Reviews by bob

The Good: We’ve got nothing but ACROs!!!
The Bad: We are missing some acros…
The Ugly: …

SHIT Simply Horrible Idiotic Trash
CRAP Couldn’t Really Appreciate Phonograph

Modern music sucks…

1*

The Good: It’s a family affair!
The Bad: What about the sisters?
The Ugly: I always confused them with the Eyed-Peas…

Post 2000 modern music isn’t my thing.
Though I recognize several of the tunes on the album, and they aren’t bad, it’s the kind of music which, in my humbles opinion, sounds forced…

I will put them together with the likes of Imagine Dragons (I think that’s the name of the band), and just say “nice try, you failed”.

Down the middle, though I believe I will have to go back and re-rate loads of my previously listened to albums as yesterday it turned out that I ranked Aja by Steely Dan with a 4… and that’s just wrong.

The Good: The Queen of Soul
The Bad: The album being called Lady… thus confusing us…
The Ugly: This being the second album of Mrs Franklin where several tracks are repeated on the album, without it making sense…

Some classic tunes here, but one of the greatest voices of the 20th century.

I really have nothing to say… just listen to the album and enjoy, I guess!

4 1/2* upgraded for balance

The Good: We’ve got pirates!
The Bad: They forgot to add some skull ’n bones…
The Ugly: missing the flesh too…

Two days in a row I am being presented with punk-esque music, and though I can stomach me some, I believe that I have reached my fill with punk and will need to place it close on the list to rap…

So yeah… but I will give it 2* as it isn’t as bad as The Fall…

The Good: There is a trial…
The Bad: We aren’t sure who is at trial…
The Ugly: the fucking album

Never heard of the fall.
Couldn’t care about the fall…
Will never play the fall again.

1* because I don’t care to listen to someone who is tone-deaf semi-sing “odd poetry"

The Good: Again we are treated to a wonder!
The Bad: At times, it feels that we’ve heard the wonder before…
The Ugly: FFF…

Oddly enough, I thought I had listened to all of Stevie’s “classic period” albums, but I guess that this one escaped me.

I really liked it, and technically speaking, I should be giving this album a 5*, however, I frequently felt like I was listening to something I had heard before, but not as good… and that’s because his Opus was still to come…

Let’s flip that coin… 4 1/2* becomes...

The Good: We’ve got jam!
The Bad: It isn’t strawberry…
The Ugly: Fill in the blanks…

Ah, to be young again… and that is not the first time that I started a review this way.

Though I was not on the PJ bandwagon when it hit town, I had plenty of friends who were, while I was, I guess, still trying to get into the whole rock n roll kind a thing.

So, grunge… I love me some grunge! I hate me some grunge too! And, when you think about it, there is a reason that grunge only lasted as long as it did… who wants to stay angry all the time, and find a need to hide in a spoon full of h?

Eddie V’s vocals are second only to Chric C, in my humbles of opinions, and both of them huge frontmen during the grunge scene.
Then there’s the band… just awesome…
Then there’s the hits… when you’re freshmen effort lands you 5 massive hits, you know you’re on to something good!

So, though I would not rank this album a 10… it sure is getting 5*

The Good: A city having figured out how to make a phone call!
The Bad: The city being London…
The Ugly: The need for a double album to convey London’s message…

I know that The Clash are viewed as Punk royalty… but this here album, for me, has got nothing to do with punk music… but that is me, and I am an ignorant bastard at times.

What is there to say about this album which other people have not voiced more eloquently? It is a double album that makes time fly by… the tunes are almost all great, the freakin’ thing starts off with one of the most familiar songs in Rock’s history…

Color me happy… and will dish out a 5*

The Good: We are Happy!
The Bad: We are Sad…
The Ugly: Understanding where Jeff got his from…

This was my first time listening to anything from Tim, at least, to my recollection… And I can say that with certain certainty as I am not very keen on the whole folk-type music in general.

So, I listened, I could hear similarities between dad and son, which made me sad thinking about the son, but happy that he had such musical influence… happy sad…

Don’t know if I should give this a 2* or a 3*… I guess it all depends on the mood one is in while listening to this—today being a sunny day, I’d shell out 2… but will upgrade due to pedigree

The Good: Talking Heads… part 3!
The Bad: It seems that they fear the music…
The Ugly: Trying to figure out what it would sound like if it were Love the Music instead…

Yes, third Talking Heads album! We’ve done 77, and Remain In Light, now Fear of Music. Previous albums both getting 4* because, though very entertaining listens, they were missing that special something to boost them to 5*.

Which leaves me with this album… does it deserve 5*?
Let’s see… it contains the song “Heaven” which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest songs ever written… and I only was exposed to that song as it was included in Simply Red’s freshman effort Picture Book…
But then, then the most insane thing happens, while I am listening to this album, my brain instantly recognizes a song, but I’ve never listened to this album before. Then it hits me, Living Colour… and their freshman effort Vivid contains These Memories Can’t Wait… What????

So I played the album again… and listened with different ears… and I am going to have to dish out 5* as this album is what 5* albums should be, a trip through some soundscape that makes you wonder what is coming around the corner!

The Good: self-titled album!
The Bad: Is it a play on words?
The Ugly: If it is a play on words, what is the point?

So yeah, SOAD… not my thing.

I hear screaming, I hear syncopated time-signatures, I hear avantgarde, I hear old school… I hear, but I can’t listen…

Don’t know if I should give it a 2 or a 3 just to be kind, what I do know is that this album will not be on my repeat list…

2* I guess

The Good: We are safe from lightning striking us due to our soles!
The Bad: Dyslexia…
The Ugly: The rubber not protecting us from anything…

Ah, the Beatles; or, as they say in Spain Los Be-at-les…

I have nothing to say about this album. I listened to it, I recognized one too many songs, I realized it was good…

But, unlike plenty of other people, I am not going to fall over this album as it being the kit-n-kaboodle, or that there isn’t anything quite like this made since, except for other Beatles albums…

So, I am shooting slightly north to across the middle, and will give it 4* for posterity’s sake.

The Good: late ‘80s hip-hop
The Bad: late ‘80s…
The Ugly: hip-hop…

De La Soul… what is there to say? It seems that my musical pallet is not in-synch with what great musical journalist would argue, as this, so it seems, is definitely one of the greatest albums ever…

For me, I appreciated the Me Myself and I song, and enjoyed the fact that these three cats were out there trying to stay positive and have a good time.
So, yeah, good for them.

But I listened to this song playing far on the background, mainly because the rhythm in the rhyming was starting to get on my nerves as it is so basic, and the drum machine too monotonous for my liking.

Still, in stark contrast with the east/west coast bashing that was going on, it is refreshing to have this album to listen to at least once in one’s lifetime.

So, shooting it straight down the middle… 3* GASP

The Good: Mondays can be happy!
The Bad: If we take pills…
The Ugly: That same Monday without the pills…

Yeah… not my thing. And too long to boot. Why?

I guess the love for all that is British, from Manchester, or Liverpool, is all that matters at times?
Any why does the “next Beatles” always need to try so hard in reinventing music? Why can’t they just make nice music in a way that hasn’t been done before?

Will go down the middle… but should give this 2*

The Good: Fuzzy wuzzy wuzz a bear…
The Bad: Fuzzy wuzzy did not care…
The Ugly: Thinking about fuzzy being a buffalo… tatazzy…

What? The entire portion above is just total weirdness.
Yet this album is anything but weirdness… it is greatness!

Here I thought I was a connoisseur of all ‘90s independent music, but color me surprised to having discovered something new!
And what a bummer… I can just see them back then, in the early ‘90s, just playing a gig here, and getting a great reaction from the crowd, and people thinking “this band is going to go somewhere!”… to fall into oblivion.

Now, don’t get me wrong, though really enjoyable, it is a little on the repetitive side, and if you aren’t into their sound, then I can understand that one would skip the album… But I dig it!

This is the perfect album for a cold winter night, with plenty of hootch and a nice fire crackling in the background… maybe some good company, old friends?
This is going to be an album on my repeat list, second one of the week… so this week is proving to be an enjoyable one for sure for me!!!

5* because I dig it!

The Good: Nothing…
The Bad: Everything…
The Ugly: My face after listening to this album for 3 minutes…

It’s (c)RAP… nuff said.
I tried listening to it, but the grandioseness of the egos just was too much for my little person.

So, to remedy all that negativity, I listened to some great albums I’ve come to know thanks to this voyage, and my day all of a sudden was a lot better…

1*

The Good: We’ve got ‘90s grunge!
The Bad: It’s Nirvana…
The Ugly: Anything that comes from the womb is either making noise crying, or causing tears…

I can appreciate that this album is on this list, and I know that there are countless of people on this earth who will rate this album 5*, possibly stating that it is the GOAT.
Don’t count me amongst these people.

Yes; Kurt, Krist and Dave, were the voice of a generation… but they did not speak for the entire generation. If not we’d have a lot less Gen-X’ers walking around, as they’d all have blown their brains out.

I might give this album a second spin, maybe, however, I don’t believe it is going to change my mind that, aside from “the hits” on this album, it is indeed nothing but noise.
Though, fucking Dave is an amazing drummer, and Krist just keeps the beat, and Kurt, well, Kurt can never be blamed for showing too little emotion… and maybe that is what’s wrong with this album for me: I like to listen to music so that it get’s me nice and relaxed, not pumped enough to start slamming myself into walls.

Will go straight down the middle as that’s the way I roll….
3*

The Good: An album named after the artist…
The Bad: It’s not their freshmen attempt…
The Ugly: Figuring out that Meat Puppets isn’t a reference to porn…

Though I am not certain, it would not surprise me a bit if there are many people who are attempting this 1001 album listening journey, that they get to a point where “having to listen to a new album every day” stops being a fun endeavor, and instead becomes a chore… and we all hate chores!

Due to the above, at times, I kind of skip a day, or two, and then try to catch up by listening to several album during one day… and today would be one of those days.
Now, why am I bringing this up? Well, prior to listening to this album, I listened to Nirvana’s In Utero, and ranked that 3* as I could not find too much pleasure in listening to it..

The Meat Puppets, a band I’d heard off, however, I can’t recall having listened to any of there albums before today… and holy cow.
These guys are the genesis of so many bands, from an influence standpoint, that it’s not even funny. It’s sad! Sad that it has taken me 40 years to start listening to them.

Though not worth 5*, I am going to give them that score because of the albums I have been listening to, with great pleasure, might I add, over the past decades, which are clearly directly influenced by these gentlemen!

The Good: Is it an album named after the singer?
The Bad: Who is the singer?
The Ugly: Me still not understanding where we are heading…

If someone would have asked me when this album was published, I would have told them late ‘80s to early ‘90s pop styled RnB. I would have put money down on it.
And, to make matters worse, I would have said that, though it isn’t my cup of tea, it sounds okay.

3 Decades later, this album launches… and to make matters more interesting, it seems that the our entrepid author of the 1001 list deems it more than good enough to be added to his list… why?

What makes this album so important that we need to hear it before we die?
If an artist would come out with a new evergreen style album today, would we need to listen to it?
Sure, if this album would have made some kind of massive change for a generation, it has the right to be on this list… but I had never heard of this damn album…

So, sorry Chris, I guess I won’t be invited to your next birthday party…
1*

The Good: We’ve got Radiohead!
The Bad: They are too Radiohead…
The Ugly: Wondering if a radio can give head…

Like many people of my generation, I found out about Radiohead via the musings of those two intellectuals called Beavis and Butthead.
Need I say more?

My brother bought Pablo Honey, I bought OK Computer… Kid A was never part of the collection.
Though I can’t pin-point the reason why neither of us had the album, based on my listening to the album, I would say that for me, it is too experimental; and I am finding out, via this 1001 list, that I am a down-the-middle kind of music person.

I probably need to give this album another spin to really get a better grip as to what rating I should give it, but my gut feeling tells me that I am not going to appreciate it more than the 2 1/2 * I am giving them now… upgraded to 3