Reviews by callimar

Tina Turner obviously belongs on a list like this, and *Private Dancer* is her most important album. Alongside the title track, “What’s Love Got To Do With It” is the standout track—even my autocorrect seems to know this song.
It’s not exactly my cup of tea, but it’s definitely a must-have.

I had heard about the Jesus And Mary Chain but couldn't remember a song. This hasn't changed after listening to their "Darklands" album - it's nice-ish but got nothing special. Just another hour of well-produced boredom.
Before I joined this project I wondered if there are really 1001 albums you must hear before you die. After listening to one quarter of this I still think a list of 101 albums would do.

R.E.M. was certainly one of the most influential pop-rock bands of the ’80s and ’90s. In my view, however, that doesn’t justify having five albums by Michael Stipe & Co. on this list—especially since R.E.M.’s approach has remained virtually unchanged over the years.
Their debut “Murmur” sounds a bit like Dire Straits without Mark Knopfler trying their hand at a new wave sound. Fortunately, this nightmare isn’t real, but the thought experiment clearly shows that we’re dealing with something rather half-baked here.
Bottom line: it’s nice to know, but not essential. One R.E.M. album (or two, for that matter) would have been enough.

I always thought that chill-out tracks were created by looping parts of existing songs without the melody track. With that in mind, I find it a bit confusing that Nightmares On Wax’s “Smokers Delight” is being recommended to me as a full-length album. I have to admit that a few tracks on it do show some compositional skill. Still, the difference from my alarm clock’s ringtone wasn’t exactly obvious. Even if the sentence makes little sense out of context: disappointing, as expected.

The Strokes' “Is This It” is proof that good production can only partially make up for the musicians' limited skills. Some of the song ideas are pretty good, and I generally like the sound—even if the mid-heavy vocal mix gets a bit annoying after a while. Unfortunately, the drummer and bassist only know two grooves, and the guitarist sounds like he just picked up the instrument last year. Sure, that’s how garage rock works, but the result is mostly just boring. Not bad, but boring. Listening to one of these songs every now and then would be fine. But I don’t need an entire album of it.

Yes—finally a singer-songwriter who knows what he’s doing! Jeff Buckley’s only solo studio album released during his lifetime, *Grace*, is a colorful mix ranging from gentle acoustic ballads to full-on rockers like “Eternal Life.” This is a truly powerful recording, and Buckley’s extensive experience as a session musician really shines through: he truly masters his guitar, the songs are tastefully arranged, cleanly produced and recorded, and he knows how to use his extraordinary voice to serve the songs—in this regard, he reminds me a bit of Matt Bellamy.
A truly great surprise and the second album that I regret not having properly noticed when it was released!

According to Wikipedia, music journalists debate whether “Off The Wall” is Michael Jackson's best album. Having listened to it, I can't understand this debate—it doesn't hold a candle to “Thriller,” nor to “Bad,” and in my opinion, not even to “Dangerous.” Instead, what we hear here is a talented singer performing above-average disco-pop songs with funk and soul elements, but who is clearly still searching for his own style. Certainly relevant as a historical document, but on its own, it’s more of a “nice-to-know.” For me, a 3.5.

I wasn’t familiar with the term “Desert Blues,” but it’s quite clear that the blues must play an important role in parts of Africa. On *Music In Exile*, Songhoy Blues seamlessly blend American and African influences, thereby demonstrating where the blues tradition originates. In comparison, I would describe the “African school” as more relaxed and rhythmic than the traditions from the Mississippi Delta or Chicago.
I find it fascinating, and it’s definitely worth a listen. This project is perfect for discoveries like this!

I wasn't familiar with Cornershop, but of course I'd already heard “Brimful Of Asha” from the album “When I Was Born For The 7th Time.” I still think that song is great; the rest is just Britpop with electronic and Indian influences. It's worth a listen.

I was, of course, familiar with The Velvet Underground, but I hadn’t heard the album of the same name yet. Ultimately, though, it’s exactly what you’d expect from Lou Reed: catchy and absurd tracks ranging from dark ballads to straight-up hard rock. I find the song order on the album a bit hard to follow, but aside from that, I like it for the most part. The last two tracks could have been left out; unfortunately, Maureen Tucker can barely hit a note...

The next Radiohead album, and it sounds just like the others. Not bad, but why bother listening to them all? The formula is always the same: the tempo is always slightly slower than the song could handle (except for the frenetic “Electioneering”), all the instruments are mixed with a bit too much emphasis on the midrange, plus a technically proficient but sonically rather mediocre voice, and of course songs that don’t really stick in your head—“OK Computer” contains all the hallmarks of ’90s alternative rock. But I don’t need this sound—which always seems to aim for a slightly suboptimal and unprofessional vibe—all the time. Radiohead stand out from the crowd thanks to their more or less successful sonic experiments, but even these naturally wear thin over time if you don’t constantly come up with something new. Since Radiohead don’t manage to do that in any substantial way, they’re one of those bands for me that just got worse and worse over time. Unfortunately, there are still quite a few later works on the list—let’s hope I’ve been wrong in my assessment so far.

I think I’m pretty familiar with the truly significant albums from 1992—I’d seen Ministry’s “Psalm 69,” but back then I’d only listened to it superficially. The reason is the same one I have for finding it okay but not great today: the sound is nice, the songs have good moments, but overall, this album is terribly monotonous. Of course, this risk is always present with electronically dominated music, but it’s clearly possible to do better than what Ministry achieves here. So so.

This project keeps making it clear that you can really only fairly evaluate albums whose cultural context you’re sufficiently familiar with. If that’s not the case (because the recordings are simply too old or aimed at a completely different audience), the only thing left to go on is the vibe. “Immigrés” by Youssou N'Dour is such a case for me; here, I’m giving it a neutral rating based on the positive energy of his music.

Wow, yesterday MissE, today Notorious... It really takes the fun out of this project.
Musically, both are still somewhat tolerable, but I feel deep pity for the people behind them and their extremely limited worldview. Because of that, the lyrics are just repulsive, but I feel so sorry for this guy with his completely messed-up life that I’m still giving it 1.5 stars.

I’d heard of Missy Elliott, but not her album *Under Construction*. This is probably controversial, but in my opinion, MissE is a relatively good soul singer but a lousy rapper. Unfortunately, she doesn’t sing much (“Bring The Pain,” “Back In The Day”), so most of the time you get the feeling she’s still rambling about some meta-level stuff you didn’t want to know. The extreme example is the intro—why is she talking at the beginning of her album? That’s even worse than starting a concert with an announcement! I’m here for the music—if I’m still here after a few songs, you can tell me your name. And no, your life story isn’t valuable background info. But of course, the profile neurosis personified as a rapper can’t last that long. My recommendation to pretty much every hip-hop artist would be to just start by impressing with substance.
Admittedly, it gets worse. Is that observation enough for a second star?

The first thing that strikes me about *Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness* by The Smashing Pumpkins is its sheer length—over two hours. During that time, there’s a pretty wild mix ranging from quiet instrumental pieces to typical Pumpkins songs.
It’s a nice idea, but I still find the Pumpkins’ sound too undifferentiated—even though it has improved compared to “Siamese Dreams.” Plus, I don’t like Billy Corgan’s whiny voice.
At least it’s not a step down from its predecessor.

“Violator” is undoubtedly Depeche Mode's most successful and best-known album—in my view, it's the only one that really matters.
Of course, you have to know the four singles—“Personal Jesus,” “Enjoy the Silence,” “Policy of Truth,” and “World in My Eyes”—and in a way, that makes the album a must-listen. But it never really blew me away, neither back then nor now. I like the vibe of DM, but I find the electro-heavy sound a bit annoying over time.
For me, this is yet another case of “pretty good, but not top-shelf.”

It seems that Funkadelic’s “One Nation Under A Groove” isn’t available in its entirety on Spotify. That’s a shame, because the available tracks—“Who Says A Funk Band Can’t Play Rock” and “One Nation Under A Groove”—are really good, and some of the songs I looked up based on the tracklist are on a similar level.
What stands out is Mike Hampton’s guitar work, which is remarkably virtuosic for a funk band—that alone would justify the “rock” label. Otherwise, it’s just 70s funk: pretty nice, well-arranged, and professionally produced, but everything is 3–5 BPM slower than you’d approach it today.
It’s fine, I’d say.

American Music Club sounds like a singer-songwriter who brings in a band for certain songs. Based on my brief research, this impression is accurate, but it stems mainly from the fact that the songs don’t really fit together and therefore don’t sound like they come from the same source. As a result, “California” sounds to me like a radio play—something I’m more familiar with from children’s programs.
The album isn’t really bad, even if the songs are anything but outstanding. Above all, though, I don’t find the concept for a full-length album convincing. The Wikipedia entry states that Arnar Eggert Thoroddsen of the Icelandic daily newspaper Morgunblaðið describes the album as the band’s “definitive statement”. He may be right, but in this case, I don’t consider this band particularly relevant. This is also underscored by the fact that the album isn’t available on either Spotify or YouTube Music—it just seems like nobody is particularly interested in it.

As a European, I find it difficult to judge traditional Indian music fairly, simply because I’m not familiar enough with comparable music. I can say, however, that I really enjoyed listening to Shivkumar Sharma’s “Call of the Valley”—especially since I was in the mood for peace and meditation this morning. That this album was well-received worldwide upon its release, I would nevertheless attribute more to the spirit of the times than to any extraordinary quality of the music. The instrumental pieces simply tell a little story that you can follow if you already know what it’s about (a shepherd’s day in Kashmir). Of course, something like this exists in all cultures—Europeans probably think first of either Camille Saint-Saëns’s "The Carnival of the Animals" or Sergei Prokofiev’s "Peter and the Wolf". Should one be familiar with these? For one’s own culture: certainly. Otherwise: I don’t know.