Reviews by bow_doubt

A classic, iconic album, obviously. I have a friend who Loves the Stones, and conversations with her have clarified for me that there is a big difference between liking a band as a singles act and as an album act. I love certain songs by the Stones, and Gimme Shelter is a candidate for my favorite song ever. But I get to a song like Sway here, and (despite the fine guitar playing) I find it boring and find myself waiting for it to end. Same for I Got the Blues.
This album has some great, great tracks -- Bitch and Can't You Hear Me Knocking (because of the tacked on jam) are favorites. Wild Horses is very good, though I'm not a big fan of Mick the sensitive crooner. Brown Sugar is tremendous musically and odious lyrically, so ... better to avoid, but hard to skip once it gets going. So much good guitar playing on this record.
I like when the Stones go Delta blues, so You Gotta Move works for me, but wouldn't want to hear it all the time. (Shake Your Hips, relatedly, from Exile is for me one of their absolute best, though no one else seems to think so.) Dead Flowers is an interesting mixed bag that overall works. Moonlight Mile is an ever more interesting, more complex case. I like it, don't love it.
The sound is great throughout. I think when they stopped working with Jimmy Miller, things slipped. Good songs start sounding thin and lame starting around the Black and Blue album. Which makes me appreciate the sound of the great singles in this period all the more.
This is a great album ... sort of. In the end, I would rather mine it for playlist material than listen to it start to finish.

Great voice, strong production, perfectly fine songwriting ... it's good. It's fine. I don't find it memorable or interesting or distinctive. If you do everything right according to the formula, you can make a well crafted generic album.
Docked one star for being interminable. This thing is long!

Sometimes this project gives the gift of new discoveries. Never heard of this singer or this fun, cool album. It would be an unusual person to find that this was the final item on the road to completion, but good album.
Very strong opener, channeling the trippier dub sounds of the 70s (King Tubby? Perry/ Upsetters / Black Ark? Brad Osborne's Clocktower Dub?). Different songs take different approaches. Ride On etc. sounds like Dillinger. Your Love Gets Sweeter sounds like lovers rock in the manner of Jimmy Riley, as performed by U Roy.
Kind of silly throughout, but the music is inventive and makes it work. The last third or so of the album is just ok, fillier-ish. The cd gave us longer run times but not always more good ideas to fill that time up well. Good record, good find!

Sarah Vaughan is an icon, a paragon, a titan in her field. I have never been more than lukewarm about jazz vocals. What will land on the ground? The cat's paws or the buttered toast strapped to its back?
It is altogether charming when she starts singing "I fouled up this song" on Willow Weep for Me. I really like the music on Just One of Those Things.
She elevates that David Lee Roth song Just a Gigolo to new heights of sophistication. Big improvement.
Graceful, elegant ... ultimately, though, also an example of my feeling that this genre just isn't that exciting. I esteem it, but don't want to listen to it particularly.
Buttered toast sticks the landing!

I have not listened to this album in a long time, going on 20 years, I think. My cd copy has bonus tracks which I am not seeing on the Apple Music version I'm listening to. There is an early version of Heart of Glass called Once I Had a Love (aka the disco ball song) which is really interesting. It's included on a collection of odds and ends called Blonde and Beyond. Worth a listen.
This is a very good album. Four classics. I tend to forget how much I like Sunday Girl. Great song. Most of the rest is strong. Not a big fan of Fade Away and Radiate. The album tracks are good, but not sure I need to listen to this album start to finish very much.
Robert Fripp's guest appearance on a Blondie song has to be one of the all time odd pairings, though he had this downtown NYC sojourn in the late 70s that produced League of Gentlemen, Exposure, and the Adrian Belew version of King Crimson, so it's all of a piece, perhaps.
As much as I like Blondie, it's really all about the sharp, well crafted singles. Several of which are just great. The classic single disc greatest hits remains an all time great album of non-stop fabulousness.
296 / 357

One of the earlier installments in the string of stone cold classics Marley dropped in the 1970s.
This is a bit of a transitional work -- the sound is still rather flat, the band is not amazing. But it's a pleasure to hear the Barrett brothers doing their thing, and it's fun to encounter the handful of true classics inclulded here, plus the rest of the songs are at a high standard.
Not sure I've ever listened to this one start to finish. Baby We've Got a Date is an unexpected standout that I was not familiar with.
Of all the many, many westbound and/or stop-that train songs in reggae, Peter Tosh's Stop That Train is the dullest one I can think of. It's not bad, but ... truly disappointing, nevertheless. His 400 Years is a sneaky classic, though.

Seems like they are good at what they do. But what they do is most certainly not for me. The music ... I'm ambivalent about. But then the vocals start and it's time to skip to the next song. And there are so, so many of them ...
Patience rewarded -- Jasco and Itsari are unexpected oases of beauty in a stormy sea of yelling and ear-splitting turbulence.

This project is kind of an exercise in reminding me of all the bands I never got around to actually listening to. I feel like I'm one of Jack Black's students in School of Rock, who knows his chalkboard diagram of rock history really well, but hasn't listened to very many of the bands listed therein. I'm realizing that in my mind the Stooges and New York Dolls are totally conflated.
I fundamentally remain a fifth grade student linking explorers' names to countries I know nothing about ... Cortez ... Pisarro ... Aztecs .... Incas ... Stooges, New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, David Johanson ... it's all just names and canned history.
Expecting this to be a long 34 minutes, I'm pleasantly surprised. The first two songs I really like. For many years, I've been thinking that the early Modern Lovers were trying to sound like the Velvet Underground. Turns out, they sound like the Stooges. Maybe.
John Cale produced both this album and the first Modern Lovers sessions ... maybe that's a factor here.
Then we get to We Will Fall, and the resemblance of this album's cover image to the cover photo on the Doors' debut album seems suddenly relevant. This seems like the Stooges' answer to The End. In addition to everything else he can do, evidently Iggy Pop has the power to slow down time. Interminable.
After that, it's five more songs that combine in various proportions the drone rock and psychedelia already staked out in the first three songs. It's ok.
Glad I'm filling yet another gap. Not likely to listen to the whole album ever again, but those first two songs are really. good.

Never really listened to the Waterboys. Long ago, I had a roommate who had a few of their cd's. Checked them out slightly, but it didn't take. I think their blend of folkiness and rock would have worked better for me when I was younger.
Fisherman's Blues is a good one, laid back and kind of charming.
We ... Lovers is interesting. I thought, "Unlike the first song, this one is boring." Then, "But this one is good" -- and we were still in track 2! So, boring beginning, strong ending. Back half of this song cooks. And a Bang On the Ear -- good one; liked it, enjoyed the extended playing.
Even with a remaster, the sound just isn't great. A bit thin, a but muddy. And the piano is a clear instance of the late 80s electric piano that is set to "acoustic piano" setting ... thumbs down. Sounds lousy. Always a tightrope when you have a singer whose voice isn't very good. They overcome that limitation only intermittently. Solid. About half, maybe more, I definitely like. The Van Morrison cover that goes into Blackbird is pretty cool.
Unfortunate that they couldn't get the sound right. Evidently they recorded dozens and dozens of songs during these sessions ... were these really the best dozen?
Speaking of which ... The Stolen Child -- oh, dear Lord ... were you writing material for inclusion in Portlandia, 15 years before it was created ... ? Holy Jesus.
By contrast, Killing My Heart, the alternate version of When .... Away, might be the best thing on here. Good job including it as a bonus track!

Kind of can't believe we are getting two ZZ Top albums in close succession, but I guess that's the way of the randomizer.
This album represents ZZ Top's highest achievement in what they do well: fun, silly, high-energy, catchy singles. Like the blues-rock version of the B52s. But ... come on. (The filler tracks by the B52s are much better than what's here, for what it's worth.)
It never occurred to me that one would ever sit and listen to a whole ZZ Top album start to finish, and especially not this one, where the cleverly-dumb, commercial aspects have been amped up so thoroughly.
You take the singles you like from an album like this, put them on a playlist with other, equally dumb-fun singles of a related vibe, and listen to that playlist in the car when the mood takes you. You don't sit and listen to the album in its entirety. (Right?) Evidently, different individuals' mileage may vary.
There's something funny about "Legs (Edit)" ... with no full length version to be found elsewhere on the album, not even at the end, of maybe the full length cd release or what have you ... that's some accidental postmodernism right there. Or something.
I Need You Tonight sounds like a filler track from a late 70s Peter Green album. Good guitar work, not much of a song there.
It's hard to believe there was a lawsuit over ownership of as lousy a song as Thug. Though, apparently the guy got cheated out of cowriter credits on the hits. Which sucks.
Songs I already know and enjoy, songs I find it tough to get all the way through ... and not a lot in between.

Love, love, love Running Up That Hill, always have found most of her other music doesn't grab me. Have never gone deep into her catalog.
I bought Hounds of love on lp in order to have a copy of Running UTH, always stopped listening to it pretty quickly because I found the rest of the album not compelling.
I'm liking it better this time. I think the clean, digital copy (and 2018 remaster?) help -- the sonic tapestry effect is more available. Lots of these songs are interesting, but ... y'know. Under Ice is quite good. I really like Watching You Without Me.
I remain baffled that this album made the Apple Music 100 Greatest Albums List of 2024, though that list was such a train wreck I don't know if this is a significant question. (According to wikipedia, many fans criticized the list for placing Taylor Swift's 1989 (Taylor's version) above Pet Sounds and Hounds of Love. I don't particularly like any of those three albums. Maybe I'm the problem here. Maybe lists an reviewing are the problem. Maybe nothing means anything.)
Cloudbusting ... came to this by way of an album called Sing Me To Sleep: Indie Lullabies in which Smiths, Violent Femmes, etc., songs are given gentle acoustic-y reworkings. Heard "Have You Forgotten" by Jenny Owen Youngs on Pandora, loved it, checked out the album, found Cloudbusting by Neil Halstead, whom I really like, read about the subject matter on Wikipedia (you must read about this song and about Wilhelm Reich! you don't really must, but you will be glad you did), liked Halstead's version, liked it better than Bush's ... but hearing it here, in context ... very cool, and also good. But I still like Halstead's better.
Glad I was directed to listen to this in its entirety. I have modified but not fundamentally changed my opinion of it. And this reminded me that I started a playlist months ago built around this song, of electro-art-pop songs. This has reminded me to go add several more songs to the list. (Win!)

Never actually listened to an album by EB. I am highly susceptible to this kind of thing ... took in my share of acid jazz in the 90s, enjoyed my share of Soul II Soul, Michael Franti, US3, Thievery Corporation ... the danger with this style of music is that smotth groove can give way to languid, from which "cool but kind of dull" can be glimpsed out on the horizon.
This album seems best suited to background listening. It's cool, but ...
The high level musicianship is appreciated (eg, the flute on Kiss Me On My Neck). There is no single track to be excited about; I would trade this whole album in a heartbeat for Sister Carol's "Dread Natty Congo," released a few years before. That was not an especially good album, but that song is fabulous. Give me a standout track, Erykah!

Never heard of 'em! But the cover art makes me hostile and suspicious.
Listened to some part of every song.
Yuck.
Docked one star for being from Iowa.
Plus which, they wear stupid masks. Lame.

This one takes me back. My recollection of this album is that it sweeps in on a series of very strong songs before settling into a long tail of sameness, resulting in an album that, when one returns to it, is never as good as one remembered it.
A striking instance of artwork we assimilate through its story. The image of these musicians laboring faithfully at their craft in total isolation from the larger world, creating a strange time capsule, is irresistibly charming. Impoverished virtuosos dedicated to their art ... who could say No to them?
There is something very intimate about the sound of this music. It's recorded in a way that makes it muted.
Chan Chan is a great opener. It sets the mood and weaves a subtle magic that draws the listener in.I think it's impossible to hear that song and not think, More of that, please.
I'm finding that the album does reward a full listen. I think maybe one song drags around the 4th-5th tracks that I just need to skip. I think that's where I went wrong on certain occasions in the late 90s and early aughts. Tracks like El Carretero and Candela have a quiet intensity and drive that I really enjoy.
The interplay of the many instruments is lovely. There is a lyrical, atmospheric quality to several songs that makes it great mood music for a relaxed gathering. Very good record.

A great album, obviously. I always forget how fast they were moving at that time -- 1966! I could take or leave Dr. Robert, but this is a true no skips record. George unfortunately drew the wrong lessons from Love You To, and went on to produce a string of tedious Indian classical derived songs, but I like this one pretty well.
Tomorrow Never Knows is its own fascinating story, with its long life of cover versions. And Yellow Submarine, which must be the top Ringo song in the catalog (?), also led to, obviously, the movie, but also, following the film, its own album. So, it casts a curiously long shadow for a silly semi-novelty song.
In other words, great collection of songs, but also an album that is interesting in several directions at once.
318/357

The production is modestly interesting, but the vocals are pedestrian. A good example at times of how an overreliance on rhyme can mask (to some extent) a real failure to write lyrically. There are lines that just sound like some dipshit talking, but -- it has rhymes! So, that makes it lyrics!
It's notable that the energy level rises so noticeably on Get Em High, highlighting how ordinary the preceding material is.
A lot of swearing and being crass ... if you can't match that stuff with inescapably compelling drive, beats, deftly deployed samples, etc. -- then you just sound like a juvenile asshole. And trivial.
Overall, a very elaborate exercise in pointless nihilism.
The skits, as they accumulate, become a tedious abomination.
Last Call is a fascinating, sprawling account of how a hugely talented, ambitious narcissist navigates a strange, uncertain industry, working deliberately and diligently to realize his dreams of becoming a fabulously wealthy, immensely popular artist and monstrous human being.

I have never really listened to Prince seriously. Singles on the radio or as collected on that Singles and B Sides collection ... that's about it.
This is a good album. I still don't like his "slow jam" mode, but there are some excellent album tracks here. Automatic is outstanding -- I had never heard it before.
Listening to this, I thought about why so many people whose taste I respect love Prince and I do not. Don't know how critical this is, but I was struck in listening to this album by how not-prominent the bass is. (Which is very strange in someone so connected to the funk.) I'm very bass-focused, and this album is heavy on guitar, drums, and synths -- and the drums and synths are on the treble-y side. Anyway. Good album, but -- give me a fatter bass, please!

It's fine. Lush arrangements, kind of boring. I started skipping songs when they were halfway through around track 5. Track 7 I liked pretty well and listened to in its entirety.
According to wikipedia, Mojo declared this an instant classic, and it made several Year End best album lists ... the 2010s were a time of mystery ...

I enjoyed my $1 used copy of Autobahn I purchased in the late 80s. So silly (fahn fahn fahn auf der autobahn ... whoosh ... beep beep ... ). Like robotic beach boys. I never went very deep into Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, etc. This album kind of represents why. It's ok. It's not clear -- are we doing soundscapes? Song? What's the plan? I have a certain fondness for this band, but I can't take this seriously.
Metropolis sounds like Mr X by Ultravox, and one could think of Vienna -- a very solid album -- as what would happen if you took this approach and then actually tried to write some songs.
Went ahead and listened to Autobahn again ... that is still a fun song.

I never found myself interested in this band, disliking their whole sound and approach, Higher Ground cover notwithstanding. Nothing has changed.
There is an instrumental break late in Right On Time that I like. I enjoyed Road Trippin, the closer. Overall, they sound like them, which doesn't work for me.
Good example of an album I will gve two stars, because I can well believe that those who partake will like it. It's not their fault I don't want to listen to SoCal what have you, etc.