Reviews by blakestewart

Wildly overproduced and a mish-mash of braggadocio pop tropes...still, damn that lady can sing and dance.

Great blues album full of horn and moida.

There's something about overly wet riff-heavy tracks on this album that are super difficult to engage with. It's like music meant for a pizza delivery montage. Conversely, the sparser tracks feel like the best of Damien Albarn's output. I like to think that, being reasonable, any album that has 40% tracks that I find enjoyable is pretty good so I'm rating this album at a 3. Which is to say: on the average of really critically important albums.

Not a great album. Disco is designed for a four and a half minute dance session. Since I am not dancing this was not as fun for several iterations.

Arcade fire always feels a bit vague to me. Some of that is just stylistic. The lyrics are great but often obscured by heavy reverb and layering for an ambiance that can force the ear to search the mix laboriously. It can get a bit samey. That said, I still enjoyed it and found myself reading through lyrics on a few songs.

Woozy fun.

Interesting to hear the group that would become particles involved with the Breeders and Belly. I dug the lyrics on several tracks. Hard to imagine what this would have been like to see live in Rhode Island in 1981.

I'd call it outsider music if the guy wasn't firmly entrenched in British punk. He's very unconventional in terms of both music and writing. Borrowed from a wide variety of backgrounds. Definitely had more interesting things to say than most at the time.

Great album. Calm and reflective and interesting.

Has some great tracks on it but drags in some places

Pretty good album with a nice variety of voicing.

Wonderful album. Grey seal and Alice are two stand outs that, frankly, eclipse the hits. I don't love Elton John but I respect him and his song writing partner. It can all get a bit much but I guess that is what you sign up for.

Can't help it. I do not care for Neil young or his music. I find it enervating spiritually for the most part and the songs I can enjoy modestly are too infrequent.

I appreciate what she does and she deserves way more credit than she received being stamped, at the time, as a "spears clone". That said the music isn't for me. I appreciate the technical complexity. I just don't cotton to it.

Catchy and interesting but after a time it does feel like eating a never ending bowl of something.

I like the idea of this band and album more than the actualities. I'm happy they exist and understand why they are lauded. It, for me, is like a soundtrack to a dense indie movie that I also did not relate to or particularly enjoy.

Love his voice and the fact that he was, I fact, at least half the criminal huckster he sang about. What a personality. Read up on him.

Well constructed lyricism and a deeply affecting voice to back it emotionally. Interesting how this can slip into a place of feeling a bit like an Americana Sade from time to time.

When I first moved out with friends this was what was playing on repeat.

It's a classic and I remember it's impact in real time. I also remember it being skit-heavy and sort of beyond belief.