A monolith of an album that pretentious dweebs such as I would be quick to belittle so they can go back to glazing 'Dookie.' That desire is a fallacy however, this album is pretty cool. Chronologically this album finds its self in an transition for the genre of rock. The Strokes and other cool guy* rock bands were actively embarrassing the pop punks of yester year. All the while bands like MCR were turning pop punk into emo. In a way, this album feels like the last hurray for a genre that would fade away from the mainstream. But I mean fuck, its a good celebration.
The most iconic songs off this album are well remembered for a reason. Not many can invoke bratty swagger like Billie Joe Armstrong, and the drumming on the album is always energetic and tight. They're simultaneously hooky, danceable, and triumphant. Those adjectives do carry over into most of the songs of the album, HOWEVER, it does make it a tad stale at times. "American Idiot" and "Holiday" pulls this sound off the best and the most interesting music is afterwards, found in the departures from this sound.
"Jesus of Suburbia" and "Wake Me up When September Comes' being my favorite off the album. The former brings me great joy as pop punk rock opera is a silly statement and I enjoy reveling in that sound. The constant change in song structure and focus on story telling being the highlights. The latter is perhaps the dead dad song of all time, its not very deep, but truthfully that feels like one of it's strengths. It can be exhausting trying to make your grief feel flowery and vast in it's meaning, the comfort of sleep during such times is certifiably 'real as fuck.'
The detractors of this album are a tonally samey mid-section and guitar sound that is a lil boring on this pair of ears despite suiting the music well, please play anything but a power chord, I dare you.
its gonna be a 3.5/5
*cool guy rock bands also include bands like yeah yeah yeahs and metric, its a gender inclussive term, promise :)
The layering of folksy indie sounds both muddle and amplify the background of most songs, granting a dark ambient tone to the album that is hard not to visualize in tandem with the album cover. The instruments and vocals feel as if they're coming from vast unseen places, too far to truly focus on a single part of the sound without getting washed back into the totality of it. In it's most climactic moments the album uses this to build really impressive tension. On their subtler songs they use the sound to make a moody trance that lulls you into relaxation. Across this entire scale they prove how intentional each decision made in the production of this album was.
As a listener, I have been cursed with the inability to give much of a fuck about lyrics, SO, an album like this that holds so much emotive force in it's sound is deeply appealing.
But ya, this album fuckn rocks...4/5
Fav Songs: The Well and The Lighthouse, (Antichrist Television Blues), No Cars Go
Least Fav Songs: Windowsill
It is fucking absurd how much generational talent was on the Motown label, this is the first album of theirs to show up on this list so far, BUT I'm expecting to listen to a double digit quantity of them. okay, that aside, GOD I WISH MEN WOULD HARMONIZE WITH EACH OTHER AGAIN. Bring back belting beautifully with your boys. But seriously, their voices make me feel joy again, im soaring, the day is suddenly idyllic. I should be peddling on my bike alongside me new dad Dennis Edwards without a worry in my heart. OKAY, vocals aside, the instrumentals are top notch. ESPECIALLY the drum and bass, they're sitting in a tree k i s s i n g fr fr. The first leg of this album is probably perfect, "Runaway Child, Running Wild" being the standout. The last minutes of that song where the funk the fuck out is divine, chills man, chills.
mmmm 4/5
The visual image this album gives me is a band of weevils playing their sploinkiest songs at the hottest lounge in bug city.
This is such a fucking fun album. Thundercat feels like an artist that shares some adjacency to a band like Ween, artists that are virtuosic, but also wanna write lyrics about the stupidest shit they can think about. WHICH LETS BE CLEAR, is not every song on this album, just the vast majority lmao. Also, Thundercat's musicianship can not be understated, this dude is a monster. He manages to play his bass like a piano sometimes, setting down melodies and basslines in a single lick, setting grooves that on one end are manic and on the other soothing, fuck, sometimes they manage to be both. I think this album gets a few bonus points for how frequently Thundercat is dork-posting in his lyrics, half of these songs are about him being a lil dweeb, its deeply soothing to a terminally online whelp such as I.
Another thing I love about this album is it's structure. There's a consistent sound to the album that makes it really easy to throw on in the background and allow it to reenter focus at any moment along it's runtime. Concurrently when actively listening to it, you notice the shorter songs that feel like intermissions. Plus, these grooves usually featured at the ends of songs where everyone finds the pocket and plays like clockwork, they end up feeling like these climaxes to the songs that are not outwardly climactic, I think it's neat.
4.5/5
I'm a bit surprised that this album is included on this site, my understanding of it is that it's the b-sides of "KID A" an album I love, probably my favorite RH record. And while perhaps its unfair to judge an album as anything but an individual experience, so many of these songs feel like less complete versions of songs on "KID A." To use the most popular song off this album as an example, "Pyramid Song" feels like "How to Disappear Completely" part 2. It places in a more critical mood than I'm used to when it comes to listening to music, and as I am now in said mood, lemme spit my shit.
This might be the worst that Thom Yorke has sounded an album, which lemme be clear, he is one of my favorite rock singers. Nearly every performance feels dejected, a tone that isn't inherently bad, but one that can sound so mfing sleepy when it's not fully committed to. Like, pleaaase listen to this version of "Morning Bell" and tell me that he's trying. There are also multiple attempts at making their version of a trip-hop song that never fully click. And why is "Hunting Bears" on this album, it sounds like an attempt to start a Funkadelic song but anytime they keep practicing the first bar of the solo over and over.
Okay, and I know I just talked so much shit, but I don't think this is a bad album, maybe just a bad Radiohead album. I do like "Pyramid Song" and "You and Whose Army" though.
2/5
This album breaks my heart. Johnny Cash was obfuscated with so much persona through his career that this final moment of sincerity feels so potent. It is made even more absurd learning that every song on this album is a cover. Because truly, with the emotive force on display they all end up feeling like songs of his own making.
The most heartfelt moment for me on the album was the run from “Danny Boy” to “Bridge over Troubled Water.” The former was the first song I got to sing solo in choir, the latter, one of the songs my mom would send for bedtime. In this new form, Cash sings about him and the world he knows fucking dying. It’s a contrast, to say the least. But that is the risk/reward of a cover album, you must contend with the listeners original relationship with a song, either reinforcing its meaning, or reinterpreting it.
“Hurt” is an amazing NIN song, it’s deeply intimate, letting us look how depression can still make you feel worthless and broken even if you have so much to show for your creativity and efforts. But, to me it has always felt more personal, a song sung to an individual. The Cash version sounds like a song sung to a nation. Cash was a multi-media American Icon, a man made into a symbol for masculinity and what it meant to be American. And as such, he was also forced to be scandalized when he went against those ideals. This song feels heavy, and the weight of his status seems to fill every word.
Beyond every other reason to fell sorrow from this album, it is a reminder what a fucking pity every early loss of a great artist is. That there are so many who did not get to flaunt the talent and wisdom of an elder artist is a shame.
This album is amazing 5/5
