semi-real time notes:
-soundgarden is one of those bands that i'm always thinking i should give a proper listen, i like other grunge bands, i have massive admiration for chris cornell as a person, and i like a few songs by them, but i've got it in my head that they're a bit too "hard" for my taste which makes me put off listening to their albums. so this was a good way to finally get me to give them a good listen lol should be fun!
-loved "let me drown" as album opener. gorgeous
-i like "mailman" ...
-guitar :-)
-gonna preface this by saying that i am as far as can be from having a trained ear for music. but to me soundgarden is one of those bands where most of their songs sound very similar. not in a negative way tho! i think it makes listening to their albums a really unified and absorbing experience. but it makes it harder for me to pick out specific songs that i like. obv the indisputable hit is "black hole sun" but i think listening to it as a song alone is by farrrr inferior to hearing it in the middle of this album.
-"spoonman" unequivocal banger. i love a quirky intro and a catchy riff. what is he even singing about.
-i like "limo wreck" it reminds me of something but i can't think of what.
-"4th of july" when the drums come in. yeah. i love when songs escalate slowly. and i love when songs feel like they're walking in circles. "down in the hole / jesus tries to crack a smile / beneath another shovel load" nice.
+ ADDED NOTES after reading some (2 stars and lower) reviews. really disheartening that so many people seem to view soundgarden as a macho straight guy band. obviously i disagree with that, but i get why people have those connotations. there's no going back from grunge being co-opted by the mainstream, but it makes me sad that so many people in my generation will only have that bastardised image of them. stream "in bloom" i guess.
18/04/2026
-sighed out loud when i saw this on my screen. i have a bone deep dislike of radiohead on a personal level. i like their songs, i just don't like them. no real good reason for this. probably a mix of hopeless contrarianism on my part + after having holes drilled into my brain about how clever and musically talented they are i feel like i am just not musically knowledgeable enough to fully appreciate their music, which makes the prospect of listening to them feel like a bit of a dead end. i also think thom yorke seems annoying asf. deep breath. at the end of the day it's just noise and i am going to listen to it with an open mind.
-deep sigh.
-credit where credit's due they always have great basslines.
-i like "the national anthem".
-"how to disappear completely" is undeniably beautiful but my enjoyment of any radiohead song is severely hampered by the fact that i don't like thom yorke's voice. sorry for letting my vendetta against him take over. it is what it is.
-i REALLY like "optimistic". hadn't heard it before.
-"in limbo" took me so off guard woah... beautiful.
-"idioteque" is crazy good. of course.
-left with the feeling that i don't get it but i liked it a lot anyway :-) can't fully emotionally connect with it, which frustrates me bc it feels like the type of music i SHOULD connect with emotionally. that is probably the reason why i'll never be a diehard radiohead fan. happy for youse though.
-came out the year my mum was born :-)
-not really my thing! it's sex-saturated in a way that i don't love. also can't get over the sense that it's too poppy for my taste, which is not something i would usually complain about.
-having a song midway thru your album called "keep gettin' it on" is kinda funny. man knew he had one unkillable single and made an album for shits n giggles.
-favourite track is "distant lover" i like how dreamy it is. but probably not anything i'll put on much.
-not my favourite smiths album, still good :-)
-some favourites are "the headmaster ritual", "i want the one i can't have", "what she said", "that joke isn't funny anymore", and "barbarism begins at home".
-"well i wonder" is a smiths song i don't put on very often but my god is it good. ending with the rain coming in is so beautiful i felt like crying. i'm very taken with how many songs morrissey has written that are versions of "please don't forget me" :(
-ehh not my cup of tea
-aggressively nothing. felt a lot longer than 45 mins.
-the songs are nice.. i could feel my attention wandering away from it at times. not sure if it was because of me or the album. i love cohen's lyrics, and i like his minimalist approach to music, but sometimes it doesn't quite land for me.
-i think "sultans of swing" is insanely overrated that's all i'll say about it. and this album feels like it's going to be very sultans of swingy.
-i kinda dig "setting me up"
-ah i'm warming up to them. "six blade knife" also good.
-"southbound again" also good. fun lil tune.
-"in the gallery" has a nice groove to it.
-"lions" is a 5 minute song that feels like it goes on for 20 minutes.
-all in all this exceeded expectations. i stand by what i said about "sultans of swing" tho. and i would add that it's ridiculous that it's a near 6 minute long song. i like this album a lot more than "brothers in arms" (which is another dire straits album with an insufferable overplayed single).
metalheads are a mystery to me. i kinda liked “eye of the beholder”. nothing i’ll put on much.
moderately fun on occasion but not much more
-suffers from the "incredible but so mindnumbingly overplayed that it's kind of impossible to judge it fairly" disease which i guess is an accomplishment in and of itself.
-if i was george harrison in 1969 and john and paul told me we had to have "maxwell's silver hammer" on the album, i would've ended up on the news.
-some of these songs are really truly brilliant and some of them are like well i'm glad you enjoyed your trip lads.
-i love "i want you (she's so heavy)" so much. i used to listen to it over and over when i was in fact wanting someone so baaad it was driving me maaad.
-i've never cared for "here comes the sun" but it is lovely to hear it directly after the abrupt ending of "she's so heavy". one of those songs that have to be heard in the middle of an album, on its own it just doesn't hit.
-i kind of checked out for a while. seems like they're having fun tho.
-"polythene pam" kind of a banger tbh.
-i like "carry that weight". hmm.
have 2 admit i haven't seen the movie. my favourite song is "freddie's dead" but i honestly prefer the fishbone cover bc i am a #childofmytime. got to "superfly" and bolted upright like WAIT. beastie boys sampled this. didn't know that!
they should've fixed their marriage instead
feels like getting submerged in the music, and then pulled up. not to get pretentious but it's so good. meandering in a lovely way.
i went into this secure in my age old belief that it's impossible to enjoy bruce springsteen whole heartedly unless you are american, but also expecting to hear some good tunes. my expectations were met.
beautiful r's. my grandma loves this shit.
i think the metal umlaut is goofy as hell tbh. most mainstream commercial rock from this period sounds very formulaic to me, and it's not a bad sound, but it gets a bit boring after a while.
-mwah. one of the greatest
-even before listening, just looking at the tracklist, fills me with so much emotion.
-"the queen is dead" is an immortal opening track, gets overshadowed by the other tunes on this album, but man is it good. "i was shocked and shamed to discover that i'm the 18th pale descendant of some old queen or another" + "love and law and poverty / these are the things that kill me". brilliant to kick open the door to the album with an overtly political song (the queen is dead, boys!) and still end the song on the melancholy note of "life is very long when you're lonely" UGH!!! kills me.
-impossible for me to listen to this album without hanging onto every word morrissey sings.
-"frankly mr shankly" is such a fun song. beautiful lyricism. "i want to catch something that i might be ashamed of" it's life affirming! ending on a "uhh give us money!" he's funny!
-"i know it's over" what is there to say even. one of the most beautiful songs ever written. at times painfully soft and gentle, at times feels like getting punched in the gut, at times an unforgiving look in the mirror, at times feels like someone indulging his cruel impulses. but then we get to "it's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate / it takes guts to be gentle and kind / over and over and over" ohhh i know i'm gonna be repeating myself dumbly a lot here but it's so beautiful and so tender hearted.
-"never had no one ever" just one thing after the other innit. "when you walk without ease / on these streets where you were raised / i had a really bad dream / it lasted twenty years, seven months, and twenty seven days". morrissey's vocals are incredible on this one. the instrumental part at the end feels like being shot off into the stratosphere. always feeling the tweet that's like morrissey? i hate that guy! can't stand him! can't give him more than 80 all time classics!
-albums that make u say man i love music! i love music more than anything else on the planet! i'm glad i'm not overreacting!
-"cemetry gates" is a popular smiths song that i don't even like that much but the relief after being stabbed repeatedly by "i know it's over" + "never had no one ever" is very needed. also another funny song by known plagiarist morrissey. for a long time i thought he sang "weird lover wilde" which i thought was cool and cute but of course because this is steven morrissey he was in fact fatshaming oscar wilde.
-"bigmouth strikes again" WHAT is there to say even. i didn't intend to go through this track by track but you know. this one just makes u wanna get up and dance, doesn't it. people love saying morrissey didn't know how joan of arc felt but i strongly disagree, i think if ANYONE alive knows how joan of arc felt it would actually be him. i'm half joking but not really. johnny marr's playing on this is some of the best.
-i think i remember liam gallagher saying "the boy with the thorn in his side" is his favourite smiths song... very loveable imo.
-can't talk about "there is a light that never goes out" because words feel insufficient. just know that it's one of my favourite songs ever written, one of the saddest, one of the most beautiful, one of the gentlest.
-i love "some girls are bigger than others" a lot. the music fading in and out at the beginning ... the guitar (one of the best smiths riffs imo, and that's saying something) ... the lyrics get memed a lot but i think it's perfect to end this album on a somewhat lighthearted song.
playful and meditative! fun to listen to. pace is very fluent. stream "zopf: from the colonies" absolute tune...
very 80s. "show some respect" bangs. i was excited to hear her cover of "help!" but cmonnn the point of that song is that the lyrics contrast with the upbeat feeling of the music. you can't just make it sad. overall not my cup of tea.
really cool. listened to it tired & hungry at the airport which was probably not ideal. still liked it!
first factory records album i've gotten :-) i like "love less", it feels kind of cure-y to me, maybe it's just the 80s sound. i liked the bass in "run". in the spirit of transparency i will admit i was jobhunting towards the second half of the album and probably did not give it my undivided attention. favourites were "fine time" and "dream attack", lots of fun!
-"cornbread moon" BANGS.
-skimmed ely's wikipedia page and i'm so giddy about his having worked with the clash. really fun and unexpected. he sang backing vocals on "should i stay or should i go". small world, lol.
-"boxcars" WOW! crazy good.
-fuckass barefoot toes on the cover. i dig it.
-i can't get with the "twangy" country sound of a song like "jericho". it just doesn't work for me.
-i like "fingernails"! fun tune.
i like these songs so much i'm gonna have to clicker train myself into liking gordon gano's godawful singing voice.
i love how when something is from california it's always so, incredibly, *from california*. lmfao. fun and theatrical. had a few high points but dragged towards the end.
really good. “soubour” is a gorgeous album opener. first half is the strongest, tho i liked “jolie” towards the end.
not really having it. beautiful album cover. i liked “you haven’t done nothin”.
very 90s
whatever man. already having a mid day and they give me an aerosmith album.
the kind of soft country pop that makes me think i’m not american enough to enjoy this. listened to while doing the dishes + reading east of eden, which was not terrible tbh!
tunes! “a hard day’s night” is my favourite, makes me happy everytime i listen to it. softer songs like “if i fell” and “things we said today” are also very nice.
good tunes man
Kind of fun but exactly what you’d expect. Drags on a bit.
fun, buy nothing that stuck.
ok!
it was ass
liked it!
fun! i love live albums.
enjoying this a lot more than the last time(s) i've listened to it. this is kind of a no brainer to anyone else but i'm starting to realise how much my mood impacts how i react to any given album. i've liked "california" before but this time it really stuck with me, it's so beautiful. "carey" is still my favourite! <3
enjoyed it! i don't listen to a lot of reggae but the more i hear the more convinced it's impossible not to like it at least a little.
hmm kind of up and down for me. a lot of the hits, eg "big poppa", do nothing w me, and i could've done without a few of the interludes of biggie having sex, but i really liked "suicidal thoughts" + "who shot ya", esp in connection w each other. "just playing (dreams)" REALLY nice closing track. all in all probably preferred the back half of the album.
60s pop is MY BEST FRIEND.
-recently relistened to their self-titled but haven't listened to much else by them, excited to hear more!
-"get innocuous!" is great. playful and fun and opens up the album in a really lovely way.
-"north american scum" BANGER.
-just one hit after the other w this album... "someone great" is wonderful + beautiful + the other adjectives.
-i love this album!!!
-Sound Of Silver Talk To Me Makes You Want To Feel Like A Teenager Until You Remember The Feelings Of A Real Life Emotional Teenager Then You Think Again.
-"new york i love you but you're bringing me down" so incredibly INCREDIBLY good. hits like a TRUCK in the BEST WAY.
charming, but probably an album i'll forget about.
it's fine! the only song i really listen to from this is "bad moon rising" but the rest is pleasant enough as well.
i was listening to a podcast today about how people don't want their music sounding too intellectual and i was like huh ok and then i listened to this and felt. well Alright. alright.
i prefer their debut, but this is still a nice album. i liked "girls that don't talk", fun tune!
experimental hiphop is always very hit or miss for me but this was a hit :-) really won me over abt halfway thru. will want to revisit!
three stars for a sick album cover and "dirty boots" God bless
gorgéous album opener but otherwise not super for me
-mayakovsky title makes me kindly inclined towards this album
-"greetings to the new brunette" HI?
-i love when singers sing with their accents :-)
-all in all i liked it!
idgaf
objectively slayed but not for me. listened to while late night studying over a glass of red wine.
liked it! favs are "streets of your town" and "was there anything i could do" :-)
very forgettable tbh. "la grange" is alright though. 1/5