So good - he's very unique in the folk world where he can be unsentimental (no like flowers and sunshine bullshit) and also mostly concrete (no bob dylan mysticism bullshit). Every verse is like a nice contained story with some logic between lines it's not just a bunch of stuff that sounds good. Do I always know what he's talking about? No basically never. But by like the 10th time I listen to a song I'm like "ooooh he's saying he's sad". Stranger song and one of us cannot be wrong are just so good. He's really at his best when he's incredibly bitter and we get a taste of that but not quite enough - the 60s could tolerate only so much hate he could really only soar post-Manson.
The music is obviously not why youre here for but it's pretty good? Like fits the vibe of the lyrics. No drums but he gets so much rhythm and energy from the guitar. The recording quality is pretty rough - feels like they recorded the parts one at a time onto the same tape or something? Like very copy of a copy of a VHS tape feeling. Awesome that it ends with him randomly moaning in a way that sounds like he's in the next room.
It's a great Dust Brothers album and an ok Beastie Boys album. Their vocals are mixed so low you can barely tell anything they're saying - it's pretty fun when you can though? I think the Beastie Boys are fundamentally very silly and this album is very cool which kinda means you lose some silliness. Like you could actually put a lot of these tracks on as background in a bar or something and it wouldn't be that distracting, but there are a lot of other artists better suited to be played in the background at a bar. Shake your rump is truly great though super energetic and chaotic and disjointed I wish the whole album was more like that. Production is really great throughout though 5 stars for them.
Wanted to be a hater but unfortunately it’s very good. Great energy - so much work being done by the percussion and organ but Santana is also good at guitar I guess. Vocals were ok - I think they would blend really well with a Rob Thomas type.
Why is it that the Eagles suck? It all sounds good and the songs are pretty solid. Like if they weren’t the Eagles and they were just a country band I might like them. And yet.
Take it Easy is so so good. Earlybird’s birdsong opening is so grating I almost quit the album. The rest did not penetrate my memory.
Another Neil Young album where he's a sloppy rocker but never changes the way the guitar sounds or exactly hits the right notes. Maybe I just don't like live albums. I like Neil Young I promise! They should just cut all the songs that aren't My My Hey Hey and I would love it.
On first listen I thought this was a really witty band and all the jokes went over my head and then I realized they were Australian not British and suddenly they didn't seem so smart anymore. What does that say about me?
Super fun and catchy - he's got such a good voice and their harmonies are really simple but really good. It feels very much like it's ripping off Squeeze and Elvis Costello but I don't mind it. The production is super dated of course but kinda fun. I get the feeling that this was seen as disposable trash when it came out, but it's pretty fun trash.
Damn I was hating on this album in my in utero review but it’s so good. Just way more of a pop album than its reputation. Full of hits tho. Giving it 4 to be interesting.
The Rolling Stones got so much better in the 70s - I think 60s blues just sounds so thin and they really loved only playing covers of like howling wolf. I don’t think I endorse all of the ideas and attitudes in this album but it’s really good.
Cool vibe and I LOVED Bananeira. Most of the songs did nothing for me though.
There’s something so eerie about a singer singing in Portuguese and then suddenly switching to English for a minute. It’s like if you were watching a movie and suddenly the character looked straight at you and said your name.
Really good energy super exciting - unfortunately I kinda don’t care about half the songs. But hungry like a wolf is so good and even the forgettable songs are high energy.
It’s really unfortunate for Common that I now see him as a minor character on the not very good Apple TV show Silo so I cannot take him seriously as a musician. I think he’s in the zone of conscious rap where he’s absolutely humorless but also not like coming off as having a deep political understanding or being able to tell emotional stories - it’s very in the “where is the love” vein (pejorative). I definitely get the Marvin Gaye thing they’re going for like just a smooth sincere guy saying there are problems - but Marvin Gaye is Marvin Gaye so he doesn’t have to say much to be powerful.
The production is really great - of course it was Kanye. Especially liked the first and last song - more jazzy backing like a tribe called quest or something. The rest was classic 2000s Kanye which is fun but I’d rather hear it with a funner higher energy rapper.
The only moment I really tuned in and was loving it was the very end of the last song which was Common’s dad?? So 5 stars for Common’s dad that was great.
I had trouble understanding what he was saying the first time around, then I had a drink and understood every word perfectly.
Really good - I have some trouble with traditional Irish music and with the 80s reverb drum sound but his voice is so good - punk and Irish music kinda make a lot of sense together but I would never have guessed.
Fairytale of New York is really incredible and there were other very good songs but nothing nearly as good as that.
Obviously the singles are 5 star classics. I can't get into their album tracks on this one though too "psychadelic" and meandering when their best songs are so hooky. Great voice though. Idk why it's mixed like the drums are 1 mile away in the grand canyon.
About 10 seconds in I was convinced I would hate it, but it was just so dense it pulled me in. Structured in the microstructure but not in the macrostructure. Lyrics were a little annoying at times but never lazy. I don't think I would ever listen to the whole album again for fun though so that loses it a star sadly.
Such a beautiful voice and Everybody's Talking is a great song - but I like the Harry Nilsson version better and I like the covers on this album better than the originals. I think he is cool and this album is not that great.
I don’t know why I’ve never connected with this album since it’s surrounded by albums I love. Heroes the song is incredible and all the instrumental songs are great, but other vocal songs are like cacophonous and have that 80s drum production style but without any good hooks so it somehow feels like empty pop music without any fun.
Pretty incredible. So much energy and so much complexity. Such a shock when the vocals come in like 10 minutes into the song - but they have their own rhythm that slots into the instrumental groove.
I don’t know enough Fela to know if this is the best of his albums so I kinda feel like I’m just rating the style. But he invented the style and the whole genre so feels valid.
Unfortunate to listen to this right after Fela Kuti - feels like a pale imitation. But still very good - I Zimbra and Animals especially. Definitely not my favorite talking heads album though - no song is all that incredible.
Classic Rolling Stones album where there are like 2 incredible all time classics and then the rest of the album sounds like they looked up the chords to a blues standard and they're playing it through for the first time.
Of the crap - Dear Doctor and Stray Cat Blues are pretty good.
Sympathy for the Devil is so great - hard to be so spare and sound so complex.
Love that this starts with a one-take off-the-cuff spoken word section with a few "uhhh"s in which she says we should all be less petty just like Donald Trump who is above the fray.
Weird how little Missy there is on the album? It's like she's a feature on her own album. I guess this was just pop-hip-hop at this time - basically just Timbaland making pretty good beats and a lot of features (which are all just like "me and missy are friends I like her but actually I'm the greatest but she's good too" and have no relation to the rest of the song) and melodic hooks that are played like 5 times.
But whenever she's actually rapping (for like 8 bars at a time) it's so good. She has such good rhythm and a great voice and like fully doesn't care about saying real words. It's like scatting or something. Then when she does say real words sometimes it's "can I put my booty-booty up in your spaghetti, daddy?" - a question we've all asked.
Work It is obviously an all time classic and when they reverse it I am cheering and clapping.
While pop and hip hop in the early 90s were using sampling and fart-y synths for Good - NIN were using them for Evil.
Really edgy and modern even today - I was shocked this was from 1994. The secret of NIN is that his voice (and lyrics) are super whiny and annoying so you really need them to be either instrumental or have his voice so distorted and low in the mix that it just sounds like background wailing - they got the balance right here.
But overall just a nice good vibes morning album. Gotta visit the studio they recorded this in must be the happiest place on earth.
LOVE to see a 45 minute album with 4 songs. All of these were pretty consistent with what I expected from Theme from Shaft generally in a good way - lots of instrumental build up and lots of repetition with an exciting ending. First half was really fun just good instrumentation with a fun groove and he’s got a great song. Second half really fell off a cliff. Usually he’s got a slow repetitive start but By the Time I Get to Phoenix was just unbearably boring for the first 10 minutes - boring low content story with literally one note repeated by both the keys and the bass could not stand it. The ending was very very good but I’d already quit the album in my heart by then.
To disclose my biases - yes, James Murphy did go to my high school so I may be inclined to overrate him (out of hometown pride). But also yes, James Murphy did say that he wanted to blow up my hometown with a bomb so I may be inclined to underrate him (out of fear for the lives of my family).
I think this is the best LCD Soundsystem album - it's super dancy and fun with great instrumental buildup but it's also where they first figured out how to express some emotions (other than anger). But it's still got the classic LCD thing where it seems a little detached and superior so the listener gets to have fun and dance but also feel smart and look down on other more sincere dance music. The drums are a real drum kit on most songs and mixed super loud which gives the whole thing some edge (same with a little bit of real bass).
5 stars. You can explode my family James Murphy.
You may not notice it the first few times you listen, but hidden within the lyrics is just the subtlest, most tasteful hint of sexuality. "Giving the Dog a Bone" and "Let Me Put My Love into You" are - in addition to common phrases which we all use every day - evocative of the actions which one must undertake in order to have sexual intercourse. But even beyond that this sensuality pervades the album. "You Shook Me All Night Long" doesn't sound like anything at first - there's nothing sexual about shaking. But then when you go a step further and consider what could be causing that shaking... the mind reels. They also seem very interested in this "rock and roll" concept which I assume is some kind of Australian sex act.
Not sure what to think about AC/DC they're somewhere between respected classic rock like Led Zeppelin and disrespected crap like Aerosmith or Kiss. They never sing about lord of the rings or anything so maybe that's why they're not as respected as zeppelin. But they're much better than Aerosmith. Definitely going for "rock + roll" not like blues or prog, but they get a little more expansive than just pure guitar solos (I guess just the bell in Hell's Bells). They do great with arrangement and dynamics - it's all about the interplay between the drum kit and the lead guitar so when either drops out for a second it's really effective.
These alcoholics can really sing a song!
I think I love this album and I am a big supporter of the replacements as the beginnings of indie rock. But it's sad to listen to them right after AC/DC - AC/DC is so much dumber lyrically but they do so much more with the same basic guitar bass drums lineup.
Lots of great songs - Favorite Thing and Answering Machine are great "vulnerable tough guy" love songs. Androgynous aged incredibly well considering. Black Diamond is just funny because it's a Kiss song but still very good.
Gary's Got a Boner is obviously unforgivable. Gary's boner cost you a star, The Replacements.
I've tried a couple times to get into these guys and I am not capable. I respect the refusal to make something listenable or melodic. If this was like a Pavement album with one weird spoken word piece I might be in. But can't do a full album.
Of course it's good - it's Miles Davis. But the whole time I'm listening I just wish I was listening to Bitches Brew instead - it's so similar but not quite as hard-edged. So I don't know if I would ever go out of my way to listen to this.
Love how maximalist and ambitious this is, but it feels a little bloated too. Starting with an instrumental intro called "Suite II Overture" is so crazy - never want an album to feel like a sequel. And it's so long I was checking the time a lot while listening to this album which is not a great sign. She's obviously very talented - great singer and really strong rapper, backing tracks are very interesting and prince-y. There's something about that 2010s production though it's so smooth and put-together that it never really feels very emotional or expressive even though she's wailing and hitting great high notes. Maybe that's the android part. Tightrope is a great song though.
So good considering how limited rock was back then - he can really capture some specific feelings in a 3 minute song with no multi-track recording and no guitars. Blueberry Hill is so good. So much energy to it without just being a "rock around the clock" style party song.
Got a little nervous when the mandolins and slide guitar came in but damn those harmonies are good. I guess they kinda invented close harmony? They sound great together and even pretty good when they're singing solo. Tragic Songs of Life is such a good title they're so goth.
They have such a specific sound and they just do it over and over again: Iron Maiden guitar sound playing power chords, Nirvana drums and double-tracked weird voice guy. When it works it really works though. Self Esteem and Come Out and Play are both so fun. Just got a little samey by the end. Of course this guy has a PhD in Molecular Biology you can hear it in his voice.
One of my favorite Led Zeppelin albums - not too obsessed with pretending to be Bluesmen, not fully in Lord of the Rings mode. Super heavy at times but not afraid to go light and acoustic. Since I've Been Loving you is probably my favorite of their songs. Must admit there is a lot more filler than some other Zeppelin albums but it's pretty fun filler.
Surprised by how boring this was. I think I expected Swedish electronic music to be high energy and crazy but this was pretty vibey. Whenever they used the low voice effect I felt like I was listening to Bon Iver and I was bored out of my mind. I hope that's not transphobic of me. But when they used their natural voice it was very fun and I got to think about Bjork and be happy.
Such a great sound - they clearly listened to a lot of Velvet Underground and a lot of Be My Baby and just mashed them together over and over and I love it. One of the only 80s bands who used reverb in a way that feels romantic and emotional rather than cheap shitty 80s poppy. And when they're going for guitar noise it's really noise - felt like they made this album extra loud on spotify somehow.
Just Like Honey is so great and most of the other songs feel like they wrote half a song and then spent the rest of their time fiddling with guitar pedal knobs. Worth it though such great guitar sounds.
Morrissey is a very problematic figure - worst of all his disrespect for the album as a medium. I didn't know until today that Bona Drag is a compilation not a real album - but it has the 2 best songs from Viva Hate and then way more fun songs which are better than most of the songs on this (technically real) album.
But this one is still good I suppose. I am on record saying that Suedehead is one of the best songs of all time. Everyday is Like Sunday is not too far behind - "In the seaside town/That they forgot to bomb/Come, come, come, nuclear bomb" is so good and so Morrissey. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me also really fun. I think the poppy backing works better for him than the smiths - makes his depressing outlook feel cheeky and clever rather than the Smiths which force you to take his annoying feelings too seriously.
Bengali in Platforms - if it were any other artist "life is hard enough when you belong here" would feel very backhanded and hateful, but given what we know about Morrissey it's touching that he's not technically saying anything directly hurtful about a Bengali man.
This album hit the UC Berkeley campus so hard in 2012 I am unable to be objective.
It's great? Every song is a hit. A lot more structured than Blond(e) - really keeps moving and has good hooks. Impressive how seamlessly and can switch between beauty and ugliness - love songs next to songs about crack addicts + rich pill addicts and always some nice electric piano and beautiful vocals. I also really love the Earl Sweatshirt + Andre 3000 verses but I might have just heard them so many times that they sound like classics. Bad Religion is so good it should have more streams.
Something so weird and sloppy about Cream considering they have this reputation as greatest supergroup ever. I guess they just want to be a delta blues band and Led Zeppelin hasn't shown up yet so they can get away with this. Also the power trio thing is just a thin sound by nature but they're trying to do like harmonies and sing about ulysses so it doesn't feel powerful and stupid like a fun garage band. Clapton obviously great and a few definite hits. They should include a bonus track that's just the band drunk and screaming at each other.
Really good jazzy 60s pop - definitely not lazy hippie shit. Some great spanish guitar. I don't think I will actually listen to this album again but it was definitely quality and I might listen to some songs.
There are 3 Bjorks - Fun poppy Bjork, crazy scary Bjork and cool vibey Bjork. This is cool vibey Bjork - the worst Bjork of all. Mostly rating low because I know she can do better. I love you Bjork.
Live Bob Dylan is a really specific experience and he is not for everyone. Live Bob Dylan is not for me. I love all these songs so it was kinda like a fun greatest hits album, but they were all just much sloppier with more sour notes and less melody than the album version. For the first acoustic half I was like "oh well he needs the band that's the problem" then the band comes out and I had moments of "this is awesome Bob Dylan is a rock star" and then he started doing his like donkey bray singing and I was out again. I think there's something admirable about his refusal to sing any song with the same melody as the albums, but I think he kinda just winds up singing random notes.
Am I the only one who feels like The Beatles are calling me to action here? Something about Piggies and Helter Skelter is just really making me want to take on a divine mission. Honestly I'm swamped right now with 1001albumsgenerator so I can't do it but I hope somebody's been able to answer the call.
This is certainly not the best Beatles album but it's my personal favorite. So shaggy and all over the place and almost no bad songs (fuck Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da). It has so much replay value since it's basically 4 dramatically different albums in one - I can't hold it all in my head at once I'm surprised every time I listen. The big Beatles songs all get played to death so the most classic ones (Blackbird, While My Guitar Gently Weeps) lose their power over time. The funny songs (Piggies, Back in the U.S.S.R., Rocky Raccoon) I liked when I was 6 and now I get more of the jokes (Gideon's Bible is such a funny name for a gang). And the slow emotional songs (Dear Prudence, Julia) were boring to me as a kid but now they're some of my favorite Beatles songs. I'm So Tired is an underrated classic too. I recently learned that Sexy Sadie was originally "Maharishi" and was changed to be polite to the Maharishi??
Anyway just a great time - the Beatles getting more eccentric and independent and maybe the only Beatles album you could possibly call "underrated".
I'm such a sucker for a jazz album which presents as a concept album. At worst jazz can feel like a bunch of random notes, but this adds a lot of structure by presenting this as a single unified work driven by simple saxaphone riffs. Really fun when the piano comes in playing in... a different key or something? I don't know jazz. And great bass and drum moments too. I am so hyped when he starts singing though.
It's funny how much this just sounds like hair metal - it's just another LA metal band that could be Motely Crue, but instead of singing about fucking they're singing about like skeletons.
Really liked the first and last tracks, but mostly I think I just don't like thrash metal (or most metal really). I guess unfair to these guys because they probably invented the sound, but when I listen I just hear every other metal band and every parody of a metal band. Feels like a commodity good.
This is the very end of the Neil Young golden age - he hasn't yet left the world of "melody" and "being in tune". Some really good songs - Walk On is super catchy, For the Turnstiles is really pretty, Revolution Blues and Ambulance Blues sound like they're aiming for Dylan but Neil Young's a little too kindhearted to really pull it off. "Well I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars / But I hate them worse than lepers and I'll kill them in their cars" is such a good way to end a song about his good friend Charles Manson.
All that said it's starting to get a little meandering and most of the songs didn't stick with me after a couple listens.
Whenever I think of Jane’s Addiction I imagine the Jared Leto joker made it and then it all makes sense
Great album - might work better as a T-shirt though.
So good and new (at the time). They really figured out the high-end / low-end sound. One of the best voices obviously. Disorder is awesome with the chaotic bass.
There are a couple 5 star songs but I'd basically always rather listen to a selection of Joy Division songs rather than a full album.
This was a great moment where popstars just made more fun rock music. She's got such a good voice and the backing is so good sounds like The Cars or something. I feel like she was the 80s posterchild for vacuous pop but she's great (maybe vacuous but not more than any other 80s band). Do I like that she goes betty boop mode at the end? Of course I do!
A concept album is so much greater than the songs it's made up of. In this case, the concept is not very great and the songs are even less great. Like all concept albums it constantly diverts from its central concept and any time it adheres to the concept you wish they were singing about like having sex and doing drugs instead (they later solved that one in Tommy though).
I think the concept is very funny but didn't love the execution. A couple good songs though.
This was forgettable. If they wanted to be remembered they should have told me not to forget about them.
This is the coolest thing to happen in England between 1990 and today. So many imitators but no one can really even reference trip-hop without looking like a bad Portishead. She's got such a perfect voice for this production style - such a good specific vibe.
Very good - thought I didn't like reggae but I liked this. I don't know if there are just a bunch of bands doing weak Bob Marley impressions or if I'm mostly hearing the royalty-free version of it in pop culture.
A lot more sparse than I expected but still a lot of instrumentation - great bass and drums of course and some really fun horns. Makes sense that it starts in the late 70s - definitely shares some DNA with funk and afrobeat but slowed down by an enormous amount of weed. I feel like there's a Bruce Springsteen thing going on where the reputation is like fun and good vibes but the songs are mostly very dark. Also a lot more jesus-y than I expected but I'm not mad about it.
There's not really anything else like this album - so different from every other Pixies album. Kind of the slickest and most produced they ever got and it never slows down, but they'll still throw in some bum notes and feedback and they open with an instrumental song followed by a song where you can't understand a single word he says. So funny that this is 1990 Pixies it's like they went through grunge and transcended into surf rock by the time Nevermind came out.
Why is every mediocre folk singer obsessed with kings and queens and clowns? So upsetting he's American if he was British he would have an excuse for sounding like that.
Goodbye and Hello the song goes pretty hard though.
I think it's beautiful that Boy George looks exactly like Emily Blunt.
Other than that I hated the album. This is one of the worst times for pop music they're using synths that are supposed to stand in for real instruments but they're still early so it's kinda uncanny valley, and everything is so reverbed out I hate it. No effort put into the lyrics either the chorus of "It's a Miracle" is "It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / It's a Miracle / And dreams are made of emotion".
Some fun polyrhythms though and Karma Chameleon is so so good - 2 stars for the Chameleon.
I love the aesthetic and particularly the name Handsome Dick Manitoba. Can def see how The Ramones + Beastie Boys got their whole thing from these guys. They also sound a lot like the New York Dolls - may have ripped them off a little bit. It's a little less interesting than the Ramones though and a little less funny than the Beastie Boys and less energetic than the New York Dolls, so idk if I need to listen to it again. Thank you Handsome Dick Manitoba for being so handsome though.
I can't believe there's a Verve album on this list that doesn't even have bittersweet symphony. It was ok - kinda like The Bends backing with Oasis vocals? But not as interesting as radiohead or as catchy as oasis. Got a little bit of the fun string arrangements in History so I'm glad they stuck with that.
Classic - probably the best Nirvana album. Fun high energy songs like serve the servants and then Beatles-y strings on all apologies. Feels like the dark exciting image Nirvana always had even though Nevermind sounds kinda soft and silly today. Def an improvement on the really sludgy Pearl Jam grunge too - it’s pretty structured and focused mostly.
What if Talking Heads was no fun and their singer sounded like he had a ponytail?
That said - I love it. When they stop being so cold and abstract and have some fun electric guitar it’s pretty great.
I wish I wasn’t rooting against the dirty projectors on principle for being annoying.
The singles are so so good - like some of the best pure pop music. And the album tracks are such lazy filler bullshit I think he improvised the lyrics or something.
Cry Me A River is so weirdly complex and operatic for a boy band song and it’s so good it’s like prog rock. And Seniorita is great - very funny that the album starts with The Neptunes talking for like a minute and then Justin asking “should I start now?” it’s really just their album. And of course Timbaland is there doing whatever he does and it’s also great.
Obviously can’t give JT 5 stars so I’m giving him 3 which is a 5 star album for JT.
It's so interesting how Neil Young can make such beautiful music and also just awful unlistenable noise. I am not really sure if he knows which one he's doing at a given time.
Probably the worst Neil Young album I've ever listened to but it's sweet that he likes his friend and there are like 2 very good songs.
I own this on vinyl and have never listened to it so that’s a pretty good review right there.
It’s definitely very good - super catchy and great lyrics. But it’s a little caught between the super pretentious Simon and Garfunkel era and the cynical Graceland era and kinda winds up feeling like weak tea. Like wow these lyrics are so descriptive and the production is so catchy but also you’re not trying to say anything and it kinda feels like it should be on in the background at a Starbucks.
I think I hate her voice and that ruined the album for me. I do love the late 90s British dance vibe but I usually like it because it’s energetic and original and this was so dreary and felt like it was ripping off the original stuff. Really made me want to listen to like Portishead or Sade because this was ripping off both and I have never in my life wanted to listen to portishead and Sade combined into an album that’s neither fun nor beautiful. Kinda cool how minimal it was tho it did kinda have a unique feeling I just hated that feeling.
I believe this album was my profile pic on MySpace in 8th grade. I don’t particularly care for it today? I guess it’s a step between like long bloated suites and the pop songs they started doing on The Wall. But it’s kinda caught in the middle. I mostly enjoyed crazy diamond this time around though it’s so much shorter and more structured than I’d remembered. Also really responding to the guitar solos I feel like in the past I basically thought of Pink Floyd as like clock sounds and wooshes but they’re also a rock band. Excited for all their other better albums.
Really good - I thought these guys were like annoying indie pop for some reason but they’re very minimal and intense. I don’t know if I will listen to it very often because almost none of the songs were catchy but Staring at the Sun is great.
Pretty fun punk album? Singer was great. Whole band is VERY sex pistols like they're stealing so much directly from them. But adding sax was really good and new. Very cool to have a punk band who's specifically anti-hygiene. Prob would not listen again though.
Eternally trying to figure out whether I like the rolling stones at all. Mick Jagger's voice - amazing. Like 10 songs from the first 20 years of their career - amazing. Every single album - lazy bullshit. Can't blame them too much for this one since it's 1964 and albums were just covers, but how can this be a top 1001 album. Insane that the first song starts with a bunch of American geography like you don't even know where that is.
Such an interesting mix of high effort and low effort - just the most incredible harmonies that sound like no one else, but then they’ll like play the wrong bass note for a full bar and just be like eh it’s fine. Also half the time the backing was practically inaudible - I think they just don’t care about instruments they’re an a capella group. The Dylan covers were much much better than the originals but even in the Dylan covers they seemed to figure out a great chorus and then just kinda meander through the verse. Mr Tambourine Man good of course - love that tambourine.
Crazy that Iggy Pop can do the stooges and also do this. He has such a powerful scuzziness which shines through no matter the genre. He's a little classed up here though - they even put him in a shirt for the album cover. Must have been a nightmare getting him to keep it on long enough to get the picture.
So good and SO late 70s Bowie/Visconti - very funny that Bowie selflessly decided to be behind the scenes and let Iggy Pop have these songs and then like 2 years later recorded better version of them himself.
Obviously I want to say that the Grateful Dead sucks and this is unlistenable. I hate their aesthetic. I hate their vibe. I hate their voices. I hate the way most of the instruments sound.
But sadly my cold cold heart has warmed just enough to appreciate "the groove" they got into eventually in Dark Star and I have to admit I liked it. Time to give away my worldly possessions and get into tie-dye it's all over for me.
I never really got the Syd Barrett thing - I don’t like piper at the gates of dawn I think it’s criminally British and has too many songs about gnomes. Less interesting musically than later Pink Floyd just kinda outsider arty - people just like the story I think.
This is kinda fun though? Some really interesting totally off rhythm songs that somehow hold together and a couple songs that are actually good by the standard of “song” - Dark Globe is great. Is the album great? No!
Timeless classic - opens with a dramatic montage about her feud with Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst.
I hate it? Her voice is very good I know, but I hate it. Nothing is lazy or ugly exactly all the backing instrumentation is pretty good, but it does nothing for me. I think it’s the pop-R&B thing that’s off-putting to me and I don’t think I can get over it. Just a little too sappy and all the edges are sanded down.
Let this not be taken as a rebuke against girl power. I am a staunch lifelong supporter of girl power. Though I am not a girl myself, I consider myself an ally. And therefore I do support the messages held within the songs and I also support that the lady from Four Non-Blondes wrote most of them.
But overall the album really brings me back to being in the backseat of a car in 4th grade wishing I had the power to change the radio station. Now I am 32 wishing I had the power to stop listening to this album. Thank you 1001albumsgenerator for letting me relive the horrors of childhood.
Fantastic documentary fine album.
He is so cool and charming here and it is a very exciting album - loved whenever the crowd would boo or cheer it felt really chaotic and dangerous in a fun way. Then he sings a song about how he was arrested for picking flowers… I feel like that was meant for the hippies not the prisoners. Other than that did not feel particularly cynical and calculated though.
The music was just ok. Pretty sloppy and it’s so simple to start with. His voice is amazing of course. I would maybe cut out the second time he plays the same song. And maybe most of the songs. Just let me hang out with Johnny Cash and my prison friends.
I really want to like this because I know he’s supposed to be a cool and avant garde kinda guy, but it mostly feels kinda Neil Diamond-y. Definitely a great voice though. Very funny that the opening song is just him describing a movie he saw.
So much better than it needs to be. Basically a novelty act with a singer doing silly falsetto but so many legitimately good songs - they never choose to be funny at the expense of being good.
A little gauche to sample Kanye but maybe I’m just “too woke” 🙄.
Somehow I’d never actually listened to this before and it mostly lived up to the hype? 21st century schizoid man and the court of the crimson king are so so good.
The rest of it is so poisoned with flute and pan pipes and all the other British prog nonsense, and Moonchild - 12 minutes of noodling that resulted in the tragic loss of 1 star for Mr. Crimson.
And obviously perfect album cover.
At 2:29 on Christine’s Tune you can hear a man clearing his throat.
Very beautiful other than that. Gram Parsons has such a perfect voice. Hot Burritos #1 and #2 are really special. Some of the songs just feel like stock country music. If I liked slide guitar more this would probably be 5 stars but I have to acknowledge my yankee bias.
I have so much respect for Mark E Smith and The Fall. I love all the bands adjacent to The Fall and I know that people with good taste listen to them.
With respect, I found this incredibly difficult to get through. I can get into angular guitar and nonstandard drum parts when there’s some kind of driving hook or riff to latch onto but - respectfully - I had nothing exciting enough to hold onto here. And I can get into an obscure or very abstract political take but (with all due respect) the political message here seemed to be either so specific that 2 years after the album no one would follow it, or so inside and specific to the music industry that it was irrelevant to its listeners. Also his voice is just a John Lydon with less melody (much respect much respect).
So thank you to the fall for being very good please don’t make me listen again.
There's something cynical about sitar covers of pop songs - feels gimmicky and the instrument is so out of context when adhering to a pop song structure that it's like why even do this. I'm sure it was more exciting at the time but now there's a whole industry of covers of pop songs in new genres or with new instrumentation so feels manufactured. "Ravi Shankar's nephew" also gives the album a little bit of a crappy aura.
The synths were interesting but didn't add much and made the album feel very dated for a 1970 album.
I liked the traditional Indian songs with some western instrumentation a lot though - Raghupati with a drum kit and electric bass was pretty awesome.
It’s really amazing how sloppy and dissonant The Band can be while playing really beautiful moving songs. Every vocal line is a little out of tune or they time it wrong and take a breath between words. And there’s always another unexpected guy suddenly also singing with a funny musical theater voice. There always seems to be a very specific story going on but I can never piece out what it is. Every instrument and every voice is so distinct nothing ever quite blends together it always feels like 5 guys playing solo and not realizing there’s other people playing, but then it holds together somehow shockingly.
To be clear I love The Band. Cannot give them 5 stars - have to honor their pursuit of imperfection.
You don't get a lot of true goth music these days. The passion of lovers is for death said she. Sadly for Bauhaus all the members are still alive. I think that's a good thing, but then again I'm not a practicing Goth.
Really good - high energy and super textured. Basically entirely driven by the bass and drums then the guitar just does weird noises. Love the singer's voice. Genre's all over the place without feeling disjointed - goes a little new wave at times. The 1/2/3/4 song is so funny - starts as a like Madchester pop song then turns pivots into "this is how one makes fishcakes" - they couldn't bear to have a pleasant song that could potentially be a hit.
Definitely the dreariest most boring thing Damon Albarn's made. You can really hear the Danger Mouse too so it sounds incredibly 2007. And how is the album cover so low res? You can do that?
Kinda fun when it turns a little ska. Maybe I'd be into it if I were more English.
So of course it's awful - let's get that out of the way.
1998 was a crazy time. I guess it made sense that grunge and hip hop were the coolest new things so they were destined to be combined. Why didn't it work? I guess because of bands like Korn.
Whenever he's doing horny cartoon character homina homina voices I absolutely love it. The features are very fun too - love when Fred Durst shows up and they do a weird staged rap battle that starts with "too bad, I got your beans in my bag" and then turns into them using homophobic slurs, I was not necessarily supportive but I was definitely entertained. Very confusing bit though both of them start to turn homoerotic so I was like oh they're actually commenting on it, then they end on a "just kidding wouldn't that be weird if we were gay" note so I think they're cowards. It did contain an early Austin Powers reference though so I liked that. Also bringing in Ice Cube to rap about how parents shouldn't tell us where we can skate - really sums up Korn's ethos.
RIP with love to Dolly Parton and I think Linda Ronstadt has maybe the best voice of any singer. Emmylou Harris I do not think about.
Anyway I don't like this album nearly as much as I should. Maybe a little too straightahead country for my tastes. And I think the singers are all trying to be a little less show-offy so there's no really incredible solo performances. Wildflowers is really good though.
Crazy that they made up their own fake language - "Icelandic" they call it. Doesn't sound very realistic to me but I guess that's what the little angel alien fetus on the cover would sound like.
So good - really ambitious and has these incredible builds that actually have a payoff. Incredible what they do with guitar feedback as the lead instrument. Of course Svefn-g-englar is great, but Flugufrelsarinn has this ecstatic chorus that could be a big Broadway number. So important to not translate the lyrics it ruins their mystique - "But today, I must save the most flies possible" is not what I feel when I hear the Flugufrelsarinn chorus.
I don’t know why I hate this album. I think too many people are going for a like very acoustic every instrument is kinda plinky and country and indistinct. No energy. And I hate his voice. Reminds me of Creed or one of the other late 90s sincere post grunge bands which are all awful. The backing sounds like REM but it doesn’t feel as smart or edgy or energetic.
This feels like a type of fusion album that should work? Reggae + trip-hop sounds fun. And it sort of was.
I liked his voice a lot but didn't love any of the songs too much. Didn't feel like it leaned hard enough towards either side of the fusion and kinda just came out pop with some interesting rhythms. Not a bad thing I guess. But not what I wanted.
They sound like the band is doing an impression of Duran Duran and the singer is doing an impression of Morrissey, but this came out the same year as Rio and directly influenced The Smiths. But spiritually it feels like a knockoff. It also has one of the fakest album covers/band name/album name I've ever seen - maybe it's a fictional band from a movie.
Generally very fun though. Rip It Up is an awesome song and A Million Pleading Faces is really good too. There's something really unbearable to me about the type of voice the lead singer has so I'm very grateful when the other singer shows up.
