Listened to before? Yes
Context of album? End of Simon and Garfunkel’s time as a duo, a clear departure from their usual sound, spawned countless hits that basically everyone has heard before, revolutionary production.
*Reviewed in a song-by-song format*
I don’t like when albums begin with the title track. It’s like being thrown into the deep end—a shocking plunge into the heart of an album rather than a journey along a narrative line of action. Sadly, this album does begin with the title track. However, it’s so good I can’t even be all that mad about it. The piano floats and swells perfectly—the vocals are careful, controlled, and technically impressive while also being incredibly raw. It’s just a perfect song. There’s nothing more I can say about it.
El Condor begins with a similar feel, with its creepy intro, but the song becomes something bittersweet and thoughtful as the vocals start. The instrumentals are curious and thoughtful. The vocals are dreamy.
Cecelia then begins with Afro-influenced drums, bringing the album’s danceability up significantly. It’s an amazing song, just like the previous two, but the transition into Keep the Customer Satisfied is entirely too sudden. It throws me off every time.
Keep the Customer Satisfied is one of my favorites. The chorus is so satisfying and the fanfare trumpets add an excellent flare. Not to mention the lethal sarcasm. Just one hell of a song.
So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright slows things down once more. It’s almost trance like, with the rhythmic vocals and the combination of mysterious flute, beautiful acoustic guitar, and rain-like drums.
The melody of The Boxer is beautiful. The gentle arpeggios and “lie lie lies” paired with the crashing drum during the chorus and the occasional odd instrument are just fantastic, and allows the song to maintain a feeling of zoned-out thoughtfulness while remaining dynamic and interesting. The build up at the end is transcendent and the return to simple acoustic guitar makes for a perfect resolution.
Baby Driver swings the emotional pendulum of the album back in the more Cecelia direction. It’s a fun, folksy song with a subtle biting undertone. There’s even the sound of a car amongst a jazzy solo, which escalates into the chaotic ending.
Only Living Boy has a fantastic, introspective narrative with wonderful drum fills and background vocals that make for a perfectly dynamic song, with contrasting loud/quiet sections creating a middle ground between a nostalgia and a hope.
Why Don’t You Write Me is physically impossible not to dance to. Despite the anger behind it, everything about it is relentlessly fun. It’s a perfect movie soundtrack song.
Then there’s Bye Bye Love, which would be a sad song, except for the fact that it’s live, and the audience is beautifully energetic. Including a live take in an album—especially for a cover—is such a creative idea. The audience takes their cover from being good to being excellent.
The fade out of audience cheers into the slow Song for the Asking beautifully summarizes the bittersweetness present throughout BOTW, with the ultimate ode to solitude and reflection amongst community and
Listened to before? Yes
Context? Album full of 90s hits, a major label debut from a young punk band that achieved unexpected major success and brought punk mainstream amongst the brooding sounds of "grunge."
*Reviewed in a holistic format*
When we were little, my mom would play Dookie for my brother and me on car rides. She thought it would be tolerable for us, as we'd rejected every other punk band she tried to play for us (Dead Kennedys, MxPx, Hole, Minor Threat, Descendants, Sex Pistols...) save for the Ramones.
She was right—it was tolerable—but I still asked her to turn it off. It sounded too much like that upbeat, careless music people in movies got into car crashes to. It stressed me out; the pop hooks and East-Bay-Johnny-Rotten vocals were the calm before the storm.
While I now like every single band mentioned above, at the time, the only music I knew was what my gym teacher played while we ran laps. Still, despite my lack of knowledge, Green Day managed to get their point across.
Like many young punks, this was the album that brought me into the genre. It was my go-to throughout my very early teens. From the very beginning of "Burnout" ("I declare I don't care no more/I'm burning up and out and growing bored") there was something instantly compelling about this album. Despite the discussions of panic attacks, poverty, anger, and the like, this was the lighter side of alternative rock, and I realized that before I even knew what "alternative rock" meant.
It talked about anxiety and queer identity. It talked about anger and disillusionment with the world around you. It was lazy and pissed off and suburban and relentlessly catchy. It even had some cool drum fills just for the heck of it.
While simple and not carrying the same emotional weight as other 90s albums (for example, Live Through This, The Downward Spiral, and Dummy all came out within just the same year) Dookie has a singularity to it. No other band has been able to replicate it, try as they might. And man, they really have tried.
What Green Day is excellent at is the sheer breadth of emotion their songs cover. Any Green Day song worth its salt will fit into just about any circumstance, whether it be a road trip sing-along or a long day at school. Dookie does this better than any other Green Day album. While it may not have the stylistic diversity as Nimrod, or the high concept of American Idiot, there is a distilled, human essence in this album. The boredom. The frustration. The biting-at-your-nails anxiety. It's all relentlessly and beautifully casual.
Green Day isn't a go-to band for me anymore, but they will always hold a special place in my heart. And I've gotten over my fear of playing them in the car, and now I blast this album through the speakers, alongside some Dead Kennedys, MxPx, Hole, Minor Threat, Descendants, Sex Pistols...
Listened to before? No
Context? The band’s eleventh album, and the beginning of their huge commercial success, added more funk to their sound.
*Reviewed in a song-by-song format*
I was skeptical at first, because the first thirty seconds was obnoxious, but they had me at the chorus of That Lady. It’s not a particularly original song, but god it’s good. What makes it even better is the jam that ends it—a dance of ridiculously fun funk guitar and dance synth.
The vibe is immediately changed with Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight, which features wonderfully raw vocals and a beautiful smattering of instrumentals, including a soulful and twinkling piano, soft drums, and a bluesy guitar.
If You Were There immediately offers itself as a middle ground between the previous two songs. It’s fun—there’s plenty of funky guitar, and it’s relatively uptempo—but there’s a reflective tone from the very start that the lyrics only reinforce.
The lyrics aren’t anything special, but they’re sung with conviction and passion. His voice is clean and he’s obviously a technically proficient singer, but he knows how to let his voice expertly crack on the emotional notes.
I will say, at this point I am a bit tired of fade-outs.
You Walk Your Way is a perfect follow up, thematically and sonically. It’s a song that would be perfect for a movie—it’s a song that makes me feel like I’m in a movie. The near-call-and-response vocal with the slightly-upbeat instrumentals are total perfection.
Listen to the Music is the most danceable song since the opener, and it has these shuffled layers to it that just make you want to move around—incredibly fitting for what it’s about. Perfection, just like the last one.
What It Comes Down To has some awesome synth and an impressive vocal performance. Once more, I love all the different textures. The guitar solo is also awesome.
Sunshine is immediately different than the other songs, with a super sinister introduction, an immediate tenseness. The vocals and lyrics are the best of the album thus far. It has an amazing political edge to it and is probably my favorite on the record.
The softer songs immediately return with Summer Breeze, which has some disgustingly fantastic guitar. Just absolutely transcendent. A fabulous centerpiece. And god, the mid-song return to the repetitive synth sound that was at the beginning…so perfectly done. Maybe I’m just really tired but this song is making me teary with how good it is.
Right of the bat, Highways makes sense as a closing track. It has a pretty piano intro, and once the vocals start, they’re softer than they’ve been for a while. It almost put me to sleep, but in a good way.
