Rated 6/10
Propulsive kinetic beats and an angular staccato flow - the production draws on dark and heavy jungle style for a menacing edgy sound and rhythms that seem always off kilter, a step off, just catching up to steady themselves - toppled by the explosive force the verse.
Rated 6/10
Era-defining but because of that extremely dated. Hard hitting but basic beats without a ton of variety. His delivery is extreme and the material explosive, covering police violence, domestic/family abuse, racism, sexism (both pro and con), money, drugs, tits, ass - the whole gamut. It really seems like he had a ton to get off his chest in the late 80s/early 90s, said his peice, and moved on. The hardcore track is a really funny amalgam of hardcore punk and hair metal - what are the wierd white kids in LA in 1989 doing? Let's show that we can do that too!
Rated 10/10
A perfect autumnal album for mid October, wistful longing nostalgic sounds for walking through crunchy leaves wearing a light jacket against the crisp air, feeling the sun settle down earlier and earlier.
Rated 6/10
The good songs are sad wallows in the darkness of death and heartache with an immersive atmosphere and a slow burning intensity. The bad songs are disposable blues tracks with a more upbeat feel but pretty boring - necessary pallette cleansers for contrast maybe, but there're too many of them and they're all overlong. The whole thing is a classic case of CD-era bloat - the 45 minute LP cut of this would be great. The soaring lap steels, delicate clean guitar leads, gentle organs, and moody pianos and the huge reverby production all give the slow songs such a sombre reflexive feel - a heavenly sound for a morbid mood.
Rated 6/10
Jazzy boom bap beats with classic dj scratching, soul samples, and a laid back upbeat feel to them, especially when the upright bass parts hit. Tight wordy verses delivered in two similar precise high speed flows with distinct timbres/cadence. Conscious positive rap from the same time/place as the Native Tongues acts. No bad songs, but there's not a ton of variety to it, so the 50 minutes feels a bit long.
Rated 4/10
Smooth funky RnB with light hip hop touches and lush sultry neo soul style to the production. A couple of huge singles (but lots of filler) definitive of the radio pop sound of the mis 90s. Was never really my thing, but have come to appreciate the style and sound of this stuff more with distance - it's way better than the Swedish factory pop and bland asexual talent show diva stuff that replaced it.
Rated 4/10
A very different kind of album for sure - definitley not a pop album by any definition. A rendition of Weimar cabaret translated to English. It's an admirable project with some great very dramatic performances. Although it's not really something I'd ever want to put on, it could be cool to see live and learn more about the music/lyrics and the context of their creation as well as the context of this rendition. Definitley sounds like a German of a certain generation grappling with what their parent's generation did.
Swishy swinging dance music paired with thrilling virtuouso soloists taking turns ripping through the changes. The best of big band, a view into a pre-album era of popular music as, first and foremost, performance, and of jazz in particular as live and living, not the fossil we inherit in the 21st century.
Rated 10/10
When the generation of guys who brought Bop, Hard Bop, Cool Jazz, and Modal Jazz to and through their logical got tired of playing the same solos in the same spots over the same vamps - nothing new here, just iterations on the Same - they splintered into new directions: challenging deconstructive avant-jazz, new age spiritual jazz, afro-centric polyrhythmic jazz, jazz/rock fusion and dark gnarly funk. Herbie Hancock took the astral funk route, rocketing straight to space by leaning hard into synths and grooves to make some an all time great, super accessible, dance album that just will not quit.
Rated 6/10
Classic Krautrock that, while it doesn't have the driving motorik and funk energy of Can, has the loose jammy sprawling feel, emphasis on drones and repetitions and shifting textures, and psych exploratory energy to it. More of a proto-shoegaze than a house music precedent.
Favorites: Krautrock, Jennifer, Giggy Smile
Rated 2/10
Unbearable prog pop. One of the most annoying things I’ve ever heard. Theater kids in album form - just a massively irritating and twee onslaught of bright noise, childish melodies, and idiotic instrumentation. OOH LOOK HOW WHIMSICAL WE ARE!!!! shut up.
Rated 4/10
The best moments on here bring together the dark psychedelia of the Velvet Underground with the medieval folk style of UK psych, pairing droning guitars and violas working against each other a over sparse but insistent rhythm section to build intensity chaotic intensity while a monotone vocal delivers ancient melodies. The more they lean into the folksy pastoral or corny blues the worse it gets though.
Favorite: Sailor's Life, Percy's Song
Rated 6/10
Representing the Bowie inspired glam art rock side of brit pop, Suede's crowning album is a massive sweeping music with arch high drama vocals. Great songs and sounds but the mix is muddy so it never fully realizes the grandiose scale they're going for though. A few tracks are immediately grabbing but overall it feels like a grower.
Rated 8/10
Unrelentingly abrasive with pummeling riffs and a forceful set of drum machine beats that bring a level of robotic techno groove to some of the grimiest, heaviest, scuzz recorded.
Rated 4/10
Dark dystopian electronica with touches of dub, jazzy instrumental hip hop, and chilled out ambient trip hop and, less successfully, corny blues rock. Late night music for empty streets and rainy highways, neo-noir moods for the millennium. Lots of it sounds like prelude, anticipating a main event that never fully arrives.
Rated 6/10
A heaping dose of post-Pixies alt rock, none of which raises quite to those heights, but the album is still full of exciting guitars, driving propulsive rhythms, and catchy melodies. Plus the odd alt-country twand. It doesn’t have the loud/quiet dynamics of the Pixies best songs, but that trick had been copied to death and diffused across the radio by the mid 90s anyway. Lots of short songs, mostly built out of the signature of combo of clean and dirty guitars and surf, punk, and classic rock roots, but with added pianos and synths to flesh out the arrangements and more of a power pop indie orientation (and in one cringey case, reggae). Drags on a bit, would be best curated down to 16 tracks/45 minutes.
Rated 6/10
From being familiar with the hits I was expecting a lot more of the bouncy new wave stuff and was surprised at the post punk edge on a lot of these tracks. Fun surf influences, nice gritty passages, but despite some good stuff from the band, the vocals are so annoying that they make the whole thing sound like a novelty act.
Rated 10/10
Shaggy shambolic rock and roll inspired by the anyone can do it / do it yourself ethos of hardcore and driven by a relentless all consuming drunken youthful urge to create, express, and react. Wedged between punk and power pop and alt country, it barley holds together yet coheres into something magical, the guitars' scuzzy jangle, the deeply emotive hoarse vocals, the punchy drums and loping bass together create an alienated but earnest, melancholic and wistful, ironic but open sensibility. It's so basic and raw, naively touching. I was late to this band, but they've become a favorite.
Rated 6/10
Samples looping, beats banging, hooks iterating, tension building and releasing and building and releasing, synths glitching screeching deforming sound into new textures and patterns, beats banging, repeating, looping, building releasing, howling. Oddly both all consuming and totally ignorable (but passively anxiety building) depending on how loud you play it.
Favorites: The dirtier noisier stuff like Rollin and Scratchin
Rated 6/10
Warm and cozy, an optimistic burst of pure high spec pop country production informed by 2 decades of rustic acoustic indie singer songwriters. Tasteful songs cleverly adding new shades while still coloring comfortably within the traditional lines. Distinctive melodic phrasing. Lush arrangements bringing in soaring slides, dabbling in electronic sounds, and leaning heavily into rich orchestration.
