Reviews by abitfishy

The Beatles album called The Beatles or commonly referred as the White Album is one of first double albums (in rock music.) Majority of the songs come from when earlier in the year (1968) they - the Beatles travelled to India with some others to do some spiritual stuff. They wrote a shit ton of songs in the short amount of time they were there for. They obviously didn't use all of the songs, some were left as fragments which were used for the Abbey Road Medley, but a lot of it were used.

I very much love eclectic albums, some the styles are: "Back in the USSR" is a Beach Boys-like song, Dear Prudence, is very folk-oriented, Reggae in "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", beautiful melancholic song of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." All of that is the first side of the album. It's one of the most eclectic albums out there.

It's semi-far from being my favourite Beatles album, but it's still good, because it's literally a Beatles album. This album continues the point of the Beatles being innovative guys and pioneering sounds that are so common nowadays.

Highlight Song/s: "Back In The U.S.S.R.", "Dear Prudence", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "Don't Pass Me By", "Sexy Sadie", "Helter Skelter" and "Revolution 1"

As soon as the opening guitar riff opened the song, I just knew it was a garage rock revival album. I can just sense it! The Zuton's have a strong indie sensibility when it comes to their vocals, sounds like of like the Strokes lead singer. The first track frazzled my mind, it's like bloody alien invasion happening during the song. "Haunted Dancehall" has a similar vibe. Had my teeth shivering. The album overall had quite a psychobilly (not musically but aesthetically) and campy attitude.

Highlight Song/s: "Zuton Fever" and "Confusion"

This definitely passed the psychedelic test. Weird panning choices, music you might hear in a fantasy or medieval movie, the spoken word storytelling on the B-side, worship of blues music, you can really hear all the drugs they took that led to the creation of this album. And hat's off to the Englishness energy this album gives me off. That sun never shines here/It's always raining but still sounding delightful energy.

It's alright, there's just nothing really exciting that makes me want to give this another listen.

Highlight Song/s: "Song of a Baker"

Not a fan of this one. I just can't get over Robert Plant's vocals, and his emphasis on the word "Baby!" Like give it a rest man, the first two albums are so hellbent on this sort of stuff, the worst of it all is that interlude section in "Whole Lotta Love" that has Plant just straight up moaning. Literally piss off with that. The "Baby, baby, baby" ending in "The Lemon Song" is also pretty horrendous. I am fine with sexual themes but this album just completely takes it to the most extreme point, so I just end up hating it the whole thing because the lyrics are monotonous.

The only saving grace is the songs "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid." Those two aren't as nearly egregious like the rest of the album.
Such a shame that some sick riffs by Jimmy Page and wonderful basslines by JPJ are wasted by awful lyrics and singing, though I reckon those two liked it. So, I suppose it's my loss.

Highlight Song/s: "Living Loving Maid"

This album might be the only album worthy of defeating the reigning champ Bjork's Post album as 'Eclectic: The Album.' The styles on this album are crazy, there's quirky trip hop ("Honey"), straight blues ("Find My Baby"), barbershop pop ("Run On"), folk music ("Everloving") and also general downtempo feel to most songs, truly eclectic.
My mind about melted when the first song "Honey" transitioned into the second track "Find My Baby." Like holy hell Jesus Christ on a bike, what a left turn. From hip-hop-adjacent music in the first song then the next one takes you back 50-60 years (at the time of the album release) right into raw blues.

Still not completely sure where I stand this album, but I believe I will grow to like it. It's very interesting. I can tell lots of care and thought was put into this album.

Highlight Song/s: "Honey", "Rushing", "Run On" and "Everloving"

A pivotal album in alternative music (at the very least for the U.S.) is Nothing's Shocking, with a shocking album cover to shock peoples parents. There's a nice mixture of styles on here, there's mostly metal which is complimented by the more atmospheric-leaning, post-punk tracks. There's some other stuff that appears like hard rock, jazz and acoustic rock.

Now lets pay attention to the elephant in the room: the vocals. Perry's vocals are of the uncontrolled, unrully variety. He can at a drop of a hat just go full on screaming to it being subdued quickly - makes sense why he has had issues with his vocals, very demanding. His singing voice is also very high-pitched, whimsical, precious, and sounds like he needs to be sheltered away from the big bad world.

I would recommend this very fun album.

Highlight Song/s: "Ocean Size", "Mountain Song" and "Jane Says"

Very fun country album. It has all the best elements that country music offers. Sing-a-long choruses, slide guitar, sincerity and more. A lot of country albums I've got on here have been mostly mopey, I just like from time to time just having an album that is unapologetically happy and upbeat, as much as I love melancholy, sometimes sunshine is needed. The album simply just kept getting better as it went on, which is unthinkable. If anything it should be the other way around.

I had an amazing time with this album, this generator has single-handedly improved my confidence in country music, bit by bit.

Highlight Song/s: "Boxcars", "Jericho (...)" and "Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown"

This pop rock double album really does deserves it's 'doubleness.' It has E.L.O.'s iconic orchestral-focused, instrumentation-rich, pop-leaning sound. It's anthems all the way down; it has a consistent high, never fully dipping down too far. Side A is probably the side has the best songs, but that's followed up closely by the weather-focused Side D (Concerto for a Rainy Day.) Which has the masterpiece "Mr. Blue Sky" on it, so it has to be at least 'good.' This is a must-hear album. Solid 4.

Highlight Song/s: "Sweet Talkin' Woman", "Starlight", "Summer and Lightning", "Mr. Blue Sky" and "Sweet Is The Night"

This album is filled with powerful moments, probably a fair chunk of it comes from Dennis' voice; who knew that the guy behind the drum kit was hiding something away great for so long. The songs here are like songs to end all songs, kind of like Echo & The Bunnymen and 80s and 90s U2, except this was before all that. There's a nice mix of styles, from power ballads to bluesy-rock to art pop reminiscent of the Beach Boys.

This was a lot better than I was expecting; I'm a bit apprehensive of solo albums by musicians apart (or formerly) of famous bands. It's a high 3 from me.

Highlight Song/s: "Dreamer"

I liked the first handful songs on here, but it started turn into complete electronic crap, with all that ring modulator nonsense (i.e. "Come Together and "Higher than the Sun.") Other than that, the album has some pretty nice danceable grooves and a lot of references to drugs. My liking of this album starts and about ends with the song "Movin On Up," it just all starts to become a bit too much as the album goes on. I wouldn't consider this a 'must-hear' album.

Highlight Song/s: "Movin' On Up"

A double album of Led Zeppelin sounds like hell, it wasn't that bad, but still not great. It mostly consists of original songs with some un-released outtakes that they possibly considered worthy enough to appear alongside original materiel.

Just like other Zeppelin albums there's a lot of high-pitched "Baby's" and "Ohh" but not as much as other albums. Usually with double albums I usually say which side is my favourite and would keep if all other sides were deleted, in this case it would be Side D. This album has a lot more ominous vibes compared to their others, which I think is best done in the songs "Kashmir" and "In the Light."

I think only III, IV and Houses of the Holy (album) are must-hears from the Zeppelin discography. This is a miss from me.

Highlight Song/s: "Houses of the Holy" and "In the Light"

This album quite a medieval tone to it. I appreciate the fact that this fair amounts of complexity to it, whist having catchy elements. Usually in a lot of music it's one or the other, but no with this album it's both. This album is not afraid to tell it how it is, there's mentions of actions that the disgusting titular character Aqualung might do to under-age people, there's mentions of prostitution and drug use. It's all delivered in a blunt way, which is definitely ahead of it's time.

The title track has such a cool vibe to it, with it's menacing riff and it's so so ominous. Another sinister riff I like is in the song "My God."

I quite Ian Anderson's singing style, this album for sure opened me up to him and his band. At the start I wasn't the keenest, but by the end I've come to the conclusion that I will give this album a deserved re-listen. It's a cool album overall.

Highlight Song/s: "Aqualung"

This is psychedelic as all hell, like Sgt Pepper levels of psychedelia. It has nice range of different sounds all packed into the 35 minute experience. I will try to describe some of the sounds but I'm not too versed with Brazilian music. I will give it a shot, there's some quite jazzy pieces with some songs that more pop-focused, some of the instrumentals of songs sound like music you'd hear in a classic Disney movie. Last thing that is note-worthy is that the instrumentation and arrangements are very luscious.

Highlight Song/s: "Tropicalia" and "alegria, alegria"

Very fun. I love how the band on this one doesn't take themselves seriously and are focused simply on having fun, it works well with the poppier side of new wave and punk that this album is drenched in. Probably favourite element of the album is the backing/harmony vocals are very well, not often for me the backing/harmony vocals are best element (I believe they're done specifically the best in the songs "Lust to Love" and This Town.")

Highlight Song/s: "Lust to Love"

This has some melodic folk pop songs with some lovely melodies. "Wild World" is the one that stands the most to me regarding melodies. I recognised "Father and Son" as the song where lots the original melody was used in "Fight Test" by Flaming Lips, very interesting debacle that lawsuit is.

I believe "Fight Test" does a lot more with the melody than the original song does, and I simply like a lot more; it's more colourful. However I still have appreciation for "Father and Son", similar to how I might I prefer a cover version over the original, but I will still like the original at some level (e.g I prefer the Banshee's version of "Dear Prudence" over the original Beatles version.)

Not sure if I would return to this album, not a fan of Steven's opinions in general, so that puts me off a bit. Though I don't like him as a person, this rating of this album reflects my opinion strictly on the album and not his extreme views and who he is deep down.

Highlight Song/s: "Wild World" and "Father and Son"

This has a very nice psychedelic atmosphere to it. If I had to describe how this album makes me feel it would be going on a walk in a dense magical lively forest in the jingle-jangle morning, and hearing all the birds singing a song to each other. It's so pleasant. Lot of the songs are alright, but the texture is amazing, it's a high 3 from me.

Highlight Song/s: "Astral Weeks"

Had a bit of a eye roll when clicked on the Wikipedia page and saw country, thinking that this was that predictable sort of country that has all the stereotypes (Jesus, beer, guns, tractor music.) But no, this is not that!

It's very country sounding - has that sort of barnyard sound - as you might expect from a country album, but it's that sort of country that has very conscious lyrics about sticking together. It's also fairly political like in "Paradise" which is about corpo's ruining small communities, and anti-Vietnam War themes best exemplified as "...your dirty little war" from "Your Flag Decal..."

There's another side to lyrics which is humour. In some songs it feels like it's taking the piss out of bro country even though this album is from 1971, WAY BEFORE the watered-down country music genre. My favourite lyric (which happens to be humorous) is the eyebrow-raising, jaw-dropping "Well done, hot dog bun, my sister's a nun."

This is a really great discovery, I feel this one of those album where everything is done just right. Oh and his voice is like Bob Dylan's but more well done. This is a definitely a must-hear album from country.

Highlight Song/s: "Illegal Smile", "Spanish Pipedream", "Paradise" and "Your Flag Decal..."

My second Joni Mitchell and this one has a lot more optimistic sounds than my other album by her (Blue.) It's very warm-sounding, has luscious instrumentation, and there's just sweet melodies galore on this album. It was a nice change of pace.

Highlight Song/s: "Help Me"

Still not a fan of electronic music intended for dancing, it just sometimes get so repetitive. Other genres that are repetitive tend to have more singing which helps break up the monotony. This still was better than most electronic dance music albums I've heard, but overall it's not the strongest collection of music.

Highlight Song/s: "Song to the Siren" and "One Too Many Morning"

This was a tough cookie of an album. It has an interesting concept that there is really no instruments, but instead there are voices a cappella that are added together in a way to make up for the lack of instrumentation. So for example on "Where Is the Line" it has aggressive beatboxing in place where an electronic kick drum would've hypothetically (if this album was more electronic) been. The choral sections are beautiful.

I believe this was really well done. But I kind of wish I heard this after listening to her other albums before this (only familiar with Post and Debut,) I just feel it would've made me appreciate this album.

Highlight Song/s: "Pleasure Is All Mine" and "Who Is It(...)"