Reviews by apollo

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 was quite a bit better than i was expecting it to be. I've never really listened to any of Aphex Twin's music but i do know of the guy due to him having one of the most interesting personal life sections on Wikipedia. As for the album, i was expecting it to just be okay but it turned out to be really darn good. The songs here all feel layered and complex and had some good melodies and rhythms for just being simple background music. It is rather repetitive but i think that is to be expected from a genre like this. It may not be the greatest electronic album but i still liked it quite a lot.
Best Song: Ptolemy
Worst Song: I

Mott was certainly a pretty fun album. I went in initially thinking i was not gonna like it despite my love for hard rock music but against all odds, i ended up enjoying this album. On the surface, it doesn't really do much other than be a typical 70s glam rock album with all the bells and whistles you would expect from the genre. But in my eyes, it doesn't really need to be anything more than that. I still had fun with this album on each and every song. Be they fast or slow, it was all enjoyable and just simple fun and i can't complain about that at all. I also can't really think of anything that this album does wrong so its just nothing but a very enjoyable listen.
Best Song: Whizz Kid
Worst Song: I Wish I Was Your Mother

Tracy Chapman was an alright album. The most i have ever really known about Tracy Chapman was hearing Miel Bredouw recommend her music (particularly Fast Car) back when she hosted the podcast "Punch Up The Jam" (If you haven't heard it, definitely do, it's a great podcast) and for the longest time, i thought Chapman was a man. It wasn't until i read her wikipedia page did i learn the truth. As for the album itself, it's fine. It isn't really anything that special or unique and the songs can get rather forgettable but there isn't really anything wrong with them and they all had a pretty good sound to them. It probably won't be something i'll remember that much but at least i didn't hate it.
Best Song: Mountains O' Things
Worst Song: Behind the Wall

Apple Venus Volume 1 is a pretty good album. It is one of those albums that has so much going for it. The music is very unique by often relying on more orchestral sounds which gives it a vibe of it's own and it is also brought up by the absolutely top notch production. The lyrics are also pretty solid here as well especially in Your Dictionary. The only thing that's keeping me from giving this album 4 stars is the fact that for an album from 1999, it feels like it is stuck in the 80s. A lot of 80s sounds are here mainly through the vocals. I feel like if this album came out in 1989, I'd probably give it 4 stars. This album is still a good listen and i would put it above Skylarking.
Best Song: The Last Balloon
Worst Song: Greenman

The Gershwin Songbook was one of the few very long albums on this list that i enjoyed. It really is some of the best jazz music i have ever heard with plenty of great parts from each and every musician and Fitzgerald's vocals also made this album come a long way. It is interesting that this is less of an album and more of a box set which explains it's length but i still think it went on for a while. 3 hours is a long time for any album and i feel that albums that go on for that long that don't massively change up their sound can easily get repetitive and hard to remember. This album would have been an easy 5 stars if it were just a bit shorter but it still gets a very respectable 4 stars.
Best Song: The Real American Folk Song
Worst Song: Soon

Here, My Dear is an album i enjoyed quite a lot. It does feel a bit odd going from an album like Let's Get It On to this one for Marvin Gaye considering the lyrical themes but i guess this did come out 5 years after that album so things definitely changed for him. The music is a bit of a step back from Let's Get It On but is still pretty good and the lyrics are definitely some good lyrics about divorce without feeling overly creepy. Granted, these songs can feel very samey and do tend to blend in with each other but this is to be expected when it comes to albums that are 71 minutes long. This album may not be as good as Let's Get It On but i still enjoyed it.
Best Song: Is That Enough
Worst Song: Here, My Dear

Heroes might not be David Bowie's best work but i still enjoyed it quite a fair bit. This one really finds it's mix between being both a typical rock out album from Bowie and leaning way hard into the art rock style especially with the last 3 songs. For the most part, this album was a really enjoyable ride. The guitars are distinctly as Bowie as i would ever want them to be and all the other elements of this album had that style too. I even enjoyed the more artsy songs on the album even if they were just 4-5 minutes of the same thing. I still think that Bowie has done better but this is still a really good album that is a very worthy addition to his lineup.
Best Song: The Secret Life of Arabia
Worst Song: Sons of the Silent Age

I don't think i was expecting this but i really enjoyed Oedipus Schmoedipus. I already listened to Moss Side Story prior to this but i still was not expecting this to be another soundtrack for an imaginary film. These songs still feel like they would fit a detective film just like Moss Side Story but i like the ones here more because they just have so much more to them. The songs here could be groovy, ominous, even funny (like with Vermillion Kisses). Every song here just had something different on offer and they were mostly executed very well. This album did unfortunately get docked a star due to Dirty Barry but i still really loved this album.
Best Song: Achieved in the Valley Of Dolls
Worst Song: Dirty Barry

I really liked Be and i thought it is a very good hip-hop album. I've never really been aware of Common prior to doing this project but i'm glad i am because the majority of this album is filled with some really good songs. It definitely does give a lot of the same vibes that a lot of Kanye West's albums did which makes sense since he was one of this album's producers. And because of that, the production is very good with some cool beats and nice R&B melodies. I also think that the lyrics are definitely some of the better lyrics i have heard in hip-hop music. I honestly can't really find a lot of negative things to say so i will just say it's a great album.
Best Song: The Corner
Worst Song: Chi-City

The Sun Rises In The East is a pretty enjoyable album. I've never really heard of this album or this rapper but if i hadn't had the info this site and Wikipedia gave me, i probably would have thought this album came out in the late 80s because it has all the vibes of a late 80s hip-hop album. There were definitely some pretty fun bits of this album and some boring ones but those were pretty few and far between. This album still had quite a lot of the cheesiness i enjoy from these sorts of albums. I was also pretty surprised about the length of this album being only around 40 minutes when i would typically expect hip-hop albums to be an hour. I'm not sure i can justify giving this album any higher than 3 stars but i still like it.
Best Song: Da Bichez
Worst Song: Ain't The Devil Happy

The Genius Of Ray Charles is certainly a really good album. It doesn't have a single mention of country music in it's title so that means i can't sue the people who worked on this album (the ones that are even alive, that is) for deception and false advertising. Jokes aside, i really enjoyed a lot of the music on offer here. They all have that nice orchestral sound that i would come to expect from Ray Charles as well as a lot of his contemporaries from the time. I also enjoyed Charles' vocals and songwriting as they fit the album very well. The album also went on at the perfect length too. I think that this is a great jazz album and i would put it above his later album on this list.
Best Song: You Won't Let Me Go
Worst Song: Alexander's Ragtime Band

Rattlesnakes is a pretty decent album. I haven't really heard anything from Lloyd Cole or his band, The Commotions, but by listening to this album, i feel a strong bit of R.E.M. vibes from it with maybe a few extra synths that i feel that the R.E.M. albums that i have listened to did not have. But other than that, it seems to mark a lot of the same checks like the vocals and the general direction with the melodies and of course, having very similar sounding guitars. While i don't think this album is as good as any R.E.M. album i have heard, I still think this album is a fairly solid listen which breezes through without feeling like its missing anything.
Best Song: Down On Mission Street
Worst Song: Forest Fire

Lam Toro isn't an album that is all that special as it is just another afrobeat album but coming off the last two albums i just heard, it feels like heaven in comparison. I've never been aware of this guy or his music so i didn't really have much expectations going in but like i said, it has the typical sound of an afrobeat album. The songs here follow the typical norms of this type of music with some acoustic guitars, some electronic synths (a lot actually) and his voice. This is also a fairly long one too at around 58 minutes with many songs clocking in at 6-7 minutes. There isn't really anything all that special with this album, but for what it is, its a nice listen.
Best Song: Sy Sawande
Worst Song: Daande Lenol

While it may be better than the album i got last time, Ctrl isn't really that great of an album. The production is decent with some pretty nice sounding music even if it can get rather forgettable depending on the song but for the most part it is pretty alright. My main issue with this album though is the lyrics, many of them are extremely stupid with a constant overuse of sex terms (Doves In The Wind is an especially bad offender of this) which makes these lyrics really annoying. And in general, i can only really remember a select few songs from this album due to the majority of them being so forgettable. It really is a shame because i know that SZA clearly has quite a lot of musical talent, just none of it is really on display here.
Best Song: Pretty Little Birds
Worst Song: Doves In The Wind

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned is definitely an album that's different from the pack but not in a good way at all. Everything about this album feels like it was written by a 14 year old who just learned about creepypastas (which is technically true seeing as a lot of this album was inspired by the legends of The Brocken) The main issue is that all of these songs lack any real structure and just feel like the band just throwing everything they can at the wall to be weird and hardly any of it working. Even some of the better songs on this album just go on for far longer than they need to with silence or ambient noises that add nothing. It might not be as abrasive as some of the other terrible albums but it is still in that club of terrible albums.
Best Song: Flow My Tears The Spider Said
Worst Song: Broken Witch

Younger Than Yesterday is definitely one of the more bizarre albums on this list. Initially, it tricks you into thinking that its just going to be a Beatlesque album with some added country elements, but with C.T.A. - 102 and many other songs, it just really goes off the rails into extreme weirdness territory. It has everything from odd voices to those reverse-sounding guitars which really just make it a really weird album. I didn't think this made any of it bad, in fact, it kinda adds to the album's character but it is still rather jarring. That being said, i did enjoy this album and i thought it was better than the last Byrds album that i did.
Best Song: Why
Worst Song: C.T.A. - 102

Celebrity Skin is an absolutely fantastic album that i enjoyed the whole way through. I was already sure i was going to like it but this album still kept taking me by surprise with all the things it tried. The album could show many different styles from hard and rebellious like the title track or epic and melodic like Northern Star. And of course it is all backed up by some absolutely sublime music with some awesome guitar riffs and great vocals from Courtney Love. There was also never a song which went anywhere close to being bad as it was just banger after banger for this whole album. This is easily one of the best albums on this project.
Best Song: Playing Your Song
Worst Song: Malibu

I didn't think The Undertones was a super special album but it is one i still enjoyed quite a fair bit. This is your typical early new-wave punk rock album as it has all the things you would expect from an album like that. Everything from, the fast melodies, the vocals and the keyboards for that new-wave touch. I still think that this album got all those basics down as everything here sounds really fun and good. A lot of the songs are very samey which is why its only up to a 3.5 star rating but everything here still sounds very good. I also think i like this album more than Hypnotised because whatever odd thing i didn't like about that album, it doesn't seem to be here on this one. I thought that this was a really enjoyable album.
Best Song: I Know A Girl
Worst Song: Billy's Third

I wasn't expecting Boy In Da Corner to be as a good album as it was but that is what it ended up being. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Prince's 1999 in that it just throws everything it can at the wall. It really makes use of it's grime label with all the electronic sounds. And just like with 1999, there are points where it does and doesn't work. Some of the sounds did get annoying with how they were used but the good majority of them sounded really cool as they could be very serious but still incredibly catchy and having that typical 2000s hip-hop flair. I think that if some of the worse parts were smoothed out, this would be an easy 5 star album. It failed to hit that mark but it is still a great album.
Best Song: Stop Dat
Worst Song: 2 Far
Side note: I also think its impressive that Dizzee started recording this album at the age of 17

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx was a shockingly good album. This is another Wu-Tang Clan adjacent album because this is one of their members (probably the second to last one since the only one i think i have left is Method Man's solo album) and i think this one might be my favorite. The production here is absolutely off the charts using all the samples you would expect from a Wu-Tang Clan member's solo album (and an album with all of them together for that matter) even going as far as for Glaciers of Ice to be sampled by The Avalanches in Avalanche Rock and that still blows my mind. The lyrics are a bit stupid on some tracks but despite that, this one surpasses Liquid Swords as my favorite Wu-Tang Clan Adjacent album and is a really good album.
Best Song: Heaven & Hell
Worst Song: Shark N***** (Biters)