Reviews by dcspool

This is very easy to dislike. Dreary.
Awful band name.
So redundant to the list.
This is musical nepotism. You just hired the guy with the killer CV without even conducting the interview.
Never has anything been so much less than the sum of its parts.

1 star - not because its 1 star awful but because its hard to imagine something less deserving of a spot on the list.

Good ol fashioned rock music. I don't mind this album and The Black Keys but it feels very non-essential for me. I would give up their seat at the table for something nicher any day of the week. Cringe album cover also.

Fave Tracks: Everlasting Light

3.3/5

Some of Kanye's best sampling work on here - 21st Century Schizoid Man, Avril 14th. It makes sense to me that many people see this as Kanye's best album, it definitely ticks the most boxes, its very well rounded. You still have the chop-up-the-soul Kanye on Dark Fantasy; you've got bangers that foreshadow Yeezus like Monster; then you've got epics like Power and Runaway.

To pick flaws, the tracks in general are very long. I think Runaway is great but it struggles to justify a 9 minute run time. Same for Blame Game - the Aphex Twin loop is beautiful but 7 and a half minutes of it is too much. I don't much like So Apalled and Hell of a Life is just ok for me. But other than that there's a lot of great music here.

Fave Tracks: Power, All of the Lights, Monster, Runaway, Blame Game, Lost in the World/Who Will Survive in America

4.6/5

Mostly meh. Dreaming of You feels like lightning in a bottle. I didn't mind Goodbye. Whatever happened in the last 20 seconds of Skeleton Key was fun.

Fave Tracks: Dreaming of You

2.7/5

This definitely feels like a more important MIA album, even ignoring Paper Planes. But I have the same critique as her other album in that it’s just quite abrasive and hard to listen to. Lots of sounds and songs lacking melody.

3.4/5

This was trash.

I actually quite like Freak on a Leash, and I’m open-minded even to Nu Metal, but this sucks. It has aged awfully. All in the Family is a top 10 worst track that I’ve heard during the 1001 so far.

I was thinking this was a 2 star, but the last 4 tracks are somehow even worse than the start of the album. They sound like they were written by a dangerously angsty 12 year old.

1.4/5

This is a very Dan album. We probably don’t need it. But I quite like it.

Fave Tracks: Ruby Baby, The Nightfly

3.4/5

Woozy, ambling, scraggly and not in a good way. Very derivative blues music mostly with uninteresting psychedelic interjections from time to time. The only good track for me is Riders, The Wasp is ok. Very disappointed by this one.

Hypest hype though.

2.2/5

I consider myself a Prince fan but I was extremely disappointed by this. Maybe I’m not a Prince fan after all.

1999 is great, Little Red Corvette is pretty good, but the rest of the album is is a slog. The album has some dance tropes which work horribly - long songs with repeating grooves that don’t really go anywhere. A distinct lack of chord progressions. The instrumentation has a stank of 80s tackiness and not even Prince’s charisma can overcome it.

Fave Track: 1999

2.5/5

Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on this album for so long, so good, such a great vibe, a great world-building album. Wake Up is so euphoric.

Fave Tracks: Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels) Wake Up, Haiti, Rebellion

4.8/5

Peak pop Taylor Swift. Don’t overthink it, just enjoy it.

On this listen I was impressed at how crisp the production is on Blank Space and Shake It Off. Style’s instrumental almost sounds like a Weeknd track. Out of the Woods and All You Had to Do Was Stay could both easily have been singles. I had forgotten how cringey it is when she says “this. sick. beat.” Bad Blood is also a bit cringey but also undeniably catchy - I actually really like the Kendrick Lamar version also. Wildest Dreams is surely a Lana Del Rey song. I can’t quite get over how every song here is so catchy - you could pretty much make any of the first 10 tracks singles, I’m surprised she didn’t milk this album more tbh.

The last 3 tracks don’t add much for me, but there is just so much good pop on this album. It deserves recognition as a great record.

Fave Tracks: Welcome to New York, Blank Space, Style, All You Had to Do Was Stay, Shake It Off, Bad Blood, Wildest Dreams, How You Get the Girl

4.6/5

Good, maybe the best Bowie I’ve heard. Changes is a little overrated, a bit untidy.

Fave Tracks: Oh You Pretty Things, Life on Mars, Andy Warhol, Queen Bitch

4.3/5

A bit more interesting and less garish than I was anticipating.

3.6/5

Even though I hate ketchup I can find space in my heart for this album.

Fave Tracks: Metronomic Underground, Cybele's Reverie, Les Yper-Sound, Olv 26, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Slow Fast Hazel

4.4/5

Weird one. Some kinda nice songs, but production feels super artificial and pristine, kinda off-putting. It doesnt sound bad but just kinda tacky.

3/5

3/5

Feels harsh to say but so boring.

2.3/5

The first disc is a 4.2 or 4.3 for me. Very solid tunes, though i think a bit front-loaded. I like aspects of Porcelina Of the Vast Oceans, but it is a bit of a microcosm of the whole album - some really exciting moments, but a bit too long and gratuitous.

The second disc is more of a 3.5 - even though it has one of my top 5 favourite songs of all time, 1979. For me the second disc is much stronger in the second half, the last 4 tracks which are all quieter more downtempo cuts are way more enjoyable for me.

The loud grungy moments across both albums feel out of place to me. The best tracks here are quiet and beautiful and sensitive. Tracks like Zero and to some extent Bullet With Butterfly Wings just do not feel like they belong. I think if they cut the album down to one disc mainly focusing on the lighter tracks this might've been a 5 star classic. I would do it something like:

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Tonight, Tonight
Here is No Why
Galapogos
Muzzle
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
Take Me Down
1979
Beautiful
Lilly (My One and Only)
By Starlight
Farewell And Goodnight

Fave Tracks: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, Tonight Tonight, Here Is No Why, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, 1979, By Starlight, Farewell and Goodnight

3.8/5

I'm not much into this, but I'll still give it a 3 out of Respect for Aretha

3/5

This went pretty hard. First track a real jam, added to the rotation.

3.8/5