This is the first album that I'm going to be reviewing as part of the 1001 Albums challenge! As well as doing this random generator, I'll be simultaneously doing them in chronological order from the book, that way I get to hear each album twice, something that I think is important to truly understand an album.
So here's my review:
While I didn’t enjoy this as much as my first listen, the talent presented on this album is incredible! Joplin has one of the most powerful and unique voices in the history of music and really uses it to its full capability on this album. The first two tracks are my favourites, after them the album goes on a slight decline, but never too far, it always remains enjoyable! The last 2 tracks were great and so is the iconic ‘Me And Bobby McGee’!
This was great, but a bit disappointing. I love both Wilco and Billy Bragg’s work separately, Billy Bragg was one of my favourite artists earlier this year! However, I didn’t love this, it was pretty similar throughout and quite boring. The first few tracks were great, but after that, they started to feel a bit basic, that is, with the exception of the outro track, another standout! The quality of these tracks are not reflective of their work outside of the collaboration. I’d be willing to listen to this again to see if my opinion changes, but I didn’t love it upon my first listen.
Wow! I never really listened Johnny Cash’s music, it seemed quite typical and unoriginal, but this album is brilliant! The banter between songs, especially with the prisoners, was funny and tragic at the same time, but I loved when Cash was thanking the warden and all of the prisoners booed! As for the songs, they were very enjoyable, I particularly admire Cash’s courage to play ‘San Quentin’. The entire song is simply complaining about the quality of prisons, describing them as “hell” and talking about those who die there. Knowing Cash’s stance on prison reform, this just makes the whole album 10 times better!
While I typically love Bob Marley’s music, this album wasn’t something that I particularly loved. It was enjoyable and I definitely wasn’t having a bad time whilst listening to it, but its lack of energy at times made it a harder listen than his better works such as ‘Exodus’. This album showcases some interesting instrumentation and obviously Marley’s iconic voice, though, as I previously mentioned, the lack of energy made it less appealing than some of his other music.
My opinion has VASTLY changed! After giving a real relisten, I loved this! Aside from the ‘Swamp Song’ interludes, every single track was great, I particularly love ‘Hello’, ‘Roll With It’, ‘Morning Glory’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’. I have always loved Blur, so I think I went in pretty closed-minded last time, but this time I went in unbiased and I think that it was necessary to do that. It’s not flawless, some tracks (I’m talking about you ‘Hey Now!’!) dragged on for longer than they needed while remaining pretty basic. I think the phenomenal ‘Champagne Supernova’ immediately brings the album up a few points, but as a whole it was very consistently enjoyable!
I’ve heard a few songs by Steely Dan before. I didn’t really want to explore their discography, but they seemed pretty good. When I realised this was my album to listen to today in the 1001 generator, I was disappointed, I’d been getting some really good albums. However, this took me by surprise! It’s an earlier album by them and isn’t quite as overproduced as I was expecting. It was just a pretty fun high-energy and jazzy Soft Rock album. It was very catchy and fun, and, while the quality drops in the second half, there’s the brilliant title track! The first few were also great!
I absolutely love Paul Simon! This isn’t his greatest album, but it really just shows his talent perfectly! It has its darker moments, but really makes you feel good throughout. The guitar work is brilliant as per usual, utilising acoustic guitar, as a guitarist myself, I can safely say that the guitar in Paul Simon’s work, as well as in Simon & Garfunkel, is incredibly difficult! It isn’t flashy, but really fits the Folk Rock and Singer-Songwriter style!
It’s really a shame that this album has weaker moments. At its best moments, this album has some near perfect tracks, particularly ‘Getting Bright At Night’. However, so much of this album is generic, pretty much the entire second half feels like filler with a couple decent moments. On the other hand, I did particularly enjoy the Noise Rock-focused parts with guitar feedback, I think it made the album more interesting and gave it depth. Although I was very disappointed at the lack of consistency, at least I’ve discovered a few new songs that I really enjoy, though they were few and far between!
This is a really enjoyable album! it definitely peaks very early into the album, I think 'Something For The Weekend' should have been more central, around track 6 or 7. The first 3 tracks are brilliant and pretty fun, the last 2 also were, as well as 'If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You'. Essentially, what I'm saying is that this album might fall off towards the middle, but you're never far from a great track and even the weakest tracks are still fun!
What a fun album! From a musical perspective, this isn't brilliant, typical Western guitar and some basic bass. However, the songwriting is fantastic, I mentioned this last time, but it's necessary, it's an album all about Cowboy storytelling. The highlight of the album for me was 'Big Iron', but 'El Paso' was a close second! Lots of people struggle to enjoy this album because of its 'Cowboy' style and can't look past some of the dated factors, but I think it's necessary to take into account the culture of when the album was released to get a proper understanding of the album's meaning!
This was boring. It's Punk, a genre I don't particularly love, but it's also really same-y throughout. 'White Girl' was a great track, but I really don't think there's anything else to write about it. It has some catchier tracks, however, if I was wanting Punk music of high-quality, I would look elsewhere. Ray Manzarek produced it as well, what a fall-off! From playing keyboard in one of the greatest bands of all-time to producing a weak Punk album!
This is a Trip-Hop masterpiece! Blue Lines is my first impression of Massive Attack; it's safe to say that I have very high hopes for the rest of their work! I haven't listened to much music in the Trip-Hop genre, but I definitely will after hearing this. Mezzanine is another album by Massive Attack that I'm now motivated to listen to, I already know and love 'Angel' and 'Teardrop' from that album. On this album though, I'd have to say that 'Safe From Harm' was the obvious highlight, it was a perfect introduction and really introduces you to the themes and style of the album. I wasn't quite as fond of the Reggae-style tracks, I love Reggae music, but some of the Trip-Hop elements don't work very well with it! Tricky is an absolute legend and it was great to hear him on this album, but most of the highlights were from Shara Nelson, someone who I hadn't heard of before this!
This is what people mean by Dad-Rock ! Admittedly, it's not great. Instrumentally, Frampton proves to be a great guitarist, but that isn't everything that makes music enjoyable. The lyrics aren't good at all, they lack any real meaning and aren't creative. However, the guitar solos are brilliant and there is obvious talent present on this album, these are the only things that stops this album from being weak though!
This is my second Johnny Cash album I have got from the generator in the space of 2 weeks. With most artists, I’d be disappointed having to hear multiple albums in a short space, but Johnny Cash is something special! In this album you can really hear his age, his voice is weaker and during his legendary cover of ‘Hurt’, he sounds as if he really is! ‘In My Life’ was a solid cover of The Beatles hit, though I think that The Beatles’ original was more emotional, despite Cash’s older voice making it sound more hopeless. ‘We’ll Meet Again’ was a perfect end to this album, it starts off deep, but really plateaus from an emotional standpoint when the choir enters, the Vera Lynn version was played at one of my family member’s funeral so the song has an even bigger meaning to me!
I didn't enjoy this as much as my first listen. There are highlights like 'If I Should Fall From Grace With God', 'Bottle Of Smoke' and 'Fairytale Of New York', but there's far too much filler. From 'Fiesta' there was only 1 or 2 tracks that I actually enjoyed. I'm not even going to mention 'Worms'! At least it's so short that you don't have to count it as a real factor in the album's rating, if you did, the album would be MUCH worse! As a whole, there is some notable tracks, but they are all in the first 15 minutes of the album and the worst tracks are very bland.
This fell off towards the end, but as someone who hates this style of music, this was actually solid! The first 3 tracks as well as 'The Story Of Beauty' were my favourite songs, the production was surprisingly great and despite the very generic style, there were some genuinely interesting lyrics! I don't like Destiny's Child's music and I didn't love this album, but this exceeded my expectations. I was expecting it to be awful, but instead it was tolerable with some highlights!
This is so groovy! From the first track to the last it was just constant funkiness and was insanely enjoyable! There are so many songs that have been sampled and I recognised such as ‘I’m Shady’ by Eminem sampling ‘Pusherman’ and ‘Egg Man’ by Beastie Boys sampling the title track! There isn’t too much to say aside from that, but it’s just exactly what you want in a Funk album, there’s gorgeous vocals and arrangements and an irresistible groove throughout. I hate dancing, but I felt like standing up and just feeling the music, this is surely a good sign for the music!
I love this style of music, but I unfortunately think that this was pretty weak. After getting 'Superfly' as my previous album from the generator, I was really looking forward to this, but it seems that Superfly was so strong that this just pales in comparison! They are both very funky Soul albums that serve as a soundtrack to iconic Blaxploitation movies, but I think that this album tries too hard compared to the beauty of Superfly. For example, 'Do Your Thing' is nearly 20 minutes, but I wouldn't say that anything too interesting happens after the first several minutes, it almost feels self-indulgent! I can appreciate some of the other soundtrack pieces, particularly 'Cafe Regio's', they were all pleasant with some interesting moments, but the absence of Hayes' vocals is quite disappointing. Conclusively, this album has some clear highlights, but feels unnecessarily long and has several moments throughout where uninteresting moments can drag.
Again, the score stays the same. Upon this relisten, I enjoyed 'I'm Waiting For The Day' and 'Pet Sounds' significantly more than in my previous listens! 'You Still Believe In Me' also stood out more, the harmonies are some of the best on the album. 'I Know There's An Answer' remained one of my least favourite tracks, while it's very enjoyable, I don't think that it's close to the high quality of every other song on the album.
This was great! After seeing some mixed reviews, I was skeptical about this, people especially hated the last track. I ended up really liking the albums as a whole, the first track is brilliant and despite being unconventional, the last track was actually really interesting and even funny! I can see where the appeal is lost, it’s quite experimental, but this a great, more artistic take on punk, it’s really interesting!
This has to be one of the greatest pop albums ever released! 'Shout', 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World', 'Mothers Talk' and 'Head Over Heels' are completely flawless songs, definitely some of the greatest ever released, but it's not like the other tracks are bad. In comparison, they're weaker, but it'd be very unfair to judge these tracks because they aren't perfect! My favourite would have to be 'Head Over Heels', there just aren't any other songs quite like it, the other ones that I claimed to be flawless are, but 'Head Over Heels' is in a league of its own!
This was my first impression of The White Stripes! I knew a couple of their hits, but this is the first time I've deliberately listened to one of their albums - I'm very impressed! It's primarily a high-energy Garage Rock album with hits like 'Seven Nation Army' and 'Ball And Biscuit', but there are softer moments. The 2 least liked songs are generally 'You've Got Her In Your Pocket' and 'Well It's True That We Love One Another', but I loved both of them! 'You've Got Her In Your Pocket' is actually in my top 5 from the album! I'll definitely be giving some more of their music (As well as some of Jack's solo music!) a listen in the future as this was a really enjoyable and catchy album!
This was fun, but incredibly generic. It's Britpop, so I wasn't expecting anything more than that, the songs are catchy, but they're very similar to each other as well as those of other Britpop artists. There were some real highlights of the Britpop era and it was great for people to start bands with their friends and sometimes make it big, but bands like Elastica show that there isn't always lots of progression from when writing an EP in your garage to making a major album. I really enjoyed 'Annie' and 'S.O.F.T.' as well as several others, but most were too similar to warrant separate mentions.
This wasn't downright bad, the first 3 tracks were actually really enjoyable! However, this album does feel like one long repetitive song! The lyrics don't really mean anything, but some of them are terrible and extremely cringeworthy, but the guitar is the main attraction so I wasn't expecting any insightful or intelligent lyrics. Hard Rock is very hit-or-miss, but I've found that it's often very repetitive and most albums in the genre have a couple hits then a whole lot of filler. This fits that description perfectly.
I don't like Coldplay. This is stronger than most of the music of theirs that I had previously heard, but this isn't great. The first 6 tracks were great, I don't love 'The Scientist', it's far too pop-centred for my liking, but 'Clocks' (Despite also being a major pop hit!) was much better and a lot more enjoyable. After 'Clocks', the album took a significant decline in quality and I didn't love a single track after it.
This is such a unique album. There’s so much freedom and energy on this album and I can really see why Cobain chose these guys for the iconic performance! This whole album is bursting with quirkiness and rawness! Continuing with my Nirvana comparison, the singer uses a similar vocal style to Cobain’s screeching, pushing their voice past the limits and getting a raspy sound, it’s very impressive! This is definitely an album that I’d revisit and I’d love to explore some more of Meat Puppets’ work, especially if any of it sounds like this!
This was boring. Britpop is a pretty uninteresting genre aside from some exceptions (Blur, Pulp, Suede [if you aren't Luke Haines!] The Auteurs, etc) - this isn’t one of them. It starts off with a couple decent tracks that aren’t anything special, but when you get about half-way through, it’s just impossible to enjoy! Nothing stands out and it’s actually bad at certain points. I didn’t hate this album, but I’d be very reluctant to revisit it.
This is a really weird one. I think that its biggest flaw is its biggest appeal, but also the reason why many people don’t like it. It’s just a very unusual album as a whole, imagine party music with crazy vocals and strange lyrics. There’s obviously the hit ‘Rock Lobster’, but aside from that I was very confused with what the albums was trying to do. This seems like the sort of album to have a cult following that thinks it’s the best album to ever be released! I didn’t really see the appeal, but I found it to be a fun listen!
This was really fun, but it definitely falls off quickly! The opener obviously had mixed reception due to his usage of the N-word, but he is playing the part of a redneck and used it satirically - pretty much mocking the racists! The rest of the albums fails to reach the heights of that song though, as it’s the highlight of the album; the rest of the album is a lot more generic, but anything Randy Newman makes is guaranteed to be an enjoyable listen!
This definitely falls off in the second half, I adored the first 3 tracks, but after that it became quite tiring. None of the songs were weak, but I kept getting distracted because none of the later songs really grabbed my attention. I wasn’t expecting to like any of this album, but I did end up enjoying a select few songs, so at least it was better than I expected!
Upon my first listen of this album, I was disappointed, it seemed fairly generic and was weaker than some of the bands that they would later inspire. However, now that I have relistened with greater knowledge surrounding The Strokes and their music, it's safe to say that this is one of the greatest albums of the 2000s! My favourite tracks were 'Is This It', 'Someday', 'Last Nite', 'Hard To Explain' and - surprisingly - 'Trying Your Luck'! I remember not particularly enjoying 'The Modern Age', despite it frequently being cited as a highlight from the album, but even on my relisten, I struggled to see the appeal, it was the one of the least interesting on the album! I don't think that there were any tracks that I disliked, but 'New York City Cops' is probably the least brilliant. Sadly, I don't really enjoy any of The Strokes' work after this, I particularly don't love 'Room On Fire' even though it's considered equal or superior to this album.
What a masterpiece! Seriously, this is some of the best Hip-Hop I have heard in a long time! This was produced by J Dilla and Kanye, arguably while both of them were at their very best and mixing that with the talent of Common, this is easily one of the greatest Rap albums of the 21st Century! 'GO!' and 'Faithful' were my favourite tracks, but it would be ignorant not to recognise every tracks as phenomenal. 'Testify' and 'Real People' were the weakest, but not many rappers (Or music artists in general!) would ever dream of making tracks as brilliant as them!
First of all, Dolly Parton sadly died yesterday. R.I.P, she seemed like a great person and made some great music, my negative opinion from this album doesn't reflect my feelings about the people involved, they're all fantastic, but this album doesn't present them that way. The cover is absolutely horrendous, but the music is also pretty awful! There were a couple tracks early on that I enjoyed, but after 'Wildflowers', there wasn't a single song that stood out and some were actually bad. It's a shame, each member is immensely talented, but together, they made one of the most generic and boring albums that I have ever heard.
This was decent. The opening track was brilliant, it was definitely the highlight of the album for me, but the rest was quite basic. I didn’t dislike any of it, but it felt pretty generic and similar throughout. There were a couple of better tracks towards the end, but it stayed consistent in being simply mediocre. I loved the first track though, that definitely save the album from being boring!
This remains one of Dylan’s best musical achievements! From ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ to ‘Desolation Row’ there isn’t really a single flaw, but there are definitely high points. Both of the aforementioned tracks as well as ‘Tombstone Blues’ and ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’ are arguably some of his greatest tracks overall. This album has a similar level of quality to ‘Blonde On Blonde’, but encapsulates it into a single record with his iconic ‘Electric’ style. To this day I prefer acoustic Dylan (Some of Bringing It All Back Home and Blonde On Blonde as well as the criminally underrated John Wesley Harding!), but if any album was going to make me love ‘Electric’ Dylan - it would be this one!
I think people can be a bit harsh on this album. It can be quite unfunny at times, but it’s quite theatrical and I find it literally impossible to not enjoy 2 Tone music! It might be a bit corny at times, but the album is so fun and bright that I can totally put the bad parts aside and enjoy this!
I have never loved Elton John’s music, I found a lot of it to be too safe or just not interesting, but this is a brilliant shift from the work of his that I had previously heard! ‘Tiny Dancer’ is obviously the big hit from this album, everyone knows the chorus and it’s one of his greatest tracks, but ‘Indian Sunset’ surprised me, it might have been my favourite on the album! Some of those high-pitched vocals and the storytelling are amazing and unlike anything else I have heard from Elton. I will definitely give some more of his early music a listen now that I’ve enjoyed this!
This is exactly what I expected when I saw it was ZZ Top - an incredibly generic Blues Rock album with a couple fun tracks. While I didn’t hate this album, it was definitely a less enjoyable listen than most 70s rock, there’s no innovation and it’s just very basic overall. It has their big hit ‘La Grange’, but again, it’s quite mediocre compared to other artists’ hits.
There are some great tracks on this, particularly 'Ladybird (Green Grass)', 'It's A Curse' and 'Paranoia Man In Cheap Shit Room', but as a whole, it felt quite mediocre consistently. It was always fun and catchy, but I felt like there was a fundamental part missing. The vocals are great and I found the unusual last track to be interesting, but there just wasn't enough consistency for me to really love it.
This album has everything, from Classic Rock to Folk to Hard Rock to Avant-Garde, but it never loses any quality. 'Wild Honey Pie' and 'Revolution 9' are considered the weakest - or least accessible! - tracks on the album, but the former is too short to really dislike and the latter really grows on you, I find myself enjoying 'Revolution 9' often! Despite its large runtime, there are rarely moments of boredom as it is incredibly consistent, even by The Beatles' standards. The one issue with this album though is the fact that you can hear The Beatles collapse. Throughout their previous 2-3 albums, you hear each member develop their own sound, Paul's is whimsical, John's is cynical, George's is spiritual and Ringo rarely gets time to do anything except for masterfully accompanying with wit and drums, but while their unique musical styles are shown on this album, it becomes clearer that their only connection as a band is their instrumentation. The deceptive Lennon-McCartney credits mislead you to think that the songs are collaborations, but did John really contribute anything to 'Blackbird'? Over the next year, they would collapse through the catastrophic 'Let It Be' sessions, but after the trip to India, nothing was the same for The Beatles.
This wasn’t terrible, but it was definitely lacking in variety. Every track sounds the exact same and has that really irritating polished 80s feel. ‘Absolute’ was solid and sounds like something off of 1999 by Prince, but the whole album had a very generic and pointless synth-led theme and really didn’t appeal to me.
I’m not really into the clubbing and dancing scene, but this album is clearly designed for that atmosphere; it was definitely an unusual listen while sitting down on my sofa! However, despite this, I still really enjoyed it. I didn’t know that Fatboy Slim made half of these songs, lots of them were very recognisable and incredibly famous - ‘Praise You’ and ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ in particular. This wasn’t some masterpiece, but it was a very easy listen and put me in a good mood.
I definitely enjoyed this. The first track was great, but it was definitely the weakest of the bunch. The rest of the album has quite a typical Prog and Jazz Fusion theme that was intriguing, but didn't blow me away. By the end of the album, I had had enough, but it's surprising quite how entertaining this is for an album that lasts over an hour - most albums start dragging much earlier!
I don't quite know how to describe this, it's very psychedelic, but also strangely hypnotic. I've not heard much Krautrock music before and haven't heard anything by Can before, but this has definitely piqued my curiosity; the whole album is very strange, particularly the 20-minute long closer 'Bel-Air'. My favourite track would have to be 'Moonshake' though, it was just so weird - I loved it!
I still believe that this album is overrated, but this time around I did really enjoy it. It obviously has the big songs like ‘Vicious’, ‘Perfect Day’, ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ and ‘Satellite Of Love’, but aside from them, ‘Andy’s Chest’ and ‘Make Up’ were also highlights for me on this listen. Bowie really turned anything he touched (Whether that be as a vocalist or producer!) into something special and this album is bursting with Bowie’s little quirks. Reed also proves competent on this album and finally receives the mainstream attention that he deserved for so long!
I enjoyed this much more on this relisten! ‘David Watts’ and ‘Death Of A Clown’ open the album well, and ‘Tin Soldier Man’ and ‘Situation Vacant’ have really grown on me from my previous listen. It obviously closes with the masterpiece ‘Waterloo Sunset’ and it’s safe to say that it’s one of The Kinks’ greatest tracks! This is definitely top 3 albums by The Kinks for me!
My opinion is pretty much identical to my previous listen of this album, I think that the music is fascinating and the traditional Indian instrumentation is brilliant. However, as I said last time, the nature of this album makes it become quite boring by the time you reach the last track. It’s incredibly calming, but the tranquility did bore me at times.
I didn’t love this on my initial listen, but on a more casual relisten, I could see the fun in this. This is obviously meant for clubbing or dancing and I do neither, but the music is so catchy that it’s hard to not enjoy even while sat down at home. The popular songs were my favourite, but I enjoyed the other tracks a lot more this time around. This definitely isn’t one of my favourite albums, but I’m glad that I could find some enjoyment from it this time around!
New Wave and Power Pop go hand-in-hand and they can also be wildly hit-and-miss, but this is absolutely one of the greatest albums to come from the genre! There are massively popular tracks - and some lesser known ones! However, even the tracks that I’d never heard before were absolutely brilliant. ‘11:59’ and the closing track in particular stood out to me as the highlights as well as ‘One Way Or Another’!
This was pretty boring. The style is unfamiliar to me, it seems to blend Blues with some African elements, but despite it being interesting, the music itself didn’t appeal to me. It goes on for almost an hour and I didn’t really feel like I have got anything from the album except for a bit of culture. As I mentioned before, this was definitely interesting, but I’d be lying if I said that I liked it.
I feel the same about this album as I did on my previous listen. By nature, Blues music is very repetitive and centred around similar structures and playing styles, so when you've heard 3-4 tracks, you've heard them all! The first 2 tracks as well as 'I Feel So Good' are very entertaining and much more engaging than weaker tracks like 'Soon Forgotten' and the last 2 track. Also - did we really need 'Got My Mojo Working' twice!?
This was interesting. I found the Western approach to instrumentation to be very interesting - it definitely contrasts the vocals, but that’s what makes this so intriguing. While I didn’t love the whole album and found it to become weaker after about 5-6 tracks, I can definitely see the appeal and might listen to some more of their music.
This was quite underwhelming. I’ve always heard brilliant things about PJ Harvey’s music and recognised this album’s cover, but this isn’t what I was expecting. It’s definitely an enjoyable Alt Rock album, but there aren’t enough moments that really made me think that this was something special. ‘This Mess We’re In’ was the obvious highlight for me, especially Yorke’s vocals, but aside from that and the opener - ‘Big Exit’ - there wasn’t that much that interested me. I think I’ll give this album 4 stars on the 1001 Album Generator, but it’s definitely in the lower end.
There were some very fun tracks, but this is incredibly safe. There isn’t really anything interesting that happens and it feels far too polished, but it definitely has catchy moments and functions well as a Synthpop album. I doubt I’ll revisit this, but I guess it’s quite fun.
This is phenomenal! It might be the mainstream Jazz of the 50s and not anything experimental, but Brubeck’s work with time signatures never fails to amaze me. There’s the obvious highlight of ‘Take Five’, but the whole album is some of the most pleasant Cool Jazz you’ll ever hear. This is definitely a Must Listen!
This was pretty boring. I love lots of older Country Pop, but this really wasn’t it. It felt very basic, and I’m very tired of people overrated all of Dolly’s work, she seemed like a great person, but she was quite a basic artist. Nothing on this album stood out to me, but several tracks were enjoyable. I don’t imagine I’ll revisit this.
I wasn’t expecting to love this. I saw it labeled as Psychedelic Pop and Neo-Psychedelia, which are genres that I often struggle with. However, the music was a lot more pop-py and accessible as opposed to some of the other albums that I didn’t enjoy. ‘Time To Pretend’, ‘The Youth’ and ‘Kids’ were my favourite tracks, they were catchy, psychedelic and nostalgic and the main melodies on ‘Time To Pretend’ and ‘Kids’ are amongst the greatest of all-time. The only flaw is the second half. While it isn’t bad, it is a significant downgrade from the first half which is packed full of hits.
This feels like a more powerful, female-led Franz Ferdinand! I’ve been looking for an album like this for a while, it feels arty enough to have significance, but also fun enough to be an enjoyable listen, there’s almost a heavier Wet Leg sound with the vocals! ‘Maps’ is the big hit, and also my favourite, but the whole album is bursting with passion and energy!
This is what a double album should be! One side has his more Punk and Blues-adjacent tracks and the other has some artier, more Gospel-style and choir-led tracks. The first disc starts on a high, with 'Get Ready For Love', but 'Nature Boy' was likely my favourite. Whereas, the second disc is practically flawless throughout the entire duration! It'd be hard to pick favourites, but: 'Breathless', 'Easy Money', 'Supernaturally' and obviously 'O Children', were the most enjoyable to me. Funnily enough, I was expecting to much prefer the first disc - the more Blues-y and Gothic style is much more appealing to me. However, the second disc was actually my favourite by a large margin. This shocked me, as I prefer Cave's earlier work and am not as fond of his later work, and this album shows both sides directly next to each other!
There’s a few decent tracks on here, but as a whole, this is a pretty weak album. They interpolated ‘Ticket To Ride’ by The Beatles on the closing track, but the song was weak and I don’t really think that the whole Beatles interpolation was very well done. ‘Mad Cyril’ was actually a great track, but that’s what made it stand out. I’d definitely listen to a few individual tracks, but I don’t see myself revisiting this as an album too often.
I was excited to hear this as soon as I saw that it was a Trip-Hop album, and I was right to be excited! The intro track 'Keeping Pigs Together' is arguably as good as any track from the entire genre, then 'Some Kind Of Kink' comes in, it starts off weak, but when you start vibing with it, it's really infectious! I think that there's a big decline after this though, 'The Rough And The Quick', as well as 'They're Hanging Me Tonight' stood out, but most of the album was quite repetitive and unnecessary. I don't think that this is weak by any means, but if it were more consistent, I really think that I would have loved the album a lot more.
I'm not a major fan of Metal, but Alt Metal is more to my liking, and seeing Hardcore Punk as a genre also gave me high expectations. This isn't a masterpiece by any means, it's a pretty basic Metal album of the 80s, but 'I Against I' and 'Secret 77' were both brilliant tracks.
I wasn't expecting to like this, but this is honestly one of my favourite discoveries from the 1001 Albums list! 'Your New Cuckoo' opened the album on a high, it was followed by another 2 brilliant tracks. There's then the mid-album peak, with 'Step On Me' and 'Lovefool' both being 10/10 songs, and 'Losers' not being too far behind. The cover of Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man' was very different, but I actually quite liked it, but the album ends on another high, with 'Choke' being one of the greatest tracks on the whole album. I'll definitely be exploring some more of The Cardigans' discography over time!
This is a grower! I remember disliking this on my first listen, but now I can appreciate this as a masterpiece! Despite being unpopular choices, I wasn't too fond of 'Sister Midnight' or 'Nightclubbing', but 'Baby' really piqued my interest! Then there's 'China Girl'! This is leagues better than Bowie's version; I think that the version here is much darker and the lead guitar feels a lot more passionate and unique, but 'Let's Dance' as a whole album never appealed to me and Iggy really puts some personality into it! Then there's the 3 final tracks, all of which are near-perfect! 'Dum Dum Boys' was great, 'Tiny Girls' was a bit of a step backwards, but the closer - 'Mass Production' - is one of the greatest tracks I've heard in a while, it was engaging and even leant into Industrial or Noise Rock at certain points - if you know me, you know I LOVE a bit of that! I'd also like to mention that I've never listened to this album the same after hearing the tragic story of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, this was the very last album he heard before committing suicide, in fact, the needle was still spinning on the record when he was found. Devastating of course, but you can definitely hear the influence that this album had on Joy Division's work, particularly on Closer.
This was weak. There were a few moments of catchiness throughout, but the whole thing was too long and very boring. It’s a House record with nothing interesting and no real redeeming qualities. I’m sad to award this my first 1 star of the 1001 Album generator.
This was actually decent! I was expecting to dislike this album; it seemed generic and boring. However, I ended up finding it to be quite a nice listen! It was quite generic, but it was very smooth, and the production was great!
I’m embarrassed to say that I actually quite liked this! The best tracks were definitely the singles and popular tracks, and there were evidently weaker tracks that didn’t stand up to the rest of the album, but as a whole, this is a really solid Pop album. There’s nothing that significant about this album, it was just another generic Pop record of the late 90s, but something about it feels slightly more impactful and unique than some of the other worse albums at the time.
I was glad to get this on the generator this morning! Nina Simone really has a passion in her voice that makes you feel empowered. The obvious highlight is 'Four Women', the final line never fails to make me shiver, the way she sings 'Peaches' is one of the most beautiful, yet devastating moments in recorded music! 'Lilac Wine' is also a highlight, simply for being haunting and 'Break Down And Let It All Out' was a much more standard track thematically, but had some of the greatest energy on the whole album. 'Wild In The Wind' is likely the most overrated track on the album, it goes on for too long in my opinion, but it's still a brilliant track. Simone has THE greatest voice in Soul and she deserves her title as the 'High Priestess' - all of her music is honestly breathtaking!
In terms of cultural significance and impact, this album is near flawless, it's message is vital and the results that it brought, both to the intended cause, and his personal life, were massive! His own mother got killed, and when researching this album, a chaotic performance in Ghana ended with a riot, resulting in a ban from the country! However, where this album thrives from an impactful perspective, I think that it can sometimes be overrated from the perspective of enjoyment. Both of the tracks were very enjoyable, but I think I'd rate each of them about an 8/10. I don't factor cultural significance and impact into my ratings, as I rate based on personal enjoyment, but most of the moments that I enjoyed the most about this album was researching the context surrounding it!
I love New Order! The hits are great and the weaker tracks are still very enjoyable and listenable. I somehow hadn't heard a single track from this album before, so it was great to hear all of these tracks for the first time. You can definitely still feel the Post-Punk style that Ian Curtis left on the members, but New Order manages to balance the haunting style, that their ex-bandmate brought to Joy Division, with Synthpop and Dance influences. My favourite tracks were 'Love Vigilantes', 'Sunrise' and 'Sub-Culture', though the whole album was very consistent!
I don't really like Madonna, I can admire her more than some of the more recent and less original Popstars, but her music has just never really appealed to me. Some of the production was very interesting, and I liked some of the Glitch Pop moments, there was definitely more to enjoy on this album than on some of her other work. 'Nobody's Perfect' was quite weak, and the cover of 'American Pie' was weird and didn't fit in at all. That being said, I did find moments of enjoyment, which isn't something that I usually find with Madonna's music, so this album is redeemable by some of those factors.
I've had a major shift in opinion! I wasn't in a good mood when first listening, therefore my experience was impaired, however, now I love this album! My favourite tracks were the one that really showcased Jansch's guitar playing: 'Strolling Down The Highway', 'I Have No Time', 'Courting Blues' and 'Angie' were those. However, 2 songs in particular were so exceptional that I must mention them separately - 'Needle Of Death' is haunting and beautiful and 'Dreams Of Love' has the most perfect guitar that I've ever heard. This is really a masterpiece of Contemporary Folk!
This is the first time I've ever properly listened to Joni Mitchell, and I'm very impressed! I always assumed that she was going to be a pretty basic Folk artist, but this album shows a much more Jazz-Pop centric side of Mitchell, but some of the most Rock-themed moments were my favourites - especially on 'Raised On Robbery'. However, I think that the album shines on moments like 'Court And Spark', 'Help Me' and 'Free Man In Paris', all of which were quite romantic, without sounding sappy or forced. Finally, I'd like to mention the themes on the album, I find that there's the side criticising the commitment of romance, however there's almost a feeling of longing and hoping for a connection with a lover, and no one conveys that quite like Joni Mitchell. This is definitely one of my favourite discoveries that the generator has gave me, even if it's not one of my favourite albums!
This album really switched up for me. 2 of the most loved songs open the album, and if I'm being totally honest, neither of them really appealed to me that much, I didn't find them to be as great as people said. However, as soon as 'I Think I'm In Love' started, I knew that the album was something special! After that, the whole album was pretty much pure Space Rock brilliance, from some Post Rock and Noise Rock influence, to the fantastic vocals, there wasn't much to dislike. My favourite tracks were: 'Electricity', 'No God Only Religion' and 'Cool Waves', but it's really hard to pick favourites on an album full of gems!
Wow! I heard so much hatred towards this album - well, not hatred - but definitely strong negative criticism, and I really don't see what they don't like. 'The One You Love' and 'The Art Teacher' (Especially the latter!) are some of the greatest tracks that I've heard in a while, and even weaker tracks like 'Agnus Dei' and 'Crumb By Crumb' were absolutely great! It's also lovely to see ANOHNI on feature, they're on so many albums, and it's a lovely surprise when you see them featured - as expected, the track was an album highlight!
I usually get worried when I see that my next album to listen to is by Neil Young, I always think that it's going to be really basic Country Rock with some Folk influences, but each time I listen to one of his albums, I end up loving them! This is no exception! I didn't love the opening track, but 'Speakin' Out' was potentially the greatest track on the album. The run from 'Borrowed Tune' to 'Albuquerque' was also pretty much flawless! After that, I didn't love the last 3-4 songs, but the whole album flew by and is definitely worth a listen for anyone who likes Young's music!
Talking Heads are really the masters of fusing quirkiness and anxiety with dance-y music and a shockingly punk-like attitude! David Byrne really went all-out on this album, and it's definitely my favourite of their albums so far. From track 1-9 it was completely flawless, with heights like 'Cities' and 'Heaven', but even the 2-3 final tracks were great, they weren't even comparable to the - near-perfect - rest of the album, but 'Animals' in particular was great. New Wave is very hit-and-miss, but Talking Heads make it so unique and sarcastic that it feels like they have their own style that no one else can even touch!
I only really knew Winwood from Traffic, which is a band I never really got into as much as other people, his music was great, but felt too generic. However, this album took me by surprise, there's much more of a Pop Rock approach, instead of a Blues-y sound, and the opener 'While You See A Chance' is genuinely one of the greatest songs I have heard in a while! The rest of the album is solid, but I can't explain how much I love 'While You See A Chance', it's going to be one of my most frequently played songs this month - I've already been replaying it! 'Spanish Dancer' was the other highlight for me, but it doesn't seem to be very well-received. I don't understand the criticism that this album receives, it's incredibly fun and catchy, and even the low-points are still great in their own right!
I was hoping to love this, and there were definitely moments that I did. 'One Nation Under A Groove' and 'Maggot Brain' were phenomenal, particularly the former, but for an album that nearly runs on for an hour, I found it very easy to lose interest. After 'Who Says A Funk Band Can't Play Rock?', I'd struggle to list highlights (Save 'Maggot Brain'), because so much of it is too repetitive. A 10-minute long song can be great when there's interesting things going on, but when it feels like a whole lot of the same funk-y stuff that the whole album is comprised of, it's much harder to keep interest. That being said, this was definitely a funky album, the bass throughout it infectious, and the guitar is divine, but I doubt that I'd revisit much of this album by choice.
Admittedly, this runs on for too long, but the sheer amount of fantastic tracks more than makes up for the weaker ones. 'Things Done Changed', 'Gimme The Loot', 'Ready To Die', 'Juicy', 'Big Poppa' and 'Suicidal Thoughts' were the highlights for me, and I think that having that many tracks, which are all phenomenal, on one album, is a feat of its own. There's the infamous 'Fuck Me' skit / interlude, but I definitely think that there's worse skits from other artists, and it's just a bit weird, not actually terrible. The production on this is brilliant, it'd be hard to pick standout examples, but there wasn't a single song where I though - "I wish this had better production!". Hip-Hop can be very hit-and-miss, but it's safe to say that this is definitely a great album, with a variety of hits, and a multitude of great tracks!
I ended up loving this. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I knew Lauryn Hill's work, but understood that this would be a lot more centred on Hip-Hop, but it worked in the best way possible. 'Ready Or Not', 'Zealots', 'Killing Me Softly' and 'Cowboys', were my personal favourites. I found the whole album to be quite soulful, but 'Killing Me Softly' was really the peak of that element, but even in the Hip-Hop parts, I found the lyricism to be genius. It's full of so many references, and so much smart and - at times - funny wordplay! I'm pretty sure that at one point they literally rhyme "Orgies" with "Porgy and Bess", and that could potentially be the greatest line I have EVER heard!
I really wasn't impressed by the first track. I found it quite uninteresting compared to the rest of the album, but luckily, the next track - 'I Don't Believe In You' - was likely the greatest on the album! The whole album was solid, it was very art-y, and despite feeling like a standard New Wave album from the '80s, I doubt I could compare it to any other albums at the time. By the end, I was ready for it to finish, but it felt surprisingly fresh for the first 5-6 tracks. I'm sure that if it was shortened, 'Time It's Time' would have been another contender for the greatest track, but sadly it runs on for a bit too long for my liking.
I was expecting something great, as Dinosaur Jr. is a brilliant band, and Barlow was a valued member, but this really let me down. Much of the album was decent: 'Soul And Fire', 'Cliche', 'Sacred Attention' and 'Bouquet For A Siren' to name several, but it has the same problem that most album with a plethora of short songs have, there's too much filler, much of which is quite undeveloped and boring at times. I didn't dislike this album, but it felt like most Indie and Slacker Rock of the time, but just weaker in just about every way.
Upon this listen, I found this album to be slightly weaker than on my original listen. Obviously, 'Candy Says', 'Pale Blue Eyes', 'The Murder Mystery' and 'After Hours; are all phenomenal, but I found that between 'Jesus' and 'That's The Story Of My Life' that there was a solid amount of tracks that I'd consider to just be decent, most notably 'Beginning To See The Light', which I didn't enjoy that much. I think that the amount of brilliant songs outweighs the weaker tracks, and that makes for a REALLY enjoyable album experience, but I think that it could have done with some polishing in the middle.
I really wanted to like this, but Thrash Metal has never really done anything for me. I found tracks like 'Angel Of Death' and 'Raining Blood' to interest me, but much of the other tracks on the album were too short to leave a real lasting impression. The drumming was fantastic, and so was the guitar, but its length, mixed with my distaste for Thrash and Death Metal made this an interesting listen, but sadly it just didn't work for me.
I've never got massively into Prog Rock - aside from Pink Floyd, I've never gone much deeper. Rush is obviously one of the largest bands in the genre, but I have always been intimidated by Prog, it seems very centred around Mythology and the Medieval! This took a much different approach. Instead, this has much more of a Pop-centric and New Wave-adjacent take on Prog! I found 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Limelight' to be my favourite tracks; the drums and guitar were incredible! However, I didn't enjoy the second half that much. 'The Camera Eye' is loved by most, but I just didn't get it - at least the album ends on a high with 'Vital Signs'!
I'm tired of pretending to like this album. 'Crosstown Traffic' and 'All Along The Watchtower' are phenomenal, but the rest of the album is much too bloated. Were 'Voodoo Chile' and '1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)' closer to 8 minutes, they would have been much better. The tracks are pretty standard in the first half, but the second half drags on so much. I said it in my previous review of this album, but I just think that this should have been a standard 40-minute release.
I think that British Folk Rock is slowly becoming one of my favourite genres, I loved Fairport Convention's music, so listening to this was great! The guitar playing was absolutely great, and the singing and harmonies were also a highlight. While much of the music sounds quite similar - both in terms of sound and style - I still found enjoyment in each songs, particularly 'When I Get To The Border', 'I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight', 'We Sing Hallelujah' and 'The Great Valerio'. I had listened to Richard's most recent album (to date!) very recently, and it's great to see that he still makes music that is fantastic nowadays!
I was excited when I saw that the generator gave a an album by A Tribe Called Quest. They're undoubtably one of the greatest Hip-Hop groups of all-time, and while this might not be their most well-known album, it absolutely deserves as much recognition as The Low End Theory! The sampling on this is absolutely insane - there was 'All You Need Is Love' by The Beatles, 'Sir Duke' by Stevie Wonder, and most notably 'Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed! That's only naming a few! I'd say that this album begins pretty much flawless, and keeps up the 10/10 tracks up until the big hit - 'Can You Kick It?'. After that, the quality does decrease, but the wit on 'Ham 'N' Eggs', and the catchy instrumentals of 'Rhythm (Devoted To The Art Of Moving Butts' and 'Description Of A Fool' really shows that there isn't a bad moment on this album. I controversially wasn't a fan of 'Bonita Applebum' either, but it's safe to say that this is the definition of a 5-star Hip-Hop album!
I went into this with low expectations, but was somehow let down even more. The intro tracks immediately sets this up as a pretty bland and uninteresting album, but then it gets slightly redeemed with 'Ocean Size' and 'Had A Dad', but from there it's just a constant wave of uninteresting songs with weak vocals. The guitar is the only real highlight of this album, as I did really enjoy elements of the lead guitar section. One thing I will compliment is the length, some albums from the late '80s to the mid '00s (A period that this album narrowly avoids!) run on for almost an hour, but this settles in at a standard length of 45-minutes, which means that it might be boring, but at least you don't suffer for too long!
Nick Drake is really consistent in making flawless albums, by really consistent, I of course mean that he hasn't made a single weak song! After hearing Five Leaves Left, I was sceptical about this album, as I assumed it'd have the second album effect, where a perfect debut is attempted to be replicated, only more boring and feeling like a cheap copy of itself. Instead, Nick Drake creates an album of almost equal quality! In some of the early tracks, I heard a bit of Belle And Sebastian, if they weren't listening to Nick Drake while writing the whole If You're Feeling Sinister album, I'd be incredibly shocked! 'Hazey Jane II' was likely my favourite tracks, but the next 2 tracks were arguably better, but the beloved 'Northern Sky' didn't do too much for me. This album definitely leant into a jazzier side of Drake, but I'd argue that some of the instrumentals were much stronger than on Five Leaves Left. Nothing on this album compared to the beautiful 'Fruit Tree' from Five Leaves Left, but the rest of the material from that album is on par with this one, and that's a difficult feat to achieve!
I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did. I find that The Who are very overrated, and I only recognised 2 songs from this album, so went in blind, but with pretty low expectations. Turns out this is brilliant! 'Baba O'Riley' is obviously one of the greatest songs of all-time, so are 'Behind Blue Eyes' and 'Won't Get Fooled Again', but I was surprised by how great 'Bargain' and 'Getting In Tune' were! I was disappointed by 'My Wife' and 'The Song Is Over', but this is likely my favourite album by The Who!
I think that this album is where I start to draw a line with the whole Noise genre. I find that this starts off intriguing and provocative, but becomes taxing by the end, especially considering the lack of an audible bass throughout! Albini was a genius, and this album really shows his music at one of the rawest points, but I'd much rather listen to an album like Surfer Rosa by Pixies, or my personal favourite Albini production - After Murder Park by The Auteurs! 'Kerosene' was a clear highlight, and easily tops most of Albini's musical works, purely due to the lyrics and meaning, but I found a surprisingly large amount of enjoyment in 'Jordan, Minnesota', which was a very fitting opener for an album like this. I think this will get 4 stars on the generator website, but it's in the slightly lower end, and is bordering 3-star territory by the end!
I have a new rating system on AOTY since I first reviewed this, so the change in rating doesn't reflect my feelings for the album! This is really a great example of what Indie Rock should be, and 2010 was such a great time. It still had the atmosphere and quality of the iconic 2000's Indie scene, but wasn't released after 2013 (I consider 2013 the death of consistently good quality Indie music, the bass is often overpowering and I find most of the music to drone and go straight through me!). I find the early tracks to be the best, with 'The Suburbs', 'Ready To Start' and 'Modern Man' being the album's primary highlights. Later on, there's the brilliant 'Deep Blue', but despite it's universal appreciation, I still didn't find myself loving 'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)'! This is a very nostalgic album for many, both literally and sonically, though the sonic nostalgia resonates closer to me, with the heavily atmospheric sound.
I've never listened to Supergrass before, I knew their major hit - 'Alright' - but never looked deeper in their discography, as lots of Britpop is pretty dull. This wasn't anything majorly special, but the first half is really something! Track 1-7 are all brilliant, especially 'In It For The Money', 'Richard III', 'Tonight' and 'Sun Hits The Sky', but the second half does let it down. I didn't dislike the closing track as much as some others, but it's undoubtably the weakest track on the album. The guitar playing was great throughout the album, and I like the vocalist, but it's hard to rate an album like this too highly, I'm going to give this a generous 4 stars!
I think I preferred this on a relisten. On my initial listen, I had heard several albums before it and was likely burnt out and couldn't fully appreciate the album. This time I loved the title track, but 'I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better' was actually my favourite track from the album. I found more enjoyment from 'It's No Use' and 'Chimes Of Freedom' and definitely noted the influence of this album much more - the guitar tone was absolutely revolutionary! Even if The Byrds were a glorified Dylan cover band, there's definitely a level of depth that they explore in their later albums, and the harmonies alone make this worth a listen!
This was surprisingly great! I've never loved Neo-Psychedelia, so I went it with pretty low expectations, and they were more than surpassed! 'Earthquake' was a perfect opener, but I think that it was followed by a series of weaker tracks. There's then the brilliant three-track run, with 'Desire Lines', 'Basement Scene' (My personal favourite from the album!) and then 'Helicopter'. I'd say that the last 3 tracks are pretty weak, and they do close the album poorly, but the rest of the album more than makes up for it.
I don't think that Funk is for me. Aside from one of Isaac Hayes' albums, I've never loved much in the genre, and this is no exception. I didn't dislike this album at all, there were moments on 'The Cisco Kid', 'Where Was You At' and 'The World Is A Ghetto' that I ended up really enjoying, but the repetitive nature made me lose interest after a couple minutes of each song. 'The World Is A Ghetto' really engaged me, and was definitely the highlight of the album - it was funky and catchy, and remained enjoyable throughout. I don't have too much to say about this album, but it seemed pretty mediocre to me!
I'm keeping my score the same as on my first listen. This is a brilliant Soul album, and Franklin has an incredible voice, which is best shown (in my opinion!) on my favourite track from here - 'Money Won't Change You'! I think that this is really consistent, there's never 2 tracks back-to-back, that I don't find myself enjoying. The highlights for me were: 'Chain Of Fools', 'Money Won't Change You', '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' and 'Good To Me As I Am To You'. Each of these have brilliant arrangements, and show Franklin's voice to its fullest, but I didn't particularly love 'Ain't No Way', which is very loved. The album was very short, but I think that it's a good length, as you never become bored, so the album's energy never overstays its welcome! That being said, I would have loved to hear more, but I've been left very satisfied by this.
This was actually great! On my first listen, I didn't particularly like this, I was listening to a lot of Psychedelic Rock, and this seemed quite generic and boring in comparison, and while I still think that it's quite basic, I definitely found enjoyment in it! The first 3 songs are all great, and the guitar work was great for 1967! My actual favourite track would likely be 'Superbird', which was just a really fun song - it reminded me of Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues! 'Love' and 'Bass Strings' were also very solid, but the last 2 tracks did disappoint, especially 'Grace', which ran on for far too long.
On my first listen of this album, which was a while back, I didn't really feel anything strongly towards this album, it was decent, and I loved 'Radio Cure', but nothing about it really stood out to me, but today I went in with a totally open mind and was greatly surprised! This was pretty much flawless from start to finish. The run from track 1-9 was solely comprised of songs that I would consider to be 10/10, with highlights of 'Radio Cure', 'Jesus, Etc', 'Ashes Of American Flags' and 'Heavy Metal Drummer'. Most of the albums follows a typical Indie Rock and Alt-Country sound, which I already love, but there are some surprising elements of both Post-Rock and Noise throughout, and I think that Wilco pulls them off perfectly. There's never any real unpleasantness, even in some of the harsher sections (which are quite uncommon!), but it really gives the album some extra depth, and as a major fan of those genres, the influence and sound of this album is vastly appreciated by me. This is what I want to hear when giving an album 5 stars!
I went in with a pretty open mind, as I'd never heard Lana Del Ray's music, but I did assume it to be very Pop-centric, and was pleasantly surprised! The Folk Pop elements in the first several tracks were great, with both the vocals and lyrics being great! My personal favourite track on this album would have to be 'Dark But Just A Game', because the instrumental was fantastic, it showed a different side of her music production-wise, and was generally the most enjoyable track in my opinion. I think that towards the end, it does start to become slightly weaker, with 'Yosemite' and 'Breaking Up Slowly' being noticeably weaker than the first half, but as a whole, this album was very enjoyable, and full of intelligent lyrics and beautiful instrumentals.
I'm not a big fan of Afrobeat, and wasn't especially fond of some of Kuti's other work, but this was really enjoyable! I struggled to get into this album, I do enjoy a lot of Jazz, but primarily instrumental music really has to be something special for it to resonate with me, and it wasn't until the third track that I really felt that. The third and fourth track cumulatively make up over 25-minutes, and they were great, but due to my lack of real appreciation for the first half, I'd find it unfair to give this a high rating. Regardless, this was very enjoyable, and Baker's drumming was phenomenal - as per usual!
This is one of the lowest rated albums on the generator, and it really shows that some people are scared of interesting music. For comparison, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac is the highest rated, while Rumours is phenomenal, and likely a 5-star album, it's safe and Pop-py. It doesn't have the same effect that an album like this has. In my opinion, this is of equal quality to the albums in the highest-rated, purely for the unique sound. While Noise Rock and experimentation is nothing new, this album shows it in such a raw way, that I find it hard to see how some people don't love it. I get that tracks like 'Read The Book That Wrote Itself' are a bit tiring, but much of this album is purely brilliant Experimental songs! The joint lowest-rated song (At the time of writing!) is 'If Your A Wizard Then Why Do You Wear Glasses?', which was an album highlight for me! I can definitely see the struggle some people could have with this album, but come on, it's fantastic!
As much as I like to hate on RHCP, this is a pretty unhatable album! I mean, the first 4 (or arguably 6!) tracks are amongst the band's very best, and are funky, catchy and energetic! Flea is obviously a legendary bassist, but I'd argue that Smith and Frusciante offer more for this album. Kiedis' voice is instantly iconic, but after several tracks, I did get a bit tired of it. In the second half, the great tracks are more spread out, but tracks like 'This Velvet Glove' and 'Road Trippin'' are really solid, and make this a consistently enjoyable album that's rarely weak!
