Reviews by drnanard

I adore Queen, truly. And as a music album, this is a stellar display of talent. But as a Queen album, I can't stop thinking that it is kind of a mess?

Of course, you got two of the most legendary power ballads of their repertoire, "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Prophet's Song"; incredible all around, I shouldn't have to even say it.

But you also got... "I'm in Love with my Car" for some reason? Look, although the other guys of the band might find this astonishingly ludicrous, the reality is that Queen is Freddie. The music is good, but mate, Freddie pushes it out of the stratosphere with how fucking phenomenal his singing is. I genuinely think that he was the best singer to have ever lived, only challenged by the likes of MJ and such. There's a powerfulness to his voice, but also a range, a grace, a humor that's quite unmatched. And then you got fucking Roger Taylor, the drummer, who might not be a bad singer by any metrics, but come on, there's absolutely no competition whatsoever. So when you got that stupid song about wanting to fuck your car, and the boring ass Taylor on it, you can only wonder what it could have been if Freddie had sung it, elevating it from cringe to funny and probably emotionally poignant??

ANYWAY, sorry for the tangent, but the rest of the album is also... weirdly heterogeneous. "Death on two legs" and "You're my best friend" are also fantastic additions, and "Seaside Rendez-vous" is really fun. But the rest is so bland, so generic. "39", a fine song on its own, with a nice text, suffers from being sang by Brian May. As for the other songs, even Freddie couldn't save them from sounding boring; "Love of my Life" is probably the worst offender with how low-energy it is, which would be fine if it wasn't so repetitive, and if it felt meaningful and powerful, which it doesn't, sorry not sorry.

Suffice to say, as a whole, this album is a let-down, and I vastly prefer Queen's earlier discography, but it's also hard to be too harsh when it has such great songs, one of which being one of the greatest ever recorded.

I expected to hate every second of this, but I have to admit that the beat is pretty good. Good flow, good rhymes, good rhythm, good sounds. Even the misogynistic songs, to my dismay, are fun to listen to.

I guess the advantage this album has over other hip-hop albums (in my very limited experience with hip-hop) is that if you remove the rap, the music still slaps.

That was pretty good, but I have to say I like my jazz a bit more punchy. Hard bop is characterized by this slower tempo, and its blues influences that give it a distinctly rhythmic vibe. It's very relaxing, and the talent is definitely there, but while this is perfect music for a dark and moody jazz club in a basement, the predictability of the music can get a bit boring. A faster tempo would definitely improve the oomph factor.

Usually, I try listening to albums before checking the reviews. But other times, I can't listen to music in the moment, and I get curious. I did just that this morning. And boy, the top reviews don't paint a pretty picture, do they.

So I went to this album with biases, and I was sure to hate it. And it's surprisingly good??

From what I gathered, it's the singing that's turning people off. It sounds a bit like opera. It's eerie, but often beautiful. And at least they're trying something different.

Overall, it's a fine album, and some songs are truly good, but they're all a bit samey and it gets stale pretty quickly. It's your run-of-the-mill post-punk album where they confuse screaming with singing, and where distortions don't really serve a purpose outside of sounding rebellious. It's high-energy, but there's no real sense of personality behind the music. I've heard better in that genre.

Man I love Billy Joel. Everything on this album is stellar. It's an equal mix of tender and fun songs. Like Chris de Burgh (sorely missing from the list), Billy Joel is one hell of a storyteller, and that's what makes his music so riveting. You can absolutely enjoy his songs without listening to the lyrics, but you're missing something.

Billy Joel has a deep understanding of the human soul. All of his songs, even those with pretty mundane themes (love and longing for a woman!), manage the delicate balance between mellow, somber, joyful and melancholic. It's this emotional richness that makes Billy's music so poignant, so resonant.

It's a shame the Piano Man album isn't on the list, and that this is the only Billy Joel representation, but well, it's a perfect album nonetheless, with everything from danceable bops to songs that will make you lay in bed for hours, eyes fixed on the ceiling. I love every second of it.

I came to know Kate Bush through the fourth season of Stranger Things. In it, she's Max's favorite artist, and it's her music that helps her escape Vecna's clutch. The song "Running up that Hill" is prominently featured, most notably in one of the best scene in the series, which helped it gain new traction among modern audiences. For good reason : it's a magnificent song. Apparently, Kate Bush wasn't very popular in the US before that. A shame, because what an artist she is!

Don't be mistaken : "Running up that Hill" is great song, and an equally great opener on the album, but it is far from being the only good one on it. One-hit wonder this album is not. In fact, I'd even say that it's not the best one. Most memorable? Maybe, thanks to Stranger Things, but the second half of the album is so fucking wonderful that it doesn't really matter.

There's a real sense of crescendo on the album, as it progressively become more whimsical, ethereal, esoteric even. Kate Bush paints a rich dream-like tapestry full of witches, fairies and imps, and she herself sound like a nymph in the woods, murmuring poetry directly into your soul.

This is one of the best albums ever composed, don't @ me.

Who would have thunk that the band with the most generic name on the planet would produce the most generic music on the planet?

That was surprisingly good. And very diverse, musically. It's full of interesting sounds, uncommon instruments from all around the globe. The first song opens with a vibrant middle eastern vibe, but there's also a lot of latino influence (obviously), African percussions, etc. The rap sections have a great flow too. This isn't something I would personally gravitate towards, but I can't deny the quality of this production.

I've seen this album on many lists of the best folk albums, and it definitely didn't steal its spot. The songs are all beautiful, but they're also all pretty distinct, have their own vibe. The texts are also poetic, and the voices are emotionally resonant.

However, it would be hard to justify putting this on the same pedestal as the giants like Leonard Cohen or Simon & Garfunkel, so let's say it's a 4.

Oh and, by the way, I come from poverty, so fuck you to the ignorant dickface in the reviews. Thinking you need to come from a privileged background to enjoy that kind of music is genuinely the stupidest thing I've read on this site so far, and that's including the mathematician guy from Be.

If you want to call yourself "sensational", please have the decency to be, you know, sensational.

While listening to this album, I had, in the abyss of my mind, those glimpses of modified muscle cars going full speed on the interstate at night, of snowboarders doing ollies above ranges of saplings.

Well, lo and behold, the Chemical Brothers have been featured in every kind of racing games out there : WipeOut, Gran Turismo, Forza, Need for Speed, DiRT, The Crew, Project Gotham Racing, etc. A load of various sports games too, from FIFA to NBA titles ; and yes, SSX 3, a snowboard game, would you look at that.

Because it's perfect music to accompany exhilarating action. Why? Because it's intense and repetitive, and can help focus on your task, I guess.

But see, that kind of music is like salt. It can absolutely elevate a meal, but would you eat salt alone? No. Similarly, listening to this album alone is... not a great experience. But I'll definitely put in on next time I'm chased across the Golden Gate Bridge by the cops in my Lamborghini Diablo SV.

I'm a sucker for jazz, so the album started strong. It then quickly devolved into mostly instrumental blues-rock with stellar guitar play. The occasional singing was quite good too.

And then... Oh boy.

Imagine asking a half-broken Harley Davidson to play a "guitar" solo. My ears are fucking bleeding, please, for the love of all that is holy, bring your motorcycle to the garage and give me my music back, I implore you. I have made farts that were more harmonious than this crap.

Thank God they start making actual music again after that. And they end on this phenomenal 14-minutes track, "Liberation". Pure unadulterated talent. It's hard to understand why they included the experimental "Free Form Guitar", it sounds so out of place, I don't get it.

Well, it doesn't sour the whole album at least, but it tries very hard to do so.

ABBA gets a bad wrap in some high-brow music circle. They're treated as this demonic entity whose only accomplishment is to have paved the way for punk, as a protest against pop and commercial music.

But listen, nobody is saying ABBA is Beethoven or something. It's just insanely fun to listen to. And sometimes, that's enough.

Well, this is awkward. I'm supposed to hate live albums AND blues album. But this is actually good??

First of, the audience shuts its collective mouth. You hear them between songs, of course, and there are a few whistles here and there, but that's it, and it never detracts from the music. And the recording is of high quality, there's barely any echo. You easily forget it's live.

As for the blues, well, it's blues-rock, so it MOVES. Apart from the slow-ass third track, which bored me, the rest is very energetic. And the improv aspect means you never know where the song is going, but it also doesn't feel meandering, it's going somewhere. And boy, is it a journey, especially starting with the fourth track, "You don't love me". What a spectacular demonstration of sheer talent. "Hot 'Lanta" is also pretty phenomenal.

All around, this was surprisingly fun. Some of the best guitar play I've ever heard. I can't imagine how incredible seeing those guys live must have been.

I know ELO for only one song, "Mr Blue Sky", which gained new popularity thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2. I've been wanting to discover their music since then.

Sides 1 and 2 are pretty great. They're fun, joyful, often beautiful and eclectic. But the album really reaches its heights with side 3 and the Concerto for a Rainy Day, which is kind of its own concept album within the album. Side 4 then hits you with the hypnotic sci-fi sounding "Whale". Great shit throughout.

I've been wanting to delve into R.E.M.'s music for a while now. Everything I've heard from them to this day has been great, and this album confirms it. There are a few songs here that I knew and already loved ("Everybody Hurts", "Man of the Moon"...)

Beautiful voice, sorrowful music, stellar songwriting, what more do you need?

It's not bad, but it sounds like David Bowie ordered on Temu. The unmelodic one-note singing is particularly annoying. Drink your coffee before recording bro!!!

Banger after banger after banger, especially the instrumental tracks. Not that the singing is bad, but the best parts of the album are the sounds, and the singing gets in the way at times. Although "Enjoy the Silence" is also phenomenal.

Well, it didn't start on a strong note. The titular song is incredibly dumb and outdated.

I'm all for legalization by the way. I'm unfamiliar with Jamaica's history with cannabis, but in the US, criminalization of weed has been used to imprison black people on a massive scale. And if that first song was about that, instead of trying to convince you that weed is somehow a remedy for the flu, tuberculosis and asthma (????????), it would probably be fine. I eat like a pig, but you won't find me telling people that eating a whole box of Oreos is good for your stomach. "Don't criticize it", really?

Like, "Legalize it" is a political statement, but then the song is devoid of any political arguments. In that aspect, "Watcha Gonna Do", which is about the injustice of incarceration, is infinitely better.

At least two songs are also pretty misogynistic, which is a bummer.

Despite all this, I enjoyed this album, at the very least on the purely musical level. It does exactly what reggae is supposed to : it soothes, calms the mind. I completely understand the appeal.