Reviews by avoidperil

This is the sound of too much cocaine. I wish I could say that this is a good album, but it just isn't. There's not a single compelling track on this thing. Jean Genie might be the closest we get, but it's still utter nonsense. There isn't a single coherent idea to be found anywhere near this album.

My journey with hip-hop in this adventure has been pretty good so far, but it has helped me to find what I don't like in the genre. I like clever rhymes, but I can't stand when they go into sexual or physical violence. There might be something more interesting to this effort, but I'm not sticking around long enough to find out what it is.

I would say I actively like REM, jangle pop, and adore indie music. But this album falls into the realm of being too proto-everything. The recording is incredibly muddy, the lyrics too mysterious and hard to hear, and songs often devolve into repeating the song title as a chorus.

A start to an incredible band with great things ahead of them, but not a great listening experience for me.

I hate Steely Dan. If they want my 5 stars they have to come claim them with their slick, guitar playing hands. If they want my 5 stars they have to come into my headphones and show off a crisp recording style. There's no way they're coming at me with clever lyrics and catchy tunes. There's no way Steely Dan is catching me grooving along and getting these 5 stars. If Steely Dan wants my 5 stars, they have to come into my bedroom and kiss me. And do it sensually too. None of this quick and dirty business. They have to... have to...

Damn it. Take your 5 stars. This is the biggest surprise of my musical experience. I have dismissed this album, unheard, my entire life and it's a masterpiece.

Short and uninteresting. Very little development of any of these ideas and it just comes across as generic punk.

A truly gorgeous album that has a lot of standout moments even on a first listen through. Where it falls down, and I acknowledge this is a thing about my taste, is the songs tend to overstay their welcome. But I'll certainly listen to this some more in future.

It's hard to have strong feelings about this one. Screaming Trees is a name that's familiar to me as a child of the 90s, and yet despite being widely listened, I struggle to come up with words to describe their sound. They existed in a space carved out for them by other, better bands. Their music exists solely on 90s grunge playlists as padding between better songs. The fact that this album came out in 1996 as we were already entering a post-grunge world, while still peddaling a dreary and lacklustre sound, places this firmly in the realm of mediocrity.

No one NEEDS to listen to this.

This is so inoffensively average and lacking in anything interesting. I ran straight to the book to see why it was put in there. Even the reviewer said that it was a second rate band and the final track was indulgent.

SO DON'T PUT THE ALBUM IN THE BOOK, IDIOTS.

Disqualified as meritless, 1 star.

This whole album is fine. Very much of the time in its attempt to be hip, which has obviously aged in the past 30 years. The single Strong Enough sits well with the other songs, but the clear winner is the breakout single. It's cliche to say but in this case it really does dwarf the rest of the album.

I skipped the first song where she champions toxic masculinity. Then I skipped the second song where she started singing off-key. I listened to a little of the third song for the few seconds it took to find a new album to play.

It's fine. Totally unnecessary when you could listen to better country music. Most of these melodies are ripped off from earlier works. Lyrics are patchy at best.

Utter lyrical garbage. This is incoherent nonsense. Probably the most 70s of the 70s rock I've ever heard. This feels like it's where ridiculous falsetto wailing began and it should have died here.

It's fine. Not really something I'll ever feel the need to listen to again.

This guy should try out for the stormtroopers because he can't hit a single note. This is making me groan out loud in disgust. I hate this and it's making me angry. I'm not finishing this one. Easy 1 star.

I really love country-folk music, but I struggle to like this very much. The theme is quite weak and not borne out well in the lyrics, and the melodies lean a bit too hard into traditional, so I'm not hearing anything new or innovative. It's not bad, it's just feels unfinished.

Fine. A classic but it's somehow more dated than most things of the same era.

Is this a demo record? It feels like this is a group of rough ideas jammed out by a group of improvising musicians. The way some of the tracks fade out feels like the engineer took a 15 minute take and just cut it off when he got bored. I was expecting just to slap a 3 on some dated, middle-of-the-road 60's trash guitar rock, but this is actively a bad album.

It's fine. Not my kind of music. I got to the end without being annoyed. Feels like a 3/5.

Easily one of the best albums of all time. This one comes out of the gates swinging - "Take me back to dear old Blighty" quickly giving way to drums that are taking no prisoners and an atmospheric whine that comes and goes, with a bass guitar that mumbles and groans under distorted guitars. This is England in the 80s. The real one. And we haven't even got past the first track yet.

Hate Morrissey all you want, but don't let it blind you to the brilliance of this album. It's not just musically exceptional, but lyrically cutting, maudlin, hilarious, devastating - the best of Morrissey's work on display.

The fact it tucks one of the best songs ever written (There is a Light) at the end of the album is a testament to how packed this thing is with statements. If you don't like this one, your opinion on music doesn't matter to me in the slightest, because you frankly haven't got one.

Irrelevant.