Took Motown and said the quiet part out loud
"Let's pretend we're married" is so quaint
Literal banger album (aka sintetizzami sto cazzo)
Ok but Something in the Water is something else entirely, holy shit
Not wholly unpleasant to hear, but intellectually frustrating
I can definitely see what they were aiming for, but the technical skill and musical culture just isn't there
Britpop in a nutshell
I was going to give this two stars until I got to the song in the reverse (don'ts stop). Just no
Somehow it goes even further downhill from there? Leave Scarborough fair alone
Ok Made of Stone finally makes a bit of sense. We're back at two stars but barely
The band is absolutely fire and the songwriting is honestly passionate about soul (Right is a freak exercise, true to form)
I do enjoy more the Bowiesque detours (Somebody Up There Loves Me) than the pure soul attempts
That said, hopefully people did go listen to proper soul and r&b after this
The answer to the question "how many hours can I listen to blues" is yes, so there you go
For the first half of this it was a solid 3 (Sabotage is just excellent, the rest was a bit touch and go) but the second half is so consistently good that I think I may need to put this in frequent rotation... It may deserve a 4 when all is said and done
In any case, the whole thing just exudes love for music and on that I'm on board with the boys
I'm a huge soul fan, but the reverend isn't my favourite - I'm more into earlier greats like Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T and the MGs, and the Stax sound (although Al Jackson does a fantastic job as always on the drums here, he's at his best with Donald Duck Dunn)
Honourable mention for the Memphis horns that are outstanding as always
Very close to a 4, but there's surely other earlier Memphis sound records in the list that will get there and beyond
Solid technique and everything, I just don't have any emotional responses to most of these. Except maybe the title track, and even then
There's some good stuff when I can tell the riffs apart (e.g. tenth avenue freeze-out) but the deliberate mixing all into a cohesive wall of sound makes it hard for me to enjoy, I need to hear the instruments and the lyrics
Yep I realised the muffled sound is driving me nuts, I'm not coming back to this again
This needs more of my attention than I'm able to give it. It sounds great but I'm sure the brilliance lies in the verse
Sad soul was both what I needed today and what I definitely didn't. Specifically, Hard times. Christ
Also, as an agnostic with a catholic background I have to say without any irony whatsoever that this chorus is excellent:
"Talk about Jesus talk about Jesus
He never had a hustlin' mind
Doin' crime wastin' time
Drinkin' that wine"
As a 90s punk rocker this is bringing me back to my roots, although I liked NOFX and Green Day better. Still, absolutely solid album, and the sound of my youth - it was good to revisit
Look now, this album was everything to 15 year old me almost 30 years ago. I thought relistening to it would have been cringe but boy was I wrong, it's fucking perfect and everything
I said I'd give 5 stars to albums that I'd knife fight people over. Don't think I'd knife fight someone else over it, but I'd definitely knife fight myself so
This was completely new to me and super interesting. I feel like I need to revisit it for sure, but a few tracks are so compelling with their groove (Daniibe) to push the album in the frequent relisten level
I've grown up with the Smiths. I love them. Quite possibly because they do three different things that shouldn't work at all and yet for some unexplained miracle, it all works. It kinda goes like this:
Morrissey: it always rains in Manchester and you're all c*nts
Andy: check out this funky blues riff
Marr: CARIBE!
(The only reason this isn't a 5 is that there's only one Smiths album that I'd fight people over and that's Hatful of Hollow, which for some truly baffling reason isn't in the 1001. Some of their best work was in singles)
Came to this thinking I'm more of an Otis Redding gal when it comes to Kings of Soul. But holy shit that voice. Properly took me to to church. Sorry Sol
I'd never listened to a Van Halen album deliberately (i don't think anyone can say they've never listened to Van Halen)
This was very fun! Eddie is unsurprisingly a beast
