Rating: 4-4.5 (many beloved and memorable tracks)
Favorite tracks: Drive, Try Not to Breathe, Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Sweetness Follows, Man on the Moon, Nightswimming
A classic of my childhood and dad's collection. I love the more mantra-like performances from Michael Stipe. Incredibly rich and lush pallet. I sink into the haze of songs like Sweetness Follows as much as I giggle with the performance of Sidewinder. Influential on my love for jangle pop. Just a great record, one I will fondly recall for years still to come.
1. FUCK Mr self district rips (favorite)
2. Piggy's fun. Love the live drums interspersed through the mix. The emergence of the drums around 3 minutes was incredible. The wattery piano note is brillianly produced. As alienating a mantra as one can find.
3. Heresy feels a bit on the nose, but the guitar tone is nice and driving.
4. March of the Pigs final piano riff made me chuckle.
5. CLOSER! YEAHHHH!!!! Raw song, dear gracious.
6. Huh. Ruiner's a weird flavor. So far at a 3.5/4. OKAY got to the sonerous sounds. I like.
7. I would not like the beginning if the synths weren't so well-engineeres of if the acoustic guitar interlude was not present. Luckily, both are here so the singing's effects are mitigated.
8. I do not want this...falling into a peculiar niche of frank ocean effect. I don't...relate to the protagonist at this time in my life.
Shit. It deleted my notes....in short, every song FUCKS.
Tracks 2 and 3. I muttered, "oh that's FILTHY." more than a few times to myself. He has the crowd LOCKED IN over here. Great listen.
Worry worry is the best track on the album.
The ending was weaker than I expected, though. Was it cut off??
A look at RYM confirms it was not. Tracks 8-10 were a bit of a let down. 3.5-4. First side is 4-4.5
1. Maggot Brain: starts a bit slow. I like how spacey the mix is, but I'm left with a feeling like this is an extended intro? I'll be patient. The guitar playing is wonderful! I'm glad the soft picking in the background gets to breathe in the left ear as it does.
2. CYGTT: PSYCHIC DAMAGE OF A SAMPLE SOURCE. Love the choral effect. The baritone is such fun .
Okay. Yeah. I had that on in the background. I enjoyed it. Musicianship was stellar. Only a few things really got my ass moving, though. A bit underwhelming outside of the historical context? Idk. Worth a future relisten, but I'm presently at 3 stars.
Track 1. Everlasting Light was cute and fun. I hummed it a bit afterwards.
Track 3. Tighten Up's riff is one of those brutally simple and wonderful inventions that you wonder how it was never found or used to better effect before. Beat change was very fun. The riff under a different filter makes it even more insane.
Track 4. Likewise, Howlin' for You is fun but, gracious, it is NOT done favors from its overplaying.
Overall, I know this album was "influential" and these guys produced so many other records, but gracious. The album is really not done many favors by its contemporaries or descendants. The sounds and ideas are definitely buoyed by the source-defined purity (it does it better than the descendants) but they also feel very washed out now that a decade and a half has passed.
This album throws so many hard-panned street noises at you. I'm jumping at each of them while walking to work.
Need to listen to it more, but gracious Sinatra's voice is so wonderfully engineered back even decades later.
Where did THIS come from??
NEVER heard this one before. Bit corny on the spoken word intro (by today's standards). The singing and speaking are GRATING. Why are the DNB parts so short? Ooh but they're so fun when they get going.
Hell yeah! Butterfly!
Sutrix is simultaneously so cool but has some weird parts. Not a fan of the gloopy synth pitching up and down, but I love the percussion.
Yeah. I get why this is influential. I Luv U fucks. Some of the fatter synth noises are ridiculous now, but DR's flow and irreplaceable British-isms give this an identity that's undeniable. Fun record.
Just getting the string of influential, genre defining hip hop/rap records this week, aren't I? I also need to revisit this one. Not the best week for album listening.
Overall, it's as chill as chill can be. Effortlessly cool. Snoop is so effing charismatic. I get why liberal mothers everywhere love him as much as they do.
So many Bowie albums. Crikey. Let's see what this one holds.
Unexpectedly, this FUCKS. Super fun and groovy!
5 stars. Goddamn it I love this album.
Varied soundscape, wonderful genre switch ups, the MEDLEY is so ambitious and whimsical and fun UGHHH.
Alright. Listening time.
