Reviews by apollo

The Seldom Seen Kid is something i can quite get behind. The album started off okay with the first three songs being pretty good but sometimes not making the best musical decisions but it was when Grounds For Divorce came on when the album truly became something great. The songs past that point could be really groovy and have good rhythms and also had a rather unique idea of having a steel mug be slammed on the table be an instrument (if the Grounds For Divorce video is anything to go off of) other times it could be a smooth and somber ride while sometimes creating whole worlds with music. This album truly is a great one.
Best Song: Grounds For Divorce
Worst Song: Starlings

Odessey And Oracle is a fine album but it is one of those albums that i feel that i don't really have a lot to say about it. The Zombies just feel like one of those bands that feels stranded in a sea of Beatles clones that were incredibly prevalent throughout the 1960s. That's not to say the album is bad though, the songs definitely had their good moments and had some fairly unique sounds to them, the album was a short one that i feel is a perfect length for something like this and there is nothing the album does that's particularly wrong or anything, I just think I'm searching the bottom of the barrel just to find things to really say about this album.
Best Song: Butcher's Tale Western Front 1914
Worst Song: Changes

Here's Little Richard wasn't the greatest album in the world but there was quite a bit of stuff to like about it. Like with all rock and roll albums, it definitely feels like Richard definitely had a lot of fun while writing this because a lot of the songs had a fun tempo and he definitely put quite a bit of effort into his vocals, that i can really appreciate. The songs, admittedly, were a bit samey mostly relying on only two different styles being a slow one and a faster one but thankfully the album was only around 28 minutes long so neither style got too tedious to listen to. This is one album that does it's job quite well.
Best Song: Rip It Up
Worst Song: True Fine Mama

God, i was legitimately not expecting Dr. Octagonecologyst to be this good. The beats were just so cool and flowed super well while also having a cool mysterious feel to them. Keith's flows were also really good and mixed in perfectly with the music. The samples were weird but they no doubt added to the charm of this album. Even if the vocals were a bit bland at first, i eventually got used to them as the album progressed. While not every song was great (Hello, Halfsharkalligatorhalfman) the majority of them absolutely were so that makes this album a really solid listen.
Best Song: Earth People
Worst Song: Halfsharkalligatorhalfman

What did i even just listen to? I already knew Frank Zappa wrote some pretty weird stuff back when i listened to Hot Rats for this project but Freak Out! just feels like if Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The United States Of America had a baby (which kinda is weird since those two albums came out 1 and 2 years after this album respectively) and gave that baby a ton of crack and LSD. While the songs in the beginning feel like they might have worked. The later songs definitely didn't due to just being all over the place in terms of music and direction. I also hope you like the sound of laughter because you hear it a lot during the back half. I get that this album is meant to be satire based on pop culture and Los Angeles' freak scene and that's cool and all but being satire doesn't automatically excuse something for being not very good.
Best Song: I Ain't Got No Heart
Worst Song: The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet

Honestly, Africa Brasil was really good for what it does. The songs are very catchy and upbeat in all the right ways. It also kept introducing new elements as the songs went on in a way that felt natural and not sudden at all. Jorge's singing was also really good too with his voice always managing to fit every song very well even if i can't understand the lyrics due to them being in a language i do not speak. I did feel like there were maybe a few times where i began losing track of what was going on but part of me feels that wasn't really the albums fault and it kinda just being my fault. All in all, its a pretty great album.
Best Song: Africa Brasil (Zumbi)
Worst Song: O Filosofo

Zombie is a very interesting album in many ways. First there is the fact that this album technically has only two songs (the other two are from the CD reissue) making it really short for an album. The other way its interesting is in it's lyrical themes basically criticizing the Nigerian government (which resulted in a lot of bad things happening to Kuti). The album itself, while not amazing, is a fairly fun listen for what it is. Every song had quite a lot of energy to it and generally kept introducing new elements in pretty decent ways. My only real gripe with this album is the organ, while unique in idea, sometimes tends to come out of nowhere in some of the songs which can get rather distracting. Other than that though, this was a fairly good listen.
Best Song: Mr. Follow Follow
Worst Song: Zombie

After listening to Back To Black, I can absolutely say it was nothing like what i was expecting. I was expecting a more pop oriented album since that's the kind of vibe Amy Winehouse gave me (prior to seriously listening to any of her music) but it ended up being a more jazzy soul like album and honestly, i think its great for that. The songs here sounded pretty dark at points but managed to stay catchy and fun and also had Amy do some really good singing. The album was also the perfect length, long enough to sink in but not so long that it becomes tedious. This is definitely a great album.
Best Song: Back To Black
Worst Song: Rehab

m b v is another album on this project that i have mixed feelings on. There are some songs on this album that are legitimately stellar even if they are seen as just \"noise\". I honestly feel that i have a bit more of a fondness for these \"noise albums\" than most other people do since i find that while they can sound annoying at first, once they sink their teeth into you, they actually can be quite the ear candy which is benefitted by the fact that here, the songs are long enough to really sink in. Unfortunately, not all the songs here are like this. The others are just kinda boring and, like the good tracks, are pretty long too in some cases. But kinda boring is the worst this album ever really got, I still quite like it.
Best Song: who sees you
Worst Song: is this and yes

New Wave was a pretty good album. Most of the songs did sound fairly similar to each other but was all that indie rock sort of sound that i do like. The album also didn't go on for too long for that style to get repetitive enough. It did get to the point where it (like the Louvin Brothers album i did a while back) was pretty tough to pick out a favorite and least favorite song due to all of them sounding really similar but i was able to pick some for this review. This album is good at what it does, it just has the issue of being a bit too much of the same thing throughout most of it.
Best Song: Starstruck
Worst Song: Bailed Out

Honestly, i was quite surprised with how good The Slider was. I felt that it mostly flip flopped between two different styles one being a more rock out sort of style (the one i prefer but i still like the other one) and a style that feels like something that Elliott Smith would eventually go on to do but this album still feels like an alpha version of that. . The album also cut a quick pace, almost too quick at points as the songs could go by so fast that they didn't have enough time to really sink into my head. Despite that small blunder, it was still able to be a good album that really inspired a lot of the other albums i liked on this project.
Best Song: The Slider
Worst Song: Main Man

I feel like I want to like The Who more than i do (rhyme unintended) but i just mostly think that they are alright and Tommy was what showed me why. The album was a real mixed bag when it came to song quality. Sometimes the songs could be cool, catchy and have interesting guitar riffs, vocals or anything else of that nature. Other times the tracks were either pretty forgettable or have some of the most annoying ideas implemented, especially when it came to vocals. I can't dislike this album at all because there are some stellar tracks here and there but sometimes i just feel like too many things just did not work here.
Best Song: Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker)
Worst Song: Christmas

Now Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs is how you do country music in the 50s. As you can guess from that statement, this album does what it wants to do as well as it can. The main thing that stuck out to me was the lyrics which just show that Marty Robbins is quite the storyteller with his songs telling stories in some pretty interesting ways. The music is alright albeit nothing special. It can sound good sometimes but other times, it can get pretty forgettable. But even then its not exactly what i would think of as the main selling point of this album. Its the stories that it tells that are and this album does those well.
Best Song: Big Iron
Worst Song: Cool Water

It seems that the Attractions have returned with Blood And Chocolate, and just like This Year's Model, This album is fine. It does have it's moments but isn't really the most interesting thing in the world. The songs generally did have pretty high energy which i liked and i do prefer the production style here more than This Year's Model's production since i just like the more 80s sounding new wave sound present here rather than This Year's Model's more basic one. Beyond that, i really don't have too much more to say about this album. It is fine but nothing all too special.
Best Song: Poor Napoleon
Worst Song: Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head

Court And Spark is an album that i don't have the strongest opinion on but from what i heard, is fairly decent at what it does. The songs at the beginning of the album were not really anything to write home about mostly due to just sounding a little too similar to each other, It handles this better than some other albums but the problem still stands. The back half though really allowed the writers and Mitchell to really flex their creative muscles as the songs here were much more interesting and had quite a lot of jazz elements towards the end which i thought were handled very well. This may not be the greatest album around but its still a solid one.
Best Song: Raised on Robbery
Worst Song: Free Man in Paris

Gotta say, Led Zeppelin III as quite the great album. I had heard the intro to Immigrant Song many times in the past but i never knew that song was by these guys and I like the song quite a bit more now due to hearing it's other parts. The other songs on the album were great too all using their guitar work to their fullest potential. The vocals also were really good even if it is something you hear a lot from early metal albums. Some of the songs did get a bit annoying for occasionally overusing the guitars in ways that didn't sound super good but those parts never detracted from the album too much and because of that, its still great.
Best Song: Tangerine
Worst Song: Hats off To (Roy) Harper

Raising Hell was a pretty good album all things considered. It reminded me of the Beastie Boys album i looked at a long while back (which makes sense since they both released at around the same time) with both of their mixes of rap and rock. I honestly do think this album is better though. The highs of the album felt higher than anything Licensed To Ill could do and its lows were not nearly as low. This album still did have its fair share of lows here and there but it's highs more than made up for it. This is definitely one quintessential rap rock album.
Best Song: Raising Hell
Worst Song: Perfection (Ironically enough)

Honestly, i was just shocked to see just how good Coat Of Many Colors really was since i wasn't expecting so much out of it. Dolly had a great voice throughout and she really showed that she put a large amount of effort and passion into her vocals. The music was handled really well for the most part too and the album cut a pace that was just right. It was long enough for the songs to really sink in but still quick enough for it not to feel tedious. My one issue with the album is some of the timing of certain aspects of certain tracks with examples being Early Morning Breeze ending far too early or Here I Am adding it's instruments too early. Other than that though, this is a great album that really made me know that there was more to Dolly than i had once thought.
Best Song: A Better Place To Live
Worst Song: If I Lose My Mind

Tragic Songs of Life was an album that i just found average but it did have some good things going for it. The lyrics are generally some of the better lyrics of this genre with them having some fairly serious themes around them which most country albums released after this could not really do. This album also is really short so even if it was less pleasant to listen to, it wouldn't have lasted too long. However, what i can't get over is how samey and uninteresting the actual music is. I actually had trouble picking a favorite and least favorite song because every song sounded so similar. There are some good things about this album but unfortunately, they aren't enough to save this album from being average.
Best Song: I'll Be All Smiles Tonight
Worst Song: Alabama

Fear Of A Black Planet was a fairly mixed bag for me. The songs here kept flip flopping in quality. On one hand, some of the songs have weak rapping and annoying samples , But on the other, The other songs have cool rapping, interesting sample usage (including one sounding like it's from Michael Jackson's Thriller). and groovy beats. The lyrics here are also cool at points and are never insanely dumb unlike some other hip hop albums. This is a generally good album overall where most of it's good aspects outweigh it's bad aspects.
Best Song: Brothers Gonna Work It Out
Worst Song: 911 Is A Joke