Reviews by gregorsmith

How does one rate this through a modern lens? Problematic skits, problematic lyrical content, problematic producer who seemed intent on appearing as much as possible with "yeahs" and "uh huhs" on every goddamn song.

"Juicy" and "Big Poppa" are obvious bangers, but "Machine Gun Funk" is the lowkey MVP of the whole album for me.

Come for the hip hop and hardcore and alternative rock, but stay for the jazzy funk instrumentals but don't play this on your dad's stereo at home, only under hip-hop supervision. It has a lot of that 1-2-3-1, 2-3-1-2, 3-1-2-3 verse flow as they pass the mic along, and it all just sounds so good as this album is loaded with hot bars. I must have listened to this album a bajillion times in the 30 years since it came out, worn out CDs, hard drives and now solid state drives with this thing just banging.

You'll either love it or hate it.

RIP MCA

I keep saying this any time interesting world music comes up, but this is why I signed up for this. Brazilian Samba mixed with funk I'd never normally stumbleupon. Just a chill time, solid chair boogying and it has the song "Taj Mahal" that some might recognize as the song Rod Stewart ripped off for "Do You Think I'm Sexy?"

I've had Fela Kuti & Africa '70 before, so at least I knew what I was getting into with this album, Ginger Baker was a change though for the second half... Its super tight afrobeats, and time just washes over you to where it has no meaning anymore, and soon enough the hour has passed and you crave more.

Very of its time, and the gorgeous cover of "Go West" launched a hundred football chants (mostly along the lines of "you're shit, and you know you are"), and its probably the most accessible PSB, almost anthemic in comparison to earlier releases.

I've already had The White Album and Abbey Road picked for me in the last month or so and already had Rubber Soul and Revolver in the last 10 months, so going back to Sgt. Pepper is like snuggling into a warm blanket. Though the transition from the Rubber Soul/Revolver era to this is STARK, they went away and changed everything, and free from the constraints of recording and touring endlessly they almost perfected everything... Production, songwriting, instrument choices, and general vibes is off the charts.

The only downside is the often derided "granny music" McCartney song, following on from the deplorable "Michelle" on Rubber Soul, we get "When I'm Sixty-Four" here and it was only going downhill on other albums after that. But some scholars wish to include "She's Leaving Home" and "Lovely Rita" from this album too...

Still 5 stars, the most important album in music history, and all that.

Late stage Bowie just feels sad, not as sad as Black Star being his deathbed release, but this is an artist in decline literally trying to gloam on the better times by reinterpreting the Heroes album cover for purpose. Nothing here stood out, nothing felt "you must listen to this before you die" worthy. It's just there.

Psychedelic Rock man, it's my true weakness, and this kicks off with a great vibe in "Kicks" that continues on with "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" and "Take A Look At Yourself".

From the opening few seconds you know this is going to be god tier, that distinctive fuzzy sound, split stereo in full effect, they literally kick down the doors of perception.

"Break On Through (To The Other Side)", "Soul Kitchen, a bitching cover of "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)", "Light My Fire", and the epicness that is "The End"... They had no goddamn right to be this good this early.

I know Rod Stewart was involved in this album, because it sounds like the dirty rock of the Faces sound at the time, not a bad thing, but at the same time pretty derivative.

I'll quote a smarter writer than me...

"Experts at the Smithsonian Institution reportedly questioned Monday why new art was still being produced after the pinnacle of aesthetic and creative potential was reached in 1990 with Megadeth’s fourth studio album, Rust In Peace. 'As the unquestioned apex of the entire history of the creative arts, Rust In Peace is the finest and last necessary piece of human expression'"

A fun review for an ok album, well a good to great album.

Nah, how can I purge this from my Spotify history? I'm afraid its altered my algorithm is a sinister way.

Just sublime soul lady doing sublime soul lady shit, a tremendous cover of "Respect" that meant she took ownership of the song, the title song is passion unbridled, and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" is a timeless classic.

The start of a run that has rarely been equalled in music; this album followed by Aretha Arrives in 1968, then Lady Soul, then Aretha Now, then the Aretha Live in Paris live album in 1969. 18 or so months of solid gold bangers.

The last Beatles album (Let It Be doesn't count as that was just reworked from the Get Back sessions), in-fighting and tension was so much that many songs don't feature the full band.

Speaking of individuals, the songs here definitely show that... John was getting bluesy with "Come Together" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Paul was waist deep in "granny music" with shit like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" that had already been bumped from The White Album and derided in the Get Back documentary. George was still riding that "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" high from the White Album with the truly great "Something" and "Here Comes The Sun". And Ringo had "Octopus's Garden", can't have them all Ringo, but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, at least you got a badass drum solo on this album.

Then they just went their separate ways and stopped recording a month before this was released and George Martin scraped together bits and bobs to make the suite medley that ends the album.

Its The Beatles, so I'mma give it 5 stars, but the end of The Beatles is definitely a bittersweet thing.

Urgh, Morrissey is a fucking twat, but this is a hell of an album, it cannot be denied.

The defining album of my generation (late gen x, final year of high school, Cool fuckin Britannia to the core) and I can still remember release day, cutting out of said high school to buy this CD right as HMV opened and then rush home to quickly get it on tape in order to be the first to play it on the form room stereo. Everyone was rapt in anticipation, some were disassociating from raw hype alone... Thank fuck it delivered banger after banger. This and their Knebworth shows were the high water mark for Britpop as a movement, the tide was turning long before Be Here Now jizzed itself onto the public a few years later and the Gallagher brothers and other associated band members became pastiches of their former selves, but it doesn't make this any less impactful.

Now they're back, and I'm old as fuck. Almost 30 years later. Ain't life a bitch? But gods, we were kings back then... We were the masters of our fates. We were young, dumb, full of cum. We were mad for it.

Anyway, here's Wonderwall...

The last album in his lifetime, here Smith struggles to recapture his apex of Either/Or, and it's clearly an evolution over a revolution. It feels different, it's almost upbeat, in it as intimate as before but the soul is still shining through.

Title track aside nothing on this really stood out and for a double album that's a lot of hard listening. Very disjointed, very over indulgent...

Biggest selling album of all time, sold 1 to 2 million copies A WEEK for almost a year. Contains monster songs like "Beat It", "Wanna Be Starting Something", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller". It also features a goddamn Beatle *and* Vincent Price. So yeah, you could say this is good...

Another 20 year old album comes from the vault to remind me how old I am now... This was near perfection at the time, and frankly it still is, I could listen to this any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Everything is crafted so god dam well, from the plinky plonky piano opening of "Tunnels", to the hero's journey sound track of "Wake Up" to the haunting fragility in the ending tack "In The Backseat", it sparks nothing but emotion and memories.