Mostly great, opener track is a little tacky. But there’s some damn jams in this album and the band can play. Who’s on the rhythm section? There great. I do love how Bowie went with a soul-influenced theme, most of the sax could go though…
So much done with so little. As for the music, I like the production ideas often more than the actual execution of them. Sometimes it works, and there’s some very original ideas there, other times it just sounds cheesy or dated. As for the lyrics, woah. It’s hard giving this 3 stars because the poetry is, well it’s often great. But as an all around album it’s an experiment that doesn’t fully work. There are major tracks on here though, stories that one could spend a long time exploring, and my interest in Cohen is massively peaked
One word that’s always come to mind with this band is “underwhelming,” and having finally sat through a whole album… I still largely agree. I respect the distinctness of their sound, I get the appeal, especially in the 90s, and Flea is fun to listen to. There are big hits on this one, Otherwise has always been one I enjoyed, and Porcelain was a cool track to discover.
But otherwise the album mostly alternates between “hit song” and the “funk/rock song”, without either a sense of cohesion or any real journey. The funk stuff is ok but, the players never go that hard, vocal delivery is distinct but boring to me, and the lyrics don’t help. If you’re gonna rap, have something to say. So ultimately in the end these “fun” tracks just have a hollowness to them. I’ll stick with catching a song of theirs on the radio once in a while, albums do not seem to be their forte
It bothers me that this one is on this list, and it's not even Stan's fault. Getz has helped introduce American jazz to samba, it's exciting and fresh here, and his playing is just wonderful. And yet the whole album is just him trading solos with... Charlie Byrd?
I began my Getz journey with Jazz Samba Encore, the follow up to this album, with Luiz Bonfa on guitar instead of Byrd. Bonfa is just SO much better. Plus Maria Toledo on vocals. Encore is one of my fav jazz albums of all time. But this album is just literally Getz and Byrd trading solos, and Byrd is just out of his league in this genre. Most of the time he resorts to some bluesy playing (I cringe), or chordal runs (sometimes those work) - not only do I prefer Bonfa's deft touch and sense of melody, but his guitar tone is also wayyyy better than Byrd's.
Anyway, over the years I haven't let this bother me, because I just rarely listened to this album and listened to Encore instead. But what pains me most is that this album has remained for over 60 years MORE popular than Encore, all the way up to this 1001 album list. Yes, I relistened to it, and yes I'm still disappointed.
Damn it’s just so much better when you consider the context of 1970. Zeppelin was probably the heaviest at this point, and suddenly you have metal music about satan.
It even holds up listening today, as someone who listens to a good deal of death metal I found it actually refreshing to have lyrics that aren’t over the top. Less is often more, and in this case everything is shadowy enough to have an even more haunting effect. Also in the decades where we’re so used to bands using lyrics that blatantly advocate for violence, I notice here that sometimes yes Ozzy is portraying Lucifer, but other times he is terrorized by Lucifer. As a Christian, I think the effect is much more substantial, Ozzy is speaking to the desire and charisma of evil, and it turns out that’s very, very terrifying. Shoutout NIB.
Not five stars just because I’m not too impressed with Ward and Iommi here, I’ll probably be crucified for this… band is a bit sloppy at times, and it is cool and refreshing to my modern ears to hear a real live band playing, but it just feels like they haven’t yet really come into their own musically
Swap the sax for a synth and this album is a banger.
But really it’s a fun summer vibe. Good playing, tasty arrangements and production, and just enough interesting songwriting to make a solid pop album. Shoutout guitarist for the heavy rhythm work, good driving bassist too. Fun percussion. I really just got tired of the sax solos and feel like it kinda sapped up the whole thing, some more edge or grit would have been cool. But these are polished pelicans after all.
This album just bothered me, and I even went in with an open mind.
I grew up with 3rd wave ska/punk and still have a soft spot for the genre. The Specials were the OGs, we all knew them. But, I guess all their good tracks are from the first album. And when it comes to albums in this genre, it's really hard to make one that works. Do you just do every single song as an upstroke ridden ska song, or change it up? Seemed they opted for the later, and it just didn't work.
So yeah, there are interesting or fun moments in this album, some cool instrumentation and production which can give a fun effect. But then there are just lots of weak vocals, the awful dissonant riff in Do Nothing, and really underwhelming songwriting. The vibe did not carry it all the way forward. As a full album, really not sure how it made this list.
Sounds like the blues. Harmonica rips.
I just love this production, it's so lively yet so dark. This album is just another world in itself, where everything is slightly out of focus. As if you spun in a full 360 circle, but then didn't come quite rightside up again, hanging at a tilt. Lots of fresh ideas in the production and it all backs Method Man's delivery so well.
Im sure it was important when it came out, but to me this is a great example of why not all art needs to survive. Just let this rudimentary work die and blossom into all the electro stuff that came afterwards.
It’s like why I don’t listen to the Big Booper when I can listen to Zeppelin.
For me what makes a great album is the re-listen ability. This 2 hour collection of tracks is just not it. And hell I like both the music and the story behind this album. It’s a great idea to do a tribute to genre and artists through this kind of collaboration. But the only way I’m listening to 2 hour country album is if it’s like a concept album or something else driving things forward.
This album has two vibes
“It’s all good”
“Well, it’s still all pretty good”
It’s actually amazing to me that so much harmonic complexity can still sound so mono-sanitized. It’s like she inherited some of the worst aspects of Bacharach writing style.
The bassist is great, the full band soulish jams are when this album is at its best. But overall this has the same veneer that bugs me about most American musicals. That’s the only comparison I can think of, albeit less obnoxious. But worst here is there’s no story to at least drive this album forward, just a tapestry of mostly “feel good” songs. If it was accompanied by some more harmonic tension or good storytelling, I could get behind it. But it just feels so damn flat, safe, and like a world that I just really want no part of
Being with this whole album just bothered me and lacked dynamics.
It’s not just because I can’t hang with the noise, though I understand that’s all some people will really hear in this album. But I did enjoy some of the punk stuff like Eliminator Jr and Rain King.
But overall, just because it’s weird doesn’t mean it’s good. And quite a bit of it is just boring weird, which is not my kind of weird. And just because an approach to an album is influential in its time (noise) doesn’t mean it holds up. It’s often an unenjoyable listen.
It’s interesting when I put on my cultural history hat, fun to imagine how disruptive and fresh it was once, how this impacted the 90s, etc., but that’s about it. Can we just be honest about that? Do we have to revere all music just because it was historically important?
Some music is just better for performance than albums. I’m sure this would have been really cool to see live in 88. As a front to back album though, will not be relistening
Disclaimer, I’ve only listened to the Stooges before. Iggy seems to have grown into his Jim Morrison voice and taken some notes from Bowie as well.
This was fun, loved the synth.
This came out when I was 8 and never listened to it. It’s so fun to discover albums like this for the first time.
It’s just great. Really enjoy the full on exploration of the themes of romantic love and faith. The songwriting and arrangements are impressive, the production on point. I just love a good concept album. The classroom skits were one of the rare times I enjoy the use of skits. I mean really, put me in that classroom!
4 stars only because it’s long and a couple tracks could be scrapped (starting with that Frankie Valle cover….)
