50 long minutes of meandering, sauceless blues rock. I cannot think of one stand out moment in the entire album. At the very least it provides unobtrusive and not wholly unenjoyable background music.
Why exactly must I listen to this before I die.
Favourite Track:
14 - Never Gonna Give You Up
Best Three Track Run:
13, 14, 15
A million curses to this album for the influence it had on the Glam Metal sound that plagued the 80s. However, Eddie Van Halen truly plays that thing like no other, and David Lee Roth brings a really enjoyable bravado to his vocal performance. It all comes together to a pretty fun record all round
A couple stand out moments are of course Eruption, genuinely a piece of guitar playing art. Also the Doo-Wop breakdown in I'm The One was an insane choice and I lowkey loved it.
Ice cream man is unlistenable.
Fave track(s):
2 - Eruption / 9 - Little Dreamer
Best Three Track Run:
3, 4, 5
It feels like almost an impossible task to properly digest and comprehend Bitches Brew in a single day. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it.
Dense, experimental, and improvisational, this record really rewards you for focusing inward on the music. I really appreciated that there was almost always a driving rhythm line on percussion or the bass guitar that helped me to really lock in to the groove if I ever found myself lost.
How are people rating this so low?
Fav track:
3 - Spanish Key
Best Three Track Run:
1, 2, 3
Simply love Biggie's lyricism, he had an incredible knack for storytelling, kept simple enough for you to easily follow along but never to the point of being dull. Its dark, it's humourous, it's witty, it's genuine and it's delivered with this immaculate voice and flow. And he's doing it all over a collection of these perfect, thumping beats. Not one track drops the ball. Everyone was on their A-Game here.
Mix that with the knowledge we have in hindsight of Biggie's life that was cut short just a few years after this Record's release and you have an album with an almost mythical presence. The conceptual elements of life and death, especially leading to that final track are kind of chilling following Biggie's death.
However that fuck ass interlude + the outro of Respect, and Puff's haunting presence do leave a bit of a bad taste on the mouth.
Nevertheless a phenomenal Album
Fav Track:
16 - Unbelievable
Best Three Track Run:
2, 3, 4
I really enjoyed the sound of this album while listening to it, Elton has a vocal delivery that I really enjoy, and the melody and instrumentation (particularly the strings) are fantastic, but strangely I find that by the end of the tracklist, nothing really sticks with me beyond Tiny Dancer, and perhaps Levon. Razor Face I particularly disliked, and felt like a real dip after the stellar back to back of the first two tracks.
Another stand out moment is in Indian Sunset. While a song in the perspective of a Native American written by a white Englishman in the 70s feels a bit iffy, the line "What kind of words are these to hear from Yellow Dog who the white man fears?" has such a cold delivery with such fantastic arrangement that I can sort of look past it.
Beyond that, as much as I enjoyed my time while listening, I don't really see myself going back to this one.
Plus the album cover is strikingly uninteresting.
Fav Track:
1 - Tiny Dancer
Best Three Track Run:
4, 5, 6
This album has such a fantastic youthful attitude about it that was completely unlike everything else coming out in the Hip-Hop space at this time. The tracks cover an absurd variety of topics, from a PSA on practicing safe sex, to a story about accidentally leaving your wallet behind in an out-of-the-way city, to a track preaching love for eating vegetarian, and while on paper it all sounds a bit simplistic, Tribe nails the execution with these infectiously smooth, funky beats sampling from Stevie Wonder to Lou Reed, and clean lyrical delivery from Q-Tip. It never comes off as overly cheesy or corny, instead the whole album has this genuine and carefree vibe that makes it hard not to just smile and bounce along to the beat.
I do think however, the album suffers just a bit from its length, I feel a few tracks toward the end could have been left out for a tighter runtime. And frankly I've never been a huge fan of the song Can I Kick It? despite its massive popularity... or perhaps because of it? who's to say.
Otherwise, an incredible debut and a sign of great things to come soon from Tribe
Fav Track:
5 - I Left My Wallet In El Segundo
Best Three Track Run:
3, 4, 5
I was really looking forward to this going in, the album cover is really great, and it felt like this could be a band that stood out from the rest of the pack of 80s metal, but it just didn't connect with me unfortunately. There's no doubt there's a great degree of skill on display, particularly from Vernon Reid and Muzz Skillings on Guitar and Bass respectively, but none of the tracks really live up to the opener Cult of Personality (especially going into the 2nd track), it all suffers from that shiny 80s production that is a real turn off for me.
I did enjoy the main guitar riff on Desperate People, and the concept and sound of Open Letter (To a Landlord), but then you have the track Funny Vibe with a great premise for a song, themed around the lived experience of everyday racism and micro-aggressions and they even got a feature from Public Enemy, who proceed to say one sentence and then dip. Why even get them on the track if they're not going to deliver even a single verse? Feels like a huge missed opportunity overall.
Fav track:
1 - Cult of Personality
Best Three Track Run:
3, 4, 5
This one really needed some trimming down. Overall the music here is unobtrusive and fairly enjoyable, but on each listen through I ended up getting really burnt out around track 12, and there's still 5 tracks worth of material to get through from there. Nothing here really moved me or stuck with me, which doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, but on a list as coveted as this just strikes me as odd. Uninspiring
Fav track:
3 - Wild Wood
Best Three Track Run:
1, 2, 3
"We have OK Computer at home"
OK Computer at home:
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Fr though I really enjoy this album, I've had some ups and downs with my enjoyment of Coldplay over the years, they were one of the first bands I was really obsessed with as a kid and I then jumped on the Coldplay hate bandwagon through my later teens, which I think was understandable considering the rapidly decreasing quality of their work, but going back now to listen to their earlier albums I think their is some really fantastic music to be found, this record especially standing above the rest.
The only thing I could hold against it is I think they could have cut a couple tracks in the latter half, tracks 8 and 9 in particular really start to drag the momentum of the album. But tracks 1 through 6 really showcase some genuinely phenomenal song writing. Or maybe its the nostalgia talking, who can say?
Fav Track:
5 - Clocks
Best Three Track Run
3, 4, 5
