Reviews by dohej

Combines all the worst aspect of multiple genres - the dull repetition and slow pacing of post-rock, the generic riffs of alt-rock, flat vocals and insipid melodies of radio metal, and the bloated pompousness of prog - with little to see of their redeeming qualities apart from some nice atmospheric stuff, bits of Tool-style bass riffing, and some great lead guitar stuff from Adrian Belew on a couple tracks.

Dude wrote a book called How to Write a Song and has been advertising it by showing how effective his method really is - his 5th solo album in 8 years (in addition to 4 Wilco records this decade) is a triple disc 30-song album. How much do you really have to say? His method is kind of random word association/imagery based - but he is a genius of wringing meaning from this. How many musical ideas do you really need to get out there? He writes to stay sane, creativity is a compulsion, but a bit of curation would help. These are remarkably consistent (if a bit samey) tracks though - broadly starting from his alt country folk rock foundation before building/flowering into more abstract spacey textural atmospheric passages with motorik drumming. Tastefully assembled, expertly arranged, a master at work just doing his thing. It’s actually really very good. Compulsion as creativity.

Hyperactive theatre kid music. Busy over-arranged, lyric-centered piano rock for a one person musical about a manic episode.

Abrasive post-hardcore with a touch of emo but much more of the brutally direct noise of an Albino joint and the sprawled textural anxiety of sonic youth. At times it's shoegaze/post rock, at times screamo math rock, then they're like a guitar/bass/drum trio doing industrial music. The bass is loud and overdriven and relentless, the drums played with hammers, and the guitar an explosive combination of thick chords, jagged edges, screeching lines and tender melodic noise. A very cool amalgam of other 90s alt/punk sounds in a tightly packed dense as shit dose

Laid back new wave with a strong beat, crunchy guitars, and a mix of super 80s keyboard sounds that seem like the main songwriting base, so it has a bit of an Elton John/Elvis Costello pop rock style to it.

Big brash synth saturated disco pop - three anthemic mega hits but the rest really holds up well - it sounds colorful. Fun, hedonistic party music, it’s hyper-synthetic with a robo- Daft Punk style to the production. It’s very Eurovision for an American pop album. The raps that pop up every so often are awful though good lord. A bit too long.

Beth Orton in French with added neo soul bits like flutes and horns to go with the classic strummy acoustic guitars & trip hop beats, but the vocals don't have the hushed charisma.

A strange mix of bluesy glam, jazzy TV theme tunes, David Bowie & Dave Matthews inspired alt-rock, and Can-Con lyrics (more hockey references than any album I’ve heard before). It’s an eclectic, sometimes incoherent, blend of angsty and bright, dissonant and poppy, straight and psych, country twang and post-punk noise, heartland and urban, proggy arena rock and barroom folk jam. Way too bloated - all the songs had something good to them, but then they’d keep going and going and include a bunch of boring extra stuff like long outros, genre shifts, overly complex arrangements. Same for the album as a whole.

Portuguese alt rock with high spec production, mainstream radio style with hooky guitar parts, lots of loud/quiet dynamics, and whining nasal vocals that get grating fast.

One of the classics of a genre I hated at the time but have weirdly come to have a soft spot for with 2 decades of hindsight. Whinging vocals, taught guitars, explosive energy - the overwrought emotionally incontinent sound of suburban Mid Atlantic millennial angst. The soundtrack to messy breakups, screaming fights in cars parked in strip malls, of getting dumped, yelling at your mom and getting yelled at by your dad. From 1001 more albums & user list.

Spacey synthy psychedelic new wave with sweeping arrangements, massive hooks, melodramatic vocals, and some real bangers. A hysterical bipolar album that's dark and moody then bright and joyous. Jangly indie pop with danceable bass lines that really pop in the mix paired with the exagerated misery of goth rock.

Dirty guitars, lapsteel and CSNY sounding country harmonies added to the ultra smooth, polished to a mirror, jazz rock mix.

One time in 2005 my roommate played me a kings of leon song she likes a lot and I thought it was pretty good. I've been trying to find that so g ever since but no luck. This ranges from fine to annoying, but it's always super generic and the voice is an off putting nasal drawl. Bands like this have their place as local live music fixtures, but how this room off as an international rock act remains a mystery.

Spacey beats with a Sci Fi feel, slow and atmospheric, constructed from an eclectic mix of ambient dnb and turntable samples from funky jazz to gritty post-industrial sounds to abstract orchestral padding. The verses are wordy, mumbly and muffled, delivering backpack vernacular and Dennis Miller style similes in a breathless staccato flow.

After listening to this all the time as a teenager it's been a while since I put it on and in the intervening years had somehow come to the conclusion that it's a classic, but probably a bit overrated. Boy was I wrong. Some time away reveals how full of ideas, brimming with feeling, dynamic, textured, energetic, and powerful this album really is. Guitars pushed in thrilling new directions, mopey showgaze fused with explosive alt-rock, a dissonant mix of anger and alienation, depression and disenchantment, angst and paranoia. It's overwrought, cathartic, introspective.

The world's most overplayed 'this is the 60s, look the 60s are happening' needledrop. More jangly sunshine pap from the most over-represented era of pop music. They're not even the best Beatles rip off band in LA in mid 60s. Sacharine, bloated arrangements. Annoying mixing/stereo effects. Flute. The harmonies are nice though.

Jazzy, folky, soulful - one of the most unique, distinctive albums of the 60s, it's totally unmistakable.

Freedom 90 and Soul Free have a fun Baggy infused upbeat feel and irreprible, if extremely smooth, energy to them. The rest is extremely boring ballads for radiostations that play in places where music has to be on but can't upset anyone.

Better than I expected for one of these groundbreaking very dated hip hop albums - it holds up more than some of the much more stripped back early boombox stuff - the full sounding disco/RnB beats give it a compelling dynamism and groove, a big party feel, so the verses are just icing on the cake. The Stevie Wonder song and You Are are shockingly bad though - pure syrupy pap and awful crooning. The spacey synth riff on the Message makes up for it though.

Good old down and out and plain and simple, roadworn, lovelorn, country and western.