not my favorite R.E.M. album but it's good. Scott Litt some rough choices (from the 80s). 'Welcome to the Occupation' is my favorite. IT"S OK
I had this CD when I was a kid and I think even then I only ever listened to the first two songs and 'Add It Up' which I can no longer stomach. This gets same-y even at 35 minutes but it's fine .
They are stuck in midtempo boring land here. They also sound very tired. I don't understand why this is the Big One for this band and I don't really like them in the first place. There will occasionally be a cool riff but then there'll be a really boring one.
"BLUE BLUE ELECTRIC BLUE 🔥🔥🔥🔥" This was the original review of this album that I did not write nor did I rate it (the original rater gave it a 3). How did you get into my account .......... Whatt ....... Anyway I love this album, it's beautiful, great textural exploration, thank you for your time.
Few songs I love on here and there are a few that I don't think are that good. I'm sorry Pixies... Some of these could have used some more cooking...........
This one is interesting, I like some of the material a good deal but some of it reflects the tidbit about it on the Wiki page where the producer just kind of let the tape run the whole time they were in the studio and picked up whatever.
Beautiful, sounds like cyberpunk racing games for the N64 / PS1, it stays varied enough that it's easy to take even as an album but almost all the tracks are great individually I think.
First three tracks: Great. Next four tracks: I don't care . Last track: Randomly fantastic.
UGH, I want to LOVE this album but as it is I only LIKE it but I think one day I'll be really into this band. Really interesting songwriting and arrangement choices abound but I just can't help but find it all a little sleepy at this time. It must grow on me. Everyone watch The Last Waltz RIGHT MEOW!!!
Mostly pretty solid, it's kind of crazy this came out in 1980, but the second side feels like every song could have used a few more passes, they all have some issues . But it's a fine album.
OK, I understand, this shit is pretty off-putting and I am close to a 2 on it, but I think enough of the guitar work and the weird arrangement shit on here is interesting that I will give it a light 3.
"Starship Trooper" is so unbelievably ahead of its time and beautiful the entire way through, it weds like Byrds-esque jangly arpeggiated guitar lines with like proto-"Space Rock" atmosphere(??). "Yours Is No Disgrace" is also one of their best songs. In fact all these songs are good.
The lyrics are so depressing . This is all good. They sound like a Shibuya-kei band. THANK YOU.
What a great record, the production from Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis is legitimately unbelievable especially for 1989. They're making sounds I was not even aware you could make especially on tracks like 'Escapade' and 'Lonely' and the title track, which is a perfect layered piece of art. The album ends with three 5-6 minute ballads which is an odd choice but they're all so good that it doesn't matter.
Great survey of ways that Funk music could go at this time .
As has been said 4 billion times the production on this is unbelievable and makes this such a fun album to listen to. My favorite moment is when you hear 'Mississippi Queen' for .5 seconds in 'Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun.'
I am confused by why this is on here. Even Mr. Tom himself is like "yeah this didn't all work but I needed to do it to get to where I was going." It starting with the title track which is really weird and fades out like in the middle of a chorus into a 4 minute instrumental that is very loose and shaggy is so funny. It's fine but surely we could have put something else here, there's already like 5 other Tom Waits albums in here, WHY!!! AND I LOVE HIM!!!
Pretty cool, great guitar work , the blues has always been an area where I am very not educated and it was nice to hear an album from Mr. Muddy Waters (65 years old here!).
I like this album but I've always felt like their next two albums are huge improvements. The next one takes this sound and perfects it then the one after that creates a whole new thing. (Then the one after that is good too!) I'm waffling between 3 and 4 but I'm going to go with a 3 because I want you all to know my 3 star ratings still mean I like it .
I was hoping I'd love this but for the most part I just liked it. OH WELL!! I don't know if this is sacrilegious but I kinda wish the arrangements had more variation. I liked the songs where there was more going on. Maybe this'll grow on me.
I didn't like this the first time I heard it. I am a fool. I will take all of that you've got Neil. He is shredding .
You can tell how much reverence these guys have for all the genres they're cribbing and the performances are all great. This one is the most country / blues / folk forward of the ones from their GOLDEN PERIOD and I like it a lot but it still places #3 of 4. This is great stuff though from one of the best bands at the peak of their powers.
This didn't do much for me at all. Production was occasionally OK and occasionally slightly janky sounding. Not bad but I'm being slightly more harsh on here because most of the stuff is good for some reason. My 2 is like an "Ehhhhh."
Love this one. Would have been fascinating to see where they went from here. It is just an incredible album . Beautiful atmosphere.
This started strong and was more varied / interesting than I was expecting, but the second half becomes a bit more sedate and boring, but it's not all bad.
It is crazy that this is my fourth favorite album from a band because it's so good. This is the only one in this book which is criminal but check out Love Deluxe and Promise.... If you guys haven't.......... And you want to...... Jess and I played Wii Sports Resort to this and it was weirdly fitting.
This was one of the first more "ambient" albums I ever got into, and I will always have a soft spot for it for that alone, but luckily the music is beautiful and sounds like an ice cavern so it is incredible regardless. My favorites are 'Svefn-g-englar' and the title track. If you guys like this I would highly recommend the follow-up which is called ( ) and is also great. Rest of their output is a bit spotty . IMO .
Vague atmosphere in this I guess ? That's about as much kind as I can say about it and it's an atmosphere I don't find pleasant so.
I'm not going to give this lower than a 3 because I am sick so they might have just been pissing me off but I still do think this is probably the weakest of their last four albums, just too much dicking around .
It was OK ! Honestly I have heard better from this time period...... Some of the renditions were not super great . The 10 minute song is sort of baffling. But most of it is solid.
This starts out okay in that I like the first song but this album is proof that you can have good Van Dyke Parks arrangements but it doesn't matter if all of your songs are like 1 bpm and your voice is 3,000 times louder than everything else. By the end it gets frustrating .
I should have listened to this so long ago. It's like they married their wonderful ear for melody to the sounds of all the British dance music that was blossoming at this time. I read that they were specifically inspired by video game soundtracks here too which comes across well. The production is so dense and layered and beautiful that it makes me very sad to see it reduced to just being "dated" in the eyes of many reviewers ..... It's good when things sound like something you can put your finger on honestly (sometimes).
Houses of the Holy and this one are their peak for me, and I wish we had gotten a bit more of them in this mode (or these modes I guess, they are all over the place) before they get not as consistently good. But I should re-listen to Presence... So many great songs on this, the production is immaculate and so heavy, and it's lots of fun to hear them break out and try so many different styles. They are also all at the peak of their instrumental powers here. Great record.
Decent atmosphere but I wish I connected more with the songwriting which didn't really stand out to me but I also wonder if this is a grower. Either way it's solid but not my favorite at all.
This is an album where I sincerely think if you're seriously interested in music as "art" and you think it's terrible and irredeemable and not important then you should just give the whole thing up and try something else. SORRY!!!!! Simon Reynolds's writing on this is really fascinating and has informed how I think of this album, as an even further splintering (or maybe even shattering ?) of rock music, like from Sex Pistols who already have reduced it quite a bit to this which strips it of choruses or really even instrumental ability or like, legible production. The result is this very erratic and occasionally frightening thing. Jah Wobble is the only guy who can play his instrument. It's so good and eerie and feels like textural exploration in a way rock music does not always feel.
This has never been my favorite band, but I'm glad they stopped trying to do things like 'Electric Feel' and 'Kids,' because I don't think those songs are very good. This whole album is patchy but Fridmann's production is really good, I adore 'Time to Pretend.' 'Of Moons, Birds & Monsters' was the one that stood out to me this time around. WEIRD ONE!!!!
Lemmy on bass........ This album is good but this is an entirely too large dose of this stuff at least for me in my current life .
I had never listened to this band before. It's funny how the other big Manchester band from this scene is The Stone Roses, who are amazing and their first album has like 10 perfect songs on it at least. Meanwhile this has like 0.75 songs on it in general. At the same time I kind of get why this needed to happen and there is something about it that has an allure. Martin Hannett great dense production even though it is rather uhhhh late 80s sounding.
This one feels like it has some bloat compared to the last two (excellent) albums by this band, but I could see it growing on me with more listens. A strong 3 but this website doesn't have HALF STARS!!! So I must go with that. It's like a perfect 3.5 to me.
At first I was like why is this the one that's on here of their first three records ? And while I still think Songs for the Deaf should absolutely be here this album is still great and does a good job at encapsulating the appeal of their early stuff. It has the riff-y faster songs, it has the slower sludgier jams, it has some weird shit. It's All Here.
Fantastic!!!! How can you write these songs when you are a teenager.....
I remember liking this one a little more than I did this time around. SAD. It's solid though.
This is their peak to me, all the styles they do well are at their apex here. 'Sway,' 'Can You Hear Me Knocking,' 'Dead Flowers,' and 'Moonlight Mile' are all among the greatest songs ever made by human beings in my estimation.
Interesting to read about this band both coming from the Aussie pub rock thing which sort of explains their incorporation of like Northern soul / British R&B / the blues into their sound, and also interesting to read about their disillusionment with the "conformity" of the London punk scene that they emigrated to. I like this album on first listen, definitely see room for this band to grow in my esteem though.
I had only heard this one once before so I'm glad I went back because I liked it a lot more. All these songs are good .
