It's remarkable how much John Fogerty's voice makes the songs blend together into a sort of musical blob. I don't mean that in a bad way. I like the album but there are definite times I find it hard to separate differences in songs.
From the wikipedia article on this album. Hot damn that's some work ethic.
"Producer and primary songwriter John Fogerty was the driving creative force behind CCR, which would record three albums in 1969 alone."
At the end of the day, the album is only about 30 minutes long. It goes down smooth
Right off the bat, with Take a Bow, getting strong strong Radiohead vibes. The vocals are not exactly my cup of tea but I enjoy the beat and synth-y stuff going on underneath it.
Starlight is starting to distinguish themselves. Vocals are still very Thom Yorke but what can you do for a 2000's English band you know? I like the more driving beat to this one.
This album is sort of fascinating and is covering a lot of different genres. We have had the soft indie rock sort of radiohead vibe (sorry I keep coming back to that) but now in Assassin we're into heavy metal territory.
The songs Exo-Politics through Hoodoo kind of blended together for me, then all of a sudden I get hit with Knights of Cydonia and honestly, kind of digigng it. The vocals cutting through the noise halfway through made me snap to attention.
My top song: Starlight
This is my first (I assume) instrumental album. Typically I'm not a huge fan of these. More because I feel like I'm not smart enough or versed enough to understand the intricacies of what they are doing. I'm not good at "hearing" time signatures and appreciating the difficulty.
To give you an idea of my knowledge of jazz, the first thing I searched for when seeing this come up was "Peanuts Jazz Band" because I thought this might be them.
Just finished. I have no notes really. Like I said I enjoyed it well enough but I just don't know that I have the knowledge necessary.
Two jazz albums in a row? We shall see. I got a lot of comments on how to "appreciate" a jazz album so I'm going to do my best.
I want to emphasize though: the issue is not jazz, it's me.
Reading through the wikipedia, it emphasizes that this album really spoke well to hippies and, additionally, is regarded as a very spiritual album. I'm going to try to listen for these vibes in it. Also it was played at Lester Bang's wake? Not important just cool.
Okay listening to the first song, I feel like I had a small scale ah-ha moment. The four notes he repeatedly plays on sax are 'saying' "A Love Supreme" they match exactly with the chant that happens like 30 seconds later, then the whole song fades into a bass that echos that chant over and over. Interesting
Finished the second song. I can kinda see what people are talking about when they say (at least in the wikipedia article) that it's like coltrane is talking through the sax. That being said I'm sure drugs would elevate that experience A LOT
Third act: drum solo to open. Nice. Digging that there are some more openings for other instruments to shine in this song.
Last act: Sax taking center stage again. Very meloncholy feel to it. The cymbals are giving me a feeling of...like waves on a beach.
I don't have much to say about this one I think. I enjoy Jack White but mainly just knew his White Stripes work and hadn't listened to much of his solo work.
Reading the wikipedia it makes a point that this is his first solo effort and there was a lot of experimentation from him in the studio. I can definitely hear this reflected in the album as the tone shifts, sometimes from song to song, and yet his voice is so distinct it cuts through and makes it all feel cohesive.
No songs stick out to me in a "I LOVE THIS" sort of way but overall I dig the vibe.
FIrst time really listening to Moby. He's a name I've been familiar with obviously but I just never really got involved much in that scene.
The wikipedia entry for the album is interesting. Describing Moby as thinking this project would be the last of his music career and the low expectations he had. Wonder if that allowed him to give himself more freedom to explore on this?
Three songs in I wonder if I'm just going to think this sounds like a film soundtrack, not because of any issue with the album, but because of how ubiquitous some of these songs have been in film/tv
On If Things Were Perfect, I can hear Moby's mouth noise during his speaking parts and that's a star off just for that.
Now we're on The Sky is Broken and Moby decided I didn't have enough mouth noises previously. I'm sure people like this but all I can think is "Drink some damn water"
I honestly was probably going to put this album at like 4/5 but those mouth noises are so unnecessary I'm going 3/5. I was real tempted to go 2/5.
Not much to say, this album is a banger. I want to listen again to see if I want to give it a 4 or 5 but there are so many recognizable songs on here. It really puts in perspective how ubiquitous she is in pop culture.
Bonus points for gilmore girl theme song. Didn't realize they got it from this album
I'm going 5/5. I mean this album has I Feel the Earth Move, You've Got a Friend, Where You Lead, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, and You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman. This just has banger after banger
Overall I think I'd say a solid 4/5. Look, heavy metal isn't my cup of tea usually but I think there's no doubt the influence here and it's fun to listen to.
This is just a really funny line from the wikipedia:
"In 2014, Spin cited it as one of the major moments in the history of white reggae"
The wikipedia also specifies how songwriting was a struggle at times during this album and honestly, listening to On Any Other Day? I get it.
The album started out fairly strong but the last half is dragging badly. Message in a Bottle is a banger but as an album I just didn't dig this. The last half feels really phoned in to me.
