what if some lads from liverpool made some mid blues music.
Favorite tracks:
1. If I Fell
2. Can't Buy Me Love
3. Things We Said Today
Feels like Bowie becoming Bowie. The lyrics just drip with angst and the piano-forward production makes the lyrics shine. Favorite tracks:
1. Changes
2. Oh! You Pretty Things
3. Fill Your Heart
Big fan of the transition between Fill Your Heart and Andy Warhol.
This album was much more back heavy for me. The instrumentation is layered and innovative, funky, and smooth. I did find the lyrics generally boring though. Wonder's wonder shines mostly through his skill level n the piano, instrumentation, and lush voice. Even if he's just saying I love you over and over. Favorite Tracks:
You've Got It Bad Girl
Superstition
Black Sabbath's debut feels like it lays the groundwork for so much of rock to follow in their footsteps. The (imo) painfully mid lyrics are countered by great instrumental skill with some inspired guitar and wicked bass playing. Unfortunately, when playing in unison they seem to fall back into a slower, plodding cadence that drags songs out beyond their welcome. Interested in how their later work compares and evolves.
Favorite tracks: N.I.B., Wicked World
Loveless is unparalleled. I am biased going into this review because I have known and loved this music for a while, but man it still hits. The mixture of droning, amped, EQ'd, looped, and amped again noise with little vocal and synth interjections just feels. It makes me feel an emotional intensity and tightens my chest in a way I rarely find in music outside of Mahler. While the lyrics are largely unintelligible, what you can pick out only adds to the melancholic, desperately human sound. I love it.
- Favorite Tracks: To Here Knows When, When You Sleep, I Only Said, What You Want
Soul with a East Coast beat and an angelic voice combine for a powerful album. I loved the lush production on this album and this would be a welcome addition to any time spent with people. While I found the lyrics simple at times (maybe the soul influence lol), the musicality shines through while allowing for some emotional hits. I loved the different percussive sounds used in this album (jingle bells, drum machine, organs). They helped me to place the sound within different genres and appreciate how he was flexing them. For example, the organ and rythmn section in Higher easily place it as a gospel-influenced track. Likewise, the piano, and plucked bass in When We Get By feel like a jazz balad, all with his own flair and distinction. I desperately need to hear this on a speaker outside on a sunny day.
Favorite Tracks: Brown Sugar, Smooth, and Cruisin'.
This album feels like the best rollercoaster I've ever been on. Off the opening track I was loving the fun chords driven by tight pocket percussion. Another album where the lyrics are a bit simple, but the vocals cut through the driving bass and percussion and droning guitar to break up the sound beautifully. The passion comes through on each track, you can almost feel yourself at the jam session that created this album. The varied instrumentation and stylings are really impressive.
The highlight of this album was totally Incident at Neshabur. The jazz inspiration is evident in the instrumentation and structure but just enough is shifted to make this track a total banger. The solo sections for the organ, guitar, and piano are great and the soul-inspired slow ending just pulled at my heartstrings.
In all I loved this album. I loved the interpretation of Fleetwood Mac's Black Magic Woman with some cuban spice. Mother's Daughter rips. Santana did a great job of building tension, breaking it down, and all while keeping the soul in their music. I wish I had this album on the porch of 1 Marshall Court.
Finally some good fucking food. To start this review out, I am totally biased. I love Rush and this is what I consider to be the first album where they really found their sound. As such, I considered it one of my favorite prog rock albums of all time. With that being said, this is also the beginning of Rush's turn into songs inspired by Ayn Rand and Objectivism, which lead to some mega-cringe lyrics in this album. The 20 minute title track 2112 is a melodic, cohesive listen. The guitar starts to really growl and scream on side two, and Getty Lee's *unique* voice shines. The rest of the album is a much lighter take on their thoughts about free will and decision making, and makes for some easier listening. Tears is the one song I remember not enjoying, but when I went back and listened again, the soft ballad such a soulful touch. I loved it. Something From Nothing is what I think of as 'Rush' tight tight tight drums, Getty Lee screaming over the track, and grumbling guitars. Overall, I love Rush's sound and while this is far from their best, it still hits for me. Favorite tracks: Discovery, Passage to Bangkok, Tears, Something from Nothing.
I turned this on at while I was at work, and then it was over. I really don't understand how this stands out from any other british post-punk rock at the time. Each song simultaniously felt like 20 seconds yet still overstayed its welcome. The lyrics seem to have no personal connection to any of the members of the band, and it just feels like looking at pink paint dry on a wall. I'm really trying to have something to say about it, but I can't think of anything. I mean this with all the malice in my heart, I could hear this at a UM co-op party.
SSLP still hits. Eminem's voice is so clear and conveys so much deep pain while laughing and swearing at life. The marriage of Dr. Dre's west coast, laid back production with the Em's sharp vocals is just phenominal. I almost feel like some of the shock value has faded from how I remember as a kid.
Favorite Tracks: 97' Bonny and Clyde, Bad Meets Evil, Rock Bottom.
From the intro track, I knew I was going to love the sound of this album. The dark brooding guitar with a lovely synth weaves this brooding dark sound that can tear your heart out. Throughout the album I lost myself in the way the sound crashes over and around you. I especially like how the vocals were integrated into it, lots of reverb and long drawn out words. It really worked and spoke to me.
While it was easy to lay back and let the sound wash over you, focusing on the lyrics added so much to this album. Themes of numbness, pleasure seeking, self-destruction, failure, and love despite tugged at my heart strings. Together with the fantastic guitar and keyboard work, the album drips with feeling, while lamenting feeling numb to it all. I loved it.
My only gripe is again the length, the end of the album really begins to drag, especially after the title track. I thought most of the tracks didn't overstay their welcome, and that the inclusion of a true love song (Lovesong) helps break up the album and make people feel more complex emotions other than :'(. But, if this album had been just a little tighter, this would be a pretty easy 5, but I'll go for a high 4 on this. Its the perfect album to dance with, cry to, sit with, and scream in a car.
Favorite Tracks: Plainsong, Pictures of You, Closedown, Lovesong, The Same Deep Water as You, Disintegration.
This album just didn't do it for me. I can recognize some truly inspired production and amazing guitar playing, but I get almost no emotional depth. Mark Knopfler's voice never rises beyond mezzo-forte and the album really struggles to get its lyrics across with such a middling performance. His voice sounds good and fits within the album, but just lacks any emotion I could get. Even a song about the futility and reality of war feels like something you could turn on at a barbeque and not turn a head, because no one feels the emotion the lyrics are ostensibly trying to convey. Many of the songs seemed to stretch, only to repeat a chorus or riff and get it stuck in your head. I know I'm not the biggest fan of blues-rock, but this album was really just boring to me. It fell into the background and never really got out.
However, there are some moments where that boredom was broken. Specifically "Your Latest Trick" did take me on a good ride, and the incredible muted guitar meshed with the saxophone well. But then I come right back to the boredom in Why Worry. It just didn't move me at all.
