Reviews by bow_doubt

Can I borrow that wonderful line from a fellow 1001 Albums Generator participant, regarding Fishermen's Blues -- by the last ten tracks, I was begging for it to end -- while describing an album that only has seven songs?
This is more like Boston's debut album, or T Rex's Electric Warrior, than ZZ Top's Eliminator, in that the album is a classic, at least within its own sphere, as opposed to an album that should be mined for singles, which should be heard on a concise Best Of compilation.
At the same time ... we come once again to the question of what is the guiding conceptual framework of this enterprise. The evidence suggests that the authors believe that, in addition to eating a peck of dirt before we die, we also should listen to a certain volume of lousy (if hugely successful, commercially) music.
Much of this is familiar, but -- I promised myself I would refrain from using bad language, but I'm on the final track, and emotion is welling up within me --it sucks. I don't have the words to adequately capture how dumb Paradise By the Dashboard Light is.
I also, during the first couple of tracks, felt I had a new understanding of that feeling of revulsion that washes over me when I see Jack Black "rocking out." He's like an off brand Meatloaf. Which means he's an inferior version of something terrible.

Never got around to listening to this band, who if memory serves are one of the premier Welsh rock bands of the 90s (which is three quarters of the way to a punchline), and who at times sing in Welsh. Not gonna look that up, because I don't want to have to delete it if I'm wrong.
It's fine. They come billed as a more quirky, indie spirited version of Britpop than the north star of Britpop comparisons, Oasis. I thought this sounded ar times like a not particularly successful Beta Band album (their self tiled from 1999, for example). There perhaps we have two ways of saying the same thing.
I only finished this album through my commitment to this project -- curiosity about this band alone would not have sustained me. Which kind of says it all.

I believe in HR as an artist, and so I think this is the kind of album that belongs in The Book -- within its sphere, this is an important band, and so their most important album (which I trust this is .. ?) is a worthy inclusion. That said, this music is not for me. I listened to part of all the songs ... it's not happening. I have heard a bit of Bad Brains where they get more dubby, and then I can get into what they're doing to some degree, but when they're in hardcore (or whatever) mode -- no. I don't really want to assign stars, because it's not really meaningful, but I guess I have to.

I like this kind of thing, so I like this pretty well, at least for the first few tracks. Like so many albums in this style, it becomes boring and repetitive as it goes along. Few artists have enough real ideas to sustain a whole album of this style of music.
But this gets to the purpose of this book. It should be a list of albums that are a good place to start if you're curious about a genre -- albums that are good of their kind. Albums that are worth a listen if you are already committed to the genre is different.
This to me is worth a listen for the committed, but ... hard to see how this is a good entry point for this sort of music.

I like this album. I've listened to T Rex sporadically for quite a few years. Marc Bolan was consistently erratic. I think this was easily his best album. Even here, he has some clunkers. But several really good ones. There is a tendency for these songs to sound like various versions of the same song ... which is ok, if the song is good. A lot of fun songs here.

Excellent album. Apple Music says that it is among rock's great live albums, which seems right.
Cobain was a great songwriter, excellent guitarist, charismatic performer, and effective singer (not a great voice, but -- well suited to his material). I've never warmed to Nirvana, and I think it's the grunge factor that is at the heart of it. They have a number of songs that go along nicely -- taut, propulsive, rhythmically dynamic -- and then, get Loud. It's the loud part I don't like. Which is of course the whole point, and where the grunge factor is felt. (Dumb is my favorite of their songs, which I think correlates directly with this dynamic.)
I feel a bit like Ned Flanders at Marge's dinner party: when Marge throws out the question, Has anyone seen the new Woody Allen film?, Ned pipes up, I like his movies, but I can't stand that nervous fella who's always in 'em.
That's me and the Grunginess of Grunge.
This album works for me, because the Loud is kept under wraps, which makes me wonder whether that is a feature of bug for true fans. In any case, you have w a well recorded set, excited and appreciative audience, great performances ... it's good. Cobain's patter is at times charming and on the whole adds to the experience, though his vocal fry has always been irritating to me, going back 30 years to when I first heard this.
Highly successful album.

A legendary album which is part of the larger Byrds Story ... so many supposedly great albums ... so many personnel changes (so Many Genes! So many Clark(e)s!) ... so many changes in musical direction -- all packed into about five years. It's beyond even Fleetwood Mac from Then Play On to Heroes Are Hard to Find.
But whenever I try to take on the Byrds catalog, I find the albums tedious and hard to finish. The big songs are great, the rest is a mixed, mediocre bag.
This album adds to that heady mix the glamor of Gram Parsons ("you'll be my Gram and Johnny too" -- the legend lives on, thanks to First Aid Kit) .... a brilliant rich kid genius streaking across the sky, changing music -- no, revolutionizing music -- before destroying himself like an opioid-winged Icarus. A man who went after the rock n roll lifestyle so enthusiastically that Keith Richards -- Keith Richards !!!! -- thought, Oy, bloke, you gotta take it easy a bit and understand limits.
The legend says this album is amazing. And the title is very cool and memorable. And the music (billed as a game changing document in the history of country rock) ... is country played so a rock audience can understand it, I guess? I don't even know. It's just ... fully competent, kind of slow and boring ... country. I don't get it !!!! And I don't especially like it. It's fine, I guess.
I think, once again, all I've done here is demonstrate that I am apt to overthink things, and I'm not even effective at it. Overthought Irresolution is not the worst, but it's on the Top Songs list by The Worst.

The Weather Report Situation is a confounding puzzle.
In my youth, I was aware that Heavy Weather had a reputation as an undoubted masterpiece. I found two WR albums once in a record store and bought them -- Mr. Gone and Mysterious Traveller. I found Mr. Gone to be uneven, but dynamic and more something I could understand. And it features what I find to be their best track -- Pursuit of the Woman With the Feathered Hat.* By contrast, Mysterious Traveller seemed sort of abstract, harder to get hold of.
The Rolling Stone Record Guide, my publication of record at the time, gave Mr Gone three stars and Mysterious Traveller five. I thought it must be that I was not a sufficiently sophisticated listener. Mr. Gone was easier but not superior. Or something.
On Apple Music, Pursuit ... Feathered Hat is 30th on WR's Top Songs, and the album description for Mr Gone starts by recalling that Down Beat gave it one star on its release for pandering to mainstream audiences and ends by saying the problem is that the music contains "so many ideas ... that the music at times seems like it was written in an alien language" ... in other words, that it's too experimental, novel, and difficult.
What is good? What is bad? What are we supposed to be doing here, and are we doing it?
Heavy Weather, the million copy selling masterpiece, is mediocre to my ears. Some of it's pretty good. Some of it stinks. (A Remark You Make is hopelessly dull.) Relistening to Mysterious Traveller, I find it to be much more dynamic and successful than Heavy Weather. Wikipedia says some listeners found Heavy Weather to be deeper, more low end, less ethereal. But MT has lovely percussion and just ... takes flight where HW lumbers along.
I wonder whether some of the divided opinions have to do with where the emphasis falls between jazz and rock in Jazz Rock Fusion.
I found this album to be uneven and ultimately mediocre. But more, I find that interacting with Weather Report consistently leaves me wondering what other listeners hear in the tracks they consider to be the standouts in the WR catalog, and that I find boring and lifeless.

*which has wordless vocals that sound remarkably like Sting -- think Walking In Your Footsteps, maybe -- influence? Hmmm.

This seems to be pretty good of its kind, but it is not for me.

When this popped up, I thought, oh -- undoubted classic, one of my favorites of theirs. But, then, actually ... on closer reinspection ... while every song is a good one, none of them are particular favorites of mine. (With the exception of In My Life, which I both really like and also find somewhat grating. It's an odd one.)
Docked one star for its closing track, yet another of Lennon's violent domestic abuser songs.

There are points where the band elevates the material with strong playing and funk grooves. And there are times when this is just cheesy pop. Disappointing.

I borrowed this cd about 20 years ago from a friend, and enhoyed it. I haven't thought much about it in quite a while. This style is not usually my thing, but I like this album. It's an engaging, charming, and otherwise excellent instance of the 90s DIY aesthetic. There's an inspired amateur quality to it that I enjoy. The songs feel spontaneous; nobody's overthinking snything here. . The lyrics of Deceptacon are offbeat and at times very funny. (The "linoleum" verse, the refrain.) The John Cassavetes song is wacky, and the effect of its spoken intro leading into this esoteric question is very funny. Good album!
I'm not sure it's one you need to listen to before, etc., but it's definitely good to know about it.
Anyone who likes this album really ought to check out Slumber Party (start with the self titled 2000 album; it's their best). Not as confrontational, musically or lyrically, but to my mind a related sound.

Enjoyable, not really my thing. I like it best when the band is heard being twangy and brisk. Which is obviously not the point of a record showcasing three legendary singers. So ... good record, for which I am clearly not the target audience.
Wildflowers and Those Memories of You for me are highlights. Telling Me Lies makes time slow down.
I'm listening to the Deluxe Edition, which rolls from Trio into Trio II. The followup seems to be better than the original. They change the lyrics on After the Gold Rush to avoid singing "I felt like getting high" ... oh, normie America ... !

Ray is cool and everything, and this album is good, but ... I don't find myself drawn to listen to a lot of Ray Charles. And I really don't care for the "With Strings" format, which this album devolves into on what we must assume was Side 2 when it was first released. We really need the 3.5 stars option. 256 out of 342.
I really like the work of two of his former sidemen, Hank Crawford and David "Fathead" Newman. They take this style of music more to the jazz side of the street, often to very good effect.

The least successful of Drake's three albums. Too much augmentation. I like his guitar playing, which is necessarily less prominent when there's all these strings and such, and his songs works best when simple and stark. That's how Pink Moon got to be a masterpiece. For those who partake.
Still, listening to Drake is always rewarding and given everything, I tend to feel fortunate that we have as much of his music as we do whenever I listen to it, so -- not gonna say bad things about this album.

So many reactions ... first, just going to the album and seeing how many significant releases he has, I'm reminded of how shallow my knowledge of Hancock's career is.
On Chameleon, where they get the funkiness right, and the band is excellent, I'm thinking about how, even when it's good, I'm not sure fusion is really a good idea. Also, the sax player is great, but Herbie's soloing ideas are oddly pedestrian. Is he better as a composer and supporting player than a lead? I don't know.
Watermelon Man is interesting, and a reimagining like this is always fun. I don't think it's great, but it's solid.
And then -- Sly, with its great combination of funky rhythm and aggressive avant garde soloing makes it all seem different ... fusion Is a good idea. It Can work.
But then ... all optimism is washed away by the irredeemably boring Vein Melter. It makes fusion seem like a very, very bad idea. And I'm reminded of how bad the Electric Piano Mind Virus that swept the 1970s was. It infected A Lot of music. Tickling the ivories is one thing. Tinkling the plastics is quite another. Everyone go to your room and think about, etc.
Cool album, but ... decidedly a mixed bag.

I don't think so.

I've never found this album to be as satisfying as it seems like it should be. The obviously great songs are familiar. The ones that are not familiar are kind of clunkers. But there are a lot of really, really good songs here. So, overall, I think it has to be considered a great album.
I think I heard once that they didn't get along so great while making this record.
Almost Cut My Hair shows, point by point, why someone might hate Sixties music. It is terrible in about six distinct ways. It contains the phrase "let my freak flag fly" ... I didn't know that expression had been around so long. Now I'm wondering where and when it originated.

The name seems Dumm Dumm, but according to Wikipedia that was the point. Sort of an on-a-dare quality to the name selection.
The Pedia also says that they are an English art rock group, which produced an inward groan.
Default sounds very much like the Dandy Warhols. Firewater sounds like the Beta Band, as does Life's a Beach (which is a goofy pun worthy of the Dandies).. Love's Dart is legit good.
Solid album. Better than many. Not amazing.
Having a full album of Mad Professor dub versions for their 10th anniversary edition is a nice touch.

I have only lightly encountered Leonard Cohen in the past. THose encounters have consistently left me skeptical. Plus, I lowkey hate that Hallelujah song. It's ok. Hearing something that is ok many, many times is a solid formula for turning hostile toward that song.
I don't hate this album, but I definitely don't get it. And I'm not a fan.