Reviews by apollo

Yeah, I wasn't really a fan of Wonderful Rainbow. This is such a shame because i feel like i should like this album. Its got a very punkish and heavy sound and i really do enjoy albums like that. The main things that hold this album back though are just how utterly noisy and repetitive most of the songs here are. And look, there are some noisy albums here that can be enjoyable (Penance Soiree by The Icarus Line being one of them) but i don't think that these should be so repetitive. It also feels like the heaviness has very little weight to it which does drag the album down further. I wanted to like this album but i just don't think i can.
Best Song: Crown Of Storms
Worst Song: Dracula Mountain

At first, i thought Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers was just going to be a 3 star album but the more i kept listening to it, the more i leaned towards 4 stars. I do know of this band quite well but not much of this album, the most i have heard relating to it is hearing Stevie T's cover of Breakdown which i didn't even know was a cover until i listened to this album. This album is a pretty great one as it has the perfect mix of both soft and hard rock in all of the songs and they all had some pretty great melodies. This album also went at a good pace with the album only being 30 minutes and not feeling like its too long or too short. This was certainly a really good listen.
Best Song: Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)
Worst Song: Rockin' Around (With You)

Rust In Peace was certainly a great album. As a huge metalhead, i have always been aware of this album's existence, i even went as far as to use Tornado Of Souls for a college project but i have never actually listened to this album in full until now. This listen however, showed me how much i really do like it. The guitars and bass are some of the best parts of these songs as they were fast and hard hitting with all the other aspects of the music being not too far behind. I will admit that some of the songs do feel like they lack focus at points but it was never enough to really hamper my enjoyment. This album is still a great listen regardless.
Best Song: Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
Worst Song: Dawn Patrol

Emergency On Planet Earth is an album that i enjoyed way more than i was expecting to. Considering the only Jamiroquai songs i have heard before this were Cosmic Girl, Automation and Canned Heat, I didn't really expect that they would be a funk/acid jazz band so i got confused when i saw the funk tag. The music on here is great and really brings me right back to all the funk albums from the 60s and 70s that i did with Jay Kay's voice really providing a more modern touch to the album. The last two tracks were also pretty nice diversions which didn't take away all too much from this album. This was certainly a really enjoyable funk album.
Best Song: Emergency on Planet Earth
Worst Song: Didgin' Out

You know that pattern in my reviews where sometimes when this site gives me a really awful album, it follows it up with a really good album? Well, with Kollaps, this site did the exact opposite by being the follow up to Rocks. And yeah, It is a terrible album. It tried to be unique by incorporating various found items into it's sound like metal plates which basically means that this album was recorded with literal garbage. This of course, was not executed well as this feels like some music that a little child would make with a lot of toys at their disposal rather than by actual professionals. This album still is incredibly annoying too with bad vocals and constant irritating sounds making this one of the worst albums on this site.
Best Song: Tanz Debil
Worst Song: Lunebest

Rocks is a genuinely fantastic album. This album managed to take everything that made Toys In The Attic great and amped it up to 11. The songs here still had that bluesy vibe which i enjoyed from Toys in The Attic but it really leans more towards a hard rock style which inspired loads of hard rock and heavy metal bands, even some on this very list from Guns N' Roses to Metallica to Nirvana. Every song was always a vibe and never at any point made the album feel like it was dragging on, in fact, this album went at the perfect length. There also are no bad songs in sight either. This is genuinely one of the best albums on this project and one i enjoyed so much.
Best Song: Nobody's Fault
Worst Song: Sick As A Dog

Fever To Tell is a really darn good album if i say so myself. This is one of those albums that's really deserving of having the label of garage rock as it really does sound like it was recorded by just a bunch of high school friends having a jam session in a garage. The songs are fast, frenetic, and rough which really gives it it's fun punkish nature. I would typically complain about albums that have a rough production style but in this case i feel like it adds to this album as it helps with it's punkish, garage rock nature. I will say that the vocals were a bit hit and miss as they could be good sometimes but not so good at others. Regardless, this is still a fun album that i really enjoyed listening to.
Best Song: Y Control
Worst Song: Poor Song

Astral Weeks is an alright album but it is certainly a forgettable one. Nearly every single song had basically the exact same sound with an acoustic guitar with the occasional flutes here and there and Morrison himself using a pretty soft voice. It sounds nice and definitely works as good background music but it's just not very memorable and is something i will most likely forget all about in due time. The one standout track is easily The Way Young Lovers Do as it is the only one that deviates from the formula and it is a generally very enjoyable song. This album in general though is just another one of those slow acoustic albums even if it still sounds good.
Best Song: The Way Young Lovers Do
Worst Song: Ballerina
Side note: Since this will be my last Van Morrison album, I'll rank them all here;
1. It's Too late to Stop Now
2. Moondance
3. Astral Weeks

Band On The Run was a pretty enjoyable album. Unlike Paul McCartney's solo album which i did earlier on this project, this one definitely has more of a Beatles vibe to it when it comes to both the music and the vocal style. I did quite enjoy this one, It definitely had quite a decent amount of fun moments throughout it's runtime. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five was definitely a huge highlight for this album. I guess if i did have an issue with it, it would be that all the songs sound a bit to similar and are a little too forgettable but that could be pretty rare. I definitely had my fun with this album and it's definitely up there as one of McCartney's better works.
Best Song: Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
Worst Song: Band On The Run

I liked NEU! 75 more than i thought i would have. I initially thought that this was gonna be another pop-rock album but this one is more of a krautrock album but without a lot of the quirkiness of the other krautrock albums i have heard. In all honesty though, that actually makes this one more enjoyable. This album still felt pretty relaxing to hear and really did feel like perfect background music. But that is where the issue lies, it is mostly just background music. The issue with it being background music is it makes the songs all feel rather unmemorable with some i have easily forgotten. Even so, i did not hate my time with this album at all.
Best Song: Seeland
Worst Song: E-Musik

Okay look, I typically really enjoy electronic music, even some of the ones that most of the users on this site tend to hate on a lot (En-tact by The Shamen and Remedy by Basement Jaxx to name two) but when it comes to Haunted Dancehall, i just can't defend it, this album is genuinely garbage. There are points of this album that feel like they have potential with their compositions but squander that by using the most irritating sounds possible. And even when they aren't irritating, they can still get incredibly repetitive especially when you consider just how long this album is. I typically disagree with a lot of the hate many of these electronic albums but this, i genuinely see why you all hate it so much.
Best Song: Planet D (Portishead Remix)
Worst Song: Bubble and Slide

The Message was certainly a ride of an album. Now we get to what is probably the first hip-hop album by release date on this project, Forget Run-D.M.C., forget Duck Rock, this is the real first one and it shows as this album feels like it takes inspiration from many R&B and funk albums rather than it's non-existent contemporaries. For being an early hip-hop album, it's basic but still quite enjoyable the production and beats were fun and the lyrics were interesting with one of the tracks being a full-blown Stevie Wonder worship track (I mean, good taste, Stevie is good). It still has a lot of cheesiness but it is certainly quite enjoyable.
Best Song: The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheel of Steel
Worst Song: The Message

The Healer is certainly one interesting album but i guess that is to be expected from a man who doesn't seem to have a definitive birth year. What mainly surprised me was the sheer number of featuring musicians here. There is everyone from Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, George Thorogood and many others and each of these musicians brought something different to each of the songs they appeared in. Each song they appeared in was no doubt a good song but the last 3 songs there that were just done by Hooker fell a bit flat. This is no doubt an enjoyable album, i just don't think i would enjoy it as much without the extra musicians.
Best Song: I'm In The Mood
Worst Song: No Substitute

All Directions isn't the most amazing album ever but it at least left an impression on me unlike the last Temptations album. I found that everything here is just way more memorable probably due to being played much louder than i remember Cloud Nine being played at. A lot of the actual music is pretty good with a lot of it being able to invoke an incredibly relaxing feel. One other thing i can note is that in the second song, the n-slur is used. I always get caught off guard when these kinds of slurs are used in old R&B music since i always consider it a hip-hop thing. Regardless, I enjoyed this album a fair bit and i definitely like it more than Cloud Nine.
Best Song: Papa Was A Rollin' Stone
Worst Song: Run Charlie Run

Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde is a pretty fun album. For some reason, when i first looked at this album art, I thought that this was going to be a psychedelic rock album from the 60s. That was until i noticed the parental advisory, explicit content sticker on the art which made me realize that this is a hip hop album from the 90s. The album itself is a great listen. This is another one of those hip hop albums where while the rapping and lyrics are solid, it's the production and beats that really steal the show. The beats all had this incredibly jazzy feel which i really enjoyed. I had quite a bit of fun with this album and it is one i can definitely recommend to others.
Best Song: Return Of The B-Boy
Worst Song: Quinton's On The Way (Skit)

Gentlemen was a great album. I always do enjoy a good alt rock album as it is one of my favorite genres due to having an easy to get into, hard to get off of kind of sound i always enjoy. This album definitely has that sound to a T. The musicianship may be a bit awkward at points but for the most part it is very great with the guitars being the main star of the show here. I have heard not great things about the singers voice but while it does take some getting used to, he does have a pretty good voice. The lyrics are probably the weakest part about this album as they could be pretty dumb but still tolerable. I still really liked this album quite a lot mostly for the musicianship.
Best Song: Debonair
Worst Song: When We Two Parted

I don't think i was expecting it but i absolutely loved Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Even if my favorite genre is metal, i still do enjoy an album that is so relaxing, it soothes the soul. Every song, even if it did have a faster pace to it, just felt so relaxing with the slower songs being the ones that really brought it out. I also liked all the little electronic sounds in each of the songs as they did help give the songs even more of an identity even if they did get a little noisy in the first couple of songs. I also never really found the length of the album an issue because i feel this album needs to be 57 minutes in order to fully soothe you. This is a really excellent album that i can easily recommend to anyone.
Best Song: Ashes of American Flags
Worst Song: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

American Idiot is a very enjoyable album. I figured that i would really enjoy it since i do love me some punk music but this one definitely took it up to a whole new level. Songs like the title track, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Wake Me up When September Ends are all great tracks but that is to be expected when they are the most popular songs of this album but the other songs are no slouches either. The punk sound throughout the album always sounded great but i always liked the emo influences too in songs like Wake Me up When September ends. I don't think i can find a lot of things to dislike about this album so it gets full marks from me.
Best Song: Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Worst Song: Are We the Waiting

Tago Mago is definitely one interesting album. I heard that it is a krautrock album so it definitely has the quirks of an album like that or at least the ones i know of from listening to Faust IV but i do like this one more because this one still was quirky like that one but still managed to hold itself back when it came to the quirkiness. Well, except for tracks 5 and 6. Those two tracks just felt like Can was throwing everything they had at a wall and was seeing what stuck but not a whole lot of it did. Track 5 was worse in that regard but both of them still could be pretty annoying. But regardless, if i were to recommend one krautrock album of the two i listened to, it would be this one.
Best Song: Oh Yeah
Worst Song: Aumgn

Station To Station was a great album. I guess if i can compare it to one of Bowie's works the most, it would probably be Aladdin Sane due to it having some more of the heavy guitars that the album had. This album still felt fairly different from that one due to it having a different vibe from it with a softer tone in a lot of the songs (especially Wild Is The Wind). I still enjoyed that softer tone that this album displayed due to a lot of the songs just being generally very nice to listen to. Though when it did get more lively, that's when i enjoyed the album the most. Regardless, this album was enjoyable no matter how it sounded.
Best Song: TVC15
Worst Song: Word on a Wing