Reviews by apollo

A Grand Don't Come For Free is an album that i feel like tries to do something special but it just doesn't feel like it works as an album very well. I only really knew one song before listening to this album in full and that was Fit But You Know It but to my horror, the album is pretty much follows the same formula as that song. This album sounds as if it was originally gonna be a movie but Skinner was told last minute to make it a Hip-hop album and just rushed to make changes but didn't refine them enough. This leads to the vocals and music and the talking to constantly be at odds with each other. I won't be giving it a 1 since the music and vocals are okay when they are there for the most part but I just don't think i can praise this album like a lot of other people do.
Best Song: Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
Worst Song: Get Out of My House

I will say that Don't Stand Me Down is the most consistent out of the Dexys Midnight Runners albums but it is also the most forgettable. I feel like the other two DMR albums have at least one thing that is really good about them but they have one thing that's really bad about them but not this one. This one didn't really have anything good or bad about it, it just kinda existed for me. The music on offer is very solid and the vocals, while they could get a bit quirky, never got too annoying like they did on Searching For The Young Soul Rebels. All of that is to say that while this album isn't bad, i really don't see why it needs to be on this list.
Best Song: One Of Those Things
Worst Song: Reminisce (Pt. 2)
Side note: Last Dexys Midnight Runners album, meaning:
1. Too Rye Ay
2. Don't Stand Me Down
3. Searching For The Young Soul Rebels

Casanova was certainly something, i will give it that. Apparently Neil Hannon was playing a character for this album and this character is a complete creep who has no concept of consent and thinks that any girl that rejects him is just playing hard to get. It's good that one of the discord server members said that Neil Hannon isn't like that in real life and was just playing a character or i would have given this album a 2 due to the creepy lyrics. The music itself is also very lovely and definitely did a lot of carrying for this album. So if this album were to start at a 1, it gets 1 star for having solid music and another for good marketing.
Best Song: Theme from Casanova
Worst Song: Becoming More Like Alfie

School's Out was a really good album. The only song i was familiar with before listening was the title track as that would frequently play on the classic rock radio station before i jumped over to the local alt rock station. This album manages to outdo this band's later effort when it comes to quirkiness and it manages to do a lot of it well by having a very glam rock vibe in the same way as something like David Bowie but a bit more gothic and heavy than something he would make. This album was on track to possibly being a 5 star but there were a few songs that i thought went a little too far with the quirkiness but as it stands, this album is still a strong 4 star.
Best Song: Gutter Cat Vs. The Jets
Worst Song: Grande Finale

Elephant is to The White Stripes is what A Night At The Opera is to Queen as in, it is the White Stripes album to me. It already starts off with a bang and a half with it's most popular song Seven Nation Army and it never lets up at any point. The guitars are incredibly crunchy, the drums are perfect for this music, the vocals are fantastic and the songs all have a great energy to them. Even with some of the weirder songs such as It's True That We Love One Another, the album never had a point where it was bad throughout it's nearly 50 minute runtime. This is the perfect way to end my run with The White Stripes because this album is everything i could ever ask for from them.
Best Song: The Air Near My Fingers
Worst Song: In the Cold, Cold Night
Side note: Last White Stripes album meaning:
1. Elephant
2. White Blood Cells
3. Get Behind Me Satan

Is This It was a much more enjoyable album than i was expecting. I haven't really heard much of The Strokes outside of one of their newer songs Going Shopping (that song sucks by the way) and it left a bad taste in my mouth with them but after hearing this. I can understand why they are so loved. The musicianship might not seem too special on the surface but for what it is, it is some very good stuff especially when it comes to those guitars. The vocals were also pretty decent but they were not really my favorite vocals. The album was very well paced though and was still more than enjoyable enough to be a 4 star album.
Best Song: Alone, Together
Worst Song: The Modern Age

Bryter Layter is probably the best of Nick Drake's lineup. Apparently, this was the last album of his to have other musicians play some of the instruments as Drake would go solo on his final album Pink Moon. It is very evident that Drake knew the best musicians to work with as the music here sounded absolutely lovely. Nick Drake's songwriting is also very good here and is yet another highlight of the album. This is probably the longest Nick Drake album on the list but that isn't saying all too much as the album is still on the shorter end at just 39 minutes and i feel like that is a good length for this album. This is a very good album and Nick Drake's best.
Best Song: At The Chime Of A City Clock
Worst Song: Fly
Side note: All Nick Drake albums are done meaning:
1. Bryter Layter
2. Five Leaves Left
3. Pink Moon

Django Django was a very good album. This album gives me a lot of the same vibes that Cornershop's When I Was Born For The 7th Time (which makes sense since both bands are British rock bands trying to replicate music from other cultures) but i definitely prefer this album as it feels far more interesting and seems to do way more with what it's given than that one did. The songs here are quite fun listens even if sometimes they can blend together a bit. There was still enough going on in most of these songs where i can excuse the sameness of the songs a bit since there is still enough songs i can remember by heart. Definitely a very good addition to the list.
Best Song: Hail Bop
Worst Song: Zumm Zumm

Heartattack And Vine was an absolutely fantastic album. This album has a lot of what makes Tom Waits Tom Waits outside of the more weird elements in albums like Swordfishtrombones and Bone Machine. I always have known Tom Waits did a fair bit of piano ballads in some of his albums but this album still floored me with how beautiful it could get at points. That being said, when Tom was doing both of his styles, he did them very well here with the fantastic recording quality and the fact that his voice fit the songs very well no matter what when it really shouldn't have. I honestly can't find any bad things to even say about this record, it's just too good.
Best Song: Ruby's Arms
Worst Song: In Shades
Side note: Last Tom Waits album, you know what that means:
1. Rain Dogs
2. Heartattack And Vine
3. Bone Machine
4. Swordfishtrombones
5. Nighthawks At The Diner

Grievous Angel is a very basic country album. I don't know much about this guy but he seems to have lived a short but very interesting life seeing as he has a whole Wikipedia page about his death. One of the few interesting things about this album is that it features a young Emmylou Harris and i will very confidently say that her vocals are easily the highlight of this album. The other aspects are just very typical for a country album. The guitars and Gram's vocals sound exactly like you would expect in an album like this. The album did thankfully go at a brisk pace like most other country albums do so that's nice. This is a perfectly fine country album but nothing super special.
Best Song: $1000 Wedding
Worst Song: Medley Live from Northern Quebec

Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite was an album that was on track to be a 4 but due to a few reasons, i just don't quite think it makes it. All the reviews that i have seen of this album are saying that it is very smooth, in fact, it's so smooth that everything around it will be smooth and they didn't lie. This album is a very smooth one but i honestly expected it seeing as it is an R&B album. The album certainly did sound nice with the aforementioned smooth music and Maxwell had some great vocals. The problem is that this album gets really repetitive and i feel like it outstays it's welcome. It is far from a bad album but its not as good as i was hoping it would be.
Best Song: Sumthin' Sumthin'
Worst Song: The Suite Theme

I'm shocked by how much i enjoyed Here Are the Sonics. This band was a very influential band for the garage rock scene with bands like Nirvana and The White Stripes citing them as influences but this album has enough of this rockabilly feel that it feels like an evolution from 50s rock and roll to the rock music we know today. Even without all of that, this album is still just insanely fun. The songs are fast, the vocals are very enjoyable and like i said, the album cut a very good pace. I see how the recording quality might turn some people away from this album but to me, it still sounded clear and gave the album that garage rock charm. This was a really good one that more than deserves it's spot on the list.
Best Song: Good Golly Miss Molly
Worst Song: Walkin' the Dog

Peggy Suicide was a fairly decent listen. It took a search of Cope's Wikipedia page to learn that he was in The Teardrop Explodes and i will definitely say that this album is far more interesting than that Teardrop Explodes album i listened to earlier. That being said, it does still feel like pretty generic 90s country rock for most of the album with some stranger ideas in some of the later songs but not very much. I will still say that the album is pretty solid. The music on offer was pleasant and the weirder aspects didn't drag it down too much. The vocals were also pretty good here too and were probably the best aspect of this album. This album isn't super great but for what it does, it does well.
Best Song: East Easy Rider
Worst Song: Hung Up And Hanging Out To Dry

Actually was actually a very enjoyable album despite its datedness. This album is from 1987 and it shows as nearly every single aspect of it just reeks of that decade from the synths, to the vocals and all the other little things like that acapella in that one track. Some of it i feel like doesn't hold up very well as they sound pretty cheesy and dated by today's standards but overall, it didn't take too much of my enjoyment away from this album. The synths are still really good and the vocals are too, even the ones Dusty Springfield provides on What Have I Done To Deserve This?. It is definitely more dated than Very but i still thought this album was very good.
Best Song: One More Chance
Worst Song: Heart

When I Was Born For The 7th Time is an album that i don't think is great but i still think it had a decent bit going for it. I have never heard of this band prior to listening to this album so i thought that this was gonna be another britpop album. But what i got was a fairly interesting mix of indie rock, trip hop and traditional Indian music. However, despite the genre being fairly interesting, the songs weren't really that interesting as they didn't do anything with the idea of their genre for the most part. The songs definitely weren't bad though and were certainly pleasant listens but i don't think i can justify giving this album any higher than a 3.
Best Song: Candyman
Worst Song: We're in Yr Corner

Fun House is honestly the weakest of the three stooges albums on the list but i still think that it is quite a good listen. Most of Iggy Pop's albums are good but they all feel as if they suffer from some kind of flaw that holds them back, with this album, it's the fact that the first 4 tracks of 7 are kinda lame and that is a huge issue considering that is a majority of the tracklist. It does start to get better when the saxophones get introduced in 1970 and both tracks after it and Iggy's vocals are still quite good but i still feel like its quite unmemorable compared to some of his other works. Still good but it falls short of greatness
Best Song: Fun House
Worst Song: T.V. Eye
Side note: And since this is my last Stooges album, here are the rankings:
1. The Stooges
2. Raw Power
3. Fun House

On The Beach was an album that got decently close to being a 4 but ended up missing the mark. It is my current favorite of the Neil Young solo albums though as it does have a fair few heavy hitters. The guitars are at their best here especially in the first half. Neil Young's vocals are still fairly hit or miss here but I don't think they ever got to a point where they got super grating. The one big issue i have with this album is that a lot of the songs sound very samey. It got to a point where the songs at points could start blending together, especially tracks 6 and 7 (please don't do the stupid "meme" to that). Overall though, this album was pretty good but it could have been better.
Best Song: Walk On
Worst Song: On the Beach

Merriweather Post Pavillion is an album that didn't do anything for me. I have never heard of this band so i didn't know what to expect so i did kinda expect it to be on the weirder end and i was correct. The main issue with this album is that the songs feel confused as if they are just trying so much because they just don't know what they want to be. In some cases the weirdness works against the album too as there were points where the album could be grating to listen to. And it's a shame too because beyond that, i can tell Panda Bear, Avey Tare and Geologist are good musicians but it never feels like they are on the same page most of the time. I feel like this album could have been so much better but it just doesn't do it for me.
Best Song: Summertime Clothes
Worst Song: Lion In A Coma
Side note: I think the album art is kinda cool with it's optical illusion going on, its just as trippy as the music videos too.

Seventeen Seconds was a pretty solid album. This is the album that i would put in the middle of the 3 Cure albums due to it not having as many heavy hitters as Disintegration but thankfully is much less dissonant than Pornography. The songs here have this gothic sort of feel that i quite enjoy, the musicianship is good, and i can absolutely appreciate this album's legacy as it inspired quite a few new wave bands after it. The main issue i have with this album though is the fact that many of the songs kinda just meander around without doing all that much. Other than that, this is a solid entry in The Cure's lineup, just not their best.
Best Song: A Forest
Worst Song: At Night
Side note: To those of you that were expecting my album rankings for The Cure here, well too bad because i'm waiting to review Songs Of A Lost World when it gets added before i put my rankings so you will have to wait until then, sorry.

Seventh Tree was an absolutely beautiful album. I have heard Goldfrapp's prior album on this list (Felt Mountain) and while i thought that one was a good listen, i still thought it was missing something and some of the songs kinda meandered along without doing all too much. This album though, has neither issue. Like i said, this album had some absolutely beautiful moments with each element of the album from the synths, to the strings, to the vocals all complimenting each other greatly and giving this album it's lovely vibe. Granted there were a few songs i did not vibe with for one reason or another but overall, this album is actually very good.
Best Song: Some People
Worst Album: Cologne Cerrone Houdini