Reviews by gregorsmith

Whenever I listen to this, I think of many things, the beauty of the music and lyrics and how unfortunate it is that Neil Young did both, how mad Lynard Skynyrd were about one song, and how the Jimmy Fallon skit where he, as Neil Young, sings a cover of Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" on his Late Night show still lives rent free in my head 13 years later...

Oh well, time to hop up out the bed, turn my swag on.

The day I learned to play the electronic riff from "Kids" on a Stylophone, the mystical allure of MGMT was gone forever.

But seriously, "Drive My Car", "You Won't See Me", "Nowhere Man", "The Word", and those are just the choice picks of Side A. Side B has "I'm Looking Through You', "In My Life", and "Run For Your Life", so for those counting along at home, that's 7 classic rock staples. It truly changed the game musically, laying the foundations for what would come later, and influencing everyone else to be better... Without this we don't get Beach Boys "Pet Sounds, we don't get Velvet Underground, we don't get evolved pop music...

Add in the fact this album was thrown together in around 90 days from start of the writing process after their 1965 August tour of America to pressed vinyl being in people's hands in early December, just an unreal creation in that span of time, and it was their second album of 1965 after "Help!", and 3rd album released within 365 days after 1964's "Beatles For Sale!" was released barely a year before. These mad kids were just chugging along like a well oiled machine, cracking out classic after classic like many normal people draw breath.

Despite me gushing over this album, it's not my favourite Beatles album, its barely in the top 5, but it's still an absurdly easy 5 stars and it's about as filthy as the fuzzy bass on "Think For Yourself". It's almost perfect, but I can't abide with "Michelle", a wholly terrible song from Paul McCartney that's only matched by "Ob‐La‐Di, Ob‐La‐Da" and "Wonderful Christmastime"...

Listen up people, we're now knee deep in the neo-soul smoothness, and there's only one way out, make peace with whatever deity you choose to believe in (or not, free world) because Maxwell is gonna take you there. Where? That wet spot on the bed, that's where...

I remember the original Beta Band buzz and how it was unfulfilled promise, so I went into this with a little trepidation, and was immediately blown away by the opening track, "Squares", but that might have been more to do with the "Daydream" sample/interpolation and how it reminded me of another song that also came out around this time.

Where was I? Oh yeah, they close the album with a song called "Eclipse" about questions and answers and people lying but proclaim "And the music we make is not particularly good" and I'm undecided if they deserve the pizza or not.

Four gentlemen and one GREAT, great broad! A great band just cutting loose so nearly an hour, Janis at her most raspy begging you to take another piece of her heart, and you want to... But mainly they are gonna knock ya, rock ya, gonna sock it to ya now.

Built ONLY 4 Cuban Linx, and I'm nowhere near Cuban Links... 18 tracks of mid 90s braggadocio hip hop, if that's your thing. Features nearly every member of the Wu-Tang Clan in some way shape or form and it's widely know that they are nutin' to fuck wit, so I won't.

Breezy psychedelic pop tunes float on by wanting to be a Pet Sounds or a Sgt. Pepper, and truthfully there's not a bad song on this album, but theres also not a lot of great ones either, they're all perfectly serviceable as a single listen through, but only "Time of the Season" stands out as a relistenable, and thats really about it... As middle of the road as psychedelic pop can be.

"Eternal Life" is a very apt song to describe Jeff Buckley, one killer album and then literally dipped into the Mississippi to leave behind a shrouded enigma behind that one album that would live forever.

mid-to-good R&B vibes, but honestly it was background music that i didn't really pay much attention to, other than her wishes to have a fat ol' booty... Why did that stick with me?

Peak Creedence Clearwater Revival, the absolute height of their collective powers. Simply put, it's one of the best albums ever commited to tape anywhere at any time. So good that most of it was released as double A side singles, imagine "Up Around The Bend" and "Run Through The Jungle" being paired together. Their definitive compilation album, "Chronicle" has SEVEN songs off this, 7 out of 20...

Impossible to hate

Loud, obnoxious, mercifully short.

Short concert, stolen music. The performance is energetic, but the cloud of "white man popularising the black man's music" hangs heavy here. Classic rock & roll, albeit distilled.

I'm skeptical whenever an album outside the original 1001 comes up, and having one so relatively recent is another eyebrow raiser, but god damn this was brilliant. Hard hitting from the first few seconds when the bass kick in and doesn't let up for the full 35 minutes, probably about as perfect as you'll come across in this list.

"Genius Of Love" is the song that has that sample you head a million times before, from Grandmaster Flash to Mariah Carey to Paramore, for that alone this is a solid 3 star album.

Smoother than the slithery smooth backbeat that runs through the first track "Desafinado", downright tropical vibes ooze out of every nook, close your eyes and just imagine you're walking down Copacabana Beach in the 50s, cocktail in hand. Jazz is a misnomer as this is Bonito Bossa Nova, and your hips will sway sitting in your chair.

White boy reggae, and it's literally advertised as such. I mean, this is the kind of stuff my dad used to listen to so I'm pretty numb to the staccato reggae chords and fake Caribbean patois they're doing here. But still, massive cultural appropriation by the colonisers, not cool.

Better than I thought it would be going in as I had only heard a few Lore songs prior to this album. Almost every song bar "Liability" was laden with heavy beats and not quite mumbley vocals, and only a handful stood out to me like the aforementioned "Liability" and it's reprise, "Supercut", and "The Louvre" but nothing felt like it overstayed its welcome.

"A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-lop-bam-boom!" is the first thing you hear and its still feels as invigorating as it must have felt 68 years ago... Dirty blues classics with a side of boogie-woogie and you're done in under 30 minutes, having had some fun tonight.

Very easy to listen to, good background music in a wine bar style vibe. Nothing really stood out but the whole package was a good feeling overall.