Reviews by bee-york

Wow, the titular 'Kid A' song right near the beginning was bloody dreadful. It felt like I was being waterboarded with the T-1000's liquids. There were some pretty nice songs afterwards though!

Everything in its right place grew on me with repeated listens (though some of the weird digitized garble in the back sounds like some annoying pixie trying to get my attention).

The National Anthem was a pretty bizarre track which I feel weird about enjoying, definitely a standout for how chaotic it is for a band that is often criticized for droning on too much. Treefingers was probably my favorite song, such a lovely ambiance.

Favourite Songs:
Treefingers, Optimistic, The National Anthem

Least Favourite Song:
Kid A

Probably the most fun listen outside of MJ or Animal Collective so far. The samples used for their beats in this one are a real standout. Their style of yelling out one liners you feed the substitute teacher doesn't really grate on my nerves like it seems to with others but can make the album a bit samey in places. I feel like a lot of my favourite songs from this band come from other albums on this list.

Highlights
Shake Your Rump: ****1/2
Very bombastic opener, maybe their most underrated song. great lyrics and beat throughout
Egg Man: ****
Goofy ahh song, very catchy despite using psycho of all things as a sample lmao
B-Boy Bouillabaisse: ****
What even was this? a 12 minute mashup chopped up? its own mini album? I liked how a lot of it felt less over-produced than a lot of the other songs. It was basically a little demo reel of Beastie Boys. It starts a little slower but really picks up between stop that train and hello brooklyn.

Did they have somewhere to be when recording this? Baffling that a 12 song album is just short of 28 minutes long. Reminds me of The Beach Boys. These guys really loved getting bitches didn't they?
Not really bad just very boring and repetitive. I don't have much to say about this one unfortunately due to the duration and simplicity of a lot of it.

Highlights
Love Hurts: ***1/2
Lucille: ***
A Change of Heart:***

The Healer (of my insomnia lol)
Wow this one was a letdown for me, I was excited to finally see some blues on this list but good lord nothing here stood out...
...With the exception of that first song with Carlos Santana holy shit the title song is a legitimate 5/5 track, it's pretty cheesy but I love the atmosphere it sets, the way it just introduces different elements of sound throughout its opening really set this apart and left me hoping this album would have more tracks like this that really sought to stretch what they could do with the genre. Though you could even argue this was a Santana song that Hooker was featured on, given this is the guest track that felt the most heavily influenced from its guest attraction.
As it turns out, everything else in this album is just adequate, perfectly listenable but nothing standout and nothing I really think I would go out of my way to listen to again. The last 2 tracks are probably the only other ones I would say I really enjoyed.
I was surprised with myself for having such a harsh reaction to this album, and wanted to give myself a bit more of a perspective on it. So I took a bit of a look at the history of this album and listened to some of Hookers other songs. While I couldn't name him off the top of my head I had heard plenty of his songs and he is certaintly a terrific musician. From what I read the accolades this album receives feel more like legacy praise than an apprection of this album in particular. A way to acknowledge someone who was overlooked in the past and compensate for their lack of recognition. A recent example of this would be Jamie Lee Curtis' win as a supporting actress in the 2023 Oscar season.
Regrettably it seems that Hookers other albums (like so many others) were cut from this list because the editors were on an Elvis Costello/David Bowie/Morrissey binge, so I will not be able to give praise to the work that I actually enjoyed (I hope I'm mistaken).

Standouts
The Healer: *****
My Dream: ****
No Substitute: **** 1/2

This Album had just the right amount of Scooby Doo representation that I want out of an album without it feeling like pandering.
I felt a little numb to the lyrics in these songs and sorta tuned them out after a while. Some of the beats they have are really good though.
How I Could Just Kill a Man is a classic and the best part of the first half, I honestly preferred everything in the 2nd half of the album a lot more.

Little Michael does it again
Bad is aggressively 80's, absurdly catchy and unfortunately, a tad underwhelming with only a FEW select songs. Michael is similar to James Cameron in that they are both extremely talented creators who surround themselves with equally competent staff and crew to help make their productions the most polished pieces they can make. This shine can obfuscate the flaws of a bad film in Cameron's case, but when you are dealing with something as segmented as an album it doesn't quite work. Some of these songs are not necessarily 'Bad', but stick out like a sore thumb while sitting next to some of the most genre defining tracks of the era. This shouldn't take away from how incredible the highs of this album are. It has nearly all of my favourite MJ tracks in one place, each of which lift to the equivalent of a 9/10, but prevent me from being able to say it is perfect album.

I don't even know what to discuss about the things I liked in this album (I feel like it is all self-evident). Some of these songs are Michael operating at 100%. A lot of it is similarly in-your-face as Thriller. The amount of synth in this album feels like a very rich meal, where it is so plentiful that you will enjoy it at first but might be a little sick by the end if you don't have the stomach for it (I thankfully did). On top of having some of my favourite MJ tracks in songs like Bad, Smooth Criminal and Dirty Diana (those starfuckers got a crazy ass song after them huh) I feel like each of these work better as songs than Thriller does. Where these are all great songs with equally incredible music videos (the synchronised dance in Smooth Criminal goes unnecessarily hard) I always felt like there was a piece missing when you didn't experience Thriller with the music video included.

I don't know what the fuck they were thinking with Speed Demon, I enjoy the instrumentals on this one but feel taken aback by the lyrics. A really dumb song even by pop music standards that feels like it was born from the brain trust of 'badass' Michael Jackson iconography (remember at the end of the Black or White music video where he is screaming in the rain then just animorphs into a panther?)
Liberian Girl is a similar situation, where parts of the song individually are really fucking good but I can't see myself wanting to listen to it. Another case where it would be better as just an instrumental track. The backup singers towards the end salvage it a little bit too.

Not nearly as bad as I had expected, my biggest prolonged exposure to The Smiths was David Fincher's The Killer and I didn't mind it there but wasn't sure if it was something I would go out of my way to listen to. On my first listen through which I tried to avoid interrupting, I was definitely left with the impression that the album was mostly a sad and mopey affair towards the middle and end of the tracklist. When I was going back through and paying more attention to the individual songs my opinion changed a little and felt that there were definitely some songs that added a bit of levity to an otherwise delicate and moody album. Even with the few songs that did sound like already treaded ground, the songs themselves were not bad. There was also a lot of humour in the album, morbid or otherwise which was fun. That line about the double decker bus was certainly something.

Highlights

- The Queen is Dead
The titular track fucking rocks, felt distinct from the rest of the album with just how traditionally Rock & Roll it felt compared to the rest of the album (Bigmouth is maybe the only song I feel was in line with this track). Why couldn't Sonic Youth have the same restraint this song does with using the whammy bar to close the song out?

- Frankly, Mr. Shankly
"I want to catch something that I might be ashamed of" Was Morrissey a bug chaser? Goofy fucking song (not derogatory)

- I Know It's Over
Probably my favourite of the more moody side of this album. Morrissey has an interesting way of singing, he has this voice of a cunty yodeler. The kind of thing you would expect some obnoxious bard you're not supposed to like to have in some fantasy setting. But have to begrudgingly appreciate his talent

- Never Had No One Ever
Again, kinda getting into familiar territory from this point forward but still a nice song. The part with the whistling was nice and eerie

- Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
BBW/Architect Anthem. The Guitar on this song is fantastic and had me jamming out to a track I would probably otherwise just laugh at. I suppose that's not necessarily a bad thing, it was nice to end on a more fun track too.

I sure am glad I didn't write this one off due to its adoration from the music section of a certain Cantonese cave painting forum. This whole thing was a pretty cool trip to be honest.
My first listen was a total trippy breeze, a lot of the tracks felt like they naturally segue from one song to another. This felt like a coming of age story in the way things move. Smaller tracks would set the ambiance for different stages of life, bridging the way to the bigger and more bombastic tracks being our fondest memories we hold onto. This was a nice contrast to how many of these albums we have been given so far which feel front-loaded with the best of the album before waning in quality as it goes along.

The opening track feels like the beginning of life, especially with the distant fleshy pulsating in the back of the opening, before making its way into the calm but uncertain times of a child. These first 3 tracks gave an odd sinking feeling at times.

Summertime Clothes by contrast is this ecstatic burst of joy, an anthem of the good times in life, the feeling continues across the next few tracks but slowly wanes away as the tracks took on a more somber tone. Feeling like either the end of a night of celebration or even the joys of childhood & adolescence being dulled away by the mundane routine of adulthood.

Brother Sport brought back the joy of earlier tracks, and as the final song feels like it is the start of something new.

On top of finding fun in the albums structure, and I will probably prefer to listen to the full album whenever I put this on again in the future. There are plenty of individual songs in this that were just really good. I definitely meshed better with the psychedelic stylings on this rather than what was presented in 'Forever Changes' a few days ago. If I had to nitpick anything it would be that a few of the last tracks before Brother Sport were not as good, and that some of the line delivery in a few songs where it was purposefully stilted didn't land with me. I'm really glad to have finally found something new in this list that I will definitely come back to in the future.

Favourite Tracks
- Summertime Clothes
- Bluish
- In The Flowers

Beauty Lies in the Eye had me waiting for the opening to end, when I looked down at my phone to see the progress bar and seeing that there was only 20 seconds left of the song

Stereo Sanctity concludes with multiple shrill shredding riffs to signify the end of the song, when this persisted for another 10 to 15 seconds I was thinking to myself 'okay I get it'. I feel so naive in hindight, not knowing this would be my gripe with pretty much the rest of the album. There are times when the music in this is going really well, and as a whole I feel I should vibe with this kind of experimental rock, but then it will be interrupted by a 30 second outro of the guitarist frotting against either the chords or the whammy bar on his guitar and it just hurts the experience even more.

For some reason my original review has messed up once again, this time my saved review was what I had written for Guero, I will try to summarize my thoughts once again

I thought this album was going to have something going for it at the start as the first few songs (particularly the first track) were very nice, the album quickly meanders into very plain, almost timid sounding music
I am not sure of what the bands usual sound is but this album felt like the equivalent of someone coming on stage to give a big 'rah rah' speech after they had only come up with their opening hook.

Unfortunately this [REALLY GREAT] website seems to have lost everything I had written for todays album, this makes me sad as I had actually written a bit more than I had initially expected for this.

To summarize my initial thoughts, this was an unexpected surprise for a genre I think almost everyone is familiar with but is not something most people from our generation would consider themselves 'fans' of. 'A Natural Woman' is the song I am both most familiar with as well as it being by far my favorite track of the album.
Lastly I wanted to emphasize how well her vocals complimented the energy of the instruments. Using a comparison with Dexy's Midnight Runners from last week and how I thought the stroke the caught on live mic from the vocalist was a detriment to the rest of the album and did not match. This album was the complete opposite.

Despite my positivity though I am not sure where to put this with my final rating, as good as it is I do wonder if this is something I would regularly listen to, as I feel like that should be criteria for giving something a perfect rating.

Tried listening to this a few times over the extended review period and idk, it's just fine??? I don't really have anything witty to say for this one, it's just a little collection of various styles of alt-rock, each track was pretty unique I suppose
The first half of this album made me feel like I was listening to the licensed soundtrack to an EA Sports title from 2004-2007

I did a bit of additional research to further inform my review and noticed that Dexys Midnight Runners are an English band. This came as a surprise to me as none of the lead singers vocals registered as that language in my head. His slurred and overly performative way of singing was a detractor from most of this album and often had me wondering if this man rode the shortbus or if the recording booth reeked of Pale Ale during those jam sessions.
The brass on the other hand was a nice change of pace from what I am used to hearing and while a bit obnoxious at times was the highlight of the album (its introduction in the 4th track did jumpscare me though).
I feel like the faster paced, more poppy tracks worked better for me than the slower and more sappy ones as they were carried by the energy of the instruments rather than being harbored down by the lead singers moody mimicry of his native tongue (his backup singers thankfully help him seem legible on some tracks).
I feel as though track #3 (The teams that meet in Caffs) was my favorite track by proxy of it being a purely instrumental song. The rating ends up meeting itself somewhere in the middle due to the Yin/Yang that is the pleasant instrumentals versus a lead singer with a baffling way that he has chosen to sing
There were moments where I was nervous this album was going to devolve completely into Ska music

I have not listened to this full album before and my knowledge of it is limited to the 2 or 3 biggest titles (mostly represented at the front of the track list) as well as one song which incites immediate laughter in me due to its connection to an autistic alcoholic stoner who was victim to people trolling him by exposing their genitals to him on skype

As for the album itself it really melds into this odd rock opera about a boisterous pervert with hair like Daryl Hannah in Blade Runner, who consumes whatever vices are presented to them (I believe this is what they call hair metal). I can't really speak much to the individual tracks as they felt too similar. It's dumb but has a lot of energy in the performance, I don't really know what else to say

The last but certainly not least of all of the albums I missed when I first joined a group for this list.
I'm really of two minds on how much I enjoy this. It's a live album (though much more clearly recorded than some others on this list) and is incredibly long, not just in the total album runtime, but the individual tracks/sequences themselves. It can also feel pretty aimless in terms of how a lot of it is just them going ham on the instruments and not much else.
With all that being said god damn I loved listening to this, incredibly groovy and despite being long and feeling aimless as I mentioned, it held my interest on multiple listens. This was one where I absolutely wanted to give it a 2nd shot not just because I enjoyed it on the first go, but to see how it would feel as a repeat listen, since the nature of this album and how it is broken up doesn't really make it an easy one to just pick up and listen to a few bits out of.
Thinking about which side of 4 or 5 this lands on is tough. Though I think if it is up your alley and you're looking for something to put on in the background for an hour you won't be disappointed with this

I think I picked the perfect times to listen to this, first in the afternoon after work, then on a slow Friday. These songs were very easy to mellow out with, and I got to appreciate the lyricism here (the real highlight of the album) since I didn't need to focus as much on other things at the time.
I am conflicted on how to score this though, these really only just pass as music, rather than poetry readings on audible. Cohen's voice is not unpleasant but you can tell he is not exactly trying to wow anyone with his singing and is letting the writing do the work for him. The only songs where I find he comes to closest to really singing are Teachers and So Long, Marianne (coincidentally, two of the better songs on here 😲) Similarly, the instrumentals are very basic and feel like they are only there to justify all of this being an album. But these simple tunes work because they don't overshadow the draw of the album, Cohen's writing.

Highlights
Master Song, Sisters of Mercy, So Long Marianne

Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut on something. I don't know why I tried listening to this on multiple seperate occasions between one another wondering if my opinion would change. I was initially concerned my contempt for britpop given how commonplace it is on this ranking would affect my enjoyment of this even though the album is more of a modern derivative that essentially paved what would become the new trend for hack british musicians to leech off of.

But no, every time I gave it a listen I just came out of it thinking it was just sorta decent, nothing really grabbed out at me as being something I would like to throw in a playlist either. By no means a bad listen though, and each time I appreciated the novelty of the time capsule aspect, this just oozes the mid 2000's

I was promised WHITE REGGAE. What I got were elements of reggae infused into new wave rock. All while the cunty bartender dad from Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels puts on a funny accent and sings over it.
I didn't hate this

Going in I was already aware of Message in a Bottle. My memory of it wasn't as favorable as I recalled, this song is definitely worthy of its success beyond this album. I liked It's Alright for You and Bring on the Night quite a bit as well. But the big surprise/standout for me was Walking on the Moon. This song as well as Message in a Bottle are the two best instances of Sting's Carribean inflections. I love the opening to this one especially, the echo of the guitar between its very intermittent chords. It feels like this overseeing presence in the song as you are mostly accompanied by the Bass and Drums. I am a real sucker for dreamlike soundscapes in music and this one was really nice.

Unfortunately the rest of the album was either very middling in quality or pretty bad. On Any Other Day stuck out to me as being particularly bad, the over-pronunciation of the lyrics in this American accent got on my nerves almost immediately. I could almost see this song being good if they took it in a different direction. The revelation of their son being gay is pretty funny if not for just how it dates the song.

Not sure if this one was just a victim of being so early in the rankings that it became a punching bag but I don't see how its worse than a lot of the other music we have gotten so far.

I had so many albums that I needed to do catchup on that I nearly forgot there was 1 or 2 that I missed before I joined the group. Fun listen nonetheless. Obviously best known in my generation for le funny Fallout NV song but there are bangers throughout.

WARNING: This album will complete your metamorphosis into being a middle aged man. I could feel my hairline regressing to around a Norwood 5 by the time 'Reelin in the years' had come on. No wonder I'm more interested in watching sports these days.
This Album really has it all, a wonderful track selection with not a single dull track, a groovy vibe, people getting cucked in the lyrics. Hell even the cover art looks like some shit you would see painted on the side of the rides at some shitty fairground (next to some weird painting of Elvis singing a duet with The Incredible Hulk or something). I had only heard maybe 1 or 2 songs on this album beforehand and was surprised at how one of those didn't even cut it for my favourites of this album.

Highlights
Do it Again, Midnite Cruiser, Reelin in the Years, Change of the Guard