1001 Albums Summary

*Gordon Ramsay's lips smacking* Finally, some good fucking music.

This Scritti has a ditty! --Vibes-- This album has a mix of "bring back boy yearning" and commercial pop thing going on. I can see some of these songs going triple platinum at H&M and JCPenney in the 80s, if those stores were around back then. The mood is bright, and the rhythms are groovy enough that I can see myself catching one of these tracks while browsing a Forever 21 and making a mental note to look up the song and the artist later. However, would I download any of these and keep them on repeat? Probably not. This album's pleasantly easy digestibility is its very own double-edged sword. Nothing sticks. Nothing strikes me as memorable. In fact, I have to go back and give it a second listen to try to discern which song stands out to me. These will probably make good movie tracks. I can see some snippets being played over a high-school-themed movie shopping or back-to-school montage sequence. In fact, I can picture this being a Powerline song in the Goofy movies. --Melodies/Instrumentals-- The instrumental composition is ok and well-combined to build the sort of catchy, clearly structured flow that mainstream pop music thrives on. I dig the synthy disco elements. But again, everything feels very safe and surface-level, which, ironically, mimics the underlying themes of love/lust and the murky waters of learning someone's depths and seeing whether those hidden layers will make or break the relationship. Maybe it is intentional, and I am just being overly critical? Maybe. --Vocals-- Green Gartside's vocals somewhat remind me of a UK version of MJ with their androgynous, light, airy, smooth pop quality. I will give him kudos for being consistent in his performance because staying in that higher head voice part of your register is generally difficult for male vocalists. I do wonder if this choice is made for comfort or style, since Green did not utilize his lower register much on any of the tracks. I would have loved to see him show more diversity in his singing. And emotions! I adore emotive vocalists who make their audience feel things, and Green did not do that for me. --Final Rating-- Overall, I give this album a 3/5. It is a decent compilation of tracks with a cohesive theme of love, yearning, and disillusionment. Musically, nothing is outstanding to me. As I said above, I wouldn't personally download any of these songs, but I wouldn't advise anyone against listening to them either. --Stand-out Tracks-- The Word Girl (surprise reggae??). Perfect Way

Chain Me Up in Rehab! --Vibes-- Keeping it a buck, this album rage-baited me. All of the tracks are so in-your-face with their darkness and primitivity that they wear you down. The way the first song kicked in was energizing, but then the second one also packed their own consistent jabs, and after a while, you are like a sickly Victorian child praying for the waves to stop. I went like liking what I was hearing for the first 15 minutes, then halfway through, I started wanting a trusted adult and a warm blanket. --Melodies/Instrumentals-- I enjoy the fact that each record has its own coherent melody line and progression. Though, as stated above, they are so relentless in their pace and timbre that I was drowning after a while. Some of the chorus lines also were resolved weirdly phrasing-wise, which lowkey edged me and pissed me off. --Vocals-- I could tell that the vocalist is good in his crafts, cause dude had some lungs on him. It requires a lot to consistently sing at the volume and timbre that he did. But some of his dragged out and slurred pronunciations were choices that genuinely baffled me, and I KNOW they were choices because genuinely who say some of these words the way he did. --Final Rating-- 3/5. My early college self would probably rate this closer to a 4, but for better or worse, my mental health got better so I have a lower tolerance for angsty morbid hooting and hollering now. The further I progressed along with my listen, the more I felt like the woman in the album cover. I can objectively see that most of the songs are well-produced with thoughtful lyricism and gut-wrenching vocals, but emotionally it made me feel ill. --Stand-out Tracks-- Rooster, Dirt, Angry Chair