Enjoyed this, although I can't quite get gushing about it, maybe I have some weird Boyzone/The Office reflex. Undeniably good songs, and everything is well purposed length without giving in to the 60s album itch of being too indulgent. Really liked the production of it too, 60s stereo panning at it's best and most interesting without being gimmicky, felt like the piano was sitting at the top of my forehead.
This is 7.5, maybe put half a point down for purely unknown/subconcious reasons, and then another point down for realising some of these songs now sound a tiny bit too religious or condescending, but whateves!
Went on a real trip with this, bits are totally disjointed, and then come back together and have some incredible parts and incredible riffs. I started listening to this at work and found the discordant slightly frantic piano at the starting track just too much to take and concentrate at the same time, despite jazz being thought of sometimes as background music.. this is not! It's weird to even think of this with one name on the cover too as it's clearly a team effort with some incredible players, Max Roach's druming is probably my absolute favourite part of this.
Giving this a solid 7.5, probably will be an 8 on next listen. It went down half a point because of the absolutely annoying af habit of streaming services to add all the bonus tracks into one album, adding all of those tracks to one is just too much.
This is great! A rare balance of absolute smasher and intricacy, undeniable classic, better than pink floyd. Love the way that every tune comes in with a scorching guitar riff and then seems to dispiate into twinkliness at the end. Fairly distracting for work. 9 out of 10, one point missed out for questionable fairy-tale related narrative but I suspect that's actually quite deep and interesting too once you get into it. Well done.
Not a massive metal head and find some of this kind of thing inpenterable, but I really enjoyed this. A lot of the songs are such classics they are inbedded in my conciousness even though I've never really gone out of my way to take an intense listen. My least favourite thing was James Hetfield's vocals, my favourite thing was the drums although I hated the horrible snare sound. Worth another listen.
Dirgy, not really into this not really into voice. Bones is a pretty solid banger, but it just seems to be so meandering and a bit dull from there, why so many wig outs?
Why so many questioning melodies? I feel like I'm trapped in a spy-movie, or the set of the Prisoner. That said this is definitely got more than it's fair share of bangers, it's also comforting to sit in those icy basic glorious 80s synths.
Points of this were a bit trudgy blues rock but overall really enjoyed it. Drums sound great and intro pleasantly weird.
An anomally. Enjoyable, has some fantastically orchestral arrangements, felt like there was a world in here you can settle into. Often taken out of it by the strangely supporfulous and tenuous concept for the sake-of-it concept, and at times a bit too derivative of Neil Young, The Beatles and Atlanta soul. This is a sometimes lovely, and sometimes quite confusing listen. It's a bit of a suprise that this is on the list and ... no Night Fever sound track!?
Plodding. I don't ABSOLUTELY hate this, and I feel I might need to be a bit open-minded to some of this 2000's Brit-Pop, but ... Don't feel there's anything of interest here. A couple of fairly nice zombies-y melodies and nice harmonies, a couple of jaunty vampire weekend hooks, some summery festival 'vibes'. Feel though the production is flattening everything down, it's so high on compression and low on emotion, the 'hooks' are just four on the floor basic, the vocals and lyrics are something I just can't get behind - I just don't have any empathy for the main character. This is music I feel I could never love.
Great, love the rolling drums
Interesting. Rush is a band I might willing to give a go and put down some of my prejudices on, there's some really great bits at the begining, the intro is great and the drums are obviously banging. I almost want to listen to this album in bits and pieces and samples... I'm really turned off by their bullshit Ayn Rand and conservative, work fetishising (look haven't we done something complicated and long) and dodgy travellers to Bangkok references, which is really putting me off. Boring bastards, reasonably interesting music.
Drums sound classic Tom and Jerry falling down the stairs. Definitely feels more be-bop and city living busy then the gliding cool of kind of blue, but very intruiging and a lot less deliberately hectic or abrassive than some Coltrane or Thelonious Monk. Makes me love my life.
How did I not hear this before? What a trip, so many creative ways with samples, has such a smoothness and easy going feel to it. All the rapping is distinctive and compliments each other, must have been a total revalation at the time, and still sounds really fresh and unique now.
Brilliant
Fantastic, smooth, silky, beautiful. Just over 30 mins which is perfect. There's no filler but definitely a couple that are standout tracks and some that aren't, which makes it a 4 star album rather than 5 star, but no one really makes this genuine lovely music quite like this.
Great
Banger
Suprisingly lovely album. Listen to the music is just a lovely sentiment, and it has a bubbling, feel with a great momentum in the songs.
Summer breeze is stand-out song here, that bridge just glides up and almost makes me teary it's so fantastic, just a perfect song.
Some very pop sensabilities here of course verging on at times cheesy and sentimental - e.g. "the highways of my life" but it's definetly not simple music at least. Happy to come back to this one.
Exceptional, revolutionary, unrelenting.
Highly enjoyable
Fantastic, so much fun.
Liked this a lot, not really familiar with this but aware they are quite a prominent name. I like the deliberately lo-fi production and abrassive drums. Some dark and spiritual themes, might be more of a sound-scape album than songs you can get your teeth stuck into but an album I will return to anyway.
A beautiful concise pop album that has little to no fat or filler, refreshing, real and completely relateable. The production is really of it's time but does not seem dated at all and still seems really fresh.
Side-note: I did not get at all that the cover is taken in front of a blackboard, so it's got a positive learning about life connotation. Obviously loads of the conversation now about this album will revolve around addiction and the incredibly dark side of that, but musically this album is really peppy and positive as well as incredibly emotional.
Glorious
Enjoyable, suprising
Very glossy smooth disco, the songs in here are super slick and quite lovely, something about the levels of production gloss makes me not sure of this as an album, could be a grower.
Good, but a little bit tame and safe. I don't usually like my jazz off the charts zany, but I feel there is more engaging and beautiful 'cool' sounding stuff that pushes into exciting/interesting terriotory without being unitelligably frantic. Take 5 is a banger but the album as a whole feels a bit lifestyle and not particularly inspired.
One of the reasons I'm trying this project is to sample some different tastes and challenge myself to question if some of my all time favourites really are that great. Trying to have a more critical and objective eye this is still an absolute classic for me.
Lots of almost obvious influences - Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel - that are mixed in with some subtle but interesting studio trickery. It exists in a weird space between extremely stripped down acoustic song and the fun of a big band and multi multi tracked vocals. Lots of lyrics to keep wondering about. It feels genuinely unique and hasn't dated. Just great, haunting songs.
I used to love Beck back in the day, totally unique sound, whimsical lyrics, a decent amount of sex embeded into music that takes a few twists and turns. I don't think this album has dated badly, but I don't think I get that much from it anymore. There's some decent songs in it and it's a pleasant listening experience, but I don't think it's really in the category of AYMHBYD for me.
I think this was made in a period when Beck's impact on critics and maybe on hip culture was waning, so it doesn't have the 'O MY GOSH THIS IS NEW' impact that previous albums - stereopathetic sould manure, Odelay - have. You do feel like he's found his feet in the production aestehtics and the pop (but a bit wild) song structures, so in some ways this might be one of his best albums, but I'm not sure I can really warm to it enough to count it as one of the best albums of the era.
To me this highlights one of the problems with the 1001 album list: include ALL culturally significant song writers (fair enough), but then include ALL albums and way too many by them, because you can't decide which is the best. I suspect there were WAY better albums released that year that might have been a better choice here.
Sublime
