Reviews by funny_character

This is a pleasant surprise, I kind of knew I needed to listen to Belle & Sebastian more, but just never got around to it, and I liked this a lot. It comes across as really earnest and vulnerable. A lot of these songs are kind of low fidelity, and the sound here is sort of baroque and pleasant, and I think it makes this album come across as small, and I don't mean it in a bad way. Like this is very intimate and personal feeling and this even comes through in the lyrics, like the content here is serious, but never crushing to the listener, with a lot of these songs focusing on little day to day sadnesses and embarrassments and some victories too. I also noticed that on a lot of these songs, the vocals sound *very* similar to Nick Drake, and I think it works here. It serves as a good stylistic complement to the songwriting and aesthetics on display here. And speaking of the songwriting, I like a lot of these songs a lot. Expectations, The State I Am In, She's Losing It, We Rule The School and Mary Jo are some highlights here, but most of the material works very well. I'd also like to acknowledge Electronic Renaissance which is one of the only real stylistic departures here, and its kind of warm, analogue synth sound fits in well here, it isn't as jarring as it should be and is actually one of my favorite songs. Overall, this is a really great collection of alternative pop songs. It feels like a lot of attention to detail went into this album, and the sound is just extremely warm and pleasant and earnest, it's kind of like a really heavy blanket, and I'm into it.

Upon getting this album and doing some research, two things immediately stuck out to me. Firstly, Wikipedia lists this album as belonging to seven genres, six of which I am unfamiliar with by name, so if I miss some of the cultural context here, forgive me. Second, that Buena Vista Social Club has 4.4 million listeners on my streaming service of choice, which makes me wonder what happened here. Frankly, English speaking music communities aren't exactly spending most of their time seeking out traditional Cuban music and 4.4 million is, without qualifier, a healthy following. With this in mind, I started listening and noticed a third thing: that this is really fucking good. This is just pleasant and joyful and nostalgic. This really effortlessly transports me to a time and place that I do not know, and never will, but the sounds and ideas here are so vivid and evocative that they bridge the gap. And while I can't take this apart into its individual components, I can listen to this and tell that it is really effortlessly weaving a tapestry with a bunch of disparate yet related sounds, like I believe those seven genres are doing some heavy lifting. I do agree with a sentiment that I've seen here that this album starts stronger than it ends, but I do think this remains somewhat strong throughout its runtime, and I'd believe that the perceived oscillation in quality can perhaps be chalked up to a matter of taste. I wish I had more to say about this, it is really exciting to listen through, I just don't have enough context to say everything I want to. But, like I said, I do think this is very good, and I could see it growing on me even more.

Bummed kind of feels like a one trick pony, but it is a pretty cool trick. Happy Mondays kind of reinvent psychedelia from the frame of reference of Brit Pop, indie and English Funk without resorting to the well of cliches that Psych has been tethered to since the beginning. A lot of the heavy lifting here seems to be in the production which is hazy and blurry as these songs kind of throb along. And the songwriting here is decent, but not quite good enough to make me want more after a full listen. The best decision here is that Happy Mondays made sure these songs all have momentum: sometimes modern interpretations of psych feel meander-y and directionless, but not here. And I know I said this is a one trick pony, but one particular song is an exception here. Country Song incorporates like Acid Country influence, and the result reads to me as *very* psychedelic, like it just feels super trippy in the way it pulses, and it's really captivating. Nothing else here quite captures me in this way, but I do feel positively about this over all, and I finished this album feeling generally pleased.

On Arc Of A Diver, Steve Winwood has achieved something that I guess I just assumed impossible: he has created "advanced listening" level yacht rock. This is a genre designed to deliver cheesy rock music to upper middle-class vacationers (as far as I'm aware), so it honestly felt like everything was always laid bare. However, the aggressive square wave synths, *deeply* '80s production and like 6 minute long songs kind of turns this into an acquired taste. Frankly I'm not that into this, but it's trying *very* hard, like a dog that someone trained to do a backflip. And I'm trying to figure out if it's endearing in the same way. I will say there was something about the first two tracks that I kind of liked, even though they definitely are cheesy and clunky and a little overlong, it seemed like maybe there was something here, and I could kind of see the vision. The little production inelegancies on these songs kind of come together to make them feel intentionally stylized, and the melodies are just good enough that they end up decent. However, this very quickly became a *slog*, I don't really like the rest of these songs, and on top of it, these are pretty much all like 6+ minute yacht rock tracks, so even though this is a theoretically brisk 40 minutes, it really does feel like time prison. Second-Hand Woman just isn't there in the way that While You See A Chance and Arc Of A Diver are. The aesthetic quirks and songwriting can't overcome the clunky cheesiness. Slowdown Sundown tries to give us some variety by injecting the album with some dusty Americana, but I just don't find it especially convincing. After this, we get to side 2, where this thing feels roughest to me. These last 3 songs aren't interesting compositions to me, and the fact that they are all well over 5 minutes, without enough corresponding substance, has me watching the clock. There are some upsides here: a couple of decent songs, some cool moments, and I think the lyrics are often kind of neat, but it just can't pull it together. I didn't really like this, but there's at least enough here to save it from a 1.

As far as art pop goes, Bjork really is a generational talent, and that shines through on this incredibly well formed "Debut" (she *did* have quite a bit of recording experience prior to this, but Debut is still very impressive). What most people know Bjork for is being "weird" and I can tell what they are picking up on, but honestly, I don't think "weird" is how I would describe it. It is more that she has a way of building a really vivid world in her music, but honestly, a lot of the components are pretty familiar. Like here on Debut, if you've listened to some '90s electronic (house in particular), and trip hop, you can see a lot of the components here on songs like Human Behavior, Crying, Venus As A Boy, Violently Happy and more. Although the components are used differently, a lot of this album is like hearing these genres filter into a dream, it's more ethereal and impressionistic. And honestly, a lot of this is helped by Bjork's vocal presence. She Is easily one of the most distinct vocal presences in all of popular music. Some of the most interesting moments here are on songs like Aeroplane, The Anchor Song, and Like Someone In Love, where all of the ties to the physical world through electronic and trip hop are severed and it feels like you are just floating through the void with Bjork and some *extremely* minimal instrumentation. The Anchor Song does feature some percussion, but Like Someone In Love and The Anchor Song are just backed, respectively by a harp, and a couple of brass instruments, and the effect is extremely stark and bold. I will say that while Debut is really wonderful, I do think Bjork has gone on to make greater, and more daring albums. However, if you haven't heard any Bjork, this may be the absolute best way in.

This has been on my "to listen" list for a while now, and I'm glad this made me get around to it. Tortoise are an instrumental post rock group, featuring members of a variety of bands, covering a lot of ground (most notably to me, David Pajo of Slint is here). In short, this is fantastic, Millions Now Living Will Never Die is a particularly engaging post rock album with sort of indie sensibilities. And they play in a very particular palette, with traditional rock instruments, as well as vibraphones, marimbas, more bass guitars than can be typically expected, and all sort of interesting electronics. A lot is incorporated, and the result is honestly kind of otherworldly, there is some psych, space rock, ambient, glitch, and even a little hip hop influence here and there. In an awfully bold move, the first song here is Djed, a sprawling, 20 minute long epic. It has a really interesting way of progressing, where glitches tear the instrumental swells apart, and abstract synth drones serve as the rhythmic center of new swells. It is a remarkably brisk, engaging 20 minutes with some really intense and beautiful moments. And the rest of this album is no afterthought. Glass Museum is ethereal and gorgeous, The Taut And Tame taps into some really abstract, driving rhythms, and Along The Banks of Rivers taps into something intense, and western-esque: all are incredible tracks. The two shorter tracks here are also pretty great, not the showpieces that everything else is, but still great. On an instrumental album like this, it makes sense that these littler tracks would still be detailed and engaging. For what it is, this is pretty much perfect, I loved it from start to end, and intend to put it in my regular rotation.

Rest In Peace Ozzy Osbourne. His passing feels particularly surreal, everyone's said it, but he truly seemed on some level like he couldn't die, like he's almost felt more like a mythological figure than a man at times. And, as I have already said on my Vol. 4 review (fantastic album by the way), Black Sabbath is a band that has been in DNA for as long as I remember. In fact, I was fortunate enough to see them on their 2016 final tour, and it is, to this day, a cherished memory, so this has some weight to me. I cannot overstate the importance of this album to me and to metal as a whole. And, while I know that discussions occasionally re-emerge about how Helter Skelter, or 21st Century Schizoid Man, or Sunshine Of Your Love is *really* the first metal song, but honestly, after listening to this again, it really isn't close. These are all great songs, and they were all on some level important to the development of rock as it approached metal, however I think I can say with a degree of confidence that the first strum of Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath off of Black Sabbath may be the exact moment of Heavy Metal's birth. No one was doing this: the iconic tritone riff, the thick, truly ominous atmosphere with that rain and ringing bell and everything, Ozzy's wailing, the lyrics, and the sheer *weight* of it all coming together were truly unmatched. Even the album art adds to this perfectly, it's legendary, and honestly still eerie today. And if that first note was the birth of heavy metal, then the drop into the huge, epic ascending riff in the second half of this song is the christening. If rock as a whole couldn't keep up before, now it was *certainly* left in the dust. And even though a couple tracks here kind of feel like they maybe have a pinky toe left in the '60s, especially The Wizard, and Wicked World, everything here still carries the feeling and tone set out on this first song, at least on some level, and all without a real drop in quality. I think it also helps that a lot of what I'm picking up on these songs is Sabbath's blues and jazz influence which is pretty much always in their music, so it feels pretty natural. And, additionally, at this time, Black Sabbath was an incredible band, and they really kept it up for like 6 albums. Ozzy was of course the face here, a distinct voice and presence to latch onto, and the ground zero for the metal frontman. Tony Iommi's style honestly sounds fully formed, his riffs are huge, his solos are distinct and awesome, and he locks in very well with the rhythm section. Speaking of which: Bill Ward brought a lot of the jazz here, I honestly think he may be kind of an underrated drummer, his fills are like insane here. And Geezer Butler, holding it down on bass, adds some real thickness to this sound, and is one of the most influential bass players in the genre's history for good reason. The only songs I haven't mentioned yet are the suites. Wasp/Behind The Wall of Sleep/Bassically/NIB has some of the album's greatest moments on it. Behind The Wall of sleep is classic Sabbath, but the real attraction here is bassically into NIB. Geezer Butler shines on Bassically, laying down a sick bass solo before dropping *seamlessly* into NIB, which has like the best bassline in metal. And good thing too, because the song is like 75% bassline by weight. And this album closes with A Bit Of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning, which is also fantastic. The intro here sees Sabbath playing around with their sound palette a little, and the rest of this track can stand with the best of them. Of particular note is the guitar solo, which lets Iommi just tear it up for an extended period of time, and it really showcases his unique talents as a guitarist. This is just fantastic, and frankly it's incredible that this manages to be this good while writing the rulebook for heavy metal. This album truly stands alone among music at the time, and it shows why we are still talking about Sabbath today. RIP Ozzy, you will be missed.

This is theoretically a great live album, the playing is very good, the crowd is excited, and the live energy seems right, however there is just one problem that keeps me from enjoying this album. Even though all the live album trappings are correct, I just don't like *any* of these songs. It's really a shame, because Frampton and his band are clearly talented, but I just hate his songwriting. I don't usually resort to this, it feels cheap, but I truly thought this was an incredibly boring album, for pretty much its entire 78(!!!) minute runtime. This is pretty much all polished, but middle of the road rock music, and I just feel nothing while listening to it. And honestly, hearing these live recordings kind of makes me feel like I'm going crazy, like to me, every song just feels like the most milquetoast '70s rock imaginable, followed by an *improbably* thunderous crowd response every, single, time. And I guess this makes sense on some level, as this was like the best selling album ever for a little bit. But then I am forced to wonder why it sold so damn well? Like there was more interesting music out there. And Frampton playing with his Talkbox isn't enough to save this either, he does a fine job but still, it can't fix the songs. To recap, as someone who doesn't really like Peter Frampton, this does nothing for me, even though the makings of a great live album are theoretically there there just isn't the meat to support it on any level.

I am not all that familiar with Brazil's own Bossa Nova, and in fact, this is the first Bossa Nova album I've heard from front to back. This is suiting in many ways, because this was most Americans' first Bossa album as well. By, let us say, "borrowing" the emergent fusion genre from Brazil, Stan Getz was largely responsible for kick starting the craze in the US. While it is kind of a shame that this newfound fame ultimately resulted in the genre living in the mind of most Americans under the dismissive label of "Elevator Music", I suppose the gospel spread nonetheless. And it isn't hard to see how this album captured the attention of the public. Stan Getz's take on Bossa Nova is pleasant and unchallenging, but deceptively complex on a compositional level, which is consistent with how the genre is perceived in America. I am not qualified to say whether or not this album does the genuine article justice, but I did enjoy it. Admittedly, I don't get a ton of meat here, I can mostly just put this on and enjoy the mood. However, that isn't to say there isn't anything to gain from Jazz Samba as a more active listening experience, it's just that doing so may require a more refined ear for Bossa Nova than I possess. Anyways, as I said, I did enjoy this overall.

On Pump, Aerosmith very successfully reinvent themselves by adding a glossy coat of late '80s glam metal paint to their classic sound, to great commercial success, I would like to add. However, I don't really love Aerosmith's classics, and I hate '80s glam metal so this album mostly just burns what relatively little goodwill I had towards Aerosmith. As far as the positives go, Janie's got a gun is alright, it's a good single, has a good bassline and probably has the most interesting lyrics of any song on here. And The Other Side has a good chorus with some harmonies that I like, but aside from these things, there isn't a lot I like here. The glam metal production takes a lot of the teeth away from Aerosmith's sound, and a lot of this album sounds really dated because of the production as well. The songs all feel very blatantly written to pull a mainstream hit, which isn't necessarily a problem on its own, but the effort feels very contrived here. The lyrics are super obnoxious, it's the hair metal thing where its hypersexual, but like in a way where to get anything out of the lyrics, it feels like you need to simultaneously take them as tongue in cheek, and seriously be willing to assume the band are sex Gods. I don't think Aerosmith really pull it off either way, a lot of these lines are just too ridiculous, like it's especially bad on Love In An Elevator, which is a song that I am *very* familiar with, and have never liked. Additionally, some of these lyrics feel kind of ugly towards women, not necessarily a dealbreaker on its own, but if the lyrics (and album at large) are already kind of annoying to me, something like this is going to be harder to ignore. I also don't think the little song intros on a lot of these tracks are really necessary, like Water Song is kind of a weird vibe to start Janie's Got A Gun with, and I don't think dulcimer stomp really belongs here at all, like it really just does *not* segue from Janie to The Other Side in any way. A few positives aside here, I think a lot of this material is annoying, I don't like most of the songwriting, I don't like the lyrics, and I don't enjoy Aerosmith in this kind of ultra clean glam metal pocket. This just really isn't for me.

This album really soundly embodies the kind of aesthetic that I think people are trying to tap into with '80s nostalgia stuff. It's clean, sort of futuristic, and its lineage can be traced back to new wave. The synth usage here is *very* '80s, and the sound comes together. Although what this album is most well known for is *undoubtedly* Take On Me. Just about everyone has heard this song, and it is overplayed, but it *is* good. Also, it has a pretty killer video. Everything else here is largely decent synth pop and new wave. The songs are catchy, the production is good, and if you like '80s pop, you'll love this. However, I don't really like that much '80s pop, but I still think there's something here.

So, I meet Steely Dan again, far quicker than I anticipated as well. My last steely Dan encounter was with Pretzel Logic, an album that I think is just sort of fine. However, my general ambivalence towards Steely Dan aside, I *do* get the sense that they have something interesting for me somewhere. Let us see if it resides on Can't Buy A Thrill. We actually start really strong here, I really like Do It Again. The Latin influence here complements Steely Dan's soft rock really well. And for how immediate and catchy it is, there are some cool arrangement tricks here. The percussion here is really interesting, and the synth organ solo at the end feels sort of proggy. I will say that I don’t think any other song on here is quite as good, but there are plenty of decent tracks, and I thought Can’t Buy A Thrill was overall pretty decent. I actually liked it quite a bit more than Pretzel Logic, it just seemed to have a bit of a stronger sense of aesthetic, and I thought the songwriting was more consistent. There are actually a good few songs that stand out to me. Midnite Cruiser is some really chill, well written soft rock. Reeling’ In The Years hops along and its verses kind of make me think of The Boys Are Back In Town, which is a good thing. Fire In The Hole is as effective a Vietnam song as there ever has been, and it’s got a great piano line too. I can’t say it’s enough to push us over the vast gap between 3 and 4, but I do feel that it’s a *solid* three (as opposed to Pretzel Logic, which I waffled about a little), so we’re getting better, and my Steely Dan quest goes on.

I wish I had a chance to give this a second listen, unfortunately it just couldn't happen today. Second Toughest In The Infants is some really detailed, texturally interesting electronic music that I got a lot out of. The compositions here are lengthy and almost trancelike, with a kind of melancholic, chilly atmosphere. The sounds are tasteful, and the way the compositions evolve is really organic and makes these songs go by pretty quickly for how long they are. For example, Juanita : Kiteless : To Dream Of Love and Banstyle/Sappy's Curry are *both* longer than 15 minutes, and they are brisk and engaging throughout, as long as you are kind of willing to be carried away by the music here. Karl Hyde's vocals fit in nicely too, with some surprisingly good melodies. The only problem I could really have with this album is just that depending on mood, this can be better background music than something to actively engage with, but it works well like that too. Underworld come through with a really cool project here, and I could see it growing on me more, I will almost certainly be coming back to this in some certain settings.

In the present day, it feels like Cypress Hill is underdiscussed in the context of early West Coast hip hop, maybe due to their rock crossover appeal that they would eventually lean into, but their self-titled debut came out in '91, and they existed in some form since '88. This puts them on the scene at the same time, maybe a *little* later than people rightfully held highly as the progenitors of West Coast hip hop, like Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Tupac, Dr. Dre and more. Just for reference, this came out about 16 months before The Chronic. And it took some time, but by now I think this album's influence can be heard pretty widely. I don't want to say Cypress Hill invented "weed rap" but I'll say that I don't know who else would have. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this album, on some level, inspired the direction that artists like Snoop Dogg would explore a little later. Even so, Cypress Hill sounds pretty singular. At this time, Cypress Hill was B-Real, Sen Dog, and DJ Muggs, and this line-up achieved a really interesting balancing act. DJ Muggs may be the star of the show here on some level, the palette and atmosphere of his beats were *extremely* important to this album. He made a kind of spacey, funky, almost psychedelic beats that still went pretty hard. And B-Real and Sen Dog both brought something unique to this sound. B-Real has a nasally, idiosyncratic sound, leaning into the more quirky, left-field aspects of the sound, and Sen Dog had a gruffer, more conventional delivery that helped to keep the sound of Cypress Hill sort of grounded. This combo gives us songs like Hand On The Pump, which has a weirdo vox beat, sing-song chorus and lyrics as gritty as anything else coming out of the West Coast at this time. And Cypress Hill's sound is just as bold and unique across this whole album. Pigs has kind of an offbeat, almost goofy presentation, but it's just about as strong a statement as something like Fuck Tha Police, it just has a very different presentation. This kind of exemplifies, lyrically, what is different about Cypress Hill, they rapped about a lot of the same stuff, but they did it with a left-field sense of humor, and an almost stylized sort of imagery and word play. It comes across as fun, almost playful at times. How I Could Just Kill A Man is another highlight, with its electric guitar sample, ultra-effective chorus, and beat switch. And Cypress Hill is just as effective, funky and unique through its whole runtime. Stoned Is The Way of The Walk is kind of like the group's mission statement, Psychobetabuckdown is as psych-y as they get, and Real Estate is centered on a super funky bassline, just to name a few. This is a really under-appreciated classic, and it's still a super fun listen with great rapping, a great beat selection, and a super cool aesthetic and vibe.

Going into this, I didn't know how to approach reviewing a Kanye album in the present day. His political and social "extracurriculars" as of late are inexcusable and unignorable, and to me his embrace of fascist ideology and imagery casts an *awfully* dark shadow over his discography. I like quite a bit of Kanye's music, but anymore I just don't really want to hear it. That being said, I don't think "art vs artist" conversations are especially helpful, art is shaped by the good and bad of a person, and I think people need to embrace analyzing great art by bad people by confronting how the bad in a person effects the art we love. That being said, I do like this album, and I do plan on reviewing it by its own merits with regards to Kanye as an individual. Besides, my capacity for harm here is pretty limited, anyone still enthusiastically on the Kanye train at this point is pretty much conclusively too far gone, and no one willing to hold him accountable will put that notion aside because I (an individual with no meaningful platform) said that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is good. And as I said, it *is* good, granted I also think it is sorta overrated, but listening through this, there is a lot to love. The first thing to remember about My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is that it was created with the intent of being good enough and extravagant enough to win back a public that soured on Kanye after the fated Taylor Swift VMAs incident. And, considering this, I think it was really smart for Kanye to take, what I think of as a director's role here. He does appear on pretty much every song here, but to be honest, Kanye's writing and rapping leaves something to be desired at times. He has all the Kanye-isms, but that is a *very* "your mileage may vary" thing, and it hinges a lot on how invested you are in Kanye (personally I'm not *that* invested, and I can't see that really changing any time soon). This feels like the first album where he is really embracing the "asshole who is kind of relatable at the end of the day" thing, and while we have quotables here and unique flows, it isn't a schtick I really buy into. Frankly I'd rather have the Yeezus "I'm just an asshole and I think you should all hate me" thing at this point. In fact, in the presence of features, Kanye is very rarely the best verse on his own songs here. But where Kanye really succeeds on MBDTF is in curation, artistic vision, and production. He pretty much formed a camp of artists, rappers, singers and producers to orchestrate the creation of this thing. Consequently, every song has like 4 features and 15 producers and writers, but the album still very much feels like Kanye's. So in a lot of these songs, Kanye isn't necessarily a strong vocal presence, but he is still felt very strongly. It allows the listener to disconnect the album a little bit from Kanye, while still allowing him to retain all of his creative control. And the results are pretty great, this album really feels like a blockbuster, the sound is rich and maximalistic, and Kanye successfully bridges the pop and rap sound in a way that ended up extremely influential on the development of mainstream pop and rap thoughout the 2010s. We leap straight in, Dark Fantasy is rich and grand and catchy, it is an effective mission statement for the album as a whole. Shortly afterwards, we get a few really incredible "pop" Kanye tracks, POWER and All Of The Lights are pretty much unimpeachable. They are both incredibly detailed, incorporating all kinds of sounds and collaborators from Kanye's pool. POWER seems almost tailor-made to be played in Gatorade commercials, but in a way that isn't obnoxious. All of The Lights is similarly driving in a glitzier way, with big horns and *surprisingly* dense drumwork. We then get, perhaps the most iconic more pure "rap" tracks from the project in Monster and So Appalled. Both songs have incredible production, and strong verses, tons of quotables and great, distinct flows from their many *many* features. After Devil In A New Dress, we get Runaway, which I see frequently cited as the greatest achievement here. Honestly, I do think Runaway is a little overrated. It is a very interesting declaration of self awareness from Kanye, that I think he may not be capable of making at the current point in his career. However, he has some really *obnoxious* Kanye lyrics here, and the autotune solo is kind of self indulgent. On some level, I do at least sort of like every song here (or at least parts of every song), but I so have several complaints across this album. I'm not sure I'm into the vocal processing on Gorgeous, and I am not entirely sold on Devil In A New Dress. I think the verses are whatever, and it I think it's kind of overlong. Hell of A Life has a great Beat, but the lyrics are Kanye in "sex" mode and it is apparent that he just *might* have an unhealthy relationship with sex, anyways, I can see the lyrics being compelling to the right person, but again, it is awfully "your mileage may vary". The song I have the biggest problem with though is Blame Game. If only because it ends in a 2 minute, 31 second long skit that I just hate. It is too long, the implications about how Kanye views women are ugly, and I just don't think its funny. Regardless of all of this, and how I feel about Kanye and his -isms and everything, I do like this album, maybe even more than I want to. A lot of these songs are really great, and the resultant project is very strong as a coherent work, and I can appreciate that. I am officially giving this a *high* 3, it's like a 7/10. Like I said, there's a lot of good here, but realistically, there are a good few songs on here that I'm never tempted to return to, even if they're still pretty good. Besides, the real problems I do have with this album have compounded a little with the fact that I am not feeling especially generous towards Kanye for obvious reasons. But I will say, I can see the importance of this, even if I don't really get the argument that it is one of the best albums of all time.

This is the easiest 5 I've given yet, and I'm not sure that there's an easier one on the list. I do believe that the classics need to be interrogated a little bit before being handed the perfect score, but I've danced that dance with The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (as it is christened in full) long ago and all that's left for me to do is gush about it for as long as I deem necessary. Ziggy Stardust has earned its reputation in so many ways. The songs are all *at least* great, and most are much better even than that. The concept is innovative and transformed how the idea of "persona" can be handled in a rock context. The performances are legendary, Bowie brings this album to life in a way that no one else could have. Additionally, this is almost certainly the greatest glam rock album ever recorded. Bowie pushed the gaudiness of the genre into genuine grandiosity by mastering an alchemical process which seemingly converts style directly into substance in a way that has not been equaled by any other album prior to, or since the release of Ziggy Stardust. During the first four songs here, from 5 Years through Starman, this is quite possibly the best album ever recorded, and the "drop off" after this point only exists in relative terms (everything else is still great, and the last three tracks just about reach the same highs again). 5 Years is just incredible: Only Bowie could have so successfully captured the weight and existential vastness of the realization of the inevitable, premature end of everything through the medium of a glam rock song. It's really sold by Bowie's vocal performance on the song, which is among the best ever. Soul Love took some time to grow on me, but the smoothness, grooviness and subtle beauty of it is nearly as good. Moonage Daydream is pure Bowie, big and catchy and kind of quirky. And Starman is in the competition for best song here. It is truly quintessential glam. The song's writing serves its hugeness, and there is something subtly sour about it that just makes it sound so bold and interesting. It Ain't Easy is technically the closest we have to a low point here, but like I said, it's all relative, it is still a really great rock song, with just a little more blues influence that feels slightly distinct from everything else here. It is also a cover of a Ron Davies song, which explains why it feels a little different from most of the content here. But it isn't really distracting, Bowie makes it his own here, and frankly, it would be a highlight on most any other album. The pattern continues from here, every song is truly essential and completely distinct. I don't want to just review this track by track, but it is hard not to when everything is *this* good. Lady Stardust is rich and beautiful, Star is a fantastic, driving, piano centric rock song, and Hang On To Yourself pulls from somewhere almost a little punky. After this, the album is just solid gold again. Ziggy Stardust is the closest we have to a title track (I don't think a song toting the album's full name would get quite the airplay) and it is effectively the theme song for Bowie's titular character here. The writing is incredible, it's damn near a character study contained within an album that already has such a strong sense of concept. This is as natural a point I can find to discuss the lyrics across this album, which are consistently fantastic. Bowie has such a strong, consistent voice in his writing, and every song has real stand-out lines. As we close the album out we get Suffragette City, which may be the most fun song here, in the right setting I think the chorus could compel spontaneous dance. And we stick the landing at the end, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide is one of the best album closers of all time. It carries immense gravity, and very neatly ties up all the ideas on the album in a bold way that isn't afraid to explore the subtle sadness of the ideas at the core of Ziggy Stardust, while leaving room for hope and joy at the very end. In a world where I think the idea of a "perfect album" has lost a lot of its meaning and power, Ziggy Stardust is very nearly *truly* perfect. It is nearly perfect as a whole, as a collection of songs, and even on a moment to moment basis. David Bowie was truly one of a kind, and he pulls off a truly generational achievement here.

Bob Mould is most well known for creating some of the most daring, unique punk of the '80s, so I have to say I'm pretty disappointed with Sugar. Despite being very commercially successful (relative to his previous releases) Sugar is just kind of a largely toothless alt rock band on Copper Blue. While I like a lot of early '90s rock, informed by grunge and punk and '80s alternative, alt rock was admittedly kind of oversaturated at this time. The success of Nirvana, Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, and many many more gave us a resultant B-cast of similar underground bands. Some are interesting and worth excavating today, but many are just not worth it. Sugar is definitely the latter for me, they just lack the intensity, slick songwriting, personality, and uniqueness of the bands who pulled it off. The first song here, The Act We Act is the only song here I really like. The riff is crunchy, there's a good solo, and the melodies and chorus are pretty good. But even here, this song isn't giving me anything I can't get better from someone else, there's just nothing setting it apart. After this, Copper Blue just can't get its footing. Changes and Man On The Moon try their best, and end up alright, but similarly, I can get this in better form elsewhere. A Good Life kind of sounds like a Pixies song, but the chorus is pretty grating. Hoover Dam goes for something a little psyche-y at first, but I just don't like the melodies. Fortune Teller goes for something punk-y but doesn't sell it (to me at least). And there doesn't seem to be much else here that feels like I have a ton to talk about. We just have some more alt rock songs I don't really like. After some consideration, I think I may be tempted to give this a 1. It isn't awful, but I just don't really enjoy much here. I don't like the songs, the performances feel kind of non-descript. And perhaps most damningly, I feel that Mould is capable of better. Maybe this would have been fine in a world where this was just the zeitgeist, but as a member of Hüsker Dü, Mould made music that stands today (and I would like to urge you to check this music out), and Sugar is so trapped in its time that I really don't get anything from it as a modern listener. Besides, if you dig, there are *tons* of more interesting underground alt rock bands from this time: Lungfish, Silkworm, Arcwelder, Love Battery and Morphine to name a few. If you don't mind a little grunge: Paw, Skinyard, Mad Season, and Tad are also worth checking out. Point is that it isn't exactly a scene I am in want of. For how little I get out of this and how much talent went into it, I feel that I may give Copper Blue the 1: sorry Bob Mould, it isn't anything personal.

Edit: Okay, after calibrating my sensors on a couple of *real* 1/5s recently, I gave this another listen and I feel a little more positively about it. I still don't love this, and I think my original points still stand (just to a lesser degree of intensity) but even if I don't love most of these songs, there is enough personality to the performances and these songs have just enough positives to their writing that I have decided to give Sugar an additional star. Sorry Bob Mould!!

Fishscale is nearly 15 years away from Wu Tang's golden years, and while I don't think this is essential from front to back, Ghostface Killah does prove that he sort of still has it. He has super dynamic flows, and really engaging story-telling across Fishscale. And the beats here have a lot of variety, with a few incredible selections, and a few that don't do it as much for me, but I think that the beats are much better than they aren't. While talking about the overall aesthetic here, this album is stuck in a weird place, in some ways it's stuck in the '90s, but there are some 2000s-isms, like a lot of the beats. The best instrumental showing here may be from J Dilla, who produced Whip You With A Strap. Ghostface is also in incredible form on this song, he pulls off vulnerability very well. Some of my other favorite beats here are on Shakey Dog, R.A.G.U., Dogs of War, and the end of Barbershop. These are also songs where Ghostface is pretty incredible too. I'd also like to mention 9 Milli Bros, which features a rare (and exciting) Wu Tang reunion. We also have a rare and similarly exciting Biggie feature on album closer Three Bricks. The biggest problem I have here is just the consistency. This album is over an hour long, and it isn't really a slog or anything, but it is certainly a little bloated. Some songs here are kinda whatever to me, and a lot of the skits don't do all that much for me. But the core is here, and Ghostface Killah makes himself heard, he's (more or less) still got it, we we get a pretty great album out of it.

Every time I check out The Stones part of me is convinced that I'll finally have some kind of revelation and see what so many others seem to see in them. The only major success I've had thus far is figuring out that Gimme Shelter and Paint It Black are really fucking good (and there are a couple of other Stones songs I go back to as well). Although, going into this, I was feeling pretty good, this album *is* held in extremely high regard, and I could only imagine there must be something here. And in short, there are things about Exile On Main Street that I like, but this is largely an hour plus of music I don't feel very strongly about. Firstly, I'd like to say I think I get what The Stones were going for here, this very much feels like a "sum of it's parts album", but it just never really came together for me. I do like the overall production aesthetic here, there's plenty of rock and roll grit, and I think everyone is doing what they need to do to achieve the sound. I'd like to single out Mick Jagger's vocals in particular, for being a kind of loose and mushy that makes it seem like he's using his voice more like an instrument than anything. I think this all works best on songs like the opener, Rocks Off, which is probably my favorite here. They really sell their particular rock sound, and there are some really great lines here, "The sunshine bores the daylights out of me" hits in particular. However, nothing else here quite reaches this high again, although there are some other songs I like: Ventilator Blues and All Down The Line, among others are also pretty good. Although my biggest issue I think is that I just don't really like The Stones' brand of blues rock. I think my problem may be that while I have no doubt The Stones truly love the (predominantly black) art that they are inspired by, their mode of appreciation seems to be to attempt to clone it so exactly that their whole shtick feels way more put on (to me at least) than I think it would have otherwise. I actually think it may be more distracting here than on some of their other stuff I have heard, like it really feels like they want me to think they're from New Orleans or something. Anyways, aside from this, I do have some other more tangible complaints about this album. It feels like they're trying to do the "song fragments that create a coherent work" thing, but some of these "fragments" are like 3 minutes long so they just feel like underdeveloped songs. I Want To See His Face has a cool sound, but it may be the most egregious example of this I can think of here. It also feels like The Stones don't know how to end a song. A trick they pull out again and again is repeating a couple bars of music and maybe a single line for slightly longer than you want, then abruptly stopping. It happens quite a bit, and feels really awkward to me. Like I said, there is some stuff I appreciate here, I like a couple of songs, I like the production quality, it just doesn't come together for me. I did at least add a couple of songs to "The List of Rolling Stones Songs I Like" so I got a little out of this. But I really can't tell if I'm closer or farther from figuring The Stones out, maybe it'll happen someday, maybe it won't, we'll see.

For as good as they were at it, the first 4 White Stripes albums had a pretty simple thing going on. Their powerful, scuzzy and loud interpretation of blues rock simply rocked *hard* (and their impeccable eye for aesthetic didn't hurt). As such, Get Behind Me Satan feels like a very intentional series of left turns and odd tangents. We kick off with Blue Orchid which very much feels like a normal White Stripes song, and a particularly good one too. It is catchy, groovy and heavier than you'd think, and starting here feels like a very intentional play to lull the listener into a sense of security. Immediately afterwards, we get The Nurse, which is *very* far removed from a normal White Stripes song, maybe more-so than anything else here. This song is built around a marimba part which is occasionally punctuated with a noise freak-out, and I think it's awesome. My Doorbell jerks us once more, into a piano and percussion led song with some incredibly catchy vocal melodies. With these songs, we experience most of the territory Get Behind Me Satan Takes us to. And this was probably a good idea, by defining a ball field to play in with these new textures, The White Stripes still give us a really cohesive sounding album. Not to say there aren't surprises from here on out. Little Ghost is pure, earnest Americana executed without an ounce of cheese and it's a highlight here. White Moon and I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet are pleasant, well written piano ballads. Also, there *are* some more conventional White Stripes songs here: Instinct Blues, along with Red Rain, and the aforementioned Blue Orchid are all highlights. The scarcity of this sort of song here makes me think they made sure that any they attempted hit. And these three songs *hit* especially surrounded by chiller sounding material. I think these songs along with a lot of material here honestly, are really held together by Meg. Her thundering stomp really gives this album some impact. I think every song here is pretty great, and aside from some minor nitpicks and maybe a song or two I could have done without, there really isn't much for me to complain about here, and I could see myself spinning this again. The White Stripes played around a little here, but I think they really stuck the landing.