Reviews by bob

The Good: Sophomore album!
The Bad: Figuring out that Scott 2, refers to him also singing songs…
The Ugly: Album name = artist name…

It wasn’t till the third listen that I read the wiki page… at which point the proverbial penny dropped.
I had had this feeling that Scott was trying to emulate Jacques on this album… to find that it is Scott singing part of Jacques oeuvre.

For me, listening to this album was lovely… yet, somehow, I was not able to brush the feeling that this album is the soundtrack that a psycho killer uses while heading out finding prey…

So, consider me out hunting…

5*

The Good: We don’t have to worry about anyone else!
The Bad: If these are the only ones.. what am I?
The Ugly: Vocal shenanigans…

I could cut and paste what you read in most reviews that pop up for the this album…
Starts off great.. drops off the cliff fast
Lovely arrangements, till the voice comes in

The Only Ones were the Only Ones who understood their greatness… well, they and Mr D, and all those freaks who’ve given this album more than a 3* rating.

I could’ve skipped this experience…
2*

The Good: It’s obvious that our health issues are caused by this band!
The Bad: Trying to understand why a band would want us to have health issues…
The Ugly: Hookworms that keep microshifting… just to fuck with us…

Let’s get one thing straight: AWESOME album cover. Maybe the best one so far on this list… if you like that kind of art, of course…

Which brings us to the music… if you like that kind of music, of course…
It’s spacious, it’s out there, it’s entertaining, it’s forgettable…
I could envision this being played as background music during a party and the party would be the better for it. For sure.

However, why is this on the list? I liked it. I will probably give it 4* so that I can remind myself to listen to it again at some point… but that still doesn’t explain why it is on the list?

This kind of music was being made back in the ‘80s, slightly different sounding, and impressive at that time… however, to applaud this while some hookworms are causing havoc in our intestines…

It’s a head-scratcher, this list…

4*

The Good: An Andy Warhol inspired cover!
The Bad: That we need to be looking at a bulge…
The Ugly: The Bulge… seriously…

So, according to those who know, this is considered the best Stones album out there… Oddly enough, and potentially just pointing towards my terrible taste in music, my favorite Stones album is Goat’s Head Soup, and album that by those who know is considered exemplary of the Stones just churning out another album…

Anyway, should we listen to Sticky Fingers before we die? Yes. Are the Stones a great band? Yes. Should we get annoyed by Mick’s fake southern accent that he abuses too often? Yes.

It is for the latter that I am removing a point.
Also, the lyrics to Brown Sugar…

4*

The Good: This isn’t music, this is a movie!
The Bad: The best way to enjoy this movie is with your eyes closed…
The Ugly: Getty Lee’s voice… though it works here

Second Rush album for me, second time I am pleasantly surprised.

I do have to say that one of the best reviews of any albums that I have read is the one by the chap who wrote a history of Prog Rock, that was all happy, till the ‘80s showed up… I would give that rating a thumbs up if it weren’t for the 1*

Anyway, yes, this album needs to be on the list. Good for you Mr Dimery.

Starting song hits you like nothing else, probably with one of the best drum solos that is out there… but then the rest of the album kicks in and it’s one joy after another.

Yes, 5*...

The Good: We get to hang out with Mr. Tambourine!
The Bad: Finding out that his missus is called Mrs. Tambourine Missus…
The Ugly: After a while, the instrument turns into a tamboredine… see what I did there?

Of all the Byrds albums that I’ve had to listen to, this is the least offensive. Actually, there really isn’t anything wrong with this album. It actually is easy to listen to…

I can see those boomer youths just pransing around to these tunes, having a great time and then heading out for a milkshake.

Myself, I’d rather slam back a quart of Jack and a 12-pack of frothy cervecas while banging my head to some rock…

I give myself 4* that I am still in the game… but the album will be stuck at 3*

The Good: We get to communicate with trees!!!
The Bad: That we had to be screaming…
The Ugly: Ever tried screaming while surrounded by dust???

First thought: I wish I were listening to SpaceHog instead…
Second thought: Damn, this shit isn’t bad at all…
Third thought: Okay, first part of the album is very awesome, but second part starts to bore a little…

I’d heard of the band, however, can’t recall having listened on purpose to any of their stuff. Potentially they got buried beneath those mayor acts back in the early to mid 90’s?
Maybe it had to do with the record companies not paying payola in the state I lived in back in those days?

Anyway, this album made me listen to some other stuff of theirs, and though it is nice, I think that I missed the boat… this is the kind of stuff one really loves if one lived it in your youth, when the band was a thing…

Still, impressed it left me…
4*

The Good: Not a damn thing
The Bad: That I should have known a band calling themselves “XX” would showup twice on this damn list
The Ugly: Normally I’d say that it was not nice for me to spoil the fun by telling you the artists have 2 albums on this here journey…

FUCK ME

I had to go back and read what I said about the other XX album… and it pretty much sums up the same thought about this album: shit.

Why this has to be on a Must Hear Before Die list goes well past my intelligence… but two fucking albums? Either I have zero taste in music, or I am a masochist who just likes to listen to albums that make me want to jam a pencil into my ear after a while…

1*

The Good: A girl from Ipanema!!
The Bad: No Ipanema here…
The Ugly: Astrud… really???

A couple of days ago I had her daughter show up… it was not an enjoyable experience.
I had hoped this would’ve been what I’d like to listen to, which is BosaNova being sung in it’s native language.. cahrioca!

This album… the same…

The other day I saw an interview with Billy Joel, in which he mentioned that, it seems, his lyrics are chewy. He explains that it isn’t the meaning of the word that is important, it is the sound…
I agree, and this is why I hate it when “world music” gets an anglo saxon make-over. It’s like a French chansonier (however I should spell that) having his song translated so that some current pop-star can get a million likes on instagram…

Anyway, this album was not fun to listen to… I wish I could’ve had a “samba” album sung in localeze…

2*

The Good: We are foretold that it will be shit!
The Bad: Expecting shit, lowered my already low expectations
The Ugly: Tomfoolery with Schmilsson…

Two listens I gave this album… 2.
KenLee is a great song.
Coconut Doctor is a great song.
The rest… I don’t know.

Reading wiki, it seems that Nillson was considered the US Beatles… and when I listened for the second time, I could understand where that consideration comes from.
However, it doesn’t mean that I like it…

For me, the first part of the album could be skipped… probably side 2 that held my attention the most.

3*

The Good: We get to listen to tango!
The Bad: Not the kind of tango I had singed up for…
The Ugly: Electronic tango… should be forbidden, just like certain books are forbidden…

Never heard of this before in my life. Now I know why…

This is what shit music sounds like… it is electronically boring, it has little to nothing to do with tango, and truth be told, I don’t understand why fuckhead Dimery hasn’t been capable of adding an actual tango album to this fucking list…

1*

The Good: Finally, we are told the truth about Elvis’s youth!
The Bad: It wasn’t brutal enough…
The Ugly: The above was un-called for…

I had a lovely chat with a buddy of mine about 2 years ago about Elvis Costello, mainly due to the fact that I really knew little of his music, yet the first album that I was presented with on this list was a pleasant surprise for me: This Year’s Model. I gave it a 4* rating…

His next album presented to me, My Aim Is True, was praised with a 5* rating!

Since those two albums I’ve started to fear seeing his name pop up on the list as all consecutive albums have received 1-2* ratings. Why? Because, aside from the first two albums mentioned, he stopped being punky, and tried to be more chanconier (that’s French…) and he sucks at that.

So, do I care about his Brutal Youth? No. Why? Because he doesn’t seem to care about the effect a shit record has on my day…

1*

The Good: It’s a bootleg!
The Bad: It’s a double bootleg…
The Ugly: Finding two legs, in boots… start of a murder mystery…

Fuck me… that was not an easy one to get through.
Sure, some very familiar songs on there, and they sounded great. However, one full album of acoustic BD live… just him, an acoustic guitar, and the fucking harmonica… Then, one full album electrified, yet the music was that electric…

I could have been spared this album. I could have been spared several of BD’s albums… however, it’s not my 1001 list… so I will have to suck it up.

2* out of spite!

The Good: Blacksploition actresses with cleavage rulllllleeee!!!!
The Bad: We only get to listen… not watch.
The Ugly: A double fucking album…

Damnit. That first song is won-der-ful!!! I mean, loved it with a capital L O V E
Then the rest of the album just starts kicking you in the nuts… over and over again…

Why did I have to listen to this double album? What makes this a must listen? I don’t get it…
a
I would give this a 1* but I am not a bastard… and I loved the opening, and closing track of this album… but I could have been spared all the other fucking songs…
Also, why isn’t Saturday Night Live on this list? That is a 5*

2*

The Good: We get to learn another language!
The Bad: Fucking BosaNova from the 2000s… thought they outlawed it in 1990…
The Ugly: BosaNova… or however you are supposed to spell it…

I think I had seen the album cover pop up while looking at other people’s lists… and I just can’t recall now if most of them were ranking the album low, but I guess they were…

I know that I will…

Poor woman. Not her fault that she was just decades too late… lovely childhood she had, by the by, with all those great artists just dropping by to work with her dad… and what an artist he was!

Anyway, I listed other the album and now I can die… oh no, I can’t … because I still have roughly another 300 potential shit albums to listen to…

2*

The Good: We get to have a weekly horoscope versus a monthly one!!!
The Bad: Even the weekly ones suck…
The Ugly: Finding that new horoscopes needs new animals, and turns out my astral week is the eel….

I kept waiting for Into the Mystic to kick in… but it never did.

I liked some songs.
I didn’t like other songs…
I couldn’t care less for more after this album…

Why oh why are there 3 Van M albums on this list? Why include both Moondance and Astral Weeks when, IMHO, they are exactly the same?

So, good thing is that I don’t have to listen to VM anymore on this list… though I still don’t mind listening to a greatest hits album of his, I don’t care to listen to an entire album as there is too much crap involved.

3* that should have been 2...

The Good: We’re down with POB!
The Bad: Guess we’re also down with dyslexia…
The Ugly: Fucking album cover… though good main of hair Dennis did have…

What to think of this album?
For starters, the link lead me to a double album, where the content that was not on the original album was what called me more…

At the end of the day, if you give a circus lion access to the wild, the lion will most likely still react to a whip being cracked… same goes for a person who was one of the founders of an infamous band, who will still know how to make good music no matter what…

However, I have no clue as to why I needed to listen to this… zero clue… nada… thus, the only reasoning I can come up with is that Mr Dimery loves the album cover and used to pleasure himself whilest looking at the disheveled Mr Wilson…

3* because it isn’t bad… it just isn’t great either

The Good: We get bitches and brew!
The Bad: No.. no we don’t…
The Ugly: This is the kind a Jazz that most of us don’t understand…

The snob in me wants to give this a 5* rating without hesitation, and to tell you the truth, when the album presented itself this morning, I thought that I was in for a treat…

I was a little wrong…
Not that it was bad… it was just that I could have skipped half of the songs… and that, I guess, expels me from the snobby in-crowd fan club…

Oh well… c’est la vie!

3*

The Good: Josh H with the QOTSA
The Bad: It’s not Songs for the Deaf…
The Ugly: The jams on this thing…

I don’t know… I am conflicted… I really want to like this, and there are tracks on this album which really resonate for me.
Yet, there are other tracks where I am oh so close to pushing the FF button and just head into the next car-wreck…

Great guitar tones though, that’s for sure…
Just missing that Dave Grohl beat…

Going to rate this one down the middle…

3*

The Good: Regression into the dark of evening…
The Bad: Oh wait, no… the title refers to a power-outage…
The Ugly: No… fucked that up again… it’s size matters… ouch…

Probably one of the sadder stories in modern music… seeing a person destroy themselves and there was nothing people could do about it… try to make me go to rehab, but she said no no no… fuck me.

Also, when this album came out I was in the midst of jumping into the dating pool after a relationship of 5 years crashed and burned. I was not aware of the album, however, this woman that I met, who wanted nothing more than to spend the entire evening performing oral sex, told me to be nice to her as she was associating this album with us getting together…
I still think about the blowjobs, I don’t know if she is still liking the album…

Anyway, did I like it? One can’t deny that pipes that Amy was blessed with, and the musicianship is grand. Yet, it isn’t something that I would gladly put on repeat and listen to with frequency.

I will grant 3 1/2* and shall leave it to the coin showing a Head if that is bumped up… Head it is… how appropriate!