Reviews by bt1001quest

Dated scratches and some crap lyrics ("fuck me in my own way?") detract from earnest vocals and tight instrumental accentuation (especially from drummer Jose Pasillas). A problem here is the riffs and verses consistently outdo the hooks, save for the massive "Drive-" a worthy late 90s/early aughts jam.

Dylan as a performer really doesn’t fit the live setting, with his less than stellar vocals and oft sparse arrangements. This reputation has proceeded over the course of his entire 6 decade career. And even when the band comes in on the second half, things go from slightly lucid to tepid.

Good tracks but not so good pacing/tracklisting. Also - the clearly superior follow up didn’t make the list?

Really good production but I don't think the songs themselves are composed particularly memorably. Keeping things within the same key and style (loud soft interplay) often yields a bland sameness that is unfortunately the case here.

REM started off making softer, folkier music than expected. Not a bad thing, just belies where I think they were really meant to reside, which was the new wave jangle pop of the next few records (Don't get me wrong, you do hear tidbits of that sound often here.) "Talk About the Passion" is one of my all-time favorite songs by them, though. As far as this being a debut, it's damn good- beyond that track, "Radio Free Europe," "Laughing," and "Moral Kiosk" are all awesome. The record plays super well from start to finish, consistently entertains (Mike Mills you are one of God's gifts!)

Decided to listen in French since all the previous music I had heard from this artist had just horrible lyricism...did it help??

I guess? The music still felt like less good Michael Jackson or Carly Rae worship but just in a different language. Which reminds me that she is not on this list. WTF? Oh well. This wasn't awful like I was expecting when it showed up on "next."

"Immigrant Song" is otherworldly, but the rest of the record are noodling (early experiments with synthesizers sound interesting just not very good). Always felt that this was by far the weakest of their "classic era."

Gloriously 80s!!!! "Show Some Respect" has this awesome wavy Yamaha lead, for example, "I Can't Stand the Rain" has this Genesis-esque sound throughout with super gaudy synthesizer and a leading drum machine playing off each other well. Then there's this cover of "Let's Stay Together" that sounds like it belongs in "To Live and Die in LA."

Dreadfully boring. Every song was just a lesser version of other 60s/70s pop rock groups and I can hardly recall any memorable melody, instrumental moment or production choice

An album too locked in to its self-importance. I don't like the male vocalist nearly as much as their female singer. A few pretty good tracks, all things considered

Solid record- he sounds really good striking a balance between pop, folk and Americana (pretty funny considering he's English). It's well-paced, well-composed, and I would imagine pretty re-listenable, as its hits are in the same league as its deep tracks. A high 3 fs

A little too David Bowie worship for me ("David Faux-ie?") after its excellent opening track. My dad would probably like this because it's basically just 2010s production of a Berlin-era record from Major Tom. The whole thing also runs way too long. Trim this down to about 50 minutes and it's definitely improved

Overrated. The band improved from here imo, as the songs on their later records are better in sound and have more memorable hooks than the supposed "big hits" here. Lyrics are not great, either. "Sexy little swine"?!

Compilation artist! Good songs but just made me want to hear his singles bc that's the really great stuff.

I heard the Plinkett song and that put a smile on my face, however

It was nice having Dave Gilmour on the guitars here, but this was ultimately a shrug of the shoulders follow up to a classic. I like the strings all over here, but the album is very generic in comparison to Hounds.

Damn good album that gets a little dated in spots but has some monumentally great tracks. For a debut to sound this polished and put-together reminds me of her enduring genius.

"Human Behaviour" is extremely bouncy and catchy, "Venus as a Boy" has so many insanely earwormy sounds that come in and out of the mix, "Big Time Sensuality" should have been a hit with its radio-friendly sound, "One Day" has a lovely interplay between her vox and the synths, and "Come to Me" is one hell of a sexy serenade.

The first four tracks are solid gold. Some of the greatest songs of the entire decade, if I'm being honest. How is it that I still get chills from "Eruption" some 15 years after hearing it for the first time and being blown away as a kid? EVH was a mythological figure.

The rest of the album? Not so much. Pretty underwhelming and I don't think the experience totally works on the whole. I'll be curious to listen to their other stuff to see how it compares, but the filler is really filler-y and reminds me that this was a debut because of how frontloaded the record is.

Decent Beatles/Nirvana combo derivative record, couple of pretty strong cuts.

Was absolutely stoked when I saw Dwight's name come up. A childhood favorite and remains probably my favorite country artist of all time. His focus on putting his unique vocal up front and surrounding himself with extremely talented instrumentalists and great producers really separate him from the stock. Love the Cali country vibe, but make no mistake, his tempos and styles vary within the tracklist to create an extremely tight album experience. This might be one of his best alongside 1993's This Time.

"Streets of Bakersfield" is one of my all time favorite songs. So jubilant and the vocal interplay with Buck Owens honestly gives me chills. Dwight was the first concert I ever went to (age 5) and he'll always remain very special because of that.

Alice was clearly throwing a bunch of ideas at the wall here, to the record's benefit at times (see the proto-slacker rock "Alma Mater") and to its detriment, as it sometimes gets cheesy and confused.