I really enjoyed the drum and bass combo that drives the groove of the album. Very clean tones, very satisfying to bop to. The focal element of the album is the rapping and word play. I have a hard time focusing on lyrics in music, but the bits and pieces I picked up swayed back and forth between clever word play and discussion of sex, drugs, and money. I noticed I started to get bored the deeper into the album I got. I attribute that my personal difficulty focusing as time went on, and the drum and bass groove, while nice, eventually lost its novelty and got repetitive. All in all, solid album! I think I'd enjoy it more broken up and sprinkled throughout a playlist than listening to the album front to back.
Very bright, joyful sounding album! I was surprised to hear that the piano and guitar were panned hard left and hard right respectively, yet the frequency curve of the album was still flat and cohesive.
I didn't enjoy this album. I didn't like how the vocals were processed and balanced, I didn't like their delivery, I thought the guitars were too loud in the mix, I didn't like the guitar writing or performances (it sounded like squealing rather than something musically cohesive.) The single thing I did like was the drum production.
Good album, just really long
This album is what happens when legendary musicians are given the freedom to hit record and just go where the spirit of the music takes them. I wanna go back through this album and try to better understand everything going on throughout it because I'm certain musicians of this caliber are doing so much more than meets the eye (or... ear). Fantastic album; I want to buy a physical copy.
I wasn't a fan. The experimental timbres of this album made me feel a little uneasy more than anything. The vocal delivery also wasn't my cup of tea. It's a fine album, just not for me.
Great album! Super clean, very fun live recording.
This album sounds intimately gentle, and I love that.
Took me a few songs to get into, but settled very happily into the vibe in time.
Paints a very vivid picture / creates an atmosphere like a desert mirage. Leans into ambience, sound designed, and instrument and vocal styles less common in western music. Not my cup of tea, but a very well made album.
BANGER!!!!!
The drums are tight and punchy, the electronics and DJ rig are captivating, the guitar is satisfying, the rapping is brilliant, and Chester Bennington's performance is iconic!!
RIP Chester Bennington 🕊
I enjoyed the hip hop and jazz fusion in the earlier tracks on the album, but gradually lost interest as the fusion shifted more to a reggae feel. I don't speak any French, so I don't have an informed opinion on any of the lyrics. Was a fun listen for a while.
I didn't finish this album. I listened through the first nine tracks, made it about 30 seconds into the tenth before skipping because I was so repulsed, and then gave up shortly into track eleven. Dear god this album felt like they were trying to break a record for how much dirty talk, cursing, and N words they could cram into an album. Sprinkle in some guns and Snoop Dogg stroking his ego as much as his dick, and that's this whole album in a nutshell. I was genuinely disgusted and angry by the time I shut it off.
The positive thing I'll say about this album is that the production is very good, so much so that I could look past the absurdly vulgar nature of the album for a few songs. It wasn't enough to save it, but I appreciated it. 2/5
Great album! Very cozy, very classy, very wholesome romance that doesn't feel heteronormative or cheesy, I have no complaints! This is an album I'd have playing on a record for a quiet evening in. 5/5
This was the band's debut album. They used classic rock elements as a vehicle for their quirky vocals and lyrics. Think like a comical depiction of aliens in television, and that's how their music sounds. It was fun for a little while, but I admittedly got bored of it pretty quickly. The guitar hook in "Rock Lobster" is iconic, and it was cool to hear where that hook comes from.
Pretty good album! There's a good amount of variety in this album, which is my usual gripe with rap music. There were some raunchy lyrics I didn't care for, especially in "Blame Game," but for the most part, I was more interested in how the words flowed. I was pessimistic going into this album because Kanye West's a shitty person, but this was a solid listen.
Solid record. Reggae isn't really my thing; it doesn't excite me, and I think it's pretty monotonous. But there were two tracks on this album that hooked me by being more rock-y and more chill: Concrete Jungle and Stop That Train respectively. I didn't really like the song Kinky Reggae mainly because of the lyrics. Not my cup of tea, but a totally fine piece of music.
This is the soundtrack for a serial killer, and I did not enjoy anything about this album.
I was surprised to get a movie soundtrack on this list. I accidentally let it loop back around to the second song while listening, and I'm considering that a good sign. My one critique is less about the artistry and more the production: It's really saturated. This is somewhat explained by the era this was made (mid 70's), but I've heard other music around this time period that sounds cleaner. I think some of the saturation is thematically appropriate, but this has too much for my ear. I think I'd have to see the movie this was the soundtrack for to get the best understanding of it, but as its own independent listen, not bad at all.
You know what, I think I'm starting to get the appeal of rap music. The delivery of the lyrics and the bits of ear candy started to fill in those blanks for me. There's not a whole lot of processing on the vocals, so for them to be exciting on their own is a testament to the artist's ability. Honestly, I had a good time listening, except for one section where two guys were going back and forth talking about extreme acts of violence. Other than that, great album!
I've never heard anything quite like this, so I don't have much to go off in terms of how to rate it or compare it to other works in its genre. The sound design alternated between being an atmospheric touch and a main musical element, and I personally preferred when it was atmospheric. Nothing was bad per say, but nothing grabbed my attention in an emotional way.
Pretty chill rock, good background noise. A lot of the album is about love, particularly for New York City. Nice theme, it's just love songs haven't been my thing for a long time. The songs featuring Thom Yorke were probably my favorite along with the final track "We Float."
