Reviews by apollo

Funeral is an album that i really enjoyed. I never really heard too much of Arcade Fire, all i have really known about them is that a lot of music critics praise them as if they are the second coming of Jesus Christ. I don't think that this album is perfect but i still do really like it. The instrumentation is on point and works well with every song no matter what instrument they pick and the melodies are always interesting and changing which makes a lot of the longer songs not very tedious at all. I think that the vocals could be clearer but they are still quite serviceable. I don't praise this album as much as all those music critics but i can still see why it gets so much praise.
Best Song: Rebellion (Lies)
Worst Song: Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84) is just another alright album from this project. From it's title, i nearly assumed that it was a series of songs recorded from 1981-1984 (i thought that before i remembered the release year) and yes, this all seems to be music made for this album. I only think that there is one standout track, that being Glittering Prize which is actually a pretty solid song. The rest of the tracks, while not bad, either don't have anything interesting or do but those interesting things get a little boring due to the length of the songs. Its an alright album, just not better than a lot of the other new wave albums out there.
Best Song: Glittering Prize
Worst Song: Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)

Chore of Enchantment is just okay. I do kinda like the idea the band seems to be going for, using some Leonard Cohen style vocals and putting them in an alt-rock album is certainly an idea for an album i would enjoy. The problem is though, the album just never does anything with a lot of the ideas it has and it makes a lot of the songs just feel pretty boring and safe. There were a couple of stand out tracks in this album but nothing i would feel like i would go out of my way to listen to again. This album is not a bad album, it just isn't really all that special and there is just far better stuff out there.
Best Song: Wolfy
Worst Song: Shrine

I actually really liked The Next Day. It is always interesting whenever this project has an album that was released several years after it's artist's prime and this one is certainly no exception. It still has a lot of David Bowie's trademark traditions including always having a special kind of energy to his songs and also having many art rock elements. I guess if i did have one issue with the album, then it would be the fact that the album is a bit sloppy in places where the compositions don't feel perfectly put together and the instrumentation doesn't help those moments. Other than that though, the songs are great and i still had a good time with this album.
Best Song: Love Is Lost
Worst Song: The Stars (Are Out Tonight)

Trans Europe Express is certainly a weird one but hey, that's Kraftwerk for you. It is pretty easy to tell that this is one of the earliest electronic albums ever made mainly due to it's sheer quirkiness and desire to basically try as much weird stuff as it possibly can. I felt as if i kinda did vibe with the quirkiness at points and i did enjoy some of the melodies here. The main issue i have with this album is just how repetitive it is even for electronic album standards. Quite a couple of the songs here carry over from the songs before it and with their lengths, can easily make them feel stale. I kinda did enjoy this album but i would still easily put The Man Machine above it.
Best Song: Abzug
Worst Song: Franz Schubert

Untitled (Black Is) is actually a pretty solid album for being my first album from the 2020s for this project. It is also pretty interesting to see that this is probably the most Christian album that we are likely getting on this project. As for the album itself, there is good and there is not so good. The music here was stuff i generally enjoyed having a nice R&B sound with a lot of the songs feeling very distinct from each other yet still fitting together quite nicely. I guess if i had to complain about something, it would be the vocals. They aren't horrible, i just find something off about them. This is a solid album but i do feel there are better albums from 2020.
Best Song: Monsters
Worst Song: Black

Ten is a really great album but for whatever reason, something about it is preventing me from giving this album 5 stars. Pearl Jam is one of the big two grunge powerhouses (the other being Nirvana) so it does of course have that typical grunge sound that i was expecting and it does sound very good throughout all of the songs. The guitars on the songs are what mainly steal the show as they do sound amazing in a lot of the songs. A lot of the other aspects about the album are great too and of course none of the songs are bad either. I really do like this album but not as much as i feel i should.
Best Song: Jeremy
Worst Song: Oceans

I think we are at the time where everyone has more or less forgotten about Kanye's X crash out (since nobody is talking about it) so i don't think it will be too controversial if i say that i think that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a great album. I have had a somewhat mixed opinion on a lot of Kanye's lyrics but i will say that they in this album are not nearly as bad as the ones on Yeezus, but not as good as the ones in The College Dropout. However, what i think is better than both albums is the production. It took a massive step up and delivered some major bangers in basically all of the songs. Kanye might not be the greatest person but this album sure is his greatest.
Best Song: All Of The Lights
Worst Song: Dark Fantasy
Side Note: And since this is the last of the Kanye West albums i will be looking at, here are my rankings
1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
2. The College Dropout
3. Yeezus

The Scream is another amazing album from Siouxsie and the Banshees. It has been a long while since i did an album by this band and because of that, i have forgotten just how good they really are. There is already the fact that the guitars and vocals in the songs are great and really do a lot to help me enjoy them as much as i do. This album is also home to my second favorite Helter Skelter cover (My favorite is the Rob Zombie/Marilyn Manson one). I don't think this album is as good as Juju though i can't really pinpoint why. Regardless, i think both albums are some of the best listens i have had on this project.
Best Song: Mirage
Worst Song: Suburban Relapse

Central Reservation was actually a super nice surprise. This album is a very poppy folk album and i do enjoy that kind of sound when it is done well which this album does do it well. There were many songs that all had some really nice melodies to them with Beth's voice adding quite a lot to them. The songs here were a little samey but all generally had a good sound to them so that wasn't an issue that i cared about too much. I don't think i have much more to really say about this album so all i will say is that this album was a really nice surprise and it really does deserve more attention than it seems to get.
Best Song: Stars All Seem to Weep
Worst Song: Pass in Time

Rio is an alright album. Since this is an 80s new wave album, it is of course gonna have a lot of cheesiness in virtually every aspect but that isn't always a bad thing. A majority of the instruments all sounded alright and fit the songs pretty well and all had good melodies which was the main thing that was initially praised about this album back in 1982. The thing it was most heavily criticized for, The lyrics, weren't something i paid all too much attention to but from what i remember, they were not all that bad. I'd say the main issue with this album is how overly similar the songs sound to each other. I still will say that it is an alright album, just nothing all too great.
Best Song: New Religion
Worst Song: Rio

Dear lord, Violator is such an amazing album. I was expecting at first to hear just another good album like Music For The Masses but this album goes way beyond that. It just has everything i would really ever want in a new wave album. Its haunting, melodic, catchy, memorable and every other adjective i can think of to describe a good new wave album (and in some cases, an album in general). Every song managed to be really good with no stinkers or even average songs as they all just had something that made me really love all of them. This is easily one of the best new wave albums i have ever heard.
Best Song: Personal Jesus
Worst Song: Blue Dress

I was really not expecting Destroy Rock & Roll to be this good but i was so happily proven to be wrong. From the first time a got a taste of some of the songs, i was expecting that i would get a 2 star album at best. However, when i actually listened to this album it went up to a 3 and stayed that way until the last 2 songs which were enough for me to give it a 4. The songs here were all some really good stuff but the final 2 tracks, like i said, stole the show for me. The album always managed to have a good beat to all of it's songs and got really beautiful towards the end. This album isn't gonna destroy rock & roll but it is still a really good one nonetheless.
Best Song: Need You Tonite
Worst Song: Sunworhsipper

Sign 'O' The Times was a much more enjoyable album than i thought it was going to be. This one is a double album so you know there would be a lot of songs and with that hopefully, a lot of variety. This album did have a decent bit of variety while still sticking to a defined sound throughout. The main reason i like this album is mainly the music though. They often had some really cool instruments like the Sega Genesis sounding bass among others and the rhythms were cool too. Prince's vocal work had a Michael Jackson style flair to it and that i really enjoyed. This album isn't perfect but it is a great palate cleanser after the garbage i listened to yesterday.
Best Song: U Got The Look
Worst Song: Starfish And Coffee

Look, I generally really like punk albums but Junkyard manages to spectacularly fail when it comes to everything. I don't think there are many redeeming qualities about this album. The music manages to be super messy and noisy. The vocals are a poor man's Tom Waits but far worse. The lyrical decisions manage to make me cringe so hard. The production is also terrible here but that might be a blessing considering that if it wasn't, i could fully hear just how bad this album is. Never before have i managed to find an album that managed to bore me to tears and also irritate me to the point of begging for it to be over but somehow, this album managed to do it.
Best Song: Several Sins
Worst Song: She's Hit

Remedy is a really good album. It could just be my affinity for most electronica albums speaking here but the album was filled to the brim with a lot of bangers. Bangers that all managed to sound very different from each other and keep me interested throughout the album's whole runtime. Its absolutely not perfect with songs that could be better if they weren't so noisy but even these noisy songs along with all the other ones never were bad, just songs that i would put lower than the best songs. I just don't know what else to say other than this is just a really fun album that will likely be staying in my head for a while.
Best Song: Jump N Shout
Worst Song: Don't Give Up

Shleep is an album i have mixed feelings on. On one hand, the album is actually filled to the brim with quite a bit of good songs with many of them sounding oddly relaxing despite all of their noise and some even trying some unique things. On the other hand though, some of the songs are real stinkers due to being so noisy and annoying and even to a point where apparently Robert Wyatt even seems to have a tough time singing the songs so he just gives up on adding the lyrics in (The Duchess is an especially bad offender of this). I don't hate Robert Wyatt's music as much as a lot of other people on this site do (at least, the songs i have heard) but i still don't think i can give this album any higher than a 2.5.
Best Song: Blues In Bob Minor
Worst Song: The Duchess

The Marshall Mathers LP is a much better album than The Slim Shady LP but it is still not very good. Instead of just having bad songs (with the occasional hint of something decent) this album is somewhat more of a mixed bag with it actually having some good songs. The instrumentals have gotten a slight upgrade from the last album with none of them being overly annoying and actually having a structure. The rapping has improved a little bit too in some songs where in others, it remains overly cringey. This album is not good, don't get me wrong here, but if you gave me the option between listening to this and The Slim Shady LP, then i would pick this album any day of the week.
Best Song: The Way I Am
Worst Song: Under The Influence

I will give 69 Love Songs credit, the title certainly was not lying but was it really to the benefit of the album. Due to the album's sheer number of songs, the run time clocks in at nearly 3 hours and they made sure to take advantage of that time to do whatever. When it comes to each field of the album (Lyrics, vocals and music) there is good, and there is really bad. This is just one of those albums where i feel that you could cut out a lot of these songs (even some of the more palatable ones) and this album would be much better. Granted, it would ruin the title but you really gotta ask yourself the question "Is the novelty worth it?".
Best Song: If You Don't Cry
Worst Song: Punk Love

xx is an album that is just squandered potential in my eyes. The first 5 songs were all great with them each having an otherworldly indie sound with beats that did the job well and just a general vibe that you could easily relax to and get lost inside your thoughts. However, tracks 6, 7 and 8 were all lacking due to music that was trying to hard to be ambient and vocals which sounded like Romy and Oliver were just getting bored of this and while tracks 9, 10 and 11 were good, they just weren't able to hit the heights of the first 5. This album is the embodiment of the saying (I don't know if this is a real saying or not but who cares) "You had it all but lost it somewhere along the way".
Best Song: Intro
Worst Song: Shelter
Side note: I love the music video for Islands, I love how it tricks you into thinking that it is just going to be a simple visualizer but then everything goes awry and it was just a really cool subversion of my expectations