A great and reliable way to start my 1001 journey. Knowing a few of these tracks going in, I knew I was in for a fun ride. ‘Timeless’ is the word that comes to mind. It doesn’t overstay its welcome and provides lovely melody and harmony along the way. I know it’s overplayed, but come on, that title track is perfection.
Absolutely mesmerising. To think that this guy didn’t have much of a following while he was alive; thank the Lord he continued to make music. His soft voice in conjunction with insane compositions, such interesting chord progressions and melodies. I’m so excited to listen to his other two albums. Lyrically, he puts you in such an introspective place. I’m a fan ❤️
This music is by no means bad, but it left no mark on me whatsoever. It had semi-interesting moments; but I felt the songwriting was largely milquetoast. It draws inspiration from really interesting places and the musicianship is really quite good - I can really tell this album brought a lot of talent together in the studio; but the impact this album left on me was minimal to say the least, and the general rock/soul presentation felt very much like already-trodden territory. I respect the musicianship and the instrumentation, but I found Michael’s vocal delivery and songwriting to be quite emotionally unimpactful, boring and lacking in dynamics. On that basis, I can’t give it more than a 2.5. It wasn’t without its meritable moments, but it wasn’t for me unfortunately. ❤️
What a fun little ride that was. I knew ‘That Lady’ going into it so very much enjoyed that being track 1. The pentatonic blues does get a touch old by the time this album is through, but for the most part it’s lush and tasteful throughout; that’s no exception on this track, even though the guitar solo overstayed its welcome a tad. I was then a little worried after track 2 and 3, because they didn’t massively grab me. Everything else from that point onwards was a winner. ‘You Walk Your Way’ was a beautiful song about two individuals parting, and that maybe not being such a bad thing? ‘Sunshine’ was another standout track for me, with that Phrygian feeling chord progression at the beginning. ‘Summer Breeze’ might be the best, coolest song on the album, and then we finish with the reflective ‘Highways of My Life’ to bring it all to a close. Very fun, 4/5.
Another great continuation to my 1001 journey. This is such an all round solid experience. It’s extremely coherent sonically and thematically, and honestly I like some of these songs more within the context of the album than I do individually. As a kid of the 2000s, I of course knew a good few of these songs going in, but had never listened to the album in full, and I’m far more impressed than I thought I would be.
Thinking Bout You is obviously a strong start, but because of how familiar it is it didn’t blow me away on this listen. Sierra Leone piqued my interest a tad more, and then from Sweet Life onwards the album feels pretty flawless give or take a few moments. Sweet Life I’ve known for years and that’s a great song in every way. Super Rich Kids and Crack Rock were big surprises for me because I’d never heard them before, but wow they were great.
Honestly as I write this I’m realising I liked it more than I even thought. I’d give it a 4.5/5 but there’s no .5s on here so it can have a 5 haha.
As Anthony Fantano would say, classic/10
I really wanted to love this. There is so much that’s phenomenal about it but for me, the thing that normally connects the dots with folk music is the lyrics; and these just go above my head completely. It’s beautiful and poetic, but generally meaning doesn’t jump off the text for me. The music is hard for me to truly enjoy as a result because this genre often works in tandem with the poetry to deliver the message. I think when I’m older and have more life experience it might just resonate, but for now it feels like great music that isn’t quite for me.
Not for me unfortunately, I find it all very dated. Sweet Dreams is and will forever be a banger, but the only tracks I liked other than that were The Walk and Somebody Told Me. Disliked the rest 🤷♂️ feel like you had to be there.
PERFECTION. Nothing else to say. I reckon I’ll be hard pressed to hear an album better than that during this challenge.
Where did this come from? 🤩 this was so far off my radar and I wasn’t particularly excited when it popped up. What a surprise this was! The funky baselines, catchy hooks, after Show Me followed by Poison Arrow, I knew I was in for the ride. Really happy this came when it did.
So before I talk about the album, RIP to this legend. When I saw this was my album for the day, I honestly couldn’t believe it because of the coincidence; it’s got me questioning whether this is really random or if the moderators manipulate the shuffle to commemorate artists occasionally.
Despite all of that, this was a pleasant ride. Definitely not my music; it’s very diatonic and safe, hence my use of the word ‘pleasant’. There’s nothing wrong whatsoever with the tunes but nothing overwhelmingly right either (for me). I did enjoy the personal lyricism of the album, though, and actually quite enjoyed the first half. By the second half I felt I’d got what I needed from the album and was ready for it to finish.
Sad to have lost a legend either way, RIP Dolly 🥲
What another HUGE surprise. I literally sighed when I saw I had ABBA; I have no idea why though, this was bags of fun. Surprising moments of interesting harmony / melody too. Gotta love 80s synths. It maybe overstayed its welcome a tad, it’s a longer runtime than I’d expect from a pop release but still really great songs minus a couple I felt ‘meh’ about. I can’t believe I’m saying it but more ABBA pls🤞😁
Nothing here was bad, but it left me feeling very bored. It was doable for half an hour, but the 15 minutes that followed left me impatient. Like I said, it’s not that anything’s bad; riffs are cool, nice lead playing - but there is insanely little variation from track to track in my taste. I feel like if you type into YouTube “blues backing track”, you’ve got Eliminator minus vocals 😂 maybe a bit harsh, but it’s how I felt. Harmonically I’m not even sure how many times we changed key centres throughout this album, or altered the tempo much. As you can probably hear, not for me - and I’m a guitar player so it was a surprise that I didn’t enjoy it more than I did. Despite all of this, I don’t feel too far from home with this one because I’m a big rock and metal fan, and it didn’t actually have one song that I thought was bad, so it still gets a stable 3/5. Onto the next!
These songs are quite lovely; Anita’s riffs and vocal chops are so so good. I’ve never had this gripe before with an album, but I wish the songs were a little catchier, I didn’t really find any of them to be instant earworms which I think would really help me return to the album. Pretty lush nonetheless.
This is my bread and butter right here. Listened to this album a good few times in my life, metal being my favourite genre, and this listen was no less special. I actually think it’s a touch underrated in their catalogue, and the individual tracks for the most part go toe to toe with MOP and RTL, in my opinion. It’s their most progressive album by far, and I know it’s kind of cheating, but if you listen to the bass boosted version on YouTube, it’s even better. Metallica forever ❤️🤘
Not bad! Had a good time with it.
Something about this really isn’t for me. Other than a few really nice exceptions, the overwhelming feeling I feel throughout this album is boredom. The most notable exceptions were The Rolling People, Weeping Willow and Come On; three really good tracks. But still, I wouldn’t necessarily go back to them.
On saying all of that, I think ‘Urban Hymns’ is a great name for an album. And I get that it’s got a meditative quality which was likely intentional; but it still hasn’t resulted in an album I enjoyed all that much.
Nothing but nostalgic fun here; and some surprisingly great songwriting. Interesting time signatures, nice chordal stuff. Really good.
Good stuff!
I love the smiths so much, but this was the only album I barely knew a song from. Wasn’t disappointed :) it’s not my favourite album by them or anything, but it’s the smiths so it can’t be worse than a 4/5 👌 the opener is so so strong, then the next two tracks aren’t their finest work imo, but from then on it’s pretty plain sailing (minus the penultimate track - didn’t like that one much).
