First listen review. Overall, this kind of 90s grunge/alt rock sound is not one I’m particularly familiar with, outside of the obvious case of Nirvana. Perhaps that’s why this album didn't really click with me, although I can see that there is some quality here. I generally preferred the more melodic tracks which seemed to work better with Billy Corgan's voice. Conversely, I found the 'wall of guitar overdubs' on some tracks a bit overbearing, and his vocals rather grating/abrasive when he wasn't singing as softly. Some good moments, but this isn't one I’ll be revisiting any time soon.
Really enjoyable and also pretty funny. Standouts are the title track, 'Who Says a Funk Band Can't Rock?!', and 'Cholly', but the whole album was great. Will definitely be returning to this one, although the fact it's not on streaming services might limit that a bit. Although I certainly knew the title track, and think I have listened to this album before, it would have been so long ago that it was effectively a first listen. Of course with a funk album the rhythm section has a starring role, but I was really impressed with the guitar and vocals too.
The title track is fantastic of course, as is ‘The Passenger’. Those are the two standout tracks for sure, and the only ones I’d heard before, but I did enjoy the rest of the album as well, especially ‘Sixteen’ (unfortunate lyrics notwithstanding), and ‘Some Weird Sin’. As this suggests, I did think side one was stronger than side two, but the latter is still pretty good. Bowie’s influence is very clear on this album (especially on ‘Tonight’), not just in the production but even in how Iggy Pop’s vocals sound. Very different to how he sounded on Stooges albums!
I’m no jazz expert, but I have listened to my fair share of it. I know this album is very highly regarded by most jazz fans, but sadly it didn’t blow me away. It was fine enough, don’t get me wrong (hence the rating), but I wouldn’t take this over a lot of other jazz albums, including some of Hancock’s own earlier work. ‘Chameleon’ was cool but felt overly long to me, ‘Watermelon Man’ I liked, ‘Sly’ and ‘Vein Melter’ were just fine. Good background music for a chill party, but not an album I’d sit down to listen to.
As a big Black Sabbath fan I’ve heard this album countless times, but have always felt it’s a bit inconsistent compared to their previous work. It has some of my absolute favourite Sabbath tracks (‘Wheels of Confusion’, ‘Supernaut’, ‘Snowblind’, ‘Under the Sun’), but also some weaker material. By contrast their two previous albums are fantastic from start to finish. After this listen, I still think ‘Changes’ isn’t great (certainly a worse ‘soft song’ than ‘Planet Caravan’ or ‘Solitude’) and that ‘FX’ and ‘Laguna Sunrise’ are essentially filler. Those knock it down a star, but performance-wise they’re firing on all cylinders.
A tough album to rate. The title track is an absolute masterpiece, one of my favourite ever songs, and the rest of side one is excellent too (especially the opening two tracks). On side two I like ‘V-2 Schneider’ and ‘The Secret Life of Arabia'; however, I don't find the trilogy of almost ambient instrumentals between those tracks particularly compelling. Brian Eno’s influence is clear all over this album, and the arrangements and production are great. Nonetheless, ultimately it didn’t leave me with a particularly strong lasting impression, and seems to be somehow less than the sum of its parts.
On paper I should really like this album, as a bluesier/southern version of early-2000s garage rock in a similar vein to the Strokes. In the event, however, I thought it was pretty underwhelming. It made strangely little impact on me; there weren’t any tracks I could pick out as being obviously bad, but I wasn’t blown away by any either. I enjoyed the high energy feel of most tracks, but really didn’t get on with the lead singer’s voice (especially on ‘Trani’). This album doesn’t seem particularly groundbreaking or influential, so strikes me as an odd choice for the list.
This was a really pleasant surprise. Being almost entirely ignorant of country music, I'd never heard of Nanci Griffith before, but I rather enjoyed this. She has a great voice, and the lyrics were often pretty sharp and witty too, not to mention some beautiful melodies and vocal harmonies. The instrumentals did get a little samey, and I wouldn't say any tracks stood out as particularly brilliant, but at 35 minutes the album certainly didn't outstay its welcome. With further listens I might even be inclined to up my rating, but right now it's a very strong 3 star album.
I’d only heard ‘Black Magic Woman’ and ‘Oye Como Va’ before, and having now heard the full album I still think they’re probably the best tracks. The fusion of Latin jazz with psychedelic blues rock is well-executed, though I wasn’t completely sold on some of the instrumental tracks, and overall I was slightly underwhelmed, despite the undeniable fact that Carlos Santana is a great guitarist. Sure enough, he dominates the album instrumentally, but Gregg Rolie deserves particular praise too; his organ playing and vocals are great and the two tracks he wrote are the best original songs on the album.
A mixed bag. I really enjoyed five of the six first songs, especially ‘Human Behaviour’ and ‘Big Time Sensuality’. The exception was the harp-based cover of ‘Like Someone in Love’, which seemed really out of place, and I didn’t think her vocals were that great on it either, which is a shame as on most of the other tracks she sounded great. The second half wasn’t as strong; I don’t think any track was as good as any from the first half, and I actively disliked ‘Aeroplane’ and the album closer. Still, there’s easily enough quality here for 3 stars.