I have matured in different directions. I'm glad they had the space to grow and all that, but it's just not for me.
postscript:
just got to 'homecoming,' the longest song on the record, and I'm vaguely 'into it'
I've had a bug up my ass about this sort of soft boomer country rock stuff -- so much CSNY/Eagles adjacent shit on this list. But I like this. It's chill country rock. It's missing the clash of egos that a lot of this group of dudes did together.
Take half a Citizen Fish song, half a Strokes song, a few lyrics about getting your dick sucked and you're fucking platinum, baby.
Aside from the nostalgia of the singles, there are songs/moments I enjoy. But a lot of this feels like bougie Kid Rock.
Went into this one expecting to be annoyed, but it was pretty good.
I don't know why we talk about American cultural hegemony like it's always a bad thing.
The greatest rock band of all time.
Both sides are a little too long, but it's hard to find much else to complain about.
Difficult, challenging, confrontational.
I don't hate this but I think I'd enjoy these songs more if someone other than Paul Simon was performing them. I get that this a very personal and introspective album, and the best parts of his performance are where you feel that, BUT I just find his instincts in regards to arraignment and production to be annoying. And his voice is so twerpy and smug. It's hard to appreciate how clever he can be when I can hear in his voice how clever he already finds himself.
Everything about this gets on my nerves.
