Reviews by bob

The Good: Who doesn’t like stories?
The Bad: What if we don’t like The City, or The Sea?
The Ugly: The looming uncertainty if I have more PJ Harvey albums to listen to…

We all have tastes that might not mesh with what the rest of humanity likes. I, for one, like to get really drunk every now and again, while my wife hates that, and she, for some odd reason, likes to clean the house constantly, while I hate that… Ying Yang some might call that.

In the case of Mr D’s taste in certain artists, I don’t know if we can talk about Ying Yang… more like “just kick me in the nuts and let’s get it over with”.

I’ve mentioned it several times before, one of these days I might just have to purchase the damn book so I can read the reasonings behind the, at times, nightmare I have to go through while listening to album #x of artist Y.

This album started off okay… but then this singing thing was being repeated several times… and my finger started itching, and I was forced to hit next over and over again.

According to my wife I am turning into a grumpy old man… maybe… at least I know who’s to be blamed… fucking Dimery.

2*

The Good: We get fudge!
The Bad: We don’t know what kind of fudge…
The Ugly: Don’t want to find out what we get if we are bad boys…

1991 was an awesome year to be young (as in, old enough to drink “legally”, young enough to know nothing about 1960’s music, or even ‘70s music.
Saturday Night Live probably had one of the best casts ever.
Beer was cheap, smokes were cheaper, and fuel was given away for free… almost.

I watched the movie “Singles”, still have a DVD copy at home, and it acted as a small documentary of what grunge was all about…
My favorite band of that style is Temple of the Dog… missing on the list, to my knowledge.

Anyway, Mudhoney was a band who’s name I heard here and there, and I probably heard a song or two by them hidden somewhere in the back… So, listening to this album was like me busting my cherry 3 1/2 decades later…

I was not impressed. Yes, it has noise. Yes, it has guitar. Yes, it is grungy.

I believe that I could have done without this album…

2 1/2* upgraded to 3*, because I like to support guitar based music...

The Good: We get taught a life’s lesson.
The Bad: I am not paying attention…
The Ugly: Fucking politics.

Back in the ‘90s, there was a lot of screaming about how bad the government/society was treating those who live in the inner-cities, or proyects, or ‘hoods’…
We got bombarded by nothing but bitching and complaining, affirmative action, and down with the slave-masters.
The ‘90s… it had a gulf war. I had friends who were deployed there, and none of them were black or brown… they were just trying to honor their GI bills, which was the way most tried to pay for their college education.

So, excuse me if I don’t stand in line and chant along. I saw reversed discrimination via affirmative action, I saw how little effort was being made for people to adapt to others… If you behave like you come from the hood, good luck getting into a frat party. If you listen to hip-hop because the color of your skin, and hate rock for the same reasons… well, good for you.

Morgan Freeman said it best “want to end racism, stop talking about it”
Also, oddly enough, I did not hear this music back in the ‘90s, and I was at a very fucking liberal university…

1* for wasting my time. Please keep walking, nothing to see here...

The Good: We know it’s all a dream…
The Bad: They could’ve been more forthright by calling it a nightmare…
The Ugly: Realizing that I have 1 more Nick Cave album to go through…

Fuck me this is a chore to sit through. The positive is that it is only 40-odd minutes long, so I do applaud that.
I also had to go check my history to find that I did manage to give Nick a 4* on one of his albums… but I don’t believe this one is going to be one of them.

My main issue with Nick is that I can’t stand his voice… So, I can understand that there are persons out there who admire him for his poetry et al, but I just can’t handle his voice… just like other people can’t stand Tom Waits, who I adore.

Anyway, I am way behind on rating albums… another 13 to go to catch up, and most of them are probably as shitty as this one… so here’s to me pulling out the straight razor and contemplating slicing open my veins…

2* for now… doubt it will go to 3*

The Good: A Joni Mitchell album
The Bad: That is wasn’t the same experience as the other JM album I had to listen to on this list
The Ugly: Trying to decipher what the hell Hejira stands for.. Hear Ji? Is JM dyslexic?

Right. Done. Stick the fork in me…

I don’t believe I need to listen to another JM via this list, and that’s fine by me at this moment.
Really really really wanted to enjoy it… but couldn’t

2*

The Good: No speed-limits!
The Bad: There’s always construction going on, slowing us down…
The Ugly: The original album cover…

I’ve driven the autobahn, many times, max speed that I reached probably 248 km/h, it was fun.
One of the main things I realized about driving on the autobahn is that you need to pay attention, all the time…

This album… this does not help paying attention. It is a snooze fest. It is dull… and it is EMD in it’s genesis… and I don’t like EMD.

I am certain that this album has it’s merits… but the 20-minute opening track was enough for me to applaud reaching the end of the album knowing that I will never-ever play this album again.

2*

The Good: Scott has experience!
The Bad: Looks like he didn’t learn much from the Scott 1 through 3 experience…
The Ugly: Technically speaking he named his album after himself at factor 4 which, I just found out, is just called to the fourth power…

Yes, that is the most interesting thing I can say about this album… it was just sound… nothing special. Nothing that made my head move to the side, while wondering what was that great experience…

I refuse to give this album a 4…

2*

The Good: We get to find out what it’s like living in a bush…
The Bad: Not the bush we’d hoped for…
The Ugly: Nobody bothered telling us that a ghosts bush really is just a smoke screen…

Without knowing it, I had been waiting to listen to this album for a long time… this due to the colorful album cover, which, for me, deserves a 5* just because…

Then I started listening to the music, and I started scratching my head…
Then I listened to the music a second time, and I found myself in a slight trance at time.
Then I listened to the music for a third time and time flew by.

I will skip all the “start of sampling” rhetoric.
I will skip all the “what the fuck” thoughts.
I will enjoy, and to those who enjoyed as well, you understand.
To those who didn’t enjoy, maybe try it a couple more times…

5*

The Good: We finally get to eavesdrop on confessions!
The Bad: Aside from one not supposed to eavesdrop, the confessions are in a language we don’t speak…
The Ugly: The spanking we got from the clergy…

Don’t you hate it when you would like to leave a nice review, and you find yourself really short on time?
So what can I say about this album?

It was… and yet it wasn’t…
I liked it… and yet I did not like it…
I understood it… and yet I was left misunderstood…

Fuck it… if I don’t have anything to say about it, I might as well just give it 3*, right?

The Good: Dirty things can get cleaned!
The Bad: Turns out that this dirt is hardbaked…
The Ugly: Stains that can’t be removed…

Fuck me that was a chore to get through. I love the ‘90s, great music in general, all genres… not as great as the ‘70s, but still… great decade.

This. This was just a pain to get through.
If I want to listen to noise, I can go and sit next to a busy highway, or stand outside an elementary school while it’s break-time… I don’t know if I’d rather listen to the sounds coming out of a slaughterhouse.. I guess there are noises which are worse then this album.

Still, did not enjoy the experience. Sorry.

2*, and I’m being nice here...

The Good: Pretzels!
The Bad: Not getting offered a beer…
The Ugly: Trying to understand non-logical logic…

Fuckers. Steely Dan… the band I always thought I had to hate… and now there isn’t a thing they did that I dislike.

Nothing to add to this album that they haven’t proven themselves… pretzel logic is all about realizing that beer, at the end of the day, is awesome and the answer to many questions.

Thanks Steely Dan for clarifying that drinking beer is good!

5*

The Good: We finally get to kick out those annoying jams!
The Bad: Turns out that I am not the solution…
The Ugly: Finding out that kicking something IS the problem…

I know I know about them, I just can’t say how, or why, or when… But I know, thus I can see…
I also know that I am NOT a big fan of live albums, and I am dumbfounded why these cats, to speak timely vernacular, decided that this was the way to share their music with the world…

I have been fortunate to have attended 3 concerts this past month, which is three more than I had attended the previous 2 years… and one thing that stands out about live performances is that you need to be there in order for the true magic to manifest.

When the signature song kicked in, my instant thought was “sounds like Hendrix”. I was a little excited, definitely curious… The rest of album, it was what it was; me listening to a band that I have no connection with, thus totally not drawing me into the live performance.

It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either…

2 1/2 upgraded to 3*

The Good: We all wanna see those bright lights tonight!
The Bad: Oh shit, I forgot about my photo-phobia…a
The Ugly: Never nice to hear that such a lovely couple such as Richard & Linda have split-up…

Then again, listening to this album… I kinda get why they split up.
I doubt they were doing much to have each other see them afore mentioned bright lights…

Interesting read on Wikipedia, who’ve been asking for money, that Dick managed to publish 20 odd albums… who in their right mind has the need to listen to Dick spit on 20 albums? Not me…

Hope this album doesn’t bring down my 70’s average score too much…

3*

The Good: B
The Bad: F
The Ugly: come on… isn’t it o Be vious?

I tried… I failed.

This album was presented to me a week ago, only today did I find the time to listen to it… and I did not like it.

There are things on the album that aren’t bad, so it is possible that me having been working for 13 hours is a massive influence in the way I consumed this artists endeavors…

I will give the B a C… as it didn’t make me want to kill the album off…

The Good: Who doesn’t like to break things into little pieces?
The Bad: Unless it’s our feelings… of course…
The Ugly: My Robert Smith halloween outfit…

This could’ve been a 5* album… but it is too down… just a little too broken down… into little chunks of sobbing mess… in a corner.. with smeared lipstick… and washed out eye-liner.

Strangely enough, I could’ve sworn that this album was older than it is. Thought it was 83/84-ish… what the hell do I know?
1989 is when I was starting my new life, college bound… the world at my feet. No need for downer music—if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I did have plenty of friends back then who were totally into The Cure, which lead to me listening to most of this album in bits and pieces.
Listening to it now, I am gently reminded that time flies… and that sobbing in a corner, though all fine and well for a moment, should be avoided at all cost.

Still, what a fucking great album this is!

4* that should be 5*

The Good: It’s a trap!!!!
The Bad: It’s a trap!!!
The Ugly: Okay, so the Star Wars character has a catfish mask, not a trout… still… It’s a trap!

What a total mindfuck this music is. I am constantly thinking about them Canadian freaks Angine de Poitrine.

Microtonal, Dissonance… a general disregard of anything mainstream… it is interesting to say the least, but I am uncertain if roughly 80 minutes is a of the o-kay.

I will want to listen to this again though, as I am certain there is going to be a time when this is exactly what I need… potentially on a long haul flight, this is perfect to keep the brain going.

4* even if I don’t like trout!!!

The Good: We get to do some drinking!
The Bad: Wait… that’s another JB…
The Ugly: The boring title, terrible cover art, and 2, count em, 1, 2, different fonts used…

One should be grateful when it comes to following a list of 1001 albums, forcing you to listen to product you might never have listened to at all… why not.
Also, you find out pretty darn fast if a style will be of your liking…

Folk, together with rap, is quickly becoming a “thanks for ruining my mood!” kind of music.
And what’s with the voices? Why why why do we need vibrato?

Joan did good work, and is highly appreciated by many… just don’t count me amongst those.
Though I’d feel bad to give her 2*, having to listen to her rendition of House of the Rising Sun was the proverbial nail…

Sorry Joan, off to drink away my sorrows now…
2*

The Good: We get to scream!
The Bad: Too much screaming will make us loose our voice…
The Ugly: The Screamadelica wasn’t delica enough…

13 days after the first Primal Scream album got presented to me I get served seconds… and I didn’t recall asking for seconds…

This album served as the soundtrack to me cleaning the bathroom… and I can tell you that the bathroom is clean… spick ’n span clean! Album wise, I can’t recall much…

I do remember liking the first song, followed by other songs which made me wish the album would finish already…

So, let me check real fast to make sure that this will be the last time that I need to listen to these gents… and it is.

Was going to give the album 2*, however, I really like the cover art they use, so I will grant them a straight down the middle...

The Good: Parklife beats Jaillife!
The Bad: What if the park is filled with lions?
The Ugly: Realizing that it’s all a blur in the end…

I do bleieve this to be my last Blur album this journey, and that makes me kind of happy! Not that this album is bad, but I was never a massive fan of the Britpop that soiled up the airwaves back in the ‘90s..

Then again, the opening track to this album is a joy to listen to… and the rest of the album wasn’t half bad either.
Guess I could contemplate giving Blur more than a passing grade…

I also need to add that almost three weeks have gone by since this album was presented to me, and I’ve really not given it my fullest of attentions… but I blame D for that.

So, as a compromise for not having paid full attention, I am going to put this album into the 4* bin ensuring that I will listen to it several times again.

4* thanks to Boys and Girls—yes, I know I wrote that wrong, but the original Girls and Boys song title still belongs to Prince, found on the album Parade, not found on this list...

The Good: Orgies!
The Bad: Turns out that we have to stand in a circle…
The Ugly: You know… and I refuse to say it.

Bang. Tight. Just aggressive enough. Liked it.

Not much else to say…

4*