Reviews by gingerninja155

Not entirely sure where to begin with this one. I’ll start with this though. Earlier in the week, I rolled a Syd Barrett album. The odds of me then pulling this album only days later are nothing short of amazing. This is one of those albums where nothing I could possibly say hasn’t been said before. If you like Floyd, this is their absolute best album in my opinion. If you don’t like them, you’re objectively wrong and have bad taste. Them’s are the rules. Every single song on this album works, and they all add so much to it as a whole. The first and last songs, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-9”, are an absolute love letter to Prog Rock and I could listen to them all day. “Welcome to the Machine” and “Have a Cigar” (My favorite Floyd Song) are both pointed jabs at the music industry in general, and also just rock. Finally, “Wish You Were Here” is a sad, but otherwise sweet tribute to Syd. Every one of these songs is absolutely amazing, and it’s another one of those albums where every song is going to be someone else’s favorite. It’s perfect. Not many albums on this list are going to come remotely close to just how much I love this album. You should listen to this one from top to bottom and just let it take over you for a bit. It’s magical. First Floyd album down, and they started with the best of the best.

Pretty good. A lot more Soul than Pop on this one in my opinion. Solange has a pretty voice that makes her very easy to listen to. This album was peaceful, upbeat, and never once bored me. However, like many others have said, it is very one note, samey, and will not stick with me for a very long time. It’s a middle-low 3, as nothing really stood out and grabbed me, but the vibes were immaculate. It was extremely easy to get through the day with, and I would even check out more of her music. My favorite song on the album is “F.U.B.U.”. That song was catchy as hell. A big criticism I have for a lot of Pop/Hip-Hop albums is the implementation of skits spread throughout the course of the album. I’ve mentioned that to death already. This album has a few of them, but for the most part they’re non-intrusive and work well. For that, I’m awarding a few bonus points to this album. Overall, yeah, I thought A Seat at the Table was pretty good.

I’ll do my part and inform new listeners that the Spotify version of this album is incorrect. You’ve got to find the real version elsewhere, I used Youtube personally. This one is really tough to rate objectively. It is purely instrumental background noise. It’s inoffensive and pretty nice on the ears, but does absolutely nothing for me and I’m going to forget about it by tomorrow at the latest. The second song was also so quiet I could barely even hear it at all. I have no idea if that was intended, but it was just irritating enough to mention discussing here. Was it enjoyable? Ehhhhhhh, not really. Was it memorable? Absolutely not. Was it nice to have on while working? Kind of. It was, to its credit very relaxing and made me very sleepy. Maybe that’s both a positive and a negative the more I think about it. It’s clearly very well made for what it is, even if what it is isn’t for me. Every prominent artist in history just about has an “India” album, and it seems like this may just be the very album that inspired a ton of prominent, well known musicians to make their own “India” albums. So it’s got that going for it. This album, for that reason, is culturally significant, and more than welcome on the list. Now, the big question is whether I’m going to rate it a 2 or a 3. I don’t know. This one is really tough. You know what, it’s easy to get through. If I genuinely struggle to get through an album but can find aspects to appreciate, I’ll go 2. If it’s at least easy to get through, I’ll go with a 3. This is a 3.

Ironically, this is the first Pink Floyd adjacent album I’ve rolled so far on my journey through every album on the list, and man do I wish I was actually just listening to Pink Floyd instead. There are so many Pink Floyd albums they could have picked from that didn’t make the final cut, Animals being my favorite of the lot that didn’t make it, but instead they went with this. Listen, I get it. Syd was an integral part of the band and its history. Wish You Were Here is my favorite Pink Floyd album, and one of my favorite albums of all time, but putting this here as well next to that is just sad man. It honestly kind of hurts. Again, I get why they included this, but knowing the story behind Syd Barrett just makes it all the more painful. The way virtually half of the album on Spotify is outtakes is a weird decision. It feels like they’re making fun of him almost. In a way, it’s a rather brilliant way of looking into the mind of a man who is in the ongoing stages of literally losing his mind. And you know what? This album isn’t actually that terrible, outtakes included. And in a way, knowing how talented he was just adds to the sadness. This is a sad album man… Favorite song? I actually thought “No Man’s Land” rocked sufficiently hard. For the unique background this album has, as well as the fact that it still surprised me a few times and was never actively terrible, I’m actually going to give this one a very low 3 stars.

Sometimes, quite often actually, before I start listening to these daily albums, I like to do a deep dive into the band/artist that I’ll be spending my day with, and look at their Wikipedia pages to see what they’re all about. Man, after reading about Jeff Buckley’s story and all the people who he inspired, I was absolutely fiending to check this album out. This guy made 1 album, and then tragically drowned while fully dressed, singing a Led Zeppelin song at age 30. Insanity. God must have wanted this guy to sing for him personally in heaven, because it’s an actual sin that we only got him for a single album. I want more. Why am I giving this album 5 stars?? Because I hear a lot of Chris Cornell here, a friend of Jeff’s, and my favorite musician of all time. It may actually be crazy to say this, but I think Jeff may have better voice control. The places he goes with each and every note are nothing short of amazing. Not only does Jeff’s voice absolutely kick ass, but this album is a near perfect mix of absolutely electric, balls to the wall bangers where he sings his heart out, like in “Grace” and “Eternal Life”, while also including genuinely beautiful pieces as well, like “Hallelujah”. Then there are the songs that are somehow both at the same time, like “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over”. Wow. What an incredible album this was. I can’t believe there are artists that were this talented out there with albums this good, and I’d never have found them if it wasn’t for this site. This was truly something special. Favorite song? It’s gotta be the title track, “Grace”. I’m a sucker for the songs that rock the hardest after all.

The Kinks are a very peculiar band to me. They’re one of those bands who I know are immensely popular, and I even have a good bit of their music saved to my Spotify already, however, I can’t for the life of me name any of their popular songs, let alone even remember what the ones I have saved are. It’s a band that I know I like sometimes, but know nothing about. If someone tells me one of their songs, I’m sure it would ring a bell, but I sure as hell haven’t even heard of a single song off of this album in particular. If I had to describe this, it would be a Beatles knockoff with just a touch of The Who mixed in. It wasn’t terrible, but I’ve already forgotten it entirely as I’m writing this review. My favorite song was “Last of the Steam-Powered Trains”, and even that was just ok. A few skippable songs that I found more annoying than good, but none that were offensively bad. As I listen to more albums, these are going to become dreadfully common, but this is yet another middle of the road 3 star affair that will quickly fade away out of my head in due time. The best thing I can say about it is that the singer sounds pretty good, and I would absolutely be willing to give these guys another shot at a 4 or 5, hopefully with an album where I’ve actually heard of some of the songs on previously. Being the first of 4 Kinks albums I’ve heard on here, I have a pretty good shot of getting my wish later. Will they all be this average, or will one of them surprise me?? As always, time will tell.

Very middle of the road indie rock album. A fine example of an album that I’m going to listen to for 1 day, and immediately forget about the next. This was good, but nothing particularly stood out. As far as first albums go, it’s really good though. I know that a ton of people absolutely love this band, so for that reason I have a fun opportunity to see how they evolved over time. I am largely unfamiliar with R.E.M., but this was a pretty good start. Again, it wasn’t amazing, but it was still pretty good as a whole. Nice little peaceful album to get me through the long day, served its purpose. Never really grabbed me, but hooked me enough to let me still feel actively engaged in the music. Love the singers voice, even if this album was a bit too light for my liking as a whole in most places. At least it was easy to listen to. Another very middle of the road 3.5/5 on this one. I really liked the energy and funky guitar playing in “Moral Kiosk”. Easily my favorite song on the album. That one was really fun and ear wormy.

There’s a reason why MJ is known as the King of Pop. Regardless of public perception, his actual musical abilities were, and will continue to remain unparalleled. His status as a social pariah is an elephant in the room that many have already addressed, but god damn it, it’s so hard to not enjoy his music. “Man in the Mirror” may be one of the most popular songs on the album, and it happens to be one of my least favorites here. Which is insane because it’s still a really good song. I’ve never heard an MJ album from top to bottom before, this is the very first time I have done so, and when I tell you I added more than half of the songs on this album so quickly, I mean it. That last stretch of 3 songs alone, “Dirty Diana”, “Smooth Criminal”, and “Leave Me Alone” is absolutely legendary. My only criticism of this album comes from the middle, which has some skippable (but still absolutely outstanding) filler. Favorite song on the album? I mean damn, I can’t go with recency bias here and pick something I’ve never heard before, that would be disingenuous, “Smooth Criminal” is a brilliant song and deserves to be admired, so I’m going to pick that. I’ve been listening to it for a long time, for good reason. There’s so many good songs on this album, I didn’t even get around to talking about how good “Bad” and “Speed Demon” are. That’s just how good this album is as a whole. I know people like Thriller more, so I’m extremely excited to check that one out now. Bad? More like Good. I’m sure I’m the first person to ever make that joke.

“Heaux Tales”, huh?? Yeah, I’m sure this is empowering for women somehow. Nah, this is not it fam. This is the latest album to be added to the book, and I’m sure when they did so they probably figured it would become a classic at some point. While I can’t vouch for how it’s held up myself, I can tell you personally that I just did not care for it at all. First of all, I don’t get why every one of these Hip-Hop albums has to constantly be interrupted by these annoying ass skits. I hadn’t realized it before, but I guess that’s just integral to the genre, so while I can’t hate on that aspect specifically, I still just don’t like it. Second, I find this to be wholly generic, and unfortunately don’t enjoy Jazmine’s singing style very much. When I don’t like someone’s voice, it’s always going to make the album substantially less enjoyable. I really don’t think this album was made for me. That’s ok, but this one was pretty hard to get through. An occasional good song or 2, like “Pick Up Your Feelings”, but I couldn’t last the day listening to this one. Ironically, the best part of this album was the feature where someone else was singing instead of her. It’s nice and short at least, but the length just draws attention to the skits that much more. Not a questionable choice to add this album, I get why they would feel the need to do so, but it just wasn’t for me. Oh well, on to the next one I guess. Sorry Jazmine.

Ok, I’ll start on a positive note because I don’t really have much else in the way of positivity for this album as a whole. I think the name Thelonious Monk is pretty great. I don’t know if that’s the guys name, the name of the band, or even a stage name, but it’s pretty cool. Part of the charm is that I have no idea, and don’t care enough to google it to find out. Ok, so that’s what was good about the album, now the negatives. It’s more Jazz. I don’t understand Jazz, and every time I think I’m starting to finally get it and roll a Jazz album I like, I soon after end up rolling an album like this, and just strongly dislike it. It’s just boring man, plus the lack of a structure doesn’t soothe me, it gives me anxiety. The overbearing piano and trumpet just make me dizzy. I don’t like this. I recognize and am easily able to appreciate the greatness and talent of the band, but personally I would never seek any of this out, and will not be returning to Mr. Monk, if that is in fact his real name. I just don’t get it. I’ll chalk it up to that and simply be satisfied knowing that I gave this one an honest attempt by listening to it all day. It’s Jazz, I can’t pick a favorite. Sorry. It’s between “Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are” and “Bemsha Swing”. Those were at least bearable.

Started the week with Bowie and I’m ending the week with Bowie. This is album 5/9 from him, and by God I’m starting to run out of things to say about David Bowie. I’m already a slight bit over 150 albums into this challenge, and it’s front loading me with a metric ton of Bowie. They’ve all gotten a 3 star rating, I would say deservingly so. So, what makes this one different? I don’t know myself really. Vibes mostly. I just find this to be the most consistently good from top to bottom. Every single Bowie album has 1 notable song and then a ton of filler. This has a few notable songs, and it’s really short at just 38 minutes long, so the notable songs take up a good little chunk of the album. My favorites on this one are the title track, “Station to Station”, and my actual favorite song on the album, “Stay”. This album does a lot of experimenting. If this even makes sense, that feels like the theme of this album, and it works here. There’s a good blend of rockers and lighter songs, instrumentals and vocal tracks. It took 5 albums, but I may have finally found the best Bowie album. We’ll see what the next one has in store within the next couple of days if this keeps up, so until then!!

Did you guys ever play any of the old Tekken games, or other similar PS2 era fighting games like MVC? You know the background tracks they play while you’re fighting? Got a bunch of random fun noises and sound effects. Yeah. This is that, and I kind of love it. It’s extremely dated, but in a very delightful and fun way where I still had a blast listening to it. A medium-high 3. It doesn’t do anything new or amazing as an Electronica album, but it’s fun to listen to all the way through, which is all I would really want from it. “Groove Is in the Heart” is the big one from this album. I’d actually heard of it before, and yeah, it’s the best song on the album as well. Very, very catchy stuff. I’m never going to complain about having to listen to an Electronica album. They’re always at the very least going to be an enjoyable experience. This one is no different. Groove is in the heeeeeeeeeeeeart (astronomical).

This one is a low 2 for me. Everything I dislike about most Hardcore Punk music, only saved by how killer some of the riffs are. This guys voice is just nails on a chalkboard. I know that’s the point of “REAL” Punk Music, but it’s just not for me. If he didn’t sing at all, this would be an easy 3 for me, but his annoying wailing just ruins it entirely. Wouldn’t return to this one sadly, but it’s not a 1. I kind of thought it was going to be a 1 for a while. It’s almost a 1. I kind of want it to be a 1 low key. It didn’t exactly grow on me, but the more I could drown out the sound of the singers voice, the easier it became to appreciate the guitar and other, better aspects of this album. My favorite song on this one was “Our Way”. Gracefully, this one is 38 minutes long. The perfect length for an album. I also really like the album art. It’s simple but very cool. Stands out.

Pre-Listen Thoughts: Why is this here?? What business does this legitimately have being here?? “Nixon became a breakthrough release for Lambchop in the United Kingdom.” Oh. That’s why. Guys, we’ve made better music than this in the States you could have picked from. I promise there are better albums than this.
Post-Listen Thoughts: Ok, so admittedly I was WAY too harsh on this album. It’s actually pretty good. I still stand by the fact that we have much better albums to pick from, but I enjoyed my time with this album substantially more than I had anticipated after reading the genre was “Pop Country”. So, first of all, I don’t hear Country in this album at all. This is borderline just Indie Rock. It’s the good kind of chill where you’re not really engaged in the music the entire time, but you’re still happy that it’s on in the background regardless. I’m not the fondest of the lead singers voice, but it’s at least passable. Then you get to the last 2 songs on the album, and they’re actually kind of just great. “The Petrified Florist” and “The Butcher Boy” are by far my favorite songs on this album. So, you know what. I’m sorry for pre-judging you, Lambchop. This was a nice, chill, pleasant listen-through on an otherwise busy, stressful day. I think I was also thrown off by the first song, which is actually my least favorite on the album. If you can get past that, you’re home free. And if you like it, hey, you’re probably going to enjoy the rest of the album a lot. Bonus.

Bowie album 4/9. Bowie!! You’re back. Oh snap, this is the one with “Fame” on it. I love that song. Sure enough, it was my favorite song on the album as well. The more of these I listen to, the harder it is to rank them against each other. Do I like this better than the Berlin Trilogy? Without a doubt. Is it better than Heroes? Debatable. Probably. Is this finally getting a 4? Hard to say. It’s mostly filler, but it’s undeniably better than the purely instrumental filler I’m used to hearing from Bowie’s other albums in my opinion. I think this may be the most consistently good Bowie album I’ve heard so far from top to bottom. His vocals are an amazing part of every song here, and there’s a fair bit of differentiation from song to song as well. It’s never boring, but as usual, nothing really just stands out and blows my mind. To quote one of the best reviews on the site, “It’s David Bowie”, so you know it’s at least going to be worth listening to. I love how Funky this one is at times, and the backing vocalists all kick ass. It’s probably my favorite of the 4 albums I’ve heard so far. Ok Bowie, 5 more albums to go. Until next time buddy.

Eh. If this was from like the 80’s or something I might give this a bit of a pass for being boring and bringing nothing new or interesting to the table, but these guys have 3 entire albums on here and this album specifically released in 2007, so it gets no passes for being unoriginal from me. This is the first of them I have heard and the most popular on the site as well. It’s just kind of boring and generic indie electronica rock. It’s melodic and orchestral, but never really that good or exciting for the entire length of the album, until you get to the last song on the album, which I LOVED, “My Body Is a Cage”. Around 2 minutes into that song, there’s an absolutely killer tone shift that is unlike anything on the rest of the album. I really wish anything was even remotely comparable to how much I enjoyed that riff. This is a band I feel like I heard mentioned a ton around the 2010’s, never heard any of their music, knew nothing about, and then they were quickly excised from public conscience a few years later. Don’t know why we need 3 of these here, but who knows, maybe the other 2 show me something new. Somehow, I doubt it. This was a bit pretentious, I wouldn’t really return to it, and didn’t really connect with all that much of it, but I still never actively disliked any of it, so it’s still getting a 3 from me.

I’ve listened to a lot of sad white boy albums so far. This one might be my favorite. I don’t know if I compared Elliott Smith to Nick Drake in any of my previous reviews, but they had 2 very similar stories. Both of them involve young, insanely talented men who tragically lost their battles with depression. If you’re not in a good mood, it’s going to make you feel even worse listening to either of them most of the time, but sometimes that may be exactly what you need, if that makes any sense. This album still has all the patented sadness of an Elliott Smith album, but the production, implementation, vocals, instrumentation, energy and just overall mood is a lot happier and better as a whole somehow. I don’t really know how else to explain it. I really don’t, this one just made me a lot happier, it was full of energy and life, rather than just a wall of sadness. You feel me?? The opener, “Son of Sam” and “L.A.” are my favorite songs on this album. They’re absolutely killer and end up giving me hope, instead of just making me sad. The entire album as a whole kind of does that. Occasionally, some tracks won’t hit the same, some of it is a bit forgettable, but I honestly think I enjoyed this more than his much more popular album, Either/Or. Rest in peace buddy. Thank you for the killer album today. A very easy and very high 4 stars out of 5.

No one in my family has heard of this band before, me included. I asked them, and considering there are 5 of his albums on here, I was banking on at least SOMEONE knowing who this guy Nick Cave is. They’re all rated pretty poorly on the site, so all things considered, it seems like a questionable choice to have that many, if any at all included. This is the first of them that I have heard, and it’s the highest rated on the site. What are my thoughts on this album? Holy shit. No dude, it’s actually good. It’s actually quite good, easily the best thing I’ve heard this week. It’s funny how the mind can draw parallels to things. Earlier in the week, I heard a Black man (Ray Charles) singing traditionally White music and making it his own, and now I’m hearing the reverse of that. These are all very Black Gospel coded songs, and you know what?? Nick Cave absolutely crushes it here. I don’t know if his other 4 albums are even remotely this good, but I actually loved this one. As a double album, it has a massive 1 hour and 22 minute playtime, and the first half kicks the shit out of the second half, so it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close. I found myself adding 4 songs from this album to my favorites playlist, and even the ones that did not make the cut were at the bare minimum all good enough to not skip. My favorites on this album are “Get Ready for Love”, “Cannibal’s Hymn”, “There She Goes, My Beautiful World”, and my personal favorite, “Hiding All Away”, which has an absolutely electric, energetic, crazy finish. “There is a waaaaaaaaaar comiiiiiiiiiiiiiing”, (Crazy guitar solo). That song kicks ass. So yeah, it all came together nicely and gave me a hell of a surprise on a random, slow Wednesday. Thank you Nick. Interested to see what else you’ve got, I might be a fan.

A bit whiny. Some pleasant noises, but otherwise pretty average. This is distinct from a lot of the other albums I’ve listened to so far, so it’s got that going for it. That isn’t always a good thing, but it’s definitely something. It’s just not really my cup of tea. This is pretty much just noise to me. The vocals really did not help. I’d rather be listening to a few other bands that make the same kind of noises but better, like Depeche Mode, which I’m sure has been mentioned by more than a few people here. Was this a pleasant way to spend the day? Absolutely, I don’t regret it. Am I going to return to this? Probably not, but I’m glad I listened to it. The hits are probably the best songs on the album, but I kinda just picked a favorite at random honestly. Hard to tell the songs apart when this is yet another hour long album filled with exclusively this kind of sound. I don’t know, maybe if I come back to it later when I’m less busy I’ll appreciate it more. As it stands, it’s nothing outstanding but isn’t terrible either. Again though, it’s unique, so I’m likely to remember it if I see it again.

It’s old and dated, it’s very long, and it’s very similar from top to bottom. But, man is it still pretty good despite all of that. Ray has an amazing voice and absolutely carries each and every song on this album. It doesn’t matter how old it is, this is always going to be just straight up good music. Not a lot I can say about it that hasn’t already been said. Picking a favorite is also hard because there are so many songs on the album. I’m sure each one is someone’s favorite, and they’re all valid. Naming the album “Country and Western Music” is also just inherently funny, and must have been pretty risky as a Black man in the 60’s. Mad respect for being one of the first shit-posters. Game respects game. At the end of the day, I think my favorite song on the album was "Oh, Lonesome Me." But there are a ton of good ones to pick from.