Well I dunno what to say. It was all kinda OK to listen to in the background, but I am thoroughly unimpressed. Nothing really stood out to me. Some of the songs were perhaps a bit more evocative with their tones and atmosphere, but as a whole I found it boring. Barely found the strength to not click away to something else. D:
Respect the diversity of tracks and musical stylings, but did not enjoy it. Way too much funky and r&b. Liked Spaghetti Junction and Gangsta Shit as kinda more traditional rap songs, but nothing special. Ms Jackson is what it is, BOB was kinda neat, but overall not a fan.
Headmest ritual is very fun. Meat is Murder is extremely sad. As a whole, it's a pleasant listen, but mostly functions as neat background music that mostly blends together. I'd give it 3.5 stars if possible. Melancholic and soothing, until the end.
Just realized something: i was going to say that this "sounds like FIFA music to me", as in, fairly innocuous, inoffensive and unobtrusive tracks that are pleasant as background music in a FIFA video game. Considering the album's age, it's more appropriate to say that this album is the progenitor of such a style of music that was later commercialized and oft imitated by smaller bands. With all of that said, it's still pleasant music but I do think it indeed serves best as something in the background - I can easily imagine it playing during a drive, or during a movie montage featuring driving... Not trying to say it only has commercial applications, but it doesn't move me otherwise (aside from the eponymous Meat is Murder, which is suitably uncomfortable) and I think it's a respectable "use" for it.
Supervixen - nice jams, too soft, doesn't take off.
Queer - moody, nice.
OHWIR - smooth punk.
As Heaven Is Wide - PS1 futuristic game intro-ahh song, but it turns into a very interesting melody. Great for some atmospheric neo-noir or cyber-noir.
Not My Idea - the twang and tune of the song is a bit heavier/rawer, which I like.
A Stroke of Luck - continuing with peak cinematic OST-vibes. No seriously i hope the next Batman uses this song or something.
Vow - came and went.
Stupid Girl - alright, same as above.
Dog New Tricks - from the first notes, knew it was good. Didn't quite live up to my internalized hype, but still prolly the most likable.
My Lover's Box - it's aight, some nice tones in parts of the melody that stood out, not enough.
Fix Me Now - meh, although the instrumental side is interesting and nostalgic.
(extra tracks from the Super Deluxe version)
Milk - melancholic.
Subhuman - not particularly interesting. Should be edgier...
Girl Don't Come - fun instrumental track, goes down easy, timeless tunes.
Sleep - barely a song but definitely vibes, again, cinematic.
Driving Lesson - if this wasn't in some late 90s PS1 racing game then what is the point of it all?
Trip My Wire - feels like a key change from the previous song, idk, i wish it was heavier (my common reaction to most rock). Kinda catchy, but eh.
#1 Crush - the actual song has a good balance of melody, lyrics and heavier tones. Evocative. Sus noises.
Butterfly Collector - I love it when the song's mood instantly matches what I imagined from the name...
Alien Sex Fiend - definitely moody and esoteric tune, the vocals/singing/lyrics are not the most inspired tho.
Kick My Ass - works as a somber or melancholic outro song, i suppose, nothing special.
LCRW - so smooth, so fine, so hoppy, so jazzy-soul. Excellent.
Pusherman - very good.
Freddie's Dead - not as a fan of the horns and the tones here, felt a bit repetitive, but still nice.
Junkie Chase - excellent lil instrumentral, perfect for the assumed context.
Give Me Your Love - good, not obnoxious (which i value in love songs).
EYSKB - didn't really leave a mark, but not bad.
COCAINE SONG - good track, representative of the album.
Think - too whimsical? Just kinda alright.
Superfly - FUNK CITY!!
Freddie's Dead (single mix) - a bit better balanced at this shorter length.
Cinnamon Girl - 1969?? Pretty timeless in that case.
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - kinda goofy, but nice twang.
Round & Round - too melancholic-acoustic for my taste, kinda boring, but also kinda pure and beautiful. huh.
Down By The River - ain't no reason for any song to be this long. Nice tunes, fun "chorus", but like, why does it keep goin' and changing? I guess I value standard song structure, maybe even too much.
The Losing End - kinda came and went, just a nice track, didn't stand out.
Running Dry - you find me with a very Chinese intro. With that said, a very evocative and emotional song. EDIT: HOLY SHIYT
Cowgirl In The Sand - long but idk, it worked for me this time.
===
As a whole, was blown away by this. I did not expect this.
No strong feelings, but fine to listen too in the background. Not obnoxious or grating. Some nice twangs and riffs.
The first half of the album - specifically the first 3 songs - are very fun, very evocative and very moody, in a great way. The latter half of the album is a bit more esoteric, with the short track Broken working well for me, yet the last one Listen being a bit of "nothing". Despite that, entire album holds a consistent quality with no real drastic dips, and it works well as pleasant ambient music if nothing else, with just enough odd and fanciful tones to be interesting and inspiring. Although I'd usually reserve it for something in my primary genres (heavier, more modern takes on metal and its related genres), I think this album was just pleasant and "beautiful" enough to leave a mark. Objectively I don't think it's quite a 5-star album, even subjectively, but it is very good and I happened to enjoy it very much on this day.
Deeply impressive, but not that fun to listen to for me, except for maybe Spanish Castle Magic.
The opener is nice, but everything else is incredibly blend and just blends/melds together into a whole lot of nothing. Far too soft, like music you'd see in a mediocre rom-com during a montage of a character being melancholic over difficulties with their partner... Or, like, a movie parodying such tropes. Too soft, too sauceless.
Impressive and certainly relaxing. Harmless at worst. Virtuous masterwork at best. Ultimately, I only enjoy listening to it so much and can't say that I "like" it, so it feels wrong giving it higher than a 3 - the other albums so far that have been outside of my comfort zone and favorite genres still managed to "move" me for example, while this and say Hendrix are just... Impressive, so impressive, but ultimately don't make me either enjoy myself or feel anything.
I respect the storytelling and way with words. Desolation Row is the apex in that sense, I think. With that said, I barely made it through the album. It not only failed to function as music to me - to entertain me AND/OR make me feel something - but it actively aggravated me in fact. It was that annoying.
Struggling between 2 and 3 because it really didn't do much for me, but was quite a bit more pleasant than the past 2 albums. Interesting storytelling and lyricism again. Needed more flute.
Darlington County is kinda fun. Born In The U.S.A. is ofc well known. Downbound train is good. No Surrender is good. Dancing In the Dark is fun.
The interview was neat, and Eight Miles High was kinda nice. As a whole, whoever, the album was extremely uninspired (ironically) and wholly boring. Sad to say, but this is a 2 for me at best, but right now it feels like a 1.
Badlands - no comment, nadda.
Adam Raised a Cain - it yearns for a heavy af metal cover AND to be sampled for some real old-school hip-hop. Good, interesting song nonetheless.
Something in the Night - uhhh, well sung but didn't leave a mark.
Candy's Room - not that sweet.
Racing in the Street - melancholic and all that.
The Promised Land - not too impressed.
The Factory - evocative of the theme.
Streets of Fire - has a hint of edge I liked.
Prove It All Night - meh.
Darkness On the Edge of Town - the ultimate song wasn't as strong as I had hoped.
The Spotify bio describing this as being a refreshing departure from grunge/nu metal is an absolutely insane take to me. I don't know, to me this is extremely lame; "what if we took rock but made it not-cool?".
The typa music that plays in the background while you fiddle around the FIFA 12 career mode, specifically the songs you get inbetween some Ghanian r'n'b and non-descript d'n'b from, idk, Holland.
2 stars instead of 1 solely because it was a breeze to listen through and it's not aggressively annoying or bad, it's just not fun.
FUN FACT: Although this is the first time I sat down to listen to this album in full, I've previously listened to Pantera's first 3 albums (yes, the glam-hair-power metal albums) in their entirety. That was NOT fun, except for bits of the 3rd one.
Anyway: older records tend to either be too raw/underproduced or, well, feel just right - as indeed, many modern records tend to be too artificial and overproduced in contrast.
For Vulgar Display Of Power, honestly, it kinda straddles the line. Sometimes the overall audio experience isn't all that amazing, but in some meta way it does work in favor of the album - it just kinda fits the notion and "idea" of Pantera. Perchance.
Overall, I enjoyed the album, both the tracks I knew from before and the ones that were new to me (like Fucking Hostile).
With that said, I'll say something controversial and say that it's also somewhat archaic and "too raw" at the end of the day, compared to some of the more modern stuff I like. It reminds me of my experience listening to Korn's first album and being pleasantly surprised at how well it sounds, yet still finding it too raw relative to later releases. In contrast, for example, Slipknot's first album was very impressive and arguably more impressive than their follow-up.
Even more controversially, I prefer Five Finger Death Punch's cover of A New Level. In general, FFDP at their best is "Pantera 2", while at their worst being far too overproduced and commercialized... They remain one of my favorite bands, and I prefer many of their songs to the tracks from this legendary Pantera album. Sill, it's never black and white of course and can be difficult to quantify... Walk may not be my favorite but, like, c'mon... It's Walk.
EDIT: Ngl, yeah, I'm listening to FFDP's The Way of The Fist album and it's like explicitly better than Vulgar Display of Power, 1:1. Perhaps I lack some more nuanced, technical understanding or something, but yeah, for the listen and "fun" test, that's my (controversial) opinion.
No context for this one and I am certainly wowed. What an interesting... Thing?
Listening to this genuinely made me upset. These guys should be banned from making music - not that what I just listened to was music, but you know, just in case...
Neat, a bit of beep boop, a bit of mood. Strangelove stood out as a fun bop.
Fun overall, decent somberness and melancholy in the second half of the album. Feeling generous now, but, the music helped, so...
Never got around to this before and I was quite wowed. More like 4.5/5 but still, great stuff.
Pleasant surprise. 3.5 or so.
ILLMATIC 3.97
The Genesis N/A
NY State of Mind 4.8
Life's a Bitch 2.5
The World is Yours 3.3
Halftime 4.5
Memory Lane 3.9
One Love 4.2
One Time 4 Your Mind 4
Represent 4.4
It Ain't Hard to Tell 4.1
Seminal work that I respect greatly. With that said, for my personal taste, it rounds out to a 4 out of 5 I suppose. It doesn't quite "wow" me enough either to get a pure 5/5, but perhaps that's due to having to sit down and really digest the lyrics to truly appreciate it. It also fails the "Meteora Metric", wherein I can't give this a 5/5 like I would for that just for pure enjoyment, either. With that said, NY State of Mind remainds a killer song, probably top 5 ever or something.
Listen, if it's on purpose (by all accounts it is), I can kinda understand and respect the effort. Artists are usually odd and unusual, and I really don't mind expressing the storytelling through an unorthodox and purposley "mismatched" musical style.
With that said, it just wasn't fun to listen to, to an extreme extent mind you. This would probably do well on YouTube in the early 2010s, especially if clearly communicated in a comedic fashion.
I'll say that Fit but You Know It was almost kinda fun, while Dry Your Eyes was coherently composed enough to actually translate the message and emotions of the lyrics correctly.
This whole thing is weird, but not in a good way; respect to the artist for trying something liket his, but I simply do not like it, even if the lyricism and storytelling are poignant (in their own down to Earth way).
Yet... It's certainly a fascinating, different thing, that provoked genuine discussion and bewilderment.
