Reviews by galway_rat

ah this is is where the “potato flew around my room” Vine came from

“Pyramids” is dope, how have I missed hearing the songs on this album for 11 years

Can’t explain the musique concrete interludes, but it by no means ruins the flow of the album.

Might be too early a call, but I think this is a fascinating project and a great intro to Frank Ocean (besides the random couple of songs I’d hear on the radio)

HL: “Pyramids”, “Thinkin Bout You”, "Super Rich Kids", "Pilot Jones", “Crack Rock”, “Sweet Life”

HL: “Life Has Just Begun”, “Nature’s Way”, "Love Has Found a Way/Why Can't I Be Free"

Likeable-enough folky prog

(April 16 2023) will chase it down later, “not available for streaming in Canada”

(May 5 2023) I mean it was all on YouTube, I was just lazy

Some kickass trombone here, was trombonist in high school and hearing a good trombone solo out of the blue is like drinking water and then realizing how thirsty you were

It's a pretty gentle, tender record for the most part, you gotta be in the mood for it and I lucked out today

HLs: "Song for Sathima", "Tuang Guru", title track, "The Wedding"

First half is a joy

Listening to “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, thanks to this generator, helped contextualize what Byrne/Eno were working towards at this time (The Overload is probably the closest to that project)

April 16, 2023

HL: "Whole Lotta Love", "Thank You", "Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid" (because I have a hard time separating them), "Bring It On Home"

It was bold and brash to put the moaning breakdown of "Whole Lotta Love" so early into the record; at least III had the decency to save the avant-garde elements for the *2nd* track
"Thank You" has been one of my favourite Zep songs for a while;
in theory I love "Ramble On" but I've heard it so goddamn much (that and "D'yer Maker") that I'm kinda numb to it.
"BUT GOLLUM- AND THE EVIL ONE- CREPT UP AND SLIPPED AWAY WITH HER, HER, HER" might be best Zep lyric tho

April 14, 2023

HL: title track, “Bel Air”

Far out man

HL: title track, “Love Her Madly”, “Riders on the Storm”, “Been Down So Long”

Taking out “Riders on the Storm” and “L.A. Woman”, I’m left with a decent blues rock record, but the classics definitely elevate the experience

HL: "Tom Violence", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Expressway to Yr. Skull"

My reasoning for wanting to like this was that the 90s Sonic Youth albums were kind of misses for me but EVOL's follow-up Sister was pretty enjoyable. ...It's another miss for me, despite some standouts that bookend the album, and despite the foreboding goth atmosphere (“Shadow of a Doubt” is both of those things).

I couldn't shake the mental image of a 50-something's TEDTalk entitled "Why *You* Need to Hear the Albums *I* Got Stoned To At NYU"

"Daydream Nation" is the one Sonic Youth on this list I haven't heard, and based on the fact that it's a Sonic Youth double album, I'm not exactly waiting with bated breath to hear it

HL: “People Everyday”, “Fishin 4 Religion”, “Tennessee”, “Washed Away”

Unfamiliar with this group; Neat excursion into 90’s alt hip-hop.
While the production almost sounds too crisp and clean (wouldn't be the first late 80s/early 90s album I've felt that way about), there's something I enjoyed about the uncool-ness of the flow, and the diverse samples which put it somewhere between "3 Feet High & Rising" and "That's the Way of the World"

April 10, 2023

I initially thought the cover was a occultish image of a bunch of tents in a field- not the Royal Albert Hall.
Out of the renaissance-fair-esque albums I've heard so far, Pentangle's Basket of Light sounds the most like it was recorded in a mystical forest.
Not crazy about every track, but most of the trad songs slap.
Appropriate for a sunny Easter Sunday, and, I'm sure, for the woods at twilight

Highlights: "Once I Had a Sweetheart", "Springtime Promises", "Lyke-Wake Dirge"

April 9, 2023
3.5 for now

HL: “Black Hole Sun”, “Spoonman”, title track, “4th of July”, “Half”

Had a similar problem with the previous album (Judas Priest), as it started to blend together & sound like Mainstream Rock Radio (there were times where I’d even reflex switch away from “Black Hole Sun”, it was playing so often).
There’s definitely greatness to be found in several tracks, as well as Cornell’s performance

Wikipedia: This album was recorded in Ringo's house

For some reason I feel that it's the most vital piece of info to share about "British Steel"

S'good

HL: the singles

HL: "Hurt", "Personal Jesus", "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "In My Life", "Give My Love to Rose", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"

Though I agree that it's a great cover, I picked up on Rick Rubin's clipping during "Hurt" and got a little annoyed that he produced this album

Love it but it’s a drag

April 6, 2023

HL: title track, "Calm Like You", "My Mistakes...", "The Meeting Place", "Black Paint"

So, the Arctic Monkey's symphonic pop phase didn't come out of nowhere!

HL: “Desperate Cry”, “Subtraction”, "Orgasmatron"

Ah my favourite band again /s
I learned to temper expectations with Sepultura after Roots, as a death/thrash metal band experimenting with different styles is still a death/thrash band, and therefore won’t be my favourite thing in the world.
But there was more to love in this earlier offering, I found: for one, it's closer to 80's thrash than 90's nu metal; there are more melodic passages to balance the darkness; "Desperate Cry" is like "Keep Yourself Alive" from Queen's debut in that it's a whole album's worth of riffs.

And it's also like, 30 mins shorter than Roots

2.5, 2nd favourite album today; the 1st had to be "Dazzle Ships" by OMD

HL: "Cry To Me", "Just Out of Reach", "Beautiful Brown Eyes", "Someone To Love Me", "Won't You Give Him One More Chance"

Not familiar with these songs, but it's straight comfort food for me 🍲

HL: "Enola/Alone", "Interiors", "Small Black Flowers...", “No Surface All Feeling”

Heard “The Holy Bible” before this one, didn’t expect so much harp

3.5

April 2, 2023

Not 1st listen

Mastapeece
Songs I unfairly overlooked in past listens include the elegant “Brief Candles” and the wheezing pump organ-centered “Butcher’s Tale”
“Care of Cell 44”, “Changes”, “Beechwood Park” & “A Rose For Emily” sound as good as I remembered.
And “Time of the Season” sounds quite ahead of its time

April 1 2023

Track 1 wins the weekly Spooky Award, previously held by such songs as “Hollow Hills” by Bauhaus & “La Fille De La Mort” by The Young Gods

New to all of this album. Closer sonically to “Disintegration” than I expected, but mood-wise has a lot in common with “Seventeen Seconds”

HL: “One Hundred Years”, “Hanging Garden”, “The Figurehead”, “A Strange Day”, “Cold”

March 31, 2023

“It’s never too late to enjoy dumb entertainment “- The Undertones

Doubling down on melody & earworms this time- and it works!

"The Way Girls Talk" sounds like an ancestor to "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer in the chorus

HL: “More Songs About Chocolate…”, title track, "Under the Boardwalk", "Wednesday Week"

March 30, 2023