As an album experience, wonderful. It's my understanding this is one of the first 'concept' albums and is reputable for changing how music records could be experienced. There were a lot of times I rewinded to hear parts of a song again, it's charismatic and emotional and wonderfully arranged with the wide variety of orchestration and genres it takes on.
A Day in the Life is the perfect album closer.
Rap is a genre I've never cared much for, and I was pleasantly surprised by how funny and raw this album could be. The second verse in Brain Damage is when I started to see Eminem's strength as a storyteller. It's a solid debut with a lot of remarkable lines and stories, I was impressed by Eminem's flow at many points during this album. The low points of the album like the skits and If I Had bring it down, and I think a lot of songs have bland hooks and weak outros, with production that's not very strong. It was a fun listen with some great moments and lines but falls short as a good album experience.
A conflicting album for me. On one hand, it's eclectic while also lacking in variety in the midsection (the xylophone solo in Gone Daddy Gone was an unexpected thing to hear and I appreciate them putting that in there to shake the track up), with Gano's vocals whining over instrumentals that leave more to be desired from a four person band.
On the other hand, it makes sense, and it makes this album experience better.
For an album about the angst and heartbreak of growing up, played by a band of young musicians experiencing that angst, it wouldn't make sense for this album to be 'perfect'. Angst is not pleasant, so why should this album always be pleasant? Getting in your face with an acoustic guitar while shoddy vocals shout at you is what the tone this album needs to be. As well, for every moment in the album that's 'unpleasant', it's followed up by something more enjoyable. For example, I think the vocals in Please Do Not Go are not good, but the a capella opening in Add It Up was really cool and well done, and hearing the ballad of Good Feeling after listening to a very weak second half was a good way to wrap up the album.
Brian Ritchie shines in this, using an acoustic bass tone and letting him go crazy on each song was a good idea.
Bob Dylan performed this record 60 years ago and the struggles he sings about continue do be struggles of the common man in modern America. Masters of War is a stark song that reflects global and American conflict so well and Dylan's hatred for war, I paused when the song was over to think about how it still reflects modern life. Dylan's lyrics are incredibly evocative, whether he's singing of a girl or of protests. The harmonica can be brash at times, but also melancholy and sweet.
The second half of the album does drag on, especially with World War III Blues being a 6 minute song where Dylan seems to be drunk, but atleast it's followed up by a really nice tune.
A delightful album! Simon does a fantastic job of using the inspiration he took from South Africa and letting the tracks be naturally joyful and free-spirited, and letting the plethora of features guide each track to stand out on its' own. While Simon's lyrical writing is great, there were a lot of times I wished he stayed out of the way for longer and let the African and Bayou inspired instrumentals show off more, like in Gumboots. There are a lot of pleasant gifts in this album such as the a cappella moments and bubbly instrumentals within each track, with a standout tune being the unexpectedly uptempo That Was Your Mother. I'm not a big fan of Paul Simon's vocals and feel like there's a few moments that don't hit the mark, but I left this album feeling cheerful and light-hearted.
The bass player fucking RIPS, and every sax solo was 👨🍳👌.
Had to revisit this one, and I'm glad I did. On first listen it was just another zaney psychedelic rock album from the early 70s. On second listen, I recognized some really incredible musical moments from this work. Mr Skin and Morning Will Come are incredibly fun tracks, the guitar solo in Street Worm is NAILS, and the slower paced songs like Space Child and Soldier are nice additions in the relatively high energy tracklist. The artistic direction of the album gives each track an identity while staying cemented as a psychedelic project, while the eclectic songwriting let me experience some very cool moments. The songwriting does work against some songs by being too weird or eclectic and made me lose interest at times, but when it builds up to a great musical moment, it hits.
Oof, not for me. As someone who hasn't listened to Skip or Moby Grape, this album is not substantial to me. Aside from Little Hands and War in Peace there wasn't much in this project that appealed to me as a listener. Him recording this entire work in a week is impressive so kudos to him, but the wailing vocals and monotone guitar leaves a lot to be desired.
This album has its audience. I am not it.
