Reviews by gingerninja155

This is one of those albums that really, REALLY grew on me after a couple of listens. On my first listen through, I found a lot of the songs same-y and annoying. After like the fourth playthrough though I generally liked every song. The only ones that I didn't really like were "Faithful" and the end of "It's Your World." Also, listening to Kanye in any capacity just makes me sad knowing how terrible of a person he is now, so as much as I like the song "They Say", I just can't truly enjoy it fully. Besides that, I enjoyed very much of this album. A few days ago I mentioned growing a lack of interest in Jazz music and that upsetting me greatly, I'm glad to say that the opposite is true for Hip-Hop. I've pretty much enjoyed all the albums I've rolled so far, this being no different. "Be (Intro)", "The Corner", and my personal favorite "Chi-City" all absolutely SLAP. I kind of want to rate this one a 4, but I also skip a few songs per listen, and unfortunately it's getting a Kanye Tax, so it's a 3.99/5. Realistically this is a 4 though. Update: After careful consideration, I’ve decided to be fair and rate it the 4 it deserves.

Finally, after more than 50 days of using this website, it hits me with another Prog album, my all time favorite genre. It may not be perfect, there may not have been a lot that stood out on this album by itself, but as a whole, it’s really really good. You can just skip around to any song on the album and get something that at the bare minimum is at least enjoyable no matter what. That’s also a slight double edged sword, because not everything is groundbreaking here, and nothing pushes into the truly amazing territory, especially at 1 hour and 34 minutes. I believe that makes this the longest album I’ve heard so far, and for that reason I have to judge it as a whole. As a whole, it’s a fantastic album, but far from perfect. There are multiple times here when I just drowned the music out, which isn’t always bad, it just doesn’t really add to my enjoyment. Plus, about an hour in I’m just ready for it to be over, another point against it. Despite all the critiques though, a few songs on this album truly are extremely memorable in my eyes, those being “Fly On A Windshield”, “The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging”, and “Back In NYC”.

Guys, I've got some bad news. I think I hate Jazz music. I went into this with an open mind, and even a good friend talking me through what the "structure of Jazz music" entails. None of it helped. This was just bad. I don't understand Jazz music and I don't know if I ever will unfortunately. A big reason I started this challenge was to broaden my musical horizons, and in many aspects I believe I have succeeded. However, I tried to listen to this album and find ANYTHING to enjoy for multiple hours, and I just couldn't. So, I'm sorry John Coltrane. I gave it my best shot, and I still didn't enjoy it. However, each musician is clearly very talented, and for that reason this wasn't absolute torture. A 2 star, very low 2 star, but still a 2 star out of 5 nonetheless. I'd feel bad rating 2 albums a 1 star in a row anyway. Maybe I shouldn't, this was still pretty bad.

Man, I really did not need to hear Randy Newman singing the gamer word "artistically" probably 10 plus times in the same album. Hot take, extremely not a fan of his voice. This may be my first "Least Favorite Artist" when I roll him for a second time. I really don't care what the point of this album was, it was all just dreadful from top to bottom. I didn't enjoy any of it. His voice is just so hard to listen to in my opinion. Somehow I lasted the entire day though, and for that reason it's still a 1 star, but it's a high 1 star. Call it a 1.8. This is the least subtle music I've ever heard, and I just really don't know why he made an entire album like it. What's the concept? "I hate the South, wait, actually no, I hate everyone?" Phenomenal. Thank you Randy, now go away for a while so I don't have to hear you again for a while. No, actually, give me the other album so I can just get it over with. Anything has to be better than this. I give a lot of 5's on this site, and when an album gets rolled that is received very well by critics pops up that I don't like, sometimes I truly don't understand what they saw in said album. This is one of those times.

Here’s my entire experience with this album this morning, summarized in order of events. “I’ve heard of this band but can’t really name any of their songs.” “I don’t recognize most of these song names.” “Wait, I’ve heard this song before.” “Damn, this song ROCKS.” Repeat the last 2 statements for the remainder of the album. Turns out I’d heard damn near all of them before. Needless to say it’s a 5. “Ramble Tamble”, “Run Through The Jungle”, and “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”, especially that last one, are my favorites on this album. May have just turned into a big CCR fan with this one. This album is goated.

This was genuinely hard to get through. A 31 minute album that took me 3 days to get to the end of. Thank God this was my weekend album. I don’t even hate James Brown’s music generally, but for the love of God I can not in good faith enjoy this album in the slightest when it’s bogged down by 31 minutes of annoying fan cheering, and the most mid, boring instrumentation I’ve ever heard. I know this is blasphemy, but I don’t even enjoy his voice. “Soul” is listed as one of my favorite genres currently, but unfortunately this is going to tank that, probably for the rest of this challenge. “Instrumental Bridge #1” is my favorite song here, as it lasts for a little over 10 seconds. I don’t give 1’s very often, but this was offensively bad to my poor ears.

First of all, RIP to the legend Brian Wilson. Kind of crazy that I would pull this album on the day that he died. It seems like a perfect tribute to me. Second, man this is a lot of music for an album from the 60's. There's a lot of filler here that's just passable at best. This is an album that consistently makes me happy, and even if it's really not my thing I can still have a great time listening to it. There are very few things to criticize on this album, but for me personally, I just think that as a whole, it doesn't really hit me the same way as it does for others. After a while, I kind of get the point and am ready to listen to something else. Especially with 27 songs on an album that goes on for an alarmingly long 1 hour and 16 minutes. There's only so much joyous music I can take at a time. Speaking of, my favorite songs are the ones I've heard before. I think the most successful song here really is the best one, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is great, as are "Sloop John B", "and God Only Knows." I don't believe I'd heard "That's Not Me" before, but it was also one of my favorites.

Ok, yeah. It’s pretty bad. It’s not 1 star bad, but it’s bad. Let’s start with the positives. The lead singer has a pleasant voice. The background instruments and overall mood are pretty upbeat. Those are the positives, now let’s talk about the negatives. This album is so boring I can’t even put into words how much I wanted to fall asleep listening to it. The lyrics are cheesy, and every song sounds exactly the same as the one before it. Picking a favorite is pretty hard because of that. I guess it would be “Tears All Over Town” because of the smooth Jazz going on in the background of the song. Very well, they can’t all be bangers, but at least this wasn’t offensively bad. On to the next one.

Just over 50 days in and I’m already on my 2nd album in the Top 20 for the site. It’s Led Zeppelin, dude. What is it that I could possibly say about them that hasn’t already been said 1 million times before? It’s almost flawless. It would be easier saying what I didn’t like about it. I am not the biggest fan of the weird drum solo filled song “Moby Dick”. Other than that, I’d be filling the rest of the review with my favorite songs. So I’ll just tell you my favorite song on this album is “Heartbreaker”. Every time I roll a Led Zeppelin album is going to be a special occasion but it also means one less Led Zeppelin album to look forward to later, so it’s a double edged sword really. I’m rolling heat in general this week and it’s only Tuesday, hoping to keep it up.

Perfect start to the week. Jack White is my all time favorite musician. However, I have to say, generally, the albums he's been a part of are very rarely perfect as a whole. There's always some stuff on his albums I don't absolutely love, and this album is no exception. However, as usual, the songs that are really good here are some of my favorite songs of all time. In particular, "Blue Orchid" "The Denial Twist" and "Take, Take, Take" are my favorite songs on this album, and rightfully so. They all freaking slap and are extremely earwormy. Every band that Jack has been a part of is golden, The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and his solo career are all consistently great, so I hope we can get at least one of each if not more for this project. It's always nice to go back to his early stuff so we can get some of the ever reclusive Meg. I hope she's doing well. Oh, and I LOVE this album art. The posing, simple but effective story telling, and clever use of a 3 color scheme are all very interesting to look at.

More sad white boy music that makes me feel things that I really don’t want to feel when listening to music most of the time. This is a great album that I just really don’t think I would ever be in the mood to want to hear very often. Sad vibes, especially considering what happened to Elliott Smith in general. It makes listening to this even more depressing. While I can appreciate this album for what it is, and realize how great it is, it’s just too sad for me to truly love. However, “Cupid’s Trick” absolutely rocks, and I also really liked “Pictures of Me” and “Rose Parade” the most. The album is technically great, just not my sad cup of tea. 4/5 as a whole, 3/5 for personal enjoyment.

I have no idea why this album is on the list. I've never heard of The Zutons, and I still don't know what a Zuton even is or who killed them... but I think I love them. Like, genuinely, this is a 4.9/5 of an album, and the ONLY reason it isn't a 5 is because I didn't always love every song. But, the ones I did like, I absolutely L O V E D, and it's more than a few. "Zuton Fever" "Pressure Point" "You Will You Won't", "Havana Gang Brawl", "Dirty Dancehall" and "Don't Ever Think (Too Much)" are all phenomenal songs. The singer's voice is oddly reminiscent of someone else and I just can't for the life of me place who it is, but clearly I like them as well. I haven't been doing this a lot, but I'm actively going to seek out more of this band's music and hope it's comparable to this album, because this might have surprised me more than anything else I've listened to so far up to this point. This is a strong contender for moving up to 5 stars if I do a rebalancing of my list. Great job Zutons, you've gained a fan.

The first Neil Young album of many. This is one of those albums that I can absolutely appreciate and understand why someone would adore, but isn’t entirely for me. It’s absolutely beautiful for the first 2/3 of the album, and then the last couple of songs (my favorites of the album) absolutely rock. I personally wish the first half was more like the ladder half, but still appreciate it for what it is as a whole. I hear so much Pearl Jam in this, which makes sense as they call him “Uncle Neil”, and I can really understand why. For instance, I know Neil Young didn’t invent the harmonica, but whenever it gets played on this album I just think “Wow, that reminds me of Pearl Jam.” This is as close to a 4 star album as you can possibly get for me. A very solid 3.9/5. My favorite songs here are “Old Man”, “Alabama”, and “Words (Between the Lines of Age)”.

I have no idea what these guys are saying, but man are they saying it. African music at its purest. The first two songs “Soubour” and “Irganda” absolutely rock and then the rest of the album calms down considerably. Despite that, this was a very pleasant experience. One of the ultimate examples of why I’m so glad to be doing this challenge. Were it not for this site, never in a million years would I find a charming little album like this. As a side note, the documentary these guys are prominently featured in, They Will Have To Kill Us First, is a very compelling story.

Yet another band I've never heard of before, and I don't think I was familiar with any of these songs before hearing the album for the first time. I gotta say, this absolutely rocks from top to bottom. Hell of a debut album. Killer guitar riffs, great voice, and a good mix of Rock styles that make a lot of the songs feel unique, and at times even extremely ear wormy. I mean, try not to dance listening to "Gone Daddy Gone", you can't. Personal favorites here are "Gone Daddy Gone", "Add It Up", and "To The Kill". I mentioned this before, but after enduring so much UK Punk, UK Rock and UK Funk, whenever an American band comes around, it's just automatically one of the best things I've heard in a while. Call it national bias, pride, or whatever else you want to label it as. At the end of the day, this album still absolutely slaps hard. Great start to the week, looking forward to whatever I end up rolling next.

A great album that unfortunately needs to be docked an entire point because of the annoying ass skits. Biggie may very well deservingly be one of the best rappers of all time, and when he's dropping bars on this album, they absolutely hit each and every time. However, there are a LOT of skits here, and after the first listen (Or in some instances, during the first listen, looking at you "Fuck Me (Interlude)"), I have to end up skipping them. This wouldn't be that big of an issue if they didn't have skits at the beginning and ending of some good songs as well. If you've heard the album, you'll know what I'm talking about, so I won't elaborate, because they all have to do with one of three things; Getting shot, shooting someone, or having sex with someone. Picking a favorite song is easy at least, it's "Big Poppa", an absolute classic. The other songs that aren't skits are all bangers as well, but every single last one of them is about the 3 aforementioned skits and are pretty hard to distinguish from each other. This is an album I kind of want to give a 5, but there's a LOT, and I mean a LOT of annoying shit here that as a whole, brings my actual enjoyment down to a 3.

Before my little review, I just want to point out a coincidence I thought was actually insane. Yesterday, I was reviewing this guys third album. Here I am today back with his fourth album. If that album was a 3.5, this one is like a 3.6. It's not much better, but it's definitely not worse. The same praise and criticisms I had for the last one remain for the album today. This guy has an incredible singing voice, his music is just a little too light and boring for my personal taste. I thought this album as a whole was a little more consistent in tone, and even though it was even lighter than the last one, I found it easier to listen to. Plus, last album has some instant skips, while nothing on this album is really skippable, I also don't really have an easy time remembering most of it, or really caring enough to do so. I guess the one that stuck with me the most was "Hold on to Your Friends", as I can relate to the message it was sending out. As a whole, this is just another solid album that I'm going to forget about in the morning probably. Apparently there's a lot more of this guy to get through. I'm just going to keep giving him a 3. Seems like the right call to me.

The ever controversial Morrissey. Personally, this is a little too light for my liking. A grand majority of the songs here are both skippable and forgettable. This one isn’t really going to stick with me after today. I understand and appreciate what he is doing here. His voice is beautiful and clearly the entire band is very talented, but the only song that truly ROCKS on this album is the opener, “You’re Gonna Need Someone on Your Side.” Alternatively, “You’re the One for Me, Fatty” is an instant skip. That song is just annoying and repetitive. Everything else isn’t entirely memorable, or is too light and repetitive to play on an immediate repeat. Again, none of the songs except for Fatty are bad, and they’re all very pretty and well written. They’re just not really my thing is all, but as a whole, this is a very passable little 39 minute album. 3.5/5.

Torture, unfortunately. Self indulgent music that never should have been included in the book to begin with. Sounds like the songs that didn’t make it into a Katamari game. The children singing on “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice” and the entirety of the song “Parade” are genuinely torturous. Occasionally, there’s some nice instrumentation, but it’s more often than not in addition to a voice that, and I'm sorry, I just straight up dislike. And when I said “occasionally there was some nice instrumentation”, it’s not always present either. This is elevator music with extra steps. Lounge music that you hear at low volume in the background of a Horror Game. Astrud is perfect in “The Girl from Ipanema” (not on this album, which pains me, because I LOVE that song), but as far as this album goes, the only song I really vibe with is “Nao Bate O Corocao.” Curious how many times if ever again I end up going from a 5 to a 1.

Trent Reznor is a God among men, and this is one of his crowning achievements. I’m a sucker for concept albums, this being no exception. The concept here is extremely apparent and simple. One man is descending into madness very rapidly. When the third song on the album already has him screaming about God being dead and going to hell, you know that bro is really going through it. Every song is unique from the last, and I could see any individual song being someone’s favorite here. The one everyone knows is “Closer”, but the last song on the album is a cover of “Hurt” and is excellent as well. “Heresy” “March of the Pigs” and “Closer” are my top 3 here, and I’m praying to God that this isn’t the only NIN album. Simple but iconic album art as well. The vibes here are dark and gritty, and man do they ROCK!!!!