Reviews by apollo

Street Signs is an incredibly interesting and unique album and that is what i love so much about it. Most of the album had this really cool mix of rock, funk, traditional Latin and hip-hop which is definitely a fun combination and not something you see every day and it is executed super well too. The lyrics here are also pretty enjoyable too with the big single Saturday Night really standing out on this front (These guys predicted 2020, what else can i say?). I guess my problem with this album is that it does eventually abandon that cool fusion i mentioned before and goes full traditional Latin, That's not a bad thing, especially if you are a fan of that genre, but it is still disappointing. Still a great album though.
Best Song: Saturday Night
Worst Song: Dejame En Paz

Viva Hate is one of those albums where i just don't have much to say about it. This was apparently Morrissey's first album since Strangeways Here We Come and this album does feel like a continuation of that one just minus the other Smiths musicians. With an album like this, this is just a case where it doesn't do anything egregiously bad but doesn't really do anything all that noteworthy in a good way either. The music is fine, Morrissey's songwriting here is interesting but not all that memorable and this album just went by at an alright pace. I don't dislike this album, not by a longshot but i just really can't find much to say about it.
Best Song: I Don't Mind If You Forget Me
Worst Song: Bengali in Platforms

I'm honestly really surprised at how much i liked Quiet Life. It is part of the earlier wave (no pun intended) of the genre of new wave and i can really see how this album influenced a lot of 80s, especially Duran Duran. I still was going into this expecting this album to be just alright but then the title track hit me with all those synths and let me know that i was gonna be in for a good time. I also really think the bass and vocals are great here too as they are in a lot of new wave albums. There are a few songs here that do suffer from same face syndrome but since there is only 8, it never got to me too much. This was quite a nice surprise.
Best Song: Quiet Life
Worst Song: Alien

Logical progression was certainly a difficult album for me to review. Mainly, it's due to the fact that this album (or compilation) is so hard to find with Spotify only having Level 1 and many uploads on YouTube having to mute some of the songs for copyright reasons, I still was able to listen to every song though. In a lot of ways, this album does remind me of Goldie's Timeless with them being the same genre and also being incredibly long. However, i think i like this album quite a fair bit more. This album doesn't feel nearly as bloated and still has all the cool beats and ambiance that album had. It is still very repetitive but it does what it does as well as it can.
Best Song: Airtight (Remix)
Worst Song: Pharaoh (Or Rings Around Saturn as it's sometimes called)

Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby was an album that i actually enjoyed a lot. I always love this kind of rock where it may not be metal or even hard rock but still has this air of heaviness to it which still makes it hit incredibly hard and that is probably one of the types of indie rock that i enjoy the most. The musicianship here was just absolutely great with particular shout outs to both the guitarist and the bassist who are the big heavy hitters of this album. Not everything about this album is perfect as there are some issues with the production, mainly the vocals which feel like they get drowned out by the music which is why it can only get a 4.5 but i still ended up loving this one.
Best Song: Rockets Are Red
Worst Song: Get Down

From one band's last album i looked at to another band's last album i looked at, Pump is certainly a really great way to end my journey with Aerosmith on this project because it's an absolutely fantastic album. I really like Aerosmith's heavy style of hard rock and this album has that in spades along with a lot of more extravagant sounding playing. I also liked how each song encapsulated the styles of hard rock from a catchy, hard hitting song to a softer ballad. I also think that this album never had a bad moment as these guys just really knew how to keep this album enjoyable. This certainly is a really fun album that i really enjoyed the whole way through.
Best Song: Hoodoo/ Voodoo Machine Man
Worst Song: Young Lust
Side note: Since like i mentioned, this is gonna be my last Aerosmith album, here are my rankings:
1. Rocks
2. Pump
3. Toys In The Attic

Green was a pretty solid album. One thing that confuses me about this album is the fact that Wikipedia lists it as experimental rock and for some experimental rock album, it sure plays it pretty safe and doesn't experiment very much. That being said, I still quite liked this album. There are some really solid songs here with some fun melodies and great guitar work. I also never really found any of the songs to be outright bad so that's also a plus. While i don't think that this album reaches the heights that Document or even Automatic For The People do. I still think it is a pretty good addition to R.E.M.'s library and a good one to end off on too.
Best Song: I Remember California
Worst Song: Hairshirt
Side note: Since this is my last R.E.M. album, here are the rankings:
1. Document
2. Automatic For The People
3. Green
4. Murmur

Want Two is a pretty solid album. It has been quite a while since i have heard Want One and this album is described as it's darker cousin but i find both these albums to be cut from the same cloth. This album also seems to juggle several tones from love songs to tragic songs and from comedic songs to serious songs. I did quite like what the album did, i thought that it could sound pretty darn beautiful and the regular pop rock songs (Mainly The One You Love) were pretty good listens to. I think i prefer this album to Want One but i think that might be a recency bias thing. Other than that, i don't have much else to say about this album.
Best Song: This Love Affair
Worst Song: Crumb by Crumb

The Coral was a surprisingly really good album. I didn't really come in with much expectations because i didn't scout ahead when it came to this album but i was sure in for a fun surprise when i did listen to this album. James Skelly's voice was apparently heavily compared to Jim Morrison of The Doors and i not only can see that but i see a lot of similarities with them in the music department too. That music is incredibly weird and very varied as were the vocals, and that's why i loved them so much. Granted, i don't think this album is perfect, there are a few vocal bits that i wasn't really a fan of which is why it barely missed getting 5 stars but it was still an absolutely great listen.
Best Song: Shadows Fall
Worst Song: Simon Diamond

A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse is a mouthful of a title for a really darn good blues rock album. I am pretty familiar with the style of music Rod Stewart does from his two solo albums and that one Jeff Beck album here so i still expected this to be a good one. The music here is very fun despite suffering a bit from same face syndrome at points (especially with the first two songs) and the vocals, be they from Rod Stewart or Ronnie Lane or the other members' backing vocals, were all really good here. I was initally thinking of giving this album a high 3 stars but those last few tracks were enough to push it to a 4.
Best Song: Stay With Me
Worst Song: Miss Judy's Farm

Forever Changes was certainly a pretty good album. This album definitely seems to be a pretty big deviation to their prior album "Da Capo" in a lot of ways. While that album had a very rough sort of sound, this one feels a lot more polished and orchestral. I don't think this change was bad because the songs here still sounded good and that distorted guitar did return for one track and added some nice variety. I still think i liked their last album more though, I just like the more rough sound as it gave it more character, this album just blended in a lot more with it's contemporaries. I still enjoyed this album to a decent extent though.
Best Song: Live and Let Live
Worst Song: Bummer in the Summer

I See A Darkness is certainly an interesting album. While i don't know much about his "Bonnie "Prince" Billy" alias, I would be lying if i said i wasn't familiar with the person behind that alias, Will Oldham, mainly from a Tweaker song he worked on. One thing i can say about this album is that it is very quiet, The music is quiet and so are the vocals and i think that is an artistic choice rather than one made due to limitations but still something that holds this album back a bit. The songs do sound pretty good here despite how quiet they are. They are still very samey and hard to remember though. Not bad but it isn't one i can consider great.
Best Song: Song For The New Breed
Worst Song: Nomadic Revery (All Around)

Teenage Head was certainly an enjoyable one. When it is done right, psychedelic rock can be a rather fun genre to listen to and this album is absolutely no exception. It gets to a point where it even gets a sound that is very similar to The Rolling Stones (Especially considering Sticky Fingers came out the same year and Mick Jagger even pointed out it's similarities and preferred this one). As much as i enjoyed Sticky Fingers, I thought this album was better as the songs here just felt that much more fun and had real show stealers with the melodies. There are a few vocal things i don't like with this album but i still really liked my time with this album.
Best Song: Doctor Boogie
Worst Song: Evil Hearted Ada

I really enjoyed Tellin' Stories (The album, not the action though i do sometimes enjoy doing the latter). I am often just a real sucker for indie rock and since this album falls under that genre, it is no surprise that i would like it. I already enjoy the typical indie rock staples of this album from most of the music to the vocals even if that's where this album gets it's britpop label. Though one other thing that really added to my enjoyment of this album was all the hip-hop elements in store, i thought that they gave this album some much needed variety. It isn't perfect, some of the songs are a bit samey but i still enjoyed this album quite a lot.
Best Song: Get On It
Worst Song: Area 51

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was a pretty good album. It has definitely been a while since i looked at one of Neil Young's works and this one is a pretty good reintroduction to them. It has a pretty good balance between both soft and melodic tracks as well as some more hard rocking tracks and each variant had some good songs in them. The music itself for the most part sounded fine even if i'm not the biggest fan of the way that some of the instruments are recorded, same goes with the vocals. The album itself did fly by though meaning it never felt too tedious. I thought that this was a solid album, just not the greatest.
Best Song: Cinnamon Girl
Worst Song: Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)

And i thought that Fever To Tell was a great album. It's Blitz! managed to take everything that made that album great and cranked it all the way up to 11. It already has a lot of the same musical beats i expect from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs including the loud and rough guitars, Karen O's vocal style and a lot of the same lyrical themes from that album. But the one big thing that this album added is an ARP Synthesizer which ended up turning this album into more of a synth-punk album and i love what the synths added to this album. The album also never hitched at any point and remained consistently enjoyable throughout. I absolutely loved this album and would definitely give some songs way more listens.
Best Song: Heads Will Roll
Worst Song: Skeletons

Song For Swingin' Lovers! was an album i enjoyed quite a fair bit. I already have had experience with Frank Sinatra due to the prior two albums on this project that i did that were by him and i was expecting this one to be the best of the three, and i was completely right. This album did have all the Frank Sinatra staples i would expect from him, like the vocals and the Disney movie/Christmas violins and i feel like they are all at their best here. Granted the songs here do sound kinda samey as is expected of Frank Sinatra but i thought that the songs here were all good enough for me not to care all that much. This album gets a 3.5.
Best Song: Pennies From Heaven
Worst Song: Makin' Whoopee
Side note: Since this is gonna be my last Frank Sinatra album, I'll rank them here;
1. Songs For Swingin' Lovers
2. In The Wee Small Hours
3. Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim

I really liked Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It sure has been a while since i last reviewed Elton John which makes sense as the two i have done (including this one) are his only ones. I still like this one quite a lot more since it has a lot more to it and the songs here don't have any super long build-ups which did kinda plague Madman Across The Water. The music here was absolutely fantastic and while the album did go on for a bit long, i didn't feel like it was too bloated as the songs then were still very good. It does unfortunately get docked a star because there are some points where John's voice isn't great along with the ones where it is but this is still a great album.
Best Song: All the Young Girls Love Alice
Worst Song: Bennie and the Jets

Transformer is an album i have some very odd opinions on. On the surface, it is one that is pretty solid as the guitars are snappy, the vocals work well with the songs, the trumpets and saxophones are cool and the album is pretty well produced. However, there are some odd little things that i don't really like here. The lyrics are not something i really enjoy, especially in Andy's Chest and the album overall just has this really sleazy vibe which i just don't like. I'm not sure the main thing that is giving the album this but it's still there and i'm still not a fan of that. I still think its a solid album but i feel like i wanna like this album a bit more than i do.
Best Song: I'm So Free
Worst Song: Andy's Chest

I thought that 3 + 3 was a pretty good album. When i first saw the album cover, part of me thought this was gonna be a hard rock album but as it turned out, it leaned pretty heavily into funk R&B, almost feeling like an early version of Jamiroquai in some spots. For the most part i enjoyed this album, The music was very enjoyable as it had that funky groove to it i always enjoy and the vocals generally worked well for each song. There are some downsides though. I feel that a lot of the songs sound a bit too similar to each other making them fairly forgettable and there were points where the singer got a bit too into it. Other than that, its a pretty good album.
Best Song: Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
Worst Song: That Lady Pts. 1 & 2