Reviews by abitfishy

Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars is about (from my knowledge) how the world is going to end in 5 years and there is only one person who can stop all this and his name is the titular Ziggy Stardust where he promises he will save the world if they (Earthlings) believe in him and his power to deliver on his promise. Very Christ-like.
The album is filled with Bowie's characteristic eccentricity, left-field lyrics. One of my favourite examples is in the title track where they introduce him (Ziggy) and his band (The Spiders from Mars) then the song goes onto make a quip on how he plays guitar left-handed, which is not where you'd think it'd go on next after the introduction. If I was kid in the 70s I would definitely be all about the glam revolution.

The album starts off with "Five Years" which is one of my favourite songs ever made, everything about it is my favourite. The drum beat, the memorable/quotable lyrics, the mood, the urgency, the screaming (especially the screaming.)
I'm honestly not sure what Ziggy is doing during the middle part of the album, but the title track is apparently where Ziggy dies metaphorically or literally, I can't tell honestly. Then that amazing build-up in "Suffragette City" passes ("Wham bam, thank you ma'am.") Then the final song is "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" where it closes the album, the ending with the strings and all is just amazing. Literally the perfect ending.

Highlight Song/s: "Five Years", "Starman", "Hang on to Yourself" and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide"

This album seems a like cool unique idea, I love the album cover which helps set the mood; gives off great vibes. The lyrics seem quite thought-out. I'm not sure how much sarcasm is supposed to be on here, it seems at times it's mocking southern culture whilst other times it seems to be supportive of being from a southern background. Maybe it just hates the bad of the south, and wants only good whilst acknowledging some bad things definitely have happened.
I saw it was 90 minutes long, It feel quicker than that - Act I at least - it did start to drag during Act II, especially the second half.

Highlight Song/s: "72 (This Highway's Mean)", "Guitar Man Upstairs", "Three Great Alabama Icons" and "Life in the Factory"

Crossing The Red Sea definitely a seminal album in the British first-wave punk scene. I have wanting to listen to this album for a long while, as I'm a bit of aficionado for first-wave punk, even though the runtime is a little over 30 minutes I just for some reason never bothered. This was definitely worth the listen,. I prefer the album cover with T.V. Smith (?) against a dark background then the one here. I also wish "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" was on here it would only add to the already amazing release, the other singles are here but not "Gary Gilmore's Eyes."

Highlight Song/s: "Bored Teenagers" and "No Time to Be 21"

The album cover freaked me out a bit, but all of that was put aside once I started listening to the album. Like a lot of soul albums, it is very rich in instrumentation. The album as a whole feels quite cohesive which is quite the surprise of an album from 2019, but wouldn't be that much of a surprise if the album was from the 70s. I quite how it's structured, especially with the intros to the next respective song.

Highlight Song/s: "You Ain't The Problem" and "Living In Denial"

It starts off with the energetic, fuzzed-out, feral-sung song that is "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)." What a tune. There is not another song here that is one that level. There are some annoying stuff on here because it's a psychedelic album, such as the dropping sound near the end of "Get Me to the World on Time" or the intro to "Sold to the Highest Bidder." Then the other songs are the beatles-esque which are lovely, but not something I would return to.

Highlight Song/s: "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)"

This one exceeded my expectations. The Elvis Presley album I had before - which was his debut - was a miss, this one on the other hand has a better tone and atmosphere; having this amazing gothic vibe present. This one focuses more on country rather than rock, which his earlier releases focus on more I assume.

Highlight Song/s: "Only the Strong Survive" and "Long Black Limousine"

This is the third Stevie Wonder album I've rated 3/5. :/ It's not intentional, I like the luscious arrangements and the lovely backing vocals, but it seems to never be enough for me to pull of a 4/5. I really adore the song "Heaven Is..." a lot, it sounds like a song I have already heard before, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Highlight Song/s: "Heaven Is 10 Zillon Light Years Away"

This one has such an amazing vibe to it. A warm, relaxed, subdued vibe. I am grateful for the generator expanding my taste and contributing to my appreciation of jazz, prior to the generator, I thought I didn't like jazz except jazz rap. Getting exposed to other genres - that I don't listen too much of -classics (prefered genre is punk and punk-adjacent, but still like nearly every genre) is wonderful. My favourite part of the album is the manic drums in "Move" it's not that the album peaked at the first song or anything, the album in fact had a good consistent high, no considerable dips in quality throughout.

Highlight Song/s: "Move", "Venus De Milo" and "Godchild"

I only really know these guys from their song "Sugar Kisses." Echo & The Bunnymen was always one of those bands that I thought I should check out more, but never did, well here I am now. They seem to have really powerful songs a la "Sugar Kisses," playing every song like it's their last one. The tone is just excellent, and the instrumentation is insanely colourful.

Highlight Song/s: "Clay" and "Heads Will Roll"

First thing that stands out to me is that this has a really subdued sound to it.
I thought "Motherless Children" is quite out of place comparatively to the other songs. It has psychobilly-like lyrics, erratically-delivered vocals, leaves you scratching your head afterwards on what the hell just happened. The rest of the album is just 'meh' after that, until "Let It Grow", which was a pretty sweet song, but it dipped back into meh territory.

Highlight Song/s: "Motherless Children" and "Let It Grow"

I already knew the big four of the songs on here, but all eight songs are straight rockers (or just about.) They have/had crazy good energy especially in the album opener "I Ain't The One." Southern rock is an interesting sound for sure, and never fails to transport you 'way down south in Dixie. Lynyrd Skynyrd definitely knows how to make anthems.

Highlight Song/s: "Tuesday's Gone" and "Gimme Three Steps"

The Boatman's Call is quite a departure from The Bad Seeds' previous album Murder Ballads, where the former is soothing, piano-led songs, introspective songs, has Christian themes (such as "Into My Arms",) the latter has a lot nihilism, death and noise innate (like "Stagger Lee".) Quite a change of pace. Ultimately I prefer Murder Ballads over Boatman's Call, but comparing them is like comparing oranges to apples, they're both different in a valid way.

As partly mentioned above, lots of the songs are minimalist-leaning, piano-oriented songs that have some Christian themes. They have this charm brought on by the simplicity. The album has some powerful lyrics by themselves, my favourite being; the opening line, "I don't believe in an interventionist god"
I needed to say this somewhere but I don't know where to put it but, "Green Eyes" is just not good, I know everything Nick Cave tries doesn't always stick, but the album could've done without it.

I just really love the sombreness that is present here, Nick Cave really did nail the mood.

Highlight Song/s: "There Is a Kingdom"

This album is a bit of a let down to be honest especially compared to the others I've gotten by them, like Green and Murmur. They just sound so underwhelming on this release. One thing that hasn't let me down is that R.E.M. has some of the most intriguing song titles ever, like a good one would be one present here,"New Orleans Instrumental No. 1." I also quite like the chamber music elements they added to this one. But alas this is a miss for me.

Highlight Song/s: "Drive" and "Man on the Moon"

I'll never forget that magical feeling of hearing the title track for the first time - which happened to be my first song of theirs I'd heard of theirs - just the dreariness, and the savage lyrics, I was completely intimidated by their music but at the same time I was hooked and I wanted more; especially with the first song. When I came around and listened to the album a couple months later, it was a life-changing experience. The spark of the first listen of the title track has never been recreated for me, the first time can never happen again sadly.

The Smiths really outdid themselves on this release, every release prior to this was (I think) building up for The Queen Is Dead. And I think The Smiths agree with that, with them changing their sound on their final release, Strangeways. The Queen Is Dead feels like a greatest hits album with the anthems that are present. I do think "Never Had No One Ever" the snail-paced song kills the momentum, and is my least favourite track here. I'm starting to accept it more, but only just a bit.

I don't think there's another album that has so much quotable lyrics. I just always catch myself quoting lyrics from this album such as but not limited to:
"We can go for a walk where it's quiet and dry"
"I've got the 21st century breathing down my neck"
"A dreaded sunny day, so I'll meet you at the cemetery gates"
I would love to put down all my favourite lyrics on this album, but I'd possibly be quoting every lyric that is present on this masterpiece. Morissey, love or hate him, he is in a tier of his own when it comes to song-writing. The wittiness, the lonesome and melancholy feelings, the charm.

Some closing thoughts, "Vicar in a Tutu" is the most underrated song on the album and majority of the Smiths discography. I feel that "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" should've been the closer, it just works so much better than another really underrated song "Some Girls..." This masterpiece of an album is one I think everyone should listen to at least give a good chance once.

Highlight Song/s: "The Queen Is Dead", "Frankly Mr Shankly" and Cemetry Gates"

The first songs utterly shocked me with how beatles-esque it sounds, I legit thought it was John Lennon singing lead on "Hello" for a slight moment. I've always heard about how Oasis incorporates Beatles elements, and I always like 'ehhh, sure.' But listening to this album shows it straight to me with how much they were influenced by that band. All of the songs on the album sound like they could all be singles (except the swamp song songs,) which is crazy I'm not sure if I've heard an album like that before, but now I have if I haven't. The production is quite busy and cloudy which seems a popular characteristic of britpop albums.

Highlight Song/s: "Hello", "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back In Anger"

It's a classic rock, classic. Which means you know, it's predictable, isn't difficult to understand, fair portion of the album is filler because they need to pump out albums year in and year out, is anthemic, sex drugs and rock and roll. About the two iconic songs on this record, "Walk This Way" (the original one) I believe is inferior to Run-DMC's version, the original just sounds bland. "Sweet Emotion" on the other hand is by far my favourite on this bleh and meh album, favourite part being the verse.

Highlight Song/s: "Sweet Emotion"

Loved when I got the Zombie album, and this is sadly Fela Kuti's and the Africa '70's last album on this generator. This has crazy good energy even more than the albums, and Kuti's vocals sound so wild and ferocious ; I love it! I don't think any thing sounds AS rich as the arrangements by the Africa '70, those guys are just on another planet, they never fail the song.
This one has a catch, that is it features Ginger Baker (the drummer guy from Cream,) specifically tracks 3-4; 5 if you have the bonus track version. I got Baker's former bandmate Eric Clapton as my previous album, it being the Layla album. So maybe we can complete the trifecta if Bruce Whatshislastnameicantremember is apart of the next album I get.

Highlight Song/s: "Ye Ye De Smell" and "Egbe Mi O (Carry Me I Want To Die)"

Eric Clapton's fifteenth new group, where just like the previous 10 groups, they only recorded a single album. So I went into this album never having had listened to the title track and expecting a guitar solo fest. And I managed to correct my mistake and listen to "Layla", and my god yes it was a guitar solo fest.
This being a double album I find is just overkill. I believe this being a tight 35-40 minutes, this would've been more concise. I think some of the tracks on my imaginary shortened album would be: "I Looked Away", "Bell Bottom Blues", "Anyday", "Key To The Highway", "Have You Ever Loved A Woman?", "Little Wing" and finally "Layla." It's just way more to the point and it gives it a more concept album which was all rage in the 60s and 70s.

My final words are Duane Allman is just insane on the guitar, what a loss to the world his death was, and I liked this album more than I thought I did. Which is always good.

Highlight Song/s: "I Looked Away", "Key To The Highway" "Little Wing" and "Layla"

I thought this wouldn't be too great of a album. Because Christmas songs... but Christmas songs aren't bad when not exposed to the overplayed ones and especially these soulful, Wall of Sound production technique renditions of the classics. The Ronettes songs defintely stole the show, when it comes to the band selection

Highlight Song/s: "Frosty the Snowman", "Sleigh Ride" and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"

I've only known these guys from their songs "West End Girls" and "Always on my Mind." Synth-pop is quite bland, but these guys manage to make it interesting more than your average synth-pop album. The vocals are really nice. The tunes on this one are certified for the dance floor.

Highlight Song/s: "To Face the Truth" and "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously"