Reviews by giddy

Wow, this is, extremely dull? No offense, everyone. It has no personality of its own and can't seem to decide what it wants to be. A folkier pop? A pale imitation at folk legends' stylings? Either way, this has nothing to be worth listening to, IMO. It's nearly parody of itself. It isn't offensive enough to be a one, but... man.

Heat Waves is one of the worst pop songs of the 2020s, but this was nearly half a decade earlier, so let's give it a fair shake here. Finished the album, and it really isn't anything special. Is it terrible? No, but it's awfully sterile, and none of its quirks feel genuine. There were some decent songs, but then it would throw in a weird part that just made the whole song clunky. Would rather not listen to this again, may make me dislike it more.

The top review on an album like this on RateYourMusic reads: "Music for people who do not care about music." Now, I generally trust RYM, and I'd even say it is a great source for finding some fantastic music, but this review from 2007 really shows how much hatred fueled the internet in the late aughts. This album is just a pleasant listen, with great guitar playing and a tone that isn't afraid to dive into hints of other easy listening genres. Is it daring? Exciting? Even, dare I say, original? No, but it is an extremely pleasant listen that at worst is very easy to stomach, and at best something iconic enough to still be remembered twenty years later.

Y'know how Stop Making Sense is the highest rated live album, at least on the user list? You know why? "Because it's Tallking Heads!" Yes, but also because the original is less than forty minutes! It also is an interesting live album because it changes the sounds of the established tracks, or even has stuff never performed by Talking Heads the band, such as What A Day That Was. Pink Floyd is a band that absolutely has great tracks, and those great tracks could certainly be performed live to great effect. There are some moments of that on this album, but coming in at over two hours long, there is not enough here to make me want to listen to this over any Pink Floyd studio recording. It feels more like a greatest hits compilation, with late 80s and 90s cuts we now know didn't stand the test of time. It isn't a bad album, Pink Floyd has good moments, of course, but I'd rather have had Meddle, or if we have to do a live album, their performance at Pompeii was released in album form just this year, and that performance had icon status before this album was even released. At the end of the day, this is a Pink Floyd live album, and unfortunately not much more than that. But, still alright.

Being somewhere between's Alanis Morissette's annoying-ness and PJ Harvey's greatness, Ani DiFranco feels like a page in the 90s alt-rock history books that's kind of been left behind. I only knew her name in passing, and considering how popular this sound seems to be at the time, it's a bit of a shock she isn't more of a household name, because I feel like most people would eat this up. Hell, I think I would, too, but it felt very much like this album dragged, and I'd being lying if I said I didn't feel like all of this album had been done multiple times over by other artists of the 90s, leaving me wanting to like this more, but not caring enough to put the effort in. Especially considering this is yet another hour long album. It is becoming increasingly clear a majority of generator finalists grew up in/had formative years in the 90s, and that'd be fine if it wasn't for the fact that it seems every album from then was way too long for its own good.

I don't know if I find this better then the one on the generator, or if I just like this style of music more, but this is great nonetheless. Just mysterious and off putting enough to be engaging without trying to bait an uncomfortable response, and it's surprisingly catchy for how low profile it can be. It just needs to cut off some of the fat near the end, even if it was just going for that sixty-six minutes and six seconds thing.

I am not absolutely head over heels for this album or anything, but if any mainstream album from the 2020s deserves to be on the 1001 list, it's this album. It was quite literally the soundtrack to the COVID-19 pandemic (nothing else was sure coming out), and while that makes a few of the hits a bit monotonous at this point, the foreboding synths and high register vocals lead to a unique and daring change up in the pop scene that perfectly captured the feelings at the time. Certainly a bloated album, but far better than I would've ever expected back in 2015 hearing Can't Feel My Face.

When I saw new wave and synthpop as main genre descriptors, I was not expecting new wave in the "The Killers sing like Bruce Springsteen" sense, but if they were a lot more obsessed with the word pussy.

I didn't get this album fully when I first listened to it a couple years ago. I do now.

The originator of lo-fi hip hop beats is still some of the best out there, with vocal features that has a cheesiness to it, but comes off more earnest because of it. I think if this was just slightly tighter pacing wise, this would be absolutely amazing, but it's still great as is.

I appreciate that you won't give any album a one or a two out of respect for the process, OP, but unfortunately, if I don't care about an album, then I can't act like it's better than it truly is. This type of music can be solid, but only really when playing Crazy Taxi, and, unfortunately, Offspring has that game covered, for better or (more likely) worse.

I really enjoy the lo-fi vibe of this. It reminds me a lot of Daniel Johnston, but with a 2000s indie approach. I feel this does kind of all blend into one homogeneous blob after a while, however I suppose that is what an album is at the end of the day.

Sure, dude, I can go for some of this every now and then. Weird genre combinations are usually sick, and this is no different.

Teetering on the edge of a one, I've never heard an album be so unsure of what sound it wants to being to the table, while still sounding absolutely generic the whole time. It's just a late 90s rock album. Nothing less, and certainly nothing more.

You'd think with me playing piano most of my life I'd like piano rock more. But, you'd be wrong. I think? Jury may or may not still be out. Schrödinger's Jury. If I don't listen to more piano rock, I'll never truly know, and it's better that way.

Hell yes, dude. More of that exact itch that Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom scratched for me. This stuff is awesome with great, powerful acoustics and vocals that are just meek enough to seem devastating at every push, every falsetto. Ogre is especially beautiful, but the whole album really feels like a cozy yet heartbreaking story to be told for ages.

Very obviously missing off the original list, to the point where this was a no-brainer addition. I may like to say Pinkerton is better, but at the end of the day this is one of the greatest power pop albums of all time without a doubt, and Only In Dreams may be in my top ten favorite rock songs of the 90s. May be a bit sick of some of the tracks here, but I cannot deny its brilliance.

Marillion dares to ask the question: "What if Phil Collins lead Genesis was good?" The answer may shock you...

Y'know those metal covers on YouTube where they cover a rock song and make it more "hardcore," and in turn miss the entire vibe of the song, and just in general aren't very good covers? Now I know where they got their ideas from. Only started to perk up at the end with the shoegaze-y final run of tracks, but those vocals are still too goofy to ever want to dig into this again.

Kind of peaks of Sweetness then drags from there, but I'll admit this was better than I would expect, considering before this I kind of despised The Middle. Now I think it's pretty solid. Probably would like one of their earlier albums more, though.