Pleasant BG music.
4/5
3.2/5 - vocals and some other harsh sounds threw me off
Reference:
1 = Dislike, nty
2 = Not my taste, objectively pretty good though
3 = Fine, tolerable BG music but not preferred
4 = Pleasant BG music, but not necessarily top preference
5 = Liked this, might listen again in future
4.2/5 - objectively great vocals, nice BG music to listen to. generally good vibes. however, would probably listen to the ambient tracks separate from the rest of the album
3.2/5 - Generally pretty good. Would not listen to in my own time, but definitely suitable party music for an evening BBQ in the summer.
4.3/5 - Pleasant music. Strings give off a beautiful vibe.
Fav Track - Sonnet
Reference:
1 = Dislike, nty
2 = Not my taste, objectively pretty good though
3 = Fine, tolerable BG music but not preferred
4 = Pleasant BG music, but not necessarily top preference
5 = Liked this, might listen again in future
3.2/5 - Not for me. I think the music is still objectively quite cool, but third track in and it all sounds the same to me.
Fav Track: no preference, maybe Elegia but only by a hair
3.7/5 - Was enjoying it at the beginning, but got a bit old quite quickly. Nice to mix some of these songs in with other music, but a whole album worth of this is a bit too much for me personally.
2.9 - not for me, but I can see how people would enjoy this. still classifies in my subjective opinion as objectively cool music
4.0/5 - catchy, cool.
Fav Track: No particular preference for songs, but prefer the first main section of album up to the last 4 songs. (First part is a 4.2/5, from last 4 probably more like a 3.5/5)
4.4/5 - Pretty damn good. Nice to have playing in the background anywhere, although, not something I would listen to in my own time.
4.4/5 - No comments, just nice music :)
Fav Track: no preference.
Reference:
1 = Dislike, nty
2 = Not my taste, objectively pretty good though
3 = Fine, tolerable BG music but not preferred
4 = Pleasant BG music, but not necessarily top preference
5 = Liked this, might listen again in future
4.1/5 - calm and peaceful. no further comments. cozy, although nothing too "out there"
3.5/5 - fine, although personally speaking it isn't strongly evocative.
3.3/5 - sometimes intentionally quite discordant, and to me not in an evocatively interesting way. enough to put me off a little to be honest. may give it another try in the future: still a good album :)
3.6/5 - no further comments
3.8/5 - quite cool, but I'm not listening to an 18 minute remix, so I'll cut it early :)
3.0/5 - gets old pretty fast.
3.3/5 - Was OK at best, may not have been the day for it. Might come back another time to give it another go.
1.4/5 - Lyrics: yikes. Vibes: not there for me. The sounds of Rock and Roll & Country: ever droning on, whether I like it or not. Such is the magic of this album, there was a point at which I became so immersed, that my brain thought I was forty years older than I actually was. Magical.
3.9/5 - Pretty cool album! Left me hungry for a film to accompany it with, which I'm sure would elevate it even further.
2.4/5 - At first impression, this album seemed to push the boundaries of my ears. And yet, I decided it might be worth giving my eardrums a thrashing in order to appreciate this album in all its glory. This was quite an experience, but nonetheless was a decision I wholeheartedly regret. On a more serious note, this is indeed quite a cool album, but not for me.
1.2/5 - Pleasant to listen to? No. A genuinely interesting abstract album with a variety of uniquely interesting musical experimentation? Also no.
4.4/5 - Pleasant. Nothing more to be said.
4.7/5 - It's hard not to enjoy this album (Elton is generally peak anyways), and at the very least I think everyone should find this to be pleasant background music. Everyone else has probably already made all the substantial positive comments there are to be made about this album, so will just leave it at that.
The Beatles were, up until now while partaking in this here project, one of the few bands I had actually listened to. I generally enjoyed what I heard of their greatest hits, so my expectations for this album were considerably high.
After listening, I would say despite being one of their earlier albums, and hence considerably lacking in the degree of creative spirit that was signature to their most critically acclaimed compositions, it wasn't terrible. A letdown for sure, and not holding much above mediocre, but not terrible nonetheless. Perhaps worth a listen solely to see the band's progression over the years. The kind of music that plays at a café at breakfast, and when everyone stops talking at the table, makes you stop and wonder if the atmosphere would be better without it.
Solid 3.4/5
2.6/5 - not for me: found vocals a bit irritating, which was the only notable thought I had in regards to this album.
3.1/5 - Despite having played quite a bit of jazz in music groups in my life so far, I am not actually a jazz enjoyer in my own time, although I do appreciate the skill and artistry within the genre. From that perspective, I thought this was generally quite mediocre. Nothing special, quite possibly to the point of being dull, but at least not unpleasant to listen to.
2.4/5 - Started off as a 4+/5 during the first three songs, but rating quickly fell off at Everything Reminds Me of Her, which marked my realisation that there's only so much "moody acoustic" sound + lyrics of varying degrees of substance, or lack thereof, that I can take. (Terrible grammar within this here review, but not worth a rewrite).
General notes [Positives: mood, vocals Negatives: some songs have sloppy lyrics, repetitive sound]
Notes after finishing the album: Opinion has not changed.
3.9/5 - Went from "what the fuque is this" to "magnifique." Pretty cool stuff.
2.5/5 - The high energy reminds me of a particular recurring situation from my primary school years:
There would be some kind of free time activity, like a music class or drama production, where the teacher would put on upbeat music almost identical to this. They would then ask everyone to start moving their bodies, to which all students would look back and forth between each other awkwardly and stand frozen in the middle of the room. A mutual vow of silence would be settled on by practically everyone in the room, only broken by a forced attack on an unlucky individual by the teacher prompting them to start doing something, to which the rest of the crowd would follow along out of fear of being the next one singled out. Strange activity would continue with occasional hushed awkward laughter and uneasy looks until the music would suddenly cut and be broken by silence and wholehearted relief by all involved.
I do not wish to return to memories like these.
------ Personal Rating Scaling Reference Chart: ------
1 = Dislike, no thanks
2 = Not my taste, but still objectively good music
3 = Tolerable / OK background music, but not preferred
4 = Pleasant to listen to, but not necessarily preference
(</= to) 5 = Liked this enough to consider listening again in future
----------------------------------------------------
4.3/5 - Can't think of a good comment, but this was a long-awaited refreshing album to break a streak of either heavily repetitive, or just generally tiring albums. No bad things to say about this album thusfar.
4.3/5 - Now I know where Oye Como Va is from. Not outstandingly interesting, so probably would not listen again.
2.5/5 - I didn't hate it per se, but I can certainly say this must be in the bottom 100 let alone bottom 40 albums on this list. Worth the listen? 100% yes, solely for the experience.
3.4/5 - This got recommended to me a day after she died, and only realised after coming back during the weekend to do the review here. While the recent events at the time definitely make it heart-wrenching to listen to this album, my honest rating still doesn't push beyond a three and a half out of five at best. I wouldn't mind if someone else was playing it in the background, as it is quite pleasant in that regard, but not for long periods of time. I definitely wouldn't listen to country music like this in my own time for leisure. Respect to the artist, but not my cup of tea.
4.8/5 - Aside from a couple lyrical songs which I didn't dig as much as the rest of the album, this album was pretty cool.
I can imagine myself at a mass outdoor event of some sort, the kind where there are marquees out on a grass lawn and there are large speakers blasting out music. This kind of music. There always comes a point at these events where I'm either looking for something to eat, or something to do, and I just take a step back for a moment and listen to my surroundings. Now, here comes the magic of this kind of music - it only takes about 30 seconds of listening to the same repeated sample droning on and on and on and on, for 16 more bars than it probably should have, before I start feeling bored out of my mind, snap back to reality, and go look for something else to do.
2 songs into this album and I'm loving the vibe, but it quickly became clear to me that this is the kind of music you ONLY put in the background. Tune in your ears to properly listen to this album, and for the grand majority of moments you do so, you'll only be met with endless, endless monotony. That said, there were still some interesting songs scattered throughout the album (like South Side), and it's not to say I didn't enjoy listening to this album as a whole (I still enjoyed many songs despite their repetitive elements, e.g. Bodyrock). However, what stuck out about this album for me was that I couldn't just sit there and - to put it very simply - LISTEN to the music.
All in all, I can definitely see how one could love this album for the vibes, but to listen to it without occupying oneself with some other task is completely unfathomable to me.
Solid 4.1/5
3.3/5 - Can't be bothered to write a well thought out review, just going to speak my mind here. Jazzy, but not the "nice background" kind of jazzy, and not quite jazz either. At one point I was feeling "please I want to leave the café now" and then at another it felt too funky and high energy for any time of the day. Oh and the brass - I've had 7 years playing a brass instrument till I quit, and I don't want 7 more. Just wasn't feeling it with this one today.
3.0/5 - Although I could say this for some albums and be over-exaggerating, this one was truly waaaaaaaaaaay too long. Got through the entirety of disc one, and then skimmed disc two and decided I wasn't going to listen to it in full. Same old song. While the vibes of this album were there somewhat, this qualifies as little more than OK background music at best.
4.3/5 - Surprisingly, the first Rolling Stones album I've ever listened to. Pretty good, although I wouldn't call it outstanding.
4.4/5 - A little long on its own, but enjoyed it for the vast majority of its playtime. Solid album, generally very good all round although it just falls short of the bar for "listening to it again in my own time" (a 4.5 or above in my eyes is the bar for this)
3.4/5 - meh. nothing special.
3.3/5 - First time listening to a Pink Floyd album in full. Cultural significance aside, this album was definitely interesting, but fell a bit below my expectations. In sole regards to my enjoyment of the album (as someone who knows jack about psychedelic rock and/or musical history) this album did not impress. I have nothing bad to say regarding the vocals and mood, although some tracks were quite unpleasant to listen to (e.g. "Flaming" and "Pow R. Toc H"). The bizarre mood created by the sometimes jarring and discordant sounds was uniquely interesting, although this failed to lift the album up from more than a three out of five for me. A worthwhile listen? Yes, but not an album I would come back to simply to "appreciate the experimental artistry" - I think once will be enough.
4.5/5 - Great instrumentation, vibes, catchy, etc... Did Shout need to be 6 minutes? Probably not. Otherwise, generally a very solid album with few negative things to say.
4.2/5 - Cool, but I can only last through so much jazz. Nothing more to say than that.
4.5/5 - Some of the songs are a bit lacking in the lyrics department, but there enough bangers such that it balances it out. If someone else put this album on, I'd probably be happy to listen to it again, although I probably wouldn't listen again of my own volition. Nonetheless, pretty darn good album.
3.8/5 - O.K.
2.9/5 - Inaccessible for starters. Bluntly speaking, I don't really want it to be "monk time" any time again for the rest of my waking hours on this planet. Started at a solid 3.4/5 and got progressively more dull and unpleasant as it progressed.
3.3/5 - Grew up with relatives playing a lot of "electronic beats + talking at random intervals in the song" kind of music very similar to this album's first track. Not exactly my kind of vibe, and nor was this album. Somewhat repetitive for some songs, and although the electronic sounds were interesting I wasn't a fan of the vocal samples.
2.4/5 - Headfirst into this album, my first impressions are not stellar. An endless stream of godawful, cloyingly romantic lyrics have never been suitable for any moment of my life. Yet, despite enduring this, my experience only worsens as upon opening Spotify I am met with lingerie covered ass in my "now playing" view, in full bloom and full brightness across the righthand third of my screen. This particular jumpscare had no positive effect on today's study session at the public library. All in all, although Michael's voice may be objectively awesome, this album was definitely not to my tastes, and nor was his singing.
4.6/5 - Really solid honestly. Not much more to be said.
4.0/5 - Good, but somewhat forgettable. From what I've heard from other reviews, the forgettable British music is only going to get more frequent as time goes on, so this is probably good practice to mentally prepare myself for what is to come.
4.4/5 - Into the first track, and I thought I was going to be in for some Fatboy Slim repeating vocal track BS. Well, I was partly right on the repeating samples side of things, but overall this album pleasantly surprised me.
Wasn't repetitive enough to be offputting (not to say all Fatboy Slim stuff is either), given that the samples used were (mostly) quite interesting and to my tastes, and all felt played for the right amount of repeats before changing to a different subset of sounds. I don't know jack about music in general, but this the closest I can get to expressing my positive thoughts about the structure of most songs on this album.
Clean transitions, and although I can't say ALL of the looping sections in this song were super interesting, most were enough to keep me engaged for a first time listen. (However, I probably wouldn't be able to come back to the album and listen to it again in such a focused manner as compared to a first time listen i.e. not interesting enough. Once you've listened to this album, it has shared all its secrets, and there's nothing deeper to listen out for next time.
Noises generally not too harsh, although I hated Playground for a Wedgeless Firm (had to turn volume down 4 notches because this shit was painful to listen to). Otherwise, really enjoyed this album: although a couple songs were lacking in interesting sounds (and of course P4aWF sucked) making it fall short of the 4.5/5 needed to be rounded up to a 5, it still gets a solid 4.4
3.3/5 - Too jazzy for most days, sometimes too discordant to casually listen to (although not a bad thing at all as it contributes well to the mood the album intends to create). Cool vibes, slick improv, but not something I would listen to again.
2.2/5 - Off the bat, repulsive voice. Furthermore, a random slur drop in the third song was completely uncalled for (although it did make me stop what I was doing and search up the lyrics to confirm my hearing). Upon finishing the album, voice still as horrible as when it all started, and lyrics retaining similar calibre.
