Reviews by apollo

Guitar Town is yet another case of an album on this list that is unremarkable but still pretty solid. This album basically is your typical run-of-the-mill 80s folk country rock album that is more or less just like its contemporaries but doesn't really do anything that much better or worse than any of them. The music, vocals and lyrics are all in the same boat with them being neither great or terrible. This album was thankfully pretty quick so it never got to the point of being a super tedious listen. I think this review might actually be shorter than my other ones because i genuinely don't know what else to say about this album.
Best Song: Hillbilly Highway
Worst Song: Think It Over

Stripped is a pretty alright album. The last Christina Aguilera album i looked at is quite different from this one as while the former has two different styles for two sides, This one seems to combine the two styles. This one also has some of the same vibes that the Justin Timberlake album i did which makes sense since the two artists did eventually perform this album live together but this album does lack that one's absurdity. The album itself is decent with the singles being some pretty good songs and the other ones being decent but forgettable. This album was really long though without much change or interestingness. This is an alright album, just kinda forgettable.
Best Song: Fighter
Worst Song: I'm OK

I really did like If You're Feeling Sinister. It is certainly surprising to see that this album came out the same year as it's predecessor Tigermilk but i guess it isn't the first time i have seen something like this on this project (this happened with Queen with Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack). While this album does lose what uniqueness Tigermilk had with the songs here now all using the same formula. I still can't deny that this album is still a good listen since it has all the relaxing vibes that the first album did and still has some very good lyrics. I would typically be put off by the lack of deviation but this album was too short for me to find an issue with that. I still think that this is a really solid album.
Best Song: If You're Feeling Sinister
Worst Song: Judy and the Dream of Horses

I liked Document quite a bit more than i thought i would have. I thought that this album was just gonna be good and nothing else just like the last two R.E.M. albums i looked at but i was proven to be wrong as this one in my eyes goes beyond being just good. The songs were all incredibly lively which was the main thing that made me like this album more than the past two R.E.M. albums i looked at. There are several more aspects i like too including the fun melodies, great musicianship from each instrument and the lyrics and vocals were also very well done too. This album was also paced just right. It may not be a perfect but its still a really good album.
Best Song: Fireplace
Worst Song: Welcome To The Occupation

Close To You is an alright album but it is one that i feel is very unnatural to listen to. There are things i like about this album, the music is handled well throughout a lot of the songs and has quite a few moments of genuine beauty, Karen's vocals are well done and fit the songs well and even Richard's vocals in that one track worked rather well for it. My main issue with this album is how unnatural it feels to listen to it and that is entirely due to the pacing. This album does feel overly fast paced at points to the point where i could sometimes forget what song i was on. This is why i like the 4 minute tracks on this album the most because they give the songs time to stretch out their legs. This album isn't bad at all, just a bit difficult for me to get into.
Best Song: Crescent Noon
Worst Song: Love Is Surrender

I gotta say, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was a shockingly pretty good album. I always do find the sounds of the solo albums from the members of The Beatles to be pretty interesting in terms of how much they differ from their albums together as The Beatles. In this case, this album definitely feels way more relaxing than most of The Beatles albums did but this album still did have its much harder tracks. I still am surprised at how good this album is as a lot of these songs are handled rather well and had fun melodies to boot like Remember which i think may have inspired ELO's Mr. Blue Sky. I still liked this album quite a bit and i do prefer it over most Beatles albums.
Best Song: Mother
Worst Song: Isolation

Metallica (The Black album) is certainly a beast of an album. I already had some high expectations for these guys after hearing both ...And Justice For All and Master Of Puppets but even this album managed to surpass those two in just about every way. The songs here are fast, heavy and melodic in all the right spots and they can put more effort into being one of those things whenever they need to and it is always handled incredibly well. The production here is also really great with the bass not being pushed back as much as it was in their last album. There isn't a single issue i can even think of with this album so it's getting full marks.
Best Song: Enter Sandman
Worst Song: The Unforgiven

Protection is definitely an interesting electronic album of it's time. Every song felt very different from each other which mainly comes down to the fact that they had many different vocalists sing the songs like the usual suspects (aka the members of the band: 3D, Daddy G and Tricky) Tracey Thorn, Nicolette and Horace Andy with all of them having very different voices. I would say that the album itself is pretty good with it having some pretty good music even if it could get fairly repetitive and the vocals could become difficult to get used to at points. I still think that this album is a solid listen and i do enjoy it more than the first Massive Attack album.
Best Song: Three
Worst Song: Light My Fire

Faust IV is certainly a very bizarre album. Krautrock is a genre which i have never heard of before listening to this album but after listening to it, it makes me think of some of the stuff Frank Zappa made. However, this album is better than anything he has ever made. You get the best of both worlds with this one, it's quirky, just like his Mothers of Invention albums and it's coherent like his solo album Hot Rats. Even some of the stuff some people would find annoying, i found tolerable. This album isn't amazing as it can get quite a bit repetitive due to the length of some of the songs but in all honesty, i was expecting a lot worse.
Best Song: Giggy Smile
Worst Song: It's A Bit Of A Pain

Survivor was actually a really good album. This album's structure kinda reminds me of the Christina Aguilera album Back To Basics with it starting with a very hip-hop/electronic like production kinda like the way DJ Premier did it in the album i just mentioned and with it later becoming a more ballad sort of album with some slower, more romantic vibes in contrast to Back To Basics' more moody vibe. This album does switch back to the other style though and even the slower songs still had more pop elements. I would typically dislike this but the pop elements actually helped the album feel more focused. The songs are still very catchy and memorable which does help make this album a really good listen.
Best Song: Survivor
Worst Song: Happy Face

I guess this site is continuing the tradition of giving me a really excellent album after an absolutely terrible one with Permission To Land and man oh man this album is seriously amazing. It brings back a lot of the glam metal elements from the glam metal bands from the 80s like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard while mixing in a fair bit of power metal elements as well. The vocals here are fun even if i can see why some people would find them a bit too much but the main star of the show is obviously the musicianship. The music here is nothing but amazing guitar solos, fun, catchy melodies and everything else you need in a great glam metal album. I truly love this one and think its one great late glam metal album.
Best Song: Love on the Rocks with No Ice
Worst Song: Growing On Me

Now look, I'd love to talk about all the horrible things this man has done but this is a site where we review music, not people. Not that it matters anyway because Haut de gamme / Koweit, rive gauche absolutely sucks. There is of course the fact that Koffi himself gets way too into the lyrics making them sound creepy even though i don't know what he is saying as i do not speak French, But the main issue is the music. While the novelty of them sounding like Super Nintendo songs in CD quality was there at the beginning, it quickly wore off when the songs went on for so long and did absolutely nothing to earn their length. Typically, i would say this is a case of separate the art from the artist but i don't think i need to do that when the art sucks.
Best Song: Elixir
Worst Song: Conte de fees

I wasn't expecting Lazer Guided Melodies to be very good but this was quite a bit better than i was expecting. This is a space rock album so the name of the game here is ambiance since there is certainly a lot of that. Because of that, this album is best when in certain situations in which ambient music fits and this album won't be the easiest to get into but when you do get into it, it can be a pretty relaxing album that's good to listen to after a long day. This album also does have many quirks in its sound with all the extra instruments and sounds aside from the typical stuff and i find those to be fairly nice additions. This album is kinda hard to get into but if you do, you will find a pretty decent album.
Best Song: Run
Worst Song: If I Were with Her Now

I guess Stardust is a serviceable album but it is still super repetitive and uninteresting. This is my problem with Willie Nelson after listening to two of his albums, the fact that while his music sounds pleasant, that one style of music is all he really has with him never really deviating and trying to do anything interesting that his contemporaries have not done already. I guess it is better than his other album Red Headed Stranger since there aren't any annoying horn sounds and the songs here did have more time to sink in seeing as they didn't end before they could. I just really don't know what else to say, this album is listenable, just incredibly forgettable.
Best Song: September Song
Worst Song: Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Darklands is everything that Psychocandy should have been. I always thought that Psychocandy had some pretty good sounding guitars and melodies but that album was mainly held back due to it's very poor production but this album fixes that exact issue. Gone are the awful ringing noises while this album still has the guitars and melodies i liked from the prior album. This album obviously is not perfect, it's generic nature does kinda make the songs feel a little sluggish but i never thought that the songs were bad. This album still is an enjoyable listen and is quite a massive step up from Psychocandy.
Best Song: Happy When It Rains
Worst Song: Darklands

21 was a great album much to my surprise. I think this project made me have a greater appreciation for Adele in my 20s than i did when i was a pre-teen during Adele's prime and listening to both this and 25 really helped with that. While i don't think that this album is as good as 25, i still think it is still a great listen with beautiful music, great songwriting and vocals which i now like far more than i did during my pre-teen years. This album did have a good diversion with I'll Be Waiting and had a cover of The Cure's Lovesong which it always shocks me when pop albums have cover songs but this cover was still very good. I liked this album quite a lot more than i thought i would have.
Best Song: Rolling in the Deep
Worst Song: Don't You Remember

Scum is definitely one of the most odd albums on this list and that gives it a unique charm that not a lot of other albums have. This album has a very interesting structure with it being 28 songs but a lot of them are extremely short with one being only 5 seconds long. The general songs are also out of the ordinary with it having your typical thrash/death metal beats but with some incredibly fast drumming and vocals which almost make it sound like the vocalist is barking like a dog. This album can get a little samey and easy to lose track of due to being so short but i still love this album's charm and the more conventional thrash/death metal parts do sound really great so i'm giving this album a 3.5.
Best Song: Scum
Worst Song: Multinational Corporations

Crazysexycool is a pretty darn good album if i say so myself. This is a group i only ever knew for their really big single, that being Waterfalls, but the rest of this album is a pretty fun bop as well. The instrumentals were easily my favorite part of the album with some great compositions, super funky beats and some cool guitar sections as well. The lyrics also flowed really well and definitely helped the album keep it's pace which the vocals also do help with. I guess if i had one issue, it would be the intermission tracks as they are just way too weird for their own good especially Sexy-interlude, now that was mood whiplash if i had ever seen it. This is still a really good album and a fun listen.
Best Song: If I Was Your Girlfriend
Worst Song: Sexy-interlude

The Madcap Laughs is a pretty solid album. Syd Barrett was apparently an ex-Pink Floyd member (the singer to be exact) and it seems he brought a lot of Pink Floyd's style to this album (as that is my assumption, i have not heard Piper At The Gates Of Dawn yet). It did feel like at a fair bit of points that Barrett was not really taking this album too seriously as this album included a lot of his pre-recorded takes which does feel kinda odd since this album doesn't appear to be satirical. Regardless, the typical psych-rock quirks are here and do make this album enjoyable to listen to and it does have a lot of stand-out tracks. I enjoyed my time with this album and can't wait to see his work with Pink Floyd.
Best Song: Octopus
Worst Song: If It's in You
Best Song:

Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and to listen to this album because its certainly a very good album. I saw that a critic from Entertainment Weekly compared this album to a Black Sabbath if it were sped up and had a bit of humor and while i can see that, i would more easily compare it to the grunge contemporaries of it's time such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I don't like this album as much as i like the offerings from the two i already mentioned but i still think its very good. The music was fast and fun and, of course, had plenty of humor and quirk to it and while the vocals are a bit awkward at first, they still fit the songs well. I really enjoyed this album and think its a good addition to all the other grunge albums of 1991.
Best Song: Don't Fade IV
Worst Song: Generation Genocide