Reviews by amanda

As a linguist, I like this a lot, because - quote from the band - "We always try to sing in as many languages as possible. The languages we speak every day are Songhoy, Bambara, French, and English." How many Songhoy language albums are on this list? I bet not a lot! (Although maybe I'm wrong, since I never would have predicted this one, either.)

As a non-linguistic listening experience, it's chill & pleasant, but nothing that'll stick with me (even though the band's story is obviously compelling). A 3 with a side of respect.

Highlights: 'Irganda', "Petit Metier' , 'Desert Melodie'

Well, I don't *like* the album cover, but it does look like a meme from Da Share Zone, so it has something going for it. Somehow I've avoided Megadeth until now. After listening, it turns out that was the right choice. But they honestly aren't that intense, just kinda... hard rock. I think I expected more growling. Either way, this much electric guitar is not for me. Not my scene!

+ Reading that the bass line from 'Peace Sells' (the song) was the intro to MTV news made me go "oh yeah!" but I don't think I would have noticed on my own. So, it's apparently not very distinctive (for me).

What on earth -- Emmylou Harris is this old!??!?! I thought she was like, 28. Maybe I mixed her up with the Vance Joy song 'Emmylou'. That's pretty bad if so. Well, this enterprise continues to be extremely educational.

As for the main man: I had never heard of Gram Parsons before. More country. But sad duet country! (With Emmylou!) That's the pinnacle of the genre. However, pinnacle of the genre still gets a 3. Sorry.

Highlights: '$1000 Wedding', 'Love Hurts' (another cover)

Hmm. Is this tango for the sake of tango, or is it actually good? Since I know nothing about tango, it's hard to say. But do I enjoy it? Eh, it's fine.

Pros: I like instrumental music with strings and piano. It's pleasant and sometimes interesting.

Cons: This is live (as you'd expect, I guess), so there's applause, which is distracting. And it turns out I am not a big vibraphone fan.

Look at you in your little coat, Paul Simon! Writing songs named after 親子丼! Making up guys called "Lincoln Duncan"! Singing the classic lyric "Went to my doctor yesterday / Aaaah"!

I like all of it, but other than 'Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard' (which is a 5/5 song), and 'Paranoia Blues', everything's just a little too mellow for my taste.

Some artists are so famous that it's hard for me to assess them with a fresh eye! Like, 'Respect' is great, but it's "BBC Proms" great, not "listening while I'm driving" great. (Although "sock it to me" is a funny little phrase.) And so I enjoyed this album, but in the way I like watching an old movie once in a while, not the way I like binging a reality show always and forever.

Highlights: 'Soul Serenade' (& learning that there is an instrument called the 'saxello'), 'Don't Let Me Lose This Dream' (like zippy elevator music)

Here's a guy I've only heard the name of! I did not expect straight country.

For the first two songs, I thought: his voice + the plucky guitar sound is something I associate with kids music, albeit beloved kids music, and I just can't get into it for more serious topics. The lyrics are good though.

After a couple more songs, I got slightly used to it(?) and could appreciate it more. But then 'Paradise' was back into the 'Children's Favorites' style. I dunno. A bit of a (lowkey) rollercoaster all the way through, in this way. Never unpleasant, though. Big "it's not you, it's me" energy on this one.

Another Beatles so soon! But I have it in my mind that this is one of my favorite Beatles albums... let's see if that's true.

I did not realise 'Drive my Car' is from the lady's perspective! Suddenly, a relatable bop. Beep beep, beep beep, yeah. Wait, she doesn't even have a car and the car is a metaphor? Don't make it weird, Beatles.

I first heard 'Norweigian Wood' from playing it in my "Beginning Piano" 2-credit fun course in college. After hearing 20 of us noobs slowly play our way through it, dozens of times? I still like it. I like all of their sitar songs so far! And ones with animals in? (birds, Octopus, Piggies...?)

I also like 'You Won't See Me' (even if the title is similar to 'You Don't Send Me' and liable to be mixed up with that by me, a master mixer-upper).

'Nowhere Man' and 'Think for Yourself' are just OK. 'The Word' is not great. This is the doldrums of the album.

I don't think I'd actually heard 'Michelle' before, but I like it. The idea of Paul McCartney singing in French makes me lol. 'What Goes On' is just OK. I like 'Girl', although that may be because it's in the lauded film 'Across the Universe'. 'I'm Looking Through You' is decent. 'In My Life' is great and makes me sad. 'Wait' and 'If I Needed Someone' are good. 'Run For Your Life' is of course lyrically bad, but honestly it's so jangly I kind of like it.

Long story shorter: yes! I do like this album! my favorite Beatles yet. It still feels like it'd be too big of a deal for me to give this my first 5, but it's like a 4.5. (It's hard to calibrate my ratings when I don't know what's to come! Maybe Wilco is actually a 5! Maybe all my bad days are actually good!)

Childhood me mixed up Ice Cube and Ice-T all the time (not Vanilla Ice - he wasn't an actor!), just as adult me mixed up Rush and Bush. All that to say I was very much not in the loop when this album was happening. But I am now in the loop. Relatedly, I like that when you search for "Ice Cube or Ice-T" the preview of the top Quora result is:

"Are Ice-T and Ice Cube related?
Yes, as they both come from Japanese families where the family name (what Americans call the “last name”) comes first,"

:)

I don't have much to say about this album. It was good, ignoring the copious slurs (which is hard for me to do with music I don't already like). Pretty solid 90s hip hop, good beats. Was surprised to discover this album is the origin of the phrase "on like Donkey Kong" although NOT the origin of "eat 'em up yum" or "#1 with the bullet" (I checked). And 'Check Yo Self' does NOT sample 'Shoop'?! Nor vice versa? How!?!

'It was a Good Day' is a classic. Unfortunately this album is an hour long so I had a lot of time to think "nope, these lyrics are not for me" even while the non-offensive bits are solid.

Uh oh, I was in a fugue state when I listened to this. I like the Cure, so it was pleasant background, but none of the songs snapped me out of my "MUST GRADE 50000 PAPERS AHH" haze, so I don't think it hit 4-territory, which it might have done if it were a little more good. More gooder. On the high end of 3 though, much better than Wilco, here's hoping they have another album later that I can appreciate a bit more.

Sometimes described as "the Sgt. Pepper of hip-hop", eh? Probably by Jim Shearer, former host of the MTV2 Rock Countdown! The main Beastie Boys association I have is "that man sure loves the Beastie Boys". For me, they're kind of nostalgic, I guess, but that feeling only sustains me for a few minutes, and this album is much longer than a few minutes. Not really my thing, Jim Shearers aside. Lotta egg talk.

Highlights: the phrase "bald feet".

What a voice! Very British. If this is "power pop" I'll eat my hat. (Update: The wiki list of power pop artists is making me have to eat a lot of hats...) At first I thought I might like this, but it turns out I really don't. Too muddled.

Highlights: 'Creature of Doom', the absurd line "I love my mother but I wouldn't want to have sex with her", 'No Peace for the Wicked', rhyming "calm" with "harm"

Darn it, I accidentally lost my notes again. And this album was so long!! But as Rihanna's tattoo teaches us, 'never a failure, always a lesson'.

Anyway, I said something about how after Stevie's last album I was excited for this one, but the first song did not live up to the hype. Things picked up after that, but I didn't love this album as much as I hoped I would (even though it's never BAD).

Highlights: 'Village Ghetto Land', 'I Wish', 'Pastime Paradise' (!), 'Saturn' (someone's gotta make a SZA mashup)

Adele seemed much older than 21 to me at the time this came out, even though I was well aware of her age (which is indeed the same as my age). I didn't like 'Chasing Pavements', the single from her earlier album (too Norah Jonesy), but this is a big upgrade for me -- a quintessential "pop" album. Pretty catchy songs, solid voice, heavy media saturation.

Highlights: 'Rumour Has It', 'Set Fire to the Rain', 'He Won't Go', 'Someone Like You'

Lowlights: 'Take It All' (bit of a snoozefest), 'Lovesong' (hard to win me over with a cover, especially a way-smooth-jazzier one)

I always used to mix up Bush and Rush. After listening to this album I don't think that'll be a problem for me anymore. Bush is the band I like, and Rush is the band who credited Ayn Rand in the liner notes.

OK, that's a bit harsh (even if it's true). I do in fact like 'Tom Sawyer', which is Rush-not-Bush, although that's not on this album. Plus Geddy Lee is my hairdo twin, whereas Gavin Rossdale was simply Gwen Stefani's boyf.

Anyway, starting off with a 20min guitar-heavy song here isn't really my idea of a good time, but I do find the mini-musical plot cute (and evocative of both Meat Loaf & Hedwig and the Angry Inch). They have a distinctive sound which is at the same time similar to other bands, but I bet Rush came before a lot of those bands, being from the 70s(!!). I appreciate that they aren't boring, but I also find it hard to take this kind of music seriously (and I'm not sure if I'm even supposed to). I never heard of "prog" before this website, and now it's font size 16 in my life wordcloud, but I still don't quite "get it". That's worth a 3 from me I guess.

More Beatles! I bet all of their albums are on here. Lucky for me I don't actually know how many albums they have. Could be 900 more for all I know.

I used to like 'Eleanor Rigby', but it was the soundtrack for a presentation I did in college and I listened to it at least 50 times in the process of getting the timing right, so now I'm weary of it.

I do like the song with the sitar in it, but the title ('Love You To') is mysterious and despite the mountains of Beatles lore, I can't find a definitive answer to what the heck it means. George >:(

I like 'Good Day Sunshine'. That's a peppy little number. Same for 'And Your Bird Can Sing'. And 'Got to Get You into My Life' (there're horns!)

The rest of the songs didn't captivate me, which is possibly just because I haven't heard them before (except 'Yellow Submarine', which I do like, but if I heard it 50 more times I doubt that I would). So I think this is my least favorite Beatles album of the ones we had so far, although it's still a solid album, just not my style (=short poppy bangers).

Never heard of them, so no idea what to expect with this one. The good news is that they aren't boring and the noises (though there are noises, beep bloop), lyrics, and singing are acceptable to me. Still, I bet there are jokes in the other reviews about them rightfully not being the Alpha Band. And those jokes would make sense, because they aren't really tops, they're just okay.

Highlights: 'Human Being', 'Dragon', 'Quiet' (the sun and the people DO blind me!!)

Lowlights: the rhyme scheme of 'Life'

Nothing like some "country rock" to make you appreciate all the other genres, you know? This guy (from the Byrds, previously) has a little bit of a Bob Dylan warble. Unfortunately he also has those twangy guitars. He died in his 40s, too. What a downer this list is! Actually, these songs are not unpleasant to listen to - nice and mellow. But they are also boring. Even 'Stand By Me' is like, 200% worse here.

Highlights: 'One in a Hundred' (American Pie-esque)

This is a good one for me to listen to, because my priors were: I don't like Lauryn Hill (based almost entirely on one song that was popular), I don't really like 'Killing Me Softly', and therefore, I don't like the* Fugees. Even though I know they're highly acclaimed! I know! But I do like Wyclef Jean! Am I a huge sexist? I mean, the data speaks for itself.

Anyway, so I had the impression they were mostly slow jams, and they are not: they are mostly raps. For me, this is an upgrade. Also they make so many media references, and since this is 1995, I know them! The slur count is nonzero though, which is a (near-inevitable given the genre) downgrade.

Highlights: 'Ready or Not', 'Fu-Gee-La' (hearing the 8000 remixes actually made me like it more and not less, especially the ~global~ one), the line "lyrics fast like Ramadan", 'The Mask', 'No Woman, No Cry', the fact that 'Outro' is basically spoken credits

Retroactively obvious realisations: omg, 'Fugees' is short for 'refugees'!

*OK apparently there is no "the" in their name, which is something I always find grammatically difficult (I think we had another band like this, although I forget who it is -- (the) Talking Heads, maybe?). Anyway, if I had said "I don't like Fugees", now that I know "Fugees" is short for "Refugees", that seems open to problematic interpretation, so I put the "the" even though it's wrong. l a n g u a g e

Flashback to Gossip Girl, which was my first exposure to this album. I don't usually like r&b much (too slow!) but this is a (mild) exception. I like the electro vibes. Plus Frank Ocean seems like a cool guy. (A cool guy who still drops a few slurs once he lulls you into thinking there won't be any, but nevertheless.)

Highlights: 'Thinkin Bout You', 'Sweet Life', 'Super Rich Kids', 'Pyramid', 'Lost', the fact that 'Forrest Gump' "serves as a metaphor for the feelings Ocean still harbors for his first love, the man he wrote about in his Tumblr post"