Reviews by deksametazon

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2025: #26 An album on Wikipedia's "List of music considered the worst"(24th Album)

It's sad that something like this is cemented as the final full fledged offering of Lou Reed.

I get how Lou is one of those artists who has always been a few steps ahead of the game, but this just feels like a few steps too many. Vocal deliveries so bad it becomes hilarious, Metallica's playing that scares the shit out of me every once in a while with its suddenness and the combination of the two that give the local band in your geriatric hospital a run for their money.

I usually try to be optimistic and even give positive feedback on albums deemed "worst of all time", because most of the time, it's just high expectations bogging them down. But this... this is something horrifying from beyond.

Thank you, [~8osam] for the recommendation!

Y'know, if you look close enough, Transformer can be summed up as being VU-lite. Not in terms of it sounding subpar and inferior to the Velvet Underground, but more so being a bit more rooted in commercialism closer to Loaded than an avant-garde art exhibit like White Light / White Heat or the debut. Both obviously exuding the New York spirit.

Transformer boasts some heavy hitters and some of the most known Lou Reed songs like Walk On The Wild Side and Perfect Day, but numbers like Vicious, Wagon Wheel and Hangin Round are also really infectious and beautifully crafted. No wonder this guy started as a jingle writer.

From the droning countdown opener, it’s clear this is going to be a bleak, dark and sad album.

I think of it as a "fuck you" from Lou. He took the base from Transformer and twisted it into something more personal, more rotten. It has that trademark Lou Reed sound: urban and glammy, but instead of the bisexual survival and cautious optimism, we have the heterosexual death and decay.

It only gets more heartbreaking as it goes on, culminating with the final three songs: Kids, The Bed and Sad Song, which are truly numbing crescendos in the tragic lives of Jim and Caroline, two stand in characters that represent tens of millions of poor souls in the grip of a quick fix.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2025: #41 An acousmatic album (42nd Album)

So what do we get when we combine the sparseness of Paris, Texas, and the drugs from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. This.

Not awful. It could probably work as a soundtrack to a freaky ass movie or game, but on its own, it's a bit redundant. That last track (first on RYM) has a midnight in a desert vibe that I'm very fond of.

While some would say their sophomore album is the best, I'd say it's this one. Good songwriting mixed with pure slowcore melodies without any aspiration to sound poppy and only wanting to spill out all the emotions out of your heart.

Cista melankolija. Ovo je jedan od onih rijetkih jugoslovenskih albuma koji su od pocetka do kraja jedna depresivna odiseja. Iako na trenutke zvuci razigrano, citajuci tekstove ne moze biti dalje od toga: slomljena srca, izolacija, perpetualna tuga i nevjera. I onih par pjesama koje su najmanje tuzne nose sa sobom teret koji nije za svakog. Cesto se vrtio narativ kroz Đoletov zivot da je patio od depresije. Ovdje je to vise nego ocito. Niko ko nema tu nijansu tihog ludila ne moze da ima takvo majstorstvo za tekstopisanje kao on.

Mozda vecina se nece slozit, al meni je ovaj album blizu vrhunca Balasevica. Mozda da ima jedna dvije pjesme da odstupaju, ali ostatak je vrhunski. Nakon ovog albuma, Balasevic raspusta Rani Mraz i odlazi solo, jako dobra odluka jer je nosio ovaj bend na ledjima od kako je osnovan.
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Pure melancholy. This is one of those rare Yugoslav albums that are a depressing odyssey from start to finish. Although at times it sounds playful, reading the lyrics it cannot be further from that: broken hearts, isolation, perpetual sadness and infidelity. Even those few songs that are the least sad carry with them a burden that is not for everyone. The narrative that persisted through Đole's life was that he suffered from depression for most of his life. Here it is more than obvious. No one who doesn't have that shade of quiet madness can have such mastery of songwriting as he does.

Maybe the majority will not agree, but for me this album is close to the peak of Balasevic. Maybe there are one or two songs that deviate, but the rest is superb. After this album, Balasevic disbands Rani Mraz and goes solo, a very good decision because he has carried this band on his back since it was founded.

The first Rani Mraz album was a success, for obvious reasons. Easy melodies, cute lyrics and easy to sympathize with it are some of the things that adorn it. It has moments that will make Balasevic what he's most known for, like the songs "Neki Novi Klinci" and "Drago Mi Je Zbog Mog Starog" and "Moj frend ima Rock and Roll Band", the former which showcases Đole's fasincation with the passing of life and the modus operandi of his future releases, and the later two which show his laid back nature and storytelling.

It has a few missed moments that lean more into pop territory, which I suspect was because of the other part of the band, BIljana Krstic. Still, there are a few songs that are key, and because of them it's a worthy listen.

The big thing about this album is that it uncovered a facet of my enjoyment of music. I just can't, for the life of me, enjoy the simple, hands-in-the-air-like-you-just-don't-care, happy, style of music like what the Ramones were doing throughout their career. Okay, maybe I'm being a bit too critical about the whole thing. I did enjoy it to an extent, the first 5 minutes of the whole thing, after that the whole style just gets too repetitive for me. Like, I could do without half or even more songs on here. Give me Cretin Hop, Sheena Was A Punk Rocker, We're A Happy Family and I Wanna Be Well, and I'll be on my merry way. Without the rest I can live.

Never could get into these guys past The Bends. Something about them gave me safe mainstream music vibes. WIth that being said, it's "decenter" than let's say Kid A or OKComp, with Nude and Reckoner being standouts.

Sleeping Beauty is like a story building upon itself. Starting with Springtime Again, it builds the foundation of a calm awakening from the winter slumber, with slow chants and slight tingles around. Door of the Cosmos builds upon that, adding a sax and some spacy guitars, which is apt for the song name. And the B side is fully occupied by Sleeping Beauty which takes everything we've learned from the first two tracks and combines them into a 12 minute odessey through flutes, keys, saxophones with a drumming backbone mixed with some ethereal spoken word moments.

Maybe it's a bit ignorant to say this album's sound is embedded to In a Silent Way, but to me there are a lot of parallels to be made. Both are ambient takes on jazz, very sparse, and both feel oddly down to earth, despite trying to sound they're coming from the middle of space. Sleeping Beauty even more so, since Sun Ra's sound is synonymous with spacey jazz. But truthfully, the album sounds like someone dreaming of space in the middle of a concrete street, more than anything. And in that sort of halfway convergence point, this album finds its place as both a great and a unique sonical experience.

Really good rock album from a time where rock was gaining and losing conscious, entering and leaving and entering the ICU et cetera.

But Songs For The Deaf appeared as a true peak of Josh Homme's career, and maybe even alternative rock in the early 2000s. It takes the aggressiveness of Kyuss and dilutes it just enough to thread that line of being great and easily accessible (probably due to the input of Dave Grohl).

To pick one clear winner is hard, but You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire is a favorite of mine with its driving motorik and aggressive delivery that sets the tone for this entire album. Mosquito Song, albeit different, is also nothing short of great.

Rated R was good, but it lacked the expansiveness and creativity that Songs For The Deaf has. Nothing can top the feral feeling this one has.

Oh what a weird album. After their breakouts with the Day and Night duet of albums, they fully embraced the poppier glam sound and rolled with it.

This album sounds and feels like a deck of cards: all the songs are unified by the same structure, but the names of the games are different. You have the two pop rock heavy hitters at the beginning, which are anthems for a reason. Then it gets tricky. Some of the songs like Spread Your Wings and Get Down Make Love are good, while the rest is forgettable. Shoutouts to Who Needs You, a song weirdly out of place that sounds really cute.

Overall, a decent foray, but I think the biggest thing we can get out of this album is that Queen was out of gas for a full albums full of amazing music.

I think that most praise comes from Freddie being one foot in the grave during the recording, as much as I hate to say it. Still, even if we take Freddie's declining health, Innuendo is firmly near the top of Queen's discography, or at least it's in the top half. The opener and closer are must listens, while the meat in between has some tracks I would love to highlight like "I'm Going Slightly Mad", the energetic "Headlong", "Ride the Wild Wind" and "The Hitman", and the romantic "Bijou".

I want to highlight the lingering 80s styles present here, which might deduct some points from some listeners, but it's still not a detriment to me because it's drowned out by some really rich moments, production wise.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2025: #37. An album with an animal in its title (46th Album)

It starts off being a Elliott Smith knock off, but soon they carve out their own sound. If you can muster through the depressing lyrics about the modern life, it's good indie pop with some great noisy key work. It does lose a bit steam in the middle, but picks up with the aptly titled "You Fucked Yourself" til the end.

Despite it being depressing, I find it comforting knowing people were going through the same depression people are going through 30 years later.

Thank you [~SpeedKills] for the recommendation!

Even without taking into account his father's wealth, which is a stupid argument that leads nowhere, this is an ass album.

All the songs sound like the same template of maximalist noise barrage, TikTok-core derivative R&B garbage, and corny rapping. It's amazing how much eclecticism this can fit, honestly.

Moral of the story: just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

It reminds me of a combination of,(well, they are on Dischord, so that makes sense), and, but taking all the things that make them good and making an album that's...well... good.

The drumming on here is a wet dream to anyone interested in the whole shebang of being a show-off musician, but instead of being a local asshat about it, the drummer actually fits in the whole thing, because it doesn't try to stand out, but instead follows the band around (who are all in their own right, good and creative musicians) with its math rock technicality, marching band rhythm, and good precision, especially on the first four tracks. Other than the drumming, the album boasts incredible catchiness all throughout, and I'll always cite the use the sudden changes in tempo and color of the sound, and the progressivness on some of these tracks as things that always put a smile on my face and make me want to groove out.

There is one thing, or rather two, I'd change here: the slow meticulous „ballads“ if you can call them are okay, and give big post-rock-a-la- and vibes, but do not stand up to the rest of the thing, which is a beautiful display of dancy punk and post-hardcore.

Thank you, [~SpeedKills], for the recommendation!

Someone already told the gist of this album: it's the B52s + Gang Of Four with a dash of darker energy. Really gritty and infectious, especially the bass lines all throughout.

The feral vocals deliver a style similar to the growl of Iggy Pop and the sophistication of Debbie Harry, which is exactly what this album needs. Though some songs feel like filler, overall, it's a great album with a clear goal. Nothing overly abstract and acrobatic, just pure fun.

Purple Mountains was arguably the first album I've seen pop up, take traction, make the airwaves, and become relegated to a deep cut for those more interested in the artists or the genre.

It got traction because it was the return project of a beloved icon in the indie sphere, David Berman, whose Silver Jews were top dogs in the underground, with their unique brand of slower and deeply introspective indie courtesy of Berman's love for poetry and self deprecation. Purple Mountains still had those qualities, but this time it felt as the whole project was dedicated to himself, as opposed to his previous projects which creatively jittered between poetic deprecation of self and critic of his immediate surrounding.

It's a hard task to return to it, especially recently when life is going in upwards trajectory. There's always a churning feeling inside my stomach which only reinfornces my idea that sadder music is as addicting as drugs. It's really powerful, and a generally harrowing experience, even more so when you consider it being reelased a month before David's suicide.

I think you have to have a sad bone to fully enjoy this album. It's honestly nothing overtly special from a musical standpoint, and if you're not a fan of Berman, there's nothing here that would entice you. But if you ARE of the self-loathing crowd, or are just having the blues, take a gander.

Victory is superb, but that's only because of Biggie. The rest is stupidity beyond all belief. Who let Diddy's stupid ass behind a mic?

Big problem I find with this album is how uneven it sounds. Like, You'll have tracks like "Welcome to the Terrordome" and then "Pollywanacraka" will turn the hype down, "Burn Hollywood Burn" and "Power to the People" and then the whole album becomes absolutely exhaustive until the immaculate closer.

The parts are good, but it's the sum that drives me crazy, and since we're rating the sum, it's meh.