Reviews by bob

The Good: This album serves as a reminder that there are people out there who suffer from dyslexia!
The Bad: Mr Buckley suffers from more than just dyslexia…
The Ugly: My dyslexee being awakened by thiss album?

At some point I will have to find a library which includes the 1001 book in its collection, so that I can find out which criteria resulted in so many shit albums seem to be important to listen to before one dies, while there are one too many albums missing on this list which, IMHO, should be listened to.

1967, it seems, has one too many psychedelic folksy crap albums one might be forced to listen to if one, like this fool, is attempting at finalizing the 1001 list.

Here’s to my fingers being crossed that this is the LAST of this kind of shit albums I have to listen to…

1* out of pure spite, though one could bump it up to 2*… but I already did that with his last album, so fuck it...

The Good: If it’s going to get hot, it’ll be a dry heat…
The Bad: Dry was not referring to the temperature…
The Ugly: Guess we are missing lubricants…

PJ, Polly Jean, is indeed an interesting person, and one who I don’t know too much about, except that she is repeated several times as an artist on the 1001 list…

This album, of the previous ones I’ve had the displeasure of listening to, has been the most favorable.
I am still uncertain if I want to give 4*, or shoot down the middle…

It was kinda grungy, and I do like grunge… so I will add it to the list of albums I need to listen to again!

The Good: We dumb things down by including pictures in our book!
The Bad: The Pictures aren’t what we needed…
The Ugly: We don’t like the color red…

A couple of weird things have been going on lately, most importantly that, all of a sudden, a multitude of albums which previously were not to be found on Spotify are suddenly available—though I am still hoping to find “Goodbye Blue Sky” one of these days…

This album had been missing from Spotify these past years, yet all of a sudden there it is, and I had been looking forward to finding the album again, as I had owned a vinyl copy when it originally came out in 85, because this was the album the cool kids, like me, listened to.

Oh brother, what to say about being re-united with this album? I wish it hadn’t happened, as I wish I could have kept my nice memories of the “known” songs on this album. Boy oh boy, this is NOT what I recalled it to be.

A couple of years ago, when I was going through a discovery phase while listening to all Talking Heads songs, I bumped into the song Heaven, which I knew from Simply Red… little did I know. Having heard the song today, comparing it to the original, I will place this album back into the dusty bin of old memories, while smiling recalling what my teenage self was thinking about this at the time… ignorant fucker…

Sorry Red, you have a lovely voice, but this album did not stir up what I had hoped it would have… 2 1/2 * which I am upgrading just to be nice...

The Good: We get to spend some time in a hotel!
The Bad: Seems we are not safe in that hotel…
The Ugly: The stabby with the beast with the knife with the fail with the never leave…

I don’t know about the millenials, or even the Gen Z, however, anyone prior to those lost generations knows this song, no matter where they are from.
From the opening 12-string strum, to the double tom-tom, to the dark desert highway…
Then there are the classic New Kid in Town and Life in the Fast Lane… 1-2-3
That this album lost to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors only goes to show you what a great music hails from that era!

Myself, obviously I know the title song, and several of the other tunes, however, I can’t recall ever having sat down to listen to the album from start to finish… so color me surprised that the album starts off with the title song, the big hit, leading me to think that this could mean a premature ending to the enjoyment. After all, one normally ends with the big hit…

Boy was I wrong. What an album. I don’t believe that there was a single time that I felt the urge to hit skip, or walk away, or do anything but sit and listen with utter enjoyment to the fruits of the bands labor.

And that closing song… what a closer…

So, here’s to one of my new Top -10 albums

The Good: Mom will be able to hold off the bad people…
The Bad: Mom doesn’t know what is good, or what is bad…
The Ugly: Seeing mom in front of a judge, getting sentenced for having shot Erykah…

Just as a quick question; if Erykah is phonetic, then is Badu racist as Asian people are being made fun of?

Neo Soul… Neo anything tends to be shit, not much different here. Yes, sure, the beat is fine, while the groove is great… but the damn singing, and attitude, is just enough to make me not want to listen to this again.

My biggest gripe, at the end of the day, is the runtime of this album… they should have made 40-minutes an industry standard when it comes to max album lenghts… CDs just ruined music I guess.

So, should it come as a surprise that I will be dishing out 2* for this album?
Mrs, or Ms, or whatever Badu should not be on this list… IMHO

The Good: We are going to get properly stoned!
The Bad: Turns out Supergrass has nothing to do with weed…
The Ugly: Wondering what they’ve done with all their money…

Never heard of this group, as I wasn’t even near the EU continent at that time, so I guess that makes sense. For once I will say that I appreciate the fact that Mr Dimery is again focusing on bands that only those living within a certain geography might have heard about.

But here’s the bad part… I can’t recall a singly song… not 1… and I’ve listened to the album several times…

Anyway, I will over score this one as I know I will appreciate listening to this again at some point in the future…

4*

The Good: One can not ask for better intentions from a band than to Satisfy…
The Bad: The aim of the band is way off!
The Ugly: The reputation of a red snapper took a nose dive…

Not my thing…

Did I mention that this is not my thing?

Not my thing…

And to think that I really liked the album art… 2* just because of that… and the name of the band… thought I should remove a point for the terrible aim… conflicted...

The Good: The only way is up!
The Bad: Sometimes, arise only refers to getting out of bed…
The Ugly: Finding out that your bed is a coffin…

Maybe it was my mindset while listening to this, so I get it… and I was banging along with the strong riffs, and I even did the horn sign with the hand… though at no point did I pretend to be a vampire.

It is interesting how one day you listen to this band and think “this is total shit” and another day it is just awesome!
There’s no explaining this…

So, am I to be considered a metal head now? Will I start painting fingernails black, get a fucking arm-sleeve tattoo that spills into the hand too? Will I need to change my wardrobe so that it includes predominantly black clothes?

4*, because I know that I will want to listen to this album again...

The Good: Excellent album name!
The Bad: Awful album cover…
The Ugly: a schmoedipus… is ugly…

Reading comments from other folks, it seems that most are a little upset that they are listening to a soundtrack of an imaginary movie… why?

Not knowing what to think, I have been pleasantly surprised by the album. I can’t recall any of the songs, but having this play on the background made the day go by faster, and that is always a good thing.

Though the album might not be worth more than 3*, I will splurge one additional star just because I know that I will want to listen to this album again at some point.

Good on ya Barry 4*

The Good: It’s all about the coalition!
The Bad: Love isn’t bold…
The Ugly: Jimi’s mood when he saw the album cover…

Little Wing… nuff said.

What a glorious album, where only 1 song feels out of place and we can blame Mr Redding for this.

Not going to waste words, just gonna listen to it one more time!

Here’s to Jimi being Bold as Love!!!

The Good: Well, it’s positive. Right?
The Bad: It is kinda forced on you… what if you like “no”?
The Ugly: So fragile, that it breaks too easy…

Right, or left, it is what it is.
Great opening song, the rest could have been a giant skip, as far as I’m concerned.

Prog music is a tough nut to crack, sometimes it can be really nice, other times it feels too forced. In Yes’s case, it’s more than forced.
I can understand that the musicians are all top notch, they show it constantly, which is why it is hard to listen to.

Anyway, I think that I will stay positive and give the album an upgraded 2 1/2*

The Good: We have get to visit a white room.
The Bad: It’s not like a darkroom…
The Ugly: So now you get to see the faces of all the perverts…

I am certain that somewhere there is an explanation of what KLF stands for. Keep Licking Fallus (because KLP was already taken…)

Having lived the ‘90s, I had heard of KLF but I couldn’t for the life of me recall any of their songs, so I thought I was in for a shit 1 hour journey… Color me confused, as I actually didn’t hate the experience.

Guess that mixing EMD with a little soul isn’t a bad thing after all…

The Good: Land of the Rising Sun!!!
The Bad: There isn’t a single reference to Ramen on the album...
The Ugly: This was sooo quiet that most people didn’t even know the album existed…

Holy crap… like listening Duran Duran and the Psychedelic Furs before they became themselves.
Or any other New Wave band from the year 1982 onwards.

Guess Japan has been a trendsetter not only regarding martial arts, or food, but also music! Kobuki theater anyone?

It would get a 5* if the damn thing wasn’t so depressing at times… and not depressing in a nice way… more depressing with the blade slicing skin from elbow to wrist, like you’re supposed to do…

4* well deserved though!

The Good: We are Among The Living!
The Bad: Anthrax will kill us all…
The Ugly: … well, the corpses everywhere…

This is album #500… a milestone…
A milestone that let me note that I am almost 1/2 way there… which means that I have one too many shit albums still left to bear through…

I am not a thrash metal guy. I am not really a metal guy… I am a guy though.
This music serves a purpose, which is to pump you up if you are about to start breaking things! So I guess there is a reason why one would need to listen to this at least once in one’s lifetime… 1 thrash-metal album… not the one too many I’ve already had to listen to, and the ones that I am still going to get exposed to…

*3 because...

The Good: It’s a saint, it’s got to be good!
The Bad: Seems like we have been deceived…
The Ugly: Foxbase Alpha, FA, Fucking Assholes…

Slowly, but surely, I am starting to believe that we are being duped… Though we think we are listening to 1001 albums that we need to hear before we die, half of them are albums we DON’T need to hear before we die.

Not that this album is bad, it’s just not great, nor good, nor will it improve my life now that I’ve listened to it.

As with many albums on this list;
it’s neither here, nor there
it’s neither good, or bad
it’s neither fish, or meat, or vegan, for that matter.

Off to listen to Anthrax, next one on my list…

St Stephen is getting 3*

The Good: The Brummels are purdy!
The Bad: Looks like can be deceiving…
The Ugly: Sitting through the entire album waiting for the triangle to kick in…

My disdain for ‘60s music has grown disproportionately since starting this musical journey…
Needless to say, when an unknown album, by an unknown band (to me) presented itself, I could but sigh and press the play button with fear.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed that my head started bobbing along with the first chorus line “how do you feel?”… guess the Brummels are making me happier than I thought I could be.

From a production standpoint, this album is lovely, the sound is clear and well mixed… what’s even better is the runtime being just over half an hour… yet, by song three I am finding myself fidgeting with the skip button…

So, I guess Beau is getting a pass… Not because the album doesn’t have it’s merit, but more so because I am unhappy with the musical style…

3*

The Good: We get some SrV!!!
The Bad: It’s a different kind of blues...
The Ugly: It seems that we need a script to hang at Mister Kelly’s

If one is not into jazz, this is not your album.
I am not into jazz…

Having said that, what is refreshing is listening to a set in a jazz bar, by one of the greatest jazz singers of her generation, know that there is no room for autotune et al…

I would have given this album a 4* thanks to the inclusion of “Just a Gigolo”, however, the last track on the album removed that star as I am not ready to listen to freestyle scatting again…

Sorry SrV. 3*

The Good: We are in the company of genius…
The Bad: We don’t know why…
The Ugly: Well, I guess you could say that this is, yet again, an album title referring to the artist, which isn’t genius

A little swing, plenty of big band, some great classics… it's an excellent album.

Yet, I can’t get myself to grade this higher than a 3*
Not that there aren’t plenty of reasons to give this album 4-5*, however, not today.
I would rather listen to his other album on this list and if not, just find an excellent playlist with all his greatest hits.

Sorry Ray, but this album is not genius...

The Good: There was science applied, and we all like science
The Bad: Not knowing which part of the science was before, and which part was after…
The Ugly: The damn album cover… I promised myself I would not judge… but damn, that’s ugly!

Never having heard of this album before, yet knowing who Mr Eno is, I was a little worried about title, thinking this was going to be another experimental type album. What a relief!

Maybe it has something to do with me just going through a “all music from the ‘70s is awesome” phase, but this was a joy to listen to.
At times, closing my eyes, I wasn’t certain if I was listening to a Brian Eno album, or a Talking Heads album… maybe there is something I don’t know and I should read up on the intrawebs all the secrets about this album, but I can’t be bothered with that today.

So, 4* as I know I will want to sit back and listen to this album again some day!

The Good: We are evolving…
The Bad: Into what, we don’t know…
The Ugly: Finding out that the actor Ving Rhames took his name by filling out the blanks…

At times I felt like I was listening to Jeff Buckley, which means that he took inspiration from these peeps.
I knew of Sonic Youth, I just did not know them, so this has been an interesting listen, which, I believe, will have to be repeated as there is too much to take in all at once.

Unsure of what to call this, may I call it Noise?
Also, am I now officially allowed to wear a Sonic Youth t-shirt and be one of the cool kids?

Really tempted to give this album a 4* rating, as I want to listen to it again, however, I don’t believe that it merits more than 3*