Reviews by bob

The Good: We are allowed to name call!
The Bad: Idiot is so 1973…
The Ugly: Pop… he’s just not model material like Bowie is!!!

After listening to this I felt a massive urge to go watch Trainspotting… and to listen to Lust For Life…

Oddly enough, though at first listen, there were moments where I thought “can we start sounding more interested”, by spin #2 I just got into this odd groove… Idiotic, really…

I also don’t believe I will ever be able to listen to Bowie’s “cover” of China Girl the same way.

I am going to give this album a 4 1/2* downgraded… however, I shall reserve the right to upgrade this to 5* at some point.

The Good: We not only get songs…
The Bad: Most of the stories are the same…
The Ugly: Trying to find the double dots on the keyboard…

Yes, I was familiar with Husker Du (with the double dots… sue me) prior to this list starting. No, I had not listened to many of their albums… none to be exact.
So, after listening, and then reading, I guess I am Du for some additional album listens.

Did I like this album? Yes.
Will I likely listen to the album again? Not in its entirety. At least, not soon. Mostly because the damn thing is repetitive in sound.
Sound is energetic though… maybe another spin prior to the end of the year is called for…

3 1/2* upgraded!

The Good: At least the Hangman’s got something positive…
The Bad: What’s the use of having such a daughter if you’re hanging people?
The Ugly: Realizing that there’s nothing incredible about the strings, or the band…

Weirdest thing happened: when originally this album was presented to me, I did not know what to think of it. So I listened, and then I listened again, and I believe that I gave it a third spin after that… Yet still I was uncertain if this album is just one of those sleeper things, or my taste in music is getting worse and worse.

Fast forward a couple of months, and I decided to give the album one more spin prior to rating it… and I was not able to find anything special about it.
More so, I was starting to really not like it…

So now what do I do? Do I rate it low, like so many people have done? Or do I shoot down the middle?…

Gonna give it 3*… Might listen to it again in the future, if I recall of the album...

The Good: Gold rush is over!
The Bad: We don’t know if we hit the source…
The Ugly: Neil Young’s voice…

I hate Neil Young’s voice, hate it.
Yet, there’s songs that he’s recorded which, in my humble opinion, are more than gold. Like A Hurricane, that’s a top 20 GOAT song…

Then there’s this album… of which I was familiar with Southern Man, like most people, and only because Lynyrd Skynyrd told us Neil Young should remember…
Anyway, back on track… FUCK ME. What an album.
I’ve played it twice, back to back, and the last setting I just kind of stared into nothing…

You will not hear me say this much, but thank you mr. Dimery, for introducing me to this album, which is going to stuck in Top 10 for the moment being.

5*

The Good: We finally get it… at least the band’s name!
The Bad: We don’t fully understand what they are hunting for…
The Ugly: The falsetto…

Take on me… to think that I always thought the girl in the video was of Scandinavian roots too… yet no…

This is high-level ‘80s pop, made by 3 lads from Norway. I always wondered why they looked so pissed off, guess that is the Norwegian way of looking cool?

There really isn’t much I can complain about this album. It made me want to listen to some better stuff… so I will play Tears for Fears next…
Still, good job to a-Ha!

4*

The Good: …
The Bad: …
The Ugly: …

What the hell does Maxinquaye really mean? And why does the artist name himself Tricky?

For belonging to a musical genre I really don’t give a crap about, I actually enjoyed the listen.

Most likely will never listen to Tricky again, but then again, one never knows, right?

Down the middle… 3*

The Good: We know what we’re in for!
The Bad: Too little time to get into it…
The Ugly: The album cover…

Though I’ve not been too positive about the previous The Stooges albums I’ve listened to, this one just hit the spot right.
Don’t know if the product has anything to do with this, or if it just is pure luck.

From song 1 through song last, one just nods one’s head in approval, while hiding a slight grin under one’s nose.
Maybe I need to re-listen to the previous albums with a different ear?

4 1/2* which I’ll upgrade to 5 to get my buddies off my back!

The Good: we know we are not going to get bored…
The Bad: turns out that there’s nothing worth watching on the TV or hearing on the radio…
The Ugly: still not understanding what science has to do with this!

Bland… Or, blink and miss it…
That’s the best way to describe the music.
It’s not bad, but it’s just not there…

So, I am reviewing an album that I played twice back to back and I can’t recall the experience… and that’s not the first time it’s happened to me during this here 1001 list.

I do wish we could score on a 10 base, as this album isn’t 2*, but kind of isn’t 3* either. Guess it’s sticking to the trend it set for me with just not being anything...

The Good: Saving money, by dropping out…
The Bad: Maybe some more higher education could’ve helped the man?
The Ugly: Stupidity of people not recognizing serious mental health issues…

Here comes my skipping record: I don’t like rap.

However, this album was actually “easy listening” for me.
It was musical, it has structure, just easy listening.

Now, if they could stop with the damn sketches, maybe I can start taking certain hip hop albums more serious.

3*

The Good: A face to face experience!
The Bad: I didn’t like the face I was paired with…
The Ugly: My face to the paired one… what???

It would have been nicer had this album shown up on a Sunday, and I would’ve had the opportunity to say that “on a lazy sunny Sunday afternoon…”
Alas, it was Tuesday, and that means it wasn’t…

Though there are reasons enough to really enjoy this album, I have a difficult time finding them.
The sound—I believe that on Wiki they refer to it as baroque—has never been my thing. As a matter of fact, it ranks close to the bottom with rap and psychedelia…

Yes, the songs are well written.
Yes, the songs are of a nice time limit.
Yes, there are good harmonies.
Still, aside from the sunny afternoon song, I find all the other tunes to be similar, and boring…

2 1/2* downgraded

The Good: We are made aware that what we are listening to is “everything but the girl”
The Bad: We are being lied to…
The Ugly: Lies will make our noses grow…

Familiar with the bandname, unfamiliar with their music, except for, one other two songs that I probably heard while also hearing the bandname being mentioned… and notice that it’s bandname, not band name, just like the title of the album.

Does the singer have a nice voice? Yes.
Are there issues with the arrangements? No.
Did the album irritate? No.
Was I looking at the album cover thinking that this band was a side project for Morrissey? Yes!
Will I listen to this album again? Probably not… However, maybe out of curiosity…

2 1/2*

The Good: We are dancing on the moon!
The Bad: Lack of gravity and lack of rhythm make the event a disaster…
The Ugly: Trying to find a ride home…

I forget the name of the show, but there came the song, and my ears perked up… it was Into the Mystic and became my song for a month, listening to it at least once a day.
Due to this, I obviously listened to Moondance… but I did not listen like I am listening to music today…

So, there are some awesome songs on this album, that should be on top-10 lists left and right… but at the same time, the album does go into some kind of funk where you stop listening. I don’t know if it is the voice, the instrumentation, the composition, or a combo of all…

So no 5* for Moondance… but I will grant it 4* as it is a 3 1/2* that deserves additional play.

The Good: We are warned to be attentive to rattling sounds!
The Bad: This rattlesnake has lost its rattle…
The Ugly: Getting fuckin’ bitten…

What in the actual fuck?
This album contains 1 listenable song, which happens to be the first song on the album, and also the only real hit Lloyd ever managed to score… Why? Because his voice is annoying as hell and only works ones.

So, though I started off the album thinking “this might be fun”, I quickly found myself trampling bushes, hoping that there was a rattlesnake lying in hiding, ready to strike and take me out of my fucking misery.

Not scoring this album 1* due to Perfect Skin...

The Good: It’s a family affair!
The Bad: It’s a family affair…
The Ugly: Family affairssss…

I never understood what the big deal is with Sly and his stone family… This album did nothing to change my mind…

I listened to it. I feel like I didn’t accomplish anything meaningful by doing so… funk is overrated, as far as I'm concerned—unless Stevie Wonder does it!

So, emblematic album, yes, should someone listen to it, yes, and am I breaking grammar rules by placing all the previous in one sentence, yes!

2 1/2*

The Good: We know who’s calling us…
The Bad: It’s not a booty call…
The Ugly: nothing, as it’s a purdy valley!

Amazingly non-offensive, relaxing background music.
I managed to get a load of work done, and will definitely want to play this album again in the future when it’s night time and I am trying to catch-up…

So, 4*… because the like the Call of the Valley

The Good: We are introduced to The Hardline
The Bad: They are never really featured…
The Ugly: Neither is Terence Trent D’Arby…

What a lovely album this is, and what wonderful memories it always reminds me of… to be young, dumb, and full of ….

TTD came along in a period when the New Romantics / New Wave were slowly fading away, Madonna was Queen of Pop, and Prince and Michael Jackson were the contenders for the King spot… Upstart TTD never stood a chance.

But this album has 2 massive hits on it, and several hidden gems, and the massive hits are always omnipresent on “best of” or “greatest hits” compilation albums.

For those of you who believe that this sounds like the ‘80s… it might… it was, after all, a period when digital was starting to replace analog aspects of recording and publishing, and it heavily influenced the sound in the trebles and upper mid-range.
However, this album has nothing to do with the sound of the Royalties mentioned before… so clear out your ears, and give it another spin!

The Good: We know how the story ends…
The Bad: We aren’t always sure where the story started…
The Ugly: Paul Simons haircut…

30 minutes… that’s what this album lasts, and technically speaking, just for that, it should get an additional star ranking, because the fear that enters me when I see an album I don’t know with a runtime of around 1+ hour, mainly product released post 1995…

This album serves to make several points; don’t judge a book by its cover, being the main one!
I did NOT know that the song America was them performing it, and I’ve heard that song countless times. And it’s not that I don’t like the song, it’s just that I had placed it away in the folder labelled “pantsy hippy shit”… Then you are forced to sit down and listen, and I actually tried to pay attention to the lyrics (for which I deserve an extra star rating)…

Before reaching the much known Mrs Robinson, we are treated to sonic delight… what the fuck? And reading about how, when one would be listening to the album, side one starts and ends with the aptly named bookend… fuckers are just giggling while my mind starts to understand a little bit more…

And then comes the hammer… A Hazy Shade of Winter, one of the greatest songs ever performed by The Bangles, turns out to be a cover! Fuck me!
I spend some time trying to see if I can get the movie “Less Than Zero” on any of my streaming services, but alas, just like the movie “Under the Cherrymoon”, this ‘80s gem will be denied, for the moment…

I am struggling as to which score to give the album… it is nice, and it is special… I am just not certain if I wan’t it to have 5*… why can’t we rate to 10???

The Good: We are taught the sign ‘O’!
The Bad: We aren't taught what that ‘O’ really means…
The Ugly: Realizing it is a future reference to the movie Officespace…

It this Prince’s magnum opus? Not for me. What it is for me is the culmination of a creative period that started with Controversy, switched to 1999 (included in the 1001 list), drove us to higher spheres with Purple Rain (also on the 1001 list), surprised his fans with Around the World In A Day (regretfully not on this list), couldn’t repeat the Oscar with Parade (also, not on this list… I believe), to finally get us all excited with this album.
For me, that’s 6 5* albums in a row… but I am a fanboy…

I saw the tour… and what a fucking show! It was my third Prince concert, and my last.

This album has a little of this, a little of that… and for me, never get’s old. Made my day seeing this gem pop up!

If you can’t dig it, give it another spin, and another, and you will come around! Oh Yeah...

The Good: We know two women are having a good time!
The Bad: The good times don’t last forever…
The Ugly: Per always, an self-named album…

I am tired, because it is hot here, and we are in the middle of summer, and no a/c…
So, my review is going to be simple, and short.

Actually enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to… however, a disco cover of Comfortably Numb is herecy…

3*

The Good: We know what genre this belongs to!
The Bad: We’ve been fooled…
The Ugly: Being fooled by auteurs, is like being schooled by morons..

Okay, I will let you in on a little secret: I am playing catch-up on all these albums which I did listen to, yet at the time did not have the time to rate.
In the case of this album, almost 2 months have gone by, and I can only recall the album cover, but not a single song…

What does that tell you about the impact that this album had on me?
Maybe I am getting insensitive to music, after forcing myself to listen to a different album for almost 500 days…

So what should I do here? Should I go through the middle? I do recall that the album did make me want to hit the skip button… but no impact… does that deserve 3*?
Gonna listen to it real fast, brb… Okay, mid ‘90s stuff… and I like the ‘90s… maybe I will add this to my list of things I need to listen to again at some point in the future… which means 4*