Reviews by bob

The Good: We find out that The Stranger isn’t strange
The Bad: We feel jibbed out of getting to know someone new
The Ugly: … I got nothing

What a great album.
What a pity so many people are comparing him to a not so great version of Elton John, or stating that he had nothing to do with Rock n Roll or what not.
Billy Joel might not have the character one would call down-to-earth, but then again, how many people have been married to a super model, or managed to be one of the first western acts to have a concert broadcast from the USSR, or publish albums that cover pop, rock, and even classical music, to holding court at Madisson Square Garden for years with a monthly concert?

Say what you may, Billy Joel is one of the greatest to ever grace the stage with his artistry!

The Good: We’re going to get rich in with the gasoline we found in the alley…
The Bad: Turns out that Mr Steward, nay, Sir Stewart, has fooled us all by replacing the gasoline with water…
The Ugly: After having read wikipedia, I can’t unsee the rod in Rod…

Well this was a lovely waste of my time.
We’ve got Rod, we’ve got Ronnie, and we’ve got loads of mellow cover-songs that would do great in a pub, but I don’t know how they’d go over in a stadium.

Not that the music is bad; just that the music is bland most of the time, and in comparison with contemporary artist, not worth my time.

So I ask again… why am I being forced to listen to this album?
The answer is simple: there really aren’t that many great albums out there!
Which is making start to appreciate my favorite albums even more!

2* for effort, and for Ronnie

The Good: It’s a short album…
The Bad: One would hope that love would get more attention
The Ugly: This is album isn’t short enough, divine enough, and it made me cry…

What a heaping pile of absolute horseshit.

If I would want to listen to music that emulates, in the worst possible way, crappy ‘70s music, I would play crappy ‘70s music, instead of this pile of excrement.

I am seriously starting to doubt the fucking sanity of the author of this list, or his taste… Overlooking some massive albums from the ‘90s, yet including things that are “different” in the hopes that 4 people will actually like it and maybe go visit a show in a bingo-parlor when The Divine Comedy has paid for the right to make us want to gauge our ears with sharp-ended pencils…

Should not come as a surprise that I give this 1*

The Good: it seems there is an etiquette to machine guns…
The Bad: does it makes sense that it’s the damned who tell us about this etiquette?
The Ugly: due to the stutter, I am still clueless as to what the etiquette is!

For those of you who don’t understand the stutter comment before… what sound does a machine gun make?

Right. ‘70s punk. 11 songs on a 36 minute album. 1-2 1-2-3-4
Is it good? Sure.
Is it bad? Sure.
Is it something that needs to be heard before one dies? Well, if the list is over a 1000 albums, it might just be needed… I guess…

2* because it did make me feel like I was wasting my time

The Good: Talking Heads!!!
The Bad: Sometimes we don’t really want heads to be talking…
The Ugly: Remaining in light can become tiresome…

I do appreciate me some Talking Heads!
The album was nice, but not one of my favorites… all this world music vibe isn’t what I was waiting for.

Anyway, it does merit to be on this list for sure, and will give it another spin soon!

The Good: Nothing really…
The Bad: Everything, really…
The Ugly: I found out I did not hate it…

Current tally:
The Smiths albums heard on the list = 1
Morrissey albums head on the list = 2 (included this one)
I dread the next one I need to listen to… as I really can’t stand Morrissey’s voice…

I am the quarry, of coal… stinking, rough coal… with no outlook of becoming a diamond…
But I did not want to slice my wrists while listening to this, so I will be gentle and allow for a 2* rating

The Good: We are invited on a treasure hunt!
The Bad: What would happen if you can’t find yourself?
The Ugly: Worse, what happens when you do find yourself, and FLC show??? They are criminals after all…

I don’t like rap… I think I’ve been clear about this.
However, these Fun Lovin’ Criminals have done the impossible, and made me enjoy the album enough NOT to score them below 3*

The Scooby Snacks is just lovely. The overall blend of musical styles, as well as the lovely fact that we are hearing actual instruments being used, well; lovely.

So, though I will downgrade them, this is a 3 1/2* fo-sho!!!

The Good: George Clinton
The Bad: George Clinton
The Ugly: George Clinton

I could have sworn that this album had appeared on the list before, however, it seems that the maggots are in my brain…

I didn’t like it…
I didn’t dislike it…

Main problem I had with this album was that, when listening to it for a second time, it started to drag on me…

Still, I am going to be a bastard and give the album 4*...

The Good: well, I guess that we’ve got a puzzle.
The Bad: I am too tired to try and solve it.
The Ugly: my brain, being sneaky, still trying to solve the riddle of the title…

Industrial Metal!
Yesterday I had Thrash Metal…
What kind of Metal will I get tomorrow? More importantly, why are there so many Metal subgenres?

I have to say that I appreciate this more than Thrash… I don’t know why.
But I’d rather listen to NIN instead…

So, this album will not get additional play time for me, and I will keep my fingers crossed and hope that tomorrow brings me something I can stick my teeth in!

2*

The Good: Thrash Metal
The Bad: Mustaine’s voice…
The Ugly: What happens to the genre once you remove the first h in Thrash…

Not a metal head.
Appreciate the guitar though…

Still, there isn’t a single metal record which I would play on repeat, so I will dish out the low-low score of 2* as I don’t hate it, but I can’t find myself to like it enough for a middle of the road kind of judging...

The Good: It’s always nice when the man comes around!
The Bad: Except when you’re not ready for the visit…
The Ugly: Guess the man won’t come around no more…

What? Johnny Cash? Singing [mostly] other people’s tunes? In his style? And everybody loves it?

I’d heard about Hurt. Always wondered about what happened to his career, as he’d stopped being a lead actor, and started doing supporting roles… Oh wait, not that Hurt…

Johnny Cash is an icon. Almost everyone in born until 1990 will most likely know of him, after that, well, I guess we can blame Joachim Phoenix for that…
Myself, I have never understood the persona. Not a fan of his work. But that sure as shit was a nice cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water!

So, 3*

The Good: Norah Jones inviting you to go somewhere with her!
The Bad: Once you get there, you find out that she didn’t invite you for that…
The Ugly: Having to find your way home…

Ahhh, Norah, what a treasure. From the same alma matter where I got my education…

When the single of this album hit, I really liked it… then, one evening, I was invited to my brother’s house for dinner, and he had this album on as back ground music, and I found out that, though I do appreciate the effort, I find listening to the entire album near torture…

Sadly, this means that I can’t give this album a higher rating than a 2*
However, I do like 1 too many songs on this album… so I will just pretend like I appreciate torture, bumping the score to a 3*

The Good: We are warned that the straits are dire…
The Bad: Finding out there is nothing Dire about the Straits…
The Ugly: having to sell off the outfit I purchased to travel the straits that were supposed to be dire…

I know, I know, the above is not up to my usual standard of joviality, but I have a great reason for this, and that is that I’ve procrastinated writing this review for over a month…

Why, you might ask? Well, reading the overall bashing that people are giving this album, I had to wait till I calmed down before lambasting all those fools I stumble over the use of the term “faggot” in the song Money For Nothing…

This is a quintessential ‘80s album, it also just happens to be one of the greatest albums ever, easily Top-20.
The Dire Straits were massive due to this album, even if there are fans of the band who believe that this is not their best album.
For me, this album was my introduction to more guitar oriented music, and what a great teacher Mark K is… Yeah buddy, it’s his own hair…

The title song is what it is, a 10.
Walk of Life made everyone want to tune into MTV just to see the video, another 10.
Sting jumpin’ in to lend a hand, another 10.
The opening track a perfect intro, you guess it, another 10.
And then there are the fillers, who, IMHO, all deserve a 9 or 10…

You guessed it, 5*

and to all those cry babies who can’t stand 1 word being used… pay attention to the lyrics, you ignorant fools, and maybe you will learn something.

The Good: Aggressive vegetables!!!
The Bad: I am more of a meat person…
The Ugly: Trying to figure out where the Siamese Dream is attached?

Okay, so the above is weak… but that’s because I don’t know what to say.

Lately I have been dealing with terrible albums, so it has been a massive relieve to find this album presented to me. Not my favorite Pumpkin album, but who’s counting?

Are the vocals annoying, sure. But there are people who can’t stand Kate Bush’s voice either… I’d argue to Corgan's voice is just what is needed for this music. Massive hits, this album was paramount in the ‘90s and definitely one that people need to hear before they die!!!

Oh so close to 5* for me…

The Good: We get to play the ACRO game!!!
The Bad: m b v does not stand for music become venerate
The Ugly: realizing it stands for My But Vomit

WTF? My string of crap albums continue… it is going to get boring to sum up, but 4 straight days of 1*, cut short by a 2* album, and now we are already on 3 straight days of 1*

This album can best be compared to Chinese water torture, just replace the drip drip with fucking noise and unintelligible vocals.
Nothing redeeming on this album for me.
Nothing enjoyable…

I am understanding why so many people bail on the project after a couple of hundred albums; they probably started getting such strings of bad luck too and said fuck it, I’m done!!!

1*

The Good: Who doesn’t like a nice bit of phrenology?
The Bad: Turns out that, according to phrenology, I don’t like rap…
The Ugly: Just like phrenology is considered a pseudoscience, this album contains pseudomusic!!!

Dear diary, what have I done to deserve this?
my last 6 albums were, in order from oldest to newest reviewed, 1* 1* 1* 1* 2* 1*, and now I get this…

I really tried finding stuff that I would like on the album, yet most of the time I could only think “why are they trying so hard to be something, instead of just being something?”
I heard some almost blatant Prince rip-off, go listen to the song The Ladder (from the album Around the World In a Day)
Then there’s the obvious “we’re from the hood too” shit that I just can’t stand
Plus, I keep seeing that stupid Jimmy Fallon bobbin’ his head in line with the beat to show he’s got street credit too!
Also, I HATE DRUM MACHINES…

So, here’s to me praying for some actual music to show up tomorrow… even if it’s Taylor Swift…

1*

The Good: In case we get sick, there will be a doctor in the house!
The Bad: this only applies if you get sick in your private parts…
The Ugly: I’m not a girl…

What in the actual FUCK!!!!!?????????!!?!?!?!??!?!??!?
How many times does a rapper from the ‘90s have to mention Shakespeare as this will give his “poetry” more meaning?
When will the NON OBVIOUS ABUSE of a thesaurus be rewarded?

Why my personal abuse of many CAPS and !@!!!!, well, glad you asked…
The last 7 albums, SEVEN albums, that I’ve had the DISPLEASURE of finding on this list has contained only 1 3*, 2 2*, which means 4 1*… and with this utter piece of useless TRASH that makes 5 1*

Then again, I don’t like hip hop, nor really care for country, and those were the main genres I was forced to listen to…
Here’s to tomorrow ROCKIN’ my socks off PLEASE

1*

The Good: Chirping crickets… the soothing sounds of a mid-summer-night
The Bad: who’d wanna listen to an album sung by insects?
The Ugly: 12 songs crammed into a 26 minute album…

Guess the producers understood that one doesn’t want to. listen to chirping crickets too long, so they made all the songs nice and short…

I know that Buddy Holly is revered in the Rock ’n Roll world of the ‘50s, but I can’t but wonder if this is out of respect for his untimely death?
If the man never hopped on that flight, and would have kept chirping with the crickets, would we all still be applauding him?

For me, and I really like me some rock and roll, I would rather listen to Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, or the great Fats Domino, instead of this…

On a positive note, I’ve been humming the Weezer song all day!
Ooh-wee-ooh, I look just like Buddy Holly…

2*

The Good: Nice album art!
The Bad: Grime…
The Ugly: Still not understanding how to get rid of grime…

WTF?
The bad string of luck of the past week continues, worse, I am now on a 3-day run of 1* albums…

How I wish that this app would stick to the original 1001 list which ran through the 1990’s and doesn’t include this modern crap.

Also, I feel bad about my snobbery, as I fully understand that the young kids these days eat this shit up…

Still… 1*

The Good: ee cummings inspired title…
The Bad: Most people don’t know E.E. Cummings
The Ugly: How I wish they would not have used lower case on the title and soiled ee cummings memory…

Never listened to a Taylor Swift album before in my life… can’t say that my life is better now that I have.

Let me recap the experience:
Hate Lo-Fi
Don’t understand why many modern tunes feel like they need have lyrics as extensive as a short essay
When did Indie music mutate into pop?

I get that she’s the BIGGEST star ever; selling out stadium concerts like grandma’s apple pie. Yet I can’t but wonder why.
Then again, it isn’t easy once you’ve reached the heights of popularity she has reached, having everything you do scrutinized by “experts” like me…

So, here’s to Taylor Swift and her impressive career!

1*