Reviews by aretzorn

Super generic. Autotune is an automatic -1 for me. Outside of autotune, the album is not bad, but not memorable. Tracks that caught my ear in a good way: Frontline (had me hoping for a good album, but then it turned pretty generic), Better, LMK (decent, but again pretty generic). Track that caught my ear in a bad way: Blue Light - autotune must die. Next.

I like the overall vibe - the album is probably perfect for a rainy afternoon, but I'm going to stop at a 4 because I think it needs the right mood to enjoy fully.

Bob's Big Breakthrough. Blowin' in the Wind and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall are absolute classics, deservedly so. Easily two of his best ever. Other songs I really liked included Girl from the North Country and Masters of War. A lot of the songs sound repetitive, but Bob's lyrics usually save the day. In fact, Masters of War is 100% just a repetitive riff, but the lyrics are so stirring it's easy to ignore the repetitive nature of the song. Some of the lyrics are also surprisingly humorous - I always thought he was way too serious, but songs like Talkin' World War III Blues and I Shall Be Free show he's got a sense of humor. Of course, that's more than balanced by powerful lyrics like all the previous mentioned songs (plus Oxford Town). I also liked Corrina, Corrina, possibly just for the fact that it sounded different. I'd call the album a 4.5, dinging it a little for the repetitive sound, but I'll round up for the historical significance.

I dig Robert Wyatt, even though he's a little weird. I think they would have been fine only including Rock Bottom in the 1001, but I definitely enjoyed this album. A lot of it has a haunting ethereal sound, with occasional bops. Excellent musicianship throughout. I'll call it a 4 - a little too weird to be a 5. Favorite tracks: Heaps of Sheeps (a surprisingly good bop with amusing lyrics), Maryan, Free Will and Testament, Alien, A Sunday in Madrid, Blues in Bob Minor.

I knew Peekaboo, but never heard anything else by them. I definitely missed out - this album rocks and you can hear how it influenced a lot of 1980s (and later) alternative rock. The only track I could have done without was Voodoo Dolly - a very weird way to end such a cool album, but didn't detract enough for me to deduct a point. The rest of the album is just plain awesome - layers of dark coolness overlaid with Siouxsie's unique, powerful voice. Favorite tracks: Spellbound, Arabian Knights, Monitor, Night Shift.

I've tried to be open-minded in this whole 1001 thing. That was rewarded with discovering that pop artists like Madonna and Christina Aguilera weren't as bad as I thought. But this one - yeah, it's as bad as I thought. Her singing style makes me cringe - she sounds like she's trying to be sexy, but just...no. The music is cheesy formulaic pop. Absolutely soulless. Yeah, this is awful. So why a 2 rather than a 1? To me, a 1 is absolutely unlistenable. I don't like this, but I could tolerate it (and even had to admit some of the simple, formulaic songs are earworms). So, a 2 feels more appropriate. But barely. Tracks that had some redeeming value: Soda Pop, Born to Make You Happy.

Millennial hipster music but I kinda dig it. One of the two singers is a little whiney (particularly prominent right out of the gate on The Wrong Way), but overall there's a cool vibe through most of the songs. Main criticism is it suffers from the same thing as a lot of the genre - each song is a really cool riff or beat that they just extend into song length. Yeah, the riffs are cool and they build and sometimes ebb, but learn how to write a bridge or a chorus or something - just have the song go somewhere new once in a while! I liked the a capella approach in Ambulance, although it went a little long. Relatedly, the album has a demo of Staring at the Sun that's also a capella. I wonder if that's their writing approach and on Ambulance they just decided to keep it that way? Interesting approach if that's true. Favorite tracks: Staring at the Sun, Don't Love You, Wear You Out.

I'm not a country fan, but I can appreciate how good this album is. I never listened closely to her singing in the past - really just knew the hits like 9 to 5 - she has so much more emotion in her singing than I realized. In the past, I probably would have characterized her voice as cheesy but on this album her singing is beautiful. Beyond that, the band is on point, and the music and lyrics are stirring. I can't give it a 5 because it's still mostly straightforward country (with a few exceptions - Early Morning Breeze is more folk than country. The Way I See You is kind of schmaltzy). That said, it's clearly a great album. Favorite tracks: Coat of Many Colors (by far my favorite), My Blue Tears, If I Lose My Mind, She Never Met a Man (She Didn't Like), Early Morning Breeze.

I thought I was going to be bored with a basic blues album, but this album kicks ass! It's like the best night at a bar you've ever had. The whole band is on fire (and James Cotton blows the top off the room every time he does a harmonica solo) and the whole thing has a surprisingly hard edge. That said, there's also a surprising amount of joy in the music. Couldn't help but bop along and smile the whole time. Great stuff. Favorite tracks - Mannish Boy, I Want to Be Loved, I Can't Be Satisfied, The Blues Had a Baby.

I like that one song, where they play that reggae beat? Ok, so I really liked Exodus and was pleasantly surprised at the variety in the music, after expecting an album of the same reggae beat throughout. Well, this album unfortunately met my expectations of every song sounding similar. It's not a bad sound - these songs are all really good and the band sounds great (especially the guitars). But a full album of similar sounding songs is always a minimum of one star off for me. Concrete Jungle was probably the most unique, particularly the first 30 seconds, but then went into basic reggae (with some really good guitar soloing). No More Trouble teased a non-reggae beat for almost one whole minute! Favorite Tracks: Concrete Jungle, Slave Driver, 400 Years.

I can appreciate that they were pioneers (and influenced Steven Wilson, one of my favorite artists), but it's honestly pure background music that doesn't go anywhere.

Boat transistor on the combine
Free washer on the sign
Left on might go fly
Wheat mango gone bye

Yes, that makes as much sense as the lyrics on the album. Also, almost every song follows the exact same pattern - a jangly guitar line, driving bass line, straighforward drums, Michael Stipe singing nonsense, verse chorus verse chorus.

It's also interesting and a little lame that you hear all elements of R.E.M. on this debut album. In other words, they don't evolve much (although their sound does get richer on Automatic for the People). I generally like their sound, but their albums are almost interchangeable to me. Favorite tracks: Radio Free Europe, Talk About the Passion, Moral Kiosk, West of the Fields.

I liked this album, but it gave me a lot of "this sounds like something else" vibes. I heard echoes of Radiohead (singing in Take a Bow and Soldier's Poem) and Elbow (at 3:15 of Take a Bow). Starlight absolutely sounds like The Killers. Hoodoo gave off Queen vibes, even if it didn't exactly sound like Queen. The opening arpeggios in Soldier's Poem made me think of Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. Sure, it changed away from that quickly, but there were a lot of points where I said "they sound like X."

But the vibe that hit me a lot was Imagine Dragons. Sure, I know Imagine Dragons came later (and say they were influenced by Muse), but I was having a hard time putting my finger on why they made me think of them. My teenage daughter helped me figure it out - she agreed that they have an Imagine Dragons vibe and then said, "they're both rock music for people who don't like rock." I don't know if that's entirely fair, but I laughed. She went on to firmly state that Muse is much better than Imagine Dragons, but I still got a kick out of that explanation.

Anyway, I enjoyed the music despite the nagging feeling that they often sounded like someone else. Lots of really cool moments. I'd listen again, and I do like rock, thank you very much. Favorite tracks: Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, Invincible, Assassin, Exo-Politics.

Trivia of the day - I didn't know Isaac Hayes wrote "Soul Man" (with writing partner David Porter - the two were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005). Originally recorded by Sam Moore and Dave Prater (Sam & Dave), with Booker T. and the M.G.'s as the house band (and Isaac Hayes on organ). That was fun to learn. Ok, re: Hot Buttered Soul - Hayes has an amazing distinctive voice. Latter day music listeners mostly know him as Chef from South Park, but he had an amazing musical career (look it up). Side 1 of this album is outstanding. Love the groove on Walk on By (which has been sampled a gazillion times for good reason). Hyperbolicsyll...um, not going to type that out...is very cool, with a great jam. Side 2 brings things down a little for me. You still get Hayes' amazing singing, but One Woman is a pretty basic track and By the Time I Get to Phoenix goes on forever. Unfortunately, Side 2 brings my overall score for the album down, but there's no denying Isaac Hayes was the essence of cool and an amazing singer. RIP.

A good album, but kind of uneven. Side 1 is excellent and starts with the classic "Love the One You're With" (TIL the famous lyric came from something Billy Preston liked to say). Do For the Others is a nice chill song with a great interplay of acoustic guitar and an interesting vocal line. This is followed by the gospel-y Church (Part of Someone) which sounds like it should have been sung by Ray Charles. Old Times Good Times has Jimi Hendrix on guitar in one of his last recordings. Has a great jam at the end that ends too quickly, unlike the next song, Go Back Home w/ Eric Clapton which drags a little prior to the ok jam at the end. Side 2 is a lot weaker than Side 1. Sit Yourself Down and To a Flame are both basic easy listening. Black Queen is a great acoustic blues track, but it's a little awkward to hear a white guy singing "Black queen, where's your black man?" Cherokee sounds like it should be the theme for a 70s TV show. Very dated, and has a strangely abrupt ending that segues immediately into We Are Not Helpless, which starts off as an easy listening anthem, transitions into a motown section a little over 2 minutes in, and then has kind of a gospely anthemic ending. The album is decent, but stylistically all over the place. I think I'd give it a 3.5 given the chance, but I'll round it up to a 4 on the strength of Side 1.

Their 1971 double album Tago Mago was so disappointing to me - the first album had some excellent spacey krautrock, but the second album was abysmal, so much so that I gave the whole thing a 2. At the time, a friend told me I was much more likely to enjoy Future Days. He was definitely right. Spacey, improvisatory, but very compelling. Can't go with a 5 due to a bit too much weirdness - in particular, Damo Suzuki's vocals seem almost completely unnecessary - buried in the mix and a little rambling. But definitely a 4 - I can see coming back to this again (great both for focused listening and background music). Each track is great for different reasons - Future days is both spacey and chill. Spray has a groovy opening instrumental and has a good vibe throughout. Moonshake has a great funky vibe. Bel Air is a tour de force - love the bass, lots of great moments, never gets boring, even though it's 20 minutes long. Good stuff.

The song title "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten" reminds me of the Weird Al line from Word Crimes: "You should never write words using numbers, unless you're seven, or your name is Prince." I'd describe the overall album as slacker country/blues. Not bad, but nothing I'd seek out again. Favorite tracks: Drunken Angel (reminds me of Tom Petty), Can't Let Go (fun track).

"A pioneer of the acid house sound." I'm sure this is great to hear in a club, and I'll give them credit for not having any sounds I dislike (which I can't say for a lot of these types of albums), but it's nothing more than a background bop to me. Cobra Bora caught my attention, so I'll call that a favorite track. Moving on.

I like Don't You Forget About Me as much as the next kid who grew up in the 80s, but TIL it wasn't even written by Simple Minds - it was written specifically for The Breakfast Club and Simple Minds reluctantly agreed to record it after Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol each declined (apparently Simple Minds have Chrissie Hynde to thank for pushing then husband Jim Kerr to record it - it ended up being their biggest hit). That said, they made it their own, because it has a similar sound to the songs on this album (probably at bare minimum due to Kerr's very distinctive voice). I liked this album, particularly the bass playing. The recording quality is excellent (turn it up - the sonic quality really comes through when played loud), but the music is definitely VERY 80s. Regardless, solid album worth listening to. Favorite Tracks: Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel, Big Sleep, New Gold Dream, King is White and in the Crowd.

Heroin addiction in musical form. Always been a fan of this album (and their self-titled album, which isn't on the 1001 but is fantastic - much of it is darker than Dirt, which is saying something). AiC has such a unique, dark, ass-kicking sound...Jerry Cantrell's multi-layered guitars (the word sludge always comes to mind, but in a good way), Layne Staley's cutting vocals (RIP) and their haunting harmonies. Combined with the dark lyrics about pain, drug abuse - well, it definitely requires the right mood to listen, but it always blows me away. Hard to pick favorites on this album. I'll go with Dem Bones (hard hitting from the get go), Rain When I Die, Down in a Hole, Rooster (such powerful lyrics - didn't know it was about Jerry's dad's experience in Vietnam. Jerry said that before then his dad never talked about Vietnam, but his dad raised his hat and cried the first time he saw the band perform it - powerful story and a powerful video, too), Dirt (dark and sludgy), Hate to Feel, Angry Chair (these last two are both by Staley and have awesome, unusual vocal lines - and so freakin' dark), Would (love the bass line). Yeah, I just named more than half the songs. And the rest are great too. Easy 5.