Reviews by giddy

This is the sort of album I mean when I wish for a singer who sounds genuine in their admittedly very cheesy outlook on love, with every vocal inflection feeling intended to get the full emotion being presented out there, and it seems these albums with only hints of country do it the best (see: Grant Lee Buffalo's Fuzzy) and keep me intrigued. I love, love LOVE her voice at points, and the polished production tends to help it stand out, rather than detract from the emotion in her voice. It doesn't always work, it could stand to have a few more high energy tracks mixed into it, but otherwise I enjoyed this far more than expected. I should keep an eye out for these alt-country projects, because they tend to sit well with me, unlike their more mainstream counterparts.

I find this man's voice incredibly grating, to the point that by the first track on the B side I was getting pretty annoyed, but I do find this better than Solid Air for the fsct that it feels as though some effort was put into the catchiness of the album here, unlike there where a man who could not enunciate to save his life rambled over random musical beats. It causes this album to be just as forgettable, but perhaps a tad more enjoyable in the moment.

I seem to be a fan of Neil Young sans Crazy Horse, but with the group I find often that his music goes from personal, introspective tunes with a soft guitar accompanying it, to brash, boring, and even dull rock tunes with very little to care about. However, this album seems to reach that solid balance point of being something for everyone, similar to Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. The contrast between the A side and B side give me a larger appreciation for the range of the Young, and while not every song hits here, unlike his solo works often seems to, it still is a far more enjoyable collection of songs than other albums between the pair. I also feel that this album has more grunge, especially in that last track, than Ragged Glory would ever hope to, and that certainly also helps.

I'm surprised how much I wanted to like this, more than anything. I figured going into this it would be an easy one star, but I found myself enjoying many of the samples, and the production in general. What holds the album back for me is the vocals. While her voice is technically amazing, it hardly ever feels honest, instead feeling like a hollow recreation of the voices of the greats that came before her, and the constant references to said music doesn't help to draw away the comparisons. It is an amazing voice on the surface level, but it never moves me, and when an entire album feels as though it is built on that voice, it takes away a lot of the credibility. Still, I have to give this album credit, because it was far better than I had anticipated.

I think the main crime this album commits is being instantly forgettable. When it comes to jangle-y pop songs, you can assuredly do worse than this album, but one has to question if it really does anything all that special, and in my opinion it doesn't. It has a decent hook there, and nice bridge here, but as an album I struggle to find this to be more than a somewhat pleasant listen in the moment, and nothing more. Again, you can do worse, but you can also do a lot, LOT better.

I figured this album had a chance to be something a bit more special when I noticed the use of whisper-y, trip-hop-esque vocals mixed with something obviously influenced by the Britpop wave of vocal inflections. However, with the tracks being so long and hardly doing enough to earn that length, it lost my interest quick, and turning into your generic, PlayStation 1 era racing game music about halfway through rubs yet even more salt into the wound. I think there is something here that could be good, especially with more vocals to make actual songs rather than just sleepy rave tracks could benefit this album a lot, but as it is, you can just throw it in with the dozens of other generic UK downtempo techno records.

I must admit, this is a disappointment, and a huge step down from their previous album, Selling England by the Pound. Its heavy use of synths lead to an album that hardly feels like it means any of the music its producing, and while there are certainly cool and good uses of the synths, it isn't anything that artists like Brian Eno weren't already nailing. I will say that the album does get close a lot to grabbing my attention, with many tracks catching my attention at first, and I must give it credit for that. It just fails to prove itself minutes into each song, and even the best tracks have nothing on its sibling that I once again can't help but compare it to. Cool concept, middling execution.

I suppose I sort of respect this? I mean, its evident listening to this that there were plenty of early 2000s groups influenced by this project, but at the same time if all of those groups had said they'd never heard of this geoup in their lives I'd believe it? I mean, almost everything here seems like a surface level version of being "out there," without actually doing anything that challenging for the listener, and it leads to an album that feels like a snooze fest more than anything. It tries to wake you by the end with random noises and screaming, but if anything its too little, too late, too loud.

I find this album to be a pretty mixed bag, as often it feel as though it thinks its doing something fantastical and breathtaking, and it really isn't, while other times it really is something special. That isn't even only the hits that get that reaction either, as some of the deeper cuts here are great, as well as the big tracks. However, truly puzzling is parts that Morrissey seems to think he can get away with, such as lesbian slurs, and poor "critiques" of the U.S. that make this album hard to care for at points. I think this album has a decent amount of potential, but at the end of the day, unlike many Morrissey releases, this doesn't feel special enough to listen to despite the singer's more than idiotic beliefs. If this is your only encounter with solo Morrissey so far, I would understand sticking with The Smiths, even if tracks like First of the Gang to Die are fantastic.

I had hopes with the first track, as it had this good blend of interesting vocals and a cool synthy beat to keep me interested for most of the durrstion, but it just kept getting more and more dull past that, to the point where I was starting to actually get droopy eyes. I understand it is important as an album to the world of electronic music, but I can respect history and still dislike it, and that stands to be the case here.

An incredible ride of alien-like synth, carnival-esque beliefs, and a downright whimsical yet oppressive nature to the whole album leads to an experience not found on many other big names in the post-punk genre. Its seemingly needless drive to weird out the listener than pull them in with the catchiest of hooks and breakdowns is fantastic, and its only when that purely punk side starts to shine do I lose interest ever so slightly, however that same heavy punk influence from the time in The Buzzcocks leads to an experience that feels sharper than its more dreary contemporaries, and I admire it all the more for it.

In seemingly direct contrast to Either/Or, Smith decides to go out with a bombastic release, full of sweeping finales and heavy hitting choruses to show his more chamber-y side of his indie pop antics. This leads to a record I find to be more engaging and with higher highs than its more famous sibling, but the longer length and repetition here seemingly brings the album down to a score just as solid, or at the very least, slightly worse. I found myself being sweeped off my feet at moments by the pop brilliance on display, but I did admittedly miss the more personal feeling presented by Either/Or. However, as a final album many artists dream to go out on as great as a record as this one.

I mostly found this to be a very dull experience, where instead of the side of jangle pop with cutting lyrics and unique vocals, you instead get something that feels cobbled together to be a hit, without any of its own flavor. Almost every track is bland, and you can see the inspirations on the wall, to the point where they're more like poor imitations. This leads to songs that aren't bad at first glance, but I only wish my time is psent elsewhere, and when there is something worth listening to, it is but a fleeting moment on an overall sleepy experience.

I felt like every track almost pulled me in, with the feeling that by the end songs would finally be grabbing me enough and I'd be enjoying myself, but then halfway through it felt like the album gave up and became relatively boring instrumentals. Nothing bad, but we went from smooth vocals and neat progressions to what many would consider elevator music, and it left a sour taste in my mouth, even if I did enjoy the intial run of tracks on side A. Perhaps I could turn to enjoy side a enough to bump the score up a bit on this album, but as it stands I just leave feeling a tad ripped off, and not much else.

I often find people comparing an album or other set of songs as a "Renaissance faire" in a negative connotation, even when I don't completely see a connection, such as with Tim Buckley's Goodbye and Hello. However, an album like this brings that comparison into an understandable light a bit more. I've heard albums that trend similar to this one, such as Leige and Lief by Fairport Convention, which I wasn't a fan of, but while that one trended towards boredom more than anything, this one just bothers me because of its potential. There are some excellent tracks hidden among the dullness here, such as the opening track and Train Song, but much of the album needs that extra oomph to not feel like I'm just exploring the basic "folk songs" section of a music library, or perhaps like a forgettable track on a Jefferson Airplane album. This album has lots of potential for me, but in the end just is a gateway into seeing what others see when they refer to something as "Renaissance faire," and mean it harshly.

At first I was struggling to get behind the vocals, as while they certainly aren't the most polarizing I've heard, they do catch you off guard, especially after a instrumental opener. However, as the album went on, I was more enthralled by the near perfect blend of pop with that more gothic sound, where every track has you bobbing your head, tapping your foot, all whilst this sinister atmosphere surronds you. The vocals are no longer something to fear, but rather something worth embracing in the more surreal parts of an album. It's glamorous, like a party, but grimy, like an alley, and I think this album as a whole captures the scene of the mid-80s and its music perfectly.

For those of you who are unaware (I doubt most of you aren't, but just in case) this is ELP's own take on a series of iconic orchestral pieces that are relatively out there compared to their contemporaries of the time, and in turn are not difficult to play, per se, but take some amount of effort to get right. Something that would be a definitive challenge for a high school orchestra, y'know? So, this album being mostly made up of ideas from that collection is really cool, but it also leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Certainly the instrumentation here is good, but comparing a single organ/synthesizer to the feats, leaps, and bounds that a group of musicians with classical training go through is nearly non-comparable, and in turn, leaves a lot of these songs sounding messy, and not in an artistic way, but rather in a way that is just altering art for the Hell of it. Sure, its neat to add some lyrics and more modern ideologies to these century old tracks, but they were good as were, and when you take a step back you realize this crowd is going wild for near butcherings of some amazing pieces. I know, I sound like a music snob, but it really does come off that way. There are parts here that I really must congratulate as a neat addition, but often I found myself just wishing I was listening to an orchestra performing these pieces, or at the very least, that these alters were studio recorded so that they could be cleaned up a bit and really brought to life. As is, its just something that's more novelty than anything. The nutcracker cover really hammers that point in, I find, and honestly, really doesn't even fit.

This was a solid enough listening experience. It felt a bit like what you'd expect out of the term "progressive rock," but considering that's a pretty safe genre when it comes to my experience, that's alright. There were times I wish the songs just did that little more to stand out as much as the titular track, but I liked the choices that made it stand out, such as the flute or the blend of a hard rock sound with that Renaissance faire sound, it works nicely. Nothing mind blowing, but I don't regret my time with this album whatsoever.

FUCK. YES. This is exactly the type of longform, noisy shit that I love when Sonic Youth does it, and this shit rocks hard! Whatever the singer is usually inaudible, and quite frankly, indistinguishable from the rest of the noise, but I hardly care, because this rocks so hard that I'm jamming harder than most albums have ever had me jamming before. I could perhaps understand this being annoying, but I'm too busy loving this to care, even if it is a little longwinded. If this is the closest we get to emo on the whole generator then sign me up to finding more noise rock like this. Fuck yeah!

This album starts strong with a pop sensation even a three minute guitar solo can't ruin, but I think after that track the album mellows out a bit and tends to lean more towards being just alright. I mean, the nice, Summer-y vibes are all there, but sometimes the tracks get too smooth, and you start to forget you're listening to music to pay attention to. I suppose that's the point of these funky tunes at points, but I wouldn't mind something a tad more engaging. Light years ahead of its time in its soulfulness, however, and for that it earns some major ups for me. Plus, riding that high of the first track really can carry the whole album in the right mood.