Reviews by giddy

I'm unsure if I actually listened to everything from this album, as the playlist on YouTube said a song was unavailable, but song titles seem to be slightly different between language barriers, so I couldn't tell completely. That being said, I think I got the general picture just fine, and my main takeaway is that I just don't like this vocal style. I know it seems to be the main vocal delivery of a lot of middle eastern (is that insensitive? I'm ill-informed on what's correct there, so I'm sorry) singers, but it just feels stereotypical and annoying. Perhaps that comes from Hollywood using songs that sound like this album whenever characters are in the desert, and those settings annoy me, so maybe it's an association thing? Who knows, I just know this album isn't saved no matter what for me, as the instrumentation is so aggressively western that it sounds ripped straight out of the 80s. Issue is that it is from 1999, and lacks any decent hooks to actually get me grooving along. Not to mention the terrible runtime of seventy-five minutes, and you've got yourself a release that could only ever be known by me, a guy sitting in the middle of the USA listening to this, because some British guy thought it was an album I had to listen to before I died. It is not, and wasting my time on it made me annoyed. However, the album is actually better than I expected still, with enough interesting moments to at least keep it entertaining at points. An Imagine cover that is same-y but not bad, some genre switch ups such as a French ballad or a Spanish guitar inspired dance track, it definitely is unique in the fact that it is trying to be something. That something may be appealing to as many people as possible, which means it appeals to no one because I'd rather listen to ANYTHING else, but I have to give it a little credit. However, you will understand the gist of this album via a couple of the first tracks and maybe a song here or there. In no world should you sit through all of this, and considering the album ends with that same French ballad AGAIN with very little noticeable change (it's in Arabic now, but it seems the chorus is still in French?) makes it so sticking around until the end is just a waste. This album was destined to be some niche thing never known across the world, and it still isn't, but Robert Dimery tried, and failed, to make it something known in 2005. But he was wrong, and I can't look past that when it is the only reason I spent my Wednesday morning listening to it. It just isn't worth the time of day.

I wrote a whole review about I couldn't possibly fairly rate this, as it wasn't meant to ever reach me sitting in the middle of the US twiddling my thumbs, but it unfortunately got deleted, and I couldn't possibly re-type it with nearly the same amount of gusto. So, I'll just say that while I can recognize this album may do something for others, I feel its merits that I can process do not rise high enough for me to seek out more information, as at its core it is relatively predictable conscious hip hop album from the early 90s, and those are, frankly, a dime a dozen. I will give it the benefit of the doubt and boost it a little because I was still vibing to the solid production, but I gathered very little from listening to this, and I'm unsure if you can really blame me. A genre that is 70% lyrical focus being listened to by an exclusively English-speaking person is bound to cause problems, and while I realize that is not the album's fault, it cannot be ignored.

If there is one thing I adore about music, it is finding what is seemingly an artist you love out of nowhere. It happened with me and Sparks, my now favorite band, and while there could be a world where I still hadn't discovered them, I'm extremely happy that my music journey led me to them. So, getting that feeling again is always great, and that seems to be the case with me and Siouxsie and the Banshees. I mean, I could assume I would like them just because of my general enjoyment of post-punk and, to a lesser extent, gothic rock, but to find out they may be one of my favorites of the genre and era is an extremely nice surprise. Siouxsie's vocals are unique and emotionally strained without being difficult to listen to, and their instrumentation on this album is amazing, with tons of riffs and hooks that are surprisingly catchy for such a dissonant album. This should be an album where you stare into space and overthink every thing that has ever happened to you, but you can't help but rock out a little while you do it. Siouxsie and the Banshees seem to love their unique covers, and this features a fascinating Helter Skelter cover that towers over other Beatles covers for actually doing something different whilst not removing the ton of the original, and the whole album is just haunting. The album cover is perfect, just being something relatively normal, but distorting it to a point of being terrifying, and while perhaps by modern standards this album could come off a little cheesy, by 1978 standards this feels like a nightmare, albeit a lesser one. This debut just feels like something sinister is afoot, and while their later, more rock oriented releases are amazing in their own right, this take is something I just really enjoy, being exactly what I go to post-punk for. That pure anxious energy that few others can balance with purely great songwriting so well. It is a treat, and I look forward to diving into their discography more in my own time.

This album manages to seamlessly be both evocative of the 80s without being outdated, nearly pioneering a sound that can be heard not only in acid house scenes of the 90s, but also genres such as hip hop or IDM. It knows how to tread lightly when it comes to sampling, although that doesn't mean you don't get a few cheeky ones in there that are fun to spot, and overall the whole project is just a lot of fun. More energetic than its contemporaries, 808 State manages to present a mostly instrumental release while still keeping it engaging to the common folk, especially boosted by its oh-so-familiar PlayStation-like sound design, although obviously years before that console's appearance. It just comes off as a love letter to the lighter electronic tunes that came before, whilst ushering in a new scene that takes the genre more seriously, giving way to a nice blend. Helping things tremendously is its relatively short runtime, in which later electronic albums seemed to ignore concise and tight instrumentation, while this one nails it. It does have some hiccups in the way of still being relatively repetitive, as many tracks can be cut down a minute or two with little loss, and I can't imagine legitimately getting up and dancing to this, instead it feels more like playing a racing game, and I'm never sure if that's a compliment or not. But this album still has enough bright moments for me to appreciate and enjoy what it presents. Hoping an earlier or later release from this group may click with me even more, but this album may have hit that groove just right.

At the start of the record, I found the vocal style incredibly unique for this era of rock, but found the butt-rock instrumentation to be goofy, like a song you would hear close a Michael Bay film. However, once it started escaping that sound and was oddly ballad songs with a hint of rock band, I found myself sorely missing the heavier sound. The album never really settled down, causing it to exhaust its welcome far sooner than what was intended. A sound following the second track's punky delivery and brash lyrics is what would've benefited the album the most, I feel, and twenty minutes shaved off the runtime. To be unique is always welcomed, but you have to go all in, otherwise you just fall into a midpoint of mediocrity and forgeability, destined to be forgotten in an era you assuredly thought you were avoiding.

Due to the Verve's initial take on Britpop being a more psychedelic fever dream with noisy guitars and wailing vocals, it at least is understandable why they were big enough to score airplay by the time of Urban Hymns. It stands out among the crowd, and really shares more similarities with acts like the Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev than Pulp or Blur. In doing so, I find myself liking this album more than their later projects, as it feels a bit less forced, like they weren't just trying to cash in on a trend to make money. However, it still is incredibly boring, with at least half the album being repetitive, nearly ambient guitar playing backed by otherwise boring instrumentation, and lyrically the album is as simple as possible. Part of the fun of 60s British psychedelia was its quirk, its self-awareness. Acts like the Beatles and the Kinks knew it was weird and overwhelmingly British, but many groups from the 90s seem scared to embrace that, save for acts like Pulp or the Divine Comedy if you count it. I'm all for serious, mystifying music, but you have to try a bit harder than this record is. No one song stands out, and over the course of this hour-long record you'll encounter what feels like the same six-minute flat circle song about ten times, with slight variations that allows some tracks to be definitively BETTER, but still not good. It's fine, if you like it, I understand it, but it still has to be one of the weakest showings from this era. Perhaps still better than anything Oasis ever put out, though.

An album that I remember being so bad and dull that I honestly refuse to listen to it again. Songs dragged on with little interesting instrumentation to accompany it, and the singer's wispy, psychedelic singing often came off as more posh and up its own ass than actually done well. Yes, there is a singular good riff here, that being Bittersweet Symphony's string backing to keep that song moving along at a pace just fit enough for it to become a hit both in the UK and US, but when you learn that small snippet of strings is all you get, you'll be rolling your eyes by the end of the track, and realizing it is a sample pulled from a Rolling Stones' orchestral live album makes it all the worse. Sure, sampling is cool, but not that lazily, it just makes you look bad. Otherwise, you get that same level of self-important nothingness that plagues the likes of their contemporaries, such as The Charlatans or Oasis. Pulp and other Britpop acts work for me due to their self-aware lyrics and cheeky but solid instrumentals. This just feels like they came up with "sad" lyrics then noodled on their instruments for five minutes, cut it, and shipped it out. How this is considered some of the best the UK had to offer at the time is beyond me, but I just find it ridiculously drab, and I really don't want to go through that hour of meandering songwriting again, even a year or so later.

There really isn't much to say, because there isn't much going on. I don't smoke weed because I'm a loser, but I can't imagine someone high would choose this over hundreds of other chill-out albums to vibe and relax to. Nothing is annoying, nothing is catchy, nothing is ear-catching. It just persists in the background. Sometimes you question if a new song has started, sometimes three songs go by and you don't bat an eye. It just, exists. Exists for over an hour, that is. Kind of inexcusable for what's presented, but I suppose you may need background noise for a while if you're gonna get high. Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? Probably not, but this album bores me to tears sober, and I can't imagine that shifts to masterpiece quality stoned. Not awful, just prepare for wishing you were listening to a different album.

Quite frankly, this album and perhaps all of Aphex Twin are too smart for me. I don't pick up on the intricate time signatures, the mellowed out drum and bass backing to allow the sound to always have a thumping heartbeat, or even the general vibe brought to the table by its simplistic yet thoroughly crafted beats. However, I do at least respect it. It may sound like the soundtrack to a PlayStation racing game, but that can be a good thing! So, when I say it isn't my thing, I recognize completely that it is at the fault of my own patience and musical tolerance, rather than any outright flaw with the album. However, I do still think there are issues worth addressing, such as the length. The album suffers from 90s-itis, which means it must be double the length of a (now) standard album for the sake of filling out a CD, and while this does fit electronic music better than most genres, it can still feel like this collection of stoned club bangers are stretched to their limit for the sake of the ethereal ambiance, and it makes it so most tracks don't feel like they fit in a day-to-day lifestyle. Once again, an unfair critique, I realize, but I often think songs should be something I want to come back to, and I struggle to think of a reason on why I would return to Xtal over Pulsewidth, and even if I were to put on the whole album for one amazing session of "testing my new speakers," what effect does the album bring to the table that one singular track off this album doesn't pull off instead? There are differences between songs; tracks like Hedphelym offer an obviously more sinister tone than simple, floaty tracks like I, but I still think at the end of the day this album is something praised on influence and standards more than being something truly fantastic in it of itself. I'm obviously talking out of my ass, I know nothing about IDM, but when looking at its contemporaries from later in the decade, I see so much improvement and style injected into the genre that this comes off as hollow and aged. In my opinion, better than what others were doing in 1992, but save for a couple tracks and moments, this doesn't seem like an album worth returning to in full. So, what your main takeaway here should be is that I'm saying there is no reason to return to this album, yet this is my second time listening in full in the last year. Says something about the pull this album gives off, huh? Whatever, I'm an idiot, now bugger off. luv u

This album would be far better were it to have released either earlier in the 80s, or into the 90s. However, I also think this album could've never been made in any other time, as it is so perfectly 80s, so of course it released smack-dab in the middle of the decade! It actually is funkier than expected, and judging from the appearance of a Talking Heads cover (the worst song on the album, by the way: it isn't a good cover) I'd say they were going for something relatively danceable while still being solid sophisti-pop, allowing the album to slow down and become more introspective when needed. It all succeeds in doing what it is trying to, but it's hard to not still roll your eyes at the very thought of this album. It is just too cheesy, too cream-filled (a-yo?), too passé, and too predictable. But, I can't help but get into it a little bit. Not via the major hit, Holding Back the Years, no, no, no, no 80s ballads for me, thank you. Rather, I think it does its upbeat tracks rather well, and while it is no Talking Heads in the groove department, it can still be relatively solid for what's there, and I could say I enjoyed it with relative ease. It really isn't special, or frankly, good, but I had my fun with it, and luckily the CD wasn't too prominent yet, otherwise I could see this being one of those needlessly long LPs, but we have been saved on this glorious day. Rejoice! 80s mainstream pop is still just okay!

This album was frankly just too late, as there is some part of me that wants to respect the abstract choices made with this album; the ambient tracks, the spoken word that feels more like poetry than anything hip hop related, and the lyrical concepts are generally something that would fit well on some sort of concept album. However, most of the album I was only thinking that these concepts and styles had been done before relatively recently upon this album's release, and it makes Mike Ladd unfortunately look like a copycat at best, a complete poser at worst. This isn't really fair to Ladd, but it doesn't mean this album magically becomes timely or really all that well-thought-out. A major issue this album possesses is that it often feels like it can't balance the ambient instrumentals with the rapping parts. Many of the instrumental tracks would make great backing beats, meanwhile most of the actual main beats come off as weak and uninspired. Ladd is also not a great MC flow wise, as even though it undoubtably has to do with the spoken word and poetry influences, it still comes off as choppy, and lyrically it also is reminiscent of a stereotypical slam poetry show; talking. Like. This. To. Make it. Sound... like you're smart. It can just be incredibly goofy. The album does improve upon its growth, with some of the final tracks easily outshining the rest of the album, but at over an hour long it is too little too late. Had this released in the mid 90s, I may be singing a different tune, but by 2000 you had acts like MF DOOM, and while again it isn't Mike Ladd's fault that this has aged like milk, it can be hard to return to, I imagine, five years later, let alone nearly twenty-five.

Of course this album was a big inspiration to the alt-rock acts of the late 80s and early 90s, I mean, just listen to it. Just enough country twang to be subversive. Enough fuzz to rock hard, but still melodic enough to gather a crowd willing to jam. It's its own thing through and through, with only small things you can pick out and go "oh they probably did that because of this act," but otherwise you're listening to the sound of an all new era of entertainment, and while its still ironing out some of the kinks, okay, A LOT of kinks, its otherwise nothing short of revolutionary.

File this on the punk side of post-punk, the Fall's singer really breaks this album for me, as compared to the excellent bass playing, the solid drumming, and that perfect late 70s guitar tone, his voice comes off like one of those mediocre UK hip hop rappers that you can't help but laugh at from initial listen. Less Public Image Ltd, more The Streets, y'know? However, I would be lying if I said it didn't break barriers for me at points and deliver something I enjoyed, as the raw energy in some of the tracks really allows the instrumentation to shine, and if you bury Mark E. Smith in the mix just enough, his delivery becomes less laughable, and instead something more manic. Certainly not one of the great post-punk records in my eyes, but still something with enough merit on its own, and at the very least, it certainly stands out.

This album is like bad Coldplay. It's like hearing that ending, feel-good song on an album that no one likes twelve times in a row. It's like tuning into the Christian rock station, and getting what you deserve for thinking that was a good idea. It's awful. Bono was already slowly becoming the dullest vocalist to hit the big time, but luckily this album also lacks any interesting instrumentation, quality hooks or choruses for that matter, and really just reeks of "let's do what everyone else is doing!" Throw in some terrible lyrics that really don't even try, the entirety of Grace can show that off, and I think you have yourself the perfect mix of horrible, early 2000s schlock that only aims to be just inoffensive enough so that your grandma can finally become a fan of U2. Maybe that's why they've made permeant residence in Las Vegas for the time-being? So that your great aunts and uncles can catch them while they're on their biannual trip to the casinos to "make it big"? How did Eno get to be this dull; boredom? Was Talking Heads too much of a party, and he had to cool down with Jesus and the disciples for a few decades? Just rubbish, makes me more mad just thinking about it, don't put yourself through this, all is revealed in that "baby's first pop rock" of a hit single, so get your rocks off there, if you really need that U2 kick and War, Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, literally any other album, or going outside doesn't satisfy that craving.

This album feels a little bit like New Order are on autopilot, and I can't help but blame the era in which this album was conceived. The late 80s are the bane of my existence, and it just feels as though every act from the time either got worse or was never good to begin with, save for some harder rock sounds exploding on to the scene at the time, and this album is no exception. It feels like if you put "New Order" into an AI generator, this is what would be spit out, a multitude of tracks that are certainly synth-y and melancholic, but lack that extra push to be something truly worth experiencing. However, despite this, I find New Order's aesthetic to remain relatively intact to a degree where none of the songs are bad. There's plenty of weird, poorly aged sounds, but the general idea is still there and accounted for, so if you like that "party at a funeral" vibe, you may get that here just as much as Power, Corruption & Lies or Low-Life, but it is clear that New Order has forgotten most of their roots, and it can lead to a solid, but mind-numbing experience where you only recall their older, BETTER tracks.

This is it, this is what all other Radiohead albums were building towards, almost like a season finale. Obviously we've gotten albums past this one, but this really feels like the culmination of what everything they had done before was forming into. There's more rock heavy tracks blended with more ethereal tracks, all with fantastic percussion that keeps the pace of the album up, even in the more solemn moments. The guitars and other strings are fantastic, Yorke sounds finally content with life, rather than seemingly relatively whiney, and it just feels like such a relaxed, Summer-y album (by Radiohead standards) that can still work on a cold, dark, Winter night. This is amazing, and the fact you could pay whatever you wanted to listen to this back when it released? Insane.

Glad to hear that punk had cemented its iconic repetitive and annoying nature early on in its lifespan by giving a live album full of the same song six times in a row, only to end with frankly disturbing mouth noises and a rock space odyssey somehow just as meandering and dull as the rest of the album. Sure, you could argue that the raw energy is what fuels this record's angst and influence, but by '69 I could've certainly found that within another album, live or otherwise. The instrumentation is sloppy, the vocals are poor, and the message is ham-fisted. Must be a punk record! A bad one, at that.

As with seemingly all of these Wu-Tang releases, the production is the redeeming factor to what are otherwise often sexist and seemingly meaningless lyrics. However, I will at least appreciate the mafia backdrop throughout the album, as it works extremely linearly within the context of Wu-Tang's Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang fighting style storylines. It's neat in theory, but feels not totally fulfilled in practice, not really worth the length. However, still enough to enjoy that I understand why it is considered one of the best of the group's solo projects, although I feel I've listened to most of the big ones at this point, and none have stuck out enough for me to understand what makes these worth listening to in conjunction with the 36 Chambers.

A great opening run that benefits from a short overall run time to give a concise overall package full of great production, amazing flow, and an overall solid debut to what may currently be the best female rapper of all time. Its subject is a bit repetitive, and in turn the back half can end up feeling a little redundant, but still a solid showcase of Little Simz's musical abilities.

Generally, I am not looking for my pop tunes to harken back to an era of mediocre synths and instantly dated instrumentation, the late 80s, but I feel like this album balances it just enough for it to not be too egregious. However, this was a little bit of a slog to get through, just because the album is other an hour-and-a-half with both parts, and while some songs shine on one or the other more, it can still be tough to get through in one sitting. It leads a lot to the album feeling repetitive, because not only is it pretty similar throughout already, but listening to everything twice with slight delivery tweaks is not worth the time spent. You may say "then don't listen to both parts," but I feel if they spent the time to translate every song here, and put it all in one bundle, then the full thing must have been intended. It is an album that I think would've been enjoyable, but nothing special, but that length hurts it all the more. I could see myself liking something more by Chris, something more upbeat or darker in tone, but for now this is an okay dive into 80s synthpop nostalgia. If you're only going to listen to one side, do the French one, it is delivered better and was surely the intentional route.