Reviews by abitfishy

The Jesus And Mary Chain are the originally noise poppers. This album laid a strong foundation for what-was-to-become shoegaze. With all that being said, this is crazy noisy album. For example "In a Hole" is just like the "You Made Me Realise" noise section but worse and is throughout the entire song. There's a couple other songs like this.

I was hugely intolerant to this album when I first listened to it in 2024, way before I got into shoegaze, noise pop and related genres. The second time was way more tolerable.

These guys have a really nice sense of melody, they can make such ear-worms work so well with the unforgiving noise. Some of the songs that excel at this aspect are "The Hardest Walk" and "Taste of Cindy."

I think this is one of THOSE, where I'll grow to like it. I'm still a bit iffy about it; it hasn't fully converted me yet. I have quite an affinity for other noise pop/shoegaze songs and albums. I believe eventually I'll like it.

Highlight Song/s: "The Hardest Walk" and "Taste of Cindy"

These guys' persona is very weird. One of the guys one day decided to get a monk-like haircut just for jokes and then the rest of the bandmates and management thought it was a brilliant idea. So, they got referred to as the anti-Beatles, which adds up I suppose.

These guys are pretty snotty, noisy proto-punkers, they have the correct spirit. The lead and backing vocals are completely feral, like they've come into society from extreme isolation in the jungle and don't know how to act properly.

The lyrics were pretty shocking, especially in the first track "Monk Time." Straight up saying how the U.S. kills innocent children over in Vietnam. For a 60s album they tended to be a lot more subtle about the anti-vietnam war views. Yet on here, they just say it how it is. No sugar coating to be found here. It is also understandable why this album was never promoted or got released in America. Just doomed from the start, I guess.

These guys are the epitome of proto-punk, just all around rambunctious individuals. A solid 3 album.

Highlight Song/s: "Monk Time", "Shut Up", "Complication" and "Drunken Maria"

It's fineeee. This is nothing that is too compelling to give much opinion on. Though the classic post-punk sound is always amazing to hear, it really does strike a chord with me. It's production is pretty good. The singer sounds like narrator on a show or a story book reader. I also found that a fair amount of the songs that end with 1-2 minutes of instrumental, which is peculiar (in a good way though.) This was alright, I suppose, nothing too exciting of course.

Highlight Song/s: "Dumb Waiters"

This album was on my to-do albums, but I stopped before this when 808's and Heartbreak was completely revolting by like the second song. So, yeah the ended my Kanye West discography listening, I was planning to end it anyway at this album the blessed generator gave to me.

There a quite a few songs I've heard before that I didn't put two and two together to realise they were songs by Kanye, granted this was when I barely knew anything about him. Those songs being "POWER" and "All of the Lights."
The album overall has quite a few different moods present, I originally thought this was just that straight boast, party rap. It's KINDDD of like that, but not really. Some of the moods are the aforementioned boast rap of "POWER", the pure aggression delivery of "Monster" and the vulnerable introspective art song of "Runaway." Of course there's other stuff, but I feel nearly all the songs have elements of those three moods at different ratios.

The arrangements on some of the songs are so lovely, like the horns in "All of the Lights" which fits the pompous attitude. I also quite like the moody chamber strings of "So Appalled." Though I heavily dislike all of the vocals in that song and I feel it doesn't compliment the instrumental whatsoever.

I absolutely love the song "Runaway" so I've decided to dedicate a little section to it. It's definitely in my top 5 hip-hop songs. The sadness the drenches the track, with focus on his failures as the main subject. Beautifully layered, Pusha T's verse is a pretty good contrast to all the lyrics before it. The coda is one of the best ever in recorded music, the wordless vocals honestly say it all.

After "Runaway" I feel the quality dropped off a bit, keeping interest for nearly a 70 minute album tends to be tricky.
I think for a first listen this was a really good listen. At this point I feel a second listen would only improve my current perception. Just like what happened with the College Dropout. There's a lot to appreciate with Kanye's early albums. Solid album.

Highlight Song/s: "Monster" and "Runaway"

I still don't feel like any Bob Marley album can beat Exodus (from what I've heard so far.) But there's a nice mix of styles on here with an overall nocturnal overtone, which is nice, as reggae can get fairly repetitive some times. One element from one song that I really like is probably the crunchy bass tone in the song "Natty Song." Out of 3 Bob Marley songs I've gotten so far I rate it the second best (Catch a Fire being 3rd.) I probably will return to this one in due time, I think I will appreciate this one with a second listen when I will be in a different frame of mind. High 3 star album.

Highlight Song/s: "Natty Dread"

I think the Carpenters are a wonderful band (or maybe duo would be better.) They're like the masters of pop music; truly pop at it's most perfected point. This album is - like I reckon all Carpenters songs are - very delicate and soft and luscious. I think if clouds could make sounds, it would sound like a Carpenters song. I just feel so at peace with these batch of songs. I really like their interpretation of "Help!," very magical and refreshing take on a classic song. Karen is also an amazing drummer, I specifically like the drumming on the songs, "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" and "Another Song."

All in all, I definitely recommend this album. A solid 4 album.

Highlight Song/s: "We've Only Just Begun", "Help!", "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" and "Mr. Guder"

A landmark album in hip-hop music. These guys walked so other rappers and DJ's could run. It's very minimalistic and sparse, there's very little samples used compared to modern hip hop. It makes it sound quite cold and rigid, when the only main instrumental part is the drum machine. The song "Rock Box" particularly stands out to me in that it sounds so inspiring, I want to conquer the world to that song. I can't imagine what it would've sounded like back in 1984; must have been life changing. I think it's a high 3 album, it's far from bad and far from perfect, it's a alright one.

Highlight Song/s: "Rock Box" and "It's Like That"

Not the album for me. The vocal are quite grating to my ears, especially in the early track, though near the end the vocals got kind of tolerable. There's really percussion rhythm in the song "Hamady Boiro" - I think that's the main highlight of the album. I have nothing against non-English albums, so my rating isn't from that. My favourite genre according to the generator is literally Latin. I just don't think this is a great album. This is all just uninspiring.

Highlight Song/s: "Hamady Boiro"

-Fairly eclectic, - which makes sense when she said this album is a amalgamation of her previous albums.

Lot of a different moods are present, some atmospheric ("Beautiful Feeling" and "We Float"), some straight rockers ("Kamikaze"), and some melodic alternative anthems ("Good Fortune" and "This Mess We're In.") I like the diversity. She said this album is a amalgamation of all her previous albums, even though I haven't listened to any of her previous albums, that statement sounds about right. PJ Harvey's vocals are definitely not the easiest to get into - like Bjork or Siouxsie Sioux - but I'd love to listen to this again and her previous stuff to try to get into it. A solid 4 from me .

Highlight Song/s: "Good Fortune" and "The Mess We're In"

Very interesting sounding-album. I remember hearing "Paris 1919" with the ominous intro and very orchestral-focused music with pop elements made me feel a bit weirded out, totally wasn't used to it at the time. Now hearing the album, no song quite matches it in sound, the others are quite more tame. My description of "Paris 1919" applies to most other songs, very luscious songs. But I'm not the biggest fan of this album, it gets a bit dull near the end. It's alright, but this isn't an album that is a must-hear one.

Highlight Song/s: "The Endless Plain of Fortune"

No, no no from me. The album is crazy long and the songs are as well. The past 20 or so albums I've gotten a fair amount 60min+ albums that it's kind of drained me a lot, so this review might be a bit harsh.

But to the actual music, to describe the music it would be, quasi-cinematic space rock adventures on a high dose of LSD or magic mushrooms. Some songs are quite thriller and action-packed.
This stuff is psychedelic as all hell, and some of those psychedelic-taking hippies made a lot of their music around jamming and stretching songs out to the point they become paper thin. I find those sort of songs hard to get into. If I could become entranced by this it would be a very good album, but all I see it as is repetitive. I can't get with jam band music at the moment.

I do like repetitive in other cases, like the album Metal Box by Public Image Ltd. that is literally Repetitive: The Album and I can easily become entranced by it, so I'm not completely intolerant of repetitiveness. I guess I haven't 'got it' yet with this daily album. Maybe an album later down the track will change my mind. I've listened to Grateful Dead's first live album and Allman Brothers' "At Filmore East" but it's with the latter that I've probably gotten the most into jam music (and that was near the start of my listening; #34 for "At Filmore East"; #198 for "Live/Dead"; #408 for this album)

Because It's a double album I have to say my favourite side, this case it would be the A-side as that's when I was the most into it. This is one of the rare cases where I don't think any songs were highlight worthy. Won't be returning, unless I get into jam music.

It was pretty tolerable album. I wish the vocals from the first track were on all the songs, I feel it could've made this album a lot more better. There's cool drums tones and patterns, the album has atmospheric elements which contrast pretty well with the drums. The synth sounds on here are quite trippy-sounding. Like I said earlier, I think more vocals would've improved the quality but it's a more than fine album. High 3 star album.

Highlight Song/s: "Ancodia" and "808080808"

I hadn't heard any of Chic other than a small portion of "Good Times," which is because it's sampled in the song "Rapper's Delight," but never the actual full song. I knew so little of Chic that I thought they had a male vocalist whose voice was high-pitched (a la Michael Jackson) not multiple female vocalists, so yeah. I didn't have the highest of expectations because my disco experiences in the past have made me believe that it's bland and repetitive - which this album mostly was. Though it did do something unexpected from a very predictable genre. That is having melancholic and slower songs (maybe those ones aren't fully disco.) I think this one is fineeeee. Nothing crazy or radical, just alright I suppose.

Highlight Song/s: Cant Stand to Love You

This a very minimal album, it does not overwhelm the listener whatsoever. It's quite subdued and low-key. The "Zpof" suite sounds quite a lot like a OST you'd hear from a video game. I love all the beep-boop electronic noises that are quite present, it's always a delight to hear those sounds. I probably won't be scrambling back to hear this, it just isn't THAT interesting. However it's good for what it's worth.

Talk Talk are quite an interesting band, just how they made commercial synth-pop music to - over a course of a couple albums - a ambient-focused direction and becoming pioneers of post-rock. This is probably the bridge album of Talk Talk's discography there's the two synth-pop albums that came before and the two post-rock that would come afterwards. This album is so peaceful and absolutely heavenly, all worries seemed to depart as I was listening to this album (and when I was listening to Spirit of Eden outside of the generator.) The vocals are top-notch.

I definitely need to check out Laughing Stock now, I need to see where Talk Talk ends their story. I am in need of more albums that fill the listener with tranquillity.

Highlight Song/s: "Happiness Is Easy"

I couldn't get with this one. I'd seen that this is classified as indie,so it couldn't be too bad. Like the first track was a complete earworm, it sounded like Joey Ramone (of the Ramones) was doing the humming. I don't recall liking the rest of the album. I think the instrumentation - especially near the end - was really quite dense and busy, by the last couple tracks I was completely done with it and wanted to be over. Which the emotions it gave me sure influenced my rating and made me more critical than I otherwise would've been. I like shoegaze music, so it's not in general dense music, just the way they went about specifically doing it I suppose made me overstimulated.

I didn't like it; won't see myself returning to it.

Highlight Song/s: "Halfway Home"

Pretty unfiltered album. Jack's bluesy voice is heard multiple times reaching levels high enough that the microphone can't handle properly, which takes me out of the music sometimes. It seems like nearly every song begins with a story, which gives context on the song from what I've understood.

I think overall I didn't enjoy it, I really didn't like the "EEEEEEEEEEE" part in "Grey Goose" that was impressive whilst at the same time being totally obnoxious. It certainly has a charm to it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Highlight Song/s: "Boll Weevil"

This has a very underground feel to it. Like an album that is your favourite band's favourite album. Or like those limited releases or small shows where everybody who listened to it started a band. It sounds like that. I mean it seems like they disintegrated after one album, so it has be one of THOSE bands.
Lots of the album has has punk rock-lengthed songs, only deviation from that is the slow-burner 7-nearly-8 minute long song at the end. Even though a lot can be described musically as jangle-pop, the mentality is clearly punk. I mean the idea of this was rejecting contemporary British rock and going back to 60s British rock, so it has inherent punk qualities.

One last thing that stands out to me, is that the singer sounds like Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) combined with a bit of Liam Gallagher's (Oasis) rasp. I know Oasis was influenced by this band, so saying the La's sound like Oasis is a bit weird, but I can't think of another singer with a similar rasp at this point.

I would say it has earned it's place on this huge list.

Highlight Song/s: "I Can't Sleep" and "There She Goes"

This Morrissey album was actually pretty good. I didn't like The Quarry, he sounded way too much like a Smiths parody then. That album made me not feel too great on his solo stuff. However this one I feel could pass as a Smiths album, I guess he still had the same mojo left. Musically, it has all the jangle pop characteristics and Morissey's very unique songwriting and singing style.

This has put some faith back into Morrissey post-Smiths music career. Hoping the next album I get from him is as good as this or better.

Highlight Song/s: "Now My Heart Is Full"

Pixies albums are a bit of a weird band with me, they tend to be very good in the first half and fall of a giant cliff in the second half. I honestly don't get why that happens, even though I always go in with a open mind. Anyways, this album is less song fragment-y than Surfer Rosa or Doolittle. Just like those albums it has the sickest instrumentation ever, but the vocals sometimes are a bit lacklustre. Frank Black or Black Francis or whatever his stage name depending on the song, perfect or just god-awful, all while being one guy. I find the song "Velouria" way too cheesy, I've been aware of this song before listening to the album from listening to it in curated alternative playlists made for me. I feel like the song is just them trying to make another song like "Where Is My Mind?" and "Here Comes Your Man," that song is a bit pathetic.

Would I listen to it again? Probably not. It's underwhelming. if I were to give the Pixies another shot, I'd just listen to Surfer Rosa or Doolittle.

Highlight Song/s: "Cecillia Ann" and "Rock Music"