The guitar work, the production, the *music* is tremendous. Influenced so many. Oasis before Oasis.
The lyrics don't do anything for me.
The instrumental at the end of I Am The Resurrection is four amazing minutes.
It's two separate albums. Speakerboxxx is great. The Love Below has a couple of singles and a bunch of crap.
This album was a 'vibe'. Loved it. The lyrics...I don't speak the language, but they worked as an instrument in themselves.
This is not my thing. It's got Sabotage, and it's not actively annoying in the middle, so it gets a 2.
Dancing Queen! This is gonna be great!
<First song plays>
Okay, maybe not great, but Dancing Queen!
<Next couple songs play>
Okay, it's, you know...got Dancing Queen!
<More songs, including 'Why Did It Have To Be Me', a 'Ringo' song led by the guys>
Okay, well...Fernando's coming up, that's good. And Dancing Queen!
<Album finishes>
Okay...well, at least it has Dancing Queen. 3.
One of the seminal albums of the 90s. The difference between this and Stone Roses from last week is probably entirely a function of when I grew up and the way this sound shaped the background of my life.
If you ask Amazon to play this album, it plays some remastered and mashed up version that includes all of these B-Sides and Extra Tracks. I'm excited to listen to those, but I'm only rating this album in its original form, and it is a 5 with a bullet.
'Don't Look Back In Anger' is in my personal top 20 songs of all time. Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, they're still everywhere. And what elevates this album for me is that all of the rest of the songs have the hooks, the guitar play, the *rock* that fits perfectly together.
I wasn't cool enough to actually own this album in the 90s. Wish I had been. Came to the party late, but at least I showed.
First thought: I have no idea what is going on. Maybe you had to be there?
The music is fine...love the groove, love the tone set in songs like 'The Vibes Ain't Nothin' But The Vibes'.
And then the 'singing' sets in, and the sound effects, and it's just...this doesn't work.
Sounds like an album specifically made because we had this new technology called 'CDs' and specifically made for pretentious bastards who just got new 'sound systems' for their 'entertainment centers'. It's a 1.
Fantastic album. Other than Mick's falsetto on 'Dear Doctor', that I don't need. But I would have absolutely been playing this thing on repeat in 1968...or 1978...or 1998...or 2018.
When I was a kid I somehow decided you had to pick, Beatles or Stones, and that was that. And I picked Beatles. But I'm older now, and I don't have to pick, I can like whatever I want, and I. Like. This. It's a 5.
This is the best reason to do this 1,001 albums project. I'd never heard any of this before, and spent the entire hour's run-time asking myself: Do I like this?
The answer is...not yes. It's not an album, a style, for me. But the answer isn't 'no' either. I think there's just a little too much random-ness in the samples for me to really get into it, specifically the 'soundbites' (as opposed to the music).
But damn, do I appreciate the dedication, focus, talent it took to blend all of this together and create something entirely new.
So it's a 3...but one I smile on, not one I set aside.
I can respect that this album inspired a bunch of bands. It does nothing for me. Turns out I like Dream Pop - but hate Shoegaze. And when this tips over the line, yuck.
I want to hear it without Elizabeth Fraser making syllabic sounds into a mic, but I'll never get that chance. It's a 2.
Absolute first thought: YES. But I'm the kind of guy who listens to 40's Junction on SiriusXM and full background music loops from theme parks.
And my final thought: I need to listen to more jazz/big band music.
Loved every second of it - each individual track told a story, the instrumentation was spot on...it's a 5.
It's short, it's fine, there's certainly some toe-tappin' goin' on. I gather that this is generally considered to be fantastic, and I wouldn't mind it in the background of a restaurant, I guess, but I won't be playing it again. 3.
I didn't hate it. It was exactly what I expected, except for the absolute saturation of vibraphone. So Much Vibraphone. Now, I like the vibraphone, and it works here, but man, it's all over this record.
Still. I could be talked into a 4, but I'm giving it a 3.
Grindy. I mean, at times it just sounds like machines grinding. Now, later in the album, you get a hint or two of the work Reznor would do much later in life - the scoring, the soundtracks, the instrumentals, and those glimpses are beautiful. But you know, otherwise...okay.
You ever get the feeling some of these bands could have been HUGE huge with a better mixer in the studio?
This album is simple, it's deceptive, it's got a lot going for it, and the style at the time of putting the guitars heavy forward just holds it back. What happens is you have three different modes:
- A good polished album (sometimes)
- Feedback/cacophany (often)
- A bar band that fades into the background (occasionally)
There were times I loved it. There were times I just wanted it to end. I wish I could give a 3.5, but since I have to lean one way or another....4.
Just a tremendous album. It sounds like a concept album and, looking it up, turns out that was the original plan. I like Randy Newman, but Amazon's algorithms are weird and when I went looking for more of his stuff a few years ago I only found the 'Randy Newman Songbook', which is re-recordings, just him (older) and a piano. Those are okay, but this original is fabulous. 5.
Music: Excellent.
Lyrics: Confusing and English.
Singing: Whiny. So whiny. So very mopey and whiny.
I think I just don't like Morrissey. 3.
I mean, this is on the short list of best albums *ever*, right? Sir Duke, I Wish, Isn't She Lovely, As. It's got soul and funk and gospel and lyrics and instrumentals and rich layering and...
Easiest 5 yet.
What a fun hang. I can't see myself going back to this often but as background music it's up there with the best around.
I swear this isn't a knock - most of this album sounds like modern shopping mall BGM.
But that's right in my wheelhouse. I'd totally play this while hanging out on the porch, for example. I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would, especially when I found out this album *didn't* have the only EbtG song I could name off the top of my head.
A solid 4.
I mean, it's fine. I liked 'Finest Worksong', the opener, and of course 'The One I Love' and 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It'.
But the rest of it just kind of blends together. 3.
No.
All the songs sound the same. I didn't mind 'True Love Travels on a Gravel Road'. 'In the Ghetto'...sigh.
The album I got before this was late-stage Elvis, and one of the issues I had with it was that all the songs sounded the same.
Well, with the obvious and notable exception of Respect, most of these songs sound the same. And yet it's completely different. It's clear, it's dynamic, it's explosive, it buries into your soul and lifts you up, it's tremendous.
Dinoland U.S.A. was never really 'beloved' at Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Didn't seem to fit in a Disney theme park - it was more like something you'd find at a regional park, or even a traveling carnival. It didn't matter how many times the Imagineers said 'Do you realize how much time and work and money it took to make it look like this?' Park guests saw it for what it was supposed to represent - a cheap roadside attraction - and expected more, and better, for their own dollars and time.
Anyway. This album is the Dinoland U.S.A. of the 1001 albums, and I am a park guest who sees what G. Love and the boys were doing and wants more out of his time.
I enjoyed parts of this album immensely, but every time any sort of 'vocalization' came around - ANY type - I was immediately turned off. And by the end I was just ready for something else.
Though, the 'bonus track', Happy Cycling, might have been my favorite of the bunch.
I want to give it a 4; I just can't.
I missed the Killers on their rise, really, other than the hits. Don't understand why, I was the right demographic - maybe just in the wrong part of the country/world.
This was good! Don't know that I'll go back to it, but good!
When I saw a Supertramp album, I figured it would be the one I 'knew'. This one was pretty good though - shame it, by itself, didn't lead to better success in the US. But they got there eventually!
There's some weird stuff at the back of this, but that's typical of late-60s Britain - even (especially) the Beatles had some garbage in the back catalog.
But I thoroughly enjoyed the start of the album...it never threw me too 'off'...totally get why it and Pink Floyd broke through.
This was...I dunno, pleasant? Fine? It's discount Matchbox Twenty with a little country thrown in and an attempt or two at Springsteen.
I like the mix, that I'll say. But otherwise...look, if this belongs on the list, then so does More Than You Think You Are, and I don't think I'll run into that one.
