Reviews by bee-york

Come on man, I feel mostly indifferent towards the fuckin Eagles.
It's easy to put on in the back and isn't really bad by any means. It just gets bogged down for me with how similar a lot of it sounds, as well as just not really being something I would see myself listening to regularly.

Shoutout to the abundance of banjo in this, goofy ass instrument

Bob continues to be hit or miss for me, where my feeling is that I enjoy whats there and can see the appeal but don't think it is something I would have in my regular routine. Overall I'd say this one was more enjoyable than previous albums. Like a Rolling Stone is of course a big standout. I wish I had a little more to say for what seems to be one of his more popular albums

Funny that they are called public image because I would probably have to go into total exile if someone heard this blaring from my headphones

For something that was mostly a samey hodge-podge of reflections following 9/11. It really didn't have to be song long.
I didn't hate the music in here but I did get a bit tired of it by the end, the first half was mostly better and I enjoyed some of the tracks that felt like it was doing something a little different such as Worlds Apart with its mixture of electric and native folk elements. In much the same way as the United States government, I think there were some administrative errors made on this album. Coming out rather quickly after 9/11 (and apparently only being recorded starting in 2002) there was a lot of excess that could have been cut off this in both the amount of tracks and their duration. A lot of songs felt like they went a minute or even two minutes above what I would expect in some cases.
Also a special shoutout to Mary's Place for sounding like the extended cut of some theme/outro for a corny 80's SitCom

Probably the most I have felt something was necessary to be on this list while simultaneously not being the biggest fan. I feel like the actual album itself is a bit overhyped for whats there. I don't know if I just wasn't in the right headspace either during this listen but dreamy atmosphere and melody mixed with the melancholic lyrics felt off-putting in a weird way.
I want to rate this higher on its significance to the industry as a whole. But I couldn't even confidently say any of the songs on here are a favorite of mine.
You could compare its technical accomplishments in its field to Birth of a Nation. Minus the blatant racism and depiction of the Ku Klux Klan as superheroes of their time.

These Punk albums are having a good track record so far of being fun and having a selection of good but not great tracks. While I would say that sentiment extends to this album, I didn't enjoy it as much as some of our previous Punk albums and my favourite song from it was probably the track that feels the most distinct from the rest of the album (Maps).
Instrumentals are perfectly serviceable but didn't really do anything to blow me away. The vocalist is good and the scratchiness to her voice at parts helps the music stand out, but on some songs like Tick it can be a bit much.

More of a fun album than Bob's mean mug would indicate on the cover. As with our previous album covered, I preferred the electric tracks more than the acoustic tracks. Still not sure if I am a fan of Bob Dylan though, this was good but not really something I think I'm gonna be throwing on my playlists

Highlights: Outlaw Blues, Subterranean Homesick Blues

Really not sure what was the holdup on me reviewing this since it's not like I really have much to say about it. I really liked it though!
I did think It was feeling a little samey by the end, still a very good listen all around

Despite the title of the album I did not feel very inclined to do a repeat listen of this album.
I wouldn't really call it bad, there's certainly some elements I don't like but I would say the album is mostly competent. I don't want to make a running gag of it but I would really say my main complaint was that the album really did feel like it was just repeating itself at points. Definitely something where I think I could just pick 1 or 2 songs from the album I enjoyed the most and still get the same feeling I would from the rest of the album with just those 2.
Another of my big complaints would be the vocalists who take the lead between songs. They both range from serviceable to getting too much into a shouty tone. At their worst, one of the singers starts to get a bit shortbus-core with his intonations while the other one sounds like if you ordered The Beasties Boys on Temu. Not only did this just not create a strong melody for me with the instrumentals but it ultimately just feels like a distraction. My favourite parts from a lot of this involved the stretches that just featured the instruments.

I was prepared to give this a 3 for being something I could appreciate but wouldn't be sure if I would regularly listen to. However holy shit this felt so long. Not just in terms of the total runtime but each track individually felt like it went longer than it needed to.

That being said, very thoughtful of him to name this album after his 2nd daughter. You can tell this guy must really love his family

While this album is pretty rad for a majority of its runtime. I don't see it as the high octane speedball of an album that some reviews are claiming it to be. I'd say it has an interesting mix of much more chill or even psychedelic moments in between the energy. Especially on tracks like Remember Tomorrow and Strange World. That's not to say this is trying to be high in concept or artsy, it's pretty classic Metal and doesn't try to be anything it's not.
Really awesome guitars throughout, for this album I like Paul Di'Anno's vocals especially in the previously mentioned 'chill weed vibe' parts. Though I do think I overall prefer Bruce Dickinsons singing, especially for the direction the band would take in the future.

Highlights: Prowler, Remember Tomorrow, Phantom of the Opera, Transylvania, Strange World

Bit of a quick review since I was busy with a few things and missed the time to really flesh anything out for this one.
I really liked it initially and definitely enjoy the overall indie vibe that Smith has. Instrumentals are all great and his style of singing won me over by the end. That being said I feel like there is a lot of filler in the middle section of this album that just dragged on for a while. I'm not usually bothered by long/padded out albums but this one particularly felt long to me. Definitely liked the songs that stood out to me and would probably give this a 4 if they had trimmed out maybe 2 or 3 songs. I can definitely see why this would be a 5 for someone though.
Highlights: LA, Junk Bond Trader, Better Be Quiet Now, Can't Make A Sound

Beautiful and Bombastic in equal parts. In my opinion the best Peter Gabriel album in terms of having the majority of my favourite tracks of his included. I think anyone could listen to this and come home with one or two new songs for their likes/playlists.

Extra kudos to Sledgehammer for having arguably the greatest music video of all time.

Highlights: In Your Eyes, Don't Give Up, Big Time, Sledgehammer, Red Rain

Remember that part in the Mr. Bean movie when Willem Dafoe debuts that self-fellating art house movie that nobody enjoys?

It wasn't enough for this to be another instance of meandering nyquil-core from the late 60's. Everything about this album just screams insincere and trying too hard to appear artsy. My listening experience was already bad enough and I don't like to think this way about something since it feels anti-art to just dismiss something in such a way but I really cannot shake the douchey vibe this album gave me. 'I Will Laugh in Your Face', that's probably what they were thinking when they saw people giving this crap praise in retrospect since apparently people had the right idea initially and crapped on this album.

What is the importance of keeping this on the 1001? So I can know The Bee Gees were dogshit when they weren't making disco tunes?

We already got a taste of proto-punk from 1975 a while ago. And yet here we go getting something which is somehow older and even sleazier than (The Dictators) Go Girls Crazy. I can't imagine the influence this album must have had.

I'm also starting to think I enjoy punk a lot more than I had previously given it credit for, this landed in a very similar spot for me as our last punk album. in which pretty much everything included was somewhere ranging from good to great. If I had to compare the two I prefer the goofier nature of the previous punk album to this. But whats on display here is still only slightly below that in my opinion.

As far as which version to listen to, I will primarily be rating the version provided by the website which is based on Iggy's mixes rather than those done by David Bowie. I like both of them and think they each have their own merits. Bowie's feels more focused on Iggy's vocal performance and can sometimes feel like it pushes the instrumentals out of focus too much (I mostly felt this on Bowie's version of Search & Destroy). It is still overall a better 'balanced' version. Iggy's really feels like it embodies 'Raw Power' in that it feels more loud and in your face, in some songs I actually preferred this but also found that it could be a bit grating in others. I would give Iggy's version a 7 and Bowie's an 8.

Highlights:
Search & Destroy, Gimme Danger, Raw Power, Shake Appeal

Kind of a bloated album. For 70 minutes you would hope there would be enough to distinguish what's there and keep the music a bit more fresh but there's a few tracks that just felt redundant compared to better and similar tracks on the album.
Chris Cornell's excellent vocals on the standout tracks really carry the more middling songs, it feels generous to give this a 4 but would also feel like a disservice to give a 3.

Not great, not terrible. Somehow I feel like that's what the album is comfortable being. It really does feel like a lazy day out. Takes me back to days on the beach where something like this would be playing on some crappy blue portable CD player (it would either be something like this or So Fresh 2003/2004). Alternatively you would probably hear something like this at the 'mancave' of that one distant family friend who's house you only ever went to once for some party.

Wish I had a little more to say about the album itself. It's just very easy listening, I suppose I felt more attracted to the instrumentals than the singing. If we have another 7 albums from this guy I sure hope the other ones are as good or better than this. I'd certain take this over derivative britpop with no legacy to it whatsoever.

"The Man Who initially received mixed reviews and sold slowly. Boosted by the success of "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?" and the band's appearance at the 1999 Glastonbury Festival, it eventually spent a total of 11 weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart and brought the band international recognition. As of 2018, according to Concord Music, The Man Who has sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide. It was among ten albums nominated for the best British album of the previous 30 years by the Brit Awards in 2010, losing to (What's the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis." - John Wikipedia

This statement is probably the biggest indictment of Britpop and its consequences I have seen from this list so far.

Probably the album I tried to give the best chance in recent memory. I was keen to give this a good listen when being introduced to the dreamy/trippy and often melancholic instrumentals. Being released right near the turn of the century feels interesting too, given the change in direction of the indie revival/'landfill' era that would come to follow.

When the elements of this album work for me, they work really well. drums and other percussion don't usually come to the forefront for me when listening to music but there was something really attention grabbing about them here. 'The Soft Bulletin' feels like an appropriate title for the guitar in a lot of this, never too overbearing and feeling almost cloudy in the atmosphere they bring.

Most of my gripes with this are with the singer. Who takes aspects of other irritating vocal performances I have had issues with previously and blends them together. His performance feels very sincere and is at times tolerable, but will then go into some sequence where he is choosing to either over-accentuate things in an overly American way, or going into this hoarseness in his throat that leaves him sounding scracthier than the Squeaky voiced Teen from The Simpsons. I think it actively made me like the album less on repeat listens the more I tried giving it a chance

Highlights: Race for the Prize, The Spark That Bled

This had me going for a moment. between the classic rock stylings underneath the synth, a majority of the tracks being about affection towards a girl, and the album speeding by at close to 30 minutes. I thought someone had just dipped The Everly Brothers in a coat of New Wave paint and tried sneaking them back on the list.
To be fair, I liked this quite a bit more than that album. Especially on a repeat listen.

Highlights:
Just What I Need, Moving in Stereo, All Mixed Up