Reviews by gingerninja155

Oh, goodie, Jazz is back. Yay… This concludes a really bad week of music for me on this site. Sometimes it be like that. First things first, I don’t really like Jazz. Reviewing it is the worst part of all. I can’t contribute anything articulate well enough for an album where the entire point is to be nonsensical with no rhyme, reason or cohesion. Some Jazz is fine. None of it is amazing or really worth listening to. Most of it is bad. This is one of the bad and uninteresting ones. Is that a good review? Obviously not, but the only things I can think to say about this album are negatives. It sounds like the dude is just waffling about the entire time, like he’s never played an instrument in his life. This goes on for an hour, because of course it does, and it just sounds like a practice session where a bunch of kids thought the instruments looked cool. Again, it’s Jazz. I don’t have a favorite song. I could only bear to listen to this twice before I had to turn it off. I can’t keep reviewing Jazz albums like this. Surely, some of them have to be good. The ones with careful planning that aren’t Freeform are mostly fine. But this?? Even the other reviewers on the website have this as slightly below average. Mostly this has been getting 3’s, but I think those are from people that actually like Jazz albums to begin with. Even then, that says a lot that even amongst fans of the genre where you play an aimless, maddening jerk off session, the consensus on the website is that it’s just not that good. This might be my shortest review in a long while. I don’t know man, if I’ve learned one thing above all else on this site, it’s that Jazz albums are the hardest to write reviews for. I’m going to read some of the long form reviews of this album after posting this to get a better understanding of what I’m supposed to be seeing here, because man, I kinda really dislike this, and most Jazz music as a whole. This album is not helping on that front at all. Even worse knowing this was my weekend album. Oh well, let’s hope this upcoming week gets me off the rough patch the site has bestowed upon me. Until then!!

The best song on this album is the cover of “Love Hurts” that doesn’t even show up as a notable cover in the Wikipedia article housing the song itself. That says a lot about this album. That song is fine, it’s very peaceful and easy to listen to. Not my favorite cover of that song by any means, but it’s fine. It’s also Gram Parson’s most well known song. However, as previously mentioned, it’s not even a Gram Parsons song. A rule of thumb I have for artists is that if a remix made by someone else, or a cover that doesn’t surpass the original is your number one song, we might have a bit of a problem. This album is more Country nonsense through and through that I don’t really care for. On top of that, it’s yet another member of The Byrds getting a solo album on the list. That means there’s at least 8 on here, with potentially more if a third band member also has a solo album on here. Jesus Christ. That’s way WAY too many. Ridiculous to have even 2 of them on here to be honest. Boring album art as well. Very uninspired and lame. Call it a very weird bias, but with songs like “Return of the Grievous Angel”, I always get the feeling that they’re going to say something very… outdated. I’ll leave it at that. Interpret that the way you will. Even if it’s perfectly fine, it just rubs me the wrong way. Man, I just do not enjoy Country music in the slightest, and as usual, this selection is not helping. If this bot was meant to get me to appreciate Country music, it has epically failed a grand majority of the time. Furthermore, the 7+ other Byrds albums are really starting to irk me, and I roll my eyes at this point whenever I roll one, just like the copious amounts of Elvis Costello. So many other deserving artists are left out in exchange for this. The 3 Byrds and Byrds adjacent albums I’ve listened to so far got a 3, but I might start giving them 2’s going forward. This is the worst one so far. I’m just really sick of them and get no enjoyment whatsoever out of any of them. It’s just boring. It brings nothing to the table and it’s utterly forgettable. Every one of their albums I’ve listened to so far are the same, solo artist or not. Nothing against them personally, but they’re just not for me. If there’s anything I’m thankful for, it’s that this wasn’t my weekend album. Whether or not that becomes a monkeys paw in a second when I roll the next album remains to be seen. This is yet another album that wasn’t terrible, but man was it not good either, which situationally can be worse, as I’m going to forget about it in its entirety before the end of this review. Next please!! Let’s end the week off with some heat. If I don’t have to listen to this generic Country drivel for at least another week I’ll be happy. Either that or just get the rest out of the way consecutively. Either of those options would be fine by me at this point. Sorry Gram, not a fan.

It took 319 albums for me to roll something in the Bottom 20, and man was I not disappointed. In this instance, by not disappointed, I mean to say that this is absolutely terrible, and I would not subject my greatest enemies to it. Being French is fine. I’ve had some French albums that were ok at best. None amazing, but they generally make some REALLY good Electronica. However, this is not one of such cases. This is the musical equivalent of water torture. The background elements sound fine in places, but each and every song is ruined by the Death Metal singing Frenchman making the music sound terrible. God damn this is bad. I mean seriously, the first song sounds like something you would hear at a circus, and the singing makes it even worse. This is one of those albums where I was happy when it ended, unfortunately. There’s SOME saving grace in the background elements, but the terrible singing is simply unforgivable. Songs like “Pas Mal” would be fine if I could tune out the singer, it’s got a pretty cool background element and a good beat, but it’s absolutely ruined, just like every other song on the album, by the singer. I’d love a version of this album without the singing. If that exists, this would get a 3. As it stands right now, this is either a low 2, or a high 1. I haven’t decided yet. It’s fucking abysmal though for what it is. Gonna compare it to my other 1’s and 2’s and make my final decision at the end of the day. Favorite song?? None of them. It’s all bad. That’s probably a point in favor of being a 1 star. Just, yikes. Bad album. Do the French themselves even like it?? That might be even more terrifying if they did. This is bad. Ok, next album please. I’m done venting about how bad this one was. I wanted something in the Bottom 20, and boy howdy did I get it here. Excited to see the other 19, excited in the worst possible way. Until then. Upon further review and comparison, I’m going to give it the 1 it deserves. It’s awful. This is the first 1 I’ve given in 81 albums. L’Eau Rouge by The Young Gods will take its rightful place in my profile on the album list of shame.

Dad Rock but amplify it and turn it up to 11. All solos and shredding guitar jams, and yet not a lot of substance. To be honest, I was expecting to like this one a bit more, but it’s rather samey from song to song and besides the famous “La Grange”, the best song on the album by far, it’s very unmemorable as a whole. This is the first of 2 ZZ Top albums I have rolled for this project, and the first in order of release. Considering the other album came out 10 years later and has “Sharp Dressed Man”, I’m going to be very interested in comparing the 2 albums. This album in particular is fine. I really don’t have a lot of negative things to say about it. The guitar playing is great, but somehow I don’t find myself getting very attached to it. It’s missing something, and I don’t really know what that something is. I feel in my heart they this should be an easy 5 star album, but it just didn’t really do a lot for me. That’s surprising, because I’m a sucker for solos like this. However, when every song kinda has the same energy, style and vibe, the repetition can start to lose some charm. This album is very repetitive. Come for the fantastic guitar solos and not much else. Still though, it’s a great album and I had fun listening to it. After all, I really am a sucker for a good solo, and that’s this entire albums gimmick it would seem. ZZ Top is one of those bands where I know I’ve heard a lot of, but can’t name anything besides their 2 huge hits, both prominently featured for this project. The bands image is greater than the sum of their music in my mind. ZZ Top to me just exude coolness, and that’s all I need them to do. 3 cool guys with some long ass beards who appreciate a good, gritty, old fashioned guitar solo. You can’t get much more American than that. This one for all its strengths, surprisingly, is getting a Tres from me. Perhaps that’s appropriate given the album name, but I was really expecting a bit more to it than what it ultimately delivered.

So, I grew up with post 90’s U2. I mentioned in my last U2 review for Achtung Baby that we had one of their later albums, All That You Can't Leave Behind, as a CD, and wore it the hell out. Played that CD in the car all the time. Because of that CD, I liked the band a lot already. But that was U2 to me. Just that album. It wasn’t until just now actually that I’m hearing this album for the first time. It was the same for when I rolled Achtung Baby previously. This is insanely good. Like, so good I didn’t have any idea U2 could possibly sound like this. This is U2 album 2/4, following the previously mentioned Achtung Baby. Seeing and hearing Bono here this young is quite a trip. He’s just a baby. The difference between this album and the post 2000’s albums are actually insane. The hardest part about this album is picking a favorite. That’s how I know, deep down, that it’s a 5 for me personally. There’s the obvious choice, the one song I knew going in, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, but genuinely every song on this album separately has been stuck in my head all day. The guitar playing and singing on these songs is just incredible. I could make a case for every song here. Seriously, I can’t pick a favorite. If I thought there was passion in the later albums, clearly I hadn’t heard this album yet. The sheer extent of the inspiring vocals and instrumentation here is nothing short of incredible. I gave Achtung Baby a 4, and mentioned I was considering giving it a 5. I’m going to skip right to a 5 for War. This very well may be their magnum opus. It’s going to be hard for the other 2 to beat this one for me, but we’ll see. I was one of what feels like a select few people that has no problem with even U2’s latest albums (Yes, even the controversial one that was forced onto our phones), and even I am kicking myself not having heard any of this previously. It’s really, really good and I don’t have any excuses for why I’d give it a 4. I think the first half is a bit more memorable as a whole, but that’s hardly a complaint. The back half is still really good and high energy as well. Ok. I’ve finally decided. I’m going to give my favorite song of the album to “Like A Song”. Just know that this could have gone to any song on the album. I can’t explain specifically why I chose it without just saying it was good, and that picking a favorite one here tormented me all day. So yeah, this was a great album. There’s a non zero chance I go back to the previous album and give that a 5 as well. I’m definitively a U2 fan after this one.

I’ve been tolerable of Bruce Springsteen. Tolerable is a good word. This is the 4th of 5 Bruce albums I have rolled, and genuinely none of them have impressed me. I can see why he would have fans, but he just doesn’t bring anything interesting or unique to the table. All of his songs are so bland, by the books, and forgettable. Even after the previous 3 albums, I have all of them comfortably ranked as a 3, since I was able to find a few Rock songs on those albums that were more or less acceptable. Some of them were even really good. On this album however, I can’t find much of anything that I would consider redeeming or good. Every single song, with 0 exceptions on Nebraska is either a slow, boring affair, or even worse, a Country sounding diddy that also manages to be slow and boring. If he didn’t have such a unique voice with good production value and good enough guitar playing, I would rate this a 1. There really just isn’t anything here that I would consider good. There’s a reason no one asks him to play these songs. They’re just not good. This is the second lowest of the Bruce Springsteen albums on the site, just above the very reactionary post 9/11 album The Rising. Even that album had some songs that truly rocked though. It had enough where I wasn’t complaining about the slow and boring pacing. This however, I almost want to give a 1. I didn’t manage to spend the whole day listening to it, which is also rare. It was also hard picking a favorite, which was the only reason I didn’t turn it off sooner. Even then, I still kind of haphazardly picked a favorite, more so out of necessity for the playlist of my favorite song from each album rather than one I truly enjoyed. Since I didn’t really enjoy any of them, the one that bothered me the least was “State Trooper”. It had a slightly different tone to it, and it was bearable. I know these are all sad tunes, and are mostly deep and tragic stories about the State, however, I just can not be bothered enough to care. They’re just not for me this time. Sorry Bruce. Maybe the last album will impress me. After all, it’s the one with all the hits, and it came out 2 years later, Born In The U.S.A. This one gets a 2 though. Really was not feeling it at all whatsoever.

The thing I find most interesting about this album is that a ton of the songs are covers. I could have gone my entire life thinking "Respect" was an Aretha Franklin original, but nope. It's actually an Otis Redding song from less than 2 years prior. This one is hard to rate for me. Albums that are objectively a 5 always make me feel terrible for not personally loving. Aretha Franklin is one of the most well known, beloved musicians of all time. Her voice is absolutely iconic. She has been given every positive accolade under the sun. Her version of “Respect” is also perfect. I was surprised to see it wasn’t her most listened to song on Spotify. If you put a gun to my head, I’d have told you it was number 1. Instead, number 1 went to a song from a different album entirely, that song being “I Say a Little Prayer”. By name alone, I don’t even recognize that song. In fact, even on this album, I only know “Respect”, and it’s my favorite song on the album by far. Why is this a 3 if I’ve acknowledged and understand how great she is then?? What fault could I possibly find in this album?? Well, none honestly. I can’t fault this album, I just don’t personally enjoy this type of music very much. That’s just not the way I rank these albums. I thought this was slow, not terribly interesting, and only has 1 memorable song. But that’s just from my perspective, personally. Again, I reiterate, this is a fantastic album. It’s just not really for me. This is the first of 2 Aretha Franklin albums I have rolled for this project. One of the best to ever do it, but for the modern ears, she just sounds alright to me, and I would not personally return to this. I can’t even really say that “Respect” got stuck in my head like I thought it would. It’s such a short song, and ends way too early. I wish it was even just 30 seconds longer so I could enjoy it more. Still though, now I want to wait to hear her number 1 song to see if I recognize it or not. I wonder if it really is catchier and better than “Respect”, but somehow I just doubt that it would be. We’ll see when I roll it at some point. Quick update after the review. Upon further inspection, the album with her top song isn’t even on here. I guess I’ll just play it regardless to see how good it is.

Iron Butterfly is truly a 1 hit wonder. They probably shouldn’t be on here to begin with. When your top song is listed multiple times in the Top 10 for an artist on Spotify, that’s an issue. When it has substantially more listens then the next most listened to song, that’s also indicative of a 1 hit wonder and should not be considered for the book. If this book was called “1001 songs you must hear before you die”, it might have a place, but to include the entire lackluster album over many more deserving is pretty criminal. Don’t get me wrong, the album is fine. Nothing terrible. It’s just so unremarkable that it almost feels like parody at points. If the titular “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” wasn’t literally half the length of the album, this would be a 2 star album. As it stands though, that song is quite good, and it was cool hearing the extended version for the first time. I was not aware that was a thing until today. I don’t even have to question what my favorite song on this album is, so that at least made putting it in the playlist of my favorite singular song from each album super easy today. Pretty much the only positive thing I can say about the rest of the album is that the Doors sample in the first song, “Most Anything You Want” was cool. I noticed it immediately, and enjoyed the way it was used in that song. That song in general wasn’t terrible. None of them are, they’re all fine, but god damn are they generic and bring nothing to the table. Why is this album here?? Seriously?? I have heard the titular track hundreds of times in shows and movies, and noted, that song is great. By itself it’s a 5. But every single other song is unremarkable, unmemorable filler, and I really almost think this album deserves a low 3 bordering a 2 because of it. There are a number of valid reasons why this album is so low rated on the site, and for once I agree with all of them. It truly should not be on here. It’s not terrible, but it’s also just objectively not good either. Truly forgettable, one of those albums you won’t remember listening to while it’s still playing. In addition, if you don’t like the title track, it’s for sure going to be a 1 for you. While I love it personally, I can see it having a fair share of negative feedback as well, also valid.

What a great album this was. All Rock with just a little tiny bit of Jazz thrown in a few places. So, I’ve heard of Steely Dan before. I’m very aware of the name, but could not name a single song of theirs. Can’t even tell you any of the band members. This is the first of 4 Steely Dan albums I have rolled for this project. It is the first album chronologically, it’s the highest rated by far, and it’s the one with their top 4 songs on Spotify. What did I think of it?? I thought it was great. 3/4 of those top songs I actually knew going in. The rest of the album is largely filler, but it’s not bad filler. In fact, I don’t think there’s a skip here. The album has a nice length at 41 minutes and 10 songs. “Do It Again” is already saved to my library, and remains my favorite song on the album. I’ve heard of “Dirty Work” (Thank you The Suicide Squad) and “Reelin’ In The Years” before as well, and they’re very catchy. I think my only minor complaint with this album is that while I genuinely enjoy every song, none of these songs blow me away. They’re all VERY catchy, but not something I would always turn on if I was trying to rock out to something. However, this is one of those albums that had me singing “You’ll go back, Jack, and do it again” as well as “I’m a fool to do your dirty work” literally all day. Those songs in particular are fantastic, and the guitar solo in “Do It Again” is genuinely phenomenal. It’s so cool that that’s their first, and honestly, best song. I don’t know what they’ve done to warrant having 4 separate albums on here, but this is the highest rated of all of them, and it’s a hell of a good start. I’m very interested in checking out the other 3, even if I’m wary of not only their inclusion, but more importantly how they compare to this debut album. As it stands, 2 songs are going to stick with me from this one, and they were 2 I already knew going in. It’s a really good album, but it’s not perfect. I love the singer though, he’s great. The tone of the album is very different from song to song, almost to the extent that I don’t really know what to describe the vibes on this album. That does make it more interesting though. Ultimately, 2 really good songs, 1 pretty good, a whole lot of filler, but far from perfect. Still though, it’s a 4 from me and I’m excited to hear the other 3.

Free Bird. That’s all that needs to be said about this one. This is the album with “Free Bird” on it. Any kid like me who grew up playing Guitar Hero probably know 2 songs more than anything else in the world. Those songs being “Free Bird” and “Through the Fire and Flames”. It’s just, the perfect song. Nothing I could possibly say about it hasn’t been said about it before. I can’t contribute anything new, so I’ll just say that it remains fresh for the entire long length of the song. Then, when you get to about the 4:20 mark in the song, the magic happens. The last couple of minutes of that song are some of my favorite in all of music. All that being said though, it’s not even the only good song on the album. The entire album is good. Don’t mistake it though,”Free Bird” is my favorite. I’d be crazy to say otherwise and be that guy. Southern Rock is such a weird genre to me. It’s one of the closest to Country music, but is also super far removed from being remotely Country at all, if that makes any amount of sense. I genuinely despise most Country music, but have an affinity for most Sourhern Rock/Blues, which has always made no sense to me. This album sounds very rednecky and about the most Southern thing you could imagine, but god damn is it good. Absolutely tragic that the entire band is dead. That plane crash really fucked up the entire band. We can only imagine the lasting impact they would have if they were around longer. But man, does it just creep me out looking at the album cover now knowing they’re all gone, and most of them WAY too soon at that. Besides that, it’s a really cool cover. Another iconic one. This album has a perfect blend of ballads, rockers, and a few filler songs in between that are all still very good. I actually forgot that “Tuesday’s Gone” was a Lynyrd Skynyrd song, but it’s also iconic. As is “Simple Man”. The guitar playing on this album is so unmistakably Southern, as well as the singing, but god damn do I love it. I really do. I can’t find fault in this album enough to give it a 4. The riffs are too righteous. 3 iconic songs, including Free Bird. Yeah man, it’s going to be another 5 for me. I’d listen to this entire album any time, including the weaker entries like “Mississippi Kid” and “Poison Whiskey”. They’re at the bare minimum catchy, and when the ladder bleeds into “Free Bird”, I’m filled with bliss. This is a great album and I’m glad it’s on here.

You know, this website confuses me sometimes. More frequently than I’d like to admit. There are times when I roll an album that is an unmistakable 5, just an absolute gem, and it has a way lower rating than I was anticipating. Virtually every female artist barring a select few have low ratings as well, that seems to be the norm at least from what I’ve noticed. A lot of those albums are also 5’s. With all that being said, “Dummy” by Portishead is the second highest rated Electronica album on the website, right under another album I didn’t exactly care for. First things first, did I enjoy this album?? Yeah, of course. It’s pretty chill and vibey for the whole thing, but that’s also one of my biggest criticisms. It’s way too mellow and low key for a grand majority of the album. I’m not the biggest fan of the consistent emphasis on this kind of chilled out, low stress music. The fact that this has a higher rating than something like Justice, The Prodigy and even the Gorillaz does genuinely surprise me. The biggest criticism I have with Electronica in general is that a lot of the times, a song is going to last just a liiiiiiiiittle bit longer than you want it to. This album suffers heavily from that. It’s 48 minutes of songs that just kinda put me to sleep. Again, not an issue. Objectively, it sounds great, it’s just not the kind of Electronica that I love. Still though, songs like “Glory Box” have a random guitar solo that I love, and the background elements of “Wandering Star” make it my favorite song on the entire album. I can’t really say I’d return to this one, and I can’t even honestly figure out what a majority of the website saw with this one either. Oh well, not every album can be a banger to everybody. This is one I’ll forget about pretty quickly. Very pretty singing though. It’s charming and peaceful. Got me through the day good enough, and I could have it on in the background while working easy enough as well. Overall, I was a little bored by this one, but the singer truly does have a great voice. Just not one I’d like to listen to for an extended period of time.

Subjectively, this album is awful. Objectively, it may also not be great. Took me a good bit of the day to gaslight myself into actually somewhat enjoying it, but man did it take a while. When I saw this was a Talking Heads side project I was more than a little excited. I love the Talking Heads, and more David Byrne is always going to make me happy. Then I saw it didn’t have him in it and the first bit of skepticism and panic quickly swept in. I saw that this album had a low review and an additional layer of skepticism was added. Finally, I listened to the album myself. There’s a literal nursery rhyme in the first song, “Wordy Rappinghood”. Not only does the name of the song elicit anger out of me, but so does the fact that it’s so repetitive, as well as the additional fact that it’s over 6 minutes of a bassist sing-rapping about words. Every song here lasts just a little longer than you’d want it to, some overstaying their welcome by a good couple of minutes even. If I had a nickel for every album I enjoyed the background elements and beats of, but the vocals didn’t do much for me, I’d be a millionaire at this point. This would have worked better as an instrumental heavy, maybe even instrumental entirely album. The singing is just… weird, and not in the ironically cool way. It’s just weird for weird sake. The funny thing about this album is that it gives ripoff Talking Heads vibes heavily. It’s proof that you need a front man to fully assemble a cohesive band. This is repetitive, disjointed, and just kind of a musical monstrosity for a good majority of the runtime. Songs like “Genius of Love” and “Under the Boardwalk” are fine, but they just do not end. The remix (at the end of the over hour long album) to the previously mentioned “Wordy Rappinghood” was my favorite song on the album simply because I thought it was not only a more interesting version, but both versions actually made me laugh and if I want to remember anything from this weird album, it’s the “banger” intro, in the most literal sense of the word it is “ironically” a banger. If they just let the cool Electronica play out without interrupting it with weird vocals, I’d likely enjoy this album more. But as it stands now, this is definitive proof that the assistance of one David Byrne was more than needed here. Did I enjoy this album?? Clearly not, did you read the review?? But, it was stuck in my head, it kind of draws you in with the hypnotic beats, and I didn’t outright even dislike it all that much. As much as I want to give it a 2, to take this review full cycle, I was able to focus on the beats, and did enjoy this filler laden bizarre album more because of it. Let’s get some more actual Talking Heads soon please. This was an interesting album, but not one I would likely return to. It’s just too weird and off putting for its own good. On to the weekend album.

This is one of those albums where I don’t understand the low rating of, but at the same time I kind of do. Sure, this isn’t a very 90’s sounding album, but it was really good regardless, so whatever. That’s such an odd complaint that I saw more than a few times. If this is something you’d hear in a doctors office, send me to that doctor immediately, I’ll pay them extra. Not going to lie to you, this album surprised the hell out of me. Never heard of Paul Weller before, and I do agree with the review that says you probably don't need to listen to every album that England ever released between the years of 1960-2020, but this one really hit me in a good way. Love his voice, love the guitar playing, and just love the overall vibe. You could consider this both a positive and a negative, but for being released in the early 90's, this was unique for sure. I'd have guessed it was released in like the 70's or something. It's kind of timeless in that sense. This guy was in 2 other bands I've never heard of before, so I kind of want to compare and listen to what he sounded like back in the day, as this album came out much later in his career. While others have mentioned how unremarkable this album is as a whole, I strongly disagree. I thought virtually every song was catchy as hell, and found this easy to play on repeat, with a terrific production, and a great sound overall. I had many favorites on this album that I added to the usual rotation, but the ones that really stood out to me are "Has My Fire Really Gone Out?", "Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)”, "Sunflower", and my personal favorite song on the album, "Shadow Of The Sun". Something specifically about the guitar solos just hits perfectly. It's not that I dislike the singing, the singing is fine. Arguably it's the weakest element of the album, keeping it from a 5. Whenever the guitar hits though, it's unbelievably good and keeps me coming back for another listen. I will be checking out more from Paul Weller, and I'm very glad to have heard this today. Excellent album here.

With an album name like “ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ: AKA Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs”, you can probably guess that you’re going to likely be in for something different with this one. Different can either be very good, or very bad depending on the context. The difference in this case that makes the album really stand out is the amount of screaming the lead singer does. Sure, I’ve listened to several Metal albums before during the course of this project, but this is the heaviest one of them so far. This is probably going to be the closest the project comes to something like Death Metal. Is that a bad thing or a good thing then, that I was able to tolerate it? I don't know. Generally, I don't really touch stuff like this all that often, I find a lot of screamo-adjacent albums pretty off-putting, but found this album to be surprisingly enjoyable, so I'm not complaining. It didn't blow me away, but it was still good enough to listen to on repeat today. To all of that I say, yeah, this album was alright. The singer is bearable, but the fast pace of the drummer and killer guitar riffs are the main appeal. They’ve got a religious theme too, obviously, that makes some songs hilarious, and I think the comedic element was the intent, but I’m not entirely sure whether or not it’s supposed to be funny. No, scratch that, listening to the lyrics of “Jesus Build My Hotrod” or “Psalm 69” will very quickly let you know that these guys are just taking the piss. For the comedy aspect alone, as well as having a great guitar section, “Jesus Build My Hotrod” is my favorite song on the album. This was a weird one, and I can see why it’s got such a low rating on the site, but I’m just glad to have listened to something this different today. This was a refreshing album, a nice break from the hundreds of generic English Rock/Pop albums the author is so fond of.

So, I have a bit of a personal anecdote for my review today. Yes is a very important band to me. Completely by coincidence, I stumbled upon them several years ago and instantly fell in love. When I asked my Mom if she was familiar with the band, she simply laughed and mentioned how she had grown up with it herself and was a massive fan. My musical overlap is usually pretty 1 to 1 with my Mom, so I was a little surprised she had never played me any Yes when I was a kid, but I find it hilarious that it would still end up finding its way to me anyway later in life. Progressive music quickly became my favorite musical genre in my late teens and has remained my favorite genre ever since. If there's a song that's like 10-30 minutes long, chances are I'm going to love it. The weird Prog songs that literally include chapters. That's my shit. "The Yes Album" has 2 of them, and you can be sure they're both already in my playlist. However, my favorite song on this one is actually "Yours Is No Disgrace", specifically for a specific section towards the end that always gets stuck in my head. I don't really know how to describe it. It's the moment that kind of sounds like a record scratch. Speaking of the chaptered songs though, the way they just quickly morph into completely different tone shifts and somehow end up still working are amazing. Yes is not a band for everyone, and I would completely understand if not everyone "got it", if you will. However, I get it, and I love it. The longer the song, the trippier the song, the better. The lead singer has such a cool, almost soothing voice, and the rest of the band just come together and give you something special for a very reasonable 41 minutes. Anyway, this is my second of 3 Yes albums I have rolled for this project, following the much more accessible Fragile, both of which hilariously came out the same year. Imagine coming out with 2 unbelievable bangers back to back in the same year like that. That's quite a feat. Anyway, Yes is one of my favorite bands, and this album is no exception, so of course it's getting a 5 from me. The bot has been feeding me heat all month, I'm still worried I'll hit a losing streak of garbage soon. Until then though, this is an easy 5 from me. Another of the easiest 5's I'll have.

Wow. This kicks ass. Might be the coolest female only band ever. It's a very fun Rock Pop mix, and every song is pretty fun and energetic. It's also only 35 minutes long, which if anything leaves me wanting more. Of course, the big hit here is "We Got The Beat", and it's for sure my second favorite song on the album. It was a close fight between that and "This Town", but as always, if I end up singing a song when it's not even on, that one is going to be my pick for favorite virtually every time. In this instance, since this was my weekend album (Female Friday's), I've had the lyrics to "This Town" in my head the entire weekend, so it's for sure my favorite. There's not a TON of variety on this album, you kind of get the point after the first couple of songs, but they're all very fun, and it's not much of an issue when the album is so short to begin with. The album art is also pretty great. Not something you'd expect to see on a Rock album cover, but they make it work. Seriously though, especially for being an entirely female led band, this was really good. I emphasize that for the sole reason of saying, admittedly, I can't think of a second 4+ member band of just females. It's pretty cool that it exists at all, and even cooler that it sounds this good. I think I would seriously return to this at any time virtually. It's unbelievably catchy, and the chemistry between the band members comes together very nicely to produce an excellent, short, lightning in a bottle album that I really enjoyed spending the weekend listening to. I also always love when my 2 favorite songs on an album are right next to each other. The 1-2 combo of "This Town" and "We Got The Beat" is just so good. Not much more to say about this album other than the fact that I really enjoyed it, and I kind of wish they had more albums I could check out on here. I feel like I've been very generous giving out 4's and 5's lately. Either that or these albums have just been banger after banger. I'm honestly struggling to think of why this would ever be a 3 for me, and I'm also struggling to think of why it wouldn't be a 5. I don't know, it's pretty god damn good. This one is going on the list of albums I might change to a 5 later if I ever comb through the list in the future. I really enjoyed this one.

I really don’t understand this band in the slightest. After listening to both of their albums for this project, Dear Science is the second of 2 TV On The Radio albums I have rolled, following Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. Virtually every comment I made about that album I still feel the same way about this time around as well. It’s almost shocking to me that either album was included. They’re both fine, but I’d hardly say either are important enough to include in the book. I’ve never heard of this artist, so unless I’ve been living under a rock, they were probably a flash in the pan. Hardly worth celebrating twice. Every song here is such a radically different tone shift, it’s like they just recorded a million different things and wanted to see if any of them stuck. Some songs are very light almost orchestral beats, others are light Rock, there’s a tiny bit of Electronica here and there, and some are pretty Funky. None of them blow me away, and most of them leave me wanting just a bit more. Some even seem like parody or imitations of much better bands. The songs I enjoyed on this album really stood out though, and all of them prominently feature the lead singer singing his heart out with very high energy. My favorite songs are all the ones where you can tell everyone was having a blast recording. “Dancing Choose” almost starts in a rap, but remains a fun little bop throughout, cool trumpet included. “Red Dress” might not be the most memorable song on the album, but it was actually my favorite of the bunch. It’s the most traditional Rock song on the album, has some cool vocals, a good beat, and a catchy hook. I really appreciated how well it all flowed together and wasn’t overly artsy like so much of the album is. The other song I really liked was “DLZ”. I can see why it was the big hit on this album. It’s catchy, a bit dramatic, and a bit edgy, but it’s certainly got charm as well. Perfectly encapsulated the kind of music that was very popular pretty much throughout the entire 2000’s to late 2010’s. I didn’t love this album admittedly. They try to do too much and don’t succeed a lot of the time. When it’s not really good, it’s usually pretty boring, or worse, skippable. There’s a lot of skippable songs here. But when they actually manage to find their groove, I’m into it. Still though, it’s an alright album. I wouldn’t really want to return to it, but it was fun enough listening to today. We’ll go with a 3.4/5 for this, and move on to the next one. That’s another band done, I’m starting to really make some good progress here.

1984 or Self Titled?? That is the question. The answer depends largely on the person, and may even change depending on the day. Both are great, I personally gave 1984 a 4 earlier on in this project, and now I get to review Self Titled. This is the second, and final Van Halen album I'll get to listen to for this project, and while I disagree with the author's inclusions to the book fairly consistently (literally yesterday), they did right by including both Self Titled and 1984, no doubt. While this album art may not be as iconic as the smoking cherub, it’s still a killer debut cover, prominently featuring the band members in an interesting and cool way. Opening with the 4 best songs on the album is pretty funny though, and it seems like a fairly deliberate decision, as all 4 of them are EASILY the best on the album, besides song 6, "Jamie's Cryin'", which is also a classic. I think the main difference between Self Titled and 1984 is that this is more purely Metal focused, while 1984 is more Pop Rocky. While I still absolutely love 1984, I mentioned in my review that none of the songs really blew me away. They all really make you want to dance for sure, and they're all great, but more in the way that you expect to hear them at like a sports game or something. I wouldn't always seek out something like "Jump" or "Panama" unless I was watching the NFL on Fox or something like that. You know what I'm saying?? I think that makes sense. Meanwhile, playing something like "Eruption" and just rocking the hell out is something I could do all the time, and always enjoy it. Each and every one of the first 4 songs on the album do actually blow me away for different, but similar ways. They feature an amazing singer, who consistently makes me laugh with the constant "OOOHHH YEEEAAAHHHH's", and an unbelievably heavy guitar/bass/drum combo that still hold up today. They're all going into the frequent rotation, but my favorite of the bunch ultimately came down to "You Really Got Me" vs "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love". The former, I would argue, is even better than the original version of the song, and the riff is so meaty that it was hard not picking it as my number one. Ultimately, I went with "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love". Reason being is that it too has a meaty riff, but I also consistently found myself singing it today, even when it wasn't currently playing. That sold it for me. I love mostly every song on this album, but after the first 4 and 6, it's very VERY fillery. I don't know if that should make me rate it as a 4 or not, but I can definitively tell you that personally, yeah, I like it more than 1984, which I rated as a 4, so I do believe a 5 may be warranted here. I'm always sad when I get done with all the albums by artists I like. With almost 800 days left to go, that's another Heavy Metal all-star done and dusted. Don't know how many albums I'll enjoy as much as this one, but I'm very glad it was included. Today was a good day, and this was a fantastic album. Even with the filler, the guitar riffs are worth listening to, as well as Eddie just wailing on every song.

Listen, I understand including albums that you personally enjoy. Personal bias is going to be a huge determining factor when it comes to making or deciding anything. Anyone who tells you they're making a decision with 0 personal bias is lying to you, or even worse is trying to deceive you. Now, all I'm trying to do by saying that, besides padding out my review length (mostly the last point, I can't think of anything to say about this album), is ask genuinely why this album was included in the book to begin with? This is as boring as it is forgettable. Sure, it's fine. I'm still going to give it a 3, but I managed to listen to it all day, and I already struggle to remember any of it. Not only does it bring absolutely nothing to the table, but the Wikipedia article, which I generally always use before diving into an album, has 3 complete sentences attached to it. Do you know what 1 of them is?? If you guessed "The album was included in the publication 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.", then you'd be 100% correct!! Congratulations!! The other sentences mention that Suba is Serbian, made this album about his life in São Paulo, and gives a brief rundown of the musicians on the album. Besides the Track Listing, 4 references at the bottom of the page, and a single external link, that is the ENTIRE Wikipedia article for this album. I know the book isn't called "1001 of the best albums of all time", but why did I have to listen to this elevator music today instead of something more deserving?? I'm not saying underground music (If that's even what you would call this album) doesn't have it's place here and there on the list, I just really think you could probably find a better album than this to include on the list. I don't speak the language, but even on some albums that aren't in English I can at least understand what the album is trying to say. The vibes are admittedly pretty good here, but this is very base level Electronica, and it's just not very memorable most of the time. Good enough for a low 3, but not something I would return to. Still, songs like "Na Neblina" and my favorite song on the album, "Sereia", were ear wormy enough to stick in my mind for a few hours. Not good enough to add to my frequent rotation, but good enough for today. I always enjoy listening to things I haven't heard before. Obviously, I'm more than 300 days into this project and I don't intend to stop until I'm done. However, I'll forget about this album entirely by tomorrow while I'm listening to whatever I end up rolling. After all, I don't know what they were trying to say, and I simply do not care enough to do any research on them. The album never really pulled me in enough to give it a lot of recognition while I was working. It made for fantastic background noise though, and albums that are non intrusive and are able to sink into the background like this one did do actually deserve some recognition. Even if it was boring elevator music, it still wasn't bad enough that I wanted to turn it off. Giving this one a 3.2/5. Not terrible, but not tremendously memorable either. Moving on.

Oh, hey. It's Tricky again. I remember him from earlier. Always fun when a name I only know from this project pops up again unexpectedly out of nowhere. Hilariously enough, he's also my least favorite part of this album, just like he was in Maxinquaye. I still just don't really like the way he speaks. Nothing against him, it's just that he's the weak point of an otherwise very strange, but very good album. It won't surprise you then to know that my favorite songs on the album are ones where he isn't present. My favorite songs on this album, all good enough to add to the usual rotation, are "Unfinished Sympathy", "Lately", and my favorite, the opener, "Safe From Harm". The common denominator between all 3 of these songs is singer Shara Nelson, who has an incredible voice. Shara included, when you add the absolutely killer, ear-wormy background elements, heavy bass, and the other singer vocally aura farming, you've got just a really surprisingly killer opener that I wish set the standard for the entire album. This album skirts the line between a 3.9 and a 4.0 for me. While I find Tricky barely passable to listen to, and I actually can't stand the closing song, "Hymn Of The Big Wheel", the elements of this album I do like may be worth giving it a 4. Adding 3 songs from an artist I've never heard of before is a pretty good accomplishment, and I've already established that I love this kind of unholy mix of genres that blend a little bit of everything. So, you know what?? It's obviously not a 5, but I would 100% return to it, Tricky songs included. That sounds like a 4 to me. This one was incredibly unique and different. Flaws included, I think that should be celebrated. One thing I can say about this album for sure is that even in the weaker moments, it was never boring, so yeah, gonna be an immensely low 4, and I should probably give it a 3, but I think the background elements elevate this one higher. The vibe album of all vibe albums. Looking forward to the other one on here, and I'll likely check out even more from Massive Attack. Nice job on this one, low key kinda loved it.