Reviews by bt1001quest

Laura's music is stuck between being really cool and innovative and dated ("Stoned Soul Picnic" sounds like a borderline parody with how late 60s it is) and uninteresting to me. I hear quite a bit of influence on Kate Bush here. Ultimately not really for me

As a (mostly) disillusioned young man in his 20s, it feels like this record was written for me. So, so well produced (thank you Rob Cavallo). Conceptually really strikes a chord, almost like the band is speaking to you with its excellent lyricism (i.e. Are you locked up in a world that's been planned out for you?/Are you feeling like a social tool without a use?/Scream at me until my ears bleed/I'm taking heed just for you). Punk masterpiece!

Good production but the vocals and instrumental performances are mediocre at best. Babes in Toyland are better

Definitely has better records than this one, but even still, this was a solid mid-80s singer-songwriter record, with a couple of nice tracks (see "Blue Chair").

Gets the job done. Overall not impressive and nowhere near as good as The Prodigy were at this same time but still quite good 90s dance music.

I hear it's really controversial to have this opinion but I don't care. I absolutely love "MAAD City" but think this is a jumbled mess without a clear direction and a lot of disparate elements incorporated in comparison to that masterpiece. I get it, this is his maximalist, experimental hip-hop response to that album- I just don't think he works in this aesthetic. Kanye has him beat in that department with MBDTF, Yeezus, hell, even TLOP. The album is just not cohesive. Kendrick also never sounded great doing that voice crack flow, and some of the hooks here are just annoying see "Hood Politics" or "King Kunta"

"Alright" and "i" are the only tracks that sniff the heights of GKMC

Basically perfect. Songs, production, performances all top-tier beyond belief.

The highlights, you ask?

"Something" is a smooth soul track perfectly enhanced by its anticipatory organ part during the chorus. The onomatopoeic dark humor of "Maxwell" punctuated with those legitimately awesome synthesizer stabs? "Oh Darling" is a wonderful doo-wop revival track with its great McCartney vocal. "She's So Heavy" has this amazing Billy Preston Hammond Organ feature and that famously strange abrupt ending. "Here Comes the Sun" is simply one of the most gorgeous acoustic ballads ever written. Such a delightful sound. "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/In the End" is an extremely emotionally-charged closer, feeling like a bittersweet kiss to a lover you'll never see again, or a boat voyage into heaven.

"Tangled Up in Blue" seems to present new ground for Bob to cover, as it combines his long-winded lyrical sensibilities with uptempo pop rock instrumentation and a catchy hook. But the rest of the record is ho-hum folk music that does not reel me in at all.

An excellent collection of songs. Brit pop with some edge and plenty of variation across the record. “Alright” really exemplifies that the best tracks here were super ahead of the time

It's like "The Weight" was ripped from a much more emotive and better record. The other songs are okay, but the massive peak in quality with that track in comparison with the rest is honestly shocking

Cave puts forth his oeuvre easily- dour, gloomy, and heartfelt feelings all over these songs. I liked this one better than Abbatoir, which was messy. Overall a solid 3

Carefree country spirit flows freely from the tender vocals and calming slide guitar on this classic outlaw tearjerker. Does it have much staying power, though? Unfortunate that the answer is no. Looking forward to listening to his greatest hits- I think the real hard-hitters will be present there

I think her later records were better, more memorable. She has some punkish energy that works but I prefer her lighter, poppier material that prioritized synthesizers over the post-punk stuff she was going for here

I was pretty disappointed with this record; I love their single "Emma" and knew it was from this recording session. I was hoping, therefore, to dig the record it sprung from but I was unimpressed overall and felt it was mostly middling Bauhaus/Bowie worship with flat production.

Very, very close to being a great album. has an issue with its sameness and its songwriting. I think a lot of this depends on the strength of the vocalist the music reminds me a lot of stuff by the Smiths, R.E.M., squeeze and/or echo and the Bunnymen. this guy unfortunately, isn’t really as good as any of those vocalists are, which is honestly a shame because I think a lot of the songs are pretty good.

Appropriately groovy like the Low End Theory, but unlike that record, does not hit the listener with as good of hooks. Something I actually dislike about this group is the fact that Arrested Development is "corny" but this album seemingly gets a pass despite the lyrics on tracks like "Ham n' Eggs" and "Luck of Lucien"

Getting a lot of repeat artists recently (and ones I am not really into either urgh). "Ready to Start" is nice, but the record has the same problem Neon Bible does where it's so grandiose and insists its a lot more interesting than it is. Feels harsh to say but the album is unimpressive vocally, lyrically, and production-wise in equal measure

Much more personality than their other album on this list. Still owes so much to Radiohead in many departments (instrumentally, arrangements, production) but has noticeably more spunk than TLB.

"The Sound Of Someone You Love Who's Going Away And It Doesn't Matter" is a perfect song. Soul-crushingly somber and shockingly forward-thinking. It hit me like a ton of bricks today in combination with a bunch of things I saw/experienced.

The rest of the album is all interesting but nowhere near as good and overshadowed by that excellent song

"Blowin' in the Wind" is an iconic song, still so powerful and spirited. The rest of the album is still lyrically extremely strong but I don't find the music relistenable or particularly interesting, but I recognize this is an extremely important album standard bearing for its decade