Reviews by amanda

Kendrick sure had a star turn (Superbowl 2025) since our last album from him. As before, I really like these songs, with one major caveat (=good tracks, S.L.U.r city). I don't have enough mental wherewithal to separate the message & musicality from my instinctive "augh" reaction every few seconds, so, this one gets a 3. Maybe in the future it'd be a higher score. I do appreciate how naturally each song flows into the next one - you don't get that too much with albums anymore.

I don't know this album, but it's 90s euro-pop, so I'm bound to like it. Turns out I've actually heard a lot of these songs before, and Jacques Lu Cont (who I do know, mainly in his remixing capacity) has an absurd amount of aliases. Now one of the great things about music is that it can burrow into your sense memory to take you back to the moment you listened to it, many years later. But that is also one of the terrible things, because sometimes the moment is bad! Anyway - that's not this album's fault.

Lowlights: 'Soft Machine' (bad lyrics!), the fact that a 'Juicy'/'(Hey You) What's That Sound?' mashup is gonna be stuck in my head for the foreseeable future

Highlights: all the rest ('About Funk' & 'Sometimes' especially)! yep, even the quacky 'Disco II Disco' :>

Yeah, you know I used to mix up GZA, RZA, and SZA. I've got SZA down now, but maybe this'll help me flesh out the paradigm. Liquid Swords is a cool name, but the album cover is a little much for me. Put that one in a paper bag!!

Anyway, on to the tracks. I would have sworn I've never heard this album in my life, but all the titles are super familiar, so maybe I've actually listened to it before, in college or something. Very clean flow, no songs I think sound *bad* - it's well-made, in other words - but there are plenty of slurs, which is still not something I want to listen to. I do kinda like all the Shogun Assassin samples, because it reminds me of a Robin Skouteris mashup. Lotta Medina talk.

Highlight: 'Gold'

Hey, I like an album from the 70s! How bout that. (And it's a much more aesthetic topless lady album cover than the Pixies one... modulo the, uh, 14-yr-old cosplay.) I can't remember how I first got into Serge Gainsbourg, probably via Placebo, but of course I'm gonna like trip-pop en français. Maybe best that I don't think too hard about the lyrics on this one, though.
The whole thing is like one long, chill song with pleasant string instrumentals.

also, relevant tweet (from @tomwalkerisgood)::
KOKO: Koko birkin bag. Practical Koko possession bag
RESEARCHER: No, Koko. You can’t have a Birkin bag.
KOKO: Good Birkin good Koko give beautiful Koko deserve gorilla
RESEARCHER: Koko, we simply can’t afford a Birkin bag. It is an unjustifiable expense.
KOKO: jealousy professor

:)

U2 is a lot like Coldplay for me in terms of how I feel about them (vaguely annoyed, bored, well at least they're familiar). There are certainly a lot of hits on here.

Highlights: 'Where the Streets Have No Name' (only because one of my favorite songs is "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and therefore I also like the Pet Shop Boys' 'Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)'), 'Running to Stand Still'

(the) Pixies are another one of those bands I'm vexed there's not a "the" in! I should have started a list of those. Anyway, yay, a band I like.

Maybe because I was negative years old when it came out, I never saw this topless lady album cover, so I wondered "was there a different version in the US?", but the answer is no. This makes the Strokes 'Is This It?' alt-US cover seem extra weird to me, but I guess it's more up to the artist & label than any album cover ~rules~. Also, going down this rabbit hole, I read that some scandalous albums were only sold in paper bags, something I just associated with alc 'til now. I wonder what other indecent things I haven't been buying that I could've gotten in a paper bag! Cigars?? Lottery tickets??

Anyway, speaking of things that are subjective, I enjoyed this album a lot even though I imagine someone else might think it's just noise. The tracks are short and nothing overstays its welcome.

Highlights: 'Gigantic', 'Where is My Mind?' (great, but overused in media), the line "soy playero pero no hay playa" (the spiritual prequel to "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier")

Lowlights: 'Something Against You' (OK, maybe this one is just noise)

So many people I could mix Buffalo Springfield up with... Rick Springfield, Buffalo Bill from the Beatles song 'The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill', Dusty Springfield, etc, etc. But it turns out Buffalo Springfield is actually a band and not a person! And one of the Buffaloes is Neil Young! Also, Stills is there.

I don't know anything about Neil Young's whole deal (clearly), but this album did not make me want to learn more. It sounds old - not in a nostalgic way, but in a way I feel I must suffer through. Maybe the next 8 million Neil Young&co exposures will change my tune.

I like the album title though.

Highlight: 'Broken Arrow' (some nice elevator music moments in there)

I know exactly one Echo & the Bunnymen song: 'The Killing Moon', from Rock Band 3. That song is not on this album, but its essence certainly is. I deem this genre "80s Brit-goth". Enjoyable enough, but not remarkable.

And back to traditional 1001 album fare we go. I like the album cover. This is my favorite S&G album so far, I think, in no small part because of 'Cecilia' (which is in no small part because of this beloved comedy video from my college era, 'Simon and Carfunkel' (bad for headaches though, honk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5kBOZBxF5k ).

I'm a little too sleepy to pay proper attention to this album, but in my defense, some of these (non-Cecilia) songs are very conducive to a snooze. Pleasant little snooze though. Wiki also says a lot of these songs are secretly about Garfunkel, which is cute/weird/interesting/sad.

Highlights: 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'Cecilia', 'The Boxer', 'Bye Bye Love' (which we had before with Ray Charles!)

Another 90s album! This one really sounds it, too. I don't have any Soundgarden albums, but I do have Audioslave album(sg.), so I was excited to hear this. This album cover is pretty unaesthetic though.

Well, turns out I like Audioslave more than Soundgarden. The electric guitar + drums combo is a lot stronger here... you could even say it's something like a garden of Sound! I do like that all the wacky time signatures were apparently accidental.

Highlights: 'Black Hole Sun', '4th of July', 'Like Suicide'

Yay! I have this album! (#3). Now that it's been 21 years (!) I can admit that I mainly got it because I liked the video for Mr. Brightside, and I thought the rest of their songs were just OK. (I still think "Mr. Brightside" is the best song here - it deserves its Millennial wedding crowdpleaser status.)
This is also an aesthetically pleasing album cover.

It's a pretty good album, though. A lot of hits, and the last-half relative snoozers aren't too bad. They should have kept it in the book!

Also, reading that 'Mr Brightside' was played on & therefore overlapped with The OC is like those "the pyramids were built at the same time as the telephone" kinds of facts for me. How is that possible!? D:

Highlights: 'Mr Brightside', 'All These Things That I've Done' (&"I've got soul but I'm not a soldier"), 'Andy, You're a Star'

This band was a recent discovery for me after I heard 'Brimful of Asha' a few years ago - I don't think they really "made it" here across the pond. But I like them. Bonus Punjabi content for the linguists!

Listening to this album all together, the songs are pretty samey, rhythm-wise. But I like the samey that they are ["sleep on the left side" = "brimful of asha" = "mar mar o'sharle"] and it isn't boring for me (yet), as I've only heard their songs a few times. Good, chill vibes. Some of the tracks were a little bit filler-y, but they were pleasant filler and not annoying skits (:)) so I won't knock it for that.

Highlights: 'Brimful of Asha', 'Good to Be on the Road Back Home', 'Norwegian Wood' (c.f. my earlier comments about Beginning Piano class)

Wow, I'm so happy to get all these artists I actually know! Finally, things are coming up Milhouse. Now to be clear, I don't really like Linkin Park. In fact I made fun of them many times in the 2000s. The yelly rapping is not something I enjoy. But at the same time, C.Bennie's voice induces some serious nostalgia, because they were all over the radio and the rock countdown at a very formative time in my music life. I know people will disagree, and they may be correct to do so, but I think Hoobastank does this style of music better. :D:

Highlight: 'In the End'

Siouxsie Sioux! My middle school friend Melissa was very into her, so I learned how to pronounce that name at an early age, but I never actually listened to a single track until now. It's OK. Not really my thing, but I don't hate it. This is like a 2.5, but I'll round up because a lot of my favorite artists (and Moso) seem to like them.

Highlight: 'Into the Light'

Wow, we're on a hot streak of modernity! I didn't realise Black Mirror (the show) was partly inspired by the Arcade Fire song.

So, I like indie, Canadians, and baroque pop, but somehow Arcade Fire never really hit for me: the vocals are a little too muddled in the music for my preference, I think. However, I adore 'No Cars Go'; it's one of my favorite songs (in general, not just on this album). On the strength of that track alone this album gets a '4'.

Other Highlights: 'Intervention', 'Black Wave/Bad Vibrations'

Finally, an album that came out during my lifetime! I've never heard this one in particular, but I must have their first greatest hits (?) album, because I know a lot of these songs. Pretty, pretty good. Stipe also has such a unique voice that I know instantly these are R.E.M. songs, which actually isn't true of that many artists on this list for me. I find it comforting to know who I'm listening to. I like that there are lots of background strings. Feels very ~sweeping~.

Apparently REM later thought 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite' was too light for this album, but that is one of the saddest songs here to me! Anyway, I like that one. (Wiki says 'Call me when you try to wake her up' is misheard as 'Call Jamaica'? Umm, OK. I could imagine thinking it's 'Go and try...", but I don't know where the people are coming from with that one. Not making my mondegreen slides, let's just say that.)

On the other hand, 'Everybody Hurts' I guess is heavier(?), but is way more uplifting, at least lyrically. It's a fine song, but a little too sleepy for my preference. Feels like a spiritual counterpart to 'Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen', about which I have similar feelings.

'Ignoreland' is rough in every sense.

'Star Me Kitten'? What kind of a name is---oh I see.

Highlights: 'Sweetness Follows', 'Nightswimming' 🥺, 'Man on the Moon'

I really know only the hits of Elton John, but I like them all moderately well. They do sound pretty same-y to me though. Pretty impressive that he managed to sound basically the same for so long!

Highlights: 'Tiny Dancer' (with thanks for giving us a classic mondegreen example), 'All the Nasties'

They had indie rock in the 80s? Just kidding, kinda. This is so indie it wasn't on spotify!

Unfortunately, I like it. A little bit of a folksy/country voice, but definite indie guitar and lyrics. 'Western Song' apparently is Nick Drake inspired, and I hear it, as well as Pearl Jam inspiring, which I guess I hear also. Pleasant. A nice pleasant streak this week.

This was also pleasant, although very hard to track down all the songs of online. I like the instrumentals better than the singing ones, but both are mildly enjoyable. I already know 'Theme from Shaft' because it's on some compilation CD (of movie/TV themes), so I particularly like that one, but whether it's due to familiarity or inherent bangerness, I cannot say.

I haven't even rated 100 albums yet and I'm still thinking "wait, didn't we have this one already?". But I sure feel like I had this one already. Classic sweater cover.

I was too tired to really focus on it, but this was pleasant. I liked the song about being a jam fan. And the hazy shade of winter one (don't tell me the title...). The zoo one is potentially good.

Yep: pleasant.