This Land

Would be a wild move to give my added album anything other than a 5. Had a crisis choosing between this and another one of his albums Black and Blu but ultimately picked this because it was the first album that came to my head when I heard that we got to add an album to this list once finishing. Guitar Man and Low Down Rolling Stone are two of my favorite all time songs. Plus so many other face melters

This land is the third album by blues guitar player and singer Gary Clark Jr. His music is mainly blues but takes trips around surrounding genres like soul, rnb, hip hop and rock n roll. "Pearl Cadillac" is for example a great ballad that could have been written and performed by Prince. This album is good, but a stricter song selection would have resulted in a real great album. There are just some tracks that don't add that much like "Dirty Dishes Blues".

I'll say this one hits around a low 3 for me. His vocals are solid and I appreciate the modern blues guitar work throughout, but something in here doesn't quite connect for me. I think in general I find myself a bit distrustful of "blues" that feels more heavily produced, and for some reason that translates to my inability to fully sink into the songs themselves. They have a quality that sits just above the surface. A fine entry, and I'm glad for the listen, it just didn't connect at a deeper level for me.

This album opened strong. But then a couple of songs in I was aware I was listening rather than being immersed. An eclectic mix but I didn’t like all the song styles.

I like the middle-finger to "Trump country" from this Texas-born modern crossover blues singer and guitar player in opener "This Land", here harnessing and updating the Woody Guthrie political folk anthem for our troubled day and age. This is quite a statement setting the rest of the album on the right track lyrically speaking. The thing is, the *music* Gary Clark Jr. plays also feels quite safe, ultra-processed (in its studio version, at least), and devoid of genuinely challenging or groundbreaking features for the overall country-blues genre. It's sort of packaged to please boomers or older gen-X now believing in conservative fiscal policy, very ironically. Lots of talents involved, just like lots of talents are involved in a Hollywood blockbuster film tackling topical issues. But ultimately unessential in my (admittedly very subjective) eyes. 2/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes (5 + 2) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 81 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 104 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 208 (including this one) ---- Émile, j'ai vu ta dernière réponse. J'essaie de trouver le temps de te laisser la mienne dans les jours qui viennent

As a guitar player, I feel obligated to say that every guitar solo on this LP is bad. Like, objectively, structurally, baby’s first pentatonic scale level bad. It’s a fitting signifier for the LP as a whole, which has all the grace and artistic finesse of a cinderblock heaved through a window. Clark rushes from genre to genre in a way that makes this feel more compilation than cohesive LP. If there’s any thematic center, it’s the big, dumb country arena rock that’s already so played out in our time. The lyricism is banal, the melodies played out, and the production sterile. Clark is clearly being genuine in his artistry here, but while that artistry has vision in spades the execution is creatively bankrupt.

Dude's got chops. This was cool.

Tour of america blues perfection. I thought I didn't like the blues. I was so wrong

This had me sold on the first notes. Also: that 1st song is quite a statement! Very cool album!

Love me some blues. GCJ is someone I have't thought of much, but will check out more of his stuff. Loved this album.

I absolutely love this album one of my most played during lockdown, a great talent and a great example of modern blues.

This really impressed me! Pulls from a few different styles but always feels cohesive and powerful. That perfect mix of innovation plus tapping into something timeless.

This is a really interesting album with bluesy rock, soul-filled music at times echoing Chuck Barry or Little Richard then digging into soul and R&B. I loved it!

Blues, rock, R&B, hard rock. Está bien. Un 4, venga.

Saw the blues rock tag with the year of release and got skeptical, but this exceeded my expectations! Still a bit too long but a very solid and engaging work nonetheless

This Land is a jam. The crazy sludge bass goes hard on it. I just gotta laugh at Feelin' Like a Million. Not sure reggae is GC Jr.'s thang. This Land, Pearl Cadillac, The Guitar Man, and Low Down Rolling Stone are the jams of the album. Love that he tries some different sounds on here even if it does feel a bit disjointed at times. Definitely enjoy him the most when he's shredding and bluesy.

Whoever added this to the list probably has a huge hog and a huger heart.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: This land, I walk alone, Feelin’ like a million

This was a fun album. Even though I dont' really remember it, I've seen him live 5 (!) times at the Crossroad Guitar Festival over the years. The album is a little long and could have trimmed 10-15 minutes and make it stellar. It just doesn't work at times for me. My personal rating: 4/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Loved this. Amazing guitar playing and such a good variety of styles and songs. 4 stars.

fuck yeah This Land was cool, electric blues done well for the modern era, leaning on the established blues principles but bringing some soul, some funk, some rock, all comes together into something very enjoyable indeed. I Got My Eyes On You slapped hard, a good 4/5 this, goes hard.

This fusion of soul, rock, and hip hop works surprisingly well. There's a little bit of what I'd call filler on this album, but for the most part it lands. Powerful and effective lyrics.

Lots of strong messaging, cool tunes. Just a bit long in this reviewer's opinion

Some pretty good tunes on here

Toques de blues y rock, algo de guitarrero experimentado. Canciones con un ritmo medio, con una buena conjunción de voces e instrumentos. No tiene pinta de salir ningún himno del disco en sí.

Meh

2 bad

Too overly polished for my ears. Has some nice tunes like that opening track, but kind of started sounding like the blues version of Imagine Dragons to me after a while.