Reviews by giddy

An 80s Second British Folk Revival is bound to be a bit off, and there's this feeling I can't shake this whole album where it just feels... goofy? I mean, it just starts to feel like a parody of itself at this point, and decent instrumentation even wears thin after so long. Maybe singing this with some mates in a bar would make it much better, but this just feels off, and I can't do much in my mind to understand why, but I don't think I really care enough to figure it out, either.

Even if I don't absolutely adore this album, it's so nice to hear something with some actual grit and emotion after the last couple albums I've gotten. Sophie was one of the best producers out there, and her sudden passing is still heartbreaking. I can understand this being a lot for those not too keen on this sort of production, but this truly was a new wave of music that opened the door for artists like 100 gecs, and really put Charli XCX on the map. And this album gives you a nice sampler package of all of that. And when it hits, it HITS.

Man, this was not good. This was bad, even. Sorry, person who added this, but this is as stereotypical as it comes for alternative rock in the 2010s, and the Michael Bay movie trailer soundtrack going on as the backing track the whole time just makes it more groan worthy. Add in a ham-fisted space theme and you've got yourself an album your 12 year old brother is sure to love, and that should probably concern you. Is he okay? Getting enough love and/or attention? Go check on the little guy. And show him the Beatles or something while you do.

"Just because a record has a groove don't make it in the groove."

It's interesting: if this album didn't have the distortion, tape hiss, and overall static-y sound, it would probably have a lower score on websites like RateYourMusic and Album of the Year, but a higher score on here. Either way it seems no one truly loves this record, and while I generally agree it doesn't blow really anything away, there is a definitive mood this album brings, and if you're able to put up with the harsher sounds this album presents, I think you'll find a pretty solid noise rock release underneath. If the whole idea got a little more fleshed out, I think you'd truly have something special. Then again, probably goes against the general idealogy of this release, huh?

Dolly Parton may be a national treasure, but this album is nothing all that special. Bluegrass is a genre that probably would need more covering on the list, if it weren't for the one on the list being nearly two hours long. This is decent, but we're still missing Parton's Jolene (the album) and that seems like a more obvious pick.

It seems on modern releases this is a mash of two albums. It has the cover of one and the title of the other. Guess my album today is two albums. Oh well, at least they're both short, and have some.

These were pretty basic occult rock tracks, but there were some decent stand outs, and I agree with the general sentiment that this is far better than the 13th Floor Elevators, but I also feel like this album cover is better than the album inside it.

Roky Erickson and the Aliens (5 Symbols) - 2.5 Stars
The Evil One - 3 Stars

Part of me wanted to like this, especially as it went on and I understood what it was trying to do more clearly, but it seems the curse of Springsteen lives on in the bands he inspired. It's just missing... something for me. It could be a little angrier, a bit more melodic, have clearer production, less predictable lyrics, but I really don't think any one of those is the main issue. I think it just is embedded in a project like this at It's core. And when you don't care for the core, it's hard to want to listen to an hour of it. I can tell this means a lot to millennials especially, but I like my punk with a bit less Heartland put into it, I suppose.

I think it says more about my character that I liked this more than Violator, rather than acting like this album is good, per se.

Very neat, albeit a bit predictable and doesn't have a whole lot of it's own ideas, but I do really like what's here. Just don't use this as an excuse to brush off any other modern rap, okay?

Everyone seems to be saying this was an "obvious" absentee on the original list, and that it was a shock it wasn't there before, but... I don't see it? Sure, Lady Marmalade is iconic in some sense, but frankly it isn't so amazing the rest of the album is carried by it, and the rest of the album is pretty regular ol' soul music, and when we're missing albums like Love Deluxe, Pastel Blues, Hell, even Igor on the original list, I don't know if we need another album that is just here for one song's iconic status.

Not quite as much shoegaze perfection as the works of My Bloody Valentine, but still a monumental release in the genre that deserves a listen. Although, I'll admit I'm more partial to their debut.

Very much not for me. I'm one of the few that gave AC/DC's albums both one stars on the main list, there was no world where I'd be giving this anything higher. I don't even really understand the add, with plenty of other artists having generic hard rock covered thirty years before this album existed. I mean, look at the user who submitted this and you'll probably find I don't think the user exactly listens to anything BUT this kind of music, so... good for them? Do what you enjoy, but don't make everyone else listen to fifty minutes of nothingness.

Chuck Berry is one I see who a lot of people say should've made the original list, but I personally didn't see a specific album that should've been chosen. I suppose this is the best choice, though. Ironically, despite Berry's guitar picking being out of this world (not to mention influential) for 1964, it's the piano led You Never Can Tell that is the highlight here, with the the bluesy B-side never really coming close to that high.

Better than expected, but I don't think that's saying much for an overly long, stereotypical 90s adventure with Tom Petty. The softer moments really show some maturity from the singer far later than you'd expect in his career, but then you'll get a track like Honey Bee or Cabin Down Below and realize it's all just checking boxes so that everyone listening (in the 90s) walks away happy. Shout out to Ringo Starr on the drums for that one track, that's really my biggest take away from the whole album.

Pleasant enough, but too long like most 2000s albums, and I think the magic of the first song was really all I needed, not a whole album. Always appreciate more of this stuff, though! Many of the African albums on the original generator always felt like an afterthought, and they feel it even more now when compared to this.

Eh. There were moments that feel like the pop-ier cuts from the Mars Volta, but I think something like this really gets lost in translation (literally) when you can't understand it almost at all. The instrumentation is pleasant but very stereotypical for the time, and while I can see why this would be important to someone who bonded with it, I can't see past it just being another rock album of the 2000s. Albeit, in (I assume) Norwegian.

This album is utterly batshit. It's no wonder why Retrovertigo and Pink Cigarette are the two biggest songs off this album, as they are perhaps the only two tracks on this album with some semblance of normality. That factor both works for me and irks me, as sometimes the insanity is a nice refresher when it comes to music in general, because it makes you look at music in general even deeper than you would otherwise, albeit only for a little bit. But also, I found myself missing the status quo by the end of this album because while every single track had a part I loved, or better yet, a whole song I enjoyed, but often times that joy would require a little bit of sifting around in the pits of silly little guy Hell. The music is goofy, but almost frighteningly so, not dissimilar to Frank Zappa or the Residents. It works for me at times, while other parts I start to find myself output, or even worse, bored and ready for the song to wrap up. I'm all for a wild time, but I feel like the pacing of each individual song brings down the whole experience, if just a tad. Mike Patton is an insane vocal powerhouse, and the instrumentation is also very impressive, but do not go in seeking Pink Cigarette ten times. Not that I mind, just was a lot... wilder than I was expecting, and I have to mull over if I appreciate that a little longer.

I'm sorry, but I found a lot of this to be incredibly safe and sometimes dull. There were moments near the start that had me hopeful, but this plus the album on the main list tells me that I don't especially care about this band. Offensively inoffensive.

Oh, thank God, I was worried The Tragically Hip always copie- I mean, was influenced by R.E.M, but luckily, they instead were big fans of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, one of the worst "famous" bands of the 80s. What joy! Bleh, this album was almost fine enough, but as it just kept going I was just more and more annoyed, to the point where I'd call this actively bad. Is the Tragically Hip gonna be the Costello of the user list? I really hope not, or at the very least that third (and final?) album better be fantastic, to make it all even. Sorry, OP, I'm sure this band means a lot to you, but this is far from for me.