I finished my first listen at around 12:10PM. I had 3 listens after that. I’m not a blues listener usually, but this album was very good for what it is and B.B. King himself is very charming and the dialogue he weaves between the songs is sweet.
7:16 AM I’m working my way through the first listen. Immediate standout tracks: Frankly, Mr.Shanty/ Cemetery Gates/ Bigmouth Strikes Again.
7:30AM finished first listen, I need to revisit the lyrics and maybe watch a video about the album.
I ended up listening to the album 5 times at least. It’s a predecessor and an influence to a lot of my favorite artists. I found out that the lyric “it takes strength to be gentle and kind” from the song “I Know It’s Over” inspired a lyric on Olivia Rodrigo’s song “the grudge”.
It is interesting given how cure-centric her new album is.
I feel that I need to sit with this album more and I will definitely be revisiting it. Overall, I like how concise and sharp it is.
Only listened to it once. Songs bleed into each other, but nice background music.
5:32 PM: I’m nearing the end of the first listen, and thus far, this is my favorite album from the assortment of albums I listened to via this generator. My instant favorites: "She Belongs to Me", "Maggie’s Farm", "Mr.Tambourine Man", "Gates of Eden". I audibly went “wow!” at It’s Alright at Ma (I’m only bleeding).
I ended up listening to the album maybe 5 times and stopped listening to watch videos contextualizing the album. I really enjoyed memoryfield's video "The Vinyl Review Episode 5: Bringing It All Back Home".
Dylan's beat generation influences, the political moment at the time of his debut, and this album's importance for the creation of albums as full statements instead of a few notable songs with a bunch of filler are all clearly felt. The opening track includes all of these things. I also love how he says "thinking 'bout the government" in the first verse of that track, just the sound of it.
I've been meaning to get into Dylan's music for years now and this was the perfect gateway. I also now want to read some beat generation literature and Arthur Rimbaud poetry.
Loved the album!
It’s Adele! an Unmatched voice. It was pleasant to hear throughout. I love the bookends and “Set Fire To The Rain”, but the rest of the songs I could give or take
So when I was first suggested this album, Layla was the word of intrigue, and Derek was the word of repulsion. The cover art was mesmerizing on first glance, so I was more allured than nervous. On the first listen, the soundscape submerged me in a different ambiance that I kept following like a thread leading somewhere. I did not pay attention to any word uttered until "Have You Ever Loved A Woman?", then I thought: wait, there are lyrics? I was only hearing beautiful noises.
I continued listening and stomping around Harlem. Grinning mindlessly at the sounds I like, but don't seem to understand. It hit me. Bell Bottom Blues is one of those songs that my heart knew before I ever listened to it. The lyrics started unraveling to my semi-attuned ears.
I looked up the band members. The most famous one is this Eric Clapton guy. He is also the lead on vocals with background vocals by Bobby Whitlock. I was telling myself while listening: This Eric guy- from the lyrics I was able to retain- sounds more mature and less of a contrarian than the other young songwriters behind the great albums I was listening to throughout last week. He must have been in his mid-to-late thirties when he wrote this. Also, he has an old man's voice. I guess that's the name of the deal with guitarists as opposed to songwriters.
Boy, was I wrong about everything. I should've known - no pun intended- that he was going to be a specific kind of character. Just out of my familiarity with the shenanigans - to put it lightly- of the other great guitarist, John Mayer, through being a fan of Taylor Swift growing up. While wrapping up my day and eating dinner last night, I watched a video about the album by a lovely creator named Abigail Devoe. She named it "Layla, The Album That Changed My Life｜Vinyl Monday: The Big One". By the looks of it, this album will change my life too.
Thank you to the album generator for the recommendation, and thank you, Abigail, for the much-needed context.
I loved it. Went and watched their 2020 documentary immediately. I love their energy, and I have been looking for this exact kind of feminine new-wave sound since I listened to the new Olivia Rodrigo album. This fits my current mood perfectly.
I'm wrapping up "Highlands" on my second listen of the album as I'm writing this. I really needed the second listen, especially because I paused my mid-day first listen two tracks short of finishing the album; doing so out of unrelated frustration I was facing from trying to get tickets to this newly announced all-female festival happening two months from now.
I did not play the album at any of my various errands and commutes today. Mainly because I was stressed about the tickets, and by extension, the album itself became associated with that stress. I was about to rate it before I finished the last two tracks, but the generator had not provided me with a new album yet, so I decided to give it a fair shot and finish it.
I was worried when I saw that "Highlands" was more than 16 minutes long, but then I looked it up, and it had its own Wikipedia page. That was a good sign to me because it signaled that it wasn't just a "jam session" slapped on the album without a purpose. It was even more comforting to know that Dylan's longest song, Murder Most Foul, which is longer than this one by 20 or so seconds, is deemed one of the best songs of its year by a lot of publications' year-end lists; That year being freaking 2020!
It turns out the song was so worth the experience; I had to re-listen to the entire album. Bob Dylan, the man that you are. It did help that I had Genius.com to read the lyrics while the songs were playing and familiarize myself with the references.
Between this and "Bringing It All Back Home", the latter is a more immediate listen for me. Both albums require context. I would imagine this is the case for anything Dylan touches. My takeaway from the albums I heard from him thus far is that I need to become a Dylan-head. Not for my previous reasons for wanting to get into him at some point to "round out my music taste", but because the music quenches a thirst I didn't know I had.
This is one of those “projects” that I feel like the critics are hyping up to sound well-rounded and forward-thinking. I genuinely don’t believe any of them would turn it on to listen to as a project the way you would an album. This is party music that hits when on one’s on substances, but it is not an album that you could enjoy in a different context. Can you shower to this? study to this? fold laundry to this? drive by a beach to this? Absolutely not!
I was walking around NYC listening to this, which should make any half-decent album sound cinematic. This album was lowering the quality of the walk, silence was better.
The more listenable parts of the album are only good in comparison to the looped farts in tracks like “In Heaven”.
Will not be returning to this one.
It’s a great listen. Fast car is the only song I knew before listening to the album. I yearn for it after its turn on the album. Tracy is such a great vocalist.
Perfect pop album
It’s a much better listen than the other techno record I listened to this week by Fatboy Slim. Solid Background Music
It was a very smooth listen. I only played it once tho. I've been having a tough day, and I wasn't in the headspace for repetition.
I don't care about the lack of YouTube reviews for this album, nor do I care about the men writing it off as a sloppy pop record. It really made my day, which wasn't off to a great start. Crow is an understatedly versatile writer. When I found out that she taught music for a few years before embarking on her recording career, it clicked why her music feels multi-pocketed and concise at the same time.
This was really up my alley, especially after becoming obsessed with The Go-Go's debut record. I even listened to a Dixie Chicks record today to continue the discovery momentum of female-led music that I've been experiencing lately.
Love it!
The first crossover artist ever. The first artist to have a fuzz distortion on his record. The first person to ever win a Grammy for country music. This album proves how all of that could be done by one man.
I watched "The Life And Times Of Marty Robbins" on YouTube, and it made me grow even more fascinated with him. From the NASCAR/ Grand Ole Opry double duty on weekedends, to the insomniac songwriting and late-night performances for the farm animals. This man is THE Cowboy.
I love crossover country by women, but I didn't expect to enjoy a male country singer's album this much. His voice sounds timeless, and his songwriting feels evergreen. I like how his songwriting recounts the highs of the cowboy lifestyle, and naturally ends on its shortcomings in a fatalistic way.
Great Album!
It was enjoyable. I didn’t spend enough time to decode it or understand what are the references and lineage of this album. I think with more context, I would give it a much more detailed and enthusiastic review. Sounds really interesting tho from my two listens
Very interesting. Never listened to Mail music before. I dig this.
