some great songs, but also lots of filler
probably important at its time, but feels incredibly schmalzy/kitsch and outdated now
better than i had remembered ... stripped-down, bluesy, raw. singer actually sounds good (in contrast to the other guy that came later)
Influential, but too raw and unpolished for my taste .... rather listen to Madness
some okay-ish songs, but everything gets ruined by the neverending noodling and jamming. also he can't sing for shit.
solid album, but hip hop from that era feels more outdated than from any other era. case in point: all the tracks with eminem. cringeworthy.
uu roduchelig und keine wirklichen hits
very charming, definitely more raw & unpolished than later albums ... but also a bit all over the place with many "skip" songs
Great voice and great talent, but all the songs are lacking in direction and focus.
Really wanted to like this, but the songs are just "ok"
Really solid, raw Rock'N'Roll
If it weren't for the bluesy and the 50s sounding Rock'n'Roll songs, this would have gotten 4 stars. I really like the "southern" vibe with the heavy grooves, but also the Rockabilly-tinged faster songs.
Not unlistenable, but pretty boring and forgettable.
I respect the hell outta David Byrnes, but this is some unlistenable shit
Fascinating, but nothing I would want to listen to again in the near future ... or ever again.
Did not understand the hype back then and don't understand it now.
Not my type of music, but this is a near perfect album: a barrage of hit after hit, guitar playing is on point without excessive noodling.
Not even my favorite Stevie Womder album, but that's why it only gets 5 stars.
A solid 3-stars alternative rock album. There were better bands during that time, but I am giving it 4 stars because I had ignored it back then (bias towards Courtney Love) and was very surprised (in a good way) when I heard it for the first time today.
I get the impression thar 1001 albums does not choose a band's best albums but has a preference towards early/imfluential albums. So instead of TNT or standards, we get Millions Now Living ...
Nice surprise. Catchy, banging song with incredibly juicy and crunchy sounding guitars.
Forgettable and annoying at the same time
Some ok somgs, but incredibly shallow and cringe. If I remember correctly, the whiny and over-dramatic vocals were not as much in the foreground on other albums as on this one which makes it an especially unpleasant listening experience.
I appreciate the music, but the songs could have been catchier.
I prefer the later material ... just cannot get into this bluesy stuff
Great potential and incredible voice, but the songs don't hold up.
Surprisingly enjoyable. Meandering, melancholic ... would serve as great background music in a Japanese bar or something
Probably my least favorite Smiths album ... but that's why it only gets 5 stars.
Is there any other genre that has aged as poorly as Acid Jazz? Maybe Trip Hop. Unbearable.
Wonderfully eccentric and eclectic, but always full of dancefloor energy. Moody, vibey while effortlessly moving between garage and 2 step, gospel harmonies and classical movements, dry synth sounds and acoustic instrumentation, sparse/stripped-down beats and lush arrangements. Sounds fresh and relevant though being almost a quarter of a century old.
Anyone complaining about today's pop music will have to explain to me how people in the 60s voluntarily listened to 45 minutes of annoying guitar wanking.
Edit: and now also saxophone wanking, for fuck's sake.
Really like how funky the songs are. Really enjoyed the moments when all the instrumentation comes together ... drums + (electric) piano + horn section is such a powerful combo. Could do without the endless amounts of screeching sax soloing, but somehow that seems to be an Afrobeat staple.
I like Monk's playing and his solo albums, but in a band conext that kind if 50s Jazz is super annoying. Cheesy melodies + endless soloing from instruments that NOBODY wants to hear a solo from ... like bass or drums.
I'm sorry I complained about 50s Jazz yesterday. I'rather listen to hours of saxophone solos than having to sit through this pretentious crap.
I was ready to give this 1 star cause it's Blues ... but as it turns out, it just cannot be hated. It's basicay the same song played 10 times, but the song is pretty good
Bettter than expected, with some songs being actually enjoyable. The theatralics ruin it for me, though.
Relistening to this album, I am very much relieved that the knowledge of Morrissey's later trajectory hasn't ruined it the slightest bit. Quite the opposite, it is a shockingly great album, sounding carefree and tongue-in-cheek even in its most insidious moments (Bengali On Platform). Production is great, with lush arrangements that never lose clarity and punch (the splash cymbal deserves its own Grammy). Any hint of too much musical theatrics is immediately countered by Morrissey's trademark scathing humor. Lastly, the cadence of Alsatian Cousin (slow burning intro jam) and Little Man, What Now? (pensive interlude) into Everyday Is Like Sunday (climactic banger) might be the best album opening of all times.
Feels outdated in such a stark way that I am asking myself if it was even still relevant at the time of its release. Formulaic songs with the same 3 blues chords and progressions. One bonus point for the raw and unpolished production and the fact that the songs (and the whole album) are actually quite short.
I always thought Nick Drake was an emo artist from the 80s/90s who killes himself with a knife, but I guess I was mixing things up. Pleasantly surprised by the songs, although they sometimes have that 60s "kitsch folk" vibe where you could picture him singing about fairytales amd stuff. Plus a bit boring.
Wikipedia writes: "Wild Gift showcases the band's unique punk rock style, which infuses roots rock, country, blues, R&B, and rockabilly." Which translates to: It's a huge pile of crap. On top of that, it also sounds like crap. For an album desperately trying to be "punk", the complete lack of punch and abrasiveness is DISGUSTING. Seriously, the drums sound like someone is beating on cardboard ... with chopsticks.
Imagine having written The Cutter and realizing that no song you write from that point on will ever be half as good as that one. Consequently, Echo & The Bunnymen went on to male an utterly mediocre album. 3 stars nonetheless cause The Cutter is on it.
Bittersweet Symphony seems to have been a really happy accident ... if you listen to the rest of this album full of whiny low-energy music that is endlessly dragging on without going anwhere. The singer looks kinda cool on the album cover though.
Self-important and pompous yet cringeworthyly amateurish sounding circus shit. Having to suffer through him whinily declaiming his ill-fitting lyrics makes me newly appreciate how well-crafted chart pop music actually is.
Edit: And it speaks to his narcissism to have his voice mixed so loud when he can't sing for shit.
These songs have no business hitting that hard. I was expecting some unbearable self-indulgent prog fest, but even the length and the guitar noodling is not bothering me.
I really wanted to like this, but it just isn't thaz good. A lot of filler, and even the few songs that are famous (like Theme From Shaft) are more lilke soundbytes than songs.
Not entirely uninteresting. I like the meandering, vibey character of the music. The vocals are not my cup of tea, thoigh I have to admit that they are fitting perfectly. It reminds me of a shoegazey version of The Smiths, Strangeways era ... and Morrissey's vocals are not for everyone either.
Edit: By the 5th song I have warmed up to the vocals and gotta say, it's a pretty great album.
Solid album, but for this style of Hip Hop: too late to be lefendary.
Some interesting music that could have greatly benefitted from a better singer. A lot of it sounds really outdated though. Vocals are super annoying of course, and what I can understand of the lyrics is incredibly cringe.
Edit: I really wanted to give a 1-star review, but I just couldn't: It's remarkable how many of the songs I remembered even 30 years later without ever having had any interest in Bjork. The cultural impact (puke-emoji / pile-of-shit-emoji) can't be denied.
3 stars for a really charming album, and one extra star for the sheer brilliance of Without You and that coconut song.
I just knew The War On Drugs by name and had always assumed it would be sort of lo-fi singer/songwritery indie. Did absolutely not expect it to be straightforward rock. I am hearing some Petty and lots of Springsteen ... very pleasantly surprised!
Meandering, aimless and ultimately random sounding. You can tell this is a solo effort: With a band, you are forced to get to the point instead of indulging your own idiosyncracies. On a positive note, I like the sound and vibe of those 70s drum machines.
Almost an achievement to be that annoying and that forgetful at the same time.
The harmonica can be a cool instrument if you use it sparsely to create a mood or if you can actually play it (think Stevie Wonder) ... but not if you just randomly blow into it at max volume. Some potential on this album that could have been developed into songs, but it all sounds like a band jamming on an idea in the practice room with some guy reciting ill-fitting poetry to it. And when the lyrics are finished, cue a fade-out. The mix sounds awful and unbalanced too.
Deliberately didn't listen to them when they were hyped, for contrarian reasons. Feels very satisfying to be completely vindicated about my ignorance. There are loads of great noisy, dissonant, arty albums out there, but this is not one of them.
This must be the dumbest "concept" album of all times. Very few soundtrack albums, and even less scores, can stand on their own. You listen to an OST cause it is inextricably linked with the memories of a movie scene and your own memories when you watched it. This one has nothing to draw from, and it doesn't help that the music is a completely random mess that can't decide what time period or mood it is trying to reference/recreate.
Not much to say ... a perfect album.
Come on man. There's SO much great music out there, and this is already the second Zappa album I had to endure? That kind of "humor" (and also the music) has aged so poorly that it is almost painful to listen to.
If you can get past the initial quirk factor, there are actually some interesting sketches, but they could have greatly benefitted from some editing and arranging ... and developing them into actual good songs, which never happens. Oh, they left a barking dog in the song that the mic picked up accidently ... WHAAA, SO ARTSY AND EXPERIMENTAL. The kick drum sounds really nice, though. Great amount of low end "oomph", but sharp and punchy at the same time, the tail being short enough not too muddy up everything else.
A little disappointing ... the vocal harmonies are really nice, but the songs fall a bit flat. You can really feel the potential, but at least on this album, it's not there yet.
The afropop vibe is really cool, but
1. it sometimes has an uncanny "made for tourists" exotism feel
2. it is too steeped in 50s kitsch jazz for me to enjoy it
3. it too often drifts into happy children song territory which is the most aggravating kind of music.
Nick Cave seems to be a really nice dude, but the music is just insufferable. Boring blues rock with the theatrical / circus shit meter cranked up to the max ... aka the worst of all possible worlds. This is the first time I stopped an album of the day prematurely. How anyone can willingly suffer to 1 hour and 20 minutes of this is beyond me.
A completely forgettable album. I had this running in the background, and not a single song grabbed my attention. The songs are all well-crafted and produced, but lack any quality that would make them catchy or interesting.
Not as bad as expected. The songs could be fine, but the whiny vocals with each syllable drawn out for 10 seconds with maximum melodrama ruins it for me.
