Not my thing but enjoyable nonetheless.
A wonderful collection of tracks that range in tone from cheery to haunting to reverently delicate. The production is strong throughout but perhaps weakest in Dont Stop and Go Your Own Way, whose catchy anthems don't measure up with the rich layers heard in Second Hand News and Oh Daddy. Stevie is always the highlight, and she builds Gold Dust Woman to an enchanting cacophony that splits beautifully at the seams to end the record. Enjoyed the album more with each listen.
I am 8 tracks in and hoping for something to grab my interest besides Teen Age Riot. Perhaps my receptors have been scrambled by pop music and sugary cereals, but I have found many tracks to be too long with little payoff. The singing has also been unconvincing.
There is certainly something to be said about using dissonance to provide contrast and interest within music. 3 minutes of continuous dissonance however can start to grate, especially if the reprieve isn't stellar.
Update: I enjoyed Hyperstation. Cool lyrics, nice musical progression, and while long, it felt like it actually had a reason to be. I also thought the vocals on Eliminator, Jr. were fun.
Going through the album again, I think one of my biggest problems with it is that many of the tracks sound like the same song being played at different tempos.
Rich vocals, soulful instrumentation, crisp production. Very little not to like.
Prince's songwriting here is just so inventive and fun. He took risks, and even if not every one landed quite right, the ride was so worth it. I am also a sucker for the whole "one song flows right into the next" thing, which happens a few times.
I am feeling unusually harsh toward this album, less for the content and more for its placement on the list. While I do find most of the tracks to be standard, samey, and at times boring, I don't think they're bad. More importantly, the album as a whole does not seem "important", "influential", or "best" in class to me. The band's debut (xx) from 2009 has a better case, doing many of the same things as I See You, only 8 years earlier and - in my opinion - much better. So I don't see how this record from 2017, that treads no new ground even when compared to The xx's own body of work, earns its spot here.
In conclusion, Gaga was left off for this???
Hit or miss for me. I liked the ones that were played straight up like It's On! but others were just kind of goofy IMO
One more song would have made it 5
The lyricality, the influentiality, the cohesive wholeality of it all. The flowality, story telling, Lauryn Hillality of it all. The List mandate fulfillingality of it all. The sonic whorl of life affirming groovality of it all. FIVE
