Reviews by bob

The Good: Dire Straits
The Bad: Straits are Dire
The Ugly: Bandname = album name…

This has to be one of my favorite album covers. The lines, the shades, the color, the everything…
What makes little sense is how that art compares to the kind of music found on this album as one would believe it to be more jazz, or easy listening, instead of the pop-rock infused with Country and Bluegrass…

I had many friends in high school who were fans of this band, then again, we are talking about the mid ‘80s, ergo the Brothers In Arms album, which sounds a lot different then this one.

As I had not listened to Dire Straits in years, except for the afore mentioned album, finding this one on the list perked up my attention for ones.
Listening to this freshmen effort of Mark K and his band you can’t but be massively impressed with the musicianship, the production, the everything. I can’t recall hearing the song Sultans of Swing till the mid ‘80s, guess my parents did not appreciate this music in 1978…

All in all a joy to listen to, not only because of the way it sounds, but more so because of the time it was recorded…. one could argue that they suffered from a bit of pre-mature… you know…

I’d love to give this album a 5*… but I won’t… it is a 4 1/2* for sure!!!

The Good: It seems that we can fall from grace…
The Bad: We don’t know the repercussions for certain…
The Ugly: Finding out that teeth are where God starts screwing with you…

Maybe it is because it is the 24th of December that this album comes along, and that when also had a Pogues album 2 weeks ago…

Fun listen, sometimes impossible to really distill what the tunes are all about, and the Fairy Tale in New York song, well… sad.

I scored the other album a 4*, which means that I am downplaying this one to 3* as 1 The Pogues album on a Top anything list (unless it is a Top 10 The Pogues albums) is all one can really handle…

3*

The Good: We made it, just!
The Bad: We aren’t certain where we made it to…
The Ugly: Sorry Bonnie… the hair… for fuck’s sake, get a stylist…

Almost 2 months have gone by since this album was presented to me, and the only real excuse that I have for having taken so long to rate this album is due to me not being certain what rating I should give the album.

This is, without a doubt, icon of the ‘90s sound… slightly over produced, yet trying to get back to analog sound without making it feel like a garage recording.

What really stands out is that Bonnie, being a great guitar player, is an even greater singer, yet she never really made it big… maybe because she switched style at a bad moment? After all, RnB blues was popular in movies, but not on the radio, where C&W was popular with the cowboy crowd and starting to gain traction outside of shit-kickin’ bars…

Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is that this album should get a 3* rating… yet, I enjoyed it too much to just brush it off as an okay album… Bonnie gives me something to talk about!
4*

The Good: This is not just a simple tour!
The Bad: The tour took us around one too many cow-poke bars…
The Ugly: The album cover…

FINALLY, a country album that we can all secretly love!

This was played multiple times over the Christmas holiday. What an absolute joy of music to just listen to.
Really don’t know what to say about this album except that you should listen to it next Friday evening!

George was not a role model, but he sure knew how to sing a tune, and pick some strings at the same time.

5*

The Good: Scallions!
The Bad: This album is not meant to be cooked with…
The Ugly: Finding out that the Chinese have purchased the MG brandname…

Setting aside the title song, the rest of the album starts dragging on and on… it is the organ that just starts killing it all.

Great musicians don’t always = great music

2*

The Good: We get chocolate!
The Bad: It is laced with blood…
The Ugly: Realizing that the attractions aren’t that attractive…

I think this is my third album from Elvis C, either with or without that backing band, and the main thought that was going through my mind listening to this album was “been there, done that”

While I am writing this review, I am listening the album Main Course by the Bee Gees, which is having me scratch my head as I don’t understand why Elvis Costello has 6 albums listed, fucking Morrissey/the Smiths roughly 7, yet these three brothers, who wrote nearly as many NUMBER ONE hits, only have 2 albums on this 1001 journey?

I am dreading having to listen to the other 3 albums by Costello… will dish out 3* as it was still listenable stuff, but it kind of deserves a 2 1/2*… Back to listening to an album that is giving me more enjoyment… go Bee Gees go!!!

The Good: The album will be okay!
The Bad: What if we don’t like Electronica?
The Ugly: The damn trance…

There are moments when I really scratch my head trying to figure out how to start my rating… in the case of Talvin Singh’s effort, I really didn’t know what to write that might not sound racist… All of this due to the fact that it is Christmas season currently and we’ve been listening to the Spotify playlist Talvin’s cousin, Vindaloo Singh.

Setting the above aside, OK turned out to be more than okay. It is, in my opinion, interesting enough for a person who does not live in the UK or USA to listen to.
The Electronica isn’t too invasive, the Indian portion, aside from 1 or two songs, is agreeable.

All in all something that merits being added to a list of albums one should listen to again…

4*

The Good: We have a fist!
The Bad: 4 fists might be a little difficult to handle…
The Ugly: The one german actually taking the 4 fists…

Okay, the above is a little sick… and I should apologize. However, I am trying to play catch up on ranking albums which I needed to listen to for an additional time or two, and this one’s been hanging out for a month now…

I’ve never understood what krautrock is all about, nor what it actually entails, as most of the krautrock albums I’ve listened to during this journey are all different.

During the first spin I did not like it.
During the second spin I really like it.
During the third spin I had no idea what I was listening to…
Maybe that is the trick to krautrock?

Anyway, though the songs last too long, I know that I really enjoyed this album as background music while working on some excel… so 4* so that I don’t forget about it.

The Good: We have a means to defend ourselves!!!
The Bad: Seems that the gun came without bullets…
The Ugly: The hair… the damn hair…

Oh great, we get another Beatles album!… See what I did there? I used sarcasm, which is the Brits greatest means of self defense…

No, the album isn’t that bad… however, imagine, if you will, that this album was recorded by 4 lads who were note the Beatles, nor with their previous albums, would one still be applauding this album as the greatest?

Now, it could be the era. After all, the ‘60s has some god awful shit, and this album isn’t doing to great a job to make me want to herald Revolver as something that one should appreciate and listen to, especially if you’ve never heard it before and you’re about to die…

Worse of all is that, setting aside the known hits, which are great as there is no denying that Eleanor Rigby is a gem, with only a runtime of just under 35 minutes, I was still counting the seconds before I could shut the album off…

3*, because it isn’t total shit, but I doubt I want to play it again soon...

The Good: We know what kind of clothes to wear!
The Bad: Heavy weather is so undescriptive, could mean anything really…
The Ugly: Nobody cares about a weather report in the end…

When I saw the name of Jacco appear, well, I started paying a little closer attention as I’ve heard his name plenty of the last decades, however, I’d never listened to any of his music…

Now, I wish he would still remain an enigma to me; just a name synonymous with excellence in bass playing…
Instead, I had to listen to this shit album.

Not my thing. At all. Not hating. Just not understanding.

2* our of respect

The Good: We get to go out for the evening!
The Bad: We really aren’t that into opera…
The Ugly: The look on my face while I am reading comments written by people giving this album a 1* score…

This album is the first album I can recall hearing as a human being… must have been 5 or 6, and my mother had received this as a birthday gift… I remember that Bohemian Rhapsody scared me enough not to want to listen to it ever…

Then one gets a little older, a little wiser, the taste buds start to form… what a joy of an album!

There’s a little of this, a little of that, all great… for me.
I could listen to this album weekly till I die and still enjoy it… well, maybe that’s a lie… Monthly shouldn’t be an issue though!

5*

The Good: We get automotive pornography!
The Bad: We’d rather hear our partner moan…
The Ugly: The cloud of smoke once the diesel engine is rev’d…

Spring Break 1990! If only I could go back in time…
This album blaring out of the car speakers as we headed south for a week of drinking, getting shot down by all the ladies we were interested in, and not giving a shit as we contemplated hitting on the next one!

Little did we know that grunge was going to be showing up shortly… these marked the hay-days of rock n roll… the way that it was “meant” to be.

I really don’t know what to say about this album except that it is tattooed on my brain!
For me, every song is great… however, based on what I like, I am certain most people won’t agree with it!

5* let’s all be F.I.N.E!!!!!!

The Good: Uhmmmm… two Depeche Mode albums in a row?
The Bad: Getting violated…
The Ugly: By your own personal jezus…

In my memory this album came out later than 89… I don’t know why.
I was not a big Depeche Mode fan, though I knew/know all their mayor hits and appreciate them.

My biggest problem with this album is that, setting aside the known hits, the rest of the songs just don’t do it for me… which leaves us with a conundrum as to how to rate this album…

We will have to leave it at a 4* for the moment, as this seems to be acceptable in general.

The Good: We get something for all!
The Bad: Sometimes the masses don’t know what they want…
The Ugly: Hearing this at mass…

540 albums into the journey and I am starting to become very uninspired when it comes to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly… but, like Depeche Mode, I refuse to give up!

First time I heard the band was 83, I think… could’ve been 84, with the People Are People song. Checked the Wiki, it was 84. I did not like that song enough to buy the album, which seemed to be what one would do back in those days…

It wasn’t till the ‘90s that I really started listening more intently to DM, though still not intently enough to purchase an album… which brings us into the now, where we have spotify, or YouTube, or any other service, where we can listen at hardly a cost to music…

Did I like the album… well, yes, but oddly enough, today is the 15th, and I can’t recall a single song that I listened to… which means that I am not going to give it a 4* which would probably be fairer…

3*

The Good: Who doesn’t like to look at a pendulum swing?
The Bad: I don’t like walking like a chicken…
The Ugly: Me, standing but naked once the hypnosis has stopped working…

The Undertones, such a perfectly qualification for a band’s name as they are undertones… or nontones… neither here nor there…

The only thing I can recall about this album was scratching my head and asking myself if that was Mr Sharkey I was hearing… and it was… and that’s when my good heart was no longer hard to find…

Still, doubt I ever want to listen to this album again… really… unless someone pulls out a pendulum and tells me that, when they snap their fingers, I will love this album and rate it a 5*…

3* guess the pendulum didn’t work...

The Good: This is going to be an interesting evening!
The Bad: I missed the memo that stated a Soiree can also be shit…
The Ugly: Nothing can get uglier than the penance of listening to this…

Noise… Shit noise… 1*

The Good: If we find ourselves in times of trouble…
The Bad: Mother Mary isn’t coming…
The Ugly: The mental image of Mother Mary trying to come… what???!@!!?!??!?!??!?!!!

Sorry about that, it seems that, at times, my brain just kind of goes loopy for no other reason than it can…

A couple of years ago, while I was going through some ‘80s deep-dive, I landed on this album and it did not click…
Today, the album did manage to click… and I don’t know why… maybe because I have been subject to one too many shit albums lately on this list, which has turned this one into better than it was several years ago?

Also, could be just me, but I am going through a nostalgia phase, maybe because Christmas is almost upon us and you start being bombarded with nothing but nostalgia…

Anyway, the album is what it is… not so good as the Beatles, however, considering they are Replacements, they are better than the houseband… if you know what I mean.

4* as they also represent Minneapolis!!!

The Good: We get to listen to Big Pink’s music!!!
The Bad: They forgot the Floyd…
The Ugly: Forgetting what The Band is called…

You get a little of this, then a little of that, but you never get what you are looking for… that’s the way I feel about listening to this album.

Sure, there are some great hits on this album, and the production is spot on, at least while the sounds are coming through my speakers… Yet there’s something missing… Cohesion, maybe?

Then there’s the vocal shenanigans going on… where I am not a big fan of Dick’s voice, instead wishing that there were more songs involving Helms vocals wizardry…

Yet, for all my bitching and complaining, I will still dish out 4* to this outing, but I know that I want to listen to it again, maybe on a nice relaxed day while I have nothing better to do then take a country road ride, or just sit in a nice recliner while having a nice cold beer...

The Good: We won’t have to worry about getting cheated on…
The Bad: Faithfull isn’t the same as faithful...
The Ugly: Trying to put back together the English…

I really tried to understand why I had to listen to this… I really did, and I still don’t understand it at all.
Could it be that the list of 1001 is not really about good music, but could be about lyrics, which I am not paying attention to?..

I am glad for Marianne that she was able to put her life back together, I really am. However, this album was a bit tough to get through…

Regretfully, I will have to rate this at 2* because I can’t honestly see any redeeming qualities to this except for a kudos for getting one’s life back on track!

The Good: Trying to preserve a society is always a good thing!
The Bad: Some societies are not meant to be preserved…
The Ugly: Too many kinks…

It is interesting to find out the little one really knows about anything if one isn’t a true expert, let alone a massive fan.
I like cars, but I hardly know how to change the oil as I leave this for the experts… likewise, my Chicken Parm is ordered in a restaurant.

What’s my point? Well, I listen to music because I am not a musician, but I do like nice sounds… and it seems that these chaps are really good at making sounds if you take into consideration the amount of bands who list these guys as mayor influence.
I guess these bands know something I don’t know…

So, hurray for the experts… Here’s my opinion…
2* upgraded to 3 out of respect...