Reviews by callimar

“I Am A Bird Now” by Antony and The Johnsons is a collage of exaggeratedly melodramatic songs that at first glance sound like singer/songwriter pieces from the 1950s. The singer's broad vibrato makes the album, recorded in 2005, seem even more anachronistic. I generally like it when artists play with historical set pieces and mix different styles. However, the result is often a matter of taste, and for me, “I Am A Bird Now” seems rather uninspired and difficult to access in this regard. Perhaps it is too quiet on the one hand and too theatrical on the other.
I can well imagine that there is a market and a scene for this kind of music, but it's definitely not my thing.

I read that Red Dirt Girl was a milestone for Emmylou Harris because she wrote almost the entire album herself. That's certainly admirable, but this achievement is perhaps more significant for her than for her listeners. The songs are gentle and light, mostly country-pop ballads, but none of them really grabbed me. I know (and like) the recording on which she and Mark Knopfler play “Red Dirt Girl” and a few other songs live, but that's not part of this review. So for me, this remains an album that could have been so much more, but sounds very mediocre in the context of this list. Nice, but nothing special.

Winter In America is one of the few albums on this list that, for some reason, is not available on Spotify.
In any case, the collaboration between Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson was clearly inspiring, even if I don't think the “minimalist production” was the best possible approach—in my opinion, the vocals in particular would have benefited from some post-production work in places.
In any case, the result sounds almost like a live recording and, stylistically, lies somewhere between jazz and soul in my opinion.
As for the songs, “The Bottle” is a very remarkable piece (and the only single from this album), while the rest is mostly easy listening.
Not bad!

“Stand!” by Sly & The Family Stone is so very 1969 that it almost hurts. The instrumental production, which seems very simple from today's perspective, the organ sounds, the flower power-esque optimistic vocals with wide-open throats, the way melodies are created with a quick drop-off run at the end, the sudden scat interludes... Apart from these details, which make you smile, the band grooves very well and tightly and has such a positive vibe that it's really contagious – feel-good music that you hardly find anymore today. While the title track “Stand!” sticks well, but is a little too intrusive for me in terms of the clichés mentioned, my personal highlight is the bass groove in “Sing a Simple Song.”

Nice try! What I'm about to write is probably not correct from a theoretical point of view, but I consider Splint's “Spiderland” to be a somewhat premature attempt to break free from the constraints of 80s stadium rock. The mood created by the harmonic structures (especially the frequent use of the major sixth in minor keys) and Brian McMahan's explicitly non-80s vocal style is clearly similar to what became popular six months later under the label “grunge.” However, Slint did not succeed in creating a new mainstream – in my opinion, because their songs lack the intuitive catchiness of the numerous milestones from the fall of 1991. Instead, from today's perspective, they can be seen as pioneers of the more intellectual approaches that became popular in modern extreme metal – although it was still a long way before the right sound could give the whole approach the necessary impact. Whether the former, the latter, or even both were Splint's ambitions is, of course, speculation.
In summary, for me this is a rather immature album, but one that is very interesting from a historical perspective. Oh, and of course, with this approach, it's impossible to highlight individual songs – it's not for nothing that Splint didn't release a single single, according to the available information...

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have released some great albums. For me, “Henry's Dream” is not one of them, and I'm surprised to find it on this list. There are probably several reasons for this, but in my opinion, this is the album of an artist who has not yet found his definitive identity. It's not necessarily bad, but I don't see it as playing within the given framework.

"Cloud Nine" by The Temptations is a nice album but I'm nevertheless surprised to find it on this list. I like The Temptations' sound and vibe - so I enjoyed listening to this record yesterday - but I cannot say that something outstanding on it has caught my mind. So, for me it was nice and solid but if you're not into the Motown stuff, it's a waste of time.

I'm not a big fan of post-punk or new wave, but the mix that The Killers present on “Hot Fuss” is really easy on the ears. The first thing I noticed was the extremely tasteful bass sound, which is very present but not intrusive. Next, I'd like to mention the very New Wave-esque vocals, which are never annoying. Throughout the album, The Killers find a good mix of their own style and variety in the mood of the songs. In addition to the opener “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine,” I particularly remember the double pack “On Top” and “Change Your Mind.” Nice one!

"American Idiot" displays Green Day at their very best and the it was the album that proved that they are far more than the one-trick-pony known from "Dookey". Already during the 90s, some punk rock bands (including Green Day themselves) had gone far beyond the traditional 3- or 4-chord 3-minutes songs with primitive lyrics. "American Idiot" takes this to the max and with it's well-placed tonality changes between parts and ironic and even subtile lyrics, this is actually modern stadium rock with a punky production. And even 20 years later, "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" are still the reference tracks of how far punk rock can go. Liked it when it came out and watched it become a legend.

Country music naturally tends to lack dramatic tension, but Ryan Adams largely compensates for this with good and varied songwriting, an expressive voice, and, of course, the incorporation of various other styles. The result is “Gold”, an appealing album with 16 or 21 songs, depending on the edition, that is really worth listening to. My only criticism is that, for my taste, it contains too many ballads, which tend to slip into the country boredom mentioned at the beginning. Apart from the uptempo numbers - of which I would particularly recommend “New York, New York” - Ryan Adams and his band also manage to maintain the tension in some of the slower songs, such as “Touch, Feel & Lose.” Overall, a strong album that, in my opinion, deserves a place on this list.

The Fleet Foxes' album of the same name features very relaxed folk pop, enriched in places by nice vocal arrangements. A good example of this is “White Winter Hymnal,” which makes it sound a bit like a Christmas carol to me. I was already familiar with “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song,” but I didn't know who wrote it. Otherwise, I like the Johnny Cash vibe in “Your Protector.” Fleet Foxes isn't my everyday kind of music, but today it was just right.

I find it really difficult to rate Björk's “Vulnicura.” On the one hand, there is a certain intensity in the lyrics and vocals, and I've always liked her experimental approach to music-making. On the other hand, I find most of Björk's songs difficult to access because they contain hardly any recognizable hooks or melodies. That's why, even after listening to the entire album twice, I still don't really understand it. I'm really sorry to say this, but for me it doesn't make sense to transform lyrics into music in this way.

“Tellin' Stories” by The Charlatans is a very solid Britpop/rock album that, for some reason, I wasn't familiar with (well, “One To Another” sounded familiar...). Each of the songs is well written, distinct from the others, carefully produced, and professionally played. That should be a given for any album on this list, but these qualities already set it apart from a considerable number of the albums that were suggested to me. Therefore, I consider “Tellin' Stories” to be average among the 1001 albums.

“The Downward Spiral” is (perhaps together with the early work of Einstürzende Neubauten) the benchmark for industrial music and, as a result, one of the most influential albums of the 90s. Even after 30 years, I still find the opener “Mr. Self-Destruct” rather inaccessible, but it is followed by unusual but really strong material – examples of this for me are “March Of The Pigs” and “Closer.” And surely everyone knows “Hurt,” even if it's perhaps more likely to be the legendary Johnny Cash version. I think this album is the reason why I often find later experimental bands (keyword: noise rock) uninspired—Trent Reznor's creativity, as demonstrated on “The Downward Spiral,” was simply rarely matched after that.

I've never been particularly interested in hip hop, especially rap, but there are artists in this genre who stand out from the crowd and create something unique. Snoop Dogg's stage presence and stoner swag make it quite enjoyable to watch him perform. But just listening to it doesn't make sense to me. Even Dre's beats aren't enough to earn a second star.

Sonic Youth's "Dirty" has a distinct 90s alternative sound and a few "experimental elements" (most of them are actually intentional background noises). While bass and guitars feature a muddy low-end crunch, the vocal production is crystal clear and the drums - well, sound like standard 90s drums. Some of the songs are not bad (e.g. "Sugar Kane", "Youth Against Fascism") and I like the overall punk-attitude influenced vibe (no, not exactly grunge) so it was a nice-ish listen for me.

I had never heard of Echo & the Bunnyman. The songs on " Ocean Rain" are all in-between styles and to my mind the post-punk label attributed to them doesn't really nail it.
Regardless of any categories, I like the more uptempo tracks like "Silver" or "Seven Seas" the best. The whole record is not extremely exciting but surely solid. What surprised me most is that this album was already published in 1984, which means that it has aged very well.

I've always had mixed feelings about Kate Bush's music. On the one hand, I like her very conscious artistic approach, which sometimes leads to quite unusual song structures. On the other hand, her voice is so high-pitched that it gets on my nerves after a while. And of course, despite the approach I described, it all has that new wave sound that, as I wrote earlier in this project, I've heard more than enough of. The cult factor and “Running Up That Hill” save the album “Hounds Of Love” a little, but for me, that's not enough for three stars today.

According to Wikipedia, Erykah Badu's “Mama's Gun” is an important representative of neo soul. I wasn't familiar with this term, but it apparently describes a reinterpretation of the soul genre under the influence of contemporary R&B. That may be true, because just as contemporary R&B isn't really R&B, the music on this album is, in my opinion, not soul, but rather simple pop with distant inspirations from soul and hip hop. The record isn't bad, but to me it's rather on the unremarkable side. Probably good easy listening background music.

When a band called “Circle Jerks” releases an album called “Group Sex,” at least for me, it creates a very specific expectation that is by no means disappointed: punk rock of the most mangy variety! The four guys don't bother with (insert any musical stylistic device here), but always get straight to the point: The 14 songs last a full 15 minutes in total, although “Paid Vacation” even takes a few seconds for a kind of guitar solo. Actually, there's nothing really worth listening to on this album, but it's so wonderfully straightforward and funny that I can't give it just one star.