Reviews by giddy

An album with a couple hits, one I know pretty well, but the whole album reeks of being a transitional album. The album has beats and production sometimes reminiscent of the 90s, other times the lyrics and and flow is purely 80s. It not only suffers from that "I'm the illest," bars that were dated years before this album, other times the lyrics are just terrible. "Surely I won't rape you?" Seriously? Sickening, and just plain creepy. The beats are also cut too short, leading to anger only a few songs in, as they hardly do enough to warrant the 4+ minute runtime. It not only is dated, but it is aggravating, and while I cannot deny the catchy factor found in Mama Said Knock You Out, the rest of the album fails to even sort of reach that song, and even that falls into the same realm as something like Hammer Time, and I'm sure you don't need explanation on how that's an insult. If this is the best LL Cool J gets, I fail to see how he was one of the main MCs of the time.

Is this better than I expected an Aerosmith album from 1989 to be? Yes, but that doesn't mean it's good.

God, this album is so close to getting me absolutely enthralled with Buzzcocks. Almost the entirety of the A-side, in my opinion, is a great mix of punk and a proper energy that doesn't get repetitive. Oddly, the riffs remind me of post-hardcore and the feeling that gives me, so I really thought from the beginning up to the start of the B-side that I would love this album, but while it is still superb, the final four tracks leave a fair bit to be desired. They slow the pace down, but don't make up for it melodically, even though the faster paced tracks were able to have some great hooks, and it is a bit disappointing. Fiction Romance is solid but doesn't stick the landing, and Autonomy is RIGHT THERE, but also falls flat. The rest of the album is so good, but I was a bit burnt by it, and so it dropped a couple notches for me. However, this is still one of the best pop punk albums I've ever heard, and I know something here will grab be upon re-listen to the point where I could see myself really liking it. For now, it's just good, and y'know what? That's okay.

The whole album is worth it for the titular song.

This feels as though it was an album purely made to later on be a milestone in which we would look back on and go "Wow, electronica has come so far!" as this is extremely dated. There's good ideas, with some decent samples that generally felt tonally justified, they aren't just thrown in all willy nilly, but the actual turntable efforts are boring, and would make my eyes roll were they a part of a greater album, such as a hip-hop album from the same era. It isn't necessarily bad, but will I remember this tomorrow? No, probably not.

Lou Reed continues to be not quite up to snuff with John Cale's solo material, in my opinion, but this is certainly interesting. I just sometimes wish Reed would get to the point, as his poppiest tracks are almost always his best.

I heard Man from the song generator (R.I.P.) a couple of years ago and found it pretty good. Was hoping this would be up to snuff, but sadly it's just okay, and I'm wondering if I only like Man because of the Queens of the Stone Age sample. Still, not horrendous, but this certainly isn't winning me over to U.K. hip hop.

Looking at the genres, I expected this to be a folkier take on Morrissey's shtick. Instead, I got if the worst of Nick Cave was produced by U2. Bleh. I usually think these low average scores are an overreaction, but I completely understand why this left a bad taste in many people's mouths. It's not awful, but oh so dull.

While I'm admittedly lacking the knowledge currently on the scope of Eno's ambient works between Another Green World and this album, but a return to pop music form seems like a solid move from the musician in context. It proves to his audience that he hadn't run out of ideas, rather, he was following his true calling of ruling a genre, and returned to his A-B-A song structure roots to prove he is not only a creative powerhouse, but handles variety in strides. Not every song here is some great art rock song, in fact, I'd say a lot of the rockier stuff pales in comparison to his works on Here Come the Warm Jets, but those slower pieces are on equal grounds with the vocal tracks from Another Green World, and just because Eno doesn't quite have that glam appeal anymore doesn't mean he can't pull off other fresh and new genres quite well. King's Lead Hat is not only a great love letter to the emerging Talking Heads, but a great new wave track to boot. A showcase of range and scope to the mysterious Brian Eno, this album may be best in its quieter moments similar to his most recent works, but it still is a solidly odd yet catchy release that is sure to show off its influence to anyone who hears it. It's a darn shame Eno mostly abandoned vocal albums post this work because this new wave of Brian Eno rock tunes could've really altered the 80s. Oh well, he left his influence via Bowie and Byrne, surely.

I know the language barrier makes it hard to fully feel in-tune with the music presented, but I just found this album to be exactly what I expected from it. There were no hidden gems, or cultural shake-ups, but rather just an album that feels like it is included in lists for the sake of diversity, and is by no means bad, but by no means a seminal release. I will admit getting up and moving a little while listening did make it a bit more enjoyable, but not enough to be anything magical. Just a record of filler.

Man, this is a disappointment. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I know anything about jazz, nor do I understand why some of it clicks with me, and some of it doesn't, but I know this mostly is just not my style. It feels too schmutlzy, and while I can tell everyone playing is an amazing musician, there are no passages here that feel any more special the prior or future ten minutes of this record. There are bits and pieces of something more, certainly, but I just found this to go from kinda boring to even vaguely annoying by the end, and while it certainly isn't to a degree of hate like Bitches Brew, I still think this isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when I've now interacted with jazz albums that've spoken to me. I was just hoping this album would be one of those jazz albums.

So sick of Rod Stewart. Glad there was another singer to balance him out.

I'm like 70% sure that this album is mainly meandering instrumental, 20% meandering story, and then, like, 10% solid songwriting. The Who had assuredly come into their own musically at this point, but this weird middle-ground between what the Rolling Stones were doing and what the Beatles were doing just leads the album to feeling wholly unoriginal, not helped by its constant credits with inventing the rock opera, which is just not the case. Sure, there are hits from this, but does Pinball Wizard truly stand against the other 1969 powerhouse hits every other band was releasing at the time, let alone a whole album? No, not really. Would be entirely forgotten were it not for the fact that somehow the Who managed to squirm into the upper echelons of the British Invasion, and for that I'll forever be just confused.

This used to be my favorite Pink Floyd album, but I've come to discover Animals and Meddle, and it leaves this album paling in comparison. Still, their best that the generator has to offer, for sure.

I think this albums inclusion perfectly exemplifies what is wrong with most of the 21st century picks for a list like this, even if this album is before the turn of the century. The list was first made in 2005, and that causes a lot of (at the time) recent albums to have no time to sit and see if they truly are something worth sticking around for. Instead, it felt like the author needed to fill out the list with recent big artists to sell copies of the book; albums with one major hit, but not a lot of staying power otherwise. This strategy has worked in the lists favor since, just look at the Kendrick Lamar inclusions, but many of the albums don't feel like "albums" you should listen to before you die, but rather one hit single and ten to fifteen other tracks, and it really makes it the dullest part of the list, in my eyes. There is no wonder that this album (among many others) got removed to make room for new albums that fall into the same issues. Rinse and repeat.

This album on its own merits is fine enough. The hit is decent but overplayed, and most of the other songs range from fine to okay, with only some true stinkers, but Spears has better albums, and if we were going to go with an album that had a hit on it by her before 2005, why not make it In the Zone and include Toxic?

This album often felt like Bitches Brew-lite, and as someone with quite the disdain for Bitches Brew, that is NOT a compliment. It feels often that nothing is happening for the sake of another part of the song, but rather everyone sounds like they're performing different songs than the other players, and if that isn't happening, its issues lie in just how mellow it is. It doesn't feel like an album to put on while having a drink on a Sunday evening, its too excitable for that, but its not an album for a party environment either, as it can get as slow as sludge, to the point where its hard not to call it "muzak" and nothing more. Usually a chilled out vibe would be something I would appreciate for the breather it provides, but on this album it just feels like too much of a 180° to be relaxing, and instead has the listener going from zero to 100 back to zero, giving one whiplash more than anything.

There are parts to enjoy, as everyone is at the top of their game performance wise, and it also sounds quite ahead of its time for 1973, giving it a futuristic tone that rival the coming synth-heavy instrumentation of the late 70s. It just feels too much and too little, and I either have little time to process it musically, or little reason to care. I can see its revolutionary style, it wears it on its sleeve with that slick album cover, but this does nothing for me musically but annoy.

What's the big deal with this album? Yeah, it's decent, it has some hits that are good, but songs like Shout are awful, and the deep cuts are bores. So many better albums came from this era of synthpop, and before, so why does this album get all the new wave glory? The Fleetwood Mac of synthpop, in that aspect. It's good, but not the best.

Normally with albums I've already listened to in the past like this one, I check it out a second time when it comes time to rate it, that way I get my fully accurate opinion on it and not my opinion from a year ago where I was only half listening. However, with this album I have no doubts rating this album a rather poor score, as I just remember the boredom that came with this rather tepid release. Is it important in the history of blues rock as well as Led Zeppelin, a band I'm rather fond of? Yes, but that doesn't make this any more dull. Only really giving bonus points because of the history surrounding it, but when you listen to What's Going On by Marvin Gaye right after, it's hard to have any thoughts about a release like this.

Perhaps I treated you too harshly, Weather Report. I originally listened to this while building LEGO a couple years ago, and I found it cheesy and boring, but perhaps it's that Black Midi jazz (the band, not the genre) but some of these songs kind of struck a chord with me this time around. The early stuff flew by and was nothing to write home about, but the later into the album we got the more I could appreciate it for what it is. Is it all that special? Nah, it's still dated and cliché, but I don't dislike this as much as I was lead to believe.

I was both interested and scared for this album, as I knew it could I either be some folksy prog jazz that would alter my life, or a Steve Winwood-coated snore fest with very little to speak on. It ended up being mostly the latter, with a lot of potential within the walls of the first two tracks, but instead of continuing the Winwood woodwind escapades, it becomes pretty generic rock tunes for a couple tracks only to completely stumble on what could've been a folk-prog masterpiece a la Led Zeppelin III and then end on cheesy rock power ballad. Maybe the horns and flutes stuck around, but I forgot about them as the tepid guitar playing continued and the embodiment of every generic white guy sang through Steve to give a so-so performance. There is a lot of hope within this album, and it starts pretty good, with two solid progressive tracks to keep the baby and soul at least engaged, and when it comes to a six song album that's a decent amount of songs, but the rest is so forgettable I find it hard to say this is worth the check-in when there are so many other acts doing this exact style of album multiple times better. It is alright, but nothing to miss out on here.