Reviews by brndnnll

This is a weirdly singular sounding album, straddling both blues based rock and modern indie guitar sensibilities. At times I find it trite, but other times it's really appealing. I certainly understand the appeal. Never really paid much mind to this band. Happy to finally give them a go though.

Of course we're all familiar with Bowie, but there are only a small handful of records that I am intimately familiar with and "Heroes" isn't one of them. This album is big and ambitious, late 70s Bowie was really something. I find it a bit disjointed, but feel less so about that the more I listen to it. It's a really great album.

Pretty seminal record. Maybe the only live album that I feel like is being worthy of being on this list. Cheap Trick rules and are underrated.

Jane's Addiction is a band I have never listened to. I was kind of expecting a pretty shitty grungy sounding band (I have always conflated them with Alice in Chains), but this is a bit different than I was expecting. There is definitely a level of weirdness to them that I was not expecting and appreciate a bit. But maybe I'm having a hard time putting this in the proper context, but I just don't really care about this at all, and would not listen to it again.

PornographyThe Cure

Rated 4/10

The Cure have never really appealed to me and I was not particularly stoked about getting another album from them after previously getting "Disintegration." This is a lot more palatable, possibly because it's not overly long like "Disintegration" is being a product of the early CD era. I enjoyed this a bit more for sure, but still not for me.

En-TactThe Shamen

Rated 4/10

Never had much of an interest in stuff like this, but there's certainly a place for it. Just not really for me.

I have never been able to get in to Drive-By Truckers, and I'm guessing a double album isn't the best place to start. I found myself treating this more as background music and not being fully engaged, which is not surprising, as it's kind of how I listen to this brand of southern blues based rock. It's just a bit too straightforward and rooted in things I've been hearing my whole life. This was a miss for me for sure.

This album is one of the best early hip hop records ever. Excellent lyrically, expertly produced. 2Pac at the peak of his craft.

Generally I do not dig on this kind of music, but there's something about that really appeals to me. It sounds like a bit of a precursor to what ended up being full blown synth 80s music, and I dig how restrained and full it sounds. It's a cool record.

Man, what is this? I don't understand this stuff at all. Just the most non-offensive boring mainstream sounding stuff there is. Nothing great or interesting about this record whatsoever.

DrunkThundercat

Rated 4/10

I will not deny that the virtuosity here is as impressive as the roster of guest musicians who appear on this record. However, despite all of that this kind of genre fusion, as impressive as it is, generally is not something that I enjoy listening to.

NevermindNirvana

Rated 10/10

I have listened to this record so many times over the years, but it's been a long time. Initially, when this came up, I kind of rolled my eyes. Over the years, I've come to consider Bleach and In Utero to be much better Nirvana records. But man this record rules--yeah the production is a little too polished. But there's something there with this band, and it's so clearly resonant 30+ years later why this record took the world by storm. So great to hear so many of these songs in the context of this album again for the first time in a while.

Note: "Endless, Nameless" is it's own separate track on the streaming services, which I was not expecting, but I guess that makes sense when this record is presented digitally. That track rips so hard.

I have learned more and more over the years that the country style rooted in Bakerfield honky-tonk is most likely my favorite style. This album hits all those notes, along with some Tex-Mex accordion sounds as well. Really enjoyable record.

This album is crazy. Certainly the description of Britpop and Irish Chamber Pop from the 90s during the CD era when albums were needlessly long, didn't engender it to me from the get go. It's a lot, very busy, very lush pop layers and highly produced. But I had it on for a few repeats and around the third time, I think I started to get the appeal, and I can understand a little bit better why people like this music, which is an excellent outcome from this 1001 Album exercise. This is just not really for me.