Rated 2/10
I've listened to this album twice, and tried to find something redeeming to write about it. It's boring. It is likely the blandest alt-rock album to come out of the 90's. I remember none of it, and hope to never hear anything by the Beta Band again, but I know I will. Zeros is right. If I could only give this album zero stars. But I can't, so....
My Rating: 1/5
Rated 2/10
While this might be critically acclaimed for mixing cosmic electronica and pop and krautrock, it does none of them excellently and gives us a mishmash of boring. If you're going to mix genres, be outstanding at it, not bland. Go home, Jane.
Fun, but kinda dumb.
You know, musically, these guys are pretty good. The jams are there. The drums and guitar are pretty tight. They're good together. G. Love needs to ease off the weed, though, because the whole thing with his delivery feels like you got a guitarist that worked on a groove for three hours, played it once for the guys, and G. Love stands up with a mic and says "Hey, y'all, check this..." with no engineering and freestyles the whole thing. I mean, there's a whole song about basketball that feels like four dudes playing in the driveway. I kept expecting to hear him take a pull off a joint right before starting to "sing" on each track. I'm not opposed to musicians using chemicals, I'm opposed to chemicals writing the entire album.
Not really my bag, but it's not horrible.
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 10/10
So I'll admit I have a songstress crush. Let me try to tame that and review this album without acting like a forlorn little boy.
Adele belts this out with class and emotion. You've got the hits that were played and overplayed on the radio, on TV, covered by people on the talent shows, everywhere. Then you've got the other songs that weren't played, that have the same emotion, the same pull, the same hit. Having not listened to the radio for quite some time, these songs still have pull. They're timeless. She DEMANDS you listen to her vent her heartache and pain onto you. And ending the album with "Someone Like You"? 🤌Perfection
My Rating: 5/5
Rated 4/10
This is perfectly pleasant pop rock through a radio friendly filter. The edgiest thing about the entire thing is that full wine glass on the floor in the album art. This is also about as exciting as a McDonald's vanilla shake. You know exactly what you're going to get with each track, and the most dangerous thing about it is maybe a sugar rush and a brain freeze. Oasis is not the new Stones, and they're not the new Beatles. Get off it.
My Rating: 2/5
Rated 4/10
Just because someone does something weird doesn't mean we all need to hear it. I get this was sampling before sampling was mainstream. I get this guy was in Can. It feels like one of those albums that there's something hiding in there, but the world isn't smart enough to figure it out except for some poncy dude in a black turtleneck sipping bad coffee and unironically smoking a stale Gauloise. It's not boring, though.
My rating: 2/5
Rated 10/10
Amazing Southern Rock album. The right album at the right time for the industry, reminding us that Southern rock can be fun and kicky and hooky. A couple of lulls in the intensity, but good overall.
My rating: 5/5
Rated 6/10
Everything felt very samey here. Just... And the same effects on the guitar all the way through, the songs all sounded the same... We all know Eric can wail.
Rated 6/10
An acceptable rock album. Nothing spectacular here. The only song on this one that grabbed me was "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", which I had never knowingly heard before. Hopefully I'm done listening to Radiohead.
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 6/10
Pleasant Brit-pop. Sounded like what might happen if The Cure were on an established Paxil regimen. The guitar on "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?" is really pretty. I'm glad I heard this once, but I probably won't be back. I wouldn't yell if someone put it on, though.
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 6/10
Serviceable enough for some gentle adult contemporary/singer-songwriter. It's so vanilla and bland though. The lyrics are trite, the music just good enough to be commercial. Even with help from Clapton and Hendrix, he manages to bland it out. Come on, man....
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 10/10
Imagine taking the theatricality and chaos of Tom Waits and putting a conventional band behind him, and then getting some semi-conventional songwriters in there. That's Bauhaus. It's industrial-adjacent, it's art chaos adjacent, it's weird. I love it. I wish I'd heard this when I was in college, I would have been WAY TOO into it.
My Rating: 6/5
Rated 8/10
Iconic, but overplayed.
Everyone knows the hits. We've all heard them on so many different commercials and movies and TV shows and the radio and anywhere else music is used and heard. We all know what we're getting with Billy Joel. The songwriting is tight, he's filling a Broadway stage with his voice, it's really good music. Because it's really good, it's used everywhere, so now everyone thinks it's just generic boring Dad Rock. If it had been the first time I heard any Billy Joel without weddings and the radio, I might give it a five. Today, it's a 4. Sorry, Billy. You're a victim of your own success.
My Rating: 4/5
Fun rocking album. Awesome for a debut. Nothing hooky though. Lots of energy and attitude going nowhere.
Rated 10/10
Highly influential metal album, but dated. This album, and Judas Priest in general, bring what a heavy metal album and band should be to the 80's. The lyrics are a bit shallow, but they lean into what the market needed at the time. The music is timeless. The look is spot on.
My rating: 5/5 overall, but it's really a 4 just for the music.
Public Enemy at it most militant.
Iconic album. No complaints.
Rated 6/10
Horribly dated, overly punchy, over-annunciated. Real Spanish doesn't sound like that and makes me wonder if someone handed her the translated bits of what she wanted to say or if she's just overpronouncing everything like she did through the rest of the album. The music sounds like New Coke tastes.
My Rating: 3/5
Rated 10/10
Amazing meandering soul album. Much better than Shaft. Yeah, the tracks are long. Let him cook. It's wonderful. That voice is velvety and sweet.
My Rating: 5/5
Rated 2/10
This album needs to come with a prescription of lithium. It felt like the musical version of those Schuylkill notes people are finding in packages of food. I couldn't deal with it, even though I finished it. I hope that Todd made other music that made sense to people other than him.
My rating: 1/5
Rated 4/10
This album must be listened to through "alternative means" because their manager SCREWED THEM ROYALLY. The Spotify and Apple Music versions are what Sony could put out legally.
They're good. It's decent music. I'm just not into psychedelia. It meanders a bit, but the guitars are nice and fuzzy, the lyrics are there. The lack of length made it difficult to properly rate, though.
My Rating: 2/5
