Reviews by drnanard

I know the Smashing Pumpkins for one song, "1979", which I like, but I'm also not a big grunge fan, including Nirvana. To me, it all sounds very "teenagery", immature, garage-rock-sounding, like a lot of 90s music. Probably the point, but still.

However, the music here doesn't annoy me like other bands do. There's a weird bland of hard-hitting distorted grunge erupting with energy, and softer ballads that are at times beautiful, and other times schmaltzy.

This would all be fine if the album had the decency to shut the fuck up after an hour. Instead, it's this bloated, over-long double (triple??) LP. And look, there are incredibly good double albums out there. London Calling and Songs in the Key of Life come to mind. But this is not it. There are some great songs, but they're drowning in an ocean of fine songs.

Overall, this was boring, not gonna lie.

This is some of the cringiest songwriting I've ever witnessed. I'm sorry, but if you're a white American guy and you call yourself a martyr, I can't really take you seriously, can I?

It's not terrible music, but it is edgelord music. Childish, inoffensive faux-dark edgelord music, the kind of which Shadow the Hedgehog could only dream of making. I don't have enough misplaced anger and teen angst to really enjoy this.

The only reason this is somewhat bearable is, paradoxically, the total lack of talent. Because there is not even a glimpse of good music in there, you can't be too annoyed by the wasted potential, and you never ponder what could have been. It's like going to an exposition dedicated to paintings made of poop; it's shit, but what did you expect?

Musically, country can be quite boring, but this album isn't, thanks to stellar songwriting, and a great voice.

I had never heard of this group before, but somehow I knew at least two songs, particularly the first one, which has been featured most recently in the Minecraft movie trailer.

Anyway, this album was pretty good.

My first contact with Dolly was through the Netflix movie Dumpling in 2018, where her music was prominently featured. I remember doing a bit of research back then and thinking "wow, she's a gem". Basically, the people who made the film really wanted to use her songs, but didn't have the budget to get the rights, so they just asked, and Dolly's reaction was like "Sure! Oh and do you want me to make you an original song for free while we're at it??"

Later, I came across her foundation Imagination Library, which provides free books to kids, thanks to partnerships with various bookstores. A registered child receives a book each month until they're 5. That's 60 books for free. No need to disclose your revenue. That's insane. And all that just because Dolly was legitimately concerned about literacy among kids.

She died yesterday. Our very dark times are now even darker, having lost one of the few light source it still had.

As for her music, it's great. I'm not a big country fan, but her songs are always joyful, and she has a beautiful voice. Of course, she's not the only singer on this collaborative album, but the other two are also great.

Rest in peace Dolly.

So apparently this guy is a piece of shit. Unfortunately for my moral high-ground, he also makes genuinely good music. It's like Bob Dylan if Bob Dylan didn't have the voice of a duck being strangled.

I have a master's degree in literature, so surely I should like this?

I don't. Boy was that painful.

The lyrics are dumb and often sexist, and they're written with the most bland and boring rhymes known to man, sung with the energy of a house plant. Some songs have soul elements, and they're almost good, but there's too much dogshit on this album for it to matter. I did the math.

Everybody knows the Bee Gees through the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. They've made one of the most popular song ever composed, so much so that "Stayin' Alive" is the number one song used by first responders to do CPR.

So I was pretty excited to hear some of their other works. Was I surprised when I discovered that they haven't always been making disco.

It's a mess though. There's no real unity, despite the album being advertised as a concept album. What's the concept? Heterogeneity? The first song is pretty unique, but then it devolves into your usual run-of-the-mill britpop, then there are those folk/country songs, and then those symphonies at the end. It stops sounding diverse and starts sounding random.

But ultimately, there's enough charm here to make this album enjoyable, and the last side, with its fully orchestral tracks, is fantastic.

Madonna didn't steal her title of Queen of Pop. While I prefer Cyndi Lauper in that aspect, Madonna's songs are always a bop. This album is also pretty diverse in terms of musical styles and influences.

Everybody knows "Like a Prayer" and "Express Yourself", they're quintessential pop songs, but there's also "Love Song" with Prince and its funk elements, or "Till Death do us Part", a brave song for a pop album (who would have thunk that you could make such a banger out of domestic violence???). "Promise to Try", "Oh Father" and "Spanish Eyes" are also very beautiful, powerful songs that are more soul than pop.

But I have to say my favorite of the bunch has to be "Dear Jessie". I just love the child-like wonder of the lyrics and instrumentation, it feels like being transported into a dream where everything is easier. Love it. Might not be the most "Madonna" song out there, it's a bit jarring coming from the woman who sang "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin", but it's still fantastic.

All around, this album is great. Of course it's still pop, it's not going to shatter anybody's world, but for what it tries to achieve, it's pretty much perfect.

I had a friend in high school who was a fan of Frank Zappa. He made me listen once and it probably was too weird for my smooth teen brain, because I spent the rest of my adolescence mocking that friend for liking Zappa. Boy, was I a stupid asshole.

This is honestly pretty good. I love purely instrumental music. But I also like my music a bit more melodic. The artistry is in full display here, but the deconstruction can be borderline cacophonic, especially in the last two songs.

It's hard to believe this was produced in 1978 with how much it sounds like an encapsulation of the sound of the 80s.

This is not the best listen of my life, but I feel like this album achieves everything Devo went out of their way to do. It's weird, funny, colorful, never boring. I knew them from "Whip It", but I have to admit that that song feels incredibly safe and commercial compared to what's on this album.

This might not reach the heights of the Clash, but it's pretty damn close. The music was great throughout. It was fun, clever, energetic, I have nothing negative to say about this one.

The good news is that this is the last album from RHCP I'll ever be forced to listen to, since I got Californication fucking yesterday.

The bad news is that this is mostly shit.

Music made by edgelord wannabes who really wanted to tell the world the very topical message that the KKK's philosophy is bad. In 1991. How daring. This shit is so white the melanin of my tanned skin left me.

At LEAST the album has energy, which Californication lacked, but I wish that energy was used on doing something more intelligent and bearable.

I'm sure there's some universe out there where Red Hot Chili Peppers is actually fun to listen to, but in our reality, this album is bloated with the blandest margarine-tasting FM rock ever produced. Even the hits all sound the same. The song "Californication" is nice to listen to once in a while, but a whole album of "Californication" wannabes is too much. Some songs try to be different, like the ones incorporating rap elements, and some even manage to be fun and groovy, but the annoying whiny-ass voice ruins it all. The very last song, with its folk roots, is actually the nicest of the bunch.

Can't even say this album is bad, it's just the epitome of mid.

"One" is a phenomenal piece of music; it has depth, it's meaningful, emotionally charged, and it completely justifies its length. The same cannot be said of the rest of the album.

The songs do indeed sound samey, but that's not the real issue : it's the structure and composition of those songs, which are frankly lacking. The sound is good, I love the guitar play, I love the voice, I love the drums, I should love this album, but I don't because the songs go absolutely no-where, they just happen. It's loud just to be loud, there's no real emotion, it has no sense of purpose.

There are quite a few songs that I love from Metallica, but they're sadly on other — I assume, better —, albums. I can't believe I'm saying this about a thrash metal album, but this was quite boring lol

I've seen quite a few people compare this album to the music of the Beatles or the Beach Boys, and yeah, the influence is hard to miss, but that's still a bit reductive. I think one key aspect in which the Young Rascals differentiate themselves here is the jazz and soul influences reminiscent of the Motown label. It can be heard through the constant use of wind instruments for instance. There's still nothing revolutionary here, I guess, but this was still a very pleasant musical discovery.

Let me tell you a story.

The year is 2011. I'm 19, and I'm just beginning my adult life. I've just started to rent this microscopic apartment across my college, and I'm finally free from the ire of a dysfunctional family, finally independant. It's hard, when you realize you have to buy your own toilet paper, and you make dumb decisions, like using your rent money to buy video games like a complete moron. But that's what being an adult is all about : fuck around and find out.

And one thing I hadn't fucked around with enough in my teenage years was music. I was a nerd, I only listened to video game music, but I wanted to change that. I discovered the Beatles and Beethoven through happenstance (stole the CDs of my mother's ex), but now I wanted to actually choose what I would listen to. So I searched music from groups I had vaguely heard of, like the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, the Who, etc.

That's when I stumbled upon Stairway to Heaven. I know, it's a cliché to love that song, everybody does. But I knew, after only a few notes, that this would rock my world. And it did.

I still don't really understand the lyrics of that song, and I've never searched it up. It doesn't matter. The poetry hits me. The melancholic voice brings shivers to my spine. The instruments, the passionate way they're played, the eery sounds they make, they floor me every time. I'm not a music specialist, I can't tell you why this song is phenomenal, I can't analyze it, I know nothing about the theory. It doesn't matter. Stairway to Heaven creeps into my very soul.

But of course, this isn't a review for Stairway to Heaven. After listening to that song, I took an interest for Led Zeppelin, and I downloaded all of their albums (not very legally, if you must ask), and I listened to everything. Of course I didn't love all of their songs. Some I found boring (the bluesy ones), some I enjoyed but didn't find special, but I also discovered plenty of songs that, while not as immaculate as Stairway, were very close. And by pure coincidence, 6 of my favorite Led Zep songs are on this album. Or maybe not coincidence : they knew what they were doing.

You got everything here. The heavy, energizing Black Dog; the pure rock song aptly named Rock and Roll that's reminiscent of Chuck Berry and Little Richard; the beautifully epic Battle of Evermore with its heavy Tolkien references; the weird, funny, stoner story of Misty Mountain Hop; the powerful, soothing folk song Going to California; the mesmerizing, gut-wrenching When the Levee Breaks... And fuck it, even Four Sticks is pretty great.

This album is truly fucking insane, and no other album on the planet is as density packed with amazing songs.

The 90s and early-2000s were such a bore, musically, and this album cements that assertion. It's not bad, it's even good. But it does nothing unique, nothing special, nothing remarkable. Even the big hit Song 2, while iconic and recognizable, is such a tame song, the kind of which you put as background music for an establishment shot in a movie about entering college. Everything good this album does is done better by other bands, before and after them.

That was quite good, but a bit uneven, and sometimes even messy in its execution. I think one key aspect that keeps this record from achieving true greatness is how the creativity of the music is at odds with the very tame, pop songwriting and vocals.