(re-listen from before 1001albums)
i get they were trying to 'replicate the power of the live shows on tape' or whatever it was i read several years ago now but surely theres better ways of going about it than putting all the volume knobs to 'earrape'
once u look past that tho theres some proper chunes on this one innit m8
favourite song (s): champagne supernova, some might say (even tho the absurdly tambourine rendered me completely incapable of appreciating the song properly the first few listens loll)
least favourite song: i actually really liked every song, which i dont remember being the case last time i listened to this album (which was a couple years ago tbf)
i might just be in a really receptive mood or something, but i cant seem to fault anything but the production atm, honestly think it wouldnt be far off a 10 if the songs werent mixed so fuckily lol, i liked this album before but not to this extent so was a pleasant surprise coming back to it
(re-listen from before 1001albums)
love this album
david byrne keeps his signature erraticism the first two albums, but the darker production/writing make his delivery on these songs seem more deranged than quirky
speaking of production, between all the spacey guitar overdubs, whatever echoey effect byrne's vocals are put through, the whole album has this otherworldly vibe to it, which while not necessarily the perfect fit for EVERY song (particularly life during wartime and heaven, not sure whether its a coincidence that these are probably the biggest two songs off the album lol, still great songs tho), amazingly suits the bulk of the tracklist
favourite song: cities
least favourite song: none
definitely felt like an album i didn't fully 'get'
just heard a load of relatively pleasant british guitar music with a couple notable highlights, and i can't help but feel i'm missing something, if that something is there at all
i could definitely pick out a couple songs i really enjoyed, but ig i just didn't particularly vibe with a good chunk of the tracklist
favourite song(s): bitter sweet symphony, the drugs don't work, this time
least favourite song: the rolling people
gotta admit i did find a good chunk of the album kinda sappy, but it actually wore it quite well, and even though this certainly isn't my sort of music, i found the harmonies pretty charming, and i enjoyed a lot of the guitar work. quite a fun listen. some real high points somewhere in there
favourite song (s): woodstock, country girl
least favourite song: teach your children
really patchy for me at least
starts off great, particularly with see the sky about to rain, extremely cozy and nice on the ears. having just pulled csny's deja vu as my first neil young experience yesterday, i was worried i wouldn't be able to stand a full album of his mickey mouse vocals (i.e. on helpless. still liked the song tho) but i actually enjoyed his voice across the album
what i didn't enjoy tho was the entire midsection of the tracklist (specifically from revolution blues through vampire blues). while a bit more energetic than the first two songs, i just didn't like any of them. i really don't think young has enough bite in his voice/songwriting to make a song like revolution blues actually work , for the turnstiles is not nearly engaging enough to warrant being as stripped back as it is, and all i really remembered about vampire blues was that really funny guitar solo (i love a good anti solo but fucking come on like lmao)
after that the songs pick up again (by mellowing out), and while on the beach/ambulance blues didn't NEED to be that long, i found the last three songs fairly endearing, and i gotta appreciate the sad harmonica solos lol those were great
was really hoping to love this after the first couple songs, especially since it ends pretty well too, but almost everything in between those two points was a bit of a slog which really lets it down for me. feels like it had the makings of a much stronger album than it ended up being
favourite song: see the sky about to rain
least favourite song: for the turnstiles
much more interesting listen than i thought it would be
just the instrumentals as a whole were fantastic. absolutely flooded with great solos and shining moments for the whole band. had heard a fair bit about ritchie blackmore as a legendary guitarist, and i certainly wasn't disappointed but the rest of them did a great job keeping up with him. wasn't huge on the vocals but i wouldn't say they necessarily took away from the experience really
found the tracklist significantly more versatile than i ever wouldve expected (having only heard smoke on the water prior).
could be trippy or epic or (especially) bluesy whenever it wanted to be. i genuinely took a moment to question whether i was listening to the same album when lazy came on, idk wtf that entire intro was but it was sick. gotta admit i was a bit startled when it just cut straight to 0-3-5 lmao
not normally the biggest into classic rock, but this album is strong enough for me that that doesn't really matter
only song i wasn't really fond of was highway star, which kinda sounds like a hair metal song a decade early, so ig it's ahead of its time (too bad it seems to predict a genre i don't like lol)
favourite song(s): smoke on the water, lazy, pictures of home
least favourite song: highway star
really liked a lot of these instrumentals
unfortunately i also found a lot of these vocal parts painfully grating and annoying, making this an absolute slog to get through no matter how good the rest of any given song was
it sucks to just completely write off an album like this, but it really does just end up being a non starter for me basically
ended up getting very little out of most of these songs but i can't comfortably give it a 1 because the instrumentals deserve so much more than whatever this is
favourite song (s): brendan #1 (can only wonder why)
least favourite song: repeater
such an effortlessly sick album
great sampling, loved the bass work, drums are of their time yet sound far from dated, still really effective
admittedly fucking useless at lyrical analysis so not even gonna go there but these songs just sound fantastic. end of story
favourite songs: footprints, mr
muhammad, go ahead in the rain
least favourite song: none
this album came out like two decades too late
i might just be being a bit harsh, since i don't have an issue with this album sonically, and maybe it's all just going over my head and i'm just uncultured, but to me at least this literally just sounds like a 70s rock opera that was born in the wrong generation. considering i can think of albums in this vein that i'd rather listen to that came out 10-20 years before this, i can't help but find it all a bit trite compared to all the great, more significant and interesting rock records that came out around the same time
thought it was a bit long as well lol
j did like the little fun fact that the smiths drummer (mike joyce) played on this album tho
favourite songs: east easy rider, drive she said
least favourite songs: this album kinda blended together too much for me to pick out a particularly weak song, could just be on me for disengaging but idk
