Reviews by conorr90

Enjoyed dancing along to this while making dinner, but I expected to like it more, given how much I enjoy a lot of New Order singles. The singing and vocals really let them down, and some of the songs were a bit forgettable. The Perfect Kiss and Sub-Culture are real standout tracks. This is about a 3.5 for me I think, rounding up to 4 because of cultural impact.

Bit of a mixed bag, big nearly as good as their first 3 albums. But the production is good, and quite inventive as I read they tried to avoid using any well know samples to save money. Some good highlights in "Yo Niga", "Arizona" and "Shut Em Down". But the re-released track with Anthrax just feels like a cash grab.

I've tried many times to "get" this album, because I like a lot of Lou Reed's stuff, and had a friend when I was younger who was obsessed with this one. He had parents with addiction problems though, so he probably got a lot more out of it emotionally than me. A lot of this does resonate with me, but in places it meanders too much and is a bit too self indigent in its melancholy. Seems like it would have worked better as a film than an album to me, some of these don't work very well as songs (Men of Good Fortune, The Kids, The Bed).

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Musically it sounds great, apart from Serge eating the mic. His voice does occasionally border on ASMR territory, but most of the time it just sounds creepy. Maybe that is the intent? I've never read or watched Lolita, but as far as I'm aware it is meant to be a critique of male obsession, albeit a very extreme and controversial one. I haven't had a look at the translated lyrics for this album, but given the various controversies on Serge Gainsborough's wiki (esp. Lemon Incest), and his taste for younger women, I'm veering towards this being more of a creepy album than a provocative critical piece.

Didn't really like this one much, although it is a bit better than "Behaviour". Very little memorable about it other than the cover of Go West, which I have very negative feelings about due to its use in an annoying as for rice pudding about 15 years ago. Don't think these guys deserve multiple albums in the book.

I've always enjoyed the general vibe of this album a lot, but having listened to a few other Beach House albums, I think they're guilty of just repeating the same formula over and over. Some great songs on here though, very relaxing and reminiscent of my college years and my first car - this CD was in the stereo very often.

Pretty much a perfect album, even if I know know it to be a bit derivative of Television. I didn't know who Television were when I was a teenager though, so these guys were pretty much the epitome of cool in my book at the time. I think they do put enough of an original spin on their sound to be considered unique as well. Not a bad song on here, one of the best albums of the millennium so far.

Absolutely love this album, although I admit it did take me quite a few listens to come around to it. Her voice is definitely an acquired taste, but her harp playing is fantastic and the lyrics are so detailed and meaningful. I think I first heard it around 2014/2015, then got really into it when her new album Divers came out, which I also love. If I could make every boomer who thinks all modern music is terrible listen to this 3 times, I would. Honestly much better than at least 50% of the folk rock in this book so far.

I really appreciate the production and instrumentals on here, being a big fan of DJ Shadow, Unkle and MF Doom. But the lyrics and vocals don't do much for me, and I really could have done without the porn samples. It's a somewhat interesting concept, and I don't think it's meant to be taken too seriously. He's playing a character, like Doom and other rappers often do. However I think a lot of the jokes and bars are pretty immature and cringe inducing. It's also way too long. The title track, Bear Witness, Real Raw and Blue Flowers are pretty good though. It should be mentioned as well, I think there are more proctology references on here than gynaecology ones. Maybe Dr. Octagon is multi-disciplined?

I've listened to this album a few times in the past, but never completely warmed to it. Looking back on it now after discovering Joanna Newsom a few years ago, I appreciate it for being a big part of that freak folk movement which really shaped a lot of popular "indie" music for the rest of the decade or so. Some of these songs still hold up and are great, others not so much. Some just sound like failed experiments, which is completely reasonable on a 42 minute record with 16 tracks. Great guitar playing and songwriting, vocal style is a bit of an acquired taste I think. I'm kind of surprised that M. Ward wasn't included in the list as well, since I think Post-War is a better album from this genre.

Pretty good album, but after the first few songs it kinda bleeds together and eventually runs out of steam. The opening track, Default, and Hail Bob are great though.

Never heard of this band before, but trying to give them a fair shot. I can see why they were popular on college radio at the time, and they have a couple decent songs (Blues Music and Cold Beverage), but overall they are a bit cringe. Less interesting than what Beck was doing around the same time, and not as fun as the Fun Lovin' Criminals. Musically, the rhythm section is quite good, but the singer just sounds like a stoned guy at a house party trying to imitate the Beastie Boys. They actually remind me a bit of Gomez, who did a much better take on this style later in the 90s. Hope their debut is in this list somewhere.

Funnily enough, I think this was the first Steely Dan I listened to in full, maybe like 13 or 14 years ago. I didn't really take to it at the time, and haven't listened again since. Now that I've listened and loved Aja for a long time though, I appreciate this one much more. It's a clear step in the evolution from their first album of radio friendly guitar rock to Aja's smooth jazz rock.

I used to this of this band as one that people just claimed to like in a pretentious way, but now I'm starting to come around. I still haven't really fully warmed to them, but I think the instrumental side is incredible. Absolutely wild performances all over this. The singer's voice is a bit grating at first, but I think it's an acquired taste. Going with an 8/10, but could definitely see this growing on me even more.

Terrible stuff. Not offensively bad, just so boring and nondescript that it completely faded into the background. I couldn't tell you anything about it now. There's a reason so much of this psychedelic and folk music has been memory-holed.

Pretty great and influential album. I wonder how well known it would have been had they not been highlighted by Nirvana's unplugged concert however. That's how I heard of them, along with most people I would imagine. They were definitely ahead of their time either way, hard to believe this was released in 1984! Sure the singing is a bit rough in places, but the guitar playing and songwriting are brilliant.

Hadn't listened to this one before, but I love their Toxicity album. Actually only got into it recently enough, as I enjoyed the singles at the time but never really dived into their albums. This was great though, not quite as good as Toxicity, but that doesn't seem to be in the book for some reason. Love the fusion of metal and middle eastern music, and Serj's many different singing styles are brilliant too.

I'm not a big fan of Elvis in general, although I do enjoy most of his big hits. This seems like one that was included for cultural significance though rather than musical quality. The only songs I really enjoyed were the first two, It Feels So Right, and Reconsider Baby.

I promised to re-evaluate Coen's earlier work after I enjoyed You Want it Darker so much, but it honestly does nothing for me. I know his lyrics might be very poetic, but I can't grasp them properly when they are packaged within such terrible music. His singing is almost offensively bad, and the music is uninteresting and uninspired. I feel a bit hypocritical now because I do enjoy Bob Dylan's 60s output, but the difference there is that Dylan knew how to write an interesting melody and was a decent guitarist too. This album is significantly worse than Coen's debut, and doesn't belong on this list IMO.

I first heard this album about a year ago, when my guitar teacher recommended it to me. I've listened to it several times since then, and I'm now on my third listen for this project. I don't listen to a lot of Americana or Country, but I absolutely love this. Fantastic voice, songwriting, guitar playing and banjo playing. Will be in my regular rotation for a long time I think. 9/10