Reviews by apollo

It has been quite the long ride with David Bowie being 9 albums and Hunky Dory is a great way to close it off because it is an amazing album. This album is the earliest of the Bowie albums on the list and it shows as it has quite a bit of the stuff that would go on to influence a lot of his later albums. This album also has songs that are tributed to a lot of real people and i think that is really interesting and the songs absolutely do fit what they are going for. The music in general here is just really great as for Bowie's vocals. There really isn't anything i can complain about when it comes to this album so it's definitely one of Bowie's best works.
Best Song: Oh! You Pretty Things
Worst Song: Song for Bob Dylan
Side note: Last David Bowie album which means:
1. Low
2. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
3. Hunky Dory
4. Blackstar
5. Aladdin Sane
6. Young Americans
7. Heroes
8. Station To Station
9. The Next Day

Rhythm Nation 1814 is genuinely a top 5 pop album in my eyes. I have heard a few of Janet Jackson's songs mainly at my local bowling alley but i don't believe i have listened to any of her albums in full or knew that she was part of the Jackson family. No matter when the songs are fun and dancey or sad and soulful, they are always really good. Every song just has an unbelievable amount going on and Janet Jackson's vocals being as great as they are helps a lot too. And there is not one bad song within all 20 tracks which i didn't even think would be possible. This is genuinely one of the greatest pop albums in my eyes, it's that good.
Best Song: Miss You Much
Worst Song: Alright

Head Hunters was a pretty fun jazz record. I haven't really heard of this guy prior to listening to this album but this was another case where i knew exactly what it was gonna be. It feels like one of those jazz songs that you would hear while waiting for a representative from customer service to call you over some issue. And that's the thing with this album, it's best as background music honestly. That being said, it is good background music. The songs have a fair bit of energy and most of them introduced new things at a good rate. As a serious listening experience, it gets a bit repetitive but as background music, it works quite well.
Best Song: Chameleon
Worst Song: Sly

Black Monk Time was certainly an interesting album. Apparently this band was formed in Germany by 5 American GIs (aka, members of the military) that adopted loads of monk like attributes and i don't think i would have gotten that from listening to this album. I will say that the part of this album i find the most interesting (and are the best part of the album in my opinion). They are quite weighty and do have a bit of punch to them and i enjoy them for that. The rest of the album though, sounds like your fairly typical 1960s psychedelic garage rock album. There were points where i felt like i was gonna give this album a 2 but i felt like there weren't enough of them so a 3 it is.
Best Song: Blast Off
Worst Song: Higgle Dy Piggle Dy

Behaviour was definitely the weakest of the three Pet Shop Boys albums but that doesn't mean it was bad. This one is easily the cheesiest sounding of the three as Actually felt like a product of 1987 and Very did quite a fair bit to update their sound but this one definitely feels like it should have been released years earlier. On top of that, the songs don't really seem to go anywhere and just stay stagnant for far longer than they should. It's not all bad though, when the songs were good, they could be really good and the album manages to nail the atmosphere when it wants to. It just doesn't come anywhere close to the greatness of Actually or Very
Best Song: This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave
Worst Song: Being Boring
Side note: Last Pet Shop Boys album, which means one thing:
1. Very
2. Actually
3. Behaviour

Rejoicing In The Hands was an album that i'm not a huge fan of. Honestly, i thought that this album was going to be older than it actually is due to that album art but the production definitely gives the vibe of an album from 2004. That being said, my major issue with this album is Banhart's vocals. They just have that really annoying vibrato and are just not the clearest. The lyrics in some of the songs are kinda weird too. That is a shame though because musically, this album is very solid. It's minimalist while still doing enough to keep me interested. If it weren't for the vocals, i'm sure i would have liked this album but they are the main thing that's dragging it way down.
Best Song: Autumn's Child
Worst Song: See Saw

The Suburbs was an absolutely beautiful album. After hearing the first two Arcade Fire albums, i was certainly expecting a lot when it came to this band and i am happy to say they absolutely delivered. This is another one of those albums that is just so pleasant and lovely that i enjoyed it regardless of how long it got. The music was absolutely sublime being able to fit any mood that the songs were going for, both Win Butler and Regine Chassagne killed it when it came to vocals and the lyrics are great too. I am definitely having trouble thinking of things to even complain about because there really isn't anything i can think of. Just an all round fantastic album.
Best Song: Ready to Start
Worst Song: The Suburbs (continued)
Side note: Last Arcade Fire album, meaning:
1. Neon Bible
2. The Suburbs
3. Funeral

Time (The Revelator) is an album that's fine but it's not one i have a whole lot to say about. This album gave me severe deja vu to an album i listened to earlier this month, that being Gram Parsons' Grievous Angel as they have a lot of things in common. They both mostly have fairly slow moving country songs, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have similar qualities in their vocals to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris and they even have a live song mixed in there as well. This album was certainly a pleasant listen and there isn't too much i can complain about except for the fact that it doesn't have much going for it as it just feels like it's imitating other country records.
Best Song: Elvis Presley Blues
Worst Song: I Dream a Highway

Isn't Anything is a pretty solid album. This album definitely did feel less noisy than both Loveless and m b v but for some reason, i didn't like this album as much as those two. I guess it could just be the fact that even though those albums did get a bit repetitive, i still oddly enjoyed their hypnotic sounds which this one seemed to lack. However, i'm not saying this was a bad album at all. I still very much enjoyed the very dream pop nature and the songs still sounded really nice even if the vocals were very weird. It was still most definitely an enjoyable listen but i just think it lacks some of what i enjoyed about Loveless and m b v.
Best Song: Lose My Breath
Worst Song: Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside)
Side note: Final My Bloody Valentine album meaning:
1. m b v
2. Loveless
3. Isn't Anything

KIWANUKA was an album that just kept getting better the more i listened to it. When i first looked at the album cover, i initially thought that this was gonna be a world album with quite a few African elements but instead, it was more of a psychedelic soul album, and a very good one at that. The songs on offer just felt insanely atmospheric and very beautiful, especially those last 5 songs. The vocals were also great and the lyrics were very good as well. This album genuinely has nothing for me to complain about because every last second of it feels so beautiful especially when it gets to those last 5 songs. This album is definitely one of my favorite discoveries on this project.
Best Song: Final Days
Worst Song: Rolling

Blackstar was definitely an album i was teetering around between giving it a 4 or a 5 but with enough thought, i went with the latter. This was the final album released during David Bowie's lifetime and in many of these songs, it felt like Bowie knew it and thus, gave it his all. It took a while for the album to click but when it did, it really did. The instrumentals were all fantastic and David Bowie, while showing his age in that regard, killed it when it came to the vocals. The songs also had a sadder more melancholic vibe than Bowie's other works which absolutely made sense seeing as this was his swansong. All that is to say is that it is an excellent album and sendoff to a fantastic career.
Best Song: Girl Loves Me
Worst Song: Blackstar

Blackstar was definitely an album i was teetering around between giving it a 4 or a 5 but with enough thought, i went with the latter. This was the final album released during David Bowie's lifetime and in many of these songs, it felt like Bowie knew it and thus, gave it his all. It took a while for the album to click but when it did, it really did. The instrumentals were all fantastic and David Bowie, while showing his age in that regard, killed it when it came to the vocals. The songs also had a sadder more melancholic vibe than Bowie's other works which absolutely made sense seeing as this was his swansong. All that is to say is that it is an excellent album and sendoff to a fantastic career.
Best Song: Girl Loves Me
Worst Song: Blackstar

Electric Warrior was kinda a disappointing listen. I enjoyed The Slider to a pretty decent extent and this album feels like a proto version of that album. This album didn't really stick out too much unfortunately as many of the songs more or less used the same formula. That formula wasn't bad in and of itself but it eventually got very forgettable as the songs just went in one ear and out the other. I will say that the main highlight of this album was the closer (Rip Off) as that song had all the hard rock out sort of stuff i would want. The rest of the album is okay but suffers from the fact that it was just too forgettable for me.
Best Song: Rip Off
Worst Song: Lean Woman Blues

90 is an album that I'm shocked that i enjoyed as much as i did. I had this album on while i was doing homework for one of my college classes and it fit perfectly as background music. This is an album that already works in that regard but it's got a lot going on as just a simple listening experience. There were so much ambient sounds going on that it really helped this album feel full and rich. Granted there were points where this album could get more noisy than it should be but that was only for two of the 8 songs. The rest of the album though is some really nice and deep electronic music which i seriously enjoyed listening to.
Best Song: Donkey Doctor
Worst Song: The Fat Shadow

Tom Tom Club was definitely as weird as i was expecting it to be. What i didn't know about this album was that this band consists of two of the Talking Heads musicians being Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. I also thought that Wordy Rappinghood was gonna be the song i would be familiar with from this album but it was actually Genius of Love which i hear all the time on the radio in various places. This album definitely is as weird as i thought it was going to be like i said above but despite all it's quirkiness, it still managed to work pretty well with what it had. It's far from the greatest thing i have heard but it's still solid for what it is.
Best Song: Genius Of Love
Worst Song: Tom Tom Theme

Rum Sodomy & The Lash was an album that i was kinda bouncing back and forth on whether i should give it a 3 or a 4 but after much consideration, i went with the latter. I don't remember much about this band if i've ever even heard of them at all, but they sound like they would definitely go on to influence bands like The Dropkick Murphys due to their Celtic sound. The songs here are definitely very fun sounding and while they sounded a bit samey after a while, it still had enough of an interesting sound to keep me hooked no matter what. This band was definitely a really nice surprise and this album proved it.
Best Song: The Old Main Drag
Worst Song: A Pistol for Paddy Garcia

Surfer Rosa was a very enjoyable album. I did read on this album's Wikipedia page that it played a huge role in inspiring Nirvana's Nevermind and after hearing it, I can definitely see how it did. If i can think of one problem this album has, it's that the vocals here are very poorly mixed and are quite difficult to hear. However, the other aspects of the album are all pretty darn good. The grunge vibe that this album has going on is still fun to listen to and the album cuts a very good pace and none of the songs were bad to listen to. It's still not beating Bossanova when it comes to Pixies albums but this is still a really good one.
Best Song: Where Is My Mind?
Worst Song: I'm Amazed
Side note: Last Pixies album, meaning:
1. Bossanova
2. Surfer Rosa
3. Doolittle

Well, Duck Stab/Buster & Glen was the longest 33 minutes of my life. This album is in the bottom 5 for this whole site and after listening to it, I can absolutely see why. This album feels like the worst drug trip that you could possibly have with music that's utter chaos with tinny quality to it, very odd vocals which go from this deeper sounding guy to an annoying cartoon character and lyrics that are just about the most random shit you could possibly imagine. All this combines into an album that is very rough on the ears and in my opinion, has got to be one of the worst things that humanity has ever created (that is, if this group even are humans)
Best Song: The Booker Tease
Worst Song: Birthday Boy

I don't know if it was because i was feeling good today or not but i thought Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle was an absolutely lovely listen. I think i have only really heard of Bill Callahan in passing but he definitely made the music i expected to hear from him. The music has this incredibly whimsical vibe which makes the album absolutely relaxing to listen to and Bill Callahan's vocals really give me a big Leonard Cohen vibe which i really enjoy. This album could have possibly been a 5 star but the issue is that many of the songs blended together very easily and made a lot of them fairly forgettable. Other than that, It was a very good listen and certainly made my day better by listening to it.
Best Song: Eid Ma Clack Shaw
Worst Song: Invocation of Ratiocination

Hot Buttered Soul was a much greater album than i was expecting. I haven't really heard much of this guy's music but this list did make me look into him and the most notable thing about him from that search was the fact that he was the voice of Chef in South Park. Now, about the album, It was a very good album, the instrumentals were very nice and Isaac's vocals fit these songs really well. The only issue i can think of for this album would be the last song which while it had some good moments, It certainly did not need to be 18 minutes long. Other than that, i enjoyed my time with this album due to it having more than enough soulful goodness to keep me engaged.
Best Song: Walk On By
Worst Song: By The Time I Get To Phoenix