starting off with a classic, i see. very widely discussed but not an lp i've ever actually sat down and listened to.
composition and arrangement and performances and production are fantastic. lyrics pinball between great, vapid, and incomprehensible, which is above average for the genre imo. putting this in the pop album category is a weight mismatch, but i dunno as you can call it anything else. banger.
it is said that, to this day, in an isolated valley in central england, if you listen very carefully, you can hear the only consonant thom yorke ever fully pronounced echoing gently from the hills.
mushy, indistinct, sonically complex but compositionally uninnovative song construction produces an album that skitters off of my brain like a drop of water on a hot griddle. to be fair, if you don't have a strong aversion to the deliberately out of tune vocal style, it's probably a lot more palatable.
it's decent, i think? the vocal styling is not particularly to my taste, at least in this sort of quantity, but there's good individual tracks for sure.
i've got a lot of room in my heart for depression music. great bass tone, surprisingly good enunciation on the lyrics, fun percussion work. good stuff.
the opener is actually pretty good! My Iron Lung and Sulk are also fun. elsewise it's not nearly as interminable as Amnesiac since the vocals aren't distressingly flat to nearly the same degree. this album sounds like i imagine living in a long-faded former industrial city in 1990s england feels.
yep that's a coldplay album. it's a good canvas for drum n bass remixes and that's about it. lead vocalist is not inspiring confidence with the falsetto here if i'm being completely honest.
i'm not sure what genre this is, but i don't think it's one i'm familiar with. one of the vocalists is trying to sing on a teaspoon of air, the arrangement is pretty minimal but the individual sounds aren't complex to fill it out, and i don't know what's going on in the lyrics i can make out.
sure, that's fun. a bit staid for my tastes, but it's well arranged, varied in composition, and with some compelling vocal work.
one of the greatest big band recordings of all time. one of the greatest medium-size ensemble recordings of all time, in any genre. there's an interstitial track called "Riot Prevention" that contains exactly what it says on the tin. what more do you want.
it's a classic, it's very influential, and it's still pretty good in CURRENT_YEAR, but more than thirty years on a lot of people have made a lot of pretty similar music and it doesn't quite stand out.
these boys were *cooking*. an incredibly energetic studio album. there's so much going on and it's done so well that it doesn't even matter that the lyrics are pretty nothing. a couple of these tracks i'd love to hear more development on, but there's nothing wrong with what's on the record.
fun, well arranged, lyrics tend a little eeeh but i can only grab about half of em so we'll call it a draw. vocals are good tho, and the hook writing is in full force.
a masterclass in how to turn a bunch of interesting individual sounds into pulp slurry for egg carton manufacture
the same people trying to make a different type of music might well work for me; this does not
sure, that's interesting enough. doing several different things, none of them are super compelling individually but it's a fine package. i do love the vocal harmony writing in this style and era.
vocal performance is undeniable. songwriting...somewhat deniable. lyrics in particular frequently leave something to be desired, and the rhythm section tends to recede fully into the realm of a backing track. to be fair, i have the same opinions about a whole lot of pop music.
Ella Fitzgerald is perhaps the best singer of the recorded music era. this album comes once recording technology itself had reached more or less its full capacity, and puts her - and the band - on excellent display. the Gershwins are hit or miss for me, but it doesn't *matter* when you deliver them like this.
fascinatingly eclectic but generally danceable. the interstitial material isn't great. real shame they put the white dude's name on it, it feels like almost more of a collaboration / compilation album
whewwwwwww this is cookin. what a voice. loses some consistency in the slow songs in particular, but that's to be expected from someone who was only 23 at the time of recording. the band is fully in the pocket. gas top to bottom, as long as you don't listen to some of the lyrics very hard
well performed and beautifully produced. varied and interesting composition. i think the songwriting writes checks that bowie's vocal health can't cash.
the sort of album where nothing i hear sticks in my brain for more than about ten seconds. it sure is hippie music (value-neutral)
it's definitely interesting from an academic perspective, but i don't know that i'd call it enjoyable per se. i think the vocal style would be less tedious if i wasn't hearing it for an entire album in one go.
well, it's certainly *interesting*, but i don't think that's a good thing, at least for me. there's bits and pieces that are compelling, but it really kinda feels like someone tried to make a mosaic out of elements from other contemporary bands and it just doesn't look like a picture when you step back.
very chill. very confident, deservedly so. probably a bit too minimalist for me to want to listen to a whole album of in a row personally. not a surprise that this has been influential
there's some good individual riffs, but they're just repeated over and over until they're run into the ground instead of being developed, and the whole thing is suffocated by incredibly flat vocals. every song somehow manages to overstay its welcome despite only rarely making it over two and a half minutes
fun and eclectic concept album, good instrumentally, but the vocals and spoken word segments are not holding up their end. great instrumentation choices, love to hear vibes and sax in this sort of way
very yell-y. some of it is catchy, at least. given the date, probably one of the key precursors to the thousands and thousands of equally unremarkable punk eps and short lps recorded at great haste that would follow.
if this man would shut up and let the band play it would be at least passably fun and funky. as is, it's a disaster, with neither lyrics nor their performance being tolerable.
wow that comes out ripping! lyrics are nothing to write home about, but the delivery is good enough, and they don't detract from the star, which is some lovely guitar work. good range too, from wall of distortion to background noodling.
zep's collective songwriting hadn't really figured out how to develop their own compelling tracks from scratch yet, and as a result the songs that are wholly original tend to be weaker than the ones that are traditional/covers/inspired/stolen, but plant's voice and the arrangements - particularly page's guitars and jones's keyboards and strings - keep it going nonetheless. two of the stars are stolen from other artists.
i don't really know what's going on here, to be perfectly honest. the beats are consistently pretty good, vocals and production are mostly good, and best as i can tell the lyrics are absolutely all over the place. it careens from political commentary to regulation issue misogyny to daily life to out-of-pocket ableism to weird religious screeds? completely unpredictable.
fantastic vibes, occasionally a little extended for what's there. when it hits it *really* hits though. definitely approaching jazz from rock rather than the other way around. vocals and harmonica are standout
i like yes, i like king crimson, i like elp, so there's no good reason why i haven't listened to genesis before. i've been missing out. complex, virtuosic, filled with both immense energy and great delicacy. spectacular.
moderately catchy but very same-y. guitars occasionally do something interesting, some of the vocals are decent, but it's the same texture over and over again. not really convinced there's more than four actually different songs on the album.
casual and smooth, but so heavily polished it becomes monotonous. Baker is clearly talented but is making a lot of poppy stylistic choices i'm not a fan of.
yeah it's peak simon and garfunkel. top tier songwriting even then. not my favorite of their albums, but perhaps the most consistent
fascinating. vocals are a bit too speech-style for my taste, but the instrumentation makes up for it - oboe!? quite an interesting set of songs
i'm not sure who an hour of the same breathy vocals over the same basic drum pattern and the same predictable guitar strumming is for, but it ain't me.
angular and straightforward. fun guitars. perhaps a bit too uncomplicated at points. love like anthrax is sick
brooding and ominous, but restrained. atmospheric without drifting off, oppressive without crushing.
competent and varied. more indie-leaning style is forgettable, heavier stuff is more interesting. vocals are pretty flexible.
an interesting mix of really cool guitar tone and individual line writing with sometimes excessively repetitive arrangements that are only partially restrained from falling into the monotonous wastes of indie rock. both the vocalists and the lyrics leave something to be desired.
fire. great basslines, fantastic mastering. even the weakest track (same old show) is a heater in a mix as long as you don't hang out there for more than probably two of its six minutes.
doesn't do much other than groove, but it does groove hard.
lead vocals are as bright and garish as a carbon arc lamp. when he shuts his mouth, there's some fun and interesting guitar work. the heavier songs are compelling despite the vocals, the lighter fare just falls flat.
vocally, honestly pretty decent. songwriting...not so much.
it's fine. very well recorded and produced. most of the tracks have something going on, but it's not enough to maintain interest for the full length of the song.
Now That's What I Call Dad Rock! Volume 1435. pretty good guitar work, pretty rough lyrics writing and vocal performances. sometimes struggles to reconcile the rigidity of a drum machine with the desired fluidity of guitar playing.
messy guitars, fun. messy vocals, not so much. very high energy, drummer is getting quite the workout.
i think it would have been a good idea to find someone else to write lyrics. maybe for the singing too. instrumentally it's pretty solid? chill for sure. maybe goes a bit past 'restrained' to 'sparse' on occasion.
decent pop writing. instrumentation keeps it interesting moment to moment despite the overall texture being pretty constant.
i was promised songs about buildings and food, two things which i am quite fond of and fairly interested in, but i have no earthly idea what about 95% of the lyrics are, and the delivery is rather...idiosyncratic, so i'm not sure if i got what was advertised or not. instrumentally fascinating though, some good ass sounds in here.
white boy got pipes and about two and a half different songs.
yeah i'm not sure what you were expecting, it's aretha franklin. recording/mixing/mastering are letting her and the band down a bit frankly, there's balance issues and occasional clipping. the band themselves are in good form, and the arrangements let them show off once in a while.
singing and rapping and songwriting all at once like that seems a bit unfair to everyone else. beats and mixing are often merely adequate, and some of the tracks are a bit longer than they have juice for, but that can't stop the vocal performances.
there's a lot here to like - some great vocal performances, strong songwriting, very good instrumental work, and a truly fantastic opener. unfortunately there's also a lot to dislike, with the middle of the album really sagging musically even without taking into account the racism. ultimately it very much overstays its welcome.
that's gonna be a yikes from me, dawg. i would simply use my skill and experience in a different manner.
a bit sparse on the arrangement, occasional high and tight vibrato isn't my favorite. minimal but effective guitar is the highlight.
cookin. impressive delicacy on the vocal delivery, and the band is absolutely in the pocket. bass is particularly fun.
there's a reason a lot of people (myself included) can only name Bono and The Edge and not any other members of U2, and it's only partially cause those are catchy and easy to remember stage names. the drumming and bass guitar are perfectly good, but take a supporting role to the vocal melodrama and the frankly really impressive guitar texture. on the other hand, the actual *lyrics* often leave something to be desired, and the overall songwriting sags heavily in the middle of the album.
wildly complex lyrics clearly presented in a range of styles paired with fairly sparse arrangements result in an album that's always very technically impressive but not necessarily always enjoyable to listen to.
it is indeed smooth and chill, the whole way through. it's one note but at least that note is good.
idk, i can also be sad and do the same thing repeatedly for seven minutes at a time. their production is way better though, good individual sounds for sure.
unremarkable at best, vocals tending to whiny and lyrics to obnoxious, and poorly mixed.
mostly uninspired guitar progressions behind a vocalist who's flexible but not really in command of her screaming. drumming is pretty decent at least, fairly conventional but active.
if you're gonna do really sparse arrangements then either they have to be compositionally interesting or the individual sounds need to be interesting. this has neither, and it's made worse by out of tune vocals. at least the vocal features provide a break from that.
fascinating use of sound and texture, and mixing and mastering. it doesn't nail it - lead vocals don't feel quite up to the task stylistically, some of the synth sounds are starkly out of place, lyrically it's scattershot, and it runs out of steam by the end - and i'm not entirely sure it's *fun* to listen to, but it's absolutely *interesting* to consider as a piece of art.
some truly great sounds here between the synth and the guitars, but the composition is so repetitive that it's boring anyways, and the vocals are mostly just speech at various intensities instead of singing.
yep, that's a beatles album. mostly unremarkable pop rock, with a couple more memorable tracks sprinkled about. vocal harmony is fun though, and the hooks are decent.
impressive for the vocals to be both obnoxiously abrasive and uncomfortably unctuous at the same time, so it's a pretty tough listen even without the overly-polished arrangements and deeply questionable lyrical choices.
very basic songwriting (the guest artist tracks are the best of the lot) but sold by the performances. lead vocals in particular are compelling despite (or perhaps because of) clearly struggling at times.
a corker of a pop-rock record, really. vocals and lyrics front and center, and strong, but the band isn't exactly slacking and are offered plenty of opportunity to show off. great diversity of sound within the parameters.
occasionally manages to break out a catchy line or some interesting sounds, but mostly it's just vocally slightly unpleasant to listen to and overall deeply unmemorable.
