Reviews by dohej

More English guys who think they're so clever and charming but really are just irritants.

Acoustic guitar based singer-songwriter stuff all glittered up with 80s studio production wizardry: super jangly fingerpicked acoustics that sound like a harp, chorus pedals on crystal clear super compressed electric guitars, lush reverbs, synth textures, electric violins, a bit of rubbery bass - sparse drumming retains the folsky singer-songwriter aesthetic. She has a gentle voice that alternates between breathy singing and chatty urgent talk-singing. Easy listening but kind of boring.

I like the smooth synths' relaxing vibe and jazzy pop feel but felt like it didn't have enough to dig into. A lot of elements that other adjacent take much futher and to a more satisfying conclusion.

The album that enshrined Springsteen as the secular saint of the American liberal. It's politically patriotic, drawing on the big story of American strength in diversity, exceptional goodness, and progressive inclusivity to call for unity in suppressing the base desire for revenge and instead being our best selves. Everything is going to be ok, he keeps reassuring us, as long as we call on our better angels: strength, faith, love, hope - America is the miracle he's waiting for.

Musically it reflects this message by combining his 80s heartland rock sound with lush modern 90s production, extra americana twang paired with Putumayo world-music Arab singing, epic classic rock guitars, RnB jams, and an even heavier than normal gospel sound, sanctifying the liberal patriotic message with the rich sounds of the black church and the post-civil rights story of national redemption through the moral arch of history bending toward justice. In stark contrast to the reactionary music of the time - thin one-dimensional pop country cynically weeping into the flag and joyously baying for blood - this is somber sophisticated and reflective - if vague and cliched- desperately charting a path rising through the end of the good times. "Come on, let's be friends," he begs over a smooth jazzy RnB Jam.

The problem is that it's incredibly boring, bloated, and uninspired - it feels like 72 minutes of homework. No wonder this is what made him the homework-loving Ivy League liberal's heroic voice of the everyman. No wonder he has a podcast and coffee table book with Obama trying to sell this same story of American greatness in the Trump era. No wonder this ultimately vacuous patriotic message falls flat in the face of deteriorating material conditions fraying the flag he's waving. Better than Toby Keith, but a dead end, politically and aesthetically.

Fun high energy new wave that emphasizes the drums banging out the Bo Diddley beat, guitars borrowing style and sounds from surf rock, and a direct popping bass bouncing along, all in support of sing songy vocals. Mostly it's bright and poppy but a few cool moments when it's a bit darker and more post-punk.

Favorites: automatic, skid marks on my heart, our lips are sealed

I like the bands they're ripping off (Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin) and the biggest band to rip them off (Guns N Roses) but this in-between cohort of 70s hard rock (Aerosmith, Kiss, AC/DC) has always been the nadir of classic rock to me. Creatively bankrupt, unexciting, over hyped - it's just tedious blues chord progression with a bit of distortion, mid level guitar heroics, a wailing singer and some annoying visual gimmick - vacuous rock star stuff that is even worse when compared to the underground and alternative stuff (or even the pretty similar british metal) happening at the same time. The only saving grace of this album is that it wasn't as overplayed on the radio growing up and so I don't viscerally hate these sons as much as others of theirs.

Barroom pianos, jazzbar sax, soul arrangements, and clean classic rock guitars all combine for a huge cinematic sound that's full of restless yearning. They're really great at building tension and energy. The vocals are direct and earnest with powerful delivery and a distinctive voice. Some incredible hooks and catchy little melodies. It's one I have come to appreciate more over time, but still more recognize as good than really love.

Wild wah guitars over tense arpeggios to start off, then surprisingly acoustic back porch folksy sound (like if The Band could groove) given the astral funk journey they'd embark on shortly. The gritty guitars and organs work together nicely to pick out some funky riffs. Fun polyvocality with playful interplay between the singers and instruments, its a gospel choir having a party. The guitar keeps shredding wah over the top and the sound moves form the porch into a dirtier garage rock style.

A lush woozy psychedelic indie rock opera. The signature sound is the contrast between the over-the-top orchestral arrangements and the very barebones acoustic guitar + drum machine + thin warbly vocals at the heart the songs. This works very well to create the sense of an overwhelming and alienating mismatch between the self and the environment - the core theme of the opera's story.

Compared to other great electric blues guitarists of the era, with either a leaning towards to the traditional acoustic blues greats (Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker) or the more uptempo rock and roll style (Buddy Guy), this album's prominent piano and horns parts giveit an extremely big band jazzy flair and the incredible vocals make it feel like a motown soul album. His playing feels generic now thanks to a billion blues dads, and it wasn't especially groundbreaking then in terms of the underlying theory or anything, but is such a perfectly realized version of it's genre - exquisite call and response phrasing and that brassy tone. You don't get a fundamental building block of lead guitar playing like pentatonic boxes named after you for no reason. If anything, he's an underrated singer though; he's really belting it out here - incredibly charismatic voice.

A huge band makes a huge sound and Burning Spear's is uncompromising, A packed horn section brings big bright energy and melodic counterpoint, backup singers deepend the vocals with close harmonies and ad lib flourishes, the drums and percussion are perfectly in the pocket, the guitars add more rhythm with upstroke chords and tight little lines in the high end, the keys are there for more funk in the mid range, and the bass is unstoppable - propulsive and deep, thudding into off beats, swining in anticipation around the rest. Burning Spear's vocals emerge from this mass, weaving in and out, interacting with the rhythms and riffs, stepping back to shout from the pockets, percussively rapping out a line with the drums, rising up to float above for a wail.

The center of the venn diagram made by Beatles/Dylan/CSNY with the twangle dialed up and some psych production flourishes. A bit of a transition between their jangle pop and country rock eras. Pretty sounds, an bright optimistic feel, hyperactive bass parts, cool harmonies, and very melodic - but nothing especially remarkable from the most over-represented band on the list. Not every 60s album with sitar is worthwhile!

Treacly jangly pop on the threshold between 80s new wave and 90s alt-rock with 60s psych throwbacks. Some nice melodies but really the only interesting this is the variety of instrumentation. It is sickeningly sweet stuff with vacuous lyrics, uninspired performances, and bland songwriting. Cloying 90s filler.

Pairs post-punk style aesthetics with Irish folk and Country sounds - a bit of fiddle and accordian, some lilting rhythms, some traditional melodies. It's an interesting idea in principle, and somebody was bound to do it (see also the Pogues) but in practice it ends up pretty put-on hokey and contrived.

Favorites: Hard to Be Human, Lost Highway

Demented circus music, recorded by the ghouls who haunt an abandoned carnival. I like the dark demonic grooves, the squigly guitar terror, the aggresive industrial effects and would be into a band that pushes this dynamic even futher (like Swans). The vocals fit with the aesthetic - highly dramatic, screaching howls and horror, like Tom Waits being tortured - but push it over the line into being extremely annoying. I like their debut better, but this is definitley more interesting to me that Nick Cave's solo stuff. The cover rules.

A tragic heartbroken album that draws on a few different NY styles. There are the country-adjacent folksy acoustic guitar with twangy arrangements and close harmonies songs, the solo piano ballads, and the hard-rocking proto-grunge dirges. Individually I don't think any of these songs are among his best, other than excuisite desolation of Albuquerque. There are better versions of each of these styles - but together it works perfectly as a deep dive into the darkness of loss and disillusionment.

Favorites: Roll another Number, Albuquerque

Irresistible percussion, lively horns, fun melodic phrasing, call and response singing, and rich orchestration combine for an swinging energetic, jazzy album that made 40 minutes of answering emails much more enjoyable than normal.

Patient spacious electronic dreamscapes pairing Echoes-era Pink Floyd psychedelic exploration of ambience with new toys from the land of synths and sequencers. The songs evolve slowly, with layers rising and falling, effects coming in and out of focus, melodies passing through inconspicuously, arpegios intensifying and dissipating over a sombre vamp of artifical strings. Stressful and anxious at times, relaxing and blissful at others.

Dry as a tinderstick and ready to catch fire his is taught edgy post-punk/power-pop bristling with energy. It's nostalgic for the mid 60s with lots of Beatles, Byrds, Kinks and Who imprinted in the songs, but a heavy dose of new-wave style in the delivery. The bass earns its spot high in the mix with propulsive melodic lines and a touch of funk. The vocals are direct and earnest (his timbre reminds me of Billy Bragg) with a flat distant affect for that art-school cool feel, but in a kind of shy reserved way.

Favorites: Set the House Ablaze, That's Entertainment, Scrape Away

This album lacks the directness and the sense of fun that makes So so good. Solsbury Hill is a great song pointing at the direction he'd go over the next few years, but the rest is either still bogged down by the bloated pomp of the over-written ultimately very boring prog and glam sound, or, in the case of Waiting for the Big One, an embarrasingly bad attempt at loungey piano blues. The album is basically as pompous as the Wall but nowhere near as good, even if Here Comes the Flood has a bit of a Pink FLoyd sound and a cool guitar solo.