Reviews by bob

The Good: We feel bad, we get medicine!
The Bad: It’s a jagged pill to swallow…
The Ugly: I don’t know, Alanis’s outfits back in the ‘90s???

How I recall this album landing… and many of us wondering how it was possible that someone with such an odd voice was getting sooooo much attention?
Middle ‘90s were a time where the ladies were getting their foothold in the music scene though; No Doubt, Shania Twain, Whitney Houston, Melissa Ethridge, Bjork… and on and on I could go… fucking Spice Girls…

Anyway, Alanis, she was kind of special… in the way she seemed to feel totally uncomfortable on stage, yet becoming a rolemodel for plenty.
I am glad that she was not a one-day fly on the wall, and able to grace us with music for a good decade, before sliding into oblivion as many others did post ‘90s, well… except for Bjork… and Gwen Stefani… and even Britney Spears…

Should this album be on a list of things you need to hear before you die? Yes. It was a pivot moment in music history where alternative music became the new pop music… but you’d need to explain that to people.

Anyway, there was a moment around track #3 that I started getting irritated with Alanis’s voice… but that smoothed out a track or two later… so, 4* as this is a great album, but not great enough for top score!

The Good: We get to be Vivid!
The Bad: For us dyslexic that reads as Livid…
The Ugly: Taken mushrooms expecting to see Living Colour…

Oh what a joy this was!
Don’t recall my exact age when I first heard Corey belt out a tune, or Vernon just showing us a different kind of guitar playing… but it was in the ‘80s and I was still young, dumb and full of …

Reading some of the comments about this album, I can see where they come from in so far that the production quality has aged badly. What I don’t get is how there are so many comparisons made between LC and RHCP… I don’t see that at all as RHCP is funk based rock, in this is more in the realms of prog—just listen to those insane time-signatures!

Then… then we have Broken Hearts… a song that showcases each musician’s prowess. For me, the guitar solo is one of my favorites of all time.

The other tunes… as I hadn’t listened to the album in years, it was nothing but coming in from a snowstorm and finding your favorite blanket to warm you in front of the fire place.

I’ve seen that the next album has also been added to the 1001 list, and that people are cheering that one as being better… maybe, however, this album is a great example on the shifting musical scene in the late ‘80s and a treasure to listen to.

5*

The Good: We are going on a trip to find out about stuff…
The Bad: What if we took the wrong shrooms…
The Ugly: Fucking zombies showing up due to the afore-mentioned shrooms…

WOW

That’s it.

WOW

What a great album. First listen, actually, first thought, OH NO psychedelic shit… but no, this was like listening to the fun Beatles… yet with a story… at least, that’s the way it seemed to me.

I have listened to this album 5, maybe 6 times, and I will want to listen a 7th and 8th time this week too!
Probably one of my best finds on this list so far…

Oh, and when you get to the last song of the album you go: these bastards did that song?
Yes, I am blond and it takes me decades for shit to sink in…

5*

The Good: Galvanized Iron it is!
The Bad: Germs screwing with our immune system.
The Ugly: Watching something galvanized becoming rusted…

I liked The Clash. I liked The Sex Pistols. I can even handle The Ramones… Maybe I would have been able to handle the Germs if they would’ve called themselves The Germs?

Loads of overdriven guitar. Loads of speedy drums. Loads of screaming into a mic. I guess that is punk… I guess I don’t like it.

Except for that lengthy tune towards the end… that one did get my attention. For anyone who tries to play guitar, Pat Smear gives a master class in chaos guitar playing that is soo fucking good it is almost criminal.

So, for that tune, I am going to give this album 3* and forget about the experience…
Also, Pat Smear has not had much luck, has he?
Germs singer commit’s suicide
Nirvana singer commit’s suicide
Foo Fighters drummer ...

The Good: We are going to reach ecstasy!
The Bad: Somewhere down the line, we forgot to count…
The Ugly: Extasis Interruptus…

Well, that’s it. We can close the lid on Steely Dan’s albums. No more to appear on this list.
This is #4 and I don’t know what to think…
Of all the records it is the one that is least Yacht Rock. It is the one that includes some lovely subdued guitar playing, but also keyboards and percussion.

Fuckers… I’ve gone in and changed those 2 Steely Dan albums that did not have 5* to the 5*… and now I don’t know what to think about this album…

There are times I feel like I am listening to music that could have fit well in the movie Grease, for some odd reason. Then there are sounds that I associate with Tom Waits… It is all so confusing.

Yet, as I sit here and listen to the album for the third time, what is amazing is that I look forward to hearing this album again at some point in the future…

Guess I need to accept the fact that I am now a fucking Steely Dan fanboy…

5*

The Good: We attempt to climb a mountain!
The Bad: We didn't train for this climb...
The Ugly: Me falling down the mountain and taking all the sherpas with me!!!

Never heard of The Teardrops before, and was dreading the experience as, lately, this entire experience is becoming more a chore than an adventure...
Thankfully, climbing the Kilimanjaro has proven to be an adventure that hasn't been a total waste of my time...

Except for the annoying fact that the original album was not available, so I had to sit through the remastered deluxe version, which included a couple of fun tracks not included in the original album, but also included filler that I really did not need to hear before dying...

I don't know... this mountain climbing has proven to be exhausting...
Really want to give this album a 4*... if only for Strange House In The Snow... however, if I have to listen to Traison or Sleeping Gas one more time, I fear I might kill something...

3*

The Good: The King isn’t dead!!!
The Bad: Wait… we have been lied to…
The Ugly: Wishing for someone to be gone again…

Not that this was bad, the fucking production quality is stellar, the musicianship is exemplary… and yet, this feels like a someone trying to relive their teenage years while nearing their ‘30s

I don’t know… did not need to hear this before I die.
I could use a Elvis Greatest Hits album, that should be heard… but alas, it shall not be that way.

Will shoot this one down the barrel and keep my fingers crossed that the next album is worthy of death!

3*

The Good: We get to listen to pets making sounds!
The Bad: Odd pets to have… didn’t hear a single bark, or miauw, or chirp…
The Ugly: Getting punched by one of the pets after I threw a stick and expected it to bring it back…

My brain is starting to play tricks on me.
When this album presented itself I thought to myself that I had already listened to it… just like I did with another album 5 odd days ago.

I have listened to the album 4 times in the past 24 hours… not because I love it, but more because a) it has very generous play length of only 37 minutes, which makes it ideal for repeats b) I have constantly gotten interrupted by work making me miss a song or two c) at times there too many similarities between songs that you think you’ve heard it all before…

One can not deny the great harmonies on this album… nor the fact that there are one too many iconic songs on here… and one song which is considered, by many a great critic or uber music snob, as the greatest song ever to have been recorded… nay, not greatest, perfect… that’s it: perfection.

Anyway, I refuse to give this album a 5* rating, because I would not want to argue to death the greatness of this album… so 4* it is, God Only Knows that this is enough!

The Good: We get a maiden!
The Bad: Finding out what an Iron Maiden is…
The Ugly: Album Name = Band Name…

Gonna keep it brief. There were 3 songs that I recognized instantly, and they were fine to listen to… however, unlike their album The Number of the Beast, I really wanted this album to be over and done with…

Don’t know if that has to do with this singer…

Don’t know much…

2* that could be 3, but ain’t….

The Good: The Queen of Denmark will regale us with song!
The Bad: Different kind of royalty…
The Ugly: The fucking crow… if it would’ve been a Burger King one, I’d be okay with it…

I see 2010, my expectations automatically are low.
Then the first two bars start, and I am intrigued.
Then the second song kicks in, and again I confirm that there really isn’t anything worth my time that was published post 1999…

Of course, all the above are my opinion, and there are a couple of interesting albums that were released after 1999, I just haven’t found them on this list.

Also, when reading the wiki page, I got excited to see that my town where my alma matter is located is where this was recorded… so yeah, that was no point of gloating either.

Lastly, the lyrics… really?

So, will give it 2* as it isn’t total shit, but I am NOT listening to the entire album as it is starting to get on my nerves… off to listen to Hootie and the Blowfish.. at least they did cliché the right way… and they are NOT on this list.

The Good: Fucking Muddy Waters!
The Bad: That it’s a live album…
The Ugly: … I don’t know… this list?

It was a nice listen.
However, listening to the blues is something one does while drinking a drink, maybe smoking a smoke, or having a little entrez-nous with a special someone.

I was doing neither of the above while listening to this album, and though I have great appreciation for the OG blues men… this album just didn’t do it for me.

3*

The Good: Clear instructions!
The Bad: We weren’t sure if we needed to “still”, “and deliver”, or “strong!”…
The Ugly: I’ve been standing for days now…

Turns out that a year ago, almost to the day, Sly passed away… so I guess I should take this album presentation as a way of remembering the man, and his family.

Let me start off by stating that, if you are not a die-hard funk fan, well, then this album is going to get a little tedious after a while—especially taking into consideration that most of the songs sound like a live jam… nothing wrong with a live jam, just not when it’s not your jam.

I am not a massive funk fan, but I can appreciate it for what it is: a sign that you are going to have fun.
And it was fun to listen to the album… just not certain if I needed to listen to the Deluxe Edition.

4* due to Everyday People!

The Good: We get to fool around!
The Bad: It’s not the kind of fooling around we’d hoped for…
The Ugly: Another XTC fail…

So the previous XTC album I had to rate got a 1* and I mentioned in that rating that I was looking forward to listening to this album as, according to the intrawebs, this album #9 was a real favorite with those people who know about music…

I know nothing about music…

1*
PS the Dear God song, all at the end of the album, is the only descent song on the damn album… and it was originally not even on the album… I should subtract points for that...

The Good: We joined a club!
The Bad: It’s on a Tuesday…
The Ugly: Me singing out of tune…

Many moons ago, and I might be repeating myself, I was listening to a random playlist when all of a sudden No One Is To Blame by Howard Jones started playing and I was instantly transported back to a high school party, where I was making out with my then girlfriend… and I felt melancholy.

The opening track of this album could have the same effect… but it is the big hit which really introduced Sheryl Crow to the world that sent me right back to a hot Texas weekend, partying at our local bar, then heading to an after party in a convertible while All I Wanna Do was being chanted out loud by all passengers… out of key… and nobody cared, because we were having fun.

Anyway, I played the entire album three times in a row… and each time I just enjoyed ride, over and over again.
Is this a 5* album? Nope. But it sure made me enjoy listening to music again after the run of sub-par albums I’ve had to listen to these past couple of weeks.

So here’s to you Sheryl, 5* for bringing me back to my college days!

The Good: We get a different view from the city!
The Bad: The police thought we were cat-burglars…
The Ugly: Falling off the rooftops, realizing we are no cats…

When I was introduced to The Associates, or Orange Juice, I was grateful to this journey. The Associates, due to the rawest of energies, while Orange Juice just embodies ‘80s fun perfectly.

Blue Nile, The Blue Nile, well… this one’s a head-scratcher. I am certain that, should I have been one of few to listen to this back in the ‘80s, then I might be a massive fanboy. Defending the off key singing as a perfect way of showing one’s feelings…
But I did not listen to Blue Nile in the ‘80s…

I gave The Human League 3* yesterday… in all fairness this means that this album should get 1 1/2…
Not my cup of tea… keeping my fingers crossed to see what kind of odd ball I am presented today.

2*

The Good: We know this is going to be a challenge!
The Bad: We didn’t get the “truth” option…
The Ugly: Realizing we aren’t part of the league…

What is exceptional about this album is how it just kind of blends into the background. At no point is this album overbearing, or annoying, or thrilling…

The hit is not a hit, it’s a smash, one which we all love. Well, I am guessing we all love it… though there might be people out there who don’t like the song.. which I don’t understand, as it is catchy, simple, and to the point.

Don’t know if the album deserves more than a 3* though… the hit is 5*

The Good: We get to attend a ritual!
The Bad: We don’t get to see it… and it turns out there was nakedness involved…
The Ugly: Realizing that the nakedness is old…

Why are there live albums on this list? Especially double live albums? More especially, of bands most of us have never heard of before?

Not that this is bad… it’s just not something which I am ready for… maybe, just maybe, the way that we are getting these albums presented to us—randomly that is—is not the right way. Maybe, for sanity’s sake, we should have received this album at the start of a journey, not when we are 700 albums in and really not looking forward to a 80+ minute live version of music that is in desperate need for us to have ingested some kind of mind altering substance…

It’s fucking Monday morning… and I have reports to attend to.

4* because I know that I will want to to listen to this album again… and I will forget about it if I don’t give it 4*… isn’t that sad?…

Okay, so I listened to this album all the way through, and have come to the conclusion that I will have to downgrade this to 3*… sorry Hawkwind… it could have been so nice.

The Good: We are warned that this is all usual!
The Bad: What if we don’t like usual?
The Ugly: Still not knowing what Jane’s addiction is, after all these decades…

I recall when “been caught stealing” hit MTV… Don’t hold me to it, but I think that this was also when “the real world” was being launched. We were all enjoying our Gen-X status!
The tune was catchy, to say the least… I can also recall thinking that Perry F was a bit of a dickhead…

Then came Porno for Pyros… and really, that was the end of that one…

I am certain that there he is not the only one, but how many artist can say that they were a 2-time One-Hit-Wonder?
He did give us Lollapalooza, which, if memory severs me, was a cluster fuck of festival that managed to gather people of all sorts and creeds and backgrounds together. Good for him.

Anyway, I listened to this album, trying to get back into my ‘90s mode… and all I wanted to do was listen to other artists from that era who, in my opinion, were more talented yet achieved lesser fame…

3*

The Good: We get to watch a movie!
The Bad: Wait, didn’t that actor get cancelled?
The Ugly: Guess there goes the beauty part…

I met a bunch of dead-heads in my lifetime, a couple of them even went so far as to follow the band around for over a year… how many blowjobs does one have to give to be able to afford taking that time off?

Anyway, Grateful Dead… they’re a live band, aren’t they? This album was, I don’t know, a chore to sit through… I ended up dialing in a 80s-90s pop radio channel to wash away the bad taste in my mouth…

You guessed it, I am no Dead Head… Never have been able to understand them… then again, never dropped acid either.

2*

The Good: We are presented with philosophy!
The Bad: I try to understand philosophy, but I simply Kant!
The Ugly: Spoiler alert!!! A triple fucking album…

I think I was 10 years old when I heard my first Beatles song, I think… I know that I was 13 when I got my first Beatles album… I don’t know what age I was when I realized that George Harrison was his name…

You’d think that, within a band, most people are like-minded. They enjoy the same foods, same drinks, same drugs-not judging here…
Yet, we’ve all seen the Beatles documentaries where it is evident that John Paul George Ringo were not 1 person.

Anyway, just like the John Lennon album I had to listen to where he is screaming about his childhood frustrations, here we are dealt with George’s frustrations about his music not being taken deemed appropriate for the Beatles records…

Hallelujah, Krishna Kirshna, Hare Hare… we’ve all heard it a thousand times before, and we will hear it a thousand times more… and each time, we think the same thing: too fucking long.
Had this been reduced to a single album, with all the lovely songs, some shortened a little, this would have been a 4* easy…

Now, all things must pass… 2 1/2* upgraded, but barely