Reviews by galway_rat

Star rant:
A high 3 in the way that “Clandestino” & “Steve Mcqueen” are high 3s, not to be confused by the low 3s of “Locust Abortion Technician” and “I’m Living All Over You”. :/
Now the actual album:
“Down Yonder” has a great piano solo by Bobby Nelson, who I’m just learning of now and also that she died earlier this year. The performances are consistently great, as is Willie Nelson’s voice, it’s just that the earnest adherence to the classic country formula reminds me why I can only take so much of the genre.
PS to star rant: Blackstar was for me a 5 star, I knew that as soon as I gave it 4

This has been a good week so far on the album generator

August 4, 2022

Note to self- listen to it again with better speakers

Knowledge of the Black Keys is almost entirely between Brothers-El Camino-Turn Blue, while El Camino might be my favourite of the 3, Brothers is a very close 2nd.
HL: “Too Afraid to Love You”, “Next Girl”

Don’t think there’s an album I’ve listened to in its entirety more than Abbey Road. So yeah. It’s OK.

Clearly I haven’t seen Shrek for a while, didn’t recognize “My Beloved Monster” when it came up on the album.
Something about mid-90s alt-rock/grunge production puts me off at times (though I was born in the mid-90s), but the songs are good enough that it doesn’t matter
HL: “Beautiful Freak”, “Flower”, “Lucky Day in Hell”

I feel like Wiki describing this as a “pop” record is misleading, it’s both more interesting and less accessible. It’s one of the more unique albums I’ve heard so far, I’ll probably like it more over time.

Highlights: “When Love Breaks Down”, “Desire As”, “Goodbye Lucille #1”

Warm slice of apple pie
29/07/22

Thank goodness I’m hearing this today instead of 5 years ago, where I can finally separate the songs from the void of adult contemporary radio. Except for “Send My Love”, it’s not even a bad song but I’m still recovering from hearing it 20 too many times
Highlights: “Hello”, “I Miss You”, “When We Were Young”, “River Lea”.

Reminds me a little of “Deep Purple In Rock”, which has some really great moments among duller (technically-impressive) passages. I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to hear the band’s ‘theme song’, oh God HELP ME 🔥

CanCon alert🚨

Favourite tracks at the moment are Suzanne, One of Us Cannot Be Wrong, & Sisters of Mercy.
Took most of my adult life (so far) to appreciate Cohen’s music, but what a great album to drive home to late at night

24/07/22

What the hell is he talking about

I like how warm this album sounds

The guitars weave together & complement each other nicely, The percussion is sparse but It’s always welcome when it kicks in

July 22, 2022

3.5
Definitely a warmup to “Rush of Blood” in my opinion, but Shiver & Yellow are as good as anything on that album

Will hopefully listen again when there’s no background sound, but my impression of the 90% I did hear was that it was pretty good but overlong in both side A & B

20/07/22

Not first listen, but some tracks really stood out to me for the first time. (“Anything Goes”, “My Michelle”)
It’s comforting to know those couple weeks as a teen where G&R was my favourite band weren’t for no reason.

15/07/22

I like this more than the last Costello album I got from this site (“My Aim is True”), but seeing this is his 11th album (!!) of course his songwriting would strengthen over time

Having heard quite a few of the tracks already, pleased to report the others are about as solid. Tired of Wonderwall but would be lying if I said I didn’t sing along to it

3.5
Pretty consistent, garage-y psychedelic rock; thought of another album generated by this website by Paul Revere + the Raiders, “Midnight Ride”- but “The Electric Prunes” is more eclectic and fun in my opinion.

14/07/22

Not first listen, still as disturbing and catchy as I remember it.
Standouts: Closer, March of the Pigs, Eraser
11/07/22
PS the last note in “Hurt” will scare me every time I hear it, it seems