Reviews by abitfishy

This album is a sterotypically-80s-produced album, that tends to have rapping in the verses and then melodic singing in the chorus. The choruses tend to be quite long and are repeated often - usually in the outro - just like the Like A Prayer album by Madonna (another album released in 1989.) It's an alright album but probably won't revisit.

Highlight Song/s: "Buffalo Stance" and "Manchild"

The first side + She Bop (amazing dance-punk song by the way!) is quite amazing, it starts to get into quite weird territory stuff after the singles, which seems to be a theme for a lot of 80s pop-oriented albums. Definitely a solid pop album even though it starts to suffer a bit in quality in the last couple songs. Cyndi Lauper has such a wide range on her voice, it's quite incredible.

Highlight Song/s: "Money Changes Everything", "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and "She Bop"

My second Miles Davis album was amazing, Birth Of The Cool and all was nice but this was a lot better. This one is a lot more focused on slower paced songs and more atmospheric than Birth Of The Cool.
I love the first minute or two of the two songs, especially the title track, the first minute or two is totally feels comforting, and I feel completely at peace; all worry gone, just for the moment. The ambience a bit afterwards continues the peacefulness.
Whilst the first track is kind of similar with it feeling a tad bit less comforting, though it has Miles and the band a bit more rowdy to make up for it.

Really enjoyed this one, definitely an album I needed to hear before I died.

Highlight Song/s: "In A Silent Way"

Very interesting sound this album has, the album cover is literally straight outta Summer Of Love, whilst has a very 90s sound with the shoegaze and noise pop elements. Sending mixed signals as the album cover doesn't give a clue or hint on the actual contents; unlike some other albums like Kid A (Radiohead.) Some songs literally take some shoegaze elements to the extreme, like the subdued vocals in "Leaves and Sand." The last 4 tracks were a huge dip in quality, which is unfortunate.

Highlight Song/s: "Wish I Was Skinny", "Barney (...and me)" and "Take the Time Around"

This is the second album ever that I've heard in my life that's hardcore punk and that is at least 80 minutes long, both of which I liked. This album has quite a punch to it, funky as well. The basslines are really colourful it literally sounds like it's singing backing vocals at times. Top quality song titles. For an album that is 80 minutes long, the songs do a good job and manage to not sound like one another, and there's over 40 songs! Hat tips and handclaps for this album!

Highlight Song/s: "Viet Nam, "Do You Want New Wave or...", "My Heart and the Real World", "History Lesson Part 2", "Spillage" and "Jesus and Tequila"

I absolutely let out a huge sign when I saw it was an album by U2. But it's not too bad of an album. Just thought it was a bit longer than it needed to be. The music kind of reminds me of Echo & The Bunnymen, with songs that could qualify as the last song ever played, because of how powerful and emotional they are.

Highlight Song/s: "Until The End of the World"

Back-to-back jazz albums except this one is live and not a studio one. The thing that stood out to me the most is the bass playing, which is nothing short of phenomenal, my favourite bass playing is on "My Man's Gone Now." The live album seems a bit rigid without any banter or talking, all there is just clapping, which with a live album I want a bit more than that, frankly. Solid album though.

Highlight Song/s: "My Man's Gone Now" and "Alice In Wonderland"

The vibe is quite relaxing with this album which is similar to other jazz albums I've gotten and listened so far, like such as the Birth of the Cool, to name a few. My favourite 'part' is probably the piano, I believe that is the album's strongest instrument, I believe it's strongest in "Strange Meadow Lark" and especially "Everybody's Jumpin." I thought the drum break in the middle section of "Take Five" was quite good. I liked that the album - for me - progressively got better, usually with other jazz albums in my experience it starts to slightly go down in quality as the album goes on, this album however just gets better the longer you listen to it for.

Highlight Song/s: "Strange Meadow Lark" and "Kathy's Waltz"

I got Hotel California like a week ago, and now I've got their debut. The debut album was definitely a lot better in my opinion. "Hotel California" (the song) was a strong highlight of the same name album, but rest of was meh. Whilst the debut album seems a more steady overall in quality. I found the vocals and production a big step up in quality in the debut than the Hotel California album. Just a bit about some of the songs themselves, I thought the bird noises were in "Earlybird" was kind of annoying, and I thought the closing section in "Take the Devil" was quite sweet.

Highlight Song/s: "Take It Easy" and "Take the Devil"

Most of my liking of this album is mostly from the tone, and the fantastic album cover. The tone has a nice breeze to it. The songs at most are fine, nothing too special. The album cover gives such a great vibe. If this didn't have a nice tone this would've been an easy 3 but because it DOES have a nice tone, it's a 4.

Highlight Song/s: "Bonny"

My first experience with grime. It's definitely something, when the first song was going I thought it wasn't too aggressive, then the next song turned the aggressiveness up like 20 notches. I wasn't too receptive to it within the first couple tracks, but gradually the aggressive production started to grow on me. The rapping was quite well done. This was one of those albums that is between a 3 and 4, if there were half stars, this would be easy 3.5/5.0. But alas there isn't so I'll round up to 4.0 as I feel it's more accurate than a 3.

Highlight Song/s: "Sittin Here" and "2 Far"

My first Morrisey solo albums, I've heard a couple solo Morissey songs mainly "The National Front Disco" and "First of the Gang to Die," and I adore those songs. So I thought maybe this album would be filled "First of the Gang to Die"-like songs because that song is just that good, boy was I wrong. You Are The Quarry is mostly filled me more with disappointment than enjoyment but there was some other tunes weren't half bad like, "Come Back to Camden" and "I Like You." I consider myself a big Smiths fan, so I thought I'd be similar but slightly worse, because it's just Morissey without the other Smiths guys. No, that's not the case, though Morissey has a bajillion more albums on the list so they COULD be better.

Highlight Song/s: "Come Back to Camden", "The First of the Gang to Die" and "I Like You"

First initial thoughts were that this has a crazy good texture, very luscious. I can definitely see why sometimes people compare this to OK Computer, it's not exactly but I can see why now. As I though why a pop band like Coldplay would be compared to that, but Coldplay at least around this time were a bit more deep than just 'pop.'
My favourite song on this one was"Politk" which has a main part sounds like a orchestral rendition of the distorted, thumping guitars of My Bloody Valentine's song "You Made Me Realise."

Highlight Song/s: "Politik"

Really sweet experimental-ish pop, kind of like Bjork where it's still quite accessible yet challenges the status quo in music. The orchestral elements are superb, the vocal melodies are quite lovely. I like the suite on the second side of the album, did not disappoint (except "Waking the Witch) me at all. Even though I thought I was over-hyping it, as I knew about the idea of it prior to listening. I've been wanting to have a listen to this album for a little while, so I'm glad that I did like it.

Highlight Song/s: "Running Up That Hill", "Hounds of Love", "The Big Sky" and "Under Ice"

This is one of the many albums where it was only included because of one song (or I think, not that I definitely know or anything.) Just a bunch of classic filler, just a bunch of nothing. Though one song stood out among the mopey ballads with it's uniqueness. The song "When I Do" has this surreal sound to it, it sounds like a bard singing, it was a nice track to break the monotony started after "Israel" ended. I saw it was by the Bee Gees and thought disco, so I though it would be average at least because disco never hurt no one. But no I got mopey pop instead.

Highlight Song/s: "Israel"

This was actually not too bad of an album. I don't believe I've ever heard the title track in full before, only really the chorus part, yet it all of it sounds so familiar; like I heard it in a previous life. But I suppose that's what happens when the radio is given free will to poison children's ears with Dad rock. "Life in the Fast Lane" is another song that is familiar to me, but I never knew they - The Eagles - sung it. Though I'm not too sure who I would've thought it was by, maybe Aerosmith or something like that.

6/5 for the opening melancholic section of Hotel California, and 3/5 for the entire album.

Highlight Song/s: "Hotel California" and "Try and Love Again"

Not a fan of this one whatsoever. Costello's My Aim Is True was a LOT more tolerable than this. I believe my main issue with My Aim Is True is the same with Brutal Youth, it's the voice! I can't stand it, it's way worse than My Aim is True. The lyrics seem completely meaningless to me, I just don't understand what points he's trying to get across. Definitely felt way too long and I'm definitely not happy with this one.

Highlight Song/s: "Kinder Murder" and "You Tripped at Every Step"

This is just such a underwhelming album. Apparently this album most likely was made because the title track was a huge hit, and that adds up to me. There is literally no reason why this album should be on here, the 1001 list tends to include some albums just because of the one hit wonder is apart of an album. So no this is not a album you must hear before you die.

Highlight Song/s: "Rinky-Dink", "Behave Yourself" and "I Can't Sit Down"

I was a bit dismissive of them at first, because I saw three guys, black and white picture, urban background, and thought Beastie Boys rip off, but no no no, it's not that at all. It has this nice unhurried-focused rapping. There are some weird moments on this album, such as the song "Smoke 'Em" where the guy threatens to break into my house and SMELL my bed, which feels really violating. Another would be "Bombing the L" which has a riff in it that sounds like the "Smoke on the Water" guitar riff with vocals that sound like Ronnie Van Zant (Lynyrd Skynyrd) but pitched-up. In conclusion it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though the last quarter of the album did start to drag.

Highlight Song/s: "The Fun Lovin' Criminal", "Scooby Snacks" and "I Can't Get With That"

My second Stooges album, I definitely liked this a lot more than their self-titled one. And it's this album where I hear a lot more clearly of their heavy influence on punk. Like the title track sounds like something the Clash would probably do. It seems to me that the Stooges first three records are like the equivalent of Black Sabbath's first three, in which they are insanely ahead of the curve and are blueprints to the entire respective genre. Iggy's vocals on this one are way less erratic compared to their debut, and are more melodic than I'd think they'd ever be. The trademarked sloppy guitar work returns, and is even better than their debut. Have I said this is better than their debut album yet? Honestly solid album, and can see why punks worshipped and will worship the Stooges.

Highlight Song/s: "Search and Destroy" and "Raw Power"