Reviews by dcspool

Its fine I guess. I don't want to revisit any tracks, only to listen as background music. I find the vocals quite annoying tbh. Sigur Ros overrated to me.

2.8/5

What a hideous album cover. I'm familiar with Absolute, but wasn't expecting a new wave pop ska song as the album opener. I don't quite hate it as much as I feel I should.
So 80s.

Fave Tracks: Absolute, Don't Work That Hard, Perfect Way

3.3/5

This is fun. It feels like prog that is both willing to be wild and experimental, but also doesn't take itself too seriously. Maybe I'm just in a good mood but I'm leaning 5 for the second consecutive day.

Fave Tracks: Nature's Way, Animal Zoo, Morning Will Come, Rougher Road, Red Light Roll On

4.6/5

Going in to this one blind. The Shining Hour is a good start, this feels in my wheelhouse.
I enjoyed Jupiter and Teardrop also.
Fuzzy is the starred track on the album, but the slower tempo is doing less for me.
The thing this reminds me most of is the inimitable Jeff Buckley (and of course this album predates Grace). Wish You Well chorus is nice.
Ha - I just noticed there is a song called Grace on this album too.
Soft Wolf Tread probably the least interesting track so far, but I like Stars N' Stripes for sure. MURICA.
You Just Have To Be Crazy is fine, but does not really feel to me like the album going out with a bang.

I'm leaning towards a 5 here. Whilst the highs are perhaps not as high as I might want in a 5 star album the floor is extremely high. This feels like a very consistent album that I could come back to fully, and I expect get even more out of, so I am going to be optimistic.

Fave Tracks: The Shining Hour, Wish You Well, The Hook, Stars N Stripes

4.5/5

Another positive surprise. I was expecting some hits and a lot of misses, but a consistent (the first half at least) and forward thinking album. Enjoy the Silence is such a great track, another song that I've heard plenty before but only really appreciated now in the context of the 1001. The second half is a decline in quality for me, with a lot of the tracks meandering towards nothingness.

Fave Tracks: Enjoy the Silence, Policy of Truth

3.3/5

Really quite enjoyed this. I love the sound of the album. Free Bird hits really nicely as an epic closer.
4.3/5

Not exactly bad, but I don't get why this on the list, didn't take anything from it. I don't really get soundtracks - this might be a brilliant soundtrack to the film, but without the context it was just boring to me.

2/5

I found myself signing along to Bittersweet Symphony, and tbh I've always thought I hated the song.
So far enjoying this far more than I wanted to. Ok, I didn't hate it.

3.2/5

Creep, Diggin' On You, Red Light Special - good tracks.
Waterfalls is a bit too radio friendly for me, but hard to deny its a catchy iconic track.
I'm not a big fan of the interludes, mainly because the Crazy Sexy Cool motif just seems really lame.

I think this is a pretty solid R&B/Pop album.

Fave Tracks: Diggin' On You, Let's Do It Again

3.8/5

The first 7 tracks of Grace are all flawless to me. There's no other album that is so consistently perfect from the get-go. Jeff's vocal range and the character of his voice are spectacular and unique. The guitar tones are some of the most beautiful ever recorded. The performance is so raw and emotional. There are two of the best covers of all time on the album, "Lilac Wine" and "Hallelujah", two outstanding songs in their own right that Jeff fully makes his own. Anyone with a heart and a working set of ears knows.

5/5

too country for me, very much fine but nothing standout

3/5

Phil absolutely killed it with this one! However Christmas music is not necessary.

This album has a distinct sound.
Darkness and Doubt reminds me of some later Clash.
The tracks feel more like standard country-folk rock fare in the second half and do less for me.
Still liked this overall

Fave Songs: Trouble Down South, Hard To Be Human Again, Psycho Cupid - Danceband On the Edge of Time

3.3/5

Colleen Chad Wakerman? The first four tracks are quite ho hum in my books. I like the turn it takes with the instrumental track and Sweetness Follows. Quite good, but also quite simple. I liked the album more after reading through the full Sidewinder lyrics - respect for getting such legs out of a topic as banal as a payphone. Good work generating lyrical discourse.

Fave Tracks: Sweetness Follows, Man on the Moon

3.6/5

Low key a lot of bangers on this one. Bit too long though.

Fave Tracks: Mama Said, When the Love Light Starts Shining Thru His Eyes, Will You Love Me Tomorrow

3.3/5

Ooooof Satanic Reverses goes hard. The production on this is terrific.
2:55 into Famous and Dandy, love the soothing synths that slide in. I really am digging the production on this one. This is like hip hop Gil Scott-Heron. This was fantastic, perhaps my favourite discovery of the 1001 yet.

Fave Tracks: Satanic Reverses, Famous and Dandy (Like Amos and Andy), California Uber Alles

4.9/5

Wow, this took a left turn I didn't expect.

After the first few tracks I was already mentally assembling my comments about how Bowie is a great singles artist, but maybe his albums are overrated, but the second half of this album flipped that narrative completely for me. Some tracks like Warszawa and Art Decade I thought were really beautiful in a way I've not heard from this era of Bowie before.

If you played me the intro to Weeping Wall by itself and asked me to guess the artist I'd never get to Bowie. Subterraneans sounds like a The Comet is Coming song, I'm just flabbergasted that this is a DB album.

I love that there are fully instrumental tracks here, even though at times they feel like they could be enhanced even further with Bowie's voice on top. Still, I liked this a lot, particularly the second half.

4.3/5

Butthole Surfers performed under a different name at every live show. Early aliases included The Dick Clark Five, Nine cm Worm Makes Own Food, The Vodka Family Winstons, Ashtray Babyheads, Ed Asner Is Gay, Fred Astaire's Asshole, The Right to Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole, The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole, Zipgun, and many others.

The silence for the first 15 seconds of the album is unnerving. Who does that. Not surprising then that the album ends with 15 seconds of cows mooing, naturally. I find this album mostly disgusting to listen to, yet I do really admire the chaotic experimentalism of their brand of noise rock. I would be interested in exploring their other work after listening to this.

Fave Track: Kuntz

2/5

When I was 13 years old I heard Girl by Beck on the radio and became obsessed with it. I don't know why, such a simple tune, but I was hooked, bought this album and played the track on repeat.

E-Pro is a banger. I would presume Beck's most bangliest banger.
I always liked Que Onda Guero. I think it holds up pretty well.
I really still love Girl. So far this album is a lot better than I thought it would be.
Missing, I don't recall this track, but I like it too.
Black Tambourine is the first miss for me, but I like Earthquake Weather.
Hell Yes is corny, I don't like when Beck does the robot futurist thing.
Broken Drum and Scarecrow are both fine but not doing much for me.
Go It Alone and Last Farewell Ride are both quite enjoyable, but by this point in the album lots of tracks are suffering from being a bit too long and too repetitive. You could cram these two tracks together and make one more compelling listen.
I actually love that Chiribim Chiribom sample in Rental Car - that's maybe the most surprising moment in the album.
Emergency Car is bland, Send a Message to Her is just knock-off Devil's Haircut. Chain Reaction is annoying, why bother we such a closer.

I like a lot of the tracks and elements here, but this album kinda wears me down with how repetitive it can be, and how many repetitions of similar themes there are. It feels in many ways less than the sum of its parts, which is a shame. Beck is a really creative songwriter, but perhaps not a great album curator.

Fave Tracks: E-Pro, Que Onda Guero, Girl, Earthquake Weather, Go It Alone, Rental Car

3.4/5

Quite a strange one, happy to have been exposed to it though I mostly found it quite bland background reggae.

Fave Tracks: Even After All, Supreme I Preme

2.6/5