Reviews by apollo

I was surprised at how much i enjoyed The Chronic. I mainly knew Dr. from his stuff with N.W.A. and also some of the stuff from one of his later records, 2001. Granted, this is still gangster rap so the lyrics are going to reflect that with many of theme having n-words everywhere. While the lyrics are a bit silly, i will still admit that the production is absolutely incredible here with plenty of great samples. One of those samples being from Mothership Connection (Star Child) by Parliament and because i love that song, i love the song that used it as well. Even if the songs could have odd lyrics, a good majority of them had that great production so i still enjoyed listening to this album.
Best Song: Let Me Ride
Worst Song: The $20 Sack Pyramid

I thought Risque was a pretty good album. Disco is one of those genres that can range from pretty good to pretty terrible. Thankfully, this one falls into the former camp. This album didn't have many songs on it(only 7 of them) but they did make up for that a decent bit by making a lot of them decently long. I think this album makes about as good use of it's structure as it can but i still think it would be better if there were more shorter songs on it. The music itself is enjoyable too. Its pretty groovy and relaxing. There is a bit of that 70s disco cheesiness here but i don't think that it is anything that's unbearably annoying. I thought this album was a pretty decent listen for what it was.
Best Song: What About Me
Worst Song: My Feet Keep Dancing

Modern Kosmology is one of those albums where i just have a really difficult time enjoying it. It is very clear it tried something not like many other albums (that's probably why this album's only listed genre is Singer-Songwriter on this website) but i just don't think it did a very good job at that. The main thing that makes me think this way is the fact that the songs feel too weak, hollow, empty, quiet, I could keep going on. This album mainly just lacks a kick to it for it to really be enjoyable. It is a shame, since this album does have bits and pieces of something special, it just fails to realize that. I really wish it did realize that because it could be good but it just was not.
Best Song: The Architect
Worst Song: I Wish

Sheet Music is definitely an album i have mixed feelings on, almost like a love hate relationship with it. It simultaneously has great moments and horrible moments. There are some genuinely fantastic melodies on display here and when the instruments sound good, they can sound really good, and i liked how each song had a completely different vibe from each other. The main issue is the fact that when the instruments sound bad, they sound really bad. What is it with 70s rock artists and them feeling the need to commit musical war crimes by distorting their guitars? Saw it once with Mike Oldfield and i saw it again here. Anyways, rant aside, Its a solid listen marred by a couple of poor choices.
Best Song: The Wall Street Shuffle
Worst Song: Old Wild Men

Sail Away is a pretty good album that does go by a bit too quickly. I mainly only knew Randy Newman for making a lot of songs from Pixar movies, namely songs like Friend Like Me from the original Toy Story and the Monsters Inc. main theme. So it wasn't really a shock to me that the songs here sound like songs you would hear from any of those movies. The songs sound good and definitely do have some pretty good lyrics. My main problem, like i mentioned, is the songs go by so fast and really don't give all that much time for them to sink in. I still thought this album definitely had it's good points though.
Best Song: Burn On
Worst Song: Dayton, Ohio - 1903

Liege And Lief is an album that is decent but it was one that i found myself losing track of what song i was on pretty often. I like the folk rock style that this album goes for and it makes it very fitting for certain scenarios and i also did like the fiddle in some of the tracks as it did add quite a lot of character when they were there. The problem with this album is how samey the songs can sound. It gets to the point where i had the issue of losing track of what song. I typically wouldn't have known i was on a different track on the album until i checked the YouTube tab that i was listening to the album through. I still think its a pretty decent album but i wish it didn't have this issue.
Best Song: Tam Lin
Worst Song: Reynardine

I really liked War and i don't know if I'm shocked to say that or not. Considering i have now made it to 600 albums, i definitely think that the album to hit that milestone should definitely be a good one and this one more than delivered on that promise. Every song here was enjoyable and catchy no matter which vibe it had, from relaxing and playful to more pump up anthems which you would expect from an album that is literally called War. I also think that this is yet another album that got it's length just right, not too long, not too short. I don't have many bad things to say about it, Its just a really good album and worthy of being my 600th album.
Best Song: Sunday Bloody Sunday
Worst Song: The Refugee

Lady In Satin is another one of those albums where i can speak pretty positively about the music but the vocals, not so much. Ray Ellis and his orchestra did the main heavy lifting of the album in my opinion with some pretty good music with some great work especially on the violins, kinda giving a Frank Sinatra vibe with all the music and it really fits each and every song. My main issue with this album though is Billie's vocals, she sounded like an old lady in this album (which didn't make much sense seeing as she was 43 when this album came out). This is just a problem with this album that i don't have with other vocal jazz by women. I liked the music, I just wish the vocals were better.
Best Song: The End of a Love Affair
Worst Song: For Heaven's Sake

Dookie was just an incredibly fun album. It is just a typical punk rock album with nothing all too special to help set it apart from all the others on the market but it doesn't need to. All it needed to do was just be incredibly fun and enjoyable, and this album absolutely succeeded in that. It is just a fun punk rock album with some grunge elements with the vocals. The music here is fast-paced, rebellious and just a lot of fun and as were all the other aspects. Some of the songs here are a bit overly similar to each other (which is why i prefer American Idiot over this album) but regardless, I still had enough fun with this album to give it a 4.5.
Best Song: When I Come Around
Worst Song: Pulling Teeth

On Imagine's Wikipedia page, I saw that Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone said that it had a substantial portion of good music but he liked Lennon's first LP more and that, i agree with. This is a pretty solid album and definitely up there as one of Lennon's better works. I thought that all the songs no matter what vibe they had, be they soft and melodic or catchy and upbeat, worked well on this album. Lennon's vocals also were pretty good on this record as they portrayed each vibe on this album well. Granted, there are a few awkward moments on some of the songs but i don't think any of them were bad. This is a solid listen but i still prefer his earlier LP.
Best Song: Imagine
Worst Song: I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama

Too Rye Ay is an album that i just have the strangest feelings on. On one hand i think that the album does get incredibly repetitive with all the songs having that Irish folk style which while it does sound nice and unique at points, it can get quite repetitive when dragged out and the album does have it's really bad moments (I'm looking at you, Until I Believe In My Soul) but on the other hand, It has some really solid singles with stuff like The Celtic Soul Brothers and Come On Eileen and I think Kevin Rowland's vocals are a huge step up from their last album (except for that one song i mentioned prior). Its equal parts a 2 and 4 star album so all together, it gets a 3.
Best Song: Come On Eileen
Worst Song: Until I Believe In My Soul

I enjoyed A Love Supreme more than i thought i would have. I'm not usually a fan of these really noisy jazz albums but since this is a "You gotta be in the mood to really enjoy it" kind of album and i was in that mood (I will tell you why in the side note) I enjoyed this album a fair bit more than i thought i would have. I thought that the musicianship on offer sounded pretty good for being a typical noisy jazz album. I don't really have too strong of an opinion on the vocals on Track 1 but i thought that they fit the song well enough. The album was pretty short too so that was nice as well. On it's own merits, this album was only really worth a 3 star rating but since i was in that mood, I'm giving it an extra half a star.
Best Song: A Love Supreme, Part II - Resolution
Worst Song: A Love Supreme, Part IV - Psalm
(Side note: Ok, so while i was listening to this album (the first half at least), i was having a heated discussion about some funny scenarios for an upcoming game with 2 people in a Discord server, that heightened my enjoyment of this album a fair bit. So congratulations to the two people who i had that discussion with, You made John Coltrane's ghost proud)

James Brown Live At The Apollo is an album that i have odd feelings towards. I did enjoy it but i feel like it is missing a few things to be truly great. For someone like James Brown, it really makes sense for him to have a live album on this list as he feels like one of those singers that really has a presence when performing that really suits being live. As for the show/album, it is enjoyable and had a lot of fun moments but my main issue is that a lot of the best moments on this album are simply too short and are unable to properly sink in most of the time. I still think its a really solid album but i don't think i can justify giving it any higher than 3 stars.
Best Song: Think
Worst Song: I Don't Mind

You know, i was expecting to hate The Boatman's Call. I heard it was mainly a piano ballad album so i was just thinking that it was gonna get repetitive and tiring after just a few songs, But oddly enough, that never happened. I'm shocked that i did not hate this album. I thought it did have some really beautiful moments with it's music and i thought that Nick's voice perfectly fit the music as it was soft and deep just as this kind of music would benefit from. Granted, the lyrics weren't the greatest and the album did have it's moments of actually getting repetitive and hard to remember but i really was expecting it to be a lot worse.
Best Song: Idiot Prayer
Worst Song: Black Hair

Despite it's ugly as sin album art, Groovin' is a pretty decent psych rock album. If i were to compare this album to one of the psych rock bands from the 60s, it would probably be The Kinks as they have that similar sense of oddity that they had. While i don't think that this album is as good as the ones they have made but it is still decently solid. The music sounded all well and good with a few hiccups (especially in the second track) and the lyrics and vocals are about what you would expect for this genre. This album was pretty short though so that was nice to see. I wouldn't really say that there is anything too special about this album but it does what it does well enough.
Best Song: You Better Run
Worst Song: Find Somebody

I gotta say, I was shocked at how much i actually enjoyed Signing Off. I guess it could just be the fact that my expectations were at an all time low considering i had to listen to Muddy Waters yesterday but this album shockingly was pretty enjoyable. Granted, it is a rather long album with Madam Medusa especially contributing to that length but i still think that the music here was good and could be pretty interesting at points. The same goes for the lyrics which seem to focus on racism and black culture which makes sense for a genre like this but they still were pretty good. I wouldn't say its a perfect album but it did what it set out to do rather well.
Best Song: Madam Medusa
Worst Song: 25%

I know this may be an unpopular opinion but hear me out, I really didn't enjoy Hard Again which is a shame since i enjoy bluesy stuff from time to time but this is just not something i enjoy. Everything about this album feels so self-indulgent from the annoying slide guitar that is used so frequently to the point where it gets even more annoying to the messy composition. But this album not only managed to be annoying but incredibly boring too. All the songs here sounded the same and the album felt like it was going on for far longer than it actually was. I'm sure that you all see something in this album that i don't but as for me, This album is hot garbage.
Best song: I Want To Be Loved #2
Worst Song: Little Girl

Well won't you look at that, I got two country albums from the 1970s which both begin with Honky Tonk. First with Honky Tonk Masquerade and here with Honky Tonk Heroes. And my opinions with this one is the fact that it is just fine. Like the album i did just prior, its everything that you would expect from this genre, except less interesting as every sound here isn't really all that original. The songs here are okay and have some pretty decent lyrics as well as a pleasant feel to all the songs but they don't really stand out all that much from each other and feel too much like they are cut from the same cloth. This album was thankfully very short at just 27 minutes which is why it made it to a very soft 3 stars.
Best Song: Ain't No God In Mexico
Worst Song: Black Rose

Honky Tonk Masquerade is just your typical old country album with a few neat features but still is pretty basic. If you can think of any country album from the late 1970s, then there is a 90% chance that it sounds a lot like this. This uses all the same instruments (with a few ones i don't hear too often) the same vocal style and the same lyrical themes. If i had to pick a most interesting track from this album, it would be Boxcars since that song does have some sounds that i'm not all that used to hearing in country music. Other than that, i really don't have much to say about this album, It's fine but nothing all that special.
Best Song: Boxcars
Worst Song: Honky Tonk Masquerade

I really liked A Northern Soul. I think it has been quite a while since i have heard anything of the britpop variety on this project so this album was a pretty nice return to that for me. My favorite part about this album is easily how melodic it sounds. I guess it is where the shoegaze tag comes in for this album but this album definitely felt like it had a very relaxing sense of noise to it. I also thought that Richard Ashcroft's vocals are just perfect for this kind of music since it adds to the melodic nature so well. It is also interesting to hear Liam Gallagher add some hand claps on the song History. It can drag on a little bit but i still enjoyed this album quite a lot.
Best Song: This Is Music
Worst Song: [Reprise]