Reviews by callimar

Harry Nilsson’s *Nilsson Schmilsson* is a good to very good singer-songwriter album with unmistakable Beatles vibes. There’s not much more to say about it—except perhaps that I wasn’t familiar with his recording of “Without You,” and that, as a result, Mariah Carey has just lost the last shred of relevance she had for me.
A nice find—I didn’t expect that given the quirky cover!

On my personal list of 1,001 albums, you probably wouldn’t find a single country album. Dolly Parton’s *Coat of Many Colors* clearly illustrates the arguments for and against my stance.
Why *Coat of Many Colors* belongs among the 1,001 albums: It is the trademark of the Queen of Country and, as such, automatically a legend that has had a massive influence on countless artists ever since. The title track is simply the quintessence of country music.
Why I still don’t like it: Dolly Parton’s voice is unpleasant as soon as she sings with a bit more power—shrill and with far too much vibrato, so that she sounds more like a crying child than a singing adult. Aside from that, I find country music overall too naive and too boring.
All in all, that’s three stars.

When a band is primarily categorized as art rock, caution is always advised. TV on the Radio is no exception, and their album *Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes* is truly exhausting to listen to. This is due not only to the vocals - which I find rather unpleasant - but also to the overall repetitive arrangements and the very monotonous mood of the songs. Sure, in art rock, this is typically tied to the lyrics in some way, but in this case, the lyrics just aren’t good enough.
Not trash, but overall on the annoying side - that earns it two stars.

Unfortunately, I missed out on The Last Shadow Puppets back in 2008; otherwise, I’m sure I would have really enjoyed their album *The Age of Understatement*. You can basically picture it as if The Beatles had created a soundtrack for a Western that can’t quite decide whether it’s meant to be a parody.
These are indeed promising ingredients, and combined with the professional production—which, unfortunately, isn’t a given even for the albums on this list—the result is a record that’s genuinely fun. The only thing that would have made the album even better would have been at least one truly outstanding single release.
For me, this is one of the most pleasant surprises of this project so far!

“Sound of Silver” by LCD Soundsystem is, well, okay enough when you hear it late at night in a club. But if you really listen closely, you realize it’s just a bunch of ringtones, sporadically punctuated by… well, let’s just call it singing for simplicity’s sake.
To its credit, this album isn’t completely annoying; it’s not as monotonous as, say, Fatboy Slim, and in a way, I also like the attitude behind it. However, there’s nothing actually good about it: no compelling compositional work, no innovation, no virtuosity - and, to my knowledge, no socio-political relevance either.
Hard to rate: it’s not actually bad enough for the trash bin (one star), but it lacks the substance for a second star. A clear 1.5 - let’s see how I represent that tomorrow morning.

Wow, what a terrible album! According to Wikipedia, DJ Shadow’s debut album *Endtroducing...* is “composed” of vinyl samples, which in itself is enough to warrant the worst possible rating. But DJ Shadow takes it even further, randomly splicing together random snippets and, despite the electronic beats, failing to maintain even a basic sense of rhythmic consistency. Nevertheless, the production doesn’t give the impression that any of this is accidental—so he clearly intended this result.
I’m at a loss for words to write anything meaningful here—this is by far the worst of the 300 albums so far. OMG, so bad...

I hadn't heard “Smash” by The Offspring in at least 25 years, so: Man, that's impressive! Basically, The Offspring were just playing punk rock with a heavy metal sound back then—but they did it with such energy and precision that it's a sheer joy to listen to. You could argue that the band just hadn't found their sound yet back then, and you wouldn't even be wrong. But I actually find this raw version of The Offspring much more authentic and refreshing than what was later played over and over on MTV.
For me, it’s the best Offspring album.

“Street Life” by The Crusaders starts with a truly great title track—but unfortunately loses some of its momentum afterward. With well-crafted mainstream jazz (and that’s exactly what this is), there’s always the risk that it will become too smooth. Unfortunately, here the line into elevator music is crossed several times; only “Carnival Of The Night” manages to consistently avoid this. It’s entirely possible that the overall impression was different in 1979, but today you get the feeling that you’ve heard it all before.
That’s not to say, by the way, that “Street Life” isn’t a good album—it’s just very generic in large parts.

I think Stevie Wonder is amazing, and I consider *Talking Book* to be his strongest album. He may have had bigger hits, but for me, “Superstition” is his best song (just that main riff alone), while “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “I Believe” come pretty close.
What else is there to say? It’s a clear 5-star album.

I knew Gram Parsons as a country rock pioneer, even though I’d never actually heard any of his music. Aside from “I Can’t Dance,” however, the rock elements on *Grievous Angel* are very limited—it’s actually a pretty standard country album. If you like that dreamy “end-of-the-day on the farm” sound, it’s certainly quite nice - the album is extremely well-produced and will bring a lot of joy to fans of that style. Personally, though, I find it mostly boring - the best song is “Love Hurts,” and that’s a cover version, even though there are at least five better renditions (and probably hundreds more that take their cue from Nazareth).
Nice to know, but you can do without it.

The only Black Crowes album I was familiar with was *amorica*, which I quite liked. For some reason, though, I never delved deeper into the band’s discography, which is a shame, because *Shake Your Money Maker* is, in my opinion, even better: laid-back yet powerful blues rock with that early ’90s vibe. And the production is spot-on too: the songs are catchy, the arrangements make sense, the sound is both rich and transparent, and the instruments and vocals are showcased tastefully and with true virtuosity.
This is how an album should sound!

I knew “Closer” by Joy Division as an important album marking the transition from post-punk to gothic rock. I hadn’t listened to the album yet, but it sounds exactly as you’d expect: dark, emotional, with a slight new wave influence, and a bit monotonous. In the right mood, it’s certainly brilliant; on a sunny spring morning (like today), it feels more like a surreal dream.
Even today, however, the lyricist’s struggle with himself is evident, and it feels like a dark prophecy of the events that unfolded between the recording and the release. Thus, “Closer” became, quite unintentionally, a memorial to Ian Curtis. The cover apparently sparked controversy at the time; personally, however, I find it all the more fitting.

I'm generally not a fan of pigeonholing, and in particular, I don't think the term “art rock” is very meaningful - it describes an approach to music but says nothing about how an act actually sounds. This is important here because, under the “art rock” category in this project, recordings have already been suggested twice that were simply appallingly bad.
Fortunately, that doesn’t apply to Supertramp’s “Crime Of The Century,” even though, in my opinion, it isn’t the best Supertramp album - it’s no coincidence that “Breakfast In America,” suggested by a user, is rated higher by the community. Nevertheless, “Crime Of The Century” clearly sounds exactly as one would expect from Supertramp, and I actually consider it a truly outstanding prog rock album.

I find it difficult to rate Morrissey’s *You Are The Quarry* because the mix of pretty good rock songs and cringeworthy ballads doesn’t give me a consistent impression. I could just give it three stars, but I’ll try a different approach first. Here are the rating criteria:
The songs: for the reasons mentioned, they don’t help much.
The production: good arrangements, professional sound—but that means less for an album released in 2004 than it does for recordings from the ’60s.
The vocals: I somehow remembered them being better from The Smiths.
The lyrics: dark humor is certainly something special, but Lou Reed definitely could have done that better.
Hmm, so still mediocre after all.

In the 21st century, bands play garage punk rock because they can’t really play properly. The Cramps took a different approach and recorded their debut album *Songs The Lord Taught Us* exactly as raw and rough as they wanted it to be—despite their far superior musical and instrumental skills. This kind of thing has always remained rare in punk rock, but I actually really enjoy listening to bands like that. Of course, it’s still a long way from the major milestones *London Calling* and *American Idiot*, but it was definitely an entertaining 53 minutes.

Yesterday Ryan Adams, today Elliott Smith—to me, their styles are quite similar, and I’m already second-guessing my review from yesterday. I find Elliott Smith’s voice a little less compelling, but *Either Or* does at least have one really good song: “Cupid’s Trick.” All in all, it’s on par with *Heartbreaker*.

“Heartbreaker” by Ryan Adams is a very solid, well-crafted singer-songwriter album—not particularly exciting or innovative, but without any notable weaknesses. The songs could use a little more drive, but otherwise...

I wasn't familiar with The Style Council, but I'm quite taken with their album “Café Bleu”. The group experiments with various styles of jazzy pop, and for most of the songs, it works well. One exception is “A Gospel", in which Paul Weller tries his hand at rapping. It’s a cute idea, but a classically trained tenor voice always sounds soft unless it’s mastered modern techniques.
In summary, “Café Bleu” is a varied and largely good easy-listening album. It’s a solid effort.

Whatever you may think of Jerry Lee Lewis, there’s no denying that he was the central pioneer of rock piano. The recording *Live at the Star Club, Hamburg* features his most important songs in a context that was typical for the time (i.e., just under half an hour).
From today’s perspective, there’s plenty to criticize here, but in my opinion, culture must always be understood within the context of its own time. That said, while I do believe these songs are worth knowing, I don’t consider Lewis to be among the very top tier of the most influential artists, and rock piano ultimately always remained a niche genre. So it falls somewhere between a “legendary album” and “nice to know.”

Maybe my expectations were just too high, but I’m only giving John Coltrane’s *A Love Supreme* four stars today. Coltrane was an outstanding saxophonist, and I admire many of his works and solos—such as the 1960's album "Giant Steps" (that should actually be on this list) or his collaborations with Miles Davis. *A Love Supreme* consists of four movements and, in terms of structure, is reminiscent of a classical concerto. Long passages are spectacular, but for me, the atmospheric sections lose their way too quickly into the mundane. These and the extended solos work better if you listen to the album with intense concentration—but the truly outstanding albums manage to captivate even the slightly distracted listener.
Of course, “A Love Supreme” is still a legend that every music lover should know.