Reviews by bee-york

In spite of doing some heavy lifting, not even the highlight that is You Can Call Me Al can really help me move past how indifferent I felt to a majority of this album. I’m not a prude when it comes to the appropriation aspects of this album but to me it did feel hollow and like Simon was a bit vain to take this angle for the purposes of his own reinvention. Whether his intentions of popularizing African music in states/the west as a whole were genuine or not, it did not matter when I just feel bored by most of this.

I can tolerate Neil Young as a singer but I feel like he would be so fucking annoying if he was nagging me about something with that voice

Tragically it has been brought to my attention that someone has already made a 9/11 joke about this album, the displeasure I had at learning this news was roughly about the same feeling I had while listening to The Blueprint.

The recording and production for this album really feel like they left everything sounding really flat (odd given Eddie Kramer supposedly helped produce this, perhaps it was a bit of a styles clash?). Very disappointing that no matter what I listened to this through I could practically hear the energy being filtered out. It doesn’t look like there are any listings of this marked as a remaster from what I could see on Spotify either. A pretty decent if repetitive album if I put my feelings towards the production aside.

Between the artists name sounding fairly similar to a certain parish council worker and one of my favourite tracks on here simply being titles ‘The Architect’, I certainly felt like some cosmic entity was out there taking the piss out of my preferences for brain rot type humor.
This felt like a more folk-inspired spin on a more entrancing electronic album such as The Avalanches, especially with how each track leads in and out of one another dynamically. I’m always a fan of that. Just a really well put together bit of psychedelic electronica, not bad for an album which needed to be linked to the artists wikipedia page (since I’m assuming no such page exists for the album itself)

A very cruisy and listenable music that unfortunately really feels like it is just going through the motions, compared to other soul albums on this list it is just fairly mediocre, when comparing to previous stevie wonder albums it’s disappointing.

Perhaps due to some really strong competition in the soul genre on this list, I just didn’t find myself getting as engrossed in this one as I have with others. I wanted to find something that I really engaged with here and was gutted when I got to a track that I was enjoying more than the rest only to find that the album had actually finished this album and Spotify had moved me on to different songs from the band

Coming in with more quick & easy albums during my latest round of album catch-up. A lot of this reminded me of the Smiths, with maybe a few trace elements of some other brit groups like U2? I would say the resulting sample pool of sound is a mostly enjoyable experience if a bit plain. It’s decidedly very basic and avoids being too flashy or overproduced which for this group definitely fits. In the same way you can enjoy a meal from your local pub despite knowing it isn’t the best cooking around, the fundamentals and familiar go a long way in making an admittedly simple album such a nice listen

As much as this one was a surprise on how much I didn’t hate it, I’m glad I slept on what to rate this so I didn’t overhype myself on the surprise. The vocal comparisons to Thom Yorke are very apparent after the opener, as much as it lends itself to looking a bit egotistical, I think that the more folky/baroque instrumentals actually work with that style of singing well. As a package it’s not something I can find too many faults with other than it just not being my favourite kind of music. The album duration may not be helping things but I did also feel that the moany style of singing did start to drag by the end

Despite feeling like the most ‘going through the motions’ Steely Dan album on the list and almost not feeling weighty enough to be an album by comparison to their other tracks, their style of production and jazzy rock composition (perhaps not to the same degree as Aja, I’d say this is a middleground between that and Can’t Buy a Thrill) is still an unbeatable sound. While this may be my least favourite album I have heard from them and definitely on the verge of being a 4, the consistently incredible output from this group has cemented them as a heavyweight of this list and certainly a new all time favourite of mine.

Definitely going to be a bit biased by nostalgia on this one from years of listening to the former Stevens/Islam in the backseat as a kid. Funny enough, this wasn’t one of my favourites growing up because I always felt it was a bit dated/dry compared to some of the music my parents would put on but nowadays (especially when trawling through certain sections of this list) good lord is this fresh.
Automatically better than 90% of his singer/songwriter contemporaries for making the accompanying instruments to his lyricism not feel like an afterthought. Even if you were to completely forego listening to the lyrics on a lot of these songs they would still just be incredibly pleasing to the ears.

4 of Rushs best tracks back to back followed by a few other solid tracks, calling this front loaded would be an understatement.
While they certainly have songs on a few other albums that are favourites of mine, it would feel silly to claim anything other than Moving Pictures to be the groups finest hour

Well, I'm sure quite a few people will be visiting this one today.
It certainly lives up to the name in terms of the upbeat nature and tone which permeates through each track. If that goofy picture of the dog with the propellor hat and lollipop had a spotify playlist, you could guarantee a good chunk of this album would be there. Where I have problems as a listener is more or less the same that I had with Pet Sounds, I can recognize the production talent on display but can't say it gels with me stylistically.

RIP Brian Wilson, I may not find a lot of your tracks to be something I could listen to regularly, but to downplay the joy you have brought to others and the influence your talents had on the music industry would be impossible.

I had to give myself a refresher on what Doves sounded like when I got this since I remembered the name but not their music, not off to a good start at that.
Unfortunately I'd say this was another dull affair from a group that I think I would've been able to enjoy more if they focused their talents in a different genre. That first song from their other album Firesuite is still the only thing that really stands out to me.
If this truly is the last broadcast for Doves on this ranking then I can't say I'll miss them when they're gone

When you open with an obnoxious track it sets low expectations
When you meander from there into mostly forgettable rock, I'm not gonna be offended but don't expect a great review
When you keep referencing other music you're gonna start making me want to listen to something else
When you make it 90 minutes long I eventually can't stomach this shit any longer and move on

Yet another universally acclaimed Pink Floyd album where I am stuck at a loss for what to even add, I liked the first half a bit more I guess? That being said any album would be blessed with either side of this.

Felt like way too many bits of shtick/skits given how many average tracks were on here

A very easy listen while also being quite repetitive. Sinatra's vocals and the instrumentals are of the same quality here that you could expect elsewhere so I can't really say much for them other than that I really enjoyed them.
I get it is the focus of the album but I wish it wasn't so bogged in melancholic relationship woes, it really makes a lot of these songs hard to differentiate from one another.
I do get a laugh out of the album art though, Frank's giving a real edgy loner 'beat it toots' kinda vibe

I’m assuming it was the weapon/combat association that tripped me up but when I first saw the title for this one I mistakenly mixed it up with Combat Rock from The Clash. Silly mistake aside I still really enjoyed this, it has a lot of the energy that I think The Clash’s self titled album was missing while maybe not feeling as distinct. Still quintessential sounding Punk that absolutely flies by at only 36 minutes. You’re doing a disservice not listening to this a few times.
I was happy skipping past that These Hands, the fairground nonsense with the laughing reminded me too much of some trippy shit Jim Morrisson would try to pull

Despite multiple listens I feel like I'm back to where I was on my first listen in terms of impressions.
Perhaps it speaks to his work as a producer but I found myself enjoying a lot of the interesting musical flourishes here and there through the album but found most of the songs to be not that enjoyable as a whole. It was also fairly novel to feel some of the flair in his music that would accompany other artists that he worked with.

On Some Faraway Beach was really good though, definitely the best track on here