Reviews by galway_rat

HL: “The Beautiful People”, "Man that You Fear", "Tourniquet"

Funny that for the last two albums, I used the descriptive word "spooky" before getting Marilyn fucking Manson.
Let me be clear: I can appreciate elements of dread, foreboding, supernatural creatures, etc. in my music, movies & other art.
One example is NiN's The Downward Spiral, which is a kind of psychological horror.
What I don't like is in-your-face blood & guts horror, which this album does much better than it does the former. I guess dread and nausea kinda feel the same.
Though it's a major part of the package, if I remove the controversy, the Shock Rock of it all, I'm left with some interesting passages & songs ("Cryptorchid" is neat I guess), and a LOT of mediocre 90s nu metal. I heard the whole thing in one sitting at least, which I couldn't quite do with albums like Slipknot (1999) and Roots (1996).

While I can’t pretend to love much of this, at least the concept of writing a concept album from a villainous perspective (as opposed to disturbed, like the aforementioned T.D.S.) sparks my interest.

HL: "Atlantic City", "State Trooper", "Johnny 99", "Reason to Believe"

first Springsteen album in (nearly) 500 days 🎉

Listened to this in the heat of lockdown, and I vibed more with it then rather than driving to this on the highway.

Hard to rate, but I did the math & it's basically a 3.5. Some truly moving songs, some that were a lot less interesting to me, and all of them downers. Though it ain't my favourite Springsteen, I do appreciate it for its stark, spooky atmosphere

August 4, 2023

HL: "Non-Alignment Pact", "Street Waves", "Humor Me"

Listening to this made me go back to Surfer Rosa, for two reasons. One, I underappreciated it the first time, plus this generator has blessed me with a tolerance for noisier rock I may not have had then. And two, there has to be some of Pere Ubu's David Thomas in Black Francis's vocal stylings.

This isn't an easy listen, but it's surprisingly catchy at times. I actually liked the spooky synth, but I was less enthused when it was isolated in my right ear.

Just put the damn oboe down

3*, I’m feeling generous

August 3, 2023

HL: title track, "Burial", "Why Must I Cry", "Till Your Well Runs Dry"

do it

August 2, 2023

HL: I don't even know

(listening to Side Mike) I feel like whatever I didn't get out of the micro-songs in Wire's "Pink Flag" is somehow present here. Even though the stop/start jerkiness also exists, the songs combined feel like they're moving somewhere (at 55 mph :0)
I want to go on a road trip now

(after 40 more minutes of this album) Just pumping the brakes a bit here. I think this is an artistic accomplishment, and very fun at times, but the length did hamper my enjoyment a little.

August 1, 2023

HL: “Goin Back”, “Draft Morning”, “I Wasn’t Born To Follow”, “Get To You”, “Old John Robertson”

Little step up from “Younger Than Yesterday”; it takes the country & psychedelic elements and pushes them further so you get a more diverse set of songs.
My favourite is “Get to You”, which sounds like the Byrds’ take on baroque pop

4*
July 31st, 2023

HL: "Let the Good Times Roll", "Look at Last Nite", "Mama Weer All Crazy Now"

July 30, 2023

1- great, energetic start to the record
2- purty
3- chiller, best solos yet
4- in one ear, out the other
5- maybe best track yet
6- piano intro & main tune are great in their own ways
7- basically the drummer’s show off piece
8- more bluesy than track 7 (Blues for Huey), cool, nighttime city vibes
9- groovy, at this part starting to feel the album’s length
10- a party (only vocals in the album I think?), but isn’t so much of a crazy grand finale as what sounds like the bandmates letting loose after a hard day at work

HL: “Maseru” (5), “Minawa” (2) “Part of a Whole” (1), “Inner Crisis” (6)

July 29, 2023

not first listen

I don't love this album, despite it being such a trailblazer for future artists I like such as Alanis Morissette, PJ Harvey & Fiona Apple (among many others). I sometimes get lost in stream-of-consciousness lyrics, and some of the tracks sprawl and meander. However Horses has enough strong moments (eg. the build & accelerando in "Gloria") that I can appreciate its inclusion here.

HL: "Break it Up", "Gloria", "Land"

July 28th 2023

real cognitive dissonance from this ‘97 album occasionally sounding like Atom Heart Mother-era Floyd.
One of the biggest headscratchers for me as to how this record got made & included on this list but at the same time, I was fascinated by its twists and turns (from freaky folk to plaintive jazz), and I enjoyed the majority of the tracks.
“The Duchess” sounds like it inspired some of the more demented musical pieces in Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, and was the closest I came to turning off the album.

HL: “Heaps of Sheeps”, “Maryan”, “September the Ninth”

July 27, 2023

HL: title track, "Leaving the Table", "If I Didn't Have Your Love", "Traveling Light", "String Reprise / Treaty"

despite the brevity of the album & the minimal instrumentation, I needed a 2nd listen tonight, free of the distractions of construction work & traffic, to really let it sink in.
It's amazing how much gravitas Cohen's voice carries despite his physical frailty.
Despite its status as Cohen's swan song (other than that posthumous album) and the grimness of the title track, there's also serenity and sweetness present in both the words and the music. For instance, the strings swelling in the final track.

5th and last Cohen album on this list. 1st I got from this list was his debut "Songs of Leonard Cohen", which is one of the albums that grew on me since the 1st listen to possibly belong with my 5-star favourites. Well here's another one

July 26, 2023

HL: "Common People", "Mis-Shapes", "Disco 2000", "Bar Italia"

The jubilant, bittersweet energy from the big single "Common People" is evident throughout the whole album.
Somehow doubt that "Funeral" by Arcade Fire would have been made without this album.
Maybe a 5 down the road. I haven't had a Britpop album that took me there just yet, now I must decide at some point which album tickled me the most: this, "What's the Story Morning Glory" or Blur's self-titled.

July 25, 2023

Not 1st listen (although I probably haven't heard the full thing since high school)

It's not a drill people, we have some Canadian content today 🚨

doing something a little different for this album- I listened to Side 2 first, to pay attention to the shorter songs before I possibly get Rush-ed out after the title track.
These songs in isolation are a solid 3 star EP for me, with the ballad "Tears" and "A Passage to Bangkok" easily being my favourite songs. Now on to the overture...

Yeah the album's now a neat 4 * in my eyes. The title track is ridiculous, it's wild, it ROCKS

July 24, 2023

HL: "Tropicália", "Clarice", "Soy loco por ti, América", "Paisagem Útil"

Thanks Brazil, very cool 😎
Think I liked other Brazilian offerings a little more (Milton Nascimento, Elis Regina). But there’s still much to enjoy about these helter-skelter, somewhat unfinished-sounding psych-samba songs

3.5

July 23, 2023

HL: “End of the World”, “The One I Love”, “Finest Worksong”, “Strange”, “King of Birds”

July 22, 2023

REM #3
Was thinking that, if I didn’t vibe to this album at least I’d have “The One I Love”. Well then again, REM haven’t yet steered me wrong

"Just hook it to my veiiiins!"- Barney Gumble, of the Be Sharps

In all honesty, the Taxman solo distorted & repurposed for "Tomorrow Never Knows" is one of my favourite moments in any Beatles album.
"For No One" is a Beatles song that I forget about for stretches of time, but am always floored by how beautiful it is.
"Doctor Robert" may be the most underrated track, a great lil ditty whose only crime is being surrounded by even greater songs
And of course, kudos to George Harrison for getting more songwriting representation and experimenting right off the bat, with "Love You To" and the dissonant "I Want To Tell You"

July 21, 2023

HL: “Ripple”, “Sugar Magnolia”, "Attics of My Life", “Brokedown Palace”

1st Grateful Dead album- was feeling a 3 at first but putting on some tracks a 2nd time bumped it up.
Mellow album which was more country than I expected. “Ripple” is a standout , and I put “Sugar Magnolias” on a playlist about beating the winter blues a while back.

July 20, 2023

fun fact: Rolling Stone put 3 Tom Petty albums on their greatest 500 list, not including this. This is the only Tom Petty album in a book of 1001 albums

Oh I'm not bitter

Jokes aside, I don't really know the Heartbreakers from their albums, just the radio hits- but this is a worthwhile entry in my eyes. It shows where American rock was headed in the 80's, mixing some power pop, punky attitude and even some synths to the southern rock formula.
That sounds more complicated than it is- basically, that \"make it last- MAKE IT LAST ALL NIGHT\" hook in \"American Girl\" encapsulates the sense of fun and breeziness throughout the entire album.

HL: \"American Girl\", \"Hometown Blues\", \"Breakdown\", \"Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll\", \"Luna\"

July 19, 2023

HL: "Drunk in Love", "Mine", "Superpower", "Blow", "Ring Off" (bonus track)
Less enthusiastic about: "Partition", "XO"

hindsight 20/20, I appreciate this whole era a lot more than I did back then. Not to disown all the Bastille, Imagine Dragons, Lorde & Lana Del Rey I was hearing at the time, but there were some clear blind spots in what I chose to listen to. m.A.A.d. city, Yeezus, Channel Orange and now this, all releasing around my senior year of high school only for me to basically tune it out, then decide 10 years later that they're actually very good

"Drunk in Love" is the one thing I knew about this album before today, which still holds up. Though I can't handle this level of maximalism every day, with the smorgasbord of guest producers, singers & songwriters threatening to overload the project, it's also a great snapshot of 2013 for that reason. Disturbingly, one of my favourite songs heavily features Drake, and Pharrell's slick nu-disco (wHiCh wAs tHe StYlE aT tHe TiMe) rarely sounded better than it does in "Blow".
While some tracks sound very of their time (“Pretty Hurts”), others feature a mildly experimental sound that aged pretty well (“No Angel”, “Haunted”)

July 18, 2023

HL: "Holdin' On", "Back to Life", "African Dance"

not bad at all, strikes a balance between danceable/peppy & laidback/chill.