Reviews by gingerninja155

Listen, it’s a great album and all, but no album on Earth needs to be over 2 hours long. That’s maybe a tad much. To rephrase what someone else has already said, there’s a 4 star album in here somewhere, but it’s lost in a sea of bloat. This is the third Beatles related album I’ve reviewed, following Band on the Run and Revolver, and despite being the weakest of the 3, is still something I’m very glad I was able to listen to. When it’s good, it’s really good. Most of the time it just makes for good background noise, especially the entire back third of the album which is just an added instrumental. It doesn’t bother me, just adds to the already very bloated album even more. Being as long as it is, I’m extremely back and forth on my favorite song. The one everyone knows, “My Sweet Lord” is my bronze medal, but my favorites have to be between “Art of Dying” and “Hear Me Lord”. I believe Disc 2 is actually, as a whole, my favorite part of this album. It seems to be the half I keep coming back to hear again more often than not. I also believe out of all 4 Beatles, I’d say that I probably know the least about George Harrison other than the fact that he was clearly very fond of writing music, so I’m glad I was able to listen to what he came up with here. I for sure didn’t regret any of it, album length included.

Another album of Neil Young bangers. Second album of his I’ve reviewed following Harvest. I may even like this album more than that one. Maybe. I gave it a 3.9/5, and I’m going to give this one the exact same rating. It’s really good, still a ton of fun Harmonica riffs, and a solid measure of pretty Rock songs vs jamming Rock songs. As close to a 4 star album as you can possibly get. The song “Revolution Blues” is my favorite song on the album, and it’s really not even close. That song absolutely makes the whole album, and without it I think this would fall to about a 3.4 or a 3.5. That being said, I still don’t think this album has a bad song, I just like that one that much more than the rest. This is something I’m actually likely to return to, and some other songs like “For The Turnstiles” are good enough to make the rotation of songs I frequently listen to. Great job with this one Uncle Neil.

Day 2 in a row of rolling the soundtrack to a movie. Yesterday was Shalimar. What are the odds of that?? Really wondering how many movie soundtracks are on this list. I’m just going to repeat some of what I said yesterday. Notably, I bet I can guess the plot of the movie by listening to the soundtrack all day, and I feel it’s a requirement for myself to watch the movie at this point after listening to this. As far as Funk goes, this is just ok. I’ve heard some absolutely electric Funk albums so far, to the degree that they’re going to have to start living up to the ones I’ve already heard. This one specifically is nothing to write home about. It’s very average, yet still thoroughly enjoyable. Good mix of slow and faster paced songs. My favorite of the bunch is “Freddie’s Dead”. I’m always going to enjoy a good Funk album, and this is no exception, but I don’t think this one is going to stick with me much after today. That being said, I’m absolutely going to watch the movie. I love a good Blaxploitation flick!!

I mean, after listening to a day of Shalimar with absolutely zero context to what it’s about, I feel like it’s a legal obligation to watch the actual movie at this point, no?? Bet I can guess the plot by hyper analyzing the soundtrack. I wonder how culturally significant in the UK this movie was to warrant a Bollywood Movie Soundtrack making the cut. To my great surprise, I actually kinda vibe with it. It is undeniably Indian, and again to my surprise, this album is mostly instrumental. I was really expecting something different from this, something with a lot more singing and a faster pace overall, but I’m not complaining. You probably know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen a Bollywood film. This mostly female lead vocal soundtrack is the perfect amount of background noise to still let me be able to focus on my daily tasks and relax, instead of getting me amped up like I was expecting it to. My favorite track is the opener, “Title Music”. That’s one smooth opening that I greatly enjoyed. You know what, I easily liked this more than I disliked it. I would actually come back to this. Another good obscure album from the site that I’d never find by myself in a million years. Sure, let’s call it a 3. Why not??

Do you enjoy listening to legendary Jam Bands?? If so, yeah, this is some good stuff. Do you like extended guitar riffs that just absolutely rock, occasionally lasting upwards of 10-20 minutes?? They may not be for everyone, but I know that I sure do. They even removed the very common and quite frankly annoying aspects of most other Live albums. The actual “Live” elements like fan noise and overtly long introductions are dialed back as much as they possibly can be. While you’re getting absolutely lost in the riffs, you’ll forget it’s a live album entirely with how well it’s been recorded here. Every song is unique, with plenty of identity and variation to make sure you’re never bored. My favorite songs on this album are the closers, “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed” and “Whipping Post”. They just absolutely ended this set with the best, most extended bang possible. As far as Live performances go, this may be one of the best. Great inclusion to the list!!

It’s fine. Great voice, good vibes, just the poster child of a very middle of the road album in general. It’s overly long and well outstays its welcome, it’s very bloated, and once again this is another album where the skits completely take me out of the flow of the album. I know it matches with the premise of the album, I’m just not the most fond of them, especially with all the bloat in the mix. Again, it’s fine. Nothing really much I can say about it. It’s fine to chill out to and let it play in the background, but I wouldn’t really call any of these songs something I would immediately want to come back to hear again. My favorite song on the album is “Forgive Them Father.” I’m sure this was revolutionary at the time, but it’s extraordinarily average sounding listening to it today, I may even go so far as calling it overrated?? Apologies Ms. Hill, I enjoyed it enough, but I’m not likely to remember it after a little while. Great little feature by Santana though, he makes any album better with his presence.

This is just an astounding album for multiple reasons, and very few of them are good. I know Frank Zappa can make good music, I’ve heard him do it before, so why he chose to just deliberately make this bad on purpose is a choice that leaves me scratching my head wondering why. When viewed through the lens of a shit-poster, this album becomes better. It’s still not good, but it’s still better than some other music I’ve heard so far. I’m able to pick some favorites, so it’s not a complete loss. I thought “Flower Punk” and “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance” were alright. Just weird enough to not be overtly annoying, and fine overall as tunes. But as a whole, the music, skits, and overall vibe are a net negative on this one. The random sound effects, entire songs being unfunny skits, occasional music played backward, and other deliberate artistic choices that are weird for the sake of being weird work on some albums, but not here. This is the musical equivalent of going to a modern art museum and admiring a banana taped to the wall. It might be for some people, maybe, but it’s not for me. Sorry Muffin Man, you glorious little oddity, maybe next time.

Oh, hi Damon Albarn. I didn’t expect to find you here. Gorillaz is one of my favorite bands, and I’m largely unfamiliar with Blur outside of “Song 2”, so to roll this album first before any of those is kind of funny since I wasn’t expecting it. Your enjoyment of this album is going to be LARGELY dependent on how much you like Damon’s singing. Even though this is a Super Group, I still only hear one solid Gorillaz album that I didn’t know existed. It’s got some bangers, I think “Herculean”, “Northern Whale” and the titular “The Good, The Bad And The Queen” are my favorites of the bunch. I do wish it had some more personality to it though. I like it, but I’m not really going to go back to it very often in my usual rotation. The entire album kind of blends together into one song, which is both a positive and a negative. Positive since I can get lost in it so easily, negative since I’m not really able to distinguish the songs from each other easily. I wish they did more with the other band members, I was kind of expecting a different vibe from Albarn than I’m used to. That being said, he very rarely misses, so I’m still going to give it a high 3, because I’m always going to love him as a singer and the vibes are still immaculate, as is typical of anything featuring him.

On today’s review, we’ve got another rare case of “How on Earth is this album rated so low on this website?”. Just to be fair, I’ll start with the biggest criticism I have, it can be a tad boring for some stretches. I only know about this guy because he did the version of "Hallelujah" from Shrek, which is an awesome accolade to have in and of itself. This is the second of 2 albums released one year apart, both being on this list, and the first one of the 2 I have heard so far for this project. The way he stretches out notes is extremely impressive, and the music itself is very pretty. Looking into his backstory is also very worthwhile, dude has lived a hell of an interesting life. My 2 favorite songs from this one are “Old Whore’s Diet” and “The One You Love.” I reiterate, I don’t understand how an album this beautifully written and melodic can be rated so low. It’s quite good. I'm very interested in hearing the other Rufus Wainwright album to compare the two.

Oh MAN does this album have some legendary bangers on it. Beastie Boys is another band on an increasingly growing list that’s very likely just automatically going to get 5 stars from me, and deservingly so. No other band like them. Every song is a certified bop. The samples they draw from are iconic, every song is quotable, and the music is still solid almost 40 years later. Crazy to me to think this album could be that old and still hold up as well as it does. Anyway, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” is my favorite song on the album, but I believe “Fight For Your Right”, “Paul Revere” and “Brass Monkey” equally deserve a shoutout, as well as “She’s Crafty” for sampling another iconic riff from Led Zeppelin’s “The Ocean”. Licensed to Ill is my personal favorite Beastie Boys album for multiple reasons, but I couldn’t help but notice that a grand majority of the songs I already have favorited by them are on this album. That being said, I’ve got 2 more Beastie Boys albums to go, so we’ll see if this one is truly the gem of the lot. If it’s not, I’ll end up adding a ton of new Beastie Boys songs I’m less familiar with. Either way it’s a win win for me!!

Funk?? Soul?? World?? Jazz?? What can you really even describe this album as?? I’m not entirely sure, but either way it’s pretty good. The energy that Fela Kuti brings to this performance is electric, and the addition of Ginger Baker makes it even better. The little intros to the songs with Fela explaining the meaning behind the song names is charming and adds some flair to the mix. While this one won’t stick with me for a long time, I enjoyed every song on the main album, and listening to Fela belt out a “Yeeeeeeeeah, Black Man’s Cry” or a “La la la la” is hype as hell. My favorite song was “Egbe Mi O (Carry Me)”. The only thing on the album I could have done without was the 16 minute long drum solo. I found it more annoying than enjoyable. Next up, the regular Non-Live Fela Kuti album.

Sometimes I feel like I’m super easy to please when it comes to music. Then I quickly realize how good it is being this open to so much heat. Point being, this is absolutely fire. If anyone gets a pass rapping about dropping people, it’s the guy who was shot 9 times and survived. I’m largely unfamiliar with 50, but whenever he’s featured in a song I always get excited. So how is he by himself? Turns out, he’s just as good!! I went through this entire album going “No way this gets 5 stars, not every song can be as good as the last one.” I was astronomically wrong. With very few exceptions, this is one of the most solid Rap albums I’ve ever heard from top to bottom. Yeah, the hits like “In Da Club” and “Many Men” are probably the catchiest and objectively best songs on the album, but even the lesser played songs are at the bare minimum catchy as hell. Great flow, great beats, some incredible features (Eminem, Nate Dogg, Snoop on the bonus track). It’s another Rap album I’m giving a 5 to. Had no idea I’d be here when I started this project, but here I am.

This is going to be another very similar album review compared to the other Folk albums I’ve rolled so far. Folk isn’t generally my thing, but I can appreciate it for what it is. It makes it a lot easier when I like the singers voice, obviously. Joan has a very soothing voice, and it’s extremely relaxing. The way she can hold a note for so long and really make it vibrate is very impressive. It’s also really cool hearing her start singing in Spanish on one of her tracks. Unfortunately, much like the other folk albums I’ve rolled, I’m probably not going to remember this one all too much in a few days. That being said, I’m an absolute sucker for good “House Of The Rising Sun” covers, and this one is pretty dang good. For that reason, that and the aforementioned “El Preso Numero Nueve” are my favorites on this one. Very pretty, but not the most memorable, as has been the same case for a lot of the other Folk albums.

After rolling Five Leaves Left a few months ago, I was really hoping to hear more of Nick Drake and his music as soon as possible. I called the last album extremely depressing, yet uplifting. I feel the same way about this one. It makes me unbelievably sad, but sometimes that’s ok. Knowing that Nick made this album and would be dead shortly after contextualizes it succinctly, I believe better than anything else possibly could. It’s just one beautiful, tragically depressed soul, playing sad music from the deepest corners of his heart. He was 26 when he died, but before he went, he created 3 albums that each found their way onto this list. This is the second of 3 I’ve had the pleasure of hearing, and I’m betting the last one will be just as good as the other 2 have been. Pink Moon is only 27 minutes long, likely making it one of the shortest albums on the list, but man, those 27 minutes really say a lot. Once again, RIP Nick, I hope your family takes at least some solace knowing how highly people think of your music. Favorite song? All of it. I think “Know” is my favorite.

Pearl Jam, STP, Nirvana, Alice In Chains. Grunge!!!! Give me more Grunge. They’ve got every freaking Nirvana album on here but only one of each for everyone else, besides STP who have NONE!! It’s a crime, really. This album is absolutely perfect. It was always going to be a 5 for me. The hardest part about rolling this today is picking a favorite song. I’d be wasting my time just copying the name of every song on the album to select as my favorite, so I won’t. Just know that the Grunge bands are all extremely important to me and I love all of them. No one has a voice like Layne Staley, and no one ever will. Do you want a truly unique sounding album, complete with sounds you’ve never heard before and absolute bangers song after song? Here it is. It’s Dirt. Bummed this is the only Alice In Chains album, but yeah, they picked the right one. Hitting a good streak of legendary album covers as well. This one is so cool. They do so much with what is essentially a single color and make it stand out at the same time.

Bon Scott, you legend. Probably still rocking out in heaven after releasing his final album, Highway to Hell. AC/DC has a tendency to be categorized as a band where every song sounds the same. I’m here to tell you that is 100%, categorically… true. Ok, it’s true. They’re all really similar, BUT it’s all the same banger song. I deduct points sometimes when that happens, but this is one of the exceptions to my rule. Of my favorites, the title track, “Highway to Hell” does stand out the most. Bonus points for being one of my favorite album covers of all time as well. It’s an absolute classic. Now, I’m going to rate this a 5, but I’m curious what I would rate this had I rolled Back In Black first, as obviously it has a new singer. Regardless, this is likely going to be one of the next bands joining my Favorite Artists at the top of my profile, and deservingly so.

I believe, quite understandably, for some people that actively dislike Country Music, taking a gander at the name of this album would be enough to write the entire thing off just like that. It’s me, I’m those people. I was all ready to give it a 1 and move on. But then I listened to it, and you know what? As far as Country is concerned, I found a few songs in here that were actually pretty good. Joe Ely, I don’t know who you are, and I’m unlikely to hear you again, but you know what? I don’t dislike some of your music. Sure, it has a LOT of songs that are just annoying Country garbage, and I never want to hear the words Honky Tonk again, but “Cornbread Moon” and ESPECIALLY “Boxcars” are the clear standouts here. Those songs genuinely surprised me. This one is getting a 3.0 on the dot since I managed to listen to it all day and found at least 1 hidden gem in the mix. That puts it well above most other Country albums I’ve suffered through so far.

What an extremely random The Who album. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. First of all, I find the ads hilarious. I know that’s a point of contention in the reviews, but lyrically they are quite funny, especially “Odorono”, which got an audible chuckle out of me. “I Can See For Miles” is both my favorite song on the album, as well as being pretty much the only song I would consider to be a real The Who song in general. That’s where my biggest criticism of the album stems from. The ads are funny, but they take up virtually the entire length of the album. They’re weird, and are more so comical little jingles than actual real songs. I know they’re parodying Pirate Radio, but the fact that they made an entire album on that concept is kind of amazing, and not in a particularly good way. So, while I still enjoyed the album because I love The Who, this will likely be the only one of their albums I give a 3 or lower. At least they had some fun with it, it’s very goofy and shows.

I’m honestly surprised how much I liked this album. I know it’s a massive meme on this website, and for good reason, but it’s not nearly as bad as the ratings would imply. First of all, it’s just one giant shitpost. When treated as such, it becomes substantially more enjoyable. Literally a few friends just having a good time. The way they blend multiple different genres together like EDM, Rock and Rap is actually quite creative and catchy. Yes, Fred Durst is an obnoxious douche canoe who can’t sing, but it doesn’t really detract from the album enough for it to become unenjoyable. The songs “My Way” and “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” are my favorite songs on the album. The constant pop culture references are also pretty funny honestly, with direct riffs and references to things like Nine Inch Nails and the Mission Impossible Theme. But man, that album art is truly one for the ages. One of the album arts of all time in fact.

Funk music continues to blow my mind album after album. This is some Grade A stuff right here. Absolutely makes you dance for most of the album. A select few lighter songs of below average enjoyment are the only thing keeping this from a 5. My favorite songs from this one are “Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On”, “Run Charlie Run”, “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”, and “Do Your Thing.” Put this one down as a 4.9/5 and I may be back and up it to a 5 at some point, because I absolutely will be returning to this one in the future. Absolutely thrilled to hear more of these guys at some point. Had only heard of them by name until today but I’m definitely a fan now!!