Reviews by giddy

A lot of this is the kind of jazz you stereotypically snap your fingers to, the kind of music that makes the toe tapping in a jazz club rock the whole building, and that is to say, very exciting for cool jazz, but very basic in a modern sense. This is often considered one of the best of its time, and I can see the appeal. The playing is all top notch, and the arrangements are also unique. I also love the use of piano, really selling to me some tracks that would've otherwise been exactly ehat I expected from this album. Unfortunately, it's a little too far between piano passages, and I get warped right back to that cool jazz club, where everyone is having a good time, but I just can't tap along. Not as much as I want to, any way.

While it does stumble as it goes on, leading to bouts that don't quite get the listener as engaged, the majority of the album has this perfect blend of raw energy perfect for a punk album while still having a more, well, 90s side, that allows for the listener to not only get up and dance to the grooves, but also feel like they're rebelling against something along with the band, and that makes it feel like the perfect blend of 90s electronic dance with something just angry enough to stage a riot. The vocals can be seen as annoying perhaps, but they're easy to adjust to, and then I find them pretty enthralling, like the radio show filter over everything perfectly matches the electronic influences, and I do enjoy how it kind of mellows out near the end, closing with something more jangle-y than anything, it's like a nice treat. This is just an album that feels like it appeals to everyone, and those it doesn't appeal to it wouldn't want to any way, and I can jam with that, for sure.

I see people describe A-ha as a one hit wonder quite often, which just doesn't seem accurate to me. Despite this, before actually listening to this album a few years ago, I would say the same thing. Take it as a sign of my U.S. brain thinking our popular culture is the end all, be all. A-ha had multiple other hits on this very album, but I didn't recognize that until I sat down and listened to their discography. Now I, myself, am a preacher at the house of A-ha, and this album is assuredly one of the reasons. It starts with one of the most iconic pop tracks of the 80s, walking that fine line between new wave and cheesy late 80s pop that it just feels like its oozing the sound of the era in the best of was. However, I think the album only gets better with some of the other tracks, as they stand out in a way very similar to the opener, and it makes the album a very solid piece of lush 80s pop. Morten Harket has one of the best voices in pop, and shows off his chops here in a way hardly have rivalled. Perhaps some of the tracks here could stand to be a bit more memorable overall, especially when put against the greats, but you're still getting what is, in my opinion, one of the best straight synthpop records of its time.

Starts great and really holds on to that noisy, destructive edge that is desperately needed in most other British rock albums from the time, and for that I have to give it tons of credit, because I was really having a good time up until the midpoint, in which the excitement started to fade away. Songs were still good, being just ferocious enough to be extremely accessible, and while I've heard far better noise rock, it didn't stop it from being enjoyable. I think the pop-ier moments were just a bit silly, especially when you could make out the lyrics, and it really lost stream by the end of the hour. Not helping things is having to listen to people throwing up for five minutes. Terrible end to an otherwise pretty decent album.

Surprisingly catchy, with some great, albeit basic 90s beats that almost seem to be a love letter to late 80s pop, judging from the features. Now, I'm not the buggest fan of that era of pop, and so some of this album can be a bit goofy and certainly long winded, but it carries enough gusto to stand out far more than I thought it would. The bass playing in some of the tracks is great, and those comic book evil like synths in the final track really won me over. It's all 80s cheese, but with a 90s coat of paint to really give it a simple but pleasant vibrance.

It's fine, but lacks most of the original ideas that makes Fatboy Slim stand out on later albums. That means this album has some newfound style that isn't present in those later albums that makes this a pretty decent dance record, but I dislike it more because I can't imagine sitting through any of this again. I grew up with a couple of these tracks on his greatest hits record, but it's telling I've never craved listening to these songs like I did with his other hits.

It's Stevie Wonder, so of course it is extremely solid, with a lot of fun experimentation specifically on this album that laid the groundwork for Songs In the Key of Life. It can feel a tad safe when it wants to be, and that doesn't allow the album to surpass any other Wonder album that I've heard, but this is assuredly a good time.

This album is unfortunately what I consider the beginning of the end for Muse. You've got far more political topics sneaking into the lyrics, the whole thing has an extremely "daytime rock radio" vibe going on save for a few tracks, and the general synth undertones really hammer in the feeling Muse would continue to awkwardly explore nearly twenty years later. However, do not mistake my words of sadness as an adverse reaction to the music on this album, because while this may be the start of something worse, it is also the end of something amazing in the best way possible. Every song walks this fine line between pop rock and alternative rock immaculately, and when it takes time to slow down and let the band (Matt, in particular) show off their musical chops, it succeeds with flying colors. The commanding piano riff in Hoodoo, the solo of Invincible, and the choir in Soldier's Poem, all perfectly showing the immense talent the band posses even on their senior outing. Even the more synth pop-esque takes are solid, almost Depeche Mode-like, runs that fill a perfect hole in a modernized 80s heart. This album has a lot of commercial moments, Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, and the magnificent closer, Knights of Cydonia, you couldn't escape at the time, but they don't feel like massive blockbusters for the sake of it, they just happened to be, on top of being some of the premier rock hits of the late 2000s. This album may be the sound they'd fail to perfect as time went on, but they didn't need to, because they nailed it on the first try, and I'm satisfied with seeing it close here. Just a fantastic collection of songs, you're bound to find something you enjoy here.

Color me impressed. This feels like generic, run-of-the-mill 80s synthpop, but that sinister undertone that gradually becomes lighter until the hit arrives is actually quite thrilling, and reminds me heavily of the other synthpop greats. Wonderfully layered production, unique hooks, and a sense of pop music pride that it still wears on its sleeve despite the new wave boom trying its best to avoid it all still. I am thoroughly enthralled by most of this album, and consider it something quite amazing.

Sunshine of Your Love is iconic, and there are some great, almost glam-y tracks after it that are really up my alley, too. Nothing mindblowing, but this is some good straight up rock and roll, especially for 1967.

I try my best to respect the Rolling Stones, but with each album I fail to see more and more what exactly this band did that was so amazing. At this point multiple other bands had done the "British band likes American rock" schtick better, and that leaves this apparently "iconic album" to be one of the Stones' weakest so far, only because it lacks that absolutely iconic hit each album had for the sake of a few okay ones. It just doesn't spark intrigue. I'm sure this makes it clear I prefer the Beatles in that debate, but frankly the two aren't even comparable.

If you want to listen to Pretty In Pink about eight times on this ten song record, then you'll love this! However, I'm more of a Love My Way fan.

If this is the funkiest group of white boys you've ever heard, you need a new supply of white boys.

Feels more like it's on the country side of Americana, this album reeks of that 90s aesthetic, but lacks anything that makes those other albums, such as the Silver Jews, interesting. Just feels like a more tired version of what you'd hear on folk radio, and barely ever did Lucinda Williams' performance feel genuine enough to pull at any heart strings.

It was alright, the Killers are definitely a hits band that can stand by their hits modt of the time, but some of these songs are so overplayed that I can't help but find them a bit cheesy. However, the album still is good, and some of the deep cuts are pretty good, too.

I feel as though this album shows all of its cards too early, as the beginning tracks are absolute classic after absolute classic. However, Don't Bother Me and beyond is the wild west. You'll definitely have some fantastic tracks peppered in there, but you have to get through a lot of boring, basic rock n roll numbers to get there. Even on this short album they feel as though they pad out the run time, and are unnecessary. Luckily, those peppered in good tracks are fantastic, from Till There Was You to Not A Second Time's amazingly simple piano solo, those tracks and more are highlights of the early Beatles era, and elevate the album. However, I could still see the argument that this is the weakest of the entire Beatles discography, and while I'd disagree, I'd at least hear you out.

I feel bad rating this kind of low, as I feel like I was distracted, talking over it the whole time. But, frankly, I don't know if this is worth a revisit. First off, I know what Randy Newman sounds like, so that aspect is covered, and two, it kind of is the same thing the whole album. There's minor differences, but not enough to comment on, and that leaves it feeling kind of bland. I respect Newman, and this isn't bad, but I see no reason to return to it.

Y'know, this album wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It really isn't all that good, at least to my American brain, but there are parts where I think the militaristic march pairs well with the silly fake horns and stuff to create an oddly uplifting Industrial sound, something you don't get a lot from the genre. Now, I'll admit that has me worried because prideful German + 80s Industrial usually equals something pretty bad, but it quotes Churchill at the end, so maybe we're all good there? Either way, this album has its charm. I don't think it's worth listening to outside of the context; production is poor, singing is strained, and you get the schtick with song one, but it's certainly better than acts like Rammstein, and that has to mean something, right? Right? Meh, still, I'd almost get one of those other questionable German acts in here. They may have iffy lyrics, but at least the music sounds good.

I've listened to this album before, and I'm listening to it again, and I'll probably listen to this album again before I did for some God forsaken reason, and I don't know why. This is the kind of music that makes you think you'll never find a song you like again, an album that lacks a soul so much that you question if the forty-five minutes you sat there listening were even real. The music here is so generic, so void of life, that it has affected my very being for the worse. It isn't even necessarily bad! It is just such a homogenized glob of an album that I fail to see how this does anything for anyone. Vocals are like a dull blade, the guitars are just power chords for forty minutes, and if this album dares try anything "new," it does it in such a way where it just sounds like they took a genre and baked it into their own bland sound. There is nothing here worth listening to, and its complete lack of identity makes it more offensive to the ears than most terrible albums, because at least I have something to say about those. A waste of time, at least they had the decency to keep it under an hour.

The more older jazz rap I listen to, the more I love the jazz rap of the last couple decade or so. Albums such as To Pimp A Butterfly or Modal Soul really seem to understand what makes jazz so great, and doesn't take away from that genre for the sake of simple beats and an easy song structure. However, that, in turn, makes albums like The Low End Theory, and our album today, Step In The Arena, feel hollow and cheap, in my opinion. I am not denying the jazz is there, because it is, but it all feels so plain, and with flows and bars that feel like I could make them whilst parodying hip hop, it just doesn't have much in the way of something interesting. I'm glad acts like Gang Starr were around to add more layers to the rap game than gangsta rap or boom bap, but when returning to these earlier albums it can feel a tad goofy, and it really disappoints.