Reviews by aretzorn

This is a pretty good album. Always enjoyed Sultans of Swing and hadn't really listened to these other tracks. There's a bit of "sameness" to a lot of tracks, but the band is great and Mark Knopfler's guitar playing and singing was excellent from the start. "Setting Me Up" really stood out for some excellent playing. Solid 4.

This is a tough one for me. Not the rating - that's a five, easy. It's tough because I'm trying to listen to this the same way I'm listening to the other 1001 albums, even though I'm a huge fan and I've listened to this album easily 100 times. But, when I think back to my original impressions, I found early Genesis difficult to get into, unlike other early prog bands like King Crimson and Yes. There always seemed to be something a little "off" about early Genesis. They'd mix a surprisingly hard edge with songs that referred to things like "unifauns" and "lily fair." Or, some of the sounds are dated: Hackett's guitar often sounds muffled to me and some of the synth sounds are dated. But their music is the proverbial onion...peel it back and you find layer upon layer (it doesn't make me cry, but there are moments like the middle of Steve Hackett's solo in Firth of Fifth that always give me chills. Their album Foxtrot is not in the 1001 albums or I'd be saying the same about the end of Supper's Ready. Heck, I'd be writing a book about Supper's Ready). What's more is this music is many times better live than recorded. I've seen latter day Genesis play the instrumental parts of Firth of Fifth and Cinema Show. I've seen Steve Hackett and his band play many of these songs. Both are amazing. For a more "historic" version, go see the cover band "The Musical Box" who play an amazing version of the early band that even the band members acknowledge is authentic. So, my listen of this album is colored by my knowledge of just how good it CAN sound.

The fact is: this music is amazing. Firth of Fifth is a rock symphony with one of my favorite melodic guitar solos of all time. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight starts with Peter Gabriel a capella and turns into a musical tour de force around 2:25 (listen for Steve Hackett's tapping solo, something he was doing years before Eddie Van Halen made it famous). Listen to Phil Collins' drumming throughout the album - while most people know him from the 80s (with most thinking of the gated reverb fill from In the Air Tonight), this album showcases why he was one of the most in demand session drummers of the 70s and 80s. The man is doing 50 things at once and if you've ever seen video of him playing, you know he looks relaxed as can be. Mike Rutherford lays down backing guitars and excellent driving bass lines throughout much of the album. And then there's Tony Banks, the man who later sticks to "happy chords" and "sad chords" droning over simple hit songs. Listen to his keyboard playing on this album and other early Genesis albums. His solo at the end of The Cinema Show mixes the best of melody and speed and shows he belongs in the conversation of "who is the best prog keyboardist?" Other great examples - everything he plays on Firth of Fifth, the keyboards in Supper's Ready and Watcher of the Skies (sorry, annoyed that Foxtrot isn't in the 1001). For me, the main weak spot on this album is The Battle of Epping Forest. Even after all those listens it still doesn't do much for me, plus it's too long (I don't have a problem with long songs...again, I wish I could write about Supper's Ready!).

Bottom line, this is an outstanding band at its best. After one more album, they lose Peter Gabriel. Two more albums after that, they lose Steve Hackett. Then the band starts to become the Genesis most people know. Don't get me wrong - I like that Genesis also. But this Genesis was a prog giant. To those listening to this for the first time, keep listening and unpeel this onion. It's worth it.

I generally liked the grooves/samples, but he has a tendency to throw in annoying sounds (like repeating the same sound rapidly over and over forever) or using really annoying effects (like in Kalifornia and Soul Surfing). I'll call it a 2 because I didn't mind hearing it and generally liked the grooves, but I don't have much of an urge to hear it again. But, not gonna lie, in Acid 8000 "If this don't make your booty move your booty must be dead" made me laugh and I was definitely bopping to that song. I'll leave it a mystery whether my booty moved.

This is just a really good album. High points include the hits ("One Way or Another" and "Heart of Glass"), and tracks like "Hanging on the Telephone" and "Fade Away and Radiate" (I hear Fripp, I like). I've been listening to it repeatedly for several days now and I keep noticing all kinds of great touches and I'm not remotely getting tired of it. Most albums I rate as a 5 really have some aspect that blows me away and I can't say this album has that, but it's just good start to finish. That's worth a 5 also.

I really liked the first track "Here Come the Rome Plows." My immediate thought was "this is prog punk!" Very dissonant and loved the opening bass line. "Do You Compute" made me think of Tool. I was liking everything until the first 30 seconds of "Super Unison" - thanks for hurting my ears. As the album went on, the word "relentless" came to mind. Too much feedback, too much dissonance, too much screaming. There were a lot of great moments, but I think I can only take this band in small doses. Rating it a three from sheer exhaustion.

I was expecting this album to be one where I would be looking for more variety, like "ugh, not another reggae beat! Change it up!" I was pleasantly surprised how much variety the album had and I liked it much more than I expected I would. What a great ending - Three Little Birds and One Love/People Get Ready were both fantastic. I think I'm going to listen to Three Little Birds every morning to get in a good mood for the work day ("Don't worry...about a thing...cause every little thing...is gonna be alright"). It's interesting to note how positive and hopeful the last few tracks are considering how dark and political many of the earlier tracks are (like "Guiltiness" and "The Heathen." "So Much Things to Say" also has dark lyrics, but the music is so upbeat...guess that's reggae for you). Very clear why this album is on the list. I'm going to call it a 4.5 rounded up to a 5.

We just had a couple of electronica albums (Kraftwerk and Orbital) that were a bit out there so seeing Steely Dan come up as a random pick was a relief. Everything they do is sheer gold. Funny thing is I didn't truly appreciate them until I watched the "Yacht Rock" series on Channel 101 (go look it up on YouTube if you haven't seen it - hysterical).

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are outstanding songwriters and musicians. High points for me are Rikki Don't Lose That Number (a classic for a reason), Night by Night (great groove), and Pretzel Logic (one of my favorites -- great groove plus fantastic vocals). Any Major Dude Will Tell You is very 70s (I guess much of their music is), but still great. Heck, even East St. Louis Toodle-Oo, which is basically ragtime, benefits from that unique Steely Dan sound - love the talk box guitar. Easy decision for me - definite 5.

I can appreciate how ahead of its time it was, but it sounds a little cheesy today. Decent.

Calming, pleasant grooves...about pussy and booty. Sigh.

Total guilty pleasure - slick production, great songwriting, but definitely 70s power pop cheese. Regardless, More Than Feeling and Peace of Mind alone would make this album a 5. Plenty of great moments aside from that. There are better album I would rate a 5, but 5 seems like the right answer for this one.

I'm not really an Elvis fan and this album didn't change that even after multiple listens. The band and Elvis sounded good, but the songs were kind of bland. The two tracks that stood out for me were It Feels So Right and The Girl Next Door Went a'Walking.

I listened to this album numerous times. While I liked the overall vibe of the album, it felt like it all blurred together to the point I couldn't tell you much about it, except the fact that it ends very abruptly. It took a lot of listens before I stopped checking to see if something went wrong.

I've been making a point of giving albums more than one chance and there have been a bunch that really hit me on the second or third listen. On first listen, my reaction was this album was ok, but nothing special. Three listens later...no different. It's just not a very interesting album. I like CSNY but this album just didn't do much for me.

On first listen, I was a little dismissive - yeah, yeah, Big Band, whatever, stuff my 80-something dad likes. On Listen 2 I realized: this album is pretty amazing! It only got better as I listened to it over and over. The word "frenetic" kept coming to mind. I liked learning that the arranger Neal Hefti wrote the Batman TV series theme (Bat Maaaaaan! Bat Maaaaaan! nah-nah, nah-nah, nah-nah, nah-nah Bat MAAAANN!!). To show how these things are generational, I had never heard of Hefti, but when I mentioned his name to my 80-something Dad his response was "of course I know Hefti!" His Wikipedia entry is pretty interesting. They quote Miles Davis saying, "If it weren't for Neal Hefti, the Basie band wouldn't sound as good as it does." Respect.

Back to the album, I loved pretty much all the tracks. Flight of the Foo Birds, Double-O (what a sax solo!), and Fantail (drums!!!) really caught my attention. I also really liked the mellow tracks. After Supper had a nice opening piano part, a great tune throughout and I loved the walking bass line. Midnite Blue is clearly a song about a dame, y'know, the broad who came into your life and left it in shambles. The final "Lil' Darling" wraps it up nicely at the end of a wild evening at the club. Maybe you're even finally slow dancing cheek to cheek with the dame from Midnite Blue and all is right in the world.

In an earlier review I said I'm simply not a jazz fan. This album (along with Keith Jarrett's The Koln Concert) shows me that I can definitely be a fan of some jazz. I want to dig in a lot deeper now. 5 star wham-bam-POW!

Really cool music, really uncomfortable lyrics. I can't remotely pretend I can relate with gangsta rap, but I can appreciate it. "The Day the N*****z Took Over" and "Little Ghetto Boy" are particularly powerful. The beats and music on this album are amazing. This album just oozes cool. Glad we recently listened to Parliament's Mothership Connection since it's so prominently sampled here. Loved hearing the drums from "When the Levee Breaks" on "Lyrical Gangbang." Amazing grooves on "A N***a with a Gun" and "Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat" but, again, difficult lyrics. I feel like this album deserves a 5, but I reserve that for albums I can listen to any time...this is not that, but I can definitely appreciate why it's on this list. Solid, powerful 4.

Fun album that exists somewhere in the space between classic 50s Rock n' Roll and early punk. Most of the songs are hard-edged covers of classic rock n' roll and the originals fit in pretty seamlessly (really liked "The Witch"). The recording quality is crap but the word that keeps coming to mind is fun. Solid 3.

I bought this when it came out based on liking the song Human Behaviour. My original reaction was that I didn't like the rest and even returned it (my local CD store allowed you to return an opened CD if you simply didn't like it. Needless to say, they had to watch out for people who abused this policy). My reaction re-listening to it now many years later is that I appreciate it a bit more, but still wouldn't buy it (if that were still a thing). I think the problem is that too many songs follow the same formula - a good beat that repeats over and over accompanied by Bjork's unusual singing. That's all well and good, but gets a little old. I give it a solid 3.

Cool avant garde album. The only track I disliked was "Milk" (annoying). Standout tracks include the first track, Surface Tension, and The Sound of Someone...

Can't call the album a 5 because I need to be in the right mood to listen - 5's are always great to me.

A stone-cold classic. Those first notes of purple haze. The main riff - I still remember how awesome it felt to play that main riff on guitar the first time. So many great tracks. Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell are great, but Jimi soars above it all. He's one of the greatest guitarists of all time and he made it look effortless. I need extra stars for this one because 5 stars doesn't cut it.

Good power pop. I've been enjoying it on repeat, but none of it is really sticking (i.e., I don't find myself recalling the songs when I'm not playing it). I can definitely see listening to it again but it's strange that I can't seem to keep it in my head. Maybe I need to listen more closely. Giving it a 4 in anticipation of getting into it more over time.