Reviews by abitfishy

Highlight Song/s: Cisco Kid, City, Country, City and The World Is A Ghetto

I believe this is America's version of 'Autobahn' by Kraftwerk. I mean what other album would that be, if it isn't this one? Well for one, the album covers give me similar idea, of people living, breathing and moving about. Other similar elements include: epic-lengthed song/s and repetitive beats. Then I'd said this and that and I finally realised War's album 'The World is a Ghetto' came before 'Autobahn' (1972 vs 1974,) and It shocked me! This would've worked so well as America's answer to 'Autobahn' but It can't be that, as it came before it. It's all ruined now.

Some say instrumentals have no soul in them because they don't have singing in them, I am confused because 'City Country, City' speaks incredibly loud, it has tremendous amounts of emotion in it. But some people are unfortunately snobby and instantly dismiss instrumentals.

This album is stupidly good, just like 'Autobahn.'

Highlight Song/s: I Should've Known, Fifty Years After The Fair, Could've Been Anyone and Mr Harris

I previously heard of Aimee Mann from the song 'Voices Carry,' she has SUCH an amazing singing voice. The tracks on this one are some solid poppy alternative rock tunes. The vocal melodies are amazing. However the backing tracks are a bit underwhelming, they're just quite frankly unexciting. which is totally fine as the singing is spectacular.

Highlight Song/s Matchbox, Lewis Boogie and Long Tall Sally

Straight rocker, this one is! I love the stage banter, as any other good live album would have. You can hear all the cheers that infest the album by the rebellious people who are fans of loud music; alongside them chanting his name as if he was some divine being, maybe he isn't one but I'm sure the audience felt like he was one for the duration of the concert.

A quirk about the album I find strange (which was probably standard for the time,) was he used the words Nineteen-Hundred and Fifty-Two to say the year '1952', where nowadays people would (hopefully!) raise their eyebrows at you if you said that instead of Nineteen-Fifty-Two.

I'm glad this one had some swing to it as that's what I was expecting when I heard 'This Is Fats Domino!,' no disrespect to him I felt like I was kind of falling asleep with all the ballad songs, nonetheless this album is just a lot better. It was cool to see two Little Richard songs on here, I hope his album is good when I eventually get it.

Highlight Song/s: American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Are We the Waiting

I am not a big Green Day fan, I like some songs here and there, but not all of them. I listened to 'Dookie' and wasn't a fan. I've been planning to listen to 'American Idiot' for a while and then I just FORGOT about it for some reason; but by the grace of god, 1001 reminded me that it existed. And it wasn't half bad.

The song that shines the most is 'Jesus of Suburbia.' Literally perfect, 9 minute, 5 part song and which has a very progressive feel to it; not a second is wasted with this one. The only part that is just a smidge bad is his incorrect use of the phrase 'I could care less' (in Part II), where he uses it the same way you would use 'I couldn't care less.' Though I just dismiss it as an Americanism, so it fits with the rest of the album.

Another song/s that stand out to me is 'Holiday' and 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' which are often paired together. I especially like the digital version where both of them are combined into one song. My favourite parts of each song is: "The Senator has the floor" and the guitar solo part (with the other instruments, as well) from Boulevard.

This one is a really odd sounding album. It's quite dreamy at points (which is relaxing and nice), but it's also just bland, LIKE really bland. As well it being insanely repetitive. Let me cut to the chase, what I'm saying is the terribleness outweighs the good parts.

Highlight Song/s: Bloodsucker, Flight of the Rat and Into the Fire

'Speed King' was a bit of a weird song with that amazing intro and that fairly long downtime at the beginning, and with its references to rock 'n' roll seemed quite an odd choice. Then it got significantly better with 'Bloodsucker'; what a crazy good riff that song has. Just all around a good one.
'Child in Time' was extremely underwhelming, I was expecting something a bit more. No clue why they settled with that weird squealing in the song, especially by the end it got really grating.
'Flight of the Rat' has a great instrumental section, that drum section in the last minute or so was really odd, I KIND of like it, kind of not.
'Into the Fire' has the best vocals of any track. it also has the best main riff of any of the songs. Also superb rhythm section.
'Living Wreck' has this weird Mountain Lion sounding part which was really off-putting. It also has great vocals.
'Hard Lovin' Man' starts with this laser-like sound from the keyboardist which is a bit strange. The keyboard solo in this one is pretty cool and sounds quite warpy at times. The last minute of this album (and song) is incredible.

Highlight Song/s: No More Mr. Nice Guy and Mary Ann

Lot of the songs are really poppy which surprised me, as I always thought of Alice Cooper as a hard rock musician; perhaps on other albums, but not this one. Probably more glam rock than hard rock.

I thought this album was overly tame and I felt underwhelmed, perhaps I'm desensitised from other music I've listened to and that maybe this album really did push boundaries in the early 70s, but because I'm not 50 years old I just don't get it and the appeal of early 70s hard rock.

Some things from the songs themselves that stood out:
'Elected' reminds me a lot of the American Dad intro
'Billion Dollar Babies' has a really cool opening riff
The chorus of 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' is amazing
'Mary Ann' is a really sweet interlude track
'I Love the Dead' has a cool cabaret feel to it

Highlight Song/s: Proud Mary

This album was pretty bleh. I guess that's what happens when you pump out 5 albums in like 18 or so months. CCR has some other albums on this list, so I will see in due time if they are more like a singles sort of band instead of an album-oriented band - I'm thinking they might be a singles sort of band.

Highlight Song/s: Road

This is what I would imagine would play after climbing a hill and watching the sun rise, after surviving a tough night; whilst you feel very hopeful for whats to come.

Highlight Song/s: I Remember When, Shadows Fall and Dreaming of You

What a surreal sound this album has, this might be love at first sight (or listen.) It has such a nice combination of the piratey/sea shanty feel and that garage rock revival sound to it. The novelty did start to run out with that last handful of songs. And if I had to pick a track to delete, It would be 'Skeleton Key'.

Highlight Song/s: Things Done Changed, Warning, Juicy and Big Poppa

I honestly thought this was going to be a lot better; I guess I'm just not a huge rap fan, if I don't like the top hip-hop albums or think majority of the songs are mediocre. Perhaps I need to lower my expectations. But I would say this one is a good album.

Some nice early rock and roll. This album was slower than I was expecting but it's still a nice one; like I was expecting most of the songs on the album to sound similar to the closer 'Trust In Me.'

Highlight Song/s: Paranoid, Iron Man and Fairies Wear Boots

This is probably one of the very few albums that influenced multiple generations of musicians. Some of the greatest riffs are on this album; I don't feel the need to say which ones specifically, as it's just innate. Although 'Paranoid' is a good album I can't help but think the next album 'Master of Reality' is just a LOT better (which sadly isn't on 1001.)

Highlight Song/s: Planet Claire and Dance This Mess Around

What an amazing album by a bunch of quirky individuals. They have a funny sense of humour.

Ricky is such an underrated guitarist, such a shame he died; gone way too soon. Some of my favourite guitar tracks by him include 'Planet Claire', 'Dance This Mess Around' and the fabulous 6 star track 'Private Idaho' (though from the next album, 'Wild Planet.')

At times I don't know If its Kate or Cindy singing, I get confused. But I'm pretty sure it's Kate that I like more (but both of them are amazing singers.) Kate has such good singing voice alongside her mostly unique scat singing with her OO's, OW's, OH's and AH's and her screaming; which actually was inspired by Yoko Ono.

Funnily enough, John Lennon heard 'Rock Lobster' at a club and thought the club was playing 2 records and he reckoned one of them was by Yoko but NO, it was the B-52's. That experience got him back into making music, though not for too long...

Highlight Song/s: Driftwood

This is better than I was expecting. Especially because I saw the words 'britpop' and I thought it was going to be a bunch of slop; yeah it's not exactly the greatest but it's far from slop. Lots of the songs sound so sweet and the vocals are quite Radiohead-esque (early Radiohead.) I am not fan of the 3 minutes of silence on 'Slide Show', I get hidden tracks were all the rage in the 90s but they just didn't age well.

I thought I would like this album but no not really. I really did try to get into it, but I just couldn't. Perhaps I was thinking majority of the songs would have a strong groove; which most didn't have. Anyways I do respect the album a lot though.

Highlight Song/s: Venus, Marquee Moon and Guiding Light

This album has some of most amazing melodies I have ever heard in my life. The guitar solos on this album are phenomenal, especially on 'Marquee Moon' and 'Guiding Light.'
The album is pretty diverse, I kind of like how they don't fully bow down to anything specific. Though I have listened to this album 3 times now, I just can't fully get into it.

I see this album often labeled 'post-punk' which I would disagree with. It probably isn't straight-forward punk rock like the Ramones, but it definitely isn't post-punk; perhaps something like art punk would fit better.

Some things I like about the songs: the punk rock-leaning of 'See No Evil'; the very poppy 'Venus'; 'Marquee Moon' has such a catchy chorus and that extended amazing instrumental part, the song is 6/5 stars all day, every day and finally 'Guiding Light' which is a top-notch ballad.

Highlight Song/s: You're a Friend to Me

This is some really sweet soul music, though it is a bit bland.

Just the same thing going over and over again for 7 minutes straight. I just don't get Electronic music that's intended for dancing; It's insanely repetitive, I'm sure it sounds great live but I just can't get with it on the studio version.

Highlight Song/s: It's Nasty (Genius of Love) and The Message

I don't feel this album should've been included on 1001 albums, yes I suppose it is influential. But I suspect they only included this one because of the title track, which I feel is a bit lame. Anyways majority of the rating comes from the title track, because its just THAT good