This sounds like an amazingly modern album - I don't know much about 50/60/70 music, but this is not what I was expecting by the Beach Boys. The opening song is a classic, but "That's not me" predates music by 10 or so years, from what I could understand.
"Let's go away for awhile" is NOT normal rock, it has some orchestral influence, there's a bit of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin there.
This is honestly incredible, there's jazz, swing, theremin, modern rock, and ancient rock. All at once.
That's some amazing music, I knew nothing about this, this is not my country's musical history, so I wasn't ever exposed to it. But I'm flabbergasted, although this is not my favorite genre of music.
But damn, I can hear the basis of 80s music, there's a lot that survived up to the 90s, and there's meaning into it. Wow. Simply wow.
I listened to this album. It didn't click with me - I appreciate the LIVE fun they seem to be having, the storytelling, the fun, and all of that. But I'm not sure I love the music itself - it's great, but it does not resonate with me. I should come back later for a new listen of this album.
The album opens with a horrible punk-ish rock-ish rap. Most definitely NOT my vibe - I'm all for PUNK, I'm all for Rock, I'm all for RAP.
But I'm not in for whitewashed rap stitched with glue with (mostly bad) guitar riffs and very noisy drums.
Yeah, the second song didn't get any better. Nor any other.
The high pitched voices of these guys are not for me, they're just screaming.
The messy instrumentals are at times very good (very 80s, some decent scratch, some good riffs) and at times very uninspired (a random electric guitar, a basic drum).
I don't know if it's my ear that's just accustomed to the better productions of the west-coast rap of the roughly same era - DrDre and Ice T released some WAY BETTER rap in this same year, and thanks god they didn't have to SCREAM all the time - but I really can't stand these three white new yorkers yelling at me, at each other, at the music.
Ooof. "She's crafty". Ooof I couldn't even listen to the whole song, it's honestly just bad musically, lirically, and content-wise.
At least "Fight for your right" is musically a song, produced by an adult.
They still sound like ass, the lyrics are bad, the flow is unbearable, in that song, but at least it's a song.
Naah, this is the worst album I've listened to in a while, I'm glad I hadn't heard it in the past, I am glad I won't have to do it again.
This is what Rap and R'n'B is made of.
1998 feels like yesterday, thanks to this.
This is the first time I listen to the whole album, I had heard To Zion something like 20 years ago, and maybe three other songs by Ms. Lauryn Hill. Always been a fan of her vibe, but never been a real fan of her.
Well, up until today.
Ms. Lauryn Hill shines in this album, it feels fresh and new as it probably felt right when it came out.
The production level is out of any scale: great music, a mix of 70s soul, some jazzy vibes, gospel, a hint of reggae somewhere, where real instruments are singing together with samples, voice samples are sometimes used as percussions, and the choir are masterfully placed. The production is 90s, but in a good way: percussions are loud and clear, they wanted folks to dance, but they're outshined by the amazing vocals in the choruses.
This is what 90s musical dreams are made of: a charming, warm, perfectly controlled voice singing good songs on amazing music.
The lyrics are not a miracle, but they got flow, they got style, they got heart, and they're good. They're good GOOD, they are just not the best lyrics in the world across the whole album, but there's some amazing lyrical prowess in there.
These lyrics talk to a younger generation in a lighter world than the one we have now: in the 90s, although most things were not good, humans were more hopeful when they thought about the future - they expected things to get better, and Ms. Lauryn Hill here was teaching kids to keep that in mind always: "You can get the money, you could get the power, but keep your eyes on the final hour".
And man, Santana's guitar is something else, in "To Zion".
The only small stain, in today's world, are the "long" skits - I actually love them, but I can understand how younger folks may not enjoy them as much as I do. Oh, and some (I never liked them) fades to silence at the end of some songs.
That aside, I am sure this is one of the best albums I've ever heard, and among the best R'n'B albums ever made.
I can't decide whether it's a 4 or a 5 star review for the fairly small issues I have with it or not. Heck, it deserves a 5.
Ozzy and the Black Sabbath are history of music. Not for the shenanigans, but for the eternal sound of their music (and his voice).
My brother 20 years ago listened to a live disc of Ozzy and the Black Sabbath. I wasn't into heavy metal, so I didn't really like it.
So when I started this album, I was half scared of what awaited me. And the bluesy sounds with which it opens caught me by surprise - and the next ~40 minutes flew by, listening to something unexpected in every song.
This music aged better than fine wine, it sounds like it was recorded yesterday (in the 2020 remaster, clearly), and it sounds like everything after it got something from it.
Take the beginning of Tomorrow's Dream: most of the current (2026) Top 50 Country Playlist on Spotify stole something from its guitars.
"Changes" brought me back by 20 years, because that's when I first listened to it - difference is I now understand the lyrics, and it's even sadder than it sounds: what is, 20 sentences? It's 5 minutes of heartbreak, sang in 20 or so sentences, with an astonishing production level that mixes a soft piano, something that I feel (given my lack of musical knowledge) is a sort of organ or something similar, and this crying voice.
There's a lot of good metal too, here, but it's the kind of rocky melodic stuff that I can get into - this album may give me something I put in a playlist, to be honest.
It's a perfect, round 4 out of 5 for me: lyrically, I'm not on board with everything - or maybe I'm not on board with most of it - but musically this is honestly akin to a masterpiece.
How do I reconcile with the Beatles?
Well, this is here, so let's start listening to it.
Their famous songs, to me, sound like shite most of the time. I hate most of what they became later, I am not a fan of utilizing other cultures as a fancy, funny dress, and after living years in the UK I really, really can't stand the accent.
Not a fan of the uncredited voices on these songs.
I understand this is like foundational work when it comes to rock and band culture, but damn there's music older than this that grew older in a nicer, more bearable way: Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Luigi Tenco, damn even Enrico Caruso's music is more bearable than this, nowadays.
The production in this album is willingly messy, with electric (I suppose?) organs playing like 20 notes in a whole song, some clappy percussions, repetitive guitar + electric organ riffs used as percussions, and voices that get lost on the musical background.
I completely understand the mono and stereo tech limitations of the time, but that does not justify the messy arrangement most of these songs have - I've tried listening to the non-remastered version of it and the remastered version Lossless, and nah, that ain't it, mate.
Their pop ballad "She's Leaving Home" is unbearable, mainly due to the lack of a "GREAT" voice. Again, this song could've been a Frank Sinatra song, but in that case it'd have been good, while here it is just a random pop song, to be honest. Lots of violins, lots of soft music, lots of nostalgia, but a huge lack of personality.
And no, I don't find the usage of other cultures' instruments particularly amusing, especially but not exclusively when it comes from a british produced album - yeah, looking at you Within You Without You.
This is what the hippy movement was in search of: shallow, performative "knowledge" of something unusual, with the certainty of being able to go back to their regular, rich kids' life after all is said and done. Performative leftists going back to their conservative roots as soon as the "weird", long song is over.
Now that I finished ranting, the good stuff:
These guys were ahead light years - due respect where it's due: their music can sound like good fun and can sound like a heartfelt ballad (at times), it received some influence from American blues, but gave it a decent "different" spin, and it made sense that they broke the market: good looking guys, playing instruments, without a single thought in their brain up until a certain point in their career.
There's some foresight of the future electronica genre here, in "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!", with its disastrous mix of orchestral music, weird audio edit, and the circus thingy going on, and in "Within You Without You", although in that case I have a problem with the whole concept of the song.
Gotta be honest, I understand why this is musical history, I just can't bring myself to listen to it ever again - it's BORING, unlike a lot of music from the previous ~50 years before this.
That's a 2 stars for me, and one of them I give it only because I see its historical value.
What is this, who are they?
Starting from the album cover art: this is absolutely awful.
The album takes a whopping 77 seconds to start - I guess there's an artistic decision behind that?
What I'm hearing is decent early 2000s music with British pretentious lyrics straight from the late 90s - this is the artistic prole of Beck, the Radiohead, and maybe something like (UH my horror) Moby, with something else I can't quite point my finger at - but this time around, it's Bri'ish. They're like the slightly better version of Coldplay. Same level of nothingness, to be honest, but with at least coherent lyrics.
It's pop-rock-ish, it's mostly easy going, it's not interesting at all, though. I can't imagine myself putting this music on in any other occasion, since it's a honest nothingness of an album: these guys are chewing words on nice guitar riffs, the production is godawful as per British tradition, and the lyrics are just... well, Radioheady but without the depression?
Yeah, if there was a "SKIP" button here, I'd have pressed it today.
Like, seriously, who thought this is an album belongs to a list of the top 1001 albums in the world? I mean, I know the answer: a british white guy, as british as bad food is. Because that's something only a self-important man in his 40s can believe.
Can I give 0 stars? Because this has 0 chances of belonging to this list.
Man oh man the voice on this man.
This is a musical funeral self-eulogy.
The country music is strong, but what's stronger is the emotion in its delivery - very few people could sing about themselves while singing about other folks, other stories, other silly americana-myths the way Johnny Cash can.
This album is already great on its own, but putting this out right before his death what makes it a complete masterpiece: an old guy, with a country guitar, the warmest voice possible, and no percussions whatsoever.
I had never heard this album before - this became an instant favorite.
Storytelling, the way most other artists can, is just a part of the whole album. We're not talking about a killer in Give my love to Rose, we're not talking about an "idea" of the wild west country myths, we're hearing the pain in the words of a man who knew his departure wasn't far off, with all his pain, his remembrance, his memories whispering to him about his mistakes, the pain he inflicted, and the pain he received.
This album is perfect for what it is: the voice, the production, the soft yet necessary guitars, the sparse few additional instruments, the trip it took me on, the self-reluctancy with which it says goodbye to life and to his own career.
These are not covers, this is the way these songs were supposed to sound since they were written, it's simply that we didn't knew it the first time around.
"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day".
