Reviews by apollo

Come Find Yourself is a really darn good hip-hop album. I always really love it when hip-hop albums combine their sound with other genres with this particular album combining it with funk rock music. I find that the elements from both genres were used very well. The hip-hop stuff was where the rapping was really fun which makes this band really earn their name and the lyrics and samples were pretty solid too. The funk rock was where the music was also incredibly fun to listen to as it could be so groovy and still fit each song to a T. I do feel that there are some songs here which are rather forgettable which does cause this album to get docked a star but all in all, this is a great album.
Best Song: Bombin' the L
Worst Song: I Can't Get with That

The Idiot is a pretty darn good album. Of course with it being an Iggy Pop album, it has all the positives and negatives of all his other albums. The songs here can be pretty enjoyable even if they are pretty weird as Iggy does seem to enjoy experimenting with whatever sounds he can use. The production is also a little weird but considering this was produced by David Bowie, that should be expected. At least the production here is better than that of Raw Power since this album doesn't sound like it was recorded in a dumpster but Iggy's vocals still seem to highlight the rather odd production. While Lust For Life was better at it's best, i feel that this album was a fair bit more consistently good so it gets a 3.5.
Best Song: Tiny Girls
Worst Song: Mass Production

I gotta say, I'm always in the mood for a good hard rock album with some weirder elements and Dust certainly helped to scratch that itch. The main thing that stands out about this album is all the extra stuff they put into these songs from the electronic stuff to the world elements all really give these songs their own identity. The songs that these elements are used in are absolutely great mainly due to their great melodies with each instrument giving all of these songs a really nice sound to them and still fitting in with the grunge/hard rock style. Some of the songs here are a bit forgettable but other than that, this is a really great album that i can easily recommend to a lot of people.
Best Song: Traveler
Worst Song: Halo of Ashes

The Stone Roses is just one of those albums that i feel like is a 4 star album but i just don't really know why that is. This is an indie rock album so it has the sound that you would expect from an album like this being soft, melodic and somewhat weird. I do enjoy this sound like i do with a lot of indie rock albums but i do feel like this album is kinda sleep inducing. It is just really quiet throughout it's runtime and combined with that soft indie rock sound, i did find that my eyes were having a bit of trouble staying open. That being said though, i still thought the songs here were enjoyable to listen to and there wasn't anything that bad so it still say it is a very enjoyable album.
Best Song: Made of Stone
Worst Song: Don't Stop

The Sounds Of India is something that does what it sets out to do fine enough but isn't very good as an album. This album was made as a way for the Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar as a way to introduce and explain Hindustani classical music to the rest of the world. I say it does a pretty decent job at that as it does explain some of the characteristics of this kind of music in an intuitive and easy to follow way. However, as an album, it falls flat. Once the novelty of this being a unique genre wears off, it just becomes really repetitive and the songs become really hard to differentiate from each other. This album does it's job as a introduction and explanation of Hindustani classical music well enough but as an album, it leaves a lot to be desired.
Best Song: An Introduction to Indian Music
Worst Song: Sindhi-Bhairavi

Killing Joke is an album that i absolutely love. Let's get one thing out of the way, this is a hard album to get into as it really tries to experiment especially during the first half. It can be tough to get into due to the experimental melodies and the singer's robotic voice. But when it gets to The Wait, that's when things really start to get good as it and each song after it is just so enjoyable to listen to. There is so much to like including the great guitar riffs, the crushing basslines and even the singer's voice feels less robotic at this point. A lot of these songs also have super catchy melodies which really add to them. It isn't an easy album to get into but if you stick around, you are in for quite a treat.
Best Song: The Wait
Worst Song: Wardance

Hot Shots II is a rather weird album in my eyes. There were points when it would sound like a 2 star album but there were also points when it would sound like a 4 star album. Though one thing was fairly consistent on my opinions on these song, and those were that the songs with more electronic elements were the ones i enjoyed more. The songs were fairly groovy and could have some fairly relaxing qualities but i also did feel like some of the songs didn't flow very well in terms of vocals with Eclipse probably being the worst offender of this. Other than that, i couldn't really find too many issues with this album. It's a decent listen, just i do think it could be better.
Best Song: Squares
Worst Song: Eclipse

What can i say? I love British Steel. I have had some experience with listening to Judas Priest though i don't think that anything i really listened to by them was from this album. I am glad i did find this album though as it is an excellent listen. Of course some of my favorite songs off this album are the singles like Breaking The Law, United and Living After Midnight but the other songs are no slouches either. These songs are mainly so good due to their excellent guitars and bass. Listening to the bass really made me think about how much modern metal pushes the bass into the background and makes me appreciate it being in the forefront here. I really enjoyed this album as expected.
Best Song: Breaking The Law
Worst Song: Rapid Fire

Kenza was not what i was expecting at all. This was one of the few albums where i did not scout ahead and listen to previews of the songs here so i was just expecting this to be a typical world album with the string instruments and some wind instruments. But i should have known what genre this actually was due to the pop tag with it having several contemporary pop elements. These actually made the album shockingly really good as they made these songs catchy and unique even for a world album. Khaled's voice was also great and it was a long album that didn't feel like it was dragging on so that was a plus. This was one really good album and a really nice surprise.
Best Song: Mele H'Bibti
Worst Song: Leili (C'Est La Nuit/Version Arabe)

Bert Jansch is a pretty okay album. This guy was apparently apart of Pentangle and also worked on that band's album on this list but this album most definitely sounds different than that Pentangle album in many ways. Unlike the more fairy tale style of that album, this one seems to just be a typical folk album mainly just relying on guitars and Jansch's vocals in some of the songs. The album does sound fairly nice as it can be pretty relaxing to listen to. The songs here do suffer from same face syndrome though as they all sound overly similar to each other which would have greatly reduced my enjoyment of this album if it wasn't so short. This is an okay album but not one I'm interested in coming back to.
Best Song: Dreams Of Love
Worst Song: Smokey River

American Pie is certainly one great album. It was honestly surprising to me just how slow and melodic this album really is. There are only two more lively songs here (Those being Everybody Loves Me, Baby and maybe American Pie too even if the latter is a mix of both styles). I really do like these songs though as they are incredibly relaxing and therapeutic and they really are further amplified by McLean's brilliant songwriting. It also did help the more lively songs stick out and become more memorable when it comes to this album. I also don't think there is a single bad song here as they all have something really good in them. This is certainly a really great album and one i really enjoyed.
Best Song: American Pie
Worst Song: Babylon

Every Picture Tells A Story is yet another album where it is good but is a case where i just don't have that much to really say about it. Seeing as this is Rod Stewart, it is another folk rock album with most (if not all) of the songs relying on that sound. I do enjoy the guitars and piano of this album and Stewart's raspy voice really does add a lot to this album. But then again, those are the only real things i can really say about it. There isn't really that much else that stands out when it comes to this album. It really is just another folk rock album from this list. It's still a good listen but i don't think i would be too unhappy if this album was not on the list.
Best Song: That's All Right
Worst Song: Maggie May

Live And Dangerous is an album i absolutely love. It may not seem all too special from the lens of a modern listener with it's typical metal/hard rock sound and the stage presence of the band not being as interesting as the stage presence of other musicians, but for 1978, this was good and definitely seemed to heavily inspire Motorhead as their music does sound really similar. The songs here are a bit samey but that didn't stop me from loving all of them as they were just incredibly fun, enjoyable romps. The recording quality did take me some time to get used to but as i kept listening, i enjoyed it's rather rough nature. This is one album that definitely is a case of just getting better and better as it went on.
Best Song: Massacre
Worst Song: Jailbreak

Fear and Whiskey is an album that i enjoyed quite a fair bit. This one very clearly has a lot of country influences (Heck, the final song on this album is a cover of an actual country song) And i say, they mixed quite well with all the more rock like elements. The country elements very rarely got overbearing because they didn't ever feel as if they were taking over the whole album. Even then, i liked the songs that leaned more towards being typical rock music because they could be some rather enjoyable tracks. This album also felt like it went at a good length with it not ending too early or too late. This is an album that while not amazing, does it's job pretty well.
Best Song: Hard to Be Human Again
Worst Song: Flitcraft

From the moment i heard the news, I knew that i was gonna get Black Sabbath today and I'm glad i did because this album is genuinely great. Unlike some of Black Sabbath's later albums, this one leans way more into being doom metal with it having more dreadful vibes to it than some of the band's later releases. This album also feels like it has quite a different structure than the others with some of the songs being all lumped into one which does make the album feel shorter. The songs here are all really well done having a lot of the same enjoyment as their later albums. While i enjoy Paranoid and Vol. 4 more, i still really like this album.
Best Song: A Bit of Finger / Sleeping Village / Warning
Worst Song: The Wizard
Side note: Since this will be the last Black Sabbath album i will be listening to here i will rank them:
1. Paranoid
2. Vol. 4
3. Black Sabbath
Also RIP Ozzy Osbourne, The genre of metal wouldn't be the same without you
December 3, 1948 - July 22, 2025

The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady is an album that had a lot going for it but was held back by one simple thing. This album certainly did have a lot of variety for just having 4 songs. There was the typical jazz music, a point where it had that odd stringed instrument (i don't know if its a guitar or not) and even some very Clair De Lune sounding piano parts. I do like a lot of those aspects but the album just needed to do one thing to be great which it did not do, That is GET IT'S CRAP TOGETHER. This album felt like it had barely any composition as there was just sounds everywhere and it could get annoying. It is a shame since this album could have been a 4 star album, it just needed to fix this issue.
Best Song: Track C-Group Dancers
Worst Song: Track A-Solo Dancer

Red Dirt Girl was certainly a nice surprise of an album. Apparently from reading the Wikipedia article from this album, this is apparently her first album of hers for the majority of the songs to be written by her rather than covering songs by other songwriters. And surprisingly, it really did pay off as many of the songs here were written very well and were performed just as well. The music was really well done by combining a typical country sound with more pop elements and they really do mesh well together. Emmylou's vocals were also very good, as were David Matthews' vocals in that one song that he appeared in. This was a really good album and a lot better than i was expecting
Best Song: I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now
Worst Song: Bang the Drum Slowly

Eli And The Thirteenth Confession was an album where my opinion kept wavering back and forth. At points, it could feel like a 3 star album and at other points it could be a 4 star album. A lot of the music here could be alright at best but it did have moments of being really good. The vocals also wavered with them sometimes being really good and other times being a bit awkward. I will still say that the good parts of this album outweighed any of the really bad but also a lot of the really good parts to. This more or less makes this album be just a good one with a lot of really good parts so i may just end up giving it a 3.5
Best Song: Eli's Comin'
Worst Song: December's Boudoir
Side Note: One thing i just really want to say is that i think Laura Nyro is genuinely so beautiful

A Walk Across The Rooftops was certainly one of the stranger albums on this list but i didn't find it too bad. It is more or less your typical 80s New Wave album from the UK as it hits all the same beats as it's contemporaries do with things like the vocals, synths and general vibe that they all have. The thing that makes this album as strange as it is would mainly be the fact that some of the songs are compositionally odd, especially with the synths. This album wasn't really a bad listen though as some of the songs could be quite relaxing and very pleasing to listen to. In my eyes, it was those songs that made the album as enjoyable as it was to listen to.
Best Song: Easter Parade
Worst Song: From Rags to Riches

Femi Kuti was not a bad album. This album does give me a lot of the same vibes that Fela Kuti's 2 albums on this project did which makes sense seeing as Femi is his son. But then again, they use a lot of the same instruments, use melodies that have more or less the same vibe and even their voices sound very similar. The songs are also very long, just like they were in Zombie and Live!. And just like those albums, this one is a pretty decent trip. The songs here sounded pretty good and while they were indeed long, they didn't tire me out as much as some other long albums did. This album wasn't a bad listen and i do feel like both Femi and his dad are around the same quality-wise.
Best Song: Stubbor Problems
Worst Song: Live For Today