Reviews by benc

-The mood is so blasé and unaffected it feels like no one's there.

-I didn't understand the hype for this back when it came out. I was a little too young to realize how many people were taking daily Xanax in 2009.

-I think it's a misinterpretation to hear the production as "subtle" or "understated." It sounds more like a dilletante who hasn't yet figured out how to produce electronic music, and especially doesn't know how to make a strong drum sound, so they keep things as simple as possible. That can work in some contexts, but packaged with the plodding eight-note NYC-style indie rock guitar churn and the singers' totally flat affect, it all just feels so pallid.

-The funniest thing about this band is when Young Thug called him "Johnny X"

Sometime around the end of the 60s, "rock n roll" became "rock." This change wasn't a naturally occurring abbreviation, it signaled actual shifting values in pop music and the recording industry. Rock n roll had immediate, discernible links to blues, r&b, and country music. Rock was also clearly indebted to these traditions, but obscured them under pretensions to "high art," arena-ready anthems, and overt performativity (as opposed to the older style of rock n roll "authenticity"). If the first 4 White Stripes albums are rock n roll, this is their first rock record.

Jack White's voice is in full Robert Plant-mode here, and most of the heavy guitar songs have a "hard rock drinking beer on the hood of a Chevelle" vibe rather than their earlier "paying 5 bucks to see a band in a basement" vibe. The piano/marimba songs veer closer to Queen than Fats Domino. Everything about this album feels extremely 1970s.

This is basically where I get off the train with the White Stripes. They were one of my favorite bands when I was 15, and I hated this record by the time it came out when I was 17. The first 2 singles were exceptionally cringey to me then, and I still hear a certain "gloss" (as much as one can on an album recorded to 8-track tape) that signifies Jack White's readiness for ultra-mainstream media. JW was determined to find a place in the rock canon, and he has since cemented himself (along with Dave Grohl) as one of the last true torch bearers, as if he was the final surviving veteran of WWI. Good for him, I guess, but the White Stripes weren't ever great because Jack was some guitar hero who could hang with Jimmy Page and The Edge. The White Stripes were once great because they made insanely good rock n roll.

Yuck. Do not like. Extremely corny cock rock for beer swilling teenagers, not really much of a lasting influence, were made irrelevant by punk within a few years of their existence. It felt like a classic rock radio station stuck on repeat. I will never listen to this again.

Equally heartbreaking and funky.

For a guy doing some relatively simple songs for voice and acoustic guitar, this record sounds weirdly ahead of its time. You can definitely hear how ND influenced singer-songwriters and indie musicians of the 90s and 00s, and now his whisper voice is the main style of singing for the "bedroom pop" crowd. Underrated guitarist too. This is just an undeniably good record.

What an amazing album. I was heavily into this around age 23 or so, right before I started getting more into dance music and hip hop. So this feels a bit like the "last punk album" I fell in love with. (I don't care what anyone says, this is punk -- "post-punk" is totally overused.) Yes, Lydon can be a total idiot asshole sometimes, but he's mostly harmless and happens to be one of the best rock singers ever. The band sounds incredible -- that locking groove on Annalisa is as good as any funk/disco band at the time. I just listened to Malcolm McLaren's record yesterday, and hearing these albums back-to-back is a nice confirmation that the historical shockwave the Pistols sent out was more artistically fruitful than anything that band had ever achieved on their own. Based on the reviews on this site, it seems like they're still pissing people off in the 2020s, so mission accomplished.

On the one hand, this is a pioneering record that's more of a DJ mix than an album. On the other, this is an extremely gross example of a privileged white guy appropriating Afro-Latin musical traditions he absolutely should not touch. McLaren knew what he was doing -- none of this is haphazard or incidental. He consciously used appropriation as an artistic method throughout his career, dating back to his pre-Sex Pistols clothing stores in the early 70s. Scholars like Paul Gorman have done a great job unpacking McLaren's genuine role in the development of postmodern artistic styles. He put together an extremely weird and enjoyable record here, but it's undeniable he was basically an artistic criminal and a really bad guy. McLaren had almost no skill or creativity but was ultra-confident in his artistic taste and instincts, which is a pretty good foreshadow of pop culture in the 2020s.

There are a few decent tracks on here, but it should not be over an hour. If they released this as 6-8 of the best tracks, it might have crossed over into the US and become a classic. At times, they're pretty good at imitating the best US producers of the time, but some other songs are quite corny and the "rapping" is downright bad.

Yet again, I need to point out that this list is packed with second rate UK copies of pioneering Black contemporaries in Chicago, Detroit, and New York. Take this off the list and add in the real artists who originated, innovated, and elevated dance music in the 80s/90s.

I really respect what Outkast were trying to do here. It's clear they were bursting with ideas and I don't begrudge them for wanting to put them all out into the world. But there's definitely too much filler and too many half baked songs. It's really eclectic, and they're trying out a lot of different sounds, but they don't really sound committed to anything so it comes off a bit like dilettantism. It feels a little like a band rushing to fulfill their record contract. It's cliche to criticize a double album by saying the artists could have trimmed the excess and made a better single album, but I regret to admit that is exactly the case here. Who knows, though -- if someone forced them to cut this album down we may have never been granted Hey Ya, one of the greatest pop songs ever written.

I just listened to the episode of the POD Kast about this album last week and was hoping for an excuse to relisten to this. I enjoy this album, even if it's kinda dumb guy heavy raver music. The Prodigy found their own lane around this time and I don't think we've begun to see the last of their influence.

Slick as hell. I loved listening to this.

This was a bit of a blast from the past -- my girlfriend bought me this CD in 8th grade (and I was done thinking it was cool or good by the end of 9th grade). It was the kind of album that "rocked" but I could still listen to it in the car with my mom. It sorta sounds like Radiohead if Thom Yorke decided he wanted to write hit songs and date Hollywood actresses. At the time, Coldplay were an unknown group of British balladeers, but within a couple years they would set the template for the next 2 decades of adult contemporary. So, in a lot ways, this album aged badly -- too many other bands sound like this now, and they're all crappy and annoying. Sorry to Chris Martin and co, this is not strictly their fault. But it sure would help their cause if they ever wrote a single song with some teeth.

Funkiest of the funky. What's not to love?

Weirdly, this album does not immediately strike me as something that sounds like it was made in the late 90s (at least with regards to the songwriting). This kind of alternative rock was not really the direction rock radio was moving in 1998. Credit to Hole for sticking with their own stylistic taste and not trend jumping -- this album sounds like a compilation of 80s college radio rock songs, but supercharged with an ultra-hi fi production quality. Hole were determined to carve their own lane and there are a few great songs here, including the last handful of decent tunes Billy Corgan ever wrote. But also, you gotta admit there's quite a bit of filler here, especially on the back half.

I'd never heard of this artist before. It's not bad. I like the more psychedelic, experimental tracks quite a bit. I was less into the twee-ish indie pop songs.

The people in my life who love Kind of Blue:

music theory professor, singer in a skate punk band, country musician, jam band guitarist, show tunes enthusiast, old drunk hippie, bassist in a hardcore band, my mom, record store owner, automotive writer, my spouse, etc etc etc

This record is a miracle. Miles had off the charts musical intelligence AND feel/intuition. Just an outrageously good bandleader -- he not only picked the best people to work with, he also knew how to fit those pieces together. Books and books and books have been written about this album, so there's not much else to say -- it's just one of the best musical recordings ever.

A very dated, unexciting bit of electronica. Pure Moods, but worse. Lots of cornball exoticism. Pulling together bits of non-descript Asian musical cultures without knowing anything about those traditions doesn't make Orbit a citizen of the world, it makes him full of shit. Probably one of the worst things I've heard on this list. There were so many exciting things happening by 1993 it baffles me to pick this out of the bunch. Dump this and add some Jeff Mills.

I listened to this a lot in college and it was great to hear it again. I'm surprised I remembered basically every song after 15+ years. The mixing/production is kinda weird and doesn't really do the band any favors -- the guitars sound paper thin. Nevertheless, this is probably a top 3 all-time Britpop album.

When I was 13 and I begged my mom for a guitar, she got me a $100 off-brand strat for xmas on the condition I actually take lessons. For about a year, I took lessons from a couple boomer journeymen at a hole-in-the-wall guitar shop. These were sweet guys who wanted me to understand a little bit about rock history. When I asked them to teach me an At the Drive-In song that was way too hard for a beginner, they redirected me to Cream and Black Sabbath. I acquired an appreciation for songs like "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room" based on these lessons, but by the time I reached college I had developed a strong distaste for Eric Clapton (for all obvious reasons of musical taste and social decency). Nevertheless, I held onto an ideal of Clapton's 60s work with the Yardbirds, Blind Faith, and Cream as somehow more restrained and cooler because of these bands' connections to Swinging London.

But wow, this record is bad. Like, way worse than I remember. The boomers' weed must have really sucked because I simply cannot hear what hypnotized them into thinking Clapton was some kind of guitar god. The songs are boring and plodding -- they don't play the blues well (even compared to their British contemporaries) and their psychedelic bits are laughably bad. Check out these lyrics:

"So many fantastic colours, I feel in a wonderland.
Many fantastic colours, makes me feel so good.
You've got that pure feel,
Such good responses,
Got that rainbow feel,
But the rainbow has a beard."

Just terrible. A friend said it best, "these lyrics are what Nixon would've said had Abbie Hoffman succeeded in dosing him."

I've had this LP in my collection for a long time and I guess it makes sense I haven't had the urge to take it out and listen to it in 10+ years. I suppose I understand why it landed in the rock canon because it's a power trio of instrumental virtuosos who made a soft psych record during the Summer of Love. But, to my ears, it stacks up very poorly against its contemporaries and is utterly inessential listening.

I liked this a lot, maybe more than I expected. kd has a really powerful, and unpretentious, voice. Shout out to all the gay cowgirls out there.