Reviews by ellesnayr

OK ComputerRadiohead

Rated 10/10

Peak Radiohead. I forgot to mention it on my In Rainbows but the Dissect podcast does an entire season on In Rainbows. The first episode delves into the history of the band including some dissection of Kid A. It’s worth a listen regardless, I think it’s the best music podcast out there. But if you got this album before In Rainbows, or even after, check out Dissect, it always helps me more deeply appreciate albums.

I don’t have much to say about this album. Otis Redding has a great voice, but this album of covers didn’t do much for me. Nothing wrong with it, I wouldn’t be upset to hear it again, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it either.

The production on this album is immaculate. It’s a full sounding rock album, you can tell they paid attention to the drum sound especially. I also liked a lot of the songs. However, this band needs to learn to trim the fat! This album did not need to be as long as it did. There were multiple songs that could’ve been half as long but they added in three extra choruses unnecessarily. I also am not huge on the attempted crossover songs, you know the ones that are like black album Metallica, trying to get some radio play. Those songs were lame.

DummyPortishead

Rated 8/10

Never heard this one before, it’s dope! Real chill and kind of atmospheric, with a hint of weird. It makes for a really fun listen. I will listen to this again and may check out more of their stuff.

I can appreciate the instrumentals on here but the songs as a whole are nonsense. I think all the lyrics were ad libbed on the spot. The last song they were trying to recreate the magic they had on Maggot Brain. It’s a good song but it doesn’t have the same power as Maggit Brain.

I don’t understand the appeal of Steely Dan. Their music feels so sterile to me. There’s nothing really bad about it, it’s just boring and lifeless.

This is what I came here for. I’ve never heard of this guy and have not listened to much of this style of music. So this was a new experience. This album was quite a trip. He sings in three different languages and obviously has a lot of different influences. Somehow it works. This was a lot of fun and I wouldn’t mind listening to more. I think my favorite song is welcome to Tijuana.

Some of the song titles were pretty funny. As for the music, it was way too overproduced for my taste. Everything was sparkly clean even though the guitars were distorted. And the songs were just okay.

Leonard Cogen just does not click with me at this point in my life. I find his music boring. Most music that’s just a guy and a guitar I do not care for.

I can totally see why this album is on the list. It’s pretty unique for its time even though it has a throwback classic rock vibe. It’s also a tight album, I was never bored, they didn’t waste any time. That being said it’s not my favorite, I don’t think I’d go out of my way to listen to this again.

There are so many albums in the world. Surely there is something out there that could replace this one. I get that son of a preacher man was a hit but that doesn’t mean it was important. It’s a bad song, all the other songs on here are mediocre at best.

This isn’t a bad album but it’s not for me. I just found it boring mostly. I figured I was almost done with it when I looked and saw I was only on the third song. So for a relatively short album I was done with it about three songs in.

I had never listened to Solange before this, so far on this list there haven’t been many artists that I hadn’t at least heard in passing. This was a pleasant surprise. R&B is probably my least listened to genre. I should say modern R&B, I like older R&B artists like music from early Motown. Anything from the 90s on up though has not clicked for me. That being said, I very much enjoyed this album. I only listened through one time so I didn’t pick up on all of the lyrical themes, but instrumentally it was lovely. I don’t know for sure but it sounded like a lot of real instruments being used. I will definitely listen to this again.

I think it’s safe to say at this point that I am not a fan of Neil young. I like a song or two of his but I hated listening to this album. His voice annoys me to no end. Like I said I can tolerate a song or two, I even like some. A whole album is way too much though, and this album especially. The songs were boring and bad, I didn’t connect with this at all.

Some definite classics on here, subterranean, and Mr. Tambourine Man are two that I’ve liked for a long time. And some other hits that I don’t really care for like Maggie and Baby Blue. The rest of the songs I didn’t mind listening to, far less harmonica than the last Dylan album I had for this project which is a plus for me. I love when an artist leaves in mistakes like the beginning of Bob Dylan’s 115th dream. The rest of that song was silly but kind of fun.