Reviews by dohej

All of the annoying parts of prog, glam pop, and hard rock melded together into a seamless half hour of irritating, bloated, pompous arena rock from the most overrated band of all time. The guitar tone is the only good bit and he doesn't even do anything especially interesting with it except the harmonized lead on Misfire - otherwise its just boring shredding and medium riffs that're always quickly subsumed by a new movement in the song from a bassoon or a choir or something else borrowed from classical music that for some reason is impressive to simpletons. Everything about it is showy but vacuous. At least they aren't singing about wizards and trolls anymore.

I saw G Love at a festival; it was the late afternoon of the last day and they were on before a band I was there to see on a secondary stage. It was hot as hell and even muggier. They were the perfect band to listen to while we sprawled out exhausted on the floor desperate for shade, drank as much cold anything as we could, chatted at the back of the crowd, and waited for something better to come on. They are a perfect band for exactly this scenario.

Philadelphia's answer to sublime, bluesy singer songer writer acoustic guitar funk with a bit of hip hop style and bit of 90s lo-fi slacker rock attitude. Laid back low key unobtrusive good time party music.

Brimming with nervous kinetic energy, nonstop post punk grooves, swirling ambient menace and explosive joyful melody, darkness and light, whimsy and paranoia, irony and earnestness.

First and foremost a collection of poetry that wears it's musical influences (Mick Jagger's white bluesman vocals, Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan's mystical rock poet persona, the Velvet Underground's dark psychadelic chaos, Television's spidery guitars) brazenly. An interesting pivot between the hippie late 60s and the punk mid 70s, lots of this is like New York Dolls and Richard Hell's version of bluesy old fashioned rock sped up, glammed up, made thematically darker, more personal and raunchier (though she definitely didn't take on their taste for short sharp songs). Other parts have a more polished kind of new-wave sound with herky jerky rhythms and guitars that sound almost like synths. Some of it is more stripped back and nearly folksy, but piano based, and leaning towards an arena friendly Fleetwood Mac sound. Ecclectic, but coheres around a) her voice, which definitely takes the punk approach of not needing to be very good technically to be charismatic and to deliver the lyrics, which are definitely her real emphasis, and b) her persona, the ultimate scenster, an act of self-crafting and projection which is the album's main accomplishment.

I've tried with this album a few times over the years and never really cared about it either way, but like it a lot more this time around. Maybe it's from randomly being in the middle of reading Please Kill Me, where she plays a staring role (but comes of pretty badly - just an ludicrous hipster making insufferable pronouncements about the future of poetry being the tired Rolling Stones) and having more context for it.

Skipping the schmaltzy Nashville strings and opting instead for a straight from the road house honky tonk style with huge twangy guitars, soaring pedal steels, Appalachian fiddle, and a jumped up bass, this is a landmark of rock-n-roll infused California country meant for dancing and boozing and weeping. Great performances, especially the honey sweet tenor vocal and Don Rich's spanking telecaster sound. Classic songs that have been played a billion times, but none are my favorites in the genre, other than the bonus track live 'Act Naturally', whoooo boy!

An attempt to blast off into outer space that can't escape their own thick clouds of smoke. One of the most stoned albums of all time, a pothead triumph. Lemmy's bass is the driver, picking out forceful droning blues rock riffs that ebb and flow and build intensity before breaking out into a euphoric blissed out groove. The guitars make a huge fuzzy reverby echoey noise, billowing smoke and frothing atmosphere that occasionally coheres into a melody or a solo before diffusing back to ambience. Pulsating whirling synths, gnarly sax lines that amp up the energy, propulsive drumming. Big dumb fun, an inspiration to thousands of basement rocker psychonauts all across the land.

Solid synth indie with strong beats, krautrock drumming, riffs that are a throwback to 00s post punk revival guitar, some garage psych fuzz bits, classic synth tones and programming, lots of energy throughout and a singer that suits the music and doesn't stand out for good or bad. They're doing a very generic sound as well as can be. This is such a fun kind of band, people are always going to keep having them, making ok albums and playings party shows that get the crowd dancing. There should be (and kind of is) one in every town at all times and once in a while one of them like MGMT will strike gold with a banger that goes huge and brings a lot more energy/attention to the scene so it starts to permeate the whole pop landscape before receding back to baseline.Some good stuff on this album, but nothing bangs hard enough to break containment.

I just don't get the hype with this one. It's not like the back story is even that interesting, people are just so over invested in dull 60s lore and desperate to rehabilitate a lost genius. The album itself has lots of sophisticated harmonies, thoughtful arrangements, and tons of dense layers to the production, but what does it amount to? A wishy washy hour of schmaltz that goes nowhere - incredibly boring. Good vibrations' inclusion only underscores how lacking the rest of it is.

Favorites: wind chimes, child is father, good vibrations

Very generic 90s pop rock. There are some nice guitar sounds (some jangle, some arpegios, some fizzy leads, some big sweeping chords) but the vocals are whispy and pretty weak and the songs are nothing special. It's all extremely mid-tempo and middle of the road - it's not abrasive or dissonant enough to have any real tension or dynamism and not hooky enough to work be anthemic or catchy pop. A strange inclusion since there's so much much better 90s indie to pick from.

Surprisingly effective pairing of acid house rhythms and indie pop sensibility for a chilled out bit of emo dance music. Warm and bright and optimistic feeling.

Is this the capstone album of the hippy era? Pairing the psych blues rock sound with the rustic Americana country turn, CSNY embodies the back to the land bucolic aesthetic, a shift away from the more confrontational (or at least commentary) 60s sound to an inward looking search for the good life and concern with the outward appearances of rebellion (I almost cut my hair). Amazing vocal performances both from soloists but especially the group harmonies. I love Stills and Young exchanging gnarly filthy guitar leads under the whole thing, and the interplay between the acoustics in the rhythm section. A Jerry Garcia cameo (pedal steel on teach your children) doesn't hurt either! The recording is so nice too - there's so much space between the bass parts in the low end and the soaring highs of the vocals harmonies, and each instrument has its own room to come through and contribute to the whole.

No wonder they broke up, half the band wants to write wiggles level Oompa doompa doo music for toddlers. Some cool synth stuff, the dark spacey grooves on the A side are really good, Something is a gem, and lots of impressive studio wizardry, but too many annoying novelty songs and clever but empty songwriting moves.

A deep dark synthetic world of distorted reflections bouncing off shimmering glossy black surfaces. A band I wish I liked more than I actually do. Love the cold metallic vibe and funkless disco rhythms but get a bit bored, the tempos are all too similar and even though there's slow build up and intensification, there's not enough tension in the composition.

Favorites: policy of truth, enjoy the silence, world in your eyes

An eclectic band moving between the different rock guitar sounds of the day (thick reverb soaked shoegaze textures, jangly indie pop strummy, nostalgic garage psych riffs and wah wah leads, crunchy britpop chords) and adding in horns and flutes and dub bass for a big hard charging sprawling record. The vocals have a Power pop melodic sensibility and a 60s harmonic sound paired with an experimental approach to recording with modulation and distortion. Opens very strongly, but a handful of slow quiet meandering tracks in the final third mean it drags on a bit too long - should've ended at Lazarus. There's so much great guitar on this, nothing flashy but perfectly delivered parts and tones.

Explosive vocals that somehow achieve a soaring growl and deliver 1000 volts of raw charisma, backed by a hot hot RnB band that's really cooking: wailing horns, clean bluesy guitar fills, hopping bass. Most of the songs aren't that even that great, but really who cares with these incendiary vocals?! What a performance.

Peaceful but disquieting. Monk plays with a stuttering skittish rhythm, pausing unexpectedly, tripping and catching up, emphasizing beats you weren't ready for and holding a rest a beat longer than usual. This is all most evident on the solo piece 'I Surrender, Dear' where it's him and the piano and he's free to riff without a bass/drum waiting on him trying to keep time. The blues and swing pieces are classic hard bop, warm and lively with hints of dissonance from the piano shading the tone and pushing new harmonic interpretations of the melodies.

The prestige TV of 2010s music: drawn out multi level storytelling with plenty of sex and violence, social commentary via personal coming of age narrative, flashy high end production, self consciously artsy, expertly assembled with some real virtuoso performances, building tension that drags a bit in the middle, loved by middle brow critics for its gritty authenticity.

A fun album full of choppy keyboard and drum machine RnB pop rap beats in big party mode, braggadocios horny rhymes, and all-star cameos. Mixed in with some reflective personal tracks about embracing life in a new way the wake of loss. Too many annoying and weirdly defensive spoken interludes. Not as good and not as many undeniable hits as So Addictive but still a good time.

Hard to separate from every cliche boomer montage of hippies, the 60s, San Francisco, and all the rest, but it's iconic for a reason. The fuzzy garage blues psych style, gnarly guitars, a bit of a groovy groove and booming pair of pipes are so good. The twee folksy stuff not so much - slow, tepid and meandering.

Favorites: DCBA 25, somebody to love, 3/5 of a mile, embryonic journey, plastic fantastic lover

It's just so stupid you have to love it. Mid tempo hard rock with solid riffs, precise leads, loads of hooks, and some insanely expensive sounding production. It's before my time so never really internalized this stuff, but can really see how it would become a ubiquitous deeply imprinted part of dumb guy culture.