Reviews by apollo

After 148 albums, I finally did a reggae album with Legalize It. Honestly, It is kinda weird that an album about trying to get weed legalized is a reggae album because i would honestly expect that more from a hip hop album (heck, some of the ones i have done already talk about that in some of the lyrics) but i guess it does add to it's interestingness. The album itself is fairly above average even if it does sound a little sloppy. This was just one of those cases where i got used to the sloppiness of the composition and it grew on me. One thing i can't excuse though is that weird noise in Till Your Well Runs Dry which kinda sounds like someone drinking through a straw. This album is for me is a rather light 3.
Best Song: Whatcha Gonna Do
Worst Song: Till Your Well Runs Dry

After listening to The Slim Shady LP, all i can say is "Dear god, this album sucks". The lyrics and rapping are very dumb and not in the funny kind of dumb, just the cringey kind of dumb and very offensive to some people and it also lacks a proper structure. The instrumentals are fine and are probably the best part of the album but unfortunately some of the sound effects and samples used are annoying to say the least and can also tend to lack structure at some points. I have a problem with nearly every aspect of this album and there are almost no good things about it. Not a good combination.
Best Song: Rock Bottom
Worst Song: Guilty Conscience

Elliott Smith returns with Figure 8 and it just proves that he really was a musical genius during his career. This album kinda gave a bit of a Simon And Garfunkel vibe with the vocals and the music sounding somewhat similar to the stuff they would make. I also really like how it and Either Or feel pretty different from each other with this one being more pop oriented and Either Or being more acoustic in nature. I still do like Either Or's style a bit more but this style also works really well. This is a great album from a great musician that we unfortunately lost way too soon.
Best Song: Somebody That I Used To Know
Worst Song: Junk Bond Trader

Born In The U.S.A. is probably my favorite Bruce Springsteen album so far. Unlike Born To Run which only was at it's best during it's last half. This one kept things way more consistent with it's quality throughout the whole album. I also thought the new wave elements added a bit of an interesting quality to this album that the other two albums i did by Springsteen didn't have. It also did have songs that sounded a bit like what i heard in the other two but it was balanced well with the new sound. This album is a pretty good album that i can say is a good anthem for America especially with it's title track.
Best Song: Glory Days
Worst Song: Darlington County

145 albums in and i finally find another album by the band that began my 1001 albums journey, The Rolling Stones, And they are back with Sticky Fingers. It actually is a pretty good album and i think its better than Let It Bleed. Unlike Let It Bleed which went further towards it's country elements, This one goes more towards rock with some of the country elements still intact which is a style i prefer. This album also had some more slower songs which worked well as breaks from the harder stuff. There are songs which i do think are not composed the greatest but this album still managed to be a pretty good album.
Best Song: Bitch
Worst Song: You Gotta Move

Agaetis Byrjun is a weird album for me. Its often difficult to tell what genre this album even is due to it flip-flopping around genres like rock, pop, electronic, and shoegaze but i guess i can agree that its an ambient album. That does kind of add to this album's rather interesting nature with it's songs. The songs themselves do sound pretty good for what they were trying to pull off with this sort of music and the problems with it are just the usual ambient album problems. It might not be an amazing album but it definitely is a very interesting one.
Best Song: Staralfur
Worst Song: Ny batteri

Radiohead has always had this unique style of music that is very difficult to replicate exactly and i feel that Hail To The Thief shows off this style perfectly. The mix of rock and electronic sounds always had some moments that kept me on my toes yet they still sounded cool and coherent for the most part. Thom Yorke's voice also really came out well through these tracks and always helped make these tracks so interesting with the help of the music of course. I do feel like some parts of the music could have been composed a little bit better but beyond that, This is still a great album that feels so fresh and unique and i feel is also a step above Amnesiac.
Best Song: Sit Down Stand Up
Worst Song: Scatterbrain

I gotta say, Definitely Maybe is a legitimately fantastic album that i loved listening to the whole way through. While the vocals and the other instruments are handled super well, Its pretty obvious that the guitars here steal the show. These guitars could be groovy, heavy, and mellow all at the same time. The songs all felt like they complimented each other throughout the album while still having their own identity. Forget Suede, this is britpop at it's finest.
Best Song: Slide Away
Worst Song: Married With Children

Man, The Downward Spiral was honestly quite the listening experience and it was one i didn't regret a single second of. Many of the songs just sounded perfectly heavy in the way that they are just fun to rock out to while seamlessly blending in many electronic influences. Throughout the album, there were so many cool moments involving the vocals and the music that made me ask \"How are Trent and the other members of the band doing this?\". This is one heck of an amazing album and is probably the best one i have done so far. Sorry Appetite For Destruction, you have been dethroned.
Best Song: Reptile
Worst Song: Piggy

You know, for being an album called Ambient 1/Music For Airports, The songs didn't really feel like they would fit an airport, more like a beach during a sunset. That aside, This album generally gets its job done and my biggest problems with it are just the problems that come with all ambient albums. Its repetitive sure, but that is what you would expect from these sorts of songs. There is also the fact that this kind of music is very purely situational for me as in i have to be in a very specific mood or situation to really want to listen to this stuff. But for what it is, this album does what it sets out to do pretty well.
Best Song: 2/1
Worst Song: 2/2

It's A Shame About Ray? More like It's a Shame this album couldn't be more interesting. All jokes aside, its an okay album, just rather generic and safe. There were not many moments that i could go out and say "Yeah, this is something i can remember" and none of those moments really were the songs themselves, just specific moments in them like cool riffs at the beginning of Alison's Starting To Happen, or amusing vocals like at the beginning of Bit Part. I will admit, Frank Mills is a pretty interesting song with some unique lyrics, too bad its so short though. This album is fine, just nothing I would go out of my way to really listen to again.
Best Song: Frank Mills
Worst Song: Rockin' Stroll

When it comes to Liquid Swords, there is one thing that i really can't get over and that is just how good the production is on this album. The beats and samples mix with the rapping really well and just are really good when it comes to complimenting each other. The samples are also from a martial arts movie which feels so on brand for a member of the Wu-Tan Clan. At worst, the songs could be a little bit boring but that was very rare when it came to this album. This is definitely a great album I can recommend to any 90s hip hop enjoyer.
Best Song: 4th Chamber
Worst Song: Hell's Wind Staff / Killah Hills 10304

Paranoid is iconic for a reason and that reason is that its really good. The guitar riffs were really cool and unique and almost had a jazzy sort of feel to them. Ozzy was also great at singing this album as all of these songs really fit his voice. I think that the biggest standout tracks to me are probably the most popular ones being Paranoid and Iron Man but that's not to say the other songs aren't great either. This is a really great album that i would even put ahead of Vol. 4.
Best Song: Iron Man
Worst Song: Planet Caravan

Fear Of Music was an album that really wasn't great. It mostly suffered from the issue of having music and vocals that didn't really compliment each other and just felt like they were walking on each other. While the music was fine for the most part, the vocals absolutely were not due to sounding way too monotone and being hard to hear due to what i mentioned earlier. This is also an album that just got worse as it went on with it starting out decent at the beginning but falling off hard towards the end. I certainly do have a fear of this music (pun intended).
Best Song: I Zimbra
Worst Song: Drugs

Bruce Springsteen returns with Born To Run and for me its one of those albums that mostly shines throughout the back half. The songs on the front half were all decent but a bit too similar sounding to each other but the back half did have some genuinely beautiful sounding moments and the songs there felt like they had their own identity and were not all too similar to each other. I think this album is better than Darkness On The Edge Of Town since i feel like i can remember the back half songs here better than all of the songs on that album. This album is quite good
Best Song: Meeting Across the River
Worst Song: Backstreets

Exile In Guyville is a really mixed bag in terms of quality for me. On one hand, there were songs that sounded great, had cool musical ideas, and had some pretty good singing by Liz but on the other hand some of the songs could be really boring, follow basic melodies, or just be way too repetitive and i also did find the pace of the album to be a bit too breakneck at points. The album mostly was good throughout its runtime but the bad parts were rather noticeable.
Best Song: Canary
Worst Song: Girls! Girls! Girls!

Bayou Country was a pretty simple and good album. The songs throughout mostly sounded pretty good and full of energy and the album cut a brisk pace at around 33 minutes so it never really got overly boring. The only song i feel did kinda drag was Graveyard Train which is expected since it is the longest but it also didn't have enough cool musical or lyrical moments to really keep me engaged. This is a perfectly good album that does what it does well enough.
Best Song: Penthouse Pauper
Worst Song: Graveyard Train

After listening to Straight Outta Compton, I have found it is pretty groovy and fun. In some ways, it kinda feels like an early version of Cypress Hill, another hip hop album i quite like. The lyrics still give the idea that the group doesn't really have a good relationship with the cops and that's the kind of lyrics i like most of this album. The album was also rather well produced with all the samples coming together quite well. It is a rather good hip hop album that i think is perfect for all the gangsters still out there.
Best Song: Straight Outta Compton
Worst Song: Express Yourself

Honestly, I was pretty surprised with Ready To Die, it turned out to be a bit better than i was expecting. The production of most of these songs was handled super well and it made the songs have some rather cool beats. The lyrics were alright too even if they did involve flexing some of the time, but hey that's probably what you are gonna expect in rap music and the flexing here seemed a little more interesting since it also involved his early life. This album is actually pretty decent and is a welcome album for my return to looking at 90s hip hop after a long absence.
Best Song: Respect
Worst Song: Intro

Wild Is The Wind was quite a great album for me. The piano playing and vocals were really what stood out here. The piano work was absolutely beautiful in a lot of the tracks and the vocals were incredible unique too with many of them sounding like a man is singing a lot of these tracks which i find kinda amusing but they still sound rather good either way. I feel that some of the songs are a little too minimalist for my liking but that wasn't a huge detractor for this album.
Best Song: Break Down And Let It All Out
Worst Song: Wild Is The Wind