Reviews by giddy

Long, but pretty all the same. Adrianne Lenker has the perfect voice for this kind of music, and there's some genuine all-timers on this album.

There was plenty of R.E.M. on the original list, but I'll admit it was weird that this wasn't one of said albums. Still, R.E.M. is not an impactful enough band on my psyche for me to be dying to fill in the gaps I missed. Losing My Religion is really all you need here, IMO.

I suppose this could be seen as required listening for a Daft Punk die hard fan, but otherwise it's just a solid film score, and in that field I imagine we would get Hans Zimmer or John Williams first. For those looking for that Daft Punk sound, just listen to Derezzed and you'll be satisfied. Or I suppose you could watch the movie? You do you.

Whoa, this is way better than I ever could've expected a Blink-182 album to ever be!

Man, I hate how older musical artists seem to have fifty names for each album. It makes it hard to know exactly what you're listening to. Charles Aznavour is a very important part of French music history, but I don't know if a whole album of his was what was missing from the album list. Especially when both crooners and chanson are well covered. Just find it funny when this stuff is all hunky dory with the users here, but Scott Walker and/or The Divine Comedy are big no-no's. They're, like, the exact same!

Kinda just background music. I have to hear half of these songs nearly daily at my job, and that can get sickening, FAST. Never Tear Us Apart is the best the album gets, but it can't save that mind-numbing A-side run.

This album deserves the hype, because the stars aligned for this album to come out at the perfect time, with the perfect line-up of band members, and just enough hits to make an hour fly by. Listening to something like this after the snorefest that was the Clutch album makes this only stand out more, and it's no wonder that this album made it to the big time.

While I do think the original list had gothic rock pretty well covered, if there were a band missing, it would be The Chameleons. But after that it would Swans late 80s and early 90s output. B-but! Then, The Sound, for sure! Love how bass driven this music is, I just wish it had a bit more to separate itself from its contemporaries and even the rest of the album at times.

I'm a little befuddled by this album. It sounds... fine? But I don't understand what makes this album, and Clutch in general "good," but similar modern musical artists going after this sound seem to get constant ridicule. Not that they don't deserve it, but I genuinely don't hear how this is any different. Fun in Guitar Hero? Maybe, but brain-numblingly predictable as an album.

While I do agree classic country has some holes in the original list, this is not what is missing.

I came into this album expecting to find another hip hop love, and for that reason I'm a bit disappointed. It takes a bit to get going; around the fourth track does it really start giving off this destructive, sinister energy that is all so alluring, but at that point you're a somewhat decent chunk through the album with nothing to really latch on to, and after the villainous, arguably monstrous track that is Ain't It Funny, nothing ever feels that outwardly impactful, which can leave the back half full of very good tracks, but tracks that don't quite scratch the same itch, although some do certainly try. Now, I've been sober my whole life, so "relating" to this album was thrown out the window the moment I pressed play, but you can still really feel this stuff take over Danny's life. I mean, this took two years to come to fruition, surely that's a sign of the issues at play here. And even if you ignore every single lyric, the production is immensely layered and intricate, leading to an album that could make its way on to "best of" lists with no vocals at all. But I just feel like I'm missing something. There's too much rest, the whole album is played up to be far zanier than it truly is, and going in with expectations absolutely through the roof, I was a tad let down. Luckily, it is surprisingly digestible this way, blowing by incredibly quick, and you're always on your toes, no matter the pay-off, and I think that is commendable at the very least. It is just so close to something truly amazing, but falls just out of reach for me. A few tracks cut, perhaps, or maybe a slightly different delivery vocally? Nah, can't be that, Danny's voice certainly adds to the record and its feeling of spinning in circles for hours until you're dizzy and sick. I have a feeling, returning to this one, I'll be blown away just that tad bit more to "get it."

This album actually has a ton of great beats that would be great if given to an MC that didn't sound like Lin-Manuel Miranda's understudy. Spose's ambitious Get Rich or Die Ryan would probably be better received if lyrically the album wasn't childish and wasn't over an hour-and-a-half. I could see standing this for thirty minutes or whatever, but this album had me generally annoyed an hour in, and just pissed by the end. Did the person who added this listen to I'm Awesome way to much when they were in middle school? Probably, but it's healthy to stay away from this genre of white rapper, I feel. There's just something about this that feels... concerning. Rick and Morty shirts, Joker vanity license plates, the whole nine yards. Feels unfair to this album that is definitely trying, but the feeling cannot be shaken off after AN HOUR AND A HALF.

Mac Miller was someone I knew very little about when he was with us, but he deserves a lot more credit then I feel he got when he was with us. I shouldn't have known him just as "Ariana Grande's boyfriend," not with albums like this under his belt, posthumously or otherwise.

I really think this band has potential to be something I enjoy, but they have yet to really "wow" me. It's solid, though.

Feels extremely predictable and generic, but I'll admit this whole era of folk just tends to irk me unless it's well done. This is technically well done, but lacks anything below the surface.

Seemingly the current resurgence-love of the internet, to the point where I've seen many say this is Weezer's best outing, and I understand why one would say that! It has Weezer taking their initial power pop route and giving it an injection of noisier rock to really boost its credibility, and the addition of lyrics that are brutally honest, there's no wonder as to why many an internet homebody would gravitate to this album. Every performer is at top form, and even if you subscribe to the idea that Matt Sharp is to be credited with making Weezer good, Rivers Cuomo obviously put his heart and soul into this album, and embraces all parts of himself in one of the most reflective albums of any musician's career. The album does peak near the middle, and it can leave the last couple tracks feeling lesser, especially when compared to their debut's closer, but nearly every track here is the definition of noisy alt-rock for the masses, and while obviously that attempt was lost on many for years, it still leads to this mysticism that the album now carries with itself today. It plainly deserves the recognition, and while I think this album falling into the wrong hands can lead to some questionable ideas, it is very obvious that what Weezer was going for here is something worth standing on the podium along with its older sibling.

Wow, you guys really like ska punk, huh? I don't.

Listening to some of this makes me wonder why other classic progressive rock bands struggled so much to stay, well, good in the 90s, but when I think about it I realize it's because the others didn't go to the Talk Talk school of "throw some post-rock in there," and Marillion thankfully partially got the memo.

Never did I think listening to Back Pocket and only Back Pocket years ago that this band would be a soul-funk outfit that can lay down some fantastic instrumentation.

While I'd like to think I'm pretty well-versed in the major progressive rock bands at this point, due in part to this very generator, the moment you step out of the major outfits I completely am back into unknown territory. Thankfully, there's albums such as Procol Harum's A Salty Dog to show me it's not all that scary to dip a toe in the unknown.