Reviews by bt1001quest

God tier production and god tier vocals. The arrangements are firmly set in an old-timey pop style, but it's just so cozy and cheerful, oozing mid-century modern sensibilities.

"Without You," "Coconut," and "Jump Into the Fire" are all classics, and even cooler, super different from each other- one's a baroque pop ballad, another is a proto-Ween stoner rock track, and the last is a psychedelic jam that goes on for 6 minutes and makes me think of a helicopter chasing Ray Liotta the moment I start listening.

The rest of the record never reaches that set of three hits, but I still enjoyed it.

Musically the album is moderately interesting, when it goes Tangerine Dream/Vangelis-ish. But my god, his Augustus Gloop-ass vocals are annoying. Track 1 is garbage. The rest are so-so.

A few great tracks ("In da Club" and "PIMP" are two of the best rap hits of the 2000s) and some great guest spots lend this a few notches of strength over its contemporaries, but its excessive length really dullens its effect.

Frank's music is lovely and nostalgic, but I just don't connect with it like others do. Nothing beyond a pleasant voice and light instrumentation for 45 minutes, offering little else for me to take with me

Competently made and produced background music and an album I definitely did not need to hear before I died.

Maybe my favorite from one of the greatest metal bands of all time.

The self-titled track is still absolutely insane. Like a horror movie in song form, replete with those great wails of fear from Ozzy. The rest of the album is nowhere near as “scary”- rather, things turn towards catchy hard rock/blues. “The Wizard” is a gem featuring an awesome harmonica performance, once again courtesy of Ozzy. “Evil Woman Don’t Ya Play Your Games With Me” is a classic pop tune, certainly foreshadowing their later chart success with the singles from Paranoid. “The Wasp/Wall of Sleep/N.I.B.” amps up the heaviness with several iconic Iommi riffs to guide the way, but absolutely keeps the catchiness going. As Zakk Wylde wisely once declared, the song is “the cat’s pajamas.” “Wicked World” expertly combines an early metal riff with a psychedelic solo and more great vocals.

Overall the album is chock full of awesome songs and you still get a sense of the band’s groundbreaking sound 50+ years since it dropped. Large part of that is one of the greatest vocalists of all time and the riff-meister making their debuts.

An iconic Scandinavian release with the beautiful "Staralfur" and epic "Olsen Olsen." I remember when I discovered this record in high school. While the rest of the album pales in comparison to those monuments of post-rock brilliance, the atmosphere and majestic, sweeping arrangements keep investment high.

A good singer but these are such tired arrangements (esp. for 1964? would've thought this came out 10 years earlier). The lyrics are also extremely corny.

Neat freak folk record. Put me in a cool headspace akin to one I recently experienced watching Roeg's Don't Look Now for the first time. McShee's vocals are much more interesting than Jansch.

A very pretty listening experience; his charm comes from his aesthetic and unique sound (african folk). Clearly very personal lyrics conveying trauma and survivor's guilt- I think his vocals aren't as strong as the bands he pulls influence from (First Aid Kit, Lord Huron, Bright Eyes). Overall, however, really nice

A pretty nice collection of songs from a vocalist I just don't care for. The downtempo title track is pretty neat, and the Roy Orbison homage on "Leavin' the Table" feels genuine. It obviously elicits comparison to David Bowie's Blackstar what with its near-posthumous release, but that record beats this one out with its excellent genre collisions. Cohen does branch out a bit here but its temperature ends up a bit too tepid for me at times. Still a good release. His best for sure.

Pretty exceptional old school gangsta rap. The lyrics, the hooks, the instrumentals, and the flow are all so firmly within that subgenre's tropes but all work without sounding dated (beyond some eyebrow-raising edgy lyrics that are funny more than anything). There's even some forward-thinking aspects that became hip-hop staples across the next few decades: patois hype men, spoken word sample intros, chopped/screwed sample flips. Only one real classic- "It Was a Good Day" (and I prefer the clean version)- but everything is pretty good overall.

Unresolved Buildup: the Album

Poor production, vocals, and lazy atmosphere to boot. Quite shit

Good but not outstanding supergroup/side project 60s revival from the Arctic Monkeys guy

Same issue here as Amnesiac- when the entire experience leans towards monochromatic slowcore, I don't enjoy Radiohead as much. I like it better than Amnesiac because some tracks are fairly strong, but like that record it is also too long and a bit too Thom Yorke-heavy unlike their better albums where the Greenwoods and O'Brien get more time to flash instrumental showings

Insanely structured and proggy, but still extremely fun and it is the quintessential record truly showcasing FZ's immense talent as a musician.

"Peaches" is an immensely sunny, funky opener. "Pimp" features a perfect old blues man vocal from Captain Beefheart complemented by an extended psychedelic Dead-esque guitar solo. It'd be easy to write off "Mr. Green Genes" as a repeat of the opening track, but it's varied soloing and changing mood differentiate it significantly and still keeps the song super fun! "Gumbo" really points the music as close as it could to serious jazz, as it sounds like a BST or Traffic song with Ian Underwood sounding very much an Eddie Harris sound-alike throughout its 12-minute runtime. And then my main man Jean Luc Ponty shows up on "It Must Be a Camel" and absolutely kills it!

He does not have the vocals to make the corny disco-punk (ill-advised combination) sound here work. It's like the worst parts of Damon Albarn's music maximized to 100 times more "OY GUVNA" in my ear for 40 minutes. While I think Ian Dury's personal life/story is interesting, the music is just not very good at all.

Several really good songs (Alison, Red Shoes, Not Angry) and good production but the album tracks are all just decent and don’t draw me to relisten.

Baby ears on this website, let me tell ya

Incredibly forward-thinking. Does not make for a really "listenable" experience, but certainly sticks out in the brain. I understand if dada anti-art is not one's thing, but the album is clearly cohesive, progressive and a "statement" if nothing else. People unwilling to even acknowledge that and call the record "noise" can get lost