Reviews by conorr90

I didn't think much of this really. All over the place and too long. I like the Pixies but this really drove home for me how important Kim Deal's contributions are!

I love this album, another one that I listened to a lot in college. It took me a while to get into it fully, but when it did it took hold! Especially love Dancing Choose, Golden Age, Family Tree and DLZ.

This one takes me back to my teenage years, I remember listening to this album on repeat when I was 17/18. I got sick of hearing "Keep The Car Running" and "Intervention", but never got tired of "No Cars Go". I think I had listened to Funeral before this came out, but Neon Bible was the album that really got me into Arcade Fire. I love the darkness and melancholy throughout it, and especially the intensity of "(Antichrist Television Blues)". "Windowsill" is great too, and "Black Mirror" is a fantastic opener.

I thought I'd feel a bit weirder about listening to this after the allegations against Win Butler, but I think I have strong enough memories of this album that I can separate it from him. I feel sorry for the rest of the band, but their new music weirds me out a bit now (it's also just not as good).

I got two Bob Dylan albums in a row, so I decided to come back to this one. I think this is a 3.5 or so for me, it has some of Dylan's best songs, but a lot of the other tracks are fairly forgettable. It also has some of his most obnoxious harmonica-ing (see the outro of The Girl From the North Country). But I'll bump it up to a 4 star for Blowing in the Wind, Masters of War, Hard Rain, and Don't Think Twice.

It took a while to decide whether this is a 4 or a 5 for me. I do like the majority of the songs on it and some of those are some of the best ever written. But there are quite a few I don't care for much. It also has to be seen in context, Highway 61 Revisited came out later in the same year is a better album for sure. However maybe if Dylan hadn't released that at all this would be a 5 for me. As it stands I think I'll stick with a 4.

One of my favourite things about this album is referencing it in arguments about hip hop. I'll often be like, "how can you say you don't like hip hop if you love Subterranean Homesick Blues?". The dude's definitely rapping, don't lie to yourself!

Another one of my favourite albums, and one of the best hip hop albums ever in my opinion. The instrumentals and samples throughout this album are flawless, particularly the bass and drums. Love the live jazz feel! The rapping is great also, and has a lot of variety between Q-Tip and Phife Dawg sharing tracks, and also the several guests featuring here and there. There are a few lyrics that haven't aged well, but not as many as other albums from the same era. The "gold digger" trope rears its head a bit in a few songs, and "Infamous Date Rape" starts off very well but loses its way a bit towards the end. Maybe men weren't really ready to talk about menstruation in 1991? At least they tried, I guess. On another note, "Skypager" aged poorly in an amusing way. Kids listening today probably have no idea what's going on with that track.

Overall though, there's fantastic songs all over this album, and it's both relaxing and fun to listen to. In my opinion it's the best hip hop album from this scene, and it's interesting to follow this branch of the hip hop tree as it grew throughout the 90s and 00s.

I don't need to listen to this one because I have quite recently (and many times before that). One of my favourite albums of all time, it is perfect. Some of the best songwriting and musicianship ever recorded.

I've never listened to this one before. Some of the songs are unplayable on Spotify, presumably due to the contributions of Joni Mitchell and/or Neil Young, so I'll have to find it elsewhere! I'm a big fan of Joni and Neil, but don't know much of the other CSNY members' work.

Had a listen on YouTube -wow I can't believe I haven't heard this before. So many great artists on one record, and the Grateful Dead too (having said that, this is much better than their solo album I was subjected to last week). The album flows really well together, and is very well produced for the most part. Lyrically, it maybe strays a bit to far into hippie-dippie territory, but given the political climate at the time, that's understandable. Overall a great find, I'll be listening to this again for sure.

Sometimes, when I hear "There She Goes" on the radio, I wonder to myself why this band didn't make it bigger. Now I guess I know why. The rest for the album is very mediocre and fairly forgettable. Some tracks are so obviously derivative of the Beatles it's a bit laughable. I guess they do get some points for influence considering they helped pave the way for artists like Oasis and their subsequent imitators. But is that really a good thing?

I've really tried with this album, on many different occasions. I like the first two songs, but after that it just does nothing for me. I find the singing, particularly the harmonies, to be really grating in places. Musically, it's really uninteresting throughout. Overall, I just don't get the hype. Admittedly, I've never seen them live, so that's probably what I'm missing (that and a healthy dose of LSD). I understand that they have a big cultural impact, etc. But I don't think I'll bother with this one again.

Love this album, another find from my 2022 dive into Prog. This has the perfect balance of short punchy radio hits in Tom Sawyer and Limelight, and longer more intricate tracks. The musicianship is great throughout, fantastic drumming from Neil Pert in particular (goes without saying really). I think I first discovered Rush from watching Freaks and Geeks actually, so this brought up some nice memories of Justin Segal's drumming scenes.

Hmm, "Black Skinhead" really hits different in late 2022 doesn't it?

I was listening to this album a lot in 2014/2015, but then it fell out of rotation for me. Instrumentally, there's a lot to love here. However the VERY strong Death Grips influences on the best of the songs (On Sight, Black Skinhead, New Slaves) make it seem a but unoriginal now. I wasn't really familiar with DG at the time, maybe if I was I wouldn't have been so into this album.

Lyrically, I think some of Kanye's worst are on here. There's some downright stupid bars, a lot of unnecessary sexism/misogyny, and some really terrible auto tune.

The Billie Holiday sample on Blood on the Leaves is a bit of a headscratcher too. I know he was probably trying to spark controversy, but I don't see what a song about Jim Crow era lynchings adds to a song that appears to be about a divorce. Maybe I'm missing something?

I like New Slaves as a song, but it's strange to think that we've reached a point as a culture where "I'd rather be a dick than a swallower" is considered a good hook, maybe even a deep one.

Fav songs: On Sight, Black Skinhead, New Slaves. The rest are OK but a bit forgettable.

I only came across John Prine this year, and I've listened to this album a couple of times over the past few months. It's hard to believe I hadn't listened to him before, although I had heard of him. I really like it, even if he does remind me a little bit of Kermit T. Frog! The song writing and guitar playing are fantastic, they range from brimming with positivity (Hello in There) to heartbreaking (Sam Stone).

Fave songs: Spanish Pipedream, Hello In There, Your Flag Decal...
Least Fav: None in particular really, but some of them (like Paradise) are a bit too country for me.

I've only ever listened to CCR's greatest hits, so I'm glad to see this album holds up. This is near perfect as far as I can see, so many gems on this album. I enjoyed every song!

Enjoyed this more than I expected, considering I only knew "Lovefool" going into it. Really nice chilled vibes the whole way through it, but some surprising dark lyrics too. Musically it's really well put together, although very "of its time" in some ways (I'm picking up some Stereolab and Air vibes). Favorite songs were Lovefool, Loser, Your New Cuckoo, Happy Meal II, Step On It, and the weird but great cover of I-ron Man.

Yesss! This must be one of my most played albums of 2022. I discovered Yes early on in the year, became obsessed with this album, and then started a really deep dive into Prog. I love the mad fusion of rock, jazz and classical. There's no bad songs on here, my favourites are Roundabout, Mood For a Day, and South Side of the Sky. Although the songs all flow together so well I find it difficult to remember specific pieces I like. The production is fantastic as well, I listened to this one on the good speakers on my lunch break.

Got a Silver Jew's album yesterday and a Pavement album today, interesting...I've known and loved Pavement's singles for a long time but I don't remember listening to this album through many times. I definitely will be again, there's some great tracks on here, apart from the obvious 3. It goes to show that a band doesn't have to take themselves too seriously to produce great music.

Wow, I was really sick of this guy by the end of the album. Musically and lyrically, I quite like it, but his voice and singing style ruin it for me. When the female vocal popped up on "Tenessee" it gave me such relief. At that point I just kind of accepted that this isn't my cup of tea.

This one took me a few days to digest, I wasn't really sure if I liked it or not at first. I've heard of Bauhaus before but I don't think I've listened to them actively. I knew this was going to be gothic rock so I expected something like The Cure, but I was surprised by just how dark and rough this is. Some of the songs were familiar to me, but the two singles(?), "The Passion of Lovers" and "Kick in the Eye" didn't appeal to me as much as the fantastic "Hollow Hills", "The Man With X-Ray Eyes", and "Mask". I think I'll be revisiting it a lot, and I'm delighted to have found it. It's a 4 for me right now because I find it a bit uneven, but I could see the punkier songs growing on me, which could eventually raise it to a 5.

Side note: I'm getting sick of the sneaky "Bonus tracks" and "Deluxe Editions" on Spotify. They should be either clearly labelled as bonus or you should be able to filter for the original version. With this album, the title track has a very definite end to it which is kind of spoiled by the 5 off cuts that follow it. Plus it makes the album like 50% longer...I have over 1000 albums to get through here!

This is a perfect album in my opinion. I listen to it fairly often but I may as well listen again! Unfortunately, you do have to take into account the allegations of cultural appropriation and the (far more serious issue) of breaking the cultural boycott of Apartheid. I'm glad to see now that the other artists are credited on each song on Spotify, because this was much more collaborative effort than the original album credits show. However, if you take the music on its own, this is nothing less than a 5 star album, and it did also bring a new style of music to western audiences.