Reviews by dohej

Great combination of bomastic production and cynical content. The big gated drums, the cheesy keyboards, the corny sax, big dumb classic rock sound and hoarse vocals pointing out how crap everything's become but also that the good old days are a stupid myth.

Big boom box blasting beats, old school scratching, and hard hitting verses delivered with a relentless pummeling force. Incredible energy, glorious embrace of the haters, and perfection of the art of the hype man.

My guitar teacher was obssesed with this when I was in high school so I listened to it a lot, it's been very strange to see it get elevated so high in the general music consciousness since that Kanye sample, but even more so in the last 5 years as a bit of mandatory vinyl.

Lots of high highs: driving bass parts and jammy guitar stuff, big riffs, the cover, sax and melotron sounds, some of the exploratory spacious stuff. The drama of it all. But also, some lows: the flute, some of the more noodly bits that get kind of boring, the folkloric element.

A gritty, noisy, sleazy delight. Pure filth.

An adolescent favorite I haven't revisited for decades but that stands up way better than I expected it to. Fast and furious Nirvana meets Green Day super commercial skate punk with loads of hooks to go with the pummelling drums and tightly distorted piercing guitars. They'd get extremely annoying and novelty song based after this album, but Smash is pop punk gold. Offspring : punk : : Tony hawk games : skateboarding.

A great album for when you want 45 minutes of Walk This Way - this is an extended elaboration of the idea of mixing of rock samples and 1980s rap delivery. Gets pretty tiresome how the whole crew chimes in on the words that rhyme, even on the novely songs. But, No Sleep Till Brooklyn is great, and Fight for Your Right is a timeless adolescent classic. A fun, lighthearted and playful album even when its being annoying.

I like the folk based melodic phrasing and can put up with the singing style, but the constant banjo plucking, cheesy grating accordion and the monotonous reel rhythm really grind my gears. A tedious slog.

He's much better in brash arrogant fly me to the moon mode, this is just like listening to a drunk moan about his ex for an hour. Bland crooning over gentle piano and whiny strings that's not even over the top and schmaltzy enough to be fun. It captures a melancholy mood well, but just ends being a boring downer.

Jaunty pub rock constantly threatening to break into a singalong. It's like guys doing a kitschy ironic vaudeville show desperate for laughs for just winking aggressively.The brass brings a lot of energy and the overall sound is bouncy and kinetic. Our House is great, the rest is pretty boring.

The worst parts of RnB and being online all rolled into one blessedly short album of warbly nasal melisma and d-tier gender theory. Like, damn, you're saying there are transactional elements to sexuality that intersect with the economy? No way. So bored of people having these realization every 11 minutes. If you can get past the spoken word bits and the vocals there are some decent if generic 90s style jams with deep beats and lush arrangements.

If the Doors were New England hipsters instead of LA hippies, if Velvet Underground were a bit more laid back. Earnest and louche vocals with a warm timbre engaging delivery, over lackadaisical slacker rock. Effortless cool. Get yourself someone who'll love you the way Jonathan Richman loves Massachusetts and the Old World.

Mid career Neil Young isn't especially inspired, definitely one of his that could go - extremely overrated. It's kind of a shame to waste half a crazy horse record on a pretty bland acoustic set. The second half goes a bit harder with some classic proto grunge scuzzy stuff. The thundering distortion of the second 'Hey Hey' rips right through and the guitar parts on Powderfinger especially are up there with some of his best. Get the feeling this is included mostly on the strength of the ultimate boomer meta rock and roll question 'burn out or fade away'?

Trippy and immersive, chilled out but intense, spacey and atmospheric but very present and lively. Warm and organic in timbre even as it slides into a robotic machinic trances of hypnotic rhythm. Choatic performances, songs that clatter and fall apart and reemerge in a new form.

Some cool loungey sleazy psychedelic stuff going on musically, but more than ruined by being a concept album about hitting a child with your car then fucking her. Guys just had these fantasies out loud in the 70s huh? Great representative of France here, the laid back, chilled out, black turtle neck wearing pedo rapist.

It's so comically overraught it circles back around the being good. So much angst, so much drama, such beautiful guitars and swirling unsettled energy.

Morrissey's take on britpop - the band sounds like Suede or Pulp, but his voice is distinctly his own, all aching melodrama, pained pique, and sweeping nostalgia.

An ambitious and original bit of folk opera that reminds me mostly of the pastoral psych-folk of the late 60s/early 70s in the UK but reinvented for millenial California. It conjures a medieval fantasy world with the arrangements (lots of strings, harps, flutes) and inhabits it with witchy croaking vocals and story telling poem-lyrics. Lots to admire conceptually, but I don't really like listenting to it at all - even once I get used to the voice.

A hilariously stupid album that captured the end of millennium zeitgeist of vague undirected being pissed. The singles aren't as good as from Significant Other where they really dialled in their signature style (swirly atmosphere then thudding thick downtuned guitar blasts) but Rollin' and My Way are quintessential dumb guy anthems. Fun riffs, extremely corny accents like the DJ scratching, and idiotic lyrics. People are mad about it, but metal has always been this dumb, this was just dumb music for especially dumb times. CD era bloat and loudness wars production make it sound bad and drag on forever. The songs are all at least a minute or two too long. Incredibly funny to be a band as huge as they were at the time and putnout that album cover that's so bad looking and not actually funny - one for all time moron mt Rushmore.

Favorite: Take a look around

Classic new wave stuff - a bit of funky post punk bass and slashing jangly guitar, some ska style horns played on cheesy keyboards, a couple synth parts, angular ironic disaffected vocals with a bit of pop melody. Building tension, dance grooves. A lot like talking heads and the police but also duran duran - upbeat energetic and full of nervous kinetic energy. Good fun

00s revival of 80s synthy post punk turned into dance music - the best heir to New Order. There's a surprisingly tender genuine break up song and a couple of amazing burnout/hangover songs - the whole thing is a beautifully bittersweet combination of lonely and party music.